South Africa: Government targets 2 million unjabbed people above 60

There are more than two million adults over the age of 60 who are still unvaccinated, as the country gears for its second instalment of the Vooma Vaccination Weekend.

According to the Department of Healths Vaccination Demand Task Team Lead, Dr David Harrison, government is working tirelessly to reach the elderly population, as they remain vulnerable in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

They have to be our priority and what we want to do is find ways to ensure that they come forward first and then extend that to the broader population, he said on Thursday.

Harrison was speaking during the pre-vaccination weekend webinar hosted by the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS).

He said government was looking at incentives such as the R100 grocery voucher for all people who are aged 60 or older who get their first vaccination in November.

In addition, he said the country would have to find a range of other incentives and mechanisms that can minimise the effects of a possible strict lockdown and boost the economy.

According to the health expert, vaccination certificates are part of the motivation to attract more people to visit vaccination sites.

Meanwhile, if vaccination can reach two million the country would save over 8 000 hospitalisations and avert over 1 000 deaths.

However, the benefit-cost in terms of reducing hospital costs will be at least six to one.

The return on investment for the country as a whole, the social and economic return will be much bigger.

According to the doctor, the Vooma Vaccination Weekend, set to take place on 12 to 14 November was about local people advocating for the jab and making it part of everyones normal life.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has written to leaders in government, labour, faith-based organisations, traditional leaders, business and civil society partners to support the upcoming vaccination drive.

The first Vooma Vaccination Weekend in October led to an unprecedented level of engagement and active mobilisation across many districts in South Africa. It achieved 75% of its target of 500 000 vaccinations over the three days and the department hopes to achieve 100% this weekend.

Now, our focus for the second boom of vaccination campaign must be in anticipation of the fourth wave to crush its power.

Harrison said the country would like to build on the fact that three out of five people aged 50 and older have already been inoculated.

That means already weve crushed half of that power of that fourth wave. Now let's go all the way let's make it five out of five before the end of the year, and we will significantly reduce the impact of the fourth wave, he urged citizens.

He announced that 80% of the vaccination sites will be open this weekend to reach as many people as possible.

He also raised concerns that the uptake of the vaccine has faltered.

So it's a hard reality and one that we certainly have to confront head-on to understand why is it that we imagined that things would be a bit easier to get people to come forth. But in fact, it's been tougher, he added.

Chief Livhuwani Matsila of the Matsila Royal Family of Limpopo,said they were surprised by the number of elderly people going to vaccinate during the first phase of the rollout programme.

But also somewhat, not so impressed with a younger generation, below age 50. They havent been going to the stations as much as the elders.

The Chief has urged people to take the jab to help protect themselves from the pandemic.

Leading Catholic priest and political activist, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, echoed Chief Matsila's sentiments.

Ive had my two jobs already and also had fears and anxieties that plagued me before I decided to go ahead, he said.

You look at that injection that looks so long, at least on TV and the way it is plunged into someone's arm.

However, the Father overcame his fears and said he did not feel any pain.

It was just like a little prick. Theres nothing new with being injected or vaccinated in South Africa. So, we need to fight the ignorance, he said, encouraging citizens to come forward.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-11-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: COVID-19 deadlier for Africans living with diabetes

A survey conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed that African people who have diabetes and contract COVID-19 have a significant higher chance of dying.

This is according to WHO Africa Regions Dr Benido Impouma, who was briefing the media ahead of World Diabetes Day which is expected to be observed on Sunday, 14 November.

Africa has recorded at least 8.5 million COVID-19 cases, 200 000 COVID-19 related deaths with only 6% of the population fully vaccinated against the virus.

Preliminary analysis shows that death rates from COVID-19 are significantly higher in patients who also have diabetes. The survey of 13 countries conducted found more than 10% fatality rate in people who have diabetes compared with 2.5% for COVID-19 patients overall.

This shows that fighting the diabetes epidemic in Africa is in many ways as critical as the battle against the current COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Dr Impouma added that projections are that in the coming years, Africa is expected to have the highest increase in cases of diabetes globally which could be devastating with the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, the slow pace of COVID-19 vaccinations on the continent must be ramped up to avoid the impending health crisis the two illnesses together it might cause.

When it comes to vaccinations, people with underlying conditions have been prioritised but Africa has faced challenges with this strategy. Data from nearly 40 countries finds that nearly 14% of all COVID-19 vaccination doseshave gone to Africans with underlying conditions.

While there is some progresswe are nowhere near where we need to be with protecting our most vulnerable populations. Theres an urgent need to step up vaccinations and key services to people at higher risk, he said.

Dr Impouma said lockdowns throughout the continent have severely disrupted medical care for patients with diabetes and other diseases but, the organisations Global Diabetes Compact is assisting at least 21 African countries in to remedy the situation.

He pleaded with African countries to move quickly in testing for and treating diabetes within their populations.

All Africans at risk to diabetes must have access to testing. In fact, about 70% of people in Africa who have diabetes are not aware that they have the chronic condition.

Health officials in Africa should take advantage of the increased availability of low cost rapid diagnostics tests to routinely test patients to ensure early detection and proper care in centresthese centres can also be key venues for [COVID-19] vaccination, he said.

Dr Impouma said the continent is on a sustained downward trend of new COVID-19 cases in almost all regions of the continent.

He said although this is a great improvement, Southern Africa is currently facing an uptick of new cases.

After dropping for 10 weeks in Africa, new cases have jumped by more than 60%. This is mostly due to a spike in Botswana but we are working closely with the ministry of health to explore or to understand why we are seeing this spike in Botswana, he said.

Dr Impouma also singled out the Republic of Congo, Mauritius and Egypt as showing increases.

With these flare ups, there is no time to sit back and relax. We must do everything possible to prevent COVID-19 from gaining the upper hand, he said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-11-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: No COVID-19 infection spike after elections period

Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, says the country did not experience any spikes in COVID-19 infections following the various election campaigns and Election Day.

The Minister was briefing the nation on Friday morning on the countrys fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and the department's vaccination plan.

Thus far, 11 days after the election campaign and alsovoting day, we have not experienced any super spreader side effects after the campaigns and the election day.

We were assured by the IEC [Independent Electoral Commission] about the [health related] preparations for the elections but we were concerned about the safety of campaigns by political parties but thus far, not a single district or a province has shown signs of a spike in COVID-19 infections, Phaahla said.

The Minister added that the department and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) continue to keep a close eye on any potential spikes.

Four week steadiness

According to Minister Phaahla, infection rates and hospitalisations have remained stable with daily infections ranging between 200 and 500.

The positivity rate has also remained at an average of 1%. As of [Thursday] we still had relatively high 16 000 cases but quite a reduced number compared to the peak of the third wave. Patients in hospital remain high although again, lower than at the peakjust over 3000 patients in hospital with just over 270 in high care and just over 400 in ICUs with around 164 on ventilation, he said.

The Health Minister said the fatality rate has also come down with reported deaths over the last 24 hours reaching 17  considerably lower than the at least 300 per day reported during the peak of the third wave.

But of course, we feel that 17 deaths from COVID is still one too many so at the end we would want to see a situation where nobody dies from this pandemic, Phaahla said.

Fourth wave warning

Dr Phaahla warned that although COVID-19 related statistics remain low, the existence of the virus remains and it is still causing a lot of harm.

A resurgence of infections which will introduce a fourth wave is expected as we can see in other countries  especially in some parts of Europe. Our national team is working with provincial teams to prepare for the inevitable fourth wave. We have to do everything possible to make sure we can delay it and make sure that even when it comes, it must have far less impact, he said.

The Minister assured that health facilities are gearing up to:

Ensure oxygen supply through Afrox which has made contingency plans.

Making sure that beds are available.

Securing equipment such as ventilators, PPE and other consumables.

He said the fourth wave is expected either in mid to late December or even in early January.

While no-one can tell with certainty as to when this fourth wave will be coming, theres no doubt that it will come driven by movement of people but also driven by variants.

Our genomic sequencing scientists are monitoring any variants of concernthus far they have not reported any alarm in terms of variants. They always tell us that the mutations are happeningbut the question is, are they variants of concern? Thus far they have said not yet, he said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-11-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Hong Kong: Training given to polling staff

The Registration & Electoral Office (REO) today hosted the first polling management training for supervisory-level polling staff of the upcoming 2021 Legislative Council General Election. Around 1,500 people attended.

The training was given to enhance staffs efficiency in handling matters related to queuing, polling, counting, complaints and contingencies, the REO explained.

Electoral Affairs Commission Chairman Barnabas Fung said: When it comes to public elections, openness, fairness and honesty are the most basic principles. Accuracy and efficiency are also required, so that the election results can be announced as soon as possible.

In case of irregularities or emergencies, presiding officers and deputy presiding officers should seek assistance from seniors or the central command centre, he explained.

The Electoral Affairs Commission, the Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Bureau, the REO and other relevant bureaus and departments pledge full support to the execution of duties by the electoral staff on the polling day.

We will closely monitor the conduct of the election on the polling day, ensuring that the election is conducted in an open, fair and honest manner.

Furthermore, Mr Fung highlighted that when entering polling stations to cast votes, electors and authorised representatives are not required to use the LeaveHomeSafe mobile app or other alternative measures. The REO will liaise with government departments who have lent their venues for use as polling stations for their co-operation with relevant arrangements.

However, for counting stations, except for exempted people, citizens entering the stations will be required to use the app, he noted.

Also present to brief the polling staff was Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang. He reiterated that the upcoming LegCo election, as the second important election to be held after improving Hong Kongs electoral system, takes on great significance to the city as well as all citizens.

Noting that the Chief Executive has earlier requested that the election be conducted with zero tolerance for mistakes, Mr Tsang encouraged colleagues to spare no effort in ensuring every electoral arrangement is implemented orderly and effectively.

In addition to ensuring that the election is fair, just and honest, we have to appropriately implement highly efficient and humanised arrangements so as to facilitate electors and candidates during election.

Additionally, Mr Tsang said colleagues should stay alert to two major issues.

First, they should ensure a smooth process of ballot paper issuing and polling, and open up sufficient issuing desks and voting compartments to shorten waiting time. Polling staff should also maintain order on site.

Second, staff members should convert the polling stations into counting stations right after the close of the poll and perform every counting procedure against the clock in order to confirm counting results as soon as possible.

Colleagues are encouraged to rehearse in preparation for the polling day to familiarise themselves with the details of the procedures so that the election could be conducted smoothly, he added.

The 2021 Legislative Council General Election will be held on December 19. Over 620 polling stations will be set up across the city, which has been divided into 10 geographical constituencies, to serve more than 4,470,000 voters.

On the polling day, some 36,000 civil servants from different bureaus and departments will discharge electoral duties at different posts.

This story has been published on: 2021-11-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
RTHK: Biden, Xi to hold virtual meeting: White House

US President Joe Biden will hold a virtual meeting with Xi Jinping on Monday, the White House said.

It is expected to be the leaders' most extensive meeting under the Biden administration and will follow on from a telephone call between the two on September 9.

Sino-US relations have been frosty in recent years, and US officials believe direct engagement with Xi is the best way forward.

"The two leaders will discuss ways to responsibly manage the competition ... as well as ways to work together where our interests align," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. "President Biden will make clear US intentions and priorities and be clear and candid about our concerns."

A senior US official said Biden would make clear he welcomes stiff competition with China, but doesn't want conflict, and played down the likelihood of a long list of outcomes often tied to top-level meetings.

"This is not about seeking specific deliverables or outcomes," the official said, adding in reference to the People's Republic of China: "As we compete with the PRC, President Biden expects President Xi and the PRC to play by the rules of roadand he will make that point throughout the meeting." (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2021-11-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
New Zealand joins Japan in support of Taiwans application, noting that those who abide by the pact's high standards are welcome. This is a warning to China, another applicant, which should reform its state economy. Peru, which is very close to Beijing, could sink Taiwans bid.

Taipei (AsiaNews)  The members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) welcome Taiwans membership, this according to New Zealands Trade Minister Damien O'Connor.

The New Zealand official expressed this view today on the sidelines of a virtual meeting by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

The CPTPP replaced the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) promoted by former US president Barack Obama to counter the geopolitical rise of China.

Following Donald Trump's decision in 2017 to withdraw from the TPP, Japan, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam set up the CPTPP.

O'Connor explained that in addition to Taiwan, CPTPP members are also open to other countries. However, he stressed that applicants must meet the high standards required by the agreement to be accepted.

After Japan, New Zealand is the first CPPTP member to fully support Taiwan's membership.

Tokyo has already made it clear that it sees no technical problems for Taiwans membership, given that the CPTPP also provides for the possible participation of "separate customs territories, a status that has allowed Taiwan to accede to the World Trade Organisation (to which China belongs).

According to the international press, Australia and Canada are also working behind the scenes to encourage Taiwans entry. Singapore is on the same wavelength as New Zealand, open to any eligible economy to join the CPTPP.

Taiwan is concerned however about Peru's possible veto. Now led by left-wing president Pedro Castillo, the Peruvian government wants to boost ties with China, the South American country's top trading partner and largest foreign investor.

At the end of September, the CPTPP group opened negotiations with the United Kingdom to join. South Korea is also interested in membership. Taiwan applied on 22 September, six days after mainland China.

China has repeatedly said that it is opposed to any attempt by the island to join official organisations or multilateral agreements.

Beijing has urged CPTPP member countries to reject Taiwans application, a move that Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen calls an act of international bullying.

China considers Taiwan a "rebel" province and Chinese President Xi Jinping has not ruled out using force to take the island.

For more than a year, China has intensified military operations around the island. Yesterday, Taiwans National Defence Ministry released a paper saying that the mainland wants to take island without a fight, by sapping its morale through hybrid operations such as continuous overflights, cyber attacks, and cognitive warfare.

To join the CPPTP, an applicant must obtain the approval of all its members. Unlike China, Taiwan has a market economy that meets all the criteria for admission.

In fact, it will be difficult for China to comply with CPPTP rules in areas such as state-owned enterprises, workers' rights, environmental standards, intellectual property protection, access to foreign investors, currency convertibility and the digital economy.
News  Headlines

Argentina offers 500,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Vietnam
Thailand poised to resume tours with Vietnam

Thailand will work with Vietnam on reopening tours between the two nations, with a particular focus on increasing tourist arrivals between Thailand and Ho Chi Minh City.









Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen (R) hosts Thai Ambassador to Vietnam Nikorndej Balankura (Photo: www.sggp.org.vn)



Thai Ambassador to Vietnam Nikorndej Balankura brought up the proposal during a meeting on November 11 held with Nguyen Van Nen, secretary of the municipal Party Committee.



During the reception, Nen applauded the long-standing friendship between the two sides and thanked the General Consulate of Thailand and the Thai community in Ho Chi Minh City for their support in the local COVID-19 fight.



The Thai Ambassador responded by pledging his best efforts to reinforce the countries relations and ties between numerous Thai localities and the southern city.



He also praised Ho Chi Minh Citys role as an economic-trade hub which is home to 80% of Thai companies, expressing his gratitude to the local authorities for supporting the Thai community, especially during the recent wave of COVID-19 outbreaks.



In preparation for co-operation in the post-pandemic period, Thailand will focus on ramping up the trade and investment relations with the nation, he added.



The Tourism Authority of Thailand is therefore set to devise a specific plan relating to co-operation with the Vietnamese side moving forward.



During the meeting, both sides consented to launch a range of activities in December aimed at celebrating the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties which will occur this year.



Thailand now represents the countrys largest trade partner in ASEAN and the ninth leading foreign investor out of 140 countries and territories investing in the Vietnamese market.



Both sides have closely collaborated and provided mutual support at regional and international forums.



Thailand makes up the 12th largest investor in Ho Chi Minh City with a total registered capital of more than US$467 million across 231 projects.



Moreover, the southern city welcomes over 180,000 Thai holidaymakers each year, making Thailand ninth in terms of the number of tourists making the trip to the Vietnamese metropolis.
CPC plenum passes landmark resolution

Xinhua) 08:09, November 12, 2021

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, makes an important speech at the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- A high-profile meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has adopted a landmark resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC's 100 years of endeavors, according to a communique released on Thursday.

The resolution was reviewed and adopted at the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, held in Beijing from Nov. 8 to 11, said the communique of the plenum.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made an important speech at the session, which was attended by 197 members and 151 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee.

The session heard and discussed a work report Xi delivered on behalf of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. He also explained the draft of the resolution to the session.

The session also reviewed and passed a resolution on convening the 20th National Congress of the CPC in the second half of 2022 in Beijing.

Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng attend the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

Since its founding in 1921, the Party has made seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation its mission, said the communique.

In the period of the new-democratic revolution, Chinese communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, adapting the basic tenets of Marxism-Leninism to China's specific realities, established Mao Zedong Thought, which charted the correct course for securing victory in the new-democratic revolution, according to the communique.

In the period of socialist revolution and construction, Chinese communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, put forward a series of important theories for socialist construction. China was transformed from a poor and backward Eastern country with a large population to a socialist country, according to the communique.

During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, after the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee, Chinese communists, with Comrade Deng Xiaoping as their chief representative, by focusing on the fundamental questions of what socialism is and how to build it, established Deng Xiaoping Theory. The reform and opening up drive was launched, and socialism with Chinese characteristics was successfully founded.

After the fourth plenary session of the 13th Central Committee, Chinese communists, with Comrade Jiang Zemin as their chief representative, deepened the understanding of what socialism is and how to build it, and what kind of Party to build and how to build it. On this basis, they formed the Theory of Three Represents. Socialism with Chinese characteristics was successfully launched into the 21st century.

After the 16th National Party Congress, Chinese communists, with Comrade Hu Jintao as their chief representative, united and led the whole Party and the entire nation in advancing practical, theoretical, and institutional innovation during the process of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and formed the Scientific Outlook on Development. They succeeded in upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics under new circumstances, according to the communique.

Following the Party's 18th National Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era. Chinese communists, with Comrade Xi Jinping as their chief representative, have established Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is the Marxism of contemporary China and of the 21st century. It embodies the best of the Chinese culture and ethos in our times and represents a new breakthrough in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context. The Party has established Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and defined the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This reflects the common will of the Party, the armed forces, and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, and is of decisive significance for advancing the cause of the Party and the country in the new era and for driving forward the historic process of national rejuvenation, according to the communique.

Since the Party's 18th National Congress, the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership have remained robust and, through revolutionary tempering, the Party has grown stronger, according to the communique.

China's economic development has become much more balanced, coordinated, and sustainable, and the Party has consistently promoted broader and deeper reform across the board.

The Party has actively developed whole-process people's democracy and made comprehensive efforts to improve the institutions, standards, and procedures of China's socialist democracy.

The system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics has constantly been improved, and a sweeping and fundamental shift has been seen in the ideological domain.

The people's lives have improved in all aspects, and the environmental protection endeavors have seen sweeping, historic, and transformative changes.

The people's military has been through an all-around revolutionary restructuring in preparation for the next stage, according to the communique.

The CPC Central Committee has made moves to restore order in Hong Kong and ensure a turn for the better in the region; and firmly opposes foreign interference and maintains the initiative and ability to steer cross-Strait relations.

With regard to foreign affairs, the major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics has been advanced on all fronts, with the concept of a human community with a shared future becoming a banner leading trends of the times and human progress, the communique added.

The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee presides over the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

The Party's endeavors over the past century have opened up the right path for achieving rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, enabling China to complete a process of industrialization that took developed countries several centuries in the space of mere decades, and bringing about the two miracles of rapid economic growth and enduring social stability.

The Party has led the people in great endeavors and accumulated valuable historical experience over the past century. This covers the following ten aspects: upholding the Party's leadership, putting the people first, advancing theoretical innovation, staying independent, following the Chinese path, maintaining a global vision, breaking new ground, standing up for ourselves, promoting the united front, and remaining committed to self-reform, said the communique.

It was stated at the session that "to accomplish the Party's mission, we should never forget why we started."

The whole Party must uphold Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development and fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the communique said.

The entire Party must forever maintain close ties with the people and act in line with the people-centered philosophy of development, it added.

The Central Committee calls upon the entire Party, the military, and all Chinese people to rally more closely around the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the communique said, vowing to make tireless efforts to realize the Second Centenary Goal and the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
China urges U.S. to stop sending wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" forces

Xinhua) 08:15, November 12, 2021

BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday that the United States should take concrete actions to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, and stop sending erroneous signals to "Taiwan independence" forces.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing when asked to comment on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's recent remarks on U.S. commitment to ensuring Taiwan's ability to defend itself.

"The relevant remarks from the U.S. side ignore the facts and run counter to international law," Wang said, adding the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques are the foundation of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries and the sound development of China-U.S. relations.

Wang said the so-called Taiwan Relations Act unilaterally enacted by the United States violates the commitments made by the United States in the three China-U.S. joint communiques and puts the domestic laws of the United States above the country's international obligations, which is illegal and invalid.

China will not allow the United States to violate China's sovereignty and interfere in the country's internal affairs under any pretext, Wang said.

He said the United States should take concrete actions to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, be cautious in its words and deeds, and stop sending erroneous signals to "Taiwan independence" forces.

Wang said that there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. "This is not only a historical and legal fact that cannot be changed, but it is also the status quo that cannot be challenged," he said.

Wang stressed that the one-China principle is a universally recognized norm of international relations and the universal consensus of the international community.

There are 180 countries in the world that recognize and support the one-China principle, and the international community's adherence to the one-China principle is rock solid, Wang said, noting that China's reunification is the irresistible trend of history.

The spokesperson said that the Taiwan authorities and a small number of "Taiwan independence" secessionists are attempting to deny and challenge the one-China principle and expand the space for "Taiwan independence" activities. "This is the root cause of the current tension in the Taiwan Strait and it is resolutely opposed by the Chinese government and the international community," he said.

"Any attempt to challenge the one-China principle and resist China's reunification will be resolutely defeated. Any attempt to support 'Taiwan independence' and go against the historical trend will end in failure," Wang stressed.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Xi's speech at APEC summit injects new momentum into building Asia-Pacific community with shared future

Xinhua) 08:15, November 12, 2021

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit via video, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Beijing, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit via video has strengthened aspirations for win-win cooperation and the building of an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future, foreign experts and scholars have said.

China will remain firm in advancing reform and opening-up in order to add impetus to economic development in the region, and advance a green transition on all fronts and make its due contribution to boosting ecological conservation in the Asia-Pacific and beyond, Xi said.

The country will also stay committed to promoting win-win cooperation and contribute to the region's economic development, he added.

Peter Drysdale, head of the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and East Asia Forum at Australian National University, said that the commitments are welcome and will help "build the confidence and certainty in reform and opening up and green transformation going forward."

"As the world today is more integrated, interconnected and interdependent, the consequences of the Cold War will be much more severe than they were in the past," said Lee Pei May, a political expert at the International Islamic University Malaysia.

Every country, Lee said, should continuously respect and defend the rules-based international system to preserve peace and stability.

"Working together, let us all be promoters of and contributors to the unity and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific family," Xi said in his speech.

Pui Jeng Leong, a media veteran in Brunei, said that peace and development are the common aspirations of people all over the world, while confrontation and conflicts are not.

China has always upheld the common interests of the world, practiced true multilateralism, and advocated the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, he pointed out.

China has also continuously promoted green development and put forward its own plan to address climate change, playing its role as a major responsible country and making important contribution to global sustainable development, he added.

Oleg Timofeyev, associate professor at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, said that Xi's remarks that "Asia-Pacific region cannot and should not relapse into the confrontation and division of the Cold War era" was timely and of great significance.

Timofeyev said that the Asia-Pacific region today should make every effort to prevent the region from being plagued by a Cold War mentality.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat to the realization of the United Nation's goals for sustainable development by 2030, and China will play an important role in the global economic recovery in the post-epidemic era, he added.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Singles' Day picks up steam as Spain adopts Chinese business calendar

Xinhua) 08:16, November 12, 2021

Staff members transport packages at a logistics center in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, Nov. 11, 2021. With orders pouring in at midnight Wednesday, this year's Singles' Day shopping spree peaked on multiple e-commerce platforms in China. (Xinhua/Zhang Haoran)

AliExpress said that on this "Singles' Day," the number of Spanish businesses participating in the event is 10 percent higher than in 2020, with 11,000 sellers offering 28 percent more products.

MADRID, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese commercial calendar is being adopted in Spain, partly due to the economic impulse that online platforms such as AliExpress are giving to the Spanish economy, a Spainish professor told Xinhua.

One of the most important dates is Nov. 11, known in China as "Singles' Day." This sees many online promotions being offered by the main e-commerce corporations.

Like Black Friday two weeks later, Singles' Day is especially popular in Spain, which has briefly overtaken the United States as the second-largest market for AliExpress' online sales -- behind Russia.

Staff members sort packages at a logistics center in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, Nov. 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Haoran)

Eduardo Irastorza, a professor at the OBS Business School of Barcelona, described AliExpress' strategy as a "resounding success."

Ruben Bautista, a director at AliExpress Spain, said that customers would receive their purchases "because we have been working since the summer to have products." He ruled out the possibility that the platform would be unable to supply during Black Friday or Christmas.

AliExpress said that on this "Singles' Day," the number of Spanish businesses participating in the event is 10 percent higher than in 2020, with 11,000 sellers offering 28 percent more products.

Estela Ye, executive director of AliExpress in Spain, Italy and France, said that the company was active in 200 countries or regions worldwide in 2020.

A staff member disinfects packages at a logistics center in Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Nov. 10, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
CIIE playing key role in spreading renewable energy know-how in China, says Italy's Eemaxx Engineering

Xinhua) 08:19, November 12, 2021

ROME, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Eemaxx Engineering is already on track to produce at least 150 megawatts of clean energy in China, but that's just the beginning, the company says.

The Bologna-based company specializes in developing renewable energy projects around the world, including wind farms, ground and rooftop photovoltaic systems, biomass, and waste-to-energy plants. It has a commercial presence in around 20 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

In China the emphasis is on wind farms, Eemaxx Engineering's administrator Giuseppe D'Alessandro told Xinhua. The company is already developing 150 megawatts of wind power in China, as part of a larger 980-megawatt project, he explained

Though the development of the project has been slowed by travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, D'Alessandro said he was very optimistic about the company's future in China.

"In five years' time I think what we are working on now will seem small by comparison," he said. "Our current projects were suspended because of the pandemic, but things are starting up again and they will only gain momentum."

Eemaxx Engineering was one of around 100 Italian companies that participated in this year's China International Import Expo (CIIE), which concluded its fourth edition on Wednesday in Shanghai, China.

Eemaxx Engineering has been partnered with the Power Construction Corporation of China, best known as PowerChina, since 2014, and the company is actively looking to expand its reach with additional partnerships.

"China is emphasizing the growth of renewable energy and so that's an opportunity for our company," D'Alessandro said. "In a market as large and complex as the Chinese market, it's always important to have the right local partners. That's part of the reason we were so eager to participate in the CIIE trade fair."

"The only way to succeed in China is to understand the market and to have the right partnerships, and trade fairs and expos are an important part of that strategy," he said.

"Technologies in our sector are developing quickly, becoming more powerful and more efficient," D'Alessandro said. "As that happens, we're looking forward to working together with our partners in China and elsewhere to help develop projects."

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
China's COVID-19 vaccines help emerging states achieve impressive vaccination rates: UK research report

Xinhua) 08:22, November 12, 2021

A child receives a dose of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in Santiago, Chile, Sept. 27, 2021. (Photo by Jorge Villegas/Xinhua)

In some emerging economies, like Chile and Cambodia, most population has been inoculated thanks to China's help, noted the report.

LONDON, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines have helped some emerging countries achieve impressive vaccination rates, in some cases faster than richer economies, said a British research report Wednesday.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, research and analysis division of Economist Group, said in its latest report that more than seven billion shots have been administered around the world as of late October. However, developed countries have succeeded in vaccinating large percentages of their populations, while many developing states have made only negligible progress.

In some emerging economies, like Chile and Cambodia, most population has been inoculated thanks to China's help, noted the report.

Ho Kham, a 101-year-old Cambodian woman, receives her second dose of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine at an inoculation site in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on July 2, 2021. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua)

Data showed Chile now posts one of the highest vaccination rates worldwide with 79 percent, and one of the reasons is that Chile secured huge supplies of Chinese-made Sinovac jab early on and "Sinovac had become the vaccine of choice in Chile and was used for 90 percent of shots".

"Chile is not an isolated case; many other Latin American countries, including El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay, are also relying on Chinese vaccines," added the report.

It also showed that by October Cambodia had achieved one of the highest inoculation rates worldwide, with nearly 80 percent of Cambodian residents vaccinated, ahead of all other Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries, except Singapore.

"Cambodia's ability to inoculate a large share of its population shows that vaccination success stories exist in emerging states, with China's help," said Agathe Demarais, author of the report.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
12th Singles Day festival marked by less flash and more rational shopping

Xinhua) 08:23, November 12, 2021

Workers sort out packages at an industrial park in Lianyungang, east China's Jiangsu Province, Nov. 11, 2021. The Singles' Day shopping spree is an annual online shopping festival falling on Nov. 11 for Chinese consumers since 2009. (Xinhua/Wang Chun)

This year's Singles Day shopping festival on Thursday featured no flashy discounts or star-studded performances.

Instead, companies pointed to inclusive growth and eco-friendliness while taking the Nov 11 shopping extravaganza into its 12th year, and some consumers opted for more rational shopping.

In a departure from the previous festivals, Alibaba did not disclose gross merchandise volume via its plethora of platforms halfway through the event. Last year, that figure stood at a staggering 498.2 billion yuan ($77.9 billion).

It did, however, emphasize its role in empowering small and medium-sized brands, saying they have "leapfrogged" in sales.

For instance, in the first 45 minutes of Thursday, 411 smaller brands had reported gross merchandise volume of over 10 million yuan, 40 of which topped the 100 million-yuan threshold, according to data from Tmall, Alibaba's business-to-customer site.

Chinese labels are also gaining traction among overseas buyers, with sportswear brand Erke recording sevenfold sales growth to foreign markets via Tmall and Taobao during this year's campaign.

Rival JD reported that accumulated sales volume had topped 311.4 billion yuan as of 2:08 pm on Thursday, surpassing last year's total sales. It said mobile phones, refrigerators, flat-panel TVs, washing machines and air conditioners as the top-performing categories based on early transaction data.

"The passion for Nov 11 is here to stay, as it is a pivotal avenue to unleash people's potential for spending on quality goods," said Jason Yu, general manager of consultancy Kantar Worldpanel.

"But the festival needs to find new ways to appeal to customers, for instance by emphasizing green logistics and allowing people to enjoy discounts without staying up all night."

Meanwhile, some customers called for rational shopping.

"I am getting sick of the sophisticated gameplay of winning coupon rebates," said Hong Wei, an accounting specialist in Shanghai. "I buy what I need, and I will not fall for marketing stunts."

Fan Feifei in Beijing contributed to this story.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
Singles Day, "Double Eleven", shopping spree...

(Xinhuanet) 08:24, November 12, 2021

Staff members transport packages at a logistics center in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, Nov. 11, 2021. With orders pouring in at midnight Wednesday, this year's Singles' Day shopping spree peaked on multiple e-commerce platforms in China. (Xinhua/Zhang Haoran)

The annualSingles' Day shopping festival, launched by Alibaba's e-commerce platform, enters its 12th year. Let's take a glimpse of this year's event.

This year marks the largest Singles' Day shopping festival on Tmall, with a record 290,000 brands participating and more than 14 million types of commodities offering discounts, according to the company.

From Nov. 1 to 12:45 a.m. Thursday, sales of 411 small and medium brands with turnover exceeding 1 million yuan (about 156,000 U.S. dollars) during last year's event on Tmall, surpassed the 10-million yuan threshold.

The number of brands that saw a turnover of more than 100 million yuan on Tmall reached 382 during the period, including Huawei, Apple and Chinese sportswear brand Erke.

"The sales are crazy," said Shen Donglai, co-founder of domestic cosmetics brand SpaChina, which is participating in the Singles' Day shopping festival for the third time.

Between 8 p.m. Wednesday and 2:09 p.m. Thursday, the total value of orders on JD.com, another Chinese e-commerce giant, hit a new record of over 311.4 billion yuan.

This is also the greenest Singles' Day shopping festival on JD.com, which introduced various measures, including developing recyclable packaging, deploying new-energy cargo vans and using photovoltaic power generation in warehousing, to lower carbon emissions and the impact on environment. As a result, the amount of carbon emissions slashed stood at 26,000 tonnes as of Thursday noon.

Photo taken on May 28, 2019 shows a paper box that can be recycled for packaging displayed during the 2019 Global Smart Logistics Summit in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

This year's Singles Day shopping festival on Thursday featured no flashy discounts or star-studded performances.

Instead, companies pointed to inclusive growth and eco-friendliness while taking the Nov 11 shopping extravaganza into its 12th year, and some consumers opted for more rational shopping.

In a departure from the previous festivals, Alibaba did not disclose gross merchandise volume via its plethora of platforms halfway through the event.

It did, however, emphasize its role in empowering small and medium-sized brands, saying they have "leapfrogged" in sales.

Chinese labels are also gaining traction among overseas buyers, with sportswear brand Erke recording sevenfold sales growth to foreign markets via Tmall and Taobao during this year's campaign.

Meanwhile, some customers called for rational shopping.

"I am getting sick of the sophisticated gameplay of winning coupon rebates," said Hong Wei, an accounting specialist in Shanghai. "I buy what I need, and I will not fall for marketing stunts."

Staff members sort packages at a logistics center in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, Nov. 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Haoran)

The Chinese commercial calendar is being adopted in Spain, partly due to the economic impulse that online platforms such as AliExpress are giving to the Spanish economy, a Spainish professor told Xinhua.

Like Black Friday two weeks later, Singles' Day is especially popular in Spain, which has briefly overtaken the United States as the second-largest market for AliExpress' online sales -- behind Russia.

Eduardo Irastorza, a professor at the OBS Business School of Barcelona, described AliExpress' strategy as a "resounding success."

AliExpress said that on this "Singles' Day," the number of Spanish businesses participating in the event is 10 percent higher than in 2020, with 11,000 sellers offering 28 percent more products.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
Western academics warn against "Cold War" attitude toward China: journal

Xinhua) 08:25, November 12, 2021

LONDON, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Western academics have appealed against the Cold War stance on China, saying such a Cold War mentality is adversely affecting research and education ties between China and the West, according to a British journal.

"Increasingly, Western scholars are facing pressure to take a critical standpoint on China," said an article published Monday in the Times Higher Education journal.

The world will become increasingly unknown to us if the West fails to engage with China and other parts of the world, Nana de Graaff, associate professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, was quoted as saying.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
UK PM welcomes China-U.S. joint declaration on enhancing climate action

Xinhua) 08:33, November 12, 2021

GLASGOW, Britain, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday welcomed a China-U.S. joint declaration on enhancing climate action.

"I welcome the strong show of commitment from China and the U.S. last night to step up climate action this decade," he said on Twitter.

China and the United States on Wednesday released the China-U.S. Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s at the ongoing 26th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.

The two sides agreed to establish a working group on enhancing climate action in the 2020s to promote cooperation between the two countries and the multilateral processes.

"This is a boost to negotiations as we go into the final days of COP26 and continue working to deliver an ambitious outcome for the planet," Johnson said.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
Italian wine companies eye greater opportunities in China

Xinhua) 08:43, November 12, 2021

Wine products are on display at the Food and Agricultural Products Exhibition Area of the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai, Nov. 6, 2021. Various foods from around the world are showcased during the 4th CIIE in Shanghai. (Xinhua/Hao Jianwei)

SHANGHAI, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- A number of Italian wine companies took part in the fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) that concluded Wednesday, eyeing greater opportunities in the Chinese market.

"The exhibition area of our company at the CIIE has seen an expansion this year as the sales volume increased by over 20 percent from last year despite the epidemic," said Han Zhangwen, general sales manager of UONE, an Italian wine brand, on Thursday.

UONE had participated in the expo for three consecutive years. "We've already booked exhibition space for next year's expo," Han added.

The fourth CIIE had attracted over 100 Italian exhibitors, showcasing quality products and services.

With the growing demand in China, some Italian wine companies have opened branches in China to boost sales.

"In addition to the strong consumption capacity of Chinese customers, China has also seen an upgrade in consumption of high-quality products," said Marianna Salzillo, sales manager of SinoDrink, affiliated with Italian agricultural company Genagricola.

China is Italy's fourth-largest trading partner in the world and the largest trading partner in Asia. In the first seven months of this year, China's import of Italian goods totaled 17.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 63.2 percent.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
China urges Japan to avoid actions that could complicate Diaoyu Islands and East China Sea issues

(Global Times) 08:45, November 12, 2021

Photo: Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs

A senior official from the Chinese Foreign Ministry urged Japan to respect concerns of sovereignty and security from China and avoid actions that could complicate the Diaoyu Islands and East China Sea related issues.

In a virtual meeting with the Takehiro Funakoshi, head of the Office of Asian and Oceania Affairs at the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Hong Liang, Director General of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of Borders and Ocean Affairs, said the two sides will fully implement the important consensus reached by the two leaders in the phone call and strive to build the East China Sea into a peaceful, cooperative and friendly one.

The two confirmed to adhere to the four-point principled consensus between China and Japan, strengthen dialogue and consultation on maritime affairs and constructively manage differences.

They also agreed to promote practical cooperation in defense, environmental protection, search and rescue, fisheries, disaster prevention and personnel exchanges, enhance mutual understanding and trust. They also agreed to reduce misgivings, misunderstanding and miscalculation toward each other.

Hong has reiterated its stern stance on matters relating to the Diaoyu islands and East China Sea, urging Japan to respect China's concerns over sovereignty and security and avoid actions that could complicate the Diaoyu Islands and East China Sea related issues.

China and Japan agreed to give full play to the role of the main channel for maritime communication and dialogue under the high-level consultation on maritime affairs and strive to hold 13th Round of High-level Consultations on Maritime Affairs between the two countries.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
China, U.S. issue joint declaration on enhancing climate action

Xinhua) 08:50, November 12, 2021

Aerial photo taken on July 7, 2021 shows citizens walking at Guanshanhu Park in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

Noting that they have further recognize the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis, the two countries said in the declaration that they are committed to tackling the crisis through their respective accelerated actions in the critical decade of the 2020s, as well as through cooperation in multilateral processes, including the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) process, to avoid catastrophic impacts.

GLASGOW, Britain, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States on Wednesday released the China-U.S. Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s here at the ongoing 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Noting that they have further recognize the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis, the two countries said in the declaration that they are committed to tackling the crisis through their respective accelerated actions in the critical decade of the 2020s, as well as through cooperation in multilateral processes, including the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) process, to avoid catastrophic impacts.

The two sides also stressed the vital importance of closing the gap between efforts being made around the world and those that need to be taken to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

They declared their intention to work individually, jointly, and with other countries, in accordance with different national circumstances, to strengthen and accelerate climate action and cooperation aimed at closing the gap, including accelerating the green and low-carbon transition and climate technology innovation.

Aerial photo taken on Nov. 3, 2021 shows a wind power field in Luduo Township of Baoying County of Yangzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province. (Xinhua/Li Bo)

In this aspect, their intended cooperation fields include regulatory frameworks and environmental standards related to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in the 2020s, maximizing the societal benefits of the clean energy transition, policies to encourage decarbonization and electrification of end-use sectors, as well as key areas related to the circular economy, such as green design and renewable resource utilization.

Recognizing specifically the significant role that emissions of methane play in increasing temperatures, both countries considered increased action to control and reduce such emissions to be a matter of necessity in the 2020s.

On the other hand, to reduce CO2 emissions, the two countries said they intend to cooperate in such areas as policies that support the effective integration of high shares of low-cost intermittent renewable energy, transmission policies that encourage efficient balancing of electricity supply and demand across broad geographies, distributed generation policies that encourage integration of solar, storage, and other clean power solutions closer to electricity users, as well as energy efficiency policies and standards to reduce electricity waste.

With respect to COP26, both countries expressed support for an ambitious, balanced, and inclusive outcome on mitigation, adaptation, and support.

Photo taken on Nov. 9, 2021 shows a poster at the ongoing 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, Scotland, the United Kingdom. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

Both countries recognized the importance of the commitment made by developed countries to the goal of mobilizing jointly 100 billion U.S. dollars per year by 2020 and annually through 2025 to address the needs of developing countries, in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation, and stressed the importance of meeting that goal as soon as possible.

The two sides also agreed to establish a working group on enhancing climate action in the 2020s, which will meet regularly to address the climate crisis and advance the multilateral process, focusing on enhancing concrete actions in this decade.

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)
China launches Earth science satellite for UN sustainable development goals

09:02, November 12, 2021 By Wu Yuehui ( People's Daily

China on Nov. 5 launched an Earth science satellite via a Long March-6 carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, north China's Shanxi province.

A Long March-6 carrier rocket taking the "SDGSAT-1" satellite blasts off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, north China's Shanxi Province, Nov. 5, 2021. (Photo courtesy of the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center)

The satellite, code-named SDGSAT-1, is developed by the Big Earth Data Science Engineering Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and is the first of its kind developed by the CAS. Besides, it's also the very first satellite in the world to help realize the goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development set by the UN.

The UN agenda that includes 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) was raised in 2015 to stimulate actions in solving social, economic and environmental problems. However, the world still needs more data to realize these goals.

According to the Global SDG Indicators Database, the data for only a few SDGs covered more than 80 percent of the countries in the world, and the data for most of the goals is delayed.

The shortage of data is a barrier for real-time monitoring of SDG progress and the evaluation of regional gaps, said Guo Huadong, chief scientist of SDGSAT-1 and director of International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals.

To solve the problem, data must be obtained and integrated via new methods and technologies, while earth observation from space is considered one of the most effective methods and research techniques for data collection.

"Observation data obtained by satellites, aircraft and ground sensors can not only reinforce those acquired from official surveys and investigations, but also generate information of higher quality that is more timely and spatially representative," Guo said.

The SDGSAT-1 has a relatively higher resolution among the satellites of its kind. Equipped with thermal infrared, glimmer and multispectral imagers, it is able to observe more details of ground objects. The satellite can achieve global coverage within 11 days thanks to its 300-kilometer-wide data acquisition capability.

These abilities enable the satellite to better record human activities. It can observe nighttime human activities and the changes of polar ice under poor light condition, and also monitor offshore and coastal zones and the impacts from human activities in these areas, for example, land utilization, coastal mangrove forests, pollution from land-based sources and offshore aquaculture. In addition, the earth science satellite is also able to study biodiversity and ecosystem, as well as living environment and urban development.

It is reported that the data obtained by the three sensors on the satellite will be received by a ground system in the following a couple of months.

The successful launch of the SDGSAT-1 demonstrated China's efforts in and contribution to realizing the goals set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The data products of the satellite will be shared globally to offer data support for the international society, especially developing countries to carry out sustainable development studies.

Liu Jianbo, general director of the Earth science satellite project, introduced that the satellite currently works for six goals in the 17 SDGs. It is expected to obtain massive data in the future and process them with big data, AI and block chain technologies, to make bigger contributions to sustainable development, Liu added.

"We hope to work with Chinese and international organizations and effectively gather and share the data and help bridge the gap in the unbalanced global sustainable development," Guo noted.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
China sees positive results in improving water environment of Bohai Sea region

09:08, November 12, 2021 By Jin Bo, Zhang Tengyang ( People's Daily

After three years of ecological restoration efforts, China has brought back lucid water, green banks, clean beaches, and beautiful bays to Bohai Sea, a semi-enclosed inland sea in the country.

Endowed with unique natural ecology and prominent geographic advantages, the Bohai Sea is of great strategic importance.

Photo taken on Sept. 1, 2021 shows fishing boats sailing from the Longwangtang Fishing Port in Dalian, northeast Chinas Liaoning province, to fisheries in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea. (Peoples Daily Online/Chen Fengxiao)

However, the sea used to face a grim situation of environmental and ecological protection due to serious land-based pollution.

In 2018, China launched a campaign to improve the water environment of the Bohai Sea region, and the campaign is a complete success.

China implements a four-tier water quality classification system for seawater and a five-tier classification system for surface water, with Gradebeing the best. Data from Chinas Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) indicate that the proportion of water of fairly good quality (Gradeand Grade) in the Bohai Sea coastal waters had grown to 82.3 percent last year, 9.3 percentage points higher than the target of 73 percent set for the campaign and 15.3 percentage points higher than the figure recorded in 2017.

Besides, all the key targets and tasks of the campaign, including investigation into sewage outfalls into the sea, eliminating poor-quality surface water below Grade V in state-controlled cross sections of rivers flowing into the sea, and ecological remediation and restoration of coastal wetlands and shorelines, have been completed to a high standard.

The three-year battle to improve the water environment of the Bohai Sea region involved unprecedented efforts to coordinate pollution prevention and control for land and sea and has resulted in an unprecedented improvement in the quality of offshore waters, said Zhang Zhifeng, vice director of the Department of Marine Ecology and Environment of the MEE.

As one of Chinas seven landmark campaigns for pollution prevention and control and the countrys first battle against marine pollution during its 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), the campaign launched to improve the water environment of the Bohai Sea region bears great significance and has far-reaching influence, Zhang added.

Primary school students from Qinhuangdao, north Chinas Hebei province, try driving sailboats on the Bohai Sea, Sept. 22, 2021. (Peoples Daily Online/Cao Jianxiong)

Over the past three years, the three provinces and one municipality adjacent to the Bohai Sea, namely Chinas Liaoning, Hebei, and Shandong provinces and Tianjin municipality, have coordinated land and marine development, solved ecological problems troubling the sea and relevant rivers, and addressed both symptoms and root causes of the problems.

By formulating and implementing targeted measures and plans to improve the water quality of state-controlled rivers that flow into the sea, or rivers that flow into the Bohai Sea with cross sections included in the countrys national surface water quality monitoring system, relevant governments have strengthened comprehensive river basin management of state-controlled rivers and other rivers that flow into the sea.

Tianjin municipality has advanced the comprehensive management of its 12 rivers that flow into the Bohai Sea by making targeted efforts, leveraging engineering methods and carrying out projects according to the respective characteristics of these rivers.

The proportion of water of fairly good quality in the Bohai Sea coastal waters in Tianjin had risen from 16.6 percent in 2017 to 70.4 percent in 2020, when the water quality of the state-controlled water sections of all the 49 rivers that flow into the sea was raised to above Grade , according to data from the MEE.

The overhaul of sewage outfalls into the sea is an important move in promoting targeted, science-based, and law-based pollution control for ecological and environmental restoration of the Bohai Sea.

In January 2019, a pilot investigation into sewage outfalls into the sea led by the MEE kicked off in Tangshan city of Hebei province. Three months later, the activity began to be comprehensively carried out in the 13 cities of the Bohai Sea region, involving 3,600 km of shorelines.

Photo taken on April 19, 2021 shows a worker cleaning the beach with machinery at a bathing beach in Haigang district, Qinhuangdao city, north Chinas Hebei province. (Peoples Daily Online/Cao Jianxiong)

Through a three-tier investigation mechanism featuring remote sensing by unmanned aerial vehicles, on-site investigation by personnel, and quality control and verification by experts, the three provinces and Tianjin municipality located near the Bohai Sea comprehensively traced the sources of and investigated into sewage outfalls into the sea, discovering a total of more than 18,000 outfalls of such kind.

The overhaul has gradually taken effect, with the proportion of water of fairly good quality in the Bohai Sea coastal waters in Tangshan standing at 100 percent in 2020 and the first half of 2021.

Laizhou, a county-level city of Shandong province located on the shore of Laizhou Bay, one of the three major bays of the Bohai Sea, has effectively reversed the marine environmental pollution of the Laizhou Bay and given it a beautiful new look by improving a marine sanitation mechanism, under which it has designated personnel for cleaning waste on every beach and area of the bay.

In March, May, and August of 2021, the proportion of water of fairly good quality in the Laizhou Bay offshore waters reached 71.6 percent, 51.4 percent, and 77.7 percent respectively, 39.6 percentage points, 21.4 percentage points and 11.8 percentage points higher than the average of corresponding figures registered between 2018 and 2020.

The three provinces and Tianjin municipality adjacent to the Bohai Sea have all established regular working mechanism for marine sanitation and made great efforts to enhance infrastructure construction and advance timely removal and regular oversight of marine litter, according to Zhang.

These provinces and the municipality have restored 8,891 hectares of coastal wetlands and 132-km coastline, exceeding the target of 6,900 hectares of coastal wetlands and 70 km of coastline. In addition, 37.5 percent of the offshore areas of the Bohai Sea have been included in their marine ecological protection red-line zones.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Why China's climate change dedication credible and attainable

(People's Daily App) 09:48, November 12, 2021

China and the United States on Wednesday released the China-US Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s at the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Both sides will "recall their firm commitment to work together" to achieve the 1.5 temperature goal set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the declaration said.

"China will scale up its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions by adopting more vigorous policies and measures. We aim to have carbon dioxide emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060," Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the general debate of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly via video on Sept 22, 2020.

In the face of global warming, China pledged to realize carbon neutrality in a shorter timespan than developed countries.

China is undergoing the world's steepest decline in carbon emission intensity and is expected to take the shortest time in history to transit from carbon peak to ultimate carbon neutrality.

So what exactly has China done?

What challenges did Beijing encounter?

What progress has been made?

Here are the answers.

(Produced by Zhao Dantong, Bai Yuanqi and Lin Rui; interns Luo Tianya, Lv Kaiying and Xu Shilin also contributed to the story)

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Young German man takes delight in videotaping traditional cultures of China's ethnic minority groups

People's Daily Online) 09:56, November 12, 2021

Robert Adolf, a 24-year-old young German man, has taken great delight in shooting a documentary on the customs and traditional cultures of China's ethnic minority groups, including the Tujia, Miao, Dong, Buyi, Yao, and Shui, among others, over the past half year.

Adolf poses for a picture with a woman from Huangping county, Guangzhou province. (Photo/chinanews.com)

Adolf came up with his plan in June this year, having set out first from east China's Jiangsu province. He then travelled along with his three Chinese friends to central China's Hubei province, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and southwest China's Guizhou province, which are home to many different ethnic minority groups.

I didn't know that there are 56 ethnic groups in China until I came to this country, said Adolf, adding that the documentary he planned to shoot would help introduce the unique cultures of these ethnic groups to foreigners outside China.

Adolf and the Shui people pose for a picture in Sandu Shui Autonomous County, Guizhou province. (Photo/chinanews.com)

I just want to record moments of their daily life with my camera, Adolf said. He admitted that his true intent was to document the reality found in these ethnic minoritys daily life. Without preparing any scripts in advance, the shooting process was flexible and full of fun encounters due to all the uncertainties.

According to Adolf, the one-week trip in Sandu Shui Autonomous County, Guizhou province, impressed him the most. This is because there he met local villagers who treated him as a family member.

Adolf also celebrated the grandest festival of the Shui people living in this region  the Duan Festival. He said that the Duan Festival was meant to celebrate the harvest, with a variety of delicious food and rice wine being offered inside peoples home. The harmonious atmosphere and hospitable locals made Adolf really feel like he was at home.

Adolf and the Dong people in Guizhou province. (Photo/chinanews.com)

During the journey, Adolf posted lots of short videos on popular video sharing platforms, such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and YouTube, appealing to both Chinese and foreign netizens.

Many foreigners are surprised at the beauty of China and they all look forward to visiting China after the pandemic. This is exactly what I want to see from my shooting, said Adolf. He also hoped that after witnessing the social developments of China's ethnic minority groups, foreigners can remove their biases against China.

Although China is far away from my home in Germany, I do always feel like at home here, said Adolf, adding that he will continue his shooting plan so as to better share splendid Chinese culture with the rest of the world.

Adolf and a woman from Sandu Shui Autonomous County. (Photo/chinanews.com)

Adolf and two women from a Yao village in Huanluo, Guangxi. (Photo/chinanews.com)

Adolf tries wearing a traditional headdress from Liuzhi, Guizhou province. (Photo/chinanews.com)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Belarus receives new batch of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines

Xinhua) 13:10, November 12, 2021

MINSK, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- China and Belarus signed a document on vaccine transfer after a new batch of coronavirus vaccines from China arrived here Thursday.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Belarus have sincerely supported each other, provided each other with medical supplies, and exchanged experience on combating the pandemic, said Chinese Ambassador Xie Xiaoyong.

Xie noted that the Chinese government has provided Belarus with four batches of coronavirus vaccines, demonstrating the high-level relationship between the two countries and the friendship between the two peoples.

Chinese vaccines will help Belarus battle the coronavirus, and China is willing to continue to support Belarus within its capacity and join hands with Belarus to build a community of common health for mankind, said Xie.

Dmitry Pinevich, minister of health of Belarus, said that Belarus was the first country to provide humanitarian aid to China at the start of the pandemic. After COVID-19 broke out in Belarus, China was among the first countries to lend a helping hand. Chinese medical experts shared their experience on the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19, as well as prevention and control measures, and provided strong support to Belarus in its battle against the pandemic.

As of Nov. 11, Belarus has registered 621,689 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 4,805 deaths.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
China's whole-process people's democracy features complete set of institutions: expert

Xinhua) 14:40, November 12, 2021

BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The whole-process people's democracy in China, an all-dimensional, full-coverage democracy with a complete set of institutions, is the broadest, most genuine, and most effective socialist democracy, said an expert on Friday.

"From the gains and losses of political development at home and abroad, the Party keenly recognized that China's political civilization and political system must be deeply rooted in the Chinese soil," said Jiang Jinquan, director of the Policy Research Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, at a press conference.

"It is not feasible for China to copy the political systems of other countries," he said, noting that any attempt like this might even ruin the country's future.

The whole-process people's democracy in China not only has a complete set of institutions and procedures but also full participation and practices, Jiang said.

Through diverse, unimpeded and orderly democratic channels, it has ensured that all the people manage state affairs, economic and cultural undertakings and social affairs through various channels and forms in accordance with the law, he added.

"The Chinese people have a high degree of confidence in their political system. The fundamental reason lies in the fact that the whole-process people's democracy in China is highly democratic, fully-fledged and deeply welcomed by the Chinese people," Jiang said. "This is true people's democracy."

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
5G+industrial Internet upgrades Chinas steel industry for a new era

People's Daily Online) 15:54, November 12, 2021

The integration of 5G technology into industrial Internet has boosted the digital transformation of Chinas steel industry in recent years, injecting new impetus into the high-quality development of the sector.

Thanks to the introduction of 5G-powered unmanned bridge cranes, Tan Bin, a bridge crane operator at Hunan Valin Xiangtan Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. in central Chinas Hunan province, doesnt need to endure harsh working conditions anymore.

File photo shows a worker operating 5G unmanned bridge cranes at the Hunan Valin Xiangtan Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. in central Chinas Hunan province.

I used to sit in the crane cab, Tan recalled, recounting that the cab was always filled with dust and loud noise and that he had to wear a mask during work.

Since his company combined 5G with industrial Internet, Tans work has undergone huge changes. Today, Tan is able to control bridge cranes accurately and remotely in a spacious, clean and quiet operating room.

The high reliability and low latency of new technologies enable fast data transmission and the accurate operation of the equipment. The 5G unmanned bridge cranes have significantly improved the efficiency of operators, said He Wei, deputy head of the companys equipment department.

To improve the collaborative operations of coke pushers, coal charging cars, coke guiding cars and coke quenching cars, Shougang Jingtang United Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. in Tangshan, north Chinas Hebei province developed a remote collaboration solution based on the use of 5G networks and the companys management system in 2019. The solution ensures real-time monitoring and reliable, efficient and safer remote operations for the four kinds of machines.

We now realizing the stable, safe and fast transmission of images, and our companys central control room will send instructions to respective machines for their collaborative operation, said Ding Hongqi, an employee of the company, while referring to previous image transmission delays caused by low bandwidth. Due to the solutions, the company has seen its production efficiency rise by about 15 percent since 2019.

Peng Jun, an industry expert from Chinese tech giant Huawei 5G introduced that technology enables the collaborative operation of multiple devices, and thus improves the production efficiency of steel companies while reducing energy consumption.

Combining 5G networks with industrial Internet has also improved the efficiency of troubleshooting for the production lines of steel companies.

A hot-rolled strip steel plant operated by Ansteel Group Co., Ltd. in Anshan, northeast China's Liaoning province, piloted the predictive maintenance of equipment (motors) powered by 5G technology for its hot continuous rolling production line with over 400 roller tracks in 2019. The plant upgraded its key equipment with the help of 5G and industrial Internet. Sensors are able to collect data such as the temperature, vibration, pressure, and current of the equipment and then upload these data points to a cloud platform. Through artificial intelligence and big data analysis, the company can realize real-time monitoring, diagnosis and the handling of equipment failures.

Once any abnormal motor current is discovered, the production lines management system will send out an alarm.

In the past, we had to check all the roller tracks one by one to find out reasons behind scratches on steel strips, which often took us half an hour to one hour, said Ma Liang, an executive with the plant, noting that they now can identify equipment failures within about 10 minutes.

The solution has not only improved the efficiency of troubleshooting for the production line, but also reduced the product defect rate from 7 percent to 3.8 percent, Ma added.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
How CNN lies about Uygurs in Xinjiang

China Daily) 16:10, November 12, 2021

CNN's interview video with a Xinjiang detective is one more farce. China Daily talks with a real police officer and finds it is another common stunt perpetrated by many in Western media  portraying an unverified account as 100% truthful. The disinformation is playing a dangerous game with real peoples lives.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
China to release updated medicare reimbursement list

Xinhua) 16:24, November 12, 2021

BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- China is expected to release a renewed catalog of drugs covered by its national medical insurance system in late November, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) said Friday.

According to the NHSA, 93 percent of the 271 drugs that passed the preliminary review process for this year's update are drugs approved for clinical use since 2016.

The national reimbursement drug list has been updated six times since 2000, currently standing at 2,800 inclusions, compared to 1,535 in 2000.

Stressing China's medical insurance system mainly targets the people's basic needs, the NHSA encourages supplemental and commercial insurance of various kinds to play a bigger part in increasing the accessibility of new drugs.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Endangered fish released into Xinjiang's major lake

Xinhua) 16:50, November 12, 2021

URUMQI, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have released more than 30,000 Bighead fish into Bosten Lake in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to replenish the wild population of the endangered carp species.

Bighead fish, also known as "Aspiorhynchus laticeps" in Latin, are endemic to the Tarim River in Xinjiang. This batch of fish measures 15 to 30 cm in length and 30 to 50 grams in weight.

They were implanted with tracking and marking tags, said He Jiangtao, an engineer with Xinjiang's fisheries science and research institute.

Bighead fish were once abundant in the Tarim River, but the species came to the verge of extinction due to harmful human activities such as excessive fishing and ecological environment deterioration. It is under first-class state protection.

In recent years, China has stepped up efforts to rescue the Bighead fish and other endangered species in the Bosten Lake, one of the country's largest inland freshwater lakes, by targeting illegal fishing and releasing captive-bred fry into the wild.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Double 11 sales maintain momentum, as industry overhaul shows effect

By Chi Jingyi (Global Times) 16:57, November 12, 2021

Double 11 sales

This year's Double 11 online shopping festival turned out to be vastly different from previous years, as e-commerce platforms on Thursday refrained from releasing "battle reports" showing new records are created by the minutes and hours as they have done for about a decade.

Still, various indicators showed that sales maintained momentum with some analysts estimating new sales records, despite some challenges, including new COVID-19 outbreaks and disrupted global supply chains. There were also other positive trends, including the rise of smaller platforms during the event that is usually dominated by industry giants.

The profound changes on the sales day highlighted the initial results from a regulatory overhaul that aims to rein in problematic, unfair business practices, while solid sales performance underscored still-strong spending power of Chinese consumers, even as they become more rational, analysts noted.

It was the first Double 11 shopping festival for more than 10 years where platforms did not disclose time-sharing transaction data, which analysts said showed that e-commerce platforms are focusing more on quality, and more attention is being paid to the sales growth of brands.

Within 45 minutes after midnight on Thursday, a total of 382 brands had sales exceeding 100 million yuan ($15.6 million) on Alibaba's e-commerce platform Tmall. This included popular domestic brands such as Huawei and Erke, and international brands, including Apple and L'Oreal.

As of 2 am on Thursday, the total sales of Xiaomi during the festival, which started on October 20, on omni-platforms exceeded 15 billion yuan, the company said on its Sina Weibo account.

Tmall said its total volume of transactions on this year's Double 11 shopping festival hit 540.3 billion yuan ($84 billion), up from last year's 498.2 billion yuan from Nov 1 to 11. Tmall started its presale on October 20 this year.

Rival JD.com said it received a total order valued 349.1 billion yuan, a record high, and the turnover of 43,276 merchants increased by more than 200 percent year-on-year. JD started its gala on Oct 31.

According to data from several major e-commerce platforms, the Double 11 festival in 2021 is likely to set new records, with sales, transaction speeds and participation rates all on the rise, Zhang Xiaorong, director of the Beijing-based Cutting-Edge Technology Research Institute, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"E-commerce has become an important stimulus to consumption and there were two main changes for this year's Double 11 - physical stores joined in the big party and more foreign brands moved in," said Zhang.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more international brands have entered China by opening flagship stores on Tmall or other e-commerce platforms, eyeing the huge consumer market in China.

For example, many foreign brands that debuted at the 4th China International Import Expo, which ended on Wednesday, launched simultaneously on e-commerce platforms for the Double 11 event. Chinese consumers can buy goods from all over the world without leaving home.

But analysts also said that although the gross merchandise volume (GMV) of each major platform is still growing, the growth rates of GMVs have slowed and started to approach stability.

China's consumer market has huge potential because of its large population and growing middle class. However, e-commerce has basically become part of the nation's lifestyle and online shopping is not limited to the Double 11. The sales of the festival have flowed over into other months of 2021, Zhu Qiucheng, CEO of Ningbo New Oriental Electric Industrial Development, told the Global Times on Thursday.

In the first three quarters of 2021, retail sales totaled 31.8 trillion yuan, up 16.4 percent year-on-year, and online retail sales reached 9.21 trillion yuan, up 18.5 percent year-on-year, accounting for 28.9 percent of the total, according to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

For the 2021 Double 11 shopping festival, both sellers and consumers were more "rational," and e-commerce platforms no longer blindly pursued sales but paid more attention to quality, Zhu said, adding that "in general, the performance of the event is good. Many of our products were sold out seven days ago, so it might look like sales were flat on November 11."?

Although more records are expected, the recently launched anti-monopoly policies, the supervision of digital economy platforms, and relevant guidance on e-commerce promotion activities meant that the overall promotion strategies of platforms tended to be conservative, Wang Peng, an assistant professor at the Gaoling School of Artificial Intelligence at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Thursday.

In this context, platform diversification has seen a strong upward trend, and new platforms have emerged. In particular, short video platforms, such as Douyin and Kuaishou, have risen due to the new trend of livestreaming sales.

"Also, emerging platforms offer many discounts in normal times, which greatly reduces consumers' expectations for the Double 11," Wang said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
China takes concrete actions towards tackling climate change

17:02, November 12, 2021 By Gao Ge ( People's Daily Online

Chinas active response towards tackling climate change provides robust evidence to refute US President Bidens remarks at COP26 that China just "walked away" and it is "a gigantic issue".

China has implemented a national strategy of actively responding to climate change. Compared with developed countries, which generally have set a timeframe of 40 to 70 years before shifting from carbon peaking to carbon neutrality, China, the largest developing country in the world, made a solemn promise to peak its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. This means that China will complete the worlds largest reduction in carbon dioxide emissions intensity in the shortest time ever in global history.

The aerial photo taken on May 28, 2021, shows an offshore wind power project under construction in Fujian Province. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)

China has announced a series of targets for nationally determined contributions and concrete policies and measures, setting out timetables, roadmaps and blueprints, issuing master plans, and setting clear objectives for each stage. China has put forward 10 major actions for peaking carbon dioxide emissions and has moved faster to put in place a 1+N policy framework for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.

Recently, China has started the construction of a batch of large wind power and photovoltaic bases with a combined installed capacity of 30 million kW, marking the beginning of the first phase of projects with an installed capacity of approximately 100 million kW. This speaks volumes about Chinas resolve towards countering climate change.

According to a report from the International Energy Agency, to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, almost 90 percent of global electricity generation needs to come from renewable sources. China has taken the lead in this regard, with the country having constructed the largest volume of solar power and wind power generators in the world. Compared with 2005, the installed capacities in China for photovoltaic solar energy expanded by over 3,000 times and 200 times for wind energy. China's carbon intensity in 2020 was 48.4 percent less than that in 2005, which means that China had more than fulfilled its commitment to the international community  achieving a 40 to 45 percent reduction in carbon intensity by 2020 from 2005 levels. The drop in carbon intensity translates into a total reduction of about 5.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Electricity generated using non-fossil fuel energy represents more than one third of the countrys overall power consumption. China has been taking extra actions to scale up its efforts to tackle climate change. All these achievements give full expression to Chinas vigorous measures, winning widespread praise from the international community.

As a common challenge for the world, climate change should be addressed by all of mankind. And coping with this fundamental issue of our times will contribute to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. China has all along undertaken due international responsibilities commensurate with its own national conditions, practiced true multilateralism, and contributed to a fair, reasonable and win-win global climate governance system.

China promoted the signing and entry into force of the Paris Agreement, the third international agreement on climate change following the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate and the Kyoto Protocol. China has also contributed Chinese wisdom to the improvement of the Paris Agreement and has played a critical role in the implementation of the agreement even after the US decided to unilaterally withdraw from it.

China has led innovative forms of multilateral cooperation, stepped up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy, and carried out South-South cooperation on climate change. China has provided assistance and support for developing countries to the best of its capacity under the framework of South-South cooperation on climate change, including donating energy conservation and new energy products and devices to almost 40 countries, helping relevant countries launch meteorological satellites, and training nearly 1,500 officials and technical personnel working in the climate response sector of 120 developing countries.

As the largest developing country, China has overcome its own economic and social difficulties to make tangible contributions to global climate governance and the fight against climate change. In the meantime, it remains crystal clear that the US has done nothing other than having continually walked away from stepping up and stepping forward on the issue of climate change.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Commentary: Washington's ulterior Taiwan ploys a dangerous miscalculation

Xinhua) 17:02, November 12, 2021

BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has recently reiterated that Washington's role is to make sure Taiwan has the means for self-defense, claiming, "There are many countries ... that would see any unilateral action to use force to disrupt the status quo as a significant threat to peace and security."

These highly provocative remarks were among a series of little ploys played by a bunch of Washington politicians on the Taiwan question that have encroached on the one-China principle, and enraged the Chinese people.

What Washington has done simply goes back on its promises. China and the United States have already made the one-China principle concerning the Taiwan question crystal clear in the three China-U.S. joint communiques.

In other words, recognizing the fact that Taiwan is an integral part of China is the political foundation of China-U.S. relations. That is also a policy upheld by successive U.S. administrations since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties.

During a recent telephone conversation between the heads of state of the two countries, U.S. President Joe Biden said that the United States has never intended to change the one-China policy. And yet glaring inconsistencies have been spotted between Washington's words and deeds, which not only violates its political commitment made when establishing diplomatic relations with China, but also runs counter to Biden's statement.

The fact that 180 countries worldwide recognize and support the one-China principle testifies to the rock-solid support of the international community for the one-China principle.

The national reunification of China is a historical inevitability. The one-China principle concerns China's core interests and brooks no trampling. The U.S. attempt to play tricks with the Taiwan question, and make some kind of "breakthrough" in this regard is a dangerous miscalculation.

It is an indisputable fact that the Taiwan authorities and some "Taiwan independence" separatist forces are imperilling peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. They try to deny and even challenge the one-China principle and conduct more "Taiwan independence" activities. That is the very source of the tensions in the region.

While the Chinese government and the international community firmly reject those separatist moves, the U.S. side is working hand in glove with the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces with little regard for regional stability.

There is no future for Taiwan other than reunification with the mainland. The resolve and determination of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people to realize national reunification is unshakable.

The U.S. attempt to play the "Taiwan card" for the purpose of containing China goes against both the will of the Chinese people and the historical trend, and is thus doomed to failure. Colluding with the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces is like playing with fire, a dangerous game that will eventually burn those who dare to try.

Washington's dangerous political game on the one-China principle poses a huge risk to China-U.S. relations, and will in turn drag America in the mire. The U.S. side needs to stay committed to the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, stop making wrong signals, and bear in mind the big picture of China-U.S. relations and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait with practical actions.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Hypocrisy in some rich nations climate policies

17:40, November 12, 2021 By Dennis Meng ( People's Daily Online

Illustration/People's Daily Online

Lets try solving some word problems first:

a. To alleviate a prolonged food shortage, City Z plans to distribute its emergency food stockpile. District A, a relatively backward part of the city with 1,341 people, and District E, an influential and affluent area in City Z that houses 748 residents, are rationed 120 tons of food aid. How much aid should they each receive?

b. Amid an anti-littering campaign, Neighborhood Y has urged its community members to reduce the amount of waste they produce. Household C, a family of 12 that produces 3 tons of waste annually, and Household M, a family of 3 that creates 2.85 tons of waste a year, collectively, need to trim 2 tons of waste a year. How much less trash should they create respectively each year?

Well, such problems would appear to fall into the easy math category. In problem a, aid should be rationed proportionately according to the overall demand of each district. As for problem b, which is a bit trickier, the per capita outputs should weigh in (meaning members of the household with higher per capita outputs should make greater efforts). The methods may be different, but their goals are the sameto allow each person to get his/her fair share of gains and burdens.

But in real-world applications to similar global problems, which can be much more puzzling given varied national conditions and the complex geopolitical landscape, some rich nations calculations appear to be flawed, irrational, and even immoral.

In their mad scramble for COVID-19 vaccines, some rich nations have neglected the presence of the developing world, whose citizens were also in dire need of more doses but often havent gotten access to any. But when it comes to the big theme of climate change, developing countries, most of which were absent in previous fuel-guzzling industrial revolutions and remain in the early stages of development, are suddenly designated by rich countries as the major players.

Historically, developed countries ARE responsible for almost 80 percent of global cumulative carbon emissions, yet some rich nations are attempting to fashion together a false impression that they are working hard on the issue while the developing world isnt cooperating or doing enough.

Not only have they ignored the facts that climate change is a progressive event in which developed nations excessive carbon footprints dating back to the industrial revolution is the real culprit behind the already occurring 1.2C temperature rise , but they have also been trying to pressure poorer countries, who havent shared in the same technological and economic advantages, to cut emissions on a similar scale and to their own satisfaction.

Photo taken on Oct. 31, 2021 shows a general view of the opening ceremony for COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, the United Kingdom. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

During the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, leaders from the rich world have set their climate targets sky-high, making a heap of mitigation promises, meanwhile reviling developing nations for not keeping up with their pace.

Former US President Barack Obama, who 12 years ago in Copenhagen had stunned the world with his ambitious and refreshing speech but later failed to sustain his climate agenda at home, staged a comeback at COP26, in which he grabbed most of the global listeners attention, though not for his reflections on previous failures, but for his unwarranted attacks on China and Russia simply because their leaders didnt show up in person, matching what he and some of his colleagues did with their luxury private jets and noisy limousines.

Loud as they are, they can hardly convince the skeptical developing nations, who have in the past witnessed too many broken promises, unfulfilled targets, and numerous farces, including the one where the US walked away from the gigantic issue of climate change, to embark on their unrealistic and unreasonable climate proposals.

Children were at a temporary camp hosting flood victims in Mangalla, South Sudan, on Oct. 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Gale Julius)

For 734 million people who live on less than $1.90 a day, they have to carry the weighty burdens of climate change before even knowing that such a phenomenon even exists. When copious rainfall and capricious droughts frequently visit upon their lands, depriving them of food and shelter, they have no idea that in sumptuous halls oceans away, leaders from some rich nations are pressing for greater mitigation efforts and expecting them to follow suit.

Foreign Policy on November 3 published a sobering essay entitled Rich Countries Climate Policies Are Colonialism in Green, in which the author Vijaya Ramachandran, director for energy and development at the Breakthrough Institute, examined the hypocrisy and cruelty in some rich nations climate policies.

In the article, the author highlighted that Norway, the second-largest gas supplier in Europe, is advancing the green version of colonialism. The northern European country, amid an acute energy shortage, has just hammered a deal to increase its natural gas exports by 2 billion cubic meters; but in the meantime, it has been lobbying the World Bank to stop all financing of natural gas projects in Africa and elsewhere as soon as 2025. Its the rich world telling the global south to stay poor and stop developing, which under no scenario is possible without a vast increase in energy use, the author wrote.

Besides Norway, some other rich countries have also pursued similar hypocritical, immoral and unjust policies.

U.S. President Joe Biden has recently urged major energy suppliers to ramp up their energy production volumes in a bid to boost economic recovery, shortly before he joined other G7 leaders to agree on ending all financing for fossil fuel development overseas next year. The UK, which has pledged to make climate its foremost international priority, earlier this year proposed to build a controversial coal mine in Cumbria, a county in North West England, and last year, it greenlighted a plan to build the biggest gas power station in Europe. Canada, a nation that is in close proximity to the Arctic and therefor extremely susceptible to climate change, has in recent years continued to advance its case for building the contentious Trans Mountain oil pipeline, adopting an alibi that the profits generated from the pipeline will aid  the construction of future renewable energy projects.

One of the biggest hypocrisies perpetrated by the worlds rich countries lies in their 100-billion-dollar promise to provide climate financing to developing countries, a promise that has never actually materialized. Roughly twelve years ago at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, which was dubbed by many as humanitys last chance, rich countries vowed to channel 100 billion dollars each year by 2020 to poorer nations in order to help them address the impacts arising from climate change. For each subsequent year, however, rich countries fell short of that target, and an OECD report has predicted that the climate financing target wont be met until 2023.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the opening ceremony of the World Leaders Summit at the 26th United Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow, Britain, Nov. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

But climate change accompanied by extreme weather events is incessant and taking a compounded toll on the developing world, especially for the least developed countries (LDCs). Some of them, countries that have never fully recovered from colonialism, foreign invasions, regional conflicts, and fresh waves of floods, droughts, and famines, have shared little to no slice of the industrial revolution pie and are still just managing to get by in feeding their populations, yet somehow finding themselves being dragged into contributing to a weighty mission in which they have to wean themselves off from coal and natural gas within a few years while directly transitioning to a greener and often a more expensive way of life.

Thats why some rich countries emissions reduction policies are so irrational and immoral. They are chanting dry slogans, making empty promises, offering rubber checks, setting unrealistic targets and, in the meantime, persisting with their own energy schemes while expecting that poorer countries, who have much lower cumulative and per capita carbon emissions, to somehow put climate at the top of their agenda. Instead of devising international climate targets and timetables on a country-by-country basis, a bottom-up approach that takes into account various national conditions, some rich countries have preferred to pressure other nations to act without placing themselves in their counterparts shoes. Thats hypocrisy in nature. Hypocrisy in green.

(Web editor: Meng Bin, Hongyu)
Xi Focus: Xi chairs symposium to seek non-Communists' opinions on key CPC resolution

Xinhua) 20:03, November 12, 2021

Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng attend the sixth plenary session of the 19th Communist Party of China Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. The session was held in Beijing from Nov. 8 to 11. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has chaired a symposium to solicit non-Communists' views and suggestions on the drafting of a resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the Party over the past century.

The event, held on Sept. 10 in Beijing, was attended by the leaders from the central committees of the non-CPC political parties, head of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and people with no party affiliation.

The resolution was adopted by the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee that concluded Thursday.

Xi said it is imperative that the CPC comprehensively summarize its historical experience over the past 100 years of endeavors as the Party continues to unite and lead Chinese people of all ethnic groups to realize the second centenary goal.

The summary will help the Party nurture fresh ethos, forge unprecedented unity and develop high-degree political awareness, said Xi.

Helicopters fly over Tian'anmen Square in the formation of "100" ahead of a grand gathering celebrating the Communist Party of China (CPC) centenary at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Xin)

Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Wang Yang, Wang Huning and Zhao Leji attended the symposium.

Xi noted that it is of great significance to thoroughly summarize the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC over the past century, as China stands at a critical period toward national rejuvenation amid profound global changes.

Xi said the CPC Central Committee would earnestly study and absorb the views put forward by non-Communists on major issues concerning upholding and strengthening the Party leadership as well as Party building.

Xi stressed that in the course of its endeavors, the CPC has held high the banner of great unity and solidarity and made continuous efforts to consolidate and develop the broadest united front.

The CPC's history over the past century is one of unity and joint endeavors of the CPC and non-CPC political parties, Xi said, expressing the hope that the non-Communists can carry forward the glorious tradition of close cooperation with the CPC and consolidate the common theoretical and political foundation for multiparty cooperation.

(Web editor: Zhao Tong, Bianji)
By Shi Longhong

The US has been making constant moves to hype up the Taiwan question recently. A closer scrutiny of its words and deeds would reveal all the lies and deceptions in its ploy to contain China with Taiwan.

The US makes the empty promise of helping defend Taiwan. Bonnie Glaser, an American expert on Taiwan question, said the so-called promise is obviously untrue. Taiwans China Daily News pointed out that Washington never made a definite commitment to sending troops to help defend Taiwan, and the Democratic Progressive Party obviously doesnt take Taiwans security seriously by intentionally releasing false information.

The US roots for Taiwan to join the United Nations. As the spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in the US said, the UN is an international organization of sovereign states. The Taiwan question is a serious political issue rather than an issue of value, and the US is trying to confuse and mislead the international community by using value as the excuse for its attempt to sneak Taiwan into the UN system.

The US accuses China of misusing the UN Resolution 2758. According to Zhu Songling, a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies, Beijing Union University, the UN Resolution 2758 clearly and thoroughly clarifies Chinas representation in the UN on political, legal and procedural terms. Its legal validity and position are beyond doubt.

The US and Taiwan authorities are making under-the-table military moves. People living in Taiwan generally believe that the US is helping the island enhance its military strength in order to use it as a pawn to contain the Chinese mainland and to make a killing from the arms deal. Taiwans China Times said counting on the Americans to shed blood for Taiwanese is the wildest dream. It is the Taiwan people that suffer most from the worsening relations across the Taiwan Strait.

The US is intentionally and riskily elevating the level of interactions with Taiwan authorities. Yuan Zheng, a researcher at the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the Taiwan visit by American officials is a way of playing the Taiwan card to cater to those prejudiced against the Chinese mainland, divert confrontation, and instigate the Taiwan island to dance to its anti-China tune.

The US is churning out various Taiwan-related bills and acts. Shao Yuqun, director of the Institute for Taiwan, Hong Kong & Macao Studies, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said that churning out bills and acts is just an old and cheap trick played by the US. The documents mostly dont have any binding force  they are just a way to show the White Houses political attitude of using the Taiwan question to contain China.

This year, the US has held the so-called political and military dialogue with Taiwan authorities via video link, supported the island to take part in the WHO assembly, signed the memorandum on forming a group of maritime patrol, lifted the restrictions on its official engagements with Taiwan authorities, considered permitting the DPP to change the name of its representative office in the US, and released a so-called human rights report accusing the Chinese mainland of manipulating Taiwan mediaThe list goes on.

The US has been making Taiwan-related moves in all kinds of forms, but a slight poke is enough to expose all the lies and fallacies behind. Zeng Runmei, director of the Department of Political Studies at Institute of Taiwan Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that the US has been playing dirty tricks on the one hand and profiting from them on the other all these years. But Taiwan is by far not Americas core interests and Washington would never really fight for Taiwan.

Why then does Washington collude with the island and escalate the cross-Strait tension while it is perfectly aware of how complicated and sensitive the Taiwan question is? According to Sarwar Kashmeri, a researcher at American Foreign Policy Council, the move is to a large extent to cater to the conservative right-wingers and deflect the attention from Americas own problems at home, such as political standoff and racial division. Huang Zhixian, a senior reporter in Taiwan, also analyzed that the Chinese mainland develops so rapidly that there is no way Washington can contain its growth unless it lends a lethal blow, and obviously the US regards Taiwan as the ideal weapon that can be wielded to kill several birds at a time without much cost.

The Taiwan question concerns Chinas core interests. The mainland has the firm resolve and strong capability to defeat any Taiwan independence attempt and realize national reunification. If the US is bent on going down the wrong path, the response from the Chinese mainland will only get stronger, said Lai Yueqian, a Taiwan commentator, who advised the US side to never underestimate the mainlands resolve when it comes to the Taiwan question.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for an inclusive and integrated economy within the Asia-Pacific region, urging further opening-up in post-pandemic recovering era.

"Openness is the lifeline of Asia-Pacific cooperation," Xi told the 28th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in Beijing via video link, calling for efforts to build an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future featuring openness, inclusiveness, innovation-driven growth, connectivity and win-win cooperation.

"We need to practice true multilateralism, stick to dialogue rather than confrontation, inclusiveness rather than exclusion, and integration rather than decoupling," he said.

Home to around 3 billion people, APEC's member economies make up about half of the global trade and 60 percent of the world's total GDP.

The Chinese president also expressed hope to see the early realization of a high-standard Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).

Innovation-driven development

In the meeting, President Xi proposed taking advantage of the "digital economy" as the region's new growth engine.



A 5G-based remote-control robot on display during the 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, E China, August 29, 2019. /Xinhua

"We need to further develop the digital infrastructure, speed up digital transformation, strive to bridge the digital divide, and promote development of the digital economy in an all-round way," he said.

The meeting was held during the challenging resurgence of COVID-19 due to an outbreak of the Delta variant. The COVID-19 has so far caused around 250 million cases and over five million deaths around the globe, data from the World Health Organization revealed. As lockdowns gradually became the new normal, businesses and consumers turned their eyes to online goods and services, thus accelerating the rise of e-commerce.

China, the fastest-growing digital economy last year, saw a scale nearing $5.4 trillion in 2020, according to a white paper on the global digital economy unveiled by the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology in August.

"China has put forward the initiative of Enhancing Implementation of APEC Connectivity Blueprint (2015-2025) in the Digital Era," Xi said at the meeting. "We support stronger international cooperation on the digital economy, and have applied to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA)."

Economic rebound from COVID-19

"To defeat the pandemic and restore growth at an early date is a first-order priority for APEC economies at the moment," the Chinese president pointed out, urging for a "science-based approach."

While economic activities in the Asia-Pacific region have slowly rebounded and vaccination rates continue rising, the recovery from COVID-19 in different countries, regions, sectors and groups remains uneven.

Xi stressed the importance of the fair distribution of vaccines, adding China's continuous commitment to assisting in the well-being of people in developing countries.

"China has announced that it will provide a total of two billion doses of vaccines to the world in the course of this year, and has so far provided over 1.7 billion doses, including donations to more than 110 countries," he elaborated.

President Xi also noted the significance of sustainable development, hoping to seek a "harmonious coexistence between man and nature."


US President Joe Biden delivers remarks after late-night passage of a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to repair the nation's airports, roads and bridges, at the White House in Washington, DC, Nov 6, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

Since taking office, US President Joe Biden, though previously claiming he disagreed with his predecessor's approach to China, has actually stayed in lockstep with Donald Trump in this regard.

He has kept in place Trump's $250 billion in tariffs on Chinese exports, even though that means higher costs for US businesses and consumers. He has continued with the technology war targeting Chinese high-tech companies and adopted no softer stance on issues ranging from Taiwan to the South China Sea.

And on Tuesday, Biden showed that he is happy to continue with his predecessor's approach, saying that the United States will continue a Trump-era ban on US investments in Chinese companies that Washington claims are owned or controlled by the Chinese military.

"The PRC is increasingly exploiting United States capital to resource and to enable the development and modernization of its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses, which continues to allow the PRC to directly threaten the United States homeland and United States forces overseas," he said, while announcing he had extended the restrictions laid out in his predecessor's executive order of November 2020, part of Trump's war against Chinese tech leaders such as Huawei.

To suggest the development and modernization of the People's Liberation Army is dependent on foreign capital is absurd enough. But to infer from that the US  which spends more on national defense than China, India, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and almost all other major countries combined  is being threatened militarily is near fantasy.

And Washington is at its whimsical best in deciding which companies are linked to the PLA and thus to be punished, no matter how far-fetched is the justification. This inevitably harms the legitimate interests of innocent Chinese companies and foreign investors.

One reason Biden has chosen to continue with the tough-on-China policy is because of the political climate in the US. He doesn't want to appear weak, especially with Trump criticizing him for showing "weakness" toward the country.

But a strong leader is not so easily swayed by brickbats, especially on issues that have a direct bearing on national interests. The top leaders of China and the US have already discussed the responsibility of both nations to ensure "competition does not veer into conflict". It should be evident that a change of approach is required to responsibly manage their ties.

Washington should work with Beijing to arrest the downward spiral in bilateral relations, rather than continuing to propel it downward.


Migrants sit on the ground as they gather near Poland - Belarus border in Grodno District, Belarus, in this still image taken from a social media video on Nov 9, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

Minsk denies West's claim of directing flows as Berlin calls on EU to do more

WARSAWEU and NATO member Poland on Monday said it had repelled an attempt by hundreds of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, to "illegally cross" the border from Belarus. Thousands more were on the way, said a government spokesman who suggested that some might come with weapons.

The latest grim chapter of Europe's migrant crisis saw the United States call on Minsk to stop what it described as an orchestrated influx of migrants, while the European Union called for fresh sanctions against Belarus.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has denied the accusations leveled against his government by the West.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry called the allegations "unfounded and unsubstantiated" and accused Poland of "deliberately" escalating tensions.

Belarus border official Anton Bychkovsky told the country's BelTA news agency on Monday: "All these people, including women and children, do not pose a threat to security and do not behave aggressively.

"According to the refugees, they gathered together in such a large group to prevent their forced expulsion by Poland, as well as to draw the attention of the international community to nonobservance of human rights by Poland."

Polish police posted a video on Tuesday showing a group of migrants who had camped overnight just on the far side of Poland's eastern border in Belarus. Polish riot police and coils of razor wire faced the migrants and police said the situation overnight was calm.

Germany on Tuesday urged the EU to "take action" and help stem the flow of migrants illegally crossing into Poland from Belarus.

"Poland or Germany can't handle this alone," caretaker Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told the Bild daily.

As Poland's western neighbor, Germany has seen a steep rise in migrants entering from Belarus via Poland. In October alone, the number stood at nearly 5,000, according to German authorities. Berlin has responded by stepping up border controls and deploying extra police officers.

In a statement later on Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on member states to impose new sanctions against Belarus.

NATO also condemned Minsk, with the military alliance accusing the government there of using the migrants as political pawns.

Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller told reporters that at least 3,000 migrants were near the Polish border.

"We expect that there may be an escalation of this type of action on the Polish border in the near future, which will be of an armed nature," he said.

Poland has sent thousands of soldiers to the border area, enforced a state of emergency in the region complete with a media blackout, built a razor-wire fence and approved the construction of a wall.

At least 10 migrants have died in the region, seven of them on the Polish side of the border, according to the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

"We're prepared for any scenario," Poland's Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski tweeted on Monday, adding that Warsaw had increased the numbers of police and soldiers in the area.

Russian facilities

In another development, an agreement on the deployment of two Russian military facilities on the territory of Belarus has been extended for 25 years.

Interfax reported that the Russian military facilitiesthe Russian Navy communications center Vileika and the radar station Volgahave been deployed in Belarus since 1995. Volga is part of the Russian missile warning system, and it covers the territory of Western Europe and the patrol areas of NATO submarines in the North Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea. The communications center Vileika provides long-wave communications in the Atlantic, Indian and partly Pacific oceans.

Russia and Belarus have a single regional air defense system. In October, the head of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugaev, said Moscow is ready to supply Minsk with the S-400 defense systems.
Age discrimination at work will be made illegal from late next year at the earliest. Employers will be prohibited from setting age limits or discriminating against recruits or workers based on their age.

From 2010, employers will also be prohibited from discriminating against employees because of age in all employment areas, including wages, benefits, training and education, transfers and promotions, retirement, and dismissal.

Employers will face fines of up to W30 million if they fail to implement correctional measures after violating the rules (US$1=W930).

A Cabinet meeting discussed the issue on Tuesday and passed a revision of the employees' bill that bans ageism and promotes hiring of people of advanced age.

Under the revised law, workers who have experienced unfair treatment because of their age can file complaints with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. Based upon advice from the human rights commission, the labor ministry will be able to order employers to halt the age discrimination.
China on Thursday held a subdued version of its annual "Single's Day" shopping spree, shorn of the usual boasting on sales volume as the country's chastened e-commerce sector reels under a government crackdown on platforms like Alibaba.

The world's biggest shopping festival has for years been accompanied by aggressive promotions and breathless hourly updates by Alibaba starting at midnight and detailing ever-rising sales figures that dwarf the annual GDP of many nations.

But there were no rolling tallies or triumphant comments by executives from major platforms as of Thursday morning, and state media have described a quieter event this year in the wake of Beijing's campaign to rein in Big Tech.

 11-Day Shopping Event

"Single's Day," so-called for its 11.11 date, began more than a decade ago and for years was a one-day, 24-hour event. But Alibaba and its rivals have expanded that out to an 11-day promotion culminating on Nov. 11, while some retailers and platforms have started offering discounts, special offers and pre-sales as early as October.

Thanks to the Chinese consumer's predilection for smartphone-enabled bargain-hunting, Single's Day now dwarfs the pre-Christmas "Black Friday" promotion in the United States. Platforms operated by Alibaba and its closest competitor JD.com reported combined sales of $115 billion during last year's promotion.

The festival has gradually become a closely watched gauge of consumer sentiment in the world's second-largest economy, but it was unclear on Thursday when any sales figures might be released.


Ageism is worsening around the globe, and the social and economic costs are particularly steep for Korea as its population is getting older.

The World Health Organization in a report in March called for urgent action to deal with ageism described as "an insidious scourge on society." The global body said ageism "leads to poorer health, social isolation, earlier deaths and cost economies billions."

The economic cost of ageism is a particular challenge for Korea, because its population of senior citizens is expected to surpass 10 million or 20 percent of the population by 2025.

Age-related bias often judges the elderly solely on their contribution to productivity, pitting generations against each other and underestimating the ability of senior citizens to contribute to society.

According to a study by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in 2017, 21 percent of senior citizens said they encountered prejudice due to their age. Nearly all elderly people feel that laws against age discrimination are needed, according to another survey by the NHRC last year.

Earlier this week, a coalition of activists protested in front of the National Assembly demanding that a pending anti-discrimination bill be finally passed within this year's parliamentary session.

The latest bill, which was introduced in June, bans direct and indirect discrimination based on gender, disability, medical history, age, origin, ethnicity, race, skin color, physical condition, marital status, sexual orientation and gender identity. Similar bills have regularly foundered on opposition from conservative and religious groups and never made it to the final stage, but sentiment appears to be changing.

Age discrimination is pervasive in many walks of life. One example is building security, which is often a lifeline for elderly men. A look at postings on job portal Saramin found that many recruiters do not even consider applicants over 50. One apartment complex in Mapo, Seoul that recently recruited new security guards set the age limit at 45. When contacted, the management agency said residents prefer younger security guards.


Korea and Singapore will recognize each other's vaccine passports as they open to mutual travel again next Monday, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Thursday.

Korean travelers will need a vaccine certificate issued by the KDCA or a digital certificate from its mobile app COOV.

This is the first time Korea recognizes a vaccine certificate submitted by foreigners, and the first time the COOV app is recognized overseas.
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.

0108263 License for publishing multimedia online



Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349
READING BROTHERS CRAIG AND MATT TAYLOR (above) stand behind the bar inside their custom trailer turned Irish bar. The pair are renting out the pub for private events.
Woburn, MA (01801)

Today

Light rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Low 49F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Light rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Low 49F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Volodymyr Zhukovskyy arrives for his pretrial hearing at the Coos County Superior Court, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021, in Lancaster, N.H. Zhukovskyy, 25, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, is scheduled to face trial on Nov. 29 on multiple counts of negligent homicide, manslaughter, driving under the influence and reckless conduct stemming from the crash that killed seven motorcyclists that happened in Randolph on June 21, 2019. He pleaded not guilty. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, Pool)
The truth is the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT; formally the UN Small Arms Treaty) has failed to materialize because the negotiators have not been capable of reaching a consensus, but as Gun Owners of America (GOA) stated years ago, It would be a mistake to believe that it spells the end of the effort to regulate small arms worldwide.

GOA is correct. The Seventh Conference of the ATT will again reconvene August 30-September 3, 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland. Obama administration Secretary of State John Kerry signed the treaty for the U.S. in 2013. But then, Obamas 'gun control' agenda floundered in his second term, when in 2014 the Republicans gained 13 new U.S. House seats and regained the majority in the U.S. Senate.

President Trump was elected in 2016 and speaking at the National Rifle Association meeting on April 26, 2019, informed NRA members that he would un-sign the treaty. President Trump kept this promise and on July 18, 2019, notified the UN that the U.S. had terminated its legal obligations to the Treaty.

In short, for years the UN has been trying to formalize a global, civilian disarmament measure with this Arms Trade Treaty and circumventing the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The UN has trampled on and dictated national policy to other sovereign nations in environmental, criminal, and even global tax issues  so why not, the globalist elite ask themselves, try again and enforce universal 'gun control' and include America? The fact of the matter is that the struggle to preserve the right to civilian gun ownership worldwide, including in the U.S., is an ongoing effort, and elitist, globalist organizations are bent on disarming and controlling citizens so as to make their one-world-government dream (and our nightmare) a living reality.

Since the Democrats in 2021 are still pushing for ratification of the Treaty and 'gun control' remains on their agenda, Biden will likely re-sign this authoritarian UN Treaty in the next few months. .....
Attorney General Todd Rokita seems to be taking another shot at achieving national notoriety by mixing the hot-button issues of race and education.

Earlier this week, the Hoosier Republican issued an official opinion declaring Black Lives Matter (BLM) to be a "political organization," contrary to a July 2020 memo by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel under Republican President Donald Trump that concluded BLM primarily was engaged in issue advocacy and not focused on electing candidates to office.

The distinction matters because Rokita claims Indiana schools are forbidden from displaying posters, signs and similar items associated with political organizations, and teachers cannot use materials or curriculum provided by political organizations in their lessons  unless schools permit all political organizations to supply materials and lessons to their students.

As a result, Rokita said school districts have the authority to bar "BLM materials, lessons or indoctrinations" from their classrooms, hallways, and facilities generally. And Rokita is, in fact, encouraging school district leaders to "ensure classrooms remain politically neutral," as he's confident many already are.

"The Indiana Office of the Attorney General understands most Indiana teachers are educators because they maintain a passion for teaching children and do not wish to use classroom time as an indoctrination tool to push their political, religious, or other social views on the youth in their care," Rokita said.

Rokita so far has not established a school poster police and did not specify what may happen if teachers and school districts ignore his official opinion, which has no force of law but may be taken into consideration by an Indiana court if an on-point legal issue arises.

He also did not target his official opinion to Hoosier parents as he did in July when Rokita spontaneously issued a 16-page "Parents Bill of Rights" that purports to detail the legal rights of Indiana parents to participate in their child's education.

Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute

Rokita alleged in that document that critical race theory (CRT) is "consistently being backdoored into Indiana classrooms, contrary to state and federal law," and he urged Hoosier parents to confront school board members whenever they believe "Marxist ideologies" that seek to "abolish individual rights and redistribute wealth" are being taught in schools.

In both cases, Rokita issued his race and education pronouncements initially to national conservative media outlets before sharing them with Indiana news publications. Rokita also subsequently touted his Parents Bill of Rights on multiple conservative television networks.

He followed a similar pattern in August when Rokita launched an "investigation" into possible Chinese Communist infiltration of Valparaiso University that resulted in Valpo shutting its Confucius Institute cultural exchange and Chinese language programs.

In addition, Rokita claims to still be investigating whether nine, mostly black, civil rights leaders conspired with Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg during a November 2019 dinner to censor conservative viewpoints online ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
AUBURN  The Auburn Police Department has employed technology to enforce the citys two-hour parking ordinance.

Since Oct. 14, police have used CitePro to document vehicle parking.

It was apparent once I got here that parking is an issue in this town, Police Chief Doug Harp said. We stumbled across this one day. We set up an webinar to take a look at it, and then we ended up taking a trip to Huntington because they have this same system.

Harp, Capt. Cory Heffelfinger and Mayor Mike Ley met with Huntington officials to see the technology in use.

At the time, Auburn didnt have a parking enforcement officer. Once CitePro was in place, local resident Don Thacker was hired for that role.

We wanted to have something in place this year because the festivals were starting to come back, Harp explained. We knew things were getting more active, so we wanted to have something in place.

We wanted a permanent person to handle parking, and we feel very fortunate to have found Don, who is a local resident and has some background in law enforcement, the chief said. You have to have the right person, somebody who knows how to deal with people. People arent happy when they get a fine obviously.

I used to be a beer salesman, so I know how to talk to people, Thacker quipped. ... Its the perfect job for an old man whos retired.

Thacker was town marshal in Corunna in the mid-1980s. His father was a deputy sheriff in Kentucky.

He makes his first pass through the downtown area each morning, entering information for all vehicles in areas marked for two-hour parking. He returns in the early afternoon for another check.

On this particular day, Thacker has entered 74 vehicles into the hand-held CitePro device. Information is entered street by street, noting which side of the street a vehicle is parked.

He takes a photo of a vehicles license plate and enters vehicle description, location, time and the position of the valve stem on one of the tires. The valve stem positions are identified like hands of a clock.

It gives me everywhere Ive stopped at and what vehicles, Thacker explained. In the 100 block of South Cedar Street, there were five parked vehicles. None were in violation of the two-hour parking limit, so no tickets were issued.

The majority of the people are catching on now. Theyre moving their vehicles, he said. Youll have some that dont care.

Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute

When he encounters a previously-entered vehicle that has been moved  according to the valve stem position  Thacker notes it in CitePro as being in compliance.

If a vehicle has not moved, he enters that information, and the device prints out a violation ticket that Thacker places on the windshield. That ticket includes the information he previously entered, as well as the times of Thackers checks.

When I go back out, itll tell me if youve been there two hours, three hours, whatever, he explained. Then, I start running the ticket. It makes it a lot faster than going around with a chalk stick.

Its a very cool piece of equipment, Harp said. In this day and age, we try to use technology that makes sense, saves us work and streamlines things.

Historically, law enforcement and parking enforcement agencies around the country physically marked vehicle tires using chalk.

In 2019, a three-judge panel in a federal appeals court ruled that chalking tires without a warrant constituted a violation of an individuals Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure.

Prior to CitePro, it was all done chalking tires, Harp said. For a time after that ruling, instead of marking tires, police would chalk the concrete around a vehicle tire. When he goes out now, hes looking at the position of the valve stem.

As with any new technology, there are learning curves, glitches and errors.

Ive had it happen about three or four times on me, Thacker said.

You may have a vehicle that moves and comes back to the same location an hour later, Harp added. The valve stems not going to be in the same exact location.

Youre not touching the vehicle, Thacker said. You print out the ticket right on this and leave the ticket on the windshield, and youre pretty much done. Ink on the tickets will not run off in wet conditions, they noted.

A parking violation ticket in Auburn carries a $10 fine. If that ticket is not paid, the fine goes up to $30.

Its a city ordinance, Thacker said. People will get mad at you. Theyll scream at you and call you names. Ive been hollered at about four times already.  Its not fun.

I dont want to write anyone a ticket, but an ordinance is a law. Youve got to obey the law, he said. Plain and simple, thats just the way it is.
Press Release

November 12, 2021 13 million activities in a year, 43,333 per day and 1,805 activities per hour? Drilon finds unbelievable PNP utilization of NTF-ELCAC funds

'Has PNP become a 'super body' or 'superman'? It's a mystery to me how they were able to do it,' Drilon says Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon urged newly-appointed chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Lt. Gen. Dionardo Carlos, to review the PNP's use of its anti-insurgency funds following allegations of misuse. Drilon challenged the incoming PNP chief as he found it unbelievable and suspicious that the PNP conducted about 13 million different activities in less than a year, averaging to about 43,333 activities in a day, using its over P1 billion allocation from the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or NTF-ELCAC. "That's 1,805 activities per hour! Has PNP become a 'super body' or 'superman'? It is a mystery to me how they were able to do it," Drilon said in a statement Friday. During the Senate's deliberation on the budget of the PNP Thursday, Drilon questioned the utilization of the NTF-ELCAC funds. The Commission on Audit had previously called out several government agencies for irregularities in the use of NTF-ELCAC funds, he also cited. The PNP has P1.084 billion in 2021 for anti-insurgency programs and it is seeking the same amount for next year. Out of the P1.084 billion, P766.2 million has been obligated. But when the minority leader asked for the specific programs, Senator Sonny Angara said, citing PNP data, the police force has spent P766 million since the start of the year for the conduct of about 13 million different anti-communism activities by its 12 clusters. Drilon said it is hard to believe that 13 million activities could be done by a single agency in a matter of less than a year. "Dalawampu't apat na taon na po ako sa Senado, ngayon ko lang narinig ang report na mayroong ginastusan na 13 million activities in a span of one year or less than one year," Drilon said. "We computed that, and it turns out that for the past 10 months, assuming 13 million activities, that would be 43,333 activities per day, which on its surface is immediately difficult to believe," Drilon said in disbelief. "Now no wonder the COA has flagged the way the budget is being disbursed," he added. Drilon said the COA "Audit of the budget and utilization of NTF-ELCAC funds revealed several deficiencies." For instance, the COA found other deficiencies in DILG's funds for NTF-ELCAC worth P1.23 million, including expenses in projects that were not aligned with the original setup. It also flagged P1.06 million worth of payables with incomplete documents, Drilon cited. The COA had also noted that DILG's unliquidated funds were 73% more than the initial allocation to NTF-ELCAC's activities and the modifications in the budget were not supported by proper documentation. Aside from the COA report on the NTF-ELCAC funds, Drilon also recalled a recent deliberation on the NTF-ELCAC funds, specifically about a P400 million of the P460 NTF-ELCAC funds allocated to Davao del Norte were given to Panabo City alone but the local officials in the province were claiming there was no insurgency in the city. The Senate chief fiscalizer asked the Senate Committee on Finance to take a closer look at the utilization of NTF-ELCAC funds not only in the PNP but in other agencies. "May we request that this allocation be examined closely, and we will accept the explanation of the good sponsor," he added. "I would strongly suggest for the committee to take a look at this carefully. This is not small money. It is bigger than many of the budgets presented here." "This NTF-ELCAC sticks like a store thumb. We find it everywhere," he added.
Lacson Questions 'Harassment' of Supporters Wearing Face Masks in Manila

More at: https://pinglacson.net/article/lacson-questions-harassment-of-supporters-wearing-face-masks-in-manila

Sen. Panfilo "Ping" M. Lacson questioned on Thursday the seeming harassment of his and Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III's supporters by policemen in the City of Manila.

Lacson cited information that Manila Police District personnel told tricycle drivers and residents wearing Lacson-Sotto face masks to take them off or reverse them.

"Bakit pinapatanggal sa Manila ang face masks? The members of the Manila Police District are harassing tricycle drivers and people wearing giveaway face masks. May mali ba roon (Why are members of the Manila Police District having residents remove our giveaway face masks? They are harassing tricycle drivers and people wearing these masks. What's wrong with that)?" he said.

"I know the directive did not come from Crame. Walang directive. Bakit sa Manila lang (I know the directive did not come from Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame. Why is it being done in Manila only)?" he added.

Lacson - who headed the PNP from 1999 to 2001 - is running for President under Partido Reporma while Sotto is running for Vice President under the Nationalist People's Coalition.

For his part, Sotto said they will give copies of news reports of the harassment to the PNP Chief and DILG Secretary.

Senate finance committee chairman Juan Edgardo Angara added the PNP "will check on that."

"Sariling katawan ng tao yan. When you put up streamers on private property it's not a violation. What more if a person is wearing a face mask? (What people do with their bodies is their right. When you put up streamers on your private property, that's not a violation. What more if a person is wearing a face mask)?" Lacson said.
Press Release

November 12, 2021 Lacson Paves Way for a More Participative Budget Process More at: https://pinglacson.net/article/lacson-paves-way-for-a-more-participative-budget-process With a boost from Sen. Panfilo "Ping" M. Lacson, civil society groups managed to help scrutinize and make the P5.024-trillion proposed budget for 2022 more responsive to people's needs. Social Watch Philippines and the Alternative Budget Initiative wrote Lacson on Nov. 10, thanking him for endorsing their participation in the Senate Finance Committee hearings on the budget. "We hope that you will continue to support our inclusive budget proposals that focus on the needs of the country's most marginalized sectors, especially since they are the ones that were most affected by the pandemic, by sponsoring before the plenary deliberations and incorporating into the good Senator's budgetary amendments to the FY 2022 General Appropriations Bill," co-convenors Rene Raya, Ma. VIctoria Raquiza and Jessica Cantos said in a letter to Lacson. They also commended Lacson for all his efforts in serving the country, as well as for believing in what Social Watch Philippines-Alternative Budget Initiative stands for. Earlier, Lacson endorsed the SWP-ABI's participation in the committee hearings of the Senate finance committee chaired by Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, on the budget bill. Lacson also supported their "Budget Serye sa Senado" discussion on the budget, where he delivered the message that the pandemic underscores the need for an inclusive national budget. In 2019, Lacson filed Senate Bill 24, the "People's Participation in the National Budget Process Act of 2019," that provides privileges and incentives for accredited groups that take part in the budgeting process. This aims to keep greedy parties from inserting "pork" and other inappropriate items into the national budget - as well as institutionalize the collaboration of legislature and civil society "to achieve a people-oriented budget as well as establish transparency and accountability in the budget process."
Press Release

November 12, 2021 Lacson Pushes Masteral Courses for Community Planners to Empower LGUs More at: https://pinglacson.net/article/lacson-pushes-masteral-courses-for-community-planners-to-empower-lgus Sen. Panfilo "Ping" M. Lacson on Thursday pushed for masteral courses for community planners in the country's 1,488 municipalities so they can maximize the increased revenues from the implementation of the Supreme Court's Mandanas-Garcia ruling starting next year. Lacson said this could be a "worthwhile investment" where local government units sign a memorandum of agreement with the Development Academy of the Philippines to develop the skills of the community planners. "Maybe the 1,488 municipalities can benefit from that. If the Local Development Academy has no wherewithal to provide masteral courses, maybe we can sign a MOA with the DAP so we can develop the skills of our community planners to enroll in their degrees and go back to the municipalities under a contract to serve for a certain number of years," he said at the Senate's deliberation of the 2022 budget of the Department of Interior and Local Government. "That's what we did in the Yolanda corridor. They are back and continue to do their duties there. Just food for thought that it can be done. That's a worthwhile investment," he added. He said the community planners need to develop their absorptive capacity so LGUs can fully use the added resources from the Mandanas-Garcia ruling - whose implementation starts in 2022 and is to be completed in 2024 - to implement their local development projects. Lacson is a champion of empowering the LGUs through his Budget Reform Advocacy for Village Empowerment (BRAVE), where resources are downloaded to the LGUs for implementing local development projects, as the LGUs are in the best position to know the needs and priorities of their constituents. Recalling his experience as Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery in coordinating efforts to help those affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), Lacson said the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provided P150,000 per scholar who were enrolled them in the DAP. The scholars took up the course of Master in Public Management, Major in Local Governance and Development. "And they graduated, 161 of them from 171 cities and municipalities devastated by Yolanda. They are now performing very well making use of their masteral degrees," he said.
Worlds leading textile companies are migrating from traditional Asian manufacturers for closer markets including Morocco also exhibiting favorable conditions, reports say.

Several brands from the European Union, UK and the U.S have been establishing deals with Moroccan companies in the textile industry to outsource them as they away from their Asian partners.

Spanish brand Mango and group Inditex as well as French group Camaieu, have already established connection with Morocco local producers, local media Media24 notes.

Logistical costs, the downturn caused by the pandemic and the increase of salaries in China, Mohammed Boubouh President of the Moroccan Association of textile and clothing industries (AMITH) told Media24, can induce the western textile giants look for more favorable partners.

AMITH former President Karim Tazi confirmed the trend and called on the Morocco private and public sectors to seize the opportunity.

The recovery is undeniable, we feel it. Northern European players, such as the British, are arriving in droves to learn about the Moroccan offer and capabilities. Distributors who used to buy exclusively in Asia are now shopping in Morocco, he also told Media24.

There is a great demand today. It must be accompanied by a willingness on the part of the private sector and public authorities to take advantage of this momentum. This is a unique opportunity. We have not known in Morocco, since the 1980s, an opportunity as important to become a major textile player, he added.

With the trend, the kingdom of Morocco is set to become a major stakeholder in the global textile industry but several hurdles are still standing in the way. For Boubouh there is a need to provide credit insurance for the Moroccan producers to ease the export process.

Tazi on the other hand Moroccan textile companies which are largely specialized in packaging should step up and become producers of finished products.

He suggested the creation of textile aggregators in the kingdom as they constitute the connecting between subcontracted producers and the distributors.

These aggregators have a know-how that traditional manufacturers do not have, he stressed adding that the Moroccan manufacturers lack several expertise including creativity, marketing, logistics, technical development.

The kingdom though attractive, is facing daunting competition from the Turkey is also a favorite outsourcing market for the global textile leaders.

When a Turkish manufacturer buys a Chinese fabric, it exports to Morocco with zero customs duty. While the same Chinese fabric, when purchased by a Moroccan industrialist, makes him pay 12.5% of customs duties. We are taxed not only at the purchase, but also at the sale on the value added, Boubouh explains while highlighting the steady devaluation of the Turkish Lira  favorable factor for export.

Tazi on the other hand argues that Turkeys superiority on Morocco also lies in the commitment to decarbonize their products and establish environment-friendly textile companies.
Egypt has been selected to host the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2022, the countrys environment ministry said on Thursday.

The conference expected to take place from November 1st, will happen in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Egypt received the support of African countries to its choice. Rotational conference is expected to happen in Africa next year.

In a pre-recorded speech played in the World Leaders Summit on Climate Change on the sidelines of the 76th United Nations General Assembly, President al-Sisi said if Egypt hosts the COP 27 in 2022, it would be a major turning point in the global fight against climate change.

He also called on developed countries to fulfill their pledge to provide $100 billion annually to developing countries to address the effects of climate change. UAE will play host for the COP28 in 2023.
King Salman has approved the countrys plans to grant citizenship to foreign nationals with specialized skills in a number of professions in line with vision 2030.

The areas where skillful nationals needed include the legal, medical, scientific, cultural, sport and technical fields.

The move, Arab News reports, comes in line with Vision 2030, which aims to create an attractive top-level business environment for professionals. The kingdom already back in 2019, announced that it was planning to open the door to naturalization for distinguished scientific, innovators and cultural professionals who meet the required criteria.

The plan aimed to allow experts and investors to establish deeper roots in the Kingdom, the Saudi media notes.

Saudi Arabia aims to attract scientists, intellectuals and innovators from around the world to enable the Kingdom to become a diverse hub that the Arab world will be proud of, Saudi Project, a government platform, said on Twitter at the time. The move to grant citizenship to foreign nationals is also related to the diversification of the Kingdoms economy, driving development and social reform plans by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Arab News reports.
According to information published by Defense Studies on November 12, 2021, a team of defense and navy officers from the Philippines was in South Korea last week for a joint visual inspection of an anti-submarine warship, Pohang-class corvette Andong.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

Philippines' team visiting Pohang-class corvette ROKS Andong (Picture source: Twitter account of Max Montero)

ROKS Andong (PCC-771) was a Pohang-class corvette of the Republic of Korea Navy.

Andong was launched on 30 April 1987 by Hanjin Heavy Industries in Busan. The vessel was commissioned on 7 November 1988 and decommissioned on 31 December 2020.

The Pohang-class corvette is a class of general-purpose corvettes operated by the Republic of Korea Navy. They have served in a coastal defense role during the late Cold War and post Cold War period. A total of 24 Pohang-class vessels were built, all constructed in South Korea. 10 vessels remain in service in the ROKN as of 2020.

The Pohang-class corvette has been designed to conduct coastal patrol and is equipped with combat weapon systems to perform anti-submarine, anti-ship, and anti-aircraft warfare operations. The ship has an empty displacement of 950 tons, a length of 88.3 m, a beam of 10 m, and a draft of 2.9m. She has a crew of 95 people including 10 officers.
According to information published by the Royal Navy on November 10, 2021, as part of a 3 month-long deployment, UK Royal Navy patrol ship HMS Trent has arrived in Accra.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

River-class offshore patrol vessel HMS Trent (Picture source: Twitter account of Jakepor21)

Built-in Scotland, the ship has sailed from the UK to the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, visiting Ghana as well as Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia and Cape Verde for security patrols and a mission to support the UKs allies in West Africa.

Royal Marines from 42 Commando are on board. This specialist unit will train military personnel from partner countries including Ghana. 42 Commando are experts in boarding operations, helping to end illegal maritime activity like piracy, drugs-smuggling and terrorism.

The training they will deliver to Ghanas Armed Forces will include boarding and searching of suspicious vessels, as well as evidence handling and medical skills.

HMS Trent is one of 5 Royal Navy patrol ships currently operating around the world in areas of critical importance to the UK  from the Indo-Pacific, South Atlantic to the Mediterranean and Caribbean.

HMS Trent is a Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessel, named after the River Trent. This is the sixth Royal Navy ship named Trent. She is the third Batch 2 River-class vessel to be commissioned and is forward-deployed to Gibraltar.

The HMS Trent is armed with one 30 mm DS30B gun, a ship-protection system made by MSI-Defence Systems consisting of a 30mm Mark 44 Bushmaster II cannon on an automated mount, two General purpose 7.62mm machine guns, and two Miniguns.

The River class is a class of offshore patrol vessels built primarily for the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. A total of nine were built for the Royal Navy (RN), four Batch 1 and five Batch 2.
Decrease Font Size Font Size Increase Font Size

Article body

The legacy of Harold A. Franklin, Auburn Universitys first African American student, will live on forever through a specially designed desegregation marker expanse that was unveiled on campus at a celebration ceremony on Thursday.

The area near the markerlocated adjacent to the Ralph Brown Draughon Library where he first registered for classes along a path that leads to the universitys iconic Samford Hallcommemorates Franklins courageous efforts to desegregate the land-grant institution and has been expanded with hardscaping and landscaping enhancements, including a new bronze plaque and circular, brick courtyard. Franklin, who passed away on Sept. 9 at the age of 88, integrated Auburn as the universitys first Black student on Jan. 4, 1964, coming to the Plains as a Graduate School enrollee.

Theres nothing more we can say as a family except thank you for all youve done, Harold Franklin Jr. said. So, Id like to thank all of you not from the bottom of my heart, but from my entire heart.

The elder Franklin went on to a successful 27-year career as an educator in higher education after leaving Auburn in 1965, earning a masters degree in international studies from the University of Denver and teaching history at Alabama State University, North Carolina A&T State University, Tuskegee Institute and Talladega College before retiring in 1992. Franklin initially was not allowed to defend his thesis in the Department of History at Auburn, a wrong that was righted on Feb. 19, 2020. He then participated in commencement exercises on Dec. 12.

It is an honor to recognize Dr. Franklin with this courtyard, as he was a pioneer who paved the way for other African American students to attend Auburn University, Auburn President Jay Gogue said. Auburn is a better institution because of Dr. Franklins bravery 57 years ago, and his spirit of internal fortitude will continue to inspire us.

In 2001, Auburn honored Franklin as its first Black student by awarding him an honorary Doctor of Arts. The Auburn Alumni Associations Black Alumni Council recently named a scholarship in honor of Franklin, whose legacy also was honored in 2008 when Auburn students created The Harold A. Franklin Society.

This occasion is about honoring a proud man who never asked for anything but opportunity, said Kenneth Kelly, a 1990 Auburn alumnus and chairman and CEO of First Independence Bank of Detroit. Dr. Harold Franklin, who had served in Korea, was mature enough to know that his actions were going to benefit others more than it would benefit himself. Can you imagine the fortitude of a married man at 31 years old risking so much?

Today we enshrine a leader in our nest and honor him and his legacy, a legacy that will be part of every official tour of Auburn. The name Dr. Harold Alonza Franklin will be part of Auburn forever.

Born Harold Alonza Franklin on Nov. 2, 1932, in Talladega, Alabama, he was one of 10 children to George Franklin Sr. and Henrietta Eugenia Williams Franklin. His father worked at the Alabama School for the Deaf and Blind, while his mother taught and played piano in church.

During his senior year of high school, the United States was embroiled in the Korean War, and Franklin left school to join the U.S. Air Force. After graduating from Alabama State College in 1962, he thought about attending law school before Fred Graythe famous civil rights attorney who represented Martin Luther King Jr.encouraged him to study history at Auburn.

It is such an honor to be here and recognize yet another major milestone in the forward progress of Auburn, a tribute to such a courageous trailblazerthe firstwhose steps forward set it all in motion 57 years ago, Auburn Board of Trustees member Elizabeth Huntley said. It is especially fitting that we honor him today, on Veterans Day, as a member of the armed forces. We, as the Auburn Family, owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the late Harold Franklin, whose steadfast resolve as Auburns first African American student opened the door for generations to come.

I only wish Dr. Franklin could be with us today, but as we imagine his first footsteps on this campus near this very sitewhere he registered in our library for classes in 1964we know the path he paved continues to guide our way forever onward.

Franklin went on to marry Lilla Mae Sherman, and they had one son, Harold Franklin Jr. She preceded him in death. After he retired from teaching, Franklin worked as the manager of a funeral home in Sylacauga.

While on campus to defend his masters thesis inside Thach Halls Bond Memorial Library in 2020, Franklin also met with members of Auburns Black Student Union, or BSU, as part of Black History Month celebrations.

He was unable to participate in May 2020 commencement ceremonies after the university postponed them due to the COVID-19 pandemic but received his diploma by mail in June. He returned to Auburn in December for commencement and participated in a hooding ceremony for Auburns first female African American doctoral graduate in the Department of History, Shari L. Williams.

The new bronze plaque includes Harold A. Franklin and 1964 etchings to commemorate his achievements. The plaque states, in part, Dr. Franklins bold journey is the epitome of a spirit that is not afraid. His story continues to move our hearts, stimulate our minds and inspire our lives. The same spirit dwells within, reminding us that truth will always prevail.
Welcome Guest! You Are Here:
12th November 2021

Press Release by

National Fishworkers Forum  India (NFF) &

Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD)

Condemn the firing on fishworkers by Pakistans maritime security agency that resulted in the death of Shridhar Ramesh Chamre 

Put an end to the violence inflicted on fishworkers by armed forces

On Saturday, the 6th November 2021, around 4 pm off the coast of Gujarat, Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) troops converged on two Indian fishing boats. The Pakistan government statement claim they were in Pakistans territorial waters, while the fishworkers have negated that claim. One of which has been taken into custody by PMSA and the other which was trying to turn away, was fired upon. The second boat- Jalpari managed to return to the Indian coast with 6 crew members and the dead body of Shridhar Ramesh Chamre.

The PMSA issued a statement on the 8th of November, denying firing on the boat and using lethal weapons against fishworkers.

Shridhar Chamare was 32 years old. He was shot in the chest multiple times. He had been working as a khalasi (helper) on the boat He is survived by his parents, wife and two daughters aged 6 and 8. The boats tandel (captain) Dilip Solanki aged 34, who hails from Diu, managed to escape with bullet injuries.

NFF and PIPFPD collectively express shock and disbelief at the incident that has resulted in the death of Shridhar. We have consistently demanded a no arrests policy of fishworkers - whose livelihood is based on the sea and have repeatedly warned both the governments against any lethal action including firing. Yet these incidents continue to happen.

Every year hundreds of Indian and Pakistani fishworkers are arrested by the neighbouring countrys naval armed forces. And every year, some of them are released as confidence-building measures by the governments. Once arrested, these fishworkers spend anywhere between 4 months to a few years in jail. Some people have also passed away in the jails of India and Pakistan for want of nationality verification.

This incident, terrible as it is, has brought the spotlight back on the fishworker arrests between the two countries. The mechanisms available for faster release of fishworkers are no longer effective in securing their early release or ensuring that they are not mistreated in the jails. We have repeatedly requested the release of jailed fishermen. On the 7th of August 2021, we organized a press conference in Rajkot, Gujarat demanding the release of fishermen arrested on both sides as part of the 75th year of independence of both countries. As per the United Nations Convention on Law of Seas (UNCLOS), those who encroach upon waters, cannot even be arrested, let alone be fired upon by either security force.

These arrests not only takes away the dignity of their work but also push the families of these fishworkers to the brink of poverty with very little support coming from anywhere. Eventually, the family members have to find daily wage work to support themselves which keeps the circle of desperation led livelihood options guaranteeing oppression through bonded labour for 8 - 9 months of a year if not further arrests.

Many factors are responsible for cross border fishing including the depleting resources in the Arabian sea as well as the increasing industrialization across the coasts of India. Prime minister Narendra Modi had made a public announcement way back in September 2013, at Palghar that once elected, his government will end arrests and killing of fishers. He has done nothing on the issue. This is despite PIPFPD and NFF sending several memorandums and petitions to the Government.

PIPFPD, in 2017 had suggested a practical solution that would suit all parties concerned including the State of Pakistan, State of India, Fishworkers of Pakistan, Fishworkers of India & the marine habitat. It was proposed that both countries agree to become signatories to a Maritime Economic Cooperation Agreement between both countries and a no arrest policy between both countries. This would mean that countries are compensated for the marine resources extracted from their sea while ensuring the sustenance of the said resources. We are proposing that both the countries sit to discuss these ideas at the highest level to ensure that we can find a solution to the issues at the earliest.

Pakistan side has been using non-lethal weapons mostly, as the statement by PMSA rightly state. But that does not mean that the maritime security officers did not fire at the two Indian boats on 6th November 2021. The survivors have given evidential interviews regarding the same.

The jingoistic clamour between the fundamentalist forces on either side of the border has a lasting impact even in the minds of the forces meant to safeguard the fishworkers and the right to their occupation. National Fishworkers Forum along with Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (India and Pakistan Chapter) calls upon the fish workers and concerned people of Pakistan and India to come together and be heard on the issue of maritime border violence & arrests and demand that the Indian and Pakistani Governments act urgently to adopt a solution to this four-decade-old conflict so that not another soul is lost to this mindless violence.

On behalf of,

Narendra Patil (Chairperson, NFF)

Olencio Simoes (General Secretary, NFF)

Vijayan M.J (General Secretary, PIPFPD India)

For more information kindly write to :

pipfpd.india[at]gmail.com &

nff[at]nffindia.org
Hubei Media Group: A report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on November 10 shows that more than seven billion shots of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered around the world by late October, and that Chile and Cambodia have vaccination rates at 79% and 77% respectively higher than many developed countries like the US and those in Europe thanks to Chinese vaccines. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: I have noted relevant reports. In promoting equitable access to vaccines, the world has witnessed the proposals and actions on the Chinese side. President Xi Jinping took the lead in proposing making vaccines a global public good. At the recent G20 summit in Rome, President Xi Jinping solemnly proposed a Global Vaccine Cooperation Action Initiative that includes six important measures.

Despite its own huge population and limited supply, China has provided more than 1.7 billion doses of finished and bulk vaccines to over 110 countries and international organizations, and will provide over two billion doses by the end of this year. China has provided over 70 million doses of vaccines to the COVAX and donated $100 million. It has also launched the Initiative for Belt and Road Partnership on COVID-19 Vaccines Cooperation with 30 countries and conducted joint vaccine production with 19 developing countries. China has provided more COVID-19 vaccines overseas than any other country and the vast majority of jabs for developing countries come from China.

Going forward, China will continue to uphold the vision of a community of health for mankind and provide more vaccines to developing countries through various means including donation, so as to contribute to equitable access to vaccines and an early victory over the epidemic.

Associated Press: There are media reports that China has influenced the Kiribati government to open up to commercial fishing a large marine reserve in its waters, effectively de-registering it as a UNESCO world heritage site and that China could potentially develop strategic infrastructure on Kanton Island. What is your reaction to these two claims being made in Australian and New Zealand media?

Wang Wenbin: China fully respects the will of the government and people in the cooperation with Pacific island countries including Kiribati. Conducted in an open and aboveboard manner, such cooperation is widely welcomed by various sectors in those countries. It is hoped that relevant sides can view this in an objective light and stop unwarranted hype.

Dragon TV: According to reports, Frans Timmermans, executive vice president of the European Commission for the European Green Deal, said during climate negotiation in Glasgow that China acted in a responsible way and played a key role at COP21 in Paris. He noted that China sent a high-level delegation to Glasgow and is on the right track. What is your comment?

Wang Wenbin: China has been taking actions to implement the Paris Agreement, contributing to global climate governance and leading efforts in ecological protection. Since September last year, President Xi Jinping announced China's objective and vision of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality as well as goals of and measures for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which all demonstrate China's firm resolve in responding to climate change. Before the meeting in Glasgow, China announced a "1+N" policy framework for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, released a white paper titled "Responding to Climate Change: China's Policies and Actions" and officially submitted NDCs and strategy for low emissions in the medium and long term. These are all specific measures of China's implementation of the Paris Agreement, and show China's responsibility in and latest contribution to global climate change response.

During the Glasgow conference, the Chinese delegation followed true multilateralism, listened to and supported the appeal of developing countries, stayed in close communication and collaboration with parties including the EU and the US, and worked for consensus among all parties on major subjects and key issues. Yesterday, China and the US reached and released the China-US Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s, which contributed to the success of COP26. The summit in Glasgow is scheduled to conclude today. China looks forward to building the greatest consensus and achieve positive outcomes with all parties, working toward full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and fostering a fair and reasonable global climate governance system for win-win cooperation and building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Reuters: According to reports, President Joe Biden and President Xi will hold a virtual summit on Monday US time. Can you confirm this or offer any more information?

Wang Wenbin: Since the beginning of this year, President Xi Jinping has spoken with President Biden over the phone twice upon invitation. The two heads of state agreed to continue to maintain frequent contact through multiple means. The two countries are having close communication on the specific arrangements of the meeting. It is hoped that the US can work with China toward the same direction and make concerted efforts to make the heads-of-state meeting a success, which will steer the China-US relationship back to the right track of sound and steady development.

Prensa Latina: In recent days, Cuban authorities denounced the US government for fabricating rumors and lies and supporting anti-Cuban forces to encourage subversive activities and destabilization in the country. What's China's position in that regard?

Wang Wenbin: It is the US' old trick to willfully impose unilateral sanctions and grossly interfere in other countries' internal affairs in the name of "freedom", "human rights" and "democracy". China is firmly opposed to this. China firmly supports Cuba's just fight to defend national sovereignty and oppose strong power interference, and we resolutely support Cuba in finding a development path suited to its national realities. China again calls on the US to handle its relations with Cuba in accordance with the purposes of the UN Charter and basic norms governing international relations, listen to the universal call of the international community, immediately and fully lift its embargo on Cuba and stop interfering in Cuban affairs.

Shenzhen TV: On November 11, representatives of China, Russia, the US and Pakistan held a Troika Plus Meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, and released a joint statement in which they agreed to continue substantive engagement with the Taliban. On the same day, the delegates of the four countries also had a meeting with Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi of the Afghan interim government, who's visiting Pakistan. Can you share more details about the activities?

Wang Wenbin: On November 11, representatives of China, the US, Russia and Pakistan held a Troika Plus Meeting in Islamabad to exchange views on the latest situation in Afghanistan. Yue Xiaoyong, Special Envoy for Afghan Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led a delegation to the meeting.

The Chinese side elaborated on its position and policies on Afghanistan, and stressed that Afghanistan is at a crucial stage from chaos to order and faces challenges on political, economic, counter-terrorism and humanitarian fronts. All parties should continue to have dialogue with the Afghan side in a constructive manner on the basis of respecting Afghanistan's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. China is ready to work with all parties and help to steadily improve the Afghan situation.

After the meeting, the four parties released a joint statement, which recalled respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, agreed to continue practical engagement with the Taliban, called for the international community's urgent provision of humanitarian and economic assistance to Afghanistan, welcomed the role of the United Nations as a coordinator in such fields as contributing to stability and delivering emergency assistance and condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.

The four representatives also had a group meeting with Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi of the Afghan interim government. The Afghan side shared measures and progress in building an inclusive government, protecting women and children's rights and counterterrorism. Representatives from the four countries expressed their readiness to continue emergency humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and strengthen counterterrorism and security cooperation with Afghanistan.

Reuters: According to reports, President Xi Jinping will invite President Biden to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics. Do you have any further information on this?

Wang Wenbin: I don't comment on speculative reports.

MASTV: On November 11, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a speech that the US is going to compete vigorously with China across multiple dimensions, including economics and technology. The US will stand up for its values. But the US also recognizes that China is going to be a factor in the international system for the foreseeable future. There's no reason that the competition has to turn into conflict or confrontation. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: Competition does exist in international relations, but it should be healthy competition based on observing the basic norms governing international relations. We oppose unfair competition where one's own rules are forced on other countries as international rules. We oppose unjust competition where the word "competition" is used as a pretext to undermine other countries' sovereignty and interfere in other countries' internal affairs. We oppose unethical competition where "competition" is cited as an excuse to restrict other countries' development and deprive them of their legitimate rights and interests. China and the US have both differences and broad common interests. To define China-US relations with competition contravenes the reality of bilateral relations and deviates from US policies on China. The US should correctly view the mutually beneficial nature of China-US relations, adopt a rational and pragmatic policy toward China, work with China to strengthen dialogue and communication, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, properly manage differences and follow the path of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.

Reuters: Human Rights Watch today criticized the corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics and said that they should put pressure on China's government over human rights violations. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: Politicizing sports and fabricating rumors and lies to undermine the Olympic cause will find no support and is doomed to fail.
Cancun, situated in Quintana Roo on the northeast coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.

Cancun's location on the Caribbean Sea, tropical climate and string of beaches have made the city and the Riviera Maya to the south of Cancun one of Mexico's top tourist destinations. In this image, captured on 16 April 2021, the city can be seen in the bottom-right corner, shrouded in clouds. Cancun International Airport, Mexico's second busiest airport, is located around 20 km south of the city.

The Cancun Island resort area, visible just off the coast, is shaped like the number seven and is around 22 km in length. The island is separated from the city by the Nichupte Lagoon but is linked by two causeways at each end. Most of the tourist industry is centred on Cancun Island with its Caribbean-facing beaches.

Isla Mujeres, Spanish for 'Island of Women,' is visible just north of Cancun Island and is most famous for its beaches and snorkelling. Isla Contoy, visible in the top-right of the image, is considered one of the most important nesting places for sea birds in the Mexican Caribbean with more than 150 species of birds.

Quintana Roo covers an area of around 42 000 sq km and is home to several protected areas including the El Eden Ecological Reserve, located 50 km northwest of Cancun, and Yum Balam Flora and Fauna Protected Area, located in the north of the state. Encompassing more than 150 000 hectares, Yum Balam is home to several endangered species including jaguars, crocodiles and monkeys.

The colour of the water in the image varies from emerald green to turquoise owing to the changing water depths along the coast, turbidity and differences on the ocean floor - from sand to seaweed to rocky areas.

With its 13 spectral channels, Copernicus Sentinel-2's novel imager can capture water quality parameters such as the surface concentration of chlorophyll, detect harmful algal blooms, and measure turbidity (or water clarity) - giving a clear indication of the health and pollution levels.

- Download the high-resolution image.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
The method uses a data representation where the presence of a planet (right) is seen as a river in the sky (left). The image on the right shows the measured luminous flux of the star Kepler-36 with the plot of eclipses due to the planet Kepler-36 b. CREDIT  Dave Hoefler

The majority of exoplanets discovered to date have been discovered using the transit method.

This technique is based on a mini eclipse caused when a planet passes in front of its star. The decrease in luminosity observed makes it possible to deduce the existence of a planet and to estimate its diameter, after the observations have been periodically confirmed. However, theory predicts that in many planetary systems, interactions between planets alter this periodicity and make their detection impossible.

It is in this context that a team of astronomers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), the University of Bern (UniBE), and the NCCR PlanetS, Switzerland, in collaboration with the company Disaitek, used artificial intelligence (AI) applied to image recognition. They taught a machine to predict the effect of interactions between planets, making it possible to discover exoplanets that were impossible to detect until now. The tools developed, published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, could be used on Earth to detect illegal dumps and waste dumps.

Detecting a planet by the transit method is a long process. Finding the signal induced by small planets in the data can be complex, if not impossible with the usual techniques, in the case where interactions between planets alter the periodicity of the transit phenomenon. To counter this difficulty, it is necessary to develop tools that can take this effect into account.

"This is why we thought of using artificial intelligence applied to image recognition", explains Adrien Leleu, a researcher in the Department of Astronomy at the UNIGE Faculty of Science and the NCCR PlanetS. It is indeed possible to teach a machine, using a large number of examples, to take into account all the parameters and predict the effect of interactions between planets in a pictorial representation of the induced effect. To do this, the astronomers have joined forces with the company Disaitek through the NCCR's Technology & Innovation Platform.



An artificial neural network capable of identifying objects

"The type of AI used in this project is a neural network whose aim is to determine, for each pixel in an image, the object it represents", explains Anthony Graveline, president of Disaitek. Used in the context of an autonomous vehicle, this algorithm makes it possible to identify the road, the pavement, the signs and the pedestrians perceived by the camera. In the context of exoplanet detection, the aim is to determine, for each measurement of the star's luminosity, whether the eclipse of a planet is observed. The neural network makes its decision by cross-referencing all available observations of that star with the range of configurations seen during its training.

"From the first implementations of the method, we discovered two exoplanets - Kepler-1705b and Kepler-1705c - that had been completely missed by previous techniques", reveals Adrien Leleu. The planetary systems thus discovered are a gold mine for our knowledge of exoplanets, and more particularly of terrestrial-type planets, which are generally difficult to characterise. The method developed not only makes it possible to estimate the radius of planets, but also provides information on their mass, and therefore on their density and composition. "The use of AI, in particular of 'deep learning' as in this paper, is becoming increasingly widespread in astrophysics, whether to process observational data, as we did here, or to analyze the results of gigantic numerical simulations producing terabytes of data. What we have developed in this study is a new example of the fantastic contribution that these techniques can make to our field, and probably to all fields of research", notes Yann Alibert, Professor at the University of Bern, and Scientific Officer of the NCCR PlanetS.



Technology for Earth observation

While this technique is proving effective for astronomical observation, it can be just as useful for observing the Earth and its environment. "In developing this technology, we quickly realised its potential for application to other problems for which a small amount of data is available", says Gregory Chatel, R&D manager at Disaitek. Using very high-resolution satellite images, Disaitek is now using this AI to deal with environmental problems, in particular the detection of illegal dumping. This scourge, which is constantly on the increase, has no clear answer with traditional means.

JOURNAL

Astronomy and Astrophysics

DOI

10.1051/0004-6361/202141471



Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer arrived at the International Space Station at 6:32 p.m. EST Thursday, Nov. 11.

Crew Dragon Endurance docked to the orbital complex while the spacecrafts were flying 260 miles above the eastern Caribbean Sea.

Following Crew Dragon's link up to the Harmony module, the astronauts aboard the Endurance and the space station will begin conducting standard leak checks and pressurization between the spacecraft in preparation for hatch opening scheduled for approximately 8:10 p.m.

Chari, Marshburn, Barron, and Maurer will join the Expedition 66 crew of Mark Vande Hei of NASA and cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos for a planned six-month mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA's Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA's Artemis program.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-3 mission lifted off at 9:03 p.m. on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the agency's third crew rotation mission.



Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
A recent study offers new details about the physical properties and possible origins of (469219) Kamo`oalewa, a quasi-satellite that orbits the Sun but remains relatively close to the Earth.

"Five quasi-satellites of the Earth are known to exist and these objects are in a co-orbital configuration with Earth in which they stay close to our planet as they orbit the Sun. Of these five, Kamo`oalewa is the most stable; however, because of its small size - approximately 50 meters - and difficult observing geometry, only limited information about this object has been obtained so far," said Planetary Science Institute Associate Research Scientist Juan A. Sanchez, a co-author of "Lunar-like silicate material forms the Earth quasi-satellite (469219) 2016 HO3 Kamo`oalewa" that appears today in Nature Communications Earth and Environment. Benjamin N.L. Sharkey of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory is lead author.



This research used data obtained over the course of five years with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) and the Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT), both located in Arizona. This work is the most comprehensive study of this object done to this date. "We obtained photometric and spectroscopic data of Kamo`oalewa to learn more about its composition and physical characteristics," Sanchez said.



The researchers analyzed the sunlight reflected from the surface of Kamo`oalewa to determine what the asteroid is made of. According to Sanchez, the spectral characteristics of this asteroid are consistent with silicate minerals (rocky material) showing a high degree of space weathering.



"This means that the optical properties and physical structure of the surface have been modified by micrometeorite bombardment and solar wind particles," Sanchez said. This effect has been detected in other asteroids and on the Moon.



Kamo`oalewa is a fast rotator near-Earth asteroid (NEA); previous studies found that this object has a rotational period of approximately 30 minutes. During its orbit around the Sun, this asteroid can approach Earth as close as about 14.4 million kilometers, or 9 million miles.



The study also compared the new data of Kamo`oalewa with the spectra of other NEAs and meteorite samples, and found striking similarities between the spectrum of the quasi-satellite and a lunar sample brought back to Earth by the Apollo 14 mission.



The exact origin of Kamo`oalewa is unknown, but astronomers speculate that this asteroid could have been captured in its Earth-like orbit from the general population of NEAs. Another possibility, given the similarity between the spectrum of Kamo`oalewa and the lunar sample, is that the object originated in the Earth-Moon system, perhaps as impact ejecta from the lunar surface. A sample-return mission to the asteroid is currently in preparation, with a planned launch in 2025.



Sanchez's work on the project was funded by NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations program.



Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
ESA's latest CubeSat - RadCube, for surveying space weather in low-Earth orbit - has completed its rigorous commissioning phase, culminating in the extension of a magnetometer boom longer than the miniature satellite itself.

The surface of Earth is a rare low-radiation oasis, largely protected from the charged particles riddling space by our planet's magnetic field. RadCube is a mission to demonstrate miniaturised technologies for measuring this space radiation environment as well as magnetic field strength - all within a satellite that could fit into an aircraft carry-on bag.

CubeSats are satellites assembled from standardised 10-cm boxes. RadCube is a '3-unit' CubeSat, newly developed for ESA by C3S in Hungary.

Hungary'sCentre for Energy Research (EK) contributed the payload controller system and a radiation telescope to the mission, combining two detectors to measure the direction as well as energy of charged particles. The UK's Imperial College built a magnetometer consisting of two sensors, one within the CubeSat and another at the end of a rolled-out 80 cm boom, which comes from Astronika in Poland.

Launched aboard ESA's Vega launcher flight VV19 in August, RadCube also hosts an ESA experiment to test the resilience of computer memories against space radiation.

"The all-new CubeSat platform and the precision of RadCube's miniature instruments demanded a complex commissioning process, which has now been successfully completed" explains Dorottya Milankovich from C3S.

"The full extension of the magnetometer boom marked a dramatic final milestone; this is a necessary feature to prevent any anomalous magnetic measurements emitted from the satellite itself," says Dominik Nolbert from Astronika.

Jonathan Eastwood from Imperial College adds: "In fact, the outboard magnetometer data clearly shows no magnetic noise coming from RadCube, with results well in line with expected values from Earth magnetic field models."

"RadCube's radiation measurements are also showing good comparison data with other satellites, revealing elevated radiation levels from the recent solar storm." highlights Attila Hirn from EK.

The latest in a series of ESA Technology CubeSats to demonstrate promising technologies for space, RadCube was supported through the 'Fly' element of ESA's General Support Technology Programme, with funding coming from Hungary, the UK and Poland.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
After selling for $360,000 as a Harrisburg yearling two years ago, Quickest Hanover returned to the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in 2021 and will head back to familiar surroundings.

Quickest Hanover sold on the first day of the 2019 Standardbred Horse Sales Company's Black Book yearling sale and was collared by Burke Racing Stable LLC, Bill Donovan, JandT Silva Purnel And Libby and Weaver Bruscemi LLC from the Hanover consignment. Now three, Quickest Hanover was entered into the mixed sale portion of the 2021 Black Book and fetched the highest price during the fifth and final session on Friday (Nov. 12). Consigned to the sale by Preferred Equine and sold as Hip 1453, Quickest Hanover (Father Patrick - Queen Of Grace) sold for $450,000 and was purchased by her breeder, Hanover Shoe Farms.

Quickest Hanover is a three-quarter sister to world champion stakes-winning millionaire Lifetime Pursuit 2,1:52.3; 3,1:50.4; BT1:50.2 ($1,065,586).

Trotting blood was in strong demand over the five days in Harrisburg, and Friday's session stayed true to that trend with trotters bringing the six highest sales figures from the final session.

Selling as Hip 1391, KYSS champ Empressive Hill was purchased by Jean-Pierre Barjon of Paris, France for $410,000. Consigned to the sale by Northwood Bloodstock, Empressive Hill (Muscle Hill - Slice Slice Baby) sports a record of 1:51.2 taken at The Red Mile as a sophomore, with a 10-2-1 from 19 career starts and $273,775 in earnings.

A sister to world champion Six Pack, sophomore trotting filly My Abigail fetched a bid of $370,000 from agent Shaun Laungani of Lexington, Ky. The daughter of Bar Hopping - Pleasing Lady, consigned to the sale by Preferred Equine, was a $350,000 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale purchase of Determination in 2019. She has a mark of 1:56.1f taken at Harrah's Philadelphia with a 1-1-3 summary and $20,927 from nine career starts.

The highest priced pacing racehorse of the session was 2020 Breeders Crown champ Sandbetweenmytoes. The four-year-old gelded son of Somebeachsomewhere - Galleria paced back to his 1:48.3 lifetime mark in his most recent start at The Meadowlands in mid-September for trainer Jim Campbell, then qualified in mid-October in 1:48.4 at The Big M. Also consigned by Preferred, he sold for $305,000 to Greg Luther of Blacklick, Oh.

With 142 less horses (521) than the total sold in 2019 (663), this year's edition of the mixed sale posted a gross total of $27,012,000, just $9,000 shy of the $27,021,000 total from 2019. This year`s mixed sale average came in at a record $51,846, well above the 2019 average of $40,756 and the $28,798 average posted in 2020 at Timonium.

Canadian participants were prominent throughout both the yearling and mixed sale portions. According to data from the sale company, a total of 222 Harrisburg yearlings were purchased by Canadians, with those owners spending $11,392,000 to account for 26.8 percent of the total yearling sales.

The breakdown by home province of listed yearling buyer is as follows:

Alberta - 3

B.C. - 1

Nova Scotia - 11

Ontario - 180

P.E.I. - 1

Quebec - 26

From the 2021 Mixed Sale section, Canadians were responsible for 61 purchases with $2.26 million in total expenditures.

"It is beyond encouraging to see the local owners as active as they were this past week," said Woodbine Mohawk Park director of Standardbred racing Bill McLinchey. "It really shows their confidence in racing in Ontario, and we look forward to seeing their recent purchases race at Mohawk next summer and fall."

To view results from the 2021 Standardbred Horse Sales Company's sale sessions, click one of the following links:

 Black Book 1 Results

 Black Book 1 Totals & Averages

 Black Book Results

 Black Book 2 Totals & Averages

In Italian topped the opening session on Monday, with the hammer falling at $750,000 and Milton, Ont.'s Brad Grant the successful buyer. In Italian (Chapter Seven-Hemi Blue Chip) is a full-sister to world champion trotting mare Atlanta, a career winner of $3,269,538 with a mark of 1:49 taken in the Allerage Farms Mares Trot last month at The Red Mile. Bred by Sweden's Order By Stable and consigned by Concord Stud Farm, the filly sold as Hip 69 to Grant, one of Atlanta's part-owners.

Another trotting filly topped the bidding for the second yearling session on Tuesday as Unicorn Blue Chip was purchased for $475,000 by Lucas Wallin of New Egypt, New Jersey, acting as agent. Bred by Blue Chip Farms, the filly is by Chapter Seven out of the unraced Donato Hanover mare Dunk The Donato. She is a half-sister to world champion and millionaire Plunge Blue Chip (1:49.4 - $1,596,841), multiple Grand Circuit stakes-placed Splash Blue Chip (1:51.4 - $474,623) and recent Matron Stakes winner Threepointbluechip (1:55 - $107,100).

Trotting filly Unity Blue Chip was the third session's topper, purchased for $145,000 by Paul Kelley of Lake Worth, Florida. Bred by Blue Chip Farms, the E L Titan filly is the first foal out of the unraced Credit Winner mare Credittomyfamily, who is a full sister to Moni For Lindy ($421,821 - 1:53.4S). Unity Blue Chip's third dam is the legendary trotting mare Moni Maker.

What A Knockout turned heads at the first mixed session of the 2021 Standardbred Horse Sale. Sold as part of a mare dispersal in foal to Muscle Hill, What A Knockout fetched a bid of $595,000 from Hanover Shoe Farms. From the Peninsula Farm consignment, the six-year-old Donato Hanover-Southwind Sofia mare was a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes winner and took a mark of 1:52.4 at The Meadowlands for owner Herb Liverman. Her first foal is a Muscle Hill yearling filly The Ladys A Ten, who sold for $100,000 at last month's Lexington Selected Yearling Sale to Yankeeland Partners.
Woodbine Mohawk Park announced on Thursday three Pop-Up Series to be contested in the coming weeks, with no nomination or starting fee required.

Any horses who are non-winners of $25,000 in 2021 and have made a minimum of 10 starts are eligible to enter the Pop-Up Series.

A Pop-Up Series for pacing horses, pacing mares and trotters will be offered.

The Pop-Up Series will feature two preliminary legs, with each division racing for a purse of $17,000, and a $30,000 final leg. A $20,000 consolation will also be available if enough horses enter the final leg.

There is no nomination or starting fee required to enter the Pop-Up Series.

The dates for the Pop-Up Series are listed below:

Pacing Horses

Leg 1: Monday, Nov. 22

Leg 2: Monday, Nov. 29

Final: Monday, Dec. 6

Pacing Mares

Leg 1: Thursday, Nov. 25

Leg 2: Thursday, Dec. 2

Final: Thursday, Dec. 9

Trotters

Leg 1: Thursday, Nov. 25

Leg 2: Thursday, Dec. 2

Final: Thursday, Dec. 9

Anyone seeking more information is asked to contact the Race Office at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

(Woodbine)
By Azernews





By Ayya Lmahamad

Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov and newly-appointed head of the EU delegation to Azerbaijan Peter Michalko have discussed possibilities of further bilateral cooperation to expand the geography of gas supplies.

At a meeting held on November 11, the parties considered the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project, noting the special importance of Azerbaijani gas for European market access.

Speaking about the long-term fruitful and strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and the EU in the energy field, Shahbazov expressed confidence that relations in this area would continue to develop. The minister also congratulated the new ambassador on his appointment and wished him success in his work.

The parties also focused on the priorities of energy cooperation, energy efficiency, development of renewable energy sources and a number of other issues of mutual interest within the framework of the EU's Eastern Partnership program.

Since 2009, Azerbaijan has been cooperating with the EU as part of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) program in bilateral and multilateral formats. The EU is one of Azerbaijans main trade partners. Azerbaijan attaches great importance to cooperation with the EU, which is important in terms of applying international experience in the expansion and diversification of the countrys economy.

The EU invested over $21.5 billion in Azerbaijans economy from 2012 to 2021. Azerbaijans trade turnover with the EU amounted to $9.3 billion last year, which is 38 percent of the countrys foreign trade.

The Delegation of the European Commission to Azerbaijan was opened in Baku in February 2008.
By Azernews





By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan's cities have won a grant ( 30, 000) for a cultural development strategy.

Shaki, Khirdalan and Lankaran are among the winners of the competition held within EU4Culture project, Trend Life reported.

The project targets the cultural and creative sector in the Eastern Partnership countries, aiming to support the development of culture as an engine for growth and social development across the region. It makes particular focus on non-capital cities and towns of the Eastern Partnership countries.

The EU4Culture is implemented by the Goethe-Institut (lead), the Danish Culture Institute, the Czech Centres and the Institut Francais in Georgia.

In general, 70 cities from 5 countries participating in the EU Eastern Partnership program took part in the competition.

Speaking about the project, the head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan Peter Michalko stressed the importance of the cultural heritage and its protection. He also noted the significance of cultural partnership adding that cultural issues are important in the context of the EU agenda.

In their remarks, the head of the Culture Ministry`s Creativity and Digital Development Department Ramil Abbakirov and the head of the State Tourism Agency`s Tourism Policy and Strategy Department Magomed Muradov highlighted the country`s tourism potential, cultural sphere anand ongoing projects in this direction.

Further, the certificates for grants were handed to the representatives of Shaki, Khirdalan and Lankaran.

In final stage, one of these cities will receive a grant of up to  300, 000 for the implementation of its strategy.
By Azernews





By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan and UNESCO will celebrate the 30th anniversary of partnership.

The decision was announced at a meeting between Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov and the Assistant Director-General for Priority Africa and External Relations of UNESCO Firmin Edouard Matoko at the UNESCO General Conference, Azertag reported.

Mammadov stressed the role of the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva in the development of Azerbaijan-UNESCO ties, her contributions to the organization and its projects.

He also spoke about the liberation of the Azerbaijan's territories from the Armenian occupation which lasted for almost three decades. Elnur Mammadov pointed out that numerous cultural monuments were completely destroyed on these territories as a result of the Armenian vandalism.

In his speech, the Deputy Foreign Minister touched upon Azerbaijani chairmanship in the Non-Aligned Movement and UNESCO II Election Group.

Elnur Mammadov praised Azerbaijan's contribution to the Global Education Coalition, projects implemented within the UNESCO/Azerbaijan Trust Fund and Priority Africa global programme.

He pointed out that Azerbaijan has always been committed to its obligations.

In his remarks, Firmin Edouard Matoko said that Azerbaijan is one of the main partners of UNESCO.

Speaking about educational projects in Africa, Matoko stressed the importance of Azerbaijan's contribution in this field, in particular, assistance in training and education management.

Azerbaijan's Permanent Representative to UNESCO.Elman Abdullayev underlined that Azerbaijan supports the Khiva Process and the Biennale of Luanda within the Baku Process. He said that the country will be represented at the Luanda Biennale.

Azerbaijan and UNESCO have been enjoying successful cooperation since 1992.

In 2003, the parties signed the framework agreement on cooperation in the areas of culture, science, education, and communication, which allowed Azerbaijan to become one of the donors of UNESCO.

Many Azerbaijani cultural sites have been included in UNESCO's World Heritage List.

Icherisheher (Old City), Maiden Tower, and Shirvanshah's palace were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000, while since 2007 the Gobustan National Historical-Artistic reserve was also listed among these heritages.

Shaki, an important city at the crossroads of the historic Silk Roads was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List during the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee held in Baku.

In 2017, UNESCO recognized Azerbaijan's dolma as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Art of crafting and playing with kamancha, presented jointly by Azerbaijan and Iran, was also inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Moreover, the Pomegranate Festival, Art of miniature were inscribed in UNESCO Representative List in December 2020.

UNESCO also successfully celebrated the 600th anniversary of the death of the great Azerbaijani poet and thinker Imadaddin Nasimi and the 200th anniversary of the first settlement of Germans in Azerbaijan.

In 2021, Lankaran region was included in the UNESCO list "Network of Creative Cities."
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has arrived in Turkey to attend the 8th Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States.

A guard of honor was arranged for the head of state at the Ataturk Airport decorated with the national flags of Azerbaijan and Turkey.




By Azernews





By Vafa Ismayilova

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has described as historic the significance of the 8th Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States for the entire Turkic world, Azertag reported on November 12.

He made the remarks at a meeting with his Kyrgyz counterpart Sadyr Japarov held on November 12 on the sidelines of the Istanbul-hosted summit.

We are transforming into an organization, and, of course, this Summit will be of historic importance for the entire Turkic world and for our countries. This is also a good opportunity to talk about bilateral relations between our countries. We look forward to active interaction on a wide range of issues  political and economic issues, as well as those related to the humanitarian sphere. I think there is good potential on the entire spectrum of issues, he stressed.

President Aliyev expressed his pleasure over the meeting with the Kyrgyz counterpart.

It is very nice to see you. This is our first meeting. I am sure there will be many such meetings in the future. It is quite remarkable that we are meeting on the sidelines of our Turkic Council event, he said.

The Azerbaijani leader recalled the earlier meetings of the Azerbaijani and Kyrgyz foreign ministers.

 I think we will give a good impetus to the further development of our ties for the benefit of our countries and peoples so that cooperation between our countries is full and focused on the final result, he said.

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov thanked Azerbaijan for providing 40,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in humanitarian aid to Kyrgyzstan.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to you for providing humanitarian aid in the form of 40,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Not being a vaccine manufacturer and using its own supplies, Azerbaijan made this valuable gesture. I regard all this as a manifestation of friendship and brotherhood, " he said.

Japarov stressed that his country is always happy with the successes and achievements of the brotherly Azerbaijani people.

He underlined that thanks to Aliyevs wise policy, Azerbaijan had significantly strengthened its international position in the world.

The Kyrgyz leader underlined the relations between the two countries are based on strong bonds of friendship and brotherhood arising from a common history, culture, language, spiritual and religious values.

The sides also discussed issues related to expanding trade and economic relations, strengthening the ties between the two countries in the field of investment, energy, transport and other sectors, as well as within the international organizations.
By Azernews





By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian have discussed bilateral cooperation and regional security, the Foreign Ministry reported on November 11.

Bayramov met Le Drian as a part of his working visit to Paris on November 10 to attend the UNESCO General Conference, the report added.

The ministers discussed the expansion of bilateral cooperation, particularly in the areas of economics and education, and showed mutual interest in this area.

Bayramov briefed Le Drian on the present regional situation, Azerbaijan's post-war position, and the implementation of trilateral statements and unilateral actions made by Azerbaijan in this regard.

He also informed his French counterpart about Azerbaijan's humanitarian engagement with key international organizations, such as UNESCO.

In turn, Le Drian said that France was interested in developing relations with Azerbaijan.

The French minister expressed his countrys willingness to support Azerbaijan in its demining efforts, as well as to work with the Mine Action Agency (ANAMA) in this sphere.

He mentioned that the search for missing persons from the First Karabakh War is crucial for France. Le Drian also emphasized the significance of normalizing relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, noting that the OSCE Minsk Group may be a useful format in this regard.

The sides also discussed other issues of mutual interest at the meeting.

Earlier, the head of Azerbaijans Mine Action Agency, Vugar Suleymanov, and French ambassador Zacharie Gross have discussed France's contribution to demining operations on territories liberated from Armenia's occupation in the last year's war.

The meeting focused on humanitarian demining operations carried out by the agency, France's financial assistance in Azerbaijan's demining activities, and the issues requiring support in this area.

In the near future, a document is envisaged to be signed between the parties covering areas such as support for demining operations, assistance to persons who suffered from mines and the implementation of projects to raise awareness of dangers from explosives.

Gross also noted that France is keen to donate  400,000 (AZN 803,272 or $472,752) to support mine clearance operations in liberated lands.

"Another area where international cooperation is needed is demining so internally displaced people can return to their land. The areas in Karabakh that require demining are huge. So I was happy to officially inform Azerbaijan's ANAMA [Mine Action Agency] that France is keen to donate  400,000 to demining this year," he wrote on his Twitter account on September 8.
By Trend

The Parliament of Azerbaijan began new discussions of the state budget bill for 2022 on November 12, Trend reports.

At a joint meeting of parliamentary committees on public associations and religious structures, science and education, family, women and children, health and culture, documents included in the state budget package are being discussed.

The discussions are attended by heads of a number of government agencies and MPs.
By Azernews





By Vugar Khalilov

The Azerbaijani armys rocket and artillery units have carried out combat firing, the Defence Ministry reported on November 11.

The drills, which are held under the 2021 combat training plan, are aimed at improving the military personnel's field and practical skills, the report added.

As a part of the drills, the artillery units took up firing positions in the designated areas after being deployed to the concentration areas.

The ministry reported that the military personnel boosted their practical knowledge and skills by practicing fire control and other related tasks.

The units eliminated the targets of the fictitious adversary and completed their missions with pinpoint accuracy, the report concluded.

Azerbaijan periodically holds drills to improve its military personnels combat readiness.

The drills also aim to improve interaction and combat coordination between the servicemen during operations, as well as to develop commanders' military decision-making and unit management skills.




By Trend

We stand in solidarity with President Ilham Aliyev that insulting the participants of the Great Patriotic War and the glorification of Nazism are unacceptable, Editor-in-Chief of the authoritative Russian National Defense magazine, well-known military expert Igor Korotchenko said during the meeting of Russian experts, deputies with youth and a round table at the Russian Information and Cultural Center in Baku, Trend reports.

"We see the praise of the Nazis in Armenia. A monument to Garegin Nzhdeh has been erected in the center of Yerevan, which is a bad indicator. Also, in the liberated lands of Azerbaijan, we see burnt territories, barbarism against cemeteries, monuments, mosques and other cultural centers. Armenia shelled the peaceful cities of Azerbaijan, which is an indicator of the glorification of Nazism. All these facts are a challenge to humanity. We remember that the issue of the inadmissibility of Nazism was raised by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. We stand in solidarity with President Ilham Aliyev that insulting the participants of the Great Patriotic War and the glorification of Nazism are unacceptable," he said.

Korotchenko noted that Azerbaijan made a huge contribution to the overall victory in the Great Patriotic War.

"Without Baku oil, victory in the Second World War would have been impossible. This victory is our common foundation for rapprochement. It is known that Azerbaijan also celebrates May 9 as a Victory Day," he added.
By Trend

Russia is interested in the settlement of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Director of the Russian Institute of Contemporary Development Dmitry Solonnikov said on Nov. 12 during a meeting of experts and members of the State Duma of the Russian Federation with youth and roundtable discussion at the Russian Information and Culture Center in Baku, Trend reports.

Solonnikov added that Russia is making a lot of efforts to resolve the issue of demarcation and delimitation of borders between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Moreover, special attention is paid to the restoration of communications in the South Caucasus, director of the institute said. In this issue, we see the interest of a number of countries, besides Azerbaijan and Russia. Turkey, Iran and some other countries are also showing interest.

Solonnikov stressed that Russia and Azerbaijan have established strategic cooperation in the energy sector.

Our countries have a lot in common in this sphere and I hope that these relations will intensify in the future, director of the institute said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has been awarded the Supreme Order of Turkic World, Azertag has reported.

The Supreme Order was presented to the head of state by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the 8th Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States in Istanbul on 12 November.

The decision of the Council of the Heads of Turkic-Speaking States says in this connection: In recognition of the historic victory that ensured the liberation of the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the restoration of its territorial integrity under the leadership of His Excellency Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Commander-in-Chief, which significantly contributed to the Turkic unity and paved the way for achieving enduring peace and stability in the region, the Council of Heads of State, upon the proposal of the President of the Republic of Turkey, His Excellency Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hereby decided to award with great honor His Excellency Ilham Aliyev with the 'Supreme Order of Turkic World'.

The decision was signed by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

Presenting the Supreme Order to the Azerbaijani president, Erdogan said:

-Dear President, Dear Brother, Victorious Commander-in-Chief Mr. Ilham Aliyev.

Under your resolute leadership, the occupation of Karabakh, which lasted about 30 years, was ended in a matter of 44 days. This is of great importance not only for our Azerbaijani brothers but also for the entire Turkic world.

As a result of the Patriotic War, the UN Security Council resolutions that were not implemented for years have finally been implemented. In this way, Azerbaijan has inscribed a message of justice in the memory of the international community.

The re-establishment of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity has expanded the unity and equality of the Turkic world. Kharibulbul, which is a symbol of the freedom of Karabakh, was the herald of Victory for the Turkic world.

The Karabakh Victory not only liberated the occupied territories but also paved the way for lasting peace, stability, and cooperation in our region.

Taking this opportunity, I am deeply pleased to present the Supreme Order of the Turkic World to my dear brother Ilham Aliyev. I remember with gratitude and respect our heroes who rose to the peak of martyrdom on the path to freedom.




By Trend

All expenses for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines in Azerbaijan are paid from the state budget, Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov told Trend on Nov. 12.

The minister added that these expenses are also envisaged for next year.

The topic of COVID-19 vaccines is always in the spotlight, Sharifov added. As these vaccines must be ordered in advance, some costs will be covered this year.

The minister said that some vaccines will be delivered till the end of this year while most of them in the future.

It will be possible to allocate additional funds for these purposes depending on the situation," Sharifov said.
Aramex, a leading global provider of logistics solutions, has posted a revenue of AED4.46 billion ($1.21 billion) for the first nine months of the year compared to AED3.91 billion in the same period in 2020, marking an increase of 14.4%.



The growth was driven by growth across all service lines in both the courier business, and logistics& freight-forwarding business as the company benefited from shifting consumer trends to online shopping and recovery in global business activity post Covid-19, especially in the oil &gas and retail sector, an Aramex statement said.



In the third quarter (Q3) of 2021, revenue was stable year-on-year (YoY) at AED1.46 billion, driven by double-digit growth in domestic express and a strong rebound in logistics & freight-forwarding business.



Operating profit fell 19% YoY in Q3 2021 to AED68 million, and operating profit margin dropped by 1% compared to Q3 2020. Excluding the one-off events, Q3 2021, operating profit fell 55% YoY. Overall costs across the business rose as the company continued to build scale and increase capacity to handle the growth in shipment volumes.



For the nine-month period, operating profit fell 20% YoY to AED247 million, with Operating Profit margin decreasing slightly by 2% compared to the corresponding period in 2020.



Net profit for Q3 2021 rose 47% to AED67.8 million compared to AED46.2 million in Q3 2020. However, excluding one-off events in both years , normalized net profit for the three-month 2021 period declined 70% YoY to AED29.6 million compared to AED99 million for the same period last year.



Nine-month 2021net profit decreased by14% to AED179 million, compared to AED208 million in 9M 2020. Excluding one off items in both years3, normalized net profit for the nine-month period decreased 46% YoY to AED141millioncompared to AED261 million for the same period last year.

Aramex maintained a strong balance sheet with negative net debt position of AED357million, representing a strong cash balance as at end September 2021.



Othman Aljeda, Group Chief Executive Officer, Aramex, said: The impact of our new redesigned operating model is already starting to reflect positively on our performance. With a renewed emphasis on enhancing operating efficiencies, improving service levels to customers, building scale and reorganization of our team of professionals, we have been able to capture growth opportunities in both the Courier Business, and Logistics & Freight-Forwarding business.



Over the last few months, we have witnessed an almost complete return to pre-Covid operating environment and are noticing a few trends that we believe will continue to shape the future of our business and drive our growth strategy. For our Courier Business, we are seeing a surge in domestic express volumes driven by a significant increase in number of retailers opting to tap online sales channel to satisfy the needs of shoppers that have now increased expectations to buy all products, from necessities to luxuries, online.



Notably, we are seeing very strong growth for our business in Saudi Arabia, where we have been and will continue to invest in expanding and ramping up our operations. We are also seeing increased competition in the last mile across all our geographies, especially from relatively smaller and new players in the market. However, with our expertise, scale, strong network, technology-enabled operations, user-friendly customer applications, and strong financial position to fund the expansion of our ground operations, we are well-positioned to continue consolidating our leadership position in last mile solutions within our core markets.



On the B2B side, we are deepening our expertise, leveraging our strategically located hubs and global network to customize our offerings in response to customer needs. This has enabled us benefit from the uptick in global economic activity.



We are also enhancing our efforts towards achieving our sustainability strategy and have signed a commitment with the Science Based Target initiates whereby we will work within well-defined science-based carbon targets to accelerate the Companys goal towards reducing its emissions in line with the Paris Agreements goals of curbing a rise in global temperature to well-below two degrees Celsius and towards supporting the governments of the countries we operate in to reach their respective net-zero emission targets, he added.





Alaa Saoudi, Chief Operating Officer Express, said: Our focus so far this year has been on scaling our on the ground operations, especially within our last mile infrastructure, in strategic locations to handle current and expected surge in volumes. Of note, we invested in expanding our presence in Saudi Arabia and have opened a new gateway in Riyadh with a fully-automated state-of-the-art facility, enabling us to handle greater volumes in a more timely and efficient manner and to meet customer expectations of shortened delivery windows across the Kingdom.



We are also leveraging data analytics and AI to help us better prepare, plan, and optimize our operations, this will be especially beneficial as we approach the very busy peak shopping season. As for line haul costs, while they remain above pre-Covid levels, they have dropped from their 2020 peak and the capacity issues are subsiding, which translates into slight improvement in margin and reduced delays in cross border activity over the coming periods.



Mohammad Alkhas, Chief Operating Officer Logistics& Freight-forwarding, said: We are very encouraged by the recovery in economic activity in the GCC and across the world and believe this growth will be sustained for the foreseeable future. With the improved oil prices, activity within the oil & gas sector is gathering pace.



This has also encouraged Governments in the GCC to increase investment and expenditure in key projects. Collectively these factors have supported the growth of the Logistics& Freight-Forwarding business, and we expect this growth momentum to continue well into 2022. Also, retail outlets are restocking inventory for in-store and online shopping, ahead of the busy shopping season, and this too has supported the growth of the business over the reporting period.



Outlook



Commenting on the outlook for the remainder of 2021, Othman Aljeda said:As we approach the busiest period for the Courier Business, we are very well prepared to handle the expected surge in volumes and are especially focusing on enhancing our responsiveness to customer needs and demands. While the world returns to relative normalcy, we remain very committed to ensuring the priority of the health and safety of our employees, customers and communities.



Looking ahead I am very excited with how much potential our new redesigned operating model will enable us to unlock opportunities for our shareholders and wider stakeholders. We believe we will continue to unlock opportunities and build scale while remaining agile, asset light and financially flexible. We will also further diversify and strengthen our global network to remain resilient to economic cycles and supply chain disruptions.  TradeArabia News Service
Reef Technology, the largest operator of delivery kitchens, logistics, and proximity hubs in North America, has entered the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region through the full acquisition of UAE-based iKcon Restaurant.

The technology leader extends business into Mena to support growth strategy and transform the food industry in the region.

The acquisition of iKcon (Innovative Kitchen Concepts) marks Reefs first major transaction in the Mena market and is part of its broader strategy toward global expansion.

We are excited to welcome iKcon and its team members to Reefs global proximity platform, said Tommy Rosen, Head of Development at Reef. The Middle East and North Africa are crucial markets in the rapidly evolving F&B and retail industries, and our acquisition of iKcon will position Reef to become a leader in the region.

With a network of innovative kitchens in prime locations and over 800 employees, iKcon utilises its modern facilities, smart technology solutions and highly qualified chefs and customer service teams to extend the reach of their portfolio of +100 well-known local, regional and international restaurant partners such as Just Salad, YO Sushi, Dunkin, California Pizza Kitchen, German Doner Kebab and local hero brands such as PINZA, and Pizza Di Rocco.

Since its inception, iKcon has consistently focused on operational excellence and building a unique customer-centric business model, said Khalid Baareh, Co-Founder and CEO at iKcon. The past three years have taught us the importance of pursuing our vision with commitment and passion, driven by a world-class team. Today, we are thrilled to join the Reef team and to continue our journey of bringing innovation to neighborhoods everywhere. Reefs leadership in proximity will play a great role in accelerating our regional expansion plans. We are fully committed to driving the development of Reef in Mena.

Reef, backed by a group of investors including Mubadala Capital, the asset management subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, SoftBank Vision Fund 1, funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, UBS Asset Management and Target Global, focuses on transforming urban spaces into proximity hubs that create jobs and bring new goods, services, and experiences to neighborhoods across the globe.

Reef has already established a presence in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the international financial centre of Abu Dhabi, with plans to continue growing throughout the region. -- TradeArabia News Service
Global integrated logistics and materials management company, Asco, has appointed Peter Guild, as new Group Head of HSSEQ and promoted Thuy-Tien Le Guen Dang to support the company sustainability strategy.

Guild brings a wealth of experience spanning over 30 years working across construction, and oil and gas sectors having previously held positions at Subsea 7 and Sparrows Offshore Services.

In his new role, Guild will be responsible for the strategic delivery of Group HSSEQ activities whilst supporting the companys fundamental obsessions of safety and service excellence and sustainability.

As a key player in the energy industry, Asco has held a strong commitment to sustainability and has set the objective to become a net zero green-house gas emissions business by 2040. Asco plays an active part in transforming the supply chain in collaboration with its clients, partners and industry bodies and are working to support the transition towards a low carbon future by lowering its carbon footprint of its operations and by diversifying into new energy.

To drive this business transition and the company-wide culture shift, Thuy-Tien Le Guen Dang has been promoted to Group Sustainability and Marketing Manager and become the focal point for the business both internally and externally. Dang has 16 years' experience in a range of sectors including agriculture, mining and water treatment, undertaking various commercial roles.

As part of the companys plans, Asco has made a number of changes already to its operations including the transition to electric forklifts and the implementation of an Operations Control Centre to drive safe, lean and sustainable operations.

Commenting on his appointment, Guild, said: I am delighted to join the Asco team at such an exciting time. Asco has a strong legacy in the UK and a large global footprint, and with our increased focus around sustainability and strategic goals, I look forward to my journey with the company and playing my part in supporting Asco to evolve and diversify through the implementation of our strategy.

Thuy-Tien Le Guen Dang, said: The energy transition is high on Ascos agenda. We have a responsibility to manage our business for the long-term benefit of our colleagues, communities, partners, stakeholders in the industry, and the planet. We will drive improvements in all areas in our direct control, while partnering with like-minded companies to reduce our environmental footprint. These improvements will support us in achieving our target of net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and build a strong and sustainable business for next generations.--TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has announced the launch of its composite manufacturing facility, SAMI Composites, to produce composite parts for structural aerospace sub-assemblies, contributing to enhancing the Kingdom's industrial capabilities in the field of air and defence industries.

SAMI will partner with a leading international Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the project, thereby facilitating the transfer of technology and knowledge to enhance the local capabilities of the Saudi military industries sector.

The new composites unit will enhance the Saudi aerospace supply chain by using composite raw materials, production consumables, and manufacturing tooling. In addition, it will create 28 new high-skill jobs in 2022, with the number expected to rise to 90 in subsequent years.

On the announcement, Chairman Ahmed Al-Khateeb said: "In line with our commitment to supporting the achievement of Vision 2030 goals, we at SAMI have a strong focus on developing Saudi Arabias capabilities in the aerospace and defense industry."

"The new composite manufacturing facility represents a significant step forward in this mission as it will play an instrumental role in driving the localization of our competencies through partnerships with globally renowned OEMs besides boosting our aerospace exports and developing the technical skills of Saudi nationals in the defense industries sector," he stated.

CEO Walid Abukhaled said: "We are pleased to have reached a new milestone in our efforts to boost the development of indigenous, leading-edge products and solutions."

"With its massive manufacturing facility equipped with state-of-the-art systems and technologies, SAMI Composites will enable Saudi Arabia to become a leading supplier and exporter of composite aerospace components, serving the defense and other sectors in Saudi Arabia and globally, affirming that the facility will add tremendous value to the national economy by creating around 100 high-quality jobs and increasing non-oil exports over the next few years," he stated.

The Saudi group has appointed John Flavin as the CEO of SAMI Composites. He had only joined SAMI in May as Director of Aerostructures.

An experienced aerospace professional, Flavin is a registered Chartered Engineer with over 26 years of experience at the helm of various aerospace and aircraft facilities in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

SAMI Composites LLC is a significant milestone in PIFs efforts through SAMI to localize cutting-edge technology, build up knowledge, and establish strategic partnerships. In addition to driving technology innovation in Saudi Arabias defense sector, the new facility will accelerate the Kingdoms efforts to localize the production of aerospace and defense systems and create sustainable high-skilled jobs, all of which are among the key objectives of Saudi Vision 2030.

The facility has state-of-the-art systems and equipment to ensure the highest standards of production. It has a large cleanroom spanning 2,268 sqm to ensure the manufacturing environments compliance with international OEM standards and allow the layup of composite ply materials before curing.

Located south of Riyadh International Airport, SAMI Composites unit has an area of 27,000 sq m with 10,000 sqm of production and support buildings. The facility can produce composite structural components and assemblies, including fuselage and wing parts, skin panels, and moveable surfaces.-TradeArabia News Service
Leading Saudi franchise retailer Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair Company said its board of directors have recommended for a 46.2% drop in capital down to SR1.13 billion ($300 million) in bid to fully offset the accumulated losses of SR969.2 million as of September 30, 2021.

Announcing its board of directors' decision, Alhokair said it has also recommended a subsequent capital increase of 88.4%, after finalizing the capital reduction, by way of a rights issue.

The rights issue is expected to raise SR1 billion by issuing 100 million new shares. Total share capital will be SR2.13 billion.

Alhokair intends to use the proceeds to reinforce the companys overall financial and operational position by:

*Repaying a portion of its outstanding debt to improve the Net Debt to EBITDA ratio,

*Fund strategic growth plans, explore new value accretive initiatives

*Continue developing our infrastructure and digital transformation to support our e-commerce business

*Improve cash flows to balance operational requirements with long term returns.

CEO Marwan Moukarzel said: "The rights issue represents a key strategic milestone in Alhokairs vision to transform into the leading lifestyle retail destination in the kingdom and across chosen markets."

"The access to new funding will expedite our ability to execute on our operational upgrade strategy and build up the resources needed to support the Companys business growth. We remain confident that we are on the right path to create sustainable long-term value for our customers, investors, brand partners, and other stakeholders and strategic partners," he added.

The company's capital alteration recommendation is subject to the approvals of relevant regulators and the Extraordinary General Assembly to be held in due course.

Alinma Investment and Credit Suisse Saudi Arabia have been appointed as financial advisors for the capital reduction and increase as well as for the necessary applications to the authorities for approval.

Alinma Investment has also been appointed as the lead manager and underwriter for the capital increase.

Chief Financial Officer Ahmed Belbesy said: "The proposed recapitalization is a continuation of Alhokairs transformation process and an essential part of the operational upgrade strategy which will further optimize the balance sheet by gradually reducing debt and improving the cost of capital."

"We are certain that our capital allocation initiatives will speed up growth and position the company to deliver sustainable shareholder returns in the long-term," he added.

According to him, the Saudi retail sector, and in particular the consumer discretionary sub-sector, continues to display favorable underlying fundamentals expected to drive solid compound growth over the medium term.

These include the growth in socialization and leisure activities as strong social element where shopping and eating out are becoming engrained in the lifestyle of Saudi Arabians. Rising urbanization rates, increasing female participation in the labor force and material investments in the retail sector as part of Saudi Vision 2030 also underpin an exciting growth story, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Communities Condemn Australian Ambassador to Turkey

The peak advocacy bodies of the Armenian-Australian, Assyrian-Australian, and Greek-Australian communities have expressed their deep concern and dismay at comments made by Australia's Ambassador to Turkey, H.E. Miles Armitage praising genocidal dictator Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as a humanitarian.

In a letter addressed to Australia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon. Marise Payne, the Armenian National Committee of Australia, the Assyrian National Council -- Australia and the Australian Hellenic Council called attention to the Ambassador's unsettling message in the An?tkabir Private Book during a visit to the mausoleum of Ataturk, which praised the "humanity" of a violent dictator "on behalf of all Australians," Ambassador Armitage tweeted.

Under Ataturk's authoritarian regime, the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks who had suffered genocides on the lands of their ancestors, fell victim again to the now-celebrated dictator's legacy policy of genocide denial, which continues in Turkey today.

Whilst he may be known as the father of modern Turkey for modernising and secularising the country, a lesser-told history of the man referred to as Kemal was his reliance on the oldest evils of conquerors: a genocidal campaign to slaughter, burn, drown, destroy and remove indigenous people from their homelands.

Despite this, Ambassador Armitage felt it was appropriate to "honour the memory of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk" and to declare "his leadership, vision and humanity" as "an inspiration to both our peoples".

"These words and actions are a stain on the integrity of Australia, discrediting its reputation for upholding human rights while deeply offending the descendants of survivors of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides living in Australia," said Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), Haig Kayserian.

"Our communities feel personally insulted that our representative would glorify a figure responsible for committing countless heinous and horrific crimes against our ancestors, and we would hope that dictatorship, racial and religious repression, as well as crimes against humanity, are not values that 'inspire' Australian leaders, as they most definitely do not inspire everyday Australians," Kayserian added.

The peak advocacy bodies have requested the Australian Government correct the remarks of the Australian Ambassador to Turkey as not reflective of Australia's recollection of history, which is disrespectful to many ethnic Australians who are descendants of survivors of Kemal who proudly call Australia home.

On 25th February 2020, over 100 Federal Australian parliamentarians, diplomats, departmental officials, political staffers, academics, media and community leaders were treated to cultural performances, food, wine and brandy, as well as the historic signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, which affirmed that the signatory public affairs representatives of the three communities were jointly committed to seeing Australia recognise the Turkish-committed Genocides against the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian citizens of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
This is the first UNESCO-Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman International Prize for the Creative Economy. By contributing to global development this way, Prime Minister Hasina acknowledges the help the international community provided to her country.

Paris (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday presented the first UNESCO-Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman International Prize for the Creative Economy to MoTIV Creations Limited, a Ugandan-based integrated creative studio.

Noel Collin Kaijabwango, head of business and operations at MoTIV, received the award on behalf of the company. The prize is one of the initiatives undertaken by Bangladesh to mark its first 50 years of independence. UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay was present at the ceremony.

The award includes of a check for US$ 50,000 to encourage individual and collective initiatives that foster youth entrepreneurship projects and programmes in the area of economic innovation.

MoTIV, which was chosen from among 69 applicants, is located in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. It runs a centre that promotes collaboration and sustainability, providing training and tools to young entrepreneurs active in various sectors.

Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Hasina explained that UNESCO's choice to support this initiative is the most befitting tribute" to the memory of her late father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

What Bangladesh is today is so different from what it was during the early years of independence, Hasina said. This is due to his visionary leadership and legacy.

For the Bangladeshi leader, despite its limited financial possibilities, Bangladesh, after receiving help from the international community in recent decades, now wants to contribute to the socio-economic development and technological advancement of the global community.
Today's headlines: Beijing wants to introduce mental screening for students; Israeli couple arrested in Turkey for photographing Erdogan's residence; controversy in Russia over the "mandatory, but not forced" introduction of the QR-Code; Damascus and Abu Dhabi sign a solar power agreement.

MYANMAR

American journalist Danny Fenster has been sentenced to 11 years in prison by a military court in Myanmar. Managing editor of the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, he had been charged with incitement and sedition by the junta under laws on terrorism, immigration and illegal associations. He is among dozens of reporters convicted since the February coup.

CHINA

By the end of 2022, China's Ministry of Education (MoE) will include mental health screenings as part of the checks required of pupils to attend school. It will be aimed at detecting cases of depression among students. Most are found among young people between the ages of 14 and 18, as they are under heavy pressure in their academic studies.

TURKEY - ISRAEL

An Israeli couple has been arrested in Turkey for photographing President Erdogan's residence in Istanbul from a boat. Originally from Modiin and on vacation to celebrate a birthday, they disappeared after sharing the images on WhatsApp; Israel downplays the incident. In October, 15 people were arrested on charges of being Mossad spies.

RUSSIA

Controversy erupts in Russia over the "compulsory, but not obligatory" introduction, according to President Putin's expression, of vaccination certificates with Qr-Code. A protest demonstration was held in St. Petersburg. Large sectors of the Orthodox Church have for years opposed electronic tax cards, and even more so the green pass, seen as a diabolical instrument of control.

HONG KONG

A Hong Kong court sentenced "Captain America 2.0," an activist famous for displaying the super-hero's shield at a protest, to nearly six years in prison on charges he promoted independence from China. Ma Chun-man, 31, is guilty under the National Security Law sought by Beijing. He had pleaded not guilty and did not testify.

PAKISTAN

On November 11, the "Troika plus", met in Islamabad bringing together Russia, China, the United States and Pakistan. The meeting focused on the situation in Afghanistan, with the planned intervention of Kabul Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki. The Secretary of the U.S. State Department Ned Price hopes for the recognition of the achievements in civil rights, especially for women and minorities.

SYRIA - UAE

Syria has signed an agreement with UAE companies for the construction of a solar power plant near the capital, a sign of growing economic ties between two former enemies in conflict. The announcement comes two days after a meeting between Assad and the Emirates' foreign minister, a sign of regional efforts to end Damascus' diplomatic isolation.
Guidelines for ecumenical pastoral care published by the Latin Patriarchate. Catholic priests will be able to give the sacraments of confession, the Eucharist and the anointing of the sick to the faithful of the Orthodox Churches, provided they ask for it on their own initiative; Catholics will also be able to receive the same sacraments from a minister of the Orthodox Church. Patriarch Pizzaballa: the goal is to "give some order" to this experience, for a need that "comes from the ground, from every day life".

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - For generations the Holy Land has been emerging as a laboratory of ecumenism, the growing interaction between the different Churches and the faithful "is not new" and through a document "we wanted to give some order to this experience," The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa told AsiaNews.

He was commenting on the recent publication of the "Guidelines for the Ecumenical Pastoral Care of the Catholic Churches in the Holy Land" approved on October 5 by the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries (Aocts). The text reflects what has been occurring for some time now in every day life, with increasing interaction between Christians of different rites and traditions and the implications that this entails in terms of doctrine and practice of the faith.

"The Holy Land is a laboratory, a thermometer - adds the patriarch - but it is also true for the West, beacuse of the growing phenomenon of immigration."

"The important thing is to emphasize that these are pastoral directives that do not touch doctrine, while not ignoring it," noting that by now several families "are mixed" and practical answers must be provided to this reality. "The relationship between the Churches," he added, "is not doctrine, but an urgent need of the families themselves" who do not need indissoluble "principles" as much as concrete "indications.

The document will come into force next November 28 and will be applied in all the Catholic Churches of the Holy Land (Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus), under the guidance of bishops, priests, religious and faithful of Arabic, Jewish and other languages in teh migrant communities. It will involve communities linked to the Latin Patriarchate, the Greek-Melkite, Maronite, Syrian Catholic, Armenian and Chaldean Churches. The text urges the faithful to prioritize the practice of faith and the sacraments "in their own Church," to avoid gestures that could appear to proselytize, and to be open to other confessions.

The approach is in line with the "synodal path" outlined Oct. 30 by the Church of the Holy Land in the broader program of the general synod desired by Pope Francis around three key words: communion, participation and mission. The recommendations focus on sharing sacramental life with baptized people of other Christian denominations and liturgical celebrations, while ecumenical formation, schools, youth and charity will be addressed at a later date.

Catholic priests will be able to impart the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist - there is talk of "Eucharistic hospitality" to non-Catholics - and the anointing of the sick for the faithful of the Orthodox Churches, provided they ask for it on their own initiative; they will have to respect the discipline through which they are administered. Catholics will also be able to receive the same sacraments from a minister of the Orthodox Church, with which there are greater affinities.

For Church experts, the document represents an important step in ecumenism and relations between confessions, although the Patriarch wishes to clarify that "it does not innovate in anything, but simply wanted to define the reality that we live every day. And, he continues, to give priests and parish priests guidelines to deal with "the most complex situations" without running the risk of "oversimplifying" or "proselytizing" in a framework of "good relations" between Churches.

These relations would seem more aligned with the Orthodox "with whom we share the discipline of the sacraments and the priesthood," while greater obstacles remain with the Evangelical and Anglican world. The guidelines are a response to "a need, a cry that comes from below, to make ecumenical dialogue more concrete. The need to be together is not a matter between theologians", but an aspect of Christian unity and a strong point "to relate with Islam and Judaism". After the darkness, the silence and the distance linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, the patriarch concludes, the Church "lives a new phase, we started the synod with enthusiasm, there is a desire to meet and celebrate".
by Steve Suwannarat

In recent weeks, more than 22,000 Chin refugees have fled the violence by the Myanmar military joining Rohingya refugees already been present in the country. The Malaysian government has condemned the coup in Myanmar, but refugees from that country in Malaysia are more like hostages than welcomed and respected guests.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews)  Malaysia has welcomed a large number of immigrants, but the severity of its laws and their opportunistic application have made life hard for nearly 156,000 Myanmar refugees registered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Since late September, more than 22,000 Chin have fled the violence of the Myanmar military that took power in February, joining the mostly ethnic Rohingya refugees who had fled previous waves of persecution.

According to the UNHCR, Myanmar refugees join hundreds of thousands of Myanmar immigrants already living in Malaysia: 550,000 regular and at least 250,000 undocumented.

The position of the Malaysian government has fluctuated against a backdrop of high availability of low-level jobs for foreigners and the arbitrary use of immigration laws.

The restrictions imposed by the authorities in March 2020 under health legislation and the increased powers assigned to the police in case of national emergencies have led to roundups of thousands of undocumented workers, officially-designated refugees and asylum-seeking applicants.

According to the latest available data from last year, at least 15,000 foreigners are held in overcrowded facilities. The latter have already become hubs of contagion for COVID-19.

Many detainees are genuine refugees not yet assisted by the UNHCR, including at least 350 women and children, according to international sources. This has created a situation of unease and uncertainty, the Asian Pacific Refugee Rights Network reports.

These factors, together with fewer job opportunities and the fear of expulsion, explain scores of suicides among immigrants.

The Malaysian government has openly condemned the coup in Myanmar, calling for a truce and the start of a dialogue to end the violence, but Myanmar migrants in Malaysia today are more like hostages than welcomed and respected guests.

For example, it is difficult to understand why, a few days after the February coup, Malaysian authorities expelled 1,086 Myanmar nationals to a country under a dictatorship, where they were incarcerated and remain so.

Conversely, the UNHCR notes that, while the authorities deny that the expellees are people in possession of refugee status, since August 2019 the UN agency has been denied access to detention centres to verify who among these guests" has right to international protection.
Francis travelled to Assisi ahead of the Fifth World Day of the Poor. It is time for sleeves to be rolled up so dignity can be restored by creating jobs, he said. It is time to be scandalised once again before the reality of children who are starving, reduced to slavery, tossed about in the water in the aftermath of a shipwreck, innocent victims of every sort of violence. Likewise, It is time that violence against women cease and that they be respected and not treated like bargaining chips.

Assisi (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis visited the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi today, a couple of days before the Fifth World Day of the Poor on Sunday. Here he met with 500 poor people from different parts of the world.

In his address, the pontiff said that it was time for the voice of the poor to be heard again after going unheeded for too long, for jobs to be created, for people to be scandalised by the fate of children, starved, enslaved, victims of violence, for violence against women to stop and for them to be respected rather than treated as merchandise.

In his fifth visit to the city of the Poor Man of Assisi, Pope Francis, with the pilgrim's cloak and staff, listened to the stories, often tragic, of some of the people present, stories like those of Farzaneh, a young Afghan woman who said that her heart was still "with her friends in Kabul", and Abrhaley Tesfagergs Habte, a 31-year-old Eritrean blinded by one of the many anti-personnel mines used during his countrys war of liberation from Ethiopia. He accompanied the Pope in the first part of the visit, in front of the basilica.

Other stories echoed as well, about poverty, drugs, violence; broken lives slowly trying to recover, also thanks to the help of Caritas and other Catholic charities. And Francis listened, shook hands and hugged children.

I thank you for accepting my invitation  I was the guest! - to celebrate here in Assisi, the city of Saint Francis, the fifth World Day of the Poor that will be celebrated the day after tomorrow. It is an idea that came from you, it grew, and we have now reached the fifth edition.

This idea was born in a rather strange way, in a sacristy. I was about to celebrate Mass and one of you - his name is Etienne - do you know him? He is an enfant terrible - Etienne suggested to me: Let's have a Day of the Poor. I went out and I felt that the Holy Spirit, inside, was telling me to do it. That is how it began: from the courage of one of you.

I thank you because you have come here from many different countries to live this experience of encounter and of faith.

The Pope also thanked Card Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop emeritus of Lyon, who ended up on trial a few years ago on charges of covering up abuse, only to be later acquitted. The cardinal is in Assisi together with some poor people from France.

Looking at him, the pontiff said that he is among the poor, he too has suffered with dignity the experience of poverty, of abandonment, of distrust. And he has defended himself with silence and prayer.

Thank you, Cardinal Barbarin, for your testimony which builds up the Church. I was saying that we have come to meet each other: this is the first thing, that is, to go towards each other with an open heart and outstretched hand. We know that every one of us needs the other, and that even weakness, if experienced together, can become a strength that will make the world better.

The presence of the poor is often seen as an annoyance and is put up with. Sometimes we hear it said that those responsible for poverty are the poor! A further insult. So as not to carry out a serious examination of conscience on ones own actions, on the injustice of certain laws and economic measures, an examination of conscience on the hypocrisy of those who want to enrich themselves excessively, blame is laid at the feet of those who are weakest.

Rather it is time that the poor be given back their voice, because for too long their requests have remained unheard. It is time that eyes be opened to see the state of inequality in which many families live. It is time for sleeves to be rolled up so dignity can be restored by creating jobs. It is time to be scandalised once again before the reality of children who are starving, reduced to slavery, tossed about in the water in the aftermath of a shipwreck, innocent victims of every sort of violence.

It is time that violence against women cease and that they be respected and not treated like bargaining chips. It is time that the circle of indifference be broken so as to discover once again the beauty of encounter and dialogue. It is time to meet each other. It is the time to meet. If humanity, if we men and women do not learn to meet each other, we are heading for a very sad end.

I have attentively listened to your testimonies, and I thank you for everything you have courageously and sincerely expressed. [. . .] There are some things in particular that I liked and would like to summarize them somehow to make them even more my own and let them settle into my heart.

First of all, I perceived a tremendous sense of hope. Life has not always treated you well; indeed, it has often shown you its cruel face. Marginalisation, suffering sickness and loneliness, the lack of so many necessary means has not stopped you from seeing with eyes filled with gratitude the little things that have enabled you to hold out.

To hold out. This is the second impression I received and that comes directly from hope. What does it mean to hold out? To have the strength to keep going despite everything. To swim against the current. To hold out is not a passive action, on the contrary, it requires the courage to take a new path knowing it will bear fruit.

To hold out means to find reasons for not giving up when confronted with difficulties, knowing that we do not experience them alone but together, and that only together can we overcome them. To hold out against every temptation to give up and fall into loneliness and sadness. To hold out, holding on to the little wealth we may have.

I think of the girl in Afghanistan, with her striking phrase: my body is here, my soul is there. Holding out with memory, today. I think of the Romanian mother who spoke at the end: pain, hope and no way out, but strong hope in her children who accompany her and repay the tenderness they received from her.

Let us ask the Lord to always help us find serenity and joy. [. . .] May this meeting open all of our hearts to put ourselves at each others disposal; to open our hearts to make our weakness a strength to help continue on the journey of life, to transform our poverty into wealth to be shared, and thus to make the world better.

After the greetings, the Pope returned to the Vatican by helicopter while the poor had lunch organised by Bishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi.
by Paul Nguyen Hung

The fourth COVID-19 wave hasn't stopped Catholics in Bac Ninh from bringing the Good News to those who don't know Jesus. Eleven people were recently baptised. Lay missionaries provide answers that evoke the words of Jesus, said Brother Dominic Tran Van Tan.

Bac Ninh (AsiaNews)  Various Catholic organisations are promoting evangelisation missions in various parishes in the Diocese of Bac Ninh, not far from the capital Hanoi.

The Family of St Joseph, the Family of Our Lady of the Rosary, and the Dominican Fraternity are groups of lay missionaries who have decided to put into practice Pope Franciss message to spread the Word of Christ to marginalised communities.

This is the way to bring the good fruits of evangelisation to such places, wrote Brother Dominic Tran Van Tan on his website.

The mission takes on greater importance since the fourth COVID-19 wave hit Vietnam in April, complicating the material and spiritual life of this Buddhist majority country.

Yesterday, local authorities reported more than 8,000 new SARS-CoV-2 cases. Meanwhile, high unemployment remains, while schools are still shuttered.

Despite the situation, Catholics in the Diocese of Bac Ninh have not given up; instead, they are encouraging each other to bring the Good News to those who do not know the Lord.

Taking to city streets, lay missionaries establish contacts with the people they meet, welcomed sometimes in the homes of mostly poor people, of those who are lonely or senior citizens who live in marginalised areas of the cities.

It is strange to see that even though these amateur missionaries don't know much about the Bible, they often give answers that evoke the words of Jesus, Brother Dominic explained.

While Catholics are not always welcomed, they leave in such cases with a spirit of love and continue their missionary work with simplicity and joy, listening to others.

These missionaries are ordinary laity, some students in Bac Ninh told AsiaNews. Their lives are normal. But what is extraordinary is the desire to find souls for God.

Eleven people in the Cau am area were baptised recently, including a mother whose daughter runs a private pagoda.

An elderly lady from Xom Cho, who lives alone with few social interactions, was baptised yesterday. During the ceremony she expressed the joy of joining the Catholic community.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

The Polish government claims the Kremlin is behind the flow of refugees trying to cross the border between Poland and Belarus. The Russians reject the accusations and criticize the EU. The Europeans prepare new sanctions and Lukashenko threatens to block the passage of gas. Fears in the Baltic Republics and Ukraine over Moscow's moves.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "trying to rebuild the Empire" and of being the real culprit in the crisis on the border between Poland and Belarus, with Minsk "pushing" thousands of migrants to enter Polish territory: a crisis that has raised the level of tension between Russians and Belarusians on the one hand and the European Union on the other.

The Kremlin has issued a stark response to its historical enemy of the East Slavic world: "we consider the words of the Polish Prime Minister absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable," said spokesman Dmitrij Peskov.

Peskov says the refugees from Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East (the largest group seems to be the Kurds), "only want to get to Western Europe, and we remember the precedents of the recent past, when Europeans spoke of the values related to the defense of these people, of wanting to protect them for humanitarian reasons. Earlier, the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, also intervened, complaining that "it is not permissible to lie so openly, even to oneself". Zakharova says that Lukashenko and Putin assessed the situation together in a phone call on November 9, promising to "maintain close contact on the issue."

Polish President Andrzej Duda claims that Belarusian authorities are voluntarily pushing crowds of migrants into border areas of the Grodno region, where there are no border controls, by driving them through forested paths. None of the parties seems to be willing to compromise to resolve the crisis, which continues to worsen day by day.

At the moment there are between 12 and 15 thousand migrants in Belarus, said the representative of Polish services Stanislaw Zharyn: "The group gathered in recent months," he told Interfax. At least 4 thousand people are stationed near the Polish border, without any shelter.

The concentration of migrants in Belarus had begun to talk in the summer. In August, Lithuania, where refugees from the Middle East and North Africa were seeking entry, had ordered the border police to reject them in Belarus. The EU had obtained a suspension of flights from Iraq to Minsk, and the Iraqi government had organized repatriation flights from Belarus. In autumn the migratory wave swelled again, up to the current emergency.

According to the Belarusian Minister of the Interior, Ivan Kubrakov, "all migrants are legally on the territory of Belarus". The countries of origin reported are Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iran Nigeria. These people are given Belarusian visas directly at the airport in Minsk. Flights from these countries have increased significantly since the summer, creating the "Belarusian corridor" to reach Europe; the Russian company Areoflot risks facing new EU sanctions.

European politicians are convinced that the whole operation is actually a Belarusian attempt to organize a campaign against the EU, to take revenge for the sanctions imposed in the last year. Lukasenko himself has threatened several times to "pay less attention to what happens on the western borders" because of the European policy: "We have always protected you from drugs and migrants, now you are eating and swallowing them yourself", Lukasenko had declared on May 26. Now the Belarusian president is threatening to close gas pipelines and commercial traffic with Western Europe; truck queues at the border with Belarus are reaching 25 kilometers.

Most concerned are Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine, on which more "routed" migrant flows could pour. Lukasenko has even asked Russia to deploy nuclear bombers on the borders with these countries. Kiev is strengthening preventive measures to "block the invasion with engineering restructuring measures on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border," said Deputy Interior Minister Evgenij Enin. "Our neighbors," Enin explained, "must know that we are ready to resist and respond to provocations. More walls rise on Europe's borders."
Hooff, who co-owns Somerset Development with her life and business partner, Jim Campbell, said she wanted to do the right thing when she initially came to Baltimore and found the old Memorial Apartments in need of help.
The deer carcass the eagles ate was buried so no other wildlife would feed on it, according to Moses. She told The Post that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Officials were expected to take samples from the remains for analysis.
But I will give the writer a concrete example from todays news: It turns out the son of the governor elect of Virginia attempted to vote twice in the recent election. Both times he was turned away by a sharp-eyed election official who noticed that he was only 17-years-old. He was not charged with a crime even though his father ran on the issue of so called election integrity. The hypocrisy of this is gargantuan, particularly since it would have been completely different if Mr. Youngkins son were a person of color. As a matter of fact, one of the lies spread by Trump officials challenging the 2020 presidential election was that 140,000 underage and dead voters had illegally cast ballots in Fulton County, Georgia. Fulton County is 44% black and 7% Hispanic, and 525,000 votes were cast in the 2020 POTUS election. It turns out that the Republican secretary of state in Georgia confirmed through rigorous vote recounting that there had not been a single underage vote cast in Fulton County.
There is much more to do to address inequities in our health care system and achieve our goal of making sure all Marylanders have access to high-quality, affordable care. We encourage all Marylanders get insured and tell others to do the same  particularly young people who may be eligible for subsidies that were not available last year.
Emergency equipment such as fire department chain saws should be exempt from a two-stroke engine ban, but excellent alternatives exist for other uses. Two-stroke engines were favored in the developing world as cheap, easily-repaired transportation. But when it became impossible to see across the street, New Delhi banned such vehicles and experienced a breath of (relatively) fresh air. The whole of India may be soon rid of such polluters. Maryland should move to ban them, too.
The 3rd District is ridiculous in every version. In the first map, it has a long narrow tail cutting through the 7th District, while in the fourth map, it looks like a cartoon elephant in profile playing the keyboard of the 2nd District, an arbitrary diagonal across south and East Baltimore. The 4th District also fares badly, particularly in the first and second versions, and the 7th can only be called peculiar.
Under the program, factory farm biogas is also deemed a clean energy solution. That means that the corporate agriculture industry, the Chesapeake Bays largest polluter, has a new revenue stream, monetizing their 580 million pounds of poultry litter produced annually on Marylands Eastern Shore. Factory farm biogas is just the latest moneymaker for an industry that has no real intention of dealing with its waste problem. Whats more, factory farm biogas is methane, a potent greenhouse gas, that travels through pipelines, keeping fossil fuel infrastructure on the grid and extending a lifeline to the fracked gas industry.
Manifestation a Bamenda Anonyme

Reports from Bamenda, capital of Cameroons restive North-West Region say a schoolgirl has died while a police officer fired bullets aiming at a fleeing pickup vehicle.

The police officer is said to have been chasing the pickup vehicle around the New Road neighborhood in Nkwen when he fired shots that went off target, marking the latest killing to spark outrage.

The concerned driver and hilux are thought to belong to a Bamenda-based micro finance network, a local journalist familiar with the situation said pending the results of investigations.

The police officer and his peers were probably on routine patrol this Friday, November 12, 2021 when the unfortunate incident occurred.

The pickup vehicle might have refused to stop for security checks, prompting the police officer to fire from a distance, leading to the death of a 7-year-old girl returning from school, identified by local reporters as Tataw Brenda.

Her mother is said to have fled the unrest in Mbingo, Kom in Boyo Division and sought safety in Nkwen.

At the time of this report, an irate population was parading the corpse of schoolgirl, marching towards the administrative authorities.

The New Road neighborhood has always been safe. But nowGod help us, said a resident of the area.

Minus the child killed after that bullet, it could be any other person who was walking along that path. In the centre of town where you can easily pick up the vehicle number or signal your colleagues, you pull the trigger, regretted a pundit.

Pictures and videos of the deceased schoolgirl have now flooded social media. It is not clear if the blood oozing out of her head is the result of a bullet.

I heard a gun was fired and the kid was frightened and she fell into a gutter and hit her head. It's really sad but she didn't die from gunshot, said an observer.

Investigation by competent state services will shed light on the incident.

Todays incident in Bamenda follows a similar one in Buea last month. A gendarme officer, Mvogo Rigobert shot and killed six-year-old Carolaise Enondiale on her way to school, on Thursday, October 14, 2021.
I know the people at Hopkins and Maryland could have established many companies in town if there was enough wet lab space, but there simply has not been government money to back that up, and developers havent been willing to pull the trigger, said Block, who has leased at the BioPark since 2008. Thats a good place for the government to step in and mitigate that risk with programs that make it thrive, and maybe the government keeps a piece of the upside.
But with weeks to go before the Dec. 6 trial, which doesnt even show on the court docket, little is known about the legal fight because so much has been sealed at the request of prosecutors. Two weeks ago, there were 20 new filings  and 18 of them were either sealed documents, motions to seal or orders to seal.
She bought it, and now has sold it, like millions of Americans do every day. Period, Bolden said in a statement. If there is any news, it is the fact that Ms. Mosby, since prosecuting the police officers in the Freddie Gray matter, she has incurred substantial fees and costs in fighting frivolous lawsuits, investigations and complaints against her.
Baltimore County government officials said they would cover the cost of preemployment background checks, fingerprinting, physical exams, mandatory drug testing and, in some cases, sleep apnea tests for commercial drivers license holders. The countys superintendent, Darryl Williams, said drivers would be offered incentives that include $50 monthly rewards for on-time attendance, $250 sign-on bonuses, $250 employee referral incentives and $1,000 retention bonuses paid in December and June. The Baltimore County school system also will offer more flexible time off and a $2 per hour shift differential for drivers who take on additional routes through the remainder of the school year.
It is crucial that our youth gain an understanding of how STEM is used in the world today and learn that a STEM education extends much farther beyond the classroom, Hoerl said, adding she hopes this opportunity inspires students to engage in the world they live in and become more environmentally conscious.
First is the Perry Point Holiday Giving Campaign. Donations will be accepted at the Chamber Office (108 S. Bond St., Bel Air, MD 21014) through Dec. 3 from Monday to Thursday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Please contribute holiday cards without religious messages, detachable parts, or glitter; full-size toiletries (shampoo, body wash, body/hand lotion, nonmedicated baby powder, and denture adhesive); and easy to do craft kids such as paint by numbers. Nothing with alcohol can be accepted. Only alcohol-free mouthwash can be accepted on patients behalf.
In my 77th year of life, my wonderment actually has increased as more is discovered about the secret life of animals. The one human who I most would like to have been and who I admire deeply is Sir David Attenborough, the naturalist who has broadcast his wildlife explorations for 70 years and is still going strong at 95. I would have loved to lead his life of global expeditions in search of biodiversity and his championing the conservation of the web of life he explores with viewers.
I am inspired this week by an assignment my wife is doing for a Law in Education class. Her assignment was to write about religion in school and particularly release time for religious classes. It is an interesting assignment for her because, unlike most of her class, she grew up in a state 
Videos

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
We have to consider these things because there are not just disagreements over Rittenhouses guilt or innocence. There are people  many  on the right who consider the now 18-year-old not just innocent, but heroic. He has been hailed by them as an All-American patriot who did what the police or the government wasnt willing to do. Some say he should one day run for public office. Some have compared his prosecution to child abuse.
Many of our students who are living in poverty are from families who were afraid for their children to come back into the school building, Sanders said. We know the pandemic has had a disparate impact on low-income families, so we did expect it would have an impact on their childrens assessment results.
Parents are saying, Ive never really understood my friends without kids before, and now I understand what theyre going through. Im going to go apologize. Shechter said. I think that its an interesting point of meeting and understanding peoples lives. This is oddly similar to abortion in some ways that women dont know their own minds. That somebody else knows better for them. I think the first step is to feel validated in your own choices; to know youre not alone. Youre not weird. This is a valid choice. Whats best for you? Although it can be annoying, I think its a little easier when you know that other people have your back, so to speak.
For a gripping documentary about the U.S./Mexico border, the drug trade and a hornet's nest of sociopolitical nightmares, watch Matthew Heineman's "Cartel Land."

For a commercial thriller on related themes, "Sicario" will do. The first hour of this latest film from French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve is sleek, terrific pulp. The second half of "Sicario" (in Mexico, slang for "hitman") settles for more conventional bloodshed and storytelling.

Such films present a conundrum for any director with a semblance of a moral conscience: How do you make a movie built upon a revenge scenario and deliver the killing while also suggesting that the carnage is pretty appalling?

"Sicario" opens just outside a suburban Phoenix home. An FBI raid is about to run into some serious opposition. The house belongs to a known Mexican drug lord. Agent Macer, played with a haunted look and pristine technique by Emily Blunt, bursts into a bedroom and, in an eyeblink, an armed thug takes his shot and misses, and Macer shoots him dead.

Another agent spies something behind the bullet-ridden drywall: two dozen corpses, artifacts of the cartel's activities. More violence ensues.

Macer is recruited to join a shadowy interdepartmental task force targeting the drug lord behind the drug lord. A CIA analyst, played with witty arrogance by Josh Brolin, explains to Macer that the idea is to "dramatically overreact" and show the Mexican cartel kingpins that dirty wars beget dirty wars. Benicio Del Toro is first seen on screen in the middle distance, as Brolin's character mentions his "bird dog," Alejandro. Del Toro plays this mercenary, a man with his own murky history with the cartels.

The most ruthlessly suspenseful sequence in "Sicario" is a dazzlingly staged and edited ambush at the Juarez/El Paso border crossing. A much quieter scene later on points to Villeneuve's intelligent complication of our responses toward what happens. The scene in question places Brolin and Blunt in a long shot on a tarmac as Blunt's Macer hears from her superior just how little her cohorts are playing by what's left of the rules. The way it's handled here, you have a welcome shot of ambiguity.

"Sicario" doesn't fall apart in its second half, exactly, but it does settle for less than it should. By design Macer remains a reactive presence, a conduit, though one dimension shy of a three-dimensional protagonist. As the Del Toro character closes in on his prey, the movie narrows and becomes more predictable. Yet even in the opening FBI raid, the behavior on screen feels real enough to matter.

Villeneuve's next project is a "Blade Runner" sequel starring Ryan Gosling. The director's finest hour to date remains "Incendies" (2010). "Sicario" boasts passages as fine and harrowing as any in that picture, even with "Sicario's" script limitations and its vague odor of what might be called "scuzz tourism," following a longstanding tradition of Anglo protagonists tasting the rot south of the border. (The greatest scuzz-tourism movie ever: Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil.")

What makes "Sicario" distinctive and, at its best, a little unnerving  its chilly ambivalence toward everything Macer witnesses  may limit its fortunes in the States. But as Marge Gunderson said in "Fargo," there's more to life than a little money.

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

mjphillips@tribpub.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

"Sicario" -- 3 stars

MPAA rating: R (for strong violence, grisly images, and language)

Running time: 2:01

Opens: Thursday evening
The violence at home, and direct threats (mostly invented by Branagh for the movie) to the familys safety, push things to a crisis point. Getting there is rocky in more ways than one. Some of Branaghs scenes are adorable in the worst way: the getting-to-know-you montage with Buddy and his Catholic sweetheart; the misjudged High Noon homage, arriving at a point in Belfast when we really dont need another film reference. (The brief scene where members of the family crowd on the couch to watch One Million Years B.C. is the best of the bunch.)
The book  whose surrealist title is a mashup of imaginary storefront names taken from the renderings  is almost entirely without text, except for a short poetic introduction in which Relph says, of the project: Reader, it had the taste of theft/A theft so tiny as to be absurd. Leafing through its pages feels like reading Rem Koolhaas 1978 classic Delirious New York on psilocybin. It also feels like walking through parts of the actual city in perpetual twilight, viewed through dirty sunglasses, wondering  especially against the backdrop of a global pandemic and a mounting climate crisis  what possible reason could account for so many stupendous structures?
Lollapalooza is an international showcase for Chicago each summer, but this year was particularly notable as it signified a live return following 2020s pandemic cancellation. The festival, held from July 29 to Aug. 1, also marked the final year of the decadelong contract between promoter C3 Presents and the Chicago Park District to hold Lollapalooza in Chicago. The event is expected to be back in 2022 under the deals evergreen provision that allows a year to be tacked onto the end of the contract. Neither C3, the Park District nor Lightfoots office would confirm whether the contract extension has been signed.
The messages indicate that Burton had arranged regular pay days for the two officers at two-week intervals, often for $300, prosecutors alleged. Burton also expressed frustration at times that the officers werent getting him information fast enough to give him a leg up in the cutthroat profession.
As a patriotic citizen, I hope and pray that the people of our nation will move forward united by the many commonalities we share, Rukstales said. I look forward to putting this chapter behind me with the knowledge that in the years to come I will prove myself worthy of forgiveness by living the values that have guided me as a productive and peaceful citizen for the past 53 years.
In Little Village, community groups are calling for the public release of the Chicago inspector generals report into the botched Hilco smokestack demolition that left parts of the neighborhood and surrounding areas coated in ash and dust during the early days of a respiratory pandemic. On the Southeast Side, residents denounced city health officials for ignoring their concerns about the potential move of a metal shredder to the heavily industrialized neighborhood where people already breathe some of the citys dirtiest air.
However, DePaul University adjunct law professor Alice Setrini said federal laws such as the ADA or Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 could also help employers deal with workers balking at a vaccine order. For instance, if an employee, citing a religious exemption, goes to federal court for their refusal to get vaccinated, the employer could be allowed under the law to require the worker to get tested or wear a mask.
Both Wheeling investigators and Illinois State Police reported news about the van Thursday, local police in a news release and state police via an endangered missing person advisory, which can be used when a case does not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert, according to Wheeling Deputy Police Chief Al Steffen. He said the advisories are used for situations that do involve a person who is missing and believed to be in danger.
China will push for more international organizations and conferences to include Chinese as an official language or working language, giving its increasingly important role in international communication and the country's rising influence globally, the Ministry of Education said.

The Chinese language was adopted as one of the official languages of the United Nations World Tourism Organization in January, the ministry said.

In response to a proposal made this year by a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference about the challenges and risks facing international Chinese language education, the ministry said great achievements have been made in Chinese language education globally.

More than 1,500 Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms have been established in 159 countries, and their courses have been taken by more than 13 million Chinese-language learners, the ministry said.

Moreover, over 180 countries have conducted Chinese-language teaching programs and 75 countries have incorporated the language into their national education system by issuing laws and regulations, it said.

More than 4,000 foreign universities have established Chinese-language departments, majors and courses, and more than 75,000 primary and secondary schools and training institutions worldwide have opened Chinese language courses, the ministry said.

There are more than 25 million foreigners currently learning the language and accumulatively almost 200 million foreigners have learned the language, it said.

With China's growing economic power and global influence, people around the world are more eager to learn the language and know about the country, which has provided a historic opportunity for the sustainable development of international Chinese language education, the ministry said.

However, the sector still faces many challenges including a lack of comprehensive standards, teachers and teaching materials, the COVID-19 pandemic and the politicization of Chinese learning by a small number of countries.

The ministry will continue to revise the standards of Chinese-language teachers, teaching materials, exams and evaluation. It will also push for more private, localized and professional development of Confucius Institutes.

Kendall Kracke, the global champion of the 20th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students, said she began to learn the language when she was 18 years old.

The 24-year-old from the United States said that although the journey of learning the language has not always been smooth, she has never considered giving up due to her love for China.

As a PhD candidate in Chinese language education in Portland State University, Oregon, she also teaches Chinese at a local secondary school.

Kracke said that she wants to continue to be a Chinese teacher and let more of her students fall in love with the language and the country from experiencing Chinese culture and visiting the country.
Hempu Time, a company specialized in cannabis hemp, works with Yunnan Baiyao to introduce CBD products. We traveled to Yunnan to find out more, from hemp raw materials to how CBD was extracted. Our video may change your idea about cannabis.


On the early morning of Nov. 9, 2016, I was woken up by a string of news alerts on my phone: Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States. I rushed to the conference site of COP22, in Marrakech, Morocco, where I was reporting on the ongoing UN climate meeting.

Taken by surprise, climate groups and NGOs threw up press conferences that day, knowing that the newly elected president is a climate change denier. They called on people to maintain the efforts in fighting climate change despite the election outcome.

What happened in the following years have been well documented: Trump denied climate change time and again and  worst of all  pulled out of the landmark Paris Agreement altogether in 2017. That was seen by many as a severe blow to the global efforts on climate change.

Five years after Marrakech, during the closing days of the COP26 in Glasgow, a joint declaration between China and the U.S. again took many by surprise  this one a pleasant one. The two countries released the "China-U.S. Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s," pledging to join hands to tackle climate change over this decade.

Coming from the world's two largest economic powers and also the largest emitters of carbon dioxide, the declaration injects immense confidence to the global fight against climate change.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres posted on Twitter following the announcement, "Tackling the climate crisis requires international collaboration and solidarity, and this is an important step in the right direction."

The declaration is indeed a much-needed major step on the right path. In 2020, the global temperature rose at least 1.2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times, and scientists have warned that the world would see more extreme weathers that bring tremendous damage to humanity if no concrete action is taken. It is high time that countries shouldered their due responsibility and joined hands to fight against this global crisis.

China has been playing its part on climate change all along. In 2015, China set a national objective to peak carbon dioxide emissions as soon as possible and by 2030 at the latest. By the end of 2019, China had already delivered on its 2020 climate action target ahead of schedule. In 2020, China announced a new set of national goals, including peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060.

China has also been contributing to global efforts against the climate crisis. For instance, the country has provided assistance and support to other developing countries to address climate change. Since 2011, China has allocated about 1.2 billion yuan for South-South climate cooperation and trained about 2,000 officials and professionals in the field of climate change for nearly 120 developing countries.

Yet China alone cannot solve what many call the biggest threat to humanity. Hence the renewed cooperation with the U.S. is important.

In the joint declaration, the two sides mapped out a number of areas for cooperation in the next 10 years, including reducing greenhouse gases, tackling deforestation, clean energy transition, etc. They also agreed to establish a working group on climate action, which will meet regularly to address the climate crisis and effectively institutionalize the China-U.S. cooperation mechanism on climate change. These are bound to help the two countries achieve their individual targets as well as contribute to the global efforts on the climate crisis.

What went behind and beyond the joint pact is worth celebrating too. The fact that the declaration can be agreed to amid rising tensions between the two countries proves that China and the U.S. can set aside their differences and work on things that matter to them. There is room for talks and negotiations if they have the will and wisdom.

Moreover, as the world continues to be ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, this also points to a commonplace but often neglected truth: Science, reason and cooperation shall and should prevail over denial, skepticism, and blame game when we face crises that threaten humanity.
 Flash

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday that the United States should take concrete actions to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, and stop sending erroneous signals to "Taiwan independence" forces.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing when asked to comment on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's recent remarks on U.S. commitment to ensuring Taiwan's ability to defend itself.

"The relevant remarks from the U.S. side ignore the facts and run counter to international law," Wang said, adding the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques are the foundation of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries and the sound development of China-U.S. relations.

Wang said the so-called Taiwan Relations Act unilaterally enacted by the United States violates the commitments made by the United States in the three China-U.S. joint communiques and puts the domestic laws of the United States above the country's international obligations, which is illegal and invalid.

China will not allow the United States to violate China's sovereignty and interfere in the country's internal affairs under any pretext, Wang said.

He said the United States should take concrete actions to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, be cautious in its words and deeds, and stop sending erroneous signals to "Taiwan independence" forces.

Wang said that there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. "This is not only a historical and legal fact that cannot be changed, but it is also the status quo that cannot be challenged," he said.

Wang stressed that the one-China principle is a universally recognized norm of international relations and the universal consensus of the international community.

There are 180 countries in the world that recognize and support the one-China principle, and the international community's adherence to the one-China principle is rock solid, Wang said, noting that China's reunification is the irresistible trend of history.

The spokesperson said that the Taiwan authorities and a small number of "Taiwan independence" secessionists are attempting to deny and challenge the one-China principle and expand the space for "Taiwan independence" activities. "This is the root cause of the current tension in the Taiwan Strait and it is resolutely opposed by the Chinese government and the international community," he said.

"Any attempt to challenge the one-China principle and resist China's reunification will be resolutely defeated. Any attempt to support 'Taiwan independence' and go against the historical trend will end in failure," Wang stressed.
 Flash

Belarus and the United States will not exchange ambassadors in the near future, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei told media on Wednesday.

Belarus is interested in developing relations with the United States, Makei said, hoping that the United States will better understand the interests of Belarus instead of imposing a U.S.-style form of democracy on the country.

The United States believes Belarus plays a buffer role between Russia and the West, but Belarus has no interest in assuming that position, he said.

In 2008, the ties between Belarus and the United States deteriorated due to sanctions imposed by the United States against the country.

Belarus recalled its ambassador to the United States, then the U.S. ambassador to Belarus left his post.

In September 2019, a senior U.S. State Department official said during a visit to Belarus that the United States and Belarus had decided to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries.

But in August 2021, the United States introduced a new package of sanctions on the Eastern European country. After that, the Belarusian foreign ministry withdrew a decision to approve Julie Fisher as U.S. ambassador.
 Flash

The handover ceremony of the first phase of the China-aided Mahosot General Hospital Project was held on Thursday.

Speaking at the ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to Laos Jiang Zaidong said that the successful completion and handover of the first phase of the project, including the new ward building and the building for treating infectious diseases, has become another fruitful achievement of the bilateral friendly cooperation in the health sector.

Jiang expressed the hope that while promoting the construction of the second phase of the hospital project, both sides will strive to kick off another China-aided upgrade project for the Luang Prabang Hospital in northern Laos as soon as possible.

The Luang Prabang Hospital project will facilitate people in remote areas of Laos to enjoy quality medical services, better health safeguard and local economic development, Jiang added.

Lao Health Minister Bounfeng Phoummalaysith hailed the Mahosot General Hospital Project with grant from Chinese government and people as a major cooperation project between the two countries.

The Chinese side has helped Laos build the modern hospital, provided advanced medical equipment and held training courses to improve the medical standards in Laos, especially in the capital city of Vientiane, said the Lao minister.

He noted that the Lao side will continue to facilitate the timely completion of the second phase of the Mahosot General Hospital Project.

Han Xu, head of the project's technical team with Beijing Uni-Construction Group Co., Ltd. (BUCC), said that in the past three years, the BUCC has successfully completed the first phase of the project after overcoming the hurdle of constrained space for construction and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With professionalism and an even more hard-working spirit, his team will make the second phase of the project another success, Han said.

As a landmark project in China-Laos cooperation in public welfare, the China-aided health project includes the expansion of the existing Mahosot Hospital in Vientiane and the construction of new in-house medical facilities, with a construction area of approximately 54,000 square meters to hold 600 beds.
Choteau, MT (59422)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 42F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 42F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph.
IL Hospital Unlawfully Discriminates Against Employees Over Shot Mandate

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Liberty Counsel

Nov. 12, 2021



CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- Liberty Counsel filed a supplemental brief today on behalf of 14 health care workers asking the federal District Court of Illinois to grant a preliminary injunction against NorthShore University HealthSystem for unlawfully discriminating against and denying religious exemptions from the COVID shot mandate. The preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, November 16, at which Liberty Counsel will seek protection for all NorthShore employees for the duration of the lawsuit.

On November 1, Judge John F. Kness issued a temporary restraining order against NorthShore on behalf of Liberty Counsel's plaintiffs. The court said they are likely to prevail on Title VII and the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act. Liberty Counsel later filed a brief asking the court to conditionally certify the entire class of health care workers and to also grant them emergency relief.

NorthShore has no justification for treating employees with sincerely held religious beliefs against the COVID shot any different than other employees. Even though NorthShore officials claim that employees with religious exemptions are too "dangerous" to accommodate and must be expelled from its facilities, they cannot prove this assertion.

In fact, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lakshmi Halasyamani, has stated, "So, basically, you really can't change your behavior after you get vaccinated. You getting vaccinated protects you. ... We don't actually know whether you getting the vaccine keeps you from inadvertently transmitting COVID. It is really important that, even after vaccination, you have to wear a mask, socially distance, wash your hands, don't attend large gatherings. So, our best protection against the variants are the safety practices. So, really, what you can do is breathe a huge sigh of relief after you get the vaccine, because you're not gonna get sick from itvery unlikely, extremely unlikely. Whether you can give it to othersdon't know yet, and that's what we have to wait and see. So, we have to follow the science."

Ironically, Halasyamani also admitted that "Our goal is to have at least 85 percent of our team members vaccinated."

On July 1, before it announced its "mandatory vaccination policy," NorthShore assured its employees that "we follow the guidance provided by the CDC and State and County Public Health departments," and that "processes for medical and religious accommodation requests will be in place for team members with special circumstances." On September 1, after it announced its "mandatory vaccination policy" and the October 31 deadline for full vaccination, NorthShore assured its employees that, "after October 31," "individuals who have an approved exemption" will be "eligible for ongoing weekly COVID-19 testing" as an accommodation, pursuant to the Governor's Executive Order No. 87 that mandated either vaccination or weekly testing for healthcare workers. Then on September 16, NorthShore told its employees "without an authorized exemption" they would have until October 31 to be fully vaccinated and would have to test weekly until then. At the same time, NorthShore again assured its employees "with approved exemptions" that they would be allowed to "routinely test indefinitely" after October 31, in lieu of vaccination. On September 17, NorthShore told its employees "who have approved exemptions for the current year of 2021-2022" that "after October 31," they will be "eligible for ongoing weekly COVID-19 testing" instead of vaccinating.

However, NorthShore previously granted exemptions for some employees but then denied them in mid-September. Those denials were either without explanation or because the requests failed to meet some so-called "evidence-based criteria" that NorthShore never provided the employees in advance. NorthShore then only gave employees three business days to file an appeal without stating what was missing in the original application. In that appeal, NorthShore also apparently judged the validity of their religious beliefs by requiring them to include their entire vaccination history since the age of eighteen. However, NorthShore never requested employees to provide prior vaccine information in their initial exemption requests.

After denying these employees, NorthShore also changed its exemption form to include a warning that all religious objections based on "aborted fetal cell lines, stem cells, tissue or derivative materials will result in denials." NorthShore is falsely deceptive in that form by stating that the COVID-19 injections have no link to aborted fetal cell lines and refuting the religious beliefs of health care workers who object to the undeniable connection of the injections to aborted fetal cell lines.

Illinois law dictates that employees at NorthShore have the fundamental right to determine what medical care to accept and refuse. In fact, Illinois has a Health Care Right of Conscience Act that provides strong protection to all residents against discrimination based on health care choices. It states: "It shall be unlawful for any person, public or private institution, or public official to discriminate against any person in any manner, including but not limited to, licensing, hiring, promotion, or any other privileges, because of such person's conscientious refusal to receive, obtain, accept or participate in any way in any particular form of health care services contrary to his or her conscience" (emphasis added).

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "Northshore University HealthSystem is unlawfully denying religious exemptions from the COVID shot mandate. Fortunately, Liberty Counsel's 14 plaintiffs who were threatened to be terminated by NorthShore University HealthSystem for their religious beliefs have now been given emergency relief. Liberty Counsel continues pursuing relief from the mandate for them and the entire class for the duration of the lawsuit. We are confident they will prevail."

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/


Report Description

A recent market intelligence report that is published by Data Insights Partner on the global Satellite Manufacturing Market makes an offering of in-depth analysis of segments and sub-segments in the regional and international Satellite Manufacturing Market. The research also emphasizes on the impact of restraints, drivers, and macro indicators on the regional and global Satellite Manufacturing market over the short as well as long period of time. A detailed presentation of forecast, trends, and dollar values of global Satellite Manufacturing market is offered. In accordance with the report, the global Satellite Manufacturing market is projected to expand at a CAGR of more than 10% over the period of forecast.

Market Insight, Drivers, Restraints& Opportunity of the Market:

Satellites are artificial objects that are placed in the orbit around the earth and other planets for the purpose of telecommunication. Satellites are utilized for providing number of products and services such as broadcast, VSAT services or trunking, mobile voice, broadband internet access, TV services and data among others. The implementation of satellite technology in developed countries IS high owing to the growing demand for digital content. However, the demand is slowly growing in the developing countries.

Request for Report Sample: https://datainsightspartner.com/request-for-sample?ref=227

The global satellite manufacturing market is driven by number of factors. One of the primary drivers for the market is the increasing market for commercial satellite. This is due to the increase in internet and wireless use of satellites. The other major driver is the increasing need for satellites in the defense industry. Despite of the presence of number of drivers, the demand of the global satellite manufacturing market is mired by various challenges. One of the key restraints is the decreasing government funding for space based research. This is largely due to the slowdown in the economic growth of the many developed countries, in particular Europe. Another serious challenge is the inevitable need to impose space debris related set of laws.

Although there are several challenges, the global satellite manufacturing market is expected to witness reasonable growth due to the existence of some trends that could affect the market positively during the forecasted period. One of the trends is the increasing demand for HTS and high power due to the increasing demand for internet connectivity and broadband internet.

Segment Covered:

This market intelligence report on the global Satellite Manufacturing market encompasses market segments based on application, and country.

In terms of application, the Satellite Manufacturing market is segregated into:

Communication satellite

Military Surveillance

Navigation Satellite

Earth Observation Satellite

Others

By country/region, the global Satellite Manufacturing market has been divided into:

North America (the U.S., Canada)

Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and other countries)

Europe (Germany, France, the U.K., Spain, Italy, Russia, and other countries)

Asia Pacific (India, Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand and other countries)

Middle East and Africa (GCC, South Africa, Israel and Other countries).

Profiling of Market Players:

This business intelligence report offers profiling of reputed companies that are operating in the market. Companies such as

Lockheed Martin Corp.

Boeing,

Orbital Sciences Corp.

APCO Technologies SA.

Indian Space Research Organization

Thales Group

NASA

Other players have been profiled into detail so as to offer a glimpse of the market leaders. Moreover, parameters such as Advanced Driving Assistance Services related investment & spending and developments by major players of the market are tracked in this global report.

Report Highlights:

In-depth analysis of the micro and macro indicators, market trends, and forecasts of demand is offered by this business intelligence report. Furthermore, the report offers a vivid picture of the factors that are steering and restraining the growth of this market across all geographical segments. In addition to that, Growth Matrix analysis is also provided in the report so as to share insight of the investment areas that new or existing market players can take into consideration. Various analytical tools such as DRO analysis, Porter's five forces analysis has been used in this report to present a clear picture of the market. The study focuses on the present market trends and provides market forecast from the year 2017-2027. Emerging trends that would shape the market demand in the years to come have been highlighted in this report. A competitive analysis in each of the geographical segments gives an insight into market share of the global players.

Get Request for Table of Contents: https://datainsightspartner.com/report/satellite-manufacturing-market/227#content

Salient Features:

 This study offers comprehensive yet detailed analysis of the Satellite Manufacturing Market , size of the market (US$ Mn), and Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR (%)) for the period of forecast: 2019  2027, taking into account 2018 as the base year

 It explains upcoming revenue opportunities across various market segments and attractive matrix of investment proposition for the said market

 This market intelligence report also offers pivotal insights about various market opportunities, restraints, drivers, launch of new products, competitive market strategies of leading market players, emerging market trends, and regional outlook

 Profiling of key market players in the world Satellite Manufacturing Market is done by taking into account various parameters such as company strategies, distribution strategies, product portfolio, financial performance, key developments, geographical presence, and company overview

 Leading market players covered this report comprise names such as NASA, Boeing, ISRO

and others

 The data of this report would allow management authorities and marketers of companies alike to take informed decision when it comes to launch of products, government initiatives, marketing tactics and expansion, and technical up gradation

 The world market for Satellite Manufacturing caters to the needs of various stakeholders pertaining to this industry, namely suppliers, manufacturers, investors, and distributors for Satellite Manufacturing market. The research also caters to the rising needs of consulting and research firms, financial analysts, and new market entrants

 Research methodologies that have been adopted for the purpose of this study have been clearly elaborated so as to facilitate better understanding of the reports

 Reports have been made based on the guidelines as mandated by General Data Protection Regulation

 Ample number of examples and case studies have been taken into consideration before coming to a conclusion

Reasons to buy:

v Identify opportunities and plan strategies by having a strong understanding of the investment opportunities in the Satellite Manufacturing Market

v Identification of key factors driving investment opportunities in the Satellite Manufacturing Market

v Facilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data

v Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industrys growth potential

v Develop strategies based on the latest regulatory events

v Identify key partners and business development avenues

v Respond to your competitors business structure, strategy and prospects

Full View of Report Description: https://datainsightspartner.com/report/satellite-manufacturing-market/227
Report Description

A recent market intelligence report that is published by Data Insights Partner on the global Military Communication Technologies Market makes an offering of in-depth analysis of segments and sub-segments in the regional and international Military Communication Technologies Market. The research also emphasizes on the impact of restraints, drivers, and macro indicators on the regional and global Military Communication Technologies Market over the short as well as long period of time. A detailed presentation of forecast, trends, and dollar values of global Military Communication Technologies Market is offered. In accordance with the report, the global Military Communication Technologies Market is projected to expand at a CAGR of more than 5% over the period of forecast.

Market Insight, Drivers, Restraints& Opportunity of the Market:

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.

Request for Report Sample: https://datainsightspartner.com/request-for-sample?ref=228

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, Hall crafters SX-28, SCR-197, SCR-203, and SCR-270 radar. 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.

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.

Segment Covered:

This market intelligence report on the global Military Communication Technologies Market encompasses market segments based on Communication Technologies, System end-user, and country.

In terms of Communication Technologies, the Market is segregated into:

Airborne Communication

Air-ground Communication

Under Communication

Ground-based Communication

Shipborne Communication

In terms of System, the global Military Communication Technologies market is categorized into:

Satcom System

Radio System

Security System

Others

In terms of application, the market is further categorized into:

Command Control

Routine Operations

Situational Awareness

Others

By end-user, the global Military Communication Technologies market is also classified into:

Land Forces

Air Forces

Naval Forces

By country/region, the global Military Communication Technologies Market has been divided into:

North America (the U.S., Canada)

Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and other countries)

Europe (Germany, France, the U.K., Spain, Italy, Russia, and other countries)

Asia Pacific (India, Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand and other countries)

Middle East and Africa (GCC, South Africa, Israel and Other countries)

Get Request for Table of Contents: https://datainsightspartner.com/report/military-communication-technologies-market/228#content

Profiling of Market Players:

This business intelligence report offers profiling of reputed companies that are operating in the market. Companies such as

Boeing

BAE systems

Raytheon

General Dynamics

General Electric

Honeywell

Saab

Lockheed Martin

Northrop Grumman

United Technologies

Other players have been profiled into detail so as to offer a glimpse of the market leaders. Moreover, parameters such as Advanced Driving Assistance Systems related investment & spending and developments by major players of the market are tracked in this global report.

Report Highlights:

In-depth analysis of the micro and macro indicators, market trends, and forecasts of demand is offered by this business intelligence report. Furthermore, the report offers a vivid picture of the factors that are steering and restraining the growth of this market across all geographical segments. In addition to that, Growth Matrix analysis is also provided in the report so as to share insight of the investment areas that new or existing market players can take into consideration. Various analytical tools such as DRO analysis, Porter's five forces analysis has been used in this report to present a clear picture of the market. The study focuses on the present market trends and provides market forecast from the year 2017-2027. Emerging trends that would shape the market demand in the years to come have been highlighted in this report. A competitive analysis in each of the geographical segments gives an insight into market share of the global players.

Salient Features:

 This study offers comprehensive yet detailed analysis of the Military Communication Technologies Market , size of the market (US$ Mn), and Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR (%)) for the period of forecast: 2019  2027, taking into account 2018 as the base year

 It explains upcoming revenue opportunities across various market segments and attractive matrix of investment proposition for the said market

 This market intelligence report also offers pivotal insights about various market opportunities, restraints, drivers, launch of new products, competitive market strategies of leading market players, emerging market trends, and regional outlook

 Profiling of key market players in the world Military Communication Technologies Market is done by taking into account various parameters such as company strategies, distribution strategies, product portfolio, financial performance, key developments, geographical presence, and company overview

 Leading market players covered this report comprise names such as GENERAL ELECTRIC, General

Dynamics and others

 The data of this report would allow management authorities and marketers of companies alike to take informed decision when it comes to launch of products, government initiatives, marketing tactics and expansion, and technical up gradation

 The world market for Military Communication Technologies caters to the needs of various stakeholders pertaining to this industry, namely suppliers, manufacturers, investors, and distributors for Military Communication Technologies Market. The research also caters to the rising needs of consulting and research firms, financial analysts, and new market entrants

 Research methodologies that have been adopted for the purpose of this study have been clearly elaborated so as to facilitate better understanding of the reports

 Reports have been made based on the guidelines as mandated by General Data Protection Regulation

 Ample number of examples and case studies have been taken into consideration before coming to a conclusion

Reasons to buy:

v Identify opportunities and plan strategies by having a strong understanding of the investment opportunities in the Military Communication Technologies Market

v Identification of key factors driving investment opportunities in the Military Communication Technologies Market

v Facilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data

v Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industrys growth potential

v Develop strategies based on the latest regulatory events

v Identify key partners and business development avenues

v Respond to your competitors business structure, strategy and prospects

v Identify key strengths and weaknesses of important market participants

Full View of Report Description: https://datainsightspartner.com/report/military-communication-technologies-market/228
Report Description

A recent market intelligence report that is published by Data Insights Partner on the global Self Storage Market makes an offering of in-depth analysis of segments and sub-segments in the regional and international Self Storage Market. The research also emphasizes on the impact of restraints, drivers, and macro indicators on the regional and global Self Storage Market over the short as well as long period of time. A detailed presentation of forecast, trends, and dollar values of global Self Storage Market is offered. In accordance with the report, the global Self Storage Market is projected to expand by healthy CAGR of 4% over the period of forecast.

Market Insight, Drivers, Restraints, Opportunity & Trends of the Market:

Definition

Self Storage is one type of business or industry where storage spaces known as storage units in the form of rooms, containers, lockers etc. are rented out to the tenants on the basis of short-term or long-term contracts. The spaces are rented for both personal and commercial usages and most storage facilities offer insurance for purchases. The self storage spaces are safer than ware houses as the spaces are secured by locks which storage company employees do not have access to and can only be opened by the key or code given to the tenant of the space.

Request for Report Sample: https://datainsightspartner.com/request-for-sample?ref=830

Market Drivers

The growing need to store agricultural and industrial goods due to the fluctuating business cycle is the main drivers behind the growth of Self Storage Market. Just as there are times when sale is very high and it is necessary to store products beforehand so that supply can meet the demand at that time, there are times when sale is not very good and products need to be kept in the inventories. As a result storage spaces has become a necessity now-a-days. Sometimes storage spaces such as lockers are needed for personal usage too. All these reasons are driving the growth rate of Self Storage Market high.

Beside this, the rapid urbanization, growing population, rising per capita income and rising concern over storing things away for later use are also some of the key players behind the rapid growth of the Self Storage Market.

Aside from these, the governmentally granted permissions for the business and agricultural firms to be able to store as much as the firms want and rising foreign investments in the Self Storage sector are also adding fuel to this increasing market growth.

The regular introduction of different and brand-new types of Self Storage Spaces and Services with better technology, qualities and durability in different sizes and price range to satisfy the varying tastes of the customers is also attracting new consumers and thus helping the growth rate of Self Storage Market to rise high. The convenience and efficiency of self storage spaces is also helping in the expansion of the said market.

Market Restraints

The Self Storage Market has a huge potential. Though it is expanding very fast day by day, many things are preventing it from using its full potential. Some of these restraints are

High prices of the raw materials, high installation, maintenance and repairing costs and high cost of R&D activities resulting into high rents of the premium quality end products.

Lack of security.

Unavailability of these products in many regions.

Lack of awareness about the availability and benefits of the Self Storage Spaces and Services in the developing countries.

Lack of penetration in the largescale industrial market as the industries have their own storage spaces.

Opportunities

The Residential Self Storage Segment has a lot of opportunities to grow in the forecast period as the concern over storing stuffs for future use is rising rapidly. The commercial sector will face a boom too but it would be relatively lower than that faced by the residential sector as it would be mainly caused by small and medium scale industries who do not have adequate space or resources to store their products at their company premises. The shot-term contractual rents sector will face relative higher growth rate as it is more preferred by the small scale sectors for its low costs.

Trends

During the forecast period, Asia Pacific followed by North America and Europe are expected to have the largest share of Self Storage Market. The demand for these products in the Asia Pacific region is driven by its expanding small and large scale industrial sector, growing population and rising disposable income among individuals. Rising concerns over proper storage of stuffs to make business sale and personal lifestyle easier are also driving the growth. It is also believed that on the basis of product type, the concrete rooms and metal lockers segment will have the largest share for its low prices, provided security and high demand and efficiency and convenience. The medium and small storage units are also expected to rise significantly in the said time for its low cost and high demand among small scale industries and individuals.

Segment Covered:

This market intelligence report on the global Self Storage Market encompasses market segments based on material type, product type, service type, location type, storage unit type, contract term, application, end usage, distributional channel and country.

By Material Type the global Self Storage Market has been divided into:

q Wood

q Metal

q Concrete

q Glass

q Plastics

q Others

By Product Type the global Self Storage Market has been divided into:

q Rooms

q Containers

q Lockers

q Others

By Service Type the global Self Storage Market has been divided into:

q Climate-controlled Self Storage

q Non-climate-controlled Self Storage

q DIY Moving Truck Rental

q Full-service Moving

q Others

By Location Type the global Self Storage Market has been divided into:

q Indoor

q Outdoor

By Storage Unit Type the global Self Storage Market has been divided into:

q High Storage Unit

q Medium Storage Unit

q Low Storage Unit

By Contract Term the global Self Storage Market has been divided into:

q Short-term Contracts

q Long-term Contracts

q Others

By Application the global Self Storage Market has been divided into:

q Household

q Vehicle

q Business

q Others

By End Usage the global Self Storage Market has been divided into:

q Personal

q Commercial

By Distributional Channel the global Self Storage Market has been divided into:

q Offline

q Online

q Others

By country/region, the global Self Storage Market has been divided into:

q North America (the U.S., Canada),

q Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and other countries),

q Europe (Germany, France, the U.K., Spain, Italy, Russia, and other countries),

q Asia Pacific (India, Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand and other countries),

q Middle East and Africa (GCC, South Africa, Israel and Other countries).

Profiling of Market Players:

This business intelligence report offers profiling of reputed companies that are operating in the market. Companies such as:

q AECOM

q CubeSmart

q Life Storage, Inc.

q Metro Storage LLC

q National Storage Affiliates

q Prime Storage Group

q Public Storage

q Safestore Holding PLC.

q Simply Self Storage Management LLC

q StorageMart

q Urban Self Storage

q U-Haul International, Inc.

q World Class Capital Group LLC

q W.P.Carey Inc.

others have been profiled into detail so as to offer a glimpse of the market leaders. Moreover, parameters such as Self Storage Market related investment & spending and developments by major players of the market are tracked in this global report.

Report Highlights:

In-depth analysis of the micro and macro indicators, market trends, and forecasts of demand is offered by this business intelligence report. Furthermore, the report offers a vivid picture of the factors that are steering and restraining the growth of this market across all geographical segments. In addition to that, IGR-Growth Matrix analysis is also provided in the report so as to share insight of the investment areas that new or existing market players can take into consideration. Various analytical tools such as DRO analysis, Porter's five forces analysis has been used in this report to present a clear picture of the market. The study focuses on the present market trends and provides market forecast from the year 2020-2028. Emerging trends that would shape the market demand in the years to come have been highlighted in this report. A competitive analysis in each of the geographical segments gives an insight into market share of the global players.

Few Recent Developments

CubeSmart

The North American real estate investment trust CubeSmart, established in 2004, has been investing a lot in self storage facilities. The company has recently opened up an 89,000 sq. ft. storage space of worth USD 7.5 million in Lantana, South Florida in September, 2018. The self-storage space has up to 750 spaces and is expected to grow more depending upon the demand. Depending on the size of the space, The storage units are priced between USD 68 to USD 363 a month. As of December, 2019 the company owns more than 524 properties in more than 24 states across the USA.

Life Storage Inc.

Headquartered in New York, USA, the real estate investment trust Life Storage Inc. is one of largest providers of self storage facilities in the entire world and has ranked 4th largest in USA in 2019. The company has acquired 18 properties in Arizona, Nevada, and Tennessee in June, 2017 and a property for USD 6.93 million in the Tampa in April, 2019 to expand its business. As of December, 2019, the company owns 854 properties in total. In July, 2018, the company has also announced to go digital to save the customers trouble of standing in line and wasting time by providing them a fully digital platform to inspect, select and pay the rent online.

Metro Storage LLC

The North American company Metro Storage LLC has been known as one of the most successful market players in Self Storage Market for the past 40 years. The company has recently announced the purchase of a more than 95,000 sq ft land in Minnesota in 2020. They also have started construction on a 100% climate-controlled self-storage facility with an offering of 908 storage units, LED lightings, modern lock and security systems and surveillance cameras etc. facilities. They have also opened up their 7th New Jersey Self Storage Facility Store in July, 2020 with both climate-controlled and non-climate-controlled offerings.

Get Request for Table of Contents: https://datainsightspartner.com/report/self-storage-market/830#tableOfContent

Salient Features:

 This study offers comprehensive yet detailed analysis of the Self Storage Market, size of the market (US$ Mn), and Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR (%)) for the period of forecast: 2020-2028, taking into account 2019 as the base year

 It explains upcoming revenue opportunities across various market segments and attractive matrix of investment proposition for the said market

 This market intelligence report also offers pivotal insights about various market opportunities, restraints, drivers, competitive market strategies of leading market players, emerging market trends, and regional outlook

 Profiling of key market players in the world Self Storage Market is done by taking into account various parameters such as company strategies, distribution strategies, product portfolio, financial performance, key developments, geographical presence, and company overview

 The data of this report would allow management authorities and marketers of companies alike to take informed decision when it comes to launch of different type of models, government initiatives, marketing tactics and expansion, and technical up gradation

 The world market for Self Storage caters to the needs of various stakeholders pertaining to this industry, namely suppliers, manufacturers, investors, and distributors for Self Storage Market. The research also caters to the rising needs of consulting and research firms, financial analysts, and new market entrants

 Research methodologies that have been adopted for the purpose of this study have been clearly elaborated so as to facilitate better understanding of the reports

 Reports have been made based on the guidelines as mandated by General Data Protection Regulation

 Ample number of examples and case studies have been taken into consideration before coming to a conclusion

Reasons to buy:

v Identify opportunities and plan strategies by having a strong understanding of the investment opportunities in the Self Storage Market

v Identification of key factors driving investment opportunities in the Self Storage Market

v Facilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data

v Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industrys growth potential

v Develop strategies based on the latest regulatory events

v Identify key partners and business development avenues

v Respond to your competitors business structure, strategy and prospects

v Identify key strengths and weaknesses of important market participants

Full View of Report Description: https://datainsightspartner.com/report/self-storage-market/830
Report Description

A recent market intelligence report that is published by Data Insights Partner on the global Chilled Water Storage System Market makes an offering of in-depth analysis of segments and sub-segments in the regional and international Chilled Water Storage System Market. The research also emphasizes on the impact of restraints, drivers, and macro indicators on the regional and global Chilled Water Storage System Market over the short as well as long period of time. A detailed presentation of forecast, trends, and dollar values of global Chilled Water Storage System Market is offered. In accordance with the report, the global Chilled Water Storage System Market is projected to expand by a healthy CAGR of 5.6% over the period of forecast.

Market Insight, Drivers, Restraints, Opportunity & Trends of the Market:

Definition

Chilled water storage system is a storage container made of steel, concrete, plastic etc., usually used to store water at temperature ranging from 4.40 Celsius to 5.60 Celsius with the help of conventional chillers. The system can be installed both under and above the ground and can hold water based on its building material, usually bigger sizes are made from concrete and smaller ones from plastics or steel. At the time of discharge, the cold water at the bottom of the cistern is equally replaced by warm water at the top of the cistern inside a Chilled Water Storage System. The Chilled Water Storage System also has a stratified layer installed inside of it. These systems are used in many places like agricultural, power generating, industrial, construction sectors etc. to store and provide cold water whenever needed.

Request for Report Sample: https://datainsightspartner.com/request-for-sample?ref=807

Market Drivers

Growing need to maintain heat density at the oil & gas refineries, power generating and automotive manufacturing industries are the main drivers behind the rapid growth of the Chilled Water Storage System Market. The expanding agricultural and construction sectors are also playing very important role in the growth of the Chilled Water Storage System Market. The rising need for chilled water in air cooling system is another key player in this.

Beside this, growing population, rising per capita income and rapid urbanization are also some of the key factors behind the rapid growth of the Chilled Water Storage System Market.

Aside from these, rising awareness regarding increasing water scarcity and foreign investments in the said sector are also adding fuel to this increasing market growth.

The regular introduction of different and brand-new types of end product with better qualities, more storage space, better cooling technology and insulation and in different price range to satisfy the varying tastes and consumption abilities of the customers is also attracting new consumers and thus helping the growth rate of Chilled Water Storage System Market to rise high. The convenience and efficiency of Chilled Water Storage System is also helping in the expansion of the said market.

Market Restraints

The Chilled Water Storage System Market has a huge potential. Though it is expanding very fast day by day, many things are preventing it from using its full potential. Some of these restraints are

? High cost of raw materials.

? High installation, maintenance and repairing cost.

? High cost of R&D activities.

? High cost of the premium quality end products.

? Non-durability of many end products under extreme weather conditions.

? Unavailability of enough space to install these products in many regions.

? Unavailability and lack of awareness about the benefits of Chilled Water Storage Systems in the rural areas of the developing countries.

Opportunities

The Chilled Water Storage System Market growth is mainly based on the consumption of these products in power sectors, refineries and automotive manufacturing sectors. Due to the rising water scarcity now-a-days the water collection and storage segment has a very high demand and many opportunities. Followed by this the power and energy sector will have the second largest market share due to increase in demand for power supply.

Trends

During the forecast period, Asia Pacific is expected to have the largest share of Chilled Water Storage System Market. The demand for these products in the Asia Pacific region specially in China, India, Japan, Thailand etc. is driven by its growing need in the expanding agricultural, construction and industrial sectors of these countries. Rising population, high per capita income and rapid urbanization are also driving this market growth. It is also believed that on the basis of end usage, the municipal and industrial segment will have the largest share for its high hemicellulose content, demand and efficiency and convenience. It is also expected that by material type concrete segment will see a very high growth rate in future for its strength, durability, efficiency and low cost.

Segment Covered:

This market intelligence report on the global Chilled Water Storage System Market encompasses market segments based on material type, product type, portability, application, end usage, distributional channel and country.

By Material Type the global Chilled Water Storage System Market has been divided into:

q Steel

q Fiberglass

q Concrete

q Plastics

q Others

By Product Type the global Chilled Water Storage System Market has been divided into:

q Stratified Tank System

q Multiple Tank System

q Diaphragm Tank System

q Others

By Portability the global Chilled Water Storage System Market has been divided into:

q Portable Water Storage

q On-site or Non-portable Water Storage

By Application the global Chilled Water Storage System Market has been divided into:

q Water Storage and Collection

o Rainwater Storage

o Wastewater Collection

o Hydraulic Fracture Storage and Collection

o Others

q Agricultural

q Industrial

q Building and Constructions

q Petrochemical

q Automotive

q Power Generation

q Others

By End Usage the global Chilled Water Storage System Market has been divided into:

q Personal

q Commercial

q Industrial

q Municipal

By Distributional Channel the global Chilled Water Storage System Market has been divided into:

q Supermarkets and Hypermarkets

q Online

q Others

By country/region, the global Chilled Water Storage System Market has been divided into:

q North America (the U.S., Canada),

q Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and other countries),

q Europe (Germany, France, the U.K., Spain, Italy, Russia, and other countries),

q Asia Pacific (India, Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand and other countries),

q Middle East and Africa (GCC, South Africa, Israel and Other countries).

Profiling of Market Players:

This business intelligence report offers profiling of reputed companies that are operating in the market. Companies such as:

q Wessels Company

q Cooling Tower Systems, Inc.

q Cool Water Technologies

q Delta Cooling Towers, Inc.

q Brentwood Industries, Inc.

q Johnson Controls

q Liang Cooling Tower Sdn Bhd and King Sun Industry Co. Ltd.

q Paharpur Cooling Towers Limited

q Berg Chilling Systems Inc.

q Horus Air Moving Co. Ltd.

q KingSun Industry

others have been profiled into detail so as to offer a glimpse of the market leaders. Moreover, parameters such as Chilled Water Storage System Market related investment & spending and developments by major players of the market are tracked in this global report.

Report Highlights:

In-depth analysis of the micro and macro indicators, market trends, and forecasts of demand is offered by this business intelligence report. Furthermore, the report offers a vivid picture of the factors that are steering and restraining the growth of this market across all geographical segments. In addition to that, IGR-Growth Matrix analysis is also provided in the report so as to share insight of the investment areas that new or existing market players can take into consideration. Various analytical tools such as DRO analysis, Porter's five forces analysis has been used in this report to present a clear picture of the market. The study focuses on the present market trends and provides market forecast from the year 2020-2028. Emerging trends that would shape the market demand in the years to come have been highlighted in this report. A competitive analysis in each of the geographical segments gives an insight into market share of the global players.

Few Recent Developments

Wessels Company

The Wessels Company, headquartered in Greenwood, Indiana, has been dominating the world market for Chilled Water Storage Systems for a long time. The company has an excellent reputation for producing top quality chilled water HVAC systems. They also have been certified by ASME and meets the Japanese Inspection Standard (JIS) which has increased the trust of its consumer in the company even more. They also built chilled water buffer tanks or CBTs for smaller storage capacity with excellent cooling systems in a lower cost than chilled storage systems for the convenience of their customers.

Delta Cooling Towers, Inc.

In 1970 Delta Cooling Towers Inc., situated in USA and one of the leading market players in Chilled Water Storage Systems Market, was the first ever company to manufacture a seamless, non-corrosive, polyethylene cooling tower line with the invention of the Pioneer Series. Now the company has introduced another new line known as the Paragon Series Induced Draft Cooling Towers which has brought and expanded their single non-corroding cooling tower capacity up to 250 tons. The company has developed a packaged cooling system with closed-circuit cooling system, closed-loop system with plate heat exchanger to make the freezing system better and stop evaporation of water in a lower cost and with more efficiency.

Berg Chilling Systems Inc.

Since 1972, the Canadian company Beg Chilling Systems Inc. has been designing, manufacturing and installing thermal process control systems for various companies, sectors, countries and regions all over the world. The company has been focusing on R&D activities to make their products more durable and provide a better chilling system. The company is also trying to gain market power by expanding their business through various acquisitions of companies and signing contracts for cooperation.

Get Request for Table of Contents: https://datainsightspartner.com/report/chilled-water-storage-system-market/807#tableOfContent

Salient Features:

 This study offers comprehensive yet detailed analysis of the Chilled Water Storage System Market, size of the market (US$ Mn), and Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR (%)) for the period of forecast: 2020-2028, taking into account 2019 as the base year

 It explains upcoming revenue opportunities across various market segments and attractive matrix of investment proposition for the said market

 This market intelligence report also offers pivotal insights about various market opportunities, restraints, drivers, competitive market strategies of leading market players, emerging market trends, and regional outlook

 Profiling of key market players in the world Chilled Water Storage System Market is done by taking into account various parameters such as company strategies, distribution strategies, product portfolio, financial performance, key developments, geographical presence, and company overview

 The data of this report would allow management authorities and marketers of companies alike to take informed decision when it comes to launch of different type of models, government initiatives, marketing tactics and expansion, and technical up gradation

 The world market for Chilled Water Storage System caters to the needs of various stakeholders pertaining to this industry, namely suppliers, manufacturers, investors, and distributors for Chilled Water Storage System Market. The research also caters to the rising needs of consulting and research firms, financial analysts, and new market entrants

 Research methodologies that have been adopted for the purpose of this study have been clearly elaborated so as to facilitate better understanding of the reports

 Reports have been made based on the guidelines as mandated by General Data Protection Regulation

 Ample number of examples and case studies have been taken into consideration before coming to a conclusion

Reasons to buy:

v Identify opportunities and plan strategies by having a strong understanding of the investment opportunities in the Chilled Water Storage System Market

v Identification of key factors driving investment opportunities in the Chilled Water Storage System Market

v Facilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data

v Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industrys growth potential

v Develop strategies based on the latest regulatory events

v Identify key partners and business development avenues

v Respond to your competitors business structure, strategy and prospects

Full View of Report Description: https://datainsightspartner.com/report/chilled-water-storage-system-market/807
The report " Silicone Fabrics Market by Base Fabric (Fiberglass, Polyester, Polyamide), Application (Protective Clothing, Industrial Fabric, Clothing Fabric), End-Use (Industrial, Consumer, Automotive), and Region - Global Forecast to 2026" The global Silicone fabrics market size is projected to grow from USD 4.0 billion in 2021 to USD 5.5 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 6.8% between 2020 and 2026. Factors such as stringent government regulations regarding passenger safety in automotive, growth of manufacturing industries, increasing demand for protective clothing, and growing adoption in the upholstery and furniture industry are driving the Silicone fabrics market. Moreover, the increasing demand for superior quality, high performance, and durable fabrics in consumer goods manufacturing is expected to offer opportunities for Silicone fabrics manufacturers.

Request a Report Sample to Gain Valuable Insights at https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=63640718

Fiberglass segment estimated to lead the Silicone fabrics market in 2020

By base fabric, the fiberglass segment accounted for the largest share in the overall Silicone fabrics market. This growth can be attributed to the low cost, high performance, suitability to several industrial applications, and strong resistance to heat, water and UV supports for the growth of the silicone coated fiberglass fabrics market. Similarly, the polyamide segment is mainly driven by increasing demand for airbags across the globe. Also, it is supported by stringent government regulation in developed as well as developing countries.

The industrial fabric segment is estimated to be the leading consumer of Silicone fabrics

The industrial fabric segment led the overall Silicone fabrics market in 2020, both in terms of value and volume. It is used across several industrial applications such as conveyor belts, insulation, gaskets, hoses, and heat shield, among other. With the growth of the manufacturing industry across the globe, the demand for silicone fabrics is increasing steadily.

APAC projected to account for the largest share of the Silicone fabrics market during the forecast period

APAC is projected to have the largest share in the global Silicone fabrics market, in terms of both value and volume, from 2021 to 2026. The APAC Silicone fabrics market is driven by the thriving demand from the manufacturing industry, automotive, and fabrication industry. APAC Silicone fabrics market has been witnessing consistent growth due to the increasing automotive as well as airbag production in the region, growth of the manufacturing sector, and double-digit growth of the healthcare and medical sector. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic growth of several countries such as India, ASEAN, and other countries, has been declining owing to disruption of the supply chain, declining demand for industrial products, the suspension of the manufacturing facilities, and declining oil & gas prices. The demand for Silicone fabrics is therefore expected to decrease in several end-use industries in 2020.

Schedule a FREE Consultation Call with Our Analysts/Industry Experts to Find Solution for Your Business at https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=63640718

The silicon-coated market is dominated by large players, such as Elkem (US), 3M Company (US), Auburn Manufacturing Inc. (US), Nott Company( US), Mid-Mountain Materials, Inc (US), Newtex Industries, Inc (US), Precision Coating & Coated Fabrics (US) Trelleborg AB (Sweden), COMPAGNIE DE SAINT-GOBAIN S.A. (France), and Serge Ferrari Group (France). Expansions, acquisitions, joint ventures, and new product developments are some of the major strategies adopted by these key players to enhance their positions in the silicon-coated fabric market.

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 full-time analysts 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.

Markets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledgestore" 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

sales@marketsandmarkets.com
The global orthodontic supplies market size is expected to reach USD 10.23 billion by 2028 according to a new study by Polaris Market Research. The report Orthodontic Supplies Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Product (Fixed Braces [Brackets, Archwires, Ligatures, Anchorage Appliances], Removable Braces, Orthodontic Adhesives, Others); By Patient (Children & Teenagers, Adults); By Region; Segment Forecast, 2021  2028 gives a detailed insight into current market dynamics and provides analysis on future market growth.

Rising awareness of oral health is the most important factor supporting market growth for the supplies. The increasing number of patients suffering from malocclusion is projected to give a boost to the market demand in the forecast period. Oral health conditions such as jaw pain and tooth decay can be treated with orthodontic processes which creates growth opportunities for the supplies across the globe.

In the year 2020, removable braces had the largest revenue share of the supplies demand due to their design which aids in easy removal and insertion. It can be separated from teeth for activities such as drinking, brushing, and eating thus gain market popularity across the globe. The adult segment dominated the supplies market with increasing demand for oral aesthetics and awareness for oral health.

Download Sample Copy : https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/orthodontic-supplies-market/request-for-sample

North America orthodontic supplies industry witnessed significant market growth in the year 2020 accounted for improved dental care procedures and escalating market demand for orthodontics among the population.

The U.S. contributed the highest share in terms of revenue as around 20% of its population suffer from malocclusion which can be treated with orthodontics procedures. The region is projected to registered growth in the forecast period considering the government regulations and oral health education programs.

Asia Pacific and Latin America had limited demand for the supplies in the past on account of the lack of awareness in the population about oral health and an insufficient number of dentists in the region. The market for supplies is expected to show gradual growth in the coming years regardless of the broader target base of patients.

Key market players operating in the orthodontic supplies industry are Align Technology Inc., Astar Orthodontics Inc., 3M, Dental Morelli Ltd., American Orthodontics Inc., DB Orthodontics Ltd, Envista Holding Corporation, G&H Orthodontics Inc, and Rocky Mountain Orthodontics

Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis Ask Our Experts: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/orthodontic-supplies-market/speak-to-analyst

Companies are investing in R&D for the development of innovative solutions and expand the supplies product portfolio. Align Technology Inc, a U.S.-based company launch Align Digital and Practice Transformation (ADAPT) service which assists doctors to shift into digital orthodontic practice with an advanced aligner model.

Polaris Market research has segmented the orthodontic supplies market report on the basis of Product, function, Patient, and region:

Orthodontic Supplies, Product Outlook (Revenue  USD Million, 2016  2028)

Fixed Braces Brackets Archwires Ligatures Anchorage Appliances

Removable Braces

Orthodontic Adhesives

Others

Orthodontic Supplies, Patient Outlook (Revenue  USD Million, 2016  2028)

Children & Teenagers

Adults

Orthodontic Supplies, by Regional Outlook (Revenue  USD Million, 2016  2028)

North America U.S. Canada

Europe France Germany UK Italy Spain Netherlands Austria

Asia Pacific China India Japan Malaysia South Korea Indonesia

Latin America Mexico Brazil Argentina

Middle East & Africa UAE Saudi Arabia Israel South Africa



Read :

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/induced-pluripotent-stem-cell-ipsc-market-size-worth-2-893-3-million-by-2028--cagr-9-3--polaris-market-research-301403133.html

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2k-protective-coatings-market-size-worth-11-68-billion-by-2028--cagr-5-0--polaris-market-research-301409762.html

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/waste-recycling-services-market-size-is-projected-to-reach-84-8-billion-by-2028--cagr-5-4-polaris-market-research-301409860.html
The global agar agar gum market size is anticipated to reach USD 338.1 million by 2026 growing at a CAGR of 5.0% from 2018 to 2026 according to a new report published by Polaris Market Research. The report Agar Agar Gum Market Share, Size, Trends, & Industry Analysis Report, [By Product (Square, Strips, Powder), By Application (Microbiological and molecular, Meat, Confectionery, Retail, Others), By Regions]: Segment Forecast, 2018  2026 provides insights on the current market scenario and the future prospects.

Agar agar is a member of the galactan polysaccharides family. These are basically complex linear sugar polymers that comprise 22 galactose molecules. Agar agar gum is typically obtained from marine algae, the common species being Gracilaria and Gelidium.

Get sample copy of this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/agar-agar-gum-market/request-for-sample

The top properties of these products, namely thickening and gelling are poised to steer the market trends in the forecast period. These products are also expected to be widely applied in the F&B industries as a solidifying and stabilizing agent. Owing to the significant hysteresis achieved between the melting and setting temperatures of these products, this gum has outpaced the preference of other polysaccharides in the manufacturing process.

Rising worlds population coupled with the increase in personal income of consumers have led to a massive development of new food products globally. The high compatibility of these products gum as a binder as well as sweetener within a wide range of food products have leveraged its potential across a wide range of food sub-industries. However, the health ailments encountered by consumers as a result of the consumption of the end-products are likely to challenge the market growth.

Europe and North America are poised to dominate the agar agar gum market on account of the already high and rapidly increasing consumption of bakery and confectionery products. In Asia Pacific, agar agar gum in largely consumed by the dairy industry. European manufacturers are reaching out to Indonesian players with a view to collaborate and increase their market presence.

The agar agar gum market is fairly capital as well as cost intensive. Capital is mainly required for routine manufacturing equipment purchase as well as updation, and there exists an opportunity to curb several operational costs. As a result of the prevailing circumstances, major manufacturers have huge production facilities, and enjoy from a wide geographic presence. thus, intensifying the competition for peers.

In addition, the application of agar agar gum across various food domains, viz. animal-derived gelatin free food, halal-certified, Kosher certified food, etc. is set to mark a remarkable increase in demand for the product. Most of the European bakery and confectionery items manufacturers have shifted to using these products as a unanimous binder.

These products exhibit superior properties such as providing long-lasting stability to end-products. The typical properties of these products enable texture enhancement, stabilization, and good thickening and binding of final products. Also, these productss gel strength is relatively higher when compared with gelatin. This makes the product a popular choice in the dairy and liquid desserts processing industry.

The global agar agar gum market is highly competitive with a high market share possessed by the major market participants. The burgeoning market demand for these products has provoked many manufacturers to initiate capacity expansions as well as overseas partnership programs. Some of the major manufacturers include Meron, Marine Science, TIC Gums, Able Sales Company, and P.T. Agarindo Bogatama.

Browse for full research summary: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/agar-agar-gum-market

Polaris Market Research has segmented the global Gout Therapeutics Market on the basis of Product, Application and Region:

Agar Agar Gum Product Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2015  2026)

 Square

 Strips

 Powder

Agar Agar Gum Application Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2015  2026)

 Microbiological and molecular

 Meat

 Confectionery

 Retail

 Others

Agar Agar Gum Region Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2015  2026)

 North America

o U.S.

o Canada

 Europe

o Germany

o UK

o France

o Poland

o Spain

o Italy

o Belgium

 Asia-Pacific

o China

o India

o Japan

o Malaysia

o Indonesia

o Australia

 Latin America

o Brazil

o Mexico

o Argentina

 Middle East and Africa

o Saudi Arabia

o UAE

o Nigeria

Avail discount on this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/agar-agar-gum-market/request-for-discount-pricing

About Polaris Market Research

Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide our customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities. Adept with a highly competent, experienced and extremely qualified team of experts comprising SMEs, analysts and consultants, we at Polaris endeavor to deliver value-added business solutions to our customers.

Contact Us:



Polaris Market Research

Phone: 1-646-568-9980

Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com

Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com
The Global Food Service Equipment Market is anticipated to reach USD 62 billion by 2026 according to a new research published by Polaris Market Research. In 2017, the cooking and food & beverage preparation equipment segments dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. North America is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue during the forecast period.

The significant increase in food establishments, and the growing hospitality industry are the major factors driving the growth of the Food Service Equipment market. The changing lifestyles and increasing disposable incomes are leading to higher instances of dining at restaurants and living at hotels and resorts. The growing demand for affordable and energy efficient equipment supports the growth of the market.

Get sample copy of this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/food-service-equipment-market/request-for-sample

Hotels and restaurants are increasingly adopting technologically advanced food service equipment for performing kitchen activities efficiently and offering enhanced services to consumers. Restaurant businesses prefer compact and space efficient equipment, which encourages market players to launch new products in the global market. Increasing spending on the hospitality sector, and tourism activities encourage restaurant owners to improve their infrastructure and offer enhanced services. Moreover, the Food Service Equipment market is also driven by increasing need to use food service equipment that consume less energy and provide faster kitchen services. Growing concerns regarding environment and increasing adoption of energy efficient food service equipment are expected to offer numerous growth opportunities in the future. However, high costs associated with food service equipment, and high installation prices restrict the growth of the Food Service Equipment market.

The North America Food Service Equipment market generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market during the forecast period. The high living standards along with high disposable income in the region drive the market growth. Other factors supporting market growth in North America include growth in tourism industry, increasing awareness regarding energy efficient equipment, and growing adoption of smart technologies. The Asia-Pacific Food Service Equipment market is expected to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period owing to the increasing population and improving living standards.

Complete Summary with TOC Available @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/food-service-equipment-market

The different end-users of food service equipment include hotels and clubs, full service restaurants, quick service restaurants, and others. In 2017, hotels and clubs accounted for the highest market share owing to increasing need to offer enhanced services to consumers. Hotels and clubs are increasingly adopting technologically advanced food service equipment to meet high storage demands and to offer fresh & high quality food. Food establishments are also inclined towards using energy efficient service equipment owing to growing environmental concerns.

The leading companies profiled in the Food Service Equipment market report include Dover Corporation, Haier Electronics Group Co., Ltd., Duke Manufacturing Co. Inc., Illinois Tool Works (ITW) Inc., Fujimak Corporation, Duke Manufacturing Co. Inc., Ali Group, Hoshizaki Corporation, Middleby Corporation, Manitowoc Company Inc, and AB Electrolux among others. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers.

Food Service Equipment Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Region

North America US. Canada Mexico

Europe Germany UK France Italy Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific China India Japan Rest of Asia-Pacific

Latin America Brazil Middle East & Africa



Avail discount on this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/food-service-equipment-market/request-for-discount-pricing

About Polaris Market Research

Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world.

Contact us-

Polaris Market Research

Phone: 1-646-568-9980

Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com

Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com
San Francisco, 12 Nov 2021: The Report Europe Veterinary Pharmaceuticals Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Animal Type, By Product, By Mode Of Administration, By End-use, By Country, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028

The Europe veterinary pharmaceuticals market size is expected to reach USD 9.0 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.8% from 2021 to 2028. The key factors anticipated to fuel the market growth include increasing demand for companion animal products, pet expenditure, the prevalence of diseases in companion as well as livestock animals, and initiatives by the market players. For instance, in September 2020, Boehringer Ingelheim collaborated with the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME to develop sustainable veterinary antiparasitics that are safe and effective.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the market leading to bottlenecks in the supply chain and reduced sales for several companies. Other impacts on the market include reduced R&D activities, low demand, and operational hurdles due to changing policies and restrictions. However, soon governments, regulatory bodies, and companies began implementing measures to help the economy and businesses recover. These measures included the easing of restrictions, monetary stimulus and policy changes, conditional exemptions, and other initiatives. As on-site GMP inspection visits were disrupted due to COVID-19, the EMA extended the validity of GMP certificates till the end of 2021 without any further action from the holder. These included manufacturing or import sites of active substances as well as finished products located in the EEA region.

In addition, to ensure an uninterrupted supply of veterinary medicines in the EU Member States, product information and labeling regulations were relaxed. For instance, during the pandemic and within the boundaries of Article 61(1) of Directive 2001/82/EC, member states may allow exemptions for labeling and packaging requirements for veterinary products such as not translating labels into the official language and so on.

The rising pet population and increasing expenditure on pets have led to a surge in demand for companion animal products, such as pet foods, pharmaceuticals, and veterinary services. This trend is estimated to continue over the forecast period. For instance, a 2020 report by FEDIAF estimated the annual sales of pet food products at about EUR 21.8 billion. Across the European region, the rise in single-person or small households, along with the rising geriatric population, is also expected to contribute to the growing pet population. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed market growth with a surge in pet adoption. In January 2021, Deutsche Welle a German media company reported an exponential rise in pet ownership in the country.

Competition in the European market for veterinary medicines is expected to remain high during the forecast period. The market is highly fragmented owing to the presence of several small and large players. This results in high competition among small players to sustain their market position. Moreover, companies are increasingly adopting various strategies, such as mergers & acquisitions, regional expansion, and product launches, to grow in the market. For instance, in August 2021, Elanco accelerated its expansion strategy in the pet health industry through the acquisition of Kindred Biosciences. This complemented the companys Innovation, Portfolio, & Productivity (IPP) strategy and added three potential dermatology blockbusters estimated to be launched by 2025, to its lineup.

Access Research Report of Europe Veterinary Pharmaceuticals Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/europe-veterinary-pharmaceuticals-market-report

Europe Veterinary Pharmaceuticals Market Report Highlights

The market is expected to remain innovation-led with frequent acquisitions and strategic alliances

By product, the anti-infectives segment dominated the market in 2020. This can be attributed to the rising incidence of pathogenic infections in pets due to bacteria, viruses, or fungi

The need to reduce the incidence of parasitic infections to secure food sources by safeguarding the health of livestock animals is also estimated to propel market growth in the coming years

The growing pet market is anticipated to fuel demand for companion animal pharmaceuticals targeting various pathogens and conditions. The rising concerns over zoonoses, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, have increased concerns among pet parents regarding their pets health

Market players are investing in R&D activities and developing new as well as existing products for better Europe Veterinary Pharmaceuticals outcomes

For instance, in 2019, Dechra pharmaceuticals launched 15 products from its Le Vet pipeline. Additionally, Norbrook has launched 5 R&D projects during 2020, with plans to develop 10 more products in the next 2 years

List of Key Players of Europe Veterinary Pharmaceuticals Market

MSD

Ceva

Vetoquinol S.A.

Zoetis

Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH

Elanco

Virbac

Calier

Bimeda, Inc.

Prodivet pharmaceuticals sa/nv

Access Press Release of Europe Veterinary Pharmaceuticals Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/europe-veterinary-pharmaceuticals-market-analysis
San Francisco, 12 Nov 2021: The Report Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Production Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Process, By Product, By Workflow, By Application, By End-use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028

The global induced pluripotent stem cells production market size is estimated to reach USD 1.76 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 8.0% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is driven by technological advancements in induced pluripotent cell manufacturing, rising awareness about the therapeutic potency of such cells, and extensive research on the development of regenerative medicine using induced pluripotent cells. The ability of iPS cells to differentiate with maximum diversity has been one of the key drivers propelling its usage in gene and cell therapy applications.

The high therapeutic potential of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has expanded its applications in the past few years making significant contributions to the market revenue. For instance, extensive research activities are being carried out on iPSC-derived exosomes, organoid-generation for drug testing, and iPSC-based vaccines. iPS cells have paved the way for the commercialization of innovative cell-based therapies in regenerative medicine owing to their ability to propagate indefinitely. In addition, iPS cells have extended their applications in regenerative medicines and therapies as they effectively avoid the ethical limitations of human embryonic stem cells and lower the risks of immune rejection, contamination, & infection.

Degenerative eye disorders are the most common targeted disorders in induced pluripotent cell-based clinical trials, along with cardiac syndromes, such as myocardial ischemia and heart failure, followed by spinal cord injury and neuropathies - Parkinsons disease, and thrombocytopenia from aplastic anemia. Moreover, the rising popularity of automated platforms for iPS cells production is further contributing to the industry growth. The automated production platform offers an ideal chance of reliable reproducibility of cells in addition to cost reduction and increases throughput.

Acknowledging the profitable opportunities posed by the market, key players in the induced pluripotent stem cells generation industry are focusing on mergers & acquisitions to strengthen their presence. In March 2021, Axol Biosciences signed a merger agreement with Censo Biotechnology. This entity is set to become one of the leading providers of products and services in the iPSC-based immune cell, neuroscience, and cardiac modeling for the drug discovery and screening market.

Access Research Report of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Production Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/induced-pluripotent-stem-cells-production-market-report

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Production Market Report Highlights

Widespread potential applications of iPS cells in drug development and discovery has resulted in the segments dominance in 2020

On the other hand, regenerative medicine is expected to be the fastest-growing application segment over the forecast period due to the high usage of iPSCs in treating a number of injuries and degenerative diseases

Automated platforms for iPSCs production have gained immense demand owing to the rising requirement for reproducible large-scale stem cell and differentiated progeny production, with minimum variation

Research and academic institutes are projected to register the fastest CAGR from 2021 to 2028 due to a rise in the number of collaborations between researchers

These collaborations are largely targeted towards finding out the potential application of iPSCs in stem cell biology, translational research, clinical investigation of diseases

Favorable government initiatives, high R&D expenditure, availability of advanced research facilities & skilled professionals, and active policies pertaining to cell therapies have contributed to the dominance of the North American regional market in 2020

The key players are engaged in exploring iPSC therapy to its highest potential across different emerging applications, contributing to the market growth

In February 2021, Evotec entered into a partnership with the Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. The partnership aims to develop iPSC- based cell therapy for the treatment of heart failure

Under this partnership, Evotec and UKE will leverage their mutual strength for the development of iPSC- based therapy approach with the help of Engineered Heart Tissue for curing heart failure

List of Key Players of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Production Market

Lonza

Axol Biosciences Ltd.

Evotec

Hitachi Ltd.

Merck KGaA

REPROCELL Inc.

Fate Therapeutics

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.

StemCellFactory III

Applied StemCell Inc.

Access Press Release of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Production Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-induced-pluripotent-stem-cells-production-market
USA, 12 November 2021 Today, thousands of individuals want relaxation in their hectic life schedule, but it is quite hard for them to get rid of stress and tiredness. A lot of people get tired after working in their offices, and their bodies require a lot of rest. After working for many hours, the muscles get tensed, due to which people feel uncomfortable while performing any activity, and the only thing they love to do is lay in the bed. There are many individuals who use various gels and oils on their bodies to get rid of the pain that occurs because of a hectic schedule. It has been observed that some people take a warm bath after spending a hectic schedule to get comfortable and stress-free. A warm bath can help people to experience better and relaxed muscles in a short while, but sometimes, individuals dont get desired results after taking a bath.

According to some experts, a massage will be a better option for individuals to get rid of all the tiredness in a short while. With the help of a better massage, people get relaxed muscles and a great level of energy, and people can also get rid of pain through the help of a massage. There are several kinds of massages that people can obtain, for example, aromatherapy, full body massage, couples massage, and much more. All kinds of massages can be done by using special oils and creams on the body, and people feel relaxed after every kind of massage. In the industry, people can find several agencies that provide massage services, but not all agencies are worthy enough to get the services. Unlike other agencies, Angel Massage is considered the most trustworthy place for every individual. If needed, interested individuals can click here or visit our official website to know more about Angel Massage Houston.

It is the only agency that is loaded with highly experienced staff members who provide a better massage to every individual. The primary motive of Angel Massage is to provide better services to every individual. Anyone can obtain several services in this company, for example, aromatherapy, full body massage, couples massage, and deep tissue massage. All of these massages are performed by using essential oils that provide several benefits to people. With the help of the services of this company, people feel energetic and relaxed. The services help to get relaxed muscles and get rid of severe pain within seconds. After a hectic schedule, people should schedule an appointment because it helps them to get a better feeling and relaxed life. All the services are available at a very reasonable price. Individuals with expectations to know about the Angel Massage Bellaire and other details can feel free to visit this site.

Website : https://www.angelmassages.com/
Healthcare Analytics Market Research Report: By Type (Predictive, Cognitive), Component (Software, Services), Delivery Model (On-Premise), Application (Financial Analytics, Clinical Analytics), End User (Payers, Hospitals)- Forecast till 2027

Get customized Sample with complete Toc, Inclusive of COVID-19 Industry Analysis @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/7819

Healthcare Analytics Market Segmentation

The segment assessment of the global healthcare or medical analytics market is based on delivery model, type, application, component, and end user.

The type-based segments of the global medical analytics market are prescriptive analytics, predictive analytics, descriptive analytics, and cognitive analytics. The growing applications of cognitive analytics, along with high traction for predictive analytics can promote the healthcare analytics market in the study period.

The component-based segments of the global medical analytics market are services, software, and hardware. The service segment can earn high profit for the medical analytics market.

The delivery mode-based segments of the healthcare or medical analytics market are on-demand and on-premise. The on-demand delivery mode segment can thrive and the high sales of such medical analytics market is likely to generate considerable turnover.

The application-based segments of the healthcare or medical analytics market are Financial Analytics (Claims Processing, Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), Waste, and Abuse (FWA), Payment Integrity & Fraud, Risk Adjustment & Assessment), operational & administrative analytics, Clinical Analytics (Quality Improvement & Clinical Benchmarking, Clinical Decision Support (CDS)), and population health analytics. The RCM segment can rise at decent CAGR, while the CDS segment is expected to earn substantial valuation.

The end user-based segments of the healthcare analytics market are Payers and providers. The payers segment studies Government Agencies, Private Insurance Companies, and Employers and Private Exchanges). The Providers segment studied Post-Acute Care Organizations, Hospitals & Clinics, and Ambulatory Settings among others. The increase in deployment of private insurance companies in healthcare analytics can work in favor of the market.

Healthcare Analytics Market Regional Analysis

MRFR studied the regional progress of the healthcare analytics market for the Americas and suggests that the US is expected to retain its forefront position in the coming years. The presence of robust healthcare base and continuous investment in boosting medical analytics solutions can promote the market growth in the years to come. Innovations by renowned dealers of healthcare analytics those offer better procedural facilities and the rise in adoption of such technological advancements by several medical institutes can support expansion of the market in the Americas.

In Europe, the growing adoption of healthcare IT solutions and the presence of IT giants in the region can earn high revenue in the review period. The increase in adoption of medical analytics due to growing concern for dispatching care and eliminate manual errors can favor EU market. In addition, the active deployment of big data technology and rigorous utility of mhealth tools are expected to benefit the healthcare analytics market in the years to come. MRFR study reveals that Europe can secure the second largest share of the worldwide healthcare or medical analytics market by 2024.

The rise in integration of healthcare analytics in the medical centers can earn profit for APAC market in the study tenure. China, Republic of Korea, Japan, India, and Australia are observed to actively contribute to the healthcare analytics market rise in the analysis period. The growing significant for accuracy is creating the need to curb manual medical errors that is observed to drive the healthcare or medical analytics market in the region. The surge in new vendors for healthcare analytics can mark the regional market lucrative for FDI, which, in turn, can boost the earnings of niche market players. In the Middle East and Africa region, the surge in medical concern can support healthcare analytics market growth at a steady pace.

Get Premium Research Report, Inclusive of COVID-19 Impact Analysis, Find more information @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/healthcare-analytics-market-7819

Healthcare Analytics Market Key Players

Cerner, SAS Institute Inc., Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inovalon, IBM, Wipro, Cotiviti, Citiustech, Health Catalyst, Optum, Mckesson, Oracle, Vitreoshealth, SCIO Health Analytics, and Medeanalytics are some prominent names in the worldwide healthcare or medical analytics market that are listed by MRFR.

About Market Research Future:

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Res
The report "Tile Adhesives & Stone Adhesives Market by Chemistry (Cementitious and Epoxy), Application (Residential, Commercial, and Institutional), and Type of Construction Activity (New Construction and Repairs & Renovation) - Global Forecast to 2021", The tile adhesives & stone adhesives market size was USD 2.37 Billion in 2015 and is projected to reach USD 4.10 Billion by 2021, registering a CAGR of 9.4% between 2016 and 2021.

There are increasing applications of tile adhesives in the housing, commercial, and infrastructure sectors in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa as a result of increased awareness about its benefits. In addition to this, the demand for ceramic and porcelain tiles are growing globally due to their low cost and maintenance, which is driving the market for tile & stone adhesives.

Request a Report Sample to Gain Valuable Insights at https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=117335016

Research Methodology:

In this report, market sizes have been derived using both bottom-up and top-down approaches. Extensive secondary sources, directories, and databases such as Hoovers, Bloomberg, Chemical Weekly, Factiva, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World bank, Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Energy Agency (IEA), Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC), and other government and private websites are involved to identify and collect information useful for this technical, market-oriented, and commercial study of the tile & stone adhesives market.

The market size for each chemistry (cementitious, epoxy, and others); type of construction activity (new construction and repairs & renovation); application (residential, commercial, and institutional) and region (Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa) is identified through both secondary and primary research. The overall tile & stone adhesives market size for various regions and countries have been calculated by adding these individual markets. The tile & stone adhesives market has further been segmented based on application, using percentage split gathered during the research. Findings of this study have been verified through primary research by conducting extensive interviews with key officials such as CEOs, VPs, directors, and other executives.

New construction is the largest segment of the tile & stone adhesives market.

New construction is the largest segment of the tile adhesives & stone adhesives market, as huge residential projects are planned by the developing regions in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Mexico, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Moreover, the government of each country has substantially increased the investment patterns to enhance the living standards of people.

Cementitious to be the preferred chemistry by infrastructure companies and is expected to witness the highest growth

The cementitious segment of the market is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period. It is a preferred choice, as polymer-modified cementitious chemistry bonds a wide range of ceramic and porcelain tiles to concrete substrates. The price of these adhesives is the lowest, as cement is available abundantly. In addition to this, cementitious adhesives are being modified with new chemistries to replace costly epoxy and polyurethane chemistries.

Asia-Pacific is the largest market for tile & stone adhesives

The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest-growing segment of the tile adhesive market. This growth is mainly attributed to high economic growth rate, followed by growing demand for ceramic tiles in the residential and commercial applications and rising demand for infrastructure development, maintenance, and renovation, which is eventually driving the tile & stone adhesives market. The Asia-Pacific and RoW markets are estimated to witness significant growth in the next five years with the allied industries expected to stabilize the overall business requirement in the respective regions. The key players in the tile & stone adhesives market are Bostik Inc. (France), Mapei (Italy), Ardex GmbH (Germany), Laticrete (U.S.), and Saint-Gobain Weber (France).

Schedule a FREE Consultation Call with Our Analysts/Industry Experts to Find Solutions for Your Business at https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=117335016

Sika AG (Switzerland), Fosroc International Ltd. (U.K.), Saint-Gobain Weber (France), Mapei (Italy), H. B. Fuller (U.S.), and Bostik (France) are the leading companies in the global tile & stone adhesives market. These companies are expected to account for a significant market share in the near future.

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. 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.

M & M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" 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. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

Contact:

Mr. Aashish Mehra

MarketsandMarkets  INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: 1-888-600-6441

sales@marketsandmarkets.com
Hewitt takes on the challenge to be the first disabled person to trek from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole, unsupported and unassisted Hewitt aims to complete the 1,000KM polar trek in 45 days arriving at the South Pole ahead of the centenary of legendary polar explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton's death

Hewitt and record-breaking polar explorer, Louis Rudd , will haul all the food and equipment needed for the mission in a 95kg pulk

Trekking to the South Pole marks the penultimate phase of the Adaptive Grand Slam: Hewitt's mission to climb the highest peak on every continent and walk to both poles to inspire others to push their boundaries and achieve their potential OAXHACA, Chile, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Martin Hewitt, founder of accessible exploring charity Adaptive Grand Slam A and Louis Rudd, Director of Expeditions at Shackleton , have embarked on a world first polar mission, aiming for Hewitt to become the first disabled person to reach the South Pole unsupported and unassisted from the Antarctic coast. Hewitt's arrival at the South Pole will mark a significant step in the completion of the Adaptive Grand Slam (AGS), an adaptation of the infamous Explorers Grand Slam , which sees explorers trek to both poles and climb the seven highest mountain peaks on each continent. A To date, Hewitt and a team of disabled adventurers have overcome adversity and their various disabilities to successfully reach the North Pole unsupported and summited Mount Denali, Mount Elbrus, Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Aconcagua and Mount Everest, to inspire others with life-long injuries and disabilities to achieve their potential. After sustaining a life-changing injury during military service resulting in the paralysis of his right arm, Hewitt established the AGS foundation to train and develop disabled teams to tackle extreme expeditions and challenges, supported by professional expedition leaders, to help members of the disabled community regain confidence, independence and meaningful occupation. In Antarctica, Hewitt will be guided by Louis Rudd, a record-breaking polar adventurer who became the first Briton to traverse Antarctica solo, unsupported and unassisted in 2018. Following months of meticulous preparation and extensive training designed to simulate Antarctica's uniquely challenging conditions, Hewitt and Rudd aim to complete the 1,000KM trek in just 45 days. As an unsupported and unassisted trek, the pair will haul all the food and equipment needed for the polar mission on a specially-designed 95kg pulk. After reaching the Pole, they will then attempt to climb Mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica. To accomplish the gruelling challenge and withstand one of the coldest climates on earth, the team will trek using Shackleton's Expedition Pulk Suit, which is specifically designed to protect them from the elements where temperatures can routinely reach -40A. On his departure, Martin Hewitt said "After months of physical and mental preparation, I'm ready to take on this challenge and can't wait to get a step closer to completing the Adaptive Grand Slam. I hope that by succeeding in this challenge, I can show people that you can achieve anything you set your mind to if you have support, drive and determination, and that a debilitating injury should never stand in your way." NOTES TO EDITORS: Adaptive Grand Slam The Adaptive Grand Slam group exists to train and enable disabled adventurers to take on some of the most extreme expeditions and testing challenges on the planet and inspire others with life-long injuries and disabilities to achieve their goals. If you'd like to support the AGS foundation and learn more, please follow this link A https://www.adaptivegrandslam.com/ Shackleton Shackleton designs and develops performance apparel for people living and working in the world's extremes. Driven by exploration and innovation, our company is built on the life and values of polar titan Sir Ernest Shackleton and exists to inspire, prepare and equip people for the challenge. We design in London and work with the highest quality manufacturers in the UK, Italy and around the world. Fur-free and RDS-compliant, we are committed to continual improvement of our sustainability standards. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1687350/Shackleton_Apparel.jpg
Join Edith Salas of Salas Properties & host Jenn Barlow as they visit the Coronado Shores community. The towers have amazing views including the world famous Hotel del Coronado, downtown San Diego, San Diego Bay, the City of Coronado, Point Loma, and the Pacific Ocean.
Everyone ran from the scene but Jones, who was struck in the chest, and the two other victims, who were shot in the leg and in the back, records show. Jones was transported to Hartford Hospital, where he was pronounced dead later that night.
According to court documents, video examined by investigators shows the subject entering the Capitol building at about 2:35 p.m., walking up the stairs to the rotunda, and exiting and reappearing in the rotunda multiple times before exiting the building at about 2:52 p.m.
A free vaccination clinic, run by the state Department of Public Health, will be held on Friday, Nov. 12 at Cummings Park, 468 Shippan Ave, from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Another clinic will be held that day at Hunt Park, 43 Courtland Ave., from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A third clinic will be held Friday at Jackie Robinson Park, at the intersection of W. Main Street and Richmond Hill Ave., from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. No appointment, insurance or identification is required.
For every household that cherishes its in-home Thanksgiving traditions, there is another household that prefers to go to a restaurant for turkey day. The upside: Families dont have to cook or clean up the mess and people who dont like turkey have many choices off the menu. The downside: Unless you order extra plates to go, there are no leftovers.
I say red first, Saadi said. Because its the color of the blood that flows through your veins, that your brothers and sisters have shed on the fields of battle, he continued, raising his voice to overcome the applause, and is embedded in the stars and stripes of our flag.
Red-light cameras are one effective strategy that can help with this deadly issue. These devices are triggered when a vehicle runs through a red light, and automatically issues a moving violation ticket to the registered owner. When placed at intersections that have been the site of multiple crashes, these cameras have been shown to save lives. In one study, done by the respected Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, this technology lowered deadly crashes from running a red light by 24%. Recognizing their role in injury prevention, all of our neighboring states have adopted some form of automated enforcement and have reaped excellent results. In New York City, these cameras were found to change driver behavior, evidenced by an 85% drop in red-light running episodes.
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.
Last year, the port authority nailed down a service making it both the first and last port of call on the Caribbean Express Service linking northern Europe and the Caribbean, a move the port authoritys then-chief executive John Reinhart said mattered because it gives cargo owners quicker access to their cargo, both on the import and export side of the equation.
Dave Ress Staff writer

Dave Ress covers the military. He's been a reporter in Virginia since 1990 and before that for Reuters in Canada, Britain and Africa. Dave has a PhD in history from the University of New England (Australia) and is the author of 4 books on U.S. and Australian history.
In the late spring, the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group joined Norwegian, British and French ships in an exercise to land U.S. Marines on Norways military training grounds, with the ships operating closer inshore than normal in the narrow waters of Norwegian fjords. The USS Iwo Jima, USS San Antonio and USS Carter Hall hosted Norwegian officers to help them understand that nations rules for operating in its airspace and seas.
The legislation also requires the SCC, which regulates Virginia utilities, to define two important figures before any shared solar programs are up and running. A bill credit rate determines how much shared solar customers are credited for the electricity generated by the small solar facility theyre connected to. A minimum bill is the amount, after the bill credit, that each customer must pay per month to Dominion for providing service, not including the cost of the electricity.
Some of the comments that were made Im concerned about as well, especially with the current designation being in my neighborhood, said Pat Dent, vice mayor. Well just have to wait and see how it evolves, but as a starting point I think the staff recommendation is the best that we can do for what we have to deal with right now.
A flood warning was issued in Madurai as the water level in the Vaigai dam reached 69 feet against the full reservoir capacity of 71 feet. (DC Image)

Chennai: The flood warning has been issued in various districts of Tamil Nadu with incessant rains continuing in parts of the state on Friday.

A flood warning was issued in Madurai as the water level in the Vaigai dam reached 69 feet against the full reservoir capacity of 71 feet.

The Central Water Commission said that the River Kallar at its observation site in Poyyapakkam in Ranipet district and River Araniar at its observation site in Puduvayal in Tiruvallur district was flowing above the 'highest flood' level.

Meanwhile, the stagnant water is being pumped out at T-Nagar in Chennai, following incessant rainfall in the region as a result of cyclonic circulation in the Bay of Bengal.

Parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry has witnessed heavy rainfall over the next few days due to depression over the Bay of Bengal, leading to waterlogging in parts of the state.

Schools in Coimbatore also remain closed on Wednesday in wake of the red alert issued by the weather department.

Tamil Nadu government declared local holidays on November 10 and 11 for nine districts - Chennai, Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur, Chengalpattu, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, and Mayiladuthurai -- after the weather department predicted heavy rains for the next couple of days.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday also said that the state will witness light to moderate rainfall in most places with heavy rainfall at isolated places during the next 24 hours.

"The depression over north coastal Tamil Nadu weakened into a well-marked low-pressure area and the associated cyclonic circulation extends up to 5.8 km above mean sea level. Under its influence, Light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy rainfall at isolated places very likely over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema south interior Karnataka and Kerala during next 24 hours," IMD said in its weather forecast bulletin.

On Thursday, the IMD issued a red alert in Cuddalore, Viluppuram, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Karaikal following incessant rainfall in the city.
The apex court was hearing a case in which two lawyers had written a letter to the CJI seeking a high-level judicial inquiry into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned the hearing of the case relating to the October 3 violence in Lakhimpur Kheri for November 15, on the request of the Uttar Pradesh government.

A Bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli adjourned the case on Monday after senior advocate Harish Salve appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government urged the court for grant of some time saying "we are working something out".

Local farmers blamed Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra 'Teni' and his son Ashish Mishra for the violence that left eight dead, including four farmers a local journalist and others during a farmers' protest. They were mowed down by a vehicle which was part of the convoy of the Minister in Lakhimpur Kheri in north-central Uttar Pradesh.

The apex court was hearing a case in which two lawyers had written a letter to the CJI seeking a high-level judicial inquiry into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.

On the last date of hearing, the apex court had proposed to appoint a former High Court judge to monitor the ongoing investigation into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case while expressing dissatisfaction with the Uttar Pradesh Police probe for mixing of witnesses in different FIRs in the case.

It had asked Salve to take instructions from the Uttar Pradesh government on the appointment of a former High Court judge from a different state to oversee the probe and posted the matter for hearing today.

The apex court had said that to ensure there is no mix up of evidence in the case we are inclined to appoint a former judge of a different High Court to monitor the Lakhimpur Kheri probe.

The investigation is "not going the way we expected", the Bench had said.

The Bench had suggested the names of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain or Justice Ranjit Singh, former judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to oversee the probe.

It had also declined to hand over the probe to the CBI saying "CBI is not the solution to everything".

It had expressed concerns about the case against the prime accused in the case relating to mowing down the farmers being diluted by clubbing the investigation with the counter-case of mob lynching.

The top court had said that the investigation in both cases must be separate and the statements of witnesses in both cases must be recorded independently.

The apex court had also observed that the pace of the investigation is not up to the expectation and said that the prima facie view it gets is that one particular accused is being benefited by recording statements of witnesses in a particular manner.

As per reports 13 people, including Ashish Mishra have been arrested so far in connection with the case. Ashish Mishra had allegedly mowed down farmers with his car.

Two advocates -- Shiv Kumar Tripathi and CS Panda -- had sent the letter petition before CJI seeking punishment for politicians allegedly involved in the ghastly incident. The letter had stated, "Having regard to the seriousness of the killing of the farmers at district Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, it is incumbent upon this Court to intervene in the matter as flashed in the press."

Videos were 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.
HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Friday reserved orders in the petitions challenging GO. No. 87 (September 20) issued by the commissioner of prohibition & excise department conferring 15% of A4 retail liquor shops to Gouds, 10% to SCs and 5% to STs. Justice K. Lakshman was dealing with three writ petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the said GO and also GO. No. 98 (November 5) issuing notification laying down the policy for allotment of liquor shops. In the previous hearing, Justice Lakshman had directed the state government to explain the basis on which the government had fixed reservations.

On Friday, he asked why is it 15% to Gouds, why not 5% or 20%, what is the rationale behind such allocation, what was the material placed before the Cabinet for taking such a decision? Advocate general B.S. Prasad informed the Court that the Goud community is into toddy business and in the present scenario, toddy-tree numbers have come down drastically and liquor business is in proximity to toddy business. As part of welfare measures, the government has taken a decision to allocate 15% of liquor shops to Gouds as they are socially and economically backward.

Further, he submitted that this was essentially a policy decision of the government and there is no constitutional embargo on this issue. The state cabinet is empowered to take such a decision.

He submitted that the government has amended some content of GO 87 and issued a new GO 100 on November 8, which enables the reservations. When the judge sought a copy of the GO copy, the advocate general replied the copy had not come out and he would submit it by Saturday morning. P.V. Ramana, counsel for one of the petitioners, submitted that the government has not conducted any exercise in collecting data pertaining to Gouds.

On the conclusion of arguments, the judge reserved orders.
Reports said that in the ruckus, Navjot Singh Sidhu stood up for the CM and charged up to the MLAs, asking them to back off. (DC File Image)

Chandigarh: Punjab Assembly on Thursday witnessed some ugly scenes after a scuffle broke out between the MLAs of the ruling Congress and of the Opposition Akali Dal. Reports said that chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi made personal remarks on Akali Dal MLA Bikram Singh Majithia, after which Akali MLAs rushed to the Well of the House and stood in front of the chief minister and started making noise.

A few legislators intervened to stop legislators of both parties from coming to blows.

Rising tempers following the sharp remark by Mr Channi forced the Speaker to adjourn the House thrice.

Later, comments by Channi were expunged by the Speaker.

Attacking former CM Parkash Singh Badal, who was not present in the House, Mr Channi said, He destroyed Punjab. Sukhbir Singh Badal appreciated the Union government when it abrogated Article 370 ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. He did not vote against the move in the Parliament. I got this information through RTI. BJP thought they could do whatever they want with Punjab because the Akali Dal was with them and Sikhs are with them (Akalis). You were with them to let BJP and RSS capture Punjab. SAD is a gaddar (traitor) party of Punjab.

These people (SAD) destroyed youth of Punjab with drugs, he added.

Reports said that in the ruckus, Navjot Singh Sidhu stood up for the CM and charged up to the MLAs, asking them to back off.

A special Assembly session was called on Thursday to protest against the expansion of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Punjab.

During his address, the CM spoke on a resolution against the Centre's three contentious farm laws, against which farmers have been protesting at Delhi borders for around a year now and targeted the Akali Dal. His personal comment on Mr Majithia irked SAD MLAs.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution against the Centre's notification that extended the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force, calling it an "insult" to the state police and seeking its withdrawal.The House unanimously passed the resolution "rejecting" the Centre's order in the absence of the only two BJP MLAs.

The Union government had last month amended the BSF Act to authorise the border guarding force to undertake search, seizure and arrest within a 50 km stretch, up from the existing 15 km, from the international border in Punjab, West Bengal and Assam.

"Punjab police is a unique patriotic force which has contributed immensely in maintaining the unity and integrity of the country. As per the Constitution of India, maintaining law and order is the responsibility of the state government and for this purpose, the Government of Punjab is fully competent.

"The decision of extending the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) from 15 km to 50 km by the Union Government is an expression of distrust towards the state Police and people of Punjab. This is their insult too," the resolution stated.

Former chief minister Amarinder Singh opposed the resolution, saying that with neighbouring Pakistan using sophisticated technology and improvised drones with a range of as much as 30 km, it is important that the BSF gets more operational jurisdiction.

"The BSF like the Punjab Police is our own force and not any external or foreign force coming to occupy our land," he said in a statement here.  Agencies
Basketball is underway throughout the Sac-Joaquin Section and we want to know what you think about this season's teams.

You voted:
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to form
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.
The US Army recently mobilized in Germany as its response to Moscow and events in Europe. Russia has been improving its missile technology, which the US has to roll out yet.

Sending the unit to be based in Germany as the tense atmosphere in Eastern Europe is ramping up, with the EU and UK seemingly overmatch by Russian forces. After the Cold War, this kind of weaponry was developed by Russia and two other nations.

US Army deploys unit to counter the Kremlin

Called the 56th Artillery Command, whose base is in Mainz-Kastel, the Dark Eagle weapon is not tested or developed yet. US military sources say it can reach 4000 miles per hour at hypersonic speed, reports the Express UK.

The Kremlin is one of the leading military forces in technologies such as hypersonic weaponry when the US and NATO are now outmatched with longer-range artillery rockets. The Tsirkon hypersonic missile has been tested successfully from an SLBM launch recently, cites Reuters.

One source of tension is the massing of Russian forces deployed to the Ukrainian border, plus the border crisis between Belarus and Poland due to a migrant wave breaking into the EU border.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is not on good terms with the European Union, which has said the Kremlin and Minsk are intentionally causing the problem.

Washington is the hegemon of the world, but that is changing fast. Challenged by China and Russia that have become more potent, leaving Joe Biden to rely on allies to help stave off the slope of America. The US army depends on the nuclear-capable artillery unit as its response to Russia defending its border interests.

Read Also: Russia Fires at Practice Targets in Crimean Waters To Warn Off US and UK From Further Territorial Violations

Long-range missiles give US Army improved capabilities

After the end of the Cold War, symbolized by the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the End of the Iron Curtain, the world has changed so much. Nuclear weapons are under scrutiny, but it depends on how long the US will not consider that option.

In 1991 the unit got stood down when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was ended after the fall. Its main offensive system, the Pershing II ballistic missile, was disallowed when the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty got ratified, notes The Times.

In 2019, the Trump administration ended the INF after the Kremlin was accused of not following the treaty.

Information about the 56th Artillery Command unit has stated that aside from a yet to be fully developed Dark Eagle missile, a version of the US Naval Tomahawk cruise missile will be available to them.

According to General Stephen Maranian, the unit commander said the reactivation gives the US Army in Europe and Africa improved capabilities. Germany has the US command for Europe and Africa too.

The general remarked there are plans to send long-range missiles that target ground units, which concerns hypersonic weapons which Putin has stored.

The 56th unit has no Tsirkon or Kaliber hypersonic missiles, which Russia has. These launchers on trailers are ready in Washington state for Training.

China, Russia, North Korea achieved hypersonic missile technology, but the US is yet to field one of its own. While the US army needs to have one of its own ready for use in a nuclear-capable artillery unit.

Related Article: Movement of Russian Armor and Troops to the North Ukraine Border A Reminder to NATO Putin is not Playing Games

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The German Leader Angela Merkel talks to Russian Leader Vladimir Putin to stop Belarusian dictator Lukashenko from sending migrants to the Belarus-Poland border. Brussels is up in arms and said that Lukashenko is the cause of the border crisis, getting worse by the day.

The Polish border crisis is getting worse, which the EU calls an attack on it, as many EU leaders are blaming the Kremlin as part of the dilemma. But the German leader cautions them that it might take the intercession of the Russian leader to settle the issue.

Lukashenko weaponizes the refugees in his revenge against the EU

Merkel said that the resulting crisis from the border fallout is a humanitarian problem that is inhumane and unacceptable, reports the Express UK.

Alleged images of migrants lined up and escorted to the borders by what seems to be forces of the Lukashenko regime.

Sources say that the reason for creating the migrant turmoil is because of the sanctions heaped on Minsk, which were pushed by the EU, the US, and the UK to eliminate the political opposition in the past year.

Accusations flew that the Belarusian dictator intentionally weaponized the refugees in his war against the EU, cited the BBC.

Merkel and Putin were discussing options to diffuse the ramping up of tension that could engulf the bloc, remarked a source from the German government. She called the border dilemma the weaponization of migrants that was not correct.

But, the German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer did not share German leader Angela Merkel's sentiment about Vladimir Putin; instead vilified the cooperation of Belarus and Russian trying to poke trouble at the West.

Read Also: Movement of Russian Armor and Troops to the North Ukraine Border A Reminder to NATO Putin is not Playing Games

According to the German newspaper Bild, he added that the EU members should come together in opposing Lukashenko and Putin, causing instabilities in the West.

Troops remain to secure borders despite migrant pleas

The Kremlin asked the European Union to do the right thing and allow countless migrants through Belarus. Putin added the Bloc is strangling Belarus via its borders.

According to the Polish government, the waves of migrants will be stopped and defend Europe. They will not be allowed to enter the border.

Twelve thousand troops are deployed to the border, adding to the 10,000 stationed to secure the border shared with Belarus. For Mr. Seehofer, the Poles are justified in their reaction to the marauding migrants. He remarked that they could not be criticized for wanting to secure their borders, and the Poles are bearing the brunt of Lukashenko's revenge on the whole EU block.

But some, like Amnesty International, called the ejection of refugees from their borders illegal. Shocking images of Polish troopers who countered migrants from the Middle East and Africa from passing the barbed fences using pepper spray while the barriers were getting torn down.

Parents hoisted small children to let them pass, done by some individuals who could not get through, while the chaos ensued. The human rights charity did an investigation and found out, revealing that the Poles violated the migrants.

Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International's European Institutions Office, said that the Polish government had subjected the migrants to cruel conditions.

Though the EU has the right to defend itself, German Leader Angela Merkel says in order to solve the crisis, it will take Vladimir Putin to settle it.

Related Article: Putin Says That the EU Should Recompense Belarus to Stem Migrant Flow Into Poland; Citing Turkey in 2016

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Experts say that weaponized drones will be worse than jumbo jets hitting buildings during 9/11. Instead, it will be unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) attacking the US with bombs and even nerve gas.

The use of the drone will be the next wave, and the terrorist has found it a fit, with the ability to attack remotely. Some advanced UAVs can even hunt down targets with their basic AI, making it easy to attack and kill targets anywhere.

UAVs could attack similar to 9/11 jets

Terrorist attacks of 9/11 are easier to deal with even if the next big one to hit a country can be anywhere, said a top military official, reports the Sun UK.

This unnamed military source stated that a small drone is portable and can be hidden by terrorists until needed. Next is easy to use will descend into a terrible lethality.

He mentioned to Newsweek that having several portable UAVS and slap a bomb to it, and let it rip and fly into the crowd. A boom and several dead people would follow next. Should this scenario play out, it will be wrong for everyone involved not to expect anything?

A weaponize drone attack is similar to the Kamikaze mission of the losing Japanese in WWII, in the age of AI and drone technology has made it a more ominous threat from a bomb or nerve gas. Compared to passenger airlines diving down.

Read Also: US Thinks of Establishing New Bases in Saudi Arabia to Counter Iran

A book by Tom Clancy, a 1994 fictional thriller, describes how a commandeered jet was used to destroy the US capital. But on September 11, the terror attacks with planes raining down shocked the US and the world.

The source added that the threat is unidentified, but the sale of small, portable UAVs that terrorists can weaponize is a potential consideration to keep in mind.

Terror group's easy access to UAVs pose a threat

After 9/11, the manufacture of commercial UAVs is getting more affordable and cheaper than before, but with relatively good artificial intelligence. In the hands of ISIS or any terror group, it becomes a tool for mayhem and chaos. But Israeli security officials remarked that UAVs could be weaponized, even if the 9/11 level of destruction is not happening yet. This remote technology is also new.

Though these UAVs are not able to pack that much explosive, that matters. But the actors will add an enormous blast for effect and shock terror.

A weekend ago, the Iraqi Prime Minister's residence had figured in an attempt to kill him with three drones with explosives. But Kadhimi survived the UAV attacks, cites Reuters.

Threats that are keeping world leaders on their toes

Way back in 2018, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro lived through two UAVs attacking with explosives and got away. Last February, the Houthi who Iran backs had launched a bomb attack on a Saudi airport with UAVs.

Later the insurgents broadcast their handiwork, which was verified by Yehia Sarai, the military representative who said it was four drones with bombs to blow up the Abha airport. He added that the attack was in response to the siege of their nations.

These weaponized drones have become the newest threats. Whether a bomb or nerve gas using the UAV like a kamikaze is not a good thing to go through. In the US or the west, the dangers are unseen.

Related Article: Yemen's Houthi Rebels Claim Drone Attack on Oil Shipping Port

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A political commentator criticized Joe Biden, as his mishandling of the Afghan pullout is not forgotten despite attempts to shrug aside such a colossal misstep by any world leader leaving everything to the Taliban insurgents.

Access to military hardware that bars adversary states against the US can copy none. They can reverse-engineer years of technological innovation.

Loss of the technological edge is a danger to the US forces to get a photo op on 9/11, which backfired dreadfully.

Taliban has upgraded its weaponry from what was left by the US troops

The leaders of the Jihadis have confirmed that advanced military hardware left by the retreating US forces left the hardware used to train the Afghan military, reports the Express UK.

Angus Campbell, the Chief of the Australian Defense Force (ADF), reported more ominous developments than the Taliban getting their mitts on the US arms. He said that Pakistan had bought part of the weapons stash from the Jihadis.

Mr. Caleb Bond, a political commentator, had nothing but barbs for US President Joe Biden, who chose not to coordinate an effective pullout and was not listening to his military advisers. The loss of US arms was not allegedly acknowledged, instead it passed the buck.

The political commentator scathes Joe Biden as he conversed on Sky News Australia and gave his take on what became catastrophic for the west due to Taliban insurgents winning. He said that the way the US leader made so many errors despite a road map is deplorable going out fast, notes the Diverse Bulletin.

Read Also: Joe Biden has Dropped it in Afghanistan; Allies Fear US Fail Against China in the Future

Some pundits have suggested it was for posturing on 9/11 and disregarded warnings from the state department. As a result, the Taliban has the tech of the US now, with the ones working that will make them dangerous. The arms stash they have now is top-notch compared to other terror insurgents.

A generation of Afghans at their mercy

Young girls are sold off to older men for a measly $500 because Biden's action has allowed the crumbling of the former country. With no money to feed their families, they sacrifice their daughters for survival.

By pulling out so fast, the Taliban have armed well, not bumpkins anymore, while the whole of Afghanis is helpless. Bond said Biden should be sanctioned for the mishandling, or there is something wrong.

The US president got criticized for the dreadful pullout and even alleged the insurgents could not take over the country, and they did, cites the BBC. Months back, warnings were given but got ignored.

These Jihadis were unopposed and rolled into Kabul, where many Afghan allies to the west fear revenge against them and their families. The airport at Karzai is where many went to escape, but many have failed.

Taliban not recognized as new Afghan government

The Taliban are the new Afghan government, but the world denies them that recognition. Pakistan has not recognized the Jihadis as a legitimate administration after August 31. Islamabad denies its ties to the terror group, even denying the past twenty years of supporting them. Not verifying the link Pakistan has to the Islamist insurgents.

In dire straits by now, Kabul's new rulers are seeking recognition but are denied of it. Even Pakistan's pleas to allow the frozen accounts of Kabul to be made accessible, with a crashing economy and more.

Political commentator Caleb Bond scathes Joe Biden for allowing the Taliban insurgents to rule with misery seen in Afghanistan but ignored its damage.

Related Article: Taliban Disappointed With Inoperable Aircraft Left at Kabul Airport as US Troops Disable Them Before Leaving

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Kim Jong Un hasn't made an official appearance in over a month, the longest period of time he's been out of the spotlight in over seven years.

The protracted absence comes as rumors about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's health continue to circulate. Analysts point out that Kim has taken an increasing number of extended breaks over the previous year.

Kim Jong Un has not been seen for over a month

He was last seen in official media on October 12 in Pyongyang during a missile demonstration, UNILAD reported. The 37-year-old mysteriously disappeared for three weeks in April 2020, prompting global media speculation that he had died or was critically ill following rumored heart surgery.

He was pictured wearing bandages on his head and standing on padded mats during a factory tour after his return, according to NK News. He was also caught wearing bandages on his head and standing on padded mats earlier this year.

Kim Jong Un was seen in public appearing much smaller in recent images, which some have linked to his obvious health concerns. According to some sources, Kim may have deliberately dropped weight to demonstrate solidarity with North Koreans who are suffering from a deepening famine.

According to the South Korean National Intelligence Service, the North Korean leader is considered to be in excellent condition, and although missing recent weapons training exercises, is reported to be conducting his "regular duties" from his holiday property in Wonsan, on the country's east coast.

Kim Jong Un will mark his tenth anniversary as North Korea's Supreme Leader in April of next year, and despite his health problems, he remains one of the world's youngest leaders of the state. The leader's next scheduled public appearance is on December 17, when he will visit his grandfather Kim Il-Sung's mausoleum to commemorate his death anniversary.

Read Also: China, US Reveal Surprise Climate Pact at COP26 Summit; Countries Doesn't Budge on Climate Goals

The North Korean leader's weight loss previously sparked fears

State television reported a local resident stating that North Koreans had been sobbing over leader Kim Jong Un's "emaciated" condition in a very uncommon broadcast that acknowledged outside conjecture over Kim's weight loss.

The remarks are being interpreted as an attempt to boost domestic support for Kim as he grapples with deepening economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a country where public discussion of the leader's health and personal life is nearly always off-limits.

Sanctions imposed as a result of its nuclear program, as well as natural calamities, have exacerbated the rogue nation's difficult situation. "Our people's hearts ached the most when we saw Kim's emaciated looks," an anonymous man remarked on Korean State TV, as per Express.co.

Analysts said the words suggested officials were trying to utilize Kim's weight issues to bolster allegiance to the government in tough times, showing him as a "committed, hardworking" leader while the country grapples with a food shortage and other issues.

As food shortages worsen, a recent announcement from Pyongyang advised North Korean civilians to consume "delicious" swan meat. Over the last several months, North Korea has increased its military troops and assets to unprecedented levels.

In a speech broadcast on state television at the time, Kim Jong Un stated that he was beefing up his military as a matter of self-defense. According to a report by state news agency KCNA, he argued that Pyongyang's weapons development was vital in the face of hostile US policies and a military build-up in South Korea.

Related Article: Kim Jong Un Starves Citizens as North Korea's Leader Order To Lessen the Food They Eat Until 2025

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
President Joe Biden signed legislation on Thursday prohibiting businesses, like Huawei Technologies Co., and ZTE Corp., from acquiring new equipment licenses from U.S. authorities.

Bipartisan Bill Reaches Near Unanimous Support from Both Congress and Senate

In a recently published article in Yahoo News, the law had near-unanimous support on Capitol Hill, having cleared the Senate by voice vote last month and the House by a vote of 420-4 the week before. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers sponsored it.

The White House hailed the bill's sponsors, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass. ), as well as House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), in a statement (D-Calif.).

Meanwhile, last year, former President Trump signed legislation prohibiting the use of government funding to acquire Huawei equipment and establishing a $1 billion fund to aid the FCC in tearing out and replacing existing equipment judged to pose a hazard, according to a report published in The Hill.

Read Also: U.S. Ban on Chinese Firms: President Joe Biden Brings List Previously Issued by Trump to 59

What is the Secure Equipment Act?

The Secure Equipment Act prohibits the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from evaluating or approving items from firms on the FCC's "covered list," which includes Huawei and ZTE, two Chinese telecoms giants, due to its alleged security threats.

The FCC overwhelmingly agreed last year to officially categorize Huawei and ZTE as national security risks, citing their links to the Chinese Communist Party and fears about spying. The national security threat classification prevents U.S. telecommunications firms from purchasing items from these organizations using FCC subsidies, according to a report published in Reuters.

Furthermore, the Commerce Department added Huawei and ZTE to its "entity list," effectively blacklisting the groups. Huawei, one of the largest global providers of 5G equipment, recently reported a significant drop in sales due to measures taken to block the company from doing business in the United States.

Sponsors of the Bill Release a Statement

In a statement, Rubio argued that Chinese state-owned businesses like Huawei and ZTE are recognized national security concerns that have no place in the country's telecommunications network. At the same time, Markey underlined the need to animate our technology with our principles in a separate statement.

In a published article in MSN News, at the time, Scalise said the bill sends a strong message to the Chinese Communist Party that America is dedicated to preserving our people's privacy and security. In contrast, Eshoo said she was anxious to have the bill signed into law by the President as soon as possible.

FCC Designates Five Chinese Companies That Pose Threats

Under a 2019 legislation designed to secure U.S. communications networks, the FCC classified five Chinese corporations as presenting a national security concern in March. Huawei and ZTE, as well as Hytera Communications Corp, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co, and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co, were among the firms identified.

Even as legislators sought legislation to demand it, the FCC voted unanimously in June to forward a proposal to block permits for equipment in U.S. telecommunications networks from certain Chinese corporations. Beijing expressed its displeasure with the FCC decision in June.

Related Article: Trump Throttles Huawei With More Restrictions Anew

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Moscow reported that another British recon plane prompted the deployment of a Russian fighter jet to chase off another incursion by the Royal Air Force. This comes as problems with Ukraine and the Polish border is putting the Kremlin in dispute with NATO forces.

A Russian official said that NATO is again probing the air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over claimed territory on the Crimean coast. Involved in the umpteenth incident are a Su-30 and a British RC-135 recon-plane over the Russian territory.

Putin warned the west not to mess with Russian interests

It seems the west is poking the bear, and the Kremlin told NATO allies involved in an earlier deployment of warships in the Black Sea what their provocations are for. Adding the Black Sea fleet would not hesitate in a clash, reported the Sun UK.

A message from Russia's ministry of defense informed that an RC-135 plane was close to the border of the Russian Federation. Major General Igor Konashenkov, the spokesman, said the Sukhoi Su-30 was sent up to intercept the UK plane.

Russian Su-30SM fighters intercepted a US Air Force RC-135 over the Black Sea yesterday. 71/https://t.co/xJZO5luLup pic.twitter.com/RAV2jVhbEO  Rob Lee (@RALee85) August 22, 2020

He added that the other plane was almost 30 kilometers from the border of the Russian Federation. The interceptor came close to check the British spy plan that immediately aborted its headlong path to move away, cites the Mirror UK.

Russian sources released the video with the incident flying over the southern Black Sea from the peninsula of Crimea, which Putin annexed in 2014.

It was another incident by the US and NATO allies trying to provoke the Kremlin into a bad situation with the interception of a Russian jet fighter of a British recon plane, which was scoured by the Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov as dastardly.

Read Also: British Warship Denies That Russian Military Assets Fired Upon it While in the Black Sea

Ryabkov added the US and allies are playing a deadly game to test the Kremlin's resolve.

Recent encounters in Crimean waters

Recently, a Royal Navy vessel went into Crimean waters and had a non-lethal skirmish with the Russian Navy. The HMS Defender Type-45 destroyer illegally sailed into protected waters, not international, when a coast guard vessel engaged it. The encounter engineered to bait Moscow in the Black Sea got serious, notes the BBC.

Other units came in a plane that buzzed the UK destroyer and dropped four bombs to make the Type-45 change course.

Sources say the RC-135 is a spy plane that surveils electronic signals during missions to build an intelligent picture of the enemy. This time the recon plane wants to get any energy signals from radios, radars, and even top-secret weapons.

Only another intrusion by NATO spy planes detected and sent out of Russian Territory, involved was the anti-aircraft missile forces in the country, said the defense ministry.

In a terse statement, Moscow officials noted the increased activities of US and NATO allies in the Black Sea as of late.

The Russian Defense Ministry noted the random drill as aggressive acts by the US, which is a threat to the security and stability of the Crimean region. Primarily the US and UK are saying annexed Crimea is Ukraine's, but the Kremlin says no.

This incident with the Russian Jetfighter that sends a British recon plane will not be the last. Such incidents wherein the west are pushing Putin in a corner will fail. In contrast, the US is losing power on the world stage due to factors of leadership.

Related Article: Tensions Escalate As Russian Sukhoi-35S Jets Intercept American B-52 Bomber Flying Close to Russia Air Defense Identification Zone

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Germany is struggling to curb the spread of the coronavirus infection across its regions as the country suffers another wave of the pandemic, recording more than 50,000 cases daily, causing several hospitals to reach their capacities.

One of the country's foremost clinics for pulmonary disease, the University Hospital of Giessen, is already at capacity. In the past few weeks, Germany has recorded triple the average number of coronavirus patients, with roughly half of them on ventilators.

Germany's Fourth COVID Wave

The head of infectious diseases of the hospital, Dr. Susanne Herold, said she questioned each patient that was admitted why they didn't get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The medical professional made her statements after her daily round on the ward on Thursday. She added that the patients were a combination of people who did not trust the vaccines, the state, or those who were not reached by public information campaigns.

These types of patients majorly contributed to the fourth wave of coronavirus cases in Germany that has resulted in tens of thousands of daily cases. The numbers represent statistics that the country has never seen before since the beginning of the pandemic, the New York Times reported.

The situation comes as Germany was once praised for its amazing coronavirus response but is now seen as a stark warning of how quickly the coronavirus can take a complete turn. One expert issued a dire warning of a massive rise in fatalities due to the sheer number of infected people in the region.

Read Also: Research Reveals Why Older People Gets Infected More Likely by SARS -CoV-2 than Younger People

The fourth wave of the coronavirus is primarily attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant that continues to spread as the winter season approaches. For the last four days ending on Thursday, Germany has recorded peak coronavirus infections, with the latest peaking at 50,196 cases.

The Robert Koch Institute, the country's public health body, released data that showed Germany's total coronavirus cases was now at 4.89 million while the number of fatalities comes in at 97,198. Many of the country's officials and public health experts are expressing their concerns about the data, CNBC reported.

Protecting the People of Germany

Olaf Scholz, Germany's likely new chancellor, on Thursday, urged residents to get vaccinated against the coronavirus to curb the spread of the infection and protect their communities. The statement came as the parliament was discussing new ways to tackle the devastating fourth wave of the pandemic without having to rely on lockdowns or vaccine mandates.

The three parties that are negotiating to form the country's new government have agreed to let a state of emergency expire on Nov. 25 since it was issued at the start of the pandemic. The decision comes as peak cases are recorded amid increasingly colder weather and people are gathering more indoors that are turning Europe into another coronavirus hotspot.

Some German officials have considered that the use of a state of emergency was no longer necessary because of the vaccination drive and the need to make a new normal in Europe's largest economy. They instead proposed legislation to allow existing hygiene measures, including compulsory facial coverings in indoor public spaces, to be enforced and tightened, Reuters reported.



Related Article: US FDA Recalls Pain Medicine Methocarbamol 500mg; Patients Advised To Stop Taking the Pill

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
On Monday, a fresh stimulus check will be deposited into the bank accounts of tens of millions of Americans.

We'll go over all you need to know about the last Child Tax Credit payments in this post, including when they'll arrive and more.

What is the most crucial information concerning the remaining payments? There are just two of them remaining. On Monday, November 15, there will be one, and then on December 15, there will be the final installment in the series. The second part will be released next year. When families submit their federal tax returns, they will get it in the form of a tax credit, according to BGR.

This year's six stimulus checks, which began in July, were a new approach to a problem. The funds came from a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill agreed by Congress in March. That bill increased the standard amount of the Child Tax Credit, among other things.

If this had been a regular year, providing eligible households a larger tax credit when they filed their taxes in 2022 would have sufficed. The tax credit is arranged in such a way that Americans receive half of it as a cash payment upfront. And it was spaced out over a few months.

States already sending fourth round of stimulus checks

In the last year, a number of states around the country have given surprise stimulus payments to people. After three installments as part of Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan, the bonus money was distributed to groups such as teachers and parents.

Per The Sun, individual programs set up by state officials to help the people who reside there have resulted in the money. Each city will choose who is eligible for the stimulus checks and how much they will get.

Unemployed citizens in Arizona were able to take advantage of the state's back-to-work program. Those who returned to part-time employment were eligible for a $1,000 stimulus payment. Those who return to full-time employment may be eligible for a $2,000 incentive.

Residents in California who were required to file their 2020 tax return by October 15 received the Golden State Stimulus. As of October 31, almost half of the nine million people have received their stimulus payments, with the remaining checks being mailed.

Governor Ned Lamont of Connecticut launched the Back to Work program, which would provide $1,000 in stimulus checks beginning May 30, 2021, and running until December 31, 2021. Other states have more strict criteria, including information on when citizens filed for unemployment and how long they were jobless.

Tennessee lawmakers enacted legislation in 2021 to provide full-time public school employees a $1,000 bonus and part-time public school employees a $500 bonus. The money was intended to enable those who had been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak to get back on their feet.

Read Also: Plus Up Payments May End in December; Here's What You Need to Know To Receive New Stimulus Checks Next Month

Are you eligible for plus-up payments?

The first thing you should know if you have got a deposit into your IRS bank account is that it is not a fourth stimulus payment from the federal government. In fact, it's a "plus-up" payment. The additional payment is money owing to you from the third stimulus check, not a fourth stimulus check.

The stimulus payment was linked to a taxpayer's adjusted gross income on their tax returns, according to the IRS. As a result, an extra payment is simply money owing to a person who did not get the exact amount in the previous stimulus payment.

The IRS's Get My Payment tracking tool has assisted in determining the payment status of stimulus checks and deposits, but it does not offer updates on stimulus plus-up payments. "Do not call the IRS. Our telephone assistants have no more information than what is accessible on IRS.gov," the IRS website advises, as per MARCA.

To obtain an extra payment if you submitted a 2020 tax extension, your return must be finalized by August 16. Finally, taxpayers who do not get an extra payment or the third stimulus check but are entitled to one can claim the funds as a recovery refund credit on their 2021 tax return in 2022.

Related Article: Federal Stimulus Checks Available To Some Americans in 2022; States Already Distributing Fourth Round of Payments

@YouTube

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
New York City Mayor-Elect Eric Adams is facing threats of violence and "bloodshed" from leaders of the Black Lives Matter New York chapter if the official continues to reinstate the plainclothes anti-crime units that were disbanded following the murder of George Floyd.

In an interview, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, Hawk Newsome, said that they will take to the streets once again if Adams puts back the old ways of policing. The leader warned of riots, fire, and bloodshed. He argued that the group believed in defending its people.

Threats of Violence, Bloodshed

The other co-founder of the branch and Hawk's sister, Chivona Newsome, warned Adams of the repercussions and lawlessness that the group will conduct if the unit is reinstated. "We will shut the city down. We will shut down City Hall, and we will give him hell and make it a nightmare," said Chivona, Yahoo News reported.

Former police captain Adams vowed, at a time when shootings and stabbings were surging in New York, that he would reestablish a reformed version of the plainclothes anti-crime unit. The official argued that having an effective Anti-Crime team was needed to take guns off the streets. He pledged that he would do it right to protect the people of the city.

Read Also: Biden Signs 'The Secure Equipment Act' To Safeguard Telecommunication Systems Against Potential Foreign Threats

Previously, Adams gained early attention for critically speaking about the police department that he served in and as someone who has, in his teens, experienced police brutality. The mayor-elect said that when he was only 15 years old, police officers beat him after arresting him for trespassing.

While claiming himself as a progressive, Adams has continued to reject progressive mantras to "defund the police," saying that he was proud of his time in the department. He has been firm in his stance despite being seen as the moderate candidate in the crowded Democratic primary and one who offered a business-friendly approach, Fox News reported.

Anti-crime NYPD Unit

In June 2020, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea dissolved the controversial unit after a "disproportionate" number of high-profile incidents that involved plainclothes cops. Former officer Daniel Pantaleo was a part of the anti-crime unit during the time he put Eric Garner in a chokehold on Staten Island, causing his death. The victim's last words became a rallying cry for the BLM movement, "I can't breathe."

Hawk said that he was surprised that Adams did not offer a comment on police reform and would not give them any concrete plans during their meeting. The BLM group leader said that they will be at Adams' front door, at Gracie Mansion, and in the streets.

The BLM group leader said that he was not threatening anyone and was only warning that the events would be the natural response to aggressive oppression and how people will react. In response, Adams said that the city could have both safe streets and racial justice.

The mayor-elect also said that if Black lives truly mattered, they should address the violence surging in communities while also addressing bias in policing efforts. He argued that yelling and not listening was getting them nowhere, the New York Post reported.



Related Article: Andrew Cuomo Drags Joe Biden In His Testimony Released By New York Attorney General Letitia James

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
After a court refused her a permanent restraining order against him, a Washington state man reportedly stabbed his estranged wife to death. According to court papers, Michael Murrah, 45, told investigators that the woman was a "star beast" and that he murdered her to "fulfill a prophecy."

A probable cause affidavit reported by KOIN-TV and other sites states Murrah turned up with a Bible in his hand at his old house in the city of Vancouver, Washington on Sunday and confronted Monica Murrah.

Restraining order plea was denied due to insufficient evidence

Monica, also known as Star Murrah, attempted to obtain a permanent restraining order against her husband during their divorce proceedings, but the judge denied her plea.

Star Murrah said in the application that she feared for her and their 8-year-old son's lives.

In July 2020, she obtained a temporary restraining order, alleging that he had become intoxicated and hit and choked her on multiple occasions, as per the Columbian. Her spouse had also choked her kid, who was then seven years old, according to the allegation.

The restraining order was refused following a full hearing in August due to insufficient reasons. At about 10:40 am, police were dispatched to the Murrah residence. They discovered Michael Murrah with a knife and blood on his hands on Sunday. The Washington woman's son was at home but uninjured, Oregonian reported.

Michael Murrah allegedly referred to his wife as star beast while in jail and said he murdered her to fulfill a prophecy. He will be arraigned on November 19 on a first-degree murder charge with a $2 million bond.

On August 14, 2020, the woman filed for divorce from her husband, more than a week after a judge rejected her a permanent order of protection. When she was slain, their divorce had not yet been finalized.

Read Also: Connecticut Man Arrested in Student's Hit-and-Run Death After Real Owner of the Car Turns Him Into Custody

Commissioner refused to comment

The pair, however, had been living in different residences, according to authorities. The wife claimed in her restraining order request that her husband strangled and kicked their 7-year-old boy. She also said he threatened her with firearms, as per The Charlotte Observer.

She also told the court that her husband choked their kid, who was 7 years old at the time she first requested the restraining order last year. According to court documents, the restraining order was temporarily renewed in July of this year, but it was later rejected in a full hearing to make the order permanent in August.

Cassie Croon, a judicial procedural expert at the county's Superior Court Clerk's Office said Clark County Court Commissioner Carin Schienberg refused the restraining order because "a preponderance of the evidence has not proved there was domestic violence."

Schienberg declined to comment on her ruling through her judicial aide Rebecca Wittenborn. At around 10:40 am on Sunday, police responded to a complaint of a weapon assault in the 400 block of F Street, according to authorities.

Police said officers came to discover Michael Murrah carrying a knife outside a residence with blood on his hands and Monica Murrah inside with stab wounds. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 10 million people are physically assaulted by a spouse each year.

There are 24 people who are "victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States" every minute. If you are experiencing domestic violence and need help, contact 1-800-799-7233 or text "START" to 88788 to reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Related Article: New Jersey Mom Facing Charges For the Death of 7-Year-Old Daughter, 10-month-old Baby Who Were Found Lifeless in a Car

@YouTube

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
According to a Pakistani official, the 'troika plus' conference aims to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan.

Pakistan Hosts the Talks of Four Countries

In a recently published article in MSN News, Pakistan headed a series of discussions on Thursday with special envoys from the US, Russia, and China to tackle the future of Afghanistan, where a rising humanitarian crisis has driven many Afghans to flee to neighboring countries since the Taliban took power in August.

The Taliban-appointed administration has not been recognized by the international world. Amir Khan Muttaqi, Afghanistan's Taliban-appointed foreign minister, did not attend the conference but met with the special envoys later in Islamabad.

He also met separately with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and other officials to address a variety of problems, including ways to assist Kabul in overcoming an escalating economic crisis and avoiding a refugee catastrophe, according to a report published in The Washington Post.

Read Also: WHO Says Afghanistan To Face Imminent Humanitarian Catastrophe

The Call of Four Countries to the Taliban

According to the joint statement, the United States, Russia, China, and Pakistan called on the Taliban to allow unrestricted humanitarian access and agreed to continue practical engagement with the Taliban to encourage the implementation of moderate and prudent policies that can help achieve a stable and prosperous Afghanistan as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the US has cooperated with the interim Taliban administration, but they are not recognized by the American government. The interim Taliban government came to power when former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani surrendered and after a quick military campaign seized most of Afghanistan, according to a published report in CNN News.

Furthermore, last month, a high-level US interagency group met with Taliban leaders in Doha for several days of negotiations. Earlier this week, the US special envoy told reporters in Brussels that the US was planning for another interagency meeting with the Taliban.

Interim Taliban Government Called for an Inclusive Government

The Taliban were urged to collaborate with fellow Afghans to build an inclusive and representative administration that respects all Afghans' rights and ensures equal participation of women and girls in all parts of Afghan life, according to the joint statement.

Meanwhile, the four nations praised the Taliban's continued commitment to allowing safe passage to and from Afghanistan for all who wish to travel there, and urged quick progress, as winter approaches, on plans to build commercial airports across the country, which are critical to ensuring the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid.

In a press conference with reporters, West, the US special envoy, claimed that the Taliban had mostly kept their word to us, allowing Afghans to whom they owe a special commitment, as well as American citizens and LPRs, to leave the country in recent weeks.

However, the extended troika strongly denounced the recent terrorist acts in Afghanistan and urged the Taliban to cut connections with all foreign terrorist organizations, dismantle and remove them swiftly, and deny room to any terrorist organization functioning inside the country.

Related Article: Qatar, Russia Call For Afghanistan Humanitarian Aid to Detach From Politics; Urge to Help Afghans Surpass Crisis



@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
United States President Joe Biden is facing lawsuits from 10 different states across the nation over the Democrat's vaccine mandates that affect healthcare workers that claim the requirement is a violation of the Constitution and federal law governing the agency rule-making process.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson are leading the coalition where states argue that the vaccine mandate will result in a massive labor shortage of healthcare workers. They said that it would particularly affect rural areas and threaten the jobs of millions of workers who are placing their lives at risk by being at the front lines.

Lawsuits Against Biden

The state argued in their complaint that the vaccine mandate shows why the police power over compulsory vaccination has always been the authority of states. They argued that vaccination requirements depend on local factors and conditions. State leaders said that various regions had different regulations that had varying levels of success.

"Federalism allows states to tailor such matters in the best interests of their communities. The heavy hand of [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services'] nationwide mandate does not," said the complaint, CBS News reported.

The lawsuit added that the vaccine mandate ignored the facts on the ground and dismissed concerns about workforce shortages unreasonably. State leaders argued that the CMS vaccine requirement jeopardizes the healthcare interests of American citizens in rural areas.

Read Also: Biden Signs 'The Secure Equipment Act' To Safeguard Telecommunication Systems Against Potential Foreign Threats

Democratic President Biden revealed a series of steps in September that would be used to fight against the surge of coronavirus infections in the country. The U.S. president announced that 17 million healthcare employees working at hospitals and other establishments that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding would need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The CMS issued an interim final rule last week that required COVID-19 vaccinations for healthcare workers for most settings. The list includes hospitals and health systems that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, NPR reported.

Coronavirus Booster Shots

The situation comes as U.S. senior health officials within the Biden administration are urging the use of coronavirus booster shots on American adults. The proposal was made after the surge of infections in Europe and the steady rise of cases in the United States. However, the support for the idea is not unanimous.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky cautioned about making booster shots broadly available. Her statements have caused tension among officials on how they should tackle the administration of booster shots among Americans.

The issue also comes at a critical time for the Biden administration whose top advisers are slowly growing fearful that the United States could shift back into a fifth coronavirus wave. The fears come as the winter season approaches and the country suffers from declining vaccination rates.

Several aides view booster shots as a means to slow the backward progress of the highly transmissible Delta variant from causing a surge of infections. Democratic allies also view the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic as a means for supporting the party in next year's midterm elections, the Washington Post reported.



Related Article: New York Mayor-Elect Faces Threats of Violence, 'Bloodshed' For Potential Return of Tough Policing

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Last Saturday, FBI officials searched the home of Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe as part of a probe into the purchase of a diary supposedly written by President Joe Biden's daughter Ashley. The New York Times published a piece on Thursday, less than a week after the raid, claiming to have gotten "internal data" from Project Veritas' attorney.

After the FBI raided the homes of two former Project Veritas operatives last week, the conservative group's head, James O'Keefe, took to YouTube to defend his organization's work as "the stuff of responsible, ethical journalism."

FBI searched Project Veritas founder's house over Ashley Biden's missing diary

Internal papers acquired by The New York Times illustrate the extent to which Project Veritas has labored with its attorneys to determine how far its misleading reporting techniques may go before they run afoul of federal regulations.

The documents, which are a series of memos written by Project Veritas' lawyer, detail how the group's sting operations - which typically deviate from standard journalistic practice by using people who mask their real identities or create fake ones to infiltrate target organizations - avoid breaking federal statutes like the law against lying to government officials.

The records provide additional insight into the group's operations at a time when it is facing possible legal repercussions as a result of the diary probe - and has indicated that part of its defense would be based on portraying itself as a First Amendment-protected journalistic entity.

As part of the investigation into the purported theft of Ashley Biden's diary, the FBI searched the residences of O'Keefe and two former Project Veritas operatives, Eric Cochran and Spencer Meads, last week. In the lawsuit, O'Keefe has admitted receiving a grand jury subpoena.

The legal filings obtained by The New York Times were prepared some years ago, when Project Veritas was transitioning from a modest operation with a shoestring budget to something more comparable to a small intelligence collection agency.

Read Also: Americans Oppose Joe Biden, Favors Donald Trump in Running for the 2024 Elections; President's Approval Rating Continuously Drops

James O'Keefe in state of "shock" over New York home raid

During Trump's presidency, the organization received a slew of fresh funding from both individual donors and conservative foundations, and employed former American and British intelligence and military operators to train Project Veritas personnel in spycraft.

Per Daily Mail, FBI officials searched Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe's New York home on Saturday in connection with a stolen diary allegedly belonging to President Joe Biden's daughter Ashley. The handwritten diary was not published by Project Veritas because O'Keefe stated in a video posted Friday that the group couldn't confirm the journal's authenticity, that it belonged to Ashley Biden, or that the contents of the diary were true.

The diary was discovered by Project Veritas only a week before the 2020 Presidential Election and was leaked to a right-wing website just days before the election. It claims to have gotten the diary from a "tipster" who got it after staying at a place where Ashley Biden had previously been.

Project Veritas describes itself as a non-profit journalistic organization that employs undercover operations to uncover mainstream media bias against conservatives. Both federal detectives and federal prosecutors in Manhattan worked on the inquiry, which was mandated by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

James O'Keefe had his first interview on "Hannity" since the FBI searched his house on Saturday morning as part of a federal inquiry into President Biden's daughter Ashley Biden's missing diary. O'Keefe said he was "shocked" when FBI officers searched his residence for nearly two hours, telling Hannity they stole two of his iPhones, Fox News reported.

Project Veritas paid money to the tipsters who had received Ashley Biden's diary for the "right to publish the information," which the guerrilla news outlet never did and subsequently sent the material over to "local law enforcement," according to Paul Calli, O'Keefe's attorney.

Related Article: Hunter Biden Debuts First Art Exhibition Amid Ethical Concerns After President's Nominee Attends The Show

@YouTube

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Donald Trump seems to be still struggling to accept the fact that he lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

According to reports, the ex-POTUS recently referred to his avid supporter, Richard Grenell as his envoy ambassador. Trump also claimed that Grenell traveled to the Kosovo-Serbia border to highlight an economic normalization agreement that his administration introduced before Biden was elected.

Donald Trump's cryptic statement released

Trump made the shocking claim via a lengthy post shared on Jackson Proskow's Twitter account. It is important to note that Trump cannot post the statement on Twitter himself because he has been banned from the platform.

"The great people of Serbia and Kosovo have overcome tremendous obstacles in their pursuit of economic normalization. The agreements my administration brokered are historic and should not be abandoned, many lives are at stake...," he said via The Week.

Shortly after, a White House official told reporters that Trump seems to have a very active imagination. The official also said that the former POTUS doesn't have envoy ambassadors because he is not the president of the United States.

Donald Trump still holds Cabinet meetings

According to The Huffington Post, this is not the first time Trump was accused of running a so-called shadow presidency. After losing to Biden, the former president continued to hold Cabinet meetings with his allies.

Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, described Trump as a fully engaged president and highly focused when he was no longer the leader of the country. Meadows also revealed that the Cabinet meetings are still ongoing.

Read Also: Donald Trump's Final Attempt To Stay In Power Following Joe Biden's Presidential Win Exposed; Ex-POTUS' Efforts Likened To Murder-Suicide Pact

Ex-Potus believes he could be reinstated as president

Trump continues to struggle with accepting the result of the 2020 election. Even though there's been more than enough proof that Biden won fair and square, Trump still believes that he was rigged.

Earlier this year, reports revealed that Trump was convinced that he will be reinstated as president. He asked a handful of states to audit their votes, but those who completed the process confirmed no election fraud.

AL.com said that the only way for the ex-POTUS to return to the presidency is to win the 2024 election. As of late, Trump has not yet filed his candidacy, but he remains as the Republican's top dog in the upcoming election.

Will Donald Trump run for office in 2024?

Earlier this week, Trump told reporters that he will most likely wait until after the 2022 midterm election to announce his potential presidential bid.

The dad of five is also aware of the stand of other potential Republican candidates who said that they wouldn't run if Trump would campaign for the top position, according to Newsweek.

Trump said that this is very nice because it shows that Republicans respect him and are loyal to him.

When asked who he wants to be his running mate if he decides to run for president, Trump said he's eyeing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis because the latter is a good man.

Related Article: Donald Trump's Ally John Eastman Reveals He Was Counting on Former VP Mike Pence To Toss Results of 2020 Election

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Prince Charles' closest aide has resigned from his position as a result of allegations that he helped in the knighthood of a contributor to the Prince's charity.

Clarence House revealed on Thursday night that Michael Fawcett, who has worked with Prince Charles for four decades, left his post.

Fawcett started working for the Royal family in 1981, initially as a junior footman and subsequently as a personal valet to the Queen's oldest son. He ascended through the ranks of The Prince's Foundation, eventually becoming its chief executive in 2018.

Top aide who worked for Prince Charles for 40 years resigns

Fawcett reportedly informed a Saudi businessman who contributed 1.5 million to the Duke of Wales' charity in 2017 that he could assist him gain an honor and citizenship, according to a letter released earlier this year.

"In light of His Excellency Sheikh Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz's ongoing and most recent generosity, I am happy to confirm to you, in confidence, that we are willing and happy to support and contribute to the application for citizenship," the letter allegedly written to Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz said, The Telegraph reported.

Mahfouz, 51, who is listed as a supporter on The Prince's Foundation website, has given considerable sums to restoration projects in Scotland, including Dumfries House and the Castle of Mey, which are both of great interest to Prince Charles.

In 2016, the Prince of Wales presented him with a "honorary" CBE during a secret ceremony at Buckingham Palace. According to sources close to the Prince, he was never aware of any relationship between payments to his foundation and honors.

Fawcett temporarily stepped down from his job after the allegations were made public, pending a complete investigation by the Prince's Foundation. Scotland's charity regulator initiated its own probe.

Per The Sun, Fawcett was the man Prince Charles couldn't live without for 40 years. He said that he would "temporarily" resign while the situation was investigated, but that he has chosen to make that choice permanent, even before the conclusions are made public.

Read Also: Princess Diana Never Wanted To End Her Marriage With Prince Charles Despite Affair With Camilla Parker Bowles, Royal Expert Reveals

Prince of Wales nervously allows a magician read his mind

After paying 1.5 million ($2.1 million), Fawcett was "willing and happy" to help Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz acquire a knighthood and citizenship, according to a letter. The billionaire was given a CBE by Prince Charles, and a forest at a Scottish castle was named after him.

Meanwhile, yesterday, The Prince of Wales willingly permitted a young entrepreneur to read his mind. When Chris Wall, also known by his stage as 'Chris Reads Minds,' asked him to think of a name, number, and color, Prince Charles appeared uncomfortable at first but quickly warmed up.

Wall, 29, brought out a card and scrawled his prediction on it before placing it face down on a table. Prince Charles ultimately chuckled and stated the name of his eldest grandchild: 'George.'

Per Daily Mail, he warned the future king that he "may be wrong, I've been wrong before," but promised him that if he was incorrect, he would have "something for you in my wallet."

The prince was next asked to name a playing card. The ace of clubs was chosen by the prince. " This is your card," Prince Charles read aloud from the back of the card. Wall dug into his wallet and brought out a sealed envelope with one of his business cards with blue, 12, and 'George' scrawled on the back.

Related Article: Prince Charles Taking Over Queen Elizabeth's Duties After Health Scare as Royal Family Dismantle Claims of Internal Feuds

@YouTube

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A Hong Kong District Court Judge just convicted the second individual accused of inciting secession during a recent pro-democracy protest in the country.

According to reports, 31-year-old Ma Chun-man was sentenced to almost six years in jail after he was found guilty of inciting secession due to the slogans and placards that he used at a rally.

He was also dubbed as Hong Kong's "Captain America" after videos showed him wielding the Marvel superhero's shield during the pro-democracy protests.

Ma Chun-man's lawyers are asking for a lower sentence

One of his defense lawyers pleaded with District Court Judge Stanley Chan to give Ma Chun-man a lower sentence by saying that he was not a danger to the community.

Defense lawyer Edwin Choy claimed that the slogans and placards were empty words with no grave impact on society. However, his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Ma Chun-man didn't contest the judge's decision, and he also wrote a letter saying that he didn't have any regrets over what he did.

"I do not feel any regret. On my road to democracy and freedom, I can't afford to be a coward," Ma Chun-man wrote via CNN.

Read Also: 2 Human Rights Activists Arrested in Athens After Opposing the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

Amnesty International condemns the judge's decision

Following his sentencing, Amnesty International called the judge's decision outrageous. They also said that the restrictions on freedom of expression in Hong Kong were unacceptable.

Deputy Secretary-General Kyle Ward also questioned the definition of "inciting subversion" since Ma Chun-man was sentenced to almost six years in jail for simply displaying his slogans and chanting during the pro-democracy protest.

Ward urged Hong Kong to stop putting people to jail simply because they are expressing views that the officials disagree with, according to Daily Mail.

Pro-democracy protests took place between 2019 and 2020

According to the BBC, protesters flocked to the streets of Hong Kong between 2019 and 2020 after a law was proposed to make it easier for China to hand over residents to the mainland.

Following the protests, approximately 117 individuals were arrested, and 60 people were charged.

Earlier this year, the first trial for Tong Ying-kit took place, and he was later found guilty of inciting secession and terrorism. Ying-kit rode his motorcycle to attack a group of policemen, and he also held up slogans and placards urging China to liberate Hong Kong. Ying-kit was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Chinese President Xi Jinping signs national security law

In June 2020, Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong after Chinese President Xi Jinping signed it. The law will also allow Beijing to bring its police units into Hong Kong to punish crimes and threats to the mainland. Those who will be found guilty of secession, terrorism, subversion, and collusion can be sentenced to life in prison.

According to reports, the newly-passed laws are concerning for Hong Kong nationals because it contradicts the previous agreement they had with China, wherein they will be regarded as one country but with two systems.

Hong Kong and Beijing officials have been reassuring netizens that the laws won't affect the former's high degree of autonomy, according to NBC News. However, this hasn't made any difference to Hong Kong nationals.

Related Article: Chinese President Xi Jinping Urges US To Cooperate, Practice Mutual Respect

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A dispute over money left one Alabama man dead and a woman facing capital murder for his attempted murder.

According to reports, 76-year-old Bessemer man Alverner Blanks was struck in the head using a space heater and was left for dead. A day after the incident, Blanks' neighbor saw him unresponsive at home and immediately called 911.

Blanks was transported to a nearby hospital by paramedics for several days. He was later transferred to an assisted living facility but only stayed there for three days before he passed away.

Woman arrested, charged with capital murder

Prior to his demise, 24-year-old Monyuett Catrice Hinson was arrested on attempted murder charges, robbery, and hindering prosecution. She was initially able to get out of prison after posting a $25,000 bond.

But after Blanks' demise, the Jefferson County Coroner's Office ruled his death a homicide, so they arrested Hinson again and changed her initial charges. They are now seeking capital murder after Hinson allegedly killed her neighbor after getting into an argument over money. She is currently being held without bond.

Authorities also revealed that Hinson stole some of Blanks' belongings.

Read Also: Body of Missing North Carolina Woman Found on the Side of the Road; Last Man Seen With Shameka Johnston Arrested in Connection to Her Murder

Alabama homicides are on the rise

According to AL.com, Blanks' homicide is the 24th reported incident in Jefferson County in 2021 alone. In total, there have been 167 homicides in the area.

Earlier this week, a family's three-year struggle following the death of a 79-year-old Alabama woman came to an end. However, it wasn't necessarily the ending that the family was hoping for.

In 2018, Heather Christianson killed her elderly mother, Francis McDonald, in their home. On Nov. 1, Christianson's trial finally commenced, but it only lasted for three days,

After all, Circuit Judge Steven Perryman granted Christianson a directed verdict and found the defendant not guilty of the crime because of insanity.

"The court recessed the trial until the following day to fully consider the defendant's motion. After careful consideration of the demeanor of the defendant, the argument from counsel, and testimony before the court, the defendant's motion was granted," Perryman said via WHNT.

Two teenagers charged with capital murder

Also, this week, a 16-year-olds was charged with capital murder following the death of an Alabama couple.

According to CBS 42, the teen shot the unnamed couple in the head, and their bodies were dumped on someone else's property. More arrests are expected to occur this week since police officials believe that the teenager couldn't have committed the crime independently.

Last month, a woman's body was also found in an unused and parked police van at Alabama's Huntsville Public Safety Complex. The woman, who was later identified as Christina Nance, went missing from her home on Oct. 2.

Days after her body was found, authorities released video footage that showed Nance walking around the parking lot. At one point, the late woman sits on the hood of the police car before entering the van.

Authorities confirmed that Nance stayed inside the parked and unused van for a couple of days. And the last time that she was seen opening the van's window was on Sept. 28. Nance's family is still looking for answers following her untimely death.

Related Article: Woman's Body Found in an Unused Police Van Parked at the Huntsville Public Safety Complex in Alabama; No Foul Play, Bodily Trauma Detected

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Belarus tells the EU to shut up about sanctions over causing the border row and creating the crisis. Minsk remarked the bloc should be careful with the energy crisis, and limited gas stock might not be enough, they will need more.

The Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, hinted that his country had no part in the crisis. Harangues from EU leaders blaming him as weaponizing migrants, which is not valid, are offensive.

Belarus might stop gas deliveries

Minsk told the EU if they intend to sanction them for what is happening on the Poland and Belarus border. They warned the EU to consider what they do next, or the gas deliveries are less than a trickle, reported the Express UK.

Lukashenko said a more severe punishment on the EU by cutting gas supplies received as his answer. Saying a major pipeline could be shut down indefinite if there is no reconsideration.

Reports that countless migrants from the middle eastern nations like Iraq and Syria are flying to Belarus. If any do come, the unsuspecting migrants are told it is an easy entry into the EU. Completing their trip by getting escorted to the Polish border, cites CNN.

Polish officials are getting frantic over the increased number of migrants and a state emergency. Deployed on the border are police stopping attempts to cross and denying asylum to the crossing refugees, which has led to chaos.

The EU's next move

Despite the warning by Lukashenko about sanctioning anyone in Belarus, there might be 30 persons and entities who will be. Belarus tells the EU to shut up about applying the sanctions or else.

Read Also: Putin Says That the EU Should Recompense Belarus to Stem Migrant Flow Into Poland; Citing Turkey in 2016

Bluntly displeased by what the bloc is doing. Adding that they are threatening and may be closing the borders, but forget who can shut down the gas tap, notes the Republic World.

The Belarusian leader remarked, what if they shut down the natural gas pipelines, which the bloc is dependent on. He stated the leaders of Poland, Lithuania, and the rest of the mindless out there to keep quiet. (Belarus controls the tap)

European Union members are accusing the Minsk leader that he and Putin are colluding to send thousands of immigrants to the border of Poland. Who will be stranded in the middle of nowhere while the bloc struggles to decide what to do?

Data on the most recent attempts to breach the Polish border has reached 468 attempts to crossover last Wednesday, said an official source.

The UN has been monitoring the situation with the declining humanitarian condition getting dreadful, as the European Union to act decisively soon.

Le chantage migratoire du regime Loukachenko est ignoble. Des hommes, femmes et enfants, pousses a la frontiere polonaise par des hommes armes, sont utilises comme arme. La misere sert de monnaie dechange. LEurope doit rester unie face a ces methodes.pic.twitter.com/tkiwVLPXp9  Fabienne Keller (@fabienne_keller) November 8, 2021

UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet stated Wednesday that leaving the immigrants in freezing conditions is too much. Ask that assistance be rendered with appropriate laws to allow it to happen.

French MEP Fabienne Keller mentioned that the proper action would be taken, even with negative consequences.

She posted on Twitter, the polish border dilemma is terrible, and Europe needs to decide on the proper action now!

One way to address humanitarianism is to allow stuck migrants to enter Poland and the rest of the EU. It will stress the member countries, which has happened before.

Belarus tells the EU to shut up because of how the bloc regards Alexander Lukashenko and the current situation. The choice of letting in refugees or having gas supplies is not easy.

Related Article: Angela Merkel Says Not To Alienate Vladimir Putin As He Could Fix the Belarus-Poland Border Crisis

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Joe Biden must have had his late son, Beau Biden, in mind when he thought of expanding the benefits being given to U.S. Veterans.

On Thursday, Biden's administration announced that they are creating a new policy for veterans that have been exposed to toxic burn pits while serving in other countries.

After it is finalized, the new policy will help veterans, especially those diagnosed with lung and respiratory cancers, and bronchiolitis to receive benefits.

According to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, the policy has been one of Biden's priorities since he was elected president of the United States. And this shouldn't come as a surprise.

Joe Biden wants to give veterans benefits that his son didn't get

After all, Biden's late son, Beau, also served in the military. The then-46-year-old veteran was diagnosed with brain cancer, and the illness ultimately took his life. However, the POTUS previously said that he thinks his son's exposure to burn pits also contributed to his demise.

"Because of his exposure to burn pits, in my view -- I can't prove it yet -- he came back with stage four glioblastoma. Eighteen months he lived, knowing he was going to die," Biden said via ABC 7 News.

According to reports, the Veterans Administration will create a presumption of an exposure clause for those that want to avail themselves of the additional benefits. And these presumptive conditions will also include more types of cancers and tumors.

Read Also: Joe Biden Has No Control Over Domestic, Global Crises That Could Lead to His Own Misfortune, Journalist Claims

Joe Biden visited the Arlington National Cemetery

Biden also visited the Arlington National Cemetery, where he saluted the country's military veterans and dubbed them the spine of America.

According to NBC News, Biden also participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with his staff, the veterans, and their families. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was established 100 years ago.

The president's first Veterans Day event took place two months after he withdrew U.S. troops from Afghanistan. In September, Biden explained his decision to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops following their 20-year presence in Afghanistan.

Biden said that he would not extend the forever war that families have to endure while their loved ones after serving in Afghanistan. He also declared that the war in Afghanistan is finally over, according to the BBC.

What's the difference between Veterans Day, Memorial Day?

Veterans Day and Memorial Day have some similarities because they both honor the U.S. military. However, they are celebrated for entirely different reasons.

Veterans Day used to be celebrated in October, but it was later moved to Nov. 11. The federal holiday honors all those that served in the U.S. military.

Memorial Day, on the other hand, is celebrated during the last Monday of May. The event honors those who have died in U.S. military service. The celebration was initially created to honor those who fought in Civil War, but it was later expanded to include all those that died in all the wars in the United States, notes NPR.

Related Article: Jill Biden Will Announce Public, Private-Sector Commitments To Support the Hidden Helpers Initiative, Promote Military Caregiving

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
After several launch delays, the SpaceX Crew-3 successfully reached the International Space Station. The new crew will now spend six months in space to perform new and interesting scientific discoveries.

SpaceX Crew-3 Launch a Success Despite Several Delays

According to Space.com, the Crew Dragon Endurance--which carried four astronauts--linked up with the station's US-built Harmony module on 6:32 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on November 10. Both spacecraft flew over the Eastern Caribbean at a distance of 263 miles or 423 kilometers.

Endurance has arrived at the hold point 20 meters from the @Space_Station. #Crew3 and ground teams are evaluating the lighting before giving a final "go" for docking. pic.twitter.com/1TYmDtSqaf  NASA (@NASA) November 11, 2021

The spacecraft took off less than 24 hours ago from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida following a series of delays caused by bad weather along the rocket's flight path and a minor medical concern with one of the crew members. Moreover, NASA's Courtney Beasley announced "Capture confirmed" during live transmission, which validates the crew's arrival.

Soft capture confirmed!



At 6:32pm ET (23:32 UTC), the @SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance arrived at the @Space_Station while flying 263 miles over the Caribbean. Next up for #Crew3? Driving 12 hooks to complete docking. pic.twitter.com/Mf6wYHCl3f  NASA (@NASA) November 11, 2021

After the validation of the arrival, Beasley officially announced during the broadcast that the Crew Dragon successfully made it to the International Space Station.

The said crew includes NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, as well as European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer. Additionally, Marshburn is the only crew member who has previously traveled to space.

Four new astronauts through the hatch and seven crewmembers total on the @Space_Station!



After almost exactly a day from launch, #Crew3 is aboard the orbiting laboratory. pic.twitter.com/QJoBUsJcsj  NASA (@NASA) November 12, 2021

The four astronauts landed at the station safely at approximately 22 hours after their safe takeoff and are now ready to begin their space mission.

Because of the launch delays, NASA decided to return the four Crew-2 members to Earth before launching the Crew-3 mission, leaving Vande Hei in charge of familiarizing the new occupants to the space station.

This method is known as an indirect handoff by NASA, and it normally entails assisting the arriving crew with the basics of space life such as where they will sleep and how to use the toilet. Normally, the outgoing crew is responsible for housekeeping, but because Crew-3 has arrived early, Vande Hei took over.

Read Also: Rivian Stock Price Prediction: Elon Musk Reveals "True Test" for New Tesla Competitor

ISS Crew Welcomes SpaceX Crew-3 Members

Since four members have successfully arrived in the International Space Station, the total number of the crew in the ISS is now seven--with five on the American side and two on the Russian side.

Fellow astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Expedition 66 Commander Anton Shkaplerov, and Roscosmos Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov were among the crew members on board to greet them, per NASA. Meanwhile, NASA associate administrator for Space Operations Kathy Lueders and ESA director-general Josef Aschbacher attended the welcome ceremony from Earth.

SpaceX Crew-3 Mission

The Crew-3 astronauts will spend roughly six months aboard the International Space Station performing new and interesting scientific research in various fields such as materials science, health technologies and plant science in order to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth, per NASA.

Related Article: Space Junk Tracker: How Did ISS Avoid Scary Collision with Destroyed Chinese Satellite?




Disney+, the flagship streaming service of U.S. media giant Walt Disney, landed in South Korea on Friday, heating up competition in the country's video streaming market.







The streaming service is now available on its website or in Apple's App Store for iPhones and Google's Play Store for Android devices.







The service distributes various films and TV series from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and Star, showing their original content hits, like "Loki" and "The Mandalorian."







The move will intensify the competition in the South Korean paid video streaming market led by Netflix.







Disney's service is competitively priced in South Korea against rivals, with a monthly subscription fee of 9,900 won ($8.50), compared with Netflix's lowest monthly price of 9,500 won.







Disney earlier said a spin-off of long-running South Korean television show "Running Man" is among the Korean originals to be released on the platform.







The nearly 2-year-old streaming service had already racked up 116 million subscribers globally as of July thanks to its plethora of popular content.







LG Uplus, a major South Korean mobile carrier, offers Disney+ through its internet protocol television platform in a move to strengthen its competitiveness against rivals KT and SK Telecom. (Yonhap)


Actor Yoon Si-yoon poses during a press conference for the film, "A Birth," at the Sejong S Theater in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Min Film



By Kwak Yeon-soo



Korea's first Catholic priest, Andrew Kim Dae-geon (1821-1846), who was canonized and made a saint during Pope John Paul II's visit to Korea in 1984, will be portrayed in a biopic movie to mark the bicentenary of his birth.



Titled "A Birth," the movie will be directed by Park Heung-sik ("A Day," "A Memory of the Wind") with Yoon Si-yoon ("Professional Mr. Baek") playing the title role, alongside Ahn Sung-ki ("Unbowed," "The Divine Fury"). Filming will start later this month.



Park, who has done extensive research on the priest's legacy in order to chart his life, will focus on the period from when he left to study in Macau, until he was martyred for his faith at the age of 25.



Born and raised a Catholic, Kim traveled to a seminary in Macau and China at the age of 15 and was ordained as a priest at a cathedral in Shanghai in 1845. During the wave of persecution of Catholics under the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), Kim was beheaded in 1846, at what is now the Saenamteo Martyr's Shrine in Ichon-dong in Seoul's Yongsan District.



"I want to tell people about the extraordinary achievements of Kim, not only as a Catholic martyr, but as adventurer who wandered across sea and land during a turbulent era. Kim was one of few Koreans who deliberately accepted Western culture through language and education. In other words, he was a leader of new thoughts," Park said.





Actor Ahn Sung-ki poses during a press conference for the film, "A Birth," at the Sejong S Theater in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Min Film
Hendrik Lilanga's "City Festival," which will be on display at the exhibition," "Focus Africa" at Artspace Sun in central Seoul / Courtesy of Artspace Sun



By Park Han-sol



Although modern and contemporary African artists continue to make waves in the present-day international art scene, their art has largely remained unknown in Korea.



As the continent's diverse tribal cultures stemming from over 50 nations and turbulent modern history of colonialism met contemporary artistic styles, this led to the birth of unique pieces  whose points of origin were anything but uniform.



The "Focus Africa" exhibition opened on Nov. 9 at Artspace Sun in central Seoul, unveiling more than 80 paintings by three representative painters from the region  Joel Mpah Dooh, Hendrik Lilanga and Edward Said Tingatinga. Their works, characterized by distinct use of materials and color schemes, have already gained recognition in other parts of the globe.



The exhibition will be divided into three consecutive shows, each lasting about three weeks, in order to focus on one artist's oeuvre at a time.





Joel Mpah Dooh's "Untitled" (2008) / Courtesy of Artspace Sun



Cameroonian artist Mpah Dooh has combined the European illustrative style he studied during his time in France with figures inspired by his homeland as well as urban graffiti  which some are quick to compare to Jean-Michel Basquiat.



Some have viewed the 65-year-old's portrayal of distorted human bodies, highlighted by subtler color tones, to be a visualization of the suffering from brutal abuse of power and socio-economic crises that continue to affect post-colonial Africa.



Following Mpah Dooh's show that ends Nov. 28, Lilanga will present festive, dreamlike worlds on canvas, marked by vivid colors and rhythmic lines.



While drawing inspiration from his grandfather George Lilanga (1934-2005)  a renowned painter and sculptor whose influence reached American graffiti artists like Keith Haring (1958-90)  the 47-year-old Tanzanian artist has developed his own style.



His version of utopia is filled with human characters, who are either conversing, singing or dancing, while surrounded by a colorful array of traditional pots, nature and rows of houses.





Edward Said Tingatinga's "Baobab and Insects" / Courtesy of Artspace Sun
Two gilt-bronze pensive or "thinking Bodhisattva" statues from the 6th and 7th centuries are seen in the permanent exhibition titled, "Room of Quiet Contemplation," at the National Museum of Korea, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap





By Park Ji-won







There are many ways to enjoy pieces in a museum, but one normally starts with reading the explanatory text written at the entrance of the exhibition hall and then the texts next to the individual works. These texts may be informative and enable us to learn about the historical context of the pieces, but sometimes they fail to give us room to take a moment to contemplate their existence or to reflect on ourselves.







The National Museum of Korea's (NMK) new permanent exhibition breaks these norms of exhibition design and lets visitors immerse themselves in meditation in front of two gilt-bronze pensive or "thinking Bodhisattva" statues in a minimalist way. The two statues are national treasures made in the 6th century and 7th century, respectively, during the Three Kingdoms period, which existed from 57 B.C. to 668 A.D.







Titled "Room of Quiet Contemplation," the exhibition, which opened to the public on Friday, displays the pieces together for the fourth time in the museum's history, following in the years 1986, 2004 and 2015, in an exhibition hall specially designed by architect Choi Wook of ONE O ONE architects.







The permanent exhibition, titled, "Room of Quiet Contemplation," at the National Museum of Korea / Courtesy of ONE O ONE architects





The permanent exhibition, titled, "Room of Quiet Contemplation," at the National Museum of Korea / Courtesy of ONE O ONE architects





The permanent exhibition, titled, "Room of Quiet Contemplation," at the National Museum of Korea / Courtesy of ONE O ONE architects





The exhibition starts with a dark corridor, where visitors first encounter a media art projection titled, "Cycle," by French filmmaker Jean-Julien Pous, which is a black-and-white, 5-minute video repeatedly showing objects and materials near us, like water and the stars in the universe. While watching the video, visitors are given the time to get used to the darkness so as to be able to see the statues coming next.







The room displaying the thinking Bodhisattva statues is intentionally tilted 1 degree, so that visitors naturally need to slow their steps to climb toward the statues, at which point they can enjoy a sense of calm. The exhibition hall is made out of natural materials such as soil, charcoal, lacquer and cinnamon, which can absorb sounds, making the space noise-proof and giving visitors the feeling of a connection to nature.







There is no explanatory text; the statues are displayed without glass vitrines, while the lighting is dim, so that the visitors cannot be bothered by anything external. The visitors can also see the back sides of the statues. Information is provided in Korean, English, Japanese or Mandarin Chinese via QR code.







"Leonardo da Vinci''s 'The Last Supper' focuses on highlighting Jesus at the center via one-point perspective. But the NMK's exhibition avoided that. The thinking Bodhisattva exists in another dimension entirely. Before coming to save human beings, the Bodhisattva is contemplating whether to descend into the human world or not," said Choi Wook, head of ONE O ONE architects.







"The space is similar to a theater, with its 24 meters in diameter, where the visitors can see the statues from any direction  Humans can live about 100 years, but relics survive for a very long period time. We hope that the space provides people with the chance to encounter such relics as if they were living with us, not in the past. I wanted to make a space where people today could encounter these relics, bringing with them their long histories."







Shin So-yeon, the curator of the exhibition, said that the two statues are the same in terms of their style, but have contrasting characteristics.







"The one on the left wears a luxurious ornament on its head. But it wears very simple clothing from the waist down. Meanwhile, the one on the right is very simple on the top, but has delicate draping from the waist down."






South Korea's financial regulator on Friday ordered three brokerages to suspend parts of operations or pay fines for their involvement in a major financial fraud scandal involving a now-defunct hedge fund.







Once the nation's biggest hedge fund, Lime Asset Investment has been accused of selling and running fraudulent financial products and subsequently freezing fund redemption estimated at around 1.6 trillion won ($1.4 billion) in 2019.







In connection with the fiasco, Shinhan Investment, KB Securities and Daishin Securities have been under probe for using fabricated information and other illicit methods to solicit customer purchases of Lime products.







The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said that it has ordered Shinhan Investment and KB Securities to suspend parts of their operations for six months and Daishin Securities to close a branch.







Shinhan Investment and KB Securities were fined 1.8 billion won and 609 million won, respectively, according to the FSC.







The fraud scandal has roiled the nation since last year and developed into a high-profile lobbying scandal, in which former and incumbent government officials and politicians are implicated.







Early this year, a Seoul court handed down the 15-year prison term to the hedge fund's former vice president, along with a fine of 4 billion won. The court found him guilty of deceiving investors by concealing the massive loss from the company's fraudulent fund product. (Yonhap)


An apartment complex in Seoul is seen in this September file photo. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-seok









By Park Jae-hyuk







The Korea Customs Service (KCS) will start receiving foreign exchange network data from the Bank of Korea (BOK) every month starting early next year to monitor whether people residing outside of Korea sourced their money illegally to purchase real estate here.







According to the two institutions, last week, the change will come as a follow-up measure to the Ministry of Economy and Finance's revision of administrative regulations on foreign exchange transactions in June, which enabled the KCS commissioner to access the BOK's data on overseas purchases of domestic real estate.







Before the revision, the customs agency was only able to receive the central bank's data for investigations into suspected violations of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.







The finance ministry revised its administrative regulations in the wake of the KCS's announcement in April that it had discovered 17 foreign nationals who had collectively purchased 17 apartments here worth a total 17.6 billion won ($15 million) with money raised illegally.







One citizen of China, who bought an apartment in Seoul worth 1.1 billion won, for example, raised 450 million won through unlawful foreign exchange transactions using cryptocurrencies, according to the agency.







The KCS also found out that 44 overseas residents had not reported their purchases of 39 apartments here worth a total 66.4 billion won, violating the law requiring all overseas-based purchasers of real estate here to report their acquisitions of Korean properties to the BOK or to the commercial banks through which they trade foreign currencies.







The results of the KCS crackdown have fueled concerns among some amid the continued rise in housing prices.







A petitioner argued on Cheong Wa Dae's website that foreign nationals have faced lax inspections on the sources of their money, compared to the regulations on property purchases by South Korean citizens.







Concerns have grown further, since data from the Korea Real Estate Board showed earlier this week that purchase of buildings in Korea by foreign nationals between January and September reached 16,405, a record high in the 15 years the board has been collecting related statistics.







Several politicians have responded to these calls from some voters regarding tightening regulations on overseas transactions of domestic real estate.







Ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung wrote on Facebook in October that he will force foreign nationals to obtain permission to buy domestic real estate in overheated regions nationwide, as he had done in Gyeonggi Province when he was serving as its governor.







"Singapore, Australia and New Zealand have already restricted the overseas purchase of domestic real estate, and Gyeonggi Province designated its 23 cities as areas where foreign nationals and corporations need to get permission for real estate transactions," he said.







DPK lawmaker Rep. Kim Sang-hee proposed a revision of the Act on Report on Real Estate Transactions earlier this month requiring overseas purchasers as well as foreign residents and all corporations to get permission for their real estate transactions in overheated regions in Korea, while exempting Korean nationals from the regulation.










By Park Jae-hyuk







Fitch Ratings disagreed with a skeptical view voiced by its local subsidiary, Korea Ratings (KR), on Citibank Korea which is carrying out a phased closure of its consumer banking unit.







"We expect Citibank Korea's asset quality to be steady over the next two years, despite the rapid reduction of consumer loans and gradual lapse of COVID-19 support measures," Fitch said in a report, Thursday. "We believe Citibank Korea can manage the expected decline in retail deposits in an orderly manner, considering its significant liquid fixed-income portfolio."







In its report published on the day when Citibank Korea confirmed that 2,300 out of its 3,500 employees had applied for voluntary retirement by Wednesday's deadline, the U.S. credit rating agency also expected the bank's large-scale early retirement plan for employees to raise pressure on its financial profile only in the short term.







Based on the optimism, Fitch revised the outlook on Citibank Korea's long-term issuer default rating to "stable" from "evolving," saying that uncertainty over Citigroup's consumer-banking exit strategy was reduced significantly.







In contrast, KR expected Citibank Korea's competitiveness in the market to deteriorate after the exit.







"There exists the possibility of an increase in selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses, because of the costs of workforce reduction," KR researcher Ahn Tae-young said last month.







Fitch is the largest shareholder of KR with a 73.55 percent stake, but their analyses of companies are conducted independently.







Two other domestic credit ratings agencies  Korea Investors Service (KIS) and NICE Investors Service  shared KR's skeptical view on Citibank Korea.







Moody's Investors Service, which owns KIS, also hinted last month that it may downgrade Citibank Korea's credit rating, mentioning problems with employee relations arising from the bank's phased closure of its consumer banking unit here as a social risk.







S&P Global Ratings, on the other hand, recognized Citibank Korea for displaying a high level of profitability in the corporate banking sector, saying that the shutdown of its consumer banking operation will have a limited impact on the domestic banking industry.







Last month, S&P reaffirmed Citibank Korea's long-term issuer default rating at "A" with a stable outlook.


President Moon Jae-in speaks during the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 21. AP-Yonhap



Next president unlikely to continue declaration initiative



By Jung Da-min



With less than six months left before President Moon Jae-in leaves office, his administration is making last-ditch efforts in its push for a declaration to formally end the Korean War, which he re-emphasized in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 21.



But many experts say the possibility of Moon realizing his goal is very low, citing the different interests and political situations in the countries involved in the matter  the two Koreas, the United States and China. And the chance of his successor  whoever it will be  to continue to pursue an "end-of-war" declaration also seems slim because they are likely to seek their own North Korea policy, they added.



Since taking office in 2017, Moon has consistently pushed for engagement with North Korea. After a reconciliatory mood was created on the Korean Peninsula with three inter-Korean summits in 2018, the President proposed the idea of end-of-war declaration in his U.N. speech that year. Moon's proposal has since been made consistently, although his tone has differed according to the progress in denuclearization negotiations between North Korea and the United States.



Political watchers say Moon is making the last-ditch effort for progress with his proposal, so that the declaration would become part of his North Korea diplomacy legacy, and the next administration could continue with an engagement policy toward the North, based on this and other inter-Korean agreements made during his presidency.





A boy looks at a photo of a screen capture from the April 27, 2018, inter-Korean summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Unification Observation Post in the border village of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Oct. 4. AP-Yonhap



But they say such efforts are unlikely to yield tangible results, considering the different views and domestic politics of the countries directly involved in the 1950-53 Korean War. While the Moon administration wants an end-of-war declaration first and then negotiations on denuclearization and inter-Korean relations  as he will soon leave office  the other countries have no specific reason to hurriedly make a deal as they are more focused on domestic issues, according to political watchers.



Kim Jun-seok, a politics and diplomacy professor at Dongguk University, said it was very unlikely that China, the U.S. or North Korea would want to "give credit" to a president who will soon leave office as they will not be able to get any "returns" from him. Therefore they would be more interested in continuing negotiations with the next president.



When looking at the domestic political situation in China, President Xi Jinping is seeking an unprecedented third term after serving two five-year terms by 2023, by overturning a Chinese Communist Party resolution passed during the Deng Xiaoping era.





Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds during an event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Oct. 9, commemorating the 110th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution. AP-Yonhap



"From Xi's point of view, a continuation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula helps internal solidarity in China," Kim said.



The professor said the U.S. is also uninterested in an end-of-war declaration at the moment, as President Joe Biden would want to show strong diplomatic policies to both the international community and the American people, following criticism over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.



"For Biden, making a reconciliatory gesture toward North Korea would be same as saying he wants to lose in next year's elections," Kim said, referring to the 2022 U.S. midterms in which all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested.





U.S. President Joe Biden addresses a press conference at the COP26 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, the U.K., Nov. 2. AFP-Yonhap



Moon Sung-mook, a senior researcher at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said North Korea's stance is an important variable among others in deciding the viability of President Moon's end-of-war proposal.



"North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has presented two prerequisites for the declaration, according to the country's state media and the South Korean National Intelligence Service. The first is South Korea's dropping of double standards and the second is the South's withdrawal of hostile policies toward the North," Moon said.



"What they are asking by demanding a dropping of double standards is acknowledgement of their development of nuclear weapons and relief of related sanctions in the international community  What they are asking by demanding a withdrawal of hostile policies is abolishing joint military exercises between the South and the U.S. and the withdrawal of the United States Forces Korea troops  Kim Jong-un's message is clear that he is not interested in the end-of-war declaration itself but cares more about the two prerequisites."



Moon said even though Kim agrees with President Moon's proposal as a starting point of denuclearization negotiations, the current COVID-19 pandemic situation, under which the North's isolation from the international community has been strengthened, is adding to the difficulties of holding any summit between the leaders.





North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivers a speech during an event to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the country's Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang, in this Oct. 10, photo released by the North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency, the following day. Yonhap




South Korea's vice foreign minister will visit Washington next week for talks with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, the foreign ministry said Friday.







First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun plans to meet U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Tuesday (U.S. time), according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.







The two are expected to discuss ways to bring North Korea to nuclear negotiations that have been stalled since 2019, and Seoul's proposal to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.







On Wednesday, Choi will also attend trilateral talks with Sherman and Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Mori Takeo.







Seoul, Washington and Tokyo have held eight rounds of three-way vice-ministerial talks since April 2015. The last session took place in Japan in July.







The trilateral meeting comes amid a U.S. push to reinforce cooperation with the Asian allies amid an intensifying rivalry between Washington and Beijing. (Yonhap)


A captured image shows a collision between a taxi and a vehicle driven by a U.S. diplomat in Yongsan District, Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times file





By Jun Ji-hye



Controversy has been growing over an alleged hit-and-run incident involving a U.S. diplomat stationed in Korea, after it was revealed that a vehicle with four U.S. diplomats, including the driver, allegedly fled after hitting a taxi while driving in central Seoul.



According to police, Friday, the vehicle was suspected of hitting the taxi on the right side from behind while changing lanes near Namsan No. 3 Tunnel, Wednesday. Rather than stopping the car to deal with the accident, the driver kept driving to Gate 3 of U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan.



The taxi driver chased the diplomat's car up to the gate.



Police officers also came to the gate and attempted to identify the diplomat who had been behind the wheel. But the diplomat refused all police requests, including a breathalyzer test.



The three other passengers did not cooperate with police either, not even opening the car windows.



Police had no choice but to let the car enter the garrison, which is off limits to them. They could not apprehend the diplomat at the scene either, due to diplomatic immunity which protects diplomats and their families against prosecution under the host country's laws.



On the following day, police sent an official document to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, asking for its cooperation in their investigation.



Police said they already checked video footage of the accident and are planning to investigate whether the diplomat left the scene deliberately without pulling over to deal with the accident.



"We will decide on which charges should be applied after listening to the diplomat's statement," a police officer said.



Regarding the issue, the U.S. Embassy said it disputed the account of the incident as reported in media.



The embassy, however, did not provide details about which parts of the account it disputed.



"We trust that the competent Republic of Korea law enforcement authorities will conduct a thorough and fair investigation of the matter, and we will refrain from providing further comment until that investigation has been completed," the embassy said in a statement.



According to an official from the foreign ministry, Friday, the U.S. Embassy expressed its willingness to cooperate with the police investigation.



"The U.S. Embassy is well aware of the sensitiveness of the case," the official said. "The embassy told us that it will keenly cooperate in accordance with due procedures."



Ministry spokesman Choi Young-sam also said, Thursday, "The ministry has always strictly handled unlawful acts committed by foreign diplomats stationed in this country. We will strictly handle this latest case as well, in cooperation with investigative authorities."


President Moon Jae-in speaks at the at the virtual APEC Leaders' Summit, Nov. 12. Yonhap



President Moon Jae-in on Friday proposed to Pacific Rim leaders the establishment of common standards on mutual recognition of COVID-19 vaccine certificates in order to facilitate cross-border movement of people.



Moon made the proposal at a virtual summit of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) bloc, which accounts for about 60 percent of the global economy and nearly 40 percent of the world population.



Speaking at the APEC Leaders' Summit, virtually hosted by New Zealand, Moon called for APEC leaders to "set up specific and common standards" for mutual recognition of vaccine certificates, while welcoming efforts by nations to discuss mutual vaccine recognition.



Facilitating cross-border movement of goods and vaccinated people is expected to help the world return to normal life from the pandemic, Moon said.



To drive the Asia-Pacific region's economic recovery from the pandemic, Moon said free trade and a multilateral trading system are essential.



The growth of the Asia-Pacific region with many open trading economies hinges on economic cooperation schemes where free trade can benefit everyone, Moon said.



In this vein, Moon said South Korea will contribute to ensure the success of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, which will be hosted by Seoul later this year.



Before the summit, APEC's finance ministers agreed to boost efforts for COVID-19 vaccine manufacture and support global vaccine sharing.



Moon told the APEC leaders that South Korea has taken actions for a fairer distribution of vaccines by expanding its aid for low-income nations.



South Korea has been sharing medical supplies and the lessons learned from infectious disease control, Moon said, adding that Seoul has provided US$180 million worth of medical supplies to some 120 nations.



Economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chains and carbon neutrality were high on the agenda during the APEC summit.



Moon told the leaders that South Korea finalized a decision to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 2018 levels by 2030.



Moon also briefed the leaders on South Korea's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, as the nation started tackling the challenge of simultaneously responding to climate change and attaining sustainable growth.



At the APEC summit, Moon repeated South Korea's pledge to complete the phaseout of coal-fired power generation by 2050.



During the APEC summit, Moon said member economies made progress toward promoting regional economic cooperation, solidarity, and inclusiveness, Moon said, describing the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040 as a meaningful outcome that manifests the APEC's commitment to solidarity and cooperation. (Yonhap)






An appeals court upheld prison sentences for five illegal immigrants from Vietnam for attacking each other with weapons in a fight over unpaid wages at an apartment complex in the southwestern city of Jeonju earlier this year, court records showed Friday.







The incident happened on April 12 when a 33-year-old Vietnamese punched and stabbed a 39-year-old coworker in an apartment complex parking lot in Jeonju, about 245 kilometers southwest of Seoul. One of the three other Vietnamese handed the weapon to the attacker, and they joined in the assault.







The victim also attempted to strike back with a weapon but failed to hurt the attacker.







They were found to have been in a dispute over overdue wages.







The Jeonju District Court's appeals division maintained the three-year prison sentence for the 33-year-old charged with inflicting bodily harm and violating the Immigration Control Act, and a one-year prison term for the 39-year-old.







The other three defendants were sentenced to between eight months and 1 1/2 years in prison, respectively, the same as the lower court ruling.







"The defendants could have caused big casualties by using weapons against each other at an apartment complex where many people live," the court said, noting the lower court's sentences do not seem too heavy.







All five defendants were overstaying their short-term visas. (Yonhap)


Lee Jae-myung, rear, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, holds the hand of his wife, Kim Hye-kyung, in an ambulance in Seongnam, south of Seoul, Nov. 9, as she is transported to a hospital after fainting and sustaining lacerations due to a fall at their home, in this photo taken from the Facebook account of lawmaker Lee Hae-sik, an aide to Kim. Yonhap



The campaign of ruling party presidential nominee Lee Jae-myung on Friday released photos of Lee holding his wife's hand as she was taken to a hospital in an ambulance earlier this week.



Kim Hye-kyung, the wife of the Democratic Party nominee, was admitted to a hospital in Seongnam, south of Seoul, on Tuesday after sustaining injuries from a fall at their home, according to the party.



Lee canceled his campaign activities that day, saying he wanted to be by her side.



"This shows Lee Jae-myung's wife, Kim Hye-kyung, being rushed to a hospital together with Lee in an ambulance at around 1:20 a.m. Tuesday," DP Rep. Lee Hae-sik, an aide to Kim, wrote on Facebook, alongside three images that he said were taken from a closed circuit TV inside the vehicle.










Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum apologized Friday for violating social distancing rules when he met with his college alumni last week.







"I am deeply sorry," Kim said at the start of a state affairs coordination meeting. "I promise that I will look after myself thoroughly so that this kind of incident never happens again."







Kim came under fire after media reported that a total of 11 people, including Kim himself, had a luncheon at the prime minister's residence in Seoul last Saturday, which violates the government's private gathering restriction of 10 people in the capital area.







The government raised the private gathering limit to 10 in the greater Seoul area from Nov. 1 after initiating its "living with COVID-19 scheme" for people's gradual return to normal life.







The prime minister's office explained the luncheon was originally scheduled for 10, but one of Kim's invitees brought his wife.







"I could not just ask my friend's wife to leave, but whatever the reason, it is true that I violated virus prevention rules," Kim said. (Yonhap)


Yoon Seok-youl, right, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, poses with U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, center, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink during their meeting at the party's headquarters in Seoul, Nov. 12. Yonhap



Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl met with the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia and a U.S. senator Friday, saying a firm alliance between the two countries has become ever more important.



The meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) was held at the People Power Party's headquarters as part of their separate visits to Seoul.



"I can't stress enough the importance of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, not only in terms of conventional national security, but in all areas from health and administration to climate agreements and advanced digital technologies," Yoon said.



"A firm alliance between South Korea and the U.S. has become ever more important in global issues beyond national security, not only for the United States, but also for South Korea," he said.






Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, right, meets with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink at the party's headquarters in Seoul, Nov. 11. Yonhap



Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung met with the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia on Thursday and expressed his hope to develop the alliance between the two countries into a global partnership.



Lee and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink held talks at the Democratic Party's headquarters as part of the U.S. official's three-day visit to Seoul.



Kritenbrink is also reportedly planning a meeting with the main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl of the People Power Party later this week as Washington seeks to build relations with Seoul's next potential leaders ahead of the March 9 presidential election.



"I hope the South Korea-U.S. alliance will continue to grow and develop into an economic alliance and a global partnership," Lee said at the meeting.



Thanking the U.S. government for its past economic and military assistance, Lee said it is "meaningful" South Korea's democracy and economy have risen to a globally recognized level through its decadeslong alliance with the U.S.






Yoon Seok-youl, the presidential nominee of the People Power Party, speaks to reporters at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club in Seoul, Nov. 12. Yonhap



South Korea is free to upgrade the U.S. THAAD anti-missile system deployed in the country to defend against North Korean missile threats, because such decisions are a "sovereign matter," main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl said Friday.



Yoon of the conservative People Power Party made the remark in response to a question about whether he supports additional THAAD deployments during a meeting with foreign correspondents in Seoul.



The remark could touch China's nerves, because Beijing has long opposed the THAAD deployment in South Korea, claiming the system could be used to hurt its security interests.



"Questions about how much further we will strengthen our missile defense system, including through THAAD, and work jointly with the United States and Japan, are a sovereign matter of our government that can certainly lead to an upgrade depending on the security situation," he said. "I will decide on that basis."



The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, was deployed to South Korea in 2017 to deter North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations despite Chinese objections over its potential threat to Beijing's national security.



China responded to the deployment by staging a massive economic retaliation campaign against Seoul.



"I will neutralize North Korea's nuclear and missile capabilities by tightening South Korea's missile defense network system and expanding the South Korea-U.S. extended deterrence," Yoon said.



The former prosecutor general said he believes South Korea should continue to participate as a working group member under the U.S.-led Quad security forum, which is widely viewed as a coalition against Beijing.










South Korea and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held high-level talks Friday to discuss North Korea's nuclear program, Japan's planned disposal of radioactive contaminated water and other issues, the foreign ministry said.







Ham Sang-wook, deputy foreign minister for multilateral and global affairs, met Massimo Aparo, the head of the IAEA department of safeguards, in Seoul, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.







During the meeting, Ham requested the IAEA play a proactive role in enhancing transparency and safety regarding Japan's planned disposal of the wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.







Tokyo plans to release the water that has been stored in tanks at the wrecked plant, possibly starting 2023.







Seoul and the IAEA have held high-level talks since 2013 to promote bilateral strategic communication. (Yonhap)


China's Xi set to extend power with rare historical resolution



Chinese Communist Party (CCP) adopted a rare resolution summarizing the major achievements and experiences of the party's 100 years during a meeting of its Central Committee that ended Thursday. The committee's move has drawn special attention as it paved the way for Chinese President Xi Jinping to extend his stay in power.



The committee praised Xi's socialist ideology, deemed to be unique for China in a new era, as the essence of the country's culture and spirit. It acclaimed Xi's leadership, saying it enabled China to become ever stronger. The statement is the third of its kind in the party's history, following one that was issued under Mao Zedong who founded the party and another under Deng Xiaoping who laid the ground for China's economic development.



The committee's move set the stage for Xi to extend his power during the incoming 20th party congress next year. A party official described Xi as a "helmsman" during a news conference Friday. Mao managed to secure legitimacy for his one-man rule by beating his political enemies in 1945, while Deng solidified his own open and reform policies while criticizing the fallacies and legacies of Mao's radical 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. Via the recent historical resolution, Xi will likely emerge with absolute authority.



Yet, the CCP's move to elevate Xi's authority does not necessarily mean China's securing of a status and prestige as a respectable leading global power. This means China should make more efforts to meet the requirements of the international community and history. It should take steps to cherish the values of democracy and human rights and embrace other countries as a reliable member of global society with a sense of responsibility that matches its military strength and economic power.



In an apparent bid to highlight Xi's leadership, China is seeking to join hands with the United States on major pending issues. For starters, Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden will hold a virtual summit next week. The face-to-face meeting, albeit via video, is the first since January when Biden took office. On Thursday in Glasgow, Scotland, the two nations announced a joint statement featuring bilateral cooperation to cope with climate change.



The U.S. confirmed its pledge for carbon neutrality by 2035 while China vowed to reduce its coal consumption gradually from 2026 to 2030. As it is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, China's move caught many countries off guard, as it has maintained a lukewarm attitude toward the 26th Convention of Parties (COP26). It seems China has been fine-tuning the timing of the summit and joint statement in time with the historical resolution.



China has come under growing criticism here due to its recent restriction of exports of diesel exhaust fluid, or "urea water," to the nation after it already banned Korean cultural exports in retaliation to the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in Korea. It has also been distorting history with its Northeast Project and Chinese people have been claiming kimchi as its own indigenous food. China has been flexing muscles with its crackdowns on the democracy movement in Hong Kong and its military campaign against Taiwan. China should refrain from bullying regional countries and make efforts to embrace them.






By Yi Whan-woo







A group of American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM Korea) representatives met with Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who is currently visiting Korea, and discussed ways to enhance business cooperation between the two countries, AMCHAM Korea said Friday.







Ossoff's Korea trip, which lasts from Monday to Saturday, drew the attention of business circles here, as the southern state has been at the center of large Korean investments in the United States.







Georgia is home to two battery plants being built by SK Innovation and an electric car assembly factory to be constructed by Kia, all in accordance with U.S. President Joe Biden's initiatives to rebuild American manufacturing businesses.







The ongoing projects by SK Innovation and Kia make Georgia a home to the factories and other facilities of more than 110 Korean enterprises.







AMCHAM Korea Chairman and CEO James Kim, as well as the organization's other representatives, called Georgia "a trailblazer in deepening U.S.-Korea relations" and said that it promoted bilateral economic cooperation in innovative industries by offering ground-breaking incentives.







"Korea is now one of Georgia's largest trading partners, with multiple Korean conglomerates choosing to set up in Georgia," AMCHAM Korea said in a press release.







The AMCHAM Korea leader said that the senator's visit is "a testament to the powerful economic partnership between the U.S. and Korea."







Kim added, "The state of Georgia offers unique opportunities for both U.S. companies in Korea and Korean companies striving to expand abroad."







The senator addressed that, through his multiple meetings with Korean business people and politicians, as well as with the AMCHAM Korea and U.S. business leaders, the two sides "have made significant progress toward securing additional South Korean investments in Georgia and charted the course toward greater opportunity for Georgia businesses in South Korea."







He specifically noted progress in the fields of renewable energy, digital technology and semiconductors.


Steve Kiefer, senior vice president of GM, speaks during a press conference at the company's headquarters in Bupyeong District, Incheon, Friday. Courtesy of GM Korea



By Baek Byung-yeul



General Motors will aggressively expand into Korea's growing electric vehicle (EV) market, releasing 10 new EVs by 2025, but has no plans to manufacture any of them here, its Senior Vice President Steve Kiefer said Friday.



"Ten EVs will all be imported and those are not being produced in the country. We are not announcing any plans yet to produce electric vehicles in the county," the executive said during a press conference at GM Korea's headquarters in Incheon's Bupyeong District.



Kiefer said GM's automotive plant in Korea will continue to concentrate on producing SUVs.



"It's so important that we keep our team focused on the continued success of the Trailblazer," he added.



Kiefer arrived in Korea this week to visit GM's Korean production site as well as its vehicle design and engineering unit, GM Technical Center Korea (GMTCK), to check if the U.S. carmaker's investments in the Korean unit are going smoothly.



GM Korea said the senior vice president toured major facilities here, including GM Korea's car production plants in Incheon, Boryeong and Changwon, as well as GMTCK's vehicle testing facility at Cheongna Proving Ground, also in Incheon. GM is scheduled to produce its next-generation crossover utility vehicle here starting from 2023.



GM's Korean unit serves as a base for producing cars for the Korean and overseas markets. However, the annual production of the Korean unit has continued to decrease from around 520,000 in 2017 to 350,000 in 2020.



Currently, the role of GM Korea is focused on producing and exporting the Trailblazer mid-sized SUV. GM Korea said it exported 81,991 Trailblazers from January to June this year, the second-largest export record after Hyundai Motor's Kona SUV, whose exports totaled 98,773 vehicles.



When asked about the ongoing partnership with LG Energy Solution, LG Group's EV battery-making unit, Kiefer said the relationship between the two is very bright.



"Clearly more capacity is going to be required, so stay tuned for some additional announcements," he said.



GM set up a joint venture with LG and has been building a battery manufacturing plant in the U.S. state of Ohio. They also announced that a second battery plant will be built in Tennessee. The Ohio plant is scheduled to be completed in 2022 while the Tennessee facility will be finished in late 2023.


A Samsung flag is seen at the company's building in southern Seoul / Korea Times file



Lee Jae-yong expected to visit US in coming weeks to close foundry investment deal



By Kim Bo-eun



Samsung Electronics is set to unveil a new personnel system intended to make the company more flexible and less hierarchical.



In an internal notice posted this week about the planned change, Samsung implied there would be changes to the employee evaluation and promotion system, while it did not specify the details.



The company is set to introduce the system once a draft is finalized, after reflecting the views of Samsung's unions and employees in managerial positions.



"The specifics will be unveiled when the system is finalized," a Samsung official said, Friday. "The changes would be made to make improvements to the organization."



Five years ago, Samsung removed conventional titles of employees to foster a more horizontal atmosphere at the conservative organization. The company said the most recent changes were made with input from outside experts and references to local and global firms.










Unionized workers at Hyundai Heavy Industries on Friday voted for a strike to demand higher pay and bonuses.







In a four-day vote that ended Friday, 90.8 percent of the 5,369 union members agreed on industrial action unless the company fails to meet the union's demands. The union has 8,364 members.







The company and the union have held 17 rounds of wage negotiations since August for the year.







The union demanded the company raise the basic monthly salary by 120,304 won per person, make guidelines for performance-based pay and narrow the basic pay gap among workers.







A new union leadership, scheduled to be selected next week, will decide on whether to go on strike or not depending on wage talks with the company, the union said. (Yonhap)


POSCO International, a trading arm of South Korean steel giant POSCO, said Friday it has signed contracts with Australian and Mexican companies to bring in 180,000 liters of urea solution in an effort to help ease the serious domestic supply crunch of the material.







Under the deal, Australia-based supplier Bluenox Pty. will provide 80,000 liters and Zar Kruse, a Mexican petroleum company, will supply 100,000 liters, according to POSCO International.







The total amount would be enough to supply about 9,000 diesel sedans.







They will be shipped out from the two countries around the end of this month, and it is expected to take about 21 days and 18 days for the supplies to arrive here, respectively.







South Korea has been grappling with a shortage of urea solution, as China tightened exports of urea in October amid a power crisis caused by a coal supply shortage. Coal is the main feedstock to produce urea.







The government has been striving to secure more stockpiles of the key material needed in diesel cars through more imports from countries like Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and other nations.







The corporate sector has also stepped up to lend support, with major companies setting out to secure urea or urea solution using their networks with foreign partners.







Lotte Fine Chemical, the country's biggest producer of urea solution, said Thursday it has secured 19,000 tons of urea. LX International, the general trading arm of LX Group, has secured 6 million tons of urea and urea solution from Vietnam, Singapore and China. (Yonhap)


This February file photo shows Regkirona developed by Celltrion. Yonhap



The EU's drug watchdog on Thursday approved two COVID-19 antibody treatments, in its first approvals of the groundbreaking therapies that help stop infected people developing symptoms of the disease.



Ronapreve, made by Swiss pharma giant Roche with US biotech firm Regeneron, and Regkirona, developed by South Korea's Celltrion, got the green light from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).



The move adds to the European Union's toolbox of drugs as it fights coronavirus infection rates that are rising to record levels in some countries.



"Ronapreve and Regkirona are the first monoclonal antibody medicines to receive a positive opinion... for COVID-19," the Amsterdam-based EMA said in a statement.






Former princess Mako Komuro and her husband are planning to leave Japan for New York on Sunday, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.



The newlywed couple, both 30, are expected to depart from Haneda airport in Tokyo to start their new life in New York, where Kei Komuro works as a law clerk at a legal firm after graduating from Fordham University's law school with a Juris Doctor degree in May.



The Komuros have already secured a place to live in the US city, according to the source.



It was originally planned that Komuro would travel to the US first due to work commitments and the former princess, who left the imperial family upon marrying a commoner, would join him later after obtaining a passport.



But the husband's stay in Japan was prolonged after Mako's grandfather and Crown Princess Kiko's father, Tatsuhiko Kawashima, a professor emeritus at Gakushuin University, died last week and the couple attended his funeral on Saturday.



The eldest daughter of Crown Prince Fumihito and her boyfriend married on October 26 after years of controversy over a financial dispute involving his mother that led the couple to forgo traditional ceremonies associated with a royal wedding.



The couple appeared together in front of the press later that day for the first time in about four years, with the bride saying she wants to lead a "peaceful life" in a new environment.





People take part in a march to protest against the marriage between Japan's Princess Mako and Kei Komuro in Tokyo, Oct. 26. AFP-Yonhap
In this 2015 September file photo, pedestrians walk past a logo of Toshiba outside an electronics retailer in Tokyo. Reuters-Yonhap



Storied Japanese conglomerate Toshiba will split into three companies, it said Friday, following a campaign by investors to boost the firm's shares after a period of enormous upheaval.



The move is the first spin-off by a Japanese firm of Toshiba's size and analysts said it could be a test case for other domestic conglomerates.



The plan approved by the board will spin two companies off from the rest of Toshiba's operations within two years  one focused on infrastructure and the second on devices  with both eventually being listed.



"It is an extremely big change, but there is a chance for each business to achieve growth," CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa told reporters.



"Toshiba has changed its form and evolved throughout its long history of over 140 years," he added. "We have reached a conclusion that this strategic realignment is the best option."



The plan must still be approved by shareholders, some of whom reportedly would have preferred a buyout, with a vote expected between April and June next year.



Toshiba said the move would allow each sector of its business faster decision-making and slimmer cost structures that would "deliver sustainable profitable growth and enhanced shareholder value".



That is what investors pushing for the move are hoping, said LightStream Research analyst Mio Kato, who publishes on Smartkarma.



They want "moves to shake the company up and get investors to reevaluate it and hopefully get a higher share price," he told AFP.



The decision caps a period of tumult at the firm, once a symbol of Japan's advanced technological and economic power.



In June, shareholders voted to oust the board's chairman after a series of scandals and losses, in a rare victory for activist investors in corporate Japan.



The move followed the damaging revelations of an independent probe that concluded Toshiba attempted to block shareholders from exercising their proposal and voting rights.



It also detailed how the firm had pursued an intervention from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to help sway a board vote.





The logo of Japanese industrial group Toshiba is seen on top of a building at its headquarters in Tokyo, Nov. 12. AFP-Yonhap


Pro Saddle Creek Germantown , Tennessee , United States Apple Retail Summary

Posted: Nov 9, 2021 Weekly Hours: 40 Role Number: 200311561 Do you want to help grow Apple's community? We seek perfection. We are idealists and problem-solvers. Forever tinkering with products and processes, always on the lookout for better. A job at Apple will be demanding. But it also rewards forward-thinking, original thinking, and tenacity. And none of us here would have it any other way. Are you highly skilled at presenting elegant solutions that simplify the complex? Are you an extremely knowledgeable salesperson? As a Pro, you understand how Apple can help customers discover their passions, and how our products differ from our competitors. You have an eye for opportunity and demonstrate your breadth of expertise in technology to craft unique value propositions and insights that differentiate Apple solutions in the market. You provide authoritative recommendations of Apple's products that build loyalty and improve the customer experience, and help drive skills and knowledge of technology across your team. Key Qualifications Extensive track record of top performing sales and customer experience results maintained over extended periods of time.

Mastery of Apple services and products as well as third-party solutions across different industries and fields, for personal, business, educational, and creative professional use.

Knowledge of business solutions and industry trends. Description You drive sales by designing complete solutions with Apple and complementary product-service offerings. You demonstrate and advise how customers can integrate technology into their homes and scale solutions across small to medium size businesses and educational institutions. You demonstrate a real passion for technology to become the go-to resource across the store for our Hardware, Software, and Services. You use knowledge about Apple technology, technical expertise, and creativity to meet customer needs and stay up to date on new information, product and service offerings, and company initiatives, by using internal tools and resources, on-the-job experiences, and peers. You partner closely with store leadership, Global Retail Support, and peers within your Region. You contribute to success across all store areas and flex appropriately to meet business needs. You will identify emerging technology and consumer trends and share how the team can use those insights to develop new sales opportunities and maintain technology industry knowledge and macro-movements within verticals to anticipate how technology can be utilized. You will lead and assist with briefings, provide recommendations for deployment and set up, and identify when to pull in additional support. The Pro mentors others in the Product Zone on specialized product knowledge and purchasing options, including financing and carrier contracts and shares practices on ownership and customer loyalty within the Product Zone and with the larger store team. You maintain expertise in all Apple products and services (in store and online), our ecosystem, and many third-party products to offer complete solutions while actively approaching and engaging with our customers to understand their needs and present customized solutions. You set up the customer's newest Apple products. The Pro brings Apple solutions to life through demos, personalization, and answers to customer questions. Build memorable experiences that showcase the benefits of Apple products. You will provide troubleshooting advice and introduce the advantages of shopping with Apple - often to multiple customers at the same time. You will support peers at the Genius Bar as needed to share knowledge and assist in providing ownership options all while providing world-class customer service to customers, and maintaining accuracy in all operational duties and transactions. Note: Apple benefits programs vary by country and are subject to eligibility requirements. Education & Experience Additional Requirements Able to effectively communicate and work with business owners and C-level executives.

Self-starter and able to achieve individual goals while also influencing the success of the overall team.

Able to collaborate cross-functionally within the store and among key partners.

Familiar with a CRM.

Superior teamwork, interpersonal, and customer service skills.

Drive for results, and make things happen.

Can tackle customer concerns using composure, listening, and presentation skills.

Strong time management and multitasking skills.

Curious to seek out information and share with the broader team.

Flexible about work, often performing multiple activities simultaneously.

Able to prioritize tasks effectively.

Provide and receive feedback from others.



If you live in Colorado, please click here .








Reposted - Assistant Assessor Pursuant to UPSEU Collective Bargaining Unit the hiring rate is $41.82 hourly Under the direction of the Assessor, the Assistant Assessor has the responsibility to assess the valuation of personal property and/or inventory of commercial and industrial establishments; to inspect real estate and make appraisals of new building and building additions and improvements according to recognized appraisal standards. Assists in maintenance of all records and documents of real estate and personal property value and ownership. Confers with property owners and provides information about laws pertaining to motor vehicle taxation, exemption for elderly citizens, and similar tax liability matters; compiles lists such as Grand List, assessments, properties, elderly homeowners and other assessment information. Searches land records for changes in ownership and in response to requests for information from attorneys, real estate agents and the public. Records changes in assessment administrative documents and files to reflect new construction or ownership of property. Minimum Qualifications High School diploma or equivalency, including or supplemented by courses in office skills, plus three years of responsible administrative experience, including one year in an assessment environment OR , an equivalent combination of education and experience substituting on the basis of two years of education for each year of experience. Must have a valid drivers license and must have or maintain a Connecticut Municipal Assessor Certification by the end of October 2022. Selection Process All appointments shall be made according to merit and fitness for performing the functions of the position, including factors such as education, experience, aptitude, knowledge, character, ethics, or other qualifications that would determine the best candidate for the position. Examinations may include written, oral, physical, or performance tests or any combination of the various types of examinations. Offers of employment are contingent upon satisfactory results on a background check, pre-employment physical, drug screening and verification of information on the employment application. Applications Applications may be obtained from the Department of Human Resources, 800 Bloomfield Ave., Bloomfield, CT 06002, or on our website at www.bloomfieldct.org and must be submitted to Human Resources along with a resume, copy of Certification and cover letter. Applications are accepted by mail, in person or via e-mail to kroberts@bloomfieldct.org. Applications will be accepted until position is filled. Town of Bloomfield is an affirmative action/equal employment opportunity employer. Minorities, women & persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Persons with a disability who may need this information in an alternative format or who may need accommodations during the testing procedure should contact Cindy Coville, ADA Coordinator at 860-769-3538 or at ccoville@bloomfieldct.org

recblid 2bd9e02novlwews6obcd1k14uygs2v








Location: Milwaukee - Wisconsin

Job Description Position Summary: Rockwell Automation is looking for a DevOps Engineer to join a team of Software and Test Engineers in the development and enhancement of different Rockwell software products. In this role you will be responsible for software configuration management, build processes and associated tools. Our software products are developed in agile teams that are highly collaborative and innovative. The environment is dynamic, fast-paced, and requires a highly motivated individual with a passion for DevOps.



In this position, you will work with different teams around the world on multiple product lines using state of the art tools and processes. Development is performed in a team environment utilizing sound engineering and software development practices and technology. Responsibilities include collaborating with multiple cross-functional teams and possible technical leadership of different DevOps features. Position Responsibilities Create software builds and manage releases.

Maintain and update build tools and scripts.

Automate the build process and look for ways to improve performance.

Work with software developers to troubleshoot build failures.

Develop and document standard operating procedures and other supporting documentation.

Provide work estimates and status reports as requested. Maintain adequate interaction to ensure assigned tasks are prioritized appropriately.

Keep informed of new developments in the configuration management field. Identify and participate in technical and developmental training opportunities.

Research, consider, and explore new possibilities utilizing the latest technologies and standards.

Effectively collaborate with others through mutually supportive professional relationships, open and direct communications, honesty, and respect.

Base Qualifications BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering or Electrical Engineering

May require up to 10% travel

Preferred Qualifications Typically requires 2+ years in a software configuration management role

Continuous integration and delivery tools

Scripting programming languages and common tools

Agile software development using Scrum

Git source code management

Windows and Linux operating systems

Desire to learn and apply new technologies

Must exhibit excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills

Experience in industrial automation product development or related technical areas

VMware virtualization products

Jenkins and Azure Cloud CI/CD

Experience with Artifactory

This position is part of a job family. Experience will be the determining factor. 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).




Location: Boston - Massachusetts

Job Description Why join Rockwell Automation? Aside from being a part of an award-winning, diverse, inclusive, ethical company recognized for innovation, your days here will be challenging and rewarding. As you grow your skills and expertise, you'll also grow your career with opportunities that span industries and regions. Customers. They're the reason we wake up energized to do our best every day. They're the reason we develop our technology - unmatched products, information software and solutions that solve real problems and expand human possibility. We are hiring an Account Manager focused on the Pharmaceutical/Life Sciences industry that will help our customers connect their enterprise and achieve positive business outcomes. Beyond technology, the differentiator here is your relationship-building skills. How you work with people will create your success in this role. You'll develop and implement sales strategies and plans that will meet, or better yet, exceed annual sales goals and grow our market share. Your understanding of the Pharmaceutical/Life Sciences industry and your ability to create a vision of what is possible will allow you to influence executive-level decision makers that will make the difference. Because you've put into context how our portfolio will create value and benefit the customers operation and bottom line, those customers will rely on you for answers and help with achieving their desired business outcome - and grow their spend with us. What you will do Create a vision of what is possible. See beyond today. Understand the market, understand the trends, understand your customer. Connect the dots and paint a picture of how we help them attain what's possible.

Become the expert your customers need. Understand their industry (applications, standards/regulatory requirements, drivers & trends), their own organization and how things get done, what they want to accomplish and how our offerings and partner capabilities will help them achieve those goals

Own it. It being the strategy for growing your accounts, and talking to your extended team about your plans so they can support you

Develop into a trusted advisor. That means attention to detail - you understand their processes, business drivers and organization model so well that you can offer application knowledge, industry expertise and guidance on their strategic initiatives

Influence decisions. You'll qualify customer opportunities, engage resources, and coordinate the solution design and presentation so the customer chooses our solution for all the right reasons

Collaborate. You'll work with Industry Managers and your broader account team, senior management and a technical engagement team (domain experts) to plan for and win opportunities

Look ahead. We have the platform, Dynamics Customer Relationship Management system, and the processes to maintain accurate assessments of targets and opportunities in the funnel

Negotiate. You'll team with your colleagues in Contracts and Negotiations to offer the best contract terms and conditions (T&Cs), pricing, discounts and allowances, and obtain agreements and prices to support the proposal effort

Support and manage. That includes customer/internal account reviews, and internal/external partner expectations Knowledge of selling into the pharmaceutical industry is a key requirement. Strong understanding of the various processes (such as weigh and dispense, recipe management, API, secondary manufacturing, electronic batch records) that are leveraged within the industry is required. Understanding of the regulations and guidelines required in pharma manufacturing along with an understanding of the digital transformation and smart connected operations including the digital thread, analytics and manufacturing execution systems is desired. Experience with emerging bio tech through commercialization would be a plus. Basic qualifications Bachelor of Science degree

Valid driver's license.

Ability to travel locally greater than 50% of time. Preferred qualifications Bachelor of Science degree in an Engineering or Business discipline

5 years management experience with 3-5 years of selling into the pharmaceutical industry

Prior experience in sales, industrial distribution, systems integration or an engineering firm.

Experience working with all levels of pharmaceutical customer including executives, management, and engineers.

Working knowledge of Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things technologies

IOT / IIOT / Software / Annual Recurring Revenue-Subscription model type of experience including customer success organizations

Working with all levels of a manufacturing enterprise - CxO, operations leadership, technical leadership, plant leadership and OEM machine builders

Demonstrated ability to sell at the senior management & executive levels, focusing on the business outcomes and demonstrating the tangible economic value of our products, information software & services can help them achieve This is a summary of the position's responsibilities and does not reflect the entire scope of work expectations. #LI--PE Who we are We are a global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation. We connect the imaginations of people with the potential of technology to expand what is humanly possible, making the world more productive and more sustainable. From improving the production of medicines that boost human health to reducing waste in an oil and gas plant, the work we do changes how we live. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we employ approximately 23,000 problem solvers dedicated to our customers in more than 100 countries. 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).




Position title: Administrative and Special Projects Coordinator

Position #: 111369 This position will be responsible for the coordination of major projects in the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure and Internet Global Services (ACIGS) Assistant Vice President/Chief Technology Officers (AVP/CTO) office. Duties will include day-to-day office management, meeting scheduling/calendar management, and travel arrangements. The position will have the primary responsibility for facilitating project management in terms of project record keeping and follow-up, and will also be responsible for compiling meeting minutes and project status/action reports, facilitating end-of-year project status assessments and managing the administrative coordination of fiscal year planning. This position will also provide overall coordination for board meetings and other high-level meetings and retreats. Other duties will include event planning for ACIGS events, and writing press releases and articles for publication in campus and external newsletters.

Minimum qualifications



EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE



Bachelors degree from an accredited college or university in communications, marketing or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.



AND



1  3 years of experience in office support planning and coordination.



KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES



-Knowledge of office practices and procedures.

-Knowledge of and skill in the use of common word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and calendaring programs/software such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Google Calendar.

-Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.

-Ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing.

-Ability to coordinate and schedule meetings, events and related activities.

-Ability to accurately compose a variety of correspondence, reports and minutes.

-Ability to maintain confidentiality of sensitive business matters and exercise discretion in handling confidential information.

-Excellent organizational skills.

-Ability to motivate self and take initiative.

-Ability to pay attention to detail.



Preferences Knowledge of information technology and the networking service environment is strongly desirable.

Additional information: this position does not provide sponsorship for Visas.



Physical demands: sedentary work. Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects. Repetitive motion. Substantial movements (motions) of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers. The worker is required to have close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading. Must have the ability to walk short distances.





Best consideration date: 12/01/2021 or open until filled





Please apply at: https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/90000





Vaccine protocol: the University of Maryland has made the safety of our students, faculty and staff, and our surrounding communities a top priority. As part of that commitment, the University System of Maryland (USM) recently announced that students, faculty, and staff on USM campuses this fall, including UMD, are required to be vaccinated against COVID. As a prospective and/or a new employee at UMD, you will be required to comply with the Universitys vaccination protocol. Proof of full vaccination will be required before the start of employment in order to work at any University of Maryland location. Prospective or new employees may seek a medical or religious exemption to the vaccination requirement at return.umd.edu and must have an approved exemption prior to the start of their employment. Failure to provide proof of vaccination or to obtain approval for a medical or religious exemption will result in the offer of employment being rescinded.







EOE/AA

recblid gqoqj3l3whl9kt6of1efxkmqfwpyb8








ML Speech & NLP engineer, Computational Music Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino) , California , United States Software and Services Summary

Posted: Nov 10, 2021 Weekly Hours: 40 Role Number: 200312247 Apple's Computational Music team is looking for a hardworking Machine Learning Speech & NLP Engineer to advance technologies around music understanding and analysis. We perform both exploratory and targeted algorithms research and development in a dynamic small team environment. Our projects involve significant applications of machine learning and audio-, music- and signal-processing with an explicit goal of shipping software to support current and future products and features at the scale of Apple's ecosystem. Key Qualifications Track record of delivering high quality results on time

Proven ability to work collaboratively within a multi-functional environment

Proficient in Python

Deep technical skills in machine learning for speech recognition and natural language processing

Hands-on experience working with deep learning toolkits such as PyTorch, Tensorflow, etc

Solid fundamentals in mathematics for Machine Learning

Interest in working on music projects

At least 4 years of full-time experience as machine learning engineer or researcher

At least 1 year of experience of working with state of the art NLP techniques Description We are looking for a Machine Learning Speech & NLP Engineer who is self-motivated and passionate about their work. This position will play a key role in researching and developing algorithms for processing lyrics of songs. The ideal candidate will be a strong Python developer with proven experience of crafting, prototyping, and delivering ML solutions. You should be interested in staying up to date on new developments in the field, and be able to apply that knowledge to solving challenging problems across multiple domains. We would love to see examples of prior work you are proud of; Feel free to point us at your GitHub repository, technical blog or publications. Education & Experience




Business Analyst/Tester State of Connecticut Judicial Branch Glastonbury The State of Connecticut Judicial Branch is seeking a Business Analyst/Tester (Information Technology Analyst I) for the Court Support Services Division. Qualified applicants will possess experience in the specific functional area of Business Analysis. The successful candidate must be able to manage routine system and project requirements; identify changes to scope and track requirements through implementation; define key business processes and identify critical paths of operations; identify the impact of technology on business processes; working with the project team, propose, document and assess technical solutions to business needs, and verify and validate basic system specifications; identify process gaps; translate business needs into systems specifications; utilize elicitation techniques. The incumbent will use routine interpersonal and technical skills to perform and/or participate in the following: Assist in diagnosing system problems and developing and coordinating resolutions;

Assist in the evaluation of new technologies;

Test and evaluate new hardware and/or software;

Assist in determining interface and utility requirements and use design specifications;

May train business or technical staff on new procedures;

Assist in development of current and future information technology policies, procedures and standards;

Perform and/or assist in the preparation of correspondence, manuals, business intelligence reporting and documentation as required; produce status reports;

Support production applications and environments as required; In addition to the above qualifications, a Business Analyst/Tester is sought to work closely with operational unit(s) to learn business processes and determine how best to apply those processes within the Case Management Information System (CMIS) and other Judicial Branch systems. This position will act as the IT main point of contact for at least one business unit (e.g., Bail Services) and will be responsible for eliciting and documenting business requirements for CMIS, as well as application testing. Position requires strong analysis, problem-solving, and documentation skills, as well as ability to work with staff of varying skill levels and experience. Prior experience with application testing and bug-tracking is a plus. The minimum knowledge and skills preferred for a candidate to be considered for this position include: Strong analysis, problem solving and design skills

Experience writing business requirement documents

Experience conducting testing and documenting defects

Clear thinking, flexibility in working relationships and decision making, ability to set individual priorities, be self-directed, and work in a team environment

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, organization skills, and the ability to work with limited direction

Ability to work with staff of varying skill levels and experience (executive, business stakeholders, technical, non-technical). This includes facilitating meetings that dig into the technical detail as well as leading meetings with high-level technical and non-technical staff while ensuring the collection of accurate documentation

Flexibility to meet the challenges of an ever-changing environment Upon satisfactory completion of the initial probationary period, hybrid remote work may be available. Salary Range: $75,727 - $103,044  plus State of Connecticut benefits. New employees begin at the minimum. The starting salary for existing state employees may be higher than the minimum, in accordance with existing Judicial Branch policy. The State of Connecticut Judicial Branch offers its employees a top-notch array of health and retirement benefits including but not limited to: paid holidays, vacation, sick and personal leave, group life insurance, 457 Deferred Compensation, voluntary flexible spending account programs, discounted auto and home insurance policies and long and short term disability. EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING General Experience: Four (4) years of experience in information technology (IT), programming, systems/software development or another IT related field with a concentration in the specific area of the position being applied for. Substitutions Allowed: 1) College training in management information systems, computer science, electrical engineering or related area may be substituted for the General Experience on the basis of fifteen (15) semester hours equaling six (6) months of experience to a maximum of four (4) years for a Bachelors degree.



2) A Masters degree in management information systems, computer science, electrical engineering or related area may be substituted for the General Experience.

3) Relevant certification in management information systems, computer science, electrical engineering, project management or related area may be substituted for up to six (6) months of the general experience. Special Requirements: Incumbents may be required to travel within the State in the course of their daily work. Applications must be received by November 29, 2021. Applications must be submitted through the on-line application site. Resumes or paper applications will not be accepted. Careers at the Branch play an essential role for the public and society. Our meaningful, challenging, and interesting positions have a long-lasting effect that serves to advance justice and ultimately provides for the greater good of all. Please reference posting number 21-7000-143 AA/EOE

recblid r4ouriqq3kvcjqddu3hdh2anblrk4w






Business Services Technician

New Richmond Campus

Part-time (1350 hours/year)

Apply now to join our team as a part-time Business Services

Technician! Utilize your office and accounting skills to process

journal entries and perform cashiering, billing, and other daily

activities within the Business Services department.

For a complete job description, list of qualifications, and to apply click on "Apply" to visit our website at: https://www.northwoodtech.edu/employment

Deadline To Apply: November 29, 2021

Northwood Tech is an Equal Opportunity/ Access/Affirmative Action/

Veterans/Disability Employer and Educator TTY 711

recblid u4sftfend48m0uqzyevrwzc3316h5y


HomeKit SW Engineer San Diego , California , United States Software and Services Summary

Posted: Nov 11, 2021 Weekly Hours: 40 Role Number: 200295708 The HomeKit team provides the foundation that enables an entire ecosystem of secure and intelligent home connectivity. We are developing technologies and crafting experiences that revolutionize the way people interact with the accessories around them. The team is seeking a hardworking engineer to help build the Home automation platform and take it to the next level. Key Qualifications You are an accomplished coder in C and object-oriented languages, such as C++ or Objective-C

You have a well-founded grasp of computer science fundamentals

You demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of wireless technologies and protocols knowledge is a plus

You have experience shipping real products to customers

You thrive in a collaborative environment

You have excellent communication skills

A real passion for product quality and attention to detail

Ability to work in a rapid development cycle with tight schedules

You are obsessively passionate and inquisitive, and seek to solve everyday problems in innovative ways

Laser-focused on the smallest details that are meaningful to our customers. Description You will develop the framework that enables accessories, iOS devices, and apps to work together to build an amazing product. You will work on different layers of the software stack, from network protocol design and implementation, to developer APIs, to defining the customer experience. You'll be responsible for maintaining and improving existing features and implementing new and innovative ideas for the future. Our goals are simple but the task is large; craft the most amazing home automation experience in the world that our customers will love. WWDC 2018: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/231/ Education & Experience Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science or equivalent experience.


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
The following article was published in 1981, shortly after the opening of the so-called Cabinet Papers for 1950. These documents revealed the extent to which the post-war Labour government, so-often heralded by reformists as real socialism in action, was obsessed with routing communists and radicals out of the party, and ultimately toeing the line of the capitalist establishment. These revelations are proof that even a radical reformist government will ultimately defend the interests of the capitalist system if it is unwilling to break with it.

According to reports, the cabinet Papers for the year 1950, released recently under the 30-year secrecy rule, show that the Labour Government was obsessed by fears of Communist plots at home and abroad. The extent to which the Labour Government of 1950 had departed from the confident, reformist spirit of the heady days of 1945-47 is important for present-day activists to understand. For the Labour Governments of the immediate post-war era are often held up as shining examples of 'real' socialist governments.

In 1945, the Labour Party was returned to power with a massive majority in Parliament. The mood of the overwhelming number of workers and substantial sections of the middle class was for radical change. Amongst some more advanced workers and troops, the mood was for a revolutionary change. The programme of the Labour Party reflected a radical attitude rather than the revolutionary one, but nevertheless represented a powerful attack on the position of the capitalist class. Within three years of coming to power, the Labour Government, impelled by the prevailing spirit, carried through practically its entire programme of nationalisation and social welfare provisions. The Attlee Government, however, was packed with right-wing ministers, whose avowed preference was for gradual progress, seeking to gain respect and acceptance in the eyes of the establishment, rather than transforming the very structure of society. Once the bulk of the programme had been achieved they saw their task as complete and set their sights on consolidation. But society cannot stand still. Britain in 1947 was at a crisis point. Substantial though the reforms were that had already been passed, the problems of post-war capitalist Britain required much more drastic steps. The contradictions clearly posed the issue: either Labour marched on to take the real economic and financial levers of power into its hands and begin the socialist transformation of society, or it would be forced to retreat and pave the way for its own defeat.

Between 1947 and the General Election of 1950, the Labour Government turned more and more to attacks on the working class, and together with the right-wing leaders of the TUC [Trades Union Congress] struck at the militants in its own movement. In 1947, during a bitter dispute on the Docks, Labour declared a State of Emergency (the first since the 1926 General Strike) and used troops to break the strike. In 1948, with agreement by the TUC, a wage freeze was imposed. In 1949 (and again in 1950) a ban on all processions in London prevented the traditional May Day marches from taking place. Within the Labour Party and Trade Unions, various members were expelled as Communist sympathisers. It was in this period that three Labour MPs were expelled from the party. In 1949, the government introduced a ban on employing Fascists and Communists in the Civil Service and proceeded to sack known Communists.

In seeking to take on the Communists and other militants rather than the capitalists, the Labour Government played straight into the hands of the Tories. Their confidence, and that of the class they represent, grew. A flood of propaganda was unleashed, notably by [food processing giant] Tate & Lyle [in response to Labours pledge to nationalise the sugar industry], to persuade the public to reject Labour and opt for the Conservatives at the next general election.

Labour went into the February 1950 Election on a limited reform programme, which included the nationalisation of sugar, cement and industrial insurance. In fact, the Labour leaders had no stomach for pursuing even these limited measures, for when they did get back to power they promptly dropped them.

The Cabinet Papers for 1950 revealed the extent to which the post-war Labour government was obsessed with routing communists out of the party and toeing the line of the capitalist establishment / Image: fair use

In a self-fulfilling way, which will be familiar to present-day activists, the failure of the Labour Government to show a firm way ahead on the basis of socialism led to growing disillusionment and a waning of the radical mood. This was then interpreted by the Labour leaders as justification for their weak and hesitant approach. In fact, the election result showed that the vast majority of workers remained loyal to Labour. The vote for Labour reached record levels. But the share of the total vote went down and Labour lost 80 seats and saw their majority reduced to seven. The response of the right-wing Labour and Trade union leaders to the situation in 1950 was to increase still further the attacks on the Communists and the left. The mood of the rank and file grew increasingly restive. In a series of unofficial strikes, dockers, busmen and gas workers sought to regain some of their losses sustained in the period of wage freeze. In 1949 the TUC, against the advice of Council, voted to end the wage freeze. The right-wing leaders of both wings of the movement chose to see in this and in every other manifestation of discontent the hands of an international communist conspiracy. Whilst, as the ETU [Electrical Trades Union, which was at one point controlled by members of the Communist Party] affair was to show, some elements of the Communist Party were quite prepared to adopt fraudulent methods to maintain positions, the Party was only able to conduct industrial struggles on the basis of the genuine grievances of the workers. The Party may have been a willing tool of Stalin but it hardly constituted a major threat to British capitalism in 1950.

However, the Labour Cabinet saw things differently as the released papers show. In 1950 they were actively engaged in discussing how to suppress the Communist Party, and more generally how to limit the right to strike. Throughout most of 1950, the Cabinet considered a draft Bill designed initially to protect the provision of supplies for the Korean War, which had broken out that year. An explosion in Southhampton Docks had been interpreted as attempted sabotage and this prompted the idea for a Bill, which not only protected supplies but prevented propaganda that was intended to persuade people to oppose the Korean War. At one stage the Cabinet went so far as to discuss widening the Bill to make strikes illegal in a wide range of industries, to make the notorious wartime regulation 1305 permanent, which made all strikes illegal unless 21 days notice was given, and introducing compulsory strike ballots. If all this sounds like Thatcherite language, it is well that comrades remember that it was also the talk of the 'real' socialist government of post-1945. Nor were the Cabinet discussions merely theoretical. In September 1950, 10 gas workers were convicted under Order 1305 and sentenced to one month in prison during a strike by 1,700 London Gas workers. This was later commuted to fines as the workers returned to work rather than see their comrades go to jail.

The Cabinet abandoned the idea of suppressing the Communist Party and limiting strikes as impractical! But the Home Secretary, Chuter Ede, imposed a secret ban (now revealed 30 years later) on giving known Communist immigrants British naturalisation. Several foreign communists were also expelled and visas were refused to visiting Communists or sympathisers. The cold war at home was but a reflection of the growing international tension between the USA and the Soviet Union. Both Tory and American observers had noted approvingly after the war how similar British foreign policy was under Labour to that of Churchill's. Certainly, the record of the Labour Government, between 1945 and 1950, in international affairs could hardly be called socialist. Whilst the granting of independence to colonies such as India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), was progressive it was by that time inevitable. Of more significance was the attitude of the Labour Government to the Greek civil war, in which they maintained British troops and aid in support of the monarchists and neo-fascists. British troops were also used in the protracted war against the Communists in Malaya. Ernest Bevin was Labour's Foreign Secretary and his overriding concern was to create a strongly supportive organisation in Europe for America. To this end, he was a central figure in the formation of NATO.

The Cabinet Papers for 1950 also show the Labour Government providing vigorous support for American policy in Korea / Image Morning Calm Weekly, Flickr

It is hardly any surprise, then, that the Cabinet Papers for 1950 show the Labour Government providing vigorous support for American policy in Korea. Apart from their concern about embarrassing opposition from the left in Britain the main worry of the cabinet appears to have been that American Imperialism might be too impetuous and unleash an atomic war against China. Indeed such a strategy was considered and favoured by General MacArthur, the Commander in Chief of NATO forces in Korea but finally rejected by President Truman.

As a consequence of Britain's support for the Korean War, a substantial rearmament programme had to be initiated. Such expenditure imposed a heavy burden on the British economy which in 1950 had still not fully recovered from the dislocations and problems of the second world war. The Treasury, with the support of right-wing Labour Ministers, sought to place the burden on the working class by attacking the welfare system so recently and painstakingly established. Cuts were demanded in the National Health Service. According to the Cabinet Papers, Ministers actively considered imposing a weekly 'hotel' charge on hospital patients. Aneurin Bevan, the sole left-winger in the Cabinet, fought against such a proposal but was forced to agree to 'economies' [austerity] in the NHS. This compromise lasted for the 1950 Budget, but in the following year the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh Gaitskell, insisted on introducing charges for dental and eye treatment, causing Bevan to resign along with two other members of the Labour Government, Wilson and Freeman.

The Cabinet Papers for 1950 may be a revelation to some but to many in the labour movement they will merely confirm the experience of more recent right-wing led Labour Governments who, faced with the difficulties and problems of a declining economy, turned to traditional Tory solutions. The particular lesson of the 1945-51 Labour Governments is that even a radical government is forced to adopt a reactionary position unless it moves on from its reforms to undertake the socialist transformation of society.

Derek Gunby Loftus Labour Party.

21-1-81


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.
With COP26 taking place in early-November, global leaders gathered at the final day of the African Energy Week 2021 conference and exhibition to discuss strategies to mitigate climate change and ensure that Africas transition to a clean energy future will alleviate energy poverty.

Themed, Africas Just Energy Transition: A Roadmap to Ending Energy Poverty by 2030, the opening address featured a panel discussion that included members from SustainSolar, GigawattGlobal, Cooperatief U.A., and Mozambiques Oil and Gas Chamber.

With significant levels of investment required to ensure a just and equitable transition to renewable sources and to make energy poverty history by 2030, the panel discussed strategies that can be implemented to ensure sector revenues are directly reinjected into Africas renewable energy economy.

From an enabling environmental perspective, across different countries, infrastructure is the key challenge, noted Gracia Munganga, COO for SustainSolar, who added that There are a certain number of connections that would be most cost-effective in the distribution of energy and power.

With over 600 million people lacking access to reliable energy in Africa, innovative solutions are needed to accelerate energy access across the continent, with national policies and regulations serving as key drivers for electrification and the transition from oil and gas towards renewables.

Africans need to look at Africa as a market for Africa, highlighted Hon. Dr. J. Peter Pham, Former United States Special Envoy for the Sahel Region of Africa, suggested, however, that, The international community has a moral obligation towards African countries, who must develop and enforce their own self-interest.

We have to understand that climate finance is not charity, stressed Florival Mucave, Executive Chairman for the Mozambique Oil & Gas Chamber, who noted that, Climate finance is a necessity, and we have to address it in a very clear way that can facilitate the phasing out of these energy sources.

Universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all will require incentives from regional power networks, as well as developed countries, who will all need to play a role in helping Africa make energy poverty history by 2030.

Partager et informez vous aussi......

0 shares Share

Tweet

LinkedIn
Gulf Xellence in collaboration with Wakanda 4.0, are bringing The Global DeFi Investment Summit to Mauritius, this 25th November 2021 at Caudan Arts Centre, Port Louis.

The recent Summit in Dubai at the Taj Hotel on the 11th & 12th October 2021 has been a major success. More than 250 participants attended the Summit and big names in the industry were present. To this end, the Management of Gulf Xellence has taken the decision to organise the next Global Defi Investment Summit in the vibrant jurisdiction of Mauritius on the 25th November 2021, where the focus will be on the latest developments in the Blockchain and Virtual Assets space.

Decentralised Finance is revolutionising the whole Global financial market with a Market Capitalisation of more than USD141B as of Oct 2021. How is DeFi going to change the financial market? The latest craze in the industry, NFT  Non Fungible Token, What is NFT all about? Why are NFTs growing worldwide? and how is NFT changing the world of Artists? and many more topics of the moment will be covered by High Caliber experts and speakers of the industry, from all over the world. The main goal of the Summit is to increase awareness about Defi, NFT and Blockchain in this region of the world, namely Mauritius. Some live projects will be showcased, and all participants will be able to learn more about the latest developments in the industry, network with all stakeholders, investors and with some sponsors.

Muzamil Amin Nagoo, Gulf Xellence CEO said, he is proud to bring to Mauritius the best of DeFi Professional experts to share their knowledge and experience with the local industry. He adds that, after the successful event in Dubai, he looks forward to make Mauritius a yearly lanyard destination in the round the world trip for The Global DeFi Investment Summit.

Benito Elisa, Wakanda 4.0 CEO, is glad to host such a big event in Mauritius. As a DeFi Professional, he has always encouraged for Fintech, Innovation and Technology to be further developed in Mauritius and the region. He believes, Mauritius has enormous potential to deploy, specially amidst the pandemic crisis we are all going through.

To show the encouragement & support to the Industry, GulfXellence & Wakanda 4.0 are offering a huge, discounted attendance fee of MUR3,000 ONLY. This is an exceptional price to encourage participation of the industry, professionals, young generations and even students.

Partager et informez vous aussi......

0 shares Share

Tweet

LinkedIn
The annual moustache-starring campaign encourages Movember Community members across the globe to rally in support of Movembers cause areas, mens mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer. 2/3 of worldwide suicides are by men, 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime and testicular cancer continues to be the most diagnosed cancer in young men.

The Man Company Mauritius (TMCM) is working with Movember Foundation Australia to raise awareness about Mens Health in Mauritius. TMCM shops in Bagatelle Mall, Grand Bay La Croisette Mall and Flacq Coeur De Ville will be handing out information flyers carrying information about Mental Health, Testicular cancer, and Prostate Cancer. Supporters will be able to use props on site, such as giant moustaches, to help us carry the messages further. TMCM has also enlisted renowned NGO Link to Life to help spread awareness. Link To Life will be joining us on specific dates to kickstart conversations with the public. TMCM will be leveraging social media to disseminate critical messages. TMCM will be offering special prices to shoppers growing a moustache in support of the Movember Movement.

The Man Company is a premium brand of Mens Grooming products. It is present in over 20 international markets. The Man Companys products are free from harmful chemicals, such as SLS, paraben or liquid paraffin. The products use only the highest quality of essential oils and ingredients like Redensyl or biotin are backed by science. The Man Company Mauritius is the leading and pioneering brand of Mens self-care products.

Roshan Chummun, General Manager of The Man Company Mauritius shares

As the pioneering brand of mens self-care products, it is our responsibility to raise awareness about mens health in Mauritius. This Movember, we are encouraging men across Mauritius to focus on their mental and physical health, while raising much needed awareness for issues affecting mens health.

Partager et informez vous aussi......

0 shares Share

Tweet

LinkedIn
Throughout much of its history, the 400-year-old painting was believed to be a Rembrandt  a piece by the famous Dutch Baroque painter and printmaker. Portrait of a Young Woman was created in Amsterdam in 1632, at a time when the city was a global place for trade and had a vital place in the worlds economy. The painting then traveled to France in the 18th century, during the time of the French Revolution and to America in the early 20th century as the U.S. rose to global prominence.
Schmaldinsts arrest was the result of an undercover operation that also resulted in the arrests of Lorenz Quiambao, 40, of Easton; and Robert Duus, 35, of Monroe County. They were each charged separately with one count of attempted sex trafficking of a child and one count of attempted enticement of a minor. Duus was sentenced in August to 10 years in prison. Quiambao has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, court records show.
Dealing with 20 months or so of a pandemic, Kovalchik agrees with Wolfs more normal assessment. In an interview, he noted how many people in the district have responded admirably to the health scare. Elementary students are lining up for vaccines since they were allowed, he said. Students, the vast majority of whom have followed the health rules and other protocols, have been able to participate in extracurricular activities,
Once the structure is clean and structurally sound, it can be occupied again, but theres no telling how long that will take. The property, which includes a bodega and a detached carriage house with a laundry room and additional apartments, is more than 60,000 square feet.
At the end of the ceremony, the crowd of dozens were invited to place a carnation on the memorial, which was rededicated during a Veterans Day ceremony last year after it was moved to the museum. The monument had stood at Third and Polk streets for more than three decades.
It is not right for my employer to tell me what I need to do with my own body, said Wheeler, who said she lost her hospital system access a few hours after the airing of a television interview in which she spoke out against mandates.
They argued the order from acting Health Secretary Alison Beam was issued without statutory authority, as the state no longer is under a gubernatorial disaster declaration. They argued the law does not allow the secretary to require healthy people to take action; only those who are sick or have been exposed are subject to rules, such as quarantines.
If you pass the [Pennsylvania Instant Check System] background to own the firearm (already mandatory when purchasing said firearm) youll pass the check to get the permit. Theyre just trying to eliminate an unnecessary and unneeded step that ultimately does nothing for anyone.
The implications of states going their own way, making their own laws, and turning their backs on federal orders are many. If we are no longer united, then how does a foreign entity deal with us in the future? Do they negotiate an arms deal with Texas and not the other states?
: WangLimin (), : NewYork

 : Why NYC Police Keep Coming to My Rental Residence?

: BBS  (Fri Nov 12 16:18:15 2021, )



Why NYC Police Keep Coming to My Rental Residence?

Nov. 12, 2021

by Limin Wang



Since my younger child Alexandria Wang has been mind-molested by outside

humanscums from this EVIL AMERICAN SYSTEM to have deserted this already-way-

broken family on the night of Sept. 24-25, 2021, NYC Police in uniform keep

coming to my rental residence. Often, they came at NIGHT time, and it's

relatively LATE night time like 10 pm. Sometimes, they left a 3"x5" index

card printed on one side as NEW YORK CITY SHERIFF'S OFFICE QUEENS COUNTY

with contact info of 30-10 Starr Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101, Office

Hours: 8:30am - 4:30dpm, Monday - Friday, (718) 707-2170/2171. The logo of

SHERIFF CITY OF NEW YORK is on its upper left corner. On its bottom left

corner, it prints, "Please contact this office immediately regarding an

important matter concerning you. Then followed were three lines for fill-in:

RE:; DEPUTY SHERIFF; and CASE:. These index cards were only handwritten on

the RE: with my name Limin Wang and/or the wife's name Li Li, and CASE: with

either 21032475, or 21033800/21033799. When a white man police officer in

white police uniform came together with a black man policeman in dark police

uniform and broke through the locked iron gate to reach my apartment door

at ~10 pm on Oct. 26, 2021, I was afraid to open the door for them. I would

later release some videos of when police and two blacks of the so-called

Administration of Children Service to escort my 17-and-a-half-years-old

child Alexandria Wang to get her personal items to desert this family, the

police were ONCE AGAIN obviously aggressive or murder-attemptive! Although

the duel of white and black threatened to break down the apartment door or

to come back with a court warrant to arrest me, they honored my word and

left two copies of printouts near the apartment door and then left. Moment

before their exit, the black policeman moved up to the stairs to the side of

the apartment door while the white officer was expecting me to open the

apartment door. The print-outs were the same, just from the so called "

Family" Court about the next hearing on November 16, 2021. THE BULLSHIT

ALLEGATIONS within had been brought over on the night of October 05, 2021,

when my child Alexandria Wang came as if an enemy of her parents'. As I had

posted the recorded Oct. 05, 2021 "hearing" of the "Family" Court, I will

soon post the pictures of their BULLSHIT allegations. The humanscums from

this EVIL AMERICAN SYSTEM would only PRETEND to REPRESENT MY CHILD

Alexandria Wang to act against me while THEY LIED and then PREVENTED my

child Alexandria Wang to show up and express and answer on the so-called "

Court". What's more, while Alexandria Wang was JAILED first into Long Island

Jewish Medical Center and then into South Oaks Hospital between Sept. 25 to

Oct. 05, 2021, these humanscums from the American Evil System had PREVENTED

my child Alexandria Wang from using her cell phone or charging her cell

phone or using her laptop she brought along for her originally planned

desertion. On Oct. 07, 2021, Alexandria Wang texted me about some problem

with her laptop computer battery. When I asked what's the exact problem, the

reply then claimed the computer battery was OK. Since Oct. 05, 2021, the

shameless "Family" Court decision has declared that the parents should NOT

even communicate with the child Alexandria Wang, otherwise the humanscums

would arrest the parents.



Knowledgeable adults, you know what kind of "care" these humanscums from

this EVIL AMERICAN SYSTEM is being provided to my child Alexandria Wang?

These humanscums have taken Alexandria Wang as a PSYCHIATRIC PATIENT; and

have TOTALLY CONTROLLED Alexandria Wang; and have PREVENTED her parents from

knowing anything what's been going on with her while away from this family.



What the humanscums have done to me the father and Li Li the mother? The

humanscums have multiple-times attempted murder on me at the slavery

warehouse while I was enslaved by my former employer B.Q. Wide Auto Body

Parts Supply, Inc (109-35 178th St. Jamaica, NY 11433). They further carried

out PROFESSIONAL murder-attempts by the MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS while I was

bogusly "diagnosed" and "treated". The NYS Workers' Compensation Board is

totally a participant of premediated and coordinated state terrorism. Check

out what I had already revealed online about some of these humanscums. More

to come soon online. If somebodies or some agencies or countries have the

power, check the "documents" on the NYS WCB case # G2029240. My wife Li Li

could NEVER hold onto any job well and had developed psychiatric issues

since probably around year 2012. Year 2012 is the time I go online for posts

with my real name, and sometimes about BIG ISSUES of politics. Then the

humanscums, including her biological elder-sister Chun-Ling Li who had been

helped smuggled to the USA by Li Li without my prior knowledge at all and

with a bunch of bullshit "materials" and who had been quickly naturalized as

a USA citizen, told me lies and brought her and kept her away. Li Li

deserted this family TWICE in year 2014, and the humanscums NYC Police

claimed they COULD NOT FIND LI LI. I was doing hard-labor slavery work while

Li Li was seduced and coerced by humanscums to desert me and the two then-

still-very-young children!!!!!! The NYC police were interrogating me as a

MURDER-SUSPECT while they were pretending that LI Li had been dead!!! The

Precinct 109 police were escorting me home LATE at night on a route AWAY,

NOT TOWARD, my home, and the police were vaguely talking about somebody was

badly beaten or shot on their car. I WAS THE ONE THAT REPORTED LI LI's

missing while I tried to look for Li Li at ChunLing Li's place!



More to write and edit. I had added a long paragraph, but the laptop then

went on with something and the addendum's GONE!

--

WangLimin People's Voice

http://blog.mitbbs.com/WangLimin

http://www.mitbbs.com/pc/index/WangLimin

 :WWW  mitbbs.com [FROM: 2603:7000:101:8]


A retired principal scientific officer of Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute, Anwar Shahid, 72, was stabbed to death at Adabor in Dhaka Thursday night.

Police recovered the body and sent it to Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital for post mortem examination and then his identity was confirmed by the family members.

Police suspected that it was a pre-planned murder.

Anwar lived with his sister and niece in Kallaynpur of the capital.

His sister Ferdous Sultana said that Anwar received a phone call on Thursday evening and left their residence saying that he would return soon.

But, later in the night police informed the family that Anwar was stabbed to death.

Shahid retired from Maize Research Institute in 2008.

Police said that Shahid left home for Shyamoli from his home at Kallaynpur after receiving the phone call.

He was stabbed in the abdomen as he reached Holyland alleyway of Adabor area.

Dhaka Metropolitan Polices additional deputy commissioner for Mohammadpur zone Mrityunjoy Dey Sajal said that primarily they were treating the incident as a pre-planned murder.

He said that close circuit camera footage showed that a man was wandering on the street for three to four minutes with a hand in his pocket.

As Anwar reached the alley from Ring Road, the assailant went forward and stabbed Anwar after taking out a dagger from his pocket.

Police suspected that the assailant might have been known to Anwar.

Police were yet to make any arrest in connection with the murder.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-10 17:04:44|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close





Photo taken on Nov. 11, 2021 shows a fig market in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan. Afghanistan's southern province Kandahar has exported 50,000 tons of fruits including 15,000 tons of figs this year, the private news agency Wadsam reported. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua)

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan's southern province Kandahar has exported 50,000 tons of fruits including 15,000 tons of fig this year, the private news agency Wadsam reported.

Quoting Abdul Baqi Bana, deputy for the chamber of commerce and industries of Kandahar, Wadsam added that the Kandahar fig has been exported to Pakistan and India.

The southern Kandahar province and the neighboring Zabul are famous for producing pomegranate and fig. The farmers there, according to the media outlet, have been asking the government to find markets for the products.

In the meantime, since the imposition of restrictions on banks in Afghanistan, the activities of businessmen and traders have been negatively affected, Baqi Bana said.

Since the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in mid-August and the formation of the Taliban-led caretake government on Sept. 7, the country has faced economic problems.

Afghanistan exports more than 200,000 tons of fruits to India and Pakistan annually, according to the media outlet. Enditem

An Afghan man packages dried figs at a market in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, Nov. 11, 2021. Afghanistan's southern province Kandahar has exported 50,000 tons of fruits including 15,000 tons of figs this year, the private news agency Wadsam reported. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Nov. 11, 2021 shows dried figs at a market in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan. Afghanistan's southern province Kandahar has exported 50,000 tons of fruits including 15,000 tons of figs this year, the private news agency Wadsam reported. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Nov. 11, 2021 shows dried figs at a market in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan. Afghanistan's southern province Kandahar has exported 50,000 tons of fruits including 15,000 tons of figs this year, the private news agency Wadsam reported. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua)

People arrange dried figs at a market in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, Nov. 11, 2021. Afghanistan's southern province Kandahar has exported 50,000 tons of fruits including 15,000 tons of figs this year, the private news agency Wadsam reported. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-11 22:08:57|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close





Journalists wait outside the home of South Africa's last apartheid president Frederik de Klerk in Cape Town, South Africa, on Nov. 11, 2021. Frederik de Klerk passed away at the age of 85 because of cancer complications on Thursday morning, said the FW de Klerk Foundation. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)

JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's last apartheid president Frederik de Klerk passed away at the age of 85 because of cancer complications on Thursday morning, said the FW de Klerk Foundation.

"It is with the deepest sadness that the FW de Klerk Foundation must announce that former President FW de Klerk died peacefully at his home in Fresnaye earlier this morning following his struggle against mesothelioma cancer. He is survived by his wife Elita, his children Jan and Susan and his grandchildren. The family will, in due course, make an announcement regarding funeral arrangements," said the foundation in a statement.

De Klerk was the South African President from 1989 to 1994. He played a crucial role in negotiating with the African National Congress (ANC) and other role players to lift the ban on liberation movements, leading to the election of the country's first black president, Nelson Mandela.

When Mandela became President in 1994, he appointed de Klerk his deputy until 1996. De Klerk also received many awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, earning wide praise for dismantling apartheid and bringing universal suffrage to South Africa.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) has sent messages of condolences to the de Klerk family. The NMF said de Klerk contributed immensely to the transformation of South Africa.

"De Klerk's legacy is a big one. It is also an uneven one, something South Africans are called to reckon with in this moment. De Klerk will forever be linked to Nelson Mandela in the annals of South African history. As head of state, he oversaw the release of Madiba (Nelson Mandela) from prison on Feb. 11, 1990. In 1993 they were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ushering in a negotiated settlement that led to South Africa holding its first democratic election in 1994," said the NMF. Enditem

Photo taken on Nov. 11, 2021 shows a statue of South Africa's last apartheid president Frederik de Klerk in Cape Town, South Africa. Frederik de Klerk passed away at the age of 85 because of cancer complications on Thursday morning, said the FW de Klerk Foundation. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-11 22:15:18|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Workers sort out packages at an industrial park in Lianyungang, east China's Jiangsu Province, Nov. 11, 2021. The Singles' Day shopping spree is an annual online shopping festival falling on Nov. 11 for Chinese consumers since 2009. (Xinhua/Wang Chun)

HANGZHOU/BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- With orders pouring in at midnight Wednesday, this year's Singles' Day shopping spree peaked on multiple e-commerce platforms in China.

This year marks the largest Singles' Day shopping festival on Tmall, with a record 290,000 brands participating and more than 14 million types of commodities offering discounts, according to the company.

To cater to growing demand from Chinese consumers, presales for this year's Singles' Day shopping spree -- also known as the Double Eleven shopping festival -- began at 8 p.m. on Oct. 20 on Tmall and consumers were allowed to pay for the balance of the pre-sold goods on Nov. 1.

From Nov. 1 to 12:45 a.m. Thursday, sales of 411 small and medium brands with turnover exceeding 1 million yuan (about 156,000 U.S. dollars) during last year's event on Tmall, surpassed the 10-million yuan threshold.

The number of brands that saw a turnover of more than 100 million yuan on Tmall reached 382 during the period, including Huawei, Apple and Chinese sportswear brand Erke.

"The sales are crazy," said Shen Donglai, co-founder of domestic cosmetics brand SpaChina, which is participating in the Singles' Day shopping festival for the third time.

"We sold over 1 million items in less than two hours after the pre-sale kicked off, and our total pre-sale volume reached nearly 130 million yuan, 10 times higher than that of the same period last year," Shen added.

Sales of Chinese designer bag brand Warm Studio also exceeded the expectations of its founder, Gu Liang. "We expect to sell 70,000 bags on Tmall during this year's event, which is three times the number from last year," said Gu.

Gu added that the Singles' Day shopping spree has also driven their partner's business. "Our skyrocketing sales have kept their factory and 1,000 workers busy," he said.

Between 8 p.m. Wednesday and 2:09 p.m. Thursday, the total value of orders on JD.com, another Chinese e-commerce giant, hit a new record of over 311.4 billion yuan.

This is also the greenest Singles' Day shopping festival on JD.com, which introduced various measures, including developing recyclable packaging, deploying new-energy cargo vans and using photovoltaic power generation in warehousing, to lower carbon emissions and the impact on environment. As a result, the amount of carbon emissions slashed stood at 26,000 tonnes as of Thursday noon.

The annual event was launched by Alibaba's e-commerce platform on Nov. 11, 2009, and quickly grew into a major shopping spree. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-11 23:24:21|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Kindergarten children play toys in a classroom at Montrara Ave. Elementary School in Los Angeles, California, the United States, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Xinhua)

It's been found that white neighborhoods have twice as many vaccination sites as other neighborhoods and within those neighborhoods, the sites tend to cluster in more affluent areas in "another round of prioritization for predominantly white neighborhoods."

LONDON, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- A major British newspaper has revealed inequality of access among U.S. kids for coronavirus vaccines which have been rolled out to this group.

More than 360,000 children under the age of 12 have already received their first shot, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Jorge Caballero, a board-certified anesthesiologist and co-founder of volunteer group Coders Against Covid, has found that white neighborhoods have twice as many vaccination sites as other neighborhoods, The Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.

Within those neighborhoods, the sites tend to cluster in more affluent areas in "another round of prioritization for predominantly white neighborhoods," he told The Guardian.

Interest in the vaccine is roughly equal across racial and ethnic groups, but access seems to be more limited, he said.

Children play with water at a park in New York, the United States, July 26, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Caballero is concerned about equal access to vaccine for children and is calling for transparent data on race and ethnicity among children's vaccinations from the CDC, according to The Guardian.

These inequities mirror previous disparities around testing and adult vaccinations, he said.

"We continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over again. We're just not being proactive enough in terms of addressing the gaps," he was quoted as saying.

"All we're striving for is just equity," Caballero added.

For several months, children have accounted for one-quarter of new cases in the United States despite the availability of vaccines for those aged 12 and up, according to the British newspaper. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-11 23:33:26|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

A child receives a dose of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in Santiago, Chile, Sept. 27, 2021. (Photo by Jorge Villegas/Xinhua)

In some emerging economies, like Chile and Cambodia, most population has been inoculated thanks to China's help, noted the report.

LONDON, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines have helped some emerging countries achieve impressive vaccination rates, in some cases faster than richer economies, said a British research report Wednesday.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, research and analysis division of Economist Group, said in its latest report that more than seven billion shots have been administered around the world as of late October. However, developed countries have succeeded in vaccinating large percentages of their populations, while many developing states have made only negligible progress.

In some emerging economies, like Chile and Cambodia, most population has been inoculated thanks to China's help, noted the report.

Ho Kham, a 101-year-old Cambodian woman, receives her second dose of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine at an inoculation site in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on July 2, 2021. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua)

Data showed Chile now posts one of the highest vaccination rates worldwide with 79 percent, and one of the reasons is that Chile secured huge supplies of Chinese-made Sinovac jab early on and "Sinovac had become the vaccine of choice in Chile and was used for 90 percent of shots".

"Chile is not an isolated case; many other Latin American countries, including El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay, are also relying on Chinese vaccines," added the report.

It also showed that by October Cambodia had achieved one of the highest inoculation rates worldwide, with nearly 80 percent of Cambodian residents vaccinated, ahead of all other Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries, except Singapore.

"Cambodia's ability to inoculate a large share of its population shows that vaccination success stories exist in emerging states, with China's help," said Agathe Demarais, author of the report. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-11 23:46:37|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit via video, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Beijing, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit via video has strengthened aspirations for win-win cooperation and the building of an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future, foreign experts and scholars have said.

China will remain firm in advancing reform and opening-up in order to add impetus to economic development in the region, and advance a green transition on all fronts and make its due contribution to boosting ecological conservation in the Asia-Pacific and beyond, Xi said.

The country will also stay committed to promoting win-win cooperation and contribute to the region's economic development, he added.

Peter Drysdale, head of the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and East Asia Forum at Australian National University, said that the commitments are welcome and will help "build the confidence and certainty in reform and opening up and green transformation going forward."

"As the world today is more integrated, interconnected and interdependent, the consequences of the Cold War will be much more severe than they were in the past," said Lee Pei May, a political expert at the International Islamic University Malaysia.

Every country, Lee said, should continuously respect and defend the rules-based international system to preserve peace and stability.

"Working together, let us all be promoters of and contributors to the unity and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific family," Xi said in his speech.

Pui Jeng Leong, a media veteran in Brunei, said that peace and development are the common aspirations of people all over the world, while confrontation and conflicts are not.

China has always upheld the common interests of the world, practiced true multilateralism, and advocated the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, he pointed out.

China has also continuously promoted green development and put forward its own plan to address climate change, playing its role as a major responsible country and making important contribution to global sustainable development, he added.

Oleg Timofeyev, associate professor at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, said that Xi's remarks that "Asia-Pacific region cannot and should not relapse into the confrontation and division of the Cold War era" was timely and of great significance.

Timofeyev said that the Asia-Pacific region today should make every effort to prevent the region from being plagued by a Cold War mentality.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat to the realization of the United Nation's goals for sustainable development by 2030, and China will play an important role in the global economic recovery in the post-epidemic era, he added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 06:48:20|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Then U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn heading for the Marine One departing from the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 29, 2018. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

A three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary injunction, postponing the handover of the records to allow former President Donald Trump to continue his legal challenge.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily paused the release of the Donald Trump administration records sought by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, one day before some of the records are due to be transferred from the National Archives.

A three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary injunction, postponing the handover of the records to allow Trump to continue his legal challenge.

"The purpose of this administrative injunction is to protect the court's jurisdiction to address (Trump's) claims of executive privilege and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits," the panel said in a brief order, which also scheduled oral arguments over the case for Nov. 30.

Thursday's ruling came one day ahead of the Friday 6 p.m. ET deadline for the select committee to receive 46 records, including White House call logs, visitor logs, drafts of speeches and handwritten memos from Trump's then chief of staff Mark Meadows.

In all, some 700 pages of records are expected to be handed to the House investigators in the coming weeks from the National Archives, which keeps those records.

Trump has been in a legal fight to prevent the release of the records, threatening to exert executive privilege.

President Joe Biden has refused to intervene in the records transfer, denying Trump of his executive privilege in the investigation. The Trump team then sued the select committee and the National Archives in the District Court in D.C. in October.

Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District Court, however, twice rejected Trump's attempts to keep those records secret on Tuesday and Wednesday, prompting the former president to turn to the D.C. Circuit to head off the Friday deadline. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 12:43:05|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Chinese vaccines and medical supplies are unloaded from a plane at an airport in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 11, 2021. China and Belarus signed a document on vaccine transfer after a new batch of coronavirus vaccines from China arrived here Thursday. (Photo by Henadz Zhinkov/Xinhua)

MINSK, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- China and Belarus signed a document on vaccine transfer after a new batch of coronavirus vaccines from China arrived here Thursday.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Belarus have sincerely supported each other, provided each other with medical supplies, and exchanged experience on combating the pandemic, said Chinese Ambassador Xie Xiaoyong.

Xie noted that the Chinese government has provided Belarus with four batches of coronavirus vaccines, demonstrating the high-level relationship between the two countries and the friendship between the two peoples.

Chinese vaccines will help Belarus battle the coronavirus, and China is willing to continue to support Belarus within its capacity and join hands with Belarus to build a community of common health for mankind, said Xie.

Dmitry Pinevich, minister of health of Belarus, said that Belarus was the first country to provide humanitarian aid to China at the start of the pandemic. After COVID-19 broke out in Belarus, China was among the first countries to lend a helping hand. Chinese medical experts shared their experience on the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19, as well as prevention and control measures, and provided strong support to Belarus in its battle against the pandemic.

As of Nov. 11, Belarus has registered 621,689 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 4,805 deaths. Enditem

Chinese vaccines and medical supplies are unloaded from a plane at an airport in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 11, 2021. China and Belarus signed a document on vaccine transfer after a new batch of coronavirus vaccines from China arrived here Thursday. (Photo by Henadz Zhinkov/Xinhua)

Chinese vaccines and medical supplies are unloaded from a plane at an airport in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 11, 2021. China and Belarus signed a document on vaccine transfer after a new batch of coronavirus vaccines from China arrived here Thursday. (Photo by Henadz Zhinkov/Xinhua)

Chinese vaccines and medical supplies are unloaded from a plane at an airport in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 11, 2021. China and Belarus signed a document on vaccine transfer after a new batch of coronavirus vaccines from China arrived here Thursday. (Photo by Henadz Zhinkov/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 14:09:23|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Visitors watch a performance at the exhibition area of Rwanda during the Second China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, Sept. 28, 2021. (Xinhua/Chen Sihan)

BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, on Friday exchanged congratulations on the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In his congratulatory message, Xi pointed out that since the founding of their diplomatic ties half a century ago, China and Rwanda have witnessed sound and steady development of their relations, and their traditional friendship has grown even stronger as time goes by.

A staff member shows a product in "Let's go China" exhibition hall at Kigali City Tower, in Kigali, Rwanda, on Sept. 9, 2021. (Photo by Huang Wanqing/Xinhua)

In recent years, bilateral friendly cooperation has maintained a good momentum for development, and exchanges in various fields have been deepened, which has improved the well-being of the people of both countries, Xi said.

After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Rwanda have helped each other and worked together to fight the virus, demonstrating the brotherhood of sharing weal and woe, said the Chinese president.

Staff members unload a batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government at Kigali International Airport in Kigali, Rwanda, Nov. 7, 2021. (Xinhua/Ji Li)

Stressing that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Rwanda relations, Xi said he is willing to work with Kagame to take the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the new session of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) as an opportunity to deepen political mutual trust, strengthen cooperation in Belt and Road construction and other fields, and push for continuous development of bilateral friendly cooperative relations, so as to create benefits for both countries and their people.

In his message, Kagame said that since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the friendship between the two sides has been continuously strengthened, and their friendly cooperative relations continuously deepened.

That, he added, is deeply rooted in the common principles upheld by both sides of mutual respect, solidarity and mutual help, as well as mutual benefit.

China has provided support to Rwanda through various platforms, including the FOCAC and the Belt and Road Initiative, and played an important and positive role in Rwanda's national transformation, Kagame said.

Rwanda will continue to firmly expand and strengthen bilateral friendly cooperation in various fields, he added. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 17:48:24|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Photo taken on July 21, 2019 from Xiangshan Mountain shows the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang)

Recognizing the fact that Taiwan is an integral part of China is the political foundation of China-U.S. relations.

BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has recently reiterated that Washington's role is to make sure Taiwan has the means for self-defense, claiming, "There are many countries ... that would see any unilateral action to use force to disrupt the status quo as a significant threat to peace and security."

These highly provocative remarks were among a series of little ploys played by a bunch of Washington politicians on the Taiwan question that have encroached on the one-China principle, and enraged the Chinese people.

What Washington has done simply goes back on its promises. China and the United States have already made the one-China principle concerning the Taiwan question crystal clear in the three China-U.S. joint communiques.

In other words, recognizing the fact that Taiwan is an integral part of China is the political foundation of China-U.S. relations. That is also a policy upheld by successive U.S. administrations since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties.

Photo taken on Oct. 28, 2021 shows the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

During a recent telephone conversation between the heads of state of the two countries, U.S. President Joe Biden said that the United States has never intended to change the one-China policy. And yet glaring inconsistencies have been spotted between Washington's words and deeds, which not only violates its political commitment made when establishing diplomatic relations with China, but also runs counter to Biden's statement.

The fact that 180 countries worldwide recognize and support the one-China principle testifies to the rock-solid support of the international community for the one-China principle.

The national reunification of China is a historical inevitability. The one-China principle concerns China's core interests and brooks no trampling. The U.S. attempt to play tricks with the Taiwan question, and make some kind of "breakthrough" in this regard is a dangerous miscalculation.

It is an indisputable fact that the Taiwan authorities and some "Taiwan independence" separatist forces are imperilling peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. They try to deny and even challenge the one-China principle and conduct more "Taiwan independence" activities. That is the very source of the tensions in the region.

A train runs on the Pingtan Strait Road-rail Bridge of Fuzhou-Pingtan railway in southeast China's Fujian Province on Dec. 26, 2020. The railway was opened to traffic after seven years of construction, making it more convenient for Taiwan compatriots to travel to the mainland. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

While the Chinese government and the international community firmly reject those separatist moves, the U.S. side is working hand in glove with the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces with little regard for regional stability.

There is no future for Taiwan other than reunification with the mainland. The resolve and determination of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people to realize national reunification is unshakable.

The U.S. attempt to play the "Taiwan card" for the purpose of containing China goes against both the will of the Chinese people and the historical trend, and is thus doomed to failure. Colluding with the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces is like playing with fire, a dangerous game that will eventually burn those who dare to try.

Washington's dangerous political game on the one-China principle poses a huge risk to China-U.S. relations, and will in turn drag America in the mire. The U.S. side needs to stay committed to the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, stop making wrong signals, and bear in mind the big picture of China-U.S. relations and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait with practical actions. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 21:22:30|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Wu Yuan, an inheritor of the paper shadow puppet play, introduces the play to students at Nangu Primary School in Heling Township of Yuhu District, Xiangtan City of central China's Hunan Province, Nov. 12, 2021. Paper shadow puppet play is a provincial intangible cultural heritage. (Xinhua/Chen Zeguo)



Wu Yuan, an inheritor of the paper shadow puppet play, presents the history of the play to students of Nangu Primary School in Heling Township of Yuhu District, Xiangtan City of central China's Hunan Province, Nov. 12, 2021. Paper shadow puppet play is a provincial intangible cultural heritage. (Xinhua/Chen Zeguo)

Wu Yuan, an inheritor of the paper shadow puppet play, demonstrates the play to students at Nangu Primary School in Heling Township of Yuhu District, Xiangtan City of central China's Hunan Province, Nov. 12, 2021. Paper shadow puppet play is a provincial intangible cultural heritage. (Xinhua/Chen Zeguo)

Wu Yuan, an inheritor of the paper shadow puppet play, performs with a student at Nangu Primary School in Heling Township of Yuhu District, Xiangtan City of central China's Hunan Province, Nov. 12, 2021. Paper shadow puppet play is a provincial intangible cultural heritage. (Xinhua/Chen Zeguo)

Wu Yuan, an inheritor of the paper shadow puppet play, performs with a student at Nangu Primary School in Heling Township of Yuhu District, Xiangtan City of central China's Hunan Province, Nov. 12, 2021. Paper shadow puppet play is a provincial intangible cultural heritage. (Xinhua/Chen Zeguo)

Students of Nangu Primary School try their hands on paper shadow puppet play in Heling Township of Yuhu District, Xiangtan City of central China's Hunan Province, Nov. 12, 2021. Paper shadow puppet play is a provincial intangible cultural heritage. (Xinhua/Chen Zeguo)

Students of Nangu Primary School experience paper shadow puppet play in Heling Township of Yuhu District, Xiangtan City of central China's Hunan Province, Nov. 12, 2021. Paper shadow puppet play is a provincial intangible cultural heritage. (Xinhua/Chen Zeguo)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 21:26:37|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Students of University of Southern California (USC) are evacuated during a bomb threat in Los Angeles, the United States, Nov. 11, 2021. A bomb threat at the USC, a leading private research university located in Los Angeles, caused an evacuation from multiple buildings of the university campus on Thursday, authorities said. (Xinhua)

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Multiple top universities in U.S. coastal cities had to evacuate students and faculty members on Thursday after receiving reports of bomb threats.

On the West Coast, a bomb threat at the University of Southern California (USC), a leading private research university located in Los Angeles, caused an evacuation from three buildings on campus, authorities said.

"Grace Ford Salvatori Hall, Sample Hall and Wallis Annenberg Hall are being evacuated due to a bomb threat," USC said in a tweet Thursday afternoon, urging people to stay away from the area.

According to the university's official Twitter account, the Los Angeles Police Department and the USC Department of Public Safety confirmed the safety of the zone following a search lasting around half an hour.

"There are quite a few police cars here on campus while helicopters hovered in the sky," a USC student surnamed Li told Xinhua.

"I saw people evacuating from the buildings immediately after receiving a university notification, but not in panic mode," said Li, who was also forced to evacuate along with his classmates.

There are around 49,500 students enrolled in the 2021-22 academic year at USC, including over 6,300 from the Chinese mainland.

Also on Thursday, New York University (NYU) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the East Coast also received bomb threats, prompting evacuations on the campuses.

NYU received bomb threats on Thursday evening at three locations -- the Stern School of Business, Center for Neural Science, and Hebrew Union Collage.

The New York City Police Department officers concluded their investigation and issues an all-clear for all buildings they searched.

"NYU community members can return to any of the evacuated buildings in line with their regular hours," said the university on its official website during the night, adding that all classes, activities, and operations will proceed as scheduled on Friday.

MIT, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also said that there was a bomb threat called against the university's Green Building.

"Despite similar threats being called at universities nationwide in the past week, we nevertheless out of an abundance of caution urge individuals to take this seriously and stay away from the area," said the university in an alert Thursday evening.

The building was reopened hours later after investigators, including explosives detection units, searched floor-by-floor to clear the building.

Earlier this month, multiple Ivy League schools on the U.S. East Coast, including Yale, Columbia, Cornell and Brown, had also received fake bomb threats and were forced to warn students to evacuate campus buildings. U.S. law enforcement agencies didn't deem any of the threats credible. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-13 01:45:40|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the 28th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 12, 2021. Xi delivered an important speech at the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on Friday in Beijing via video link. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

-- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday attended the 28th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in Beijing via video link, urging its members to build an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future featuring openness and inclusiveness, innovation-driven growth, greater connectivity, and mutually beneficial cooperation.

-- "China will work with all APEC members in building an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future and jointly opening a new chapter for Asia-Pacific economic cooperation," said Xi.

-- Xi reaffirmed China's resolve in safeguarding the multilateral trading regime with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core, and voiced support for the implementation of the Enhanced APEC Agenda for Structural Reform and the APEC Services Competitiveness Roadmap.

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the 28th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 12, 2021. Xi delivered an important speech at the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on Friday in Beijing via video link. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday attended the 28th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in Beijing via video link, urging its members to build an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future featuring openness and inclusiveness, innovation-driven growth, greater connectivity, and mutually beneficial cooperation.

"China will work with all APEC members in building an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future and jointly opening a new chapter for Asia-Pacific economic cooperation," said Xi.

The 21 APEC member economies have reaffirmed their commitment to responding to the immediate crisis generated by the pandemic through urgent work, and to strengthening cooperation so that the region can return to growth in a way that is more innovative, inclusive and sustainable, according to a declaration adopted at the meeting.

Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the 28th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 12, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Xiang)

PROMOTING ANTI-PANDEMIC COOPERATION

"We need to follow a science-based approach in pandemic response and deepen international cooperation," Xi said, pledging that China will continue to provide support to the Sub-Fund for APEC Cooperation on Combating COVID-19 and Economic Recovery.

Ruan Zongze, executive vice president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the Chinese side pointed out the importance and significance of cooperation in fighting against the pandemic, as greater solidarity and closer cooperation are the key to clinching the final victory in this life-and-death battle for APEC members.

"The COVID-19 pandemic was a stark reminder that all countries, whether rich or poor, share the same home planet, and no one can emerge unscathed from common challenges," Ruan added.

In the speech, Xi called on APEC members to promote the research, development, production and fair distribution of vaccines, ensure their accessibility and affordability in developing countries, and close the immunization gap.

So far, China has provided over 1.7 billion doses of vaccines to the world, including donations to more than 110 countries, and China has undertaken to offer three billion U.S. dollars over the next three years to support COVID-19 response and economic and social recovery in fellow developing countries.

An airport worker transports packages of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine at Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Oct. 14, 2021. (Xinhua/Phearum)

Bambang Suryono, chairman of Indonesian think tank Asia Innovation Study Center, said that China's Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines have played a crucial role in national vaccination programs in Indonesia and many other developing countries, and Indonesia appreciates China's support in making Indonesia the regional center for vaccine production.

CHAMPIONING OPENNESS

Calling openness "the lifeline of Asia-Pacific cooperation," Xi urged APEC members to uphold open regionalism, follow the guidance of the APEC Vision 2040 in advancing regional economic integration, and work for the early realization of a high-standard Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).

"A more opened-up region is a more united one," said Suryono. Besides facilitating post-pandemic recovery, free trade is a win-win for all participants in the long run, and will serve as a catalyst for changes in the fields of business environment, social governance, the legal system, and so on, he added.

Xi reaffirmed China's resolve in safeguarding the multilateral trading regime with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core, and voiced support for the implementation of the Enhanced APEC Agenda for Structural Reform and the APEC Services Competitiveness Roadmap.

Xi also said China "looks forward to the entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on schedule next year."

Staff members transport packages at a logistics center during the "Double Eleven" online shopping festival in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, Nov. 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Haoran)

While some developments in the global economy threaten multilateral institutions like the WTO, Peter Drysdale, head of the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and the East Asia Forum at Australian National University, said that more openness and dialogue in a spirit of multilateralism will facilitate APEC as an ideal forum to develop strategies that will build the trust needed to overcome relevant problems.

PROMOTING INCLUSIVE, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

"We need to fully implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and let the gains of development benefit more people across the world in a more equitable way," said Xi.

Noting economic and technical cooperation is an important area of APEC cooperation, Xi called on APEC members to step up input, make sure that developing members get real benefit from such cooperation, and keep injecting new dynamism into the development and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific.

Regarding China's dedication to advancing common development in APEC and beyond, a case in point is the Juncao technology. In 2001, the first China-aided Juncao technology demonstration base overseas was established in Papua New Guinea, and this technology has so far been promoted to more than 100 countries, bringing people better incomes and more employment opportunities while being ecological-friendly.

Lin Yingxing (C), specialist from the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, explains Juncao technology to local residents in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, Dec. 19, 2019. (Xinhua/Hu Yingping)

As for upholding innovation-driven development, Xi urged all members to implement the APEC Internet and Digital Economy Roadmap in a full and balanced manner, further develop the digital infrastructure, strive to bridge the digital divide, adding China "supports stronger international cooperation on the digital economy."

"The pandemic has given the trend of e-commerce, which was already happening, a real shot in the arm," said James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, adding that China is by far a global leader in the e-commerce trend and China's position in the region is increasingly prominent.

Amid the pressing tasks of promoting recovery, China's proposals at the APEC have injected confidence into APEC and beyond for closer cooperation of a broader range and a larger scale in sustainable development, said Sun Jingxin, an associate research fellow with the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-13 04:15:19|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

A woman registers for vaccination against COVID-19 at a vaccination center in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 30, 2021. (Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn)

Europe's 26,726 new COVID-19-related deaths represented a ten percent weekly jump, while other regions showed decreasing trends. Of the European region's 61 countries, 26 reported increases of ten percent or more in the number of new cases in the past week, with the highest numbers coming from Russia, the United Kingdom and Turkey.

GENEVA, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Europe reported almost two million new COVID-19 infections last week, the largest weekly case count in the region since the start of the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said here on Friday.

There were also almost 27,000 coronavirus-related deaths in Europe, more than half of all COVID-19 deaths in the world last week, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing.

A medical worker works in the Department of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Center at the San Filippo Neri Hospital in Rome, Italy, March 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Alberto Lingria)

He said that COVID-19 cases have been surging not only in countries with lower vaccination rates in Eastern Europe, but also in countries with some of the world's highest vaccination rates in Western Europe.

According to the WHO's weekly report on COVID-19, during the week of Nov. 1-7, the WHO European Region reported 1,949,419 new cases, a seven percent week-on-week increase, while other regions reported declines or stable trends. Europe's 26,726 new deaths represented a ten percent weekly jump, while other regions showed decreasing trends.

Of the European region's 61 countries, 26 reported increases of ten percent or more in the number of new cases in the past week, with the highest numbers coming from Russia, the United Kingdom and Turkey.

A man wearing a face mask walks by a sculpture of red telephone boxes titled "Out of Order" in Kingston upon Thames, Britain, on Jan. 21, 2021. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

"Some European countries are now reintroducing restrictions to curb transmission and take the pressure off their health systems," Tedros said.

"We continue to recommend the tailored and proportionate use of testing, masks, physical distancing, measures to prevent crowding, improved ventilation, and more. And get vaccinated when it's your turn. Every country must constantly assess its situation and adjust its approach accordingly," he said.

Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, has recently noted that the surge in cases in Europe was occurring as temperatures were dropping and people were moving back inside with the perception that the pandemic was nearing the end. Meanwhile, some exhausted health workers were leaving the profession and some hospitals across Europe were forced to shut down their intensive care units and critical care services.

Healthcare workers treat a patient at the intensive care unit of a pandemic hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Osman Orsal)

What is happening in Europe despite the availability of vaccines is "a warning shot for the world," Ryan said. "We all have to double down and recommit ourselves to doing everything we can to be the last person in the chain of transmission."

"I think every country now needs to look at its epidemiology, look at protecting its health workforce or its health system and ensure that it can get through the next few months without systems going into collapse again."

A sign to notice pedestrians wearing face masks and keeping social distance is seen in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 5, 2021. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 22:24:13|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close





Mary Bwalya stands by the signboard for Mwela Rock Paintings, a heritage site located about five kilometers from Kasama town, the provincial capital of Northern Province, Zambia, on Nov. 6, 2021. (Photo by Lillian Banda/Xinhua)

KASAMA, Zambia, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- A visit to Mwela Rock Paintings, a heritage site in northern Zambia, is incomplete without talking to individuals living near the area.

Residents of villages near the site are more than happy to share their knowledge about this fascinating place that consists of prehistoric art presented as a visual narrative of culture captured on rocks.

For 73-year-old Mary Bwalya who resides a few meters from the site, marketing Mwela Rock Paintings is of paramount importance because of the enormous benefits that it has to offer.

Bwalya has also made it a point to educate visitors to the site and younger people living near Mwela Rocks Paintings about the benefits to the nation of having more people visit the site.

"I am passionate about encouraging people to visit this heritage site because I believe it can contribute immensely to the economic development of the country," she assertively said.

Bwalya who mentioned she has lived near the national heritage site for over 40 years pointed out that it is the duty of every citizen to help the market as well as protect a national heritage site.

"For those of us living near Mwela Rock Paintings, it is both an honor and a great privilege to market and to help ensure that site is not vandalized," she said.

Bwalya later went on to narrate the legends associated with Mwela Rock Paintings.

Mwela Rock Paintings are located about 5 kilometers from Kasama town, the provincial capital of Northern Province. The paintings are associated with the Later Stone Age.

The heritage site extends over 100 square kilometers. More than 1,000 paintings have been recorded in the rock outcrops, making Mwela Rock Paintings one of the densest concentrations of rock art sites anywhere in Africa, according to UNESCO.

The site is protected under the National Heritage Conservation Commission of Zambia and was declared as a National Monument in 1964.

The art at Mwela Rock Paintings offers insights into past human life of the later Stone Age hunter-gatherers and how they interacted with their environment. The paintings depict individual and social needs of people at different stages of human development. Enditem

Mary Bwalya poses for a photo at Mwela Rock Paintings, a heritage site located about five kilometers from Kasama town, the provincial capital of Northern Province, Zambia, on Nov. 6, 2021. (Photo by Lillian Banda/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 23:31:40|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

WINDHOEK, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Namibia will start administering COVID-19 vaccine to adolescents aged between 12 and 17, Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula said Friday.

Speaking at a media briefing, Shangula said the country has so far managed to fully vaccinate about 18.6 percent of the eligible population.

"The expansion of vaccination to this age group will be done in a phased approach, starting with adolescents 12-17 years who are at increased risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death. However, all adolescents in this age group are encouraged to go for vaccination," he said.

He said legal informed consent for vaccination of children shall be obtained from parents or guardians who opt to have their children vaccinated.

Shangula however said there is serious concern that the overall vaccination uptake in the country has declined in the past few weeks despite the initiatives being rolled out to increase uptake.

"During the months of July to September 2021, the daily vaccination uptake stood between 3,500 and 4,000, and over 20,000 per week from all regions. This has declined to less than 1,900 per day and just above 10,000 vaccines administered per week," he said adding that this trend must be changed for Namibia to reach the vaccination target by the end of the current financial year.

Namibia has further relaxed COVID-19 regulations as the country continues to record low daily positive cases. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-13 00:10:05|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Health Minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday that South Africa was already preparing resources for the fourth wave of COVID-19 that is expected in the coming months.

"As has been repeated a number of times before, a resurgence of infections introducing the fourth wave is expected as we see in other countries especially in Europe currently like Germany and Ukraine going through their fourth wave. Our national team is working with provincial teams to prepare for the fourth wave," he said.

"The health facilities' readiness plan is addressing areas such as oxygen supply of which the bulk supplier has finalized contingency plans. Other areas such as bed capacity, equipment, PPEs, and consumables are also receiving attention," he said.

As the second and third waves were dominated by the Beta and Delta variants respectively, researchers had already begun monitoring the emergence of new variants.

"Our genomic sequencing teams are monitoring any variants of concern but thus far there has not been any alarm. The other contributor which is the movement of people is inevitable as we get closer to the festive season," he said.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, 356 new COVID-19 cases were registered in South Africa in the last 24 hours with 17 COVID-19 related deaths having been reported, bringing the total to 89,452.

Over 13 million people have been fully vaccinated in South Africa.

Phahlaa was pleased that the number of new cases was still low following the campaign gatherings for the November 1 local government elections.

"We are pleased to report that indications thus far eleven days after the campaigns and voting we have not experienced super spreading after-effects. Thus, so far not a single province or district has shown signs of a spike in COVID-19 infections," he said.

Though vaccines are available in South Africa, vaccine hesitancy continues to be an issue, which is why the government will continue the Vooma campaign this weekend.

Vooma is a campaign designed to promote vaccinations and dispel vaccine myths. This weekend, state officials, including cabinet members, will tour different communities to promote the vaccine as part of the campaign. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 08:40:44|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Thursday that peace in Afghanistan would help strengthen regional stability, spur economic activity and connectivity.

Pakistan is committed to peace, stability and progress in Afghanistan, Qureshi said in a meeting with visiting Afghan acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, the foreign ministry of Pakistan said in a statement.

The Pakistani foreign minister highlighted Pakistan's continuing efforts for facilitating humanitarian assistance and economic support to Afghanistan given the challenges being faced by the Afghan people, according to the statement.

Qureshi reaffirmed Pakistan's resolve to strengthen bilateral relations with Afghanistan in all areas, saying that the meeting had provided an opportunity to build upon the earlier exchanges held during his visit to Kabul in October.

During the meeting, outcomes of the meetings of working groups on strengthening bilateral and transit trade regime and facilitating movement of people by land and air were shared, the statement added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 13:24:56|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

A teacher teaches online lessons at a school in Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 12, 2021. The cumulative COVID-19 cases in Thailand surpassed 2 million on Friday, as the country recently lifted travel curbs to vaccinated international visitors in an effort to reboot its tourism-reliant economy. (Xinhua/Rachen Sageamsak)

BANGKOK, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The cumulative COVID-19 cases in Thailand surpassed 2 million on Friday, as the country recently lifted travel curbs to vaccinated international visitors in an effort to reboot its tourism-reliant economy.

With 7,305 new cases recorded in the past 24 hours, the total number of COVID-19 infections in Thailand stood at 2,004,274, according to the country's health ministry.

It has only been less than three months since the Southeast Asian country passed the 1-million mark in coronavirus cases in August. The months-long surge in infections has mainly been driven by the spread of the Delta variant.

However, the COVID-19 infection rates in the country have slowed since last month thanks to the ramped-up vaccination. According to the official data, nearly half of Thailand's 69-million population have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so far.

The World Health Organization Thailand office said in its latest report, that despite the easing of border controls, the country continues to see a steady decrease of the number of infections on a weekly basis.

However, it warned that cases remain widespread across Thailand, and the current inoculation rate is deemed insufficient to prevent potential outbreaks. Enditem

Cleaners clean the ground for the resumption of classes at a school in Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 12, 2021. The cumulative COVID-19 cases in Thailand surpassed 2 million on Friday, as the country recently lifted travel curbs to vaccinated international visitors in an effort to reboot its tourism-reliant economy. (Xinhua/Rachen Sageamsak)

Teachers prepare a classroom for the resumption of classes at a school in Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 12, 2021. The cumulative COVID-19 cases in Thailand surpassed 2 million on Friday, as the country recently lifted travel curbs to vaccinated international visitors in an effort to reboot its tourism-reliant economy. (Xinhua/Rachen Sageamsak)

A teacher prepares a classroom for the resumption of classes at a school in Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 12, 2021. The cumulative COVID-19 cases in Thailand surpassed 2 million on Friday, as the country recently lifted travel curbs to vaccinated international visitors in an effort to reboot its tourism-reliant economy. (Xinhua/Rachen Sageamsak)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 14:10:24|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

BANGKOK, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said Friday that for the year 2022, Thailand commits to make sure that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is open to all opportunities, connected in every dimension and balanced in all aspects.

Prayut made the remarks while delivering a keynote speech titled "Thailand's Priorities for APEC 2022" at the APEC CEO Summit via a teleconference, calling it an opportunity to create a sustainable and balanced post-COVID-19 future.

Thailand is to host the APEC meetings in 2022. Prayut said priorities set under the country's APEC chairmanship will be relevant with APEC's existing goals and operations, and will be presented in a new paradigm.

Elaborating on the priorities, he said the first is facilitating trade and investment in a conducive ecosystem to promote multilateral trading system and regional economic integration, drive the establishment of a new Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific in the context of post-COVID-19, and to respond to new trade-related issues, such as climate change, public healthcare, and inclusive development.

"The second is rebooting regional connectivity, particularly in the travel and tourism industry," while the third is "advancing sustainable and inclusive growth," Prayut said.

"Thailand has adopted the Bio-Circular-Green Economic Model (BCG) as part of the national strategy for post-COVID-19 economic recoveries. The BCG Economy Model will also be the driving force of the APEC 2022 priorities," he said.

He noted that the country will also strive to take forward APEC's previous achievements and translate the Putrajaya Vision 2040 into concrete actions through trade and investment, digital and innovation as well as sustainability and engagement.

Speaking of the 2021 APEC hosted by New Zealand, Prayut said it has proven that "APEC can stand up to challenges through public health rehabilitation, border reopening, and economic recovery, all for the better livelihood of the people, the world we live in and shared prosperity." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 15:07:58|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Three militants were killed in two separate gunfights with government forces in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said Friday.

According to the police, the first gunfight broke out Thursday evening at Chawalgam area of Kulgam district, about 70 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

While the standoff was underway, the second gunfight broke out at Bemina locality of Srinagar hours later during the night.

"Two militants were killed in Kulgam gunfight and one militant was killed in Srinagar's Bemina," a police officer said. "The gunfights started yesterday and concluded this morning."

The slain militants were identified as local cadres.

Last Sunday, unidentified gunmen shot dead a policeman in Srinagar. Later on, a civilian was also gunned down in the city. The killings were seen as part of a series of targeted killings carried out in the region last month.

Police blamed militants for the killings.

Reports said more than 50 new companies of paramilitary troopers are being deployed to the troubled region and new bunkers are coming up in Srinagar city.

Internet service in parts of Srinagar and other areas has been restricted. Authorities say the move has been necessitated by the recent spate of target killings.

A guerilla war has been going on between militants and Indian troopers stationed in the region since 1989.

Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both countries in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 16:26:37|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

MANILA, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,894 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, pushing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 2,813,115.

The DOH also reported that 170 more people died from COVID-19 complications, bringing the country's death toll to 45,035.

Starting Dec. 1, mandatory vaccination of all on-site employees will begin in areas with enough COVID-19 vaccine supply, said presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.

He said that "eligible employees who remain to be unvaccinated may not be terminated, but they shall be required to undergo regular RT-PCR (swab) testing, or antigen tests, at their own expense."

Public transport operators must inoculate all their eligible workers to be fully vaccinated as a condition to continue their operations, he added.

"Public and private establishments may validly refuse entry and deny service to individuals who remain to be unvaccinated or are merely partially vaccinated," Roque said.

To ramp up demand for vaccination, he said local government units are strongly urged to issue orders or ordinances providing incentives for fully vaccinated individuals and business establishments.

Carlito Galvez, the official in charge of vaccine procurement, said the Philippines received nearly 122 million doses of vaccines from various manufacturers as of Thursday. China is its biggest COVID-19 vaccine supplier.

The Philippines has administered nearly 67 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. More than 30 million people have been fully vaccinated. The government aims to vaccinate up to 70 percent of its 110 million population this year.

The emergence of the Delta coronavirus variant triggered a third wave of infections that peaked in September when the DOH reported its highest daily tally on September 11, with 26,303 cases. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 20:55:46|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close





Chinese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Du Dewen (L) and Cabinet Chairman of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Zhaparov cut the ribbon during the completion ceremony for the second phase of a new North-South highway project in Kazarman of Jalalabad Region, Kyrgyzstan, Nov. 10, 2021. The second phase of a highway project including flyover bridges has been completed in the south of Kyrgyzstan with the support of China. A ceremony to mark the phased completion of the new North-South highway project was held on Wednesday and attended by Chinese Ambassador Du Dewen, Cabinet Chairman of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Zhaparov, Minister of Transport and Communications of Kyrgyzstan Erkinbek Osoev, the Chinese embassy said in a press release. (Photo by Roman/Xinhua)

BISHKEK, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The second phase of a highway project including flyover bridges has been completed in the south of Kyrgyzstan with the support of China.

A ceremony to mark the phased completion of the new North-South highway project was held on Wednesday and attended by Chinese Ambassador Du Dewen, Cabinet Chairman of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Zhaparov, Minister of Transport and Communications of Kyrgyzstan Erkinbek Osoev, the Chinese embassy said in a press release.

At the event, Du praised the completion of the second phase of the project, speaking highly of the positive development of Chinese-Kyrgyz relations and of joint road construction.

"The Chinese company overcame technical difficulties, challenging environmental conditions, and applied advanced technologies to complete the construction with high quality," Du said.

In turn, Zhaparov expressed gratitude to the government of China and Chinese companies that are implementing the project on construction of the new North-South highway, stressing that the completion of the second phase of the project will significantly improve road traffic conditions in Kyrgyzstan, and also have a significant impact on economic development of the region and the country as a whole.

"Kyrgyzstan will continue to adopt the experience of China in the construction of infrastructure facilities and strengthen relations between the two countries, as well as intensify practical cooperation with China in various fields," Zhaparov said.

The total length of the new North-South highway project is 433 km. The second phase of the project, at a length of 99 km, was constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation and funded by the Export-Import Bank of China on a preferential loan.

Once finished, the highway project will become the main transport artery connecting Kyrgyzstan's north and south and an important international transport channel in Central Asia. Enditem

Photo taken on Nov. 10, 2021 shows vehicles running on a bridge completed during the second phase of a new North-South highway project in Kazarman of Jalalabad Region, Kyrgyzstan. The second phase of a highway project including flyover bridges has been completed in the south of Kyrgyzstan with the support of China. A ceremony to mark the phased completion of the new North-South highway project was held on Wednesday and attended by Chinese Ambassador Du Dewen, Cabinet Chairman of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Zhaparov, Minister of Transport and Communications of Kyrgyzstan Erkinbek Osoev, the Chinese embassy said in a press release. (Photo by Roman/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Nov. 10, 2021 shows a bridge completed during the second phase of a new North-South highway project in Kazarman of Jalalabad Region, Kyrgyzstan. The second phase of a highway project including flyover bridges has been completed in the south of Kyrgyzstan with the support of China. A ceremony to mark the phased completion of the new North-South highway project was held on Wednesday and attended by Chinese Ambassador Du Dewen, Cabinet Chairman of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Zhaparov, Minister of Transport and Communications of Kyrgyzstan Erkinbek Osoev, the Chinese embassy said in a press release. (Photo by Roman/Xinhua)

Cabinet Chairman of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Zhaparov addresses the completion ceremony for the second phase of a new North-South highway project in Kazarman of Jalalabad Region, Kyrgyzstan, Nov. 10, 2021. The second phase of a highway project including flyover bridges has been completed in the south of Kyrgyzstan with the support of China. A ceremony to mark the phased completion of the new North-South highway project was held on Wednesday and attended by Chinese Ambassador Du Dewen, Cabinet Chairman of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Zhaparov, Minister of Transport and Communications of Kyrgyzstan Erkinbek Osoev, the Chinese embassy said in a press release. (Photo by Roman/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 21:47:21|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least seven people have died and 18 others are hospitalized after drinking alcohol containing high levels of methanol at a COVID-19 quarantine center in northwestern Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey province, a health spokesman said on Friday.

The victims, who are laborers returning from Thailand and have been placed under quarantine at a center in Poipet City, consumed the tainted alcohol during a gathering on Wednesday evening and developed symptoms such as eye irritation, chest pain, breathing difficulty, dizziness, headache, and coma on the next day.

"So far, seven patients, including a woman, were pronounced dead and 18 others had been hospitalized, including two in severe condition," Roeun Sothy, a spokesman for the Banteay Meanchey Provincial Health Department, told Xinhua.

He said that some victims said they drank a mixture of alcohol, energy drinks and green tea, as others said they consumed herbal rice wine that they bought at the price of 1.5 U.S. dollars for a 0.5-liter plastic bottle.

"Our initial testing found that the cocktail of alcohol, energy drinks and green tea as well as the herbal rice wine contained high levels of methanol that caused poison," he said.

Alcohol poisoning is not uncommon in the Southeast Asian country. In July, a methanol-laced rice wine killed 11 villagers in the Southwestern coastal province of Kampot. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 22:24:44|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Appeal Court of Cambodia on Friday reduced prison sentences for union leader Rong Chhun and six other activists, a court's spokesman said.

Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions and a member of civil society group Cambodian Watchdog Council, was arrested in July last year at his home in the capital Phnom Penh for his false comments related to long-simmering border demarcation issue with Vietnam.

In August this year, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced him to two years in prison for inciting to cause social chaos.

But the Appeal Court on Friday reduced his prison term to time already served and the remaining sentence of eight months and 19 days were suspended, said Phlang Samnang, a spokesman for the Appeal Court.

"The Appeal Court cut his sentence to 15 months and 11 days, so it means that he will be released from the prison today," he told Xinhua.

Samnang added that the court also reduced jail terms for six other activists and ordered their release on the same day. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-13 00:21:40|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Photo taken on Nov. 10, 2021 shows an exterior view of the terminal building of the Luang Prabang station along the China-Laos railway in Luang Prabang, Laos. All the 10 China-Laos railway stations in Laos have concluded their debut shows, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. (LCRC) told Xinhua on Friday. According to the LCRC, a joint venture based in Lao capital Vientiane in charge of the construction and operation of the railway, the last station in Luang Prabang, some 220 km north of Vientiane, built by China Railway Construction Group Co., Ltd. (CRCG), completed its outer facade decoration on Wednesday. (CRCG/Handout via Xinhua)

VIENTIANE, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- All the 10 China-Laos railway stations in Laos have concluded their debut shows, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. (LCRC) told Xinhua on Friday.

According to the LCRC, a joint venture based in Lao capital Vientiane in charge of the construction and operation of the railway, the last station in Luang Prabang, some 220 km north of Vientiane, built by China Railway Construction Group Co., Ltd. (CRCG), completed its outer facade decoration on Wednesday.

The Luang Prabang Station, the second largest station after the Vientiane Station, consists of two platforms with four track lines.

With abundant experiences of station construction in China, the CRCG engineers combined the classic Chinese architecture's door style with elements of Lao national flower of Dok Champa in the design and building of the station's door posts, door beams and facade, reflecting the aesthetic culture of the two countries.

The China-Laos Railway is a docking project between China's 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 completed and open to traffic in December 2021. Enditem

Photo taken on Nov. 10, 2021 shows an exterior view of the terminal building of the Luang Prabang station along the China-Laos railway in Luang Prabang, Laos. All the 10 China-Laos railway stations in Laos have concluded their debut shows, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. (LCRC) told Xinhua on Friday. According to the LCRC, a joint venture based in Lao capital Vientiane in charge of the construction and operation of the railway, the last station in Luang Prabang, some 220 km north of Vientiane, built by China Railway Construction Group Co., Ltd. (CRCG), completed its outer facade decoration on Wednesday. (CRCG/Handout via Xinhua)

Photo taken on Nov. 10, 2021 shows an exterior view of the terminal building of the Luang Prabang station along the China-Laos railway in Luang Prabang, Laos. All the 10 China-Laos railway stations in Laos have concluded their debut shows, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. (LCRC) told Xinhua on Friday. According to the LCRC, a joint venture based in Lao capital Vientiane in charge of the construction and operation of the railway, the last station in Luang Prabang, some 220 km north of Vientiane, built by China Railway Construction Group Co., Ltd. (CRCG), completed its outer facade decoration on Wednesday. (CRCG/Handout via Xinhua)

Photo taken on Nov. 8, 2021 shows a view inside the terminal building of the Luang Prabang station along the China-Laos railway in Luang Prabang, Laos. All the 10 China-Laos railway stations in Laos have concluded their debut shows, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. (LCRC) told Xinhua on Friday. According to the LCRC, a joint venture based in Lao capital Vientiane in charge of the construction and operation of the railway, the last station in Luang Prabang, some 220 km north of Vientiane, built by China Railway Construction Group Co., Ltd. (CRCG), completed its outer facade decoration on Wednesday. (CRCG/Handout via Xinhua)

Photo taken on Nov. 10, 2021 shows an exterior view of the terminal building of the Luang Prabang station along the China-Laos railway in Luang Prabang, Laos. All the 10 China-Laos railway stations in Laos have concluded their debut shows, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. (LCRC) told Xinhua on Friday. According to the LCRC, a joint venture based in Lao capital Vientiane in charge of the construction and operation of the railway, the last station in Luang Prabang, some 220 km north of Vientiane, built by China Railway Construction Group Co., Ltd. (CRCG), completed its outer facade decoration on Wednesday. (CRCG/Handout via Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-13 00:23:53|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

SINGAPORE, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Singapore reported 3,099 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the total tally in the country to 233,176.

Of the new cases, 2,965 were in the community, 128 were in migrant worker dormitories and six were imported cases, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a press release.

A total of 1,616 patients are currently warded in hospitals, with 280 cases requiring oxygen supplementation in the general wards, 31 cases being unstable and under close monitoring in the intensive care units (ICUs), and 75 cases being critically ill and intubated in the ICUs. The current overall ICU utilization rate is 67 percent.

Fourteen more patients have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection, bringing the death toll to 562, the ministry said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 10:27:11|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close





Photo taken on Nov. 11, 2021 shows a light installation at the Ghent Light Festival 2021 in Ghent, Belgium. From Nov. 10 to 14, over 30 works by international light artists are offered to the public at the Ghent Light Festival 2021, which is held every three years. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

Photo taken on Nov. 11, 2021 shows a light installation at the Ghent Light Festival 2021 in Ghent, Belgium. From Nov. 10 to 14, over 30 works by international light artists are offered to the public at the Ghent Light Festival 2021, which is held every three years. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

People visit the Ghent Light Festival 2021 in Ghent, Belgium, Nov. 11, 2021. From Nov. 10 to 14, over 30 works by international light artists are offered to the public at the Ghent Light Festival 2021, which is held every three years. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

People visit the Ghent Light Festival 2021 in Ghent, Belgium, Nov. 11, 2021. From Nov. 10 to 14, over 30 works by international light artists are offered to the public at the Ghent Light Festival 2021, which is held every three years. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

People take a selfie at the Ghent Light Festival 2021 in Ghent, Belgium, Nov. 11, 2021. From Nov. 10 to 14, over 30 works by international light artists are offered to the public at the Ghent Light Festival 2021, which is held every three years. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

Photo taken on Nov. 11, 2021 shows a light work at the Ghent Light Festival 2021 in Ghent, Belgium. From Nov. 10 to 14, over 30 works by international light artists are offered to the public at the Ghent Light Festival 2021, which is held every three years. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 21:36:44|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

ANKARA, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen would not be allowed to fly from Turkey to Belarus, announced the Turkish Civil Aviation Authority on Friday.

The declaration came amid the migrant crisis currently developing at the European Union (EU)-Belarus border.

"Due to the problem of illegal border crossings between the EU and Belarus, it has been decided that the citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen, who want to travel to Belarus from Turkish airports, will not be allowed to buy tickets or go boarding until further notice," said the aviation authority.

Thousands of refugees are gathering on the Belarusian side of the border in an attempt to enter Poland and then Germany to seek asylum.

Accusing Belarus of encouraging people fleeing different war zones of the world to cross the Polish border, the EU said it may impose new sanctions against Belarus, which would also cover airline companies that transport asylum seekers to the country.

Reacting to the news that Turkish Airlines might be among those that could be affected by the sanctions, the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Thursday said Turkey refused to be "portrayed as part of a problem to which it is not a party."

"We find it intentional that a globally prominent company like Turkish Airlines is targeted even though information on this issue is shared transparently," it added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 23:01:22|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

SKOPJE, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Opposition parties in North Macedonia failed to secure enough lawmakers for a no-confidence motion voting on Thursday in the parliament to oust Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and his cabinet.

Hristijan Mickoski, head of the main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, was confident he would gather the 61 votes needed in the 120-seat parliament to pass the motion.

According to local media, Mickoski reached the number of MPs needed to file the no-confidence motion when The Besa Movement, a small ethnic Albanian party, shifted its support from the ruling majority to VMRO-DPMNE.

However, on Thursday, Kastriot Rexhepi, a lawmaker from the Besa party did not show up in the parliament and declared on his Facebook account that he would not take part in the vote, adding that "the country's stability, peace and well-being of the people should be the paramount importance for all."

Late Thursday, Aleksandar Nikoloski, deputy leader of VMRO-DMPNE, told local reporters that the only solution to the political crisis is to hold snap elections.

He added that VMRO-DMPNE MPs were heading home before the voting deadline expires at midnight but the no-confidence motion will not be withdrawn.

According to Media Information Agency, the no-confidence motion had been filed due to the fact that Zaev did not resign from his post despite his announcement following his failure in the local elections held on Oct. 31.

Meanwhile, Zaev, leader of the ruling Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) party, told local reporters late Tuesday that his party has decided that he stays temporarily in his post in order "to help stabilize the parliamentary majority."

During last year's general elections, SDSM had a narrow victory and formed the government with a multi-party coalition.

The next parliamentary elections are slated for 2024. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-13 05:35:27|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

ROME, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Italy remains ready to support post-election reforms of Libya's security system, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Friday, calling for the "normalization" of that country's economy.

Speaking after a special conference on Libya's future in Paris, Draghi also said he supported a strong role for the European Union in Libya.

Draghi met on Friday with Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, Libya's president of the Council of Ministers of the Government of National Unity, at Italy's embassy in Paris, ahead of the wider conference.

Libya is set to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 24. After Friday's conference, Draghi said "the Libyan people must be able to express themselves in free, transparent and credible elections," reiterating the need for a shared legal and electoral framework.

On the economic front, Draghi called for a "normalization" in order to help the government create "an economic system capable of responding to the needs of the population and favoring foreign investments."

"A fair distribution of resources in every part of the country must be guaranteed, also through a shared budget, and the path of the reunification of economic and financial institutions, starting with the Central Bank, must be strengthened," Draghi said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-13 05:42:53|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close





Zhao Yingmin, the head of the Chinese delegation to COP26 and vice minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, speaks in an interview with Xinhua in Glasgow, Britain, on Nov. 11, 2021. The Chinese delegation to COP26 wants all parties to work together in the same direction to reach consensus on the issues at the heart of the conference and make sure it is a success, Zhao Yingmin has said. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

GLASGOW, Britain, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese delegation to COP26 wants all parties to work together in the same direction to reach consensus on the issues at the heart of the conference and make sure it is a success, the head of the delegation has said.

Zhao Yingmin, vice minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, told Xinhua in an interview that the Chinese delegation has held close exchanges with other parties during the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

"We hope to contribute to the success of the conference through constructive communication and consultation," he said.

The two-week conference was scheduled to conclude on Friday, but is likely to extend into the weekend due to unresolved issues.

In particular, developed countries need to take seriously the concerns of developing countries over such core issues as finance and adaptation. They must also strive to deliver on promises made a long time ago, to enhance mutual trust and ensure the success of COP26, Zhao said.

Financial support has been the main issue of concern for developing countries.

During the Copenhagen climate change conference in 2009, developed countries promised 100 billion U.S. dollars a year to help developing nations strengthen their resilience to climate change by 2020.

"Twelve years on, the developed countries have failed to honor their commitments, which has tremendously jeopardized political mutual trust," Zhao said.

It is "very unreasonable and unfair" that while developing countries have submitted ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in line with the Paris Agreement, developed countries have failed to deliver financial support. This issue is also affecting the progress of COP26, Zhao said.

The issue of finance is one of the core issues of difficulty that affect the progress of COP26, Zhao said.

"The developed countries have not yet shown their sincerity and confidence in delivering their pledges. Therefore, both sides are still negotiating. It seems that more efforts are still needed."

Apart from finance, the main sticking points in the final phase of negotiations include temperature control targets, adaptation, and the rulebook of the Paris Agreement, Zhao said.

In order to effectively tackle the climate crisis, the parties need to "completely and comprehensively" deliver their promises according to the Paris Agreement, Zhao said. This must be done in line with the principle of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities, and respective capabilities as well as taking into account national conditions.

"We must realize that climate change has been an imminent challenge, but it must be addressed based on science and rules," Zhao said. These rules are specified in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. "Those are the cornerstones of global effort to tackle climate change, which should not be shaken. Otherwise, it would be hard to achieve our common goal."

On Wednesday, China and the United States released the China-U.S. Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s. It was the result of numerous meetings and consultations between the two sides, and was released at a key moment in the conference.

Zhao said the document had demonstrated cooperation between China and the United States, contributed to the global fight against climate change, and injected positive energy into the UN conference. It was also welcomed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who tweeted:

"I welcome today's agreement between China and the USA to work together to take more ambitious #ClimateAction in this decade. Tackling the climate crisis requires international collaboration and solidarity, and this is an important step in the right direction." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-12 14:32:11|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

A pedestrian walks past the building of the Hebrew Union College in New York, the United States, Nov. 11, 2021. Local authorities conducted investigations after New York University (NYU) evacuated multiple buildings due to bomb threats Thursday night. "NYU has received bomb threats for three locations: the Stern School of Business, Center for Neural Science, and Hebrew Union College," the school said in its website Thursday evening. The locations were soon evacuated, according to the university. Police conducted a search and later issued an all clear. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Local authorities conducted investigations after New York University (NYU) evacuated multiple buildings due to bomb threats Thursday night.

"NYU has received bomb threats for three locations: the Stern School of Business, Center for Neural Science, and Hebrew Union College," the school said in its website Thursday evening.

The locations were soon evacuated, according to the university. Police conducted a search and later issued an all clear.

"The police have completed their investigation of the bomb threat that NYU received earlier this evening, having searched four NYU buildings and Hebrew Union College; they have issued an 'all clear,'" NYU Spokesman John Beckman said in a statement.

"We are pleased there was no danger to our people, but are deeply troubled by the series of bomb threats against universities," Beckman said, adding all NYU classes, activities, and operations will proceed as scheduled on Friday.

The University of Southern California (USC) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also received bomb threats on Thursday, causing evacuations.

Law enforcement agencies determined the evacuated buildings are safe and "normal business has resumed," USC said on Twitter.

The Cambridge Police Department, after investigating the MIT bomb threats, said that "at this time, no evidence has been found to substantiate the threats" in a tweet.

Earlier this month, multiple Ivy League schools in the East Coast of the United States, including Yale, Columbia, Cornell and Brown, had also received bomb threats respectively and were forced to warn students to evacuate campus buildings.

U.S. law enforcement agencies didn't deem any of the threats credible. Enditem

Photo taken on Nov. 11, 2021 shows the building of the Stern School of Business in New York, the United States. Local authorities conducted investigations after New York University (NYU) evacuated multiple buildings due to bomb threats Thursday night. "NYU has received bomb threats for three locations: the Stern School of Business, Center for Neural Science, and Hebrew Union College," the school said in its website Thursday evening. The locations were soon evacuated, according to the university. Police conducted a search and later issued an all clear. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)


THE arrest of a 32-year-old man suspected to be part of a gang that recently robbed a Beitbridge businessman of R1,2 million and US$3 500, reportedly came after the businessman allegedly consulted a local apostolic faith leader for divine intervention to recover his stolen money, B-Metro has established.

The businessman (name supplied) lost R1,2 million, US$3 500, two cellphones and four wrist watches, among other valuables to four gun-wielding robbers that broke into his house in the early hours of October 9.

They reportedly threatened to shoot him and his family while demanding cash.

The suspect, Freeman Ndudzo of Dulivhadzimo, who is also linked to a number of robbery cases in Beitbridge, was found with four pistols believed to be imports from South Africa.

In a statement national police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the arrest of Ndudzo on November 5.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police confirms the arrest of Freeman Ndudzo (32) on November 5, 2021 by detectives who were pursuing a case of unlawful entry and theft.

On approaching 552 Dulivhadzimo, Beitbridge, police officers found the suspect with a black satchel under the bed. Searches revealed that the suspect was hiding a star pistol with magazines of rounds, three more pistols with 16 rounds seven cell phones and one hunters torch, he said.

Asst Comm Nyathi added: The suspect confirmed that the weapons were from outside the country and intended for use in robbery cases in Zimbabwe. The suspect is linked to several robbery cases that occurred in Beitbridge including the purported theft case of R1,2 million reported recently.

Before Ndudzos arrest, it emerged that in a bid to make the robbers return his money to him, the businessman allegedly consulted apostolic faith leader Madzibaba Emmanuel Mutumwa of the Johane Masowe eChishanu at his shrine in Bulawayos Selborne Park suburb on 17 October 2021.

Pictures and videos in possession of B-Metro show the businessman in white robes kneeling before Madzibaba Mutumwa receiving prayers.

In the same video the businessman explains the purpose of his visit to Madzibaba Mutumwa saying he had come to seek divine intervention after he lost his money to armed robbers.

I have come here to get prayers after that incident which happened and that I can also recover the loot that I lost. Its not my first time being at Masowe, I have been here before. So, I hope Im going to get help here, the businessman is heard saying so in the video.

When reached for comment the businessman confirmed that he consulted Madzibaba Mutumwa for divine intervention so that he could recover his money.

Its true that I consulted him (Madzibaba Mutumwa) and that is when he told me that the suspects would be arrested. One of them has since been arrested and appeared in court. I had no doubts that his prayers worked.

People should also know that when having such problems, its all about believing when one consults any man of God, the businessman said.

Madzibaba Mutumwa is on record claiming to have the powers of establishing causes of bad events and protecting people against evil and many victims of theft and burglary are reportedly flocking to his shrine to consult. B Metro
Police and other security agents have impounded a foreign registered fuel tanker at Chirundu One-Stop Border Post which was loaded with about 25 000 litres of water after the driver had attempted to dupe them that he was carrying fuel.

The driver has since disappeared and police are conducting investigations on the case.

It is believed that the driver could have offloaded the fuel in the country before attempting to drive into Zambia with the water.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the incident.

We are still conducting investigations on the case and we are also looking for the driver who disappeared when the offence was discovered, he said.

He said when the truck arrived at the border, the driver insisted that he was carrying about 39 000 litres of diesel before security agents demanded to check.

During the process, the driver disappeared and the security agents discovered that the truck was loaded with water.

Recently, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) intercepted three fuel trucks in transit at Chirundu One-Stop Boarder Post linked to a fuel smuggling syndicate in the country.

The fuel was meant to be transported to Zambia, potentially prejudicing the country of potential revenues through organised crime.

In a statement, Zimras head of corporate communications, Mr Francis Chimanda, confirmed the developments and said two drivers had been arrested in connection with the case.

During the period from 17 July 2021 to 23 July 2021, three tankers that had declared fuel at Forbes Border Post enroute to Zambia were intercepted at Chirundu One Stop Border Post, all loaded with water instead of fuel as per the declarations made at Forbes Border Post.

The tankers had respectively declared 44 924 litres of diesel, 39 932 litres of diesel and 45 800 litres of petrol destined for Zambia. However, the three tankers after physical inspections turned out to be carrying water.

The three fuel tankers were flagged for physical inspection and with the assistance of police, two drivers were arrested and have already appeared in court. The driver of the third tanker is still at large after he disappeared during the physical inspection of the vehicle.

Mr Chimanda said Zimra was seized with capacitating its intelligence management unit and will continue leveraging technology and data matching to fish out fuel smugglers. Newsday
HARARES top diplomat in Pretoria, David Hamadziripi, said this week a court case filed by Zimbabwean migrants against President Cyril Ramaphosas administration over special work permit renewals has complicated an already tense situation.

Hamadziripi, who spoke as anxieties over the renewals deepened, said there had been diplomatic manoeuvres to end the uncertainties, and a decision would be announced by the South African government.

The special permits were last renewed in 2017, and are due to expire at the end of this year.

In drama-filled recent weeks, South African nationals demonstrated against the extension of the special permits, while Zimbabwean migrants on the special permits took Pretoria to court, pressing the government to declare them permanent residents.

About 250 000 Zimbabwean nationals on the special permits face an uncertain future.

But frustrations have increased because the South African government is yet to indicate whether it would renew the permits or not, Hamadziripi told the Zimbabwe Independent.

In this case, the current permits expire at the end of next month, Hamadziripi said. The process has always been that the South African cabinet decides whether to renew or not. The last time they were renewed was in 2017. Their term is five years. They are due to expire in 2021. The point is that it is a decision that is actually taken by the South African cabinet.

What has infuriated some South Africans is that we have some permit holders who have now gone to the courts asking them to direct the South African government to grant them permanent residency.

Some of these people have been holding them (special permits) for a period long enough for them to qualify for permanent residency. But because they have these special permits, they dont qualify and cannot be granted permanent residency.

Pretoria has come under fierce criticism from its nationals, who last week tried to force the Ramaphosa administration to change tack.

#NoToZimWorkPermits campaign and #PutSouthAfricansFirst activist and march convenor Tshidiso Rantsa has said the push is to make sure opportunities taken by Zimbabweans are returned to South Africans.

Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holders Association responded by filing court applications to force the South African administration to declare them permanent residents at the expiry of the document.

Other African nationals also hold the permits.

Hamadziripi said anxiety was building up because of delays by the South African government on the processes for renewal of the permits.

The focus now is coming because the South African government should have, by now, like in the past, announced even the process that should be followed by the permit holders to get them renewed, but up to now, just over a month from their expiry, that announcement has not come, he said.

According to South African immigration laws, Hamadziripi said, these Zimbabweans had stayed in the neighbouring country long enough to acquire permanent residency.

He said Zimbabwes Foreign Affairs and International Trade minister Frederick Shava met South Africas International Relations and Co-operation minister Dr Naledi Pandor in Cape Town in May this year to discuss the matter.

The information that was given by the South African minister was that this matter was going to be discussed by the South African cabinet and a decision would then be announced at the appropriate time and that is what we are waiting for, he said.

Hamadziripi said Zimbabweans who had taken the case to court were justified.

This is a decision which they have every right to make and all I can say is that as the embassy, we are aware of the court action. We cannot interfere in that matter; neither can we make any comments on that, he said.

Meanwhile, South Africans opposed to the renewal of the permits were due to march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Wednesday morning.

According to South African newspaper, The Citizen, on Wednesday, Rantsa said their march was not a xenophobic act, but a cry to the government to prioritise its own citizens.

What kind of country issues work permits to thousands of foreign nationals when more than 75% of its own youth are sitting at home without jobs? When we try and say something we are labelled xenophobic for putting ourselves first, Rantsa said.

He reportedly told the media that the marchers had no problem with Zimbabweans who are documented, but they wanted the government to prioritise unemployed South Africans.

We are not attacking anyone but, like Botswana, we would really like our country to prioritise us. SA has a high unemployment rate, but we are forced to give all these struggling countries a piggyback ride. It doesnt make sense.

He referred to a statement issued by Botswanas Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry on November 3 this year, which reserved certain business activities for Botswana citizens.

However, human rights lawyer Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, at the International Commission of Jurists Africa Programme, said the unemployment statistics in SA were not relevant to the issue of renewal of the permits.

She told The Citizen that at the time the permit was brought in, the asylum system could not process all of the Zimbabweans who were in the country and an alternative means had to be found to ensure that they were documented and not subjected to arrests by police.

Ramjathan-Keogh said the permit had been rolled out on multiple occasions and on a short-term basis to make sure that they could not apply for permanent residency. Zimbabwe Independent
POLICE in Bulawayo are investigating a case of a Grade Six pupil who was impregnated after she was allegedly raped by a stranger at the family house in Mzilikazi suburb.

The matter came to light when the familys domestic worker questioned the 11-year-old girl about her delayed menstrual period and that is when she revealed that she was raped sometime last month.

According to the girl, the rapist threatened to come back and stab her if she revealed the matter to anyone.

Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube confirmed the incident yesterday and urged members of the public to go an extra mile in protecting girls.

He said the increasing cases of sexual abuse of women and girls in the city was worrying and called on members of the public to work with the police to address the problem.

We are investigating a case of a juvenile aged 11 years from Mzilikazi suburb who was raped by an unknown male adult at her home. The accused person gained entry into an unlocked house while the complainant was outside washing dishes, said Insp Ncube.

He said when the complainant went back into the house, she found the accused person inside the house and he grabbed her before raping her once without protection.

After raping her, the accused person threatened to stab the complainant with a knife if she dared report the incident to anyone. The complainant did not disclose the incident to her father as she feared that the accused person would come back and stab her, said Insp Ncube.

He said the incident was revealed when the girl fell pregnant and narrated to the family domestic worker what had transpired on the fateful day.

Insp Ncube said the rape was reported at ZRP Barbourfields Post and the girl was referred to Mpilo Central Hospital for medical examination.

Meanwhile, health experts say early sexual engagement increases the risk of girls suffering cervical cancer which is the leading cancer in Zimbabwe and one of the killer diseases among women.

Reports also show that when a girl falls pregnant, they drop out of school and eventually give up on their studies.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), early sexual debut and sexual abuse of female adolescents increase the girls risk to unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections including HIV and psycho-social challenges in their lives.

UNFPA Zimbabwes adolescent sexual reproductive health specialist Mr Blessing Tafadzwa Nyagumbo said Zimbabwe is among countries in sub-Saharan Africa with a huge teenage pregnancy problem.

The country has a high adolescent fertility rate of 108 per 1 000 among young women aged 15 to 19 years.

This is against the average fertility rate of 101 births per 1 000 young women aged between 15 and 19 in sub-Saharan Africa. Emerging data indicates that there has been a significant increase in teenage pregnancy during the lockdown, he said. Chronicle
FORMER Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) chief executive Happison Muchechetere remains an employee after the Supreme Court overturned his expulsion from the State broadcaster six years ago.

Muchechetere was expelled from ZBC in 2015 after a hearing chaired by former High Court judge Justice James Devittie found him guilty of misconduct.

He had been on suspension for a year before on allegations of misconduct and prejudicing the corporation of over US$7 million.

Muchechetere was suspended on allegations of awarding himself and his executive team monthly hefty perks of up to US$44 000 each while other employees went unpaid for months.

He challenged his suspension and subsequent expulsion at the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court heard his appeal last year, but reserved judgment.

In a judgement delivered on Thursday, Supreme Court judges Justices Elizabeth Gwaunza, Lavender Makoni and Tendai Uchena upheld his appeal in part, ruling that he remained an employee until the State broadcaster terminates his contract properly.

Muchechetere also wanted the court to clear him of misconduct charges.

The former ZBC boss argued that charges against him were constitutionally invalid and heretical as a matter of law.

He argued that his employer was not a procuring entity. Muchechetere said in his case, the corporation no longer existed as it was disbanded by statute.

It is alleged that Muchechetere entered a procurement deal to purchase an outside broadcasting (OB) van with a Chinese firm called China National Instruments Imports and Exports Corporation without going to tender on January 18, 2013.

It is also alleged that Muchechetere doctored the price of the OB van to the tune of US$1 050 000.

The offence came to light after Muchecheteres suspension when it was discovered that the OB van had a market value of US$350 000.

Muchechetere is also the Zanu PF Veterans for the Liberation Struggle Mashonaland West provincial chairperson and remains active in the party. Newsday
AUTHORITIES at the Catholic-run St Martins Primary School in Harare are being investigated by the Primary and Secondary Education ministry following reports that pupils whose parents objected to an unsanctioned fee hike were being victimised.

The school recently held its annual general meeting (AGM) virtually, where authorities allegedly imposed an almost 100% fee hike.

This saw fees being raised from US$270 to US$530 on the basis that staffers at the school were demanding salary increments.

The parents, however, objected to the fee hike, arguing that there was no justification for the excessive increase.

They did not pay the top-up, arguing that the less than 200 parents attended the AGM did not constitute a quorum.

There are reports that authorities are barring children who have not paid top up fees from attending lessons. School authorities also threatened to expel pupils whose parents failed to pay up.

Education ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro confirmed the development.

We received the complaints by parents at St Martins Primary School over various allegations to do with maladministration and investigations on the matter are underway, Ndoro said.

We have received several similar complaints from other schools throughout the country.

We urge school authorities to adhere to guidelines set by the ministry to avoid such conflicts which sometimes are disrupting learning in schools.

Leaked WatsApp of the online meeting indicated that school authorities blocked some parents from contributing their views, resulting in several of them exiting the platform.

We have the board chair ignoring requests of the parents, muting everyone, a parent posted during the meeting.

Are we stakeholders at this school? Please start taking us seriously. Mr Headmaster, you want a 20% increase in salaries from the very parents you are adopting such a condescending attitude, what a shame.

Parents also accused the school authorities of refusing to accept fees at the interbank rate, saying they were using the parallel rate of US$1:200.

Grade Seven pupils, who had not paid up their fees, were barred from sitting for mock examinations yesterday (last week), a parent, who requested anonymity, said.

Those in lower grades, who were not paid up, were separated from others and did not attend lessons.

The authorities threatened pupils in Grades One and Two that they will not proceed to the next level if their parents refused to pay up. We have made a report at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and the Primary and Secondary Education ministry.

Efforts to get a comment from St Martins Primary School head Tinashe Gwese were fruitless. Newsday
In Massachusetts, nearly 60,000 fully vaccinated residents have tested positive in breakthrough infections, WBTS-TV reported Wednesday, and 468 of them have died. Cases have increased 44% in the past week alone. WBTS noted that the breakthroughs are just 1.2% of the 4.7 million people who have been fully vaccinated, and the deaths are 0.01%.
Weve been waiting so long, and these are vulnerable little children. When theyre not having access to get this vaccine, its so hard. Youre always on edge, said Ms. Das, who asked to go by just her last name to protect her privacy.
The man accused of attempting to rape a woman on a footpath to Randalls Island in broad daylight told his victim he didnt want to hurt her  even as he was choking her until she nearly lost consciousness, according to a criminal complaint.
His review of TikTok accounts found 40 different students at Ursuline who are singing various racial epithets (the n word being the most popular) and engaging in conduct far more unbecoming than that in the video that forms the purported basis for requesting (the student) withdraw from school, the lawyer said.
The MTA would not comment on Carters filing, but spokesman Tim Minton said, We are committed to a diverse and discrimination-free hiring process and to employing officers who reflect the communities they serve and protect from Poughkeepsie to Montauk. Racism and bigotry in any form are never acceptable and are inconsistent with the values of the MTA.
Rahmel Bali was arrested Thursday at his home, less than two blocks from Crotona Park, where on Wednesday afternoon he allegedly threw the victim to the ground and assaulted her before running off with her phone.
I literally went into his Habbitat [sic] and he did not (growl) or go into Attack Mode!! she wrote in her Instagram post. Why? Even animals know if your [sic] acting out of Love & Fearlessness.
After the shooting at the Vladeck Houses on Madison St. near Jackson St., the gunman bolted from the scene, weapon in hand, his escape captured by a NYCHA surveillance camera, police sources said.
There were more than 90 pedestrian fatalities in the five boroughs as of the end of September, according to the citys Vision Zero program.
She and another responding officer managed to pull Astarita over near the Bay Parkway Ave. exit. Thats where he got out of his vehicle, pulled a gun from his backseat and moved toward the cops, according to NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison.
I have nothing personal against Mr. Sharpton, Gough continued. My concern is that its one thing for the family to be present, its another thing to ask for the lawyers to be present. But if were gonna start a precedent starting yesterday where were gonna bring high-profile members of the African-American community into the courtroom to sit with the family during the trial in the presence of the jury, I believe thats intimidating, and is an attempt to pressure  could be, consciously or unconsciously  an attempt to pressure or influence the jury.
Subway found itself playing defense in June when a New York Times story said the paper had tested several Subway tuna samples in California and found no tuna DNA. That report stated there were two possible explanations for that result: either theres no tuna in the sandwiches or Subways processing of the finished product denatured its composition. Subway argued the latter. DNA testing, it said, is not a reliable way to identify a fish species once its been treated and cooked.
Gasper called Garbarinos district office, cursed at the staff member who answered and called Garbarino a RINO, an insult that stands for Republican in name only, according to the criminal complaint. Gasper warned that if he saw Garbarino on the street he would kill him, the complaint says.
Hochul reported having only $1.75 million in her coffers before Cuomo stepped down amid sexual harassment allegations. She will need a hefty war chest as she prepares for a pitched primary battle with Attorney General Letitia James and a host of other Dems weighing runs.
The moderate lawmaker who voted to convict Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, said in an announcement that she hopes to keep focusing on whats best for her home state.
The stay gives the court time to consider arguments in a momentous clash between the former president, whose supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and President Biden and Congress, who have pushed for a thorough investigation of the riot. It delays the House committee from reviewing records that lawmakers say could shed light on the events leading up to the insurrection and Trumps efforts to delegitimize an election he lost.
Its hard to believe 20 years have passed, Mayor de Blasio said following a moment of silence at 9:17 a.m. We all can feel, right here, what it felt like those days just after 9/11 ... Then another tragedy was felt from the Dominican Republic all the way to right here in Belle Harbor.
Its clear that Danny is being made an example of, and what it shows is that the junta do not care what the international community thinks, Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher for Human Rights Watch, told AP, noting the move shows the world at large that [the junta] cannot be held accountable.
Speaking of which, the city owes thanks to progressive Councilman and Comptroller-elect Brad Lander, who over many years helped craft the citys largest rezoning in a long time, to the neighborhood astride the Gowanus Canal. As that infamous and toxic body of water finally gets cleaned, it will deliver 8,000 new apartments, nearly 3,000 of which are guaranteed to be affordable. Last-minute alterations getting it over the hump include $200 million in improvements for two NYCHA developments in the area and $174 million in sewage infrastructure upgrades.
First, follow your instinct based on your own experience as a struggling reader and ask relentlessly why it is that so many of our students, but too many young men of color in particular have not been taught to read successfully. As youve noted, we spend $36 billion a year on schools, yet what we are doing is clearly not working, even for kids who do not have the double challenges of a disability like yours. I know this directly from the experience of one of my own children, whose struggles were minimized for six years and who still doesnt really love to read.
As someone who spent 16 years in prison for a drug-related crime, this is personal. I grew up in Brooklyn in the 1970s amid inequities created by structural racism. Without opportunities for a better future, many of my peers used drugs to cope or sold drugs, as I did, to access the material wealth we saw on television. Ultimately, that path led me to a situation that turned fatal for one of the participants, for which I will always be deeply remorseful.
He also has a recurring role as a transgender police officer in Queen Sugar, the critically acclaimed drama created by Ava DuVernay that airs on the Oprah Winfrey Network. He debuted as Tone Wilkins, a high school friend of the shows main character, in 2017. Before that, however, Smith worked as a cisgender actor for at least five years, he told NBC News.
Over the last week, Travis Scott and his team have been actively exploring routes of connection with each and every family affected by the tragedy through the appropriate liaisons, the statement began. He is distraught by the situation and desperately wishes to share his condolences and provide aid to them as soon as possible, but wants to remain respectful of each familys wishes on how theyd best like to be connected.
Rent.com put together a list of the best cities for donuts and donut lovers on Monday. Researchers looked at the 150 most populated cities in the country, then looked at the proportion of donut businesses in a city, per capita, and per density.
He was in cognitive behavioral therapy for seven years. He trained his brain not to pay as much attention to the noises by listening to a pleasant sound  running water  on headphones, almost constantly. He uses a sound machine to help him sleep, and hearing aids so he can better hear sounds that will help mask his tinnitus. Though nothing can make the noises go away, his brain is retrained.
A white Chevy Traverse, driven by a 43-year-old Orlando woman, came speeding down the street toward the red light and hit a Mazda from behind, Carvalho said. Investigators later said it appeared the SUV driver had a medical episode before the crash.
interactive_content

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST, WATCH LIVE AND PARTICIPATE

Listen to the podcast using the player above or subscribe to Orlando Sentinel Conversations to listen to all the daily updates using these providers:
Lopez-Ramos paid for the couple to fly from Puerto Rico to Florida and housed them in her apartment in late December, Quinones-Montes said. She said she didnt know the name of Lopez-Ramos romantic rival until a few days before the killing, when Lopez-Ramos took them to a Ross Dress for Less in The Loop shopping center, where the woman worked, and asked them to go inside and identify her.
He would execute the scheme by pretending to be a physician in online dating forums to meet women and defraud them, according to the DOJ.
ORLANDO  Three fraternities at the University of Central Florida have been put on an interim suspension following a brawl at a homecoming tailgate party last weekend.
At around 11:40 p.m., Orange County Sheriffs Office responded to a call in reference to a shooting at an apartment complex on the 5200 block of Via Hacienda Circle, about two miles east of the Mall at Millenia, said OCSOs Lt. Charles Denmark.
The main bill under consideration (Senate Bill 2B and House Bill 1B) forces employers to offer a series of exemptions from having to get the vaccine. Those include exemptions for religious or medical reasons. With the exception of people who have had a severe allergic reaction to a vaccine, very few people cannot get vaccinated. Most common medical conditions such as diabetes make people more vulnerable to the coronavirus  not the shots. So we wonder how many credible doctors would be willing to sign off on this.
One of the reasons Floridas prisons are overburdened is because the state stopped granting parole to anyone convicted of a crime after 1983. Parole allows a state commission to decide if an inmate  based on a variety of circumstances (including advanced age)  should be released under close supervision before their sentence is complete. Its different from probation, which is a court-imposed period of supervision after someone serves their sentence.
In fact, most local pols seem to enjoy the restrictions on hotel-tax spending, because it helps them justify spending gobs of hotel tax dollars on yet another expansion of the 7-million-square-foot convention center or another $50 million for Visit Orlando. They say: Golly, wed sure like to spend this money on buses or cops, but the rotten law says we cant. Our hands are tied.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties and is a former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said Florida should fine-tune our election laws to allow votes to be counted that were postmarked by Election Day, because hundreds of ballots [in the neighboring 20th District special primary] were obviously sent in time [and] were tripped up because of an overburdened mail system. Voters should not be forced into a guessing game on whether their vote was counted due to mail delays.
We firmly believe that passing Miyas Law will save lives, they said. It is our hope that lawmakers on both sides unanimously vote to pass Miyas Law. Our daughters law can potentially save your daughter or loved ones life, so when you go to vote, please think of Miya.
Rubio has so far opposed all of Bidens nominees to the State Department. In August, he announced he would oppose all national security position nominees until the White House answered questions about his claim that Biden shared the names of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies with the Taliban amid the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Afghanistan earlier this year.
SpaceX will continue flying its rotational crewed missions to the ISS, which go up about once every six months as one of two companies awarded the transportation contract as part of NASAs Commercial Crew Program. It will also fly civilian missions to the ISS and potentially more civilian orbital flights. It has five flights in the books and is slated to fly at least three more in 2022 for Crew-4 and Crew-5 plus at least one private flight to the ISS through the space tourism company Axiom.
It bodes for a strong return after the dismal revenues seen during 2021, which only got back to business when Mardi Gras had its inaugural sailing on July 30. Since then, the port has steadily welcomed more ships, but only saw essentially two months of cruise revenue for the fiscal year, and in general, cruises make up 80% of total revenue to the port.
Washington, DC US (PANA) - The United States announced on Friday thag it is imposing sanctions against "six targets" associated with the Eritrean government and ruling party for their roles in the raging conflict in Ethiopia
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
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
The two terrorists killed in an encounter in the Chawalgam area of South Kashmir's Kulgam district had refused to surrender that triggered the encounter, officials said on Friday.

The Army said on Thursday an input was received from the Kulgam Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) about the presence of two unidentified terrorists in the general area of village Chansar near Chawalgam. A cordon and search operation was launched by the Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and CRPF.

"Swift reaction by the security forces ensured that the terrorists were quickly isolated in a house in the village, while other civilians were evacuated out of harm's way.

"Appeal for surrender was made by the security forces, which went unheeded. Intermittent exchange of fire between the terrorists and security forces ensued throughout the night.

"At first light on November 12..., the security forces launched a deliberate operation to flush out the terrorists and by 8.30 a.m. both terrorists were neutralised. One AK-47, one pistol and other war-like stores were recovered from the encounter site," the Army said.

As per the Jammu and Kashmir Police reports, one of the terrorists killed in the operation on Friday was identified as Sheeraz Ahmad Lone alias Maulvi. He was a native of Souch, Kulgam and had run away from home and joined Hizbul Mujahideen on September 30, 2016.

"He later proclaimed himself as self-styled district commander in Kulgam. He was responsible for misleading a number of youth in the area by radicalising them and in turn using them to carry out terrorist attacks while he himself ensured self-survival.

"Reports indicate that in the last five years, he had recruited many youths as terrorists out of which a majority have been neutralised by the security forces.

"The second terrorist, identified as Yawar Ah. Bhat was a resident of Ponipora and had joined Hizbul Mujahideen on March 26, 2021. He was trying to orchestrate terrorist attacks on innocent civilians," the Army further said.

The Army said the elimination of terrorists has led to breaking of enemies' important link between the terrorist, who wields weapons and the terror network.
Hours ahead of the wrapping up of the crucial COP26 meet at Glasgow, Union Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav on Friday asserted that the world must start acting together on four issues -- temperature, mitigation, finance and responsibility to fight climate change.

The 26th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Glasgow in the UK is scheduled to conclude on Friday officially, but going by the track record, the negotiations may spill over to the next day.

"It is time the world unites to honour the commitments made under the Paris Agreement, which set a goal to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels," Yadav said as he penned his thoughts under the title, 'Time to unite against climate change' on his blog as part of the 'COP Diary'.

Yadav wrote early morning Glasgow time (noon in India) how negotiations to fight climate change at COP26 have been happening "in an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual respect for each other's ideas, strengths and constraints."

He cited how India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has made it clear that it is ready to go the extra mile in combating climate change but has also reminded the developed world that they have historically precipitated the current crisis and have progressed at the cost of global environment.

"No nation, no matter how big or small, can save the planet alone. In a spirit of cooperation, India has asked the world to do its bit, leading by example in meeting all its environmental obligations globally and nationally," Yadav said.

The Minister reminded the wealthy nations that reaped the benefits of early industrialisation by burning fossil fuels and grew their economies for centuries, must accommodate the concerns and requirements of the economies that need to make the switch to clean and green energy.

There is growing public demand for climate action and to align economic recovery with long-term sustainability and climate goals, he said, adding that, "given the renewed interest in collective action, COP26 offers a unique opportunity to enhance ambitions and reiterate the global commitment to combat climate change."

The rich nations had promised to mobilise $100 billion annually by 2020 but the money was not received and the target date was postponed to 2025.
The Union Jal Shakti Ministry plans to cover a population of 39 lakh in 1,262 villages of 33 districts under the Jal Jeevan Mission for the year 2021-22 taking the total rural households that will get tap water connections to about 4 lakh.

The State Level Scheme Sanctioning Committee (SLSSC) of Uttar Pradesh has approved proposals submitted by the state worth Rs 1,882 crore for making provision of tap water connections, where 735 schemes were approved by the committee. As per the approval, tap water connections to be provided to 4.03 lakh rural households of the state.

As on date, 34 lakh (12.9 per cent) rural households out of 2.64 crore are getting tap water supply in their homes. In 2021-22, the state plans to provide tap water connections to 78 lakh households, a release from the Jal Shakti Ministry said.

Under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), there is provision for constitution of State Level Scheme Sanctioning Committee (SLSSC) for consideration and approval of schemes to be taken up for making provision of tap water supply to rural households. The SLSSC acts as a state level Committee to consider water supply schemes/projects, and a nominee of the National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM), Government of India is a member of the committee.

The national JJM was launched to provide clean tap water to every household and freeing women and girls from the drudgery of fetching water from a distance. It has already released Rs 2,400 crore grant in-aid to Uttar Pradesh during 2021-22.

To accelerate the pace of JJM implementation, National Jal Jeevan Mission has urged the state to take necessary measures to provide tap water supply to 78 lakh rural households in the state this year, for which the state plans to start water supply works in more than 60,000 villages by December 2021.

"The Government of India is ensuring that there is no paucity of funds for the implementation of this transformational mission in the state of Uttar Pradesh," the Ministry release said.

In February 2019, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for piped water supply schemes for the rural areas of seven districts viz. Jhansi, Mahoba, Lalitpur, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Banda and Chitrakoot in the Bundelkhand region; and in November 2020, for rural drinking water supply projects for Mirzapur and Sonbhadra districts of Vindhyachal region. These are water-stressed areas. These projects will benefit about 18.88 lakh households in 6,742 villages of the region. "So far, the physical progress is about 50 per cent in these schemes," the release said.

With a focus on aservice delivery', 10 villages in Baghpat district are being taken for online measurement & monitoring system' as part of Grand Technology Challenge being run by Jal Jeevan Mission in partnership with Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and (MeiTY) and state government. The aonline system' will generate alerts whenever the water supply in the village is disrupted so that timely corrective action can be taken.

Source: IANS
Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/12/2021 -- The report "Biological Wastewater Treatment Market by Process (Aerobic, Anaerobic), End-Use Industry (Municipal, Industrial (Pulp & Paper, Meat & Poultry, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Others)), and Region (NA, Europe, APAC, MEA, and SA) - Global Forecast to 2025" The biological wastewater treatment market size is estimated to be USD 8.7 billion in 2020 and projected to reach USD 11.1 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 5.1% from 2020 to 2025. Rapidly growing population and industrialization, aging infrastructure, water scarcity, and stringent regulations regarding the disposal of wastewater into the environment or for reuse are factors expected to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period.



Download PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=265752702



The aerobic segment is projected to lead the biological wastewater treatment market during the forecast period

Based on process, the biological wastewater treatment market is segmented into aerobic and anaerobic. The aerobic segment accounted for a larger share of the biological wastewater treatment market in 2019, owing to its efficiency in processing, simple design, and low capital cost.



The anaerobic segment is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period, owing to its low production of sludge, low consumption of energy, and production of byproducts such as methane gas after treatment



The industrial segment is projected to be a major consumer of the biological wastewater treatment during the forecast period

Based on end-use industry, the global biological wastewater treatment market is segmented into municipal and industrial. The industrial segment includes pulp & paper, meat & poultry, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and others. The industrial segment accounted for the largest share, owing to stringent regulations and high biological oxygen demand (BOD) requirements in industrial wastewater treatment. The municipal segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



Speak to Analyst @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=265752702



North America is projected to be the largest consumer of biological wastewater treatment during the forecast period

Based on region, the biological wastewater treatment market is segmented into Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, North America, Europe, and South America. Among these, North America accounted for the largest share of the market in 2019. This large share can be attributed to the aging infrastructure, stringent regulations, economic development, and increasing consumption of water from industries. The presence of major biological wastewater treatment system manufacturers in North America such as Evoqua Water Technologies LLC (US), Aquatech International (US), and Xylem Inc. (US) gives a competitive edge to the region over others. The market in the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Drivers for the growth of the biological wastewater treatment market include a rapidly increasing population, industrialization, and urbanization.



Key players in the biological wastewater treatment market are Veolia (France), Suez Water Technologies & Solutions (France), Evoqua Water Technologies LLC (US), Aquatech International (US), and Xylem Inc. (US).



Recent Developments :

- In 2019, Suez was awarded a contract by the Filanc Black & Veatch JV (FBV). It selected SUEZ's LEAPmbr technology because it produces superior water quality, ensures reliability and value, and fits within a small footprint. In the FBV design, the MBR effluent will be further treated using reverse osmosis membranes and an advanced oxidation process before being injected into the aquifer. The new facility will treat one million gallons of wastewater per day.

- In 2018, Veolia signed a contract with the Paris government for wastewater and urban stormwater management throughout the area covered by the Metropole (Martignas-sur-Jalle excepted). The contract covers the management of six wastewater treatment plants with a total capacity of 1,156,400 population equivalents, with 4,200 km of wastewater, and urban stormwater networks for 275,000 users.

- In 2018, Aquatech International was awarded a contract for a new wastewater treatment plant for Fulcrum Bioenergy, a biorefinery plant in the US. Aquatech will supply a forced circulation crystallizer and a demineralization system. Aquatech will act as the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) on the construction of the project. The project is expected to be completed in 2019.

- In 2017, Evoqua Water Technologies LLC acquired ADI Systems (US) from ADI Group Inc. (US), a wastewater solutions company serving industrial and manufacturing sectors.



Get 10% Customization on this Report @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomizationNew.asp?id=265752702



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, "Knowledgestore" 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

sales@marketsandmarkets.com
Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/12/2021 -- The Latest research study released by HTF MI "Global DSP Software Market" with 100+ pages of analysis on business Strategy taken up by key and emerging industry players and delivers know how of the current market development, landscape, technologies, drivers, opportunities, market viewpoint and status. Understanding the segments helps in identifying the importance of different factors that aid the market growth. Some of the Major Companies covered in this Research are D.A.S. Audio, Extron, TI, AllDSP, AtlasIED, Cirrus Logic, Yamaha, Symetrix, Harman International Industries, Microstar Laboratories, Intel, Analog, DSP Concepts, Dayton Audio, Audiotec Fischer etc.



Click here for free sample + related graphs of the report @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/3669324-global-dsp-software-market-7



Browse market information, tables and figures extent in-depth TOC on "DSP Software Market by Application (on, Automotive, Consumer Electronics), by Product Type (, Windows & Linux), Business scope, Manufacturing and Outlook  Estimate to 2025".



for more information or any query mail at sales@htfmarketreport.com



At last, all parts of the Global DSP Software Market are quantitatively also subjectively valued to think about the Global just as regional market equally. This market study presents basic data and true figures about the market giving a deep analysis of this market based on market trends, market drivers, constraints and its future prospects. The report supplies the worldwide monetary challenge with the help of Porter's Five Forces Analysis and SWOT Analysis.



If you have any Enquiry please click here @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/3669324-global-dsp-software-market-7



Customization of the Report: The report can be customized as per your needs for added data up to 3 businesses or countries or 2 analyst hours.



On the basis of report- titled segments and sub-segment of the market are highlighted below:

Global DSP Software Market By Application/End-User (Value and Volume from 2021 to 2026) : on, Automotive, Consumer Electronics



Market By Type (Value and Volume from 2021 to 2026) : , Windows & Linux



Global DSP Software Market by Key Players: D.A.S. Audio, Extron, TI, AllDSP, AtlasIED, Cirrus Logic, Yamaha, Symetrix, Harman International Industries, Microstar Laboratories, Intel, Analog, DSP Concepts, Dayton Audio, Audiotec Fischer



Geographically, this report is segmented into some key Regions, with manufacture, depletion, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of DSP Software in these regions, from 2015 to 2026 (forecast), covering China, USA, Europe, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia & South America and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2021 to 2026.



Informational Takeaways from the Market Study: The report DSP Software matches the completely examined and evaluated data of the noticeable companies and their situation in the market considering impact of Coronavirus. The measured tools including SWOT analysis, Porter's five powers analysis, and assumption return debt were utilized while separating the improvement of the key players performing in the market.



Key Development's in the Market: This segment of the DSP Software report fuses the major developments of the market that contains confirmations, composed endeavors, R&D, new thing dispatch, joint endeavours, and relationship of driving members working in the market.



To get this report buy full copy @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=3669324



Some of the important question for stakeholders and business professional for expanding their position in the Global DSP Software Market:

Q 1. Which Region offers the most rewarding open doors for the market Ahead of 2021?

Q 2. What are the business threats and Impact of latest scenario Over the market Growth and Estimation?

Q 3. What are probably the most encouraging, high-development scenarios for DSP Software movement showcase by applications, types and regions?

Q 4.What segments grab most noteworthy attention in DSP Software Market in 2020 and beyond?

Q 5. Who are the significant players confronting and developing in DSP Software Market?



For More Information Read Table of Content @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/3669324-global-dsp-software-market-7



Key poles of the TOC:

Chapter 1 Global DSP Software Market Business Overview

Chapter 2 Major Breakdown by Type [, Windows & Linux]

Chapter 3 Major Application Wise Breakdown (Revenue & Volume)

Chapter 4 Manufacture Market Breakdown

Chapter 5 Sales & Estimates Market Study

Chapter 6 Key Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison Breakdown

..

Chapter 8 Manufacturers, Deals and Closings Market Evaluation & Aggressiveness

Chapter 9 Key Companies Breakdown by Overall Market Size & Revenue by Type

..

Chapter 11 Business / Industry Chain (Value & Supply Chain Analysis)

Chapter 12 Conclusions & Appendix



Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, LATAM, Europe or Southeast Asia.



Contact US :

Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)

HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited

Unit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJ

New Jersey USA  08837

Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218

sales@htfmarketreport.com
Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/12/2021 -- A Latest intelligence report published by AMA Research with title "Science Magazine Market Outlook to 2026. A detailed study accumulated to offer Latest insights about acute features of the Global Science Magazine Market. This report provides a detailed overview of key factors in the Science Magazine Market and factors such as driver, restraint, past and current trends, regulatory scenarios and technology development. A thorough analysis of these factors including economic slowdown, local & global reforms and COVID-19 Impact has been conducted to determine future growth prospects in the global market.



Major Players in This Report Include,

Nature Research (Germany),Science (United Kingdom),Springer Nature (Germany),RELX plc (United Kingdom),National Geographic Partners (United States),Bentham Science Publishers (United Arab Emirates),HarperCollins Publishers LLC (United States),Kalmbach Media (United States),O'Reilly Media Inc. (United States),Royan Institute (Iran)



Free Sample Report + All Related Graphs & Charts @:

https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/114489-global-science-magazine-market



Definition:

A science magazine is a periodic publication with various news, views, and reports about science, mostly written for a non-expert audience. In contrast, to a periodical publication, which usually includes primary research and reviews which is written by the scientific experts is known as a "scientific journal". The science magazine is also widely referred to as science journal, which is one of the peer-reviewed educational journals of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that is named to be one of the world's top academic journals. This was first published in the year 1880, and is currently circulated weekly and also has a subscriber base of almost 130,000. Because the institutional subscriptions and the online access are now serving a larger audience, hence it is estimated to have a readership of approximately 570,400 people. The major focus of this magazine is publishing all the important and original scientific researches and their respective research reviews, but the Science magazine also publishes the news related to science, opinions on the science policies and some other matters of interest to the scientists and others who all are concerned with the wide consequences of science and technology. Unlike most of the scientific magazines, which focus on just a particular field, Science and its challenging Nature covers the full range of all the scientific disciplines.



Market Trend:

Growth in Digital Publishing

Availability of Online Open Access (OA) Publication Model



Market Drivers:

Increasing Demand for English-language Scientific and Technical Journal Publishing

Upsurging Demand for E-Books across the World



Challenges:

The Growing Concern about Explosion of Data-Intensive Research

Fluctuating Price of Raw Material



Opportunities:

High Adoption From The Developing Countries Such as India, China



The Global Science Magazine Market segments and Market Data Break Down are illuminated below:

by Type (National Geographic, Psychology, Popular Mechanics, Others), Application (Individual, Commercial), Peer Review Type (Single-blind, Double-blind, Open review, Transferable, Collaborative, Post-publication), Distribution Channel (Online, Offline), End-Users (Students, Professionals, Colleges, Institutes, Research Organization, Others), Major Type (Independent-Type, Administrator-Type)



Enquire for customization in Report @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/enquiry-before-buy/114489-global-science-magazine-market



Geographically, the detailed analysis of consumption, revenue, market share, and growth rate of the following regions:

- The Middle East and Africa (South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Israel, Egypt, etc.)

- North America (United States, Mexico & Canada)

- South America (Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, etc.)

- Europe (Turkey, Spain, Turkey, Netherlands Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Russia UK, Italy, France, etc.)

- Asia-Pacific (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Australia).



Report Highlights:

- Comprehensive overview of parent market & substitute market

- Changing market dynamics in the industry (COVID & Economic Impact Analysis)

- In-depth market segmentation (Trends, Growth with Historical & Forecast Analysis)

- Recent industry trends and development activity

- Competitive landscape (Heat Map Analysis for Emerging Players & Market Share Analysis for Major Players along with detailed Profiles)



Strategic Points Covered in Table of Content of Global Science Magazine Market:

Chapter 1: Introduction, market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the Science Magazine market

Chapter 2: Exclusive Summary  the basic information of the Science Magazine Market.

Chapter 3: Displaying the Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges of the Science Magazine

Chapter 4: Presenting the Science Magazine Market Factor Analysis Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis.

Chapter 5: Displaying market size by Type, End User and Region 2015-2020

Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Science Magazine market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile

Chapter 7: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by manufacturers with revenue share and sales by key countries (2021-2026).

Chapter 8 & 9: Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source



Finally, Science Magazine Market is a valuable source of guidance for individuals and companies in decision framework.



Get More Information:

https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/reports/114489-global-science-magazine-market



Key questions answered

- Who are the Leading key players and what are their Key Business plans in the Global Science Magazine market?

- What are the key concerns of the five forces analysis of the Global Science Magazine market?

- What are different prospects and threats faced by the dealers in the Global Science Magazine market?

- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?



Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Southeast Asia.
One or more volcanic eruptions preceded the majority (62 of 68) of dynastic collapses in China over the past 2,000 years, according to new research led by Zhejiang University and Trinity College Dublin scientists.

Chinas long history thus presents an unrivaled opportunity to examine whether abrupt climatic change has a role in the recurrent and precisely datable collapse of 68 dynasties throughout the first two millennia CE, said first author Dr. Chaochao Gao of Zhejiang University and colleagues.

The fall of these dynasties is often described in terms of collapse.

Some certainly occurred with apparent rapidity in the context of intense conflict and with the significant agroecological and socioeconomic disruption and population loss that are important components in many cases and definitions of collapse, but others occurred as less-disruptive transitions between ruling families and elites, with considerable bureaucratic and economic continuities.

These events have also been historically set in the context of a dynastic cycle, in which dynasties proceeded through a period of virtue and vigor before decline and collapse, often traditionally credited to the immorality and corruption of the ruling family and elites.

Socioeconomic and demographic pressures, mass migrations, and population displacements, alongside mismanagement of natural resources and environmental degradation, are now more often stressed as causal factors.

The contribution of climatic stresses has also begun to assume increased  though often controversial  prominence, for example with the collapse of the Tang Dynasty in 907 CE, the Yuan Dynasty in 1368 CE, and the Ming Dynasty in 1644 CE linked to episodes of drought and cold.

Explosive volcanism has also been proposed as an underlying climatic forcing associated with specific individual collapses, but the extent to which such observations are generalizable to the broader multi-millennium history of dynastic collapse, with explosive volcanism  and abrupt climatic change by extension  playing a systematic role, has never been established.

In their study, the scientists reconstructed 156 explosive volcanic eruptions from 1 CE to 1915 by examining elevated sulfate levels in ice cores from Greenland and Antarctic.

They also analyzed historical documents from China on 68 dynasties and examined warfare there between 850 and 1911.

They found that smaller volcanic shocks to the climate may cause dynasties to collapse when political and socioeconomic stress is already high.

Larger shocks may lead to collapses without substantial pre-existing stress.

Other factors include poor leadership, administrative corruption and demographic pressures.

With so many precisely dated collapses, we can look not just at individual cases of collapse that may or may not have followed a change in climate, but rather look simultaneously at many collapses to see whether there is a repeated pattern where a change in climate was followed by collapse, said co-lead author Dr. Francis Ludlow, a researcher at Trinity College Dublin.

This can tell us whether climatic change played a very minor role in dynastic collapse, or whether it posed a systematic threat to these powerful and sophisticated societies.

The authors found that 62 of the 68 dynastic collapses in China were closely preceded by at least one volcanic eruption.

We found that even a small volcanic eruption might help trigger a collapse when pre-existing instability was high, said co-author Dr. John Matthews, a postdoctoral researcher at Trinity College Dublin.

Larger eruptions, however, could trigger a collapse even when pre-existing instability was minimal.

So as ever, historical context is key to understanding how climate can impact a society.

It is also clear that we should be preparing for the impacts of the next big eruption  so far in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the eruptions weve experienced have been minnows compared to some that these dynasties had to deal with.

The study appears in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

_____

C. Gao et al. 2021. Volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of Chinese dynastic collapse. Commun Earth Environ 2, 234; doi: 10.1038/s43247-021-00284-7
A section of local residents and their political and activist supporters demanded that the project should be closed. Several cases were filed in the court and the judiciary permitted the project to operate with certain conditions.

by N.S.Venkataraman

Tamil Nadu government has fixed a target to achieve GDP to the level of 1 trillion US dollar in the next few years. To achieve this target, the GDP has to be increased by around 3.5 times from the present level. Given the potential in Tamil Nadu, this target is technically achievable.

However, given the ground realities in Tamil Nadu in recent time, with politically inclined environmental activists, opposition political parties and sections of farmers blocking every project under one pretext or the other , it is extremely doubtful as to whether sucha target could be achieved in the foreseeable future.

Environmental activism is necessary to protect ecological interests. However, when environmental activism gets mixed with political interest and vested interest , it need to be criticized and opposed.

A few stalled projects are discussed , which clearly indicate that the activism in Tamil Nadu has become counter productive.

Titanium dioxide project of Tata group :

In the year 2001, Tata group decided to set up a titanium dioxide project of capacity 50,000 tonne per annum with an investment of around Rs. 2500 crore at Tuticorin. Considering the fact that the raw material ilmenite deposits is available in Tamil Nadu and India is a net importer of titanium dioxide with fast growing demand , the project has high level of significance.

While the state government approved the project , the move of Tata group to acquire land for the project was resisted by vested interests. In utter frustration, Tata group withdrew the proposal to set up the titanium dioxide project.

Natural gas pipeline from Kochi to Tamil Nadu :

LNG terminal of capacity 5 million tonne per annum has been set up at Kochi in Kerala with the plan to lay a pipeline for taking the gas to neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. While the pipeline in Kerala was laid on the way to Tamil Nadu, a pipeline of around 330 kilometer have to be laid in Tamil Nadu to deliver the gas at different centres.

The project was resisted by a section of farmers and the political and activist supporters.

The job was undertaken by GAIL , a government of India undertaking and the organization said that the pipeline would be laid 5 feet below ground level and would be covered and the farmers can continue to do cultivation of crops that are not deep rooted. The protesters said that the pipeline should be laid on the highways, which is technically not possible due to lack of adequate width of the highways and likely vibration due to movement of heavy vehicle traffic. The protesters did not relent and the project has been stopped. This has resulted in the loss of investment opportunity of around Rs.15000 crore for setting up downstream projects based on natural gas.

Crude oil exploration project :

Government of India accorded permission for crude oil exploration project in delta region in Tamil Nadu , which largely consists of agricultural land with cultivation area of around 15 lakh acres. The exploration project would require only less than 10000 acres of land and the farmers and their political and activist supporters protested against the project.

This project is extremely important for India, since India produces only around 30 million tonne per annum of crude oil and imports over 220 million tonne per annum. In view of the protests, the project was stopped.

Sterlite Copper unit :

A large copper smelter unit belonging to Vedanta group was operating in Tuticorin for more than a decade. This project also have sulphuric acid plant of capacity 12 lakh tonne per annum.

A section of local residents and their political and activist supporters demanded that the project should be closed. Several cases were filed in the court and the judiciary permitted the project to operate with certain conditions.

The issue raised was largely relating to sulphur dioxide gas emission. Management of Sterlite Copper insisted that it was not emitting sulphur dioxide gas and has a high technology desulphurization unit. There are four coal based thermal plants in Tuticorin and they are emitting sulphur dioxide gas through chimneys, due to sulphur content in the coal. There were also few other baseless allegations. The protest turned violent and the project was stopped by the state government.

Neutrino project :

A neutrino project was proposed to be set up at Theni region in Tamil Nadu, with an investment of around Rs. 1500 crore.

Neutrino project is an extremely important one from the point of view of scientific research and technology development. Neutrino has no charge and huge research efforts are under way in different countries in the world to separate the neutrino , which has huge potential applications in communication , medical technology and other areas.

The project involves deep drilling of hard rock and to carry out the research study on neutrino. . There were objections from the local residents with the support of activists and some political parties against the project stating that it would cause structural disturbance in the region. This was denied by the scientists. Several neutrino projects are under operation in countries like Japan, Italy, Canada and others.

Dr. Abdul Kalam, former President and renowned scientist explained the importance of the project and wrote several articles appealing to the protesters to give up their agitation. The appeal of Dr. Kalam was not heeded. The project has been given up for all practical purposes.

Kudankulam nuclear power project :

Kudankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu was conceived in the 1990s and the project was opposed by the local residents and activists, causing huge delay in implementation of the project.

The accidents in Chernobyl (Russia) and Fukushima (Japan) nuclear power plants encouraged the protesters to intensify the agitation. The scientists explained extensively to the protesters about the safety measures introduced .

After prolonged debate and agitation, Tamil Nadu government ordered an enquiry and the enquiry committee supported the project . The agitation was put down by the state government and the project was commissioned ultimately at a huge cost due to inordinate delay.

PCPIR region :

Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR)

was planned in Cuddalore and Nagapattinam region with an area of around 54000 acres to set up a number of large scale petrochemical projects. This would have been similar to chemical parks in China and industrial zones in Jurong Island in Singapore. This project was also opposed by the local farmers with the support of activists and political parties. This project has also been given up now for all practical purposes.

Salem Chennai Highway project :

Eight lane highway was planned between Salem and Chennai to reduce the travelling time , that would provide several benefits. This project was also opposed and has been given up now.
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951

/var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fdf27c2c8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdf171d38)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fdf27c2c8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdf171d38)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fdf24f840)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdf171d38)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdf171d38)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fde8bf150)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdf97e830)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdf97e830)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
Like many functions, the Soroptimist of Homestead Blue Jean Ball, their primary fundraiser for their scholarship program, was cancelled during COVID-19 closures. Many of the 2019 members are now planning for the January 29, 2022 event.
The never-ending series of fake-encounters is no doubt the worst violation of human rights in the Indian Occupied Valley of Jammu & Kashmir and it never reaches any end.

by Ali Sukhanver

The Human Rights Watch Report published somewhere in 2006 said commenting upon the pathetic law and order situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, Fake encounters enunciate that acts of suppression and violence have been deemed as acts of service, and compensations and promotions awarded to security forces personnel for killing presumed insurgents. Now in 2021 Pakistans Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Indian Charge dAffaires in Pakistan to the Foreign Office and handed over a dossier which also expressed the same fears regarding pathetic law and order situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. The dossier was titled Indian Human Rights Violation in IIOJK 2021. The dossier said that the Indian Army is committing war crimes against humanity in the disputed region. The said dossier pointed out that since 2000 over 80 major fake encounters have been reported in the IOK in with murder of more than 160 innocent Kashmiris. It is just a routine matter that the Indian Occupational Forces arrest innocent civilians and then shoot them after keeping them in illegal custody. By end of the day all such murder ones are declared the terrorist. It has also been reported so many times that different gangs of the Security Forces first manage to get announced head-money on innocent citizens behind the bars and later kill them in fake encounters.

The never-ending series of fake-encounters is no doubt the worst violation of human rights in the Indian Occupied Valley of Jammu & Kashmir and it never reaches any end. On 30th Dec 2020, in an incident of the same type, the Indian Occupational Forces (IOF) and the Police killed 3 innocent civilians in the Lawaypora area of Srinagar but later on the Sector Commander General H. Sahi and Inspector General Police Vijay Kumar in their false statement claimed and declared them terrorists. Similarly, on July 18 2020, three young men were killed in Shopian District in a fake encounter and declared foreigners. Later some officers of the Indian Occupational Forces admitted in an unofficial and informal statement that Captain Bhoopendra of 62 RR with the help of two civilians deliberately killed 3 innocent Kashmiris and planted weapons on them to secure the bounty worth 2 million Indian rupees.

Summoning of the Indian Charge dAffaires in Pakistan to Pakistans Foreign Office was in particular reference to the reported killing of a Pakistani prisoner in an incident in IIOJK under Indian custody. According to the details a Pakistani civilian prisoner Mr. Zia Mustafa was in Indian custody since 2003. The Indian Express said in a recent report, Mustafas arrest was announced on April 10, 2003 at a press conference by J&K DGP A K Suri in Srinagar. Mustafa was paraded at the press conference as a big catch. Suri said he was a district commander of the LeT and had been involved in the killing of 24 Kashmiri Pandits, who had stayed on in their homes in village Nadimarg in Pulwama district. The police chief said an AK rifle, ammunition, a wireless set, and documents had also been found on Mustafa, who went by several aliases including Victor. A few weeks before his brutal murder at the hands of the Indian Forces, Zia Mustafa had mentioned to his family members that the court had almost found him innocent and the court could find no evidence against him. I will be back with you soon said Mustafa in that letter. Reports say that Zia was facing trial before district court Shopian where the state failed to produce even single evidence against him. Resultantly the trial court had to close the prosecution. After that closure the State of Jammu Kashmir filed the criminal appeal before Jammu Kashmir High court Srinagar Wing. That appeal was also dismissed. The Government of Pakistan also admitted Zia as the state subject of Azad Jammu Kashmir in the prisoners list on January 23, 2006 and registered him under number SS382577. All these facts and figures prove that Mustafa had been in Indian prison for the last Seventeen years; unbelievably Zia Mustafa was shot dead by the Indian security forces in an alleged encounter on 17th October 2021. The perpetrators of this encounter concocted a story to satisfy the readers but believing such a cock and bull story is not possible for anyone sensible. The story published in almost all Indian newspapers says, On 17th October, two policemen and an Army soldier were injured in a gun battle between security forces and militants in Poonch, in an ongoing operation to hunt down militants who killed nine Army personnel between October 11 and 14 in a thickly forested area in the hilly terrain of the district.

Zia Mustafa, a Pakistani terrorist, was taken to Bhata Durian for identification of terrorist hideout during the ongoing operation. During the search terrorists again opened fire on the joint team of police and army personnel in which two policemen and an army jawan sustained injuries. Mustafa also sustained injuries and could not be extracted from the site due to heavy fire. Later, the police confirmed Mustafas body had been retrieved from the encounter site. killing of the Pakistani prisoner under mysterious circumstances at a location away from the prison where he was interned, is not only intriguing but also raises serious questions about the well-being, safety and security of Pakistani prisoners in India. Moreover, there is another question too; how is it possible for a prisoner, who had been in Jail for the last seventeen years, to identify terrorist hideouts particularly in a country he doesnt belong to. The security and the intelligence organizations of that country must have more knowledge of the terrorists hideouts than a helpless foreigner behind the bars in a foreign land.
The world is starving: but there is plenty of food to go around

Why then is 10 percent of the world's population facing food insecurity; and why are a fifth of the world's children having their growth stunted from a lack of nutrition?

by Niklas Ablin Svensson

At present, 800 million people are not eating sufficient amount of food, and 45 million are on the brink of starvation. This is a striking indictment of a society where the richest earned $4tn in the first year of a global pandemic.

Over the past few months, the stark reality is that 23 million people in Afghanistan have faced acute food insecurity, and 9 million are at emergency levels", according to the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification). On the tiny island nation of Madagascar alone, 300,000 people face famine of the highest classification. There are 16 million people in Yemen facing acute food insecurity. The list goes on.

For centuries, human beings endured starvation because of a lack of food. Crop failures would plunge millions into starvation, because there was no food to be had. Human beings were subject to the whims of nature: droughts, floods, cold spells and all manner of disasters. With a local economy with limited trade, it was impossible to make up the shortfall in one region with the production of another. But this is no longer the case.

We are currently producing more than enough to feed the entire planet. The amount of cereal production would be sufficient to feed everyone in the world twice over, with its highest yield ever of 2.8tn tonnes (the equivalent of 1kg per person per day). We have a network of world trade unparallelled in history. 11 billion tonnes of cargo are transported on the seas every year.

Why then is 10 percent of the world's population facing food insecurity; and why are a fifth of the world's children having their growth stunted from a lack of nutrition?

Recently, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, wound up in a Twitter spat with multi-billionaire Elon Musk. Beasley asked billionaires to donate $6bn to save the lives of 42 million people. Musk attempted to sow doubts about the claim, asking Beasley to provide open source accounting (whatever that means) to show how the money was spent.

One might ask Musk to do the same thing with his own companies, which are kept afloat thanks to massive injections of public money, but one suspects he'd take great offence at this.

Please publish your current & proposed spending in detail so people can see exactly where money goes.

Sunlight is a wonderful thing.

 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2021

If the world's billionaires were to give up 0.15 percent of the $4tn they earned last year, we could stop people starving to death this year. Presumably, if they gave up 3 percent, we could then ensure the 800 million people going hungry had enough to eat.

But, as Beasley found out, it's very difficult to get the world's capitalists to part with their money. Musk is also very much opposed to the idea that he or people like him should be paying more tax.

The world's richest nations aren't any more forthcoming. Whilst the need for aid has increased dramatically, the richest nations have cut their funding. Support for Syrian refugees and refugees in East Africa have been slashed, and food rations cut by half.

The truth is that the capitalist system has no interest in providing for the hundreds of millions that are going hungry. The problem isn't that the food isn't there, but that the poor can't afford to buy it. If modern agricultural techniques, including mechanisation, were put to proper use on the basis of a rational plan, we could increase our supply of food further still. But there's no profit to be made in that either.

Charities, NGOs and the UN's World Food Programme are sticking plasters that attempt to alleviate the worst starvation, but they are completely incapable of solving the problem of hunger. They basically survive by begging the wealthy to part with their money, and they get very little in return. The capitalist system is inflicting this misery on the world's poor, and it provides little in the way of relief.

We already have all the resources necessary to satisfy the basic needs of the worlds population. By ending food waste, and investing in better technology, we could not just only meet these basic needs, but ensure a decent living standard for all, and in a sustainable way.

But this would only be possible under an economic system of rational planning to fulfil human need, of organising the worlds resources for the benefit of the workers, the peasants and the poor of the world, not the profit of a tiny group of billionaires.
Cynthia Chapple, Black Girls do STEM founder and managing director, said being a Black woman in STEM, she is typically the only Black woman, and often the only minority in a lot of rooms she walks into.
EQS Group-Ad-hoc: TX Group / Key word(s): Investment/Merger

SMG Swiss Marketplace Group: combined joint venture launched by the TX Group, Ringier, La Mobiliere and General Atlantic



12-Nov-2021 / 06:31 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



TX Group AG, Ringier AG, Mobiliar and General Atlantic are launching their Joint Venture in the digital marketplaces segment: its name is SMG Swiss Marketplace Group, and it will have its own independent brand identity. The closing of the joint venture was completed on November 11, 2021. At the same time, Martin Waeber, Pierre-Alain Regali, Francesco Vass and Boris Gussen have become members of the Group Leadership Team headed by Gilles Despas. Zurich, 12 November 2021 - The new group is being launched with the name SMG Swiss Marketplace Group and its own market identity. Headed by CEO Gilles Despas, the company includes a number of well-known platforms - acheter-louer.ch, anibis.ch, AutoScout24, Car For You, FinanceScout24, home.ch, Homegate, icasa.ch, ImmoScout24, ImmoStreet.ch, MotoScout24, Ricardo and tutti.ch - together with marketing of advertising. SMG Swiss Marketplace Group aims to emanate the aura of a digital pioneer: its groundbreaking products will simplify people's lives and drive customers' success ahead. Swissness, simplicity, ambition to grow and digital innovation are the keynotes of the brand image. swissmarketplace.group has been created as the website to launch and promote the new company. Alongside CEO Gilles Despas, the new Group Leadership Team of SMG Swiss Marketplace Group AG includes several new members: Martin Waeber as Managing Director of the Real Estate Division (Homegate and ImmoScout24); Pierre-Alain Regali as Managing Director of the Vehicles Division (AutoScout24, MotoScout24 and Car For You); and Francesco Vass as Managing Director of General Marketplaces (anibis.ch, Ricardo and tutti.ch). Boris Gussen is taking on the position of Chief Financial Officer for the new group. Further appointments will follow in the coming weeks. Lothar Lanz, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SMG Swiss Marketplace Group AG, comments: "In recent weeks, together with Gilles Despas, Board of Directors member Olivier Rihs and the shareholders, we have been able to appoint excellent and experienced managers to fill the first positions in the new Group Leadership Team. Further positions will follow. I'm extraordinarily pleased to be accompanying the new company as it continues its journey." Gilles Despas, CEO of SMG Swiss Marketplace Group AG, is delighted: "Today, we're embarking on a thrilling journey with a new forward-thinking company that can meet the challenges of the future. Our burning ambition is to create nothing but the best products and services for our valued customers and users in Switzerland. We intend to be the most flexible and attractive employer among Europe's digital enterprises. A company that strives for sustainability and turns genuine diversity into a living reality every day, in an inspirational and agile multilingual environment as we drive the digitalization of our industries ahead. I'm proud of the in-depth knowledge and growth potential that we already have in our company. And I'm equally proud of the opportunities we can offer to digital talents and stakeholders as we move onwards and upwards. Together with the Group Leadership Team and our remarkable, talented employees, I'm looking forward to continuing the company's development in the coming years." As announced on 31 August 2021, TX Group AG holds a stake of 31 percent in the new joint venture; Ringier AG and Mobiliar each hold 29.5 percent, and General Atlantic holds 10 percent. The four shareholders each have 25 percent of the voting rights. CEO Gilles Despas will be glad to respond to media enquiries by telephone between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon on 12 November. If you are interested, please register in advance by contacting Daniel de Carvalho (+41 79 649 29 18, daniel.decarvalho@scout24.ch) or Simon Marquard (+41 78 670 35 35, simon.marquard@tx.markets). Contacts TX Group AG:

Ursula Notzli, Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations

+41 76 462 52 45, ursula.noetzli@tx.group Ringier AG:

Johanna Walser, Chief Communications Officer

+41 44 259 61 23, johanna.walser@ringier.ch La Mobiliere:

Alice Chalupny, Head of Corporate Communications

+41 31 389 88 44, alice.chalupny@mobiliar.ch General Atlantic:

Susanne Jahrreiss / Ralf Geissler

+49 89 309052950, mail@perfect-game.de About TX Group

TX Group forms a network of digital platforms that offer users information, orientation, entertainment and services for everyday needs. Three independent companies operate under the umbrella of the TX Group: Goldbach handles advertising marketing in Switzerland, Germany and Austria; 20 Minuten is the company for commuter media in Switzerland and abroad; Tamedia leads the paid daily and weekly newspapers and magazines into the future. In addition, the TX Group is a participant in the SMG Swiss Marketplace Group joint venture together with Ringier, Mobiliar and General Atlantic. The TX Group and Ringier AG also operate the Jobcloud joint venture together. About Ringier

Ringier AG is an innovative, digitalised and diversified Swiss media company opeRating in Europe, Asia and Africa. Its portfolio includes over 110 subsidiaries in the print, digital media, radio, ticketing, entertainment and e-commerce sectors and leading online marketplaces for cars, property and jobs. As a venture capital provider, Ringier supports innovative digital start-ups. Ringier, a family company, founded in 1833 as a publishing house and printing press, has invested consistently in the Group's digitalisation and global expansion in recent years. In 2020, the company's approximately 6,800 employees, operating in 18 different countries, generated revenues of CHF 953.7 million. Today, more than 69% of its operating profit already comes from digital, where Ringier is a leader among European media companies. Ringier represents independence, freedom of expression and a pioneering spirit. About La Mobiliere

Every third household and every third company in Switzerland is insured with La Mobiliere. As of 31 December 2020, the all-lines insurer had a premium volume of approximately CHF 4.1 billion. Eighty independent general agencies with their own claims services provide cover to some 2.2 million customers at about 160 locations.

In its home markets of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, La Mobiliere has about 5,900 employees and 338 apprenticeships. Established as a cooperative in 1826, La Mobiliere is the oldest private insurance company in Switzerland. The Board of Directors of Schweizerische Mobiliar Genossenschaft ensure that the cooperative orientation of the group is maintained. About General Atlantic

General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm with more than four decades of experience providing capital and strategic support for over 400 growth companies throughout its history. Established in 1980 to partner with visionary entrepreneurs and deliver lasting impact, the firm combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to scale innovative businesses around the world. General Atlantic currently has over $65 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2021 and more than 175 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Stamford. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit the website: www.generalatlantic.com.

End of ad hoc announcement
Ryan was placed on administrative leave, the fire department said in a prepared statement. He was not on duty when he was arrested and could face disciplinary action, the statement said.
As commissioners we are there to evaluate all the information, not make knee-jerk reactions based on misinformation, he said, his voice rising. For instance  the condos not going on the public beach. Its going on A1A. I have a fiduciary responsibility [to decide] whats best for all the residents of Hollywood.
While nothing will erase the enormity of the abuse caused to Ollie, we were concerned that it might be impossible to prove that all of Ollies injuries were not inflicted at the same time, Schneider said. If that was the outcome after trial, the defendant could have faced just five years in prison. The plea agreement resulted in a 10-year prison term.
Those injured were all passengers in the car and were treated at the scene of the crash, the Cascades of Lauderhill at 7770 NW 50th St. A fourth passenger in the car was not injured, Gonzalez said.
But Resiles made sure the case got far more attention on July 15, 2016, on a day when he and several other inmates were marched into court for routine hearings that typically ended almost as soon as they began. Using a key he had somehow managed to obtain, Resiles unlocked his shackles and, before anyone could process what they were witnessing, bolted out of the fourth floor courtroom, raced down a stairwell, left the building, jumped into a waiting car and fled downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Rodriguez called the planned protest an operation by the government and officials of the United States to do away with the Cuban system. He said U.S. sanctions on Cuba seek to suffocate the island, generating social protests and creating the image of a failed state.
Meehan has worried that troops who came back with breathing problems are being compared with other Americans to determine whether there is a higher rate of lung illness. But those deployed with the U.S. military are in peak physical condition, stronger and more fit than average Americans. To come back unable to make it up stairs without getting winded or unable to lift anything without breathing heavily is highly unusual.
When I see trillions being spent by the developed world and at the same time, the suffering, the impacts of climate change more than in the global north, in hurricanes, in droughts that undermine the development of my country and the well-being of my citizens, Guterres said, putting himself in the shoes of an island leader. I mean, it would be impossible in this situation not to feel an enormous frustration if the developed countries do not correspond to a number of basic commitments on financial help.
Asked if shed have preferred to win by a larger number of votes, she said the answer was obvious. Of course. She said she was never discouraged by naysayers who said she couldnt prevail in the primary that included five elected officials, including Holness, a Broward County commissioner. They always say you cant until you do it.
Infected Rage

Written by: William Blackwell

Available In: eBook|Paperback

Author Website: http://www.wblackwell.com/

Clairvoyant Kathleen Freebornes peaceful existence is shattered when she feels a clients violent rage suddenly course through her entire being. Macabre and disturbing events point to a rage virus that infects locals, sending them on murderous rampages.
If you already subscribe to our print edition, sign up for FREE access to our online edition. Thanks for reading The Henderson News.
By Malcolm Galpern Levin

galpernl@grinnell.edu

The International Student Organization (ISO) is wasting no time to host events to connect with new students and welcome back returning ones now that the entire student body is back on campus.

It was just hard to  start a community again, you know, because you have a lot of people who havent been on campus too and you got to welcome them back and also the first years [and] second years, said ISO President Momi Fukushima `22.

The International Pre-Orientation Program (IPOP), which occurs in the week prior to NSO, allowed many international students to have the opportunity to connect with one another and be introduced to ISO.

ISO Vice President Kexin (Sherry) Huang `22 said many second-year international students managed to make strong connections in spite of the separation of different class years induced by the pandemic.

The second years, amazingly, they did a good job connecting among themselves because I guess they have similar experiences and they went through the same thing, said Huang.

When ISO held a special election to determine who would be treasurer for the spring semester after the current treasurer decided they would be studying abroad in the spring, board members were surprised at the number of people who applied for the position. ISO Secretary Gyana Singh `23 says ISO received nine applicants in the first round.

It felt kind of nice that people want to do this, said Singh. If so, many people want to be a part of it, they saw something they like.

To connect with students, ISO reached out to international students in a number of ways.

ISOs first event of the year was an outdoor welcome event hosted on Aug. 28 outside the JRC to allow unvaccinated students to develop a sense of community.

So many of the international students werent vaccinated when they came here. And they werent allowed to get in the D-Hall and form a community, said Singh.

At the event, ISO served tea and encouraged students to safely socialize and get to know one another.

In September, ISO collaborated with the Chinese Student Association (CSA) to plan CSAs Mid-Autumn Festival, but due to funding issues, the event had to be postponed to Oct. 29.

Were trying to provide support not only for the students in our org, but also international student orgs, said Huang.

ISOs second event of the year was a study break boba tea event held on Oct. 6 in which they provided free bubble tea drinks to students in the midst of preparing for midterms. Similar funding concerns emerged over whether the organizations budget would be approved before the event was planned to occur, but luckily ISO managed to secure funds the day prior.

Once their budget was approved by SGA, ISO ordered and retrieved the bubble tea drinks from Iowa City and brought them back to Grinnell for students to pick up from the ISO suite in the JRC.

We got, I think, 200 odd pieces and they were all gone in 30 minutes, said Singh.

Fukushima says having the boba study break on the second floor also helped introduce students to the many multicultural student spaces there.

ISO plans to host further study break events for students in the coming months, each with a different theme.

Food Bazaar, one of ISOs most popular and beloved annual events, will be making its grand return this year.

For Food Bazaar, students from across the globe prepare different dishes from their own cultures to be shared with and enjoyed by students. Student chefs typically work in pairs to prepare meals and each pair is responsible for making roughly 40-50 servings. Domestic students can also be involved in the event by helping students cook, or preparing meals from their own unique culture. ISO supplies students with all of the ingredients and supplies necessary for cooking.

Its a way of bringing their own home culture to all of us, said Singh. I feel like that just gives us both a connection to our roots in some way while also meeting new people through it.

So far, ISO has received 43 unique recipes that will be available for students to taste once the event is hosted.

Its one of the biggest events in Grinnell, and its a place where we can really celebrate our diversity that we have in food, said Fukushima.

I feel its just something we need here, to be reminded that, you know, we can have a sense of homeliness and these new experiences together, said Singh.

ISO also hopes that Food Bazaar will allow international and domestic students to connect with one another more.

There shouldnt be a divide in a bad way, right? Yes, we are all different but we should celebrate that, said Fukushima. We want to use Food Bazaar as an event that bridges that gap.

Though Fukushima says ISO is still planning the specific details of the event, she says the organization might have some students give a presentation or speech that tries to bring international and domestic students together.

Food is a really good way to connect people, said Huang. You will be able to connect on a cultural level  while youre tasting, trying the food, thinking about the culture behind it. I think thats a really good way to connect people among the two groups.

Students need tickets to participate in Food Bazaar. Food Bazaar itself will take place on Sunday, Nov. 14 in the Harris Center from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
By Eleanor Corbin and Allison Moore

corbinel@grinnell.edu

mooreall2@grinnell.edu

For students who have been assaulted or harassed, directional no-contact orders through the Title IX office are a crucial opportunity to restore their sense of safety on campus.

One student pursued this option, hoping it would allow her to live at Grinnell without fear of encountering her perpetrator. Instead, she found that the promised protections were vague, unenforced and required her to consistently stay vigilant to avoid her perpetrators violations of the contract in public spaces like the Spencer Grill.

Its always me who leaves first, she said.

The S&B talked with two students who recently filed complaints with Title IX and still have concerns about their safety on campus. They have been granted anonymity due to the sensitive and recent nature of their situations, although their pronouns will be used to contextualize the gender-based component of their stories by their request.

Recent Title IX Cases, Enforcement and Limitations

These students feel that there is a disconnect between the support they received from the Title IX office versus the actuality of their protections and the enforcement process.

Student A, who filed a claim after repeated incidents of stalking and harassment, said the alleged perpetrator is still on campus. I dont feel safe here, she said.

She has since been granted a directional no-contact order by the Title IX office. A no-contact order is a contract signed by both parties in which one party agrees to avoid being in the same place as the other. The specifics of the order, such as where the perpetrator is and is not allowed to go, are decided on a case-by-case basis.

Once the complaint is on file, the student has to decide whether to go forth with a voluntary or formal process. We want to make sure the complainant has the agency to decide the course of action they might like to take, said Bailey Asberry, the Colleges Title IX Coordinator.

With a voluntary process, both the complainant and the respondent have to agree to the terms of the resolution. Sometimes this type of resolution is deemed unproductive, so the complainant may choose to proceed with a formal resolution. The formal resolution begins with a detailed notice of investigation, followed by a third-party investigator who conducts a report.

The report is followed by a live hearing and then a case opinion. That opinion proceeds to the senior officials, who make the final decisions. Jin Feng, associate dean and professor of Chinese and Japanese, handles cases involving faculty, Mary Greiner, assistant vice president of human resources, handles cases involving staff, and Ben Newhouse, associate vice president of student affairs and dean of students, decides for cases between students.

Student A said she is concerned about the vagueness of the no-contact order for when her perpetrator is in the same location. She has found her perpetrator in many common spaces around campus and said that they rarely leave, despite her understanding that if they enter a space where she was first, they must.

Since the creation of these contracts, however, the student said she feels that she is not receiving the protections she initially hoped to have.

What I dont understand is why the no-contact order doesnt just restrict [them], it restricts me, she said.

After the alleged violations, Student A reached out to Asberry for information on what to do if the perpetrator does not follow the no-contact order. She said Asberry told her that any disciplinary actions or enforcement decisions are not the jurisdiction of the Title IX office.

Asberry is responsible for guiding students through the Title IX process and helping them create protections like no-contact orders. Enforcement of no-contact orders for students falls with Ben Newhouse, Deputy Title IX Coordinator for student conduct process.

After their meeting, Student A said that Asberry informed Newhouse of the alleged violations. Student A said that Newhouse has yet to reach out to her.

She feels her main support system at this time is her friend group. She also cites Asberry as a supporter and a person who has provided her with ample resources for her own personal wellbeing.

The other student with whom the S&B talked, Student B, sought help from the Title IX office after repeated online sexual harassment from a fellow student. She also opted for a directional no-contact order with the Title IX office.

Student Bs perpetrator violated the order when they showed up to an event meant specifically for her class year, a year to which her perpetrator does not belong. This event is one among several that she had to leave due to this circumstance.

Within the protections of her contract, the perpetrator has agreed not to show up to events where they know Student B will be present. Student B said she believes that showing up to an event for her year despite not being in that year violates that boundary.

Theres some spaces where I really want to know [theyre] not going to be and I have no guarantee of that, even though Im contractually supposed to, said Student B.

Student B says she went directly to Newhouse after the violations occurred. He allegedly determined that there was not enough intent to warrant disciplinary action. She did not feel the response to her complaint was proactive.

The response I get from him [Newhouse] is essentially, well, people go places, and sometimes people who arent in certain years show up to events for certain years, she said.

In response to how students should handle violations and insufficient contracts, Newhouse writes in an email to the S&B, I would encourage them to meet with me to discuss that.  And if someone feels like the other party has violated the expectations set forth, I would want to know about that right away so that we can address that in the most appropriate way.

Once a voluntary directional no-contact order is violated, Newhouse is the sole determiner if there is intent enough to warrant disciplinary action or consequence. Newhouse says that he consults Asberry in cases like these.

When asked about whether she had heard of the recent violations of no-contact orders  prior to her conversation with Student A  Asberry said, I have not had any reports to me that a no-contact order has been violated as far as I can remember  I hope that that would come to me.

Additionally, the students feel that there have been oversights in terms of their protections. With housing, for instance, both students perpetrators were relocated into dorms within the same cluster as them. For Student B, her perpetrator now serves on a student group that she cannot avoid due to her major, preventing her from being able to run for a position within the group herself or participate in many of the events.

These alleged violations of the no-contact order and enforcement oversights have led the students to feel that the agreements are limiting their movement around campus more than they understood to be outlined in their contract.

In regards to how he determines if a violation has the intent behind it to warrant disciplinary actions, Newhouse said it mostly comes down to individual circumstance. Newhouse and Asberry are both unable to comment on specific student cases for confidentiality reasons.

I have to evaluate whether its more likely than not that a violation occurred. Theres not a lot of benefit of doubt for the other person [the perpetrator], he said, and theres a background experience that informs that. And so those could be difficult circumstances where a person might feel it varies one way and the determination is different.

When faced with situations where a student reports that a perpetrator has violated their no-contact order, Newhouse said he talks with both parties before making a decision.

In terms of whether somethings purposeful or accidental, Im not going to make that judgment without talking to the parties. So, its never one of those things where someone sends an email and I go, Well, thats not an issue, said Newhouse.

The Title IX Office, Process and Support Systems

Title IX is a federal civil rights law first created in 1972 that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools or organizations receiving federal funding. Since its creation, Supreme Court cases and a variety of decisions made by the Department of Education have broadened its scope to handle sexual assault and harassment cases. As such, Grinnell College has an office dedicated to handling Title IX related offenses.

Asberry serves as the only full-time administrator who deals solely with Title IX. Her job is to oversee the Colleges compliance with Title IX, to make sure our policies are updated, and to make sure that the process is followed fairly and thoroughly, she said.

For anyone thinking about filing a complaint with or simply talking with the Title IX office, the complicated conduct process can seem daunting. Asberry assures that if a person seeks her guidance, she will explain the conduct process and other supportive measures.

The Title IX office is located in Nollen House, an administrative building and more private on-campus space that is not frequented by students. Asberry said she hopes that the privacy of the building provides a sense of security to any student wanting to talk with her.

If a student wants to disclose more information and proceed beyond supportive measures, Asberry would walk them through the conduct process. Asberry said, Thats always the first thing we want to make sure of, are they safe? Have they been in touch with confidential support?

Students who choose to proceed beyond receiving supportive measures must file an official complaint. Asberry said the law [Title IX] said now that in order for the college to take any investigative action of any kind, were required to have a formal complaint submitted by the complainant.

To make this process more straightforward and comprehensible, Asberry has created a Qualtrics form that can be found on Grinnells sexual assault webpage. There are also rare moments when Asberry has the jurisdiction to fill out the form herself, but that depends on the situation and the amount of information she has. I have to be really careful about the moments when I choose to fill out that form, she said.

During an initial meeting with the Title IX office, a student would be allowed to have a support person in the room, whether that be a lawyer, family member or friend. Then, Asberry would first talk about supportive measures, because a lot of times in that initial meeting, they dont really want to talk about the conduct process, they want to talk about care, Asberry said.

Some of these means for support include getting in contact with SHAW or other medical health professionals, contacting professors if the student has trouble focusing on work and putting the student in touch with Academic Advising.

One support system that exists for victims is Grinnell Advocates, a student-led group that exists as a confidential resource for anyone going through the Title IX process or anyone who simply wants to talk about their experiences.

The Advocates maintain a 24-hour advice hotline for both calling and texting at 641-260-1615. Emma Rose Mills `23 and Claire Kopachik `22 are two of the 11 crisis-intervention-trained student advocates on campus. They both said peer-to-peer support is essential to handling these kinds of situations.

Mills and Kopachik said they want students to know that there are resources out there for them, and that the difficulties of navigating the Title IX process should not bar anyone from seeking the help they need.

I have felt a lot of frustration and I totally empathize with that frustration. I felt some of that frustration myself, said Mills. Were here to support, Baileys here to support  were all here.

They also want any students who are unhappy with their current Title IX accommodations to know that Grinnell Advocates can also help advise students seeking a new or different contract.

I would encourage people to reach out to us, and we can advocate for them to maybe have it [their contract] reviewed earlier than that minimum amount, and advocate for themselves, said Kopachik, because they deserve to feel safe on campus, and where they live, where they learn, to feel safe to interact with their peers.
The Luxembourg Pavilion is highlighting all the experiences, activities and landscapes that the country has to offer tourists from across the globe.

The Luxembourg Tourism Days event, running from November 8-10 at Expo 2020 Dubai, is designed to give visitors a glimpse into what makes this European country an interesting and special place to holiday, and showcase the many skills and talents of its artisans.

The exhibition will present a curated mix of Luxembourg traditions, arts and crafts, along with a collection of activations dedicated to the many things that tourists can see and do in Luxembourg.

Guests at the Luxembourg pavilion will be delighted to see that the country has come up with a way for people to experience the magic of the Grand Duchy from wherever they are. The Sky Swing is Luxembourgs first virtual reality tourism experience, and visitors to the Pavilion will be able to check it out and feel what its like to fly through the air over some of the countrys sights and attractions.

The exhibition will explain how the Sky Swing is accessible to all, and that in order to ride it all you need is a swing, VR headset and a controller.

Experiences closer to the ground include the chance to try the fresh fruit products from family farm Eppeldorf. Based in the Mullerthal region, this business specialises in apple juice, honey, jams, syrups and more.

Guests can also discover the pleasing notes of the Peckvillchen, a hand-crafted bird-shaped clay that is now listed as part of the UNESCO world cultural heritage, and the 'Atelier de Lutherie', a group of string instruments that is made from regional Luxembourg wood and also bears similarities to the Arabic oud.

Finally, the event provides a preview of all the events and experiences that await when Esch-Alzette, Luxembourgs second largest city, becomes the European Capital of Culture in 2022. Esch2022 will feature a full programme of dance, poetry, music, design, literature, theatre and much more.

The Luxembourg Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai is a multi-sensory journey that boasts five themed sections, a Luxembourgish-fusion restaurant and a rideable slide created in tribute to Luxembourgs traditional fair, the 'Schueberfouer'.-TradeArabia News Service
Farmers of Turkmenistan have harvested more than 1 million 250 thousand tons of cotton and fulfilled their contractual obligations on production of white gold.

The head of state thanked Turkmenistans cotton growers, all agricultural workers for their selfless work and results achieved. He noted that Turkmenistan ensured all conditions for highly productive work of farmers, providing them with modern equipment, fertilizers, water and other necessary things.

620 thousand hectares were sown with cotton this year. Cotton was harvested by 1000 modern cotton harvesters. Raw cotton will be processed into fiber at 39 ginneries in Turkmenistan. Raw cotton is a valuable material for the textile, medical and food industries. A significant part of cotton products is exported.

 TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021
Damascus, Nov 12 (UNI/Sputnik) Damascus and Moscow will start in the upcoming days the talks on launching the production of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 in Syria, Syrian Industry Minister Ziad Sabbagh told Sputnik.

"Within the next two days, Russia and Syria will hold talks on the start of producing the Russian vaccine in Syria. The proposal came from the Russian side," Sabbagh said.

The minister noted that the countries planned to create a joint commission to settle organization issues.

"The Russian vaccine has showed efficiency during its use in Syria," the minister added.

UNI/SPUTNIK RKM 0715
New Delhi, Nov 12 (UNI) Indias National Education Policy 2020 aims at promoting India as a global destination for students by providing premium education at affordable costs, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Friday, adding that over 50,000 students from 164 countries are currently studying in Indian universities and the number is expected to rise in the years to come.

In his address at the Diplomatic Conclave on Higher Education Organized by Chandigarh University, he quoted PM Modi who said that India bears the capability of providing Talent and Technology to the world. Shringla said one of the key principles of the New Education Policy is to provide the appropriate policy framework to nurture and advance the ecosystem and it is going to be among MEAs leading responsibilities in the years ahead.

Shringla said the NEP provides for international universities to set up campuses in India, which can be a win-win for both students and the sector at large, and would provide greater avenues for international universities to explore partnerships with Indian universities to set up teaching, learning and research programmes through micro hubs at Indian university campuses, instead of needing to build a full-fledged campus.
Reliance Retail acquires 'amante' business of MAS Holdings

Bengaluru, Nov 12 (UNI) MAS Holdings has announced that Reliance Retail Ventures Limited has acquired 100 per cent of the retail lingerie businesses under the amante umbrella brand from MAS Brands, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MAS Holdings, Sri Lanka.

The amante business, which was established by MAS in 2007/8, engages in the retail and wholesale distribution of premium lingerie brands amante, Ultimo and every de by amante.

The products are sold through its own stores and multi-brand outlets, as well as through its e-commerce channels across India and Sri Lanka.

The acquisition of the amante business, by RRVL, Indias largest retailer, is another step in its journey of offering superior design led products and compelling value proposition for customers. RRVL will continue to collaborate and partner with MAS to leverage its design-to-delivery capabilities in sustainable manufacturing and product innovation.

Isha Ambani, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited Director said, At Reliance, we pride ourselves in offering the best and enhancing choices to our customers. We are proud to add the high quality, design-led fashion and lifestyle brand amante to our portfolio. MAS is a well-recognized product innovator and manufacturer for some of the iconic global brands in this segment - the partnership and collaboration we build together with them will offer Indian customers world class product quality and greater choices in this segment.

The acquisition by Reliance ensured that amante would benefit from Reliances scale and retail expertise, and that the brand we created and our employees in India and Sri Lanka will continue to benefit from being a part of a well-established retail company, stated Mahesh Amalean, Chairman MAS Holdings.

This was a business MAS built from the ground up, leveraging on years of expertise in the lingerie business, so we are excited to see it transition to new shareholders and a parent organisation that, without doubt, will enable the brand and the company to thrive added MAS Co-Founder Ajay Amalean, who was directly responsible for overseeing the amante business from its inception.

The teams at MAS Brands are excited at the new opportunities and prospects that this acquisition brings about and are anticipating the strategic advantages and new learning that will come from working as part of a retail giant such as Reliance said Vivek Mehta, the CEO of MAS Brands India.

UNI BDN ING
Srinagar, Nov 12 (UNI) The terrorist who was killed in a brief gunfight in Bemina area of Srinagar on Thursday evening was tasked to carry out a fidayeen attack, police said on Friday.

Police said Aamir Riyaz of Khrew Pulwama who was affiliated with 'Mujahideen Gazwatul Hind' was killed at Bemina, Srinagar in an encounter on Thursday evening. An AK rifle along with ammunition was recovered from the encounter site, they said.

Police said Riyaz was a relative of one of the accused of 2019 Lethpora suicide bombing. The attack had left 40 CRPF personnel dead and brought India and Pakistan at the brink of war.

"Terrorist killed in #Srinagar #Encounter identified as Aamir Riyaz of Khrew #Pulwama affiliated with proscribed terror outfit Mujahideen Gazwatul Hind. He was relative of one of the accused of #LethporaTerrorAttack and was assigned to carry out fidayeen attack, " a police tweet said while quoting the Inspector General of Police, Kashmir.

On February 14, 2019, a local suicide bomber Adil Dar of Jaish-e-Mohammad rammed his explosive-laden car into CRPF bus at Lethpora, Pulwama leaving 40 personnel of the force dead. The attack was followed by Balakote air strikes. A day later Pakistan retaliated and it triggered a brief dogfight.

Riyaz was among the three militants killed in two separate encounters in south Kashmirs Kulgam and Srinagar since Thursday evening.

Two militants including a top commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen were killed in an overnight encounter in Kulgam.

The gunfight had erupted at Chawalgam village in Kulgam on Thursday evening when a joint team of police, 18 battalion CRPF and Armys 9 Rashtriya Rifles launched a cordon and search operation in the area following an input about militant presence.

Police said two militants were killed in the encounter.

Police later identified one of the slain as District Commander of Hizb Shiraz Molvi who was active since 2016.

"Killed Militants identified as District commander of HM Shiraz Molvi & Yawar Bhat. Shiraz was active since 2016 & was involved in #recruiting innocent youth into terror ranks & several civilian killings, A big success for us," a police tweet said while quoting the Inspector General of Police.

Shiraz was "A plus plus" category militant and was named in 19 FIRS. Police said another slain militant Bhat was active since March this year.

UNI MJR RKM 1138
Sheridan Start-Up Challenge Announces Three Winners

IMPACT 307, Sheridans business incubator, has chosen three winners of the 2021 Sheridan Start-Up Challenge.

Five finalists presented their business ideas at the challenges Pitch Night Nov. 10, which was back live at the WYO Theater in Sheridan this year. Additionally, the program was livestreamed to interested individuals.

IMPACT 307, with business incubators in Casper, Laramie and Sheridan, is a business development program of the University of Wyoming. It is administered by UWs Office of Research and Economic Development.

We had over 100 attendees at the WYO Theater and over 900 views on the livestream, indicating very high interest in this years Pitch Night, says Scot Rendall, IMPACT Sheridan director. All five finalists made outstanding presentations and have great prospects for starting successful businesses.

Winners selected by the judges are:

-- Brit Schmit LLC, founded by Brittni Schmit, is a line of womens jumpsuit and romper apparel that overcomes some of the traditional limitations of wearing these garments.

-- Outter Limits, founded by RJ Bungert, is an innovative, durable, go-anywhere lunchbox cooler concept that was devised through years of experience working in Wyoming coal mines.

-- SonaPure, founded by Austin Ledingham, is a company that has developed a hearing protection system for dentists, hygienists and staff that focuses on quality, comfort and convenience.

Each of the winners will receive $5,000 and pro bono legal advice from Davis & Cannon LLP of Sheridan. The winners also will be eligible to apply for additional funding through the $100,000 seed fund established for the event.

SonaPure also was named the winner of the 2021 Audience Choice Award from votes submitted by the live audience and livestream viewers. Over 500 total votes were cast for the award. SonaPure will receive cash and marketing support valued at $3,000 for being chosen as the winner.

For the first time in its five-year history, the judging panel made grant awards to both nonwinners. Mittens Moisturizer, a line of lotion products made from locally sourced goats milk, and Oyster City Mushroom Farm, a year-round gourmet mushroom farm idea, will each receive $3,000. Kaya Pehringer, founder of Mittens, is from Buffalo High School and is the first high school-aged finalist to be selected for the Sheridan Start-Up Challenge. Another business, Farm to Table Beef Brand/Marketing, dropped out of the competition a few days before the Pitch Night event.

All finalists will be offered free office space in the Sheridan incubator and ongoing counseling services to help further the development of their business plans.

For anyone interested in viewing the Sheridan Start-Up Challenge program, the livestream recording will remain up on www.sheridanmedia.com for a few days.

For more information, call Rendall at (307) 675-1939 or email srendall@uwyo.edu.
Two UW Teams Make National Semifinals of DOE Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize

Bruce Parkinson (far right), a professor in the UW Department of Chemistry and the School of Energy Resources, heads a team that was recently named one of 15 Phase 1 semifinalists nationwide competing for the Department of Energys American-Made Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize. The $4 million competition is designed to advance technologies and techniques to support direct lithium extraction from geothermal brines. From left, Jonathan Brant, a UW professor of civil and architectural engineering; and John Hoberg, a UW professor of organic chemistry and organic materials, are co-principal investigators on the project. Laura de Sousa Oliveira, a UW assistant professor of chemistry, is not part of the team, but is pictured. (UW Photo)

Two University of Wyoming research teams have been named Phase 1 semifinalists of the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) American-Made Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize, a $4 million competition designed to advance technologies and techniques to support direct lithium extraction from geothermal brines.

The prize is administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and funded by the Geothermal Technologies Office within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Projects led by principal investigators Bruce Parkinson, a professor in the UW Department of Chemistry and the School of Energy Resources (SER), and Katie Li-Oakey, an associate professor in the UW Department of Chemical Engineering, were two of 15 nationwide named as semifinalists. Parkinsons project is titled A Selective Membrane for LiOH in One Step, while Li-Oakeys project is titled Goldilocks Ligands for Direct Lithium Recovery Through Surface Engineering and Membrane Adsorption.

Lithium, a critical material used in high-charge-density batteries for electric vehicles and grid-scale electricity storage, is a crucial element in the clean energy supply chain. Nearly all of the U.S. lithium stock is currently imported. As domestic demand increases rapidly, there is an urgent need to develop safe, secure, domestic and cost-competitive sources of lithium.

By partnering technology researchers with industry commercialization professionals, the prize will fast-track efforts to recover lithium from geothermal brines at scale, says Kelly Speakes-Backman, DOE acting assistant secretary and principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy. These technological innovations will help develop domestic sources of lithium that will create jobs and boost our clean energy revolution.

Geothermal brines, a byproduct of geothermal power plants, are a promising source of domestic lithium. But there are challenges related to scaling up technologies and techniques in a cost-effective way to recover the lithium while ensuring a minimal environmental footprint. The Salton Sea region of California has the potential to supply 600,000 tons of lithium each year, which exceeds the current annual U.S. demand for lithium.

The Phase 1 semifinalists identified an impactful idea or solution to drive down costs of lithium extraction and, ultimately, help develop environmentally friendly, domestic sources of lithium. Each team will receive $40,000 and is eligible to move on to Phase 2.

Most lithium is recovered from chloride brines in the form of lithium chloride, Parkinson says. The battery makers want lithium hydroxide, so an additional step is needed using an industrial process called the chloralkali process that is usually producing sodium hydroxide, hydrogen and chlorine -- all of which are commodity chemicals.

Our team can make a lithium selective membrane and, so, replace the conventional membrane in the chloralkali process that only lets lithium across the electrochemical cell to the hydroxide producing side of the cell. And, so, you produce LiOH directly from the brine, he continues.

LiOH stands for lithium hydroxide.

Parkinsons team includes Jonathan Brant, a UW professor of civil and architectural engineering; and John Hoberg, a UW professor of organic chemistry and organic materials. Both will serve as co-principal investigators.

Advancing to the semifinals enables my team to focus and expedite our proposed idea of using commercially available membranes to produce an energy-efficient, cost-effective and easy-to-scale module to directly extract lithium from geothermal brine and generate clean water for reuse to minimize waste, Li-Oakey says.

Li-Oakeys team includes Christelle Khalaf, associate director for the UW Center for Business and Economic Analysis; Charles Nye, an associate research scientist for the UW Center for Economic Geology Research; and Anastasia Barnes, a second-year Ph.D. student from Wahoo, Neb., in SER. Khalaf and Nye serve as co-principal investigators.

Phase 2 of the competition kicked off last week. Over the coming months, semifinalist teams will advance their Phase 1 proposals to demonstrate their designs abilities. Phase 2 proposals are due Feb. 2, Parkinson says. Phase 2 finalists will then fabricate and test their designs for Phase 3.

For a video of the research team led by Parkinson, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBU2NJa0zM0.

For a video of the research team led by Li-Oakey, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1UtHJw50to.
Thor, a nationally registered dog with the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, is comforted by an airport employee and his handler Steven Kanduibowicz, right, after joining Paw Force One in John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 4.
You have permission to edit this article.

Edit Close
Chicago art center moves from tuition-based to pay what you can for its classes


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.
Convent Christmas Fair 2021

On Thursday 25th November, the Convent will once again host its Christmas Fair. This annual event held in the historical setting of the Convent raises money for locally registered Charities.

This year, it has been decided to support the EV Foundation and the Mental Welfare Fund.

The doors open at 12.00 noon, and once inside you will find 30 seasonal stalls, many run by local Charities as a part of their own fund-raising effort, offering an array of crafts, gifts, Christmas cards and decorations. In the Cloister, the Christmas Cafe will be serving tea and coffee, cake and savoury snacks. The choir of St. Annes Middle School will be singing Christmas carols at 18:00 pm in King's Chapel. Mulled wine and mince pies will be provided by the Red Cross Committee for you to enjoy in the Convent Cloister. Santa will also be in his Grotto from 2pm offering gifts for the children.

Raffle tickets will be on sale on the day for some great prizes, including a Honda motorcycle donated by Bassadone Motors, a Samsung 55inch Smart TV, an iPad and other goodies. Tickets will cost 2 each, and will also be available online at BuyTickets.gi.

'There is something for everyone, so come along and join us and get into the Christmas Spirit whilst supporting local Charities.'

Entrance is just 2 for adults and children 12 years and under will get in free.
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Rain showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Thunder is possible early. Low 52F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Rain showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Thunder is possible early. Low 52F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-23 22:19:33|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Benin's President Patrice Talon attends his swearing-in ceremony held at the Stade Charles de Gaulle in Porto-Novo, the political capital of Benin, May 23, 2021. Patrice Talon was sworn in as Benin's president on Sunday in the political capital Porto-Novo for a second term in office. (Presidency of the Republic of Benin/Handout via Xinhua)

PORTO-NOVO, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Patrice Talon was sworn in as Benin's president on Sunday in the political capital Porto-Novo for a second term in office.

Talon took the oath of office before the Constitutional court chaired by Joseph Djogbenou on Sunday.

"We acknowledge your swearing in and give to you the go-ahead to perform your presidential duties for the coming five years", Djogbenou declared.

In his speech upon taking office, Talon called on Benin's people for national unity to ensure the development and the fight against poverty.

"Our challenge and our guiding principle should be to silence our disagreements and concentrate ourselves on the essential: consolidate our march toward progress while remaining mobilized and together in our fight against poverty, our actual and only enemy", he declared.

Talon believed that the momentum he was calling for will enable Benin to achieve energy self-sufficiency within 30 months, nationwide free access to drinking water by end of 2023, the consolidation of democracy and sustainable strengthening of good governance.

Talon won April 11 presidential election for a second term of office in duo with the vice-president Mariam Chabi Talata. Enditem
The exhibition titled "Peru: A Journey in Time" opened its doors on November 11, 2021, and will run thru February 20, 2022. During that time, more than 40 extraordinary objects some of them dating back to 3,500 years ago will arrive at the British Museum from nine museums throughout Peru. Most of them had never been to the UK before.





"Peru: A Journey in Time" is organized in cooperation with the Lima Art Museum, the Ministry of Culture, the Gartner Collection, the Temple Radicati Foundation - San Marcos National University, El Brujo Archaeological Complex | Augusto N. Wiese Foundation, 'Santiago Uceda Castillo' Museum - Huacas de Moche Archaeological Project, Kuntur Wasi Museum, Larco Museum, National Museum of Archeology, Anthropology and History of Peru, and Amano Pre-Columbian Textile Museum.





The exhibition will show six civilizations spanning 3,000 years of history, from the primitive culture of Chavin to 1200 BC until the fall of the Incas in 1532. Visitors will discover how native peoples thrived in one of the most challenging and geographically diverse regions in the world, adapting to territories ranging from arid deserts along the Pacific coast, high mountains through the Andes, and the Amazon rainforests in the east.





Among the objects to be displayed are an impressive 2,500-year-old gold headdress and a pair of earmuffs that were part of an elite tomb found at the Kuntur Wasi site in Cajamarca. A striking ceremonial drum dating from around 100 BC - 650 AD will also be on display, which was used in rituals during the capture of enemies defeated in combat one of the main scenes of the Nazca worldview.





The oldest item to be loaned will be a ceremonial vessel from the Cupisnique culture, which developed along what is now the northern Pacific coast of Peru, and is believed to date back to 1500 BC.





"A single step through the doors of the British Museum is always the first step on a journey, and with this exhibition we invite visitors to traverse the history of one of the most captivating regions. The magnitude of the generous loan of antique objects from museums in Peru provides a historic opportunity to appreciate them in the UK," British Museum Director Hartwig Fischer said.





"The fascinating range of material on display collectively challenges perceptions of how the world can be seen and understood. We appreciate your support from PromPeru for making all this possible," he added.





The exhibition will be shown chronologically through six sections and will bring the past to the present.





The first, Living Landscapes, will explore how Andean peoples have adapted to the difficult environment of the region. It will show how for the Andean people nature itself is a living being that sustains all life and is woven into shared belief systems in which the natural and supernatural worlds are intimately connected.





Next, visitors will discover primitive cultures, including the Chavin (1500-500 BC), before a section dedicated to life and death in the desert and how the Paracas and Nazca peoples lived on the southern coast of Peru one of the driest places on the planet.





The following stage of the journey will focus on the Moche (100-800 AD) and the Chimu, (1000-1400 AD), who dominated the coast and the interior valleys of the north of the country.





Afterwards, the exhibition will focus on the two great empires of the central Andes highlands, the Wari (600-900 AD) and the Incas (1400-1532 AD).





The tour ends with a look at the Andean legacy, and how today's Peru reflects a combination of cultures, religions, and transformations of the last 3,000 years.







Peru: a journey in time is on display until 20 February 2022.



Tickets are selling fast  book yours now: https://t.co/gI01MDVqP8



Supported by PROMPERU



Organised with the Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru#PeruExhibition  British Museum (@britishmuseum) November 11, 2021

(END) NDP/MVB
El presidente @PedroCastilloTe, junto con el titular del @MinjusDH_Peru, la primera dama @LiliaParedesN y el gobernador regional de #Ayacucho, participo en la entrega de la infraestructura del Hospital de Contingencia, en beneficio de la poblacion de Huanta. pic.twitter.com/PI1E217rPn
El jefe de Estado, @PedroCastilloTe, participo, de manera virtual, en la cumbre de lideres del @apec2021NZ, donde propuso la produccion de vacunas en todas las economias del Asia Pacifico y reitero el ofrecimiento de nuestro pais para ser sede en el 2024.#APEC2021 pic.twitter.com/cwaqT28CO9
UNICEF felicita decision del Gobierno de reabrir escuelas en marzo 2022 y que estudiantes retornen a clases. Sin embargo, reitera necesidad de que las ultimas semanas de este ano escolar ninas, ninos y adolescentes puedan ir a una escuela semipresencial https://t.co/9eX8tDcBNw pic.twitter.com/YNWXZlynlX
" " A grey seal swims in the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland, England. The Farne Islands are the breeding grounds for one of Europe's largest grey seal colonies, with around 4,000 adults giving birth to 1,500 pups every year. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

We've known for a while that seals like to clap. We've turned the seal clap into meme after meme. Seals gleefully smacking their flippers together has become so iconic that actress Nicole Kidman's unorthodox method of applauding at the 2017 Academy Awards became known as "seal hands" clapping.

Until now, this practice had been largely limited to observing seals clapping on land or above water. But a study, led by Monash University in Australia and published in January 2020 in the journal Marine Mammal Science, blows our previous understanding of seal clapping out of the water.

Advertisement

The researchers captured on camera the first-ever observation of a wild seal using what the study authors call "percussive signaling." In the video, a male grey seal swims off the coast of the Farne Islands near northeast England. He swishes by another seal and swims off, but not before quickly smacking his forelimbs together in succession, producing a sharp sound each time. The video footage was recorded, after 17 years of diving and trying, by naturalist Dr. Ben Burville, a visiting researcher with Newcastle University, U.K. It's a pretty quick 'look-away-and-you-miss-it' moment, as the claps last less than a second each.

Due to the fact that this clapping male seal initially swims by a female uttering guttural noises, the researchers speculate that the clapping might play an important role in social interactions such as breeding. The female seal swims off, but when she returns on-screen later in the video, the male claps once more and gets a little frisky by nearly biting the female, lending some support to this theory of social bonding.

It seems that only males clap underwater, and they usually target other seals with their smacks, leading the study's authors to hypothesize that the clapping functions as a mating behavior "to ward off potential competitors and/or advertise fitness to females." It's unclear whether other breeds of seals make the same gunshot-like clap, but similar sounds can be found across the marine mammal spectrum, such as when harbor seals and humpback whales slap their pectoral flippers.

Now That's Interesting Speaking of underwater sounds, leopard seals are also known to sing under the depths of the ocean during the breeding season. It's unclear exactly why the seals produce these vocal surprises, but for now, enjoy the sound of their haunting tunes.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. Fully vaccinated citizens of Armenia will soon be able to travel to Sweden without being subject to the entry ban or additional travel rules such as COVID-19 testing requirements, the Swedish government said in a statement.

The Government today adopted amendments to the temporary ban on entry into Sweden. The amendments primarily mean that additional people who can present a vaccine certificate issued in Armenia are exempted from the entry ban and test requirement, the statement says.

The amendments will enter into force on 15 November 2021.

The Governments decision means that people travelling to Sweden who can present a vaccination certificate issued in Armenia are exempt from the entry ban and test requirement. According to a European Commission decision, vaccination certificates issued in Armenia are equivalent to the EU Digital COVID certificate, which means that such certificates can be checked and verified in the same manner and using the same technical systems as the EU certificate.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. The session of the Eurasian Inter-governmental Council will be held in Armenia on November 18-19, e-gov.am reports.

On the occasion of the event, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gave a number of instructions to the foreign minister, the minister of emergency situations, the minister of defense, the police chief, the chairman of the civil aviation committee, the finance minister, etc.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. The visit to Shushi of the Dutch Ambassador to Azerbaijan in July in no way means that by that his country legitimizes or recognizes the present situation in Shushi or Nagorno Karabakh, ARMENPRESS reports Ambassador of the Netherlands to Armenia Nico Schermers said during a forum in Yerevan, answering the question of one of the participants.

One of the students participating in the forum reminded that months ago, on July 9-10, by organizing the visit of Ambassadors and representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Baku to the city of Shushi occupied by the Azerbaijani armed forces, Azerbaijani President Ilham Ali obviously attempted to give some legitimacy to the attempt to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by force, which was accompanied by war crimes against humanity.

In this regard, the student asked, "Dont you think that the visit of the Dutch Ambassador to Shushi indirectly legitimizes the violations of international law committed by Azerbaijan?"

In response, the Ambassador noted that the Dutch government decided to agree to pay a visit to Shushi to get an understanding of the situation on the ground.

Any Ambassador in Baku is also accredited in Nagorno Karabakh, unlike the ambassadors accredited in Yerevan. This in turn means that my colleague in Baku can travel to Shushi or other places. It is clear that we are doing this very carefully. We, as the Government of the Netherlands, decided that this visit to Shushi should take place so that we can get an idea of the situation in Shushi. This does not mean that we will do it often or that we will do it easily. And I want to emphasize that this does not mean that we legitimize or recognize the current situation in Shushi or Nagorno Karabakh, Ambassador Nico Schermers said.
Moscow and Paris will need to have a serious discussion of Ukraine-related issues at a meeting between the Russian and French foreign and defense ministers set to take place in Paris on November 12, Russian top diplomat Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Thursday, Tass informs.

November 12, 2021, 10:46 Russia expects serious conversation on Ukraine at 2+2 meeting with France  Lavrov

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 12, ARTSAKHPRESS: "I consider France's warning of its plans to raise the Ukraine issue as proof that our French colleagues realize that tomorrow - and in general - they cannot avoid responsibility for what their proteges in Kiev are doing, I mean Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's regime," Lavrov pointed out. "We will have a very serious conversation on the matter," he said, adding that France and Germany allowed Kiev "to undermine and openly and consistently ignore all advice" and the Minsk Agreements.

"When our French colleagues said that Russia had refused to participate in a November 11 Normandy Four meeting at the level of foreign ministers, we explained everything to them in detail in written form," Lavrov went on to say. He emphasized that when the initiative to hold a Normandy Four meeting on November 11 had been announced at his meeting with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian two weeks back, he had informed the French top diplomat that he was scheduled to hold talks with a counterpart from another country on that day.

The foreign and defense ministers of Russia and France will hold another 2+2 meeting of the Russian-French Cooperation Council on security and strategic stability issues in Paris on November 12.
Fully vaccinated citizens of Armenia will soon be able to travel to Sweden without being subject to the entry ban or additional travel rules such as COVID-19 testing requirements, the Swedish government said in a statement.

November 12, 2021, 11:21 COVID-19: Sweden removes entry ban for vaccinated citizens of Armenia

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 12, ARTSAKHPRESS: The Government today adopted amendments to the temporary ban on entry into Sweden. The amendments primarily mean that additional people who can present a vaccine certificate issued in Armenia are exempted from the entry ban and test requirement, the statement says.

The amendments will enter into force on 15 November 2021.

The Governments decision means that people travelling to Sweden who can present a vaccination certificate issued in Armenia are exempt from the entry ban and test requirement. According to a European Commission decision, vaccination certificates issued in Armenia are equivalent to the EU Digital COVID certificate, which means that such certificates can be checked and verified in the same manner and using the same technical systems as the EU certificate.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili to consider allowing Ukrainian doctors to visit Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia and chairman of the executive committee of Ukraine's National Reform Council.

November 12, 2021, 14:39 Zelensky says Saakashvili's rights should be fully guaranteed

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 12, ARTSAKHPRESS: Zelensky made the request in a phone call with Garibashvili, Ukrinform news agency reported.

The president raised the issue of ensuring Saakashvili's rights and stressed that they should be fully guaranteed in accordance with international law. Zelensky said that using force against a Ukrainian citizen is unacceptable.

He also stressed that Saakashvili's mother and relatives should be allowed to see him. "Ukraine always protects the legal rights and interests of its citizens," Zelensky said.

To remind, Saakashvili was detained in Georgia on October 1, where a number of criminal cases have been opened against him.
Armenias Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan had to correct and respond to the Azeri prime ministers remarks who falsely claimed during his speech to CIS counterparts that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is in the past.

November 12, 2021, 16:48 CIS meeting: Azerbaijan again falsely claims Karabakh conflict is over, Armenia fires back

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 12, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: Speaking during the online meeting of the CIS Heads of Government, the Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov repeated his president Ilham Aliyevs false narrative that Nagorno Karabakh conflict is in the past and currently there are two regions in Azerbaijan Karabakh and the Eastern Zangezur.

In response, Grigoryan emphasized that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict cannot be solved with force and that the resolution of the conflict can only be achieved through peaceful ways, exclusively within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmanships international mandate.

I reiterate that Armenia was, is and will continue being committed to the implementation of all clauses of the 2020 November 9 and 2021 January 11 statements. Moreover, Id like to repeat a very important nuance  the Nagorno Karabakh conflict cannot be solved through force. The resolution of the conflict can be achieved peacefully, exclusively within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmanships international mandate. And from this perspective entering a phase of peaceful development in the region and de-escalating the situation requires Azerbaijan to adopt a constructive stance and abandon its policy of aggressive rhetoric and hostile actions, the Armenian Deputy PM said.
Two men and two women have been arrested on the Gold Coast after a man was shot in the leg during an alleged bid to extort a luxury car.

The hired black 2020 Mercedes Benz was allegedly stolen from its 27-year-old male driver on Thursday night, by two men the driver met with at Budds Beach.

Police said that around noon on Friday, two other men - one whom the driver knew - lured him to a high-rise unit at Southport to negotiate payment for return of the vehicle.

An altercation allegedly took place and the driver was shot in the upper right leg.

The victim and the two men left the apartment along with a female associate. The injured man fled while the others drove away in the stolen Mercedes.

Police were called to a nearby grocery store around 12.30pm on Friday where the injured man had presented. He was taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.

Officers later found the Mercedes at Acacia Ave in Surfers Paradise around 2pm.

A 29-year-old man and a 25-year-old man and two women at the address were arrested.

Crimes scenes have been declared at the Southport unit, the grocery store and the Acacia Ave address, as police continue to investigate.
(Bloomberg) -- The COP26 talks are running out of time, with key issues including climate finance and global carbon markets still unresolved before the summits scheduled end on Friday evening.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Delegates are making plans for the conference to run into Saturday, yet Covid-related travel restrictions create complications for it to go much longer than that, raising the stakes over the next 48 hours. Negotiators continue to plow through the draft text, and ministers are set to meet on finance tonight. China is signaling it wont support a phase-out of coal or frequent new climate pledges.

Key Developments:

China is digging in its heels on phasing out coal

Ministers to meet on climate finance at 8:30 p.m. in Glasgow

The endgame: what to watch for if youre just tuning in

While it could help curb methane leaks, China hasnt signed on to a global pact to limit emissions of the gas

(All timestamps Glasgow, Scotland)

Rich Nations Not Doing Enough on Funding (5:39 p.m.)

Developed countries arent doing enough to boost finance for climate adaptation and mitigation for countries most affected by climate change, according to ministers and activists from Bangladesh, Uganda and Tuvalu.

A major point of tension is the failure of the U.S. and other rich nations to contribute $100 billion annually by 2020 or create a pathway for quickly ramp up the financing after 2025. Vulnerable countries need the final COP26 text to show a plan for mobilizing funding, said Alden Meyer, a senior associate at E3G.

Without that money, this COP will end unsuccessfully, said Patience Nabukalu, a climate activist from Uganda.

U.S. Blasted for Lacking Ambition and Blocking Progress (5:10 p.m.)

Negotiators and activists from climate-vulnerable nations blasted the U.S. for blocking progress in negotiations over raising ambition and steering finance to countries on the front lines of global warming.

Story continues

On a number of provisions across the board, they are working to weaken and block the text, said Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International. For the Biden administration to lead on climate would mean supporting a text to increase ambition each year, but we have seen a number of different ways that the United States is undermining that kind of ambition in the room, she said.

In its joint pledge with China, the U.S. supported taking enhanced climate actions that raise ambition in the 2020s with the aim of keeping within reach a limit on warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius. That falls short of some vulnerable nations push for an annual escalation in climate action and commitments.

We need them here to support coming back to close the gap as soon as possible and to come back to the table next year at a heads of state level until that gap is closed, she said. That U.S.-China deal cannot be the ceiling. So far, the U.S. is not committing enough to achieve that 1.5 degree target, added Tuvalu Finance Minister Seve Paeniu.

UN Sees Policing of Net Zero Targets Taking Shape in 2022 (4:16 p.m.)

The head of the United Nations said that a group hes convening to police net-zero commitments will submit recommendations to him over the course of next year.

We need to hold each other accountable -- governments, non-state actors and civil society, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Global Climate Action event on Thursday, where he gave details on the High-Level Expert Group that hes established to give more consistency around net zero targets.

Steadfast Sharma Still Pushing for Ambitious Outcome (4:06 p.m.)

With COP26 scheduled to end within 24 hours, summit President Alok Sharma said hes still pushing for an ambitious outcome, noting that hes sometimes called No Drama Sharma for his steadfast approach.

Negotiators are still some way from finalizing the text and completing the Paris rulebook, Sharma told reporters. If it was easy, we would have resolved this over the past six years, he said.

U.S. Rejects Formal Loss and Damage Compensation Fund (4 p.m.)

The U.S. supports boosting money to avert, minimize and address the loss and damage experienced by climate-vulnerable countries, but it opposes some of the options under discussion, a senior U.S. official said Thursday. The U.S. is not open to the creation of a formal loss and damage compensation fund, supplied with money from developed countries that have contributed the most toward global warming, the official said.

By contrast, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry has signaled that the U.S. backs funding a blueprint for providing technical assistance to countries making damage claims known as the Santiago network. Key issues include who will provide contributions, how funding will be used and what kind of loss and damage facility might be established to administer it.

Chinas Energy Security Concerns Hinder Ending Coal (3:15 p.m.)

China doesnt support a proposal to phase out coal because of energy security concerns, according to a person familiar with the countrys stance who asked not to be named.

It also rejects a proposal on coming back with new climate pledges by the end of next year because it will be too time-consuming to draft another submission, the person said.

Discarding Fossil Fuel Reference Would be Bad Signal: Timmermans (3:11 p.m.)

Cutting the reference from the draft text that urges countries to accelerate the phase-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels -- the first time it has appeared in a UN COP text -- would be an extremely bad signal, EU climate chief Frans Timmermans said.

If you remove it from the text, what is the message youre sending there? That has to be part of the conclusion here today, he added.

EU Nations Oppose Green Label for Nuclear (1:43 p.m.)

Environment ministers from Germany, Portugal, Austria, Luxembourg and Denmark warned against classifying nuclear power as green in the EU sustainable investment rulebook. If included, it would jeopardize the courageous path the 27-nation bloc has taken to become the global leader in sustainable finance, the five member states said in a joint statement.

The European Commission is expected to propose before the end of this year a regulation on how to treat atomic power and natural gas in its taxonomy as the bloc shifts to a low-carbon economy.

Its not safe, its not sustainable and it costs a lot of money, Portugals Environment Minister Joao Pedro Matos Fernandes said in Glasgow. There are many other options, especially wind and solar.

France, Portugal Join Alliance to End Oil Era (1:14 p.m.)

France and Portugal have joined a group of countries and states -- none of which are among the worlds major oil producers -- that support fixing a date to end fossil fuel exploration, putting its name to an initiative that was snubbed by the U.K.

The Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance represents a rare supply-side initiative to cut hydrocarbon production. The group, which was created by Denmark and Costa Rica in the lead-up to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, now has 10 signatories, according to a statement on Thursday. They include Sweden, Ireland, Greenland, Quebec, Wales, California and New Zealand.

COP26 host U.K. has said it wont back the alliance because ending fossil fuel production could cause a cliff edge in energy supply.

Group Hits Out at Carbon Colonialism (12:43 p.m.)

A group of 22 countries, known as the Like Minded Group, told the U.K. Presidency that they rejected its proposal for deeper emissions cuts this decade.

The group -- which includes China, India and Bolivia -- say Wednesdays draft text lacks details on how rich countries will help pay poor nations to cope with the ravages of climate change, according to Diego Pacheco Balanza, Bolivias head of delegation and Like Minded spokesman.

He accused rich countries of carbon colonialism in their push for more action this decade to keep alive the hope of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Overnight, the U.K. published more details on how to set a global adaptation goal and on finance. A new draft is expected later, which could help to address this imbalance.

Ministers to Meet on Climate Finance This Evening (11:54 a.m.)

Ministers are set to meet at 8:30 p.m. in Glasgow to discuss climate finance, COP President Alok Sharma said, adding that he is concerned about the number of issues that are still unresolved. Its one of the thorniest subjects at the talks.

The world is watching us and willing us to work together and reach consensus. And we know we cannot afford to fail them, Sharma said, reminding people that the COP is meant to wrap up tomorrow. Ministers are to meet again at 11 a.m. on Friday.

Read: Google Turns Satellite Imaging Into Key Tool for Climate Change

Australia Has Good Coffee, at Least (11:20 a.m.)

Australia, the worlds third-largest exporter of fossil fuels, is falling short of its potential on climate, according to Richie Merzian, one of the countrys former negotiators. It hasnt dramatically enhanced its emissions-cutting plans before 2030 and is low on its finance pledge, he said.

Its unfortunate that Australia hasnt joined the U.K. and the U.S. in trying to put everything on the table for this COP. Instead, its done as little as possible, Merzian said. The only thing Australia really has brought to this negotiation is good coffee over at the Australian pavilion.

Carbon-Market Talks Still Tricky as Summit-End Looms (10:59 a.m.)

The biggest sticking points in talks about international carbon markets remain largely unresolved, according to a new negotiating document published on Thursday. The draft proposal swelled by one page to 15 pages as negotiators built up options on how to treat old Kyoto Protocol-era carbon offsets under a new program.

The details on how to avoid double counting and use cash generated from emissions trading are also yet to be hammered out. That leaves a lot of work for the ministers, who have less than two days before the scheduled end of talks on Friday, with some diplomats saying the deal has a 50-50 chance of happening.

Fiji Proposes Alternative Plan on Loss and Damage (10:35 a.m.)

Fiji -- with the backing of the Alliance of Small Island States and Least Developed Countries negotiating blocs -- has put forward an alternative text to address loss and damage, the nations climate minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

The country is proposing a plan to establish financing for countries to deal with the destruction wrought by climate change by next years COP27. It would put in place now a roadmap on how to get there. The current version is very vague, Sayed-Khaiyum said.

Also read: Loss and Damage a Top Concern at COP26 as Legal Questions Loom

COP Talks Could Run Into the Weekend (10:09 a.m.)

European officials are preparing for talks to run into extra time, even as COP26 President Alok Sharma has insisted the climate summit should end on time at 6 p.m. on Friday.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson left the door open yesterday, saying I dont see why we shouldnt go into extra time if we have to.

COPs almost always run over. The feeling is that, with so much at stake, it seems to make sense. But theres a big complication this year: Covid-related travel restrictions and PCR testing make changing hotels or altering schedules very challenging.

Adaptation Finance Key to Unlocking Talks: Maldives (9:45 a.m.)

Small island states need real commitments on finance for adapting to the impacts of climate change, Maldives Environment Minister Shauna Aminath said in an interview. Its not just the amount that matters, but also its accessibility, she said, highlighting that one of two projects approved for funding in 2008 only received the money two months ago.

Bottom-line, available funds for front-line states are very limited, Aminath said. This is the fundamental problem. If this can be addressed, a lot of other things can work around it.

Technical Groups to Consider How to Meet Climate Finance Goal (9:09 a.m.)

Countries at COP26 now have a working draft of a document that will decide how rich countries will provide billions or even trillions of dollars in climate finance to poor countries. The draft lays out options for the creation of ad-hoc groups supported by technical experts that will consider how to meet those financing goals over the next few years.

Crucially, one of the options keeps alive a demand for mobilizing as much as $1.3 trillion in annual funds by 2030, that would split equally between measures for cutting emissions and for adapting to a warmer planet. That sum is much higher than the $100 billion a year that still needs to materialize by 2023, three years later than promised.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Sweden has seen a sharp decline in COVID-19 testing this month, just as much of Europe contends with surging infection rates, after its health agency said vaccinated Swedes no longer need to get tested even if they have symptoms of the disease.

The stance by the health agency has rekindled criticism the country has once again broken ranks with its neighbours and has led to some of Sweden's regions no longer providing free testing for all.

COVID-19 testing fell by 35 per cent last week compared to a month earlier.

That places Sweden in the bottom of the European Union along with countries like Germany, Spain, Poland and Finland, according to Our World in Data.

The health agency argues the resources for testing could be better used elsewhere and that there is no need to test those who are fully vaccinated as they have a low risk of getting sick and are less likely to spread the disease.

However, the timing of the decision, just as Europe is heading in to the winter season, has baffled some scientists.

One recent newspaper column said, "Sweden is once again in the dark" about the spread and ability to break disease chains.

"The number of cases is low in Sweden but considering how the outside world looks like with lots of cases in Europe, I think you should have waited with this decision," said Anders Sonnerborg, professor in clinical virology and infectious diseases at Karolinska Institutet.

"I have a hard time seeing that waiting a few months would be a major intervention in people's lives," he said.

Health Agency official Sara Byfors on Thursday defended the decision saying testing would still be at high enough level to catch trends and that testing had never caught all cases.

"If we see that the spread of infection increases and that it becomes a problem then we are prepared to reverse our decision," she told a news conference.

The number of hospitalisations and patients treated at intensive care units have started to creep up in recent weeks but are still the lowest in the European Union per capita, according to Our World in Data.

Sweden's handling of the pandemic has stood out, shunning lockdowns throughout the health crisis and instead relying on voluntary measures based on distancing and good hygiene.

The country's number of deaths per capita since the start of the pandemic is several times higher than those among Nordic neighbours but also lower than in most European countries that opted for strict lockdowns.
The Auburn school district has scheduled another "community cafe" for people to share any concerns they have about the district.

The meetings began in July as the district sought to help address community concerns in a more relaxed atmosphere after school board meetings earlier in the summer erupted into chaos and shouting over issues such as bullying and a divisive debate over the possible renaming of the high school.

The third community cafe is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 22, at Seward Elementary School, 52 Metcalf Dr.

In a news release, the district said the listening session will be moderated by Katie McIntyre and Kara Georgi and that Auburn students, parents/guardians, employees, and school board members are all invited to attend.

"We remain deeply committed to working with our community to bring all of its strengths, passions, energy, intelligence, and creativity to bear for our students, the district said in announcing the new cafe-style meeting format in July. "We know that for any differences we have with one another as individuals, we all share the goal of ensuring every one of our students reach their full potential."

Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
The city of Auburn is set to receive approximately $280,000 over a period of years from a settlement with opioid manufacturers and distributors.

At a meeting Nov. 9, the Auburn City Council approved a resolution agreeing to settlement agreements between the city and health care company Johnson & Johnson and multiple distributors, respectively, in addition to approving the New York Opioid Settlement Sharing Agreement.

The resolution, available via the city's website, said the city is a named plaintiff in City of Auburn v. Purdue Pharma L.P., et al case. The lawsuit names opioid manufacturers, opioid distributors and chain pharmacies.

McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc., AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation and several other companies are named, based on claims that the distributors "contributed to the opioid epidemic by failing to comply with their obligations under the federal Controlled Substances Act and the New York Controlled Substances Act to implement adequate measures to prevent diversion of the prescription opioids they distributed to pharmacies and others, all of which contributed to a public health crisis in the City of Auburn," the resolution said.

The resolution also said the suit "alleges several causes of action against defendant Johnson and Johnson/Jansen (J & J) pursuant to its role as opioid manufacturer which resulted in the same harm visited upon the City of Auburn." The resolution also noted the funds under the two agreements will be "distributed among the various participating political subdivisions" according to the state sharing agreement.

At Tuesday's council meeting, posted as a video on the city website, Auburn Assistant Corporation Counsel Nate Garland said the city is set to receive approximately $280,000 through the settlement. At one point, he said he believed the Johnson & Johnson settlement payout would be over four years and the distributors settlement would be over 18 years.

"Presumably that's based on the size of the corporate entities and their ability to absorb this sort of payout," he said.

The resolution in front of council was "a relatively small carve-out" from around the 20 different defendants from the class action lawsuit.

Garland stressed "these are just two pieces of a much larger puzzle." By signing off on the sharing agreement, the council established a framework for when larger settlements come through.

He noted there "are dozens of other defendants named," including Purdue.

"Our lawyers have advised us that this is the first step among many that we'll be taking in terms of holding those corporate entities accountable," Garland said.

He also said there are certain approved uses for the funds, but he said there are several ways municipalities can use these funds. City Manager Jeff Dygert said there will follow-up conversations on those funds will be spent, saying the city wants to get "the funds in-hand" before committing the money to anything. He also said the city wants to confirm "at what rate we'll receive those funds."

"These companies that are listed basically have caused a lot of pain for so many people, so many families, not only in Auburn and Cayuga County but in this nation due to their practices," Councilor Terry Cuddy said.

Cuddy added he believes these settlements could help going forward but "it should have never gotten to this point. The oversight, or lack thereof, allowed this to happen and I just hope that this never happens again or is not allowed to continue to happen."

Councilor Jimmy Giannettino also weighed in.

"While these individuals and these companies are being held accountable financially, it's unfortunate they're not being held accountable criminally," he said.

Giannettino also the city's participation in the lawsuit is an example of Auburn doing everything it can to address the opioid crisis.

Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau.

Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1

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.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Human Horizons, the startup owning the high-end EV brand HiPhi, announced today that it had formed a partnership with Chinas Bank of Communications (BoCom) Shanghai branch on November 7th, to gain financial support.

HiPhi Z; photo credit: HiPhi

Per the agreement, BoCom will provide Human Horizons and its correlating companies with a RMB5 billion ($782.07 million) comprehensive credit line. The funding will be put into the companys financial services such as settlement business, international business, corporate business. BoCom will provide financial support for the companys production, sales, R&D, and more.

It is worth pointing out that this is also the first time for Human Horizons to release financing activities to the public. During its five years in the industry, Human Horizons did not once mention the companys financing situation like other automaking startups did. When asked about relating questions, the founder and chairman of the company, Ding Lei, replied that the company was not planning to initiate public placement before the project achieved substantial progress.

HiPhi X; photo credit: HiPhi

In addition, the companys first model, the HiPhi X, started delivery this May. According to the companys monthly sales report, positioned as a luxury EV (priced over RMB500,000), the HiPhi X sold 641 vehicles, ranking No.1 in September, with the Porsche Taycan following in the second place.
With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information.

BAIC BJEV posts 15.85% YoY drop in Jan.-Oct. sales





BAIC EU5; photo credit: BAIC BJEV



BAIC BJEV, the NEV unit of China's BAIC Group, sold 2,484 vehicles in October, representing a 21.9% year-on-year growth, according to its parent company BAIC BluePark New Energy Technology Co.,Ltd. However, its year-to-date sales fell 15.85% YoY to 19,458 units.

New Geely Binyue PHEV hits market

The new Geely Binyue PHEV went on sale on Nov. 12. Coming with two trim levels, the new model is priced between 119,800 yuan ($18,770) and 135,800 yuan ($21,280).

All-new Ford Bronco four-door version to be sold in China

The all-new Ford Bronco's four-door version has arrived at the Tianjin port, according to a local media outlet. It will be sold in China as parallel-import vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz to recall 11,997 S-Class imported vehicles in China

From now on, Mercedes-Benz (China) Auto Sales Co.,Ltd., will recall a total of 11,997 S-Class imported vehicles produced between Aug. 3, 2020 and Jul. 6, 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR).

HiPhi to adopt NVIDIA DRIVE Orin as core chip of HiPhi Pilot

HiPhi, the EV brand of China's Human Horizons, will adopt the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin as the core computing chip for its HiPhi Pilot intelligent driver assistance system, the automaker announced at the NVIDIA GTC.

XPeng to launch new SUV model at Auto Guangzhou 2021

On Nov. 12, XPeng posted on its WeChat account a teaser photo of an all-new model that will be unveiled at the upcoming Auto Guangzhou 2021. The startup revealed the new model will be named with a prefix G, which is routinely used for XPeng's SUV lineup. Silhouette of the teaser photo also shows this is a SUV.

Human Horizons gains support from China's Bank of Communications

Human Horizons, the startup owning the high-end EV brand HiPhi, announced today that it had formed a partnership with Chinas Bank of Communications Shanghai branch on November 7th, to gain financial support.

Chinese Mainland accounts for over a quarter of Tesla's global Supercharger volume

As of November 11, Tesla has deployed 30,000 Superchargers around the world, over 7,600 of which are built in Chinese Mainland, according to a post on Tesla China's Twitter-like Weibo account.
Its really not that complicated. Kids love dogs. Dogs love kids. Separate them at your peril.

So despite obvious efforts to link the beloved and durable Clifford story, about a huge dog and the little girl who loves him, to a bigger and more current message in the CGI-meets-live action Clifford the Big Red Dog,  it really isnt necessary. You had us at Clifford."

On some levels the film, directed by Walt Becker, understands this, giving us plenty of lovely, warmhearted scenes between Clifford and young Emily Elizabeth (an appealing Darby Camp) that show it knows its core audience: young children. And for them, it will work fine.

For older viewers, though, it may be hard to ignore some of the clunkier moments of a script that, in trying to update a story created in 1963, gets in its own way with dialogue that while sometimes funny and sweet, can be awkward and occasionally even off-key.

First, though, the dog. For those who worried that the CGI version of Clifford wouldn't look real or otherwise meet expectations, rest assured that it's fine. Hes big, hes red, hes furry, he's sweet  and as for realism, well, how many elephant-sized, ruby-red dogs do YOU know? Plus: he doesn't speak human. This is a good thing.

And the cast is game, led by sweetly-but-not-obnoxiously precocious, red-headed Camp and rakishly likable British comedian Jack Whitehall as Emily Elizabeth's ne'er-do-well Uncle Casey. There are also a bunch of Saturday Night Live actors in cameos  with the funniest, not surprisingly, coming from the gifted Kenan Thompson as a veterinarian tasked with examining Clifford. (How does one take the temperature of a Tyrannosaurus-sized pup? He doesn't know, either.)

Emily Elizabeth is older here than the little girl in the original book and PBS animated series; she's a sixth-grader, and a new student at an elite Manhattan academy on Fifth Avenue. She lives a subway ride uptown with her mother, a harried single mom, in what the production notes call a quaint Harlem apartment but is actually huge, airy and comfy  it can hide Clifford! Still, at Emilys posh school, which she attends on scholarship  having moved from upstate"  she feels alone, and the resident Mean Girl calls her Food Stamp.

Let's stop there a moment. The bullying plotline has its narrative purpose, but Food Stamp? Is this an actual middle-school insult, or something a group of grown-up writers came up with but forgot to test on real kids? In any case this jarring economic diss, repeated a few times, feels way crueler than anything uttered by the films purported villain, a slimy entrepreneur (Tony Hale) who wants to replicate Cliffords DNA to create giant food, feed the world and presumably get rich.

Mom Maggie (Sienna Guillory, who doesn't have much to do here) goes away for business, leaving brother Casey in charge. One morning he and Emily stop at a strange pop-up animal rescue tent run by mysterious Mr. Bridwell  that would be John Cleese, and the name is a nod to original Clifford author Norman Bridwell. The man shows them a tiny, red abandoned puppy. Emily is besotted. How big does he get, she asks? That depends on how much you love him, Bridwell replies.

Casey, sensible for once, says no to adopting the pup. But Clifford somehow sneaks into Emilys backpack. When, that evening, she cuddles him and wishes they could both be big and strong, Clifford takes this literally. By morning, hes a giant. (Why, when this becomes a major liability, Emily's love can't simply shrink Clifford back again is not explained.)

Unsurprisingly, Clifford develops an Instagram presence. That gets the attention of our aforementioned villain. But he and his shady guys with earpieces have nothing against the ragtag Dream Team of Emily, her adorable friend Owen (Izaac Wang), Casey, and neighborhood friends. Even a well-meaning gazillionaire fails to save Clifford, but in the end, we all know, the spunky kid will triumph.

And spunky kids everywhere will cheer, and this durable tale will remain so. In the sequel, how about dropping the too-mean Mean Girl subplot, and making more screen time for Thompson's vet? Clifford the Big Red Dog and the Very Funny Vet would do just fine.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Northern Arizona University announced the second draft of its strategic road map Tuesday afternoon. The draft has been refined from a larger set of objectives meant to help guide the university from 2022 through 2025.

Draft two has between five and 10 objectives and strategies for each of its seven goals, compared to the 20 to 30 presented in the initial draft. The next draft, currently scheduled for December, will be refined to a total of three to five objectives per goal.

The planning process will shift gears during the spring semester, said vice provost for teaching, learning design and assessment, Laurie Dickson. In January and February, a metrics working group will define targets for the goals, with a focus on action and accountability and a readership group pulled from the larger community will review the draft.

A fourth draft and engagement phase is planned for March, with the finalized version being brought to the Arizona Board of Regents for adoption in April or May of 2022. This is also when NAU plans to begin taking action to fully implement the plan.

University president Jose Luis Cruz Rivera said objectives from previous drafts are not being completely discarded.

Objectives that do not make it into subsequent drafts and the final strategic road map will be moved to a separate list of important objectives that could be included as part of other initiatives and/or planning efforts at the divisional, departmental or unit levels, he wrote in an update Oct. 29.

NAU designated working groups in September to develop each of the primary goals in the road map, six at the time. Each has a lead facilitator, student, faculty and staff member as well as a subject matter expert. The leaders of each group presented their refined goals Tuesday in advance of another round of feedback sessions.

Each goal has an overall statement outlining what it is intended to cover, followed by a list of more specific objectives. In this draft, many groups divided their objectives into three or four broader categories.

Goal five, for example, covers both stewardship of place and community engagement. The objectives are grouped under the broader goals of community partnerships, promoting community service and serving Arizona. Objective 5-10, under serving Arizona, is for the university to continue to advocate for increased broadband access to remote areas for the state."

A recording of Tuesdays presentation and the full text of draft two can be found on the plans website.

NAU also added a seventh goal to the road map after its initial round of feedback raised concerns about not including a commitment to Native Americans in its goals. A previous plan, One NAU, had this commitment as the third of its five goals.

The road maps seventh goal is currently the same as the One NAU strategic plans third and will be refined alongside the pre-existing goals. Ann Marie Chischilly, the interim vice president for Native American initiatives at NAU and the executive director of the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP), is the leader of the working group for this goal.

Cruz Rivera noted that the changes and feedback mean that the strategic road map will have significant overlap with the One NAU strategic plan, which covers 2018 through 2025. The announcement of the road maps second draft included clarifications on how the two plans will relate going forward.

The strategic road map has been developed in parallel with the existing strategic plan and other plans, Cruz Rivera said Tuesday, listing the diversity, enrollment management and sustainability plans among these. However, as we have moved forward with this process, it has become evident that we need to have a single unified guiding strategic document that will propel us into the next few years.

He said this transition would be easy as the strategic plan was already integrated into the road map and would sunset once the road map was complete. He called the road map a focused refinement of the existing plan, which elevates action and accountability.

NAU also added two guiding principles to the three outlined in draft one. These are both commitments, to Native American students and to advancing the universitys status as a Hispanic Serving Institution. The previous principles, which continue through draft two, are commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion and justice, distinctive excellence and collaborative work. Dickson said these are meant to "infuse all actions and all efforts" at NAU.

The strategic road maps overall priority is still to provide equitable post-secondary education.

Cruz Rivera said NAU had received more than 5,000 engagements, using various methods, in the first round of feedback solicited in mid-October.

I am thrilled with the level of engagement, the quality of the feedback and the genuine appreciation for the work that we have seen in response to draft one of our strategic road map, he said. I am hopeful we will sustain this level of engagement in response to draft two and beyond.

NAU is seeking feedback on the draft, including a series of Zoom sessions scheduled from Nov. 16 through 19. Sign-ups for the sessions and other ways to give feedback can be found at nau.edu/strategic-roadmap.

Love 3 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2
Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh was selected to host the 27th session of the UN climate change summit in 2022, Egyptian minister of Environment Dr. Yasmine Fouad announced on Thursday. The announcement came against the backdrop of world leaders continuing to present crucial systems and mechanisms to combat climate change at the 26th session of the Conference of Parties (COP26). Following the disclosure, Dr. Yasmine Fouad thanked the internal and African delegates for endorsing Egypt's offer to hold COP27, Egyptian Streets reported.

Referring to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's message on climate change in African regions, Dr. Fouad asserted that COP27 will be a true African-centered conference to drive progress on key priorities concerning climate finance, adaptation and mitigation. Besides, it will also focus on carbon neutrality and follow up on the commitments made in the current summit. Dr. Fouad also congratulated the successful efforts of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson for the significant progress made in the COP26 with announcements of new initiatives and renewing commitments towards climate action. This added an impetus for the effective response to impacts of global climate change, she said.

"We will spare no efforts to make COP27 hospitable for all," Dr. Fouad said in Glasgow.

Emphasising Egypt's commitment to work on building a hospitable environment for the attendees, Dr. Fouad asserted that Cairo will work to build bridges of cooperation and find common ground to forge agreements on critical issues. It will also help African nations to beef up measures to combat climate change. Notably, Egypt has announced its official National Climate Change Strategy at the ongoing COP26 Glasgow Summit. The approaches are aimed at lowering carbon emissions, increasing reliance on clean energy, and building resilience through protecting citizens. It also focuses on protecting the health of citizens and confronting biodiversity loss. Besides, there are also provisions for climate finance and scientific research, Egyptian Streets reported.
Country

United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. 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
Over the weekend, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN in an interview that the United States was seeking coexistence with China, which was not, as assumed, seeking to forcefully change the country or undermine its government, denying a lurch toward confrontation. As he stated: "The goal of America's China policy is to create a circumstance in which two major powers are going to have to operate in an international system for the foreseeable future," but nonetheless that America sought to make an environment "favorable" to its interests, values and partners.

To some degree, the comments could be seen as an admission to a truth that should've been acknowledged by the United States a long time ago  that they cannot impose their own systems or a version they prefer onto another country. Proselytizing a single point of world view doesn't function in a diverse world with various cultural differences and historical backgrounds. It can never rely on taking out a certain form of government to remove what it believes to pose a "threat" to its rule.

And they are a welcomed departure from the vilifying, fanatical and aggressive mantra of the previous administration and the China hawks in the country. It is true that the Biden administration has steered away from the most extreme and unhinged aspects of the Trump presidency that were dangerously risking a Cold War-like confrontation. However, saying that, the current White House still has some length to go in order to follow up its words here, with actions. It needs to show China some good faith and pragmatism.

What's worrisome is that an admission of its inability to change China's political system might not be translated into pragmatic dealings with the country. The United States, with anti-China sentiment still running high, is seeking to suffocate the Chinese system after realizing that it can't change it. It has already consolidated security alliances around China by advancing the Quad, and the AUKUS with the UK and Australia. Economically, the U.S. has sought to gather allies in stepping up efforts in their own multi-national projects that mimic China's.

The Biden administration does face pressure from its domestic constituents. It is politically constrained by the "new consensus" of U.S. domestic politics to act and appear "tough" on China. Giving concessions is never popular, and engagement with China is feared on the premise that it could attract criticism from Republicans and be dubbed as appeasement. This has led the White House to continue to enact policies and decisions that appear to be made in a bad faith and opportunistic premise. They've been disrupting the balance of relations between the two countries.

If the U.S. is serious about coexistence with China and merely sustaining its interests, as opposed to a Cold War, it must live up to its words with actions and demonstrate more candid good faith toward Beijing. A good example of where to start is continuing mutual trade dialogues and seeking to revoke Trump-era tariffs that have not brought jobs back to the U.S. as they were intended. Trade and business are areas where both powers have the most room to be pragmatic, to make a deal and to recognize that both are dependent upon the other for economic prosperity.

It is now time for the Biden administration to walk the walk as opposed to merely talking the talk. That requires grit and the courage to go against the anti-China headwinds and be firm in its idea to engage with China instead of suppressing it. It must recognize the importance of a productive, stable and complimentary coexistence with China. It should stop fanning anti-China sentiment out of opportunism and take a stronger stand against anti-China hawks who threaten the interests of the U.S. by opting for Cold War politics. The United States should be willing to demonstrate good faith and diplomatic moderation, as opposed to mixing moments of engagement and dialogue with aggressive policies and counterproductive actions. Coexistence cannot be a sugarcoat for containment.

It remains to be seen where Jake Sullivan's words will lead to. Hopefully, it will lead to a review and a course-correction in the U.S.' policy toward China that is more open and engaging rather than confrontational, and a campaign against the China hawks that seek to undermine the country at every turn. The China-U.S. relationship is defining and will continue to define the 21st century. The world deserves nothing but good-faith cooperation between the two countries.
For Veterans Day, a group of Democratic lawmakers is reviving an effort to pay the families of Black service members who fought on behalf of the nation during World War II for benefits they were denied or prevented from taking full advantage of when they returned home from war.

The new legislative effort would benefit surviving spouses and all living descendants of Black WWII veterans whose families were denied the opportunity to build wealth with housing and educational benefits through the GI Bill.

Since 1944, those benefits have been offered to millions of veterans transitioning to civilian life. But due to racism and discrimination in how they were granted through local Veterans Affairs offices, many Black WWII veterans received substantially less money toward purchasing a home or continuing their education.

The Senate bill was to be introduced Thursday by Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, the son of a WWII veteran.

"We've all seen how these inequities have trickled down over time," Warnock said, adding that the bill "represents a major step toward righting this injustice."

A House version was introduced last week by Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the Democratic majority whip, and Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts.

"This is an opportunity for America to repair an egregious fault," said Clyburn. "Hopefully it can also begin to lay a foundation that will help break the cycle of poverty among those people who are the descendants of those who made sacrifices to preserve this democracy."

Moulton, a Marine veteran who served four tours during the Iraq War, said: "There are a lot of Black Americans who are feeling the effects of this injustice today, even though it was originally perpetrated 70 years ago."

"I think that restoring GI Bill benefits is one of the greatest racial justice issues of our time," he said.

The legislation would extend the VA Loan Guaranty Program and GI Bill educational assistance to Black WWII veterans and their descendants who are alive at the time of the bill's enactment. It would also create a panel of independent experts to study inequities in how benefits are administered to women and people of color.

Lawrence Brooks, who at 112 years old is the oldest living U.S. veteran, was drafted to serve during WWII and assigned to the mostly-Black 91st Engineer General Service Regiment.

The Louisiana native, who has 12 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren, always believed that serving his country was the only way he could leave behind his life as the son of sharecroppers, said his daughter, Vanessa Brooks.

But after he was discharged in August 1945 as a private first class, he did not realize his dream of going to college, working instead as a forklift driver before retiring in his 60s. "He always wanted to go to school," his daughter said.

And when he bought his home, he used his retirement fund, not GI Bill benefits, she said .

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act into law in 1944, making generous financial subsidies available to 16 million WWII veterans pursuing higher education and buying their first homes. Irrespective of race, veterans who served more than 90 days during the war and had been honorably discharged were entitled to the benefits.

But after returning from the war, Black and white veterans faced two very different realities.

Because the GI Bill benefits had to be approved by local VA officers, few of whom were Black, the process created problems for veterans. This was particularly acute in the Deep South where Jim Crow segregation imposed racist barriers to homeownership and education.

Local VA officers there either made it difficult for Black veterans to access their benefits or lessened their value by steering them away from predominantly white four-year colleges and toward vocational and other non-degree programs. Meanwhile, the nation's historically Black colleges and universities saw such a significant increase of enrollment among Black veterans that the schools were forced to turn away tens of thousands of prospective students.

Sgt. Joseph Maddox, one of two WWII veterans Moulton and Clyburn named their bill after, was denied tuition assistance by his local VA office despite being accepted into a master's degree program at Harvard University.

"When it came time to pay the bill, the government just said no," said Moulton, who himself attended Harvard on the GI Bill. "It actually is pretty emotional for vets who have gone through this themselves and, like myself, know what a difference the GI Bill made in our lives."

The bill is also named for Sgt. Isaac Woodard Jr., a WWII veteran from Winnsboro, South Carolina, who was brutally beaten and blinded by a small-town police chief in 1946 after returning home from the war. The acquittal of his attacker by an all-white jury helped spur the integration of the U.S. armed services in 1948.

In contrast to the treatment of Black veterans, the GI Bill helped home ownership rates soar among white veterans in a post-war housing boom that created a ripple effect their children and grandchildren continue to benefit from today.

Preliminary analysis of historical data suggests Black and white veterans accessed their benefits at similar rates, according to Maria Madison, director of the Institute for Economic and Racial Equity at Brandeis University, who has researched the impact of racial inequities in the administration of GI Bill benefits.

However, because of institutional racism and other barriers, Black veterans were more limited in the ways in which they could use their benefits. As a result, the cash equivalent of their benefits was only 40% of what white veterans received.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Students, staff and community members crammed into the Beatrice High School Hevelone Center on Thursday morning to commemorate Veterans Day.

Beatrice High School Principal Jason Sutter presided over the hour-long ceremony, which drew nearly 900 people to the auditorium, and introduced the guest speaker, retired Lt. Col. Tony Baker.

Baker grew up in Beatrice and graduated from the high school in 1978. In his almost 29 years of military service, he deployed to Bosnia, Kosovo, the Horn of Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Baker stressed the importance of sacrifice during his speech as a pixelated American flag stretched across the giant screen behind him. He compared the dedication of service members to that of the biblical prophet Isaiah.

American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, dont ask what the war is about, Baker said. Instead, they run to the sound of the guns. The politics of the mortal danger I found myself were the very last thing on my mind. All I cared about were the soldiers I was with at that moment.

Since retiring from the military in 2005, Baker worked for Lockheed Martinamong other defense contractorswhere he helped develop new war-fighting technologies. He has also served as State Sen. Tom Brewers legislative aide.

Baker said the countrys reasons for war can get messy and bent, but the men and women of the military stay straight as an arrow, focused on their mission.

Regardless of the reason for the war  Americans stepped up and swore an oath to serve, he said. We do what countless generations have done before us. We leave history to the historians. And we send our sons and daughters into harms way certain we fight for a just cause.

The ceremony included special music from Beatrice High Schools choir and band. Sutter said he was glad to return to an in-person event at the school since COVID-19 prevented one last year.

I think schools have a civic responsibility to educate our students as to not only the history of our country, he said, but also what our country stands for and what our country believes in.

A former history teacher, Sutter said he wanted to instill in the students a deeper sense of the days history and purpose.

Its vitally important that we continue to recognize those who have gone before us and whove fought to maintain our democracy and protect our freedoms, he said. I wanted to share with them what this day is. I think we did a nice job of delivering the history of what this day is all about.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Dr. Charles Stoltenow has been named the priority candidate in the University of Nebraska-Lincolns search for the next Dean and Director of Nebraska Extension.

He visited Beatrice on Wednesday afternoon as a part of the state-wide tour.

Stoltenow grew up on a diversified farm in southeastern North Dakota. He received his Bachelors of Science in Animal Science, Research and Science Option from North Dakota State University and received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Iowa State University.

Upon graduation he started an equine practice in Des Moines, Iowa.

I learned a lot about business, customer service and soon realized I was in over my head, said Stoltenow.

Stoltenow worked with the USDA as a federal veterinarian which allowed him to work with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. He was a member of the CDCs Epidemic Intelligence Service where he investigated and studied human epidemiology at the Nebraska Department of Health in Lincoln.

He became the Extension Veterinarian at North Dakota State University before moving into administration.

Stoltenow is an assistant director of North Dakota State University Extension located in Fargo, North Dakota. He also serves as the Agriculture and Natural Resources Program Leader. He has worked with NDSU Extension for 25 years.

I feel very comfortable in Nebraska and with the Extension system. Ive been working with some of the program leaders for several years, said Stoltenow. As I look at Nebraska, it has a strength and depth that is staggering. Extension is a great program and has great opportunities. Nebraska is the next level up for me personally. I think I bring some skills and different experiences with a positive outlook.

Stoltenow said he believed that Extension has historically focused on agriculture, but saw a need to engage the urban population.

We need to get better at looking for opportunities to serve others. We need to get better at communicating our value, Stoltenow said.

Stoltenow said he is passionate about people and empowering them to improve their lives through science and evidence-based education.

The public has been invited to provide feedback on the candidate.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
As far as I was concerned, he was just a good Tennessee farm boy, Jerry Hinrichs said.
Quilts of Valor were recently presented to three area veterans at a ceremony. Those presented with quilts include:

Oliver Lewis Lomax

Better known as Lew to his friends, he was raised in Modoc, Kan. and graduated from Scott City High School Kansas in 1962.

In the fall of 1962, after he graduated high school, Lew attended the U.S. Trade School in Kansas City. He graduated in 1963 as an Auto Mechanic.

After trade school, Lew worked at the Western Motor Company in Leoti, Kan. He was then drafted by the Army in 1965 and his basic training was held at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

After Basic training, he was assigned to "D" Battery Missile Battalion 43d Artillery at Davey. While there, he used his training as an auto mechanic, working on the trucks, pickups, and buses that were used on the site. He had to obtain a secret clearance in order to haul documents from headquarters to the battalion. After approximately 10 months at Davy, he was sent to Vietnam in 1966. It was called "Saigon" at that time.

He encountered an artillery raid the first night he was there. From there, he went to An Kahe.

He was sent to Vietnam as an individual and not as a member of a platoon. He was then assigned To the 70th Combat Engineers, Kodiac Division.

While in Vietnam, he was a mechanic, working on everything from dozers to Jeeps, in and out of the base camp.

Two days before his yearly tour was up, he got called into the Company Commanders' office and was informed that he got extended, involuntarily, thereby serving 13 1/2 months or 410 days, due to a clerk not sending in his reassignment papers. This allowed for a three month early Honorable

Discharge as a Specialist 4th Class.

Rawlin Hagan

Better known a Leon, he served in the Army from January 1966 to January 1968. Training was taken Fort Leonardwood, Mo. From there he was sent to Fort Ruker, Ala. for AIT where he was trained on the maintenance of the OH 13. OH 23, and CH 21 helicopters. After that training he was sent to Fort Riley, Kan. in preparation for Vietnam. He was assigned to D Troop. 3/5th Calvary. attached to the 9th Division.

ln December, 1966 the unit left for Vietnam. Upon arrival in Vietnam, he was assigned to be a section leader of the scout ships. Besides being section leader, he was a crew chief and a door gunner. For his time in the air, he was awarded the air medal and additional 6 oak leaf clusters.

The citation reads: By Direction of the President the air medal and 6 oak leaf clusters is presented to Staff Sgt. E6 Rawlin E. Hagan, United States Army. For distinguishing himself by meritorious achievement while participating in sustained aerial flight in support of combat ground forces of the Republic of Vietnam. He actively participated in more than 175 aerial missions over hostile territory in support of counter insurgency operations. During all of these flights, he displayed the highest order of air discipline and in accordance with the best traditions of service. By his determination to accomplish his mission, in spite of the hazards, inherent in repeated aerial flights over hostile territory, and by his outstanding degree of professionalism and devotion to duty, he brought credit upon himself, his organization, and the United States Army.

He also received the National Defense Service Medal, Air Medal Aircraft Crewman Badge, Vietnam Campaign Ribbon with device, Vietnam Service Medal with two bronze stars, and the Gallantry Cross with Palm Unit citation. The foreign medal is not awarded or issued by the Department of the Army, but by the Republic of Vietnam. Leon and his wife Faye are parents to five children, Susan, Patty, Crystal, Darin, and Missy.

SP4 Walley Boerger

Walley was drafted into the Army on May 14, 1968, Took basic training at Fort Lewis Washington. After basic went to Fort Ord California as a OJT (on the job training) to become a cook. From there Walley went to Vietnam on March 31, 1969 with F Troop 17th Calvary 196th Bde. Walley's first job as a cook was chicken.

I ask the 1first cook how to make it? He ask didn't you go to cook school? I said no I am an OJT! 1st cook said what is that and I said on the job training. He was very good about it and showed me how to do it. His way not the Army way. He was in training to become a Chief when he got drafted. He was a great teacher and taught me a lot. Being a cook we worked a day then day off from noon to noon. In the states we had every other weekend off. In Vietnam on our days off we had to do other work like guard duty at night.

Walley received the Bronze Star Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Ribbon and Sharp Shooter Badge with Rifle Bar.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Chinese Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhua told Kerry in the hallway: I think the current draft is more close in a conversation that AP witnessed. When Kerry asked him if he felt better about it, Xie answered: Yes, I feel better about it because Alok Sharma is a smart guy.

No agreement was ready by the 6 p.m. local time scheduled end of the conference. And sometimes that helps diplomats get in a more deal-making mood.

The negotiating culture is not to make the hard compromises until the meeting goes into extra innings, as we now have done, said long-time climate talks observer Alden Meyer of the European think tank E3G. But the U.K. presidency is still going to have to make a lot of people somewhat unhappy to get the comprehensive agreement we need out of Glasgow.

Three sticking points were making people unhappy on Friday: cash, coal and timing.

A crunch issue is the question of financial aid for poor countries to cope with climate change. Rich nations failed to provide them with $100 billion annually by 2020, as agreed, causing considerable anger among developing countries going into the talks.
Two structure fires burning in Billings early Friday morning destroyed a detached garage, a shed and sent at least one person to the hospital.

The two calls, one near Grand Avenue and Shiloh Road and the other southwest of Billings off South Frontage Road, resulted in all available Billings Fire Department units responding. Crews managed to quickly douse the flames at both locations.

Its been a busy morning here at the fire department, said BFD Battalion Chief Jason Lyon on Friday.

At around 5:30 a.m., BFD received a call of an attached garage burning at a home on the 800 block of Paintbrush Place, Lyon told the Gazette. The response included four engines and two water tenders, and firefighters contained most of the fire to just the garage. No first responders or residents at the home were injured.

An exterior light on the garage caused the fire, according to a statement released by BFD, and resulted in an estimated $150,000 in damage.
The high school was placed on lockdown per internal protocol, but Petty said a short time later "the school is perfectly safe."

"Right now I have teams searching the school, but we believe this was an isolated incident," he said in an interview on the scene.

Broadwater and Four Georgians elementary schools were also locked down Friday afternoon, Weltz wrote in an email to families at 1:35 p.m.

"Law enforcement has determined that it is safe to resume normal operations," the email said. "The lockdowns for all locations have ended. There is no safety threat to students, staff or the community."

At the prayer vigil held by Daniel Thompson, pastor of the church where the teenager died, many gathered to grieve.

"This is a dark day, and we want to help any way we can," Thompson told those in attendance.

Among the attendees was Chair of the Helena Public Schools Board of Trustees Luke Muszkiewicz.
Where do you draw inspiration for your photograph creations?

I find inspiration all around me. I am always saving images on social media that inspire me, as well as taking notes on my phone from moments or scenes that give me ideas. I try to be original, and much of art comes from the result of my imagination, but there are glimmers here and there from people, ideas, or images that have inspired me. I just make sure that if I am inspired by someone else's art, that I rethink it through my imagination to make it unique with my own personal flair on it--simply copying someone else's work suggests a lack of imagination.

Do you work in any other artistic mediums? If so, please describe!

I do both digital art and photography. I enjoy creating digital art and edits in Photoshop, something I do while I'm relaxing at home sometimes. In the past I have also written, painted, sketched and played piano.

Whos your favorite artist(s) and why?

Salvador Dali. Notorious though he was, I've always been drawn to surreal, trippy, and imaginative images, and I love his work for this reason.

Whos your biggest inspiration?
Please register or log in to keep reading

Stay logged in to skip the surveys.
LAKE RONKONKOMA, N.Y. (AP)  A Long Island man has been arrested for making a death threat against a Republican congressman who voted for the $1 trillion infrastructure package, police said.

Kenneth Gasper, 64, was arrested Wednesday for a telephoned death threat against Rep. Andrew Garbarino, Nassau County police said in a news release.

Police said Gasper made the phone call Monday over a vote by Garbarino that Gasper did not agree with.

Gasper called Garbarino's district office, cursed at the staff member who answered and called Garbarino a RINO, an insult that stands for Republican in name only," according to the criminal complaint. Gasper warned that if he saw Garbarino on the street he would kill him, the complaint says.

Gasper, of Lake Ronkonkoma, was arrested on a charge of aggravated second-degree harassment. It wasnt clear whether he had an attorney who could comment on the charge. There was no answer at a phone listing for Gasper.

Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said his department has zero tolerance for this type of behavior.

In the world that were living in today, the climate that is out there, these threats we take very seriously, Ryder said at a news conference Friday.
"There was something about stepping away for the past six months and just watching that gave me a lot of confidence. I am just so pleased with how the staff carried out our mission," Mow said. "I think what every superintendent dreams of is having a staff that functions pretty seamlessly in their absence, and I definitely have a dream team."

During Mow's tenure, he deepened the park's relationship with the Blackfeet Nation, working with tribal leaders on a new program to return bison to their native landscape and closing the eastern entrances to the park so the tribe could protect its members from park visitors during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Blackfeet Tribe takes this opportunity to thank Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow for his years of service to the park and for the wonderful working relationship he established with the Blackfeet Tribe," said James McNeely, a tribal spokesman. "Together, both entities worked in the best interest of all."

Mow, who lives in Whitefish with his wife Amy, said he is retiring to spend more time with his 98-year-old father, to be free to visit his son who is moving abroad and to enjoy the area.
The former chief executive of a tech company in suburban Chicago who lost his job after he threw a chair inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot was sentenced on Friday to 30 days imprisonment.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols also ordered Bradley Rukstales, of Inverness, Illinois, to pay $500 in restitution, court records show.

Rukstales previously acknowledged he stormed the Capitol, threw a chair in the direction of police officers who had been forced to retreat from rioters, was nearby as a melee between officers and rioters broke out and had to be dragged away by officers after he refused to comply with attempts to get him up from the floor.

Though they said the officers weren't in danger of being hit by the chair, prosecutors said Rukstales' noncompliance added to the chaos in the Capitol.

Rukstales was forced out as CEO of Cogensia and sold interests in the firm after his participation in the riot became known and the boards of directors for the firm's clients were ready to cancel contracts.
Jacqueline Lavelle, superintendent of Grant-Kohrs, said trail access through a portion of the ranch requires Grant-Kohrs to follow provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act.

As for the West Side Road, she said, Weve been actively maintaining that road.

Lavelle said the ranch has had concerns about potential effects of the trail on ranching operations and water rights.

I think we are working toward the same goal, she said. Its a great project.

For now, the ranch doesnt allow bicycles. Phase 1 of the Old Yellowstone Trail travels from a trailhead at Rock Creek Cattle Road to a trailhead in Garrison and also a short distance south toward Deer Lodge. This roughly 7.5-mile path follows the former right-of-way of the Milwaukee Road and is pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

The county acquired the railroad right-of-way with money from the states Natural Resource Damage Program.

Phase 2 would add about 4.5 miles and bring the trail to Deer Lodge.

McEnery said she is hopeful that work on Phase 2 could begin in spring, once an agreement with Grant-Kohrs is finalized and construction plans can go out for bid.
Of the roughly 7,000 cases petitioned to the Supreme Court in a year, the bench only hears around 100 to 150.

Kahns 20-day trial in 2019 was the result of a three-year investigation into his practice, which began in Arizona in 2008 and expanded to Casper in 2015.

According to documents filed in a prior appeal, Kahn began to focus his practice on pain management soon after opening. Court filings state he soon shifted towards cash-only payments or would accept things like guns in exchange for the medication, which he priced based on the street price of the pills and prescribed according to his patients ability to pay.

Jessica Burch, one of Kahns patients in Arizona, died of an overdose in 2015. Her prescription for oxycodone, hydromorphone, carisoprodol and alprazolam, signed by Kahn, had been filled two days before her death. Court documents state she had paid Kahn $1,250 for the prescription.

In 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation began looking into Kahns practice, and found he charged a minimum of $500 for prescriptions.
In Montana we do not have to worry about a knock at the door at night after which we are confronted with a gruff voice declaring, This is the state police, and we want to talk to you.

Every four years when we Montanans vote, we have the opportunity to select our County Sheriff, the head of law enforcement for our counties. Likewise, in our local elections, we vote for city commissioners or council members and mayors who control the city police. Local control of law enforcement is a firmly established governmental principle here in Montana and in much of the rest of the nation.

Even at the national level, police power is extraordinarily limited. The functions of the federal marshal service, the FBI and the Secret Service are quite limited and carefully laid out in statute. Whenever they are involved with local or state law enforcement, it almost always requires an invitation to assist.

Local control of law enforcement is a deep-seated belief of most Americans, emerging from a distrust of governmental power evidenced by the adoption nearly 250 years ago of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution which were adopted as a group largely to limit governmental power.
It is blatantly unconstitutional for a secret court to issue secret FISA warrants to secretly target American citizens, violating their Fourth and Fifth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, invasions of privacy, and denial of due process.

That the government might expand and abuse its own power should not be surprising, just as it should not be shocking that the military industrial complex keeps itself fed through so-called forever wars.

Biden will always be remembered for bungling the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, although most agree that it was past time to end that 20-year war. But Rep. Liz Cheney, my opponent in Wyoming, is a darling of the military contractors who keep the wheels greased in Congress. Her activities may help D.C. and northern Virginia, but they do nothing to protect our coal and oil and gas industries,

Congress votes on the National Defense Authorization Act to fund our military. Its in that process that some of the unseemliest horse-trading goes on. Defenders of the bloated Pentagon budget, like Cheney, get what they want, and the liberals in Congress are tossed a few treats as well. This year the Armed Services Committee, of which Cheney is a member, voted on an amendment to draft girls and young women to serve in the military.
Now in the second year of field surveys, Koser hasnt drawn any definitive conclusions. One theory hes investigating is that winter ticks will fare better with less snow. In particular, when the snowpack melts off earlier, tick eggs and larvae will survive better.

But some of Kosers scientific peers are looking into alternative hypotheses. One is that drought  made more likely due to climate change  will hit tick populations hard by desiccating eggs and larvae and causing them to die. Perhaps that will counteract positive effects from the loss of snow cover, he said.

The process of looking for winter ticks out in the environment is slow, steady and methodical. Last fall Koser and his collaborators walked more than 22 miles a month and found over 7,000 winter ticks. They were most numerous in grassland, but the researchers also found good numbers dwelling in non-willow shrubs and willows.
The North Dakota Senate on Friday overwhelmingly passed bills banning critical race theory in public schools and restricting vaccine mandates, sending the measures on to Gov. Doug Burgum, who signed both into law.

The divisive topics were among the last the Senate dealt with before this week's special session of the Legislature wound down to a mid-Friday adjournment.

House Bill 1508 sponsored by Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, which forbids the teaching of critical race theory, passed the House Thursday morning on a 76-16 vote. The Senate voted 38-9 to approve it early Friday.

Critical race theory 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. Kasper has called the academic theory insidious and said the goal of the legislation is to protect children from inappropriate topics.

Senators who supported the legislation said that while critical race theory is not present in North Dakota curriculum, the bill is a proactive measure that prevents it from coming into schools.

Were more concerned with whats happening nationwide, said Sen. Donald Schaible, R-Mott. We want to make sure this train of thought does not come into the state.

Some lawmakers who opposed the bill said they thought having the state mandate what cannot be taught erodes control from school boards. Other opponents said the legislation leaves children unprepared to live in the world outside North Dakota.

They cant be critical thinkers if we put a bubble around them and say, 'You cant learn about this,' said Sen. JoNell Bakke, D-Grand Forks.

Sen. Erin Oban, D-Bismarck, said that local schools are dealing with more real issues than the theory in their curriculums, and that peoples fear and mistrust stemming from nearly two years of the coronavirus pandemic is being taken advantage of with topics such as critical race theory.

The bill is not serious policy, its a red herring, and it makes a mockery of our Century Code (state laws) when were willing to plug stuff in there instead of having difficult conversations, she said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota opposed the bill, calling it a "classroom censorship bill."

Burgum signed the bill.

This bill addresses the concerns of parents while preserving the decision-making authority of local school boards to approve curriculum that is factual, objective and aligned with state content standards, he said in a statement.

Vaccine mandates

The House late Thursday and the Senate on Friday passed a bill that bans government entities below the federal level from ordering COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

House Bill 1511 also expands exceptions for employees to opt-out of a mandate, including allowing workers to regularly test for the disease, prove they have antibodies built up, or claim medical, religious or philosophical exemptions.

Private companies still will be allowed to install their own vaccine mandates. And the legislation doesn't apply to employers if they are required to comply with federal vaccine mandates, which could include hospitals, nursing homes, federal contractors and businesses with more than 100 workers.

The bill says state and local government entities cant require people to disclose their vaccination or antibody status unless they are incarcerated or receiving care at the State Hospital or a public health unit, or are employees or visitors of those facilities. It also allows colleges and universities to require people to disclose their vaccination or antibody status.

The bill also bars the state Health Department from creating QR code vaccine "passports," a term meaning proof of vaccination. QR codes are images made of black and white squares that store information that can be read with smartphone cameras.

North Dakota has joined three lawsuits against the Biden administration in an attempt to strike down vaccine mandates for health care workers, federal contractors and large businesses.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Robin Weisz, R-Hurdsfield. It passed the House on a 80-11 vote and the Senate on a 33-14 vote. Burgum signed it without comment.

Much of the discussion surrounded the balance among health care providers ability to staff their facilities, other employers rights and the rights of people.

Sen. Kristin Roers, R-Fargo, who is a nurse, said she was conflicted on how to vote for the bill, since she has seen the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine firsthand.

I don't want any business to tell me what I can and cannot do, but I also work in health care, she said. Roers added that she didnt think the bill had enough time to be fully considered given the short length of the special session.

Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburgh, said she was concerned with protecting the rights of her constituents.

The one thing Im going to side with is the individual thats protected in the Constitution, she said.

The legislation contains a sunset date of Aug. 1, 2023, so that the issue can be addressed during the next legislative session, in early 2023.

The House defeated another COVID-19 vaccine bill late Thursday. House Bill 1510 would have banned discrimination based on vaccination status and would have banned COVID-19 from the state school immunization law.

Off-label ivermectin

The Senate without debate on Friday approved a bill 38-9 that would prevent certain medical professionals from being disciplined for prescribing or dispensing medications for off-label use.

House Bill 1514 was referred to as the ivermectin bill by some legislators, referencing the antiparasitic drug that some COVID-19 vaccine skeptics tout as a treatment for the coronavirus disease, though it's unproven.

The bill introduced by Rep. Bill Tveit, R-Hazen, changed markedly from its introduction. It initially would have required hospitals to honor a prescription for federal Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs for off-label use, ban hospitals from discriminating based on a patients vaccination status, and ban pharmacists from refusing to dispense a prescription drug for off-label use -- such as ivermectin -- even if against their own judgment.

Burgum signed the bill without comment.

Tax bills

Representatives on Friday gave final approval to a bill that excludes Social Security benefits from income tax, according to The Associated Press. Legislative budget writers estimate the measure will reduce state revenues by $14.6 million in the current two-year budget cycle. Burgum signed Senate Bill 2351.

Senators also gave final approval Friday to a bill that provides an individual income tax credit equal to a North Dakota resident taxpayer's net tax liability, up to a maximum of $350, or $700 for individuals filing a married joint return.

The income tax relief was pushed hard by Burgum, who recommended using a portion of the states hefty and better-than-forecast ending fund balance of $1.1 billion in the last two-year budget cycle to provide tax relief to residents. The governor on Friday signed House Bill 1515 providing an estimated $211 million in income tax relief over the next two years.

This bill is a victory for half a million hardworking North Dakotans, providing them with real, meaningful tax relief for this year and the next, Burgum said in a statement.

Session wrap-up

The main reasons for the special session of the Legislature that began Monday were to approve a new legislative district map based on the 2020 census and decide on how to spend $1 billion in federal Rescue Plan coronavirus aid, though it strayed to other topics such as income tax relief and the culture war issues.

Lawmakers approved a new district map, creating three new districts in the states fastest-growing areas and erasing an equal amount in population-lean rural regions. The map also has House subdistricts on the Turtle Mountain and Fort Berthold Indian Reservations, a move tribal leaders believe will increase the odds for electing their own members to the Legislature. Burgum signed the bill into law on Thursday. The map can be found at https://bit.ly/31WZzjL.

The plan to spend the federal COVID-19 aid -- mostly on one-time projects such as infrastructure and higher education buildings -- was awaiting the governors signature. Included in the bill is $150 million in grant money to bring more natural gas service to eastern North Dakota -- possibly through a west-east pipeline -- and $38 million for Bismarck State College's polytechnic project. Only $63 million of the federal funding was not spent by state lawmakers. The 2023 Legislature can allocate that money.

Sen. Nicole Poolman, R-Bismarck, announced during the session that she will not seek reelection after a decade in the Legislature, citing both personal reasons and a growing erosion of civility in politics.

Four Minot-area Republican district chairs organized a "We the People" rally on the Capitol lawn Monday that drew hundreds of people to support personal liberty. One rally organizer, Rep. Jeff Hoverson, R-Minot, couldn't attend because he has COVID-19 and is quarantining.

Hoverson, who participated in the session remotely, later was criticized for disparaging remarks toward the House majority leader during debate about redistricting. He apologized.

The session cost taxpayers about $64,000 a day.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)

Reach Sam Nelson at 701-250-8264 or sam.nelson@bismarcktribune.com.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 5

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.
North Dakota health officials on Tuesday began publicly tracking COVID-19 vaccinations of children in the 5-11 age range, and hundreds of doctors in the Dakotas encouraged parents to protect their kids as shots for that age group get underway across the nation.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases in the state ticked up as testing increased with the start of the workweek on Monday, and officials also reported five more coronavirus-related deaths.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week endorsed Pfizer's vaccine for children ages 5-11. Doses for that age group are about one-third of the amount given to adolescents and adults.

There are about 82,000 children in that age range in North Dakota, according to the Health Department -- about 11% of the state population. The agency's vaccine dashboard on Tuesday showed that 1.3% of them -- about 1,000 -- had received one dose of the vaccine.

The American Academy of Pediatrics chapters of North Dakota and South Dakota on Tuesday urged parents to vaccinate their children ages 5 and up against COVID-19. People who oppose the vaccine question whether it's safe; the pediatricians said there is no doubt.

This vaccine has undergone rigorous testing and in-depth studies to ensure safety and effective protection against COVID-19 infection," they said in a statement. "The vaccine is very good at preventing COVID-19 infections, excellent at preventing severe COVID-19 disease, and outstanding at preventing COVID-19 deaths. To us, even one child dying from a vaccine-preventable illness such as COVID-19 is one too many.

Numerous health care organizations including the state medical associations in the two states and more than 200 individual health care providers in the Dakotas signed onto the letter.

Sanford Health Bismarck and CHI St. Alexius Health both are scheduling COVID-19 vaccination appointments for children ages 5-11. Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health conducted a drive-thru clinic at the Bismarck Event Center on Tuesday.

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.
A NASA rocket scientist is scheduled for two public events in Bismarck.

Jack Bacon, whose grandmother was from North Dakota, also will visit schools in Bismarck, Mandan, Grand Forks, Tioga and Williston next week.

Bacons "Engineering Better Worlds" presentations in Bismarck are open to the public and free of charge:

Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., Science Pub at Laughing Sun Brewery, 1023 E. Front Ave.

Thursday, 7 p.m., North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum, 612 E. Boulevard Ave.

Bacon has spent his career as a key technical integrator of the International Space Station, and for the last six years he's been coordinating national and global practices to reduce the production of orbital debris. He will talk about how modern technology has enabled the permanent occupation of space, where people have lived in continuously rotating shifts for more than 21 years.

The presentations are sponsored by the Visiting Scientists Series, a partnership of Bismarck State College, Bismarck Public Schools, North Dakotas Gateway to Science, Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, ND Society of Professional Engineers, State Historical Society of North Dakota, University of Mary and United Tribes Technical College. The school presentations are sponsored by the ND Space Grant Consortium and Visiting Scientists Series.

For Bacons full North Dakota schedule, go to www.gatewaytoscience.org/vss.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
A bill that would ban critical race theory from being taught in public schools overwhelmingly passed the North Dakota House of Representatives on Thursday after nearly an hour of debate.

House debate on other culture war issues, including bills to restrict vaccination mandates and allow the use of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment, was continuing late into the night Thursday.

House Bill 1508, proposed by Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, now goes to the Senate. It would ban teaching the academic theory, which 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 lawmaker has called the academic theory insidious and said the goal of the legislation is to protect children from inappropriate topics.

"Our parents are seeing these types of ideas, these types of concepts in critical race theory being brought home by their children," he said Thursday.

Rep. Terry Jones, R-New Town, likened allowing critical race theory in schools to poisoning children.

Bill supporters said the theory is already being taught in some schools. Whether that's the case isn't clear. State Department of Public Instruction spokesman Dale Wetzel told the Tribune that the agency doesn't keep track of curriculum in individual K-12 school districts in the state. Neither Bismarck Public Schools nor Mandan Public Schools teaches critical race theory or has any plans to do so, according to district officials.

North Dakota University System spokeswoman Billie Jo Lorius told the Tribune that while there are no critical race theory programs across the system of 11 public colleges and universities, "the NDUS does not track or approve courses or curriculum within courses."

Though he voted for the bill, Rep. David Richter, R-Williston, during earlier committee discussion said he dealt with critical race theory in higher education and that the academic definition and the one being used politically are different.

Opponents of the bill cited First Amendment concerns and said the lack of penalties for violating the proposed law undermined the Legislature's authority.

Rep. Karla Rose Hanson, D-Fargo, said the bill would limit teachers' rights to free speech and that it would cause confusion in schools because of differing understandings of what critical race theory is.

The lack of penalties included in the bill were an issue for Rep. Corey Mock, D-Grand Forks. The bill includes a provision that allows the superintendent of public instruction to make rules around critical race theory in schools.

"I am not comfortable with us delegating that authority with optional rulemaking to the executive branch," he said. "If it is this severe, we are the legislative branch. We are the policymaking branch. We should be establishing the guidelines."

Rep. Shannon Roers Jones, R-Fargo, proposed turning the bill into an interim study during earlier committee discussion of the legislation, but her motion failed.

She said on the House floor Thursday that the issue needed more study and should be discussed during a full legislative session. But the House voted 76-16 to pass the bill.

The Legislature is meeting in a special session to redraw legislative districts and decide how to spend federal coronavirus aid, but legislators also have introduced bills dealing with culture war issues such as critical race theory, vaccine mandates and dubitable COVID-19 treatments.

Reach Sam Nelson at 701-250-8264 or sam.nelson@bismarcktribune.com.

Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 5

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.

SAM NELSON Reporter Follow SAM NELSON 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
The latest North Dakota coronavirus news: event grants, testing and shots.

CVB program

The Bismarck-Mandan Convention & Visitors Bureau has announced some 2022 details for a grant program aimed at boosting events that attract people from out of town.

The Partner Event Grant Program provides financial help to qualified groups or organizations that host meetings and events that provide economic benefits to Bismarck-Mandan. The events must attract out-of-town attendees who stay overnight. Funds may be used for marketing, hospitality or operations.

Our mission is to promote engaging visitor experiences resulting in community economic growth and quality of place," bureau CEO Sheri Grossman said. "This grant program aligns well with our mission and is a great extension of the services that we already provide to meeting and event planners.

The community hosts 500 multiday meetings and events each year, drawing more than 378,000 people who spend an estimated $32.6 million locally.

To view the full grant information for the first half of 2022 and obtain an application, go to www.noboundariesnd.com/meetingplanning/eventgrants/.

Testing and vaccines

A comprehensive list of free COVID-19 testing offered by local public health units in North Dakota can be found at health.nd.gov/covidtesting.

In Bismarck, PCR and rapid antigen tests are administered Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the strip mall at 2805 Morrison Ave., Suite A. PCR tests also are administered Monday through Thursday from 10-11 a.m. at Northland Health Centers, 914 S. 12th St., Suite 101.

People who have registered for COVID-19 testing through TestReg.nd.gov can access results for tests through a state service called the Citizen Portal. Instructions can be found at https://bit.ly/3jqiudf.

People can go to https://www.ndvax.org or call 866-207-2880 to see where COVID-19 vaccine is available near them.

Both Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health and Custer Health in Mandan are offering vaccine to the general public.

To register with Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health, go to https://www.ndvax.org and search for a Bismarck vaccination event. For assistance, call 701-355-1540.

Morton County residents should go to https://www.ndvax.org and search for "Custer Health" or call 701-667-3370 to register. Custer Health has a vaccination clinic at 1100 32nd Ave. SE in Units D and E, off Memorial Highway.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Republican Gov. Doug Burgums push to use some of the state treasurys surpluses to offset income taxes appears almost certain to win legislative approval, despite initial opposition from leaders in his own party.

Representatives in the GOP-controlled House unanimously approved a bill Thursday that would provide a $350 income tax credit for each North Dakota resident filing a return for 2021 and 2022.

The second-term governor in September recommended using a portion of the states hefty and better-than-forecast ending fund balance of $1.1 billion in the last two-year budget cycle to provide tax relief to residents, at $500 per filer. The plan was part of Burgums recommendations to legislators on how to spend some $1 billion in federal aid North Dakota received this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, and House Majority Leader Chet Pollert, R-Carrington, said as the special session convened Monday they didnt like the idea of tapping treasury surpluses for income tax relief. Bismarck Republican Rep. Pat Heinert then introduced the bill in the House, and it got the needed two-thirds majority to be considered.

Pollert said the vote to introduce the legislation signaled strong support for passage in his chamber.

When you see a train coming at you, you step out the way, Pollert said.

Wardner said he expects the bill to pass his chamber on Friday, and he likely will endorse it.

People change their minds, Wardner said.

Burgum last month began asking supporters to sign a petition endorsing his plan for income tax relief.

Legislative leaders considered it an end run on the Legislature and could not recall a governor using such a tactic to garner support for an initiative.

During his State of the State address at the special session's opening Monday, Burgum renewed his call for the Legislature to provide income tax relief.

"We can afford to do it. We should want to do it. And the hardworking taxpayers of North Dakota certainly deserve it," Burgum said.

Some lawmakers said that the move to support the governors plan came down to politics  and optics.

I think we would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we dont send some money back to citizens, Jamestown GOP Sen. Terry Wanzek said.

Legislative budget writers estimated the loss of tax revenue at $211 million for the two years the legislation is in place.

North Dakotas Legislature has defeated several attempts over the years to eliminate state income tax. The Legislature has raised income taxes in lean times, including during the 1980s when oil and crop prices nosedived and left lawmakers scrambling for revenue.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0
How North Dakota will spend its $1 billion of federal Rescue Plan coronavirus aid is all but a done deal.

The state House of Representatives on Thursday night, in a 79-14 vote, passed Senate Bill 2345 for spending $571 million of the money, mostly on one-time projects such as infrastructure and higher education buildings.

"There'll be stuff in here that some people like. There'll be stuff in here that some people don't like," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jeff Delzer, R-Underwood.

The Senate, which passed the bill Wednesday, is expected to concur on Friday morning to House amendments to the spending plan. It would then go to Gov. Doug Burgum for his action.

About $400 million of the total $1 billion of North Dakota's Rescue Plan aid is going to backfill previously approved projects that were ineligible for other federal coronavirus aid.

House Bill 1505 contains that move, which the Senate passed unanimously on Thursday. The House concurred on its amendments and passed that bill by an 83-10 vote.

The biggest item in Senate Bill 2345 is $150 million in grant money to bring more natural gas service to eastern North Dakota.

"This is one of the highlights of the package because it will directly or indirectly touch the lives of everyone in North Dakota," said Rep. Jon Nelson, R-Rugby.

The bulk of the funds are meant to go toward a cross-state pipeline transporting gas from the Bakken oil fields eastward. The bill also carves out $10 million to build a short line that would carry gas from a bigger pipeline in western Minnesota to an industrial site in Grand Forks.

Other major items are:

$75 million for water infrastructure

$50 million for the University of North Dakota's Merrifield Hall project

$38 million for Bismarck State College's polytechnic project

$29 million for behavioral health services, child care services, a Medicaid eligibility system upgrade, and substance use disorder voucher treatment system grants

$25.4 million for long-term care facility financial assistance and administrative expenses of the state Department of Human Services

$25 million for Minot State University's Hartnett Hall project

Some representatives expressed wishes that some of the money could have gone to small-town businesses or critical-care access hospitals. Others expressed opposition to, or reservations about the pipeline spending.

The Republican-led House and Senate appropriations committees worked throughout October to winnow more than $9 billion of requests to write a Rescue Plan spending draft, emphasizing one-time projects such as infrastructure. Omitted projects could return in the 2023 Legislature.

The bill leaves about $63 million of the Rescue Plan money unspent. The 2023 Legislature can allocate that money.

The Rescue Plan money must be allocated by the end of 2024 and must be spent by the end of 2026.

Other actions

Burgum on Thursday signed bills for legislative redistricting and political party reorganization.

Redistricting was the main reason for the special session, which strayed to other topics such as income tax relief and restrictions on vaccination mandates.

Rep. Jeff Hoverson, R-Minot, apologized Thursday night to the House for disparaging Majority Leader Chet Pollert, R-Carrington, having said Tuesday he "just would really like to see some spine in our leadership" in response to how the Legislature was reapportioned from 2020 census data.

Republican majority leaders expect the Legislature's special session begun on Monday to finish on Friday. It costs taxpayers about $64,000 a day to run the special session.

Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com.

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.
When you get to the point of pitting one race against another, it has to stop.

-- Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, who proposed a bill that would ban teaching critical race theory in North Dakota schools.

q q q

"This bill is intended to inflame a political reaction, not further a legitimate educational interest.

-- American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota Campaigns Director Libby Skarin, objecting to the critical race theory bill.

q q q

"I just would really like to see some spine in our leadership."

-- Rep. Jeff Hoverson, R-Minot, expressing frustration with the outcome of the legislative redistricting process.

q q q

"We do not allow disparaging remarks against members on the House floor, and that type of comment will not be tolerated."

-- House Speaker Kim Koppelman, R-West Fargo, responding to Hoverson's remark.

q q q

"It seems like we keep pumping money to Fargo, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, yet we cant get it in our community. Lets get some of that money back home.

-- Mandan Mayor Tim Helbling, on the need for more state funding for infrastructure.

q q q

"We just want sidewalks so we don't have to walk in the street."

-- Mike Fladeland, a resident of Bismarck's Highland Acres neighborhood, which is being considered for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. The sidewalk dispute has become embroiled in the debate over the historic nature of the area.

q q q

"We see that not with their lips, but with their pen and how they say yea or nay. And we're watching now, so we'll make sure we take care of business."

-- Minot-area District 40 GOP Chairman Jay Lundeen, who helped organize a Capitol rally to try to influence lawmakers on issues such as vaccine mandates.

q q q

"(The bill) is, like my great-aunt Alma would say, is lumpy gravy: There are some very good parts in it, parts you like and parts you will not like at all. But it is the product of a long hearing process of recommendations from legislators, from the governor's office and from the public."

-- Sen. Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, on the $571 million plan to spend most of the state's federal Rescue Plan coronavirus aid.

q q q

We do quite a bit of jerky and snack sticks too. Everybody has their favorites.

-- Mack Ternes, co-owner of 3Be Meats in Bismarck, which gets busy during deer season making venison sausage.

q q q

"At the end of the day I think what's important to understand about this project is that it's strategic to North Dakota's two largest industries: energy and ag. This sustains the corn market and ethanol industry ... while (helping to) achieve that goal of net-zero carbon emissions here in the state."

-- Wade Boeshans, executive vice president of Summit Carbon Solutions, which is developing a pipeline aimed at picking up carbon dioxide produced by ethanol plants across the Midwest for injection underground in Oliver and Mercer counties.

q q q

We just want him to come home and let him know were here to help. If anyone sees him, offer him help or take him to a hospital.

-- Darius Hurdle, offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that helps authorities find his son, Chase, an 18-year-old Bismarck High School student who has been missing for more than a week.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views.

Itching to get out and see the world? Of course, you are. Here's the problem. We're all sick and tired of trying to find the best deals on flights. On top of that, finding a safe place to visit during a pandemic is as challenging as ordering a non-fat triple shot latte with unicorn milk and a drizzle of everlasting youth at Home Depot. Fortunately, you don't need psychic powers or a personal assistant to streamline your research.

TravelHacker Premium is changing the way people travel. The app does all of the research for you; it uncovers the lowest airfare deals but that's not all. The app also figures out the reopening status and restrictions in 124 countries and 3,800+ airports worldwide  all updated in real-time, of course.

People are raving about the app's ability to monitor thousands of routes across the globe. Ready to fly off to Japan to enjoy a savory plate of chicken teriyaki? The app will let you know when airline ticket prices drop. If you're happy with the price, you can click and book the flight directly with your preferred booking website: Google Flights, etc. People save an average of $200  $500 on each flight ticket.

A lot of jobs are remote these days. If you've ever wondered what it's like to live a nomadic life, yesterday was the time to act! TravelHacker gives you the power to create unlimited route and region alerts. That's right  pull out your Pinterest board. The people who judged you for having a travel board on Pinterest will cry in different languages when they see you exploring exotic destinations on Instagram and Snapchat. The app takes two minutes to set up and gives you a lifetime of opportunities to go where your heart dreams of going.

Get the app. Eat sushi in Japan while wearing a Kimono. Live your best life. And if anyone ever says that you're extra for traveling to multiple places every year, tell them that they're basic and could benefit from traveling. With this Pre-Black Friday Sale, get 15% off a lifetime subscription to TravelHacker Premium by using the code SAVE15NOW
Cut from the same cloth as rabid white MAGA men like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and the late Rush Limbaugh, Judge Bruce Schroeder of the Rittenhouse trial cannot contain his pent-up rage. In each video below, the 75-year-old judge is ill-tempered, rude and out of line. And he definitely has it in for the prosecutor.

From The Guardian:

Proceedings became highly charged on Wednesday. Rittenhouse sobbed on the stand, the defense requested a mistrial and the judge gestured and shouted angrily at the lead prosecutor, accusing him of asking questions of the defendant that were legally out of bounds.

During the prosecution's cross-examination on Wednesday, Schroeder stunned trial viewers as he reprimanded assistant district attorney Thomas Binger for questioning Rittenhouse's post-arrest silence, which Schroeder has disallowed.

"Don't get brazen with me," Schroeder told Binger at one point.

As the defense argued for a mistrial with prejudice over Binger's actions, Schroeder's phone suddenly rang to the ringtone of God Bless the USA.

Released in 1984 by Lee Greenwood, the song is popular in conservative circles and often played as Trump's entrance theme during his rallies.
BestSelf Behavioral Health has secured two federal grants totaling $3.25 million that will allow it to bolster opioid addiction treatment services and community mental health training in Western New York over the next five years, Rep. Brian Higgins' office announced Friday.

"Mental health and addiction challenges have only increased throughout the Covid-19 pandemic," said Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat. "This federal funding will help BestSelf expand their treatment services and provide vital community education so Western New Yorkers can better identify these challenges in their loved ones and get them help that leads to recovery."

The larger of the two grants totals $2.625 million over five years, providing $525,000 each year. That will be used to expand and enhance access to medication-assisted treatment and services for people with opioid use disorders. The grant is expected to help reach 465 people over five years.

"We are very pleased to be able to offer a central resource in the form of a virtual hub that will provide 24/7 immediate access to medication-assisted treatment for individuals with opioid use disorder, BestSelf President and CEO Elizabeth Woike-Ganga said in a statement.
Is it the abhorrent behavior of rowdy factions within the crowd?

Jennifer Brazill, owner and co-founder of the Borderland Music and Arts Festival, said that the safety of the fans and crew always comes first.

"If you sense that the vibe of the crowd is escalating or shifting toward mayhem, you have to jump in immediately and steer it in another direction and make sure there is a police or security presence visible," she said.

CNNs reports suggest that Scott continued performing for 40 minutes after first responders received reports of injuries in the crowd. That would seem to be enough time for promoters and the production team to communicate to the headline performer that something was seriously amiss. Kylie Jenner, Scotts partner and the mother of their 3-year-old daughter, said that neither she nor Scott were aware of the severity of the situation until after the performance. ("I want to make it clear we weren't aware of any fatalities until the news came out after the show and in no world would have continued filming or performing," Jenner said in an Instagram post.)
The rising share of the overall caseload among children didn't shock Lipschultz.

Children are the highest percentage of people unvaccinated, and Delta is more contagious, so its not a surprise that were seeing more children infected," he said. "Children in general are less affected than adults but its still a serious disease. Weve had cases in our intensive care unit of hospitalized children. Although most will be fine and do not need hospitalization, they can be harmed. It can spread to others. Long Covid can be a continuing problem."

"It does appear that the younger you are, the less the risk of severe infection. There is a low level of side effects reported with the vaccine," said Dr. Thomas Madejski, former president of the Medical Society of the State of New York. I think theres a utility to being vaccinated, but that should be an individual decision between the parent and their pediatrician, just as with all vaccines."

He also said he sees more children becoming ill from viruses other than Covid, such as rhinoviruses, parainfluenza and respiratory syncytial virus, which cause cold-like symptoms.

That's because children's bodies lost some of their natural defenses during what he called "the period of confinement from March 2020 to August 2021."
"Keep it going," Bergevin advised police, "because they haven't found the killer. Maybe the killer's dead. Or maybe the killer's back in the Sunshine State, beating up his girlfriend and abusing her cats. But it's not Joe."

Seaman said Belstadt couldn't keep his story straight, lying repeatedly to police about where he drove Steingasser, whether she was drunk, and what he was doing after he purportedly dropped her off.

+4 Mandy Steingasser trial: DA, defense differ on DNA evidence, ex-boyfriend testifies As prosecution and defense attorneys offered drastically different assessments of the forensic evidence in the Joseph H. Belstadt murder trial, the first day of testimony Monday was highlighted by an appearance by the victim's ex-boyfriend, Christopher Palesh.

The DA noted Belstadt told police that he couldn't see the face of the man on the church steps, but he said the man was 18 to 19 years old, had short hair and wore a USA jacket.

During the trial, it was revealed by the widow of Donald Kohlbrenner that her husband met up with Steingasser that night, and a policeman who had questioned the two earlier saw them on the church steps. Kohlbrenner was 24, had a mullet and didn't own a USA jacket, the widow said.

Seaman said he doesn't have to prove where or when Steingasser was killed. He said it might have happened at Meyers Lake, or perhaps outside the old Roblin Steel plant in North Tonawanda.

"Then she's found 36 days later in this secluded place the defendant knew," Seaman said. "Isn't that a remarkable coincidence?"
Some of the people wont respond to the vaccine because of their diseases, and some of them wont respond to treatment. Those are a lot of the people were losing now," said Dr. Thomas Madejski, former president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, who practices in Medina and Albion.

"When you look at the people who have been vaccinated and do get Covid and succumb, most of them have another comorbidity that suppresses their immune system or puts them at higher risk," Madejski said.

At the beginning of New York's public vaccination rollout in January, shots were in short supply, and the state limited them to senior citizens and those with pre-existing conditions or jobs in professions that involved a lot of public contact.

Now, it seems, that protection is wearing off, and that could be a factor in the region's rising positivity rates.

Some officials and doctors have said the region's positivity rate, higher than elsewhere in the state, can be blamed on a lower percentage of people being vaccinated than in other regions. Shiley said he does not believe that is the case.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Africa next week as the Biden administration intensifies diplomatic efforts to resolve crises in Ethiopia and Sudan and seeks to boost counterterrorism cooperation, the State Department said Thursday.

Blinken will leave Monday for visits to Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as America's top diplomat. In April, Blinken held online talks with the leaders of Nigeria and Kenya in what the State Department billed at the time as a virtual trip to Africa."

Although he doesnt plan to visit either Ethiopia or Sudan, both countries and neighboring Somalia will be at the top of his agenda on his first stop in Kenya.

Kenya, which is currently a member of the U.N. Security Council, has played a key role in regional efforts to ease the intensifying conflict in Ethiopia and has long sought to stabilize crisis-torn Somalia. It has also supported broader attempts to restore civilian-led government in Sudan after a coup there last month.

Blinken and Kenyan officials, including President Uhuru Kenyatta, will discuss our shared interests as members of the UN Security Council, including addressing regional security issues such as Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan," the State Department said.
Russia has cast its weight behind the separatist insurgency in Ukraines east that has left more than 14,000 dead. But Moscow has repeatedly denied any presence of its troops in eastern Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in Washington this week that the U.S. commitment to Ukraines security and territorial integrity is ironclad.

On Friday, Blinken pointed at Russias previous aggressive actions against Ukraine. From what theyve done the past, we have real concerns about what were seeing in the present, he said.

We dont know Russias intentions, Blinken told reporters in Washington. But we do know that weve seen in the past: Russia mass forces on Ukraines borders, claim some kind of provocation by Ukraine, and then invade. Thats what they did in 2014.

Blinken said the U.S. was in very close consultation with European allies and partners on this.
Macron chaired the session about childrens rights in the presence of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.

We must regulate contents and authorization tools so that an 8-year-old, a 10-year-old, a 15-year-old child ... cannot be exposed to all contents without rules, Macron said. That must go via parental control installed by default on some tools, he said. He also insisted on the need for educating children about the risks of social media.

Macron, Harris, EU Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also participated in another roundtable on regulating the digital domain, along with Microsoft president Brad Smith. Harris announced that the U.S. is joining the Paris Call launched in 2018 to improve security and better regulate cyberspace.

Children's rights advocates have for years urged internet giants to take action to better protect children.

Revelations last month from whistleblower Frances Haugen about internal Facebook studies on the harm of Instagram on teenagers intensified parents' concerns about the popular photo sharing app.

Justine Atlan, head of E-Enfance, a group advocating the protection of children on the internet, participated in the Paris Peace Forum.
When New York States eviction moratorium reaches its expiration date of Jan. 15, there is little reason to think it needs renewal. During the worst days of the coronavirus pandemic, the moratorium did its job, but with vaccines, medical advances and millions of jobs going begging, times have changed.

A law designed to protect tenants from being put out of their homes due to economic disruption has in some cases done the same to landlords.

The moratorium, enacted by the Legislature in December 2020, requires residential tenants to submit a signed declaration citing financial hardship or testifying to the fact that vacating their residence would pose a significant health risk.

Tenants do not have to attach any other documentation, placing the burden on landlords to go to court to challenge hardship claims they believe are false. A lawsuit filed by 37 landlords in Erie County says that puts an unfair onus on them.

The law was created when much of the states economy was shuttered by coronavirus restrictions. With many people unable to make a living, the law prevented an eviction crisis that would wreak havoc in a state already battered by Covid.

The economy, like much of our lives, is in a new normal, but it is back. Available jobs are plentiful.
Sign of U.S LNG company Cheniere is seen at the registration counter at the International Conference & Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG2019) in Shanghai

(Reuters) - U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Cheniere Energy Inc agreed to sell LNG to a unit of French energy company Engie SA for 11 years starting in 2021.

Analysts said the deal, which is with Cheniere's Corpus Christi LNG export project in Texas, should move the company's proposed Corpus Christi Stage 3 expansion closer to approval.

The deal announced in a recent filing with the Department of Energy is one of several announced in recent weeks as LNG buyers seek to lock in long-term prices and supplies of the super-cooled fuel as global energy shortages have boosted prices to record highs.

Utilities around the world are competing for LNG cargoes to fill extremely low gas stockpiles in Europe ahead of the winter heating season and meet insatiable demand for the fuel in Asia where coal and gas shortages have already caused power blackouts in China.

Under the sale and purchase agreement (SPA), Cheniere said Engie will buy about 0.4-1.2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG.

Over the past couple of months, Cheniere has signed agreements to sell LNG to units of Anglo-Swiss mining and commodities trading firm Glencore PLC, Chinese gas distribution company ENN Natural Gas Co Ltd and Chinese chemical and fertilizer producer Sinochem.

Cheniere has said those agreements moved it closer to making a final investment decision on the Stage 3 expansion, which is expected in 2022.

Stage 3 would add up to seven mid-scale liquefaction trains that would produce around 10 MTPA of LNG.

Cheniere is already the biggest buyer of gas in the United States and the biggest U.S. exporter of LNG with the capacity to produce about 40 MTPA of LNG - soon to be 45 MTPA once a sixth liquefaction train at its Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana enters service early next year.

(Reporting By Scott DiSavino; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
Managing editor for Frontier Myanmar Danny Fenster is pictured in this handout picture taken in Yangon

(Reuters) - A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced American journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison on Friday, despite U.S. government efforts to free him after he was arrested trying to leave the country months after the army seized power on Feb. 1.

Here are five facts about Fenster:

WORK IN MYANMAR

Fenster, 37, is the managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar, one of the country's top independent news sites. He previously worked for another publication, Myanmar Now, an outlet focused on investigative and longer-form reporting but was banned after the military seized power.

His brother has said he was a desk editor.

ARRESTED AFTER MYANMAR COUP

Fenster was detained on May 24 at the main international gateway in the city of Yangon while preparing to fly to Malaysia, the first leg of a trip back to his home state of Michigan, where he was planning to surprise his parents after several years away.

Authorities first charged him with incitement, violating immigration laws, and association with unlawful groups. Opposition groups in Myanmar including representatives of the deposed civilian government have been branded "terrorist" organizations by the junta.

The sentences handed down on Friday for those offences were the "harshest possible under the law", his magazine said.

He faces additional charges of sedition and terrorism, announced earlier this week, each carrying a maximum 20-year sentence.

EARLY CAREER

Fenster studied journalism in Chicago, where he connected with the Burmese community through his work at a refugee organisation, according to a profile in the Chicago Tribune.

He then worked at a newspaper in Louisiana before moving to Southeast Asia.

His brother has said he was drawn to Myanmar wanting to cover human rights issues including the expulsion of members of the Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017, a crackdown the United Nations has said was conducted with "genocidal intent". Myanmar denies that.

Story continues

U.S. DENIED ACCESS

Fenster is one of dozens of journalists arrested in Myanmar after the coup but the first foreign journalist to be sentenced since 2017 when several Singaporean reporters were imprisoned for flying a drone in the capital, Naypyitaw, but quickly released.

Fenster's trial has been conducted in military-run courts inside the prison with no access for outside observers.

The State Department said in June he was being denied consular access to embassy staff.

His family has launched a campaign for his release.

NOTORIOUS JAIL

The notorious colonial-era jail in which Fenster is being held in Yangon, Insein prison, has housed political prisoners in overcrowded and squalid conditions for decades.

Fenster's lawyer, Than Zaw Aung, told reporters the prolonged imprisonment was taking a mental strain and that he was becoming depressed.

(Writing by Kay Johnson and Poppy McPherson; Editing by Robert Birsel)
(Corrects typos in second paragraph)

By Rocky Swift

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida outlined on Friday an urgent plan to increase hospital beds and medical resources in preparation for a possible resurgence of COVID-19 infections this winter.

After a deadly fifth wave of infections almost overwhelmed the medical system during the summer, infections and deaths have fallen dramatically as vaccinations have increased to cover more than 70% of the population.

Emergency measures covering most of the country were lifted last month, but health experts warn that cases will likely rebound, as they did in Japan last winter. Ahead of that, the government plans to boost hospital bed capacity by about 30%, bolster in-home care, and collect data to predict which hospitals will come under pressure.

"In parallel with strengthening the medical system, from December will use IT systems to make public the number of hospital beds and conditions at each hospital," Kishida told reporters.

Kishida said earlier this week that the "trump card" in the government's pandemic fight was the procurement of oral treatments that could prevent the need for hospitalisation.

Japan will pay about $1.2 billion to Merck & Co Inc for 1.6 million courses of the COVID-19 antiviral pill molnupiravir, according to terms announced on Wednesday.

That's about half the supply that has been secured by the United States and compares with a total of 1.7 million coronavirus cases seen in Japan since the start of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, vaccine booster shots are due to start from next month, and the government is considering expanding inoculations to children as young as five.

Japan has weathered the pandemic better than many countries, with just over 18,000 deaths so far and without the imposition of stringent lockdowns.

But the government faced heavy criticism over a spate of deaths at home among patients due to hospitals' inability to handle the rash of cases during the summer. Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga resigned in September over his handling of the crisis.

Story continues

To stave off the bed shortage, the health ministry has adopted a system that uses past and present infection data to predict when and where medical resources will come under strain.

"A sixth wave is a question of when rather than if," said Yuki Furuse, a Kyoto University professor who developed the predictive tool.

"Because the current situation in Japan is calm, it seems okay to lift some restrictions now. However, I am concerned about whether people can go back to a 'voluntary self-restraint state' again when needed," he added.

(Corrects typos in second paragraph)

(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
European countries and the US condemned Belarus at an emergency UN Security Council meeting over a crisis that has seen hundreds of migrants trapped on the Polish border. The standoff has seen Minsk threaten to cut off gas supplies to the EU, while Turkey has issued a flight ban on passengers from the Middle East heading to Belarus.

Turkey on Friday barred people from several Middle Eastern countries from flying to Belarus, as pressure increased on Minsk to end a migrant crisis on its border with EU member Poland.

The Turkish Civil Aviation Authority said citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen would not be allowed on flights from Turkey to Belarus because of "the problem of illegal border crossings between the European Union and Belarus".

It said citizens of these countries would be prevented from buying tickets or boarding flights to Belarus until further notice.

It was the first move to start preventing migrants from entering Belarus, which is being accused of luring them into the country to send over the border into Poland in revenge for Western sanctions.

The bloc severed contacts with Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko and imposed sanctions after a heavy crackdown on the opposition following a disputed presidential election last year.

Stuck for days

Around 2,000 migrants, mainly Kurds, have been stuck for days on the Belarusian-Polish border in camps in near-freezing temperatures, with aid groups warning of a looming humanitarian catastrophe.

Poland is refusing to allow the migrants to cross, has declared a state of emergency in the area and has deployed thousands of troops along the border.

Journalists and charity workers have been banned from the immediate border area by Polish authorities, but many videos have made it through to social media, showing the tense situation.

'Diversion'

Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway, the United States and Britain raised the migrant crisis during a closed-door emergency meeting of the 15-member UN security council on Thursday.

Story continues

They condemned "the orchestrated instrumentalisation of human beings whose lives and well-being have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus," according to their joint statement.

Minsk is aiming at "destabilising neighboring countries and the European Union's external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations."

The statement made no mention of Belarus ally Russia, which before the meeting rejected western allegations that it was working in conjunction with Minsk to send the migrants over the EU's eastern border into Poland.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Europe on Thursday that it should "restore contacts" with Minsk if it wants to resolve the crisis.

In his second phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in as many days, Putin "spoke in favour of restoring contacts between EU states and Belarus in order to resolve this problem," the Kremlin said in a statement.

New sanctions

The EU has so far refused any direct contacts with Lukashenko, who on Thursday warned that any new sanctions could see Minsk cut off natural gas transit to Europe.

However, Russia said Friday it will continue supplying gas to Europe regardless of Lukashenko's threats.

"Russia has been, is and will remain a country that fulfills all obligations to provide European consumers with gas," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The EU is expected to decide next week to impose new sanctions on Belarus for human trafficking because of the migrant crisis.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) leaves the House floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar filed legislation on Friday seeking to block the sale of $650 million air-to-air missiles to Saudi Arabia, the first major arms sale to the kingdom during President Joe Biden's administration.

Omar said she filed the measure, known as a joint resolution of disapproval, because of Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's civil war, considered one of the world's war humanitarian disasters, and its human rights record.

The Biden administration announced on Nov. 4 that it had approved the sale of https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-state-dept-okays-650-million-potential-air-to-air-missile-deal-saudi-arabia-2021-11-04 280 air-to-air missiles valued at up to $650 million. Raytheon Technologies makes the missiles.

"We should never be selling human rights abusers weapons, but we certainly should not be doing so in the midst of a humanitarian crisis they are responsible for. Congress has the authority to stop these sales, and we must exercise that power," Omar said in a statement.

The measure's prospects for stopping the sale are slim, since it would have to pass the U.S. Senate and survive a likely veto. But Omar's action underscores continuing wariness about weapons sales to Riyadh among some lawmakers, despite the Biden administration's intention to limit weapons sales to the kingdom to "defensive" equipment.

While Saudi Arabia is an important partner in the Middle East, U.S. lawmakers have refused to approve many military sales for the kingdom without assurances U.S. equipment would not be used to kill civilians.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Alistair Bell)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  Filipino women have faced a lot of battles in the past, and won them over time. But then, there goes a bunch of financial problems worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic - and addressing them remains to be a huge problem at present.

Financial literacy in the middle of a pandemic

For many years, Filipino women have already been in a constant battle with an invisible enemy: the lack of financial literacy. Forbes found that 90% of key financial decision-makers at home are women, but unfortunately, the S&P Global FinLit Survey revealed only 30% of them are financially literate. Before Filipino women even had the chance to recognize what the problem really is and what has been challenging them the whole time, the pandemic happened. And life has never been the same.

Times like these call for the Shero in you

Times have changed and we have to be ready for the unexpected. This is where financially empowered Filipino women have an edge because they are prepared to face sudden financial hurdles, such as those brought about by the pandemic.

Inspired by these empowered "Sheroes" who were able to build protection from the impact of the coronavirus crisis, "Shero" Abby Asistio realized how it pays to be secured, and that being financially prepared goes way beyond having savings in the bank.

"Akala ko okay na. Mayro'n naman akong savings," she shared of her realizations while writing the song Be a Shero.

Pero wait lang, pa'no nga kapag may mga unexpected moments na dumating? Paano kapag biglang nagkasakit 'yong mom ko? she said.

InLife Financial Advisor Julianne Benitez highlighted the importance of having an emergency fund equivalent to three to six months' worth of expenses.

"Hindi mo naman puwede sabihin sa expenses natin na, 'Wait lang, ha, break muna tayo kasi nawalan ako ng trabaho,'" she noted. "Having sufficient emergency fund was able to bridge 'yong gap na walang trabaho 'yong mga Pilipino kasi napaglaanan na nila ng enough money for the expenses of the household. Enough until such time na makapag-bounce back sila at makahanap ng bagong work.

Photo from #InLifeSheroes Movement

Be a Shero

Indeed, being financially empowered truly helps. And Pinaysthe financial gatekeepers of Filipino householdscannot let the same financial mistakes be a burden again.

Good thing the InLife Sheroes Movement is here to champion financial empowerment by enabling women to pursue financial literacy, educating them, increasing their confidence in managing finances, and helping them make the right financial decisions for themselves and for their families.

With the right help and the right knowledge, Filipino women can unleash the "Sheroes" in them. As "Shero" Iza Calzado emphasized, "You are a 'Shero.' Lahat tayo, we are somebody. You may not have a public platform but it doesn't mean that you are not a hero."

Photo from #InLifeSheroes Movement

Sign up now for the #InLifeSheroes movement and say #InAko to financial empowerment! Follow @InsularLifePH on Facebook and @insular_life on Instagram. Join the conversation online using the hashtags #InAkoInLife and #InLifeSheroes for more money management tips.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12) - President Rodrigo Duterte called for "closer international cooperation" at the 28th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting on Friday.

This is needed to accelerate the Asia-Pacific region's economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, the President said in his virtual address.

Duterte also pushed for the creation of an integrated system on vaccine passport validation and contact tracing, institutionalization of social protection for non-traditional forms of employment, and promotion of transnational education and digital inclusion in APEC economies.

The President likewise reiterated his call for developed economies to provide climate change support for vulnerable countries.

"Developing economies such as the Philippines contribute the least to climate change, but we are the most vulnerable to its disastrous consequences. And the cost of transitioning to a green economy is too high for developing countries to afford. This is the simple truth," he said.

Duterte was joined in the meeting by several government officials - including Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua.

The APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting concluded this year's edition of the international forum hosted by New Zealand. Thailand will host next year's APEC meetings.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  Fully vaccinated tourists visiting Boracay Island will no longer need to present a negative RT-PCR test result starting Nov. 16.

We are ready to open Boracay to more tourists, Aklan governor Florencio Miraflores declared on Friday.

He announced that 90% of the islands tourism workers and 70% of the whole community are fully vaccinated.

There have been zero active cases or currently sick patients on the island for the past week, according to the governor.

In lieu of the negative swab test result, travellers will need to show a vaccine certificate from the VaxCertPH, the countrys digital vaccine certification system.

The Boracay local government will also accept vaccination cards from local government units.

Of course, other requirements like the online health declaration card, bookings will still be there but RT-PCR will be removed to really open up business in time for the holidays, Miraflores said.

For its part, the Department of Tourism welcomed Aklans decision, noting that Boracay felt a dramatic increase of tourist arrivals in the last two months, with a total of 32,452 visitors in October.

VaxCertPh data not complete

Bohol, another popular tourist destination, earlier waived its RT-PCR test requirement.

Governor Arthur Yap, however, said many travellers are having a hard time getting certification from VaxCertPH as their data have yet to be encoded.

Nagkaproblema kami," Yap disclosed. "One week talagang hindi namin magamit ang system because it's still dependent on LGUs having to upload it. So when there are mistakes sa mga information or 'yung data hindi mag-match, hindi ma-upload sa VaxCert certification."

[Translation: We encountered a problem. We could not really use the system for one week because it's still dependent on LGUs having to upload it. So when there are mistakes in the information or the data wouldnt match, we couldnt upload the VaxCert certification.]

Yap is urging the national government to work with the LGUs in making sure the data can be uploaded immediately to be able to efficiently use the national vaccination certificate system.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  The government will study the proposal to lift the quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated travelers, an official of the Department of Health said on Friday.

Currently, only fully vaccinated travelers from "green" countries and territories, or those tagged as low risk for COVID-19, are exempt from quarantine upon arrival in the Philippines.

"Ito'y pinag-uusapan na. Actually, this was part of the discussion in the Inter-Agency Task Force (meeting) yesterday. Ito ay further na pinapaaral sa atin ng IATF officials para makita natin talaga ang mga pros and cons based on scientific evidence," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online media briefing when asked about Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion's pitch.

[Translation: This is already being discussed. Actually, this was part of the discussion in the IATF meeting yesterday. IATF officials asked us to study this further, so we can see its pros and cons based on scientific evidence.]

The recommendation may be out in the coming weeks, she added.

Concepcion on Thursday pushed for "zero quarantine" for fully vaccinated travelers. He has proposed to have them undergo two COVID-19 tests  48 hours prior to departure and then upon arrival  in lieu of quarantine.

Concepcion said his proposal would help the ailing airline industry recover from the COVID-19 crisis.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  The Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives has approved a bill seeking to suspend and reduce excise taxes on petroleum products amid soaring global oil prices.

The proposed measure aims to suspend excise taxes on diesel, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas for six months. It also seeks to reduce tax on low-octane gasoline used primarily by tricycle drivers, but it will retain tax on premium gasoline.

Committee chairman Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said rates will be reverted back to prevailing levels once global price of oil normalizes or goes back to $65 per barrel.

Republic Act No. 10963, or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion, requires an excise tax of 6 per liter of diesel, 10 per liter of gas, 5 per liter of kerosene, and 3 per kilo of LPG.

Should the imposition of excise taxes be suspended for six months, the government will lose 45 billion.

Salceda said the lower chamber will prioritize the bill, so it could be turned over to the Senate before the end of the month.

He earlier filed House Bill No. 10438 that intends to suspend the imposition of excise taxes on diesel and kerosene from Dec. 1, 2021 to June 1, 2022, and slash the taxes on gasoline by 3 per liter.

Meanwhile, Senator Grace Poe recently filed Senate Bill no. 2445 that seeks automatic suspension of excise taxes on regular gasoline, unleaded premium gasoline and diesel. It will amend section 148 of the National Internal Revenue Code.

CNN Philippines correspondent Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  The country once again broke its record of coronavirus vaccine doses administered in a day, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 reported Friday.

In a statement, the NTF said over 1.23 million shots were administered on Nov. 11. This surpassed the 1.1 million record on Nov. 4.

We are very pleased to see that the hard work, determination, and concerted effort from all sectors of society has paid dividends and is bringing us closer to our goal of achieving 1.5 million daily jab rate, said NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez.

On Thursday, over 541,000 Filipinos received their second COVID-19 shot while more than 698,000 got their first dose. These figures bring total vaccines administered to date to 67.71 million, including 30.8 million fully vaccinated. Some 36.9 million, meanwhile, acquired their first shot.

Galvez said the country is building momentum in vaccinating millions of people every day.

We will ensure that we will sustain this effort, as we continue to increase the capacities of our LGUs, address the lack of manpower in vaccination sites, and generate greater vaccine demand from our people, said the official.

The national government recently required the vaccination of on-site public and private employees in areas with sufficient vaccine supply.

Natl vaccination drive eyed as 'working holidays'

Galvez also said on Friday that the three-day national vaccination drive from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 may be declared as working holidays.

"The recommendation of many is gagawin itong parang working holiday like the elections. At the election day, after they cast their votes, pwede silang bumalik sa trabaho nila. Because we want to save 'yung working days para maging productive sa ating economy," he explained.

[Translation: There are recommendations to make this a working holiday like the elections. At the election day, after they cast their votes, they can go back to work. Because we want to save the working days so the economy will be productive.]

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a briefing Thursday that Malacanang will issue a final directive on the matter.

The government aims to vaccinate 15 million individuals during the three-day event dubbed "Bayanihan, Bakunahan" to boost its immunization program, and reach its target of inoculating 70% of the target population - or 54 million individuals - by year-end.
(CNN)  A 22-year-old woman who attended the Astroworld Festival in Houston has become the ninth person to die in the tragedy, an attorney handling her case said Thursday.

Bharti Shahani died on Wednesday night, said attorney James Lassiter.

Shahani, a student at Texas A&M University, attended the concert with her cousin and her younger sister, according to cousin Mohit Bellani.

Shahani had been on a ventilator in critical condition days after she suffered injuries at the concert, which was headlined by Travis Scott.

Dozens of others were injured in a crowd surge at the music festival on Friday night.

A 9-year-old child was seriously injured, his family said, and is in a medically induced coma.

Survivors of the surge describe scenes where many attendees were pressed together and at times unable to stay upright.

Bryan Espinoza, who attended the concert with his brother Jonathan, said Wednesday he's had trouble sleeping since the tragic events unfolded.

"I saw people screaming in front of my face, just trying to fight for their lives, basically. Everyone's life was in danger and I just saw people passed out, bodies on the floor, just a lot of stuff you don't see on a daily basis," Bryan Espinoza said.

"At one point I thought I wasn't going to make it."

Jonathan Espinoza told CNN's John Berman on Thursday that as he and his brother walked to get their tickets scanned, "fans immediately bust down a fence."

"You have cops trying to stop them, but I mean, there's about 50 people that just break the fence down (and) immediately start running," he said.

"When you start off poorly, I don't get how you would expect to finish with success," said Jonathan Espinoza. The event "unraveled in chaos" from the moment he and his brother arrived, he said.

Fire official denied access to venue twice, union says

The president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association said Thursday the district fire chief whose station was closest to NRG Park stopped by the Astroworld venue the morning of the concert but was denied access twice.

According to Patrick "Marty" Lancton, the district fire chief of Station 21 stopped by to walk through the venue to get a lay of the land ahead of Friday night's concert, something he said is "normal."

"As with any big, large-scale event he took a ride over and said 'hey, let's check everything out,'" Lancton said. "In the city of Houston, a district fire chief is usually over three or four stations. When a response is required in his area, he is the first to respond. He would be the one taking command if something happened and determine what resources are needed."

According to Lancton, the district fire chief was denied access first by security. He requested to speak with the head of security who also denied the district chief access. Lancton said the district fire chief was given a map of the venue instead.

CNN has reached out several times to Contemporary Services Corporation, who handled security for the event, and has not heard back.

Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena backed up the claims that the district chief was not let in.

But Pena went a step further, saying he'd like to see his teams be a part of the planning before the day of the event.

"I do need to have my people there in the planning, in the contingency planning," Pena said. "It's important for us to have a comprehensive plan that everyone understands."

Lancton said that the district fire chief was among some of the first Houston Fire Department personnel on the scene after four firefighters stationed inside the Orange Parking Lot became increasingly worried about the situation unfolding inside the venue

The lack of professional emergency personnel at Astroworld was "absolutely a problem," Lancton said.

"What that really means is that whoever put the event on hired a third party medical company ... to handle any emergencies that are happening on the inside," Lancton said on CNN's "New Day.

The Houston Fire Department "had no command and controlled presence on this inside of the venue," but were nearby "in a support role," he added.

Lancton said the firefighters on-scene asked the hired emergency personnel if they had radios and were given a list of cell phone numbers. He said the fact the logistical emergency strategy relied on cell phones, not radios, was problematic because "seconds matter, communication matters."

"I don't know that cell phones are very reliable when you have fifty or sixty thousand people, especially when you have people that are dying," he said.

He said firefighters were primarily monitoring Houston Police Department radio traffic and noticed a growing tension from authorities on the ground. After not hearing any response over the radio to stated medical emergencies, the HFD personnel on standby chose to self-initiate a response.

"They took it upon themselves, when they started to hear radio traffic, and self-initiated a Houston Fire Department response and upgraded it to a mass casualty incident," he said.

Scott's attorney, Attorney Edwin F. McPherson, released a statement Wednesday night blasting Houston city officials over the "finger-pointing," "inconsistent messages," and backtracking of statements, CNN previously reported.

At least 58 lawsuits filed over Astroworld tragedy

As investigators and attendees seek to know more about what caused the deadly crowd crush, a bevy of lawsuits are being filed in civil court on behalf of those at the show.

At least 58 civil lawsuits have been filed in Harris County District Court in connection to the disaster as of Wednesday, asking city officials, concert organizers and performers how the concert was ultimately allowed to continue as people were dying in the melee.

Police Chief Troy Finner said at a news conference Wednesday that the "ultimate authority to end a show (was) with production and the entertainer, and that should be through communication with public safety officials."

"We don't hold the plug," he said.

Authorities have said first responders began to receive word of injuries in the crowd around 9:30 p.m. and the show continued for another 40 minutes.

Finner claims their investigation has revealed police personnel told the production team in charge of the performance that CPR was underway on at least one individual and to stop the show. Finner did not specify who the production team is or the timing of the notifications.

Questions have also been raised regarding the actions of Live Nation, the show's promoter and organizer, as well as Scott, who has maintained he did not know what was happening in the crowd during his set.

"If the lights would have been turned on -- (if) the promoter or the artist called for that -- it would have chilled the crowd, and who knows? Who knows what the outcome would have been? But everybody in that venue, starting from the artist on down, has a responsibility for public safety," Pena told CNN on Monday.

Yet representatives of Scott are disputing characterizations made by city officials of his responsibility in the surge.

McPherson released a statement Wednesday blasting Houston city officials over the "finger-pointing," "inconsistent messages," and backtracking of statements.

In a 56-page operations plan obtained by CNN this week, a clear chain of command in case of an incident is laid out, identifying the role of the executive producer as well as the festival director as the only individuals with the authority to stop the concert. The PDF obtained by CNN is marked Version: 0.1, and it is unclear whether it was the final version of the plan and when it was drafted.

"It was reported that the Operations Plan designated that only the festival director and executive producers have authority to stop the show, neither of which is part of Travis's crew," McPherson said in the statement.

McPherson also noted Finner's comments on Saturday that authorities had concerns over the show stopping early due to potential rioting from concertgoers.

Former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who was introduced to Scott by a mutual friend, told CNN's Erin Burnett that Scott is "absolutely devastated" at what happened at the festival.

"His heart is bleeding for his fans," she said.

Speaking from Houston, Rawlings-Blake said that she spent over four hours with Scott on Wednesday and is working with him to ensure that they are speaking with city administration and the promoters.

"We're doing everything that he can do in his power to make sure that no fan ever loses their life at another concert," she said.

"He is angry. He is upset that this happened," she said, adding, "I think the finger-pointing is just -- It is unproductive. He at his heart wants to reach out to the families. He also wants to reach out to make sure that something like this never happens again."

Investigation will 'take weeks, possibly months'

Finner said at Wednesday's news conference that it was too early to say for sure that charges would be filed over the disaster, but said investigators were "not going to leave any stones unturned."

The investigation into the crowd crush will "take weeks, possibly months," he said.

The chief clarified earlier reports and said there was no evidence a security guard at the festival had received a drug-laced injection, but rather was struck in the head and knocked unconscious.

And despite Finner saying Wednesday that an independent investigation is unwarranted, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo may direct a potential third party to do so.

"What happened at Astroworld this weekend was a horrific tragedy, and the families of victims deserve answers. There may well be criminal liability, and that is why we continue to fully support the Houston Police Department's criminal investigation," said Rafael Lemaitre, communications director for Hidalgo.

"At the same time, Harris County continues its process of identifying a separate independent, third party to look into any operational or administrative steps  beyond anything criminal  that could have been taken to prevent this from happening."
(CNN)  After 11 days of climate talks that have included progress on protecting forests, phasing out coal and transitioning to electric cars, the future of our planet has boiled down to one key thing: who's going to pay for the mess we're in?

On Thursday afternoon, the eve of the final day of COP26, huge gaps remain between what different countries want on key issues, including how ambitious the world should be in slashing greenhouse gas emissions, all part of what climate folks call "mitigation."

In what has been the fiercest opposition to the summit's draft agreement published Wednesday, Bolivia's chief negotiator Diego Pacheco said his country and 21 other allied nations -- including major emitters like China, India and Saudi Arabia -- would oppose the entire section on climate change mitigation.

China, India and Saudi Arabia are all part of the Like-Minded Developing Countries group Pacheco was speaking for. None have replied to CNN's request for comment on their stance.

That section contains all of the agreement's language around reducing emissions, including the recognition that the world should aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists say is necessary to avert the worst climate impacts. The countries' biggest point of contention, Pacheco said, was urging everyone to ratchet up their ambitions on emissions by the end of 2022, for COP27.

He argued developing nations should not have the same targets as rich ones who have had a greater historical role in the climate crisis. And he accused rich nations of trying to "transfer responsibility" to the Global South.

"History matters and history is very important to understand and to put in the context in the discussion on ambition," he said. He added that it would be impossible for many countries in the group to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century.

The issue at the heart of this sentiment is money. He made clear that making such a transition would be impossible if rich nations didn't start paying their fair share -- including for developing countries to adapt to the impacts of the crisis. Developing nations have repeatedly complained about so-called climate finance this week, and it and has emerged as the biggest sticking point stalling the talks.

Catherine Abreu, founder of the non-profit Destination Zero, which works on climate justice issues, said that Bolivia's announcement was essentially a negotiation tactic and the underlying issue was more to do with demands for more funds.

"The draft of the text was so mitigation focused, so I think that announcement was a play," Abreau told CNN, saying that the countries' message meant other parts of the agreement would "get held hostage."

The suggestion to delete the mitigation section "is clearly a punch in the face of people suffering from the climate crisis," said Teresa Anderson, a spokesperson for Climate Action Network.

Frans Timmermans, the EU Commission's vice president, ridiculed the call as illogical, saying there's "no amount of money on the planet" that could develop adaptation to withstand the extreme temperature rise that would come if mitigation were scrapped.

Rich world still short in funding promise

In a conference that is trying desperately to close gaps, the most important gap is really the one between what humans are willing to do and what's actually required to avert catastrophic climate change.

A report published this week by Climate Action Tracker found that even with all the pledges made at COP26, the world is on track for 2.4 degrees of warming. Closing that gap will require deep and sustained cuts to greenhouse gas emissions over this decade, the latest UN climate science report showed.

But that costs money, and there is good reason for developing nations to be dissatisfied.

More developing countries are on the frontlines of climate change than wealthy ones, and they collectively have had a much smaller role in creating this crisis.

And the money already promised hasn't even flowed in full.

Rich countries agreed more than 10 years ago to transfer $100 billion a year to developing nations to help their transformation to low-carbon economies and to adapt to the climate crisis. Adaptation can involve anything from building sea walls to prevent flooding, to moving communities back from the coast and retrofitting homes to netter withstand extreme weather events.

Not only has the rich world failed to deliver the $100 billion by the 2020 deadline, developing nations say it's nowhere near enough in the first place. They also want a 50-50 split between mitigation -- measures to reduce emissions -- and adaptation. Far more money has flowed to measures focused on cutting emissions.

Anger against the US brews

On top of the money for adaptation, developing countries want new systems to pay for "loss and damage," which essentially involves wealthy countries being held financially liable for the impacts of the climate crisis. It's the idea behind the concept of climate reparations.

A senior US official said one idea being considered is funding the Santiago Network, a UN body set up to give technical assistance to countries trying to rebuild from the impacts of the climate crisis.

But the US is otherwise closed to the idea of a new loss-and-damage fund, which is what many developing nations want. The European Union has said the same thing.

There is growing anger, too, towards the United States. A representative of the Climate Vulnerable Forum -- a group of around 50 nations -- said Thursday that the Biden administration was under-delivering on finance. He praised Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of Scotland, the only country that has committed any money to a loss and damage fund, with 2 million Scottish pounds ($2.7 million). It's a small but symbolic figure that shows such a fund may be possible.

"The true leader that has emerged here at COP26 is not a party to the convention. She is our host, she is the First Minister of Scotland," Saleemul Huq, the forum's expert advisory chair told journalists.

"Just before the COP started she put a million pounds of Scottish money on the table for a new fund on loss and damage and challenged all the other leaders to match it. Yesterday, she doubled the amount. So she is the true leader who is putting money on the table for loss and damage. The US is giving us zero dollars. Europe is giving us zero euros. But Scotland has given us two million."

Behind him was sign picturing Biden with the message "Has the US kept it's $100 billion promise? NOPE!"

'You can't say no to everything'

European lawmaker Bas Eickhout from the Netherlands said that US was not showing flexibility on several matters, and that its fair share on funding for the developing world would be closer to $40 billion than the $11.4 billion pledged.

"The developing countries are coming here with a couple of demands, and climate finance and loss and damage are the most important," he told CNN. "If the US is going to say no to everything, that will be a problem. And this will feed into what China wants. The more there is a battle between developing countries and the developed countries, the more China can sit back and relax."

Eickhout added: "You can't say no to everything. And if you want a review mechanism on accelerating mitigation, then of course, the question will be 'OK, but is finance developing?' And if you then don't deliver on loss and damage, and you haven't delivered your $100 billion, well what are we getting in return?"

Underpinning all of this is humans continued use of fossil fuels. Two sources familiar with the negotiations told CNN that Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and Australia were opposed to an article in the draft agreement calling for the phaseout of coal and fossil fuel subsidies.

Any reference to fossil fuels in the agreement would be a first and a breakthrough for the COP climate process.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world's biggest oil producers, Australia is a major coal producer, and Russia is a big producer of coal, oil and gas. China is the world's biggest producer and consumer of coal.

None of those countries have responded to CNN's request for comment.

China is also unlikely to support the language on fossil fuels, the sources told CNN. Climate envoy Xie Zhenhua was asked by reporters on Wednesday whether it would support the section, but he did not answer directly and simply listed all of China's plans for coal and finance.

Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud said on Wednesday that the world should recognize "the diversity of climate solutions ... without any bias towards or against any particular source of energy." Reuters reported that he responded to accusations that his country was blocking process as "lies and fabrications."

This story was first published on CNN.com China and India among 22 nations calling for key section to be cut from COP26 agreement
The Lakeview Community Schools Board of Education has opened up bids for an addition project at Shell Creek Elementary School, 16786 280th St. in Columbus.

The six-classroom addition will allow the district to expand the building's classroom space for preschool capacity and add sections of kindergarten, first, second, and third grades over several years.

"The class sizes in the lower grades keep growing, because there are more and more people moving into the district," School Board President Keith Runge told the Telegram Thursday afternoon.

Runge said the quality of each child's education suffers when class sizes get past a certain point. Adding sections to the lower grades will bring class sizes back down.

Design firm Clark and Enersen recently finished up engineering plans for the Shell Creek addition.

"The total square footage ended up at 9,860, which is almost directly on par with what we projected," Lakeview Superintendent Aaron Plas said at the Monday evening meeting.

During the same meeting, Plas said contractors would be out to the building soon to take a look at the facility and start putting bids together. The bids are due Nov. 23.

The school board will look over the bids at a special meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 29, and -- depending on how things go -- may or may not choose to vote on them then.

"Because of what's happening with the labor and materials shortage, we're just going step-by-step," Plas told the Telegram Thursday.

Plas indicated that the district still needs to get a clear idea of what the addition project could cost. Runge echoed that point.

"The (Lakeview Junior-Senior High School) project was way under budget so we're hoping to use part of that, but we want to make sure we can keep everything in line," Runge said on Thursday.

The district is also taking its time to put together plans for a renovation of the East Gym at Lakeview Junior-Senior High School, 3744 83rd St. in Columbus.

"(Clark and Enersen is) working on the plans for the engineering of that," Plas said at Monday's meeting. "...Hopefully that'll be done by the end of this month. Once that's completed, we can send it out to bid and see what it comes back at."

In the meantime, the district is working on the finishing touches for its big junior-senior high school remodel, the lion's share of which was completed in time for the beginning of the current school year. As of the Monday evening meeting, touch-up work needed to be done for some cabinets and the district was still waiting for new furniture to arrive.

"They said about 60% of the order was going to be shipped two weeks ago and it hasn't, so we'll see when that shows up," Plas said.

On Monday evening, the district accepted a $58,218 bid from Rutt's Heating and Air Conditioning to replace an HVAC unit in the kitchen of the junior-senior high school. The HVAC unit will be paid for using money from the district's school nutrition fund.

The kitchen's HVAC unit has had increasing issues over the last couple of years, and finally passed the point of no return a few weeks ago.

"We're piping in some heat right now the best we can, but it's a solid low 50s in there in the morning," Plas said.

While Rutt's $58,218 unit doesn't perfectly match the district's bid specifications, it is readily available, meaning the district won't have to wait for it to be ordered and shipped.

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.
The state Department of Health reported 69 cases of COVID-19 and one death for Cumberland County Friday.

The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 decreased to 85 in Friday's report, down one from Thursday. There are 12 adults in intensive care (down four from Thursday) and 14 on ventilators (the same as Thursday). Six adult ICU beds remain open of the 112 currently staffed across the county, and 37 of 95 ventilators in the county are in use.

Friday's report included 198 test results, with 15 probable cases. Comparing just the number of negative tests (129) and confirmed positive tests (54), the county saw 29.5% of its tests come back positive.

The southcentral region reported 739 cases and three deaths Friday, with 207 cases in York County, 116 cases in Blair County and 70 cases in Dauphin County.

Franklin County reported 53 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 Friday (up one from Thursday), with four of 28 currently staffed ICU beds available in the county and nine of 35 available ventilators in use. There are nine adults in intensive care and five on ventilators.

Dauphin County reported 92 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 Friday (down two from Thursday), with 21 of 198 currently staffed ICU beds available in the county and 75 of 177 available ventilators in use. There are 30 adults in intensive care and 18 on ventilators.

School-age children

In its weekly update for the 11th week of the school year, the department reported 130 cases among children aged 5-18 in Cumberland County during the week of Nov. 3-9, an increase of 46 from the 84 cases reported last week. That brings the total number of cases in Cumberland County for this school year to 1,477.

Statewide, the number of cases among 5- to 18-year-olds increased after declining steadily over the previous six weeks with 6,340 cases reported. The state said the total number of cases in that age group for the school year is 71,065.

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. Its percent positivity increased to 10.8% for the week of Nov. 5-Nov. 11, up from 9.5% the previous week. The incidence rate per 100,000 people increased to 152, down from 120.8 the previous week.

Philadelphia County, which includes the city of Philadelphia, had the lowest percent positivity in the state for the week of Nov. 5-Nov. 11 at 3.8% and the lowest incidence rate per 100,000 people at 71.3.

Penn State Health update (Nov. 10)

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.

Wednesday's update shows 88 total cases (85 adults, 3 pediatrics) in the health system's four hospitals  18 are fully vaccinated (20.4%) with four in an ICU and two on ventilators, 56 are nonvaccinated (63.6%) with 19 adults in an ICU and 10 adults on a ventilator, and 14 are unknown status patients. All three children hospitalized are unvaccinated, with one in an ICU and no one on a ventilator.

Holy Spirit Medical Center in Camp Hill has 16 COVID patients. Four are fully vaccinated adults (no one in ICU and no one on a ventilator) and 12 unvaccinated adults (one in an ICU and one on a ventilator).

Hampden Medical Center has eight COVID patients. Five are not fully vaccinated (two in an ICU, one on a ventilator) and three are fully vaccinated (one in an ICU).

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. 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 Wednesday evening, the CDC says Cumberland County has seen 63.6% of its total population of 253,370 become fully vaccinated. For the county's vaccine eligible population of people ages 12 and older, 73.3% have been fully vaccinated.

County numbers in the southcentral region (for Nov. 12):

Adams County (pop. 103,009): 44 new cases; 13,846 total cases (11,279 confirmed, 2,567 probable); 44,446 negatives; 233 deaths; 50.7% of county population vaccinated

44 new cases; 13,846 total cases (11,279 confirmed, 2,567 probable); 44,446 negatives; 233 deaths; 50.7% of county population vaccinated Bedford County (pop. 47,888): 22 new cases; 7,157 total cases (4,871 confirmed, 2,286 probable); 12,651 negatives; 179 deaths (+1); 35.2% of county population vaccinated

22 new cases; 7,157 total cases (4,871 confirmed, 2,286 probable); 12,651 negatives; 179 deaths (+1); 35.2% of county population vaccinated Blair County (pop. 121,829): 116 new cases; 18,699 total cases (14,722 confirmed, 3,977 probable); 47,579 negatives; 411 deaths; 46.6% of county population vaccinated

116 new cases; 18,699 total cases (14,722 confirmed, 3,977 probable); 47,579 negatives; 411 deaths; 46.6% of county population vaccinated Cumberland County (pop. 253,370): 69 new cases; 29,198 total cases (22,752 confirmed, 6,446 probable); 103,424 negatives; 638 deaths (+1); 63.6% of county population vaccinated

69 new cases; 29,198 total cases (22,752 confirmed, 6,446 probable); 103,424 negatives; 638 deaths (+1); 63.6% of county population vaccinated Dauphin County (pop. 278,299): 70 new cases; 35,913 total cases (30,743 confirmed, 5,170 probable); 129,683 negatives; 671 deaths; 59.4% of county population vaccinated

70 new cases; 35,913 total cases (30,743 confirmed, 5,170 probable); 129,683 negatives; 671 deaths; 59.4% of county population vaccinated Franklin County (pop. 155,027): 69 new cases; 22,532 total cases (18,253 confirmed, 4,279 probable); 64,852 negatives; 475 deaths; 46.3% of county population vaccinated

69 new cases; 22,532 total cases (18,253 confirmed, 4,279 probable); 64,852 negatives; 475 deaths; 46.3% of county population vaccinated Fulton County (pop. 14,530): 18 new cases; 2,405 total cases (1,186 confirmed, 1,219 probable); 5,041 negatives; 33 deaths; 31.9% of county population vaccinated

18 new cases; 2,405 total cases (1,186 confirmed, 1,219 probable); 5,041 negatives; 33 deaths; 31.9% of county population vaccinated Huntingdon County (pop. 45,144): 11 new cases; 7,048 total cases (5,780 confirmed, 1,268 probable); 21,152 negatives; 172 deaths (+1); 47.4% of county population vaccinated

11 new cases; 7,048 total cases (5,780 confirmed, 1,268 probable); 21,152 negatives; 172 deaths (+1); 47.4% of county population vaccinated Juniata County (pop. 24,763): 9 new cases; 3,028 total cases (2,764 confirmed, 264 probable); 6,767 negatives; 120 deaths; 40.7% of county population vaccinated

9 new cases; 3,028 total cases (2,764 confirmed, 264 probable); 6,767 negatives; 120 deaths; 40.7% of county population vaccinated Lebanon County (pop. 141,793): 63 new cases; 21,373 total cases (18,267 confirmed, 3,106 probable); 63,708 negatives; 344 deaths; 51.5% of county population vaccinated

63 new cases; 21,373 total cases (18,267 confirmed, 3,106 probable); 63,708 negatives; 344 deaths; 51.5% of county population vaccinated Mifflin County (pop. 46,138): 18 new cases; 7,547 total cases (7,138 confirmed, 409 probable); 17,758 negatives; 214 deaths; 49.6% of county population vaccinated

18 new cases; 7,547 total cases (7,138 confirmed, 409 probable); 17,758 negatives; 214 deaths; 49.6% of county population vaccinated Perry County (pop. 46,272): 23 new cases; 5,501 total cases (4,240 confirmed, 1,261 probable); 13,517 negatives; 130 deaths; 47.8% of county population vaccinated

23 new cases; 5,501 total cases (4,240 confirmed, 1,261 probable); 13,517 negatives; 130 deaths; 47.8% of county population vaccinated York County (pop. 449,058): 207 new cases; 65,235 total cases (53,058 confirmed; 12,177 probable); 196,079 negatives; 1,015 deaths; 55.9% of county population vaccinated

ZIP code-level counts (updated Nov. 12):

17013: 3,504 positives, 16,009 negatives - +70 since Nov. 5

17015: 2,079 positives, 7,839 negatives - +32 since Nov. 5

17050: 3,303 positives, 16,384 negatives - +51 since Nov. 5

17055: 3,723 positives, 18,520 negatives - +61 since Nov. 5

17011: 3,433 positives, 15,534 negatives - +61 since Nov. 5

17007: 502 positives, 2,023 negatives - +14 since Nov. 5

17065: 358 positives, 1,384 negatives - +9 since Nov. 5

17324: 407 positives, 1,421 negatives - +7 since Nov. 5

17241: 934 positives, 3,473 negatives - +16 since Nov. 5

17257: 2,387 positives, 7,845 negatives - +29 since Nov. 5

17240: 234 positives, 706 negatives - +6 since Nov. 5

17025: 1,587 positives, 6,315 negatives - +25 since Nov. 5

17070: 1,504 positives, 5,993 negatives - +40 since Nov. 5

17043: 509 positives, 2,271 negatives - +17 since Nov. 5

17019: 1,786 positives, 6,076 negatives - +59 since Nov. 5

17266: 29 positives, 137 negatives - +1 since Nov. 5

School district and college case counts (updated Nov. 12)

The Sentinel's case counts for Cumberland County school districts and colleges or universities are updated Fridays. 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): 19 student cases and 2 staff cases being monitored as of Nov. 12.

(reports active cases in past 14 days with school exposure): 19 student cases and 2 staff cases being monitored as of Nov. 12. Camp Hill School District (posts chart that includes total case count): 12 new student cases and no new staff case since Oct. 29; 74 student cases and 8 staff cases this school year (started Aug. 25.) Chart was last updated Nov. 5.

(posts chart that includes total case count): 12 new student cases and no new staff case since Oct. 29; 74 student cases and 8 staff cases this school year (started Aug. 25.) Chart was last updated Nov. 5. Carlisle Area School District (reports cases as they occur and updates a chart): 29 new cases since Nov. 5; 197 cases this school year (started Aug. 25) according to the charts last update on Nov. 8.

(reports cases as they occur and updates a chart): 29 new cases since Nov. 5; 197 cases this school year (started Aug. 25) according to the charts last update on Nov. 8. Cumberland Valley School District (reports weekly and total number of cases with school exposure): 17 cases since Nov. 5; 236 cases this school year (started Aug. 31) as of the charts last update on Nov. 10.

(reports weekly and total number of cases with school exposure): 17 cases since Nov. 5; 236 cases this school year (started Aug. 31) as of the charts last update on Nov. 10. Mechanicsburg Area School District (chart lists total cases actively being monitored, updated Tuesday and Friday): 16 positive and presumed positive cases being monitored as of Nov. 12.

(chart lists total cases actively being monitored, updated Tuesday and Friday): 16 positive and presumed positive cases being monitored as of Nov. 12. Shippensburg Area School District (reports weekly and total confirmed case counts involving school exposure): 3 new cases since Nov. 5; 159 cases this school year (started Aug. 19.

South Middleton School District (posts notices as cases occur, updates table of case counts weekly on Fridays): 10 new cases since Oct. 29; 83 cases this school year (started Aug. 25) as of the charts last update on Nov. 5.

(posts notices as cases occur, updates table of case counts weekly on Fridays): 10 new cases since Oct. 29; 83 cases this school year (started Aug. 25) as of the charts last update on Nov. 5. West Shore School District (reports active cases with school exposure within past 14 days): 71 student cases and 5 staff cases being monitored as of Nov. 12.

(reports active cases with school exposure within past 14 days): 71 student cases and 5 staff cases being monitored as of Nov. 12. Dickinson College : 2 new student cases and no employee cases since Nov. 5; 34 student cases and 27 employee cases this semester (started Aug. 30.)

: 2 new student cases and no employee cases since Nov. 5; 34 student cases and 27 employee cases this semester (started Aug. 30.) Messiah University : 11 new student cases and 2 new staff cases since Nov. 5; 77 student cases and 31 employee cases this semester (started Aug. 7.)

: 11 new student cases and 2 new staff cases since Nov. 5; 77 student cases and 31 employee cases this semester (started Aug. 7.) Shippensburg University: 6 new student cases and one new staff cases since Nov. 5; 170 student cases and 22 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 - 10.3% last 7 days (9.3% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 189.3 (168.9 previous 7 days)

Adams County: Percent Positivity - 14.7% last 7 days (14.2% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 183.5 (193.2 previous 7 days)

Cumberland County: Percent Positivity - 10.8% last 7 days (9.4% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 152 (120.8 previous 7 days)

Dauphin County: Percent Positivity - 11.1% last 7 days (10.6% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 154.5 (141.9 previous 7 days)

Franklin County: Percent Positivity - 12.4% last 7 days (11.1% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 150.3 (142.6 previous 7 days)

Lebanon County: Percent Positivity - 15.2% last 7 days (14.0% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 239.11 (201 previous 7 days)

Perry County: Percent Positivity - 15.8% last 7 days (9.0% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 196.7 (99.4 previous 7 days)

York County:

Percent Positivity - 15.6% last 7 days (15.8% previous 7 days)

last 7 days (15.8% previous 7 days)

Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 237.8 (231.4 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.
As the lead infectious disease specialist at Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center and Holy Spirit Medical Center, Dr. Mohammad Ali estimates he sees about 10 to 12 COVID-19 patients every day. It remains clear to him and other health care professionals that vaccines are still the best preventative tool. Of the hospitalizations, about 70 to 80% are still unvaccinated, he said. Its a much higher percentage for deaths.

Though unvaccinated patients make up the majority of cases, Ali said the breakthrough cases he does see among vaccinated residents primarily involve older adults who may be coming to the hospital from a nursing home and who have co-morbidities that put them at higher risk for more severe infections, such as heart disease, diabetes or a combination of such health issues. Despite the breakthrough cases being among the population who were previously at the highest risk of death and complications, he hasnt seen many of those cases reach the intensive care unit.

Ive seen one or two (breakthrough) patients end up in the ICU, but even then its for a short time, he said, adding that he has yet to see any of those patients die from the infection.

In Penn State Healths Wednesday update on its dashboard, there were 17 unvaccinated and seven vaccinated COVID-19 patients in Hampden and Holy Spirit medical centers. Of those, three unvaccinated patients were in the ICU and two were on ventilators at both hospitals, while only one vaccinated adult was in the ICU at Hampden.

Most of the (breakthrough cases) end up having a mild illness, he said. Theyre in the hospital for a few days, but they dont usually end up in the ICU.

Those who end up in the ICU are often considered to have severe infections, and Ali said the chance of death becomes much greater when a patient reaches the ICU and especially if they get placed on a ventilator. Despite improvements in treatments for COVID-19, Ali said they dont have something that works all the time.

None of the treatments we have are fool-proof or 100%, he said.

Ali said the main treatment, Remdesivir, is very effective in patients who are at the beginning of their infections. However, most of the hospitalizations are of patients who are in the seventh or eighth day of infection, and the drug is only partially helpful in those cases. Ali said they also use steroids and anti-inflammatory medicines to help patients, but it still cant fully prevent deaths.

Death tolls in Cumberland County surged in October to highs not seen since January, and deaths are still being reported at relatively high levels this month.

Another surge

Though the number of cases dipped in the last month, Ali said COVID-19 cases have mostly plateaued in the county instead of falling further. With indoor activities for winter and holiday gatherings coming up, he said its possible that another surge is on its way.

Based on what we are seeing around the world, Im inclined to say we might see another surge in the next few weeks, he said. Europe is experiencing more cases, and we are usually three to four weeks behind Europe.

Ali said there could be a number of factors that are leading to more cases in Europe, including cold weather forcing more people inside, as well as a possible subvariant to the delta variant that could be more transmissible.

Another factor, however, is COVID-19 fatigue.

You do have COVID-19 fatigue setting in, Ali said. People just dont want to wear a mask or follow social distancing.

Both those things, however, may be important in keeping older relatives from visiting the hospital with breakthrough cases during the holidays. Ali said he recommends masks and social distancing to prevent breakthrough cases, and to protect residents who may be immunocompromised.

The best protection, though, is vaccines.

Ali said being fully vaccinated with both shots will be the best way to prevent severe cases of COVID-19. He said breakthrough cases were always going to be a possibility since vaccines arent 100% effective, but they provide the best protection against the disease.

Hell give the same advice to someone who has already had COVID-19.

Having COVID-19 does give you antibodies ... but most people who have mild infections dont have a lot of antibody protection against infection, he said.

Ali said the immune system response to a mild infection may not be enough protection from another infection. However, vaccines provide a more reliable immune response across the board, he said.

Children will also play an important part in preventing the spread of COVID-19, especially with vaccines now available for those 5 to 11. Ali noted that anyone who receives the second shot of the vaccine wont be fully vaccinated for another two weeks, which likely means children wont be fully protected during the Thanksgiving holiday celebrations.

As discussions continue on booster availability for other populations  he hopes to get his own booster  Ali recommends vaccines to get through the winter months.

Just get vaccines for COVID and the flu, he said. Anything can give you COVID-like symptoms, and as we enter winter, we will see that.

Email Naomi Creason at ncreason@cumberlink.com or follow her on Twitter @SentinelCreason

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.
BANGKOK (AP)  A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Friday sentenced U.S. journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison with hard labor, the maximum penalty under three charges, despite calls by the United States and rights groups for his release.

It was the harshest punishment yet among the seven journalists known to have been convicted since the military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February.

Fenster, the managing editor of the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, still faces additional terrorism and treason charges under which he could receive up to life in prison.

The court found him guilty on Friday of spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations, lawyer Than Zaw Aung said.

Fenster wept after hearing the sentence and has not yet decided whether to appeal, the lawyer said.

The harsh penalty is the ruling military's latest rebuff of calls from around the world for a peaceful end to Myanmars political crisis. The government is refusing to cooperate with an envoy appointed by Southeast Asian governments to mediate a solution, and has not bowed to sanctions imposed by the United States and several other Western countries.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said Fensters conviction and harsh sentence is emblematic of the wider plight of journalists in Myanmar who have been facing constant repression since the Feb. 1 military coup.

According to Bachelet, at least 126 journalists, media officials or publishers have been detained by the military since the military seized power and 47 remain in detention, including 20 charged with crimes.

Nine media outlets have had their licenses revoked, 20 others have had to suspend operations, and dozens of journalists remain in hiding due to outstanding arrest warrants, she said.

Journalists have been under attack since Feb. 1, with the military leadership clearly attempting to suppress their attempts to report on the serious human rights violations being perpetrated across Myanmar as well as the extent of opposition to the regime, Bachelet said. Myanmar has quickly reverted to an environment of information control, censorship and propaganda seen under military regimes in the past.

I urge the military authorities to immediately release all journalists being detained in relation to their work, she said, stressing that people are being deprived of life-saving information.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supports Bachelet's views, and reiterated that journalists everywhere, including those in Myanmar, must be allowed to work without harassment and that reporting facts is not and must not be seen as a crime, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Its clear that Danny is being made an example of, and what it shows is that the junta do not care what the international community thinks," said Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. They would do as they want, and this is one example of how they are basically showing the international community that they cannot be held accountable.

The army's takeover was opposed by widespread peaceful protests that were put down with lethal force. Security forces killed more than 1,200 civilians and arrested about 10,000 others, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Armed resistance has since spread, and U.N. experts and other observers fear the incipient insurgency could slide into civil war.

Fenster was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he was about to board a flight to go to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family.

The military-installed government has cracked down hard on press freedom, shutting down virtually all critical outlets. Of the seven journalists known to have been convicted, six are Myanmar nationals and four were released in a mass amnesty on Oct. 21.

Some of the closed media outlets have continued operating without a license, publishing online as their staff members dodge arrest.

At least three other foreign journalists, from Japan, the United States and Poland, have been detained. The American, Nathan Maung, said he was tortured while in custody.

The hearings on the original three charges against Fenster were held at a court in Yangons infamous Insein Prison, where he is jailed. They were closed to the media and the public, and accounts of the proceedings have come from Fensters lawyer.

Despite testimony from more than a dozen prosecution witnesses, it was never clear exactly what Fenster was alleged to have done, and it appeared that he was judged guilty by association.

Much of the prosecutions case appeared to hinge on his being employed by Myanmar Now, another online news site, that was ordered closed this year. But Fenster left his job at Myanmar Now in July last year, joining Frontier Myanmar the following month.

Prosecution witnesses testified that they were informed by a letter from the Information Ministry that its records showed that Fenster continued to be employed this year by Myanmar Now.

Both Myanmar Now and Frontier Myanmar issued public statements that Fenster had left the former publication last year, and his lawyer said defense testimony, as well as income tax receipts, established that he works for Frontier Myanmar.

Than Zaw Aung said he was unable to produce a government official to testify, and the judge took into account only the Information Ministry letter.

Therefore, according to this letter, Danny is responsible for Myanmar Now and the judge said thats why Danny was sentenced, the lawyer said.

He said Fenster told him that the editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now allegedly forgot to inform the Information Ministry of his resignation last year.

The U.S. government, human rights groups, press freedom associations and Fensters family had pressed strongly for the 37-year-old journalists release.

Myanmar must stop jailing journalists for merely doing their job of reporting the news, said Shawn Crispin, Southeast Asia representative of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

I am devastated by the news of the sentencing of my constituent, journalist Danny Fenster, said Michigan Rep. Andy Levin, a Democrat from suburban Detroit.

Despite Dannys attorney demonstrating evidence to clear him of these charges or any wrongdoing whatsoever, this verdict comes down in a case where there has not been a scintilla of justice, he said in a statement.



Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Mike Householder in Detroit contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Key Unite the Right planners, participants and their attorneys flailed Thursday as they attempted but failed to impeach an expert witness testifying about how white supremacists operate.

Peter Simi, an associate professor of sociology at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., was the second expert witness to testify during the federal Sines v. Kessler lawsuit. The plaintiffs in the trial, which is approaching the end of its third week, are attempting to prove that more than a dozen defendants conspired to come to Charlottesville in August 2017 and commit acts of racist violence.

Simis testimony started out fairly typical for an expert witness, as he detailed his background studying extremist groups and violence for two decades and walking the jury through a report he co-authored for the plaintiffs.

According to Simis testimony, white supremacist movements are based around several core ideas: racist ideology; a central role of violence; front and backstage talk; and plausible deniability.

Front and backstage behavior, a term used by sociology to define behavior that differs in certain contexts, became a hot topic of cross-examination. Simi said that front stage behavior is used in more public situations and can be more muted, allowing for a white supremacist to blend in with more mainstream views.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  Five Republican Oklahoma lawmakers urged GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt on Thursday to grant clemency to death row inmate Julius Jones, who is scheduled to be executed next week.

Among the five are two state House members who represent parts of the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, where Paul Howell was shot to death during a carjacking in 1999. Jones was convicted of Howells killing and sentenced to death.

Reps. Garry Mize and Preston Stinson both said in a statement Thursday there are too many doubts about Jones' guilt.

We cant move forward with an execution under these circumstances in good conscience," Mize said.

Other GOP lawmakers who joined Mize and Stinson are Republican Reps. John Talley, Logan Phillips and Kevin McDugle. They join a growing chorus of faith leaders, athletes and celebrities who have urged Stitt to spare Jones' life.
One of the final witnesses for the defense was a use-of-force expert, John Black, who testified that less than three seconds elapsed between the time somebody fired a bullet in the air and Rittenhouse opened fire on the first man he shot, Joseph Rosenbaum.

Black took the stand as part of an effort by Rittenhouse's lawyers to show that he had reason to fear for his life and acted in self-defense.

Rittenhouse, in his own turn on the stand Wednesday, testified that he heard a gunshot directly behind him as he was being chased by Rosenbaum. Authorities said the shot was fired by someone else in the crowd.

The account Rittenhouse gave has largely been corroborated by a wealth of video and the prosecutions own witnesses: Rittenhouse said that Rosenbaum cornered him and put his hand on the barrel of his rifle, the second man hit him with a skateboard, and the third man came at him with a gun of his own.
Our communities have found themselves at a 20-year high murder rate, so were going to fund in higher salaries and equipment and also training budgets; were going to protect qualified immunity, said Youngkin.

Youngkin also said he will ensure the states mental health and behavior health systems are fully funded and plans to replace the entire state parole board while raising standards in public schools and increasing the education budget.

And of course weve got to work on the curriculum itself, said Youngkin. I want to make sure that Virginias kids are being taught how to think, not what to think.

Youngkin, who said Virginia ranks 49th in the country in terms of the best state to start a business, said he is ready to flip that number around after learning of Ford Motor Co.s recent announcement to build new plants in Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia.

Its not going to be 49th by the time were done. Were going to march towards that No.1 spot, said Youngkin.

Todd Weidensaul, a retired Air Force chief master sergeant from Inverness, Fla., said he stumbled across the birthday celebration while visiting the museum. He said he was surprised to see Youngkin in the crowd.

I know him, just from the TV, said Weidensaul, after having his photograph taken with Youngkin. Watching the news, Im just so happy for the United States of America.

James Scott Baron: 540/374-5438 jbaron@freelancestar.com
For employees to meet the deadlines, they should receive their first Moderna shot by Dec. 7 and second shot by Jan. 4. Pfizer vaccine recipients should get their first dose by Dec. 14 and the second by Jan. 4. Those who opt for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine need to get it before or on Jan. 4.

The White House announcement on Nov. 4 also announced new Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, requirements that employers with 100 or more employees either get workers fully vaccinated or test them for COVID-19 on at least a weekly basis.

The OSHA rule also requires that employers provide paid-time for employees to get vaccinated, and ensure all unvaccinated workers wear a face mask in the workplace.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at the Department of Health and Human Services also announced its requirement that health care workers at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid be fully vaccinated.

OSHA will not apply its rule to those workplaces covered by either the Medicare/Medicaid rule, such as UVa Health system employees, or the federal contractor vaccination requirement, which covers other UVa employees.

Both OSHA and Medicare/Medicaid officials said the new rules trump any inconsistent state or local laws and will be enforced despite any laws that ban or limit an employers authority to require vaccination, masks, or testing.

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.
News

Air Force veteran encourages peers to pass on values they learned in service

Jeff Woo/DRC An honor guard member performs a salute, while a wreath is presented during a Veterans Day ceremony at the Courthouse on the Square on Thursday. Jeff Woo/DRC Paul Bastaich, the countys Veterans Service officer, welcomes guests to a Veterans Day ceremony at the Courthouse on the Square on Thursday. Jeff Woo/DRC An attendee shows American pride by dressing up during a Veterans Day ceremony at the Courthouse on the Square on Thursday. Jeff Woo/DRC Stephanie Brown, TWU Associate Vice President for Student Enrichment, gives a speech during a Veterans Day ceremony at the Courthouse on the Square on Thursday.

Andrea Tart said shes wondered for years whether her answer to the call was influenced by her familys 250-year history of military service.

Tart, a nine-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, was the guest speaker Thursday morning during Denton Countys Veterans Day hour-long celebration. Situated in front of the countys veteran memorial, about one hundred guests listened to Tart recounting her own history and how much service opportunity changed for women in the last few decades since she joined in 1984.

I was fortunate to live in a time when womens ability to serve in the full spectrum of military career fields was just opening up in the late 80s, Tart said. We were only allowed to fly non-combat aircraft, but we were still allowed to fly. And now 35 years later, we see women in most combat jobs across all services.

Thursdays celebration was the countys 11th event in collaboration with the local universities. Speakers hyped up the countys dedication to helping veterans, naming several organizations and facilities available to them as they transition back to civilian life.

Hats donned the heads of men and women with the different branches and wars they served in. Several women boasted Women Veterans of America Chapter 48 and several men showed off American Legion hats. Dozens of attendees wore uniforms from different branches.

The crowd gazed in awe as the events flyby  a pilot whose helicopter was decked out in camo  came down at a safe distance away from the Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square. A large American flag flew on one side of the Square, supported by two Denton Fire Department trucks.

Photos by Jeff Woo/DRC U.S. Air Force Capt. Andrea Tart gives a speech during a Veterans Day ceremony at the Courthouse on the Square on Thursday.

With the long line of family in service, Tart wondered if the call to service was in her DNA or if it was a learned behavior. While she didnt have the answer, she said she knows the military service is part of who she is.

Tart encouraged the veterans in the crowd to pass on the values they learned in service in the different branches: service before self and excellence, loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, personal courage, honor, courage and commitment.

Each of you has your own legacy of service to pass along, she said. You have answered the call that your country called, and you need to do something with that because not everyone is able to or decides to answer the call.

Coming off a recent orientation for high schoolers seeking out military service, Congressman Michael Burgess said he wasnt sure if anyone would show up on that September morning. The airport bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan was fresh in peoples minds.

Is any student going to want to put themselves in service and sacrifice with what they had just witnessed? Burgess said. And I got to tell you, it was standing room only at Guyer auditorium that Saturday morning at 8 oclock. ... We are so grateful to have the citizens who are willing to step forward when their country requires.
The Denver Police Department is investigating a homicide after a man was apparently shot near Argo Park.

Police announced it was conducting a death investigation near East 48th Avenue and Logan Street at 6:35 a.m. Friday. Several hours later, police said the victim, a man, had been shot and the investigation was upgraded to a homicide.

The victim will be identified by Denver's Office of the Medical Examiner.

No arrests have been made and police are working to gather information about a possible suspect.

Anyone with information regarding the shooting is urged to contact the Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.
Millicom International Cellular, a telecommunications and media company which is a provider of fixed and mobile services dedicated to markets in Latin America, has signed an agreement to gain full control of Tigo Guatemala by acquiring the remaining 45% stake from its local joint venture partner in a $2.2 billion all-cash deal.

Through the deal, which is the largest-ever single foreign investment in the Central American country, the Luxembourg-based company will own a 100% equity interest in mobile services firm Tigo.

The transaction is expected to be significantly and immediately accretive to Millicoms cash flow and net income and to increase Millicoms equity-free cash flow by approximately $200 million before incremental financing costs, said a press release.

Bridge financing to fund the transaction is being provided by a group of leading international banks. Millicom intends to refinance the bridge with the planned issuance of approximately $1.5 billion of new long-term debt, and approximately $750 million of new equity via a rights offering expected for Q1 2022.

With this transaction, Millicom consolidates its position as the leading telecommunication service provider in Central America.

Millicom CEO Mauricio Ramos said: We are delighted to have signed this agreement to consolidate a 100% ownership position in Tigo Guatemala, one of our most successful businesses. The transaction is right in line with our stated inorganic capital allocation strategy, which includes the acquisition of the remaining minority interests owned by third parties in our operations when those transactions can be executed in an accretive manner.

We thank our partners for their important role in developing Tigo Guatemala and for the support for this transaction.

For Millicom, this new investment reflects our continued confidence in the thriving economy of Guatemala and our renewed commitment to the digital transformation of its society. Hand in hand with the vision and strong commitment of our team of more than 3,100 employees in the country, we will continue to build the digital highways that connect people, improve lives, and develop communities all throughout Guatemala, Ramos added.
Zambias fourth mobile licensee Beeline Telecom has set a deadline of 30th June 2022 for its commercial launch.

The operator was issued its operating licence in February 2021 by the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA). TeleGeography reports that Beeline was obliged to launch services within six months of receiving this permit or risk having it revoked.

However, August 2021 has come and gone, and ZICTA appears to be willing to offer Beeline an extended grace period, acknowledging that it has faced challenges. A representative of the regulator told the Zambia Daily Mail that Beeline has had difficulty with the procurement of equipment and installations, resulting in its launch being pushed back.
Libyas Prime Minister Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba has stated that his government will aim to open the countrys telecoms sector up to competition, bringing about the end of a longstanding state monopoly.

In an address at the Taqnya 2021 ICT exhibition in Tripoli, Aldabaiba said that during the remainder of his term, his government would aim to allow foreign investment into the telecoms sector to boost competition  a move he described as necessary.

The Libya Herald reports that Aldabaiba acknowledged that the state-dominated monopoly would likely struggle if it faced competition from major private firms. However, he also stated that Libyans need to own the sector, suggesting an unwillingness to allow the market to be dominated by foreign companies.

The high cost and poor quality of services in Libya drew particular criticism, with Aldabaiba noting that rates were significantly higher than in neighbouring countries while services fell short in comparison to both similar markets and wider global standards.
Given the ongoing conflict there, its probably not quite business as usual for Safaricom in Ethiopia, but the leading Kenyan operator has nevertheless announced plans to invest an initial $600 million in Ethiopia where it is part of a consortium setting up a new telecommunications operation of which it is the majority shareholder.

According to the Nation news service, the amount represents Safaricoms contribution to the start-up costs and operating licence for which the consortium has agreed to pay $850 million. Infrastructure and other costs will also be involved; for these Safaricom plans to use its own funds and loans from local banks and development finance institutions.

Safaricoms chief executive Peter Ndegwa has suggested an outlay of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion over the next five years will be necessary to meet the licence coverage obligations, with break-even in year four.

However, he added that this target may be adversely affected by the impact of the current conflict on the launch of operations, which he has suggested will be in mid-2022.

If Ethiopian announcements are to be believed, however, the expectations are that the second telecoms provider will start operations in the first quarter of next year.

The government is reportedly finalising legal changes to allow the central bank to issue Safaricom with a licence for mobile financial services, something that had not been included in the initial licence.

The ongoing sale of a 40 percent stake in state-owned Ethio Telecom and the award of another mobile operator licence are also supposedly on the way. However, an intensifying government conflict against Tigrayan forces and their allies could undermine progress. In fact Safaricom has already evacuated some staff as a precaution.
Stakeout following the AOB on the situation in Belarus

Statement

We, the current European Union members of the Security Council, Estonia, France and Ireland, joined today by the Security Council members, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States and the incoming Security Council member Albania, condemn the orchestrated instrumentalisation of human beings whose lives and wellbeing have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus, with the objective of destabilizing neighbouring countries and the European Unions external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations.

This tactic is unacceptable and calls for a strong international reaction and cooperation in order to hold Belarus accountable. It demonstrates how the Lukashenko regime has become a threat to regional stability. We call on the Belarusian authorities to stop these inhumane actions and not to put peoples lives at risk. International organisations need to be provided with immediate and unhindered access to people therein to deliver humanitarian assistance.

The Belarusian authorities should understand that putting pressure on the European Union in this way, through a cynical instrumentalisation of migrants, will not succeed.

Together, we express our solidarity with Poland and Lithuania and stand ready to discuss further measures that we can take to support them and target those involved in and contributing to activities by the Lukashenko regime that facilitate the illegal crossing of the external borders of the European Union. We will remain united and determined to protect the EU against these hybrid operations by Belarusian authorities.

We call on the collaboration of the countries of origin and transit to warn their nationals against falling into the trap set by the Belarusian authorities.

We express deep concern at the dire situation of the migrants and urge the Belarusian authorities to provide and facilitate adequate protection and care. We stress that all actions must be guided by fundamental values, especially regarding the protection of migrants human rights.

Finally, we highlight the importance of preventing a humanitarian crisis and ensuring that migrants who lack a legal basis to remain can be safely returned to their country of origin.

 Previous Item | Next Item 
Were all rolling on up toward the holidays, and I want everyone who has any connection to me, either positive or negative, to have a good one. Theres been a ton of research coming out this last couple of weeks that many of the COVID-19 ritualistic class would find upsetting. But in the spi
After a slump year in can-collecting, the Wiregrass Food Bank was inundated with thousands of pounds of canned goods and peanut butter courtesy of the National Peanut Festivals Dream Big Food Drive.

Julie Gonzalez, assistant director of the Wiregrass Food Bank, said the agency collected 10,466 pounds of peanut butter and canned goods from fairgoers on Wednesday night, in addition to 3,196 pounds of peanut butter donated by the National Peanut Festival and the Alabama Peanut Producers Association.

That amount was more than the organization collected in 2019, the last year of the NPFs food drive, when it received 10,228 pounds in donated food.

This is one of our largest food drives every year, Gonzalez said. When we missed out last year, it really put us in a bind.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NPF was canceled and the food bank received less donated items at other drives.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Gonzalez said the National Peanut Festival is an important drive because it provides the food bank with a plentiful supply of peanut butter, a shelf-stable food item loaded with protein that is crucial to keep in stock for the nonprofits it serves.
More than half of cases are in New York and Boston, a common destination for Ecuadorians, Brazilians and Haitians.

The Justice Department, which oversees immigration courts, has said it chose the 11 cities involved not just because they're where most recent arrivals are settling, but because they have established legal service providers and available judges.

In Boston, which was added to the program relatively recently, one judge had the most cases on the new docket of any in the country, at least through August. Mario Sturla had 3,178 cases assigned to him, on top of the nearly 4,000 others he was handling, according to TRAC.

One October afternoon, almost all of the roughly 20 cases before the Obama appointee were Brazilians, mostly parents with young children. The judge was courteous as families spoke through interpreters and juggled restless, sometimes crying children.

Few had lawyers. A 24-year-old woman from Cuenca, Ecuador, who asked to be identified by first name only for safety reasons, didnt know what to expect. The judge told her to return with an attorney in March.
Bad weather also contributed to their flight delays. Chari said trying to launch on Halloween left them with "a trick instead of a treat. It was also drizzling Wednesday night when the four astronauts said goodbye to their families for six months  with everyone huddling under umbrellas  but it cleared up by launch time.

Enjoy your holidays among the stars. Well be waving as you fly by," SpaceX launch director Mark Soltys radioed to the crew.

The list of 600 travelers ranges from those who have barely scratched space  like actor William Shatner last month  to U.S. and Russian astronauts who have spent a year or more in orbit. This years surge in space tourists helped push the tally over the 600 mark.

That averages out to 10 people per year since Yuri Gagarins pioneering flight in 1961, Maurer noted.

But I think in a very few years, we will see an exponential rise of that one because now were entering the era of commercial spaceflight, he said after arriving at Kennedy Space Center two weeks ago.
Just a few hours after he FaceTimed with his family, my father returned home in an urn.

It was September 14. The number of daily deaths due to coronavirus in HCMC, for the first time in a while, dropped to below 150.

It was a sign that things were getting better. Or at least that was how it looked.

My father drew his last breath in a hospital in Thu Duc. He died alone. There was no ceremony, no one by his side, and no time to grieve.

I remember the night he and my brother had to be hospitalized. The entire family, except my mother, was infected. I struggled to hold my phone, gripping it hard, trying not to let it land on my heaving chest. My family had waited for what seemed like hours for a charity ambulance to arrive.

We tried to secure as much medicine and food as possible to keep my mother safe, but they never were enough.

I was in Europe and exhausted all my personal contacts in begging for help for my family. I had never felt so desperate or powerless before, having to rely completely on kind souls for favors I may never be able to repay in this lifetime.

My phone was in my hands the whole three weeks my father spent in the hospital. I let the network roam 24/7, and every call from Vietnam made my heart jump. I never had a proper night's sleep.

That anxiety did not leave me even two weeks after my father died. I would jump up from bed in the middle of the night to check non-existent notifications on my phone.

It has been over two months, but my life still has not gone back to the way it used to be.

My brother is still haunted by the beeps of the machines at the hospital. He says he can still hear them every night when he goes to sleep. He also tells me about the diapers, the claustrophobic feeling of being confined to a bed and the fact that only he got to go home in one piece and not our father. He sweats at the slightest mention of that time.

That was about my family's trauma. But over 900,000 Covid patients out there and the loved ones of around 22,700 dead patients are also living the same realities.

A survey at the Thu Duc Covid-19 Resuscitation Hospital found 53 percent of patients suffered from anxiety disorders, with 20 percent having clinical depression.

Covid may go away, but its mental scars will remain in those afflicted. And scars do not fade so easily.

When National Assembly delegate Nguyen Anh Tri, also a doctor, proposed a national memorial service for Covid victims, I felt I had been heard. Not only because it would honor those who had left, but also help those who remain make peace with their loss. This way, my family and many others may get the collective closure we so desperately need. It is only human to do so, and would serve as a reminder of the shipwrecks we survived so that no one will let their guard down ever again.

We can call it Peoples Day, a testament to our communitys unity in the face of adversity.

The battle against Covid has not ended, but life must go on.

It is not simply about getting rid of the coronavirus, but about helping people live their lives as normally as they can. It means getting them mental help to recover.

I am still seeing a therapist to deal with my father's death. I hope more mental health hotlines will open in Vietnam for thousands like me to process their grief.

I believe most experts will agree and join such networks if the chance arises.

*Vo Nhat Vinh is an R&D expert based in France. The opinions expressed are his own.
On July 28, Peru celebrated two centuries of independence. And just in time for the festivities, the United States Smithsonian Institution returned to Peru the formerly-named Echenique Disc, a chest ornament about thirteen and a half centimeters [5.3inches] in diameter, made of gold, silver and copper alloy. The ornament pre-dates the Incan empire and is thought to have been crafted between 800 BCE and 1 AD.

It was gifted, along with other precious items, to then-Peruvian president Jose Rufino Echenique on his visit to Cuzco in 1853. Thereafter, the entire cache was lost in a fire, but much later, the disc reappeared in the collection of a German who had sold it to another collector, named George G. Heye, in 1912. Heye donated it to a museum in New York. The disc was eventually housed in the National Museum of the American Indian, part of the Smithsonian Institution, a group of museums and educational research centers created by the U.S. government.

The United States works with countries around the world, including Peru, to help protect and preserve their ancient and historic monuments, objects, and archaeological sites. In 1997, as part of an effort to prevent and counter the trafficking of valuable artifacts, the United States and Peru signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the protection of cultural property. In June 2021, another Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the specific goal of returning the Echenique Disc to Peru, just in time for the bicentennial celebration.

Upon its arrival in Lima, Perus capital, the Echenique Disc was re-named the Sun Disc, declared to be the Cultural Patrimony of the Nation, and transferred to the Museum of Regional History in Cuzco. Cuzco, which adopted the Disc as its official symbol in 1986, welcomed its priceless artifact back home after 168 years.

Cultural heritage artifacts are priceless reflections of history, cultures, and civilizations. The United States cooperates with countries around the world to promote the protection and preservation of cultural heritage.
The United States is deeply concerned by the deteriorating security situation in Mali, U.S. Deputy Representative Ambassador Richard Mills told the United Nations. He noted the increasing audacity, frequency, and severity of attacks against civilians, national security forces, international forces, and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, or MINUSMA.

The humanitarian situation is also worrying, with 4.7 million people in need of assistance and some 400,000 internally displaced persons.

It is imperative that the protection of civilians remains a top priority for the transition government and for MINUSMA, declared Ambassador Mills. Furthermore, the transition government must take steps to combat impunity and ensure its citizens have a channel through which to express their concerns.

A military coup in August 2020 led to a takeover of the Malian government by a military junta. The transition charter was drafted in September and provided for a transition government, intended to govern for no more than 18 months. A second military takeover occurred in May 2021, but the military leaders pledged to adhere to the existing transition government timeline.

The Security Council continues to stand with the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, in calling for the transition government in Mali to adhere to the timetable for democratic presidential elections set for February 2022. The transition government needs to release an election calendar and make progress toward organizing elections. While we agree that governance and corruption issues lie at the heart of Malis insecurity, noted Ambassador Mills, reforms the transition government initiates should either be completed within the agreed transition timeframe or turned over to an elected government to continue.

The United States concurs with the provision in Malis transition charter that precludes the transition president and prime minister from running for office in the upcoming presidential election.

It is critical that the February 2022 elections be free and fair, accessible, and monitored by election observers, stressed Ambassador Mills. We urge the transition government to ensure the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women in the elections, including ensuring that women are both on the ballot and registered to vote.
Robotics gives students a hands-on and project-based approach to learning which engages them far better than theoretical teaching

Through the year, technology has undergone immense change and it will continue to evolve for better efficiency, precision and productivity. Despite the evolution of industrustries, primary education is still following traditional methods. Even subjects like computers, science and technology, where-in a lot of application-based knowledge is required, the focus largely remains on theoretical knowledge and evaluation. If we are to have students that graduate high-school with a readiness to face the technology-driven world, we must lay emphasis on technology right from primary school.E-learning and digital classrooms have already become a part of our lives owing to the pandemic and technology has already entered our education system. It is time we take this one step further with the introduction of robotics in our curricula and use it as an effective pedagogy.Robotics is a branch of engineering and therefore is an amalgamation of science, technology and mathematics making it the perfect candidate to teach these subjects. Here are few ways that robotics can help students with their academic and with the future:The job market today is dominated by STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), and this trend is only likely to continue if not spread more widely. The demand for candidates with qualifications in robotics has seen tremendous growth and it will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. Introduction of robotics in schools will lead to a faster and more efficient working of how the industries currently work and it will keep the students abreast of the technological advancements we are making every day. Students will not have to do extra-curricular reading to keep themselves updated and technology will come more naturally to them.Robotics gives students a hands-on and project-based approach to learning which engages them far better than theoretical teaching. Using the concepts they have already learnt, and creating machines themselves, keeps them involved leading to the students taking more interest in the learning process. Research has also proven that those students who express an interest in STEM in the 8th grade are not only more likely to have better grades in math and science but are also more likely to take up careers related to the same when they graduate.The construction of robots itself, and the task of making them function properly, teaches the students a lot of concepts. They learn a lot in the process as opposed to learning first and applying later. The DIY approach gives the students a better understanding of the concepts and helps with better retention.Robotics and coding or programming go hand-in-hand. To develop a well-functioning and flawless robot, it is important to have knowledge of both. It presents students with an opportunity to gain command over STEM subjects and makes robotics interdisciplinary in nature.Learning robotics fosters higher-order thinking capability and problem-solving skills. It also helps in imbibing skills such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning, physical computing amongst others. Robotics stimulates maturity thinking due to complex task performance. The learning process does not involve wrong or right methods, it involves finding the more effective method. The process, therefore involves thinking about various possibilities, analysing and using logic and reasoning to come up with the method best suited to their goals. All in all, it enhances their decision-making abilityCreating a robot is always a group project in which each student takes up a different task and contributes equally in building it from scratch. This promotes and teaches children to value collaboration and students learn to work in teams.Making robotics a part of school curricula will not only benefit the pupils with their academics and learning, it will also make them future ready. It is something institutes must think about and if possible, implement at the earliest.
Video interviews have been increasing over time and the pandemic accelerated this rise with research showing a spike in video interviews of 86% according to a survey

If life was a book, then the chapter just completed had all the ingredients and more that make for a page turner, a strong opening, interesting characters, global conflict, and crisis, a balance of tension and release, and a satisfying conclusion with the approval of the virus and hope as we enter the next chapter the year 2021. The year awaits us with a renewed set of expectations as we enter a new normal with most of our activities shifting online including learning, which has moved to a digital platform across schools, colleges, and universities. 2020 saw e-learning taking centre stage in changing world order. There was a sea change in the way education and learning are looked at. While in the last generation, education was bachpan se yauvantak, it has now become bachpan se pachpantak truly making its learning a life long companion.The shift also led to an increased acceptance of online learning by both students as well as industry and there was an overall recognition of the value of any time, anywhere online learning that is accessible across devices. Online learning in both the academic and industry sectors brings the advantage of versatility and flexibility while being cost effective. It allows the learning pattern to be customised to suit an individuals preferences and uses AV tools, which further fosters interactivity aiding learning and retention. We operate in times when technology has taken over the ecosystem to an extent that companies are now scouting for digitalnative talent who can work on new age projects that involves AI/ML, data analysis, cloud computing, IoT, cyber security, etc. Therefore, to pursue an online program covering such future forward aspects will allow a competitive edge to professionals over others in this fast evolving marketplace.Industry trends also suggest that employers have hiked salary bands for those candidates who have met the standards of higher technical skills were considered digital ready. Moreover, such online programs also offer flexibility to individuals who cannot invest enough time to go back to an offline institute to learn a new skill, jeopardising their current job. Recently, I had received a heart-warming message from one of our past learners, Bhaswati Sarkar who after completing our program transitioned from a Project Manager at a tech giant to Assistant Vice President at a global MNC, with a salary hike of 82 percent, said, More than anything else, upGrad taught me time management while studying and balancing the different roles a woman plays. Such messages/ gestures keep us motivated and help us deliver meaningful online learning solutions to our learners.In my recent chat with Professor Chandrashekar Ramanathan, Dean (Academics) at IIIT Bangalore pointed out that the graduating batch of 2859 students last August that happened virtually, celebrating the successful completion of PG Diploma programs in Data Science, Machine Learning (ML) & Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Software Development/Blockchain, was the largest convocating batch in 21 years.Online learning was anyway on a growth trajectory, while the pandemic has hastened the process. The year 2020 pushed large corporates to switch gears to accept online as a viable option to operate amid times when physical hiring was brought to a standstill. We have seen learners with online degrees getting acceptance from recruiters in both, India and overseas. This reminds me of another message that I had received from one of our HR recruiters, Ms. ZS Associates, who wrote, upGrad has given us access to a large talent pool which is trained on various new age skill sets. Such instances and developments across the industry demonstrate that online learning is not momentary but is here to stay and complement the new-normal.The other side of online learning is its impact on the hiring process with a shift to online placements from the conventional process. Recruiters today are switching gears to accept online methods to hire new talent. Virtual hiring is increasingly gaining acceptance as a way to attract, hire, and retain talent. In a world where work from home is the new norm, the human resources teams are taking to virtual hiring in place of the traditional three stage hiring process that consists of an inperson interview process, onsite psychometric tests, and assessment centres. Companies are reimagining their recruitment strategies to find great talent and create growth opportunities. Additionally, several corporates across the country have been rolling out initiatives like introducing digital induction modules with a twist of gamification virtual sessions with company leadership online assistance to help new joiners understand the work/company culture remotely access to online learning and training sessions, etc. All these efforts are in sync with todays new norm that has, practically, taken over the work ecosystem, thus building/developing a new future ready work-sphere.The virtual process comes with several advantages starting from being cost-effective to be able to allow recruiters to reach out to a wide pool of talent across geographies. Such techniques are preferred by Gen Z who appreciates and aspire to work with tech savvy organisations. In fact, they may not even apply for jobs at a company that offers outdated recruitment methods. Moreover, its increased accessibility also allows for an equal opportunity for people who are specially abled.Video interviews have been increasing over time and the pandemic accelerated this rise with research showing a spike in video interviews of 86 percent according to a survey. AI technology integrated into the hiring process allows detection of details of body language, gestures, and expressions that may not even be noticeable to the human eye but allow recruiters to discover characteristics important for a particular role.Nearly 50 percent of employees were hired virtually in 2020, a recent industry survey carried out by Indeed.com suggested. The finding also includes that about 31 percent of employers credited virtual hiring for giving them wider access to talent, while another 28 percent said this approach allowed for flexibility and convenience, a priority for job seekers today. Therefore, the virtual platform has become the method of choice for the recruiting process and the coming months will see both recruiters and job seekers shaking hands virtually to replace the traditional handshake at the end of an interview.
Southwind at the Pioneer Saloon

ELKO  Southwind, a favorite local band, is bringing Celtic, Western and contemporary toe-tappin fiddle tunes to the Pioneer Saloon at 6 p.m. Nov. 17.

The band will return at 6 p.m. Dec. 15 with a special music guest. The performers will present cheerful holiday music. These events are free to the public.

Gold Diggers Motorcycle Club

WINNEMUCCA  Gold Diggers Motorcycle Club of Elko is seeking registrants for their event Rumble in the Jungo. This years event will raise funds for the Corey Herring Scholarship Fund.

Registration is open for Peewees, Mini/Women/Vintage/Bombers and Big Bikes. The event takes place Nov. 13-14. An ambulance will be on site during all races.

For more information contact Curtis Calder at 934-7625 or ktmracer@frontiernet.net.

Wells Bazaar slated Nov. 20

WELLS  The Wells Boys and Girls Club will host the Wells Bazaar from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 20. This is sponsored by the Wells Main Street nonprofit group.

The bazaar will feature handmade items. The public is invited. For more information contact Jolene Supp at 752-1179.

Full moon hike at South Fork

ELKO  Nevada Outdoor School is partnering with Friends of the Ruby Mountains and Nevada State Parks to offer a full moon hike. The event takes place from 6-7 p.m. Nov. 20 at South Fork State Recreation Area at the Southwest Trails Meadows Trailhead. Signs will be posted as guides to the entrance.

Participants should dress warmly for the weather and bring a headlamp or other light source. Organizers will be provide hot chocolate, tea and Smores. The hike is open to all experience levels. The trails are mostly flat and gravel. The main hike is a three-mile loop. There is also a one-mile option.

A campfire will be set up for participants who still wish to attend but not hike. For further information call 777-0814.

St. Josephs hosts bazaar

ELKO  The Women of St. Josephs annual bazaar is being held at St. Josephs Catholic Church on Nov. 20, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. At the bazaar you will find unique handmade crafts (many under $10), fresh baked goods, a cookie cafe (build your own cookie tray), quarts of homemade chili, tamales and personalized pet kerchiefs. The bazaar is held at St. Josephs Catholic Church in Mater Dei Hall located at 340 Fir Street in Elko. Saturday hours are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free coffee and breakfast breads will be available from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Homemade soup, chili, tamales and pie will be sold from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thank you for supporting our community. For more information call 934-0729.

Western Sights exhibit

ELKO  The Western Sights of Jo Mora will be on display through May 14, 2022, in the Wiegand Gallery. The exhibit presents an engaging overview of the artists work in various media, from his signature cartes (illustrated maps) and illustrations to watercolors and bronze sculptures.

Artist Joseph Jacinto Jo Mora (b. 1876) came to the United States from Uruguay and became enamored with the culture and stories of the American West at an early age. Throughout his lifetime, Mora documented the changing landscape of the West through detailed etchings, illustrated maps, paintings, sculptures and stories.

In addition to this show, the Western Folklife Center is also showing a special selection of contemporary handcrafted gear from the permanent collection. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and during special events.

Admission is free the first Saturday of the month. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors and $1 for children six to 12-years-old. Free admission for members.

Healthy for the Holidays

ELKO  Elko Community Health Foundation is offering a healthy eating class for the community. Learn heart healthy skills and strategies to prepare delicious, healthy holiday meals for you and your loved ones. There will be a free two-hour class from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Elko Senior center, 1795 Ruby View Drive.

Watch a live cooking demonstration, get hands-on practice making healthy recipes and enjoy tips for health and well- being. This is a preview to the Healthy for Life program which begins January 2022. To register contact Brittney Plaisted at Brittany.plaisted@elkochc.com or call 388-2852.

Horizon offers bereavement support group

ELKO  If you or a loved one is grieving the loss of a loved one, please join the Horizon Hospice support group. Participants meet at 6 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 1250 Lamoille Highway, Suite 413.

There is no cost to community members. Call 778-0612 for more information.

Al-Anon meets Wednesdays in Spring Creek

SPRING CREEK The Al-Anon Spring Creek Step Study Group meets at 7 p.m. Wednesdays at the Spring Creek Baptist Church, 360 Spring Creek Parkway. The program is in person or virtual.

If you or someone you know is worried about a family member or friends drinking problem, Al-Anon is a mutual support group that shares their experiences, strengths and hope. Zoom meeting ID 890 588 5311 Password F8KmfZOn.

Celebrate recovery and find freedom

ELKO  Find freedom for your hurts, habits and hang-ups with The Nazarene Church Christ-centered recovery program every Friday evening.

A large group meets at 6 p.m. and a smaller group gathers at 7 p.m. The church is located at 740 Sage St.

Call 738-6714 for more information.

Medicare providers in Elko

ELKO  The Medicare in Elko Workgroup has updated their list of Elko medical providers. Listed are those clinics that will accept a new patient using Medicare or Medicaid.

It specifically lists clinics where patients can set up appointments with specific providers. The tri-fold brochure also lists providers found outside of Elko, along with two state agencies that help people with their Medicare needs. Senior Services and other medical services are listed.

The updated list is available on the groups website, medicarinelko.org. They also have a Facebook page medicare in elko, with a link to the brochure.

FRC hosts free teen programs

ELKO  Family Resource Center is hosting free online and in-person teen health programs each month for youth in Grades 5 to 7 and Grades 10 to 12.

These fun, evidence-based age-appropriate programs teach youth about making healthy life decisions. They incorporate medically accurate information along with crucial knowledge about identifying and handling social pressures, communicating effectively and dealing with peer pressure. Youth learn about reproductive health, puberty, hygiene, personal responsibility, avoiding risky behaviors and respect for self and others, while building knowledge, skills and confidence.

Youth receive their choice of a free backpack full of school supplies or a $25 store gift card after completing the program. There is a limit of one free incentive per participant per year. A parent or guardian must pre-register the participant by completing a permission slip before class.

The online programs are presented using Zoom in four day blocks for an hour and 45 minutes each day after school. The in-person classes vary, but are usually one day, scheduled on a Saturday or during holiday breaks. For more information call 753-7352, text 775-397-1874 or email teenhealth@elkofrc.org.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP)  Manuelito Wheeler isnt sure exactly why Navajo elders admire Western films.

It could be that many of them were treated to the films in boarding schools off the reservation decades ago. Or, like his father, they told stories of gathering around a television growing up to watch gunslingers in a battle against good and evil on familiar-looking landscapes.

Whatever the reason, Navajo elders have been asking Wheeler to dub a Western in the Navajo language ever since Star Wars IV: A New Hope was translated into Navajo and released in 2013.

The result? Beeso Dah Yinijaa or A Fistful of Dollars, an iconic Western starring Clint Eastwood who plays a stranger  known as The Man With No Name  entering a Mexican village among a power struggle between families. The 1964 flick is the first in a trilogy of spaghetti Westerns produced and directed by Italians.

Unlike many other Westerns produced in the U.S., it has no Native Americans in it. That appealed to Wheeler, the director of the Navajo Nation Museum.

Usually in Westerns, there are inaccurate if not offensive depictions of Native people, so this one had no Natives, period, Wheeler said. That just eliminated that aspect for me.

A premiere for the crew and all-Navajo cast of voice actors is scheduled Nov. 16 at the movie theater in Window Rock, Arizona  the first showing since the venue shut down in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Limited seats are available to members of the public who are vaccinated against COVID-19 and consent to a rapid test on site.

It will be screened for free later this month at other places on or near the Navajo Nation, which extends into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Other popular films dubbed in Indigenous languages include Bambi in Arapaho, Frozen 2 in Sami, and Moana in Maori. The cartoon series The Berenstain Bears was translated into the Dakota and Lakota languages.

At least 20 Indigenous languages are spoken in films that are being showcased by the National Museum of the American Indian in November during Native American Heritage Month, program manager Cindy Benitez said Thursday. Indigenous people increasingly are producing and directing their own stories, she said, including some entirely in Indigenous languages.

We have films from all gamuts, from all places, she said. It really gives me hope that these filmmakers are using that as a tool for language revitalization.

A Fistful of Dollars is the third major film dubbed in Navajo, an effort financed by the tribe to preserve the language. Elbert Jumbo voiced Bruce the shark and another fish in the Navajo version of Finding Nemo, released in 2016.

Jumbo, who retired from the U.S. Army and lives in Many Farms, also voices Ramon in the Western film. The character calls the shots, terrorizes the town and believes hes untouchable. Jumbo said he nailed the over-the-top super villainous laugh that is characteristic of spaghetti Westerns.

Jumbo speaks, writes and reads Navajo, a result of growing up in a home where that was the only option.

People feel a little more pride in knowing that weve come a long way with our language, said Jumbo, 47. Its sad to say but some of it were losing to the younger generation. But at the same time, I think movies like this inspire them to learn, even if its just a little word here and there.

It was supposed to be released last year, but it was delayed because of the coronavirus.

The Navajo Nation Museum teamed up with the New York-based Kino Lorber film distribution company and the Indigenous-owned Native Stars Studios in Gallup, New Mexico, for the film.

I cant wait for my uncle to see this, for my dad to see this, Wheeler said. The other feeling is I wish that those who have gone would be here to see this.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  A Utah doctor is accused of lying about ill patients in his climbing party to get a high-altitude government helicopter to rescue him off the tallest mountain in North America after a failed summit and of destroying evidence.

Dr. Jason Lance, who is a radiologist in Ogden, Utah, was charged Tuesday with three misdemeanors from his May attempt to summit Denali, a 20,310-foot peak located about 180 miles north of Anchorage.

Lance declined comment to The Associated Press on Thursday when reached at his Ogden practice. His virtual arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 6 through the U.S. District Court in Fairbanks.

Lance and another man named in the court documents as A.R. decided to become a team on May 24 at a camp at the 14,200-foot level to begin their summit along the West Buttress, described in court papers as the most popular climbing route on Denali.

Somewhere below the 19,200-foot level, Lance saw his partner begin to exhibit symptoms of altitude sickness. Lance decided his partner was too ill to continue the summit and left him with another group of climbers and continued alone to the peak, according to court documents. He also took the mans satellite communication device, authorities said.

The other climbers abandoned their own summit attempt to help the ill man descend.

Later, the court documents say Lance abandoned his own summit attempt and rejoined the other three men on the descent as they were nearing Denali Pass at 18,200 feet.

The four began to descend with Lance in the lead, A.R. behind him and then the other team. Lance and A.R. were not roped together.

Then A.R. fell from the top of Denali Pass, plummeting about 1,000 feet. Lance triggered the satellite communication device and reported the fall.

Denali National Park and Preserves high-altitude helicopter responded and took A.R. to waiting paramedics in the nearby town of Talkeetna.

After A.R. was off the mountain, the court documents say Lance used the communications device to send this message to the manufacturers emergency response center: No injuries. Stuck without equipment after climber fall. Request assisst (sic) for evac. The center responded, advising him to contact Denali National Park directly.

Nearly an hour later, park officials told him if he had a rope, he should rope up and begin descending. He responded by saying they could not safely descend.

The park told him the helicopter was no longer flying that night and the only option was to descend.

After receiving that message, Lance responded 21 minutes later: Cant descend safely. Patients in shock. Early hypothermia. Cant you land east of pass?

Given that medical news, the helicopter launched but hadnt informed Lance. Shortly after launching, it abandoned the mission when guides at the nearby high base camp reported the three climbers were climbing down.

In later interviews, neither member of the other climbing team reported they suffered from medical shock or hypothermia at any time. They also said they spent hours trying to convince Lance to descend with them the 1,000 feet to the 17,200-foot high base camp.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0
CARSON CITY  Nevada lawmakers will convene for a special session on Friday to redraw congressional and state legislative districts based on population shifts and growth, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced Thursday.

The Democratic-controlled Legislatures decisions  particularly over the lines defining two battleground congressional districts  will be closely observed as both parties vie for control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Maps that legislative leaders released on Tuesday will likely form the baseline for discussions through the special session.

Heres what to know about the once-in-a-decade redistricting and reapportionment process:

What are the stakes?

In a state where Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden both won narrowly, Democrats have, since 2016, won three of four congressional seats and robust statehouse majorities. A 2017 Associated Press analysis showed Nevadas Assembly districts favored Democrats in 2016 more than the lower chamber of any statehouse in the country.

The discrepancy between tight presidential races and convincing statehouse majorities stems from map-drawing and where people move over the course of a decade. Democratic-leaning districts  while of relatively equal population size  tend to have fewer eligible voters and lower turnout than Republican-leaning districts.

Many states draw districts to divide and combine voters to make it more likely for candidates from one party to win. These efforts can tilt scales regarding which party controls Congress and determine the composition of statehouses, where decisions are made about charter schools, guns, and how to transition away from fossil fuels.

Republicans, who have already begun criticizing the proposed maps, worry Democrats control of state government will enable manipulation and help them maintain power through the next decade.

How has Nevadas population changed?

Nevada is among a group of Western states that has become more populous and more diverse over the past decade. Reapportionment and redistricting will need to account for a 404,000 more state residents since a decade ago, who have moved to specific districts in Las Vegas in particular.

The Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise metro area grew faster than the Reno metro area. In Nevada, 4 out of 10 people now identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Who draws the maps?

Nevada law directs the Legislature to draw statehouse and congressional districts. The maps are then sent to the governor for approval. Democrats control the governorship, state Senate and Assembly. Scholars have said single-party control is the most important predictor of whether a state draws fair maps and, much like Republicans in Texas or Democrats in Illinois, Nevada Democrats will face scrutiny for their decisions.

On Tuesday, the Legislature released preliminary maps that will act as a baseline for discussions. Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro in a joint statement praised the proposed maps.

Reflecting Nevadas increasing racial and ethnic diversity, these maps strive to both protect and expand the voting power of African-American and Hispanic Nevadans while increasing opportunities for representation for Nevadas emergent and growing AAPI population over the coming decade, they said, referring to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in southwestern Las Vegas.

Lawmakers havent always succeeded in getting their maps implemented. A decade ago, then-Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, vetoed Democrats maps and three court-appointed non-partisan special masters ultimately redrew districts.

Nevada isnt among the 10 states in which independent commissions are conducting redistricting. Proponents of establishing an independent commission in Nevada failed to gather signatures necessary to put a ballot question before 2020 voters.

Why now?

The United States conducts a national head count every 10 years, tallying everyone  voters and non-voters, citizens and noncitizens, children and military workers abroad. Nevada typically conducts redistricting during every-other-year scheduled legislative sessions. But the pandemic delayed the timeline and the U.S. Census Bureau didnt send updated figures until after the Legislature adjourned in June.

Delayed delivery of the data and the months between the time Nevada received it and will conduct its special session may upend campaigns for congressional and statehouse candidates planning to run in 2022. State legislators are required to live in their districts. Members of Congress are not.

What sizes and shapes will lawmakers consider?

Districts must be of equal population size to preserve the principle of one person, one vote. Some states prioritize drawing compact districts, while others draw them in squiggle or starfish shapes to equally distribute population.

Nevadas mix of dense cities and vast rangelands leads to districts of a variety of sizes. There can be minor deviation in terms of population and courts have allowed state legislative districts to vary by as much as 5%. Current maps contained as much as 1.3% variation in statehouse district population when drawn and varied by only a single person from the ideal population size. They tended to follow county lines. In the statehouse, the court-appointed special masters nested two Assembly districts in each Senate district.

Nevada was allocated four congressional seats in the census but state law does not require the Legislature maintain the number of state legislative seats at 63.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 9
In July, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law the Californias budget unleashing funds for a $12 billion tax rebate to eligible residents. The second round of Golden State Stimulus authorized $600 checks, plus $500 for those with a dependent, to around two thirds of residents.

The first batch of payments began hitting bank accounts in late August and new batches will continue through early 2022. The California Franchise Tax Board expected to get the vast majority of payments to taxpayers that use direct deposit by 31 October, but it is now in the process of sending paper checks.

California Franchise Tax Board sends new batch of Golden State Stimulus checks

The California state tax authority announced that another 784,000 Golden State Stimulus checks were on their way to residents. The latest batch consists of around 34,000 direct deposits hitting bank accounts on Friday 12 November. On Monday 15 November, the California Franchise Tax Board is sending roughly 750,000 paper checks. The paper checks will take longer to arrive, perhaps up to two weeks to show up in mailboxes due to delays in the postal system.

A media liaison at the tax agency told the Orange County Register that the state has sent out 5.7 million payments so far. Those payments represent around $4.1 billion of the $12 billion slated for the scheme that Governor Newsom touted as the largest state tax rebate in American history. With checks going to roughly two thirds of households in the state, or around 15.2 million taxpayers, there are still approximately 8.7 million payments to go.

The remaining payments will primarily be to taxpayers who receive their tax refund as a paper check. The Franchise Tax Board has posted a schedule for when payments will go out based on the last three digits of a filers ZIP code.

Payment schedule for paper stimulus checks Last 3 digits of ZIP code Mailing timeframes 001-065 10/04/2021 through 10/22/2021 066-221 10/18/2021 through 11/05/2021 222-302 11/1/2021 through 11/19/2021 303-543 11/15/2021 through 12/03/2021 544-709 11/29/2021 through 12/17/2021 710-998 12/13/2021 through 12/31/2021 Source: California Franchise Tax Board, 2021

Some taxpayers may experience delays receiving their checks

In order to receive a Golden State Stimulus check, residents had to file a 2020 tax return by 15 October. However, depending on when a taxpayer submitted their filing or when it gets processed could mean some Californians may have to wait longer for the payment.

For those who submitted their taxes after 20 August 2021, an additional forty-five-day waiting period should be expected to allow for their tax return and check to be processed. The California Franchise Tax Board has stated that "If your tax return is processed after the date of your scheduled ZIP code payment, allow up to 60 days."

For those that think they are experiencing an unusually long delay, they can contact the California Franchise Tax Board to track their Golden State Stimulus check.
With details still emerging there has been a new development in the case of the former Las Vegas Raiders WR

Witness in Henry Ruggs case says firefighters were slow

According to a court filing written by the lawyers of Henry Ruggs a witness said that firefighters were slow to extinguish a vehicle fire which ignited as a result of a deadly crash that authorities allege was caused by the former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver. Ruggs, who is 22, is accused of driving drunk while traveling at a speed of 156 mph in his Corvette. His girlfriend was also in the car at the time of the crash in the early hours of November 2nd. Just hours after he was officially released by his team.

On Thursday a funeral was held for the young woman who died tragically in the crash. More than 100 people attended the ceremony for Tina Tintor at the St. Simeon Serbian Orthodox Church in Las Vegas. Amongst those in attendance was Raiders owner Mark Davis.

Henry Ruggs' Lawyers speak on their case

In their Wednesday court filing, attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld were adamant in their stance that negligence had taken place. "Firemen did not attempt to extinguish the fire at Ms. Tintor's vehicle for approximately 20 minutes at which time the entire vehicle was engulfed in flames," they said. Their filing, however, did not identify their witness. Ruggs' attorneys are at present seeking a court order to obtain Clark County Fire Department records about the crash and subsequent fire. A court hearing has been scheduled for November 17th.

In contrast a county spokesman reported the assessment of the report from the captain on the scene of the crash. "No delays in response or in the attack on the fire. The captain on the scene reported that the vehicle was fully involved in fire upon arrival and the passenger compartment was not survivable for anyone inside."

Chesnoff and Schonfeld declined to give any further comments saying only that their request for the records was part of their crash investigation. According to the attorneys, the witness told them that he was at home nearby when he heard the crash and went to look. Their court filing states that firefighters were "in a position to extinguish the vehicle fire while it was in its infancy stages and failed to do so."

Henry Ruggs is in a lot of trouble

If a felony DUI resulting in death and reckless driving charges weren't enough, Ruggs is also facing an additional felony DUI and reckless driving charges and a misdemeanor charge for possession of a firearm while intoxicated. If convicted the additional charges will mean even more prison time for Ruggs. Speaking on the charges, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said, "The evidence supports a second felony DUI charge, We believe that Mr. Ruggs' girlfriend [Kiara Je'nai Kilgo-Washington] was substantially injured, and under Nevada law, if one is substantially injured in a DUI collision as a result of the defendant's actions, we can file a second charge." A former first-round NFL draft pick, Ruggs faces at least two years of mandatory prison time if he's convicted. Should he be convicted on all charges, he could face more than 50 years in jail.

Ruggs has since posted $150,000 bail and confined to house arrest with strict conditions including alcohol level tests four times a day.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Nhat Quang, Chairman of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (R), receives the Order of the Star of Italy (Ordine della Stella dItalia) bestowed by the Italian President from Italian Ambassador to Vietnam Antonio Alessandro. (Photo: TDO)

The order is the most noble reward that Italy presents to foreigners who make outstanding contributions to promoting friendship and cooperation between Italy and other countries. The order to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Quang recognises his contributions to the enhancement of ties between Italy and Vietnam and his efforts to support collaboration activities between people of the two countries, especially in cultural and academic activities, said Ambassador Antonio Alessandro.

Speaking at the awarding ceremony, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Nhat Quang expressed his great honour to receive the noble award. This is a very meaningful event, because it is the recognition of the Italian State for my personal contributions to the development of the close friendship between Vietnam and Italy, he said. The fact that the President of the Republic of Italy awarded me the order is a great honor, marking a long way for me to be connected with the country and people of Italy.

He noted that in the 1990s, Italy gave positive support to Vietnam in expanding partnership with the European Union (EU) as well as normalising relations with international financial, monetary and trade institutions. Meanwhile, Vietnam acted as a gateway for Italy to strengthen ties with Southeast Asian countries.

Since the two nations set up a strategic partnership in 2013, the bilateral cooperation has been expanded to almost all fields, including social sciences with many joint projects, he said.

For the Vietnam - Italy Friendship Association, 2021 is also the 35th anniversary of the association's establishment, and people-to-people diplomacy activities have brought about many remarkable results, contributing to enhancing the Italian cultural presence in Vietnam and vice versa, helping Italians understand more about Vietnam. I and members of the association are trying our best to further the good traditional friendship between the two countries, he added./.
Vice Chairman of the Committee for Overseas Vietnamese in HCMC Vo Thanh Chat handed over books to the library of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education (Photo: hcmcpv.org.vn)

This is a number of precious books specializing in science and technology, worth more than 2.7 billion VND, donated by Dr. Vo Ta Han, an overseas Vietnamese, to Vietnam.

On behalf of Mr. Vo Ta Han's family, Ms. Le Thi My Chau hopes that with these books, the library of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education will create favorable conditions for teachers, graduate students and students to access and research most effectively, so as not to betray the heart and efforts of the donor.

Dr. Vo Ta Han is known as an international expert in financial consulting. He has a lot of experience in working and researching in countries such as the US, Canada and Singapore. For Vietnam and especially for Ho Chi Minh City, he has persistently campaigned, donated, contributed and shipped nearly 1 million books over the past 30 years, with the goal of bringing knowledge to Vietnam, equipping the young generation with knowledge, and helping the country develop.

Through the Committee for Overseas Vietnamese in HCMC, Dr. Vo Ta Hans family donated 1,301 books to the library of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, worth 3.5 billion VND in 2017. This number of books donated to the library of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education is among 9,338 books (worth over 2.7 billion VND) presented to 29 universities in Ho Chi Minh City and other localities.

In the near future, another batch of books worth more than 5 million USD (about 115 billion VND) will also be brought to Vietnam and delivered to libraries and reading rooms./.
Leaders and people in Horne Saliby town welcomed President Ho Chi Minh in 1957 (Photo: baoquocte.vn)

Horne Saliby town is more than 40 km from the capital Bratislava. 64 years ago, Uncle Ho led a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation to visit and left deep feelings for local officials and people. Since then, Horne Saliby town has become a landmark, a historical witness to the good relationship between Vietnam and Slovakia.



On July 18, 1957, Uncle Ho led a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation to visit the Town Hall of Horne Saliby town.

This was part of a visit to socialist countries, including Czechoslovakia. For the town, it was a great honor to receive the head of the country that won the Dien Bien Phu victory.

In the town, Uncle Ho had many activities, visited farmers and production facilities. With a simple, friendly and sincere style, Uncle Ho left a very deep impression in the hearts of the people in Horne Saliby town.

To record this historical event, and to show their affection for Uncle Ho, the government of Horne Saliby town made a bronze sign, which was attached to the most solemn place on the wall of the town hall.

On September 20, 2017, the opening ceremony of the sign was solemnly held as a big festival. Chairman of Vietnams National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue, then Deputy Prime Minister, led the Vietnamese Government delegation, attended and cut the ribbon.

The sign serves as a symbol of the good faithful relationship between the governments and people of Vietnam-Slovakia, and also as a reminder for generations of the two nations to cherish and nurture the relationship better and better, and is the pride of Vietnamese people in Slovakia.

Ms. Katarina Filova, 78 years old, was assigned to hold a bouquet of flowers to present to Uncle Ho. Every time we go to the town to offer flowers to Uncle Ho on his birthday, she also makes cakes to invite and recall the unforgettable memories of Uncle Ho with respect, emotion and pride.

I still often go to the place where the sign is placed to recall the beautiful memories of the time I met Uncle Ho, and tell my children and grandchildren about the day Uncle Ho visited town. I hope that my children and grandchildren know about this event and preserve the good relationship between the two peoples and two countries," she said.

Horne Saliby Cooperative gave Uncle Ho a Zetor-15K plow machine when he visited this place. Then this machine was transferred to Vietnam, Uncle Ho gave it to the people of Vinh Kim commune in Vinh Linh special zone of Quang Tri province in December 1959.

The plow machine greatly contributed to the production and fighting achievements of the people in Vinh Kim commune and is now kept in the Traditional Room of Vinh Kim commune in Quang Tri provinces Vinh Linh district.

It is believed that the next generation of Vietnamese in Slovakia will still come to Horne Saliby town to offer flowers in memory of Uncle Ho on every occasion of his birthday. Generations of Mayors of Horne Saliby town still tell the story of Uncle Ho's visit and Katarina Filova's descendants still make traditional cakes of Slovakia to invite Vietnamese people who come there every year on Uncle Ho's birthday./.
Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam takes the third-dose vaccination in Hong Kong, south China, Nov. 11, 2021. (Information Services Department of the Government of the HKSAR/Handout via Xinhua)

HONG KONG, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) on Thursday reported three new imported cases of COVID-19, taking the total tally to 12,377.

The newly reported cases are imported cases that involved mutant strains. The patients comprise two males and one female, aged 33 to 62 years.

A total of 39 cases have been reported in the past 14 days and all of them were imported, according to the CHP.

Hong Kong's vaccination drive is making steady progress. Since the launch of the government inoculation program in late February, more than 4.65 million people, or 69.2 percent of the eligible population, have taken at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccines, while around 4.46 million people, or 66.3 percent, are fully vaccinated.

Beginning from Thursday, a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine will be available to eligible groups in Hong Kong. People with weak immunity and high risks of infection with the virus can receive their third dose.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government expects the third-dose vaccination for the groups to cover about 1.86 million people. Enditem

Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam (C), Secretary for the civil service of the HKSAR government Patrick Nip (L) and Secretary for Food and Health of the HKSAR government Sophia Chan pose for a photo and call on Hong Kong residents to actively get the COVID-19 vaccine jab in south China's Hong Kong, Nov. 11, 2021. (Information Services Department of the Government of the HKSAR/Handout via Xinhua)

Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam (C) communicates with COVID-19 vaccine recipients in south China's Hong Kong, Nov. 11, 2021. (Information Services Department of the Government of the HKSAR/Handout via Xinhua)

Editor: Zhang Zhou
The U.S. is raising the alarm with European Union allies that Russia may be weighing a potential invasion of Ukraine as tensions flare between Moscow and the bloc over migrants and energy supplies, the Bloomberg sad referring to its sources.

"With Washington closely monitoring a buildup of Russian forces near the Ukrainian border, U.S. officials have briefed EU counterparts on their concerns over a possible military operation," the message reads.

It is noted the assessments are believed to be based on information the U.S. hasn't yet shared with European governments. They're backed up by publicly-available evidence, according to officials familiar with the administration's thinking.

At the same time, Russia says it doesn't intend to start a war with Ukraine now, though Moscow should show it's ready to use force if necessary. An offensive is unlikely as Russian troops would face public resistance in Kyiv and other cities.

As previously reported, the latest movement of Russian troops and tanks towards Ukraine prompted CIA Director William Burns to visit Moscow this month.
Ukraine again presents its position in dispute with Russia over $ 3 bln eurobonds to Supreme Court in London

The Supreme Court in the UK has heard the latest explanations from Ukraine in support of it that the $ 3 billion eurobonds were issued in 2013 as a result of coercion by Russia, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry has said.

"Ukraine remains confident in the positive outcome of the case, initiated as one of the elements of the general strategy for the implementation of aggression by Russia against Ukraine, which Russia continues to implement today," the release says.

According to the report, the Supreme Court is expected to finalize the preparation of the decision after the hearing on Thursday and move on to deliver it.

The Ministry of Finance clarified that during the hearing, Ukraine took the opportunity to once again present its legal position in relation to eurobonds, 100% of which were purchased by the Russian Federation, which indicates the extreme exclusivity of the situation.

"Ukraine has consistently argued that, as a result of Russian threats before the issuance of eurobonds, and the acts of both economic and military aggression by Russia, Ukraine was deprived of the right to choose and, due to coercion by Russia, Ukraine eventually entered into agreements on the issue of Eurobonds," the Ukrainian department said.

It pointed out that Ukraine's position is that the bond issue should be declared invalid by the court because it was carried out under duress, with the investigation into Russia's actions in full procedure in open court. Or it would be fair to stop the proceedings if the English court finds that, on procedural grounds, the court is unable to consider the arguments of Ukraine's defense, the Ministry of Finance indicated the second possible outcome of the case.

"This is the position stated by the English Court of Appeal in its very important decision, which was made in September 2018," the Ukrainian department recalled.
Russia may be 'looking to move further' into Ukraine - Kuleba

Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba believes that Russia may be seeking to "move further" into Ukraine.

"We do not want to scare anyone, but we have to remain vigilant," Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba told ABC News.

According to him, Russia again masses troops and equipment on the border with Ukraine, which may testify to the fact that the Russian government is "looking for the opportunity to move further" into Ukrainian territory.

"We are extremely worried () But when you live next to Russia for seven years in an armed conflict, you kind of learn to be worried. You get used to it," Kuleba noted.

Speaking about the results of the meetings held in the United States, Kuleba noted that the American authorities have shown that they are ready not only to speak, but also to act.

"The United States are ready not only to talk, but also to act, to act in order to deter Russia and to strengthen Ukraine's capacity to defend itself," he said.

Kuleba noted the "turbulence" in U.S.-Ukrainian relations during the Trump years, but with Joe Biden's tenure as the President of the United States communications have been restored.

Nevertheless, Kuleba added that disagreements still remain, in particular over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and its use as an energy weapon.

"We have differences in seeing how the negative consequences of this project being implemented can be avoided or prevented," Kuleba told ABC News.

"We definitely want the United States to remain vigilant and ready, ready to take action if the current policy fails [in relation to Nord Stream 2]," he concluded.

It was earlier reported that Kuleba this week visited Washington, where a meeting of the Ukraine-U.S. Strategic Partnership Commission was held, designed to consolidate a new level of strategic partnership and the country's support from the United States. During the visit, he met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. President's National Security Advisor Jacob Sullivan.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has held a telephone conversation with Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili, in which he raised the issue of ensuring the rights of Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili, the press service of the head of state has reported.

"The President emphasized the inadmissibility of applying disproportionate coercive measures to a citizen of Ukraine," the message says.

Zelensky also stressed that Saakashvili's rights must be fully guaranteed in accordance with international law, and also emphasized the need to provide access for Saakashvili to his mother and relatives.

"Taking into account the state of health of a citizen of Ukraine, the head of state also asked to consider the possibility of admitting Ukrainian doctors to Mikheil Saakashvili," the message says.
Ukraine and Israel intend to expand cooperation in the field of dairy farming

The state and prospects of bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and Israel in the field of dairy farming were the subject of a meeting between the Embassy of Ukraine to the State of Israel, the Ukrainian Association of Milk Producers and the Israeli Association for Israel-Ukraine Cooperation, CIS. The Embassy reported this at Facebook.

The purpose of the event was to discuss the state and prospects of bilateral cooperation in the field of dairy farming. The Israeli side, in particular, was acquainted with the state, prospects of development and needs of this industry, - the statement reads.

During the meeting, Ukrainian farmers expressed interest in expanding bilateral cooperation in a number of areas.

In particular, it is the modernization of irrigation systems, the creation of a national breeding center in Ukraine, computerization of dairy farms, export-import of feed, construction of feed centers in Ukraine, processing of dairy products, - the statement said.

The parties also agreed to work on a visit of a delegation of the Association of Milk Producers to Israel in early 2022 to discuss in detail with relevant Israeli state institutions and private agricultural companies promising bilateral projects in priority areas.
Police not aware yet under what circumstances drugs got into MP Poliakov's body  Kyiv police chief

The police are still working out both versions of the death of MP Anton Poliakov: voluntary drug use and forced entry into the body.

"The case is really resonant, today the pretrial investigation is still ongoing. We cannot talk about the testimony of Skorokhod [Ukrainian MP Hanna Skorokhod], since this is a secret of the pretrial investigation," Vyhivsky said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, answering the question of whether Skorokhod gave evidence that could testify to the violent nature of the deputy's death.

"We have two versions: the ingestion of a narcotic substance into the body through independent use and under duress," he said.

According to the head of Kyiv police, more than 20 examinations are being carried out as part of the investigation, the results of four of them have been obtained.

"We are analyzing both video and other data. Now there is no reason to consider any version of the main one," Vyhivsky said.
On Friday, November 12, the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) of Ukraine served MP of Ukraine Geo Leros on suspicion of non-compliance with the court ruling, which came into force.

According to the SBI press service, this is about the Kyiv's Court of Appeal ruling dated August 11, 2021 on recognizing the information about Denys Yermak as unreliable and defaming the honor, dignity and business reputation, which Leros disseminated on social networks in March 2020. The court ordered the MP to refute the information he had disseminated by setting out the relevant text on his page; the court ruling dated August 11, 2021 came into legal force.

"The MP of Ukraine deliberately did not comply with the court's ruling, although he learnt it duly and had real opportunities for that," the SBI said.

After the opening of the enforcement proceedings, the imposition of two monetary penalties, as well as repeated warnings about criminal liability for willful failure to comply with the court ruling, the public executor applied to the SBI with notification of the commission of a criminal offense.

Based on the results of the investigative and procedural actions, the investigators obtained sufficient evidence to notify the suspicion.

A criminal offense was qualified under Part 1 of Article 382 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (non-execution of the court ruling). The sanction of the article provides for a punishment of up to three years in prison.

Leros said that law enforcement officers handed him not only a suspicion, but also a petition for a measure of restraint, which will be considered by Pechersky District Court on Friday, November 12.

"I was handed another suspicion and a petition for a measure of restraint in the form of house arrest, which will be considered today at 17:00 in Pechersky court. Please note, for not refuting the post about Denys Yermak! Moreover, my appeal was accepted in cassation!" Leros said on Facebook.

He also said the investigators did not prove that he did not comply with the court's ruling.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and Prime Minister of Slovakia Eduard Heger have signed a joint statement in which they noted the potential for the development of bilateral partnership, in particular, in the energy, military and humanitarian spheres.

"The prime ministers noted the significant potential for the further development of the Ukrainian-Slovak partnership, which is based on strong good-neighborly ties, mutual respect and common European values. The prime ministers said that the clear result of the joint work of both parties is the resumption of the fully operational Uzhgorod International Airport," they said in the statement.

The Prime Minister of Slovakia confirmed that the Slovak side supports the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and does not recognize the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula by the Russian Federation. "The prime ministers agreed to strengthen interaction within the Crimean platform," they said in the statement.

The prime ministers also agreed to intensify cooperation in realizing Ukraine's course towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration, aimed at further deepening the political association and economic integration of Ukraine with the EU, in particular, in the context of the implementation of the Association Agreement.

In addition, the parties positively noted the growth of trade and economic indicators between Ukraine and Slovakia in recent years, despite the negative impact of the pandemic crisis, and agreed that there are all prerequisites for increasing bilateral trade and the participation of Slovak business in Ukrainian investment projects.

The prime ministers noted the strategic nature of bilateral cooperation in the field of energy and energy security and the need to introduce a transparent system for trading the transmission capacities of national operators of electric grids through joint auctions in accordance with the ENTSO-E rules.

"The prime ministers highly appreciated the positive development of cooperation at the level of the defense ministries and the armed forces and agreed that military-technical cooperation is a promising area for the further development of relations," they said in the statement.

The parties also positively assessed the cooperation in the field of ensuring the rights and interests of national minorities.

"The prime ministers expressed a common position that the Ukrainian-Slovak partnership is an important asset both for the two countries and for the Central European region and Europe as a whole."
An Israeli network of children's computer knowledge centers may appear in Ukraine - Embassy of Ukraine to the State of Israel

The possibility of opening a network of children's computer knowledge centers in Ukraine was discussed by the Ambassador of Ukraine to the State of Israel Yevhen Korniychuk with the founder and director of Sun Spark D.Oyrik, General Director of Yamina Party and Ashdod Municipal Council Deputy S.Weinstein and former Minister of Absorption Knesset deputy S.Landver. The Embassy reported this at Facebook.

The ambassador visited the children's center of computer knowledge, opened in Ashdod by Sun Spark. As part of the acquaintance with his training base, a conversation between the ambassador and the mentioned persons took place. The focus of the conversation is bilateral cooperation in the field of education, in particular, the launch of a network of preschool educational institutions in the regional centers of Ukraine, where children will acquire the first practical computer knowledge, - the statement reads.

At the same time, it was reached an agreement to assist the Embassy in organizing a visit of Israeli specialists to Ukraine to present their computer training program with a view to the possible opening of a similar network of training centers in Ukraine.
Two Ukrainian servicemen were killed in Donbas as a result of an explosion on an unknown enemy device, the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) press center said.

"Since the beginning of the day, two violations of the ceasefire have been recorded by the Russian armed formations. In the area of the village of Zaitseve, the enemy opened fire from grenade launchers of various systems," the JFO said on Facebook.

Also in the direction of Popasna, the enemy fired from grenade launchers of various systems and heavy machine guns

"As a result of the explosion on an unknown enemy device, two servicemen received injuries incompatible with life. The command and the Joint Forces staff expresses sincere condolences to the families and friends of the fallen soldiers," the headquarters said.

Ukrainian defenders returned fire and forced the enemy to stop shelling.

In turn, the 79th Separate Air Assault Brigade on Facebook reported that Lieutenant Colonel Ruslan Prusov and Master Sergeant Vadym Fedoseyev were killed.

"With sadness we inform that today, November 12, 2021, grief happened in our landing family. During the execution of a combat mission in the JFO, Lieutenant Colonel Ruslan Prusov and Master Sergeant Vadym Fedoseyev were killed. An irreparable loss for the country, for the airborne assault troops, for family, friends and confreres," the headquarters said.
A 37-year-old Ukrainian prisoner Ruslan Makarets was killed in Makiyivka correctional colony No.32, located in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region, Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova has said.

"I received the shocking news of the death of our fellow citizen, 37-year-old Ruslan Makarts, in Makiyivka correctional colony No.32, located in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region. The death of Ruslan Makarts came as a result of stabbing him," she said on Facebook on Friday.

Denisova said the Ukrainian citizen was detained by the occupation authorities on March 22, 2019 in occupied Horlivka, after which he was illegally sentenced to 13 years in prison for allegedly "spying for the Ukrainian special services."

"The Ukrainian authorities tried to free Ruslan from captivity. However, the process of releasing persons from the territories not controlled by the government of Ukraine does not take place due to the blocking of the implementation of the Minsk agreements by the aggressor country. The last time nine illegally deprived Ukrainian citizens from the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region were transferred on April 16, 2020 years," the ombudsperson said.

Currently, according to Denisova's information, Russian illegal armed groups in ORDLO are holding 301 Ukrainian citizens in prisons: some 224 in Donetsk and 77 in Luhansk region.

"Due to the suspension of the liberation process, the rights to life and safety of our fellow citizens who are in places of detention in uncontrolled territories have been violated. Since the beginning of the year, four citizens of Ukraine have died in the colonies in the Donetsk region due to the criminal inaction of the occupation administration," the commissioner said.

Denisova asks Head of the ICRC mission in Ukraine Florence Gillette to visit Makiyivka correctional colony to check the circumstances of the death of the Ukrainian citizen and the state of observance of the rights of other detained persons.

In addition, the ombudsperson asks representative of Ukraine in the working subgroup on humanitarian issues in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) for the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas Halyna Tretiakova and the coordinator in this subgroup from the OSCE Charlotte Relander to urgently take action to respond to the death of the Ukrainian and unblock the process of the detainees.

"I said this process must be restored without delay, because the lives of hundreds of our fellow citizens are under threat. I express my condolences to Ruslan's family and friends," she said.
On Tuesday, November 16, at 14.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a roundtable talk within the framework of the Green Deal project on the topic "How waste management sector developing in Ukraine amid circular economy," which will be held with the support of the EU Delegation to Ukraine. The event is part of the communication campaign "Boosting green potential together". Participants include Head of Operations  Economic Cooperation, Energy, Infrastructure and Environment of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Chloe Allio, Head of the Waste Management Association Nikol Danylova, President of the Professional Association of Ecologists of Ukraine Liudmyla Tsyhanok, Executive Director of Clear Energy Group Serhiy Savchuk (8/5a Reitarska Street).

The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. The video recording of the roundtable talk will be published on the agency's YouTube channel and the Green Deal portal. Due to quarantine restrictions, the number of places in the press center is limited, the presence of a PCR test or a certificate of vaccination is required. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot. Additional information by email shestak@interfax.kiev.ua.
On Tuesday, November 16, at 12.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference titled "Problem of staff competency of regional officials. Presentation of Training Center for Public Servants Yuriy Yekhanurov." Participants include Prime Minister of Ukraine 2005 -2006 Yuriy Yekhanurov; Director of the Merged Territorial Community Association Oleksandr Korinny; Executive Director of the Public Association "Key Persons" Olha Shaverina (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Due to quarantine restrictions the number of places in the press center is limited, the presence of a PCR test or a certificate of vaccination is required.
Egypt welcomed on Sunday the new political agreement signed in Khartoum earlier between Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and General Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan to end the month-old political crisis in the country.
Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and General Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan signed an agreement in a public ceremony in the presidential palace in Khartoum on Sunday afternoon to end the month-old political crisis in the country.
French President Emmanuel Macron will host Friday an international conference aimed at ensuring Libya sticks to a plan to hold elections in December and turn a new page in its history, a decade after the overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

The hydrocarbon-rich North African country has been mired in civil war since the killing of Kadhafi in a 2011 uprising, with the bloodshed drawing in competing Libya factions and Islamist groups, as well as regional powers.

Both the presidential vote on December 24, and the legislative elections, are the centerpiece of a UN plan to help restore stability, but the calendar has been under pressure as tensions resume between rival camps.

There are also fears over whether the various factions will recognize the results of the votes, which would mark a turning point in the stability of a country that has become a major departure point for migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean for Europe.

Key players attending the meeting will include US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is on a visit to France aimed at improving ties, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, one of Paris's closest allies in the Middle East.

Also attending, in a rare visit to Western Europe amid longstanding tensions between Moscow and the West, is Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

But the level of representation from Turkey, another key regional power, remains unclear.

"The elections are within grasp. There is a strong momentum in Libya for them to go ahead. The stability of the country is at stake," said a French presidential official, who asked not to be identified by name.

"But there are 'spoilers' who are trying to derail the process," the official said.

Foreign Forces Out?

Elysee officials are at pains to present the conference as an international effort, co-presided by France, Germany, Italy, the United Nations, and Libya itself.

But it represents the latest foray into high-stakes international diplomacy by Macron, who is expected to seek re-election in April and whose country also takes on the EU presidency in January.

France has faced accusations that it favoured the secular Moscow-educated strongman of eastern Libya, Khalifa Haftar, in the conflict with the UN-backed government in Tripoli. Paris has rejected the claims.

Macron has repeatedly urged an end to foreign military presence in Libya, notably that of Turkey, which sent in troops, as well as pro-Ankara militia units from Syria to shore up the Tripoli government.

But observers also accuse Moscow of deploying mercenaries belonging to the Wagner group, which is allegedly controlled by a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Macron wants the conference to endorse a plan for the departure of all foreign forces and mercenaries, the French presidential official said.

The level of representation from Libya is also not clear.

Mohamed al-Menfi, the head of the transitional presidential council that currently carries out head-of-state functions ahead of the elections, is expected in Paris.

But it is not certain that Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah will come amid reported tensions between him and al-Menfi.

One likely absentee is set to be Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who was invited by Paris, but is set to stay away after taking umbrage at comments by Macron criticising his country's "political-military system."

Earlier this week, Libya opened registration for hopefuls in the elections, with speculation mounting over possible presidential bids by Haftar and by Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, both deeply divisive figures.

The scheduling also remains unclear -- presidential and parliamentary elections are slated for December 24, but in early October, parliament split the dates of the vote by pushing back the legislative elections until January.

However, foreign powers have been pushing hard for both elections to still be held on the same date, as agreed at UN-led talks last year.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is heading to Paris on Thursday to attend an international conference on the state of affairs in Libya that is scheduled for 12 November at the invitation of Frances President Emmanuel Macron.

The conference comes almost a month before the scheduled presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya  as agreed upon in the UN-led talks that were held last year  in a bid to restore Libyan stability after a decade of civil war since a 2011 uprising.

During the conference, El-Sisi will highlight the need for a concerted effort by the international community to support Libya during the historical turning point it is currently going through, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement.

This includes holding the long-awaited Libyan elections on time this December and the exit of all mercenaries and foreign troops and fighters from Libyan territories.

El-Sisi will also shed light on Egypts ongoing efforts on the various economic, political, and security levels in this regard.

Along with El-Sisi and Macron, US Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will also be attending the conference.

The international community on many occasions have reaffirmed the need to hold both the presidential and legislative elections on time, especially at the Berlin Conference last June.

Earlier this week, Libya opened candidate registration for the elections, with a few names standing out at the moment, including eastern Libya strongman Khalifa Haftar and Seif El-Islam Kadhafi, the son of the overthrown president in 2011.

Presidential polls are slated for 24 December, but the parliament is willing to delay the legislative election until January, although world leaders are still pressing for both elections to be held by the end of the year.

Libyas High Electoral Commission announced on Sunday the opening of candidate registration for both the presidential and legislative elections from 8 to 22 November.

While a law for the parliamentary elections was agreed upon by Libyas eastern-based parliament early in October, it was rejected by the Tripoli-based High Council of State, a body acting as a Senate.

With no agreed upon electoral law so far, holding elections by December remains challenging.

The international community  notably Egypt  have also urged for an end to the heavy foreign military presence in Libya as a condition for the restoration of Libyas sovereignty and unity.

In October, the UN-backed 5+5 Joint Military Commission signed a comprehensive action plan for the gradual and balanced withdrawal of mercenaries and foreign fighters from the war-torn country.

The conference in Paris also comes amid growing tensions between the Libyan Government of National Unity and the Presidential Council.

Earlier this month, the council decided to suspend Foreign Minister Najla Al-Mangoush and barred her from traveling abroad over allegations of monopolising foreign policy, a decision rejected by the government.

During the visit to Paris, El-Sisi will also hold a summit with Macron to discuss bilateral relations, which have witnessed a qualitative leap over the past years, Rady said.

The presidents will continue coordination and consultations on a number of regional and international issues of mutual concern, Rady added.

Furthermore, El-Sisis programme during the visit includes a series of meetings with key officials in the French government to discuss boosting cooperation regarding investments, as well as in the economic, commercial, and military fields.

The president is scheduled to also meet with a number of presidents and premiers to discuss boosting cooperation and to consult on various regional and international issues.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egypt has been officially selected to host the UN Climate Change Conference 2022 (COP 27) in November 2022 in Sharm El-Sheikh.

The current UN climate change conference COP26 in Glasgow announced on Thursday that Egypt was chosen to host the upcoming session of the conference in 2022 (COP27).

The UAE will host the 2023 edition of the conference.

At the summit earlier on Thursday, Egypts Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad expressed her appreciation to all delegations, especially the African countries delegations, for their support of Egypt.

The minister added that Egypt is committed to building on the success achieved at COP26 and will exert efforts to achieve success in the upcoming COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Fouad also welcomed all parties to meet next year in Egypt to work on reaching fair and balanced outcomes to face the impacts of climate change and to help developing and African countries to quickly face and adapt to climate change.

Earlier this month, Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called on developed countries to fulfil their pledge to provide $100 billion annually to developing countries to address the effects of climate change.

In a speech delivered to the COP26, El-Sisi seconded highlighted the need to allocate at least half of all public climate finance to adaptation measures.

He affirmed the need to preserve the Paris Climate Accords to ensure the bolstering of efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to the negative effects of climate change.

The president also vowed that Egypt would seek to enhance international climate action to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement during the countrys presidency of the COP27, affirming this will achieve the interests of the global community.

The Paris Climate Accords  adopted at COP21 and signed by over 190 states including Egypt  came into effect in 2016 with the aim of reducing the rate of global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in this century.

El-Sisi said strengthening climate action to achieve this rate has become imperative and undeferrable.

In 2019, Egypt co-chaired a coalition with the UK on climate adaptation and resilience at the UN Climate Action Summit.

Egypt also hosted the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2018.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed means of developing Egypt-France military cooperation during a meeting with French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly in Paris on Friday.

El-Sisi, who is visiting France to participate in the international Paris conference on Libya, expressed to Parly his appreciation for the strategic relations between Egypt and France in different domains, especially on security and military matters.

The Egyptian president stressed that the forces fighting terrorism need to unify and coordinate their efforts to guarantee a strong and effective response to the threat, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said.

For her part, Parly stressed her country's keenness to strengthen partnership with Egypt, particularly military cooperation within the framework of joint counter-terrorism efforts.

Egypt is a key pillar of security and stability in the Middle East and Africa, Parly told El-Sisi.

The two sides agreed to intensify consultation and coordination to confront and undermine the threat of terrorism, and prevent the movement of terrorists from tension spots to other areas, which threatens security in the region and particularly in North Africa and the Sahel.

Both sides agreed on the necessity of supporting the political track to end the crisis in Libya and adhering to the planned timetable for the presidential and parliamentary elections in the country - set to take place on 24 December - in order to hand over power to a legitimate, elected authority by the free will of the Libyan people.

They also highlighted that such a step will herald a new page in Libyan history, help restoring the country's national institutions, security and stability, and expel foreign forces from Libyan soil, the statement added.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


World powers on Friday told Libya to stick to a plan for holding presidential elections on December 24, adding that foreign mercenaries should also leave and allow the country to turn a page in its history.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted leaders and diplomats in Paris for an international conference, declaring that Libya was now as a "crossroads" that would determine its future.

The North African country has been mired in civil war since the overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a 2011 uprising, with the bloodshed drawing in competing Libyan factions and Islamist groups, as well as regional powers.

The presidential vote on December 24 is the core part of a United Nations plan to help restore stability, but the calendar has been under pressure as tensions flare once more between rival camps.

"We urge all Libyan stakeholders and candidates to respect their commitments towards holding elections on 24 December 2021 (and) to accept the results of free, fair and inclusive elections," the powers said in a statement after the talks.

The scheduling has remained unclear, after Libya's parliament in early October pushed back legislative elections until January.

"Libya is once again at a crossroads. There have been 10 years of disorder and upheaval in which the international community is not without responsibility," said Macron.

"The next six weeks will be decisive," he added.

'Concrete guarantees'

The world powers also warned that sanctions could be imposed against anyone deemed to be impeding the process.

"We affirm that individuals or entities, inside or outside of Libya, who might attempt to obstruct, undermine, manipulate or falsify the electoral process and the political transition will be held accountable and may be designated" by UN sanctions, their statement said.

Key players attending the meeting included US Vice President Kamala Harris and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Russian Foreign Minister Segey Lavrov were also present.

But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Russian President Vladimir Putin were conspicuous by their absence.

Libya was represented by transitional presidential council head Mohamed Al-Menfi as well as Prime Minister Abdel-Hamid Dbeibah who said: "Concrete guarantees must be obtained that the election results will be accepted and that those who reject them will be sanctioned."

Earlier this week, Libya opened registration for election candidates.

'First withdrawal'

The conference to endorse a plan for the departure of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya, with the statement giving "full support for the comprehensive Action Plan for the withdrawal of mercenaries, foreign fighters and foreign forces from the Libyan territory".

Turkey had sent in troops as well as pro-Ankara militia units from Syria to shore up the Tripoli government.

Observers also accuse Moscow of deploying mercenaries belonging to the Wagner group, which is allegedly controlled by a close ally of Putin.

Military forces associated with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar said in a statement ahead of the conference that 300 foreign mercenaries fighting on their side would leave the country, "at the request of France".

The nationality of the fighters was not specified and no timeline was given. The UN estimates that 20,000 mercenaries and foreign fighters are deployed in Libya.

"The mercenary withdrawal plan must be implemented. Russia and Turkey must withdraw their mercenaries without delay," Macron said, welcoming the announcement that 300 mercenaries would leave as a "first step".

"This is only the beginning, but it is an essential beginning which finally gives credibility to a process that we have been talking about for too long," said Macron.

Merkel commented that the Turkey had "reservations" about the process of withdrawing mercenaries.

But she added: "It's a good thing that we can see a first withdrawal, it will serve as an example. Things have started."

*This story was edited by Ahram Online

Search Keywords:

Short link:


President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stressed to Tunisian PM Najla Bouden on Friday Egypt's support for Tunisia and the efforts exerted by President Kais Saied and the newly formed government to achieve stability and development for the Tunisian people.

The Egyptian president also conveyed to the Tunisian prime minister Egypt's readiness to both "harness all available capabilities to help Tunisia achieve security and development," and develop bilateral cooperation in order to consolidate the historical ties between the two countries.

The Egyptian president and the Tunisian prime minister are in Paris to attend the international conference on Libya, which aims to ensure that the Libyan sides stick to the agreed upon plan to hold elections in December as a key step toward ending the decade-old crisis in the country.

In October, President Saied appointed Bouden to head a new cabinet, nearly three months after he dismissed the government of Hichem Mechichi and suspended the activities of parliament.

Egypt has repeatedly affirmed its support for Saied's decisions, calling them historic."

For her part, PM Bouden expressed appreciation for Egypt's support to her country as well as Egypt's "vital role in maintaining security and stability regionally," Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said.

She said her country cherishes the "close and distinguished relations with Egypt at the formal and popular levels," expressing Tunisia's interest in "benefiting from the Egyptian success story under the inspiring leadership of the President El-Sisi" through bilateral coordination in all fields, especially in on the economic and security levels.

The two sides affirmed the joint political will to strengthen the framework of cooperation, maximize communication channels, and exchange information on combating terrorism, Rady added.

El-Sisi and Bouden also exchanged views on a number of regional issues of mutual interest, including the latest developments on Libya.

They agreed to boost Egyptian-Tunisian coordination to end the crisis in Libya, given that both countries share borders with the country, and also in light of the fact that Tunisia is the current representative of Arab countries on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

They stressed that such coordination aligns with the will of the Libyan people by backing national institutions and efforts to achieve security and stability, as well as preserve the unity and sovereignty of Libya.

El-Sisi and Bouden also emphasised the importance of implementing the relevant UN and international decisions in terms of holding the Libyan elections on time and the exit of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya.

El-Sisi and Bouden also tackled the latest development concerning the decade-old dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

The Egyptian president thanked Tunisia for supporting the Egyptian stance on the importance of reaching a comprehensive and legally binding agreement on filling and operating the Renaissance Dam.

In September, the UNSC adopted a Tunisia-drafted presidential statement encouraging Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia "to resume negotiations" to swiftly reach a "mutually acceptable and binding agreement on the filling and operation" of the GERD.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire stressed to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi France's keenness on encouraging investments in Egypt, boosting strategic cooperation, with the aim of providing Cairo with all advanced technologies in all fields.

Le Maire, who met El-Sisi on Friday ahead of of the Paris Conference on Libya later today, said his country is encouraging French companies to invest in Egypt within the framework of pushing up the development process in Egypt.

The minister lauded recent measures adopted by Egypt to create an attractive climate for foreign investments, including facilitating government procedures and licenses related to investment, and encouraging the private sector to participate in many projects, Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said.

France has sizable investments in Egypt, with about 160 French companies operating in the Egyptian market in various fields.

According to the French Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, the volume of French investments in Egypt exceeds 5 billion Euros, while the volume of trade exchange between the two countries reaches 3 billion Euros annually.

The Egyptian president expressed his appreciation for efforts by the French Ministry of Economy and Finance in the field of boosting joint economic cooperation especially in light of the current investment opportunities in Egypt.

He also expressed hope that joint cooperation would extend to new sectors, including the mega national projects in Egypt such the Decent Life initiative, a series of countryside-focused national infrastructure projects, as well as national transport projects and other projects in the education, health and energy fields, added the spokesman.

El-Sisi called on French companies to participate in the investment projects offered in in the Suez Canal region and to benefit from the special merits offered by the state in that region.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed a number of issues - including bilateral cooperation, Libya, counter-terrorism, and irregular migration - in a meeting on Friday afternoon at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

The meeting between the two leaders comes hours ahead of the convening of the International Conference on Libya later today in the French capital.

The Paris conference is being organised with the United Nations, with the participation of regional and world leaders, as the North African country is heading into long-awaited elections on 24 December.

The Egyptian president commended during the meeting with Macron the distinguished bilateral and strategic relations between Egypt and France on all fronts, with a special focus on the political, economic, trade and military fields, according to a statement by the Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Rady.

El-Sisi said he is keen on regularly maintaining consultations with the French president regadring bilateral cooperation issues and deepening Egyptian-French partnership or regional and international issues of mutual concern.

He highlighted the fruitful outcomes of the exchanged presidential visits between the two sides, in addition to the recent visit of Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to France in October 2021.

For his part, Macron commended developments in bilateral relations between Egypt and France in all domains, Rady said.

Macron also stressed he is looking forward to maximizing mutual cooperation in the coming period and boosting political coordination and exchanging viewpoints regarding various fileds of mutual concern, given the fact that Egypt is a most important partner to France in the Middle East and a cornerstone of stability and security in the region, Rady added.

Cooperation to end Libyan crisis

El-Sisi and Macron also discussed means of coordinating between Paris and Cairo on ending the crisis in Libya, given that Egypt is one of the most important neighbouring countries to Libya and has exerted "sincere" efforts to support the political track there, according to Rady.

Cairo has been pushing for a political settlement in Libya for years, complete disarming of militias, an end to foreign intervention in the country, as well as the fair distribution of wealth among Libya's various regions.

Egypt has hosted numerous meetings to bridge the gap between various Libyan parties and foster dialogue.

Both leaders agreed to continue exerting efforts "to settle the situation in Libya in a comprehensive and integrated manner that addresses all aspects of the Libyan crisis, leading to the upcoming elections in December 2021."

They also stressed the importance of the exiting of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libyan territory, to restore security and stability in the country, and preserve the state's resources and national institutions.

Economic cooperation

For his part, President Macron affirmed France's keenness to support Egypt's "ambitious" measures to advance the economy and achieve comprehensive development, especially by increasing French investments, transferring expertise and technology, highlighting the praises of international economic institutions for the performance of the Egyptian economy, according to Rady.

France has sizable investments in Egypt, with about 160 French companies operating in the Egyptian market in various fields.

According to the French Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, the volume of French investments in Egypt exceeds 5 billion Euros, while the volume of trade exchange between the two countries reaches 3 billion Euros annually.

The two leaders also agreed on the importance of strengthening Egypt- European Union cooperation in order to achieve stability and growth for the countries of the region and neighbouring countries, as well as curbing irregular migration to the Mediterranean countries.

The participants in the Paris Conference on Libya include French President Macron; Egyptian President El-Sisi; Libya's Prime Minister Abdel-Hamid Dbeibah; and the Head of Libya's Presidential Council, Mohamed Menfi.

They also include Tunisian Prime Minister Najla Bouden; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi; the UN envoy to Libya Jan Kubis; and the US Vice President Kamala Harris.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi told the Paris Conference on Libya Friday that holding the elections in Libya on schedule in December will enable the Libyan people "to express their free will" and derail the efforts of those "seeking narrow goals."

Our meeting today comes at a time when the situation in Libya is moving toward what is better - as the political process is passing through a decisive stage that aims to crown the international and regional efforts by holding elections on their scheduled date in December, the Egyptian president told regional and international leaders in Paris.

The Paris conference is being organised by the United Nations, with the participation of regional and world leaders, as the North African country is heading into the long-awaited elections on 24 December.

The participants in the conference include French President Macron; Libya's Prime Minister Abdel-Hamid Dbeibah; and the Head of Libya's Presidential Council, Mohamed Menfi.

They also include Tunisian Prime Minister Najla Bouden; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi; the UN envoy to Libya Jan Kubis; and the US Vice President Kamala Harris.

El-Sisi expressed in his speech to the conference his hope that the long-awaited Libyan elections are carried out successfully in a way that befits the deep-rootedness of the brotherly Libyan people, and allows their country to restore its active Arab and regional role.

"Holding the elections will enable our Libyan brothers to express their free will and derail the efforts of those who wish to jump over this entitlement in pursuit of narrow goals that are far removed from the supreme interests of Libya."

"If we do not pay attention, this could lead to the outbreak of public fury that can lead us back to to square one, which we don't wish to happen, the Egyptian president warned.

He praised the measures taken by the Libyan Presidential Council and the Government of National Unity (GNU) to prepare for elections.

He also praised the "great efforts" of the Libyan Parliament and coordination with Libyas High Electoral Commission to hold the polls.

Binding timeframe for ending foreign military presence

The Egyptian president urged the Paris conference to set a clear and binding timeframe for the exit of all foreign troops and fighters from the country, as well as all mercenaries who entered Libya after 2011.

He also urged agreement among the participants in the conference on mechanisms and guarantees to implement the decisions reached on the issue of the exit of foreign troops and fighters.

El-Sisi also commended the sincere and patriotic endeavours of the 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission (JMC) to implement its plans towards freeing Libya from foreign troops.

The conferences position should be clear and unambiguous in rejecting the continuation of the status quo. "

"It should condemn the continued violation of international decisions on the necessity of ending all forms of foreign military presence in Libya, El-Sisi said.

This should be done in order to prevent matters from sliding backwards in a way similar to what happened in many previous stages, he stressed.

The presence of foreign troops and mercenaries on the Libyan territories violates the UN Security Councils decisions 2570-2571 and the conclusions of the Berlin 2 Conference, which were agreed upon regionally and internationally, El-Sisi said.

The foreign military presence in Libya also violates the decisions of the Arab League, the African Union, and neighbouring countries on the necessity of withdrawing all foreign troops and mercenaries from Libya without any exceptions or further stalling."

Libya cannot restore its sovereignty, unity, and the desired stability without seriously dealing with the main issue obstructing this: the presence of foreign forces, mercenaries, and foreign troops on its soil, El-Sisi affirmed.

Egyptian support to a unified, free Libya

El-Sisi urged Libyan people to dismiss from your country every foreigner and intruder, no matter how much they claim that their presence is good for you."

The Egyptian president affirmed Egypts readiness to provide all forms of support to Libya to implement the plan of the JMC to end the presence of foreign troops on Libyan soil, unify state institutions, and build capacities so that Libyans can reclaim their resources and be able to decide their fate and chart their future.

"Rise to the occasion"

He urged all actors inside and outside Libya to "rise to the occasion" and "act responsibly and rationally in a way that helps Libya get through its crisis and end its peoples suffering.

El-Sisi warned against some attempts by parties inside and outside Libya to undermine any progress regarding this path under false pretexts."

El-Sisi said those parties should drop their aspirations of expansion; imposing their influence; and tampering with the resources and security of others."

They should also stop the policy of imposing a fait accompli using military or physical force; providing safe havens or any other form of support to terrorist and extremist groups; and transferring their elements from one country to another, El-Sisi added.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi - whose remarks on Yemen's war sparked a row with Gulf Arab states - said Friday he would consider resigning if diplomatic measures taken against his country are dropped.

Kordahi criticised the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen during a pre-recorded interview that was aired on Lebanese television last month.

His remarks angered Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, which responded by recalling their ambassadors from Beirut.

"I haven't heard yet of any guarantees, not from domestic nor external powers, but if these guarantees come in... then I am ready," Kordahi told reporters when asked about his possible resignation.

"I am not holding on to a ministerial position... I am not in a position to challenge anyone," Kordahi said after meeting Lebanon's parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri.

Kordahi did not specify what guarantees he was seeking but they are thought to be a rollback of the diplomatic measures taken by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies over his comments.

In addition to recalling its ambassador, Saudi Arabia banned Lebanese imports and asked the Lebanese envoy to leave the kingdom.

A security source told AFP on Wednesday that Kuwait would also limit the number of visas it issues for Lebanese nationals as a result of the spat.

The standoff, which threatens to plunge Lebanon deeper into economic meltdown, has created rifts over Kordahi's resignation, with Lebanon's powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah opposing such a move.

The Saudi foreign minister said this month that Hezbollah's dominance in Lebanon, and not just Kordahi's comments, had prompted the kingdom to take action.

More than 300,000 Lebanese live in Gulf Arab states, providing a key lifeline for its faltering economy, according to the Gulf Labour Markets and Migration think-tank.

Saudi Arabia is Lebanon's third-largest export market, accounting for six percent of the country's exports in 2020, worth around $217 million, according to Lebanon's chamber of commerce.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Dozens of Jewish settlers stormed on Thursday the Al-Aqsa Mosque / Haram Al-Sharif compound in the occupied East Jerusalem, Petra reported.

Eyewitnesses said that the settlers carried out todays raids from Al-Magharebah Gate in separated groups under heavy protection of Israels special police forces, who imposed restrictions on the entry of Muslim worshipers to the holy Islamic site and seized many of their IDs.

The settlers toured the mosque's yards and provocatively performed their prayers in the eastern part of the compound, according to the eyewitnesses.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Russia sent paratroopers to Belarus Friday in a show of support for its ally amid the tensions over an influx of migrants on the Belarusian border with Poland.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that as part of joint war games Russian paratroopers will parachute from heavy-lift Il-76 transport planes in Belarus' Grodno region that borders Poland.

The Belarusian military said the exercise involving a battalion of Russian paratroopers was intended to test the readiness of the allies' rapid response forces due to an ``increase of military activities near the Belarusian border.``

It said that as part of the drills, which will also involve Belarusian air defense assets, helicopter gunships, and other forces, troops will practice targeting enemy scouts and illegal armed formations, along with other tasks.

Earlier this week, Russia sent its nuclear-capable strategic bombers on patrol missions over Belarus for two straight days. Russia's deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, told reporters at UN headquarters in New York that the flights came in response to a massive build-up on the Polish-Belarusian border.

Russia has strongly supported Belarus amid a tense standoff this week as thousands of migrants and refugees, most of them from the Middle East, gathered on the Belarusian side of the border with Poland in the hope of crossing into Western Europe.

The European Union has accused Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, of encouraging illegal border crossings as a ``hybrid attack'' to retaliate against EU sanctions on his government for its crackdown on domestic protests after Lukashenko's disputed 2020 reelection.

Belarus denies the allegations but has said it will no longer stop refugees and migrants from trying to enter the EU.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry accused Poland on Thursday of an ``unprecedented'' military buildup on the border, saying that migration control did not warrant the concentration of 15,000 troops backed by tanks, air defense assets, and other weapons.

Russia and Belarus have a union agreement envisaging close political and military ties. Lukashenko has stressed the need to boost military cooperation in the face of what he has described as aggressive actions by NATO allies.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Starting next month, government offices and state employees will begin a gradual move to the new capital.

A first tranche of public employees is scheduled to begin work in Egypts New Administrative Capital next month. The move has been delayed by almost a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Late last week, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi directed the cabinet to start actual relocation to the Government District in the New Administrative Capital in December, beginning a six-month phase during which government buildings and electronic systems will be tested.

Located between the Cairo-Suez and Cairo-Ain Sokhna roads, the new capital will house 6.5 million people when completed. The new city, which Al-Sisi has said will embody the values of modern Egypt, was due to be inaugurated mid-2020 with the move of more than 50,000 employees.

The New Administrative Capitals 360 feddan Government District includes 10 complexes that will house 34 ministries, the headquarters of the cabinet, and the House of Representatives.

Khaled Al-Husseini, public relations manager for the New Administrative Capital Urban Development Company, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Decembers relocation will involve the opening of government offices but not housing projects for employees which are not yet complete.

The first phase of a housing development in Badr City for government workers moving to the New Administrative Capital includes 376 residential buildings, comprising 9,024 housing units, each between 115 to 120 square metres. The project costs LE3.2 billion.

Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli says state employees who have their workplace relocated to the New Administrative Capital can choose between receiving a transport or a housing allowance.

Employees can secure an apartment in Badr City with a LE110,000 down payment  25 per cent of the discounted propertys value  with the rest paid in instalments. According to official statements, the average cost of constructing each apartment was LE700,000.

Employees who are unable to move to the Badr housing units will receive a transport allowance, the amount depending on their position, but starting at LE2,000 per month.

The new capital will be connected to Greater Cairo by a transport network that includes Egypts first monorail train, scheduled to begin operations in late 2022.

State employees say they have been informed of the available bus routes to their new workplaces, which they will use until the monorail and Light Rail Transit (LRT) networks come online.

The 56.5km and 22 station Nasr City monorail, one of two planned monorails, will start from Nasr City. A second, 42km and 12 stations, monorail is planned to begin from 6 October city. They are being constructed at a cost of 2.695 billion euros, and with maintenance contracts worth 1.567 billion euros covering 30 years. When they are complete, a commuter from 6 October will be able to take the monorail to Mohandessin, a 42km ride, change to the third metro line and travel to Nasr Citys Cairo Stadium, and then take the second monorail east to the New Administrative Capital, a 56km ride.

The first phase of Nasr City monorail is planned to be operational in mid-2022. The LRTs first phase, due to open this year, will connect with the third line of the Cairo underground network at Adli Mansour metro station, linking Cairo, Obour, Shorouk, Mostaqbal, Badr, and 10 Ramadan with the New Administrative Capital. It will have 16 stations over its 90km length and is estimated to cost LE35 billion.

We have not yet been told the exact date for moving to our office in the new capital, a public employee due to be relocated told the Weekly. He added that only 30 per cent of employees who will eventually move to the New Administrative Capital are being included in the six-month pilot phase.

The new capital, which has been under construction since 2015, will eventually cover 170,000 feddans (714 sq km)  nearly two times the area of Cairo.

It is part of Egypt Vision 2030, which aims to improve the quality of life of citizens and expand urban areas to cater for Egypts rapid population growth.

The Egyptian Armed Forces Engineering Authority, which oversees hundreds of private companies working on the construction of the New Administrative Capital, has announced a public contest for all Egyptians to select a name, logo, and slogan for the new capital. Readers can submit their proposals at www.egbranding.eg/ by 18 November.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 11 November, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

Search Keywords:

Short link:


At COP26, Egypt called on the international community to increase the financial resources of the Adaptation Fund to build resilience against climate change.

There is a pressing need to finance climate adaptation schemes due to the fact that adaptation costs for developing countries have multiplied by five- to 10-fold, said Egypts Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad, citing the latest Adaptation Gap report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Fouad was speaking with shareholders in the Adaptation Fund at a seminar organised as part of the COP26 recently held in Glasgow. The seminar was attended by John Kerry, the US presidential envoy for climate, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the UK secretary of state for international trade and the British International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency, as well as environment ministers.

The Adaptation Fund plays a bigger role now more than ever, being a significant channel for delivering funds for countries to adapt to climate change, Fouad said. For more than a decade the fund has been supporting 119 countries to build multi-pronged long-term resilience to overcome climate change threats, health, environmental, and economic hazards, and the dangers associated with the coronavirus pandemic, she stated.

World countries have to continue to support the Adaptation Fund to be able to carry on its mission, Fouad continued, pointing out that the US has pumped $2.05 billion into the fund.

The Adaptation Fund supported two projects in Egypt with over $10 million The first is called Adaptation to Climate Changes in the North Coast and Nile Delta and focuses on efforts to prevent seawater from seeping into groundwater, to limit the latters salinity. The second is concerned with the protection of low-lying areas prone to sinking. This takes place through using earthern bridge systems with reed fencing on top of bridges to trap windborne sand. The sand collected on the reed walls forms a system of sand dunes above sea level to stop the expansion of the sea into the coastal zone during strong storms.

Fouad hailed the funds decision to increase the maximum financing to each country from $10 million to $20 million and the bodies to receive the funds from one to two in each state.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 11 November, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The Ministry of Agriculture has announced the roll-out of smartcards giving access to services for the countrys farmers.

The Ministry of Agriculture is preparing to roll out smartcards for farmers across the country after their partial introduction in several governorates in a move that is being hailed as transforming the traditional agricultural system in Egypt.

The smartcards are part of ministry plans to digitise the services it offers to farmers, among them help in selling crops and accessing fertilisers.

Registered farmers will be able to access fertiliser quotas for their land using the smartcards along with other materials including pesticides and seeds. The system will help those who need it, liberalise the fertiliser market, and prevent the development of a black market.

Hussein Abu Saddam, head of the Farmers Syndicate, praised the new system, saying that it would bring major benefits to Egypts farmers. The new plastic cards cannot be easily damaged, are easy to carry, and difficult to falsify, he told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Data related to land ownership including area and types of crops are loaded on the card by the Agriculture Ministry.

Amer Al-Shorbagi, a member of parliaments Agriculture Committee, said that the new cards would end corruption in the distribution of fertilisers. The old paper system focused on organising the distribution of fertilisers, whereas the new one also covers loans and all kinds of government aid to farmers. Data on pensions and insurance will soon be added to the cards as well, he told the Weekly.

The idea of a smartcard for farmers is an old one, but it has only recently been introduced, director of the project Mohamed Youssef told the Weekly. The project began in November 2016 through a contract signed between the ministries of agriculture and military production.

The project saw a two-year period of preliminary work before its first concrete results in 2019. More developments are still in progress, Youssef said.

To ensure the proper application of the system, the roll-out will be supervised by three main bodies, the Ministry of Agriculture, agricultural associations, and the Agricultural Bank of Egypt. Companies affiliated to the Ministry of Military Production are responsible for manufacturing and issuing the cards, Al-Shorbagi said.

So far, 3.5 million cards out of the planned five million have been made, and 1.8 million farmers have received their smartcards. Distributing all the cards is expected to be complete within two months, he added.

At the committees next meeting I will propose sending the remaining cards to farmers by delivery companies in order to speed up the process, he said.

Registering all of Egypts farmers on the new system is not the only challenge facing the project.

Some farmers are reluctant to use it as they do not understand its benefits, an obstacle the Ministry of Agriculture is working on by organising training campaigns for farmers in agricultural associations, Abu Saddam said.

Another challenge is that the new system is dependent on technology, and many employees lack experience in this, Youssef said.

We trained the employees working in the ministrys different departments and the agricultural associations before starting using the new system, he told the Weekly.

There are 5,701 agricultural associations in Egypt, and so far we have completed the training of 8,100 employees on the use of the new cards, he added.

Al-Shorbagi told the Weekly that complexity of land inheritance and dealing with tenants rather than landowners had slowed the introduction of the new system.

The heirs of a piece of land must choose one of them to get a new card. Otherwise, they will not be getting the cards benefits, he said.

The new system requires the owner to obtain the card and not the tenant. But in many cases the latter is the one who takes care of the land and not the owner, so I will suggest that partial possession cards be given to tenants so they can get fertilisers on time, he concluded.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 11 November, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Chair of parliaments Planning and Budget Committee Abdel-Moneim Imam explains to Al-Ahram Weekly why he is against the imposition of new taxes.

Chair of parliaments Planning and Budget Committee Abdel-Moneim Imam has long been against the imposition of new taxes along the lines the government has been promoting because of what he sees as the wider public interest.

I presented a motion in the House of Representatives [the lower house of Egypts parliament] against the governments decision to apply the law on the capital gains tax [CGT] in January next year, he said, stressing that he opposes the law.

The government has said that a CGT on Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) transactions will be applied as of 1 January 2022. The tax is meant to increase government revenues, but it has been repeatedly postponed on the back of fears of scaring off investors.

For Imam, it would be against the public interest to impose the tax. Egypt is an emerging economy that is just emerging from a critical period due to the coronavirus pandemic. The economic repercussions are still being felt the world over. EGX is surrounded by competing markets. Why would an investor be drawn to invest in it when they could invest in other stock exchanges in the region if additional taxes were levied, he asked.

The government would risk scaring off investors by imposing the tax, going against the public interest in seeing a strong and thriving stock exchange, he added. The decision to do so would be counter-productive, especially since the tax would bring in only some LE1.5 billion, according to the minister of finance and quoted by Imam.

The 10 per cent CGT is scheduled to be imposed on net portfolio earnings at the end of the tax year after deducting brokerage fees. Only domestic investors and resident foreigners will be obliged to pay the tax.

Imam said the EGX Index has already retreated by LE27 billion, and it remains seriously undercapitalised. There are more than 100,000 joint-stock companies operating in Egypt, but only 220 are listed on the EGX.

What is the governments target: attracting or deterring investors, Imam asked.

Many leading Arab companies have withdrawn their investments from Egypts financial markets, Imam said. He argued that the existing stamp duty on Stock Exchange transactions was easier to apply and clearer to investors than the proposed CGT.

In 2017, the government imposed a one per thousand stamp duty on EGX transactions. The rate has been 1.5 per thousand since 2019.

For Imam, the new CGT will significantly damage Egypts financial markets at a time when the state intends to resume its initial public offering (IPO) programme. Instead of introducing the CGT, the government should amend the income tax and increase stamp duties, he said, adding that this would benefit both the Ministry of Finance and the Stock Exchange.

Companies with stocks offered for sale under the IPO programme, such as the New Administrative Capital and the Ghazl Al-Mahalla Club, would see revenues ploughed back into investment, Imam said.

To end the public companies dependence on government support requires attracting investors to buy the shares on offer under the IPO programme, he said, which would also lead to better governance and transparency as well as the collection of more revenues.

Imam is the leader of the Egyptian Labour Party, and he said it was in this capacity that he was defending the interest of Egypts middle classes.

I want to see this economic group investing their money in the Stock Exchange as one of the investment tools available to individuals and companies, he stated.

There needed to be a clearer and more integrated outlook for Egypts securities market, with the focus not only directed to collecting taxes, he added. Improving the economic environment in tandem with the success of the governments financial reform programme would require a more comprehensive outlook.

Imam is against the imposition of further taxes, describing them as an immense burden on households. He said it was important to maximise the benefits of the current national projects as sources of income for the state. This would come about by encouraging investment and not by imposing more taxes, he said.

The Planning and Budget Committee has presented amendments to the value-added tax (VAT) law to parliament, and the bill is scheduled to be reviewed during this parliamentary session. There will also be discussion of amendments pertaining to taxes on e-commerce, Imam said.

The amendments to the VAT law include increasing taxes on pastries and other goods. I objected to this because it will negatively affect the middle classes. I am all for taxes that dont affect economic activities or harm the middle classes, Imam said.

The industrial sector needs support, and this means that there should be no further real-estate taxes.

The Ministry of Finance is seeking to fight tax evasion through better administrative practices, he said, adding that a major challenge was to make financial inclusion a success in order to encourage the informal sector to join the formal economy and thus to extend the tax base.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 11 November, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

Search Keywords:

Short link:


As preparations continue for the opening of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, Egypt should continue to press for the return of irreplaceable artefacts from museums abroad.

During visits to distinguished museums such as the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, my impression has always been one of pride that Egyptian treasures rank among the most prominent exhibits on show in these institutions.

However, it usually has not taken long for pride to be eclipsed by anger and dismay. How come Egyptian treasures are housed abroad in museums where visitors from all over the world come to view them in awe and admiration? How did these museums come by these treasures? Did Egyptian officials donate them to their new proprietors for in-kind efforts, or were they looted and then illegally smuggled out of Egypt? Will Egypt ever regain its treasures?

Museums, jam-packed with Egyptian artefacts, are not the only exhibitors of Egyptian monuments. Squares in cities worldwide, from Rome to London and from Paris to New York, are adorned by obelisks that stand tall to tell the world of a civilisation like no other. The obelisk in the Place de la Concorde in Paris was gifted to France in 1829, for example, and that in Central Park in New York, known as Cleopatras Needle, was gifted to the US by the Khedive Ismail in the 1880s. Rome has the most Egyptian obelisks in the world, more than the ones in Egypt by far, and these were smuggled out of Egypt during the Roman occupation of Egypt.

Lets return to what todays museums hold. According to the Cairo magazine Egypt Today, Egyptian artefacts can be found in over 39 museums across the world. The Dutch National Museum of Antiquities holds over 24,000 pieces, and Egyptian treasures are ranked as among its primary attractions. The Museo Egizio in Turin in Italy is devoted entirely to Egyptian artefacts. At the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, the Egyptian collection comprises approximately 25,000 artefacts, with close to 2,000 of these on display.

Then there are exceptional pieces at special museums. The Egyptian Museum in Berlin houses about 80,000 artefacts and is one of the worlds most important collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts, including the iconic bust of the ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti. The British Museum in London, which welcomes approximately six million visitors a year, proudly exhibits the Rosetta Stone. As the museum prepared to reopen its doors after the Covid-19 pandemic, it put together a list of 14 items not to miss, citing the Rosetta Stone as number one and classifying it as the most famous object on display and the key that unlocked ancient hieroglyphs.

The Louvre in Paris houses one of the worlds major collections of Egyptian artefacts, approximately 55,000 pieces, in particular the statues of the Seated Scribe and the Great Sphinx of Tanis and one of the best-preserved mummies in the world. Today, the iconic pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre pays tribute to the artefacts from Egyptian civilisation that are housed inside and that have become landmarks of the museum.

In all fairness, these treasures are well preserved, carefully maintained and exquisitely exhibited at renowned museums, where millions are able to see them. They allow visitors to understand the Egyptian culture and its significance. Many of the Egyptian artefacts displayed abroad were donated to their current proprietors, including the Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Egypt gifted this temple to the US in 1965 in recognition of the role it played in the campaign to move the Nubian Temples from the rising waters of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s.

Undeniably, the Temple of Dendur in its current home has the grandeur and honour it deserves. Visitors can view it from every angle and experience it to the fullest. It is an ambassador of Egypt and provides a glimpse of what visitors can expect to enjoy during a visit to Egypt.

But by the same token, many non-Egyptian excavators in the past assumed that they were entitled to the treasures they had excavated. These exceptional pieces, thousands of years old, were then smuggled out of Egypt and ended up in Berlin, London or Paris. It is unlikely that these museums will ever part with prized exhibits such as the Rosetta Stone and the Nefertiti bust. Whatever is repatriated to Egypt is unlikely to include such iconic pieces. But Egypt should continue to seek the repatriation of its irreplaceable artefacts.

When Egypt called on the Berlin Museum to return the Nefertiti bust, the response was that this should remain in Germany, most probably on the assumption that it is somehow better off there. One Internet site suggests that Egyptian museums, though many, are often smaller than others located in the UK, France, Germany, the US and Italy.

However, now that Egypt is completing the Grand Egypt Museum (GEM) on the Giza Plateau, the largest archaeological museum in the world, it is befitting that these iconic pieces should come back home. In April 2021, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC) in Fustat in Cairo also opened its doors to 22 royal mummies including those of Ramses II and queen Hatshepsut.

Both museums are more than worthy of housing rare and significant pieces currently exhibited elsewhere.

* The writer is the author of Cairo Rewind on the First Two Years of Egypts Revolution, 2011-2013.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 11 November, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

Search Keywords:

Short link:


During his speech at the United Nations Climate Change Summit President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said the urgency and universality of the issue prompted Egypt to implement a sustainable development model centred on increasing green projects to 50 per cent by 2025 and 100 per cent by 2030.

For example, renewable energy sources currently represent 20 per cent of the Egyptian energy mix, and we are working to increase it to 42 per cent by 2030, he said.

He also noted that the Egyptian state has recently issued the first offering of green bonds with a value of $750 million, adding that Egypt has completed preparing the National Strategy for Climate Change 2050 in order to institutionalise efforts to confront the issue.

Earlier this week, the city of Glasgow in the United Kingdom hosted the participants in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in a global atmosphere fraught with concern over the dangers of climate change, which reinforces the importance of the 26th round of the conference coming out with decisive results.

The climate change summit is known by the acronym COP26, which stands for The 26th Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The summit brought together 197 countries, with the aim of discussing the issue of climate change and finding solutions to thorny problems.

One of the most important challenges in this context is limiting the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the President of the United Nations Climate Change Conference Alok Sharma, who stressed the need to reduce emissions by 45 per cent by 2030.

Sharma believes that the $100 billion that industrialised countries have pledged to contribute to achieve this goal is no longer enough because the world needs trillions annually.

In any case, major countries only fulfilled the amount of $79 billion out of the $100 billion pledged. Moreover, in 2018, three-quarters of those pledges were disbursed in the form of loans that need to be repaid, which will put a strain on poor countries.

Since President Al-Sisi launched the initiative to link the three conventions (climate change, biological diversity and desertification) at the opening of the Egyptian Presidency of the Biodiversity Conference in 2018 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt has been seeking continuous cooperation with the United Kingdom, supporting efforts to adapt to the effects of climate change through the Egyptian-British coalition.

Egypt partnered with the United Kingdom to take the lead on the issue of sources of adaptation and resilience at the climate summit held in New York in 2019, on the understanding that the axis of resilience and adaptation is the most important priority axis for developing countries which are the most affected.

A total of seven initiatives have been put together as part of the flexibility and adaptation plan, ready to be implemented once funding becomes available, with the African energy initiative announced by the Egyptian president being the most important.

During afringe event organised at COP26, Egypt will present its success story in expanding renewable energy and green transformation; its work on the African adaptation initiative, which aims to enable African countries to access the funds necessary to implement adaptation measures; as well as its work to achieve equal proportions in financing adaptation and mitigation alike - among the issues to be highlighted by Egypt during the climate conference.

Egypt aspires to host COP27 as a representative of the African continent in order to provide a platform for new and ambitious commitments that develop innovative solutions to achieve progress in the face of climate change.

It also aims to host next years conference to build on the previous session of the climate change conference in Africa, which was held in Morocco in 2016.

The Morocco conference marked the starting point of a roadmap for action that Africa can take to overcome the negative effects of climate change on the continent despite the fact that Africa contributes the lowest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions.

Egypt also aims to host COP27 to affirm its commitment to work with all countries to consolidate efforts with all parties and stakeholders to confront climate change and strengthen climate action.

The world attaches great hopes to COP26, especially in the light of the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, and the demands of countries to raise ambition, update climate indicators and develop work on zero-emission measures.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 4 November, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The defense rested its case Thursday at the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, setting the stage for closing arguments Monday in the shootings that left Americans divided over whether he was a patriot taking a stand against lawlessness or a vigilante.

Kyle Rittenhouse carries a weapon as he walks along Sheridan Road in Kenosha, Wis., during a night of unrest following the weekend police shooting of Jacob Blake, Aug. 25, 2020. [File Photo: The Journal Times via AP]

Rittenhouse's lawyers put on about 2 1/2 days of testimony to the prosecution's five, with the most riveting moment coming when the 18-year-old told the jury that he was defending himself from attack when he used his rifle to kill two men and wound a third on the streets of Kenosha in the summer of 2020.

Prosecutors have sought to portray Rittenhouse as the instigator of the bloodshed, which took place during a tumultuous night of protests against racial injustice.

He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him.

After closing arguments, names will be drawn from an old, brown lottery tumbler to decide which 12 jurors will deliberate and which ones will be dismissed as alternates. Eighteen people have been hearing the case. The panel appeared overwhelmingly white.

The protests in Kenosha were set off by the wounding of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer. Rittenhouse, then 17, went to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois, with a rifle and a medical kit in what the former police and fire youth cadet said was an effort to protect property after rioters set fires and ransacked businesses on previous nights.

Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, in an initial confrontation and just moments later shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27. Rittenhouse is white, as were those he shot.

The case has stirred fierce debate over vigilantism, self-defense, the Second Amendment right to bear arms, and the unrest that erupted around the U.S. over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other police violence against Black people.

Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, which is Wisconsin's murder count; attempted first-degree intentional homicide; first-degree reckless homicide; reckless endangering; and illegal possession of a weapon by a person under 18.

Prosecutors said they will ask Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder to allow the jury to consider possible lesser charges on some of the counts.

One of the final witnesses for the defense was a use-of-force expert, John Black, who testified that less than three seconds elapsed between the time somebody fired a bullet in the air and Rittenhouse opened fire on the first man he shot, Joseph Rosenbaum.

Black took the stand as part of an effort by Rittenhouse's lawyers to show that he had reason to fear for his life and acted in self-defense.

Rittenhouse, in his own turn on the stand Wednesday, testified that he heard a gunshot directly behind him as he was being chased by Rosenbaum. Authorities said the shot was fired by someone else in the crowd.

The account Rittenhouse gave has largely been corroborated by a wealth of video and the prosecutions own witnesses: Rittenhouse said that Rosenbaum cornered him and put his hand on the barrel of his rifle, the second man hit him with a skateboard, and the third man came at him with a gun of his own.

At one point Wednesday, his lawyers angrily demanded the judge declare mistrial and bar Rittenhouse from being retried  essentially asking that the whole case be thrown out. They accused the chief prosecutor of asking Rittenhouse out-of-bounds questions.

The judge lambasted the prosecutor but pressed on with the case.
A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily blocked the release of White House records sought by a U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, granting  for now  a request from former President Donald Trump.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to the border wall near Pharr, Texas June 30, 2021. [Photo: AFP]

The administrative injunction issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit effectively bars until the end of this month the release of records that were to be turned over Friday. The appeals court set oral arguments in the case for Nov. 30.

The stay gives the court time to consider arguments in a momentous clash between the former president, whose supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and President Joe Biden and Congress, who have pushed for a thorough investigation of the riot. It delays the House committee from reviewing records that lawmakers say could shed light on the events leading up to the insurrection and Trump's efforts to delegitimize an election he lost.

The National Archives, which holds the documents, says they include call logs, handwritten notes and a draft executive order on election integrity.

Biden waived executive privilege on the documents. Trump then went to court arguing that as a former president, he still had the right to exert privilege over the records and releasing them would damage the presidency in the future.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday rejected those arguments, noting in part, Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President. She again denied an emergency motion by Trump on Wednesday.

In their emergency filing to the appeals court, Trumps lawyers wrote that without a stay, Trump would suffer irreparable harm through the effective denial of a constitutional and statutory right to be fully heard on a serious disagreement between the former and incumbent President.

The Nov. 30 arguments will take place before three judges nominated by Democratic presidents: Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, nominated by former President Barack Obama, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, an appointee of Biden.

Given the case's magnitude, whichever side loses before the circuit court is likely to eventually appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The White House on Thursday also notified a lawyer for Mark Meadows, Trumps former chief of staff, that Biden would waive any executive privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press. The committee has subpoenaed Meadows and more than two dozen other people as part of its investigation.

His lawyer, George Terwilliger, issued a statement in response saying Meadows "remains under the instructions of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege.

It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict, Terwilliger said.

The committee late Thursday threatened to begin contempt proceedings against Meadows if he doesn't change course and comply.

Simply put, there is no valid legal basis for Mr. Meadowss continued resistance to the Select Committees subpoena, the committee wrote to Terwilliger, saying it would view Meadows' failure to turn over documents or appear at a scheduled deposition on Friday as willful non-compliance.

The House has already referred former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to the Justice Department for potential criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress.
KYODO NEWS - Nov 12, 2021 - 17:22 | All, Japan

Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday all 28 production lines at its 14 plants in Japan will return to normal for the first time in seven months as a supply crunch eases, with its global output in December expected to reach 800,000 vehicles, a record high for the month.

The output forecast of about 300,000 units in Japan and 500,000 units overseas compares with about 760,000 in December last year.

Production has been able to return to normal as a parts shortage in Southeast Asia brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has been improving. But Toyota kept its plan of producing 9 million vehicles globally in the business year through March.

"We will continue our efforts to strengthen our supply chain with our suppliers and will do everything we can to ensure we deliver as many cars to our customers as quickly as possible," the world's top-selling automaker said in a press release.

It also expects a record output of 850,000 to 900,000 units in November. For this month, Toyota had said its global output would fall by up to 150,000 units, from its initial plan of around 1 million.

But until now the number of vehicles likely to be produced in December was unavailable.

Many automakers have been hit hard by the global semiconductor supply crunch and other parts shortages caused by the pandemic.

The Japanese automaker was forced to drastically cut production, especially in September, when its worldwide output fell 39 percent from a year earlier, while that in Japan plunged 55 percent.

Its global production for October is also expected to be about 30 percent lower than the previous year.

Related coverage:

Toyota cuts Nov. global output plan around 15% amid parts shortages

Toyota car sales plunge in China in Sept. on semiconductor shortages
KYODO NEWS - Nov 13, 2021 - 01:31 | All, World, Coronavirus

Leaders of 21 Pacific Rim economies including Japan, the United States and China agreed Friday to advance integration through free trade agreements as they seek to drive the post-coronavirus global recovery.

In a joint statement following a virtual summit, the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum also vowed to work together to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and promote clean energy in order to achieve sustainable growth.

"We have demonstrated that trade and investment is a critical enabler for addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring our economies recover stronger," they said.

APEC members will "advance economic integration in a manner that is market-driven," they added, voicing support for "ongoing efforts to conclude, ratify, implement and upgrade trade agreements in the region that benefit our people and our businesses."

The meeting was held amid heightened tensions between China and Taiwan after both applied in September to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership. China opposes Taiwan's application as it views the democratically self-governed island as a rogue province.

In an apparent dig at China, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the 11-member pact is "incompatible with unfair trade practices or economic coercion" and that Tokyo will cooperate with other members to uphold its "high standards of market access and rules," according to the Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who hosted the APEC summit, told a press conference any country that meets the TPP's high standards is welcome.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping were among the other participants in the meeting, which followed an informal APEC summit in July, also held virtually.

Expressing China's eagerness to join the TPP, Xi said, "We need to practice true multilateralism, stick to dialogue rather than confrontation, inclusiveness rather than exclusion, and integration rather than decoupling," according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Biden said the United States wants to serve as a "strong, reliable partner" for other APEC members, while discussing ways "to unleash the economic power of the region and to deepen U.S. economic engagement throughout the Indo-Pacific," according to the White House.

In the joint statement, the leaders said they "support global efforts to share vaccines equitably and expand vaccine manufacture and supply," including through the voluntary transfer of production technologies.

They also acknowledged the need for "urgent and concrete action" to address climate change and voiced appreciation for net zero or carbon neutrality commitments.

Biden said the climate crisis also presents an "enormous opportunity to create good jobs and that we must work together to move towards a sustainable future," according to the White House.

Underscoring divisions within the forum, however, the leaders failed to agree on Washington's bid to host APEC in 2023.

The joint statement also highlighted the importance of stable energy markets, with Kishida expressing concern about the global impact of surging crude oil prices, calling on producers to boost output, according to the Japanese ministry.

APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
KYODO NEWS - Nov 12, 2021 - 08:04 | All, Japan

Two South Koreans arrested in Japan last fall on suspicion of violating the country's immigration law had been involved in an operation to obtain foreign currency under the direction of a man believed to be a North Korean agent, investigative sources said Thursday.

Japanese police have classified their cooperation as a spy case involving North Korea and believe it is just one part of a foreign currency acquisition network put in place by Pyongyang to circumvent economic sanctions.

According to the sources, the man who gave the orders to the South Korean pair via several other individuals mainly operated from China, using a fictitious name such as Ri Ho Nam.

He is reported to have belonged to North Korea's primary intelligence agency called the Reconnaissance General Bureau and is believed to still be a central figure in the foreign currency acquisition network.

The man is also said to be the model for a high-ranking North Korean official who appears in "The Spy Gone North," a film loosely based on the memoirs of a former South Korean agent.

The two South Koreans -- a man in his 60s and a woman in her 70s -- established a trading company at the end of 2016 in a condominium in Tokyo to import and sell nutritional drinks from their home country.

They were arrested in October and November last year by Tokyo police for allegedly conducting activities outside of their status of residence and entering Japan on fraudulently obtained documents.

An analysis of seized materials revealed that the pair used their company to trade marine products with North Korea and were involved in a plan to build a liquefied petroleum gas terminal near the North Korean border in Russia's Far East.

In what has been deemed as an operation led by North Korea's spy agency to acquire foreign currency, the police believe some of the funds obtained by the man and the woman through their business and other means were routed to the man who had instructed them.

The South Korean man, who had been living in Japan for a long time, and the woman, who had repeatedly entered the country on short-stay visas since around November 2017, were collaborators in the operation, according to the sources. But Japanese prosecutors have decided not to indict them and the pair are no longer in custody.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported in February that the man who had directed the pair met with an official of Korea Gas Corp. at a hotel in Vladivostok in Russia's Far East in late 2019. At that time, he asked if the South Korean gas company would buy Russian-produced gas purchased by North Korea, but the firm had declined.
KYODO NEWS - Nov 12, 2021 - 20:04 | All, World, Japan

Japan has accepted five diplomats appointed by Myanmar's military-controlled government, Japanese government sources said Friday, a move that could be viewed as endorsing the junta's rule.

The Japanese government deemed it was unable to refuse their appointments for fear that doing so would adversely affect its ability to protect Japanese nationals in the country amid political turmoil in the wake of the military's February coup that ousted the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Foreign Ministry source said.

The government also contends there must be some practical connections with the military government, the source said.

In March, the junta dismissed two diplomats at its embassy in Tokyo after they boycotted their duties in protest of the coup and the ensuing violent military crackdown on demonstrators.

While the junta had applied for diplomatic visas for military-appointed replacements for Aung Soe Moe, and the other diplomat, who wishes to remain anonymous, Japan said it had not processed them.

Since May, the five junta-appointed diplomats have been acknowledged by Japan as representatives of Myanmar on several occasions. However, they are not replacements for the two dismissed diplomats, according to multiple sources.

The Japanese government has honored requests by the two fired diplomats to remain in the country, with the source saying the government will not withdraw their visas.

Japan has condemned the military's violent crackdowns on peaceful protesters and called for a halt to the violence, the release of Suu Kyi and other detainees and a return to the democratic process. But it has not joined the United States and other democracies in imposing sanctions on the individuals and groups involved.
KYODO NEWS - Nov 12, 2021 - 16:47 | All, World, Japan

The leaders of Japan, the United States, Australia and India may hold their second in-person summit in Japan next spring, according to sources familiar with the matter, in a show of strengthening ties among the "Quad" members amid China's growing assertiveness.

The Japanese government has sounded out the idea of hosting the talks, the sources said. If realized, it will be the first time for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who took office in October, to attend such a gathering.

During their first in-person meeting in September in Washington, the leaders of the four countries committed to a "free and open Indo-Pacific" and agreed to hold a Quad summit annually.

Kishida has been calling for strengthening economic security by building resilient supply chains of critical technologies, among other measures. Beefing up cooperation among the Quad members in the area is likely to be a key focus when the summit takes place.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has elevated the engagement of the four major Indo-Pacific democracies to the leaders' level as it seeks to rally U.S. allies and like-minded countries to counter China's rise.

In March, they held their first summit in virtual format amid the coronavirus pandemic and gathered in person in September.

Both meetings were attended by Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

The areas they have agreed to cooperate on have expanded, ranging from COVID-19 vaccine production and infrastructure development in the region to supply-chain security for semiconductors.
KYODO NEWS - Nov 12, 2021 - 23:11 | All, Japan

Former princess Mako Komuro and her husband are planning to leave Japan for New York on Sunday, a source familiar with the matter said Friday.

The newlywed couple, both 30, are scheduled to depart from Haneda airport in Tokyo to start their new life in New York, where Kei Komuro works as a law clerk at a legal firm after graduating from Fordham University's law school with a Juris Doctor degree in May.

The Komuros have already secured a place to live in the U.S. city, according to the source.

It was originally planned that Komuro would travel to the United States first due to work commitments and the former princess, who left the imperial family upon marrying a commoner, would join him later after obtaining a passport.

But the husband's stay in Japan was prolonged after former princess Mako's grandfather and Crown Princess Kiko's father, Tatsuhiko Kawashima, a professor emeritus at Gakushuin University, died last week and the couple attended his family funeral Saturday.

The eldest daughter of Crown Prince Fumihito married her boyfriend on Oct. 26 after years of controversy over a financial dispute involving his mother and her former fiance that led the couple to forgo traditional ceremonies associated with a royal marriage.

A lawyer representing Komuro told reporters Friday night that the former fiance of Komuro's mother had agreed to receive settlement money in a meeting with Komuro the same day.

Komuro had proposed making a settlement payment, but the man had asked to meet with his mother, a request she refused citing her mental health condition.

"We have reached a conclusion that (the former fiance) will accept the settlement money," the lawyer said, but quoted the man as saying he cannot yet say if the dispute is settled.

The couple appeared together in front of the press on the day they got married for the first time in about four years, with the bride saying she wants to lead a "peaceful life" in a new environment.

With the niece of Emperor Naruhito having been diagnosed with a complex post-traumatic stress disorder following a media frenzy over the couple and the financial dispute, the two only gave opening remarks and distributed written answers to questions earlier submitted by the media at the press event.

The 1947 Imperial House Law, which limits heirs to a male who has an emperor on his father's side, requires female royals to give up their imperial status when they marry commoners.

Komuro returned to Japan from the United States in late September for the first time in about three years. Following the marriage, the couple have been living in a Tokyo condominium.

The husband took the New York state bar examination in July but failed. He is expected to retake the exam, possibly in February.

Related coverage:

Husband of Japanese former princess fails N.Y. bar exam: source

FOCUS: Princess Mako's marriage "warning sign" for Japan's imperial system

Princess Mako marries commoner boyfriend after years of controversy
KYODO NEWS - Nov 12, 2021 - 21:37 | Sports, All

Japanese defending champion Kaori Sakamoto topped the women's short skate at the NHK Trophy on Friday, with Shoma Uno taking the lead in the men's competition at the fourth event of this season's ISU Grand Prix circuit.

Sakamoto scored 76.56 points with a nearly flawless performance at Yoyogi National Gymnasium. She is seeking a spot in February's Beijing Olympics, where she might better her sixth-place finish from her 2018 Olympic debut.

The 21-year-old did not make the mistake that led her to finish fourth overall at Skate America, when her triple flip-triple toeloop combination turned into a double-triple combination.

"I went into it trying to give all I have. I had been performing without mistakes from practice, more or less, and that allowed me to stay calm from start to finish," she said. "I feel things are coming along nicely."

Sakamoto won the event last year when only one overseas competitor, South Korea's You Young, took part due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

Mana Kawabe came second after landing an opening triple axel en route to a 73.88, surpassing her previous best by more than eight points. You, seventh overall last year, scored 68.08 to sit third. Japan's Rino Matsuike was seventh with 63.34 among nine skaters taking part.

"My aim was to land all my jumps so I'm relieved to have achieved that," Kawabe said. "I wasn't expecting to come second so I'm really surprised. My expression needs works."

Uno nailed two quad jumps to score 102.58 and win the men's short skate, followed by Vincent Zhou of the United States in second and Cha Jun Hwan of South Korea in third.

Uno the 2018 Olympic silver medalist was not happy about under-rotating his jumps.

"It's not about my (overall) performance being good or bad. I don't like the fact a triple turned into a double," he said of the mistake during a quad toe-loop triple toe-loop combination. "I lacked that bit of will power."

Japan's Kao Miura came eighth on 76.62 in an 11-man field.

Riku Miura and her partner Ryuichi Kihara, the first Japanese to reach a Grand Prix podium in pairs when they were runners-up at Skate America on Oct. 23, scored 73.98, their short-program personal best to sit third.

"We're getting to where we perform well constantly in each tournament. I wasn't thinking we'd get a personal best so that was great," said Kihara.

In ice dance, Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi scored 70.74 in the opening rhythm dance, to sit sixth, a place above rival Japanese couple Misato and Takeru Komatsubara, who scored 68.13.

"The pressure was big but we got to skate first and it was great to have given our all," said Takahashi, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics men's silver medalist, who is now vying for Japan's sole ice dance spot in Beijing.

"I was calm and managed to keep good distance (with Muramoto). It was a rhythm dance that boosted my confidence."
By Noriyuki Suzuki, KYODO NEWS - Nov 12, 2021 - 20:38 | All, Japan

Toshiba Corp. said Friday it will split into three listed firms by the end of fiscal 2023, in a major overhaul of the embattled Japanese conglomerate facing intense pressure from foreign activist shareholders.

The rare reorganization of the behemoth, with a history spanning over a century, would result in two spinoff firms focusing on infrastructure and devices, and the remaining company holding stakes in chipmaker Kioxia Holdings Corp. and Toshiba Tec Corp.

The split-up marks the end of a chapter for household name Toshiba, once known for its consumer electronics. It is seen as an attempt to appease shareholders disgruntled by lackluster efforts to boost growth and corporate value.

"It's an extremely big change for us," Toshiba CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa said at a press briefing. "We seriously examined all possible options to maximize our shareholder value."

The names of the new companies will be announced later and Toshiba, listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, plans to hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting in the January to March period to explain the decision.

Existing Toshiba shareholders will be allocated shares in the three entities.

Related coverage:

Toshiba mulls splitting into 3 listed firms amid overhaul

Toshiba CEO wants new board chair approved by year-end after ouster

FOCUS: Toshiba management woes seen deepening after strong shareholder rebuke

Toshiba has a variety of businesses, from nuclear power and elevators to hard disk drives and semiconductors. In fiscal 2020 ended in March, it had over 3 trillion yen ($26 billion) in sales.

Foreign shareholders hold the bulk of Toshiba, seen as a company critical to national security. Activist shareholders gained influence after investing in Toshiba, which floundered following the 2017 bankruptcy of its U.S. nuclear plant subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Co.

While keeping diverse businesses under a company has benefits, financial markets tend to value a conglomerate at less than the sum of its combined businesses, markets analysts said. Earlier this week, U.S. industrial conglomerate General Electric Co. said it would split into three public companies focusing on aviation, health care and energy.

The rationale behind what Tsunakawa described as "not a breakup but an evolution," is that each company with specialty areas can make decisions and operate with agility.

Under its medium-term business strategy, released Friday, Toshiba's nuclear power, thermal power and renewable energy will go into the infrastructure unit with projected sales of over 2 trillion yen in fiscal 2023.

The device unit will deal with hard disk drives, semiconductors for power devices among other products and aim to achieve 880 billion yen in sales.

Toshiba stuck to its plan to sell part of the stake in Kioxia and give the proceeds to its shareholders.

"We have transformed our shape and developed with the changes of the times in our history of over 140 years. The infrastructure and device companies will aim to become leading firms in respective areas through the strategic realignment," Tsunakawa said.

The release of the new business strategy follows a whirlwind of events that have tarnished the image of Toshiba, already damaged by an accounting scandal in 2015.

In June, an independent investigation panel found that Toshiba executives had colluded with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to prevent foreign activist shareholders from influencing the board by sending in directors, a revelation that forced its board chairman and another director to be voted out in a general shareholders' meeting.

The CEO had defended Toshiba's relationship with the government due to the nature of its businesses linked to national security and social infrastructure. But he acknowledged that Toshiba went "too far."

In a report released Friday, Toshiba's governance panel looking into the case separately from the earlier probe said executive officers, including former CEO Nobuaki Kurumatani, had violated the corporate ethics that are expected by financial markets, but they did not break the law.

The panel, consisting of lawyers, acknowledged that Toshiba executives, with the "active involvement" of Kurumatani, had expected the powerful industry ministry to make an administrative move from the viewpoint of economic security. But the ministry's approach to foreign activist shareholders was not illegal, it said.

The problem resulted from Toshiba's corporate culture that was "overly dependent" on the industry ministry and "excessive cautiousness" about foreign investment funds.

During the press conference, Tsunakawa acknowledged the importance of enhancing Toshiba's corporate governance. "The spin-off plan will not be possible without rebuilding the governance structure," he said.

His predecessor Kurumatani abruptly resigned in April amid management friction over a buyout proposal by British private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.

Kurumatani was head of CVC's Japanese unit before joining Toshiba, raising speculation he was seeking to turn Toshiba into a private company and protect it and him from mounting pressure from foreign activist shareholders.

Prompted by the accounting scandal and financial hardships, Toshiba has undergone sweeping restructuring in recent years. It sold its TV business to China's Hisense Group and its white goods segment to China's Midea Group Co. The PC unit, known for Dynabook laptops, was sold to Sharp Corp. under Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.
KYODO NEWS - Nov 12, 2021 - 12:02 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

The Japanese government decided Friday to secure COVID-19 oral medication for 1.6 million people in preparation for a potential sixth wave of novel coronavirus infections in Japan.

The coronavirus response package, which was decided at a special task force meeting Friday morning, also includes a plan to increase the country's hospitalization capacity for COVID-19 patients by 30 percent compared to the peak level during the fifth wave of infections this summer.

"By securing a medical system based on the worst-case scenario and enhancing early treatment, we will be able to continue our economic and social activities even if infections spread," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at the meeting.

The government has already agreed with U.S. pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. on the procurement of 1.6 million doses of molnupiravir, an orally administered drug that prevents the virus from entering or multiplying in the body. Japan sees the medicine as a key to stemming the pandemic.

The government plans to enable the drug to be delivered to patients' home as well as provide up to 2 billion yen ($17.5 million) for the development of oral medicines in Japan.

During the peak of the nation's fifth wave of infections this summer, around 28,000 people needed to be hospitalized. Japan now plans to increase the capacity by the end of November to be able to accommodate about 37,000 people.

The government originally planned to boost the capacity by 20 percent when it presented the outline of its policies in October, but it revised the target upward after reviewing prefectural data.

In the event a coronavirus variant three times more contagious than an existing strain spreads in Japan, the central government will urge areas not severely affected to dispatch medical personnel to support areas where infections surge.
New Delhi:

The National Capital voted in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on May 12. 56.11% turnout was recorded in till 5 pm compared to the final turnout of 65.1% in 2014 in the National Capital. The New Delhi constituency, which has many VVIP voters, recorded the lowest voter turnout among all seven constituencies in Delhi at 56.86 per cent, but saw a better turnout of women than men. According to the data, 57.21 per cent of women voters cast their votes while 56.58 per cent men exercised their franchise in the seat.

After the results came in, the BJP saw a massive surge of 10 per cent in its vote share in this general election when compared to 2014 polls. The party's vote share so far is at 56.6 per cent as it continued to dominate the trends on all seats. It had a vote share of 46.40 per cent in 2014, when the party had won all seven seats in the national capital. BJP had recorded a vote share of 32.3 per cent in 2015 assembly elections. AAP's vote share of 32.90 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha polls has been reduced to 18.1 per cent this time. In his maiden political match, Gambhir made a smashing start with 55.3% of the votes for BJP in East Delhi Lok Sabha Constituency, well ahead of Congress Arvinder Singh Lovely (24.2%) and AAPs Atishi (17.46%). Gambhirs vote count read 6,96,156.
New Delhi:

Kerala Board Class 10 re-evaluation result was declared on 23rd May, 2019. The re-evaluation result of Kerala SSLC exams was released by Kerala Pareeksha Bhawan. The candidates who have appeared for the examination are asked can check the results on the official website of the board i.e.A keralapareekshabhavan.in. The Board, earlier, announced the Kerala SSLC Result 2019 on 6th May, 2019. The declaration of the results have sealed the fate of thousands of students who have appeared for the examination. Students were required to provide their registration number and date of birth in order to down the revaluation results.

Click here to check Kerala SSC Revaluation Result 2019

More than 4 lakh students had appeared for the Kerala SSLC exams and the overall pass percentage recorded this year was 98.11%. As many as 37,344 students got A plus division. Apart from the official website, students can also check their Kerala SSLC Revaluation Result 2019 through the direct link given below;

Kerala 12th Result 2019 was declared on May 12, 2019, for over 3.11 lakh students. The overall pass percentage recorded this year was 84.33%. As many as 14,244 students secured A plus grade, of which 183 students secured 100 % marks.

For the convenience of the students, we have mentioned the steps through which the candidates can check the results:A

Visit the official website keralapareekshabhavan.in

Click on the SSLC Revaluation Result 2019 link

Enter Register number and Date of Birth

Click aView Resulta

Check and download the result

About Kerala BoardA

The Directorate of Higher Education, Kerala was established in the year 1990 in accordance with the National Education Policy. The Higher Secondary, Secondary and Vocational Higher Education in the state of Kerala are monitored by the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE). The DHSE conducts the SSLC examination at the Secondary (Class 10) level and the HSC examination (CLASS 11 and 12) at the Higher Secondary level.

The main goal of the DHSE was to segregate the pre-degree courses from the university education and integrate them under the one single authority. The Vocational Higher Secondary Education scheme was started in 1983-84 with a limited number of courses in 19 selected schools. The number of associated schools has now grown to 389 over a period of three decades and more than 45 modernised courses are on offer now.
London:

In another setback to Vijay Mallya, the UK High Court on Friday directed the embattled liquor tycoon to pay British beverage giant Diageo over USD 135 million in relation to a collateral arrangement.

Diageo is seeking a total of USD 175 million from the 63-year-old businessman and was successful in one aspect of that claim as it was awarded a summary judgment by Justice Robin Knowles, who dismissed Mallyas reliance on an alleged oral promise from Diageo dating back to February 2016.

Over and above the USD 135 million, Mallya is liable to pay interest incurred at a commercial rate as well as 200,000 pounds towards legal costs.

I have reached the conclusion that at this stage, it is clear the second claimant (Diageo Holdings Netherlands) is entitled to succeed, Justice Knowles said, dismissing Mallyas defence that an oral promise over-rides any claim of such a payment.

We are pleased to have won in a clear vindication of our position, said Dominic Redfearn, spokesperson for Diageo.

The court was clear in rejecting Dr Mallyas claim that there was a deal other than the one we signed. Diageo has consistently rejected those assertions. At all times through the protracted acquisition of the United Spirits Limited (USL), Diageo acted appropriately and in accordance with all legal obligations. All arrangements with Dr Mallya have been fully disclosed and accounted for, he said.

The remainder of the USD 175 million, including USD 40 million paid directly to Mallya, sought by Diageo will proceed to trial expected at a much later date.

Earlier on Friday, the court heard Diageos claim that Mallya, his son Sidhartha and two companies associated with the family are liable for repayment of the funds dating back to the companys acquisition of a controlling stake in Mallyas USL around three years ago.

Of the total amount claimed by the London-headquartered firm, USD 40 million is claimed directly from Mallya as the amount paid to him as part of a disengagement agreement and the remaining amount from Sidhartha Mallya and Watson Limited, a company held in a Mallya family trust called Continental Administration Services Limited (CASL).

We are suing Dr Mallya for repayment and damages amounting to approximately USD 175 million. This is money Dr Mallya and some of his affiliate companies owe Diageo. We have always been clear that we are entitled to exercise our right to recover the sum in full, explained Redfearn, in reference to the wider case being brought by Diageo, one of the worlds largest distillers behind brands like Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff.

The three claimants in the case, Diageo Plc, Diageo Holdings Netherlands BV (DHN) and Diageo Finance Plc, are pursuing Mallya over an agreement struck in February 2016, under which he would step down as chair of United Spirits in exchange for a financial agreement.

At the heart of Fridays case lay an ICICI Bank loan owed by Mallyas Watson and CASL, for which Diageo stepped in as a backstop so that it could be refinanced by Standard Chartered Bank. With some USL shares caught up in Indias Debt Recovery Tribunal action at the time, it was expected that the collateral associated with the loan could be pursued at a later stage.

Watson and CASLs only defence is that, prior to entering into the Deed of Disengagement, DHN promised that it would not enforce its claims until certain orders granted in India are lifted. Watson and CASL relied on an oral promise, Daniel Toledano, the barrister for Diageo, told Judge Knowles.

That defence is bound to fail. There are transcripts of the discussions at which the oral promise was alleged to have been made and it is clear from those transcripts that no such oral promise was made, he said.

Many of the transcripts were also read out in court, including one in which Mallya repeatedly urges Diageo to not screw him further down the line of their negotiations over the sale of the USL.

The judge in the end agreed with Toledanos arguments, saying that transcripts when properly and closely understood are clear that Diageo had made no oral promise to not pursue the funds.

Diageos counsel went on to argue the commercial rationale behind Mallya having entered into the agreement with the beverage major, because he stood to gain a lot financially from the deal, which is why he entered into it.

He stressed that given the transcripts of a series of conversations presented before the court, there was no need for the case to go to a full trial and that a summary judgment by the judge would help save cost and delay.

Mallyas lawyer Daniel Margolin challenged Diageos case by arguing that an oral promise had in fact been agreed between Mallya and Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes and other executives linked with the drinks major.

He claimed at least two conversations that took place between Mallya and the Diageo chairman at the time and another one between Indian businessman Sunil Mittal and Menezes, for which no transcripts are available, are of high relevance to the case.

It is not appropriate to simply dismiss those conversations, Margolin said, challenging Diageos attempt at seeking a summary judgment.

Meanwhile Mallya, who was not present in court and is separately wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to about Rs 9,000 crore, remains on bail. He awaits his July 2 oral hearing before another UK High Court judge for his appeal against his extradition ordered by UK home secretary Sajid Javid in February.

For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Smriti Irani, BJP MP from Amethi, on Sunday lend a shoulder to the mortal remains of Surendra Singh, ex-village head of Barauli, Amethi, who was shot dead on Saturday night. Speaking at the funeral, Irani said: I have taken an oath before Surendra Singh ji's family, the one who fired and the one who ordered it, even if I have to go the Supreme Court to get the culprits a death sentence, we will knock the doors of the court."A A A

Smriti Irani, BJP MP from Amethi: I've taken an oath before Surendra Singh ji's (ex-village head Barauli who was shot dead y'day) family, the one who fired & the one who ordered it, even if I have to go SC to get the culprits a death sentence, we will knock the doors of the court pic.twitter.com/eyvEi4mmeU a ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 26, 2019

In the first incident of post-poll violence in Uttar Pradesh, Singh, a close aide of Irani, the newly elected MP from Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, was shot dead by two men, with the police not ruling out the possibility of it being a "political murder". Singh (50), a former head of Baraulia village, was shot at around 11.30pm on Saturday, said Additional Superintendent of Police Daya Ram.

Singh was referred to a Lucknow hospital but he succumbed during treatment, Ram said. Speaking to reporters in Lucknow, UP DGP Om Prakash Singh said, "We have come to know about old enmity. We are also finding out if there was any political enmity. In initial investigation, we have got some vital clues."

#VIDEO | BJP MP from Amethi, Smriti Irani, lends a shoulder to mortal remains of Surendra Singh, ex-village head of Barauli, who was shot dead by unknown assailants yesterday. @smritiirani



READ MORE: https://t.co/rpAofnToQC pic.twitter.com/lYvbSI4lxP a News Nation (@NewsNationTV) May 26, 2019

"UP police teams are conducting a very intensive investigation. We have taken seven persons in custody, and they are being intensely interrogated. We have also got important evidence through electronic surveillance. I am hopeful that in the next 12 hours, we will solve the case," the DGP said.

He said they are looking into a number of possible angles that could have led to the killing. Expressing grief over Singh's death, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said, "The death of a party worker is indeed very sad and unfortunate. He was a hard worker. Even if his killers are hiding below the ground, they will be caught. The entire Amethi is sad over the incident."

UP minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi said there's no place for violence in a democracy and demanded strict action against the killers.

Mohsin Raza, the in-charge minister for Amethi district, visited Singh's home and consoled his family members. "As per information received, Singh was attacked in his sleep. This is a very heinous and disgusting incident," he said.

Abhay Singh, son of the former village head, told reporters, "I think some pro-Congress anti-social elements did not like our celebration following BJP's win from Amethi. They were upset. And, yesterday night, this unfortunate incident took place."

Irani defeated the Congress president on Amethi seat, for long a Gandhi family bastion.

A

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Chandigarh:

The ruling BJP won all the 10 seats in Haryana, smashing what were considered as bastions of prominent political families in the state. The results of Rohtak and Faridabad seats were declared early Friday morning. While it was the BJPs best-ever performance in Haryana, carved out as a separate state in 1966, the Congress faced a rout after a gap of 20 years, as per results declared for all ten seats by the Election Commission.

In 2014, the BJP had won seven of the eight seats it contested, while the INLD had won two and Congress one.

In what came as a twin blow for the Congress was the loss of father-son duo Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Deepender Singh Hooda from Sonipat and Rohtak, respectively.

Deepender, who was the sitting MP from Rohtak, lost to Arvind Sharma, a former Congress MP who had joined the BJP recently, by a margin of 7,503 votes.

It was not only Rohtak, the BJP also managed to smash the bastions of the Chautala and Bhajan Lal clans.

Barring Rohtak, BJP candidates including five of their sitting MPs, won with massive margins.

The saffron outfit had replaced its Karnal MP Ashwini Kumar Chopra with Sanjay Bhatia and its rebel MP Raj Kumar Saini from Kurukshetra with Minister in the Khattar government Nayab Singh Saini.

In the 2019 election, the Modi juggernaut continued propelling the ruling BJP in Haryana to the top spot. Many exit poll projections for Haryana also proved right as they had forecasted a stupendous performance by the BJP.

Of the 11 women in the fray out of a total of 223 candidates, only BJPs Sunita Duggal managed a win from Sirsa reserved seat from where she defeated state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar by a margin of 3,09,918 votes.

BJPs local leader from Panipat and state general secretary Sanjay Bhatia surprised many with his massive win from Karnal seat by a margin of 6,56,142 votes over his nearest rival and sitting Congress MLA Kuldeep Sharma.

Union minister Krishan Pal Gurjar registered a massive victory over Congress Avtar Singh Bhadana by a margin of 6,38,239 votes.

Another Union minister in contest Rao Inderjit Singh retained his Gurgaon seat, winning by a margin of 3,86,256 votes over Congress Ajay Singh Yadav. Among the major upsets for the Congress was former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda losing from Sonipat to BJPs sitting MP Ramesh Chander Kaushik by 1,64,864 votes.

Among other senior Congress leaders who lost included Kumari Selja, who went down to sitting MP Rattan Lal Kataria from Ambala reserved segment.

Congress three-time MP Deepender Hooda was the only candidate who remained in a neck-and-neck fight from the Rohtak seat right till the end, but his loss in the end dashed Congress hopes.

Parties like the INLD, JJP-AAP and BSP-Loktantra Suraksha Party alliance, too, had to bite the dust at the hustings.

However, comparatively the BSP and JJP performed better than INLD and AAP.

The BJPs great show saw its vote share surge in comparison to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. As per the results declared, the BJPs vote share was 58.02 per cent as against Congress 28.42 per cent. INLD, which was decimated, had a vote share of 1.89 per cent.

The AAP, which contested on three seats, had a vote share of 0.36 per cent while the BSPs share was 3.64 per cent. Share of NOTA votes was 0.33 per cent.

The BJP in Haryana continued its winning momentum from previous elections, something which is likely to come as a boost to partys prospects in the assembly polls, which are due in October.

Members of Haryanas famous political families, who lost included Bhupinder Hooda (Sonipat), Shruti Choudhary (from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh), granddaughter of former chief minister Bansi Lal, Bhavya Bishnoi (from Hisar), grandson of former CM Bhajan Lal, both belonging to the Congress as BJP smashed the traditional stronghold of these families.

Sitting MP from Hisar Dushyant Chautala, great grandson of Devi Lal, who had launched JJP after a vertical split in INLD owing to a family feud, lost to BJPs Brijendra Singh, bureaucrat-turned-politician and son of Union minister Birender Singh.

Dushyants brother Digvijay Chautala, a JJP candidate, lost from Sonipat while their cousin Arjun Chautala, son of senior INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala, lost from Kurukshetra.
New Delhi:

The Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) has announced the Assam HS Result 2019 today i.e. May 25, 2019. The results was announced at 9 am. The Assam Class 12 Results are now available on the link provided below. The candidates can also check their results on the official websites of the Assam Board i.e. resultsassam.nic.in and ahsec.nic.in. A total of 18,572 students have secured first division in Arts stream. The board class 12 result is now available at the websites

We here at News Nation are in constant touch with our sources and will be updating all the latest here. Hence, we request the candidates to bookmark this page and check it regularly for all the updates.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK ASSAM BOARD CLASS 12 RESULTS

Assam 12th Result 2019  Steps to check

For the convenience of the students, we have mentioned the steps through which the candidates can check the results:

Step 1: Visit newsnation.in/board-results and click on the direct link



Step 2: On the homepage, they need to click on the link of the Assam 12th results.



Step 3: The students have to enter their credentials then and need to submit them.



Step 4: On submission of the details, the students will get to see their results on the screen.

Step 5: The students should take a print out of the result that is displayed on the screen.



This year, Assam Board Class 12 exams were held from 12th February to 14th March. More than 2 lakh candidates appeared for the AHSEC examinations in the month of March. Assam Board has already released the results for SEBA Assam HSLC Class 10 examination.



About the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council, AHSEC

The matters of Higher Secondary Education are looked after by the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC). Established on 1st of June, 1984, AHSEC regulates, supervises and develops the system of Higher Secondary Education. The AHSEC Board also conducts the annual Higher Secondary Examination for all the three streams i.e. Arts, Commerce and Science.




New Delhi:

Narendra Modi, who was unanimously elected leader of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance at a meeting attended by its newly elected MPs and senior leaders in Parliament's Central Hall, has asked all the lawmakers to work towards making a 'new India' and advised them to shun VIP culture.

He will now call on President Ram Nath Kovind to stake his claim to form the government, following which he will be sworn in as the next prime minister, likely next week.

In his over 75-minute address after being elected the leader of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, Modi also stressed on the need to win over the trust of minorities, saying they were made to live in "fear" and "exploited" during elections for vote-bank politics, apparently a dig at the opposition parties.

He also called for the NDA to work with cohesion for the country's development and said his 'naara' (slogan) for the alliance is 'national ambition and regional aspirations'.

Catch all the live udpates here:

19:51 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Modi asked NDA leaders to maintain restraint in speaking to media, some statements made for publicity often trouble us: Modi

19:51 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Don't trust media reports on names being considered for ministerial berths, responsibilities will be given as per norms: Modi

19:51 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In We ran govt for poor people between 2014-19, I can say the poor elected govt this time: Modi

19:50 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Minorities made to live in fear by those who believed in vote-bank politics, we have to end this deception and take everyone along: Modi

19:31 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Minorities have been deceived by those who played vote bank politics: Modi

19:24 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Always believe in the teachings of Gandhi ji, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Ram Manohar Lohia and Baba Saheb Ambedkar: Modi

19:24 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Modi asks MPs to be careful while speaking in public.



#WATCH PM Narendra Modi addressing NDA Parliamentary meet says, "Media ke logo ko bhi pata hota hai ki 6 namune hain, vaha subah pahoch jayo, gate ke bahar khade raho, nikal ke kuchh to bolega." pic.twitter.com/dTtzu9uz6M

 ANI (@ANI) May 25, 2019



19:15 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In No matter how hard we work, one bad comment can stain all of it: Modi

18:59 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I'm talking to you after bowing before the constitution, there can not be a 'bhed-rekha' for a people's representative. We are for those who were with us, we are also for those who will be with us: Modi

18:59 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In This is for the first time in Independent India that such large number of women MPs are sitting in the Parliament. This has been made possible due to women power: Modi

18:50 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In We are here for those who trusted us today. We are here for those too whose trust we are yet to win: Narendra Modi

18:51 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In A voter never accepts arrogance of power. He might tolerate it for sometime due to helplessness, but will never accept it: Modi

18:47 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In These elections were pro-incumbency. This pro-incumbency wave is tied with the thread of trust...The trust was not only between people and govt but also among people themselves. This gave birth to that trust: Narendra Modi

18:45 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In We will now begin new journey to build new India with new energy: Narendra Modi at NDA meeting

18:44 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In People of this country not only voted us to power in 2014, they also showed us the way: Narendra Modi

18:43 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In 2019 elections have worked towards breaking down walls and connecting hearts. In a way they had become a way to unite the society...This gave a new height to these elections. The people have started a new era and all of us are a witness to it: Narendra Modi



PM Narendra Modi: 2019 elections have worked towards breaking down walls and connecting hearts. In a way they had become a way to unite the society...This gave a new height to these elections. The people have started a new era and all of us are a witness to it. pic.twitter.com/TnDhmbnAc0

 ANI (@ANI) May 25, 2019



18:42 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I am one of you, I am your equal, we have to work shoulder to shoulder: Narendra Modi tells his colleagues.

18:41 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Clear mandate increases responsibility, Narendra Modi tells NDA lawmakers

18:39 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In People have accepted us due to our 'seva bhav'. One has to prepare oneself to be always ready to help people even when you move through the lanes of politics and power: Narendra Modi at Central Hall

18:38 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In You all deserve greetings but those elected for the first time deserve an even bigger one. I offer all of you my greetings: Modi

18:37 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In We are flagging off a new journey to achieve our vision for India. You have all played a leading role in the change that has been effected in the country: PM Modi

18:32 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I want to thank all BJP, NDA MPs and leaders for electing me as their leader: Modi
New Delhi:

In a setback to Telangan Rashtriya Samithi chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao, his daughter K Kavitha lost from the Nizamabad lost to BJP's Arvind Dharmapuri by a margin of 70,875 votes, according to the Election Commission. Arvind, is the son of TRS Rajya Sabha MP D Srinivas and a new entrant to politics.

In 2014, Kavitha defeated Goud by a healthy margin of 1,67,184 votes. Goud represented the seat twice in 2004 and 2009 before his defeat in 2014. In the last seven elections, the seat was won by the TDP and the Congress three times respectively. The TRS won the seat for the first time in 2014.

Nizamabad attracted nationwide attention when 178 turmeric farmers contested as independents from the Lok Sabha segment to highlight their demand of the Turmeric Board and remunerative prices.



In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the TRS had bagged 11 seats and the Congress two, while the BJP, YSRCP, TDP and AIMIM shared one each.
New Delhi:

Ab ki baar, teen sau paar, the slogan used by the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, turned out to be prophetic when the polling officials unboxed the Electronic Voting Machines and started the mega counting that commenced at 8 am on May 23. Early trends showed that the NDA had achieved the magic number of 272. By afternoon, the tally showed that BJP bettering its 2014 results. A day later, on May 24, the Election Commission of Indias figures show that the BJP has officially breached the 300-mark. As of now, the BJP has won 303 seats on its own.

With this, the BJP has become the first non-Congress party in the history of independent India to win more than 300 seats in the Lok Sabha Elections. Before this it was Indira Gandhi and her father and Indias first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru who held this unique record. Nehru led Congress into victory in three General Elections of 1951, 1957 and 1962.

Crestfallen after the 1962 war, Nehrus health deteriorated and on May 28, 1964, he died in office. Subsequently, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the Prime Minister. He never faced a General Election as he too died in office in January 1966 after signing the Tashkent Accord on restoring subcontinental peace after the 1965 India-Pakistan war.

After the sudden demise of Pt Nehru, his daughter India Gandhi took over the mantle of Congress. Despite lesser margins, the Congress under the new leadership won the 1967 Lok Sabha Elections. Instead of 1972, Gandhi called elections a year early in 1971 and won a decisive mandate and saw the country win its biggest military victory the same year. It was the year that witnessed the decimation of the Pakistani Army and the creation of the independent nation of Bangladesh.

Four years later, fighting off an Opposition onslaught for her resignation after an adverse court verdict holding her guilty of electoral malpractices, Gandhi declared Emergency in 1975, due to which the elections which were due in 1976, were not held.

Indira Gandhi lifted the emergency in 1977 and called general election that saw a conglomeration of disparate parties under the Janata Party umbrella being swept to power.

That experiment lasted a little over two years and Indira Gandhi led the Congress to a resounding victory in the 1980 general election.

Indira Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984 and her son Rajiv Gandhi became the prime minister. He called early elections the same year that saw the Congress being returned with a thumping majority, winning 414 of the 533 seats where polling was held.

48 years after Indira Gandhi, India has seen return of a Prime Minister with a majority. The stellar vote surge from 17 crore to 22 crore has solidified BJPs grip. The 2019 mandate also means that Indias voters have once again put faith in the decisive leadership of Narendra Modi.
New Delhi:

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday reportedly offered to step down from the post after the party's dismal show in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections 2019. The Congress chief offered his resignation during at the high-profile Congress Working Committee meeting held at party headquarters in Delhi on Saturday.

Following Rahul Gandhi's resignation offer, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi spoke to him and rethink his decision. Several other senior leaders were also against the decision. Manmohan Singh reportedly told Rahul Gandhi that victory and defeat is a part of life and that there was no need for him to step down.

However, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala denied the reports and said that Rahul Gandhi didn't offer his resignation, reported ANI news agency.

Earlier in the day, several Congress leaders, including senior leader and national spokesperson Sanjay Jha, said that there was no need for the Congress chief to quit. "I dont think Rahul Gandhi has been more established, popular, loved and respected within Congress then he is today," Jha had said during a television debate.

Although the Congress did better than its 2014 performance (44 seats) and won 8 more seats, the party could not open its account in several states and Union Territories. The party didn't win a single seat in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Andaman and Nicobar, Chandigarh, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Daman Diu and Lakshadweep.

The biggest embarrasment came from Uttar Pradesh where the Congress chief himself lost the traditional Amethi seat to Union Minister Smriti Irani by a margin of over 55,000 votes. During a press confernece post the Lok Sabha elections results, Rahul Gandhi had taken the full responsibility of the party's brute poll drubbing.

Reduced to just 52 seats in the Lok Sabha, the present situation of the Congress is far cry from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. While Nehru led Congress into victory in three General Elections of 1951, 1957 and 1962, Indira too secured back to back victory in 1967 and 1971. She against led the party to a victory in 1980 elections.

After Rajiv Gandhi's assasination, Sonia Gandhi took the reins of the Congress party and bruoght its out of the crisis post her husband's death. Sonia led the party to victory in 2004 and 2009. Although this was Rahul Gandhi's first election as Congress cheif and the defeat in the 2014 was also seen as the failure of his leadership as he was the prime ministerial candidate of the party.
New Delhi:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its rival Congress have managed to secure one seat each in the keenly contested bypolls to the Legislative Assembly of Kundagol and Chincholi segment in Karnataka. In the last assembly elections, both the Kundagol and Chincholi seats were bagged by the Congress.

In Kundagol, Kusumavati Shivalli, the Congress candidate and wife of the former Minister late CS Shivalli, defeated BJP's SI Chikkanagoudar by a slender margin of 1,601 votes, while in Chincholi, BJP's Avinash Jadhav defeated Subhas V Rathod of the Congress by a margin of 8,030 votes. With this, the BJP has gained one more seat in the Assembly while the Congress tally is down from 80 to 79.

While sympathy helped the Congress retain the Kundagol Assembly segment, Umesh Jadhav, who quit the Congress to join the BJP, has managed to get his son Avinash Jadhav elected from Chincholi, the constituency he represented earlier.

The Chincholi bypoll, which took place along with the last phase of Lok Sabha election on May 19, was necessitated by the resignation of Umesh Jadhav, who quit Congress and joined BJP to contest the recent Lok Sabha polls from Gulbarga. Kundgol seat fell vacant following the death of Minister CS Shivalli.

The election results had its bearing in the coalition government, where both Congress and JD(S) leaders have been airing their differences publicly. There has also been a growing clamour within Congress for its leader Siddaramaiah to become Chief Minister once again.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Australia: Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated on Friday that Australia has reached a new Covid-19 immunisation milestone, with 90 percent of persons aged 16 and up having received one dose of the vaccine. He told the media that every state and territory was on track to reach the 80 percent fully vaccinated target by the end of 2021, a goal that had already been met in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Victoria, and New South Wales, which were all subjected to strict lockdowns between August and October, according to reports.

"We are going to have one of the world's greatest vaccination rates. This is in addition to having one of the best records in the world when it comes to saving lives "Morrison remarked. In anticipation of the 90 percent mark, Health Minister Greg Hunt characterised it as a "amazing" achievement on Thursday.

On Friday, Australia reported over 1,400 new locally acquired Covid-19 infections, bringing the total caseload to 187,041. At the time of writing, 1,873 people had died. Coronavirus restrictions in Australia's capital, Canberra, were loosened again on Friday, returning to baseline levels that are expected to last throughout the summer. International students will be free to enter every state without being quarantined by the end of the year, according to Finance Minister Simon Birmingham, as Australia increasingly reopens its international borders.

Fiji Govt takes away border restrictions for fully immunised visitors

New Ebola vaccine trials commence at the University of Oxford

France issues warning to people under the age of 30 not to take the Moderna vaccine
Kolkata: Smugglers clashed with BSF while crossing the border with cattle on the Indo-Bangladesh border in the early hours of Friday. Meanwhile, Border Security Force personnel killed two Bangladeshis, including an Indian, in the encounter. This incident took place in the Setai Satbhandari village of Cooch Behar. According to reports, infiltrators from Bangladesh entered Indian territory at 3 am on November 12. Made cantilever with the help of bamboo and attempted to smuggle the head of cattle with its help.

BSF soldiers deployed at the border also warned the infiltrators to return, but the infiltrators ignored the warnings of the soldiers and continued to do their job. The BSF personnel then used non-lethal weapons to stop the intruders. But the intruders were still not ready to return backwards. Instead of retreating, he attacked the soldiers on the contrary. Intruders stabbed seals with iron rods and sticks. On the other hand, after being killed and realizing the danger, the BSF unit opened fire on the miscreants.

The soldiers also launched a search operation after the firing. During this, they found the bodies of two unidentified infiltrators on the border. BSF said that one soldier was also injured in the encounter, who was attacked with sticks. He has currently been admitted to the hospital for treatment.

PM Modi announces new RBI initiatives to encourage investors to participate in G-securities

Bengal: 4 girlfriends reached home together, young man ate poison

This car from Mahindra included in list of safest cars, know its features
Fiji: For the fully vaccinated travellers from travel partner countries such as New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the Fiji government has eased its border requirements. According to reports, Fiji's Permanent Secretary for Health James Fong said that the island nation's quarantine protocols for international travel have been adjusted to take into account the increased protection gained by having fully vaccinated people travel with other fully vaccinated people to highly vaccinated destinations.

According to James Fong, less stringent conditions will be used, with a higher premium placed on testing techniques that assure early detection and isolation of positive travellers. This will entail a three-day stay at a hotel, followed by a test on the second day. On day three, if the test results are negative, the patient will be released into the community. According to Fong, all travellers arriving from travel partner countries will be transitioned from Border Quarantine Protocols to Border Risk Reduction Protocols beginning Thursday.

Diplomats, returning Fiji residents, permit holders, and anyone recognised by the COVID-19 Risk Mitigation Taskforce will be able to travel in from Thursday. The Border Risk Reduction Protocol Processes will be tested and enhanced throughout this time, according to Fong, in readiness for the commencement of tourist arrivals in Fiji on December 1.

Indonesia, Malaysia agree to open travel lanes for vaccinated people

Love To Visit Adventurous Places: Visit This Place Once

Airline from Canada Over 800 employees suspends over 800 unvaccinated employees
Tehran: According to Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the best method to solve regional problems is to devise systems appropriate to regional characteristics with the participation of all regional countries. According to Iran's state television, Shamkhani cited terrorism, foreign military invasion, and migration as important security concerns in the region.

"The only way out of these circumstances is to cease transregional intervention, particularly by the United States," he said in a meeting with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev on the sidelines of a regional security dialogue on Afghanistan in India. He added on Thursday that increasing regional cooperation to develop indigenous answers to problems would be beneficial in this sense. According to the Xinhua news agency, he also called for further cooperation between Iran and Russia, as well as the expansion of comprehensive bilateral relations, notably in the areas of security and counter-terrorism.

In terms of Afghanistan's security situation, Shamkhani reaffirmed Iran's position, saying that "given the ethnic and religious composition of Afghan society, the answer to the dilemma in this nation is the continuation of intra-Afghan discussion and the development of an inclusive administration." Patrushev, for one, commended ongoing security discussions and dialogues among regional countries, adding that shared worries about security threats have brought these countries closer together.

Iran Foreign Minister urges normalisation of trade ties in Vienna

US appeals court halts release of Trump documents to House riot probe

UN officials seeks quick release of staffers and contract truckers in Ethiopia: Report
Who doesn't know Rashmi Desai, a famous actress in the television industry, today? She is constantly in the news and is very active on social media as well. Rashmi's pictures are very viral and videos also get a lot of views. Rashmi Desai has not only acted in Hindi serials in the industry, but has also made her acting debut in many other languages. She recently shared some pictures on Instagram which are from a Maldives resort. Rashmi looks quite hot and beautiful in these pictures.

Rashmi Desai shared the pictures on Instagram and wrote, "Youniverse. More than one lakh likes have appeared in the pictures so far and the photos have gone viral. Rashmi, who is standing on the beach, is wearing a black tube top. Her clothes are cream-coloured, in which she looks very stunning.

Fans love the pictures of the Rashmi. Bigg Boss contestant Shefali Bagga has also commented. She wrote OMG and made an emoji of fire. In addition, Pranita Pandit described the actress hot and wrote, "Hey Hottie". Rashmi Desai is seen posing in the pictures. Rashmi's look in goggles looks very bold. She also holds the purse in her hand. Rashmi is looking at the sea in a photo in which she holds her hands up.

One new death from COVID-19 in Mizoram on Wednesday evening

Congress is a strong party: Congress leader Rockybul Hussain

Global Warming Goal on Life Support: Antonio Guterres
Home  Just In  Price list: 4 models of 2-wheeled and 3-wheeled e-scooters from Doohan Nepal

Doohan is one of the many smart electric scooter brands from China that have made its way to Nepal. Kaliber Auto is the authorised dealer of this Chinese brand in Nepal. It currently has 4 models of Doohan electric scooters in Nepal.

Of them, two are two-wheeler models named iTank and iTango and two others are two-wheelers classic urban special models named Uranus and E-swan. Doohan is also probably the first to introduce a three-wheeled electric scooter in Nepal.

Here are the details of the Doohan scooters.

1. iTank

Photo: Doohan

Specifications

Motor Bosch Battery LG/Panasonic Lithium 60V 26Ah Power 1500 watt Standard charge time 4-5 hours (per battery) Range 70 km Top speed 45kmph (single battery), 70kmph (dual battery) Colours Red, black, white, green, blue, orange Braking 3 hydraulic disc brakes Integrated system Roll lock, cruise control, dual-battery compartment

The company claims iTank is the face of Doohan. Since people are accustomed to a two-wheeled scooter, the first look of iTank may surprise many as it is a three-wheeled model that has dual front wheel technology (DDWT-S). iTank is powered by a 1500 watt Bosch motor that is capable of giving a range of 70km with a single charge, but the speed is limited only to 45kmph on a single battery variant and 70kmph on a dual battery variant. It takes up to five hours per battery to get the battery fully charged.

It comes with a 60V 26Ah Lithium battery from LG/Panasonic, which the company claims are eco-friendly. It has three hydraulic brakes and a reverse gear which makes it more stable and safer to ride. iTank is integrated with smart features like a roll lock system, cruise control and dual battery storage compartment.

Doohans iTank shall be available in red, black, white, green, blue and orange colours. Some of the key features of iTank are:

Customised motor from Bosch

DDWT structure

Lithium battery

Dual-battery storage compartment

Auto adapting LED lamp

Integrated tail light

Roll lock system and cruise control

LCD display

Integrated side light

The price of iTank in Nepal is Rs 359,900.

2. iTango

Photo: Doohan

Specifications

Motor Bosch Battery LG/Panasonic Lithium 48V 26Ah Power 1200 watt Range 70km Top speed 45kmph Colours Red, black, white, green, blue, orange Brakes Hydraulic Integrated system Roll lock, cruise control, dual-battery compartment

iTango is another three-wheeler electric scooter from Doohan that features the same dual front wheel technology (DDWT-S) as iTank. In terms of looks, these three-wheeled scooters look different but when compared with the specifications and features, they are almost identical.

iTango is powered by the same Bosch motor but with a lesser power of 1200 watts and 48V 26Ah. The range and top speed of iTango are 70km and 45kmph respectively, which are similar to iTank. The braking system and the smart features are also the same on iTango as it is in the iTank and it also comes in the same colours.

Some of the key features of iTango are:

Customised motor from Bosch

DDWT structure

Lithium battery

Portable battery storage compartment

Auto adapting LED lamp

Integrated tail light

Roll lock system and cruise control

LCD display

The price of iTango is Rs 289,900.

3. E-Swan

Photo: Doohan

Specifications

Motor Bosch Battery LG/Panasonic ternary lithium 60V 26Ah Power 1200 watt Charge time 4-5 hours per battery Range Up to 70km Top Speed 45kmph Colours Red, black, white, green Brakes Front: Disc

Rear: Drum

E-swan is the electric scooter from Doohan that is inspired by Vespa. This is one of the best-looking electric scooters available in the market at the moment. This particular scooter is the most economic model from the company. It has a circular headlamp, chrome curvy design, and gives an overall retro vibe.

Powered by a 1200 watt Bosch DC motor, it comes with a 60V 26Ah battery from LG/Panasonic along with a dual battery compartment. It can achieve a top speed of 45kmph and with a single battery. Likewise, it can give a range of up to 70km in a single charge. It has a disc brake at the front and a drum brake at the rear for safety.

Some of the key features of E-swan are:

Integrated tail light

LCD dashboard

Brushless motor from Bosch

Dual battery storage compartment

Lithium battery

The price of E-swan is Rs 231,900.

4. Uranus

Photo: Doohan

Specifications

Motor DC brushless Battery LG/Panasonic Lithium 72V 26Ah Power 3000 watt Charge time 4-5 hours per battery Range Up to 70km (single battery)/Up to 100km (double battery) Top speed 45kmph (single battery)/70kmph (double battery) Colours Red, black, white, purple, blue Brakes Front: Disc

Rear: Drum

Uranus is a power-performing electric scooter from Doohan. The company also claims this is the most sold scooter. It looks bulkier, classier and the build quality also looks solid. This is also a long seated and extended-wheelbase model from Doohan scooters.

Uranus is powered by a massive 3000 watt DC brushless motor from Doohan technology itself. This scooter also comes with a 72V 26ah battery from LG/Panasonic and it has dual battery storage as well. In a single charge, Uranus can give a mileage up to 70 km, by achieving a top speed up to 45kmph. This is one of the best electric scooters in Nepal.

Some of the key features of Uranus are:

Brushless motor

Auto adapting LED lamp

LCD dashboard

Lithium battery

Integrated tail light

Dual battery storage compartment

The price of Uranus is Rs 321,900.

The company is offering 1.5 years battery warranty, motor warranty and 1-year free servicing for all the models.
An average person wants to spend his/her last moments happily with family and breathe his/her last around them. But, he became an exception. He left the comforts and prosperity of his life as a doctor in Japan and moved to a remote settlement, torn apart by the civil war, in a developing country in the latter part of his life.

Leaders, who entered villages making sweet promises during the war, have now entered the city. The village and its pain have become a once-upon-a-time-story for them. Meanwhile, this old man has left the city and entered the village to dedicate his life to healthcare in a remote area.

He is Dr Ryukichi Ishida (74), an orthopaedic doctor, who worked in Japan for 40 years. He arrived in Nepal some 14 years ago with an aim to dedicate the rest of his life to healthcare in remote areas.

He has been providing healthcare in Rolpas Thabang-based Jaljala Hospital and Research Centre for the last 13 years, treating Thabang citizens with his experience in Japan and finding his happiness in the process.

I got the happiness here that I did not get from working in Japan for 40 years, he says, I want to treat the citizens here till the last breath of my life.

Keeping the old promise

It was 40 years ago when Ryukichi Ishida came to Nepal for the first time as a 21-year-old medical student. During that time, a tuberculosis vaccination campaign was underway in Tansen, Palpa, and he reached Tansen via Baglung to participate in the campaign.

Arriving there, he saw the dire state of health in the rural areas, saw people who have been sick for years but never received medical treatment. Seeing such a condition broke his heart and felt the need to contribute more to the health sector of the rural areas. So, he promised himself that one day he would return to Nepal to do the same.

Then, 40 years later, he returned to fulfil his promise. Even though it was after his retirement following four decades of work, at 60, he felt his need was not in Japan, but elsewhere. The thoughts churning in his mind did not allow him to sleep well. He wanted to use the experience of Japan in remote areas of Nepal.

The first year he was back in 2007, he volunteered at the Bir Hospital of Kathmandu.

There, he understood the way doctors work in Nepal. After that, he came to work at the Chaurjahari Hospital in Rukum and worked for a few years.

He had heard a lot about the Thabang village in Rolpa, a neighbouring district of Rukum. When he came to Nepal, the Maoist war had been just recently stopped. But the village, a Maoist stronghold, was popular during the war. After the war, the whole village had suffered human and material losses as well as mental trauma and scars that feel fresh even today.

The scars now had to be treated. And, the doctor in Ryukichi Ishida wanted to do it. For that, he walked for three days [from Rukum] to reach the village.

Just for a change

In absence of a health post burnt down by the Nepal Army during the war, there was just a small temporary hut that sheltered a health post where a community medicine assistant (CMA) treated the patients.

During the war, neither the government nor any NGO paid attention to the health sector in Rolpa. The situation was very complicated. It was difficult for people to even get basic treatment. Those injured and disabled during the war were in a deplorable condition, he says.

Dr Ryukichi Ishida with a patient at Thabang-based Jaljala Hospital and Research Centre in Rolpa.

But, since his arrival, many changes have taken place in the health sector of Thabang. The temporary health post has now been turned into the Jaljala Hospital and Research Centre. Dr Ryukichi Ishida has used his pension to raise funds for the hospital. Now, as a result, the hospital has an OPD section, a mini-operating theatre, X-ray, video X-ray and several wards. It has resources to cure any ailment except for the big ones.

Dr Ryukichi Ishida works 24 hours a day and does not even charge for the treatment. Instead, he is helping patients out of his own pocket.

A few months ago, a patients bone was deteriorating inside. But, his treatment at the hospital was not possible and had to be referred elsewhere. However, the patient did not have money for his treatment, so Dr Ishida paid Rs 38,000 for his treatment in Kathmandu.

Not leaving, ever!

One day, Ryukichi Ishida heard that a woman had to give birth in a forest and it shook him internally. He, then, realised this was where people needed special healthcare. Though he travelled many remote villages in his pursuit, his mind reached and settled in Thabang and pledged to dedicate his life to serving people here.

Whereas the war-scarred villagers are happy that a guest from many lands away came to heal their wounds. The Thabang residents consider him as a human incarnation of the gods and show their reverence.

Now, it has been 12 years since he last left Thabang, neither does he want to leave. The people here are honest and kind. The love I got from here, I would not have found anywhere else.

His wife, three sons and a daughter are all in Japan. They repeatedly tell him to come back to Japan, but he does not want to. He says he has left the comfortable and luxurious life of Japan for good.

About a year ago, he brought his wife to Thabang. He took her to the Shahid Memorial Park at the end of the village and showed her the place for his tomb. His wishes made her emotional and urged him to return home with her. But, again Dr Ishida refused.

His wife, who is now in Japan, repeatedly keeps asking him, When will it be enough, when will you return? And, every time his answer remains the same. After a moment of silence, he says, I might not return, ever.

Gesturing with his hand, Ryukichi Ishida says, In that park, I have asked them to keep my body there, after my death. I will serve the people of Thabang for the rest of my life.
BCT is excited to embrace banking innovations through its involvement in the recently launched banktech-focused venture capital fund

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- (OTC:PTBS)  BCT-Bank of Charles Town, also known as The Community's Bank, announced today that it has committed to be an early investor in BankTech Ventures, LP ("BTV" or the "Fund"), a newly launched venture capital fund with the mission to support community banks through investment and education around banking technology. With general partners from The Venture Center, the Independent Community Bankers of America ("ICBA"), Hovde Group and two leading community banks, Coastal Community Bank and Sunwest Bank, BankTech Ventures looks to partner with premier community banks to identify emerging technologies for investment and use by them.

(PRNewsfoto/BCT - Bank of Charles Town)

Supported and endorsed by the ICBA and The Venture Center, which was named Finovate's 2020 Best Accelerator of the Year, BankTech Ventures is building an ecosystem that pairs community banks with emerging technology companies that can serve banks' immediate needs whether it be regulatory, customer acquisition, process improvement, or other areas of focus. The Fund ultimately aims to provide its bank investors with the opportunity to obtain significant research & development "spend" at a much lower cost than if undertaken in-house, as well as strong returns from the underlying company investments. With a limited partner base expected to reach over 150 community banks across the US, the strategic value of the fund's ecosystem for both bank-focused startups and community banks is unprecedented.

"When presented the opportunity to invest in and join the BankTech Ventures partnership, we jumped in right away," said Alice Frazier, President & CEO of BCT. "BankTech Ventures has assembled the ideal team to identify, evaluate, invest in and align our bank's success through emerging technologies. We can move forward as an innovative bank in our community, learn about market changes and our customers' needs at a more rapid rate, and participate in the value created by leading technology companies. It's a great partnership."

Story continues

"Community banks like Bank of Charles Town are so important to the communities they serve, and as they continue to evolve, emerging technologies will play a key role for them and their customers," said Carey Ransom, Managing Director of BankTech Ventures. "I'm excited to welcome Alice and team from Bank of Charles Town to our partnership in BankTech Ventures. Together and as part of our ecosystem, we will help ensure community banks remain competitive amid a rapidly changing environment."

BankTech Ventures, LP ( www.banktechventures.com ) is targeting $150-200MM for its first fund and has reached a first close of $55MM with 60 initial limited partners, including Bank of Charles Town. The fund is already evaluating several investment opportunities. In addition to Ransom, the fund's other general partners are Eric Sprink, CEO of Coastal Community Bank; Carson Lappetito, President of Sunwest Bank; Steve Hovde, Chairman & CEO of Hovde Group; Charles Potts, Chief Innovation Officer, ICBA; and Wayne Miller, Executive Director, The Venture Center.

About BCT-Bank of Charles Town

Founded in 1871 and celebrating their 150th year of service, BCT - Bank of Charles Town, also known as The Community's Bank, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Potomac Bancshares, Inc. (OTC:PTBS). With approximately $701 million in assets as of September 30, 2021, the Company conducts operations through its main office, an additional eight branch offices, and two loan production offices. BCT's offices are located in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties (WV), Washington County (MD), and Loudoun and Stafford Counties (VA). The Bank provides various banking products and services including free access to over 55,000 ATMs through the Allpoint network plus online and mobile banking for individuals, businesses, and local governments. The Bank also offers commercial lines and term loans, residential and commercial construction, commercial real estate loans and agricultural loans. The Residential Lending division offers secondary market and portfolio mortgage loans, one-time close construction to perm loans, as well as home equity loans and lines of credit. For over 60 years, BCT Wealth Advisors has provided financial management, investment, trust, and estate services to its clients. In 2019 and 2020, the Bank was named a "Best Bank To Work For" by American Banker. In 2018, Forbes named BCT a "Best In State Bank" for Maryland. The Company's shares are quoted on the OTC Pink Sheet marketplace under the symbol "PTBS." For more information about Potomac Bancshares, Inc., and the Bank, please visit our website at www.mybct.bank.

About BankTech Ventures, LP.

Established in 2021, BankTech Ventures, LP is the first venture fund created for and by key leaders in community banking, bank technology and fintech. BTV serves the community banking ecosystem through strategic investments, education and collaboration with its limited partners and ICBA members by delivering a de-risked and/or fully vetted network of leading and emerging bank technology companies to enhance a community bank's value, as well as aim for strong returns from the underlying investments in these companies. Learn more at www.banktechventures.com.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bct-bank-of-charles-town-announces-anchor-investment-in-banktech-ventures-fund-301422316.html

SOURCE BCT - Bank of Charles Town
NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest beauty and personal care market in Africa research report by Technavio infer that the product innovation and product line extension is driving this market's growth.

Attractive Opportunities in Beauty and Personal Care Market in Africa by Product, Distribution Channel, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Resulting in the market growth of USD 1.26 billion from 2020 to 2025, read additional information about the market. Fill the form and get a FREE sample report.

Vendor Landscape

The market structure is expected to remain fragmented during the forecast period. Vendors operating in the market are adopting various marketing and growth strategies such as competitive pricing to compete in the market.

Avon Products Inc., Beiersdorf AG, Coty Inc., Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., Johnson and Johnson, LOreal SA, Revlon Inc., The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., The Procter, and Gamble Co., and Unilever Group are some of the few key vendors of this market. Vendors are competing to maintain their market position in the market.

Vendors are also trying to expand their market presence and strengthen their product portfolio by entering partnerships and launching new and innovative products.

For instance, In February 2021, LOreal SA finalized the acquisition of Takami Co. as announced on December 23, 2020.

View more about the market's vendor landscape highlights with a comprehensive list of vendors and their offerings.

Key Market Segmentation

Segmentation by Product:

Segmentation by Distribution Channel:

Request a FREE Sample of this report for more highlights into the market segments

Regional Market Outlook

South Africa is leading the market with a contribution of 53% to the overall market in 2020 and would increase its contribution to a notable number of the beauty and personal care market by 2025.

Kenya would be the fastest-growing region within the overall market between 2020 and 2025.

Apart from regions, if we look at the country-wise market growth, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt (Arab Republic of Egypt), Nigeria, and the Rest of Africa will contribute to the highest market growth.

Story continues

Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries.

Latest Trends, Driving the beauty and personal care

Beauty and personal care Market Driver in Africa :

One of the key factors driving growth in the beauty and personal care market in Africa is product innovation and product line extension. Innovation is vital for the beauty and personal care market in Africa as the demand for innovative products offering optimal use and functionalities is high.

The preference for beauty and personal care products that address multiple concerns within a minimal time span is also gaining momentum. A rise in the disposable income of customers heightens the spending power on beauty and personal cars.

Beauty and personal care Market Trend in Africa:

The emergence of beauty and personal care products with natural ingredients is another major factor supporting the beauty and personal care market in Africa. Growing health consciousness and awareness of the harmful effects of toxic chemicals used in beauty and personal care products have spurred the demand for products with natural ingredients.

Therefore, some vendors focus on manufacturing beauty and personal care products without parabens, toluene, formaldehyde, artificial fragrances, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), petroleum-based chemicals, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), and sulfates. Manufacturers of hair care products and color cosmetics are focusing on developing products with natural ingredients to gain more customers.

Find additional information about various other market Drivers & Trends mentioned in our FREE sample report.

Need More? Are You Looking for Information Not Covered in This Report?

Want to understand more about the various research methodology?

Evaluate a specific segment or region in detail

Identify key suppliers, customers, or other market players

Analyze market regulations

Tailor this report according to your needs. Get it done with our $1000 worth of free customization. Speak to Our Analyst Now!

Related Reports:

Personal Care Market -The personal care market has the potential to grow by USD 148.89 billion during 2021-2025, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 5.68%. Download a free sample now!



Hair Care Market -The haircare market has the potential to grow by USD 26.56 billion during 2021-2025, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 5.47%. Download a free sample now!

Beauty And Personal Care Market In Africa Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of almost 2% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 1.26 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 0.51 Regional analysis South Africa, Kenya, Egypt (Arab Republic of Egypt), Nigeria, and Rest of Africa Performing market contribution South Africa at 53% Key consumer countries South Africa, Kenya, Egypt (Arab Republic of Egypt), Nigeria, and Rest of Africa Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Avon Products Inc., Beiersdorf AG, Coty Inc., Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., Johnson and Johnson, LOreal SA, Revlon Inc., The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., The Procter and Gamble Co., and Unilever Group 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 preview 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 focus on emerging market trends and provide 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: media@technavio.com

Website: www.technavio.com/

Technavio (PRNewsfoto/Technavio)

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/beauty-and-personal-care-market-in-africa-research-report-highlights-the-key-findings-in-the-area-of-vendor-landscape-key-market-segments-regions-and-latest-trends--drivers-technavio-301422309.html

SOURCE Technavio
SEOUL, South Korea, November 12, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Coupang, Inc. (NYSE: CPNG) today announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2021.

Key Financial and Operational Highlights

Total Net Revenues was $4.6 billion, up 48% year over year (YoY).

Constant currency revenue growth was 44%. We grew more than twice as fast as the 20% growth rate of the Korean e-commerce segment.

Active customers grew at least 20% YoY for the 15 th straight quarter.

In Q3, spend grew at least 25% YoY for every annual customer cohort dating back to our oldest cohort in 2010.

Active customers purchasing across 6 or more categories doubled in Q3 from two years ago.

Gross margin expanded 130 basis points YoY to 16.2% and Gross Profit increased 62% YoY to $755 million.

We invested approximately $95 million in incremental labor and operational costs primarily related to the increase in COVID-19 cases and heightened restrictions in Korea during Q3.

Advertising revenue nearly tripled YoY in Q3.

New services and investments

Coupang added 8 million square feet of infrastructure year-to-date in 2021. The increase in infrastructure square footage since the beginning of 2020 is the same amount of infrastructure space we added in every year prior to 2020 combined.

Fulfillment center infrastructure for Rocket Fresh, our fresh grocery offering, increased by nearly 90% year-to-date through Q3 and is on track to double in 2021.

Coupang Eats is the most downloaded mobile app for iOS and the second most downloaded mobile app for Android in Korea in 2021 to date.

Employee and Economy Highlights

The selection from small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) merchants increased 276% YoY in the third quarter. Overall, 80% of our total merchants and suppliers are SMEs and 86% of our selection is from SME merchants.

Coupang launched a program to provide KRW 400 billion 1 of assistance to small business owners, farmers and livestock farmers to help grow their businesses online in collaboration with the federal and local governments.

Coupang launched Coupang Care, providing delivery drivers four weeks of paid leave to focus on personal health through free individualized programs offered by the company. Coupang continues to lead the industry in introducing such workplace benefits, along with direct employment, full insurance benefits, and a five-day workweek.

Coupang announced plans to open new fulfillment centers in 10 regions of Korea, including Busan, Cheongju, Gimhae, Changwon, and Wanju, an investment of over KRW 1.5 trillion1 that will create over 13,000 new jobs in local communities.

1KRW 400 billion and KRW 1.5 trillion equate to approximately $340 million and $1.3 billion, respectively, using the KRW:USD exchange rate as of 11/10/2021 of KRW 1,181 to $1.00.

Third Quarter 2021 Results

Story continues

Three Months Ended September 30, 2021 2020 % Y/Y Change (in thousands, except net revenues per Active Customer) Total net revenues $ 4,644,705 $ 3,136,507 48% Total net revenues growth, constant currency1 44% Active Customers 16,823 13,987 20% Total net revenues per Active Customer $ 276 $ 224 23% Gross profit2 754,527 466,955 62% Net loss (323,977) (172,999) 87% Adjusted EBITDA1 (207,434) (176,649) 17%

_____________

Webcast and Conference Call

Coupang, Inc. will host a conference call to discuss third quarter results on November 12, 2021 at 7:00 AM Eastern Standard Time (November 12, 2021 at 9:00 PM Korea Standard Time). A live webcast of the conference call will be available on our Investor Relations website, ir.aboutcoupang.com, and a replay of the conference call will be available for at least three months. This press release, including the reconciliations of certain non-GAAP measures to their nearest comparable U.S. GAAP measures, is also available on that site.

About Coupang

Coupang is one of the largest e-Commerce companies in Asia, with a mission to revolutionize the everyday lives of its customers and create a world where people wonder, "How did we ever live without Coupang?" Coupang offers a variety of services, including same-day and next-morning delivery of groceries and general merchandise, delivery of prepared foods through Coupang Eats, and video streaming through Coupang Play. Coupang has offices in Beijing, Los Angeles, Seattle, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Taipei, and Tokyo.

Key Business Metrics and Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We review the key business and financial metrics discussed below. We use these measures to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions.

Key Business Metrics

Active Customers

As of the last date of each reported period, we determine our number of Active Customers by counting the total number of individual customers who have ordered at least once directly from our apps or websites during the relevant period. A customer is anyone who has created an account on our apps or websites, identified by a unique email address. The change in Active Customers in a reported period captures both the inflow of new customers as well as the outflow of existing customers who have not made a purchase in the period. We view the number of Active Customers as a key indicator of our potential for growth in total net revenues, the reach of our network, the awareness of our brand, and the engagement of our customers.

Total Net Revenues per Active Customer

Total net revenues per Active Customer is the total net revenues generated in a period divided by the total number of Active Customers in that period. A key driver of growth is increasing the frequency and the level of spend of Active Customers who are shopping on our apps or websites. We therefore view total net revenues per Active Customer as a key indicator of engagement and retention of our customers and our success in increasing the share of wallet.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We report our financial results in accordance with U.S. GAAP. However, management believes that certain non-GAAP financial measures provide investors with additional useful information in evaluating our performance. These non-GAAP financial measures may be different than similarly titled measures used by other companies.

Our non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as substitutes for, financial information prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all the amounts associated with our results of operations as determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. These measures should only be used to evaluate our results of operations in conjunction with the corresponding U.S. GAAP measures. For further information regarding these non-GAAP measures, including the limitations thereof and reconciliations of each non-GAAP financial measure to its most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measure, please refer to the financial tables in the "Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" section of this report.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin

During the first quarter of 2021, we began using adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin as non-GAAP financial measures. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income/(loss) for a period before depreciation and amortization, interest expense, interest income, income tax expense (benefit), other income (expense), net, equity-based compensation, impairments, and other items that we do not believe are reflective of our ongoing operations. Adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of total net revenues. We use adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin as key measures to evaluate and assess our performance, allocate internal resources, prepare and approve our annual budget, and develop operating plans. We believe adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin are frequently used by investors and other interested parties in evaluating companies in the e-commerce industry for period-to-period comparisons as they remove the impact of non-cash items and certain variable charges. However, other companies may calculate adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin in a manner different from ours and therefore they may not be directly comparable to similar terms used by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin are not measures of financial performance under U.S. GAAP and should not be considered as alternatives to cash flow from operating activities or as measures of liquidity or alternatives to net income/(loss) as indicators of operating performance or any other measures of performance derived in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider them in isolation or as substitutes for analysis of our results as reported under U.S. GAAP.

Constant Currency Revenue and Constant Currency Revenue Growth

The effect of currency exchange rates on our business is an important factor in understanding period-to-period comparisons. Our financial reporting currency is the U.S. dollar ("USD") and changes in foreign exchange rates can significantly affect our reported results and consolidated trends. For example, our business generates sales predominantly in Korean Won ("KRW"), which are favorably affected as the USD weakens relative to the KRW, and unfavorably affected as the USD strengthens relative to the KRW. We use non-GAAP constant currency revenue and constant currency revenue growth for financial and operational decision-making and as a means to evaluate comparisons between periods. We believe the presentation of our results on a constant currency basis in addition to U.S. GAAP results helps improve the ability to understand our performance because they exclude the effects of foreign currency volatility that are not indicative of our actual results of operations.

Constant currency information compares results between periods as if exchange rates had remained constant. We define constant currency revenue as total revenue excluding the effect of foreign exchange rate movements, and use it to determine the constant currency revenue growth on a comparative basis. Constant currency revenue is calculated by translating current period revenues using the prior period exchange rate. Constant currency revenue growth (as a percentage) is calculated by determining the increase in current period revenue over prior period revenue, where current period foreign currency revenue is translated using prior period exchange rates.

These results should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, results reported in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Results on a constant currency basis, as we present them, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies and are not a measure of performance presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

COUPANG, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (in thousands, except share/units) (unaudited) September 30,

2021 December 31,

2020 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 3,928,568 $ 1,251,455 Restricted cash 337,098 144,949 Accounts receivable, net 134,316 71,257 Inventories 1,212,198 1,161,205 Other current assets 299,153 211,848 Total current assets 5,911,333 2,840,714 Long-term restricted cash 4,341 4,898 Property and equipment, net 1,167,463 1,017,947 Operating lease right-of-use assets 1,259,962 1,011,255 Goodwill 3,900 4,247 Long-term lease deposits and other 240,271 188,271 Total assets $ 8,587,270 $ 5,067,332 Liabilities, redeemable convertible preferred units and stockholders'/members equity (deficit) Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 3,216,880 $ 2,907,918 Accrued expenses 164,678 115,606 Deferred revenue 80,450 65,259 Short-term borrowings 168,052 156,678 Current portion of long-term debt 385,888 67,576 Current portion of long-term operating lease obligations 260,395 207,196 Other current liabilities 300,525 212,477 Total current liabilities 4,576,868 3,732,710 Long-term debt 169,333 353,342 Long-term operating lease obligations 1,103,478 859,477 Convertible notes  589,851 Defined severance benefits and other 169,485 135,203 Total liabilities 6,019,164 5,670,583 Commitments and contingencies Redeemable convertible preferred units no par value; no units authorized, issued or outstanding, and no liquidation preference as of September 30, 2021; 1,448,632,049 units authorized, 1,372,898,443 units issued, 1,329,464,982 units outstanding, and aggregate liquidation preference of $3,584,028 as of December 31, 2020  3,465,611 Stockholders'/members equity (deficit) Common units no par value; no units authorized, issued or outstanding as of September 30, 2021; 264,166,544 units authorized, 114,566,705 units issued, and 105,822,205 units outstanding as of December 31, 2020  45,122 Class A common stock, $0.0001 par value, 10,000,000,000 shares authorized and 1,575,551,659 shares issued and outstanding as of September 30, 2021; Class B common stock, $0.0001 par value, 250,000,000 shares authorized and 174,802,990 shares issued and outstanding as of September 30, 2021; no shares of Class A and Class B common stock authorized, issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2020 174  Additional paid-in capital 7,813,384 25,036 Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) 86 (31,093 ) Accumulated deficit (5,245,538 ) (4,107,927 ) Total stockholders'/members equity (deficit) 2,568,106 (4,068,862 ) Total liabilities, redeemable convertible preferred units and stockholders'/members equity (deficit) $ 8,587,270 $ 5,067,332

COUPANG, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (in thousands, except per share amounts) (unaudited) Three Months Ended September 30, Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 2020 2021 2020 Net retail sales $ 4,137,136 $ 2,897,682 $ 11,938,685 $ 7,555,592 Net other revenue 507,569 238,825 1,390,994 608,254 Total net revenues 4,644,705 3,136,507 13,329,679 8,163,846 Cost of sales 3,890,178 2,669,552 11,184,152 6,826,861 Operating, general and administrative 1,069,639 683,192 3,242,891 1,722,077 Total operating cost and expenses 4,959,817 3,352,744 14,427,043 8,548,938 Operating loss (315,112 ) (216,237 ) (1,097,364 ) (385,092 ) Interest income 2,603 1,267 5,450 9,512 Interest expense (7,376 ) (25,712 ) (38,047 ) (78,423 ) Other (expense) income, net (4,026 ) 67,704 (7,479 ) 73,829 Loss before income taxes (323,911 ) (172,978 ) (1,137,440 ) (380,174 ) Income tax expense 66 21 171 228 Net loss (323,977 ) (172,999 ) (1,137,611 ) (380,402 ) Less: premium on repurchase of redeemable convertible preferred units    (92,734 ) Net loss attributable to Class A and Class B common stockholders $ (323,977 ) $ (172,999 ) $ (1,137,611 ) $ (473,136 ) Net loss attributable to Class A and Class B common stockholders per share, basic and diluted $ (0.19 ) $ (5.91 ) $ (0.87 ) $ (17.47 ) Weighted-average shares used in computing net loss per share attributable to Class A and Class B common stockholders, basic and diluted 1,747,255 29,284 1,313,234 27,085

COUPANG, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (in thousands) (unaudited) Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 2020 Operating activities: Net loss $ (1,137,611 ) $ (380,402 ) Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash (used in) provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 145,866 85,551 Provision for severance benefits 100,649 48,856 Equity-based compensation 193,450 24,017 Paid-in-kind interest and accretion of discount on convertible notes 20,148 66,569 Revaluation of derivative instrument  (70,032 ) Inventory and fixed asset losses due to fulfillment center fire 284,825  Non-cash operating lease expense 187,926 105,512 Non-cash others 32,786 40,352 Change in operating assets and liabilities: Accounts receivable, net (75,958 ) (41,234 ) Inventories (308,559 ) (413,619 ) Other assets (182,375 ) (153,416 ) Accounts payable 561,528 948,051 Accrued expenses 50,604 41,145 Deferred revenue 13,015 8,037 Other liabilities (94,126 ) (24,299 ) Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities (207,832 ) 285,088 Investing activities: Purchases of property and equipment (505,554 ) (314,941 ) Proceeds from sale of property and equipment 960 222 Other investing activities (2,218 ) (35,629 ) Net cash used in investing activities (506,812 ) (350,348 ) Financing activities: Repurchase of common units and preferred units  (97,043 ) Proceeds from issuance of Class A common stock upon initial public offering, net of underwriting discounts 3,431,277  Deferred offering costs paid (11,618 )  Proceeds from issuance of common stock/units, equity-based compensation plan 57,521 11,223 Proceeds from short-term borrowings and long-term debt 308,772 220,649 Repayment of short-term borrowings and long-term debt (111,472 ) (24,913 ) Other financing activities (2,289 ) (1,379 ) Net cash provided by financing activities 3,672,191 108,537 Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash (88,842 ) (6,236 ) Net increase in cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash 2,868,705 37,041 Cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash, as of beginning of period 1,401,302 1,371,535 Cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash, as of end of period $ 4,270,007 $ 1,408,576

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This information contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical, including statements regarding our future results of operations or financial condition, business strategy and plans, and objectives of management for future operations are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "target," "toward," "will," or "would," or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that conveys uncertainty of future events or outcomes.

You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this report on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our final prospectus dated March 10, 2021, as filed with the SEC pursuant to Rule 424(b) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (File No. 333-253030) ("Final Prospectus"). Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. The results, events, and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur, and actual results, events, or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this report relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this report or to reflect new information, actual results, revised expectations, or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures, or investments.

Investors and others should note that we may announce material business and financial information to our investors using our investor relations website (ir.aboutcoupang.com), our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), webcasts, press releases, and conference calls. We use these mediums, including our website, to communicate with investors and the general public about our company, our products, and other issues. It is possible that the information that we make available on our website may be deemed to be material information. We therefore encourage investors and others interested in our company to review the information that we make available on our website.

The information that can be accessed through hyperlinks or website addresses included herein is deemed not to be incorporated in or part of this press release.

Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measures

The following tables present the reconciliations from each U.S. GAAP measure to its corresponding non-GAAP measure for the periods noted:

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin

Three Months Ended September 30, Nine Months Ended September 30, (in thousands) 2021 2020 2021 2020 Total net revenues $ 4,644,705 $ 3,136,507 $ 13,329,679 $ 8,163,846 Net loss (323,977 ) (172,999 ) (1,137,611 ) (380,402 ) Net loss margin (7.0 )% (5.5 )% (8.5 )% (4.7 )% Adjustments: Depreciation and amortization(1) 51,540 32,296 145,866 85,551 Interest expense 7,376 25,712 38,047 78,423 Interest income (2,603 ) (1,267 ) (5,450 ) (9,512 ) Income tax expense 66 21 171 228 Other expense (income), net 4,026 (67,704 ) 7,479 (73,829 ) Equity-based compensation(2) 56,138 7,292 193,450 24,017 FC Fire losses   295,501  Adjusted EBITDA $ (207,434 ) $ (176,649 ) $ (462,547 ) $ (275,524 ) Adjusted EBITDA margin (4.5 )% (5.6 )% (3.5 )% (3.4 )%

_____________

Constant Currency Revenue and Constant Currency Revenue Growth

Three Months Ended September 30, Nine Months Ended September 30, (in thousands) 2021 2020 2021 2020 Total net revenues $ 4,644,705 $ 3,136,507 $ 13,329,679 $ 8,163,846 Total net revenues growth 48 % 95 % 63 % 87 % Adjustment: Exchange rate effect (131,079 ) 2,877 (774,088 ) 270,868 Total net revenues, constant currency $ 4,513,626 $ 3,139,384 $ 12,555,591 $ 8,434,714 Total net revenues growth, constant currency 44 % 95 % 54 % 93 %

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005469/en/

Contacts

Investor Contact:

Coupang IR

ir@coupang.com

Media Contact:

Coupang PR

press@coupang.com
RADNOR, PA / ACCESSWIRE / November 12, 2021 / The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP informs investors that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) ("Boston Beer"), charging the company with violations of the federal securities laws, including omissions and fraudulent misrepresentations relating to the company's business, operations, prospects, sales and financial guidelines. Boston Beer's illicit behavior has caused Boston Beer investors to suffer significant losses as a result of the company's alleged violations of law.

IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE VIEWING THE VIDEO ABOVE, PLEASE CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR BOSTON BEER LOSSES

LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE: November 15, 2021

CLASS PERIOD: April 22, 2021 through September 8, 2021

CONTACT AN ATTORNEY TO DISCUSS YOUR RIGHTS: James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453 or Toll Free (844) 887-9500 or Email at info@ktmc.com

BOSTON BEER'S ALLEGED MISCONDUCT

Boston Beer is a high-end alcoholic beverage company that produces hard seltzer, malt beverages, and hard cider at its cidery and under contractual arrangements at other brewery locations. On April 22, 2021, Boston Beer announced its first quarter 2021 financial results and provided full-year 2021 earnings per share guidance, estimated to be between $22 and $26.

The truth began to emerge on July 22, 2021, when, after the market closed, Boston Beer reduced its full year 2021 guidance and reducing its expected earnings per share to be between $18 and $22 stating that it had "overestimated the growth of the hard seltzer category in the second quarter." Following this news, Boston Beer's share price fell $246.54, or 26%, to close at $701.00 per share on July 23, 2021.

Then, on September 8, 2021, after the market closed, Boston Beer withdrew its 2021 financial guidance and stated that it "expects to incur hard seltzer-related inventory write-offs, shortfall fees payable to third party brewers, and other costs" for the remainder of fiscal 2021. Following this news, Boston Beer's share price fell $21.09, or 3.7%, to close at $538.31 per share on September 9, 2021.

Story continues

WHAT CAN I DO?

Boston Beer investors may, no later than November 15, 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. Kessler Topaz Meltzer& Check, LLP encourages Boston Beer investors who have suffered significant losses to contact the firm directly to acquire more information.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE CASE

WHO CAN BE A LEAD PLAINTIFF?

A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff is usually the investor or small group of investors who have the largest financial interest and who are also adequate and typical of the proposed class of investors. The lead plaintiff selects counsel to represent the lead plaintiff and the class and these attorneys, if approved by the court, are lead or class counsel.

ABOUT KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER & CHECK, LLP

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country and around the world. The firm has developed a global reputation for excellence and has recovered billions of dollars for victims of fraud and other corporate misconduct. All of our work is driven by a common goal: to protect investors, consumers, employees and others from fraud, abuse, misconduct and negligence by businesses and fiduciaries. At the end of the day, we have succeeded if the bad guys pay up, and if you recover your assets. 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

SOURCE: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/672633/Deadline-Approaching-Kessler-Topaz-Meltzer-Check-LLP-Reminds-Investors-of-Deadline-in-Securities-Fraud-Class-Action-Lawsuit-Filed-Against-The-Boston-Beer-Company-Inc




FILE PHOTO: The company logo of Ping An Insurance is seen in Beijing

By Julie Zhu and Kane Wu

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Financial conglomerate Ping An Insurance Group of China is seeking to offload its 44% stake in auto services portal Autohome, three people familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Ping An, which is currently the biggest shareholder of Beijing-based Autohome via an offshore entity, has held talks with several strategic and private equity investors for the stake in recent months, said the people.

The stake would be worth around $2.15 billion based on Authome's current valuation.

Autohome faces growing difficulties in China where automakers, in particular electric vehicle (EV) makers, increasingly rely on their own distribution networks instead of dealerships for sales, said two of the people.

That has affected the business of many dealers in the world's biggest auto market and then forced them to cut budgets for online portals like Autohome, said the people.

Founded in 2005, Autohome mainly serves as an information portal for automobile buyers and an online car-trading marketplace in China.

Advertisements and fees from automakers and dealers generally account for more than 80% of its revenue as they use its platform for services including brand and sales promotions.

Ping An, China's largest insurer by market value, declined to comment on "market rumours". Autohome, which is listed in both New York and Hong Kong, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Autohome's U.S.-listed stock was down more than 70% Thursday from this year's peak of $147.7 in January. It went public in Hong Kong in March with lukewarm interest and its share price has fallen more than 60% from a peak of HK$199.60 in March.

Australian telecom giant Telstra sold its 47.4% stake in Autohome to Ping An in 2016 for $1.6 billion, saying Autohome would benefit from the Ping An's expertise in car insurance and financing as it moved away from being purely online and began offline sales in China.

Ping An's insurance business and investment returns have been hit by weakness in China's economy, which posted its slowest growth in a year in the third quarter as power shortages and property sector worries took a toll.

Story continues

The insurer reported a 31.2% fall in third-quarter net profit due to lower premium income and losses on investment assets.

Ping An had reached out to Tencent Holdings for the stake sale, said two of the sources. The internet and gaming giant owns Bitauto, an online platform similar to Autohome.

However, Tencent did not deem the deal viable due to antitrust concerns, said one of them.

Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Autohome reported $300 million of net revenue and $116 million of net income for the second quarter this year, down 16% and 9% respectively year-on-year.

It has 64 million monthly active users on its mobile phone app and 45 million daily active users on its web portal, according to its website.

(Reporting by Julie Zhu and Kane Wu; Editing by Stephen Coates)
LAS CRUCES - A man accused of strangling and kidnapping his girlfriend by the state of New Mexico and accused of illegally possessing and transporting ammunition by the federal government pleaded guilty in October to many of the charges against him.

Jose Alfredo Morales-Vasquez, 31, pleaded guilty to possession and transportation of ammunition across state lines as a felon as part of a plea agreement to settle the domestic violence charges and weapons charges.

According to the plea agreement, Morales-Vasquez admitted to possessing ammunition after being declared a felon.

The ammunition was found in Morales-Vasquez's residence after police searched his La Union home in June, court records show. Morales-Vasquez admitted in the plea agreement that he purchased the ammunition outside of New Mexico, putting the case in federal jurisdiction.

Morales-Vasquez was initially arrested in May after the Dona Ana County Sheriff's office said he beat, kidnapped and strangled his pregnant ex-girlfriend.

According to an affidavit, Morales-Vasquez asked his ex-girlfriend for a ride to a local store to buy alcohol. On the way there, Morales-Vasquez asked her to unlock her phone.

When she refused, police said Morales-Vasquez attacked her and took her car keys. Morales-Vasquez then punched the woman's windshield and refused to let her leave his residence, according to police.

Eventually, Morales-Vasquez' ex-girlfriend did open the phone. She told police Morales-Vasquez proceeded to strangle her before punching her and kicking her in the stomach.

Morales-Vasquez eventually fell asleep, which allowed the woman to leave his residence, according to police. She was transported to an El Paso hospital.

After serving a search warrant on Morales-Vasquez's residence, police said they discovered over 14 grams of cocaine and charged him with drug trafficking in addition to the domestic violence-related charges.

A federal criminal complaint added that Morales-Vasquez's residence contained ammunition.

Story continues

Shortly after Morales-Vasquez was released on bond by a judge in Dona Ana County, a federal judge ruled that Morales-Vasquez would be detained until his trial.

After the plea agreement was signed and accepted, Morales-Vasquez was sentenced to eight years in prison. The federal plea agreement specifies that Morales-Vasquez will plead guilty to kidnapping and aggravated battery.

According to court filings, Morales-Vasquez is currently being held in federal prison.

Justin Garcia is a public safety reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at JEGarcia@lcsun-news.com or on Twitter @Just516garc.

Other's are reading

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Felon accused of strangling girlfriend, possessing ammo sentenced
By Miranda Murray and Zuzanna Szymanska

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's finance and economy ministries on Friday welcomed the early repayment by flag carrier Lufthansa of bailout aid it received during the coronavirus crisis.

The news showed Germany's federal government made the right decision when it helped Europe's largest airline group during the most difficult situation in its history, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told a news conference.

"The whole thing faced a lot of criticism at the time. Many believed the government would never see the funds again. In the end, Lufthansa would become a state company," Altmaier said.

"All of these fears, I would like to make this very clear again today, have not materialised. Lufthansa made an effort. It used the state money to get through the most difficult months of the pandemic," he said.

Lufthansa Group was saved from bankruptcy during the coronavirus pandemic by Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium with 9 billion euros ($10.30 billion) in financial support approved by the European Commission in June 2020.

Lufthansa only drew 3.8 billion euros out of that amount and on Friday, it said it had repaid the last 1 billion euros.

"It shows it was important and right for the state to help the company through difficult times and thereby secure thousands of jobs," Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who is on course to become Germany's next chancellor, said in a statement.

Rising demand for travel, downsizing and the return of the market's confidence in the airline helped it repay the loans faster than expected, Lufthansa said.

"On behalf of all Lufthansa employees, I would like to thank the German government and the German taxpayers," said Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr.

The ministries said the country's pandemic stabilisation fund's remaining stake of about 14% in Lufthansa would be sold by October 2023 at the latest.

($1 = 0.8736 euros)

(Reporting by Miranda Murray and Zuzanna Szymanska; Editing by Riham Alkousaa, Thomas Escritt, Kirsten Donovan)
Cali, Colombia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Interactive Blockchain-based travel platform, Hidden Global, will change the way individuals travel forever, enabling people from all over the world to discover their perfect hidden paradise destinations. Hidden Global is creating a new platform allowing travelers and tourism operators to coexist and connect in a safe and fair travel market.

Global tourism is in a process of gradual recovery, the COVID-19 pandemic was a near-fatal blow, not only to the tourism industry, but to the lives and economies of millions of people around the world. In 2020, global tourist arrivals fell to 74% (UNWTO Tourism dashboard). The mass vaccination and the various initiatives that seek to encourage the reactivation of tourism have again produced an increase in the number of travelers, however, in the current situation there are many factors that hinder the reactivation and full development of an activity that has an enormous potential to evolve and grow, such as tourism, and that's exactly where Hidden Global came to revolutionize tourism around the world.

Hidden Global's platform is an ecosystem in which everyone registers, creates tourism products, and can freely choose the offer that is most attractive to them, instead of being forced to buy the typical high-cost products that the large travel agencies offer, travelers will have at their disposal a whole free and unlimited market to travel in the best way. In Hidden Global, each user will be free to develop all the potential they have to offer travelers, and each traveler is free to purchase the service that best suits their needs.

The interaction between users will be direct (without intermediaries) and effective, each of these communications and transactions will be recorded in the form of blocks of information; blocks that will be unchanged, transparent, and will be built solely based on mutual agreement between two or more parties. This will be possible thanks to the technology that is changing the world: Blockchain technology.

Story continues

The above means that, the ability to handle the times, budgets and other details of a trip is very limited, not to mention problematic factors such as exchange market volatility, making it possible for money to lose much of its value when converting it to another currency. However, imagine that there was a way that individuals could dispense with all the complications mentioned so far? To be able to manage and carry out a trip without having to worry about the problems that could cause financial intermediaries, exchange rates, or mishaps with large travel agencies. These are the possibilities that Blockchain offers for tourism worldwide.

Applying the advantages just mentioned to a market with as much growth potential as tourism, the possibilities for each traveler will be virtually unlimited each time he or she sets out to travel, because, by increasing the ease of offering and acquiring tourism services, it causes the abundance of tourism services to skyrocket in this context of free market, giving tourists the possibility to choose the products and services they like best, at the price that suits them best, and at times that seem best to them, and all in a safe, transparent and effective way.

Hidden Global's App will be available for IOS and Android, and it will enable travelers to discover new hidden paradise destinations all over the world as well as find activities in each place. All users will have access to travel guides, accommodation and flight options as well as means of payment via Hidden Global's platform, and every two to three months, the App will unlock a new paradisiacal destination to be discovered, with a projection of at least 30 destinations to be unlocked within the next four years. The first destination upon the launch of the App is Colombia, home territory of the founder and CEO, Juan Diego Bernal.

Juan Diego Bernal, CEO and Founder of Hidden Global said: "After what seems like a lifetime of hard work and development, we are delighted to finally announce the launch of the Hidden Global platform. Post-pandemic, the travel industry is crying out for an overhaul of an antiquated tourism infrastructure that we know tourists and travel providers alike find difficult to navigate. Our mission is to provide market equality for all involved in the tourism industry - something that is more important than ever in an increasingly technological and globalized world."

"As the tourism industry begins to recover from the devastating impact of COVID-19, we at Hidden Global are proud to be pioneering the use of Blockchain technology to offer travelers a 'one-stop-shop' for discovering some of the most beautiful destinations on the planet, and believe it, there are a lot! We look forward to welcoming you into the platform. Watch this space for more exciting updates!"

Media Contact:

Contact Person: Juan Diego Bernal, Founder & CEO

Company: Hidden Global

Email: admin@hiddenglobal.org

Website: https://www.hiddenglobal.org

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103236
By Heekyong Yang

YONGIN, South Korea (Reuters) -South Korean engineer Kim Gwang-ho was almost certain he would receive ample compensation from the whistleblower program of the U.S. auto safety regulator for a tip-off about safety lapses at Hyundai Motor Co, his employer of 26 years.

Now, at the end of a five-year ordeal, the award from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has made Kim more than $24 million richer, and he aims to set up a foundation to promote responsible corporate culture.

"The compensation I expected from the whistleblower program in the United States outweighed the sacrifice I had to make in South Korea," Kim, 59, who worked on the firm's quality strategy team, told Reuters on Friday.

Kim's action led to an agreement last year by Hyundai and its affiliate, Kia, which are among the world's top 10 automakers by sales, to pay a record civil penalty https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-recalls-hyundai-kia-idUSKBN28725X of $210 million over recalls involving nearly 1.7 million vehicles.

Kim, who plans to set up a YouTube channel to teach people how to expose their employers' bad behaviour, learned about the U.S. law through training that Hyundai provided, and which inspired him to come forward, he said in an interview.

"(The amount) is not incredible or anything like that, I'd say it's about right," Kim said in the living-room of his home in the city of Yongin, south of Seoul, the capital.

"It's the right amount when you look at what I had to sacrifice, how much I had to work on this," added Kim, who said his action cost him his job and severed ties with long-time colleagues.

"After my report, I believe that automakers now know that anyone can blow the whistle and they cannot hide anything."

Hyundai Motor Group did not have comment.

BIGGEST WORLDWIDE

Tuesday's reward https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-auto-safety-regulator-awards-over-24-mln-hyundai-motor-whistleblower-2021-11-09 was the first by the U.S. regulator and the biggest in a whistleblower case in the automobile sector worldwide, says law firm Constantine Cannon, which represented Kim.

It comes as the regulator and U.S. transport authorities ready regulations for a programme for whistleblowers in the automotive sector that Congress created in 2015 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-whistleblower-idUKKBN0LU25K20150226.

Story continues

The regulator's whistleblower program aims to help it police the automotive industry by rewarding providers of information about safety violations. Successful whistleblowers get a share ranging from 10% to 30% of the fines or penalties collected.

The amount of Kim's award recommended by the regulator is 30% of an upfront payment of $81 million agreed by Hyundai and Kia.

"I was relieved to hear that it finally came to an end," he said, adding that he and his law firm were checking if he stood to receive more.

In the summer of 2016, Kim told the U.S. regulator Hyundai was not taking enough action to resolve an engine fault that increased the risk of crashes, citing an internal report from the strategy team to management.

The vehicle recalls between 2015 and 2017 had ranked among the firms' biggest such exercises in the United States.

Investigation https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hyundai-motor-recall-usa-idUSKCN18G094 by the regulator begun in 2017 led to its decision that the firms had failed to recall the vehicles in a timely fashion, bringing last year's $210-million penalty.

In 2018, Reuters reported that U.S. prosecutors were investigating https://www.reuters.com/article/hyundai-motor-probe-idUSL4N1XW5HP whether Hyundai's vehicle recalls were done properly.

Today, Kim feels his effort was not entirely successful, however.

"Those who tried to cover up recalls at that time are still working as executives at affiliates of Hyundai Motor Group, which I think is the painful reality even after I managed to successfully blow the whistle to correct things," he said.

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang;Editing by Jack Kim and Clarence Fernandez)
NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq. and the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") are investigating the proposed merger of Independence Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: IRT) ("the Company") with Steadfast Apartment REIT, Inc., pursuant to which Independence shareholders are expected to own approximately 50% of the combined company on a pro forma basis. KSF is seeking to determine whether the merger and the process that led to it are adequate, or whether the merger undervalues the Company.

KSF Filing Alert (PRNewsfoto/Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC)

If you believe that this transaction undervalues the Company and/or if you would like to discuss your legal rights regarding the proposed sale, you may, without obligation or cost to you, e-mail or call KSF Managing Partner Lewis S. Kahn (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com) toll free at any time at 855-768-1857, or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-irt/ to learn more.

To learn more about KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General, visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/independence-realty-investor-alert-by-the-former-attorney-general-of-louisiana-kahn-swick--foti-llc-investigates-merger-of-independence-realty-trust-inc---irt-301422757.html

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
MEMPHIS, Tenn., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- International Paper Company (NYSE: IP) (the "Company") announced today the pricing terms for its previously announced cash tender offer (the "Offer") for up to $500 million combined aggregate principal amount (the "Aggregate Maximum Amount") of its outstanding 5.000% Notes due 2035 (the "5.000% Notes"), 5.150% Notes due 2046 (the "5.150% Notes"), 4.80% Notes due 2044 (the "4.80% Notes"), 6.00% Notes due 2041 (the "6.00% Notes"), 4.400% Notes due 2047 (the "4.400% Notes) and the 4.350% Notes due 2048 (the "4.350% Notes," and, together with the 5.000% Notes, the 5.150% Notes, the 4.80% Notes, the 6.00% Notes and the 4.400% Notes, the "Notes").

International Paper logo. (PRNewsfoto/International Paper)

Holders of Notes that were validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or before 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on November 10, 2021 (the "Early Tender Deadline") and whose Notes are accepted for purchase by the Company will receive the applicable Total Consideration.

The "Total Consideration" for each $1,000 principal amount of Notes so tendered and accepted for purchase was determined by the Lead Dealer Managers in the manner described in the Company's Offer to Purchase, dated October 28, 2021 (the "Offer to Purchase"), by reference to the applicable fixed spread specified in the table below for Notes of the applicable series over the yield (the "Reference Yield") based on the bid-side price of the applicable Reference U.S. Treasury Security for such series of Notes specified in the table below at 10:00 a.m., New York City time, on November 12, 2021. The applicable Reference Yield and Total Consideration for each series of Notes are set forth in the table below. Holders whose Notes are accepted for purchase pursuant to the Offer will also receive accrued and unpaid interest on such Notes from the last interest payment date for such Notes to, but excluding, the applicable settlement date for the Offer.

Story continues

Title of Security

CUSIP

Acceptance Priority Level

Principal Amount Expected to be Accepted(1)

Reference U.S. Treasury

Security

Reference Yield

Fixed

Spread

(basis points)

Early

Tender

Premium

Total

Consideration (2) 5.000% Notes due 2035

460146 CM3

1

$193,297,000

1.250% due August 15, 2031

1.551%

120 bps

$50

$1,249.57 5.150% Notes due 2046

460146 CN1

2

$245,236,000

2.375% due May 15, 2051

1.928%

105 bps

$50

$1,370.57 4.80% Notes due 2044

460146 CK7

3

$61,467,000

1.750% due August 15, 2041

1.969%

105 bps

$50

$1,285.52 6.00% Notes due 2041

460146 CH4

4

$0

1.750% due August 15, 2041

1.969%

110 bps

$50

$1,427.70 4.400% Notes due 2047

460146 CQ4

5

$0

2.375% due May 15, 2051

1.928%

100 bps

$50

$1,261.38 4.350% Notes due 2048

460146 CS0

6

$0

2.375% due May 15, 2051

1.928%

100 bps

$50

$1,259.18

(1) Expected to be accepted for purchase, and paid for, on November 15, 2021. (2) Payable for each $1,000 principal amount of applicable Notes validly tendered at or prior to the Early Tender Deadline and accepted for purchase by us and includes the Early Tender Premium. Holders that tender after the Early Tender Deadline, but at or prior to the Expiration Time will not receive the Early Tender Premium. For each series of Notes, the applicable Total Consideration will be calculated taking into account the par call date (rather than the maturity date) for such series. In addition, holders whose Notes are accepted will also receive interest on such Notes accrued to the applicable settlement date.

Notes that have been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or before the Early Tender Deadline and are accepted in the Offer will be purchased, retired and cancelled by the Company on the early settlement date, which is expected to occur on November 15, 2021 (the "Early Settlement Date")

The amounts of each series of Notes that are purchased on the Early Settlement Date will be determined in accordance with the acceptance priority levels and the proration procedures described in the Offer to Purchase. In accordance with the terms of the Offer, all of the 5.000% Notes and 5.150% Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn will be accepted for purchase and settled on the Early Settlement Date. Because the aggregate purchase price of Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn exceeded the Aggregate Maximum Amount, (i) using a proration factor of 0.25891713, $61,467,000 aggregate principal amount of the 4.80% Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn will be accepted for purchase and settled on the Early Settlement Date and (ii) none of the 6.00% Notes, 4.400% Notes or 4.350% Notes will be accepted in the Offer. In addition, because the aggregate principal amounts of Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or before the Early Tender Deadline and accepted for purchase exceeded the Aggregate Maximum Amount, no more Notes will be accepted in the Offer, regardless of Acceptance Priority Level.

The withdrawal rights for the Offer expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on November 10, 2021; therefore, previously tendered Notes may no longer be withdrawn.

The Offer is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase.

The Company has retained Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and BBVA Securities Inc. to serve as Lead Dealer Managers for the Offer. The Company has also retained Global Bondholder Services Corporation to serve as depositary and information agent for the Offer.

Requests for documents relating to the Offer may be directed to Global Bondholder Services Corporation by telephone at (866) 807-2200 or (212) 430-3774, in writing at 65 Broadway, Suite 404, New York, New York 10006 or online at https://www.gbsc-usa.com/ip/. Questions regarding the Offer may be directed to BBVA Securities Inc. at 1345 Avenue of the Americas, 44th Floor, New York, New York 10105, Attn: Liability Management, Toll-free: (800) 422-8692, email: liabilitymanagement@bbva.com or Citigroup Global Markets Inc. at 388 Greenwich Street, Trading 4th Floor, New York, New York 10013, Attn: Liability Mgt. Group, Toll-free: (800) 558-3745, Collect: (212) 723-6106.

This press release is not a tender offer to purchase or a solicitation of acceptance of a tender offer, which may be made only pursuant to the terms of the Offer to Purchase. In any jurisdiction where the laws require the Offer to be made by a licensed broker or dealer, the Offer will be deemed made on behalf of the Company by one of the Dealer Managers or one or more registered brokers or dealers under the laws of such jurisdiction.

None of the Company, its board of directors, the depositary, the information agent, any of the dealer managers or the trustee for the Notes is making any recommendation as to whether holders should tender Notes in response to the Offer. Holders must make their own decisions as to whether to tender Notes, and, if so, the principal amount of Notes to tender.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements describing the Company's acceptance of Notes for purchase, payment of the Total Consideration and other matters relating to completion of the Offer, and similar statements concerning anticipated future events and expectations that are not historical facts. Such forward- looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "could," "should" and "would," and variations of these words or comparable words. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, and inherently involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. You should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to make any revision to the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release.

About International Paper

International Paper (NYSE: IP) is a leading global producer of renewable fiber-based packaging and pulp products with manufacturing operations in North America, Latin America, North Africa and Europe. We produce packaging products that protect and promote goods, and enable worldwide commerce, and pulp for diapers, tissue and other personal hygiene products that promote health and wellness. We are headquartered in Memphis, Tenn. and employ approximately 38,000 colleagues. Net sales for 2020 were $21 billion*. In Russia, the Company has a 50/50 joint venture, Ilim Group, the country's largest integrated manufacturer of pulp and paper and its largest foreign-domestic alliance in the forestry products sector. For more information about International Paper, our products and global citizenship efforts, please visit internationalpaper.com.

*Inclusive of our former pulp and paper mill in Kwidzyn, Poland, which was sold on August 6, 2021, and our former global papers business, which became a standalone, publicly traded company on October 1, 2021.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20020701/IPLOGO

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/international-paper-announces-price-determination-with-respect-to-cash-tender-offer-for-certain-of-its-outstanding-notes-for-up-to-500-million-combined-aggregate-principal-amount-301423402.html

SOURCE International Paper
(Bloomberg) -- Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings is in talks to combine some of its assets with Syneos Health Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The companies are discussing a deal in which part of Labcorps Covance clinical research division would merge with Syneos, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

The people said the two North Carolina-based companies are discussing structuring the deal as a so-called Reverse Morris Trust, which provides tax benefits by spinning off an asset before its combined. The people said Syneoss management would run the merged company, although its leadership would include executives from Covance, which has changed its name to Labcorp Drug Development.

The talks are ongoing and theres no certainty they will lead to a transaction, the people said. The structure of a deal could also still change, they said.

Covance is worth an estimated $18.3 billion, including debt, based on how peers are valued, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Representatives for Syneos didnt immediately respond to messages seeking comment outside regular business hours. A spokesperson for Labcorp declined to comment.

Labcorp said in March that it was running a review of the companys structure and capital allocation because it felt the stock was undervalued.

Labcorp rose 2.5% to $293.90 at 10:45 a.m. in New York trading Friday, giving the company a market value of about $28.1 billion. In its biggest intraday decline since December, Syneos fell 6.2% to $96.21, giving it a market value of about $10 billion.

Investment Surge

A combination would add to a boom in activity involving companies like Syneos that support clinical trials as money pours into the development of new treatments and vaccines.

Story continues

In April, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. agreed to buy PPD Inc., a provider of clinical and research services, for $17.4 billion. In July, buyout firm EQT AB and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.s investment arm agreed to buy Parexel International Corp. for $8.5 billion.

Investors have favored so-called contract research organizations as a way to gain exposure to pharmaceutical spending without the risk of investing directly in biotech or pharmaceutical companies whose success -- or failure -- rides on the therapies they are testing.

Syneos, whose shares are up 41% this year, is just one beneficiary of that investment surge.

(Adds Covance valuation in fifth paragraph; updates trading in eighth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2021 Bloomberg L.P.
DALLAS, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lantern Pharma (NASDAQ: LTRN), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company using its proprietary RADR artificial intelligence ("A.I.") platform to transform the cost, pace, and timeline of oncology drug discovery and development, today announced it will host a virtual Key Opinion Leader (KOL) event regarding the potential treatment of pancreatic cancer utilizing Lantern Pharma's drug candidate LP-184, on World Pancreatic Cancer Day, Thursday, November 18th at 12:00 pm EST.

Lantern Pharma (LTRN) Logo (PRNewsfoto/Lantern Pharma)

The event will be cohosted by:

Dr. Igor Astsaturov, an established, NCI-funded, physician scientist and co-leader of the Marvin & Conchetta Greenberg Pancreatic Cancer Institute at Fox Chase Cancer Center

Dr. Ira Sharp, retired internal medicine specialist, as well as a pancreatic cancer survivor and cancer patient advocate

Dr. Kishor G. Bhatia, Chief Scientific Officer of Lantern Pharma

The event will feature discussions on the recent advances of LP-184, a PTGR1-activated small molecule that leverages DNA repair deficiency to selectively eradicate pancreatic cancers, and potential clinical uses of LP-184 in an upcoming Phase I clinical trial.

Lantern Pharma's Virtual KOL Event details are as follows:

Thursday, November 18, 2021, 12:00 pm EST- 1:00 pm EST

To register for the webinar, please sign up here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/4916366404903/WN_91paHQLiR9ixOTIcm82B6g

A replay of the webinar will be available on the investor relations section of the Company's website: ir.lanternpharma.com

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States with a five-year survival rate of 7.9% and a 10-year survival rate of just 1%. GLOBOCAN estimates that for pancreatic cancer there are approximately 490,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer globally on an annual basis, with over 62,000 of those cases occurring in North America. Due to the late onset of symptoms, patients are often diagnosed after the cancer has progressed to locally advanced or metastatic stages of the disease. LP-184 is designed to target a specific subset of pancreatic cancer patients that are genetically defined, which has the potential to increase beneficial therapeutic options for patients and may ultimately improve survival for those with this cancer.

Story continues

LP-184 is in pre-clinical development for several targeted indications in cancer, including pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma. LP-184 preferentially damages DNA in cancer cells that over-express certain biomarkers or that harbor mutations in DNA repair pathways. LP-184 was recently granted Orphan Drug Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, and also for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and other malignant gliomas.

About Lantern Pharma

Lantern Pharma (LTRN) is a clinical-stage oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary RADR A.I. platform and machine learning to discover biomarker signatures that identify patients most likely to respond to its pipeline of genomically-targeted therapeutics. Lantern is currently developing four drug candidates and an ADC program across eight disclosed tumor targets, including two phase 2 programs. By targeting drugs to patients whose genomic profile identifies them as having the highest probability of benefiting from the drug, Lantern's approach represents the potential to deliver best-in-class outcomes. More information is available at: www.lanternpharma.com and Twitter @lanternpharma.

About RADR

RADR or Response Algorithm for Drug Positioning & Rescue, is Lantern's proprietary integrated A.I. platform for large-scale biomarker and drug-tumor interaction data analytics that leverages machine-learning. RADR is used to provide mechanistic insights about drug-tumor interactions, predict the potential response of cancer types and subtypes to existing drugs and drug candidates, and uncover patient groups that may respond to potential therapies being developed by Lantern and its collaborators.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements relating to: future events or our future financial performance; the potential advantages of our RADR platform in identifying drug candidates and patient populations that are likely to respond to a drug candidate; our strategic plans to advance the development of our drug candidates and antibody drug conjugate (ADC) development program; estimates regarding the development timing for our drug candidates and ADC development program; our research and development efforts of our internal drug discovery programs and the utilization of our RADR platform to streamline the drug development process; our intention to leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning and genomic data to streamline and transform the pace, risk and cost of oncology drug discovery and development and to identify patient populations that would likely respond to a drug candidate; estimates regarding potential markets and potential market sizes; sales estimates for our drug candidates and our plans to discover and develop drug candidates and to maximize their commercial potential by advancing such drug candidates ourselves or in collaboration with others. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (including, without limitation, statements that use words such as "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "seek," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "target," "objective," "aim," "upcoming," "should," "will," "would," or the negative of these words or other similar expressions) should be considered forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements, such as (i) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) the risk that our research and the research of our collaborators in the area of pancreatic cancer may not be successful, (iii) the risk that none of our product candidates has received FDA marketing approval, and we may not be able to successfully initiate, conduct, or conclude clinical testing for or obtain marketing approval for our product candidates, (iv) the risk that no drug product based on our proprietary RADR A.I. platform has received FDA marketing approval or otherwise been incorporated into a commercial product, and (v) those other factors set forth in the Risk Factors section in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 10, 2021. You may access our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 under the investor SEC filings tab of our website at www.lanternpharma.com or on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Given these risks and uncertainties, we can give no assurances that our forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, or that any other results or events projected or contemplated by our forward-looking statements will in fact occur, and we caution investors not to place undue reliance on these statements. All forward-looking statements in this press release represent our judgment as of the date hereof, and, except as otherwise required by law, we disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to conform the statement to actual results or changes in our expectations.

CONTACT:

Investor Relations

David Waldman, Crescendo Communications, LLC

IR@lanternpharma.com

212-671-1021

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lantern-pharma-to-host-virtual-kol-event-on-the-potential-treatment-of-pancreatic-cancer-with-drug-candidate-lp-184-on-november-18th-world-pancreatic-cancer-day-301423103.html

SOURCE Lantern Pharma
Lundin Energy AB (Lundin Energy or the Company) has further considered the Swedish Prosecution Authoritys criminal charges against Ian H. Lundin and Alex Schneiter for complicity in crimes against international law, gross crime, following the Companys initial announcement on 11 November 2021. The Company is therefore today publishing a summary of its position on the indictment from its defence counsel to provide further reassurance as to the defence. Ian H. Lundin, Alex Schneiter and the Company continue to strongly deny the criminal charges, and the Company reaffirms that there are no grounds for the allegations of wrongdoing by any of its representatives. The Company also reaffirms that it sees no circumstance in which a corporate fine or forfeiture could become payable and does not foresee any impact on the operational and financial guidance set out previously.



Following a comprehensive review of all the pre-investigation materials, and an initial assessment of the details of the indictment decision itself, the Company and its defence counsel are of the view that it is simply not possible to conclude that any representative of the Company, either directly or indirectly, was complicit in encouraging anyone to commit crimes against international law  let alone that any perpetrator as a result of such encouragement would have committed any such crimes. Since the Prosecutor cannot, on an objective assessment, expect a conviction in an indictment against the Company representatives, he could be pursuing an unjustified indictment.

Nick Walker, President and CEO of Lundin Energy, commented:

This case is both unfounded and fundamentally flawed. There is no evidence linking any Company representative to the alleged primary crimes in this case and we see no circumstance in which a corporate fine or forfeiture could become payable given this fact. The Company intends to firmly contest the claims for a corporate fine and forfeiture of economic benefits and does not foresee any impact on the operational and financial guidance that has been set out previously.

Story continues

The Company is therefore today publishing a summary of its position on the indictment from its defence counsel to provide further reassurance as to the defence, available on this link https://www.lundinsudanlegalcase.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Lundin-Energy-AB-counsels-statement-2021-11-12.pdf

This summary clearly shows six key areas in which the Swedish Prosecution Authoritys decision to indict is fundamentally flawed:

The Company carried out fully legitimate and responsible business operations in Sudan as part of an international consortium. It operated within a framework of constructive engagement in the country as endorsed by the UN, EU and Sweden.



There is no evidence or valid grounds for allegations of complicity by any Company representatives.



The Prosecutors statement of the criminal act is extremely vague and inexplicit: after eleven years of investigation, it still does not meet basic requirements under Swedish law.



The NGO reports referred to by the Swedish Prosecution Authority cannot be relied upon as evidence in court: they are primarily intended for opinion formation and activism and lack credibility, accuracy and reliability.



Plaintiff interviews from the pre-investigation contain extensive inaccuracies, incomplete information and there are major credibility and integrity issues in relation to how the Plaintiffs were identified by the Prosecutor.



There is no basis for a corporate fine or forfeiture against the Company, primarily because no crime has been committed in pursuit of legitimate business activities but also because the calculations are based on wholly incorrect assumptions leading to a number inflated by an order of magnitude, which have no basis in law and are highly speculative.





The Swedish Prosecution Authoritys decision to bring these criminal charges is yet another step in a long legal process which may take many years to reach a conclusion. The Swedish Prosecution Authority has ignored numerous submissions and applications  supported by independent legal experts, including eminent international law professors  as to why this case should not legally be allowed to proceed.

Biorn Riese, Jurie, Senior Defence Counsel for the Company stated:

Having followed this seemingly never-ending investigation closely for many years, we remain confident that the operations in Sudan were normal, fully legitimate and that there is no basis whatsoever for any indictment of the Companys representatives or any claim against the Company. While it is extremely disappointing and concerning that the Swedish Prosecution Authority has now issued an indictment instead of closing the investigation, which should have been done a long time ago, at least we now see the beginning of the end of all this. We are convinced that the court will find the Swedish Prosecution Authoritys motion to be without any merit.

Ian H. Lundin, Alex Schneiter and the Company will continue to challenge the legal basis of the indictment on several grounds  including unreasonable delay, the vagueness of the suspicions and the Swedish Prosecution Authoritys exercise of so-called universal jurisdiction. As a result, it is possible there may not even be a trial on the merits of the case.

The Company remains confident that both the defence and the extensive deficiencies in the conduct of the investigation will be considered by the Court process in determining that its representatives did nothing wrong.

The Company will continue to assess this matter as it develops and update the market accordingly.

For more information on the Companys past activities in the region, the case to date and our concerns over the legal process, please visit www.lundinsudanlegalcase.com.





For all IR requests, please contact:

Edward Westropp

VP Investor Relations

Tel: +41 22 595 10 14

edward.westropp@lundin-energy.com

For media requests, please contact:

Robert Eriksson

Head of Media Communications

Tel: +46 701 11 26 15

media@lundin-energy.com





Lundin Energy is an experienced Nordic oil and gas company that explores for, develops and produces resources economically, efficiently and responsibly. We focus on value creation for our shareholders and wider stakeholders through three strategic pillars: Resilience, Sustainability and Growth. Our high quality, low cost assets mean we are resilient to oil price volatility, and our organic growth strategy, combined with our sustainable approach and commitment to decarbonisation, firmly establishes our leadership role in a lower carbon energy future. (Nasdaq Stockholm: LUNE). For more information, please visit us at www.lundin-energy.com or download our App www.myirapp.com/lundin





Forward-looking statements

Certain statements made and information contained herein constitute forward-looking information (within the meaning of applicable securities legislation). Such statements and information (together, forward-looking statements) relate to future events, including Lundin Energys future performance, business prospects or opportunities. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to estimates of reserves and/or resources, future production levels, future capital expenditures and their allocation to exploration and development activities, future drilling and other exploration and development activities. Ultimate recovery of reserves or resources are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management.

All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements. Statements concerning proven and probable reserves and resource estimates may also be deemed to constitute forward-looking statements and reflect conclusions that are based on certain assumptions that the reserves and resources can be economically exploited. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as seek, anticipate, plan, continue, estimate, expect, may, will, project, predict, potential, targeting, intend, could, might, should, believe and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. No assurance can be given that these expectations and assumptions will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements should not be relied upon. These statements speak only as on the date of the information and Lundin Energy does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties relating to, among other things, operational risks (including exploration and development risks), productions costs, availability of drilling equipment, reliance on key personnel, reserve estimates, health, safety and environmental issues, legal risks and regulatory changes, competition, geopolitical risk, and financial risks. These risks and uncertainties are described in more detail under the heading Risk management and elsewhere in Lundin Energys Annual Report. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Attachment




Guests who download and register on the McDonald's app can earn points on every order* with MyMcDonald's Rewards and redeem for free McDonald's from the biggest-ever Rewards menu

Welcome offer of 5,000 bonus points available to app users with their first MyMcDonald's Rewards purchase of $1 or more pre-tax  that's enough points for a FREE any size World Famous Fries, Sausage McMuffin, Cheeseburger, any size McCafe latte and more

TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2021 /CNW/ - On November 16, 2021, McDonald's Canada will celebrate the launch of MyMcDonald's Rewards, its first ever points-based loyalty program. This is great news for the many loyal-for-life guests from coast to coast to coast who can now earn points on every menu item (excluding delivery orders)--from a morning McCafe Premium Roast Coffee and Egg McMuffin, to a Big Mac at lunch, or an afternoon treat of World Famous Fries or a McFlurry for a cool treat--and get more of what they love for free through MyMcDonald's Rewards.

On November 16, 2021, McDonalds Canada will celebrate the launch of MyMcDonalds Rewards, its first ever points-based loyalty program. Guests from coast to coast to coast can now earn points on every menu item (excluding delivery orders) and get more of what they love for free. (CNW Group/McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Ltd.)

Welcome offer of 5,000 bonus points available to app users with their first MyMcDonald's Rewards purchase of $1 or more

Earn 100 points for every $1 spent for free McDonald's!MyMcDonald's Rewards means our Rewards menu just got bigger and guests can now earn 100 points per $1 spent which means they will be rewarded for all menu items they purchase, not just their coffee and fries. But that's not all, we've also made it easier to earn and redeem points for even more free food (big and small) at McDonald's. On November 16, guests can download the McDonald's app, register, and activate their account to start earning points on every order! * Earning points is easy; guests simply need to scan or say their code at the restaurant or complete a mobile order to collect points automatically.

Rewards add up quickly

And it doesn't end there. The new program boasts five Rewards tiers, giving guests more all-day options to redeem for than ever before. From any size Premium Roast Coffee (hot or iced), a vanilla cone and more in Tier 1 to a Big Mac Extra Value Meal in Tier 5, the Rewards menu suits any occasion. Two thousand points gets you a Tier 1 Reward, while Tier 5 Rewards are 14,000 points. As guests earn more points, they advance through the tiered Rewards system to unlock even more free McDonald's favourites. And for a limited time, as an exciting welcome offer, guests can get 5,000 bonus points after their first MyMcDonald's Rewards purchase (minimum $1 pre-tax purchase required). Please visit www.mcdonalds.ca/myrewards to see what you can redeem for free with your points!

Story continues

Continuing digital journey benefits guests and crew

The announcement of MyMcDonald's Rewards marks another key milestone in McDonald's digital ambition as it responds to the evolving needs of guests and crew.

"Our guests are some of the most loyal in the world, and we're pleased to offer them more reasons to visit us, again and again. This announcement marks another step in our digital ambition as we continue transforming the McDonald's experience on both sides of the counter, which began with the introduction of self-serve kiosks in 2015," said Jacques Mignault, President & Chief Executive Officer, McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited. "Our ongoing investment in technology is helping to drive exponential growth across our channels, including McDelivery, Drive-Thru, in restaurants and via our mobile offerings and digital innovations, which gives our guests greater options and personalization across their McDonald's experience."

In further evolving its loyalty offering within its easy-to-use mobile app, McDonald's continues to prioritize value, convenience, and personalization in the guest experience.

"Canadians live in an increasingly digital world, and we have to meet them there. We also know our guests have been loyal long before loyalty programs existed. Enter MyMcDonald's Rewards, which is a thrilling digital innovation designed to meet our brand fans and their evolving needs by helping them earn even more Rewards on the food they love," said Lara Skripitsky, Vice President & Chief Technology and Operations Officer, McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited. "No matter where guests connect with us  through kiosks in the restaurants, digital menu boards at the Drive-Thru, or via our mobile appMyMcDonald's Rewards will be there to provide a seamless, personalized service that's more customized and rewarding every time a customer orders."

"In addition to convenience and personalization that takes the digital guest experience to a new levelMyMcDonald's Rewards will offer more opportunities for us to reward our guests for their loyalty, helping guests build even greater connection to the McDonald's brand, which is incredibly exciting," said Alyssa Buetikofer, Chief Marketing Officer, McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited.

Evolution of existing rewards

The MyMcDonald's Rewards program launches Canada wide after a successful pilot test at McDonald's restaurants in Manitoba, as well as in Fort Frances, Kenora and Dryden, Ontario from late-August through mid-November 2021. From October, McDonald's will also test the removal of McCafe Rewards stickers from cups (in these select Manitoba and Ontario locations only) with no firm plans to sunset the on-cup McCafe Rewards program nationally.

The new MyMcDonald's Rewards program replaces the current McDonald's Rewards program on the McDonald's app where guests were collecting digital punches on hot beverages and fries. Guests with outstanding punches on the app and who choose to enroll in the MyMcDonald's Rewards program will have them converted at 300 points per punch (up to a maximum of 1,800 points). Guests have until February 28, 2022 to redeem any existing medium fry or hot beverage rewards earned with the current McDonald's Rewards program.

Guest Experience Leaders are standing by to help

For full details on how to start earning points with MyMcDonald's Rewards today, and on program Rewards tiers, please visit www.mcdonalds.ca/myrewards . For those needing help with the app, McDonald's and its franchisees will have Guest Experience Leaders available in restaurants to help any guests download the app, register an account, and walk them through the process of using it to earn and redeem rewards.

"We are so proud of the Guest Experience Leaders in Manitoba and parts of Ontario who have been helping guests learn to use the app since we started the test in August," said Skripitsky. "They are making sure the transition is smooth, and feedback from the community has been fantastic. Guests are earning and redeeming, and they love it."

*Eligible purchases only. Program available at participating McDonald's restaurants in Canada. See Program Terms at mcdonalds.ca/myrewardsterms or in-app for details. Excludes delivery. App download and registration required.

For a limited time only. Min. $1 pre-tax purchase required. For first time MyMcDonald's Rewards users only.

About McDonald's Canada

In 1967, Canadians welcomed the first McDonald's restaurant to Richmond, British Columbia. Today, McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited has become part of the Canadian fabric, serving close to three million guests every day. In both franchised and corporate-owned restaurants, nearly 100,000 people are employed from coast-to-coast, and more than 90 per cent of McDonald's 1,400 Canadian restaurants are locally owned and operated by independent franchisees. Of the almost $1 billion spent on food, more than 85 per cent is purchased from suppliers in Canada. For more information on McDonald's Canada, visit mcdonalds.ca.

SOURCE McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Ltd.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2021/12/c1096.html
Angelica Sinito

Vice President, The Millennia Companies

Vice President, The Millennia Companies

Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Millennia Companies (Millennia) today announced that Angelica Sinito has been promoted to Vice President, effective immediately, in accordance with the enterprises long-term strategy.

In her new role, Sinito will guide portfolio growth strategy, lead key asset management functions, establish new debt and equity platforms, and complete Tax-Exempt Bond and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit transactions, which support multi-million-dollar renovations and preserve the affordability of multifamily affordable housing developments, many of which have experienced years of decline.

I would like to congratulate Angelica on her well-deserved promotion, said Michael J. Pico, Chief Human Resource Officer at Millennia. Her finance and real estate expertise and extensive understanding of Millennias dynamic group of companies will play an integral role in Millennias growth and success for well into the future.

Sinito will continue to oversee the companys institutional investor relations activities and manage Year 15 and market-rate multifamily development projects.

Prior to Millennia, Sinito worked at Related Companies, where she focused on high yield credit investments across all asset classes and at R4Capital as an analyst . Sinito earned her Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of Michigans Stephen M. Ross School of Business where she studied Finance and Real Estate. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute.

About The Millennia Companies

In 1995, Frank T. Sinito founded The Millennia Companies, a high-performance business enterprise with a strong sense of mission to enrich lives. Millennia operates in a closely aligned set of sectors including real estate development and property management, and its portfolio includes more than 275 multifamily residential communities in 26 states - over 100 apartment developments have undergone transformative rehabilitations. In 2020, Affordable Housing Finance ranked Millennia #1 Top 10 Companies Completing Substantial Rehabilitations and #4 Top 50 Affordable Housing Owners; and Multi-Housing News ranked Millennia #18 Top Multifamily Development Firm.

Story continues

Attachment

CONTACT: Valerie Jerome The Millennia Companies 216-236-0881 vjerome@mhmltd.com




Minister pitched opportunities in Canada's ZEV and AI hubs in meetings with European stakeholders

OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Today, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Francois-Philippe Champagne, concluded visits to three German cities and to Brussels and Paris, where he met with governmental counterparts and business leaders in key sectors.

Minister Champagne began his trip in Germany, where he met with corporate leaders and stakeholders in Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich. He promoted Canada as a hub of expertise and talent for zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) manufacturing, electric vehicle research and battery, fuel cell and hydrogen production. The Minister highlighted the policies the Government of Canada has put in place, including the Net Zero Accelerator, to support the development of the full supply chain for electric vehicles and clean technologies in Canada, from the mining of critical minerals to the recycling of batteries.

In Brussels, Minister Champagne met with his European Union (EU) counterpart, Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market. Following up on the CanadaEU summit in June 2021, the Minister and the Commissioner discussed ways to deepen trade and scientific ties between Canada and EU member states. The Minister also met with senior representatives of the European Commission to discuss a wide range of areas of cooperation, including industrial policy and the digital economy.

In Paris, Minister Champagne highlighted Canada's leadership role in the responsible development of artificial intelligence (AI) and in championing international collaboration in this rapidly evolving area of technology. He participated in the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Paris Summit, where he met with counterparts from GPAI's 19 member countries and leading experts in AI. Minister Champagne held a bilateral meeting with Cedric O, France's Minister of State for the Digital Transition and Electronic Communications, to discuss the handover of GPAI's chairmanship from Canada to France. During the summit, Minister Champagne highlighted the progress that has been made in GPAI's first year during Canada's chairmanship, including examining how AI can be used to address complex global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

Story continues

Minister Champagne also attended the Paris Peace Forum with French President Emmanuel Macron and a Remembrance Day event at the Canadian embassy in Paris.

Minister Champagne met with Mathias Cormann, Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris to discuss joint priorities, such as the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, digitalization, a way forward on trusted government access, and climate change.

Minister Champagne also met with corporate leaders in Paris to discuss opportunities for partnership and investment in sectors across Canada.

Quote

"This week was focused on selling Canada as a competitive investment destination, including in clean technology, automotive and battery supply chains and AI. It was an opportunity to highlight to leaders in government and business that Canada offers a unique value proposition, with its critical natural resources, clean energy, competitive business environment and strong free trade agreement with Europe."

 The Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

Quick facts

German companies are some of the biggest investors and supply chain partners for the Canadian manufacturing sector, and similarly, Canadians are also important clients for German firms. Germany is the 10th-largest foreign investor in Canada, and 5th among European countries, with direct investment valued at $18.2 billion at the end of 2020. Germany is also Canada's 6th-largest merchandise trading partner, with 2-way merchandise trade totalling $23.7 billion in 2020.

The visit to Belgium signalled the importance of the CanadaEU bilateral relationship and highlighted Canada's willingness to engage with the EU on common interests relating to the digital economy, science, technology and innovation, and supply chains.

Canada and the EU share strong trade ties: in 2020 the EU was Canada's 2nd-largest trading partner, with $28.7 billion in goods and $11.3 billion in services exported to the EU, accounting for 5.5% of Canada's global goods exports and 9.9% of Canada's global services exports.

Canada and France share particularly robust trade and investment relations. Even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, France has remained Canada's 9th-largest merchandise trading partner. In 2020, bilateral trade with France totalled $10.2 billion and Canadian exports to France increased by 2% to $3.7 billion. France is also the 12th-largest foreign investor in Canada, with direct investment of $17.7 billion at the end of 2020.

Related products

Associated links

Stay connected

Find more services and information at Canada.ca/ISED.

Follow Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on social media.

Twitter: @ISED_CA, Facebook: CanadianInnovation, Instagram: @cdninnovation and LinkedIn

SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

Cision

View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2021/12/c6300.html
- PlayDapp provides "blockchain Plugin" a blockchain API solution to GamePot scheduled for release in Q4

- It will be helpful to domestic and overseas developers who have difficulty in building blockchain infrastructure

SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blockchain game service platform PlayDapp (CEO Brian Choi) announced on the 12th that it has signed a joint business contract with ITSB (CEO Gong Shin-bae) to expand the blockchain game ecosystem.

Through this contract, the two companies plan to actively advance into the North American market through the ITSB US branch recently established in Irvine, California, as well as in Korea. In particular, PlayDapp will supply 'blockchain plug-ins' specialized for blockchain game services to GamePot, and ITSB will introduce blockchain plug-in services within GamePot. ITSB actively encourages the introduction of blockchain technology for 50 domestic developers using game pods such as Ragnarok and Rohan M, and further strengthens the expansion of the blockchain game ecosystem by targeting the North American market with a high understanding of blockchain games.

PlayDapp is a DApp game portal that provides a C2C marketplace based on blockchain technology. PlayDapp games are interoperable and provide a diverse portfolio of games that gamers can enjoy with Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). In addition, it is attracting attention as a blockchain technology company through the 'Item Manager' that provides the function of converting goods obtained from games into NFTs.

GamePot is a solution jointly developed by ITSB and Naver Cloud, led by CEO Gong Shin-bae, who has been in the game industry for more than 20 years. As one of Naver Cloud's core services, it provides integrated game management services and supports various solutions necessary for post-launch operation, statistics, and customer needs from SDKs (Software Development Kit) needed for game development. All ITSB's solutions, including GamePot are stably serviced in conjunction with Naver's cloud platform.

Story continues

Meanwhile, PlayDapp's blockchain Plug-in is an API (Application Programming Interface) blockchain game service solution that helps game developers who have difficulty building blockchain infrastructure to introduce blockchain game services with simple interworking. Through the corresponding service, functions such as game item NFT generation (mint), destruction (burn), and transfer may be easily used.

Sang Chung, General Manager of PlayDapp, said, "We are happy to collaborate with ITSB 'GamePot', which has the best technology in the game management service sector, to expand the blockchain game ecosystem. We will introduce Blockchain Plug-in within this fourth quarter."

ITSB CEO Gong Shin-bae said, "Recently, the game NFT market has been a global craze. In existing games, all the money spent by users has been handed over to game developers, but now it is possible for gamers to earn actual profits by purchasing NFT. We will advance NFT technology to the world with PlayDapp, which will change the paradigm of gaming, he said.

PlayDapp Blockchain Plugin Architecture, which is scheduled to be introduced in NaverCloud and ITSBs 'GamePot' service.

About PlayDapp

PlayDapp is a blockchain gaming platform that operates on the Ethereum and Polygon networks. Gamers can play games to earn NFTs and rewards in PLA tokens. PlayDapp also integrates a C2C marketplace that is the home to all NFTs in the gaming metaverse.

PlayDapp has already launched its flagship game Along with the Gods: Knight of the Dawn, which can be downloaded from the Google playstore.

SuperTree, the developer of PlayDapp MarketPLAce, was named as part of C-Lab Outside, of Samsung Electronics(KRX: 005930) in 2019. C-Lab Outside is a startup incubation program that supports growth by discovering promising start-ups in Samsung Electronics.

Media Contact

PlayDapp PR Team Leader

Hanna Kim

hanna@playdapp.io

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/playdapp-and-itsbs-gamepot-join-forces-to-introduce-blockchain-games-to-north-america-301422926.html

SOURCE PlayDapp
TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Prophecy DeFi Inc. ("Prophecy DeFi", "PDFI" or the "Company") (CSE: PDFI) is pleased to provide an operational update, further to its press release dated October 19, 2021, on its wholly owned subsidiary, Layer2 Blockchain Inc. ("Layer2" or the "Subsidiary")

Prophecy DeFi Inc. logo (CNW Group/Prophecy DeFi Inc.)

Layer2 Blockchain Investment Update

Since our press release of October 19th highlighting the first 90 days of operations, Layer2 has continued to produce significant returns from existing positions, generating yield and capital gains of $2.98M from its original $3.65M in deployed capital in under 120 days of operations. The deployed capital now stands at $6.63M and we are pleased to announce that on November 11th, Prophecy DeFi provided additional capital to Layer2 in order to take advantage of new market opportunities. This increases Layer2's total deployable capital base to $7.13M.

Layer2 is uniquely positioned in the industry to identify and provide liquidity to emerging DeFi protocols. The team continues to discover compelling opportunities, deploy capital, and generate outsized returns. Layer2's ability to execute on its strategy is due to its position in the industry as true DeFi operators, who are identifying high-quality DeFi projects and working alongside the Founding Teams of these protocols to become a liquidity partner at the time of their launch.

Impermax Finance

Impermax is a innovate new DeFi protocol that has launched on Polygon, Arbitrum and Avalanche, all layer two blockchain protocols, in the last three months. This multichain expansion has driven rapid growth in their TVL from $8M to over $50M. Impermax provides users the ability to borrow against their existing LP tokens, by using them as collateral. This allows sophisticated investors to leverage their LP positions to maximize yield and IMX is the first permissions protocol to offer this service.

Layer2 identified this project as an emerging DeFi protocol, which has tremendous potential. Recognizing this, Layer2 worked directly with Impermax's founders to acquire a position of IMX, the protocol's governance token. Thus far, Layer2 has deployed $152,832 in the form of single sided and traditional liquidity to Impermax, which now has a market value of $473,549 and has returned an additional $44,595 in yield.

Story continues

"The Layer2 team has been a great partner of Impermax's since we first deployed on the Polygon blockchain. Prophecy and Layer2's strong connections within the Decentralized Finance and layer two blockchain industry will continue to enable IMX's rapid growth to a billion-dollar DeFi protocol." commented Simone Rigolon, CEO of Impermax Finance.

Additional DeFi Opportunities

Layer2's positions are currently spread across Polygon, Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. These positions are concentrated in ETH, BNB, SX, and MATIC tokens.

Prophecy DeFi's conviction in the growth of Decentralized Finance is proving to be accurate, with the Total Locked Value (TVL) in Decentralized Finance protocols now standing at over US$270B, according to DeFi Llama, which represents an approx. 1,725% increase from one year ago. There are now 26 blockchains and 500+ DeFi protocols, with this number increasing every week. The Layer2 team believes it will continue to generate significant monthly yields on capital as opportunities continue to proliferate.

Andrew Young, Layer2 Blockchain Chief Executive, said: "The growth in Total Locked Value in Decentralized Finance protocols has been explosive and is continuing to provide Layer2 with tremendous opportunities to deploy capital."

"The Decentralized Finance sector remains at its infancy, and we fundamentally believe that growth and adoption is inevitable," commented John McMahon, CEO of Prophecy DeFi. "The Layer2 team has honed their skills in identifying the best projects, negotiating positions, and injecting capital to realize outsized returns. Their access to the top tier projects, coupled with their ability to negotiate positions at "day zero" is providing our investors with what we believe is the best way to capitalize on this emerging and explosive sector. And for that reason, we are advancing additional capital to the team."

As one of the few public companies dedicated to operating directly in the layer two DeFi space, the company believes it is uniquely positioned to fulfill the emerging liquidity provisioning needs of the market. PDFI intends to continue advancing additional capital into the Layer2 business to increase exposure to DeFi related digital assets. An ever-increasing capital base has the effect of potentially increasing absolute returns. Further, Layer2 compounds 100% of its returns into additional trading positions.

About Prophecy DeFi

Prophecy DeFi (CSE: PDFI) officially launched on June 23rd, 2021. The company aims to bring together technology start-ups in the Blockchain and DeFi sectors to fund innovation, elevate industry research, and create new business opportunities in a coherent ecosystem.

www.prophecydefi.com

Forward-Looking Information

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking information that involves substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. This forward-looking information is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company, including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, and dependence upon regulatory approvals and the possibility that the completion of the transaction may not occur. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information. The parties undertake no obligation to update forward-looking information except as otherwise may be required by applicable securities law.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/prophecy-defi-provides-operational-update-on-layer2-blockchain-301423006.html

SOURCE Prophecy DeFi Inc.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2021/12/c2075.html
- Official cultural visit by Saudi Arabia to France features a series of successful strategic engagements, including meetings with the French Minister of Culture and the Director-General of UNESCO

- His Highness Prince Badr addressed the UNESCO General Conference

- A new agreement signed with UNESCO further recognizes the cultural significance of ancient AlUla, building on existing cooperation between France and Saudi Arabia to enhance the destination.

PARIS, Nov. 12, 2021 /CNW/ -- During a week-long visit to France, His Highness Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al-Saud, Saudi Minister of Culture, met with his counterpart Roselyne Bachelot, French Minister of Culture, Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, and several other French cultural leaders and institutions.

Saudi Arabia official visit to France Strengthens Cultural Ties

Prince Badr addressed the UNESCO General Conference: "We congratulate UNESCO on its seventy-fifth anniversary, which the Kingdom has been a part of since the beginning as a founder member. Saudi Arabia is committed to working with UNESCO, and its members, in the efforts to unleash the power of culture."

The day prior UNESCO and the Royal Commission for AlUla signed an agreement that will help preserve the globally significant area, enabling it to become a destination for heritage, nature, arts, and culture. It builds on an existing partnership, through which over 100 French archaeologists and experts are currently working onsite.

France and Saudi have a long history of ongoing cultural exchange. For example, fifty years ago King Khalid helped establish the Arab World Institute in Paris. In 2018, HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud made an official visit to France, meeting with President Emmanuel Macron, where a significant cultural agreement between the two countries was signed.

The Kingdom is hosting a vibrant cultural program of over 100 cultural events, initiatives, and engagements during the coming months, including Saudi Arabia's first art biennale, Ad-Diriyah Biennale, and first major international film festival, the Red Sea International Film Festival, which will feature French classics.

Story continues

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/saudi-arabia-official-visit-to-france-strengthens-cultural-ties-301423439.html

SOURCE Saudi Arabia Ministry of Culture

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2021/12/c6225.html
Serstech has today signed a partnership agreement with US firm JGW Group, an expert business development and consultancy firm, which provides highly specialized solutions and services in the defense and civilian public sectors.

For over 40 years, JGW Group has worked with world leaders in their respective fields, with companies like Smiths Detection, Avon Protection and Leonardo DRS being long-term clients.

The JGW Group is honored to be appointed by Serstech to represent them in the United States Defense and Civilian sectors. Serstech has developed advanced sensor technologies that will support missions across those markets and provide advanced capabilities for the user communities. We look forward to work together to rapidly expand the operations of Serstech in the USA, says Andrew Wilson, President, JGW Group.

The potential in the US market is by far the largest one for our solutions. By working side-by-side with JGW Group, we benefit from their 40 years of experience and their well-established connections in civilian and military defense organizations. We are confident that the partnership with JGW will be one of the most important keys to opening up this market for Serstech, says Serstech CEO Stefan Sandor.





For further information, please contact:

Stefan Sandor,

CEO, Serstech AB

Phone: +46 739 606067

Email: ss@serstech.com

Thomas Pileby,

Chairman of the Board, Serstech AB

Phone: +46 702 072643

Email: tp@serstech.com

or visit: www.serstech.com

Certified advisor to Serstech is Svensk Kapitalmarknadsgranskning AB (SKMG), phone: +46 11 323 07 32, e-mail: ca@skmg.se.

About Serstech

Serstech delivers solutions for chemical identification and has customers around the world, mainly in the safety and security industry. Typical customers are customs, police authorities, security organizations and first responders. The solutions and technology are however not limited to security applications and potentially any industry using chemicals of some kind could be addressed by Serstechs solution. Serstechs head office is in Sweden and all production is done in Sweden.

Story continues

Serstech is traded at Nasdaq First North Growth Market and more information about the company can be found at www.serstech.com.




RADNOR, PA / ACCESSWIRE / November 11, 2021 / The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP reminds investors that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed against The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) ("Boston Beer") on behalf of those who purchased or acquired Boston Beer securities betweeen April 22, 2021 and September 8, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period").

IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE VIEWING THE VIDEO ABOVE, PLEASE CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR BOSTON BEER LOSSES

LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE: November 15, 2021

CLASS PERIOD: April 22, 2021 through September 8, 2021

CONTACT AN ATTORNEY TO DISCUSS YOUR RIGHTS: James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453 or Toll Free (844) 887-9500 or Email at info@ktmc.com

BOSTON BEER'S ALLEGED MISCONDUCT

Boston Beer is a high-end alcoholic beverage company that produces hard seltzer, malt beverages, and hard cider at its cidery and under contractual arrangements at other brewery locations. On April 22, 2021, Boston Beer announced its first quarter 2021 financial results and provided full-year 2021 earnings per share guidance, estimated to be between $22 and $26.

The truth began to emerge on July 22, 2021, when, after the market closed, Boston Beer reduced its full year 2021 guidance and reducing its expected earnings per share to be between $18 and $22 stating that it had "overestimated the growth of the hard seltzer category in the second quarter." Following this news, Boston Beer's share price fell $246.54, or 26%, to close at $701.00 per share on July 23, 2021.

Then, on September 8, 2021, after the market closed, Boston Beer withdrew its 2021 financial guidance and stated that it "expects to incur hard seltzer-related inventory write-offs, shortfall fees payable to third party brewers, and other costs" for the remainder of fiscal 2021. Following this news, Boston Beer's share price fell $21.09, or 3.7%, to close at $538.31 per share on September 9, 2021.

Story continues

WHAT CAN I DO?

Boston Beer investors may, no later than November 15, 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. Kessler Topaz Meltzer& Check, LLP encourages Boston Beer investors who have suffered significant losses to contact the firm directly to acquire more information.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE CASE

WHO CAN BE A LEAD PLAINTIFF?

A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff is usually the investor or small group of investors who have the largest financial interest and who are also adequate and typical of the proposed class of investors. The lead plaintiff selects counsel to represent the lead plaintiff and the class and these attorneys, if approved by the court, are lead or class counsel.

ABOUT KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER & CHECK, LLP

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country and around the world. The firm has developed a global reputation for excellence and has recovered billions of dollars for victims of fraud and other corporate misconduct. All of our work is driven by a common goal: to protect investors, consumers, employees and others from fraud, abuse, misconduct and negligence by businesses and fiduciaries. At the end of the day, we have succeeded if the bad guys pay up, and if you recover your assets. 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

SOURCE: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/672384/SHAREHOLDER-ALERT-Kessler-Topaz-Meltzer-Check-LLP-Announces-Securities-Fraud-Class-Action-Lawsuit-Filed-Against-The-Boston-Beer-Company-Inc




NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / November 11, 2021 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. ("Reconnaissance" or the "Company") (OTCMKTS:RECAF). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether Reconnaissance 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]

Between June 24, 2021 and September 7, 2021, Viceroy Research ("Viceroy") published a series of reports scrutinizing ReconAfrica's operations and alleging that the Company was engaged in various forms of undisclosed impermissible or otherwise problematic conduct. According to the Viceroy reports, ReconAfrica was engaged in or intended to engage in fracking in ecologically sensitive areas, unlicensed drilling test, the illegal storage of water in unlined pools, and the use of inadequate and inappropriate consultants in connection with its operations. Viceroy further alleged that ReconAfrica has continuously engaged in stock pumping. Following the publication of the Viceroy reports, ReconAfrica's stock price fell sharply, damaging investors.

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

Story continues

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/672512/SHAREHOLDER-ALERT-Pomerantz-Law-Firm-Investigates-Claims-On-Behalf-of-Investors-of-Reconnaissance-Energy-Africa-Ltd--RECAF




NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / November 11, 2021 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Gamida Cell Ltd. ("Gamida" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:GMDA). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether Gamida 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 November 11, 2021, Gamida issued a press release providing an update on the Company's Pre-Biologics License Application ("BLA") meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for omidubicel, the Company's proposed blood cancer treatment. Specifically, Gamida disclosed that "[t]he FDA requested that Gamida Cell provide revised analysis of the manufacturing data generated at Gamida Cell's wholly-owned commercial manufacturing facility to demonstrate the comparability to the omidubicel that was produced at the clinical manufacturing sites for the Phase 3 study", a development that the Company acknowledged would bring a "delay in timing to bring omidubicel to patients after a potential FDA approval[.]"

On this news, Gamida's stock price fell $0.44 cents, or 11.11% percent, to close at $3.52 per share on November 11, 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

Story continues

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/672474/SHAREHOLDER-ALERT-Pomerantz-Law-Firm-Investigates-Claims-On-Behalf-of-Investors-Gamida-Cell-Ltd--GMDA




Carson City, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --





Talisman Casualty Insurance Company

, a company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, wants to emphasize that they provide a modern approach to business insurance for todays businesses through the use of protected cell captives. The purpose of a captive is to provide insurance or reinsurance coverage for the risks of the entity or entities to which it belongs. Only a small percentage if any of the captives risk exposure is for offering insurance or reinsurance to other parties. Talisman Casualty is a protected cell captive insurance company that is domiciled in Nevada that offers specialty insurance through the provision of protected cells to underwriters who have established books of business and want a regulated vehicle for transferring risk and offer their services to alternative risk finance and reinsurance markets.

A spokesperson for Talisman Casualty Insurance Company says, We offer custom-tailored claims management through the use of state-of-the-art technology. And we also employ different claims management providers to allow efficient claims processing for each of our cell programs. The efficiencies that technology can bring to the claims process can be streamlined within the cell giving participants a high level of service. Also, the use of local adjusters who meet high ethical and competent criteria gives participants the best claims experience. And because claims account for the majority of a captives expenses, best practice claims management is one area where captives can distinguish themselves from most traditional insurers. This is why Talisman Casualty Insurance is the top choice for captive insurance in Las Vegas.

An important benefit for businesses participating in the Talisman Casualty captive cells is that they have minimal risks of getting involved in claims that come with lawsuits. This is made possible by the efficient claims processing that they ensure through the use of dependable claims processing service providers and state-of-the-art claims technology. There are a number of factors that make Talisman Casualty stand out among its competitors. These are the fact that they are client-focused, their local knowledge and the feedback from their insureds enable them to adjust faster and have the flexibility that is desired by the market, and their provision of business analytics and resources to the insureds allow them to smartly manage their risks.

Story continues

One of the key insurance programs provided by Talisman Casualty is a Pet Professional Program. This is a targeted small business owner general liability insurance model for those who are providing various kinds of pet services, including pet sitters, pet trainers, dog walkers, pet breeders, pooper scoopers, pet groomers, and other pet-related services. The Talisman small business general liability protected cell is flexible enough to include emerging small business markets such as pet care services.

Talisman Casualty also has a Marine Program that is designed for small to medium-sized marine businesses. It provides Maritime Employers Liability, Comprehensive General Liability, and Hull and Protection & Indemnity. They also have a Surety Program allowing clients to get a surety bond. This is a promise offered by a guarantor who will pay a particular amount of money to the obligee in case the principal, such as a contractor, was unable to fulfill its obligations to the obligee.

Talisman Casualty Insurance Company serves as an alternative risk transfer approach for property and liability insurance. All of the bonds and insurance policies offered by Talisman Casualty are duly regulated, licensed and authorized insurance policies under Nevada state laws. Talisman Casualty functions as a protected cell captive insurance company that offers bonds and insurance policies to principals who sign a participant agreement and become shareholders and participants in the captive. Cell captive participants have the benefit of gaining access to regulated structures and international reinsurance markets with the resulting advantages of lower insurance costs and expansion of their coverage in line with the objectives of the business. All insurance coverage offered by Talisman is commercial and only available to businesses participating in the underwriting cell.





Business owners who would like to know more about the Talisman Casualty suit and claims processes can visit their website, or contact them through the telephone or via email.

###

For more information about Talisman Casualty Insurance Company, contact the company here:



Talisman Casualty Insurance Company

800-318-5317

info@talismancasualty.com

7881 W. Charleston Blvd, Suite 210 Las Vegas, NV 89117






With no fourth stimulus check from the feds, these states are paying COVID cash

Don't bother hoping for a fourth pandemic stimulus check from Congress. Though many Americans, including more than 2.95 million petition signers, are pleading for more help, lawmakers have moved on to debating infrastructure and other matters.

But a number of states have stepped in to provide money to ease financial strains for residents. In fact, the nation's largest state this week is sending out another batch of hundreds of thousands of stimulus checks, and the nation's easternmost state just began its own round of relief payments.

Here are six states currently providing cash to help people cover household expenses or pay down debt as the pandemic's financial fallout lingers.

California

Jana Asenbrennerova / Shutterstock

California's second round of stimulus has been underway since late August, when Gov. Gavin Newsom (pictured) told taxpayers in a video message to "look out for checks either in your mailbox or directly in your account."

The payments are still going out in waves; distribution of a new batch is underway. About 34,000 direct deposits were paid on Friday, and roughly 750,000 paper checks started going into the mail on Monday, the California Franchise Tax Board tells multiple media outlets.

Californians who earn $75,000 or less are receiving $500 to $1,100; you get a larger amount if you have dependents and did not qualify for a first-round stimulus check early this year. Those went to people making $30,000 or less.

Some states have been making direct payments using aid provided to state and local governments in the massive COVID-19 stimulus bill President Joe Biden signed in March. But not California, which instead has been tapping a massive state budget surplus created by the rising stock market and other factors.

Maine

Allan Wood Photography / Shutterstock

Way over on the other side of the country, Maine this week started sending $285 "disaster relief" payments to its working people. Checks will be issued through the end of the year to taxpayers who had 2020 adjusted gross income of $75,000 ($150,000 for couples filing jointly).

Story continues

"I hope this will help Maine families to some small degree during the holiday season as we work to fully recover our economy," says Gov. Janet Mills, in a statement.

Florida

In recognition of the special difficulties teachers have faced while navigating their way through the pandemic, Florida has been handing out $1,000 checks to its educators.

The Sunshine State also is paying first responders  including law enforcement officers, paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and firefighters  up to $1,000 as a thank-you for the sacrifices they've been making throughout the crisis.

New Mexico

New Mexicos stimulus program devoted $5 million to helping low-income residents who werent eligible for federal stimulus checks. In August, more than 4,000 households received up to $750 in emergency financial assistance  but the state still had $1.4 million of its pot of relief money left over.

So, for 10 days in October, New Mexico officials accepted applications for a second round of assistance, targeted toward residents who didn't qualify for federal stimulus checks and didn't receive any of the state money over the summer. The state hasn't said when the new checks will go out.

Tennessee

A bill passed by Tennessee's state legislature earlier this year will provide teachers with hazard pay for making it through the worst of the pandemic.

Lawmakers had originally proposed a 2% raise for educators, but it was ultimately replaced with a one-time payment of $1,000 for full-time teachers. Part-timers will receive $500. It's expected the checks will be mailed out by the end of 2021.

Texas

While theres no statewide program for COVID relief payments in Texas, some local school districts are providing their employees with stimulus checks in the form of retention bonuses.

In the Dallas suburb of Irving, the bonus is as much as $2,000. In nearby Denton, teachers will receive $500 and a 2% pay increase. Several Texas school districts have approved pay raises for educators instead of direct payments.

What if your state isnt offering extra stimulus?

Sharon McCutcheon / Unsplash

If you need more help but your state isn't offering stimulus checks, you'll need to find fresh relief on your own.

Deal with your debt. Credit is convenient, but it doesn't take long before expensive interest catches up with you. If you're juggling multiple credit card balances and other high-interest debt, fold them into a single debt consolidation loan to pay off what you owe faster and more affordably.

Cut your insurance bills. If you havent shopped around for a better rate on your car insurance lately, you might be paying hundreds of dollars too much each year  especially if you're working from home now, and driving less. A little comparison shopping could slash your auto premiums.

Stretch every dollar. Can you drop subscription services you're not using? Can you downgrade your phone plan to save a few dollars every month? And finally, are you getting the best deals when you shop online? If you're not sure about that last one, try using a free browser add-on that automatically scours the internet for better prices and coupons.

Turn your pennies into a portfolio. Make some money in the stock market, even if you don't have much cash to play with or much experience with investing. A popular app can help you invest just "spare change" from everyday purchases  and turn your pennies into a diversified portfolio.

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
(Photo: Illustration: Damon Dahlen/HuffPost; Photos: Getty Images/U.S. District Court)

A fanatical Donald Trump supporter who parked his truck full of weapons in Washington on Jan. 6 and then joined in the Capitol mob while carrying firearms because he believed the then-presidents lies about a stolen election pleaded guilty to two counts on Friday.

Lonnie Coffman of Alabama, an Army veteran who served two tours during the Vietnam War and was described by one family member as a hermit, pleaded guilty to a count of possession of destructive devices  11 Molotov cocktails  and a count of carrying pistols without a license during a virtual hearing before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. He will also enter a guilty plea for possession of destructive devices in Alabama. Coffman will give up all the weapons he brought to D.C. as part of the plea deal. Coffman admitted in his statement of offense that he was knowingly carrying two loaded firearms around D.C.

Coffman was arrested in the District of Columbia on Jan. 6 after he approached officers in an attempt to get to his Red GMC Sierra, which was inside a police perimeter. Coffman had parked just off the U.S. Capitol grounds, near the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee buildings, which had been targeted by a pipe bomber who still remains at large.

After they shut down the area because of the pipe bombs, a law enforcement officer spotted a gun on the seat of Coffmans pickup. A subsequent search of the truck turned up a loaded 9 mm Hi-Point handgun; a loaded Windham Weaponry rifle; a loaded Hatfield Gun Company SAS shotgun; several large capacity ammunition feeding devices loading with more than ten rounds of rifle ammunition; hundreds of rounds of ammunition; a crossbow with bolts; several machetes; camouflage smoke devices; stun gun and 11 Molotov cocktails.

He was originally indicted on 17 counts, including possession of an unregistered firearm, carrying a pistol without a license, carrying a rifle or shotgun, possession of a large-capacity feeding device, possession of an unregistered firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition.

Story continues

When law enforcement officers searched Coffman, they found a 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun in his right pocket and a .22-caliber North American Arms revolver in his left pocket. He was initially indicted in January and has been detained ever since.

Lonnie Coffman's truck near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Police found a cache of weapons and ammunition in the truck. (Photo: U.S. Attorney's Office)

GPS records showed that Coffman came to D.C. on Dec. 11, the day before another pro-Trump rally in support of the presidents efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and Coffman tried to meet with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). A staffer in Cruzs office wrote that Coffman seemed to be coming from the friend angle in wanting to ... help with the election fraud he saw and that Coffman seemed unbalanced or not 100% there.

Authorities also found a note inside Coffmans vehicle that singled out a Muslim member of Congress, called a judge a bad guy and praised a number of conservative figures. Another note had contact info for conservative talk-show host Mark Levin and Fox News personality Sean Hannity.

A note the U.S. attorney's office said was taken from Lonnie Coffman's truck. (Photo: U.S. Attorney's Office)

Coffman will continue to be held in jail until his sentencing before Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The FBI has made more than 650 arrests in connection with the U.S. Capitol attack, roughly one-fourth of the total number of potential defendants who engaged in chargeable criminal conduct on Jan. 6. The FBI continues to seek information on 350 people who engaged in violence on Jan. 6, including 250 who assaulted law enforcement officers.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
(Adds Frontex head, Russian paratrooper deaths)

* Turkey bans Syrians, Yemenis, Iraqis from Minsk flights

* Iraq Airlines also stops flights

* Moscow distances itself from Lukashenko's gas threat

* Appeals for humanitarian aid as cold weather looms

By Robin Emmott and Tuvan Gumrukcu

BRUSSELS/ANKARA, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Turkey banned Syrian, Yemeni and Iraqi citizens from flights to Minsk on Friday, potentially closing off one of the main routes that the EU says Belarus has used to fly in migrants by the thousand to engineer a humanitarian crisis on its frontier.

Thousands of migrants from the Middle East are sheltering in freezing conditions in the woods on the border between Belarus and EU states Poland and Lithuania, which are refusing to let them cross. Some have already died and there are fears for the safety of the rest as bitter winter conditions settle in.

The European Union accuses Minsk of creating the crisis as part of a "hybrid attack" https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-flies-nuclear-capable-bombers-over-belarus-migrant-crisis-escalates-2021-11-10 on the bloc - distributing Belarusian visas in the Middle East, flying in the migrants and pushing them to cross the border illegally. Brussels may impose new sanctions as early as Monday on Belarus and airlines it blames for ferrying the migrants.

EU officials welcomed Friday's announcement by Turkey's Civil Aviation General Directorate that Syrians, Yemenis and Iraqis would not be permitted to buy tickets to Belarus or board flights there from Turkish territory.

Turkey has denied playing a direct role by allowing its territory to be used to ferry in migrants. But Minsk airport's website listed six commercial flights arriving from Istanbul on Friday, the most from any city outside the former Soviet Union.

EU officials have repeatedly said their best hope of resolving the crisis is to stop would-be migrants in the Middle East from boarding flights for Belarus at the source, and that diplomats were negotiating in the region to achieve this.

Story continues

"These contacts are already showing fruit," a European Commission spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said Iraqi Airways had also agreed to halt flights to Belarus.

However, the head of the EU's border agency Frontex said he saw no swift end to the migrant crisis on Poland's border.

"We have to be ready to have to face this situation for a long time," Fabrice Leggeri told Reuters, adding that Frontex would help Poland return migrants to their home countries.

SANCTIONS

Belarus denies fomenting the crisis, but has also said it cannot help resolve it unless Europe lifts existing sanctions. The EU imposed several rounds of measures in response to President Alexander Lukashenko's violent crackdown on mass street protests against his rule in 2020.

Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia, threatened this week to cut off Russian gas supplies delivered to Europe through Belarusian territory. On Friday, the Kremlin appeared to distance itself from that threat, saying it was not consulted in advance of Lukashenko's remarks and it would fulfil its gas delivery contracts.

But Moscow shows no sign of leaning on Lukashenko to resolve the border crisis, and has made a number of demonstrations of its military support for him in recent days. Russian and Belarusian paratroopers held joint drills near the border on Friday, and the Russian air force has sent planes this week to patrol the frontier.

"From our point of view, the Russian president has the possibility to influence the situation and we expect him to take appropriate steps," a German government spokesperson said.

Separately, Russia's defence ministry said two of its servicemen had died on Friday due to parachute problems while taking part in the joint drills near the Polish border.

Polish authorities said they had foiled 223 attempts to cross the border illegally from Belarus overnight, including two large groups. They estimate the number of migrants trapped along the border at 3,000-4,000.

Neighbouring Lithuania reported 110 crossing attempts overnight and said it would be finishing a 100-km razor wire barrier along the border by Dec. 10.

Expressing support for Warsaw, Ukraine said on Friday it was sending border guards and national guard officers to its frontier with Poland to share intelligence and operational know-how on dealing with the Belarus migrant crisis.

FREEZING CONDITIONS

The EU has backed Poland and Lithuania in taking a hard line on banning illegal crossings from Belarus for fear that allowing in even a small number would encourage huge numbers to follow.

But charities and advocates say the freezing conditions have created a humanitarian emergency, and that EU states have a duty to allow access to food and shelter. The media has also been kept away, which critics say conceals the scale of the crisis.

"Access for independent observers and the media is essential," said Iwo Los, from Grupa Granica (Border Group), a Polish organisation. "These people... have to receive humanitarian aid, medical aid and this aid must be provided to them on both sides of the border."

The Baltic nations bordering Belarus fear the crisis could escalate into a military confrontation. The presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will meet on Monday in Vilnius to discuss the crisis and be joined by video link by Polish President Andrzej Duda.

(Reporting Robin Emmott and Marine Strauss in Brussels, Pawel Florkiewicz and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw, Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara, Andrius Sytas in Kapciamietsis, Lithuania, Dmitry Antonov and Andrew Osborn in Moscow, Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad Writing by Jan Lopatka and Tomasz Janowski Editing by Peter Graff)
Negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland on the worlds next moves in response to global warming entered their final hours Friday.

Many of the island nations at risk of disappearing under water under the current track of global warming are among the blocs pressing hardest to resolve some of the key debated points in the negotiations. Those include cutting fossil fuel pollution fast and soon enough to sharply rein in the Earths warming, and demands for the U.S. and other developed nations historically responsible for much of climate change to provide financial aid to developing countries.

In a statement, diplomats of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific said sticking to an emissions-cutting target that would allow theirs and other island nations to survive must be the North star for any deal.

They also demanded an end to government subsidies for fossil fuels, and doubling of financial support to help less-developed nations deal with climate change.

Kerry went out a different door after the talks and did not speak to reporters. Timmermans, asked about his mood on the last day of scheduled talks, pulled down his face mask to show his smile.


BJ Pons will bring a message of hope to the 11th Annual Nebraska Christian Womens Conference on Saturday.

Women are invited to the free event at Nielsen Community Center, 200 Anna Stalp Ave., West Point.

Doors open at 8:30 a.m. The conference starts at 9 a.m., and continues until noon with lunch following. A freewill donation will be accepted.

This years theme is Healing the Brokenhearted.

During the event, Pons will share her testimony of how God brought her through a life of various abuses.

Attendees will learn how she made it through pain to victory.

Pons believes Gods grace can bring people back from the very brink of despair and give them hope of a fulfilled life in Christ Jesus.

When the day is all said and done, I pray that the women of this conference will leave knowing  without a shadow of a doubt  that your past does not define who you are, Pons said. In Gods kingdom we are defined by who he says you are. There is forgiveness and hope at the foot of the cross.

Free daycare will be provided for children ages 0 to 4.

Children from ages 5 to 11 can take part in Kidventures, designed to provide faith-filled fun and activities for the older kids.

Attendees are asked to register for free by leaving their name, address and phone number by text or voicemail to 402-922-1665 or by e-mail  nebraskachristianwomen@gmail.com. Those attending are asked to please include names and ages of any children they plan to bring.

Sara Trimble, whose husband Aaron is pastor of West Point Family Worship Center, began coordinating the annual conference years ago.

Our goal is that people have a relationship with Jesus and have relationships with other Christian women, Trimble said. Ive been blessed each year and I know many other women have been also.

Trimble encourages area women to attend.

So many people say they look forward to this event every year, Trimble said. Its a blessing and encouragement for many ladies in this area.

In the past, an average of 130 women have attended the event. Women have come from Grand Island, Kearney, Fremont, Omaha, Lincoln, Norfolk and Sioux City and Council Bluffs, Iowa.

When word gets out, theyre willing to travel to something like this in a small town, she said. We have women traveling from Lincoln, Nebraska, and even St. Louis, Missouri, to come (Saturday) and spend a morning worshiping Jesus and hearing what good things he has done.

The Zellmer Family of Council Bluffs, Iowa, will provide music.

Trimble believes the event can provide a refreshing break.

As women, were all busy. It doesnt matter what age you are, Trimble said. Life is busy and I think its important to focus on what life is all about  and its all about Jesus and our relationship with him. This is a perfect opportunity to break away from the busyness and take the time and recharge and refocus.

Trimble sees the benefit of women ministering to each other.

We understand one another, she said. Theres so much we can identify with in one another. Its a great blessing to be able to do that locally.

Trimble believes women will benefit from Pons talk.

BJ has a powerful testimony that I believe will relate to so many women as so many woman have experienced brokenness, Trimble said. Jesus is still the healer. He still heals the broken-hearted. He still sets people free. He still changes lives and I believe all of that can take place at this conference.

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.
The Rev. Suzanne How wore a Marine Corps uniform for 27 years before she became a woman of the cloth.

In September, How  now the pastor of Immanuel State Line and Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Wymore, Nebraska  presided over the services for Cpl. Daegan Page, a Marine from Omaha who was killed when a terrorist bomb exploded near the airport gate in Kabul, Afghanistan.

How said she was able to blend aspects of both her career callings to give comfort to Pages family in Omaha and to a community in mourning.

The really wonderful thing that happened that day is that both sides of my life came together, she said. The sergeant major side: (I had) been to Iraq three times and knew what Cpl. Page had gone through being deployed ... And then as a pastor, to bring out his love of his family and his fellow Marines and his God.

How, 59, grew up in Omahas Maple Village neighborhood and graduated from Omaha Technical High School in 1980. She studied for a year at the University of Nebraska at Omaha before enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1982. She broke boundaries as a female leader and said she was never bored on the job.

How started her career as a signals intelligence/ground electronic warfare operator from 1983 to 1994. She was stationed in Scotland, Japan, Hawaii, the Panama Canal and South Korea.

Every place had something so special and so unique, she said. It was a really, really great experience.

After her time in intelligence, How volunteered to become a drill instructor and trained recruits at Parris Island, South Carolina, for three and a half years. She then went on to train officer candidates at officer training school in Quantico, Virginia, and later trained midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy.

How was the first female Marine to train Marine recruits, officer candidates, and midshipmen.

The final phase of her career was in the operating forces. She went on her first deployment in Iraq in 2003 and right before her second tour, was promoted to sergeant major of headquarters and service battalion of the Marine logistics group. She completed three deployments in total.

For the last three and a half years of her career, How was the top enlisted Marine in a new V-22 Osprey squadron.

The Osprey is that aircraft that can land like a helicopter and fly like a plane, she said. I was the first ever female sergeant major of a V-22 squadron, that was a lot of fun.

How said she was never bored in the Marines and always pushed herself and her fellow Marines to perform at a high level.

I like a challenge, she said. There was always something new to learn and to conquer.

While How faced some resistance as a female leader in the Marines, she said she never let that discourage her.

I saw myself as a Marine  a Marine first, she said. That was my attitude. I didnt expect people to treat me differently.

After retiring from the Marines in 2009, How attended Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and became a pastor, something she said she was called to do.

If God wants you to serve in some form or fashion, you can run, you can try to hide, she said. But eventually if youre called by God to do something, he will win.

How said she doesnt think she would be where she is today if she hadnt served in the Marines and will always cherish her years of service.

Its really hard to describe my love for the Marine Corps, she said.

World-Herald staff writer Steve Liewer contributed to this story.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Col. Janel Nelson shared a story of family loss with students at Cedar Bluffs Public Schools on Veterans Day.

Her grandmothers brother had been reported as missing in action, until his death was later confirmed. Her story brought home the sacrifices military personnel and their families make.

Nelson was the keynote speaker during the Veterans Day assembly at Cedar Bluffs Public Schools.

The event was designed to teach children about sacrifices made for this nations freedom and to honor veterans and military personnel at home and abroad.

Nelson is chief of staff of the C4 Systems directorate for U.S. Strategic Command. Besides her family story, Nelsons talk included trivia and a history lesson.

Audience members learned Nelsons relative had been killed in action.

Yet he was classified as MIA, because neither his body nor a dog tag were recovered.

Nelson said another soldier had come across the body, but couldnt secure the dog tag  confirming his identity  because enemy fire.

This gave her family closure, but also gave Nelson a realization which she shared with the school.

Can you imagine being the mother or sibling of someone missing in action and presumed dead? Holding out for the sliver hope that maybe he was captured, but he escaped. That the government was wrong and that he was still alive? How sad it was for me to know that his mother and my grandmother had such holes in their hearts, Nelson said.

Nelson specifically told seniors that her relative was only 20 years old when he died.

Sacrifice is real and how we have appreciation of not only our veterans, but the family members that support them, Nelson said. Dont let Veterans Day go by like any other day. We owe them that.

Other moments in Nelsons talk had a more light-hearted tone.

Early in her talk, she gave out candy to students for correctly answering trivia related to the armed forces and the hierarchy of the United States leadership roles.

Younger students were asked to answer more basic questions, such as: Who is our commander and chief?

Other questions covered topics not as well known: What is the name for people in the Space Force.

The history lesson came when Nelson talked about the significance of Nov. 11.

In the first World War, the fighting stopped on November 11th, 1918. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. This was called Armistice, Nelson said.

Nelson finished by discussing what the current war is.

Americas new war is cyber, Nelson said.

She talked with the students about her job and the effect cyber warfare and misinformation by foreign adversaries has on this society.

A moment of silence was given following the keynote for the fallen soldiers and veterans.

For the last part of the assembly, a video was shown titled Sound of Silence, a military tribute showing elements of sacrifice, camaraderie and service among deployed soldiers.

The American Legion actually asked STRATCOM for speakers, and Im out in Fort Calhoun, Nelson said. I asked myself what place does not get as many speakers and thats why Im here today.

She shared other thoughts.

I have a combination of emotions, Nelson said. This day is more than veterans, but the families and friends of those who serve.

Harlan Ptomey, superintendent of Cedar Bluffs Public Schools appreciated the program.

It was excellent, he said. We usually work with the Legion on these activities and they did a really good job.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Dear Reader,

Welcome to Gandhara's weekly newsletter. This briefing brings you the best of our reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Michael Scollon writes this week's newsletter in Abubakar's absence.

If youre new to the newsletter or havent subscribed yet, you can do so here.

Bamiyan Buddhas targeted again

Ron Synovitz covers the emergence of a disturbing new video showing members of the Taliban using the remnants of the Bamiyan Buddhas for target practice.

The video, which shows fighters firing rocket-propelled grenades into the niches that once housed the giant statues, has raised alarms about the Taliban's commitment to protecting Afghanistan's cultural and historical treasures.

The Taliban had promised to protect the historical site during peace negotiations in Doha in February, and after the extremist group returned to power in August militants under the command of the governor of Bamiyan Province were tasked with guarding what remained of the UNESCO World Heritage site.

In 2001, during the Talibans previous stint in power, current caretaker Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund publicly endorsed the destruction of the Buddhas because they were "un-Islamic."

After standing for more than 1,400 years, the towering figures were reduced to rubble after being pounded by anti-aircraft artillery, dynamite, and other explosives.

Ahmadullah Wasiq, deputy head of the Talibans cultural commission, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that Taliban leaders have vowed there would be no further destruction of the site. When questioned about the recent video purportedly showing exactly that, however, he had no comment.

"If anyone commits this illegal act, the security organs of the Islamic Emirate will stop them," he said. "They will be handed over and brought to justice."

Online school for Afghan girls

I write about how hundreds of Afghans are using modern technology to skirt the Talibans ban on girls education.

"It sends a clear message to the Taliban," said online student Maryam, who told Radio Azadi that continuing her education under Afghanistan's new hard-line rulers is a challenge. "Bring it on; we can promote our classes online. We will never stop the progress of our country."

She is one of about 1,000 Afghan girls in Afghanistan and Iran to have signed up for classes with the Herat Online School.

The brainchild of Angela Ghayour, an Afghan-born educator who lives in Britain, the school is available free of charge and enlists hundreds of volunteer teachers.

"The goal is to prevent discrimination in education," Ghayour told RFE/RL. "In Afghanistan, gender discrimination has deprived girls and women of their right to education. In Iran, Afghan families are discriminated against in education because they do not have residence permits."

The Talibans ban is not being enforced in some parts of the country, and the militants recently announced the establishment of a women's institute in Kabul, the Moraa Education Complex. But Afghan girls, rights watchers, and educators like Ghayour are less than convinced about the Taliban's interest in maintaining the gains in girls' education made over the past two decades.

In Farah Province, educators at one school who spoke to Radio Azadi are calling on the Taliban to allow them to resume classes.

I would like to graduate from high school, says one young student in a video produced by Radio Azadi. "My demand for the Islamic Emirate is to let girls from seventh to 12th grade return to school."

Polio vaccination campaign kicks off

As winter approaches, UN agencies kicked off a polio vaccination campaign across Afghanistan on November 8. The campaign, which aims to inoculate 10 million children under the age of 5, is being conducted with the Talibans backing.

The house-to-house effort expects to reach 3 million children who had previously remained inaccessible to vaccination campaigns against the infectious disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are the last countries in the world where polio is still endemic. And with only one case of wild poliovirus reported this year in Afghanistan, compared to 56 in 2020, the WHO sees an "extraordinary opportunity" to eradicate the disease.

Regional meetings on Afghanistan

Envoys from the United States, Russia, and China met in Islamabad on November 11 as Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi urged the international community to provide funding and humanitarian assistance to neighboring Afghanistan.

"Nobody wishes to see a relapse into civil war, no one wants an economic collapse that will spur instability; everyone wants terrorist elements operating inside Afghanistan to be tackled effectively, and we all want to prevent a new refugee crisis," Qureshi told attendees of the "troika plus" group conference.

A joint statement issued after the talks, pressed the Taliban to ensure unhindered humanitarian access...for the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan to respond to the developing crisis.

On November 10, Pakistans archrival, India, hosted its own regional security conference , which called for cooperation to ensure Afghanistan does not again become a safe haven for global terrorism.

That event was attended by representatives from Russia, Iran, and the five Central Asian countries -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan agrees to cease-fire

Following a breakthrough agreement on November 8 between the Pakistani government and the banned Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a monthlong cease-fire went into effect the next day.

The deal spurred hopes that the two sides could end 14 years of conflict but was also met with criticism that Islamabad was capitulating to militant groups.

The TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, is responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians and members of Pakistan's security forces. The 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is widely blamed on the TTP and is considered one of its most brazen attacks.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the slain Bhutto's son and leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party, slammed the government for not consulting parliament before engaging in secret talks with the militants -- talks that were brokered by the Afghan Taliban.

"Who are they to decide to beg the TTP for talks and unilaterally engage the TTP? Zardari asked. Any policy without the approval of the parliament will have no legitimacy.

The government has also come under scrutiny for a secret deal it reached with the radical Islamist party Tehrik-e Labaik Pakistan (TLP) on November 7. That deal ended a 10-day protest march on the capital in which thousands of TLP supporters participated.

The TLP agreed to end the march, which sought the release of leader Saad Rizvi, and promised not to stage violent protests in the future. Rizvi was subsequently removed from Pakistan's terrorism watchlist, paving the way for his release.

Rizvis party gained prominence in Pakistans 2018 elections, campaigning on the single issue of defending the countrys blasphemy law, which calls for the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam.

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.

You can always reach us at gandhara@rferl.org.
At least two people have been killed and more than a dozen wounded in a blast inside a mosque in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar, officials say.

The explosion occurred during Friday Prayers in the village of Tarela in Nangarhar's Spin Ghar district on November 12.

Local officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said at least two people were killed in the blast caused by a bomb planted inside the mosque.

A provincial tribal elder said the Taliban's district governor, who was among the wounded, was the main target.



Some reports put the number of injured at more than 15 people.

No one initially claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamic State (IS) militants have been waging an intense campaign of violence in the area.

The Taliban, which controls nearly all of Afghanistan since sweeping across the country in military offensives as U.S.-led international troops withdrew at the end of August, has been waging a counterinsurgency campaign, vowing to put down the threat from IS.

A spokesman for the Taliban regime's intelligence service, Khalil Hamraz, told journalists in the Afghan capital on November 10 that nearly 600 IS fighters had been arrested, including major figures and financial backers.

The United Nations and many foreign governments who have resisted recognizing the hard-line Taliban leadership in Kabul's legitimacy have criticized a wide range of infringements on Afghans' rights since the militants swept to power in August and warned of a humanitarian disaster in the war-torn country.
An unnamed senior U.S. official quoted by Reuters says the United States and Qatar have agreed that that Persian Gulf state will represent U.S. diplomatic interests in Afghanistan.

The arrangement could signal possible direct engagement between Washington and Kabul, where a Taliban-led government came to power two months ago as U.S.-led international troops withdrew and a UN-backed elected government fled.

The source said that Qatar and the United States on November 12 would sign onto Qatar becoming a "protecting power" for U.S. interests and facilitating talks, which are complicated by the United States' and other countries' refusal to recognize the Taliban government.

"As our protecting power, Qatar will assist the United States in providing limited consular services to our citizens and in protecting U.S. interests in Afghanistan," the official, who is from the State Department and requested anonymity, told Reuters.

They are especially critical of the hard-line veteran militants' apparent abandonment of pledges of political and ethnic "inclusivity" as well as their harsh treatment of women and minorities.

A separate deal was struck for Qatar to temporarily host as many as 8,000 at-risk Afghans applying for special immigrant visas and their family members at Camp Al-Sayliyah and Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the official added.

International groups have warned that a race is on against the onset of severe winter in the South Asian country that could exacerbate an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe as infrastructure, finance, and other key elements of society fail an impoverished Afghanistan and its 39 million or so people.

The U.S.-Qatari arrangement reportedly calls for a U.S. interests section within the Qatari Embassy in Kabul that coordinates tightly with the U.S. State Department and a U.S. mission in Doha.

It is said to come into effect on December 31.

The unnamed official said Washington would also continue to engage with Taliban representatives in Doha, where a number of sides long sought to negotiate a peaceful end to a two-decade war that began soon after 9/11.

The "U.S. interests section" will reportedly operate out of part of the former compound of the U.S. Embassy before its suspension of operations, with security the responsibility of Qatar.

It could provide services like passport applications, documentation support, information, and emergency assistance, the official said.

Millions of Afghans are facing starvation and drought, in addition to the collapsed economy and shortages made worse by a suspension of much of the financial aid that was flowing into the country for years during the conflict.

The chaotic withdrawal of international troops stranded many U.S. allies, trained personnel, and others who might face retribution from Taliban gunmen.

The Taliban is also battling a seemingly rejuvenated campaign of violence by militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS).

With reporting by Reuters
A team of Colorado medical experts is in the earliest stages of studying guidelines for triaging patients should the crisis hammering hospitals continue.

And members of the group indicated Thursday that the process may focus on discharging people who can safely leave the hospital, rather than solely prioritizing care for patients most likely to survive.

The document is the triage portion of the crisis standards of care, a series of guidelines for hospitals to follow should resources  such as staffing or bed space  become significantly scarce. Last updated in March 2020, the triage plan outlines how hospitals should allocate limited resources to which patients, and how to objectively choose.

The experts convened Thursday to discuss a revised draft of the standards, and they will submit feedback for the initial document over the next 48 hours. Another draft is expected to be completed early next week, and officials emphasized repeatedly that the document presented Thursday was an early draft and would face an array of changes.

"I think you're all aware of the state we're in right now with the expanding pandemic cases and the stress on hospitals," Eric France, the state's chief medical officer, told the assembled emergency medicine and ethics experts, "and that we've activated the crisis standards for staffing and may need to activate crisis standards for medical care and hospitals."

The triage standards have never been activated during the pandemic, even during the late-2020 peak. But hospital capacity in Colorado is at its most limited point yet, and state projections suggest capacity could be overwhelmed by the end of December. While officials seek to add 500 more hospital beds by that time to avoid overwhelming facilities, the activation of the triage standards "unfortunately may be forthcoming," Steve Cantrill, a Denver Health emergency physician, said Thursday.

The state is "doing everything possible to avoid having to enact crisis standards of care for hospitals and acute care facilities," Jessica Bralish, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health and Environment, said in an email Thursday. Coloradans can mitigate the risk to hospital capacity, she said, by getting vaccinated and, for those who received their jabs months ago, through booster doses.

Though the previous standards plan described a dire situation in which patients more likely to live would be given care over others, the focus has now flipped, said Matt Wynia, the director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado. He told the group the focus now is likely to be on keeping less sick patients out of the hospital or out of intensive care beds if that can be safely done.

"It's trying to find those people who will be OK, even if they don't get a service they would normally get, even if they get discharged a little early, even if they go to the floor instead of the step-down or to step-down instead of ICU," he said. Step-down refers to the intermediate care between intensive and general. " ... We're not trying to predict mortality. We're trying to predict, 'Will you be OK if you don't get this service?'"

Under that framework, he continued, patients who can safely be sent home will be, with direction to see their own doctors or seek outpatient care. That would free up bed space for patients who need inpatient treatment. In normal circumstances, emergency physicians tend to be "risk (averse)," said Anuj Mehta, a pulmonary physician at Denver Health and the author of this early draft. They may admit patients even if they're "borderline" in need of a bed, just to be safe. Under the draft standards under consideration, those decisions would be weighed more carefully and intentionally to preserve bed space.

Mehta emphasized that the standards are "meant to be transparent, equitable, respectful and fair" for everyone, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, ability to pay, insurance coverage or other nonmedical factors. A patient who turns up in the hospital won't be turned away because of those factors, he said, and "scoring systems" used to help inform decisions about a patient's condition can cut down on bias that may be more present if humans made those decisions without that information.

Critically, any activation of the crisis standards would not apply to just COVID-19 patients; it would cover the range of people who turn up to hospitals seeking some form of treatment.

Mehta and Wynia both said that under this new focus, socio-economic factors must necessarily be included in final decisions. Should hospitals begin discharging less-ill patients and instead direct them to outpatient care, then that patient's ability to actually access that care is a key element.

"They have to have access to what they're triaged to," Mehta said. "That's really the key thing. You can't triage somebody to outpatient care if they don't have access to outpatient care, either because they don't have a doctor, they don't have access to a doctor, or they don't have insurance."

In addition to scoring systems that can guide decisions, Mehta said hospitals should have triage teams that include the facility's ethics department, hospital leadership, nurses and physicians. They shouldn't have existing relationships with patients in question, to avoid any potential personal bias. He said a standardized approach mitigates that risk, and facilities should consider implicit bias training to further address its potential impact.

None of the providers who spoke Thursday expressed interest in using someone's COVID-19 vaccination status as a factor in deciding whether to triage a patient. Claire Uebbing, an emergency medicine physician and vice president with Centura Health, expressly said vaccination status shouldn't be a consideration.

Mehta agreed that "COVID vaccination, at least now, should not be part of this algorithm." Patty Mayer, the director of clinical ethics at Banner Health, wrote in the virtual meeting's chat that she, too, felt that "vaccination status should not be used at present."
Colorado's hospitals and nursing homes will need hundreds of additional staff in the next month to meet Gov. Jared Polis' goal of adding 500 hospital beds by mid-December, industry officials said Thursday.

Colorado has the health infrastructure to add the needed beds, officials say. What's missing are the staff.

State leaders say they plan to tap federal medical providers, out-of-state contractors and retired medical workers to reinforce the state's depleted health care workforce. The effort will be multifaceted, Polis and Scott Bookman, the state's COVID-19 incident commander, said this week: Not only will hospital capacity be studied and expanded, but staffing in nursing homes will also be targeted, allowing those facilities to take more discharged patients and free up hospital beds.

But to provide sufficient staffing to man the needed beds, hundreds of providers must be brought in quickly, hospital and nursing home officials said Thursday. Staffing shortages have increasingly plagued the health care system as the pandemic has dragged on, to the point that there are hundreds fewer hospital beds available now compared to a year ago. The state this week moved to ease limitations for staffing to stretch what's currently available.

Facing similar problems, Colorado's nursing homes have roughly 2,000 fewer beds now than they did pre-pandemic, constricting hospitals' ability to move some patients and free up their own space.

"I'd say it's 500 providers to get to 500 beds (in nursing homes)," said Doug Farmer, who heads the Colorado Health Care Association, a nursing home trade group. He said there were roughly 400 hospital patients who would qualify for nursing home transfers as of two weeks ago.

"I would suspect that actually finding 500 staff members in this environment is going to be near impossible," he added. "But I don't know that for sure. I don't know what exactly their plan is."

Bookman told health officials Wednesday that the state was "moving as rapidly as we can" and had an "enormous amount of staffing contracts coming in." Cara Welch, spokeswoman for the Colorado Hospital Association, said the state will foot the bill for those traveling providers, the costs for which have spiked. More providers, provided by the federal government, are also being pursued. One has already been deployed, and at least two more have been requested.

Where those additional providers are needed and deployed may fluctuate: If hospital staffing increases, for instance, more beds can open in those facilities and fewer would be immediately needed in nursing homes. Regardless of where they end up, hundreds of providers are needed if Colorado is to meet Polis' goal of surging capacity by mid-December, when Colorado is expected to near 2,000 COVID-19 patients. That would mark the worst point of the pandemic thus far.

Welch agreed that it would take hundreds more providers between hospitals and nursing homes to meet the governor's goal. She said hospitals are at the limit of their surge capacity with the resources they have now.

As of Thursday, there were fewer than 700 total hospital beds left in the state, including just 72 intensive care beds. (Hospital officials have cautioned that available bed capacity can change quickly, as patients are discharged and facilities shift resources.) Space is not the issue, Welch and other hospitals have said. It's staffing.

Welch said the state is also studying opening up existing facilities  such as closed hospitals or outpatient centers  to expand capacity. But that remains contingent on staff. Right now, large overflow sites are not in immediate plans; if staffing were addressed, space is available within current facilities.

Bookman, the state incident commander, said Wednesday the state wants to "capitalize on infrastructure that exists" rather than "creating free-standing alternate care sites," like those stood up in spring 2020.

Lindsay Radford, spokeswoman for Centura, said the system has "the ability to assist with the increase of beds across the state," such as by opening Centura's bed tower at St. Anthony North campus. That's assuming, though, that "there is staff available to support this extra bed capacity."

Radford said Centura was not aware of Polis' 500-bed announcement before he publicly unveiled it Wednesday. (In a statement, Bookman said the state was in "constant and regular contact" with the hospital association and various system officials.)

Connie Price, the chief medical officer of Denver Health, said she wasn't aware of the exact numbers Polis wanted before his announcement. Denver Health is at capacity, she said, and has requested federal provider teams, one of which has already deployed in Pueblo, to help alleviate pressure there.

"We do have a plan for additional beds that was developed during the first wave that we could be ready to deploy," Price continued, "but we have new issues now with staffing that we did not have earlier in the pandemic."

Asked if it would be possible to surge in time, Welch said, "We have to." She "put it in the hands of the state" to find the needed providers.

"We're hopeful; we'll be working with (state officials) on it to do our best to make it happen," she said. " ... I think we're at a point where we don't see the cases or the hospitalizations declining in the near future, so we have to move full steam ahead with these big plans to have the capacity we're going to need."
New Zealand man who died of gunshot wound to be recorded as COVID-19 death: Report
FILE PHOTO: El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele speaks during a ceremony to lay the first stone of Chivo Vet, a veterinary hospital financed with the gains El Salvador has obtained from its bitcoin operations, in Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador November 1, 2021. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas/File Photo
Jimmy Sengenberger is host of The Jimmy Sengenberger Show Saturdays from 6-9 a.m. on News/Talk 710 KNUS. He also hosts Jimmy at the Crossroads, a webshow and podcast in partnership with The Washington Examiner.
The Common Ground Committee nonprofit said Tuesday afternoon that Rep. Joe Neguse, the Democrat from Lafayette, is improving the tenor in the nation's capitol by improving himself.

Neguse had one of the most improved scores of any member of Congress since the last assessment of bipartisanship a year ago. His score rose from 16 out of 110 points with Republican Donald Trump in the White House a year ago to 41 under fellow Democrat Joe Biden.

His score tied Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Centennial for the highest among the state's U.S. House delegation.

Freshman Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert from Silt came in last with 4 points.

The overall average score for congressional lawmakers was 29.

The committee also scored governors, and Democrat Jared Polis finished with 37 points.

The score is based on when officeholders "seek points of agreement on social and political issues through listening and productive conversation," the scorecard keepers said in a statement.

"Common ground is the bedrock of functional government, Neguse said in a press release from the Common Ground Committee, which put together the scorecard. Americans elected us to get things done and that can only happen if we work together. I am happy to have affirmed my ongoing commitment to find common ground and I look forward to making progress on the issues that matter most to voters.

Freshman Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat who is the former governor and Denver mayor, was the Colorado delegation's highest scorer with 43 points. Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Denver followed with 39.

Other Colorado congressional members' scores were:

GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Windsor: 10 Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver: 28 Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs: 22 Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Arvada: 39

Read more about the scorecard by clicking here.

The Common Ground Committee describes itself as "free of political agenda and financial influence," with a "singular focus on bringing light, not heat, to public discourse."

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, a Democrat, scored 27 points. Republican Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming scored 0 and Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah netted a remarkable 95, the third-highest of any congressional member or governor. Rep. Ron Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, was the highest with 108 points.

Some members had negative scores, penalized for such infractions as insulting opponents.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, was the lowest with minus-20. Rep. Norma Torres, a Democrat from California, was close by with minus-19, and Republican Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene of Georgia came in at minus-16.
Its not necessarily that, as a society, we didnt anticipate that our attempts to curb COVID would come at a cost. But the Independence study quantifies it  rendering what was previously an abstraction into something grimly real.
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.
Election officials have another year to fight disinformation

After a year of election-related lies and disinformation, voters in 32 states went to the polls this month with few major technical errors, lines or delays in results.

But election officials and voting rights advocates caution there is still considerable work to do ahead of next years midterms to boost lagging confidence in the democratic process, especially among the three-quarters of Republicans who believe former President Donald Trumps false claim that the 2020 election was rigged.

Despite all of the threats, despite distractions, despite harassment, despite frivolous subpoenas, despite the pandemic and a continued lack of resources, election officials once again did what we have seen them do repeatedly: They facilitated democracy, said David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a D.C.-based nonpartisan nonprofit.

But we are not out of the woods. I am more concerned today than I was a year ago.

While the election went well, Becker said, Congress still has not acted on threats to voting access, and the lies of the 2020 election have not receded.

In Virginia, where a record number of voters elected Republican Glenn Youngkin as governor, county election officials were able to stave off major delays in reporting results because of the states reliance on paper ballots, said Chris Piper, commissioner of the state Department of Elections.

Just outside of Washington, D.C., Fairfax County had a technical glitch when uploading results on Election Day. County officials rescanned 20,000 paper ballots and reported their results before the end of the night. Elsewhere in the commonwealth, some county precincts had to restock paper ballots after running out because of high turnout -- a common issue that was quickly resolved, Piper said.

But his office also detected disinformation on social media, including posts that falsely claimed that any polling place that had a Wi-Fi signal could have its voting machines hacked. He and other Virginia election officials have a lot of work to do before the midterms, he said.

We just have to continue the work of filling in the gaps in information, he said, continuing the work of just showing everyone exactly what we do. Thats the most important thing. The education campaign can never stop.

Many Republican lawmakers and conservative activists, however, insist the way to restore faith in the democratic process is by tightening voting access.

Jonathan Haines, vice president for the conservative think tank Virginia Institute for Public Policy, said in an email that more work needs to be done to ensure election integrity, using the preferred term of Republicans seeking to cast doubt on recent election results, despite there being no evidence of any widespread fraud. Haines declined to respond to questions from Stateline about specific policies his organization will push. His group helped train poll watchers to look for fraud.

Since Trump lost his reelection bid last November, he and his allies have relentlessly called into question the security of U.S. elections, arguing without evidence that his loss was the result of a system rigged against him.

Those claims have been used in Republican-led states to launch partisan investigations of the 2020 election and to pass a wave of laws that added new voting restrictions, especially on early and mail-in voting. At the same time, state and local election officials have faced a barrage of violent threats from people inspired by that disinformation.

Just a third of Republicans now trust elections are fair, while more than 8 in 10 Americans believe there are major threats to U.S. democracy, according to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released just before Election Day.

Im tired of all the lies, said Alan Hays, the Republican elections supervisor for Lake County, Florida. There are millions of people today who have lost faith in their election system, only because of these unsubstantiated allegations. That is as un-American as communism.

Every county election supervisor in Florida, Democrats and Republicans, last month signed an open letter to voters seeking to dispel falsehoods about the 2020 election and to affirm the overall integrity of the states voting process. The bipartisan group wrote the letter after several local Republican committees in the state called for an Arizona-style partisan audit of the 2020 results in a state that Trump won.

Despite the letter, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last week called on fellow Republicans in the legislature to pass a new measure creating an office to investigate and prosecute voter fraud.

Restoring confidence in the election system wont come through politically motivated investigations, but through ensuring transparency and telling the truth, Hays said.

In Utah, Weber County Clerk Ricky Hatch has opened his office to any voter or candidate who wants to tour the facility and learn more about the security protections for the voting and ballot-counting processes. Hatch, a Republican, empathizes with people who have a healthy skepticism of the election system. But he has found that nearly everyone who visits his office leaves more confident in the systems safeguards.

Were used to doing stuff quietly and reliably and behind the scenes because we want elections to be all about the candidates or the issues, not about the technicalities about how its done, he said. But thats been called into question and we have to showcase it.
With the approval of the COVID-19 vaccine for younger children, some district leaders say offering vaccine clinics on campus, with the involvement of trusted school staff, is key to improving access and helping overcome hesitancy  particularly in communities with low overall vaccination rates.

Still, many school systems are choosing not to offer them.

North Iowa districts are passing on offering in-school clinics for now.

Disease Prevention Manager Karen Crimmings said CG Public Health is constantly evaluating whether to hold a vaccination clinic, but at this point there is no need. Crimmings also added there is no plan to hold vaccination clinics at any schools in the county.

Clear Lake Superintendent Doug Gee says his district has not discussed organizing a clinic nor have they communicated anything about the COVID-19 vaccine to parents. Gee says the district is leaving that decision up to students parents and guardians.

Central Springs and Forest City Superintendent Darwin Lehmann expressed the same sentiment.

"When it comes to kids and the COVID-19 vaccine, we are going to leave that to parents," said Lehmann.

The vaccine is available to children 5 to 11 by appointment at CG Public Health, which Crimmings notes might be a less-stressful environment for young people than a pharmacy or public clinic.

Hampton-Dumont and CAL Superintendent Todd Lettow said his districts sent out a survey a couple of weeks ago to parents to see if they would be interested. Lettow added they did offer the vaccine to students during conferences last week, adding they had 44 students receive the vaccine.

Lettow said there would be discussions of when to have another vaccine clinic available.

As of Nov. 11, the North Iowa counties with the highest positivity percentages in the zero-17 age group are Mitchell at 31%, Franklin at 30%, and Cerro Gordo at 28%. Worth and Hancock counties each sit at 16%, with Winnebago at 13%, and Floyd at 3%.

The Biden administration is encouraging local school districts to host clinics and kicked off a campaign Monday to promote child vaccinations. The Education Department is also urging schools to host town halls and webinars at which parents can talk to doctors about the vaccine. School districts can tap into billions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief money to support pediatric vaccination efforts.

More than 250 families signed up for vaccinations that began Thursday at elementary schools in Duluth, Minnesota, which organized clinics immediately after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave the final signoff to Pfizers kid-size COVID-19 shot for children ages 5 to 11. Superintendent John Magas called the vaccines a game changer.

This brings us one step closer to moving from pandemic to endemic, Magas said. It allows us to reconsider things like social distancing and masking and things like that as safety permits.

Districts that have held or are planning clinics for younger children span Alaska to Vermont, said Hayley Meadvin, an Education Department senior adviser. Where schools choose not to host clinics, families can turn to doctors offices, hospitals and other sites.

There are many points of access, and theres no wrong door, honestly, Meadvin said.

In Ohio, some school districts offered on-site clinics for older students, but Rick Lewis, director of the Ohio School Boards Association, said they haven't heard from any districts planning them for younger students. He noted the CDC encourages districts to consider factors like local needs for school clinics and adequate community support.

School vaccine drives have faced pushback and protests in Ohio and elsewhere, and some opponents say they plan to keep up pressure as the focus of the vaccination effort shifts to younger students.

Sarah Kenney, who represents the group Mainers for Health and Parental Rights, argues that schools should not be getting involved or even talking to young children about the vaccine. She worries about its newness and potential for long-term side effects.

A Pfizer study of 2,268 children found the vaccine was almost 91% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infections. The FDA examined 3,100 vaccinated kids in concluding the shots are safe.

Kenney also expressed concern about stigma against children who do not get vaccinated.

These conversations and personal decisions have been difficult enough to navigate for adults, we shouldnt be putting this on our kids," she said.

Parents are required to give authorization for their children's shots. The vaccines are typically administered before or after school in partnerships with local hospitals and government health officials.

Chicago Public Schools, the country's third-largest district, canceled school Nov. 12 to give parents an opportunity to get their children vaccinated by a healthcare provider or at a school-based site.

In Portland, Oregon, vaccines will be offered in eight elementary schools starting next week in high poverty districts, where families are more likely to face barriers such as access to health care or transportation, Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero said.

On the heels of California's decision to make vaccines for children mandatory, Portland is among districts considering the same. A recent board of education meeting to discuss that possibility was disrupted by a group of protesters. For that reason, security will be present at the vaccine clinics, and their times and dates wont be publicized outside the local community, said Courtney Westling, the districts director of government relations.

Schools are a trusted community hub, she said. Families, in general, feel very safe at these school sites. Were also not asking for identification or insurance cards. We dont want people to fear ICE showing up or something. We are just trying to get people vaccinated so we can get some of this behind us and get back to some semblance of normalcy.

In Hartford, Connecticut, schools superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez said the vaccination clinics it is planning along with local hospitals will include school nurses, trusted by families. Only a third of the district's students 12 and older are vaccinated.

We take an equity stance here and think about the access and removing any barriers that our families might have, she said.

In nearby Tolland, Connecticut, school superintendent Walter Willett said his district also is teaming with health providers, including UConn Health, to offer vaccines at school sites to younger students. He said vaccines are important, not just for keeping kids in school, but for teachers, janitors and other staff who tend to be more at risk.

They can more effectively do their job when kids aren't bouncing in and out of the classroom in quarantine, he said.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
FLOYD  The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the family of a Charles City man who was struck and killed by a semi at an intersection outside Floyd in 2016.
The Danville School Board needs to fill an open seat after a longtime board member resigned.

The board accepted the resignation of Renee Hughes at Thursday evenings meeting. Hughes first started on the board in January 2003, according to the school system.

The resignation is effective Nov. 30.

It is with great sadness that I must tender my resignation from the school board, Hughes said in a statement. Due to increased responsibilities in other areas of my life, I am no longer able to devote the time and energy that is required to be a good board member.

Danville Public Schools is accepting applications for an interim member who will fill the spot until an election is held for the seat. Since the General Assembly no longer allows municipal elections in May, the next election will be in November 2022.

The group of seven school board members are elected to four-year terms. Hughes started her latest term in July 2020.

Meetings are normally held the first Thursday of the month and monthly work sessions are generally two weeks after the regular meeting, according to the school boards website.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  Pacific Rim leaders agreed to do all they can to improve access to coronavirus vaccines and reduce carbon emissions, but failed to reach agreement on whether the U.S. should host talks in two years' time.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping were among those taking part in the online meeting of 21 leaders at the end of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Saturday, which was being hosted virtually by New Zealand.

The focus was on areas in which the unlikely mix of leaders could find common ground. But the failure of the group to endorse a U.S. bid to host APEC in 2023 pointed to some of the divisions that lie just beneath the surface.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she expected APEC would reach agreement around the U.S. bid by the end of the year, and said that the atmosphere in the room was pragmatic, despite the geopolitical tensions.

"It was constructive, it was positive and convivial, and there was a real common sense of purpose among members," Ardern said.
Before we begin, lets see if we can get ahead of some rumors:

Children who take the childs dose COVID vaccine will not grow gills.

They wont become buoyant and fly into space.

Nor will the vaccine turn them into mutants and give them superpowers  though they may like that.

The only superpower it will provide is significant resistance to becoming infected and the ability to better withstand the deadly effects of COVID if they do become infected.

Just like the grown-up versions.

We feel it important to offer reassurances because of all the unhinged misinformation unleashed on the American public, believed by way too many gullible people, when the adult versions of vaccines were released and promoted earlier this year.

It turns out there are no satanic, magnetized microchips in any version of the vaccine.

Children may suffer the same temporary soreness in their arms, and slight flu-like symptoms, that their parents and other vaccinated folks experienced. But thats a whole lot better than winding up on a respirator in a childrens ward.
The brother-in-law of U.S. Sen. Richard Burr was ordered Wednesday by a federal judge to comply with an investigative subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Burr and brother-in-law Gerald Fauth are being investigated by the SEC for potential insider trading, a case that stems from their abrupt sales of financial holdings during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to recent federal court filings.

Burr, a Republican, is among several lawmakers from both parties who faced outrage over their aggressive trading in early 2020, before the economic threat from the virus was widely known. That fueled accusations congressional members were acting on inside information gained through their official duties to benefit financially, which is illegal under a law known as the STOCK Act.

Burr was previously investigated by the Trump administrations Justice Department for offloading $1.6 million from his portfolio in January and February 2020. The department cleared him of wrongdoing almost a year later  on Jan. 19, Donald Trumps last full day in office.

But the SEC continued to investigate Burr, according to court documents filed in the Southern District of New York that were recently made public.
Not long after Cawthorns announcement Thursday night, Moore came out with one of his own: He wouldnt be running for Congress.

The 13th District includes the western part of Mecklenburg County and all of Polk, Rutherford, McDowell, Burke, Gaston and Cleveland counties. Moore is from Cleveland County.

Cawthorns current 11th District includes most of the new 14th District, but some parts of the new 13th District. Cawthorn lives in Henderson County, which is in the new 14th. But, unlike state lawmakers, congressional candidates can run in a different district from where they reside.

The move had all the makings of a blockbuster GOP primary between Cawthorn, a national name in the Republican Party, and Moore, who has served as speaker of the House for the better part of a decade.

Moore had been expected to run up until Cawthorns surprise announcement.

Both the new 13th and 14th districts are Republican-leaning. An analysis by The Cook Political Report says Republicans would be expected to win the 13th District by 13 percentage points and the 14th District by 7 points. The 14th District may be more likely to turn toward Democrats later in the decade due to population changes  a consideration given Cawthorns age.
The panels proceedings and attempts to gather information have been delayed as Trump appealed Chutkans rulings and the House fights for the information in court. On Thursday, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the release of some of the White House records the panel is seeking, giving that court time to consider Trumps arguments.

Still, the House panel is continuing its work, and lawmakers have already interviewed more than 150 witnesses so far as they attempt to build the most comprehensive record yet of how a violent mob of Trumps supporters broke into the Capitol that day and temporarily halted the certification of Bidens victory.

The committee has subpoenaed almost three dozen people, including former White House staffers, Trump allies who strategized about how to overturn his defeat and people who organized the giant rally on the National Mall the morning of Jan. 6. While some, like Meadows and former White House aide Steve Bannon, have balked, others have spoken to the panel and provided documents.
Republicans dominated redistricting last decade, helping them build a greater political advantage in more states than either party had in the past 50 years.

Just three months into the map-making process, its too early to know which party will come out on top. Republicans need a net gain of just five seats to take control of the U.S. House and effectively freeze President Joe Bidens agenda on climate change, the economy and other issues.

But Republicans potential net gain of three seats in North Carolina could be fully canceled out in Illinois. Democrats who control the legislature have adopted a map with lines that squiggle snake-like across the state to swoop up Democratic voters and relegate Republicans to a few districts.

In the 13 states that have passed new congressional maps so far, the cumulative effect is essentially a wash for Republicans and Democrats, leaving just a few toss-up districts. That could change in the coming weeks, as Republican-controlled legislatures consider proposed maps in Georgia, New Hampshire and Ohio that target Democratic-held seats.

Ohio Republicans have taken an especially ambitious approach, proposing one map that could leave Democrats with just two seats out of 15 in a state that Trump won by 8 percentage points.
Tongue-tied GOP

Once again, I am amazed on so many levels by the state of politics in North Carolina. It is truly disheartening to see the latest round of redistricting. Could it be Republicans cant win any other way than by gerrymandering the voting maps in a state where there are more registered Democrats than Republicans? And more registered independents than registered Republicans?

Lets hope for the sake of this state  and the country  that the courts will intervene to find a more balanced approach to these unfair, voter-suppressing maps.

Meanwhile, I found the letter to the editor Mannings MIA quite humorous. The writer stated, If there has ever been anyone more silent than Manning about the disasters of the Biden presidency, who would it be?

Lets flip this question around and ask it this way: Of the hundreds of Republicans in Congress, how many have spoken out about the numerous disasters of the Trump presidency? We know the answer: very, very few. And for those who have, what price are they paying for doing so?

Simply ask Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. Time again for the Republicans to look in the mirror. What are they so afraid of?

Ken Stiles
Yemeni writer Abdul Rahman al-Rayyan has emphasized in the ANAHs dialogue that the European Union is governed by the forces of global capitalism that work for its interests and agendas. He stressed that the PKK's accusation of the murder of Olof Palme was merely an argument for stopping the expansion of the Kurdish struggle in Europe, but that the truth had emerged even if it was too late.

The dialogue reads as follows:



 The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been fighting for the Kurdish cause and the cause of the Kurdistan peoples for more than 40 years.

Every struggle movement that has its successes and victories, its failures, its defeats and its breakdowns, because it constitutes the nature of the Earth and the human being expressed, PKK, it s been fighting for 40 years against a Turkish exclusive mentality that doesn't recognize Kurdish existence. We recognize that this struggle is not only domestic but also regional and international, on the basis that the decision to divide the whole region was an international one. The Kurdish people are an indigenous people of the region and all successive Governments in Turkey will not be able to end the struggle of the Kurdish people until they have their legitimate rights to freedom and dignity.

 The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is the largest movement in numbers and characteristics in the four parts of Kurdistan, and the most powerful popular movement among Kurds in the Middle East and worldwide. It is the legitimate representative of the Kurdish people, but the European Union has ranked the party among the global terrorism regulations, in your opinion, why?

Terrorist classifications in international organizations are usually subject to unrealistic standards, as Kurds have been treated specifically in Turkey as an armed group that undermines the social security and stability of the Turkish state rather than as a national independence movement. This is due to the fact that the laws of the European system refuse to use weapons to impose a political vision or project. In the end, it is a political decision and has nothing to do with it legally. Everyone knows that Turkey is a NATO member. This decision came in order to please Turkey, on the one hand, and for the fighting to continue between the parties and for Europe to benefit from passing its policies on Turkey.

PKKs classification of terrorism regulations came after the assassination of Swedish politician and Social Democratic Action Party leader Olof Palme. However, the reality of his assassination emerged in 2020 and the party was found innocent of that charge. However, the European Union has so far shown no position regarding removing the party's name from the terrorism regulations.

The argument for using the armed struggle to gain rights is problematic in keeping the party's name on the list of terrorism according to the European perspective, especially since political forces representing the Kurds have resorted to the political work model of the Democratic Peoples Party of Turkey, which participated in the elections and won a number of seats in the Parliament. The European Union is ultimately subject to the forces of global capitalism that work for its interests and agendas. Accusing the PKK of assassinating Olof Palma is just an argument for stopping the stretch of Kurdish struggle in Europe, but the truth has emerged even if it is too late.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), during its struggle, launched several initiatives to resolve the Kurdish issue peacefully and fairly. However, that initiative has not met with an appropriate response, and yet he has continued to launch initiatives. How do you see this initiative, and why is the Turkish state not showing any similar step in this regard?

Usually, a State or any party to a conflict does not respond to initiatives during a war unless other parties to the conflict work hard and exert political pressure on the parties to the conflict, which was not the case in the Kurdish situation. The intransigence of the Turkish side continues and it is believed that only through violence can the Kurdish problem be solved. However, it has proved that the military option cannot solve any social and cultural problem or the cause of a people. That is why we believe that Turkish Governments are not prepared to stop wars because they are the primary beneficiaries and can call them war brokers, not Governments that seek the well-being of their societies.

Why do the Arab countries and their peoples not move towards removing the party's name from the list of terrorism as a common threat to Arabs, Kurds and other components of the region, namely the occupying Turkish state, crystallizes?

Most Arab countries that can move to remove the party's name from the terrorist list suffer from internal problems that threaten their national unity. States themselves are experiencing political and intellectual loss as a result of the revolutions of the so-called Arab Spring, which divided the division in the societal situation of the peoples of the region. That's why many Arab countries cannot wait to take steps like this.

Nowadays, the Arab people are in disastrous situations and many Arabs are generally unaware of the Kurdish issue. The Kurdish media has not reached the Arab street until the moment. The Kurdish model in Iraq has contributed to the aversion of the Arabs by the position and policies pursued by the leaders of the Kurds-Iraq and by implicating them with Arab enemies, including the Zionist entity. This situation has created misunderstandings among the Arab man, who is essentially exhausted by his issues, about the Kurdish issue in general.

T/S

ANHA
" " Should you pop that blister or let it ride? katleho Seisa/Getty Images

Work in the yard without gloves or don a stiff new pair of shoes and you're likely to wind up with an unwanted bodily addition  a blister. There are a bunch of ways to cause a blister, including friction (such as when something repeatedly rubs up against the skin), as well as allergies and exposure to heat, cold and chemicals. These annoying and unsightly bubbles of clear, watery fluid (which is called serum, by the way) might look tempting to pop, but is it a good idea to do it?

Dermatologist Dr. Erum Ilyas, who is based near Philadephia, says she gets that question from patients all the time. "The answer overall is yes," she says via email. "It is reasonable to pop a blister for one big reason: the soreness or tenderness that comes from blisters is from the pressure of the fluid in the blister. Until this pressure is released, it will not have a chance to heal."

Advertisement

She adds that if you don't pop the blister, it might burst on its own anyway from day-to-day activities. "If this happens in an uncontrolled setting it may put you at a higher risk for infection."

So how do you do it? Follow these simple steps provided by Dr. Peterson Pierre of the Pierre Skin Care Institute in Thousand Oaks, California, to achieve the safest outcome possible:

Wash the affected area with soap and water.

Using a sterile needle, safety pin or pair of medical scissors, gently poke the blister. Most of the fluid should leak out easily. If it doesn't, it's not ready to be popped.

Apply soft pressure to ensure that all of the serum is released.

Dress the area with a pressure bandage to prevent fluid from reaccumulating in the blister. This also protects the skin and helps the area heal.

Although some doctors recommend applying antibiotic cream, Pierre says to steer clear. "In fact, products like Neosporin can irritate the area, he says via email. "Vaseline or Aquaphor with the bandage is sufficient to provide an environment conducive to rapid healing."

Whatever you do during the popping process and in the delicate days after, do not peel off the outermost thin layer of skin that remains. "When you release the fluid underneath, the tense blister will 'deflate' and the overlying blister skin will fall like a parachute into the eroded skin beneath, and act as a natural bandage. A new epidermal layer will grow and fill in underneath," emails Beverly Hills-based dermatologist Dr. Tsippora Shainhouse with SkinSafe Dermatology and Skin Care. For those of you not in the frame of mind to pop, she notes that blisters often resolve on their own, provided you remove "the inducing friction/trauma," meaning for instance, not wearing shoes that caused or irritate the blister.

This advice about popping blisters applies to situations where you know what caused them. "If you are developing blisters and you do not know why, it's important to see a dermatologist as there are a number of blistering skin diseases that are autoimmune in origin that may need to be managed with other medications to treat and prevent," says Ilyas.

Now That's Cool Ever wondered where blister fluid comes from, anyway? When the skin is injured, nearby tissues react by leaking serum, which is intended to act as natural protection for the skin.

Advertisement

Originally Published: Feb 11, 2020
A student's death by suicide in a parking lot across the street from Capital High School prompted the lockdown of three Helena schools Friday afternoon, authorities said.

The 16-year-old boy was found with a fatal gunshot wound in the parking lot of Helena Nazarene Church at 117 Valley Drive, where a prayer vigil was held that evening. The boy was a student a Capital High School, Helena Public Schools Superintendent Rex Weltz said in a message posted on Facebook.

Helena Police Department Capt. Brett Petty said calls for service began to come in around 12:30 p.m. Petty said one of the initial callers reported seeing a juvenile heading toward Capital High with a gun, which triggered a large law enforcement response.

Three officers were dispatched to the church, where some callers said a gunshot was heard, while the rest of the officers descended on the high school.

All HPD officers on shift at the time responded to the scene, and the area around the school was blocked off.

In addition, two HPD communication staff members, all HPD detectives, Montana Highway Patrol and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks responded to the scene.

"Nothing indicates there was an active shooter or anything moving in that direction," Petty said. "We had a lot of HPD officers and other agencies here quickly. ... The response was there."

The high school was placed on lockdown per internal protocol, but Petty said a short time later "the school is perfectly safe."

"Right now I have teams searching the school, but we believe this was an isolated incident," he said in an interview on the scene.

Broadwater and Four Georgians elementary schools were also locked down Friday afternoon, Weltz wrote in an email to families at 1:35 p.m.

"Law enforcement has determined that it is safe to resume normal operations," the email said. "The lockdowns for all locations have ended. There is no safety threat to students, staff or the community."

At the prayer vigil held by Daniel Thompson, pastor of the church where the teenager died, many gathered to grieve.

"This is a dark day, and we want to help any way we can," Thompson told those in attendance.

Among the attendees was Chair of the Helena Public Schools Board of Trustees Luke Muszkiewicz.

"The immediate priority (of the district) is supporting the two families of the students we've lost," he said, noting that a Helena High School student died by suicide last week. "Obviously we can't prevent every tragedy, but after a week like this, we need to introspect, have a conversation about everything we are doing and can do. We need to learn what is working and what isn't so we can do better in the days ahead."

In his Facebook post, Weltz said additional counseling staff were at Capital High School Friday afternoon and will continue to be available to students and staff Monday.

"Now is a good time to check in with young people in your life who may be affected by this tragedy," he wrote.

In an email to families, East Helena High School officials identified the deceased as "a former EHHS Vigilante," adding that they "anticipate that some of our students will be affected as the news of this event spreads throughout the community." Additional counselors will be available to students at EHHS as well.

Shodair Childrens Hospital scheduled three free peer support groups for students and others who may be struggling after the incident. The groups were slated for 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 1889 Coffee House at 1800 Prospect Ave., which will not be operating during the time. Shodair planned to have counselors and a therapy dog available, and resources about safety planning will be provided to parents.

Shodairs Outpatient Mental Health Services are also available for anyone who needs support immediately. Call 406-444-1126 to set up a time to meet.

Independent Record editor Jesse Chaney contributed to this story.

Need help? If you or someone you know is in crisis, the Montana Warmline is at 1-877-688-3377 or http://montanawarmline.org. The Montana Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) is also available.

Love 5 Funny 24 Wow 9 Sad 218 Angry 29

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.
The East Helena Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10010 is referred to by its members as Cory-Dullum Post, named for two East Helenans who laid down their lives in service of their country.

Grant H. Cory achieved the rank of 1st lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Force. The P-38 pilot died near Paris, France, on June 23, 1944.

Gerald F. Dullum was a petty officer third class in the U.S. Navy. The electrician's mate served aboard the U.S. Battleship Arizona and died during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Cory and Dullum were likely on the minds of the members of their namesake post Thursday morning during East Helena's annual Veterans Day Parade.

Hundreds of East Helenans, local school children and patriotic countrymen from around the region lined Main Street for the modest yet proud display of thanks for the men and women of America's Military.

Led by Helena's Pipes & Drums of the Black Devils, the parade was also made up of members of the Oro Fino Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the local Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution chapter, Knights of Columbus Assembly 589 in Helena, Fort Harrison Veteran Affairs Fire Department and East Helena Fire and Rescue.

The parade marched along Main Street starting at 11 a.m. -- a nod to the federal holiday's Armistice Day beginnings -- and paused at the veterans' monument in Main Street Park.

Post Commander Jeff Schepp, an Army veteran, spoke to the crowd about the importance of the day.

"We can never fully repay the debt of gratitude we owe to our veterans, but we can certainly try," Schepp said. "We can work to honor our veterans not just on Veterans Day, but every day."

Post Chaplain David Lee led the crowd in an opening prayer.

Charmaine Lindgren sang the National Anthem.

In salute of fallen veterans, the pipers played "Amazing Grace," members of the Lewis and Clark Veteran Honor Guard's firing detail discharged their rifles, and Nancy Roe, also of the local veteran honor guard, played a somber rendition of "Taps" on her trumpet.

While the day presented an opportunity to honor the memories of fallen soldiers, Schepp said it was also a "time of pride of what we have accomplished and the freedoms protected."

East Helena boasts a rich history of celebrating Veterans Day, going back generations.

"Our city has always had a lot of pride," East Helena Mayor James Schell said in an interview after the ceremony. "Generations of blue collar workers come together on Veterans Day, carrying on a tradition that dates back to the First World War. It's truly something special."

Following the ceremony at Main Street Park, the parade procession returned to the VFW Post, and attendees were treated to lunch.

Schepp said he was "amazed at the number of children here today," of which there were many.

"It's important to teach the history of our military and what the military has done to support our freedom," he said in an interview. "They're also our future veterans and our future leaders."

Love 5 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 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 Montana Jewish Project achieved a major milestone Thursday in its mission to acquire a historic Helena synagogue that is now owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena.

The synagogue, historically referred to as the Temple Emanu-El, is situated just across the street from the Cathedral of St. Helena, on Ewing Street, and has housed the Diocese of Helena since 1981. With the Diocese set to move its offices into a new space called the Center for Catholic Life in the Seeley Building downtown, leaders of the Montana Jewish Project saw an opportunity to return ownership of the synagogue to the Jewish community.

The Diocese's Bishop Austin Vetter met with MJP co-founder Rebecca Stanfel in the synagogue Thursday to sign a buy/sell agreement for the building. The agreement stipulates that the building will be sold to the MJP if the organization can raise enough money to purchase it by June 2022, though that deadline could be extended.

While the agreed-upon sale price was not publicly disclosed, MJP's current fundraising goal is $1.5 million.

"People often ask me what the Jewish-Catholic relationship is like," Vetter said. "This is what it should be. This is so exciting. To be able to show a society that is so divided, that there is still unity."

As a gesture of good faith, Vetter also announced that a donation would be gifted to the MJP on behalf of the Diocese. Vetter led the signing with a traditional Catholic prayer and Stanfel followed with a Jewish prayer.

"I would love to come in here in 20 years and see it back to its original glory," Vetter said. "We may have our differences, but the first thing we have in common is our human dignity."

Jim Carney, chief financial officer for the Diocese, said the Diocese was originally contacted by the MJP about a year ago. The Diocese decided it was time to consolidate its office spaces and positions, putting many of the ministries under a single roof. Carney said Diocese officials did not want to put the building on the open market if MJP was dedicated to trying to purchase it.

According to Carney, the signing on Thursday was the culmination of a year's worth of discussions.

Stanfel said MJP aims to use the historic space as a statewide cultural hub for the Jewish community. Stanfel said Helena is one of few state capitals without any kind of Jewish cultural building.

According to Stanfel, the building would host many different kinds of programming and and religious services. This could be anything from learning Jewish cooking to teaching Hebrew in the building. MJP would also like to install a small historical exhibit about the building itself.

"This is a significant milestone, but it's just the first step," Stanfel said. "We have a long way to go."

Stanfel was adamant that the mission of the project is not to use the space as a synagogue. She said she is part of a synagogue in Bozeman and plans to stay there.

"It is a big building for a small community," Stanfel said. "So we want to use the space in conjunction with the broader community in an effort to make the Helena community better."

Stanfel said the organization is considering renting out the lower floor of the building. Long-term goals include restoring the building in other ways over the course of five to 10 years, which is a conservative estimate according to Stanfel.

"It's a big deal to openly exist as Jewish in this historic building. We've even had a lot of offers for help from non-Jewish members of the community," Stanfel said. "It is an enormous gesture of healing by the Catholic Diocese, who have done a lot of work to repair old wounds. They have been great stewards of the building."

The Temple Emanu-El first entered the planning stages of development in 1867, according to the historic register. Construction on the building finished in 1891, when it began serving as a temple. By the 1930s, economic depression had hit the congregation hard and they were no longer able to maintain the synagogue.

At the time, nobody wanted to purchase the building and it was in danger of facing demolition, according to historian Ellen Baumler. Baumler's research showed that after several unsuccessful attempts to find a buyer, the state of Montana agreed to accept the former temple for the price of $1. Per the agreement, the state promised to use the building for a good "social purpose" and took formal possession in 1937.

The building was used as the state's Department of Public Welfare until that organization was abolished in 1971. The Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services that took its place worked out of the building until 1976. The building remained vacant, primarily being used as storage, until 1981.

In 1981, the state auctioned off the building. The building was purchased by the Catholic Diocese of Helena for $83,000, which provided the sole bid on the building. The Diocese has occupied the building for the past 40 years.

For more information on the Montana Jewish Project or to donate to its cause, visit www.montanajewishproject.com.

Love 39 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 1 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.
It took Phylliss Firecrow 21 years to talk openly about the disappearance and murder of her younger sister LaTisha Joy Brien. Now, shes speaking out on behalf of all missing and murdered Indigenous women in a 90-minute television program debuting Friday on Oxygen True Crime.

I know what it feels like to lose someone so important, said Firecrow in an interview with The Gazette. She was my little sister. My baby sister. And to understand and to know that hurt, and also understand the not knowing and the wondering, only to find out that they are no longer here.

Murdered and Missing in Montana airs Friday, Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. MST, centered on the disappearance and deaths of Henny Scott, Kaysera Stops Pretty Places, and Selena Not Afraid. The program will also be available through video on demand on Oxygen's app.

The program is one of the first mainstream shows highlighting these cases and the jurisdictional complexities surrounding missing and murdered Indigenous people plaguing the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Nations.

All three girls were 18 or younger when they went missing and were later found dead in Eastern Montana, where disproportionate numbers of Indigenous girls and young women go missing or are found dead.

Its not looked at as a nationwide problem, said Firecrow. Thats somebodys daughter, somebodys auntie, somebodys sister. They never look at it that way. Its just another Native girl.

Native American women face murder rates that are more than 10 times the national average, according to the Department of Justice, and are three to four times more likely to be raped, sexually assaulted or killed by their intimate partners.

Even these dramatic numbers are likely underestimates, as systemic racism, distrust of law enforcement, jurisdictional issues, inconsistent classification and lack of centralized data collection prevent officials from seeing the whole picture.

Paula Castro-Stops, mother of Henny Scott, describes seeing the finished TV program as a relief. Our hard work is starting to pay off, she said of the familys efforts to draw attention and resources to Hennys case.

Castro-Stops is interviewed throughout the program with her husband, Nathan Stops. It was overwhelming just to see her story up on the big screen, she said, but we figured its worth the hurt to get this story out, to explain it to the people that dont know what is going on here and to show that I am here for any of the other mothers that are going through this, that they are not alone, and that our daughter just isnt another face on the missing posters.

Henny Scott was 14 when on Dec. 8, 2018, she was last seen walking away from a home in the Muddy Creek area west of Lame Deer. She was missing 19 days before the FBI issued a public advisory. A volunteer search party found her body two days later  200 yards from the home where she was last seen. Her death was ruled accidental, and no charges have been pursued.

Kaysera had just turned 18 when she was reported missing on Aug. 27, 2019. Two days later, a passerby found her body in the backyard of a Hardin home. Her death was classified suspicious and her case is still open even though medical examiners have been unable to determine a cause of death.

Her grandmother, Yolanda Fraser, is interviewed in the program as well, sharing details of the mysterious discovery in a backyard near a busy residential road. Fraser has also been exhaustively seeking justice for Stops Pretty Places, whose manner of death has been undetermined, and the investigation remains open.

"Its every family up to this point pushing on their own, Fraser told The Gazette in a prior interview. And you are already doing it with that huge grief. It can just collapse you.

The producers were in the area filming interviews with families of Kaysera and Henny when Selena, age 16, disappeared on New Year's Day in 2020 from a rest stop along Interstate 90 between Billings and Hardin. Searchers found her body three weeks later about a mile from where she was last seen. Her death was also ruled accidental but remains under review by the Montana Department of Justice.

Being there in Montana and starting to assess the situation myself with what was going on there, it was astounding to me, said Loni Coombs, the shows central narrator and a former criminal prosecutor for L.A.s District Attorneys office. It was overwhelming to find out just the depth of this crisis, and the statistics to me are just almost unbelievable.

Coombs walks viewers through the crimes by highlighting patterns in lack of response, inconsistencies in investigation treatment, and family testimonials.

I was struck by their determination and their dignity, said Combs. As they talked about these really terrible things that had happened to them, and yet they were determined to speak about them because they wanted it to stop and they want these stories out there.

A goal of the program is to spotlight these three cases while bringing attention to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls across the country, said Coombs.

We saw (with Gabby Petito) an amazing response to a missing person, and Im thrilled that we had that type of response, because that means we can have that type of response in other cases, she added. Media coverage of Petito, a 22-year-old woman who went missing while traveling with her boyfriend and was later found dead on the eastern border of Grand Teton National Park, has highlighted a bias in reporting cases of non-Native women.

They were like every other young girl with their dreams ahead of them, said Coombs. They were out doing what young girls do: celebrating an 18th birthday, going to a New Years Eve party, going out with friends. These are all things that young women across the country go out and do, and for them it was the beginning of a horrible end.

Mainstream media has picked up on stories of missing and murdered women and girls from the Northern Cheyenne and Crow tribes sporadically, including an appearance on Dr. Oz by Melinda Harris, whose daughter Hanna Harris was murdered in 2013 near Lame Deer. Castro-Stops and her husband Nate Castro were recently invited to tell Hennys story on Dr. Phil, which has not yet aired. In addition to the Oxygens True Crime documentary, Showtime is in the area filming another documentary about the crisis and several other projects are in the works, including When They Were Here, by brother and sister filmmaking team Ivy and Ivan MacDonald, enrolled members of the Blackfeet Tribe.

Its a complex situation to unpack in 90 minutes, and the Oxygen documentary highlights lack of response by authorities once a person is reported missing and the lack of consistent response and thorough investigation once a body has been found.

In Montana, Native Americans make up just under 7% of the population but have accounted for 26% of the more than 5,400 missing person reports filed from 2016 through 2018, according to state Department of Justice data reviewed by The Billings Gazette. Though more recent data has been collected since legislation aimed at addressing the crisis has been put in place, there is still a lot of missing information, and lack of cooperation between agencies hampers reliable data.

Courtney Armstrong, an executive producer on Murdered and Missing in Montana, said she was impacted by a 2018 report from the Urban Indian Health Institute that looked at 71 cities in the United States to assess violence against Native women, including institutional practices that allow them to disappear in life, in the media, and in the data.

They disappear three times, and one of them is the media, and thats all we have control of. We were like, Ok, what can we do to help that?

The show relies heavily on family testimonials as well as tribal government leaders, law enforcement, and industry experts to piece together the storylines. Both Henny and Selenas deaths were ruled accidental and that they died of hypothermia, while Kayseras death remains undetermined, with the investigation still reported to be open and active.

Firecrow hopes that attention will linger on the crisis. It feels like they only focus on it for that moment when it happens, and then it goes away and its seldom spoke upon again. Thats why the ones that are here like myself and all the families have to keep that alive and have to reach for that justice. And make sure that these girls get their justice.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0
Several dozen community members gathered at the Doughboy statue at the Missoula County Courthouse on a snowy Thursday morning to celebrate Veterans Day.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte spoke at the event, while staffers for Sen. Jon Tester, Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Matt Rosendale read letters from the state's congressional delegation.

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Dale Stovall spoke, as did the event's organizer, Susan Reneau. American Legion Post 27's color guard was in attendance, while the VFW Post 209 Honor Guard fired a three-volley salute that was followed by the playing of taps.

"Thank you everyone that's here to remember the sacrifice you had for our country," Gov. Gianforte said, speaking to the veterans at the ceremony. "You have all stepped up when needed, sacrificed, left your family's home and put yourself in harm's way. We have a debt we can never fully repay to each one of you. So we're here today to say a thank you on behalf of a grateful nation and state."

Stovall spoke about Gold Star families  those who have lost a family member during wartime  and how during the world wars there was very little help for them.

"All of sudden a person from Western Union comes up to your house with a teletype saying that your loved one had been killed," Stovall said. "And that's what you got. Nothing else. We didn't have insurance like we do now."

He also talked about health care for veterans, saying Montana needs around 28 more doctors to help staff Veteran Affairs clinics around the state.

Statistica.com reported in October of this year that 43.92% of males in the United States aged 75 years or older are veterans, with the number of homeless veterans over 15,000.

There were more than 17 million military veterans in the United States in 2019, the same report said.

There were 6,261 suicides by veterans in 2019, according to a U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs report.

The VA's budget for fiscal year 2020 was $220.2 billion and it is the second-largest government agency, only trailing the Department of Defense.

Veterans who live in rural areas also have issues accessing medical care, Stovall said.

"We need to find some way to incentivize doctors to come into the VA ... that's one of the issues that we need to address," Stovall said.

In a letter read aloud by a representative, Sen. Tester, who chairs the Senate's Veteran Affairs Committee, said he is "rolling up my sleeves to advance new efforts that will pay for the continuing cost of war," and is "working every day to hold the VA accountable in providing veterans of all generations the benefits of the care they earned."

Sen. Daines mentioned in his letter that nearly 100,000 veterans "call our beautiful state home" and that "we must stay committed to ensuring they receive the respect and benefits they've earned."

Rep. Rosendale's letter said he "appreciates" all veterans have done and "without you, those who served in the past and those who serve now, we as a nation would not exist today."

"On behalf of the state of Montana, let me be very clear, thank you for your service, thank you for your sacrifice and thank you for making this nation a safer place where we still celebrate and enjoy freedom," Gov. Gianforte 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

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.
Accurately measuring the amount of water contained in snowpack is notoriously difficult, the assistant state climatologist with the Montana Climate Office at the University of Montana told the governors drought advisory committee recently.

The measurement is called the snow-water equivalent and it's critical data commonly used for assessing snowpack. It's frequently cited as a percentage compared to normal for a given date. The Natural Resources Conservation Service operates a system of SNOTEL sites, providing real-time measurements of snow depth and the water it contains.

But SNOTEL sites are not the only tool available for measuring snow-water equivalent. Zach Hoylman, the climatologist, pointed to the Snow Data Assimilation System, or SNODAS, which is a model developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to estimate snow cover.

Using the model, the climate office along with state and federal agencies are developing a new tool they believe will aid in snowpack and drought monitoring by providing a holistic estimate of snowpack throughout watersheds and from low to higher elevations.

I want to emphasize that the SNOTEL network is critical and were not trying to discount it, but from our perspective if you want to look at full (snow-water equivalent) storage in a watershed you need to start moving to modeled estimates, Holyman said in a recent interview.

SNOTEL stations are typically located at higher elevations. That is important because the network provides real on-the-ground measurements where snowpack is the deepest and longest lasting.

Where the model becomes useful is assessing snowpack at mid and lower elevations, which may not contain the depth of snow up high, but cover much larger areas.

In watersheds and especially in the context of climate change, we really need to start thinking about the aerial distribution of (snow-water equivalent), or how snow is distributed across watersheds not only at the highest of elevations but across its entire elevational gradient, Hoylman said.

Hoylman gave the example of the Smith River watershed in 2021 going into the spring. SNOTEL data measured at normal, which provided some optimism for the float season and water supply for agriculture. The SNODAS, which included mid and low elevations, provided a far less rosy estimate of 60% of normal. As the spring and summer unfolded with mainly hot and dry weather, river flows quickly dropped  including a number of record lows.

Offered on https://drought.climate.umt.edu/, the new service called Hypsome-SWE is expected to be online by the end of the month. It will aggregate modeled data across Montanas watersheds to estimate snowpack throughout individual drainages compared to data dating back to 2004. That can be helpful, for example, if parts of the watershed have snowpack surpluses but other parts have deficits.

With climate change expected to drive earlier melt and runoff, lower and mid elevations would reach the melting point earlier than higher elevations, he said, providing a broader reason for why the tool will be an important compliment to SNOTEL data in estimating and tracking snowpack.

I definitely think theres a place for both data sets because the measurements for SNOTEL are actual measurements on the ground, Hoylman said. Putting the model with the SNOTEL data can be ingested in tandem to understand how the whole system is behaving.

The launch of Hypsome-SWE comes as winter approaches on the heels of Montanas worst drought in more than two decades. While some areas of the state of seen good moisture in the fall, most of Montana remains in extreme to severe drought.

Tom Kuglin is the deputy editor for the Lee Newspapers State Bureau. His coverage focuses on outdoors, recreation and natural resources.

Love 4 Funny 0 Wow 1 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.
DECATUR  A year ago, Specialist Kolten Cowen, United States Army, got word that a close friend had lost his life serving in Iraq.

Most 22-year-olds I know don't understand what sacrifice means, Cowen said at the Lutheran School Association's Veterans Day event on Thursday. I'd like to open with a quote from the Bible, John 15:13. It says, 'Greater love hath no man than this: to lay down his life for his brother.'

When you serve your country, Cowen said, the people you serve with become your brothers and sisters. He'd never understood that verse completely until he got the call about his fellow soldier. He was angry for a while, but when he prayed about it, eventually he realized he could honor the legacy and life of his friend. He's getting ready for his second deployment, this time to Africa.

I'm more than happy to do it, he said.

Serving his country is his honor, he said, and he does it for his two younger sisters and for all the people in the gym at the LSA on Thursday, to preserve American freedom and a way of life.

Recommended for you

Master of Ceremonies Amy Yusko, who teaches history at the school, said when she was a student, Veterans Day was a day off, but more and more schools are staying open and using the day, as LSA did, to teach students what the day means. Originally called Armistice Day in honor of the end of World War I, which ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the name was changed to Veterans Day by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954, to honor the veterans of all wars and those who serve in peacetime, too.

The Rev. Wray Offermann grew up during the waning days of World War II, with two uncles who served. One never came home and is buried in the Philippines, and Offermann said one day he hopes to visit that uncle's grave. The uncle's last letter home spoke of his faith and the intense fighting.

Should I be called upon to give the ultimate sacrifice, Offermann read from that letter, I do so remembering the words of the Apostle Paul: For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

That letter, and the knowledge of his uncle's abiding faith, gave the family great comfort, Offermann said, because they know they will be reunited in heaven someday.

Offermann also knows the worry of having a child in service, as his son, Jonathan, who was present at the event, served in the Army National Guard and was called up to full-time service, first to Germany and then to Iraq.

He wanted to honor the traditions of our family, Offermann said. He wanted to live out his own love of freedom.

Jonathan Offermann came home safely.

There's still a price to pay, Offermann said. Every so often, when we're pouring concrete on a hot summer day, Jonathan will give us a peek into some of the things that he learned in Mosul, Iraq. Some of the men who served under him never made it back.

Students read excerpts from essays submitted to the VFW Patriot's Pen essay contest, including Avery Smith, a seventh-grader.

I thought it's helpful to know the sacrifices of the veterans around us that we don't really notice every day, Avery said. I think it's just helpful that kids get to know the importance of the people that risked their lives for their country and freedom.

Veterans too often get overlooked, said Olivia McElyea, a sophomore, and suffer alone after coming back.

A lot of times, they go through so much for us, that imprints on them, that they've never really recovered from, she said. Once they do recover, or maybe they never will, they're mistreated or disregarded in the country. It's so important that we remember a day, when people decided to take the courage, to take their own lives and put it in the hands of God, and stand before our nation to protect us and not just to protect our country, but to make a statement and a stance as to how they not only trust themselves to protect our country, but they trust God with their own lives.

Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter

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.
For generations of Decatur-area teens, cruisin' Eldo was the thing to do on a Friday and Saturday night  and the Herald & Review was righ
A Chicago police leader who worked to implement the departments federal consent decree sent a resignation letter to Mayor Lori Lightfoot this summer alleging that CPDs top leadership failed to even feign interest in pursuing reform in a meaningful manner.

Then the official alleged that Chicago police retaliated against him for raising concerns about the departments progress complying with court-ordered reforms.

Chad Williams, the former civilian commanding officer of the departments audit division, wrote Lightfoot in August to say he had been proud to lead the unit but had become disillusioned and was leaving.

Unfortunately, my disappointment with the inability of this departments top leadership to even feign interest in pursuing reform in a meaningful manner has made it impossible for me to remain involved, Williams wrote in the email, obtained by the Tribune via a public records request. Even more unfortunate is that my experience is far from unique. Many well-meaning and talented civilians have signed up to help improve the nations (second largest) police department, only to find themselves steadily thwarted by its perverse incentive structures until they inevitably depart due to demoralization.

Lightfoot and police officials declined to address his allegation that officials retaliated against him for raising concerns on his way out but disputed his criticism of the consent decrees implementation.

Recommended for you

Asked about Williams emailed criticism, Lightfoots office said in a statement it doesnt comment on routine personnel matters within the Chicago Police Department and took an apparent swipe at critics.

As everyone is aware, the Police Department is under a consent decree which results in significant oversight and scrutiny of virtually every aspect of its policy, programming and operations. The department itself also has many internal oversight mechanisms in place, the statement said. Despite the opinions of any one person, real, tangible, and meaningful reform is happening. That would not be possible without the full commitment and involvement of the senior leadership of the department.

Williams, who joined CPD in 2018 after nearly a decade working for the federal government, declined to comment.

The consent decree is a court order aimed at overhauling policy, training and discipline in a department with a decadeslong record of misconduct and excessive force against minorities. The consent decree includes provisions ranging from broad philosophical dictates about respecting the sanctity of life to specific policy tweaks such as a requirement that the department make rules about searching people wearing garments with religious significance.

Lightfoot ran for mayor as a police reform advocate and vowed during the campaign that she would ensure full and swift compliance with the court order, though her administration has been criticized repeatedly by activists for failing to meet deadlines set by a court-appointed monitor and ensure true reform.

Williams email demonstrates that the concern has also been shared internally.

The mayor and police Superintendent David Brown often speak about the importance of the consent decree, which they say is critical for restoring trust in police by Chicago residents, especially Black and brown citizens.

Williams challenged the departments progress, however, writing in the email, Reality is at odds with public pronouncements that the consent decree is a floor, not a ceiling and the rank-and-file deserve better.

Lightfoot forwarded Williamss email to chief of staff Sybil Madison, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety John OMalley and office of violence prevention head Norman Livingston Kerr.

Lets discuss, Lightfoot wrote.

She also forwarded it to Brown with an FYI.

In the email, which noted Aug. 10 as his last day in the office, Williams said he spent three years attempting to convince senior leadership that its important to understand the effect each policy change has on the departments training portfolio and plan for data collection to allow for reliable assessments of compliance.

He accused the departments leaders of employing a strategy aimed at superficial compliance to get more favorable reviews in the media.

Despite my efforts, both the office of the superintendent and the office of constitutional policing & reform continue to insist upon employing a check the boxes strategy that focuses on getting credit for preliminary compliance based primarily on policy edits that lack operational considerations, Williams said. Over time, the optimism I brought to this role withered in an incessant stream of discussions with the singular intent of identifying ways to move the needle by getting the percentages up to improve portrayals in local media coverage.

On Aug. 24, Williams again wrote Lightfoot to complain that the bureau of internal affairs formally accused him of failure to promote the policies and goals of the department, which he called a clear act of retaliation.

My 10 August 2021 email detailed how the current approach to reform is not sustainable with the hopes of helping City Hall understand the reality of the situation, Williams wrote in the follow-up message. Obviously, this reflects poorly on specific members who would prefer that the reality not be known.

Williams also wrote that he stood by the email and had informed the independent monitor of what happened.

Lightfoot forwarded that email to the citys top lawyer, Celia Meza, and wrote, Lets discuss. She did not directly respond to Williams.

In response to Tribune questions, CPD did not address Williams retaliation claim but said the matter is under investigation and declined further comment because its a personnel issue.

But a department spokeswoman said CPD has been making significant progress in its reform efforts, citing the most recent monitor reports recent determination that CPD reached some level of compliance in 266 areas.

This is the highest amount of paragraphs achieving some level of compliance after the two-year mark compared to any other American city that has undergone a consent decree, the spokeswoman said. During this period, we also received preliminary compliance in our full suite of use of force policies for the first time. Weve also increased the number of mandatory annual training hours for in-service officers from 0 prior to the consent decree, to 40 hours in 2021.

Brown and Robert Boik, CPDs executive director of constitutional policing and reform, have frequently attempted to head off criticism that the department has failed to meet consent decree goals in a timely manner. In September, about a month after Williams email, Boik held a news conference ahead of the release of a progress report from a court-appointed independent monitor to tout an increased level of compliance documented in that report.

When the 978-page report landed a month later, it highlighted problems with the departments foot pursuit data, as well as a missed deadline for a non-temporary policy governing such actions. The report evaluated the departments progress between January and June, a time period that included the March killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by a police officer after a foot pursuit.

Throughout this reporting period, the (independent monitor) repeatedly requested the city and the CPD provide an explanation regarding what transpired with the foot pursuit dashboard data, including what led to the data issues, the report read. To date, we still do not have many of these answers, and have only received partial explanations regarding the scope of the data issues and plans ahead.

Brown told the Tribune at the time that the department was working on addressing glitches in the data. But he echoed Boik in emphasizing the departments preliminary compliance rate during that reporting period.

I dont think its a small thing that we achieved 52% compliance, Brown told the Tribune in October. This is significant, although we have much much more work to do to be where we want to be.

In June, while still employed by the department, Williams spoke to Sasha-Ann Simons, host of Reset at WBEZ, about barriers to police reform in an interview that showed traces of dissatisfaction. He told Simons that rates of compliance, though important, are an incomplete way to measure the departments progress.

Even if it were showing 100% of things were met, I think its still probably a bit misleading to really understand where things stand, he said.

Chicago Tribunes Annie Sweeney contributed.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Republicans and a Latino voting rights group have filed alternatives to the state legislative districts drawn by Democrats, with both challenges pushing for greater Chicago-area Latino representation than provided in the map signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

In federal court filings on Wednesday, both the GOP and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund contended the Democratic-drawn map violates constitutional and federal Voting Rights Act guarantees by diluting the votes of a growing Latino population.

In a statement, Republican state Sen. Jason Barickman of Bloomington contended the Democratic governor either didnt really review the politician-drawn maps, or he agreed to protect politicians at the expense of Latino and African American voters in Illinois.

Pritzker and Democrats have defended the map, which the Democratic-led legislature approved on Aug. 31 and the governor signed Sept. 24, as legally reflecting the racial and ethnic diversity of the state.

Though Illinois lost population in the 2020 federal census, its Latino population grew by nearly 310,000 over the last decade. But Republicans and MALDEF contended the new Democratic map provides fewer districts with a majority Latino citizen voting-age population than the map in place for the last decade.

Recommended for you

The number of districts with majority Latino citizen voting-age populations fell from five to four in the House, and three to two in the Senate, Republicans and MALDEF said in separate filings with a three-judge federal court panel in Chicago.

The Republican alternative would create four majority Latino House districts in northern Cook County, compared with none in the new map, and seven majority Latino House districts in southern Cook County, compared with four currently.

The GOP map also would create a district in Aurora with an opportunity for a Latino to win election and adds a Black majority district in the East St. Louis region where Black voters had been dispersed among three districts.

The East St. Louis NAACP has made a similar argument against how the Democratic map splits up Black voting populations to the federal court.

The GOP map also would create five Latino majority state Senate districts in Cook County.

In its filing, MALDEF contended the Democratic map violates the federal Voting Rights Act with regard to Latino voters on the North Side and Southwest Side of Chicago and that Democrats engaged in a racial gerrymander aimed at protecting white Southwest Side incumbents.

The MALDEF alternative would create three additional majority Latino citizen voting-age House districts and one state Senate district on the North Side, in addition to two Latino majority House districts, and one Senate district, on the Southwest Side and southwest suburbs.

Latinos comprise 11.2% of Illinois citizen voting age population, MALDEF said. In contrast, it said under the Democratic map Latino-majority districts comprise 3.3% of the House plan, 3.3% of the Senate plan and 3.3% of the Assembly as a whole.

Democrats have until Nov. 22 to file their response to the alternatives with the court. The challengers will have until the week after to respond to Democrats. In court arguments over the boundaries are scheduled to begin Dec. 6.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Workers across the country are unsatisfied with their subpar employment arrangements and many feel empowered to do something about it.

While some are quitting their jobs, others are using collective power to create lasting change. Last month, which came to be known as Striketober, workers across the country joined picket lines and threatened to walk off the job in response to stagnant wages, long hours and poor working conditions.

One big reason San Antonio Symphony musicians, film and television professionals and John Deere workers have been so effective at exercising workplace power is their union membership. Unions provide the infrastructure, organization and unified front needed to execute large-scale collective action.

As a union, employees also gain additional workplace rights, including the right to negotiate collectively with their employer over pay, benefits and working conditions.

However, far too many U.S. workers are not union members; even though they face many of the same workplace issues, they lack the support and power necessary to take meaningful action. Nows the time: Striketober presents a unique opportunity for more employees to organize unions and earn fair compensation.

More than two-thirds of Americans approve of unions  a 50-year high water mark  and new groups of employees have realized their workplace power in recent years. Waves of organizing from digital journalists, tech workers, and nonprofit employees helped professional union membership hit an all-time high last year at 6.3 million members.

Recommended for you

As many young professionals continue to be saddled with large amounts of student debt, union nonprofit employees at the statewide policy advocacy organization Every Texan bargained for a monthly student loan stipend. Employers moving jobs overseas is a major concern in the tech industry. To address this, Google contract workers employed by HCL America in Pittsburgh secured contract language that protects their jobs from offshoring. The deal required a number of union jobs to be located in Pittsburgh.

Still, union membership among U.S. workers remains low at just above 11 percent. Given the strong popularity of unions, there would likely be far more unionized workplaces if U.S. labor law had stronger protections for workers.

Thats why we need the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which includes enforceable penalties for employers who break the law, expanded collective bargaining rights for workers and access to fair elections. It would rebalance the power dynamic between employees and employers.

President Biden said he supports this legislation and the House passed it on a bipartisan basis, but the bill is held up in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster.

While Striketober may be over, we have a chance to turn its energy and attention into action that can make a difference every month of the year. As working people, we must take advantage of this moment by forming more unions and getting our labor agenda through Congress.

I look forward to a November full of organizing.

Jennifer Dorning is president of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO.

Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 51F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 51F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.
He shared the story of three friends who attended VMI with him and were later deployed to Vietnam.

We were all typical Southwest Virginia boys with big dreams of a bright future, Bradley said.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Scott Dotson was killed flying a mission into enemy territory, and Danny Mullins was killed while leading ground troops, Bradley recounted. Dick Stone, Bradleys best friend, died shortly before he was scheduled to return stateside when his aircraft collided with a helicopter over Cambodia. He was able to parachute out, but he bled to death before medical aid could reach him.

Thus died my best friend in the dust of some foreign battlefield under non-hostile conditions without ever meeting his infant son  a moment of which Dick had so often dreamed, Bradley said. Dick had given up so much to serve his country and cement our freedom. He gave up his right to grow old, raise a family and become a grandfather. He gave up his life for his family, for his country and for his ideas.

Bradley thanked the town of Abingdon and local officials for establishing the park and holding such ceremonies there.

This park represents all that is good, all that is beautiful, all that God has given us and all the sacrifices of all the young people, Bradley said.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced Friday she will run for reelection in 2022, setting up a race against a primary challenger endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Playing up her centrist bona fides, Murkowski said in a campaign video that she would work across party lines to help Alaska and "stand up to any politician or special interest that threatens our way of life. Trump has vowed revenge against Murkowski and other Republican lawmakers who supported his impeachment over the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Murkowski told reporters in Anchorage on Friday there will be plenty of people on the outside who will be gunning for me, who will suggest that I am not right for Alaskans. I would put that directly to the people of this state.

It's very easy to get distracted by people on the outside. It's very easy to get distracted by those who would say theyre going to do something," she said later. "My focus needs to be on the people of Alaska, serving them and asking for their permission for continued service.
Given the Afghan situation, it isn't going to be an easy job," he said. "The situation in Afghanistan overall is a complicated situation. So definitely, there are a lot of complicated issues that need to be worked out and need to be settled.

The U.S. has numerous protecting power arrangements in countries where it does not have a diplomatic presence. Those notably include Switzerland in Iran, Sweden in North Korea and the Czech Republic in Syria.

Qatar has been a key player in discussions between the Taliban and the United States for many years. It hosted months of U.S.-Taliban peace talks and has since been critical to the evacuation of American citizens and others from Afghanistan. Roughly half the people who have left the country have transited through Qatar.

On the evacuation of American citizens and U.S. green card holders from Afghanistan, Blinken said that all of those who had expressed interest in leaving and had proper documentation had been given the opportunity to depart.

As of Nov. 10, all U.S. citizens who have requested assistance from the United States government to depart and who weve identified as being prepared to depart, having the necessary travel documents, have been offered an opportunity to do so, he said.
Moore told The Associated Press in a text message that Cawthorn's announcement had zero role in his decision and that he had already determined to seek reelection to his current seat.

But one of his colleagues, Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, said Moore told him earlier that day that he had not yet made a final decision, though he was strongly leaning against a congressional run.

North Carolina is among a number of states that allow congressional candidates to run in whichever district they choose, so long as they reside in the state by the date of the general election.

Cawthorn doesnt live in the newly formed 13th district stretching across the southwestern part of the state outside the city of Charlotte. He presently represents voters in the 11th, North Carolinas westernmost district, where his Henderson County home would be in the 14th, one of three areas considered somewhat competitive for Democrats in 2022.

This move is not an abandonment, Cawthorn said to voters he will no longer represent. In fact, quite the opposite. It is a move to take more ground for constitutional conservatism. In my heart, I represent North Carolina as a whole, not some arbitrary line that some politician drew this cycle.
The court said that while it was not questioning Bryan's integrity, it believes his work for the caucus constitutes a conflict. The two-page order said the court "has concerns about the ability of the remaining Republican nominees to serve in the role of Special Master," according to the criteria the court laid out on Friday.

"Accordingly, by unanimous order of the Court, the Republican leaders are directed to submit to the Clerk by 5 p.m. on November 15, 2021, the names of one or more additional nominees consistent with the criteria set forth," states the order signed by Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons.

The court also disqualified one of the nominees submitted by Democrats, but it was not clear which one and for what specific reason. "One of those nominees has asserted a condition or reservation that suggests to the Court he may not be willing to serve as Special Master in accordance" with the requirements calling for the two chosen map drawers to work together to come up with the maps. The court did not identify that Democratic nominee.

Again, in a unanimous vote, the justices directed the Democrats - also by 5 p.m. Monday - to nominate one or more additional candidates.

The Republicans had nominated:
Several safety measures were not in place when a trench collapsed and killed a worker in Alexander County this spring, according to a state report.

The contracting company was fined $39,000 for the violations.

Shane Anthony Sharpe, 38, died May 19 while working in a 7-foot-deep trench. The work took place along Highway 64/90 West in the Ellendale community, according to a previous Hickory Daily Record article and the N.C. Department of Labor. He was working for Barnes Backhoe & Grading Inc., NCDOL said.

Man killed at Taylorsville worksite identified A Taylorsville man has been identified as the employee killed at a worksite in Taylorsville 

Sharpe died when the south wall of the trench caved in on him, a September NCDOL citation said.

Barnes Backhoe & Grading was cited for violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of North Carolina, according to NCDOL. The company was fined $39,200 for five violations.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

The penalties are not supposed to make up for loss of life, NCDOL said.

The company was cited for several safety violations. The most serious was that there was no protection against cave-ins in the trench, the citation said.

The company also did not have an inspection of the trench done before work began that day, the citation said.
 Enroll in a Title IV eligible curriculum program during the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 academic years.

 Enroll in at least six credit hours per semester

 Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and all verification requirements, if applicable, for the 2021-2022 academic year.

 Have an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) from $0 - $15,000 (EFC is based upon a students FAFSA determination)

 Renew the FAFSA for the 2022-23 academic years and meet satisfactory academic progress requirements of the college

The Longleaf program also offers help for college students whose education has been interrupted during the pandemic through the Longleaf Complete Grant. It can be used by UNC System students, North Carolina community college students, or students at independent colleges and universities to help them complete their degree.

New student registration for the spring semester begins Wednesday, Nov. 17. Spring semester classes at CCC&TI begin on Jan. 10, 2022.

Students or parents wanting more information about either program should contact the Financial Aid Office at CCC&TI by calling 828-726-2200 (Caldwell) or 828-297-3811 (Watauga), or email: finaid@cccti.edu. Information also is available at www.cccti.edu/longleaf.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)  A Cambodian court on Friday released 18 activists, including a prominent labor leader who has been a longtime critic of the government.

The Phnom Penh Court of Appeals said it ordered the release of Rong Chhun and four others, but gave no immediate details about its decision. Am Sam Ath of the human rights group Licadho, which monitors prisons, said 13 additional people were freed later in the day.

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, had been in custody since July 2020 after the government said he spread false information.

He was convicted in August and sentenced to two years in prison on charges of inciting social unrest.

His attorney, Sam Sokong, said the appeals court cut that sentence to 15 months and 11 days, including time served.

Rong Chhun told cheering supporters outside the prison that he would continue his activities and urged all Cambodians to fight for freedom and human rights.

He said he was convicted unjustly and that the court should drop all charges against him and restore his rights in addition to releasing him early.
" " You can see the pride on the faces of these young Japanese kamikaze who were trained to be suicide pilots, only crash their planes loaded with explosives, extra fuel and special missiles into enemy ships. Hulton Deutsch/Corbis via Getty Images

The iconic image of a Japanese kamikaze has been cooked into our consciousness over the years by countless World War II movies and a library full of history books. A grim and determined pilot, goggles in place, alone in his cockpit, guides his streaking plane through cloudy wartime skies toward the enemy ship and a fiery death.

The kamikaze, as we understand him now, seems both heroic and horrifying at the same time. Depending on where your World War II allegiances lie, he may be just one or the other.

But the kamikaze is, with no argument anywhere, legendary in the annals of human battle.

"Surely, the Kamikaze war was the strangest and in many ways most dramatic ever waged," the late Gordon Allred writes in the 2007 edition of his 1957 book, "Kamikaze," which contains the somewhat disputed account of kamikaze Yasuo Kuwahara. "One wherein nearly five thousand young men were converted by their leaders into human bombs as the suicide pilots who lived to die and caused the greatest losses in the history of our United States Navy.

"Never have so many human beings unitedly and deliberately agreed to die for their country without hope of any alternative."

" " On May 11, 1945, two kamikaze aircraft carrying 250-kilogram bombs hit the USS Bunker Hill in quick succession (seen here). The attack killed 393 and injured 264 U.S. Navy crew on board. Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Advertisement

The Beginnings of the Kamikaze

When Mongol emperor Kublai Khan sent his naval fleets to attack Japan in the 13th century, fierce winds twice repelled the invasions. The Japanese considered these storms direct gifts from the gods and called them "kamikaze." The most common translation of the word is "divine wind."

In October 1944, after stinging defeats had turned the tide of World War II against the Axis powers  the U.S. retook Guadalcanal in 1943, liberated Guam in July 1944 and started bombing Okinawa in October of that year  Japan's commanders in the Pacific were desperate. They needed to slow the onslaught of the Allies though, in reality, many knew that it was just a matter of time until the war was over. Japan was looking for some divine intervention.

Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi, commander of Japanese naval air forces in the Philippines, decided to unleash a new tactic on the enemy: suicide bombers.

"In my opinion, there is only one way of assuring that our meager strength will be effective to a maximum degree," Ohnishi told his men, according to Capt. Rikihei Inoguchi in "The Divine Wind: Japan's Kamikaze Force in World War II," originally published in 1958. "That is to organize suicide attack units composed of Zero fighters armed with 250-kilogram bombs, with each plane to crash-dive into an enemy carrier." (The Mitsubishi A6M "Rei-sen" was the chief aircraft of Japan during World War II. The Japanese pilots called the plane the "Zero-sen" based on the Imperial Year calendar (1940). The Allies eventually dubbed the plane the Zero.) And so the modern-day version of kamikaze was launched.

" " (Clockwise from top left) A kamikaze about to crash into the sea after an unsuccessful run on the USS Essex (CV-9) on May 15, 1945; the USS Suwanee (CVE-27) received major damage from a kamikaze hit on Oct. 26, 1945. The view shows the forward elevator well at the hangar deck level; funeral services were held for several men on the USS Kalanin Bay (CVE-68) after a kamikaze attack. National Archives

Advertisement

How Successful Were the Kamikaze?

Statistics vary, but thousands of kamikaze sorties were launched in the final months of the war, and more than 3,000 Japanese pilots were killed. Those attacks resulted in the sinking of some 47 ships, killing more than 7,000 U.S., Australian and British soldiers.

That sounds deadly effective. But it really wasn't.

"The statistic I quote ... says that 27 percent of the attacks in [the battle of] the Philippines resulted in either a hit or a near miss that caused damage to the ship ... In the battle of Okinawa, when most of the kamikaze pilots were going in, I think it was like 13 percent," Bill Gordon, who has been collecting data and stories on kamikaze on his site, "Kamikaze Images," since the early 2000s, says from a town near Nagoya, Japan. "I guess it's what you compare it to. The reason they were making the attacks was that the conventional attacks were not effective. In the Philippines, they originally thought they were doing great. But 13 percent is pretty low. That means 87 percent were shot down, some well before they reached any ship, by American fighters.

"Most people look at it and say they already lost the war by the time the kamikaze attacks started, so regardless of how effective they were, they were going to lose. If the percentages were higher, it really doesn't matter."

Japanese suicide missions in World War II were not only limited to dive-bombing Zeros. Midget submarines (kohyoteki in Japanese), manned torpedoes (kaiten), manned rocket-powered gliders (oka) and motorboats carrying depth-charges (shin'yo) all were used at various stages of the war.

" " On Oct. 25 1944, the USS St. Louis, an escort carrier of the U.S. Navy during World War II, became the first major warship to sink as the result of a kamikaze attack. National Archives

Advertisement

How the World Viewed Kamikazes

Still, when historians look upon kamikazes, it is the dive-bombing suicide planes, part of a Special Attack Corps (Tokubetsu Kogekitai), that remain the focus.

In 1975, in Chiran, Kagoshima Prefecture in the southern part of Japan, the Chiran Peace Museum  otherwise known as the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots  opened. Thousands of articles left behind by kamikazes, including letters to loved ones before their final missions, are featured.

Here's a typical one from Corp. Takao Adachi, who took off on his final mission on June 1, 1945. He was 17. (As translated by Kamikaze Images' Gordon.)

Dear Grandmother and Father,

Decisive battle has come for me. Excitement also with instant enemy sinking.

Living as a man in this divine country that faces an extreme emergency, in my heart I am absolutely satisfied that I have a good place to die as a member of the Special Attack Corps Makoto Hikotai (Flying Unit).

I warmly thank each of the officers, instructors, and senior comrades when I was a flight cadet.

In response to your great kindness in raising me for more than 18 years as a son in this divine land, I have not been able to do anything to repay your kindness. I imagine that my going before you must be painful above anything else.

Furthermore, I am determined that I certainly will carry out a certain-death, sure-kill (hisshi hissatsu) body-crashing (taiatari) attack and instantly sink an enemy ship.

Grandmother and Father, please be glad with the daybreak when I splendidly sink at once an enemy ship.

Finally, I will make a body-crashing attack while praying for still more prosperity of this divine country Japan.

On the eve of sortie, Takao

"The big topics, they're talking about filial piety to their parents, what commitment they had, and saying how sorry they were that they were leaving and dying, basically," Gordon says.

The letters have helped portray the young men who flew these missions  their average age was around 21  not as crazed suicide bombers but as loyal sons of Japan, heroic and worthy of praise. It's a widely held belief in Japan, though not everyone thinks that way.

In comparison, many Americans  especially older ones  see kamikazes only as those grim Zero pilots bearing down on poor American soldiers, bent on killing and destruction. Instead of heroism, they see madness.

That may have changed some over the generations. "In the U.S., it's probably not as extreme anymore," Gordon says. "But I will tell you, people were emotional when I talked to them about it on the U.S. side [when he did research back in the early 2000s]. Some people didn't even want to talk to me."

Kamikazes, in the end, were fighters on the front line of a war that their side was losing badly. Americans already were bombing cities in Japan from bases in China. More raids were coming. The kamikazes were Japan's last resort. And so they went out fighting for their country.

"I still think," Gordon says, "that most of them believed that there was a good chance that they could somehow at least stop the American advances  if not necessarily win the war  and not have the destruction of Japan."

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING By the end of the war, as many as 3,800 kamikaze pilots died. "We didn't think too much [about dying]," Hisao Horiyama, one of the last two surviving kamikaze pilots told The Guardian in 2015 at age 92. "We were trained to suppress our emotions. Even if we were to die, we knew it was for a worthy cause. Dying was the ultimate fulfillment of our duty, and we were commanded not to return. We knew that if we returned alive that our superiors would be angry."
This is the chefs biggest asset, said Sunjeh Raja, pointing to the screen.

That screen portrayed a Certified USA Cheese Specialist certificate bearing the name of one of the 646 chefs who had earned this prestigious accreditation through his International Centre for Culinary Arts (ICCA) culinary school in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. One of that schools core curriculums has an educational focus centered on the USA Cheese Guild.

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) began developing this partnership with the award-winning ICCA program in 2016 and officially launched it two years later. There are others like it around the world. In developing the USA Cheese Guild program, U.S. dairy farmers, through USDEC, continued to take a long-term view on growing consumer demand for U.S. dairy product exports. Its the same long-term view many U.S. dairy farmers take when developing their multigenerational family farms.

Many companies spend great sums of money on marketing budgets. Here we use education, said Sunjeh Raja. Its the most intensive form of marketing. Our marketing is built through relationships, said Sunjeh Raja, who later reminded those at the gathering that the U.S. is the worlds largest single-country cheese producer and produces the widest variety of cheese.

These are the people who will become your ambassadors, continued the highly regarded culinary specialist when speaking to a group of U.S. dairy farmers who were in Dubai as part of a U.S. Dairy Export Council trade mission.

Its marketing with soul, added Angelique Hollister, senior vice president of global cheese marketing for the U.S. Dairy Export Council and executive director of the USA Cheese Guild.

To be fair, education is the founding principle for ICCA, which continually ranks among the Top 10 Global Culinary Arts Training Institutes in the world. Most hotels do not have budgets for training, continued Sunjeh Raja, who founded ICCA with his wife, Shanaaz Raja, in 2005.

When you educate one person, you dont just educate one person, you educate a generation, added Shanaaz Raja. ICCA currently has a group of upcoming chefs from nine countries that include Cameroon, India, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe. Once these 22 additional chefs go through the program, ICCA will have graduated 668 chefs working in the region with USA Cheese Guild certification.

Highly regarded for its training, ICCA has a 100% guaranteed placement for chefs who graduate from its school at the largest state-of-the art training facility in the Middle East. In guaranteeing that placement, Sunjeh Raja has worked with 86% of the major U.S. brands in the region.

Why Dubai?

Dubai is the best of the East and the West put together, said Sunjeh Raja.

The greater Dubai metro region is a $2 billion market. It features 12,000 cutting-edge restaurants and 600 of the finest hotels in the region. As a result, the chefs and customers are on the cutting-edge of cuisine. These days, that cuisine includes more and more dairy.

As for the future with growing demand for chefs, Sunjeh and Shanaaz Raja plan to expand their International Centre for Culinary Arts to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and beyond. And the U.S. Dairy Export Councils USA Cheese Guild accreditation will grow with it.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2021

November 11, 2021
The information below has been supplied by dairy marketers and other industry organizations. It has not been edited, verified or endorsed by Hoards Dairyman.

Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association (MDVA) today announced its District 3 Producer of the Year honor has been awarded to Harvue Farm in Berryville, Virginia. The farm, now in its fourth and fifth generations, is owned and operated by David, Debbie, Matt, and Ashley Hardesty. Many other Hardesty family members contribute to the success of the farm.

The District Producer of the Year Honor is awarded to one farm in each of MDVAs three member districts. The three honorees will compete for MDVAs top honor, Producer of the Year, at the 2022 Annual Meeting in March.



Congratulations to the Hardesty Family and Harvue Farm for earning their spot as Maryland & Virginias 2021 District 3 Producer of the Year, MDVA CEO Jay Bryant said. The Hardesty Family has been farming with us for almost 75 years. Their family approach to animal care, sustainability, and community made them the obvious choice for our award this year.





About Harvue Farm





The family milks 260 registered Holsteins in a double-eight herringbone parlor. The Hardestys also manage more than 750 acres, on which they plant, corn, triticale, rye grass and hay. Besides the family, six full-time employees are tasked with managing the top-notch operation.



In addition to having a strong conservation plan in place, the family puts high value on animal care and has been adhering to standards above and beyond national guidelines for many years. Cows are tracked meticulously for their health to make sure the family is making the best decisions possible for each animals health. The herd at Harvue is known for being older than the national average due to the tremendous care the Hardestys provide. The free-stall barn at Harvue has sprinklers attached to fans and features an open-barn concept to allow the family to keep cows cool or warm based on the Virginia weather in any given month.





The Hardestys have previously been honored as the Elite Breeders of the Year by the Holstein Association USA as well as has won numerous accolades for individual cows at various shows across the country, including the World Dairy Expo.





In their local community, the family is known for its overall strong support for a wide range of philanthropy. David and Debbie have been 4-H leaders for more than 25 years and the farm provides a leasing program for county 4-H youth who are not able to raise cows on their own property. With the family supporting about 35 youth per year, they have helped hundreds of 4-Hers gain a higher appreciation of showmanship and animal care.



Additionally, the farm hosts tour groups often and advocate on behalf of dairy in communities across the state. Ashley Hardesty also serves on the Nestle Farmer Led Sustainability Project, while Matt Hardesty is the familiar face on each Maola half-gallon carton.





Harvue Farm is in its second year of making its own cheese. With more than nine flavors, Harvue Farm provides cheese blocks for sale to many local stores, breweries,vineyards and local farmers markets. The family is excited for the opportunity to diversify its operation, providing different opportunities for income for the upcoming generation.
The information below has been supplied by dairy marketers and other industry organizations. It has not been edited, verified or endorsed by Hoards Dairyman.

Merck Animal Health, known as MSD Animal Health outside the United States and Canada, a division of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA (NYSE:MRK), and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) presented Mark Hilton, D.V.M., DABVP, with the Mentor of the Year Award at the AABP Annual Conference. This annual award recognizes an individual who goes above and beyond in educating, supporting and advancing the careers of future bovine veterinarians.

Dr. Hilton has worn many hats during his time in the industry, but the impact hes had on the next generation of bovine practitioners might be the most profound, said Justin Welsh, D.V.M., executive director, livestock technical services for Merck Animal Health. Not only has he taught countless students the necessary skills to be proficient in their careers, but hes also put in the extra time and energy to truly help them thrive and make a difference in this field. Thats an effort worth recognizing and celebrating.



Dr. Hilton was born and raised on a swine and beef farm in central Indiana. He attended Purdue University for his bachelors degree in animal science and his D.V.M. Upon graduation, he joined the DeWitt Veterinary Clinic in Iowa where he spent 15 years as a partner in a predominantly food animal practice. Dr. Hilton then returned to Purdue University where he taught beef production medicine for 18 years and accompanied students on food animal ambulatory calls. In 2016, he joined the animal health industry as a technical consultant.

The mark of a good mentor is someone who is willing to challenge you to rise above the norm and go for your goals, said William Ware, D.V.M., associate veterinarian at Veterinary Agri-Health Services in Longview, Alberta, Canada. Dr. Hilton will always be the first person to pat you on the back and tell you, Good job, when youve achieved your goal, but in the same breath will say, So whats your next goal, and how do we get there?



While at Purdue University, Dr. Hilton developed the schools Advanced Beef Cow-Calf Production Medicine rotation, a first-of-its-kind, intensive three-week rotation for veterinary students that, according to Elizabeth Homerosky, D.V.M., MSc, DABVP, and partner veterinarian at Veterinary Agri-Health Services, is a rotation every beef practitioner should have the opportunity to take. I learned more about how to be a successful beef cattle practitioner in those three weeks than I did my entire clinical year in veterinary school, said Homerosky. As a result of that rotation, I achieved diplomat status through ABVP and was appointed cow-calf team lead at my practice. These achievements wouldnt have been possible if I had not crossed paths with Dr. Hilton.

For Amanda Emery-Durell, D.V.M., relief veterinarian in southern Iowa, the traditional definition of mentor falls short when describing Dr. Hilton. Impacting the lives within the bounds of veterinary medicine was never enough for Dr. Hilton, as his caring nature and undeniably genuine interest in people extends to all aspects of ones life, said Emery-Durell. Dr. Hilton is an experienced and trusted advisor, endless motivator, connector of people, and encourager of innovation and excellent service in veterinary medicine, positively impacting anyone within his realm of influence.



Dr. Hilton is a member of the AABP, American Veterinary Medical Association, Academy of Veterinary Consultants, American Board of Veterinary Practitioners, Indiana VMA and is also a past president of the Western Veterinary Conference (WCV). He has received numerous awards, including SAVMAs national teaching award in 2000, WCVs continuing educator of the year award in 2009, Merial and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners Excellence in Preventive Medicine Award for Beef in 2012, and in 2013 was named by Bovine Veterinarian as one of the 20 most influential bovine veterinarians in North America. Dr. Hilton and his wife Denise have been married 40 years and have two sons, three grandsons and three granddaughters.

About Merck Animal Health

For over 130 years, Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the worlds most challenging diseases. Merck Animal Health, a division of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA, is the global animal health business unit of Merck. Through its commitment to The Science of Healthier Animals, Merck Animal Health offers veterinarians, farmers, pet owners and governments one of the widest ranges of veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines and health management solutions and services as well as an extensive suite of connected technology that includes identification, traceability and monitoring products. Merck Animal Health is dedicated to preserving and improving the health, well-being and performance of animals and the people who care for them. It invests extensively in dynamic and comprehensive R&D resources and a modern, global supply chain. Merck Animal Health is present in more than 50 countries, while its products are available in some 150 markets. For more information, visit www.merck-animal-health.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, TwitterInstagram.
The information below has been supplied by dairy marketers and other industry organizations. It has not been edited, verified or endorsed by Hoards Dairyman.

The August sire summaries revealed substantial gains through a balanced lineup at International Protein Sires (IPS). We are fortunate to have this diversified lineup through our genomic tested sires. Importantly, each bull is licensed with strong credentials inherited through their proven cow family. These results are a true testament to Breeding Cows, Not Numbers, asserted Ron Sersland, President and CEO.



566HO1344 SHEPERD is the IPS leader at +2932 GTPI. SHEPERD upholds the IPS reputation for superior components. He is +107 lbs. (+.30%) fat and +41 lbs. (+.08%) protein for a combined +148 lbs. His milk rating is a creditable +543 lbs. With over 100 Heroic sons available, SHEPERD is only one of four with at least +2932 GTPI and +1.46 type, +1.53 UDC. Health measurements add clout to this genetic package with +4.6 productive life and +895DWP$. A calving ease bull at 1.7%, SHEPERD is also A2A2. Sired by Heroic, SHEPERD is from a promising Medley daughter that descends from the legendary Missy Family at Pine Tree Dairy.



566HO1337 BY THE WAY-RED PP is a sterling +2598 GTPI. According to the Holstein USA Redbook Plus, BY THE WAY-Red PP is the #1 homozygous polled Red & White genomic tested sire. This breed pacesetter offers a balance between superior performance and quality type. At +622 lbs. milk, BY THE WAY-RED PP also improves component test; +.05% fat and +.05% protein. His enviable type traits are +1.54 type and +1.23 UDC. And further, he remains the only Red & White PP bull that is plus for milk and DPR. Sired by Webster-P, BY THE WAY-RED PP is from a Very Good-87 two-year-old daughter of Jax-P. And his cow family has an abundance of high component test.



566HO1347 HOUSE is a new IPS entry at +2842 GTPI. His genetic inheritance for milk and conformation is superior. At +1143 lbs. milk, HOUSE also improves components at +51 lbs. (+.02%) fat and +41 lbs. (+.02%) protein. His physical traits boost this genetic offering with +1.75 type and +2.19 UDC. Additional qualities include +1.7 DPR, 1.9% calving ease and, +6.7 productive life. He is also identified as A2A2. And further attributes, House is the only genomic bull over 1,000 lbs. milk, at least +2.00 UDC, and +1.70 DPR. HOUSE is sired by Aristocrat from an Excellent daughter of Jedi. The next five generations are classified high Very Good and Excellent.



566HO EVER-RED bolsters the IPS Red & White lineup at + 2811 GTPI. With his genetic influence, EVER-Red is the #3 GTPI Red & White bull of the breed. His walloping components standout at +75 lbs. (+.21%) fat and +36 lbs. (+.08%) protein. Expect conformation improvement with +1.09 type and +1.11 UDC. An A2A2 sire, EVER-RED also excels in productive life at +6.4. For those who mate their cattle by analysis, note the rare aAa: 456321 assigned to EVER-RED. This unique genetic package is sired by Pursuit and from a young developing Achiever daughter.

This formidable group of Holstein sires adds genetic clout to the IPS lineup. In addition, they meet the demands of dairy farmers worldwide, superior performance with durable qualities. IPS semen is available across the United States and throughout world from company employees and independent distributors. Located in Rock Springs, Wisconsin, you may obtain additional information about IPS through their website, www.ipssires.com or by calling toll free: 1.800.542.7593
Asbury was just 7 years old when her mother died after giving birth to a little boy. Her baby brother died a few months later. The tragedies left the family with questions that remain unanswered to this day.

We didnt know why either of them died, said Asbury, who was raised by an aunt. We dont know if she had problems in pregnancy. We dont know about either of their health.

Asbury graduated from high school in 1947 and became a domestic worker, one of the few jobs available to Black women without a college degree at the time. She worked for the same family of textile mill executives for nearly 27 years, helping to raise their children while raising her own three daughters as a single mother.

As times changed, she had the opportunity to start a career in health care. She worked as a nursing assistant at the former Cabarrus Memorial Hospital until she retired. Working in the medical field, as well as the mystery surrounding her mothers death, inspired Asbury to become interested in clinical research, she said.

Dixon, who lives in Kannapolis and is retired from the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, said her mother sets an important example.
Friday, Nov. 12

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at 9:30 a.m. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner and provide proof of vaccination.

The Old Courthouse Theatre is participating in MTIs All Together Now!  a brand-new musical revue featuring 15 beloved songs from MTIs shows with a show at 7:30 p.m. The event opens with Be Our Guest and closes with Seasons of Love. There also are songs from Mamma Mia!, Frozen, Fiddler on the Roof, Godspell and others in this family friendly event. This is a fundraiser for OCT. Masks are required. Tickets are available at octconcord.com.

Saturday, Nov. 13

The Piedmont Farmers Market is open from 9 a.m. to noon at 518 Winecoff School Road. It features lots of local produce, meat, flowers and other products.

The Harrisburg Baptist Church Youth Group will have its annual barbecue fundraiser from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The cost is $10 per pound or $10 for three sandwiches. Homemade desserts will be available. The church is at 6525 Morehead Road, Harrisburg.
CHARLESTON  Local schools took time to celebrate Veterans Day on Thursday, using the holiday as an opportunity to teach.

Jefferson Elementary School joined the Charleston VFW on the courthouse square during a ceremony that included a three-shot volley.

It was absolutely wonderful to see the kids, said Dan Cougill, who served in both the Vietnam War and in Desert Storm.

Cougill noted he was particularly happy when a girl from the elementary school gave him a hand-drawn note thanking him for his service.

Charleston Middle School later held its Veterans Day celebration in the John Dively Gymnasium.

The celebration has been a tradition for several years, and even continued throughout the pandemic, when it was held remotely.

A lot of places and a lot of communities and places of employment take today off, to go out and do festivities and to honor the veterans. But we thought What better way to make today a learning experience and have this with the students here today? said Michael Pitcher, a social studies teacher at the middle school. Pitcher, who has several veterans in his family, spearheads the Veterans Day celebration.

I look forward to coming to this every year, said Naya Perry, who served as a cook in the U.S. Navy and has been coming to the schools assembly for four years.

Prior to the events, the school was decorated with posters made by students

The assembly included several different presentations, including a tribute video honoring around 70 veterans. Each veteran honored in the video was a family member to a student or employee at the school.

The middle school honored Michael Neal as the CMS Veteran of the Year. Molly Bickford, a language arts teacher, read Neals story, which she created with the help of Neals granddaughter, 12-year-old Alex Clayton.

Clayton interviewed her grandfather to learn about his time in the military.

The language arts program also participated in the national Patriot Pen student essay contest, which challenged students to write a 300-400 word essay describing How to be a good American.

The top three essays belonged to eight-graders Avery Beals, Emma Karbassion and Eliana OBrien. Six students total were recognized by the Charleston VFW for their essays.

The event also included services and performances by the Boy Scout Troop 141, the school choir and advanced choir and Mattoon JROTC cadets. It concluded with panel discussions with veterans.

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 - A 25-year-old man was fatally shot late Wednesday when a Lathrop Homes resident with a license to carry a concealed weapon allegedly saw two men trying to steal parts from a nearby parked car, according to Chicago police.

Authorities said a 44-year-old man had been sitting on the steps of his North Side home around 11:15 p.m. when he heard a loud noise coming from the street. He walked toward the curb and saw two men he didnt know under a vehicle, appearing to be working near the engine.

The two males noticed the (44-year-old) watching and crawled out from underneath the vehicle. Without warning, both (men) drew their weapons and began shooting at (him), police said in an online media notification.

The 44-year-old resident has a license to carry a concealed handgun, which he was armed with at the time, according to police. When he came under fire, he drew his own gun and started shooting at the two men on the street. It wasnt immediately clear how far apart the men were when they exchanged gunfire, or whether anyone else was in the area and could have become caught in the crossfire.

One of the bullets fired by the resident struck one of the two men in the neck, police said.

Darion Blackman, 25, was taken to Illinois Masonic Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:07 a.m., according to information released by the Cook County medical examiners office.

The second man who had been under the vehicle took off running when the 44-year-old began shooting at him and Blackman, police said.

Initial reports suggest the men were trying to steal a catalytic converter, but a police spokesman said he could not confirm the parts in question specifically were catalytic converters.

Chicago police said the second man had not been located or arrested as of early Thursday. Authorities said they could not provide a physical description of the second man.

The Lathrop Homes resident was not injured and declined medical treatment when paramedics arrived.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Billionaire Ken Griffin, an ardent foe of billionaire Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, declared Wednesday he was all in to back a candidate running to defeat the governor next year.

But Griffin did not say who he would support.

Griffin, speaking at the DealBook Online Summit hosted by The New York Times, sounded perturbed that Pritzkers camp called him a liar last month after he criticized Pritzker over the issue of rising crime in Chicago and said he was considering moving his investment firm out of Chicago during an event at the Economic Club.

He called me a liar, Griffin said Wednesday. Its all about politics for him. Its not about people.

Im going to make sure that if he runs again, that I am all in to support the candidate who will beat him, Griffin said. He doesnt deserve to be the governor of our state.

Griffin made no mention of which candidate he believed could defeat the first-term Democratic governor, who has announced a run for a second term.

Four Republicans have announced their candidacy for the GOP nomination: Gary Rabine of Bull Valley, state Sen. Darren Bailey of Xenia, former state Sen. Paul Schimpf of Waterloo and Jesse Sullivan of Petersburg.

In addition, Republican U.S. Reps. Rodney Davis of Taylorville and Adam Kinzinger of Channahon have said they are considering a potential bid for governor.

Griffins remarks were the latest in a long-running feud between him and the governor. Griffin is the states wealthiest person, worth $21 billion according to Forbes. Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, is worth $3.6 billion according to Forbes.

In last Novembers election, Griffin spent $53.75 million to oppose Pritzkers signature agenda item, a proposed constitutional amendment rejected by voters to change the state from a flat-rate income tax to a graduated-rate levy. Pritzker spent $58 million to encourage its passage.

In the 2018 governors race, Griffin gave one-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner $22.5 million in his losing reelection effort against Pritzker, who spent more than $170 million of his own money on his own campaign. Griffin gave Rauner $13.5 million in the Republicans winning 2014 effort.

In its response to Griffins comments, Pritzkers camp, as it did following the Economic Club event last month, referred to Griffins support of Rauner, whose unsuccessful anti-union agenda clashed with Democratic lawmakers, leading to a record-setting two-year budget standoff that helped decimate social services including funding for violence prevention.

Ken Griffin financed Bruce Rauners disastrous tenure as governor and now he is eager to once again elect someone who would hold our budget hostage, waste taxpayer money, ruin our credit rating, and destroy programs that keep our residents healthy and safe, Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Natalie Edelstein said in a statement.

Pritzkers camp called Griffin a liar after he said the governor turned down his requests for National Guard help last year amid social unrest in downtown Chicago.

Pritzker did at some point deploy the Guard, primarily for street control activities. But Zia Ahmed, a spokesman for Griffin, said Pritzkers call-up of the Guard did not follow Griffins request to deal with downtown disturbances in August.

I told him to deploy the National Guard, and he goes, It wont look good for there to be men and women on Michigan Avenue with assault weapons,  Griffin said last month. If that saves the life of a child, I dont care. And he doesnt care.

Pritzker responded then by saying, Im not sure why he made the false remarks that he made.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
If you live in a fire-prone area, then you may want to review and check up on your fire insurance. Here are the most important things to know about this coverage.

Mobile-home owners in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina will face a 5% rate increase on their fire policies in May as part of a statewide settlement.

Mike Causey, the states Insurance commissioner, said recently he has agreed to a settlement on how much insurance rates will go up on mobile-home policies.

In February, the N.C. Rate Bureau requested permission to raise insurance rates on mobile-home policies by an average 11.3% for casualty policies and a 24.9% statewide increase on fire policies.

The state insurance commissioner, however, seldom agrees to a rate anywhere close to the bureaus full request.

In this instance, Causey agreed to a 12.5% statewide increase on fire policies, as well as 4.7% for casualty policies.

Causey also negotiated a 0.5% decrease for the casualty policies.

Affected counties are Alamance, Alleghany, Ashe, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford, Randolph, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, Watauga, Wilkes and Yadkin.

The proposed 25% rate hike on fire policies would have raised mobile-home owners annual costs by $170, or from an average of $637 to an average of $807.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}
Winston-Salem officials are also weighing whether to end the citys mask mandate. Mayor Allen Joines said Oct. 29 he would use two criteria in deciding whether to lift the citys mask mandate. The city must have a COVID-19 positive infection rate of 5% or less for at least two weeks and there must be fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 population per day for a five-day average.

As of Fridays DHHS report, the average positive test rate in Forsyth has been 4.7% over the past 14 days, while the new case count has averaged 15 per day per 100,000 population over both the past seven and 14 days.

Well probably hit (those two goals) by the end of next week, before Thanksgiving, Dr. Christopher Ohl, an infectious diseases expert with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, said Thursday.

Joines has consulted with Ohl and Forsyth health director Joshua Swift for guidance regarding the citywide mask mandate.

When that happens, I think the citywide mask mandate will be rescinded, Ohl said.

Statewide update

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

DHHS reported 1,926 new cases Thursday, compared with 2,198 cases on Wednesday, 2,156 on Tuesday and 1,243 on Monday.
If a store has more than a 2% error rate on overcharges, inspectors discuss the findings with the store manager and conduct a more intensive follow-up inspection later. Undercharges are also reported, but do not count against a store.

Penalties are assessed if a store fails a follow-up inspection. In addition to the penalties paid, the store will be subject to re-inspection every 60 days from the last inspection until it meets the 2% or less error rate. Additional penalties may be assessed if a store fails a re-inspection.

Consumers can file a complaint at (919) 707-3225.

Our Standards Division inspectors work to protect consumers by comparing the price on the shelf and the price at the register to be sure they match, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said in a statement.

Stores have a responsibility to make sure their pricing is accurate, and most stores pass inspection. Ones with errors face fines until they come into compliance.

Statewide, the department assessed fines to four Dollar General stores, two Family Dollar stores and two Walmart stores during the third quarter.

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.
Last month, a similar monument was unveiled in Franklin, Tenn.: a statue titled March to Freedom, depicting one USCT soldier. It stands directly across the street from a Confederate statue.

The soldier stands with one foot on a decaying tree stump that signifies the end of the tree of sorrow, to which Black people were tied for sale or even hanged from as punishment, according to sculptor Joe Frank Howard. A pair of broken shackles lies partly buried in dirt, signifying that the Black soldiers were never to be chained again.

The statues organizers see it as a response, not just to the Confederacy, but to the white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville in 2017.

And in Culpeper County, Va., a new granite obelisk commemorating Black Civil War veterans was dedicated last week.

(They were) people who wanted freedom, willing to fight for it, be persistent in their dreams, to endure and to sacrifice for their families, Howard Lambert of the Freedom Foundation Virginia said. This is the story of America.

These are all fitting memorials to American patriots who fought for their freedom and to keep the nation together. Yet we fear, based on previous similar memorials, that some will object to their presence  destructively.
In May, the Legislature approved a framework for casino gambling, and the Racing and Gaming Commission has spent several months coming up with the proposed rules.

The commission will hold a public hearing on the rules Dec. 17, and assuming it votes to approve them, they will be forwarded to the governor and attorney general for review. Once signed off on, they will go to the Secretary of State's Office for official recognition.

All six licensed horse tracks, in Lincoln, Omaha, South Sioux City, Columbus, Grand Island and Hastings, have announced plans to add casinos.

Plans at Lincoln Race Course call for a $220 million project that would include more than 1,200 gaming stations, a 196-room hotel, event space, several restaurants and other amenities such as a spa.

Lynne McNally, executive vice president of the Nebraska Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, which is partnering with Ho-Chunk Inc. to build casinos in Lincoln, Omaha and South Sioux City under the WarHorse name, said the rules are very thorough, especially when it comes to security and the background check process.

"I'm very pleased with the way they worked out," McNally said. "The Racing Commission worked efficiently and diligently, and we really appreciate their efforts."
The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the Court of Appeals was wrong to cut 20 years off a Lincoln man's sentence for a shooting death in 2018 when he was 16.

Natavian Morton, now 20, fired a single shot over a crowd on March 26, 2018, hitting and killing 22-year-old Edgar Union Jr. on his porch during a chaotic brawl.

Morton had been among more than a dozen people who had gathered outside Union's home a block west of Union College to continue a fight that started at Lincoln Southeast High School earlier in the day.

When the altercation intensified and someone used a vehicle to hit people in the crowd, Morton took a gun from his pocket and fired a single shot that went over the crowd and hit Union's cheek, killing him.

Morton later pleaded no contest to manslaughter and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

And in November 2019, Lancaster County District Court Judge Lori Maret sentenced him to 15 to 20 years for unintentionally killing Union, plus 30 to 40 years on the gun charge, to be served consecutively.

Morton appealed, alleging, among other things, that the sentence was excessive.
WAYNE  The Nebraska State College System on Thursday approved changes to two nondiscrimination policies over the objections of Gov. Pete Ricketts and a pair of religious groups.

The changes passed on a 4-2 vote by the Board of Trustees.

According to the state college system, the new policies ask employees to respect the chosen name and gender identity of other employees, and provide greater clarity to the types of discrimination prohibited on campus.

Both changes bring the system, which operates campuses in Peru, Wayne and Chadron, in line with other schools both in Nebraska and elsewhere, administrators said.

While gender identity discrimination has been banned at campuses in Peru, Wayne and Chadron since 2015, Ricketts, the Nebraska Family Alliance and the Nebraska Catholic Conference criticized the changes as out of touch.

Ricketts, in a Nov. 10 letter urging the board to reject the update, painted the language as "a concept being pushed at the national level by political activists" opposed by most Nebraskans.
When the lights dimmed in the North American Martyrs gym, all eyes turned to a far wall lit up by a projector's bright beams.

At least, almost all eyes.

Some were also looking at the girl dressed in pink in the crowd  Kayla Jones, a fifth grader at the Catholic school where students, staff and veterans had gathered for a Veterans Day ceremony Thursday morning.

Her mother, Veronica Jones, a captain in the Army National Guard deployed at the southern U.S. border, was delivering a recorded video message to the crowd.

"All the teachers I knew were staring at me," said Kayla, whose brother also attends North American Martyrs.

Their mother talked about her time in the military and the Nebraska State Patrol, her deployments across the U.S. and abroad, how she learned about veterans' sacrifice and the call to help others.

How she thinks about her children, too.

"I just wanted to say, 'Hi'," she said in her video message. "I miss you, and I love you very much."

Kayla Jones knew her mother was making an appearance in the Veterans Day ceremony but wasn't sure how exactly.
Katherine Rezac of York has been allowed to leave custody  with her probation ended and no jail time  after she was caught possessing meth and then not complying with her earlier term of probation. The jail said it couldn't care for her.
Fortenberry, his wife and his attorneys have maintained that he was "set up" and "misled" by federal investigators, who came to his Lincoln home to ask about the contributions. A year earlier, the feds had an informant call the congressman and tell him that the donations at the L.A. fundraiser in 2016 originated from Chagoury.

Fortenberrys attorneys, in a request filed Tuesday, asked that the lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins, be disqualified from the case. Jenkins is a potential witness in the trial because he took statements from the congressman in a July 2019 meeting that led to the two of the charges, the motion states. He cannot act as both advocate and witness at the same trial, Fortenberrys attorneys argue.

The same motion also questioned the fairness of secretly recording a 2018 telephone call between an FBI informant and Fortenberry, as well as a 2019 interview with FBI agents at the congressmans house even though there was no evidence that he had done anything wrong. Approval from a deputy assistant attorney general, the motion said, was needed for such recordings.
As the five state senators completed the first day of their Kilimanjaro adventure, Brewer's legislative office in Lincoln released his weekly report to constituents, which focused on the significance of the event.

"We come from different parts of the state," Brewer wrote. "We come from different career backgrounds. We do not all look the same. We often disagree on legislation.

"We are not all members of the same political party.

"In spite of these differences, we agree on something very important: Nebraska works better when we work together."

What the five senators have set out to accomplish is "bigger than the feeling of standing on top of the world," Brewer said.

"Doing something very hard as a team, where everyone is dependent on one another, is the single-best experience to build trust among each other," he said.

"It is our hope that the teamwork that we put into this adventure will be something that pays off when we are back on the job in Lincoln."

Three of the senators are Republicans and two are Democrats.

Three are rural senators; two are urban senators.
Several hundred of us were then herded inside and told to sit in the pews waiting further instruction. I heard one of the crew holler, Hey, you, the one with the white hair, come up to the front. That was me. I was given a White House staff pin, paired off with a lady with a hat and seated in the front row. Just a few seats over sat Sheen and the first lady, portrayed by Stockard Channing.

Before filming started, Sheen jumped up and worked his way down the row introducing himself and chatting a bit. When he got to me, he said, Ive worked with you before, good to see you! I assured him I had not, but he insisted. Oh yeah, you were over there in Arlington (Virginia) when they were shooting at me. That was a scene from the previous season when an assassin made an attempt on his life. Who was I to argue? Good to see you, again, Mr. President, I said.

When Sheen was seated again, there was a commotion down the aisle. The first lady was agitated and pointing at me. What had I done? Was I going to get the boot before we even got started? The episode director, award-winning Tommy Schlamme, was consoling her and pointing out that she did not need the pin I was wearing because the Secret Service knew who she was. Whew.
It is gratifying to see Gov. Pete Ricketts and Attorney General Doug Peterson taking needed action to safeguard the health and well being of Nebraskans.

Am I talking about fixing the mess at Health and Human Services? The prison debacle? The Mead ethanol plant disaster? Am I talking about supporting Medicaid expansion or medical marijuana for all those epileptic kids?

No. Those issues have little to do with the governors presidential ambitions. Im talking about suing the federal government over the COVID vaccine mandate for federal contract workers.

Granted, the governor and his AG do not employ federal contract workers. And sure, the COVID pandemic has killed millions while politicians like Ricketts and Peterson have done little to help enforce needed social measures here in Nebraska. (The governor fought every mask mandate.)

And of course the state requires mandatory vaccines for other deadly diseases like polio, measles, mumps, etc. And Im sure both the governor and the AG are themselves vaccinated, like all community-minded Americans. And Lord knows the pandemic is far from over.

But my point is ... wait, where was I going with this? Anyway, Trump 2024!

Gregory Wees, Omaha

Love 7 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0
BURLINGTON  I wanted to let people know what really happened. In 18 days, we lost 900 Marines and 2,000 Army brothers. It was so cold that your eyelids would freeze shut if you didnt keep blinking.

Take advantage of this limited-time offer Just $5 gives you full access for 5 months to exclusive content from The Journal Times. The incredible deal won't last long, so support local 

Marine Sgt. Robert Bob Boulden said that in a 2016 episode of the PBS documentary series American Experience, about the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in 1950 during the Korean War. During that battle, temperatures plunged to as low as negative-36 degrees Fahrenheit.

Boulden, named this week the Wisconsin 1st Congressional Districts Veteran of the Year, was 21 years old at the time of the battle. He had enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 18, and was in Korea for 13 months, making three amphibious landings under fire, he said.

In the war, he carried a box camera, documenting his experience in what became known as Hell Fire Alley.

The battle was pivotal in what would become the stalemate that is the Korean War: it occurred soon after Communist China shocked the world by committing forces to support North Korea against South Korea, which was bolstered by troops from the U.S. and United Nations.

Boulden said that the sacrifice of the soldiers enabled as many as 100,000 refugees to make it south and avoid falling under Chinese Communist rule.

The Americans and their allies were forced to retreat after the battle that took more than two weeks, with the survivors becoming known as The Chosen Few. The battle couldve been far more tragic: an estimated more than 100,000 Chinese and North Korean troops encircled some 30,000 allied troops at one point, with the allies being able to break through and fight their way to safety.

Of the battle, Next time you see an ant hill, stick your foot in and stir it up and see what happens. Thats what it was like, Boulden told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2016.

My hands and feet were froze ... Im lucky to walk, Boulden, now 91, said earlier this year of the battle.

Wisconsins First Congressional District includes all of Racine and Kenosha counties, and parts of the four surrounding counties.

Bobs commitment to service, excellence, and dedication was clear in our nomination process, stated U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, who picked Boulden to receive the award. His distinguished career in the military and commitment to service in our veterans community is a shining example of leadership for all Americans.

We cannot thank each of our veterans in Wisconsin enough for their service and sacrifice to our country. I remain committed to shining a light on heroes in our community working day in and day out to support our veterans. Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination to our annual award.

In a statement, Boulden said I was overwhelmed to receive this award. I just like to do what I can for our veterans.

Since returning stateside, Boulden has constantly volunteered with veterans groups, including previously serving as post commander at Burlingtons Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2823. He also has been part of rifle squads for military funerals and holidays, American Legion Post 79, and the Marine Corps League.

In an interview published for Memorial Day earlier this year by Racine County Veterans Services Office, Boulden said of Memorial Day: Its not just picnics and parades and all that. Its for our veterans that have fallen. You think about your buddies that we have lost.

I wanted to be a Marine from the time I was small ... it was everything the Marines stood for since the beginning of time, he said in the interview, having grown up during World War II. I could not wait until I was old enough to be a Marine.

Racine County Veterans Services Officer Zach Zdroik said of Boulden that his heart and soul is the veteran community, without a doubt.

Also honored Wednesday With Congressional Recognitions of Service Iraq War Veteran James Fialkowski, U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. (Ret.) from Greendale

Vietnam War Veteran John Margowski, U.S. Air Force Navigator (Ret.) from Muskego According to U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil's office, 16 veterans were nominated for Veteran of the Year in his district.

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.
MOUNT PLEASANT  A Racine man allegedly stole an AC unit and a weed whacker from Walmart on July 4.

Anthony L. Jenkins, 54, of the 1300 block of Franklin Street, was charged with a felony count of retail theft intentionally taking between $500-$5,000, four misdemeanor counts of bail jumping and misdemeanor count of retail theft intentionally taking less than or equal to $500.

According to a criminal complaint:

On July 5, an officer was sent to Walmart, 3049 S. Oakes Road, for a retail theft that occurred the previous day.

Upon arrival, the officer spoke with a loss prevention employee who said that a man and woman entered Walmart, selected $528.65 worth of merchandise and left without paying for it. Surveillance video showed a dark SUV in the parking lot that the two got into with the stolen items.

A detective was assigned to follow up and developed a suspect for the woman involved. On Aug. 22, he made contact with the woman and she said that two weeks before July 4 she made a purchase but accidentally left her cart in the store. She claimed that staff allowed her to come back and get the items and talk to customer service.

She reportedly came to the store with Jenkins and talked to an employee named Greg. She said Greg told her she could go pick out the items. She picked out all the items she left behind and waved to him as she left. Jenkins was already back at the car and had an AC unit, weed whacker and other items. When she found out that he stole the items, she freaked ... out and left.

At 2:46 a.m. on July 11, an officer was sent to Speedway, 6209 Washington Ave., for a shoplifting report.

Upon arrival, the officer spoke to an employee who said that a man left the store with a bag of Fritos, a package of Ramen noodles and a carton of Newport 100s cigarettes without paying. The total value of the items was $95.79. Surveillance video showed that it was Jenkins who stole the items.

Jenkins was charged with a $1,000 cash bond in Racine County Circuit Court on Wednesday. A preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 18 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave., online court records show.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
RACINE  A former sergeant with the Racine County Sheriffs Office has been charged for allegedly skimming $20,540 from the union of which he was a member.

Take advantage of this limited-time offer Just $5 gives you full access for 5 months to exclusive content from The Journal Times. The incredible deal won't last long, so support local 

David Coughlin, 59, was charged with felony theft in a business setting. Coughlin retired from the Racine County Sheriffs Office on Dec. 18, 2020.

The case was investigated by the Kenosha County Sheriffs Department.

The Journal Times first reported on the allegations almost a year ago, in December 2020, soon after alleged financial irregularities regarding the union were first coming to light.

An appointed special prosecutor will try the case. It is a common practice to have a special prosecutor instead of the local district attorneys office in cases involving law enforcement officers.

Criminal complaint

According to a criminal complaint filed in Walworth County:

Coughlin is accused of skimming funds from the Racine Commanding Officers Association between May 2012 and December 2020 in his role as treasurer/secretary for the association. The Racine County Command Staff Association represents sergeants and lieutenants, but not rank-and-file deputies, of the Racine County Sheriffs Office.

Concerns of theft first arose in November 2020 when a new board was elected to oversee the association and requested files from Coughlin in connection to his role as the treasurer/secretary. Coughlin did not turn over the requested records.

According to the complaint, Sgt. Aaron Schmidt, the associations newly elected president, confronted the defendant about the records on December 13, 2020.

Coughlin allegedly said he would provide the records the next day, but he did not. Allegedly, he did not want to turn the records over to Schmidt, preferring to turn them over to Sgt. Tony Ruffalo, the newly elected treasurer/secretary.

Schmidt then contacted the associations bank where he reportedly learned there was $412 in the account. Coughlin reported at the November 2020 meeting there was $14,000 in the account.

When confronted, the defendant allegedly said he moved the money to a different bank and would turn the records over on the following day, December 15, 2020. In the morning, Schmidt insisted that he and Coughlin go to the bank so that Schmidt could be added to the account, but Coughlin admitted he had moved the associations money to a personal account.

Because it was a personal account, the defendant said he did not want to add anyone to it; rather, he would get a check for the associations money. According to the complaint, while he talked about the amount of money the association was supposed to receive, the number changed from $14,000 to $15,000 to $16,000.

Allegedly, Coughlin asked Schmidt to keep the conversation between them.

As of Dec. 18, 2020, Coughlins last day on the job, he did not provide any checks to the association, the complaint stated.

According to the complaint, on Dec. 26, 2020, during an investigation into the missing money, Coughlin allegedly admitted to taking the associations money to avoid foreclosure on his home.

A subsequent investigation involving bank records allegedly showed the defendant had deposited RCOA checks into his personal account and had further written checks to himself using association funds.

Investigators determined the defendant had taken $20,540 in association money. However, the records also show the last of the checks the defendant wrote to himself was cashed in August 2018.

Coughlin is to make his initial appearance on Dec. 7.

Representatives from the Racine County Sheriffs Office did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 2 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.
TICHIGAN  Visitors entering the Waterford area from the north are greeted by dozens of storage units along the state highway known locally as Big Bend Road.

Whether the community needs more rentable storage capacity is a question that has divided elected officials.

Take advantage of this limited-time offer Just $5 gives you full access for 5 months to exclusive content from The Journal Times. The incredible deal won't last long, so support local 

It also is leading to differences within a family that could soon operate competing storage businesses along Big Bend Road.

Storage units are an increasingly popular business venture because they offer a revenue stream from customers needing extra storage space, while requiring virtually no employees and few other overhead operating expenses.

The issue arose at a Waterford Town Board meeting Monday when the board was presented with two separate proposals to build more do-it-yourself storage lockers in the area of Big Bend Road and North Lake Drive.

Two board members chose to abstain from voting, first because Town Chairman Tom Hincz owns property for one proposal, and second because Trustee Nick Draskovich is working for the other would-be storage business developer.

That left three trustees to decide the matter and those three split on whether more storage units are needed in this unincorporated area north of Tichigan Lake.

Family members of those seeking to open a new storage business voiced objections, too, raising questions about a conflict of interest and objecting to how the new storage lockers would be arranged.

Draskovich is representing the owners of Floyds Plumbing Inc., who want to build storage units for rent on their property at 8231 Big Bend Road. He abstained from voting on the proposal, to avoid any appearance of a conflict.

Cathy Senft, a nearby property owner who is related to the Floyds Plumbing family, said the matter seems like self-dealing by some town board members. Senft said she wanted to build storage units on her property a few years ago, but town officials told her there was no need for more such businesses.

Now, Hincz and Draskovich both are pushing for storage developments that would benefit them personally, she said.

These people on the board are supposed to be for the community, she said. Not, What can I do for myself and my friends?

Hincz could not be reached for comment. Draskovich said he abstained from voting, to avoid any sort of conflict.

Draskovich, who works for business consultant Endpoint Solutions Corp., said he is uncertain what will happen next with his clients development proposal, following Mondays boisterous town board meeting on the topic.

It wasnt the most fun meeting, thats for sure, he said.

Town records show that Floyds Plumbing is owned Sandy Senft, a cousin to Cathy Senft, and by Sandys daughter and son-in-law, Beth and Todd Morawetz.

Sandy Senft declined to comment.

Not trying to start no family quarrel

The other storage unit development, on property owned by Hincz, is proposed at the northeast corner of Big Bend Road and North Lake Drive. Hincz abstained from voting on either proposal, although he remained in his seat as chairman as presided over the deliberations.

Neither proposal was decided with finality. The Floyds Plumbing proposal failed in a 2-1 vote that fell short of a plurality needed to clear a preliminary hurdle. The project on Hinczs property advanced without opposition.

Also voicing concern about the Floyds Plumbing proposal was Gary Seidler, who is related by marriage to Sandy Senft and who operates C&A Self Storage, located at 8323 Big Bend Road.

Seidler, who built his 100 storage units about 10 years ago, said he objected that the new storage lockers situated next door would be positioned closer to the road than his, making it difficult for passersby to see C&A Self Storage.

Seidler said he believes Sandy Senft and her partners are willing to adjust their development to avoid blocking out his business.

Were not trying to start no family quarrel, Seidler said. We kind of are solving it among ourselves.

Up to trustees

But whether either development will win approval from Waterford town leaders remains to be seen.

With Hincz and Draskovich both abstaining, the Floyds Plumbing proposal drew support from Trustees Dale Gauerke and Tim Szeklinski and opposition from Trustee Teri Nicolai. Three yes votes were needed for a conditional-use permit to move forward.

After county planners review the proposal, the applicants may seek a town permit again.

Nicolai said she opposes new storage unit developments because she believes there are enough already in the area along Big Bend Road.

Whorley Storage offers another 50-plus storage units just down the road at 8427 Big Bend Road.

Nicolai said she was a little self-conscious casting the only no vote that deprived Floyds Plumbing of the three votes needed to advance. She said she will do the same if Draskovich tries again to get it passed.

Im going to say no again, she said. I always do what I feel is best for the town.

Gauerke said he, too, would like to see other types of business. But without other development proposals, he said, the town should consider allowing more storage businesses, if that is what the property owners want to do.

Letting the market decide, I think, is better, he said. Thats a business decision for each developer.

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.
RACINE  Finally, the unsightly rubble is being removed from the lakefront along Pershing Park Drive.

Its been there for almost two years, after devastating storms decimated the Lake Michigan shoreline, destroying some homes and throwing massive metal pipes like they were an empty soda can, in southern Wisconsin and southern Michigan in January 2020.

The City of Racine, and other communities bordering Lake Michigan, are slowly working to rebuild defenses against Mother Nature, and to build infrastructure that can prevent waves from threatening lives and property in the future.

Take advantage of this limited-time offer Just $5 gives you full access for 5 months to exclusive content from The Journal Times. The incredible deal won't last long, so support local 

For now, the shoreline is going to look a bit like itself again as crews from AW Oakes & Son, Inc. remove piles of rubble that had been stacked between Pershing Park Drive and Lake Michigans waves.

The goal of the city is to get the shoreline back to where it was prior to the storm, and then look at enhancements to make it better, said Tom Molbeck, director of the city Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department. For now, however, were going to pray the storms dont come and dont do any more additional damage.

Mayor Cory Mason has called for more federal aid so the city can afford to reinforce its shoreline, as he and experts fear climate change will only create more powerful, more frequent storms on the Great Lakes. But, if such a flood of aid ever comes, it would still be a long ways off  especially in a divided Congress.

Why was pile there in the first place?

Molbeck said that the rubble was piled first under orders from the Federal Emergency Management Agency so that we could quantify the amount of rubble that was disturbed. But later, Molbeck said, that team from FEMA was released from us and a whole new team was given to us and they basically said why did you do that? 

Since the federal government got involved and the city didnt want to risk taxpayers having to foot the bill for projects the feds might pay for, city leaders waited for FEMAs approval before getting rid of the concrete that blocked much of the view of the lake to the east of Gateway Technical Colleges Racine Campus.

It was a headache in the beginning, Molbeck said. The approval process and appeal process we had on some projects took longer than normal FEMA disaster of this size would take.

Other projects, such as restoring the collapsed bike path and walkway by the Racine Zoo, took priority. Mason said last month that concrete road repair had to be paused citywide for nearly two years because those workers had to focus on shoreline repair, but such road repair is expected to resume as normal in 2022.

Still, there remains work to done on the Lake Michigan Pathway behind the Racine Zoo and along Pershing Park Drive to get those areas back to normal.

Its going to be a one- or two-year process before we can get all of them done, Molbeck said Tuesday.

So whats going to happen to the rubble?

Molbeck said that some of the biggest pieces are going to be placed back along the shore, in order to continue acting as a buffer against Lake Michigans biggest waves. The smaller pieces will be broken down and used for gravel.

Removal of the rubble is expected to continue into next week, Molbeck said, weather depending.

Involved in the project in addition to PRCS and Oakes & Sons, are the citys Public Works and Public Health departments.

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.
Proposed decennial political boundaries that have been praised as fair maps by Gov. Tony Evers came under fire by several Democratic lawmakers Thursday who said the proposal would diminish Black and Hispanic representation in the Legislature.

The Assembly voted 60-38 along party lines to send GOP-drawn congressional and legislative district maps to Evers, who has already promised to veto the boundaries. Those maps focus on maintaining the core of the existing district boundaries that Republicans drew in secret in 2011 and are regarded by some as among the most gerrymandered in the nation. Ultimately, its expected the states next 10-year maps will be decided in court.

Maps drawn by the bipartisan Peoples Maps Commission would narrow, but still maintain, Republican legislative and congressional delegation control. On Thursday, Republicans introduced the commissions maps as an amendment to force an up or down vote on the governors proposal. The amendment failed 21-77, with 17 of the Assemblys 38 Democratic lawmakers joining Republicans in opposing the commissions maps.

Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, D-Milwaukee, blasted the commissions maps, which she described as illegal and a perversion of justice that cannot stand.

In her first speech on the Assembly floor, Ortiz-Velez provided an emotional condemnation of the commissions maps, which she said fail to meet requirements laid out in the Voting Rights Act, which is intended to make sure minority voters can elect candidates of their choice and have equal representation.

We deserve to count as well, Ortiz-Velez said before Thursdays vote. You cant say a map is fair that violates the rights of others by denying them their legally protected rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

Rep. LaKeshia Myers, D-Milwaukee, said she was not willing to vote for any map that dilutes and or erases African American and Hispanic representation.

Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, on Monday joined Republicans in voting against maps drawn by the commission. The state Senate voted 21-12 along party lines in favor of GOP-drawn maps.

Rep. Lisa Subeck, D-Madison, who voted in favor of the commissions maps, described the amendment offered by Republicans to force a vote on the maps as a ridiculous ploy to divide and play politics.

With a GOP-backed lawsuit filed with the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court and a similar lawsuit brought by Democrats in federal court, advocates for nonpartisan redistricting have said maps drawn by the commission could serve as a baseline against which to compare the Republican-drawn maps. However, the Legislatures votes this week against those maps could create challenges for the commissions proposal in the eventual court battle.

Christopher Ford, chair of the Peoples Maps Commission, said during a press conference last week the commissions final proposal will perform well for communities of interest and also minority-majority districts.

Ford said the commission tried to adhere to the Voting Rights Act as much as possible and the Assembly map provides nine minority opportunity districts.

Ortiz-Velez said minority-majority districts are protected under the Voting Rights Act, while opportunity districts are not. Ortiz-Velez said she made multiple attempts to contact Evers and the commission on the matter, but said her concerns were dismissed, gaslighted and ignored.

Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said the commission took the Voting Rights Act into account when drafting the proposed maps, adding we believe the commissions maps achieve that goal.

Members of the Legislature could have submitted feedback to the commission  a few legislators did  and that feedback was considered by the commission along with everyone elses and without preference for the fact they are sitting legislators in this state, Cudaback said in an email. The process worked as it should have  without the undue influence of legislators who stand to benefit by being involved in drawing their own districts.

GOP maps

Republicans have touted the GOP-drawn maps as an effort to align as closely as possible with existing boundaries, which have helped Republicans hold majorities in the Legislature, while critics have described the proposal as a power grab aimed at holding GOP majorities for the next 10 years.

More than 100 people registered in opposition to the maps during a nearly 10-hour public hearing on the maps last month. Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, were the only two people to speak in favor of the maps during the meeting.

Under the GOP proposal, more than 138,000 voters would be relocated from odd-numbered Senate districts to even-numbered districts. With state senators serving staggered four-year terms, those voters would not be able to vote in a Senate election until 2024.

Under maps drawn by the governors commission, more than 520,000 would have to wait until 2024 to vote in a Senate election.

County boards or residents in 56 of Wisconsins 72 counties have supported resolutions or referendums in favor of independent, nonpartisan redistricting in Wisconsin.

The Legislature must redraw political lines every decade based on the latest population figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. The mapmaking process can allow a party in power, even without statewide majority support, to create or increase a legislative majority based on how district lines are drawn.

Republicans often have downplayed concerns about the practice  known as gerrymandering, after an early 19th century political cartoon  saying the GOPs success is the result of strong candidates and Democrats being clustered in cities.

According to the Legislative Reference Bureau, the proposed GOP-drawn maps would see six incumbent Republicans in the 99-member Assembly facing off in newly drawn districts.

Sexual assault evidence bills

The Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a pair of bipartisan bills that would create protocols for collecting and tracking sexual assault evidence kits, which both passed the Senate back in March.

One bill would require health professionals to alert police within 72 hours after a sexual assault kit has been collected. Police would have to send the kits to the state Crime Laboratory within 14 days.

The second bill would require the state Department of Justice to create a database for victims to track the status of their kits. Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt, R-Fond du Lac, said an amendment to the bill removed $400,000 initially attached to the legislation to create the database after federal grant funding was secured.

The bills head to Evers desk for final approval.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Following a two-week trial, the case against Kyle Rittenhouse is set to go to the jury Monday.

The judge told jurors to return at 9 a.m. Monday. They will listen to jury instructions, then the closing arguments from lawyers. The jury will then be narrowed to 12 from its current 18 members, with six jurors chosen as alternates. The final 12 will then deliberate

After an explosive day Wednesday that featured Rittenhouse taking the stand, the final day of testimony on Thursday featured a relatively sedate procession of witnesses largely taken up with expert testimony focusing on videos of the shootings and timing of events.

Attorneys for both the defense and prosecution asked Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder to take the day Friday to come to an agreement on jury instructions in the case, and then present closing arguments on Monday.

Schroeder was initially reluctant, wanting to proceed this week.

Then were starting deliberations at three or four in the afternoon on Friday, thats less than ideal, Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger said.

After discussion, Schroeder agreed, saying in exchange that he would limit the lawyers for each side to a total of 2 hours in total for their closing arguments.

Were in the final stretch, Schroeder told the jurors at the end of the day Thursday.

Critical instructions coming

Jury instructions will be especially critical in the Rittenhouse case, given the complexity of issues jurors will have to decide. For each charge, jurors will receive instructions that outline the legal standard that must be met in order to find Rittenhouse guilty on the specific charge.

At the end of the day Thursday, Assistant District Attorney James Kraus told Schroeder they would ask for lesser-included charges for the first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree homicide charges. That would mean that the jury could include lesser charges when they deliberate

Defense attorneys will be able to argue against having lesser-included charges in the jury instructions, with Schroeder making the final determination about whether jurors will have that option.

Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree intentional homicide for killing Anthony Huber of Silver Lake, first-degree reckless homicide for killing Joseph Rosenbaum of Kenosha, and attempted first-degree intentional homicide for shooting and injuring Gaige Grosskreutz of Milwaukee. The shootings happened on Aug. 25, 2020, during rioting in Kenosha following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

He is also charged with two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety for shooting toward two men who were not struck by bullets, as well as possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor.

On Wednesday at the trial, Rittenhouse took the stand to give his version of the night of the shooting. He insisted that he shot Rosenbaum, Huber and Grosskreutz in self-defense. I didnt do anything wrong. I defended myself, Rittenhouse testified.

Rebuttal witness called

On Thursday afternoon, the state called a rebuttal witness  state crime lab forensic imaging specialist James Armstrong, who enlarged an image from a drone video of the Car Source lot at 63rd Street and Sheridan Road. Prosecutors said the image shows Rittenhouse pointing his rifle at a man and woman at the car lot before Rosenbaum began chasing Rittenhouse.

In his testimony Wednesday, Rittenhouse denied pointing his AR-15 style rifle at the couple.

The defense fought admission of the photo enlargement, trying to argue that the software used could be unreliable because Armstrong could not explain how the software used might alter colors. Kraus argued that the defense was trying to use Schroeders admitted lack of knowledge of technology to keep out evidence.

(They are) simply trying to keep out these enlarged or cleaned up images that show their client is lying, he pointed a gun before Joseph Rosenbaum chased him, Kraus said.

After repeatedly watching the video while standing near a video screen while the jury was out of the room, Schroeder decided to allow the photo to be shown to the jury.

Quieter arguments

On Wednesday, the defense had asked for a mistrial with prejudice, meaning that if granted the state could not retry Rittenhouse. The motion came after Schroeder had twice sent the jury out of the room because of questioning of Rittenhouse that the judge said was improper. Schroeder did not issue a ruling on that request, but admonished Binger not to cross the line again.

On Thursday, there were no further fireworks between the prosecutor and the judge.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
1. Yes. Nonprofit youth organizations are underfunded in the city. Its a good decision.

2. Yes. In conjunction with city-run programs, it will provide needed opportunities.

3. No. The money should be used to benefit all residents, not just the citys youth.

4. No. The funds should be invested in the area where the project is being developed..

5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether its an appropriate use of the money.

Vote

View Results
Thats something cool I was able to be part of, said Coffin, whos also spent time in Qatar in the Middle East.

In the U.S., she was deployed to Washington, D.C., to provide additional security during the most recent presidential inauguration and she served the community during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When other students were sent home in spring 2020, Coffin came to campus to assist people in need of temporary housing.

As part of an agreement with the state of Nebraska, University of Nebraska residence halls in Omaha, Lincoln and Kearney were made available to people who needed to quarantine because of COVID-19 exposure or isolate themselves from high-risk individuals living in their household. Coffin was part of the National Guard team that oversaw onsite operations at UNK.

On top of all that time away from her studies, she also attends monthly drill weekends in Lincoln.

Balancing both sides of her life is challenging, Coffin admits, and she definitely notices all the classmates who have earned degrees since she transferred to UNK in fall 2017.

That bothered me at first, but then I realized Im going into my teaching career a lot more mature and with a lot more life experience, she said.
The White House foresaw no problems when asked about Manchin's opposition to Califf.

We feel hes a qualified person who has the exact experience for this moment," press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.

The powerful pharmaceutical and medical device lobbying groups issued strong statements of support Friday, as did a number of physician and patient groups.

Califf has worked as a consultant for major drugmakers including Eli Lilly and Merck & Co., and he sits on the board of two smaller biotech companies.

Federal ethics rules do not require government officials to sell all their investments, but they must recuse themselves from matters that could affect those investments. As part of the vetting process, FDA nominees typically disclose and sell stocks, funds and other investments that could pose a financial conflict of interest.

FDA watchers said Califf had several key advantages over other candidates vetted for the job, several of whom would have faced more scrutiny in the Senate.

He knows how the FDA works, and he avoided making any outrageous decisions as commissioner, said Diana Zuckerman of the nonprofit National Center for Health Research. Those are essential if the FDA is going to regain the public trust.
Q: So many studies are have been published regarding COVID-19. How can people determine which studies are accurate?

A: There is more information on the internet than anyone can digest, says Melanie Swift, M.D., a preventive medicine physician at Mayo Clinic. It can be difficult to know what to believe. Depending on who is running the website or sharing their interpretation of the medical studies, it may be reliable. But it might be a misinterpretation of the data or completely falsified information.

Here are some tips:

Studies that are indexed in PubMed have been published in reputable journals, and these studies have undergone scientific peer review and are reputable.

Studies that can be found by searching Google Scholar may have undergone peer review, as well, but they might be a preprint that has not yet undergone peer review or been accepted by a reputable scientific journal. Preprints are labeled as such, and they should be interpreted with caution.

Use trusted sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), or the National Academy for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is a branch of the National Institutes of Health. Note that these government website addresses end in .gov. Also, check out Mayo Clinics website and the websites for other academic medical centers, as well as websites for medical professional societies such as the American Medical Association or the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Beware of:

Websites that feature medical experts who are not trained in a relevant specialty, or endorsed by a reputable medical center or legitimate medical society. Infectious diseases or pulmonary and critical care medicine specialists are ideal sources for COVID-19 information. If the website or organization features just one or two doctors from unrelated specialties, be skeptical, says Dr. Swift.

Social media postings from people sharing opinion, anecdotes or their interpretation of medical studies. People will commonly state they have done their own research, but this may mean they only searched for studies that support their bias. These people may not have the expertise to judge the validity of a medical study, and they may be justifying their personal beliefs or promoting a political agenda, Dr. Swift adds.

Claims for alternative or miracle drugs that sound unrealistic, without studies published in reputable medical journals. When highly effective treatments are confirmed through valid scientific studies, they are publicized by the CDC, medical centers, medical societies and reliable media outlets.

The National Library of Medicine provides a helpful tutorial on how to evaluate a health-related website while the surgeon general recommends a quick health misinformation checklist, says Dr. Swift.

Some of the tips they offer include:

Did you check with the CDC or local public health department to see whether any information is available about the claim being made?

Did you ask credible health care professionals, such as your health care provider or a nurse, to see if they have any additional information?

Did you type the claim into a search engine to see if it has been verified by a credible source?

Did you look at the About Us page on the website to see if you can trust the source?

If youre not sure, dont share.

Mayo Clinic Health System consists of clinics, hospitals and other facilities that serve the health care needs of people in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The community-based providers, paired with the resources and expertise of Mayo Clinic, enable patients in the region to receive highest-quality physical and virtual health care close to home.

Send questions for this weekly series to letters@lacrossetriune.com

Emily Pyrek can be reached at emily.pyrek@lee.net.

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.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  Pacific Rim leaders agreed to do all they can to improve access to coronavirus vaccines and reduce carbon emissions, but failed to reach agreement on whether the U.S. should host talks in two years' time.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping were among those taking part in the online meeting of 21 leaders at the end of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Saturday, which was being hosted virtually by New Zealand.

The focus was on areas in which the unlikely mix of leaders could find common ground. But the failure of the group to endorse a U.S. bid to host APEC in 2023 pointed to some of the divisions that lie just beneath the surface.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she expected APEC would reach agreement around the U.S. bid by the end of the year, and said that the atmosphere in the room was pragmatic, despite the geopolitical tensions.

"It was constructive, it was positive and convivial, and there was a real common sense of purpose among members," Ardern said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed gratitude Friday to the vast majority of APEC members who support the U.S. as host of the 2023 gathering, but declined to name the lone country that had yet to agree to the U.S. bid. She was optimistic that the matter can be resolved.

Our hope is certainly that we move past this impasse, that it is resolved and that we can continue the positive momentum on economic cooperation through APEC, Psaki said.

In a White House statement issued after the meeting, Biden focused on deepening economic partnerships in the region with the goal of fair and open trade, and noted that America has shipped 64 million vaccine doses to APEC economies.

A joint statement by the leaders said widespread access to vaccines is a priority.

Because nobody is safe until everyone is safe, we are determined to ensure extensive immunization of our people against COVID-19 as a global public good, the statement read.

The APEC leaders said they supported efforts to share vaccines equitably and to expand vaccine manufacture and supply, including through the voluntary transfer of vaccine production technology.

The statement also said APEC supports improving trade in COVID-19 vaccines and related medical products, including through streamlined customs procedures.

The deep rifts between some members of the group were highlighted this week by a warning from Xi against allowing tensions to cause a relapse into a Cold War mentality.

And a Southeast Asian delegate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to publicly discuss the issue, said Russia had refused to support U.S. hosting the gathering unless some of its diplomats are removed from a U.S. blacklist or allowed to enter the U.S. to participate.

The delegate said the U.S. resisted Russias demands because issues involving Americas security are considered non-negotiable. Because APEC works on a consensus basis, Russia's objections were enough to at least temporarily derail the U.S. bid.

In other areas of agreement, the group emphasized the importance of the World Trade Organization as an arbiter of trade rules. APEC said they wanted to see a pragmatic, multilateral response to COVID-19 at a WTO ministerial meeting later this month.

APEC also said that climate change posed unprecedented challenges to the world.

We acknowledge the need for urgent and concrete action to transition to a climate resilient future global economy and appreciate net zero or carbon neutrality commitments in this regard, the statement read.

In all, APEC members account for nearly 3 billion people and about 60% of the worlds GDP.

Many countries in Asia face the challenge of balancing Chinese and U.S. influence on the economic and geopolitical fronts.

China claims vast parts of the South China Sea and other areas and has moved to establish a military presence, building islands in some disputed areas as it asserts its claims.

Both Taiwan and China have applied to join a Pacific Rim trade pact, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, with Beijing saying it will block Taiwans bid on the basis that the democratically governed island refuses to accept that its part of Communist-ruled China.

Officials said they made significant progress during some 340 preliminary meetings. APEC members had agreed to reduce or eliminate many tariffs and border holdups on vaccines, masks and other medical products important to fighting the pandemic.



Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines. Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Joshua Boak in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
On April 13, 1972, English prog rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer performed in Franklin & Marshall Colleges Mayser Auditorium, and for nearly 50 years, there was no audio proof. That is, until July of this year, when a man named Mark Scalise posted an 84-minute long video on YouTube titled Emerson, Lake & Palmer  4/13/1972 Lancaster, PA.

The caption of the video reads: Previously uncirculated audio recording from Andrew Caldwell on a regular cassette deck from J.C Penney, a plastic directional mic from my seat halfway back on the gym floor.

Ask Caldwell why he made the recording in the first place, and the answer is simple.

Well, I was a 16-year-old degenerate, Caldwell, now 65, says on the phone with a laugh.

The April 1972 ELP concert was the third that Caldwell had seen at F&M that year, along with The Beach Boys and his beloved Badfinger, after his mother relented in allowing him to go to shows once he turned 16.

While most F&M concerts were $5, ELP boasted a $5.50 entrance fee.

I must say though, as a 16-year-old, I had only heard one song by ELP by that point, this song called 'Nut Rocker' which was on the radio, Caldwell explains. It's not ELP's best-known song, but I thought, hey, I might gain something from this concert. I took the tape recorder because I didn't know enough about their music. I thought, well, if they play something I like, I want to be able to track down the title. I did this not realizing that it would be mammoth prog works like 'Tarkus' and 'Pictures at an Exhibition.' It definitely was not a 'boogie on down' concert.

At the Badfinger F&M show in February 1972, Caldwell saw numerous tape recorders catching the show, and wished that he had thought to do the same (Caldwell says that after all these years, hes never come across a recording from that Badfinger concert). Caldwell acquired the mic and tape deck from J.C. Penney and said he bought the cheapest cassettes you could buy, with about 30 minutes of space on each side.

Taking advantage of somewhat lax security and the last gasps of Aprils chilly air, Caldwell slung the recorder over his shoulder and under a winter jacket, with the mic and tapes in his pocket.

It was easy to get in, Caldwell recalls. I was about halfway back on the floor. The show spread across about three cassette tapes. I had a little flashlight, so I'd pull it out and it would be like, 'OK, looks like I should flip the tape.'

Caldwell made a conscious decision not to record the opening set from Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, a group Caldwell calls Freaks  years before Cover of the Rolling Stone.

The recording begins with tuning and general chatter from the half-full gymnasium, before a steady clap leads to a muffled introduction.

OK F&M, here they are, from England, Emerson, Lake & Palmer!

The band then launches into a spirited version of composer Aaron Coplands Hoedown, off the then-soon-to-be-released Trilogy. The sound is as you expect for a plastic microphone taking in gigantic synth and drum sounds blasting from Clair Brothers stereo equipment. The audio fidelity, poor as it is, makes the recording far more of a historical document than some lost ELP live classic.

There are fun moments throughout the recording of both musicality and audience reaction. For example, shortly into one of Greg Lakes few times speaking to the audience, a student can be heard saying, Ooh, I love the way they talk.

After the first few emotional guitar chords and requisite applause for the bands hit Lucky Man, a woman can be heard saying, Man, those are some big cymbals.

The set includes other songs that were new at the time but became mainstays in Emerson, Lake & Palmers stage shows for years to come, such as Tarkus, Pictures at an Exhibition and Caldwells beloved Nut Rocker.

BREAK

Emerson, Lake & Palmer never returned to Franklin & Marshall or Lancaster, though 50 years later, Carl Palmers ELP Legacy will perform at Tellus360 on Tuesday, Nov. 16. In 1974, just two years after performing to a half-full college gymnasium, ELP performed for over 20,000 people at Hersheypark Stadium.

Caldwell says he only saw one more show at Franklin & Marshall, which wound up being songwriter Graham Nashs first-ever solo show. He ended his audio recording career short, too, with a trip to the Beach Boys at the Harrisburg Farm Show Center in 1973.

About a year later, the Beach Boys performed at the Harrisburg Farm Show and I taped that, nobody seemed to care, Caldwell says. I didn't realize that it was a dirt floor that you had to stand on.

In the ensuing decades, Caldwell moved between Lancaster and Maryland and back again, all while keeping his tapes and other music collection. Around the turn of the millennium, he had a friend convert his tapes to a digital format.

Earlier this year, Caldwell stumbled on a fan site called ELPArchive.com, a near-encyclopedic compendium of the prog bands tour dates, recordings and ephemera.

On a whim, Caldwell contacted Mark Scalise, the sites operator, with his tape from the 1972 show.

I thought, wow, this guy looks like he puts a lot of thought into it, Caldwell says. Holy God, he combed over that tape  you'll notice where I flipped the cassette, he put something like 'Material lost  one minute, 20 seconds.' It's like, wow, they could have used him at the Watergate hearings. He treasures the band, you can tell.

Scalise confirms over email that no other recording of the 1972 F&M show has surfaced in the intervening 50 years.

Caldwell never went to see Emerson, Lake & Palmer again, though he says that he is contemplating seeing ELP Legacy at Tellus360.

Caldwell credits ELP and Yes for a lifetime appreciation of prog.

Prog was new to me. I loved Yes, and I had maybe only heard them a month before (the ELP show), Caldwell says. The single version of Roundabout was getting airplay. It was like, 'What the heck! It sounds different, but it's cool!' Yes had vocal harmonies and was more like pop music, whereas Greg Lake sang, the other two didn't. No vocal harmonies."

It was basically a showcase for Emerson and his keyboard antics, Caldwell says. Nobody could play keyboards like Emerson. It was my first glimpse of rock 'n roll extravaganza. ELP Legacy performs at Tellus360 on Tuesday, Nov. 16. Visit tellus360.com for more details.
Police identified 20-year-old Cody Ryan Tietjens as the man killed in a crash involving a tractor trailer that shutdown Old Philadelphia Pike for more than four hours Wednesday.

The crash occurred at about 4 p.m. along Route 340, or Old Philadelphia Pike, near Starlite Drive and east of Lancaster city, according to a press release Thursday.

All the lanes on Route 340 were shut down, according to 511PA.

The roadway was closed for more than 4 hours.

Lisa Tietjens, Tietjens grandmother, has a set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for funeral expenses.

Family described Teitjens  who leaves behind a 1-year-old daughter, Callie Rose  as easy going and kind. His daughter was his passion and fixing cars a close second, Milzy Carrasco, Teitjens aunt said in a text message to LNP | LancasterOnline.

He never hesitated to go out of his way to help others, Brian Tietjens Jr., Tietjens uncle, said in a text message. Ive always known and loved him as my nephew, but I grew to respect the man that he had become.

Tietjens had recently started a new job out of the area and planned to relocate, Lisa Tietjens said.

According to a preliminary police investigation, the 1992 white Honda Accord Tietjens, of Lancaster, was driving was traveling westbound and crossed over into the eastbound lane, striking the trailer driven by Carlos Munoz of Philadelphia. Munoz was uninjured.

The Lancaster County Coroners office declared Tietjens, who had become trapped in the vehicle, dead at the scene of the crash.

Two passengers, Tietjens girlfriend, Savahnah Cross, and her 17-year-old brother were transported to Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital, according to East Lampeter Township Police.

Police are still investigating the cause of the crash.
A Lititz man is facing charges after police say he pulled out a family member's teeth during a fight.

Ryan Crawford Lefever, 37, reached into the other man's mouth and pulled out two teeth while the men were wrestling on Nov. 8, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Police were called to 100 block of West Oregon Road in Manheim Township around 7:03 p.m. that day for a domestic dispute, according to Manheim Township police.

It was initially reported to police that Lefever had been drinking and punched the other man, knocking out his teeth, according to the affidavit.

When police arrived, however, the man, who was bleeding from his mouth, told officers that Lefever had "reached into his mouth and pulled out two of his front teeth," police said.

The argument started when the man and another family member told Lefever to leave a room in the house and he refused, according to the affidavit. The man pushed Lefever and then Lefever tackled him to the ground.

Lefever was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor count of simple assault, according to court documents. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 24 in front of District Judge David Ashworth.

He's free on $50,000 unsecured bail.
A return to mask-optional policies was short-lived at a couple Lancaster County school districts.

At least two county school districts on Thursday announced they will again require masks after reverting to a mask-optional policy for one day as a court battle over the Pennsylvania Department of Healths school mask mandate rages on.

The announcements came a day after the Commonwealth Court voided state acting Secretary of Health Alison Beams August order requiring students, employees and visitors to wear masks inside school buildings. The decision prompted at least 11 county school districts to swiftly announce their return to the original mask-optional policies outlined in their board-approved health and safety plans.

Those school districts were Conestoga Valley, Donegal, Elizabethtown Area, Ephrata Area, Hempfield, Lampeter-Strasburg, Manheim Central, Penn Manor, Pequea Valley, Solanco and Warwick.

Later on Wednesday, the state appealed the lower courts ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which, the state says, automatically revived the order.

Subsequent guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of Education stated schools should continue to observe the school mask order throughout the duration of the courts proceedings.

School masking is a necessary public health measure to keep children safe and provide them with as much in-person learning in school as possible, state Secretary of Education Noe Ortega wrote to school officials. Medical experts agree  hospitals and healthcare professionals across the state support the masking requirement. Requiring masks in schools is helping to keep students in classrooms and the virus out and is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Acting on that guidance as well as advice from their solicitors, Conestoga Valley and Lampeter-Strasburg school districts on Thursday announced they will again adhere to the order beginning today.

In his letter to families Thursday, Conestoga Valley Superintendent Dave Zuilkoski said, despite the changing mask rules, the primary focus remains on learning.

We have created positive opportunities pre-COVID without masks, during COVID with masks, and will continue to create those opportunities as we move forward, he said. Kudos to the educators, parents and students for doing the best that they can during these trying times.

Most of the county school districts that announced a return to mask-optional Wednesday have not announced a change of plans. Some appear to be waiting until their school boards meet and discuss how to proceed.

In a letter Thursday, Warwick School District administrators told families about the appeal, explaining that the appeal results in an automatic supersedeas, or stay, in favor of Beams health department.

That supersedeas may be addressed by the Supreme Court at some point in the near future, or not, they said. At this time, we will be following our current health and safety plan with optional face coverings until the board can discuss and decide our next steps if any are necessary.

Elizabeth Rementer, a spokesperson for Gov. Tom Wolf, told LNP | LancasterOnline Thursday that essentially nothing has changed regarding the order. Schools are responsible for requiring masks for all students, except those who meet one of the exceptions described in the order.

School officials who fail to follow the order could lose the protection of sovereign immunity and may personally face lawsuits from those who may be affected by their attempt to ignore the order, Rementer said. Failure to implement the order may also lead to penalty provisions outlined in the Disease Prevention and Control Law, which is the basis of the order, Rementer said.

Absent a state Supreme Court ruling, the school mask order, at least in K-12 schools, will expire Jan. 17, 2022, as originally planned by the Wolf administration.

Whatever happens with the states school mask order does not impact the federal mandate requiring masks to be worn on public transportation, which include school buses.
The Pennsylvania Democratic Partys Latino Caucus is working to recruit a candidate to enter the primary race for the seat held by state Rep. Mike Sturla, the incumbent Democrat who represents the city of Lancaster in the House.

The group, which works to increase the number of Latino elected officials at all levels of Pennsylvania government, is vetting candidates to run for the 96th House District seat, according to David Rodriguez, the chair of the caucus. Lancaster city is 40% Latino, according to the 2020 Census.

There will be a Latino candidate running (in the 96th District), Rodriguez said.

Sturla, first elected in 1990, is already facing a primary challenge from city council President Ismail Smith-Wade-El, who announced his campaign this week by saying that he -- a 31-year-old Black man -- would better represent the Lancaster of today.

Rodriguez said the Latino Caucus is in the early stages of finding candidates to run in districts across the state, and will likely support primary challengers to more than one incumbent Democrat.

If thats what we have to do, then were going to do it, Rodriguez said.

He noted that the decennial redistricting process is likely to result in a House seat centered on Lancaster city and containing a majority of the countys Latino population.

City council member Janet Diaz, meanwhile, said she has been approached about challenging Sturla. She said she will decide whether to run for the seat in January; until then, Diaz said shes helping the Latino Caucus vet potential candidates.

Diaz has long been a political outsider in the Lancaster County Democratic Committee. She was not endorsed by the county committee in her successful city council races in 2017 and 2021. Still, she could be a formidable challenger if she enters the 96th District race. She was reelected to the council last week with the highest vote total of any of the four Democrats on the ballot, outpolling Smith-Wade-El by 23 votes.

Last year, Diaz won the Democratic primary to run against Republican state Sen. Scott Martin, R-Martic Township, over the endorsed Democratic candidate, county Commissioner Craig Lehman. Her campaign and groups supporting her spent more than $1.7 million in the general election to try to oust Martin in a district that includes the largely rural southern half of the county and has more Republicans than Democrats.

Diaz came up well short of Martin on Election Day, but she was left with a campaign warchest of more than $86,000, according to her latest campaign finance filing. She continues to fundraise today.

The Latino community in Lancaster knows Sturla well, Diaz said of the 16-term lawmaker. When Diaz has gone to Sturla seeking help for constituents, hes been responsive and helpful.

For example, she said she went to Sturla last year seeking help for a local resident who had not been able to get unemployment benefits during the pandemic. After reaching out to Sturla, the man was finally able to collect, she said. Her only criticism, Diaz said, is that Sturla needs to be more out in the public around the community -- and that there should be someone fighting for Lancasters Latino population in Harrisburg.

There should be a representative that is going to represent that 40% of Latinos and everyone in Lancaster, she said. Someone that can also focus on the Latino community, and those who have not been able to succeed.

Sturla said a Latino candidate in the primary would be a welcome addition. When reached by phone Friday, Smith-Wade-El did not immediately offer any comment.

Diane Topakian, the chair of the Lancaster County Democratic Committee, said she expects the Lancaster city area committee will not endorse any candidate at its endorsement convention in January, leaving it up to the voters to decide.

"They usually vote to endorse, but this is developing into a unique situation here," she said. "I wouldnt be surprised if there was not an endorsement."

The winner of the May primary will be nearly assured a victory in the 2022 general election next November given the big voter-registration advantage Democrats have in the district.
Lancaster Countys longest-serving school superintendent this week took a step toward challenging U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker in next years midterm elections.

Bob Hollister, who has led the Eastern Lancaster County School District since 2008, filed with the Federal Elections Commission on Tuesday as an official candidate for the 11th District seat held by Smucker. Hollister was a Republican as recently as 2020, but changed parties this year and will run as a Democrat, according to the FEC filing and voter records.

This weeks FEC filing was the first step in exploring a run for Congress, said Michele Sellitto, a consultant on his campaign.

Right now, Dr. Hollisters No. 1 priority is the students, parents and families of the district, Sellitto said. Thats where his focus will be until his retirement.

Hollister, 55, announced earlier this year he planned to retire from the district in early 2022, setting March 11, 2022, as his final day on the job.

Sellitto would not say why Hollister changed political parties within the last year, and she said Hollister was not available for an interview Friday. He lists his campaign site as hollisterforcongress.com, according to the FEC filing, though the URL is not yet active.

Hollister is the first candidate so far to file paperwork to challenge Smucker.

An East Lampeter Township resident, Hollister told LNP|LancasterOnline in July he wanted to leave his job on a high note, noting the Elanco districts good academic and financial standing. He also said he wanted to spend more time with his family, including with his wife and daughter and 81-year-old father who has been struggling to maintain the family woodworking business in Columbia. At that time, he said he was interested in volunteering as a board member for local nonprofits.

While superintendent, Hollister led the district through the COVID-19 pandemic, the formation of the school districts online academy, and multiple building renovations. In 2016-17, Hollister was superintendent for two districts: Elanco and the Columbia Borough School District, as part of a one-year shared leadership agreement. He was also at the forefront of several controversies, including the public outcry in 2019 over transgender students using locker rooms and bathrooms. The district later started a $2.4 million project to add single-use, gender-neutral restrooms to their schools.

Diane Topakian, the chair of the Lancaster County Democratic Committee, said she met with Hollister about his potential run about six months ago, though she has not spoken to him much since.

He seemed pretty passionate about it and excited about it, she said. We didnt get into the weeds quite yet, because he still hadnt decided [whether hed run], but I think hed make a good candidate.

Topakian said she has not yet heard of any other Democratic candidate planning to launch a campaign to take on Smucker in the 2022 November election.

Smuckers strengths

Last year, Smucker won the solid-red 11th District by 26 percentage points over Democrat Sarah Hammond.

The district is currently made up of all of Lancaster County and the southern part of York County. But those boundaries are expected to change, as Pennsylvania lost one House seat after the 2020 census.

Smucker, 57, was first elected to represent Lancaster County in Congress in 2016. For the West Lampeter Township residents first term, Smucker represented the former 16th congressional district, which included most of Lancaster County, the southern part of Chester County and a small portion of Berks County.

Two years later, he ran for the 11th District, which was created after the state Supreme Court ruled Pennsylvanias congressional maps were illegally gerrymandered to favor Republican candidates.

Smuckers campaign said they are confident voters will elect Republican majorities to Congress in 2022 to put a check on [Bidens] presidency.

Congressman Smucker enjoys stronger support than ever before, said Jenna Geesey, Smuckers campaign manager, in an emailed statement. We remain confident the voters will choose to support him over Bob Hollister or any extreme Democrat that will support failed policies led by Biden or Pelosi.

Smucker hosted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for a fundraiser in Manheim last month, raising more than $700,000, his campaign said. Smucker is also a vice chair of the National Republican Congressional Committees 2022 leadership team, a position that puts him at the center of the GOP efforts to recapture a House majority.

In Smuckers third-quarter FEC filing, he reported $1,011,168 in cash on hand.

Smucker is one of 138 House Republicans who voted to strip Pennsylvanias electoral votes from President-elect Joe Biden, a vote cast less than 12 hours after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Smucker signed on to baseless claims that unconstitutional state court rulings and directives from the Department of State tainted the states election results. No proof has ever been provided to back up that claim.
Cornwall-Lebanon school board on Nov. 8 reviewed an informational report outlining the specifics of an after-school activities program that it recently approved.

The $60,000 after-school activities program for the 2021-22 school year, approved by the board Oct. 19, is being funded entirely by the American Rescue Plan Acts Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. The after-school activities will be offered to students in grades K-12 in the districts school buildings.

We want students engaged, said Cornwall-Lebanon Superintendent Philip Domencic. We want them interacting with their peers.

Domencic also informed the board of an email he recently received from Gov. Tom Wolf identifying Jan. 17 as the anticipated date for the expiration of the mask mandate in schools.

In other business, the board was presented with results of state assessment tests recently taken by district students in grades 3-8 that showed a drop in achievement compared to similar results from 2018-19.

At its next meeting Nov. 15, the Cornwall-Lebanon school board will be asked to approve the renewal of an annual agreement with the Lebanon County Tax Collection Committee, at a cost of $6,500.
Dont thank U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker for the hugely popular infrastructure bill thats ready for President Joe Bidens signature on Monday.

Smucker, our representative, voted against it. Once again, he has voted against a bill that will benefit his constituents. Look at his voting record. He consistently votes against pro-women bills and pro-environment bills. Why? Because, in my view, he toes the line of his Republican caucus.

Come on, Rep. Smucker. Think for yourself. Represent your constituents instead of seemingly representing your non-Lancaster and non-Pennsylvania donors. With this infrastructure vote, you snubbed your nose at important companies and their employees in your district: like bridge fabricators High Steel Structures and Greiner Industries. The infrastructure bill will give them more bridge projects to bid on. This will be a real boon to our local economy. It will create commerce for their local suppliers.

The infrastructure bill will provide many additional benefits for Lancaster and York counties, yet Smucker voted against this bill. Voters: Remember this in 2022.

By the way, Rep. Smucker, where were you when the insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6? Oh, thats right, you were in your office in the Cannon Office Building, south of the main Capitol building, seemingly with no fear of harm. Perhaps you were polishing your speech on why your fellow members of Congress should reject Pennsylvanias electors in support of former President Donald Trumps Big Lie. Ten months later, do you have any regrets?

Michael Harnly

Manheim Township
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

Outside of the city of Denver, Colorado, a large industrial building sits between an auto repair business and a used computer business. In that building, a man deals daily with life and death.

Seth Viddal and his employees have built a burial container, or vessel.

Recently they told reporters from the Associated Press that they hope this vessel will be the start of a more environmentally friendly type of burial science. This process will include the natural breakdown of the human body. Those in the burial business call this body composting.

It is a natural process where the body is returned to an elemental level over a short period of time, said Viddal.

He said it is similar to composting of food and yard waste. This is the same process, but done with a human body inside of a vessel, and in our case, in a controlled environment.

On September 7, 2021, Colorado became the second state after Washington to permit human body composting. Oregon will permit the practice beginning next July. In Washington state, there are three businesses licensed to compost human remains.

Together, they have composted at least 85 bodies since the law took effect in May 2020. More than 900 people have signed up for this service as natural funerals become more popular.

Body composting process

Viddal co-owns The Natural Funeral in Lafayette, Colorado.

Soon after the Colorado legislation was signed into law, he started building the vessel in an industrial part of town.

The vessel is about 2 meters long, about one meter wide, and about one meter deep. The box is lined with waterproof material and packed with wood chips and straw. Two large wheels on either end, allow it to be rolled across the floor. This provides the air and movement needed for a body to compost.

The vessel must reach 55 degrees Celsius for 72 continuous hours to kill any bacteria and germs. Teeth are removed to prevent poisoning from chemicals used in teeth repair.

Then after about three months, the vessel is opened and the soil is examined for medical devices. The remaining large bones are returned to the vessel for another three months of composting.

In six months, the body, wood chips, and straw will turn into soil. Family members can keep the soil to use in their yards. However, Colorado law forbids selling it and using it to grow food for human use. Also, the state only permits licensed funeral homes and crematories to compost human bodies.

Viddal calls the process an exciting environmentally friendly choice. He added that in death, he also sees life.

Composting itself is a very living function and it is performed by living organisms, he told reporters. He added that there are billions of microbes in our bodies. And when life ends, the life of those microbes continues.

Viddal said body composting successfully turns the body back into something good for the Earth.

However, not everyone approves of body composting.

The Colorado Catholic Conference is a group of religious leaders who aim to shape public policy. They oppose the process. The religious organization said in statements that body composting does not promote human dignity.

Some Jewish religious leaders are also against body composting. They say it violates Jewish religious law.

Other opponents are concerned about a lack of research. They fear the body compost might poison the soil. They also fear misuse of the body soil.

We dont know what theyre going to do with it if they take it all home, said Stacey Kleinman. She is a board member of the Colorado Funeral Directors Association.

The group helped to write the legislation, but has said is not for or against body composting.

Opposition aside, several other U.S. states are considering body composting. More Americans seem to be becoming open to green burial practices.

This past summer, the Choice Mutual Insurance Agency asked 1,500 Americans how they wanted their bodies to be dealt with. Traditional burial and cremation were the common answer.

However, 11 percent said they would choose a burial involving a natural process. Back in 2020, only 4 percent said they would choose that.

Choice Mutual did not specifically ask about body composting. But the results seem to show an increased interest in more natural and environmentally friendly options.

Cost of body composting

The Natural Funeral charges $7,900 for body composting, compared with $2,200 for flame cremation. Viddal notes that a traditional burial and service in the Denver area can cost more than $10,000. The company has not yet composted any bodies, but several people have signed up and paid for the service.

Micah Truman is head of the company Return Home near Seattle, Washington. So far, his company has composted 16 bodies.

Truman said body composting is new. So he said it is a matter of changing hearts and minds right now. But he has been surprised by how many young people are interested.

Our young people are going to teach us how to die better. It has been really powerful for us, Truman said. He added that younger generations have a greater connection to living and dying in ways that are friendlier to the Earth.

And thats the Health & Lifestyle report.

Im Anna Matteo.

And Im Caty Weaver.

Thomas Peipert reported this story from Lafayette, Colorado for the Associated Press. Anna Matteo adapted it for VOA Learning English. Susan Shand was the editor.

_________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

compost v. to convert (a material, such as plant debris) to compost : -n. decayed organic material (as of leaves and grass) used to improve soil especially for growing crops

level -n. an amount of something

yard -n. a small usually walled and often paved area open to the sky and adjacent to a building : yard waste -n. cut grass, clippings from trees, bushes, and other plants

funeral -n. a ceremony held for a dead person

allow v. to give permission to

function -n. the action for which a person or thing is designed or used

cremation v. the process of reducing a dead body to mostly tiny bits of bone resembling ash that involves exposing the body to flame and intense heat followed by pulverization of bone fragments

microbe -n. an extremely small living thing that can only be seen with a microscope

dignity -n. the quality or state of being worthy of honor and respect


F.W. de Klerk, South Africas last apartheid president who oversaw the end of the countrys white minority rule, has died.

A spokesman for the former presidents organization said Thursday that Frederik Willem de Klerk died in his Cape Town home after a fight with cancer. He was 85.

De Klerk surprised the world when he ended apartheid and peacefully handed over power to a Black-led government under Nelson Mandela.

De Klerk was a controversial person in South Africa. Many blamed him for violence against Black South Africans and anti-apartheid activists during his time in power. Some white South Africans saw his cooperation to end apartheid as an act of disloyalty.

De Klerks legacy is a big one. It is also an uneven one, something South Africans are called to reckon with in this moment, the Mandela Foundation said of his death.

In February 1990, de Klerk announced in a speech to parliament that Mandela would be released from prison after 27 years. The country had long been denounced around the world for its system of apartheid.

With South Africas economy seriously weakened from international sanctions, de Klerk also lifted a ban on the African National Congress (ANC) and other anti-apartheid political groups.

Negotiations to create a non-racial democracy after Mandela's release were held during a time of increased political violence. The talks nearly broke down and the country came close to a violent race war. But the process continued peacefully in what many political experts called a "political miracle."

In 1993 de Klerk shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela, who would win the presidency the following year. It was the first time Black South Africans could vote in Africa's biggest economy.

After the vote, the National Party shared power in a "Government of National Unity" in which de Klerk served as a deputy president. But the relationship between de Klerk and Mandela was often tense. De Klerk pulled out of the government in 1996, saying the ANC no longer valued his opinion.

Later in life, de Klerk said there was no longer conflict between him and Mandela and that they remained friends. Although he publicly apologized for the pain that apartheid caused, he was never seen as a hero like Mandela.

Years after the end of apartheid, de Klerk continued to defend the political system. He said the goal of apartheid was to separate the development of white and Black South Africans. But in reality, the violent apartheid system forced millions of the countrys Black majority into homeland communities with high rates of poverty. And the system left most of South Africas land in the hands of the white minority population.

De Klerk admitted later in life that the goal of separate but equal failed.

In 2020, de Klerk angered many South Africans when he said he did not think apartheid was a crime against humanity. When he attended President Cyril Ramaphosas State of the Nation speech in parliament that year, some members shouted at him and demanded that he leave.

Later, de Klerk said he accepted that apartheid was a crime against humanity and apologized for his earlier comments. But he is still seen by many South Africans as the last apartheid leader, not the leader who helped lead the country away from violent racial discrimination.

Upon his death, opposition leader Julius Malema criticized media reports that said de Klerk was a former president of South Africa. He is a former apartheid president, Malema said in a tweet.

Others on social media said de Klerk should not be given a state funeral.

Im Dan Novak.

Dan Novak adapted this story based on reports from The Associated Press and Reuters. Bryan Lynn was the editor.

_______________________________________

Words in This Story

apartheid  n. a former social system in South Africa in which black people and people from other racial groups did not have the same political and economic rights as white people and were forced to live separately from white people

controversial  adj. relating to or causing much discussion, disagreement, or argument

legacy  n. something (such as property or money) that is received from someone who has died

reckon  v. to think or suppose (something) : to believe that (something) is true or possible

sanction  n. an action that is taken or an order that is given to force a country to obey international laws by limiting or stopping trade with that country, by not allowing economic aid for that country, etc.

miracle  n. an unusual or wonderful event that is believed to be caused by the power of God
Scientist Sergey Zimov has long studied the frozen ground, or permafrost, in one of Earths coldest places, about 130 kilometers south of Russias Arctic coast. It has been melting fast as planet temperatures increase.

Now Zimov is warning about the thawing of all the materials that permafrost has kept trapped since prehistoric times. He says those materials will release huge amounts of harmful greenhouse gasses. These are the heat trapping gasses blamed for the warming planet.

The 66-year-old has studied permafrost from his scientific base in the Yakutia area for many years. Recently, he was able to easily drive a thin metal pole meters deep into the Siberian ground. The area has seen temperatures rise more than three times the world average.

"This is one of the coldest places on earth and there is no permafrost," Zimov told Reuters news agency. "Methane has never increased in the atmosphere at the speed it is today...I think this is linked to our permafrost."

Permafrost covers 65 percent of Russia's landmass and about a quarter of the northern landmass. Scientists say gas releases, or emissions, from its thaw could one day equal or even overtake the amount of industrial emissions produced by the European Union.

Emissions from permafrost, however, are seen as natural, and therefore not included in international agreements aimed at limiting such pollution.

Zimov examines data from a U.S.-run worldwide network of climate recording stations. He says the information shows that permafrost thaw is already releasing greenhouse gases.

During the COVID-19 crisis, the amount of methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere was increasing at a faster rate than before. Yet, industrial production and transportation activity worldwide dropped substantially during the same period.

Scientists say whole cities sit on permafrost and its thawing could cost Russia $100 billion in damage by 2050 if the warming rate continues.

Zimov wants to slow the thaw in one area of Yakutia by populating a protected area called Pleistocene Park with large plant-eating animals including bison, horses and camels. Such animals pack down the snow, making it more dense and less able to absorb heat.

Zimov and his son Nikita began to bring animals to Pleistocene Park in 1996. So far, about 200 kinds are deployed in the area. The scientists say the permafrost at the park is colder than that in other areas.

Zimov would also like to include mammoths in his natural method for engineering a cooler environment. The elephant ancestors disappeared from Earth thousands of years ago, but scientists have expressed hope for their recreation through genetic methods. Including the animals would help recreate the ecological system of the last Ice Age, which ended almost 12,000 years ago.

Zimov and his son were co-writers of a study published in Nature's Scientific Reports last year. The study showed that the animals in Pleistocene Park had reduced the average snow depth by half. In addition, the average yearly soil temperature fell by 1.9 degrees Celsius, with an even bigger drop during winter and spring.

Researchers say more work is needed to confirm whether such untraditional methods might be an effective way to fight the effects of climate change on permafrost. However, models described in the study suggest adding large animals into the Arctic environment could stop the thaw of as much as 37 percent of permafrost.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Reuters reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

__________________________________________________

Words in This Story

thaw  v. to go from a frozen to a liquid state

emission  n. the act of producing or sending out something (such as energy or gas) from a source

greenhouse gas  n. heat-trapping gases that warm the Earths atmosphere

decay  v. to become weak or destroyed over time, often because of natural causes like bacteria or age

ecosystem  n. everything that exists in a particular environment
When in uniform, it's consistent throughout all branches for enlisted members to render the hand salute to all officers and warrant officers of the U.S. Armed Forces, officers of friendly armed forces and authorized civilians of selected state and federal governmental positions. Officers should salute other officers and authorized civilians of higher rank.

Medal of Honor recipients are the exception to this custom, regardless of the MOH recipient's rank, officers and enlisted Service members render the hand salute first.

Laguna said it can all be very complicated on how who is saluted, but the easiest thing for a civilian to do is simply say thank you to a veteran or military member in uniform.

Racheal Kearney, an LHS junior and 2021 All State Chorus member sang, Requiem for a Soldier. Zarate told the crowd they might recognize it as the theme to the HBO show Band of Brothers.

I wish you'd lived to see, all you gave to me. Youre shining dream of hope and love. Life and liberty.

We are all one great band of brothers. And one day you'll see - we can live together. When all the world is free, is the last verse of the song.

After Kearney finished singing, the crowd gave her a standing ovation.
It's been almost three days since the Idaho athletic department decided to fire football coach Paul Petrino, and the reaction to the dismissal has been one of sadness for the players, but maybe a sigh of relief for the fan base.
CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California's state Capitol works and why it matters. Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers.
Local

featured

Huntington ISD offers 'A Patriotic Perspective'

JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin Daily News Huntington High Schools Highsteppers perform a tap routine to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Thursday during Huntingtons 26th annual Veterans Day Celebration. JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin Daily News A wall honors those attending Huntingtons 26th annual Veterans Day Celebration Thursday at Huntington High School. JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin Daily News Huntington High School students present the colors Thursday during Huntingtons 26th annual Veterans Day Celebration. JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin Daily News Huntington High Schools Highsteppers present a salute to armed forces Thursday during Huntingtons 26th annual Veterans Day Celebration. JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin Daily News Huntington High Schools wall of veterans on Thursday showcases Huntington residents who served their country at Huntingtons 26th annual Veterans Day Celebration. JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin Daily News A display at Huntington High School Thursday honors veterans for their service.

Students, veterans and community members gathered in the Huntington High School Auditorium Thursday morning as the district honored those who served during its 26th annual Veterans Day Celebration themed A Patriotic Perspective.

Among state leaders invited by Huntington city manager Bill Stewart to join the festivities, Gov. Greg Abbott was unable to attend but sent a letter Stewart read to the audience.

It is my privilege to join you in observing and celebrating Veterans Day, Abbott wrote. Today and every day, we are proud to honor the brave men and women of our armed forces, whether they are active duty or a veteran who has previously served. Their service ensured that we remain free to live in this great land we call home, and their sacrifices have taught us that freedom is not free.

Abbotts letter also encouraged remembering those who were lost while serving.

We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who fought to uphold our nations values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, he wrote.

State Rep. Trent Ashby spoke at the event of his pride in Huntington for being such a patriotic community.

I am just so profoundly appreciative of those of you that are sitting toward the front of the auditorium this morning for your courageous and unselfish sacrifice  you answered the call of duty to serve this great country, the ideals, the beliefs, the values that we all hold dear as American citizens, he said.

A number of Huntington High School students also participated in the patriotic celebration: A group of students presented the colors, Destiny Snell offered the Pledge of Allegiance and the Huntington Highsteppers presented a salute to the armed forces and performed a dance routine to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

Huntington senior Kennedi Beckman said Veterans Day means a lot to her because her dad is a law enforcement officer, although she said that occupation is nothing like what veterans go through. Her great-grandfather was in the Army, and her great-uncle was a Marine, so the holiday is special to her, she said.

It feels like they deserve more, but its what we can do, its what weve been doing and its been working pretty well for us, she said.

Southside Worship members sang The Star-Spangled Banner, We Will Never Forget, Hero Everyday and America the Beautiful.

Emcee Danny Merrell listed veterans in attendance and asked them each to stand one by one. Videos were shown with words from veterans, graduates currently serving, family members of those who have served and civilians stating what Veterans Day means to them.

Event organizer JNelle Short said she grew up around two men who served, her father and her uncle, and she didnt realize there were heroes right there in her house.

There are heroes among you today  right here in this room  they all have their stories, they all have their experiences, some you cant even imagine what theyve gone through, she said. You see, its not Hollywood, its not politicians, its not pro athletes  its the veterans who deserve our highest honor in society.
Middle school

Some middle school teachers said PLCs are already making a difference. Students in eighth grade have done better on math assessments this year compared to similar assessments in previous years, said math teacher Joanne Owens.

She said PLCs have helped the math department get on the same page, so that regardless of whose class students are in, they are all learning the same information, being graded in the same way and taking the same assessments. Prior to this year, teachers didnt have time to meet with each other across grade levels, she added.

Sixth-grade math teacher Sue Hepp agreed, adding that while they are teaching the same topics, each instructor is doing it in their own way. Were not robots, she said.

Described by Rueth as a mindset, the PLC model was developed almost 20 years ago and focuses on specific, measurable data that can be used to determine where students need more help, he said. Its main emphasis is on assessments, which Rueth said are not just tests but also everyday interactions that show teachers what students know.
Please register or log in to keep reading. No credit card required!

Stay logged in to skip the surveys.
Wisconsin law allows the prosecution and defense to ask that jurors be told they can consider lesser charges as part of the instructions they receive before deliberating. Defense lawyers can object to lesser charges, and in some cases Friday, they did. For those that they didn't object to, Judge Bruce Schroeder asked Rittenhouse to confirm that he agreed with his attorneys' decision.

Schroeder told Rittenhouse that by including the lesser charges, youre raising the risk of conviction, although youre avoiding the possibility that the jury will end up compromising on the more serious crime. And youre also decreasing the risk that youll end up with a second trial because the jury is unable to agree.

Rittenhouse said he understood.

Schroeder said he would issue his final rulings Saturday, but he made some findings from the bench and indicated how he might rule on others. For counts where jurors will be allowed to consider lesser charges, they will be instructed to only consider them if they first acquit Rittenhouse of the more serious original corresponding charge.
Speaking to White, Guy said with his marriage over, he never thought about contacting her and has never wanted to.

Guy, an Army and Marine Corps combat veteran, said in his travels after fleeing the U.S. he worked in several countries in Africa and Europe, where he sought to deprogram himself from 20 years of a military mindset and said he lived mostly in what he described as hippie communes. He said he sought only to help people. He said there is a village in Slovenia he hopes to return to, where he was affectionately known by friends as Captain Convict.

Guy was working at a bicycle shop in Vienna when police tracked him down using leads sent out by the U.S. Department of States Diplomatic Security Service, which had been trying to find Guy.

Guy said Friday he fled the country because he feared he could not get fair treatment in court for crimes he said he didnt commit. He said he was grateful the District Attorneys Office later took another look at the charges and dismissed the bulk of them.

White sentenced Guy to 39 months in the Dane County Jail, but with credit for prior time in custody and good time afforded jail inmates, deemed his sentence served. White did not agree, though, that there was any purpose to be served by putting Guy on supervision, given a lack of proven treatment needs and a desire to impose a sentence that reflects the crimes Guy admitted to committing and holds him accountable for them.

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.
HEYBURN  Heyburn Police Chief Dan Bristol remains on paid leave after a Heyburn City Council meeting late Wednesday.

After an hour-long executive session, the Heyburn City Council returned to an open meeting and made no decisions. Executive sessions are closed to the public, but any formal action decided on in the meeting must be made publicly.

The council entered the closed-door meeting under the rule that allows them to consider the evaluation, dismissal or disciplining of or to hear complaints or charges brought against a public officer, employee, staff member or individual agent, or public school student.

After the meeting, Heyburn Mayor Dick Galbraith told the Times-News that Bristol, who has been on paid administrative leave since March, remains on leave. Bristol was investigated by Idaho State Police following accusations of changing time cards and altering police reports, among other allegations.

The decision on how to fill the top police department leadership role moving forward rests on Galbraiths shoulders.

Heyburns police chief is appointed by the mayor. Three of four council members must then approve the appointment.

No charges for Heyburn police chief after ISP investigation No charges will be filed against Heyburn Police Chief Dan Bristol after an Idaho State Police investigation report was sent to the Twin Falls County prosecutor.

I have the confidence of the council members, Galbraith said. They support me.

All the possible actions the city can take in the matter were also submitted to the Idaho Counties Risk Management Program for approval, he said.

Police chiefs are city employees, not public officials like elected sheriffs.

This is a weighty decision and not one Im taking lightly, Galbraith said. Someones livelihood is in my hands. Im still weighing this decision.

Galbraith has spoken with all the officers except one who is out on medical leave about the leadership issue.

Galbraith intends to make a decision next week.

Bristol underwent an investigation by the Idaho State Police for accusations that he altered 193 employee time cards without employee consent to deny them overtime pay, destroyed his own personnel files, bragged about failing drug tests and altered officers reports to increase or diminish charges.

The ISP report was submitted to the Twin Falls County prosecutors office for possible criminal charges. No criminal charges were filed.

Bristol maintained his innocence and previously told the Times-News that he had faith the judicial system would work.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
POCATELLO  Idahos newest temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been dedicated. President M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, presided at the dedication of the Pocatello Idaho Temple in three sessions on Sunday.

A temple in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a place where sacred covenants and ordinances can be performed, Ballard said. Were building temples at a faster rate than ever before in the history of the Church.

On a chilly Sunday morning, Ballard conducted the cornerstone ceremony, which symbolizes the completion of the temple. He was joined by Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Kathy; Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, president of the North America Central Area; and Elder Gary B. Sabin, assistant executive director of the Temple Department, and his wife, Valerie.

More than 250,000 people of many faiths attended the public open house for the temple in September and October.

Andersen has ties to the Pocatello area. He spent much of his youth in the nearby town of Tyhee and attended schools in Pocatello.

I had a beautiful childhood here from the time I was just about 4 or 5 until the time I left on my mission and came back, so it has great memories for me, said Andersen, who brought family members with him to see some of the places where he grew up. Im so happy to see it is a magnificent temple on the hill. Its no small temple. And you can see it from almost everywhere in the valley.

He continued, The light of the gospel will shine on everyone and increase the love of God in this wonderful community.

The 71,000-square-foot temple sits on the eastern foothills of Pocatello.

Its this large because we feel it needs to support that many people who want to come, Sabin said. The first unit of the Church was established in 1888, so thats a long wait.

Youth ddevotional

On Saturday evening, about 6,000 young men and young women and local Church leaders attended a devotional at a meetinghouse in Pocatello. It was also broadcast to four other chapels in the Pocatello Idaho Temple District.

This part of the Church  Pocatello, Idaho  this is a center of raising up faithful missionaries that carry the gospel to the nations of the earth, said Ballard, who encouraged the youth to consider serving a mission.

I bear witness and testimony to you that if you have an opportunity to serve a full-time mission for the Lord Jesus Christ, when the time comes and youre old enough to qualify, you prayerfully consider that and step up, emphasized the senior church leader.

Ballard expressed his confidence in the youth who attended the devotional. I have such a great sense of confidence and peace as I look at your faces and know that the Church will be in good hands.

This temple is built for everyone here in Pocatello. But my focus really is the thoughts of how this temple is going to bless the rising generation, said Nielsen, who conducted the youth devotional.

There is urgency in this work of gathering Israel, dear friends. And its up to us to invite those people who are lucky enough to cross our paths today, he told the youth.

Nielsen recalled when the temple property was covered with sagebrush. My thoughts go directly to the young people who, in about 45 minutes, cleared the 11-acre parcel of ground to prepare for the building of this temple.

The youth also helped plant 25,000 flowers to prepare the grounds for the temple open house.

Chayce Low, 17, of Bancroft, attended the youth devotional with his local congregation. Low said Ballards call to future missionaries resonated with him.

Actually, this is a big point of my life. A couple of weeks ago, I finally decided that I was going to go [on a mission], and its really cemented my decision, he said. Young men go on missions when they turn 18 and women can serve at age 19.

Mckenna Young, 17, of Inkom, enjoyed being in the presence of the church leaders. What I take away is how much confidence the Lord has in me and in the youth and just how much they love us.

The Pocatello Idaho Temple is the sixth temple in Idaho and the 170th operating temple in the Church. The Gem States other temples are in Boise, Idaho Falls, Meridian, Rexburg and Twin Falls. Two other temples have been announced in Burley and Rexburg North. More than 460,000 Latter-day Saints reside in Idaho.

Design of Burley LDS temple announced The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released a rendering of the planned Burley temple.

The groundbreaking for the Pocatello Idaho Temple was held in the spring of 2019. The temple was announced in April 2017 by church President Thomas S. Monson.

Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints differ from meetinghouses or chapels where members meet for Sunday worship services. Each temple is considered a house of the Lord, where Jesus Christs teachings are reaffirmed through baptism and other ordinances that unite families for eternity.

Love 3 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
WALLA WALLA, Wash. (AP)  About 13,000 pounds of marijuana valued at around $3 million was destroyed this week outside of three adjoining Touchet, Washington, cannabis farms accused of growing more than allowed by state law.

The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin reports Evergreen Nirvana, Black Diamond Cannabis and Green Volcano were each notified recently by the state Liquor and Cannabis Board that they were growing significantly more than their allotted space.

But owners of the farms argue they are being suddenly and unfairly penalized by regulators in response to complaints made by competitors in the legal cannabis industry.

Though the sites have each long since been growing cannabis on more than 30,000 square feet of land, the growers did not believe they had run afoul of regulations, said Michael Rothwell, an attorney representing the growers. That is because the actual canopy of their plants, which are grown outdoors, is under the 30,000 square feet limit, and that the remaining land is simply empty space between plants.

The trio of farms are the only pot-producers in Walla Walla County, which banned all recreational cannabis farms in 2014.

The growers had established their operations as a legal land use before the county adopted a moratorium on medical marijuana operations at the end of June 2016. Before that, the county ban covered recreational marijuana production, processing and sale, but not medical cannabis.

The farms had previously been able to successfully argue in court that they were a medical marijuana grow operation, and growers have been steadily building up their farms ever since, said Craig VanZandt, a part owner of Black Diamond Cannabis.

But in October, just as harvest of the years crop was underway, the farms were sent a notice from the LCB informing them that around half of that crop was going to be destroyed in the coming weeks, VanZandt said.

The marijuana was destroyed on Wednesday.

Our best understanding is that theyve been operating in a non-compliant fashion in this entire time and it was a lack of understanding of the officer that previously looked at it, said Cpt. Jeremy Wissing, who oversees cannabis production with the LCB for the east side of Washington state.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
TWIN FALLS  Two Magic Valley charter schools were investigated for nearly a year by education leaders before they closed amid discoveries they over-collected millions of taxpayer dollars, according to hundreds of emails obtained by Idaho EdNews.

Two charter schools closing amid state investigation Two publicly funded charter schools are shutting down following discoveries theyve been overpaid millions of dollars by the state

One state education official called the situation at ARTEC and ARTEI Regional Professional Technical charter schools serious, as revelations of inaccurate state reports and a range of other issues unfolded at the charters.

The emails, obtained through public records requests to the State Board of Education and State Department of Education, also outline pushback from the schools leaders over claims that their enrollments were a fraction of what they reported to the state. This lead to the schools getting millions of tax dollars they didnt deserve, according to state funding practices.

The emails obtained by EdNews also capture the principal downplaying claims that the schools enrolled far fewer students than had been reported, and its board chair telling top state leaders that teachers cried over the closures.

In interviews last month, current and past ARTEC and ARTEI board members have denied seeing any nefarious activity from leaders at the schools.

During my service I did not witness purposeful mismanagement by the administration, said Idaho Falls School District Superintendent James Shank, who served on the board as Cassia Countys superintendent for nearly three years before leaving for Idaho Falls this school year.

The schools latest enrollment tallies sent to the state show that they serve no students, though SDE spokeswoman Kris Rodine recently told EdNews that the schools dont plan to formally close until next month.

Inaccurate reports

Last years switch from an attendance- to an enrollment-based funding model fleshed out a series of reporting inaccuracies that resulted in financial windfalls to the charter schools, state education leaders told EdNews last month.

In an attempt to recoup some of the money, which state education officials have put from $2.2 million to $6 million, leaders cut off subsequent operational payments to the schools earlier this year  a move that local leaders said placed a heavy strain on the schools and contributed to last months announcement that they would shut down for good.

Its still unclear if the state will get back the millions of dollars lost to the schools, and the charters authorizer, the Minidoka School District, isnt liable.

Its serious

Late last year, then-State Board member Debbie Critchfield outlined the weight of issues at the schools to local leaders.

I do not want to downplay whats happening in the Magic Valley, Critchfield wrote on Nov. 10 to executive director Andy Wiseman, principal Gaylen Smyer and board chair Michael Arrington. Its serious.

Critchfields campaign treasurer linked to embattled Magic Valley charter schools The treasurer of Debbie Critchfield's campaign is also the board chair of two Magic Valley charter schools that were overpaid millions of dollars by the state.

Months later, the State Department of Educations finance chief detailed the legal ramifications to the schools.

We have learned through recent conversations with the charter schools that neither had enrolled students as required by Idaho Code and State Board rule, State Department of Education Chief Financial Officer Julie Oberle wrote to Smyer in August.

These and other communications to the schools culminated with State Board Executive Director Matt Freemans August letter, which, on top of the schools attendance and enrollment issues, outlined their lack of documented state approval for CTE courses and having people listed as staff members who were not employed at the schools. The letter includes a series of corrective measures for the schools.

Emails reviewed by EdNews cast further light on some specifics outlined in Freemans letter.

In a Sept. 19 email to State Board members and staff, Freeman put the number of students attending the schools at six or less  hundreds below the roughly 800 students the schools previously reported to the state. The schools also had no instructors, Freeman wrote.

Wiseman pushed back at claims against the schools.

Sudents were in ARTEC and ARTEI programs last year, teachers taught courses, students earned grades and industry certifications, Wiseman wrote in an Aug. 22 letter to the schools board members. For the (State Board and SDE) to say we had no students last year just is not true.

Wiseman produced a range of documents apparently aimed at justifying the schools reporting practices and legitimacy  from news clippings of past state events they participated in to communications with former SDE finance chief Tim Hill that outline reporting procedures for the schools. Wiseman augmented these and other documents with an appeal to the schools board members in July to claim injury against the state as a result of rescinded payments to the schools.

Other emails highlighted the responses and emotions of students and teachers who learned of the schools plan to close.

We have had other teachers break down and cry, Arrington wrote in a Sept. 14 email that included Critchfield, Idaho House Education Committee Chairman Lance Clow and House Speaker Scott Bedke.

In his Sept. 19 email to State Board members and staff, Freeman distanced the state from the schools decision to close.

To be clear, we did not order the school closed, he wrote. That was a decision made by the schools board.

Creative thinking

EdNews reached out to current and past members of the schools governing board, which is made up in-part of area K-12 superintendents, regarding reporting inaccuracies at the schools and what may have caused them.

Both downplayed notions of any nefarious activity from local leaders.

To my knowledge, no formal financial audit had revealed a finding. No formal program audit had determined that there were issues, said Shank, who believes the schools administration was working from past precedence and knowledge of state reporting requirement.

Jerome Superintendent Pat Charlton agreed.

A lot of creative thinking went into the effort to keep ARTEC functioning for all of these years, said Charlton, who began his time on the charter schools board early this year. But it was all done legally with support from the Legislature, the State Division of CTE, and the Idaho SDE, he added. I see no indication of wrongdoing on the part of anyone who was involved in this creative thinking,

Its still unclear to the SDE how much money or assets the schools will have upon closure, Rodine said Wednesday.

Typically, items purchased with federal funds are returned to a schools authorizer  in this case, the Minidoka district  and distributed to other charter schools or schools with programs that qualify for the same federal funds, Rodine added. If there are assets purchased with state funds, the schools board would decide what happens to them.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 2 Angry 3
TWIN FALLS  Fire crews responded to a fire Thursday afternoon at the old Twin Falls Clinic building near City Park and St. Edwards Catholic Church.

Most of the activity appeared to be centered at the back of the building, a Times-News reporter on the scene said.

The building sits at Shoshone Street and Sixth Avenue East.

Phone calls to the Twin Falls Fire Department for information were not returned by Thursday evening.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 2 Sad 2 Angry 0
COEUR DALENE (AP)  A northern Idaho poll worker illegally handed out critical race theory information to voters on election day earlier this month, a former school board member said.

Kootenai County Clerk Jim Brannon condemned such actions and asked anyone who witnessed wrongdoing at the polls to file a formal complaint, the Coeur dAlene Press reported Thursday.

But it wasnt clear late Wednesday if any complaint had been filed.

Dave Eubanks said he witnessed a Precinct 19 poll worker offering a voter information against critical race theory after handing the person a ballot.

If that woman had been handing out literature in support of Black Lives Matter, she would have been shut down in a second, Eubanks said Wednesday. But the fact that she was handing out CRT stuff, I think people have winked at it.

Critical race theory is a way of thinking about Americas history through the lens of racism. Republican lawmakers in Idaho this year raised it as a problem and accused universities of indoctrinating students. Others see it as a non-issue raised during an election year to draw voters.

Kootenai County Commissioner Chris Fillios said he heard that some sample ballots had been left in polling places, mainly churches. Nearly half of the countys polling places are in religious buildings.

Oftentimes, people take their cheat sheet or voter guide with them when they go to vote, Fillios said, noting thats OK as long as they dont try handing them out. Our poll workers do diligently check those, but they obviously cant stand over the voter every minute of the day and make sure no one left a flyer.

Hayden Mayor Steve Griffitts also expressed concern, but said he had confidence in Brannon.

Elections are sacred, and were grateful for the volunteers that allow us the opportunity to freely elect our leaders, Griffitts said. We want to make sure that we keep integrity for our elections.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
BOISE  Idahos bipartisan redistricting commission wrapped up its business on Wednesday at the Idaho State Capital by re-doing votes to approve new legislative and congressional district maps and then approving the states final redistricting plan.

Commissioners approved the same maps as they originally did on Friday without making any changes to legislative map L03 or congressional map C03, which are available to view under the maps tab on the redistricting commission website.

Wednesdays votes may represent the final business from the 70-day process of using new census 2020 population data to redraw Idahos 35 legislative and two congressional districts. At this point, commissioners and the public will wait to see what, if any, legal challenges are brought against the maps in the form of lawsuits.

We tried hard to be Idahoans in this process, not Republicans and Democrats, commission co-chairman Bart Davis said after the vote. We didnt always agree with each other, but we were committed to being agreeable in the process and find a way to make it happen.

Idahos redistricting commission comprises six members; three were appointed by Democrats and three were appointed by Republicans.

I am very proud of our work product and the work that we have accomplished over the last two months, commissioner Nels Mitchell said at the end of the meeting.

Why did they re-vote on the same maps?

Commissioners re-did the votes after Davis announced commissioners were concerned about a possible violation of the Idaho open meetings law because the agenda from Fridays meeting  when the first votes on maps occurred  did not specify the Idaho State Capital as the location for the meeting.

If someone successfully challenged the commission under the open meetings law, a court could have potentially invalidated any action from the meeting with the incomplete agenda.

Thats why commissioners posted a new, complete agenda before Wednesdays meeting and then re-did all of the votes in open session to avoid any uncertainty.

Commissioners and staff have been sensitive to anything that could derail or delay the redistricting process because of the time crunch they have been working under. Idaho received the population data late from the U.S. Census Bureau due to what census officials described as COVID-19-related delays. Commissioners already knew the new maps need to be in place and clear of any challenges by late February 2022 so candidates can officially declare theyre running for public office. Commissioners and staff didnt want a challenge over the completeness of the agenda to delay or jeopardize the process just as they reached the finish line.

What happens next with the new maps?

Commissioner Eric Redman and the commissions staff planned to deliver the new maps, the electronic shape files and the final redistricting plan to the Idaho Secretary of States Office, which helps run the states elections. The delivery may happen late Wednesday or at some point on Friday because Thursday is Veterans Day, staff said.

The Idaho Attorney Generals Office will also review the maps and redistricting plan.

Assuming the maps stand up, they will then be put in place beginning with the 2022 primary elections and remain in place for 10 years. The maps will have far-reaching effects on Idaho elections and politics. The new maps will determine which districts voters and candidates alike live in, and therefore, who will represent Idahoans and their neighbors in the Idaho Legislature and in Congress for the next decade.

Commissioners and staff have been blunt, however, that based on past redistricting processes, they do expect a lawsuit challenging their plan.

Will the maps create many changes?

The maps will create many changes, though many Idahoans will be affected differently depending on where they live. Many Idaho voters will find that they will become a part of a new legislative district in 2022, even though they did not move. The redistricting commissions staff launched an online tool that allows Idahoans to enter their addresses and find out which legislative district they will be a part of under new map L03.

Many legislators may also find they have been drafted into new legislative districts, even though they didnt move.

In some cases, allied legislators who previously represented neighboring districts may find they have suddenly been drafted into the same district as each other. In those cases, the legislators may decide to run against each other. In other cases, one legislator may step aside.

Speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, raised this concern last week following the first vote on maps.

The Idaho House Republican Caucus is not entirely thrilled with the new reapportionment of Idahos legislative map, Bedke said in a written statement. In some cases, highly-qualified and established legislators may be forced to campaign against equally skilled former colleagues. Its an unfortunate situation and will result in the loss of considerable talent and dedication to service to the people of Idaho but we understand the Commission for Reapportionment was working under a tight window and appreciate their efforts to complete this task in a timely manner.

The redistricting commissions staff is working on an official incumbents report for legislators that will show which districts incumbents land in based on legislative map L03, but that report may not be finished until next week, staffers said.

Idaho Education News used the commissions online address lookup tool and publicly available contact information for legislators to take a look at potential legislative showdowns in 10 different legislative districts.

The new maps are also kicking off the next wave of campaign announcements ahead of the 2022 elections.

On Wednesday, former state Rep. Britt Raybould announced she will run for the Idaho House in 2022 in the new District 34, setting up a potential rematch with incumbent Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, who defeated Raybould in 2020.

On Monday, Rep. Ben Adams, R-Nampa, announced that he will run for an open Idaho Senate seat in the new District 12 next year, the Associated Press reported.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
TWIN FALLS  A service to honor veterans on Thursday brought members of the public together with Magic Valley veterans organizations, their families and friends to Twin Falls City Park.

At times somber, and at times inspiring, the Veterans Day service was an opportunity to reflect on the service and sacrifice of veterans past and present.

In her keynote address, Hospital Corpsman Chief Petty Officer Toni Lee said that service in the military is about family, community and pride in the American tradition.

America is a promise of a better life for which so many have risked everything, Lee said. We volunteer to serve because we believe in that promise, and men and women better than myself have sacrificed everything so we can live free.

Lee, who was born and raised in eastern Idaho, served multiple tours with the Navy as active duty and reserve over a career that spanned 18 years, said that it is a privilege to serve.

The gift of service is one of the greatest gifts we can give of ourselves, Lee added. Through service, we discover we live out our values. Through service, we participate in our shared commitment to create a more perfect union.

Lee said that recent times of social and economic unrest have prompted many people to wonder if the American dream was still alive. She said she believes it is, and it will take hard work in homes, classrooms, and in the community to preserve it.

Despite the challenges we face I am deeply optimistic, Lee said. The spirit of service is hardwired in Americans. We volunteer to stand in dangerous places in the world and offer ourselves as expendable. We are willing to put our lives on the line for our countrys future.

During the event, Twin Falls veteran Rondal Lang was recognized by Senator Mike Crapos office for his many years of involvement with veterans organizations in the Magic Valley. Lang was presented the Spirit of Freedom Award and received a flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol.

Sue Kennedy, District 5 commander of the American Legion, has worked with Lang for several years. Kennedy, a veteran who retired from the Air Force after 23 years, said she nominated Lang for the award because he was always ready to help with any project.

He does an outstanding job in our community for the American Legion and I think its well deserved, Kennedy said. He steps up to do anything. You dont even have to ask, he just shows up. Hes always there when you need somebody. Hes somebody that I would count on at any time.

Lang, who retired from the Army in 2005 after 23 years of service, said support for veterans can make a big difference.

Always remember to thank a veteran, Lang said. Unfortunately 22 veterans a day commit suicide. They just have no hope to live. I know it always gives me encouragement when some total stranger walks up to me and says thank you for your service, even though they dont know what I did or anything.

Lang also said the families of servicemembers play a big role.

None of my career would have been possible without my lovely wife Rita by my side, Lang said. Without the support of our spouses, most of us wouldnt be here or wouldnt be where we were in our military careers.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Six U.S. oil executives detained in Venezuela for four years on corruption charges have been granted a hearing before an appeals court, a rare decision by the judicial system in the South American country.

A judge this week scheduled for Tuesday the hearing for the men known as the Citgo 6, according to a court document shared with The Associated Press by a person familiar with the case. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke with AP on condition of anonymity.

The executives are to appear before a three-judge panel on the same week as the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention takes up the case of Tomeu Vadell, one of the six Houston-based Citgo employees arrested in 2017.

Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo, Gustavo Cardenas and Jose Pereira were taken away by masked security agents while at a meeting in Caracas just before Thanksgiving that year. They had been lured to Venezuela to attend a meeting at the headquarters of Citgos parent, state-run oil giant PDVSA.

The six men were convicted of embezzlement last year in a trial marred by delays and irregularities. They were sentenced to between 8 and 13 years in prison for a never-executed proposal to refinance billions in the oil companys bonds. Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro at the time accused them of treason. They all pleaded innocence.

The men have been granted house arrest twice since their detention.

The first time was in December 2019 and lasted two months, being they were re-jailed on the same day that then President Donald Trump welcomed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to the White House.

They were granted house arrest again last April, but that arrangement ended Oct. 16, the same day that a close ally of Maduro was extradited by the African nation of Cape Verde to the U.S. to face money laundering charges.

Venezuelas judicial system is stacked with pro-Maduro officials who routinely issue decrees in accordance with the presidents viewpoints.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin has been reduced to asking for a few hundred bucks in back pay.

But $285 a day is $285 a day. Thats roughly how much more money Idahos No. 2 gets for an eight-hour shift as acting governor.

What is the process for determining the pay differential based on the time frame that the governor is out of the state? reads the memo McGeachin filed with Division of Financial Management Administrator Alex Adams last week.

Pathetic, you say?

Trump endorses GOP rival of Idaho incumbent governor Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Republican Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin over incumbent Republican Gov. Brad Little in the 2022 race for governor.

McGeachin is not so impoverished that she needs every dime.

What it reveals, however, is how badly shes been outmaneuvered by the man whose job she covets in next springs GOP primary election, Republican Gov. Brad Little.

After taking office in 2019, McGeachin had all the powers traditionally reserved to her office  among them, the authority to serve as acting governor whenever the elected chief executive left the state.

Idahos governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately. At times, the two have represented different political parties. Theyve even been rivals in an upcoming election. Nonetheless, all of them understood the unwritten rules: When the governor was out of state, the No. 2 respectfully kept the lights on.

Not McGeachin. The second Little left her in charge in early 2019, she consorted with militia fringe groups on the Statehouse grounds.

In May, she used Littles trip to Nashville, Tenn., to a Western Governors Association meeting as a pretense to issue an unconstitutional executive order banning local face mask mandates. Little promptly rescinded it upon his return.

McGeachin: Out-of-state Little was in violation of the law. She also asks about pay Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin is questioning how much she should be getting paid when shes acting governor, despite having been paid for the role in the past.

When Little traveled to the Texas-Mexico border early last month, McGeachin issued another executive order banning schools and universities from requiring proof of vaccination from COVID-19 or a negative test. No such mandate had been issued, and Little quickly rescinded it.

Soon after, Little pointed to an emerging legal theory that holds the governor does not relinquish his powers simply by leaving the state. Parsing the Idaho Constitution carefully, it holds that what was true in 1890 no longer applies. With the advent of modern communication and transportation, the chief executive remains fully capable of governing from a distance.

Then he delivered this message to McGeachin: Dont call us, well call you.

In the event I am ever unable to perform the official duties of governor as may be required due to disability, effective absence, or otherwise, rest assured that my staff will notify your office immediately, Little informed McGeachin on Oct. 29. Unless, and until, your office receives such notice, there is neither a need nor authorization for you to act in an acting governor capacity.

On Wednesday, Little left for Florida where he attended the America First Policy Institute Gala attended by former President Donald Trump. On Friday he returned.

McGeachin learned of it after the fact.

Thats where things will stand unless McGeachin goes to court.

Her backpay memo could be the premise for such a legal challenge. Under the rules, unless the governor designates her as acting governor, she doesnt draw the extra compensation. So the monetary injury could give her the legal standing to assert Little has misread the constitutions temporary succession clause.

Stapilus: Little change, mostly Opinion: Smith might have run for Congress once before (in 2014, losing to Simpson), but he is clearly running from the outside.

Its not without risk.

During her brief inquisition of Idaho public education last summer, McGeachin so recklessly defied the Public Records Act that a judge both fined her and ordered her to pay the legal fees of the Idaho Press Club that took her to court  to the tune of about $28,793. McGeachin wants the Legislature to bail her out.

If she makes this latest fight and loses, however, she will have blown another wad of your tax dollars on attorneys fees.

If she prevails? Someone is bound to push a constitutional amendment enabling a gubernatorial nominee to select his own running mate.

Either way, the lieutenant governor could be a weaker political office than it was less than three years ago when McGeachin inherited it.

And she has no one to blame but herself.  M.T.

Love 1 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
There are a number of problems with the present-day structure of the U.S. Supreme Court, but the number of seats is not one of them. We have done very well with just nine seats since 1869 and really dont need any more than that for the Court to function properly. Of much greater concern is the lack of turnover. There has been an increasing tendency of Presidents to appoint people in the infancy of their legal careers in hopes they will serve until they draw their final breathsort of a cradle-to-grave system.

Adding four seats to the Court might correct the current ideological imbalance, but is it really a good idea to add seats every time one party decides the Court might need rebalancing? It gives the appearance of playing politics with what we like to regard as a relatively apolitical institution.

Jim Jones: Veterans Day is an ideal time for reflection and coming together Opinion: We were both officers in a heavy artillery battalion--The Proud Americans-- in Tay Ninh Province, northwest of Saigon along the Cambodian border.

And how about trying to get thirteen lawyers-turned-judges to arrive at a coherent majority opinion? Even with a nine-member Court, the Justices often write such a number of separate opinions in important multi-issue cases that it is difficult to know what the Court is really saying. The more members, the harder it will be to reach results that the public can rely upon. Is it any wonder that our U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal generally hear and decide cases in three-judge panels.

Limiting terms of service might be a reasonable fix, but that would probably require an amendment to the Constitution, which is highly unlikely. However, in 2009 a group of distinguished legal scholars suggested a statutory plan whereby each President would make one Supreme Court pick after every federal election. The longest-serving Justice would remain on the Court, but on senior status. Senior Justices would not actively sit on cases, except where a sitting Justice could not participate. Under this plan, Justice Thomas would be the first to take senior status, followed by Justice Breyer and then Justice Alito.

This reform would bring new blood to the Court on a regular basis. By removing the incentive to appoint youngsters who would serve until they die, the plan would very likely result in the appointment of older, tested, more-experienced lawyers or jurists. Some of the most qualified members of the bench and bar are currently excluded from consideration simply because the politicians want their candidates to serve the very longest time humanly possible. The last three Court appointments were ages 49, 53 and 48.

Hartgen: Nope, the economic world isnt going to hell in a basket for Idaho Opinion: Whiners and complainers want you to think all we need to do is drain the swamp in Boise and things will be sunrise and roses.

I have no pretensions of being a distinguished legal scholar, but I joined the Idaho Supreme Court at age 63 and voluntarily retired after serving 12 years. After law school, I served as an artillery officer in Vietnam, three years as legislative assistant for a U.S. Senator, 8 years as Idaho Attorney General and 25 years in private practice. Im aware of any number of lawyers and judges across the country with valuable experience and distinguished legal careers who would be ideal candidates for the Supreme Court, if eligibility were open to those over 55 years of age.

This plan would solve another problem for the Courtrecusals. Even on state supreme courts, like Idahos, where senior justices are available in the event of a recusal, there is some reluctance to recuse oneself from an important case. There is no provision for substitutes in U.S. Supreme Court cases, making it even more difficult for Justices to recuse when they really should do so, partly for fear of a tie vote. However, with a stable of senior Justices to fill in upon a recusal, there should be no tie-vote concern.

Senior Justices could also be deployed to reduce backlogs in crowded U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal around the country by participating in Circuit Court cases.

It is time to dispense with a system that fosters a cradle-to-grave Supreme Court. So many well-seasoned individuals who would be a credit to the Court are ruled out simply because they would not be able to serve for 3 or 4 decades. Plus, periodic turnover is a good thing. The longer a Justice sits in the ivory tower of the Court, the greater the likelihood of losing touch with the real world.

This opinion piece was first published in The Hill and was submitted to President Bidens Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court for consideration. The Commission is expected to release its report during November. Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served eight years as Idaho Attorney General and twelve years as a Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). He is a regular contributor to The Hill online news outlet.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
TODAYS WORD is part of a series on current slang: lit. Example: That youth group meeting at Cathys house with the loud contemporary Christian music and the plentiful tasty finger food was really lit.

THURSDAYS WORD was yeet. It started out as a name for a hip hop dance move. This description may not pass a teenagers inspection, but the best The Stroller can do is say that its dancing with legs wide open and hopping around a bit, with the arms flying around, often straight out. The word is used as an interjection that can mean Wow! Cool, Nice, and so forth. Example: When she saw her best friends new outfit of ripped jeans, tank top and loose tank top, she said, Yeet!

Henry Ford

Henry Ford visited Martinsville in the early 1900s when he delivered an automobile to Dr. Drewry Mason, who was until then was going by horse and buggy to visit his patients. That information, along with a picture of Ford with a car, was shared by Rita Watson on the Facebook page Martinsville, Virginia- My Hometown.

Free Pet Feature
A neutrophil (yellow) ejects a NET (green) to capture bacteria (purple). A red blood cell (orange) is also trapped in the NET. Credit: CHDENK/Wikimedia Commons

As we've seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, serious infections sometimes trigger an excessive inflammatory reaction that does as much harmor morethan the infection itself. New research at Boston Children's Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital suggests a potential way to block this hyperinflammation response by repurposing or modifying an existing drug.

The findings could potentially lead to a new treatment not just for COVID-19, but also for other life-threatening inflammatory conditions like sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) that currently have no specific treatment.

NETs, COVID-19, and inflammation

COVID-19, sepsis, and ARDS have something in common: All of them involve neutrophil extracellular traps, or NETs.

So what are NETs? They're webs of DNA and toxic proteins that neutrophils, first-responder cells in the immune system, spew out to entrap bacteria or viruses, in a last-ditch attempt to contain the infection. (The neutrophils themselves, having lost their DNA, die in the process.)

"NETs are the final step," says Ivan Zanoni, Ph.D., an immunology researcher at Boston Children's and co-senior investigator on the study with Jeffrey Karp, Ph.D., of Brigham and Women's. "If NETs appear, it suggests that other means of fighting the infection have failed. Neutrophils get the signal, "Give it everything you have.'"

But there's a cost to making NETs. A growing body of research shows that the formation of too many NETs can lead to dangerous levels of inflammation, to blood clots such as those found in sepsis and severe COVID-19, and to direct tissue damage like that seen in severe lung infections and ARDS.

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) contribute to COVID-19, sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and other inflammatory conditions. This image shows multiple NETs; in pink are areas where the enzyme histone H3 is chemically modified, a key initiating step in NET formation. Credit: Valentina Poli and Marco Di Gioia, Zanoni lab, Boston Childrens Hospital

Preventing neutrophil extracellular traps from forming

The new study, led by Zanoni, Karp, and first author Valentina Poli, Ph.D., of Boston Children's, suggests a way of curbing NETs and blocking potentially fatal inflammatory reactions. In the journal iScience, the researchers show that a drug called ricolinostat interferes with an early step involved in NET formation in neutrophils from both mice and humans and in three mouse models.

To form NETs, neutrophils first have to release their own DNA. This requires a specific group of enzymes called histone deacetylases (HDACs). These help open up the packaging around the DNA, known as chromatin. Ricolinostat, an HDAC inhibitor, blocks two classes of HDACs, class I and IIb.

"If you inhibit HDACs, you cannot open chromatin," says Zanoni.

And if chromatin can't open, the neutrophil cannot release its DNA and NETs cannot form. In the three mouse modelsviral pneumonia, bacterial pneumonia, and a model of septic shockthe drug decreased NET formation and dampened inflammation. It protected lung function in the pneumonia models and reduced the harm caused by septic shock, appearing to reduce blood clot formation.

Working toward a clinical trial

Ricolinostat is currently in clinical trials for several cancers and for peripheral neuropathy in diabetes. Since it's already gone through preclinical testing, Zanoni and Karp are looking to get it into clinical trials for severe inflammatory conditions. Zanoni's lab has one modified version of ricolinostat that is also looking promising for blocking NET formation.

"Our work has potential to immediately help with COVID-19 to dampen the inflammatory response and turn it into something relatively harmless like a mild cold," says Karp. "Inhibiting NETs represents a new therapeutic strategy for pulmonary diseases, autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, diabetes, and cancer."

That said, Zanoni adds a note of caution. "NETs exist because they are protective," he says. "We have to be careful in blocking biology that is protective, and avoid suppressing the immune system too much."

Explore further DNA webs may drive lung pathology in severe COVID-19

More information: Valentina Poli et al, Zinc-dependent histone deacetylases drive neutrophil extracellular trap formation and potentiate local and systemic inflammation, iScience (2021). Journal information: iScience Valentina Poli et al, Zinc-dependent histone deacetylases drive neutrophil extracellular trap formation and potentiate local and systemic inflammation,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103256
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to pick up speed across Europe this week and also began to accelerate in Latin America.

Here is the global state of play based on an AFP database.

Global rise

The number of new daily cases increased globally for a fourth week in a row, jumping eight percent compared to last week, with an average of 472,800 daily infections, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.

However, the confirmed cases only reflect a fraction of the actual number of infections, with varying accounting practices and levels of testing in different countries.

Worsening in Europe, Latin America

Unlike previous weeks, the global increase was no longer largely down to Europe, which saw a 13 percent spike in the number of new daily cases.

The number of new daily cases increased by 14 percent in the Latin America and Caribbean zone, and by 15 percent in Africa, but this is skewed by catch-up data from Botswana.

Elsewhere the situation continues to improve in the Middle East, dropping 12 percent, in Asia (down seven percent) and Oceania (down six percent), while it is stable in the United States and Canada (up one percent).

Worst in Europe

The 10 countries which suffered the biggest spikes over the week were in Europe, with the top five being Hungary (up 77 percent), Poland (66 percent), Germany (61 percent), Austria (57 percent) and France (52 percent).

Big dips

The countries where cases fell the most were also in Europe, in the east where there had previously been large outbreaksRomania (minus 35 percent), Latvia (-35 percent) and Estonia (-34 percent).

The Philippines (-33 percent) and Mongolia (-30 percent) followed.

US most infections

The US remained by far the country with the biggest number of new cases73,100 per daya decrease of one percent. It was followed by Russia (39,800 cases, also down one percent) and the United Kingdom (34,300, a decrease of 12 percent).

On a per capita basis the countries that recorded the most new cases this week were Slovenia with 1,080 per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Croatia with 943, and Georgia 833.

Russia most deaths

Russia recorded the biggest number of daily deaths with 1,205, followed by the US on 1,160. Third on the grim podium was Ukraine with 673.

At a global level there was a two percent increase in the number of daily deaths, to 7,160.

Vaccinations

Vietnam led the vaccination race this week, giving shots to 1.33 percent of its population every day, among countries with more than one million inhabitants.

Iran came next with 0.96 percent, Taiwan (0.82 percent), and Bangladesh (0.81 percent).

The leaders in the vaccination race are all in Latin America and Asia, which have over the past few months been catching up with the vaccination champions in Europe, North America and the Middle East.

The United Arab Emirates remains the most vaccinated country in the world, with 89 percent of its population completely jabbed, and Portugal hot on its heels with 86 percent.

Explore further Pandemic slows for sixth week

 2021 AFP
A healthcare worker prepares the Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at vaccination center located inside the National Theater in Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. In recent days Coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic have significantly jumped to the levels close to record numbers recorded at previous waves. Credit: AP Photo/Petr David Josek

The Czech government is requiring children to get tested for COVID-19 as part of efforts to curtail a recent steep rise in cases.

All elementary and high schools are required to test the country's 1.4 million students in two waves on Nov. 22 and Nov. 29, Education Minister Robert Plaga said.

Medical experts recommended the mass testing. Firefighters will distribute rapid test kits across the country, officials said.

Health Minister Adam Vojtech said the outgoing Czech government and members of the opposition that won an October parliamentary election and is forming a new government discussed additional coronavirus measures on Friday.

"It's essential for all of us to be united," Vojtech said.

He declined to detail the new measures, which the government is set to approve early next week. Vojtech said both teams agreed on the importance of vaccination as the rate in the Czech Republic is below the European Union average.

"I'm glad that the government is listening to us," Petr Smejkal, chief epidemiologist at Prague's Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, told Czech public television.

New confirmed cases jumped sharply this week, arousing concern they would continued rising to the daily record of 17,776 cases registeerd on Jan. 7.

A woman receives the Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at vaccination center located inside the National Theater in Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. In recent days Coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic have significantly jumped to the levels close to record numbers recorded at previous waves. Credit: AP Photo/Petr David Josek

People register to receive the Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at vaccination center located inside the National Theater in Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. In recent days Coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic have significantly jumped to the levels close to record numbers recorded at previous waves. Credit: AP Photo/Petr David Josek

The Czech Republic reported 10,395 new cases on Thursday, about 2,000 more than a week earlier. The daily tally of new cases reached 14,539 on Tuesday, the highest number since March 12.

The country's infection rate rose to 614 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days on Thursday, up from 558 two days earlier.

The Czech military said Friday that 40 service members will be deployed in hospitals in the eastern Czech Republic to relieve stretched workers.

The Czech Republic has been among the European Union hardest hit by the pandemic, with a total of 1.87 million cases in the nation of 10.7 million and 31,355 COVID-19 deaths.

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A team including researchers from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a digital tool to better monitor a condition known as Barrett's esophagus, which affects more than 3 million people in the United States. Barrett's occurs when the mucosal lining of the lower esophagus deteriorates, altering its cellular structure, and is most common in those with chronic acid reflux.

Barrett's is considered a premalignant condition because it's a common precursor to esophageal cancer, so monitoring patients is critical. However, the current paradigm for tracking the progress of the disease, known as the Seattle protocol, is invasive, expensive and potentially ineffective.

Per the protocol, Barrett's patients must have their esophagus poked with forceps every few months, an uncomfortable experience that only captures a small percentage of the affected tissue, meaning that despite the invasive procedure problematic tissues can remain undetected.

A research team set out to test the effectiveness of the Seattle protocol by constructing a computational model to represent the human esophagus, using real-world data across a large population of tissues.

The team, which also included researchers from Columbia University's Irving Medical Center, Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital's Institute for Technology Assessment, published their results in the journal Simulation.

"The ultimate goal was to strike a balance between physically poking a patient and how often you find something that may be concerning," said Jim Nutaro, leader for computational systems engineering at ORNL and a researcher on the project. "It reproduces historical data, and cancers that surface in the simulations are analogous to the real world. These are virtual patients, and we can poke them as much as we want."

The team's end goal is to minimize the invasiveness of tracking the condition and, by extension, reduce deaths from esophageal cancer by providing a testbed for potential future monitoring regimes.

To examine their digital patients, the researchers first needed to construct a digital esophagus via a computational model. The team drew input data for Barrett's onset and death ages from an actual 1960s cohort and validated the resulting model with real-world data such as detection rates and population statistics.

Biopsy from the tubular esophagus showing incomplete intestinal metaplasia, goblet cells with interposed cells having gastric foveolar-type mucin consistent with Barrett esophagus. Negative for dysplasia. H&E stain. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

"It's classic model construction and development," said Nutaro.

The model was then complemented with simulations of millions of various types of tissues constructed using real-world data, a computationally expensive process that was only possible via parallelization across multicore servers.

"The optimization routine is designed to work on parallel computing platforms and benefits from multicore parallelization to facilitate model calibration in a feasible amount of time," the researchers wrote.

It's a task well within ORNL's wheelhouse, as the laboratory is currently home to the nation's fastest computer, Summit, and hundreds of researchers such as Nutaro and his colleague, ORNL staff scientist and team member Ozgur Ozmen, who work daily to employ such resources in tackling the most complex scientific challenges of our time.

The team's model is in the public domain, available to those who can apply it to the physical treatment of Barrett's patients.

In the near term the researchers are looking to apply it to studying variations in the detection of Barrett's across different timescales and tissue areas. Ultimately, they would like to find partners in the medical community that could use their findings to develop a new protocol and, by extension, improve the lives and life expectancies of patients with Barrett's esophagus.

"We can share the model and work with them to further refine current practices," said Ozmen. "In other words, we can help to optimize future protocols."

Explore further New minimally invasive test identifies patients for Barrett's esophagus screening

More information: Ozgur Ozmen et al, Tissue scale agent-based simulation of premalignant progressions in Barrett's esophagus, SIMULATION (2021). Ozgur Ozmen et al, Tissue scale agent-based simulation of premalignant progressions in Barrett's esophagus,(2021). DOI: 10.1177/00375497211040074
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A new study shows just how much of a toll the pandemic has taken on physicians who have children at homeespecially those who are mothers.

Not only did it disrupt the home and work lives of female physician-parents more often, but long-term data on their mental health shows a sizable gender gap erupted in their risk of depression and anxiety compared with their male counterparts.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, uses data taken from a long-term study of early-career physicians, including information on their pre-pandemic mental health.

The study team is led by University of Michigan researchers who first enrolled the physicians more than a decade ago, when they were in their first year of post-medical school training and took part in the Intern Health Study. The follow-up study surveyed them in 2018 and 2020.

Of the 215 physician-parents of children under age 18 who completed the survey in August 2020, the study shows physician-mothers were:

Much more likely than physician-fathers to lose childcare or in-person school for their children (84% vs. 66%)

Far more likely to have primary responsibility for childcare or schooling (25% vs. 1%)

More likely to perform the majority of day-to-day household tasks (31% vs. 7%)

Nearly twice as likely to mainly work from home during the pandemic's early months (41% vs. 22%)  with an even greater difference in couples where both are physicians working full-time (65% vs. 25%)

More than twice as likely to have voluntarily reduced their work hours during the pandemic (19% vs 9%), even though physician-mothers were already less likely to work full-time than physician-fathers before the pandemic (73% vs. 91%). In couples where both were physicians working full-time before the pandemic, 26% of the women reduced their hours vs. 3% of the men.

Far more likely to report conflict between their work and their family life than men, using a standard questionnaire and adjusting for multiple factors including child age, medical specialty and partner employment status.

Mental health differences

Comparing the physicians' mental health scores, the researchers show physician-mothers scored significantly higher than physician-fathers on depression and anxiety symptoms in August 2020.

For both genders, less sleep was associated with higher scores on both mental health measures.

Focusing on the 180 physicians in the study who had already become parents by the time they took the pre-pandemic survey in 2018, the researchers found a striking effect.

Where physician-mothers and physician-fathers had scored about the same on depression levels pre-pandemic, by August 2020 the women scored significantly higher than men on the depression scale.

The researchers also compared physician-parents with physicians who were not parents in 2018 or 2020. The non-parents had no gender gap in depression or anxiety scores on either survey.

Elena Frank, Ph.D., the Intern Health Study's director and an assistant research scientist at the Michigan Neuroscience Institute, notes that the study is the first to provide evidence that pandemic conditions have contributed to gender disparities in work-family conflict and mental health status among physician-parents. The study also confirms anecdotal reports that the emotional toll and career costs of the pandemic are greater for mothers than fathers.

"With the increased burden placed on physician-mothers during the pandemic, these findings show the need for immediate action to ensure that they have access to adequate support at work and at home," said Frank, the study's first author. "Establishing institutional and public policy solutions to mitigate the long-term effects on the well-being and careers of physician-mothers will also be critical, including a viable path for re-integration into medicine as we move out of the pandemic."

"Mothers across professions have been torn between their careers and their home lives during the pandemic," says Srijan Sen, M.D., Ph.D. "We were fortunate that we had followed these physicians from before the pandemic allowing us to understand how their lives changed. Mothers in other professions likely had similar experiences."

Sen is the principal investigator of the Intern Health Study, director of the U-M Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg and Family Depression Center, and professor in MNI and the Department of Psychiatry.

The Intern Health Study, which is also studying the impact of the pandemic on physicians who were in training at many U.S. and Chinese teaching hospitals during 2020 and 2021, began in the early 2000s.

Because first-year residents, called interns, all go through a similarly stressful and intense experience, the study uses them as a population that gives insights into the roles of sleep, stress and genetics on mental health.

Explore further Drop seen in physician work hours during COVID-19 pandemic

More information: Experiences ofWork-Family Conflict and Mental Health Symptoms by Gender Among Physician Parents During the COVID-19 Pandemic, JAMA Network Open (2021). Journal information: JAMA Network Open Experiences ofWork-Family Conflict and Mental Health Symptoms by Gender Among Physician Parents During the COVID-19 Pandemic,(2021). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.34315
A study analyzed data from 109 patients hospitalized owing to acute COVID-19, but not in a critical condition. Credit: UFSCar

In COVID-19 patients, obesity is the factor most associated with the development of endothelial dysfunction, a condition in which the blood vessels become unable to contract and relax adequately, increasing the risk of events such as heart attacks, thrombosis (blood clotting), and stroke.

Endothelium refers to the thin sheet of cells lining the walls of arteries and veins, as well as the inside of the heart. Endothelial cells release substances that control vascular relaxation and contraction, and enzymes that regulate blood clotting and immune function.

The association between obesity and endothelial dysfunction in COVID-19 patients is analyzed in an article published in the journal Obesity. The authors are researchers at Brazilian universities, save one who is affiliated with a Colombian university. The group is supported by FAPESP.

The study analyzed data from 109 patients hospitalized owing to acute COVID-19, but not in a critical condition. "We characterized the patients in general and then set out to identify the factors that might modulate or intensify endothelial damage. The results showed that the key factor was BMI (body mass index), followed quite a way behind by blood creatinine level, a marker of kidney function," said Alessandro Domingues Heubel, a Ph.D. candidate in physical therapy at the Federal University of Sao Carlos (UFSCar) in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and first author of the article.

Heubel explained that BMI (weight divided by height squared) is one of the main parameters used by health professionals to measure overweight and obesity. Individuals with a BMI of 30 kg/m2 and more are considered obese.

Patients of both sexes were included in the study. Their average age was 51, and 51% were male. They were undergoing treatment at Bauru State Hospital and Santa Casa de Sao Carlos in Sao Paulo state. Their most frequent comorbidity was obesity (62%), followed by high blood pressure (47%) and diabetes (17%).

Blood samples were collected shortly after hospital admission, and endothelial function was assessed non-invasively 72 hours later by the flow-mediated dilation (FMD) method, in which the diameter of the brachial artery (the major blood vessel in the upper arm) is measured by high-resolution ultrasound before and after circulation is restricted in the forearm for a few minutes.

"Immediately after removal of the occlusion cuff, the flow of blood in the artery increases, and this is a mechanical stimulus for the endothelial cells (which line the inside of blood vessels) to produce nitric oxide, a vasodilator. The more the artery dilates, the better the endothelial function. We found FMD to be very low in these obese COVID-19 patients during the period of active infection," Heubel said.

Besides FMD and BMI, the researchers assessed muscle health by measuring grip strength with a dynamometer and analyzed blood levels of hemoglobin, leukocytes, lymphocytes, creatinine and platelets, as well as C-reactive protein, ferritin and D-dimer (markers of inflammation and coagulation). Other parameters included the time since symptom onset, smoking, comorbidities, and medications in use. No patients were in intensive care at the time of this assessment, but 72% were using supplemental oxygen.

To find the determinants of endothelial dysfunction in the study sample, the researchers used univariate regression (a statistical technique that predicts values of one variable from the values of another) and multiple regression (which analyzes several variables concurrently). Only high BMI and the level of creatinine were found to correlate directly with a decrease in FMD.

According to Renata Goncalves Mendes, a professor at UFSCar and Heubel's thesis advisor, each additional unit of BMI corresponded to a decrease of 0.19% in FMD.

"When two COVID-19 patients are compared, one with normal weight [BMI  20 kg/m2] and the other obese [BMI  30 kg/m2], the latter tends to have a 1.9% lower FMD. Based on prior knowledge, this suggests a 17% higher cardiovascular risk," Mendes told Agencia FAPESP.

"In clinical practice, we find that obese patients have more cardiovascular events while they're hospitalized. Our study can help understand the mechanisms underlying this problem and why obesity increases the risk of progressing to severe COVID-19."

Previous evidence

Since the start of the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, researchers have raised the hypothesis that the virus may directly infect and damage endothelial cells, and this has been confirmed in studies using samples obtained in autopsies of patients who died from COVID-19.

The damage done to endothelium by the virus may also be associated with blood clotting disorders leading to the formation of microthrombi, and the development of intense systemic endothelial dysfunction, both of which would account for progression to severe COVID-19.

"We don't yet know for sure to what extent endothelial dysfunction is directly caused by the damage done by the virus or by the cytokine storm typical of this disease [in which the immune system releases large amounts of inflammatory molecules]," Heubel said.

Previous research showed that obesity heightens the risk of severe COVID-19 regardless of age, sex, ethnicity and comorbidities such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart or lung disease. The reasons for this include mechanical alterations in the respiratory system due to increased abdominal mass, which compresses the diaphragm and lungs. Obese people also often have an impaired immune system.

There is evidence that SARS-CoV-2 can infect adipose cells, and that adipose tissue can become a reservoir for the pathogen. Viral loads in the obese tend to be higher than in normal-weight individuals as a result.

"A possible explanation for our findings is that higher viral loads in the obese increase the risk of direct infection of endothelial cells," Heubel said. "It may also be the case that the process is influenced by inflammation, which is typically exacerbated in overweight people. Limitations associated with the design of the study prevented us from observing a direct correlation between inflammatory markers and FMD."

For the researchers, health workers should become more attentive to vascular complications when treating obese COVID-19 patients. "They're more susceptible to cardiovascular events and hence need more assistance. Several strategies are available to prevent complications developing," Heubel said.

According to Mendes, the findings pave the way for novel therapeutic approaches that focus on endothelium. "It would be a good idea to look for a compound capable of blocking the process that leads to endothelial dysfunction, given the associated risk of serious complications," she said.

Many participants in the study progressed to a critical condition after hospital admission and required intensive care, according to Emmanuel Gomes Ciolac, a professor at Sao Paulo State University (UNESP) in Bauru and penultimate author of the article.

"This is a large-scale project, in which patients are assessed at three momentsin hospital, 30-45 days after discharge, and four months after discharge. More results will be reported soon," he said.

For Ciolac, the data obtained so far underscore the need for society to see obesity as a serious problem. "We urgently need broad and efficient public health policies to combat this disease, which is associated with severe COVID-19 and countless other disorders," he said.

Explore further Evidence suggests SARS-CoV-2 virus attacks brain endothelial cells

More information: Alessandro Domingues Heubel et al, Determinants of endothelial dysfunction in noncritically ill hospitalized COVID19 patients: a crosssectional study, Obesity (2021). Journal information: Obesity Alessandro Domingues Heubel et al, Determinants of endothelial dysfunction in noncritically ill hospitalized COVID19 patients: a crosssectional study,(2021). DOI: 10.1002/oby.23311
An illustration of the choices within the programme showing how the 'mental selfie' is created. Credit: Bangor University

Never has there been a time when we were so obsessed with appearance than our current 'selfie' age. Many argue that the obsession with selfies and manipulation of images may turn some of us into narcissists, while others may also experience greater body image dissatisfaction. But how do we actually see ourselves in our mind's eye?

Psychologists at Bangor University and the University of London are the first to develop a method of visualizing these mental 'self-portraits' we hold in our minds. They explored how far these internal images may deviate from what others see, and demonstrated how they can be affected by our beliefs about our personalities and our self-esteem.

In a paper published in at Psychological Science, Dr. Lara Maister of Bangor University's School of Human and Behavioural Sciences demonstrates not only how the research team devised a way to access other people's mental image of themselves, but also, for the first time, to compare that image against reality, and explore how that image may be affected by their beliefs about their own character traits.

In the team's research, the participants' mental images of their own faces were reconstructed using a computer-based technique that has been employed in the past to help psychologists visualize how we mentally see things. To create a mental selfie, participants see two random faces and each time they must choose the one that looks more like their own face, a process repeated several hundred times. At the end, the researchers can average all the images that people thought looked more like themselves, and that allows them to visualize the participants' "mental selfies."

Mental pictures weren't necessarily true-to-life

Intriguingly, the team found that people's mental pictures of what they look like weren't necessarily true-to-life, and rather were influenced by what kind of personalities they believed themselves to have.

Dr. Lara Maister of the School of Psychology at Bangor University and lead author of the paper says, "We asked participants to generate their own computer-generated 'mental self-portrait,' and also to answer personality and self-esteem questionnaires to reveal what type of person they believe themselves to be. We found that their beliefs about themselves strongly affected how they pictured their own appearance. For example, if a person believed that they were an extrovert, they pictured their own faces as looking more confident and sociable than they appeared to other people."

Professor Manos Tsakiris, from Royal Holloway, University of London and the Warburg Institute, says: "When we see a new face, within a fraction of a second, we have formed an impression about that person, based on what we see. Independently of whether such impressions are correct or not, they color our views about people's personalities. In a similar but reversed way, we have now shown that our impressions of our own character affects how we see ourselves in our mind's eye."

In a second study, the team used the same approach to visualize people's mental pictures of their own body shape. They found not only that people had unrealistic mental pictures of their own bodies, but that these mental pictures were strongly influenced by their attitudes towards themselves rather than their true appearance.

People who had very negative emotional attitudes towards their own appearance tended to picture themselves as having a much larger body than in reality.

Professor Matthew Longo, from Birkbeck University of London, who was also part of the research team, said, "The work will help us understand more about body image. We can now, for the first time, gain an insight into how other people imagine they look, in healthy people and in those suffering from body image disorders like body dysmorphic disorder."

Adapting this method could give clinicians supporting people with body image disorders a new tool to measure whether therapies have been successful. Currently this is commonly assessed using questionnaires which evaluate whether the patient's negative beliefs about themselves have changed.

Developing such a tool could assess whether the individual's mental picture of their appearance has also changed.

Explore further Appearance fixation linked to dating anxiety

More information: Lara Maister et al, The Self in the Mind's Eye: Revealing How We Truly See Ourselves Through Reverse Correlation, Psychological Science (2021). Journal information: Psychological Science Lara Maister et al, The Self in the Mind's Eye: Revealing How We Truly See Ourselves Through Reverse Correlation,(2021). DOI: 10.1177/09567976211018618
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The World Health Organization said Friday it had "restarted" a process that could grant emergency authorisation for the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, after several months in limbo.

"There is a lot of interchange of information that needs to happen" but "the process has restarted", WHO Assistant Director General Mariangela Simao told reporters in Geneva.

WHO emergency use authorisation would be a seal of quality for the Russian shot, as well as making wider recognition more likely and possibly freeing up travel for those vaccinated with it.

It could also open the way to Sputnik V being used by the Covax initiative that aims to get vaccines to the poorest countries.

Neither US nor EU medicines watchdogs have so far granted authorisation for Sputnik V, which has been used in Russia and some other countries since late 2020.

Simao said that the WHO also "still has to receive the full dossier on Sputnik" and was "in conversations with the applicant... different parts of the Russian government".

"There are pending issues regarding inspections at the manufacturers," she added.

President Vladimir Putin hailed Russia at a recent G20 summit in Rome as the "first country in the world to approve a vaccine against COVID-19", vaunting Sputnik V's "safety and effectiveness".

An AFP tally based on official statistics shows that the vaccine is used in 48 countries.

So far, the WHO has granted emergency authorisations to COVID-19 shots from India's Bharat Biotech, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson&Johnson and Sinopharm.

Explore further WHO set to restart Sputnik COVID vaccine analysis

 2021 AFP
Riot police faced protesters in The Hague as the Dutch premier announced a fresh partial lockdown.

European governments on Friday eyed unpopular Covid curbs, with the Netherlands opting for Western Europe's first partial lockdown of the winter as EU experts said 10 countries in the bloc were causing "very high concern".

Dutch premier Mark Rutte announced at least three weeks of lockdown measures targeting restaurants, shops and sporting events to curb a record spike in coronavirus infections.

The "annoying and far-reaching" measures came as the EU's diseases agency said 10 countries in the 27-member bloc faced a Covid situation of "very high concern", warning the pandemic was worsening across the continent.

In its weekly risk assessment, the European Centre for Disease Control listed Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia in its highest category of concern.

Since it emerged in China in December 2019, the coronavirus has killed over five million people and caused economic devastation around the world.

Europe is facing a sharp deterioration in the epidemic situation, especially in Germany and central and eastern Europe. Non-vaccinated people are the most affected.

Announcing his country's partial lockdown, Rutte told the nation the crisis required a "hard blow of a few weeks because the virus is everywhere, throughout the country, in all sectors and all ages".

Cases have soared since the Dutch government lifted most Covid measures less than two months ago on September 25, reaching a record level of more than 16,000 on Thursday and Friday.

"Fortunately, the vast majority have been vaccinated, otherwise the misery in the hospitals would be incalculable at the moment," Rutte said.

Public events scrapped

Bars, restaurants, cafes and supermarkets will have to shut at 8:00 pm for the next three weeks from Saturday, while non-essential shops must shut at 6:00 pm, the Dutch government said.

People will be limited to having four visitors at home and have been advised to work at home unless absolutely necessary.

Public events will also be scrapped while football matches including the Netherlands' home World Cup qualifier with Norway next week must be played behind closed doors. Schools will however remain open.

Several hundred protesters angered by the announcement gathered in The Hague afterwards, with police firing water cannon at them.

Other European nations stopped short of such drastic action but Norway said it would reintroduce nationwide measures to stem surging coronavirus cases, including authorising towns to use health passes.

The Nordic country, which had lifted all Covid-19 restrictions in late September, will also propose a third vaccine dose for people over 18 but will not impose a new lockdown, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told a news conference.

"The government wants to introduce new national measures to contain contagions," he said.

"However, we are not talking about confinements or measures as strict as we saw earlier in the pandemic."

Lockdown for unvaccinated

In Austria, the government said it wanted a lockdown for those not vaccinated against or recovered from the coronavirus, while Vienna city authorities said they would start vaccinating children as young as fivea first in the EU.

Salzburg and Upper Austria states, which have seen some of the worst case rates, are already introducing a lockdown for the unvaccinated from Monday.

This means they will not be able to leave the house except for reasons such as buying essential supplies, exercise or seeking medical care.

"The aim is clear: we want on Sunday to give the green light for a nationwide lockdown for the unvaccinated," Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg told a news conference, condemning the country's 65 percent vaccination rate as "shamefully low".

Lockdowns across the country would be enforced with "random" spot checks.

Neighbouring Germany also braced Friday for new restrictions to contain a ferocious fourth Covid wave.

Health Minister Jens Spahn described the Covid-19 situation as "serious" while the country's health agency chief urged Germans to avoid large gatherings.

Amid a record surge in infections, Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), added that he himself would be skipping next month's New Year's parties.

Wieler said large gatherings "must be viewed very critically" and in some situations "clearly should be cancelled".

The federal government and leaders of Germany's 16 regional states are due to meet next Thursday to discuss joint measures to combat the resurgence.

Explore further EU disease agency predicts spike in COVID cases by Aug 1

 2021 AFP
Lab prototype of the vertical flow rapid neutralising antibody test with a Singapore 20-cent coin for size comparison. Photo credit: Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART).

Researchers from the Antimicrobial Resistance Interdisciplinary Research Group at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) and their institutional collaborators have developed a rapid point-of-care test for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies (NAbs). This simple test, only requiring a drop of blood from a fingertip, can be performed within 10 minutes without the need for a laboratory or specially trained personnel. Currently, no similar NAb tests are commercially available within Singapore or elsewhere.

To curb the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, countries have imposed strict measures to minimize social interaction and cross-border movements. Despite being able to improve surveillance and prevent spread to some extent, these measures have severely impacted economies and livelihoods, and the path toward regaining normalcy involves achieving herd immunity against the virus either naturally or through mass vaccination. To evaluate herd immunity and the effectiveness of vaccine immunization programs, it is essential to screen populations for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 NAbs on a faster and larger scale.

As part of a body's natural immune response, NAbs are generated by either exposure to the virus or a vaccine. For effective prevention of viral infections, NAbs must be generated in sufficient quantities. The number of NAbs present in individuals indicate if they possess protective immunity to the virus and their probability of experiencing severe outcomes should they be infected. NAb testing can determine whether vaccinated individuals should be considered for booster shots for additional protection against the virus.

Despite the availability of COVID-19 diagnostic tests, the detection of SARS-CoV-2 NAbs is still generally conducted at hospitals and specialized diagnostic laboratories. Currently, NAbs are commonly detected using virus neutralization tests (VNTs), which require handling of live virus, a facility with rigorous biosafety and containment precautions, skilled personnel and two to four days of processing time. Thus, these tests are not viable for large population testing and surveillance due to the lengthy process that may put a strain on existing laboratory capabilities. The development of a more efficient means of testing better allows for immediate point-of-care testing and mass monitoring for events or workplaces, specific localities, high traffic points, and critical points of entry such as immigration checkpoints.

"With the gradual opening up of borders, economies and society, having the right test, and information will be crucial to not only plan for this future but also ensure that it can be done safely without hampering current efforts to curb the spread of the virus," said Dr. Megan McBee, scientific director at SMART AMR.

SMART researcher and co-author of the paper Hoi Lok Cheng performs the rapid neutralising antibody test on the lab prototype. Photo credit: Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART).

According to the research team's data, which has been published in medical and public health journal Communications Medicine, the newly developed rapid cellulose pull-down viral neutralization test (cpVNT) detects SARS-CoV-2 NAbs in plasma samples within 10 minutes, using a vertical flow paper-based assay format and protein engineering technology developed at SMART AMR and the Hadley D. Sikes lab at MIT. This same protein engineering technology has also been used to develop tests to detect other well-known viruses such as the Zika virus and Tuberculosis. Cellulose was adopted as a test material as it is cost-effective and easily manufactured, and to avoid reliance on nitrocellulose, which is in high demand due to its use in other rapid COVID-19 tests.

The developed test is simple to administer, non-invasive and offers quick results. To perform the test, a user mixes a drop of fingertip blood with the reaction solutions and places it on a paper strip, before inserting it into a portable reader device that will detect the NAb signals and reflect the results. This test offers up to 93% accuracy, higher than similar lab-based methods currently being used.

"Schools and workplaces will also benefit greatly from the test. Whether a person should be considered for receiving a booster vaccine can also be evaluated with this quick test as the results are available within minutes from a fingertip blood sample. And if we are able to quickly determine immunity on a larger scale, the review and relaxing of COVID-related measures can be done in a more controlled, data-driven manner," said Professor Hadley Sikes, principal investigator at SMART AMR, associate professor at MIT and a co-corresponding author of the paper.

Co-corresponding author Professor Peter Preiser, a co-lead principal investigator at SMART AMR and the associate vice president for Biomedical and life sciences at NTU Singapore, said: "Besides detecting immunity to the current vaccine version of SARS-CoV-2 virus, the NAb test can be modified to monitor immunity against the other variants of the virus. This can provide information on the potential efficacy of different vaccines against each variant, or whether one should travel to areas that may have a high incidence of a specific variant."

Further development of the test is underway for its approval by regulatory authorities and manufacturing for public use. The team that has developed the tests at SMART has also spun off a biotech startup, Thrixen, that is developing the test into a commercially ready product.

Key development of the rapid test was done at SMART AMR and NTU's School of Biological Sciences.

Explore further Rapid COVID-19 test detects neutralising antibodies with high specificity and sensitivity

More information: Patthara Kongsuphol et al, A rapid simple point-of-care assay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies, Communications Medicine (2021). Patthara Kongsuphol et al, A rapid simple point-of-care assay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s43856-021-00045-9
Figure 1. The systematic study of marine sources of MSPs that have shown antiviral activities in the last 25 years. Credit: DOI: 10.3390/md19080406

New antiviral drugsincluding COVID treatmentscould be developed from previously overlooked substances found in marine plants, University of the West of Scotland (UWS) research has suggested.

The study looked at a set of substances called marine sulfated polysaccharidesa type of carbohydrate that contains sulfurmainly found in the cell walls of marine algae or seaweeds. It revealed nine of the substances examined show promising results against COVID, with five of the substances never reported as effective before.

Finding valuable biologically active compounds among marine plants shines considerable light on the important role that marine life could play in developing effective antiviral treatments, and a vast amount of these ecosystems are still being discovered.

Professor Milan Radosavljevic, vice-principal of research, innovation and engagement at UWS, said: "Despite the advancement of vaccines as a protective measure, the emergence of newly evolved strains of COVID mean that its threat to public health continues, so finding other suitable treatments remains a priority.

"This is a very exciting discovery and shows great potential for these substances to be developed into effective medicines.

"This study highlights our internationally-renowned research expertise, and I am proud of the commitment from our academics and their research students to find solutions to some of the world's most urgent issues."

Abdalla Mohamedsalih, a Ph.D. student in the University's School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences, added: "I'm pleased to be involved in this research, which shows extremely positive results for the future development of antiviral drugs.

"Scientists often look to nature as a potential source for new drug discoveries: for example, the natural environment provided us with penicillinthe first naturally occurring antibiotic to be used therapeutically. Thanks to the development of this drug, various diseases caused by bacteria ceased to be life-threatening.

"I look forward to continuing this research, as we seek to find effective treatments for COVID."

Researchers at UWS looked at past research papers, spanning 25 years, and focussed on those that mentioned marine plant substances having some effect against different viruses. A shortlist was developed, with 45 substances showing potential antiviral effects: these shortlisted substances came from various marine sources, including different types of algae, microalgae, sea cucumbers, and squid cartilage.

Computer-generated versions of these molecules were developed, together with the spike proteinwhich covers the outside of the coronavirusand, using these computer models, researchers simulated how well each substance would bind to the spike protein. Using computer simulations to test binding is known as molecular docking and is widely used by scientists.

Of the shortlist, nine substances showed real promise as avenues for future development of therapeutic drugs.

Dr. Mostafa Rateb, Lecturer in UWS's School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences, said: "Although the ocean has been looked to as a source for biologically active materials for many years, the marine environment is still largely under-investigated as far as medicines are concerned."

"Effective new antiviral drugs are critically needed for treating a wide range of diseases, including COVID, which continues to be a threat globally."

"This is a very interesting discovery and I look forward to seeing where these initial findings lead."

Finding new medicines suitable for the treatment of COVID and other viruses remains a priority for scientists worldwide, who are striving to develop drugs that target life-threatening viruses and stop them from developing in the body. So far, limited options are available for the treatment of COVID, with only a handful of existing medicines approved for use against the disease; therefore, finding other suitable treatments remains a focus.

Although further experimental studies are required, initial findings show promise that marine plants have great potential for use as COVID inhibitors.

Explore further Promising COVID treatments could be growing under the sea: How to find them

More information: Abdalla E. M. Salih et al, Marine Sulfated Polysaccharides as Promising Antiviral Agents: A Comprehensive Report and Modeling Study Focusing on SARS CoV-2, Marine Drugs (2021). Abdalla E. M. Salih et al, Marine Sulfated Polysaccharides as Promising Antiviral Agents: A Comprehensive Report and Modeling Study Focusing on SARS CoV-2,(2021). DOI: 10.3390/md19080406
A woman walks past a mural depicting a white dove parachuting COVID-19 vaccine vials, posted near the Italian Health Ministry Headquarters in Rome, April 4, 2021. The pandemic is again roaring across parts of Western Europe, a prosperous region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures to rein in the virus are largely a thing of the past. Italy, an early victim of the pandemic, has a high vaccination rate, but is also seeing numbers edge higher, which experts believe is due to vaccine efficacy wearing off. Credit: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file

Santa won't be getting his traditional welcome in the Dutch city of Utrecht this year. The ceremonial head of Carnival celebrations in Germany's Cologne had to bow out because he tested positive for COVID-19. And Austria is planning a lockdown on unvaccinated people in two hard-hit regions.

Nearly two years into a global health crisis that has killed more than 5 million people, infections are again sweeping across parts of Western Europe, a region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures are largely a thing of the past.

The World Health Organization said coronavirus deaths rose by 10% in Europe in the past week, and an agency official declared last week that the continent was "back at the epicenter of the pandemic." Much of that is being driven by spiraling outbreaks in Russia and Eastern Europewhere vaccination rates tend to be lowbut countries in the west such as Germany and Britain recorded some of the highest new case tolls in the world.

While nations in Western Europe all have vaccination rates over 60%and some like Portugal and Spain are much higherthat still leaves a significant portion of their populations without protection.

Dr. Bharat Pankhania, senior clinical lecturer at Exeter University College of Medicine and Health, says that the large number of unvaccinated people combined with a widespread post-lockdown resumption of socializing and a slight decline in immunity for people who got their shots months ago is driving up the pace of infections.

A man waits after receiving the Pfizer vaccine, during a COVID-19 vaccination campaign, in Pamplona, northern Spain, May 11, 2021. The pandemic is again roaring across parts of Western Europe, a prosperous region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures to rein in the virus are largely a thing of the past. Spainonce one of Europe's hardest hit nationsnow has vaccinated 88% of its population aged 12 years and over. Credit: AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos, file

Thanks largely to vaccination, hospitals in Western Europe are not under the same pressure they were earlier in the pandemic, but many are still straining to handle rising numbers of COVID patients while also attempting to clear backlogs of tests and surgeries with exhausted or sick staff. Even the countries experiencing the most serious outbreaks in the region recorded far fewer deaths per person over the past four weeks than the United States did, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The question now is if countries can tamp down this latest upswing without resorting to stringent shutdowns that devastated economies, disrupted education and weighed on mental health. Experts say probablybut authorities can't avoid all restrictions and must boost vaccination rates.

"I think the era of locking people up in their homes is over because we now have tools to control COVIDthe testing, vaccines and therapeutics," said Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh. "So I hope people will do the things they have to do, like put on a mask."

A protester marches with a sign reading in French "syringe or gun" during an anti-lockdown demonstration in Marseille, southern France, Aug. 7, 2021. The pandemic is again roaring across parts of Western Europe, a prosperous region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures to rein in the virus are largely a thing of the past. France, also in the midst of a rise in infections, is pinning its hopes on booster shots for people already fully vaccinated while urging holdouts to get their shots. Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Cole, file

Many European countries now use COVID passesproof of full vaccination, recovery from the virus or a negative test resultto access venues like bars and restaurants. Pankhania warned that the passes can give a false sense of security since fully vaccinated people can still get infectedthough their chances of dying or getting seriously sick are dramatically lower.

But restrictions don't go much further these days, although the Dutch government is reportedly planning a partial lockdown and German lawmakers are mulling legislation that would pave the way for new measures. Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced Friday that unvaccinated people in two regions will only be able to leave home for specified reasons starting Monday, and he is considering implementing similar measures nationwide. But he has said he doesn't want to impose the restrictions on those who got the shot.

Austria is seeing one of the most serious outbreaks in Western Europe, along with Germany, which has reported a string of record-high infections in recent days.

a patient breathes through an oxygen mask in the COVID-19 section of the University Clinical Centre hospital in Banja Luka, Bosnia, Nov. 4, 2021. The pandemic is again roaring across parts of Western Europe, a prosperous region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures to rein in the virus are largely a thing of the past. Soaring infections in eastern Europe are blamed on vaccine skepticism and low rates of inoculation. While rates are higher in the west, they appear to have hit a plateau in some nations and vaccine holdouts also are a factor in spiking infections. Credit: AP Photo, file

"We have a real emergency situation right now," said Christian Drosten, the head of virology at Berlin's Charite Hospital, which has started canceling scheduled surgeries.

Duesseldorf's university hospital said earlier this week that its ICU is full, though many facilities are struggling more with staff shortages than bed space.

Drosten said Germany must increase its vaccination rate of 67% furtherand fast. But officials have balked at ordering vaccine mandates and want to avoid any blanket lockdowns.

Health Minister Jens Spahn indicated that Germany could improve its often lax enforcement of COVID pass requirements.

"If my vaccination certificate is checked more often in one day in Rome than it sometimes is in four weeks in Germany, then I think more can be done," Spahn said recently.

The Netherlands is in a similar bind: The country announced the highest daily tally of new cases since the pandemic began Thursday, hospitals are warning the situation could get worse, but officials are reluctant to clamp down too hard. Amid these concerns, organizers in Utrecht said they couldn't in good conscience bring tens of thousands of people together to greet Santa at the annual Sinterklaas party beloved of children.

A member of the medical staff nails the cover of a coffin containing a COVID-19 victim at the University Emergency Hospital morgue, in Bucharest, Romania, Nov. 8, 2021. The pandemic is again roaring across parts of Western Europe, a prosperous region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures to rein in the virus are largely a thing of the past. Soaring infections in eastern Europe are blamed on vaccine skepticism and low rates of inoculation. While rates are higher in the west, they appear to have hit a plateau in some nations and vaccine holdouts also are a factor in spiking infections. Credit: AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, file

Cities in Germany, by contrast, went ahead with outdoor Carnival celebrations this weekbut the head of Cologne's party, Carnival Prince Sven I., canceled public appearances after testing positive.

In the United Kingdom, which lifted remaining restrictions in July and has seen big spikes as well as dips in cases since, Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists the country can "live with the virus." The government will only reimpose restrictions if the health service comes under "unsustainable" pressure, he says.

Spain, once one of Europe's hardest hit nations, perhaps offers an example of how the risks can be managed.

It has vaccinated 80% of its population, and while face masks are no longer mandatory outdoors, many people still wear them. While infections have ticked up slightly recently, Rafael Bengoa, one of Spain's leading public health experts, said that given the high vaccination rate, "the virus won't be able to dominate us again."

A member of the medical staff waits for patients in a vaccination center in Bayonne, southwestern France, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The pandemic is again roaring across parts of Western Europe, a prosperous region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures to rein in the virus are largely a thing of the past. France, also in the midst of a rise in infections, is pinning its hopes on booster shots for people already fully vaccinated while urging holdouts to get their shots. Credit: AP Photo/Bob Edme

Nurses from the nearby St Thomas' hospital sit atop the National Covid Memorial Wall in London, April 27, 2021. The pandemic is again roaring across parts of Western Europe, a prosperous region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures to rein in the virus are largely a thing of the past. The U.K. had Europe's highest infection rates for months after the government lifted remaining restrictions on social and economic life in mid-Julythough cases have gone up and down since then, and now appear to be falling. Credit: AP Photo/Frank Augstein

A protester wears a t-shirt against COVID-19 vaccinations, whilst standing on Parliament Square, opposite the Houses of Parliament, in London, Oct. 20, 2021. The pandemic is again roaring across parts of Western Europe, a prosperous region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures to rein in the virus are largely a thing of the past. The U.K. had Europe's highest infection rates for months after the government lifted remaining restrictions on social and economic life in mid-Julythough cases have gone up and down since then, and now appear to be falling. Credit: AP Photo/Matt Dunham, file

More than 10,000 people protest against the government's COVID-19 restrictions on large-scale outdoor events in Amsterdam, Sept. 11, 2021. The pandemic is again roaring across parts of Western Europe, a prosperous region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures to rein in the virus are largely a thing of the past. The Dutch version of Santa won't be getting his traditional welcome in the city of Utrecht on Saturday, amid soaring coronavirus cases, the Sinterklaas party beloved of kids in the Netherlands will have to wait another year in the central city. Credit: AP Photo/Peter Dejong, file

A face mask left on Roemerberg square in Frankfurt, Germany, Nov. 6, 2021. The pandemic is again roaring across parts of Western Europe, a prosperous region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures to rein in the virus are largely a thing of the past. "Germany, along with parts of France and areas of Eastern Europe, is a good example of what happens when you have widespread reluctance to vaccination. Now those segments of the population at the highest risk are paying the price," Rafael Bengoa, former Director for Health Systems at the World Health Organization and one of Spain's leading public health experts, told Spanish public broadcaster TVE. Credit: AP Photo/Michael Probst, file

People who want to be vaccinated sit in front of the registration counter at the vaccination center of the Malteser relief service on the fair grounds in Berlin, Germany, Nov. 3, 2021. The pandemic is again roaring across parts of Western Europe, a prosperous region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures to rein in the virus are largely a thing of the past. "Germany, along with parts of France and areas of Eastern Europe, is a good example of what happens when you have widespread reluctance to vaccination. Now those segments of the population at the highest risk are paying the price," Rafael Bengoa, former Director for Health Systems at the World Health Organization and one of Spain's leading public health experts, told Spanish public broadcaster TVE. Credit: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file

Several countries are hoping that pushing harder on immunizations will get them there. Germany plans to re-open vaccination centers across the country to speed booster shots. France is also pinning its hopes on booster doses while urging holdouts to get their first shots. Italy is also expanding its booster program as numbers edge higher.

Pankhania says that no single measure will control the pandemic.

"To really control it, it has to be multi-layered ... avoid crowds, avoid poorly ventilated places, be immunized, wear your mask," he said.

Explore further Spiraling infections grip low-vaccination parts of Europe

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
As of Thursday, at least 2,000 children ages 5 to 11 have already received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine or have an appointment to do so.

Officials with the health department, city, local medical providers and schools in the area said vaccine appointments are filling up quickly, according to a city-county news release.

Appointments are still available and those looking for one can find information on how to do so at covid19.missoula.co. The Pfizer vaccine was approved for kids age 5 to 11 in late October.

Those in that age range get one-third of the adult dose. It is still a two-dose vaccine regimen.

The vaccine is safe and effective in preventing both infections and serious COVID illness in children, according to health officials.

The local health department is encouraging parents with questions to talk to their doctors and health professionals.

"Health providers and medical professionals encourage parents who are not sure if they want to get their children vaccinated against COVID-19 to talk to their pediatricians," the release said.

Families with concerns about the vaccine can also contact Community Medical Center's free nurse on call line at 406-327-4770 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily through Nov. 18.

"Pediatricians with Community Childrens are volunteering their time those evenings to answer questions about the vaccine for ages 5 and older," the release said. "They will not be able to provide specific medical advice for individual children; however, they are available to answer questions and address concerns about the vaccine and connect families with primary and specialty care providers, if necessary."

Vaccine Q&A

Below are common questions and answers from Community Medical Center.

My kids already had COVID, so do they need to get vaccinated? Arent they already immune?

People, including children, should get vaccinated regardless of whether theyve already had COVID-19 because research has shown there is a lot of variability in how long people who have had COVID-19 are protected from getting infected again. Evidence is emerging that people get better protection by being fully vaccinated compared with having had COVID-19.

Vaccination also helps strengthen your protection if youve already had COVID-19. One study showed that unvaccinated people who already had COVID-19 are at least twice as likely than fully vaccinated people to get COVID-19 again.

If your child has a history of multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C, an illness with fever triggered by COVID infection in children that emerges several weeks later), you should delay vaccination until your child has recovered from being sick and for a minimum of 90 days after the date of diagnosis of MIS-C. (Source: CDC)

Will getting the vaccine impact my childs fertility in the future?

There is no evidence that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems. (Source: CDC)

Are there serious side effects from the vaccine?

Your children may have some side effects, which are similar to those seen with other routine vaccines and are a normal sign that their bodies are building protection. These side effects include fever, muscle soreness and fatigue and may affect their ability to do daily activities, but they should go away in a few days.

Some people have no side effects, and severe allergic reactions are very rare. Children in the 5-to-11 age group are less likely than adults to have fever after vaccination. (Source: CDC)

What is myocarditis and how does it relate to COVID infection and COVID vaccination?

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle. It has been seen as a rare side effect occurring after vaccination with the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. This risk was highest in males ages 12 to 17, and in one study happened at a rate of 54 per million in this group. Myocarditis after vaccination usually occurred after the second dose, was generally mild and resolved with medical treatment.

However, the risk of myocarditis with COVID-19 infection itself is much higher than the risk with vaccination. Getting vaccinated is a good way to prevent COVID-19 infection and its effects, including myocarditis. (Source: CDC and AAP)

How do we know its safe and that there wont be long-term effects?

Serious side effects that could cause a long-term health problem are extremely unlikely following any vaccination, including COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccine monitoring has historically shown that side effects generally happen within six weeks of receiving a vaccine dose.

For this reason, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration collected data on each of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines for a minimum of eight weeks after the final dose. CDC is continuing to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines even now that the vaccines are in use, and millions of people have received COVID-19 vaccines without experiencing long-term effects. (Source: CDC)

If my child is 11, should we wait until they turn 12 to receive the larger dose?

The vaccine for 5-to 11-year-olds is one-third the dose of the vaccine for teenagers and adults. CDC recommends using the smaller dose for anyone under the age of 12, as it has been shown to offer good protection. Delaying vaccination would delay protection against COVID-19. (Source: CDC)

Are there providers in the county outside Missoula offering COVID-19 vaccines for ages 5 to 11?

Local vaccine providers are planning clinics for ages 5 to 11 for areas outside Missoula. Details will be made available at covid19.missoula.co/get-vaccinated when they are finalized. Residents can also check with their hometown pediatricians, primary care providers or pharmacies.

What is the cost?

All COVID vaccines are free of charge.

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

You must be logged in to react.

Click any reaction to login. Love 4 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 3 Angry 4

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.
Open enrollment for those who purchase health insurance through the federal marketplace opened Nov. 1 and runs through Jan. 15.

Several changes made in the federal American Rescue Plan Act passed earlier this year resulted in lower premiums for many people who buy insurance on the market place.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid estimated that because of increased tax credits to offset premiums, an average person will save about $50 per person a month or $85 per policy each month. It's estimated that for four out of five enrollees, plans will cost $10 or less a month and half of those seeking insurance will be able to purchase a silver plan for $10 or less.

More than 80% of Montanans who enroll in plans qualify for tax credits, according to the Montana Primary Care Association.

The association was awarded a $1 million contract to operate a navigator program meant to help Montanans learn how to sign up for health insurance on the exchange and get assistance with the application process.

Montanans can get assistance through Cover Montana, which is available online at covermt.org. Navigators can also provide in-person help in Billings, Bozeman, Helena, Browning, Kalispell and Missoula. There's also phone assistance at 406-634-3105 or 844-682-6837.

While the enrollment period runs through Jan. 15, those who want coverage by Jan. 1 must enroll by Dec. 15.

For the costs of takeout lunch, many Montanans can buy health insurance and the peace of mind knowing they can see the doctor without getting a huge medical bill, said Cindy Stergar, CEO of the Montana Primary Care Association, in a press release.

This year CMS awarded $80 million in grants that fund 60 navigator programs across the country. Funding for the navigator program was cut during the Trump administration to $10 million awarded each year between 2018 and 2020. It's also higher than the $63 million in grants during the last year of the Obama Administration, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

While Montana's funding for the program dropped 80% between 2016-2020, it's up 102% this year compared to 2016, according to KFF.

You must be logged in to react.

Click any reaction to login. Love 2 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.
Tammy Wham cant get her hands on canned corn or whole grain muffins. Both are staples in the public school kitchen in Ennis, where Wham serves as kitchen manager  or, she quips, head lunch lady. Wham and her staff serve breakfast and lunch to roughly 340 K-12 students daily, but numerous menu items and ingredients have become difficult or impossible to acquire this fall due to national food shortages and supply chain complications.

Ive been here since 2001, said Wham, who also serves as president of the Montana School Nutrition Association. This is like the hardest school year Ive ever had. Its kind of a bummer.

The same situation is playing out in school lunchrooms across Montana. Some kitchens have experienced challenges sourcing chicken products or pork, while others have seen milk prices skyrocket. Even plates and utensils are costing more or are in maddeningly short supply. Those shortages are occurring among major food distributors such as Sysco and US Foods, which supply restaurants and hospitals in addition to schools, and are experiencing workforce issues in their own warehouses and trucking fleets. Its happening throughout the country, leaving school food service leaders scrambling to modify menus, find substitute ingredients or source supplies locally, all in the name of keeping students fed.

It can be a milk product, it could be a vegetable, it could be a canned product, it could be ketchup, it could be chicken, said Pam Radke, food service director for Sidney Public Schools. Theres no rhyme or reason to what it is. Its just, its all over the place.

Radke has watched online as ingredients shes trying to secure from a distributor sell out before shes able to complete an order, prompting a rush to research and order substitutes. Those last-minute substitutions on school menus have also required her to keep a close watch on students with food-based health issues like diabetes or gluten intolerance, and contact parents or a school nurse to alert them of the change.

My menu is done a month in advance, Radke said. So [now parents] cant count on what it says. It makes for a lot more coordination, a lot more communication.

In her more than 30 years in school food service, 12 of them in Sidney, Radke said, shes never experienced anything like the current situation. Radke added that the cost of even basic lunchroom supplies has increased at an alarming rate. Last month, a box of three dozen metal forks she used to pay $6 for cost $18, and was only available by special order.

Similar problems in Missoula have complicated the school districts ongoing efforts to reduce waste. Superintendent Rob Watson said Missoula County Public Schools were unable to get paper plates and compostable flatware from distributors this fall, prompting a switch back to plastic utensils. At Billings Public Schools, Child Nutrition Director Sid Taylor explained that middle and high school lunchrooms across the district have had to get creative with how they dish out lunch items, using paper boats in lieu of the paper trays that are now in short supply.

Billings has even had to eliminate some menu items entirely. Yogurt parfait was a popular menu choice in the districts elementary schools, Taylor said. But making it requires bulk yogurt, which Sysco has been unable to supply. Spicy chicken sandwiches are a similarly in-demand item among middle school students, but the pre-spiced chicken patties are, again, hard to come by due to staffing issues at the food processing giant Tyson Foods. School staff have attempted to make up for the shortage by dosing regular chicken patties with spice, Taylor said, but its not the same.

On average, we serve about 12,000 meals a day, Taylor said. So, you know, when were shorted on something, it really does have an impact.

Some smaller districts have managed to find local work-arounds to fill in supply gaps. At Greenfield Elementary outside Fairfield, Food Service Director Haven Murphy said shes been able to make up for shortages with an occasional run to the local grocery store or to Sams Club in Great Falls. With the current scarcity of whole grain wheat products, she added, shes sought out whole grain flour at Wheat Montana. Murphys ability to utilize those stopgaps is due entirely to Greenfields small size  80 students overall, plus six to nine staff who also eat school meals. Watson and Taylor said that in larger districts like theirs, the sheer volume of necessary supplies precludes such alternatives.

Still, Murphy hasnt escaped the national food service pinch unscathed. French toast sticks, one of the most popular breakfast items among younger students, have all but vanished from the supply chain. And, she said, its been two months since she could get canned Mandarin oranges. The situation, for Murphy and others, is compounded by federal nutrition requirements governing school food programs. Murphy said those guidelines, which are designed to ensure that students receive a balanced and nutritious meal, require her to offer both fat-free and 1% milk options, but shes difficulty at times acquiring one or the other. Fruit juice, too, has become a challenge.

Normally we would give them like apple, grape and orange, Murphy said. Then it was down to apple and orange, and then it was down to just orange juice. We went through a lot of milk and water those days.  Especially when we couldnt get the Juicy Juice brand and it was generic orange juice. It was pretty gross.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has tried to alleviate the situation with regulatory adjustments, waiving financial penalties for schools that fail to meet certain nutrition requirements and even increasing the rates at which schools are reimbursed for free meals. In late September the agency also announced a $1.5 billion investment designed to help schools acquire the food supplies necessary to continue providing breakfasts and lunches.

Shortages of spicy chicken, milk and canned corn arent the only problems school food programs in Montana and nationally are facing. School kitchens and lunch lines are also suffering from the same labor woes that are triggering the food shortages. Taylor said the number of food service employees in the Billings Public Schools has dropped from roughly 145 to 105 over the past year. As a result, some cafeterias have had to consolidate or completely shut down lines for separate food items like pizza, hamburgers or tacos. Taylor added that due to the staffing shortage, his human resources manager and other administrative staff are now pitching in to prepare meals at various schools in the district.

Watson notes similar problems in Missoula, where the districts central kitchen supports 16 K-12 schools. There are food service positions open at nearly every one of those schools, Watson said, and the district is trying to incentivize new hires with a $500 sign-on bonus, plus a $100 bonus for any district employee who successfully recruits a new hire. Bozeman Public Schools Superintendent Mike Waterman said his district has also taken to offering such incentives in light of ongoing staff shortages.

Thats why we had to go to a sack-lunch-only model, Waterman said. The district has a beautiful, top-of-the-line central kitchen. Our intention is and always has been to produce home-cooked meals and make the most of those facilities. But unfortunately, we just dont have people to staff all of our buildings and the central kitchen to make that happen. So weve been relegated to prepackaged food in a sack lunch.

As with the supply shortages, labor issues are impacting rural and urban schools alike. In Sidney, Radke said, her program typically has a staff of 11. With several staff departing soon, including herself, that number will soon be down to six employees covering an average of 1,300 meals per day in four schools.

I honestly dont know how this is going to work out, Radke said.

Despite the challenges, everyone interviewed for this story made it clear that there has yet to be a day this fall when they were unable to feed students. Nor did they report being so shorted on supplies that they failed to meet the nutritional standards they strive for.

[Students] are definitely disappointed when they dont get something that they expect or that they really love, and so it is hard to see that, Murphy said. But at the same time, theyre still getting something and its still filling their stomachs.

This story is printed with the permission of the Montana Free Press. The original story can be accessed here.

You must be logged in to react.

Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
As each year presents its own unique challenges for fundraising, we believe there is strength in nonprofit organizations supporting one another to preserve, enhance and improve the quality of life for people of this region, said Andrew Kota, the conservancys executive director. Whether it be conserving land and rivers, providing access to public parks and trails or helping those in need of basic necessities, working together for optimal outcome is paramount for each nonprofit, respectively. We value the work of Burke County United Way and its positive contribution to our community.

Maureen Mo Schwind, executive director of Burke County United Way, said she will use the proceeds from the FCNC pieces specifically to purchase Born Learning Trail Kits in English and Spanish.

These kits will be installed along a trail within the community, Schwind said. The kits provide certain prompts for engaging parents and young children in activities designed to foster various developmentally appropriate skills. Burke County United Way will partner with Foothills Conservancy and potential other community partners on this initial project with the goal to expand this opportunity to multiple trails.

Turner invited people to visit the Back Again in 2021With Love holiday pop-up store.
Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Next month, students will create a habitat for their clay sculptures. This diagram will be inspired by our regional landscape.

Ervin started the partnership to help students understand why its important to learn about the different cultures, places and people around them.

She believes art is a crucial part of learning for students because it allows people to celebrate who they are and where they come from.

Art allows students to understand and articulate our past, present and future, celebrate our diverse region and citizenry, and encourage generative thinking alongside civic engagement, Ervin said. At TOSS, we envision a growing network of students connected to the resources they need to reach their full potential. These practitioners are the next generation of leaders, entrepreneurs and creatives revitalizing and sustaining the rural South.

Philomena Miguel, fifth-grade student at Forest Hill, has enjoyed being able to participate in the program. She has grown to really enjoy art and creating different art pieces.

We painted our sculptures that we made last month, Miguel said. I painted my rabbit sculpture yellow, white, red and blue. I really liked how the colors flowed together on the sculpture.
The bill would rely in part on $400 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The proposal would also enforce existing mental health parity laws intended to ensure that insurance coverage for mental health care should be equal to insurance coverage for other medical conditions.

Although the concept of mental health parity has been codified in federal and state law for decades, enforcement has been spotty as patients are often denied coverage for mental health treatment, advocates said.

The bill would address the enforcement issue in part by allowing the Division of Insurance to more swiftly receive and investigate parity complaints.

Another problem the bill would address is whats known as emergency department boarding or ED boarding." Thats what happens when adults or children in the throes of a mental health crisis seek help in a hospital emergency department.

If they ultimately need to be admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit, the wait can last days, weeks or even months. Often in the interim, the individual seeking help must wait in the emergency department receiving little or no psychiatric care.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Republican lawmakers succeeded Thursday in forcing a Thanksgiving-week special session of the Kansas Legislature to consider financially protecting workers who refuse to comply with federal vaccine mandates.

GOP legislative leaders announced that all Republicans in both the House and the Senate have signed a petition demanding a special session starting Nov. 22. Governors call special sessions, but the Kansas Constitution requires them to do it if two-thirds of both chambers demand it  the GOP holds more than enough seats.

Republicans have been looking for ways for Kansas to resist vaccine mandates announced in September by President Joe Biden that cover more than 100 million workers. Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, has proposed measures to make it easier for workers to claim religious exemptions to the mandates from their employers and to provide unemployment benefits to workers who are fired for not getting inoculated.
Share this:

November 10, 2021 by Steve Hawley

Category: Elections , Forms of Government-City , Courts and Criminal Justice System , Transportation Finance , Forms of Government-County , Inclusive Communities



For 10 years now, MRSC has been tracking local ballot measures in Washington State and compiling them in our Local Ballot Measure Database, where you can research them by category or through a keyword search.

The votes are still being tallied for last weeks general election, but as the uncounted ballots dwindle the overall results arent likely to change except perhaps in the tightest of races. Ill update our database with the final results in a few weeks, after the results are certified. But for now, heres a recap of some of the ballot measures that caught my eye.

As usual, there are too many for me to possibly write about them all! Whenever possible, Ive included links to local news articles if you want some additional details and context about a particular measure. Lets dive in!

Governance Changes

In Kitsap County, voters easily approved a proposition to replace the elective coroners office with an appointed medical examiner, as authorized by RCW 36.24.190 (which only applies to counties with a population of 250,000 or more). The current coroner himself campaigned to eliminate the coroners office and professionalize the role. Kitsap County becomes just the seventh with a medical examiner  joining Spokane County and five charter counties. Recent state legislation will require coroners and medical examiners to undergo training and maintain accreditation, as well as making other changes, as we wrote about in August.

Voters in Clark County overwhelmingly supported charter amendments to make all the county elected offices nonpartisan, add an ethics code and autonomous review process, and change the structure of the county council. Currently, the county elects one commissioner each from four districts, with a fifth member elected at-large to serve as the council chair. The new system will eliminate the at-large seat and add a fifth geographic district, and the five councilmembers will then select which members should serve as chair and vice chair.

Voters in Pierce County approved a charter amendment to make the prosecuting attorneys office nonpartisan (all the other county elected offices are still partisan). In the past year, the number of nonpartisan prosecuting attorneys in home rule counties has increased from one (King County) to four (adding Clallam, Clark, and Pierce counties).

Meanwhile, voters in Woodland rejected a proposal to adopt the council-manager form of government. (In Benton City, a similar proposal to change to the council-manager system failed in August.)

Criminal Justice and E-911

Voters in Clark County rejected a proposed 0.1% juvenile detention sales tax. According to the Columbian, the intent of the proposition was to provide a new revenue stream for juvenile and jail facilities, allowing the county to redirect general fund money from jails to purchase body cameras and dash cameras for the sheriffs office instead. However, the body/dash cams were not specifically mentioned in the ballot measure.

In Puyallup, an $83 million bond measure to fund a new public safety building housing the police department, jail, and municipal court appears to be falling just shy of the required 60% supermajority.

In Yakima County, voters easily reauthorized the existing 0.3% public safety sales tax to support law and justice services. Previously, the county had included a sunset clause and submitted the sales tax to voters periodically for reauthorization but this ballot measure removes the sunset clause and will impose the sales tax permanently.

Kitsap County voters approved increasing the E-911 sales tax from 0.1% to 0.2% to replace the aging emergency radio system by 2028, and Whitman County voters approved a similar E-911 sales tax increase from 0.1% to 0.2%.

Libraries

In Whatcom County, a ballot measure to form the Birch Bay Library Capital Facility Area and authorize the issuance of bonds for a new library appears to be falling just short of the required 60% supermajority. Until recently, library capital facility areas required two separate ballot measures: one to form the area and a second to issue bonds  and it was not uncommon for the first to pass only for the second to fail. However, SB 6305 in 2020 streamlined these into a single ballot measure.

Transportation

Voters in Ridgefield supported a 10-year, 0.2% sales tax for a transportation benefit district (TBD), and now the city council is expected to vote on repealing the citys car tab fees. In nearby Woodland, voters are rejecting a similar TBD sales tax for the third time in five years.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has been a big topic recently and it showed up on the ballot in several home rule charter counties.

In Clark County, voters rejected a charter amendment to establish an office of diversity, equity, and inclusion and create a DEI advisory commission. According to The Columbian, some voters may have opposed the measure because they thought it created unnecessary bureaucracy or because they thought the measure was advancing critical race theory.

In San Juan County, voters rejected charter amendments to create a DEI and justice commission, add acknowledgments to the Coast Salish people and their rights  which created some concern about potential impacts to property owners rights on the islands  and replace the existing preamble with a new preamble referencing topics including self-governance, equal protection, the economy, and the environment. (Voters also opposed a proposal to create a new climate and environment commission.) But voters are narrowly supporting a separate amendment to add nondiscrimination provisions.

King County voters approved a change to the charter preamble that will include the stated purposes of a more equitable government for all and promotion of a superior quality of life.

Initiatives and Referenda

In Bellingham, voters weighed in on four local initiatives. Voters supported two initiatives that would prohibit police from using facial recognition and predictive policing technology, as well as prohibiting organizations that receive city funds from using that money to discourage unionization. Meanwhile, voters appear to have rejected two initiatives that would have expanded tenant rights to include rental relocation assistance and expanded workers rights to include hazard pay during declared emergencies and extra compensation for sudden schedule changes. The city council had unanimously approved a resolution opposing all four initiatives, saying that they were well-intentioned but practically and legally flawed.

Clark County voters approved a charter amendment that will restrict voting on initiatives and referendums that solely affect the unincorporated areas (such as fireworks bans), so that only voters in the unincorporated areas may vote on them  similar to a provision already in place in King County. Previously, the entire county was eligible to vote on measures that only impacted the unincorporated areas.

Meanwhile, voters appear to have approved lowering the signature thresholds for initiatives and referenda in Bellingham and Whatcom County. The signature thresholds will now be calculated based on voter turnout in the last local election rather than the last state or governors election.

In San Juan County, voters rejected a charter amendment that would have lowered the signature thresholds for initiatives and referendums, removed the requirement that initiatives provide any necessary revenue to implement the initiative, and required paid signature gatherers to be clearly identified.

Advisory Votes: Fireworks and High-Density Housing

In nonbinding advisory votes, voters in Yelm and Lake Stevens are opposing proposed fireworks bans, while voters in Mukilteo overwhelmingly said that the city should not encourage more high-density housing.

Other Measures

In Yakima, voters supported charter amendments to ban the city council from imposing a local income tax, update parts of the charter to make it consistent with state law, and allow the city council to declare a seat vacant if a council member fails to meet attendance requirements (in response to one councilmember who missed a years worth of meetings while continuing to collect a city salary).

In Pend Oreille County, voters approved the dissolution of Cemetery District #2 because it was no longer financially feasible. The cemetery will be returned to the Town of Metaline.

A plan to combine the Aberdeen and Hoquiam fire departments into the Central Grays Harbor Regional Fire Authority appears to be falling just shy of the required 60% supermajority. (While a regional fire district may be formed with simple majority approval, the formation of a regional fire district that includes fire benefit charges or 60% voter-approved taxes, as this one does, requires a supermajority.)

Anything Else?

Well, I ran out of room here  but feel free to contact me if youd like to call my attention to any other ballot measures in Washington! Ill update the Local Ballot Measure Database in a few weeks with the full results.

MRSC is a private nonprofit organization serving local governments in Washington State. Eligible government agencies in Washington State may use our free, one-on-one Ask MRSC service to get answers to legal, policy, or financial questions.
Montana Tech Distinguished Student Veterans named

Montana Technological University recognized its 2021 Distinguished Student Veteran awardees at a ceremony on Tuesday evening, Nov. 9. This year, the university received nine outstanding nominations. The 2021 nominees were Michael Hinman, mechanical engineering; Jacob Lehmann, petroleum engineering; Troy Springer, construction technology; Daniel Kelly, biological sciences; Rylan Signalness, occupational safety and health; Scott Morley, geoscience; James Adams, mechanical engineering; Jason Brown, mechanical engineering and Logan Frandson, occupational safety and health.

The Distinguished Student Veteran Award began in 2014 to honor and recognize outstanding student veterans and active military members at Montana Tech. "We are honored every year to recognize our student veterans and active military members who selflessly served our country, and for that, we are forever thankful," noted Janet Friesz, Registrar/School Certifying Official (SCO).

Montana Tech faculty, staff, or students nominated student veterans for the award. Their contribution to the campus and leadership in the classroom is unparalleled. After a thorough review, the university named two student veterans as Distinguished Student Veterans, Jason Brown and Troy Springer.

Theresa Rader, Director of TRIO Student Support Services at Montana Tech, nominated Brown for the award. In her nomination letter, Rader noted that "even with all the time commitments Jason has, he finds time to volunteer with his son's teams and activities, participate in TRIO Student Support Services, and volunteer for campus events. He has embedded himself and family in the Butte community and embraced the culture of Montana Tech."

Construction Technology-Carpentry Instructor, Rich Miller, nominated Springer. When asked about Springer, Miller stated, "Troy has consistently stepped up into a leadership role in our lab. He helps to make sure everyone gets a chance to participate without being asked."

To learn more about the services Montana Tech has to offer for service members, visit https://www.mtech.edu/veterans/.

Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization to meet

Butte Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization will hold its monthly board meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 16, via a teleconferencing platform. If people are interested in attending the meeting, please email CPR at buttecpr@gmail.com for a link to login.

Montana Tech launches food drive

The Montana Technological Universitys Business Guild/Club has launched a food drive in support of the Campus Food Pantry and the Butte Emergency Food Bank as a community outreach project.

Donation boxes are being placed at the following eight businesses around town: Montana Standard, Northwestern Energy, Safeway (Front Street), Chamber of Commerce, Three Bears, Walgreens, the Courthouse, and on campus. Non-perishable items can be dropped in a box at the locations listed.

Copper Village Museum hosts ladies night

ANACONDA  Copper Village Museum and Art Center hosts Ladies Night Out Thursday, Dec. 2, at the Elks Lodge, 221 Main St., in Anaconda.

For more details, call 406-563-2422.

Ghost hunt with Bozeman Paranormal

The Historic Clark Chateau is hosting a ghost hunt from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, at 321 W Broadway St. The ghost hunt is limited to 25 participants on a first come first serve basis.

There will be a talk about how ghost hunts are conducted, how to use the equipment and then a few hours of actual ghost hunting in the Historic Clark Chateau. There will also be a demonstration of evidence that has been captured in the past at The Clark Chateau by the team.

This event is free to the public with a suggested $10 donation to go towards The Clark Chateau and its public programs.

For more details, call 406-565-5600 or go to https://www.facebook.com/events/610016943519668.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
The conviction of a man found guilty of sexually abusing and exposing himself to minors was reversed by the Montana Supreme Court earlier this month.

The unanimous order Nov. 2 by a five-justice panel said Kenneth Tipton was found guilty improperly under updated laws that were not in place at the times of his alleged sexual abuse of children. The case was sent back to district court.

Tipton was found guilty in Meagher County District Court in 2019 on three counts related to indecent exposure and sexual abuse of a minor. He was sentenced to a combined 200 years at the state prison, with 150 years suspended. He was assigned a level II sex offender designation and was ineligible for parole until hed served 20 years and completed phases one and two of the state prisons sex offender treatment program.

In his appeal to the Montana Supreme Court filed at the start of this year, Tipton argued he had an ineffective lawyer in 2019 who failed to argue that one of the laws he was tried under didnt take effect until after the incident he was accused of. In the appeal, he was represented by an attorney from the Office of the State Public Defenders Appellate Defender Division.

Kenneth Tipton is the brother of Ronald Tipton, the man who was charged in 2015 with raping an 8-year-old Billings girl nearly 30 years after the attack. In 2012, Kenneth Tipton let law enforcement officers into a trailer he and his brother lived in and officers found marijuana plants. Following a 2013 arrest for that incident, Ronald Tipton submitted to the DNA test required in felony arrests that connected him to a 1987 rape for which Jimmy Ray Bromgard was later exonerated.

Ronald Tiptons rape charges were eventually dismissed by the Montana Supreme Court, which said the statute of limitations for the rape had expired.

Reporting in the Billings Gazette in 2019 said Ronald Tipton lived with Kenneth Tipton in 2017 in White Sulphur Springs and that Kenneth had power of attorney over Ronald. The story also said Kenneth was listed on the national sex offender registry for a crime involving a 9-year-old in Washington in 1991.

In the case against Kenneth Tipton that the Supreme Court reversed in the Nov. 2 order, the state accused Tipton of five incidents of sexual misconduct against minors between July 2015 and early 2017.

The incidents include exposing himself to the minors and showing them pornographic images on his cellphone, as well as masturbating in front of the minors.

Tipton was charged with three counts: one of indecent exposure to a minor and two for sexual abuse of children.

While the law for indecent exposure has been on the books in some form since 1973, the version that was in effect from 1999 to 2015 didnt differentiate between indecent exposure made to minors versus adults and did not carry a different sentence for exposure to minors.

That law changed in 2015 to make that distinction and add a more severe sentence for exposure to minors  from a maximum of 10 years to a maximum of 100 years.

Right before trial, the state amended information to include an incident from 2015 in the claims of indecent exposure, in addition to 2016 and 2017.

At the time, the district court judge asked Tipton if he understood including the year 2015 meant the possible penalties remain the same and neither Tipton nor his attorney objected.

At the end of the trial, the jury was instructed not to consider the 2015 or 2016 and 2017 incidents separately when determining if Tipton was guilty of indecent exposure. The state also said during closing arguments that while each count was separate, each incident was not. But the state also noted if the jury thought Tipton only did one of the acts, he was still guilty.

The law for exposing a child to pornography also changed during the time between the trial and when the state said Tipton showed the children pornography on his cellphone. Before 2017, showing a minor pornography was not a stand-alone crime, according to the courts order. Tipton was accused of doing that before the law changed.

The court applied a two-part test in the case: determining if the law was applied retroactively and, if so, if it disadvantaged the offender.

The post-October 2015 version ... imposes a penalty 10 times more severe than the law in effect during the 2015 incident," Justice Jim Shea wrote in the opinion.

  Tiptons counsel failed to recognize that, as to the 2015 allegation, Tipton was being prosecuted under a statute that did not apply and carried a substantially more severe penalty.

Shea wrote that the state spent much of the six days of trial establishing the events surrounding the July 2015 incident. He also wrote the 2016 incident happened in a home with an open floor plan with the dining room looking directly into the living room, where there were other adults mere feet away at the time of the alleged conduct. The other adults present during the 2016 incident testified they did not see anything that corroborated (the minors) allegation.

Shea also wrote it was impossible after the trial to know which incident led to the jurys decision.

Tiptons counsel provided record-based ineffective assistance that requires reversal and remand for a new trial, Shea concluded.

Tipton is on probation status with the Department of Corrections, related to a previous conviction for failure to verify or keep current a sexual or violent offender registration, according to a department spokesperson. He was sentenced on that charged in March 2019 in Meagher County and his probation ends Jan. 28, 2022.

Tipton was admitted to Montana State Prison on Sept. 26, 2019, and transferred to Crossroads Correctional Center on Jan. 21, 2020. His supervision on probation out of the Great Falls district started Tuesday.

The state Department of Justice said Wednesday people on the registry don't appear on the website while incarcerated. After being released, they must check in with local law enforcement within three days, which then triggers an update to the database.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 2 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.
In Montana we do not have to worry about a knock at the door at night after which we are confronted with a gruff voice declaring, This is the state police, and we want to talk to you.

Every four years when we Montanans vote we have the opportunity to select our County Sheriff, the head of law enforcement for our counties. Likewise, in our local elections, we vote for city commissioners or council members and mayors who control the city police. Local control of law enforcement is a firmly established governmental principle here in Montana and in much of the rest of the nation.

Even at the national level, police power is extraordinarily limited. The functions of the federal marshal service, the FBI and the Secret Service are quite limited and carefully laid out in statute. Whenever they are involved with local or state law enforcement, it almost always requires an invitation to assist.

Local control of law enforcement is a deep-seated belief of most Americans, emerging from a distrust of governmental power evidenced by the adoption nearly 250 years ago of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution which were adopted as a group largely to limit governmental power.

Since Montana has been a state there has been no state police. County Sheriffs and city or town police have always been the rule. Involvement of the state in local law enforcement was always by invitation of local law enforcement if the locals wanted such assistance or expertise. Current state law outlines the requirement for local law enforcement to request assistance and otherwise has outlined very narrowly defined areas of state investigation.

The most significant law enforcement agency at our state level is the Highway Patrol, which didnt exist in Montana between 1889 and 1935 because we didnt even have much of a highway system to patrol. Heck, we didnt even have automobiles for much of that time. But as cars became more prevalent and roads, streets and highways were developed and paid for to support automobile and truck transportation, the idea of a Highway Patrol came naturally from the obvious need. But Montana did not create a highway police, we created a patrol.

A recent in-depth story by the Montana Free Press indicated that highway patrol jurisdiction is limited to traffic-related incidents on or adjacent to highways unless the officer witnesses a crime, or unless local law enforcement officials who have appropriate jurisdiction request assistance from the state.

That limitation was first established upon Patrol creation in 1935 and was also re-codified 64 years ago. In all that time there has been no clamor for expansion of the Highway Patrol into a State Police.

Former Gallatin County Sheriff Bill Slaughter, a Republican who also served as Department of Corrections Director under Governors of both parties, says it well: As sheriff, Im elected by the people who are making the calls and complaints, and were responding to them. With the highway patrol, who the hell are you? You are hired by the state of Montana to do traffic enforcement.

Former Highway Patrol head Randall Yeager said, Our job is basically enforcement, education, and engineering, calling them the three Es.

The Patrol is not a State Police, and performs those highway-related functions within the Department of Justice, headed by the Attorney General.

So, when current GOP Attorney General Austen Knudsen recently dispatched a Highway Patrol officer to St. Peters Hospital, along with others from the department, to intervene in a medical case involving treatment for a patient with Republican Party connections, he was clearly overstepping his bounds. Way over his bounds, since St. Peters also indicated that Knudsens officials threatened to use their position of power to force our doctors and nurses to practice medicine a certain way that violated their medical judgments and protocols.

The Attorney General should constrain his ambition for and abuse of power, recognize Montanas history, realize Montana has never had a State Police nor have we ever indicated we want one, and start doing the job for which he was elected, which is NOT to head a State Police force.

Evan Barrett lives in historic Uptown Butte after retiring following 47 years at the top level of Montana economic development, government, politics and education. He is an award-winning producer of Montana history videos who continues to write columns and commentaries and occasionally teaches Montana history.

Love 8 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1
As we spent Thursday celebrating Veterans' Day, many words were said by many speakers at many events honoring veterans across Montana.

That's as it should be. The price of liberty is breathtakingly steep, and no state has paid a higher price than Montana.

We are proud of the contributions of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, but also couldn't be prouder of those who served and came back to live under the Big Sky with the freedom they earned.

Veterans comprise roughly 10 percent of our state's population. Their military service may be over but may of them still serve their communities across Montana in thousands of ways.

The words of gratitude voiced Thursday are appropriate and important. "Thank you for your service" can never be said enough. But we must back up those words by demanding that our federal government redouble its efforts to heal, support and honor its veterans.

It's as simple as this: If we can send our sons and daughters into harm's way  as we have just finished doing for more than two decades in Afghanistan  we can absolutely pay to support them and bind up their wounds once they return. If we cannot, we should not send them to fight in the first place.

Which brings us to the Compensation and Overdue Support for Troops (COST) of War Act, introduced by Montana's Jon Tester.

Tester, who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said the bill is designed to bring desperately needed assistance to veterans exposed to toxic substances.

There are far more of those than many of us realize.

Soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Those in all branches exposed to toxics in smoke from burn pits. Service members exposed to asbestos, lead and other "occupational" hazards. The thousands of veterans suffering from "Gulf War Syndrome." Veterans exposed to depleted-uranium armaments and other sources of radiation. Veterans who were exposed during their service time to contaminated water  which shockingly includes thousands of Marines who served at Camp LeJeune and drank water contaminated with benzene, vinyl chloride, TCE, PCE and other harmful chemicals. And more.

Many Montana veterans fall into one or more of these groups.

Tester's legislation allocates $430 billion to be spent over 10 years, including $180 billion for direct health care and $250 billion in other benefits.

"Fighting wars costs a lot of money," Tester said this week.

Yes, it does. And not taking care of our veterans is like paying that bill with a bounced check.

We trust this measure will quickly win bipartisan and full-throated support in both houses of Congress. All members of Montana's delegation should find this bill to be something the group can agree on.

 The Billings Gazette The Billings Gazette Editorial Board includes President and Publisher Dave Worstell, Regional Editor David McCumber, and Chief Photographer Larry Mayer.

Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
FRUITLAND  During the annual observance of Veterans Day in Island Cemetery, about 25 people who gathered to honor Americas servicemen and women got to know a former neighbor, the late Herbert Howard.

The Rev. John Brown of Fruitland Baptist Church said Howard was a World War II Naval veteran and a member of the church. Howard enlisted in the Navy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and served in the South Pacific on a Naval supply ship.

He was also a humble and almost shy man and did not believe he was a hero and Brown had told him that what he did made a difference.

In most organizations or endeavors, 5% of the people involved get the credit for 95% of the people who did the work, Brown said. I ask us to focus on veterans who fall into that 95% category, because we dont hear about them very often. The ones that dont receive notoriety or fame or even recognition did their part that made the difference between success and failure.

As Brown continued his presentation at the new veterans memorial in the cemetery, he told the story of how Howard and some of his shipmates stole an industrial washing machine from another ship after theirs had broken down. This got several chuckles from the audience.
WAPELLO  Louisa County Sanitarian Brian Thye reported Tuesday to the Louisa County Board of Health that an expanded state well water safety and testing program was working fine in the county.

Thye said he had conducted 22 water tests on rural water wells in October. That was double the number he had completed in the previous three months, before the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Private Well Testing Program was expanded to provide up to $300 to shock chlorinate wells that tested positive for bacteria.

According to Thye, seven of the 22 tests he conducted in October had come back positive for coliform bacteria.

Thye said he knew two of those wells had been shock chlorinated and he would go back next week to retest those.

There were also six water tests that came back positive for nitrates, which Thye said can cause blue baby syndrome in infants. He said sand point wells are especially prone to having excess nitrates, but little can be done to alleviate the problem.

Although Thye identified several other environmental health activities that he had completed, he said water well testing had kept him the busiest in October.
He added that Payton is entitled to qualified immunity because it is undisputed that he believed and accepted the information submitted in his warrant affidavits.

Linkemann also said that Payton was entitled to qualified immunity because Newport cannot show that Payton knowingly or with reckless disregard included or omitted material information from the arrest warrants.

In his ruling, Wolle said Payton had ample time to conduct a thorough investigation in the more than one month from the time he was assigned to the case until the date the arrest warrant was issued.

Given Deevers allegation that she was present with Newport at the law office on Jan. 19, 2018, and Newports denial that he was present there with her on that date, a reasonable official before arresting Newport would have sought to interview any person present at the law office on that date, Wolle said.

Payton made no attempt to interview any office employee, Wolle said. He failed to verify the basic fact that a meeting occurred on the date Deevers alleged, then failed to alert the judge of the blatant flaw in his investigation, Wolle said.
HAMMOND, Ind.  The remains of a missing 1-year-old girl were found Thursday in a northwest Indiana retention pond, Indiana State Police Sgt. Glen Fifield said.

The child was confirmed to be Jaclyn Angel Dobbs, of Deerfield, Illinois. Authorities have been searching for the child, who was reported missing after her mother, 21-year-old Janya Murphy, was found dead in her apartment in Wheeling, Illinois.

Police in north suburban Wheeling sent a team to Hammond, Indiana, on Thursday amid their investigation into the missing 1-year-old girl whose mother was found dead Tuesday, according to NBC Chicago.

A person of interest has been identified using video evidence, but the individual has not been named by police yet. Late Wednesday, the person of interest was located in Missouri.

The remains were found after construction workers called 911 shortly after noon Thursday reporting a body floating in the retention pond, police said.

Divers recovered the remains and continued through the evening to search the area for more possible evidence.

Fifield said authorities are working with Illinois agencies on the investigation.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks said Wednesday that she plans to run for reelection in another Iowa congressional district next year, which would avoid a head-to-head race against Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne.

The two congresswomen were drawn into the same district through the once-a-decade redistricting process. The electoral maps approved by the Republican-led Legislature and signed by GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds on Nov. 4 moved Miller-Meeks' home county of Wapello into the 3rd District.

Miller-Meeks, of Ottumwa, said at a news conference in Davenport that she will seek election in the newly drawn 1st Congressional District rather than the 3rd District. She wouldn't say whether she would move into the new district, which the law doesn't require, but said her physical location would be less important than whom she is serving.

I will make that decision whether I do or not," she said. The most import thing was to let people know what I'm doing so that they can continue their plans or change their plans in accordance with where I was running.
CHICAGO (AP)  An 18-year-old man was charged with murder in the shooting death of a Chinese student near the University of Chicago's campus after he was found carrying the gun used in the slaying, police announced Friday.

Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference that Alton Spann of Chicago was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon.

It wasn't immediately known Friday if Spann has an attorney.

Deputy Chief of Detectives Rahman Muhammad said that Shaoxiong Dennis Zheng, 24, was standing on a sidewalk in a residential area Tuesday afternoon in the Hyde Park neighborhood on the citys South Side when Spann approached Zheng and robbed him at gunpoint of some of his belongings, including electronics, before shooting him in the torso and running off.

Muhammad said surveillance cameras in the area recorded Spann running toward a Black Ford Mustang that then sped away.

Using video from the city's surveillance camera system, private residences and the school's cameras, the police were able to track the vehicle, which they later determined had been stolen from the nearby suburb of Markham on Nov. 3.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP)  Thump, thump, thump. In the frantic last hours of U.N. climate talks in Scotland, a senior diplomat from Luxembourg came sprinting down a hallway inside the summit venue, his hair flying as he whooshed by clutching a sheaf of papers, only to vanish inside an office as abruptly as he appeared.
Jace Sablan is the first to get the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old, during the first day of vaccinations for that age group, Tuesday, Nov. 9, at the Northern Region Community Health Center in Dededo. Giving the injection is Rona Santos, a nurse with the Department of Public Health and Social Services.
Numerous Gmail users have reported issues with accessing the email service on Friday morning.

The global and South African Gmail Downdetector pages showed steep increases in reports of issues from around 10:30.

Several Twitter users across Europe, the UK, and Japan have also reported problems accessing the service.

Many users said that they received error messages while trying to log into the mobile app. Those who managed to log in, were unable to send emails.

Some suggested the problem was with Gmails IMAP servers and SMTP servers, while the web interface was accessible for them.

Several Gmail and Gmail Workspaces users could access their account, but were not receiving any emails sent to their address.

@gmail Hi! It seems like the IMAP and SMTP servers of #gmail are down? Accessing the inbox via the web-interface works, but mail clients on phone and computer are running into a timeout. pic.twitter.com/uBqHKkRB7c  MarcoK (@MarcoKolbas) November 12, 2021

@gmail Hey IMAP is down, all devices, different networks. Doesnt seem to be detected yet on your status dashboard.  Erin Folletto Casali (@Folletto) November 12, 2021

For others, however, the Gmail website was completely inaccessible.

At the time of publication, Google had not acknowledged any issues and stated its Workspace Status Dashboard was not showing any problems.

MyBroadband also observed erratic behaviour on Google Analytics, Googles web analytics services that tracks and reports website traffic.

We contacted Google for comment on the issues but did not receive feedback by the time of publication.

The graphs below show the increase in reports on Downdetector of issues experienced on Google and Gmail services in South Africa on Friday morning.

Update: The Google Workspace Status Dashboard has been updated with a notice that the company was investigating reports of issues accessing Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Chat and Google Meet.

However, it did not address the fact that the issue was being experienced outside of Europe.

We are investigating an issue which is affecting some users in Europe affecting their ability to access some services, it stated. We will provide more information shortly.

Now read: YouTube hiding dislikes
"This should be the cause of deep embarrassment." As many as 160,000 active duty military members are having trouble feeding their families, according to Feeding America.
Once again, Napans had a chance to thank their fellow men and women for their service  face to face.

Thursday morning, Veterans Day was marked by ceremonies in Napa and American Canyon, where audiences gathered to honor Americas retired members of the military for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic halted virtually all public assemblies more than a year and a half ago.

Flag displays, salutes, speeches and the singing of patriotic songs returned to downtown Napas Veterans Memorial Park, as well as to American Canyons Community Center on the citys west side.

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: $5 for your first 5 months!

Under a sun-dappled sky in Napa, more than 150 people in the amphitheater facing the Napa River absorbed the familiar sights and sounds of the holiday: an American Legion honor guard carrying the U.S. flag, the Meadowlarks chorus crooning The Yankee Doodle Boy and Its a Long Way to Tipperary, and veterans in the audience standing up to be honored for their time in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force or Coast Guard.

Grant that we shall appreciate and treasure the freedom that is our heritage bought by the deeds and sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, chaplain Kate MacPherson of Napas American Legion Post 113 said in her invocation. Let us remember what is a veteran  it is someone who signed a contract to risk, and possibly give, his or her life for our country.

While the holiday and its local ceremonies serve mainly as a show of thanks to living veterans, local members of the Daughters of the American Revolution also turned the audiences attention to service members who never returned home, either through death or disappearance.

Dana Baumgardner, regent of the DARs Vineyard Trails Chapter in Napa, asked listeners to honor the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery in 1921. Then the next woman to step to the lectern, past regent Sandy Allen-Carte, began describing an object sitting to her left  a small round table and chair set for a single person, an imprisoned or missing soldier who remains alone against his oppressor, she said.

Every element of the table setting carried its own symbolism, Allen-Carte continued  a white tablecloth for purity, the circular tabletop beneath for the everlasting concern of friends and family on the home front, a plate bearing a single lemon slice for the bitterness of captivity, and a black POW/MIA flag draped over a solitary chair.

The songs and speeches of tribute were a far cry from one Napa spectators earliest experiences of postwar life upon returning from the Vietnam War half a century earlier.

When I came back, my wife met me at the airport and said to me: Dont wear your uniform; youll be spit on and yelled at, recalled Adrian Fenderson, who served as a dentist with the Army in Vietnam and later in Napa after returning stateside in 1971.

I didnt used to tell people Id been to Vietnam, especially when you lived in San Francisco! he added with a slight chuckle. I think theres more appreciation now; I hear Thank you for your service all the time. I appreciate being appreciated.

In American Canyon, the citys Veterans Day ceremony included essays by local preteens exploring the meaning of the holiday, which originated with end of World War I in November 1918. Three students from American Canyon High School had their essays read on the theme What Does Veterans Day Mean to Me?

Mayor Leon Garcia and state Sen. Bill Dodd spoke at the American Canyon observance, which included a veterans resource center staffed by federal and state agencies as well as collection drive by American Canyon Troop Support to send care packages to active-duty troops.

You can reach Howard Yune at 530-763-2266 or hyune@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.
Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan on Thursday delivered an address at the 41st session of the UNESCO General Conference in Paris. He noted as follows in particular:

The extraordinary challenges that the world faces today from armed conflicts to COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of climate change, emphasize the importance of expanding cooperation in the fields of education, sciences, culture, communication and information. Therefore today, as we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of UNESCO, we reiterate our commitment to the values of UNESCO and support its Strategic Transformation process.

In 2022 Armenia will mark the 30th anniversary of its UNESCO membership, during which Armenia has been and continues to be firmly committed to UNESCO's mandate to advance universal values and fulfill our common goals, including those defined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. That is why we have decided to stand for the Executive Board of UNESCO by submitting our candidacy for the 2021-2025 term.

Armenia is committed to promoting a future of education based on the principle of equal opportunities for all. We think that Global citizenship education is an important tool to respond to global challenges. We also believe that education and awareness-raising are vital for advancing the prevention of hate speech and identity-based discrimination. This is also one of the main ideas behind establishing the UNESCO Chair on Education and Prevention of Genocide and other Atrocity Crimes in 2020 in Yerevan State University.

Armenia strongly supports UNESCO actions for Global Priority Africa and Small Islands Developing States (SIDS). These actions should be further reinforced with special attention to the fields of education and culture.

Armenia supports UNESCO's efforts to safeguard cultural heritage in conflict zones and condemn the attacks on cultural symbols because of their diverse origin or identity.

During the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)] and its people last fall, the armed forces of Azerbaijan have been deliberately targeting civilian infrastructures, including schools, kindergartens, as well as Armenian cultural and religious heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh. As a result, more than 22.000 children of Nagorno-Karabakh have been deprived of their right to education.

Also, it has been almost a year since Armenia alerted the Director-General and the Member States of UNESCO on the severe threats to the Armenian cultural property located in the territories fallen under Azerbaijani control.

We are grateful to [UNESCO Director General] Madame [Audrey] Azoulay for her efforts to send an independent technical mission in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in line with the 1954 Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of armed conflict.

Unfortunately, Azerbaijan continues to block the implementation of this mission. This obstructive attitude makes us fear the worst for the state of the Armenian cultural heritage under Azerbaijani controlled territory. Both during the military hostilities and after the establishment of the ceasefire, there have been numerous documented cases of deliberate destruction and acts of vandalism by the Azerbaijani armed forces against the Armenian cultural and religious heritage, and the most notorious example is the double precise drone strikes on the Holy Saviour Ghazanchetsots Cathedral of Shushi on October 8th, last year.

Along with the physical destruction of Nagorno-Karabakh's religious and cultural heritage, we witness unacceptable cases of distortion of the identity and changing of the architectural appearance of the Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh currently controlled by Azerbaijan with more than 1.500 cultural property and 19.000 museum exhibits.

It is crucial to spearhead international efforts and act appropriately to prevent the Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh to share the tragic fate of 28.000 annihilated properties of the Armenian cultural heritage of Nakhijevan.

I would like to conclude by stressing the importance of promoting a culture of peace, tolerance, mutual respect, and dialogue between cultures as an essential tool for bringing people together and promoting peaceful co-existence. It will enable us to achieve all of the Organization's priorities.
El Salvador plans to build the world's first Bitcoin city

Canadian portal publishes list of countries with strongest Air Force on Earth

Japan announces self-destruction of COVID-19 delta strain

Israel to sign solar energy agreement with Jordan in UAE

Japan concerned over joint air patrols of Russia and China near country's borders

In Mexico, 600 migrants were found in two trucks

Europe protests against coronavirus restrictions

Commander of Russian airbase in Armenia: Ready to perform tasks as intended

US is going to build a nuclear power plant on the moon

Biden's son helps Chinese company buy mine in Africa

China lowers level of diplomatic relations with Lithuania

Russia and US confirm their intentions to send joint mission to Venus

Putin and Pashinyan discuss situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and measures to stabilize it

Honored Art Worker of Armenia, composer Ruben Altunyan passes away

492 new cases of coronavirus confirmed in Armenia

Armenian Foreign Minister and Otto Luchterhandt discuss Nagorno-Karabakh settlement

Armenian contract soldier dies amid violation of rules for handling weapons

Man, 29, jumps from Yerevan bridge

Armenia MFA confirms PM Pashinyan's readiness to meet with Azerbaijans Aliyev on December 15

Quake shakes coast of Vanuatu

State minister: Nationwide quarantine, specific restrictions planned to be imposed in Karabakh

Artsakh President convenes National Security Service consultation

Opposition MP: Armenia FM stated that Turkey has proposed new precondition: corridor

Armenia military expert: US Embassy warns its citizens to avoid Karahunj-Davit Bek, Kapan-Chakaten road sections

Armenia opposition MP: Air carrier operating flights from Syunik Province cannot have any security guarantees

Singapore is good example for Armenia, says President Sarkissian

Iran seizes foreign ship in Persian Gulf

2 Azerbaijanis injured in anti-tank mine explosion at Karabakh conflict zone

US, Turkey presidential advisors discuss situation in South Caucasus

Synopsys boss pays tribute to Armenian Genocide victims

Russia peacekeepers escort 15 convoys to, from Artsakh in one week

Catholicos Karekin II to Patriarch Kirill: We appreciate your warm attitude towards Armenian Church, people

China fines Alibaba for violating antitrust law

36 new cases of coronavirus reported in Karabakh

UK Premier Johnson considering boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

Artsakh President visits Askeran city, meets with regional capitals youth

President to Russia Patriarch: Armenian people highly value your efforts aimed at achieving peace in our region

870 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

8 injured in tragic accident on Yerevan-Gyumri motorway are discharged from hospital

China, Russia, US agree to promote political dialogue on Iran

Azerbaijan mother, son commit suicide on same day

One pedestrian dies on the spot, other hospitalized after hit by car in Armenia village area

US beauty consultant is accused of killing woman by injecting silicone into her butt

Brazil Amazon deforestation reaches highest level in 15 years

Newspaper: Armenia soldiers are prohibited from filming episodes from their service, posting them on internet

Newspaper: Armenia opposition is forming large-scale resistance network

Armenia President visits National University of Singapore

Gia, wanted by French law-enforcement authorities, found at Armenia's Bagratashen checkpoint

Leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia agree to meet in Brussels

European Council: Pashinyan and Aliyev agreed to establish direct communication line at level of defense ministers

Armenia's Representative to OSCE speaks about Azerbaijan's recent attack at Permanent Council's session

Armenia serviceman Meruzhan Harutyunyan, killed in Syunik Province, was buried at Yerablur Military Pantheon

Armenian News-NEWS.am's special report: Drive from Kapan to Tchakatashen is 150 km instead of previous 8 km

3 Armenian servicemen killed during Nov. 16 Azerbaijani attack posthumously awarded presidential medals

Left-wing trade unions hold protest against Turkey's Erdogan in Izmir

Armenia FM presents situation following Azerbaijani attack during meeting with Lithuanian Seimas Vice-President

Armenia delegation covers Azerbaijan's Nov. 16 attack during online meeting of CSTO PA Permanent Commissions

Armenia PM receives delegation led by Vice President of Lithuanian Seimas

Lavrov, Cavusoglu discuss bilateral ties and regional issues

Karabakh: Azerbaijani side, in Shushi, transfers bodies of 3 Armenian soldiers killed on Nov. 16

NEWS.am daily digest: 19.11.21

Armenian Embassy in Russia: Armenia citizens - mother and child - evacuated from Afghanistan

Georgia refuses to be a part of '3+3' format with regard to South Caucasus

The occupied Hadrut of our days (PHOTOS)

Arabologist: Photo of map of Turkic world shown by Erdogan and Bahceli is simply a gift for Armenian diplomacy

Situation is tense in Armenia's Kasakh, residents protesting against acting village head (LIVE)

Opposition With Honor legislature faction MP: No one knows if Armenia petitioned to Russia for military assistance

Armenia opposition MP: There is a threat that Baku will always get what it wants through use of force

Lavrov is certain that the Russia-Armenia-Azerbaijan summit will take place

Ann Linde: OSCE working very closely with Russia to resolve Karabakh conflict

Karabakh FM congratulates newly appointed Abkhazia counterpart

Dollar relatively stable in Armenia

Armenia parliament majority members do not deny possibility of exchange of territories with Azerbaijan

Armenia ruling party MP: Public and competent authorities need to know circumstances behind captures of soldiers

Armenia ruling party MP assures that situation on the border is currently stable

Armenia ruling party MP: Confidentiality of process of preparing for demarcation is strictly necessary

Armenia PM: Citizens of EEU countries will be able to receive loans in all territories of member states

Armenian serviceman, 19, dies in Georgia's Akhalkalaki

Armenia legislature majority faction lawmaker: Russia military intervention is not end in itself

High commissioner: Diaspora is considering ways to help hundreds of Ethiopia Armenians
Armenia has an alternative road now, and therefore there is no logic to any longer using the Goris-Kapan motorway. The secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan, stated about this in an interview with the Public Televisionand referring to the issue of setting up of Azerbaijani customs checkpoints and carrying out customs control on the Goris-Kapan motorway in Syunik Province and the question of what effect this may have on cargo transportation.

According to Grigoryan, if suddenly there is a need to use this motorway, the Azerbaijani side will inform Armenia about what process should take place in that case.

"The Azerbaijani side has not yet fully informed us what it assumes. But the logic may assume the levying of certain tolls for using the roadand, of course, to check passports. We will pursue a policy in response to the policy of the Azerbaijani side and will [also] set up customs points. There are opinions that perhaps the Azerbaijanis will use that road so that we also set up a customs checkpoint. As it is not logical that they will use that section [of the aforesaid motorway], so will we, as there is the Tatev-Aghvan road [now]. But the Azerbaijanis, for example, can use that road to get from Sanasar to Eyvazli, and a part of it also passes through the territory of Armenia; and in case of using that section, we will also carry out customs control and levy customs duties from Azerbaijani citizens," Grigoryan said.

The secretary of the Security Council of Armenia said that no settlement on that road will be isolated.

"The dirt road is almost ready, but we aim to completely asphalt those roads. We had said that we would build the road connecting Tatev-Kapan to M-12 [motorway] by the end of the year, but it happened sooner. We are working with the same intensity to build the roads of these communities. A certain time problem may arise for the citizens, but this is the best solution in this situation, noted Grigoryan.
Today we are told that Syunik is being handed over in parts. Let's look at what the formula is for handing over Syunik. As of 2018, 4% of preschool children in Syunik Province had access to kindergartens and pre-school institutions. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this Thursday while addressing the fundraising evening organized by the ruling Civil Contract Party on the occasion of the local election campaign.

"As of 2018, only 4 out of 100 children had the opportunity to go to kindergarten in Syunik Province. This is the handing over of Syunik Province, when Syunik was the absolute leader in the number of children with up to 100 schoolchildren in Armenia as of 2018; that is, Syunik has been the absolute leader in Armenia in the number of children with up to 4, 5, 10, 15, 20 schoolchildren. Today in the government we were talking about the fact that the government is making an allocation of 9 billion drams to involve all children in the educational process in only one community of Syunik. Excluding Yerevan and Gyumri, there has not been a single case in the history of Armenia when the government has implemented an educational program worth 9 billion drams in one community. We will go through all the communities with such 9 billions, knowing that, yes, security is our most vulnerable place today," Pashinyan added.
El Salvador plans to build the world's first Bitcoin city

Canadian portal publishes list of countries with strongest Air Force on Earth

Japan announces self-destruction of COVID-19 delta strain

Israel to sign solar energy agreement with Jordan in UAE

Japan concerned over joint air patrols of Russia and China near country's borders

In Mexico, 600 migrants were found in two trucks

Europe protests against coronavirus restrictions

Commander of Russian airbase in Armenia: Ready to perform tasks as intended

US is going to build a nuclear power plant on the moon

Biden's son helps Chinese company buy mine in Africa

China lowers level of diplomatic relations with Lithuania

Russia and US confirm their intentions to send joint mission to Venus

Putin and Pashinyan discuss situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and measures to stabilize it

Honored Art Worker of Armenia, composer Ruben Altunyan passes away

492 new cases of coronavirus confirmed in Armenia

Armenian Foreign Minister and Otto Luchterhandt discuss Nagorno-Karabakh settlement

Armenian contract soldier dies amid violation of rules for handling weapons

Man, 29, jumps from Yerevan bridge

Armenia MFA confirms PM Pashinyan's readiness to meet with Azerbaijans Aliyev on December 15

Quake shakes coast of Vanuatu

State minister: Nationwide quarantine, specific restrictions planned to be imposed in Karabakh

Artsakh President convenes National Security Service consultation

Opposition MP: Armenia FM stated that Turkey has proposed new precondition: corridor

Armenia military expert: US Embassy warns its citizens to avoid Karahunj-Davit Bek, Kapan-Chakaten road sections

Armenia opposition MP: Air carrier operating flights from Syunik Province cannot have any security guarantees

Singapore is good example for Armenia, says President Sarkissian

Iran seizes foreign ship in Persian Gulf

2 Azerbaijanis injured in anti-tank mine explosion at Karabakh conflict zone

US, Turkey presidential advisors discuss situation in South Caucasus

Synopsys boss pays tribute to Armenian Genocide victims

Russia peacekeepers escort 15 convoys to, from Artsakh in one week

Catholicos Karekin II to Patriarch Kirill: We appreciate your warm attitude towards Armenian Church, people

China fines Alibaba for violating antitrust law

36 new cases of coronavirus reported in Karabakh

UK Premier Johnson considering boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

Artsakh President visits Askeran city, meets with regional capitals youth

President to Russia Patriarch: Armenian people highly value your efforts aimed at achieving peace in our region

870 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

8 injured in tragic accident on Yerevan-Gyumri motorway are discharged from hospital

China, Russia, US agree to promote political dialogue on Iran

Azerbaijan mother, son commit suicide on same day

One pedestrian dies on the spot, other hospitalized after hit by car in Armenia village area

US beauty consultant is accused of killing woman by injecting silicone into her butt

Brazil Amazon deforestation reaches highest level in 15 years

Newspaper: Armenia soldiers are prohibited from filming episodes from their service, posting them on internet

Newspaper: Armenia opposition is forming large-scale resistance network

Armenia President visits National University of Singapore

Gia, wanted by French law-enforcement authorities, found at Armenia's Bagratashen checkpoint

Leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia agree to meet in Brussels

European Council: Pashinyan and Aliyev agreed to establish direct communication line at level of defense ministers

Armenia's Representative to OSCE speaks about Azerbaijan's recent attack at Permanent Council's session

Armenia serviceman Meruzhan Harutyunyan, killed in Syunik Province, was buried at Yerablur Military Pantheon

Armenian News-NEWS.am's special report: Drive from Kapan to Tchakatashen is 150 km instead of previous 8 km

3 Armenian servicemen killed during Nov. 16 Azerbaijani attack posthumously awarded presidential medals

Left-wing trade unions hold protest against Turkey's Erdogan in Izmir

Armenia FM presents situation following Azerbaijani attack during meeting with Lithuanian Seimas Vice-President

Armenia delegation covers Azerbaijan's Nov. 16 attack during online meeting of CSTO PA Permanent Commissions

Armenia PM receives delegation led by Vice President of Lithuanian Seimas

Lavrov, Cavusoglu discuss bilateral ties and regional issues

Karabakh: Azerbaijani side, in Shushi, transfers bodies of 3 Armenian soldiers killed on Nov. 16

NEWS.am daily digest: 19.11.21

Armenian Embassy in Russia: Armenia citizens - mother and child - evacuated from Afghanistan

Georgia refuses to be a part of '3+3' format with regard to South Caucasus

The occupied Hadrut of our days (PHOTOS)

Arabologist: Photo of map of Turkic world shown by Erdogan and Bahceli is simply a gift for Armenian diplomacy

Situation is tense in Armenia's Kasakh, residents protesting against acting village head (LIVE)

Opposition With Honor legislature faction MP: No one knows if Armenia petitioned to Russia for military assistance

Armenia opposition MP: There is a threat that Baku will always get what it wants through use of force

Lavrov is certain that the Russia-Armenia-Azerbaijan summit will take place

Ann Linde: OSCE working very closely with Russia to resolve Karabakh conflict

Karabakh FM congratulates newly appointed Abkhazia counterpart

Dollar relatively stable in Armenia

Armenia parliament majority members do not deny possibility of exchange of territories with Azerbaijan

Armenia ruling party MP: Public and competent authorities need to know circumstances behind captures of soldiers

Armenia ruling party MP assures that situation on the border is currently stable

Armenia ruling party MP: Confidentiality of process of preparing for demarcation is strictly necessary

Armenia PM: Citizens of EEU countries will be able to receive loans in all territories of member states

Armenian serviceman, 19, dies in Georgia's Akhalkalaki

Armenia legislature majority faction lawmaker: Russia military intervention is not end in itself

High commissioner: Diaspora is considering ways to help hundreds of Ethiopia Armenians

Opposition With Honor parliament faction: Armenia authorities trying to push territorial losses issue to backburner

Legislature majority faction MP: Armenia authorities do not make any demands on Russia

Opposition Armenia Faction in parliament: Authorities are unable to distinguish between priority and secondary issues

3 more die of coronavirus in Artsakh

Bruno Retailleau: France must support Armenia more firmly against aggressions by Azerbaijan

Armenia parliament majority faction: Border delimitation preparation process will start from point zero

PM: Armenia exports to other EEU countries increased by 27.8%

Armenias Pashinyan: Azerbaijan provocations are aimed at disrupting arrangements reached by trilateral statements

California Armenian couple accused of fraud flee leaving their 3 children behind

799 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Katherine Clark: Azerbaijan must acknowledge and respect Armenian sovereignty

Eurasian Intergovernmental Council enlarged meeting underway in Yerevan

Russia peacekeepers patrol along Karabakh border delimitation line

MOD: According to current data Armenia has 6 military casualties as result of Tuesdays attack by Azerbaijan

Turkish Islamic preachers organization denies reports of his death

Newspaper: What happened to missing Armenia soldiers during recent hostilities?

Armenia MOD dismisses reports about not allowing officers with higher rank than major to go up to combat positions

US virtually completes development of new tactical nuclear gravity bomb B61-12

Newspaper: Officers with higher rank than major not allowed to combat positions during recent hostilities in Syunik

Opposition MP: Granting corridor to Azerbaijan through Syunik Province will be gravest crime against Armenia
Azerbaijan is ready to sign with Armenia a peace agreement that will recognize the two countries territorial integrity within their internationally recognized borders. The statement came from Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov while addressing a meeting of the Council of Heads of Governments of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Haqqin.az reports.

"Also, Azerbaijan supports the launch of the border delimitation and demarcation work," Asadov added, noting that the peacekeeping efforts by Russia and the Russian-Turkish joint monitoring center serve to strengthen peace and security in the South Caucasus.

The Azerbaijani PM added that his country is in favor of unblocking transport communications in the region.

"Not only Azerbaijan and Armenia, but also the other countries in the region will benefit from it. Unblocking transport communications plays an important role in the further development of economic relationsnot only in the South Caucasus region, but also in the CIS in general," he said.

Asadov noted that Azerbaijan proceeds from the fact that its conflict with Armenia is in the past now, emphasizing that Baku is in favor of the immediate delimitation and demarcation of the border between Azerbaijan and Armeniaand within the framework of international law.

"Azerbaijan has never claimed foreign territories, but it will not give up an inch of its land," Asadov added.

The premier considered the safe return of internally displaced persons to their homeland one of the important issues facing Azerbaijan.

"In 2021, $1.3 billion of [Azerbaijani] state funds were spent on reconstruction work in Karabakh [i.e., in the part currently occupied by Azerbaijan]. In 2022, the same amount is envisioned in the state budget for these purposes," he said.

According to the head of the Azerbaijani government, minefields are one of the main obstacles to reconstruction.

"As of today, 20,000 hectares of territory have been demined. The accuracy of the maps of the minefields of the three regions provided by Armenia to Azerbaijan is less than 25 percent. So far, 167 Azerbaijani citizens have blown up in minefields, more than 30 of whom have died," he said.

But Asadov did not say a word about the matter of returning the remaining captured Armenians in Azerbaijan.
We are building many roads in Syunik [Province] now and will continue to build [them]starting from important strategic roads, starting from the Sisian-Kajaran and other sections of the North-South [road corridor], to the field roads. Gnel Sanosyan, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia, told reporters this on Friday.

He noted that next year alone, about 500 kilometers of field roads are planned, either to plan or to build a part of them.

"There are inter-community roads, national roads; that is, there are many programs some of which were not planned, some were planned, some of them currently have problems. So, it is a process, we are doing it," Sanosyan said.

And speaking about the Goris-Kapan motorway some sections of which are currently under Azerbaijani control, the minister emphasized: "Right now the [road] builders are working in the direction of Vorotan, Bardzravan, Shurnukh [villages], of all those communities; they are improving the roads as much as possible. All the mentioned communities have communication now, too, there is transport, there is movement.
Pashinyan is lying when he says there is no logic of corridor and that the Armenian authorities have allegedly disagreed with the provision of a corridor and the Azerbaijanis have said that, in this case, the Goris-Kapan motorway needs to be under their control. This is what former Deputy Minister of Defense of Armenia Artak Zakaryan told reporters today.

According to him, this means the deal is illegal since the Azerbaijanis cant set up customs checkpoints on the Goris-Kapan motorway without the consent of the Armenian side, and this means Armenia had given its consent. Zakaryan added that Armenia is losing its brilliant opportunity to restore its significance in the region due to the incumbent authorities.

The Armenian authorities continue to implement the Turkish-Azerbaijani project at the expense of our countrys territories. By setting the objective to link Nakhchivan to the southern regions of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan and Turkey are trying to replace the Iran-Russia axis with the East-West axis, that is, they are trying to link the Chinese market to the West through communications that will be under their control, and this implies exclusion of Armenia from all types of communications, the ex-deputy defense minister said, adding that the war in Artsakh could have been avoided.

The war changed the balance in the region in which the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem is freely advancing its interests at the expense of Armenias interests. The great powers have also changed their attitude since there is a clash of the North-South and West-East geopolitical corridors. The North-South corridor has always been a major issue for Armenia, but the Armenian authorities are unable to protect the interests of the Armenian people. The only base are the Russian peacekeepers and the formal existence of the OSCE Minsk Group, he emphasized.
Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan attendedvia video linkthe meeting of the Council of Heads of Governments of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). During the event, the deputy PM delivered an address, too, in which he particularly noted as follows:

Regarding the statement of the Azerbaijani side, I would like to emphasize that a year ago, the statement by the leaders of Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan on the ceasefire and the cessation of all hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)] conflict zone was adopted through the mediation of the Russian Federation. We [i.e., Armenia] highly value the efforts by the Russian allies, as well as the activities of the [Russian] peacekeeping contingent stationed along the Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact and the Lachin corridor.

As a result of the war unleashed by the Republic of Azerbaijan [last fall], 40,000 people were left homeless and lost their property, 17,000 civilian facilities and infrastructure were destroyed, thousands of people, including civilians, were killed and wounded, the fate of many [others] is still unknown.

Despite its commitments, Azerbaijan continues to torpedo the course of implementation of the agreements reached, including holding many Armenian prisoners of war captive, which is not only a gross violation of Section 8 of the November 9, 2020 statement, but also a gross violation of international humanitarian law.

By distorting the provisions of the trilateral statements of November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021 on the unblocking of infrastructure in the region, Azerbaijan is manipulating the concept of a corridor, which is accompanied by threats of using force.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict cannot be resolved by force. The settlement of the conflict can be achieved through peaceful negotiations, exclusively within the framework of the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

In order to defuse the situation and enter a phase of peaceful development in the region, it is necessary for Azerbaijan to take a constructive stance, renouncing the policy of hatred, aggressive rhetoric, and inimical actions."
Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan today had meetings with Deputy Director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Karen Murray, who represents Armenia in the Board of the ADB, as well as ADB Country Director for Armenia Paolo Spantigati.

As reported the Government of Armenia, the Deputy Prime Minister attached importance to the cooperation with the ADB and presented the main goals reflected in the Program of the Government, setting aside the main directions for possible cooperation with the ADB.

Karen Murray stated that it is an honor for her to represent Armenia in the ADB and stressed that the main purpose of her visit is to learn about the Armenian governments priorities.

The parties particularly touched upon the construction of the North-South Highway, possible cooperation in the water and communication sectors, as well as in the sector of human capital development. They also attached importance to the current programs with the ADB in the private sector.

During the meeting with ADB Country Director for Armenia Paolo Spantigati, the parties discussed details of the current programs and exchanged views on the actions that the government plans to take in the sectors of transport infrastructures and healthcare and the cooperation with the ADB.
Cuba has announced that it will reopen to tourists on Nov. 15, following a dire summer dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. On the same day, several dissident groups on the island have called for peaceful street demonstrations.

The timing of the called-for demonstrations is not a coincidence, said Michael Bustamante, Emilio Bacardi Moreau Chair in Cuban and Cuban American Studies and associate professor at the University of Miami. At a time when the worlds eyes will be on Cuba because it is reopening its borders to tourism and hoping to turn the corner on the current economic crisis, civil society actors call for a new set of marches to draw attention to their demands for political change.

It is mostly the Cuban economy that is driving both events. Cuba is undergoing a dire economic crisis. The lack of tourism, because of pandemic restrictions, has aggravated an already tenuous situation. Food shortages, long lines to get whatever food is available, and a lack of medicines has been a constant, according to experts.

The Cuban economy shrank 11 percent in 2020, reported Alejandro Gil, the Cuban minister of economy and planning. Cuba imports more than 50 percent of its fuel, food, and many other staples.

These scarcities coupled with dissent against the repressive government brought hundreds of Cubans to the streets in various cities around the island on July 11 for unprecedented massive demonstrations. Many in the crowds asked for food, medicine, and freedom. The Cuban government answered swiftly and violently, arresting many protesters and pummeling others. Several well-known dissidents are still in jail, news reports stated. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has accused the United States of orchestrating the protests.

But several Cuban activist groups vow that the Nov. 15 march will take place.

Cuban authorities have not approved organizers petitions to march and have threatened legal and other consequences if they move forward, said Bustamante. The scale of the response will, I suspect, depend somewhat on the number of marchers that still decide to demonstrate.

Cubas reopening to tourists comes after a sharp decline in the number of COVID-19 cases on the island.

They have brought down the numbers quite a bit from the summer, when the Delta variant made Cuba one of the worst places in the region for COVID-19 spread, said Michael Touchton, associate professor of political science.

The decline in COVID-19 cases came after Cuba launched an aggressive campaign to vaccinate its population with homegrown vaccines, named Soberana 02 and Abdala.

Cubas Ministry of Health has reported that more than half a million people have been vaccinated against COVID-19. There are approximately 11 million Cubans on the island. And as of Nov. 4, the country had charted 953,750 COVID-19 cases and approximately 8,250 related deaths.

For those arriving in Cuba after Nov. 15, there will be no testing requirement or quarantine period in hotels if tourists can prove they have been vaccinated against the virus.

Those who are not vaccinated must present a negative result of a PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before arriving in the country, according to the Cuban Health Ministry.

Under U.S. law, its residents are still prohibited from traveling to Cuba. But they can visit the county under 12 permissible categories, which include family visits, journalistic activity, academic research, and humanitarian projects.

Numbers from the Ministry of Tourism show that prior to the pandemic, Cuba received more than 4 million tourists a year, contributing 10.6 percent to the countrys gross domestic product.
The U Creates continues a series focused on highlighting members of the University of Miamis creative community.

In this Spotlight feature, meet Maria Paula Arboleda and Julie Peley, who are both first-year Master of Fine Arts students. Together, they have produced the multi-award-winning short film, Tacet, about an aspiring writer who starts to have doubts about her romantic relationship as she relives memories through her writing. The film has won awards in a variety of festivals, including the Miami Film Festival, Vegas Movie Awards, Direct Monthly Online Film Festival, and the Indie Short Festival.

Tell us about yourselves and what inspired you to get into filmmaking.

Peley: I'm from France, and I was lucky to be part of a family that allowed me to explore art as a kid. I was part of dancing groups, and my interest quickly shifted to photography. I just loved the feeling of capturing moments. I soon started capturing videos as it was the next step to photography for me. I quickly realized that I wanted to become a cinematographer and in this pursuit of cinematography, I discovered editing. I have become very passionate about editing. Right now, I'm a cinematographer and editor.

Arboleda: I'm from Colombia. My journey into filmmaking was a little different. Since I was little, I have been very passionate about storytelling. I would draw comic books and I would make up very elaborate stories with my toys. I never really saw this passion as something I could do in life. I come from a business family, and even if I was allowed and encouraged to explore hobbies in my free time, I always thought that I had to also study business. I started my undergraduate studies as a business major; and after a year and a half of feeling incomplete, I finally made the decision to study film. I started with the focus of being a writer but I then realized that I also liked directing. Right now, I'm a writer and director. My family is very supportive even when they don't really understand what it is that I do.

Explain the award-winning short films you created together. How do you feed off each other's creativity to produce these amazing works?

Peley: We have worked on two short films together: "Tacet" and "Fantome." "Tacet" was filmed while we were both undergraduates. "Fantome" was filmed in Paris after quarantine.

I first started working with Maria as her editor. She had just shot "Tacet," and she was looking for someone with fresh eyes to edit the film. I accepted the job, and it was an amazing learning experience for me. It was the first time that I became an actual editor. "Tacet" was completed, and it then became the award-winning short we have today. We are thankful because this short has allowed us to visit festivals such as the Miami Film Festival and the Next Generation Indie Film Festival in L.A. I've had a great experience working with Maria because she is a director who knows what she wants but is also open to creative input from others. I'm really thankful that when I was editing "Tacet," she wasn't there with me watching every cut. She gave me space to work by myself; and when I felt ready, I would call her to show what I had. And she would give me her thoughts. I believe this allowed me to grow as an editor because I felt her trust.

"Fantome" is the second short film we did together. In this project, we actually worked together from start to finish as I was also the cinematographer. It was a short production of just one day, but it was still a great experience. I think we both push each other to do the best job we can do. I know that I grow a lot whenever I work with Maria because she knows what she wants, and she is not the type of person that is happy with a "good enough." This really makes me rigorous with my work.

Arboleda: I was lucky enough to have crossed paths with Julie. After I did "Tacet," I was in desperate need of an editor who understood the sensitivity of the film. And when I saw Julie's past work, I realized she was going to do a great job because she is patient. And you can tell that she notices every detail. "Tacet" became an award-winning short and one of the best learning experiences I've had. Having Julie as a partner enriches me as a person and filmmaker. She understands how I see the world and what I'm trying to express, but she is also objective enough to tell me when things could be different/better.

I'm constantly learning, and being able to learn from someone as talented as Julie helps. I think we both push ourselves further and even if sometimes there are some tough moments when working together, we are able to overcome those moments and create the best films we can possibly create. I had a lot of fun doing "Fantome." Having Julie on set was a different experience to the one I had on "Tacet." I think that what works with our creative partnership is that we both listen and speak our minds.

What have you learned from each other in this process?

Peley: I've learned to be more rigorous with my work. Maria will sometimes spend a lot of time in a single cut, and I know that some people would just dismiss it as something that is not as important. She treats every tiny detail as equally important. It's her dedication and passion that really inspires me.

Arboleda: I've learned patience from her. Editors are so patient, and Julie is really the most patient one I've seen. She takes her time to see all the footage. I think that being able to work with someone patient really slows my mind in a good way. I'm able to digest things better.

What goals do you have for your future careers?

Peley: I want to continue working on projects that I believe in. I want to continue working with Maria and other directors with strong visions. I would also like to direct my own story. I want to have the experience of telling a story and leading a crew.

Arboleda: My goal is to continue making movies that touch people. I also want to go back to comic book writing and publish a graphic novel.
HK to tighten inbound travel rules for New Zealand

Hong Kong will tighten quarantine rules for New Zealand from next Wednesday. File photo: Shutterstock

The government said on Wednesday that it will be raising its Covid-19 risk level for people coming in from New Zealand from low to medium - meaning inbound travellers will be subject to at least two weeks of quarantine.



The new arrangement will take effect from midnight on November 17.



Fully vaccinated arrivals will be tested four times during 14 days of quarantine, and will have to self-monitor the week after they get out. They will also need to get tested on the 16th and 19th days after their arrival in the SAR.



"Hong Kong residents who are not fully vaccinated will be subject to 21-day compulsory quarantine at [designated quarantine hotels], with six tests to be conducted during the period. Non-Hong Kong residents who are not fully vaccinated will not be allowed entry," the government said in a statement.



It said it is tightening the rules as the number of infections in New Zealand has been on the rise, adding that authorities there have announced they will be pursuing a policy of "living with the coronavirus".



Once Hong Kong categorises New Zealand as a Group B or medium Covid risk country, there will be no countries left in its low-risk Group C.



Vaccinated arrivals from a low-risk place are subject to quarantine for one week.
Hong Kong reports three imported Covid cases

Health authorities reported three new imported Covid-19 cases on Thursday. Image: Shutterstock

Health authorities on Thursday reported three new imported Covid-19 cases, involving fully-vaccinated people who flew in from the Philippines, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.



All three were diagnosed to carry the L452R mutant strain, but were asymptomatic.



Meanwhile, health authorities said genome sequencing analysis carried out by the University of Hong Kong showed that two Cathay Pacific pilots confirmed to have Covid on Wednesday both carried the same AY.43 sublineage of the Delta strain, which is common in Germany where they had returned.



Tests by the Centre for Health Protection also found that a 56-year-old Covid patient  who was confirmed with the virus last Sunday  had carried the more infectious AY.4.2 variant, or "Delta plus", making him the second person diagnosed to have the variant in Hong Kong.



The triple-jabbed man returned to the SAR from the UK on November 1, onboard the same British Airways flight as the 62-year-old man who had been confirmed with the Delta plus variant last Friday.



Authorities said the two men had sat close to each other on the flight, adding that investigations are continuing.
November 12, 2021





The eCommerce world is undergoing a major transformation right now. In the last year, eCommerce businesses are booming. In fact, eCommerce is set to hit $1 trillion by 2022, according to a report released by Adobe (News - Alert). If you are one of the thousands thinking of launching your own eCommerce business, one of the considerations that will pop up in the process is whether to incorporate it. Simply put, business incorporation refers to formalizing your business- or making it into a legal entity. By choosing from a variety of business structure set-ups and following the right steps, your eCommerce business can benefit from perks like lower taxes, limited liability, and improved credibility.







The Reasons Why You Should Incorporate Your E-Commerce Business

One of the top reasons to incorporate your business is that it can help to mitigate the risks involved in launching a startup. It is no secret that getting a new business off the ground can be risky. This is attributed to the high failure rate that comes with the eCommerce space- 90 percent of eCommerce businesses within the first 120 days, says marketing agency Marketingsignals.com. Incorporating your business can protect you as the business owner from being held personally liable. This means if your business suffers a loss, it can be limited to your investment in the business and your personal assets are protected.

Business incorporation can also mean lower taxes in the future. Incorporated businesses can benefit from tax deductions and corporate tax rates instead of personal income tax brackets. This can lower your tax bill at the end of the tax year. Finally, incorporating your eCommerce business can help you gather financing in the future if you need it. As an incorporated business, you can raise additional capital by selling shares or applying to lenders for business financings such as credit banks, government agencies, and angel investors. Your choice of business structure set-up will determine what benefits will apply to your E-Commerce business.

The Best Business Structures For An E-Commerce Startup

While there is 4 widely used business structures, most E-Commerce businesses tend to fall into one of these three: sole proprietorship, partnerships, and limited liability companies (LLCs). Deciding which business structure is best for your E-Commerce startup will depend on weighing the benefits and drawbacks of each business structure. For instance, a sole proprietorship gives you complete control over your business. However, it does mean that you are essentially merged with the business i.e. little or no liability separation. Incorporating as a sole proprietor is also quite straightforward and would include filing for a business license in your business location, registering for your Employer's Identification Number (EIN), and registering with your states tax authorities.

Incorporating as a partnership or limited liability company comes with a few additional steps- and benefits. If you opt for a limited liability company, your personal assets get protection from business debts and legal action. Termed limited liability means that your personal and professional assets are viewed separately. This can be particularly useful for an E-Commerce startup since you may find yourself dealing with legal issues faced by E-Commerce businesses like data protection and fraud management. Limited liability companies also enjoy flexibility when it comes to taxation. Unlike sole proprietors, LLCs can choose their taxation structure- whether to be taxed at the personal or corporate level. You avoid the dread double taxation issue and can enjoy FICA exemptions or tax deductions as a business owner. Most states will also ask that you appoint a registered LLC or resident agent in your state of incorporation. To explore Northwest registered agent reviews click here. Resident or statutory agents can be the designated place for tax communications and help you register your LLC for a fee.

Considerations Before Choosing How To Incorporate Your E-Commerce Business

So what should you think about before incorporating your E-Commerce business? Well, you should keep in mind your growth plans. Some business structures like an LLC tend to be more flexible if you intend to scale up shortly. It is also easier to raise external finance from lenders or bring in external investors.

While each business structure has its tax benefits, you may also want to think about whether those tax benefits will be useful to your E-Commerce business. Registering as an LLC also comes with more paperwork and compliance regulations. Owners must file an article of incorporation and pay the relevant filing fee. The day-to-day goals of your business will also play a role in incorporating your business- and what structure you choose. The hierarchy of decision-making and tax aims will help you decide.

A final note: some states have an additional tax charge on LLCs, also referred to as a business or franchise tax. This will be in addition to your federally charged taxes. The percentage charged varies from state to state and will also depend on your IRS election choice. For instance, in Alabama, it is set at 6.5 percent for corporate tax and 2 to 5 percent for personal tax elections. However, LLCs in Wyoming do not pay a franchise tax.

Deciding on whether you should incorporate as a new E-Commerce business will rely on your business goals, the costs attached to it, and whether its benefits will outweigh the initial setup up. If you are in doubt or need advice on your business suitability, speaking to your business accountant and an attorney can help.
Sheriff's detectives are still piecing together what happened in the Commerce confrontation. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy opened fire during a confrontation in Commerce early Friday that left a woman dead, a man injured and the deputy hospitalized with stab wounds to his face, authorities said.

The shooting occurred after deputies responded to a call shortly before 4 a.m. from the Speedway Express gas station at Whittier Boulevard and Gerhart Avenue, where a man was said to be trying to start a fire using gasoline, said sheriff's homicide Lt. Derrick Alfred.

When deputies arrived, they confronted a man standing at the rear of an SUV parked in front of the gas station's convenience store, Alfred said. One deputy told the man to walk back toward him, but as the man got closer he turned around and immediately attacked the deputy, Alfred said.

While the man was on top of the deputy, a woman armed with a metal object got out of a parked SUV and ran toward the deputy and stabbed him once in the face, Alfred said. The deputy then pulled his handgun and fired several rounds at the suspects, striking both.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The man and the deputy were taken to a hospital.

It was unclear whether a round went through the man and hit the woman, or whether it hit the woman directly, Alfred said.

The shooting was the 19th so far in 2021 in Los Angeles County in which someone has been hit by a deputy's gunfire.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Say sayonara to the workweek.

It's time to have some fun:

Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.

 Climb aboard the Polar Express Train, which makes its return to Golden this weekend and runs on select dates through Dec. 23. The magical jaunt includes a cabaret-style show, singing, hot cocoa, cookies  and, of course, Santa.

 Come hungry and with an open heart to the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver this Friday for Let's Taco 'Bout It  Tacos & Positive Self Talk, a ticketed event about the importance of practicing self-compassion.

 Cheer on the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena this evening or Sunday, when they play the Atlanta Hawks and Portland Trail Blazers, respectively. Tickets start at $21.

 On Saturday afternoon, head to Mile High Spirits for an afternoon of bloodies and Bluegrass, featuring $20 bottomless bloody marys and live music on the patio.

 Support the Colorado Avalanche as they compete against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday at Ball Arena. Tickets start at $46.

 If dinosaurs are your jam, Jurassic Quest returns to the Convention Center this weekend. The event includes more than 100 true-to-life-size dinosaurs that roar and move.

 Watch the Denver Broncos face the Philadelphia Eagles at Empower Field at Mile High this Sunday. Tickets are steep  but a bar seat at your favorite local watering hole isn't.

 Lace up your sneakers and head to City Park on Sunday morning for the Denver Veterans Day Run, which includes a 5K, 10K and virtual options for participants. Proceeds benefit local veterans through the Colorado Veterans Project.

Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.
By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) - Opponents of policies used to boost the number of Black and Hispanic students on American college campuses on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear two cases together that accuse Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill of discrimination.

Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a group founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, in a petition asked the court to fast-track the UNC case and take it alongside a challenge to Harvard's admissions policies.

"If the Supreme Court decides, as it should, to reconsider racial preferences in college admissions, it should consider that question in the context of both a private school and a public school," Blum said in a statement.

Harvard declined to comment. UNC did not respond to requests for comment. Both call their admissions practices lawful.

SFFA was already challenging an appellate court's rejection of its claims that Harvard's policies discriminate against Asian Americans, giving the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority a chance to end affirmative action on campuses.

But last month a judge rejected SFFA's allegations in a case filed in 2014 that said UNC's consideration of race in its undergraduate admissions process discriminated against white and Asian American applicants.

SFFA said the justices should take the UNC case with the Harvard one without going to an appellate court.

The court in June asked the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to weigh in on whether it should hear the Harvard case. It has not yet.

SFFA said that the U.S. Supreme Court nearly two decades ago did something similar when it took up two affirmative action cases involving the University of Michigan and bypassed an appellate court with one of them.

The justices ultimately in 2003 preserved affirmative action on campuses in a ruling SFFA wants overturned.

Harvard argues Title VI of the Civil Rights Act forbids federal funding recipients from using race in admissions. The UNC case contends that, for public schools, the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment compels the same conclusion.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Grant McCool)
Nov. 12The first refugee from Afghanistan arrived in Daviess County in mid-October, and others have come in over time. But the resettlement process is about to accelerate.

Officials with the International Center of Owensboro were busy working to secure housing and other assistance Thursday, after receiving word more refugees would be arriving in the near future, including families that arrived Thursday.

The center has been told to expect 127 refugees, although the number could fluctuate.

The refugees were evacuated from Afghanistan during the U.S. military withdrawal from the country. The refugees helped support the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and have been in the processing pipeline to receive asylum in the U.S. for several months, Allen said previously.

"We've received 24 already" since the first refugee arrived, Allen said Thursday. Allen had been on the phone with government officials who are coordinating the arrivals, while a volunteer was taking inventory of clothing items that had been donated for the refugees.

The organization had previously been told to expect 100 individuals, but the government asked if the community could take more, Allen said.

"One hundred was originally the maximum for the year," with that number scheduled to arrive between October and March, Allen said. Later, government officials asked if the International Center could take more refugees, Allen said.

"It's a major humanitarian crisis," Allen said. "It's going to be fluid."

Eight female refugees from three families are staying on the campus of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph in western Daviess County. Sister Suzanne Sims, director of Local Community Life at the campus, said housing was available for eight refugees.

"I lived there for a week with them and decided to let them live on their own," with daily contacts and the occasional overnight stay to assist, Sims said. The first refugees arrived at the campus on Oct. 28.

Story continues

"We like to share what we have with those in greater need," Sims said. "It's our mission to be charitable."

The International Center needs assistance, particularly finding temporary housing for the refugees, Allen said.

"Housing is our biggest challenge," Allen said. "We are looking for any kind of housing, even people who are willing to open a spare bedroom."

Difficulty finding living spaces for refugees is not unique to Owensboro, Allen said.

"Every agency is going through this," Allen said.

The International Center is also looking for mentors who can work with the refugees and volunteers who will take them to appointments and grocery shopping.

"We have an employment program that will help them find jobs, but we welcome assistance," Allen said.

The organization is trying to put together a group of interpreters. Volunteers do not have to know how to speak languages spoken in Afghanistan to be involved.

"We're looking for household tables, chairs, as well as silverware and dishes," Allen said. The agency does not need any more donated clothing. The International Center also needs donations to pay for rental housing, Allen said.

"We are looking for apartments all over the place," Allen said.

The refugees are arriving virtually with nothing but the clothes on their backs, Allen said. Multiple organizations have provided assistance, such as First Christian Church, the Islamic Center of Owensboro, EM Ford and the Young Foundation, Allen said.

"We've gotten a great response from a lot of local churches," Allen said. "It has been amazing to see how many people have reached out to help us."

The congregation of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church on Kentucky 56 donated more than 100 backpacks full of personal hygiene supplies for the refugees. The Rev. Jonathan Bonar, pastor of the church, said the congregation got involved after attending a meeting on the refugees at the International Center.

"Everything seemed to kind of come together," Bonar said. "We would say it would seem to have been orchestrated by God. The church had recently received a donation of 100 backpacks and was unsure what to do with them when church officials learned the refugees would need hygiene supplies.

"We had been talking about how many of them had helped our soldiers," Bonar said.

The church members took the backpacks home, filled them with new items and brought them back to be donated, Bonar said.

"Many of them helped our troops, and as a result, they have lost their occupations, relatives and homes," Bonar said.

"We've got wonderful people in the church and wonderful people in Owensboro," Bonar said. "We want (the refugees) to know from Day One they are not by themselves. They are not alone."

James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse

To Help

BOX INFO

People interested in volunteering, being a mentor or donating items can email International Center director Anna Allen at anna@wkrmaa.org. People with housing can contact housing coordinator Diane Ford at dianeford14@gmail.com
Akron police say they have identified the two men here as suspects in the October theft of more than $50,000 in music gear

Akron police say they have identified two suspects in the October theft of more than $50,000 in music gear and other items from a Philadelphia punk band as members slept in an Akron hotel.

Akron police used social media to post stills and clips from video shot at The Guitar Department on Kenmore Boulevard showing two men apparently trying to sell some of the band's gear. Police asked in the post for the public to help identify the two men.

This week, Akron police said on social media they have identified the suspects. The department did not name them.

The band Mannequin Pussy said Oct. 23 that someone stole their tour van and trailer while it was parked at the Marriott Courtyard on Furnace Street. The band stayed at the hotel after playing Friday in a Lakewood.

The van was subsequently recovered on Oct. 25 but all of the musical instruments, merchandise and some personal items remain missing. The instruments included six guitars, a drum kit, keyboard, amplifiers, cables and more.

Police said the suspects brought what is believed to be some of the musical equipment into The Guitar Department.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Suspects ID'd in Mannequin Pussy music gear theft, Akron police say
An Alabama man charged with possession of a cache of weapons and homemade Molotov cocktail near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has pleaded guilty to three of 18 charges.

Lonnie Coffman, 71, will be held without bond until sentencing on April 1, 2022.

Coffman was arrested just blocks from the Capitol in the aftermath of a chaotic pro-Trump rally that descended into a deadly riot inside the halls of Congress.

More: Court docs: Alabama man arrested after Capitol riot has militia ties, sought meeting with Ted Cruz

Coffman's truck was found parked a block behind the Library of Congress by U.S. Capitol police and FBI agents. Inside the truck, within the reach of the driver, law enforcement found a handgun, rifle and shotgun, according to court records. Hundreds of rounds of ammunition, large capacity ammunition magazines, a cross bow with bolts, machete, stun gun, cloth rags, lighters and a cooler containing 11 mason jars filled with a mixture of gasoline and Styrofoam were found in the bed of the truck.

Video surveillance captured Coffman parking and leaving the truck shortly after 9 a.m. He returned shortly after 6 p.m. and identified himself to an officer as the owner of the pickup truck.

More: Feds seize electronics in Lonnie Coffman case as D.C. Molotov cocktail investigation continues

When Coffman was detained, he had a pistol and a revolver concealed on his person.

Coffman was initially charged in Washington D.C. with possession of an unregistered firearm, several counts of carrying a pistol and rifle without a license, possession of a large capacity ammunition magazine, possession of unregistered firearms and unlawful possession of ammunition. He was charged in Alabama with possession of an unregistered firearm for possessing nine more Molotov cocktails at his residence in Falkville.

Friday, Coffman pleaded guilty in front of Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in federal court to the D.C. charges of possession of an unregistered firearm in connection to the 11 Molotov Cocktails and possession of an unregistered firearm. He also pleaded guilty to the Alabama charge.

Story continues

Kollar-Kotelly nearly refused to accept Coffman's plea in regard to the Molotov Cocktails.

While reviewing the facts of the case, and the parts of the Molotov cocktails, Coffman refuted that the mason jars contained gasoline.

"The gasoline had been in the mason jars for over three years. It was deteriorated," Coffman explained to the judge. "It wouldnt have served as gasoline... These jars were not giving off vapors."

Kollar-Kotelly questioned whether the gasoline, if it could not be used to create an explosion, still would be considered an incendiary device for the purposes of the criminal charge.

Attorney Michael Friedman, a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's Office, argued the parts together could be used and were intended to be used as an incendiary device.

Coffman admitted that he constructed the devices and agreed they could be used for Molotov cocktails. He also agreed that he was speculating about the effectiveness of the gasoline in the jars. He also said he'd made no plans to use the devices.

"I did not plan on blowing nothing up, nothing like that," he told the judge. "I agree, they could have been used for that purpose, but I was not going to use them for that purpose."

After nearly 45 minutes to discussion, Kollar-Kotelly ultimately accepted the guilty plea, determining that Coffman put those devices together with the intent to be used as a Molotov cocktail, despite being created about three years ago.

Per the plea agreement, all the firearms Coffman had in Washington, D.C., are to be formally surrendered to law enforcement. In Alabama, Coffman's son agreed to take possession any firearms and ammunition as his father is now considered a convicted felon and barred from owning or possessing any guns.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Kirsten Fiscus at 334-318-1798 or KFiscus@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KDFiscus

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alabama man armed with Molotov cocktails pleads guilty in Capitol riot
Servi robot in Sergio's Restaurant Sergio's Restaurant

Companies ordered a record number of robots in the first nine months of 2021, per industry group A3.

Some businesses are turning to robots to plug gaps in their workforce during the labor shortage.

Robot orders hit 29,000, up 37% from the same period in 2020, per A3 data.

North American companies ordered a record 29,000 robots in the first nine months of 2021 as they tried to cope with a severe shortage of staff, an industry group said Friday.

The number of orders was 37% higher than for the same nine-month period in 2020, according to data in a press release by Association for Advancing Automation (A3). Sales hit $1.48 billion in the first nine months of this year, up from $1.09 billion for the same period in 2020, A3 said.

"With labor shortages throughout manufacturing, logistics and virtually every industry, companies of all sizes are increasingly turning to robotics and automation to stay productive and competitive," Jeff Burnstein, A3's president, said in the press release.

Businesses across the US are struggling to hire because of the labor shortage. Workers are quitting their jobs to find better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Some companies have turned to robots for some tasks, such as writing thank-you letters to colleagues and carrying plates from a restaurant kitchen to servers.

This year's robot sales beat the previous record in 2017, when sales hit $1.47 billion, according to A3's data.

Companies in North America ordered nearly 10,000 robots in the third quarter of this year, up 32% on 2020, with sales amounting to $513 million, a rise of 35%, per A3.

Almost two-thirds of sales in the third quarter of 2021 came from non-automotive industries, including food and consumer groups, A3 said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Nov. 11The Southern Poverty Law Center has appealed a federal judge's decision last month not to require stricter COVID-19 policies in Cobb County schools.

The appeal is the latest move in a lawsuit by the SPLC and two metro Atlanta law firms, representing four students with disabilities, which argues the district's protocols are discriminatory. The suit was first filed Oct. 1.

The plaintiffs have argued their children  suffering from muscular dystrophy, leukemia, and other illnesses  are at risk of severe symptoms or death should they be infected with COVID-19.

Adding to that risk, they argued, was the district's choice to loosen its COVID policies ahead of the 2021-2022 school year, including not requiring masks to be worn in schools. As such, the children were forced to opt into virtual learning courses, causing them "irreparable harm" and subjecting them to discrimination.

Chief Judge Timothy Batten of the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia denied the plaintiffs' request for an emergency order which would compel the district to tighten its COVID protocols. Batten ruled the district had reasonably provided the students with access to education by offering virtual classes and that the students were not demonstrably suffering unequal treatment.

"This case isn't just about masks, this is about disability discrimination in the Cobb County School District and ensuring that all children have an equal opportunity to access an in-person learning environment," Mike Tafelski, senior supervising attorney for the SPLC, said in a news release. "The district's continued refusal to follow CDC guidelines and ensure safe schools for all students effectively deny our clients the access they are entitled to under federal law."

In a statement, Cobb County School District spokeswoman Nan Kiel said the district would not comment on pending legal matters.
Miami Herald

As a professional journalist who has been reporting on the assassination of John F. Kennedy for almost 30 years, I have long been skeptical about the pursuit of a proverbial smoking gun that supposedly will blow open the case of the murdered president. When the congressional deadline for the release of the last of the JFK files approached last month, I instinctively advised friends that there would no smoking gun in the released material.
BARNSTABLE  As the Massachusetts Community Tracing Collaborative winds down, Barnstable County public health nurses are taking a bigger role in tracing COVID-19 cases and close contacts on Cape Cod.

Barnstable County Public Health Nurse Deirdre Arvidson said the county has received a $500,000 federal grant, awarded by the state, to enhance the countys contact tracing role.

Were expanding our services and offering (them) to any of our towns that would like our help, Arvidson said.

She said the grant, which is divided between fiscal years 2022 and 2023, will allow the county to recruit an epidemiologist and add a third part-time public health nurse to her staff.

Handwritten notes fill the whiteboards around the office of Theresa Covell, who is one of three part-time public health nurses working on COVID-19 contact tracing for Barnstable County.

The countys contact tracing services are free to Cape towns, Arvidson said.

She said the county's contact tracing nurses already have been working with Provincetown and are adding Yarmouth, Dennis and Harwich to their roster of clients.

State officials said that since April 2020, the Massachusetts Community Tracing Collaborative has worked with local health departments to identify more than one million COVID-19 cases and contacts for follow-up information  such as isolation and quarantine  to stop the spread of coronavirus.

State officials said they will shutter the program by the end of this year, replacing it with contact tracing support to local boards of health in the amount of $15 million from the Baker-Polito administration and $4 million from the state Department of Public Health.

Sandwich, which is one of just two towns on the Cape  the other is Barnstable  that has its own public health nurse, has been using the Massachusetts Community Tracing Collaborative on weekends to supplement its contact tracing efforts.

Dave Mason, Sandwich public health director, said that while the collaborative will not officially close its doors until December, Nov. 30 is the last day the town can submit any new names for contact tracing purposes.

He said he considers the timing unfortunate, since the town has more confirmed cases of COVID-19 at this time than it did last year.

Story continues

Mason said another thing that concerns him is it seems fewer people are cooperating with contact tracers.

People were very cooperative in the beginning of the pandemic, Mason said.

It was an unknown. Right now people feel they can handle it on their own.

Yarmouth Health Director Bruce Murphy said people confirmed to have COVID-19 get a call from a tracer and if they dont respond they receive a text, a second call and then a letter if all else fails.

There is a percent that (doesn't) respond, Murphy said. He said Yarmouth started out by using contact tracers from the VNA of Cape Cod, switched to the Massachusetts Community Tracing Collaborative because it was free and is now a contact tracing client of Barnstable County.

State public health officials said contact tracers help stop the spread of the virus by encouraging testing and supporting quarantining and social distancing.

While state officials encourage those infected with COVID-19 to reach out to people they have been within 6 feet of two days before becoming symptomatic or having a positive test, contact tracers keep individual identities private, they said.

Arvidson said that most of the time contact tracers find people at the other end of the phone line to be cooperative.

Many people are very helpful. I would say the majority of people are helpful.

But Arvidson said shes heard some people resist the request to pass on names of potential close contacts.

People are tired," she said. "They are tired of it all. They dont want to name somebody who might have to stay home from their job. Were all struggling here.

State officials said contact tracing has been a successful tool in containing COVID-19 in Massachusetts.

They said that since April 2020, more than 1.1 million cases and contacts have been identified for follow-up by local health departments and the Massachusetts Community Tracing Collaborative, resulting in more than 2.6 million phone calls.

About 35% of those calls have been made by local health departments, state officials said.

A spokesperson with the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services said in a press statement that when the contact tracing collaborative started there was limited testing and no vaccine availability.

Today, Massachusetts is a national leader in vaccine administration and free testing, and (has) the second-lowest COVID hospitalization rate and case-positivity rate in the nation.

Contact Cynthia McCormick at cmccormick@capecodonline.com or on twitter at @Cmccormickcct

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Barnstable County offers free COVID contact tracing to all Cape towns
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Belarusian state-owned airline Belavia said on Friday it would stop allowing citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen to board flights from Turkey to Belarus at the request of Turkish authorities amid a migrant standoff between Belarus and Poland.

The European Union says Belarus is encouraging thousands fleeing war-torn parts of the world to try to cross its borders and may impose new sanctions on Belarus and airlines ferrying the migrants as soon as Monday.

The bloc has accused Belarus of mounting a "hybrid attack", while Kremlin ally Belarus has warned the crisis could escalate into a military confrontation.

"In line with a decision by the ... Turkish authorities, citizens of Iraq, Syria, Yemen will not be accepted for transportation on flights from Turkey to Belarus from 12.11.2021," it said in a statement on its website.

Belavia, which is barred from flying over the European Union after the grounding of a plane earlier this year, continues to fly to destinations like Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova, Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber/Tom Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened Thursday to cut off a major pipeline transporting Russian gas through Belarus to the European Union if the EU imposes new sanctions, escalating what the EU calls Belarus' "hybrid attack" on the 27-member bloc. Earlier this week, thousands of migrants from the Middle East moved through Belarus to the EU's Polish border, and now they are stuck in frigid weather between Polish border guards who won't let them in and Belarusian guards who won't let them return.

"We are heating Europe," Lukashenko said Thursday. "They still threaten us that they will close the border. And if we shut off natural gas there?" The foreign minister, he added, "must warn everyone in Europe: If they impose additional sanctions on us, that would be indigestible and unacceptable for us. We must answer." Russia supplies about 35 percent of Europe's natural gas, delivered through several pipelines, BBC News reports. The Yamal-Europe pipeline travels through Belarus to Poland and Germany.

Analysts were divided on whether Lukashenko was bluffing. And it's actually "Russian President Vladimir Putin who would decide whether Lukashenko could follow through with threats to turn off the Belarus pipeline, which supplies about 20 percent of Europe's Russian gas," The Washington Post reports. Putin ramped up the supply of gas to the EU earlier this week, easing a shortage that has sharply driven up energy prices in Europe, but "so far, Russia has insisted it has no part in Lukashenko's growing feud even as it declines to rein him in."

The EU said it will introduce new sanctions on Belarus as early as Monday and won't be intimidated by his gas supply threats. The Western member states of the United Nations Security Council strongly condemned Belarus on Thursday for endangering the lives of migrants from Iraq, Syria, and Yemen "for political purposes" and ramping up tensions to divert "attention away from its own increasing human rights violations." Russia defended Belarus.

Story continues

The U.S. and EU have layered sanctions on Belarus since Lukashenko declared himself winner of a fixed election last year, and Lukashenko has been escalating his pushback since the spring.

You may also like

5 riotously funny cartoons about Steve Bannon's contempt of Congress charge

Adorable rare leopard cub makes her debut at Santa Barbara Zoo

Jimmy Kimmel rolls his eyes at the 'QAnon nuts' gathered in Dallas for JFK Jr.'s resurrection, Trump's anointing
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty is collecting new, unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots at its Ponte Vedra Beach/Nocatee office. From left are Ilka Goitia-Sepulveda, Theresa LaPolla, Holly Hayes, Pam Belcher, Kathy Wussler and Bill Irwin.

A local real estate office is helping to fill kids' wish lists this holiday season.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty is accepting donations for its annual Toys for Tots collection, supporting the program run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

The companys Ponte Vedra Beach/Nocatee branch office is collecting new, unwrapped toys until Dec. 13. The real estate firm is asking for unwrapped toys for children of all ages, newborn to 17 years old. Gifts will be distributed to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them holiday gifts.

Community residents are welcome to bring the toys to the companys branch office in the Sawgrass Village Shopping Center (333 Village Main St., Suite 670, Ponte Vedra Beach).

Donations also may be purchased online from the companys Amazon wish list (Berkshire Hathaway HSFNR Toys for Tots) and shipped directly to the branch office.

We are proud to support Toys for Tots, and it is our hope that our community will partner with us to help ensure that no child goes without a Christmas gift, said Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty CEO Kevin Waugaman.

For more information, call (904) 285-1800, email pontevedra@bhhsfnr.com or visit FloridaNetworkRealty.com.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Berkshire Hathaway accepting donations for Toys for Tots
(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Infrastructure Partners bought out the controlling shareholders of Carrix Inc., one of the worlds largest marine-terminal operators.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The families had been weighing a sale of their holding in the Seattle-based company, Bloomberg reported in June. The stake was expected to fetch $2.5 billion or more, people familiar with the matter said at the time, asking not to be identified because the talks were private.

The Smith/Hemingway family sold its shares to Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, Bob Watters, a Carrix spokesman, said in an emailed statement, declining to comment on details of the transaction. Paula Chirhart, a Blackstone representative, declined to comment.

Founded in 1949 by middle-school dropout Fred Smith, Carrix was previously co-run by his son Ricky Smith, who later handed the reins over to Jon Hemingway, his nephew and Fred Smiths grandson, according to a company representative. Hemingway, who joined the company in 1985, became president and chief executive officer in 1991. In 2012, Hemingway became chairman after hiring Knud Stubkjaer as CEO.

Hemingway has relinquished the chairman role to Blackstones Sebastien Sherman, Carrixs website shows.

Marine terminals have been in favor as global supply-chain issues highlight the crucial nature of transportation and logistics assets. Last week, French shipping company CMA CGM SA agreed to buy out the majority owners of Fenix Marine Services, which operates a container terminal in the Port of Los Angeles, in a deal with an enterprise value of $2.3 billion. CMA CGM already owned a 10% stake. In a similar transaction, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in September agreed to acquire control of Ports America, the largest U.S. terminal operator, in which it previously owned a minority stake.

Story continues

Carrix is the parent of SSA Marine, which operates more than 200 port and rail locations in Panama, Chile, Mexico and Canada, as well as U.S. cities including Oakland and Long Beach, California.

In 2019, Blackstone Inc.s infrastructure arm acquired a roughly 20% stake in Carrix, which still counts billionaire Fernando Chico Pardo as a board member and investor. The Smith and Hemingway families in 2014 repurchased a stake that had been held by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.s infrastructure unit and others since 2007.

Across the U.S., wealthy families have been exploring ways to cash out ahead of potential changes to tax laws.

(Updates with leadership details in fourth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2021 Bloomberg L.P.
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP)  Canada said it is temporarily withdrawing nonessential staff from its embassy in Haiti.

The move comes in response to a spike in gang-related violence in Haiti and a severe lack of fuel that has affected hospitals, schools and banks.

Global Affairs Canada said Friday the embassy in Port-au-Prince remains open, but all Canadians should avoid nonessential travel to the country.

The fuel shortage has threatened basic services across much of Haiti, which is still recovering from a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in July.

The country has also been beset by widespread gang violence, with U.S. and Haitian authorities trying to secure the release of 17 members of a missionary group kidnapped last month.

That group includes one Canadian.
While legislators and regulators around the world weigh big changes to Apple's and Google's app stores, some quick revisions could be coming within weeks, thanks to a U.S. judge's decision and a Korean law.

Why it matters: Control of app stores and their hefty commissions is what has made owning mobile operating systems so valuable for both companies, especially Apple.

Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free

Driving the news: Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers' ruling in the case pitting Epic Games against Apple held that Apple must allow app developers to inform users about other app payment methods that are available.

On Tuesday, Rogers denied Apple's request to put her order on hold as Apple's appeal works its way through the court system. That means the order could go into effect Dec. 9, assuming Apple is unsuccessful in getting a higher court to institute a delay.

A recently passed law in Korea, meanwhile, would require Apple and Google to allow alternative payment mechanisms within their respective mobile app ecosystems.

The big picture: The near-term changes come as regulators in Europe consider giving users the ability to sideload iPhone apps, bypassing the App Store entirely, something that Apple strenuously opposes, saying to do so threatens privacy and security.

Legislators in the U.S. have also held hearings on these questions, with additional regulatory or legislative action here possible.

Between the lines: There is still a great deal of uncertainty around just what the Korean law and the U.S. court order mean specifically, with Google and Apple likely having a very different interpretation than outside developers.

The Coalition for App Fairness, a group of companies critical of Apple's policies, is holding an event in Korea next week to discuss the law there and what it means. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney is scheduled to speak, as are representatives from the Korean government.

Paddle, a British startup, has already announced plans for an alternative to Apple's in-app payment system designed to comply with the judge's ruling in the Epic case, with plans to make it widely available in early December.

Story continues

Paddle started eight years ago doing similar processing for Mac developers, who have always been allowed to go outside the Mac App Store. (Indeed, the Mac App Store is a comparatively recent option.)

An option for iOS transactions had been a top request from Paddle's customers. "When that ruling came down we immediately spun up a team internally," CEO Christian Owens told Axios, adding that the iOS opportunity could be as large as the company's existing business.

Paddle says it has built two implementations of its system, one that would process payments directly within the app, if Apple's revised rules allow that, and another that goes to the Web for payment processing and then returns a user to the app.

Paddle takes a 10 percent cut on transactions under $10, and 5 percent on purchases over that amount. Apple's commission is often 30 percent, but can be lower for certain categories, including for smaller developers and recurring subscriptions.

What they're saying: In denying a stay, Judge Gonzales Rogers castigated Apple for seeking "an open-ended stay with no requirement that it make any effort to comply."

Apple, for its part, maintains it shouldn't have to make any changes pending appeal and said it will ask an appeals court to order the stay that Gonzales Rogers denied.

The company has already made a few smaller changes to its App Store policies in recent months, one to settle a lawsuit with developers and another to address concerns from regulators in Japan.

More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free
A group of veterans from Cheneyville rode their bicycles 30 miles to the Alexandria VA Medical Center to present flags to the two oldest veterans at the facility, Theo Franklin Ratliff, 96, and Herman White, 95. Both are Army veterans who served World War II.

To honor the sacrifices made by veterans, a group of cyclists from Cheneyville rode their bicycles 30 miles to the Alexandria VA Medical Center in Pineville on Veterans Day.

The Cheneyville Veterans Day Bike Ride Tour included Cheneyville Mayor Derrick Johnson, who is an Army veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and his father Coral A. Johnson, retired Army; and Gary Johnson and his son Brandon Johnson, both retired Army; and councilman Ronny Green, Jr.

The group of cyclists gathered Thursday morning at the walking trail on Main Street to make the 30-mile ride to present flags to the oldest veterans at the hospital.

The cyclists were escorted up Highway 71 to MacArthur Drive and across the Curtis Coleman Bridge as they made their way to the VA hospital.

A group of veterans from Cheneyville rode their bicycles 30 miles to the Alexandria VA Medical Center to present flags to the two oldest veterans at the facility one of who is Theo Franklin Ratliff, 96, an Army veteran who served World War II.

After arriving at the facility, flags were presented to World War II veterans Theo Franklin Ratliff, 96, and Herman White, 95, who both served in the Army.

The ride came about after conversations regarding Veterans Day celebrations in and around Cheneyville. The ride

"As conversation continued with civilians and veterans throughout the community, it became apparent that the town of Cheneyville owed a lot to our veterans," stated Green in a press release. "With such an active community of youth, young adults, men, women and veterans, it seemed only natural to create an event that combined Louisiana-style patriotism along with a healthy pursuit of achievement and physical determination."

A group of veterans from Cheneyville rode their bicycles 30 miles to the Alexandria VA Medical Center to present flags to the two oldest veterans at the facility, One of them was Herman White, 95, an Army veterans who served World War II.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Cheneyville veterans bike to VA hospital to honor veterans
Nov. 11The 13th Annual Cherokee Heights Arts Festival (CHAF) will kick off November 13 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Festival is on Etowah Drive between Freyer and Seminole Drives. There is no admission charge, all parking is free and admission is open to the public. Attendees are requested to wear masks.

Cherokee Heights is a 1924 National Historic Register subdivision just a mile north of the Marietta Square. For many years, residents of this quaint neighborhood had produced a boutique, invitation-only art show to share their talents with friends. In 2009, they moved the show outdoors and threw it open to the world. The festival now offers the creative work of more than 35 neighbors and friends for this one day each year. The show will cover the entire block of Etowah Drive between Freyer and Seminole drives, just one block off Cherokee Street. Check out the Cherokee Heights Arts Festival Facebook page for a preview of the artists' works. The festival is entirely produced by dozens of volunteer neighbors.

On Saturday, two music "stages" at the ends of the block will feature local musicians in free performances throughout the day. Lovingly made local arts and crafts include original paintings, wood work, pottery, graphics, photography, jewelry, metal work, textiles, baked goods, original books and much more. There are lots of Christmas gifting possibilities and plenty of enticing items for kids, including the ever-popular homemade slime in various colors.

Lunch and refreshments are available for purchase at the Good Kitchen Restaurant booth. They will also be serving Glover Park Brewery products.

This show is free to all, courtesy of neighborhood sponsorships by SouthState Bank, Croy Engineering, Andy on Call, Northwest Exterminating, Melody Unger and Keller Williams Cityside, The Local Exchange, Marietta Dental Associates, Heritage Elevator Company, The Steve and Virginia Tumlin Foundation (Mayor Tumlin is a child of Freyer Drive), Sessions Stand, Mountain High Mulch, and, one of our newest neighbors, The Butcher on Whitlock.
TOMS RIVER  The final act of Cherokee's soccer season  a four-game win streak that equaled the Chiefs' longest of the season and brought them right to the precipice of a South Jersey Group 4 championship  was explained in the very last game.

Cherokee didn't come away a winner from Toms River North, where it faced a two-time defending sectional champion, but it put an adaptability on display that belies a 13-5-1 showing, or a third-place finish in a stacked division race.

The Chiefs were better when it ended than when it started. That goes for both the season and the game.

I told them they didn't get beat  they went to PKs, Cherokee coach Glenn Thomsen said.

Toms River North's AJ Emnace (9) goes up for a header with Steven Trombetta (15) and Ryan Fischer of Cherokee during their South Jersey Group 4 championship meeting at Toms River North on Thursday, November 11, 2021.

Toms River North won the penalty shootout, 4-3, after the teams battled to a scoreless draw.

They were true to themselves, as far as practicing PKs; I told them to go the way they've been practicing, with pace. If the keeper picked the right way, that's just the way it is, but at least you were true to yourself, and the way you went. Nobody missed the frame.

Nobody did.

But Toms River North keeper Dawson Kanuik made two saves  on the third shot and the fifth, which enabled the Mariners, who'd missed high and wide on their very first try, to make up the deficit and get their noses in front.Jake Nagle buried the Mariners' final try, and the deed was done. Toms River North captured a third straight sectional championship and will face Central Jersey champ Freehold Township Tuesday in a state semifinal.

Story continues

Cherokee, the 11th seed in the tournament, had won four straight games, all on the road  at Rancocas Valley in their regular-season finale, at sixth-seeded Millville, at third-seeded Washington Township, and at second-seeded Kingsway  a team that had beaten the Chiefs decisively just two weeks earlier.

These kids  there wasn't one negative comment throughout the season, even with our five losses, Thomsen said. We just adapted, the second time we played a team, or even a third time, and they were all in. This team was relentless all season long. They were just a positive group of kids, the next day in practice, after a win or a loss, it was back to the grind, and they were focused.

Thursday's game, then, was the season in microcosm. The Mariners had a goal disallowed in the eighth minute and looked at that point like they might spend the day in Cherokee's defensive third. But the Chiefs' defenders denied them the final touch in front of the net, and goalkeeper Nick Ori made the saves he needed to make to keep the game level.

At halftime, Cherokee made some adjustments, and by the first overtime, they were starting to take full effect. The Chiefs carried the play for that 10-minute stretch.

We changed the formation on them, Thomsen said. We got one extra guy up top, to give the defense a little bit of a break. Everything worked that we did. We started off with one formation, and it looked like we weren't getting on the attacking end enough, so we changed to another formation. It helped out, for sure.

A restart in the fifth minute of overtime led to the best chance. Chris Meder sent a volley toward the net from about 20 yards away that bounced off the Mariners' Matt Bozicev and right into the path of the Chiefs' Jackson Bialy about 12 yards out, but North defender Ryan McGuire got a foot in front of Bialy and caught just enough of the ball to send his left-footed finish over the bar.

The Chiefs had a restart from just outside the box in the second overtime that Miguel Graterol sent to David Farnan at the far post, but Farnan's headed finish sailed wide.

North's Jared Brown nodded Vinny O'Donnell's corner high and wide a moment later, and the die was cast.

It was a draw  but someone had to advance.

Obviously I'm going to remember getting here, but the entire game, they were so positive: we've got this now. End of the first half, we're shutting them out. End of regulation: we've got 'em, they're tired, Thomsen said. They were positive the entire way  even when I read the lineup for the five PK takers. Not one doubt was in any of their minds. I always said doubt is the biggest enemy in your head, and these kids didn't back off to any team. We went at them, harder, every single time we played them. That's what I'll remember about them.

That  and the fact that in the end they were as good as he'd always promised them they could be.

As far as I'm concerned, we took the state champs to PKs, Thomsen said, smiling. Now it's up to them to win it.

Mariners figure it out

It could have, and probably should have been up three goals by intermission, but Toms River North stayed composed through what might have been some frustrating times.

Did coach Joe Mahon have some words of encouragement for the Mariners?

Of course he did.

But he let them share some words of encouragement with each other first.

I usually will take my time, said Mahon, the Mariners coach. I usually talk to my athletic director, who's Ted Gillen, who coached at East. He's my mentor, so I rely on him. We talk with my assistant coaches; we huddle up, and I let the players go down there for about five minutes, and they talk it out.

They were a little frustrated, but you've got to keep your composure and play for 80 minutes.

What was said was pretty much what Mahon expected to be said.

We told each other, just keep it up; leave no doubt out there, Nagle said. We always say that. Hard work; we knew we were in this game, we knew we had it from the start, and it would be unlucky if we lost it, so we had to just continue to work. We knew the time was going to come, and when they opportunity came we were going to finish it. Unlucky that didn't happen in the first 100 minutes, but the penalty shootout, we took advantage of it, and we made the most of it.

Just do what we do best, Kanuik said. Knock it back to the 6, or the 18, and just try to finish. But we just couldn't.

Plan coming together

Tuesday's game will be the third of the season between Toms River North and Freehold Township. The teams battled to a scoreless draw in their scheduled meeting on Oct. 12 and clashed again 14 days later, in the semifinal round of the Shore Conference Tournament.

The Mariners took that one, 4-1, as AJ Emnace scored twice. Toms River North's senior class has a 3-0-2 all-time record against the Patriots, whose last win in the series came in the 2012 SCT.

Toms River North's three-year run at the top is actually the culmination of a plan that's been in effect even longer, and it revolved around those upperclassmen. Mahon and the Toms River North coaching staff saw their potential, but they couldn't have seen they way they'd bond together.

As a coach, you can only hope for that part.

This group  when they were seventh graders, we knew that they were coming, and they just love each other, Mahon said. And I'm not just saying that because I'm emotional right now, but they really do. There's not an alpha among them. They love coming to practice, to bust each other's chops.

And they love getting down to work  so much so that Mahon doesn't have to assert a lot of authority.

It's not a lot of work for me. They pretty much can run the practices, he said. They're good, high-character kids, they do well in school, and I love every single one of them. I really do. They've spoiled me.

South Jersey Group 1

The Group 1 state semifinal will be all South Jersey, no matter what the brackets say.

Central Jersey champ Florence High School, a co-champion in the Burlington County Scholastic League's Freedom Division with Palmyra High School, will host Haddon Township, the team that defeated the Panthers Thursday in the South Jersey Group 1 championship.

Top-seeded Florence advanced in a penalty shootout with second-seeded Middlesex.

Luke Chatten was the hero in the South Jersey game as the Hawks overcame a goal deficit. Cole McAmy put Palmyra ahead, but a goal by Chatten tied it, and he assisted on Graham Looram's game winner in the 72nd minute.

Looram's goal was his sixth in four playoff games.

South Jersey Group 2

Patrick Little and Ege Kanli scored first-half goals as Delran raced out to a lead and coasted to a 4-0 win over West Deptford in the sectional championship game. The Bears' run of five straight sectional championships ended last season because a COVID shutdown kept them from competing in the postseason, but nine years have passed now, since they lost a playoff game before the sectional final. They were eliminated in a shootout in 2014 and won the state championship in 2013.

Drew Roskos and Michael Canli also scored for the Bears. Roskos' goal was his 29th of the season.

Delran's will be on the road at Rumson-Fair Haven Tuesday for a state semifinal. The Bulldogs advanced with a 2-1 win over Holmdel.

South Jersey Group 3

Cherry Hill West eliminated Moorestown in a penalty shootout, after the teams battled to a 1-1 draw. Gabe Faust was the scorer for the Lions early in the second half. Justin Talbot tied the game for Moorestown two minutes later.

West won the shootout, 5-4. The Lions will be on the road at Hopewell Valley Tuesday after the Bulldogs' 2-1 win over Long Branch Thursday.

John A. Lewis is a sports writer for the Burlington County Times, Courier Post and The Daily Journal. E-mail him at jlewis@thebct.com or follow on Twitter @JohnLewis19. Please consider supporting local journalism with a subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Cherokee falls to Toms River North in shootout
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Conservative Chilean presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast said on Friday that he does not feel like a "far-right" politician, as he has been called in the press, but rather a candidate "of common sense."

With polls showing him neck-and-neck with his left-wing rival ahead of the Nov. 21 election, Kast told a news conference that it was journalists who have labeled him far-right. He said such categories are "old" and that his campaign seeks to break traditional patterns.

"How do you suppose that someone you call extreme right is currently ahead in the polls? Are all the Chileans who vote for me from the extreme right? That is not true," he said.

"I don't feel like the ultra-right," he said. "I am not."

Kast said his proposals on immigration, the environment and the economy "are common-sense" positions.

He dismissed comparisons with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro or former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kast proposes a more "efficient" state, criticizes the political class in general and embraces the legacy of the late dictator Augusto Pinochet who, he has said, would vote for him.

"We don't have a way to ask him, but I don't think he would have many alternatives," he said. His main opposition on Nov. 21 will be leftist Gabriel Boric, a former student leader.

Kast is against abortion, which is only partially allowed in Chile, and says an eventual government of his would not promote the legalization of marriage between two people of the same sex.

Kast has criticized on numerous occasions the heavy flow of undocumented immigrants coming through northern Chile, saying the problem stems from "a narco-dictatorship in Venezuela."

"We should expel the Venezuelan ambassador from Chile," he said. "If we only have to have consular relations with them, then so be it."

(Reporting by Natalia Ramos; writing by Hugh Bronstein; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne will seek reelection in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District, she announced Friday, officially closing the door on a possible run for governor in 2022.

Axne, a West Des Moines Democrat, previously ruled out running for the U.S. Senate, but she had left open the possibility of running for governor.

She announced the news during a Friday morning taping of Iowa Press on Iowa PBS.

"Folks, I'm going to be running for the United States Congress here in Iowa's 3rd District," she said.

The news comes just days after Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks said she would compete in the 1st District rather than stay in a newly redrawn 3rd District.

The pair of announcements help solidify the field of candidates that will compete in the 3rd District, which includes Des Moines and is expected to be among the most hotly contested races in the country.

More: Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks will run for reelection in new 1st Congressional District

Already, outside organizations like the National Republican Congressional Committee have been targeting Axne with attack ads as they try to unseat vulnerable Democrats.

Axne is one of only a handful of congressional Democrats in the country to win in a district Trump carried in 2020, though she won by a narrow margin. Axne beat Republican challenger David Young by just 1.4 percentage points, 49% to 47.6%. Libertarian candidate Bryan Holder earned about 3.4% of the vote  a share that some Republicans said undercut Young's effort.

This election cycle, Axne will compete in a new set of counties reorganized under the 3rd District as a result of the state's redistricting process.

More: Iowa lawmakers accept second redistricting plan, setting up next decade of politics

Overall, the partisan makeup of the new district remains largely unchanged, with Democrats continuing to account for about 36% of registered voters and Republicans making up about 34%.

But some geographic shifts could make Axne's reelection campaign more difficult.

Story continues

Polk and Dallas Counties, the two largest population centers, still anchor the 3rd District. But it loses several counties along the state's western border that Axne had focused on during her previous two terms while addressing severe flooding there, helping her to make inroads with voters. Instead, the district gains several other rural counties that tend to favor Republicans that Axne has not campaigned in before.

Axne said her job is to meet those new voters "and tell all those folks that I'm there for them and I've got their back."

"Its about taking my voice out to the people that I would be representing, hearing from them, listening to their concerns and talking with them about how Ive already been putting policy in place to benefit their lives and address those concerns," Axne said. "But also the policy that Im currently working on thats helping them."

Those issues include securing more money for biofuels, lowering prescription drug prices, improving mental health care for veterans and addressing the nation's supply chain problems.

Many of those subjects, Axne said, can be addressed through President Joe Biden's agenda, including a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that Biden plans to sign Monday and a $1.75 trillion "Build Back Better" bill that would include money for child care, lower prescription drug prices and pay for education and climate change initiatives.

"I believe that once we get the infrastructure bill signed into law, the Build Back Better Act signed into law, next year folks are seeing expansion of those child care centers, theyre seeing more money in their pocket because of the earned income tax credit or the child tax credit," Axne said. "I think about the folks here who are on insulin. Were going to cap it at $35 a month."

Who is running against Cindy Axne?

No Democrats have announced a challenge to Axne, but a handful of Republicans are competing in a primary election as the party seeks to unseat her.

Among them are state Sen. Zach Nunn of Bondurant, who currently leads the Republican field in fundraising. Nunn raised $281,905 in total receipts during the fundraising quarter that ended in October, giving him $213,779 in cash on hand.

Political newcomer Nicole Hasso of Johnston raised $170,863 and finished the quarter with $134,670 in the bank.

More: Why Iowa Democrat Cindy Axne voted for $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan

Retired State Rep. Mary Ann Hanusa, a Council Bluffs resident, previously announced she would run in Iowas 3rd Congressional District. But as a result of redistricting, her home county of Pottawattamie now sits in the 4th District, which is more heavily conservative and represented by incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra.

Hanusa told the Des Moines Register she had been waiting on Miller-Meeks' decision before deciding what to do with her own campaign. Had Miller-Meeks chosen to compete in the 3rd District, Hanusa said she would not have challenged her.

"Obviously deference went to Mariannettes decision," Hanusa said. "So now that thats been made, I will look at the situation and consider everything. For right now, the campaigns still on."

Since launching her campaign in April, Hanusa has raised $103,619, including $65,826 in the third quarter. She has $44,718 in the bank.

More: A year out, Iowa candidates raise money for 2022 elections; Finkenauer, Hinson rake in most

Gary Leffler, a Republican activist from West Des Moines, has filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission, but he has not yet filed financial reports.

Axne goes into the race with about $1.6 million in cash on hand after raising $757,831 during the third quarter.

Despite outraising her opponents, she knows she's facing an onslaught of ads from national Republican groups.

"I am the number one targeted race by the National Republican Campaign Committee," she said. "They want to take me out so that they can have the House."

In a sign of how competitive the race will be, state and national Republicans quickly issued statements criticizing Axne following her reelection announcement.

"Axne has spent the past two years hiding from Iowans and cozying up to Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden," Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann said. "Axne represents a continuation of Biden and Pelosi's disastrous agenda and Iowa Republicans are committed to fighting back to stop it."

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Register. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Cindy Axne to run for reelection, not making run for governor
Given Big Tech's rapacious appetite for consumer data, more legislative and regulatory safeguards are needed to protect people's privacy. (Associated Press)

Arguably, no one knows more about your online activities than your internet service provider. And every leading ISP says it takes users' privacy very, very seriously.

"Your information and your privacy are important  to you and to us," AT&T declares at the outset of its privacy policy.

"Your privacy is important to us," says Verizon.

"Your privacy is important to Charter," says the parent of cable heavyweight Spectrum.

Yet a recent report from the Federal Trade Commission concluded that, declarations such as these aside, six of the top ISPs are focused on gathering and exploiting as much of users' personal information as they can  and keeping such activities hidden from customers.

Among the FTC's findings:

"While several ISPs in our study tell consumers they will not sell their data, they fail to reveal to consumers the myriad of ways that their data can be used, transferred or monetized outside of selling it, often burying such disclosures in the fine print of their privacy policies."

"There is a trend in the ISP industry to purport to offer consumers some choices with respect to the use of their data. However, problematic interfaces can result in consumer confusion as to how to exercise these choices, potentially leading to low opt-out rates."

"Although many of the ISPs in our study purported to offer consumers access to their information, the information was often either indecipherable or nonsensical without context, potentially leading to low access requests."

"While several of the ISPs in our study provided time frames for deleting information, many asserted that they keep information as long as it is needed for a business reason. However, many ISPs in our study have the ability to define (or leave undefined) what constitutes a business reason, giving them virtually unfettered discretion."

The internet service providers examined by the agency include AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Charter Communications (Spectrum), Comcast, T-Mobile and Google Fiber. Together they represent about 98% of the mobile internet market, according to the FTC.

Story continues

Privacy has been much on my mind this week after Tuesday's column about a parking validation app from Los Angeles-based Metropolis Technologies. The app is used at parking facilities nationwide, including the garage of the Trader Joe's store in Hollywood.

For the record, TJ's says it has nothing to do with the operations of that garage; the store is just a building tenant.

Although a Metropolis spokesperson insisted the company "does not share user info with marketing partners," the company's more than 4,000-word privacy policy suggests otherwise.

Along with collecting a startling amount of user data, the policy says that Metropolis reserves the right to monitor "pages that you visit before, during and after" using the companys online parking validation, as well as "information about the links you click."

It says the company will track your online activities regardless of which device you use, and "may allow third-party advertising partners to set technologies and other tracking tools to collect information regarding your activities and your device."

Metropolis says that even though its privacy policy says it may do these things, it doesn't. In other words, "trust us."

Let's be real clear: Nearly all online companies, including the Los Angeles Times, have what I would deem to be aggressive data collection practices.

To my mind, however, there's a difference between a Google or a Facebook, which provide valuable services in return for their prying eyes, and an app that serves a single, ostensibly benign purpose  parking validation.

That said, data mining by Big Tech is out of control, and the FTC's examination of the internet's gatekeepers shows that more legislative and regulatory safeguards are needed to protect people's privacy.

I reached out to each of the ISPs listed in the agency's report, as well as industry associations representing cable and wireless companies. Some responded. Some didn't.

The answers I did get were predictable  and for the most part ducked any response to the FTC's findings.

"T-Mobile shares the FTCs focus on consumer privacy and building trust, and we also support federal legislation that would create one uniform standard for all online companies," a company spokesperson said.

"Consumers online safety and privacy is a top priority for the wireless industry, and federal legislation that uniformly protects users across all platforms is the best way forward," said a spokesperson for the wireless industry group CTIA.

"Congress must enact a national, comprehensive federal privacy framework that puts consumers first and applies uniformly to all companies operating online," said a spokesperson for USTelecom, representing broadband providers.

I asked each whether there was any specific privacy legislation they support. No response.

Only the cable industry took a swing at the FTC's conclusions. A spokesperson for NCTA  The Internet & Television Assn., an industry group, called the report "misleading and profoundly disappointing."

The cable industry supports "federal legislation to codify strong protections into law with one set of rules that all companies are bound by," the spokesperson said.

There are various bills making the rounds on Capitol Hill aimed at reining in Big Tech's voracious appetite for consumer data. One would prohibit tech platforms such as Google or Amazon from favoring their own products or services. Another would establish more online protections for kids.

But I'm not aware of any pending legislation that would address the points cited by the FTC, or that would create consumer-oriented data collection limits similar to those in place in Europe and China.

Much of the tech industry's stance on privacy is just posturing  and part of ongoing efforts to undermine strict privacy rules in California and other states.

When the industry says it supports federal privacy legislation, what it's really saying is it wants watered-down national rules that would preempt tougher measures at the state level.

What consumers should be demanding are privacy regulations with teeth, not least a requirement that no company can collect or store user data without people's permission.

Or, put another way, we need rules that say a parking validation app has to be, first and foremost, a parking validation app.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Correction: Amy McKenzie Watts, whose photo was included in an earlier version of this story, was not involved in the calls for a recount.

Eleven months after the 2020 election, county clerks in Oregon are getting a new round of calls and emails disputing the results.

Marion County Clerk Bill Burgess said the requests for audits and canvasses of election results in the county have been coming since June. But he said they've picked up in the past few weeks following an audit of a county's election results in Arizona.

People, theyll come and theyll start asking the question and then they wont wait for an answer, Burgess said. Theyll start railing away and sometimes with a lot of obscenity and all, too.

In the 2020 presidential election, voters in Marion County swung to Democrat Joe Biden over Republican Donald Trump by 49.2% to 48%, a margin of 1,870 votes out of 164,308. That was a reversal from the 2016 election when Trump carried the county.

Burgess said the calls and emails have also become threatening, including some he's forwarded to the FBI in the past few weeks. He said some of his election staff don't want their photo taken for fear of being tracked.

It seems to go in waves, he said. Sometimes you cant tell if these are direct threats or not.

Marion County Clerk Bill Burgess at the Marion County Clerk's office in downtown Salem on May 20, 2020.

Oregon's recount process

A person who identified themselves as Jason Yordy sent an email to Burgess claiming there are inconsistencies in political, registration and population trends in Marion County in the 2020 election compared to the prior four elections.

We the people demand a canvas, and a full forensic audit should follow! We have hired you to be a gatekeeper for honesty and fairness! That was your oath taken as a hired election official, Yordy wrote in his email, which didnt mention Marion County by name.

County clerks received a directive from Secretary of State elections division director Deborah Scroggin last week clarifying that post-election audits in Oregon can only happen within Oregon's authorized processes.

Story continues

Election: Oregon Secretary of State certifies 2020 election results

Oregon law requires random sampling hand counts or risk-limiting audits in all counties following primary, general and special elections. All of Oregons 36 county elections officials conducted these reviews, which require hand recounts of ballots, for the 2020 General Election. All reviews confirmed the certified results.

The state requires counties to retain ballots and return envelopes for two years and retain chain of custody of them, including not releasing them to third parties.

For local stories that matter, subscribe today.

Under Oregon law, automatic recounts happen when the defeated candidate loses by less than .2% of votes. People can request recounts within 35 days of the election, and the requester must pay for it, though that may be refunded if the outcome is changed to their favor.

Burgess pointed to an audit performed in December on Measure 110 in the 2020 General Election at the request of and paid for by a Republican precinct committee person who told the county there was voter fraud in the election. The audit confirmed the results.

Voters drop off their ballots on election day at a drive-thru location outside the Marion County Courthouse.

Arizona recount spurs more concern

A hand recount of the election in Maricopa County, Arizona last week by a partisan group found Biden won the county against Trump by more votes than initially were reported.

Since that, the calls and emails have spiked in many counties in Oregon.

The Maricopa results were that they found that the election was still valid, that they didnt need to disqualify those ballots, Douglas County Clerk Daniel Loomis said. Theres folks that will walk away from that saying, 'I feel better' and theres folks that will walk away from that saying, 'I still think somethings hidden.'

One of the common refrains from those complaining is a concern about ballot machines being tampered with online.

Loomis pointed out some of those claims came from Trump supporter and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, whose claims of voter fraud by electronic vote tampering have been debunked and who is facing lawsuits for defamation over his election conspiracy theories.

Oregon's elections are all by mail.

County clerks said the connectivity of the ballot-counting machines in Oregon has been disabled and they are kept in a room with no outside computer lines. They said they produce hard and electronic copies that are uploaded to the state.

Union County has also seen an increase in demands for recounts of presidential election results. County Clerk Robin Church partially blamed the pandemic.

People have too much time on their hands, Church said. Theyve been locked up for almost two years. "Theyre terrified and theyre sitting at home, just surfing the internet, believing everything they read, on both sides.

Election: Oregon Rep. Bill Post announces he will not seek re-election in 2022

Church said the calls started coming in to Union County in July and her answer to all of them is the same: Come watch an election.

But those who are complaining never come, she said.

Tell your readers, anybody who wants to, come to Union County and see an election, Church said. And you should go see what Marion County does. Just know every county virtually does the same thing.

Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@statesmanjournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler

Support local journalism by subscribing to the Statesman Journal.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Spike in calls for Oregon audit of 2020 election after Arizona recount
A US court Thursday granted former president Donald Trump's request to temporarily halt release of White House documents that could implicate him in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

The documents have been sought by the House Select Committee investigating the riot, and had been ordered released Tuesday by a US district judge.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit said Thursday, however, that it had granted what it called an administrative injunction and scheduled arguments for November 30.

The three-judge panel specified that the move "should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits" of the case.

On January 6, hundreds of Trump rampaging supporters overran Congress and delayed a joint session to confirm that Joe Biden had won the November 2020 election and would become president.

Biden has already approved release of the records, which are held by the National Archives. The House panel was to receive its first batch on Friday.

Overall the House has requested more than 770 pages of documents including records from Trump's top aides and memos to his press secretary.

Among the records are documents from Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows, his former senior advisor Stephen Miller and his former deputy counsel Patrick Philbin.

Trump had also hoped to block the release of the White House Daily Diary -- a record of his activities, trips, briefings and phone calls.

Another trove of documents Trump does not want Congress to see includes memos to his former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, a handwritten note on the January 6 events and a draft text of his speech at the "Save America" rally. Delivered just prior to the attack, Trump in that address urged followers to "fight like hell" in defense of his false claim that the election was stolen from him.

Earlier this week, the House committee issued subpoenas to top Trump aides who allegedly plotted to overturn his defeat in a "war room" at a luxury Washington hotel as well as for some of his most senior lieutenants, including McEnany and Miller.

bfm/dw
Pictured with Addie Bell (seated, second from left) are her mother Jamie, sister Ava and father Casey. Standing (from left to right) are: Dale assistant girls' basketball coach Scott Wilson, Dale assistant softball coach Bryce Clemons, Dale head softball coach Andy Powell and Dale girls' head basketball coach Eric Smith.

Dale High School senior softball standout Addie Bell signed a national letter of intent with William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., on Wednesday.

Bell batted .455 with one home run, four triples, 16 doubles, 29 runs batted in and 52 runs scored. She also owned a .678 slugging percentage and .504 on-base percentage.

More: Six Dale softball players make all-district

More: Four area players make Fastpitch All-State

This article originally appeared on The Shawnee News-Star: Dale softball star Addie Bell signs with William Jewell College
Students of Duke Ellington School of the Arts threatened a walkout, saying many of their peers identify as LGBTQ+

Duke Ellington School of the Arts in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., has canceled a planned fundraiser with alumnus Dave Chappelle after students threatened a walkout.

The fundraiser and dedication for The Dave Chappelle Theatre was set to take place on Nov. 23.

Dave Chappelle attends the UK premiere of Dave Chappelle: Untitled at Cineworld Leicester Square earlier this month in London, England. (Photo: Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)

According to a report from the Politico Playbook, two students got into a heated debate with staff after being told they were expected to host an exhibition on the day of the event. Chappelle was expected to attend.

The students said that they were uncomfortable supporting Chappelle because many of their peers identify as LGBTQ+.

In the past, Chappelle has regularly visited the school, has donated $100,000 to his alma mater, gifted it one of his Emmy awards, delivered a commencement address in 2015, and held a master class for Ellington students.

However, Chappelles most recent controversy surrounding statements that he has made about transgender people, particularly in his most recent Netflix special, The Closer, and statements that he has continued to make about the community has incensed the students at the famed arts school.

According to a report from The Washington Post, Chappelle was in D.C. just hours before The Closer was released on Netflix, and in a pop-up screening of the special, he raised money for the school.

Im happy that youre interested in the special, Chappelle said in his speech to donors at the Angelika Pop-Up theater at Union Market, per the report. Im happier that youre interested in Ellington.

Chappelle told the audience that having the school name a theater after him was the most significant honor of his life.

(Credit: Getty Images)

He noted that I used to skip school. I would hide in there when I was skipping class. Who would have thought that that theater would one day be named after me? Chappelle said. But I understand it because sometimes when you love things, they love you back. And I loved that school.

Story continues

The Post noted that Chappelle plans to raise nearly $1.5 million to support teacher salaries at the school. The Ellington School saved my life, Chappelle said.

Ellingtons principal, Sandi Logan, confirmed Chappelles support: Every time we ask him to do something, hes always done it.

The comedian has claimed in recent weeks that he has been canceled, due to his remarks about transgender people in The Closer, where he likened being transgender to wearing blackface.

Chappelle has not yet issued a response to the cancellation of the event.

The Duke Ellington School of the Arts was founded over 40 years ago, and according to its website is an exemplary school that teaches a full academic course as well as an arts major: Dance, Literary Media, and Communications, Museum Studies, Instrumental or Vocal Music, Theatre, Technical Design, and Production, or Visual Arts.

Have you subscribed to theGrios podcast Dear Culture? Download our newest episodes now!

TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!

The post Dave Chappelles high school cancels fundraiser for theater named in his honor appeared first on TheGrio.
Nov. 12Minnesota's statewide deer harvest during the opening weekend of the state's firearms deer season was down 11% from 2020 and 15% below the five-year mean, statistics from the Department of Natural Resources show.

In statistical terms, mean refers to the average of a data set. Minnesota's firearms deer season opened Saturday, Nov. 6.

RELATED STORIES:

 Read more hunting stories in Northland Outdoors

 Read more fishing stories in Northland Outdoors

 Read more recreation stories in Northland Outdoors

Hunters registered 58,370 whitetails during the first two days of the firearms season, the DNR said. The biggest drop occurred in the 100-series permit areas of northern Minnesota, where hunters registered 13,222 deer, down 20% from last year and 22% below the five-year mean.

In the 200-series deer permit areas, hunters registered 38,545 deer, down 10% from 2020 and down 16% from the five-year mean.

The only increase occurred in the 300-, 600- and 700-permit areas farther south, where hunters registered 6,603 deer, up 10% from last year and similar to the five-year mean.

By region, hunters in the DNR's Northwest Region registered 18,423 deer, down 12% from 2020 and down 19%, when compared with the two-year mean.

Opening weekend tallies in other parts of the state were as follows:



Northeast: Hunters registered 12,768 deer, down 12% from 2020 and 22% below the two-year mean.



Central: 18,208 deer were registered, down 10% from 2020 and 15% below the two-year mean.



Southwest: 8,971 deer, similar to last year and down only 1% from the two-year mean.

Todd Froberg, acting big game program manager for the DNR in Altura, Minnesota, said Wednesday that he expected to have updated harvest numbers in a few days. Because hunters have 48 hours to register their deer, the tallies to this point only reflect opening weekend.

Anecdotal reports from opening weekend suggested a slower opener, driven in part by balmy November weather that made the deer less apt to move. Still, Froberg says, the decline was unexpected.

Story continues

"I think it is fairly surprising that it is down that much considering license sales were very similar, down 1% total" from 2020, Froberg said in an email. "Weather was warmer than average but not outrageous, crop harvest was ahead of schedule from last year, and we didn't have too harsh of a winter anywhere. (There) should have been good numbers of deer in most places."

Perhaps, he said, last year's COVID-driven bump in deer harvest was real.

Despite the drop in opening weekend numbers, Froberg says he expects the harvest to catch up and level off by Sunday, Nov. 14, the last day of season in 200-series, 300-series and most 600-series deer permit areas. The firearms deer season in 100-series permit areas and permit area 604 continues through Sunday, Nov. 21.

Minnesota hunters registered 159,762 deer during the 2020 firearms deer season for a success rate of 33.1%, DNR statistics show, up from 150,743 deer and a success rate of 31.2% in 2019.

Overall, Minnesota hunters had registered 79,106 deer so far this fall as of Wednesday, a number that includes archery but does not include special hunts.  Brad Dokken

Deer tales: Thompson woman shoots first deer

Good things come to those who wait, as the old saying goes, and such was the case for Sara Larson of Thompson, North Dakota, who shot her first deer, a whitetail buck, Monday, Nov. 8. Sara, who just turned 21, was hunting with her uncle, Jimmy Hejlik, near Fordville, North Dakota, when she shot the buck.

"Sara failed to get a deer during the North Dakota youth season a few years ago," said Grandpa Jim Hejlik of Fordville, who submitted the photo. "She has applied every year and finally was able to get a license this year."

And a dandy buck, to boot!

Do you have a hunting photo you'd like to share with Herald readers? Send jpeg photos to Brad Dokken at bdokken@gfherald.com. Please include the hunter's name, town of residence and general area the game was taken.  Brad Dokken

Beltrami CWD sampling falls short of goal

Sampling efforts in the surveillance zone near a Beltrami County deer farm that tested positive for chronic wasting disease last spring appear to have fallen just short of the DNR's goal to collect 1,800 samples for testing.

The testing operation wrapped up Tuesday, Nov. 9, said Blane Klemek, Northwest Region wildlife manager for the DNR in Bemidji. Klemek was part of a DNR crew working the surveillance zone from opening day through late Tuesday.

After the deer farm tested positive last spring, the DNR designated the area as a CWD "surveillance zone" and implemented mandatory testing of deer shot opening weekend in Deer Permit Area 184 and all or parts of adjacent permit areas 110, 169 and 197.

DNR crews collected 1,677 samples during the opening weekend surveillance effort, Klemek said.

"We came close," to our surveillance target, Klemek said. "It's hard to say what hunter compliance was like, but at ground zero, the Blackduck sampling station collected the most samples of any of the 21 stations."  Brad Dokken

N.D. CWD sampling update

A "decent" number of hunters dropped off deer heads for testing in parts of North Dakota hunting Unit 2B during the opening weekend of deer season after the Game and Fish Department set up last-minute dropoff sites in Fargo, Hillsboro and Grand Forks following the surprise finding of CWD in a healthy-looking buck taken last month southwest of Climax, Minnesota, during Minnesota's youth deer season.

"We had about 20 people come to get their deer sampled in Hillsboro on Saturday and Sunday," said Charlie Bahnson, wildlife veterinarian for Game and Fish in Bismarck. Game and Fish had staff onsite in Hillsboro over the weekend to remove the lymph nodes from deer for sampling. That way, hunters could still retain the deer heads for mounting.

In addition, Bahnson said, about a dozen deer heads were dropped off at each of the collection sites in Fargo and Grand Forks.

"Overall, the whole opening weekend was kind of slow for all of the units we're doing surveillance on," Bahnson said. "This next week and weekend will be pretty telling. By that time, people have got their animals boned out, and sometimes, it can take a few days for the head to actually get to our collection sites."

On the Minnesota side of the river, the DNR collected about 25 samples at drop sites in Climax and Nielsville during the first few days of the firearms deer season, according to Seth Goreham, acting wildlife research manager for the DNR. Hunters dropped off 30 deer heads, he said, but five were fawns and couldn't be used. Deer must be at least 1 year old to be tested.

The last-minute surveillance efforts on both sides of the Red River resulted when a man hunting with his daughter during Minnesota's youth deer season paid for CWD testing out of pocket for the mature buck his daughter shot, and the results unexpectedly came back positive last week.

No cases of the disease fatal to deer, elk and moose had ever been reported in the area.

Whether testing efforts will remain in place for future deer seasons will depend on the outcome of this year's surveillance, biologists on both sides of the river said.

Bahnson of Game and Fish said he'd like to see more samples collected.

"Overall, I think it's probably a little too early to draw conclusions on where we're at exactly for numbers," Bahnson said.  Brad Dokken

Armstrong co-sponsors CWD legislation

Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-North Dakota, recently co-sponsored federal legislation to help combat chronic wasting disease, the contagious neurological disease that's fatal to deer, elk and moose.

Introduced by Reps. Ron Kind, D-Wisconsin, and Glenn Thompson, R-Pennsylvania, the Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act will improve research and management aimed at reducing the spread of CWD, according to a news release from Armstrong's office.

The bill unanimously passed the House Agriculture Committee on Thursday, Oct. 21, and now awaits consideration on the House floor.

"CWD is a serious threat to deer herds in North Dakota and across our country," Armstrong said in a statement. "The Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act brings scientists, local officials, and hunters to the table to help manage and prevent the spread of CWD. It is important that we better understand the implications of this disease for the well-being of wildlife and to preserve our state's hunting heritage for generations to come."

The bill authorizes $70 million annually from Fiscal Year 2022 through Fiscal Year 2028 for research and management of CWD, with the money to be split evenly between the two purposes. Funds will be administered through cooperative agreements.

Several wildlife and sportsmen organizations support the legislation, including the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, National Wildlife Federation, Boone & Crockett, National Deer Association, North American Deer Farmers Association, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Mule Deer Foundation.  Herald staff report

Montana sees muley bucks still in velvet

An abundance of mule deer bucks still in velvet this hunting season in north-central and northeast Montana may be suffering the effects of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, the Billings Gazette reported.

Caused by a biting midge that thrives during drought conditions, EHD hits white-tailed deer the hardest but may affect testosterone production in mule deer bucks, according to the Billings Gazette story.

"We saw several mule deer in velvet brought by the Havre check station this year, and many more were reported by hunters," Scott Hemmer, a biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Havre, Montana, told the Gazette. "We have seen this phenomenon happen in Montana after past outbreaks of EHD, and past research has suggested a possible association between EHD and antler irregularities in deer, and other abnormalities like hoof sloughing."

Areas along the Missouri River in North Dakota were hit especially hard by EHD this fall, and localized cases also were encountered for the first time along the Red River near Warsaw and Drayton, North Dakota. The outbreak was severe enough in some western North Dakota hunting units that the Game and Fish Department offered deer license refunds for hunters who wanted them. The outbreak along the Red River wasn't extensive enough to warrant refund offers, Game and Fish officials said.  Herald staff report

Wanted: Your deer tales

Do you have a deer tale you'd like to share with Herald readers?

Send your hunting story, along with photos, if available, to Brad Dokken at bdokken@gfherald.com.

The Herald will run readers' hunting stories on the Northland Outdoors pages in Saturday's print edition as space permits.

The Northland Outdoors section of the Herald website is another option for sharing your hunting success, and photos usually are posted the same day they're received except for weekends. Send jpeg photos to Dokken at bdokken@gfherald.com. The Northland Outdoors section of the website can be found at grandforksherald.com/northland-outdoors.  Brad Dokken
Kyle Rittenhouse testifies about Gaige Grosskreutz holding a gun toward him during his trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse on November 10, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Mark Hertzberg/Pool via Getty Images

Kyle Rittenhouse's defense attorneys called a use-of-force expert to testify about the speed of the Kenosha shootings.

John Black testified that Rittenhouse shot three men that night in under a minute and 20 seconds.

Black warned the jury that videos don't show the "experience or perception" of the people seen in them.

An expert witness called by Kyle Rittenhouse's defense attorneys told the jury on Thursday that all three shootings in Kenosha on August 25, 2020, occurred within seconds of each other.

Rittenhouse, 18, is on trial for fatally shooting Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and injuring Gaige Grosskreutz. Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty and said he shot all three men in self-defense after they attacked him.

John Black, a use-of-force expert, gave a second-by-second breakdown of the events that night to the jury, emphasizing just how quickly the chaos and violence escalated. He said just one minute and 20 seconds elapsed between the first shot Rittenhouse fired that night and the last.

Black also testified that just two minutes and 55 seconds elapsed between the moment that Rosenbaum was first seen on video chasing Rittenhouse, and the moment Rittenhouse approached Kenosha police officers in an attempt to turn himself in.

John Black, use-of-force expert, testifies during Kyle Rittenhouse's trail at the Kenosha County Courthouse on November 11, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Sean Krajacic/Pool via Getty Images

Rittenhouse's team used Black's testimony to imply that those select minutes were the only timeframe needed to establish whether Rittenhouse was justified in shooting the men. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have examined the hours leading up to the shootings, and questioned Rittenhouse's decisions to attend the protests in the first place and to arm himself with an AR-15 rifle.

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys have played blurry and distant videos for the jury showing Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse into the parking lot of a car dealership, where Rittenhouse turned and opened fire.

Rittenhouse and other witnesses have testified that amid the chase, when Rittenhouse neared a dead end, Rosenbaum lunged for Rittenhouse's rifle. Black testified that all four shots Rittenhouse fired into Rosenbaum's body occurred in 0.739 seconds.

Story continues

Rittenhouse testified the previous day that when he neared the dead end, he turned around and saw Rosenbaum "coming at me, with his arms out in front of him."

"I remember his hand on the barrel of my gun," Rittenhouse testified.

Black warned that videos don't show the 'experience or perception' of the people seen in them

According to videos and multiple witnesses' testimony, Rittenhouse soon fled the scene of the Rosenbaum shooting - he testified that it was because a "mob" of people began screaming at him and chasing him - and ran down Sheridan Road towards a convoy of Kenosha police vehicles.

Black played videos showing Rittenhouse being chased by a number of people, including an unidentified man who jumped and kicked Rittenhouse in the head, and Huber, who struck Rittenhouse with his skateboard.

Black testified that Rittenhouse fired two shots at the man who kicked him, though missed, then fired another shot at Huber less than two seconds later, after Huber struck him with his skateboard. Rittenhouse testified Wednesday that Huber also grabbed his gun and tried to pull it away from him.

Black said 2.933 seconds passed between Rittenhouse's shot at Huber, and Rittenhouse's shot at Grosskreutz. Black played video showed Grosskreutz wielding a pistol and approaching Rittenhouse, briefly raising his hands, then darting forward.

Kyle aims his rifle at Grosskreutz, as Huber clutches the gunshot wound in his chest and falls to the ground. Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Rittenhouse testified Wednesday that he only opened fire when he saw Grosskreutz point his pistol at him. Grosskreutz testified on Monday that he believed Rittenhouse was "reracking" his rifle and wasn't accepting Grosskreutz's surrender, but agreed that the teenager did not shoot until Grosskreutz pointed his gun at Rittenhouse.

In total, Rittenhouse fired all four shots - two at the unidentified man, one at Huber, and one at Grosskreutz - in 5.468 seconds.

Black emphasized in his testimony that the videos of the shootings offered only a limited understanding of the events that night.

"Video has great value, but it is not the experience or perception of the people in the event," Black said. "It can't be."

Read the original article on Insider
A group of House Democrats have announced that on Friday they will formally introduce a measure to censure Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., for tweeting an edited Japanese cartoon showing him stabbing President Joe Biden and killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Gosar on Monday tweeted the message, "any anime fans out there?" with what appeared to be an edited clip of the Japanese cartoon series "Attack on Titan," in which the main characters fight off giants trying to exterminate humanity.

MORE: Video Rep. Paul Gosar video backlash

The edited clip of the show's opening credits depict Gosar and other GOP lawmakers flying through the air and stabbing giants with the faces of Biden and Ocasio-Cortez, in between images of Border Patrol officers with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

PHOTO: Rep. Paul Gosar objects to Arizona's Electoral College certification during a joint session of Congress to count the votes of the 2020 presidential election in the House Chamber in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021. (The Hill/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Gosar was immediately condemned by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats, some of whom called for his expulsion from Congress and charged him with glorifying violence against the prominent Democrats.

Pelosi tweeted on Tuesday, "Threats of violence against Members of Congress and the President of the United States must not be tolerated. @GOPLeader should join in condemning this horrific video and call on the Ethics Committee and law enforcement to investigate."

MORE: GOP congressman headlines conference where organizers push white nationalist rhetoric

"For a Member of Congress to post a manipulated video on his social media accounts depicting himself killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Biden is a clear cut case for censure," Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and other Democrats co-sponsoring her resolution wrote in a statement on Wednesday.

PHOTO: Rep. Jackie Speier, speaks at a press conference on the Equal Rights Amendment on Capitol Hill, Oct. 21, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, FILE)

"For that Member to post such a video on his official Instagram account and use his official congressional resources in the House of Representatives to further violence against elected officials goes beyond the pale."

Story continues

MORE: Potential 2024 GOP candidates take Election Day victory lap, lean into support of Donald Trump at Jewish Coalition

Ocasio-Cortez also denounced House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for not publicly criticizing Gosar's actions. Aides to the California Republican did not respond to a message from ABC News seeking comment on the video.

So while I was en route to Glasgow, a creepy member I work with who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups shared a fantasy video of him killing me And he'll face no consequences bc @GOPLeader cheers him on with excuses. Fun Monday! Well, back to work bc institutions don't protect woc https://t.co/XRnMAKsnNO  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 9, 2021

Gosar eventually took down the tweet and video Tuesday night, after Twitter placed a public interest notice on the post. He said the video produced by his office was meant to "symbolize the battle for the soul of America" and was "in no way intended to be a targeted attack against" the Democrats.

"The cartoon depicts the symbolic nature of a battle between lawful and unlawful policies and in no way intended to be a targeted attack against Representative Cortez or Mr. Biden," Gosar said in a statement.

PHOTO: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at an event at the US Climate Action Center at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 9, 2021. (Alastair Grant/AP)

"It is a symbolic cartoon. It is not real life. Congressman Gosar cannot fly. The hero of the cartoon goes after the monster, the policy monster of open borders. I will always fight to defend the rule of law, securing our borders, and the America First agenda," the statement said.

MORE: Recruiting whiffs, checkered pasts complicate battle for Senate: The Note

If the censure resolution is taken up by the full House and approved by a majority of lawmakers present and voting, Gosar could be forced to stand in the center of the House chamber as the resolution condemning his actions are read aloud.

PHOTO: The US Capitol Building is seen in Washington, D.C., Nov. 11, 2021. (Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images)

It's not yet clear if the House will take action against Gosar, who has courted controversy for spreading conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and appearing at a white nationalist event last winter -- though he distanced himself from the main organizer and his comments.

MORE: Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel Censured: 'There's No Evidence'

Twenty-three members of Congress have been censured for misconduct, according to a 2016 Congressional Research Service Report.

Former Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., was the last member of Congress to be censured -- in December 2010 -- accused of nearly a dozen ethics violations.

Democrats move to censure Gosar over violent video attacking Biden, AOC originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Kelvin Collins is president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau serving the Fall Line Corridor.

Have you paid your utility bill? Chances are that you have but that isnt stopping scammers from taking advantage of businesses and consumers by impersonating electric, water and cable company employees.

Utility companies across the area are warning their customers of scammers who will impersonate utility company employees with threats of deactivation of service  unless you pay up immediately.

Victims report receiving calls where the person on the line identifies themselves as a representative from your local utility company deactivation team. He or she tells you that you are late on your bill and you need to pay immediately, or your utilities will be shut off.

However, in addition to accepting payment by credit card, the caller sometimes wants you to pay by using prepaid debit cards or gift cards. The scammer instructs you to obtain one and call them back. This is a huge warning sign. Prepaid debit cards and gift cards are like cash. Once you transfer the money, you will be unable to retrieve it.

Prepaid debit cards are becoming an increasingly popular method of payment for scammers. Wire transfer services have tightened their security, so crooks have turned to these prepaid cards instead. The cards are difficult to trace, and you do not need photo identification to collect or spend the money. Be sure you treat a prepaid debit card like cash and remember that transactions cannot be reversed.

Scammers are also using other ways to prey on utility customers. Some will claim that the meter is not working properly and must be immediately replaced  at the customer's expense  or the service will be shut off. Other scammers are using email and door-to-door visits to reach customers. Watch out for emails disguised as overdue notices from your utility company.

Because local utility companies do sometimes contact their customers by phone, it can be difficult to tell a scammer from a real agent. Here are some tips:

Prepaid debit cards or other unusual forms of payment are red flags. If a caller specifically asks you to pay by prepaid debit card, a cash app, or wire transfer, this is a huge warning sign. Your utility company will accept a check or credit card and will usually direct you to one of their payment locations.

Story continues

Don't cave to pressure to pay immediately. If you feel pressured for immediate payment or personal information, hang up the phone and call the customer service number on your utility bill. This will ensure you are speaking to a real representative.

Know what you own. Remember that meters are usually the property of the utility company and would be the responsibility of the utility to replace or repair.

Schedule an appointment. Never allow anyone into your home to check electrical wiring, natural gas pipes, cable or appliances unless you have scheduled an appointment or reported a problem. Also, dont get lured outside to view broken meters, wires or point out property lines. This usually results in a second person robbing your house while youre out.

Always ask utility employees for proper identification. Utility companies provide their employees with identification and wont mind if you call to verify their identity.

There is never a shortage of ways for scam artists to try to separate you from your money, but with a little knowledge and a few questions, you might just be the one that gets away.

For more tips you can trust, visit bbb.org.

Kelvin Collins is president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau serving the Fall Line Corridor, which includes the Augusta-Aiken metro area. Direct questions or complaints about a specific company or charity to (800) 763-4222 or info@centralgeorgia.bbb.org.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Kelvin Collins: Scammers pushing false utility bills to get your money
The Daily Beast

NBCFollowing a cold open wherein Cecily Strongs Jeanine Pirro celebrated the Kyle Rittenhouses not guilty verdict with his chummy judge, Saturday Night Lives Weekend Update gave their two cents.On Friday, Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty in the murder of two men during a Black Lives Matter protest. So, hopefully he got all that shooting out of his system before he becomes a cop, joked Che. SNLs Jeanine Pirro Celebrates Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict With His JudgeProtests are being held
A North Carolina man wrongly convicted of murder and imprisoned for 26 years has been granted a full pardon by the governor.

Dontae Sharpe had fought to prove his innocence since his 1994 arrest. He was released from prison in August 2019.

"My family's name has been cleared," he told reporters on Friday. "It's a burden off of my shoulders and my family's shoulders."

The news follows a BBC documentary on the miscarriage of justice in his case.

Mr Sharpe's story highlighted how it can take years to get a full pardon even after a person is exonerated and wins their freedom.

Governor Roy Cooper said in a statement announcing the pardon that he had carefully reviewed the case, and those who have been wrongly convicted like Mr Sharpe "deserve to have that injustice fully and publicly acknowledged".

With the full pardon, Mr Sharpe will be able to file a request for compensation from the state.

"My freedom still ain't complete as long as there are people wrongfully in prison, wrongfully convicted, and people waiting on pardons," Mr Sharpe added.

"I've been in there and know there are guys that are innocent and know that our system is corrupt and needs to be changed."

Mr Sharpe is a fellow with Forward Justice, where he advocates for criminal justice reform in North Carolina.

He was convicted on a first-degree murder charge over the killing of George Radcliffe. Months after the trial, a teenage eyewitness for the state recanted her testimony.

It still took over two decades for Mr Sharpe to be exonerated and released from prison.

Now Dontae Sharpe's work truly begins

By Chelsea Bailey, BBC News

When I met Dontae Sharpe earlier this summer he told me he would dedicate the rest of his life to fixing America's criminal justice system.

Now that he's free - after nearly 30 years fighting to overturn a wrongful conviction and receive a full pardon - that work truly begins.

Story continues

Since 1989, more than 2,887 people have been exonerated, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. The registry notes their convictions amount to nearly 25,000 years wrongfully spent behind bars.

Ultimately, Mr Sharpe's freedom was solely in the hands of North Carolina's Governor, Roy Cooper, who only signed his pardon today after supporters spent years petitioning the state.

His lawyer, Caitlin Swain, said Mr Sharpe's battle is proof that there has to be a better way to do justice in North Carolina and this country.

It took decades of fighting and an army of dedicated lawyers, pastors, supporters and family members for Mr Sharpe to ultimately get his conviction overturned.

As he takes the evening - and the coming months - to process what this freedom means, he told me his focus remains on the people he left behind: "Our system is corrupt and it needs to change."
The death of one person in a police shooting and the death of another during a chase that preceded it raise reasonable questions that law enforcement agencies should be willing to answer in a timely, forthright manner. The public deserves to know what happened.

However, the Virginia State Police delayed releasing any information about the shooting or the crash. Inquiries to that agency and the Newport News Police Department have been brushed aside.

That leaves the people of Hampton Roads to again ask if transparency from law enforcement  which was promised in response to calls last year for improved police oversight in Virginia and across the nation  will ever come to pass.

On Saturday, Newport News police initiated a pursuit that ended with two dead  including one man shot by a state trooper  in reference to an aggravated assault, suspected abduction and suspected DUI.

Around 5 p.m., Newport News police tried to pull over a white 2007 Chevrolet sedan in the area of Hogan Drive and Jefferson Avenue, in the Oyster Point area of the city. The car failed to stop several times for police and got on Interstate 664 heading south.

When the car crossed the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel and entered Suffolk, Virginia State Police took over the pursuit, with Newport News police assisting.

The pursuit ended in a crash that killed the cars passenger, 47-year-old Amity Jo Grey, of Newport News. The driver, Brian Michael Price, 45, of Chesapeake, was shot and killed by a state trooper after getting into an altercation with the officer following the crash.

The first notice that anything had happened came in the form of a press release more than five hours after the fatal incident. In the days since, details have been hard to come by.

The State Police have not held a press conference about the incident that resulted in the deaths of two people, even though such press conferences are routine after police involved shootings, both locally and nationally.

Story continues

Newport News police issued a brief statement that they were attempting to pull the car over as a result of an aggravated assault, abduction and DUI, but the details of that were murky. In the news release, authorities said that no additional details would be provided.

Heres why thats a problem, and not only for journalists. The public has a right to know what is happening on the streets of our communities and how our police forces are operating to keep us all safe.

For example, reporters wanted to know when and where that aggravated assault and abduction took place, if the woman who died was the victim of that assault and abduction, and whether the driver was the perpetrator, and where they got onto the interstate in Newport News.

But the spokesperson for the Newport News police department said he didnt know the answers, and in fact that he hadnt even read the reports about it.

Perhaps law enforcement believes that deadly incidents deserve no explanation, and that their conduct and tactics shouldnt be scrutinized.

By avoiding tough questions, police leadership does our officers  and the public  a disservice, especially if the actions by officers and troopers last weekend were legal and justified. Especially if those actions helped keep the public safe.

Trust begins with communication. It is bolstered by transparency and accountability. Whats more, the public is calling for just that: greater openness by law enforcement.

For now, however, that communication, that transparency, that trust is missing. And Hampton Roads would be better off were it a hallmark of law enforcement rather than an afterthought.
When reporters write about PFAS, they often refer to the toxic substances that have contaminated water supplies throughout Pennsylvania as "forever chemicals."

In case there's some confusion, EPA officials, that doesn't refer to how long it ought to take to do something about them. If it's helpful, we can start calling them "right now chemicals" instead.

Because "right now" is when thousands of Pennsylvania residents need to see action after learning a decade ago that their water supplies were contaminated  and likely had been for decades prior to that  with unregulated substances that are associated with serious health conditions, including cancer, reproductive issues and immunodeficiencies.

The most commonly found PFAS chemicals in Pennsylvania are PFOS and PFOA. The most frequently named PFOS and PFOA polluter is the U.S. Department of Defense, which operated military bases that, for years, used firefighting foams containing the substances. By the way, they're dubbed "forever chemicals" due to how long they last in the environment and, yes, the human body.

In recent years, the DOD has spent millions upon millions of dollars providing filters and clean water in affected Pennsylvania communities, but it has pledged only to fund remediation down to a contaminant level of 70 parts per trillion, pursuant to a too-high EPA health advisory level that's as toothless as it is inadequate.

We've long believed that, at a time when more and more people are coming into contact with the chemicals, we need a national MCL  maximum contaminant level  for PFOA and PFOS to protect residents and provide those already impacted with leverage to seek compensation and remediation. In fact, we believe it's perhaps the single most-important step the federal government can take to make a difference on this issue.

Yet it's taking forever.

In May 2018, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt pledged "to evaluate the need" for an MCL for PFOA and PFOS. In February 2019, then-EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said he had "every intention of setting an MCL" for the chemicals. In February 2020, Wheeler announced a "proposed decision" to regulate PFOA and PFOS in drinking water.

Story continues

Legislation to set a national drinking water standard for PFAS and direct the EPA to develop discharge limits for industries that release PFAS into water passed in the U.S. House but has stalled in the Senate.

Last month, President Biden's EPA released its "PFAS Strategic Roadmap", a three-year strategy to restrict human exposure to the toxic chemicals by accelerating cleanup of contaminated sites, increase investment in PFAS research and hold accountable both manufacturers and polluters. While we welcome the news, the roadmap from EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan referenced the proposed limits on PFOA and PFOS as being on track for Fall 2023.

Fall of 2023. For toxic chemicals discovered in some of our communities' water supplies during the Obama administration.

That another two years (at best) is too long to wait in Pennsylvania was underscored by last month's warning from Pennsylvania officials not to eat fish caught in the Neshaminy Creek, a 40-mile-long tributary to the Delaware River due to "concerning" levels of PFOS contamination. By the way, the Delaware River Basin provides drinking water to more than 17 million people in five states.

As we've said before, the last thing Pennsylvania ought to do now is sit back and say "Biden's got this".

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's list of PFAS-impacted areas includes the water supplies near Letterkenny Army Depot, Franklin County; Fort Indiantown Gap, Lebanon County; and Tobyhanna Army Depot, Monroe County. But perhaps the commonwealth's largest concentration of contaminated groundwater is along the border of Bucks and Montgomery counties, where PFOA and PFOS were detected in the drinking water of what ultimately turned out to be more than 70,000 residents.

The DEP has proposed a PFOA MCL of 14 ppt and a PFOS MCL of 18 ppt, which would reportedly increase public health protection by 90% and 93%, respectively. Such an action would put Pennsylvania on a short list of states that have created their own limits for PFAS chemicals in drinking water.

The commonwealth's Environmental Quality Board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the proposed rulemaking. And while we enthusiastically support a positive vote during Tuesday's meeting, the path forward in PA is a frustratingly long one as well.

PA DEP press secretary Jamar Thrasher said that with adoption by the EQB next week, the measure will go to the Office of the Attorney General for review and approval. Its next stop would then be the House and Senate environmental resources and energy committees and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission. It'd also be published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin for public comment. Public hearings will follow, after which the DEP will review the comments and draft the final rulemaking.

Thrasher concluded that "from this stage of the process a rulemaking typically takes at least 18 months to be finalized and published." The DEP's documentation on the rule targets Jan. 1, 2024 to begin monitoring Pennsylvania's larger water systems for compliance to the rule. Systems serving fewer than 350 residents would be targeted for monitoring starting Jan. 1, 2025.

In anticipation of the coming public comment period, here's one: Can't we come up with a faster way to protect ourselves from something that can sicken, debilitate and, in extreme cases, kill us?

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Editorial: Protection from forever chemicals is taking forever
EVANSVILLE, Ind.  Coming on the heels of two weeks of reductions in new local COVID-19 cases, recent increases likely will trigger guessing games about the virus's course.

But in the short term, Vanderburgh, Warrick and Posey counties remained "yellow"  the second-lowest of four levels  in Wednesday's update of the state's color-coded COVID-19 severity map. Better yet, Gibson County transitioned from "orange," the second-highest level of severity, to yellow. The map, which is updated weekly, assigns each county a color based on data tracking cases and positivity rates.

The bad news is deeper inside the data. In most area counties and around the state, COVID-19 metrics are headed in the wrong direction once more.

Last week Vanderburgh County followed two weeks of falling COVID-19 case counts with a 36% increase. Warrick and Posey counties saw week-to-week increases of 69% and 28%, respectively, while Gibson County saw cases drop 35%.

More: Vanderburgh County COVID-19 vaccine tracker: 52% of people fully vaccinated

In the first three days of the current week, Vanderburgh County already has recorded 166 new COVID-19 cases, which puts it on pace to exceed last week's 282.

Statewide, the seven-day daily case average Wednesday topped 2,000 for the first time in nearly a month, according to the Indiana State Department of Healths COVID-19 dashboard. The seven-day positivity rate average, which dipped as low as 7.3% at the end of October, is now at 8%.

More: COVID-19 vaccine for kids gets a push from Ascension St. Vincent Evansville

Forget about speculation that a fall and winter surge in coronavirus cases is coming, said statewide COVID-19 data analyst Micah Pollak. This just may be the cyclical nature of the virus asserting itself again.

"It's pretty consistent that you go from the start of one wave (of new cases) to the start of the next wave in roughly two to three months, so we're kind of due for it," said Pollak, an economics professor at Indiana University Northwest.

Story continues

"It's just part of the natural cycle of how the virus works that we're just going to start seeing cases rise again."

The most recent surge of cases in August began quietly in Vanderburgh County on June 20, the day the county registered its first consistent increase in the average number of positive tests collected per day. It was almost exactly two months before Vanderburgh reached a surge peak of 1,302 new cases in the final week of August.

Pollak pointed to COVID-19 deaths and the speed at which cases rise as indicators.

By the time June 20 arrived, weekly case counts in Vanderburgh County had not increased for nearly a month. The week after June 20, the weekly count rose 264%, albeit with small totals  from 14 to 51. It continued growing until the end of August.

Vanderburgh County recorded no new deaths in the week leading up to June 20 and two in the week after. The county has reported no new COVID-19 deaths in the past week.

More: Deaconess Henderson's surge from F to A highlights local hospital grades from Leapfrog

Pollak accepts the premise of most health care experts that COVID-19 will never be eradicated but can be contained.

"I think we're going to see over time, smaller and smaller waves," he said.

Nearly 95,000 Vanderburgh County residents had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday morning, according to the Indiana Vaccination Dashboard. That constitutes nearly 53% of county residents.

One week after children ages 5 to 11 became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, state data records 15 kids in that age group in Vanderburgh County have received first doses. But that number is likely too low. Ten children  employees of Ascension St. Vincent Evansville  were vaccinated at the local hospital's Manor building on Friday alone, although not all of them live in Vanderburgh County.

Deaconess Health System also is among health care providers who offer the children's vaccine. Local residents also can use www.vaccines.gov to find providers offering COVID-19 pediatric vaccines.

COVID-19 vaccination appointments can be scheduled at any vaccine clinic at https://ourshot.in.gov. Individuals without a computer or cell phone can call 211 (866-211-9966). Walk-in appointments are accepted at most vaccination sites.

COVID-19 cases in Evansville-area counties

Overall tallies as of Thursday:

Vanderburgh County has reported 32,987 COVID-19 cases in all during the pandemic and 488 deaths.

Warrick County has reported 11,531 COVID-19 cases in all during the pandemic and 189 deaths.

Gibson County has reported 6,756 COVID-19 cases in all during the pandemic and 115 deaths.

Posey County has reported 3,865 COVID-19 cases in all during the pandemic and 44 deaths.

COVID-19 continues to strike unvaccinated individuals the hardest, as evidenced by data posted on Facebook by Deaconess Health System. The Deaconess data also illustrates the coronavirus's recent decline in this area.

Deaconess reported on Sept. 1 it had 179 COVID-positive hospitalized patients. The new number is 35  83% of whom are "not vaccinated." There are 11 infected patients in the ICU at Deaconess, the local health system reported. All but two are unvaccinated.

Eight coronavirus patients are on ventilators, Deaconess reported  seven of them unvaccinated.

The numbers include all Deaconess hospitals and The Women's Hospital.

Ascension St. Vincent Evansville hasn't regularly released patient vaccination data, but it has said anecdotally it knows the data would show the same trend.

Thomas B. Langhorne can be reached by email at tom.langhorne@courierpress.com.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville COVID cases on the rise, but area counties remain 'yellow'
KENOSHA, Wis.  Testimony concluded in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial Thursday, bringing a case that has been a flashpoint in the national debate over gun rights and racial inequities close to its end.

Deliberations are expected to begin Monday, following closing arguments and lengthy reading of jury instructions.

In August 2020, Rittenhouse  a 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois  crossed state lines and volunteered to patrol downtown Kenosha amid turmoil surrounding the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer. Carrying an AR-15-style rifle that police say a friend illegally purchased for him, Rittenhouse fatally shot two people and injured a third.

Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty, arguing that he killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz in self-defense.

He faces six charges, including the intentional homicides of Rosenbaum and Huber. The prosecution also indicated Thursday that it would offer the jury so-called lesser charges for both slayings, which means jurors would have the option of finding Rittenhouse guilty of something less serious than murder in both mens deaths.

The prosecution told Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder that it had not yet finalized the charges it intended to present to the jury.

Jurors have heard from 31 witnesses over the past eight days, including Rittenhouse, who took the stand in his own defense Wednesday. The teen testified that he shot three people that night because he believed they were going to kill him.

Two of them passed away, but I stopped the threat that was attacking me, he testified.

Though defendants rarely testify at their own criminal trials, its common in self-defense cases where the accuseds mindset plays a key role in the case. As in other states, Wisconsin law holds that a person can shoot if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to avoid being killed or badly hurt.

The predominantly white jury consists of 10 women and eight men from Kenosha, a political swing county in the southeastern part of Wisconsin. Though only 12 members will deliberate on a verdict, the panel includes a special education teacher, a pharmacist, several gun owners and a woman who described her fears during the chaotic protests.

Addressing jurors at the end of the day, Schroeder told them they would return Monday morning to hear closing arguments and that 12 of 18 of them would be selected to deliberate on a verdict. He indicated an old, brown lottery tumbler sitting on a window ledge across the ornate courtroom where names or numbers of the 18 would be placed through a hatch at the top of the device, which would then be spun before drawing 12 back out.
Former Deutsche Bank boss Hilmar Kopper, who caused outrage in Germany when he described a client's millions of euros in unpaid bills as "peanuts", has died at the age of 86, the bank said on Friday.

Kopper took the helm at Deutsche in 1989, just days after his predecessor Alfred Herrhausen was murdered by a far-left terrorist group.

From 1997 until 2002, Kopper then served as chairman of the bank's supervisory board.

He is credited with spearheading Deutsche's transformation into an international player and Wall Street giant.

He oversaw the acquisition of British bank Morgan Grenfell in 1989 and helped prepare the takeover of the America's Bankers Trust.

But Kopper will be best remembered in Germany for an off-hand comment in 1994 following the collapse of Juergen Schneider's property group.

As a result of the crash, Deutsche had to cover 50 million Deutschmark (roughly 25 million euros) in unpaid trade bills to Schneider's contractors and suppliers -- a sum Kopper described as mere "peanuts".

The quip sparked headlines in a country that prides itself on frugality and budgetary discipline, and was held up as an example of the arrogance of powerful bankers.

A later movie about real estate king Schneider's rise and fall was titled "Peanuts -- The Bank Pays Everything".

Kopper died after a short illness, Deutsche said in a statement.

"With Hilmar Kopper, Deutsche Bank loses one of its most formative personalities," said supervisory board chairman Paul Achleitner.

"He steered the bank with leadership and foresight, and with a clear understanding of how much globalisation would change the banking business."

jpl-mfp/hmn/pbr
By Michael Martina

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China has been pushing U.S. executives, companies and business groups in recent weeks to fight against China-related bills in the U.S. Congress, four sources familiar with the initiative told Reuters, in letters to and meetings with a wide range of actors in the business community.

China's embassy in Washington had sent letters pressing executives to urge members of Congress to alter or drop specific bills that seek to enhance U.S. competitiveness, according to the sources and the text of a letter sent by the embassy's economic and commercial office seen by Reuters.

Chinese officials warned companies they would risk losing market share or revenue in China if the legislation becomes law, according to the text of the letter.

The sources said China's request also left some individuals who received a letter concerned that they could be seen as violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) if they lobbied lawmakers on similar issues in the future.

As a result, none of the sources wanted to be identified as having received or seen the letter.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in response to a request for comment that certain bills distorted facts and were based on "Cold War thinking." If passed, he said, they would harm bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries.

"China has always resolutely opposed this," he said at a daily briefing in Beijing.

Sweeping U.S. legislation to boost competition with China and fund much-needed semiconductor production, known as the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), passed the Senate with bipartisan support in June. A related bill in the House of Representatives called the Eagle Act, which is more strictly policy focused, has stalled as Congress has been preoccupied with other domestic initiatives.

The language in the letters, which Reuters determined were sent separately to a wide number of people, explicitly asks companies to oppose USICA and the Eagle Act.

Story continues

'NEGATIVE BILLS'

Beijing sees the measures, which take a hard line toward China on human rights and trade issues, as part of a U.S. effort to counter its growing economic and geopolitical might.

"We sincerely hope you ... will play a positive role in urging members of Congress to abandon the zero-sum mindset and ideological prejudice, stop touting negative China-related bills, delete negative provisions, so as to create favorable conditions for bilateral economic and trade cooperation before it is too late," the Chinese embassy said in one letter sent in early November.

Reuters confirmed the shared language of the letter with the four sources.

"The result of those China-related bills with negative impacts will not be that the interests of U.S. companies will be protected while those of Chinese companies will suffer. It is only going to hurt everyone," it said.

"Promoting a China-free supply chain will inevitably result in a decline in China's demand for U.S. products and American companies loss of market share and revenue in China," it said.

Two of the sources said similar messages were conveyed in meetings with staff of China's embassy.

"It's an outright ask by a foreign government," one of the sources said, highlighting the implications for FARA, which requires persons acting on behalf of a foreign power or political party to disclose those relations to the Department of Justice.

A second source said the approach appeared geared at getting companies to delay the legislative process rather than block the bills entirely.

(Reporting by Michael Martina; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Gabriel Crossley; Editing by Chris Sanders and Daniel Wallis)
The claim: Australians unvaccinated against COVID-19 will have their bank accounts frozen

As countries across the globe take different approaches to vaccinate people against COVID-19, some social media users claim the Australian government is targeting citizens' bank accounts.

Australia PM of Victoria is free/zing peoples bank accts who havent had the V, they cant buy or sell until forced into submission, reads an Oct. 31 Facebook post that accumulated more than 300 reactions within a few days.

Similar versions of the claim, which specifically mention Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews, have been shared on Rumble, Twitter, Reddit and YouTube, where one video accumulated more than 29,000 views within nearly two weeks.

Fact check: No evidence Australia limited internet access after anti-lockdown protests

It's true that some states in Australia have considered garnishing bank accounts. But that action is aimed at collecting unpaid COVID-19 fines, not punishing those who are unvaccinated against the virus.

USA TODAY reached out to social media users who shared the claim for comment.

Australia is not freezing bank accounts of unvaccinated

The Facebook post wrongly conflates the enforcement of COVID-19 vaccine mandates with the collection of fines associated with other pandemic-related rules.

In a statement emailed to USA TODAY, a spokesperson for Australia's Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet said the claim in the post is wrong.

"The Australian government is not freezing the bank accounts of people who do not get vaccinated against coronavirus," the statement says.

A resident receives a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Australia's first drive-through vaccination center in the outer Melbourne, Australia suburb of Melton on August 10, 2021.

There is no nationwide COVID-19 vaccine requirement in Australia, but some businesses and states have their own mandates in place.

The Victoria government released an order Oct. 1 requiring 1.25 million authorized workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of November. Andrews said those who fall under the order and refuse to get vaccinated will not be allowed to go to work, according to the Guardian.

Story continues

Andrews' order makes no mention of freezing bank accounts. It says residents who fail to meet the requirement will not be fined. However, fines may be issued to people who provide false or misleading vaccination records.

Fact check: Image purporting to show COVID-19 vaccine appointments and organ donation sign is altered

The confusion on social media appears to stem from measures the government in Queensland, a different state, is taking against citizens who haven't paid fines for violating other pandemic-related rules.

According to state rules, Queensland residents and corporations can be fined thousands of dollars for intentionally sneezing or coughing on a public official or worker. People who refuse police direction to wear a face mask can be fined $206.

The State Penalties Enforcement Registry is tracking down 3,046 unpaid fines totaling $5.2 million, according to an Australian news site owned by News Corp.

The tactics officials may use include: garnishing bank accounts or wages, suspending drivers licenses and registering charges over property. Wage garnishment is a legal procedure in which a court permits a creditor to collect money from someone's bank account or salary to repay a debt.

More: Want enhanced clarity on the news? Join text chat with USA TODAY's expert fact-checkers.

Starting in December, unvaccinated people in Queensland could be banned from attending certain venues, according to ABC Australia. They will also only be able to enter hospitals in emergency situations.

Fact check: Viral photo shows beagles in Tunisian leishmaniasis study

But USA TODAY could find no evidence of Australian states levying fines against citizens who are not vaccinated against COVID-19.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Australians unvaccinated against COVID-19 will have their bank accounts frozen. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet said the claim is not true.

In Victoria, authorized workers who do not get vaccinated will not be able to return to work. Citizens and businesses in Queensland who have unpaid COVID-19 fines, not unvaccinated people, could have their bank accounts garnished.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app, or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Australia not freezing unvaccinated people's bank accounts
By Manojna Maddipatla

(Reuters) - Healthcare conglomerate Johnson & Johnson's will soon spin-off its consumer health division, giving up a part of the company that has been the core to its business and image for more than 130 years.

The split, expected to be completed in 18 to 24 months, will create a company with brands including Neutrogena, Aveeno and Listerine and will compete with industry leaders Procter & Gamble Co and Unilever Plc.

Here are some facts about the past and present products of J&J's consumer health division:

** One of J&J's earliest products was the world's first commercial first aid kit, released in 1888 for railroad workers ** In 1894, J&J released one of its most iconic products - Baby Powder. It stopped selling https://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-babypowder-idUSKBN22V32U the powder in the United States and Canada last year, saying demand had fallen in the wake of what it called "misinformation" about the product's safety ** J&J launched its adhesive bandages, Band-Aid, in 1921. The product gained popularity after millions were shipped overseas in the first aid kits of soldiers fighting in World War 2. ** The company released its "No More Tears" Baby Shampoo in 1953, a brand that continue to line grocery store shelves to this day** In 1959, J&J bought McNeil Labs https://ourstory.jnj.com/johnson-johnson-acquires-mcneil-laboratories, the original maker of Tylenol

** J&J acquired Neutrogena in 1994 for nearly $1 billion. It has since then expanded its consumer health division, buying Pfizer's healthcare unit in 2006 for $16.6 billion and adding brands like Listerine and Zantac. In 2016, it bought hair care products maker Vogue International for $3.3 billion.

(Graphic: Consumer health projected to make up about 16% of J&J's 2021 sales: https://graphics.reuters.com/JNJ-DIVESTITURE/gkplgdbnbvb/chart.png)

** In 2018, a Reuters investigation https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/johnsonandjohnson-cancer found J&J knew for decades that asbestos, a known carcinogen, lurked in its Baby Powder and other cosmetic talc products. J&J maintains its consumer talc products are safe and asbestos-free. ** Last month, the company put into bankruptcy tens of thousands of legal claims alleging its Baby Powder and other talc-based products caused cancer, offloading the potential liabilities into a newly created subsidiary

Story continues

(Graphic: Pharmaceuticals to spearhead J&J growth story: https://graphics.reuters.com/JNJ-DIVESTITURE/gkvlgdjgdpb/chart.png)

** J&J's consumer health division brought in about $10.98 billion in the nine months ended Oct. 3, making up about 16% of the company's total sales for the period Source: Johnson & Johnson history blog https://www.kilmerhouse.com, Reuters stories

(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla and Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
Phoblographer

Thankfully, film photography still holds its place in the world. Some shoot film because they're hipsters, while others do it because they feel deeply about the science behind it and the aesthetic it produces. Shooting film isn't easy, most people fail to get to right. But for those that nail it, the results can be spectacular. Naturally, we've featured many of the wins. And below is some film photography you'll love by photographers who love their film cameras.
Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images

Prosecutors in Ghislaine Maxwells criminal case have asked a judge to ban the British socialite from claiming that she too was a victim of wealthy sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as a possible defense at trial, new court filings reveal.

Maxwell, 59, is charged with grooming and abusing four underage girls for Epstein, her former boyfriend and employer, in the 1990s and early 2000s. She has pleaded not guilty and will face a Manhattan federal jury later this month.

In an unredacted motion filed Friday, the government argued that Judge Alison Nathan should forbid the defense from making the baseless argument that Maxwell was a victim of the late financier, who killed himself in a New York lockup weeks after his July 2019 arrest for sexually exploiting scores of underage girls.

Jeffrey Epstein Accuser Names Powerful Men in Alleged Sex Ring

The Governments years-long investigation has not developed any evidence that the defendant was victimized in any way by Jeffrey Epstein, the court filing stated.

Prosecutors said that in many meetings with Maxwells legal teamincluding before the grand jury heard the casedefense attorneys made a variety of factual assertions in order to dissuade the feds from charging Maxwell. Those arguments did not include allegations that Epstein abused the heiress, according to the government.

Still, the government said, Maxwells lawyers declined to answer whether they plan to offer such evidence when the trials opening statements begin on Nov. 29.

Maxwells attorneys should be required to make an offer of proof before permitting any questioning or argument alleging that [Maxwell] is a victim of abuse by Epsteinor anyone else, for that matter, prosecutors added.

Allowing this line of argument would be highly prejudicial to the Government and confusing to the jury, the government stated. It would primarily serve to invite the jury to feel sympathy for the defendant, providing an unlawful basis for jury nullification.

Story continues

Last week, Nathan denied prosecutors request to keep this particular motion confidential, calling their proposed redactions overbroad.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys had argued the court filing should remain sealed until after trial because it would likely result in significant publicity, which would be highly prejudicial to the Government if in fact there is no good-faith basis for the argument, as the Government suspects will be the case.

The pretrial motion on admissible evidence is one of many before Judge Nathan, who will rule on what arguments, exhibits and testimony to exclude from trial.

Maxwell is requesting the court bar statements made by alleged co-conspirators and exhibits including framed photographs, a box containing a sex toy described as Twin Torpedos, and a document titled Household Manual.

Epstein Madam Ghislaine Maxwells Fancy Pals: Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew and More

Ms. Maxwell did not create the document and no evidence exists suggesting that she did, her lawyers wrote of the household instructions. They added that the document reflects a lifestyle that many jurors may find offensive.

The socialites lawyers also want the court to toss evidence related to the indictments Minor Victim 3, arguing she was of the age of consent in the U.K., where the alleged abuse occurred in 1994 and 1995.

Meanwhile, Maxwell is seeking to use consent as a defense in her case, arguing some victims could have been charged with prostitution at the time of the alleged trafficking.

Depending on the age of the accusers during the time frame of the conspiracy, consent may be an appropriate and viable defense, Maxwells attorneys wrote in a motion. They argued that in Florida, where Minor Victim 4 lived and was abused by Epstein, the age of consent is 18 and at the time of the alleged offense, individuals under the age of 18 could be charged with commission of the crime of prostitution.

In connection to the charges related to Minor Victim 4, Maxwells team said, it is appropriate to raise the defense of consent to engage in prosecution.

Consent is not a valid defense to any of the counts in the Indictment, the government noted in a filing of its own. It is not a valid defense to sex trafficking of minors.

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.
Members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood Thursday afternoon to protest a proposed film and TV contract. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

On the eve of a key contract vote, Hollywood crew workers remained divided over whether to endorse a proposed agreement hailed by their leaders.

About 20 film and TV workers and their supporters held a press conference in Hollywood on Thursday, calling for an overhaul of their working conditions and voicing their opposition to the proposed new three-year contract with the studios.

The agreement includes nearly 60% pay increases for some crews that are paid near minimum wage in California and for the first time guarantees 54-hour rest periods over weekends.

But union members who gathered outside Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame Thursday said the contract didn't do enough to improve working conditions on sets for crews.

The speakers, from different locals of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, cited the recent death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of an Alec Baldwin movie in New Mexico as an example of the dangers facing crews at work.

Some shared their personal experiences of working long hours without breaks, in potentially dangerous conditions and why they were voting against the contract tentatively agreed to last month. That pact averted a historic strike that would have halted productions nationwide, but the agreement has garnered mixed reviews.

"Incremental change has brought us to where we are today, and it's just not enough," said propmaker Desmond O'Regan, a member of IATSE Local 44 and one of the organizers of the event. "We have folks dying on set from obvious safety issues like what happened most recently with Halyna [Hutchins] on 'Rust.' We have a lot of safety issues that are exacerbated by long hours."

Hutchins was killed by a bullet fired from a prop gun held by Baldwin during a scene rehearsal. Prior to Hutchins' death, camera crew workers protested unsafe working conditions, including gun-safety issues and long hours on set.

Story continues

Thursday's press conference was held the day before IATSE members, both on the West Coast and in nationwide locals, begin voting on their respective new contracts.

The vote will run from Friday until Sunday and be decided by a majority of delegates in a process akin to the Electoral College. Results will be tallied on Monday. The contract is only ratified if it is approved by a majority of delegates.

It is unclear how many of the union's 60,000 members will vote in favor of the agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents Netflix, Walt Disney and Amazon, among other studios.

Despite some improvements, critics of the deal say that it would still allow crews to work punishing 14-hour days without sufficient guarantees of meal breaks.

"I do not have to remind you of the dangers film crews still face today, every day, in light of recent events," Local 871 member and art department coordinator Athena Andoniades said, referring to the death of Hutchins. "How many people have to die?"

Some IATSE members outside of California also voiced their disapproval of the tentative contract.

New York-based Cathy Scorsese, a 30-year props assistant and prop master member of locals 44 and 52, said she is voting against the tentative contract.

"We have such a good momentum now, now is the time to make the stand," Scorsese, daughter of director Martin Scorsese, said in an interview.

She noted that, while producers have offered to cover a $370 million deficit in the union's health and pension plans, those benefits don't mean much if people aren't around to enjoy them.

"If there isn't more safety on set, nobody's going to be here to use those benefits," Scorsese said.

Rank-and-file union members have been debating terms of the contract in various town hall meetings in recent weeks.

IATSE declined to comment on Thursday's rally.

The union's president, Matthew Loeb, has staunchly defended the contract and urged members to support it.

"The dynamics of these negotiations were like none other, taking place during a global pandemic, through a remote-meeting platform, after an unprecedented industry shut-down (which affected the lives of virtually everyone)," Loeb wrote in an email to members this week. "We negotiated for the necessary components that you need to carry out your jobs: rest at the end of a day and on the weekend; meal breaks during the day; leave if you get sick; living wages; secure health and retirement benefits; and improved wages and working conditions on streaming productions."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Rosemary Hart, left, and Martha Foster run Honeybunch Workshop in Bloomington.

Martha Foster has exchanged raw film and video software for raw wool and felted soft-wear.

Documentary filmmaking was her career, and she worked as a documentary expert with the American Film Showcase, a program of the U.S. Department of State. (It was originally the American Documentary Showcase.) Among her duties was leading a delegation to Myanmar in 2009 and one to China in 2010.

Then she went out on her own.

"Fundraising finally defeated me," she said over the phone. "I founded a nonprofit organization in 2002 (Living Earth Television) that I'm closing up now." The 501(c) nonprofit organization was officially shuttered this past summer.

Living Earth Television, for which she was also president and CEO, produced intercultural documentaries from filmmakers in Asia and Africa and broadcast them on the PBS World Channel. She is an education and media fellow at Indiana University's Center for the Study of Global Change.

More: Theater column: 'Velvet Ropes', theatrical teaching, 'The Wolfed Man' on stage

Today, she felts, which means she transforms a protein (animal) fiber such as wool or hair from sheep, alpaca, goats or yaks, into fabric by intertwining individual fibers.

"It's just a ball. I love color."

The wool comes in any form, raw locks (curls) to processed roving (sausage-shaped bundle of fibers) or batts (fleece). Foster and her business partner, Rosemary Hart, run their textile-art company, Honeybunch, and display and sell their creations at the Fiber Arts Store in the College Mall, across from Zales and next to American Outfitters.

The store is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m., but look for added hours for the holidays, including on Black Friday.

Martha Foster's felted neckpiece/stole.

Also at the mall: Arts Alliance Center opens in College Mall with gallery and gift shop

"I made a felted neckpiece, which is like a very long collar, or stole, with (sheep wool) curls hanging from the edges and wore it to the Rotary Club event this weekend. It was so much fun."

Story continues

Honeybunch Workshop of Bloomington makes hand-dyed roving, locks and yarn for spinners and knitters. Foster and Hart use wool, silk and other natural fibers to create items for fun and fashion. Their repertoire includes 3D "plants" and other small figures, in addition to 2D pet portraits and landscapes. They also make shawls, bags, bowls (yes, bowls), hats, scarves and baby wear.

For those interested trying to felt, Honeybunch offers a kit or class for people to make "Raquel Raccoon," "Lulu Lamb" or other predesigned items.

A completed Raquel Raccoon from Honeybunch.

The business accepts custom orders for material in hand-dyed colors. Order at HoneybunchWS@gmail.com. Find Foster's and Hart's work at https://honeybunchws.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Honeybunch Workshop: Documentary filmmaker works in wool, other fibers
The European Union said Friday it was making progress on tackling a migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland border but tensions remained high with hundreds trapped in a no-man's land.

After Poland sent thousands of troops to the area, Minsk said Friday it would "respond harshly to any attacks" and held joint drills with Russian paratroopers near the border.

The West accuses Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko of luring thousands of migrants from the Middle East to his country to send across the border in revenge for sanctions.

About 2,000 migrants, mainly Kurds from the Middle East, have been stuck for days on the border in near-freezing temperatures, with the WHO saying on Friday it was "very concerned" about their plight.

US Vice President Kamala Harris said Lukashenko was "engaged in very troubling activity" and warned that "the eyes of the world and its leaders are watching."

Steps were being taken to stem the flow of migrants, with Ankara saying that Iraqis, Syrians and Yemenis would no longer be allowed on flights from Turkey to Belarus.

Iraq said it was drawing up lists of its citizens blocked on the border who wanted to go home and was ready to organise repatriation trips. It had also closed Belarusian diplomatic missions that had been providing Iraqis with tourist visas.

"We are seeing progress on all fronts," European Commission vice president Margaritis Schinas told a press conference in Lebanon, adding that he would soon be travelling to Iraq and Turkey.

- Warning to 'hotheads' -

A German foreign ministry spokeswoman said talks were continuing with airlines and countries along possible migrant routes, and that the Turkish ban showed "we already have some success".

Amid reports this week of more flights from Turkey and the Middle East carrying migrants to Minsk, Western countries are demanding Lukashenko and his main ally Russia take steps to end the crisis.

Story continues

Paris urged top visiting Russian ministers to use Moscow's links with Lukashenko to resolve the standoff.

The US and European delegations at a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday accused Minsk of endangering lives for political purposes and trying to divert attention "from its own increasing human rights violations".

Minsk and Moscow have accused EU countries of failing to live up to international standards by blocking the migrants, who they say are seeking shelter after Western military "adventures" in the Middle East.

In a show of support for Minsk, Russia has sent strategic bombers to patrol over Belarus this week and on Friday the two countries said a joint battalion of paratroopers was holding snap drills near the Polish border.

"The Belarusian armed forces are ready to respond harshly to any attacks," Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin said.

"We'd like to warn hotheads against overestimating their capabilities," he said, stressing Russia was ready to help ensure Belarus's security.

The Russian defence ministry said 250 soldiers had been involved in the paratrooper drills and they had returned to their bases.

Tensions are already high between Moscow and the West over Ukraine, with US and EU leaders in recent days raising concerns over reported Russian troops movements near the Ukrainian border.

Moscow has rejected any claims it is involved in the Belarus migrant crisis, with President Vladimir Putin telling Europe it should "restore contacts" with Minsk if it wants a resolution.

The EU is instead considering new measures against Lukashenko, who is already under sanctions for a severe crackdown on opponents after a disputed presidential election last year.

- Kremlin vows no gas cut -

The Belarusian leader, who has ruled the ex-Soviet country for nearly 30 years, suggested Belarus could cut off a gas pipeline to Europe in response.

The Kremlin dismissed the threat on Friday, saying Russia's reliability as a gas supplier "is beyond question".

Poland has moved 15,000 troops to the Belarus border, put up a fence topped with barbed wire and approved the construction of a wall.

Migrants have been trying to cross the border for months but the crisis came to a head when hundreds made a concerted effort on Monday and were pushed back by Polish border guards.

They set up a camp on the border where hundreds are sheltering in tents and burning wood from local forests to keep warm.

At least 10 migrants have died on the border in recent months, seven of them on the Polish side, according to Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.

It is unclear how many migrants are now in Belarus but thousands have crossed or attempted to cross from the country into the eastern EU states of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland since the summer.

WHO Europe director Hans Klug said he was "very concerned about the thousands of vulnerable people who are stranded in no-man's land.... at the mercy of the weather as winter fast approaches."

bur-mm/har
A Xenia, Ohio flower shop owner accused in a civil lawsuit of scamming customers on their wedding day was arrested after she failed to appear in court.

Desiree Gilliam Pace, owner of Flowers by Des, was booked into the Green County Jail on Wednesday afternoon, jail records show.

Pace allegedly failed to appear at a court hearing in September, according to court records. That hearing was related to a 2019 criminal charge of passing bad checks, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed suit against Pace in September alleging that she violated the Consumer Sales Practices Act by accepting money for weddings and other important events but failing to deliver services.

The Ohio Attorney General's Office said they launched an investigation into the flower shop, located at 99 Lowell Road, after receiving numerous complaints from customers.

The lawsuit stated Pace required customers to put down a 50% deposit or pay in full before the event day then either canceled the contracts or failed to show up without providing any notice.

Pace forced consumers to scramble for flowers for their weddings or other events at considerable additional cost. Other consumers were left without flowers for their special events, according to the lawsuit.

Most customers did not receive a refund from Pace for the canceled service, officials said.

Enquirer reporter Brook Endale contributed.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Florist accused of scamming customers arrested after not appearing in court
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Summer Zervos, a former contestant on "The Apprentice" who accused Donald Trump of sexual assault, on Friday ended her nearly five-year-old defamation lawsuit against the former U.S. president, without receiving an apology or compensation.

The abrupt decision to discontinue the case spares Trump from being questioned under oath about accusations he subjected Zervos to unwanted kissing and groping in 2007 after she had sought career advice.

Zervos had sued Trump in January 2017 in a New York state court in Manhattan, saying he harmed her reputation by calling such allegations by women "lies" and retweeting a post calling her claims a "hoax."

Trump has also denied Zervos' assault claims, calling them politically motivated. Zervos had appeared on Trump's reality television show in 2005.

"Ms. Zervos no longer wishes to litigate against the defendant and has secured the right to speak freely about her experience," her lawyers Beth Wilkinson and Moira Penza said in a joint statement. "Ms. Zervos stands by the allegations in her complaint."

Related video: Summer Zervos sued Donald Trump in 2017

Trump, a Republican, had been seeking https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-denies-evading-questioning-apprentice-contestants-defamation-case-2021-11-03 court permission to countersue Zervos for interfering with his right to speak freely, a right he said was protected under New York law.

Zervos' lawyers called that effort an attempt to escape a court-ordered Dec. 23 deadline to be deposed.

"Ms. Zervos made the prudent decision to voluntarily drop her case without the exchange of any compensation or attorneys fees," Trump's lawyer Alina Habba said in an email. "She had no choice but to do so as the facts unearthed in this matter made it abundantly clear that our client did nothing wrong."

Story continues

Wilkinson and Penza did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.

"It is so sad when things like this can happen, but so incredibly important to fight for the truth and justice," Trump said. "Only victory can restore one's reputation."

Trump's comments were contained in a statement provided by Save America, a political action committee that supports him. The statement said Trump has been "totally vindicated."

Zervos' case remained unresolved in part because Trump sought while in the White House to halt a variety of legal proceedings by arguing a sitting president could not be sued.

That argument became moot after Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and Trump became a private citizen.

New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, dismissed Trump's latest appeal in Zervos' case in March.

Other legal matters delayed while Trump was president included the ongoing probe https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-company-braces-expected-unveiling-criminal-tax-charges-thursday-2021-07-01 by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance into Trump's family company, the Trump Organization.

Trump has denied claims by several women of improper sexual conduct.

One, former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, also sued Trump for defamation after he denied having raped her in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s.

Trump has asked the federal appeals court in Manhattan to let him substitute the U.S. government as the defendant, essentially shielding him from personal liability, because he had spoken about Carroll in his capacity as president.

Oral arguments are scheduled for Dec. 3. The Biden administration has essentially adopted Trump's position, while describing his statements questioning Carroll's credibility as "crude and disrespectful."

Julie Fink, a lawyer for Carroll, said in an email that her client "has no intention" of dropping her lawsuit.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Jan Wolfe in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Chris Reese, Cynthia Osterman, Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)
WASHINGTON  Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury Friday, charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions from the House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The indictment is a first. No one has been prosecuted before for contempt of Congress when executive privilege was asserted. The past cases involved defendants whose testimony was sought regarding their government service. Bannon, by contrast, left his White House job in 2017, well before the period of interest to the House committee.

He was charged Friday with two contempt counts  one for refusing to appear for a deposition and another for declining to produce documents requested by the committee.

If convicted, Bannon could face up to a year behind bars and a fine of up to $100,000.

A law enforcement official said Bannon is expected to surrender on Monday and appear in court that afternoon.

Neither Bannon nor his attorney immediately responded to a request for comment.

Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a brief statement explaining the decision to indict Bannon.

"Since my first day in office," he said, "I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law, and pursues equal justice under the law. Today's charges reflect the departments steadfast commitment to these principles.

The fact that the Justice Department was willing to charge Bannon with criminal contempt, despite an assertion of executive privilege, may help pressure other reluctant witnesses to agree to cooperate with the committee's investigation.

The committee has subpoenaed 16 former Trump White House officials for testimony, documents or both.

Committee chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and ranking member Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a joint statement Friday that the indictment should serve as a warning to any other former Trump officials who are considering defying a congressional subpoena.

Story continues

Steve Bannons indictment should send a clear message to anyone who thinks they can ignore the Select Committee or try to stonewall our investigation: no one is above the law," the lawmakers said. "We will not hesitate to use the tools at our disposal to get the information we need.

The House voted Oct. 27 to find Bannon in contempt after he declined to provide the Jan. 6 committee with documents and testimony. Committee members cited comments Bannon made on his radio program the day before the riot.

"All hell is going to break loose tomorrow," he said on the program.

The House panel said the statement suggested that "he had some foreknowledge about extreme events that would occur the next day."

Bannon's lawyer, Robert Costello, told the committee in a letter that his client would not comply with the subpoena. The letter said former President Donald Trump was choosing to assert executive privilege and encouraging his former aides not to reveal anything that might be covered by the privilege.

The extent of a former president's ability to invoke executive privilege has never been firmly established. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has scheduled oral arguments for Nov. 30 on the issue, in the dispute between Trump and the National Archives over scores of Trump White House documents sought by the Jan. 6 committee.

Obtaining a conviction for any crime requires proof of acting with improper intent, and Bannon may have a strong defense in arguing that he was acting on the advice of his lawyer not to testify. Some federal courts have ruled that good-faith reliance on the advice of counsel is a complete defense in a criminal contempt action.

Like anyone charged with a crime, Bannon will now go through the standard criminal process in federal court. He will be arraigned and will enter a plea. Unless he pleads guilty, the judge will set a trial date. A conviction, however, would not require him to testify before the House committee. It would simply constitute his punishment for refusing to do so.

The record of successful prosecutions for contempt of Congress is a slim one. The authority was widely invoked during the anti-communist hearings of the 1950s, but many of those cases ended either in acquittal or dismissal on appeal.

The last Justice Department prosecution of a contempt referral came in 1983, during the Superfund investigation in the Reagan administration. Former EPA official Rita Lavelle was charged with contempt but her case, too, ended in acquittal.
(Bloomberg) -- Johnson & Johnsons plan to split itself in two shows how storied companies are being forced to rethink a bigger-is-better ethos that once reigned supreme in corporate America.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The Covid-19 pandemic has radically altered many businesses and is still having unpredictable economic consequences. J&J Chief Executive Officer Alex Gorsky acknowledged on a call with analysts on Friday that the virus hastened a move that the company had weighed for years.

However, theres more to the story than the coronavirus. Some of the forces changing the health industry were visible long before Covid-19 emerged -- and some of J&Js rivals had already acted on them. Additionally, consumer behavior has been changing because of social media and other factors for some time.

Here are four takeaways from J&Js decision:

Focus Is King

Where once companies sought to span as many markets as possible, on the notion that hard times in one business could be offset by good times in another, now having lots of disparate enterprises under one roof is increasingly viewed as cumbersome and confining. Drugmakers have been on to this idea for some time, with Pfizer Inc. and others selling or spinning off slower-growing businesses. General Electric Co., in many ways the ultimate conglomerate, said this week it too would break apart.

Drugs Are Changing

The worlds biggest drug companies were built on a foundation of blockbuster medications for chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease that were relatively easy to make and to take. Pharmaceutical fortunes are now tied to complicated therapies for cancer, immune disorders and neurological diseases that are risky and expensive to develop. J&Js drug business, if it keeps the current companys sterling credit rating, could have vast resources to pour into the clinic or deals for smaller companies with promising therapies.

Story continues

Consumers Are Logged In

J&J said on Friday that the way people buy personal-care products is changing. Where once a shoppers eye might have drifted to the familiar red Johnson & Johnson logo on a shelf, now the maker of Band-Aids and Neosporin faces competition from a raft of celebrity influencers like Kylie Jenner and Jessica Alba who can steer social-media users to new brands that are only a click away.

Investors Are Waiting

J&Js breakup is a big moment in American business history, but for now the market is withholding judgment. As of 10:46 a.m. Friday in New York, the stock was up 1.1% -- a signal that investors want to hear more details of how the deal will be structured before registering full-throated enthusiasm. So far this year, J&J shares have gained about 5%.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Georgia Southern vs Texas State prediction, game preview, how to watch: Saturday, November 13

Georgia Southern vs Texas State How To Watch

Date: Saturday, November 13

Game Time: 3:00 ET

Venue: Bobcat Stadium, San Marcos, TX

How To Watch: ESPN+

Record: Georgia Southern (2-7), Texas State (3-6)

 Sign up and live stream college football on ESPN+

 Todays Best Bet to Lock in Now

 All of the CFN Fearless Predictions

Georgia Southern vs Texas State Game Preview

Why Georgia Southern Will Win

Can the running game get going again?

The team is playing out the string before getting the Clay Helton era going, but it still has a dangerous enough running game to get going against a Texas State run defense that hasnt been a rock.

Louisiana and ULM were able to throw well enough to not have to crank up the ground again, but the teams that want to run for 200 yards have been able to do it  the Bobcats are going up well over 400 yards per game overall.

No, the Georgia Southern running game hasnt been amazing over the last few weeks, but going against Troy, South Alabama, Georgia State, and Coastal Carolina had a whole lot to do with that.

 College Football Expert Picks, CFN Week 11

Why Texas State Will Win

Its not that Georgia Southern isnt pushing it  it battled hard against Troy and Georgia State in close games  but its having a hard time getting the O going.

Texas State is coming off a nice win over ULM with the passing game doing enough to get by, and it should go off on the Georgia Southern secondary.

No, the running game isnt doing enough to control games, and its not doing enough to help out the beleaguered pass defense thats getting lit up for close to 300 yards per game.

 NFL Expert Picks: CFN Week 10

Whats Going To Happen

Georgia Southern wont be sharp enough.

The Texas State attack will throw well  even though the Eagles held Coastal Carolina to 85 yards last week  and should be able to overcome a few giveaways with enough takeaways of its own to get by.

Story continues

It wont be anything beautiful, but itll be two wins in a row with a victory in the home finale.

 College Football Schedule: Week 11 Predictions, Lines

Georgia Southern vs Texas State Prediction, Lines

Texas State 30, Georgia Southern 17

Line: Texas State -2.5, o/u: 53.5

ATS Confidence out of 5: 3

Must See Rating: 2

5: House of Gucci

1: Yellowstone

 Fearless Predictions of Every Game

 Bowl Projections | Rankings
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany threatened on Friday to cut financial support to Bosnia, labelling calls for parts of Bosnia to secede or for the Balkan state to be weakened "irresponsible and unacceptable" and naming Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik as a particular culprit.

Bosnia is experiencing its gravest political crisis https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-is-causing-political-crisis-bosnia-2021-11-03 since the end of the war in the 1990s, reviving fears of a new conflict after Bosnian Serbs at the end of July blocked the work of the central government while Dodik announced measures aimed at unraveling key state institutions.

"We will not be able to accept the continuation of this irresponsible policy without taking action," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Bosnian online platform politicki.ba.

"Germany is the largest bilateral supporter of Bosnia and Herzegovina," he added. "But it is clear: we cannot and will not channel German taxpayers' money into an entity that is actively working to destroy Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole state."

Maas said Germany "will also think about individual measures against those who question the territorial integrity of the country," adding that Berlin was coordinating closely with its European Union partners, the United States and Britain.

Dodik, whose secessionist ideas are widely seen as endangering a Bosnian peace deal, said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday https://www.reuters.com/world/ill-not-sacrifice-peace-republika-srpska-bosnian-serb-leader-says-2021-11-11 that no political goals were worth the sacrificing of peace in Bosnia.

Under the U.S.-sponsored Dayton peace accords that ended the devastating 1992-1995 war, Bosnia was split into two autonomous regions - the Serb Republic and the Federation dominated by Croats and Muslim Bosniaks, linked by a weak central government.

The country's constitution is part of the peace deal.

Story continues

German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Andrea Sasse said the situation in Bosnia would be discussed by European Union foreign ministers on Monday.

"Calls for secession and steps to weaken the whole state, especially from Republika Srpska and from Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of the three-member presidency, are totally irresponsible and unacceptable," Sasse said.

(Reporting by Thomas EscrittEditing by Paul Carrel and Andrei Khalip)
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday that the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum should be returned to Athens and called for talks with Britain to achieve that aim.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in March that Britain is the legitimate owner https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-greece-britain-marbles-idUSKBN2B41S6 of the Parthenon marbles, rebuffing Greeces permanent request for the return of the 2,500-year-old sculptures.

"The UK should move to a bona fide dialogue with Greece, and I urge them to do so," Mitsotakis said in a speech in Paris.

Addressing an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations cultural and scientific agency, UNESCO, Mitsotakis said the body had taken a pivotal step in September, when it recognised the issue had an intergovernmental character.

"Therefore the obligation to return the Parthenon sculptures lies squarely with the UK government," he said.

Since independence in 1832, Greece has repeatedly called for the return of the sculptures - known in Britain as the Elgin Marbles - that British diplomat Lord Elgin removed from the Parthenon temple in Athens in the early 19th century, when Greece was under Ottoman rule.

The British Museum in London has refused to return the sculptures - roughly half of a 160-metre frieze that adorned the 5th century BC monument - saying they were acquired by Elgin under a legal contract with the Ottoman Empire. It says they "are part of everyones shared heritage".

"It is essential that the Parthenon marbles in London should be reunited with the majority of the Parthenon sculptures in Athens," Mitsotakis said.

(Michele Kambas and Lefteris Papadimas; editing by Barbara Lewis)
Green Bay City Council approved the 2022 budget after making changes that included a 2% raise for council members. It will be the first raise council members will have seen since 2008.

Note: Green Bay city council members will be paid $10,084 after the 2022 election and $10,285 in 2023. This article has been updated to correct the salary.

GREEN BAY  City Council members will receive the first raise in 13 years and Green Bay taxpayers will fund 13 new positions next year following a budget meeting that was longer than it was contentious.

"I think you did a reasonable job keeping the increase pretty low and putting some things back together that were important," said council member Chris Wery, who is often a critic of city spending. "Happy to vote for this one."

Unique to Green Bay's $116 million spending plan is the extra boost of $23.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding. The federal money was approved by Congress in March to help local governments recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The boost puts into relief the 3.05% increase from the 2021 spending plan of $112 million.

The council's three-hour meeting, which determined next year's budget and tax levy for the city, came a week after the Joint Finance and Personal Committee first cracked its knuckles to discuss new jobs and job reclassifications within city departments.

The elected officials proposed a 2% annual pay increase for the next city council, the first raise council members would receive since 2008 when the salary was set at $9,887 a year. After the April 2022 elections, council members each will be paid $10,084 a year.

Next year's raises would add a total of $1,680 to the budget. Council member Randy Scannell motioned for the 2% raise to be per year rather than per two-year term. A second 2% raise for council members will take place in 2023, resulting in an annual salary of $10,285 per council member.

The vote passed unanimously.

More contested topics sprang up around the concept of voter navigators, two new full-time park ranger positions at the expense of seasonal employees with the Forestry Department, and the unfavorable increase in storm water fees.

Story continues

RELATED: New parking rates, election transparency, redistricting ordinance lead city council discussion

RELATED: Green Bay residents eye ARPA dollars for crime prevention, infrastructure upgrades

Voter navigators: Who are they and what do they do?

Election workers perform duties at the Central Count location for the City of Green Bay on Nov. 3, 2020.

Council member Barbara Dorff told the council that the concept of voter navigators had been mispresented on the conservative radio show "The Regular Joe Show" earlier on Tuesday, leading to concerns from constituents over how tax dollars would be spent in the wake of a heavily contested presidential election.

Voter navigators aided the Green Bay clerk's office in the 2020 election by fielding phone calls about absentee ballots and early voting, locating polling stations, offering guidance for non-English speaking voters and helping to maintain social distancing based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

Dorff clarified that no taxpayer money had gone toward supporting voter navigator wages. Instead, the positions were the result of private grants, one of the many issues being investigated by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman.

Grants from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit funded largely by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, amounted to $8.8 million in Wisconsin's five largest cities, Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine and Kenosha.

Between two grants, Green Bay received $1.6 million.

Council member Jesse Brunette said he had received four phone calls from constituents about voter navigators.

"Some people in the community are concerned about the appearance of voter navigators being hired, whether it be by city funds or grant funds," Brunette said. "I would just simply recommend crossing off the words 'voter navigator' and just remove all doubt that we won't have voter navigators in the City of Green Bay in 2022."

The term "voter navigator," which had been nestled in with other seasonal election positions within the city clerk's office, has been struck from the 2022 budget book.

Diana Ellenbecker, the city's finance director, said the job title was in the budget document only because it was lumped in with other positions such as poll workers and voting machine mechanics.

Voter navigators worked for $18 an hour.

"Voter navigators would go out in the field more and they were trying to help people learn how to sign up for absentee ballots," Ellenbecker told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "We never had them before and we used grant money last year for them. We do not have anything in the budget next year for voter navigators."

Storms in May 2019 left high water at the intersection of Blesch Place and Antoinette Street, on Green Bay's west side.

Storm water fee increases affect two new Forestry positions

The council approved two new full-time wildlife sanctuary workers in the Forestry Department, funded by an increase in storm water fees.

These new positions, called Forest 2 Workers, will also mean the elimination of five of the department's seasonal employees, which the city's Park Director Dan Ditscheit said would ultimately be more cost effective.

"Each Forest 2 Worker is approximately $71,000 for salary plus benefits, whereas each seasonal position is $6,000," Ditscheit said. "Those are college students who are just doing it for a couple of weeks in the summer. There's a significant difference in cost between the two. Seasonal employees are only there for a limited term, whereas these two full-time employees are there year-round 40 hours a week. You get a lot more productivity out of them."

Council member John VanderLeest told the council that "storm water fees are not real popular" with taxpayers and suggested looking elsewhere for the money, some of which would also go toward the removal of 2,000 ash tree stumps laid bear by emerald ash borers, an invasive species that has plagued the department since 2009.

The council voted unanimously for the two new full-time positions and the elimination of five seasonal employment opportunities.

Mayor Eric Genrich told council members that he had been eying the creation of the chief of operations position since before his run for mayor.

The HR director becomes chief of operations starting Jan. 1

The council ultimately approved the reclassification of Human Resources Director Joe Faulds' position to the title chief of operations, a position that Genrich has had his eye on since before he became city mayor.

Faulds' promotion would also shift the classification of human resources director to human resources manager, with a salary of $89,209.

"It's something that I observed first as an outsider and then as someone who was running for this office," said Genrich, who took office in April 2019. "I suggested in my platform that we have somebody in the City of Green Bay who operated on the COO level, which is what we're seeing here."

The chief of operations would help the "strategic operation of the city," according to Genrich, aiding in overseeing the nearly 900 city employees and the $100 million-plus annual budget.

Brunette voiced his concern that there weren't enough tasks to differentiate the chief of operations position from that of the chief of staff position held by Amaad Rivera. He made a motion to delay the reclassification until June 1, 2022.

"That gives enough time to the mayor's office and the HR department to adjust the changes to the chief of staff position to reassign some of the duties that the chief of operations position would then take over," Brunette said.

Genrich argued the position should take effect as soon as possible. The COO position is one that other cities of similar size and complexity have, the mayor said.

"To me, the benefits are clear, not just to me but to our organization," Genrich said.

The vote passed 11-1. Faulds' new position as chief of operations begins Jan. 1, with a salary of $121,020.

Natalie Eilbert is a government watchdog reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach her at neilbert@gannett.com or view her Twitter profile at @natalie_eilbert.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay 2022 budget creates new job positions, council pay raises
Doug Scott, vice president of strategic initiatives at Great Plains Institute, speaks to hundreds of community members attending GreenTown Rockford, a daylong conference Friday, Nov. 12, 2021, at Embassy Suites by Hilton Rockford Riverfront in Rockford.

ROCKFORD  Addressing the climate crisis while developing an action plan to increase economic development, improve environmental effectiveness and drive social equity was the focus of a conference in the citys downtown on Friday.

GreenTown Rockford attracted more than 500 people who gathered at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Rockford Riverfront & Conference Center.

The goal is working toward creating a healthy, sustainable region for all, according to Sustain Rockford Inc. President Brad Roos.

It is so important that we attack this at the local level and that we have local commitments to save our planet, love our neighbors and redesign a more sustainable economy right here, Roos said.

Breakout sessions at Fridays conference covered topics including preserving land and water for future generations, resources for reducing energy use and strategies to reduce food waste and greenhouse emissions.

My View: A civil, sustainable society built on truth

Progress is being made at the state and local levels, according to Doug Scott, vice president of strategic initiatives for the Great Plains Institute, a non-profit organization that helps governments and cities plan and create more sustainable communities.

Scott, who served as mayor of Rockford from 2001 to 2005, said utilities are taking the lead in setting clean energy goals for themselves.

Theyre doing that because it makes sense and their customers, their board members and their shareholders are asking for that, Scott said. But, it also makes sense because the price of renewable energy has come down so far that it makes economic sense for them to be doing that as well.

Scott also noted that coal and gas-fired power plants in Illinois are being phased out as part of the Clean Energy Legislation passed by the General Assembly.

'It was relief': Exelon pledges jobs, multimillion-dollar upgrades at Illinois plants

Rockford has launched several green initiatives to make the city more environmentally friendly, Mayor Tom McNamara said.

Story continues

We are in the process of transitioning more than 12,000 lights in our city to LED lights, he said. It saves the city about $480,000 per year but it also improves aesthetics and safety and saves the taxpayers money. LEDs contain no mercury, which is good for our environment.

McNamara noted more than 1,000 trees have been planted in the city in the last couple of years and an additional $80,000 is budgeted for more trees to be planted in 2022.

The citys Capital Improvements Program allocates funds for accommodating pedestrians and bicyclists throughout the city.

The goal of the program is to reduce our reliance on automobiles and improve the safety and mobility of pedestrians and cyclists by repairing and replacing damaged and deteriorating sidewalks and installing new curb ramps, crosswalks, constructing new sidewalks and improving the citys multi-use path network, McNamara said.

More: Think global, act local more relevant now than ever before

In addition to Sustain Rockford, partners for the GreenTown initiative include the City of Rockford, Winnebago County, Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, Rockford Park District, Severson Dells Nature Preserve, NAACP, Region 1 Planning Council, Transform Rockford and Community Foundation of Northern Illinois.

At this point in history what we do about climate and energy is among the largest challenges weve ever faced, Scott said. And the consequences for getting it wrong are probably more pronounced than any other crisis weve faced.

A slideshow explains how a partnership among community stakeholders helped to develop the Embassy Suites Hotel, which opened in 2020. Hundreds of community members attend GreenTown Rockford, a day-long conference on Friday, Nov. 12, 2021, at Embassy Suites by Hilton Rockford Riverfront in Rockford.

Ken DeCoster: kdecoster@rrstar.com; @DeCosterKen

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: GreenTown Rockford event addresses climate change, sustainable economy
Daimlers eCascadia and the eM2 are two of the first electric semi-trucks to hit the highways.

Oregon is one of several states across the nation on the verge of adopting two life-saving rules that will help slash diesel truck pollution paving the way for climate action and healthier communities.

The Advanced Clean Trucks rule would ensure that truck manufacturers invest in electric trucks by requiring them to sell an increasing percentage of electric trucks each year. By 2030, 30% of trucks sold in Oregon would need to be electric, and by 2035 40 to 75% would need to be electric. This will put the state on a path towards full truck electrification before 2050.

The Heavy Duty Omnibus rule would slash truck emissions of smog-causing pollution, such as nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM2.5), requiring a 90% reduction in NOx for trucks sold starting in 2027. Nearly half of NOx emissions and half of PM2.5 produced by the entire transportation sector come from medium- and heavy-duty trucks, adopting these two rules will have a major impact and slash toxic pollutants spewing from the trucks on our roads.

Last year, California made history by passing the ACT rule, which is the first in the nation  and the world  that requires truck manufacturers to produce electric trucks. This is greatly needed. The Inland Empire in Southern California is known as a diesel death zone, where communities live with higher rates of asthma, cancer and other health complications due to pollution from trucks and buses. A new study shows that the ACT and HDO rule would help Oregon by preventing hospital visits, reducing premature deaths and decreasing lost workdays from respiratory illnesses.

The shift to cleaner vehicles cant come soon enough. Oregon has communities that are treated as sacrifice zones. Low-income neighborhoods and communities of color are disproportionately located near highways and busy roadways and breathe more polluted air than white residents across the state. This is unacceptable. Getting people sick should never be the cost of doing business, and we have the power to change it. A widespread coalition of health, labor, environmental, business and justice groups are urging our state to adopt these rules by the end of the year.

Story continues

In addition to saving lives through cleaner air, adopting these regulations is also crucial to meeting our states climate goals, which require emissions across all sectors to be reduced 100% by 2040. We wont hit these targets without cleaning up the transportation sector, which makes up 40% of climate-disrupting pollution in Oregon.

The climate crisis is impacting Oregonians right now. This summer, residents experienced a once in a millennium'' heat dome that killed 116 people. The heat dome is made 150 times more likely by climate change, making Oregons climate goals more important.

Without stronger standards for the transportation sector, Oregon will fail to meet its climate goals and endanger vulnerable citizens. We have a chance to pave a different path forward, where no community is disregarded as a sacrifice zone for the movement of goods.

Debra Higbee Sudyka

Debra Higbee Sudykais a resident of Corvallis and a volunteer for the Oregon Sierra Club. You may reach her at dwhigbes@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Electric Advanced Clean Trucks can slash diesel: Guest Opinion
The leader of one of the gangs that control Haiti's main oil supply depot announced Friday a truce of several days to let hospitals, schools and businesses stock up on fuel after enduring weeks of shortages.

"Starting today, tanker trucks can fill up without fear," gang leader Jimmy Cherizier said in a video posted on social media.

In return for this truce lasting until November 18, he called for the removal of armored cars that the police have stationed in gang-controlled areas and the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

"If Ariel Henry does not resign and the problems continue, we will lift the truce and it will be the last leg of the battle against him," said Cherizier, whose nickname is "Barbecue".

In recent months Haiti's powerful and heavily armed crime gangs have tightened their grip on the capital Port-au-Prince, taking control of roads that lead to the country's three oil supply facilities.

Gangs have hijacked around a dozen fuel tanker trucks and are demanding hefty ransoms to release the drivers.

Since last month Haiti's telecoms networks and media outlets have drastically reduced their operations for lack of fuel for the generators that provide them with electricity.

The energy crisis is also hitting the few hospitals that Haiti has.

With the country in chaos, the United States and Canada have recommended that their citizens start planning their departure from Haiti.

Canada on Friday also said it was withdrawing non-essential staff from its embassy.

Cherizier is an ex-cop blamed for several killings and arson cases in poor areas of the capital since 2017.

He has been a wanted man since February 2019 but a gun-toting Cherizier nonetheless posts photos and videos of himself regularly on social media and speaks to journalists at the gang hideout he controls.

amb/dax/dw/caw
An A-10 Thunderbolt II pilot at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, recently pinned on the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions he took more than a decade ago during a combat search-and-rescue mission in Afghanistan.

Lt. Col. Mike Hilkert, operations director at the 303rd Fighter Squadron, received the DFC with valor on Oct. 2 through a combination of support from local leadership and a bit of retrospect. The militarys seventh-highest award honors heroism or extraordinary achievement during aerial flight, particularly in harrowing combat situations.

On April 23, 2011, Hilkert coordinated the movement of 21 aircraft in a fight lasting more than six hours, according to the 442nd Fighter Wing at Whiteman. The mission required securing two landing zones, scooping up two pararescue jumpers and a downed OH-58D Kiowa helicopter pilot, and helping 32 soldiers evacuate the area.

He repeatedly put his aircraft in harms way to draw fire away from rescue helicopters and was instrumental [in] saving the lives of more than 30 soldiers and airmen, the wing said Oct. 29.

Then-1st Lt. Mike Vago Hilkert, 81st Fighter Squadron A-10 pilot, (left) trains Capt. Petrov Boislav, a Bulgarian fighter pilot, on how to signal a search-and-rescue helicopter to their location on April 15, 2009. Hilkert deployed to Bezmer Air Base, Bulgaria, to support a joint combat search-and-rescue training exercise. (Master Sgt. Bill Gomez/Air Force)

The wing now calls it one of the most intense combat rescue missions of the Afghanistan war. But at the time, chaotic CSAR runs were a routine occurrence, 442nd Operations Group commander Col. Michael Leonas told Air Force Times.

Multiple airmen previously earned awards for the mission, including four Silver Stars and three Distinguished Flying Crosses with valor. Ten years on, with a refreshed award application and new slate of leaders backing him, Hilkert has joined their ranks.

Its bittersweet, Hilkert said about receiving the DFC in an Oct. 28 press release. Im honored to be amongst a group of heroes that did their best with a bad situation. Several people lost their lives during this mission, so it wasnt all high fives when we got home. We flew back to Kandahar in silence.

That day in 2011, Staff Sgts. Zachary Kline and Bill Cenna responded to retrieve two Army pilots  one of whom had died  from a downed helicopter in northeast Afghanistan. After the pararescuemen dropped down to the crash site, they came under heavy fire from an unnamed enemy that prevented them from escaping and hit their two HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters as well as an airman onboard, Tech. Sgt. Jim Davis.

Story continues

The gunfire was so harsh that Kline, Cenna, the surviving pilot and a third pararescue jumper were unable to hoist themselves up into a Pave Hawk, so the helicopter lowered itself to them in a daring one-wheel hover, the Air Force said.

While one HH-60 was on its way back from ferrying Davis out for medical attention, the other headed to a nearby forward operating base for fuel and ammunition.

A-10 pilot who pulled off daring landing receives Distinguished Flying Cross

When they set down, however, they discovered the aircraft had been heavily damaged and had lost most of its main transmission fluid. They made the call to return to Bagram Airfield and pick up a spare Pave Hawk, the Air Force said in the release.

As Kline and Cenna crouched behind a rock outcropping to avoid the bullets, the Kiowa helicopter they had been dispatched to burst into flames when it was hit by enemy fire.

The two bolted toward a nearby ravine before the fire sparked off the munitions still on the helo, the Air Force said.

The troops needed reinforcements to get to the Kiowa crash site. So they called in three A-10s, including the one flown by Hilkert, call sign Vago, who was watching over a ground assault force elsewhere.

The change of plans proved to be a hectic night.

I can only imagine how Vago must have felt after likely consuming 3,000-plus calories of seafood and beef, and then carrying 10 Rip Its in his flight suit out of the chow hall, back to the Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, and then going and flying a 10-and-a-half-hour sortie, 442nd Operations Group deputy commander Lt. Col. Rick Mitchell, who was deployed with Hilkert, said in the release.

The other two A-10s started to search for the downed Kiowa pilot and PJs, and Hilkert worked with various air operations centers and the Joint Personnel Recovery Center to set up airspace restrictions and communications.

A U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II sits on the flight line in Fort Worth, Texas, Oct. 21, 2021. (Senior Airman Jacob T. Stephens/Air Force)

About half an hour later, the enemy pinned Kline and Cenna down with renewed heavy machine gun fire at close range, the release said. Hilkert, while in the process of hooking up to the tanker to take on fuel, found the threat and marked the target 50 meters from the two PJs.

Two A-10s fired back with the Warthogs 30mm cannons and saved Kline and Cennas lives, the Air Force said. But they werent done yet.

Later in the morning, two groups of 16 Army quick reaction force soldiers were also hit by enemy fire that killed one member and wounded others.

Hilkert peered through binoculars to keep an eye on one group and used the A-10s targeting pod for the other, while figuring out where the enemy was set up nearby.

To add to the multitasking, he updated all aircraft on their positions so AH-64D Apache helicopters could launch airstrikes without hitting other members of the U.S.-led coalition. He also called in a tanker overhead and tasked surveillance planes to search out enemy positions.

A-10 pilot honored for landing her Warthog without working landing gear, cockpit canopy

Meanwhile, the [Pave Hawks] and two Apaches in a four-ship rescue formation  picked up a wounded member of one of the QRFs. As they took heavy fire, they were forced time and again to pull back and reset the formation, until the Apaches destroyed the enemy position with their Hellfire missiles, the Air Force said.

Hilkert hoped to distract the enemy from the helicopters so they could land and bring out the hurt soldier. He repeatedly flew within range of the opposing forces, trying to get them to fire their surface-to-air weapons at him instead of the rescuers.

The maneuver worked, and an HH-60 airlifted the soldier out. Rescue crews picked up Kline, Cenna and the Kiowa pilots later as well.

Hilkert continues to serve in the Air Force Reserve.

Though he wasnt with the [Kansas City Hawgs] at the time, many of our current members were deployed to Kandahar with him, the 442nd Fighter Wing wrote on Facebook. Were honored to have [Reserve citizen airmen] like him serving with us today.
Support local journalism. Unlock unlimited digital access to floridatoday.com Click here and subscribe today.

A year after Brevard County sheriff's deputies carried out a mistaken traffic stop that left two Cocoa teens dead, family members will memorialize the pair and call for justice.

We dont want them, the sheriff, the world, to forget about what happened. Were still fighting for justice and we wont let them forget about them, said Quasheda Pierce, the mother of 18-year-old Sincere Pierce, who, along with A.J. Crooms, 16, was shot to death Nov. 13, 2020 by a Brevard County sheriff's deputy. Deputies thought they had located a stolen vehicle from earlier in the day.

Friends, family and supporters are expected to mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting at 3 p.m. Saturday at Anderson Park, 501 Fiske Blvd, Cocoa. There will be a cookout and a balloon release held to honor the teens.

Its been a year since their death and were still fighting for justice. But its been hell. Somedays I dont know if Im coming or going. Its never going to be over until we get justice. We dont want this to happen to anybody elses child, Pierce said.

A.J. Crooms, 16, and Sincere Pierce, 18

'I think about it every day. I dream about it': Cocoa man in car with 2 teens fatally shot by deputy speaks out about surviving shooting

When is it okay for a law enforcement officer to shoot a moving vehicle? It depends

Read the decision: State Attorney Phil Archer decides not to pursue criminal charges against Brevard deputy

Investigators said Pierce was a backseat passenger in a car driven by A.J. when two Brevard County deputies followed them through a Cocoa neighborhood on Nov. 13, 2020. Deputies had mistaken the vehicle for a stolen car, despite differing tags, reports show.

The two died in the volley of bullets unleashed on the vehicle by Deputy Jafet Santiago-Miranda.

The deputy told investigators he was in fear for his life.

Quasheda Pierce, mother of Sincere Pierce, attends a November 2020 gathering of people in Cocoa memorializing Sincere, 18, and his friend A.J. Crooms, 16, who were shot and killed by a Brevard County Sheriff's Office deputy during a traffic stop.

The shootings were investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which released its findings to 18th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Phil Archer in February. Archer determined the deputys use of force was justified and he was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.

Story continues

Last month, Santiago-Miranda was found dead in his Osceola home. According to the incident report from the St. Cloud Police Department, his body was discovered by his sister on a Sunday morning in the bathtub at his home around 10:48 a.m. Investigators said the deputy may have collapsed while taking a shower. There were no immediate signs of trauma or weapons involved, officers wrote in the incident report.

Earlier coverage: Brevard deputy involved in Cocoa shooting found dead in Osceola home

Medical examiners are awaiting toxicology results before issuing a final finding in the deputy's cause of death.

Pierce said the deputy's death will not stop her lawsuit from moving forward.

"It's not just about the deputy, yes, that was a part of it. But we are looking at the whole system. We still have a case and will be pursuing justice," she said.

The third person in the car, 20-year-old Jaquan Kimbrough-Rucker, who said there was loud music booming in the car as Santiago-Miranda shouted commands to stop the car, has been arrested multiple times since that fateful day.

Records show that after speaking publicly about the shooting, he was arrested on drug charges by the Sheriffs Offices Gangs and Major Epidemic of Violence Enforcement Response task force. Several of the drug cases are still pending.

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, accompanied by attorney Natalie Jackson and the families of A.J. Crooms, 16, and Sincere Pierce, 18, held a press conference on the lawn of the Moore Justice Center in Viera announcing a lawsuit filed Thursday night April 22, 2021, against Deputy Jafet Santiago-Miranda and the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. Pierce and Crooms were shot and killed in a traffic stop in November. Crump and his counselor Steven Hart, along with Jackson, represent the families of the two Cocoa teens.

Since the shooting, there have been protests as the parents of the teens  Pierce, Tasha Strachan, who is A.J.'s mother, and Cynthia Greene, aunt and adoptive mother of Sincere  sought legal remedies.

Pierce and Strachan hired high-profile attorney Benjamin Crump to sue the Sheriffs Office and Santiago-Miranda. The federal cases are still pending.

J.D. Gallop is a Criminal Justice/Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @JDGallop.

Support local journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Cocoa teens killed by Brevard County Sheriff's Deputy remembered
Knox County Schools has launched its search for a new superintendent to replace Bob Thomas, and school board members want your input. There are two ways to get involved.

First, community members can fill out an online survey on the Knox County Schools website.

Second, stakeholders will be able to attend a series of meetings on Dec. 2 to share their thoughts.

Students will have a separate avenue to share their input, board members discussed Wednesday evening at their regular meeting. Raymond Jin, the board's student representative, will work to get students involved.

Knox County Board of Education members are in charge of laying out a process for community input and finalizing the district's new leader before Thomas retires in June.

The final selection of a candidate is up to the school board, a group of nine elected members.

"While a unanimous vote is desired, only a majority vote is required," school board policy C-122 states.

General timeline of the Knox County Schools superintendent search

The school board has a three-person committee tasked with arranging the details of the search and also hired the Tennessee School Boards Association to conduct the search. The association will accept applications, vet candidates and eventually present three finalists to the school board.

Here are key dates:

Dec. 2: Tennessee School Boards Association will host events for gathering community input. These meetings will focus on strengths of Knox County Schools, the district's challenges, and the qualifications and characteristics the community expects in a new superintendent, according to a document outlining the process.

The meetings will be held at the Knox County Engineering and Public Works Building at 3131 Morris Ave.

"Please note that these are suggested times and interested individuals may attend any of the afternoon meetings," the district's website says.

11:30 a.m.: City and county elected officials; community and business leaders; Knox Education Foundation leaders; school board members (this session is invite only)

1:30 p.m.: Classified employees (this group includes people who do not have teaching licenses such as cafeteria workers and custodians)

3 p.m.: Central office staffers, supervisors and principals

4:30 p.m.: Teachers

6 p.m.: Parents and community stakeholders

While each meeting is tailored to a specific group, the search committee reassured board members that guests can attend the meeting that best fits their schedule.

Story continues

"Anybody can come to any meeting," board member and search committee chair Evetty Satterfield said Wednesday night.

Dec. 8: Tennessee School Boards Association director will report to the school board on the findings from the community meetings and survey. This is when school board members will adopt criteria for the new superintendent.

Feb. 9: Tennessee School Boards Association will present semifinalists to the school board using the criteria the board adopted.

Feb. 15-17: Candidates each have interviews in a visit to Knoxville.

Feb. 22: School board selects who it wants as the next superintendent.

After the February meeting, Tennessee School Boards Association can help the board develop the employment contract and in salary or benefit negotiations.

March 9: A contract will be offered to the board's candidate.

March 14: A announcement is made with the new superintendent's name.

July 1: The new superintendent would start his or her job.

Isabel Lohman reports on children's education, health, welfare and opportunities in East Tennessee

Twitter | Email | 865-207-9279 (mobile)

Live each day with the knowledge you need for you, your family and your community by subscribing to Knox News.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How to get involved in the Knox County Schools superintendent search
A Holland native is among this years recipients of the Secretary of State Award for Outstanding Volunteerism Abroad.

Sean Doyle is one of six recipients of the honor, given by The Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide. Doyle was recognized for his work in Shenyang, China. The award recognizes volunteer service overseas by employees, family members, domestic partners and members of households.

Sean Doyle is a 2021 recipient of the Secretary of States Award for Outstanding Volunteerism Abroad.

Doyle is the honoree for the U.S. State Departments East Asian and Pacific Affairs bureau.

While working as a citizen diplomat in Shenyang, Doyle created and implemented innovative and effective cultural outreach programs. These included social media campaigns, in-person events and videos. One of Doyles videos was a livestreamed Thanksgiving cooking demonstration that reached nearly a million viewers.

Doyle is an Eligible Family Member (EFM) of a sponsored employee of the U.S. State Department.

Although there are many aspects of being an EFM that can be challenging, it's also an opportunity to meet new people, try different things, learn additional skills, and step out of one's comfort zone, Doyle stated. I'm looking forward to seeing what new adventures lie ahead for my life as an EFM at our next post in Stockholm, Sweden.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland man honored for volunteer work in China
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  Outgoing Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez started a three-day surprise visit to Taiwan on Friday as the self-ruled island, which is also claimed by China, worries that the next president of the Central American nation may break off relations and switch to diplomatic ties with Beijing.

Hernandez and his wife will meet President Tsai Ing-wen as part of a celebration of 80 years of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Honduras. He will also visit the Central American Bank for Economic Integration office in Taipei, a Honduran development bank.

Hernandez's trip comes just weeks ahead of the presidential election in Honduras. He is due to leave office in January and has become increasingly isolated him as he is facing allegations of ties to drug traffickers from U.S. federal prosecutors in New York. His brother had been arrested in Miami in 2018 by U.S. authorities on suspicion of drug trafficking.

Politically, there's little to gain in his trip. Hernandez will not be able to run for office again, said Antonio C. Hsiang, a professor at La Academia Nacional de Estudios Y Estrategicos, who studies Latin America studies. Instead, Hernandez is likely in Taiwan to seek support, financial or otherwise, he said.

Taiwan, meanwhile, is concerned about the election as one of the leading candidates has openly said she is in favor of establishing ties with China, which means Honduras will cease recognizing Taiwan as a country.

Xiomara Castro, the presidential candidate, said in a June 28 post on her Facebook page: I believe in multipolarity and because of that I propose opening international relations with continental China, which would help the country incorporate into the market with the market of the worlds greatest growth."

China has been on a campaign to poach Taiwan's allies, of which only 15 remain. China has been using diplomatic and economic methods to persuade countries to switch their diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.

Story continues

China says Taiwan is not a country and is merely another province, to be reunified by force if necessary. Taiwan says it has essentially been functioning independently as a country since the two sides split after a civil war in 1949.

___

Associated Press writer Marlon Gonzalez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras contributed to this report.
The Hopewell Police Department is asking for donations for its first ever "Shop with a Cop" program this year.

HOPEWELL TWP.  The Hopewell Township Police Department is asking for donations from local businesses to support its first ever "Shop with a Cop" program.

This program will benefit selected children in the community from ages 5-11, who will be escorted by police and/or school personnel to stores to choose gifts.

To contribute, checks can be sent to: Hopewell Township Police Department, Shop with a Cop program, 1700 Clark Blvd., Aliquippa, PA, 15001. They are due by Nov. 24.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Hopewell Twp. Police Department to host "Shop with a Cop" program
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  State Sen. Hugh Leatherman, South Carolinas oldest and most powerful state lawmaker, died Friday at the age of 90.

Leatherman died at his home in Florence, his office said, after being diagnosed with an inoperable cancer.

As he entered hospice care last month, Leathermans staff began notifying lawmakers that the nonagenarian Republican had been hospitalized with severe abdominal pain, and that doctors discovered the cancer while removing parts of his intestine.

Ever the stubborn optimist, Leatherman continued to work, drafting legislation and receiving budget briefings for the upcoming legislative session, according to a family statement.

While his passing brings us great sorrow, we take solace and joy knowing that up until his last days, he was active in the Florence community and continued serving the people of Florence and South Carolina, they wrote.

Calling Leatherman a powerful force for the progress and prosperity of our people, Gov. Henry McMaster said in a statement he would order flags lowered in Leatherman's honor as soon as funeral arrangements were announced.

Leatherman was in his 11th term and among the longest-serving lawmakers in South Carolinas Legislature. First elected to the Senate in 1980 as a Democrat, he later ran unsuccessfully for governor before switching parties in the 1990s, one of a number of lawmakers who did so as Republicans gained dozens of seats in Congress.

Leatherman soon assumed the chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee, and in a state where the governor has less control, Leatherman was long considered South Carolinas most powerful politician for his dominance over the state budget.

Leatherman also sat on a number of fiscal oversight boards, including the State Fiscal Accountability Authority and the Joint Bond Review Committee. A new port terminal in Charleston bears his name.

Leatherman played a key role in building up the states business economy, including backing a massive tax incentive package that helped lure Boeing to the state. For years, the longtime lawmaker fielded criticism for how much state funding was directed toward his home district, as well as millions in state contracts given to the concrete company he founded, and from which he continued to draw a salary.

Story continues

He got criticized some for taking the bacon home to Florence, former Sen. Larry Martin, a Pickens Republican who served nearly four decades with Leatherman, told The Associated Press on Friday. But if you look at the totality of his service, his heart was in moving South Carolina forward.

Never shy to skirmish with those in his own party, Leatherman had contentious relationships with Republican governors and others seeking to rise in the GOP.

When Gov. Mark Sanford in 2009 threatened to reject hundreds of millions of dollars in federal stimulus money, or use it to pay down state debt, Leatherman wrote that he hoped the governor will understand the seriousness of the damage to our people if we dont get that money and called the debt substitution request foolish.

In 2016, Gov. Nikki Haley actively campaigned against Leatherman, endorsing his GOP primary opponent and saying there is not a tax that he hasnt tried to raise.

Two years later, he became a frequent target for GOP gubernatorial contender John Warren, who criticized Leatherman as not being conservative enough for the state. In a runoff debate against McMaster  whom Leatherman ultimately endorsed  Warren referred to the longtime lawmaker as among the rotten apples he would work to root out of the Legislature if elected.

Sen. Tom Davis, who was serving as Sanford's chief of staff when he first got to know Leatherman over clashes in state budget funding, said the adversarial nature of their initial rapport bled over into Davis' 13 years of service with Leatherman in the Senate.

I butted heads with him a lot, the Beaufort Republican told the AP Friday, saying he admired Leatherman's hard-nosed, pragmatic considerations, particularly on budget reconciliation. I really enjoyed working with him, in the end.

For a time, Leatherman presided over his chamber as Senate president pro tempore. Some fellow Republicans, including Sen. Shane Massey, said that role combined with Leatherman's committee leadership posts put way too much power in the hands of a single lawmaker.

Leatherman briefly stepped away from that position in 2017 when McMaster  then lieutenant governor  was elevated to the governorship following Haleys departure to join the Trump administration.

As Senate leader, Leatherman would have been next in line to assume the states No. 2 position, according to the state constitution. But, opting not to take on what then was a largely ceremonial role, he stepped down from the post, allowing another lawmaker to become lieutenant governor before reassuming the president pro tem slot a day later.

Massey called the move a shameless and obvious game of musical chairs.

After a 2018 rule change meant that a lawmaker couldnt lead the chamber and also chair a committee, Leatherman opted to keep his Finance chairmanship rather than seek the new post of Senate president, setting down the presiding gavel for good.

This state is steeped in tradition, he said in 2019, reflecting on the continuity of the chamber in which he had sat for more than four decades. We dont change often.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

___

Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report.
The State Department on Thursday called on Iran-backed Houthi rebels to release Yemeni U.S. Embassy staff the fighters detained in the northern city of Sanaa after breaching the compound in the war-ravaged country.

Details: A State Department spokesperson in an emailed statement also called on the Houthis to "immediately vacate" the complex and "return all seized property." Most of those detained, who worked outside of the compound on duties including security, had been released, the spokesperson said.

Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.

"We are concerned that Yemeni staff of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa continue to be detained without explanation and we call for their immediate release."

State Department spokesperson

Of note: State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a briefing when reports of the embassy workers' detention emerged on Tuesday that U.S. officials had been "unceasing in our behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to secure their release."

The big picture: The U.S. suspended embassy operations in Yemen in February 2015, some five months after the start of the country's ongoing civil between Houthi forces and a Saudi-led coalition that supports President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, as the rebels seized control of Sanaa.

President Biden in February announced plans to end U.S. support for pro-Hadi coalition offensive operations in Yemen amid a dire humanitarian crisis.

The Biden administration announced a month later that the U.S. would restore full humanitarian assistance funding to areas of rebel-held northern Yemen to help millions on the brink of famine.

Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.
Actor Jeremy Renner joins CBS Mornings to talk about his new Paramount+ drama "Mayor of Kingstown," where he plays a fixer working to keep the peace in the fictional Michigan town where the only industry is prison  everyone either works there, is in one, or knows someone in there.
Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese President Xi Jinping told leaders of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a summit on Monday that Beijing would not "bully" its smaller regional neighbours amid rising tension over the South China Sea. Beijing's territorial claims over the sea clash with those of several Southeast Asian nations and have raised alarm from Washington to Tokyo. "China was, is, and will always be a good neighbour, good friend, and good partner of ASEAN," state media quoted Xi as saying.
REUTERS

A week-long spree of bogus bomb threats at Americas top universities appears to be related to an online harassment campaign against a young woman.

Last Friday, Yale University evacuated students and staff, after an unknown person called the college and claimed to have placed 40 bombs around the campus. Similar bomb threats prompted evacuations at Cornell, Columbia, and Brown universities last weekend, followed by renewed threats on Thursday against New York University, University of Southern California, Cleveland State University, University of Chicago, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Some of those evacuations happened shortly after a series of Twitter accounts tweeted bomb threats at the schools.

All of the accounts, which appear newly created, attempted to accuse or implicate a young woman in the bombings, at one point threatening to place more threats if she did not contact them.

3 Ivy League Schools Order Campus Evacuations After Bomb Threats

This guy wont leave me alone, the woman, who goes by Jia online, tweeted last weekend before deleting her account. I have tried to negotiate with him to stop but he refuses to unless I date him.

None of the bomb threats materialized any explosive devices, police and campus officials at the targeted universities have announced. Last weekends threats at Columbia University were part of a swatting prank, the New York City Police Department told the New York Post.

Swatting refers to a tactic of making false threats in another persons name, in the hopes of blaming them for an attack or sending a police SWAT team after them: an illegal tactic that has previously resulted in deaths.

Police have not announced a suspect in the hoaxes, or whether the same person is responsible for all the threats. But multiple threats against different schools appeared to have similarities. The person who called in the first bomb threat at Yale reportedly claimed to have left 40 bombs on campus. Two days later, a Twitter-based bomb threat at Columbia used similar language.

Story continues

@Columbia Hello My partner and I [a woman named Jias Twitter account] have placed 40 IED explosives on your campus inside of the butler hall, Carman hall, Lerner hall along the bookstore we have also placed motion detected ANFO bombs with PVC pipes to kill anyone on the college walk, a newly created (and now suspended) Twitter account claimed.

We are both armed with AR-15s with drum magazines and Glock 10 pistols with switches attached to them to make them fully automatic pistols we are inside of the Faculty House. If any police approach us we will detonate all explosives and be firing at any law enforcement.

Glock 10 pistols dont existand the name of the hoaxer appeared fake, too. The account, created this month, purported to be a woman named Jia. It also tagged the genuine account of a woman of the same name, and claimed she was a partner in the attack. The tweet was one of several this month targeting that woman. (The Daily Beast reached out to her for comment on Instagram, but did not hear back.)

Another newly created account made similar allegations of the real Jia. In a tweeted bomb threat at Chicago University, another new Twitter account claimed that my girlfriend and I, Jia [last name], have placed IEDs across the UChicago campus-- three bombs in Swift Hall, two in Logan Hall, five in the main quad, four in the court theatre, and seven in the Harper Memorial Library. @UChicago.

The University of Chicago Twitter threat appeared Tuesday, the same day the university was evacuated for a bomb scare.

A Twitter user appears to have threatened Jia with bomb hoaxes three days before they began. In a Nov. 2 tweet, first flagged by a Columbia student, a Twitter user tweeted at Jia, telling her to DM me in the next 3 hours or Im sending a bomb threat to every school in California through SMTP w ur info.

Although that tweet has been deleted, still-live tweets from the account show the person repeatedly tweeting what appears to be a screenshot of a hitlist to Jia on Nov. 2. The IRL harassment can go on until you listen mums life, the person tweeted at her.

Before deleting her account sometime this week, Jia tweeted a volley of replies to people who were beginning to connect her name with the bomb threats.

Hello. Im the person who was tagged in the post where the bomb threat was made, she tweeted at a person who connected her to the Columbia bomb threat. The guy behind the [the fake Jia] account was impersonating as me and has been trying to impersonate as me as of recently to get my attention.

She characterized the hoaxer as a man named Ryan who became obsessed with her online. Im just a minecraft girl that this sicko fell in love with after 2 days of speaking LOL

She went on to state that her harasser lives across the country. This guy has nothing to do with me [...] This whole situation overall is sick and that she was compiling information to send to the FBI.

Before deleting her account, she shared a screenshot on Sunday of what she said was an email from her cyber stalker. The person described himself as having been under the influence of a lot of cocaine and alcohol on a constant rush. I really didnt think about anything I did and if youre mad thats ok.

since I pretty much know youre going to snake this Ill say hello I guess I dont want to beef anymore and would rather just talk it out. I apologize for everything I did though. If you want to end whatever beef is going on between you and apophis squad [a SWATing group] message me on insta.

More bomb threats, their sources unknown, continued at universities on Thursday. It was unclear whether they were copycat incidents, or came from the same attacker.

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.
Shares of Johnson & Johnson jumped in premarket trading Friday, after the health care giant announced it its splitting itself into two publicly traded companies.

The new companies will be one focused on consumer products, such as Band-Aid bandages and baby powder, and another focused on prescription drugs and medical devices.

Shares of Johnson & Johnson were up 4 percent in premarket trading after the announcement. J&J did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Johnson & Johnson was already undergoing a major transition, as CEO Alex Gorsky had previously announced that he would be stepping down in January. Joaquin Duato, who was tapped as Gorskys successor, will lead the new J&J following the spinoff, the company said Friday.

The announcement is the second time this week that a major U.S. company has announced a plan to split itself, following General Electric's move on Tuesday to divide into three separate units focused on aviation, energy and health care.
Judge Bruce Schroeder presides over the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Sean Krajacic-Pool/Getty Images

Kenosha County Judge Bruce E. Schroeder is presiding over the Kyle Rittenhouse homicide trial.

He raised eyebrows before the trial began for ruling the men Rittenhouse shot couldn't be referred to as "victims" in court.

Schroeder also drew attention for making a questionable joke about Asian food in court.

The judge presiding over the Kyle Rittenhouse trial has emerged as a pivotal character in the high-profile case, for his controversial rulings, stern interactions with the prosecution, and playful banter with the jury.

Rittenhouse is facing trial for fatally shooting two people and injuring a third during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer tied to the police shooting of Black man Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him, and at trial his defense has argued that he acted in self defense.

Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder, 75, is Wisconsin's longest-serving judge. Even before the jury was selected, two of Schroeder's rulings that critics interpreted as favoring Rittenhouse made the judge a focal point of the case. Insider reached out to Schroeder for comment on this story, but did not immediately receive a response Friday.

Schroeder ruled in a pre-trial hearing that the three men Rittenhouse shot could not be described as "victims" in his court, but could be called "arsonists," "rioters," and "looters" if the defense showed evidence the men took part in those acts.

"The word victim is a loaded, loaded word," Schroeder said. It's a long-standing rule in his court room not to use the term, because it can lead the jury to believe that the defendant is guilty from the get-go.

An 'old-school' jurist

Legal experts in the state have described Schroeder as "old-school" and "an independent thinker."

Michael Cicchini, a criminal defense attorney who has practiced for 20 years in Kenosha and argued many cases in front of Schroeder, defended the judge against some of the criticisms he received for the pre-trial rulings. Cicchini explained there are many rules that protect the defendant's right to plead his or her case, and Schroeder is a stickler for those rules.

Story continues

"These rules are not designed to be equally applied," Cicchini said. "Often they're designed to protect the defendant and when you apply them properly, it may appear to be unequal or unfair."

Not all judges are as protective of these rights, the defense lawyer said.

"In other courts, it's not always easy to put on your case," Cicchini said. "Judges will look to shut down your evidence or look to limit your cross-examination of state witnesses and it's often an uphill battle just to put on your case."

Kyle Rittenhouse. Sean Krajacic-Pool/Getty Images

"In his court, he gives you more latitude as the law requires," he said of Schroeder. "He's not doing it out of the goodness of his heart or because he likes one defendant or another defendant. That's what the Constitution requires."

Schroeder also presided over a jury selection process in the Rittenhouse trial that finished in just one day. For comparison, the judge in the Ahmaud Arbery trial, another high-profile homicide case playing out at the same time in Georgia, took more than two weeks to seat a jury. Both cases will be decided by mostly-white juries.

In Cicchini's experience, jury selection "goes much more quickly" in Kenosha, often as little as half a day. He said the speed at which Schroeder completed jury selection is consistent with how the judge typically operates.

"I'm not very impressed with these longer jury selections as a way to really uncover juror biases," Cicchini said. "I do a short selection process. I don't know if that became my style because that's just how it's done down here ... but it's certainly worked for me so far.

Colorful moments in court

The Rittenhouse trial is being livestreamed for the public, and some of Schroeder's courtroom behavior has led casual observers to accuse the judge of bias. A Change.org petition calls for Schroeder to lose his seat, saying the judge "has demonstrated on multiple occasions that he is not fit to make fair judgement on this case." As of Friday, more than 8,000 people had signed the petition.

Among the incidents that raised eyebrows was a questionable joke Schroeder made in court on Thursday. The judge said he hoped the lunch for that day, which was being ordered from an Asian restaurant, "isn't on one of those boats from Long Beach Harbor"  a reference to supply-chain issues.

John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, told CNN that the comment "harms our community and puts us in the crosshairs of micro aggressions as well as actual physical violence."

Also on Thursday, which was Veteran's Day, Schroeder asked whether anyone on the jury or in the court room was a veteran. There was only one: use-of-force expert John Black, who was brought in to testify for the defense. Schroeder then asked the court to "give a round of applause to the people who've served our country."

Steven Wright, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin, told ABC News that the move was a mistake. By drawing attention to Black's service record, Schroeder may have made the witness more credible in the eyes of the jury, Wright said.

Social media users have also noted that Schroeder's cell phone, which has gone off several times in court, plays Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" as its ringtone, a tune that's often played at Trump rallies. There's nothing to suggest the ringtone symbolizes support for Trump or his politics, however.

There have also been more lighthearted moments, including Schroeder's penchant for playing Jeopardy with the jury during breaks.

Schroeder's judicial record

Schroeder was first appointed as a judge in 1983 and has won elections ever since, most recently in 2020, according to NPR. He will be 80 when his current term ends in 2026.

Before the Rittenhouse trial, Schroeder presided over another high-profile case in 2008. Mike Jensen was convicted of killing his wife, but that conviction was later overturned. A higher court decided that a letter Jensen's wife had written before her death, saying her husband should be suspected if anything happened to her, should not have been submitted as evidence in the case. Jensen is set to get a new trial next year.

Schroeder addressed this case during the Rittenhouse trial, when it started being rehashed in the media again. The judge explained that he was following an order from the Wisconsin Supreme Court to allow the letter to be entered as evidence, and said he noted at the time that he thought it was an "unsound" ruling and that the case would get overturned.

A CNN report pointed to two other Schroeder cases that have been considered controversial. An appeals court once overruled a punishment Schroeder handed down to a convicted shoplifter, requiring her to report her previous crime to the staff of any store she walked into. Schroeder also faced blowback for ordering convicted sex workers to submit to AIDS tests, according to the report.

Read the original article on Insider
Stella Moris has been in a relationship with Julian Assange since 2015 (AP)

The incarcerated founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has been granted permission to marry his partner, Stella Moris, at Belmarsh prison, a month after they applied to do so.

The couple received permission to marry inside the high-security prison where Mr Assange has been lodged since 2019 after the US took legal action to extradite him.

Mr Assanges application was received, considered and processed in the usual way by the prison governor, as for any other prisoner, a Prison Service spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Associated Press on Thursday.

Ms Moris told the PA news agency: I am relieved that reason prevailed and I hope there will be no further interference with our marriage.

Earlier, Ms Moris had said that they had been blocked from getting married and were preparing legal action against the deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, and the Belmarsh prison governor.

Ms Moris is a South Africa-born lawyer, who met the WikiLeaks founder in 2011 while she was on his legal team. She has been in a relationship with him since 2015 and has been fighting for him to be released on bail.

The couple have two sons  four-year-old Gabriel and two-year-old Max, both of whom are British citizens.

Mr Assange and Ms Moris have been engaged and trying to get married for a long time, despite Mr Assanges ongoing legal battle. Prisoners in the UK are allowed to get married under the 1983 Marriages Act subject to the approval of the prison governor.

Their wedding can only take place inside the prison, and the couple will have to take up the expenses incurred on their own. Mr Assange and Ms Moris have not fixed a wedding date yet.

Mr Assange has continued to fight a long-drawn-out legal battle to avoid extradition to the US, where he could be questioned over the activities of WikiLeaks.

He is facing charges of espionage over his role in obtaining and disclosing national defence information following WikiLeakss publication of thousands of documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Story continues

The leaked documents included footage from April 2010 that showed US soldiers shooting and killing civilians from a helicopter in Iraq.

The Australian citizen had sought asylum at an Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden and was later arrested for breaching his bail conditions.

Read More

Julian Assange fiancee equally appalled by Biden and Trumps efforts to extradite WikiLeaks founder to US

Julian Assange was refused permission to marry in jail to break him psychologically, says fiancee

Julian Assange: US promises over treatment of WikiLeaks founder not enough, argue lawyers

Where did Dominic Raab go on holiday?

Raab insists he wont quit over failure to make Afghan call on holiday

Dominic Raab may keep his job today  but for how much longer?
Kellogg's Corn Flakes production line. Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Kellogg's filed a lawsuit against the union leading a strike against the company, per Bloomberg and AP.

Kellogg's suit says strikers intimidated staff and blocked access to its cereal plant, per reports.

"We are concerned about dangerous and unlawful behavior," a Kellogg's spokesperson told Insider.

The Kellogg Company has filed a lawsuit against the local union leading a strike at the firm's Omaha cereals facility, Bloomberg and AP reported.

Since early October, around 1,400 workers at four Kellogg's cereal plants across the US have been on strike over what they say is an unfair pay and benefits system. One worker previously described the strike to Insider as an "emotional cocktail."

In a lawsuit filed Thursday against the Omaha chapter of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union, the company alleges that striking union members have intimidated non-union staff at its cereal plant in Omaha, Nebraska, and blocked vehicles from coming into and out of the facility, AP and Bloomberg reported.

Kellogg "is suffering and will continue to suffer irreparable damages," Bloomberg reported the lawsuit as saying. Bloomberg cited a section of the lawsuit that said the company was arguing for "an immediate order of this court prohibiting the conduct described above."

The company also says in the lawsuit that striking workers have threatened other employees' and their families' lives, followed them to where they live, and used racial slurs, as per Bloomberg.

"We sought a temporary restraining order to help ensure the safety of all individuals in the vicinity of the plant, including the picketers themselves," Kellogg's spokesperson, Kris Bahner, told Insider in a statement on Friday.

"As Kellogg continues to conduct business at the plant, we are concerned about dangerous and unlawful behavior, such as blocking plant access, threatening violence against individuals entering the plant and damaging property, to name a few," Bahner added.

Story continues

The BCTGM union didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The union didn't respond to Bloomberg's request for comment. The BCTGM union president declined to comment on the lawsuit in response to an AP request Thursday.

After two days of negotiations at the start of November failed to produce an agreement, Ken Hurley, Kellogg's head of labor relations said in a video that "we have made every attempt to build a bridge toward a new agreement, but those efforts are met with rejections and more unrealistic demands."

The strike at Kellogg's started in October, a period that has become known as "Striketober", after thousands of workers across different industries in the US demanded changes to their working conditions.

Among those industrial disputes, over 10,000 John Deere workers at 14 different locations went on strike in mid-October after contract negotiations with the company failed. And more than 1,000 coal miners in Alabama have been on strike since April, Mic's Kim Kelly reported.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Reuters) - Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

COVID-19's epicentre again: Europe faces fresh reckoning

Europe has become the epicentre of the pandemic again, prompting some governments to consider re-imposing unpopular lockdowns in the run-up to Christmas and stirring debate over whether vaccines alone are enough to tame COVID-19.

Europe accounts for more than half of the average 7-day infections globally and about half of latest deaths, according to a Reuters tally, the highest levels since April last year when the virus first swept into Italy.

Chinese port city battles growing cluster

A growing COVID-19 cluster in China's Dalian has spurred the port city to limit outbound travel, cut offline school classes and close a few cultural venues after being told by authorities to contain the outbreak more quickly. On Friday, Dalian called on residents not to leave their home unless necessary.

Dalian, a main port for seafood shipments as well as fruit and some meats, has also ordered all businesses handling imported chilled and frozen foods to suspend operations, according to the state-backed Global Times newspaper.

China finds cases among foreign athletes at Olympics tests

China reported the first COVID-19 cases among foreign athletes at preparatory events for the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Games, as stringent measures being put in place to control any outbreaks are put to the test.

Two lugers of the same nationality tested positive, Huang Chun, an official of the Games organising committee, said.

The Feb. 4-20 Games will be held without overseas spectators and organisers have yet to announce arrangements for domestic ones as China sticks with a zero-COVID policy.

Japan prepares beds, booster shots before winter

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida outlined on Friday an urgent plan to increase hospital beds and medical resources in preparation for a possible resurgence of COVID-19 this winter. The government plans to boost hospital bed capacity by about 30%, bolster in-home care, and collect data to predict which hospitals will come under pressure.

Story continues

AstraZeneca starts to make modest profit from COVID vaccine

AstraZeneca said it would begin to earn a modest profit from its coronavirus vaccine as the world learns to live with the virus and the drugmaker is in talks with several countries about new orders for delivery next year.

AstraZeneca made a commitment to sell the shot developed with Oxford University at cost during the pandemic and in a press conference on Friday said low-income nations would continue to receive the vaccine on a no-profit basis, while a post-pandemic commercial approach would apply to other new orders even as infections in Europe rise again.

Sweden again charts novel COVID path with no-test stance

Sweden has seen a sharp decline in COVID-19 testing this month, just as much of Europe contends with surging infection rates, after its health agency said vaccinated Swedes no longer need get tested even if they have symptoms of the disease.

(Compiled by Karishma Singh and Andrew Heavens; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Lafayette Police Department provided an image as law enforcement seeks help identifying two new suspects believed involved in an Oct. 3, 2021, shooting at Velocity Venue.

LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Lafayette police are trying to identify two new subjects believed involved in an Oct. 3 Velocity Venue nightclub shooting in the Pay Less Super Market strip mall.

After a dispute broke out inside the facility, at 115 Beck Lane, at least 60 shots were exchanged hitting two males, Tyrus Veals, 28, and Delray Jackson, 30, both of Lafayette, and a female, Diamond Marie Peaks, 22, of West Lafayette.

Lafayette police officers spoke briefly with the people inside Velocity Venue, 115 Beck Lanes, Lafayette, about 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. The property manager informed police and the Journal & Courier that the owners of Velocity Venue will be evicted.

Velocity Venue: Nightclub forced to leave shopping center after Sunday's shootings

Peaks, who had received a gun wound to the leg, was later run over and dragged by a dark-colored car, according to police.

Officers are asking for the public's help to identify the suspected driver who ran over Peaks. Police described the driver as a thin Black female who was wearing a red top, black shorts and who had her hair in a ponytail that night.

Lafayette Police Department provided an image as law enforcement seeks help identifying two new suspects believed involved in an Oct. 3, 2021, shooting at Velocity Venue. An arrow added by the police indicates the suspect vehicle.

Police are also looking for the suspected passenger, who police have described as a thin Black male wearing a dark shirt and pants, according to the release.

Police have released images from the night featuring the two suspects and vehicle in question.

Detectives are also working to identify the car and its registered owner, noting the car had a front license plate.

Lafayette Police Department provided an image as law enforcement seeks help identifying two new suspects believed involved in an Oct. 3, 2021, shooting at Velocity Venue.

Police: Shots fired at Lafayette home came from inside the house

Anyone who may have information involving this case, police are requesting to get in contact with the Lafayette Police Department at (765) 807-1200 or the WeTip Hotline at (800) 78-CRIME.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette Police asking for public's help to identify two new subjects
Nov. 9 meeting

KEY ACTION Approved purchase of utility billing software.

DISCUSSION: Fiscal Officer Sally Bernhart presented quotes that she had received from utility billing software companies.

Bernhart explained that she had researched multiple companies, and that most were too large for the villages needs. She presented a quote from Government Accounting Solutions in the amount of $4,500, for five years, and a second from Diversified Technology, in the amount of $3,000 per year.

Bernhart explained that although these were the only two software companies that she had found that were a decent fit for Leesvilles needs, they were nowhere near in comparison, and that she felt that Diversified Technologys version had a great deal more to offer.

A discussion took place regarding the billing software, Bernhart said that she felt she had presented the facts and that Council would need to make the ultimate decision.

Council unanimously agreed to go with Diversified Technology. Mayor John Traxler said that he felt that purchasing the software is a move in the right direction for the village and that he is proud of the Village of Leesville and the operation of the system.

In other discussion, employee Skip Bernhart inquired of council as to their intentions of having leaves picked up this year. Bernhart noted that the village has a supply of leaf collection bags that have been distributed to residents in the past.

After a brief discussion Fiscal Officer Bernhart advised that any Leesville resident may contact her at 330-440-1370 to obtain the bags, at no cost. Filled bags may be left at residents curbs for collection by the Village employee.

OTHER ACTION

 Heard Mayors report from Traxler, learned that Atwood Regional will be contacted to have solids pumped from the wastewater treatment plant.

 Learned from Councilman Bruce Palmer that all of the street lights have been repaired.

 Approved payment of expenses, as presented, including one to Smittys Tree Service in the amount of $2,700.

Story continues

 Approved $350 supplemental appropriation in the sewer fund and a blanket purchase order in the same amount.

 Approved a then and now purchase order in the amount of $76.24.

 Was advised that a letter from Conotton Valley Share a Christmas will posted in the local post office for anyone who is interested in contributing.

 Heard an update on village projects from Skip Bernhart.

 Discussed the need for several stop signs.

 Discussed removal of a large limb on N. Wayne Street, Bernhart will see if this is something that he can do before calling a tree removal service.

 Discussed the fact the the garage roof is leaking and agreed to get estimates for patching for Councils review.

 Advised Bernhart to get the tools that he needs for maintenance work.

 Set Friday Nov. 26, at 6 p.m., for the annual Christmas lighting in the circle.

 Discussed planting trees in the circle to replace the ones that were removed, no action was taken.

 Was advised that as of Jan. 1, 2022, the Village will have four vacant council seats, no one had ran in the November election.

 Set end of year and appropriation review meeting for Monday, Dec. 20, at 7pm in the Village Hall.

Up Next Regular meeting Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. in the Village Hall.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Leesville Village Council meeting notes
Former President Trump speaks at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., on July 7. (Associated Press)

To the editor: In a way, the most interesting thing about how the media discuss the future for Republicans and former President Trump (including Jonah Goldberg's column on the recent Virginia election) is a crucial underlying assumption: There is no justice or accounting for the powerful in America.

A primary example is that no explanation is even attempted for why the ex-president is not on trial or in prison.

With all his apparent crimes  ranging from tax evasion to obstruction of justice to attempted electoral fraud  he appears to be immune from prosecution from the federal government as well as from state authorities, particularly in Georgia and New York.

The near-silence of the media on this testifies to the corruption of justice in this country.

Roger Carasso, Santa Fe, N.M.

..

To the editor: Weighing in on the future of the GOP, Goldberg claims like many Republican politicians that one of the lessons of last week's elections is that Republicans can win back suburban and independent voters by talking about real issues rather than Trump.

For those of us who followed the Virginia race, we learned that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe had at least six pages on his website detailing his plans for Virginians. Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin, the Republican winner, stated next to nothing on his website beyond his "educational" goals of giving control of schools to parents and keeping critical race theory out of the classroom.

In reality, critical race theory is not currently being taught to Virginia students. Those of us with an actual education can see the history of Richard Nixon's Southern strategy being replayed.

Fear and racism win elections, not policies.

Constance Mallinson, Woodland Hills

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Everyone must speak out about 'unconstitutional' redistricting process

Over the past several months, Ohios redistricting process has been laced with partisan agendas, a lack of transparency, and is blatantly unconstitutional.

The Ohio Redistricting Commission has missed several deadlines and conducted much of its work behind closed doors, contrary to the Congressional Redistricting Procedures Amendment that was passed by nearly 75% of Ohio voters in 2018. Instead of prioritizing communities and their needs, officials have prioritized their partys political power.

More: 'A missed opportunity': Ohio Redistricting Commission punts congressional mapmaking to legislature

That is why I joined the Fair Elections Centers Campus Vote Project as a redistricting fellow. Redistricting fellows are empowered to provide a college student voice as part of state redistricting processes. Currently, many colleges and universities throughout Ohio are split between multiple congressional or state legislative districts.

On Nov. 4, I testified at an Ohio State Senate redistricting public hearing, expressing concern about both Democrat (SB 237) and Republican (SB 258) congressional map proposals because both are poor in keeping colleges and universities together.

Everyone, including college students, needs to make their voice heard as part of our redistricting process so we can hold officials accountable and district lines are drawn in the best interest of all Ohioans.

Lucy Bishop is a first-year student majoring in political science at Columbus State Community College. She is also a redistricting fellow with Fair Elections Centers Campus Vote Project.

letters

Restrictions on renewable energy could take away property owners' rights

Im surprised and concerned Delaware County became the first county that could strip property owners of their rights through Senate Bill 52. Farmers and landowners throughout Ohio should be concerned their county could be next.

Story continues

Having worked for the Ohio Farm Bureau for 18 years, protecting private property rights was always a high priority. I feel its important to give a voice to those who may not want to speak up for fear of retaliation. Renewable energy is an economic engine for local communities, providing farmers with millions in drought-proof revenue and creating jobs.

More: Delaware County officials look to place restrictions on solar projects using new Ohio law

As a trustee of Genoa Township in Delaware County, Im surprised the commissioners want to jump into an emotionally fueled land use issue when there are more pressing issues to address. Prohibiting one form of development sets a dangerous precedent for future opportunities and will fuel the already contentious development environment in Delaware County.

Be the best steward of your land is a fundamental principle of farmers. Being financially rewarded for your investment and taking risks is a fundamental American business principle.

Delaware County should stay open for business, and we need to ensure our local communities and property owners dont miss out on economic opportunity. We dont need our county government in Delaware County armed with a potentially bad solution looking for a problem.

Karl Gebhardt, Westerville

Government should subsidize diesel for truckers, leading to higher pay, younger drivers

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the government subsidize diesel fuel to farmers?

I remember there being a red dye inserted into the fuel so it could be identified. If truckers were caught using it, they would suffer heavy fines or jail. Also diesel used to be the least expensive fuel because it required less procedures to to process into fuel.

If these facts are true, why not have the federal government subsidize fuel for over-the-road truckers (18-wheelers)? The savings could be used to offer higher salaries to entice younger men into this profession.

The reality is almost all our products are hauled by trucks at some point. Let's address this situation.

Bary Alan Leeman, Bexley

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Letters: Ohio's redistricting process unconstituational
Motley Fool

Investing in stocks is one thing; owning growth stocks is another. Then there's the thrill of watching these growth stocks grow, often into multibaggers that can earn you a fortune. If the idea of earning so much wealth excites you, here are three growth stocks -- one riding a huge megatrend, another growing its sales exponentially, and the third starting off in a red-hot industry -- that could make huge leaps in the coming decade.
A Macon man who was 28 when he molested, statutorily raped and impregnated a 13-year-old girl he had met in passing on the street in 2018 and befriended was convicted of those crimes Thursday in Bibb County Superior Court.

A jury of five men and seven women deliberated for all of five minutes before returning guilty verdicts against Bryan Christopher Smalls on charges of statutory rape and aggravated child molestation.

Smalls, who was then sentenced to 49 years in prison, had earlier this week been offered a guilty-plea deal that would have cost him just 12 years behind bars.

In turning down the offer, Smalls, now 30, who did not testify, had seemed adamant about his innocence and later implied to the judge at sentencing that he had not known the girl was underage  a contention prosecutors shot down repeatedly.

At one point in her closing argument at the end of the three-day trial, assistant Bibb district attorney Dawn Baskin cited witnesses who had on more than one occasion told Smalls to stay away from the girl. Another person had once even asked Smalls, What the hell are you doing with my 13-year-old niece?

Smalls and the girl met sometime in late 2018. The girl later gave birth to Smalls child.

People close to the girl grew concerned about her welfare during months she spent time with Smalls. Prosecutors said Smalls had tried to pass the girl off as my sister or a a friend. But police went searching for the teen and found her at Smalls Ridgewood Avenue apartment in a closet, where Smalls had told her to hide upon seeing the cops outside.

After Smalls was arrested on rape and molestation charges, some of the phone calls he made to the girl from jail  which were recorded and played this week for jurors  included conversations in which he urged the girl to lie for him.

When I go to court, Smalls said in one call, you need to tell them I didnt do that.

As he was being sentenced, Smalls said little and shook his head.

Story continues

When his lawyer, Alan Wheeler, told Judge Howard Z. Simms that Smalls wished to address the court, the judge gave Smalls the floor. But Smalls passed on the opportunity.

I have nothing to say, Smalls said.

Nothing at all? Simms asked.

No, sir.

The judge then recalled the original plea offer that Smalls turned down, the 12-year prison term that Smalls had passed on.

Mr. Smalls, Im gonna tell you something, Simms said. Ive been doing this a long time. For about 35 years Ive been coming in and out of this building. ... Ive watched a lot of trials, Ive tried a lot of trials. ... In all of those hundreds and hundreds of cases, I have never seen anybody as stone-cold guilty as you.

The judge went on.

I mean, it just absolutely flabbergasts me that were here, Simms said. The allegation is that you, a 28-year-old man, had sex with a 13-year-old girl. Exhibit A: Your child. It doesnt get any simpler than that. ... You knew precisely what you were doing.

No, I didnt, Smalls said.

Yeah, the judge said, you did. ... Youve got every right in the world to a jury trial, and I appreciate that just about more than anybody in the room. But I dont understand what you were doing in here.
NEWTON, N.J.  A New York City man who joined actor William Shatner on a trip to space last month and the owner and head instructor of Fischer Aviation, a family-run flight school, have been identified as the two people killed in a plane crash in Northern New Jersey on Thursday, state police said.

Thomas P. Fischer, 54, of the Jefferson portion of Lake Hopatcong, a second generation flight instructor, was killed along with Glen M. de Vries, 49, of New York City, according to Trooper Brandi Slota, a New Jersey State police spokesperson.

de Vries began his private pilot training with Fischer in February 2016, according to the Fischer Aviation website.

This photo provided by Blue Origin shows Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket space passengers from left, Glen de Vries, Audrey Powers, William Shatner, and Chris Boshuizen pose inside the capsule on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. The Star Trek actor and three fellow passengers hurtled to an altitude of 66.5 miles (107 kilometers) over the West Texas desert in the fully automated capsule, then safely parachuted back to Earth in a flight that lasted just over 10 minutes. (Blue Origin via AP) ORG XMIT: NY750

The Carnegie Mellon trustee and founder of Medidata Solutions, a tech company, de Vries traveled into space on Oct. 13 aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft, fulfilling an apparent life-long dream.

A call to the flight school for comment on Thursday was immediately transferred to Fischer's voicemail.

The Federal Aviation Administration alerted public safety authorities around 3 p.m. that the single-engine Cessna 172 went missing near Kemah Lake. Emergency crews found the wreckage around 4 p.m.

The world lost a visionary. May his legacy of innovation in the life sciences industry live on. #innovator #restinpeace #spaceman https://t.co/LGTBUpToHm  Nadia M. Bracken (@clindividual) November 12, 2021

Police said the aircraft was on its way to Sussex Airport from Essex County Airport in Caldwell.

Maria Njoku, a spokesperson for the FAA, said Friday a preliminary report on investigators' findings of why the plane may have crashed will be released in roughly a week.

Story continues

The aircraft was "destroyed" in the crash, which occurred "under unknown circumstances," an initial report by the FAA states.

The unusually quiet Kemah Lake community was an active scene Thursday evening, as local firefighters used UTVs to assist authorities into an illuminated tract of the heavily wooded Bear Swamp Wildlife Management Area off Fenner Road.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

Follow Lori Comstock on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: New Jersey plane crash victims include man who went to space
Will McGriff of Ponte Vedra signed with the Florida Gators this week.

Will McGriff is a Florida Gator.

Andrew McLauchlan will give Scotty Kennon some company at Wake Forest.

And Sam Davis is headed to the Ivy League to play for the team that has won the most NCAA championships in history.

The list of First Coast golfers who signed letters of intent earlier this week was short but diverse -- and impressive.

McGriff, who helped Ponte Vedra win the 2020 state 2A championship, will be the first area player at UF since A.J. Crouch of Bolles in 2016. McGriff passed on his senior year at Ponte Vedra and is planning to enroll at Florida in January.

Wolfson senior Sam Davis will play college golf at Yale.

He joins a Gator signing class that also includes Luke Poulter, the son of PGA Tour player Ian Poulter, and Parker Bell, who played at Tallahassee Chiles.

McLauchlan, who reached the Class 1A state tournament this week as an individual qualifier, signed with the Deacons to join Kennon, a Wake freshman.

Davis, the Gateway Conference individual champion at Wolfson, will play at Yale, which has won 21 national championships -- the coming in 1943.

Also signing this week were Campbell Kennedy of St. Augustine (South Florida) and Charles Lonsdale of Green Cove Springs (Oglethorpe).

Dunham closes fast

in Florida Junior Tour

Phillip Dunham of Ponte Vedra Beach matched the low round of the Florida Junior Tour Championship on Nov. 7 at the Country Club of Winter Haven in either age group.

It wasn't enough.

Dunham eagled the par-5 18th hole to finish off a 69, but his 1-over-par 217 was four shots behind 13-15 division winner Clipper Salmon of Tampa, who posted three 71s in a row during a wet, windy weekend.

Dunham began the final round six shots behind Salmon. He played his first 13 holes at 3-under, with no bogeys, but couldn't get closer than the final margin.

Dunham made three eagles in the tournament, one at the par-5 fourth hole and one at the par-4 fifth.

Adam Vermut and Chase Carroll of Jacksonville tied for eighth in the boys 16-18 division at 8-over 224. Kennedy (226) tied for 12th and Davis and Adam Waller (228) tied for 19th.

Story continues

AJGA results will count

towards PGA PAT

The American Junior Golf Association and the PGA of America have combined on a way that could lead to more junior players choosing a club professional career after college or amateur golf.

The two organizations announced this week that the first two rounds of an AJGA individual stroke-play event can be used towards the PGA's 36-hole Playing Ability Test requirement.

Players must be at least 16 years old at the time the scores are posted. The scores will be valid for eight years from the date of the second score.

This change to qualification for the PAT is going to create some positive momentum in the golf industry, said AJGA chief business officer Jason Etzen in a statement. The potential to bring in people who otherwise might not have considered a career in the golf industry is incredible, and we are proud to be able to aid in that effort.

Applicants will be responsible for submitting documentation of scores, yardage and course rating to verify PAT eligibility, and all PGA minimum standards for the Playing Ability Test must be met. Events must be at least 36-holes to qualify, and rounds cannot be combined from separate events.

Scores from college golf tournaments, state opens, state amateurs and state high school championships also can be used for PAT qualification.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Will McGriff heading to UF, Andrew McLauchlan to Wake, highlighting area golf signings
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, center, shares plans for the county budget before signing it on Friday. Joining him are Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson, left, and County Supervisor Jason Haas, who chairs the board's Finance Committee, at the news conference at the County Executive's Office.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley on Friday signed the county's $1.28 billion 2022 budget with no vetoes, saying the spending plan continued investments in families, public safety, mental health and more while avoiding any major service cuts.

Crowley said the county was able to close its annual budget gap through fiscally responsible decisions, one-time pandemic relief and asking departments to absorb increased costs.

He was joined by County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson and Supervisor Jason Haas, who chairs the board's Finance Committee. It was a show of collaboration between the two branches of county government that would have been unlikely under previous leadership.

"I'm very pleased we did have a fantastic foundation to work from, thanks to the county executive and his team," Haas said. "What has changed over the past few years ... in particular with the Crowley administration is an ongoing collaboration between the County Board and the administration."

Relations between the board and the county executive's office were often strained during the administration of former executive Chris Abele.

The County Board of Supervisors amended and adopted the budget Monday, following a lengthy and sometimes heated discussion about a series of amendments to pull funding from the Sheriff's Department.

Board amendments boosted funding toward the county's parks  an effort Nicholson said was one of her top priorities.

Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson, left, and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley sign the county budget during a news conference on Friday at the County Executive Office Conference Room.

In particular, she heralded a $1.6 million influx to the Parks Department to address critical needs and said the board would work with Crowley's administration to ensure investments are made with a focus on racial equity.

She also said the state needed to allow the county to bring in more revenue to address its structural deficit.

"While these amendments do not overcome the state-imposed limits on our ability to generate new revenue, they do provide needed investment that will be administered through a racial equity lens that benefits residents in every part of Milwaukee County," she said.

Story continues

The adopted budget raises the county tax levy  the total amount collected in property taxes  to $309.5 million, about 1.8% higher than the 2021 levy of $303.97 million.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley signs $1.28B 2022 budget
The Missouri man who allegedly murdered his Chinese wife, Mengqi Ji, admitted that he had considered divorcing Ji before her death but did not seek legal counsel.



Their relationship: Joseph Elledge took to the stand on Tuesday to give further details about his unstable relationship with Ji, 28, that resulted in her death following a physical argument on the night of Oct. 8, 2019, according to the Associated Press.



Elledge said that in 2015, he met Ji at Nanova, a dental products company they used to work for. They began dating a year later. The couple then flew to China, where Elledge asked for Jis parents permission to marry their daughter.

They tied the knot in 2017 and talked about having three to five children. They hoped to raise their children in a cross-cultural household, specifically Chinese and American. However, the differences in their cultures, backgrounds and the way they communicated eventually became a problem in their relationship, Elledge explained on the stand.



The issues: Elledge admitted he would sometimes discern their misunderstandings as an attack on him, claiming difficult to understand each other. He said that trivial topics, like the weather, would also sometimes evolve into quarrels, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported.



However, their arguments did not start after their marriage. Prosecutors shared text messages showing that the couple was already having issues two weeks before their wedding. Elledge later explained that after fighting, they would resolve the situation and move on.

Elledge thought of divorcing Ji, even going so far as to search about it online. But he did not seek legal counsel or file any papers in court. Instead, he reportedly stayed in their relationship and wanted to overcome their issues.

Elledge said another problem was Jis parents, Ke Ren and Xiaolin Ji, moving in after the birth of his daughter, Anna. He testified that Jis parents would butt in and take over on how to raise their granddaughter. I felt very isolated and like I was being pushed out of my own home," he said, adding that they were allegedly ignoring him.

The couple encountered a financial obstacle after Elledge began his internship in Carthage, Miss., in 2019 as they tried to maintain two houses, which affected their intimacy, he said.

Then on Oct. 3, 2019, Elledge said he discovered messages Ji sent to a Chinese man on WeChat. After translating their conversation using Google, he realized the messages were sexually explicit.

Elledge said he felt wounded, angry and betrayed after discovering the messages, but he did not confront her until Oct. 8.

The physical incident between them happened after Elledge told Ji he wanted to leave with their daughter.

Ji allegedly pushed Elledge first, and then he pushed back, resulting in Ji hitting her head on the kitchen cabinets. Defense attorney Scott Rosenblum described her death as a tragic accident when the first-degree murder trial began last week.

I helped her up and she was still angry. I took her to the couch and she told me just to leave without Anna," he said.



Other details: Elledge found Ji unresponsive the following morning when he tried to wake her up. He also tried to look for a pulse and discovered that her skin was already cold.



Story continues

My mind was going 100 miles an hour. ... I knew people would suspect me, Elledge said when he was asked by Rosenblum why he did not call 911.

Elledge recounted how he had lied to Jis friend and her mother when he contacted her on Oct. 10. He also said Anna was in his car when he drove to a remote area of Rock Bridge State Park, the location where he buried the remains of his wife.

My mind still was kind of racing thinking about what people would expect me to do," Elledge said. He returned home and reported Ji as missing. The police suspected foul play days after the case made headlines.



Featured Image via Boone County Sheriffs Department (left), Columbia Police Department (right)

Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark!

Davis Police Chief Apologizes to Asian American Doctor for Suspected Racial Bias

Hes got an IQ of 69: Malaysian man to be hanged in Singapore for possessing 1.5 ounces of heroin

Filipino Canadian Man Threatened by Racist on Bus in Vancouver

California judge trashes lawsuit from board member who was fired over anti-Asian tweets
Morimoto restaurant is celebrating 20 years in Center City.

What's happening: Award-winning chef Masaharu Morimoto will be at his Japanese restaurant on Saturday for a special demonstration to commemorate two decades in business on Chestnut Street.

Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free

State of play: Morimoto restaurant, which arrived long before countless sushi spots opened in the city, remains a staple of Philly's food scene and has won several awards over the years.

Restaurateur Stephen Starr, who has opened dozens of restaurants in the city including the new LMNO in Fishtown, partnered to open Morimoto back in 2001.

What he's saying: The Iron Chef told Axios that one of the top challenges of maintaining a restaurant in the city for so long is ensuring "consistent customer satisfaction to keep our guests happy and coming back for more!"

Morimoto didn't give any direct insight into his future plans, but he hinted that he was lucky to have opportunities to open more restaurants and brands.

"We'll see!" he added.

What's next: On Saturday, the restaurant is offering an exclusive, one-night-only omakase menu  or a menu left in the "chefs hands," Morimoto said.

The dinner, which is available only from 5-8:30pm, costs $200 a person, with an optional beverage pairing for an additional $85 a person.

Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.
DETROIT (AP)  Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold another chunk of his stock after pledging on Twitter to liquidate 10% of his holdings in the electric car maker.

Musk sold about 640,000 shares for roughly $687.3 million, according to two filings Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. So far this week, the eccentric CEO has sold about 5.1 million shares worth about $5.69 billion.

About $1.1 billion of the proceeds that from the sales that were made Thursday will go toward paying tax obligations for stock options granted to Musk in September. The options are part of a compensation package Musk and Tesla agreed to in 2018 that provided the CEO with options if Tesla hit certain financial targets. The company is now profitable and worth more than $1 trillion.

Filings from Wednesday disclosed that Musk exercised options to buy just over 2.1 million shares for $6.24 each. Wedbush Analyst Daniel Ives has calculated that Musk has more than $10 billion in taxes coming due on stock options that vest next summer.

Musk's sales so far amount to just over 3% of his stake in Tesla. He still owns about 167.5 million shares, or just under 17% of the company, according to the SEC filings and data provider FactSet.

Last weekend, Musk said he would sell 10% of his holdings in the company, based on the results of a poll he conducted on Twitter. The sale tweets prompted heavy selling in the stock Monday and Tuesday. Shares fell four out of five days this week, and they dropped 2.8% Friday.

While the stock has slid 15% this week, over the last 12 months it's up 150%.

Musk is Tesla's largest shareholder and is the wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes, with a net worth of around $278.7 billion.

Tesla Inc. is based in Palo Alto, California, although Musk has announced the company will move its headquarters to Texas.
Police are investigating a shooting, which occurred after a carjacking at a McDonald's in downtown Nashville Thursday afternoon, a Metro Nashville dispatcher said.

According to the Metro Nashville Police Department log, someone reported the shooting in the 1100 block of Broadway.

A dispatcher said the shooting took place at the fast food restaurant across the street.

The person was taken to a hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries, officials said.

This is a developing story.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville police investigating shooting at downtown McDonalds
State law enforcement officers are investigating allegations made by Matthew Pigatt, who suddenly resigned Wednesday night as mayor of Opa-locka, citing corruption.

The investigation is active and ongoing, Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger wrote in a statement Friday. She did not elaborate on the nature of the investigation.

Pigatt met with state police in the last month, according to a source with direct knowledge of the interaction. Pigatt confirmed the meeting on Friday in a text message.

Pigatt, who was elected to the role in 2018, cited corrupt government and mismanagement as the reason for leaving office one year before his term ends. He made only vague accusations without specifics during a city commission meeting on Wednesday, but suggested he would eventually tell all.

Its unclear what Pigatt told law enforcement.

FDLEs investigation is only the latest criminal probe of a city government with a long history of corruption, bribery and financial mismanagement.

When asked about his contact with FDLE, Pigatt confirmed that he met with state police but otherwise declined to comment, writing in a text message that he is taking some long overdue time for my family.

When I am ready to talk, I will reach out, he wrote.

In his speech announcing his resignation to the city commission Wednesday night, Pigatt said that after speaking out against corruption in 2014, he saw code enforcement violations on his home, was threatened by the police multiple times and was accosted by so-called shadow mayors and community advocates.

Its not known if Pigatt reached out to any other investigative agencies.

The Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office did not respond to requests for any complaints Pigatt might have made. The Miami-Dade Ethics Commission said no complaints had been filed by Pigatt, but four complaints had been filed against him between 2016 and 2019, all of which were dismissed.

Allegations of corruption in Opa-locka date back to the early 2000s, when the state first declared a financial emergency amid threats of bankruptcy in the small city.

Story continues

In 2016, the FBI raided City Hall, and several former city employees were arrested on bribery charges. That year, then-Gov. Rick Scott declared a financial emergency for the city, calling for a special oversight board to take over the citys finances.

The government has remained under the control of a state oversight board ever since, and a scathing report in 2019 cited 99 issues of fraud and mismanagement. A follow-up audit on the 2019 report is set to be finished by mid-to-late-spring of 2022, according to Derek Noonan, the Audit Manager for the states Auditor General.

Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.

This article was updated with a statement from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Nov. 11A Devils Lake-based organization has filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado for banning the use of American Indian mascots in a law passed earlier this year.

The Native American Guardian's Association filed the litigation in U.S. District Court in Colorado on Nov. 2. The lawsuit names a number of Colorado officials, including Gov. Jared Polis. The lawsuit claims that the Colorado law, signed in June and which bans Colorado schools from using American Indian mascots, is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

"Imagine a state law that barred schools from using the name or image of an African-American individual on its logos or letterhead. That would be the end of school names honoring Martin Luther King Jr., President Barack Obama, or Justices Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas," the lawsuit reads.

According to its website, the nonprofit organization "celebrates and promotes the rich history, legacies, and many national contributions of First Nation's people which have historically been woven into the fabric of American identity." It says it is an "organization advocating for increased education about Native Americans, especially in public educational institutions, and greater recognition of Native American Heritage through the high profile venues of sports and other public platforms."

The lawsuit goes on to say that the organization opposes the use of American Indian "mascot performers and characters that mock Native American heritage," but says "culturally appropriate Native American names, logos and imagery serve to honor Native Americans, and to help public schools neutralize offensive and stereotypical Native American caricatures and iconography, while teaching students and the general public about American Indian history."

According to the Denver Post, as of this summer there were more than 20 schools in Colorado that had Native American mascots that need to be changed by June 2022. The penalty for breaking the law includes fines of $25,000 a month, the Post report noted. However, exceptions were made for schools in the state that already had an agreement with a tribe.

The governor's office has not yet commented on the lawsuit.
After the end of the Civil War, the National Rifle Association (NRA) established itself as not just the preeminent gun rights organization in the U.S., but also as a key player in electoral politics.

But faced with the growing political clout of gun control groups and a lawsuit by the New York State Attorney General alleging financial crimes by top officials, the NRA has had to file for bankruptcy. In recent months, the COVID-19 pandemic fueled layoffs and salary cuts, and the organization now finds itself ducking for cover.

NPR investigative correspondent Tim Mak has been following the NRA for years, and in his new book "Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA" he details the alleged corruption inside the NRA, accusing its top leaders, including CEO Wayne LaPierre, of redirecting millions in gun rights advocacy donations for their personal gain.

"This is a book about basic accountability and transparency," Mak told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett in this week's episode of "The Takeout" podcast. "It's a book about how folks who are members of the NRA who are sending in five, ten, fifteen bucks a month to this organization that ostensibly is supposed to, you know, favor their policy goals, a lot of that money's going for millions of dollars in private jets, lavish meals for executives, trips to the Bahamas, six figures in suits for Wayne LaPierre, the head of the organization."

NPR's Tim Mak talks with Major Garrett on

In 2020, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit seeking to disband the NRA, claiming that the organization and some of its top executives diverted over $64 million intended for NRA operations to enrich families and close associates. The NRA, a nonprofit organization, is chartered in New York.

In January, the NRA moved to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, attempting to relocate its headquarters to Texas from Fairfax, Virginia. That effort failed in May, however, after a federal judge dismissed the group's effort.

Story continues

Mak pointed to the NRA's hardline pro-gun stance after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting as key to the organization's decline in power.

"After Sandy Hook, they decide they're going to be kind of not just the gun organization, but a 'freedom' organization  one that's engaged in the culture war  and that worked for a number of years in order to boost fundraising and membership during the Obama years. It was very, very successful. But that becomes their undoing in the years after that," Mak said, pointing to the growth of gun control groups which in recent years have outraised and outspent gun-rights groups.

Mak also reported on the NRA's relationship with its marketing firm, whicheplayed a crucial role in covering up the expensive dinners and spending from members and others in the NRA, as well as the power struggle that formed between LaPierre and former president Oliver North.

To flesh out his reporting over the four-year-long investigation, Mak said that he was able to acquire secret court depositions that illustrated what it was like to be in the room for some of the NRA's most crucial meetings and moments, but not without some drama.

"During the beginning of the pandemic, during the worst days, a source indicated that the source was willing to provide some of these documents. You know, public transit is closed, can't get an Uber, can't get a cab. I don't have a bike, so I end up renting a moped and driving for what seems like hours and hours to the middle of nowhere to this parking lot," Mak said. "The source shows up in the parking lot, rolls down the passenger window and says the documents are in the passenger seat. So, I reach in taking care, of course, not to breathe into that car, reach in, grab the documents, put them in my backpack and I moped away."

Mak said being provided with those documents was critical to his book because "they're like the gold standard of evidence" because in depositions "there are legal consequences to not telling the truth when you're under oath."

Highlights:

The book: "This is a book about basic accountability and transparency... It's a book about how folks who are members of the NRA who are sending in five, 10, 15 bucks a month to this organization that ostensibly is supposed to, you know, favor their policy goals, a lot of that money's going for millions of dollars in private jets, lavish meals for executives, trips to the Bahamas, six figures in suits for Wayne LaPierre, the head of the organization... I have spoken to a ton of NRA members while reporting out this book. You know, we had 120 plus interviews with people inside the NRA universe all of whom agree with those sorts of people in terms of the Second Amendment and the right role of firearms in our society. They still spoke to me and I'm telling many of their stories, you know, as you know, as an investigative reporter, one of the basics is gaining people's trust and convincing them, 'Hey, I'm going to be able to convey your stories with fairness and accuracy.' And I've been able to do that repeatedly with people who are inside the NRA and so on."

NRA's current predicament: "I think it's really facing the greatest crisis it's ever faced in more than 150 years of existence.... We're talking about a revolt from some of its own members who are demanding change in the leadership of the organization. Protests from directors on its own board a financial crisis that's so serious that in 2018, they almost couldn't make payroll... And then they have the New York attorney general and other investigations into their financial misconduct. The New York Attorney General, after a long investigation, found more than $60 million of misspending inside the organization by Wayne LaPierre and other senior officials, and said in in a lawsuit it filed that it was going to try to dissolve the NHRA completely."

NRA post-Sandy Hook massacre: "After Sandy Hook, the NRA takes a real aggressive turn to the right, and they decide that they're much less interested in what have traditionally been their most valuable strategic partners, those Democrats who are willing to come to their side. After Sandy Hook, they decide they're going to be kind of not just the gun organization, but a quote 'freedom' organization. One that's engaged in the culture war. and that worked for a number of years in order to boost fundraising and membership during the Obama years, it was very, very successful. But that becomes their undoing in the years after that."

Getting the documents: "During the beginning of the pandemic, during the worst days, a source indicated that the source was willing to provide some of these documents. You know, public transit is closed, can't get an Uber, can't get a cab. I don't have a bike, so I end up renting a moped and driving for what seems like hours and hours to the middle of nowhere to this parking lot. The source shows up in the parking lot, rolls down the passenger window and says the documents are in the passenger seat. So I reach in taking care, of course, not to breathe into that car, reach in, grab the documents, put them in my backpack and I moped away."

Executive producer: Arden Farhi

Producers: Jamie Benson, Jacob Rosen, Sara Cook and Eleanor Watson

CBSN Production: Eric Soussanin Show email: TakeoutPodcast@cbsnews.comTwitter: @TakeoutPodcastInstagram: @TakeoutPodcastFacebook: Facebook.com/TakeoutPodcast

Treasury Secretary Yellen says labor force woes due to COVID concerns

Steve Bannon indicted for contempt of Congress

CBSN Originals explores history of anti-Asian racism in the Mississippi Delta
Nvidias (NVDA) $40 billion ARM deal faces a slew of roadblocks from regulators here and abroad. But Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said if the deal doesnt go through the company will still continue to perform at the same high level it has been.

Jensen, who was fresh off of a virtual keynote at Nvidias GTC 2021 conference, told Yahoo Finance Live that the company wants to continue to see a large diversity of central processing units (CPUs) available, because it provides more opportunity for Nvidia to add its graphics processing units (GPUs) to the mix to enable things like artificial intelligence (AI).

We would go forward very nicely as were going forward today, Huang said. So we support all CPUs. We love the flourishing of CPUs and the reason for that is because the CPU is the first chip in the system. It boots the operating system. And wherever there are CPUs there are opportunities for accelerated computing.

Nvidia announced its plan to buy ARM from SoftBank in September 2020, but the deal has been hung up in regulatory purgatory for sometime.

The U.S., the U.K. (where ARM is based), the European Union and China are all looking into the potential impact the deal would have on the global chip industry.

ARM is a neutral player in the chip industry, licensing its chip designs and software to firms around the world. Apple, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Samsung are just a few of the companies that use ARMs designs to craft their own custom chips.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during a press conference at The MGM during CES 2018 in Las Vegas on January 7, 2018. (Photo by Mandel Ngan / AFP) (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

The fear for them is that Nvidia would no longer allow ARM to act as a neutral third party, and could cut off competing companies from ARMs all-important designs. According to Bloomberg, Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm have already lodged their complaints about the potential deal with antitrust regulators. Nvidia, for its part, has said that it will maintain ARMs neutrality.

According to Huang, joining Nvidia and ARM will give the British chip designer access to Nvidias deep research and development expertise and pockets.

Story continues

The benefit of ARM being part of Nvidia is that we could accelerate their R&D scale, Huang said. ARM, as you know, are quite successful in mobile devices. But we could help them be much more successful in all other areas of computing.

Nvidia has been using ARM CPUs for years, including in its new Orin system on a chip, which features a 12-core ARM CPU.

For now the ARM deal will miss its initial deadline of the first half of 2022. Last month, the European Unions European Commission announced it launched an in-depth investigation into the potential deal. How it proceeds will partially determine the ultimate fate of the tie-up.

Sign up for Yahoo Finance Tech newsletter

More from Dan

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit

Got a tip? Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com over via encrypted mail at danielphowley@protonmail.com, and follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) - Chipmaker NXP Semiconductors on Thursday said it believes it will hit $15 billion in sales by 2024, with much of the expansion coming from internet-connected electric vehicles.

The Dutch company already derives about half of its revenue, which it forecast will reach $11 billion this year, from the automotive sector. Speaking with Reuters after holding a presentation for investors, NXP Chief Executive Kurt Sievers said the company intended to focus on key areas where more chips are going into cars and where NXP believes it can hold a market position at least twice that of any competitor.

One of those areas is radar sensors, which are increasingly being put into cars for safety systems that can automatically brake before a collision. NXP has 44% market share in that field and $600 million in sales today, and Sievers said the company believes radar chips could hit $1 billion in sales by 2024.

But perhaps the most lucrative for NXP could be chips that help connect cars to the internet so they can be updated with new software to unlock features or services that carmakers can charge money for. Tesla Inc pioneered the business model, and the automotive industry is looking to adopt it more broadly.

NXP makes both the "gateway" chips that connect the vehicle to the internet and the "domain controllers" that can distribute software updates to various subsystems in the car, such as the drivetrain.

NXP competes against Marvell Technology in selling such chips, but Sievers said NXP believes it has leading market share.

"Tomorrow's cars will be updated over their lifetime with fresh software in order to boost performance and allow new use cases on an existing piece of hardware. And the entry door for these downloads of new software has to be highly secure," Sievers said.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Stephen Coates)
KOAA

The skate park at Memorial Park in Colorado Springs is closed as officers and detectives investigate a reported shooting with multiple victims. Just before 7:30 p.m. Saturday a report came in about the shooting near the skate park along Pikes Peak Ave. Multiple ambulances were called to the scene to assist with multiple victims but soon left the area, along with fire department units. The location is just three blocks from UCHealth Memorial Hospital.
Democratic governor candidate Nan Whaley pitches universal prekindergarten at South Side Early Learning in Columbus.

Access to quality prekindergarten programs help children with learning later in life, but Ohio and the nation don't offer free, universal pre-K.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Mayor Nan Whaley, who is running for Ohio governor, say it's time to change that and invest in pre-K for Ohio's youngest residents. The change is part of President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" plan, which is tied up in Congress.

Several of Ohio's largest cities have free or subsidized prekindergarten, but there is no statewide or national program. Nationwide, 49% of three- and four-year-old were enrolled in school in 2019, compared to 86% of five-year-olds, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Whaley said she would expand universal pre-K in Ohio if elected, either by accepting federal money to expand universal prekindergarten or by including it in her first budget. Her campaign didn't have a price tag for that proposal.

"I don't think that this is that expensive," Whaley said at Columbus' South Side Early Learning. "If we can do this in Dayton, we can do this across Ohio and across the country. Kids are, by far, the most important investment we can make in our state."

In 2016, Dayton voters approved free preschool for every family with a four-year-old, paid for with a 0.25% income tax hike. The program recently expanded to three-year-olds.

Cincinnati and Columbus offer options for lower-income families to send their children to pre-K. In 2016, Cincinnati voters approved $15 million per year for a "preschool promise" proposal. Columbus City Council recently approved $4 million for pre-K.

But Toledo voters rejected a 0.5% income tax hike to pay for universal preschool in 2020, proving the concept is not universally popular.

Whaley said it's important that all families have access to pre-K, not just lower-income ones, but the money could be doled out differently based on income levels. Whaley said she would accept federal money if Biden's proposal passes Congress.

Story continues

Biden's plan, which has a price tag of $1.8 trillion, would make prekindergarten free for all three- and four-year-old regardless of their families' incomes. That portion of Biden's sweeping plan would cost $200 billion.

Many Republicans oppose the bill's hefty price tag and expansion of government services.

The White House estimated 5 million children would benefit from the change, which would save the average family $13,000.

The entire proposal, which also includes a national paid leave program and child care for lower-income families, would be paid for with taxes on businesses with income exceeding $1 billion, net stock buybacks and income over $10 million.

Despite the bill's uncertain future, Brown expressed optimism that the plan would pass before Thanksgiving.

"We are going to Build Back Better," Brown said. "It is going to have universal pre-K and those dollars will be coming to Ohio."

Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Democrats Brown, Whaley pitch universal pre-K in Ohio
Over 100 people showed up to Petersburg's planning commission meeting to oppose an ordinance that could limit their hours.

PETERSBURG  Old Towne business owners, employees and patrons of those establishments packed into the walls of the train station Tuesday night to argue against a new set of laws that could pose limits to the operations of restaurants and nightclubs.

About 100 people showed up to the meeting and over 30 people addressed the Petersburg Planning Commission. It was eying a new set of regulations that could create a balance between public nightlife and private residents in the area.

The first rule change considered was drafted to limit the hours of operation for eating establishments to 11 p.m. Places like restaurants, micro-breweries and coffee shops were the

Many of the people who turned up to speak were outraged at the possibility of limiting evening hours to 11 p.m. Old Towne has a number of restaurants at the citys center that are open well into the evening. Petersburg has entered into somewhat of a revival over the past decade, where boarded up store fronts have been replaced with stores, coffee shops and food. Speakers told the planning commission that nightlife, and the community it has created, has driven that growth.

D.J. Payne runs the Rajun Cajun and Wabi Sabi in Petersburg. His sister also owns Local Vibe Cafe. He remembers coming to the city in 2006 when he saw the historic rooftops from I-95. He parked his car and looked around. At the time there was relatively little activity, but he fell in love with the surroundings. Since then, he has started several business ventures that have been a major boon to the slow revitalization.

Payne explained that his restaurants have a major economic benefit to the city. He also employs 45 people, most of which live and pay taxes in Petersburg.

When you look at closing businesses at 11, youre taking away my years of experience, my loyalty, my integrity, my hard work, Payne said.

Another speaker, Shabar Waee, said he recently moved to Petersburg and got a job working at Old Townes Alibi. He expressed how important the evening hours are for restaurants in the area.

Story continues

I love living in this city and I love everything about it. Anywhere you go there is going to be good and bad. There has to be balance. We have to make sure everyone is safe and secure and everyone is happy where they are, he said. A lot of is that work in Petersburg depend on those after hours. I wouldnt be able to feed myself, my fiancee, my kids and my puppy with these restrictions.

Others talked about the importance that Old Townes restaurants have for communities that touch Petersburg. Many older students from Virginia State University turn to Old Towne for enjoyment, as well as the soldiers who are stationed at Fort Lee.

The planning commission voted to amend the drafted rules after over an hour of speakers. The rules approved by the planning commission place no restriction on the hours of operation for restaurants, provided that they adhere to the restrictions placed on their ABC licenses.

The planning commission also considered changes to the citys noise ordinance.

City Council previously considered an update to the noise ordinance but postponed it pending a recommendation from the planning commission. City Manager Stuart Turille said then that he was in favor of a downtown that had nightlife, which comes with high noise levels. He added that the noise ordinance was outdated and did not represent the best interest of the current downtown.

On Tuesday night, he said that the current question was the delineation between a restaurant and a night club.

The critical question is not hours of operation of a restaurant but clarifying the definition and allowable sound volume for night clubs, keeping in mind that we are now a city attracting youthful visitors, it is an exciting time here, as it should be, Turille said. Where nightclubs to exist now, I suggest focusing there.

Some of the restaurants' late night activity has veered into late night music, dancing and drinking that is expected from a night club.

Resident Jeff Fleming said that you should expect there to be noise if you come to live in a city.

We live in a city, we dont live in Dinwiddie County, we dont live in Surry County, we dont live in Prince George County. We live in the City of Petersburg, Fleming said.   The commission needs to find area for nightlife. [People who moved to Old Towne] knew it was a downtown. Theres going to be noise.

Current noise ordinances restrict outside sound in a mixed-use district to 65 decibel levels after 10 p.m. A normal conversation is about 60 decibels. Someone shouting in your ear is around 110. Noise ordinances have often been unenforced in the city.

Of the 500 total noise complaints filed with Petersburg Police this year, 18 were for businesses in Old Towne. Several speakers said they didnt see the need to make any enforcements for noise reasoning that Old Towne wasnt the bulk of the problem. Others said they felt the laws are fine the way they are, they just need to be enforced.

The planning commission voted to extend daytime hours to 11 p.m. After 11 p.m., outside sound would be restricted to 65 decibels.

Petersburg City Council will have the final approval before the new law is passed. An public hearing is scheduled for its meeting on Nov. 16.

You can reach Sean Jones at sjones@progress-index.com. Follow him at @SeanJones_PI. Follow The Progress-Index on Twitter at @ProgressIndex.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Old Towne Petersburg businesses speak against law that could limit operaitons
Madison Foor, a 14-year-old competitive dancer, was healthy before she contracted COVID-19 in January. Ten months later, she uses an inhaler every day.

"It feels a little scary, like I can't breathe," she said.

Foor returned to the University of Michigan's children's hospital this week to check her lung function. The clinic is studying so-called long haul COVID symptoms in children.

"My heart starts pumping really fast, and my lungs, it's just like constant need for air," Foor said.

A recent study in the United Kingdom found that COVID affects one in seven children months after they were infected. Symptoms can include headaches, anxiety, lung issues and fatigue.

Katharine Clouser, a pediatric hospitalist, said her team is seeing an increase in the number of kids with long-hauler symptoms. Clouser and her team at Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey opened one of the first pediatric COVID recovery centers in the state last spring.

"There has been some anecdotal kind of evidence that their symptoms do improve," Clouser said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently recommended use of the Pfizer vaccine for children between the ages of 5 to 11 years old. Since then, nearly 1 million kids in that age group have received their first dose.

One of Clouser's patients, 4-year-old Aaron Estrada, was healthy until he got COVID a year ago. Then he developed multi-system inflammatory syndrome, lost his hair and couldn't walk or stand for a month.

Estrada needed months of physical therapy to learn how to walk again. After 12 months of treatment, Estrada's doctors are hopeful he will make a full recovery. He doesn't turn 5 until next spring, but his doctors plan to vaccinate him this month because his symptoms were so severe.

Travis Scott's spokesperson on the Astroworld festival crowd surge that killed 9

ICU beds dwindling in Colorado as COVID-19 cases surge

Breaking down the six charges against Kyle Rittenhouse
An American flag and the U.S. Capitol are reflected in the windows of the Supreme Court building on Nov. 1, the day the court heard arguments on a Texas abortion law. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

As the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of an abortion ban and challenge to Roe vs. Wade , restrictions enacted in Texas and proposed elsewhere uniquely oppress military women.

Active-duty servicewomen experience higher rates of unintended pregnancy than the general population for various reasons . Military members medical care during training is often lacking, and their frequent change of providers interrupts their continuity of care. Military healthcare providers often fail to educate servicewomen on different available contraceptives and processes to obtain them, both of which can vary among clinics.

And servicewomen report difficulties developing trusting relationships with higher-ranking medical providers, which undermines their comfort in speaking candidly about their reproductive needs. Servicewomen also experience high rates of sexual assault, with about 1 in 3 female veterans reporting military sexual trauma during their careers.

For these reasons, active-duty women need good access to abortion services. Instead, their access is limited by the Hyde Amendment and other laws prohibiting federal funding for abortions except when a womens life is threatened by the pregnancy and in some instances involving rape and incest. These laws affect women insured by Medicaid and other federal programs including the military's insurance program, Tricare , which covers 1.4 million military, veteran and military-dependent women of childbearing age. To obtain an abortion, these women typically have to locate a provider and pay out of pocket.

On top of public funding restrictions, military treatment facilities are prohibited from performing abortions, even if servicewomen pay for them out of pocket. The only exceptions are cases of rape or incest, or if the pregnancy is determined to endanger the womans life. For military women stationed in countries where most abortions are illegal, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Djibouti, the lack of care on U.S. bases means they have virtually no access to safe, legal abortions.

Story continues

Now additional military women are losing access to abortion at home. More than 120,000 active-duty members live in Texas  the third-highest active-duty population in any state. This translates to more than 20,000 active-duty women (16.9% of the force) ordered to serve in a state restricting their constitutionally protected right.

Just as in the civilian population, restricting abortion access for military personnel doesnt eliminate the procedure  it drives people toward unsafe alternatives. Some servicewomen stationed overseas in countries where abortion is illegal have considered unsafe methods to terminate their pregnancies. Theyve cited the lack of confidentiality in the military, limited financial resources , travel restrictions and fear of military reprimand for severely limiting their options. Those who sought care in military facilities, only to learn of these barriers, are left feeling abandoned .

Active-duty women are placed in a terrible bind; most have to rely on civilian clinics for abortions. But the 20,000 women serving in Texas were stripped of even that option when the state ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy took effect Sept. 1.

For military women, out-of-state options are limited too. Members in training are often prohibited from traveling outside of designated local areas, let alone out of state. These trainees largely fall into the demographic categories at highest risk for unintended pregnancy among service members: under age 25, single, living in barracks and enlisted. Non-trainee members can also have their travel restricted, as COVID-related Department of Defense travel bans applied to most members during the pandemic. And under the Texas ban, anyone helping a women travel out of state for an abortion could be subject to aiding and abetting lawsuits.

Servicewomen forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term face heavy burdens. Low-ranking members pay can be insufficient to support a family, and the military can deny requests to obtain outside employment that would supplement their income.

Pregnancy or abortion can severely limit or even end military careers. Women who are pregnant or injured by unsafe terminations cannot deploy to serve military missions abroad. Additionally, unmarried and dual-military married parents are required to designate a caregiver for their children during military absences. If they cant, they face disciplinary action and/or discharge from the military.

Such turnover is costly for the military: Women who leave the service must be replaced, incurring recruiting and training costs. And because uniformed leaders must come from the ranks, this turnover affects womens future representation in leadership positions. Women interested in joining the military may also be deterred by having to serve in states that deny their reproductive rights.

If the U.S. wants to be a true standard bearer for personal freedoms around the world, it needs to stop blocking abortion access. Those limitations conflict with our nations values  and disproportionately affect service members defending those values. Federal leaders, courts and legislators should defend the right to abortion, undo extreme state restrictions and enact legislation to enable federal funding for all constitutionally protected abortions.

Erika King is an active-duty Air Force officer whose personal research focuses on policies and practices impacting servicewomen's wellness and retention. The views expressed here are the author's and do not represent the Department of Defense or United States Air Force.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Although they have approved hiring a full-time police officer for Opelousas High School, city elected officials appear to have questions about details for the officers employment contract scheduled to move forward with the St. Landry Parish School District.

At least one member of the Board of Aldermen remains concerned about removing an officer from patrol duties and how it will affect the ability of the city police department to respond situations outside the school campus.

During a board meeting Tuesday, Alderman Charles Cummings said he prefers using a rookie officer to handle disruptive situations at Opelousas High rather than placing a more experienced patrolman at the school.

More: Opelousas High administrators want more police presence on campus

Alderwoman Sherell Roberts questioned whether the police department has enough officers available to allow one to work primarily at the school.

Opelousas Board of Aldermen members Charles Cummings and Sherell Roberts confer during a discussion last week about hiring a school resource officer for Opelousas High.

City Police Chief Martin McLendon has appeared before the board at least once during the past year, asking for pay increases for his younger officers that often consider leaving the department for higher-paying positions in other municipalities.

McLendon was not at the Tuesday night meeting while the Opelousas High resource officer discussion occurred.

During a School Board meeting last month, McLendon agreed the school needs a full-time officer.

Opelousas High Principal Rickey Julien requested the hiring of an officer. Julien said last month during a School Board committee meeting that fights and other disturbances have been occurring.

School Board President Hazel Sias said the school needs a resource officer as soon as possible.

'Our kids are destroying each other': Parish leaders address juvenile crime issues

The Board of Aldermen has approved a proposed contract to hire an officer for Opelousas High at an annual $30,000 salary. The school district will pay all the costs, including benefits, according to the contract which was reviewed by the board.

Story continues

City Attorney Travis Broussard said the contract between the city and the district contains some flexibility, which allows the agreement between the two public entities to be terminated or continued at any time.

Board member Josh Boudreaux wondered if the school district or police department would train the officer before being employed at Opelousas High, but an answer was not immediately clear.

Are other issues plaguing the school?

Shauna Sias, who appeared before the School Board's Nov. 4 meeting, said the district should consider more than just discipline issues at Opelousas High.

Sias suggested employing mental health professionals who would assist in counseling students.

During her volunteer efforts at Opelousas High, Sias said she has encountered several students who recently considered attempting suicide. Others appear socially misguided and are experiencing mental trauma, she said.

There are many students there who are mentally struggling. These problems go far beyond the counselors who are doing a good job at the school, Sias added.

More: How schools across Louisiana are addressing mental health concerns after years of counselor shortages

Board members suggestions

Board vice-president Albert Hayes at the same meeting referred to a mentoring and monitoring program that he said has been effective at Glen Oaks High in Baton Rouge.

Hayes said the Glen Oaks program used fathers of children attending the school to patrol the hallways for years.

How it works elsewhere: Caddo Parish fathers fan out in schools to prevent violence, mentor kids

These men dont in any way touch the children. What they do is tell the administration what is going on, Hayes said.

Hayes said the same type of program using students fathers patrolling the halls might work at Opelousas High.

This article originally appeared on Opelousas Daily World: Opelousas High to receive full-time resource officer
Kendra Coleman testifies at her trial last year before the Court on the Judiciary.

The Oklahoma Ethics Commission is seeking tens of thousands of dollars on behalf of the state from an ousted Oklahoma County district judge.

Kendra Coleman, 45, of Oklahoma City, was removed from office last year on misconduct grounds.

On Wednesday, the Ethics Commission accused her in a civil case of multiple campaign finance violations dating to 2017.

Coleman was elected in 2018 in her first bid for office. She accepted prohibited donations, made unlawful expenditures, failed to keep required records and filed late and inaccurate reports, the Ethics Commission alleged.

More: Despite GOP claims, public did not favor carving up Oklahoma County

Most of the accusations center around what the Ethics Commission described as a "troubling relationship" with her attorney, Joe White.

The Oklahoma City attorney represented her campaign after the Ethics Commission opened a formal investigation on Sept. 13, 2019. The Ethics Commission alleged his legal services count as prohibited corporate contributions since she never reported paying the law firm for the help.

She also never reported paying for a March 1, 2018, fundraiser and the Nov. 8, 2018, watch party at White's law firm. The Ethics Commission alleged those events also count as impermissible contributions.

The Ethics Commission also questioned whether White could represent Coleman in the civil case since he will be a witness at trial.

Coleman could not be reached for comment. White called the Ethics Commission despicable.

Every person in America is entitled to a lawyer to defend their interests, especially when the government is seeking to punish that person," White said Thursday.

"This remains true even when the person may not be able to afford an attorney. Here, the Ethics Commission is attempting to deny Kendra Coleman the counsel of her choice by trying to manufacture a conflict of interest."

He called the attempt wrong and a violation of her constitutional rights.

Story continues

"It is despicable behavior by the Ethics Commission, and our society should not tolerate such behavior.

More: Congressional map would carve up Oklahoma City, help GOP

Coleman reported raising $29,020 in cash from donors to her 2018 campaign. The Ethics Commission alleged she misspent more than $10,000 of the funds, including for spa services and makeup.

The Ethics Commission asked that she be ordered to pay civil penalties to the state's General Revenue Fund, plus up to three times the value of "all unlawful contributions ... and expenditures."

The oversight body also wants to be reimbursed for its legal expenses and the cost of its investigation.

The civil case was filed in Oklahoma County District Court. Representing the Ethics Commission is Drew Edmondson, a former attorney general.

Coleman was removed from office by the Oklahoma Court on the Judiciary on Sept. 18, 2020.

In a 6-3 decision, the special court found she committed oppression in office, violated the Code of Judicial Conduct multiple times and violated ethics reporting rules involving her campaign.

Five of the six judges who found misconduct agreed she should be removed.

The special court did not disqualify her from holding judicial office in the future. In October, she kicked off efforts to be elected judge again in 2022.

White also represented Coleman before the Court on the Judiciary and in criminal cases involving tax returns.

Oklahoma Supreme Court: $465 million verdict in Johnson & Johnson opioid case thrown out

White

He told the Court on the Judiciary last year that Coleman got makeup for a photo for a campaign brochure and went to the salon the same day as her election watch party.

Coleman in February was sentenced to probation for failing to file her 2017 state tax return on time.

She entered a so-called Alford plea to the misdemeanor charge rather than a guilty plea. Under an Alford plea, a defendant accepts a sentence for a crime without admitting to it. She specifically noted in the paperwork that she maintains her innocence.

She filed her 2017 state tax return in September 2019, one day after The Oklahoman reported it was overdue.

"I'm a regular person with regular issues the same as everyone else in the world," she told The Oklahoman about her financial difficulties. "It's life. These things happen."

Coleman reached an agreement last year with the Oklahoma Tax Commission to pay $17,616 in installments on her overdue taxes, interests and other fees. The debt involved her 2011, 2012, 2017 and 2018 taxes.

She also has been behind on her federal taxes. Last year, she owed the IRS more than $100,000 in federal taxes, penalties and interest, according to evidence presented to the Court on the Judiciary.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ethics Commission accuses ousted judge of campaign violations
Second Presbyterian Church in Petersburg

PETERSBURG - This Sunday, Second Presbyterian Church celebrates 170 years of ministry in Petersburg. The worship service at 11:00 a.m. will be led by ministers Dr. Carroll Londoner and Rev. Archibald Wallace.

Special music will be performed by John Michael Jones, organist/choir director, soprano soloist Laraine Smith, and the handbell choir. Rev. Fred Holbrook, Executive Presbyter of The Presbytery of the James will also participate.

Second Presbyterian Church is registered as a Virginia Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The following 170-year history is provided on Second's website.

In 1851, twenty-two members of Petersburgs first Presbyterian church, then located on Tabb St., decided to form a new church with their main focus on missions.

Over the years, chapels were started which grew into churches in Hopewell, Colonial Heights, Prince George, Dinwiddie, Chesterfield, and Petersburg. Missionaries were supported in Japan, China, Africa, and southern France.

That emphasis on missions continues today on local, national, and international levels.

By 1861, the congregation had increased to the extent that a new building was needed. In spite of war clouds gathering, construction was undertaken in 1861 of the church that still stands at Washington and Lafayette Streets in Petersburg.

Second's then pastor, Dr. Theodorick Pryor served as architect, and the building was constructed at a cost of $30,000.

The structure has been called one of the purest pieces of Gothic architecture in the state. The sanctuary was hailed by Vernon Perdue Davis and James Scott Rawlings in their book "Virginias Antebellum Churches" as "probably the most rocco in Virginia."

Of special note are the splendid plaster medallions on the ceiling and the cast iron rosettes lining the balconies and rostrum. The latter were made by charter member William Henry Tappey, co-owner of Tappey & Lumsden Foundry in Petersburg. The elegant rostrum with ogival-arched window and ornamental apse was also praised by David & Rawlings for its beauty.

Story continues

To serve the needs of a growing congregation, an educational wing was added in the 1950s. The Austin pipe organ was installed in 1965 and McIlwaine Fellowship Hall was added in 1975.

Second Presbyterian Church in Petersburg

Luminaries placed on 6000 graves: Petersburg National Battlefield hosts Veterans Day event at Poplar Grove National Cemetery

VSU receives $25,000: Brothers of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity provide for next generation of students

ARGS student becomes published author: Teen's poem about racism in Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul 25th Anniversary Edition

Your support helps keep the lights on at The Progress-Index! We are passionate about telling Petersburg's stories. Stay connected with our articles, enterprise reporting and more by clicking "Subscribe" at the top of the page.

170 years

Indian mounds being discovered around the church are just one of Second Presbyterian's tales in its long history.

During the Civil War, Rev. John Miller removed a live 30-pound Union shell from the church wall with his bare hands. He placed it on the communion table, dismissed the congregation, and after they had gone, removed the shot from the shell and gave it to the older boys in the congregation for fall hunting.

As the war was ending, one of the last Confederate soldiers in Petersburg died and was left on the church steps by the retreating Confederates with a note requesting a proper burial. As he was being buried in the churchyard, Union troops stopped and stood in silence until the burial was finished, thus delaying their chase of the retreating Confederates.

Twice, the steeple has blown off: once in 1862 and again in 1954 by Hurricane Hazel.

Community outreach

While honoring its past, Second Presbyterian also looks to the future.

As a charter member of Downtown Churches United [DCU] its former minister Dr. Robert C. Vaughan, Jr. served as its first president. Second Church continues to support DCU and other local hunger programs.

There is an active Mens Group, and the Presbyterian Women [PW] stay active, having a different mission project each month. The PW have sponsored Lenten Services and Luncheons for 59 years as a source of spiritual renewal for the community. The Church regularly invited ministers from all of the area churches to lead the worship.

Second chartered and has served as a sponsor for Boy Scout Troop 175 for over 50 years. The community garden which provides healthy produce for neighbors is the Church's latest outreach project.

"Second will soon experience its 9000th worship service as it continues to serve in its third century of ministry," serving as Covenant Pastor, Rev. Archibald Wallace noted in a recent discussion of the Churchs history. "The light that was lit so long ago still burns, as Second has entered a self-study of where Christ is calling it to go next."

Whatever that may be and whatever that might involve, Wallace believes the long history of Second has many chapters to be written.

You're invited to join the 170th-anniversary celebration at 419 West Washington Street on Sunday, Nov. 14 as they honor the past and rejoice in the bright future ahead.

Hopewell Arts Fest: Lamb Arts celebrates 5th anniversary: Diverse programs, VMFA exhibit, DC Comics Author

- Kristi K. Higgins aka The Social Butterfly columnist is the trending topics and food Q&A reporter at The Progress-Index. Have a news tip on local trends or businesses? Contact Kristi (she, her) at khiggins@progress-index.com, follow @KHiggins_PI on Twitter, and subscribe to us at progress-index.com.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Petersburg church celebrates 170 years: Nearly 9000 worship services
At the Petersburg Public Library, Director of Library Services Wayne M. Crocker takes a picture of Artist Catherine Venable standing next to her painting "The Page Turner" while a library patron admires the piece contributed by Bill Nicholson.

PETERSBURG - Philanthropist Bill Nicholson contributes one of his favorite Catherine Venable paintings aptly titled "The Page Turner" to the Petersburg Public Library.

"It captures the essence of Petersburg, its heart and soul," Nicholson said.

Nicholson first saw Venable's painting at Petersburg Area Art League's "Petersburg On My Mind" exhibit in April which was the most successful opening both in sales and attendance that PAAL has seen in years.

"I could not allow 'The Page Turner' to leave Petersburg," Nicholson, who owns the historic Thomas Day House on High Street, said. "I reached out to Catherine and informed her that I wished to acquire and donate the piece to a permanent home here...where it belongs."

Director of Library Services Wayne M. Crocker agreed with great enthusiasm and proudly displays Venable's masterpiece in the library.

Artist Catherine Venable's painting "The Page Turner" features Petersburg restaurants, churches, and buildings of interest as squares within the quilt within the artwork.

Hopewell Arts Fest: Lamb Arts celebrates 5th anniversary: Diverse programs, VMFA exhibit, DC Comics Author

The Big LeBYRDski Fest: Richmond's Byrd Theatre hosts all things "Dude" event: Costume contest, El Duderino brew

ARGS student becomes published author: Teen's poem about racism in Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul 25th Anniversary Edition

Your support helps keep the lights on at The Progress-Index! We are passionate about telling Petersburg's stories. Stay connected with our articles, enterprise reporting and more by clicking "Subscribe" at the top of the page.

Master of imagery

When Venable was preparing for PAAL's art exhibit, she spent a lot of time at the library researching the history of Petersburg.

"What a fascinating history your town beholds," Venable said. "I was enraptured by the stories, history, industry, and architecture embedded within the books."

Venable chose the quilt motif for "The Page Turner" so she could capture different images of Petersburg within its squares.

Story continues

"My options were fantastic," Venable exclaimed.

From left to right, Bill Nicholson, Artist Catherine Venable, and Director of Library Services Wayne M. Crocker pose for a photo next to Venable's "The Page Turner" painting contributed to the Petersburg Public Library by Nicholson.

This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription.

The restaurant business inhabits most of the buildings that Venable selected to render within the squares.

"This captures the ongoing industrious community that abounds in the town center," Venable said.

"The two historical churches, First Baptist and Gillford are depicted as they are the oldest African-American churches in the Nation," Venable said. "The congregation worshiped together, established the first local school, and fought for their civil rights."

According to Venable, the woman stitching recognizable landmarks on the quilt is proud of her heritage and historically rich community.

"The woman in the background lounging with her friend is handing her friend a square that must be included in the stitchery," Venable explained. "With a green background, stands the now-demolished Underground Railroad that once stood on Pocahontas Island."

Venable travels and paints all over the world. Her artwork reveals her vision, imagination, creativity, love, humanitarianism, and inspiration for the people and the stories around her.

"Remembering our history helps us go forward," Venable stated.

The Petersburg Public Library is located at 201 W. Washington Street. For more information including operating hours, visit ppls.org.

'Petersburg On My Mind' PAAL exhibit: Catherine Venable and her sisters exhibit their passion in Old Towne

Storytelling through history and art: 'Petersburg on My Mind' exhibit: Petersburg Area Art League in Old Towne

Phase II expansion project: Petersburg Library receives two $200,000 matching grants pledge from Weinstein Properties

- Kristi K. Higgins aka The Social Butterfly columnist is the trending topics and food Q&A reporter at The Progress-Index. Have a news tip on local trends or businesses? Contact Kristi (she, her) at khiggins@progress-index.com, follow @KHiggins_PI on Twitter, and subscribe to us at progress-index.com.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Petersburg Library exhibits painting aptly titled 'The Page Turner'
MANILA (Reuters) - People coming to work in offices in the Philippines will have to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or get tested frequently, the president's office said on Friday, as the country battles one of Asia's worst outbreaks.

A little over a quarter of the Philippines' 110 million population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The government says there are enough stocks available and has been urging people to take the shots.

The new rules for in-office employees will take effect from Dec. 1, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement. Roque said employees who have not taken the shots even though vaccines are available in their area would be required to undergo tests at their own expense.

Public transportation services will be required to have their employees fully inoculated as a condition to continue their operations, he said.

Public and private establishments may refuse entry and deny services to unvaccinated or partially vaccinated individuals, except in cases of emergency, he added.

The slow pace of vaccinations is complicating government efforts to fully reopen the economy and get growth back up. People in some of the far-flung provinces are hesitant to take the shots, officials said.

"The greater challenge is how we can get the jabs to the arms of as many Filipinos as soon as possible," Carlito Galvez, who handles the government's vaccine procurement, said at a vaccine forum.

To ramp up its vaccine roll-out, the government will hold a three-day mass inoculation drive from Nov. 29 to immunise 15 million people.

The Philippines has reported more than 2.8 million COVID-19 infections and close to 45,000 deaths, among the highest in the Southeast Asian region.

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
The head of Prince Charles's charitable foundation has permanently resigned, it emerged on Friday, weeks after temporarily stepping down amid an internal investigation into an alleged cash-for-honours scandal.

Michael Fawcett, chief executive of the foundation, had initially agreed to suspend his duties following newspaper revelations about his links to a Saudi businessman who had donated large sums to restoration projects of particular interest to Charles.

Fawcett, a former valet to the Prince of Wales who has been close to Queen Elizabeth II's heir for decades, is alleged to have coordinated work to grant a royal honour and even UK citizenship for Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz.

Mahfouz reportedly denies any wrongdoing.

Charles' foundation, which helps jobless people get back into work and start small businesses, said in September it took the newspaper reports "very seriously", and on Friday confirmed the permanent departure of its head.

"Michael Fawcett has resigned from his post as CEO of The Prince's Foundation," a spokesperson said in a terse, one-line statement.

As a trusted valet, Fawcett would squeeze Charles' toothpaste onto his brush and help to dress him, according to reports.

"I can manage without just about anyone except Michael," the prince was said to have once commented.

In 2003, Fawcett was cleared of allegations of financial misconduct over the sale of unwanted royal gifts.

He was appointed as head of the foundation in 2018 following a reorganisation of Charles' charities.

jj/jwp
Prosecutors filed formal charges Friday in the murder cases against two Fairfield teens accused of murdering a high school Spanish teacher.

In court documents, prosecutors laid out the elements of the crimes the 16-year-old Fairfield High students are accused of: first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony.

Prosecutors also filed sealed evidence they say provides probable cause to believe Willard Noble Chaiden Miller and Jeremy Everett Goodale killed 66-year-old Nohema Graber on Nov. 2.

What is known about Graber's death

Graber was last seen alive by coworkers after school Nov. 2. The next morning, she was reported missing and police began an immediate search, according to records.

A search party found her in Chautauqua Park, where she was known to take daily walks after school.

More: 'She had a love for life': Fairfield honors Nohema Graber with prayer, vigil service

She was found hidden beneath a tarp, wheelbarrow and railroad ties, according to criminal complaints filed against Miller and Goodale.

The following day, Nov. 4, police arrested Miller and Goodale after an "associate" provided police with evidence of social media communications implicating the pair.

Born in Mexico, Graber moved to Fairfield in the early 1990s with her family. Her then-husband had grown up in Fairfield, and the couple sought to settle in the U.S. after having the first two of their three children.

Graber began teaching Spanish in 2006 after pursuing a teaching degree late in life, first in Ottumwa and later at Fairfield High School.

She was considered one of the pillars of Fairfield's small-but-growing Hispanic community, but prosecutors have said they believe the crime was not related to her ethnicity.

The teens were students at Fairfield High School, although prosecutors have not said whether or not they were students in Graber's classes.

More: Nohema Graber was an 'inspirational' leader of Latino community. After her death, her mantra of 'you can do it' lives on.

Story continues

The cases against the teens

The evidence submitted Friday is not public, but can be reviewed by the judge and defense lawyers in the cases. It only has to show that prosecutors have reasonable grounds to pursue charges.

The filing avoid probable cause hearings scheduled for Friday, in which defense lawyers would have been given a limited opportunity to cross-examine prosecution witnesses. The so-called trial information filings are routinely used by Iowa prosecutors.

Earlier in the week, both defendants filed court papers asking that they be released without bail while awaiting trial. Prosecutors objected, saying in court papers that the two youths has committed a "brutal" murder and that "no conditions of release supervision would provide for the safety or welfare of any community" in which they reside.

Hearings on whether to reduce the $1 million bail each teen is held on are scheduled for Nov. 23. Both of the youths are scheduled to enter a formal pleas of guilty or not guilty at arraignments Nov. 29.

Daniel Lathrop is a staff writer on the Register's investigative team. Reach him at (319) 244-8873 or dlathrop@dmreg.com. Follow him at @lathropd on Twitter and at facebook.com/IowaGadfly.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Spanish teacher killed: 2 Fairfield High School students charged
Aminata Diallo, midfielder for Paris Saint-Germain, was released from police custody on Thursday and was not charged with any crimes in connection to the attack on her teammate Kheira Hamraoui.

Diallo was arrested on Wednesday as part of the investigation into Hamraoui's attack. On Nov. 4, following a team meal at Bois de Boulogne west of Paris, Diallo offered Hamraoui a ride home. According to the New York Times, Hamraoui was pulled from the vehicle while the car was stopped and beaten by two masked men while Diallo was subdued. Hamraoui was admitted to the hospital with injuries to her legs and hands, and had to miss PSG's next game. Diallo started in her place.

PSG released a statement following Diallo's release.

Paris Saint-Germain notes the release of Aminata Diallo from police custody.

The Club continues to support its players to allow them to overcome this ordeal as soon as possible.

Paris Saint-Germain reiterates its confidence in the justice system to shed full light on the events.

The Club would like to thank everyone for showing restraint and respecting the presumption of innocence as well as the privacy of the team.

Aminata Diallo was released from police custody and was not charged with any crimes related to the brutal attack on her teammate. (Photo by Aurelien Meunier - PSG/PSG via Getty Images)

It's common in France for police to arrest people in connection with an investigation. Prosecutors then have 48 hours to file charges or release the person from custody. French Prosecutor Maryvonne Caillibotte told CNN in a statement that it's possible Diallo could be brought back into custody.

"The material in the investigators' possession justified her being put in custody, Versailles prosecutor Maryvonne Caillibotte told CNN in an emailed statement.

"Her release signifies that at this stage the charges are not sufficient to put her before an investigating judge and to put her under formal investigation.

"However, the investigation is ongoing to identify the attackers and their potential accomplices. If new elements become available and concern Ms. Diallo, she may need to be brought back into proceedings."

Story continues

Diallo's lawyers have released a statement in response to reports that Diallo was an accomplice to the attack because she and Hamraoui were rivals.

Via Marca.com:

"[We denounce the] totally artificial suggestion of a rivalry between her and Mrs Kheira Hamraoui that would explain why she would target her team-mate," read a statement from Diallo's lawyers.

"This theory does not reflect at all the reality of their relationship.
BEIJING (Reuters) - New York-based Human Rights Watch on Friday criticised corporations sponsoring the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics for ignoring what it says are China's crimes against humanity in its far western region of Xinjiang.

The group said in an online news conference that major sponsors of the Feb. 4-20 Winter Olympics should press China's government and the International Olympics Committee (IOC) on the host nation's human rights violations.

"The time for quiet diplomacy is over," said Minky Worden, director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch.

Multinationals including U.S.-based Coca-Cola, Intel, and AirBnB are among 13 "Olympic Partners", the highest level of sponsorship, collectively paying hundreds of millions of dollars. The three firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside U.S. business hours.

Rights groups and U.S. lawmakers have called on the IOC to postpone the Games and relocate them unless China ends what the United States deems genocide against ethnic Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority groups.

U.N. rights experts have said that at least 1 million Muslims were detained in camps in Xinjiang since 2017.

China denies all accusations of abuse of Uyghurs and describes the camps as vocational training facilities to combat religious extremism. China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Human Rights Watch statements.

In July, a U.S. Congressional panel denounced U.S.-based Games sponsors, accusing them of putting profits ahead of human rights. Asked then whether the Games should be relocated or postponed, all of the sponsors declined to say, or said they had no responsibility over site selection.

China, the world's second largest economy, has grown increasingly perilous for global companies caught between the market opportunity and pressure over rights.

In March, retailer H&M faced a consumer boycott after it decided to divest its supply chains from Xinjiang, where researchers say forced labour practices are imposed upon Uyghurs, mostly Muslim people who speak a Turkic language.

Story continues

Enes Kanter, a Turkish basketball player for the Boston Celtics, has since last month posted more than a dozen messages and videos on Twitter, criticizing China's rights record and accusing President Xi Jinping of being a "brutal dictator".

In October, Kanter posted four pictures of custom-made basketball shoes that had written on them the slogans "No Beijing 2022", "Move The Games", and "No Rights No Games".

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman criticised Kanter in October as "trying to get attention" and said his remarks were "not worth refuting".

China's Tencent Holdings, which pays millions to the NBA to stream games exclusively, stopped streaming Celtics games.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Robert Birsel)
The 34th annual Florida MoPar Association Sunshine State MoPar car show and swap meet on Nov. 13 and 14 at the Florida Agriculture Center and Horse Park will feature about 200 Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler products in 26 categories and a chance to meet famed Dodge drag racer Mr. 4 Speed, Herb McCandless.

Following a $25 per person opening night party on Friday night (Nov. 12) with Cajun food prepared by the Big Easy MoPar Club of New Orleans, the show will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

A car corral, 150 class winners and Best of Show trophies, vendors, food, cash drawings and music will all be part of the show.

Things to do this weekend: Music, comedy and more | Fun things to do in Ocala/Marion | Nov. 12-14

Veterans Day: Marion County veterans reflect on their service and its aftermath

Inspiration: Ocala's Baby Zion only lived 4 months. But his story continues to inspire.

Butch Arnold, left, stands next to his 2016 Dodge Hellcat while fellow MoPar enthusiast Curt DeRemer, right, stands next to his 1970 Dodge Challenger RT .

McCandless is scheduled to join the Friday night gathering and be on the grounds Saturday.

McCandless said the show draws some of the best cars in the South.

He plans to hold Q-and-A sessions at the show to help people with their cars.

'Mr. 4 Speed' started racing at age 16

McCandless started racing at age 16 in 1959 and became known as Mr. 4 Speed due to his ability to shift a manual transmission while making it sound as smooth as an automatic, according to www.McCandless collection.com.

The website states McCandless became involved with the Chrysler Racing Program in 1965 and three years later he won 36 of 52 races entered and placed second in eight contests.

In 1970, McCandless joined the famous Sox and Martin racing team and the same year he won the inaugural U.S. Nationals NHRA Pro Stock Eliminator. He also was the first person to have NHRA wins in Pro and Sportsman Eliminator classes.

McCandless continued to set racing records in the 1970s: In 1973 he drove the first Pro Stock car to run the quarter mile in an 8:53 second time, and he worked with Chrysler on engine development.

Story continues

McCandless has been inducted into the NHRA Division 2 Hall of Fame and the Super Stock Magazine and South East Drag Times halls of fame.

Drag racing legend and Marion County resident Don Garlits wrote in an email: Herb is one of the nicest and smartest men in Mopar.

Drag racing legend "Big Daddy" Don Garlits heads to the track as he attempts to set a world speed record in his Swamp Rat 38 electric dragster Saturday at the Palm Beach International Raceway July 20, 2019. Garlits, the first man to break the 200-mph barrier in a Top Fuel dragster, was on a quest to reach the 200-mph milestone in a battery-powered dragster on the quarter-mile drag strip.

Garlits stated he believes MoPar remains popular because they offered the Hemi engine many years ago and it is still the engine of drag racing.

All about this weekend's big show

The upcoming show will include iconic muscle cars of the 1960s and 1970s like Challengers and Chargers and their 2000 and later model updates.

Butch Arnold, president of the Florida Mopar Association and president of the Mopars of Ocala, shows off the semi-powered engine on his 2016 Dodge Hellcat on Nov. 4. The 35th annual Florida Mopar Association show will be held Nov. 13 and 14 in Marion County.

Butch Arnold, president of both the Florida MoPar Association and the MoPar Club of Ocala, will display his black and red 2016 Dodge Hellcat SRT Charger with a 6.2-liter supercharged engine, which develops 707 horsepower, while Curt DeRemer will show his meticulously restored 1970 Green with Envy color Dodge Challenger RT with a 383 cubic inch V-8 engine.

DeRemer dubbed the muscle car the Grinch because of problems during the rebuild.

Although Arnold and DeRemer may discuss the merits of nostalgic cars versus modern engine technology and comfort, MoPar fans have a Dodge slogan they unite under:

Brotherhood of Speed.

If you go

What: Florida MoPar Associations Sunshine State MoPar Car Show and Swap Meet.

Where: Florida Agriculture Center and Horse Park, 11851 SW 16th Ave. (County Road 475A), Ocala

When: Saturday, Nov. 13 and Sunday, Nov. 14, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: MoPar enthusiasts will gather in Ocala this weekend for car show
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The founder of a prominent rights group that monitors and reveals abuses in Russia's prison system said on Friday he had been placed on a wanted list by Russian authorities.

Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the Gulagu.net rights group, appeared in an interior ministry database of individuals wanted by Russia on Friday.

"Once again they have shown the whole world how they abuse their power and authority," Osechkin, who has lived in France since 2015, wrote on Facebook.

The database did not specify what crime Osechkin was wanted for. The interior ministry did not reply to a Reuters request for comment.

Osechkin, 40, said it was the second time he had been placed on the wanted list. He said his lawyers had sent him a copy of the materials against him.

"I have never stolen anything from anyone and have acted within the legal framework to expose corruption and torture as part of the Gulagu.net activity," he added.

Gulagu.net said earlier this year it had received a massive leak of documents, photos and videos proving that hundreds of people across the prison system had been tortured and raped by other inmates directed by prison officials.

The release of some of the footage prompted Russian authorities to fire several prison officials and open criminal investigations into torture and sexual assaults.

Russia later added Sergei Savelyev, a Belarusian national who leaked the videos to Gulagu.net, to its wanted list. The charged against him were dropped for reasons that were not disclosed by the authorities, Osechkin said on social media this week.

Savelyev, a programmer who helped to operate the local computer network and video cameras while serving time in a prison, is now seeking political asylum in France.

"We will expose their terrible crimes against humanity, show the world, tell them about their torture conveyors and stop this outrage," Osechkin wrote, referring to prison authorities. "Even if I have to risk my life."

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber, Polina Devitt and Tom Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Mark Trevelyan)
A Veteran's Day parade wouldn't be the same without those who served. Luckily, there were plenty of them at the parade in Sacramento. Brenda Kister is a first-generation American who said her eight-year service in the National Guard meant the world to her. She said she was 17 years old when she convinced her parents to let her sign up at a recruiter station. "I'm very proud of the country we live in and the country we are providing for our kids, Kister added. I feel it takes us to stand up and protect this."
A South Carolina man has been captured in Florida after carjacking and kidnapping two teens in Chester County who gave him a ride, officials said.

Curtis Dwight Tompkins, 23 of Greenwood, was caught Thursday after a chase by police in Putnam County in Florida, according to a statement from Grant Suskin, spokesman for the Chester County Sheriffs Office.

Tompkins is charged by Chester County deputies with attempted murder, two counts of kidnapping, carjacking, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and pointing and presenting a weapon, according to arrest warrants obtained by The Herald.

In the early morning hours of Monday, November 8, 2021, deputies responded to the area of Mountain Gap Road and Hwy 97 in response to two juveniles knocking on doors in the area, claiming they were carjacked and kidnapped, and seeking help



Full post here: https://t.co/lCGUvUnunx pic.twitter.com/u3HbVrLFv4  Chester County Sheriff's Office (@ChesterSheriff) November 12, 2021

Police found the teen victims Monday in rural Chester County after they knocked on doors asking for help, Chester County Sheriff Max Dorsey said.

Chester detectives worked with federal agents and Florida police to find Tompkins, officials said.

We are very thankful to law enforcement in South Carolina and Florida to have this suspect in custody now after what we believe was a traumatic and dangerous event for the victims, Dorsey told The Herald Friday afternoon.

Crimes started with asking for a ride

The incident started Sunday night in Clinton in Laurens County, Suskin said. The two teens in a Camaro were at a gas station fueling the car when Tompkins asked for a ride and offered the teens money, according to Suskin and the warrants.

More than 50 miles away at a gas station in Chester County, near Interstate 77, Tompkins allegedly put a gun to the head of one of the teens and pulled the trigger, but the gun did not go off, according to arrest warrants.

Story continues

Tompkins then took control of the Camaro and drove away with the teens in the car, officials said.

The teens were able to flee on foot from Tompkins on Mountain Gap Road in Chester County, where they sought help by knocking on doors, Suskin said.

The teens are not from Chester County, Dorsey said. Police have not said how old the teens are, or where they were from.

Tompkins remains in the Putnam County jail pending extradition to South Carolina on the pending arrest warrants, Suskin said.
A South Carolina man will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to murdering and sexually assaulting a two-year-old.

According to the Eighth Circuit Solicitors Office, Clintons Ryan William Looper, 30, pleaded guilty Thursday to murder, criminal sexual conduct with a minor and two counts of unlawful conduct toward a child. Under the plea agreement, Looper was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors had initially sought the death penalty against Looper, but dropped that in exchange for a guilty plea and cooperation with prosecutors to testify as to crimes in which he was a victim, a solicitors office press release said.

In June 2018, Laurens County deputies responded to a home and found two-year-old Brantley Smith, the child of Loopers then-girlfriend, unresponsive, with bruises all over his body. The child was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to the release from the solicitors office, Looper admitted beating and abusing the child repeatedly for approximately two weeks, and that he did not know why. He also reportedly confessed to sexually assaulting the child.

Billy Loopers actions are the very face of evil and it is unfathomable the depth of that evil faced by Brantley on that horrific night, Eighth Circuit Solicitor Stumbo said.
Artist James Anzalone paints a mural at CoolSprings Galleria Mall

Shoppers at CoolSprings Galleria can watch artist James Anzalone paint a mural behind the food court through Nov. 18.

Anzalone, from New York, said the mural was inspired by the community he found in Franklin and from talks with the mall. He had never been to Tennessee before starting his work on the mural.

Its been really nice, said Anzalone about Franklin. The downtown area is a picture book.

The murals team, at the mall and Anzalone, worked to make sure it reflected the Franklin community and was engaging and interactive. He wanted the design to reflect some shopping, due to the mall location.

Anzalone submitted his proposal for the mural in early October, having come across the opportunity through his professional network. When he arrived to paint the mural, he had to make some minor adjustments to accommodate for the lighting variations in the space.

He explained that he is a meticulous planner in his work, planning out each aspect of the work with lots of grids. On the left side of the unfinished mural, he pointed out, are are some math equations.

Shoppers are able to come by the mural, located behind the Sbarro in the food court, to watch Anzalone work on it. On Thursday, some stray smiley faces on the wall were the result of some extra paint on Anzalone's brush when he wanted to leave and get a cup of coffee.

Anzalone had never done anything like this project, he said, with people could coming by to talk to him while he worked. Shoppers have asked him lots of questions about his process. One woman asked him about all of the materials he was using, and he said he felt like a teacher again. He used to run a teaching art studio but closed the space due to the pandemic.

"I found myself falling back into, Oh, Im a teacher, he said. Shes asking all these questions about how I gridded this out and what I was using to sketch it on the wall. And that was kind of fun to talk a little bit about art.

In addition to this being the largest mural hes painted, Anzalone plans for it to be interactive, with three different painted spotlights. When its complete, he wants viewers to be able come up and take photos in the spotlights.

Story continues

He said he does not want the mural to just be another backdrop for Instagram photoshoots, however, and he has hidden words and messages in the painting for viewers who spend a longer time looking at it.

The name of the mall will be at the top of the mural. He plans to paint the words with patterns inside of the letters.

Anzalone was a biology major, and he said a lot of his work is inspired by architectural plans and biology. When people come by, he wants them to stop and look for tiny images and other words painted inside the letters of CoolSprings.

"It's sort of like looking at clouds and finding pictures in clouds, Anzalone said.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: CoolSprings Galleria allows shoppers to watch artist paint mural
A snow crab was sold for 5 million yen (around $44,000) at the Kanazawa seaport in Japan during the seasons first auction.



The auction: On Nov. 6, the large male snow crab that was sold for millions of yen passed every criterion of Ishikawa Prefecture's fisheries cooperative, reported NHK World-Japan.



Out of the 58 tons of catch on Saturday, the crab was the only one that passed certain requirements, such as weighing 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) and having a shell width of 14.5 centimeters (5.7 inches).

According to The Japan News, it is also the first snow crab certified under the Kagayaki brand, which is noted for its high quality.

The prefectures fisheries cooperative chooses snow crabs with the best shape and size to auction them under a new brand name every year.

According to NHK World-Japan, the auction winner was a chef who works for a company that runs hot spring inns. The price was reportedly a reflection of his gratitude toward the fishermen who continue to persevere amid the COVID-19 pandemic.



The male snow crab is reportedly the second one of its kind to be sold at about $44,000. The first one was auctioned in Tottori Prefecture in 2019.



Featured Image via Asia Amplified!

Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark!

Teen Vogue Staffer Gets Flack After N-Word Tweets From 2009 Unearthed

Husband Denied From Caring for Terminally Ill Wife Due to COVID-19 Hospital Restrictions

Latina Singer Malu Targets Chinese People With Racist Comments on Instagram Live

Over 2,500 Asian American New Yorkers Sign Letter Demanding Inclusion in History Curriculum
Springfield police have released the name of the man who was shot and killed by officers Thursday night after they say he shot a park ranger.

Seth Rynio, 21, of Lebanon, died at the scene after being shot by officers. Police say the park ranger who was shot by Rynio suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The incident occurred just after 9:30 p.m. when police were dispatched to the Downing Street Pour House near the intersection of Battlefield Road and Glenstone Avenue to check on an intoxicated person who was armed and causing a disturbance there, Springfield police said in a Friday news release.

Police at the scene of a shooting Thursday night on South Glenstone Avenue in Springfield.

The release says Rynio left the restaurant after staff there called 911. When officers arrived, they saw Rynio hiding in some bushes on the east side of the nearby Barnes and Noble bookstore, and they started to set up a perimeter to contact him.

An on-duty park ranger, who was responding to the call as backup, arrived on the scene and drove along the east side of the building at which point Rynio fired several shots and struck the park ranger several times, according to the release.

Two Springfield police officers, who were on the south side of the building, heard the gunshots and returned fire, fatally wounding Rynio.

The park ranger was listed in stable condition on Thursday night, and his injuries are considered non-life-threatening.

According to the Springfield Police Department, it is common for park rangers, who are commissioned through the Greene County Sheriffs Office, to respond to calls as they have jurisdiction in both the city and the county.

While on patrol, rangers often provide backup to officers with Springfield Police, Greene County Sheriff, area School Resource Officers, Springfield Airport Police and other agencies within Greene County, the release said.

The two Springfield officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation, and the case will be presented to the Greene County Prosecutors Office to determine if any criminal charges should be filed, according to the police department.

Story continues

Both officers body-worn cameras were on and operational at the time of the incident, according to a lieutenant on scene Thursday night.

Officers are continuing to investigate the incident and the events that led up to it and are asking anyone with information to call the Springfield Police Department at 417-864-1810 or make an anonymous call to Crime Stoppers at 417-869-TIPS (8477).

Authorities have not yet released the name of the injured park ranger. Springfield-Greene County Parks Director Bob Belote issued a statement Friday saying he was praying for the officers.

"First off, all our thoughts and prayers are with our park ranger and his family, as well as the Springfield Police officers involved in this incident, Belote said. We are extremely proud of our park rangers and the work they do with our law enforcement partner agencies, who work tirelessly and too often in harms way in keeping our community safe."

More: Man dies in exchange of gunfire with police in Springfield; park ranger injured

Jordan Meier covers public safety for the Springfield News-Leader. Contact her at jmeier@news-leader.com, (417) 597-7663 or on Twitter @Jordan_Meier644

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield Police ID man shot by officers; ranger in stable condition
Steve Bannon has not publicly commented on Tuesday's vote in the House Select Committee

Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has been charged with contempt of Congress after refusing to give evidence about the US Capitol riot.

He was summoned to testify on what he knew about plans for the protest that ended with the storming of Congress.

The House of Representatives voted last month to send the case to the justice department, which opted on Friday to prosecute Mr Bannon, 67.

He could face up to a year in prison and a $100,000 (74,500) fine.

Trump supporters raided the US Congress building on 6 January as lawmakers were meeting to certify the election result.

Mr Trump, a Republican, has refused to acknowledge losing the election to Democratic President Joe Biden last year, making claims - without evidence - of mass voter fraud.

What exactly is Bannon charged with?

This was the first such indictment to come out of the House of Representatives Select Committee's inquiry of the 6 January invasion of the Capitol complex.

One of the contempt counts against Mr Bannon is linked to his refusal to appear for a deposition and the other is for his refusal to produce documents for the committee.

Mr Trump seen attending the baseball World Series last month

The political advisor - who was fired from the White House in 2017 but remained loyal to former President Donald Trump - is expected to surrender to authorities on Monday, when he will appear in court.

In a statement released on Friday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the indictment reflected the justice department's "steadfast commitment" to the rule of law.

Subpoena documents quote Mr Bannon - who currently hosts the right-wing War Room podcast - as saying on the eve of the riot that "all hell is going to break loose tomorrow".

The 67-year-old's lawyers argued that his communications involving the former president were protected.

What has Trump had to say?

Mr Trump has urged his former aides to reject all requests to submit to depositions. He argued they have the right to withhold information because of executive privilege - a legal principle that protects many White House communications.

Story continues

The US Court of Appeals in Washington is scheduled to hold a hearing at the end of this month to rule on Mr Trump's claim of executive privilege, after it was rejected by a lower court.

The former president is also attempting to block a trove of phone records, visitor logs and other White House documents that congressional investigators are chasing for their Capitol riot inquiry.

President Biden has argued that executive privilege does not apply in this case.

Will Bannon go to prison?

Contempt of Congress cases are notoriously difficult to litigate.

The last successful prosecution was in 1974, against a conspirator in the Watergate scandal that forced President Richard Nixon out of office.

If Mr Bannon is cleared it will not be his first scrape with the legal system. Before leaving office in January, Mr Trump pardoned Mr Bannon of charges that he had defrauded donors who gave money to fund construction of a southern border wall.

Is anyone else defying the committee?

Mr Bannon's indictment came on the same day that Mark Meadows, a former White House chief of staff in the Trump administration, defied a similar subpoena to appear before the committee.

His lawyer said on Friday that Mr Meadows had a "sharp legal dispute" with the committee because of Mr Trump's claims of executive privilege.

In a statement, committee chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said that Mr Meadow's decision "to defy the law" may force the committee to pursue contempt proceedings like those applied to Mr Bannon.

"It's unfortunate that Mr Meadows has chosen to join a very small group of witnesses who believe they are above the law," Mr Thompson said.

He added that efforts from Mr Meadows, Mr Bannon and others "won't prevail in stopping the select committee's effort getting answers for the American people about January 6th".

The House Select Committee has issued dozens of subpoenas in the last week, calling on many former Trump officials to hand over documents and testify about the riot.

They include Kayleigh McEnany, the ex-White House press secretary, Stephen Miller, who was Mr Trump's senior adviser, and Michael Flynn, former national security adviser.
Steve Bannon leaves the federal courthouse in Washington DC after testifying at the trial of Roger Stone in November 2019. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was indicted on 2 charges of contempt of Congress.

Bannon refused to appear for a deposition and produce documents to a House committee investigation the Capitol riot.

The DOJ announced the indictment Friday after the House referred Bannon for criminal contempt charges.

A federal grand jury indicted Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist under President Donald Trump, on two counts of contempt of Congress, the Justice Department announced on Friday.

The indictment is the DOJ's first major signal that it intends to take Congress' criminal contempt referrals seriously.

Friday's charges come after Bannon refused to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. He rejected the committee's demand that he sit for a deposition and produce relevant documents. The panel moved to pursue criminal contempt charges against him last month.

-Betsy Woodruff Swan (@woodruffbets) November 12, 2021

Insider has reached out to Bannon's lawyer for comment.

Bannon is not the only Trump associate who's failed to comply with the committee's investigation. On Friday, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows failed to show up for a deposition, and his lawyer said it's up to the courts to resolve issues related to Trump's assertion of executive privilege over matters related to the committee's investigation.

Bannon's lawyer made a similar argument last month, telling the committee that Bannon was not required to comply with the subpoena because it was "an issue between the committee and President Trump's counsel." He added that Trump's lawyer, Justin Clark, had "directed" Bannon not to testify or turn over documents "until the issue of executive privilege is resolved."

Story continues

Rep. Adam Schiff, who serves on the bipartisan select committee, told Insider last month that the panel was serious about pursuing contempt charges against those who refuse to cooperate with the investigation.

The Justice Department has previously declined to enforce criminal contempt referrals, and Schiff signaled that he expected that to change under the Biden administration.

Attorney General Merrick Garland also highlighted the apolitical nature of Bannon's indictment in a statement announcing the charges Friday.

"Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law," the statement said. "Today's charges reflect the department's steadfast commitment to these principles."

The Jan. 6 House Committee released a statement on Friday arguing that Bannon's indictment indicates "no one is above the law."

"Steve Bannon's indictment should send a clear message to anyone who thinks they can ignore the Select Committee or try to stonewall our investigation: no one is above the law," the statement read. "We will not hesitate to use the tools at our disposal to get the information we need."

Each count against Bannon is a misdemeanor and carries a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, the DOJ said, adding that it also includes a fine of $100 to $1000.

Trump has repeatedly urged his associates not to comply with the select committee's investigation, and he himself moved to block the committee from obtaining records relevant to its inquiry.

But a federal judge on Tuesday dealt a stinging blow to the former president's lawsuit, which centered around broad claims of executive privilege.

Trump "does not acknowledge the deference owed to the incumbent president's judgment," US District Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote in her 38-page ruling, referring to the Biden White House's decision to turn over the records. "His position that he may override the express will of the executive branch appears to be premised on the notion that his executive power 'exists in perpetuity.' But presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President."

This isn't Bannon's first run-in with the law. Last year, Bannon was charged with defrauding donors to We Build the Wall, a fundraising group he helped create to privately finance construction of Trump's US-Mexico border wall. Prosecutors accused Bannon of stealing almost $1 million of about $25 million raised and using it for personal spending. Trump pardoned Bannon shortly before he left office.

Correction: An earlier version of this story included a headline saying the alleged crimes are felonies. They are misdemeanors.

Read the original article on Business Insider
WEYMOUTH  Stacey Maloney was resting at her parents North Carolina home after spending the night with her father at a hospital when she got a video call from her husband, Dan.

He told her their Weymouth house was on fire. She watched the video as the fire tore through their Vanness Road home.

Watching your home burn on FaceTime from 800 miles away is the epitome of helplessness, Stacey Maloney said. It was surreal, emotional. It was really hard. You can't even process it.

Maloneys husband, mother-in-law, children and three dogs got out safely, but their home was badly damaged in the blaze last week.

While Maloney thinks some of their belongings are salvageable, she said they will need professional cleaners for the smoke and water damage. Some parts of the house are destroyed, she said. Fire Chief Keith Stark said an unattended candle caused the blaze.

A fire damaged the residence at 40 Vanness Road in North Weymouth while the homeowner watched via FaceTime.

Friends are rallying around the family to provide clothing and help with other needs as they cope with the loss. The family is splitting time between a hotel and a family friend's house.

Everyone is offering help, but we dont know what to do at this point, said Maloney, who works for the U.S. Postal Service in Hingham. Im not used to being on the receiving end of help. Im usually the one helping.

Maloney's father is a retired Quincy firefighter who is battling kidney cancer linked to his time with the department. She said her dad helped them do work on their home, including the kitchen, which makes the damage even more painful to see.

"All this work we put in, and now it's gone," she said. "It's so ironic that I was taking care of my dad who was a firefighter for 32 years. I heard all the horror stories and you never think it's going to be you."

A friend of the Maloney family started an online fundraiser, which has raised more than $5,000 as of Friday afternoon. To make a donation, visit the fundraiser page.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Weymouth woman watched her home burn through video call
A 48-year-old Tampa man was arrested Thursday on a DUI manslaughter charge after he struck and killed a pedestrian, police said.

James White was driving on Highland Oaks Drive, in the Hunters Green subdivision, around 2:56 a.m. When he came to a slight curve, his SUV left his lane and crossed into a bike lane  hitting a pedestrian who was walking in that lane, the Tampa Police Department said in a news release.

The pedestrian was thrown to the side of the road and died instantly, police said. The name of the pedestrian was not released.

Officers said White showed signs of impairment and failed a field sobriety test.

He was arrested and was booked into the Hillsborough County jail. White was being held without bail on Thursday.

The crash remains under investigation.
A 17-year-old girl who said she was kidnapped while jogging in western France, triggering a frantic search by hundreds of police, has admitted her story was a hoax, prosecutors said Friday.

Under questioning the teenager, identified in media reports as Lisa P., said she had "lied" about an abduction by two men Monday and her eventual escape the next day, said the public prosecutor for the city of Laval, Celine Maigne.

The girl's parents reported her missing on Monday evening after she failed to return from a run in a forest near her home in Saint-Brice, a small town some 70 kilometres (45 miles) from Le Mans.

Her father later found some of her personal effects while searching her regular jogging route, which local radio France Bleu said included a telephone and earphones that appeared to have traces of blood.

That prompted authorities to deploy some 200 officers in a search that dominated media headlines.

Le Parisien newspaper, for example, quoted classmates describing Lisa as "someone who never had any trouble, very nice, simple, and ready to lend a hand to anyone."

She was later discovered the next day at a kebab shop in Sable-sur-Sarthe, a town some 10 kilometres away, and reunited with her family.

She claimed that two men had grabbed her and put her into a green utility van, but that she managed to escape and flee by foot.

She has said "she is sorry to have caused a mass mobilisation" of searchers, Maigne added in a statement, and will now face charges of falsely reporting a crime.

Video: Frenchman breaks hot air balloon world record
A teen who pleaded guilty to a felony charge in a 2019 Bloomington knife attack against a 13-year-old girl has been taken into custody by immigration officials and awaits deportation to South Korea.

Dongwook Ko was 17 when the crime occurred at an Indiana University music school violin camp and he was 19 when a judge sentenced him on Nov. 3 to eight years on house arrest followed by two more years on probation.

Ko is a South Korean resident who's lived in the United States on a temporary visa with his mother, an IU graduate student, since he was 11. Under federal law, a non-resident convicted of an aggravated felony can be deported.

More: Dongwook Ko sentenced for attacking girl at Indiana University strings academy in 2019

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Ko into custody last week. He is being held in detention at the Clay County Justice Center, about 50 miles northwest of Bloomington.

The victim's parents, who had called for Ko to serve time behind bars after he pleaded guilty to criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon, were upset by the house arrest sentence.

They were in contact with ICE officials, and knew that a sentence without jail time meant Ko would be deported and no longer under the court's order for home detention and mental health treatment.

"Judge (Darcie) Fawcett was aware that a no-prison sentence for Mr. Ko would equate to an immediate arrest by ICE and a real chance for his total freedom in 2021," the girl's mother, Nina Barringer, wrote in a statement.

"A state prison sentence was the only way to guarantee punishment and mental health oversight of this dangerous felon. Mr. Ko got a free ride for a heinous crime. Thats not justice."

IU violin camp attack: Stabbing attack victim feared for her life

The girl's father delivered a letter to the judge and lawyers on both sides back in August pointing out that no jail time for Ko meant he would be deported and not held accountable for the crime against the girl.

Story continues

"A home detention sentence from the court could result in Mr. Ko living in his home country of South Korea before Thanksgiving of 2021 without any court supervision," the Aug. 27 letter states.

"If that happens, the victim would not be protected by the court from the defendant, to include attacking or harassing her online or through a third party, and she would not have many of the protections and communication provided to victims of felony violent crimes in Indiana."

The letter said if Ko ends up in detention awaiting deportation, he won't receive the mental health treatment that was integral to his sentence and intended to make sure Ko is no longer "a violent threat to my daughter and society as a whole."

It's unclear how long Ko will he held at the Clay County jail before he is sent to South Korea and freed.

More: Ducks and Donuts, engraving talk, Bloomington Handmade Market and other things to do

A caveat in the federal law could allow Ko to return to the U.S. as early as the summer of 2025. A subsection of U.S. Code 8 says a person convicted of an aggravated felony or crime of moral turpitude can re-enter the U.S. five years after the crime if they were younger than 18 when it happened.

Monroe County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Kehr said his office, which sought a 12-year prison term for Ko, was aware he might be deported.

"We knew there was a strong possibility that he would be removed based on his immigration status and the nature and circumstances of the offense for which he was convicted," Kehr said this week. "His sentence will remain in effect. Should he return to the United States, he will be required to serve it."

Contact reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com, 812-331-4362 or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Teen guilty of Indiana University music camp attack getting deported
NAIROBI (Reuters) -Rebellious Tigrayan forces threatened on Friday to "hunt down" foreigners they said were supporting the Ethiopian government as mercenaries and technical experts in a year-long war.

Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesperson Getachew Reda said the foreigners could be from Turkey, China, Israel or the United Arab Emirates.

Government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to a request for comment. There have been no independently verified reports of the warring sides using mercenaries to date.

Getachew told Reuters via satellite phone: "We dont care (what their nationality is). We will hunt them down. They will be treated like the mercenaries they are."

The war, which has killed thousands and forced more than two million people from their homes.

The conflict escalated this month after rebellious forces from the northern region of Tigray and their allies made territorial gains and threatened to march on the capital. The government says the gains have been exaggerated.

The government declared a state of emergency https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/addis-ababa-government-urges-residents-register-arms-media-2021-11-02 on Nov. 2.

That allows suspects to be detained for as long as the state of emergency lasts; allows house-to-house searches without a warrant; and requires citizens to carry identity cards, some of which - like those issued by some regions - can be an indication of ethnic origin.

The warring parties - the Ethiopian government and the rebellious Tigrayan forces - have so far rejected calls from the United States, the United Nations and the African Union for a ceasefire. Both sides have set conditions that the other rejects.

More than 400,000 people are facing famine in Tigray, the United Nations warns.

No U.N.-organised humanitarian supplies have entered Tigray for more than three weeks, the U.N. said on Thursday, adding some 364 trucks are waiting in a neighbouring region, pending authorization from authorities to proceed.

Story continues

An estimated 100 trucks per day must enter Tigray to meet critical humanitarian needs, the U.N. says. Around 80% of essential medicine is no longer available in Tigray and most health facilities are not functioning, it says.

The TPLF dominated national politics for three decades until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018 and curbed its power.

(Reporting by Maggie Fick;Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens)
A former senior official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a congressional committee that a border policy instituted last year to expel migrants and block them from requesting asylum was not needed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, according to a transcript released Friday.

Anne Schuchat, the second-highest ranking official at the CDC until her departure this spring, said the mass expulsions of migrants were approved by the Trump administration in March 2020 even though the unprecedented move lacked a sufficient public health rationale.

"The bulk of the evidence at that time did not support this policy proposal," Schuchat recently told investigators from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, a House panel probing the Trump administration's response to the pandemic.

Schuchat's statements further corroborate that the border expulsions were authorized over objections from top public health officials at the CDC. CBS News and other news outlets reported last year that President Trump's political appointees pressured then-CDC Director Robert Redfield to green light the expulsions, despite the internal opposition.

The expulsion policy, known as Title 42, has been continued by the Biden administration, which also argues it is necessary to stop the coronavirus from spreading inside Border Patrol facilities. U.S. officials along the southern border have used Title 42 to carry out over 1.2 million expulsions since March 2020.

Schuchat told congressional investigators that Marty Cetron, the director for the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, an office that typically oversees border-related public health measures, did not support invoking the Title 42 authority last spring.

Part of a group of 136 Guatemalans deported from San Luis Potosi state, Mexico walk upon their arrival at the Air Force Base in Guatemala City on August 26, 2021. / Credit: Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images

"But his view was that the facts on the ground didn't call for this from a public health reason, and that the decision wasn't being made based on criteria for quarantine. It may have been initiated for other purposes," Schuchat said. "So I don't think he was comfortable using his authority to do that because it didn't meet his careful review of what the criteria are."

Story continues

At the time, Schuchat said, the CDC was focused on improving the conditions of facilities where migrants are held. The agency, she added, issued recommendations to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Administration for Children and Families, which cares for unaccompanied migrant children, to make the transfer of migrants "less problematic" during the pandemic.

CBS News reported in November 2020 that a Department of Health Human Services lawyer wrote the original order to authorize the expulsions after Cetron's office refused to be involved in the plan.

Representatives for the CDC did not respond to requests to comment on Schuchat's statements.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has repeatedly rejected the notion that Title 42 is a border enforcement tool, saying there's a "public health imperative" for the expulsions. But he has acknowledged the policy does not allow migrants to request humanitarian protections enshrined in U.S. law.

"Under Title 42, one doesn't even get to make a claim of credible fear. One is expelled and that is why as a matter of immigration policy, it is so vigorously opposed and quite frankly, why we do not embrace it as a matter of immigration policy," Mayorkas said at a forum last week.

While the Biden administration has continued the Title 42 expulsions, and issued its own order defending them, it has scaled them back, exempting unaccompanied children from the policy. In recent months, it has also processed most migrant families with children under immigration law and allowed them to seek asylum.

Most single adult migrants and some families, however, continue to be expelled to Mexico or their home countries without being allowed to see an immigration judge. In September, the last month with available statistics, U.S. border agents expelled migrants 102,000 times.

The Title 42 policy is currently being challenged in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union, which argues the expulsions violate the rights of asylum-seekers. Three federal judges have already concluded public health law likely does not allow the government to summarily expel migrants.

According to internal documents obtained by CBS News, the Biden administration planned to wind down the Title 42 expulsions of migrant families in July. As part of the plan, officials would offer coronavirus vaccines to all adult family members.

But the plan was scrapped by top White House officials, including Susan Rice, who feared that unwinding the border policy would increase the political pressure on the administration amid a 21-year high in migrant arrests and the spread of the Delta variant, according to Biden appointees.

Treasury Secretary Yellen says labor force woes due to COVID concerns

Steve Bannon indicted for contempt of Congress

CBSN Originals explores history of anti-Asian racism in the Mississippi Delta
By Muyu Xu and Chen Aizhu

BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Chinese coal traders are selling cargoes at losses or trying to delay imports after Beijing's market interventions triggered a 50% price drop that saddled them with unprofitable supplies, according to several market participants.

Domestic thermal coal futures have halved over the past three weeks after the government ordered top miners to slash prices to a set target and raise output immediately to curb prices that had nearly quadrupled this year.

The consequence of the Chinese government's intervention is imports are likely to slow in November and December after already easing in October.

Amid the price free-fall, importers have tried to quickly sell on their coal shipments they booked in October when prices were at records, taking losses of between $40 to $100 per tonne, said three China-based coal traders.

Some buyers walked away from contracts, forfeiting their deposits estimated at about 10% of the cargo's value, which prompted some traders to raise deposit requirements this week to up to half the shipment value, said a Singapore-based trader with a Chinese company.

Other buyers are trying to delay incoming shipments in the hope that they can sell their current supplies later if prices rebound.

"You don't have much choice. Either swallow the losses for the cargoes that already arrived, or re-negotiate with upstream suppliers and postpone loadings for future shipments," said one of the China-based traders, who works with a state-run utility who sells shipments onto smaller traders and other end-users.

Delaying the shipments could lead to cuts of 10%-30% in November imports compared to the recent average, according to estimates from two of the traders.

China, the world's top coal consumer and producer, imports roughly one-tenth of its coal needs, bringing in a monthly average of 20 million to 30 million tonnes, mostly from Indonesia, Russia and South Africa.

Story continues

Trade flow data on Refinitiv Eikon shows China coal arrivals in November are expected to reach 16.3 million tonnes, down 26% from October.

As China's coal futures steadied around 900 yuan ($141) per tonne this week, physical spot transactions at top Chinese ports slowed after a panicky spell last week which traders described as a "stampede".

"Sellers were stepping on each other's toes to dispose of their cargoes, even at a loss of more than $50 a tonne," a Singapore-based trader said last week.

"No one is caring about coal prices now. Their priority is to find a home for the pricey cargo before they become more worthless."

Chinese importers were paying over $160 a tonne on a free-on-board basis for Indonesian thermal coal with a heating value of 3,800 kilocalories in late October but that has slipped to $100 for November and $88 for December.

Chinese coal prices found some support this week after the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, signalled last week it may slow its interventions after prices tumbled over the 10 prior trading days.

Prices were also supported by colder-than-usual temperatures that boosted heating demand.

However, traders remain wary of further potential government interference if prices flare up again.

"With so much uncertainty still hanging, we don't know when the prices will return to the right track, no matter what level it is," said a Beijing-based trader.

($1 = 6.3921 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Muyu Xu in Beijing, Chen Aizhu in Singapore and Melanie Burton in Melbourne; editing by Gavin Maguire and Christian Schmollinger)
Paul Rudd, left, and Will Ferrell in 'The Shrink Next Door' Credit - Apple TV+

At first, Isaac Ike Herschkopf, a psychiatrist who talked of having a direct approach with his clients, seemed like just the person Marty Markowitz needed. When Markowitz started seeing Herschkopf in 1981, he felt overrun with responsibilities, was grieving the loss of his parents and having inter-family issues over control of his familys fabrics company. And the therapy did help. But soon, Herschkopf had extended control over other aspects of Markowitzs life far beyond the boundaries of a doctor-patient relationship. Over the next 30 years, Markowitz would later allege, Herschkopf took control of his finances, moved into and pretended to own his home in the Hamptons and orchestrated his estrangement from his family. Their relationship ended in 2010, when Markowitz began the process of taking back control of his life and calling attention to what Herschkopf did to him.

The strange, sad story became the subject of the 2019 Wondery and Bloomberg Media podcast The Shrink Next Door, which was adapted into an Apple TV+ drama of the same name, released on Nov. 12, starring Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd as Markowitz and Herschkopf, respectively. In breaking down how this psychiatrist was able to exert total control over a patient, both versions of The Shrink Next Door illuminate the dangers of abusive and manipulative professional relationships. Heres the true story behind The Shrink Next Door and what to know about the real life figures whose stories it tells.

Paul Rudd, left, and Will Ferrell in 'The Shrink Next Door' Apple TV+

A neighbors discovery inspires The Shrink Next Door podcast

Journalist Joe Nocera assumed Ike Herschkopf, a New York-based therapist, owned the vacation house next door to his in the Hamptons and that a man named Marty Markowitz, whom he saw taking care of the grounds, was the property manager. When he later found out that Markowitz, in fact, owned the house, and that Herschkopf simply acted like he owned it, he began investigating.

Story continues

Nocera discovered a deeply layered story of manipulation and betrayal; over six (and some bonus) episodes, he breaks down how Markowitz came to be in a position vulnerable enough to cede control to Herschkopfand how, after decades, he finally cut him off.

How a psychiatrist inserted himself into a patients life

From the outset, its clear Ike Herschkopf is not a typical therapist, a quality hinted at, in Paul Rudds depiction in Shrink, by his unconventional practice of taking Will Ferrells Markowitz on walks around New York instead of sitting in his office and directly confronting the sources of his patients problems. Rudds Herschkopf, in accordance with Noceras description of the real figure, is bombastic and status-obsessed, constantly showing off pictures of himself posing alongside celebrities.

The Shrink Next Door podcast documents how he used his position of power and influence, as a psychiatrist trusted by patients, to take advantage of peoplelike Markowitz, who had established himself as a millionaire through his familys company, Associated Fabrics Corporationfor his benefit. In real life, Herschkopf quickly situated himself in positions where he could make decisions that had actual impacts on Markowitz and his family. Slowly, as the years went on, Herschkopf isolated Markowitz from his family and friends and pushed him away from romantic relationships, often through the advice he gave Markowitz about how to handle these personal ties. He installed himself as the president of Markowitzs company and opened a charity foundation with (mostly) Markowitzs money.

In a July 2021 interview with Forward, Markowitz described his time with Herschkopf as living a lie.

Ike sucked me into this cult of Ike and I was spending six or seven hours a week with him, he kept me constantly busy transcribing his handwritten books, throwing these parties, and I didnt appreciate what was going on, Markowitz said. He didnt let me have a girlfriend. I would go on a date, and hed call her a gold digger. He would say, Everyone is out to get you, Im going to protect you. And I was stupid enough to buy it.

Among the more heartbreaking losses incurred by Markowitz due to his ties to Herschkopf is that of his sister, Phyllis Shapiro, portrayed in the Apple TV+ series by Kathryn Hahn. Shapiro, who also worked at the fabric company, came to realize that her brother was consulting Herschkopf on business decisions instead of making them himself. After seeing Herschkopf herself for a therapy session, Shapiro decided she didnt trust him. As Markowitz spent more time with the psychiatrist, he started growing impatient with what he saw as Shapiros lack of work ethic. Eventually, she quit, and Markowitz stopped speaking with her.

Later, in an effort to get her brothers attention, Shapiro stole money from himat that point, Herschkopf convinced Markowitz to cut her off for good. They didnt communicate again for many years.

As Nocera asks in the podcast, how could Markowitz allow all this to happen? He says, I felt I had no choice. So vulnerable was his mental state, that Herschkopfs hold over him proved irresistible. In another episode, speaking about the experience of being unable to recognize he was under manipulation, he says, It was so over the top, you had to want to see that. For Markowitz, the damage is not just that he lost so much time to Herschkopfs influenceits in the difficulty of rebuilding his life in the years since their relationship ended.

How Markowitz got freeand what happened to Herschkopf

For a long time, and especially after he cut off his sister, Herschkopf was essentially Markowitzs only friend. Even as Herschkopf took more and more of Markowitzs money and made Markowitz do an increasing number of chores and errands for him, Markowitz saw him as the only person he could depend on and trust. The unbalanced dynamic continued until 2010, when Markowitz underwent hernia surgery. In the days following the operation, Markowitz noted that Herschkopf did not check on him at alland questioned their friendship.

I knew that he knew that he was the only person in my life, he told Nocera. All of these frustrations, all of these issues, all of this anger came bursting out of me.

With the help of some employees, who knew of Herschkopf as a business consultant under a different name, Markowitz sent a letter telling Herschkopf he no longer wanted to be his patient. Though the psychiatrist said he was making the wrong decision, Markowitz was done: he stopped responding, he took back his house and reunited with his sister. These days, Markowitz is looking to enjoy retirement and spend time with his girlfriend in Thailand.

In April 2021, following years of effort on Markowitzs part to spotlight Herschkopfs misdeeds, the psychiatrist was ordered to surrender his license to practice in New York. As the Shrink podcast revealed, Markowitz was not Herschkopfs only victim; other former patients told Nocera the psychiatrist similarly took over their lives, convincing them to rewrite their wills to benefit the doctor or his family. The states Department of Health concluded that Herschkopf broke minimal acceptable standards of care in the psychotherapeutic relationship. In Nov. 2021, Herschkopf told the New York Times he plans to appeal the health departments ruling.
The last Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll of 2021 will dive deeply into politics, the economy and other current events such as the ongoing strike by Deere & Co. employees.

First up will be a hypothetical 2024 head-to-head matchup between former President Donald Trump, a Republican, and President Joe Biden, a Democrat. Those results will be released at 5:30 p.m. Saturday on DesMoinesRegister.com and will appear in the Des Moines Sunday Register.

Other articles recording the opinions of Iowans  including on a new state law that makes it easier for Iowa workers to be exempted from federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates, on holiday shopping plans, and on whether Iowans think theyre nicer than people in other states  will be published over subsequent days.

Put another way: There will be plenty of fodder for you and your relatives to debate over Thanksgiving Day dinner.

Each article will be published online and in print. The quickest way to receive the results is by signing up for news alerts through the Des Moines Register app. The Iowa Poll is a public service, chronicling the opinions of Iowans since 1943. To support local journalism like this, please become a subscriber.

Considered the "gold standard" in political surveys, the Iowa Poll is conducted by the highly respected Selzer & Co. polling firm.

The Register partners with Mediacom, the largest cable company in Iowa and the nations fifth-largest cable company based on video customers, to finance the Iowa Poll.

More from the Iowa Poll:

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Poll tests potential Biden-Trump 2024 presidential election match
Tucker Carlson asks why the US is backing Ukraine against Russia (Fox News)

A Republican congresman was forced to help a totally confused Tucker Carlson understand why the United States supported Ukraine in its war against Russia amid a build-up of tensions on the border between the two countries.

An apparently dumbfounded Ohio Republican, Mike Turner, was appearing on Mr Carlsons Thursday night show when the Fox News host asked why America wasnt backing Russia in the region, citing its energy reserves and worldly influence.

Why would we take Ukraines side and not Russias side? Its a sincere question, Mr Carlson asked the Republican, who had been invited onto Mr Carlsons show to explain why Ukraine was an incredibly important to America.

If youre looking at Americas perspective, why? Whos got the energy reserves? Whos the major player in world affairs?, Mr Carlson asked. Whos the potential counterbalance against China, which is the actual threat? Why would we take Ukraines side? Why wouldnt we be on Russias side? Im totally confused.

Mr Turner, who appeared to frown during Mr Carlsons monologue, answered by explaining to Mr Carlson that America was a democracy and worked to further democracies around the world  including in Ukraine.

Ukraine is a democracy. Russias an authoritarian regime that is seeking to impose its will upon a validly elected democracy in Ukraine, and were on the side of democracy, said the Republican congressman. Were for democracy, were for liberty.

He continued: Were against authoritarian regimes coming in and changing borders by tanks. Russia isnt showing up on the border with ballot boxes, theyre showing up on the border by tanks, and thats why we need to make certain were on the side of democracy and give the aid thats necessary so we dont have another Obama sending blankets to a country that is being invaded.

"I'm totally confused" -- Tucker Carlson wonder why the US would be allies with Ukraine instead of Russia, since Russia has more energy reservers. Rep. Mike Turner reminds him that we're supposed to be on the side of democracies. Carlson responds by saying, "I guess" pic.twitter.com/XIXfJXKsML  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 11, 2021

The remarks by Mr Turner came days after 13 Republican members of Congress wrote to US President Joe Biden with concerns about intelligence suggesting that Russia was building-up its military on the border with Ukraine  a country which it invaded in 2014.

Story continues

Reports also suggest that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has warned his European counterparts of Russias military build-up, and that diplomats from both the US and European Union have issued a warning to Moscow to avoid conflict in the region.

During the 2014 conflict between Russia and Ukraine, former US president Barack Obama was criticised by Republicans, including former US president Donald Trump, for sending only pillows and sheets instead of heavy military equipment  although the claim was inaccurate.

Read More

Russia sends paratroopers to Belarus for drills near Poland

US warns Europe that Russia could invade Ukraine, as troops mass near border

Kremlin denies plans to invade Ukraine, alleges NATO threats
Two Pennsylvania teenagers have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Fanta Bility, an 8-year-old girl who was killed by police gunfire outside a high school football game in August.

The Delaware County District Attorneys Office determined the teenagers initiated the deadly shooting when they exchanged gunfire Aug. 27 outside an Academy Park High School football game in Sharon Hill, a small community of about 5,700 residents less than 2 miles north of Philadelphia International Airport. One person caught in the crossfire was wounded.

One of the suspects, a 16-year-old Sharon Hill boy, was arrested Wednesday, DA Jack Stollsteimer said in a press release. NBC News does not usually name minors charged with a crime, even those charged as adults.

8-year-old Fanta Bility. (NBC 10 Philadelphia)

Hasein Strand, 18, of Collingdale, turned himself in later, the DA's office said.

In addition to first-degree murder, both suspects have been charged with five counts of attempted murder, five counts of recklessly endangering another person, as well as gun-related charges, according to the criminal complaints.

The teens got into an argument at the game and exchanged multiple gun shots with each other in the 900 block of Coates Street in Sharon Hill, Stollsteimer said.

The gunfire precipitated the responsive discharge of weapons by police officers stationed near the entrance to the football stadium, the DAs office said. This responsive gunfire by the officers wounded three bystanders and tragically killed Fanta Bility.

The DAs office said the teens should both be held criminally liable for the murder of Fanta Bility, as well as for the wounding of all the bystanders.

Fanta was killed by a single gunshot wound to the torso, according to the Delaware County Medical Examiner.

"The killing of Fanta Bility was a tragedy not just for her family, but for the entire Delaware County community, Stollsteimer said. "Todays arrests begin the criminal process for those that initiated the deadly events of Aug. 27 by shooting to kill at a high school football game."

Story continues

The DAs office is continuing a review of the actions of all parties involved. A grand jury will review the case Nov. 18 and determine whether the police officers use of deadly force was justified.

In September, Stollsteimers office issued preliminary findings in the investigation which determined that when officers returned fire, they likely struck four members of the crowd, including the shots that killed Bility and wounded her sister.

The officers involved, who have not been named, were placed on paid administrative leave, the Sharon Hill council said at the time.
U.S. officials, increasingly alarmed by Russias monthslong troop build-up near Ukraine, are warning their European counterparts that the Kremlin may be on the verge of another invasion of that country.

One senior U.S. national security official even suggested Russian leader Vladimir Putin may also be trying to establish some military capabilities along his western borders in case he sees a need to intervene in Belarus, whose Kremlin-aligned ruler is feuding with European neighbors.

The uptick in American concern, confirmed by two U.S. officials, indicates that President Joe Bidens efforts to reach some sort of equilibrium with Putin are running out of steam. Still, Russia also has at times made moves that poked at the United States and Europe before ultimately backing off and lowering tensions. Bloomberg first reported the U.S. was consulting with allies over the potential for Russia to push into Ukraine.

In April, for instance, Moscow surged thousands of troops close to its frontier with Ukraine, alarming Washington and its allies in NATO. Some of those troops would later return to their bases, but enough remained behind, along with hundreds of armored vehicles that Western officials took note.

This is very different than what we saw in April, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), a member of the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said Thursday. What were seeing now certainly leads to the conclusion that Russia has different intentions this time.

In particular, new deployments to Crimea and the arrival of the First Tank Army to Voronezh closer to the Ukraine border have drawn attention.

A senior Biden administration official said the United States is consulting allies about the situation, and Vice President Kamala Harris discussed it extensively with French President Emmanuel Macron. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, too, is in touch with European allies about the matter, the official said.

"There has been a concerted effort in capitals around Europe to convey how concerned we are with the situation, added a U.S. official in Germany. Information/intelligence sharing, and conversations across a broad spectrum from the military and diplomats.

Story continues

One EU diplomat said U.S. officials had discussions with their Embassy in Washington and we share the same concerns, over the Russian buildup along its Ukraines border, which includes artillery, tanks, new infantry units and other armored units that are normally based elsewhere in the country.

The EU is watching the situation very closely, EU spokesperson Peter Stano said in a statement. The information we gathered so far is rather worrying, and the alliance has been looking into ways to enhance Ukraines resilience in case of further escalation, he added.

Russian units newly arrived along the border have taken to repositioning themselves under the cover of night, a change from previous troop buildups when Moscow made big, public displays of moving armor and troops on railways and highways during the day.

During a visit to Washington this week, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba told ABC News that with new Russian troops in place along the border, it will not take Russia a lot of time to resort to an offensive action if it decides to do so.

Twice this week, nuclear-capable Russian bombers flew over Belarus near Poland, a move Russian officials said was in response to a military buildup in Poland near the Belarus border.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the U.S. concerns, according to Russian state-controlled media, saying the movements of our armed forces on our soil shouldnt be of anyones concern. Russia poses no threat to anyone."

Peskov also alluded to what he alleged were active and assertive actions by NATO forces near Russian borders. "If necessary, we will take measures to ensure our security if there are provocative actions by our opponents near our borders, he said, according to Russian reports.

The senior U.S. national security official, meanwhile, broke the situation down this way: Putin is putting the capabilities in place for a very quick military intervention into either Belarus or Ukraine. Meanwhile, in the Donbas [region of Ukraine], combined Russian-separatist forces fire every day on Ukrainian forces, with no signs of any abatement.

The official said its unlikely that Putin would stage a military intervention into Belarus, but that the Russian leader likely wants to have equipment in place in case he decides theres a need to do so.

The U.S. has delivered more than $2.5 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2014, including Javelin anti-tank missiles. The Senates version of the 2022 defense budget increases the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative from $250 million to $300 million per year, including $75 million specifically for lethal assistance. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), member of the House Armed Services Committee, told POLITICO that the U.S. should help Ukraine have the weapons and training they need to deter Russia. Our stance should have zero ambiguity.

Putins latest moves come as Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko is increasingly feuding with his European neighbors in a face-off that has continued since Belarusian elections last year that much of the international community viewed as rigged.

Facing growing sanctions on his regime, Lukashenko has reacted by opening routes for migrants from the Middle East and beyond into neighboring countries such as Poland. Thousands of those migrants are now stuck along the borders in what appears to be a growing humanitarian crisis.

In recent days, Poland has sent some 15,000 troops to bolster border security, a situation Moscow is using to justify its bomber flights over Belarus.

Lukashenko also has threatened to cut off gas supplies to Europe as the winter months loom. But cutting off the energy supplies would likely require approval from Putin, whose country is the source of much of the gas that reaches Europe via Belarusian soil.

The Russian leader is no doubt watching the stand-off carefully.

The Kremlin modus operandi is to widen its options, the senior U.S. national security official said, adding that Moscow knows the Lukashenko regime is highly unstable.

One possibility, according to Russia observers, is that Putin sees the Belarusian dispute with its neighbors as a helpful distraction if he wants to stage another move into Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since the Kremlin invaded it in 2014.

The senior U.S. national security official admitted, however: Anyone who tells you they know what Putin will do next is fooling you. No one really knows.

Erin Banco and Alexander Ward contributed to this report.
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine's president told Georgia's leader on Friday to refrain from "disproportionate coercive measures" against jailed, hunger-striking former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who holds Ukrainian citizenship he obtained while in exile.

Saakashvili, Georgia's president for nine years until 2013, was arrested on Oct. 1 after returning to his native country to rally the opposition on the eve of municipal elections. He faces six years jail for abuse of office, from a 2018 trial held in absentia which he rejects as political.

Georgian authorities on Monday transferred the 53-year-old politician to a prison hospital in the capital Tbilisi, just over five weeks after he declared a hunger strike in jail.

Georgian media showed Saakashvili being dragged out of a prison car and carried by the arms and legs to the ward of the prison hospital.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke with Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili by telephone, and said Saakashvili's rights should be guaranteed in accordance with international norms, Zelenskiy's office said.

"The president highlighted the inadmissibility of applying disproportionate coercive measures to a citizen of Ukraine," the office said in a statement.

It added that Zelenskiy also focused on the need to provide access to Saakashvili for his mother and relatives.

Saakashvili was Georgia's dominant political figure for a decade, led the country during a disastrous war with Russia, and founded the party that is now Georgia's main opposition group.

In Ukraine, he launched a new political career and has served as a regional governor and head of a reform advisory body.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Peter Graff)
PARIS (Reuters) - The United States is "very concerned" about the situation at the Poland-Belarus border, US Vice-President Kamala Harris said on Friday.

"On the issue of Belarus and what is happening at the border with Poland, we are very concerned about that and closely paying attention to it," Harris said at a press conference in Paris.

"The Lukashenko regime, I believe is engaged in very troubling activity. It is something that I discussed with President Macron, and the eyes of the world and its leaders are watching what is happening there," she added.

The European Union has accused Belarus of mounting a "hybrid attack" on the block by flying in thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, and pushing them to try to cross illegally into Poland. It is gearing up to impose new sanctions on Minsk.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by GV De Clercq)
Danny Fenster was detained at Yangon international airport in May

A Myanmar military court has sentenced US journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in jail.

Fenster was found guilty of breaching immigration law, unlawful association and encouraging dissent against the military.

He was earlier this week slapped with two additional charges of sedition and terrorism, which carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

His trial on the new charges will begin on 16 November.

Fenster, 37, who was the managing editor of online site Frontier Myanmar, was detained at Yangon international airport in May. He is one of dozens of local journalists that have been detained since a military coup in February.

According to Frontier, Fenster had earlier worked for Myanmar Now, an independent news site that has been critical of the military since the coup.

"The charges were all based on the allegation that he was working for banned media outlet Myanmar Now. Danny had resigned from Myanmar Now in July 2020 and joined Frontier the following month, so at the time of his arrest in May 2021 he had been working with Frontier for more than nine months," said the news site.

"There is absolutely no basis to convict Danny of these charges."

His sentencing on Friday comes months after a Japanese freelance journalist was arrested in Myanmar and charged with spreading fake news.

Yuki Kitazumi, who was reporting for many of Japan's major news outlets, was one of a few foreign reporters in the country. Myanmar authorities maintain he violated the law but released him because Japan had requested it.

Analysis box by Jonathan Head, South East Asia correspondent

The trial of Danny Fenster took place behind closed doors, literally, inside Insein prison, where he and many of those detained since the February coup are being held.

We know only what his lawyers can tell us about the process. But the charges the military authorities filed against him are clearly absurd. The prosecutor stated that they relate to his employment by the independent news organisation Myanmar Now, one of five media organisations the military targeted after the coup, cancelling their licences to broadcast.

Story continues

But Danny Fenster left Myanmar Now in May 2020, and joined the news magazine Frontier. This was made clear in court by his lawyers, supported by document, yet ignored by the judge, who gave him the maximum sentence for the three charges.

So why is the military junta going after an American journalist like this, piling even more serious charges on him in the past week?

The Biden administration has increased pressure on the regime, in particular through sanctions targeting high-profile military officers, and calling for a restoration of the elected government. It is hard to see the US softening its stance to get Fenster out. Perhaps the military is hoping for a gesture, a photo-op with a US official; friendless and isolated, the junta might consider that a worthwhile prize for releasing him.

It also sends a chilling message to all journalists in Myanmar. If they are willing to snub a superpower like the US, and hold one of its citizens hostage, the treatment of local journalists may be even harsher.

As always with Myanmar's generals, their true motives are hard to guess.

The US has pressed the military government to release him, but a military spokesman insisted that Fenster needed to be held in custody.

In a statement before the sentencing, the US state department commented that "the profoundly unjust nature of Danny's detention is plain for all the world to see. The regime should take the prudent step of releasing him now".

The US has not yet commented on the ruling.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told the BBC that the verdict was "a travesty of justice by a kangaroo court" intended to intimidate all remaining journalists working inside Myanmar.

Meanwhile, Richard Horsey, a senior adviser at Crisis Group Myanmar, described the sentence as "outrageous".

"It sends a message not only to international journalists... but also Myanmar journalists that reporting factually on the situation is liable to get them many many years in prison," he told the AFP news agency.

He added that US diplomats were working to secure Fenster's release but noted that "obviously this sentence is a big setback to US efforts."

The coup that unfolded

Myanmar's military leaders seized power in February after suffering a massive election defeat at the hands of the ruling National League of Democracy.

It claimed it had no choice but to orchestrate the coup because of widespread fraud in the poll, despite the country's election commission saying there was no evidence to support these claims.

News of the coup sparked off large-scale civilian demonstrations across the country, which the military dispersed with brutal force.

Since then, at least 1,178 people have been killed and 7,355 arrested, charged or sentenced in a crackdown on dissent, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Around 80 local journalists are known to have been detained for their reporting so far. According to the AAPP, 50 of them are still in detention and half have been prosecuted.

You may also be interested in:
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP)  The United States, Britain and the European Union on Friday slammed the Sudan coup leaders latest move to tighten the militarys grip on power as a unilateral decision that undermines efforts to restore the process of democratic transition.

In a joint statement, the Western nations criticized Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan who on Thursday appointed a new Sovereign Council  just over two weeks after leading the coup  without consulting Sudans pro-democracy protest movement.

That violates a power-sharing agreement signed by pro-democracy leaders and the top Sudanese generals in 2019, following the ouster of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir.

This unilateral action by the military undermines its commitment to uphold the agreed transitional framework, said the joint statement, which was also signed by Norway and Switzerland.

Burhan reappointed himself as the head of the 13-member Sovereign Council. A number of other members of the body sat on the previous council that Burhan headed before he dissolved it in the coup. Also reappointed to the body was the powerful paramilitary leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, as vice-president. And Burhan reappointed as council members another three generals who had served in the previous council.

On Friday, Burhan, Dagalo, and other generals were sworn in as members of the new council in ceremonies broadcast on state-run media.

Three others on the council are leaders of rebel groups who fought al-Bashirs government for years, but who have moved towards peace with the transitional government. They all also served on the previous council.

However, the new make-up excluded four civilian members of the old council who belonged to the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, the main group that spearheaded the uprising that culminated in the overthrow of al-Bashir.

The country's pro-democracy forces have dismissed Burhan's move as illegitimate and renewed their call for nationwide protests on Saturday.

Story continues

The joint statement also warned against any further escalatory steps by Sudan's military and stressed that international support for the country is contingent on its commitment to the path of democratic transition.

We urge an immediate and full return to this path to ensure that the hard won political and economic gains of the last two years are not lost, it said.

In the Oct 25 coup, the military also removed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok who has since been under house arrest in the capital, Khartoum, and detained other government officials and political leaders. At least 14 anti-coup protesters have been killed due to excessive force used by the countrys security forces, according to Sudanese doctors and the United Nations.

Since then, international mediation efforts have been underway to ensure the restoration of Hamdok's government and the release of all political detainees.

___

ElHennawy reported from Cairo.
The United States on Friday slapped new sanctions on Eritrea over the deadly conflict in neighboring Ethiopia, which it warned was at danger of "implosion" without a negotiated settlement.

Ahead of a three-nation trip to Africa next week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken also threatened to impose sanctions against the Ethiopian government and rebels unless they move forward on talks.

Failure to reach a settlement "would lead to the implosion of Ethiopia and spill over into other countries in the region, and that would be disastrous for the Ethiopian people and also for countries in the region," Blinken told reporters.

"The other path is to halt all of the military actions that are currently underway, sit down to negotiate a real ceasefire to make sure that humanitarian assistance can get in to all of the regions where people are in need," he said.

"I believe that that is still not only possible, but necessary."

The United States has condemned both the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a onetime ally and Nobel Peace Prize winner, over a year of bloodshed that has left hundreds of thousands in famine-like conditions.

- Not targeting Ethiopians -

President Joe Biden in September signed an executive order paving the way for sanctions on Ethiopia and earlier this month decided to remove Ethiopia from a key trade agreement.

But measures imposed Friday over the conflict instead focused on Eritrea, one of the world's most closed states.

"We are not imposing sanctions at this time on elements aligned with the government of Ethiopia and TPLF to allow time and space to see if these talks can make progress," Blinken said in a statement, warning that the United States would not hesitate to pursue the two sides if diplomacy fails.

Eritrea has sent troops to back Abiy, who launched an offensive a year ago against the once dominant TPLF over an attack on the federal army.

Story continues

"Eritrean forces have operated throughout Ethiopia during the conflict and have been responsible for massacres, looting and sexual assaults," a Treasury Department statement said.

The sanctions targeted the Eritrean Defense Force and President Isaias Afwerki's political party, the People's Front for Democracy and Justice, as well as other players in the authoritarian state.

TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda called the US move "commendable," saying it "at least recognizes the Eritreans' role in the genocidal campaign in Tigray," although he warned that Eritrea has "perfected evading sanctions."

The United States has repeatedly urged Eritrea to pull out of Ethiopia, including when US special envoy Jeffrey Feltman met Afwerki in May.

Cameron Hudson, a former US official now at the Atlantic Council, said the sanctions had missed the mark.

"Prime Minister Abiy remains in the driver's seat of this conflict and choosing to once again avoid sanctioning Ethiopian entities reflects a belief from Washington that Abiy can be engaged and his approach to this conflict changed," he said.

"There is nothing particularly in evidence to support that assumption, however."

- Diplomatic steps -

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, serving as the African Union's special envoy, and Feltman both visited Ethiopia this week in hopes of making progress. Blinken travels to neighboring Kenya on Tuesday.

Ethiopia on Thursday laid out conditions for talks with the TPLF, which has made major gains in recent weeks and not ruled out a march on the capital Addis Ababa.

The conditions include a halt to attacks, a TPLF withdrawal from the neighboring areas of Amhara and Afar, and recognition of the government's legitimacy.

The TPLF in turn is demanding that aid be let into Tigray. No assistance has arrived by road since October 18, and 364 trucks are stuck in the capital of Afar waiting for authorization, according to the United Nations.

The world's best-known Tigrayan, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the UN agency could not send in medicine as Tigray was under an "effective blockade."

"People are dying because of lack of supplies," he told reporters in Geneva.

Ethiopian authorities have been accused in recent days of harassing or detaining Tigrayans who work for international organizations including the United Nations, drawing condemnation.

burs-sct/dw/mtp
Griffin Campbell looks over the Vietnam Wall on display through Sunday afternoon at the New Philadelphia VFW.

NEW PHILADELPHIA  The traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall will be open to the public until 3 p.m. Sunday at New Philadelphia VFW Post #1445.

The wall, located behind the post at 441 Park Ave. NW, was dedicated at a ceremony on Thursday.

Speaker for the event was Sgt. 1st Class Cody Wells, commander of the U.S. Army recruiting station in New Philadelphia and a member of the Post #1445 Honors Team.

He remarks were short. He read off the names of the 37 men from Tuscarawas County who died in the Vietnam War and noted that they were listed on the wall along with 58,244 other comrades in arms.

Visitors look over the traveling Vietnam Wall on display through Sunday at the New Philadelphia.

"This monument to the dead speaks for itself," he concluded.

Music for event was provided by the New Philadelphia High School band and the Delphian Chorale.

The wall is 380 feet long, 80% of the size of the actual Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.

Along with the wall there are separate panels commemorating other U.S. military actions in U.S. history since World War I, including, most recently, a tribute to the 13 American service members killed in the evacuation of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 26.

There is no charge or fee to visit the wall. For those who wish to, they may bring non-perishable foods items to donate to the Veterans Food Pantry at the post.

One of the visitors to the wall Thursday was Cathy Lasher of Akron, who grew up in the Dover-New Philadelphia area. She had four brothers in the service, three of whom served during the Vietnam War.

"I think it's amazing. It's impressive. I've been to the big wall in Washington, D.C. It was very moving, and so is this," she said.

One of her brothers is Steve Chenevey, commander of the New Philadelphia VFW post.

"The project went well. It was a big project," he said following the dedication. "Fortunately, we had a lot of help  members of the club, veterans from Tuscarawas County  so it well went. But it is a big project to bring into town. I'm thankful we had a lot of help."

Story continues

Reaction to the wall has been positive.

He noted that some veterans came to see it as it was being installed on Wednesday.

"It was very emotional for them," Chenevey said. "That's one of the reasons we're keeping it open 24 hours. Some veterans don't like crowds and so they can come at 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock in the morning. There will be security here, but they'll be left alone to honor the way they want."

Taps will be played each day at 5 p.m. This will also be a short closing ceremony on Sunday, but nothing formal, he said.

Bringing the wall to New Philadelphia has meant a lot to Chenevey personally.

"I lost my wife three weeks ago, so memorials are a very personal thing at this time for me," he said. "So to be able to do a memorial is therapeutic for me for all these soldiers out there that gave the ultimate sacrifice. So I'm honored to be able to do it."

He thanked the public for supporting the VFW financially, so that it is able to help veterans in Tuscarawas County. "I would like to thank them for supporting our food bank, and veterans are starting to use that quite regularly."

Chenevey asked that anyone who knows a veteran in need of assistance to call the post at 330-364-9973 or email at vfw1445@gmail.com. The post can provide food, rent support and transportation support.

Sgt. 1st Class Cody Wells was the featured speaker at the dedication of the traveling Vietnam Wall, on display at the New Philadelphia VFW.

The fallen from Tuscarawas Valley

Raymond F. Parks, Dennison

James B. Alexander, Dover

William E. Border, Stone Creek

Louis E. Walton, Lansing, Mich.

Donald V. Stein, Fresno, Calif.

Oscar F. Nicewinder, Dundee

Dale McCauley, Uhrichsville

Thomas Johnson, New Philadelphia

Thomas Ronald, Tuscarawas

Thomas A. Gopp, New London

Donald Wilson, Evansville, Ind.

John Keaton, Bolivar

Martin Klann, New Philadelphia

Richard Stecker, Newcomerstown

Joe Greene, Canton

Ronald Johnson, Uhrichsville

Arthur Friley, New Philadelphia

Samuel H. Bonifant, Dennison

Shelby Cooley, Mineral City

James Waltz, Washington, Pa.

Ron Wigfield, Mineral City

Jerry D. Wright, Garden Grove, Calif.

James T. Conway, Tuscarawas

Roger D. Weber, Dover

Robert Ausmus, Cambridge

Tommy Thomas, New Philadelphia

Russell Galbraith, Tippecanoe

Donald Allan, Jr., Dover

Roger Lewis, Newcomerstown

Tom Struchen, New Philadelphia

Dan Hinkel, Dover

Millard Anderson, Wooster

Charles G. Hewitt, Lake Park, Fla.

Kenneth L. Foutz, Dennison

John C. Hunter, New Philadelphia

Larry Rogers, Canton

Terry Hochstetler, Dover

Source: VFW Post #1445

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Visit to traveling Vietnam Wall moving experience for area residents
Former Detroit Red Wing Darren McCarty, left, puts his arm around U.S. Army Veteran Timothy Whigam, 39, of Detroit after handing him the keys to a Kia Soul, given to him from Volunteers of America Michigan (VOAMI), that will celebrate 10 years of service to homeless veterans in Detroit at the Detroit Veterans Housing Program in Detroit on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021.

Tim Whigham revved the engine of his new Kia Soul and smiled. A small crowd of veterans and volunteers cheered him on, whooping and hollering. Whigham is one of three veterans given a car Thursday by Volunteers of America Michigan in honor of Veterans Day.

Whigham, who was deployed in Iraq for four years, said he's most excited to drive his new girlfriend to dinner with his car.

But his transition back into society after deployment wasn't always smooth sailing  he bounced between jobs and experienced homelessness, which is how he ended up living at the VOA Detroit housing program until last month. His experience is not unique, and many veterans face challenges upon reentering society.

"(The VOA) is like having a mom and dad all over again," Whigham said. "So it takes care of your needs, your wants, your spiritual needs, your educational needs, physical and mental, they're really there for you."

Laura LeBlanc, vice president of development and communications, said VOA helps veterans get back on their feet, providing everything from housing to resume building to mental health counseling.

Capt. Reginald Harvey leads the Honor Guard during a ceremony to celebrate 10 years of service to homeless veterans at Volunteers of America Michigan (VOAMI) at the Detroit Veterans Housing Program in Detroit on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021.

"So with our Veterans Day car giveaway, we identified that one of the biggest barriers to homelessness for the gentleman that we serve today is transportation," LeBlanc said. "If you don't have a reliable car, you can't get to work. And if you can't get to work, you cannot pay your rent, meaning you're homeless."

To pick which three veterans got cars, they sifted through applications and determined who needed the car most in order to "catapult them into that next phase of their future and their independence in restoring their dignity."

Walter Lucy, 68, of Detroit raises his hands in the air after his name was announced as one of the Veterans receiving a free vehicle donated by Volunteers of America Michigan (VOAMI) on Thursday, Nov.11, 2021. VOAMI is celebrating 10 years of service to homeless veterans in Detroit at the Detroit Veterans Housing Program.

More: Beaumont doctor: 'Metro Detroit is again becoming a hotspot' for COVID-19

More: Bell's Brewery is selling. Here's what that means for Bell's  and all craft beer.

"It's just great to see our veterans be able to gather and just be themselves and you know, shed all of the worries of the day and just get to enjoy Veterans Day for what it is," LeBlanc said of the celebration.

Story continues

But supporting veterans is a year-round endeavor, she said, and you can volunteer by going to VOAMI.org and participate in the car donation program at carshelpingpeople.org/.

Contact Emma Stein: estein@freepress.com and follow her on Twitter @_emmastein.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Volunteers of America gives away cars to Veterans in need
Black Panther producer Nate Moore has said that Chadwick Bosemans death has put a lot of pressure on them to get the Wakanda Forever sequel right.

I think this movie has different sort of pressure on it, obviously, with the loss of Chadwick, which was unexpected and unprecedented in a way narratively, to figure out how to deal with, Moore said on ComicBook s Phase Zero podcast.

So beyond, Hey, we want to make a big, fun time, and people of the first movie, its how do we sort of do right by his legacy and tell a story that isnt exploitative, which we would never, ever do, but builds on the things that he loved about the property and builds on the things that he brought to the property in a way that is enjoyable, feels real, feels earned, feels organic.

I think were going to see the movie in two lenses, pure entertainment, but also cathartic. And we have to be conscious of both of those lenses as were making it, Moore said.

Chadwick Boseman died aged 43 in August 2020, following a battle with colon cancer. He had been diagnosed with colon cancer four years earlier, but chose not to make the news public. His family and friends revealed that all of his films were shot despite countless surgeries and chemotherapy at the time.

Its been confirmed that Chadwick Bosemans role as the heroic King TChalla will not be recast (Marvel Studios-Disney/AP)

Production for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the sequel to one of the worlds highest-grossing films, has been underway since June, with Ryan Coogler at the helm. It is scheduled to be released in November 2022.

No details about the storyline have been revealed so far. However, it has been confirmed that Bosemans role as the heroic King TChalla will not be recast.

In April, Michael B Jordan told Jess Cagles SiriusXM show: I know [director Ryan Coogler] and Marvel are going to do the absolute best job at developing the story in a way that makes everybody happy and satisfied and honours Chad and moves forward with grace.

Jordan starred as the villain Killmonger in Black Panther.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is scheduled to be released in November 2022 (Marvel/Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock)

Returning cast members for the film include Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, and Winston Duke.

Story continues

In August, Wright was hospitalised following an accident on the set of Wakanda Forever and suffered minor injuries after an incident with a stunt rig. Wright has been recovering in London since being released from hospital. The incident did not delay filming initially as the makers shot scenes around her character.

But production will now be temporarily stopped as Wright is expected to return to set only in early 2022, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Read More

A new museum exhibit celebrating Tupac Shakurs life and legacy to open next year

Ryan Reynolds explains why he thinks Paul Rudd was named Sexiest Man Alive

Dwayne Johnson trolls Red Notice co-star Ryan Reynolds with massive billboard

Ryan Reynolds explains why he thinks Paul Rudd was named Sexiest Man Alive

Dwayne Johnson trolls Red Notice co-star Ryan Reynolds with massive billboard

A hard-hitting Indian film is outranking The Shawshank Redemption on IMDb
Students line up with the flags of their home country Thursday during the International Flag Ceremony at Walsh University in North Canton.

NORTH CANTON  Walsh University celebrated its international students this week.

The Walsh University World Student Organization held its annual International Flag Ceremony Thursday to formally welcome the 132 new and returning international students from 34 different countries to the North Canton campus.

Students line up with the flags from their home countries Thursday during the International Flag Ceremony at Walsh University in North Canton.

The event featured more than 90 flags from around the world, representing the countries of present and past students. This year, Walsh added Iceland's flag.

Amelia Reynolds, an international ambassador, walks in with the flag of Iceland Thursday during the International Flag Ceremony at Walsh University in North Canton. Student Torfi Markusson, who hails from Iceland, was unable to attend the ceremony.

Amelia Reynolds, an international ambassador, carries the flag of Iceland Thursday during the International Flag Ceremony at Walsh University in North Canton. Student Torfi Markusson, who hails from Iceland, was unable to attend the ceremony.

The event also featured desserts from around the world, entertainment by the Walsh University Chorale and University Music Ensemble and singing and poetry by Walsh international students.

Rachael Ameyaw of Ghana holds her flag Thursday during the International Flag Ceremony at Walsh University in North Canton.

Walsh University President Tim Collins welcomes Vlora Buzuku of Albania to the stage Thursday during the International Flag Ceremony.

Matias Mercado Grossman of Bolivia performs Thursday during the International Flag Ceremony at Walsh University in North Canton.

The Walsh University World Music Ensemble performs Thursday during the International Flag Ceremony at Walsh University in North Canton.

The Walsh University Chorale performs Thursday during the International Flag Ceremony at Walsh University in North Canton.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Walsh celebrates international students, first Iceland student
A policy for students that leave school early during the day has been approved by the Washington County Board of Education after receiving complaints by parents.

The language in the policy was slated to be approved in October, but received a second look once school board members heard the complaints.

The policy was sent back to the committee that reviews and makes changes to the school district's policies to examine the language in the proposed guidelines.

"We received enough comments that we thought it warranted reviewing the language in the policy one more time at the next meeting," Washington County School Board member Pieter Bickford stated in an email. "There was concern that we were denying parents the right to collect their child from school, which is not the case."

Bickford said the policy language was outdated and has been updated to current procedures.

"It shouldnt be a change from what parents are currently used to," he said.

The policy states that a written note from the students parent or legal guardian must be submitted to the buildings principal or their designee for the student to be dismissed from school before the regularly scheduled dismissal time.

"This also applies to dismissal at the ultimate conclusion of school-sponsored activities taking place off school property that required students to leave school prior to the regularly scheduled dismissal time," the policy states.

The school's principal or their designee won't excuse a student before the end of the school day without a written notice for the early dismissal by the students parent or legal guardian that complies with a valid custody order, when applicable.

"No staff member shall excuse a student without the knowledge of the principal or designee," the policy states.

A student will only be released to a parent or legal guardian upon proper identification presented to the school by the parent or legal guardian at the time of release.

Story continues

In limited circumstances or emergency circumstances, telephone requests for early dismissal of a student shall be honored only if the caller can be positively identified as the students parent or legal guardian.

An early dismissal policy was first adopted by Washington County Board of Education on Nov. 3, 1983.

Sherry Greenfield is the Education Reporter, covering Washington County Public Schools and the Washington County Board of Education. Follow Sherry on Twitter at Sheina2018 or Instagram at beckmangreenfield.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Washington County Board of Education approves early dismissal policy
adopted stray that was trapped inside an abandoned school with his new pet parents

Courtesy of Stray Rescue of St. Louis

Stray Rescue of St. Louis has tasked itself with a particularly difficult mission. The organization takes in dogs that no one else will help or who are at risk of euthanasia. Many of these pups have suffered abuse, and have been forced to fight, been abandoned, or are injured.

Saving animals with such particularly harsh pasts is a labor of love that can make for some heartbreaking stories. But amongst that heartbreak comes some equally uplifting successeslike the rescue of Teacher's Pet, the dog who was trapped in an abandoned school last month.

RELATED: Tennessee Firefighters Free Puppy Brought in With His Head Stuck in a Bottle: 'Glad He's OK!'

"Teacher's Pet was actually called in by a couple of ladies who lived in the area," Natalie Thomson, Stray Rescue's director of marketing, tells Daily Paws. "They had heard howling from the school, so they called us. There were actually two dogs in the building when we arrived, but Teacher's Pet was the only one who appeared to be trapped."

As you can see in the Oct. 21 rescue video, Teacher's Pet stood at a second floor window, watching the team approach. The school's doors were barred, making entry difficult, and an open first floor window led to a 20-foot drop to the floor below. Eventually, the rescue team opted to climb into a second story window via ladder. Donna Lochmann, Stray Rescue's chief rescuer and photographer, led the way, whistling to try and coax the dog to come to her.

"Our rescuer literally just drives around the North City and East St. Louis areas [in search of dogs who need help] anytime she has time," Thomson says. "Donna has been doing this for 20 years, and she really has a knack for it. A lot of these dogs are starving and eager for help. Her secret weapon is Vienna Sausages."

It wasn't long after the team got inside the school building that Teacher's Pet timidly peeked around a corner of a stairwell.

Story continues

Thin and scared, the hungry pupper had obviously been in the empty building for a while, based on the amount of poop and debris the team observed, as well as his extremely thin appearance. Even after they were able to gain his trust with some tasty treats, rescuers still had a precarious job ahead of them. The team then had to pick Teacher's Pet up and get him out the same second-floor window they had come in through and back down the ladder.

Eventually, the whole team was back outside, in their van, and headed back to the shelter where recovery could begin.

"The animals we rescue all get vaccines and a vet evaluationwe're very fortunate to have a clinic on sitethen our team will work with them on how to walk on a leash," Thomson says. After that, healthy animals can either be fostered out for continued socialization and care, or placed with a forever home though adoption.

RELATED: Meet Joe Kay, the Man Behind Your Favorite Dog Adoption Videos on TikTok

The veterinary clinic shows how much Stray Rescue has grown since it was founded in 1998. The nonprofit now includes more than 60 staff, 1,000 volunteers, and some 400 foster families in and around the St. Louis area, all committed to helping the city's stray and feral animal population find loving, stable homes. And that's exactly what happened to Teacher's Pet!

The former stray, who's now named Ollie, found his forever family earlier this week. From the looks of the photos the rescue organization shared on social media, he is so happy to be heading home.

"He doesn't remember being all alone, scared, and starving in that school," Stray Rescue's Facebook post reads. "All he knows is what's happening now and he is SPOILED!"

Stray Rescue's Landfill Mission

Adult dogs and cats aren't the rescue's only concern. When a local landfill recently began seeing a pack of stray dogs frequenting the facility, its staff called Stray Rescue. While the team has been thus far unable to lay eyes on any of the adult dogs, they have been able to rescue six puppies over two different trips to the landfill, with a solid assist from some helpful landfill workers and a bit of heavy machinery.

"The adults are very savvy when it comes to trapping," Thomson says. "But the workers at the landfill are all dog lovers and have been great about calling us to come out and rescue these puppies."

The puppies will undergo the same level of care and treatment as the adult dogs, including vaccinations and spaying and neutering, before living in foster homes to acclimate to humans and then being put up for adoption. Stray Rescue has both dogs and cats of all ages available for adoption.

Interested in adopting a pooch from St. Louis Stray Rescue? The organization is offering free adoption fees to potential pet parents thanks to sponsors like Tito's Handmade Vodka. Who knows, one of those rescued landfill puppies' forever homes might be yours!
Julian Assange speaks to the media from the balcony of the Embassy Of Ecuador on May 19, 2017 in London, England Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been granted approval to get married in prison.

He's currently held in the high security Belmarsh facility in London.

His fiancee, Stella Moris, is a South African-born lawyer who said she's been raising their two young sons.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been granted permission to marry his fiancee of four years in London's Belmarsh Prison.

The couple received approval to tie the knot just days after Assange and his partner, Stella Moris, said they'd been blocked from getting married, The Guardian reported. They had planned to take legal action against the justice secretary, Dominic Raab, and the prison governor.

Assange has been held since 2019 in the high-security Belmarsh facility while the US seeks to extradite him.

Moris, a South African-born lawyer who met Assange in 2011 while on his legal team, has been fighting for him to be released on bail.

The two started a relationship in 2015 and got engaged two years later. Moris revealed last year that she's been raising their two young sons since Assange sought asylum at an Ecuadorian embassy in 2012.

Assange, an Australian citizen, sought refuge at the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was accused of sexual assault. He has repeatedly denied the claims, and the charges against him have since been dropped.

In 2019, he was arrested by UK police while facing espionage charges in the US over the leaking of classified documents. Wikileaks had published numerous military and defence documents related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

UK law allows inmates to apply to get married in prison, under the 1983 Marriages Act. Applicants have to foot the cost of the wedding, and marriage ceremonies will have to take place in the prison.

The prison service said that Assange's application was "considered and processed in the usual way by the prison governor, as for any other prisoner," per the BBC.

Moris said she was "relieved that reason prevailed" and hoped there would be no "further interference" with her marriage, the BBC reported.

Read the original article on Insider
Nov. 11Reading police arrested a city man after he approached a woman in a coin laundry last week and she recognized him as the man who attacked her in her apartment building, investigators said.

Robert Taylor II, 28, who was on parole for robbery at the time of his arrest Saturday, was committed to Berks County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail following arraignment before District Judge Steven M. Chieffo in Reading Central Court. Taylor has not posted bail, according to court records.

Taylor, of the 400 block of South Fifth Street, faces charges of attempted rape by force, attempted rape of an unconscious victim, aggravated and simple assault, and strangulation (choking).

According to the probable cause affidavit:

On May 19 about 11:40 a.m. a woman returned to her apartment building in the 100 block of Church Street after a trip to the bank. When she was about to open the door to enter, a man later identified as Taylor approached her and asked something she could not understand because she doesn't speak English.

She ignored him and walked into the vestibule. He followed her inside, pushed her against the wall, causing her to hit her head against the wall and fall. He got on top of her and choked her. She passed out, and when she regained consciousness, she realized her pants had been pulled down.

She punched and kicked Taylor until he ran out of the building.

Police were called. The woman complained of pain in her neck and throat and was taken by ambulance to Reading Hospital. She had visible marks on both sides of her neck, scratches on her arms, and a broken fingernail. She also had a bite mark on her right wrist.

Investigators obtained security camera footage that showed Taylor walking up to the doorway of the apartment building and out of view of the camera just before the woman arrived. About six minutes later, the man is seen walking out of the apartment building and heading north on Church Street. A witness said the man began running north as he tried to take his picture after hearing the woman's screams.

On Nov. 3, the woman called Criminal Investigator Daniel Cedeno. She said she was in a laundromat at North 10th and Greenwich streets when a man walked in and started speaking to her. She did not understand what he was saying except for wanting to know where she lived.

She recognized the man as the person who had attacked her. Police obtained security camera images of the man to identify him with the help of his state parole officer.
Experts say they were able to bypass the iPhones lock screen to make unlimited contactless payments from a Visa card set up for public transport (Kirsty OConnor/PA) (PA Wire)

An iPhone X that had been modified to have a USB-C charging instead of the conventional Lightning port has sold on eBay for over $80,000.

Swiss robotics student Ken Pilloner auctioned off the device for $86,001 after deciding that he just want[ed] an iPhone with USB Type-C on it, adding that because everything I own has USB Type-C  it would be pretty neat to convert an iPhone too. Have one charger and one cable to charge everything.

Pilloner wanted the USB-C port to work as it would if it was officially supported: transfer data, charge the phone, be reversible, and keep all functional components inside the iPhone.

He created a proof-of-concept in May with the intention of miniaturising the USB-C to Lightning cable that is used to charge current iPhones and then attaching a USB-C to USB-C connector at the end.

Pilloner had to go through the USB Type-C specification in order to make his proof-of-concept, and even had to break open a Lightning cable which was built like a tank  heating the metallic part of the connector to see what was under the Lightning jack. Eventually, Pilloner reverse-engineered a Chinese knock-off Lightning cable to make the device work.

Future models of the mod will improve the iPhones fast-charging, waterproofing, and support for accessories, with the design open-sourced so that other engineers can also improve on his foundations.

However, Pilloner warns that any user of the device should not take it apart or update the operating system, as doing so could risk breaking the device.

The desire for a USB-C iPhone is one that might come to fruition with new legislation via the European Union, which would want every phone to have the same charger.

Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president for the European Commissions Europe Fit for the Digital Age strategy, said companies failed to reduce waste by making consumers buy unnecessarily different chargers.

European consumers were frustrated long enough about incompatible chargers piling up in their drawers, she said in a statement last September.

Story continues

We gave industry plenty of time to come up with their own solutions, now time is ripe for legislative action for a common charger. This is an important win for our consumers and environment and in line with our green and digital ambitions.

Apple, the most prominent company not to switch to USB-C, has claimed that doing so would reduce innovation in the market.

Read More

Valves Steam Deck handheld delayed by chip drought

Google, YouTube and Gmail have stopped working

Perseverance rover finds something no ones ever seen in search for aliens

Valves Steam Deck handheld delayed by chip drought

Google, YouTube and Gmail have stopped working

Perseverance rover finds something no ones ever seen in search for aliens
New York Attorney General and governor candidate Letitia James and former President Donald Trump. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images; Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

New York AG Letitia James has joined forces with the Manhattan DA for the Trump Organization investigation.

She's also running for governor and touting her record of going after former President Donald Trump.

Her office has scored wins against Trump on the policy front, but her exact role in the criminal investigation is unclear.

When New York Attorney General Letitia James announced her run for the governor's mansion in October, she highlighted some of her biggest cases. And she put 76 of them in one category.

"I've sued the Trump administration 76 times," she said. "But who's counting?"

James' challenges to former President Donald Trump fall into two categories, one of which went unmentioned in her announcement video.

There are the cases she brought against the Trump administration, including lawsuits trying to halt policies that she alleged protected predatory lenders, relaxed environmental rules, and discriminated against LGBTQ people.

"Defending the rights and wellbeing of New Yorkers and fighting for the powerless have always been my top priorities as attorney general," James told Insider in a statement, once again touting her office's 76 lawsuits. "For two years, my office stood up and fought the Trump Administration every time it tried to trample on the rights of New Yorkers and Americans across the country."

James also brought cases against Trump personally, including an investigation into the Trump Organization, which so far has produced a criminal indictment against the former president's company and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg.

Two prosecutors from James' office were cross-designated to work with the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which is leading the Trump Organization probe. Since the investigation is ongoing - prosecutors impaneled a second grand jury for the case earlier this month - there's limited public information about the machinations behind the probe, including what work each office has contributed thus far.

Story continues

While James can't talk about the details because the investigation is ongoing, Daniel R. Alonso, a former top deputy for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., pointed out the information James' office gathered for its civil cases against Trump could be a major asset.

"My best guess is that what the attorney general's office brought to the table is a hell of a lot of knowledge about the Trump Organization," Alonso told Insider.

James has called out Trump from her perch as New York AG

James has approached her cases against the Trump administration with a special zeal. When he was in office, she used her position to get federal courts to halt policies she said trampled on civil rights issues.

"We filed 76 lawsuits against an administration that was hostile towards women, immigrants, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, workers, and countless others; and we won over and over again," she told Insider. "Now, under the Biden-Harris Administration, we've seen decisive leadership that has protected young Dreamers, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and millions of others across New York and the rest of the United States."

James also scored a big win with her office's investigation into the Trump Foundation, which was forced to dissolve in 2019, though the civil lawsuit began under the tenure of her predecessor, Barbara Underwood. Trump admitted to illegally using the nonprofit's money for personal profit and to advance his political career.

Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Breakfast at a hotel in Washington, DC on February 8, 2018. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

In an interview with ABC's "The View" in December 2020, when asked about Trump calling her investigations against him "harassment," James basically launched into a campaign speech.

"With respect to the rant of the President of the United States since I've been in office these past two years - yes, my office has either led or joined 68 lawsuits against this administration. Protecting our environment, protecting immigrants, protecting the rights of women, protecting dreamers, protecting the Affordable Care Act, protecting the Postal Service and the list goes on," she said, adding: "It's important that the president of the United States understand that no one is above the law."

The law came for the former president's business after Michael Cohen, the former Trump Organization executive and personal lawyer for Trump, testified before Congress in February 2019. He alleged the company kept two sets of books: one to receive favorable bank loan and insurance rates, the other to pay little in taxes.

Both the Manhattan DA's office and the New York Attorney General's office were listening.

The offices then opened investigations, on parallel tracks, to examine the company's finances. Court filings and public announcements suggested they were each looking at whether the Trump Organization broke state laws by making hush-money payments to people who said they had affairs with Trump, by misrepresenting its finances, and by offering untaxed benefits to top employees.

James and the Manhattan DA joined forces

As recently as fall 2020, both prosecutors' offices had separate teams working what appeared to be the same leads. In an interview with Insider , Jennifer Weisselberg, a cooperating witness for both investigations, said that investigators from each office asked her about the same issues in separate interviews.

James' office distinguished itself in the following months with a series of announcements about the inquiries into the valuations of several Trump Organization properties as part of a civil investigation. Among them is 40 Wall Street, located just across the street from James' office in Manhattan.

The Trump Organization's Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, center, arrives for a courtroom appearance in New York, Monday, Sept. 20, 2021. AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

The properties also include the Seven Springs estate in upstate New York, which the Trump Organization said in tax filings was used as a nature conservatory. Eric and Donald Trump Jr. said in media interviews that they used the estate as a summer home, however, and James' office successfully forced Eric Trump, now a Trump Organization executive, to sit for an interview.

Meanwhile, Vance's office put enormous resources into the case. It went to the Supreme Court twice to enforce a subpoena for the Trump Organization and obtain reams of tax documents.

Solomon Shinerock - the prosecutor in the DA's office who has been doing almost all the talking at the two public court hearings so far - said in September that the office had about 6 million pages of evidence for the charges against Weisselberg and the company.

Under state statute, the New York Attorney General's office has the ability to bring criminal cases under only a few areas of law. Otherwise, it needs a referral from the governor's office or state legislature to pursue a wide-ranging criminal investigation.

The office can also "cross-designate" its attorneys with a district attorney's office, which is what happened for the Trump Organization investigation. Earlier this year, two prosecutors on James' team were basically loaned out to the Manhattan DA's office. The team-up saves work for everyone, Alonso said.

"If somebody's already gathered evidence, and they've already cataloged that they've already interviewed witnesses related to it - there's a value in accelerating that part of the investigation," Alonso said. "So it makes sense to team up."

Cyrus Roberts Vance Jr. District Attorney of New York County and New York State Attorney General Letitia James arrive in court for the hearing of Allen Weisselberg in New York on July 1, 2021. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

The DA and AG offices jointly led a criminal investigation, while the AG's office has also continued its civil probe. In July, the prosecutors on the criminal case filed a 15-count indictment against the Trump Organization and Weisselberg, accusing the executive of evading taxes on income and benefits like a free apartment. Vance and James walked side-by-side that day into court, where the company and Weisselberg pleaded not guilty to the charges.

"My office remains committed to enforcing the law and holding accountable those who abuse their authority - no matter how powerful," James said in the statement to Insider.

Vance will retire on December 31 after three terms as DA, and on January 1, Alvin Bragg will take over. Bragg is a former top official in the New York State Attorney General's office himself, leaving two weeks before James took office. He's widely expected to keep the same tack as Vance.

"My approach to this case will be the same as mine to every case: follow the facts and deliver justice for New Yorkers," Bragg told Insider in June. "That's what we did in the Attorney General's office where I led the team that sued Trump and his administration more than 100 times, including successfully suing the Trump Foundation, removing the citizenship question from the census, and challenging the travel bans and other unlawful policies."

Running for governor as a sitting AG is a tradition in New York politics

In Albany, James has earned a reputation as a shrewd operator and a rising star in the Democratic Party. As the state's attorney general, she's in the process of suing the National Rifle Association into oblivion, and her office's investigations and litigation has shut down consumer scams and led to hundreds of gun buybacks. Nearly every day, her office issues a press release about cases against predatory lenders and opioid deaths.

Now that the gubernatorial primary is open, lawmakers are weighing whom to support, or whether to stay out of the race altogether as Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul implements her agenda while trying to secure a full term.

For Assemblyman Phil Steck, an Upstate Democrat from Schenectady who has yet to endorse a candidate, James' record on antitrust enforcement and opioids carries more weight than her challenges to Trump.

"I'm a fan of the attorney general for two reasons," Steck, who endorsed James' rival, Zephyr Teachout, in the 2018 AG primary, told Insider. In that primary, disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo endorsed James.

Attorney General of New York Letitia James and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) take part in ceremonies before the Veteran's Day Parade in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 11, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

"First, since she's been attorney general, I think the office has done a lot of outstanding work in many areas that protect the public interest," Steck continued. "Two, she has a long history of progressive politics. So in comparison - while I know the current governor very well and like her - the reality is that the new administration is surrounding itself with a very similar aura to that which existed when Andrew Cuomo was governor."

Changing how business is done in Albany could be a very powerful message for the James campaign following nearly three full terms of the Cuomo administration, Steck said. But he added that the AG's Trump investigations could play well in a primary atmosphere.

"I think from a strategic standpoint, what Tish James is doing is trying to show to Democrats that she was someone who was willing to take on Donald Trump," the assemblyman said.

But did James's lawsuits against the Trump administration - often filed in concert with other Democratic state AGs - result in substantial change? One Democratic operative told Insider they didn't think so.

"Clearly Tish used Trump to raise her profile, and you see that in the announcement video," a longtime Democratic New York political operative, who plans on sitting out the 2022 gubernatorial primary campaign, told Insider.

"You know who's counting? The people who have seen zero results out of this," the operative continued. "To voters in New York and Democrats and donors across the country who were resting their hopes on Tish James, she's delivered bupkis."

New York Attorney General Letitia James (L) and Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz take a look at some guns after a gun buyback event organized by the NYPD on June 12, 2021. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Given that attorney general has been a well-trodden springboard for Empire State gubernatorial hopefuls - Cuomo ran on a "Clean Up Albany" slogan when he secured the top job - James' ability to showcase her record could make or break her campaign, according to the longtime state political operative.

"New York attorney general is one of the best perches for a push to run for office," the operative said. "Ask Elliot Spitzer. Ask Andrew Cuomo. Right? Elliot Spitzer, sheriff of Wall Street, took down titans in the financial industry - what did Tish do? She filed a few lawsuits against Donald Trump?"

From the perspective of rival campaigns, the operative argued, there's an opening to to turn the primary electorate's anti-Trump fervor against James in a "boomerang" fashion.

"I do believe that you are going to see her Democratic opponents saying, 'Tish, where's the beef?'" the operative said, referencing the 1980s ad campaign from Wendy's. "So yeah, I think it's going to be a problem."

Yet for a potential key Upstate endorsement like Steck, that decision won't hinge on James' Trump investigations.

"I'm just stressing the point that for me, when my decision as to who I might support for governor is announced, it's not going to be based on Donald Trump," Steck said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Carson also spoke about how the military training that U.S. service members most go through is not properly recognized, or used, when they return to civilian life. They should be getting some type of certificate for the work they have learned how to do ... which enables them to be able to come back into this workforce and make a living.

Gen. Bob Dees, who also spoke at the ceremony, said, America needs her veterans more, in this day and age, than ever before, and Id suspect youd agree with me.

Dees also serves as the president of the board at the National Center for Healthy Veterans, and gave a progress update on the centers construction of its first set of homes.

Were nearing completion of village number one, Dees said. Village one, we think, will be completed by Easter. It will have 20 homes, and a community center where they will do their cooking.

This would complete half of phase one of the propertys construction plan, which will have a total of 40 tiny homes where veterans can get the help they need as they reassimilate into society.

Josh Rock, a close friend of Dees, spoke at the ceremony about the help Dees has given him as a veteran, getting his life back on track.
She said she is a little worried about the divisions health insurance renewal because of the possible effects of COVID-19.

I know that theres been lots and lots of testing and testing charges are charged to the individuals health insurance plans, she said. I do know that some people have delayed going to the doctor or going and having optional surgeries done, but we had a big decrease last year in rates and I dont know that we should anticipate that we would have the same thing occur again.

She said enrollment in the fiscal year 2023 is forecasted to drop to 1,444 students and then again decrease in fiscal year 2024 to 1,453 students.

Pending General Assembly approval, minimum wage will be $11 per hour beginning in January, she said, and will increase to $12 per hour in 2023 and by 2026, it will be $15 per hour.

We will have some positions that we pay on a daily rate basis that we will have to adjust to meet minimum wage, she said.

The board will hold its first work session on the budget in January. During its meeting the board held a public hearing on the preliminary budget process in which Nelson County Board of Supervisors Chair Ernie Reed spoke about increasing wages for staff members.
Pottawattamie County Community Foundation is excited to join the national network of over 800 community foundations throughout America who are celebrating National Community Foundation Week. Donors, nonprofit organizations and other key stakeholders make it possible for PCCF to continue to amplify impact throughout southwest Iowa. An essential group working towards innovative and effective solutions facing our community is the PCCF Board of Directors.

Mick McKinleys commitment to our community is invaluable to PCCF. Mick has always believed in giving back to the community and PCCF gives him an opportunity to do just that as a board member and treasurer.

The foundation enables donors to make a difference by making contributions that are used to fund community impact and field of interest grants, Mick said. They can set up donor advised funds where they direct their contributions.

In his two years on the PCCF board, Mick feels the growth of the foundation has been impressive.

(Foundation President and CEO) Donna Dostal has done an amazing job raising community awareness of how donors can establish a legacy that will continue long into the future, he said.
The U.S. Department of Agricultures Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service recently analyzed serum samples from white-tailed deer for the antibodies. In 481 samples collected between January 2020 and March 2021 from Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania, it detected SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in 33% of those samples.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Hardin said Nebraska Game and Parks will be working with the USDA health inspection service to begin its own tests on white-tailed deer in the state.

Hardin said Game and Parks officials dont want to alarm people without the scientific evidence to back up any statements.

The point is, you keep vigilant, she said. Our agency recommends following any CDC guidance.

Although there is no evidence that people can get COVID by preparing or eating meat from an animal infected with SARS-CoV-2, hunters still should be cautious, Hardin said.

You should continue to practice safe animal-handling techniques when gutting deer, like wearing rubber gloves, washing equipment after use and washing your hands, she said. Its no different than how you would treat anything when handling wild game meat.
The Council Bluffs City Council recently rejected a bid for the Cochran Park Playground upgrade.

The council decided to reject the bid after it was deemed non-responsive. The contractor indicated in the bid that the project start date, June 1, 2021, was scheduled to occur after the substantial completion date indicated within the bid guidelines put out by the city  May 18, 2021.

Local company PowerTech will be donating $200,000 towards the replacement of the playground.

The playground is 24-years-old and the new one will feature structures for kids 2-years-old to 10-years-old. There will also be a swing set and a shelter.

The project is now available for re-advertisement.

Also at Mondays meeting the council:

Approved Resolution 21-311 to dispose of city property described as the east 46 feet of Lots 5 and 6, Block 3, Grimes Addition. The location is the property formerly addressed as 746 West Washington Ave.

Approved Resolution 21-312 approving the Urban Revitalization Plan for the American Games Urban Revitalization Area at 504 34th Ave.
Peverills mother was a senior in high school when Pearl Harbor was bombed, she said.

Later in the war, Bloomer was deployed to participate in D-Day. The men had to swim to shore, and many couldnt make it with their heavy packs, Peverill said. As a medic, Bloomer was unarmed.

I know my dad helped some soldiers, but couldnt help many, she said.

Other reports have stated that the first troops to arrive were dropped off near landing boats but where it was too deep and drowned under the weight of their equipment. More waves of soldiers followed, and thousands were killed by German troops.

He never got over his best Army buddy being killed, Peverill said.

After four years in the service, Bloomer was given 30 days leave, during which he returned to Kansas and proposed to Peverills mother. He had worked as a hired hand on her grandfathers farm. Then he was sent to Germany to fight Russian troops on the Rhine River.

Those days were so frightful to me not knowing if he had survived, Peverills mother wrote.

He did and was awarded a Bronze Star, Peverill said.
As the strike passes the four-week mark, more striking Deere workers are looking for temporary employment opportunities to support themselves and their families. As the weeks drag on, savings and strike pay might not be sufficient to get union members through the holiday season.
Cindy Axne, the lone Democrat in Iowas Congressional delegation, announced that she plans to seek re-election in Iowas 3rd District next year.

Axne had previously also considered running for the U.S. Senate or Iowa governor in 2022. She is serving her second two-year term in the U.S. House.

Three years ago, I came to Congress to fight for Iowans and their needs. Since then, Ive delivered tax cuts, disaster relief and critical support to Iowas families and businesses, Axne said in a social media post. But my work is far from over, so I will seek to represent #IA03 again in 2022!

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Iowas 3rd District race likely will draw national attention as Democrats attempt to maintain their slim majority in the U.S. House. Democrats have a small voter registration advantage in the new 3rd District, which includes Polk and Dallas counties, plus much of south central Iowa. The district no longer includes Council Bluffs, which shifted to the new 4th District.

Four Republicans have declared their candidacy for the 3rd District race: state legislators Zach Nunn, former state Rep. Mary Ann Hanusa, businesswoman Nicole Hasso and activist Gary Leffler.
Hurst leans into the progressive agenda, supporting Medicare for All as a way to keep Iowas rural hospitals open and expand access to health care. Hes for intelligent immigration to reverse the loss of 25% of Iowas rural population over the past four decades and bring people with skill sets that our rural communities need to actually build the houses, repair the bridges and take care of the streets.

I believe we have to address the agricultural issues related to overproduction of corn and soybeans, to drive down the price so that we can feed cattle that are raised in confined animal operations and spread manure across our state and into our watershed and affect our ability to enjoy our lives.

Doesn't that sound like it should appeal to every Iowan? he said.

Hurst, who chairs the Iowa Democratic Party Rural Caucus, believes passage of the $1.75 trillion infrastructure package will help win back rural voters.

The failure of the House to pass that package quickly cost Democrats the Virginia governors race, he believes.

We saw in deep blue Virginia what happens when (Democrats) can't even get the $1.75 trillion reconciliation package passed quickly  on a timeline to help their partys candidates, he said.
A roundup of legislative and Capitol news items of interest:

CHIEF JUDGE APPOINTED: Judge Myron Gookin of Fairfield has been appointed chief judge of the 8th Judicial District by Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen.

Gookin succeeds Chief Judge Mary Ann Brown, who will retire Dec. 31. He will start his new position Jan. 1.

Gookin was appointed to the bench in August 2011. He received his bachelors degree with distinction from Iowa State University in 1980 and his Juris Doctorate with honors from the Drake University law school in 1983.

Gookin was in private practice in Fairfield from July 1983 until his appointment to the bench. He serves on the board of the 8th Judicial District Department of Correctional Services. He is married and has three children.

As chief judge, Gookin will supervise all judicial officers and court employees in the 8th Judicial District, which consists of Appanoose, Davis, Des Moines, Henry, Jefferson, Keokuk, Lee, Louisa, Mahaska, Monroe, Poweshiek, Van Buren, Wapello and Washington counties.
"It looks much bigger up close," Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon texted Thursday as five state senators finished preparations for their ascent up Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa with the threat of bad weather ahead.

The trip to and then up the storied mountain, which is 19,340 feet high at its peak, was to begin in eight hours, Brewer texted at about 11 p.m. in Tanzania, nine hours ahead of Lincoln time.

"In eight hours we start," he said.

"Weather will move in on Sunday for 3 days snow and winds will come up," Brewer texted in answer to a question.

"It could make the ascent difficult."

Brewer said "everyone is good to go and everyone is in high spirits" with safety checks completed, equipment inspected and medical briefings done.

And so the adventure begins.

The official weather forecast for Mt. Kilimanjaro calls for "a moderate fall of snow, heaviest on Saturday afternoon" with temperatures "well below freezing" and wind expected to be "generally light."
The dust has settled on redistricting in Iowa. The legislative debate is done, the approved plan received strong bipartisan support, and the governor has signed those new maps into law. Iowa has its new political boundaries for the next decade, starting with next years midterm elections.

Other states, including a couple just across the Mississippi River from Iowa, have not been so fortunate. In Wisconsin and Illinois, the redistricting process has been a highly partisan mess, and in Wisconsins case, still drags on.

The contrast speaks to the dangers of partisanship in decennial redistricting, and why Iowas process remains a model for the nation.

Iowas redistricting process is hailed for its nonpartisan nature. Nonpartisan analysts in the states Legislative Services Agency draw the maps, and state law forbids them from employing political considerations. Only after the maps are drawn do state lawmakers get involved, and even then they can only vote the maps up or down, with one exception.
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.
Roland Pettit

Pettit enlisted in active duty with the Army in 1954. He went on to specialized training at Fort Gordon for teletype repair. In 1954 Pettit went to Fort Devens in Massachusetts for cryptography training. He was stationed in France and served four years, then continued to

serve as a National Guard reservist. In 1965 he was called back to active duty for the Army and served until 1986.

Duty stations included Germany, Vietnam, France, the United States and the Secret Service. During his duty in Vietnam from 1970 to 1972, Pettit was with the 556th Mountain Men; he was injured during this time. He was a sharpshooter for the Army and retired with the rank of master sergeant. Pettit received the Meritorious Service Medal three times, the Bronze Star, an award for his service with the Secret Service, and a Purple Heart.

Joseph Grachek Jr.

Grachek enlisted in the Air Force aviation cadet training program in April 1955 and received his navigator wings and commission in July 1956. His first assignment was to Strategic Air Command in the 310th Bombardment Wing as a KC-97 tanker navigator. He was next assigned to the 22nd Bombardment Wing as a KC-135 navigator.
Morning prayers, speeches, comforting quilts and a sunset parade marked North Plattes community observances Thursday of Veterans Day 2021.

They marked the citys 104th Armistice Day  when World War I ended in France on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month  and the 68th annual observance since Congress expanded the national holiday to honor all military veterans in 1954.

Heres our recap of the days sights, sounds and words as recorded by Telegraph reporters:

Marking the day

As the clock struck 11 a.m.  the hour on Paris clocks when the Western Fronts guns went silent  a small audience joined North Plattes American Legion post in observing Veterans Day and its Armistice Day roots.

Leaders of P.R. Halligan Post No. 163 took turns reading from the prescribed Veterans Day service in the Legions Post Officers Guide.

Out of blood and sweat we learned of purpose, sacrifice, tolerance, bravery and discipline, post Commander Scott Bell read. These are solid foundation stones upon which a great nation is built.

While the horrors of the battlefield may not have been our experience, we have lived with the terrifying loneliness created to answer an aggressors challenge, Valma Smith read on behalf of the posts Legion Auxiliary.

After Lincoln County Commissioner Chris Bruns keynote speech, the Legions honor guard ended the ceremony with a three-volley salute and the playing of Taps. Bruns would speak again later in the day at the 20th Century Veterans Memorial.

 Todd von Kampen

Sharing their stories

The Crucible is a 54-hour training exercise in the U.S. Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego that ends with a hike up The Reaper, which has a 45-degree slope.

It really sucked, you were really cold, you didnt get much food and you were beat down for a long time, Marine veteran Greg Mooney recalled Thursday at North Platte Community College.

During the physical and mental challenge, Mooney said, he and other recruits would chug the small bottles of Tabasco sauce included in their meals-ready-to-eat supplies, just to stay awake.

Mooney was one of four veterans who spoke during a short midday event at the colleges South Campus. Rory Little, a fellow Marine; Donald Piper, Air Force; and Scott Bell, Coast Guard, were also part of the event.

Mooney told his story to make a point.

There were hard times and there were crazy times (in the Marines), but it gave me a backbone, Mooney said. I wouldnt be who I am today. I wouldnt have the backbone I have and I wouldnt have the tenacity I have today if I wasnt broken off so many times.

One of the biggest lessons I ever learned was being broke off and going through life struggles is a seriously good thing. Take struggles in stride and embrace the suck. Because the suck provides so much opportunity for you to grow as an individual.

 Tim Johnson

Answering the call

They did not set out to be heroes  but that is their name.

To those many people that are red, white, and blue,

We stand up proudly today and say Thank you!

 Anonymous

Lincoln County Commissioner Chris Bruns spoke those words as he thanked the people who came out on a blustery afternoon to honor Americas veterans at the 20th Century Veterans Memorial.

A Marine, Bruns is a combat veteran and said it is a calling to serve the United States of America.

Im sure many here today, our veterans, know exactly what it is, that sound, that call, that call of duty, and what it sounds like in their soul, Bruns said. Many have heard it, but only a select few in our society have, and will, answer it.

Steve Foster of North Platte led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance, and Kalee Brosius sang the national anthem.

Those that have answered (the call), left their families, their loved ones, their homes and the normalcy of their lives, Bruns said. Not for some kind of recognition or fame, no, not even for the honor we gratefully bestow upon them here today.

They merely wanted to belong to a cause that is greater than any one person could ever aspire to alone, to fight for and protect our nation, to defend our Constitution, to maintain and preserve our treasured way of life.

After the tribute, Chris Reinert of the Heartland Nebraska Quilts of Valor chapter presented quilts to eight veterans.

 Job Vigil

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.

Job Vigil Reporter I am a Colorado native and have been at the Telegraph for 18-plus years, including a 10-year stint as managing editor; my interests are in feature writing that focuses on people. Follow Job Vigil 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

Tim Johnson News/sports reporter Minneapolis-born. I am a hybrid reporter/photographer covering courts from county and district to basketball and beyond. Follow Tim Johnson 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
Gough said he didn't realize Sharpton had been there until after court had adjourned for the day.

You werent even aware of it until later?" the judge said. "Im not sure what were doing.

Sharpton held a prayer vigil and news conference outside the Glynn County courthouse Wednesday afternoon to show support for Arbery's family. Afterward he joined Arbery's parents and their lawyers to listen to portions of the trial testimony.

Sharpton said in a statement that Gough's remarks showed arrogant insensitivity."

I respect the defense attorney doing his job, Sharpton said, "but this is beyond defending your client, it is insulting the family of the victim.

Jury selection ended last week with prosecutors objecting to the final jury of 11 whites and one Black juror. The judge agreed there appeared to be intentional discrimination in the exclusion of Black potential jurors, but said Georgia law limited his authority to intervene.

One juror, a white woman, was dismissed before the trial began for medical reasons. Fifteen total panelists are hearing the trial  12 jurors plus three alternates. The judge has not given the races of the alternate jurors, and they were not asked to state their race in open court.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Union officials told workers after those contract talks that they couldn't recommend Kellogg's offer because it was full of concessions.

The Kelloggs strike includes roughly 1,400 workers four plants in Battle Creek; Omaha; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee, that make all of Kelloggs brands of cereal, including Frosted Flakes and Apple Jacks.

The company has said that it has restarted production at all of the plants with salaried employees and outside workers, and it is now hiring new employees at the plants. CEO Steven Cahillane also told investors earlier this month when the company reported a $307 million quarterly profit that Kelloggs stockpiled cereal beforehand to help weather the strike.

Workers at Kellogg's and other companies feel emboldened this year to strike in the hope of obtaining a better offer because of the ongoing worker shortages.

Besides the Kellogg's strike, more than 10,000 Deere workers remain on strike after rejecting two different offers from the tractor maker.

Employees are also less willing to compromise this year after working long hours during the coronavirus pandemic to keep up with demand over the past 18 months.

Earlier this year, about 600 food workers also went on strike at a Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas and 1,000 others walked off the job at five Nabisco plants across the U.S. At meatpacking plants across the country labor unions have been successfully negotiating significant raises for employees.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Writer Beer & Society

There is nothing that cannot be discussed and worked out over a beer. Join me as I explore local beer, breweries and how they can civilize us.
Localnews

National Cemetery of the Alleghenies observes Veterans Day

Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Harry Funk/The Almanac Drum major Alia MacFarland leads the Canon-McMillan High School Marching Band. Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Marcella Sorensen, left, and U.S. Navy veteran Tracy Daniels participate in the program as members of the Patriot Guard Riders Pennsylvania, a group that attends the funerals of fallen American heroes as invited guests of the families. Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Harry Funk/The Almanac Brigadier Gen. Jake Kwon is commander of the 316th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), which has command and control of more than 10,000 Army Reserve soldiers throughout the northeastern United States. Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Col. Bryan Bailey is commander of the 911th Operations Group at the Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station. Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Ken Williams directs the Pittsburgh South Hills Keystone Chorus, which has as its usual meeting place Hamilton Presbyterian Church in Bethel Park. Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Kate Matthews of the Department of Veteran Affairs is among those performing music at the observerance. Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Canon-MacMillan High School student Taylor Pastore, a drum major, leads the school's marching band. Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Canon-McMillan High School's Bella Voce Choir performs "The Star-Spangled Banner." Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Maggie Sisson directs the Canon-McMillan High School Bella Voce Choir. Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Harry Funk/The Almanac Patriot Guard Riders Pennsylvania member Lewis Winnecour, a Korean War veteran, is accompanied by Marsha Mintz. Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Patriot Guard Riders Pennsylvania member Amanda Harris displays the U.S. Coast guard flag. Harry Funk / Harry Funk/The Almanac Edward Hajduk is National Cemetery of the Alleghenies director.

The U.S. military is known for its punctuality, which was put on eminent display Thursday morning at the start of the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies Veterans Day program.

I have some friends on the way to come visit, Col. Bryan Bailey said. If we time this out, everything should work out right at about 11 oclock.

And precisely as he wrapped up his pre-program address, an Air Force C-17 transport aircraft flew above, drawing a round of applause from those attending the observance.

Bailey, commander of the 911th Operations Group at the Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station, explained the planes significance.

Only weeks ago, that very aircraft  not one like it, mind you, but that very aircraft  fixed, loaded, fueled, launched and flown by Reserve citizen airmen from right here in Pittsburgh, airlifted hundreds of our allies out of Afghanistan to the promise of a better life, he said.

Hope turned out to be a prominent theme during the program at the cemetery in Cecil Township, with Brig. Gen. Jake Kwon in his keynote address acknowledging the integral role of veterans in American society.

After they take off the uniform, their service will often continue in a variety of ways. As you look around you and around the country, veterans serve as teachers, doctors, engineers, social workers, community leaders and elected officials, said Kwon, who leads the Army Reserves 316th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary).

They continue their service to our communities through their positive contributions, shaped from their lessons and experiences while in uniform. It builds stronger communities and legacies while inspiring our younger Americans.

Kwon noted the United States now has its largest population of young veterans since the Vietnam War.

Theyre a precious resource for all, but theyre also the glue that bonds America back to the military community, he said. What hasnt changed is their determination or their spiritual strength, and as they follow in the proud footsteps of the men and women who served in the Armed Forces and then served their communities, theyre going to bring with them the uncommon and unwavering strength that they learned while wearing the uniform.

So I charge all of us to remember the dual aspects of our veterans service and continue to support them out of uniform so that they can successfully transition to civilian life and their next stage.

Bailey also spoke about the importance of recognizing those whose service in uniform has been comparatively recent.

Veterans Day evokes images of an old man visiting the graves of his historic war buddies, those young men who were never given the chance to grow old, men who made the ultimate sacrifice on epic days and in epic places with names like Anzio, Normandy and Iwo Jima, Bailey said.

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, on this Veterans Day, it is for us, the living, to be here dedicated to the unfinished work of not just remembering the veterans in this cemetery. We must remember and be grateful for all the living veterans among us, he said. So, yes, today we remember Anzio, Normandy and Iwo Jima. But we also remember the Chosin Reservoir, Saigon, Kuwait City, Mogadishu, Mazar-e-Sharif, Fallujah, Baghdad, Kabul and so many more.

Cemetery director Edward Hajduk acknowledged the many people and organizations participating in the observance, including Canon-McMillan High School choir and band members, Civil Air Patrol Golden Triangle Composite Squadron 603, Marine Corps League Detachment 1138 in Washington, Patriot Guard Riders of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh South Hills Keystone Chorus, Seneca Valley High School Army Junior ROTC and Washington County Young Marines.

The sacrifices of our Armed Forces have provided an environment of security and freedom in which our national has grown and flourished, Hajduk said. Thats the story of Americas veterans, ordinary men and women who stepped forward to purchase our independence with their service and to help others who felt the oppression of tyranny.


Thank you for Reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Multimedia Reporter

Staff writer Harry Funk, a professional journalist for three-plus decades, has been on the staff of The Almanac since 2015. He has a bachelors degree in journalism and master of business administration, both from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Actress, 82, rushed to hospital in 'serious condition after suffering stroke' https://t.co/818HVU74du  The Sun Showbiz (@TheSunShowbiz) November 11, 2021

The 82-year-old Legendary Mexican actress, Carmen Salinas, with a decades long career in film and telenovelas, suffered a stroke on Wednesday night. Her condition is delicate, this according Gustavo Briones Gonzalez, her nephew and personal assistant.He continued telling the press that Salinas is in intensive care with respiratory assistance, but the rest of her organs and functions are stable. Doctors believe that the inflammation in her brain will subside. The family was asked to remain at the hospital for updates on her condition.There are reports that she is in a coma, but her nephew did not confirm or deny those reports.Relatives have asked fans to pray for her.Thank you tofor bringing this heartbreaking news to my attention. :(
Energy industry insiders have slammed a proposal by a group of Democratic Senators to ban U.S. oil exports in a bid to rein in retail fuel prices.

"That proposal does absolutely nothing to alleviate higher prices or to make prices lower than in any sort of relative sense," petroleum economist Karr Ingham from the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers and creator of the Texas Petroleum Index told Fox News.

"The economics of that are pretty clear. And if the suggestion on the part of the administration is that in implementing a ban on U.S. crude oil exports makes US domestic crude oil prices lower and therefore, for example, U.S. gasoline prices lower, that's pure folly, that is not the effect," Ingham added.

A group of Senators led by Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, and Jack Reed wrote a letter to President Biden urging him to "consider all tools available at your disposal to lower US gasoline prices. This includes a release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and a ban on crude oil exports."

The senators also blamed OPEC+ for the state of U.S. retail fuel prices, which have reached the highest on record in California.

"As the United States work[s] to boost the development of clean and renewable energy over the long-term, we must ensure that Americans are able to afford to fill up their cars at the pump in the meantime," the Democratic senators wrote in the letter.

"Implementing a crude oil export ban does absolutely nothing," TAEP's Ingham said. "And it probably makes prices higher, not lower."

"The key to this is allowing U.S. oil and gas producers to do what they do best to simply get out of their way. Let them go to work," Ingham told Fox News. "Remove as much uncertainty as can be removed from the legislative, regulatory, and economic environment and let them get back to the business of growing U.S. domestic crude oil production energy production as rapidly as they can."

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Adventurous options traders placed bets this week on oil prices hitting $250 and even $300 per barrel, betting for the first time this year that oil could exceed $250, ICE Futures Europe data cited by Bloomberg showed.

On Thursday, options traders traded the equivalent of 5 million barrels of Brent at $250 and $300 call options.

Call options give traders the rightbut not the obligationto buy assets at a certain price, the so-called strike price, by a certain date.

The amounts of call options at triple-digit strikes have soared in recent weeks, suggesting that more speculative traders are attracted by potential quick profits from options trades, which are relatively low-cost ways to speculate on the direction of an asset.

While $250 per barrel bets are the first call options traded this year, some traders have already bet on $200 and $215 oil in recent weeks, according to Bloomberg data.

Last month, exchange trade data showed that as oil prices hit multi-year highs, some speculative traders were betting on the options market that oil could exceed $100 a barrel by the end of this year and even reach a record $200 per barrel by the end of 2022.

The resurgent activity with bets on $100 or $200 oil shows that more traders are getting into the energy market amid the global energy crunch, and more of those speculators are bullish on oil prices.

$100 a barrel oil is no longer an outrageous bet, as it was at the start of this year, and even some investment banks believe that crude prices could hit the triple digits as soon as in the middle of next year.

Most recently, Bank of America said that Brent Crude prices could rise to as much as $120 per barrel in the first half of 2022 due to the global gas crisis, booming air travel with international flights returning, and a comeback of Asian demand.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin said that the rebound in global demand for oil and gas and the gap between supply and demand could lead to a new supercycle for oil and gas

The rebound in global demand for oil and gas and the gap between supply and demand could lead to a new supercycle for oil and gas, Rosnefts chief executive Igor Sechin said on Friday.

Despite the uncertainty in the global economy due to the difficult epidemiological situation, we observe a rapid growth in demand for traditional energy resources, Sechin said in a statement, commenting on Rosnefts Q3 earnings and the outlook for the future.

As structural discrepancies between supply and demand on global energy markets are further revealed, we may witness a new super cycle on the oil and gas markets. Under these conditions, the Company holds responsible to the consumers of our energy products and increases investments into the new projects, the top executive of Russias largest oil producer said.

Rosnefts CEO became the latest oil industry official to say that already high oil and gas prices could rise even further.

At the end of last month, Saudi Aramcos chief executive Amin Nasser said that crude oil production capacity was dwindling globally, and more investments in new production are needed urgently.

Earlier this week, Nasser said that the world would see its level of spare oil production capacity dwindle next year as jet fuel demand returns to pre- or near-pre-crisis levels.

Expanding capacity in our industry takes around 5-7 years, and there is not enough investment in the world to increase capacity, this is a huge concern, Nasser said at the Nikkei Global Management Forum, as carried by Reuters.

Global annual upstream spending needs to increase by as much as 54 percent to $542 billion if the oil market is to avert the next supply shortage shock, Moodys said last month.

Our analysis demonstrates that upstream companies will need to increase their spending considerably for the medium term to fully replace reserves and avoid declines in future production, Moodys Vice President Sajjad Alam said.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Ahead of the resumption of nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna on November 29th, it increasingly appears likely that Irans perception is that it has growing leverage and will bargain for maximum sanctions relief for any movement on its nuclear program.

The EU is expected to hit Belarus with new sanctions as early as next week in retaliation for the ongoing migrant crisis. Reuters reported that fresh sanctions will include some 30 individuals and entities including the foreign minister and Belarusian airline Belavia. Earlier this week, the EU accused Belarus's leader Alexander Lukashenko of luring migrants with the false promise of easy entry to the EU. EU member countries Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia have all seen a surge in the number of people trying to enter their countries illegally from Belarus. At the same time, Belarus, in an act of retribution, is threatening to cut European gas supply (one of Russias natural gas pipelines to Europe runs through Belarus).

European natural gas prices started dropping this week after Russia started increasing supplies, but the markets initial optimism over more Russian gas was dulled later in the week when shipments were smaller than hoped for. Overall, the increased Russian gas flow isnt any more than it should have been at this time of year under contractual agreement. Its not enough to assure Europe that it can avert an energy crisis.

Geopolitics

European natural gas prices started dropping this week after Russia started increasing supplies, but the markets initial optimism over more Russian gas was dulled later in the week when shipments were smaller than hoped for. Overall, the increased Russian gas flow isnt any more than it should have been at this time of year under contractual agreement. Its not enough to assure Europe that it can avert an energy crisis.

The EU is expected to hit Belarus with new sanctions as early as next week in retaliation for the ongoing migrant crisis. Reuters reported that fresh sanctions will include some 30 individuals and entities including the foreign minister and Belarusian airline Belavia. Earlier this week, the EU accused Belarus's leader Alexander Lukashenko of luring migrants with the false promise of easy entry to the EU. EU member countries Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia have all seen a surge in the number of people trying to enter their countries illegally from Belarus. At the same time, Belarus, in an act of retribution, is threatening to cut European gas supply (one of Russias natural gas pipelines to Europe runs through Belarus).

Ahead of the resumption of nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna on November 29th, it increasingly appears likely that Irans perception is that it has growing leverage and will bargain for maximum sanctions relief for any movement on its nuclear program.

Deals, Mergers & Acquisitions

Gambia has launched a new bidding round for Block A1 (offshore), with a four-month timeframe for submitting offers. In the Spring of 2019, BP exited this block; hence the new auction.

Noble Corp and Maersk Drilling will merge to form Noble Corporation and will close mid-year next year.

ExxonMobil plans to invest in a China petrochemical complex in the Dayawan Petrochemical Industrial Park, after making its FID. Exxon said the complex will produce performance polymers that will be used in packaging, automotive, agricultural, and consumer products for hygiene and personal care. Construction is already underway.

GE plans to split into three separate businesses: healthcare, energy, and jet-engine aviation. The energy spinoff will encompass both fossil fuels and renewable energy. GE has already cut several unrelated business segments from its lineup in recent years, and the new separation will allow each company to focus only on its core business. Each company will have its own board of directors.

Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes has signed a deal with Shells clean energy unit to acquire renewable energy credits (RECs) for two years.

Discovery & Development

Equinor plans to invest $8.8 billion in developing the Wisting discovery - the worlds northernmost oilfield, in the Arctic Barents Sea, thought to contain nearly 500 million boe. An FID is expected by the end of next year, and talk is of a potential 2028 date for going live. Equinor holds a 35% stake in Wisting, with Lundin Energy, a 10% stakeholder, set to purchase OMVs 25% stake to bring its total to 35%. Petoror holds 20%, with Japans Idemitsu the last 10%.

ExxonMobil has discovered traces of oil off the southeast coast of Brazil in the Tita exploration block in the Santos Basin, through its 1-EMEB-2-RJS well. The oil was discovered in waters 2,644 meters deep. Exxon owns a 64% stake in the project, with QPI Brasil holding the rest.

The Kenyan government plans to raise $1 billion of debt to buy a stake in an oil project operated by British Tullow Oil. Tullow is under increasing pressure from Nairobi to develop the Turkana oil wells discovered nine years ago. The project is expected to produce up to 120,000 barrels per day once production starts. December is Tullows deadline to present an investment plan.

Regulation

The Netherlands will become the latest country to sign a COP26 deal to stop all public international investments in coal, oil, and gas projects by the end of 2022. A total of 23 countries have already signed the deal, with the Netherlands to be the 24th.

Washington confirmed earlier this week that it will not shut down Enbridges controversial Line 5 pipeline, which runs from Canada to Michigan. Threats of a shutdown, pursued by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, had prompted Canada to invoke a 1977 treaty with the US, which in turn set off bilateral negotiations at the federal level. Whitmer views the pipeline as a threat to the Great Lakes because part of it runs underwater under the Mackinac Strait.

This past weekend (Nov 6th) US Congress passed the $1-trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, which will rebuild roads, bridges, rails, expand access to drinking water and high-speed internet, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector.
- Whilst Qatar is more endowed with natural gas, its oft-flaunted expansion would only reach its stipulated capacity

- Venture Global LNG is reportedly very close to starting up the Calcasieu Pass terminal in Louisiana, whilst Cheniere is closing in on a multibillion-dollar expansion of its LNG terminal in Corpus Christi.

- The United States is getting increasingly close to becoming the worlds leading LNG exporter tandem of Qatar and Australia and might overtake them in several months.

2. US on the Cusp of Becoming No.1 LNG Exporter Globally

- Participant countries current pledges would result in global warming reaching 2.4 C by the end of the century, CAT analysts claim, well above the UN-stipulated cap of 1.5 C.

- With poorer nations discontent that wealthy countries have not fulfilled their 2009 promise to give them $100 billion per year to help them cut emissions, compliance with the given text might be rather lax.

- The final text also shied away from banning fossil fuel subsidies outright, despite them being assessed at $2.5 trillion.

- The watered-down version of the COP26 communique, calling upon parties to adopt policies that are accelerating the phase out of coal instead of just phasing out coal, provided another example of wide rifts amongst the worlds leading energy consumers.

1. COP26 Struggle Foreshadows Two-Speed Development of Renewables

- The watered-down version of the COP26 communique, calling upon parties to adopt policies that are accelerating the phase out of coal instead of just phasing out coal, provided another example of wide rifts amongst the worlds leading energy consumers.

- The final text also shied away from banning fossil fuel subsidies outright, despite them being assessed at $2.5 trillion.

- With poorer nations discontent that wealthy countries have not fulfilled their 2009 promise to give them $100 billion per year to help them cut emissions, compliance with the given text might be rather lax.

- Participant countries current pledges would result in global warming reaching 2.4 C by the end of the century, CAT analysts claim, well above the UN-stipulated cap of 1.5 C.

2. US on the Cusp of Becoming No.1 LNG Exporter Globally

- The United States is getting increasingly close to becoming the worlds leading LNG exporter tandem of Qatar and Australia and might overtake them in several months.

- Venture Global LNG is reportedly very close to starting up the Calcasieu Pass terminal in Louisiana, whilst Cheniere is closing in on a multibillion-dollar expansion of its LNG terminal in Corpus Christi.

- Whilst Qatar is more endowed with natural gas, its oft-flaunted expansion would only reach its stipulated capacity of 126 million tons LNG per year by 2027.

- In stark contrast to last year when Japan and South Korea were the main buyers of US LNG, this year saw tangible increases in flows to Brazil and China, the two combined equaling to a third of total outflows.

3. India Needs to Ramp Up Coal Imports

- Shortages of coal, Indias main source of energy, have eased across the country somewhat as swift increases in coal production allowed to build up some semblance of coal stocks in the nations power plants.

- Buoyed by the Chinese output surge, India is bent on ramping up domestic production that routinely covers some 80% of domestic demand, however its meagre coal buying on the markets exposes it to supply disruption of all sorts.

- Current nationwide stock levels of coal in power plants average some seven days of supply, with the government mandating to reach the level of 18 days of consumption by end-November.

- Just as South Korea, India is suffering from shortages of urea that is routinely extracted from coal, threatening the South Asian countrys harvest.

4. Oil Majors Side with Caution amidst Increasing ESG Risks

- Despite rock-solid Q3 results on the back of crude prices remaining above the 80 per barrel mark, oil majors are still yet to reach production levels of the pre-pandemic era.

- According to Platts, the aggregate production of the worlds top eight non-state-owned majors currently amounts to 11.8 million b/d, i.e. 11% below pre-COVID levels.

- Whilst crude output from European majors like BP and Shell has already peaked, US firms such as ExxonMobil or Chevron are still counting on further output hikes that would see their peaks at some point in the late 2020s.

- Another divergence between Europe and the Americas lies in natural gas as most European majors would prioritize natural gas projects, currently accounting for 55% of their portfolios, whilst US majors are still primarily looking into oil.

5. Jet Fuel to Fully Recover Only in Upcoming Years

- Saudi Aramco stated that the spare crude capacity levels available now will shrink next year as oil producers will have invested less in new projects, despite rising demand.

- In terms of demand, there is still one middle distillate product that has been lagging behind the others, namely jet fuel.

- With demand at 70% of pre-pandemic levels, the current consumption levels of jet fuel stand at some 2.5 million b/d below 2019 levels, at 5.5 million b/d.

- The market anticipates that with the gradual normalization of the market in 2022, jet fuel demand would increase, pushing up middle distillate cracks and putting further pressure on global spare capacity.

6. Iron Ore Falling for Fifth Consecutive Week

- With China still not out of the woods with its energy crunch, iron ore prices were set for their fifth consecutive weekly fall, overwhelmed by Chinese demand concerns.

- Chinas Dalian front-month December contract dropped 3% week-on-week to 545 per metric ton ($85/mt), with spot prices similarly at 18-month lows.

- Iron ore flows to China, traditionally some 75% of seaborne traded volumes, recorded a whopping 16 million ton drop in October, down 16% month-on-month (and November poised to see further decline).

- Adding salt to the injury of iron producers, ArcelorMittal said it estimates Chinese steel demand for the year to slightly decline year-on-year, despite the post-coronavirus rebound.

7. Angola is Desperate to Bounce Back from Production Trough

- Once one of the crude powerhouses of Africa, Angola is wrapping up a licensing round and plans to launch two more rounds in 2023 and 2025 to halt a crippling supply decline.

- The ongoing licensing round for eight offshore blocks in the Lower Congo and Kwanza basins has already entered the phase where Luanda conducts one-on-one meetings to determine the future setup of the fields.

- Angolan crude exports have averaged 1.07 million b/d in October, an 11% decrease year-on-year and some 500,000 b/d lower than three years ago.

- Angolas government believes that should all the licensing activities go according to plan, the national crude production fall could be stopped altogether and reach a preliminary peak of 1.2 million b/d by 2031.
The Biden Administration is still not decided whether the U.S. should act now to try to reduce the highest gasoline prices in America in seven years or to wait for the market to run its course, Bloomberg reported on Friday, quoting sources with knowledge of the ongoing debates.

President Joe Biden is considering a release from the SPR as a possible move to reduce gasoline prices after OPEC+ ignored calls for putting extra barrels on the market, Secretary Granholm told Bloomberg last week.

Hopefully there will be an announcement or so this week, Granholm told MSNBC in an interview on Monday.

Hes certainly looking at what options he has in the limited range of tools a president might have to address the cost of gasoline at the pump, because it is a global market, the energy secretary added.

As of early on Friday, the Biden team was still debating what options to choose and whether to choose those options now, according to Bloombergs sources.

Some officials at the U.S. Department of Energy are reportedly against an SPR release, while some White House aides part of the talks favor a release and even the nuclear option of a crude oil export ban, the sources told Bloomberg.

Eleven Democratic Senators urged the Administration this week to consider all optionsincluding an SPR release and a crude export banto try to lower the high gasoline prices.

If President Biden approves an intervention now, it could likely consist of several tools, according to Bloombergs sources.

The three most debated options include an SPR release which analysts see as likely but not very effective. Another would be relaxing the biofuel standards so that refiners process more crude into gasoline. The third option is a ban on U.S. crude oil exports, which analysts see as an unlikely move that would upend global oil flows, sink WTI prices, and at the same time raise the price of foreign oil which refiners import anyway, and diminish the U.S. role on the global energy market.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Gasoline prices in California have reached fever pitch, hitting their highest prices ever recorded, according to data from Gas Buddy.

Average prices hit $4.68 per gallon today in California, beating out previous records set in 2008 and 2012.

Gasoline prices in the United States have continued to climb as stockpiles of the fuel continue to dwindle. Gasoline inventories in the United States fell 1.6 million barrels this week, according to EIA data, to 212.7 million barrels, which is 4% below the five-year average.

Soaring gasoline prices have put immense pressure on the Biden Administration, who have promised to make high prices a priority. One of the tools that the White House may consider to alleviate rising crude oil and gasoline costs is a release from the nations Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Industry analysts, however, have suggested that releasing millions of barrels from the SPR would do little to bring down the price of gasoline at the pump.

But a SPR release is only one of the tools that the White House is considering. According to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, President Biden could make an announcement on how the Administration will address soaring prices as early as this week.

It is unknown what other tools the Administration is considering, but President Biden said that he was dealing with other countries on the matter.

Hes certainly looking at what options he has in the limited range of tools a president might have to address the cost of gasoline at the pump, because it is a global market, Granholm said earlier this week.

The national average price of a gallon of gas on Thursday was $3.417 per gallon, according to AAA data.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Democratic Senator of West Virginia, Joe Manchin, who holds a decisive vote in a divided Senate, opposes a proposed additional tax credit for electric vehicles made by unionized workers, describing the proposal as non American and wrong.

Senator Manchin has been a holdout for weeks to any radical provisions in the Build Back Better bill that would penalize the coal, oil, or gas industry.

President Joe Bidens spending plan was thrown into doubt last month after Senator Manchin opposed the clean electricity part of the program and the penalization of coal-powered electricity generation.

The Biden Administration has been pushing for legislation on clean energy goals to be included in the spending bill. But Senator Manchin of the coal state West Virginia has opposed the versions the Democrats have proposed. Senator Manchins vote in favor of the plan put forward by Democrats is crucial for passing the bill in a divided 50-50 Senate.

At an event of Toyota in West Virginia this week, Senator Manchin told Automotive News, referring to the plan for an additional tax credit for union-made EVs:

When I heard about this, what they were putting in the bill, I went right to the sponsor [Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.] and I said, This is wrong. This cant happen. Its not who we are as a country. Its not how we built this country, and the product should speak for itself.

The proposal includes up to $7,500 in tax credits for EVs, plus an additional $4,500 tax credit if the vehicle is assembled at a union facility.

We shouldnt use everyones tax dollars to pick winners and losers. If youre a capitalist economy that we are in society then you let the product speak for itself, and hopefully, well get that, thatll be corrected, Senator Manchin told Automotive News in an interview.

Detroits Big ThreeFord, GM, and Stellantiswould benefit from the union-made EV tax credit, but other manufacturers not using unionized labor, including foreign carmakers and Tesla, would not.

Autos Drive America, an association including major foreign carmakers including Toyota, Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and others, said in a statement last month, referring to the proposed UAW-built EVs tax credit: Congress needs to stop playing games with hard-working American workers and consumers and provide fair and equal tax incentives for all EVs.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A Venezuelan judge has granted a hearing at an appeals court for six Citgo oil executives who were imprisoned four years ago on corruption charges in a rare move for the country.

The Associated Press quoted an unnamed source familiar with the situation that the judge had scheduled the hearing for next Tuesday in front of a three-judge panel.

The six U.S. executives at Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuelas state-held oil firm PDVSA, were detained by Nicolas Maduros regime in Venezuela in November 2017. The so-called Citgo 6 sat in jail two years after their detention.

Back then, U.S. authorities requested that its nationals be released, but Maduro refused, saying, These are people born in Venezuela, theyre Venezuelan and theyre going to be judged for being corrupt, thieving traitors.

The charges were embezzlement and a proposal to refinance billions in Citgo bonds, the AP recalls. The Venezuelan president also accused them of treason and said they would be tried as traitors. The executives were convicted to between 8 and 13 years in jail last year.

Venezuela arrested the six executives as part of a corruption sweep at an event in Caracas in November 2017. Maduro said a week later that all sixfive of whom are U.S. citizens and one holding a permanent residency permit for the United Stateswould be tried as traitors.

In 2019, the government released the detained executives and put them under house arrest. Only two months later, however, the police rounded them up again and returned them to prison.

Then, earlier this year, the detainees were once again released into house arrest. Unnamed sources told media at the time that was a gesture of goodwill on the part of the Nicolas Maduro government amid a review of U.S. policy towards Venezuela by the Biden administration.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The threat of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to cut off transit gas supply from Russia to Europe has not been coordinated with Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

Belarus threatened on Thursday to halt natural gas supply at a key pipeline from Russia to Germany passing through Belarus, if the European Union imposes additional sanctions to the country in response to the migrant crisis at the Belarus-Poland border.

We provide heat to Europe, and they are threatening us with the border closure. What if we block natural gas transit? Lukashenko said on Thursday, as quoted by Belarusian state news agency Belta.

The Belarusian statement has not been coordinated with Moscow in any way, Peskov told reporters on Friday, as carried by Russian news agency TASS.

Belarus is an ally of Russia, but it is also a sovereign state, the Kremlin spokesman said.

Russia remains a reliable energy supplier to Europe, regardless of the actions of Belarus, Peskov said, adding that Russias reliability as a supplier and partner in the current and future contracts cannot be called into question.

With the threat from Belaruss leader, the specter of another hurdle to Russian supplies to Europe is being raised days after Russias giant Gazprom largely relieved the European gas market by saying that it had approved and started implementing a plan to send natural gas into five storage sites in Europe.

Despite the calmer gas markets in the past few days, uncertainty over Russias intentions, and now the Belarus-EU spat could make Europe's gas prices extremely volatile again.

Early on Friday, gas prices at the key hubs in the UK and the Netherlands rose as flows of Russian gas on the Yamal-Europe pipeline via Belarus and Poland remained low for a second consecutive day and half the volume from Wednesday. Forecasts of cooler weather also drove prices higher as colder temperatures signal higher gas demand.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
WAYNE, Neb.  The Nebraska State College System approved changes to two nondiscrimination policies this week over the objections of Gov. Pete Ricketts and a pair of religious groups.

The changes passed on a 4-2 vote Thursday by the Board of Trustees.

According to the State College System, the new policies ask employees to respect the chosen name and gender identity of other employees and provide greater clarity on the types of discrimination prohibited on campus.

Both changes bring the system, which has campuses in Peru, Wayne and Chadron, in line with other schools in Nebraska and elsewhere, administrators said.

While gender identity discrimination has been banned on the systems campuses since 2015, Ricketts, the Nebraska Family Alliance and the Nebraska Catholic Conference criticized the changes as out of touch.

Ricketts, in a Wednesday letter urging the board to reject the update, painted the language as a concept being pushed at the national level by political activists that is opposed by most Nebraskans.
Sometimes soldiers come home with stories to tell. For those who have fallen, it is their loved ones who must share their stories.

That was a theme Thursday at Omahas signature Veterans Day commemoration, the American Legion Post No. 1s annual event at the Memorial Park amphitheater  one of several events held across the Midlands on Thursday.

About 125 people attended the ceremony on the chilly, windswept hilltop, including Mayor Jean Stothert, Rep. Don Bacon and three members of the Omaha City Council.

Here at Memorial Park, we are surrounded by stories, Stothert said. The monuments here tell those stories.

Sherry Williams of Pocahontas, Iowa, told the story of her brother, Pfc. James Fous, who had graduated from Central High School in 1964 and attended Omaha University (now the University of Nebraska at Omaha) for two years before he was drafted into the Army.

On his first patrol in Kien Hoa province in South Vietnam on May 14, 1968, Fous was standing watch when three Viet Cong fighters tried to attack. He shot two of them, but the third one hurled a grenade that landed near Fous and three other soldiers. He yelled a warning, then jumped on top of the grenade. He was killed instantly.
Since August, Team Rubicon has helped settle more than 110 Afghan families in Colorado, said Daniel, the Denver city administrator for the group.

Tens of thousands of Afghans have been flown to the U.S. since the war wound down, and most are still living in temporary housing at military bases across the country. Between 1,000 and 2,000 Afghan refugees are expected to arrive in Colorado by the end of the year.

That means Daniel and his team could have their work cut out for them  a task they seem to relish.

For us veterans, service is kind of in our blood. ... The veteran component, it adds that special piece of camaraderie to it, that sense of service, that sense of purpose, Daniel said. He said it's also a rewarding experience to help those who aided coalition forces in Afghanistan during the war.

Its just a chance for us to kind of express our gratitude as well. And just thanking them and welcoming them to the neighborhood.

Team Rubicon was formed in the days following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that caused widespread destruction in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in January 2010, according to the group's website. Haitis government put the death toll at more than 300,000, although an exact accounting was impossible given the widespread devastation.

Two U.S. Marines, Jake Wood and William McNulty, gathered supplies and volunteers before traveling to Haiti in the following days, and Team Rubicon was born. It has since grown into an international nonprofit organization that boasts more than 130,000 volunteers.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Consumer health brought in $3.7 billion.

A leader and name for the new consumer health company have yet to be announced. It will house brands including Neutrogena, Aveeno, and the iconic Band-Aids, which a company employee created more than 100 years ago.

That segment has more than 20 brands that each have over $150 million in annual sales, Gorsky noted. He added that the portfolio includes well-known names like Tylenol and childrens Tylenol that have reached all-time highs in market share.

Johnson & Johnson also faces thousands of lawsuits claiming that one of its consumer products, talc-based baby powder, causes ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.

Last month, J&J announced that it had created a separate subsidiary to deal with those claims, and that subsidiary filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Company officials said that the split they announced Friday was separate and distinct from that baby powder liability and the bankruptcy proceedings.

But Morningstar analyst Damien Conover noted in an email that if the consumer division no longer holds the deep pockets of the combined company, the risk of future consumer product litigation  such as the large talc settlement  may decrease.
The company plans to have a contractor dig trenches to gather samples for the archaeological survey across about a quarter of an acre (a tenth of a hectare) and has pledged to halt all operations if any human remains are found.

The tribes have accused the U.S. Bureau of Land Management of violating historic preservation laws by failing to consult with them about an Historic Properties Treatment Plan guiding the initial archaeological dig required before mine construction can begin.

They argue the sacred lands could be irreparably harmed," which Judge Du said they had failed to prove when she ruled against them in September in federal court in Reno.

The new evidence the tribes submitted Oct. 1 included an 1865 newspaper report in The Owyhee Avalanche and two eyewitness accounts of how at least 31 Paiute men, women and children were murdered by federal soldiers at Thacker Pass.

The accounts were in an autobiography first published in 1929 by Bill Haywood, a well-known American labor organizer. One was from a cavalry volunteer who said he participated in the slaughter and the other by a tribal member who survived it.

Du wrote in her ruling that the new evidence does not definitely establish that a massacre occurred within the project area.
Nebraska artist Dale Nichols missing painting is now hanging at the Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art in David City, a happy ending to a mystery of more than 80 years.

Joel Ward, owner of Twist of Fate Estate Sales, delivered it to the town 25 miles southeast of Columbus earlier this week.

Its very satisfying knowing the painting is there where it belongs, Ward said. Its hard to put into words. This is what we wanted to have happen.

Ward was preparing an estate sale for an Omaha family when he discovered that Dan Sanley had been searching for the painting for years. Nichols painted The Sanley Farm in 1933 and took it to New York for an exhibition a few years later. But then it dropped out of sight.

Sanley, whose family lived next door to the farm in the painting, was overjoyed that it had been found. He wanted to purchase it and give it to the Bone Creek Museum.

But a bid of $35,000 didnt match the familys expectations, and it looked like it would be sold to someone else. Enquiries came in from every corner of the United States, Ward said.

Its incredible. I had given up, Sanley said. When I made the offer and they turned it down, I was just happy they found it.
Hardin said there still are lots of unknowns about COVID in deer, hence the decision by many agencies to do more testing. The USDA health inspection service is working closely with federal and state partners, including the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, to determine next steps.

The USDA isnt sure how the deer are are being exposed to the disease, and the animals dont appear to show clinical signs of COVID. About 30 million deer live in the U.S., and they often come into close contact with people.

Wildlife officials have seen an uptick in Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, which Hardin said isnt uncommon in times of drought. Its nothing compared to a huge outbreak in 2012, she said, which hit the deer population hard.

Its mostly in the eastern part of the state, where we see higher populations of whitetails, Hardin said. We did see it in pronghorn antelope and bighorn sheep in the west and a few deer out there.
Fortenberry, his wife and his attorneys have maintained that he was set up and misled by federal investigators, who came to his Lincoln home to ask about the contributions. A year earlier, the feds had an informant call the congressman and tell him that donations at the L.A. fundraiser in 2016 originated from Chagoury.

Fortenberrys attorneys, in a request filed Tuesday, asked that the lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins, be disqualified from the case. Jenkins is a potential witness in the trial because he took statements from the congressman in a July 2019 meeting that led to two of the charges, the motion states. He cannot act as both advocate and witness at the same trial, Fortenberrys attorneys argue.

The same motion also questioned the fairness of secretly recording a 2018 telephone call between an FBI informant and Fortenberry, as well as a 2019 interview with FBI agents at the congressmans house, even though there was no evidence that he had done anything wrong. Approval from a deputy assistant attorney general, the motion said, was needed for such recordings.
And in Buffalo (80% Biden), socialist Democratic primary winner India Walton was beaten by write-in votes for the incumbent mayor she had defeated for the nomination, 59% to 41%. So much for socialism.

The results in Virginia and elsewhere are, as Cook Politicals David Wasserman has said, consistent w/ a political environment in which Republicans would comfortably take back both the House and the Senate in 2022.

In an environment where Donald Trump is no longer the central figure, despite Terry McAuliffes constant mentions of him, Youngkin managed to improve on Trumps numbers with noncollege-graduate White voters while making substantial inroads in affluent suburbs.

Republican victories came despite  actually, because of  two supposedly disabling trends. One is that turnout was up 27% over the last governor race in Virginia, and at least 11% in New Jersey. The rise was 30% to 40% in exurban areas heavy with young families, but only 10% or less in central cities with many minorities and hip singles.
These are some of the most luxurious homes on the Central Illinois market.
NORMAL  Illinois State University police said a Peoria Heights man who is in McLean County custody for showing a fake gun at a Bloomington restaurant also is the man they were seeking information about related to an incident Nov. 5 on campus.

ISU Police Chief Aaron Woodruff said Joel A. Perez, 31, approached ISU mascot Reggie Redbird and a film crew on the quad while yelling profanities. He then reached into a bag he was carrying and threw a handful of candy pretty forcefully at them, Woodruff said.

Perez walked away from the scene and no one was injured, police said.

ISU police are submitting charges for review to the McLean County States Attorneys office for aggravated assault, aggravated battery and disorderly conduct, Woodruff said. He noted that the potential battery charge results from the incident occurring in a public place.

Court records show additional charges have not yet been filed.

Perez was arrested by Bloomington police two days following the ISU campus incident after police said he brandished a compressed air pepperball pistol at Steak n Shake staff while demanding food.

Prosecutors said he also attempted to rob a Bloomington Burger King. A judge ordered him to have no contact with the two restaurants as a condition of bond.

He was charged with six misdemeanor counts of aggravated assault related to the restaurant incidents.

Perez was charged Wednesday with class 2 felony aggravated battery of a peace officer, as prosecutors accuse him of spitting on a jail officer.

A booking photo remains unavailable.

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.
BLOOMINGTON  The finalists to become Bloomington District 87 superintendent in July include the Tri-Valley CUSD No. 3 superintendent, a superintendent from the Metro East and an assistant superintendent from Indiana.

The search for a new District 87 leader started when current Superintendent Barry Reilly publicly announced his retirement in February. He has been superintendent since 2010.

The district has been fortunate to have Reilly as superintendent for so long, well beyond the normal tenure for Illinois superintendents, District 87 Board Vice President Elizabeth Fox-Anvick told The Pantagraph.

The district announced three finalists Thursday: David Mouser, superintendent of Tri-Valley schools in Downs; David Deets, superintendent of Harmony-Emge School District No. 175 in Belleville; and Becca Lamon, assistant superintendent of the East Noble School Corp. in Kendallville, Indiana.

All three finalists have connections to the Bloomington-Normal area, with Mouser growing up in Normal and Lamon and Deets both having attended Illinois Wesleyan University.

The search has been handled by Ray and Associates. There were 37 applicants, with the firm recommending 11 to the board for further consideration, a Thursday press release from District 87 said.

The firm provided the board with four-minute videos of the candidates answering interview questions, along with resumes, letters of recommendations and statements, Fox-Anvick told The Pantagraph.

"From that we went to a process to decide which six (to interview via Zoom)," she said.

The board plans to vote on a final candidate in December following interviews and campus visits with the three finalists.

At the time the firm was selected, board members said they were impressed by its focus on diversity. District 87 is the only district in the Bloomington-Normal area where white students make up less than half of the student body.

East Nobles student body is around 90% white, its latest state report card said. The 2021 Illinois Report Card said Tri-Valley is around 92% white and Harmony-Emge has around 40% white students and 47% Black students.

Each candidate brought forward talked about diversity in their interview, Fox-Anvick said.

The finalists all come from school districts smaller than District 87, which has around 5,000 students. The latest Illinois Report Card lists Tri-Valley at around 1,100 students and Harmony-Emge at around 750 students. East Noble has around 3,500 students, according to the Indiana Department of Education.

Applying from a smaller district seemed to be a trend for the vast majority of the applicants, Fox-Anvick said.

Mouser has been superintendent at Tri-Valley since 2014, before which he was principal of Tri-Valley High School. He holds bachelors and masters degrees in agricultural education from the University of Illinois and a doctorate in educational leadership from Western Illinois University. He grew up Normal and went to Unit 5 schools, according to his biography on the Tri-Valley website.

Lamon has been assistant superintendent of her district in Indiana since 2013, according to the news release. She has also taught courses as an adjunct professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne.

She is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan, according to her LinkedIn profile, with a bachelors degree in elementary education. Since then she has earned a masters from Butler University and a doctorate from Purdue University.

Deets has been superintendent at Harmony-Emge since 2018, the release said. He is also president of the Southwestern Region of the Illinois Association of School Administrators.

According to a November 2019 press release from the Illinois Principals Association, Deets was a principal in the Harmony-Emge district before being named superintendent.

He also attended Illinois Wesleyan as an undergraduate, but graduated with a bachelors degree in elementary education from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He has a masters from McKendree College and a superintendent endorsement from SIUE.

All of the candidates also talked about the respect they held for District 87, Fox-Anvick said. Some even said they were not actively looking for other jobs but could not pass up an opportunity to apply to the district.

"It's not a job that becomes available very often, (but applicants see it as) a very desirable opportunity," she said.

Contact Connor Wood at (309)820-3240. Follow Connor on Twitter: @connorkwood

Love 0 Funny 0 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.
"If the sight of a tampon or pad fills someone with so much rage they have to resort to such immature extremes, that is more evidence that menstruation has to come out of the shadows," said state Rep. Katie Stuart.
The judge told jurors to return at 9 a.m. Monday. They will listen to jury instructions, then the closing arguments from lawyers. The jury will then be narrowed to 12 from its current 18 members, with six jurors chosen as alternates. The final 12 will then deliberate.

After an explosive day Wednesday that featured Rittenhouse taking the stand, the final day of testimony on Thursday featured a relatively sedate procession of witnesses largely taken up with expert testimony focusing on videos of the shootings and timing of events.

Attorneys for both the defense and prosecution asked Judge Bruce Schroeder to take the day Friday to come to an agreement on jury instructions in the case, and then present closing arguments on Monday.

Schroeder was initially reluctant, wanting to proceed this week.

Then were starting deliberations at 3 or 4 in the afternoon on Friday. Thats less than ideal, Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger said.

After discussion, Schroeder agreed, saying in exchange that he would limit the lawyers for each side to a total of 2 hours in total for their closing arguments.

Were in the final stretch, Schroeder told the jurors at the end of the day Thursday. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him. After closing arguments, names will be drawn from an old, brown lottery tumbler to decide which 12 jurors will deliberate and which ones will be dismissed as alternates. Eighteen people have been hearing the case. The panel appeared overwhelmingly white. Rittenhouse, 18, shot and killed two men and wound a third on the streets of Kenosha in the summer of 2020. Rittenhouse, then 17, went to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois, with a rifle and a medical kit in what the former police and fire youth cadet said was an effort to protect property after rioters set fires and ransacked businesses on previous nights. The protests in Kenosha were set off by the wounding of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer. The case has stirred fierce debate over vigilantism, self-defense, the Second Amendment right to bear arms, and the unrest that erupted around the U.S. over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other police violence against Black people. Jury instructions will be especially critical in the Rittenhouse case, given the complexity of issues jurors will have to decide. For each charge, jurors will receive instructions that outline the legal standard that must be met in order to find Rittenhouse guilty on the specific charge.
The East St. Louis NAACP chapter hopes a panel of judges will decide to use a map that creates a mostly Black House district in the metro-east instead of one approved by Democrats.

In the state legislative map Democrats approved in September, a fifth of Black voters were moved out of East St. Louis, and thousands of white voters were moved in to empower nearby white legislators, an NAACP lawsuit alleges.

After analyzing the Democrats' map, the court determined the NAACP and others challenging the map could propose their own solutions.

The NAACP submitted its proposed map Thursday, as did Illinois Republicans. Both would move Black voters back into state House District 114 represented by Democratic state Rep. LaToya Greenwood.

The proposed map includes East St. Louis, extends to include the "diverse" urban and suburban Belleville area, and continues east toward Scott Air Force Base, the NAACP stated in a brief submitted to the court. It also restores white voters "from far-flung rural reaches of St. Clair County" into their original districts, consolidating the Black vote.

The map would create a 114th District where Black voters make up 49.5% of the voting age population. Black voters make up only 33.4% of District 114 in the Democratic map, according to the suit.

The NAACP says if the court decides to stick with the Democrats' map, Black voters won't have the power to elect a Black representative, as they have since 1975.

Democrats "used Black voters as pawns in a political game of chess, moving them around without regard for these voters' right to elect candidates of their choice," the NAACP brief stated.

The Democratic map decreased the Black voting age population by 3.7% in District 114, the NAACP said, "turning the only opportunity district in Southern Illinois where Black voters were able to elect candidates of their choice to, at best, a toss-up district  with increasingly bleaker prospects for Black electoral success going forward."

The NAACP lawsuit alleges Democrats in the General Assembly "unconstitutionally manipulated populations by race" and "unlawfully diluted the votes of Black voters."

Greenwood previously defended the Democrats' map in a statement to the BND.

"Under the new map, I believe the 114th District will remain a strong district for African-American representation in Springfield, and I would not have supported the map if I believed otherwise," Greenwood said.

Republicans also proposed their map Thursday. It creates a majority-Black 114th District with a Black voting age population of 51.9%, according to a spokeswoman for Illinois Senate Republicans.

"We submitted a proposal that fixes specific constitutional problems with the current map that had only served to keep entrenched incumbents in power," said state Senate Republican Caucus Chair Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington). "Democrats led by Governor (J.B.) Pritzker had only one thing in mind when drawing their map  protecting politicians at the expense of the people of Illinois."

The three-judge federal court panel is expected to hear the NAACP's case consolidated with two others during the week of Dec. 6, Capitol News Illinois reported.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
When Rock Island resident David Sebben snapped a photo of the American Queen steamboat docked in Bettendorf in 2015, he wasn't thinking about the U.S. Postal Service and how his picture would fit perfectly on a postage stamp.

Instead, he was enjoying his hobby and capturing the lights of the steamboat, the darkening blue sky behind it and the stillness of the Mississippi River.

Five years later, however, he found out that the photo he snapped had the chance to embellish envelopes across the U.S.

Sebben's photo was chosen by the Postal Service as part of its new Mighty Mississippi stamp series, which includes stamps for every state that touches the Mississippi River. Other stamps capture the head of the Mississippi River in Minnesota, the Gateway Arch in Missouri and the swamps of Mississippi.

"I was in total shock that they selected my photo of the American Queen docked," Sebben said.

He shared the photo on Flickr, an image-hosting website, where the Postal Service found it. They reached out to him and explained that his photo, if he gave them permission to use it, would represent Iowa in the 10-stamp series.

U.S. Postal Service Sr. Public Relations Representative Sara Martin said in an email that the idea behind the Mighty Mississippi stamp series was one of 30,000 submitted annually, of which only around 30 are chosen. The stamps produced by the Postal Service highlight the American experience, she said.

"The Mississippi River is at the core of the nations heritage and is variously referred to as Americas backbone, its heart and its soul," Martin said. "This issuance honors the Mighty Mississippi with a portfolio of 10 exquisite photographic stamps, each representing a state along the course of the river."

After ideas are selected by the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee, the process of turning them into stamps takes around three years, she said. They'll be available for purchase in 2022.

Sebben first heard from the postal service in August 2020 but wasn't able to announce it until this weekend. He was paid $1,500 for the use of his photo, which he used to take a trip to Gettysburg.

Photography has long been Sebben's preferred hobby, and he takes photos in his spare time, when not working his two jobs at Rock Island High School and Hy-Vee. He also collects historical photos.

The photo of the American Queen was a departure from his usual scenes, as he generally photographs rural landscapes, old barns and vintage cars  which he enjoys the most.

"I love photographing old cars, whether they look new or are sitting rusted at a farm by the highway," he said.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, left Ghana on Thursday, November 11, 2021, leading the Ghanaian delegation to the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France.



President Akufo-Addo is attending the anniversary at the invitation of UNESCOs Director General, Audrey Azoulay.



The United Nations Charter, which came into effect on November 16, 1945, provided for the creation of a specialised agency in the fields of education and culture.



President Akufo-Addo will on Friday, November 12, deliver a statement, at the height of the commemoration, on the impact UNESCO has had in Ghana, and what Ghana expects from UNESCO in the coming years.



President Akufo-Addo will from Saturday, November 13, to Saturday, November 20, take a seven-day leave of absence, during which he has accepted an invitation to preside over the panel that will adjudicate.



The Director of Communication at the Presidency, Mr Eugene Arhin made this known at a press briefing at the Jubilee House Thursday morning.









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
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.
Portugal has banned bosses from text messaging and emailing staff out of working hours as part of new laws dubbed "right to rest".



The move is part of changes being introduced to improve work-life balance in response to an expansion of working from home in the country.



Companies with more than 10 staff could face fines if they contact employees outside their contracted hours.

There are also new rules on allowing staff with children to work remotely.



Parents will be about to work at home indefinitely without seeking prior approval from their employers until their child turns eight.



And companies may also have to contribute to higher household bills from being home-based, such as energy and internet costs.



Measures to tackle the isolation remote workers can feel are also included, with companies expected to organise regular face-to-face meetings.



However, some elements of the package were not approved by Portugal's parliament, including a "right to disconnect" allowing staff to turn off all work devices out of hours.



Portugal's Minister of Labour and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, told a conference in Lisbon last week that "telework can be a game-changer" but its growth needs to be regulated.



She also hoped the enhanced labour protections would attract more foreigners to the country.



"We consider Portugal one of the best places in the world for these digital nomads and remote workers to choose to live in, we want to attract them to Portugal," Ms Godinho said.



Portugal already has a temporary resident visa scheme designed to attract entrepreneurs and freelancers. The Portuguese island of Madeira has a "digital nomad village", with free wifi and office desk facilities.



Several other countries have introduced so-called "digital nomad visas", as opposed to standard tourist permits, including Barbados and Croatia.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
A driver and his conductor are assisting the Hohoe District police in investigations into the ownership of ammunition found on their commercial vehicle.



The ammunition intercepted included two cartons of AAA and BBB cartridges which were on board their red Yutong bus with registration number GT 5919-16.



The 29 passengers on board the vehicle which was en-route to Kpassa in the Oti Region have all denied ownership of the cartridges.



The Volta Regional Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Effia Tenge, said the bus was travelling from Accra when the police team, acting on intelligence, flagged it for a search at 3:45 p.m.



The two cartons containing the cartridges were found concealed in the side compartment of the bus during the search.



The driver in charge of the bus, Robert Ofosu Nyanor, 50, and his conductor, Godwin Aniwo, 32, were immediately placed under arrest for further interrogation and the bus impounded.



They have, however, been released on Police enquiry bail while investigation continues.









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 Coalition of Private Road Transport Commercial Operators Union (CPRTCOU) has called off its strike action following a meeting with the Minister of Transport, Mr Kweku Ofori-Asiamah.



The strike action was scheduled to start at 3 p.m. on Thursday, November 11, this year.



Members of the coalition, last Tuesday, November 9, 2021, threatened to embark on a strike action citing the high cost of fuel prices and demanded that the government reduce the prices of fuel.



However, on Thursday, November 11, 2021, when GraphicOnline contacted the Head of Communication for the union, Mr Abbas Ibrahim Moro, he said the strike was called off after the Minister of Transport had an emergency meeting with the leadership of the CPRTCOU.



During the meeting, he said, the Minister of Transport advised the union to present an official petition to the ministry stating their grievances.



Mr Moro said the minister following the engagement with the leadership of the union promised that their grievances would be addressed in the 2022 budget which is to be read on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, before Parliament.



Expectations



The Head of Communication of the CPRTCOU, said based on the discussion held between the Ministry and the leadership the strike action has been put on hold until the budget statement on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.



He said, if the budget does not meet our expectations we will go back to our plan and commence the strike action and we will not call it off until our demands are met.



On the expectations of the union in terms of how the budget statement could address their concerns, he said the union expects that the price of fuel would be dropped by GH1.50 per litter. A litter of fuel is currently sold at GH6.80.



When the price of fuel is reduced by GH1.50, he said it would ease the burden on drivers who are currently struggling to make profits from their operations.









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 Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Hon Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has urged Parliaments in Africa to be up and doing in terms of discharging their duties as the oversight institution of the executive.



The Leader of Government Business in Parliament made the comment whilst chairing a workshop on the topic: "The Role of African Parliaments in Combating Covid 19, Country experiences", at the ongoing 51st Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference in Abuja, Nigeria.



According to Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, often, the Public Account Committee as well as other committees of African Legislatures delay in tracking the use of state funds by the executive which is not the best for effective policing of the disbursement of the public purse.



He therefore urged African Parliaments to live up to their role as the central institution of democracy.



In a related development, the Minority Leader and MP for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu, has called on Parliaments in Africa to prioritise the need for increased budgetary allocation for interventions aimed at improving the lives of women and children whose plight have been worsened as a result of the economic challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic.



He made the comment today in Abuja when he chaired a workshop on the topic: The gender impact of Covid-19 Pandemic; Counting the cost of the health crisis on Women and Children in Africa.



He described the impact of Covid 19 on Women and the growth and upbringing of Children in Africa as unacceptable.

Source: Emmanuel Akorli - Abuja









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 Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) has called for a critical appraisal of the bill that seeks to criminalise lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) practices, as well as individuals and institutions that will promote the acts.

The Director-General of the GAC, Mr Steve Gyeremeh Atuahene, said passing the bill would drive practitioners to hide their identities and thereby discourage people living with HIV/AIDS from seeking medical treatment.



He said the bill, in its current form, would drive "them underground", preventing them from accessing life-saving drugs in the country.



"Countries that have passed similar laws have seen a high increase in HIV/AIDS among men who have sex with other men," he said.



Mr Atuahene was one of the representatives of institutions appearing before the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament taking memoranda for consideration in the discussions around the passage of the bill into law to justify their positions.



Those who expressed their support for the passage of the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 were the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) and the Church of Pentecost.



The Group of Concerned Ghanaian Citizens (GCGC), a group of academics, lawyers, researchers, civil society organisations (CSOs) and human rights activists, and the Human Rights Coalition also explained their stance against the passage of the bill.



The parties opposed to the bill argued for its outright rejection in its current form, as it grossly violated every constitutional provision on fundamental human rights.



The group in support of the bill urged Parliament to take note of the general mood of the nation to pass the bill to assuage the pent-up anger imposed on the people due to attempts to impose alien practice on them.



The hearing by the committee, chaired by Mr Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi, is to allow all the stakeholders who had submitted their respective memoranda to make inputs into the bill.



Cost and charges



Offering justification for the bill to be rejected by Parliament, the Spokesperson for the GCGC, Mr Akoto Ampaw, said under Article 108 (2 and 3) of the Constitution, it was the President or his agents who could introduce bills in Parliament that imposed a charge on the Consolidated Fund or any public fund.



He said it was only when a bill did not impose any charge on the Consolidated Fund that it might be introduced as a private members bill.



Abuse of human rights



The legal practitioner argued that it was the view of the GCGC that provisions in the bill violated fundamental human rights provisions in the Constitution, as they stigmatised the LGBTQI+ community as inhuman and taboo to the Ghanaian society



The bill grossly violates Article 12, which guarantees fundamental human rights for every person, as well as Article 17 (2) on the equality of all persons before the law, he said.



Threat to value system



Throwing the full weight of the GPCC behind the bill, the Spokesperson for the council, Apostle Ofori Kuragu, described the bill as a bold attempt to consolidate and fill the lacuna of existing legislation to meet the demands of the fast-shifting legal landscape occasioned by the activities of LGBTQI+ and the inherent threat they posed to the pristine Ghanaian value system.



He said the bill was in sync with the 1992 Constitution, as it sought to affirm the fundamental human rights of all Ghanaians and protect the most vulnerable against the influence of LGBTQI+ practitioners.



He was optimistic that the bill, when passed, would defend Ghanas territorial integrity and customise home-grown efforts to protect its peculiar system.



Uphold Ghanaian values



Speaking on behalf of the Church of Pentecost, its General Secretary, Apostle Alexander Nana Yaw Kumi-Larbi, said with the church having followed the activities of LGBTQI+ globally and their attendant influence on culture, economies, youth development, health, academia, traditional systems and the moral upbringing of children, it had resolved to support the current bill in Parliament.



He said although the church, with its firm Christian faith and values, did not seek to impose its faith on all others in a country where there was freedom of speech and religion, it was of the conviction that there was the need to uphold and promote proper Ghanaian value system.



Eroding democratic gains



Speaking on behalf of Human Rights Coalition, Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh said the bill, if passed, could turn Ghana into a vigilante society or a police state where not just the people the bill was directly aimed at but all manner of persons who lent support to LGBTQI+ would be targeted.









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
Some private legal practitioners have called for what they described as an upgrade of the 1992 Constitution to reflect current issues confronting the country.

According to them, an upgrade of the constitution was meant to remove some of the essential components in the constitution and increase its capacity.



Speaking at a maiden Eagles Forum Dialogue series held in Accra last Wednesday, the practitioners, who were panellists at the forum, said current issues confronting the country included how to achieve stable economic growth and development, as well as to what extent the constitution has helped in consolidating democracy and the decentralisation process.



The Panellists were Ms. Beatrice Annan and Mr. Lamtiig Apanga, both legal practitioners with private law firms  Morrison,Twumasi and Partners, and Praetorium Solicitors respectively.



The main speaker for the event was Mr. Justice Srem-Sai, a constitutional lawyer and lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) Law School who set the tone for the discussions.



The Eagles Forum is a group that believes in social democratic principles. It is also a group of professionals of varied backgrounds that seeks to promote social justice, good governance, engage citizens and ensure responsible private enterprise through research public advocacy and social activism, among others.



The purpose of the dialogue, which was on the topic: 1992 Republican Constitution, time for an upgrade? was to help provide a non-partisan platform for stimulating public discussion on topical subjects and provide a foundation to develop policy proposals for broader civil society advocacy with government and political parties.



The panellists noted that the framers of the constitution dwelt on producing a legal framework that would help stabilise the country politically, which to a large extent had been achieved.



However, they observed that currently, with the growing needs and challenges facing the country, there was the need to upgrade the constitution.



Economic growth



Ms. Annan suggested that before an upgrade can be achieved, a lot would depend on the attitudinal change among the people.



The prejudices of everyone then was to develop a document that will bring some form of political stability, Ms. Annan further explained.



She entreated Ghanaians to ask themselves whether the constitution had helped to give them a richer and fulfilled life".



We, therefore, need to have an upgrade of the constitution to ensure that the citizenry participate in governance to a level where the powers of the executive is not protected to the neglect of the citizenry," Ms. Annan stated.



Decentralisation



For his part, Mr. Apanga was emphatic that the country's decentralisation process had failed because it seemed to be a cosmetic system put in place but it is not responding to the needs of the people".



He stated that the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) were not accountable to the people, stressing that MMDCEs should be accountable to the people.



Mr. Srem-Sai proposed a system whereby civil society organisations(CSOs) would be allowed to mobilise people and create a platform for them to directly have a say as to whether certain areas in the constitution needed to be upgraded.



The people, he noted, could be made to append their signatures directly to what exactly they wanted to be changed in the Constitution.





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
Minister for Information and Member of Parliament(MP) for Ofoase-Ayerebi, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has asked the 2020 Flagebearer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama to enumerate the number of jobs or employment avenues he created for the unemployed youth in this country when he was President.



According to him, Mr Mahama's administration is on record to have placed a freeze on employment when he was president leaving a majority of Ghanaian youth unemployed.



Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he explained that the NPP Government having realized the toll unemployment had on the youth, designed programmes that has created not only jobs but provided them with meaningful income.



The NPP government, he added, has also restored allowances that the Mahama administration refused to pay.



"If former president Mahama is asking government to provide jobs, then he should equally tell us what he was able to do within his years as president in terms of jobs and solving the unemployment problem he spoke about.



"Apart from essential service providers, there was a ban on employment in the country as part of IMFs conditions given to the country when Ghana was placed under an IMF programme.



You dont talk without providing evidence. For us, we talk and back whatever we do with evidence and the needed data. If you can remember, it was during Mahamas era that we were told that we had eaten all the meat and it was left with the bones so we had to take the country to the IMF," he said.



End of 'Thank-You Tour



Former President John Dramani Mahama brought his thank-you tour to a close on November 10, 2021, in Accra.



At a forum to address challenges facing the people of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama said the unemployment situation in the country has currently become a "national security crisis" that needs to be addressed head-on.



He complained about the governments approach to the crisis, criticizing the ad-hoc measures taken.



Watch Video Below





Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The Inspector-General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare held a private meeting with stakeholders in the creative industry on Wednesday, November 10, 2021, at the Police Headquarters in Accra.



A cross-section of showbiz personalities from the various arts disciplines raised some security concerns, which were addressed by the IGP.



The meeting was to engage the creatives on their concerns with the Ghana Police Service. some of the celebrities who were spotted at the meeting include, Stonebwoy, Samini, Afia Schwarzenegger, Kwame A Plus, Kidi, Kuami Eugene, Musiga President, Bessa Simons, GHAMRO ex-Chairman, Rex Omar, Agya Koo, Mercy Asiedu, Abeiku Santana, Van Vicker, Shatta Wale, Vicky Zugah, D-Black, Sefa among others.



Koo Fori said that the IGP assured him and his colleagues of giving that everything that was discussed including the protection of celebrities will be tackled by the police.



Addressing the media after the meeting on behalf of the creative artists, Socrate Safo, the Chairman of the Film Classification Committee was thankful to the IGP for giving them the opportunity to interact with the police.



The Director-General of Public Affairs at the Police Service, ASP Kwesi Ofori also briefed the media about the specific issues that were raised at the meeting.



This meeting comes on the back of the trial of popular artistes  Shatta Wale and Medikal  for falling foul of the law.



Shatta Wale was dragged to court over a shooting prank, while Medikal is facing the law for brandishing a gun.



Watch exclusive coverage of the event:

<iframe width="600" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_hNuF8Eimz8" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>





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
The incarcerated founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has been granted permission to marry his partner, Stella Moris, at Belmarsh prison in the UK.



The couple received permission to marry inside the high-security prison where Mr. Assange has been lodged since 2019 after the US took legal action to extradite him. Mr. Assanges application was received, considered, and processed in the usual way by the prison governor, as for any other prisoner, a Prison Service spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Associated Press on Thursday.



Ms. Moris told the PA news agency: I am relieved that reason prevailed and I hope there will be no further interference with our marriage.



Assange, 50, met his future wife in 2011, while he was living in the Ecuadorean embassy in the capital. Ms. Moris is a South Africa-born lawyer and was on his legal team. She has been in a relationship with him since 2015 and has been fighting for him to be released on bail.



The couple got engaged in 2017 and have two children, Max, two, and four-year-old Gabriel, both of whom are British citizens.



Mr. Assange has continued to fight a long-drawn-out legal battle to avoid extradition to the US, where he could be questioned over the activities of WikiLeaks.



He is facing 17 charges of espionage over his role in obtaining and disclosing national defence information following WikiLeakss publication of thousands of documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.



The leaked documents included footage from April 2010 that showed US soldiers shooting and killing civilians from a helicopter in Iraq.



If found guilty he could face up to 175 years in prison.













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
Site 2 Jars. The jars are believed to have been used for funerary purposes. Credit: PJARP

In the rugged province of Xieng Khoaung in upper northern Laos are scattered more than 2,000 large carved stone jars. They vary in size, with the biggest standing at just over 2.5 meters tall and weighing in at 30 tons. The jars are believed to have been used for funerary purposes, with human remains (including teeth) found buried around some of the jars.

Our Lao-Australian archaeological research team has been working to unlock some of the secrets of the Laos jar sites since 2016.

2020 was our fourth field season and the team headed back to Laos with a mission to complete survey expeditions in some of the less-frequented regions of northern Laos, and excavate at a location at Site 1 (known as Ban Hai Hin)  the most visited of the 11 UNESCO World Heritage listed jar sites.

This is a job made more challenging given the extensive unexploded ordnance that still contaminates Xieng Khouang Province, where less than one percent of the land has been cleared.

Keeping ahead of COVID

Our team met up again with Dr. Thonglith Luangkoth, the project co-director from the Laos Department of Heritage, in Vientiane and we drove the seven hours to the Plain of Jars.

But in February 2020, news of the spread of COVID-19 added extra pressure to the schedule of work, excavations and mapping

Fortunately, discoveries were made very quickly .

Our team, made up of Australian and Lao researchers and students, uncovered more human burials around the megalithic jars and confirmed that the exotic quartz rich boulders found across Site 1 were used as place markers for sub-surface ceramic burial jars.

Buried ceramic jars at Site 1. Credit: PJARP

Back in the Xieng Khouang museum, about 10 kilometers away from our excavations, our examination of the contents of some of these buried ceramic vessels showed they contained the skeletal remains of infants and children.

Although ceramic jar burials are known throughout Southeast Asia dating from around 2250 BCE, and archaeologists have found other examples in Laos in the 1980'sthis was the first time the Laos ceramic jars were shown to contain human skeletal material.

This tells us that the mortuary activity at the site was much more complex than we first thought, featuring three types of ritualprimary burials (where the skeleton is laid out), secondary burials (bundles of bones) and the ceramic jar burials.

New radiocarbon dates of bone from a secondary burial located next to jars at Site 1 indicates interment occurred between 773-987 CE, mirroring dates from our earlier 2016 excavations.

Conserving the past

Arriving back in Australia in March 2020, just days before lockdown, our team carefully carried skeletal, ceramic and sediment samples for dating and isotopic analysis, as well as precious bronze artifacts that will be conserved at the University's Grimwade Center for Cultural Materials Conservation.

The research results from our earlier 2019 excavations at nearby Site 2, about 12 km from Site 1, suggest the jars were placed there potentially as early as the late second millennium BCE.

Excavations at Site 2 suggested the jars were placed there potentially as early as the late second millennium BCE. Credit: PJARP

We used Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) to date the sediments beneath the jars, which gives us an estimate of when sediment was last exposed to light.

Until now, we could only guess at when the sites may have been created and the jars positioned by studying the artifacts found around the jars.

Our aim is to now use this method at some of the other sites, where the stone source isn't found in the immediate vicinity of the site.

Mapping history

Extensive UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or drone) mapping of Site 1 was also completed in 2020.

This has created of a high-resolution 3D map of the area, recording the precise position of each of the 316 individually numbered jars.

Dr. Luangkhoth and his team of heritage researchers can now cross-check the condition of the sites and jars against an extensive repository of photographs, 3D models, and morphological data curated by the team over the past few years.

A digitised map of jar locations at Site 1. Credit: University of Melbourne

Together with the Lao archaeology students, local heritage staff and volunteers working on the project, Dr. Luangkhoth brings local insight to the understanding of the sites and the significant role they play in the life and culture of the Lao people.

An exciting new development has been the successful collaboration with innovative data specialists from the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform (MDAP) who have created a data repository and website

This resource provides our Lao colleagues, UNESCO staff, heritage personnel, other researchers and students, access to scientific data, historical material along with reports and analyses to assist the ongoing conservation efforts of the World Heritage site.

While we can't be at the sites, the data on the platform can be updated as more discoveries are made, allowing research to continue during this period of restricted international travel.

Our team is hoping to return to Laos when international travel resumes after the pandemic. In the meantime, we have plenty of analyses to complete including the isotopic analysis from the recent excavations, dating of ceramic sherds and the conservation of bronze artifacts which will be returned to Laos for display in the Xieng Khouang museum.

When we combine these results with the radiocarbon dates from the burials at Site 1, estimated to be between the 8th and 13th centuries CE, this indicates that the sites have maintained cultural significance for a considerable amount of time.

Our research also details geochronological studies of jar and quarry samples used to determine the likely source of stone for the jars at Site 1.

Site 21 or Phou Keng Quarry. Credit: University of Melbourne

Using U-Pb zircon dating, a method used by geologists to identify source rocks and their ages, zircon grains from a jar at Site 1 were compared to a sandstone outcrop and an unfinished jar from a presumed quarry around eight kilometers away from Site 1.

All three samples revealed identical age groupings suggesting they have a very similar provenance and that the outcrop (at Phou Kheng or Site 21) was the likely source of the material used for the jar at Site 1.

Explore further Researchers solve more of the mystery of Laos megalithic jars

More information: Louise Shewan et al. Dating the megalithic culture of laos: Radiocarbon, optically stimulated luminescence and U/Pb zircon results, PLOS ONE (2021). Journal information: PLoS ONE Louise Shewan et al. Dating the megalithic culture of laos: Radiocarbon, optically stimulated luminescence and U/Pb zircon results,(2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247167
Cerulean warblers, like many uncommon forest canopy birds, are easiest to detect by sound. A new project led by scientists at Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Chicago and the University of WisconsinMadison is deploying autonomous microphones in natural areas, recording the animals present there in order to help identify population trends. Credit: Shutterstock.com

If a tree falls in the forest, and only artificial intelligence is listening, is a data point recorded? Such questions have become pertinent to a collaborative research project by scientists from the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory and the University of WisconsinMadison.

The research team is deploying autonomous recording equipment in natural areasincluding the Morton Arboretumto eavesdrop on the animals. Doing so can help answer important scientific questions, such as which species are present and how their abundance changes over time.

Their long-term goal is to characterize natural soundscapes using artificial intelligence, and to use that data as a baseline to measure how ecosystems are responding to climate change and other human-induced changes.

"The new field of bioacoustics allows us to study biodiversity at a very large scale," said Rajesh Sankaran, an experimental systems specialist at Argonne who co-leads the project. "By placing a few microphones in a forest, you can get exposure to a lot of different organisms occupying that forest without needing to detect them during fieldwork."

For decades, the only way for scientists to track long-term trends in animal populations over large areas was via time-intensive monitoring: Biologists would trek out into the field, take notes on what they saw, and return year after year. Then they would have to spend hundreds of hours processing data back in their labs to identify trends.

Such data have yielded important insights: For example, projects such as the Breeding Bird Survey and the annual Christmas Bird Counts conducted by thousands of volunteers have helped scientists determine that North America has lost a quarter of its bird populationthree billion birdsin the last 50 years.

But passive acoustic biodiversity monitoring offers even bigger possibilities, according to Sankaran, thanks to technological advances that have allowed for far more efficient data processing and storage.

Sankaran works in the field of "edge computing," a computing architecture that allows some data to be processed instantaneously, as it is recorded and stored. So, a recorder strapped to a tree could theoretically take advantage of this technology by filtering out abiotic (non-animal) soundslike a clap of thunder, wind rustling leaves or a falling treeand storing only those that researchers are interested in, like a warbler singing once a minute, or a katydid chirping.

This both reduces the amount of time scientists have to spend combing through data afterward and saves huge amounts of storage space on the machines so they can record more hours of data uninterrupted.

From silence springs data

By listening to the animals that are present, the scientists can also make inferences about those that are not present, according to Asst. Prof. Eyal Frank, an environmental economist at the Harris School of Public Policy at UChicago who is also a co-lead on the project.

In a healthy ecosystem, Frank explained, most of the acoustic space is typically occupied by one animal or another.

"Think of radio stations," Frank said. "We have a regulatory agency that says who can broadcast on what frequency, or channel. Over evolutionary timescales, the same thing happens in nature: Species adapt to one acoustic niche to communicate with each other  and a vibrant, flourishing ecosystem will have no gaps. Every frequency will have someone speaking on it."

But as soon as we start losing species, Frank said, we start seeing gaps. That means that as habitats changeperhaps because of climate change, the arrival of a new invasive species, or human developmentdetermining which species are going missing and why can contribute insights that are important for reducing biodiversity loss.

"In a selectively logged forest, we might see a really big difference in that index of just how 'empty' or 'full' the forest is," Frank added. "What edge computing allows us to do is pare down what would be gigabytes or even petabytes of data to just the metric that we're interested in: The 'saturation index.'"

The saturation index is a measure of the extent to which the acoustic space is occupiedessentially, whether silences on some frequencies indicate the absence of certain organisms. Think about a piano on which all the "C" keys were missing. If "Cs" corresponded to chipmunks, that ecosystem wouldn't have any, and the "scale" would be incomplete.

Right now, the scientists are still testing their recording systems and data processing algorithms. They have planned to deploy some of the recorders in zooswhere they know all the species that are presentto test their model's ability to recognize relevant sounds.

"Most of my work is focused on tropical forests, where our lab records the sounds of hundreds of species singing at the same time," said Zuzana Burivalova, an assistant professor of forest and wildlife ecology at the University of WisconsinMadison who is also a collaborator on the project.

"But testing out new algorithms and equipment set ups in a local zoo or arboretum is a necessary step before carrying out advanced experiments in the rainforest. Things should work perfectly at home to ensure that they will work in remote locations."

Once testing is complete, the possibilities for "natural experiments" are many, according to Sankaran and Frank, who imagine placing recorders in environments that range from fairly pristine to highly disturbed by human activity.

"We often think about massive disruptions to habitats like deforestation," Frank said. "But we also know that subtler disturbances are important: A recent study showed that during COVID-19 lockdowns, some bird species vocalized differently in San Francisco in response to reductions in ambient noise."

The project is funded in part by the Joint Task Force Initiative, a University of Chicago program designed to foster increased collaboration across disciplines and between the University, Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory). Pete Beckman, a computing expert at Argonne, is also a collaborator on the project.

According to Frank, collaboration between social scientists like himself studying the impact of conservation policies and engineers, computer scientists and wildlife ecologists is key to the project's success: "The combination of all these fields and disciplines and expertise is needed to be able to solve this massive challenge: A large gap in our understanding and quantification of biodiversity," he said.

Explore further Planting new forests with high functional diversity helps improve productivity
Graphical abstract. Credit: DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150948

Global reservoir constructions are still in a period of rapid development. However, building reservoirs tends to cause eutrophication and phytoplankton blooms due to the changes in hydrological conditions, which can reduce the ecosystem service values. Water level regulation has been considered as a promising measure for phytoplankton bloom controlling in reservoirs. So far, most knowledge of the impacts of water level changes on phytoplankton blooms has been based on qualitative descriptions.

A research group led by Prof. Cai Qinghua from the Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences established a novel water level regulation approach for effective phytoplankton blooms controlling in reservoirs based on the nonlinear causal analysis and modeling. The study was published in Science of The Total Environment.

Based on the nine-year data collected by the Xiangxi River Ecosystem Research Station, the researchers examined the causal effects of different water level fluctuation parameters on the dynamics of phytoplankton blooms. They found that there is a nonlinear relationship between the water level fluctuation and the daily dynamics of phytoplankton biomass. Among all candidate factors for measuring water level fluctuation, the water level change in the past 24 hours (WL) has the strongest causal effect on the daily dynamics of phytoplankton biomass, with a time lag of two days.

Besides, the researchers established a quantitative model for the nonlinear relationship between WL and the daily dynamic of phytoplankton biomass. They found that both the rise and fall of water level will significantly reduce the phytoplankton biomass when phytoplankton blooms occur. Nevertheless, on the whole, the rising water level has a more substantial effect on phytoplankton blooms than falling the water level.

In the non-bloom period, the researchers found that improper water level regulation in reservoirs may stimulate algae growth and increase the risk of phytoplankton blooms.

This study reported for the first time the nonlinear causal effect of WL on the dynamics of phytoplankton biomass and provided a quantitative approach guiding effective phytoplankton blooms controlling based on the water level regulation.

Explore further Color-changing indicator predicts algal blooms

More information: Lin Ye et al, Nonlinear causal analysis reveals an effective water level regulation approach for phytoplankton blooms controlling in reservoirs, Science of The Total Environment (2021). Journal information: Science of the Total Environment Lin Ye et al, Nonlinear causal analysis reveals an effective water level regulation approach for phytoplankton blooms controlling in reservoirs,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150948
The melting Greenland Ice Sheet. Credit: Christine Zenino

As world leaders gather at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, to take bolder action against climate change, human activity has already warmed the planet 1.1C above pre-industrial levels.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that exceeding 2C of warming could have catastrophic consequences and that we need to keep global warming to 1.5C. The world is currently on track to surpass both of those limits. Under the most optimistic scenario, if all 140 countries that have announced net zero targets or are considering them actually reach these goals, as well as their more ambitious 2030 commitments under the Paris Agreement, warming could be limited to 1.8C by 2100. But will overshooting 1.5C push us over climate tipping points, triggering irreversible and abrupt changes? The IPCC's latest report warned of that possibility, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently said, "time is running out. Irreversible climate tipping points lie alarmingly close."

What are the tipping points? And how close are they?

A tipping point is the point at which small changes become significant enough to cause a larger, more critical change that can be abrupt, irreversible, and lead to cascading effects. The concept of tipping points was introduced by the IPCC 20 years ago, but then it was thought they would only occur if global warming reached 5C. Recent IPCC assessments, however, suggested that tipping points could be reached between 1C and 2C of warming.

Here are the major climate tipping points.

Greenland ice sheet

The Greenland ice sheet contains enough water to raise global sea levels by over 20 feet and its melting is accelerating. From 1992 to 2018, it lost close to four trillion tons of ice. While its disintegration is not likely to be abrupt, there could come a point beyond which its eventual collapse is irreversible for millennia.

A new study found that ice-sheet height and melting rates in the Jakobshavn basin, one of the fastest melting basins in Greenland, are destabilizing the ice sheet. Most of the melting occurs on the ice surface because of warming temperatures, but as the height of the ice sheet is reduced, the surface is exposed to warmer air at lower altitudes, which further speeds melting.

In addition, less snowfall leaves the ice surface darker so it absorbs more of the sun's heat and warms faster. Scientists are not sure if a tipping point has been passed but the study found that there would likely be more melting in the near future. In other research, scientists speculated that the critical temperature range at which the Greenland ice sheet would go into irreversible disintegration is between 0.8C and 3.2C of warming above pre-industrial levels.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS)

The WAIS is vulnerable to collapse because it sits on bedrock below sea level and is affected by the ocean's warming. A 2018 study found that the WAIS went from ice loss of almost 58.5 billion tons a year between 1992 and 1997 to 175 billion tons from 2012 to 2017. The Thwaites Glacier on West Antarctica's Amundsen Sea has lost a trillion tons of ice since the early 2000s, and some scientists believe it could be headed for an irreversible collapse, which could threaten a large part of the WAIS and raise global sea levels by two feet or more.

The Pine Island glacier, also on the Amundsen Sea, is thinning rapidly as well. A new study found that current policies, heading for almost 3C of warming, would result in an abrupt hastening of Antarctic ice loss after 2060, while other research suggests that the tipping point for the WAIS lies between 1.5C and 2.0C of warming.

Another new study found that if the WAIS melted, it could raise sea levels three feet more than previous projections of 10.5 feet; Antarctica as a whole contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by over 200 feet.

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)

The AMOC is one of the main global ocean currents and is critical to regulating climate. Cold salty water, which is dense and heavy, sinks deep into the ocean in the North Atlantic, and moves along the bottom until it rises to the surface near the equator, usually in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Heat from the sun then warms the water, and evaporation leaves the water saltier. The warm salty water travels up the coast via the Gulf Stream, warming the U.S. East Coast and Western Europe. Once the water releases its heat and reaches the North Atlantic, it becomes cold and dense again, and the cycle, which can take water 1,000 years to complete, continues. But as glaciers and ice sheets melt, they add fresh, less dense water to the North Atlantic, which prevents the water from sinking and impedes circulation. This may be why AMOC has slowed 15 percent since the 1950s. A recent study found that the AMOC is in its weakest state in 1,000 years. Moreover, the latest climate models project that continued global warming could weaken the AMOC by 34 to 45 percent by 2100.

If the AMOC shuts down, it would cause significant cooling along the east coast of the U.S. and Western Europe. This, in turn, would alter rainfall patterns, make sea levels rise, cause more drying, and reduce agriculture in the U.K. It could also potentially set off other tipping points. And even if global warming is reversed, once shut down, the AMOC would not switch back on for a long time. Scientists believe this occurred during the last ice age when a glacial lake burst and poured freshwater into the Atlantic. As the AMOC shut down, the Northern Hemisphere entered a cold spell that lasted 1,000 years.

While there are still many uncertainties, some studies suggest that the AMOC's tipping point could be reached between 3C and 5.5C of warming.

Amazon rainforest

The Amazon rainforest, the world's largest tropical rainforest, stores 200 billion tons of carbonequal to about five years of global carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuelsand is home to millions of species of plants and wildlife. The moisture from the Amazon's rainfall returns to the atmosphere from the soil through evaporation and from plants through transpiration. This self-sustaining process creates clouds and more rainfall.

Because of logging, ranching, mining, agriculture, and fires, the Amazon has lost about 17 percent of its tree cover and at the current rate of deforestation, could reach a loss of 27 percent by 2030. The policies of Brazil's pro-development president, Jair Bolsonaro, have led to widespread clear-cutting and the rate of deforestation in Brazil is the highest since 2008.

If 2025 percent of the Amazon were deforested, its tipping point could be crossed, according to one study. Fewer trees would mean less evapotranspiration, and without enough rainfall to sustain itself, the Amazon could start to die back. In other words, parts of the rainforest could transition into a savannah, a drier ecosystem characterized by grasslands and few trees. In the process, it would potentially release 90 gigatons of CO 2 , exacerbating climate change. Crossing this tipping point would also result in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, affect global weather patterns, and threaten the lives of 30 million people, many Indigenous, who depend on the rainforest to survive. One study found that dieback would occur if we reach 3C of warming.

The Amazon is already feeling the effects of climate change, as over the last century, temperatures in the region have increased 1C to 1.5C. The Amazon is experiencing longer and hotter dry seasons that make it more vulnerable to wildfires, reduced evapotranspiration in response to higher levels of CO 2 , and there are now more drought-tolerant tree species.

Scientists are unsure whether the Amazon has a single overall tipping point, or when exactly it might be reached, and the ecosystem has some ability to adapt to changing conditions. But fires and drought could cause local changes that spread drying conditions to other regions because of an overall reduction of moisture. Twenty-eight percent of the eastern part of the Amazon is already losing more carbon than it is absorbing due to deforestation. And some climate models predict that by 2035, the Amazon will be a permanent source of carbon.

Thawing permafrost

Permafrost is ground that remains frozen for two or more consecutive years and is composed of rock, soil, sediments, and ice. Some permafrost has been frozen for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. It is found in northern hemisphere lands without glaciers, including parts of Siberia, Alaska, northern Canada and Tibet. In the Southern Hemisphere, there is permafrost in parts of Patagonia, Antarctica and the Southern Alps of New Zealand.

Fourteen hundred billion tons of carbon are thought to be frozen in the Arctic's permafrost, which is twice as much carbon as is currently in the atmosphere. But the Arctic is warming two times faster than the rest of the planetit has already warmed 2C above pre-industrial levels. As it warms and thaws the permafrost, microbes come out of hibernation and break down the organic carbon in the soil, releasing CO 2 and methane, which then trigger even more warming and melting. The 2019 Arctic Report Card from NOAA found that the Arctic's thawing permafrost could be releasing 300 to 600 million tons of carbon per year into the atmosphere.

Methane stored in ice-like formations called hydrates are also found in permafrost in ocean sediments. This methane may be released as hydrates are thawed by warming seawater. Scientists recently discovered methane leaking from a giant ancient reservoir of methane below the permafrost of the Laptev Sea in the East Siberian Arctic Ocean.

Scientists don't know exactly how much carbon could ultimately be released by thawing permafrost or when. According to one report, 2C of warming could mean the loss of 40 percent of the world's permafrost.

ENSO

El Nino and La Nina are the warm and cool, naturally occurring weather patterns across the tropical Pacificthe El Nino-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO. Every two to seven years, the pattern alternates, bringing disruptions in temperature and precipitation. El Nino causes impacts around the world, such as more drought in India, Indonesia and Brazil, and flooding in Peru. As the ocean warms, it could push ENSO past a tipping point, which would make El Nino events more severe and frequent and could increase drought in the Amazon.

Tipping point interactions

A recent study of the WAIS, the Greenland ice sheet, the AMOC, ENSO, and the Amazon rainforest tipping points found that they could interact with one another before temperatures reach 2C. This interaction would enable tipping to occur at lower thresholds than previously expected. The risk analysis found that a cascade could potentially begin with the melting of the ice sheets because their critical thresholds are lower. For example, as the Greenland ice sheet releases fresh water into the North Atlantic, the AMOC could slow. This would result in less heat being transported towards the north. As the North got colder, it could potentially help stabilize the Greenland ice sheet. However, it would also result in warmer water in the Southern Ocean and this could lead to more drought in some parts of the Amazon while others get more rainfall. Changes in the AMOC could also trigger changes in ENSO, leading to a more permanent El Nino state, whose impacts could lower the critical threshold for Amazon dieback.

The scientists say that these changes would occur over long time scales, and that the limits of computing power make it impossible to represent each climate system's tipping point or their interactions exactly.

Can we avoid the climate tipping points?

Seventy-three percent of people in G20 countries think Earth is close to climate tipping points, according to a Global Commons Alliance poll. And much research indicates that if we do not curb our carbon emissions immediately to keep global warming below 2C, we are headed for irreversible and catastrophic conditions. But some experts are more sanguine.

Robin Bell, a polar scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who specializes in ice sheet dynamics, doesn't believe the ice sheets are at a tipping point yet.

"The most recent science is suggesting that maybe some of the runaway mechanisms we were worried about, might not occur," she said. "For example, in terms of the WAIS, pressure on the giant river of ice could keep it from flowing. It means either we just need to keep icebergs in the way, or maybe it's something we can think about engineering. It's not that we have to hold the whole thing back, we just have to put a little pressure on it, and it will possibly not collapsethe ice sheet may not be as bad as we thought and maybe we have some time to get our act together."

Bell worries more about the social tipping points than the physical ones. Will they occur fast enough to forestall climate tipping points? Social tipping points are the points where many members of society quickly and dramatically change their behavior or thinking. A 2020 study proposed six social tipping points that could help stabilize Earth's climate: removing fossil-fuel subsidies and incentivizing decentralized energy generation, building carbon-neutral cities, divesting from assets linked to fossil fuels, clarifying the moral implications of fossil fuels, expanding climate education and engagement, and making greenhouse gas emissions transparent.

"The real question is: Is there the social will to act?" Bell said. "And it appears that the social will is emerging. We really are starting to have serious conversations. People from the individual scale to the government scale are taking action, and that's what needs to happen."

Steve Cohen, senior vice dean of Columbia University's School of Professional Studies and a professor in the Practice of Public Affairs at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, places his hope in technology. "The most important driver of change in the modern world has been technology," he said. "And it's a pretty simple equation: technological change leads to economic change, leads to social and cultural change, which leads to political change."

Technological change can be difficult to predict but can sometimes lead to rapid changes, said Cohen, citing the ubiquitous and indispensable smart phone as a prime example. "The phone is the most important thing you take when you leave the house because it's a portable computer that you bring around with you. Would anybody have predicted that 25 years ago?"

He also puts great hope in young people. "If you look at polling data, young people by a huge margin understand the climate issue. And it cuts across ideology, cuts across everything. It you're under 30, you know, there's a climate crisis."

The pledges countries make in Glasgow at COP26 and the policies they implement afterwards will ultimately determine how close the world will come to climate tipping points.

Greta Thunberg, the 18-year-old Swedish climate activist with millions of young followers, went to Glasgow to join a climate strike and put pressure on politicians to get them to make real commitments to curb climate change.

"We know that change is possible because we can look back in history and see that there have been massive changes in society that have been unprecedented," Thunberg said. "If we felt like there wasn't any hope, we wouldn't be activists."

Explore further Breaching tipping points would increase economic costs of climate change impacts

This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu.
Delegates are charged with keeping the Paris Agreement temperature goals alive even as climate-driven disasters hit countries the world over.

UN climate talks headed towards a rocky conclusion Friday after two weeks of fraught debate failed to resolve several key disputes or produce the emissions cutting plans needed to limit global warming to 1.5C.

"The world is watching us", COP26 President Alok Sharma told delegates charged with keeping the Paris Agreement temperature goals alive even as climate-driven disasters hit countries the world over.

The summit began with a bang as world leaders descended on Glasgow armed with a string of headline announcements, from a commitment to slash methane emissions to a plan to save the rainforests.

But progress has stalled in the underlying technical and now minister-level negotiations.

With one day left of scheduled talks, countries are hardly any closer to agreement over whether national emissions cutting plans must be ramped up in the short term, how climate action is reported, and how vulnerable nations are supported.

"The truth is that the atmosphere doesn't care about commitments," said Ugandan youth activist Vanessa Nakate.

"It only cares about what we put into it or stop putting into it. Humanity will not be saved by promises."

Draft decision texts urged countries to speed up their decarbonisation plans and submit renewed contributions by 2022, three years sooner than planned.

They also included a rare mention of fossil fuelsanathema to large hydrocarbon producers but a key ask of the European Union and other advanced economies.

Host Britain says it wants COP26 to lead to commitments from countries to keep the 1.5C temperature cap goal of the Paris agreement within reach.

However, current national emissions cutting plans, all told, would lead to 2.7C of heating.

UN Secretary Antonio Guterres said Thursday that countries' climate plans were "hollow" without commitments to rapidly phase out fossil fuels.

Climate Justice activist Vanessa Nakate addressed a plenary session at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow on November 11, 2021. COP26 President Alok Sharma said there was still an array of unfinished business at the crunch UN climate summit.

US-China pact

Negotiations received a shot in the arm Wednesday when the United States and Chinathe two largest emittersunveiled a joint climate action plan.

Although it was light on detail, observers said the pact allayed concerns that frosty US-China relations entering into COP26 would derail the talks.

But trust levels between rich polluters and developing nations are low after developed countries failed to stump up the $100 billion a year they promised by 2020.

Finance more generally is holding up progress in Glasgow, with developing nations insisting on more money for adaptation that can help them brace for future climate shocks.

Developed nations meanwhile favour a greater push on emissions reductions, something countries yet to fully electrify their gridsand largely blameless for emissionsfeel is unfair.

"We have made steps forward," European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans told AFP.

"It's not enough to address the issue that we face, but we're having a completely different conversation now than we had only a couple of months ago. Adaptation has really gone up on our global agenda."

Countries already battered by climate disasters such as record-breaking drought and flooding are demanding they be compensated separately for "loss and damage".

Organisers said the draft texts dedicated an "unprecedented" section to loss and damage, but vulnerable nations said it stopped far short of their expectations.

Other issues likely to delay an agreement in Glasgow include a long-simmering dispute over the rules governing carbon markets, and common reporting timeframes.

Explore further COP26 told climate pledges 'hollow' without fossil fuel phase out

 2021 AFP
Protesters have sought to keep up the pressure from the outside.

Climate promises from nations at COP26 ring "hollow" while they continue to invest in oil, gas and coal, UN chief Antonio Guterres said Thursday, as the summit struggles to make headway on its goal to halt devastating warming.

Representatives from nearly 200 countries have gathered in Glasgow for painstaking talks aimed at keeping the world within the Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature rise to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.

But with emissions still rising and current promises putting the world on a path to heat far beyond that target, negotiators were wrangling over a range of issues.

"The announcements here in Glasgow are encouraging - but they are far from enough," Guterres told the COP26 climate summit, urging negotiators to "pick up the pace".

"Promises ring hollow when the fossil fuels industry still receives trillions in subsidies."

COP26 President Alok Sharma warned that time was running short to clinch a deal before the meeting's scheduled end on Friday evening.

"We still have a monumental challenge ahead of us," he said, appealing to delegates to show more ambition.

"Quite a lot has been achieved. But we are still some way away from finalising those very critical issues that are still outstanding."

He welcomed a joint China-US pact to accelerate climate action this decade, which experts said should allay fears that tensions visible early in the summit might derail the talks.

The surprise declaration unveiled late Wednesday by envoys John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua said the world's two largest emitters "recognise the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis"

Science warning

The 2015 Paris Agreement saw nations promise to limit heating to "well below" two degrees Celsius and to work towards a safer 1.5C cap through sweeping emissions cuts.

The 1.1C of warming so far is already magnifying weather extremes, subjecting communities across the world to more intense fire and drought, displacement and severe economic hardship.

But the UN says that even the most up-to-date national pledges set Earth on course to warm 2.7C this century.

More than 200 scientists sent an open letter to the summit Thursday urging countries to take "immediate, strong, rapid, sustained and large-scale actions" to halt global warming.

A handful of nations committed to phasing out oil and gas production, in what organisers Denmark and Costa Rica hope will inspire a global movement towards ending of fossil fuels.

Nations already hit by climate disasters are demanding "loss and damage" support from rich emitters.

"The fossil era must come to an end," said Danish Climate, Energy and Utilities Minister Dan Jorgensen.

"But just as the Stone Age did not end due to lack of stone, the fossil era will not end because there's no more oil left in the ground. It will end because governments decided to do the right thing."

However major emitters were not part of the initiative.

'Credibility test'

Egypt was on Thursday was confirmed as the host of COP27, due for 2023, while the United Arab Emirates will host COP28 in 2024.

Wednesday saw the release of draft "decisions", which were the first real indication of where nations are 10 days into deeply technical discussions.

The text, which is sure to change during ministerial debates, called for nations to "revisit and strengthen" their new climate plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by next year, instead of 2025 as previously agreed.

China's special climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, unveiled the surprise joint declaration Wednesday.

Climate stripes: Monthly global temperature variation since 1880, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The issues that remain unresolved at the COP26 include how vulnerable nations are supported financially to green their economies and prepare for future shocks.

Rules over transparency, common reporting of climate action and carbon markets are all also still under discussion.

Also contentious is wording in the draft text to "accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels", something which large emitters are opposing, according to sources close to the talks.

And nations already hit by climate disasters are demanding "loss and damage" support from rich emitters.

But the main sticking point is ambition: which countries plan to slash their carbon emissions fast enough to avert dangerous heating.

"We need action if commitments are to pass the credibility test," Guterres said, urging negotiators not to settle for a lowest common denominator outcome.

"We know what must be done."

Explore further COP26 draft urges boost to emissions cutting goals by 2022

 2021 AFP
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Across industries, conservatives are more satisfied than liberals with the products and services they consume, according to a study of more than 326,000 U.S. consumers by an international research team from Rice University, the Catholic University of Portugal, Boston College, the University of Texas at San Antonio and Korea University.

The researchers examined ratings from 326,532 customers in different industriesindustrial goods, restaurants, educational videos and health insurance. "Consistently, results showed that conservatives are more satisfied than liberals with the products and services they purchased. This is profoundly important for companies and businesses whose goal is to provide customer value by satisfying their customers," said study co-author Vikas Mittal, a professor of marketing at Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business.

Cultivating a base of satisfied customers is the holy grail for any successful business, the researchers said. A 2021 study by Mittal found that a 1-point increase on a 7-point scale measuring satisfaction resulted in 12% sales growth for firms. Satisfied customers help businesses grow sales through greater repeat purchases, increased positive word of mouth, more recommendations to friends and family and fewer complaints, Mittal said. When customers are more satisfied, they are also more likely to promote the company's brand on social media, he said.

For every customer, the team measured political identity and customer satisfaction. They measured political identity in different ways: asking consumers to share the political party they supported, their past voting behavior, their self-ratings on the liberal-conservative spectrum and whether they watch CNN/MSNBC or Fox for news. Customers rated their satisfaction on a scale ranging from "completely dissatisfied" to "completely satisfied." All studies showed that satisfaction ratings were higher among conservatives than liberals.

Why? "It is their higher belief in free will, or the extent to which they believe they have control of their actions," Mittal said. "People with higher belief in free will see their life, destiny and outcomes as being under their own control rather than being predetermined. Due to higher free-will beliefs, conservatives are more trusting of their own purchase decisions and feel more satisfied with their purchases. Over time, customers feel good about themselves, thinking, "I chose a good product," and (feel) more satisfied with their choices.

"Some companies have embraced corporate political activism to satisfy their customers," he said. "Such a strategy is almost sure to backfire because it forces companies to choose sides, whether liberal or conservative.

"Instead of choosing sides, companies should relentlessly focus on increasing customer satisfaction to drive sales," Mittal said. "Doing so will be appreciated by their conservative customers more than their liberal customers, but both will be more loyal, engage in higher word of mouth and recommend the business more."

Explore further Consumer surveys drive stock prices, research shows
Polariton mediated funneling of excitation energies between molecular isomers in a microcavity. Credit: Sitakanta Satapathy

In chemistry, molecules are manipulated by changing the constituent atoms, or their arrangements. Now a group of physicists and chemists from The City College of New York and Spain can demonstrate how the use of an optical cavity (where light is trapped) is also able to change the molecular property of photo-isomerizationa light activated process that modifies the optical response. Entitled "Selective isomer emission via funneling of exciton polaritons," their study appears in Science Advances.

While the photophysical properties of isomers are of great significance in organic optoelectronics and many biochemical events, it is the correct choice and purity of the isomer luminescence that plays a decisive role in being favored or disfavored for a particular application. However, the inhomogeneous disorder in an organic molecular solid can almost completely suppress the photophysical properties of one isomer over the other, making it challenging to access in thin film state.

Enter The City College-Autonomous University of Madrid research group to address this problem. The CCNY researchers were led by physicist Vinod M. Menon and chemist George John, and the Spanish scientists by Francisco J. Garcia-Vidal and Johannes Feist.

Using the concept of strong light-matter coupling, the international team managed to create a funnel of hybrid light-matter states (polaritons) that can control the flow of excitation from a strongly emitting non-desirable planar isomer to a completely dark twisted isomer, which is of great potential significance in the field of organic optoelectronics.

The idea is put into practice an optical FabryPerot cavity by strong coupling to derivatives of trans-stilbene, which present two isomers in different amounts. Thanks to the new relaxation pathway provided by the polaritons, the photoexcitation that is first shared by the common "polaritonic" mode is then selectively funneled to the excited states of one of the isomers, recognizing pure emission from the isomeric states that are otherwise dark under normal conditions.

"The strategy offers flexibility to significantly modify the emission wavelength of molecular isomers in thin films," said Sitakanta Satapathy, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Menon's research group at CCNY and lead author of the study.

"Direct polariton energy harvesting offers promise to access desirable excited state confirmations of potential importance in the field of organic photovoltaics, optoelectronics and photobiological reactions. Furthermore, through judicious choice of molecules and smart cavity systems, this strategy can be translated to other excited state processes, such as Excited State Induced Proton Transfer (ESIPT), Electron Transfer and Photooxidation reactions without any light-induced damage," added Satapathy.

More information: Sitakanta Satapathy et al, Selective isomer emission via funneling of exciton polaritons, Science Advances (2021). Journal information: Science Advances Sitakanta Satapathy et al, Selective isomer emission via funneling of exciton polaritons,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj0997
Credit: Pixabay

With the eyes of the world on COP26, researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) say the broader environmental and social implications of extreme emission reduction schemes need to be taken into account.

The researchers argue that emission reductions are essential, but must be done in a considered way.

Lead author and Ph.D. researcher Hong Xu said: "China's climate actions can offer lessons in managing this potential 'trade-off', especially for those countries looking to take action post COP26."

First co-author and Ph.D. researcher Mr Aaron Tang added: "Policy driven by a single overriding metric, in this case, emissions reductions, can generate adverse side-effects."

In a new research paper published in Environmental Research Letters, Mr Xu and Mr Tang argue that these trade-offs represent "the dark side" of China's climate ambition.

"For example, hydropower is the largest renewable energy in China. But its unrestricted expansion has put pressure on fragile ecosystems, and increased the vulnerability of local communities, especially those forced to resettle," Mr Xu said.

"While reducing emissions is a crucial step, policymakers and analysts must also identify solutions that generate multiple benefits.

"These solutions should be consistent with local circumstances, meet local development objectives and needs and adapt to local priorities."

The authors suggest five things that should help guide future decision-making, particularly for countries taking big and rapid steps toward climate change mitigation.

Their recommendations include employing "bottom-up" initiatives like community micro-grids that are reviving rural areas in China, as well as ensuring more accountability in climate governance to help limit malpractice.

"More countries need to invest in robust and transparent evaluation of the environmental and social impacts of proposed emissions reductions policies," Mr Xu said.

Co-author Professor Jamie Pittock said: "Providing adequate retraining or compensation packages for those impacted is also crucial, as is involving more international organizations in climate governance and respecting host communities' rights and views.

"In order to ensure the success of the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius, processes should be adopted to maximize benefits, minimize costs, identify potential conflicts, and understand the trade-offs of climate policies."

More information: Hongzhang Xu et al, The dark side of ambition: side-effects of China's climate policy, Environmental Research Letters (2021). Journal information: Environmental Research Letters Hongzhang Xu et al, The dark side of ambition: side-effects of China's climate policy,(2021). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac30bf
A map showing the highest density carbon-rich areas in Canada. Credit: WWF-Canada

New data from McMaster researchers shows, for the first time, how much carbon is stored in Canada's landscapes, and reveals how these carbon-rich areas, if disturbed, could have enormous ramifications for global climate change.

Findings from McMaster's Remote Sensing Laboratory show 405 billion tons of carbon is stored in ecosystems across the country, according to a study led by World Wildlife Canada (WWF-Canada). And, as global temperatures rise and that land decomposes, or is disturbed by human intervention, that carbon could then be released into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.

The impact could be massive. The total amount of carbon mapped by the researchers is the equivalent to about 30 years of human-caused global greenhouse gas emissions (at 2019 emission levels).

Alemu Gonsamo, assistant professor at McMaster's Remote Sensing Laboratory, explained how these carbon stores are key to helping hold the global average warming temperature to 1.5C during a panel presentation at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.

"[The] national carbon map will have a huge impact on the way conservation activities and policies are approached to prioritize nature-based climate solutions," says Gonsamo.

The findings, which are the first-ever comprehensive analysis of its kind, show that 95 percent of carbon in Canada is found in the top one meter of soil, and 24 percent of that is found in peatlands. The rest of Canada's carbon is found in trees, other plants, dead plant material and roots.

"Tens of thousands of field measurements were fed into a machine-learning algorithm to train satellite observations, including space-based laser scanning data, to estimate carbon stocks in plant biomass and soils across Canada," says Gonsamo.

405 billion tonnes of carbon is stored in ecosystems across the country, according to researchers from McMasters Remote Sensing Laboratory. Credit: WWF-Canada / Casa di Media Productions

Researchers say this underscores Canada's global responsibility to climate change since the findings reveal a quarter of the world's soil carbon stock is found in Canada.

The highest density carbon-rich areas were found in the old growth forests of coastal British Columbia, large areas of boreal forest, and the peatlands in the Hudson and James Bay Lowlands.

"Knowing where carbon is stored in Canada allows us to strategically protect and manage the right places to prevent billions of tons of carbon from being released into the atmosphere," says Megan Leslie, president and CEO of WWF-Canada. "Protecting these areas will also benefit wildlife by safeguarding habitat for important species at risk."

One of the actions recommended by the study is to create a Carbon Guardians program to support interested Indigenous communities in monitoring and measuring ecosystem carbon on their lands.

"The Hudson and James Bay Lowlands are covered by peatlands which are an incredibly dense and globally significant carbon storage area," says Vern Cheechoo, director of lands and resources at the Mushkegowuk Council, which represents seven First Nations in the Western James Bay and Hudson's Bay.

"These carbon-rich areas are known as the 'breathing lands' to our Elders, and hold significant cultural value for the communities in the region," says Cheechoo.

The research will not only help shape Canada's approach to carbon emission targets, but will also help WWF-Canada in its goal to restore one million hectares of lost complex ecosystems, protect and steward 100 million hectares of ecologically rich habitat and reduce carbon emissions by 30 million tons.

Explore further COP26 deforestation deal key to slowing climate change, but Canada must tackle issues of carbon accounting and industry
Credit: Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock

Seven months after it was launched, the US robotic rover Perseverance successfully landed on Mars on February 18 2021. The landing was part of the mission Mars2020 and was viewed live by millions of people worldwide, reflecting the renewed global interest in space exploration. It was soon followed by China's Tianwen-1, an interplanetary Mars mission consisting of an orbiter, lander and rover called Zhourong.

Perseverance and Zhourong were the fifth and sixth planetary rovers deployed in the last decade. The first one was America's Curiosity which landed on Mars in 2012, followed by China's three Chang'E missions.

In 2019 the Chang'E-4 lander and its Yutu-2 rover were the first human objects landed on the far side of the moonthe side that faces away from the Earth. This marked a pivotal milestone in planetary exploration, of equal importance to the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, when the far side of the moon was seen by humans for the first time.

To analyze the data captured from the Yutu-2 rover, which used ground-penetrating radar (GPR), we developed a tool that could detect in much greater detail the layers beneath the moon's surface than had ever been done before. It was also able to provide insights into how the planet evolved.

The far side of the moon is of great importance due to its interesting geological formations, but this hidden side also blocks all the electromagnetic noise from human activity, making it an ideal place to build radio telescopes.

Ground penetrating radar

Orbiter radars have been used for planetary sciences since the early 2000s, but the recent Chinese and US rover missions were the first to use ground-penetrating radar on site. This ground-breaking radar is now set to become part of the scientific payload of future planetary missions, where it will be used to map the subsurface of landing sites and shed light on what is happening below the ground.

GPR has also the ability to retrieve significant information regarding the type of planetary soils and their subsurface layers. This information can be used to get an insight into the geological evolution of an area and even assess its structural stability for future planetary bases and research stations.

Perseverance and Tianwen-1 are currently active, and the first GPR images from Mars are expected to be published in 2022. But the first available planetary on-site GPR data was from the Chang'E-3, E-4 and E-5 lunar missions, where it was used to investigate the structure of surface layers of the far side of the moon, and provide valuable information about the geological evolution of the area.

Despite the benefits of GPR, one major drawback is its inability to detect layers with smooth boundaries between them. This means gradual variations from one layer to another go undetected, giving the false impression that the subsurface consists of a homogenous block, while in fact it may be a much more complex structure representing a completely different geological history.

Our team developed a new method capable of detecting these layers by using the radar signatures of hidden rocks and boulders. The newly developed tool has been used to process the GPR data captured by Chang'E-4's Yutu-2 rover which landed in the Von Karman crater, part of the Aitken Basin at the moon's south pole.

The Aitken basin is the biggest and oldest known crater, believed to have been created by a meteoroid impact that penetrated the crust of the moon and uplifted materials from the top mantle (the interior layer just below it). Our detection tool revealed a previously unseen layered structure in the first 10m of the lunar surface, which had been understood to be one homogenous block.

Using our method, we can make more accurate estimations regarding the depth of the top surface of lunar soil, which is an important way to determine the stability and strength of the soil foundation for developing lunar bases and research stations.

This newly discovered complex layered structure also suggests that small craters are more important and may have contributed much more than previously believed to the materials deposited by meteorite strikesand the overall evolution of lunar craters.

This means we will have a more coherent understanding of the complex geological history of our satellite, and enable us to predict more accurately what lies beneath the surface of the moon.

Explore further What lies beneath the far side of the moon?

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The World Settlement Footprint 2019 provides information on global human settlements with unprecedented detail and precision and features data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions. Credit: DLR/ESA

The world's population is expected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050, according to the UN Department of Economics and Social Affairs. Urban areas are already home to 55% of the world's population and that figure is expected to grow to 68% by 2050. Rapid and unplanned urbanization, combined with the challenges brought by climate change, can lead to an increase in air pollution, higher vulnerability to disasters, as well as issues related to the management of resources such as water, raw materials and energy.

To improve the understanding of current trends in global urbanization, ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), in collaboration with the Google Earth Engine team, are jointly developing the World Settlement Footprintthe world's most comprehensive dataset on human settlement.

The World Settlement Footprint suite consists of several different products, two of which have been publicly released this week during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) for the Cities, Regions & Built Environment Day: The World Settlement Footprint 2019 (WSF 2019) and the World Settlement Footprint Evolution (WSF Evolution). These products were built using millions of hours of compute time with Google Earth Engine, Google's platform for geospatial data analysis.

The WSF 2019, which provides information on global human settlements with unprecedented detail and precision, features data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions, while the WSF Evolution has been generated by processing seven million images from the US Landsat satellite collected between 1985 and 2015 and illustrates the worldwide growth of human settlements on a year-by-year basis.

The World Settlement Footprint Evolution has been generated by processing seven million images from the US Landsat satellite collected between 1985 and 2015 and illustrates the worldwide growth of human settlements on a year-by-year basis. Credit: DLR/ESA

This unprecedented collection of global products on human settlement advances our understanding of urbanization on a global scale.

The new World Settlement Footprint products will become an asset for national statistical offices, local authorities, civil society as well as international organizations involved in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 11 of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda. The WSF dataset has proved to be a key resource for analyzing urbanization in developing countries, where often no or poor information is available.

Mattia Marconcini, who manages the World Settlement Footprint from DLR, explains, "Knowing where humans live is deemed easy with freely accessible web services which feature detailed outlines on their platforms. If one starts to focus on low or middle-income countries, particularly in rural and suburban areas, it is immediately clear how information on the overall extent of human settlements is not available for vast parts of the world. This is where the World Settlement Footprint comes in."

"The World Settlement Footprint provides a knowledge base that can support researchers, governmental bodies and other stakeholders such as urban planners to better understand how urbanization is taking place and, concurrently, put in place sustainable urban development strategies for well-informed policy decisions at local and national levels."

The World Settlement Footprint Evolution has been generated by processing seven million images from the US Landsat satellite collected between 1985 and 2015 and illustrates the worldwide growth of human settlements on a year-by-year basis. Credit: DLR/ESA

ESA's Marc Paganini said, "The availability of continuous data streams of high quality and free of charge satellite observations such as the Sentinels of the European Copernicus program and the Landsat missions, in combination with the emergence of automated methods for large data processing and data analytics, and the democratization of computing costs, offer unprecedented opportunities to efficiently monitor the changes and trends in urban development globally.

"The World Settlement Footprint is a great example on how we can mobilize the data revolution for the benefits of all countries and cities, leaving no one behind, which is one of the leitmotifs of the 2030 agenda on sustainable development."

The new WSF products have received positive feedback from a number of users, who have been granted preliminary access to them, namely the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UN-Habitat and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Robert Ndugwa, Chief of the Data and Analytics section of UN-Habitat and the lead of the global urban statistics at UN Habitat, commented, "The World Settlement Footprint Evolution has enabled scalable analysis and computation of spatial urbanization trends not only for individual cities, urban areas, but also on a national and global scale.

To improve the understanding of current trends in global urbanisation, ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), in collaboration with the Google Earth Engine team, are jointly developing the World Settlement Footprint  the worlds most comprehensive dataset on human settlement. The video features several examples from the World Settlement Footprint Evolution, which has been generated by processing seven million images from the US Landsat satellite collected between 1985 and 2015 and illustrates the growth of human settlements on a year-by-year basis in selected cities. Credit: ESA/DLR

"We need to drive towards building sustainable cities and human settlements, and this depends on how well we measure these areas and how well we can predict the growth in all these cities in the future. I believe Earth observation and geospatial technologies give us the tools needed in order for us to grow in this direction."

Sameh Wahba, Director of the World Bank's Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice, added, "Big data is extensively used to understand and analyze current development trends, key challenges and future urbanization scenarios across regions. The partnership with ESA, DLR and other organizations over the past years allows us to extend the frontiers of our knowledge and utilize evidence-based data in our decision-making.

"Using the World Settlement Footprint Evolution, our team has been tracking the flood risk exposure of growing cities around the world, such as Bangkok, Thailand. The data suggest that there is a worrying trend we observe: new and unplanned settlements in high-risk flooded areas have grown significantly, especially in low and middle-income countries. The high-resolution data allows us to work with our partners around the world to determine how this risk is evolving and identifying the drivers of such high-risk urban growth."

The World Settlement Footprint 2019 and the World Settlement Footprint Evolution are accessible from the Geoservice portal of DLR's Earth Observation Center.

Explore further Mapping our global human footprint
This is the three-dimensional spectral data the team obtained from the proxy electron qubit, with spin-wave modes corresponding to each peak. Horizontally, the qubit probes a fixed state of the nuclear ensemble. Vertically, the state of the nuclear ensemble is tuned by the qubit. The spectral asymmetry is a witness for quantum correlations amongst nuclei. It is also somewhat symbolic as this work is the result of almost two decades of continued research efforts, by the researchers at Cambridge and many other teams, to reach this demonstration of entangled nuclear ensemble. Credit: Gangloff et al.

One of the primary objectives of quantum physics studies is to measure the quantum states of large systems composed of many interacting particles. This could be particularly useful for the development of quantum computers and other quantum information processing devices.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory have recently introduced a new approach for measuring the spin states of a nuclear ensemble, a system comprised of many interacting particles with long-lived quantum properties. This method, presented in a paper published in Nature Physics, works by exploiting the response of this system to collective spin excitations.

"For a dense ensemble of quantum objects, such as spins, it isn't possible to measure each individually, to learn how they interacted with each other," Claire Le Gall and Mete Atature, two of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. "Instead, one can look for tell-tale signals in the collective response of the ensemble; a bit like the behavior of a flock of birds might say something about how the birds engage with each other. Our system of interest is a large flock, or ensemble, of nuclear spins in a semiconductor quantum dot."

In 2002, three Harvard University physicists figured out that large ensembles of nuclear spins in a semiconductor quantum dot could be potential hosts for solid-state quantum memories, then published their work a year later. 19 years later, Le Gall, Atature, and their colleagues probed this type of nuclear ensemble using a 'proxy' quantum bit, an electron spin that simultaneously couples to all nuclear spins, as reported in their latest paper.

"We achieved a significant milestone recently, when we showed that collective modes of the nuclear ensemble (i.e., spin waves) could be excited coherently via the electron," Dorian Gangloff, the first author of the paper, said. "In our new study, we set out to use these electron-activated spin waves to change the state of the nuclear ensemble and to read it out. This would demonstrate a basic form of 'write-in' and 'read-out' via the electron spin."

The idea behind the approach proposed by the Cambridge scientists is that the type of nuclear spin-wave mode that can be activated by an electron spin depends on the state of the nuclear ensemble that is being examined. For instance, some spin-wave modes increase an ensemble's polarization (i.e., how much all spins point 'up') and others decrease it. The relative strength of these two different types of spin-wave modes depends on how much an ensemble already 'points up' or 'points down." Measuring both can thus offer valuable insight about how much each nuclear spin, on average, is already pointing up or down, ultimately allowing researchers to infer spin populations.

"But there is more: If the nuclear spins have interacted beforehand and built up some mutual information, which in this case can be quantum in nature, then the electron, as a quantum object with one-to-all coupling with these nuclei, will feel this pre-existing interaction," Atature said. "This modifies the strength of spin-wave modes it can activate, and this is what is entirely unique about our approach. As a result, combining measurements of multiple spin-wave modes, we were able to use the electron as a 'witness' for entanglement amongst the nuclei in the ensemble."

The researchers' method of observing many-body systems using a 'proxy' electron spin qubit opens new and interesting possibilities for probing nuclear ensembles without relying on individual spin readouts. In contrast with previously proposed methods, their approach leverages the native connectivity of a proxy qubit in contact interaction with a dense nuclear ensemble, ultimately extracting interesting information from these systems, including their quantum properties.

"Perhaps an analogy to our approach could be an orchestra, where one can tell if musicians are performing well together without prior knowledge of every instrument separately," Le Gall said. "Our study also showed for the first time that a nuclear spin ensemble in a semiconductor quantum dot (amongst the very best single photon sources in the world) can host many-spin entanglement and can therefore be used as a large quantum resource efficiently connected to light."

In the future, the new technique for probing the spin states of nuclear ensembles could pave the way toward the development of new quantum technology. The research team is now trying to engineer the quantum dots examined in their paper to ensure that their spin ensembles have greater coherence and exhibit more quantum properties.

"This will be critical if we want to use quantum dot nuclei for a quantum memory," Gangloff said. "Once we achieve more coherenceparticularly with a new generation of quantum dots, based on a different growth method, that show a very promising hundredfold improvement over the quantum dots used thus farour plans involve crafting the nuclei into evermore controlled quantum states, understanding how entanglement is lost and can be preserved in this many-body system, and demonstrating that this resource can be used in quantum computing and quantum communication."

Explore further Light used to detect quantum information stored in 100,000 nuclear quantum bits

Provided by Science X Network

 2021 Science X Network
Credit: Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science

The behavior of avalanches has generated interest among physicists for the insights that they can provide about many other systems, not least of which is how snow falls down a mountainside. To that end, a team of researchers studied microscopic arrays of nanomagnets that provide the first experimental demonstration of a classic theoretical model, known as the "one-dimensional random field Ising model." The results were published today in Physical Review Letters.

For the study, researchers set up the arrays of nanomagnets in the lab of Peter Schiffer, the Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics, who led the experiment. The nanomagnets, which are a few millionths of an inch in dimension, interact with each other just like two refrigerator magnets put close together. The array is first initialized so that, in alternating rows, half of the nanomagnets had the north pole pointing up and half had the north pole pointing down.

Using a large electromagnet, the team applied a magnetic field to the array, causing a fraction of the nanomagnets to flip their poles and magnetically align in the other direction. To detect the changes, they used a magnetic force microscope that has an extremely small magnetic needle that is either pulled down toward or pushed up away from the magnet, depending on whether it's going over the north pole or the south.

Among their findings is that the magnet poles flip in clusters along the rows of the arrays, with each microscopic flipping begetting another group of magnets to flip polesthe way that an avalanche works.

"That's a key point, because when one flips, that adds an extra impetus on the next one," Schiffer said. "What we measure is really the distribution of these clusters that have flipped. How many small ones? How many bigger ones? And then the distribution of those clusters is what we compare to the model, which makes a prediction about how those clusters should be distributed."

It is the first experiment to accurately reflect the random field Ising model in one dimension, which is one of the fundamental models for physicists to describe how things happen in large groups. Specifically, it involves things that can be in one of two statesin this case, things that are either pointing up or pointing down.

"What the model predicts is what that distribution of avalanche sizes should be," he said. "And that's what we see very cleanlywe measured the distribution of how the magnet poles flip, and it matches incredibly well what the expectations were."

One benefit of having a clean experimental demonstration is that carefully designed variations on this well-controlled microscopic system could help researchers understand and predict much more complicated phenomena in the real world, such as how certain materials fall apart when pulled, or what causes electrical breakdowns in circuits.

Explore further A compass pointing west

More information: N. S. Bingham et al, Experimental Realization of the 1D Random Field Ising Model, Physical Review Letters (2021). Journal information: Physical Review Letters N. S. Bingham et al, Experimental Realization of the 1D Random Field Ising Model,(2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.207203
Leaf cover at Reserva Natural El Hatico near Palmira, Colombia. Credit: Neil Palmer / CIAT

Grand global commitments to plant trees to fight climate change are welcome. Healthy landscapes that suck planet-heating carbon out of the atmospherelocking it into forests and soilsare among the best technologies there are yet to bend the Keeling Curve in a new direction. Tree planting is no alternative to ending the burning of fossil fuels, but along with zero deforestation, restoration can draw carbon out of the atmosphere while simultaneously benefiting biodiversity, food security and livelihoods.

But where to begin? Many landscape restoration projects do not get off to a good start, jeopardizing their chances to make a long-term positive impact. It's not just a simple as planting saplings and letting nature take over. Is the soil badly compacted from decades of cattle grazing? How eroded or nutrient-deficient is the ground? What, exactly, are your aims for a particular restoration project? And, especially in the hyper-diverse tropics, are you selecting the correct tree species?

Answering these often-overlooked questions can be the difference between a successful restoration project and a failed one. A new tool developed by scientists at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (and colleagues around the globe) can help. The Diversity for Restoration (D4R) tool is a straightforward, five-parameter survey that tailors the choice of tree species and seed sources to location, objectives and local environmental conditions in tropical forests. Originally designed for the dry forests of Colombia, the tool now works for Peru, Ecuador, Burkina Faso and Cameroon. More countries will be online soon.

The tool's description was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

"Governments in many countries are all announcing big plans about tree planting but they cannot always execute these plans effectively," said Chris Kettle, an Alliance scientist and co-author. "The D4R tool facilitates on-the-ground decision-making that cannot be provided by satellite-based tools that, while very useful to land management and forest monitoring, do not provide the information that is needed to make sure that the selected tree species match the local site conditions and restoration objectives put forward by the restoration initiative, taking into account local cultural, political and environmental considerations.

The right questions

D4R is not just a guide to the technical aspects of restoration. Crucially, it makes prospective landscape restorers think about more than just the biophysical aspects of restoration. One reason restoration projects are not always effective is because they do not always consider landowners, local customs and the specific objectives of restoration.

Unless the objective is "natural" ecosystem restoration via the propagation of native tree species on land free of people and livestockideally from seeds brought in by bats, birds and small mammals from a large, adjacent protected reservea restoration project needs careful planning, execution and monitoring.

"With an unprecedented amount of new restoration commitments and investments coming online, there will be many new players getting into this without much knowledge or prior experience," said Evert Thomas, a co-author from the Alliance. "And climate change also makes restoration more of a challenge. It's more important than ever to select the species that are most likely to survive the critical, early phase of restoration for any project to be a long-term success."

Objectives can run the gamut from the "simple" expansion of protected forest reserves to intensification of silvopastoral farming systems that integrate trees for fruit and timber, livestock, soil-improving shrubs and grasses and produce.

"If outside donors come in with plans to plant trees, and tree species choices don't match with what people really are interested in, then there's a high risk that the project will be abandoned and become a failure," Evert said. "The tool not only takes into consideration selecting the right species based on what's possible in a place, taking into account climate change, functional traits, genetics and what have you. But it does this in a way where local stakeholders can focus on their objectives. Do I want to store carbon and promote wildlife? Do I want to harvest firewood and protect my watershed? What risks factors does my location have? Is there soil erosion or cattle that will eat my seedlings?"

Seeing the data for the forest

Even before the start of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, which runs through 2030, major commitments to restoration were made under the Bonn Challenge, a 2011 initiative of the German government and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. More than 200 million hectares have been pledged, which has created ample material to study how well restoration projects are going. The data can inform new commitments, and D4R helps organize this knowledge.

"Compiling and combining all this knowledge for decision-makers is really a lot of work," said Tobias Fremout, the study's lead author and scientist at KU Leuven. "D4R is doing a bit of that work for them by integrating all types of data into a format that's really easy to use."

The tool also helps restoration planners to tap into local biodiversity, instead of solely relying on the typical go-to species of tropical forest restoration such as teak, eucalyptus and pine. While non-native species often play a critical role in producing valuable timber forests, many of the tens of thousands of tropical tree species that can contribute to better restoration are increasingly better understood.

"With this tool, we're trying to make sure that lack of knowledge on lesser-known species is not an excuse to have less diversity in restoration projects," Fremout said.

Explore further Planting new forests with high functional diversity helps improve productivity

More information: Tobias Fremout et al, Diversity for Restoration (D4R): guiding the selection of tree species and seed sources for climateresilient restoration of tropical forest landscapes, Journal of Applied Ecology (2021). Tobias Fremout et al, Diversity for Restoration (D4R): guiding the selection of tree species and seed sources for climateresilient restoration of tropical forest landscapes,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.14079 Click here to see the Diversity for Restoration (D4R) tool. Journal information: Journal of Applied Ecology

Provided by The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Young's experiment for photons in the reciprocal space. Spin patterns corresponding to the persistent spin Helix. Credit: Mateusz Krol, Faculty of Physics UW

Scientists have, for the first time, demonstrated Young's experiment for photons in the reciprocal space. Spin patterns corresponding to the persistent spin helix and the Stern-Gerlach experiment are realized in an optically anisotropic liquid crystal microcavity. By applying electric voltage across the microcavity, the liquid crystal molecules inside could be rotated in such a way that the light passing through the cavity was forced to change its internal state into right- and left-handed circular polarized components.

Young's experiment from almost 220 years ago shows that when light waves pass through two slits in a plate they undergo diffraction that creates an image composed of many fringes (the so-called interference image). The closer the slits are to each other, the further the interference fringes are separated. In this way, the two slits transform information about the light from position space into the so-called "reciprocal space"the space of directions. Changing the distance between the slits changes the angle (and thus direction) at which the light is diffracted. From 1801, Young's experiment has been carried out not only on light, but also on electrons, atoms and even large molecules.

It turns out that a similar experiment can be performed in reciprocal space where light beams emitted in two directions should also lead to a periodic pattern in position space.

In an article published in Physical Review Letters, scientists from the University of Warsaw, the Military University of Technology in Warsaw, Institute of Physics Polish Academy of Sciences and the University of Southampton demonstrated Young's experiment for photons in the reciprocal space. For this purpose, a special optical microcavity filled with a liquid crystal was prepared. The microcavity consists of two perfect mirrors located so close to each other that a standing electromagnetic wave is formed inside. By applying electric voltage across the microcavity, the liquid crystal molecules inside could be rotated in such a way that linearly polarized plane wave light passing through the cavity was forced to change its internal state into right- and left-handed circular polarized components that deflected in opposite directions from the original beam path.

It was similar to the situation of Young's experimentthis time, however, the role of slits was played by two distinguished directions of light in the "reciprocal space." On the sample surfacethat is, on the "position space"an interference pattern of light polarization was observed, composed of linearly polarized stripes. Previously, a similar phenomenon was observed for electronsmodulation of the polarization of spins of electrons in position space led to the formation of the so-called persistent spin helix. It turned out that the liquid crystal microcavity led to the same mathematical description of such a helix for the electron spin and for the polarization of light. Scientists interpreted this phenomenon as a classic entanglement of two degrees of freedomthe direction and polarization of light.

The observation that the optical microcavity with a liquid crystal, in a way, separates the "spin" of lightwith the circular polarization playing the role of the spinalmost coincided with the 100th anniversary of the discovery of spin in the famous experiment of Stern and Gerlach in 1922. Thus, in one work, an optical analogy of two fundamental experiments of quantum mechanics were observed. The work is published in Physical Review Letters.

Explore further Controlling electrons and vibrations in a crystal with polarized light

More information: Mateusz Krol et al, Realizing Optical Persistent Spin Helix and Stern-Gerlach Deflection in an Anisotropic Liquid Crystal Microcavity, Physical Review Letters (2021). Journal information: Physical Review Letters Mateusz Krol et al, Realizing Optical Persistent Spin Helix and Stern-Gerlach Deflection in an Anisotropic Liquid Crystal Microcavity,(2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.190401
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

As the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, enters its final day Friday, global leaders can point to signs of real progress. But the Earth is still headed for a dangerous level of warming.

The point of these talks was for countries to announce ambitious carbon-cutting pledges that would prevent the world from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

That did not happen. Despite some new promises, and old promises repackaged as new ones, an analysis by the independent group Climate Action Tracker found that with all the short-term pledges added together, the world is likely to heat up by 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3 degrees Fahrenheit) this century. That's better than the path the world was on before the Paris agreement six years ago, when scientists predicted nearly 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming. But the consequences would still be catastrophic, resulting in deadlier wildfires and floods, famine and the extinction of more species.

Negotiations over what countries will do to combat climate change going forward are still ongoing. Here's a look at what's been accomplished so farand what remains unresolved.

Side deals were the main event this time

This year's summit was unusual. Typically, the main event is the final agreement, painfully hammered out over two weeks of daily negotiations between representatives from nearly 200 countries. This time, most of the action happened on the sidelines:

Nearly 100 countries joined a global pledge to limit emissions of methane, a planet-warming gas more potent as a polluter than carbon dioxide. Still more signed a pact to prevent further deforestation by 2030.

A coalition of countries, cities and automakers, including Ford, General Motors, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz, committed to phase out sales of new fossil-fuel vehicles by 2040 and by 2035 in "leading markets."

More than 40 countries pledged to phase out coal by 2030 and stop building coal-fired power plants, helping eliminate the largest source of planet-warming gases globally.

In a test of whether industrialized nations are capable of helping developing countries shift to cleaner sources of energy, South Africa reached a deal with the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and the European Union under which it would receive $8.5 billion over the next five years to transition away from coal.

The U.S., Denmark and other countries agreed to work toward zeroing out emissions from the shipping industry by 2050 and creating at least six zero-emission shipping routes. If these changes are enacted, governments could require, for example, that only emissions-free ships travel from Shanghai to Los Angeles.

There are reasons to be skeptical of many of these agreements, environmental advocates said. Brazil and Indonesia, countries that are destroying their forests, joined the deforestation pledge. And some of the world's largest coal-burning countries, including China, Australia and India, didn't sign the pledge to phase out the fossil fuel.

But the level of deal-making at the summit is an "enormous sign of success," said Sarah Ladislaw, a managing director at the independent, Colorado-based clean energy research organization the Rocky Mountain Institute. More than ever before, she said, countries, industry, investors and philanthropists are working together to reach side deals that could have a huge effect, adding that the conference should not be judged solely on whether "something very big and new" came out of the official negotiating process.

Beyond swagger, what went down between the U.S. and China?

Doubts that the U.S. and China, the top emitting countries in the world, were willing to work together on climate hung over the summit from the beginning. Chinese President Xi Jinping's absence led President Biden to publicly criticize him for skipping the summita scolding that prompted the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman to accuse the U.S. of offering only "empty words" instead of concrete climate policies.

Despite the rhetoric, American and Chinese officials had been working together for months. The countries unveiled a statement Wednesday in which they pledged to put aside their differences and "raise ambition in the 2020s" to address climate change.

The deal itself mostly restated previous pledges, but the fact that the envoys of the two countries that together produce about 40% of global emissions could agree to even a vague goal was "confidence building," said Kelly Sims Gallagher, professor of energy and environmental policy at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

"We're all in this really hyper-politicized environment, and the fact that this came together shows that they're trying to inject some momentum into the negotiations," Gallagher said.

What the U.S. left on the table

"America showed up," Biden said at the summit, where he touted the U.S.'s participation in the talks and apologized for former President Trump's exit from the Paris agreement, which the country has since rejoined. He called on other nations to increase their climate goals, saying that "we only have a brief window before us to raise our ambitions."

But at a couple of key moments, the U.S. was noticeably absent.

The White House did not join the pledge to phase out coal in the coming decades, even though coal's decline as a source of power in America has accelerated significantly. Nor did the U.S. sign the agreement to phase out gas- and diesel-powered cars, joining China and Japan in withholding its support from a deal that could have a greater influence if all threesome of the largest car markets in the worldhad backed it.

Experts said the decision to abstain from these pledges spoke volumes about America's domestic politics and the influence of the coal, oil and gas industries. The American negotiators may also have been reluctant to antagonize Sen. Joe Manchin III, a centrist Democrat from the coal state of West Virginia, whose support the president will need if his biggest climate policies are to win approval. The Democrats' spending bill faces an uphill battle in Congress, despite its pared-down measures.

Youth climate activists made their case in the streets

Thousands of climate activists traveled to Glasgow to demand countries act faster to combat climate change. Many of them were young protesters, including Greta Thunberg of Sweden and Vanessa Nakate, an activist from Uganda, who have achieved international recognition by publicly calling out world leaders for failing to take action and ignoring the demands of developing countries.

Summit attendees said that COVID-19 protocols made it much more difficult this year for protesters to confront international leaders in person. But outside of the formal negotiations, side events, panels and marches offered the activists a platform to make their displeasure known.

They may have affected the proceedings' tone. There were boastful claims of progress, but these were often tempered by acknowledgments that the math doesn't add up and more cuts will have to be made to keep global warming in check.

"Let me emphasize as strongly as I can: Job not done," John Kerry, Biden's climate change envoy, said at a news conference last week. "But this is doable if we follow through."

What happens next?

The summit inspired a flurry of new climate pledges from governments and industry. But in the weeks and months ahead, government officials and researchers will be watching closely to see whether they lead to concrete action.

Biden's spending bill faces an uncertain future. A new Supreme Court case brought by West Virginia and other coal states could block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon pollution from power plants. And if Democrats lose their majorities in Congress in the midterm elections, Biden would likely find his path to future emissions reductions blocked by Republicans.

The report by Climate Action Tracker found that of all the pledges countries have made to get to zero emissions, only fourBritain, Costa Rica, Chile and the EUhave detailed plans to achieve that.

What's more, many of the major challenges that presented themselves at the beginning of the summit remain unresolved, including whether wealthy countries will come up with the $100 billion a year they previously promised to developing nations by 2020 to help them transition to cleaner sources of energy.

Negotiations will likely continue at the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, as well as the next meeting of energy ministers from around the world in Pittsburgh in late 2022.

"We've got all these promises. We've got all these pledges," Ladislaw said. "But now we will see what countries are prepared to do."

Explore further Draft deal at UN climate talks calls for end to coal use

2021 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Rink Hoekstra and Simine Vazire, psychologists with the University of Groningen and the University of California, Davis, respectively, have published a Perspective piece in the journal Nature Human Behavior calling for more humility in the social, behavioral and life sciences. In their paper they outline a methodology for imbuing intellectual humility into the paper writing and publishing process.

As Hoekstra and Vazire note, there has been a crisis of sorts in the social, behavioral and life sciences over the past few years, involving multiple reports of the inability to replicate results in academic papers. The authors contend that this is due to a lack of intellectual humility and suggest that there is too much bragging and not enough acknowledgment of the limitations inherent in such work. They suggest a more humble approach is needed if the factors that led to the crisis are to be changed, and they have created guidelines aimed at changing the publishing process. They believe this will restore faith in the work being done.

The suggested changes include making titles and extracts more honest in their descriptions of the work and the achievements. Similar changes need to be made in introductions; researchers need to stop exaggerating the impact of their work and certain elements of the work itself. Methods sections need to remain true to their intended purposeoutlining the work in a way that allows others to replicate what was done. Unflattering details should not be omitted, nor should explanations of why decisions were made. They also suggest that researchers alter their focus in the results section; instead of including only the positive aspects of the research, they suggest giving readers some insight into some of the challenges faced or examples of things that did not work out as planned. And then finally, in the discussion section, they suggest researchers avoid trying to give ironclad results when they are not warranted. In many social science experiments, they note, results may suggest a finding rather than actually showing it exists.

The team concludes by noting that changing perceptions of researchers in the softer sciences will not be easy but failing to do so could prove disastrous for everyone in the field if changes are not made.

Explore further A global effort to understand why some people are resistant to SARS-CoV-2 infections

More information: Rink Hoekstra et al, Aspiring to greater intellectual humility in science, Nature Human Behaviour (2021). Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour Rink Hoekstra et al, Aspiring to greater intellectual humility in science,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01203-8

 2021 Science X Network
The City University of Hong Kong research team used this photocatalytic reactor to do experiments on the hydrogen-producing photocatalyst. Credit: City University of Hong Kong

Green hydrogen production from solar water splitting has attracted a great deal of interest in recent years because hydrogen is a fuel of high energy density. A research team co-led by scholars from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Germany discovered the quantum confinement effect in a photocatalyst of a 3D-ordered macroporous structure. The quantum confinement effect was found to enable hydrogen production under visible light. The findings offer an option for addressing energy and environmental challenges.

The research was co-led by Dr. Ng Yun Hau, Associate Professor in CityU's School of Energy and Environment (SEE), and researchers from Germany. Their findings were published in the scientific journal ACS Energy Letters, titled "Unveiling Carrier Dynamics in Periodic Porous BiVO 4 Photocatalyst for Enhanced Solar Water Splitting."

New hydrogen-producing function of oxygen-producing photocatalyst

Dr. Ng, an expert in photocatalysis research, pointed out that the typical photocatalyst for solar water splitting can absorb ultraviolet light only from the solar spectrum, which accounts for about 4% of the energy from sunlight. In contrast, bismuth vanadate (BiVO 4 ), a metal oxide photocatalyst responsive to both ultraviolet and visible light, can absorb up to 30% of the energy in the solar spectrum.

BiVO 4 in a 3D-ordered macroporous (3DOM) structure has received considerable attention owing to its superior performance. The improved photocatalytic activities of this structure are often attributed to the larger surface area, high light absorption, and suppressed charge recombination.

The City University of Hong Kong research team investigated the distinct carrier dynamics of bismuth vanadate in different structures. Credit: City University of Hong Kong

However, there were no systematic studies that correlate the influence of the charge transport of highly ordered porous nanostructure on photoactivity. Dr. Ng and his team took on this challenge and investigated the distinct carrier dynamics of 3DOM and plate-like BiVO 4 samples, as well as their efficiency in photocatalysis.

The team discovered that in the water-splitting process under visible light, the amount of oxygen produced by the 3DOM BiVO 4 photocatalyst is almost two times that produced by the plate-like BiVO 4 . Furthermore, the 3DOM BiVO 4 photocatalyst exhibited higher anodic photocurrent density than the plate-like form. Therefore, 3DOM BiVO 4 has higher photocatalysis efficiency. "To our surprise, BiVO 4 , originally an oxygen-producing photocatalyst, also produced hydrogen during water splitting under visible light when it was in the 3DOM structure. This had never previously been reported," said Dr. Ng.

Quantum confinement effect discovered

How can BiVO 4 in a 3DOM structure produce hydrogen? Dr. Wu Hao, the first author of the paper, who is the energy stream leader in Dr. Ng's laboratory, shared one of the highlights of this study. "We discovered that quantum confinement arising from the ultrathin, crystalline wall of 3DOM BiVO 4 raised its conduction band. It enables photocatalytic proton reduction to hydrogen under visible-light illumination, allowing hydrogen to be generated from water splitting." Quantum confinement refers to changes in electronic and optical properties such as energy levels and band gaps when the size of the material is reduced to nanoscale.

Figure a shows a scanning electron microscope image of the 3DOM BiVO4 sample; Figure b is a plate-like sample. Credit: Hao Wu, Rowshanak Irani, Kunfeng Zhang, et al

"BiVO 4 in general cannot produce hydrogen because of its position of the conduction band. Now thanks to the quantum confinement effect, which raised its conduction band, hydrogen can be produced. This is also the first time that quantum confinement effect was found in 3DOM BiVO 4 ," Dr. Ng explained.

The research team also discovered that even without using a co-catalyst, 3DOM BiVO 4 can still produce hydrogen from solutions under visible-light illumination, while the plate-like BiVO 4 showed only negligible hydrogen production. A co-catalyst is a substance that facilitates the function of a catalyst. It can provide accumulating sites for photo-generated charges and promote charge separation.

The team also applied advanced techniques, including time-resolved microwave conductivity, to investigate BiVO 4 photocatalyst in 3DOM and plate-like structures. They discovered that compared with the plate-like structure, 3DOM BiVO 4 has about six times higher charge mobility, about 18 times longer charge carrier lifetime, and about nine times longer effective diffusion length, thus enhancing the efficiency of photocatalysis.

Plate-like bismuth vanadate produces negligible hydrogen, but 3DOM bismuth vanadate produces hydrogen under visible-light illumination. Credit: Hao Wu, Rowshanak Irani, Kunfeng Zhang, et al

Next goal: Waste-water splitting

This study represents a fundamental step in understanding charge transport in metal oxide semiconductors and highly ordered porous structure.

The next goal of Dr. Ng and his team is to split wastewater and explore methods to scale up photocatalytic systems. "Hydrogen produced from solar water splitting is a green process without any carbon emissions," said Dr. Ng. "Hydrogen can be used for industrial purposes and in fuel cells for electricity. We expect this technology to have a wider application in the future, as there is high demand for producing hydrogen from green resources."

Explore further Sunlight-driven photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production at scale

More information: Hao Wu et al, Unveiling Carrier Dynamics in Periodic Porous BiVO 4 Photocatalyst for Enhanced Solar Water Splitting, ACS Energy Letters (2021). Hao Wu et al, Unveiling Carrier Dynamics in Periodic Porous BiVOPhotocatalyst for Enhanced Solar Water Splitting,(2021). DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.1c01454
Credit: C3S

ESA's latest CubeSatRadCube, for surveying space weather in low-Earth orbithas completed its rigorous commissioning phase, culminating in the extension of a magnetometer boom longer than the miniature satellite itself.

The surface of Earth is a rare low-radiation oasis, largely protected from the charged particles riddling space by our planet's magnetic field. RadCube is a mission to demonstrate miniaturized technologies for measuring this space radiation environment as well as magnetic field strengthall within a satellite that could fit into an airliner carry-on bag.

CubeSats are satellites assembled from standardized 10-cm boxes. RadCube is a three-unit CubeSat, newly developed for ESA by C3S in Hungary.

Hungary's Centre for Energy Research (EK) contributed the payload controller system and a radiation telescope to the mission, combining two detectors to measure the direction as well as energy of charged particles. The UK's Imperial College built a magnetometer consisting of two sensors, one within the CubeSat and another at the end of a rolled-out 80 cm boom, which comes from Astronika in Poland.

Launched aboard ESA's Vega launcher flight VV19 in August, RadCube also hosts an ESA experiment to test the resilience of computer memories against space radiation.

"The all-new CubeSat platform and the precision of RadCube's miniature instruments demanded a complex commissioning process, which has now been successfully completed," explains Dorottya Milankovich from C3S.

"The full extension of the magnetometer boom marked a dramatic final milestone; this is a necessary feature to prevent any anomalous magnetic measurements emitted from the satellite itself," says Dominik Nolbert from Astronika.

Jonathan Eastwood from Imperial College adds: "In fact, the outboard magnetometer data clearly shows no magnetic noise coming from RadCube, with results well in line with expected values from Earth magnetic field models."

"RadCube's radiation measurements are also showing good comparison data with other satellites, revealing elevated radiation levels from the recent solar storm," says Attila Hirn from EK.

Explore further First light from Sunstorm CubeSat
SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts (L-R) Matthias Maurer, Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron during training.

A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, kicking off a six-month stay on the orbiting outpost.

This mission known as Crew-3 is part of NASA's multibillion-dollar partnership with Elon Musk's space company, signed after the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011 and aimed at restoring US capacity to carry out human spaceflight, rather than depend on Russia for links to the ISS.

The ISS had been operating with just one NASA astronaut in the US segment to welcome the incoming crew, after the astronauts of the earlier Crew-2 mission splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday.

Crew-3's Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn of the United States and Matthias Maurer of Germany traveled to space aboard a Crew Dragon capsule fixed to a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They blasted off late Wednesday.

The spaceship, called Endurance, docked with the ISS around 7:10 pm Thursday (0010 GMT Friday).

The flight was initially postponed from October 31, first for weather, then a "minor medical issue" affecting one of the crew. NASA did not say who it was but said it was not Covid-related.

Chari, a US Air Force colonel, is commanding the mission and making his first trip to space, along with Barron and Maurer.

Graphic on the Spacex's Crew-3 mission to send four astronauts to the International Space Station.

Marshburn, a medical doctor, flew aboard a Space Shuttle in 2009 and a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in a mission from 2012-13.

Barron, who along with Chari was selected for the NASA astronaut corps in 2017, the most recent recruitment, previously served as a submarine warfare officer for the Navy, while Maurer, a materials science engineer, is the 12th German to go into space.

The quartet will spend six months on the orbital outpost and conduct research to help inform future deep space exploration and benefit life on Earth.

Scientific highlights of the mission include an experiment to grow plants in space without soil or other growth media, and another to build optical fibers in microgravity, which prior research has suggested will be superior in quality to those made on Earth.

The Crew-3 astronauts will also conduct spacewalks to complete an upgrade of the station's solar panels and will be present for two tourism missions, including Japanese visitors aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft at the end of the year and the Space-X Axiom crew, set for launch in February 2022.

Explore further SpaceX launching four astronauts to ISS

 2021 AFP
Infrared spectrum of N-defect related absorption bands. Blue: A-type defects, red: Btype defects, green: D-type defects. Right panel: Spectrum of diamond at location of davemaoite (black) and reference spectrum taken 50 micrometer afar (red). The spectra were offset and rescaled. The arrow indicates the principal absorption band of davemaoite that is not observed in the reference spectrum. Credit: DOI: 10.1126/science.abl8568

A team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions in the U.S. has found a sample of a mineral previously believed to be unable to exist in nature. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their study of a diamond found in Orapa, Botswana and the mineral specks they found trapped inside. Yingwei Fei with the Carnegie Institution for Science has published a Perspectives piece in the same journal issue outlining the work by the team and explaining why the mineral find is important to geology.

In 1975, a team of researchers created what Fei describes as a "high-pressure phase of aSiO 3 "a mineral that had been theorized to exist, but only under certain conditions. To synthesize the mineral, the researchers had to place its building materials under high heat and pressure conditions. They noted that as soon as the pressure was relieved, the mineral immediately changed to a form of glass. This finding suggested that it was not likely that the mineral could exist in nature. That assumption has now been proven wrong, as the diamond found in Botswana contained three tiny samples of it.

Because the mineral, now called calcium silicate perovskite, can only form under extreme heat and pressure conditions, the researchers suspect the specks they found in the diamond had to form deep below the Earth's surfaceperhaps as far down as 660 to 900 km. They note that calcium silicate is found in multiple forms, one of which is wollastonitea mineral found in the Earth's crust. They note also that material in the crust and mantle moves between the two because rocks are pushed around by plate tectonics. Prior research has shown that as they move, minerals in the rocks often undergo transformations, but some become trapped in diamond.

Diamond is a sort of base material; once conditions arise for its formation, the resulting diamond remains intact regardless of what goes on around it. The researchers suspect a form of calcium silicate (such as wollastonite) found itself in just the right conditions to form calcium silicate perovskite far below the surface and shortly thereafter found itself surrounded by carbon that was in the process of being pressed into a diamond. After that, the material surrounding the diamond carried it upward until it reached the surface, where it was found. The researchers have named it "davemaoite," after noted geologist Ho-Kwang "Dave" Mao.

Brief overview of findings by Oliver Tschauner

More information: Oliver Tschauner et al, Discovery of davemaoite, CaSiO 3 -perovskite, as a mineral from the lower mantle, Science (2021). Oliver Tschauner et al, Discovery of davemaoite, CaSiO-perovskite, as a mineral from the lower mantle,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abl8568 Yingwei Fei, Perovskite retrieved from the lower mantle, Science (2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abm4742 Journal information: Science

 2021 Science X Network
GLENS FALLS  Military service, by its very nature, is temporary.

The legacy of that service, however, can benefit generations for centuries, said Bob Zink, commander of American Legion Post 233 in Glens Falls.

The American Legion and the city of Glens Falls held its annual observance of Veterans Day at 11 a.m. Thursday in front of the Peace and Victory Monument in Crandall Park.

Fewer than 10% of Americans can claim the title veteran, Zink told a crowd of nearly 50 people. Thats less than one-half of 1% of our population that currently serves.

Guest speaker Jon Mike Michael, the commander of VFW Post 2475 in Glens Falls, served with the Army from 1981 to 1984, then served in the Navy from 1984 to 1999, and then the Air Force from 1999 to 2013.

He served in Grenada, Desert Storm, Panama, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

He called Veterans Day a time for celebration and reflection.

The veteran represents a fundamental truth, Michael said. Its not the powerful weapons that make our military the greatest in the world. Its the strength of our military, spirit and skill of our men and women who have worn or now wear the uniform of our nations military.

Glens Falls Mayor Dan Hall, wearing an Army sweatshirt, said todays soldiers willingly volunteer to put themselves in harms way.

At best they come home having faced danger and survived. At worst, they pay the ultimate sacrifice with their lives, Hall said. But there can be no doubt every one of our veterans has earned our unwavering gratitude for their dedication to the cause of freedom and sacrifice on our behalf.

Veterans Day, explained Queensbury Supervisor John Strough, a retired history teacher, was originally called Armistice Day and was celebrated on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, signaling the end of World War I in 1918.

The name was officially changed in 1954 to Veterans Day by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Veterans Day observed annually on today, Nov. 11, is a tribute to our military veterans who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, Strough explained, not to be confused with Memorial Day, which honors those who died as a part of their service. Veterans Day honors all military veterans, including those who are still with us.

Veterans Day is a day to be grateful and celebrate, Strough said.

We are here today to pay honor and appreciation to our veterans, Strough continued. Every veteran has a story, a family and deep sense of duty to our nation and to you and to me. And because of their sacrifices, we still have our freedom. The least we can do is have a day to pay recognition to our veterans. So happy Veterans Day.

Gretta Hochsprung can be reached at 518-742-3206 or ghochsprung@poststar.com.

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.
City Councils ordinance called for its closure on Oct. 12, 30 days after it took effect.

That 30-day period caused Blee some concern.

Two or three councilmen who voted for it (to close) said, We will continue to talk (about finding a new location outside of the tourist district), Blee said. Then you want to eliminate the program in 30 days?

Is that arbitrary and capricious? Blee asked, referring to actions that would provide ammunition for the AIDS Alliance case.

I dont view that it is, Hak said. Regardless of where the program is in the city, we dont think its a benefit. We need to discontinue the program.

The judge also said the city had not provided proof that the program has no benefit, while the AIDS Alliance had state data showing new HIV cases plummeted 91% among the citys intravenous drug users after the program started.

Youre stopping that program with no explanation other than concerns  legitimate concerns  about needles found throughout the city and the city having the burden? the judge asked. Shouldnt there be some analysis of where we were when the program came in and its effectiveness, at least in the (ordinances) preamble?

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}
Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Later that day, Coast Guard members offered a much louder salute, using cannons for a 21-gun salute just before 11 a.m. That was the time the armistice ending World War I took effect on Nov. 11, 1918. The cannon salute, followed by two minutes of silence and the playing of taps, marked the 100th anniversary of the interment of an unidentifiable member of the American Expeditionary Forces of World War I in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery.

In the brief morning ceremony, Felger welcomed the veterans, and spoke to several companies of recruits gathered around the memorial.

Today, we honor the millions of veterans around the nation and nearly 7,000 in Cape May County for the hard work and sacrifices theyve given to preserve freedom and the American way of life in wartime and peacetime operations, she said. We recognize freedom is never achieved without sacrifice.

She and others said members of the military forgo comfort and home in service of their country and their community. She also cited the young men and women undertaking a challenging and stressful training program at the training center.

After the rifle salute, a bugler played taps.
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP  A retired Superior Court judge and author of the state legislation that brought casino gaming to Atlantic City was honored for his work during the Hughes Center Honors event Wednesday night at Stockton University.

Steven P. Perskie received the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to New Jersey public life at the event sponsored by the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University.

It is a great honor to be standing up here today amongst all of you, to receive this lifetime achievement award, Perskie said. So it is with a full heart and my deepest appreciation, to all who have helped me along the way that I conclude by simply telling you that tonight I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.
While the officers were there for the veterans, the veterans in turn recognized the emergency responders. Mike Morrissey, the commander of VFW Post 6650, began his remarks by thanking the police and firefighters.

We realize that you are a special breed. Some of you must carry guns to work. Some of you run into burning buildings at work, Morrissey said. All because you want to keep your families and people that you dont even know in your community safe. So thank you very much for those sacrifices.

He also spoke of the sacrifices made by veterans, and asked those who have not served in the armed forces to thank veterans that day and every day. He said veterans were willing to offer their lives if necessary.

To all my fellow veterans who served honorably, welcome home and thank you for your service to this great country, he said.

Veterans are honored on Veterans Day and Memorial Day, said Bob Marzulli, the commander of American Legion Post 524, but members of the armed services protect America at all times.

Their heroism that has been demonstrated time and again by veterans from the American Revolution to the global war on terrorism is sometimes unnoticed by those that enjoy the security that their sacrifice has provided, Marzulli said.
WASHINGTON  RFE/RL honors the memory of RFE/RL Afghan Service senior correspondent Mohammad Ilyas Dayee, who was killed one year ago today in a targeted car bombing near his home in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Afghanistans southern Helmand Province, as well as the sacrifices of Dayees Afghan Service colleagues in the tumultuous year that has passed since he was assassinated.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said, Mohammad Ilyas Dayees death both presaged the tragic events of this past summer, when everything changed in Afghanistan, and directed a harsh spotlight on the professional and human toll that became a daily reality for all journalists in the country. Dayee was a hero of his chosen profession and remains a model of excellence for RFE/RL as we re-establish our reporting presence in exile, outside of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

WATCH: Comments by RFE/RLs Jamie Fly and Qadir Habib, during the unveiling of Dayees portrait on the USAGM Memorial Wall (October 29, 2021)

Dayee, 33, who had been associated with RFE/RL since 2008, regularly reported on the dangerous security situation in Helmand and its impact on civilians in his native province. Dayee also gave Radio Azadi, as the Afghan Service is known locally, some of its most incisive reports on the drug trade in Helmandthe source for most of the worlds illicit opium production.

Dayee is one of several RFE/RL journalists to be killed in Afghanistan since the organization resumed broadcasting in the country in January 2002. Three Radio Free Afghanistan journalists  Sabawoon Kakar, Abadullah Hananzai, and Maharram Durrani  died in April 2018 in a bombing attack in Kabul that killed at least 25 people, including 9 journalists.

Other RFE/RL journalists in Afghanistan have regularly endured death threats and other forms of harassment, from both Taliban and Islamic State forces.

The first anniversary of Mr. Dayees brutal murder comes against the backdrop of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and subsequent takeover of the country by the Taliban. Since the Taliban returned to power, the twenty-year expansion of free media in Afghanistan has come to a sudden end, with numerous media freedom and human rights groups decrying attacks on journalists and restrictive journalism rules that have driven women out of the profession.

Said Fly, Dayee paid the ultimate price for his and Radio Azadis journalism, but recent months have shown that he was not by any means the only journalist threatened by extremist forces in Afghanistan. We appreciate the support that Afghan journalists have received from the U.S. and other governments, but more needs to be done accelerate the safe passage of vulnerable media professionals who want to leave the country.

The changing reality of producing journalism in Afghanistan has also forced RFE/RL to take dramatic steps to protect its staff, including the closure of its Kabul bureau, and evacuation of threatened local journalists from the country.

RFE/RLs efforts to protect its staff has not lessened its commitment to serving its Dari- and Pashto-speaking audiences in Afghanistan. RFE/RL is establishing a new reporting hub, to provide a safe environment for journalists who formerly worked in Radio Azadis Kabul Bureau to continue their reporting activity outside of Afghanistan.

The Service also continues to produce impactful reporting from inside Afghanistan. A new call-in program, Giving Voice To Afghan School Girls, provides a space for female students banned from attending school by the Taliban to share their thoughts and opinions. On another call-in show, Afghan listeners challenged a Taliban spokesman, contradicting the spokesmans claim that the Taliban was distributing aid fairly to those who need it most. And Radio Azadi journalists continue to stay in touch with their local sources and produce breaking news stories on topics such as the expiration of 1.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine as the Taliban prioritized other surging humanitarian crises; farmers devastated by war, drought, and COVID complaining that the Taliban is now imposing charity taxes under Islamic law; and the countrys economic collapse as seen through the experience of day laborers and displaced people in southwestern Afghanistan.

About Radio Azadi

Radio Free Afghanistan, known locally as Radio Azadi, is an online pioneer and media leader in Afghanistan, reaching 25 percent of the adult audience nationally with reporting that promotes human rights and peace on radio, SMS, and the Internet. In the past 12 months, Afghan Service videos have been watched more than 160 million times on its Facebook pages alone.

About RFE/RL

RFE/RL relies on its networks of local reporters to provide accurate news and information to more than 41 million people in 27 languages and 23 countries where media freedom is restricted, or where a professional press has not fully developed. Its videos were viewed 6.5 billion times on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram/IGTV in FY2020. RFE/RL is an editorially independent media company funded by a grant from the U.S. Congress through the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Martins Zvaners in Washington (zvanersm@rferl.org, +1.202.457.6948)

Jana Hokuvova in Prague (hokuvovaj@rferl.org, +420.221.122.072)
No veteran stood or sat alone during Rapid Citys Veterans Day celebrations on Thursday.

Veterans joined each other in drinking coffee at Main Street Square, standing in the chilling wind during the Veterans Day Parade, or over lunch at VFW Post 1273. Civilians, too, joined in the celebrations, thanking those who served for their time in uniform.

One particular veteran was honored at the head of the VFWs luncheon table and was grand marshal for the parade  World War II Army veteran Cpl. Richard Parham.

Parham served in the 96th Infantry Division, 381st Regiment during World War II and joined the service as an infantryman. He served in Leyte and Okinawa.

Parham said people do respect veterans. He said when youre in combat, its another thing altogether.

Your life is at stake and you have to look out for everyone else as well as yourself, he said during a luncheon at the VFW Post 1273.

Parham became a radio operator for a M-7 tank in 1944, despite having no prior experience. He sat exposed in the turret and gave instructions to the driver and gunner inside the tank. While in action in 1945 and loading ammunition for a 105 millimeter Howitzer, an enemy artillery shell exploded and launched a piece of shrapnel above his left eye.

The shrapnel was extracted and Parham spent five months in the hospital in Mindoro before returning to the United States. He later received a Purple Heart.

Nathan Dahl, Billy Deruter and former Rapid City Mayor Don Barnett were also recognized on Veterans Day during the Main Street Square ceremony.

Barnett said he got a direct commission in the Army Medical Service Corps branch. He said he was a hospital administrator in Vietnam for a year and a half with 400 beds. Barnett said they always had a population of at least 225 patients.

He said he was proud to serve his country.

When my country rang the bell, I was happy and proud to serve, Barnett said.

After he came home from Vietnam, Barnett served two terms as mayor.

Deruter served in the National Guard for 21 years and recently retired. She said this is her first Veterans Day as an adult not in uniform.

She said when she first enlisted in 2000, she wanted to serve for six years and be done  Deruter wanted to see the world and get college assistance. However, it quickly changed after the 9/11 attacks.

I saw poverty that made my stomach quiver, Deruter said. Yet it made me who I am today and gave me gratitude and love for the things we have in the places that we live now.

Dahl said growing up he had no idea what a veteran was. He said being a veteran has shaped his life and touched how he talks, acts and the way he holds himself. Dahl said he served for four years.

When you see a veteran, I want you to just realize that theres a lot that the military service has done for them and you should thank them from your heart, he said. All of the freedoms that you enjoy every day, that comes from the sacrifices they made whether they were deployed, not deployed, whether they were paper pushers or on the front lines.

 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

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.
South Dakota education officials have struggled to revise social studies standards that include guidelines for teaching Native American history and culture, but a new poll suggests state residents are firm in their support for inclusion of these studies in public schools.

The poll of 500 registered voters in October showed that 88% of respondents were very or somewhat supportive of teaching Native history and culture in South Dakota schools. The poll showed that 6.4% of respondents said teaching Native studies was not too important, 2.6% said not at all important, and 3.2% were unsure.

The poll results come at a time when the public school system is grappling with how to update its social studies standards and improve the teaching of civics and history. The discussion over what history to teach in public schools in South Dakota has raised concerns of some Native American groups that Native history will be reduced, eliminated or whitewashed to ignore the historic and modern traumas suffered by many Native Americans.

The poll results arrived as the Department of Education has reported that fewer than half of educators in South Dakota schools are using the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings and Standards, a set of state-approved concepts that provides a framework for teaching Native history and culture. The 35-page set of lesson plans and instructional guidelines includes teaching aids in history, culture, language, treaties, identity and way of life of Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Sioux Indians, who make up most of the Native tribes in the Dakotas.

A DOE survey of more than 700 educators in 125 districts found that only 45% of educators reported using the Oceti understandings in their schools and that 9% said their schools did not celebrate Native history or culture.

The statewide opinion poll was sponsored by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota. The telephone poll was conducted in late October by Mason Dixon, and the margin of error was plus or minus 4.5%.

The overwhelming support for teaching Native history and culture was welcome news to some educators.

John Little, director of Native recruitment and alumni engagement at USD, said enhanced teaching of Native history and culture will give all students a better sense of themselves and the world in which they live.

For Native students, seeing their own history presented as part of the states history can be empowering, just as seeing their history overlooked can be harmful, said Little, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who grew up in South Dakota.

The fear of not teaching Native history is erasure of our culture, said Little, who is teaching a Native studies course at USD this fall. If youre being taught only certain things, and you see that youre not existing in the history being taught, its detrimental for students to not see themselves in their culture.

The poll was conducted as controversy has swirled around how Native history and culture are taught in South Dakota public schools.

In late July, a 50-member committee that spent months developing a proposed set of social studies standards submitted its report to the Department of Education. In early August, the DOE put forward an amended version of the proposed standards that removed more than a dozen references to Native American history and culture and altered other references to standards aimed at teaching Native topics.

The department released a statement saying that adjustments were made to the proposed standards to provide greater clarity and focus for districts, teachers, and the public.

The revisions led to an outcry among Native leaders, about 100 of whom, some on horseback, held a protest in Pierre in September to promote accurate and in-depth teaching of Native history and to call for the resignations of DOE officials and Gov. Kristi Noem.

Meanwhile, the DOE received more than 600 public comments on the proposed standards, many opposed to the changes made by the state.

A short time later, Noem said she would delay the revision to the social studies standards.

The Department of Education changed the working groups recommendations to the social studies standards significantly, but it is clear to me that there needs to be more public input to bring greater balance and emphasis on our nations true and honest history, Noem said in a release at the time.

In October, Noem announced she was restarting the revision process, and the state is now accepting applications for membership on a new advisory committee.

Noem, a Republican, has sparred with Native tribes over highway checkpoints during the COVID-19 pandemic and was banned from visiting the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 2019 after pushing a law aimed at punishing pipeline protesters.

Noem raised concern among some Native groups in early 2021 when she proposed her South Dakota Civics and History Initiative, a two-year, four-pronged plan to create new teaching content, provide new resources and training for teachers, and increase access to civic and historical lessons and experiences for students, especially at the elementary level. When the plan is finalized, use of the program will be optional for school districts.

Some Native leaders worry the initiative will be politicized and ultimately reduce the role Native history plays in public school curricula.

Native-led groups have also said they will bring forth legislation in 2022 to require teaching of Native studies in South Dakota public schools.

Montana and North Dakota already require schools to include Native American education in schools. The North Dakota Legislature this year passed a bill mandating that Native American history be part of the curriculum in all elementary and secondary public and nonpublic schools in the state. Montana in 1972 added to the state constitution the requirement to teach all students on the unique cultural heritage of American Indians, noting that the state is committed in its educational goals to the preservation of their cultural integrity.

Jacqueline Sly, a former state representative from Rapid City who now chairs the Board of Education Standards, said Native American history is being taught in public schools now, though it isnt being done systematically and varies in depth and extent from district to district and sometimes from class to class.

It is being taught in our schools; I look at the materials they are using and all of them include Native American history, Sly said. Could they do more? Potentially, yes. How in depth they go can depend on the teacher.

Sly praised the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings program, adding that the DOE survey showing limited use provides a baseline for education leaders to gauge future efforts to expand usage.

Based on the findings of the survey, the Department of Education and educators now have a baseline when considering the use and challenges of Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings, Sly wrote to News Watch in an email after the DOE survey results were released. The survey indicates there is still work to do in South Dakota. If 45% of the reporting educators use OSEU in their schools, that is a start; but it does not mean it has to stop there. Lets use the survey as a tool to guide the work ahead.

In the DOE survey answered by 718 public and private school educators this year, the vast majority of them teachers, DOE found that only 45% of educators reported implementing the Oceti understandings into their teaching. Only 37% reported that they understand the Oceti understandings well enough to teach them to students.

A report set to be released to the South Dakota Board of Education Standards in mid-November also indicated that use of the Oceti understandings was primarily occurring in small, isolated efforts that lack systematic supports and dedicated time.

Another survey question indicated that while 55% of respondents said their school celebrates Native Americans Day, only 35% reported that they tell historical events from an Indigenous perspective and 9% said their schools do not celebrate Native culture or history at all.

While 47% of administrators reported that they provided Oceti teaching resources to their staffs, only 27% said those resources provided were of high quality.

Sly said that while the state sets education standards, local school districts have control over curriculum, or how teaching occurs. One challenge districts will face as they seek to increase or enhance teaching of Native history and culture is deciding what gets left out since the length of the school day will not change.

If we want to expand on that, what else is given up to make room for that? Sly said. Do we give up some time on the Civil War, or on early pioneers in South Dakota? Finding that balance  thats what teachers and people who are looking at curriculum are struggling with.

Sly said she was happy to see so many poll respondents in favor of teaching Native history and culture, and remains hopeful that the next attempt to revise the state social studies standards will result in a more cohesive plan for integrating Native studies into curricula.

I definitely think theres resources there and we need to be using them as were teaching our students about South Dakota history, Sly said. As we move into this next revision, we need to look at those concepts and see how we can actually bring those into our standards.

In August, the DOE announced that about $75,000 in new civics and history grants had been awarded to six school districts in South Dakota.

One of those initial grants, for about $17,000, was awarded to Vermillion High School, where a team of social studies teachers is developing a new history course that will focus in part on Native history in South Dakota.

Teachers Joe Delvaux, Lenni Billberg and Shannon Fitzsimmons are leading an effort to develop the new course, which will include significant experiential learning, such as field trips, guest speakers and hands-on activities that bring history to life.

Delvaux said he expects the course will launch in fall 2022 and focus on people who, before European settlement, influenced local and state history, including Native Americans, and on others such as Hutterites and their colonies.

We want to tell the most authentic story of the land and the people, he said.

Presenting an in-depth, honest account of history is important to provide students a way to connect with their community but also to become more well-rounded as individuals no matter what path they take in life.

When you have a sense of place, you feel like youre connected to a region and a landscape, Delvaux said. It roots you deeper in that community, it gives you some ownership of the past, the present and the future if you see and learn about the people who occupied this space before you, and then meeting people and hearing their stories.

Teachers in Vermillion will benefit from a wealth of local historic sites and a variety of residents who are versed in Native history and culture, Delvaux said. The school also has a cooperative relationship with local Native leaders who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with students, he said. Connections to the University of South Dakota will also be helpful, he said.

The state grant will provide teacher training, new materials, field trips, class speakers and events that can take their students deeper than ever into local and state history.

Those are the things kids will retain and bring home with them, and theyll want to talk about those experiences, Billberg said. As a world, sometimes we dont look at anything around us. We need kids to know where they belong and where they fit in, and carry that forth in their lives.

In sixth grade, Little took a required South Dakota history course with an aged textbook that he said did not include many references to Native history or culture. The book, he said, referred to the massacre at Wounded Knee as a battle, which Little said mischaracterized what happened in southwestern South Dakota in 1890.

It was a limited view of South Dakota history, he said. If 300 mostly unarmed men, women and children are murdered, it was clearly not a battle.

But Little also took a Lakota language course as a freshman at Winner High School in which he saw films on Native history and was required to read a book by a Native American author.

That class was important for me to see myself in the curriculum, he said.

Little said he has mixed feelings about proposals to mandate teaching of Native history and culture in public schools.

While he supports enhanced teaching of Native history, he worries that forcing districts to teach a course may lead to a backlash.

Youve got to find that balance because its important to have that curriculum and those conversations about whose traditional homelands theyre living on, but if its force-fed, people dont like that, he said.

Little said a good place to start in South Dakota would be to ensure that the textbooks and materials being used in classrooms present a fair, true history of Native Americans and accurately represent their culture.

You must be logged in to react.

Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
The South Dakota Department of Health reported 521 new infections Friday after skipping Thursday's report in honor of the Veterans Day holiday. The new infections pushed active cases up 206 to 6,496.

After dropping as low as 5,392, active cases have climbed back to the same level as October 12. Pennington County had 60 new cases and active infections here are at 1,176. Active cases in Pennington County have fluctuated near that number for the past month.

Four deaths were reported Friday including one in Pennington County. The other deaths were reported in Minnehaha, Hyde and Mellette counties. The deaths included two men and two women who were all over 70. There have been 46 deaths in November and 2,281 since the pandemic began.

Hospitalizations remained the same at 233. Sixty-five patients are in intensive care units and 37 are on ventilators. There are 77 patients in Black Hills area hospitals with 19 in ICU and 13 on ventilators.

Minnehaha County led the state with 115 new infections and there are 1,203 active cases there.

Meade County reported 20 positive tests and there were 15 in Lawrence County. Ten new cases were reported in Butte County and there were eight in Fall River County. Custer County reported seven new infections and there were six in Oglala-Lakota County.

Hughes County reported 26 new cases and there were 23 in Codington County. There were 22 new infections each in Aurora and Brown counties and 18 in Davison County. Yankton County reported 14 new infections and there were 13 in Union County. Todd County recorded eight positive tests and there were seven each in Brule and Dewey counties. Bon Homme, Lake and Walworth counties each recorded six new cases and there were five each in Brookings, Charles Mix, Deuel and Hyde counties.

Grant, Hutchinson, Lyman and McPherson counties each reported four new infections and there were three each in Bennett, Clay, Gregory, Hamlin and Marshall counties. There were two new cases each in seven counties and one each in 11 counties.
A day of celebration and honor during Rapid City's Veterans Day events also was a time of reflection for a few local service personnel.

Two locals, Jennifer Rollins and Cyrus Hovey, are both thankful for their time in service and appreciated the honors the city granted them, their families and their siblings in arms.

Rollins said she knows the country is safe with the next generation after an interaction with a young boy with the Lutheran Church at Thursdays Veterans Day celebrations.

There was one special boy that came up away from the crowd and just said, Thank you for your service, and it just brings a tear to my eye to know that they cared and they understand, she said. Its just a beautiful thing.

Rollins retired as a lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Air Force. She was stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base twice in her 22 years of active duty service and loved the area so much, she decided to call it home.

She said she was a commissioned officer but knew she wanted to serve the United States since she was 11 years old. Rollins said her dad was in the service but wasnt on active duty when she was born.

It instilled the fight in me and that desire, so it really was a calling at a very young age, Rollins said. It was always the service and always to be a leader for the other members that serve and have the same passion and patriotism.

Rollins was deployed 10 times and has been on every continent except Antarctica. She also lived in Africa for two years.

She said shes proud to have served and to pass on the legacy of service to others who she believes are more capable. During her service, Rollins said she learned leadership, officership, patriotism, integrity, excellence and more.

Rollins said its a brother- and sisterhood to stand with the other veterans on Veterans Day. She also said theres an overlap with Rapid City.

Rapid City and the community have a loving relationship between the military and the community, she said. It means a lot throughout the year, and I think its just really special that they do a lot of things like this.

U.S. Navy Veteran Hovey served for four years starting in 2001. Hovey primarily served out of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington state as an aviation structural mechanic egress.

He worked on ejection seats and jets, including EA-6B Prowlers. Many members of Hoveys family also served and/or are serving in the military, including his parents and four siblings. He also has a sister serving her community as a firefighter on the East Coast.

Were all very proud to serve, Hovey said.

Hovey said he enlisted right after high school when the terrorist attacks occurred on Sept. 11, 2001. His entry date got pushed back because of the attacks.

That was a really interesting experience to have that happen in the beginning of my enlistment, and the rest is history, Hovey said.

Hovey said that he joined the Navy after high school because he did not know what else to do, and it seemed like a good opportunity.

Im really grateful that I had the opportunity, and glad I did, Hovey said. I got to meet so many interesting people and do so many unique things that a lot of people probably dont get to do, adding that, of course, he also joined to serve his country.

As Hovey joined in the festivities for the Veterans Day parade downtown, he got to watch his father, who also served in the Navy, appear in the parade with the USS South Dakota submarine float.

Its a really nice event. Im really glad I came, Hovey said.

 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.
Our state politicians are not against the "infrastructure" portions of the bill. They are opposed to the unnecessary and frivolous additions included in the bill pandering to the liberals.

Thank you to Cary Combs and other involved in the student involvement of the Salute to Veterans event at Robbinsdale Elementary School. Great for our children to better understand the meaning of Veterans Day.

Please take note as to WHO does not vote to impeach Ravnsborg! Vote these representatives out of our government. He is an embarrassment to our state and needs to be impeached.

Thanks to the RCJ for adding an easily understood chart to its COVID articles. The info depicted by the chart shows the vaccination status of those hospitalized, in the ICU, and on ventilators. Please add the vaccination status of those who died from COVID.

It is reprehensible that S. Dakota joined in the lawsuit about requiring vaccinations, especially for health care workers. As a patient undergoing exams or treatment, I want to feel safe in their care. Patients have rights also.

You must be logged in to react.

Click any reaction to login. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Letters to the editor, Nov. 12, 2021

We need answers

We now live in a country where you can't ask questions or question authority. I'd like answers to these questions.

Why are citizens losing their jobs for being unvaccinated when over a million illegals and Afgans have entered our country unvetted with no COVID restrictions?

Why can "my body, my choice" apply to abortion but not the unvaccinated?

Why are companies with 100 employees vaccine mandated but companies with 99 aren't?

Why did energy secretary Jennifer Granholm laugh about sky rocketing fuel prices that hurt the middle class and poor?

America has 3.5 times more oil than the whole middle east. Under Trump we exported oil. Biden shut down oil production and now is begging OPEC and Russia to produce more oil.

Why are children mask mandated when no random study was done that supports it?

Why are therapeutics used successfully around the world yet not promoted here?

Why is national immunity from getting CO-VID ignored?

Why hasn't Biden given a press conference in three months when President Trump took questions daily?

The answer is simple. Socialists want to transfer control from local government to the presidency, with cradle to grave entitlements. America needs President Trump back in 2024.

Rick Lewis, Spearfish

They admit it

Tucker Carlson admits Ive never figured out what CRT is after a year of talking about it. Given CRT is obscure academic theory, recently weaponized by right-wing activists to neutralize racial justice advocacy, activists use confusion to advantage.

The influential Heritage Foundation advertises its CRT ebook warning that discussing  diversity, equity, and inclusion  merely cover for CRT. Their definition seems anything that might make any white person uncomfortable. Although statistically just about nobody, of any race, agrees with or advocates his action plan, Ibram Kendi became a best selling CRT theorist.

Interesting theory, no threat. Since he assumes all races inherently equal in every way, inequality of income, wealth, incarceration rates, educational attainment all must be remediable by systemically changing any policy and procedure, in all public and private institutions, that might affect those outcomes, whether or not policies overtly address racial issues.

Kendis fantasized Department of Anti-Racism is a pipe dream, having power only as a left-authoritarian bogeyman scaring voters. Real, not fantasy right-authoritariansm is as close as another electoral college victory for our con artist who brazenly admits hell deny election results unless he wins.

Constitutional order remains threatened until Republicans shake free of the con.

Peter Hasby, Rapid City

You must be logged in to react.

Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2
At 50 cents a card or three cards for $1, it takes a lot of bingo to raise $4,000.

By the end of the four-day Ravalli County Fair, that was the amount the Hamilton Lions Club tallied.

For the first time in its long bingo booth history, the club decided this year the money would all go to one cause.

At the same October meeting that the Daly Hospital Foundation changed its name to the Bitterroot Health Foundation, members of Hamilton Lions Club presented a $4,000 check toward the planned $4 million cancer/infusion center at the Hamilton hospital.

The clubs president, Dixie Dies, and vice president, Dr. Rob Wilkins, made the presentation.

This is the first time our club has chosen a specific organization to receive proceeds from the bingo booth, Dies said. In the past, bingo booth profits have always stayed in the community to help with eyesight and hearing needs and diabetes education.

Dies said the club will continue with that longtime mission, but they knew the cancer center would touch many in the community.

We realized how important the cancer center is to our community and wanted to do something to help with that effort, she said. The important part of the donation is that it came from all the people who played bingo at the fair.

The donation came from the community, Dies said. The Lions Club just helped with the follow-through. Thank you to all of the bingo players for your generosity.

With its donation, the Hamilton Lions Club joined with a growing number of local organizations, businesses and individuals who have offered donations for the building of the center.

The Bitterroot Health Foundation fundraising efforts restarted earlier this year after stalling during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital (now called Bitterroot HealthHamilton) currently offers infusion treatments for cancer patients, it doesnt have space dedicated to the procedure.

At this point, infusion patients never know where they might receive their treatment in the hospital, which isn't helpful during a time in their lives that is already stressful.

The new center will be located on the hospitals south side.

Plans call for a new covered entrance, seven private infusion bays, three outpatient clinic exam rooms that can double as infusion stations, and a shared infusion bay able to accommodate three patients. The new center includes a kitchen counter space where patients can find refreshments during treatments that last up to eight hours.

So far, nearly $900,000 has been raised through pledges, donations and investment income.

Owen Robbins, who just finished his term as president of the foundation board, was on hand to receive the check from Dies and Wilkins.

The gift from the Lions Club is just further evidence of the amazing community support we received from our good friends and neighbors, Robbins said. Were really grateful.

Bitterroot Health Foundations director of philanthropy, Stacie Duce, said the community has rallied around the proposal.

Like many civic organizations, the Lions Club is thinking outside the box and discovering new ways to provide community engagement, Duce said. To me, the bingo booth is the heart of all thats good at the county fair and now, theyve taken it to the next level by providing significant support to a very worthy goal. They are just a wonderful group of service-minded people and were honored to partner with them.

As we have re-ignited our fundraising efforts for the cancer center this summer, we realize that the generosity of our community support comes in gifts of all sizes, she said. When the construction is complete, just knowing that the beautiful new space for infusion treatments came from quarters and dollars donated at the county fair is truly heartwarming. Its grassroots fundraising at its finest.

Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 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 Montana Department of Transportation will host two open houses next week on its proposal to reconstruct a 6-mile stretch of the Eastside Highway south of Florence.

The project hooks into the 2014 upgrade east of Florence south to just past the intersection of Wildfowl and Moiese lanes. When completed, the new road will be 44-feet wide and include two 12-foot travel lanes, a 12-foot left turn lane and 4-foot shoulders.

MDT is currently in the right-of-way acquisition phase. If that goes smoothly, construction on estimated $14 million project could get underway in either 2023 or the year after.

MDT Project Design Manager Josh Dold said the department made some changes to its original proposal after hearing from the public at an earlier open house, including dropping the idea of extending the bike path.

We actually got quite a bit of push back from adjoining landowners, Dold said. They didnt want it.

The state changed the configuration of the ditches along the edges of the road from flat-bottomed to V-shaped in order to lessen the impact on adjoining landowners. It added some wildlife crossings, including a larger one near Porter Hill Road. And it removed the center turn lane in two locations to allow motorists to pass slower moving traffic.

The state steered clear of installing another roundabout at the dangerous Ambrose Lane intersection after hearing from the public. Instead, it plans to flatten out the curve to improve sight distance.

The public did not want to see a three-legged roundabout go in there, Dold said.

There are 145 private parcels along the stretch of road. Not all require a right-of-way acquisition. Dold said there were a handful of houses that were too close to the roadway and the state has acquired those properties.

While the scope of the project is pretty well set, Dold said there is still some wiggle room where adjustments can be made.

Were not trying to bulldoze anyone, he said. We want to hear from the public  We want people to know that were working with them to create a design thats safe.

The construction will be funded through the states secondary road program.

The first in-person open house will be held Tuesday, Nov. 16 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Lone Rock School, 1112 Three Mile Creek Road. The second meeting is virtual. It will run from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 17.

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.
At parades, programs and bell-ringings, Bitterroot Valley veterans were honored in a variety of ways at Veterans Day events on Thursday.

In Corvallis, a group of veterans marched in the annual Veterans Day parade from the high school, down Main Street and back.

The Corvallis High School band, under the direction of Willi Prince, played "The Star-Spangled Banner" as veterans and a service dog marched behind the honor guard with the American Flag, and American Legion flags from Corvallis Post # 91 and Stevensville Post #1507.

Former Corvallis American Legion Post Commander Edna Nasca rode in an army jeep behind the procession.

Many community members and over 1,000 schoolchildren lined Main Street with signs, applause and cheers. One community member noted how great it was of the school to let all the children come out to support the veterans.

Fifth-grade educator Aaron Holmberg said he brought his class out in the 30 degree and snowy weather to support the veterans.

The main thing I taught the class is we do some things in life because its not about us, individually, but about us together, Holmberg said. So, were taking this moment to be us together not us individually.

He said the temperature didnt matter because the veterans served no matter the temperature.

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.
Pharmaceuticals have a high standard of regulation, he said. For us to see significant growth in that industry shows that we are meeting their standards. They are accepting our technology not just as something to be evaluated, but this is going to be the new standard moving forward.

Over the past few months, the company also introduced several new products. Those include the Automated TipNovus equipment, which expands upon the companys flagship TipNovus cleaning tool by enabling laboratories to further automate the sterilization of pipette tips.

In September, the company also introduced a new cleaning tool called Purus by Grenova. That device is designed to help labs further reduce plastic waste by washing and sterilizing the microwell plates that are typically used in laboratory work. Purus removes chemical and biological contaminants from 96 well plates at a time so they can be reused.

As many pipette tips that being used in labs, there is almost an equal number of plates that are being used, as well, Safavi said. They are two of the largest uses of plastics in a laboratory setting. They are very costly for a lab, and now with supply-chain shortages, it has been challenging for labs to be able to receive these consumables.
We realize this is such a rare thing to happen and were so excited and humbled by what weve done, he said Friday. Were ready to keep fighting because its definitely still not over.

Next steps include persuading the board to allow employees to work full time, he said, and giving them health benefits. Many rely on Medicaid and have been told theyre not allowed to work full time, he said.

Employees also had demanded that Bill Harrison, the president and executive director of Diversity Richmond, be removed from leadership. They alleged that Harrison mishandled an allegation of sexual harassment by a store employee against a supervisor. Harrison acknowledged that he allowed that supervisor, who had resigned, to return to work at the store.

Harrison said he decided to retire on Wednesday. He said he hadnt yet had the chance to talk with the board about the employee concerns but has asked to do so. He said he planned to retire next year, but decided that now would be best following the employees raising concerns.

Through my leadership over the past 10 years, Diversity Richmond has become one of the most respected, well-known, productive LGBT organizations in the region, he said. And that is a legacy that Im very proud to leave.
In this instance, we are demanding more of children than the adults who teach them.

Despite studies showing the unvaccinated at much greater risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19, many Americans appear to love their personal freedom more than life itself. Patrick Henry set the tone when he said: Give me liberty or give me death. (A powerful line, ironic for a slaveholder.) But a public health crisis that has killed nearly 760,000 people in the U.S.  and 5.8 million worldwide  requires extraordinary measures and sacrifice to combat.

Once the board approved the vaccine policy in August, you might have assumed it was all-in on its punitive teeth. But a majority lacked the stomach for progressive discipline against the relatively few holdouts.

As a board member, we are tasked to do everything in our power to keep students and staff safe while we do the business of educating our students, said board member Kenya Gibson, who supported the policy in August but was among the 6-3 board majority that neutered it Monday.
Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City, and House Republican Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, responded Wednesday in a letter that called Saslaws request appalling.

The requests made by Sen. [Richard] Saslaw are totally lacking in legal support and are an obvious partisan power grab intended to exert an undue amount of influence over this Courts oversight of the 2021 redistricting process. They should be rejected on their face, wrote Norment and Gilbert, who is in line to become the next speaker of the House.

On Friday, the justices acknowledged receiving the lists of nominees and the letters. The court noted that Bryans work as a redistricting consultant using 2020 data for the Virginia Senate Republicans was the very subject matter which this Court is called upon to appoint Special Masters.

The court said that while it was not questioning Bryans integrity, it believes his work for the Senate Republican caucus constitutes a conflict. The two-page order said the court has concerns about the ability of the remaining Republican nominees to serve in the role of Special Master, according to the criteria the court laid out on Friday.
The continued use of this gendered category reinforces biases that see women as especially interested in traditionally feminine-gendered topics such as education and health care rather than the economy or foreign affairs. The term also erases womens other potentially relevant identities, such as age, sexuality, educational attainment and employment status.

The term white suburban moms in particular omits the increasing racial, ethnic and religious diversity of Virginias suburbs, and it offers a homogenized view of women whose families reside in a particular area for a range of often-reinforcing reasons, such as proximity to employment, high-performing schools and public safety.

This term also reinforces the association of momness with whiteness. It silences the perspectives of mothers of color who share some concerns associated with this group, as well as those who favor radically different policies. The contributions and achievements of Black moms continue to be ignored by the media, as the disproportionate attention given to the predominantly white Wall of Moms in Portlands Black Lives Matter protests demonstrates.

By positioning white mothers in opposition to other groups of women, the motherhood narratives prominent in Virginia election analyses do a disservice to the political agency of all women.
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.
 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.
The Neskowin campground is tucked between two forks of Neskowin Creek and is about 7 miles (11 kilometers) north of Otis, a tiny coastal community that was devastated by a wind-driven wildfire just over a year ago.

We are okay for now ... but the rain in still coming, said Melynda Small, who lost her home to the fire in September 2020 and is worried about mudslides in the burn area.

Forecasters said the storms are being caused by an atmospheric river, known as the Pineapple Express. Rain was expected to remain heavy in Oregon and Washington through Friday night. Precipitation may ease some Saturday but more rain is expected Saturday night through next week.

In Oregon, the National Weather Service issued flood watches in several coastal counties and warned that heavy rains raised the risk of mudslides and debris flows in areas recently burned by wildfires.

More than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain fell in some areas in the western part of the state in a 24-hour period Thursday and heavy rains were expected to continue through Friday evening, the National Weather Service in Portland said. Astoria, in the states far northwest corner, set a new record for rainfall Thursday with just over 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain, the most since the previous record for the date set 70 years ago.
Recounts are unlikely to change the outcomes of two tight Virginia contests for the House of Delegates because of the size of the margins, the commissioner of the state Department of Elections told a Richmond civic group on Wednesday.

To change 94 votes  Republican A.C. Cordozas lead over Del. Martha Mugler, D-Hampton  when youve got about 27,000 cast in that election is going to be really hard to do because were so good at our jobs, Chris Piper said, referring to the dedication of local and state elections officials.

Piper addressed the group Richmond First just over a week after Republicans swept elections for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general and apparently took control of the House of Delegates.

Local electoral boards in Hampton Roads on Tuesday certified Cordozas victory over Mugler by 0.33% in House District 91 and Republican Karen Greenhalghs win over Del. Alex Askew, D-Virginia Beach, by 127 votes, or 0.44%, in District 85. Once state electoral officials sign off on the totals on Monday, both Democrats are entitled to seek recounts at state expense because the margins are within half a percentage point.

If the GOP wins hold up, Republicans will take control of the House of Delegates with 52 seats to the Democrats 48.
Performance Food Group Co., one of the countrys largest food service distributors, plans to construct a 325,000-square-foot regional distribution center in Hanover County.

The Goochland County-based Fortune 500 company said it will invest $80.2 million in the new regional sales and warehouse operation, creating 125 new jobs. Gov. Ralph Northams office announced the project Thursday.

The new distribution center will be in the Cardinal Commerce Center at Cedar Lane and U.S. 1, just north of Sliding Hill Road. The property is about 1.5 miles north of Virginia Center Commons mall and across U.S. 1 from the Wigwam Crossing, a 24,000-square-foot retail development.

Performance Food supplies food and food-related products to more than 300,000 locations such as restaurants, health care facilities, universities, convenience stores and movie theaters. It operates mores than 150 distribution centers in the U.S. and Canada, including one on Ranco Road in Henrico County.

Virginia successfully competed with Pennsylvania and North Carolina for the project, Northams office said.
ISLAMABAD (AP)  Pakistan on Thursday hosted talks with special envoys from the United States, Russia and China on the path forward for Afghanistan, where a deepening humanitarian crisis has forced many Afghans to migrate to neighboring countries since the Taliban takeover in August.

The international community has not recognized the government appointed by the Taliban. Afghanistan's Taliban-appointed foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, did not attend the meeting but later met with the special envoys in Islamabad.

He also met separately with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and other officials to discuss a range of issues, including how to help Kabul overcome a deepening economic crisis and avoid a refugee crisis.

The meeting released a joint statement appealing for the international community to urgently provide humanitarian aid to the Afghan people. It also urged the Taliban to form an inclusive and representative government that respects the rights of all Afghans and provides for the equal rights of women and girls to participate in all aspects of the Afghan society.
I have a unique opportunity with my company to interact with a wide variety of immigrants. The overwhelming majority of these interactions are with Nigerians and Jamaicans, mostly first or second generation Black immigrants. Each and every time, they passionately describe their absolute love for America, what it represents, and the unlimited opportunities it provides. They are amazed with how kind and helpful Americans are in providing opportunities with hard work and personal responsibility. Several of these individuals have started companies and have employees. They cannot understand why people speak so poorly of America and the perceived racism that is holding these American-born people back. These amazing immigrants articulate how they bring their children back to their homelands to show them how blessed they are to live in America. They say that they need to make sure their children experience and see what they left so it will make a permanent impression on them.
The Squid game series was good for Netflix financial results, Halloween costume sellers and  even cryptocurrency scammers who have amassed a small fortune by convincing people to combine two hot trends.

A Squid Game-themed cryptocurrency called Squid is now trading at zero after its founders appear to have cashed out and disappeared with a cool $3.38 million.

The tokens price surged over the course of the past few days by thousands of percentage points; but people were blocked from reselling once they opted in. The SQUID cryptocurrency peaked at a price of $2,861 before plummeting to $0, leaving more than 43,000 investors defrauded.

CNBC reported that a Shanghai-based investor had put $28,000, his entire life savings, into the coin. He and many others jumped on board after a barrage of mainstream press coverage.

Squid Crypto was launched late last month and was marketed as a "play-to-earn cryptocurrency. The founders presented the setup as a token that would be used for a new online game set to go live this month and inspired by the Netflix series.

Soon afterwards, CoinMarketCap issued a warning that it had received reports that users were being blocked from selling the token on the decentralized exchange.

Despite the warnings, investors continued to dump money into SQUID, pushing its gains to more than 230,000%. Then, on Tuesday, the scammers cashed out, draining liquidity from the exchanges and sending the price to $0.

The website and all social media presence has since disappeared. Netflix told CNBC it had no affiliation with the project.

This kind of scam is commonly called a "rug pull" by crypto investors--a practice in which scammers artificially hype and inflate a token and pull the plug, dashing with the cash. Its a classic pump and dump.



CipherTrace blockchain forensics noted a surge in decentralized finance (DeFi) related crime last year where most of them were rug pull.

Half of all 2020 crypto hacks were of DeFi protocolsa pattern that was virtually negligible in all prior yearsand nearly 99% of major fraud volume in the second half of 2020 stemmed from DeFi protocols performing rug pulls and other exit scams in a pattern eerily reminiscent of the 2017 ICO craze, the report said.

According to a report by the Federal Trade Commission, more than $80 million has been lost in crypto-related scams since late last year.

A similar rug-pull occurred in April with Mando, a cryptocurrency that used images from Disneys series Mandalorian

Over the past couple of years, cryptocurrency has been linked to criminal activities such as Ponzi schemes, extortion, theft, and money-laundering.

The CipherTrace report said that in 2019, cryptocurrency theft skyrocketed with losses from digital currency crime hitting $4.4 billion in the first nine months of the year.

That was a 150% increase over the first nine months of 2018. However, mainly due to improved security systems, losses from cryptocurrency theft, hacks, and fraud fell 57% to $1.9 billion last year.
Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
The Associated Press reported that Leatherman had an inoperable cancer. The cancer was found in an operation after Leatherman had abdominal pain, according to the report, which the AP attributed to a Republican senator who was not named.

Leatherman was reelected to a four-year term in the Senate in 2020. Leatherman has served in the Senate since he was first elected in 1980.

Leatherman represented Florence County in the South Carolina Senate from 1981. In the Senate, he also served as the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, chairman of the Joint Bond Review Committee, chairman of the Senate Operations Committee and was president pro tempore emeritus of the Senate.

Prior to being elected to the Senate, Leatherman served as a member of the Quinby Town Council from 1967 to 1976, serving as mayor pro tempore from 1971 to 1976. He is also a member emeritus of the Francis Marion University Board of Trustees.

People ask me why you want to continuing being a senator, Leatherman said in an interview when he last filed to run for reelection. And this will sound corny to you, but Ill tell it anyway. I came to Florence, South Carolina, in 1956, and South Carolinas been good to me and my family, and I want to leave it better than I found it.
FLORENCE, S.C.  Hundreds gathered in Florence Veterans Park late Thursday morning to celebrate Veterans Day.

Its a great day, said Howard Rogers, a Vietnam veteran who drove down from Cheraw for the event to honor a friend, and veteran, who died in January.

Our main focus is that we appreciate what the community is going for us. You just dont know how it makes us feel that people would take out of their time to recognize veterans on this day, Rogers said. It means something to us and we thank you for it.

Its good to be honored for these people to show respect, said Kager Miller, a Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm veteran.

When I came home (from Vietnam), we didnt get any parades or anything, Miller said. This took 20-30 years to recognize us who served in Vietnam.

Thursdays event featured the flag presentation by South Florence High School Navy JROTC and the Star Spangled Banner sung by the South Florence Choraliers.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  A Danish artist who is seeking to retrieve his sculpture in Hong Kong commemorating the victims of Chinas 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown said Friday he wants safe passage guaranteed for himself and his employees when they dismantle and remove the artwork called Pillar of Shame, which is at the center of a controversy.

In an open letter, Jens Galschioet said that his presence in Hong Kong is necessary because the 8-meter-tall (26.25 feet), two-ton sculpture is very difficult to move ... without causing significant and irreparable damage."

The copper sculpture depicting dozens of torn and twisted bodies has been on display at the University of Hong Kong and has been in the city for 24 years.

In 1989, Chinas leaders sent in the military to end pro-democracy protests in Beijings Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people.
LONDON (AP)  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been granted permission to marry his partner, Stella Moris, in prison, British authorities say.

Assange has been held in Londons high-security Belmarsh Prison since 2019 as he fights a U.S. attempt to extradite him on espionage charges.

The couple began their relationship during Assange's seven years living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on unrelated sex offenses allegations. Assange and Moris, a South Africa-born lawyer, have two young sons: Gabriel, 4, and Max, 2.

I am relieved that reason prevailed, and I hope there will be no further interference with our marriage, Moris said.

In January, a judge refused a U.S. request to extradite Assange, but he remains in prison while a higher court considers the U.S. government's appeal.

Assange and Moris made their relationship public in April 2020 and had applied to prison authorities for permission to wed.

They threatened legal action against the prison governor and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, accusing them of trying to prevent the marriage from taking place.
 Making the case for criminal justice reform as a way to honor those who served on Veterans Day | Main | "Two Strikes and Youre in Prison Forever: Why Florida leads the nation in people serving life without chance of parole." 

Wanda Bertram has this notable New Republic commentary fully headlined, "State Prisons Released More People Before Covid-19 Than During It: Prison officials touted a compassionate response to Covid, but the statistics tell another story." I recommend the full piece, and here is how it starts (with links from the original):

As Covid-19 first spread through the United States, it became clear that jails and prisons would see the worst of it. Already suffering from overcrowded, unsanitary facilities and medical neglect, incarcerated people lived in prime conditions for deadly outbreaks. Responding to pressure from advocates, prison officials insisted they would look for opportunities to release people who could go home safely or who were at high risk of dying from the disease.

But state prison statistics show another story: Relatively few people have been released from prisons over the course of the pandemic. According to data collected by the Prison Policy Initiative (where I work as a spokesperson) tracking releases in 11 states, 10 of those states reported releasing even fewer prisoners in 2020 and the beginning of 2021 than they had in 2019. This drop in releases occurred as the coronavirus infected one in every three people in prison nationwide, leading to 2,800 deaths as of this October.

Many prisons did make policy changes designed to expedite early releases. In most places, though, these changes didnt result in more people going home. An apparent drop in the overall prison population during the last two years, most agree, is due to fewer people being sent to prison in the first place, not people being freed. So why did releases go down? Prison officials say that they make decisions on petitions for early release by weighing several factors, including an individuals behavior, the nature of their original offense, their potential risk to public safety, and circumstances that might prompt a compassionate release (such as a prisoner suffering from severe dementia). To be sure, the pandemic posed logistical challenges  making it hard to hold in-person parole hearings, offer classes that are sometimes prerequisites for parole, or place people in halfway houses. But the pandemic also introduced what should have been a compelling new factor in release decisions: the risk of serious illness or death. One would think this would have tipped the scales in a significant number of cases, adding up to more releases. The fact that it did not raises disturbing questions about the conduct of prison officials.

While the data collected by my colleagues at the Prison Policy Initiative is incomplete, because only some states publish monthly release data, anecdotes and statewide reports help fill in the gaps. We know, for instance, that compassionate releases have stagnated in many states. A recent investigation by The Salt Lake Tribune showed Utahs parole board didnt increase compassionate releases during the pandemic; instead it denied people like Jesus Gomez, an 84-year-old man confined to a wheelchair who cant remember his crimes. Over in Nevada, officials granted zero compassionate releases in 2020; medical staff in its prisons failed even to identify candidates to review. Alabama, whose infamously crowded prisons hold about 28,000 people, identified just 15 candidates for compassionate release last year and granted it to five. Alabama also granted parole to a smaller percentage of the people who applied in the spring and summer of 2020 than it had from 2018 to 2019. Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center obtained a list of the oldest incarcerated people in Alabama, discovering that hundreds were parole-eligible but either had been denied or hadnt had a hearing.
 Highlighting compassion's limits as to prison releases during pandemic | Main | Some clemency news and notes as we enter the holiday season 

The title of this post is the headline of this important new reporting (and accounting) from the Marshall Project. I recommend the full piece, and here is a taste:

The number of people serving life-without-parole sentences has soared across the country in the last two decades, rising to 56,000, according to The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group. Some people received these penalties as an alternative to capital punishment, which has fallen out of favor with many prosecutors and the public. The number of death sentences dwindled to 18 last year, and only 2,500 people are now on death row, down from almost 3,600 two decades ago.

But theres another reason for the increase: A handful of states have embraced life-without-parole sentences to punish repeat offenders  even if their crimes didnt cause physical injury, an investigation by The Marshall Project and The Tampa Bay Times found.

Washington passed the first three strikes law in 1993, allowing prosecutors to give life sentences to people convicted even of nonviolent felonies if they met the criteria for persistent offenders. At least two dozen states followed suit, including Florida in 1995. In many states, people sentenced to life used to become eligible for parole after 15 years. But Florida and others virtually ended parole a generation ago, so that life sentences became permanent.

Today, Florida has more than 13,600 people serving life without parole, far more than any other state and almost a quarter of the total nationwide. Though this sentence is widely seen as an alternative to the death penalty, which is used in murder cases, 44% of the people serving it in Florida were not convicted of that crime, according to our analysis of state data.

Part of the reason Floridas numbers are so high is that it went further than any other state in 1997 by passing an unusual two strikes law known as the Prison Releasee Reoffender Act. The law directs prosecutors to seek the maximum sentence for someone who commits a felony within three years of leaving prison, which often means a lifetime behind bars. The law also takes sentencing discretion away from judges. About 2,100 of the states permanent lifers, or about 15%, are in prison because of the law, our investigation found. The crimes that netted life without parole included robbing a church of a laptop, holding up motel clerks for small amounts of cash and stealing a television while waving a knife....

The two-strikes punishment has been disproportionately applied to Black men, who account for almost 75% of those serving time because of the 1997 law, our analysis found; about 55% of all prisoners in the state are Black. Their most common charge was armed robbery, not homicide. Housing its life-without-parole population, including those locked up under the two-strikes law, cost Florida at least $330 million last year, according to our analysis of state data.

This is an incredibly punitive law that is totally arbitrary, said Jeff Brandes, a Republican who represents St. Petersburg in the Florida Senate and is trying to repeal the two-strikes law, so far without much support from his colleagues. He said Florida wastes too much taxpayer money locking people up forever on burglary, robbery and theft. A sentence that is too long is just as unjust as a sentence that is too short, he said.
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (right) receives the United Arab Emirates' Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan in the capital Damascus on November 9, 2021 (AFP/-)

Qatar's top diplomat voiced hope Friday for a halt to normalization with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates paid a visit to Damascus.

"We hope that countries will be discouraged from taking further steps with the Syrian regime," Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told a joint news conference in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who reiterated US concerns about rehabilitating Assad.

"Qatar's position will remain as it is -- we don't see any serious steps by (the) Assad regime showing his commitment to repair the damage that he made for his own country and for his own people," Al-Thani said.

"As long as he's not taking any serious step, we think that changing the position is not a viable option," he said.

Al-Thani, however, also said that other nations had the "sovereign right" to make their own decisions on Syria.

The United Arab Emirates and Qatar are both close US allies, although they have had a rift in recent years.

UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Tuesday met in Damascus with Assad, a clear sign of momentum to restore relations amid a growing conclusion that Assad has won after a brutal, decade-long civil war that has left nearly half a million people dead.

"We're concerned about the signals that some of these visits and engagements are sending," Blinken said.

"And I would simply urge all of our partners to remember the crimes that the Assad regime has committed and indeed continues to commit."

President Joe Biden's administration has focused on humanitarian relief in Syria rather than military solutions but has vowed no normalization and continues to press for a peace settlement.

The Caesar Act, a US law that came into force last year, sets up sanctions for anyone working with Assad to rebuild the country, part of an effort to encourage accountability over rights abuses.

sct/md
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp will split into three separate companies in a bid to appease investors seeking a radical overhaul after years of scandal.

The once-storied conglomerate has been battered by accounting scandals, massive writedowns for its U.S. nuclear business, the sale of its prized chip unit and it was also found to have colluded to prevent overseas investors from gaining influence.

Here is a timeline of Toshiba' woes since 2015.

2015 - Toshiba discloses accounting malpractices across multiple divisions, which involved top management. In total, it overstated its pretax profit by 230 billion yen ($2 billion) over seven years.

Dec. 2016 - Toshiba flags it will take a charge of several billion dollars in relation to a nuclear power plant construction company that its U.S. unit, Westinghouse Electric, had bought a year earlier.

March 2017 - Westinghouse files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to billions of dollars in cost overruns and years-long delays at U.S. power projects. Faced with over $6 billion in liabilities linked to Westinghouse, Toshiba decides to put its prized chip unit, Toshiba Memory, up for sale.

Sept. 2017 - Toshiba agrees to sell the chip unit to a consortium led by Bain Capital for $18 billion, a deal under which Toshiba retains a large stake. Worried it could be delisted for having liabilities exceed assets for a second straight year, Toshiba is desperate to close the deal by the end of the financial year in March. But it is caught up in a prolonged legal dispute with chip joint venture partner Western Digital Corp over the sale and antitrust reviews are expected to take months.

Dec. 2017 - Toshiba secures a $5.4 billion cash injection from 30-plus overseas investors that helps it avoid a delisting but brings in prominent activist shareholders including Elliott Management, Third Point and Farallon. It settles the dispute with Western Digital.

April 2018 - Toshiba seeks to turn a new page by bringing in an outsider - Nobuaki Kurumatani, a former executive at Toshiba's main creditor Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group - as chief executive.

Story continues

June 2018 - Toshiba completes the sale of Toshiba Memory, renamed Kioxia, to the Bain consortium.

June 2019 - Bowing to pressure from activist investors, Toshiba invites four non-Japanese directors to its board.

Jan. 2020 - Toshiba finds fresh accounting irregularities at a wholly owned subsidiary.

July 2020 - Five director candidates nominated by activist shareholders seeking to improve governance and change strategy are voted down at Toshiba's annual general meeting.

Sept. 2020 - Toshiba discloses more than 1,000 postal voting forms for its AGM went uncounted. The bank that counted the votes, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, later reveals widespread failure to count all valid votes at AGMs of its client firms over the past two decades.

March 2021 - Shareholders approve an independent investigation into allegations that investors were pressured ahead of the previous year's AGM.

April 2021 - CVC Capital Partners makes an unsolicited $21 billion offer to take Toshiba private. A week later, CEO Kurumatani resigns amid controversy over the CVC bid, which was perceived by some within company management as designed to shield him from activist shareholders. Toshiba's subsequent dismissal of the CVC offer, however, angers some activist shareholders.

June 10, 2021 - The shareholder-commissioned investigation concludes Toshiba colluded with Japan's trade ministry - which sees Toshiba as a strategic asset due to its nuclear reactor and defence technology - to block overseas investors from gaining influence at the 2020 shareholders meeting.

June 25, 2021 - Shareholders oust board chairman Osamu Nagayama after critics accuse the board of failing to address the allegations about pressuring overseas investors. Toshiba pledges to undertake a full review of assets and engage with potential investors.

Nov. 12, 2021 - Toshiba says it will split into three separate companies with one unit focused on energy, another on infrastructure and the third, which will retain the Toshiba name, managing its stake in flash-memory chip company Kioxia Holdings Corp. and other assets.

(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP)  Going into overtime Friday night, negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow were still trying to find common ground on phasing out coal, when nations need to update their emission-cutting pledges and, especially, on money.

Talks are at a bit of a stalemate, and the United States, with support from the European Union, is holding back talks, said Lee White, the Gabonese minister for forests and climate change.

Mohamed Adow of Power Shift Africa, a long-time talks observer, said poorer nations are beyond disappointed with the way the United Kingdom presidency has come up with drafts and that this has become a rich world negotiation. He said poorer nations cannot accept what has been proposed.

As the talks approached midnight, rich nations had a much more optimistic view, showing the split that might occur after new drafts appear Saturday.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host of the meeting, said through a spokesperson that he believes an ambitious outcome is in sight.

U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry told The Associated Press on Friday night that climate talks were working away, commenting after a late night meeting with his Chinese counterpart and before a hallway chat with Indias minister.

Chinese Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhua told Kerry in the hallway: I think the current draft is more close in a conversation that AP witnessed. When Kerry asked him if he felt better about it, Xie answered: Yes, I feel better about it because Alok Sharma is a smart guy.

No agreement was ready by the 6 p.m. local time scheduled end of the conference. And sometimes that helps diplomats get in a more deal-making mood.

The negotiating culture is not to make the hard compromises until the meeting goes into extra innings, as we now have done, said long-time climate talks observer Alden Meyer of the European think tank E3G. But the U.K. presidency is still going to have to make a lot of people somewhat unhappy to get the comprehensive agreement we need out of Glasgow.

Three sticking points were making people unhappy on Friday: cash, coal and timing.

A crunch issue is the question of financial aid for poor countries to cope with climate change. Rich nations failed to provide them with $100 billion annually by 2020, as agreed, causing considerable anger among developing countries going into the talks.

A Friday morning draft reflects those concerns, expressing deep regret that the $100 billion goal hasnt been met and urging rich countries to scale up their funding for poor nations to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change  an issue with which developed countries are also grappling.

Poorer nations say regret isnt enough.

Dont call them donor countries. Theyre polluters. They owe this money, said Saleemul Huq, a climate science and policy expert who is director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh.

The draft also proposes creating a loss-and-damage fund to help poor countries tap existing sources of aid when they face the devastating impacts of climate change. But rich nations such as the United States, which have historically been the biggest source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, are opposed to any legal obligation to compensate poor countries.

But Gabon's White said rich countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, had said they werent ready. They said we never agreed to that. It wont work. Its too complicated.

The proposal for creating this mechanism is like creating a bank account, said Adow of Power Shift Africa. We dont need to push cash into the account now. It is just the opening of the account.

This was the elephant in the room, said Lia Nicholson, lead negotiator for the alliance of small islands at the summit. She said that developing nations and China had a united position on this but the proposal hadnt met with significant pushback from rich countries.

Small islands cant always be the ones who are asked to compromise our interest with the objectives of reaching consensus, she said.

That Friday draft also called on countries to accelerate the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.

A previous draft Wednesday had been stronger, calling on countries to accelerate the phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuel.

Kerry said Washington backed the current wording. Were not talking about eliminating coal, he told fellow climate diplomats. But, he said: Those subsidies have to go.

Kerry said it was a definition of insanity that trillions were being spent to subsidize fossil fuels worldwide. Were allowing to feed the very problem were here to try to cure. It doesnt make sense.

But there was a mixed response from activists and observers on how significant the addition of the words unabated and inefficient was.

Richie Merzian, a former Australian climate negotiator who directs the climate and energy program at the Australia Institute think tank, said the additional caveats were enough that you can run a coal train through it.

Countries like Australia and India, the worlds third-biggest emitter, have resisted calls to phase out coal any time soon.

Scientists agree it is necessary to end the use of fossil fuels as soon as possible to meet the 2015 Paris accord's ambitious goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). But explicitly including such a call in the overarching declaration is politically sensitive, including for countries, such as Saudi Arabia, that fear oil and gas may be targeted next.

Another issue from Friday mornings draft concerns when nations have to come back with new emission-cutting targets which they were supposed to submit before the Glasgow talks. Because the pledges werent enough, the draft calls on the nations to submit another tougher target by the end of 2022, but some nations, such as Saudi Arabia, are balking about this said World Resources Institutes David Waskow.

In 2015 in Paris, there was a debate about whether targets should be updated every five or 10 years so going to one year after Glasgow is a big deal, said Environmental Defense Fund Vice President Kelley Kizzier, a former EU negotiator.

Negotiators from almost 200 nations gathered in Glasgow on Oct. 31 amid dire warnings from leaders, activists and scientists that not enough is being done to curb global warming.

According to the proposed decision, countries plan to express alarm and utmost concern that human activities have already caused around 1.1C (2F) of global warming and that impacts are already being felt in every region.

While the Paris accord calls for limiting temperature to well below 2C (3.6F), ideally no more than 1.5C, by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times, the draft agreement notes that the lower threshold would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change and resolves to aim for that target.

In doing so, it calls for the world to cut carbon dioxide emission by 45% in 2030 compared with 2010 levels, and to add no additional CO2 to the atmosphere by mid-century. So far the world is not on track for that.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told The Associated Press this week that the 1.5C-goal is still in reach but on life support.

The annual meetings, first held in 1995 and only skipped once last year due to the pandemic, are designed to get all countries to gradually ratchet up their efforts to curb global warming.

But for many vulnerable nations the process has been far too slow.

We need to deliver and take action now, said Seve Paeniu, the finance minister of the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. Its a matter of life and survival for many of us.



Ellen Knickmeyer, Philipp Jenne and Karl Ritter contributed to this report.



Follow AP's coverage of the talks at http://apnews.com/hub/climate

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
SIOUX CITY -- A new Horn Concerto by award-winning composer Kati Agocs will have its world premiere with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Orpheum Theatre, 528 Pierce St.

But Agocs, who is also a faculty member of the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music, said she will feel a bit nervous in the moments before the performance.

"A world premiere can only happen once," she explained.

As soon as Agocs hears the concerto being performed by James Sommerville, the legendary horn soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, she'll know the piece will be in good hands.

In addition to Agocs' Horn Concerto, the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra will also include the sensual dance music of Mexican composer Arturo Maquez as well as a performance of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony -- The Pathetique.

"Nothing can beat hearing live music at a great concert hall," Agocs said.

If truth be told, it was something she hadn't experienced for a while, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The word just stopped," Agocs said.

Indeed, the Horn Concerto had been a work-in-progress for quite some time, due to the pandemic.

Agocs wrote the Horn concerto specifically for Sommerville, who was also a fellow New England Music Conservatory member.

"When a composer write music especially for you, the piece will land as a completed piece," Sommerville explained. "Instead, Kati wanted the Horn Concerto to be something of a collaboration."

That's because, as Agocs noted, she loves the sound of the horn, which she described as the "chameleon" of the orchestra.

"The Horn Concerto was challenging to write," she said.

Agocs also said the Horn Concerto is accessible for audiences while pushing the envelope for musicians.

Sommerville agrees.

"I felt like an athlete in training while learning to play the Horn Concerto," he suggested with a chuckle. "When Kati asked if I'd be able to play a certain section, I said I will eventually."

"The way I look at it, athletes like Simone Biles have to mentally and physically prepare to get in the zone," Sommerville added. "I do, too."

When performing the Horn Concerto at Sioux City's Orpheum Theatre, Sommerville said he will look forward to the energy and feedback from a live audience.

"That is what I missed the most during the pandemic," he said.

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.
Thanksgiving pumpkin pie fundraiser

St. John Lutheran Food Pantry is hosting a pumpkin pie fundraiser. Price is $12 per pie. Orders will be taken from Nov. 1 thru Nov. 20; pies will be baked on Monday, Nov. 22, and Tuesday, Nov. 23. Pick-up will be available from 1 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 23, and 2 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 24, at St. John Lutheran Church. To order pies, call 712-899-8231 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. or order online at www.stjohnlutheransiouxcity.org - Use Donate, then click Pie.
SIOUX CITY -- While the number of new COVID-19 cases in Woodbury County dropped slightly last week, hospitalizations and deaths ticked up.

The number of people in Sioux City's two hospitals with COVID rose from 32 the week of Oct. 25 to 37 last week, according to the latest weekly report from Siouxland District Health Department. During that period, Woodbury County also tallied six more COVID-19-related deaths, bringing its total to 254. Hospitalizations and deaths lag reported cases.

The county reported 265 positive cases for the week beginning Nov. 1, down from 271 the week before, according to the report.

The 14-day positivity rate also declined from 11.9% to 11%. Health officials have said anything above 5% is a concern.

As of the week of Nov. 1, 47.1% of county residents had completed single- or two-dose vaccinations, up from 46.8% the previous week.

"Even though some people get COVID, even though they've been vaccinated, vaccine is still the best tool we have to prevent COVID and it also helps prevent serious cases. Vaccine is widely available and it's not too late to get yours," District Health said in a Facebook post.

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.
SIOUX CITY -- Though Lisa Belk is gone, fatally stabbed by her adopted son, Zoe Belk said their mother is in heaven now, a place she spent her life telling others about.

And even though she died of wounds inflicted by family, Zoe Belk told her brother that their mother would have forgiven him.

"Mom still loved you when she died," Zoe Belk said before Paul Belk was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison for the April 14, 2020, stabbing death of Lisa Belk.

Another sister, Suzi Belk, said she was having a harder time with forgiveness.

"You exposed my children to the most evil they will ever see, and for that I'm having trouble forgiving you," she said in her victim impact statement.

Paul Belk, 32, of Beaufort, South Carolina stabbed Lisa Belk 16 times with two knives and a pair of scissors at Suzi Belk's apartment at 3811 Peters Ave., a day after arriving in Sioux City. In a verdict announced Oct. 1, District Judge Jeffrey Neary ruled Belk guilty of second-degree murder and possession of marijuana. Belk must serve at least 35 years before he's eligible for parole.

Belk did not speak when given a chance to make a statement before he was sentenced.

He was initially charged with first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory lifetime prison sentence without parole, but Neary ruled that Belk's use of marijuana prior to the stabbing aggravated his underlying mental illness and left him unable to form the specific intent to commit the crime, a legal threshold necessary to find him guilty of first-degree murder and of willful injury, a charge he faced for stabbing Suzi Belk in the arm and shoulder.

Finding Belk lacking the specific intent to commit the crimes, Neary found him guilty of second-degree murder, which does not require proof of specific intent, and acquitted him of willful injury.

Belk had waived his right to a jury trial and chose to have Neary decide his case.

Belk's attorneys used an insanity defense during the four-day trial in April in Woodbury County District Court, calling as a witness a psychiatrist who testified Belk had schizophrenia and was paranoid the day he killed his mother, believing his sister's apartment was bugged, that people were listening to his phone calls and two people in an alley were coming to kill him. Belk believed his mother was part of a plan to hurt him, and he had armed himself with a knife for protection.

A forensic psychologist testified for the prosecution that Belk was overexaggerating his symptoms and likely faking some of them. Even if he was schizophrenic, the psychologist said, Belk was able to distinguish right from wrong.

Belk's sisters testified at trial that Belk hardly acknowledged his mother and refused to hug her when she arrived at the apartment to see him the day of the stabbing. He warmed up to her later in the day, but after eating dinner he became agitated, pacing and piling items in the middle of the living room floor before going to the kitchen to get a knife.

After Suzi Belk told him to leave, Paul Belk brandished the knife, took everyone's cell phones and ordered them to pile items in the living room while Lisa Belk held a basket. Belk then stabbed her. He stabbed Suzi Belk as she tried to intervene.

Lisa Belk, 55, was pronounced dead later at a hospital.

Suzi Belk urged her brother to use his time in prison to kick his marijuana addiction and get better so that something positive results from their mother's death.

"Don't make this for nothing," she said.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 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.
SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man has been sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison for selling methamphetamine and illegally possessing firearms.

Diego Ayala, 31, pleaded guilty in July in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine and prohibited person in possession of firearms.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Ayala and others sold more than 15 pounds of meth in the Sioux City area from September 2020 through Jan. 7, when law enforcement conducted an undercover purchase of 1 pound of meth from Ayala. Authorities then conducted a search of his home and seized 4 pounds of meth, a 9mm handgun, an MP-15 assault-style rifle and more than 250 rounds of ammunition.
SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City woman accused of running a business in which she stole thousands of dollars of merchandise from department stores and then sold the items has been arrested.

Authorities served an arrest warrant on Victoria Trostheim Wednesday, and she was booked into the Woodbury County Jail on charges of second-degree theft and commission of a specified unlawful activity. Her bond was set at $20,000.

According to court documents, Trostheim ran a "boosting" business, in which people would give her lists of items they wanted, then she would steal them and sell the items for a reduced price or other price the parties agreed upon.

Trostheim is accused of stealing more than 50 items valued at $3,429 from Target, 5775 Sunnybrook Drive, on four trips during a seven-day period in May.

Police executing a search warrant on her home recovered many of the items stolen from Target. They also found $5,000-$8,000 worth of merchandise with tags and security codes from Walmart, JCPenney and Kohl's.

Trostheim was charged in Woodbury County in December with driving while license barred and driving while license revoked and in May with possession of methamphetamine. After bonding out of jail after both arrests, new arrest warrants were issued in September after she missed hearings in both of those cases.

Prosecutors later learned that she was in jail at that time in Dakota County, where she was charged in July with possession of methamphetamine and giving a fake name to police during her arrest. She's scheduled to stand trial in December on those charges.

While out on bond in Dakota County in August, Trostheim was arrested in Le Mars, Iowa, in possession of methamphetamine and items stolen from Walmart in Le Mars. She was charged in Plymouth County with theft and drug possession. That case is pending.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 3

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.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY -- Siouxlanders paid tribute Thursday to a hometown veteran on Veterans Day.

Siouxland Freedom Park officials unveiled its new interpretive center named for the late Brig. Gen. Bud Day and his wife, Doris.

George E. "Bud" Day, who died in 2013 at age 88, is the only Sioux City native to earn the Medal of Honor, the nations highest award for valor.

During a ceremony on Memorial Day, the South Sioux City veterans park announced the name for the soon-to-be-completed interpretive center. empirical foods co-founder Eldon Roth requested the name after making a sizeable contribution to the riverfront project.

New signage went up Thursday for the Brigadier General Bud & Doris Day Interpretive Center.

Doris Day, 92, who lives in Florida, was unable to make the trip for the ceremony, but several members of the family attended.

"If any of you know my mom and dad, they would be just incredibly humbled by this," the couple's son, George Day, Jr., said Thursday.

A decorated veteran who earned more than 70 medals during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, Bud Day spent more than five years as a POW after his fighter jet was shot down over North Vietnam in August 1967. He jumped from the plane and was badly injured in the landing, leaving his knee and right arm broken.

He was captured and beaten, but managed to escape his captors, only to be recaptured and placed in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, where he was often the highest-ranking captive.

After his release in 1973, he became an attorney and leading advocate on veterans issues. After rising to the rank of colonel during his lifetime, he received a posthumous promotion to brigadier general in 2018.

Construction on the 5,000-square-foot interpretive center at Freedom Park was completed in early 2018. Since the beginning of the project, about $3 million has been raised and spent, Freedom Park President Mike Newhouse said.

Interior work should be complete within a few weeks, Newhouse said.

"We didn't want to wait 'til that time when everything was perfect. We thought, 'Warts and all, let's show everybody what we have,'" Newhouse said at Thursday's ceremony, which included a ribbon cutting.

"Ten years ago, there was nothing here. This was a thicket, with weeds as big around as your arm. See what we have now, with the wall, the flag, the building, we're progressing rapidly to finish the interior," Newhouse said. "Soon we'll begin to populate the building with museum-quality exhibits."

Within 10 months to a year or so, Newhouse said the Interpretive Center will feature permanent exhibits.

A temporary exhibit, "Flights of Honor," featuring photos from Heartland Honor Flights during the years 2008-2019, opened to the public Thursday. It will remain open through Sunday. The exhibit was created by Omaha-based Patriotic Productions, which earlier this year brought a photo display of fallen service members to the center.

Freedom Park officials have enough cash on hand to finish the building, Newhouse said, but fundraising will be ongoing for additional projects, including roughly $150,000 for a Korean War memorial and $50,000 for improvements around the park's Freedom Rock.

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 former Nebraska trooper was charged with a felony civil-rights violation that could have sent him to prison for up to 10 years, but only two of 12 jurors voted to find him guilty.
ARDMORE, Okla. (AP)  Two former Oklahoma police officers face up to 10 years in prison after being convicted of murder for using their stun guns more than 50 times on an unarmed man who later died.

A Carter County jury last week convicted former Wilson police officers Brandon Dingman, 35, and Joshua Taylor, 27, of second-degree murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. They each face up to 10 years in prison when theyre formally sentenced next month.

Taylor's attorney, Warren Gotcher, said he was extremely disappointed" with the verdict.

We obviously hope an appeal will correct this injustice," Gotcher said.

Dingman's attorney didnt immediately respond Friday to messages seeking comment.

Court documents said on July 4, 2019, the two officers used their stun guns on 28-year-old Jared Lakey more than 50 times, which was a substantial factor in Lakeys death. Lakey died two days later.

Taylor and Dingman had come into contact with Lakey after responding to a call that he was acting in a disorderly way, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which investigated Lakey's death. The agency said that when Lakey wouldnt comply with the officers commands, they used their stun guns.

A deputy with the Carter County sheriffs office eventually responded to the scene and helped get Lakey into custody. OSBI said that shortly after that, Lakey stopped breathing and became unresponsive. He was taken to the hospital.

An attorney for Lakey's family, J. Spencer Bryan, said the family was pleased with the jury's verdict.

The Lakey family is grateful to the jury and the district attorney for the convictions, but the risk to the public remains because these officers didnt violate their policy or training," Bryan said in a statement. The Wilson police chief testified that Jareds torture was consistent with policy, which is how Wilson has decided to police the community."

A telephone message left Friday for Wilson Police Chief Kevin Coley wasn't immediately returned.

Lakey's family has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Wilson, the two officers, the Carter County Sheriff's Office and one of its deputies and the City of Lone Grove and one of its police officers who responded to the call, Bryan said.

Wilson is located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP)  Officials in Jackson County in southwest Oregon plan to ask the state for more than $7.2 million to help crack down on the billions of dollars worth of illegal pot grows across the Rogue Valley.

The money would pay for 37 new employees, including Sheriffs Office detectives, code enforcement officers and more staff for the Jackson County District Attorneys Office, The Mail Tribune reported.

Jackson County Commissioner Rick Dyer said the request is what the county needs over a year to make growing illegal marijuana uncomfortable and risky for people.

Regulated recreational marijuana was legalized in Oregon in 2015, but that hasn't stopped illegal, untaxed grows from proliferating.

Southern Oregon is at the tip of the so-called Emerald Triangle, a pot growing region that includes Northern California.

Oregons Jackson, Josephine, Klamath and Douglas County sheriffs offices regularly find grows and processing and storage sites with millions of dollars worth of illegal marijuana. A potato shed with marijuana worth more than $100 million was found this year in Klamath County and a grow with an estimated $200 million worth of marijuana plants was discovered in Josephine County.

But without enough money from the state and blocked from enacting local taxes on grows to fund marijuana enforcement, Jackson County officials say law enforcement in the region has fallen behind on busting illegal pot operations.

State agencies that regulate the hemp and marijuana industries and agricultural water use are also struggling to keep up with the volume of illegal operators, county officials said.

Jackson County Administrator Danny Jordan said the Jackson County Sheriffs Office can currently tackle about 40 illegal grows per year. Jackson County officials estimate there are 2,000 legal and illegal hemp and marijuana sites locally.

Law enforcement agencies in southern Oregon say foreign cartels are behind many of the illegal grows. They say cartels know some grows will be discovered and destroyed, but the rest will generate vast sums of money once the pot is trafficked to states where marijuana is illegal.

Jackson County's request for funding will go to the Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office Emergency Board, which allocates emergency funds when the Oregon Legislature isnt in session.

Jordan noted the nearly $7.3 million request doesnt include money to address environmental damage from dismantled greenhouses, human feces, pesticides and dangerous electrical wiring left behind by illegal growers.

The state Emergency Board has a larger pile of money this year, in part because Oregons budget was buttressed by federal pandemic aid.

From a budget standpoint, this should be a no-brainer, Jackson County Commissioner Dave Dotterrer said.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Biden administration is nominating its first set of U.S. Marshals, including the first Black man to serve as the U.S. Marshal in Minnesota, along with a slate of other historic firsts for U.S. attorney posts across the nation.

The nomination of Eddie Frizell to be the U.S. Marshal in the District of Minnesota comes months after two sheriffs deputies shot and killed a Black man in Minneapolis while assigned to a Marshals Service fugitive task force, sparking controversy about how the Justice Department was implementing its policy on body-worn cameras.

The shooting of Winston Boogie Smith Jr. in June sparked nights of protest in a city still reeling from the death of George Floyd. The officers, deputies from local sheriffs offices who work on the federal fugitive task force, were not wearing body cameras. Issues with local officers being prohibited from wearing body cameras has led some local police departments in Minnesota to pull their officers from federal task forces.

Frizell is a well-known figure in Minnesota law enforcement, having served as chief of the Metro Transit Police Department in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area since 2019. Before taking that position, he was a longtime police official in Minneapolis, serving in various positions, including as deputy chief of patrol, and as an inspector.

Andrew Luger, a former Obama-era U.S. attorney and partner at the law firm Jones Day, is being nominated to be U.S. attorney in Minnesota. Luger had previously served in the role as U.S. attorney in Minnesota from 2014 until 2017 and previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Minnesota and New York.

The White House is also nominating the first Black women to serve as U.S. attorneys in the Northern District of Ohio and the Eastern District of Michigan. And it will nominate the first Black men to serve as U.S. attorneys in Nevada and in the Middle District of Louisiana.

The Justice Departments 93 U.S. attorneys, who are responsible for federal criminal prosecutions in their respective districts, are likely to be central to efforts to combat violent crime.

The candidates were chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials in this field, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice, the White House said.

Biden has now nominated 37 people to serve as U.S. attorneys, positions that have been filled for months by acting U.S. attorneys.

Nevada Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson is being nominated to be the U.S. attorney in that state. Frierson has served in the state Assembly since 2010 and also works as an assistant public defender in Clark County, Nevada, the county home to Las Vegas. Frierson was elected to his current Assembly run in 2016 after previously serving from 2011 to 2014. He has been the speaker of the lower chamber since 2016.

In Michigan, the White House has nominated Mark Totten to be U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan. Totten, a former law school professor, has served as Chief Legal Counsel for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer since 2019. He is also a former federal and local prosecutor. And in the Eastern District of Michigan, officials are nominating Dawn Ison, who has served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the office since 2002.

The other nominees include Brandon Brown, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Western District of Louisiana, to run that office, and Ronald Gathe, Jr., to be the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana. Gathe is the chief of trials for the 18th Judicial District Attorneys Office in Louisiana and previously served as an assistant district attorney. He previously worked in private practice and is also the Vice President of Membership for the National Black Prosecutors Association, helping to establish the first and only chapter in Louisiana.

The White House will also nominate Ryan Buchanan to be the U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Georgia, where he has worked as an assistant U.S. attorney and deputy chief of the offices Violent Crime and National Security Section. And officials are also announcing the nomination of Marisa Darden to be U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Ohio, where she worked as a prosecutor from 2014 until 2019.

The White House is also announcing it is nominating LaDon Reynolds to serve as U.S. Marshal in the Northern District of Illinois, which includes Chicago. Reynolds is the police chief of the Oak Park Police Department in Illinois. The longtime officer also serves as the departments emergency preparedness coordinator.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
WASHINGTON (AP)  Steve Bannon, a longtime ally to former President Donald Trump, was indicted Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress after he defied a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The Justice Department said Bannon, 67, was indicted on one count for refusing to appear for a deposition and the other for refusing to provide documents in response to the committee's subpoena. It wasn't immediately clear when he would be due in court.

The indictment comes as a second witness, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, defied a similar subpoena from the committee on Friday. The chairman of the panel, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, said he will be recommending contempt charges against Meadows next week.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Bannon's indictment reflects the Justice Department's "steadfast commitment" to ensuring that the department adheres to the rule of law. Each count carries a minimum of 30 days of jail and a sentence of up to a year behind bars.

Bannon's attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

This is not the first time Bannon has faced legal peril. In August of last year, he was pulled from a luxury yacht and arrested on allegations that he and three associates ripped off donors trying to fund a southern border wall. Trump later pardoned Bannon in the final hours of his presidency.

Meadows had been in discussions with the committee since his subpoena was issued in September, but his lawyer said Friday that Meadows has a "sharp legal dispute" with the panel as Trump has claimed executive privilege over the testimony.

Thompson had threatened contempt charges against Meadows in a letter to the lawyer, George Terwilliger, on Thursday, saying that if he failed to appear to answer the committee's questions Friday it would be considered "willful non-compliance." The committee would first have to vote on the contempt recommendation, then the full House would vote to send it to the Justice Department.

Meadows' refusal to comply comes amid escalating legal battles between the committee and Trump as the former president has claimed privilege over documents and interviews the lawmakers are demanding.

The White House said in a letter Thursday that President Joe Biden would waive any privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee, prompting his lawyer to say Meadows wouldn't comply.

"Legal disputes are appropriately resolved by courts," said the lawyer, George Terwilliger. "It would be irresponsible for Mr. Meadows to prematurely resolve that dispute by voluntarily waiving privileges that are at the heart of those legal issues."

As the sitting president, Biden has so far waived most of Trump's assertions of privilege over documents. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has backed Biden's position, noting in one ruling this week that "Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President."

The panel's proceedings and attempts to gather information have been delayed as Trump appealed Chutkan's rulings. On Thursday, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the release of some of the White House records the panel is seeking, giving that court time to consider Trump's arguments.

Still, the House panel is continuing its work, and lawmakers have already interviewed more than 150 witnesses so far as they attempt to build the most comprehensive record yet of how a violent mob of Trump's supporters broke into the Capitol and temporarily halted the certification of Biden's victory.

The committee has subpoenaed almost three dozen people, including former White House staffers, Trump allies who strategized about how to overturn his defeat and people who organized the giant rally on the National Mall the morning of Jan. 6. While some, like Meadows and Bannon, have balked, others have spoken to the panel and provided documents.

Meadows, a former GOP congressman from North Carolina, is a key witness for the panel. He was Trump's top aide in the time between Trump's loss in the November election and the insurrection, and was one of several people who pressured state officials to try and overturn the results. He was also by Trump's side during much of the time, and he could provide information about what the former president was saying and doing during the attack.

"You were the president's chief of staff and have critical information regarding many elements of our inquiry," Thompson wrote in a letter accompanying the Sept. 23 subpoena to Meadows. "It appears you were with or in the vicinity of President Trump on Jan. 6, had communications with the president and others on January 6 regarding events at the Capitol and are a witness regarding activities of that day."

The appeals court will hear arguments Nov. 30 in Trump's separate case against the committee and the National Archives, an attempt to withhold documents from the panel. The arguments will take place before three judges nominated by Democratic presidents: Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, nominated by former President Barack Obama, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, an appointee of Biden.

Given the case's magnitude, whichever side loses before the circuit court is likely to eventually appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Zeke Miller and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
A pair of Democratic U.S. Senate hopefuls are taking different paths aimed at the same destination  winning their partys primary in seven months and the general election a year from now.

Minden physician Glenn Hurst is staking out a position as the progressive in the field of four candidates for the nomination to face Sen. Chuck Grassley in 2022.

I think Iowa voters need to know that there are candidates who are running to be their senator and then there's a candidate who is running to address the issues that will make Iowa thrive, said Hurst, who spoke to Democrats at the University of Iowa on Wednesday night.

Retired Admiral Mike Franken told about 30 Democrats at a midday meet-and-greet Thursday in Cedar Rapids, he believes the path to the Senate runs through the middle.

I'm an appealing choice, I believe, for those who are centrist, who normally have been happy to vote for Sen. Grassley for last 46 years, Franken said. I would have a steady hand on the tiller.

I will move the ball forward for the state of Iowa. I've got the intellect and the inventiveness to make that happen in a variety of ways.

Also seeking the Democratic Senate nomination are former U.S. Rep. and former state lawmaker Abby Finkenauer of Cedar Rapids, farmer and former county supervisor Dave Muhlbauer of Manning, and veterans advocate Bob Krause of Burlington.

Hurst leans into the progressive agenda, supporting Medicare for All as a way to keep Iowas rural hospitals open and expand access to health care. Hes for intelligent immigration to reverse the loss of 25 percent of Iowas rural population over the past four decades and bring people with skill sets that our rural communities need to actually build the houses, repair the bridges and take care of the streets.

I believe we have to address the agricultural issues related to overproduction of corn and soybeans, to drive down the price so that we can feed cattle that are raised in confined animal operations and spread manure across our state and into our watershed and affect our ability to enjoy our lives.

Doesn't that sound like it should appeal to every Iowan? he said.

Hurst, who chairs the Iowa Democratic Party Rural Caucus, believes passage of the $1.75 trillion infrastructure package will help win back rural voters.

The failure of the House to pass that package quickly cost Democrats the Virginia governors race, he believes.

We saw in deep blue Virginia what happens when (Democrats) can't even get the $1.75 trillion reconciliation package passed quickly  on a timeline to help their partys candidates, he said.

If you cannot give people hope, then they will go with those who provide them fear. We aren't doing enough to provide hope, and Republicans are better than ever at selling fear.

Now, he said, Democrats need to pass the $3.5 trillion social infrastructure bill.

Franken, who grew up in Sioux County and lives in Sioux City, said decidedly red rural Iowa can go blue quickly. It's time to strike, and it's time to strike hard.

Because of its infrastructure, education system, health care and climate, Iowa has opportunities, Franken said. Hes bullish on developing the states energy potential  biofuels, wind and solar.

We are in the catbird seat, he said. We have fabulous opportunities with sustainable energy production, but we need to kind of get on a stick.

Time is moving on, and we are stagnant, he said. We need to break through what is the dysfunction of Washington and the shallow political partisanship.

With the experience of his four-decade military career, including time on Capitol Hill working on legislative issues, Franken said serving in the Senate would be a continuation of his service to the country.

I will go to work on Day One, he said, adding, I have Iowa in my soul.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
CEDAR FALLS  After his flight was delayed for more than a week, NASA astronaut Raja Chari, a Cedar Falls native, blasted off Wednesday evening from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida headed to the International Space Station.

It was a great ride, better than we imagined, said Chari, the mission commander, shortly after the spacecraft reached orbit.

He and his three NASA crewmates pulled up Thursday night at the space station, their new home until spring.

About a dozen fans from his hometown gathered at the Cedar Falls Public Safety Building to watch on television as the SpaceX Crew-3 launched into space. Other residents virtually came together to view it over Zoom.

Mayor Rob Green, a self-proclaimed space nerd, organized the watch party for community members wanting to witness the momentous occasion involving Cedar Falls first astronaut. The 1995 Waterloo Columbus High School graduate served as the the mission commander on the spacecraft that took off at 8:03 p.m.

I loved it, and was glad to see it was a successful launch. Its amazing to see how much can happen in 15 minutes, Green said. And its always great to have the community come together, or else itd just be us in our own homes.

It was quiet at points during the launch as viewers listened to the experts on television, but upon reaching milestones  like when the spacecraft lifted off or entered orbit  there were cheers from those in attendance.

Others occasionally pointed out things they observed, like the sea turtle used as a zero-gravity indicator or how calm the astronauts seemed to be. Just like driving through Nebraska, one viewer quipped.

Im here to watch because I just wanted to say I was here. I didnt know Raja, but his younger brother knew my daughter who was the same age, said Sandy Formanek.

David Swindlehurst, who graduated the same year from Columbus High School as Chari, noted how hes amazing, and hes beyond capable of doing this. I trust that hes got everything locked down.

He touted Charis natural talents and abilities and drive to be successful from their time in kindergarten through senior year, whether it be in cross country running, band, theater or academics.

I had seen a launch on TV years and years ago, but its great to see it this time with a local astronaut, and its always great to get out and see other Cedar Falls folks, said Mary Lyman.

The launch was originally scheduled for Oct. 30.

One of the astronauts  NASA isnt saying which one  was sidelined last week by an undisclosed medical issue. The crew member is fully recovered, according to NASA. Officials wont say whether it was an illness or injury, but noted it wasnt COVID-19.

Bad weather also contributed to their flight delays.

Chari, 44, is an Air Force colonel and the first space rookie in decades to lead a mission to orbit for NASA. A test pilot from Cedar Falls, Chari accumulated more than 2,500 hours in fighter jets, including combat missions in Iraq.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  An appellate court ruling has upheld a drug seizure in a case that raised questions about when police can seize drugs in pat-downs.

The Des Moines Register reports that the Iowa Court of Appeals found that a district court judge had erred in ruling that the evidence uncovered during a search of Earnest Hunt Jr. was inadmissible.

Dubuque police stopped a car in which he was riding on Christmas Day 2019 because he was considered a person of interest in a recent shooting, according to the opinion issues this month.

An officer patted him down looking for a gun and instead felt a plastic bag containing small, hard balls. The officer removed the bag from Hunts pocket and placed him under arrest. The contents of the bag were later identified as crack cocaine.

The case hinged on the U.S. Supreme Court's plain-feel exception, which allows officers to seize anything found during a weapon pat-down that is immediately apparent to the touch to be contraband or otherwise evidence of a crime without a warrant.

The district judge in Hunts case ruled that the exception didnt apply. The problem was that multiple drugs, including heroin, crack and powder cocaine, are packaged in similar ways.

But the appellate court found that the officer didn't need to pinpoint the specific type of drug to rely on the exception.

For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Des Moines Register.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP)  A judge sentenced a South Carolina man Friday to 50 years in prison for the 2020 stabbing death of his mother in Sioux City, Iowa.

District Judge Jeffrey Neary sentenced Paul Belk, 32, of Beaufort, South Carolina, after finding him guilty on Oct. 1 of second-degree murder and possession of marijuana, according to the Sioux City Journal. Belk must serve as least 35 years before he's eligible for parole.

Belk stabbed his mother, Lisa Belk, 16 times with two knives and a pair of scissors while they were an apartment on April 14, 2020. He had arrived in Sioux City the day before.

Belk's lawyers argued he was insane at the time of the assault but a prosecution psychologist said Belk was able to distinguish right from wrong.

Before the sentencing, Belk's sister Zoe Belk said their mother would have forgiven him, saying Mom still loved you when she died." His sister Suzi Belk said she was having a hard time forgiving him because you exposed my children to the most evil they will ever see."

The judge found Belk guilty of second-degree murder, saying his marijuana use aggravated an underlying mental illness and that prevented him from forming specific intent to kill his mother as required to convict on first-degree murder.

For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Sioux City Journal.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  Members of a group that led a push to scrap proposed statewide sex education standards that would have covered gender identity and sexual orientation have formed a political action committee.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that the Protect Nebraska Children Coalition made the announcement Thursday. Initially, the group will focus on school board races, but if it has enough resources, it may support candidates for other offices, said Katie McClemens, a director of the PAC.

The coalition organized around opposition to statewide sex education standards proposed in March by the Nebraska Department of Education. The group grew to more than 20,000 Facebook members.

In September, state education officials halted plans for the new standards, which were initially hailed by advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth.

They were non-binding recommendations, so local schools could simply have ignored them. But opponents still railed against the proposal, arguing that the content was sexually inappropriate.

McClemens said that one of the best things to happen over the last year and a half is that parents and other stakeholders have gotten involved in school issues.

Theyve reengaged in their childrens education to the point that theyre willing to mobilize, to take action, she said.

For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Omaha World-Herald.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
MOSCOW (AP)  The Kremlin on Friday rebuffed allegations that a buildup of its troops near Ukraine reflects Moscow's aggressive intentions, saying Russia needs to ensure its security in response to alleged NATO threats.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Western media reports that Moscow has intentions to invade Ukraine as a hollow and unfounded attempt to incite tensions.

Russia doesn't threaten anyone, Peskov said during a conference call with reporters. The movement of troops on our territory shouldn't be a cause for anyone's concern.

Ukraine complained last week that Russia has kept tens of thousands of troops not far from the two countries' borders after conducting war games in an attempt to exert further pressure on its ex-Soviet neighbor. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and has supported a separatist insurgency that broke out that year in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry claimed that about 90,000 Russian troops are stationed not far from the border and in rebel-controlled areas in Ukraines east. It said units of the Russian 41st army have remained in Yelnya, a town about 260 kilometers (about 160 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Lt. Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Friday that Russia has about 2,100 military personnel in the rebel-controlled areas, noting that Russian military officers hold all commanding positions in the separatist forces.

Russia has cast its weight behind the separatist insurgency in Ukraines east that has left more than 14,000 dead. But Moscow has repeatedly denied any presence of its troops in eastern Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in Washington this week that the U.S. commitment to Ukraines security and territorial integrity is ironclad.

On Friday, Blinken pointed at Russias previous aggressive actions against Ukraine. From what theyve done the past, we have real concerns about what were seeing in the present, he said.

We dont know Russias intentions, Blinken told reporters in Washington. But we do know that weve seen in the past: Russia mass forces on Ukraines borders, claim some kind of provocation by Ukraine, and then invade. Thats what they did in 2014.

Blinken said the U.S. was in very close consultation with European allies and partners on this.

Asked Thursday if Russia planned to invade Ukraine, Russias deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, replied that it never planned, never did, and (is) never going to do it unless were provoked by Ukraine, or by somebody else. He cited what he called many threats from Ukraine and allegedly provocative actions by U.S. warships in the Black Sea.

Peskov similarly emphasized Friday that Russia needs to protect its security amid what he described as increasing provocations near its borders. He pointed at the U.S. naval deployment to the Black Sea and increasingly frequent U.S. and NATO intelligence flights.

We take measures to ensure our security when our opponents take defiant action near our borders, Peskov said. "We can't stay indifferent to that; we must be on our guard.

The Russian Defense Ministry described the deployment of the U.S. warships USS Mount Whitney and USS Porter, which sailed into the Black Sea last week, as a threat to regional security and strategic stability.

The real goal behind the U.S. activities in the Black Sea region is exploring the theater of operations in case of Kyiv's attempts to settle the conflict in the southeast by force, the ministry said in a statement.

The reported Russian military buildup near Ukraine also raised concern in the European Union.

After discussing the issue with U.S. President Joe Biden earlier this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said EU officials fully support the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

European Commission spokesman Peter Stano told reporters Friday that the bloc is discussing the situation with partners, including the U.S. and United Kingdom, adding that the information we gathered so far is rather worrying.

French foreign and defense ministers expressed their concerns about the situation in Ukraine during Friday talks with their Russian counterparts in Paris.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defense Minister Florence Parly clearly warned of the serious consequences of any further possible damage to the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the meeting.

French President Emmanuel Macron said later Friday he will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days about the situation in Ukraine and Belarus.



AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington, Angela Charlton and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv, Ukraine and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  European Union officials on Wednesday accused Belarus of state-sponsored "trafficking of human lives by luring desperate migrants to the Polish border  the edge of the EU  where many are now stuck in makeshift camps in freezing weather.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  Pacific Rim leaders agreed to do all they can to improve access to coronavirus vaccines and reduce carbon emissions, but failed to reach agreement on whether the U.S. should host talks in two years' time.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping were among those taking part in the online meeting of 21 leaders at the end of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Saturday, which was being hosted virtually by New Zealand.

The focus was on areas in which the unlikely mix of leaders could find common ground. But the failure of the group to endorse a U.S. bid to host APEC in 2023 pointed to some of the divisions that lie just beneath the surface.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she expected APEC would reach agreement around the U.S. bid by the end of the year, and said that the atmosphere in the room was pragmatic, despite the geopolitical tensions.

"It was constructive, it was positive and convivial, and there was a real common sense of purpose among members," Ardern said.

The White House issued a statement after the meeting that did not address the hosting issue. Biden focused instead on deepening economic partnerships in the region with the goal of fair and open trade, and noted that America has shipped 64 million vaccine doses to APEC economies.

A joint statement by the leaders said widespread access to vaccines is a priority.

Because nobody is safe until everyone is safe, we are determined to ensure extensive immunization of our people against COVID-19 as a global public good, the statement read.

The APEC leaders said they supported efforts to share vaccines equitably and to expand vaccine manufacture and supply, including through the voluntary transfer of vaccine production technology.

The statement also said APEC supports improving trade in COVID-19 vaccines and related medical products, including through streamlined customs procedures.

The deep rifts between some members of the group were highlighted this week by a warning from Xi against allowing tensions to cause a relapse into a Cold War mentality.

And a Southeast Asian delegate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to publicly discuss the issue, said Russia had refused to support U.S. hosting the gathering unless some of its diplomats are removed from a U.S. blacklist or allowed to enter the U.S. to participate.

The delegate said the U.S. resisted Russias demands because issues involving Americas security are considered non-negotiable. Because APEC works on a consensus basis, Russia's objections were enough to at least temporarily derail the U.S. bid.

In other areas of agreement, the group emphasized the importance of the World Trade Organization as an arbiter of trade rules. APEC said they wanted to see a pragmatic, multilateral response to COVID-19 at a WTO ministerial meeting later this month.

APEC also said that climate change posed unprecedented challenges to the world.

We acknowledge the need for urgent and concrete action to transition to a climate resilient future global economy and appreciate net zero or carbon neutrality commitments in this regard, the statement read.

In all, APEC members account for nearly 3 billion people and about 60% of the worlds GDP.

Many countries in Asia face the challenge of balancing Chinese and U.S. influence on the economic and geopolitical fronts.

China claims vast parts of the South China Sea and other areas and has moved to establish a military presence, building islands in some disputed areas as it asserts its claims.

Both Taiwan and China have applied to join a Pacific Rim trade pact, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, with Beijing saying it will block Taiwans bid on the basis that the democratically governed island refuses to accept that its part of Communist-ruled China.

Officials said they made significant progress during some 340 preliminary meetings. APEC members had agreed to reduce or eliminate many tariffs and border holdups on vaccines, masks and other medical products important to fighting the pandemic.



Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines. Associated Press writer Joshua Boak in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Thousands marched in Warsaw on Thursday to mark Polands Independence Day, led by far-right groups calling for strong borders, while its troops blocked hundreds of new attempts by migrants to enter the country illegally from neighboring Belarus in a tense standoff.
At the end of the first week of the Glasgow climate summit, 100,000 protesters marched to denounce the attendees as phonies who will never honor their commitments to curb carbon emissions.

Despite pledges by 100 nations to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030, and by 20 nations, including the U.S., to end financing of new international fossil-fuel power plants, teenage climate superstar activist Greta Thunberg says the COP26 summit is a con:

"Two weeks of business as usual, blah, blah, blah!"

Thunberg has a point.

Commitments made in Scotland are not binding upon governments that, be they autocratic or democratic, do not subordinate their national interests to pledges ostentatiously made in global forums.

This Glasgow summit calls to mind the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which won a Nobel Peace Prize for Secretary of State Frank Kellogg,

On Aug. 27, 1928, 15 High Contracting Parties signed on to renounce war as an instrument of national policy. The signatories that day were the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, Poland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and India. Within 15 years, all 15 nations, Ireland alone excepted, were ensnared in the greatest war in history.

Like the pledges at the climate summit, the Kellogg-Briand Pact provided for no means of enforcement or sanctions against nations that failed to live up to their commitment.

Consider. China is the world's largest emitter of carbon emissions, Russia the fourth largest, and Brazil the seventh largest worldwide.

Yet President Xi Jinping of China, President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil did not show up at the summit. And President Joe Biden of the United States and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain both fell asleep during the proceedings.

Glasgow is destined to fail because national interests invariably triumph over globalism. The demands of the people who keep regimes in power will be heard and heeded before the claims of the transnationals.

Biden, faced with a threat by Sen. Joe Manchin to sink his Build Back Better bill, summarily dropped a measure that would have imposed rising carbon taxes on fossil fuel plants and provided monetary rewards for clean energy facilities. Biden dropped it because his own and his party's fortunes depend on enacting the legislation.

The protests in Scotland this weekend were far more colorful than the yearlong "yellow vest" protests in France. Yet, the French protests proved more effective and successful.

That movement originated with French motorists from rural areas who had long commutes and were protesting an increase in fuel taxes that was real and immediate. The French protests had a specific goal, and they succeeded in bringing about a reduction in the fuel taxes.

"King coal is dead!" we heard from the summit.

Really? Coal is a foundational resource in Asia, and demand for coal grows as the populations and economies of Asia expand.

Coal accounts for 60-65% of the electricity generation in China and 68-73% in India, two nations that represent more than a third of the world's population. Nations such as Australia depend upon the sale and shipment of coal as essential components of their exports.

Consider Scotland itself. Should it move to secede from Britain, will it gladly forfeit the North Sea oil and gas deposits that have proven so beneficial to Britain?

As America transitions to clean energy and electric vehicles, our own reliance upon China will grow. For China is today the world's principal supplier of solar panels and the rare earth minerals vital to the batteries of electric cars.

To get to Glasgow, delegates, journalists and activists had to travel by commercial or private jet, and every restaurant, bar, hotel room and conference hall had to be lighted and heated by electricity generated by the kind of gas-, oil- and coal-fired plants that global elites want on the chopping block by midcentury. The carbon footprint of the Glasgow summit was not inconsiderable.

Now that the presidents and prime ministers have departed the global summit in its second and final week, we're going to get down to the lick-log.

Writes the Washington Post: "In coming days ... negotiators from nearly 200 countries will haggle over every word in every line of an agreement that could shape ... how the rich countries of the world deliver on promises to help more vulnerable nations."

Specifically, who will pony up the $100 billion per year promised to poor and developing nations at previous climate summits and never fully delivered? And who will pay the reparations for the "loss and damage" suffered by the poor and developing countries, previously caused by the industrialized nations of the world?

At root, almost every globalist and transnational institution and summit has a common feature: the endless transfer of wealth from the First World, the historic oppressors, to their alleged Third World victims.

These gatherings are to determine how much in reparations the latter can extort from a conscience-stricken West.

Will the GOP reject the shakedown?

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
The film Passing, which adapts Nella Larsens 1929 novel and is now available streaming on Netflix, opens with a profusion of confusing sights and sounds. We strain to detect what we see and hear. Is that traffic? Are those legs?

By the time the screen resolves into a black-and-white New York street, with two women shopping on a hot summer day, our role as observers has been elevated in importance in direct proportion to all that makes our viewing so strenuous. The images clear, but the story remains fuzzy. Something has just been broken. Who broke it? Why does a woman hand a pickaninny doll to two others? Is the doll a clue?

Advertisement

Passing is the act of living as a person of a race other than that which has been designated; light-skinned Black people have sometimes passed as a way around racist restrictions. In Larsens time, passing was perceived as widespread (for the most part, it wasnt) and newspapers reported a panic, amongst whites, over determining who was who. The films stress on perception goes to the heart of passing: determining what is around us. Passing is about the power, and the problem, of deciding who and what we are, who and what we can bethe power to define categories and detect belonging.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Passing stories, an important tradition in Black literature (Frances Harper, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Jessie Fauset, George S. Schuyler, Britt Bennett, and others all wrote influential fiction about passing), are not always detective storiesNella Larsen toys with the genrebut they are always stories about detection and discernment, observation and judgment. Who settles the identities that a passer embodies? How are they fixed in place? Who judges a passers success or failure, on what grounds and with what authority? Can identity categories be called into question and destabilized by the act of passing, or must passing always replicate an already established identity in order to achieve authenticity?

Advertisement

Larsens novel opens differently from Rebecca Halls new film adaptation, but its message about the challenges of making sense of what we think we see is the same. Larsens novel begins focused on Irene Redfield, at home in New York, puzzling over an almost illegible letter that seems out of place and alien, lacking any return address or other markings to betray the sender. The reader cant know what to make of this. Yet Irene thinks she has it all figured out. Before opening the letter, she determines its sender to be Clare Kendry, a childhood friend now passing for white, and judges it sly and furtive. The letter, she decides, is a danger to be disliked. Her judgments are made without the benefit of information. Instead, they are of a piece with all that she knew of Clare Kendry. Is Irene an unusually perspicacious reader, able to decipher even a sealed text? Or is she one who rashly jumps to conclusions?

Advertisement

Advertisement

Judgments that are all of a piece are passings terrain. Passing demands an adept performance of received ideas about others. A successful passer plays to type. Successful passers must take care to be all of a piece with what we, collectively, already think and feel one another to be.

Advertisement

In the novel, Irene, who passes casually, is an unreliable narrator whose judgment we question. The film undercuts her perceptions visually, since we see the world through her eyes. Often, Irene (played by Tessa Thompson) is asleep, once drugged, sometimes half-conscious. She looks at things upside down, sideways, in a fog. In one particularly telling scene, she looks downstairs into her drawing room and spies her husband, Brian (Andre Holland), and seductive Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga) inches from each other, talking intimately. As she suspiciously descends the staircase, however, the camera angle changes and it becomes apparent that Irenes perception was off; they are eight to ten feet, not eight to ten inches, apart. Irenes insights are predetermined by her beliefs, as most insights are.

Advertisement

Irenes values are conventional: family, duty, work, responsibility, fidelitythe right thing. To her, these seem unobjectionable and normal. Unchallenged, though, they quickly become confining and, ultimately, deadly. The films black-and-white palette mirrors Irenes chosen world, where servants stay in the kitchen, spouses are faithful, children are innocent and race women, like Irene, do volunteer work, read The Crisis and host benefitsthe right thing.

Advertisement

Clare ruptures that order. She seems to be in color, even in a black-and-white film. She drinks, dances, suns, laughs and sobs. She mocks motherhood and marriage. Clares love of Blackness and disdain for whiteness is frank, emotional, even essential. She moves by elemental feelings, by wild desire, not obligation or compulsion. Everyone is drawn to Clare, especially Irene. Played with delicious sensuality by Negga, Clare attracts, in the way that all rule breakers do. Im not safe, she declares to Irene. I dont have proper morals.

Advertisement

Of course, Irene, not Clare, is the one who is truly dangerous. Irene, not Clare, breaks thingsflowerpot, teapot, possibly more. I had only to break it, Irene tells her friend Hugh (Bill Camp), to rid herself of what she did not want. Irene passes for safe. Our job is to detect that she is anything but.

Advertisement

In the classic Black-authored passing story, the work of detection is not in service of differentiating Blacks and whites. Even one hundred years ago, most Black writers regarded race as a fiction and social construction. Instead, the typical passing story depicted white society as vacuous, and passing into it as a bad personal choice. The failings of whiteness are the reason that passers regret passing and return home. They always come back, Brian tells Irene in the film. Its my dream to come back [to Harlem], Clare admits.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Had Larsen stopped there, with this complex contrast between Irene and Clare, her story would have been very much in the tradition of most Black passing narrativesa lesson in the deadly consequences of social segregation and repression, a challenge to white supremacy and cultural notions of white superiority, a critique of Irenes right way.

But Larsen did not stop there. Larsen interweaves a dominant racial story with an unconventional sexual and erotic one. Clares racial passing and its ultimate unraveling do not drive the plot; the understory of Clare and Irenes mutual attraction does. Irenes efforts to repress her attraction (largely by projecting it onto her husband, Brian, and imagining that he is having an affair with Clare) direct the novels tragic and ambiguous outcome. Did Irene dispense with Clare, just as she earlier dispensed with the flowerpot and teapot? Perhaps. (The film is a bit less vague on the matter than the novel.)

Advertisement

Irene and Clarestrangers  in their racial consciousnessembody the opposite approaches to racial identity that were characteristic of their time and, conceivably, of ours as well. Irene, certain that race is a social fiction but believing it to be an ethics nonethelessthat one owes loyalty to ones own peopleis drawn to someone for whom race is real, essential, and felt, but who rejects any social obligations created by it. Clare, for her part, has thrown away any ethics of race. But she is also ineluctably, and dangerously, drawn to someone whose entire reality is bound up with ethical and moral codes of racial identity. Both women long for what they intellectually eschew. Both adhere to convictions they do notand cannotfully feel. As readers and viewers, we are implicated. What do we want from this story? Do our desires bow to our beliefs? Do our longings pull against our convictions?

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The film generally hews very closely to Larsens novel, but Hall subtly modernizes it. Most contemporary viewers will perceive Negga and Thompson as mixed-race, not white, rendering their various racial designationswhite one moment and Black anotherpatently absurd. Every attempt to catalog these mixed-race figures seems arbitrary, capricious and, hence, indefensiblethe very point about racial assignments that Larsen struggled to make.

Almost one hundred years after the novels publication, this film stokes the wild desire its author originally depicted. Larsen demonstrates that desire is always wild, because it is always disruptive, evenperhaps especiallywhen it passes for safe. This seems truest where race and longing intertwine, revealing the ways that both constitute one another and, at the same time, break each other to bits.
One of the greatest challenges of my professional life was trying to convince people that Ryan Reynolds could be a good actor. The coming-of-age movie Adventureland was one of the buzzier titles going into the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, and it turned out to be good enough to cause some critics to revisit their dismissive assessments of its young star, Kristen Stewart, after the previous years Twilight. But selling hardened festivalgoers on the idea that Reynolds might be more than the boundlessly cocky hero of Van Wilder seemed like a bridge too far. But after a few abortive attempts, I finally arrived at a framing that they were able to believe: Actually, hes kind of playing an asshole.

Advertisement

[Read: How Kristen Stewart Went From Object of Mockery to Best Actress Front-Runner]

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Earlier this year, HuffPost called Reynolds Hollywoods most likeable star, and a glowing recent profile in the Wall Street Journal paints him as just about the nicest guy you could hope to meet, a hardworking, happily married father of three finally enjoying some hard-won success and using what he calls his position of unspeakable privilege to help diversify the industry he has conquered. But playing nice guys on-screen has not worked out well for him. For a good-looking white man with a chiseled body and quick, dirty wit, Reynolds path to stardom has been a surprisingly bumpy oneas well as one with, frankly, more bites at the apple than someone who looks less like Hollywoods idea of a star might have gotten. There were romantic comedies (Just Friends, The Proposal) and action movies (Smokin Aces, R.I.P.D.), not to mention a string of uninspired comic book movies culminating in the franchise-killing Green Lantern. What they had in common was the smirk. No matter how hard Reynolds tried to come across as a good-hearted herolike the hapless assistant dragooned into a green card marriage by Sandra Bullocks Canadian book editor in The ProposalReynolds couldnt help but radiate a certain smarminess. It was as if hed already watched the movie and knew you were going to end up having to like him, whether you wanted to or not.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Deadpool changed all that. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Reynolds first take on the character has literally had the smirk wiped off his face, with a knotted mass of scar tissue where his mouth ought to be. But when Reynolds returned to the character in 2016, both the mouth and the smirk were back, with a vengeance. Reynolds merc with a mouth is incessantly, almost insufferably, quippy, pelting the audience with jokes when theres no one else around to hear them. Hes ingratiating and exhausting at the same time, but hes also deeply damaged, both psychologically and physically. The character wears a bodysuit and mask for much of the movie, and when its peeled away, we see that his body is covered with scars, a side effect of the treatment that gives the foulmouthed anti-hero his superpowers. The movie was a massive hit, earning $782 million worldwide and upending conventional wisdom about the commercial viability of R-rated movies.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Reynolds couldnt hide his pretty face in every movie, of course, but he made up for it by turning himself into a human punching bag.

In the WSJ profile, Reynolds, who was nearing 40 when he made Deadpool, says he knew his window for movie stardom was beginning to close, and that movie was his last, best chance. He converted by seizing on a crucial insight. Rather than futilely trying to suppress his inherent smarm, Reynolds leaned into it. He made it his thing. And because the string of cheeky one-liners was coming from a scarred, masked freak, it was tolerable, even enjoyable, in a way it wasnt coming from a guy who looked like he was about to steal your prom date (or, more to the point, like hed been married to Scarlett Johansson and is currently married to Blake Lively). Reynolds couldnt hide his pretty face in every movie, of coursealthough he had two more hits by staying off-screen in The Croods and Detective Pikachubut he made up for it by turning himself into a human punching bag. In the Hitmans Bodyguard seriesthe 2017 hit and this summers souped-up sequeland in Netflixs 6 Underground and its new Red Notice, out Friday, hes an international man of mystery, enjoying all of the comforts that massive wealth affords and endlessly sure of his own skills. But hes also, as Samuel L. Jackson puts it in The Hitmans Wifes Bodyguard, the most annoying motherfucker on planet Earth. Its barely 15 minutes into Red Notice when Dwayne Johnson tells Reynolds, You know, Im really starting to not like you.

Advertisement

Advertisement

The thing about Reynolds characters in these movies is that they have earned their cockiness, up to a point. His personal security specialist in The Hitmans Bodyguard is world-renowned, and in Red Notice, he has a plausible claim to being the worlds second-most-wanted jewel thief. But that slight distance from the top eats away at them, and it lets us watch them with affection instead of resentment. The underlying joke of Free Guy, the summer hit in which Reynolds plays a video game character who achieves sentience, is that hes so perfect he might have been programmed instead of born, but when that character gets punched in his pretty face, the split in his nose looks awfully real. Taken in total, Reynolds willingness to subject himself to these on-screen humiliations feels less like a lack of vanity and more like a deliberate strategy. He knows we want to see him taken down a peg, if only one.

Advertisement

Advertisement

In the 1930s, Katharine Hepburns career hit a major snag when the strong, self-determined women she played on-screen started to strike some audiences (or at least the theater owners who served them) as arrogant. Her comeback vehicle, first on Broadway and then on screen, was The Philadelphia Story, in which she again plays a strong, self-determined womanbut paired this time with an even stronger and more self-determined man, who at one point grabs her by the face and shoves her to the ground. The ritual humiliations that became a part of her films after that can seem ugly, even cruel from a modern perspective, but in a sense they allowed everyone to win. For most of the movie, viewers who wanted to see Hepburn be forceful and sharp-witted got just that, while the ones who wanted to see her put back in her place knew they had only to wait. But the real winner was Hepburn herself, who went on to some of the biggest hits of her career.

Advertisement

[Read: The Remarkable Partnership of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn]

Although he was never formally declared box office poison the way Hepburn was (in an ad taken out by the president of the Independent Theatre Owners of America, no less), Reynolds has pulled much the same trick. Hes taken the core of what never quite clicked for him on screen, the puppy-dog desperation that leads to him showing up on set with a fistful of alts for every joke, and made it work for rather than against him. It cant save a movie as bad as Red Notice, which has the stink of movie stars counting their $20 million paychecks and coasting on charm. But you can see the wheels turning more clearly because of how little else there is going on. Reynolds character is a disloyal trickster, always trying to pull a fast one on Johnsons government agent and Gal Gadots competing art thief (the one who keeps him as the worlds second most wanted). But hes never quite as smart as he thinks he is, and part of the enjoyment of watching him slip out of a trap is knowing hes about to step into an even bigger one. He keeps dusting himself off and getting knocked on his ass, and you never get tired of watching him fall.
With U.S.-Iran tensions on the rise, not to mention lots of people going out saying dubious things about the Holocaust, it might seem like a prefect time for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attempt a political comeback. The hardline former president, who served two terms from 2005 to 2013, surprised many in Iran today by registering as a candidate in the May 19 presidential election. The move was a shock because Ahmadinejad was reportedly told not to run last year by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the countrys ultimate political authority. Khamenei had a public falling out with Ahmadinejad, who was seen by the clerical establishment as too power-hungry, in the last few years of Ahmadinejads presidency. Khamenei told his former ally to stay out of the race both for his own good and also for the good of the country. Ahmadinejad says the recommendation was just advice.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The election is likely to come down to a referendum on the 2015 nuclear deal, opposed by hardliners like Ahmadinejad. President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate whose signature issue has been improving the economy by seeking better relations with the West, is widely expected to run for a second term. Hell face a challenge from hardliners who want a more aggressive response to Donald Trumps America, and he could have trouble with poorer voters who havent yet seen the economic benefits he promised. Though Ahmadinejad is still a controversial figure due to his mishandling of the economy as well as the bloody resolution of the 2009 protests of his re-election, the religiously devout, populist firebrand could be well-positioned to capitalize on this political moment, but there may be less to the announcement than meets the eye.

Advertisement

While more than 120 candidates have already put their name forward, the final list of those allowed to run for president will be vetted and published by the clerical Guardian Council on April 27. Women and dissidents can probably expect to be disqualified. Ahmadinejads defiance of the Supreme Leader might also count against him.

The registration seems mostly to have been a way to give publicity to his ally, former Vice President Hamid Baghaei, who also registered. I registered merely to support Baghaei and I will act according to the [supreme] leaders advice, Ahmadinejad said. Baghaei was jailed for unclear reasons for several months in 2015, and Ahmadinejads high-profile stunt may have been a way to put pressure on the Guardian Council not to disqualify him. Its also a challenge to other hardliners, who are said to have mostly coalesced around another candidate, cleric Ebrahim Raisi.

Ahmadinejad, who bedeviled the Bush and Obama administrations for eight years, is probably not actually returning to the presidency, but if he takes on a more high-profile role, or at least boosts the fortunes of Irans hardliners, it will be a further blow to the nuclear deal, which is already under major pressure from a hostile new government in Washington.
You would not be faulted if, tuning in this month to the Charlottesville, Virginia, alt-right trial, you found yourself confounded about whether you were watching a formal judicial proceeding or an elaborate performance piece. The federal civil trial of the 20 alleged organizers of Charlottesvilles 2017 Unite the Right rally features a grab bag of white supremacists, some of whom are representing themselves in court. This has meant that from the first day of opening arguments, weve heard white supremacist Chris Cantwell, the Crying Nazi, hold himself out as a purveyor of a podcast product (sign up now!), cite Mein Kampf, and use the N-word. Hes described himself as a professional entertainer, talented, and good-looking. As part of his opening statement Cantwell told the jury hed dabbled in stand-up comedy, then read out the URL for his website, urging the jury that, I hope you can all become diehard fans, and together we can save the country.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Calling into a podcast (not his own) after his opening statement, Cantwell explained that he considered it a spoken word performance, you know, and I take that kind of thing seriously, especially once I found out that people were going to be able to listen.  I saw this as a tremendous opportunity both because of the cause at hand and because I knew the world was listening.

Cantwell, who is currently incarcerated for an unrelated extortion incident, would watch Tucker Carlsons show with a group of fellow white supremacist prison inmates to prepare for trial, according to BuzzFeed News. Indeed, a central component of the white supremacist end game here lies not in prevailing at trial, but in using the trial to feel famous and to become more so. By that metric, some might say that the white supremacists are succeeding. An article in the Washington Post this week illuminated the problem, noting that some of the defendants have been ousted from social media such as Facebook and the dating site OkCupid, but in this courtroom, theyve found a new platform to amplify their racist views, put on performances they boast about on podcasts, radio shows and in live during-the-trial chats, and to attack their opponents. As Oren Segal of the Anti-Defamation League put to the Post, This is the Star Wars bar scene of extremism in that courtroom  and they know whos watching.

Advertisement

Spencer has already testified that the use of torchlight, the Nazi chants and Hitler symbology, and the comments about gassing people and portable ovens are all simply a subcultural thing of being outlandish and stupid.

The very nature of any such politicized hate speech trial is that listeners will hear hours of racist slurs and threats as white supremacist supporters attempt to dox anti-racist organizers named in the proceedings, all whileagain, according to the PostNeo-Nazi fans celebrated in far-right chatrooms, listening in on the courts public phone line. They have unmuted themselves during the trials breaks to troll the courtsaying the n-word multiple times, declaring Make America Great Again and promoting a white supremacist podcast on which Cantwell recently spoke. Michael Hill, another defendant who testified last week, called himself a white supremacist, a racist, an antisemite, a homophobe, a xenophobe, an Islamophobe on the stand, then called into a far-right radio show to tell listeners he was very pleased to share his testimony, knowing the court was a public forum where a lot of people were listening.

Advertisement

Advertisement

One of the tricks for getting famous is to be entertaining. Another is to be funny. Defendant Matthew Heimbach, founder of the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker Party, certainly knows the drillin one court exchange, he cheerfully described the alt-right leader Richard Spencer as bougie, saying, I kind of always viewed you as a bit of a dandy, to which Spencer retorted, Did you ever see me wear boat shoes? Good fun all around. Cantwell at one point asked Heimbach to tell his favorite Holocaust joke. He asked Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt, one of the plaintiffs expert witnesses on the symbols of antisemitism, if it was ever OK to tell Holocaust jokes.

Advertisement

These joking little exchanges are all part of the we were only kidding defense, already deeply entrenched in the alt-right, as is the we were just trying to trigger the liberal snowflakes defense. Spencer has already testified that the use of torchlight, the Nazi chants and Hitler symbology, and the comments about gassing people and portable ovens are all simply a subcultural thing of being outlandish and stupid. The point here, testified Heimbach, is to tweet and say the most outrageous things we could do to troll and create outrage in the media and get reaction. The more the rest of us react, goes their calculus, the bigger their win. They absolutely fell for it, Heimbach said of the media, in his testimony.

Advertisement

The last expert witness called by the plaintiffs on Thursday, Day 14 of the trial, was Peter Simi, an associate professor of sociology at Chapman University. The defendants had sought to exclude him from the trial, but they failed. Simi and fellow sociologist Kathleen Blee have produced a 63-page report showing the defendants in this trial had engaged in coordinated efforts to obscure their real intentions by hiding behind these claims of humor, coded speech, and other rhetorical tricks. The researchers pored over thousands of Discord messages and defendants emails to conclude that, yes, white supremacism is a violent racist ideology rooted in antisemitism, hostility toward immigrants, minorities, and feminism; that yes, white supremacism also uses new technologies and coded double-speak, and that white supremacists engage in what they characterize as front-stage and back-stage behavior. What that means, Simi testified, is that people present themselves differently when they are seeking to make an impression on others than they do in private. Perhaps most importantly Simi reported and testified that white supremacy encourages and celebrates violence. Simi testified that white supremacists cultivate plausible deniability by deploying a variety of linguistic winks and tricks. So for instance, the white supremacist publication the Daily Stormers Style Guide has cautioned:

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Most people are not comfortable with material that comes across as vitriolic, raging, nonironic hatred. The unindoctrinated should not be able to tell if we are joking or not. There should also be a conscious awareness of mocking stereotypes of hateful racists. I usually think of this as self-deprecating humor - I am a racist making fun of stereotype of racists, because I dont take myself super-seriously. This is obviously a ploy and I actually do want to gas kikes. But thats neither here nor there.

Elsewhere, defendant Andrew Anglin has written that Its illegal to promote violence on the Internet. At the same time, its totally important to normalize the acceptance of violence as an eventuality/inevitability. Thus, Anglin advised that whenever someone does something violent, it should be made light of, laughed at. According to Simi and Blee, In our opinion, readers would have understood that such use of humor was intended to normalize, approve of, and encourage violence without explicitly promoting it.

Advertisement

Simis testimony was devastating. No part of it was hilarious. He explained, in the most academic terms possible, the degree to which the performance artistry of the white supremacists is not accidental. Its deliberate stagecraft, constructed to promote both violent spectacle and plausible deniability. The cross-examination of Simi was, as a result, neither spectacular, nor funny.

Advertisement

Advertisement

James Kolenich, who represents Jason Kessler, Nathan Damigo, and the hate group Identity Evropa, tried to get Simi to testify that all free speech is protected. Simi testified that he believed it was not. Kolenich tried to get him to testify that he could not be a good witness because he was not neutral as to white supremacy. Simi replied that he is a researcher, and that just as cancer researchers are interested not just in researching cancer but also helping prevent its spread, he can do research on violent white supremacy without feeling neutral about it. (Kolenich was upset that the witness was comparing white supremacy to cancer.) Defendant Richard Spencer asked a lot of questions about how famous he is: Was I a public figure at the timeI hesitate to use the word celebrity? Simis answer was some version of, No, I dont read everything you write. Chris Cantwell asked Simi how dare he venture an opinion as to whether Cantwell was joking in his tweets. Simi replied that the issue on which he is an expert is not whether Cantwell was funny but the use of coded language. Cantwell seemed unable to comprehend the difference between Simis definition of front stage and back stage, perhaps because for the Cantwells of the universe, all the worlds a front stage.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

There is a big impossible question looming over the Unite the Right trial, about what is to be done when white supremacists turn sober judicial proceedings into a forum to promote yet more virulent hate. Simis testimony felt like the cure. It turns out that when you turn the sweater inside out and examine all the knots, and broken threads, and missed stitches, its not all that interesting at all. It might not even be a sweater. The virulent performances of hate, unpacked by an expert, is neither funny, nor triggering, nor coded, nor clever, nor interesting. Its just a tawdry little party trick, easily decoded, and depressingly formulaic.
On Friday, former presidential adviser Steve Bannon was indicted on two counts of contempt of Congress for violating subpoenas demanding testimony and documents surrounding his knowledge of the events leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

The House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack subpoenaed Bannon in September, citing his presence in a Willard Hotel war room ahead of the assault and his statements on his podcast the day before in which he said, all hell is going to break loose tomorrow:

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Last month, the House of Representatives voted to hold Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with the subpoenas and to forward the charges to the Department of Justice for prosecution. On Friday, the attorney general acted, securing a grand jury indictment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Advertisement

Bannon had clearly flouted the law by failing to appear for a deposition and produce documents in question. As part of his defense, he made vague assertions of executive privilege to justify his lack of cooperation. But his assertions dont hold water. First, Bannon was not an executive branch official at the time of the events in question. Second, Trump is no longer president. And third, President Joe Biden has rejected Trumps privilege claims surrounding Jan. 6 documents and a court has affirmed that decision.

Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.

On top of all this, as Fridays indictment noted, the committee requested documents and testimony that have nothing to do with Bannons conversations with Trump and couldnt possibly be covered by executive privilege, even if an appellate court were to rule that Trump had some colorable privilege claims in this case.

Advertisement

Still, the contempt of Congress statute hasnt been successfully used in decades. For weeks, it was an open question as to whether Attorney General Merrick Garland would allow his Department of Justice to prosecute the Trump confidant. Garland has been exceedingly cautious in his efforts to depoliticize the Department of Justice following the abuses of the Trump years.

Advertisement

Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law, Garland said in a statement. Todays charges reflect the departments steadfast commitment to these principles.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Bannons case goes before Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Trump appointee who has twice ruled against the former presidents interests. Once in a lawsuit by the Dominion voting firm against Trumps former attorney Rudy Giuliani and again in a case in which Trump sought to block the state of New York from transferring his tax returns to the House of Representatives.

This is easily Garlands most important move yet to defend the rule of law from Trump-era corruption. His actions lay the groundwork for the Jan. 6 committee to continue to pursue documents and testimony from Trump allies who have for years hid from congressional accountability behind the vague cloak of general executive privilege.

Hiding behind a vague cloud of privilege is not how the Constitution is supposed to work, as both the contempt citation by the House or Representatives and the grand jury indictment note. Instead, witnesses are supposed to cite specific privilege assertions in response to specific questions and around specific documents, which can then be adjudicated on a case-by-case basis.

Advertisement

Advertisement

The effort to stonewall all congressional inquiry by completely refusing to cooperate, which has worked so well for so many years during the Trump administration, may finally have been cracked by Garland.

The indictment also sends a message to the 10 others recently subpoenaed by the committee, as well as previous subpoena recipients. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was threatened with contempt of Congress if he failed to cooperate with the committee for scheduled testimony on Friday. He refused to show up in the end. Mr. Meadowss actions todaychoosing to defy the lawwill force the Select Committee to consider pursuing contempt or other proceedings to enforce the subpoena, committee Chair Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney said in response on Friday.

While Meadows claim of possible privilege might be more colorable than Bannon, who again wasnt even an executive branch official at the time in question, news of the indictment should give Meadows (and anyone else toying with not cooperating) pause.

It could take years for Bannon to eventually be prosecuted. If he is convicted, though, he faces a fine of up to $1,000 and between one month and one year in prison for each of the two counts of contempt.
Donald Trump was banned from the major social media services after the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. On that day, instead of de-escalating the situation, he used Twitter to denounce then Vice President Mike Pence because Pence, in his capacity presiding over the Senate, had refused to overturn election results. Some of Trumps supporters, while they were breaching Capitol security, chanted Hang Mike Pence. It was a loud and sustained chant, and not just one or two peopleyou can see a video here. One eventually found Pences seat on the Senate dais and left a note reading, Its only a matter of time, justice is coming. (According to the Washington Post, this person later told law enforcement that Pence is a child-trafficking traitor.)

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.

Theres been some speculation that Trumps ban from Twitter, etc., has helped Republicans gain back popular support of the sort that helped them win Virginias gubernatorial election this month. Its a sound theory, because many swing voters are put off by Trump and were alarmed by the Capitol riot, and because when Trump is given a platform, he tends to do things like this:

Trump: No, I thought he was well protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape. No. Because I had heard he was in very good shape. But, but, no, I think Karl: Because you heard those chantsthat was terrible. I mean Trump: He could havewell, the people were very angry. Karl: They were saying hang Mike Pence. Trump: Because its common sense, Jon. Its common sense that youre supposed to protect. How can youif you know a vote is fraudulent, right?how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that?

Thats Trump speaking to ABCs Jonathan Karl, via Axios, which also has audio of the exchange. Karl has a book out next week called Betrayal, which, judging by the title, is either a behind-the-scenes account of the 2020 election and its aftermath or an erotic tale of obsession and revenge. Trumps next project, meanwhile, is trying to become president again, which is probably not going to be helped by statements like this. Probably.
It was a strange summer in Glasgow. The city, like much of Scotland, is notorious for cloudy, blustery, and generally capricious weather, even in summer. But in parts of Scotland and northwestern Europe, the summer of 2021 was uncharacteristically warm, dry, and sunny, a boon for lockdown-weary citizens unable or unwilling to travel to favorite southern vacation spots. It was also eerily calm. Day after day, there was little or no wind, something very noticeable in a country with a reputation as the windiest place in Europe.

Advertisement

Scotland was experiencing a wind droughtsomething that may be more common than we think. And that sounds like bad news for the project to build a carbon-neutral future, an enterprise that hinges on renewable energy. Most renewables are intermittent, and while some forms like tide and sun are more or less predictable, others are not. The energy potential of wind, dammed water, and biomass depends heavily on climatic conditions. And if the climate is changing, as the science community unanimously agrees it is, this will have implications for the green energy revolution. Will climate change cancel renewable energy?

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

This is an important question, one youd expect would have been near the top of the agenda at COP26, the climate confab in Glasgow. To be clear, there is no evidence that the wind drought was symptomatic of anthropogenic climate change. Climate science tells us that in northwestern Europe, westerly winds are generated by the North Atlantic Oscillation, a weather motor with two contra-rotating gears. One is a zone of low pressure (the Icelandic Low) spinning counterclockwise and the other is a zone of high pressure (the Azores High) spinning clockwise. When there is a large pressure difference between these systems, strong westerlies and cool wet summers result. When there is less difference in pressure, westerlies are weaker and wet windy weather shifts south. This was what happened this summer. An anomalous zone of high pressure appeared between Iceland and Scotland from April to September, a period some observers characterized as the least windy in the U.K. and parts of Ireland in 60 years.

Advertisement

But even if wind droughts are not connected to climate change, they are an illustrative example of how renewable energy is based on assumptions about how the world works, and the world is currently being thrown out of balance.

Advertisement

Take hydropower, which plays a crucial role in electricity systems. The people who manage electrical load essentially have one purpose: to maintain as perfect a balance of supply and demand as possible because imbalances can collapse the system. But nature doesnt care about human demand, so intermittent renewables pose particular problems for load managers. When there is more intermittent energy than necessary or when it disappears when it is in demand (like when theres a wind drought), grids can get stressed. In the former case, load managers shut off or store excess electricity. In latter cases, they call on other forms of generation to fill the gap.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Engineers favor hydropower for storing excess electricity and for filling the intermittent energy generation gap. And hydropowers important enabling function in balancing electrical load illustrates the intimate relationship between changing climate and the ability of human beings to exploit renewable energy. Surplus electricity, including electricity produced in times of intermittent energy plenty, can be used to recover water that has flowed through a hydroelectric facility and pump it to a reservoir at higher elevation, where it can be stored and release to drive turbines when needed. This is known as pumped storage, an infrastructure often analogized as a giant watery battery. In the U.S., pumped storage accounts for 95 percent of utility-scale energy storage.

Advertisement

The problem is that not all countries have suitable hydropower resources and many that do have already fully developed them. In the West, moreover, big hydro, though it is a form of renewable energy, has long been out of favor on grounds it costs too much and causes too much environmental damage.

Advertisement

Also, worryingly, climate change is threatening existing hydro resources in some parts of the world, undermining the ability of load managers to cope with intermittent energy problems like wind droughts. The two decade-long water megadrought in the U.S. southwest is drying up the Colorado River and sapping the potential of the reservoirs and dams built astride it to store surplus intermittent renewable energy and bridge the generation gap.

The megadrought is also harming crops used for biofuels, another important renewable energy enterprise. Parched conditions stunt the yield of corn used for ethanol and also alter the biochemistry of switchgrass, a hardy crop that requires less water and energy, as well as cellulosic agricultural waste, in ways that make these substances less suitable as fuel.

Advertisement

The imbalances humans cause in natural systems trace directly to the imbalances humans have built into their energy policies. For all the hope invested in the green energy revolution, U.S. energy planners have only ever perceived renewables as a supplement to existing fossil and nuclear energy resources, not as a replacement for them. The Obama administration termed this policy all of the above, an expression that connotes big-tent political imperatives.

Advertisement

Advertisement

But the massive expansion both of oil and gas production and renewable capacity under the Obama administration had network effects that served to deepen the conundrums of renewable energy. In the late 2010s, the U.S. surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the worlds largest producer of crude oil thanks largely to the massive application of hydraulic fracturing, a water-intensive technology that damaged water tables and made arid areas even drier. All that fracked oil and gas generated massive quantities of greenhouse gases that exacerbated climate change, and the resulting weather effects like megadroughts in turn undermined the ability of load mangers to use hydro to integrate intermittent renewables into the energy conversion mix.

Advertisement

As dams become degraded by climate change and are decommissioned by planners, solar panels and especially wind turbines have come to be seen as metonymic of the sustainable energy future. And public policy has subsidized the installation of much more intermittent renewable capacity than can currently be used. In the U.S., excess solar and wind capacity is routinely shut off. In the U.K., the government pays owners of windfarms to switch off the surplus. Oddly, these subsidized constraint payments constitute a perverse incentive to invest in still more wind generation, provoking criticism that the push to renewables is yielding limited returns.

Advertisement

Advertisement

In the U.K., wind generation capacity is so overbuilt that even in this calmest of summers the government still paid out tens of millions of pounds to keep the turbines from turning. Some observers hope to store intermittent renewable energy in rechargeable batteries at scale, including the batteries in electric cars, but these approaches bring their own costs and complications.

Advertisement

Questions of counterproductive energy policies and the relationship between anthropogenic climate change and renewable energy were not discussed in any depth at elite forums at COP26. Yet the popular mood overwhelmingly favored such a conversation, as indicated by widespread protests and street theater that culminated in a massive demonstration during the global day of climate action in Glasgow. Activists like Greta Thunberg criticized government and industry for passivity and hypocrisy in the fight against climate change. Barack Obamas admonitions for the world to do more and for youth to stay angry drew skeptical pushback that referenced the former presidents checkered energy record. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson may also have misread the room in his COP26 keynote address, where he compared climate change to a doomsday timebomb that James Bond is scrambling to defuse.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Johnsons analogy both expressed the urgency of the crisis and mispresented it. Climate change is not a single cataclysmic event that can be solved by a single heroic act. Wind droughts and other weather anomalies remind us that nature and society are dynamically intertwined in ways that are not always obvious. Environments and infrastructures together comprise hybrid entities that are neither purely social nor purely natural and that operate according to their own sets of rules. The historian Richard White dubbed such entities organic machines, a frame of reference surely more appropriate than the Bond bomb in conceptualizing a world humans have badly unbalanced. It will be years before COP26s practical legacy can be known but in the short term the gathering can mark a moment to begin reflecting on the sometimes paradoxical organic machines we are constructing in the name of planetary salvation. Humanity has accepted that harmony and balance are fundamental to healthy ecosystems and energy systems. Now it faces the challenge of grasping the implications of applying ecological principles across the spectrum of human activity.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
McDonalds in Spain running out of chicken



Employees of the fast food restaurant in Spain blame the shortage on the supply crisis

Retailers and manufacturers have been warning for months that the global supply shortage will limit the availability of everything from toys to alcohol this Christmas, and now one of the worlds favourite fast food chains is bearing the brunt as chicken stocks dwindle.

McDonalds restaurants in Madrid, Barcelona and the Valencian Community have all reported this week that they have run out of food and been forced to refund customers, with one outlet even removing items from the menu in order to ration their chicken.

The shortage has been caused by the closure of sea ports in China and Southeast Asia where coronavirus cases have rebounded, and because companies failed to foresee the increase in consumer demand, there are not enough carriers in Europe to keep the restaurants stocked up.

A spokesperson for McDonalds in Valencia confirmed that far fewer boxes of produce are arriving every week, resulting in restaurants having to borrow from each other just to keep customers fed.

You have to supply chicken to more than 400 stores and there is not enough for everyone, he explained.

Interestingly, global chicken fast food chain KFC hasnt reported any similar supply problems, but McDonalds in the UK reportedly ran out of Chicken Legend burgers just two weeks ago.

Image: McDonald's
Spain denies promising the EU to impose road tolls



The Minister of Transport in Spain insists that a payment for use system hasnt been agreed

This week, Spain has begun outlining its plan to introduce charges for road use from 2023 amid a huge amount of backlash from truck drivers and minority political parties. In the midst of controversy, Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sanchez, insisted on Wednesday November 10 that the government had in no way made an agreement with EU to impose tolls in order to receive recovery funds.

Having already proposed a payment-for-use system back in 2012 and 2018 which never came to fruition, it now seems inevitable that drivers in Spain will have to pay around one cent per kilometre to use the countrys high-speed highways in the coming years.

Despite this, Ms Sanchez has denied that any firm decision has been made and instead reiterated that the Governments commitments are purely related to developing and aligning ourselves within the European Unions strategy of safe, sustainable and connected mobility.

Confirming that Spain is aiming to develop a roadmap for the process by the end of the year, the minister added that, for now, the plan is to enter into a transparent dialogue with political parties and the transport sector, which has threatened strikes over the issue, to analyse the best way to pay for the infrastructure in this country.

Unfortunately for Ms Sanchez, the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan sent by Spain to Brussels directly contradicts her claims. According to the document, the government explained that it is necessary to develop a system of payment for use of the high-capacity road network that allows us to cover maintenance costs.

The Plan goes on to say that the ongoing maintenance of Spains 12,000 kilometres of motorways and dual carriageways cannot be covered by the regular budget, and so it was proposed that a pay-as-you-go system be introduced from 2024.

Image: Archive
Working women in Spain earn 11 per cent than men



The wage discrepancy in Spain has been exacerbated by the health crisis

Spanish women still earn 11.1% less than men, a wage gap that is more prominent in certain sectors such as science and technology, where the difference is as high as 18.7%. The discrepancy is much higher than the European Union average of 4.1% and the experts believe that while the situation was unfavourable before the coronavirus pandemic , matters have been getting steadily worse in Spain.

While equal pay for men and women has been enshrined in EU treaties for more than 60 years, it is not fully implemented. Despite improvements in the position of women in social and professional life, salary differences continue to be wide and deep-seated, the European Commission (EC) said on Wednesday November 10, Equal Pay Day.

According to the Secretary for Women, Equality and Working Conditions, the reality of lower wages for women is deep-rooted, with females in Spain traditionally being the primary caregivers and thus opting for part-time work. Data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) show that in 2020, 22.8% of women in this country worked part-time jobs, more than three times the number of men. The survey also confirmed that more women choose jobs with shorter hours due to family obligations (7.9% compared to 1.7% of men) or because of the need to care for children or sick relatives (14.3%).

In general, jobs that generate the most income in Spain are held by men, and even in cases where women join these sectors, they are, as a rule, in lower-paying positions.

After science and technology, the biggest wage gap is seen in the manufacturing industry, where women earn 17% less than their male counterparts, followed by the economy and business sector (16.9%).

The latest unemployment data also showed that more women than men were out of work in the third quarter of 2021, which has a knock-on effect on the value of pensions.

Progress in reducing the gender pay gap has been and continues to be slow, the European Commission confirmed.

Image: Archive
Tighter anti-pandemic measures get a green light in parliament.

News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription.

Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled

Employers can demand to see proof of Covid vaccination from their employees and impose a regime that allows only the vaccinated and those who have recently recovered from Covid to enter the workplace.

Everyone else will need to get regularly tested under such a regime. Businesses who decide to follow these rules will need to provide and pay for regular tests for their unvaccinated employees.

MPs approved this set of measures after the cabinet of Eduard Heger put it forward earlier this week to mitigate the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Slovakia. The number of infected people and hospitals admissions have been on a steady rise over the past weeks. The cabinet hopes the measures will motivate more people to get the Covid jab in Slovakia, which has one of the least-vaccinated populations in the EU; around 46 percent of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Related article

Related article More freedom for the vaccinated welcomed, workplace rules fall short Read more

Experts advising the government have, however, called for stricter measures. They are sceptical about how much the law that has been passed can help raise the vaccination rate in the country.

If the situation does not improve fast enough, discussions about the measures that have not been taken so far will continue, experts from the consilium announced, as reported by the Sme daily.

They say the decisive factor now is the immediate introduction of the passed measures, adding that their effectiveness needs to be monitored and quick changes need to be made in case they do not prove to be effective enough.

Testing at work

Employers who decide to impose the vaccinated-tested-recently recovered regime (known under the acronym OTP in Slovakia) will need to secure free testing for their employees.

If employees refuse to get tested, they will be viewed as having an obstacle to work on the side of the employee. The government expects some may decide to take paid leave, but the employer may also let them stay at home on unpaid leave. The latter will automatically apply to police and customs officers and soldiers.

These changes are valid until May 1, 2022, the newly passed law states.

The cabinet also agreed on changing the pandemic sick leave benefit (known as PN in Slovak). Starting on December 1, it will amount to the same sum as the ordinary sick leave benefit, that is 25 percent of daily wages as opposed to the pandemic sick leave of 55 percent that applies now.

Changes for restaurants and other public venues

Covid passes should also be required when entering certain premises, like restaurants or shops. The owners will be entitled to check the identity of the person too.

Related article

Related article Health Ministry proposes national emergency for some regions. Final version of measures unknown Read more

People who refuse to show any of the confirmations or prove their identity will not be allowed to enter premises or attend a mass event.

Police officers can demand to see people's Green Passes as well.

Public health officials will also have new competencies. They can close the premises of restaurants or other facilities if the Covid situation is critical and request assistance from police officers.

Fines for offensive speech

If a person is offensive towards a public health official, forges a Covid pass or threatens the provision of health care, they could be fined up to 1,000. The maximum fine for a misdemeanour on the spot is 500.

For offences committed during a state of emergency or national emergency, the fine can be as high as 1,500, and an on-the-spot fine as high as 700.
https://sputniknews.com/20211111/sharks-are-once-again-swimming-in-the-river-thames--1090669836.html

Sharks Are Once Again Swimming in London's River Thames After Undergoing Ecological Revival

Sharks Are Once Again Swimming in London's River Thames After Undergoing Ecological Revival

Parts of Londons River Thames were once so polluted that areas became biologically dead. Through conservation and environmental protection, the river has come... 11.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-11T23:42+0000

2021-11-11T23:42+0000

2021-11-12T00:10+0000

london

sharks

science

river thames

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1e/1080318912_0:131:600:469_1920x0_80_0_0_d12d9d8fdf5029b03ffd88374003afb4.jpg

The Zoological Society of Londons State of the Thames report, suggests that the once highly-polluted river is in the midst of an ecological revival. The river has seen improvements in its dissolved oxygen and phosphorus levels, as well as improvements in bird and marine mammal populations.The report did find that nitrate levels and fish populations were headed in the wrong direction and that climate change posed a significant risk to life, both flora and fauna. The increase in nitrates stems in part from agricultural runoff and can significantly worsen algae blooms.The report suggests further study is needed to understand the small decline in the fish population. The river has seen the average temperature and sea-level rise due to climate change.Overall, the report indicates that the Thames is far healthier than back in 1957 when scientists at the Natural History Museum declared certain areas of the river biologically dead. From that low point, the Thames has been making a slow comeback.The identification of sharks in the river is a sign of improved environmental health, indicating that the environment and thus the food chain is currently healthy enough to support an apex predator.

koursk koursk the billionaire sharks that come to thames to give orders to their local bojo stooge 0

Hess Australia will be supplying London with a hundred Great White Sharks. 0

3

london

river thames

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

london, sharks, science, river thames
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/arizona-school-board-president-busted-for-collecting-1984-style-dossier-on-dissident-parents-1090676631.html

Arizona School Board President 'Busted' for Collecting 1984-Style Dossier on Dissident Parents

Arizona School Board President 'Busted' for Collecting 1984-Style Dossier on Dissident Parents

The document tracked the Social Security numbers, financial info, and even divorce records of those who opposed school board policies. 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T09:01+0000

2021-11-12T09:01+0000

2021-11-12T09:01+0000

arizona

database

us

critical race theory

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/105788/26/1057882628_0:100:1921:1180_1920x0_80_0_0_dd5d8f868bbc7f4ebf4cafa03aa9e5cf.jpg

An Arizona school board president has found himself in hot water after accusations of collecting data for a secret online dossier that listed parents who opposed mask mandates and critical race theory.According to media reports, Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg accidentally displayed a link in an email message, granting access to a Google Drive for a parent he had accused of posting "anti-Semitic" comments against billionaire George Soros.The drive allegedly contained files titled "SUSD Wackos" and "Anti Mask Lunatics", and was full of personal information, documents, and photos of about 47 people, including children, AZ Free News reported.It featured hundreds of photos, documents, videos, screenshots of Facebook conversations, and even a report by a private eye on some parents' financial and criminal records.The Daily Caller said that the woman who initially discovered the drive, Kim Stafford shared its contents with other parents, which led to an uproar among them. One of the mothers, Amanda Wray even said that the trove included pictures of her 8 and 10-year-old daughters - as well as data on her AirBNB property, mortgage documents, and other stuff.The school district promised to conduct an investigation into the document but also suggested that Greenburg's father may be responsible for the weird dossier since he shares a computer with his son.In the meantime, the school board president himself has claimed that he was not in any way linked to the document.When asked if his dad, Mark Greenburg, was the creator of the dossier, he said "I am not my father's keeper".One of the videos found on the drive reportedly shows Mark Greenburg confirming he hired a private investigator to snoop for some people.The scandal erupted as widespread discussions are being held across the country after some American schools adopted critical race theory (CRT) in their curricula, causing mass protests among parents.The theory states that US laws and legal institutions are "inherently racist" and function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and non-whites - predominantly, African Americans. Its opponents note that the theory promotes racial discrimination itself and consider it to be "anti-American propaganda". In September 2020, then-President Donald Trump even prohibited the federal government and its contractors from instructing their employees to follow CRT's tenets, however, Joe Biden later rescinded the order.

TruePatriot And this school board president has not been terminated why? 1

1

arizona

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Evgeny Mikhaylov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/07/1080390164_0:0:1440:1440_100x100_80_0_0_46c187f2ab0908f86849a7d09a7def57.jpg

Evgeny Mikhaylov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/07/1080390164_0:0:1440:1440_100x100_80_0_0_46c187f2ab0908f86849a7d09a7def57.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

Evgeny Mikhaylov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/07/1080390164_0:0:1440:1440_100x100_80_0_0_46c187f2ab0908f86849a7d09a7def57.jpg

arizona, database, us, critical race theory
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/bidens-spending-bill-new-survey-doubts-potus-vow-americans-earning-under-400k-wont-see-tax-hike-1090686164.html

Biden's Spending Bill: New Survey Doubts POTUS' Vow Americans Earning Under $400K Won't See Tax Hike

Biden's Spending Bill: New Survey Doubts POTUS' Vow Americans Earning Under $400K Won't See Tax Hike

Earlier this month, Senator Joe Manchin and a group of Democratic House moderates signalled that they would not vote for President Biden's $1.75 trillion... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T13:25+0000

2021-11-12T13:25+0000

2021-11-12T13:25+0000

joe biden

us

sen. joe manchin (d-west virginia)

taxes

bill

package

infrastructure

reconciliation

build back better

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0b/0c/1090684617_0:30:2499:1436_1920x0_80_0_0_2799ebccd0c00dbf4c88fbead9662ab2.jpg

Provisions included in a draft version of President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" plan may run counter to his pledge that tax hikes will only affect Americans earning $400,000 or more if the package is implemented, a new study has claimed.The social spending plan would also reduce "2022 taxes on average for every income group except those in the top 1 percent. The highest-income households would face roughly the same increase in direct taxes in 2022 as they would with all major provisions", according to the analysis.Additionally, the document found that a reconciliation bill provision that would raise the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap "would provide almost no benefit for middle-income households" while bringing a profit to wealthy Americans.The analysis comes more than a month after Biden touted the social spending plan along with a separate bipartisan infrastructure bill during a speech in Michigan, insisting that "best of all, the cost of these bills, in terms of adding to the deficit, is zero".In a bid to unify his divided party, Biden finally had to come up with a $1.75 trillion plan instead of his original $3.5 trillion budget proposal. The trimmed down package includes preschool programmes, funding for limiting child care costs, and a continuation of the child tax credit.Moderate Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has urged his fellow lawmakers to wait for "greater clarity" on the legislation's impact on the country's national debt and economy. He made it clear that he would not vote for the reconciliation bill until the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) assesses the true cost of each of the package's programmes.With the CBO still in the process of weighing up the legislation, a vote on the document expected later this month.

https://sputniknews.com/20211108/why-bidens-build-back-better-plan-unlikely-to-save-dems-from-resounding-defeat-in-2022-1090572800.html

us

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Oleg Burunov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/0b/1080424846_0:0:2048:2048_100x100_80_0_0_3d7b461f8a98586fa3fe739930816aea.jpg

Oleg Burunov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/0b/1080424846_0:0:2048:2048_100x100_80_0_0_3d7b461f8a98586fa3fe739930816aea.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

Oleg Burunov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/0b/1080424846_0:0:2048:2048_100x100_80_0_0_3d7b461f8a98586fa3fe739930816aea.jpg

joe biden, us, sen. joe manchin (d-west virginia), taxes, bill, package, infrastructure, reconciliation, build back better
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/bomb-threats-prompt-evacuations-at-nyu-mit--usc-universities-1090670885.html

Several Bomb Threats Prompt Evacuations at NYU, MIT & USC Universities

Several Bomb Threats Prompt Evacuations at NYU, MIT & USC Universities

A series of bomb threats prompted evacuations at the University of Southern California, New York University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology late... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T01:12+0000

2021-11-12T01:12+0000

2021-11-12T02:16+0000

mit

us

new york university

bomb threat

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107674/91/1076749191_0:25:3553:2023_1920x0_80_0_0_2b91b2a7e43411f515546de75071a925.jpg

Officials at the University of Southern California revealed that Grace Ford Salvation Hall, Sample Hall and Wallis Annenberg Hall were all evacuated shortly after authorities were alerted to the threats. Shortly afterward the University of Southern California Department of Public Safety and the Los Angeles Police Department carried out a complete search of the buildings and ultimately concluded that they were safe. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a threat made against the Green building prompted its evacuation. However, after conducting a comprehensive search, the Cambridge Police determined there were no credible threats against the institution.New York University also received threats on three of its buildings - the Stern School of Business, the Center for Neural Science, and the Hebrew Union College. All three buildings were evacuated and police are investigating. It is not yet known if the threat made against NYU is credible. The Thursday rash of university-targeted bomb threats continues a troubling trend. On November 7, bomb threats were made against three Ivy League schools; Brown, Cornell, and Yale. In each instance, no explosives were found.It remains unclear if the string of bomb threats are connected.

https://sputniknews.com/20211107/bomb-threat-alerts-issued-at-cornell-columbia-universities-triggering-evacuations-1090550829.html

us

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

mit, us, new york university, bomb threat
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/cest-honteux-harris-1090670193.html

Cest Honteux, Harris

Cest Honteux, Harris

Pardon Madam Vice President's French! 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T00:56+0000

2021-11-12T00:56+0000

2021-11-12T00:52+0000

france

us

kamala harris

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0b/0c/1090670166_0:0:1200:676_1920x0_80_0_0_ff483055a3f6a024eea1c600de4dac4a.jpg

While visiting the Pasteur Institute in Paris earlier this week, US Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to adopt a strongly-accented French while addressing scientists tasked with tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. "One of the things people in politics and government should really take from the approach of scientists  scientists operate with a hypothesis. I love that," she remarked. "A hypothesis," Harris continued. "Its well-thought-out, its well-planned, they start out with a hypothesis and then they test it out knowing invariably, youre trying something for the first time, there will be glitches, there will be mistakes." Harris' faux pas while visiting America's oldest ally came alongside a USA Today-Suffolk University poll which found that only 28% of US voters approve of the vice president's work, while a whopping 51% of those surveyed disapproved of Harris' efforts.

france

us

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

france, us, kamala harris
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/denmarks-plan-to-sell-its-used-f-16s-sparks-concerns-fighter-jets-may-end-up-in-wrong-hands-1090672622.html

Denmark's Plan to Sell Its Used F-16s Sparks Concerns Fighter Jets May End Up 'in Wrong Hands'

Denmark's Plan to Sell Its Used F-16s Sparks Concerns Fighter Jets May End Up 'in Wrong Hands'

Between 16 and 24 F-16s, which still have years left on the clock, will be sold in anticipation of their controversial replacement, F-35s, that previously... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T05:14+0000

2021-11-12T05:14+0000

2021-11-12T05:14+0000

denmark

news

military & intelligence

f-35

scandinavia

f-16

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/104810/51/1048105173_0:56:3000:1744_1920x0_80_0_0_37609f3cf7403cc11568639bd718ead2.jpg

After the turn of the year, the Danish Ministry of Defence's Materiel and Procurement Agency (FMI) will start selling off the stock of the nation's F-16 fighter jets.The ageing aircraft, in use since 1980, have been set aside as brand new F-35 fighter jets are being delivered by the US arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, Danish Radio reported."From next year we will be able to sell the first eight aircraft. If we are so lucky that we can find a buyer who can be approved", FMI Lieutenant Colonel Casper Brge Nielsen from the Materiel Agency, tasked with making the transition from F-16 to F-35 as painless as possible, told Danish Radio. Nielsen cited a "growing interest" from abroad in the used fighter jets, but a sales agreement has not yet been signed.Denmark currently has 43 F-16 fighter jets at its disposal. As some of them are now approaching the expiration date measured in flight hours, only between 16 and 24 aircraft still have a sufficient lifespan left for another owner or nation to benefit from them. Depending on how actively they will be used, there may be five to ten years left in the machines, Casper Brge Nielsen explainsed, citing regular maintenance and updates. Along with the aircraft themselves, large quantities of equipment, tools, and spare parts will be put up for sale as well.While Denmark is hopeful it can fetch "hundreds of millions of kroner", Casper Brge Nielsen explained it was a complicated process. First, an interested buyer must be found. Crucially, though, the prospective buyer must be approved legally both in the USA and in Denmark, as well as politically by the Danish Parliament.According to the FMI, the plan is to sell the outdated aircraft continuously until 2025. By that time, if all goes well, the new F-35s will have fully replaced the old aircraft, which Casper Brge Nielsen described as "not selling the inherited silver first".Yet, human rights organisations Amnesty International and Oxfam Ibis have voiced concern, urging Denmark to make sure the jets don't end up in the wrong hands to avoid war crimes and human rights violations."The state must go to great lengths to ensure that the aircraft are not resold in 1-2 years. Our fear is that they end up in the hands of someone who uses them for war crimes or human rights violations", Kristian Weise of Oxfam Ibis emphasised.Denmark's F-16s are currently on their final deployment. Since September, they have been based at the Siauliai Airbase in Lithuania, where they do air policing over the Baltic States.All of the 27 F-35s should be based on Danish soil by 2027. The jets previously sparked controversy over their overblown maintenance costs and elevated noise levels even compared with their decades-old predecessors.

https://sputniknews.com/20211011/former-nato-boss-urges-native-denmark-to-cough-up-for-defence-1089826540.html

pgb in nz Maybe sell them to the Taliban to go with all their other US military gear !! 6

DRL China may be a good candidate as a buyer. To train their pilots for engagements over taiwan and pacific, they need realistic adversary blue force. 5

10

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, military & intelligence, f-35, scandinavia, f-16
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/dominic-cummings-accuses-uk-pm-johnson-of-second-jobs-hypocrisy-amid-paterson-and-cox-row-1090690488.html

Dominic Cummings Accuses UK PM Johnson of Second Jobs Hypocrisy Amid Paterson and Cox Row

Dominic Cummings Accuses UK PM Johnson of Second Jobs Hypocrisy Amid Paterson and Cox Row

The political strategist worked for the head of the Conservative Party for more than a year and stepped down after allegations that he violated government... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T17:22+0000

2021-11-12T17:22+0000

2021-11-12T17:22+0000

boris johnson

uk

dominic cummings

corruption

owen paterson

geoffrey cox

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/08/1c/1083738189_0:0:3070:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_6ea81761ef47df955aa6e7b053668666.jpg

Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to Boris Johnson, has accused the prime minister of hypocrisy amid the ongoing controversy, which saw critics of the government blame authorities and Johnson himself of enabling corruption.At issue are the second jobs of former minister Owen Paterson and MP for the Torridge and West Devon constituency Sir Geoffrey Cox. On Thursday Boris Johnson said officials, who breach rules on second jobs should be punished, adding that MPs must primarily devote themselves to representing their constituents.However, Dominic Cummings claims the head of government himself breached government rules by spending more time than needed on his second job. In a post on Substack, Cummings wrote that before the coronavirus pandemic started Johnson asked whether he could devote a large chunk of his time to writing a biography of Shakespeare.The former aide also wrote that government aides allegedly wanted Johnson to focus on his second job during the coronavirus pandemic.Since leaving the Downing Street in 2020, the political strategist has constantly criticised the government of Boris Johnson, in particular for its response to the coronavirus pandemic. Cummings spoke about the shortage of personal protective equipment for medical workers, the slow testing programme, and lack of a coherent strategy. A subsequent inquiry conducted by several MPs seems to have given weight to his allegations.Sleaze RowCummings statement comes amid the ongoing controversy over the so-called sleaze row. Last week, a report by the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, found that the former secretary of state for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Owen Paterson, lobbied the government on behalf of two companies which paid him thousands of pounds. The report, approved by a group of cross-party MPs, recommended a 30-day suspension.Instead of punishing the former minister, Boris Johnson's government decided to reform a parliament standards system that found Mr Paterson guilty of violating lobbying rules, but made a U-turn and apologised after the news caused a huge outcry from MPs and the public.Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party described the government as "corrupt".Another scandal began brewing this week after it became known that Sir Geoffrey Cox, MP for the Torridge and West Devon constituency, spent weeks in the British Virgin Islands where he advised the local government on an anti-corruption inquiry. During this time Mr Cox earned almost 1 million, while voting in the Commons by proxy. MPs are allowed to have second jobs, although critics of Sir Geoffrey pointed out that he used his parliamentary office to take part in the inquiry via video, which they argue is a violation of government rules, which state that MPs should ensure facilities paid for by the public purse "always support their parliamentary duties".Many MPs, including colleagues from his Conservative Party, accused Sir Geoffrey of failing to pay due attention to his work in parliament as it transpired that he missed 30 hearings in the Commons while doing his second job.

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Max Gorbachev

Max Gorbachev

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

Max Gorbachev

boris johnson, uk, dominic cummings, corruption, owen paterson, geoffrey cox
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/explosion-reportedly-hits-mosque-in-nangarhar-afghanistan-injuring-at-least-12-1090679333.html

Explosion Targeting Mosque Reportedly Kills 3, Wounds 15 in Nangarhar, Afghanistan

Explosion Targeting Mosque Reportedly Kills 3, Wounds 15 in Nangarhar, Afghanistan

The country has faced a series of explosions and terror attacks over the past few months, claiming dozens of lives across Afghanistan. 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T09:45+0000

2021-11-12T09:45+0000

2021-11-12T10:38+0000

asia & pacific

afghanistan

explosion

blast

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107949/97/1079499730_0:171:3181:1960_1920x0_80_0_0_26284b09d34b56871753f2858b835387.jpg

A blast killed at least three and wounded 15 more on Friday in the Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, AFP reported, citing a source at a local hospital. The incident occurred in the Tarli area of the Spin Ghar district.According to local resident Atal Shinwari, the blast occurred at around 1:30 p.m. local time (9:00 a.m. GMT).The explosion was yet another attack on a Shia mosque after a powerful bombing in Kandahar killed at least 63 and injured over 80 more, while before that, a blast killed 60 at a mosque in Kunduz.Responsibility for those attacks was claimed by a Daesh-linked* terror group.The situation in the country remains uneasy after the Taliban* seized power in August. In the meantime, some reports suggest that ex-security troops have been joining the Daesh terror group since the collapse of the US-backed government.In early August, the Taliban mounted an offensive against Afghan government troops, amid the US withdrawal from the country. The Taliban entered Kabul on 15 August and later declared an end to the two-decade war.* Taliban is under UN sanctions over terrorist activities* Daesh (also known as Islamic State/ISIS/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.

vot tak These terrorist bomb attacks targeting mosques were a tactic of israeloamerica's terrorists in iraq. They are using the same proxy terror strategy to try and prevent afghanistan from stabilising. 2

1

afghanistan

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Evgeny Mikhaylov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/07/1080390164_0:0:1440:1440_100x100_80_0_0_46c187f2ab0908f86849a7d09a7def57.jpg

Evgeny Mikhaylov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/07/1080390164_0:0:1440:1440_100x100_80_0_0_46c187f2ab0908f86849a7d09a7def57.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

Evgeny Mikhaylov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/07/1080390164_0:0:1440:1440_100x100_80_0_0_46c187f2ab0908f86849a7d09a7def57.jpg

asia & pacific, afghanistan, explosion, blast
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/first-ukraine-now-poland-how-western-tabloids-indulge-in-stoking-russian-invasion-narrative-1090687843.html

First Ukraine, Now Poland?! How Western Tabloids Indulge in Stoking Russian Invasion Narrative

First Ukraine, Now Poland?! How Western Tabloids Indulge in Stoking Russian Invasion Narrative

Hardly anything has ever been fostered by the Western media quite like the unageing narrative of the "Russian threat". It has long been cultivated in... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T17:59+0000

2021-11-12T17:59+0000

2021-11-12T17:59+0000

belarus

russia

drills

military

ukraine

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0b/0c/1090689409_0:0:2354:1324_1920x0_80_0_0_f919541fd14a3ff6ea5e71570975be5c.jpg

Western mainstream media have ramped up the "Russian threat" narrative with reports of Russian troop deployments in Belarus amid an unfolding migrant crisis at the Belarusian border with Poland. The Daily Mail ran a story on Friday titled "East and West go toe-to-toe", focusing on how Russia is carrying out "snap military drills in Belarus [...], as fears grow that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin is preparing for an invasion in eastern Europe". The report emphasises that the drills are taking place "just 20 miles from where thousands of migrants are gathered at the Polish border".Belarus stresses that the drills were launched in response to a "military build-up" on its borders. Warsaw has amassed 15,000 troops and invited British soldiers to its eastern border as migrants from the Middle East try to make their way to the EU through Belarus. However, the British deployment in Poland has not sparked a proportionate storm in the Western media - even in the wake of Russia and Belarus unveiling an integration plan that envisages the coordination of migration and security policies.The Russians are Coming?!The Polish storyline fits perfectly into the "Russia warmongering" narrative that has dominated the tabloids in recent days.As of Friday, the front pages of outlets such as The Sun, The Mirror, The Daily Mirror, and many others were filled with articles dedicated to the alleged plans of a "Russian invasion" or the Russian drills in Belarus - or both at the same time.The hot topic was also not left unnoticed by the UK's Daily Express, which rolled out a report titled "Putin warmongering hits UK", dedicated to how a British plane was diverted from the south-western part of the Crimean Peninsula by a Russian Su-30 fighter, underlining that it happened" after Russia sent two nuclear bombers over Belarus as the dispute between Belarus and Poland intensifies".The Daily Express goes on to cite Polands Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who went even further and put the blame for the ongoing migrant crisis between Belarus and Poland on Russia.A cascade of such stories ensued after Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the United States had "privately alerted their European allies" of a possible "Russian invasion" allegedly being planned by the Kremlin.'Russian Invasion'Amid the media-fuelled "invasion" hysteria, reports about Russian troop movements near Ukraine were denied by Moscow as "groundless".Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov underlined that the movements of Russian troops, as long as they take place within the country's own territory, should not be a cause for anyone's concerns.Concerns voiced in the Western media in regard to the Russian-Belarusian military drills come amid Moscow and Minsk continuing their efforts to establish stronger defence ties between the two countries under the Union State agreement.A decree on Russia-Belarus Union State integration was signed by Putin and Lukashenko on 4 November, envisaging a new strategy for military cooperation between the two countries and a coordinated migration policy between Russia and Belarus.

https://sputniknews.com/20211112/kremlin-slams-us-claims-about-potential-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-as-groundless-1090679418.html

vot tak Is there anything the zio-media don't lie about? 21

1

belarus

ukraine

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

belarus, russia, drills, military, ukraine
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/florida-governor-blames-bidens-lawlessness-for-florida-murder-tied-to-migrant-1090670300.html

Florida Governor Blames 'Bidens Lawlessness' for Florida Murder Tied to Migrant

Florida Governor Blames 'Bidens Lawlessness' for Florida Murder Tied to Migrant

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, blasted the Biden administration, blaming the latter's immigration policies for encouraging what he described as a... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T00:58+0000

2021-11-12T00:58+0000

2021-11-12T00:55+0000

immigration

migrant

ron desantis

biden administration

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0a/0b/1089847694_0:75:3073:1803_1920x0_80_0_0_757536a5faeaa6a58ba6091f914c292d.jpg

The Republican governor relayed his outrage against the Biden White House during a Wednesday appearance on Fox News in which he connected the administrations immigration policies to the case of Yery Noel Medina Ulloa, a Honduran migrant who has since been charged with murdering a Jacksonville man who took him in.That individual who died would be alive had Biden not been doing this, the governor said of 46-year-old victim, Francisco Javier Cuellar. So, this is really serious stuff.DeSantis shed light on how his team obtained information about the 78 flights bringing immigrants to the Jacksonville area, and claimed that Ulloa came to California on one of dozens of secretive flights into the US.After aggressive criticism of its immigration policy, the Biden administration has defended court challenges to its relaxed border management with proposed changes, including plans to boost refugee admissions and preserving deportation relief for unauthorized immigrants already inside the US.If its a federal responsibility, what happens when the federal government totally defaults on that responsibility? DeSantis asked. Are they saying the states have no ability to protect themselves?The Florida governor mentioned that his administration was looking at ways to be able to protect the state.Ulloa, who was arrested October 13 in connection to Cuellars death, reportedly fooled border patrol police in Texas by claiming he was an unaccompanied minor when he crossed into Texas months earlier, according to the New York Post.Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Tuesday offered a statement that attempted to clarify the claims made by DeSantis. Learning of secret flights and transports into Florida of those illegally crossing the border raises serious safety concerns, and it is imperative that Florida officials be apprised of who the Biden administration is transporting into our state, the statement read in part.

https://sputniknews.com/20211107/floridas-gov-office-blasts-biden-as-over-70-migrant-night-flights-landed-in-state---report-1090535849.html

vot tak Was sputnik taken over by murdoch? Another neocon drama queen article. Thumbs down. 1

1

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Adriana Montes https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/10/1089141767_0:89:1270:1359_100x100_80_0_0_83cb4d432e11a31f4608d8cb59ecf006.jpg

Adriana Montes https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/10/1089141767_0:89:1270:1359_100x100_80_0_0_83cb4d432e11a31f4608d8cb59ecf006.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

Adriana Montes https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/10/1089141767_0:89:1270:1359_100x100_80_0_0_83cb4d432e11a31f4608d8cb59ecf006.jpg

immigration, migrant, ron desantis, biden administration
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/galloway-challenges-batley-by-election-over-labour-mps-misuse-of-offices-for-campaigns-1090684138.html

Galloway Challenges Batley By-Election Over Labour MPs Misuse of Offices for Campaigns

Galloway Challenges Batley By-Election Over Labour MPs Misuse of Offices for Campaigns

Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater  parachuted in by the party leadership  won the July 1 Batley and Spen by-election with a majority of just over 300 votes... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T17:42+0000

2021-11-12T17:42+0000

2021-11-12T17:42+0000

britain

great britain

george galloway

parliament

by-election

geoffrey cox

uk

british labour party

jo cox

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/06/15/1083201677_0:114:3072:1842_1920x0_80_0_0_b62bbc14077d9167938cc2ca993d3605.jpg

Broadcaster George Galloway has launched a legal challenge to force a re-run of July's Batley and Spen by-election.The veteran left-winger finally kicked off his long-threatened legal bid after political gossip site Guido Fawkes exposed how several Labour party MPs used their publicly-funded Parliamentary offices as bases for phone canvassing in several by-elections.Galloway filed the petition at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Friday morning, saying he hoped "a free and fair election will soon follow in Batley and Spen."The four individuals include shadow education secretary Kate Green  herself a former member of the Parliamentary Standards Committee  along with shadow universities minister Matt Western and shadow Europe and Americas minister Catherine West. The fourth person is an un-named staff member, Guido Fawkes reported. That use of public property for partisan campaigning was not listed in new Labour MP Kim Leadbeater's election expenses declaration  a breach of electoral law.Leadbeater, the sister of the seat's murdered former MP Jo Cox, was selected as Labour candidate just weeks after joining the party in breach of its rules. She won the July 1 by-election by a wafer-thin majority of 323 votes, with Workers' Party GB candidate Galloway coming a close third to Tory Ryan Stephenson with 22 per cent of the ballot.The election was marred by allegations of misconduct, anti-Indian racism and homophobia by Leadbeater and Galloway's campaign teams and supporters.Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner reported former attorney-general Geoffrey Cox to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone on Tuesday for allegedly doing private legal work  for which her reportedly earned over 1 million  from his House of Commons office.But two days later Labour was caught out misusing public property for its campaigning in the by-election in Old Bexley and Sidcup, left vacant by the death from cancer of Conservative MP James Brokenshire.In now-deleted tweets, shadow solicitor-general MP Ellie Reeves  the sister of shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and wife of Parliamentary Labour Party chair John Cryer  thanked Green and fellow MPs Vicky Foxcroft, Rupa Huq, Apsama Begum and Helen Hayes for helping out with the "virtual phonebank".Foxcroft is shadow minister for disabled people, while Begum was recently acquitted of charges of fraudulently jumping the waiting list for a council flat in her east London.

https://sputniknews.com/20210619/poll-belies-claim-galloway-splitting-labour-vote-in-by-election-test-for-starmer-1083188890.html

TruePatriot Go get 'em George. You deserve a free and fair election and it seems the UK government fears you, as well as Labour. 1

1

britain

great britain

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

James Tweedie https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.png

James Tweedie https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.png

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

James Tweedie https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.png

britain, great britain, george galloway, parliament, by-election, geoffrey cox, uk, british labour party, jo cox
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/goddess-annapurnas-idol-stolen-100-years-ago-retrieved-from-canada-to-be-installed-in-kashi-temple-1090682720.html

Goddess Annapurna's Idol Stolen 100 Years Ago Retrieved From Canada, to Be Installed in Kashi Temple

Goddess Annapurna's Idol Stolen 100 Years Ago Retrieved From Canada, to Be Installed in Kashi Temple

According to the federal minister of tourism, Gangapuram Kishan Reddy, 42 rare heritage artefacts have been returned to the country since 2014 during the... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T13:45+0000

2021-11-12T13:45+0000

2021-11-12T13:45+0000

god

idol

india

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0b/14/1081224523_0:0:1200:675_1920x0_80_0_0_f5071163ff40427d3b6b242be539d697.jpg

An idol of a Hindu Goddess, Annapurna, which was smuggled out of India more than a century ago, is being reinstalled at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple located in the city of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.It became possible after the idol was retrieved from Canada, and finally handed over to the Uttar Pradesh government.The priests are staging a four-day grand religious procession 'Mata Annapurna Devi Yatra' that will travel to various cities of the state before finally arriving in Varanasi during the weekend. The idol will then be installed at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva, by state chief Yogi Adityanath, as Vedic hymns are chanted in a formal ceremony.Goddess Annapurna, also called Mother Annapurna, is worshipped as the Goddess of food and nourishment. She is believed to be a manifestation of the Goddess Parvati, the wife of Lord Shiva. The present day Varanasi is also known as Kashi, according to Hindu texts. The idol was one of the prized possessions of the MacKenzie Art Gallery at the University of Regina, Canada.The government is in discussions with several other countries to bring other stolen idols back to India.

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Sangeeta Yadav https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1b/1080292803_0:121:960:1081_100x100_80_0_0_7490b319dab9611e309056b177265184.jpg

Sangeeta Yadav https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1b/1080292803_0:121:960:1081_100x100_80_0_0_7490b319dab9611e309056b177265184.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

Sangeeta Yadav https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1b/1080292803_0:121:960:1081_100x100_80_0_0_7490b319dab9611e309056b177265184.jpg

god, idol, india
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/israeli-couple-arrested-by-turkish-authorities-after-allegedly-photographing-erdogans-home--1090669974.html

Israeli Couple Arrested by Turkish Authorities After Allegedly Photographing Erdogan's Home

Israeli Couple Arrested by Turkish Authorities After Allegedly Photographing Erdogan's Home

Last month, Turkey's Daily Sabah reported that 15 alleged Mossad agents were arrested following a covert operation on October 7. The report included photos of... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T00:10+0000

2021-11-12T00:10+0000

2021-11-12T00:06+0000

recep tayyip erdogan

turkey

israel

mossad

arrest

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/0e/1080169593_0:35:2761:1588_1920x0_80_0_0_c4d2fe1d3c1b80f03d49435af7ff53f3.jpg

Two Israeli nationals have been arrested after taking a photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans home, Channel 12 News reported Thursday. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has acknowledged the incident, and told the outlet that the government is handling the issue. Speaking to Channel 12 News, the arrested woman's sister claimed the couple - both in their 40s - traveled from Israel to Turkey in celebration of a birthday. "My sister isnt connected to any spy agency," the woman stated, referencing the recent arrest of 15 men with alleged ties to Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. The arrested woman's sister also told Channel 12 that she was "asked not to talk and to play down the incident."Another family member told broadcaster KAN that they have yet to be contacted by the Israeli government, which contributes to their level of uncertainty.

Hess Turkey should do the Right thing and hang the Israelis in front of the Istanbul Synagogue. 7

vot tak Agents or sayanim? Either way, very sloppy, mossad. :-D 5

6

turkey

israel

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Evan Craighead

Evan Craighead

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

Evan Craighead

recep tayyip erdogan, turkey, israel, mossad, arrest
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/madhya-pradesh-minister-vows-to-ban-book-comparing-hindutva-with-daesh-ideology-1090677282.html

Madhya Pradesh Minister Vows to Ban Book 'Comparing Hindutva With Daesh Ideology'

Madhya Pradesh Minister Vows to Ban Book 'Comparing Hindutva With Daesh Ideology'

State Home Minister and BJP politician Narottam Mishra is known as a strong devotee of Hinduism. He recently lashed out at Indian filmmaker Prakash Jhas web... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T13:00+0000

2021-11-12T13:00+0000

2021-11-12T13:00+0000

religion

politics

politics

salman khurshid

madhya pradesh

bharatiya janata party (bjp)

india

politics

religion

congress

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/101416/06/1014160664_0:320:3072:2048_1920x0_80_0_0_d5fad13969c1c474197a75f197260e36.jpg

The State Minister of India's Madhya Pradesh, Narottam Mishra, has said he will consult lawyers to get a book written by senior Congress politician Salman Khurshid banned. The book - 'Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times - has sparked a political row in Madhya Pradesh as it seems to compare Hindutva (usually seen as an aggressive assertion of some Hindu groups about Hindu beliefs) with terrorist ideology.During a press meeting, the state minister denounced the book and attempts to divide Hindus or the country. The minister was referring to Kanhaiya Kumar, who recently joined the Congress party. Kumar addressed a rally in Delhi five years ago (when he was a student at Jawaharlal Nehru University). During this event, some students were chanting slogans calling to tear India apart. Minister Mishra added Khurshid's book to a growing list of content that he has been deemed "objectionable" and said he would like to see it banned. "I will consult law experts in Madhya Pradesh and get this book banned." Mishras list includes a jewellery collection by designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee and an ad by Dabur, one of India's biggest consumer brands, both of which have been targeted by BJP politicians in the past two months.Criticism of the BookIn the book 'Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times', Khurshid has reportedly written: "Sanatan Dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints were being pushed aside by a robust version of Hindutva, (which seems) by all standards a political version similar to the jihadist Islam of groups like Daesh and Boko Haram."On Thursday, BJP spokesman Gaurav Bhatia said Khurshid's book has hurt the feelings of Hindus and accused Congress party of stoking anti-Hindu sentiments. Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjinder Singh Sirsa has criticised the book and slammed Congress party for having an anti-Sikh mindset.Taking to Twitter, Sirsa said Khurshids book reflects the views of the Congress party. On Thursday, senior Congress politician Ghulam Nabi Azad too expressed his disapproval of party colleague Khurshid's take in the book, saying that comparing Hindutva with ISIS (Daesh) and Jihadist Islam was factually wrong and an exaggeration.The Writer-Politician's Clarification However, Khurshid has clarified that his remark in his new book was on Hindutva and not on Hinduism."I don't want to engage [Azad] in an argument because I think he must have said it in a casual moment before he had given it some serious thoughtful consideration. But if he said it, we respect him for what he says, he is a senior person, but it will not make me change my mind," Khurshid said. He explained that his point of comparison was on distorting religion. "I have not called these guys terrorists. I have just said they are both distorting religion. Hindutva has pushed aside 'Sanatan Dharma' and Hinduism and it has taken over a robust, aggressive position similar to Boko Haram and those other guys," he said.The 'Sanatan Dharma' is a set of duties or religious practices incumbent upon all Hindus.A police complaint has reportedly been filed against Khurshid in Delhi. "We received a complaint on Thursday but we are verifying the allegations made by the complainant. Action will be taken according to the law," a police official said.Khurshid's book, based on the Ayodhya verdict was released on Wednesday.The Supreme Court of India on 9 November 2019 passed an order over the disputed land (2.77 acres) in Indian city Ayodhya that it should be handed over to a trust (to be created by Federal Government) to build the Ram Janmabhoomi (revered as the birthplace of Hindu deity, Ram) temple.The court also ordered the federal government to give an alternative five acres of land in another place to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board for the purpose of building a mosque as a replacement for the demolished Babri Masjid. * Daesh (aka ISIL, ISIS) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and other countries8777777777

madhya pradesh

india

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Rahul Trivedi https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926121_0:-1:627:627_100x100_80_0_0_d882e1a63f627c25b7a534fb8b8234d7.jpg

Rahul Trivedi https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926121_0:-1:627:627_100x100_80_0_0_d882e1a63f627c25b7a534fb8b8234d7.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

Rahul Trivedi https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926121_0:-1:627:627_100x100_80_0_0_d882e1a63f627c25b7a534fb8b8234d7.jpg

religion, politics, politics, salman khurshid, madhya pradesh, bharatiya janata party (bjp), india, politics, religion, congress, indian national congress, congress, hinduism, religion, sikh, politics, hindus, religion and politics, india
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/meghan-markles-ex-pr-chief-regrets-not-giving-evidence-after-duchess-won-lawsuit-against-uk-tabloid-1090674664.html

Meghan Markle's Ex-PR Chief Regrets Not Giving Evidence After Duchess Won Lawsuit Against UK Tabloid

Meghan Markle's Ex-PR Chief Regrets Not Giving Evidence After Duchess Won Lawsuit Against UK Tabloid

In 2019, the Duchess of Sussex sued the publisher of The Mail on Sunday over the publication of a letter she wrote to her estranged father Thomas. The royal... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T07:02+0000

2021-11-12T07:02+0000

2021-11-12T07:02+0000

prince harry

uk royal family

breach of privacy

meghan markle

uk

tabloids

appeal

defamation

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0b/0a/1090639755_0:299:2578:1749_1920x0_80_0_0_a16bc8013469d5591ff72ca59f04ff72.jpg

Meghan Markle's former communications secretary Jason Knauf has said he "regretted" not giving evidence during the royal's legal battle with Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) that ended this February with the Duchess of Sussex winning the case. He made the statement on Thursday during the final day of a court hearing in which ANL attempted to appeal the earlier verdict.The court heard that after the February ruling was announced a source close to Mr Knauf contacted the publisher and said that the PR chief felt contrite he didn't provide evidence to the court. Jason Knauf's legal team said his position in the case was "strictly neutral" and that he didn't want to be involved in the litigation.Letter to Thomas Markle and New Evidence in the CaseIn 2019, The Mail on Sunday published five articles that contained excerpts of a private letter Meghan Markle wrote to her father Thomas a year earlier. The Duchess of Sussex has had a strained relationship with her dad since 2018, when he arranged a photoshoot with a tabloid, showing him getting prepared for his daughter's wedding. He said he did this in order to improve his image, as previously the media had published photos of him doing menial tasks. He admitted to having lied about the photoshoot to the couple, telling them he had no agreement with the tabloid. Soon after the rift, Thomas Markle suffered a heart attack and missed the wedding.In the letter, Meghan Markle called on her father to stop attacking her and Prince Harry in the media.Thomas Markle leaked the letter to The Mail on Sunday, which published it, selectively editing some parts, prompting the royal to sue the tabloid's publisher Associated Newspapers Limited. Meghan Markle argued that the publication was a breach of her privacy and copyright infringement and that the newspaper edited the letter to portray her in a negative light. The judge ruled that the publication was unlawful.ANL appealed the verdict after it obtained evidence from Meghan Markle's former PR chief Jason Knauf. He claimed that prior to sending the letter to her father the Duchess of Sussex asked him "to review" the text and said that it was drafted "with the understanding that it could be leaked".Mr Knauf also alleged that Meghan Markle asked him whether she should address Thomas Markle as "daddy", adding that "in the unfortunate event that it leaked, it would pull at the heartstrings".ANL's solicitors insist that the previous verdict should be overturned, arguing that Meghan Markle wrote the letter "with public consumption in mind".The royal's lawyers said that although the 40-year-old knew that the letter might be leaked to the press, she didn't want it to be seen publicly.Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have had a tense relationship with the UK media, which they accused of invading their privacy and writing fake reports about them. The couple has even filed several defamation suits. This February, Prince Harry won a case against The Mail on Sunday, over an article in which the newspaper claimed that the Duke of Sussex had "snubbed" the Royal Marines after he quit royal life and moved to the United States. The newspaper published an apology. He also sued The Sun and The Daily Mirror for "illegal interception" of his voicemail messages.In their infamous interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry said that the toxic and racist treatment of Meghan Markle by the UK press was one of the reasons the couple decided to step down from senior roles in the Royal Family and move to North America.

Rita Lamar The mainstream media is a big problem for the world... 0

1

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Max Gorbachev

Max Gorbachev

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

Max Gorbachev

prince harry, uk royal family, breach of privacy, meghan markle, uk, tabloids, appeal, defamation
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/oscar-pistorius-pens-distressing-letter-to-his-killed-girlfriends-parents-as-he-seeks-parole-1090691117.html

Oscar Pistorius Pens 'Distressing' Letter to His Killed Girlfriend's Parents as He Seeks Parole

Oscar Pistorius Pens 'Distressing' Letter to His Killed Girlfriend's Parents as He Seeks Parole

Several years ago, the South African Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius was sentenced initially to six and then 13 years in prison after the court found... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T17:39+0000

2021-11-12T17:39+0000

2021-11-12T17:39+0000

oscar pistorius

society

murder

letter

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/105938/95/1059389542_0:0:2953:1662_1920x0_80_0_0_a4655f12b6b7c11ff721655b548a0fb3.jpg

Oscar Pistorius has written a "distressing" letter to Barry and June Steenkamp, the parents of Reeva Steenkamp, his girlfriend whom he shot, The Mirror reported on Friday, citing their lawyer. According to the report, the parents' lawyer described the letter as like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound - although no details were provided about what the letter actually contained.The letter is part of Pistorius' efforts to seek parole, for which he has been eligible since July, as he has already served half his 13-year prison sentence. He was put behind bars for shooting his girlfriend dead at his home in Pretoria, South Africa, on Valentine's Day in 2013.The parole process in South Africa implies that prisoners must acknowledge and take responsibility for their actions. Apparently trying to do that, Pistorius wrote the letter to June and Barry Steenkamp - who, according to The Mirror, accept that the athlete might be released from prison on parole, and are even willing to meet their daughter's killer.However, the parole process did not appear to satisfy the couple.The parents were reportedly told that Oscar will not be released from prison until March 2023.Pistorius' sentence was extended from six years to 13 years and 5 months in 2017. He claimed that he shot his girlfriend because he thought she was a home intruder.

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Daria Bedenko

Daria Bedenko

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

Daria Bedenko

oscar pistorius, society, murder, letter
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/pentagon-says-it-doesnt-assess-russias-troop-movements-as-plan-to-invade-ukraine-in-coming-days-1090693296.html

Pentagon Says It Doesn't Assess Russia's Troop Movements as Plan to Invade Ukraine in Coming Days

Pentagon Says It Doesn't Assess Russia's Troop Movements as Plan to Invade Ukraine in Coming Days

Earlier, Bloomberg claimed in a report that Washington had warned its European allies to be ready for a potential Russian military invasion of Ukraine. Moscow... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T17:49+0000

2021-11-12T17:49+0000

2021-11-12T18:57+0000

us

russia

ukraine

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/105840/23/1058402311_0:140:3090:1878_1920x0_80_0_0_f5022104733a7b6bdf8d3564add39036.jpg

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley has stated that based on the movements of Russian troops at the border with Ukraine, the Pentagon sees no indication that Moscow is planning to invade its neighbour any time soon. He added, however, that the US continues to monitor the situation in case something changes.Milley noted that the current movements of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine are more significant than usual. However, the general pointed out that similar movements were noticed last April, and they turned out to be nothing more than a series of military exercises.Moscow, in turn, has repeatedly stressed that movements of its troops within its own sovereign territory should not concern foreign countries as Russia does not pose a threat to anyone. It slammed Bloombergs 12 November report on the US allegedly warning its European allies about the potential risk of Russian forces invading Ukraine as groundless.Prior to this, several American news outlets reported spotting a buildup of Russian military forces at the border with Ukraine, sparking concerns in Washington regarding the purpose. The Kremlin dismissed the claims as a part of fake news campaign being waged against Russia.Russia Asks European Countries to Pressure Ukraine Into Upholding Minsk AgreementsRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov separately stated that Moscow has asked France and Germany to exert pressure on Ukrainian authorities so that they start fulfilling their commitments under the Minsk agreements in regards to the self-proclaimed people's republics in the country's east.Lavrov namely pointed out that the passing of the Transitional Period bill by the Ukrainian parliament would signify Ukraine's de-facto exit from the Minsk agreements.The bill, called "On the Basics of the State Policy of the Transitional Period", was introduced to Ukraine's parliament in August 2021 and details Kiev's plans for managing the territories of the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk after their "return" to government control. It includes provisions regulating "transitional justice", which would make many residents of the self-proclaimed republics responsible for certain actions during the internal conflict, thus eliminating the possibility of the amnesty promised under the Minsk accords.Moscow has repeatedly condemned Kiev for doing practically nothing in terms of fulfilling the accords signed in Minsk in 2014 and 2015 with the aim of ending the war in Donbass and restoring peace in Ukraine. The Kremlin has on numerous occasions also urged Western countries to pressure the new authorities in Kiev, which came to power as a result of a coup in 2014, to fulfil their commitments under the Minsk agreements, but to no avail.

https://sputniknews.com/20211112/first-ukraine-now-poland-how-western-tabloids-indulge-in-stoking-russian-invasion-narrative-1090687843.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210411/kremlin-france-germany-bewildered-by-claims-minsk-accords-are-useless-1082596811.html

Barros Not relevant. US just want to confuse and rob the other countries. 10

shahid khan US media houses only tell lies. fake news. 5

8

ukraine

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Tim Korso https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0a/02/1080648312_311:168:1773:1631_100x100_80_0_0_5eb98a42f89fd860368dcd2ae2d9e403.jpg

Tim Korso https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0a/02/1080648312_311:168:1773:1631_100x100_80_0_0_5eb98a42f89fd860368dcd2ae2d9e403.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

Tim Korso https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0a/02/1080648312_311:168:1773:1631_100x100_80_0_0_5eb98a42f89fd860368dcd2ae2d9e403.jpg

us, russia, ukraine
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/polish-foreign-ministry-condemns-german-flag-burning-incident-during-march-in-warsaw-1090680688.html

Polish Foreign Ministry Condemns German Flag Burning Incident During March in Warsaw - Video

Polish Foreign Ministry Condemns German Flag Burning Incident During March in Warsaw - Video

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Polish Foreign Ministry condemns the burning of a German flag at the Independence March in Warsaw, Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T10:26+0000

2021-11-12T10:26+0000

2021-11-12T10:51+0000

europe

poland

independence day

flag burning

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/104734/23/1047342324_0:262:3500:2231_1920x0_80_0_0_0664f217318c11d63ccc9b79d16febde.jpg

He outlined the importance of a probe into the incident to prevent such occurrences in the future.On Thursday, the country celebrated Independence Day. Polish activists burned a German flag during a rally that condemned Nazi Germany's activities during the Second World War.

Golem Polish far right nationalists now burning the german flag and condemning german nazi activities during WW2, these people really dont do irony do they... 2

1

poland

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

europe, poland, independence day, flag burning
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/prosecutors-probe-alleged-rape-in-french-presidential-palace-says-report-1090683342.html

Prosecutors Probe Alleged Rape in French Presidential Palace, Says Report

Prosecutors Probe Alleged Rape in French Presidential Palace, Says Report

The alleged assault took place 1 July after a farewell party for a general and two officers, according to the newspaper Liberation. 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T11:58+0000

2021-11-12T11:58+0000

2021-11-12T13:30+0000

france

europe

rape

elysee palace

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/106174/09/1061740920_0:490:3264:2326_1920x0_80_0_0_135ca3c7c749c2c992dbdd811dea2db7.jpg

French investigators are investigating an alleged rape in the Elysee Palace, a source told AFP on Friday. According to the report, a female soldier guarding the presidential palace accused a fellow serviceman of rape back in July, and the latter was questioned as an "assisted witness" - which means there are no direct charges against that person, he or she may eventually be implicated by evidence to have participated in the offence.When Liberation asked the Elysee about the case, the presidential administration stressed it would not comment on live legal cases, but noted it will issue a release once investigators have published their report.Defence Minister Florence Parly reportedly launched an administrative investigation into the case and the accused soldier has been suspended from the Palace.

france

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Evgeny Mikhaylov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/07/1080390164_0:0:1440:1440_100x100_80_0_0_46c187f2ab0908f86849a7d09a7def57.jpg

Evgeny Mikhaylov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/07/1080390164_0:0:1440:1440_100x100_80_0_0_46c187f2ab0908f86849a7d09a7def57.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

Evgeny Mikhaylov https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/07/1080390164_0:0:1440:1440_100x100_80_0_0_46c187f2ab0908f86849a7d09a7def57.jpg

france, europe, rape, elysee palace
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/scholars-eu-poland-need-to-talk-with-minsk-instead-of-fanning-enmity-against-belarus--russia-1090688744.html

Scholars: EU, Poland Need to Talk With Minsk Instead of Fanning Enmity Against Belarus & Russia

Scholars: EU, Poland Need to Talk With Minsk Instead of Fanning Enmity Against Belarus & Russia

Tensions are simmering on the Belarus-Polish border, where thousands of undocumented migrants from the Middle East and other troubled regions have set up a... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T15:36+0000

2021-11-12T15:36+0000

2021-11-14T16:35+0000

belarus

alexander lukashenko

middle east

world

europe

russia

poland

afghanistan

migrants

nato

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0b/08/1090572420_0:35:3073:1763_1920x0_80_0_0_14b2d5d61136d5d6fd256d60ba84df93.jpg

Poland has rushed to pin the blame on Belarus and Russia for what it called facilitating illegal migration to destabilise the EU. Still, Minsk and Moscow dismissed Warsaw's accusation as completely false. The Belarusian leadership has explained that it has no funds to stop the refugee influx due to the European sanctions spree.Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday called for fresh sanctions on "all those who participate in the targeted smuggling of migrants", including Minsk. On the same day, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Joe Biden discussed potentially imposing restrictions against airlines carrying the refugees. A day earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg reassured Poland of the alliances solidarity with Warsaw amid the border crisis.Migrant Influx: Chickens Coming Home to RoostThe unfolding blame game is not helping at all; in fact, "its made by design to protect the real perpetrators of yet another migrant and humanitarian crisis at our borders, namely, the United States of America and their European vassals", according to the scholar."Im pretty astonished by the fact that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has recently met with Joe Biden in Washington, failed to address the root cause of the migrant flow from the Middle East, namely, the US presence in the region and its destabilisation", Kasonta notes, adding that he does not believe Belarus should be the guardian of the EU's borders and keep migrants inside its own country.Moscow is Major Target of US-EU Blame GameIt appears that the root of the unfolding controversy lies in the EU's antagonism towards the government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, deems Eurasia Centre Vice President Earl Rasmussen.At the same time, Rasmussen does not rule out that the real target for the EU-US' blame game is Russia, Belarus' longstanding ally. By tightening the screws on Minsk, Brussels and Washington are seeking to oust the government of Lukashenko in order to replace him with a pro-Western leader and pull Minsk away from Moscow, according to the scholar."Instead of trying to de-escalate tensions and help people who are trapped in these inhumane conditions, we can see an intensifying blame game and Poland (most probably encouraged by the US that is now telling the EU that Russia plans to invade Ukraine) doing what Poland does best: acts as a useful idiot in Washingtons arsenal against Moscow", echoes Kasonta.No Unity Within the European BlocMeanwhile, the EU and Poland's position is weakened by the fact that there's no unity between the two, Rasmussen presumes.Euronews reported on 12 November that while Warsaw is depicting itself as a "defender" of "Christian Europe" against migrant "invaders", it has ignored the European Court of Human Rights' order to provide food and medical care to a group of Afghan refugees stranded on its border for weeks. The media outlet also notes that Poland has rejected Germany's repeated offers for assistance with border protection, and has not allowed EU border agency Frontex to be present at the border. Earlier, Poland along with Hungary, Slovakia, and Czech Republic vehemently opposed the EU's migrant "quotas.""Poland is very selective about migrants. They dont like Muslims, Arabs, Indians, and Blacks", remarks Kasonta, adding that Warsaw is at the same time allowing Belarusians into the country".When it comes to NATO's potential interference in the border crisis, it is highly unlikely, despite encouraging signals from Stoltenberg, according to Rasmussen: "This is definitely outside of NATO mission area", the scholar stresses.Spectre of 2015 Refugee CrisisWhile the blame game is raging on, the unfolding border tensions evoke strong memories of the refugee crisis which engulfed Europe in 2015, according to the observers.Kasonta believes that the UN Security Council has to step in to solve the emerging problem, as neither the EU  including Poland  nor the US can be trusted. According to him, so far, "the only sensible country seems to be Lithuania that is seeking backing from the UN to open a humanitarian corridor from the Belarus border with Poland to the Grodno airport to allow migrants to return home".Meanwhile, the solution to the problem requires Poland and the EU to diplomatically engage with Belarus through negotiations, not threats, underscores Earl Rasmussen.

https://sputniknews.com/20211111/migrants-residing-in-camps-on-poland-belarus-border-1090647361.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210823/icao-team-arrives-in-belarus-to-investigate-ryanair-incident-belarus-transport-ministry-confirms--1083691453.html

https://sputniknews.com/20211112/poland-and-lithuania-using-migration-crisis-for-getting-funds-from-eu-belarusian-diplomat-says-1090673818.html

vot tak Another article at Sputnik earlier about an interview with a migrant on the border explained how the smuggling originated with europeans, primarily poles. This is obviously an israeloamerican operation of the usual hybrid war sort. The people interviewed by blinova get it right about this being a psywar attack on Belarus and Russia, but ignore the israeli role altogether. Same with the bs about Russia massing troops to attack the ukraine. This garbage originates from zionist sources (zio-media and zio-colonial regime propagandists). As long as the zionist/israeli role in these corporate fascist geopolitical moves is ignored, they will continue. 5

1

belarus

middle east

poland

afghanistan

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Ekaterina Blinova

Ekaterina Blinova

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

Ekaterina Blinova

belarus, alexander lukashenko, middle east, world, europe, russia, poland, afghanistan, migrants, nato, eu
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/thick-skinned-morrison-not-worried-despite-macron-calling-him-liar-over-submarine-pact-1090681884.html

'Thick Skinned' Morrison Not Worried Despite Macron Calling Him Liar Over Submarine Pact

'Thick Skinned' Morrison Not Worried Despite Macron Calling Him Liar Over Submarine Pact

French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison lied to him about the multi-billion dollar submarine deal with... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T13:13+0000

2021-11-12T13:13+0000

2021-11-12T13:13+0000

aukus

france

emmanuel macron

us

australia

scott morrison

nuclear submarines

uk

indo-pacific

aukus

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0b/0c/1090685702_0:0:3005:1691_1920x0_80_0_0_ab4dba58627ddaa69f3984fba2aed9d4.jpg

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he doesn't believe he ever told a lie in public life, as he rejected allegations made against him by French President Macron and several other leaders.Replying to whether the allegation calling him a "serial liar" hurt, the Australian PM, who was elected to parliament in 2007, said he has learned "not to have thin skin and not to get bitter".Morrison said that he is not worried about the accusations made by the French president because he was sure that the diesel-powered submarine contract with Paris wouldn't be the right thing for Australia."I wasn't intimidated by the fact that might upset some people and ruffle some feathers", he added.Morrison said that the nuclear submarine deal aligns with Australia's national security requirements, which will also ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.During a short interaction with the media in Glasgow on 31 October, Macron said he "knew" Morrison had lied to him.The French president rejected Morrison's repeated claim that Canberra had shared enough information with France before scrapping the $66 billion diesel-powered submarine deal with Naval Group on 15 September.The cancellation of the deal prompted an angry reaction from France, with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian dubbing Canberra's move "a stab in the back".In order to have deeper cooperation in the Indo-Pacific regions, the leaders of Australia, the UK, and the US, announced the creation of an enhanced trilateral partnership called "AUKUS". As the first initiative under the trilateral pact, the leaders committed to "a shared ambition to support Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy". Under the arrangement, the US will share nuclear submarine technology with Australia, only the second country to receive access to such technology from the US since 1958. The nations agreed to implement the initiative in the next 18 months.

https://sputniknews.com/20210916/stab-in-the-back-ex-french-official-blasts-new-trilateral-defence-deal-between-us-uk--australia-1089117683.html

FeEisi Scott Morrison hid for 18 months keeping secret that Australia and US were making a submarine deal at the expense of France. Scott Morrison lacks the diplomacy to tell France the truth but instead hides and keeps secrets. 2

1

france

australia

indo-pacific

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

france, emmanuel macron, us, australia, scott morrison, nuclear submarines, uk, indo-pacific, aukus
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/turkish-aviation-body-confirms-citizens-of-iraq-syria-and-yemen-banned-from-flights-to-minsk-1090687426.html

Turkish Aviation Body Confirms Citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen Banned From Flights to Minsk

Turkish Aviation Body Confirms Citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen Banned From Flights to Minsk

ANKARA (Sputnik) - The Turkish Civil Aviation Authority confirmed on Friday that citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen would not be allowed on flights to Minsk... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T13:33+0000

2021-11-12T13:33+0000

2021-11-12T13:33+0000

belarus

europe

middle east

turkey

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/105183/80/1051838053_0:0:3001:1688_1920x0_80_0_0_8f612ca47f5b15b7c818abca3c377f94.jpg

Earlier in the day, a source in Turkish Airlines told Sputnik that the carrier would no longer accept citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen on flights to Minsk, with the exception of those holding diplomatic passports and Belarusian residence permits.Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that the European Union is discussing sanctions against Aeroflot and Turkish Airlines over their alleged involvement in bringing migrants to Belarus. On Thursday, the European Commission said that Brussels would look into the option of sanctioning airlines engaged in transferring migrants to Belarus as part of a fifth sanctions package against Minsk, expected early next week. Moscow said that media reports of possible sanctions against Aeroflot are unfounded.Commenting on the reports, Ankara said it deplores the migration crisis at the Belarusian-Polish border but has nothing to do with the situation.In recent months, Poland (along with neighbouring Latvia and Lithuania) accused Minsk of facilitating illegal migration to destabilise the bloc, as thousands of migrants gathered at the Belarusian border, trying to get into the EU.

belarus

turkey

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

belarus, europe, middle east, turkey
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/us-treasury-sanctions-eritrean-defense-officials-over-involvement-in-conflict-in-ethiopias-tigray-1090692562.html

US Treasury Sanctions Eritrean Defense Officials Over Involvement in Conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray

US Treasury Sanctions Eritrean Defense Officials Over Involvement in Conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray

The US Treasury announced new sanctions on Friday targeting several figures and institutions in Eritrea's defense sphere over the country's continued... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T17:23+0000

2021-11-12T17:23+0000

2021-11-12T19:08+0000

ethiopia

eritrea

us sanctions

tplf (tigray people's liberation front)

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107702/25/1077022531_0:0:1024:577_1920x0_80_0_0_a7ea0a8eb19ccbe83dfdbe1fa3e4fd76.jpg

The US Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions on "Eritrean actors that have contributed to the crisis and conflict, which have undermined the stability and integrity of the Ethiopian state." The sanctions target four organizations and two individuals."As a result of todays action, all property and interests in property of the persons named above that are in the United States, or in the possession or control of US persons, are blocked and must be reported to OFAC," the release detailed. As justification for the sanctions, the US Treasury cited Executive Order 14046, issued by US President Joe Biden on September 17, 2021. The order authorizes US sanctions against individuals or groups deemed to "threaten the peace, security, or stability of Ethiopia, or that have the purpose or effect of expanding or extending the crisis in northern Ethiopia or obstructing a ceasefire or a peace process," and other reasons including "obstructing" the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia, targeting civilians and UN or African Union officials, and the sweepingly broad "actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in Ethiopia" and "actions or policies that undermine the territorial integrity of Ethiopia."The US Treasury accuses the sanctioned entities of all of these transgressions.In 2011, the Eritrean government told the United Nations that the Hidri Trust, one of the sanctioned entities, is a holding company of the PFDJ's business enterprises and that its primary purpose is to provide social safety nets to families of those killed during its decades-long war for independence against Ethiopia.In 2020, Eritrea joined Abiy's government in militarily opposing the resurgence of their mutual adversary, the TPLF, after it rejected a move by Abiy that weakened their once-dominating power in the Ethiopian government and rose up in rebellion.While the TPLF was put on the retreat early in the conflict in late 2020, it has since resurged and launched a new offensive outside of the northern Tigray region and into neighboring Afar and Amhara regions. The group has claimed new allies in other Ethiopian ethnic groups, most notably the Oromo Liberation Army, and boasted that it could advance on the capital city of Addis Ababa. Detractors say the movement's offensive has stalled and that the capital is not under threat.The conflict has created a massive humanitarian crisis, with more than 70,000 people fleeing across the border into neighboring Sudan and an estimated 4 million more internally displaced, according to United Nations data. There is no reliable death toll for the conflict.As the Biden administration has postured itself as increasingly ready to become directly involved in the conflict, Ethiopians both in the country and in the diaspora have spoken out against it, using slogans like "Hands off Ethiopia" and the hashtag #NoMore and holding large rallies in both Addis Ababa and Washington DC."The majority of the Ethiopian people support him. The diaspora supports him, she said. It is very odd. It seems like the US government is trying to overthrow the democratically-elected government and create a transitional government," Negussie said. "The US should support the Ethiopian government to bring these terrorist groups to justice and thats the only time they can end conflict. We cannot negotiate with any terrorist group.

DuvalKingpin63 Just kick the Americans & AFRICOM out of Africa already! 4

Barros Not relevant. US just want to rob more another country. 4

4

ethiopia

eritrea

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

ethiopia, eritrea, us sanctions, tplf (tigray people's liberation front)
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/violent-death-of-man-sparks-werewolf-fears-in-south-african-village-1090688408.html

Violent Death of Man 'Sparks Werewolf Fears' in South African Village

Violent Death of Man 'Sparks Werewolf Fears' in South African Village

Police in the Buffalo City municipality have issued a statement to quell fears, saying the victim was likely killed by a group of stray dogs, but allegations... 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T14:30+0000

2021-11-12T14:30+0000

2021-11-12T14:31+0000

society

south africa

murder

werewolf

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0b/0c/1090686444_0:180:1920:1260_1920x0_80_0_0_938ae11eb27526b87a9b426922399364.jpg

Residents of Kwaqongqota Village in South Africa are afraid that a werewolf is prowling around the area after a 59-year-old man was found dead and mutilated, local media reported. The body of Diesel Michael Makambi was found with multiple horrific bite marks and flesh missing on some parts of the body. After people in the area learned about the incident, news about a werewolf began spreading in the village and the surrounding areas.According to News24, a popular running club warned its members not to jog in the area until the creature had been captured or killed. A social media post featured a picture of a half man-half wolf beast.Mr Makambis family has criticised the individuals spreading the rumours, saying the man was likely killed by a group of pitbulls.Local police officers have warned village residents against spreading what they described as fake news.

south africa

Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60

2021

Max Gorbachev

Max Gorbachev

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

Max Gorbachev

society, south africa, murder, werewolf
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/wikileaks-julian-assange-permitted-to-marry-stella-moris-in-uk-jail--reports-1090671531.html

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Permitted to Marry Stella Moris in UK Jail  Reports

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Permitted to Marry Stella Moris in UK Jail  Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has received a permit to marry his fiancee Stella Moris, UK media reported. 12.11.2021, Sputnik International

2021-11-12T02:41+0000

2021-11-12T02:41+0000

2021-11-12T02:38+0000

julian assange

marriage

hm prison belmarsh

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0a/1b/1090242979_0:0:3125:1757_1920x0_80_0_0_c21150745e7497516a819fa907a1a75d.jpg

Last week, Assange and Moris filed a lawsuit against UK Justice Secretary Dominic Raab and the head of Belmarsh prison, where the whistleblower is currently held, for preventing their marriage.The Guardian reported late Thursday that the ceremony will be held in the Belmarsh prison. A separate report filed by the Sun detailed that the marriage may take place in December, and that the event will be attended by several guests who are also jailed in Belmarsh.Assange and Moris have been engaged for five years and have two children together. The pair initially began asking for assistance in arranging the marriage in May.A spokesperson for the prison told the Guardian that Assange's marriage petition "was received, considered and processed in the usual way by the prison governor, as for any other prisoner."It was further reported that prisoners are allowed to marry while incarcerated under the UK's Marriages Act 1983. Additionally, the cost of a service is taken on by the prisoner if a request is approved by authorities.The WikiLeaks founder was arrested in London on April 11, 2019, and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail in 2012. He took refuge inside the Ecuadorean embassy in the UK capital to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was facing sexual assault charges that were later dropped by a Swedish court.Assange is wanted by the United States on espionage charges after WikiLeaks published thousands of classified documents that shed light on war crimes committed by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. If put on trial and convicted in the US, the whistleblower faces up to 175 years in prison.

F. Sokolov The Julian Assange case proves the American Empire is on its last leg. Sad to see the British still are loyal lapdogs to the US Deep State. Why is the US afraid of an individual who only publishing unedited facts? The US intelligence community might be good at many things, but lousy at keeping secrets. Instead of thanking Mr. Assange for helping them find the leaks they make him a martyr. The US intelligence community flaws is not only limited to the technology, but disgruntled employees and assets. Stop being losers playing the blame game, set Julian Assange free! 8

Hess Flagrantly inhumane, dictatorial and lacks any civilised norms. Today's Britain is barbarian which lacks respect for human rights and civilised norms. 7

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

julian assange, marriage, hm prison belmarsh
Headed at the three-quarters, Hashtagmadeyalook reasserted through the lane and captured his third straight victory in Thursdays feature at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows, a $12,100 conditioned trot.

Hashtagmadeyalook quarter-poled to the point for Hunter Myers before yielding briefly to the first-over Perfect Chapter As. But the six-year-old Chapter Seven-Royalty Free gelding responded to Myers urging and triumphed in 1:54.1. Whats The Word was second in the Lightning Lane, beaten a head, with Walkingintherain third.

Sarah Andrews trains the winner, who extended his career earnings to $373,556, for Daddy Boy Racing.

Dan Charlino and Aaron Merriman each collected three wins on the 12-race card.

Live racing at The Meadows continues Friday when the 12-race program features a trio of carryovers: $1,361.84 in the Early Pick 4 (race one); $861.61 in the final-race Super Hi-5; $396.70 in the Pick 5 (race four). First post is 12:45 p.m.

(MSOA)
Ive seen some of the stories that have come out of the media, of politics, of Hollywood, of academia. And I can tell you personally, as a veteran, I dont particularly care about what any one of those institutions thinks of my service, he said. But I desperately care about what the people who came before me think of my service.

He encouraged his fellow veterans to share what they experienced in their nations service.

Sometimes, its funny when we tell these stories. And sometimes, its sad. And sometimes, its painful, Freitas said. But we have to be the ones who tell them, so the people who come after us know and understand.

It sustained many in his generation to hear stories from the veterans who came before them, he said.

When you do share those stories, when you do talk about the camaraderie, it has an impact both on those that serve and those that dont, Freitas said.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

One of the things I miss the most about being in the military, was that any one of those guys sitting on that porch on that hot summer day in Iraq ... if I called them tonight and told them I needed them there, theyd be there, he said. And Id do the same for them.
Panhandle Blocks-Quilt of Valor group leader and founder Kathy Dye was recently awarded with a certificate and recognized as an Admiral of the Navy of the Great State of Nebraska. The certificate was signed by Governor Pete Rickets and given to Dye by Senator Tom Brewer following a large Quilt of Valor presentation in Gordon.

Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska is the state of Nebraska's highest civic honor awarded to maybe one or two people a year.

The award certificate describes the honor in a deliberately tongue-in-cheek fashion:

And I (Ricketts) do strictly charge and require all officers, seamen, tadpoles and goldfish under your command to be obedient to your orders as Admiraland you are to observe and follow, from time to time, such directions you shall receive, according to the rules and discipline of the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska.

The use of the title of admiral, instead of some other high-ranking military title, is a humorous reference to the fact that Nebraska has no navy.

None of what I do from my end would happen if you guys didnt do what you do on your end; or the Legions or the Riders, said Dye as she pointed to a room full of Panhandle Block members.
Kayla Kelly and her brother, Kyle, have always been close. She said shed often want to do what he was doing when she was younger. So when he had joined the Air Force straight out of high school, and she was wondering what to do after college, she said it made sense to follow in his footsteps.

My brother was absolutely loving what he was doing and I wanted to be a part of that, Kelly said. ...I fell in love with the military.

While she spent time stationed with her brother, her military career would go in a completely different direction.

Kelly worked in the intelligence field while in the Air Force. That happened to be one of the fields being heavily recruited to the new United States Space Force.

I suppose it starts with the same reason I joined (the military) in the first place, Kelly said of joining the Space Force. A new branch of service is an opportunity to be part of something new and exciting again.

Kelly joined Space Delta 7, stationed out of Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado. That delta serves as the Space Forces intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance division. Kelly, a master sergeant, is a non-commissioned officer in charge. She ensures mission integrations run smoothly.
My first deployment, it was basically me, a medic and an IT person. We were attached with a division of SEALS. We set up our own outstations. We had to build all the buildings and run all the wiring. We basically started at ground zero, he said. My second deployment, I was attached to what they call the Tiger Team. We basically just traveled around to different outstations and did any electrical work that they needed.

On his deployments, Beyer was just outside Mosul, Iraq, he said.

It was challenging. There was a main base a couple hours away that we could take trips to and get supplies, but if we needed something right away, it didnt always happen, he said.

It proved to be more challenging once he got out of the Navy. In the state of Nebraska, his eight years of service didnt translate to a civilian career as he expected. Nebraska only gave him credit for one year of experience, making him an apprentice.

I would have had to work for an electrician for three years before I could even get my journeymans license, he said. We fell under the same code  the National Electric Code. So, it wasnt like I was working under a different set of standards. I was working with the same regulation.
Im a Navy supply corps officer, so you start out by going out to sea. Then I spent a number of years working in Naval Aviation, not flying, and then all of a sudden, I was working in ship repair in Japan, he said. After that, I taught school in the military, went to Vietnam, served on some senior staff positions and in 1976, I retired after 20 years.

With the military, Hahn got to travel around, mostly in the Pacific, and even had his family with him when stationed in Japan.

Back when I was in the Navy, all of the military action in the world was in the Pacific. If you look at the Pacific Rim, thats where all the major naval action was, so I spent a number of years out in the Pacific, he said. I was stationed in Japan for three years, but I had my wife and two children with me there.

I was stationed in Hawaii for about four years, in the Seattle area and when I did other things, those were always in Georgia or D.C.

Of all the places Hahn has been to, his favorite is the Naval Air Station in Oak Harbor, Washington, north of Seattle.

After retiring from the Navy, Hahn started a consulting business in Indiana.
Josh Ruzicka, current Scotts Bluff County Sheriffs deputy, is a veteran who grew up in Gering. He joined the Marine Corps at the age of 20 and left after four years at the age of 24.

He was a forward observer, which is someone who stays ahead of an advancing element and calls in indirect fire to clear the way or is with the advancing element and calls in indirect fire support as they move forward to support the movement, he said. A forward observer could also call in helicopters or jets for air support or a medivac.

Ruzicka joined the military to help out in the Iraqi war, do his part and to be a forward observer. He was in what was called the Vigilant Response back in 2004, Iraqi Freedom in 2004, Iraqi Freedom 4-6 in 2005, and Iraqi Freedom 6-8 in 2006 into 2007.

Ruzicka has traveled to many places while being in the military. He has been to Iraq three times, as well as Kuwait, Qatar, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Thailand, Japan and Okinawa. His favorite place he traveled to was Japan and his least favorite place was Kuwait.

He liked Japan because of the culture and driving on the wrong side of the street. Everything is opposite driving-wise as it is here in the States, he said. The only downfall was that their food portions were half of ours here in the US.
Please log in to keep reading.

Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever.
Those who make overbroad rules, regulations and policies do so because they lack confidence in peoples ability to reason. They think they must control peoples behavior because they are either unable or unwilling to do so themselves. The problem is, the more we rely upon rules to control peoples behavior the less people trust the reasonableness of those making the rules. Its a vicious circle.

We have many examples of unreasonableness in our society today, and they tend to fall into two categories.

The first are the dogmatists: they are the people who are convinced they are always right. They tend to think everyone who does not think as they do is exceptionally stupid or malevolent. As a result, they tend to get angry easily and are apt to defend the use of violence when it is for a cause they support.

The dogmatist is possessed by a certain type of madness, and, as G. K. Chesterton points out, arguing with them is pointless: If you argue with a madman, it is extremely probable that you will get the worst of it; for in many ways his mind moves all the quicker for not being delayed by things that go with good judgment. He is not hampered by a sense of humour or by clarity, or by the dumb certainties of experience. He is the more logical for losing certain sane affections.
The reality, furthermore, is that the SALT deduction is used by decidedly middle-class people in high-cost-of-living areas such as Long Island. A cop married to a nurse in Levittown could easily report over $160,000 in combined income while also paying over $9,000 in property taxes.

Folks have been moving away in droves since our state and local tax deduction was gutted, said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat.

The top marginal individual income tax rate is 13.3% in California and 10.75% in New Jersey. There is no state income tax in Florida or Texas. For their revenues, those states rely far more on sales taxes targeting lower-income people. What sane progressive would want to degrade the tax base off which they pay for education and health care?

As for conservatives who lecture us on the need to pass power from the federal government to the states and localities, how can they justify stripping those jurisdictions of their ability to raise revenues? By the way, local taxes are the way communities actually fund their police.

For the simpletons who think that any tax hike that hits any rich person is fair, consider this ridiculous scenario: Imagine a new tax levied only on high-paid gastroenterologists. You may ask: What about neurosurgeons and hedge fund managers? Good question.
You must be logged in to react.

Click any reaction to login.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Davis Medical Group recently welcomed two new doctors.

Dr. Timothy Leone is a board-certified general surgeon with years of clinical experience and knowledge to provide comprehensive surgical care. As a doctor of osteopathic medicine, he specializes in robotic, laparoscopic, and open surgery, including biliary, colorectal, digestive, endocrine, and hernia procedures. He is a member of the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons and the American Osteopathic Association, and has extensive experience in robotic procedures and surgical cases.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Leone is accepting new patients. For more information, visit: DavisMedicalGroup.com or call 704-660-4968 to schedule an appointment. Davis Medical Group, General Surgery Statesville is located at 1424-D Fern Creek Drive in Statesville.

Dr. Jeff Neal is board certified in interventional cardiology, cardiology and internal medicine from the American Osteopathic Association Board of Internal Medicine. He serves as a society member of the American College of Cardiology, the American Osteopathic Association, the American College of Physicians, and the American College of Osteopathic Internists.
This dataset focuses on the past, but could help world leaders make more informed decisions in the future. Indonesia is planning to move the country's capital from Jakarta  a city that is sinking below sea level  to Kalimantan. The development site is in an area of jungle between two cities, Samarinda and Balikpapan. Both cities have increasing heat exposure trends.

People in Balikpapan, located at the mouth of the Bakpapan Bay, could expect 10 more days of extreme heat in 2016 compared with 1983.

Samarinda, situated on the humid Mahakam River delta, could expect 19 more days. Jakarta, although sinking, did not register a significant increasing exposure trend in the dataset.

Africa's growing cities

Many cities that already experience extreme heat are growing rapidly.

Douala, Cameroon, grew from roughly 760,000 people in 1983 to nearly 3 million in 2016. United Nations population projections suggest that count will double by 2035. Douala's citizens endured 76 days of extreme heat in 2016.
After 20 years of doing business on Commerce Avenue, Creekside Cafe may close permanently at the end of the month.

Owner Danielle Rowley said the business would be shutting its doors around the end of November. Creekside Cafe reopened in early October after a major renovation that saw it expand into the space once occupied by Fathers House church to turn the restaurant into a possible event center.

The business first opened in the spring of 2001 as a downtown lunch option. Rowley took over the space late last year and said she appreciated all the support shed gotten from the community.

Id like to try to end on a good note. I want to try to allow people to come in, enjoy the great food and say their goodbyes to this place that was here for so long, Rowley said.

Rowley said a number of factors over the last year made it impossible to keep the restaurant open. The renovation took more than four months to complete, during which time Rowley had to keep paying rent and electricity without any income.

When Creekside reopened, hours were shifted repeatedly to make up for staffing shortages and the restaurant did not have a liquor license. Rowley applied for the license over the summer and blamed a backlog in processing new applications at the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board.

We have people walk in and as soon as we let them know we dont have any alcohol, they walk right back out, Rowley said.

One of the final blows came when a businessman from Seattle made an offer to Rowleys landlord to buy out the building. Rowley said she doesnt blame the landlord for taking the more lucrative offer after hed been flexible with Creeksides closure and changes over the last year.

Rowley does not know who the potential new owner would be, but expects they would open a different kind of restaurant and move away from the Creekside name.

Even by the standards of the COVID-affected business climate, Creekside Cafe has seen a tumultuous two years. The cafe was purchased by the owner of the neighboring Country Folks Deli in May 2020, then returned to the previous owner a few months later.

Rowley was fined more than $60,000 by the Department of Labor and Industries early this year after opening for business during the indoor dining ban. Rowley defended the move as a way to keep the lights on and extend the cafes viability.

I would not say I have any regrets, it just didnt pan out the way it was supposed to, Rowley said. Being one person, its difficult to manage such a large building and restaurant.

Rowley plans to return to Kalama and bring some of her original ideas to her other business, Bear Country Catering.

Creekside will be serving a Thanksgiving buffet meal during its final days of business, which Rowley said was one of the events shed been looking forward to hosting since she took over the building.

Love 0 Funny 2 Wow 1 Sad 7 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.
ST. HELENA ISLAND, S.C. (AP)  Ricky Wright points to the bank of a creek to show one way his hometown has been affected by climate change. Many banks have eroded or collapsed, and now some favorite fishing spots that were once on solid ground are reachable only by boat.

Wright is part of the Gullah Geechee, a group of Black Americans who descended from slaves and live off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The community that has endured for centuries is now imperiled by a combination of rising seas devouring their land, higher temperatures changing how they farm and fish, and destructive storms threatening their way of life.

I would say (its) depressing to lose places like that, especially if you grew up there," said the 65-year-old fisherman, who noted other changes, like the great white shark migrating to waters off St. Helena Island. Its scary.

The risks to the Gullah Geechee and other communities have intensified enough to raise a startling question: Should some populated places simply be abandoned to nature? One strategy gaining traction is so-called managed retreat, which is the planned relocation of vulnerable people.

This is a huge issue. By my reckoning, there will be 30 million people who are displaced by midcentury, and there will be mass migrations in the United States," said Stephen F. Eisenman, director of strategy for the Anthropocene Alliance, a climate and environmental justice group. The biggest question is whether the retreats are planned and methodical or unplanned and chaotic.

The issue also raises concerns about economic fairness in this landscape that is home to Hilton Head Island, a popular destination for well-heeled tourists visiting its many resorts.

While the Gullah Geechee are told to think about moving, the hotels stay open and industry gets new permits, said Harriet Festing, co-founder of the alliance. "So there's a lot of distrust of government intention and the messages that are coming to them.

Forms of managed retreat have existed in the U.S. since at least 1989, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency began buying properties in flood-prone areas. Parts of Louisiana, Wisconsin and Illinois have used planned relocation to try to save communities from flooding and rising seas.

With help from government buyouts, some communities simply move to nearby areas that are less prone to disaster. Others migrate to different parts of the country or different countries altogether.

But buyouts aren't the only component. Other strategies include restoring habitats, replacing concrete-laden areas with green space and using zoning laws to limit development in troubled places.

Parts of Florida, California and New York could someday need to use the same strategy.

Imagine New York City over the next hundred years shifting its density north. It could happen, said A.R. Siders, an assistant professor at the University of Delawares Disaster Research Center.

One reason why the idea is met with resistance is because of its name. Managed retreat is too technical for some and too defeatist for others. Proponents are starting to adopt other language, including planned relocation and climate migration.

But regardless of what it's called, more and more communities have considered some version of the idea, especially, Siders said, in the aftermath of major disasters such as Hurricane Sandy.

The concept pushes us to do better adaptation, she said. But its also a challenge because it scares people. They get scared that theyre going to be forced out of their home.

In a study published in Science Advances in 2019, Siders and other researchers found that FEMAs buyout program was more likely to help wealthier, more densely populated counties. But even within those communities, FEMA buyouts were concentrated in less affluent, less densely populated areas with lower English proficiency and more racial diversity.

Environmental activist Hilton Kelley has been trying for years to get federal assistance to relocate himself and members of his community from Port Arthur, Texas. Port Arthur is closer to the Gulf Coast than much of Houston, and both communities have been ravaged by hurricanes over the last 20 years. But Houston has received more attention and more money for relocation because of its vastly larger population, he said.

This town has been devastated, he said. But weve never gotten our fair shake when it comes to giving support to vulnerable populations, particularly the low-lying communities of color.

Many people in Port Arthur are ready to relocate if help were available and they could take the lead in planning the move, Kelley said. But thats not the case in other cities.

Tiny DeSoto, Missouri, has been hit with destructive flash floods four times in the last eight years. After a particularly bad flood in 2016, Susan Sherrow Lilley started organizing her neighbors to accept buyouts, but they only seemed interested in the immediate aftermath of a flood.

It hasnt flooded in five years, and people are very comfortable now thinking that its not going to again. But it will, she said.

Lilley and other concerned residents have organized 22 homes and one business to apply for FEMA money, but thats only about a third of the structures that were recommended for buyouts by the Army Corps of Engineers.

She said they need buyouts for everyone because even when people move to higher ground, their abandoned homes often get bought, fixed up and put back on the market.

And then the people go through a flood, and its just this vicious cycle over and over again, she said.

A recent World Bank report predicts that 200 million people around the globe will be forced to move because of climate change by 2050. Other countries have already begun planning massive relocations, including Jakarta and the Marshall Islands.

The process is "extremely complex, and there is a high risk that it leaves communities even worse off than they were before, said Ezekiel Simperingham, global migration lead for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and Red Crescent Societies.

Among the Gullah Geechee, big storms have become familiar. At least seven named storms have struck the region of the Southeast U.S. where they live, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Irma in 2017 and Dorian in 2019.

Thomas Mitchell, a crabber who lives on St. Helena Island, comes from a family that catches fish, shrimp and oysters. But oysters have been hard to come by because they need cold weather to survive, and the warm seasons have become longer.

The oysters dont come until its cold, and it doesnt get cold" anymore, he said.

But the idea of abandoning their historical home is a nonstarter for many of the Gullah Geechee.

The only way Im going to relocate is when I meet my demise, Wright said.

Marquetta Goodwine, a community leader on the island known as Queen Quet, said the Gullah Geechee are inextricably linked to the land.

Im not running. I dont come from the stock of people who run, she said. I come from the stock of people who fight, people who hold on, people who stand for what they believe in. And we are rooted in this soil.

As he waited for a fish to tug on his bait at the creek, Wright echoed those sentiments.

When we (were) kids, our parents taught us ... if you ever have to run anywhere, dont run away from home. Make sure you run and come home, he said. And so thats instilled in me, and this is home.



Borenstein reported from Kensington, Maryland. Follow Drew Costley and Seth Borenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/drewcostley and https://twitter.com/borenbears.



The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.



Follow APs coverage of the climate conference at http://apnews.com/hub/climate.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced Friday she will run for reelection in 2022, setting up a race against a primary challenger endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Playing up her centrist bona fides, Murkowski said in a campaign video that she would work across party lines to help Alaska and "stand up to any politician or special interest that threatens our way of life. Trump has vowed revenge against Murkowski and other Republican lawmakers who supported his impeachment over the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Murkowski told reporters in Anchorage on Friday there will be plenty of people on the outside who will be gunning for me, who will suggest that I am not right for Alaskans. I would put that directly to the people of this state.

It's very easy to get distracted by people on the outside. It's very easy to get distracted by those who would say theyre going to do something," she said later. "My focus needs to be on the people of Alaska, serving them and asking for their permission for continued service.

Murkowski is the only Republican senator who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial to face reelection next year. The race will be closely watched nationally as an indicator of Trump's lasting influence with GOP voters after his 2020 election defeat and will show whether Republicans remain willing to punish lawmakers who they believe have been disloyal to the former president.

In addition to her impeachment vote, Murkowski called for Trump's resignation after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, in which hundreds of his supporters stormed the building in an attempt to stop the certification of President Joe Biden's election victory. Trump has since said people charged in the attack were being persecuted so unfairly."

Murkowski, 64, had been coy about her reelection plans to this point even as she had been raising money. So far, she has outraised her Trump-backed opponent Kelly Tshibaka, according to fundraising reports.

Murkowski filed paperwork with the state Division of Elections on Friday. She said campaigns are too darn long" and she figured announcing about a year out from the general election was plenty of time.

Tshibaka has not yet filed with the office but has filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission.

Murkowski's announcement came days after she touted the passage of a massive federal infrastructure package that she called consequential for growing the economy and jobs. She was among 19 Republican senators who joined all the Democrats in backing the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Those who are pushing back and saying that a Republican cannot support this measure have not looked at what this legislation is going to do for this country, she said Wednesday.

Murkowski has been in the Senate since 2002, when her father, Frank, selected her to finish his unexpired term after he was elected governor. A Murkowski has represented Alaska in the Senate since 1981.

Tshibaka, who has sought to cast Murkowski as an enabler of Bidens administration, said Friday that it was now official that Lisa Murkowski wont relinquish the Senate seat her father appointed her to 20 years ago, but its just as clear that Alaskans are fed up with her.

Its time for new conservative leaders with courage and common sense to lead our nation forward, and I stand ready to step into that responsibility, Tshibaka said.

Murkowski has bucked the Republican Party before. She lost her 2010 primary to a conservative candidate but went on to win the general election with a write-in campaign.

After the Jan. 6 riot, Murkowski called on Trump to resign the presidency, telling the Anchorage Daily News, I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage.

Trump, during his impeachment trial earlier this year, was acquitted of the sole charge of incitement of insurrection.

Murkowski was censured by the Alaska Republican Party in March for her vote to convict, but the National Republican Senatorial Committee endorsed her. In July, the Alaska Republican State Central Committee endorsed Tshibaka, a former commissioner of Alaskas Department of Administration.

Alaska Republican Party Chair Ann Brown said in a statement Friday that Tshibaka has captured the support of conservatives around the state and is working hard to win.

Murkowski said she has been a Republican since she was old enough to vote and has support from Republican colleagues. But she said it's not about seeking endorsement from a party as much as seeking endorsement from all Alaskans.

Murkowski was the lone Republican to oppose advancing Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in a procedural vote, expressing unease with the sexual misconduct allegations made against him, which he denied. She voted present in the final 50-48 vote that elevated Kavanaugh to the high court.

Trump won Alaska with 52.8% of the vote last year, while Biden got about 42.8% of the vote. Tshibaka has gotten support from Trump allies and announced recently plans for a fundraiser with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida for February.

Alaska voters last year passed an initiative to end party primaries and institute ranked-choice voting for general elections. Under the system, the top four vote-getters in a primary race, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the general election. A state court judge earlier this year upheld the new voting process. That decision has been appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court.

A number of candidates have already filed with the state Division of Elections for the race. The list of candidates on the division's website does not yet include a Democrat.

Lindsay Kavanaugh, executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, said Alaskans deserve better than to choose one side of a proxy war between Mitch McConnells candidate and Donald Trumps candidate. Democrats reject both of those Republican brands.

Democrats will have a candidate in the race "who will be a clear choice for Alaskans, she said in a statement.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  Debate over a memoir that contains explicit illustrations of sexual acts is surfacing in a handful of states where Republican governors are gearing up for reelection next year, foreshadowing a recurring theme for conservative leaders in the coming campaigns.

The book in question, Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, has been the focus of ire from Republican governors in various states, most recently playing a role in the Virginia governor's race.

In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster on Wednesday released a letter  similar in nature to one days earlier by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott  calling on Superintendent Molly Spearman to perform a systemic review of inappropriate materials in the state's schools.

In the letter, McMaster claims to have been alerted to the issue by concerned parents, although the book in question has become a strategic GOP talking point over the course of the past year.

The illustrated memoir  a previous winner of the American Library Associations Alex Awards, which each year recognize ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18"  contains explicit illustrations of oral sex and masturbation.

In his letter, McMaster, a former state and federal prosecutor, also noted he had made state police aware of the book, which he referred to multiple times as pornographic and therefore likely illegal under South Carolina law.

On Monday, Abbott wrote to Texas education leaders, saying a district in the state had removed Gender Queer following complaints of the books pornographic drawings. Similarly, he called on education officials to immediately develop statewide standards to prevent the presence of pornography and other obscene content in Texas public schools, including in school libraries, citing complaints about the books pornographic drawings.

In Virginia, one of a few states with odd-year gubernatorial elections, Gender Queer became a focal point. After parents spoke out against it during a Fairfax County schools meeting in September, Republican Glenn Youngkin posted video from the meeting, asking, Are you a parent who wants to have a say in your childs education? Too bad. Terry McAuliffe says you have to sit down and shut up.

Youngkin went on to defeat McAuliffe in last week's balloting.

In September, the Fairfax County school system in northern Virginia voted to remove Kobabes book, as well as Lawn Boy  a novel that contains graphic descriptions of sex between men and children  from circulation pending a more detailed review.

Last month, Kobabe addressed the firestorm over the memoir, writing in an op-ed that it had also been banned in a Florida school district and challenged at schools in states including Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Washington.

Removing or restricting queer books in libraries and schools is like cutting a lifeline for queer youth, who might not yet even know what terms to ask Google to find out more about their own identities, bodies and health," the author wrote.

In North Carolina, Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson weathered calls to resign last month over over comments he made criticizing sexual education and likening gay and transgender people to filth," subsequently citing the presence of Gender Queer in the states schools as alleged indoctrination.

Districts in other states including Pennsylvania have removed the book as well, prompting organizations such as the National Coalition Against Censorship to call for it to be restored to school shelves.

For the students who need this book, its removal from library shelves sends a devastating message," the organization wrote. "And for students who have no interest in this book, its presence on library shelves would not affect them at all.

According to Ryan Brown, spokesperson for South Carolinas Department of Education, superintendents across the state began reviewing their libraries for appropriateness last week after being alerted about the book's presence in one district.

Books in school libraries and media centers, he noted, are not funded by and do not go through the state instructional materials process and are selected by local school and district officials.

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Redmi Note 11 for global markets to be a completely different model series! In the latest rumours steaming off in the market, the Redmi Note 11 models we recently saw in China won't be making it to global markets in the same state of specs and tune. Factor in new design, and new Snapdragon chips for the global models; the Redmi Note 11 in India may be completely different.

Tipped by a Vietnamese site The Pixel, it is said that Xiaomi has a completely different Redmi Note 11 series model in plan for the global markets. The reasons behind this aren't clear but it may have something to do with shortage of MediaTek Dimensity chips at Xiaomi's plants.

New Redmi Note 11 for global markets

Along with the new chips, these phones are also expected to bring new designs. This has been a norm since the Redmi Note 10 series, wherein the Chinese variant ends up being completely different to the global variant. The Redmi Note 10 Pro in India is completely different from the same in China.

The Redmi Note 10 Pro Max in India was different than its Chinese counterpart. (David Delima/HT Tech)

However, it is not that we won't see these new Dimensity 920 powered Redmi Note 11 Pro devices here. If the previous rumours hold an ounce of truth, India may see the Xiaomi 11i as a reworked Redmi Note 10 Pro. The Redmi Note 10 Pro+ with the highlighted 120W fast charging system may end up here as the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge.

Both these phones run on the MediaTek Dimensity 920 5G chips and both feature 120Hz AMOLED displays. Both of them feature the 108MP main camera as well. The differences are with the battery capacity and charging speeds.

The global versions of the Redmi Note 11 series are expected to feature the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G Plus and Snapdragon 695 chips. These phones may see the light of the day in Vietnam in early 2022, but there's a high chance other markets could see the phones before.
Google suffered a massive setback today after its various sites were reported as being down in the United Kingdom. Reports on Downdetector showed that a major event had occurred at Gmail with thousands reporting problems. Reports about YouTube being down too were received but these numbered in the hundreds, unlike Gmail. Reports received by Downdetector about Gmail exceeded 2600 while YouTube reports were measured at 349.

Downdetector says that it reports an 'incident' when glitch reports about any site on its portal exceeds the typical volume for that time of day. The problem faced by Gmail was not just on the website but also on the app. Server connection error was reported by 54 per cent of the Gmail users, mail sending glitches were reported by 31 per cent of the people and 15 per cent reported a problem with the Google website itself.

A Gmail user named James, posted this message on Downdetector, "Keep getting 502 server error on gmail". Another user, Chris King, said, "Works in Gmail web, but unable to send and receive reliably via mail client (dropped connections)."

Among the reports received regarding YouTube, as many as 49 per cent said they are facing issues on website, 38 per cent were facing an issue with the app and 13 per cent faced glitches with video streaming.

However, the sites are all back now. The Downdetector message now reads, User reports indicate no current problems at Youtube. In its reaction to Express of UK, Google said, "On Friday November 12 around 08:30 am UTC, some of our users experienced a service disruption to Google Cloud services, including Google Workspace. This issue is now resolved."

As is clear from the Google Workspace Status Report, the problem was quite widespread with Google Chat, Google Meet, Google Calendar and Google Groups being affected too. Check the report here.

Google is not the only one suffering glitches. Facebook owned companies suffered a major outage recently that lasted over 5 hours.

gmail down for many users in the UK (Downdetector)

The outage was global and it affected WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and more. After services were restored, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had apologised for the inconvenience caused to users.

YouTube down reports were posted on Downdetector today in the hundreds (Downdetector)

However, the sites had crashed for a second time thereafter, but services were quickly restored.

The situation was so bad that employees reportedly, could not even get back into the office to deal with the problem.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Imagine a world in which smart packaging for supermarket-ready meals updates you in real-time to tell you about carbon footprints, gives live warnings on product recalls and instant safety alerts because allergens were detected unexpectedly in the factory.

But how much extra energy would be used powering such a system? And what if an accidental alert meant you were told to throw away your food for no reason?

These are some of the questions asked by team of researchers, including a Lancaster University Lecturer in Design Policy and Futures Thinking, whoby creating objects from a "smart" imaginary new worldare looking at the ethical implications of using artificial intelligence in the food sector.

Their article, Considering the ethical implications of digital collaboration in the Food Sector, is published today in the November issue of the data science solutions journal Patterns.

Food production is the largest sector in the UK manufacturing industry. Complex food production and distribution processes and systems, involving millions of people and organizations, produce huge amounts of data every day.

But, says the article, for opportunities to be fully realized, there is a need to be able to securely work together, share and access a wide variety of data sources across the entire food sector. Sharing data and using it more effectively, such as with AI and other new technological innovations, can potentially reduce waste, increase sustainability and protect health.

Meeting this need requires a trusted mechanism to enable the different parties throughout the supply chain to support each party to make informed decisions about the credibility of the separate data sources. But organizations can be wary of sharing data that may be commercially sensitive, so new systems are being developed that can be trusted to protect privacy while allowing wider use to be made of the collected data.

The article warns that new technology may also introduce ethical issues and unexpected, harmful consequences.

"To create such a data collaboration would require the integration of both cutting-edge technologies and surrounding social, institutional, and policy elements to ensure that the system works equally well and equitably for all parties involved," adds the article.

"For example, if AI is to be implemented, we need to address ethical challenges that are well known in this area, such as bias and accountability, to create systems that are responsible in their implementation and prioritize human well-being."

The project brought people together with different types of expertise, and used a method called "design fiction" to help explore ethical implications of sharing data about food and evaluate technologies that don't yet exist.

Lead author Dr. Naomi Jacobs from the Imagination Laboratory at Lancaster University said, "Rather than ask general questions about what might go wrong, or have to wait until something is fully builtwhen it is probably too late to change things without huge costs or starting all over againwe imagined what the world might look like if 'data trusts' (designed to protect private data while allowing others to make use of it) already existed."

As part of a wider project established by the Internet of Food Things Network+ (led by the University of Lincoln) to explore data trusts related to the food sector, the research team created objects that acted as "props" from that fictional world such as a "documentary" film about a supermarket recall, and the real-time supermarket ready meal packaging. These props were used with a set of cards designed to enable engagement with the ethics of technology, called the Moral-IT Deck. Using these, they worked with experts in food and technology to evaluate the potential ethical benefits, risks and challenges they posed.

"Through this process, we learned about important issues," added Dr. Jacobs. "For example, it is key to consider where power lies in these systems, how large companies, small companies and individual consumers might be positively or negatively impacted, and how different ethical aspects such as sustainability and wellbeing, privacy and transparency, might need to be balanced. These need to be considered when developing these types of data trusts in the future."

The article sets out an approach by which the ethical implications of technological progress can be considered, specifically here in the context of digital collaboration in the food sector and with a particular focus on the use of AI in shared data management and usage and the importance of responsible innovation.

More information: Naomi Jacobs, Considering the ethical implications of digital collaboration in the Food Sector, Patterns (2021). www.cell.com/patterns/fulltext  2666-3899(21)00183-5 Naomi Jacobs, Considering the ethical implications of digital collaboration in the Food Sector,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.patter.2021.100335
Local_news

Property owner says Arbery caused no harm

A tall young Black man stepped from the sunlight and into view inside a garage, its interior cut through with skeletal walls of 2-by-4s awaiting drywall.

Larry English watched from the witness stand as the replay of surveillance video footage depicted 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery taking some of the last steps of his life on Feb. 23, 2020, inside Englishs unfinished dream home at 220 Satilla Drive. Wearing a white T-shirt, cargo shorts and sneakers, Arbery moseyed around from the garage to the living room, in and out view of the security surveillance cameras.

Arbery left without taking anything or causing any harm, just like all the other times he went to the house, English testified. English did not even bother to call 911, he said.

And he did not need Cobb County District Attorney Paul Camarillo to remind him that the video showed events on that fateful day in the Satilla Shores neighborhood.

I think its the day Mr. Arbery got shot, English testified.

Due to failing health, English gave prerecorded videotaped testimony Thursday in the trial of the three White men accused of murder in the killing of Arbery, who was Black. The testimony of the 51-year-old Douglas resident was taken in a closed deposition at the courthouse on Sept. 24 and played for the jury Thursday.

English told Camarillo he had no security arrangements at his property with any of the three defendants: Travis McMichael, 35, his father, Greg McMichael, 65, and 52-year-old William Roddie Bryan, a neighbor. The three men have been held in the Glynn County Detention Center since their arrest in May 2020 for the murder of Arbery and other charges related to his death.

Travis McMichael killed the unarmed Arbery with three blasts of buckshot as the two men struggled for possession of McMichaels 12-gauge shotgun. The shooting culminated a harried chase that started after Arbery stepped from Englishs structure and ran past the McMichaels home at 230 Satilla Drive. The McMichaels chased Arbery, who was on foot, in a pickup truck. Bryan, who joined the chase in his own pickup truck, videoed the incident with his cell phone.

Defense attorneys argue that Arbery died as a result of self-defense and that the three men were conducting a lawful citizens arrest. Defense attorneys for the McMichaels have portrayed the two as neighborhood crime-stoppers, protecting the community and their family against a wave of break-ins and thefts in Satilla Shores.

Much of their concern centered around 220 Satilla Drive, where Englishs house had sat for several years in a state of incompletion with open garage bays and no doors.

Englishs surveillance videos showed Arbery in or around the property five times between Oct. 25, 2019, and the day of his death, Feb. 23, 2020, testimony revealed. Arbery did little more than walk around inside on each occasion, including two visits to the residence after dark.

The prosecution contends the three defendants chased, trapped and murdered Arbery while he was out for a jog on a public street.

On Feb. 11, 2020, Arbery walked into the structure after dark. English watched as Arbery walked around inside the house where a compound mitre saw was inside the living room bordered by unfinished walls. English noted that Arbery was actually walking in the dark despite the illuminated image produced by the cameras lighting.

Camarillo asked English to describe Arberys exit.

The gentlemans leaving the house and jogging down the street, English said.

English never showed the videos of Arbery inside his house to the McMichaels, but he did show them to Satilla Shores neighbor Diego Perez. Perez showed the videos to Greg McMichael, according to testimony.

Travis McMichael said he saw Arbery outside the house shortly after dark as he drove by it several days before the shooting. He told 911 dispatchers that night that Arbery reached for his pants as if for a gun before running inside the structure, according to testimony.

Greg McMichael said the video Perez showed him, as well as his sons nighttime encounter with Arbery, weighed in his decision to pursue Arbery on Feb. 23, 2020.

After Arbery ran past his house, Greg McMichael rushed inside the house. Travis, the guy is running down the street, lets go, he is quoted as saying in the Glynn County Police report.

English testified that he never discussed his concerns about Arbery entering the structure with the McMichaels. Initially, he only communicated with Perez via text.

But Arberys visits prompted English to make several 911 calls from his home in Douglas to the Glynn-Brunswick 911 Center, during which he expressed suspicions that Arbery was up to no good and referred to him as a trespasser.

He later accepted Perezs texted offer to watch the place for him.

Robert Rubin, Travis McMichaels attorney, tried to portray a scenario in which English was fed up with the intruder.

He has yet to be caught, he has no legitimate reason to be there and you want him to be gone, Rubin said.

When you said gone, I want to clarify, English said.

As he told Rubin, and Camarillo earlier in his testimony, English simply wanted Arbery to stay off of his property. The property was not posted with No Trespassing signs, nor was it fenced in.

Children and curious neighbors also have gone onto the property and walked around inside the house, English said.

I wanted to hopefully find him and talk to him and tell him not to be there anymore, English told Camarillo.

English wanted a second home on the water, where he could fish and enjoy the outdoors. He and his wife of 25 years bought the empty lot that backs up to the Little Satilla River in Satilla Shores in southern Glynn County.

There was a dock on the water in back of 220 Satilla Drive. The property in front was mowed by the neighbors and used occasionally as overflow party parking or for storing boat trailers. The neighborhood kids played there too.

My dream was to have a place on the water ...  English testified.

A house started going up on a foundation shortly after he bought the lot three or four years ago, but his illness caused progress to stagnate. English was a construction contractor until complications from sarcoidosis forced him to get out of the business many years ago. The father of two teenagers also is a commercial beekeeper.

With Coastal Georgias swift tidal currents, English worried about kids playing around the dock and falling in. It was safety, not security, that first prompted him to set up the cameras, he testified. The first cameras went out back so he could keep an eye out for anything going on near the dock. The camera system is triggered to his cell phone, sending alerts when movement within its viewing triggers it.

Cameras later were added in the garage area and the living room, he testified.

English had boats at 220 Satilla Drive and he kept a camper out back to stay in during visits.

Two neighborhood boys sparked Englishs first camera activation alert. Looking about 10 years old, the two approached the garage on bicycles and later walked in and took some scrap wood for a bike ramp.

That really didnt alarm me, English said. I was glad to see kids out doing something with plywood instead of playing video games.

Arberys presence first triggered a camera alert on the night of Oct. 25, 2019. He could be seen walking around on the dock. English described him to 911 dispatchers as a colored guy with curly thin hair and tattoos down both arms.

Lets be honest, Rubin said to English, you werent worried about his health.

Both, English testified.

English also told dispatchers Arbery looked drunk or on drugs. Although English testified that perception of impairment may have been caused by Arbery trying to find his way in darkness, he was worried at the time that someone drunk or stoned may fall in the swift tidal currents.

A White couples presence in the structure prompted an alert to English on the night of Nov. 17, 2019. He called 911 again, though the couple left in a car without causing any harm, English testified.

The couple was rumored to be homeless and living under a nearby bridge. Greg McMichael later called 911 regarding homeless people under the bridge who might be burglary suspects. He noted their presence at 220 Satilla Drive in the call.

Arbery returned the next night shirtless as he walked around and looked at a small boat inside the unfinished garage. This prompted yet another 911 call.

Its the same guy that was over there about a week or two and half weeks ago, he told the dispatcher. Hes just wandering around in the carport looking in the boat. It looks like hes up to no good.

Under questioning from Camarillo, English said he did not recall the up to no good comment. I dont remember making that accusation, Im sorry, he said.

Rubin asked English if a Black male who has no shirt on walking around his property in the dark troubled him or scared him.

No, he said.

Arbery entered the structure once again on Feb. 11, 2020, turning left in the living room and walking out of view of the camera. He came back into view as he walked across the room beneath the camera. Arbery left, leaving everything inside untouched again.

English said he did not call 911 that night, although testimony indicates he did text Perez about it.

English appeared uncomfortable on the witness stand and impatient with both the prosecuting attorney and defense attorneys.

English did not know the McMichaels very well and did not know Bryan at all, he testified. Travis McMichael visited English at his dock once, English testified. They talked about fishing and boating.

He met Greg McMichael once by the street. They made small talk and McMichaels wife joined them for the short conversation, English testified.

Camarillo asked English if he ever authorized the McMichaels to act on behalf of the police or to confront anyone on your property.

No, he said.

English told a couple of residents that several thousand dollars worth of property had been stolen from a boat at his Satilla Shores residence. He suspected the crew of one of the contractors but dismissed them as suspects after confronting them, he said.

English later determined the property was stolen in Douglas when he stored the boat and trailer in a parking lot near a warehouse district.

English was in his bee arbor in Douglas when his cell phone alerted him of activity at around 1 p.m. on Feb. 23, 2020. He did not check on it immediately, tending instead to his bees.

By the time English called Perez to inquire about the alert, Arbery was lying dead on Holmes Road near Satilla Drive.

Between the bee yards, I did call Diego, and thats when he let me know that (Arbery) had been shot, English said.

I wanted to talk to him, English told Rubin, and tell him not to come on the property.

The trial resumes with more testimony at 9 a.m. Friday.
As for his old boss, Pence said former President Donald Trump was one-of-a-kind, disrupted the status quo and challenged the establishment.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Im proud to report to you that under the Trump-Pence administration, we achieved things conservatives had only been talking about for the last 40 years, Pence said. We did it all not by backing down, but by standing strong and freedom was the anthem of our administration every single day.

Transitioning into a discussion of several topical issues, Pence spoke about the development of COVID-19 vaccines and the work the Trump Administration did for pandemic relief. Pence, who led the White House Coronavirus Task Force during his time in office, called the Biden administrations COVID-19-related mandates unconstitutional.

I will always be proud of how the American people responded in the midst of the worst pandemic in 100 years, Pence said. Let me be clear, having led the White House Coronavirus Task Force in those early and difficult days of this pandemic, Im confident we can end this pandemic once and for all and preserve American liberty at the same time.

Toward the end of his speech, Pence again thanked veterans in the audience and encouraged attendees to serve in the military.
The Shahanis and their attorney said they want to hold those who organized the concert accountable, and to do what they can to prevent future disasters.

They suffocated us. They did this to Bharti. They did this to the 9-year-old boy now in the ICU fighting for his life, Bellani said. There are so many families grieving right now.

Thursday was the last day attorneys who have filed more than 50 lawsuits to date were allowed access to the concert site at NRG Park, at the stage where Scott performed and surrounding crowd barricades have remained standing.

John Duff, whose clients include the family of the 9-year-old boy who remains hospitalized, said concertgoers in a section to the right of the stage would have had to go through thousands of people to access the main medical tent. He said the festival grounds are still littered with piles of bloody clothes, shoes, cellphone cases and bags.

There was probably 1,000 pairs of shoes out there. It seems like a lot (of) people left barefoot or without clothes, he said. You kind of felt a heavy presence out there.

Scott was only minutes into his set when at least one Houston officer radioed over a police channel that the main stage had been compromised by a massive crowd surge.
Harry also targeted YouTube, saying many videos spreading COVID-19 misinformation were left up despite violating the site's own policies.

"And worse, they came to the users via the recommendation tool within YouTube's own algorithm versus anything that the user was actually searching for,'' he said. "It shows really that it can be stopped but also they didn't want to stop it because it affects their bottom line."

Harry has become something of a champion against the onslaught of false information online. Earlier this year he joined the U.S. think tank the Aspen Institute as a commissioner looking into misinformation and disinformation in the media.

The royal and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, have also spoken out frequently about the media intrusion and racist attitudes that they say forced them to quit royal duties in 2020 and move to North America.

"Misinformation is a global humanitarian crisis," Harry said. "I felt it personally over the years and I am now watching it happen globally.''

In his remarks on Tuesday, Harry cited a report which concluded that more than 70% of the hate speech directed at his wife, Meghan, could be traced to fewer than 50 accounts. He said misinformation is causing lives to be ruined.
This limitation will not happen. This nonoccurrence will be tolerable. Since 2010, The New York Times reports, the great majority of the $1.1 trillion of private equity energy sector investments have been in fossil fuels, just 12% in renewables. The stock prices of major U.S. coal-mining companies rose at least 145% in the past 12 months.

The amount of coal used this year to generate U.S. electricity will be more than 20% above last years amount. This might be a short-term phenomenon, produced by declining oil prices that cut shale operations and natural gas production. But nothing is more expectable than the regular occurrence of unexpected things, such as the awkward decline of Northern Europes power-generating winds as Glasgow drew near. (Fossil fuel-generated electricity kept the lights on for the enlightened.) The Energy Information Administration projects that fossil fuels, which were 84.2% of global energy consumption in 2010, will decline only to 70% in 2050.

India, which no later than six years hence will have the worlds largest population, and which already is the worlds third-largest source of greenhouse gases, said at Glasgow it will try to achieve net zero carbon emissions  by 2070.
Cobbs said the price tag for the project is the result of the complexity of the work that needs to be done. The project will relocate the main, principals, guidance and nurses offices to a part of the building where two classrooms are currently located.

That proposal is a very good proposal for Snow Creek, G.B. Washburn, who represents the Snow Creek District on the board, said. The current layout of the building ... once you enter the building youre in a hallway that has access to every part of the school. If we ever had a threat, they would have unlimited access to everything. This change is very well-thought-out and limits that access.

The project represents one of two remaining schools that require renovations in order to have secure entrances.

The third recommendation sought the appropriation of $104,280 for the completion of a secure entrance project at Burnt Chimney Elementary School. The project has a similar anticipated timeline as Snow Creek.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

The project will turn an existing workroom into the schools main office. Cobbs said the change will make the school so much more secure.

Final approval will be given by the Franklin County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 16.
Terry McAuliffe on Wednesday formally conceded to Republican Glenn Youngkin in the race for governor, a stunning defeat for Virginia Democrats in what was ultimately a referendum of their sweeping hold on the state.

Youngkin, the governor-elect, immediately vowed to alter the course of the state, focusing particularly on education and the cost of living.

Together, we will change the direction of this commonwealth, Youngkin told supporters early Wednesday morning at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly. Friends, we are going to start that transformation on day one.

For Democrats, who had not lost a statewide election since 2009  and who apparently lost control of the House of Delegates as well as the offices of lieutenant governor and attorney general  Tuesdays election marked the end of immediate progress on their agenda, which included accelerating the increase of the minimum wage and further work on criminal justice reform.

While last night we came up short, I am proud that we spent this campaign fighting for the values we so deeply believe in, McAuliffe said in a statement Wednesday, after leaving a voicemail for Youngkin acknowledging his own defeat. Congratulations to Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin on his victory.
The study shows that 3.4-acre site meets the requirements for the status, Nabity said.

Keith Marvin explained Tuesday that the study is for a micro-blight.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

It is strictly limited to the school property and about half of the right-of-way for the two adjoining streets, he said. Other than that, everything was done based upon what was on site for that property.

Council member Vaughn Minton voiced support for the project, but asked Nabity for details on the schools tax-exempt status and TIF financing.

Im all in favor of this, but I just want to hear it one more time, he said. The school district owns this land. Therefore, they can do this blight study and have it declared blighted and substandard, but they cannot apply for (TIF) if they wanted to redevelop this property?

Nabity explained that would be the case if GIPS intends to own it after.

If they were to subdivide this property, put in street, sewer and water across this property, and sell off houses, they could for those expenditures, because those houses, at the time they are sold off, will become taxable properties, he said. But, TIF doesnt work if there are no taxes paid.
I believe that she's as guilty or guiltier. If it wasnt for her, my daughter would never have been there, George Loofe said. If this doesnt warrant the death penalty, I feel Nebraska should just get rid of it."
The former chief executive of a tech company in suburban Chicago who lost his job after he threw a chair inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot was sentenced Friday to 30 days imprisonment.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols also ordered Bradley Rukstales, of Inverness, Illinois, to pay $500 in restitution, court records show.

Rukstales previously acknowledged he stormed the Capitol, threw a chair in the direction of police officers who had been forced to retreat from rioters, was nearby as a melee between officers and rioters broke out and had to be dragged away by officers after he refused to comply with attempts to get him up from the floor.

Though they said the officers werent in danger of being hit by the chair, prosecutors said Rukstales noncompliance added to the chaos in the Capitol.

Rukstales was forced out as CEO of Cogensia and sold interests in the firm after his participation in the riot became known and the boards of directors for the firms clients were ready to cancel contracts.

Rukstales, who made a public apology the day after the riot, issued a statement Friday night saying again that he is sorry for his actions on Jan. 6, accepts the sentence and looks forward to putting this chapter of his life behind him.
An attorney for Ji's family told the Columbia Daily Tribune before the trial started that they didn't plan to provide a statement, but said on Wednesday they're pleased with Knight's efforts.

During closing arguments on Thursday, Knight told the jury that Elledge was a stone cold killer who was guilty of first-degree murder because he intentionally killed his wife.

Rosenblum argued that his client was awkward and made unbelievably dumb decisions after she died. But he said Elledge never intended to kill his wife and should never have been charged with murder.

During his trial, Elledge said Jis death was accidental. He said she fell and hit her head on Oct. 8, 2019, after he pushed her during an argument and he found her dead in bed the next morning. He said he panicked, put her body in the trunk of her car and did not report what happened while he tried to decide what to do.

He did not tell anyone, including Jis mother, about her disappearance.
KEARNEY  A screening of A Home Called Nebraska is being shown as part of the University of Nebraska at Kearneys International Education Week celebration.

The award-winning documentary, produced and directed by Colorado-based film makers George and Beth Gage, spotlights refugees who escaped war, torture and persecution to build a new life in the Midwest.

The film will be shown at 7 p.m. Nov. 17 at The World Theatre in Kearney. Lincoln Family Services President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Tonniges will welcome those in attendance, and a panel discussion on refugee settlement will follow. The documentary is free and open to the public. Donations will be accepted.

This film is particularly valuable as it shows the real plight of refugees and what those of us here in Nebraska can do to help them, said Carol Lilly, director of international studies. Just one look into the life of a refugee is a great reminder of how fortunate most of us are on a global scale and how important and rewarding it can be to help others.

The event is co-hosted by UNKs International Studies Program and Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, which is developing a new partnership that will focus on efforts to resettle and support refugees in central Nebraska.
YORK  Ruben Avila, 30, of Grand Island has pleaded guilty in a case where he was accused of having meth-loaded needles in his possession in York County.

He was also charged with failure to appear, but that was dismissed because it was determined Avila was incarcerated somewhere else and was unable to appear for an earlier arraignment date.

This case began when an officer with the York Police Department was on regular patrol in the middle of the night. In court documents, he indicates he saw a speeding vehicle in the 100 Block of North Lincoln Avenue and a traffic stop was initiated.

Avila was the driver.

According to court documents, when the officer asked for Avilas drivers license, he could not produce one. Rather, he gave the officer an identification card from California and a post-release identification card from the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. The officer said Avila told him he was coming from Grand Island and he had borrowed the vehicle from a friend.

An examination of Avilas information showed he had been charged with a number of controlled substance-related offenses.

While a citation was being issued for speeding, a drug dog alerted to the presence of narcotics in Avilas vehicle.
YORK  Bryan Glover, 50, of Des Moines, Iowa, has been sent to jail for possessing multiple forms of THC in York County.

Earlier, he entered a no contest plea in the case that began with counts of possession of a controlled substance, having no drug tax stamp and possession of more than an ounce but less than a pound of marijuana.

Due to a plea agreement, the case was reduced to one count of having no drug tax stamp, a Class 4 felony.

According to court documents, a deputy with the York County Sheriffs Department was on regular duty in the middle of the night on Interstate 80 when he saw a speeding vehicle and a traffic stop was initiated.

According to court documents, Glover was the driver.

While the deputy was writing a ticket, he was informed that Glover had drug charges against him.

It is alleged the passenger admitted there were illegal drugs in the vehicle.

The owner of the vehicle consented to a search  during that search, deputies found marijuana, concentrated THC oil, concentrated THC gummies and concentrated THC wax, over 300 grams of concentrated THC.
Stressing the need to improve ties with Tokyo, Yoon accused the Moon government of using tensions with Japan for domestic political gain. He said foreign policy should be implemented with pragmatism that prioritizes national interests over other matters.

Lee quickly criticized Yoon, writing on Facebook that Japans collective mood has shifted to the right considerably in recent years and that Yoon should be careful about his comments on Japan.

Policies for pursuing North Korea's denuclearization are likely be a leading issue in the March 9 election after Moons appeasement approach failed to convince the North to abandon its nuclear program, though it led to a temporary conciliatory mood between the rivals.

Lee has said he would follow an approach similar to Moons, and would seek exemptions from international sanctions on North Korea to allow a resumption of dormant joint cooperation projects. Yoon accused Moon of neglecting North Korean threats and said he would seek a stronger U.S. defense commitment to neutralize the Norths nuclear and missile threats.

Nuclear diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea has been largely deadlocked since early 2019. North Korea isnt a top priority for President Joe Biden, who faces challenges from China and Russia and mounting domestic issues.
I especially enjoyed the reader comments to Wednesday's post. A range of opinion and some really fascinating insights.

That post simply started out as a linka link to David Brooks' article "You Are Not Who You Think You Are." (Brooks is a conservative columnist at the New York Timesbut old-style conservative*.)

So then take a look at two links that I found waiting for me this morning:

"[The Simpsons] specious reasoning," suggested by Jim Arthur,

and

The Backfire Effect, from The Oatmeal, suggested by Bob G. Note that there is a profane and a clean version of this, with the controls directly beneath the first panel. Choose for yourself, but be aware that once you choose the clean version you can't click back to the version with profanity.

Isn't that delightful? Nice little juxtaposition to find in the Comments panel on a beautiful November morning.

I really get a lot out of the comments. I've always thought it's a toss-up whether TOP readers get more from TOP or I get more from you!

Just this made me smile big-time, from longtime reader Mike Plews, a response to the fact that George Foreman named all five of his sons after himself: "My middle grandchild Gus loves turtles. His room is full of stuffed and toy ones. They are all named Frank. Love that kid."

You'd kinda have to, am I right? Go, Gus. (Let's have a pic of Gus and all the Franks sometime, eh Mike?)

Greek?

By the bye, I suspect "specious" should be nominated as the Word of Our Times. It means "superficially plausible, but actually wrong," or "misleading in appearance, especially misleadingly attractive."

What struck me when reading that first definition, "superficially plausible, but actually wrong," is one of my longtime, strongly-held beliefs: that the best way for kids to get smartreally, the best wayis for them to study vocabulary. That such study doesn't require talent or innate ability is a bonusanybody can improve their vocabulary, starting from any level. Here's the funny thing that inspired that thought: to understand that first definition, you have to know what "superficially" and "plausible" both mean!

You know how sometimes people make a joke of the way dogs supposedly hear us, like "blah blah blah Rover blah blah blah blah Rover"? Well, the same thing happens to humans a lot. A sentence composed of words unknown to a particular readerfor example:

"Her pelucid epistle exacerbated his umbrage at her calumny."

...Reads pretty much the same way as "dog-hearing" to people who don't know the words. To the average-vocabularied middle schooler, for instance, that sentence might read, approximately, as...

"Her    his  at her ."

My point will be lost on Greek speakers, because, in honor of our expression "It's all Greek to me," I substituted the hard words in that sentence for their approximate Greek equivalents, courtesy of Google Translate. The point is, when a writer's meaning hinges on one or more words the reader doesn't know, you can insert "blah blah" in place of the unknown word or words. Communication will likely fail.

Writers get around this by putting the same ideas in simpler words. In our case that might be:

His anger over her saying nasty things about him was made worse by her all-too-clear letter.

By the bye, The phrase "It's Greek to me," meaning I cannot understand it, was coined in English by, who else, Shakespeare, who used it in Julius Caesar in 1599. Back then, aristocratic children were taught Greek as a central part of their educations. Of course, Will the Bard might have simply been translating an old Latin phrase, Graecum est; non potest legiwhich means, "It is Greek, so it cannot be understood." As late as the nineteenth century, salting one's prose with untranslated tidbits in Greek and Latin was a common (and snooty) way of asserting the writer's status with a loaded compliment to the readeras if to say, you read Greek, naturally, don't you? I don't have to bother to translate this for you, do I? Used to drive me nuts.

New and old dogs

You're never too old to learn vocabulary. I would say that I look up a word or two on most days of my life. You can just type "Calumny def" into Google, for example, and up it comes. I like reading a variety of definitions, too. We lighted on a very troublesome word this week, "redaction."

Believe it or not, one of the identifiable groups with the highest vocabulary levels is corporation presidents and CEOs. Higher than lawyers, professors, and yes, even than writers. If you're wondering if your 7th or 8th grader will take to a suggestion that he or she should learn vocab, just point out that vocabulary correlates to earning power!**

Of course, to be impressed with that, your middle schooler will need to understand what "correlates" means. :-)

The best way to start a middle schooler on learning vocabulary is to go to the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation Vocabulary Resource page, have them take the placement test, then start 'em on the Word Books. Their more prosperous future awaits.

Have a nice weekend! Say a prayer, and do something nice for somebody. See you back here with new content on Monday.

Mike

*Another painful example of American Irony: classical liberalism is what traditional conservatives sought to conserve.

**Roughly, but still, it does.

Book o' the Week

Photography, The Definitive Visual History by Tom Ang. This is a book that can't existit's too much work to put it together, like several others I know of (I'm looking at you, Q.T. Luong). Amazingly, it exists anyway. A brightly-lit shop window for the attractions of photographya whirlwind tour of people, cameras, and pictures. The author still has time to be an accomplished travel photographer, although I don't know how.



The above is a link to Amazon from TOP. Once you're at Amazon, anything you search and buy will be credited to TOP. The following logo is also a link:



Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)

Featured Comments from:

Frank Gorga: "'...The best way for kids to get smartreally, the best wayis for them to study vocabulary'... AGREED! In my experience (both my own and in raising two, now middle-aged, offspring) the best way to increase vocabulary is to encourage reading. And...the best way to encourage reading is to remove the television(s) from your home. We did this when our kids were preschoolers roughly thirty five years ago and have never missed it. As for your example sentence, I had to look up 'pelucid' and 'calumny.' Thanks for the stimulus to add to my vocabulary today! Alas, calumny is, I fear, a word that might be quickly overused given the current state of the world!"

Antonis R: "Oh, thank God you provided a proper translation in Greek; otherwise, it would have all been Chinese to me!

(That's the actual expression used in Greek to say 'it's all Greek to me.')

", er..., I mean, thank you!"

Peter Croft: "For the past few years I've been using Etymology Online as my lookup source. I like knowing how a word has been derived. I recommend it. By the way, Mike, in the past 20 years or more, I've noticed a major trend in language, not just in your writing but almost universally. I don't know the technical term for it, but it's to omit the first word of statements. For example, from above: 'Used to drive me nuts'. 'It' is missing. There are many examples and I'm not criticising you, I'm just making an observation. And I'm sorry, it will drive you nuts now. :-) "

Mike replies: I write mostly in sentences, but I also like to be casual and I like to play around with words, so there are times when correctness sounds stuffy or formal.

Have you noticed how adverbs are going by the wayside? As in, "he did that perfect." Comma splices are epidemic, I find them annoying (you saw what I did there). And of course we are losing, or should I say loosing, the loose vs. lose battle, which is probably my pet peeve (out of all my peeves).

I should admit I actually don't know anything about grammar. I just do everything by ear. My education in grammar spanned three days. Our eighth grade English teacher was a gentleman teacher (meaning, he was a wealthy fellow at loose ends who volunteered, something that used to be fairly common at private prep schools) who asked us if we would like to learn grammar. We voted yes, so he dove in, and then after three days we voted again and said thank you but that's quite enough of that. So that's the extent of my formal schooling in grammar.

The teacher's name was Sandy McCallum; his son Jack is an accomplished writer mostly about sports. Mr. McCallum started me on my path to becoming a writer.

David Dyer-Bennet: "Huh; the best way to improve your vocabulary is to read. Seeing words used makes them yours a lot more powerfully than seeing them in a vocabulary list!"

Mike replies: That's a good way and an important aspect of the task, of course, but I would quibble that it's not the "best" way. The best way (according to Prof. Johnson O'Connor, who researched it extensively) is to read a discursive explanation of the wordmeanings, distinctions of meanings, usage, etymology, examples, etc. That's why he wrote his English Vocabulary Builders, which catalogue words in order of difficulty and discuss each in turn. He recommended reading one new page a day and reviewing the previous two days' words.
Local

editor's pick alert featured

WATCH NOW: Need rises, giving falls amid pandemic; CCMO seeks food, donations

DIONNE GLEATON, T&D CCMO volunteer Sandra Hudson stands in the organizations dwindling food pantry. The longtime volunteer said donations are needed to help fill it back up to meet the nonprofits growing requests for help. DIONNE GLEATON, T&D CCMO has been meeting the needs of the community for 33 years. Pictured standing, from left, are volunteers the Rev. Thelma Johnson, Margaret McDonald, Freddie Antley, Bess Goodwin and Sandra Hudson. Seated is CCMO Executive Director Barbara Troy. Not pictured are volunteers Francis Morant, Ray Sabalis, Malcom Bush and the Rev. Janie Allen.

An outreach ministry that has been providing the needy with food and other necessities for 33 years is asking the community to help it continue its mission.

The volunteers who run the Cooperative Church Ministries of Orangeburg have not stopped assisting those needing help the most.

Its dedicated volunteers have helped keep the organization going with services well beyond food donations to include the provision of electricity, eye glasses, fuel and, occasionally, clothing, bus tickets and motel rooms.

CCMO Executive Director Barbara Troy, 82, said the nonprofit is now seeking donations for its dwindling food pantry, along with financial donations to help keep the organization up and going.

God has taken care of us: CCMO continues service despite virus, storm damage An outreach ministry has been letting its light shine by serving the needy with food, clothing and other necessities for nearly 32 years.

Our financial donations are down. Food donations are down. I think its because of the uncertainty of just life itself. Because of the pandemic, people are just in shock that it happened and spread so fast, Troy said.

CCMO volunteer the Rev. Thelma Johnson said giving has also been impacted, with many churches still not fully open amid the pandemic.

South Carolina economy doesn't slow; state now has extra $1B COLUMBIA  The amount of money in South Carolina's state bank accounts continues to grow thanks to a quick recovery from the economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and people spending money much faster than experts predict.

A lot of people hadn't even been going to church. So that could have been part of it, Johnson said.

CCMO Assistant Director Bess Goodwin said the pandemic also caused the loss of a huge food donation that would have usually come from the Orangeburg Post Offices participation in the nationwide Stamp Out Hunger food drive in May.

The local postal food drive hasnt been held since 2019, but had provided food to the organization that would sometimes last until Christmas.

They usually had that the Saturday before Mothers Day. That usually helped us out. Then with the school closings and stuff, they used to have food drives for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They dont have that anymore. Its a big difference, Goodwin said.

The organization is seeking donations of nonperishable food items, including canned goods and boxed food items such as grits, pasta and rice. Face masks, soap, toothpaste, deodorant and other personal items are also needed.

A partnership with the Department of Public Utilities and its Project Good Neighbor program has provided CCMO with the opportunity to provide utility assistance.

That helps with utility bills. We definitely need that, Troy said.

She noted that requests for help are up. Troy again attributed it to the impact the pandemic has had on peoples lives.

Last summer, children were home. If you didn't have child care, you couldn't work. So the parents being home and not having child care, they were unable to work. Now that the schools are open, some people are still in a predicament. I had a client where everybody in their house caught the virus. So they had to quit their jobs. I hope it's going to get better, Troy said.

Goodwin said, "We've noticed that we have a lot of people moving from the North or the West or wherever coming to live in Orangeburg.

They say they're homeless.  We give them food. Sometimes we have to give them a motel for a couple of nights and stuff. We have people sleeping in their cars and stuff, and theyve got kids.

Volunteers are also needed.

CCMO volunteer Sandra Hudson said, It would also be nice if we could get some people in special fields. We could definitely use a lot of that kind of volunteer help, noting that at one time the organization had a nurse, tax expert and social worker on site to help clients.

We lost a lot of that stuff before the pandemic. We could definitely use a lot of that kind of help, she said.

Harvest Hope Food Bank provides food to several ministries across the state, including CCMO. Troy said volunteers are also needed to assist with the pickup and delivery of food from the food bank.

The financial base for CCMO is its member churches, which contribute to the ministry. While the organization does not depend on miscellaneous donations, they are welcome.

The Rev. Eddie Williams, the newly elected chairman of the CCMO board, said his goal will be to drum up more support from the community, particularly since the needs of the less fortunate are not going away.

The need is so great. You have a great need here in the community now, and youre also looking at how to keep an organization afloat that is looking for the community to help support it, Williams said. The communitys hands, heart and help are needed.

Its one thing to say you care, but with an organization such as this, what drives it forward is hands and bodies. We need volunteers, as well as financial donations, he said.

Williams said he will be making an appeal to CCMOs member churches, as well as to the greater community for support.

TheTandD.com: $5 for 5 months Support local journalism by becoming a member at www.TheTandD.com The limited time offer is full access to all the website has to offer for $5 for 5 months. https://go.thetandd.com/nov5

It is an organization that has been here for a while and has supported the community at large, he said, noting that he is proud of the multi-faceted work CCMO has done for more than three decades.

Troy said, Its only because of God that were still here.

CCMO is located at 2570 St. Matthews Road in the Orangeburg County Council on Aging Building. The center is open from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Only 15 clients can be seen on a given day and are processed on a first-come, first-serve basis. All clients must wear masks and have ID.

For more information on CCMO, or how you can donate or volunteer, please call 803-531-4913, visit the organizations new website at myccmo.com, or mail checks payable to CCMO to: CCMO, P.O. Box 2323, Orangeburg, SC 29116-2323.
An outreach ministry that has been providing the needy with food and other necessities for 33 years is asking the community to help it continue its mission.

The volunteers who run the Cooperative Church Ministries of Orangeburg have not stopped assisting those needing help the most.

Its dedicated volunteers have helped keep the organization going with services well beyond food donations to include the provision of electricity, eye glasses, fuel and, occasionally, clothing, bus tickets and motel rooms.

CCMO Executive Director Barbara Troy, 82, said the nonprofit is now seeking donations for its dwindling food pantry, along with financial donations to help keep the organization up and going.

Our financial donations are down. Food donations are down. I think its because of the uncertainty of just life itself. Because of the pandemic, people are just in shock that it happened and spread so fast, Troy said.

CCMO volunteer the Rev. Thelma Johnson said giving has also been impacted, with many churches still not fully open amid the pandemic.

A lot of people hadn't even been going to church. So that could have been part of it, Johnson said.

CCMO Assistant Director Bess Goodwin said the pandemic also caused the loss of a huge food donation that would have usually come from the Orangeburg Post Offices participation in the nationwide Stamp Out Hunger food drive in May.

The local postal food drive hasnt been held since 2019, but had provided food to the organization that would sometimes last until Christmas.

They usually had that the Saturday before Mothers Day. That usually helped us out. Then with the school closings and stuff, they used to have food drives for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They dont have that anymore. Its a big difference, Goodwin said.

The organization is seeking donations of nonperishable food items, including canned goods and boxed food items such as grits, pasta and rice. Face masks, soap, toothpaste, deodorant and other personal items are also needed.

A partnership with the Department of Public Utilities and its Project Good Neighbor program has provided CCMO with the opportunity to provide utility assistance.

That helps with utility bills. We definitely need that, Troy said.

She noted that requests for help are up. Troy again attributed it to the impact the pandemic has had on peoples lives.

Last summer, children were home. If you didn't have child care, you couldn't work. So the parents being home and not having child care, they were unable to work. Now that the schools are open, some people are still in a predicament. I had a client where everybody in their house caught the virus. So they had to quit their jobs. I hope it's going to get better, Troy said.

Goodwin said, "We've noticed that we have a lot of people moving from the North or the West or wherever coming to live in Orangeburg.

They say they're homeless.  We give them food. Sometimes we have to give them a motel for a couple of nights and stuff. We have people sleeping in their cars and stuff, and theyve got kids.

Volunteers are also needed.

CCMO volunteer Sandra Hudson said, It would also be nice if we could get some people in special fields. We could definitely use a lot of that kind of volunteer help, noting that at one time the organization had a nurse, tax expert and social worker on site to help clients.

We lost a lot of that stuff before the pandemic. We could definitely use a lot of that kind of help, she said.

Harvest Hope Food Bank provides food to several ministries across the state, including CCMO. Troy said volunteers are also needed to assist with the pickup and delivery of food from the food bank.

The financial base for CCMO is its member churches, which contribute to the ministry. While the organization does not depend on miscellaneous donations, they are welcome.

The Rev. Eddie Williams, the newly elected chairman of the CCMO board, said his goal will be to drum up more support from the community, particularly since the needs of the less fortunate are not going away.

The need is so great. You have a great need here in the community now, and youre also looking at how to keep an organization afloat that is looking for the community to help support it, Williams said. The communitys hands, heart and help are needed.

Its one thing to say you care, but with an organization such as this, what drives it forward is hands and bodies. We need volunteers, as well as financial donations, he said.

Williams said he will be making an appeal to CCMOs member churches, as well as to the greater community for support.

It is an organization that has been here for a while and has supported the community at large, he said, noting that he is proud of the multi-faceted work CCMO has done for more than three decades.

Troy said, Its only because of God that were still here.

CCMO is located at 2570 St. Matthews Road in the Orangeburg County Council on Aging Building. The center is open from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Only 15 clients can be seen on a given day and are processed on a first-come, first-serve basis. All clients must wear masks and have ID.

For more information on CCMO, or how you can donate or volunteer, please call 803-531-4913, visit the organizations new website at myccmo.com, or mail checks payable to CCMO to: CCMO, P.O. Box 2323, Orangeburg, SC 29116-2323.

Contact the writer: dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5534. Follow "Good News with Gleaton" on Twitter at @DionneTandD.

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.
COLUMBIA  The amount of money in South Carolina's state bank accounts continues to grow thanks to a quick recovery from the economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and people spending money much faster than experts predict.

The latest estimate released Wednesday said South Carolina lawmakers will have nearly $1 billion more to spend this budget year, according to the state Board of Economic Advisers.

That boosts the money that the General Assembly has control over to nearly $11 billion and doesn't count at the roughly $3 billion in federal COVID-19 relief money coming to South Carolina.

It also doesn't count about a $1 billion surplus after the state closed the books on the fiscal year that ended June 30. Predictions that economic growth would slow because supply chain issues, consumers slowing their spending or dwindling federal stimulus money didn't come true.

The 13.2% growth in the 2020-21 fiscal year budget was the largest in at least 40 years, the board said.

South Carolina sales tax collections continue to soar, growing by $500 million to $3.8 billion in the past fiscal year. Corporate tax revenues have also risen sharply thanks to retailers benefiting from all that extra money being spent.

The state's economic experts still think the rapid rise in revenue can't continue. They predict the budget for next fiscal year starting on July 1 will also be about $10.9 billion.

But the board acknowledged being wrong before and said its prediction was more volatile than usual.

The experts also warned revenues could crash if U.S. lawmakers fail to increase the federal debt ceiling in December causing an unprecedented default that could decimate the economy.

All the extra money likely means plenty of debate in the South Carolina General Assembly on pay raises for state employees and helping out rural school districts that don't have a big local tax base. There also will likely be lots of discussion about spending on infrastructure items, like crumbling, crowded roads, decades-old water and sewer systems, or old buildings at state colleges and universities.

Gov. Henry McMaster has spent the fall making several suggestions on spending the federal pandemic relief money to jumpstart widening Interstate 26 to three lanes each direction from Charleston to Columbia; start building part of Interstate 73 in the Pee Dee; or repair or build local sewage and water systems.

The extra revenue could also revive debate on cutting taxes or reforming South Carolina's tax system that was put on the back burner when the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2000.
For decades, left-leaning crusades to solve the problems of the Black community have been either ineffective or outright harmful to the very people they were supposed to help. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is the latest and perhaps most dangerous example of this, and it must be opposed by everyone of conscience  and especially everyone of faith.

Self-described civil rights leaders herald CRT as a positive step forward. They appear to believe that tearing down statues and retelling history from a slavery perspective are prescriptions for healing past racial wounds. And they celebrate the inroads theyve made into many K-12 public schools, universities, and even corporations such as AT&T and Walmart.

But is this wider acceptance of CRT really a victory?

Critical Race Theory isnt helping to heal wounds from past discrimination and slavery, as its proponents like to claim. Instead, its creating new wounds.

For white Americans, CRTs message is unrelentingly negative. It asserts that the entire white race is inherently racist and can never change. Its like taking up a sport or a hobby only to be told that, no matter what you do, youll never get better.

For Black Americans, the message is even more corrosive  and quite frankly, racist. We are told we are helpless victims of white people and cannot possibly overcome their dominance without the governments help. Why even attempt to learn and grow when we cant escape this fate?

The CRT message is particularly damaging in schools, where it is aimed at impressionable children.

But perhaps the most destructive effects of CRT are seen in people of faith. This harm comes regardless of race.

The foundation of faith is redemption, but CRT casts that aside by preaching that many people are irredeemable. Without redemption, spiritual faith ceases to exist. Even self-improvement is apparently impossible since all the laws and institutions allegedly only create more racism.

Even the Black church, which was at the heart of the civil rights movement, is now considered racist by CRT proponents, who believe it exists only to spread more racism. For example, Protestants are oppressors and not even salvation can change them.

According to CRT, all of the advances of the civil rights movement were done to perpetuate racism. We know that many who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had white skin and strong faith. King admonished Black people who distrusted white people because he acknowledged many of those whites saw their own freedom tied to the status of Black Americans.

CRTs undercutting of faith and the King legacy shouldnt be surprising, since the founders of CRT were atheists invested in tearing down our society. What is shocking, however, is that the movement has found so much acceptance in the churches that are ultimately the targets for repudiation and ultimate destruction.

Both my mother and best teachers emphasized that what I thought about myself was always more important than what others thought of me. They taught me that my self-worth comes from within and that it was up to me to develop positive images of myself and my value. That advice helped me always believe in my abilities and take responsibility for my own success.

And most importantly, as a person of faith, I was taught that its not about what happens to me but rather how I respond to the things that happen to me. My fate has always been in my hands; anything else would make my Creator unjust.

That is why people of faith need to recognize that the Critical Race Theory movement is an existential threat to our nations founding principles and must be stopped.

Donna Jackson is a member of the Project 21 Black leadership network. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community.

Let us know what's going on!

Submit Here
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.
(TBTCO) - Ngay 22/11/2021, Thu tuong Chinh phu Pham Minh Chinh cung cac nha lanh ao ASEAN va Trung Quoc tham du Hoi nghi cap cao ac biet ky niem 30 nam quan he ASEAN-Trung Quoc theo hinh thuc truc tuyen. 30 nam qua, quan he ASEAN va Trung Quoc phat trien toan dien tren tat ca cac linh vuc, ac biet la kinh te-thuong mai. Kim ngach thuong mai hai chieu giua ASEAN va Trung Quoc tang khoang 80 lan trong 30 nam, ua ASEAN va Trung Quoc tro thanh oi tac thuong mai so 1 cua nhau.
When Frank Luers was a student at Casper College, there was no Veterans Club.

Luers served in Korea with the Signal Corps. He got out around the end of the Vietnam War, and at that time, former service members werent exactly popular. He remembers the unfriendly looks from fellow Thunderbirds.

Thursday morning, he joined the Casper College Veterans Club for its fifth-annual Veterans Day roll call.

They took turns reading aloud the names of Wyomings fallen soldiers, from the Spanish-American War to the present. That list numbers more than a thousand.

Sometimes, a student or two would shuffle past, casting curious glances their way.

Compared to the post-Vietnam years, veterans today are held in high esteem. But some former service members and their loved ones say they have to fight to keep veterans in the public consciousness.

Too often, those who served are forgotten, and their day-to-day struggles misunderstood or ignored, they said. This Veterans Day, they had one message for Casper: Remember us.

***

From 1979 to 1984, Garrett Revere served with the military as an artilleryman.

Revere has been living at the Wyoming Rescue Missions homeless shelter for the past two months, he said.

At the Missions Veterans Day meal Thursday, he sat between two other homeless vets  Edward Martin and Charles Purvis.

They dined on mixed vegetables, buttered rolls and steak. A quiet air hung over the table.

For Revere, the holiday is somber, if not a bit remorseful, he said. He comes from a military family: his father served in World War II, and his two older brothers, in Vietnam.

It just brings back memories, he said.

When he was growing up on the Wind River Reservation, military service seemed like a much bigger deal, he recalled. The local post of the American Legion would throw a special breakfast and a dance in veterans honor every year.

But these days, Veterans Day is no longer a community affair, Revere said. For most people, its just a day when the flags are at half-mast, a day when you dont get mail.

Meanwhile, Americas veterans are more likely to have disabilities and struggle with mental health and substance abuse  all factors that leave them more vulnerable to homelessness.

Its a reality thats top-of-mind for Dave Matthews, Wyoming Rescue Missions director of programs. Matthews served in the Navy from 1986 to 1989.

About 10% of people the Rescue Mission works with are veterans.

Its kind of the least we can do, Matthews said of the Veterans Day meal.

***

In recent years, the Casper Colleges Veterans Club has stepped in to host more events honoring those who have served.

The club began its annual Veterans Day roll call five years ago. A couple years after that, they started the Dog Trek  a dog-friendly charity walk that takes place on campus each fall.

On Friday, the club is hosting a public talk by Clint Romesha, a Medal of Honor recipient. Its also introducing a new event later that day: the inaugural Veterans Ball.

Its been heartening to see the club grow, said Megan Schafer, executive assistant for administrative and student services. Schafers son, Cpl. Jason J. Corbett, died in combat in 2007 while deployed in Iraq.

People forget that what veterans go through affects them every day, not just on Veterans Day, Schafer said. They serve in wars they didnt create, she said, but often carry the trauma and loss for a lifetime.

She will never forget the contributions of her son and other veterans. She wants the public to do the same.

Take a minute to remember, she said.

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.
CHEYENNE  In her response to the Wyoming State Bars second formal charge against her, Laramie County District Attorney Leigh Anne Manlove denied allegations that she made false claims or excuses about her offices inability to access evidence.

Pushing back at the Bars claims that she neglected to access evidence that was accessible to her, Manlove said it was up to law enforcement and other such agencies to notify her office about available evidence from the Wyoming State Crime Laboratory.

Because of program limitations, the state crime lab directly notifies agencies that submit evidence, not the DAs office, she said.

It is the responsibility of the submitting agency, when it receives the (state crime labs) lab reports/ results/analysis, to share the same with the DAs office, or at the very least to notify the DAs office that results are in and available. The DAs office relies on said communications from submitting agencies, she said in the response, filed Monday with the Bars Board of Professional Responsibility.

The second formal charge was filed Oct. 18 by Special Bar Counsel W.W. Reeves with the Board of Professional Responsibility.

Reeves said Manloves failure to obtain certain crime lab evidence resulted in the dismissal of a case against Rodney Law, a man charged with several violent felonies, and a failure to prosecute an alleged child sex abuse case, in which law enforcement claimed evidence was overwhelming.

Reeves said evidence from the state crime lab, such as DNA analysis, was readily available to the DAs office through BEAST, a database used to store the results of law enforcement investigations. He cited a Cheyenne Police Department evidence managers communications with the DAs office in mid-2019 that BEAST was available to prosecutors to check at any time.

Manlove admits in her response that she failed to produce certain evidence in the Law case, but denies the claim by Reeves that the evidence in the BEAST database was readily available to her office.

She argues that evidence becomes readily available to the DAs office once the DAs office has been notified by the submitting agency (e.g., CPD) that such evidence has been posted on the BEAST portal.

Manloves assertions seem to be supported by a Sept. 22 affidavit signed by Jeff Smith, who was hired as an investigator for the district attorneys office at the beginning of Manloves tenure in January 2019, according to previous reporting. Smith says a state crime lab quality control manager told him it would make the most sense for a CPD evidence manager  despite her protests  to consistently forward the DAs office email notifications alerting them to available evidence in BEAST.

In every organization that I have ever worked in, it has been the responsibility of the primary officer or the lead detective to submit all evidence for testing, identify what testing should be done and obtain the results of that testing. It was also their responsibility to provide all reports associated with a case to the office of the prosecuting attorney, says Smith, who said he was a law enforcement officer for 33 years, and a detective/special agent for 16 of those years, and supervised a detective division for an additional four years.

Smith also writes that, although the database is not a user friendly system as a search tool, and every case number had to be manually entered on every inquiry, making it a very time consuming endeavor, legal assistants began searching BEAST weekly to find available evidence for their assigned cases after the Rodney Law incident.

Addressing her decision not to prosecute an alleged child sex abuse case, Manlove echoed statements she made in response to the Bars first charge against her in June: that it is up to the district attorney, and only the district attorney, to decide which cases her office will prosecute.

(I do) not pursue prosecutions to satisfy the emotional injustice an alleged victims family member feels, no matter how merited those feelings might be, she writes.

Manlove also argues that the Office of Bar Counsel  supervised by the Wyoming Supreme Court, which is the judicial branch  cant try to compel a district attorney, who represents the executive branch, to prosecute a case.

Because of this, a complaint by the alleged victims mother to the Bar is a violation of the Wyoming Constitution, she says.

She further disputes the mothers complaint in an 11-page letter to Reeves, which she attached to her formal response. Most notably, Manlove explains in detail why she chose not to charge the alleged perpetrator in the case, raising numerous arguments she said could be used by a defense attorney to question the credibility of the alleged victim and her mother.

These potential arguments, Manlove writes, are largely due to a failure on the part of the investigating agency (the Cheyenne Police Department) to communicate about evidence and a refusal to conduct necessary additional investigation. Manlove says that, when affidavits related to the case were submitted to her office, CPD had not interviewed key witnesses and had not obtained important records that would have either refuted or corroborated evidence.

It is the responsibility of the submitting agency, when it receives the WSCLs analysis, to share that analysis with the prosecutors office or, at the very least, to notify the prosecutors office that results are available, which she says CPD did not do in this case until after she declined to prosecute.

Manlove also accuses some CPD members of improper conduct, saying theyd taken on the role of advocate for the alleged victim and her family by attempting to pressure her office to prosecute the case.

Also in her response, Manlove says certain editorial comments by Reeves in the second formal charge (saying Manlove has a penchant for blaming others for her incompetence, among other examples) are nothing less than scandalous sound bites that were intentionally placed in the 2nd Formal Charge by (special bar counsel) with the hope that they would be published by the media  which has been the case.

She denied Reeves claims that she violated several of the Wyoming Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys at Law.

Manlove also issued a statement accompanying the formal response.

While it does not directly address any of the accusations laid out in the Bars second charge, she references contact she had with Bar Counsel Mark Gifford in November 2020, after saying on local radio that she would not prosecute individuals for alleged violations of a countywide mask mandate.

Throughout her communications with Gifford, she said, it was clear he wanted a mandatory mask order from the governors office because he called a mask order issued in Utah a (sign) of hope of the start of a trend of courageous leadership in the Rocky Mountain West.

Over the past year, Bar Counsel has harassed and tried to intimidate me in its unrelenting, unconstitutional and malicious attack to supersede the will of Laramie County voters by attempting to remove me as their elected DA, she said in the statement.

If Laramie County voters disagree with Manloves position that the mask mandate was wrong, the statement says, it is they who should decide to replace her, not an unelected individual whose powerful position enables him to dictate his personal agenda to the people of this community by attacking my competence and ethics. Ultimately, the law and the facts will prove it is all meritless.

Litigation of this magnitude could ruin me financially, but I have done, and I will continue to do, the job I was elected to do, despite the enormity of the wrong being perpetrated on me by an individual who disagrees with my conservative policies, the statement concluded.

In her response, Manlove called the Bars assertions that it would seek recovery of costs from her for its investigation and future disciplinary proceedings an attempt to harass and intimidate her.

Gifford declined to publicly comment on either the statement or the formal response.

CPD Chief Mark Francisco also declined to respond to comments about the police department and its conduct.

The first formal charge against Manlove was filed June 11 with the Bars Board of Professional Responsibility.

Special Bar Counsel Reeves wrote that the Bars Review and Oversight Committee found probable cause to bring the charge against Manlove for multiple professional conduct violations throughout her tenure, as well as an unprecedented letter signed by all of Laramie Countys district and circuit court judges.

In the letter, the seven judges alleged that Manlove had mishandled both her offices personnel and caseload, having a negative impact on the offices ability to provide adequate representation for Laramie County residents.

In her July 20 response to the first charge, Manlove denied the allegations against her, including that her alleged behavior violated any of the Rules of Professional Conduct described in the charge.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Did you and your family celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall on Tuesday?

Didnt think so, but its not necessarily your fault.

The Fall of the Wall was a geopolitical earthquake in 1989.

As any child of the Cold War knows, it signaled the beginning of the end of the evil Soviet Empire and led to the liberation of millions of Germans, Poles, Czechs and others whod been held captive under communism for almost half a century.

The fall of the Wall 32 years ago  the symbol of the collapse of communism  doesnt get much attention these days.

I didnt see a word in the media this week marking its anniversary and Im sure it was never mentioned in our sorry public schools.

Of course, our schools dont teach our history anymore.

They push politically trendy crap like Critical Race Theory and tell our kids how bad America is, or was.

They sure dont educate our children about the importance of preserving and expanding our hard-won and fragile freedoms.

In 1967, when my father was elected governor of California, he talked in his inaugural address about how important it is for each new generation to protect and refresh the freedom theyve inherited.

Perhaps you and I have lived too long with this miracle to properly be appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and its never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.

It seems pretty obvious today that our generation is not fighting hard enough to defend our freedom  or even define it for our kids.

When I speak about freedom to 250 college students at the Reagan Ranch Center in downtown Santa Barbara, Calif., Im going to tell them what I told 150 high school kids at the center earlier this week.

Im going to take them back to Aug. 12, 1961, and tell them the story I like to tell about the young boy in Berlin who went to dinner at his cousins house across town.

He decided to stay overnight at his cousins when it became too late to return home and when he woke up the next morning the border between East and West Berlin had been closed and the Wall was going up.

That young boy didnt get home again until Nov. 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down.

Think about that. If you lived in East Germany at that time, or anywhere in the Eastern Bloc, and youre 32 years old today, youve only been free for that long.

We Americans are lucky. We were born into freedom. But we need to remember to fully honor those men and women who risked or lost their lives to keep us free  every day of the year.

We need to remember the World War II veterans who parachuted into Normandy on D-Day. And the vets who fought and died in the jungles of Vietnam and those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But since we cant depend on schools to teach our kids about the value of our veterans or how and where they fought and died to defend our freedom, its up to parents.

When I was writing this column on Wednesday my son Cameron called and said he was going to take my two young granddaughters to a military cemetery on Veterans Day.

Then he said he planned to take them to the annual Veterans Day events at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where all branches of our military are honored with ceremonies and military bands.

My son is doing it right. Its up to fathers like him to teach our kids to honor vets at a very young age  the same way my dad taught me.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
A POLICE Constable and a Coastguardsman shot and killed each other yesterday morning in Diego Martin during an alleged dispute over a woman.

Police said around 2.20 a.m., PC Jomo Gulston, 37, a soon-to-be father of Endeavour, Chaguanas had just dropped off an unidentified woman at the home of her boyfriend, Coast Guard officer Jabari Francois, 33, at Waterwheel Road, River Estate, Diego Martin.
Ive noticed in recent times a series of letters with an anti-vaccination leaning from Kevin Baldeosingh culminating with one published on Saturday. Could Mr Baldeosinghs need to write in the public forum be the result of cognitive dissonance, where he is really trying to convince himself that what he is doing is correct?
Actor Estelle Parsons (The Connors, Roseanne) is 94. Comedian Dick Smothers is 83. Singer Norman Greenbaum is 79. Actor Veronica Hamel is 78. Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff is 75. Musician Joe Walsh is 74. Actor Richard Masur (One Day at a Time) is 73. Actor Bo Derek is 65. Drummer Jimmy Brown of UB40 is 64. Actor Sean Young is 62. Pianist Jim Brickman is 60. Actor Ming-Na Wen (Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Mulan) is 58. Rapper Mike D of the Beastie Boys is 56. Rapper Sen Dog of Cypress Hill is 56. Actor Callie Thorne (Rescue Me, Homicide: Life on the Street) is 52. Actor Sabrina Lloyd (Numb3rs) is 51. Actor Joel McHale (Community) is 50. Actor Marisa Ryan (New York Undercover) is 47. Country singer Dierks Bentley is 46. Actor Joshua Gomez (Chuck) is 46. Country singer Josh Turner is 44. Actor Nadine Velazquez (My Name Is Earl) is 43. Actor Jacob Pitts (Sneaky Pete, Justified) is 42. Actor Jeremy Jordan (Supergirl) is 37. Actor Ashley Fink (Glee) is 35. Bassist Jared Followill of Kings of Leon is 35. Actor Jaina Lee Ortiz (Station 19) is 35. Actor Cody Linley (Hannah Montana) is 32. Guitarist Michael Clifford of 5 Seconds of Summer is 26.
The technology has been shown to generate three times the energy while using a fifth of the land area as traditional photovoltaic panel systems, but the company Angel founded to market the systems, Rehnu Inc., failed to gain traction.

Last year, SolarSpace acquired Rehnu and licensed its related technologies from the UA, after a serendipitous visit.

SolarSpace is led by David Vili, a longtime entrepreneur and native of the nation of Georgia in Eastern Europe, who while on a pilgrimage to a monastery in Arizona came across a demo version of Rehnus solar tracker at the UAs Biosphere II in Oracle during a UA event there.

He bought a system for the St. Anthonys Greek Orthodox Monastery in Florence, and later founded SolarSpace to acquire Rehnus assets and is initially marketing the technology to power stand-alone EV chargers in off-grid areas.

Sustainable power

NeoChloris Inc. develops, designs and installs sustainable water and energy technologies, including biological reactors that process things like animal waste to mitigate carbon emissions or make biofuels.

The company was founded in the Chicago area based on technologies developed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The literary awards season is well underway and the spotlight has again found Tucson.

Walking a red carpet similar to the one traveled by Tucsonans Lydia Millet and Lissie Jaquette, both finalists for National Book Awards last year, University of Arizona Professor Susan Briante has received the 2021 Pegasus Award from the Poetry Foundation.

Briante was honored for Defacing the Monument, a remarkably unique look at the human drama unfolding every day along Americas southern border  and how the words of earlier poets, addressing other dark moments in U.S. history, still echo in and around Nogales.

The Pegasus is one of the Poetry Foundations top annual awards, honoring the best book-length work of poetic criticism published in the United States the previous year.

Monument is Briantes fourth book, three being collections of her own work and this one a collection of selected excerpts by other poets, connected and re-illuminated by Briantes own personal essays.

She would probably have published more poetry by now, but she spends too much time doing  poetry. When she isnt writing it, she is teaching it. Then theres this: shes married to a poet, Farid Matuk.
I think that the other kind of a feather in the cap as it were, in terms of the implementation of the program, is that we were up and running within 75 days, said Samuel Richard, executive director for the Arizona Dispensary Association.

Before Arizonas rollout, no other state had ever gone from approving a recreational ballot measure to implementation in faster than 90 days. Richard praised both AZDHS and the already established and robust medical marijuana dispensary network for helping to make such a quick turnaround possible.

The decade of experience that we had working with each other leading into Prop. 207, we were able to open up adult use relatively quickly because they had a strong understanding of how the industry operates, he said.

Mike Robinette, executive director of the Arizona branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, also praised the state for its rollout and said he believed the last year has been especially good for adults who have had to acquire marijuana on the street through the black market.

Additionally, the threat of legal consequences has been nearly eliminated.
For Star subscribers: After rescuing the baby javelinas  known as "reds" because of their youthful, auburn hair  a Tucson couple is seeking changes to in-ground garbage bins that attract and trap wildlife.
A man suspected in a month-long spree of bank and business robberies in Tucson has been arrested.

James Siehen, 52, was arrested Nov. 5 following a bank robbery at First Convenience Bank, 1260 E. Tucson Marketplace Blvd. on Tucson's south side, an FBI news release said.

According to a complaint, Siehien would enter a bank, approach the teller, and pass a demand note. In some instances, Siehien would threaten tellers with weapons, such as a machete or axe, though no injuries were reported.

The robberies netted a total of more than $12,000, court documents show. Three of the incidents were robbery attempts.

Siehien was taken into custody by the Tucson Police Department with assistance from the Southern Arizona Violent Crime and Gang Task Force, the FBI said.

He is a suspect in the following robberies or attempts:

 Oct. 4 and 12: Chase Bank, 2 E. Congress

 Oct. 19: Wells Fargo Bank, 1701 E. Speedway

 Oct. 21 and 25: Chase Bank, 2465 N. Campbell Ave.

 Oct. 26: Vantage West Credit Union, 801 E. Speedway

 Oct. 26: PNC Bank, 120 N. Stone Ave.
She and David sat on the construction vehicles, and Ortega said she sang all of the ceremonial songs she could remember.

Border Patrol agents and law enforcement park rangers told them the area was closed and they had to leave or would be arrested.

She tried to explain why the land was important to her, Ortega said in court on Thursday. The construction was a complete disrespect to our culture and a continuation of the harms done to our people without regard for who we are or what we believe in, she told the judge.

As she testified, Ortega got choked up when explaining that she didnt feel safe leaving due to being surrounded by law enforcement. She said that as a Native American, she is used to being harassed by Border Patrol and law enforcement and she felt intimidated and scared.

Park ranger officers told Ortega several times she had to leave or they would arrest her. When she didnt leave, officers arrested both women and they spent the night and the following day in the Florence Correctional Center. Both women faced misdemeanor charges, and Davids case has been adjudicated.
In September, the bureau started publicizing only the most conservative of two types of five-year forecasts it had posted four times a year for longer-range reservoir levels at Lakes Mead and Powell. Its sole published forecast is now based only on what it calls stress test hydrology, using river flows from 1988 through 2019 to shape predictions. Until now, it had also posted separate, long-range forecasts relying on river flows dating as far back as 1906.

These forecast tools are significantly improved in the eyes of Brad Udall, a leading Colorado River climate scientist who for more than a decade has been at the forefront of warning about reservoir declines.

But he still says that instead of basing forecasts on climate from the late 1980s into the 1990s, the bureau should only use the 22 years since 2000, when the current hot, dry period began.

His review of the bureaus 24-month studies done since 2000, for instance, found their forecasts for Powells minimum likely reservoir level were about 30% too high on average, he said. Hes concerned the forecasts are underplaying and soft-pedaling the risks the reservoirs will go dry.
Claudia Gutierrez had recently married, bought a new home and was excited about this next stage in her life.

Now she's fighting daily to get back to the way she was before COVID-19.

Gutierrez, 28, started having symptoms in late December 2020, and tested positive Jan. 1. She was never really that sick: It was more like a bad cold, she says, and in no way as bad as the COVID long-haul symptoms she has now.

Terri Boitano, 62, was a swimmer and cyclist who most likely had asymptomatic COVID-19 in March 2020, not realizing anything was amiss with her health until early May that year.

And Tara Elliott, 46, did have a bad cough and fever when she got sick early in the pandemic, but she thought that was the extent of it  until three months later.

These Tucson women are examples of what University of Arizona health researchers found in a recent study on non-hospitalized COVID patients: The majority of individuals who experience mild or moderate COVID-19 infection also experience long COVID, or persistent sickness more than 30 days after they test positive.

''Wake-up call''

While other long-COVID research has typically focused on hospitalized patients with severe infections, this study published in early August looked at those who never had severe symptoms  or any symptoms at all.

Since May 2020, researchers followed over 6,000 Arizona residents who had COVID-19, as well as those who didn't, through online surveys that recorded infection status, symptoms and any positive tests.

About 67% of those surveyed with mild or moderate infections go on to have "long COVID," which means they are still having health challenges more than 30 days later, said Leslie Farland, an assistant professor with the UAs Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

As time increased to 60 days, she said, the prevalence jumped to 77%.

Researchers found that, among other things, individuals with long COVID were more likely to have seasonal allergies and pre-existing health conditions than people without long COVID. The most common symptoms included chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, brain fog and an altered sense of smell. Those surveyed also reported insomnia, joint pain and muscle aches.

This is a real wake-up call for anyone who has not been vaccinated," wrote Melanie Bell, a biostatistics professor in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, about the findings.

"If you get COVID, the chances that youll experience long-term symptoms are surprisingly high.

''Tried to help''

Boitano said she most likely caught COVID very early on, when she traveled to California to care for her dying mother.

After returning, she was working at home as a school psychologist for the Flowing Wells School District and didn't notice anything until nearly two months later, in May 2020, when she suddenly developed vertigo, headaches and sinus pain.

In hindsight, shes not sure if she had COVID-19 then or if that was the start of her long-haul symptoms but she believes the latter. She was in the early stages of grief and so things were difficult to decipher.

What followed: her digestive system derailed, debilitating fatigue and burning skin on her arms that felt like a bad sunburn. Then she started to have pain in her feet that traveled up, into her shins, and it became hard to walk.

She eventually developed heart palpitations and was given a diagnosis of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, commonly called POTS. In simple terms, POTS involves reduced blood volume when standing with symptoms including lightheadedness, fainting and rapid heartbeat.

Then that went away.

Boitano estimates she's seen about 20 doctors, most of whom were "super kind and tried to help."

She kept hoping she could return to work but eventually she had to resign, ending a 13-year career with Flowing Wells. She is now considered officially disabled after long COVID became recognized as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

I would say I have given up on seeing doctors, she said. Instead, she said, she's trying to accept that things will develop and then go away. "It seems," she said, "that theres really nothing that can be done.

Boitano continues to have trouble concentrating and doing things as ordinary as reading and writing, watching television or listening to music with lyrics. She can't swim laps or mountain bike anymore.

Emotionally? A month ago she was "very depressed," she said, but right now shes feeling more accepting.

''A very complex post-viral syndrome''

The three Tucson women with long-haul COVID hope that as more people come forward with symptoms, it will be the catalyst for getting a speciality clinic started here.

For now, they said, it's challenging to see multiple doctors at different locations who are scrambling to understand, based on their areas of expertise, how the virus harms the body over time.

"Theres a lot of cities that have built these large multidisciplinary clinics," said Elliott. "Thats what we need, a well-educated team of doctors that understand the condition and can communicate with each other. This is a very complex post-viral syndrome that can affect all different parts of the body."

Like the other two women, Elliott has had many different challenges. After being sick early on in the pandemic, she began to have shortness of breath again in June 2020. She now uses an inhaler  something shes never used before in her life.

She used to play poker several times a week, enjoyed bowling and going to the movies but it's too tiring right now to resume any of those activities. She's also having vocal cord dysfunction, she said, and her voice sometimes gives out on her.

But one of the hardest things has been a lack a mobility: Shes been using a walker since July of last year due to leg pain.

"Its like a charley horse in my legs and it just doesnt stop," she said. She started physical therapy recently and is hoping that will help.

Our biggest fear, I think, is getting reinfected, she said, explaining its terrifying to think the long haul could get worse.

Theres still so much we dont know, she said.

The fear and uncertainty that accompany long haul is why Boitano would like to see not just medical services at one clinic, but also mental health services, to deal with the anxiety and depression that often accompany a health crisis.

Spokeswoman Rebecca Ruiz Hudman said Banner Health is working on plans to provide a long-haul clinic here.

"As more is learned about the residual effects of COVID-19, Banner is committed to ensuring communities have access to care at all points in their COVID journey," said Ruiz Hudman, "and has plans to formally open a long-COVID treatment program that will be available to patients in Phoenix and Tucson in the near future."

''Psychologically so difficult''

For now, Gutierrez travels to Phoenix regularly to see doctors at the Mayo Clinic there as well as Dr. Thea Davis, who works for Arizona Arthritis and Rheumatology Associates in Gilbert.

We have been seeing more and more COVID long-haulers, said Davis, whose clinic about two years ago started helping patients with one of Gutierrez's diagnoses: Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, which cases the body's mast cells to release an inappropriate amount of chemicals into the body, causing allergy symptoms and a wide range of other challenges.

It's a common diagnosis for long haulers, she said.

To be previously very very healthy and then to be suddenly debilitated is psychologically so difficult, Davis said of Gutierrez, whose long COVID is the worst Davis has seen.

Often, Davis said, theres already some sort of underlying chemical sensitivity the person might not have been aware of yet. Then, with the viral insult of COVID-19, the syndrome gets activated.

Like Boitano, Gutierrez has also been diagnosed with POTS but so far it's not going away.

I think theres a lot of misinformation and fear surrounding long haulers, Davis said. The virus itself is not harmless but is everyone going to have really severe symptoms? No.

But for people like Gutierrez, she said, the aftermath of COVID-19 is very real and very debilitating.

What Davis wants people to avoid is discounting other peoples experiences because theirs wasn't the same.

Its very psychologically damaging," she said, "to not be believed about the severity of it.

Trevor Jones is family nurse practitioner at Immediate Care Arizona in Tucson, which is one of the first places Gutierrez went to in late January because she wasnt feeling well and wanted help with her symptoms.

They provided infusion therapy to help her restore micronutrients that had been lost because her appetite was so suppressed.

It would help for a while and then shed come back and get another one, he said.

They have seen about 10 long-hauler cases, he said, and Gutierrez is one of the worst.

She had a lot of problems with medication. She was so sensitive to it that there werent really a lot of things that could be done to help her without having a reaction, he said. Eventually, she couldnt even tolerate IV fluids.

Gutierrez said she can now smell laundry detergent from 15 feet away, and cannot tolerate many of the pharmaceuticals that would help her.

She said she's reaching out because she wants people to know the risks that come with contracting COVID-19.

Its been horrible, she said. I have one of the more severe long-haul COVID cases in the state of Arizona. I would not wish this on my worst enemy.

Contact reporter Patty Machelor at 806-7754 or pmachelor@tucson.com

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.
Natural-gas customers across Arizona can expect their bills to rise this winter as wholesale gas prices across the nation have more than doubled across the nation in the past year.

Southwest Gas Corp., which serves the metro Tucson and Phoenix areas and much of the rest of the state, said customers can expect their winter bills to top last winters but hasnt estimated the bill impact.

UniSource Energy Services, which provides natural gas to more than 163,000 customers in much of Northern Arizona as well as Santa Cruz County, says it expects home gas bills to rise 4% to 11% this winter.

For residential customers with typical usage, that will result in a monthly bill increase ranging from about $2.50 to $8.50, though the actual impact will vary based on weather and individual usage, said UniSource, a sister company to Tucson Electric Power Co.

Both gas companies buy natural gas and pass those costs along to customers with state approval and without any markup, through variable charges on their bills.
A deputy with the Carter County sheriffs office eventually responded to the scene and helped get Lakey into custody. OSBI said that shortly after that, Lakey stopped breathing and became unresponsive. He was taken to the hospital.

An attorney for Lakey's family, J. Spencer Bryan, said the family was pleased with the jury's verdict.

The Lakey family is grateful to the jury and the district attorney for the convictions, but the risk to the public remains because these officers didnt violate their policy or training," Bryan said in a statement. The Wilson police chief testified that Jareds torture was consistent with policy, which is how Wilson has decided to police the community."

A telephone message left Friday for Wilson Police Chief Kevin Coley wasn't immediately returned.

Lakey's family has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Wilson, the two officers, the Carter County Sheriff's Office and one of its deputies and the City of Lone Grove and one of its police officers who responded to the call, Bryan said.

Wilson is located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP)  The attorney for a Black teenager from Texas says several other teens attacked his client with a stun gun on Halloween while wearing costumes resembling Ku Klux Klan robes.

At a news conference Wednesday, Matt Manning of Corpus Christi said the attack involved high school students in Woodsboro, a small town 30 miles north of Corpus Christi. He said his client was not seriously injured, and he declined to identify all involved because they were juveniles.

There were as many as six victims, all juveniles, Manning said. The five other victims were not shocked but may have been chased or otherwise terrorized, he said.

For you to dress up as a Klansman, you have a specific intent of terrorizing, Manning said. Thats not an accident. Thats not kids being kids. Thats not boys being boys. Thats not hazing or high school hijinks. High school hijinks are egging somebodys house, not dressing up as a Klansman and Tasing them.
Eight of the people he's charged with killing lived at The Tradition-Prestonwood, and he's been linked to a ninth resident's death in a lawsuit.

Just days before Glenna Day, 87, was found dead there in October 2016, she told friends something seemed off.

They asked how things were going. She said, Well, Im thinking I should move because my friends are dying, said her daughter, Sherril Kerr, who added that the deaths prompted her mother to go to her doctor for a checkup.

When Day was killed, the accomplished artist had been working to restore a friends painting, and had just been out dancing at a senior center.

Chemirmir has been indicted in two deaths earlier that year at another Dallas retirement community  The Edgemere  and linked via an autopsy report to a third.

In April 2016, police issued a criminal trespass warning at Edgemere to Benjamin Koitaba, an alias Chemirmir used. When he was spotted there again in June, police found that he had two IDs  one for Chemirmir, one for Koitaba. He was charged with criminal trespass and giving officers a false name.
A negotiated life sentence will provide a unique opportunity to pursue a more complete justice for this family and our community, Stumbo said.

William Harold Looper III, 51, was arrested Monday and charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, three counts of unlawful neglect of a child, a charge of committing or attempting a lewd act on a child, buggery and three counts of disseminating harmful material to minors. It wasn't known if he had a lawyer.

Laurens County deputies released no details about the charges and Stumbo said he couldn't give more information about the elder Looper's charges because he is prosecuting that case, too.

The boy's mother, 30-year-old Jessica Blake Smith, was working at Walmart when her son died. She had been dating William Looper for several weeks and was out of the house when most of the abuse happened, Stumbo said.

Smith is charged with homicide by child abuse and two counts of unlawful neglect of a child. Her case is still pending.

A family friend of the boy's grandparents said his brothers are getting intensive therapy after the death and their mother's arrest.
BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (AP)  Michigan and local officials have been targeted in a lawsuit over high levels of lead in Benton Harbor's drinking water.

The lawsuit, filed this week in federal court, accuses the state and city of deliberate indifference in their response to the problem, which began to emerge in 2018. Doretha Braziel, one of many Benton Harbor residents listed in the lawsuit, said she only recently became aware that she should avoid drinking the water.

The number of injured individuals who have been injured by exposure to lead in the Benton Harbor water is in the thousands, according to the lawsuit, which seeks class-action status.

The lawsuit was filed a week after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it found a variety of violations at the Benton Harbor water plant as well as problems with how the city had communicated with residents about lead in the water.
Bui admitted to setting the fire, only to realize the next day through news coverage that the victims were not the ones who robbed him, said Baker, the lead investigator in the case.

In his interview with investigators, Bui also said he never intended for anyone to die, another investigator, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent Mark Sonnendecker, later said when questioned by one of Bui's lawyers.

Judge Martin Egelhoff found enough evidence for the case to proceed. While lawyers for Bui and Seymour emphasized that the teens never talked about a specific plan to set a fire or expressed a desire to hurt anyone in any of possibly thousands of messages obtained by investigators, Egelhoff noted that the fire was allegedly set in the middle of the night when people would likely be at home and sleeping with evidence of an accelerant to quickly spread it.

Seymour told investigators they went to the home without a plan, possibly to vandalize it but home surveillance video footage did not show the teens holding rocks or baseball bats that could be used to damage the home, just a gasoline can, Chief Deputy District Attorney Courtney Johnston said.

What they did was create a death trap that no one was intended to survive, she said.

Neither Bui nor Seymour have been asked to enter pleas to the charges yet. They are both seeking to have their cases moved to juvenile court where they would face less serious penalties if convicted.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
HONOLULU (AP)  A biological sister of a 6-year-old Hawaii girl reported missing by their adoptive parents told police the parents forced her to keep it a secret that Isabella Kalua was not breathing inside a dog cage in the bathroom, with duct tape on her mouth and nose.

The new details were revealed in documents filed in court Friday to justify the arrests of Isaac and Lehua Kalua, who adopted Isabella and two of her siblings and were foster parents to another biological sibling, on suspicion of second-degree murder.

The Kaluas on Sept. 13 had reported to police that Isabella  also referred to by Honolulu police by her birth name of Ariel Sellers  was missing and that they had last seen her asleep in her room the night before.

Police arrested the Kaluas on Wednesday, saying they believe the girl was killed a month before they reported her missing. But a body has not been found.

The parents were being held without bail and appeared in court via video from a cellblock on Friday.

A deputy public defender entered not guilty pleas for them, but it's not yet clear who their attorneys will be, said state Public Defender James Tabe. He said if they both qualify for public defenders, one of them will have a private attorney appointed.
The greater meaning behind the pilots sacrifices has not been lost on their descendents, and the personal impact family members have felt from their sacrifices have laid the foundation for much of their own lives.

Freedom isnt free. These young men risked their lives for king and country back then  just like those of us that join the military today, Barber said. I spent 38 years in the military, and I would not have spent so much time and devoted my life to government service if it wasnt for the fact of my dad and his buddies and their sacrifices.

Anne Beeby, Arizona resident and daughter of BFTS pilot Ken R. Beeby, spends her weekends informing people about the history of the flight school.

It means everything, she said. I mean, this is the greatest generation, and people need to know that. So many of them gave their lives, and we are losing them now. They are getting to the end of their lives, and we need to remember what they gave for us  the freedom they were able to obtain for us.

Ken Beeby resigned his military commission after the war and was back in Arizona by January 1947.

He loved it here. He loved the weather. It never got too hot for him, Anne Beeby said.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP)  The head of the U.S. Forest Service says the agency is allocating $54 million for forest restoration work in northern Arizona in the wake of its recent cancellation of a contract for a larger multiyear project in the region.

Forest Service Chief Randy Moore announced the funding decision Tuesday in Flagstaff during a meeting with two members of the state's congressional delegation and numerous other officials, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.

The $54 million allocation for the recently started federal fiscal year will pay for work to protect communities and watersheds from wildfires, Moore said.

The work will include rehabilitation of forest roads and thinning and prescribed burns of 211 square miles (54,632 hectares) of high priority areas in the forests, officials said.
The standoff near the frontier crossing at Kuznica, 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Warsaw, was on the minds of many at the march, and one banner in Warsaw read: We Thank the Defenders of Polands Borders.

Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik tweeted that some security forces will go directly from Warsaw to defend our border with Belarus. When marching, remember this!

About 15,000 Polish troops have joined riot police and guards at the border. The Belarusian Defense Ministry accused Poland of an unprecedented military buildup there, saying that migration control didn't warrant such a force.

The Polish Defense Ministry said the migrants made a number of attempts to cross the border since Wednesday, as they have all week.

Near the village of Bialowieza, where a few hundred migrants threw debris across the razor-wire fence at Polish troops and then tried to destroy it, shots were fired in the air to deter them, the ministry said. Near the village of Szudzialowo, migrants attacked a soldier in the chest with a tree branch, but he fired two warning shots in the air and was unhurt, the ministry said, adding that the attackers fled deeper into Belarus.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  The United States on Friday imposed economic sanctions on the military and ruling party of Eritrea over their role in neighboring Ethiopias brutal yearlong war, and it warned it would sanction Ethiopia's government and rival Tigray forces if there is no meaningful progress toward a cease-fire and talks.

A Treasury Department statement cited the continued role the Eritreans play in the war that has killed thousands and displaced millions. Ethiopia's government allowed Eritrean soldiers to enter Ethiopias Tigray region, where witnesses have accused them of some of the wars worst abuses, but then denied the soldiers were there for months.

The U.S. statement noted numerous reports of looting, sexual assault, killing civilians, and blocking humanitarian aid" by Eritrean forces. The soldiers have been seen disguised in old Ethiopian military uniforms, manning checkpoints, obstructing and occupying critical aid routes, and threatening medical staff in one of northern Ethiopias few operating hospitals, the statement said.

Notably, the Treasury Department pointed out that Eritrea's military is led by longtime President Isaias Afwerki, but he was not sanctioned.
OPINION: Have an opinion or are you an expert on a subject? Write an Opinion piece or a Letter to the Editor at tucson.com/opinion.
OPINION: "The Afghan refugees arriving in Tucson will have traveled almost 8,000 miles to get here. First wave, second wave, and now this wave. A man who crossed the Spin Gar Mountains with his sons on donkeys, the man pulling a cart of used clothes in Islamabad, the families caught in the crush to board a plane out of their homeland. Strip away the differences, and it is all the same trauma, the same displacement," writes Tucsonan Adele Barker.
Looking for a pick-me-up? When nothing else seems to do the trick, sometimes we find the comfort we need in food. Here are 7 deliciously indulgent options for comfort food in Tucson.
Seidenfeld credits Chauvin for helping shepherd the transformation of Eastgate from its inception more than a decade ago and convincing Shelbourne that Tulsa is a place to expand its business model.

We like to think of ourselves as more of a peoples company, hospitality company, where we view as tenants not only as tenants but part of a system where we provide for what they do to start the day, Seidenfeld said. We look at our tenants more as like they are in a hotel and they expect service and quality. ...

This building has a great real estate story in that it was a mall once, which was pretty much written off, never to come back. And it was retrofitted and really brought back to life.

Chauvin and Seidenfeld agree that as more people return to in-office work, 2022 looks bright for the facility.

These companies like RadNet and HireRight, when they start hitting post-COVID, we think they are going to expand, which is contrary to the rest of the world, Seidenfeld said. Its a good news story for us. Its a good news story for the building. And its a very good news story for the marketplace.
Local

Update: Three tornadoes confirmed after storm damage surveyed across Tulsa

Mike Simons, Tulsa World A homeowner looks in the light of day Thursday at a tree that fell onto his home when an EF0 tornado swept through his neighborhood near 21st Street and Utica Avenue the night before. Mike Simons, Tulsa World A man walking his dog surveys tree damage at Woodward Park in midtown Tulsa early Thursday. Mike Simons, Tulsa World A woman views storm damage at Woodward Park on Thursday. Ian Maule, Tulsa World Ronald Linder gets help from his daughter, Jodi Martin, and wife, Everille Linder, while attempting to get into his home in the 11000 block of East 14th Court, near Garnett Road, after a tree fell during a severe storm Wednesday evening, blocking the entrance. Ian Maule, Tulsa World Everille Linder, seen at left, attempts to get into her home in the 11000 block of East 14th Court, near Garnett Road, after a fallen tree blocked the entrance Wednesday night.

Three tornadoes have been confirmed in the area during Wednesday evenings thunderstorms, with one of them churning from Woodward Park to Utica Square in midtown Tulsa.

A storm left damage in its wake that left thousands without power early Thursday, with surveyors working to determine the extent of its destruction.

The National Weather Service confirmed Thursday evening that the first of the three tornadoes developed over Woodward Park, at 21st Street and Peoria Avenue, and then moved through a neighborhood just east of the park, where a couple of trees were uprooted and large tree limbs were snapped. A few homes were damaged, primarily from the trees or limbs falling onto them.

That tornado dissipated over Utica Square, half a mile away, the National Weather Service said. It was classified as an EF0, with winds as high as 85 mph and a path as wide as 150 yards.

Another EF0 tornado damaged barns, snapped large tree limbs and damaged a small grain silo just east of County Line Road on 31st Street in east Broken Arrow, the weather service confirmed.

Mike Simons, Tulsa World Rob Robinson talks about damage on his property that was hit by the Wednesday night storms Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021 in Broken Arrow, Okla. Robinson has lived on the property on 31st Street and 193rd East Ave. for close to 40 years. A silo lies on its side in the background after being blown over.

The third tornado, also an EF0, snapped large tree limbs just southwest of Catoosa.

More than 7,000 AEP-PSO customers were without power at one point Wednesday night. As of Thursday morning, nearly 1,800 remained without power, mostly in east Tulsa.

Subscribe Now: $5 for 5 months

The largest outages were reported between 129th East Avenue and 145th East Avenue along 31st Street and along Interstate 44 from west Tulsa to U.S. 169. Just a handful of customers were without power at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, according to Public Service Company of Oklahomas website.

The National Weather Service said its survey team found sporadic tornado evidence between Woodward Park and Utica Square, with a larger area of straight-line wind damage.

According to utility workers, as many as five power poles in the 31st Street and 136th East Avenue area were blown down by the storm, and 31st was closed in the area as crews worked to restore power.

Joe Lovelace, who lives in the area, said Thursday that he was watching the storm from his home when the transformers blew and the poles fell.

The wind was blowing, and the leaves  it looked like a tornado right at the front door, he said.

Shortly after that, a car whipped off the road and pulled up to him, he said. It was a Hispanic family seeking shelter.

He said the man and woman, who held a baby, used a translating app to tell him one of the poles almost fell on their vehicle. They stood inside with him for a while before determining that they could head out safely.

Lovelace said the power lines fell mostly on the eastbound lanes of the road, so cars were still traveling westbound.

City crews removed 10 trees from Tulsa roadways, according to a news release from the city.

There have been two reports of damaged structures, with one home that sustained tree damage and a duplex that sustained roof damage, the release states.

Ian Maule, Tulsa World A broken tree lies in a driveway in the 11000 block of East 14th Court, near Garnett Road, after a severe storm hit the Tulsa area on Wednesday.

Rapidly changing temperatures can account for a secondary severe weather season for Oklahoma. Steve Piltz, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Tulsa, said in a previous interview that fall storm hazards come with the return of cold fronts moving through the region.

Oklahomans saw more tornadoes in October  31  than during the previous nine months of 2021. This years unusual October weather also beat the previous October tornado record of 27, set in 1998, according to the Oklahoma Climatological Study.

Though unusual, tornadoes do occur in Oklahoma in November. The state averages 1.5 per year for the month, according to records dating to 1950. The most was 12 tornadoes in November 1958.

The 10th deadliest tornado in state history occurred on Nov. 13, 1930. That storm, rated an F4, not only occurred at an unusual time of year but also at the rare time of 9:30 a.m.

It killed 23 people and injured 150 in the Oklahoma City suburb of Bethany. About 110 homes and 700 other buildings  about a fourth of the town  were damaged or destroyed, according to the weather service.

+21 +21 Photos: Tulsa area storm damage and aftermath A possible tornado caused chaos across the Tulsa area Wednesday night in a storm that earlier in the day had only a limited tornado threat.
Valdes died after he tried to break up a fight outside Miami Nights, 6510 E. 21st St., and was assaulted himself about 3 a.m. Oct. 24.

Multiple witnesses told police officers that once the restaurant closed, there were a few people who were refusing to leave the parking lot and were fighting, according to an affidavit.

Valdes broke up the fight and attempted to make them leave, police said.

The combatants redirected their aggression to the owner and began to assault him, police said. He fell to the ground, and the suspects began to kick him.

Valdes then went into cardiac arrest, police said in the affidavit. He died at a hospital.

Security guards were attempting to assist when a vehicle accelerated toward one of them. The security guard jumped onto the hood, avoiding injury, and the vehicle fled.

Garcia-Ibarra was identified as one of the men who assaulted Valdes and Ledesma-Hernandez as the the driver of the vehicle.

Davis is being held in Tulsa County jail in lieu of $250,000 bond, and Garcia-Ibarra and Ledesma-Hernandez are being held without bond, according to jail records.
The largest outages were reported between 129th East Avenue and 145th East Avenue along 31st Street and along Interstate 44 from west Tulsa to U.S. 169. Just a handful of customers were without power at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, according to Public Service Company of Oklahomas website.

The National Weather Service said its survey team found sporadic tornado evidence between Woodward Park and Utica Square, with a larger area of straight-line wind damage.

According to utility workers, as many as five power poles in the 31st Street and 136th East Avenue area were blown down by the storm, and 31st was closed in the area as crews worked to restore power.

Joe Lovelace, who lives in the area, said Thursday that he was watching the storm from his home when the transformers blew and the poles fell.

The wind was blowing, and the leaves  it looked like a tornado right at the front door, he said.

Shortly after that, a car whipped off the road and pulled up to him, he said. It was a Hispanic family seeking shelter.

He said the man and woman, who held a baby, used a translating app to tell him one of the poles almost fell on their vehicle. They stood inside with him for a while before determining that they could head out safely.
An Army veteran who flew helicopters in Vietnam and went down twice, Champion has participated in the parade for 20 years. The date corresponds with his birthday, so he has to celebrate, he said. He turned 78 on Thursday.

The friends were seen standing across from the after-party at the VFW post at the parades end, waiting on their wives, as usual, Champion quipped.

Champion said the parade means everything to him as a veteran, and Cast called the attendance this year really something.

One of those attendees was Floyd W. Allen Jr.

Allen, 94, sat cloaked in sunshine along Third Street near Cincinnati Avenue at the beginning of the parade, flanked by his wife, Ann, and granddaughter, Hazel Copeland. It was their first time to attend the parade together, Copeland said.

Allen served in the Navy and Coast Guard during World War II as a transporter, shipping soldiers back and forth from Oakland, California.

Only 17 when he enlisted, Allen said that upon his honorable discharge he hitch-hiked all the way home from Oakland to Bixby.

I was newly married, and I wanted to get home to see my wife, he explained.
Issues in supply seem to be improving and prices stabilizing, but he expects costs to stay high after so many people got out of the shipping business during the pandemic. "An average container coming from Asia prior to COVID would cost about $4,000. Today, that same container is about $18,000," he said.

At the Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado in Colorado Springs, CEO Lynne Telford says the cost for a truckload of peanut butter 40,000 pounds (18,100 kilograms)_has soared 80% from June 2019 to $51,000 in August. Mac and cheese is up 19% from a year ago and the wholesale cost of ground beef has increased 5% in three months. They're spending more money to buy food to make up for waning donations and there's less to choose from.

The upcoming holidays worry her. For one thing, the donation cost to buy a frozen turkey has increased from $10 to $15 per bird.

"The other thing is that we're not getting enough holiday food, like stuffing and cranberry sauce. So we're having to supplement with other kinds of food, which you know, makes us sad," said Telford, whose food bank fed more than 200,000 people last year, distributing 25 million pounds (11.3 million kilograms) of food.
OKLAHOMA CITY  One of the first actions taken by new Adjutant General Thomas H. Mancino was to reverse an Oklahoma National Guard policy on COVID-19 vaccinations.

The action came after Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday relieved then-Adjutant General Michael Thompson of his duties and announced that Mancino would be his replacement.

The old policy aligned with federal requirements for vaccinations.

The new policy says soldiers and airmen and women who do not wish to be vaccinated do not have to be while they are serving in state, said Lt. Col Geoff Legler, a spokesman for the Oklahoma National Guard.

However, if they attend a school outside the state, they will be required to be vaccinated, he said.

Members attend various schools out of state to advance their careers, Legler said.

The clarified policy on COVID vaccinations for Oklahoma Army and Air National Guardsmen reflects the governors ability to assert his command authority over the men and women of the Oklahoma National Guard while they are within the states borders, Legler said.
He is the boss, Thompson said. That is his style. At the end of the day, nobody can tell him differently.

Stitt recently sent a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin requesting that COVID-19 vaccine mandates be suspended for members of the Oklahoma National Guard.

This mandate violates the personal freedoms of many Oklahomans, as it asks them to potentially sacrifice their personal beliefs in order to not lose their jobs, Stitt wrote.

Oklahoma Attorney General John OConnor, who was appointed by Stitt, has sued the federal government over vaccine mandates.

Thompson said he had no comment on the letter but was doing everything he could to get compliance with the federal requirement for vaccinations, as is everyone in the U.S. military.

It is a requirement, he said.

Charlie Hannema, a Stitt spokesman, said the governors replacement of Thompson wasnt related to vaccine requirements. He said Stitt had started a search for Thompsons replacement and decided on Mancino.

The governor felt it was time to make the change for the continuity of operations, Hannema said.
In Merkels mind, Germany would not revert back to its exclusionary, xenophobic and anti-Semitic past. It would embrace the humane treatment of people who suffer and try to make their lives better.

Similar strains of humility have been seen in Japan. Japan suffered greatly in World War II, but it also caused even greater pain on the places it occupied before its eventual defeat.

While time has blunted some post-war sentiments there, the Japanese have been resolute in recognizing the evils that imperial Japan inflicted while also steering clear of the worst horrors it endured. The Japanese maintain a defensive military  not one geared toward conquest  and refuse to develop nuclear weapons. Dignitaries still make the pilgrimage to Pearl Harbor to pay their respects.

The common thread of these two countries is that it took the humiliation of defeat to open their eyes. The two greatest Axis powers had no choice but to face their reckoning.

Its harder for countries that have not been brought to their knees. Incentives to change the national narrative are not as great.
Vietnam made a sharp rebound in financial technology (fintech) funding in the ASEAN region in January-September, standing at the third place after Singapore and Indonesia, according to the FinTech in ASEAN 2021 report.

Vietnam accounted for US$375 million, or 11 percent, of the total fintech funding of $3.5 billion in the period, which more than tripled from the entirety of 2020 as investors poured money into mature firms seen as having a higher chance of emerging strongly from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report.

Singapore continued leading the fintech fund list with $1.6 billion (49 percent), followed by Indonesia with $904 million (26 percent), said the report released on Wednesday by Singapore-based United Overseas Bank (UOB), PwC Singapore, and the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA).

In 2019, Vietnam represented 30 percent of the regions total fintech funding, coming second after Singapore (42 percent).

Last year, Vietnam stood behind the others in ASEAN-6 countries, with Singapore taking the lead, followed by Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand (tied for the third place), and Malaysia, according to another report issued by SFA, UOB, and PwC Singapore in 2020.

The sharp increase in total fintech funding this year was driven by 167 deals including 13 mega-rounds, defined as a funding round of $100 million and above, which accounted for $2 billion of the total funding, the latest report said.

The strongest growth this year was seen in funds injected into investment tech and cryptocurrency firms in ASEAN, with both categories holding the second and third places, respectively, after payment.

Compared to last year, funding for investment tech firms grew six times to $457 million this year, in line with growing consumer interest in the use of digital trading and wealth management tools.

Funding for cryptocurrency firms came in third at $356 million as they attracted five times the funding received in 2020.

The share of cryptocurrency firms in the region is expected to grow as players tap into consumers rising interest, as nine in 10 ASEAN consumers have started or planned to use cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies.

This year has seen payment remain the most funded fintech category in ASEAN at $1.9 billion and continue to make up the majority of fintech firms in most countries, except for Singapore (cryptocurrency) and Thailand (alternative lending).

The fintech scene all over Southeast Asia continued to thrive and grow rapidly, as attested by the strong rebound in financing this year, said SFA president Shadab Taiyabi.

One key driver of this resurgence was the pandemic, which has catalyzed digital adoption in Singapore and across the region, driving the rise in digital payments and accelerating the shift toward digital channels within the financial services sector, Taiyabi said.

Along with the rebound of fintech funding, the opportunity to forge strong win-win-win partnerships between fintech firms, ecosystem platform players, and incumbent banks will remain instrumental in propelling the sustainable growth of ASEANs fintech firms, said Janet Young, head of group channels and digitalization of UOB.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Tiny, weeks-old cheetah cubs suckled from baby bottles and purred weakly, their condition still dangerously precarious after their rescue from the Horn of Africa's illegal wildlife trade.

Around half the cubs saved from traffickers do not survive the trauma -- and there are real concerns for the smallest of this lot, a frail infant nicknamed "Green" weighing just 700 grams (25 ounces).

"It was very touch and go with Green," said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), inspecting the mewling cub at the non-profit organisation's rescue centre in Somaliland.

They are the lucky ones -- every year an estimated 300 cheetah cubs are trafficked through Somaliland to wealthy buyers in the Middle East seeking exotic pets.

Snatched from their mothers, shipped out of Africa to war-torn Yemen and onward to the Gulf, cubs that survive the ordeal can fetch up to $15,000 on the black market.

It is a busy trade, one less familiar than criminal markets for elephant ivory or rhino horn, but equally devastating for Africa's most endangered big cat.

Ahmed Yussuf, veterinarian of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, talks with a cheetah from outside its cage in one of the facilities of the organisation in the city of Hargeisa, Somaliland, on September 19, 2021. Photo: AFP

Loved to death

A century ago, there were an estimated 100,000 cheetahs worldwide. Today barely 7,000 remain, their numbers slashed by human encroachment and habitat destruction.

The steady plunder of cubs from the wild to satisfy the pet trade only compounds this decline.

More than 3,600 live cheetahs were illegally traded worldwide in the decade to December 2019, according to research published this year that documented hundreds of advertisements for cubs on social media platforms including YouTube and Instagram.

"If this keeps going... that kind of offtake causes the population to go extinct in a very short time," said Marker, a leading authority on cheetahs.

A volunteer of the Cheetah Conservation Fund plays with cheetahs in their cage in one of the facilities of the organisation in the city of Hargeisa, Somaliland, on September 17, 2021. Photo: AFP

Cheetahs have been prized as pets and hunting companions since the Roman Empire and breeding them in captivity is notoriously difficult, making wild-caught cubs the only option.

Part of the campaign to stop the modern-day trade has focused on changing attitudes in prosperous Gulf states, the main buyer market where cheetahs are still coveted status symbols.

Marker said wealthy owners liked to show off their cheetahs in selfies as much as their cars and cash.

"There's kind of a one-upmanship on it, and there's bragging power. One of our messages is do not 'like' this kind of thing on social media," Marker said.

A baby cheetah stands inside a mosquito next as a veterinarian of the Cheetah Conservation Fund seats behind it in one of the facilities of the organisation in the city of Hargeisa, Somaliland, on September 17, 2021. Photo: AFP

Cruel trade

Combatting this criminal trade is particularly challenging because it revolves around Somaliland, a self-declared republic without international recognition, and one of the world's poorest regions.

Roughly the size of Syria, with 850 kilometres (530 miles) of coastline facing Yemen, the breakaway region between Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia is stretched thin policing its porous borders.

Somaliland's interior minister Mohamed Kahin Ahmed told AFP that a small coastguard unit was doing its best but apart from patrolling for cheetahs they had human traffickers and gun runners to contend with.

The cubs that slip through the net suffer terrible mistreatment along the smuggling route, fed improperly and confined to tiny cages, sometimes with their legs bound with zip ties.

A member of the Cheetah Conservation Fund feeds a baby cheetah in one of the facilities of the organisation in the city of Hargeisa, Somaliland, on September 17, 2021. Photo: AFP

Marker said one particular seizure in 2019 illustrated the cruelty: "When they dumped them out, there were live ones dying on top of dead ones... It was just horrible," she said.

In recent years, confiscations have soared as the government has cracked down on the trade.

From just a handful of cubs in 2018, today CCF shelters 67 rescued cheetahs across three safe houses in the Somaliland capital Hargeisa.

Laws criminalising the sale of cheetahs have also started being enforced.

In October 2020, a smuggling ring was shattered and a high-profile trafficker prosecuted in a landmark trial.

Laurie Marker (not seen), founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, feeds a baby cheetah with a milk bottle in one of the facilities of the organisation in the city of Hargeisa, Somaliland, on September 17, 2021. Photo: AFP

Future generations

Through a UK government-funded programme, Somaliland is expanding intelligence sharing with neighbouring countries and Yemen to fight the criminals robbing Africa of the iconic species.

But the government is also working with impoverished rural communities, whose conflict with cheetahs is another driver in the trade.

Of the 13 cubs confiscated between September and November, at least four were taken by farmers hoping to sell them and recoup losses after claiming their livestock were killed by cheetahs.

"The next generation may never see a cheetah if this illicit trade continues," Edna Adan Ismail, Somaliland's former foreign minister, told an anti-poaching conference in September.

Baby cheetahs play in one of the facilities of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, in the city of Hargeisa, Somaliland, on September 17, 2021. Photo: AFP

Local veterinarian Ahmed Yuusuf Ibrahim is determined this grim prophecy does not pass.

The 27-year-old has been learning how to nurse sickly cubs back to health and has developed a close fondness for the cheetahs under his care.

They cannot fend for themselves, and eventually will be relocated to a larger natural enclosure outside Hargeisa.

But for now, Ibrahim is their doting custodian -- right down to making sure cheetahs young and old get their fair share of camel meat.

"I care for them. I feed them, I clean them. They are my babies," he said.
Tredene Dobson, New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam, had a discussion with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper over the cooperation potential between the two countries and the role of Vietnamese women in economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, as her island nation is hosting the 2021 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

During this years virtual event, APEC leaders have focused on the region's economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, emphasizing supply chain support and decarbonizing economies.

This years APEC forum is probably the most unique edition since it was established because each session was held virtually. It is also special because New Zealand is the host. Ambassador Dobson, can you elaborate on your countrys experience in hosting this years APEC forum, how New Zealand chose to incorporate Maori culture into the event, as well as the messages it wants to convey?

APEC 2021 has been an extraordinary journey delivered in extraordinary times.

New Zealand is grateful to all of the APEC economies, including Vietnam, for joining us on that journey.

The APEC community was thrown into a challenge with the pandemic but together weve responded, and huge progress has been made.

I want to describe New Zealands effort as the host of APEC 2021 in numbers: 21 economies; 8,000 delegates; 340 meetings and counting, all in virtual form. An incredible joint effort.

With the challenges that our economies face, we are firm believers that now, more than ever, collaboration is required to succeed.

This has been our theme for the year, and it has been reflected in the slogan for APEC 2021: 'Haumi e - Hui e - Taiki e.' This phrase  which comes from the Maori language  is used to signal that a group is united and ready to progress the purpose of them coming together.

It is this spirit that New Zealand has sought to breathe into APEC during its chairmanship.

APEC Leaders Week is taking place from November 8 to 12, and it is the pinnacle of New Zealands host year.

The meeting of APEC leaders will follow New Zealands hosting of APEC Foreign and Trade Ministers and the APEC CEO Summit 2021, as well as meetings with officials, business leaders, and young leaders from around the region.

This years APEC has delivered innovative policy that champions the climate; united a region against vaccine nationalism; driven a coordinated economic response to the biggest downturn in 75 years; and front-footed discussions on an inclusive and digital recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Any one of those things could be considered an achievement but the community came together at a critical point in time, set an ambitious agenda, and, we believe, achieved it.

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Ministerial Meeting in October highlighted the role of women in economic recovery from COVID-19. Could you please share your thoughts on this? Is it true that women will aid in such economy recovery? How will businesswomen, particularly Vietnamese businesswomen, be affected?

There is no denying that a resilient and sustainable economy is an inclusive economy.

Most APEC economies rely heavily on their SMEs  they are the engines of growth and innovation across the APEC region, accounting for more than 97 percent of businesses, employing more than 60 percent of the workforce, and comprising 40 to 60 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in most economies.

We know it will not be possible for our economies to achieve a sustainable recovery from the pandemic if we do not address the unique challenges faced by SMEs.

That is why the ministers at the APEC Ministers summit who are responsible for SMEs in their countries focused their discussion on two key levers of SME resilience: digitalization as an enabler of effective recovery from economic shocks and inclusion and well-being for recovery.

Another reason why inclusion is important when talking about SMEs is, of course, that the majority of small and medium enterprises are women-owned or women-led.

So, when we talk about SMEs being disproportionately affected by the COVID19 pandemic, we are also saying that women and their families are disproportionately affected.

In fact, according to the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs report, 87 percent of women business owners say they have been adversely affected by the pandemic.

This is, in part, because women are overrepresented in the hardest-hit sectors of tourism, retail, and hospitality.

It is also women who bear the added pressures of school closures and the resulting additional childcare needs and the facilitation of at-home education.

The APEC Women in the Economy Forum looked at a number of these issues and the barriers women face in being included in economic recovery.

The forum addressed a number of key issues including the balance and division of unpaid work and caring responsibilities, as well as the importance of accessible childcare; digital and financial inclusion  which means ensuring that women have equal access to the capabilities and tools that will allow them to engage meaningfully in the economy; the interconnectedness of health and the economy; and the importance of education and meaningful participation in decision-making and leadership.

If each APEC economy is able to focus on these issues and take meaningful steps towards addressing them, we can be pretty confident that women will be a major component in our economic recovery.

That would lead to all sorts of positive development outcomes, including in Vietnam.

When we look at how Vietnam has grown in the past four or five decades, we see that Vietnamese women have been a true driving force behind the countrys growth, accounting for more than 90 percent of the workforce in manufacturing, for example.

Im sure you know the Vietnamese saying, 'Phu nu Viet Nam gioi viec nuoc, am viec nha' (Vietnamese women excel both inside and outside the home).

While this is of course absolutely true, I admit, I feel slightly concerned about the burden of expectation placed upon the shoulders of Vietnamese women reflected in those words.

Vietnamese society, frankly like all societies, needs to think about how it rebalances the equation of paid and unpaid work and the roles of men and women within our households.

My mother always worked and she also took on the majority of the work within the home, but I saw real change when my dad took on the primary responsibility of cooking for the family and supporting my sister and I with our education and other activities.

That opened up the opportunity for my mom to develop in her career.

That was 40 years ago, so Im sure Vietnam is ready to address some of the inequalities that might be holding women back from fully realising their economic potential.

Going forward into this decade, I have no doubt whatsoever that Vietnamese women will continue to maintain their significant position in Vietnams growth.

This is why New Zealand has, and will continue, to focus our efforts in Vietnam on supporting economic opportunities for women.

For example, since June 2020, the New Zealand Embassy has provided immediate financial support to about 3,000 female workers economically affected by COVID-19 outbreaks, with a total value of VND3.1 billion [US$137,000] awarded through the Head of Embassy Fund.

The beneficiaries of the fund include factory workers, farmers, and those working in the informal sectors in Hanoi, Hai Duong, Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Hue, Da Nang, Binh Duong, and Ho Chi Minh City.

Furthermore, through our ASEAN Young Business Leaders Initiative, we are supporting young female entrepreneurs who we know will be our business leaders and employers of the future.

Vietnam and New Zealand have maintained diplomatic ties for 45 years. How do you evaluate the current relationship between the two countries and what areas can both sides potentially cooperate on for mutually beneficial economic recovery from COVID-19?

The relationship between Vietnam and New Zealand is in terrific shape.

In 2020, our prime ministers launched our strategic partnership, marking a significant milestone in our bilateral relationship. Im pleased to say it continues to go from strong to stronger in almost every area.

Despite all of the difficulties posed by the pandemic, we have successfully maintained regular high-level virtual political exchanges, defence and security cooperation, strong growth in bilateral trade, and expanded education links.

The foreign ministers and trade ministers' virtual talks in May, June, and October this year are prime examples of how we have maintained high-level dialogue during this time.

I am also delighted to share that, despite the supply-chain and border issues created by COVID-19, our trade relationship has continued to grow.

Vietnam is New Zealands 14th-largest trading partner and two-way merchandise trade topped NZD$1.95 billion [$1.37 billion] by March 2021.

New Zealands exports to Vietnam have seen good growth in a number of sectors, particularly the food and beverage field, which experiences 25 percent growth.

This shows the confidence that Vietnamese consumers have in New Zealands high-quality products.

Also, in a sign of just how complementary our two-way trade is, Vietnam has grown its machinery exports to New Zealand by more than 28 percent over the last year.

As both our countries look to achieve strong economic growth in the wake of COVID-19, the ambitious trade goals we have set will be an important focus.

We are fortunate to have some very high-quality free trade agreements that link our two countries so we will be working hard to ensure that exporters from both sides are able to leverage those agreements.

In terms of specific sectors, I see a lot of potential in the green economy  and that includes everything from agri-tech to IT services.

New Zealand and Vietnam are both very innovative economies, and we need to take greater advantage of that.

Agriculture is another great example of where both countries have been able to benefit from the relationship.

We have an agricultural cooperation arrangement which supports bilateral trade and is helping to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and promote food safety as well as rural development.

In terms of our agricultural trade, we are fortunate to have very complementary products.

New Zealands kiwi fruit and apples have consolidated their position in the Vietnamese market.

Our cherries are also increasingly popular, especially during Tet, the traditional Lunar New Year holiday.

New Zealanders enjoy nuts and tropical fruits from Vietnam, including its iconic dragon fruit and rambutan.

We actually have a great development programme that draws on New Zealands expertise in fruit production to develop three new dragon fruit varieties in Vietnam.

Our local partners are now in the process of commercializing those new varieties with the support of New Zealands research institutes, as well as getting the license trademark for the new varieties.

These high-quality new varieties are specifically designed to have strong disease resistance, increased storage life, and new colour and flavour profiles, promising to satisfy growers and customers in Vietnam and worldwide.

The pandemic has, of course, made it impossible for students to travel to New Zealand.

There has been a silver-lining though  as education providers have become more creative, New Zealand education institutions have developed flexible in-country options, such as joint programmes and foundation study centres.

There are also ongoing exchanges about online learning and curriculum development.

So, as you can see, a lot of really exciting things are happening and these developments are going to be underpinned by the great cooperation going on in regional forums like APEC.

The future certainly looks bright for the Vietnam  New Zealand relationship.

Thank you for your time!

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Construction workers have begun installing the final rail section of Ho Chi Minh Citys first-ever metro route.

The installation of the last rail section of metro line No. 1 started on November 9, according to the citys Management Authority for Urban Railway (MAUR)  the project developer.

The section includes two underground tracks that run parallel to each other and measure 660 meters long and 1.4 meters wide each.

It connects Ben Thanh Terminal with Municipal Theater Station in District 1.

The construction site of the railway section of Ho Chi Minh Citys metro route No. 1, November 11, 2021. Photo: Le Phan / Tuoi Tre

As of Thursday, approximately 400 construction workers had arrived at the construction site to begin installing the tracks.

Vu Hoang Hai, chief engineer at Ben Thanh Terminal, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that 95 percent of the workers had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or had recovered from the respiratory disease.

The rest have been jabbed once and are tested for the novel coronavirus every week, Hai added.

Construction workers install the final railway section of Ho Chi Minh Citys metro route No. 1, November 11, 2021. Photo: Le Phan / Tuoi Tre

About 88 percent of metro line No. 1 has been completed, the MAUR stated, adding that all units are exerting full efforts to finish 91 percent of the project by the end of the year.

The metro line No. 1 project, also known as the Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien route, runs from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to the Long Binh Depot in Thu Duc City and is 19.7km long, including a 2.6km underground section and a 17.1km elevated railway.

The project costs more than VND43.7 trillion (US$1.9 billion), most of which has come from Japan's official development assistance (ODA).

Construction workers install the final railway section of Ho Chi Minh Citys metro route No. 1, November 11, 2021. Photo: Le Phan / Tuoi Tre

The metro line has a total of 17 trains with a combined 51 carriages.

The maximum speed of the trains is 110 kilometers per hour along the elevated spans and 80 kilometers along the underground sections.

Construction started in August 2012 and was previously expected to be completed by the end of this year.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a lot of difficulties to the arrival of experts and import of equipment, which has slowed down the process.

A recent assessment by the MAUR and contractors showed that the project is expected to be finished in late 2023 or early 2024.

A worker installs the final railway section of Ho Chi Minh Citys metro route No. 1, November 11, 2021. Photo: Le Phan / Tuoi Tre

Construction workers install the final railway section of Ho Chi Minh Citys metro route No. 1, November 11, 2021. Photo: Le Phan / Tuoi Tre

The construction site of the railway section of Ho Chi Minh Citys metro route No. 1, November 11, 2021. Photo: Le Phan / Tuoi Tre

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
A rare purple-colored king crab caught in Norway has been exhibited at Nha Trangs Oceanographic Museum in the south-central Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa.

The museum received the king crab from the Royal Seafood supermarket in Thu Duc City under Ho Chi Minh City on November 2 for research and exhibition purposes, according to Truong Si Hai Trinh, the museums head of environmental education and communication.

The supermarket had imported the rare sea creature from Norway previously.

The crab, which weighs about 2.8 kilograms and has a purple hue, is growing well in a tank at a temperature of five degrees Celsius and is fed seaweed and small fish.

The care of the purple king crab is monitored and recorded daily.

Experts at the Institute of Oceanography in Nha Trangs Oceanographic Museum are studying the crab over its rare color, according to Trinh.

A foreign child and his mother watch a rare purple king crab on display at Nha Trangs Oceanographic Museum in Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. Photo: Nha Trangs Oceanographic Museum

King crabs are usually dark red, burgundy, brown, or light brown, weighing two to four kilograms, he said.

King crabs of purple color are found once in a purple moon, according to the expert, so it is possibly the effect of a mutation that caused the crab to turn purple, similar to another one found in Alaska, the U.S. in 2014.

Its safe to say that it took nearly eight years for us to see another purple king crab, out of less than five times in the world record, Trinh claimed.

A rare purple king crab is on display at Nha Trangs Oceanographic Museum in Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. Photo: Minh Chien / Tuoi Tre

The purple king crab, whose scientific name is Paralithodes, is a species often found in the North Pacific or Alaskan waters, according to Dao Tan Hoc, a crustacean expert at the Institute of Oceanography.

The majority of king crabs on the market are red king crabs, or Paralithodes camtschaticus, also native to the North Pacific or Alaskan regions.

In addition, in this distribution area, there is also a species of blue king crab, or Paralithodes platypus, with outstanding blue-violet color.

Unlike red king crabs that breed every year, blue king crabs are less common, as they only breed once every few years.

The exact species of this crab has yet to be determined, said Hoc.

It is difficult to determine whether the cause of the purple color on this individual crab is normal or abnormal.

A family watch a rare purple king crab on display at Nha Trangs Oceanographic Museum in Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. Photo: Minh Chien / Tuoi Tre

A rare purple king crab is on display at Nha Trangs Oceanographic Museum in Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. Photo: Minh Chien / Tuoi Tre

Nha Trangs Oceanographic Museum received a rare purple king crab on November 2, 2021. Photo: Nha Trangs Oceanographic Museum

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has requested authorities in every province and city, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of National Defense to swiftly submit reports on COVID-19 vaccine demands to calculate a reasonable distribution road map for 2022.

In the request issued on Thursday, the ministry also asked for the statistics on vaccine doses received and administered in each locale and by the two ministries as of October 31.

The reports are necessary for designing a comprehensive distribution plan of COVID-19 vaccines for the last two months of 2021 and securing effective vaccine use in 2022, according to the ministry.

By the end of November 9, the ministry had allocated a total of 112.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam's 63 provinces and cities in 81 rounds.

Health workers have administered more than 95.5 million vaccine doses since inoculation was rolled out on March 8, with over 32 million people having received two injections, as of Thursday.

Over 85 percent of the country's adult population have received at least one vaccine shot while more than 43 percent have been fully vaccinated.

Fifteen out of 63 provinces and cities have reported coverage of at least one dose of vaccine for over 95 percent of their adult population.

Fifteen other locales have reached a 50-percent coverage of first vaccine shots.

Meanwhile, authorities in 12 localities are carrying out the vaccination program for children from 12 to 17 years old, with the total number of injections topping one million doses.

Vietnam has found 1,000,897 infections since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit it early last year, including 995,903 community transmissions in all of its 63 provinces and cities since the fourth virus wave broke out in late April.

Recoveries have reached 845,948 while the death toll has jumped to 22,849.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
The Ministry of Health documented 8,982 COVID-19 infections across Vietnam on Friday, alongside 10,263 recovered patients and 81 deaths.

The latest cases, including six imported and 8,976 local transmissions, were reported in 56 provinces and cities, the ministry said, noting that 4,180 patients caught the pathogen in the community.

Ho Chi Minh City recorded 1,388 of the domestically-transmitted infections, Dong Nai Province 813, An Giang Province 661, Binh Duong Province 654, Tien Giang Province 634, Tay Ninh Province 517, Kien Giang Province 403, Dong Thap Province 383, Binh Thuan Province 287, Can Tho City 178, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province 177, Hanoi 176, Khanh Hoa Province 170, Quang Nam Province 45, Da Nang 34, and Hai Phong City 16.

Vietnam had logged 8,145 locally-infected patients on Thursday.

The Southeast Asian country has confirmed 1,004,879 community-based transmissions in all its 63 provinces and cities since the fourth virus wave emerged on April 27. A total of 853,394 of them have recovered from the respiratory disease.

Ho Chi Minh City tops the list with 445,203 patients, followed by Binh Duong Province with 242,243, Dong Nai Province with 76,656, Long An Province with 36,289, Tien Giang Province with 20,150, An Giang Province with 16,216, Tay Ninh Province with 14,859, Kien Giang Province with 13,873, Dong Thap Province with 12,527, Khanh Hoa Province with 9,855, Can Tho City with 9,045, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with 6,224, Hanoi with 5,992, and Da Nang with 5,174.

Vietnam detected only 1,570 locally-transmitted infections in total in the previous three waves.

The health ministry announced 10,263 recovered patients on Friday, elevating the total to 856,211.

The toll has mounted to 22,930 deaths after the ministry registered 81 fatalities on the same day, including 42 in Ho Chi Minh City, five in Binh Duong Province, and the remainder in 16 other provinces and cities.

Vietnam has found 1,009,879 infections since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit it early last year.

Health workers have administered more than 96.5 million vaccine doses, including 1,000,048 shots on Thursday, since inoculation was rolled out on March 8.

Over 32.8 million people have received two jabs.

Health authorities in the country of nearly 98 million people target to fully vaccinate 80 percent of the adults and 100 percent of those aged 12 to under 18 by the end of this year, according to a draft government plan for COVID-19 response in 2021-23.

From 2022 onward, 100 percent of people aged 12 and above will either be fully immunized against the coronavirus or even get booster shots.

Children from three to under 12 years old will be fully inoculated in accordance with World Health Organization guidelines.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
A national ceremony will be held to pay tribute to people who have lost their lives to COVID-19 in Vietnam, according to National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

The Vietnam Fatherland Front will coordinate with Ho Chi Minh City and relevant localities to organize the ceremony.

The event will take place virtually, Hue told the ongoing second session of the 15th legislature on Thursday morning.

This is the desire of many lawmakers, Hue said.

The lawmakers also suggested that the NA choose August 22 as the day of commemoration because Vietnam recorded the highest number of deaths caused by COVID-19 on that day this year.

Official statistics only show that 737 people died of COVID-19 on August 21 and 22, including 599 in Ho Chi Minh City, with no separate death toll reported for August 22.

To date, the Southeast Asian country has documented over 22,800 coronavirus-related fatalities nationwide.

NA Chairman Hue said that the pandemic has upended production and business activities, livelihoods, employment, and the lives of people and companies, with more than 1.3 million people leaving Ho Chi Minh City and key economic hubs in the southern region to return home, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

The top legislator proposed that the government and cabinet members should analyze, evaluate, and have an overall solution to restore and develop the labor market, and create jobs for internal migrant workers as they have come back to their hometowns.

Hue asked for efforts to provide social welfare support packages to assist affected employees and ensure that everyone can gain the most convenient and fastest access to those packages.

He emphasized the need to strengthen the protection of childrens rights, especially those orphaned by the pandemic.

The fourth wave of coronavirus infections, which flared up in Vietnam on April 27 and has become the most challenging the nation has ever faced, has caused 995,903 community-based transmissions in all 63 provinces and cities.

Ho Chi Minh City is the biggest epicenter with 443,815 patients, including 16,925 fatalities.

Vietnam has found 1,000,897 infections since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit it early last year.

Health workers have administered more than 95.5 million vaccine doses since inoculation was rolled out on March 8, with over 32 million people having received two injections.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
WTFN titles have been sold to four Canadian broadcasters through the companys distribution arm, Fred Media.

Reality-based SVOD service hayu has acquired seasons one and two of Nines Emergency (20 x 60) and three seasons of Paramedics (30 x 60).

Quebecor Content has licensed Space Invaders (10 x 60) for its Casa lifestyle channel and Travels with the Bondi Vet (13 x 30) for the travel and adventure-led Evasion. Space Invaders was recently re-commissioned by Nine Network while Travels with the Bondi Vet follows Dr Chris Brown in a range of adventures in the wild.

Bell Media has acquired Mega Zoo (10 x 60) which goes behind the scenes at Zoos Victoria, the largest zoo in the Southern hemisphere.

Finally, TLN TV has acquired a package of 38 food-focused hours from Fred Medias Tastemade catalogue: All the Pizza (7 x 30), Heritage (7 x 30), Frankies World (5 x 30), Struggle Meals (4 series: 45 x 30), Sourced (8 x 30) and Recipe for Love (4 x 30).

Zoe Allen, Fred Medias sales manager for the Americas said, There are a lot of synergies between Canada and Australia, so I am really pleased to see a number of our big, home-produced shows such as Space Invaders, Emergency, Paramedics and Mega Zoo find great new homes in the country. Hopefully they will be as well received with viewers here as they were in Australia. I am also delighted to have secured a first deal for Fred Media with TLN. With its unique line-up of food and lifestyle content and our speciality in these genres, including our extensive range of Tastemade titles, Im hoping this deal will prove the beginning of a wonderful new partnership.
Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. (Psalm 95:1-2)
A special tribute wall was unveiled Thursday as the Christus Trinity Mother Frances community gathered to honor veterans. After a ceremony featuring special guests, the Tyler hospital revealed the wall dedicated to all those who serve, including those in military service but also first responders, police, firefighters and more. Special guests included Air Force Major General Jay Closner and State Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, who is also a retired Lt. Commander of the U.S. Navy Reserve. Following the ceremony, the public and guests were surprised to know there was one more component to the Veterans Day program. The tribute wall, located inside the Christus Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, is dedicated to all veterans, including nearly 300 of those, who are associates of Christus Health. Read more here.

Close

Raquel Torres Bilingual Multimedia Journalist I cover COVID-19 and health in the East Texas area for Tyler Morning Telegraph, the Longview News-Journal and Tyler Paper Espanol. Stephen F. Austin State University alumna. For story ideas, email me at rtorres@tylerpaper.com. Follow Raquel Torres 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
Our community is grieving.

Grief can show up in many ways in your life, including brain fog, physical symptoms, withdrawing from family and friends, difficulty communicating how you are feeling, apathy toward things you typically care about and losing focus. Its important to recognize the signs and to take care of yourself in these moments.

Visit the Essentia Health to see some ideas for how to engage in self care when you are grieving.

There is a difference between self care and self sabotage. Self care helps you move forward in healthy ways, such as speaking to a counselor, going for a walk, sharing stories, or journaling. Self-sabotage hurts you in the long run, and might feel good in the moment, but doesnt help you in the long term. This includes blacking out due to substances, avoidance, skipping classes, or oversleeping. We encourage you to focus on self-care. If you are looking for ideas or want to connect with another student about how you can incorporate self care into your routine, consider meeting with a Co-Pilot.

There are resources that can help.

Other Online Resources:

Crisis Resources:
DUBLIN, November 12, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Musculoskeletal Pain - Market Insight, Epidemiology and Market Forecast - 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report delivers an in-depth understanding of the historical and forecasted epidemiology as well as the market trends of Musculoskeletal Pain in the United States, EU5 (Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and United Kingdom), and Japan.

The market report provides current treatment practices, emerging drugs, market share of the individual therapies, current and forecasted Musculoskeletal Pain market Size from 2018 to 2030, segmented by seven major markets. The report also covers the current Musculoskeletal Pain treatment practice/algorithm, market drivers, market barriers, and unmet medical needs to curate the best opportunities and assesses the underlying market potential.

Epidemiology

The Musculoskeletal Pain epidemiology division provides insights into the historical and current patient pool and the forecasted trend for every seven major countries. It helps recognize the causes of current and forecasted trends by exploring numerous studies and views of key opinion leaders. This part of the report also provides the diagnosed patient pool, trends, and assumptions.

Epidemiology: Key Findings

The disease epidemiology covered in the report provides historical and forecasted Musculoskeletal Pain epidemiology segmented as the Diagnosed Prevalent cases of Musculoskeletal Pain, Age-specific cases of Musculoskeletal Pain, and Gender-specific cases of Musculoskeletal Pain. The report includes the prevalent scenario of Musculoskeletal Pain in the 7MM covering the United States, EU5 countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom), and Japan from 2018 to 2030.

Country-wise Epidemiology

The epidemiology segment also provides the Musculoskeletal Pain epidemiology data and findings across the United States, EU5 (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom), and Japan. The diagnosed prevalent population of Musculoskeletal Pain in the 7MM countries was estimated to be 145,426,730 cases in 2020.

Story continues

Drug Chapters

The drug chapter segment of the Musculoskeletal Pain report encloses the detailed analysis of Musculoskeletal pain marketed drugs and late stage (Phase-III, Phase-II/III, Phase-II, and Phase-I/II) pipeline drugs. It also helps understand the Musculoskeletal Pain clinical trial details, expressive pharmacological action, agreements and collaborations, approval and patent details, advantages and disadvantages of each included drug, and the latest news and press releases.

A multimodal, multidisciplinary approach is required when managing patients with musculoskeletal pain. Non-opioid analgesics should be used first, and then opioids, with caution. Extended-release tramadol; selected tricyclic antidepressants, serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and anticonvulsants; and topical medications such as lidocaine, diclofenac, and capsaicin are among the most effective treatments.

It is expected that the therapeutic market size of Musculoskeletal Pain is expected to change significantly after the launch of various novel therapies, which include monoclonal antibodies (LY3016859), stem cell therapies (Rexlemestrocel-L), and disease-modifying OA drug (DMOAD) like lorecivivint, TG-C in the market. Overall, the increasing prevalence, awareness of the disease, and promising emerging pipeline therapies will propel the market size during the forecast period of 2018-2030.

Emerging Drugs

Rexlemestrocel-L/MPC-06-ID

Fasinumab/REGN475/MT-5547

Market Outlook

The market size of Musculoskeletal Pain in the seven major markets was USD 3,647.2 million in 2020.

ZILRETTA is the first and only extended-release, intra-articular therapy for patients confronting osteoarthritis-related knee pain. ZILRETTA employs proprietary microsphere technology combining triamcinolone acetonide - a commonly administered, short-acting corticosteroid - with a poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) matrix to provide extended pain relief over 12 weeks. ZILRETTA received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in October 2017, and the company initiated the full commercial launch in November 2017.

For knee pain, viscosupplements such as intra-articular hyaluronate injections were better than placebo for reducing pain and improving function in the short term (1-4 weeks). However, high clinical and statistical heterogeneity, evidence of publication bias, and low-quality trials preclude definitive recommendations about routine use in clinical practice. Furthermore, the available evidence did not suggest injections are effective for managing neck pain or back pain. Thus, this indicates that injections offer short-term pain relief for shoulder and knee pain, but the effectiveness of back and neck pain is uncertain.

JOYCLU is a formulation in which hyaluronic acid and diclofenac (an anti-inflammatory drug) are chemically bound using Seikagaku's proprietary technology. It is designed to release diclofenac by hydrolysis in the joint. Improvement of symptoms of osteoarthritis (knee joint and hip joint) is expected by administering JOYCLU into the joint cavity once every 4 weeks. Further, since JOYCLU is administered directly into the joint cavity as an injectable treatment, systemic exposure to diclofenac is low, and the risk of systemic adverse drug reaction is thought to be low. JOYCLU is the first joint function improvement agent in Japan indicated for treating osteoarthritis of the hip joint. In March 2021, Ono Pharmaceutical and Seikagaku Corporation announced that Seikagaku obtained from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (MHLW) a manufacturing and marketing approval in Japan for JOYCLU 30 mg Intra-articular Injection. The drug is presently being evaluated in a Phase II trial in the US to treat knee osteoarthritis.

Cingal is a third-generation viscosupplement approved in the European Union to treat pain associated with osteoarthritis effectively. It is a powerful, first-in-class treatment that combines the benefits of Anika's proprietary cross-linked hyaluronic acid formulation of Monovisc, proven to deliver up to 6 months of relief of the symptoms of osteoarthritis, with a well-established FDA-approved steroid to treat inflammation and provide additional short-term pain relief. In its pivotal clinical study, Cingal demonstrated an ability to provide fast and long-lasting pain relief for those affected by knee OA. The company plans to do NDA filing in 2026 for the US launch.

Drugs Uptake

This section focuses on the rate of uptake of the potential drugs recently launched or expected to get launched in the market during the study period 2018-2030. The analysis covers Musculoskeletal Pain market uptake by drugs, patient uptake by therapies, and sales of each drug.

This helps in understanding the drugs with the most rapid uptake, reasons behind the maximal use of new drugs, and allow the comparison of the drugs based on market share and size, which again will be useful in investigating factors important in the market uptake and in making financial and regulatory decisions.

Pipeline Activities

The report provides insights into different therapeutic candidates in Phase III, Phase II/III, Phase II, and Phase I/II stage. It also analyses Musculoskeletal Pain key players involved in developing targeted therapeutics. Major players include Mesoblast, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Charleston Laboratories, Sorrento Therapeutics, and others whose key products are expected to get launched in the US market.

Development Activities

The report covers collaborations, acquisition, merger, licensing, and patent details for Musculoskeletal Pain emerging therapies.

KOL Views

To keep up with current market trends, the report takes KOLs and SME's opinions working in the Musculoskeletal Pain domain through primary research to fill the data gaps and validate our secondary research. Their opinion helps understand and validate current and emerging therapies treatment patterns or Musculoskeletal Pain market trends. This will support the clients in potential upcoming novel treatment by identifying the overall scenario of the market and the unmet needs.

Competitive Intelligence Analysis

The report performs a Competitive and Market Intelligence analysis of the Musculoskeletal Pain market by using various Competitive Intelligence tools: SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, Porter's five forces, BCG Matrix, Market entry strategies, etc. The inclusion of the analysis entirely depends upon the data availability.

Companies Mentioned

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

Aesculap Biologics

Ampio Pharmaceuticals

Amzell

Anika Therapeutics

Antibe Therapeutics

AstraZeneca

Axsome Therapeutics

Biosplice Therapeutics

Braeburn Pharmaceuticals

Camurus

Centrexion Therapeutics

Charleston Laboratories

Eli Lilly and Company

Flexion Therapeutics

Kolon TissueGene

Mesoblast

Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma

Moebius Medical

Novartis Pharmaceuticals

Propella Therapeutics

Regeneron Pharmaceutical

Seikagaku Corporation

Sorrento Therapeutics

Sun Pharma Global FZE

Taisho Pharmaceutical

Taiwan Liposome Company

Techfields Pharma

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries

Tonix Pharmaceuticals

Virios Therapeutics

VivaTech

Xalud Therapeutics

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/5mjokf

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005512/en/

Contacts

ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

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
The UN's World Food Program has warned that half of Afghanistan's population is facing an acute hunger crisis, with millions forced to choose between "migration or starvation" amid drought and economic collapse. More than half the population of Afghanistan will face high levels of "acute food insecurity" from November to March, according to a recent report from the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP), Deutsche Welle writes.

The report said the acute food insecurity is expected to last through the post-harvest "lean season," during which harsh winter weather threatens to "cut off areas of the country where families desperately depend on humanitarian assistance to survive the freezing winter months." According to the FAO and WFP, 23 million Afghans  including 3.2 million children under the age of 5  are currently suffering from hunger. They urgently need food, drinking water, medical care and proper shelter in winter. "Afghanistan is now among the world's worst humanitarian crises [...] and food security has all but collapsed," said David Beasley, WFP executive director. "This winter, millions of Afghans will be forced to choose between migration and starvation unless we can step up our life-saving assistance, and unless the economy can be resuscitated," Beasly said in a press release. "Hardly anyone has money in Afghanistan right now," Hamidullah Khadem, head of the Chamber of Industry in Herat province, told DW. "In the industrial area of Herat alone, 70% of the companies have gone out of business. There is no demand. Purchasing power has shrunk extremely. Civil servants and employees in the public sector hardly get paid," he added.

Government collapse compounds drought

This winter would have likely been difficult for Afghans with or without the Taliban* having seized power in August. In 2021, Afghanistan experienced its second drought in four years, which has had a severe impact on agriculture and livestock. On its own, this would have been enough to trigger a humanitarian emergency. The Taliban*'s return to power and the resulting flight, displacement and withdrawal of foreign aid agencies has only exacerbated the situation.

Smaller businesses such as silk manufacturers or brickworks currently have little chance of survival. The number of unemployed people in Afghanistan is increasing daily  and with it the number of those who can no longer afford food. "Many of my acquaintances and friends are selling their furniture and kitchen appliances, like their refrigerator, to be able to buy something to eat," said a female activist who asked not to be named. "Those who can leave the country are making their way out."

The security situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban* has deteriorated along with the economy. There are ever more reports of kidnapping and hostage-taking of businessmen and others with money. Kabul-based economic expert Khanjan Alokozay told DW that in the last two months, more than 40 shopkeepers and businessmen were kidnapped in different parts of the country, and that some of them were also killed. The Taliban* know that many Afghans want to take their money and belongings and flee Afghanistan. To prevent this, Afghans are currently only allowed to withdraw the equivalent of $200 (175) per week.

An economy dependent on foreign aid

Afghanistan's economy will shrink by up to 30% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Afghanistan's GDP in 2020 was only around $20 billion. And according to the World Bank, 43% of that was based on aid money from abroad. Before the Taliban* takeover, 75% of public spending came from foreign aid grants.

That foreign funding was stopped after the Taliban* came to power in August. In addition, most of Afghanistan's foreign currency reserves abroad were frozen. Although the UN said it secured 1 billion in humanitarian aid pledges for Afghanistan to prevent a crisis, donors still face challenges in making sure the funding is channeled through legitimate aid agencies on the ground so it actually reaches those in need. Germany is among the donors, providing 600 million in humanitarian assistance, 90 million of which is going to the WFP.

However, the WFP said in a press release that current funding is a "drop in the ocean" to meet the food and nutrition needs in Afghanistan. To meet the task at hand, the WFP said it may require as much as $220 million per month. And international donors continue to be wary that aid money will end up in the Taliban*'s coffers. Some argue that providing aid necessitates engaging with the Taliban*, thus legitimizing it on some level. The World Bank recently said it does not expect to continue direct development aid payments to Afghanistan, as there is no way to ensure where the money will end up since the economy has collapsed.

Growing poppies instead of wheat

"To fight against our problems, we need access to our frozen assets abroad, and also the possibility to participate in the international payment system," Mohammad Younis Mohmand, the head of Afghanistan's trade and investment chamber, told DW. Mohmand said that the Taliban* would then be able to prevent the collapse of the economy and alleviate the suffering of the people. The Taliban* could plan an emergency program to reduce the number of unemployed people and address hunger in the country.

Taliban* government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid announced that thousands of unemployed people would participate in a "work for wheat" scheme. Participants would for example dig out canals and basins during the winter to mitigate future droughts. However, it is unclear where the Taliban* will get the wheat. The ousted government had announced in July that the drought means Afghanistan would have to import one-third of its annual wheat requirements.

Wheat is a staple food in Afghanistan. However, many Afghan farmers prefer to grow poppies for more lucrative opium production. The drug trade has become one of Afghanistan's largest economic sectors. Three of the past four years have each seen record levels of opium production in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Even as the coronavirus pandemic raged last year, poppy cultivation in Afghanistan increased by 37%, the UNODC reported.

*Taliban movement prohibited in Russia
Today, on November 12, Azerbaijan is celebrating the Constitution Day.

The Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic, adopted in 1995, is the first constitution of independent Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, which existed for 23 months from 1918 to 1920, didn't have the basic law of the state.

Thus, the history of the Constitution of Azerbaijan mainly dates from the period when Azerbaijan still was a part of the USSR.

The first constitution of Azerbaijan was adopted on May 19, 1921 at the All-Azerbaijan Soviets Congress. New edition of the Constitution, which was in line with the 1921 USSR Constitution, was adopted at the 4th All-Azerbaijan Soviets Congress on March 14, 1925.

The final edition of the Constitution of Azerbaijan SSR, adopted on April 21, 1978, was in line with the USSR Constitution, like the previous editions.

After Azerbaijan gained its independence, there was a need for a new constitution. Thus, a special commission was established under the leadership of President Heydar Aliyev, and the draft of the constitution was presented to the referendum.

The first constitution of the independent Azerbaijan was adopted on Nov. 12, 1995.
In the near future, Azerbaijani producers will start supplying medical oxygen to the Stavropol Territory: the first consignment of life-giving gas will amount to 110 tons, said the governor of the region Vladimir Vladimirov today.

"We have a very high demand for medical liquid oxygen. ... We are increasing its production in the Stavropol Territory, but the opening of new plants is not a quick matter. But oxygen is needed now. We have held negotiations with our partners in Azerbaijan. Soon we are waiting for the first consignment, it will arrive by rail," he wrote on his Instagram account, reports TASS.

"In a month, the Stavropol region will be able to receive up to 500 tons from the Transcaucasian republic. This will help save the lives and protect the health of many of our fellow countrymen," the head of the region added.

The region does not have enough own production facilities - medical oxygen is supplied from the Krasnodar Territory, Rostov and Volgograd Regions, - said earlier the Minister of Health of the Territory Vladimir Kolesnikov.


A group of refugees is moving along the Belarusian-Polish border towards an impromptu refugee camp, Belarusian State Border Committee Spokesman Anton Bychkovsky said on Friday.

"The movement of a large group of refugees along the state border towards an impromptu camp was recorded at about 11:00 am on November 12," TASS cited him as saying.

Earlier on Friday, police in Poland's Podlaskie Voivodeship said that a group of women with children had tried to illegally cross the border between Belarus and Poland pressured by the Belarusian military. According to Polish officials, the attempt was thwarted, all migrants stayed on the Belarusian side.

Tensions sparked by migrants seeking to enter Poland, Lithuania and Latvia via Belarus exploded on November 8. Several thousand people arrived on the Belarusian-Polish border, some of them trying to cross the border by cutting barbed-wire fences. EU states claim that Minsk is deliberately escalating the crisis and call for sanctions. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in turn, blamed the situation on the Western countries whose actions forced people to flee their war-torn homelands.
Head of Georgia's National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Amiran Gamkrelidze said some people may need a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Gamkrelidze noted that people who travel often may need a fourth dose of vaccine, but research is still underway to find out the necessity of a fourth dose in Georgia.

He said some Georgian students who study in western countries and are vaccinated with Sinopharm or Sinovac have already received booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

"We [epidemiologists] ask everyone to get vaccinated. As of today, NCDC has nearly 2.5 million doses of different vaccines. It is enough for everyone. Georgia has already ordered more booster doses for the next year," Agenda.ge cited Gamkrelidze as saying.

The head of NCDC also said the number of those willing to get a booster (third) dose of COVID-19 vaccine is increasing in the country. As of today, 4,600 individuals have already received a booster.
During its two-year chairmanship, Azerbaijan made great efforts to unite the Turkic world: many events were held, and now the Turkic peoples are moving into the future more united, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said today during his speech at the VIII summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking states.

"Today's summit is of great historical significance. First of all, because we are transforming our Council into an organization. This organization has a great future because it is based on natural allies, and history and culture, and our traditions and our customs dictate it is unity. At the same time, in today's world, threats arise every month, every year, and, unfortunately, the leading countries of the world cannot take the right steps against these threats. I am sure that the importance of the Organization of Turkic States will continue to grow not only for our countries, peoples, but also for the whole world," the Azerbaijani leader noted, Azertac reports.

Everyone in the world knows about the political, economic, military power of Turkey, and the development of Turkey, ensuring stability in the country is an important condition for the entire Turkic world.

"The strengthening of Turkey gives us, each of us additional strength, so we should all be grateful to my dear brother. Today it is an honor for me to speak on behalf of the Azerbaijani people, and I convey to my dear brother the boundless love of the Azerbaijani people. Tayyip bey in Azerbaijan was loved and before the war, and for this tremendous support he gave us in the war, Tayyip Bey lives and will live forever in the heart of the Azerbaijani people," Ilham Aliyev said.

Our determination, will, courage in the Second Karabakh War led us to a great Victory. I must also say that everyone sees it, the support provided to us by my dear brother Recep Tayyip Erdogan from the first hours of the war to its last minutes, gave us additional strength, became a moral support. Feeling this support, listening to his words, we felt even stronger," said the President of Azerbaijan.

"Because the honorable president said that Azerbaijan is not alone in this war. Turkey is and will always be next to Azerbaijan. This gave us additional strength. This made some forces - the patrons of Armenia - stay away from this war and allowed us to fulfill our glorious mission," the head of state emphasized.

The results of the Second Karabakh War open up new opportunities for the region, and the opening of the Zangezur corridor will open up new opportunities for the entire region from a transport point of view, Ilham Aliyev said.

I hope that Armenia, which has suffered defeat because of its aggressive policy, will sooner or later understand that its territorial claims against any country will not bring them any benefit or honor. I hope that in the near future Armenia's territorial claims to Turkey and Azerbaijan will end. Otherwise, they may find themselves in an even worse situation. The Zangezur corridor is a project that can unite the Turkic world, Europe, and our neighbors, and today there is active work on the implementation of this project," the head of state emphasized.

Also, the President of Azerbaijan thanked the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev for the support and assistance.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev. On his personal initiative, a large school will be built in the Fizuli region at the expense of the budget of Uzbekistan. We were presented with the project of the school. This is another step of solidarity, friendship, brotherhood, and the Azerbaijani people appreciate this very much," the President of Azerbaijan noted.
The 8th Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) is hosted in Istanbul by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on November 12 with the theme Green Technologies and Smart Cities in the Digital Age.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, which is an observer state, will attend the summit, which will be held on Democracy and Freedoms Island in the Sea of Marmara, the Turkish Presidency said in a statement.

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov will also be attending on behalf of Turkmenistan, which will be taking part in the summit for the first time as an observer member.

Turkey will take over the term presidency of the council from Azerbaijan after the summit, where the leaders will sign "Istanbul Declaration".

Important decisions on the functioning and future of the organization including the changing of its name to the Organization of Turkic States and the adoption of a Vision Document for the next two decades are expected to be taken at the summit, the statement said.

Ways to further develop cooperation among the friendly countries in every field will also be discussed at the summit, during which Turkey will assume the presidency of the organization from Azerbaijan.

Also, Erdogan will hold bilateral talks with his counterparts on the sidelines of the summit, the statement added.

The Turkic Council was formed in 2009 to promote cooperation among Turkic-speaking states. It consists of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan as member countries and Hungary as an observer state.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has a high level of antibodies following his COVID-19 vaccination, so the head of state will get revaccinated according to doctors recommendations, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

"The president has repeatedly said that he has a high level [of antibodies] after his primary vaccination," Peskov recalled.

"Regards booster shots, that would depend on the doctors recommendations. Surely, those responsible prioritize the presidents safety and health," he added.

Putin got vaccinated against coronavirus in the spring. The president received his first jab on March 23 and the second one on April 14. During the Direct Line with Vladimir Putin program in June, he said that he had been inoculated with Sputnik V.
Germanys acting Chancellor Angela Merkel in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that the current worsening of the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border and the influx of migrants should be blamed on the authorities of Belarus, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told the media on Thursday.

"In a telephone conversation, the acting chancellor and Russias president exchanged opinion on the current situation on the Belarusian-Polish border. The chancellor said that the Belarusian regime was the cause of it, because it was using defenseless people in a hybrid attack against the European Union," Seibert said.

At the same time, he remarked that Merkel had touched upon the issue of "security around and in the east of Ukraine and urged the Russian president to advance Normandy Quartet talks for the implementation of the Minsk Accords on a peace settlement of the conflict.".
Labor migrants from Uzbekistan are in no hurry to go to Russia because of low salaries, said First Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Relations Erkin Mukhiddinov.

He said that migrants are told in advance about working conditions, wages, climate. "Everything is explained in advance so that later there will be no misunderstandings. In addition, all expenses of a labor migrant to travel to Russia are covered by the employer, or the government of Russia and the government of Uzbekistan," Mukhiddinov said.

Having familiarized themselves with all the working conditions in Russia, the majority of labor migrants decide to stay at home. They are often deterred by the cold Russian climate and low salaries.

In Uzbekistan, despite the pandemic, wages have grown significantly, the number of jobs is growing, builders are in demand in all regions of the republic.

Previously, migrants went to Russia on a salary of 25-30 thousand rubles, now they are promised up to 55-60 thousand rubles. "Our citizens are practically not interested in a salary of less than 40 thousand rubles. This suggests that citizens go abroad only for highly profitable work," the official said, writes kun.uz.
In Moscow, at the age of 92, the former USSR Minister of Health, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yevgeny Chazov passed away.

"The Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation expresses deep condolences in connection with the death of an outstanding cardiologist, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Honorary Director of the National Medical Research Center of Cardiology of the Ministry of Health of Russia Evgeny Chazov," the ministry said in a press release, RIA Novosti reported.

Chazov introduced many developments for the treatment of patients with heart attacks, conducted an experiment on the use of fibrolysin, a drug for dissolving blood clots, he was the attending physician of several Soviet leaders, headed the Ministry of Health from 1987 to 1990.

Yevgeny Chazov was one of the initiators of the creation and co-chairman of the international movement International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which in 1985 won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Condolences to the family and colleagues of Chazov were expressed by the Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko and the staff of the department.
Afghan law enforcement officers in hot pursuit managed to quickly detain two suspects in an explosion in a mosque in the Afghan province of Nangarhar, the provincial governor's office said.

"Two people guilty of the explosion at a mosque in Spingar district of Nangarhar province have been detained," the statement said, RIA Novosti reported.

The investigation into the accident is ongoing.

Let us remind you that as Vestnik Kavkaza previously reported, today there was an explosion in a mosque in the province of Nangarhar, located in the east of Afghanistan - three people were killed and 15 were injured.
The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned the bloc that it must agree an ambitious doctrine as the basis for joint military action abroad, including with a deployable crisis force.

Borrell told reporters his first draft of the "Strategic Compass" - the closest thing the EU could have to a military doctrine and akin to NATO's "Strategic Concept" that sets out alliance goals - was crucial to security.

"Europe is in danger," Borrell said in the forewordof the full strategy document that has been sent to the EU's 27 states for debate. "We need to have rapid deployment capabilities," he also told reporters.

One idea is to have a 5,000-strong EU crisis force, Borrell said, stressing though that the U.S.-led NATO alliance remains primarily responsible for Europe's collective defence, Reuters reported.

"We have a strategic responsibility. Citizens want to be protected. Soft power is not enough," Borrell said of the economically powerful EU, the world's largest trade bloc.

But despite progress on building a common defence fund to develop weapons together since late 2017, the EU has yet to deploy its battalion-sized battlegroups in a crisis.

"All the threats we face are intensifying and the capacity of individual member states to cope is insufficient and declining," Borrell said in the foreword to the draft.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has officially approved plans to increase charter capital of many State-owned and private banks.

VietinBank surpasses BIDV to become the bank with the largest charter capital in the banking system. (Photo: VNA)

Since the beginning of the year, more than 20 banks have raced to raise their charter capital in many forms. As of September 30, VietinBank was the leading bank in terms of charter capital, with over 48 trillion VND (over 2.11 billion USD).

Banks have been requested to ensure the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) in line with Basel II standards as prescribed in Circular No. 41/2016/TT-NHNN no later than January 1, 2023. So far, 16 out of 35 banks have met this requirement.

|

The capital increase helps banks strengthen financial capacity and increase medium and long-term capital to expand their business activities when the ratio of short-term capital for medium and long-term loans is tightened in accordance with the roadmap stated in SBVs Circular No. 08/2020/TT-NHNN dated August 14, 2020. Therefore, banks race to increase capital is forecast to continue in 2022.

After the first nine months of 2021, VietinBank surpassed BIDV to become the bank with the largest charter capital in the banking system. VietinBank has a bigger ambition to lift its charter capital to over 54.1 trillion VND by the end of the year.

VPBank ranked second when this bank completed the issuance of shares to increase its charter capital by over 19.75 trillion VND to 45 trillion VND.

However, the ranking of banks is likely to continue to change when recently Vietcombank's Board of Directors approved to increase charter capital in accordance with its approved plan. The bank is expected to add over 10.2 trillion VND to its charter capital, raising the total to more than 47.32 trillion VND. This is Vietcombank's first issuance of shares for dividend payout since 2011.

Previously, in mid-September 2021, the Prime Minister approved a plan to pump an additional 7.6 trillion VND into Vietcombank to maintain the State ownership ratio. If the capital increase is successful, Vietcombank will take the top position in the domestic banking system.

A number of banks with other big capital increase plans in 2021 include BIDV, ABBank, Sacombank, VIB, SCB, OCB, ACB and HDBank.

According to the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)s report, the CAR of some Vietnamese State-owned banks remains low. Therefore, Vietnam needs to proceed with refinancing plans and accelerate the application of Basel II requirements, which have been delayed from 2020 to early 2023./.

Source: VNA
Fear of taking responsibility has become commonplace among cadres and civil servants.

National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Thi Viet Nga

Hoang Anh Cong, a National Assembly deputy, spent his speech during a discussion session on November 9, 2021 talking about an epidemic that has existed for a long time and spread quietly among civil servants at different levels, posing danger to the countrys development. He called the disease fear of responsibility.

He said many cadres, when performing public duties, dare not make decisions because they fear they have to take responsibility for decisions.

Such people who are afraid of responsibility can be seen in the fight against the pandemic. Many localities have not bought medical equipment because they feared they might violate regulations and could face discipline.

Though the Government has released regulations on safe adaptation to the new normal, many localities are still trying to prevent entry to their areas, an extreme measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus. They install technical barriers to restrict trade exchange and goods circulation, because they fear that if a new pandemic wave breaks out in their localities, they may face discipline.

The fear of responsibility can be seen in public investments. Most key projects are going slowly because of slow disbursement by ministries, branches and local authorities, despite the Governments measures to fix problems.

There are many factors that cause these fears. But the main reason is the overlapping of many legal documents and the contradictory nature of some documents.

Some people are not active in their work, and just keep to the principle a bad compromise is better than a good lawsuit. They dont dare do anything though they believe it may be right, and dont dare struggle against wrongdoing. They are insensitive to people. Meanwhile, the civil servants who are dynamic, creative, and dare to think, dare to do, dare to fight are disciplined for their behavior.

The Politburo has released a decision to protect those people who dare to think and dare to do for the common interest of the people.

If civil servants implement a pilot program and the results are not good, or damages occur, competent authorities need to identify the causes of the failures, and make an impartial assessment to deal with it appropriately.

If the staff are pure of heart and act in the common interest, they will be considered for an exemption or a reduction of responsibility.

Cong said that its necessary to institutionalize this policy with legal regulations. If it is not legalized, the staff who dare to think and dare to do wont be protected.

Embezzlement among the elite

Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, a National Assembly Deputy from Hai Duong, expressed her concern about human resources quality, and the role of staff who play a very important role in coping with the pandemic and recovering the economy in the post-pandemic period.

She noticed that Covid-19 has made the labor force, which was generally weak in quality, has now become weak in quantity as well. Some workers have left cities and industrial zones for the countryside.

She proposed that the Government pay more attention to training and developing human resources in general and a high-quality workforce in particular.

She stressed that the quality of vocational education must be improved for future needs. Meanwhile, existing workers need to be retrained and given opportunity to access high technologies. Measures to retain high-quality workers and restrict the brain drain are also important.

Noting the brain drain, Nga said this is a sad problem that has existed for a long time. This is occurring with the public sector, and its very difficult for state agencies to retain high-quality officers.

To solve this problem, Nga believes that the key lies in wage reform.

Wage reform has been modest in the last years, Nga said.

Wage reform doesnt mean just spending more money from the state budget to pay higher wages to workers. This should be seen as an investment in human resources, the most important factor that determines socio-economic development.

She emphasized that wage reform is an important solution to prevent embezzlement.

The damages caused by embezzlement cannot be fixed within a short time, and the biggest consequence is the loss of foreign investors and public confidence.

Competing for human resources is inevitable in socio-economic development. In order to attract talented people, its necessary to offer decent pay for them.

Huong Quynh - Tran Thuong

Stagnation disease: staff planning also a factor As mentioned in Part 1, stagnation has taken root in many fields, and personnel work, especially cadre planning and rotation, is no exception.
The Vietnam Fatherland Front and local governments will hold an online memorial ceremony for people who died of Covid-19, said National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue on November 11.

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

"This is an issue that some National Assembly deputies have proposed in this session. It is recommended that the Government, particularly the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, coordinate with the Vietnam Fatherland Front of Ho Chi Minh City and other localities to organize the memorial ceremony," he said.

The National Assembly Chairman commented on the first day of the question-and-answer session (November 10) when cabinet members including Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung, Minister of Public Security To Lam, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc, and Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung answer questioned raised by National Assembly deputies.

The National Assembly Chairman said the Q&A session focused and clarified basic issues. Specifically, the Covid-19 epidemic, especially the fourth outbreak from April 27, has seriously affected production, business, livelihoods, jobs and the lives of people and businesses. During this wave, over 1.3 million people left Ho Chi Minh City and the southern key economic zone to return to their hometowns.

He asked the Government and its members to evaluate the causes so as to have comprehensive solutions to restore and develop the labor market.

The National Assembly Chairman also asked the Government to accelerate support packages and create favorable conditions for people to have convenient and fast access to the package.

He noted another important issue: strengthening the protection of children's rights, especially social protection for orphans by Covid-19.

He asked the Government to improve the effectiveness of state management over social assistance and charity work.

He said the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs should focus on solving pressing issues such as reforming the vocational education system, policies on social protection, pension policy for people who retired before 1995, and the national program on sustainable poverty reduction.

Thu Hang
One of the problems in building e-Government is the lack of data connection and sharing among state agencies, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).

The Government Decree 47 released in 2020 on managing, connecting and sharing digital data among state agencies emphasizes digital data to serve as the foundation for the development of digital Government.

Under the decree and the Vietnam e-Government Architecture Framework, the connection of information systems and databases among ministries, branches and localities on a national scale must be implemented through the National Data Exchange Platform (NDXP) built by MIC.

NDXP serves the connection, integration and sharing of data among ministries, branches and localities.

Since late 2020, all 22 ministries and ministerial-level agencies, and 63 cities and provinces have LGSP (Local Government Service Platform) which connect to NDXP.

According to the Authority of Information Technology Application (AITA), 220 information systems of agencies have connected with NDXP so far, including 85 LGSP of ministries, branches and localities, five databases and nine from-central-to-local information systems.

Since January, the total number of transactions carried out via NDXP has reached 64,023,858. The figure was 18,530,176 in October, three times higher than in September.

There are 200,000 transactions through NDXP every day.

However, AITA said the data sharing on national scale still cannot meet actual needs and fully promote the value of databases.

MIC, when reviewing the implementation of the Governments Resolution 17 on building e-government, pointed out that there are still shortcomings in data connection and sharing.

In the strategy on developing e-government and striving towards digital government in 2021-2025, the PM clearly defines the view on developing data in digital government: Data is the new resource. State agencies provide open data to serve the development of digital government, digital economy and digital society. State agencies connect and share data so that people only have to declare and provide data once to state agencies and essential public service providers.

The connection, integration, and sharing of data among state agencies will help maximize data value. It will also improve the quality of public services provided to people and businesses, with users at the center.

Its expected that by December 1, ministries will complete the connection and put into use at least the data services of the two systems - the national database on business registration and Vietnam Posts public service system.

Meanwhile, cities and provinces will complete the connection and put into use the data services of four systems, including the national database on business registration, civil status registration and management system, a system that grants codes to units with relations to the budget, and Vietnam Posts public service system.

Van Anh

Impressive figures about e-Government development in Vietnam By the end of 2020, all ministries and provinces had their Local Government Service Platform (LGSP), which is connected to the national data sharing and integration platform.
A project to develop a fast-charging station for electric cars is one of five projects that won first prize at the Vietnam Science and Technology Innovation Award 2020 awards ceremony in Hanoi on November 10.

The award ceremony held on November 10.

This is an annual event held by the Vietnam Fund for Supporting Technological Creations (VIFOTEC) to honor sci-tech innovations of Vietnamese scientists.

The Organizing Board received 133 works in six fields and selected 45 works to grant prizes, including five first prizes, 11 second prizes, 13 third prizes and 16 consolation prizes.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) also presented WIPO Awards for one excellent work in the field of materials: "Applying ultra-fine grinding technology in the production of high-quality Cotto tiles".

In its 26-year history, the Vietnam Science and Technology Innovation Award has received nearly 3,000 entries, with more than 900 winning works.

A project to develop a fast-charging station for electric cars wins the first prize at the Vietnam Science and Technology Innovation Award 2020 awards.

Do Van Chien, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, said many prize-winning projects have been applied in practice, affirming the talent, intelligence and creativity of Vietnamese people.

The annual VIFOTEC awards, first launched in 1995 by the Ministry of Science and Technology, VIFOTEC, and the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations, aims to encourage scientists and businesses to come up with inventions that meet urgent demands in the market and boost the competitiveness of Made-in-Vietnam products.

Trong Dat
She said pediatric nurses see the daily reality of the pandemics impact on the most vulnerable kids, deepening existing inequality across the board. Sending kids home from school cut off families from school resources, and the parents of children of color are more likely to be essential workers, she said.

The list goes on and on and on, and Im very concerned for the long term, Peck said. How this is going to turn out? A lot of people are talking about academic setbacks, but we can teach kids we can cut we know we can catch kids up on that. What we cant undo are the impacts of trauma that are not met with support.

The pandemic also interrupted the nursing workforce pipeline, delaying graduations for thousands.

When Hurricane Ike destroyed the nursing school she taught at in Galveston in 2008, classes resumed in temporary buildings or outdoors, and every student graduated on time, Peck said. But with the pandemic, delayed graduations and early retirements have deepened a preexisting nursing shortage.

We have a lot whove left, whove just said Look, Im not going to put myself and my family in danger this way. Its just not worth it, she said. And so theyve left the bedside, and those holes are still there and it makes it very difficult.
As McLennan County remains a party to the suit, commissioners last week approved taking part in the settlement.

Bristow said the county immediately receives a $140,000 payment, and becomes eligible to apply for $2.5 million from a state council, guided by physicians and mental health professionals familiar with opioids.

Obviously, our objective is to get as much as we can. Its so early, there remains uncertainty, Bristow said. Its going to be significant, as the cases have been consolidated nationally and involve multi-district litigation. Were working as hard as we can to get them resolved.

At stake is money for programs addressing the fallout from opioid addiction, he said. Attorneys contend the scourge has left its mark on mental health, indigent health and the criminal justice system.

There is a broad consequence to these addictions, Bristow said.

The actual amount the state receives will depend on how many local governments join the settlement. Attorneys for some local Texas governments have yet to decide whether they want to join the settlement or try to secure larger payments on their own. The deadline to join the settlement is Jan. 2.
Surviving the Holidays workshop

Peace Lutheran Church, 9301 Panther Way, will have a free Surviving the Holidays workshop from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Registration is helpful but not required. RSVP to 254-857-9794.

Flag disposal ceremony

The 20th annual flag disposal ceremony, hosted by the Elizabeth Gordon Bradley Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the city of Woodway and the McLennan County Veterans Association, will run from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday behind the Woodway Public Safety facility at Fairway Road and Estates Drive. Donors should remain in their vehicles as volunteers receive unserviceable United States, Texas, Army, Marine, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard or POW/MIA flags. For details, call 254-744-6076 or 254-749-2146.

Waco Calligraphy Guild

The Waco Calligraphy Guild will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 800 N. New Road.

Member Suzi Ickles will present a program on the basics of drawing calligraphic versals. Once drawn, they can be painted and used on artwork, greeting cards, notes and sketchbooks.

Pro-Life Waco
Judge Joel Yates said he reviewed the information and the minutes of testimony and found "they contain evidence which, if unexplained, is sufficient to warrant a conviction by a trial jury.

"Being satisfied from the showing made that the case should be prosecuted, I approve the trial information, he wrote.

Yates set an arraignment date for Miller and Goodale for Nov. 29. He ordered both teens to be held on the previously set $1 million bond. Attorneys for both have requested a hearing for bond reduction, which Yates has set for Nov. 23.

An attorney for Goodale declined to comment on the charges, and an attorney for Miller did not immediately respond to messages.

Graber's body was found concealed under a tarp, wheelbarrow and railroad ties at the Chautauqua Park in Fairfield, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southeast of Des Moines.

Police received a tip that Goodale posted details about planning the killing on social media, according to court documents. The documents indicated police investigators found clothing that appeared to contain blood at the homes of the teens.

Documents also said Miller admitted to being at the park when Graber was killed, and to providing materials used to kill her and conceal her death.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Nearly 50 years ago, when the show was in its third season, Sesame Street encouraged kids to get the measles vaccine by showing Big Bird and other children getting the injection. The move was similar to other public service campaigns that used beloved characters to help teach children life lessons, including discouraging littering, wearing seatbelts and looking both ways before crossing the street.

What Big Bird is doing is part of a long tradition. But whats different now, of course, is that everything is political and everything is contentious," said Thomas Doherty, an American studies professor at Brandeis University. Something that we all wanted a year ago, the vaccine, is now this matter of great contention.

Controversy at the intersection of TV and politics has popped up here and there for decades. In 1952, I Love Lucy didn't use the word pregnant once in an episode that focused on the title character, Lucy Ricardo, having a baby after executives determined that doing so would be too scandalous.
Jurors also heard from the nephew of a shooting victim who filed a complaint against Jones for violating the Georgia Crime Victims Bill of Rights for not notifying relatives before a man charged with involuntary manslaughter in the uncle's shooting was released on bail. Prosecutors argue Jones improperly pressured the man to drop the complaint.

Prosecutors must be above-board. Otherwise, bad things happen, Deputy Attorney General John Fowler, who is prosecuting the case for the attorney generals office, told jurors according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

Fowler, said justice is for everyone," but argued Jones was not motivated by the impartial pursuit of justice.

For Mark Jones, its not about justice," Fowler told jurors. "Its all about him.

Jones did not testify and his defense called no witnesses. Attorney Katonga Wright argued that prosecutors had not proved their case.

If the facts dont fit, you must acquit Mr. Jones, she said in closing arguments, repeating a line from her opening statement Tuesday.
According to Bachelet, at least 126 journalists, media officials or publishers have been detained by the military since the military seized power and 47 remain in detention, including 20 charged with crimes.

Nine media outlets have had their licenses revoked, 20 others have had to suspend operations, and dozens of journalists remain in hiding due to outstanding arrest warrants, she said.

Journalists have been under attack since Feb. 1, with the military leadership clearly attempting to suppress their attempts to report on the serious human rights violations being perpetrated across Myanmar as well as the extent of opposition to the regime, Bachelet said. Myanmar has quickly reverted to an environment of information control, censorship and propaganda seen under military regimes in the past.

I urge the military authorities to immediately release all journalists being detained in relation to their work, she said, stressing that people are being deprived of life-saving information.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supports Bachelet's views, and reiterated that journalists everywhere, including those in Myanmar, must be allowed to work without harassment and that reporting facts is not and must not be seen as a crime, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
She slammed down her white privilege like youd slam down an American Express black card. Which is to say, with supreme confidence.

Two months after posting video of herself in the mob of right-wing thugs who stormed the U.S. Capitol, Jenna Ryan went on Twitter to taunt her detractors. Definitely not going to jail, she wrote. Sorry I have blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and Im not going to jail. Sorry to rain on your hater parade.

Last week, Ryan was sentenced to 60 days in prison.

That seems to have pleased a lot of folks. How the arrogant have fallen, said one. You can hardly blame that person or the thousands of others who took to social media to gloat at the incarceration of this 51-year-old Texas real estate agent. There are few things more satisfying than to see some deserving individual get their comeuppance. For that moment, at least, the universe makes sense.

Even so, one has to wonder if this is really a reason to rejoice. Was Ryan proven wrong? Or did she simply put the court in a position where it had no other choice?
Typically, vice presidents are chosen because they are perceived as doing something the president cant do, or cant do very well, said Chris Devine, who teaches political science at the University of Dayton and has co-written two books on the vice presidency.

Biden, Cheney and Al Gore had the Capitol Hill experience that the presidents they served under  Barack Obama, Bush, Bill Clinton  lacked. Pence, a congressman for more than a decade before becoming Indianas governor, served as Trumps emissary to the conservative and evangelical wings of the GOP.

Theres not a whole lot Harris can do that Biden cannot, or hasnt done already  including acting in the job she now holds.

The president served 36 years in the Senate and Harris just four  much of which she spent preparing for a 2020 run for president  so its not as though Biden needs Harris help forging relationships with lawmakers or finding his way up Pennsylvania Avenue to the House and Senate. Although the vice president was among those making phone calls last week from the war room established to push Bidens big infrastructure bill past the finish line, she hasnt played the role of legislative closer that Biden did under Obama.
M&A

BAE's US subsidiary acquires training, simulation software company

More than one year on from its big-ticket acquisition, BAE Systems U.S. subsidiary has become a buyer again with its agreement to purchase simulation and training software developer Bohemia Interactive Solutions.

Terms of this latest transaction announced Thursday were undisclosed, nor was the timing of closure beyond the coming months after the necessary regulatory and pre-closing activities.

BAE Systems Inc. did say the company also known as BISim has approximately 325 employees.

Orlando, Florida-headquartered BISim was founded in 2001 and uses what it calls game-based technology to design the training software for military organizations mostly in the NATO alliance.

BISim was originally stood up in Australia and maintains a presence there along with other international locations such as the U.K., Czech Republic, Germany and Poland.

For BAE, this transaction for the subsidiary internally known as Inc. is its first since the $1.9 billion acquisition of the Collins Aerospace military GPS business from then-parent Raytheon Technologies as the latter was required to divest that organization.

Raymond James & Associates is acting as the exclusive financial adviser to BISim and Jones Day is the selling companys legal counsel. DLA Piper is acting as legal counsel to BAE.
Google leaves no doubt: it will pursue DOD's new cloud initiative

The competition around "JEDI: The Sequel" is starting to heat up as more reports surface that the Defense Department is making progress on the restart of its enterprise cloud initiative formerly known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative.

JEDI had an ignoble end as DOD cancelled the contract after nearly two years of protests and lawsuits.

DOD appears to eschewing the Star Wars theme this time around. The new contract is known more traditional-sounding government moniker of the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability. Rather than a single award like JEDI was, JWCC be a multiple-award effort in response to complaints about the original contract going to one cloud provider.

The competitive landscape will be different this time around as well, even though DOD intends to issue direct solicitations to Microsoft and Amazon's cloud subsidiary with the market research phase of JWCC completed in October. Microsoft was the original winner of JEDI over Amazon Web Services before the latter's protests and that contract's eventual cancellation.

But whats different this time is that DOD has said it intends to make awards "to all cloud service providersthat demonstrate the capability to meet DOD's requirements."

Add a third to the list so far as Google will likely be a competitor this time around. The company pulled back somewhat from the defense market after employees objected to its participation in Project Maven, a DOD program to use artificial intelligence in processing video images. Employees were concerned that their work would be used to improve the accuracy and lethality of drone strikes.

But JWCC is a different beast and Google isnt being shy about its interest.

In a Veterans Day blog post Nov. 11, Google's cloud CEO Thomas Kurian made it clear that Google has always worked with the federal government and listed as examples of customers the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Patent and Trademark Office and Air Force.

DOD's completion of the JWCC market research portion means industry is waiting for more details, something Kurian acknowledged: We know very little about the specifics.

But he made it clear where Googles interest lies, despite the controversy surrounding Project Maven.

If we are invited to be part of the JWCC contract, we will absolutely bid, he said.

Kurian said that the company will apply its AI principles that guide what products the company will sell and projects it will pursue.

We are committed to continuing to partner with the U.S. government, including the military, on specific projects that are consistent with our principles, he said.

Google wasnt ready to bid on JEDI in 2018, even though it is considered one of three general purpose cloud offerings in the market alongside AWS and Microsoft's Azure.

But Google sounds ready for JWCC. The contract will offer up many opportunities for Google to help the men and women in our armed services to ensure their success and safety, Kurian wrote. "Not every Googler will agree with this decision.

So count Google as in whenever DOD decides to grow the cloud tent.
Guantanamo Bay contract stuck in ping-pong match

A contract to manage the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base has ping-ponged between Vectrus and IAP Worldwide Services over the last 14 months and the volleying isnt over yet.

The contract is worth between $165.5 million and $213.5 million for services such has housing management, utility management, electrical services, vehicle maintenance and other facility support at the installation on the southeastern shore of Cuba.

Vectrus first won the contract in September 2020 at a bid of $213.5 million, according to the Federal Procurement Data System.

IAP followed with a protest, which led to the Navy dismissing the award to Vectrus to re-evaluate proposals.

Then in May 2021, IAP won the contract with a bid worth $188.7 million and it Vectrus turn to protest. The Navy subsequently took another corrective action and cancelled the contract with IAP.

Four months later, and almost a year to the day of first winning the contract, the Navy again awarded the work to Vectrus at a price of $165.5 million.

Guess what: IAP protested that award too. Then earlier this week, the Government Accountability Office dismissed that latest protest after the Navy decided to again re-evaluate.

According to Deltek, Vectrus is the incumbent on the current contract and continues to supply services while the Navy tries to resolve the issues with the new procurement.

Im not a gambler, but Id bet that whenever this contract is awarded again, whoever loses will protest again. Hopefully the Navy will get it right this time.
WAUCOMA  A federal grand jury has indicted two men on allegations they shorted livestock producers when they worked for a hog dealer in 2016.

The mail fraud charges against Steven Shooter Charles Demaray, of Waucoma, and Billie Joe Wickham were unsealed Wednesday when Demaray made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids. He pleaded not guilty and was released pending trial.

The livestock dealer operates buying stations in Iowa, paying for swine based on the classification and weight of the animals. Demaray was a regional buying manager, and Wickham was a bookkeeper for the company. Both worked at companys headquarters, according to court records.

The indictment alleges that Demaray would receive faxed sort sheets with animals weights and classifications from the companys station managers in Hampton and Latimer. Demaray would then lower the weights and classifications, and Wickham would use a manual scale at the headquarters to make false scale tickets with the lower values and mark them with initials of managers from the buying stations, court records allege.

Records with the true weights and classifications were destroyed.

When it came time to pay the livestock sellers, the sellers would receive less than they were actually owed, records allege.

The indictment also alleges the two misled U.S. Department of Agriculture officials to hide the scheme and lull sellers into a false sense of security about the companys dealings.

The charges pertain to two times the company paid a Minneapolis, Minn., producer in November and December 2016.

The indictment didnt name the company, but Demaray is also involved in a civil suit over a 2016 firing at Lynch Livestock in Waucoma.

Lynch Livestock, which operates in Iowa, Minnesota and other Midwest states, has been the subject of USDA sanctions for allegedly underpaying hog sellers.

The civil suit, filed by attorneys for Hugh John Lynch of Hawkeye, alleges he was terminated from his position at Lynch Livestock after he raised concerns about possible violation of federal Packers and Stockyards Act, which regulates livestock sales. Demaray is named as a defendant in the suit, which identifies him as a supervisor at Lynch Livestock.

The suit alleges Hugh John Lynch went to the companys president in 2017 with concerns about inaccurate weight tickets and sorting irregularities. This sparked a phone call with chairman of the companys board, and Hugh Lynch was fired, the suit alleges.

The chairman, Gerald Lynch, then notified the USDA about the allegations.

Lynch Livestock entered a consent decree over the matter in July 2021 and agreed to pay a $445,000 civil penalty, which will be reduced by restitution paid to sellers.

The company faced similar allegations in 2017 and paid a $15,000 penalty.

In both cases, the company assisted and fully cooperated with the investigation, according to USDA records.

Love 0 Funny 3 Wow 4 Sad 4 Angry 4

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.
CEDAR FALLS  Cedar Falls Community Schools educators are using data from last springs standardized tests as they work to boost student achievement.

Pam Zeigler, associate superintendent for instruction and learning, told the Board of Education this week that a district-wide goal was developed based on the results of that testing. The test, called the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress, has established scores at each grade level to indicate if students are not yet proficient, proficient or advanced.

By May 2022, we want 80% of the third- through 11th-grade students to be proficient in English language arts and math as measured by the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress, she said. Students are tested in reading, language, writing and math at each of those grades. They are also receive science testing in grades five, eight and 10.

First given in 2019, the ISASP replaced the Iowa Assessments. Because no testing was done during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, last spring was only the second time they were used.

This test is more aligned with the Iowa Core standards, Zeigler explained. In the past, the Iowa Assessments were all multiple choice. This test has essay and constructed response questions.

Last spring, more than 20% of students in four grades were not proficient in English language arts on the ISASP. That was most notable for third grade, where 33% of students fell into the category. It was an increase from 22% two years earlier when another group of students were in third grade.

Zeigler said the grade level was a concern across the state, with 50% of students not yet proficient. Cedar Falls seventh-graders, with 28% not proficient, also saw a big jump up in that rate from two years before. The other two grade levels were fifth, with 22%, and 11th, with 25%, not yet proficient.

In math, students at six grade levels were not proficient at a rate of more than 20%. Fifth-graders were at 33%, an increase from 21%, while 11th grade was at 29%, fourth at 26%, seventh at 23%, and ninth and 10th both at 21%.

While the district still has strides to make in reaching 80% proficiency or advanced proficiency, its scores last spring were consistently higher than the state averages, Zeigler noted.

She said that Cedar Falls Schools professional learning community process is being used to address proficiency concerns with students, whose individual progress is watched from year to year.

Having the late starts and the early dismissals where our teachers can collaborate and look at the needs of the students and what standards they are not meeting, thats been really helpful, said Zeigler. Students are given common formative assessments that teachers use to determine which skills that our students are not proficient at and how can we work together to enhance those skills.

Struggling students are then supported in a number of ways, with intervention times at the elementaries and Tiger Time and Power School at the junior highs and high school. Reading teachers work with elementary students and, at the secondary schools, at-risk coordinators help make sure students arent slipping through the cracks, she said.

In addition, to combat drops in reading scores at several buildings last year, after-school tutoring and summer school programming was added. This year, three general education interventionists were hired, two for elementary schools and one for secondary schools. A behavior support specialist was also hired.

Zeigler said the district is just doing everything that we can to try and meet the needs of our kids so were not leaving them behind just because we were in a pandemic.

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.
WATERLOO  Local Republicans turned out a higher percentage of their voters than Democrats in the recent city/school election, though they were still outnumbered in the countys two largest cities, the auditors office reported this week.

A total of 11,290 registered Democrats voted in the most recent election in Black Hawk County compared with 8,028 registered Republicans. Another 5,462 voters were not registered with either party, and 110 were registered either with the Libertarian or Green parties.

In Waterloo, Democratic voters vastly outnumbered Republicans, winning all but two precincts out of 30. But the GOP wasnt on the sidelines: A total of 3,747 Republicans voted out of 9,275 registered, or 40.4%, compared with 6,879 Democrats out of 18,832 registered, or 36.5%.

Thats a jump on both sides in Waterloo over the 2019 election, when just 2,986 registered Democrats and 1,620 Republicans voted.

The citys large turnout, a function of a high-profile mayoral race, bumped up turnout overall in the county to the highest its been in a municipal election since 2005.

In Cedar Falls, the election was far more equal between the parties: Seven of 15 precincts were taken by each party, with a tie of 174 on both sides in Ward 1, Precinct 1. Just like Waterloo, a larger percentage of the GOP turned out: A total of 3,298 Republicans out of 7,321 registered, or 45%, compared with 3,518 Democrats out of 8,903 registered, or 39.5%.

Thats not a big difference from 2019, when 3,102 Democrats and 2,993 Republicans voted. Democrats took eight of 15 precincts that year.

A total of 90 requests for absentee ballots were rejected for being received after the shortened deadline, according to the auditors office, which sent letters to each rejected voter letting them know other ways to cast a ballot. The auditors office did not know how many of those rejected voters ended up voting through another method.

Nine ballots were received in the mail after the Election Day deadline, and under new Iowa laws did not count. Previously, ballot just had to make it to the auditors office before the official canvass a week later.

While nine is a pretty small number of ballots to be rejected due to being late, that is no consolation to the voter whose ballot isnt counted, Auditor Grant Veeder said.

Veeder said the number of rejected ballots and requests is likely to be magnified next year, when midterm elections are likely to draw a larger swath of voters. He said hes looking to hire additional staff to deal with the severe absentee ballot crunch he expects, as well as appeal to the Board of Supervisors for a larger and more efficient space arrangement.

We will do our best to be prepared, Veeder said. We will continue to try to educate voters on the new laws.

5 months for $5 Get 5 months of a Courier digital subscription for just $5 at https://go.wcfcourier.com/nov5

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.
CEDAR FALLS  The Cedar Falls Human Rights Commission lost two members, and attendance issues occasionally pop up, but its chair, a newcomer, and the citys mayor remain optimistic about its direction.

Former commissioner Mario Basurto resigned a month ago, and according to Brenda Balvanz, a city human resources specialist who is the interim HRC liaison, the mayor has declared the seat of now-former commissioner Rebecca Whitaker vacant due to attendance issues.

According to its website, the HRCs mission is to promote the goal of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all through outreach, advocacy, and education. The commission meets the second Monday of each month in the Duke Young Conference Room in City Hall at 6 p.m.

The commission didnt have a quorum at its latest meeting Monday, and at least on one occasion this fall, members had to wait about a half hour until enough members showed up to conduct official business.

Its unknown why Whitaker stopped showing up at meetings, and she did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

However, Basurto who also did not respond to an email from The Courier, asserted there was no sense of direction, relevance, or leadership within the commission structure in his resignation letter.

But his contention was disputed by Mayor Rob Green.

Had you attended the last three months of meetings, I believe you would have seen the progress that the commission is making in teambuilding, finding its collective voice, and energizing its three subcommittees to promote and protect human rights in Cedar Falls, Green said.

City councilors didnt comment on Basurtos letter when they consented to file it Oct. 18. But the mayor discovered one replacement, Sonja Lee Bock, who is expected to be appointed by the council Monday.

The Human Rights Commission is a valuable resource for Cedar Falls residents. It is important to have a place that people can turn when they need support, Bock said in a statement. I wanted to join because I believe I have the experience and education to assist the HRC and the citizens that reach out to them. The HRC is establishing a great foundation and working hard to do the best for the community. Together we can gain the faith of the city and show that the HRC can be a force of positive change.

The commission had experienced significant turnover in 2020, Green said, and it is still reforming. At full strength, it comprises nine members. Some members expect to vote soon on whether to make a request to City Council that its membership be increased to 11.

I think were on a pretty good roll right now. Weve finally got our committees formed and are figuring out what each committee is going to be focusing on, said HRC chair Susan Langan in a telephone interview. Then, we should be able to really get down into the nitty-gritty. I also feel really positive about city councils support, especially with their research into figuring out if a specific human rights position (could be hired). That also was a recommendation of the Racial Equity Taskforce.

One project in the works is figuring out how best to help residents fill out complaint forms with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. The ICRC investigates and resolves individual complaints alleging discrimination.

At ICRC, how you fill out that initial form is going to determine if its going to go to an investigation or not, so thats why it really needs to be filled out correctly, she said.

Love 0 Funny 2 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.
The owner of a local restaurant was arrested on two charges of credit card fraud after police say he took more than $150 from his girlfriend.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced Friday that she will seek a 5th term in the Senate next year. Alaska's new election system may help her chances, despite the vocal opposition of former President Donald Trump, who has endorsed one of her challengers.

Murkowski, who called for Trump to resign shortly after the January 6 Capitol riot, was one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict him at the subsequent impeachment trial. Trump has vowed to campaign against Murkowski, and in June he endorsed Kelly Tshibaka, a former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration.

The incumbent should benefit from a change to the Alaska election system, as it eliminates a head-to-head primary battle with Tshibaka. Under the revised rules, implemented after the narrow passage of a voter referendum in 2020, all candidates from all parties will compete on a single ballot in the August 16, 2022 primary. The top four finishers, regardless of party, will advance to the general election. The general election itself will be conducted via ranked choice voting.

Related: 2022 Election Calendar
Cheryl Haines has been thinking about staging an exhibition addressing climate change for years. But because of the heavily site-specific nature of the San Francisco gallerist's curatorial practice, she was holding out for a venue that would resonate with the topic.

When the historic Cliff House restaurant at Ocean Beach shuttered in January, it was the first gust of a perfect storm to bring the show together. Working in record time, Haines filled the landmark building with works confronting the climate crisis from an international roster of artists. Land's End, the most recent project of her ambitious For-Site Foundation, opened November 7th.



Haines founded For-Site in 2003 as an artists residency in Nevada City, partnering with Bay Area institutions to exhibit the work. After years of successful programming, For-Site began expanding its reach, starting with educational programming and eventually staging major public exhibitions. In 2008, Haines' foundation was invited to install sculptures in San Francisco's Presidio, beginning a long-lasting relationship with the Park's Department that has resulted in such acclaimed exhibitions as @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz (2014) and Goldsworthy in the Presidio (2015).

"We began to see opportunities in historic buildings and areas of the park that weren't heavily visited," Haines said. "That gave birth to the notion of activating some of these historic structures with artists who could illuminate ideas in the present."

Land's End features the work of 26 artists; eight of them created new work specially for the show. The scale is impressive, but even more impressive is the quickness with which it came together, mirroring the urgency Haines feels about the subject matter.

In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Haines moved to a 50-acre property near Nevada City.

"I was very much immersed in seeing what was happening to a landscape I knew very well," she said. "The land was incredibly dry. I was evacuated twice from my property during wildfire season. It was frightening, really. I became even more convinced that I had to do something as soon as the opportunity was presented. This was an unprecedentedly fast rollout."

She secured the former Cliff House as a location for the show in May of this year. By June, she was at work bringing in artists. By September, the exhibition was being installed.

"We have a robust rolodex of people who like our work and understand that we work quickly and have a very high bar of excellence," Haines said. "That was a tremendous gift."

"For Here or to Go," 2021, by One Beach Plastic. (Robert Divers Herrick)

Set against the backdrop of the crashing Pacific, many of the works on viewfrom small oil paintings to large-scale mixed media installationsare by California-based artists, an intentional selection in order to minimize the ecological footprint during the staging process as well as to highlight individual responses to local ecology.

In the new piece "For Here or to Go," the artist duo One Beach Plastic filled the Cliff House's industrial kitchen with plastic refuse they have collected from the sands of Kehoe Beach in Inverness; over the years, the team has collected a total of over two tons of plastic there. The historical document of degradation illustrates both atrophy and intervention in actionand it implicates everyone. There is a sort of dark humor here in the execution of the piece, disarming the viewer and inviting consideration.

All of the artworks dialogue with each other as well as with the natural world. Andy Goldsworthy collaborated with Heath Ceramics to create "Geophagia," in which the tabletops in the dining room have been covered with thick layers of clay left to dry and crack naturally. These landscapes are situated beneath windows overlooking the ocean, creating a dissonance between images of draught and rising sea level.

"This is not a tranquil site," Haines said. "You do feel quite raw and exposed on this precipice."

"Geophagia," 2021, by Andy Goldsworthy. (Robert Divers Herrick)

The installation of the show was disrupted in October amid record-setting rainstorms. "I really felt beleaguered and it made me even more conscious of the fragility and violence that exist in nature and how important it is for us to respect that and do our small part to not aggravate it further."

Doug Aitkin's video "Migration" (2008) is a visually poetic series of extended shots of wild animals that the artist loosed inside vacant motel rooms. The film suggests a return to nature and uses visual rhetoric to make us wonder about our own position in the ecosystem and the disruption that our actions can promote. It's a message that is amplified by the abandoned nature of the Cliff House itself.

True to form, For-Site has located the exhibition in a site with geographical and structural resonance. Atrophy has been fast-acting on the Cliff House, with cracks in the walls and the absence of many fixtures; during installation of Land's End, the roof sprung a leak. One look at the seething waves beyond the windows and it is easy to imagine the place being washed away. But the show isn't a cautionary tale so much as an opportunity to pause for reflection.

"Instead of providing answers, I hope this exhibition poses questions," Haines said, "because I think the most powerful opportunities for change come from within. I would hope for people to have a greater understanding of our interconnectivity and that climate change isn't someone else's problem. It's all of ours. If we want to leave this place to the next generations in a way that is inhabitable, each one of us has to change something."

Land's End uses art to prompt individual considerations about climate change rather than admonishing visitorsa tactic too-often employed.

"Wooing the viewer with some amount of beauty and grace is far more powerful than being didactic and enforcing guilt," Haines said. "One needs to open one's heart and one's mind to consider what can be done."

// "Land's End" is open via free timed entry, 11am to 5pm Thursday to Sunday, through March 27, 2022; 1090 Point Lobos Ave., for-site.org.
What are the steepest streets in San Francisco?

It's a question you've likely been asked a million times by everyone from random tourists in Fisherman's Wharf to your own mother. And if you've dutifully gone to Google to research that question, then you'll likely find the SF Bureau of Engineering's outdated list from the last century.

It looks something like this:

1. Filbert between Leavenworth and Hyde (31.5% grade)

2. 22nd between Church and Vicksburg (31.5% grade)

3. Jones between Union and Filbert (29% grade)

4. Duboce between Buena Vista and Alpine (27.9% grade)

5. Jones between Green and Union (26% grade)

6. Webster between Vallejo and Broadway (26% grade)

7. Duboce between Alpine and Divisadero (25% grade)

8. Jones between Pine and California (24.8 grade)

9. Fillmore between Vallejo and Broadway (24% grade)





But don't be deceived! You'll notice that there are some seemingly very steep streets that are obviously missing from this list. What about Kearny Street just above Broadway, for instance?

We joined forces with Stephen Von Worley, who combined the National Elevation Dataset's data with an Open Street Maps grid, to come up with the real list of San Francisco's steepest streets. You're welcome.





The Real List of the Steepest Streets in San Francisco:

1. Bradford above Tompkins (41% grade)

2. Romolo between Vallejo and Fresno (37.5% grade)

3. Prentiss between Chapman and Powhattan (37% grade)

4. Nevada above Chapman (35% grade)

5. Baden above Mangels (34% grade)

6. Ripley between Peralta and Alabama (31.5% grade)

7. 24th between De Haro and Rhode Island (31.5% grade)

8. Filbert between Hyde and Leavenworth (31.5% grade)

9. 22nd between Vicksburg and Church (31.5% grade)

10. Broadway above Taylor (31% grade)


That awareness is fueling policies and programs centered on bolstering the role of banks, brokerage firms and other financial institutions as a line of defense against elder fraud.



New rules boost industrys role

In 2016, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) offered guidance to financial institutions on preventing older customers from being taken advantage of financially  the first time a federal regulator had provided such extensive suggestions for best practices. The agency called on financial institutions to:

Train employees to recognize signs of elder financial exploitation.





Promptly report suspected abuse to authorities and provide requested records and other cooperation.





Offer age-friendly services for older clients, such as alerts for specific account activity and opportunities to name trusted third parties to view or receive information on their accounts.





Use data analysis to review transactions and detect departures from an account holders typical financial behavior.

Since that CFPB advisory, industry groups, lawmakers and state regulators have taken several steps to implement some of the recommendations.

Mandatory reporting. In 2016, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), which represents state, provincial and territorial securities regulators in the United States, Canada and Mexico, developed model legislation requiring qualified individuals to report suspected elder financial exploitation to regulators and Adult Protection Services. The model bill also authorizes brokers and investment advisers to delay dispersing funds if they believe it will prevent a theft. It has been adopted in 32 states.

Trusted contact rule. In 2018, FINRA implemented Rule 4512, which requires investment firms to make a reasonable effort to add a trusted contact to clients accounts  a person the firm can contact if it turns up evidence of financial exploitation or is unable to reach the client. The trusted contact is a resource only and cannot trade on the investors account or make decisions about investments.

FINRA, with support from NASAA and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), launched a campaign in September 2021 to promote the use of trusted contacts by investors.

Senior Safe Act. This federal law enacted in 2018 protects financial advisers from charges of violating clients privacy if they alert authorities about potential fraud. In turn, FINRA implemented Rule 2165, which allows a firm to place a temporary freeze on an account if there is reason to believe the owner is being financially exploited.

In such cases, the firm notifies the owner and their trusted contact and conducts an internal investigation of the suspicious activity. If it is indeed an attempt to steal funds, the firm may report the matter to the states Adult Protective Services and law enforcement.

Safer banking through technology

BankSafe, an initiative rolled out by AARP in 2019, enlists frontline staff at banks, credit unions and investment firms as foot soldiers in fighting elder abuse. The program offers free online courses custom-designed to train employees to spot and respond to red flags for fraud, such as changes of address, abrupt closures of long-standing accounts or a new person asking to be added to an existing account.

Perhaps the most powerful tool is to slow down the process, so the customer is not feeling fear from the pressure to act, says Jilenne Gunther, national director of BankSafe. We shift the fear to the perpetrator that we may be on to them  and we are.

A study by AARP and the Virginia Tech Center for Gerontology found that in the six months after undergoing BankSafe training, employees at 500 branches in 11 states prevented fraud losses of nearly $1 million. The trained tellers reported five times as many suspicious incidents and saved older clients 16 times more money over the test period compared to a control group of untrained colleagues.

AARP plans to add courses in early 2022 for other businesses in a position to flag potential fraud, such as retailers selling gift cards, firms processing wire transfers, and postal and delivery services, Gunther says.

She attributes much of the programs success to using machine learning  computer algorithms that analyze and find patterns in large amounts of data and continually get better at it  to scrutinize financial transactions.

The industry has made a lot of improvement with technology to flag suspicious activity, she says. We need to continue to develop artificial intelligence to better detect red flags.

This is a problem that could be solved with technology, says Liz Loewy, a former chief of the elder abuse unit in the Manhattan District Attorneys Office and a cofounder of EverSafe, a company that offers financial monitoring tools aimed at protecting older adults.

EverSafes products employ algorithms to detect unusual or erratic financial activity across users bank and other accounts and notify them or their loved ones. Education is important, Loewy says, but it needs to be combined with enhanced analytics.

Reporting lags

In one area spotlighted by the CFPB  sharing information with authorities that can initiate investigations and prosecutions  progress is less clear.

Federal law requires financial institutions to specify when the suspicious activity reports (SARs) they file with the government involve possible elder financial abuse. But less than a third of incidents that generated SARs from 2013 to 2017 were reported to law enforcement or regulatory authorities, according to a 2019 CFPB report.

Financial institutions are legally liable for losses resulting from credit and debit card fraud but not for withdrawals a customer makes on their account, even if they are the product of scams or financial abuse. Theyre only doing SARs reporting if a bank had a loss, not if the consumer had a loss, because thats seen as an authorized transaction, says Kathy Stokes, director of AARPs fraud prevention programs.

Amy Mix, chief of the elder justice section in the Washington, D.C., attorney generals office, says she is seeing more active cooperation between financial institutions and Adult Protective Services since the period covered in the CFPB study. We have seen a major uptick in reports over the last three to five years, she says.

But Stokes contends the problem will persist until financial institutions share liability for financial exploitation and victims are no longer blamed.

Banks are really good at realizing a fraudulent transaction on a credit or debit card because its their loss, she says. As long as the financial institution bears no responsibility for somebody who loses all their money because they were coerced, it will never change, and people will continue to lose their money.

John Rosengren is a Pulitzer nominee whose articles have appeared in The Atlantic, The Atavist, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated and The Washington Post Magazine. His novel A Clean Heart was published in the spring of 2020.
AFP / Getty Images

En espanol

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is preparing staff to return to field offices and resume normal, pre-pandemic operations as early as Jan. 3, 2022.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most services have been offered remotely since March 17, 2020. Generally, in-person appointments at Social Security field offices have been limited to critical situations, such as for people who are without food, medicine or shelter and need to apply for benefits or reinstate them.



Starting back to the office

The Social Security Administration recently announced the next steps in navigating the safe return of employees to our new normal operations, SSA spokesperson Nicole Tiggemann told AARP. Acting Commissioner [Kilolo] Kijakazi, along with senior leadership, will begin reentry on December 1, 2021. Other workers could return as soon as Jan. 3, depending on negotiations with unions and the creation of rules for telework, social distancing and other pandemic-related issues.

Like many businesses and organizations, Social Security has turned to options like online, telephone and video services to conduct its operations during the pandemic. Nevertheless, people in rural areas and those without access to transportation or technology have struggled for help with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

We know that those options do not work for everyone, Tiggemann says. To improve service, especially for people who have had difficulty reaching us during the pandemic, Social Security will begin implementing the reentry process agency-wide as soon as possible, including taking steps to increase in-person accessibility.

AARP applauds a return to normalcy at SSA. Obviously, from our point of view, we'd like to see those offices open and staffed as soon as possible, says Joel Eskovitz, director of Social Security and Savings at the AARP Public Policy Institute. Its been a year and a half, and there are just some services that cant be done remotely.
iQX Limited ( NSX:IQX ), on behalf of Life Science Biosensor Diagnostics Pty Ltd (LSBD), in which IQX holds 19% equity position, today announced the successful completion of a clinical validation study showcasing the efficacy of its rapid SARS-Cov-2 Antibody test.The results of the validation study, conducted at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, are a significant milestone.Among the major findings it was reported:- The SARS-CoV-2 Antibody biosensor assay was 100% sensitive and 100% specific using clinical COVID-19 positive and negative SARS CoV-2 human samples.- The time in obtaining results was less than 10 minutes.The study is the first step towards the validation of a rapid point-of-care diagnostic that LSBD intends to develop and commercialize for the quantitative measurement of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in saliva. The company will now work with Johns Hopkins University to commence clinical trials."We are very excited with the outcome of this program and are eager to validate the test in saliva, there is evidence in recent scientific literature correlating IgG, IgM responses to spike and receptor-binding domain (RBD) in the serum positively correlated with matched saliva samples." Dr. George Syrmalis, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of The iQ Group Global, said."This evidence confirms that serum and saliva IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 are maintained in most COVID-19 patients for at least three months post symptom onset. Our objective is to deliver a SARS-CoV-2 test that is calibrated against the WHO reference preparation, non-invasive and easy to use by everyone.""We anticipate two urgent applications for the technology including population screening with diagnosis as a complement to the RNA virus test for patients presenting late onset of symptoms; and post-vaccination screening to determine whether booster vaccines are required by assessing the degree of the antigen-specific antibody responses to a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine that's been administered." Dr. Syrmalis said.About IQX LimitedA member of The iQ Group Global, iQX Limited is an investment funds management company specialising in the bioscience sector that is committed to eradicating disease through capital investment.
Editors note: Venue Plus continues In Case You Didnt Know, a weekly feature with fun tidbits about New Mexicans and their projects.

Josh Grider always has a pen to paper as he writes songs.

During the pandemic, he continued to write and spend time with his family.

Many of the songs written during that time are part of Griders latest album, Long Way From Las Cruces, which is being released on Friday, Nov. 12.

The Las Cruces native now lives in Texas, but the Land of Enchantment is always with him.

He says the album is a celebration of lifes silver linings, as well as an ode to all the ups and downs that have helped shape his 20-year career.

In spite of all the turmoil we may face on a daily basis, theres peace and contentment to be found wherever you are if you choose to look for it, Grider says. I believe Im exactly where Im supposed to be.

Grider took the time from being off the road to finish work on the songs and reflect on what really mattered.

I started reading a lot of stoic philosophy and thinking about the things that were truly important to me in my life, he says. Turning 40 has you doing that already, and then you add in a global pandemic and all the political turmoil, and it just makes you want to double down on spending time with the people you love and care about.

When it came to recording the album, Grider didnt travel to Nashville, Tennessee, as he was used to. Instead, he wanted to stay in Texas and record with his band. Thats where they put together the eight songs that made the album. Boots on My Feet is the first single from the album.

These guys Ive been playing with for nearly 20 years, he says. I wanted the album to showcase them as well. We spent four days in Wimberley and worked with Adam Odor, who was at the helm of my debut album.

Grider also wanted to produce the album himself because it is so personal and its a snapshot of where hes at in life.

I wouldnt be who I am without everything thats happened to me, the good and the bad, says Grider. I dont want to sound complacent, but Ive been a lot of places and done a lot of things in my life, and Ive never felt more comfortable on my journey than I do right now.Theres still a lot Id like to accomplish, but the pace of everything feels really good to me.

Grider hopes to make it back to New Mexico for some performances. In the meantime, here are a few things you probably didnt know about the Las Cruces native:

Here are a few things you probably didnt know about the Las Cruces native:

1 I love to surf, and I love to cook.

2 I recorded the album at Yellow Dog Studios in Wimberley, Texas. The name of the yellow dog is actually Lucy.
Joaquin Encinias, as a dancer, knows that the show must go on.

As artistic director of National Institute of Flamenco and Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company, Encinias has learned to pivot and make the best of situation.

The last couple of years has been a ride with the pandemic, he says. Weve done some great things with Festival Flamenco, and we feel good about it.

Encinias has been prepping Yjastros for its next endeavor  Yjastros By Design. The performances take place on Friday, Nov. 12, and Saturday, Nov. 13.

Encinias says this will be the companys first show in which the company is heavily featured.

Were doing four or five pieces, he says. Weve been rehearsing in masks, which makes it difficult to rehearse full out.

Since Festival Flamenco de Alburquerque in June, Encinias says, the company began focusing on training together.

Weve been trying to get us back into the best condition, he says.

Encinias is looking forward to Yjastros By Design because its an opportunity to get back to the companys roots.

Prev 1 of 3 Next

We love collaborations, and those are happening in this show, he says. But were pulling together as a company and showcasing what we do best. Its intricate choreography done by a group.

There will be seven pieces during the performance.

Im dancing the first piece with the company, he says. Getting back to my roots as a dancer has been a challenge, but also wonderful. Im still very fortunate in everything that I get to do.

Encinias says all of his dancers have missed performing for a live audience.

He says the company has taken advantage of the downtime.

Weve had some time to reflect and improve on other levels of dance, he says. Were really excited about being in the theater. Within the last week, Im feeling the energy from the dancers.

Encinias says the energy is pulsing throughout the NIF as well as its charter school, Tierra Adentro of New Mexico.

Our charter school now has a campus next to NIF, which opened in October, he says. We have three more dance studios and three music studios. Our charter school is where some of our Yjastros members work. Were feeling very blessed in many ways.
Each year, the Smithsonians National Museum of the American Indian puts on the Native Cinema Showcase.

Leaders pull together some of the best films by Indigenous filmmakers to stream.

Usually, the event would be held in person during Santa Fe Indian Market.

Beginning on Friday, Nov. 12, the museum will hold the showcase online. It will run through Thursday, Nov. 18, at nmai.brand.live/c/native-cinema-showcase.

Marielba Alvarez, NMAI spokeswoman, says the showcase is part of Native American Heritage Month.

This years showcase focuses on Native people boldly asserting themselves through language, healing, building community and a continued relationship with the land, Alvarez says. Activism lies at the heart of all these stories. The showcase provides a unique forum for engagement with Native filmmakers from Indigenous communities throughout the Western Hemisphere and Arctic.

The program includes a total of 47 films (seven features and 40 shorts) representing 39 Native nations in 13 countries: the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, Sweden, Greenland and the Solomon Islands.

In addition to the films, the showcase includes a series of prerecorded panel discussions with Native filmmakers and writers about all aspects of Indigenous storytelling from their own experiences.

With the exception of four of the feature films  Waikiki, Beans, The Song of the Butterflies (El Canto de las Mariposas), and Run Woman Run  the films will be available to watch worldwide, Alvarez says.

The program is curated by Cindy Benitez each year.

For the second year in a row, the museum will reach international audiences through our online presentation of the Native Cinema Showcase, says Machel Monenerkit, the museums acting director. Even as the presence of Indigenous writers and filmmakers grows in Hollywood, the program highlights the work many continue to produce in their own communities, on their own terms.

Online

This years Native Cinema Showcase presented by the Smithsonians National Museum of the American Indian will take place Friday, Nov. 12, through Thursday, Nov. 18. To view the full schedule, visit nmai.brand.live/c/native-cinema-showcase
Tom Hanks doesnt need a human or even a sentient acting partner to make a film or a scene sing. Think Wilson the volleyball, Hooch and even that laptop from Youve Got Mail. So its not at all surprising if hes the first guy on the list for your postapocalyptic film about a man, a robot and a dog.

Even less surprising is that Hanks delivers in  Finch, playing a robotics engineer who is dying of radiation exposure and desperately trying to make sure his dog will be taken care of when hes gone. Its the kind of premise thats been designed to pull at your heartstrings. Dying Tom Hanks and a cute pup? Its impossible to resist. And yet somehow it doesnt work as the epic it would like to be.

The story started out as a 20-page short about a man who builds a robot to replace him as a dogs caretaker from a film student named Craig Luck. He wanted it to be a calling card, and despite some initial rejections, his last name proved apt since his idea charmed Ivor Powell, the associate producer on Blade Runner and Alien, who co-wrote the feature, Robert Zemeckis, who produced, Hanks, Game of Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik and a major Hollywood studio (although Universal ended up selling the film to Apple TV+ during the pandemic). Finch was shot in various locations around New Mexico.

Here, Earth has been rendered a dusty wasteland after a solar event destroyed the ozone layer now direct sunlight is the most dangerous thing in the world. Any living thing is cooked within moments of being exposed.

Unlike the stranded, solitary men of Cast Away and The Martian, Finch has no family or home to get back to. Hes dying, and the world is dying around him, and he just wants to do everything he can to make sure the dog can live without him. The solution is rushed and imperfect  a robot hes going to have to train on the go and is only at 72% completion  but theyre running out of time and have to make a treacherous journey to San Francisco in an RV from the 80s.

This robot is impressively strong and book-smart but is more teenager than obedient servant. And his accent is a cross between Russian and the Twin Peaks Black Lodge backward speak. This is the choice made by actor Caleb Landry Jones (a nod to his appearance in the Twin Peaks revival?), who also did motion capture work to play the robot. And, well, Im not sure if its the voice or how the character was written, but this robot is hard to root for. Sometimes you find yourself wishing that hed never been introduced at all, which is not exactly the best thing when hes one of only three characters.

Finchs scope and scale also were clearly designed for the big screen and an attentive audience, which might prove difficult on a living room television (the same felt true of Apple TV+s other Tom Hanks epic, Greyhound, which was still a superior movie.) Although many of the visuals are quite familiar for anyone who has seen a postapocalyptic movie in the past 20 years, they are striking and detailed nonetheless, and no doubt underserved by even the best small screen. The music cues, meanwhile, could not be more obvious (ahem, Road to Nowhere).

And its no ones fault that a film with cautionary messages about delaying travel and living life while you can may be a little hard to swallow for an audience approaching year two of life in a pandemic.

But youre probably not coming to Finch for lessons; youre coming to Finch for Hanks. The good news is that hes not just the reason to show up, hes the reason to stay around as well.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

The wide-open spaces of the Taos Plateau are important wildlife migration corridors in far northern New Mexico. The rugged landscape also supports hunting, camping and livestock grazing.

Now, an 850-acre land parcel in Taos County, purchased with money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, is the latest addition to U.S. Bureau of Land Management ownership as part of the 250,000-acre Rio Grande del Norte National Monument.

The land was sold for $470,000 by a Taos family who wanted to see it conserved, said Jim Petterson, vice president of the Trust for Public Lands mountain west region.

The organization helped negotiate the sale with the landowners and the BLM, conducted appraisals and environmental assessments, and worked with New Mexicos congressional delegation to secure the funding.

Its winter range elk habitat and habitat for just about every other species that are important economically for hunting and for wildlife viewing, Petterson said.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund uses money from offshore oil and gas drilling for federal land acquisitions, and local parks and trails.

Interior Department agencies, such as the BLM, submit a yearly priority project list for the funding.

One of the reasons this work is so important is that these properties could end up with incompatible development in the heart of the national monument or on the edge of it, Petterson said. That would completely change the visitor experience and disrupt intact habitat.

This sale marks TPLs sixth private land acquisition negotiation within, or adjacent to, the monument boundaries.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has also helped use LCWF funds to add several private inholdings to the monument, including four parcels totaling 1,200 acres earlier this year.

Pamela Mathis, BLMs Taos Office field manager, said that working with non-governmental organizations to acquire land in the heart of the monument is important for connectivity and recreation.

It really helps the intent of the monument and the public lands, which is used for the people and also conservation, Mathis said.

Theresa Davis is a Report for America corps member covering water and the environment for the Albuquerque Journal.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Praising and thanking veterans for their service to the country during a Veterans Day ceremony Thursday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham pledged to request $60 million from the state Legislature for the construction of a state-of-the-art facility on the campus of the New Mexico State Veterans Home in Truth or Consequences.

In addition, the state is applying for a federal grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which could pick up 65% of the total cost, said Kathy Kunkel, the special director in the Governors Office who is working on the project.

Today, I offer my profound and sincere thanks to the men and women who so selflessly served, and those who still serve our nation. I am so proud to lead a state where so many of its citizens answered the call of duty, Lujan Grisham said.

But its important that each of us carries this gratitude forward, and that we support each and every veteran, even after they leave military service.

Pending support of the Legislature, the governor said she hoped ground would be broken on the project in summer 2022.

The ceremony at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial in Albuquerque drew a large crowd of active duty and former members representing all branches of the military and their families.

In addition to Lujan Grisham, comments were offered by Brig. Gen. Jamison Herrera of the New Mexico Army National Guard and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller. The ceremony also featured musical selections by the Dukes of Albuquerque, the posting of colors, a parade of state flags, an enlistment ceremony for five new recruits, the formal retirement of a military service dog, a fallen warrior tribute and a rifle volley.

In commenting on the current condition of the State Veterans Home in TorC, the governor said our veterans deserve better. She noted that the building is in disrepair and was not designed as a home for veterans.

There are currently 36 residents in the veterans home.

The building was the original site of the Carrie Tingley Childrens Hospital and was constructed in 1936. It was turned into a home for aging veterans in 1984.

Last year, there were 28 COVID-related deaths at the home, which was about 19% of the facilitys 145-bed capacity, according to a report presented to the Legislative Finance Committee.

The report, prepared by LFC staff analysts, said the state failed to ensure proper infection control at the home, where each of the undersized rooms was shared by four disabled veterans (only two share a room now). Exacerbating the problem was a poor building layout, inadequate ventilation and chronic staffing shortages.

Kunkel, a former secretary of health, said a comprehensive assessment of the building determined it would cost about $80 million to refurbish and make it ADA compliant.

Because of the prohibitive cost and ongoing maintenance issues, a decision was made to build a new home for the veterans, which would be designed to replicate a home-type environment rather than a hospital setting, Kunkel said.

As now envisioned, Kunkel said, six homes will be constructed on the 15-acre site. Each of the homes will have 12 private bedrooms and bathrooms, with shared kitchens and living areas.

We will still have doctors and nurses who will be available on the campus, but they will come into the homes the way, for example, home health operates, Kunkel said. So, its a very different staffing model, but we will still have all the same staff, just not in the building with them (residents). Theyll be in other offices on the site.

The existing annex building, which was constructed in 2017, will continue to house Alzheimers patients. There are currently 38 people housed there, but the building can accommodate 59, she said.

Its not yet known what may become of the main veterans home building; however, Kunkel said the building is considered historic and members of the community want to preserve it.
A man wanted in a deadly triple shooting at an apartment complex in Northeast Albuquerque was recently arrested in Denver on new charges.

Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque police spokesman, said the Denver Police Department arrested Josef Toney on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping. He didnt give any other details on the new charges.

The 16-year-old is already facing two open counts of murder, armed robbery, child abuse and other charges in a Jan. 27 shooting that left Aerial Mallam, 21, and Jessica Lucero, 31, dead and a man injured.

Toney has been a wanted fugitive since then, Gallegos said.

Police responded around 10 p.m. to the shooting at the Aztec Village Apartments, near Montgomery and Carlisle NE. They found a relative of Mallams shot and injured in the parking lot and the bodies of Mallam and Lucero outside an apartment.

Toney was brought into the hospital by his father with gunshot wounds that police say he received in a gunfight fleeing the scene. Police interviewed Toney and he gave conflicting stories before he asked for a lawyer.

Toney was released from the hospital and it is unclear in court records if he was ever detained by police before a warrant was issued for his arrest in the double homicide.
If New Mexico had been content to plug along with a generally reliable, home-based electric utility that depended on a combination of natural gas, coal and nuclear energy, with some wind and solar mixed in, there wouldnt be a particularly strong argument for the proposed merger/acquisition of PNM Resources by energy giant Avangrid.

But we werent content to just plug along. The Legislature, in 2019, at the urging of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, passed the New Mexico Energy Transition Act requiring that 50% of investor-owned utility-generated electric power in the state be from renewable energy by 2030, 80% by 2040 and 100% carbon-free by 2045.

So, as someone once said, we are where we are.

And given where we are, the benefits of the proposal in which Avangrid would acquire PNMR subsidiaries Public Service Company of New Mexico and Texas New Mexico Power in an all-cash transaction valued at $4.3 billion outweigh the concerns raised by a Public Regulation Commission hearing officer, who recommends the five PRC commissioners vote against approval.

That said, hearing examiner Ashley Schannauer raises some legitimate concerns in his recommended decision. They should be considered and addressed by commissioners after the parties file their exceptions to Schannauers recommendation. But, in fact, many of the issues already have been addressed in negotiations between PNM/Avangrid and the two dozen parties that formally intervened in the case.

Granted, the negotiations have been piecemeal, with some occurring after the formal hearing. Much to the hearing officers chagrin, they arent tied up nicely with a ribbon on top. But they are real. The merger partners are now offering $67 million in customer bill credits over three years, $10 million to assist low-income customers, $2 million to hook up new customers in underserved areas and $15 million for energy efficiency program assistance for low-income households.

And there are significant economic development benefits estimated at more than $200 million, including at least 150 good-paying new jobs. Business groups have testified in support, while unions, environmental groups and others have come on board in the regulatory process. Supporters in the case range from the state Attorney Generals Office to the electrical workers union to the Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy to Western Resource Advocates to Dine Citizens Against Ruining our Environment.

Avangrid and PNM have reached agreement with 2/3 of the 24 intervenors in the regulatory review process, with 23 of the groups and organizations now having either agreed to support the proposal or not to oppose it. In reaching its decision, the commission should focus on the full list of commitments  about 40 of those being reached over the summer.

Of particular note is the recent decision by the PRC staff and Bernalillo County to drop formal opposition to the proposal after getting additional concessions. In the case of PRC staff, it was in the form of tougher penalties for potential reliability problems down the road  a hearing officer concern. The city of Albuquerque and the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority are among those that no longer oppose the deal.

Steve Michel, an attorney with Western Resource Advocates, says the most important benefit for New Mexicans is that Connecticut-based Avangrid  81% owned by Spanish renewable energy giant Iberdrola  brings financial strength and industry expertise in renewable development to PNM that can help advance the state goal of transforming the local grid to 100% non-carbon generation. PNMs mix of renewables now is about 30%  21% wind and 9%solar.

PRC rejection of the merger deal, Michel says, means PNM would struggle to meet New Mexicos renewable energy goals and the economic benefits negotiated in the deal will disappear.

Some concessions are non-monetary. For example, PNM and Avangrid have agreed to a seven-member board for the New Mexico utility that would include three independent directors from New Mexico. And those three would have to agree on all dividends, which protects against Avangrid draining cash out of PNM.

Further, the parties have said Don Tarry, a New Mexico native with a long history at PNM, would be in charge of operations in the state. He has made clear the companys commitment to community involvement, charitable giving, economic development and education. To making this a better place  not a cash cow for a Spanish company.

When Lujan Grisham signed the ETA, she described it as landmark energy legislation establishing New Mexico as a national leader in renewable transition efforts.

If the merger is nixed, could PNM move ahead and meet the timelines set out in statute and the aspirations laid out by the governor? Perhaps. Is it less likely? Yes, especially given delays we already see with solar projects locally and supply chain problems nationally.

Along with eliminating the significant economic incentives, would killing the merger mean a greater likelihood of dirtier air, higher rates and power outages? Quite possibly.

So, yes, commissioners should consider the hearing officers objections, including a criminal investigation in Spain into alleged practices by Iberdrola. Should they also take note of the fact that all but one intervenor either supports the deal or is neutral? Absolutely.

At the end of the day, its their job to balance the concerns raised against both the short- and long-term benefits of the proposed merger  all while knowing it will be their job as regulators to protect the interests of ratepayers moving forward.

And when they do that, it seems the proposed merger offers a brighter path to a clean energy future and more prosperous New Mexico.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  State Engineer John DAntonio, New Mexicos top water official, submitted his resignation and will retire next month, citing a lack of financial support to protect the states water resources.

His departure comes as New Mexico faces litigation with Texas over Rio Grande water rights, record-low reservoirs and water scarcity exacerbated by drought and climate change.

In a written statement Thursday, DAntonio said he is optimistic about his agencys work to limit New Mexicos liability in the Texas litigation.

But he cited a persistent lack of financial resources for the Office of the State Engineer and unfunded mandates as factors in his resignation. He expects several senior staff members who are eligible for retirement to announce departures, too.

Weve taken the agency as far as we can, given the current agency staffing level and funding resources, DAntonio said.

The agency, he said, has the equivalent of 67 fewer employees now than it did under then-Gov. Bill Richardson a decade ago, when DAntonio served an earlier stint as State Engineer. But his office was still directed to submit a flat budget this year, he said, amid strong growth in projected state revenue.

The water agency, DAntonio said, had been asking for additional staff and funding to protect the states water resources for nearly three years.

Nora Meyers Sackett, a spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, said the governor has worked to boost funding for the state engineer since taking office in 2019.

Funding for the Office of the State Engineer has climbed about 17% since then, according to the Lujan Grisham administration.

DAntonio, meanwhile, highlighted what he described as the glaring nonresponse from the Legislature on funding for the states 50-year water plan for the last three years and expectations that it be completed regardless of funding limitations.

The agency has instead turned to a funding partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with the plan.

Sen. Liz Stefanics, a Cerrillos Democrat and chair of the legislative Water and Natural Resources Committee, said she agrees New Mexico should dedicate more money to water projects.

She said she expects to propose in the Legislatures next 30-day session that another $50 million be allocated to a water trust fund that helps pay for water projects.

The issue around resources is absolutely true, Stefanics said in an interview.

Rep. Susan Herrera, an Embudo Democrat and member of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, said she and other legislators are already talking about how to ensure state agencies that are really suffering get the financial support they need.

The push comes as the state may have plenty to spend. Its economists are projecting strong revenue growth for next budget year, and federal stimulus funds have poured into the state.

If were going to have clean drinking water and wastewater in this state, we need to invest, Herrera said. Its as simple as that.

Lujan Grisham appointed DAntonio to the states top water position in February 2019. His retirement goes into effect Dec. 31.

He also held the post under Richardson from 2003 to 2011.

Sackett, the Lujan Grisham spokeswoman, said the administration is grateful for DAntonios many years of service to the state and his work to protect and preserve New Mexicos resources and waterways  we wish him all the best in his retirement.

She added that Lujan Grisham has worked and continues to work to remedy the previous administrations underfunding and understaffing of state agencies and departments.

The Office of the State Engineer oversees water rights, and the State Engineer serves as secretary of the Interstate Stream Commission, which manages interstate water compacts and long-term water planning.

DAntonios departure will create a second vacancy on that panel. Commissioner Tanya Trujillo took a job as the U.S. Interior Department assistant secretary of water and science in January.

The state engineer is New Mexicos representative on several interstate water compact commissions.

In July 2020, DAntonio successfully persuaded the Rio Grande Compact commissioners from Colorado and Texas to approve an 11 billion gallon emergency release of water from El Vado Reservoir to boost river flows for farmers and fish in central New Mexico.

In a presentation to lawmakers last month, DAntonio said the water office has continued to get hit with unfunded mandates.

Not only are we having to actively manage our resources with a really limited staff, but weve also got to go in and defend our water against claims from the state of Texas, he told the Water and Natural Resources Committee.

Texas and New Mexico are in litigation before the Supreme Court over groundwater disputes.

DAntonios other roles include chair of the Water Trust Board, which administers local water infrastructure project funds, and chair of the governors drought task force.

He was the states Cabinet secretary for the Environment Department for a six-month stint in 2002, and he worked nearly 20 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

DAntonio, who makes $158,000 a year as state engineer, said he expects to make an announcement in the coming weeks on his future plans to help solve water challenges in the West.

Inside the Office of the State Engineer, he said, there remains a small nucleus of staff professionals who are over-worked and under-supported and deserve an experienced quality leader to take on the challenges facing NMs critical water challenges. I wish that person the best.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  The board overseeing New Mexicos $18 billion pension fund for state employees has launched a formal investigation into whether one of its members went too far by sending a letter to a legislative oversight committee that contained wide-ranging corruption allegations.

The letter was sent by Public Employees Retirement Association board member Loretta Naranjo Lopez shortly after the board voted  over her objection  last month to hire Greg Trujillo as the pension funds new executive director.

It expressed opposition to a legislative proposal to overhaul the PERA board structure, while also leveling claims  without citing evidence  that state Treasurer Tim Eichenberg likely got a bribe for backing the new executive director and that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams office helps criminals avoid oversight by influencing board members.

In response to the letter, which was obtained by the Journal, acting PERA board chairman Francis Page appointed a three-member committee to investigate Naranjo Lopezs actions, saying her conduct calls into question whether she failed to fulfill her fiduciary duties as a board member and violated ethical standards.

The ad hoc committee held its first meeting this week and is expected to recommend by mid-January whether Naranjo Lopez should be removed from the PERA board, sanctioned or face no disciplinary action.

During the initial meeting of the investigative committee, Naranjo Lopez said the panel violates anti-retaliation rules and said her claims were truthful.

This investigative committee has conflicts of interest, including the board, so I would ask for an independent investigation and a hearing officer, she said.

Naranjo Lopez, an Albuquerque resident who has served on the PERA board since 2005, also questioned how the PERA board had obtained the letter.

Meanwhile, the committee is being led by PERA board member Claudia Armijo, a state Treasurers Office employee, who vowed the investigation would be impartial and objective.

The PERA board has been a familiar setting for rancor in recent years, with actions including investigations into board member travel, lawsuits and debate over snacks during board meetings.

The infighting has occurred amid long-running solvency concerns for the pension fund that covers more than 47,000 state workers, police officers and judges, and paid retirement benefits to roughly 42,700 retirees during the budget year that ended in June.

State lawmakers have approved several fixes aimed at shoring up the retirement system, including a 2020 bill that temporarily froze cost-of-living adjustments for some retirees, and required public workers and government agencies to pay more into the system.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Former state Rep. Dianne Miller Hamilton  a Silver City Republican and well-known radio host  died Tuesday at her home in Tijeras after a short illness.

She was 87.

Hamilton won election to the House in 1998 and served through 2016, when she retired. She was a key figure in early efforts to establish a statewide voter identification requirement and was known as an advocate for veterans and ranchers.

Merritt Hamilton Allen, one of her three daughters, said she recalls helping her mom settle into her Capitol office for annual legislative sessions. She always made an effort, Allen said, to appreciate the staff members who support legislators and the public.

From security to the people in the copy room, Allen said, everyone was so happy to see her. She would hug her way through the Capitol.

Hamilton arrived in Silver City in 1974 after her husband, John A. Hamilton, retired from the Marine Corps. The family had moved quite a bit during his military service.

In Silver City, Hamilton hosted two daily radio programs from 1976 to 1999. Earlier, she taught in Kansas City public schools and prepared for a career in broadcasting.

Hamilton had an audition at WGN in Chicago, which she turned down to marry John Hamilton.

She was a skillful interviewer who often had high school students doing fundraisers on her show.

Everyone I went to high school with had been on her show, Allen said. They felt comfortable, they felt welcome, they felt important.

State Republican leaders praised Hamilton for her work on election legislation and advocacy for veterans. She was succeeded in 2017 by Republican Rep. Rebecca Dow of Truth or Consequences.

Dianne Hamilton was the stateswoman who paved the way for female legislators, Dow said in a written statement. I loved each of our visits and hearing her stories from the Roundhouse. She was a friend and I will miss her dearly.

Hamilton was active as a volunteer and leader in Silver City, where she helped found the first shelter for victims of domestic violence. She also served as president of the Board of Regents at Western New Mexico University.

Hamilton is survived by her son, Drew, and his wife, Tricia, and their daughter, Blythe; daughter Jared and her husband, Mike; daughter Lynn, her husband, Bob, and their daughter, Joan Marie; and Allen and her husband, Darrell.

Hamilton will lie in state in the Capitol rotunda from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 22. A funeral Mass will be held at St. Francis Newman Center Parish the next day in Silver City.

She will be interred with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery.

More details can be found at terrazasfuneralchapel.com. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Hamilton Military Museum, P.O. Box 472, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, 87101.
Things just got a little easier for a single mother trying to get her life back on track when a local organization gifted her a car.

Wings for LIFE International donated the car to Malisha Toledo, a housekeeper with a hotel chain. She had spent hours each day getting to and from work, lessening the time she could spend with her family.

Transportation is everything, said Anne Edenfield Sweet, executive director of Wings for Life. Its so hard to get a job without transportation.  It takes her three hours to take a bus and then come home at night to her family.

Wings for LIFEs mission is to help break the generational cycle of incarceration by offering parenting classes, helping families apply for benefits, donating cars like they did with Toledo and much more.

Toledo said she hopes the car brings her another step closer to reuniting her family.

Im not perfect, Toledo said. Ive made my mistakes, like I said. I just got my daughter back. The only person who is missing is my son right now, but hopefully this will give me a better opportunity to get him back as well.

Toledo hopes to return to school and become a paralegal.

This story will run Friday on KOAT-TV as part of the Good News Files series. To learn more or donate to Wings for LIFE, visit wingsfli.org.

The Good News File is a series of uplifting stories in partnership with KOAT-TV and KKOB Radio. The Journal will publish a Good News feature the first Friday of the month, KOAT-TV will present its feature each second Friday and KKOB each third Friday.
The Albuquerque BioPark has received accreditation for another five years from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Fewer than 10% of the 2,800 licensed animal exhibitors in the United States meet the rigorous AZA standards. The ABQ BioPark has been continuously accredited for more than 30 years, BioPark officials said.

AZA Accreditation is only possible through a full-team collaborative effort, and Im immensely proud of our teams commitment to not just meeting, but exceeding, the highest standards in our industry, Stephanie Stowell, ABQ BioPark director said in a statement released Thursday.

We truly could not have accomplished this without our dedicated BioPark staff, volunteers, concessionaires at SSA, and our support organization, the New Mexico BioPark Society.

The accreditation process is required every five years and includes a meticulous on-site inspection by a team of zoo and aquarium professionals. They evaluate animal care, keeper training, safety for visitors, staff and animals, educational and conservation programs, veterinary services, financial stability and more.
GLASGOW, Scotland  Going into overtime Friday night, negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow were still trying to find common ground on phasing out coal, when nations need to update their emission-cutting pledges and, especially, on money.

Talks are at a bit of a stalemate, and the United States, with support from the European Union, is holding back talks, said Lee White, the Gabonese minister for forests and climate change.

Mohamed Adow of Power Shift Africa, a long-time talks observer, said poorer nations are beyond disappointed with the way the United Kingdom presidency has come up with drafts and that this has become a rich world negotiation. He said poorer nations cannot accept what has been proposed.

As the talks approached midnight, rich nations had a much more optimistic view, showing the split that might occur after new drafts appear Saturday.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host of the meeting, said through a spokesperson that he believes an ambitious outcome is in sight.

U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry told The Associated Press on Friday night that climate talks were working away, commenting after a late night meeting with his Chinese counterpart and before a hallway chat with Indias minister.

Chinese Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhua told Kerry in the hallway: I think the current draft is more close in a conversation that AP witnessed. When Kerry asked him if he felt better about it, Xie answered: Yes, I feel better about it because Alok Sharma is a smart guy.

No agreement was ready by the 6 p.m. local time scheduled end of the conference. And sometimes that helps diplomats get in a more deal-making mood.

The negotiating culture is not to make the hard compromises until the meeting goes into extra innings, as we now have done, said long-time climate talks observer Alden Meyer of the European think tank E3G. But the U.K. presidency is still going to have to make a lot of people somewhat unhappy to get the comprehensive agreement we need out of Glasgow.

Three sticking points were making people unhappy on Friday: cash, coal and timing.

A crunch issue is the question of financial aid for poor countries to cope with climate change. Rich nations failed to provide them with $100 billion annually by 2020, as agreed, causing considerable anger among developing countries going into the talks.

A Friday morning draft reflects those concerns, expressing deep regret that the $100 billion goal hasnt been met and urging rich countries to scale up their funding for poor nations to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change  an issue with which developed countries are also grappling.

Poorer nations say regret isnt enough.

Dont call them donor countries. Theyre polluters. They owe this money, said Saleemul Huq, a climate science and policy expert who is director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh.

The draft also proposes creating a loss-and-damage fund to help poor countries tap existing sources of aid when they face the devastating impacts of climate change. But rich nations such as the United States, which have historically been the biggest source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, are opposed to any legal obligation to compensate poor countries.

But Gabons White said rich countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, had said they werent ready. They said we never agreed to that. It wont work. Its too complicated.

The proposal for creating this mechanism is like creating a bank account, said Adow of Power Shift Africa. We dont need to push cash into the account now. It is just the opening of the account.

This was the elephant in the room, said Lia Nicholson, lead negotiator for the alliance of small islands at the summit. She said that developing nations and China had a united position on this but the proposal hadnt met with significant pushback from rich countries.

Small islands cant always be the ones who are asked to compromise our interest with the objectives of reaching consensus, she said.

That Friday draft also called on countries to accelerate the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.

A previous draft Wednesday had been stronger, calling on countries to accelerate the phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuel.

Kerry said Washington backed the current wording. Were not talking about eliminating coal, he told fellow climate diplomats. But, he said: Those subsidies have to go.

Kerry said it was a definition of insanity that trillions were being spent to subsidize fossil fuels worldwide. Were allowing to feed the very problem were here to try to cure. It doesnt make sense.

But there was a mixed response from activists and observers on how significant the addition of the words unabated and inefficient was.

Richie Merzian, a former Australian climate negotiator who directs the climate and energy program at the Australia Institute think tank, said the additional caveats were enough that you can run a coal train through it.

Countries like Australia and India, the worlds third-biggest emitter, have resisted calls to phase out coal any time soon.

Scientists agree it is necessary to end the use of fossil fuels as soon as possible to meet the 2015 Paris accords ambitious goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). But explicitly including such a call in the overarching declaration is politically sensitive, including for countries, such as Saudi Arabia, that fear oil and gas may be targeted next.

Another issue from Friday mornings draft concerns when nations have to come back with new emission-cutting targets which they were supposed to submit before the Glasgow talks. Because the pledges werent enough, the draft calls on the nations to submit another tougher target by the end of 2022, but some nations, such as Saudi Arabia, are balking about this said World Resources Institutes David Waskow.

In 2015 in Paris, there was a debate about whether targets should be updated every five or 10 years so going to one year after Glasgow is a big deal, said Environmental Defense Fund Vice President Kelley Kizzier, a former EU negotiator.

Negotiators from almost 200 nations gathered in Glasgow on Oct. 31 amid dire warnings from leaders, activists and scientists that not enough is being done to curb global warming.

According to the proposed decision, countries plan to express alarm and utmost concern that human activities have already caused around 1.1C (2F) of global warming and that impacts are already being felt in every region.

While the Paris accord calls for limiting temperature to well below 2C (3.6F), ideally no more than 1.5C, by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times, the draft agreement notes that the lower threshold would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change and resolves to aim for that target.

In doing so, it calls for the world to cut carbon dioxide emission by 45% in 2030 compared with 2010 levels, and to add no additional CO2 to the atmosphere by mid-century. So far the world is not on track for that.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told The Associated Press this week that the 1.5C-goal is still in reach but on life support.

The annual meetings, first held in 1995 and only skipped once last year due to the pandemic, are designed to get all countries to gradually ratchet up their efforts to curb global warming.

But for many vulnerable nations the process has been far too slow.

We need to deliver and take action now, said Seve Paeniu, the finance minister of the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. Its a matter of life and survival for many of us.

___

Ellen Knickmeyer, Philipp Jenne and Karl Ritter contributed to this report.

___

Follow APs coverage of the talks at http://apnews.com/hub/climate
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Chimayo trapper Marty Cordova was acquitted by a jury this week of 10 counts of illegal trapping, three years after state officials alleged that he set a snare that strangled a dog near Espanola, his attorney said Thursday.

The death of the dog, named Roxy, attracted widespread media attention and led to passage this year of a state law  Roxys Law  that outlaws the use of traps, snares and wildlife poison on public lands in New Mexico.

The 1st Judicial District Court jury found Cordova not guilty of trapping within 25 yards of a road and other violations of state Department of Game and Fish trapping regulations, said Yvonne K. Quintana, Cordovas attorney.

Problems with evidence, including the failure to collect snares and traps from the field, and the destruction of photographic evidence, contributed to Cordovas acquittal, Quintana said.

Mr. Cordova was the one accused, but they really couldnt identify that he was the one who set the traps, she said. Thats one of the required elements of these trapping charges, that the trapper has to land-set the traps.

Jennifer Padgett Macias, 1st Judicial District chief deputy district attorney, said the federal Bureau of Land Management retained and ultimately destroyed some evidence in connection with its own investigation.

There was some evidence destroyed as it was in the custody of (BLM) when their case was settled, Padgett Macias said. Traps in BLM custody were not turned over to the Department of Game and Fish but were destroyed per their policy when a case is resolved.

The snare involved in Roxys death was destroyed when it was cut off the dogs body, she said.

The Department of Game and Fish initially charged Cordova with 34 counts of illegal trapping in February 2019, three months after a neck snare strangled the dog near a hiking trail at Santa Cruz Lake Recreation Area north of Espanola.

Roxy, an 8-year-old blue heeler mix, choked to death while her owner, Dave Clark, desperately tried to free her from the snare.

The case drew public attention and prompted lawmakers in 2019 to introduce the Wildlife Conservation and Public Safety Act, an anti-trapping law dubbed Roxys Law.

After several failed attempts, the bill was signed into law in April by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham after it passed the House by a single vote, 35-34. The law will take effect April 1, 2022.

Officials with state Game and Fish and BLM set up trail cameras and alleged in court records that they captured images of Cordova in the area where Clarks dog was snared. Officials also searched his home and allegedly found numerous traps and animal pelts, according to court records.

Quintana alleged in court records that state officials destroyed thousands of photos and made other missteps that made it impossible for Cordova to formulate a defense.

All but 10 of the original charges were dismissed before jurors began deliberations this week, she said.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Declaring the entire state at high risk, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an order Friday opening up COVID-19 booster shots to any adult who wants the extra dose.

The expanded eligibility goes a step beyond federal guidelines, which more narrowly limit who qualifies for a booster.

Lujan Grisham cited New Mexicos crowded hospitals and the unrelenting surge in COVID-19 cases to justify expanding the eligibility.

State health officials this week also expressed concern about waning immunity from the initial round of vaccinations earlier this year.

I strongly encourage every New Mexican to register for a booster today  we have appointments available and are ready to get shots in arms, Lujan Grisham said in a written statement.

Federal regulators last month authorized booster shots for adults who meet certain criteria, such as working or living in a high-risk setting. The specific guidelines vary depending on a persons age, underlying conditions, original vaccine and other factors.

Fridays order declares that the entire state is at high risk of exposure to the virus and that anyone living or working in New Mexico may get a booster dose.

Colorado and California have also expanded eligibility.

In New Mexico, the order comes a day after two major hospital systems activated crisis standards of care  a step that standardizes decision-making when the demand for beds and other resources outstrips the supply. The University of New Mexico and Presbyterian Healthcare Services made the announcement Thursday.

The number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in New Mexico has more than doubled since early August and jumped 65% in the past month alone. The extra patients add strain to the health care system in a state with long-running shortages of doctors and hospital beds.

People who arent vaccinated make up 77% of recent hospitalizations, even though theyre less than half the states population overall.

Providing boosters for adults will significantly increase levels of immunity protection across our state  and thats essential for all of us, Acting Health Secretary David Scrase, a physician, said in a written statement. COVID-19 is incredibly opportunistic  and its our job to ensure that the virus has fewer and fewer opportunities to spread.

He and other state health officials earlier this week outlined new research that they said indicates the initial vaccines dip in protection after about five months.

State Sen. Gregg Schmedes, a Tijeras Republican and surgeon, said the crisis standards activated this week reflect staffing shortages, influenced by the states own policy choices.

As patients who delayed care now reach a critical mass, he said, our state continues its downward trajectory as this administration doubles down on its failed policies.

Not playing gatekeeper

COVID-19 patients are just one factor in the crowded hospitals. Doctors and hospital leaders say they are seeing more patients  and the patients are sicker than usual  from a host of other conditions, perhaps exacerbated by people not seeking their usual care earlier in the pandemic.

Under the new rules, anyone 18 or older who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines can get a booster dose six months after their original vaccine series.

The rules arent changed for recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. They can get a booster two months after their original shot.

Even before Fridays order expanding eligibility, New Mexico appeared to be taking a hands-off approach, allowing people to consult with their doctor and decide whether the booster was appropriate.

The Department of Health is not playing a gatekeeper role with regard to boosters, department spokesman Matt Bieber said Friday morning. Individuals can review the federal eligibility criteria (we link to it within vaccineNM.org) and talk to their providers about whether a booster is right for them.

The numbers

New Mexico reported 508 coronavirus patients in state hospitals Friday  more than double the number as recently as Aug. 10.

The Department of Health also recorded another 21 virus deaths, pushing the official statewide death toll to 5,169 residents.

Nine of the 21 fatalities were adults in their 70s or older. The youngest were a man in his 20s and woman in her 30s, both from Bernalillo County.

About 95% of the deaths over the past four weeks have been individuals who are not fully vaccinated.

The state also reported 3,524 new cases of COVID-19, a two-day total after the state did not issue a report on Veterans Day. People who arent fully vaccinated make up about 72% of recent cases.

About 73.5% of New Mexico adults are fully vaccinated, meaning they have completed their original vaccine series. Some 15.5% of the states adults have had their booster dose.

Mask mandate

The Lujan Grisham administration on Friday also renewed a public health order requiring people to wear masks in indoor public places, even if theyre vaccinated. It includes an exception for eating or drinking.

The order is in effect through at least Dec. 10, making New Mexico one of just six states with a broad requirement for indoor masks, according to AARP.

Dr. Denise Gonzales, medical director at Presbyterian, urged New Mexicans in an online town hall Friday to wear masks indoors, wash their hands regularly and practice social distancing when appropriate.

All of these things are simple to do, she said. I know it seems like a hassle sometimes, but it truly does work.
LAS CRUCES  New Mexico State Universitys chief academic administrator has been placed on paid administrative leave and an acting replacement has been named.

The university told employees in a letter Thursday that Vice President Renay Scott will be acting provost, filling in for Provost Carol Parker, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.

The letter by Chancellor Dan Arvizu and President John Floros did not say why Parker was put on leave or how long it would last.

Last week, the NMSU Faculty Senate and the Associated Students of New Mexico State University approved similar resolutions of no confidence in Parker and Floros.

The resolutions contend the university spends too much on the administration that hasnt listened to concerns from faculty and staff. The resolutions recommended the Board of Regents immediately remove Parker and Floros.

Parkers attorney, Kate Ferlic, told The Associated Press on Friday that Parker denies the allegations made against her.

In her role as provost, she has always put the students of NMSU first, she wrote in an email. Dr. Parker looks forward to the regents supporting her and allowing her to continue serving the entire university community.

Parker became provost in 2019 after previously holding senior administrative posts at the University of Texas at El Paso and at the University of New Mexico.
WENN/Avalon Celebrity

The Duke of Sussex credits his stint in the army for shaping him into the man he is today as he honors veterans at the Salute to Freedom gala in New York.

Nov 12, 2021

AceShowbiz - Britain's Prince Harry has said his stint in the military "made (him) who (he) is today."

The royal, who spent a decade in the Army and undertook two tours of Afghanistan, will always be "grateful" for his time in the Forces - even if he's still haunted by some of the things he saw.

Speaking at the 2021 Salute to Freedom gala - which recognises "extraordinary leadership" and honours service personnel - in New York City on Wednesday night (10Nov21), he said, "My experience in the military made me who I am today, and I will always be grateful for the people I got to serve with - wherever in the world we were. But in war, you also see and experience things you hope no one else has to. These stay with us, sometimes like a slideshow of images."

Harry - who walked the red carpet at the Intrepid Museum with his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex - spoke about the mental health impact of being in the military and the adjustment struggles some veterans can face when they return to civilian life.

He said, "For too long, invisible injuries were treated as just that - invisible - and were destined to be swept under the rug at the risk of shame, guilt, or just a lack of understanding."

"For years, we - and our families - orient our entire lives around the mission, the duty, the commitment, and yes - the hurry up and wait. And when we return, we long for the same feelings and contributions: self-purpose, focus, service to others, and being part of a team."

"As many of us see it, service isn't loud. Service is what happens in the quiet and when people aren't looking. It's about how we take care of each other every day."

"It's about the camaraderie we share... the laughs, the comfort, the pain, the challenge, and yes, the banter."

The Prince created his Invictus Games "to honour the legacy of those who have given so much" as well as to show "that the men and women who have experienced service injuries, as well as their families, are the strongest people in the world... and they deserve a platform to be seen, a platform to be recognised, and a platform to be truly celebrated."

Harry went on to welcome the winners of the inaugural Intrepid Valour Award, describing them as being "part of an everlasting bond."

He added, "You are part of the team of teams. And we will always have your backs. You are not alone."
WENN Music

Another concertgoer who attended Travis Scott's deadly festival has passed away in hospital, a few days after he was declared brain dead following serious injuries in a stampede.

Nov 12, 2021

AceShowbiz - The death toll from last week's (05Nov21) Astroworld tragedy has risen to nine.

Student Bharti Shahani, who was declared brain dead earlier this week, has died from the injuries she sustained during Travis Scott's set at the festival in Houston, Texas.

The Texas A&M University senior passed away on Thursday (11Nov21).

She attended Astroworld with her sister and a cousin. They became separated during a crowd surge.

Bharti reportedly suffered several heart attacks and was rushed to a local hospital.

A representative for the deceased's family has confirmed she was the woman in a viral video who was dropped on her head as she was carried out by first responders. Meanwhile, nine-year-old Ezra Blount is still fighting for his life in hospital. His family is among those suing Travis Scott and promoters Live Nation for negligence.

The rapper has vowed to pay for the funeral costs of all the Astroworld chaos victims.

Meanwhile, a lawyer representing the star recently called out police for flip-flopping on their statement regarding the tragedy.

The attorney slammed the "finger-pointing" by city officials, "who have sent inconsistent messages and have backtracked from original statements."

"Houston Police Chief Troy Finner was quoted in the New York Times as saying 'You cannot just close when you got 50,000 and over 50,000 individuals. We have to worry about rioting, riots, when you have a group that's that young'," he continued. "Yet, just a short time later, Chief Finner states the responsibility to stop the show falls on Travis."
Instagram Celebrity

The 'Anne With an E' actress has decided to go under the knife for a double mastectomy procedure after she was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.

Nov 12, 2021

AceShowbiz - Teenage "Anne With an E" star Miranda McKeon has undergone a double mastectomy.

The 19-year-old actress announced the news via Instagram on Wednesday (10Nov21), revealing the surgery took place in San Francisco, California.

"Today is the big day!!! I've arrived in SF to have the surgery that I've been anticipating for almost 5 months," the Netflix favourite wrote beside a photo of herself posing by the Golden Gate Bridge. "I'll be having a double mastectomy - a procedure to remove all of the breast tissue under the skin on both sides as well as some lymph nodes on my right side."

"This will get rid of any cancer and significantly decrease my risk of reoccurrence in the future. This also means that I will be cancer free!"

"After tens of hours of meetings with surgeons and so so so much research (mostly done by my mom, thank you mom!) I truly feel like I found the perfect team..."

McKeon added, "Whereas with traditional mastectomies, women are left mostly totally numb in their chest - I will have a sensation preserving mastectomy which is safe from an oncologic standpoint but more care is taken when cutting nerves and nerve grafts are done to reconstruct cut nerves. While it will certainly take a bit of time, I'm so grateful that I will return to looking and feeling like myself...!"

"Today step 2/3 will be finalized with radiation to follow. As always, I can't thank everyone enough for their continued support. The people in my life show up for me each and everyday in ways that are so tender and heartwarming. I'm one lucky girl!!!!!!"

Miranda was diagnosed with breast cancer, which had already spread to her lymph nodes, in June (21) after finding a lump on her chest.
Instagram Celebrity

The 'Isn't It Romantic' actress, who dubbed herself 'a bit more of a conservative girl,' reveals that she dated a few people over the summer, but is still looking for the right person.

Nov 12, 2021

AceShowbiz - Rebel Wilson has deleted her dating app and hopes to spend a little time solo after her "hot girl summer". The "Bridesmaids" star reveals she dated a lot earlier this year (2021) but didn't find her soulmate and now she's taking a time out from romance.

"I was doing a thing called 'Hot Girl Summer' - I heard about it in rap songs - and I was like, 'This sounds fun,' " she tells People. "It wasn't really me. I'm a bit more of a conservative girl, normally. I did date a few people over the summer and I had a really nice time but I'm currently single and looking for the right person."

Rebel is still hoping to find love after splitting from boyfriend Jacob Busch at the beginning of the year. "From every relationship, you learn stuff all about yourself and what you're looking for," she adds. "I haven't quite met my match just yet, but here's hoping..."

"If there's a good social event or something, and I feel like there might be interesting people there, I'll make the effort to go. But at the moment, I'm taking a break and just trying to see if it happens organically in real life or through friend setups or something."

She also revealed she was on a dating app, but deleted her profile. "I got too much attention, so I'm not on anymore," she explains.

In February, Rebel talked about her breakup with Jacob. In an interview with "Extra", she admitted, "Any kind of break-up is hard and not ideal. I feel like, I don't know if it's turning 40 or coming into your own - I feel in a really good place."
WENN/Avalon Movie

Defending his choice of leading lady for the upcoming film, Oscar winner Aaron Sorkin stresses that he is not looking for a physical or vocal impersonation of Lucille Ball.

Nov 12, 2021

AceShowbiz - Acclaimed writer/director Aaron Sorkin has again lashed out at those slamming the casting of Nicole Kidman as comedienne Lucille Ball in his upcoming film "Being the Ricardos".

The Oscar winner cast the Australian as the beloved TV funnywoman in his Amazon Studios movie "Being the Ricardos", which will be released next month (December 2021), and fans were fuming from the start that Kidman looks nothing like the "I Love Lucy" icon.

Now Aaron has responded to the criticism once more, telling The Hollywood Reporter he wasn't worried about his actors resembling their real life characters. "I am not looking for a physical or vocal impersonation of these people," he notes of casting Nicole as Lucy and Javier Bardem as her on- and offscreen husband, Desi Arnaz.

"So, finding an actress who looked like Lucille Ball wasn't important to me, especially because I was excited by the idea that Lucille Ball doesn't look like Lucille Ball [in her private life] - and that every time we're seeing Lucille Ball not as [TV character] Lucy Ricardo, she should both literally and metaphorically let her hair down. Let her be what she's not allowed to be on TV in 1952 on CBS. Let her be a woman. Let her be sexy. You weren't allowed to be sexy on TV."

Aaron tells the outlet he instructed his cast members to "just play the characters who are in the script...," instead of mimicking the TV stars, though he raves his leading lady really channeled her alter ego.

"When Nicole, as Lucille Ball, plays Lucy Ricardo, I think she does an incredible job of mimicking Lucy," Aaron adds. "As far as audience anticipation, that's something I'm just not worried about. I'm certain that when people see the movie, they'll leave feeling that Nicole has made a very solid case for herself."

And Aaron wasn't at all surprised by the criticism and attention Nicole's casting prompted, with even "Will & Grace" star Debra Messing - who had played Ball to great acclaim on her show and looks much more like the comedy legend - campaigning for the role.

"I was aware that for the actress who gets cast, we're asking a lot of her and we're putting her in the crosshairs, so I want to do right by that actress. I really want to build a ship that won't sink," he explains of standing firmly behind his creative choices.

"What I needed was someone who absolutely owns it. And you're going to choose from a small pool of world-class actresses... This was going to be a kind of tour de force performance. And then when Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem and J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda say they want to do your movie, your casting search is over."

"Being the Ricardos" will open in U.K. and U.S. cinemas on December 10 and premiere on Amazon Prime Video on December 21.
TV

Ada Maris, a Mexican actor who has appeared in numerous productions since the 1980s including 'Mayans MC', writes an open letter slamming the role's one-dimensional and stereotypical portrayal.

Nov 12, 2021

AceShowbiz - Netflix has decided to drop a Latina housekeeper role on "Uncoupled", a new comedy series starring Neil Patrick Harris. The decision was made after Mexican actor Ada Maris spoke out against Carmen, which she described as "offensively stereotypical" character.

Ada Maris, a Mexican actor who has appeared in numerous productions since the 1980s including "Mayans MC", wrote an open letter slamming the role's one-dimensional and stereotypical portrayal. "When I opened it and saw that it wasn't even funny - it was hurtful and derogatory - I was shocked because I walked in expecting something very different given the way things are nowadays and the progress we've made," Maris explained.

"You are modern gay men. How would you like to watch or play an outdated, offensively stereotypical gay part?" she continued to blast Harris, who serves as the executive producer of the series, and creator Darren Star. "Sometimes people have to sit with the discomfort. I would hope they would rethink this. I would hope they would recognize the harm that it does to everyone. Both to people who are Latino and people who are not."

Maris added, "I'm just fed up. I just want [writers] to think the next time they write a character like that. I'm speaking out for the younger actors coming up so they face even less of that than my generation has."

Carmen is described as Harris' character in the first episode of the series. According to Variety, she was initially being "hysterical" on the phone with Harris' character, who is a successful fortysomething single man in New York after his husband of 17 years dumps him. Speaking in broken English, she reported to Harris' character, "Mister, I just get here and they stole! They stole! They rob you! I don't know how they get in."

In another scene, Carmen is taking a glass Harris' character leaves at the sink, while saying, "No, I do that. You don't clean good, you always leave a ring."

In response to the letter, a Netflix spokesman told the outlet, "We're sorry that Ms Maris had a negative experience, and this character will not appear in the series."
Instagram TV

The comments are pretty much surprising considering that Kenya and NeNe are beefing throughout their seven shared seasons of 'The Real Housewives of Atlanta'.

Nov 12, 2021

AceShowbiz - Kenya Moore is just like most "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" fans, who want NeNe Leakes to return to the show. In a new interview the "Dancing with the Stars" alum shared that she's loving the idea of NeNe rejoining the cast of the Bravo series.

"I do think that she has a very interesting story to tell now, especially with the unfortunate passing of her husband [Gregg Leakes]," Kenya told PageSix. "If it were up to her fans, they would say, 'Absolutely yes, bring her back.' She was a viable cast member for many, many years."

The Kenya Moore Haircare CEO went on to gush, "She's one of the OGs and you can't take that away from the franchise."

The comments were pretty much surprising considering that Kenya and NeNe were beefing throughout their seven shared seasons. Of the nature of their current relationship, Kenya said, "I think that we're in a decent place. I did go to Gregg's repast and I did think that we had gotten to a place where we felt better about each other and the relationship."

NeNe hinted that she might be rejoining the cast of the Bravo series with some conditions during her recent appearance on "The Real". "I'm OK with returning to the show, as long as, you know, we can work through a few things," NeNe said in the November 3 episode of the talk show. "I'm happy to return to the show and besides, I have a lot of unfinished business with a couple of them they confirmed on the show."

She went on to elaborate, "I think [Andy Cohen] and I were really close for a really, really long time and I love [his son, Ben] Benny Boo. I helped pay for his baby shower and all those things. I think that Andy and I need to have a sit down and talk, and then we're off to the races."

Meanwhile, Andy seemed to be reluctant when asked about the matter. Giving insight into how "complicated" his current relationship with NeNe is, Andy said in a new episode of his SiriusXM radio show "Andy Cohen Live", "What I don't want to do is get into a public thing with her." He added, "I think she would probably prefer that I keep her name out of my mouth and that is what I'm going to honor."

NeNe exited the show in September 2020, saying that she could not reach a deal with Bravo despite a lot of "emotional negotiations." She also accused the network of racial discrimination. "While others were being promoted, BLACK WOMEN who created shows, created genres, built franchise and built networks were being DEMOTED," she tweeted at the time.
Instagram Movie

Hwang Dong-Hyuk explains nothing like 'Rust' fatal incident could ever happen on a South Korean film set because live bullets are not readily available in the country.

Nov 13, 2021

AceShowbiz - "Squid Game" creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk has urged Hollywood studio bosses to follow the lead of their counterparts in South Korea, who never have live bullets anywhere near a film set.

His comments come a month after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on the set of Alec Baldwin's western "Rust" in Santa Fe, New Mexico when a live round found its way into the barrel of a prop gun fired by the former "30 Rock" star.

The "Squid Game" creator insists nothing like that could ever happen on a South Korean film set because live ammunition is not readily available.

"We're not really a gun-owning country, so only the police can have and own a gun," He tells Variety. "Because of that, bullets are not really easily as distributed as they are maybe here, so there's a very low, low possibility of any safety issues happening on set."

"In my life, I have never seen a real bullet. I have only seen them in the movies."

One of the show's stars, Park Hae-soo, tells the publication, "I felt so sad about the (Rust) tragedy. I just want to relay my condolences."

Police are currently investigating the "Rust" set in an effort to determine whether criminal charges should be filed against anyone involved in the shooting incident.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the "Rust" tragedy in Hollywood, Nathan Fillion's TV series "The Rookie" banned "live" guns from the set and Ryan Phillippe's new movie "The Locksmith" only used rubber guns and CGI for the filming.
YUBA COUNTY, Calif. - A Yuba City woman died in the hospital following a crash just south of Yuba City on Wednesday morning, according to California Highway Patrol.

CHP said the driver of a 2018 Toyota, a 93-year-old woman from Yuba City, was traveling south on Highway 99 and entered the left turn lane near Stewart Rd. on Wednesday around 9:28 a.m.

The diver of a 2016 Mazda was traveling north in the second lane just south of Stewart Rd. and a 2005 Lexus was driving in the first lane slightly behind the Mazda.

The driver of the Toyota did not yield to oncoming traffic and turned directly in front of the vehicles.

The Mazda crashed into the Toyota and the Toyota began to spin counter-clockwise and hit the right rear corner of the Lexus.

The driver of the Toyota and the Mazda was taken to the hospital.

The 93-year-old woman later died from her injuries in the hospital.

Drugs and alcohol do not appear to be a factor and the crash is under investigation.
CHICO, Calif. - Washington County, OR Deputies say they're investigating the death of a transgender woman found dead in Chico on Oct. 7.

Deputies said the death has been ruled a suicide. They added the person was the owner of a white 1994 Ford Ranger.

On the same day, the Chico Police Department said a person opened fire at the city plaza and wounded one person before driving off in a white pickup.

A few hours later, police said they found a body in an alley near a white pickup truck. They said the body was the driver of the truck and appeared to commit suicide.

Then detectives with the Chico Police Department said they believe the person found dead may be linked to the plaza shooting.

The Chico Police Department could not confirm or deny if the person out of Oregon is the same person they found dead.
REDDING, Calif. - IASCO Flight Training School has had to downsize its class, instructor, and office size after having most of its students leave the country due to the pandemic.

Over 90% of IASCO students were international students, mostly from China.

Since then, IASCO has gone from around 60 students and 30 instructors, down to around 15 students and three instructors.

Conrad Wurschmidt, the Redding IASCO Flight School Director of Operations, said the school is waiting for international contracts to return.

Until then, IASCO doesnt know when they can return to full size again.

Its a matter of getting airlines having classes of students arranged and put together to come to get trained here at our school, Wurschmidt said. So, its really hard to put a timeline when all of the steps required to get our international students back will come to fruition. 

Wurschmidt told Action News Now IASCO is prepared to weather the low enrollment, and that the airline industry is a roller coaster that has its ups and downs.

He also said IASCO is not the only flight school going through this problem.

While IASCO relies on international students, they have started marketing more towards students in Northern California to fill their classes.

This strategy hasnt returned the classes to full size yet, and Wurschmidt expects IASCO to go through low enrollment for a while.

Realistically speaking, were looking at slightly smaller than pre-pandemic operation for the next few years, said Wurschmidt. Anything further than that I cant really tell, but I dont imagine that well be back up to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon.

With low enrollment, the students that are there have been able to get into the air regularly and receive more personalized training.

Skyler Vijgeboom started at IASCO only a few weeks ago but is enjoying his experience so far.

For me, its been good because Ive just had a lot of opportunities to fly, get my hours, and its just been really fun so far, Vijgeboom said.

Vijgeboom was inspired to become a pilot by his father who has been a pilot for decades.

Wurschmidt said that one of the largest obstacles for young pilots is the price it takes to get into the air.

To complete the year-long process to become a commercial pilot, costs around $70,000.

Despite that Wurschmidt says now is a great time to become a pilot.

There is an expected pilot shortage coming, as far as when and how and what the effects will be I cant say any more to it than now is a great time to start your training to become a pilot, Wurschmidt said.

While IASCO will hold out hope they can bring their international students back, they are glad to offer more availability and discovery flights to potential students here in Northern California.
Be prepared for poor visibility on your way out the door this morning as areas of dense fog have developed across northern Califonria overnight. A Dense Fog Advisory is in effect in the valley and areas of Siskiyou and Modoc Counties through 10am Friday morning. Fog could limit visibility down to around a quarter mile in some areas early today, and that will make it tough to see out on our roads. This means you'll want to give yourself extra time to get to where you're going, take it slow on your morning commute, and leave extra space between yourself and other vehicles. High pressure off the coast of California will be the main influence on our forecast today, and will continue to drive our weather pattern through this weekend. This will leave us with dry weather, sunny to mostly sunny skies, and above average temperatures for Friday and Saturday. More clouds will fill in on Sunday, but we'll be staying dry and warm. Skies are clear over northern California to start your Friday morning and winds have been light overnight. The clear skies, light winds, and moisture saturating the ground from recent storms are all combining to result in the potential for dense fog developing early today. The potential for morning fog will persist over the next few mornings. Temperatures are starting out in the 40's to 50's in the valley and foothills, while mountain areas range from the 20's to 40's to start the day. We'll be sunny to mostly sunny across northern California through the day, and will have light winds out of the north this afternoon. Temperatures are projected to top out in the low to mid 70's in the valley, mid 60's to lower 70's in the foothills, and 60's in our mountain zones Friday aftetrnoon.

Saturday looks very similar to Friday, but high temperatures will end up a couple of degrees warmer. We'll have areas of dense fog possible Saturday morning, and then sunny to mostly sunny skies and very warm conditons for your Saturday afternoon. Valley areas will start out in the 40's to lower 50's and end up in the mid 70's on Saturday. Foothill areas will start out in the 40's to 50's and end up in the 60's to lower 70's on Saturday. Mountain areas will mostly start out in the 30's and then climb into the 60's to lower 70's Saturday afternoon. The potential for morning fog will continue on Sunday, but we'll also have more clouds spilling into northern California as low pressure approaches the Pacific Northwest. This will also bring a very modest dip in high temperatures for your Sunday afternoon, but our temperatures will still end up 5 to 10 degrees above average for this time of year.

Cloudy skies and continued cooling is ahead for the start of next week on Monday. The low pressure tracking into the Pacific Northwest will bring a potential for light showers to northern California from Monday evening into Tuesday. Heavier rain is expected to stay to our north in Oregon and Washington from that wet system, but some light showers will likely brush through our far northern zones from late Monday through early in the day on Tuesday. Temperatures are projected to end up in the mid to upper 60's in the valley on Monday, and will continue to cool through most of next week. Valley areas will end up in the lower 60's on Wednesday, and then projections have valley areas in the 50's on Thursday. The next chance for showers across northern California will move in on Thursday and could persist through the end of next week. Models are still split on how promising our chance for showers will be next week.
DigiChefs, an independent and high performing creative agency based out of Mumbai has partnered with AIM Direct, a one-stop service provider that helps simplify market entry in India with its effective marketing techniques.



As part of this strategic association, DigiChefs will act as marketing partners and be responsible in helping and guiding Global & Australian brands to set up e-commerce solutions. AIM Direct is driven by an E-commerce model with a specialization in online sales & marketing solutions, working with popular e-retailers like Amazon, Nykaa, FirstCry, Flipkart, and Purple. AIM Direct which holds a direct partnership with such e-retailers, will introduce new clients to DigiChefs.



The agency has already started to work for a number of leading brands including G&M. G&M Cosmetics Pty Ltd is an Australian certified organic skincare manufacturer, specialising in skin health remedies and developing new innovative products globally for over 25 years.



Speaking on the partnership, Deep Mehta, Co-Founder, DigiChefs said, India has always been a golden market for International brands and now the government's focus on boosting the national ecommerce infrastructure and amplifying the participation of international brands has made the market more attractive. We are glad to partner with AIM Direct to offer innovative solutions to Global & Australian brands.



Our team at DigiChefs holds expertise in the online ecosystem as well as strategic coaction with traditional and digital media. We are looking forward to creating some best-in-class work in this partnership with AIM Direct, he further added.
Spotify has acquired Findaway, a global leader in digital audiobook distribution.

As part of its expansion into podcasting, Spotify has already acquired Anchor and Gimlet, making the audio streamer a leading platform for podcast creators and listeners. It has since then expanded on the very format of podcasting itself: taking a fixed format and making it a new audio experience.

Its Spotifys ambition to be the destination for all things audio both for listeners and creators. The acquisition of Findaway will accelerate Spotifys presence in the audiobook space and will help us more quickly meet that ambition, said Gustav Soderstrom, Spotifys Chief Research & Development Officer.

Were excited to combine Findaways team, best-in-class technology platform, and robust audiobook catalog with Spotifys expertise to revolutionize the audiobook space as we did with music and podcasts.

Findaway works across the entire audiobook ecosystem with a platform and offerings that serve authors, publishers, and consumers of this rapidly growing industry, which is expected to grow from $3.3 billion to $15 billion by 2027. In addition to offering the largest catalog of distributed titles, Findaway has actively worked to democratize audiobooks through leading technology tools available for independent authors to create and bring their stories to life. We plan to build on Findaways significant innovation in the space, and were going to supercharge its growth, bringing everything Spotify knows around personalization and discovery while also innovating on format, delivery, creator tools, and more.

Together, Spotify and Findaway will accelerate Spotifys entry into the audiobook space and continue to innovate the industry, working to remove current limitations and unlock better economic tools for creators. Findaways technology infrastructure will enable Spotify to quickly scale its audiobook catalog and innovate on the experience for consumers, simultaneously providing new avenues for publishers and authors to reach audiences around the globe.
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

Bern, 12.11.2021 - On 12 November 2021, the city of Paris hosted the most recent international conference on Libya, attended by members of the Berlin Process Political Working Group as well as representatives from Libya's neighbouring countries and interim government. The conference, which is co-chaired by France, Germany, Italy and the UN, supports the political transition in Libya. In his speech, Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis called for free and fair elections. Switzerland contributes to resolving the conflict in Libya through its peace building efforts and role as host state for the negotiations.

As part of the Berlin process on Libya, Switzerland is committed to fostering the conditions needed for lasting peace in the country. In its capacity as co-chair of the working group on international humanitarian law and human rights, Switzerland contributes its expertise in this field as well as its tradition of good offices and experience in peace processes.

During the conference, Mr Cassis, who is also the head of the FDFA, underlined the importance of implementing Libya's political transition. The transition process aims to restore stability in the country and wider region, particularly through the national elections scheduled for December and by putting an end to foreign interference in Libya. "The elections must take place in a secure environment that allows all Libyans to vote in safety. In the crucial weeks to come, Libya needs our support more than ever as it embarks on this difficult path," Mr Cassis stressed. The conference participants also voiced their support for free, fair and inclusive elections as set out in the political road map endorsed by Libyan stakeholders on 16 November 2020.

Call for foreign fighters to withdraw

Another focus of the conference was on the withdrawal of mercenaries, foreign fighters and foreign forces from Libyan territory in line with a number of UN Security Council resolutions and as agreed by Libya's Joint Military Commission last October in Geneva. Lastly, the participants reiterated the importance of respecting the ceasefire agreement of 23 October 2020 and the fair and equitable management of the country's natural resources.

Switzerland closely involved as host state

Since February 2020, Switzerland has acted in its role as host state to facilitate the organisation of eight meetings under the UN's three-point peace plan, which covers the political, military and economic dimensions. In this context, three key events have taken place: first, the ceasefire agreement between the two conflicting parties signed in Geneva on 23 October 2020; second, a new transitional executive authority for Libya elected in the Canton of Vaud on 5 February 2021; and third, the agreement on an action plan for the withdrawal of foreign fighters reached on 8 October 2021 in Geneva.

Switzerland's activities in Libya are set out in the Federal Council's Foreign Policy Strategy 202023 and MENA Strategy 202124 with a focus on supporting a resolution to the Libyan conflict, strengthening human rights, reducing forced displacement, and protecting the most vulnerable population groups.

Address for enquiries

FDFA Communication

Federal Palace West Wing

CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland

Tel. Communication service: +41 58 462 31 53

Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55

E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch

Twitter: @SwissMFA

Publisher

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html




CORNUCOPIA, Wis.  Buy a burger from a fast-food place in a big city. Chances are it will be the same as any burger from the same fast-food ch
The wheat market has come down from its lofty heights of over $10 a bushel in October and early November, but its hard to scoff at local cash prices that are still in the mid-$9 range.

One development with the recent spike to higher prices was that buyers kind of balked at the market run-up, according to Jim Peterson, market director for the North Dakota Wheat Commission.

Toward the end of October, we had a pretty good rally in futures going, with December Minneapolis trading to a high of $10.86 in early November, he said. Then we saw a pretty rapid selloff down to about $10.10, so we lost about 75 cents in a few days. But were still higher than we were at harvest.

Peterson pointed to a number of factors that contributed to the decline, but probably the bigger reality was that for the level of price run-up, the demand just wasn't there to support it, at least in the short-term. Not just in Minneapolis wheat, but overall U.S. wheat.

On exports, weve been challenged pretty hard. And I think rail freight costs, especially with fuel prices the way they are, theyre starting to bite into the market, as well, he said. Some of the commercials also likely let go of their stocks that producers delivered at harvest time but hadnt priced. They probably viewed that as an opportunity to move some of those stocks. And there likely was some increased producer selling at those elevated cash levels to take advantage of that opportunity.

As the dust has settled, prices and the market have stabilized some. Minneapolis December, Peterson noted, seems to want to hold above that $10 level. But one thing thats happened is there was a significant inverse in the market, meaning the December futures had gotten to a 25-30 cents a bushel premium to the March futures, and so there was some talk of some increased interest in deliveries that might take place in December futures.
TEHRAN, Iran  There seems to be no end in sight to the standoff between former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the one hand and the hard-line judiciary as well as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organization on the other.

Last month was particularly challenging for Ahmadinejad. He saw his former Vice President Hamid Baghaei sent to prison March 13, only hours after a court rejected his appeal and confirmed a 62-year sentence over a series of corruption-related charges. The charges notably included the alleged embezzlement of more than 3.7 million euros ($4.6 million) paid to him by the Quds Force, the foreign operations branch of the IRGC.

Baghaei has vehemently protested his sentence and demanded that Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani appear in court to testify that he was indeed paid the money he is said to have embezzled. In this vein, Ahmadinejad has also written a letter to Soleimani to express his willingness to reveal the nature of their work together. Soleimani has remained silent while IRGC spokesman Ramezan Sharif has denied any ties with Baghaei, adding a twist to the situation. Meanwhile, Ahmadinejads adviser and confidant Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who is reviled by many conservatives for his controversial statements on sensitive topics such as Israel, showed up outside the British Embassy in Tehran to torch a copy of Baghaeis verdict, claiming that it was issued on the orders of Britain.

The judiciarys response was swift and tough. Mashaei was arrested on March 17. His lawyer, Mehran Abdollahpour, told Al-Monitor that he is charged with aiding and abetting acts against national security. Abdollahpour, who also represents Baghaei, elaborated, Mr. Mashaei was interrogated by the investigators of the IRGC Intelligence Organization.  I was only allowed to attend his last interrogation. With the end of this process, his one-month arbitration detention should legally end and he can walk free on bail. But I dont know why they refuse to release him.

Abdollahpour also told Al-Monitor that Baghaeis health is deteriorating, as he went on a hunger strike after his detention. Abdollahpour insists that his client is very innocent and that there are no real charges.

The detentions of both Mashaei and Baghaei have provoked tough reactions from Ahmadinejad. On March 14, he stated that he would hold all top state officials responsible for any harm to Baghaeis health. He also harshly criticized unnamed infamous corrupt people for misusing their legal, military, security and media power to tarnish the image of his administrations.

Of particular note, Ahmadinejad even asked for Gods forgiveness if we made a mistake or unknowingly and unintentionally helped some immoral people expand their powers. Perhaps he was referring to Hossein Taeb, the hard-line head of the IRGCs Intelligence Organization who rose to prominence amid the unrest in the aftermath of the disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad in 2009.

Since mid-March, Ahmadinejad has written two more letters to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a second letter to Soleimani. In all of them, he insists on Baghaeis innocence and cautions the supreme leader against the injustice perpetrated by the judiciary. The letters have gone unanswered.

In this vein, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, the spokesman of Ahmadinejads office, told Al-Monitor, Ahmadinejads clear objective is raising public awareness. Nevertheless, he has very interesting things to say and with the passage of time and in parallel with the upcoming developments he will talk about them. He added, Ahmadinejads remarks come from his vision and understanding of Iranian affairs and a very precise analysis of events. He reasonably preferred to remain quiet for three years, but it was not possible anymore. Today, our people face a very difficult and complicated situation, and they expect Ahmadinejad to echo their demands.

Javanfekr further claimed that Baghaei is a victim of a plan to take revenge on Ahmadinejad and his governments.  He is paying the price for writing Ahmadinejads name on his ballot [in the May 2017 presidential election]. Of note, Ahmadinejad registered to run in the last presidential election, going against the public advice of Khamenei. The Guardian Council rejected his candidacy.

But not all agree with the notion of a targeted campaign to silence the former president. Prominent journalist and academic Amir Mohebian told Al-Monitor, Although Mr. Ahmadinejad thinks the judiciary is reacting to his criticisms of [judiciary] chief Sadegh Larijani and the Larijani family, we should assume that the judicial body is doing its job. He added, Though, as long as we dont have any information about [Baghaei and Mashaeis] legal cases, we cant make a judgment.

In this vein, Mohebian said he believes that Ahmadinejad doesnt remain quiet because he thinks his silence would encourage his enemies, so he tries to make more revelations and prove that the Larijani family is dependent on Great Britain. When asked about how far he thinks this tit for tat will go, Mohebian said, It depends on Mr. Ahmadinejad and if he feels successful about his revelations.

There is, of course, the question of what Ahmadinejads team has planned in case the threats against him materialize. Javanfekr told Al-Monitor, The removal of Sadegh Larijani from his position is a just demand that the former president mentioned in his letter to Ayatollah Khamenei. We hope wisdom prevails, the current dilemma ends and the judiciary stops fueling tension. We always try to do everything legally. [But] we have warned those who are in charge of affairs against the uncontrollable consequences of imposing illogical restrictions on the public and political spheres.

Will the pressure on Ahmadinejad thus further increase if he presses ahead with his path? Mohebian told Al-Monitor, Ahmadinejad is not an ordinary citizen. He is a former president, and of course he has supporters. He will be dealt with carefully as long as he has not done anything wrong. But if people close to him do any wrongdoing, they will stand trial. He cautioned, These challenges will tarnish the image of the Islamic Republic. And the Iranian leadership is concerned with this point.
Fifteen days to flatten the curve, the first of many COVID lies, has become nineteen months to flatten the country.

Indeed, the collateral damage from the lockdowns and other devastations visited upon us by the regime have far exceeded the costs of the COVID virus itself. But in a largely secular nation, many of our countrymen have found a new religion, the religion of COVID. Like all religions, it has its sacraments. The COVID sacraments include the vaccine and the mask, and the docile worship of Anthony Fauci, the grand Mufti of the Public Health establishment.

Masking in general is an abomination, but masking schoolchildren is particularly egregious. Given the ideologic challenges at the federal and, often, state level, it is at the local level where we may be most successful at exerting influence regarding COVID policies. It is through such grassroots activism that we may preserve our rapidly deteriorating nation or, at least, create safe zones or sanctuaries. In the wake of the turmoil surrounding the Loudoun County (Virginia) school board and elsewhere, I, thus, share my experience with my local school board on the matter of masks.

I presented my case against masking school children before an Indiana school board on three occasions, in May, July, and September of 2021. In May, the governor of the state of Indiana (Eric Holcomb) had lifted the statewide mask mandate but not for schools. I called each of the members of the board and the superintendent in advance of the May meeting, urging them to lift the mask mandate for the school as well. At the meeting, I explained that school age children were virtually invulnerable to COVID yet were the ones most traumatized and adversely affected by masks. By rights (and the science), if we were to lift the mask mandate in stages (I preferred lifting it completely), it should have been children first. The board though was unwilling to challenge the state, and the children remained masked until the end of the school year.

In July, the pandemic seemed to be ebbing. I spoke again before the board and urged them to prepare for the inevitable surges in COVID cases that would come later in the year. I asked them to resist the temptation to institute further mask mandates. I explained that we had never enacted such policies before COVID despite the many instances of infectious diseases far more deadly to children that have come and gone through the years. We should, I advised, reject masking children as a new normal. Rather, we should return to the old normal and never mask again. The next surge, as it happened, would arrive not in months but weeks in the form of the Delta variant. Predictably, with the start of classes, they issued a mask mandate.

In September, I sent a letter (below) to each of the school board members in advance and spoke again at the meeting. The written statement was important, because dozens of local doctors and nurse practitioners had sent a letter urging the school to - amazingly - mask the children. It was, therefore, vital to have a physician (myself) counter their arguments formally, in writing and with references.

Herewith, then, as an example of such efforts, my letter to a local school board against mandatory masking and in support of a voluntary mask policy.

Dear Board Members and Superintendent:

We have all experienced the calamity of the COVID pandemic over the last 18 months. Far more devastating, however, has been our reaction to it.1,2,3 The lockdowns, shutdowns, shelter-in-place, school closures, social distancing, quarantining, testing, contact tracing, and masking have had little effect on the trajectory of the virus but have exacted an enormous price on all of us while conferring no advantage. Variants have now arrived, and they, too, will continue to mutate and spread, no different than influenza. There will be no returning to zero-COVID. We must accept this and take science-based, targeted4,5 precautions without harming our economy, society, schools - and children. Indeed, the collateral damage, not of the virus but our reaction to it, has been far worse than the virus itself, a great self-inflicted wound.6,7

But of all the examples of unintended ruin that have occurred, perhaps the most egregious has been from the masking of children. We have known from the beginning of the pandemic that the at-risk populations are the elderly and the sick, specifically those with significant co-morbidities.8 If you are under 70 and healthy, you are relatively immune to COVID, with a recovery rate of 99.95%, greater than the flu for which we never undertook such excessive measures. For the 18 and under cohort, the risks are vanishingly small. A review of total deaths in children (under 18) in England following SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first pandemic year found a death rate in healthy children of 1 per 2 million cases. This cohort included 12 million children and showed an overall survival rate of 99.995%.9 While the Delta variant has been more contagious in all age groups, including under age 18, the severity in children remains unchanged.26

Children are also not spreaders, particularly when asymptomatic. They are blessed with robust immune systems and are able to fight off the virus promptly. Teachers face no increased risk of COVID from students. Schools have not increased the spread of COVID.10

The mask, further, confers no benefits. Neither for children nor adults. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci himself said as much in February of 2020 before reversing himself when it became politically expedient to do so.11 Other high-level members of the medical establishment pre-politicization of COVID have also criticized the use of masks: Seriously peopleSTOP BUYING MASKS! So tweeted thensurgeon general Jerome Adams on February 29, 2020, adding, They are NOT effective in preventing the general public from catching #Coronavirus. World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Program executive director Mike Ryan, on March 30, 2020, said that there is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks has any particular benefit.12

Masks, including N95 respirators, do not prevent the spread of infection including bacteria and far smaller viral particles. The N95 label states clearly that the mask will not eliminate the risk of contracting infection, illness or disease.13,14 Surgical masks and commonly used cloth masks, often worn for weeks, are utterly ineffective and can themselves be sources of cutaneous and respiratory infection, as they are frequently contaminated not just by viruses but bacteria, fungi, and parasites.15 Some contaminants are known pathogens including organisms causing pneumonia, TB, Lyme disease, food poisoning, meningitis, Staph infections, and others.21

Large randomized controlled studies conducted before the age of COVID, and before masking became politicized, showed no benefit of N95s over surgical masks in protecting against the flu. Among outpatient health care personnel, N95 respirators vs medical masks resulted in no significant difference in the incidence of laboratory confirmed influenza.16 Medical masks are widely recognized as being ineffective in preventing the spread of viruses and so apparently are N95s.

In a review of fourteen randomly controlled studies12 that examined the effectiveness of masks in preventing the transmission of respiratory viruses, eleven suggested that masks are either useless or counterproductive. One randomized control study found that cloth masks allowed 97% of particles through, and may actually increase the infection risk.18

India had 81% mask compliance in February 2021 and cases soared 2966%. Cases peaked 2 weeks later and then went down. Two months into Israels reinstated mask mandate, cases are up 7970%.17,19,20 Masks had no effect on the transmission of the virus.

Masking children causes a host of other health problems. These include claustrophobia, increased heart rate, dizziness, headaches, nausea, stress, skin infections, sinusitis, reduced immune resilience, lack of empathy, and increased emotional stress. There have been increases in self-harm, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and tics.10,22,23,24,25

In summary, masks do nothing to prevent the spread of the virus in children or adults. They also have adverse effects and can themselves become contaminated and transmit deadly pathogens. Children remove, touch, and even trade masks. There is no reason to mask children - or anyone.

A voluntary mask policy may be appropriate given the level of misinformation and panic created by the media, medical establishment, and government, but never a forced mask mandate. Individual students may wear masks if they or their families choose. Other students should be able to attend school without masks. Based on the science and other valid reasons, I request that you end the mask mandate immediately. Please, stop masking our children!

Respectfully,

Richard Moss, MD

I included twenty-six citations in support of the points made in the letter, aka the science. The local school board, to their credit, and amidst opposition, agreed to implement a voluntary mask policy thus sparing our children, age five and above, the indignity and harm of forced masking eight hours a day, five days a week, ad infinitum. The pressure for a mask mandate however endures. We must remain vigilant.

Richard Moss, M.D., a surgeon practicing in Jasper, IN, was a candidate for Congress in 2016 and 2018. He has written A Surgeons Odyssey and Matildas Triumph, available on amazon.com. Contact him at richardmossmd.com or Richard Moss, M.D. on Facebook, YouTube, Rumble, Twitter, Parler, Gab, Gettr, and Instagram.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
The history and consequences of the attempt to take down America and take charge of everybodys life has been told (some of it here, here and here), but the damning evidence has been kept from the public. There is time here only for a peek at the big picture. And, by the way, seeking information and commentary on Americas take-down should not be regarded as an idle pursuit of conspiracy theories  a buzzword used to deflect attention from official wrongdoing.

In few words . . .

Marxists worked hard for over a century to correct American society, deemed in their arrogance and clouded mentality incorrect. Their trajectory for a remake of America would replace the wisdom of the Creator with acceptable science, make morality irrelevant, and devalue every citizen in the name of justice  theirs. Who would be in charge of all this was left unspecified and undefined, but their actions pointed to tyranny at the highest level of authority.

Noncompliant people would be disposed of, one way or another. In Russia, Marxists preferred prison, gulags, and murder for the dissidents. In America they chose education  that is, brainwashing and indoctrination  and demonizing the opponents. Whether hard or soft, the mindless and heartless means would be justified by the desired end: establishing a collective world order, aka New World Order, aka Great Reset.

American Marxists steeled themselves during the major launch of Communism in Russia in 1917 and its subsequent infiltration throughout the world after World Wars I and II. They dedicated themselves to brainwashing the young in public schools, beginning early in the 20th century, and brainwashing adults through media and church into accepting a world devoid of Judeo-Christian content, spirit, and guidance, all of which stood in the way of their campaign.

Infiltrating the schools has been well documented (comprehensively here). Infiltrating the mainline churches accelerated during the 1970s when faux-Christian change agents busied themselves making congregations believe that you could be a Marxist and a Christian at the same time. It was never put this bluntly of course. I witnessed the process as a church organist in those years. Never mind that if a Marxist were to be asked what he thought of Christianity he would very likely lie about it or gloss over the fact that Joseph Stalin, Marxist-in-Chief of Soviet Russia, was suppressing Christians, as in todays Communist China, and murdering over a million people.

I knew a young Christian pastor in Maine who was thrilled with the prospects of so-called Liberation Theology, the bogus union of Marxism and Christianity designed to hoodwink real Christians into accepting a non-existing compatibility between Marxist ideology and Christian theology. She evidently never actually compared the Christian Gospel with The Communist Manifesto and mindlessly bought into the Big Lie that Marxism and Christianity are in harmony with one another. And so, another benighted Christian minister had unwittingly joined the cause of Marxist infiltration instead of preaching the Gospel.

The brainwash in churches and across the cultural landscape of America spread quickly after mid-century, working so well that by the 1980s many fully awake Americans began to fight back in earnest. And so officially began the Culture War.

It has been claimed on both sides that we (the Deplorables) lost the Culture War. That is too hasty a call. It must be pointed out in this connection that the lure of money created turncoats among previously stalwart organizations and publications initially dedicated to conserving our republic and Judeo-Christian principles of governance. These corrupted remakes of once loyal American organizations retained the title conservative, however, in line with Marxist deception.

Marxists in America are still brainwashing students, K-12 and beyond, still acting as apparatchiks for a soft overthrow of the American Republic in academia, seminary, workplace and media, funded by corporate money and philanthropic endowments flowing from agents and organizations with no use for America, God, and anything that defines real human beings living in the real world.

Pointing out the fraud of the Left against Americans of every color and position in life is of course put down as conspiracy theory, pretending that Marxists never engage in such devious activity. If you believe that, you must also believe that todays Marxists are ignorant of their own history, rife with class warfare, iron-fisted rule, and ruthless depopulation of dissidents in the millions.

Todays Build Back Better globalists are as ruthless as their more obvious Marxist predecessors in Europe after the world wars. Instead of shooting and bombing their opponents or hauling them off to prisons and gulags, todays Leftist moguls target their opponents with character assassination, extortion, litigation, media censorship  to scratch the surface. The technological means of terminating adversaries has advanced beyond the wildest dreams of Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and other arch despots the world has known.

But what means is there of terminating the truth?

Ideas for governing people have consequences for good or evil. Anyone who has not heard that ideas have consequences, wrote novelist and poet William Mills, and that a culture war has waged since World War II, might consider that [several] generations of young people have been taught to despise their country and its economic system, to be suspicious of their parents, to encourage its women to hate the majority of their men, and in the name of internationalism, to accept kinds of immigration that are a national suicide pact.

To be taken seriously, the governance of human beings must resonate with a love of people and acceptance of the natural order that we find ourselves in. This implies a fundamental need to follow the One who put us here. If men far wiser than any of us today accepted the God of the Bible as the ultimate authority when they formed our government, who are we to declare their blueprint for governance flawed, while benefiting from the great nation they left us, at a cost in blood and sacrifice beyond current calculation?

In this age of benighted followers of mindless and heartless despots, what is overdue is a politics-free examination of the real world that we all must deal with, a reexamination of trans-generational wisdom, thousands of years in the making, and an unwavering faith in our Creator, whose Word enlightens and encourages us to overcome the power of fear, intimidation, and money in the constant struggle against evil consequences. Opposing Gods transcendent laws and guidance is a way to shut off every path to social justice and wellbeing.

That the term social justice has been appropriated by Marxists shows the extent of their treachery. It should be obvious by now that haters of God and his Creation also hate truth, going so far as to make the telling of it a hate crime. Moguls of power who continue to deny divine wisdom are numb and deaf to the rumblings of the earth beneath their feet.

Graphic credit: sShu94

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
New York City's voters, who elected black Democrat Eric Adams mayor on an anti-crime platform, have, to say the least, spoken.

But that hasn't stopped a particularly crazy leader of the Black Lives Matter movement from threatening "bloodshed" if Adams dares carry out his anti-crime pledge to voters.

According to the New York Post:

A Black Lives Matter leader vowed there'll be "riots," "fire" and "bloodshed" if Mayor-elect Eric Adams follows through with his promise to bring back plainclothes anti-crime cops to battle New York's surge in violent crimes. New York BLM co-founder Hawk Newsome debated the plan for a return to tougher policing with Adams during a contentious sit-down at Brooklyn Borough Hall Wednesday that was livestreamed on Instagram. Although Adams found common ground with the activists on plans to fight poverty in the black community, the former NYPD captain said he'll be reinstating a revamped version of the undercover anti-crime unit that was disbanded at the height of widespread police protests last year. "If they think they are going back to the old ways of policing then we're going to take to the streets again," New York BLM co-founder Hawk Newsome said outside Borough Hall after the meeting. "There will be riots. There will be fire, and there will be bloodshed," he threatened.

According to the New York Daily News:

"Prepare for the worst."

In the past, Newsome's suggested his threats were literal:

His rhetoric has grown increasingly incendiary. "If this country doesn't give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it," said Newsome in a Fox News interview last year. "All right? And I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It's a matter of interpretation."

And if threats of riots and "bloodshed" aren't enough to force Adams to dance to his tune, he's also claiming he's got support on the inside, according to my transcription from Fox News's Ingraham Angle video:

"We have people in city council, who can create problems for him. We have people in the streets who can create problems for this administration by shutting it down."

Adams has dismissed Newsome as a "small fringe group" and stated that he intends to carry out his platform, which suggests some very level-headed mayoring ahead if he carries that out.

The New York Post has exposed Newsome as a loser whose branch of Black Lives Matter is so looney that even the main group (the one with the mansion-buying sprees) disavows ties to him, which does suggest he's way out there. The Post reports that he's a high school dropout, and he's lost his IRS tax-exempt status for refusal to file forms about how he spends the cash he collects and, given his own activity, he seems to be someone for who criminals might just be natural allies.

That would at a minimum explain why he's so furious about Adams bringing back the plainclothes unit to protect mainly black and brown New Yorkers from violent thugs.

Adams seems to recognize this and feels confident he's got it under control. All the same, there are troubling indicators that it might not be that easy for him.

One, Newsome seems to have become the thug's lobby, upset that cops might just come looking for the criminals he's sticking up for under the rubric of "racial justice," while BLM continues to allow him to use their name, despite disavowing him.

Two, the mainstream press seems to be in his corner. Look at this grotesque headline from local NBC4:

Eric Adams Feuds With Black Lives Matter Leaders Over Proposed New NYPD Anti-Gun Unit

Feuds?

No, we have a maniac issuing violent threats, and he's stated in the past that his threats may be literal. That's being done in the name of criminals' interests and may well be a crime itself, quite possibly enhanced, given that it's directed at an elected official. To call this a "feud" is beyond dishonest.

And why is Eric Adams the one who's leading this phony "feud"? Newsome is the one who started the threats; Adams is the one who gave a calm and reasoned response, with no backing down. Adams started nothing. Newsome was the freak who went on the attack.

The kid-gloves treatment from this local report from PIX11 isn't much better.

This is media malfeasance at its worst, and sure enough, a clown-like Newsome knows it, playing them like a fiddle.

The third factor is whether Newsome has the support he claims to have on the inside. While it's certain that Adams has the support of the voters  just look at these comments from New York City voters on the matter of Newsome's threats  it doesn't take a lot of people to completely suborn and upturn a system. That goes back to Lenin, and it's certainly something Mexico's cartels know. Newsome, the criminal's advocate, likely does, too. Does New York have enough criminals to give his threats to Adams's legs?

This shouldn't even be an issue. A maniac has threatened an elected official and ought to be dealt with on those terms.

Image: Screen shot from PIX11 video via YouTube.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
On November 13, Vermonters will gather in the idyllic town of Brandon to rally around the "Let's Go Brandon!" theme sweeping America. As this populist recoil against the arrogant tyranny of the Biden administration gains momentum, it is clear that the phrase conveys not mere irritation with a politician, but also opposes the leftists' and media's (but I repeat myself) surreal dissembling, for they created this derisive mantra.

"Let's Go Brandon!" perpetually reminds us that the media will go to perverse extremes to warp truth and reality to promote their pernicious ideology. Hating America so very much that lies are a knee-jerk reaction, the media are their own death knell  truth will always defeat fear. And what Democrats fear is truth.

Thus, the truth that a crowd was cheering against Joe Biden was torturously morphed into a positive chant for a racecar driver. That effort became a new truth, distinct from the Biden/Harris fiascos  and one the media are unable, as of yet, to defeat.

Satire is truth wrapped in humor, but the left cannot stomach either: "Let's Go Brandon!" doses them to the core with their own hypocrisy while obliterating any hope to "redeem" themselves. It is thus more than apropos that a town named Brandon would celebrate its hometown positives by chanting the negatives this slogan connotes.

Brandon resident and recently elected Vermont GOP chair Paul Dame organized the event to celebrate the Town while compelling a public conversation about lying partisan media. He explained:

It's been a stand-in. One of the reasons there has been momentum behind this phrase "Let's Go Brandon!" ... [I]f it was just about being upset with the President it would've faded out pretty quickly. But I think it taps into the fact that people feel like they're not being heard, not being represented, that they're being glossed over and lost, and especially in political considerations.

With the Hunter and Ashley Biden cover-ups in mind, perhaps there will be rallies in other towns: "Let's Go Hunter!" has 18 U.S. localities from which to choose; 15 possible for a "Let's Go Ashley!" rally.

More likely, rallies incorporating this populist Brandon chant will crop up in towns not named Brandon  perhaps towns named Washington (88 of those!) or in the 41 Springfields or 35 Franklins. (Vermont has all three!) There is no clearer rallying cry for the rising populist revolt against America's rising totalitarianism than the one furnished by the liberal media: "Let's Go Brandon!"



Image: Internet meme. Unknown origin.

Americans completely understand how "Let's Go Brandon!" exposes the progressive farce. The phrase goes beyond Biden to touch Ibram Kendi, AOC, Anthony Fauci, and Kamala Harris, and other leftist running jokes. This is why satire eviscerates leftists  their falsehood cannot endure even casual analysis:

"It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it," G.K. Chesterton observed more than 100 years ago. The Laughing Prophet, as he was known, pointed out that people who are secure in their beliefs need not fear mockery. It's those with shaky doctrines who can't tolerate laughter. Today's political radicals hold their views with the fervor of a religion, and by Chesterton's measure they're rather weak creeds.

How will leftists respond to the "Let's Go Brandon!" message that they cannot silence? Will it say "OK, you got us: the crowd was really chanting their disapprobation of President Biden" or maybe "OK, we concede that the reporter who manipulated the outcry was dishonest." Either of those simple truths would constitute a confession of doing something wrong. The SJW cult is bent on saddling others with heretical sins, never repenting of its own.

Whether it's race, climate change, women's "rights," transgender identities and sexual orientation, or immigration "reform," the woke set does not tolerate dissent from its unearned moral superiority. Its juvenile creed has not matured past "all conservatives evil; all progressives good." It is thus not within their naive weaponization of identity and victimhood to perceive that they might be oppressors; that they might be capable of doing evil.

John McWhorter explains the conundrum now faced by the America-hating creed, in Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America:

We must say no to these people, in quest of a result: An understanding will gradually coalesce among them that they need to step up their game, or better, step it down. A communal realization will set in, after a while even explicitly acknowledged by its unofficial leaders, that shaming isn't working anymore. (p. 182)

"Let's Go Brandon!" is today's "Live Free or Die!" It's reflected also in the recent Virginia election upset. This is what it looks like when a population rebels against illegitimate domination. Americans are waking from the vapid sleep of wokeness.

Let's go to Brandon, Vermont to cry out "Let's Go Brandon!" Then let's go to every housetop and shout the joke the left can't stomach to the entire world! We will not go gentle into that dark social justice night: we will chortle instead.

Follow John Klar on Twitter.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
For at least a decade, and probably longer, Google has brought a woke edge to the daily doodles it has on its search engine home page. Its 2021 Veterans' Day doodle was no exception, for it managed to slip a transgender Marine into the mix. Although silly, it's a useful reminder about how terribly limiting it is to be defined by nothing more than sexuality.

Steven Tette, the artist chosen to draw the doodle, is at least as gifted as Hunter Biden, as well as being an Army veteran. The image he drew has a certain Grandma Mosesstyle charm, for it presents people wearing split clothes, with one half representing their military career and the other half showing their civilian lives.

There's a Black man in what I think is an Air Force uniform on his left half, while his right half shows that he's an artist. I suspect it's a self-portrait.

There's a man who's wearing a Navy uniform on his left and a businessman's suit on his right. Next to him is a Black woman who's clearly a physician in both the military and in civilian life.

There's the Army vet, obviously from Vietnam, with his half biker's vest and a prosthetic arm. There's also someone who is in camo, and I have no idea what branch of the military, but who is clearly a skilled pastry chef in private life.

All these figures are either smiling or have a look of happy serenity. The message is that, whether in the military or out of it, these people have fulfilling lives. They are well rounded people. They aren't defined by race or color; they are defined by their abilities.

But then there's that one other figure, the one who makes the whole darn thing look silly. You see, the Marine doesn't have a career outside of the military. Instead, he wears a dress outside the military.



Image: Google doodle screen grab.

It's unclear whether he's a transvestite or a so-called "transgender." What's clear, though, is that this pathetic little guy has nothing to offer the world. He's not creative, like an artist or a chef; he's not a businessperson or a professional; nor is he a retired free spirit, perhaps missing a limb but still out there having fun. Instead, the only thing that matters about this grim Marine  the only character that's not painted with a happy or serene expression  is his sexuality.

I particularly noticed this because it's something I've been writing about forever when it comes to the LGBTQ+++ movement. When activists in California first started demanding that LGBTQ+++ people get included in the public-school curricula, it was striking how the people whom the activists highlighted were on the spectrum first, with their accomplishments coming second.

For example, we didn't hear that Alan Turing was a towering figure in the early days of computer science and artificial intelligence  and, oh, by the way, he was also gay. Instead, the plan was to teach history by saying that Alan Turing was gay and, oh, by the way, he did important things with computers. Under this pedagogy, people's crowning achievement is their sexuality, with other things mentioned as an afterthought.

And so it is with that sad Marine, surrounded by happy, genuinely accomplished people when his only accomplishment seems to be that he wears a dress in his private time. What a reductio ad absurdum that is.

It's also a perfect representation of how leftists see people. They're not multi-dimensional. They are, instead, one-dimensional figures assigned a certain symbolism and told to stay in that symbolic lane. It's very sad and, this woke Google doodle unwittingly highlights that fact.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
What else could go wrong in the first year of Biden? Could V.P. Kamala Harris soon a get a visit from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that sort of goes like this?

Madame Vice President, you need to step aside because you're killing us. How does an ambassadorship to India or Jamaica sound to you? You could go back to your roots and learn more about your parents. The beaches in Jamaica are lovely, and the food in India has such variety. Think about it, Madame Vice President. You are no longer the one.

Yes, I'm being a bit silly, but there is nothing good about the matter of V.P. Harris. As my late mother would have said in her Cuban accent: "Esto esta muy mal." Yes, it translates to "this is very bad."

V.P. Harris brought her act to Paris this week. Normally, Paris is friendly territory for a Democrat. Unfortunately for the White House, the V.P. couldn't perform there, either. The lady has turned into a major liability,

This is from Joe Concha:

Harris's struggles are primarily twofold: It's been 153 days since her last sit-down interview with a major broadcast news entity, in the form of NBC's Lester Holt. You may recall that was the beginning of the end of the administration's confidence in her abilities to handle even the most basic of questions. "Do you have any plans to visit the border?" Holt asked. "At some point, you know, we are going to the border," Harris replied, before oddly repeating herself as if a short-circuit had occurred. "We've been to the border. So, this whole thing about the border  we've been to the border. We've been to the border." "You haven't been to the border," Holt correctly noted. "And I haven't been to Europe," Harris snapped before laughing. "And, I mean, I don't understand the point that you're making."

Well, she went to Europe and probably won't be answering any questions about that.

At this point, every Democrat is praying that President Biden makes it to 2025. You will probably see less and less of the president and vice president from this point forward. You may well see the vice president's husband representing the U.S. in funerals and other traditional visits. He probably has more tact and sense than his wife, as we just saw in that awkward speech in Paris.

Will Harris get the Spiro treatment? I don't know, but then, V.P. Agnew became a liability for the Nixon presidency. Spiro had to go. Maybe Kamala will have to go, too.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).

Image: Gage Skidmore.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
Like many conservatives, I am in favor of term limits for members of both houses of Congress. Determined citizens have been trying for over 30 years to get this done without success. I believe we will never pass a Term Limits Amendment to the U.S. Constitution unless it contains this Magic Clause:

"[These provisions] shall not apply to any Senator or Representative serving in Congress at the time this amendment is ratified."

If the Republicans take both houses of Congress in the 2022 election, it might be possible to get a majority in each house to pass an amendment without the Magic Clause. But that won't be enough because the Constitution requires more than a majority. Instead, you need two thirds of both houses to propose it, and then you need three-fourths of the state legislatures to ratify it. Two-thirds of both houses is a very tall order!

But maybe we can meet that tall order if we're clever about it. Here are my ideas for a Term Limits Amendment:

Clause 1. No US Representative shall serve more than six consecutive two-year terms without taking a two-year hiatus from the House. Any person appointed to the House of Representatives shall be limited to five full terms after his or her initial term is completed.

Clause 2. No US Senator shall serve more than three consecutive six-year terms without taking a two-year hiatus from the Senate. Any person appointed to the Senate must stand for election within two years and shall be limited to two full terms after his or her initial term is completed.

Clause 3. Clauses 1 and 2 above shall not apply to any Senator or Representative serving in Congress at the time this amendment is ratified.

Clause 4. No person shall serve as a Congressional staffer in either house for more than ten years total. Any time already served as a Congressional staffer on the day this amendment is ratified shall not count towards that ten-year total.

Great Americans like you and me can argue about the exact number of years for each house, and for the congressional staffers. But here's what I think: if you set the numbers too low, your proposal will be seen as radical, and you will not get three fourths of the state legislatures to ratify it. Like it or not, we need votes from independents, moderates, and even conservatives who believe that each house needs something called "institutional memory"  the wisdom of experienced leaders who know how things get done.



Image: United States Congress, edited by Andrea Widburg using FreeIconsPng image. Public domain.

Now, some will say Congressman X or Senator Y is a great, wise leader and that he should not be term-limited. My plan gives such leaders the ability to take a two-year break for study or outside work and then run again. That's not an easy thing to do, but it's not impossible. They also have the option of switching houses immediately  again, not an easy thing to do.

Clause 4, which limits the tenure of congressional staffers, is my attempt to ensure that unelected bureaucrats working behind the scenes do not acquire more experience and power than the members they serve.

Some say that the terms of House members should be four years instead of two because, as soon as representatives are elected, they begin running for their next term. I would not be opposed to such a change, with elections staggered every two years (though re-districting might complicate this plan). If House terms were lengthened to four years, then each representative should be limited to three such terms (still 12 years).

My plan would take some time to have a great effect, but maybe less time than you think. Or we could strip it of the Magic Clause, lower the number of terms, and wait another 30 years for a "better" plan to pass.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
Issac Bailey, a Black teacher at Davidson College in North Carolina, makes a good living telling White people why they should hate themselves. However, on Thursday, the day after Kyle Rittenhouse sobbed on the witness stand as he recalled ending two lives to save his own, Bailey announced to the world that those tears had elevated Kyle to the status of White supremacist hero  never mind that Kyle has never said or done anything racist, while the men he shot were violent White felons who were trying to kill him.

The adults responsible for maintaining order in a civilized country bailed when it came to Kenosha. Rampaging mobs filled the streets, burning, looting, and assaulting. Kyle, 17, looked at the absence of adults to save people's livelihoods and lives and ventured into the hellhole that BLM and Antifa had created in Kenosha with three goals: to clean up damage from the riots, to help protect people's businesses, and to provide first aid. He took a first aid kit and a rifle with him.

Videos and witness testimony at the trial proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Kyle avoided conflict. Joseph Rosenbaum, a convicted child rapist, tried to set buildings and the police on fire; Rosenbaum targeted and threatened to kill Kyle; Rosenbaum chased and cornered Kyle; Rosenbaum lunged for Kyle's gun; and Kyle fired in self-defense, killing Rosenbaum.

After that, a mob screaming about "braining" Kyle chased the boy. He stumbled; someone tried to kick his head in; Anthony Huber swing a large skateboard with full force at Kyle's head; and Kyle shot Huber, killing him.

Gaige Grosskreutz then came at Kyle with a loaded handgun. When Gaige backed off, Kyle made it clear he wouldn't shoot. However, when Gaige aimed the gun at Kyle's head, Kyle shot him, destroying Gaige's biceps. Kyle tried to turn himself in to the police, but they refused to accept his surrender.

Like Rosenbaum, the child rapist, both Grosskreutz and Huber were White and both had criminal records. Grosskreutz had a long history of violent assaults (domestic violence, burglary, property damage, illegal gun possession, etc.), while Huber had a history of drug charges and serious domestic abuse. These were violent men, reveling in the riot.



Image: Kyle Rittenhouse and Issac Bailey. YouTube screen grabs.

Kyle's attorneys put him on the stand because they knew he was innocent and could not be tricked into saying anything that would reveal guilt. When he recounted shooting Rosenbaum and Huber, Kyle wept uncontrollably. And that's where Issac Bailey, professional race-hustler, comes in. (And if you don't believe that characterization, just read Bailey's NPR interview at the end of the summer of "mostly peaceful" riots honoring the drugged-out ex-con George Floyd.)

Although Kyle had no history of racism and the men shot were all White, Bailey wrote an article stating that, convicted or not, Kyle has "won" because he will become the honored symbol of White supremacy in America, either as an imprisoned martyr or a freed hero. Rosenbaum, Huber, and Grosskreutz are no longer immoral, violent men, each of whom undisputedly tried to kill Kyle. They are "White allies." Bailey has it all figured out:

If Rittenhouse is convicted, he will likely stop being a right-wing mascot and become a right-wing martyr. If he isn't convicted, he will set a precedent for others like him to pick up guns they shouldn't have and thrust themselves into the middle of unrest they should avoid  confident in knowing that prison won't be in their future.

Kyle is no longer a kid trying to help out. Instead:

To his supporters, and even many of his detractors, Rittenhouse isn't a monster. Not really. He was a young, dumb kid hyped up on the Foxification or Fox News effect of American discourse on the Black Lives Matter movement in a country that fetishizes guns  for show, for sport and for killing  not a white supremacist, like, say Dylann Roof. Not really. He wore no hoods and didn't wrap himself in the Confederate flag.

The fact that there's no evidence whatsoever to support a single slander in those two paragraphs is irrelevant to Bailey. He's got his racist narrative  which helps pay his bills  and he's sticking with it.

The tears, for Bailey, are performance art, intended to force the jurors and Americans to believe that "those protesters made him shoot them." Well, yes, as the videos, eyewitnesses, and Grosskreutz's own testimony show, they did by trying to kill him first. Self-defense is still a protected right in America.

It's clear, though, that the race-hustlers who were all about defendants' rights last year really weren't at all. What they're about is a new standard holding that their people get to shoot, burn, assault, and rage, but nobody else does. It's not equal justice in Bailey's America; it's a pass for his tribe, not for yours.

If Kyle is acquitted, as he should be given the undisputed evidence, there are endless numbers of media outlets and individuals (including politicians) whom he needs to sue, just as Nick Sandmann sued. Issac Bailey, with his sleazy, evidence-free race rant just added himself to the list.

(Today, my pronouns are "Systemic racism no longer exists in America" and "Race hustlers lose money if they admit that there's no systemic racism in America." What are your pronouns?)

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
We've been hearing a lot about white supremacy and how each and every white person in the United States is implicated no matter what his sentiments are towards people "of color."

In fact, it's being asserted with increasing vigor that not only do Caucasians experience a deeply rooted privilege simply because they are white  a privilege about which they are completely oblivious  but that many of the habits and practices that white people engage in are thoroughly bound up in racism and the maintenance of a white hegemony in the United States.

Although for decades people have been trying to expose the subtle  and sometimes nearly invisible  forms of racism that contribute to racial injustice, the characteristics that have recently been deemed signs of white supremacy are well beyond what we could possibly call "subtle."

In fact, these fresh targets are quite startling because most of them are essential characteristics necessary for individual  and communal  success. Those habits and personal characteristics currently in the racialist's crosshairs are part of the basic equipment that all civilized people everywhere possess, after having developed them over the millennia.

This new and extraordinary angle on racism was brought to the public's attention in the spring of 2020 because of the media outcry in reaction to a website belonging to the Smithsonian's African American History Museum. In a section on "Whiteness" under a subsection titled "Aspects and Assumptions of Whiteness in the United States," a pictorial graph appeared delineating aspects of white culture that those associated with the museum believe to sustain white supremacy.

Just a few of those characteristics (or values) listed as specific to white people and which enable their dominance in our culture were a belief in rugged individualism; respect for authority; a belief in the Protestant work ethic, specifically a value for hard work and putting work before play; history; and planning for the future.

Now, the museum removed the questionable graphic shortly after the media hullabaloo, but these opinions remain in circulation and are part of the philosophical background to the anti-racism training sessions now taking place all over the country.

Further opinions about the cultural factors maintaining white supremacy came just this past spring from the influential National Council on Family Relations. The organization made clear its belief that the traditional two-parent family represents "family privilege" because the white, nuclear family unit provides invisible advantages that further enable white supremacy. Especially problematic for the organization is the fact that the two-parent family is viewed by our culture as "superior" to all other family structures.

Now let's take a step back and consider just two of these claims against the history of mankind's development.

Early humans emerged from Africa in waves of migrations that spanned millennia, and in each migration, these human predecessors differed slightly in their anatomical and intellectual development. But what remained the same at each evolutionary stage was the fact that the immediate family was the basic organizational unit for survival. Why? Well, for one, it took a long time for humans to discover the value of living in larger kinship groups. But of even greater significance is the biological fact that mankind has the most extended childhood of all animals and requires caretaking for a considerably longer period of time than other offspring. Thus, parents and their children were the first, natural, unit of survival.

Interestingly, this fact has metaphorical meaning for Jacob Bronowski, for in the last episode of his series The Ascent of Man he ponders mankind's lengthy childhood and contends that it is a very long period of delayed action in service of preparation  in the child's case, for adulthood, but also in the development of the brain.

He makes much of the fact that the frontal lobes allow for a function unique to humans: it is the area of the brain where we plan future actions whose results (or rewards) are not immediately obvious.

Although mapping the brain has advanced considerably since the early seventies, when Bronowski created this series, I find this take interesting because his view links the imperative of a family unit with "planning for the future," bringing me to my next point.

Consider the last ice age in Europe, when those erstwhile Africans, now modern humans, hunted and gathered in spring and fall and collected foodstuffs for the coming winter. According to Brian Fagan in his Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans, one of the things early men and women did in an impressive evolutionary adaptation was to collect reindeer fat from the reindeer they slaughtered during the fall hunt. It was an involved process that entailed mashing and boiling the bones in order to extract the resulting grease and store it in leather bags. This was done in order to have fat available to melt and then drink in the winter when there wasn't much of anything else around in the bitterly cold, snow-laden European winters. According to Fagan, that fat kept humans alive during those long months of scarcity.

Now, when I ponder these two points side by side  the absolute necessity of a family structure to human development and the deeply ingrained, practical need to plan for the future  I'm impelled to ask: were those bags of fat that our African ancestors prepared well in advance of winter evidence of white supremacy, or evidence of the most important supremacy of all: that of life over death?

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
This page contains all of The Anchorage Press coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak, and the illness it causes, called COVID-19.

Because this outbreak impacts public health, our coverage of the coronavirus is available to all readers. Our journalists are working hard to bring you the verified information below. Please consider supporting important local journalism with a subscription. (Click Here)

Are you an Anchorage resident whos been affected by the illness? Send us an email: matt.hickman@anchoragepress.com.
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
PLEASE NOTE: ALL ONLINE PURCHASES ARE AUTOMATIC RENEWALS UNLESS YOU EMAIL JPAYNE@ANNISTONSTAR.COM OR CONTACT CUSTOMER SERVICE @ 256-235-9253....

Purchase an online subscription to our website for $7.99 a month with automatic renewal. Each online subscription gives you full access to all of our newspaper websites and mobile applications. To cancel you may contact Customer Service @ 256-235-9253 or email JPAYNE@ANNISTONSTAR.COM



*NEW SUBSCRIBERS ONLY join with a NEW ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION is just $59.99 for the first year. Existing customers do not qualify for the specials! AMEX is not accepted through this site.



After the first year, well automatically renew your subscription to continue your access at the regular price of $69.99 per year. Please note *Your Subscription will Automatically Renew unless you contact Customer Service To Cancel*


(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 12 - Italy's COVID-19 incidence has continued on an upward trend, increasingly sharply to 78 cases for every 1000,000 inhabitants in the November 5-11 period, according to the weekly monitoring report of the health ministry and the Higher Health Institute (ISS), up from 53 in last week's report.

Experts say that it becomes difficult to track and trace cases once the incidence goes over 50.

The Rt transmission number was up again too, coming in at 1.21 in the October 20-November 2 period, a rise from 1.15 in last week's report.

An Rt number above 1 indicates that the epidemic is in a phase of expansion.

The proportion of Italian intensive-care places taken up by COVID sufferers rose from 4% on November 4 to 4.4% on November 11.

The proportion of ordinary-hospital-ward beds occupied by coronavirus patients increased from 5.3% on October 28 to 6.1% on November 11.

Both figures are below the respective alert thresholds of 10% and 15%.

The report said Calabria was the only Italian region to be classified as low risk for COVID, while the others are all now 'moderate' risk. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 12 - President Sergio Mattarella on Friday hailed Italy's efforts for peace on the national day paying tribute to the military and civilian personnel to have died during international missions.

"Italy continues to be an example in the operations for peace and for the protection of fundamental human rights thanks to its affinity for, and capacity to dialogue with, local populations," the head of State said.

Senate Speaker Elisabetta Casellati and Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico also paid tribute beside a plaque recalling the 2003 bombing in Nasiriyah, Iraq, in which 18 Italian service members, an Italian civilian, and nine Iraqi civilians were killed.

"We must never forget their extreme sacrifice," said Casellati .

Fico said that "we must be grateful to those who honoured our country". (ANSA).


BEIRUT -The normalization of relations between the governments of Syria and the United Arab Emirates, interested in investing once again in Syria, a country torn by 10 years of armed conflict, is progressing at a fast pace, Syrian media reported on Friday. Syrian Economy Minister Samer Khalil reportedly travelled to the UAE with a numerous delegation of entrepreneurs and institutional representative of the trade sector and finance. The visit, which will last until Sunday, includes a series of bilateral meetings between the sides also on the sidelines of Expo in Dubai.



After a 10-year-long freeze on political relations, over the past few days Emirati Foreign Minister Abdallah ben Zayed was received in Damascus by President Bashar al Assad. An Emirati project was announced on Thursday to build a photovoltaic power station east of the Syrian capital. The UAE had frozen diplomatic relations with the Syrian government in February 2012 in the context of armed violence which had been ongoing in the country since the previous year. In 2018, Abu Dhabi reopened its embassy in Damascus - de facto the first Arab country in the Gulf to start normalizing relations with the Syrian government.
GENEVA - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has expressed serious concern over the worsening humanitarian situation in Palestine. "Millions of people are unable to satisfy their most elementary needs due to the serious shortage of food, water, fuel and medicines, among essential provisions, especially in Gaza, due to the continuous blockade", a statement said.



According to the UN, over 2.4 million people need humanitarian assistance.



The federation highlighted that Palestinians are dealing with a multitude of crises, including the persistent escalation of violence, socio-economic collapse and the Covid-19 pandemic, in a context of conflict and occupation. At the end of a visit to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the president of IFRC, Francesco Rocca, spoke about "too many juxtaposed crises that are driving local communities to the limit" and said he was "impressed" by the work carried out by Palestinian Red Crescent teams.



During the visit, Rocca signed an agreement on the juridical status of IFRC with the foreign minister of Palestine: a standard procedure when IFRC sets up an office with international personnel to strengthen operations of a national society of the Red Cross or Red Crescent, according to a statement. IFRC pledged to support the Palestinian Red Crescent in its humanitarian mandate.
TUNIS - A court of first instance in Nabeul, Tunisia, has sentenced to a one-year jail term, effective immediately, lawmaker Zouhair Makhlouf in a sexual harassment case involving a student, according to women's rights associations that quoted the tribunal's spokesperson, Issam Khemiri. The associations expressed satisfaction for the verdict.



Makhlouf, a former member of the party Qalb Tounes who then moved to the national parliamentary group, was at the center of a scandal in 2019 after a student accused him of sexual harassment. The reported harassment case sparked the movement #EnaZeda ('me too', in Maghrebi Arabic) with a campaign in which women of all ages reported some kind of abuse.



The case emerged after the publication of a photo of the lawmaker which, according to the person that took it, portrayed him in the act of masturbating inside his car in front of a high school. The charge was denied by Makhlouf, who defended himself by saying that he is diabetic and therefore forced to urinate inside bottles when he is not close to a toilet.
ISTANBUL - Turkish airlines does not accept Syrian, Iraqi or Afghan citizens on its flights from Turkey to Minsk, with the exception of those travelling with a diplomatic passport, sources from the Turkish carrier confirmed to ANSA on Friday. The sources said that the decision came into effect last night and at the moment no date has been scheduled for the resumption of the service.



The Belarusian air carrier Belavia has said that it will also stop connections from Turkey to Minsk for citizens coming from Syria and Iraq, as well as Yemen, adding in a statement that the decision was taken at the request of Turkish authorities.



Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described as "lies" the statements of Premier Mateusz Morawicki saying that Ankara is acting in agreement with Moscow and Minsk to facilitate migrant trafficking towards Belarus, contributing to make the situation complicated in the border area with Poland.



"Saying that the refugee crisis originates from Turkey is shameful", stated yesterday Erdogan. He recalled that Ankara has given hospitality for years to nearly 5 million refugees mostly coming from Syria and Afghanistan.



European Council President thanked Turkish authorities and civil aviation for their "support and cooperation" over their decision in a tweet.


BBC Studios has announced Chris Clenshaw as the new executive producer of EastEnders.

The long-running soaps previous producer, Jon Sen, who oversaw the show for three years, has left to lead on medical drama Casualty.

Clenshaw previously worked on EastEnders for four years, starting as a storyliner in 2015 before going on to script edit and story produce the London-based drama.

His stint as a writer included storylines including topics such as knife crime, mental health, and sexual consent.

Chris Clenshaw has been appointed as the new executive producer of EastEnders (BBC/PA)

Clenshaw was also part of the story team responsible for the final farewell of the soaps greatest matriarch, Peggy Mitchell.

He has worked on multiple shows and genres for 13 years, most recently working in development at Vertigo Films and Rope Ladder Fiction and a co-producer for ScreenSkills High-end TV Skills Fund.

Mr Clenshaw said: Im thrilled to be returning to Walford to work with the hugely talented team on a British institution that, for more than three decades, has given us some of the most memorable moments in popular culture.

Becoming the custodian of one of Britains greatest dramas is a huge honour.

BBC Studios said its current Head of Continuing Drama, Kate Oates, will become the shows interim executive producer at Elstree Studios until Clenshaw joins in January 2022.

Mr Sen wished his successor luck in his new role, saying: It has been the honour of a lifetime to helm this amazing show for three years.

I want to give a heartfelt thanks to Kate and the rest of the wonderful team at Elstree for the brilliant work weve achieved together.

I wish Chris every success in his new role.

EastEnders airs four times a week and has been on the BBC for more than 35 years.
A former aide to the Prince of Wales has resigned as chief executive of one of Charles charities amid an alleged cash-for-honours scandal.

Michael Fawcett and his party planning company will also no longer be providing services to Clarence House, a spokesperson said.

Mr Fawcett, Charles former royal valet, had temporarily stepped down as chief executive of The Princes Foundation in September.

But a spokesperson for the charity told the PA news agency he has since resigned from his post.

A spokesperson from the foundation said: Michael Fawcett has resigned from his post as CEO of The Princes Foundation.

Mr Fawcett is accused of promising to help secure a knighthood and British citizenship for a Saudi billionaire donor.

The Mail on Sunday published a letter from 2017 in which Mr Fawcett reportedly wrote that he was willing to make an application to change businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouzs honorary CBE to a KBE, and support his application for citizenship.

The letter, written on headed notepaper in Mr Fawcetts then-capacity as chief executive of the Dumfries House Trust, said the applications would be made in response to the most recent and anticipated support of the trust.

The Prince of Wales with Michael Fawcett (right) (Andrew Milligan/PA)

In September, Clarence House said Charles had no knowledge of the alleged offer of honours or British citizenship on the basis of donation to his charities and insisted the royal was fully supportive of an investigation by The Princes Foundation.

On Thursday, a Clarence House spokesperson said it was ending arrangements with Mr Fawcett and his party planning company Premier Mode.

The spokesperson said: Michael Fawcett and Premier Mode will not be providing services to us in the future. We have all agreed to end these arrangements.

Mr Fawcett was appointed to the major role of chief executive of Charles The Princes Foundation in 2018 amid a reorganisation of the princes charities.
A man has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years for murdering a schoolgirl at her familys Chinese takeaway in a wicked act of revenge.

Wenjing Lin  also known as Wenjing Xu  was strangled at the Blue Sky restaurant in Ynyswen, Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, on March 5.

On Friday, Chun Xu was sentenced at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court to life imprisonment and will spend at least three decades behind bars, after a jury convicted him of the 16-year-olds murder.

The 32-year-old was also found guilty of attempting to murder Wenjings stepfather, Yongquan Jiang.

Wenjing Xu was murdered by Chun Xu at her familys Chinese takeaway in the village of Ynyswen (South Wales Police/PA)

His Honour Judge PH Thomas QC, sentencing, told the court in Xus absence: You cruelly murdered an innocent 16-year-old girl in her own home.

You killed her as a wicked act of revenge upon her mother; Wenjing had done nothing wrong to you at all.

You, however, ended her life by strangling her with your hands, face to face.

It has left her mother utterly bereft, her only daughter taken away from her by you, someone she considered to be a member of her extended family.

The judge said there was no doubt the vengeful and murderous attack on the family was planned well in advance.

The revenge motive, cruelly, savagely and carefully planned and executed, is clearly in its own right a substantial, aggravating feature, he said.

After sentencing, he added: So that everyone understands the sentence, you will be in your 60s before you can apply to be released.

That will be in the year 2051. The fact you are able to be released does not mean that you will be released then.

You may never leave prison if its not considered safe and appropriate.

Wenjing lived at the takeaway in Baglan Street with her mother, Meifang Xu, and Mr Jiang.

The trial heard that Xu was a heavy gambler and owed the family 14,000.

He was said to have visited them armed with a kitchen knife, and, an hour before the attacks, had Googled Can fingerprints be destroyed by fire.

When he was later questioned by a psychologist about his fitness to be interviewed by police, he said: I didnt mean to hurt the little girl. I wanted revenge on her mother.

She upset me on many times and didnt listen to what I say.

Chun Xu attacked Wenjing Xu and Yongquan Jiang at the Blue Sky restaurant in Ynyswen on March 5 (Adam Hale/PA)

Wenjings mother, speaking to the court via a translator, was tearful as she said her life has been turned upside down by the incident.

Ms Xu added that the whole family is missing Wenjing terribly and that she will be in our hearts forever.

Mr Jiang told the court he is missing his stepdaughter unbelievably and spoke of the scars he was left with after he was attacked.

Despite not being blood relations, Xu, also known as Little Gang, was regarded as a nephew by Ms Xu.

The family entrusted him with 20,000 that he said he would send back to China for them to pay a friend who had lent them money to start their business in the UK.

However, Xu only sent some of the money back and gambled away 14,000, which he had then begun paying back.

On March 4 2021, he rang Ms Xu and asked if he could go to see them, but told her not to tell anyone about his visit, before he strangled to death 16-year-old Wenjing the next morning.

After killing Wenjing, Xu began attacking her stepfather with two knives, stabbing him in the neck and body.

When Mr Jiang asked Xu why he was attacking him, Xu replied: Money, money, money.

Mr Jiang fought Xu off and went to find Wenjing. He discovered her lying on her back by the takeaway counter.

Despite attempts by the family and then paramedics to resuscitate the teenager, she was pronounced dead at the scene at 12.59pm.

Police found Xu in the kitchen, having cut his own throat. He was treated at the University Hospital of Wales before being arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.
The future of a Rolls-Royce plant has been secured after a long-running dispute, according to a union.

Unite announced its members in Barnoldswick, Lancashire, have voted to accept an agreement the union said includes a commitment to no compulsory redundancies for five years and for manufacturing to be undertaken on the site for at least 10 years.

The union has been in dispute with the company over plans to move aeroplane fan blade production to Singapore, which led to strike action.

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said: This is a tremendous achievement for the workers at Barnoldswick who have stood solidly in support of one another and their community in the fight for a long-term future and cast iron guarantees for their plant.

 BREAKING NEWS  This has been a long and complex campaign but the commitment, determination and passion of our union on-site has secured this fantastic result for the whole community.  Unite R.O, Ross Quinn.#BattleforBarnoldswick Read more: https://t.co/QufKAeVoNI pic.twitter.com/R8gJMxxX0U  Unite North West (@Unite_NorthWest) November 12, 2021

From the very outset of this dispute, Unite has always fundamentally believed that Barnoldswick could and should have a viable long-term future and the deal reached between the union and the management at Rolls-Royce has secured that aim.

Unite regional officer Ross Quinn added: This has been a long and complex campaign but the commitment, determination and passion of our union on-site has secured this fantastic result for the whole community

Unite is looking forward to working closely with Rolls-Royce to ensure that the deal that has been agreed is fully implemented and to ensure that the Barnoldswick factory has a bright and long-term future.

A Rolls-Royce spokesman said: We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Unite that allows us to focus on the future of Barnoldswick.

Rolls-Royce, like the entire aviation industry, is facing an unprecedented impact from the Covid-19 pandemic and we have had to restructure to address the resulting drop in workload.

Both the company and the trade union have had to work hard to reach this agreement and we now look forward to working with Unite to ensure Barnoldswick can move forward with certainty.
A police officer leading the investigation into the death of serial killer Stephen Ports fourth and final victim was unaware of the striking similarities between the previous deaths of young gay men in the area, an inquest jury has heard.

Inspector Jason ODonohue said he was absolutely flabbergasted when he realised the location where 25-year-old Jack Taylors body was dumped was just seconds away from where Gabriel Kovari and Daniel Whitworth were found a year earlier.

Mr ODonohue was acting up as duty inspector in Barking, east London, in September 2015 when Mr Taylors lifeless body was discovered in a church graveyard by a park warden, apparently from a drugs overdose.

He was joined at the scene by two detectives  Yinka Adeyemo-Phillips and Peter Sweetman  who had been involved in the Kovari and Whitworth investigations, but neither told Mr ODonohue that the deaths all involved young men, found in close proximity, with drug paraphernalia present, and with their mobile phones missing, he said.

The spots where bodies were dumped by Stephen Port during his 16-month killing spree (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Mr ODonohue then declared the death unexplained but non-suspicious, unaware at that stage that Mr Taylor, like three others before him, had been drugged and murdered by Port.

It was not until a month later that all four deaths became linked to Port when a police officer working on the investigation into his first victim, Anthony Walgate, chanced upon a CCTV still of Mr Taylor walking alongside Port the night before he died.

Giving evidence to the inquests into Ports four victims, at Barking Town Hall, Mr ODonohue said there had been no discussion between himself and the CID officers about the similarities between the deaths.

Henrietta Hill QC, counsel for the victims families, said: If you had been made aware of more information of similarities between Jack Taylor and the other two, your decision-making might have been different?

Mr ODonohue replied: It might have been.

I wasnt aware of any similarities other than all three deaths were involving men.

He said he had no idea the bodies of Mr Kovari and Mr Whitworth had been found so close to Mr Taylors until Port went on trial for murder.

Daniel Whitworth, Jack Taylor, Anthony Walgate and Gabriel Kovari were murdered by Stephen Port (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Not until I saw the court graphic for the trial, he said.

I was absolutely flabbergasted.

Inquest jurors heard Mr Taylors family were upset about a lack of information from police on the investigation.

It was 10 days after they were first told of his death that Pc Jon Taylor, a parks officer who was first on scene, went to see the family.

It was during these discussions that they explained Mr Taylor was anti-drugs, and they believed the aspiring police officer had no reason to be in Barking.

The police constable  who had no prior experience on investigatory work  then began contacting those who last saw Mr Taylor alive, leading him to look for CCTV in Barking train station which showed he met an unidentified tall man, who weeks later was identified as Port.

Port, now 46, was handed a whole-life order in 2016 for the murders of Mr Walgate, 23, Mr Kovari, 22, Mr Whitworth, 21, and Mr Taylor between June 2014 and September 2015.

The inquests are examining whether lives could have been saved had police acted differently.
By Makiko Yamazaki and Scott Murdoch

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp outlined plans on Friday to split into three companies in an attempt to appease activist shareholders calling for a radical overhaul of the Japanese conglomerate after years of scandals.

A rare move in a country dominated by conglomerates, Toshiba's breakup comes the same week U.S. industrial powerhouse General Electric called time on its sprawling empire and Johnson & Johnson announced it was splitting up too.

Founded in 1875, Toshiba plans to house its energy and infrastructure divisions in one company while its hard disk drives and power semiconductor businesses will form the backbone of another. A third will manage Toshiba's stake in flash-memory chip company Kioxia Holdings and other assets.

The plan, borne of a five-month strategic review undertaken after a highly damaging corporate governance scandal, is partly designed to encourage activist shareholders to sell their stakes, sources with knowledge of the matter have said.

A breakup, however, runs counter to calls by activist investors for Toshiba to be taken private and some major shareholders said the plan may struggle to get through an extraordinary general meeting due to be held by March.

The overhaul was announced after markets in Japan had closed but the company's Frankfurt-listed shares fell 4% at the open on Friday highlighting investor disappointment. The shares later recovered slightly in very low volume.

Toshiba's strategic review committee said the idea of going private had raised concerns internally about the impact on its businesses and staff retention while offers from private equity firms were not compelling relative to market expectations.

Private equity firms had also conveyed concerns about completing a deal due to possible conflicts with Japan's national security law and potential opposition from antitrust regulators, the company said.

"After much discussion, we reached the conclusion that this strategic reorganisation was the best option," Chief Executive Satoshi Tsunakawa told a news conference.

CRISIS TO CRISIS

He said Toshiba, which hopes to complete the overhaul in two years, would have chosen to split up regardless of the presence of activist shareholders and that Japan's powerful trade ministry had not voiced objections to the plan.

One major Toshiba shareholder said other investors might still consider nominating a new board director to push though an auction process.

"The option to take Toshiba private can create more value in a shorter period of time than the break-up," the shareholder said.

A portfolio manager at an activist fund with Toshiba shares said the plan was disappointing and unlikely to be voted through at the extraordinary general meeting the company plans to hold by March.

"The activists have two options now: you can sell and go away and come back in two years time or you can buy more shares and fight this thing at the EGM. I'm going to go and think about what to do," said the manager, who declined to be identified.

The 146-year-old conglomerate has lurched from crisis to crisis since an accounting scandal in 2015.

Two years later, it secured a $5.4 billion cash injection from more than 30 overseas investors that helped avoid a delisting but brought in activist shareholders including Elliott Management, Third Point and Farallon.

Tension between management and overseas shareholders has dominated headlines since then. In June, an explosive shareholder-commissioned investigation concluded that Toshiba had colluded with Japan's trade ministry to block investors from gaining influence at last year's shareholders meeting.

'EXCESSIVE CAUTIOUSNESS'

Earlier on Friday, Toshiba released a separately commissioned report that found executives, including its former chief executive, had behaved unethically but not illegally.

It said Toshiba was overly dependent on the trade ministry and problems had also been caused by its "excessive cautiousness" towards foreign funds and an unwillingness to develop a sound relationship with them.

Under the overhaul, Toshiba aims to return 100 billion yen ($875 million) to shareholders in the next two financial years.

It also said it intended to "monetize" its Kioxia shares and return the net proceeds in full to shareholders as soon as practicable, a change from a previous plan to return only a majority of the proceeds.

Other assets that will continue to be held by Toshiba include its stake in Toshiba Tec Corp, which makes printing and retail information systems.

Toshiba plans to complete the overhaul by March 2024.

A trade ministry official said the government would be interested in how the breakup affects Toshiba's businesses related to national security, which include radar systems.

Toshiba also reported on Friday that its second-quarter operating profit roughly doubled to 30.4 billion yen ($267 million) as it recovered from a slump triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

"It makes sense to split if the valuation of a highly competitive business is hindered by other businesses," said Fumio Matsumoto, chief strategist at Okasan Securities.

"But if there isn't such a business, the breakup just creates three lacklustre midsize companies."

($1 = 113.9700 yen)

(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Additional reporting by Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong and Ritsuko Shimizu in Tokyo; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and David Clarke)
NEW YORK (AP)  In the past week, Republican Rep. Paul Gosar tweeted a video showing a character with his face killing a figure with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's face. Several of the 13 House Republicans who backed a bipartisan infrastructure bill said they faced threats after their vote. In one profanity-laced voicemail, a caller labeled Rep. Fred Upton a traitor and wished death for the Michigan Republican, his family and staff.

The response from Republican leaders? Silence.

Less than a year after former President Donald Trump's supporters staged a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in an effort to halt the peaceful transition of power, the GOP's refusal to broadly and forcefully condemn more recent examples of disturbing rhetoric and behavior suggests an unsettling shift. One of the nation's two major political parties appears increasingly tolerant of at least some persistent level of violence in American discourse, or at least willing to turn a blind eye to it.

In an interview, GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who has emerged as a top Trump critic in her party, said Gosar should be censured for his continued indefensible activities. And she blasted House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy for his silence on the matter.

Its a real symbol of his lack of strength, the lack of leadership in our conference right now, and the extent to which he and other leaders seem to have lost their moral compass, said Cheney, who was ousted from her leadership post after voting in favor of Trumps impeachment. In a moment where youve got an avowed white nationalist in Rep. Gosar who has posted a video advocating the killing of another member, the idea that our leader will not stand against that but that hes somehow going after and allowing attacks against 13 members who are conducting themselves in a serious and substantive way is really outrageous.

Representatives for McCarthy did not respond to requests for comment.

Pressed on violent rhetoric in their own ranks, Republicans often point to protests in Portland involving left-wing antifa activists. But President Joe Biden has said those engaged in violence should be prosecuted. And in 2018, then-House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi criticized fellow California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters for calling on supporters to harass Trump administration officials.

The GOP's reluctance to crack down on  or even mildly criticize  violent rhetoric in its own ranks is part of a broader pattern in which the party tries to minimize such behavior. Gosar removed the tweet aimed at Ocasio-Cortez, but the Arizona congressman and his digital director said those offended by his tweet should relax. Trump, meanwhile, has attempted to divert attention from the Jan. 6 violence at the U.S. Capitol by saying that last year's Election Day was the real insurrection.

There was no insurrection on Election Day. There was a free and fair election won by Biden.

While threats and violent political imagery are nothing new in American politics, they became increasingly normalized under Trump. The former president embraced violence as a political tactic from the earliest days of his 2016 campaign, egging on his supporters to rough up protesters who interrupted his rallies. At one point during a speech, he called on them to knock the crap out of" potential disruptors, and even promised to pay their legal bills.

In office, Trump mulled having U.S. officials shoot at people trying to cross the border illegally and spoke of the good old days when he said police could rough up suspects without impunity. He labeled the press the enemy of the state, and praised as my type the now Montana governor who physically assaulted a reporter.

In 2017, Trump tweeted a doctored World Wrestling Entertainment video that depicted him body-slamming and pummeling wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, whose face had been replaced by a CNN logo. The video quickly became the former presidents then most-shared post on the site.

And he spent months convincing his supporters the 2020 election had been stolen, culminating in the violent storming of the Capitol building in an effort to halt the certification of Biden's win.

Trump seems to have wanted to promote opponents as being intimidated by wielding violent rhetoric," creating a culture, especially in the Republican Party, of violent threats as being excused as offbeat humor, said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, of the precedent Trump had established.

Nonetheless, he said that having a congressman threaten somebody, whether it's in a cartoon or words," puts a target on her back.

Knowing that AOC is facing serious death threats and then to turn it into a meme or a dark twisted fantasy joke is reprehensible. And its hard to imagine that somebody in 2021 would feel that that kind of behavior was acceptable in a civil society, he said, calling for criminal prosecution. We cannot go around and threaten peoples lives and call it humor."

Former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who suffered extensive brain damage during a 2011 assassination attempt, said threats against political figures have no place in our democracy.

Not only do they threaten the personal safety of our public servants, their staff, and their families  they undermine the very foundation of our democracy, she said in a statement. All leaders must decisively condemn violent rhetoric and threats in our politics, and recognize the danger to our democratic process posed by armed threats, harassment, and intimidation.

FILE - Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., waits for a news conference about the Delta variant of COVID-19 and the origin of the virus, at the Capitol in Washington, on July 22, 2021. In the past week, Gosar tweeted a video showing a character with his face killing a figure with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's face. Several of the 13 House Republicans who backed a bipartisan infrastructure bill said they faced threats after their vote. In one profanity-laced voicemail, a caller labeled Rep. Fred Upton a traitor and wished death for the Michigan Republican, his family and staff. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Charlie Dent, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, said: I do think GOP leadership has to step up and address issues of members who step out of line as it related to misconduct or incendiary comments. ... They should be very forceful to those who are bringing discredit to the institution.

Ocasio-Cortez spokesperson Lauren Hitt declined to comment on the volume of threats against her, citing security advice.

Lilliana Hall Mason is a professor at Johns Hopkins University and co-author of the upcoming book Radical American Partisanship," which examines Americans' attitudes toward political violence. She said that, in general, around 10-20% of self-identified Democrats and Republicans tell researchers they support the use of violence for accomplishing political goals.

But their studies found those attitudes can be strongly influenced by messages they hear from political leaders. When politicians use pacifying rhetoric, she said, people from both parties respond by becoming less approving of violence. But when Democrats hear violent rhetoric from Republicans, and vice versa, it feeds into perceptions that the opposite party is more approving of violence than it really is, and encourages them to respond with the same.

It seems that people respond to violence events by increasing their approval to violence," she said of their findings. Violence begets violence" in what she described as a vicious cycle" that make using violent rhetoric a really dangerous game.

It's just so irresponsible, she added.
DALLAS (AP)  A Dallas man previously arrested in the death of an 81-year-old woman has been charged with killing at least 11 more elderly women whose jewelry and other valuables he stole, authorities said Thursday.

Kim Leach, a spokeswoman for the Dallas County district attorneys office, said 46-year-old Billy Chemirmir was indicted Tuesday on six more counts of capital murder in the deaths of women ranging in age from 76 to 94.

Chemirmir, who is from Kenya and is a permanent U.S. resident, also is charged in nearby Collin County with two counts of attempted capital murder for similar attacks there, according to county court records.

A Collin County grand jury also returned five capital murder indictments against Chemirmir on Tuesday.

Chemirmir has been in custody since March 2018 in the death of the 81-year-old Dallas woman, Lu Thi Harris. Police in Plano were investigating Chemirmir in connection with suspicious death and suspicious person calls at a senior apartment complex in that Dallas suburb and found evidence linking him to Harris death in Dallas, authorities said. Plano is in Collin County.

The break in the case came when Chemirmir forced his way into the Plano apartment of a 91-year-old woman that March, telling her to go to bed. Dont fight me, according to an arrest affidavit filed in Collin County. The woman was smothered with a pillow into unconsciousness and robbed. However, paramedics revived her and she told investigators that her attacker had stolen her jewelry. Police identified Chemirmir from a license plate number and were able to find and tail him days later, when they watched him throw a jewelry box into a trash bin. They traced the box to Harris, according to the affidavit.

Plano police Chief Gregory Rushin said at the time that Chemirmir used his health care experience to his advantage in targeting and exploiting seniors, some of the most vulnerable people in our community.

Police said then that investigators were reviewing about 750 unattended deaths of elderly women for possible links.

Chemirmirs attorney, Phillip Hayes, said Thursday that this weeks charges were a surprise and that he hadnt had time to review them yet.

These cases came out of the blue and I dont have any information on them yet, he said.

But he noted that Chemirmir has denied it since Day 1 that he played any role in Harris death. They have circumstantial evidence that puts him in the area but thats as far as the evidence goes, Hayes said.

In addition to the murder charges, jail records had an immigration detainer for Chemirmir.

___

Follow David Warren on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarrenJourno

___

This story was first published on May 16, 2019, and was updated on Nov. 11, 2021, to correct that Billy Chemirmir was not in the country illegally. He was a permanent U.S. resident. It was also updated to remove an incorrect reference to a jewelry box being stolen from the 91-year-old woman.
FILE - White House chief of staff Mark Meadows speaks on a phone on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, on Oct. 30, 2020. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has issued almost three dozen subpoenas as it aggressively seeks information about the origins of the attack and what former President Donald Trump did  or didnt do  to stop it. The panel is exploring several paths simultaneously. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

WASHINGTON (AP)  A lawyer for former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows says his client will defy a subpoena from a House committee that is investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, a move that is likely to trigger a contempt vote against the former Republican congressman.

The Jan. 6 panel had given Meadows until Friday to comply with the September subpoena and appear for a deposition, but his lawyer said that his client has a sharp legal dispute with the committee as former President Donald Trump has claimed executive privilege over the testimony.

Legal disputes are appropriately resolved by courts, said Meadows' lawyer, George Terwilliger, in a statement Friday morning. It would be irresponsible for Mr. Meadows to prematurely resolve that dispute by voluntarily waiving privileges that are at the heart of those legal issues.

Meadows' refusal to comply comes amid escalating legal battles between the committee and Trump, who has claimed privilege over documents and interviews the lawmakers are demanding.

As the sitting president, Joe Biden has so far waived most of Trump's assertions of privilege over documents, and the White House said in a letter on Thursday that Biden would also waive any privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has also rejected Trump's arguments, noting in one ruling this week that Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

The panel's proceedings and attempts to gather information have been delayed as Trump appealed Chutkan's rulings and the House fights for the information in court. On Thursday, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the release of some of the White House records the panel is seeking, giving that court time to consider Trump's arguments.

Still, the House panel is continuing its work, and lawmakers have already interviewed more than 150 witnesses so far as they attempt to build the most comprehensive record yet of how a violent mob of Trump's supporters broke into the Capitol that day and temporarily halted the certification of Biden's victory.

The committee has subpoenaed almost three dozen people, including former White House staffers, Trump allies who strategized about how to overturn his defeat and people who organized the giant rally on the National Mall the morning of Jan. 6. While some, like Meadows and former White House aide Steve Bannon, have balked, others have spoken to the panel and provided documents.

Meadows, a former GOP congressman from North Carolina, is a key witness for the panel. He was Trump's top aide in the time between Trump's loss in the November election and the insurrection, and was one of several people who pressured state officials to try and overturn the results. He was also by Trump's side during much of the time, and he could provide information about what the former president was saying and doing during the attack.

You were the president's chief of staff and have critical information regarding many elements of our inquiry, the committee's chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., wrote in a letter accompanying the Sept. 23 subpoena to Meadows. It appears you were with or in the vicinity of President Trump on Jan. 6, had communications with the president and others on January 6 regarding events at the Capitol and are a witness regarding activities of that day.

In a letter to Meadows' lawyer on Thursday, Thompson wrote that failure to appear at a deposition on Friday and produce documents would be viewed by the committee as willful non-compliance and that the panel will consider contempt charges. Meadows would be the second of the committee's witnesses to be held in contempt after the House voted to hold Bannon in contempt last month.

Whether either of them would face consequences will be up to the Justice Department, which has so far not said whether it will prosecute Bannon's case. The panel has been been pushing the department to do so, but Attorney General Merrick Garland has made clear that his lawyers will make an independent decision.

The appeals court will hear arguments Nov. 30 in Trump's separate case against the committee and the National Archives, an attempt to withhold documents from the panel. The arguments will take place before three judges nominated by Democratic presidents: Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, nominated by former President Barack Obama, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, an appointee of Biden.

Given the cases magnitude, whichever side loses before the circuit court is likely to eventually appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

___

Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Zeke Miller and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP)  A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily blocked the release of records sought by a U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection as the court considers an emergency request by former President Donald Trump.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday granted an administrative stay sought by Trump. The stay is intended to give the court time to consider Trumps arguments against release of the documents, which was otherwise scheduled for Friday without a court order.

The order effectively delays until the end of this month the release of records that were to be turned over Friday. The appeals court set arguments in the case for Nov. 30.

The House is seeking Trumps call logs, draft speeches and other documents related to Jan. 6. Congress has sought the records to better understand the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, in which rioters ransacked the building and forced into hiding lawmakers who were certifying Trumps election loss to President Joe Biden.

Biden waived executive privilege on the documents. Trump then went to court arguing that as a former president, he still had the right to exert privilege over the records and releasing them would damage the presidency in the future.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday rejected those arguments, noting in part, Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President. She again denied an emergency motion by Trump on Wednesday.

In their filing to the appeals court, Trumps lawyers wrote that without a stay, the former president would suffer irreparable harm through the effective denial of a constitutional and statutory right to be fully heard on a serious disagreement between the former and incumbent President.

The Nov. 30 arguments will take place before three judges nominated by Democratic presidents: Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, nominated by former President Barack Obama, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, an appointee of Biden.

The White House on Thursday also notified a lawyer for Mark Meadows, Trumps former chief of staff, that Biden would waive any executive privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press. The committee has subpoenaed Meadows and more than two dozen other people as part of its investigation.

His lawyer, George Terwilliger, issued a statement in response saying Meadows "remains under the instructions of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege.

It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict, Terwilliger said.

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Mark Sherman contributed to this report.
More unvaccinated workers will be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine by January 4th, or face regular testing under the new guidance from the U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released last week.

While the Biden Administrations vaccine mandate isnt in full effect yet, it's already caught up in the courts. On Saturday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked new vaccine mandates and testing regulations put in place by OSHA. Still, the White House said this week that businesses should move forward with the requirements for private businesses.

OSHA released its long-awaited emergency temporary standard (ETS) on Thursday that calls for employers with 100 or more employees to either implement a vaccine mandate to ensure workers are undergoing regular COVID-19 testing and wearing face masks at work.

The rule covers both full-time and part-time workers, which includes more than 84 million workers and two-thirds of the nations private sector workforce.

One area that remains unknown is who bears the cost of COVID testing. The federal government has not agreed to pick up the tab, nor has it said that businesses are required to cover the cost, unless stipulated by state or local laws or in labor union contracts.

The presidential mandate comes as employers across the nation are facing an acute labor shortage amplified by strong demand and pandemic-era stress factors.

Meanwhile, deep pockets of vaccine resistance are worsening the problem, with employers increasingly faced with the stark choice of complying with government mandates, or turning away talent that may not want to be vaccinated.

Lauren Winans, CEO of Pittsburgh-based human resources consultancy Next Level Benefits, expects employers will pay for COVID-19 testing to maintain operations and productivity flowing.

"They're going to need to start paying for that testing, as time goes on here because most employees will look for another employer if they're not able to feel comfortable in the environment that they're working in," Winans told Yahoo Finance Live on Thursday.

While it's unclear as to where these regular testing would need to be, Winans believes that most large businesses will offer the testing onsite.

"There may be some employers who choose to have that testing done at an offsite location but I do think that from a procedural and process standpoint, onsite is going to be the best way to go," she added.

There's going to be a lot of debate around what exactly is going to be required as part of the testing process, what type of test, how quickly the results will need to be, and where the employee goes while they're waiting for those results.Lauren Winans, Next Level Benefits CEO

As January is shaping up to be the new September for large U.S. companies to summon remote workers back to long-deserted offices. And the "weekly" testing requirement for unvaccinated employees could impact businesses at large.

"Getting that testing is going to take away time from you doing your job. It's going to slow down, your own productivity," said Winans. Another issue companies will have to consider is who will be tracking employees testing.

"That's going to take time and effort. It's going to take people away from their regular jobs, there might even need to be a head count added in certain circumstances," Winans added.

Roughly 70% of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. More than half of employees have said they support their current employer implementing vaccine mandates, no matter the size of the company, according to a Qualtrics survey of 1,309 U.S. workers in October.

The federal government has scrambled in recent months to shore up the U.S. supply of rapid tests, including at-home kits. OSHA's new rules, however, require that the employer to observe the test and the results, or an authorized Telehealth proctors observe workers taking the tests.

"Time is going to tell quite frankly," said Winans. "There's going to be a lot of debate around what exactly is going to be required as part of the testing process, what type of test, how quickly the results will need to be, and where the employee goes while they're waiting for those results."

COVID testing won't be cheap

A health care worker shows one of the at-home COVID-19 tests given to passengers arriving in Canada, as part of the country's new measures against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada February 24, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

One thing appears certain: The testing requirement is likely to be a costly endeavor for workers and companies alike. Employers are required under fair labor standards to compensate employees for their time, if they get tested during normal working hours.

Meanwhile, the costs of an at-home COVID-19 test  which involve a nasal swab  vary widely: Prices at major hospitals ranging between $20 and a whopping $1,419 per test, with the median at $148, according to April 2021 data from Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.

Rapid tests costs in the range of $15 to $25. However, the median cost of more-likely-to be-accurate P.C.R. (polymerase chain reaction) tests is substantially higher, at $127, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

In New York City, residents can get a free P.C.R. test at one of the citys express testing centers, with results promised within 24 hours or less. But many clinics offer the tests at a cost in exchange for expedited results.

Clear-19 Rapid Testing, for example, which is located in Midtown Manhattan, charges a stiff $389 to deliver P.C.R. results in two hours, or $175 for a 24-hour turnaround.

The reason that were seeing differences in prices is partly because of out-of-network use of laboratories to process tests, Gerald Kominski, a health policy expert at the University of California Los Angeles, told Yahoo! Finance in an interview.

The other reason for the varying costs of the test is that there are different testing technologies, some of which are more accurate than others, he added.

While businesses face questions about the new requirements, it's unlikely that health insurances will cover the costs, according to Next Level's Winans.

"It's part of an employment contingency much like when you start a new position, and you might be required to do drug testing or background testing, that's not covered by your insurance," the CEO said.

Yet questions linger for remote workers, and whether they're subject to testing if that alternative is provided. The federal rules does not apply to employees who work remotely 100% of the time, or who work exclusively outdoors.

However, if employees do come into the office periodically, then they'll need to be tested. That makes it "challenging for employers who might be offering hybrid work arrangements, where their employees are mostly offsite and working remote, but occasionally come onsite," Winans told Yahoo Finance.

Vaccine mandate could require a 'tough call'

Oct 31, 2021; Inglewood, California, USA; Spectators take a COVID-19 test before the NFL game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the New England Patriots at SoFi Stadium. (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)

Before the new OSHA standard, the pandemic caused various questions about which protective measures employers should cover for workers such as waiting for a temperature checks before entering a building.

In states like California, business are required to provide free personal protective equipment, and offer free COVID-19 testing to all employees if three or more employees are infected with the coronavirus within 14 days.

The standard also requires that vaccination status must be documented. However, the proposed language for the revised ETS doesn't match the language of the updated OSHA's ETS, leaving many wondering if California will align with the federal mandate.

"California is a very employee protected state and oftentimes does provide more protection to the employees than the federal government does," Natasha Chesler, a Los Angeles employment lawyer who represents workers and employers in wage and hour cases at Chesler McCaffrey LLP, said in an interview.

"There's a chance we see the employer being required to pay in California. It's a tough call," she added.

Companies that delay implementing a policy and tracking the vaccination or testing status of their employees could face costly fines if they miss those deadlines.

And OSHA can penalize employers up to $14,000 per employee who fails to comply with the rule. But that could escalate, and businesses may face additional fines of about $136,000.

Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @daniromerotv

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn
Express your opinion! Fill out this form to submit a Letter to the Editor.

Submit
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!
LENNON  Following the arrest of a local man for the 1997 rape and murder of Lennon resident Mary Prieur, few area residents and business owne
PARIS, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan had a meeting with the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki in Paris within the framework of the 41st UNESCO General Conference.

During the meeting the foreign ministers underscored the rich historical-cultural ties and traditional friendship between the Armenian and Arab peoples.

They addressed pressing issues of mutual interest and highlighted the implementation of practical steps aimed at deepening the Armenian-Palestinian political dialogue, the foreign ministry said in a press release.

Issues related to the Armenia historical-cultural and religious heritage in the Holy Land were also discussed, the foreign ministry said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. A delegation from Ukraine consisting of political and public figures will visit Armenia on November 15-16, AnalitikaUA.net reports.

Among over 70 guests will be leaders of Armenian communities, influential politicians, members of Parliament, political scientists, media experts, journalists, athletes, etc.

During the visit the Ukrainian delegation members are expected to meet with the Armenian authorities.

A number of round-tables, cultural events and the opening of a skate-park  the donation of the Union of Armenians of Ukraine for Yerevan, will be held during the visit.

Our goal is to give a new impetus to the relations between Kiev and Yerevan, head of the Union of Armenians of Ukraine Vilen Shatvoryan told AnalitikaUA.net.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. As a result of the 2020 war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh, 40,000 people have been left without shelters, lost property, 17,000 civilian objects and infrastructure have been destroyed, several thousands of people, including civilians, have been killed and wounded, the fates of many others are still unknown, Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan said during the online session of the CIS Council of heads of government on November 12.

Despite the commitments assumed on November 9, Azerbaijan continues to torpedo the implementation of the agreements reached, including keeping many Armenian prisoners of war in captivity, which is a gross violation not only of the point 8th of the 2020 November 9 trilateral statement, but also the international humanitarian law. By distorting the provisions of the 2020 November 9 and the 2021 January 11 trilateral statements, Azerbaijan exaggerates the idea of the corridor, raising threats of the use of force, the deputy PM said.

He stated that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict cant be solved by force.

The settlement of the conflict could be achieved through peaceful negotiations, exclusively under the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. In order to ease the situation and enter a peaceful development stage for the region its necessary for Azerbaijan to adopt a constructive position by refusing from the policy of hatred, aggressive rhetoric and hostile actions, Grigoryan said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
According to a video released by the United States Department of Defense on November 2, 2021, recorded during the Project Convergence 21 exercise, the U.S. Army has conducted firing tests with a LAV 700 8x8 armored vehicle fitted with a turret armed with a 50mm XM913 Bushmaster automatic cannon.

Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link



LAV 700 firing test during Project Convergence 2021 (Picture source: U.S. DoD video footage by Sgt. 1st Class Henry Gundacker, Army Futures Command)

Project Convergence is the United States Army's campaign of learning designed to aggressively advance and integrate our Army's contributions, based on a continuous structured series of demonstrations and experiments throughout the year. It ensures that the Army is part of the joint fight and can rapidly and continuously integrate or converge effects across all domains: air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace; to overmatch our adversaries in competition and conflict.

The LAV 700 is an upgraded version of the LAV 6 8x8 armored vehicle developed for the Canadian Army by General Dynamics. The vehicle was unveiled during the edition 2017 of IDEX, International Defense Exhibition in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The LAV 6.0 is the designation given by the Canadian Army to its enhanced LAV III platform, upgraded specifically to respond to requirements emerging from a decade of in-theatre experience in Afghanistan. It was deployed by the Canadian army in 2017 when it accompanied Canadian soldiers deployed in Latvia in support of Operation REASSURANCE.

The LAV 6.0 is equipped with an upgraded, next-generation 6.0 suspension and a 450-hp power pack. It offers enhanced protection provided by its blast-deflecting double-VTM hull and energy attenuating seating, while also improving ingress and egress. The vehicle also features a fully digital electronic architecture with increased electrical generation and situational awareness, improved turret human factors, and upgraded sight systems.

Such as the previous LAV vehicle, the LAV 700 features inherent mine blast protection via a Double V-Hull chassis design, scalable ballistic protection, energy attenuating seats, and laser warning system. Crew protection is also provided by NBC detection/protection system, automatic fire suppression and multi-spectral smoke grenade launchers. EO/IR systems provide surveillance through 360 direct view optics. Leading-edge systems and various sensors coupled to open architecture C4 system, fully compatible with radios and connected equipment, ensure full mission capability.



General Dynamics Land Systems LAV 700 8x8 armored vehicle at IDEX defense exhibition, February 2017. (Picture source: Army Recognition)

The LAV 700 can be equipped with different types of weapon stations including a 12.7/7.62 mm remote-controlled weapon station, medium caliber turret with 30/40 mm cannon, large-caliber turret with 90 or 105 mm gun, semi/automatic 120 mm mortar, as well as an anti-tank guided missile in stand-alone or integrated to medium caliber turret.

The LAV 700 has a length of 8.2 m, a width of 3.0 m, and a height of 2.8 m. It has a payload of 11,000 kg and a gross vehicle weight of 32,000 kg. It is powered by a Caterpillar C13 engine developing 711hp coupled to a 7-speed automatic transmission. This gives the LAV 700 a maximum speed of 110 km/h and a range of almost 1,000 km.

In October 2019, Northrop Grumman has unveiled the XM913 50mm Bushmaster at the AUSA (Association of the United States Army) defense exhibition and conference that was held in Washington D.C., United States. The XM193 is based on the proven Bushmaster III 35/50 design and is intended to provide increased capability against modern infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) designs along with counter-UAS (unmanned aerial systems).

The XM913 weapon developed in partnership with Northrop Grumman Defense Systems improves upon traditional chain gun technology. New design improvements will enhance the weapons precision and accuracy through optimized mechanical design and advanced weapon control systems.

The XM913 50mm cannon can hit ranges more than twice as far as the roughly 2-kilometer range of the Bradley Fighting Vehicles existing M242 25mm cannon. The 50mm is being engineered to address this potential disparity, by hitting ranges well over 4 km. The 50mm cannon can blend a variety of emerging, high-tech armored vehicle attack technologies into a single system  to include advanced fire-control, automated targeting sensors, next-gen ammunition, new computer processing speed, and longer-range medium caliber attack options.



New Northrop Grumman XM913 50mm automatic cannon at AUSA defense exhibition, October 2019. (Picture source: Army Recognition)
Support local journalism

Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution.
The PM2.5 levels stood at 346 micrograms per cubic metre, around six times more than the safe limit

Safdarjung Tomb is seen amid heavy smog conditions in New Delhi. (Photo: AFP)

New Delhi: The layer of eye-stinging smog lingering over Delhi-NCR thickened on Friday, giving an orange tint to the sun and lowering visibility to 200 metres at several places in the region reeling under hazardous pollution levels since early November.

Delhi has recorded severe air quality on five of the last seven days after Diwali.

According to an analysis by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), people in the national capital breathe the worst air between November 1 and November 15 every year.

The city recorded the Air Quality Index (AQI) at 454 at 9 am. The 24-hour average AQI was 411 on Thursday.

Faridabad (452), Ghaziabad (490), Greater Noida (476), Gurugram (418) and Noida (434) also recorded severe air quality at 9 am.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the 24-hour average concentration of lung-damaging fine particles known as PM2.5 in Delhi-NCR stood at 346 micrograms per cubic metre at 9 am, around six times more than the safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre.

The PM10 level was recorded at 544 micrograms per cubic metre.

According to the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), the air quality is considered to be in the emergency category if the PM2.5 and PM10 levels continue to be above 300 micrograms per cubic metre and 500 micrograms per cubic metre respectively for 48 hours or more.

Officials from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said moderate fog and low temperatures in the morning -- Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 12.6 degrees Celsius on Friday -- and calm winds have been trapping pollutants close to the ground.

Despite low visibility in the morning, flight operations continued smoothly at Delhi airports.

Speaking to ANI, a senior airport official on anonymity said, "On Friday morning, Delhi airport witnessed low visibility but flight operations are running smoothly. Both the runways are operating fine. There is an issue of low visibility, but it didn't affect the flight operations."

"Visibility levels at the Indira Gandhi International Airport and the Safdarjung Airport dropped to 300-500 metres due to moderate fog. It (fog) has intensified on Friday due to high humidity," another official said.

Green think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said the ongoing smog episode is a public health emergency and could be the longest in four years.

The longer duration of this year's smog, despite relatively windier local conditions, might be due to a lack of pollution control measures in the city, the CSE had said in a report.

In another report, it said vehicles accounted for more than 50 per cent of Delhi's pollution during the early phase of this year's winter, from October 24 to November 8.

According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality forecasting agency SAFAR, 3,914 farm fires accounted for 26 per cent of Delhi's PM2.5 pollution on Thursday.

Stubble burning has accounted for at least 25 per cent of Delhi's PM2.5 pollution for eight days on the trot, starting November 4.

The share of farm fires in Delhi's pollution rose to 48 per cent on Sunday, the highest since November 5, 2018, when it was recorded at 58 per cent.

Last year, the share of stubble burning in Delhi's pollution had peaked at 42 per cent on November 5. In 2019, crop residue burning accounted for 44 per cent of Delhi's PM2.5 pollution on November 1.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai wrote another letter to Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Thursday, calling for an emergency meeting with all the NCR states to discuss the issue of stubble burning.

Rai also launched a month-long campaign to prevent open burning of waste and biomass in the city in a bid to further cut down pollution from local sources.

The second phase of the city government's anti-dust campaign will get underway on Friday.
In his words: "I am just a professional writer, which means I don't do blogs and try and get money for whatever I write."

Owen, has resigned his seat in Britains House of Commons, withdrawing from the heart of a scandal that is overtaking his party and govt

So, let there be light!

He said, and the universe

Saw sparks in the dark!

The wind was singing

An anxious song through the crack

In the kitchen door

Apart from the rule

Of seventeen syllables

Haikus are playthings!

From Baiku Chi Haiku by Bachchoo

Owen Paterson, Conservative MP, has resigned his seat in Britains House of Commons, withdrawing from the heart of a scandal that is overtaking his party and government. One newspaper, with a penchant for simplistic puns, headlined the episode BoJos Owen Goal.

Owen, a senior Tory, had used his position to lobby ministers and civil servants on behalf of two businesses who paid him very considerable sums as a consultant. An all-party parliamentary committee set up to prevent several categories of corruption found this out, investigated the circumstances, concluded that Mr Paterson was guilty of corrupt practice and recommended that he be suspended from Parliament for 30 days. BoJo very promptly introduced a measure in Parliament to change the rules governing MPs second jobs and those governing lobbying by MPs.

To the Opposition and to the media and the British voting public, this seemed very clearly a retrospective move to decriminalise the sort of sleaze that Mr Paterson was found guilty of. Nevertheless, BoJo pushed his parliamentary whips to force his MPs to vote for this retrospective measure which would let pal Owen off the hook and make way for a legalised form of selling parliamentary influence.

Very many Tory MPs, some with consciences, some with regard for the law and democracy, some with an eye on what their constituents might think with the media hubbub around this vote, abstained. Even so, there were enough Tory MPs who voted for what was touted as a necessary reform of the rules by the government. The motion was passed.

The changed rules would still have to be interpreted by an all-party committee, but Labour and other Opposition parties announced that they would not participate in any committee that, under the new rules, facilitated corruption.

The Labour Partys boycott was decisive. The motion which the Tories had passed was widely denounced, even by senior Tories as well as John Major, a former Tory Prime Minister, as a regrettable measure opening the door to sleaze. BoJo, perhaps wary of facing an onslaught from the Opposition and from his own MPs, stayed away from the House when the motion was again debated and his Leader of the House promptly backtracked in an embarrassing U-turn. Mr Paterson was induced, or volunteered, to resign, still protesting that he had done nothing wrong.

And there, gentle reader, as Shakespeare would have said, is the rub. Britain presents itself to the world and to its own electorate as the mother of Parliaments, the setter of moral standards, where elected members work tirelessly in the interests of their constituents. But its now increasingly clear that this particular government and set of MPs who voted to relax the strictures on sleaze, dont all fit this upstanding prototype.

Lets count a few of the ways.

The Tory Party, like most political parties in democratic countries, needs funds, purportedly to get the message of their intentions across to the electorate, so that democracy can function smoothly. People who agree with the ideology of the party, and those who hope to gain materially and in stature when the party they support comes to power, contribute to these funds. The Tory Party has a tradition of appointing one or other of these donors as the partys treasurer.

The Sunday Times this week pointed out that 15 of the last 16 Tory Party treasurers have been offered a peerage and a seat in the House of Lords having each contributed more than 3 million to the party. The House of Lords is part of Britains parliamentary democracy, a second chamber to scrutinise and ratify legislation. It is still open to a proportion of hereditary aristocrats and to appointees who bring some expertise to the chamber. It should not be a place to which you can buy a seat. The Tory Party, of course, denies that these treasurers have been elevated to the House of Lords for paying them money.

They loftily assert that these capitalists bring brilliant experience to the House. Having of course brought brilliant sums to the partys coffers. Then there is the continuing accusation from the Opposition that BoJo and his wife Carey tapped a Tory donor for upto 170,000 to refurbish their flat at 10 Downing Street. That would be a real waste of money if this catalogue of sleaze influences the electorate to eject BoJo and Carey from these premises. The next PM may not want the horrific, almost-nightmarish kitsch that Carey has commissioned.

More! What came to light this week was that Sir Geoffrey Cox, a Tory MP and former attorney-general, has been paid more than 1 million, on top of his 82,000 parliamentary salary, for legal work in the Virgin Islands on behalf a government accused of fraud. Sir Geoffrey took advantage of the lockdown rules and, during Covid-19s remote parliamentary voting days, spent months 4,000 miles away from his constituency, casting votes by proxy. His constituents were not happy. His bank manager was.

And yet to come is the inquiry into the billions of pounds handed over by this government to friends and associates of Tory MPs for Covid-related testing and supplies. Do the brazen blush?
Instagram has worked with third-party experts to develop the 'Take a Break' feature

The feature will begin rolling out to a small percentage of users over the coming days. (Photo: PTI/File)

Washington: Photo and video-sharing social networking platform Instagram's head Mr Adam Mosseri has announced that the company has started testing a new feature called 'Take a Break'.

According to GSM Arena, this feature will help users curb their Instagram addiction and encourage them to take a break after spending a certain amount of time on the app.

It's an opt-in feature, which, after being turned on, will allow users to set in-app reminders to take a break from the Instagram app after continuously using it for 10, 20, or 30 minutes.

Mr Mosseri has said that the 'Take a Break' feature has been developed as a "part of the broader effort to try and give people more control over their experience of Instagram" and that there will be "more ideas like this coming in the future too."

Instagram has worked with third-party experts to develop the 'Take a Break' feature, and it will begin rolling out to a small percentage of users over the coming days.

As per GSM Arena, the company plans to launch this new feature sometime in December and if the testing goes smooth, 'Take a Break' will be available to all users in a month or two.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Graveside services for Dorothy Clarice "Dottie" Cross 86, of Athens have been scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday November 22, 2021 at Oaklawn Memorial Park with Bro. Cody Craig officiating. Arrangements are under the direction of Autry's Carroll-Lehr Funeral Home. Mrs. Cross passed away November 18
Of all the places in this big world, Europe, in particular, seems to have fallen in love with the model , and a good chunk of the continents custom garages started transforming the thing to suit their own desires or those of their customers.Harley itself describes the Breakout as a muscular modern chopper that turns stoplights into drag strips, and those are exactly the attributes targeted by the people in the business of exaggerating a stock bikes looks and performance.Somewhere in Europe, theres a small country called Lithuania. It is there where a shop called Tommy and Sons resides and does business, and it specializes in remaking Harleys to the liking of the local biker pool.The clean-looking contraption youre looking at here was once a stock Breakout. Assembled by Harley in 2018, it only got to travel for 222 miles (357 km) before reaching the shop and being converted into something thats now called Sinner.Over the years, weve seen many Breakout-based builds coming to light, but we must say this one is at the top of our list of preferences, at least when it comes to the way it was made to look, with tons of grey-ish black offset by copper elements on the wheels and frames, and a matching airbrush on the fuel tank.Like most other customized Harleys out there, this one too is a collection of parts made by a number of shops doing business in this segment. The wheels, for instance, are sourced from Germanys finest, Thunderbike , as so is the front suspension system.The clutch, hand and forward controls have been made by Performance Machine, and the exhaust system is a SuperTrapp piece, modified by Tommy and Sons . The Lithuanian garage is also responsible for gifting the Breakout with the clean cut body kit that wraps around the build from front to rear.As far as we can tell, the engine sitting inside the frame was not extensively tampered with (aside from gifting it with the said exhaust system), so were dealing with the bikes Milwaukee-Eight 114, 1,868cc in displacement and capable of delivering 155 Nm of torque.At the time of writing, the Breakout Sinner is listed on Tommy and Sons website as having been sold, but were not being told how much it went for. Just to give you an idea though, a more or less stock Breakout from 2018 sells used for anywhere between $15,000 and $20,000.
Those customers now have a Built Ford Tough alternative in the guise of the Maverick, a unibody pickup manufactured in Mexico with underpinnings and oily bits from the Bronco Sport and Escape crossovers. Only a few millimeters are separating the previous-generation Ranger and the Maverick, which is why some people consider it an indirect successor of sorts although were dealing with very different animals under their body shells.Already reviewed in hybrid flavor by Doug DeMuro, the Maverick with the 2.0-liter EcoBoost from the Bronco Sport Badlands does not disappoint either. Sure, there are a few iffy plastics here and there, but asking more from the most affordable pickup on sale in the U.S. is wishful thinking.The pictured Maverick is a mid-range XLT with all-wheel drive, the FX4 Off-Road Package, and Shadow Black paintwork, a specification thats currently listed by the online configurator with a net price of $28,525.With 17 points in the weekend category and 29 points for dailying, the Maverick tested by Doug DeMuro ties the Hyundai Santa Cruz with an overall score of 46 points. That's the highest praise one can give to the Maverick, more so because the Santa Cruz is the only true competitor in the compact pickup segment. Be warned, however, that Hyundai offers higher-quality interior appointments and better handling on and off the road.Based on the increasingly popular Tucson, the Santa Cruz sport adventure vehicle also happens to haul and tow more than the Maverick. Manufactured in the United States of America instead of Mexico, the South Korean pickup truck is currently available to purchase from $23,990 for the base trim level with front-wheel drive and a free-breathing 2.5 featuring direct injection.
kW

The what? Manufactured in China and Thailand by Great Wall Motors, which is Chinas largest manufacturer of sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, the P-Series line was introduced in April 2019 at the Shanghai Auto Show. Depending on the market, it's currently available with a 2.0-liter turbo gasoline mill, a 2.0-liter turbo diesel, or a single-motor electric drivetrain that flexes 150(201 horsepower).As for the South Africa-spec GWM P-Series in the featured video, were dealing with the aforementioned turbo diesel. Rated at 120 kW (161 horsepower) and 400 Nm (295 pound-feet) of torque at 1,500 revolutions per minute, its a lot of truck given the listed price of 554,990 rands. Converted to U.S. dollars, make that $36,315 at current exchange rates.The peeps at CAR were curious how the Chinese pickup fares against the stalwart Mitsubishi Triton in a drag race, and guess what? Despite the Japanese contenders larger powerplant (a 2.4-liter turbo diesel), the GWM P-Series has exceeded any expectation by crossing the finish line first.Glossing over the specifications and price list of the Mitsubishi Triton, its hard to defend the Japanese truck for losing this drag race. The pictured example carries a sticker price of 654,995 rands ($42,835) while the DI-D engine tops 133 kW (178 horsepower) and 430 Nm (317 pound-feet).Even though it leaves much to be desired, the Chinese newcomer can be considered a cold shower of sorts for big-name players in the mid-size truck segment. As for the Mitsubishi Triton, a.k.a. L200 and Ram, the Japanese automaker is expected to launch the next generation sometime in 2024 with similar underpinnings and oily bits to Nissans redesigned Navara.
El Alfa Jefe or simply El Alfa, on his real name Emanuel Herrera Batista, truly loves Bugatti cars. His social media profile picture is the luxurious brands logo and he actually owns one of the brand's models.Like your typical rapper, he loves displaying his cars and wealth all over social media and has taken inspiration from them even for several songs and music videos.Batista used to own a red Bugatti Chiron, which, at over $3 million, clearly was the crown jewel of his collection. Unfortunately, his expensive Chiron was set on fire in Miami in July 2021, and there was little he could do to fully restore it, and you can see the damage below. Over a month ago, he put it up for auction , with a $345,000 starting price. The current bid is at $763,000.But he couldn't stay away from the high-performance brand. So, to stay on brand, the rapper got a second Bugatti Chiron this past October. This time a Sport model. In a new song called Tamo En Hoja, he raps that hes the only rapper on the planet / Who bought two Bugatti in less than two months.Now in a new Instagram Story video, the rapper shows the hypercar in a dealership, probably going for a makeover or maybe just a trip for a service check. He shows other Bugatti cars as well, calling them Beautiful, before turning over to his own, saying "this is my car," and affectionately calling it Bobo (translated to "fool"). The Chiron though is anything but that.The Bugatti Chiron Sport comes with a quad-turbo 8.0-liter W16 engine, sending power to all wheels via a dual-clutch seven-speed automatic transmission. Its power unit puts out 1,479 horsepower (1500 ps) and a maximum torque of 1180 lb-ft (1,600 Nm) at 2000-6000 rpm. Its slightly lighter than the standard Chiron, with improved suspension and aerodynamics.I certainly hope El Alfa will have better luck with this one.
Take American President Joe Biden . After he put the country back on track with climate goals, at least in front of his foreign counterparts, Biden will continue his travels to the great places of future change in the coming weeks, starting with General Motors Factory Zero The American car making behemoth announced this week the President will be on deck for the grand opening of the facility on November 17, without going into details.General Motors is excited to welcome President Biden to Factory ZERO on Wednesday, Nov. 17, as the company opens the doors to its all-electric assembly plant in the heart of Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan, the company said in a statement.Factory ZERO is the culmination of GMs multibillion-dollar U.S. investment in people, product and process. The electric trucks, SUVs and autonomous vehicles built at Factory ZERO will transform GM and the automotive industry.Factory Zero is in fact the former Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center converted into the place from where, at least at first, all of GMs electric cars, trucks and whatever will come from.The place was the recipient of the largest investment the company has ever made in a manufacturing facility. $2.2 billion were spent since the start of 2020 to get the location ready for the start of production by the end of this year.When fully operational, the facility should be able to employ some 2,200 people.
And this time, Google Maps has been quietly improved with some subtle touches of Material You, the new language that Google is bringing to its majority of apps.But in Google Maps, the first signs of Material You are barely visible, so dont be too surprised if you actually miss them. However, when the design overhaul is complete, Google Maps should feel like a massively updated application, boasting a more modern look (but the same feature lineup).So whats new in Google Maps now that Google has started the Material You refresh?As reported recently, there are subtle touches to the bottom bar that allows you to jump from one feature to another (Explore, Go, Saved, Contribute, and Updates). In addition, the bar overall is smaller, therefore eating less space on the screen. At the same time, new pill-shaped indicators are being used for the active tab.When the Material You rollout is complete, the selection indicator should use a more modern visual effect, but right now, Google Maps just sticks with a more subtle blue background.Then, Google has changed the shape of the directions button. Previously a regular circle, this button is now a square with rounded corners, so clearly, Google has also started redesigning all elements that you see on the screen in the app.The current improvements arent necessarily massive, but they show that Google is very committed to delivering this highly anticipated overhaul to Google Maps.The company has remained completely tight-lipped on everything on this front, so theres no ETA as to when the full refresh should be concerned. The Material You touches in Google Maps are already live on Android devices but expect more subtle tweaks to be introduced in the next few updates published on the Google Play Store.
BEV

ICE

Renault offloaded its entire stake in Daimler AG in March 2021, and Nissan followed in May 2021. Thats why the Germans have reportedly sold their stake in Groupe Renault, namely 9.2 million estimated at $362 million. Bloomberg reports that Daimler AG still retains a holding of 3.1 percent in Nissan, the Japanese automaker that went into meltdown after the Carlos Ghosn fiasco. The cited publication says that all of the involved parties will continue to collaborate on twinned models that include the Smart ForTwo and Renault Twingo and the Mercedes-Benz Citan and Renault Kangoo.As far as Daimler AG is concerned, the most noteworthy mishap of the partnership with Renault and Nissan is the X-Class line of mid-size pickup trucks. Based on the Navara that was discontinued from the Old Continent due to dwindling sales, the W470 ended production last year over truly disappointing sales. On a worldwide scale, the X-Class luxotruck moved 15,300 units in 2019 whereas the Ranger sold 89,571 in the U.S. alone.Whats more, Daimler AG realized that compact vehicles made cheapy arent Mercedes enough in this competitive segment. Head honcho Ola Kallenius declared that we went at a bit too far to cover each and every space into each and every segment, and part of the reason Mercedes extended more than it was necessary is the Renault-Nissan partnership.Going forward, Daimler AG will have to spend a whole lot of euros ondevelopment as the European Union prepares for the Euro 7 emission standard in 2025 and the incoming ban of-powered new cars. Norway, for example, will ban diesel- and gasoline-powered new cars from sale in 2025 while Germany and the Netherlands will join that club in 2030.
So as this passing of the guard takes place over time, let's take a moment to appreciate one of the HUMVEE's oldest ancestors. The military spec Ford Model T was the exact opposite in origin as its Hummer ancestor, designed for the civilian market first and the military second. But Henry Ford was more than happy to sell the U.S. Army as and many other Allied nations enthralled in the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen to that point. Of course, that would be the First World War.

Horsepower

As it happened, the same traits that made the Model T Ford the go-to car of the people in the 1910s also made it the perfect platform for the kind of vehicle made famous by the Jeep a generation later. Some army models had custom metal bodies, but most came with wooden bodies atop a standard Model T cChassis. 20was about all that could be mustered out of the T's four-cylinder engine.As we show you today, this Model T Ambulance model is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Many thousands of these primitive vehicles were pressed into service during the mid to late stages of the war. As an armored military vehicle, the Model T would have been less than worthless. But as a light-duty ambulance and wounded personnel transporter behind muddy trench lines, Henry Ford's brainchild thrived. When it wasn't being shelled by Central Powers forces, at the very least.In an era when even fighter aircraft were made of wood and canvas, what business does any ambulance have using metal components? We only joke, of course. Ambulance drivers at least outlived their pilot counterparts, which wasn't a hard bar to reach at roughly three weeks. It's all about the small victories, right?Drivers of the military spec Model T came to love these trusty little wooden jalopies. Even parodying the famed American Poem "Gunga Din," by Rudyard Kipling in the American Field Service Bulletin called "Hunka Tin." To take one paraphrase from said parody," I've abused you, and I've flayed you, But by Henry Ford who made you, You are better than a Packard , Hunka Tin." It's a pretty decent hip-hop verse nearly 80 years too early, and also pretty edgy comedy for the period. All it needs is a backing track.Now, no story about a Henry Ford product of this era would be complete without noting some of his more "problematic" views about specific hot-button issues that needn't be repeated. But at least the Ford product presented here would form a preview of what would ostensibly become the modern Jeep, an objective icon of democracy in its day in the Second World War.It's an even bigger miracle, considering how old the car is, to see one in the flesh in 2021. The hand crank lever jutting out of the front grille is the hand crank that precariously sputtered the venerable tin can to life. More than a few people suffered wrist injuries at the hand of such pre-key starting devices.Famous men like Ernest Hemingway and Walt Disney found themselves behind the wheel of one of these Model T's. Whose tuned modifications ended at the extent of the impromptu stretcher arrangement where the rear passenger compartment sits typically. There's an old wives tale told by many antique car fans in the States that half the cars in the world were Model T's by the time production stopped.Whether or not the records of the time could definitively prove that was frankly inconsequential, because when a person today thinks of a century-old car, they think of a Model T. All such tales do is grow the mythos behind this historic car evermore.However you feel about the man who spawned this Ambulance, it served its purpose well in defense of democracy. To see one in person today is an honor few alive will ever experience. It may not be a modified car in the traditional sense, but its changes served a purpose far more significant than most any custom vehicle. Check back later for more coverage of our trip to the Museum of the US Air Force.
CAS

It's great luck that autoevolution's Tuning Month lined up perfectly with our trip to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio because no self-respecting Air Force is complete without a hearty fleet of ground vehicles. This Ford M151-A1 Jeep represented its air armed forces with a communications array that would make any Second World War field commander jealous they didn't have access to one.The M151 -Ton Jeep represented the colossal dull mass of the U.S. Army from the early post-war days of Korea all the way until the HUMVEE replaced the fleet in the mid-'80s. As far as drivetrains, they were as simple as could be. Four cylinders, 141.5 cubic inches (2.3 liters), and a four-speed manual with four-wheel drive were all this little Jeep needed to move hundreds of thousands, if not millions of military personnel, active and in reserve.What the Army asked of this little 4x4, now sitting happily alongside famous jets it fought alongside in the museum, was not to be fast, good looking, or fun to drive. Instead, its upgrades came in the form of the most advanced mobile communications system ever seen up to that point. One that was powerful enough to direct traffic from both ground and air forces on two entirely different frequencies.This astounding technology came from the U.S. Air Force Electronic Systems Division's AN/MRC-108 Comms Array. (Man, that's a mouthful). The platform was fully operational by the mid-1960s, just in time for things to heat up in Southeast Asia. This system used ultra-high frequency (UGF) and very high frequency (UHF) radio capabilities to relay important information like enemy positions related to friendly positions to prevent friendly fire incidents, for one example.In its close air support role (), A Radio Operation, Maintainer, and Driver (ROMAD), drove the 4x4 to stay in proximity to aircraft and ground force radio signals while forward air controllers (FACs) in AWACS planes like the Grumman E-3 Sentry, directed pilots when and where to strike targets. In-tow behind the little Jeep is the M416 antenna array and gasoline-generator for operations away from base locations. Seeing that the trailer is about half the size of the thing carrying it is humorous if you're just a museum-goer.Still, in the field, the extra horsepower in the comms department was vital to American operations in Vietnam, even if the horsepower under the hood was sub-par at best. In high-stress situations like the Viet-cong siege of Khe Sa in South Vietnam, these rugged little vehicles could serve as command hubs for close air support aircraft (CAS). Planes like the A-7 Corsair II, F-4 Phantom II, or A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft and strategic bombers like the B-57 Canberra and B-52 Stratofortress.Both truck and trailer are decked out in a period-correct Army-green paint scheme with matching sets of period-looking chunky off-road tires. The interior is less than current G-Wagon levels of comfort. To be kind to it. But the wacky rear-facing passenger seat serves a good purpose. It serves at a captain's chair in front of one of the most powerful pieces of communication equipment available in the late 60s and early 70s. Before the days of satellites, this role was more vital than one could even imagine.Due to trademark and copyright issues, the M151 did not sport the distinctive verticle slotted grille. The Ford-derived design would feature a 90 degree flip of the front grille slots to a straight-horizontal arrangement. Independent suspension and coil springs replaced the dual live-rear-axles found in most World War II Army Jeeps, which would serve this mobile comms platform very well navigating the harsh jungle terrain of Indo-China.The last M151 rolled off the factory floor in 1988, a total operating lifespan nearly stretching to five calendar decades. Many of the aircraft that the Jeep served within its time as a mobile command post would go on to have far shorter lifespans than the adorable little off-roader tasked with relaying them valuable instructions, although not the B-52, obviously.So then, this little Jeep isn't a modified vehicle in the traditional sense, at least. But in a world where tuner culture extends to the kit inside as much as it does to the engine or exterior, it's more or less the Cold War's U.S. Military's vision of a pimped-out road car with speakers and T.V. screens galore today.A modern Civic with a tricked-out sound system may very well use up as much power as this Jeep's trailer's gas-generator used. At least the Civic didn't require such a thing, so, hurray, we suppose. Check out the slideshow above if you want to see more of this highly unusual Jeep, and stay tuned for more content for Tuning Month and more coverage of our trip to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, here on autoevolution.
TPMS

The future we were promised is slipping from our grasp. Join us in standing up to the bean counters with this list of demands that can no longer be compromised! Notice to all automakers: We will gladly trade AM radio and heated steering wheels for anything on this list.Pontiac was the first American brand to embrace Heads-Up-Display by projecting critical info onto the windshield. What set it apart was Stealth Mode. Tapping this button powered down the gauges, followed by the infotainment and the Drivers Information LED screen. All interior lights (even the pinholes in the door panels) faded out, leaving the HUD as the only illumination. Make night driving great again!Ford changed the nature of car audio in the 70s.  sound was made possible by collaborating with popular record labels. A sound stage was built to replicate a car interior while engineers re-mixed master tracks to offer an experience unlike any other. This could easily be done today given the amount of digital processing power in every new car.Sometimes, having a powerful car is a detriment. Before every automatic transmission had shift paddles, many cars had the option to start in 2nd. Spinning tires are easily abated by traction control, but some of these systems will leave you stranded when they are confused. Not that I would ever do this, but it also allows loud cars to make a clandestine exit after midnight.Every automaker has offered this at some point. Navigating concrete canyons is much easier with a tighter turning radius. Early systems were hydraulic, with dedicated computers, pumps, and a hefty weight penalty. Electronic servos have allowed exotics to resurrect it for their top models, but what about the rest of us?Before 1996, a paperclip could be used to read your cars Check Engine Light. Knowing whats wrong with your car is the basis for the Right is To Repair legislation thats before the Supreme Court. The service department is the biggest moneymaker for all automakers, so they hate the idea of us fixing our cars. But back in the 80s GM had a touchscreen that had menus for audio, climate control and engine diagnostics. Even the C5 Corvette had a cheat-code to tell you whats wrong. We shouldnt be forced to buy expensive software or pay a dealer to know whats going on.Laughing, crying, and sneezing all take place in the drivers seat. Even looking at a napkin will cause it to fly out the windows, so back in 1957 Chevy offered a chrome Kleenex dispenser that swiveled between the front seats. It also hid behind the dash when not needed. Original examples go for big money, so why cant we have them?Modern climate control systems are truly amazing, but air vents are an afterthought. Here in Florida, lower body heat is the leading cause of Road Rage. Your feet dont care, they are too busy with pedals. Lower dash vents equalize the temperature inside the cockpit without reminding you to vacuum the carpet before Christmas.Coil springs cost a few dollars, but airbags are only a few more. If you have ever ridden in a car with air ride, you realize how comfortable and capable the system is. The technology has been perfected for years by tractor-trailers and the aftermarket, so why isnt it an option for everyone? Until then, Ridetech has what you need.Smoking in your car will leave you and the interior smelling like a homeless shelter. Cigarette butts are universally hated, so thats why Chevrolet used engine vacuum to solve the problem. A chromed cigarette holder sucked in burning embers and smoke, sending them into the engine. When you were done, tapping the button would suck the butt into a glass jar to be cleaned out every few months. With America finally legalizing other herbal remedies, your engine might relax when it gets these vapors. This doesnt apply to WRX fans, vaping is still not cool.Many of Thomas Edisons original lightbulbs are still burning. NASA launched Voyager 2 in 1977, and it still calls home from across 12 billion miles. Why cant we have TPMS sensors thatHell, you are lucky that they work while the car is still under warranty. Traction and stability control wont work in Cadillacs unless all 4 sensors are talking, and that only happens during leap years.Ok, I needed to get that off my chest. Tell us what options you want resurrected and stay with us for more automotive insights.
SUV

According to the Japanese automaker , one could easily blame it for todays automotive world propensity for being focused on everything crossover,, and truck-related. Well, at least the crossover guilt should be respectfully carried by the company and its decision back in 1996 to introduce the RAV4 as a seismic shift-causing model.Proud to name it todays segment leader, Toyota is now ready to celebrate in very orderly fashion the 25th North American anniversary of the compact crossover SUV. Only that a quarter of a century after introducing the groundbreaking model that went on to define a whole new type of passenger vehicle category, theres not much to speak of the celebrational 2022 RAV4 The new model year for the fifth generation is coming with a fresh coat of paint, as well as a new trim or some exterior and interior updates across all grades. Not even their marketing talk doesnt seem too enticed about it... Anyway, that new paintjob we are seeing in the gallery is called the bold new Calvary Blue. Oh, and did we mention it also comes with a black roof or almost forgot out of boredom ?!Kidding aside, the 2022 RAV4 can also be had with either a new color or fresh wheel design  depending on the chosen trim. Pricier grades like the XLE and above have a distinctive style/capability headlamp setup. Also, new LED foglamps arrive on XLE Premium, Limited, Adventure, and TRD Off-Road. The XSE Hybrid, meanwhile, gets the super sleek vertical lights from the XSE Prime.A few interior upgrades can also be found on various grades, while the lower-priced (compared to XSE) SE Hybrid trim is brand new for 2022. Unfortunately, we dont know the exact MSRP just yet, as Toyota is withholding that and additional information until mid-December.
Azerbaijan gained control over the 21-kilometer section last December following an Armenian troop withdrawal from contested areas along Armenias Syunik province which was controversially ordered by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

Pashinians government on Thursday banned Armenian vehicles from driving along it, saying that Azerbaijani authorities have introduced passport and customs checks for them. It said they should use a newly reconstructed alternative road bypassing the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Iranian truck drivers interviewed by RFE/RLs Armenian Service complained that the road is too narrow and tortuous for their heavy vehicles and prolongs their travel time in Syunik. They said they have to use it in order to avoid paying Azerbaijani customs officials $130 per trip.

Big trucks dont get any help [from Armenian authorities] on this road in case of having problems, said one of the drivers.

An RFE/RL crew witnessed several trucks that visibly had trouble moving along the new road connecting Syuniks two largest towns, Kapan and Goris. One of them nearly flipped over.

In Yerevan, Ruben Rubinian, a deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament and senior member of Pashinians Civil Contract party, admitted that the Azerbaijani border controls have caused some difficulties for Syunik residents and other travellers. But he insisted that the alternative road is passable for all types of vehicles.

Rubinian also said that none of the three Armenian villages close to the Azerbaijani-controlled section of the old Goris-Kapan road has been cut off from the rest of the country.

The villages are currently connected with other parts of Syunik through dirt roads. The government has pledged to quickly refurbish and pave them. In the meantime, the village chiefs say that their communities can only be accessed by off-road vehicles.

Reaching one of those villages, Bardzravan, proved quite problematic. Local residents said they have been effectively deprived of transport links.

My husband is sick in bed, complained one woman. We cant find a car to transport him [to hospital.]

As soon as it starts snowing here well be completely cut off, said another villager. Everything is a big problem in this village. We are in deadlock.

Armenian border guards deployed in the area did not allow RFE/RL journalists to visit the two other isolated villages, Vorotan and Shurnukh, saying that they must obtain permission from the National Security Service.

Echoing Pashinians statements, Rubinian asserted that Baku imposed the border checks because of Yerevans refusal to agree to a special transport corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via the portion of Syunik bordering Iran. The Azerbaijani side could only transport goods through Armenian territory under transit procedures adopted worldwide, he said.

All roads passing through Armenia and Azerbaijan must be  under the full control of Armenia and Azerbaijan respectively, Rubinian told RFE/RLs Armenian Service

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again claimed on Friday, however, that Baku will secure a permanent transport corridor for Nakhichevan. He said it will unite all Turkic states and connect them to Europe.
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Evening clouds will give way to clearing overnight. Low 42F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Evening clouds will give way to clearing overnight. Low 42F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.
The suspected driver of a getaway vehicle following the shooting death of a 3-year-old has died while in custody in Kern County.
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @idesai98 on Twitter.
Bluefield, WV (24701)

Today

Chance of a shower or two during the morning, followed by partly cloudy skies in the afternoon. High 41F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 21F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
Going into overtime, negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow are still trying to find common ground on phasing out coal, when nations need to update their emission-cutting pledges and, especially, on money
ExxonMobil and the United Steelworkers Union on Thursday fired off their final salvos of messaging ahead of ballots being delivered to around 600 Beaumont workers determining the future of union representation.

The National Labor Relations Bureau expected mail-in ballots to start being delivered to the homes of locked out workers on Nov. 12, giving them until Dec. 22 to return their ballots to the regional office.

After a petition was filed by a coalition of represented employees, workers are being asked to decide whether or not to end representation by the USW at the Beaumont complex, which the company said would trigger an end to the now more than six-month-long lockout.

Both sides have been sending blasts of information to workers since the election filing officially was announced in October, but those efforts have doubled since full-union members voted down the companys contract proposal last month.

ExxonMobil has published almost daily updates concerning certification since the beginning of November.

In a statement provided to The Enterprise, ExxonMobil strongly encouraged employees to be informed about the decertification when voting.

While federal law prohibits us from making promises about pay or benefits, we can commit that we will not reduce current wages or benefits should employees choose to decertify, the company said. We also encourage our employees to consider the benefits enjoyed by our employees at our non-represented sites, including higher pay, more money in pensions, and improved benefits such as paid parental leave - all without union dues and union risks. This is not a promise, but it shows that we treat our non-represented employees well.

The USW spent the days leading up to ballot delivery preparing messages and sending letters to workers, which will be essential since the NLRB condemns any stump speeches and certain campaigning tactics before an election starts.

USW District 13 Staff Representative Bryan Gross said the union is putting in work to make sure workers have enough information to vote but are referring any questions about the election to the NLRB office or to its official election filing.

In Thursdays final communique, the untion accused ExxonMobil of spreading lies in an effort to further their decertification campaign instead of meeting at the table to get a deal done.

The memo notes that USW hasnt cost employees any money in lost wages, most employees kept their same insurance at no additional cost and employees were eligible for about $16,000 in unemployments to date. Through community and union support, its kept a pantry stocked and alloed members to get about $50 to $100 groceries each week, paid members bills and given out hundreds of dollars in gift cards for gas, groceries and other needs from members.

The facts are simple, for the past six months, ExxonMobil has provided nothing to their locked-out employees but stress, anxiety and continued hardship, the letter said before calling on ExxonMobil to end the lockout and put employees back to work.

Even after voting ends in December, an answer about what comes next likely wont arrive until after the first of the year.

The USW has been waiting for answers about whether the NLRB will make judgments on some of the charges levied against the company since the lockout began in May, some of which accuse the company of influencing and enabling the decertification movement.

The NLRB has already indicated in its election notice that it would either count the elections on Dec. 29, or impound the votes if there are still charges about the legitimacy of the decertification movement that have to be answered.

As the election heats up, negotiation meetings have started to slow down at the bargaining table.

Gross said the local unions bargaining committee and the companys representatives havent officially met for a session since the last week of October, but have had some unofficial conversations.

Both parties met for back-to-back meetings leading up to Nov. 1, when the company promised to remove provisions from its revised contract proposal.

The union pushed forward at these meetings with new contract proposals and a return to work agreement, but ExxonMobil stuck with the contract its been calling its last and best offer since September.

We still have the return to work agreement on the table, but the company said it wont respond at this time, Gross said.

jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/jd_journalism
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP)  Barack Obama expressed confidence at U.N. climate talks Monday that the Biden administration will ultimately get its $555 billion climate package through Congress, and faulted U.S. rivals China and Russia for what he called a dangerous lack of urgency in cutting their own climate-wrecking emissions.

As nations complained of lagging trust and progress in the climate talks, Obama, one of the leaders who paved the way for the historic 2015 Paris climate deal, threw in a touch of his trademark hope but admitted that images of dystopia were creeping into his dreams.

There are times where the future seems somewhat bleak. There are times where I am doubtful that humanity can get its act together before its too late, Obama said at the two-week-long negotiations. (But) we cant afford hopelessness.

His comments came as conference leaders acknowledged Monday that many key sticking points exist after a week of talks. A trust gap between rich and poor nations has once again emerged and developing countries used the word disappointing when leaders talked Monday about the progress to date in the talks.

The U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, is the former American president's first since he helped deliver the triumph of the 2015 Paris climate accord, when nations committed to cutting fossil fuel and agricultural emissions fast enough to keep the Earth's warming below catastrophic levels of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

That celebration has been replaced by worry. Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris accord. And while President Joe Biden put America back in the climate deal the Trump move set back U.S. efforts. Other top polluters  including China, India and Russia  are moving far more slowly on fighting climate change than scientists say is needed.

1.5 C is on life support now, its in ICU, said Alden Meyer of E3G, an environmental think tank.

Obama's appearance sought to remind governments of the elation that surrounded the Paris accord and urge them to announce more immediate, concrete steps to put the 2015 deal into action. Optimism and unity is required to save the planet, he said.

It doesnt matter if youre a Republican or a Democrat if your Florida house is flooded by rising seas, or your crops fail in the Dakotas, or your California house is burning. Nature, physics, science  they dont care about party affiliation, Obama said. We need everybody  even if we disagree on other things.

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate wrote Monday on Twitter that she was 13 when Obama was part of rich nations who promised $100 billion a year to poor countries to help them fight global warming, but said those nations broke the promise. Nakate told The Associated Press that she wasn't attacking the former president but that is me speaking the truth.

This money was promised, but it hasnt been delivered," she said, adding that the $100 billion a year was the bare minimum for climate finance.

Despite opposition within Biden's own Democratic party that has blocked the president's climate-fighting legislation, Obama was confident that some version of Biden's ambitious climate bill will pass and be historic.

It will set the United States on course to meet its new climate targets, he said.

And while the rapport between U.S. and Chinese negotiators paved the way to the Paris accord, Obama on Monday criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin for not joining other leaders at the climate talks in Glasgow.

It was particularly discouraging to see the leaders of two of the worlds largest emitters, China and Russia, decline to even attend the proceedings, and their national plans reflect what appears to be a dangerous lack of urgency, Obama said.

Obama spoke earlier Monday to a session on Pacific Island nations, including ones whose existence is threatened by rising oceans.

All of us have a part to play. All of us have work to do. All of us have sacrifices to make" on climate, he said. But those of us who live in wealthy nations, those of us who helped to precipitate the problem ... we have an added burden.

No deals have been made yet on three main goals of the U.N. conference. Those are pledges to cut emissions in half by 2030 to keep the Paris climate deals 1.5 degree Celsius temperature limit goal alive; the need for $100 billion annually in financial help from rich countries to poor ones; and the idea that half of that money goes to adapting to global warmings worst effects. Several other issues, including trading carbon and the transparency of national emissions commitments, also werent solved yet.

Representatives of 77 developing nations, along with China, said until this climate conference produces financing to help poor nations the talks can't be considered successful.

There is a history of broken promises and unfulfilled commitments by developed countries, said Diego Pacheco Balanza of Bolivia.

Scientists say the Earth is only a few years away from the point where it becomes impossible to meet the goals set in the Paris accord, due to mounting damage from coal, petroleum, agriculture and other pollution sources. The last few days have seen huge protests in Glasgow and around Europe by young people and others demanding faster action from nations in fighting global warming.

Obama met later Monday with a dozen climate activists, many in their 20s, and urged them to keep up the public pressure despite any frustrations they may feel at governments' inaction.

The question is, where are the countries that really met our expectations? And it turns out, those are the places where there was pressure, where there was political mobilization, where there were activists, a shirtsleeves-clad Obama said.

___

Associated Press reporter Frank Jordans contributed to this report.

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.
Courtesy, United Airlines

United Airlines will stop flying to 11 small-sized cities around the United States indefinitely as the airline industry continues to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Business Insider first reported on the changes to Uniteds regional routes. Per the outlet, here are the 11 cities that the company will no longer serve:
Back in 2010, Us Weekly published a cover story that would eventually become a part of pop culture history. "Jake & Taylor IN LOVE!" the headline screamed, splashed across a photo of country-pop star Taylor Swift with one arm wrapped around actor Jake Gyllenhaal's shoulder as he gripped her hand. It was a perfect fall day in Brooklyn on Thanksgiving. Swift was wearing a striped scarf and holding a maple latte (these facts will be important later), while Gyllenhaal was bundled up in a puffer jacket. They were both beaming, either pretending to ignore or blatantly showing off for the paparazzi cameras nearby, and really did look IN LOVE.

At the time, 20-year-old Swift and 29-year-old Gyllenhaal had been reportedly dating for about six weeks. By the end of the year, the relationship would be over. But instead of becoming a short-lived celebrity relationship lost to time, it would inspire an album that eventually sold more than 7 million copies. And possibly more importantly for Swift's fiercely loyal fan base, the split led to a wrenching breakup ballad that is deeply meaningful to her listeners and was recently named by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest songs of all time.

The album was "Red," released in 2012, and the song was "All Too Well" - a track that, even as Swift transformed into a pop megastar, is still widely considered the best song she has ever written in her 15-year career.

Now, "All Too Well" is back in the spotlight in the most unusual way. After a contentious dispute with her former Nashville record label over the lucrative master recordings of her first six albums, Swift announced in 2019 that she would rerecord each album so she would fully own them. On Friday, Swift officially dropped the new "Red (Taylor's Version)." The fifth track was still "All Too Well" - but in a twist, the final tune was "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)," with previously unreleased lyrics that fans have been obsessing over for years.

To understand why the 10-minute version has become such a frenzied topic in Taylor Swift lore, you must understand the nature of the Taylor Swift fan. As you may know, Swift became famous for sharing real stories of her personal life and relationships in her songs. Even as she always coyly declined to name names, she dropped clues in the liner notes, which would send fans (and tabloids) into a tailspin to decode them. She also started her career in country music, a genre where even the biggest stars are expected to treat fans like friends, so her relatability to listeners remains on a higher level than most superstars.

Part of the reason "All Too Well" stood out, along with its razor-sharp lyrics (The most-quoted: "You call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest"), is that it was packed with specific details as the devastated narrator reflected on the happiest memories of a failed relationship. Swift, naturally, didn't reveal the identity of her paramour - but she did everything except include Gyllenhaal's photo in the liner notes, as the song's clue was "MAPLE LATTE." You might remember that was the beverage the couple was carrying through Brooklyn on their photographed Thanksgiving walk.

Over the last decade, as the song became a classic in the Swift catalogue, fans have taken great pleasure in lightly tormenting Gyllenhaal, whom Swift expertly roasted throughout multiple songs on the album. The actor, who does not like to be asked about Swift, once made the mistake of posting a childhood photo of himself on Instagram, and fans flooded the comments with the "All Too Well" line, "You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin-sized bed." The picture is now deleted.

Another trope became "the scarf," thanks to the lyric, "I left my scarf there at your sister's house, and you've still got it in your drawer, even now." The aforementioned Thanksgiving took place with Gyllenhaal's sister, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, who was in some of the paparazzi photos - and Jake has since been spotted with a scarf that looks awfully similar to the one Swift was wearing that day. (Maggie professed ignorance when this topic came up a few years ago on Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live," though said "everyone asks" her about it.)

Then, as if the song needed even more hype, Swift and her co-writer, legendary Nashville writer Liz Rose, eventually confirmed that an extended version existed. In a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums podcast ("Red" ranked No. 99), Swift said she came up with the lyrics for "All Too Well" during rehearsals with her band on a day when she felt like "a broken human." She kept writing, and before she knew it the song was 10 minutes long. So she called Rose for some editing.

"Taylor said, 'Hey, I've got this song that I've written and it's this really long idea and I could really use some help to fix it. Do you think you could do that this afternoon?'" Rose told The Washington Post in a 2016 interview. Rose, battling a sinus infection and in the middle of a move, knew that no one declines a songwriting session with Swift. So she said "Sure!," grabbed some tissues, tossed her keys to the movers, and headed out.

Swift never intended to release the unedited version, but the clamoring from fans was too much to resist. "This will be the first time you hear all 30 songs that were meant to go on Red," she wrote in a social media post in August, casually adding, "And hey, one of them is even ten minutes long." Later, she announced that it would be accompanied by a short film.

Obviously, the Swift fandom lost its mind. Fans have turned a clip of the ballad into a meme on TikTok, showing how they're preparing for the emotional experience of hearing the sure-to-be devastating updated lyrics: Some record themselves searching for the perfect corner of their home where they can have a full-on breakdown, while others just lie on the ground in the rain.

For what it's worth, Gyllenhaal may want to stay off the Internet this weekend; the extended lyrics continue to paint him in an unflattering light. Swift brings up the incident where Gyllenhaal skips her 21st birthday - an offense detailed in another "Red" track, "The Moment I Knew" - and recalls him trying to impress her father by telling "self-effacing jokes, sipping coffee like you were on a late-night show."

"You said if we had been closer in age, maybe it would have been fine, and that made me want to die," Swift sings, further twisting the knife with, "I was never good at telling jokes, but the punchline goes, 'I'll get older, but your lovers stay my age.'" (Gyllenhaal, now 40, is dating 25-year-old model Jeanne Cadieu.)

Perhaps the most surprising fact of the impact of "All Too Well" was that it was just an album track. Swift said as much during the Rolling Stone podcast, adding that she didn't expect the song to take on a life of its own, primarily because it wasn't a radio single and didn't have a music video. She was shocked when fans started constantly requesting it.

"I truly can't believe it now when I play it live and everybody in the crowd knows every word," Swift said. "That's one of the most beautiful things about this album for me when I look back on it: Like, wow, I really didn't pick that one. I thought it was too dark, too sad, too intense . . . so it's fun when things surprise you like that."
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife staff are gearing up for another busy fall and winter with a long line of hunting seasons just around the corner.

As chronic wasting disease (CWD) sampling goes, this year could turn out to be the busiest and most costly ever as the state agency continues its war against a silent deer killer that continues to creep across the landscape.

CWD is a fatal neurological disease found in deer, elk, moose and other members of the deer family. Scientists believe it can be spread through animal to animal contact, release of bodily fluids and through contact with carcasses of infected animals.

The disease is slow to incubate. Infected animals may not show visible signs for several years. Advanced stage symptoms arent pretty.

Sickly animals may exhibit changes in behavior and appearance like emaciation, excessive salivation, lack of muscle coordination, difficulty in swallowing, excessive thirst and excessive urination.

CWD was first detected in the U.S. in 1967 in captive mule deer in Colorado. It has since been identified in 26 states and three Canadian provinces.

In 2012, the first Texas cases were documented in free-ranging mule near the Texas/New Mexico border. Roughly nine years later, the disease has been documented in 261 Texas deer in 14 different counties.

According to TPWD reports, 168 of those positives are linked to captive deer breeding facilities, 25 from release sites associated with those positive captive breeding facilities, and 68 in free-ranging deer populations.

TPWD says 57 of the free-range positives are in the Trans Pecos and Panhandle, with the remaining 11 in Medina and Val Verde counties. The movement of live deer is readily accepted as the greatest risk of spreading CWD.

With no vaccine or other known control method for CWD, wildlife officials across the country are faced with the tedious task of containing the spread of a disease that many fear could eventually threaten wild and captive deer herds, plus the wide range of economic cash cows they feed.

Here in Texas, home to nations largest wild white-tailed deer herd of 5.4 million animals and close to 700,000 hunters, deer hunting is believed to generate about $2.2 billion states economy, according to Alan Cain, TPWDs white-tailed deer program leader.

Without it, deer hunting hotbeds found throughout the Hill Country, South Texas and beyond would be sure to feel the pinch. In Llano, widely known as the Deer Capital of Texas, deer hunting is believed to generate millions of dollars annually for a town of about 3,500 people.

Though not as valuable as the states wild herd, deer breeding is a lucrative industry in Texas, as well. Statewide, Cain said there are 873 permitted deer breeders with about 74,000 animals under permit by TPWD.

Containing the Spread

TPWD has been diligent in its efforts to monitor and contain CWD from the get-go. In 2012, the agency created the first CWD Zone requiring mandatory testing of all hunter harvested animals within a specific area. The decision came after testing of more than two dozen free ranging mule deer in far West Texas turned up a pair of positive CWD cases.

Testing on dead deer involves the removal of lymph nodes and/or brain tissue. Positive tests occur when CWD prion proteins are detected in those tissues.

Dozens of CWD positive deer have since shown up in other areas of the state. Likewise, the number CWD Zones in which mandatory testing of hunter harvested deer within those zones has steadily grown.

To date, there are seven CWD Zones around the state that encompass all or parts of 26 Texas counties, Cain said. Deer harvested within the zones must be sampled at designated CWD check-in facilities. The tissues are subsequently submitted for lab testing.

CWD lands in East Texas

Two new CWD Zones were added to the list in March, including one in Lubbock County and one in Hunt County. The Hunt County CWD Zone is the first for East Texas.

Cain said the Hunt County mandate was issued after five deer at a breeder facility near Quinlan tested positive for CWD. The zone includes portions of Hunt, Kaufman, Van Zandt and Rockwall counties.

TPWD will operate two check-in stations within the Hunt Co. CWD Zone, including a manned check station at 3381 State Highway 276 near Quinlan and a self-serve station at Gormans Meat Market at 1738 N. Frances St. in Terrell.

Cain said hunters using any self-serve check station should remove the head from the carcass and leave about 2-3 inches of the neck attached. Written instructions and receipts for proof of drop off are available on-site.

Hunters who harvest deer inside any CWD Zone are prohibited from transporting whole carcasses, or parts that contain spinal cord, eyes, spleen or lymph nodes, outside CWD zones or from another state or country where the disease exists.

Deer heads being transported to a taxidermist outside a CWD zone must be accompanied by a deer head waiver obtained at a CWD check station or from the departments CWD website.

Proposed Rule Changes

TPWDs efforts to slow the spread of the disease and to learn more about its distribution extend well beyond CWD Zones and check-in stations. In a September TPW Commission meeting, wildlife staff made several proposals aimed at tightening the noose on already restrictive deer movement rules and expensive live testing requirements that apply to the hundreds of deer breeding operations across the state.

Rule changes also were recommended for proof of sex requirements on deer and deer management permits. The proposals can be viewed at tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/public_comment/proposals/202111_proof.phtml. Public comments can be made through Nov. 3.

There also has been discussion among the TPW Commission about increasing CWD sampling of deer killed on properties operating under TPWDs Managed Lands Deer Program.

A Costly Venture

If it sounds like CWD is a challenge for scientists to deal with, thats because it is. It is also a super expensive battle to fight, one that is costing TPWD hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

To wit:

According to Cain, the agency sampled and tested about 13,154 animals statewide during the 2020-21 collection year. Thats well over the statewide sampling goal of 7,400 targeted annually under the current framework of TPWDs Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan.

The tally included 12,256 white-tailed deer, 715 mule deer, 152 exotics and 31 elk obtained for sampling through hunter harvest, road kills, locker plants and other means such as sick deer, poached deer or deer collected for training and research.

Each test cost the department $25. That alone is a $328,850 expense that doesnt take into account staff salaries, equipment, freezers, fuel, check station facility rentals, signage, check station set-ups and other various expenses.

Cain said average cost of setting up a new check station is about $30,000. Existing check stations dont cost as much because initial equipment purchases, signage, etc can be used from one year to the next. However, it still takes a couple of biologists 2-3 weeks to ready a site for operation, which naturally pulls the away from other duties.

Additionally, manned check stations typically require at last 3-4 workers to function properly.

TPWDs wildlife division doesnt have the manpower to staff all of those positions. Likewise, the agency hires 25-30 seasonal workers each fall and divides them among the 10-12 manned check stations across the state. Most of the check stations are in operation for about five months.

The stations are in operation 10-12 hours per day, seven days per week depending on location. All manned check stations are closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

The temporary positions pay about $16 per hour with a 40 hour work week. Cain said seasonal workers are often provided with lodging, which adds to the expense of fighting a battle that may never be won.

Dealing with CWD takes an enormous amount of time and it is pushing our manpower past its limits  has been for a while now  Cain said. It wouldnt be that big of a deal if it could be spread out over the year, but since it is related to deer hunting and hunter harvested deer, weve got CWD sampling going on at the same time were conducting regulatory deer surveys, dealing with the MLD cooperators, doing spotlight counts, public hunts, etc. We have to meet all those goals. We manage to get it done, but it definitely creates a burden at times.

Call for Help

Unfortunately, its a problem not likely to go away anytime soon. According to Cain, volunteer hunter participation could go a long way towards helping prevent CWD from getting out of hand on the Texas landscape.

The biologist is encouraging hunters who shoot deer outside CWD Zones to voluntarily turn over samples for testing. Just contact an area wildlife biologist and make arrangements for the transfer. Testing wont cost you anything.

Additionally, Cain recommends that hunters bury or properly dispose of deer carcasses in order prevent inadvertently spreading the disease. Dont toss carcasses in the open woods or along roadways.

We need to contain CWD where it is, Cain said. To do that we need hunters and landowners to step to the plate and help. The department cant shoulder the burden on its own. We need hunters to give us CWD samples. The more samples and better distribution we can get the more confidence we can have knowing where the disease is and hopefully keep it that way.
Currently Reading

Alert: Sudan TV: Top general reappoints himself head of army-run interim governing body, tightening grip 2 weeks after coup
This is a commentary.



Since teasing a potential run for Texas governor earlier this year, Matthew McConaughey has remained a popular choice, despite not being an actual candidate. And it's easy to see why. The Academy Award winner is handsome and disarming, with a tendency to slip in and out of his native Texas drawl. He has a supermodel wife and beautiful children and lives with his mom. He owns many themed suits, which he often wears while cheering Austin sports teams. He also just seems fun, like the kind of guy who drives an F-350 and enjoys the occasional toke-and-bongo session.

But more than anything, McConaughey remains a popular choice because he has stayed mum on nearly every contentious issue in modern politics. Does he support abortion rights? Is he a pro police reform? Does he want a border wall? Despite fielding dozens of questions from journalists in recent months, he's dodged nearly every single one, making it unclear where he stands on almost anything. Though this middle-of-the-road stance can be infuriating to those who wish he'd just pick a side already, it's a brand of politics that is increasingly resonating with voters from Richmond, Virginia, to Victoria, Texas.

During a November 9 appearance at the New York Times DealBook Summit, the Austin-based actor admitted that his neutrality might actually be the reason he's so popular. Then he did something interesting: he shared his thoughts on mandating vaccines for children.

After noting that he, his wife, and 90-year-old mother are vaccinated, (the Times is reporting his oldest child is also vaccinated), McConaughey said, "[The CDC] just said we could vaccinate kids. I want to trust in the science. Do I think there's any kind of scam or conspiracy theory? Hell no I don't. We all gotta get off that narrative," he said, later adding, "It's scary. Right now, I'm not vaccinating mine."

Naturally, because everything McConaughey does right now makes headlines, the press was quick to take the sound bite and run with it. CNN pitted the actor against the U.S. Surgeon General, declaring that "COVID isn't harmless to children!" (McConaughey didn't say that it was.) The Hill reported that McConaughey "came out" against vaccine mandates. (He said he needed more information.) Of all the screaming headlines, it was People and Fox News that seemed the most measured in their coverage, which is as upsetting of a sentence to write as it is to read.

Throughout his interview, McConaughey seemingly contradicts himself, noting that masks should have "been a quick and easy mandate" early in the pandemic. (Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a mask mandate in July 2020, which he then lifted in March 2021, before later barring school districts from mandating them for students. Abbott continues to battle any district that make it a mandate.)

"It's a mask. It's not the vaccine, it's a mask," he said. "It's a small inconvenience for a possible long-term freedom."

While McConaughey's positions might seem like political contradictions, that's only because we have assigned them as such. Later on, when reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin asks him to comment on Ted Cruz's recent beef with Big Bird over vaccines, McConaughey takes off his glasses, closes his eyes, rubs his forehead, and groans. He looks, albeit briefly, stressed and frustrated, as if to remind us that he's in this with us, too. (That being said, he is an Oscar-winning actor.)

"Why don't you want your kids to be vaccinated?" Sorkin asks. McConaughey waits what they call in the movie biz "a beat" before answering.

"We go slow on vaccinations anyway, even before COVID. Now mind you, we've quarantined harder than our friends have, and still are two years [sic] later." McConaughey also says that the family tests frequently, usually using at-home kits, and still does many activities outdoors, though he's quick to concede that commanding tens of millions of dollars per movie affords him the privilege to do so.

"I'm in a position though where I can do that. And I understand not everyone can do that. I couldn't mandate having to vaccinate the younger kids. I still want to find out more information, but I couldn't mandate it for kids just yet."

If we read beyond the click-bait, McConaughey's DealBook interview actually gives us more insight into the actor's brand of politics than ever before. As the culture wars rage on, there's a faction of Americans who don't seem comfortable picking just one side. Perhaps McConaughey realizes that the same voters who elected a moderate Republican to Virginia's statehouse last week (the first member of the GOP governor in 12 years) might exist in Texas. That in spite of what everyone seems to think, Texans don't want abortion bans but they do want border security, that they want mandatory masks but don't want vaccine mandates, that not everything is black and white, or in this case, red and blue.

Perhaps the naked bongo guy is onto something. Only time (and 2022) will tell.
Dr. Jaime Taylor was officially made the 16th president of Lamar University during a formal investiture ceremony Thursday at the Montagne Center.

He was surrounded by Board of Regents members, past president Jimmy Simmons, Speaker of the House Dade Phelan and other officials. Bishop David Toups, who offered the final blessing, joked, "As a Roman Catholic Bishop, it would be presumptuous of me to call myself a Cardinal at heart," before joining the crowd in hoisting an "L" as the school song played.

Taylor addressed the crowd after being fitted with his signature president's robe, medallion and presented with the mace.

He noted the strengths he's seen in his short time as acting president - a role he assumed after being appointed in July to replace outgoing president Ken Evans. Lamar's community engagement, its growth in diversity and accessibility to students of color and the spirit of inclusivity he sees among the student body are a strong foundation upon which he intends to build.

"No one president can set the vision for an institution," Taylor said, adding, "but a president can help an institution find focus and create the opportunities that might otherwise seem impossible."

"We will find our future together if we consistently do our best to serve our students," Taylor said.

A community celebration followed the ceremony on the campus quad outside the Setzer Center.

kbrent@beaumontenterprise.com
Gov. Greg Abbott made the right call in announcing the formation of the Texas Task Force on Concert Safety in the wake of the tragedy at Astroworld Festival in Houston that left eight concertgoers dead and hundreds of others injured. Events like this are usually associated with big cities like Houston or Dallas, but something like this could happen in Beaumont or Port Arthur too.

These cities also have concerts or festivals that draw thousands of people in front of a stage at one time in a fairly small area. With the right combination of several factors, a surge toward the front could produce the same kinds of dangers.
Indonesian activists from a womens anti-violence movement hold a banner reading freedom is free from sexual violence, during a protest against sexual harassment and violence and gender-based violence on campuses, in Jakarta. Feb. 10, 2020.

Indonesia is facing a pandemic of sexual violence at higher learning institutions, the education minister said Friday, as he defended his ministry from criticism by religious conservatives who oppose part of a new decree designed to stop such offenses.

Some conservative groups in the Islamic-majority country view the ministerial decree as allowing or encouraging pre-marital sex, but Education Minister Nadiem Makarim says it is needed to shield women because of a lack of regulations that has worsened sexual violence on campuses.

It can be said that the situation is critical. We are not only experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, but also a sexual violence pandemic, Nadiem said at an online discussion.

What were seeing is an iceberg phenomenon. If we scratch further, we can see that sexual violence is rampant on campuses.

Nadiem said an education ministry poll of university lecturers last year showed that 77 percent of them acknowledged that sexual violence occurred on campus. Only a third of women who experienced sexual violence reported the offenses, he added.

In a bid to tackle the scourge of sexual violence, the education ministry in August issued the decree, which widened the definition of sexual violence to include verbal and non-physical attacks, as well as those committed via the internet.

According to the decree, forms of sexual violence include touching, rubbing, hugging, kissing or rubbing ones body on the victim without the victims consent and undressing the victim without the victims consent.

Muhammadiyah, the countrys second largest Islamic organization, urged the ministry to revise the decree, arguing its provisions mean that acts which are forbidden by religion are allowed if there is consent.

The implication is that as long as there is no coercion, sinful acts are allowed and justified, even though they are done outside of marriage, the group said in a statement released this week.

According to Muhammadiyah, sanctions imposed on colleges where cases of sexual violence take place, including withdrawing funding and lowering their accreditation status, are excessive.

The Indonesian Ulema Council, a semi-official authority on Islam in the country, also opposes the decree and demands the ministry revoke or revise it, said one of its deputy chairmen, Cholil Nafis.

Sexual acts must be based on mutual consent, yes, but they also must take place within religiously-sanctioned marriage, Cholil said on Twitter.

The decree is problematic because the victims consent is the [only] consideration, Cholil said.

Indonesia is the worlds largest Muslim-majority country, but its government is officially secular.

Victim-blaming

Meanwhile, Nizar Ali, secretary general of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, defended the new decree on sexual violence, saying its rules are intended to protect victims.

Theres nothing in it that approves of pre-marital sex. Nothing at all. Thats a big misconception, the state-run Antara news agency quoted Nizar as saying. The ministry administers government-run Islamic universities and those of other religions.

For Amiruddin, deputy chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM), the decree is timely given recent cases of sexual violence on campuses.

Komnas HAM supports its implementation to prevent sexual violence and be the basis for taking legal action against the perpetrators, Amiruddin, who goes by a single name, told BenarNews.

The decree is also needed because many women are discouraged from reporting sexual violence and are often told they are to blame, said Andy Yentriyani, who chairs the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan).

Victim-blaming  is the biggest obstacle, she told the online discussion attended by Nadiem.

Because of that, Komnas Perempuan appreciates the measures taken by the Ministry of Education and Culture, she said.

The Setara Institute, an NGO that monitors cases of intolerance and human rights violations, called for an information campaign to counter misrepresentation of the decree by conservative religious groups.

The government must also conduct a more extensive dialogue with religious organizations to discuss the substance of the decree, which is to protect women and victims of sexual violence in universities, the institute said in a statement.
An activist holds a placard to protest the impending execution of Nagaentharan K. Dharmalingam, a Malaysian man sentenced to death by a Singapore court for trafficking heroin, in Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 3, 2021.

Updated at 11:25 a.m. ET on 2021-11-13

The video of the mother of nine wailing heartrendingly and begging for mercy after a Malaysian court condemned her to the gallows gained worldwide attention and ignited a debate on ending capital punishment in the country.

The impending execution in neighboring Singapore of another Malaysian  a man said to be intellectually disabled  has similarly drawn international condemnation and appeals for his sentence to be revoked.

With Malaysians now having to confront the horror of capital punishment through these two cases, the issue can be discussed in a more humane and rational manner, said Dobby Chew, executive coordinator at the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network.

I think the recent case of a single mother of nine being sentenced to death, and now the [pending] execution of an intellectually disabled person in Singapore has help set a more positive stage to discuss the death penalty, Chew told BenarNew

Previously people did not see the ugly part of the death penalty, now its front and center.

Hairun Jalmani, the 55-year-old mother of nine, was sentenced to death by a court in the state of Sabah last month, after being convicted for possessing and distributing 4 ounces of methamphetamine in 2018.

Nagaentharan K. Dharmalingam, 33, was sentenced to death in Singapore in 2010 for smuggling in 1.5 ounces of heroin. His execution, which was scheduled for this week, was postponed after he contracted COVID-19.

While Nagaentharans chances of not being hanged appear slim, Hairun in Malaysia has the relative advantage of a moratorium on executions since 2018.

At that time, the progressive Pakatan Harapan government said it would begin efforts to end the death penalty, calling it the right thing to do for a new Malaysia.

The government, however, backtracked on its decision. In 2019, Pakatan announced it would retain the death penalty but not as a mandatory punishment, giving judges the power to decide what type of punishment to mete out based on their due diligence.

Two years before that, the Dangerous Drug Act 1952 was amended, lawyer and former prosecutor Samantha Chong told BenarNews.

Under the amendment, if a case met certain conditions, such as no evidence of buying and selling drugs, the court could only sentence a convict to life in prison, and whipping of not less than fifteen strokes if such conditions are satisfied, Chong said.

Despite that amendment to the countrys 69-year-old drug law and the ongoing moratorium on executions, Malaysian courts continue to sentence people to death as there is no other recourse under the law.

UMNO lawmaker calls for repealing death penalty

According to statistics from 2019  the latest that are publicly available  1,281 people are languishing in 26 detention facilities across the country awaiting their hanging, the execution method used in Malaysia.

Amnesty International, which conducted a study in 2019 on why Malaysia must abolish the death penalty, reported that most of the people on death row had been sentenced for drug-related offenses.

Of the total, 73 percent have been convicted of drug trafficking. This figure rises to a staggering 95 percent in the cases of women, Amnesty said in its study.

[L]imited available information indicates that a large proportion of those on death row are people with less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

As Amnesty said on Oct. 18, three days after Hairuns sentencing, her life chances were stacked against her.

She was a single mother in Malaysias poorest state trying to support 9 children. Her case is an example of how Malaysias death penalty punishes the poor with particular discriminations against women, the human rights watchdog said.

Women who have been subjected to violence, abuse, and exploitation have little to no chance to get these factors taken into account at sentencing, Amnesty added

Current drug policies have failed to address the underlying socio-economic factors that increase the risks that lead people to use and sell drugs, including ill-health, denial of education, unemployment, lack of housing, poverty and discrimination, Amnesty said.

BenarNews contacted Law Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafars office for comment, but his media representatives said a statement would be shared when he was ready to speak about it.

Chew, of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, is optimistic about the eventual abolition of capital punishment in Malaysia, starting with ending death sentences for drug offenses.

We do have staunch abolitionist advocates from the two main political factions in the country, he said.

Only this week, Nazri Abdul Aziz, a senior member of the ruling United Malays National Organization, urged the government to abolish the death penalty for narcotics-related offenses, saying the punishment was usually meted out regular people and not drug lords.

We are in the position to repeal the death sentence, Nazri told parliament.

We have the power to sit down and stop this.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report contained an incorrect attribution.
The Type 003, Chinas third aircraft carrier, is seen under construction in a satellite image at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, China, Oct. 23, 2021.

The construction of Chinas third aircraft carrier is making steady progress and the carrier, known as Type 003, may be launched as soon as February next year, a U.S. think tank said.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington D.C., said in a new report that commercial satellite imagery of Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai shows that the installation of the vessels main external components is nearing completion.

The visual appearance of the carrier has gone through a significant shift in the last few weeks, CSIS researchers said, adding that according to their analysis, the initial installation of major internal components has been completed.

China already has two aircraft carriers in operation, named Liaoning and Shandong.

Its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was bought from Ukraine in 1998, updated and commissioned in 2012. The Shandong was domestically constructed and put into operation in 2019.

Compared to those two, the Type 003 has some new important components, including catapult systems, used for launching aircraft from the ship. This, noted the report, is a major leap forward for the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) as the Liaoning and the Shandong rely on less advanced ski jump-style take-off systems.

The reports authors estimated that the Type 003 would launch in roughly three to six months, but the developers still have to address several technical challenges.

Even after launch, it will still be years before the Type 003 is commissioned into the PLAN and achieves initial operating capability, the report said.

China already has the biggest naval fleet in the world, according to the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence. But the U.S. has by far the largest number of aircraft carriers globally - 11 compared to Chinas two.

And U.S. naval vessels are generally technically superior. For example, while all U.S. aircraft carriers are nuclear-powered, Chinese carriers, including the Type 003, are believed to run on conventional steam propulsion.

Taiwans Ministry of National Defense, which is watching Chinas military developments closely, said in a report published earlier this year that the Type 003 would enable the PLA Navy to project power past the first island chain.

The first island chain, conceptualized during the Cold War, commonly refers to the major archipelagos that lie off the East Asian mainland coast. The chain stretches from the Kamchatka Peninsula in the northeast to the Malay Peninsula in the southwest and includes the territory of U.S. allies Taiwan and the Philippines.
Lt. Gen. Andres Centino, the new Philippine military chief, gives a speech during a turnover ceremony at military headquarters in Manila, Nov. 12, 2021.

The new Philippines military leader vowed on Friday to crush militant groups and secure a peaceful general election next year, as he took over command a day after what could be the first killing linked to the 2022 polls.

As many as 50 people were killed in violence around the 2016 presidential election, followed by 23 deaths during the congressional voting season in 2019, according to government statistics. The interior department has said it identified about 150 private armed groups linked to politicians  many of which operate in remote areas, including on the main southern island of Mindanao, a volatile region riddled with insurgent and militant groups.

The Philippines is fighting a long-time communist insurgency nationwide as well as Islamic extremist groups scattered across the south.

To the remaining insurgents and terrorist groups in the country, let me emphasize that the national government is sincere and open to those who still want to return to the folds of the law, said Lt. Gen. Andres Centino, the army chief, as he took over command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) from Gen. Jose Faustino.

He also sent a blunt warning for those who resist.

If you insist, the full wrath of the AFP will hit you hard to the brink of your extinction, Centino said in a speech at the turnover ceremony at military headquarters in Manila. We must unleash our full force for the final blow that will ultimately destroy and defeat the enemies of the state.

Centino, 54, becomes the 57th leader of the 150,000-strong military.

Beyond addressing the threat groups, the military chief said immediate efforts would focus on safeguarding elections.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who is constitutionally limited to a single, six-year term has promised to rid the Philippines of all enemy groups before he leaves office after the May 2022 vote.

It is the AFPs duty that the will of the people is carried out, Centino said. Let us all support the government to ensure a fair, honest, peaceful and secure national elections.

Centino took command months before the May 9, 2022, general election to replace Duterte and fill 12 of the 24 seats in the Senate, all 316 House seats and thousands of official posts ranging from provincial governors to town mayors and councilors.

A day earlier, the son of a candidate for mayor in the south and another man were shot and killed together. Police in Cagayan de Oro city, where the double homicide occurred on Thursday, said they were investigating the possibility that Roland Sherwin Uy, the son of mayoral candidate Roland Uy, was killed in connection with the upcoming polls, among other possible motives.

Members of a private armed group show off their firepower somewhere in Maguindanao province, southern Philippines, Aug. 14, 2013. [Mark Navales/BenarNews]

A career officer, Centino graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1988 and obtained a masters degree in national resource strategy at the National Defense University in Washington.

He has immense knowledge and experience in leading our troops on the ground and in supporting peaceful efforts to protect our people against various threats, AFP spokesman Col. Ramon Zagala told reporters.

His integrity, management acumen, and genuine desire for peace and development make him a competent leader who shall guide the AFP in fulfilling its mission while supporting national efforts to battle the current pandemic, he added.

Centino is expected to serve until February 2023 when he turns 56, the mandatory retirement age.

We are confident that Gen. Centino will continue the initiatives of his predecessors to bring lasting peace and development in the country while securing the state and upgrading our defense capability, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.
Workers in protective suits sanitize a movie theater before the reopening of the shopping malls in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Oct. 15, 2021.

The Philippine government as of next month will require mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations or frequent testing for all eligible employees working in offices, the presidential palace said Friday, leading one opposition politician to question the moves legality.

The order, which takes effect on Dec. 1, covers employees from public and private agencies or companies who work at offices in parts of the country that have stockpiles of vaccine, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.

[COVID-19] vaccination of eligible employees tasked to do on-site work shall be required by all establishments and employers in the public and private sector, he said.

Eligible employees who remain unvaccinated may not be terminated, but they shall be required to undergo regular  tests at their own expense.

The Philippines is among countries in Southeast Asia hit hardest by the coronavirus disease, with 2.8 million cases and 45,000 related deaths recorded to date, but the government has ramped up vaccination efforts lately.

The government has fully inoculated about 30 million people, according to the National COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard. A three-day nationwide vaccination program to immunize another 15 million is set to begin on Nov. 29.

To encourage more people to be vaccinated, the central government is calling on cities and towns to provide incentives for fully vaccinated individuals, Roque said.

However, Carlos Isagani Zarate, a congressman from the opposition, said requiring people to get vaccinated had no legal basis and was a clear violation of human rights.

The state is partly to blame for vaccine hesitancy because it needs to educate people about it, Zarate told reporters.

The problem is that the administration has enforced military solutions and has not performed to control the pandemic. Now, they plan to force and scare people into getting vaccinated instead of convincing them with a good explanation, he said.

Dr. Anthony Leachon, a former adviser to the government task-force on COVID-19, suggested that the government might be moving too quickly on mandating vaccinations for on-site workers. The government should wait to achieve a 70 percent vaccination rate of its eligible population before contemplating such a move, he said.

[B]ased on European countries experiences, mandating vaccination by penalizing patients or the people to pay for their tests might boomerang, Leachon said.

Earlier this week, the head of the COVID-19 task force, Carlito Galvez, said the government planned to inoculate 70 percent of its target population of 54 million Filipinos with at least one dose by the end of November.

Manila has said it has sufficient supply of vaccines to achieve the minimum level of protection.

Galvez had also said lately that he favored making coronavirus vaccinations compulsory as a condition for low-income Filipinos to receive to cash subsidies from the government. President Rodrigo Duterte once warned that the government could compel those who do not wish to be vaccinated under the emergency powers.

There is no law [to force anyone], but the law of necessity is there, Duterte had said.
Men from Myanmar play a game of sepak takraw after working at a seafood market in Samut Sakhon province, west of Bangkok, Jan. 3, 2021.

Thailand will open its borders to as many as 400,000 foreign workers next month after a 20-month shutdown as it allows laborers from three neighboring countries to alleviate a workforce shortage, the countrys COVID-19 task-force said Friday.

Workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar will be allowed to enter through five border checkpoints and can work in the country for two years, a task-force spokesman said, adding the government would ensure that those laborers have been vaccinated.

The prime minister, who is the chairman of the COVID-19 task force, has approved the measure, Taweesilp Wissanuyothin, spokesman for Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), told reporters on Friday.

Those who are smuggling foreign laborers should stop it now because the measure was approved and the laborers should come in legally.

Previously, Labor Minister Suchart Chomklin had reported on a survey by the Thai Chamber of Commerce regarding the need for foreign workers as Thailand recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey results on demand for foreign workers exceeded 400,000 positions, the Ministry of Labor said in a news release on Wednesday.

The effort aims to resolve the labor shortage following the nations opening.

The government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with private employers to allow the foreigners to join the workforce.

We are wary of illegal workers and this is a short-term measure. For those employers who dont have enough workers, they can find them through the MoU, Suchart said.

Officials said the government plans to set aside about 500,000 vaccine doses for unvaccinated workers or those who previously received their first shot. They are to be quarantined for 14 days while those who have been fully vaccinated are to quarantine for seven days.

Suchart said government agencies were preparing to establish two checkpoints for workers along both the Myanmar and Laos borders, as well as one along the Cambodian border, beginning in December.

Since Thailand shuttered its borders in March 2020, NGOs estimated that as many as 1 million migrant workers returned to their homes, adding that about 4 million foreigners  legal and illegal  were in the workforce before the pandemic.

For now, Suchart urged undocumented workers, including about 60,000 who entered the country illegally during the COVID-19 outbreak, to register with the government.

In the future, employers who plan to recruit foreigners would need to pay between 9,700 baht (U.S. $296) and 26,720 baht ($816) for each worker that would cover paper work, pre-departure and post-quarantine COVID testing, quarantine expenses, medical plan and social security funds, according to Suchart.

An NGO official, meanwhile, said not everyone could afford the high costs of employing foreign workers.

The cost is steep  and small employers may have problems with preparing a place for quarantine, Sompong Srakaew, president of the Labor Protection Network Foundation, told BenarNews on Friday.

The foundations website said it was formed to improve the lives of migrant laborers in Thailand by addressing the injustice brought on by discrimination and inequality.
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Rain showers early with some sunshine later in the day. High near 45F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low around 25F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Showers in the morning, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. High around 45F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low near 25F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
A court in military-ruled Myanmar has sentenced U.S. journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison with hard labor, the maximum penalty under three charges, despite calls by the United States and rights groups for his release
Lukas Southard is The Eagles newsletter manager. In his former life, he was a chef in California and New York City, a whole-animal butcher and a trained sommelier.
Gerald Charles Dickens, the great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens, will perform a one-man version of "A Christmas Carol" at Ventfort Hall.
You are the owner of this article.
Community News Editor / Librarian

Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989.
Reporter

Heather Bellow, a member of the investigations team, joined The Eagle in 2017. She is based in the South Berkshire County bureau in Great Barrington. Her work has appeared in newspapers across the U.S.
A Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination complaint filed against Williamstown last month by a former police sergeant will be dismissed in light of his voluntary retirement this week from the Williamstown Police Department. The sergeant, Scott E. McGowan, had been accused last winter of conduct unbecoming an officer by all full-time officers in the department.
The book of Micah can be found in the back section of the Old Testament, among the minor prophets. Yet there is nothing minor about this prophet other than the length of the book that bears his name.

In the book of Micah, we find a beautiful path to repentance, restoration, and a promise of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Although we know little about Micahs background, we do know when and where he prophesied, and the effect his prophecy continues to have on us today. His power as a prophet and call to turn away from sin and towards the Savior continue to bring us hope, and shape who we are as believers.

Where Do We Find Micahs Story?

But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin (Micah 3:8).

Micahs name means, who is a God like You?, and his name itself becomes a meaningful theme for the book of Micah, as he summarizes his prophecy in Micah 7:18:  Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.

It is stated in verse 1 that Micah is from Moresheth-Gath, a village located near the border of Israel and Philistia. It would have been considered in the country in this time, as it was an agricultural area not near any major cities. This puts him in good company with the prophet Amos, who was a shepherd who took care of sycamore-fig trees.

There is no serious doubt that Micah is the author of the book that bears his name, as is also clearly stated in verse 1. Micahs ministry likely occurred late in the reign of Jotham, and continued into the early years of King Hezekiahs reign. This would place the book of Micah between the years 730  690 B.C.

Although it can be easy to think of one prophet coming after another, in order of their Biblical books, the reality is that many of them lived and ministered at the same times. Micah is no different, and he would have been a contemporary of three other prophets: Amos and Hosea in the northern kingdom of Israel, and Isaiah in the southern kingdom of Judah.

What Was Micah Known for?

The echoes of Micahs effective ministry can be felt throughout the Old Testament as well as the New. He is not only referenced in his own book, but he is also mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah as laying the foundations for the spiritual reforms undertaken by Hezekiah: Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. He told all the people of Judah, This is what the LORD Almighty says: Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets (Jeremiah 26:18).

Micah is known for bringing a message of judgement and restoration that would spur a revival in the land of Judah. Among the prophets of the Old Testament, he is perhaps the most vocal in his demands of justice for the poor and downtrodden. He lashes out at greedy judges, who make money from unjust bribes while ignoring true justice and mercy.

He starts his book by speaking of the coming judgement of God, and makes clear that this judgement is a response to the transgressions of the people (Micah 1:5). In Micah 6:14:16 we see that the judgment will be harsh, and that it will be unavoidable.

Yet the beauty of Micahs prophecy is that it assures us God will not end the story there. In fact, some of the most powerful promises of restoration, hope, and a coming Messiah are spoken by Micah:

He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken. All the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever (Micah 4: 3-5).

You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago (Micah 7:19-20).

What Is the Message of the Book of Micah?

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).

Justice. Love. Mercy. Humility. The overarching message of Micah is that God is Holy, and as a Holy God we should seek to act in a way that is becoming His holiness. Because He is holy, here are consequences to sin, yet there is hope for those who turn to Him. In the midst of crooked and depraved leadership, Micah 6:8 gives us a path to seek holiness, and is among the best-known verses of Scripture.

Another powerful prophecy from Micah is one we hear every year at Christmas, the one that tells us that the birth of Christ would occur in Bethlehem; "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times (Micah 5:2). Over 700 years later, this prophecy would be fulfilled the night that Jesus was born.

Micah may have been from the country, but he had a strong grasp of literary technique and utilized powerful metaphors and vivid imagery throughout his prophecy.

What Happened to Micah?

We do not know how Micah lived out the rest of his life. However, it is clear from Jeremiahs mention of him that he did not live out his days in fear of punishment or death, as so many prophets did. Instead, Jeremiah writes that his prophecy made a change and had a positive effect, Did Hezekiah king of Judah or anyone else in Judah put him to death? Did not Hezekiah fear the LORD and seek his favor? And did not the LORD relent, so that he did not bring the disaster he pronounced against them? (Jeremiah 26:19).

The prophets in Scripture faithfully brought the Word of God to the people, no matter how unpopular that message may be. Many of these prophecies were unpopular and ended in persecution for the prophets. Thankfully for Micah, the people heard the message and turned to God, at least in the short term. Ultimately, this prophecy of judgement would come to pass.

Far from being an old, boring message for a people log ago, Micahs words of promise and restoration after captivity still bring us hope today as we leave behind the captivity of sin, and walk into the hope and joy only found in Christ.

Photo credit: SparrowStock

Jason Soroski is a homeschool dad and member of the worship team at matthias lot church in St. Charles, MO. He spends his free time hanging out with his family, exploring new places, and writing about the experiences. Connect on Facebook or at JasonSoroski.net.
BIG RAPIDS  The Michigan Construction Hall of Fame at Ferris State University recently inducted three distinguished construction professionals.

These inductees, who earn the Distinguished Constructor Award, are Rex Bell, raised in Peru, Indiana; the late Don Leidal, born in Detroit; and Bruce Lowing, raised in Jenison. Collectively, they represent over 130 years of experience in the construction industry.

Below are capsules highlighting the three honorees:

Rex Bell

Bell was raised in Peru, Indiana. During high school, he discovered his interest in construction through industrial arts classes that included drafting and residential design. Bell earned a civil engineering degree with a focus on building construction and contracting from Purdue University. He began working for Miller-Davis Company in their Chicago and Indiana-based offices following graduation. His software knowledge enabled him to create a critical path method schedule that brought him to the companys headquarters, where he focused on project estimating. In 1996 he became the president, a role he holds today.

Miller-Davis Company is a small to mid-sized company that self-performs concrete, carpentry and steelwork. Bell has structured it to compete with larger companies.

Bell believes in giving back to the community, serving on several boards and foundations. The Miller-Davis Foundation was established under his leadership to focus on education, the arts, the environment and wholesome recreational activities that include disadvantaged persons.

Don Leidal

Leidal was born in Detroit, Michigan. At age 14, he began working for his uncles residential masonry company. At 16, he became an apprentice bricklayer and worked for several commercial contractors. At 26, he started a residential masonry business out of his house. The backyard served as the companys yard for materials, vehicles, and equipment. As the business grew, Leidal took on a partner, creating Leidal & Hart, where his partner ran the office, and Leidal managed the field. Leidal & Hart quickly expanded into the commercial sector, including K-12 and higher education facilities. They also began developing company-owned rental properties.

Leidals motto remains, Masonry laid to last by master craftsmen. He served as a trustee for masonry industry funds, including the Bricklayers Apprenticeship School and the Bricklayers Pension Trust Fund that provides careers, not just jobs, to the masonry workforce.

Leidal, who passed away, had his award accepted on his behalf by his son, Brad Leidal, and Brad's mom and Don's wife, Sue.

Bruce Lowing

Lowing was raised in Jenison, Michigan, and developed an interest in construction through the Boy Scout Explorer program. He graduated from Michigan Technological University with a degree in civil engineering. After graduation, he began his career with Hardman Construction as employee number 11.



Lowing accepted whatever roles were required to get the job done - engineer, foreman, surveyor, superintendent, operator, etc. Hardman Construction was focused on heavy civil work with a particular specialty in geotechnical. Lowing became part owner in 1987, and in 1997 became president.

He was active in three heavy civil construction industry associations - Michigan Road Builders Association (MRBA), the Associated Underground Contractors (AUC), and, once these two associations merged, Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association (MITA). He is the only individual to have served as the president in all three associations.
Watch the latest video at FoxNews.com You may remember that Pope Francis ignited some controversy recently by speaking out against unfettered capitalism and the greed that can follow. To quote the Pope: "The worship of the ancient golden calf returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare, their imbalances and above all their lack of real concern for human beings." The Pope is correct in portraying greed and exploitation as wicked. But the far left is distorting his words, trying to co-opt the Pope to impose so-called economic justice, which is really socialism forcefully taking from the haves and giving to the have-nots. I can tell you with certainty that Pope Francis opposes that form of tyranny as much as the Polish Pope John Paul did. Nevertheless the Democratic Party is getting ready to launch a huge social justice campaign to try to keep power in the USA. The far left "Nation" magazine recently published an article by a guy named Robert Shearer who is about as left as they come. Shearer writes quote "There can be no doubt that equality of opportunity is explicit in the core Christian doctrine that every infant has the soul as significant as of any other and that we all be judged by how well we respect the sanctity of the lives of those born into the most forlorn of circumstance." The key words in that "equality of opportunity" and that is a noble goal that every American should support. A noble goal that will never be reality; that's because the human condition dictates that some people will not do what is necessary to succeed in this world. That is work hard, be honest, stay sober and get educated. Some people will not do that. And so their children will suffer deprivation. No matter how much money the government hands out. Jesus, of course, understood that when he said the poor, we will always have with us. The truth is that the United States provides more opportunity to more people than any other nation that has ever existed. That is why millions of folks all over the world want to come here. And we have done that by developing a free market system. Even poor Americans here have material things that most in the world can only dream of. Yet, the left wants to tear down the capitalistic structure that has provided vast opportunity. They want to oppose a nanny state that redistributes income. That strategy has failed everywhere it's been tried. But the left doesn't care about the facts. It's all about hating America. Let's let Robert Shearer the compassionate guy the booster of Pope Francis have the last word, quote: "What Americans stand for is a launching pad for multinational corporations that wantonly exploit the resources and peoples of this planet with abandon. All the while these modern plunderers are protected by the massive military power of a U.S. government", unquote. To Shearer and the far left America is a bad place that keeps people down. To those of us who are sane, the USA is a noble country that provides massive opportunity to those who will work for it. And that's "The memo." - You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com. Transcript Show Name: O'Reilly Factor
Bill joins Sean Hannity's radio program to discuss Hillary Clinton's role in the 'Russia collusion' narrative and questions he'll raise about it with Donald Trump on their History Tour.

Sign up for our Premium Membership and get Killing the Mob free.


Mobilised necessary medical equipment and supplies

Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Thani Thongpakdi, together with President of the Thailand-Vietnam Friendship Association Sanan Angubolkul, presided over the handover ceremony of medical equipment and supplies for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in Vietnam to Ambassador of Vietnam to Thailand Phan Chi Thanh.



The Thai side, led by the Thailand-Vietnam Friendship Association, mobilized necessary medical equipment and supplies, worth about 2.5 million baht, from both the public and private sectors of Thailand to support Vietnams fight against COVID-19.

The medical equipment and supplies consist of N95 surgical marks, infusion pumps, emergency rescue beds, oxygen systems, and mobile x-ray scanners.



The objective of this contribution is to support the capacity of Vietnams healthcare system and foster cooperation between Thailand and Vietnam in controlling the spread of COVID-19.



It is also part of the activities marking the 45th anniversary of Thailand-Vietnam diplomatic relations this year, and a reflection of the close friendship between two neighboring countries.



Since the outbreak of the new wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam earlier this year, the Royal Thai Embassy in Ha Noi and the Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City, in cooperation with the Thai private sector in Vietnam, have provided support to Vietnams efforts to mitigate the effects caused by the pandemic, including through financial contribution to Vietnams Vaccine Fund and the provision of medical supplies to Vietnams local authorities.
Speech by Mr Burkhard Balz , Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, to mark the inauguration of the Bundesbank's new representative, Madrid, 3 Nov 2021.

1 Introduction

Your Excellency Ambassador Dold,

Ladies and gentlemen,

"De Madrid al cielo!"  "From Madrid to heaven!"  is an old Spanish saying. And on that note, it gives me great pleasure to be back in Madrid and speaking to you here today. My thanks also go to Ambassador Wolfgang Dold for providing the setting for today's event.

The Federal Republic of Germany's first Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, paid a visit to Madrid in 1967 at the ripe old age of 91. In a fiery speech, he spoke about his vision of a united Europe that shared a common heritage, traditions and culture.

A Europe made up of just the six Member States of the European Economic Community at that time could not be the end of the story, Adenauer said.

Spain, he stressed, also had to become a major component of what was to become a united Europe  because of Spain's geographical location, history, tradition and the irreplaceable role it played in European culture.

This was to be Adenauer's last major public appearance. He would never see part of his vision  Spain's accession to the European Community in 1986  become reality.

However, much of what Adenauer spoke about back then has now come to pass. The process of European integration advanced steadily, and Spain is now firmly anchored within the European Union.

Spain was also among the first group of countries to introduce the euro, which is one of the most visible symbols of European integration in our day-to-day lives.

This single European currency heralded major changes for the national central banks of Member States.

They stopped making decisions on their countries' currencies when the European Central Bank (ECB) was established in 1998. Instead, it is the ECB Governing Council, a body made up of the ECB Executive Board plus the governors of the national central banks of the euro area countries, which sets monetary policy for the euro area.

A single monetary policy needs to take into account the different economic developments in the Member States. This can often be a challenging endeavour, as we clearly saw in the wake of the financial crisis and during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

How do a single monetary policy and different national fiscal and economic policies fit together? To what degree does fiscal policy in the euro area countries need to be harmonised? What can be done to strengthen the capital markets union? And how can the banking union be completed?

These questions and talking points affect us directly as Eurosystem central banks, and they have a bearing on our work.

To make it easier to reach out to national authorities and financial institutions in the major euro area countries, the Bundesbank now sends staff members to the German embassies in Madrid, Rome and Paris. It is an arrangement that complements the close working relationships we already enjoy with the central banks of these countries.

We have found that an intensive exchange of views and ideas can bring differing viewpoints to light early on, besides deepening mutual understanding and trust. For the Bundesbank, this is a way of helping to promote collective solutions and reinforcing cooperation within the euro area.

Digital media have helped us stay in touch during the COVID-19 pandemic. But no matter how well we can communicate by email, telephone and video conferencing nowadays, meeting in person is still a crucial factor in any trusting working relationship.

Fabian Huttner will now play his part in fostering relationships as the Bundesbank's representative in Madrid. He already has a wealth of knowledge on the various tasks of the Bundesbank thanks to his period of training as a civil servant. And his previous position in the Digital Office saw him work intensively on topics that will shape the future at the Bundesbank. I'm certain all this experience will stand him in good stead for his new duties.

2 Digitalisation in payment transactions

Ambassador Dold, ladies and gentlemen,

Nowadays, there's no getting around the topic of digitalisation as one that will shape our future. The pandemic, especially, saw people increasingly turn to digital platforms to do their shopping and for work and study.

Businesses and authorities had no option but to roll out new processes within the tightest of time frames. It showed just how important it is for us to have a reliable digital infrastructure.

Digitalisation was also the driver of all manner of developments in the financial world during the pandemic. Contactless payments by card or smartphone saw major growth, and a booming e-commerce sector increased the uptake of cashless payments.

Listening to payment service providers and fintech firms over the past year, we have often heard them confirm our view that the pandemic is acting as a catalyst for their business models. Market developments that normally need four to five years are now taking place within the space of four to five months.

People expect a great deal from electronic payment systems. They want them to be safe, quick and above all convenient. This also places demands on us as central banks and on the Europe-wide infrastructure we operate, such as the system for large-value payments that the Bundesbank improves and advances together with the Banco de Espana, the Banca d'Italia and the Banque de France.

Advances on the digitalisation front have also sparked a debate surrounding digital currency. July saw the Eurosystem launch a two-year investigation phase on the introduction of a digital euro. This digital currency could be implemented alongside commercial banks' book money as fail-safe, universally accepted central bank money.

The intention is to create a digital euro that makes it easy to send and receive payments in real time while at the same time satisfying high standards in terms of payment data integrity and security.

The digital euro could be used to underpin innovative products developed in the private sector. For instance, smart contracts  protocols that automatically execute payments once the right contractual conditions have been met  might open up entirely new business areas.

What matters from the Bundesbank's perspective is that the traditional allocation of functions between private and public players is not undermined. Central banks deliver the backend infrastructure in payments, but it is up to the (European) private sector to develop customer-friendly payment solutions for end users.

It has not yet been decided what features the digital euro might have or when it might be introduced. One thing is clear, though: the digital euro would complement cash and book money, not replace them.

3 Conclusion

Ladies and gentleman,

As important as money may be in our business and economic world, there is one particular Spanish saying I hold very dear: "Vive. El dinero se recupera, el tiempo no."  "Live. You can get back the money but not the time."

On that note, Mr Huttner, please accept my best wishes that you will have plenty of time to forge new contacts and foster relationships, to get to know and love Madrid  and, of course, to represent the Bundesbank well here in Spain. I wish you all the best and every success in the tasks that lie ahead of you.

Thank you very much for your attention.
A senior group of journalists with multiple years of experience in the sector have been selected to serve in the judging panel for the 10th annual Responsible Drinking Media Awards (RDMAs)

Award-winning broadcast journalist and senior news anchor, Cathy Mohlahlana,

Chairperson of the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef), Sibusiso Ngalwa,

Award-winning journalist and media leader, Mary Papayya,

Chairperson of the African Editors Forum, Jovial Rantao,

Secretary general of Sanef with more than twenty years of print and broadcast experience, Mahlatse Mahlase,

Multiple award-winning broadcast anchor, Leanne Manas,

Corporate relations director at Diageo SA, Sibani Mngadi.

Best Newspaper (Commercial)

Best Newspaper (Community)

Best Magazine

Best Online or Post

Best Radio (Commercial)

Best Radio (Community)

Best TV

Best Up and Coming

Alcohol Policy Award

Influential Voice Award

The awards are sponsored by spirits company, Diageo South Africa, to recognise media content that focuses on various aspects of alcohol in society, including the problem of misuse and interventions against it.The RDMAs is proud to announce the following panel to serve as judges for the 2021 edition of the media awards:Commenting on the panel of judges, Sibani Mngadi said, "We are honoured as Diageo that such calibre of media people have agreed to serve as judge and help recognise the outstanding journalism content that has been generated, especially since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in our country.Entries for the awards are still open with the closing date of 15 November 2021. Any content published or broadcast from 1 February 2020 about alcohol, its economic and social role as well as interventions against misuse, is welcome.Journalists and media practitioners have a chance to enter in their content in the following categories:From the above categories, each with a prize value of R20,000, the judges will then select the Journalist of the Year as the best overall entry for 2021, with an additional prize of R30,000.For more information and to enter your work, you can visit the website here
TQ Group are proud to announce that Carlia Janse van Rensburg, a junior graphic designer, was honoured with two silver awards at the prestigious #Pendoring2021 ceremony. The awards were granted in recognition of van Rensburg's outstanding final submission for Graphic Design Honours at the North-West University, which also earned her an academic distinction in 2020.

Janse van Rensburg conceptualised and created a campaign for the Robertsons brand to fit the theme Migration. A richly illustrated tableau inspired by the personification of spices, the campaign included playing cards, a winners draw and a limited-edition tablecloth. With Migration, Carlia beautifully encapsulated an experience that was previously only afforded to royalty in the early days of the spice trade and created an engaging narrative around a product that we all know and love.The TQ Group is a close-knit tribe, with an institutional ethos of nurturing talent, mentorship, empowerment and sharing of knowledge. Naturally, emotions ran high, and the elation at HQ was palpable when, having hastily rigged up a big screen and sound system for the award ceremony, the winners were announced. We felt a swell of pride in our hearts as the world acknowledged our Carlias immense talent and potential, says Elbe Smith, CEO.Speaking on the accolades, Carlia said that her creative process during 2020 had felt particularly arduous because of isolation and lockdown-induced stress. She said she managed to persevere through tremendous efforts of willpower and much encouragement and support from her lecturer, Marina Herbst, to whom she expressed an outpouring of heartfelt gratitude. She said that the two silver #Pendoring2021 awards are a massive boost to her self-esteem. The boost has reinforced her belief in impeccable craftsmanship and provided further impetus to keep honing her design abilities. It is also a key stepping stone on her path to eventually realizing her dream: to working as a creative director.Hearty congratulations to Carlia from everyone at the TQ Group!
Theres a troubling trend emerging: Americans are being encouraged and even incentivized to turn their fellow citizens in to the government for a myriad of reasons.

For one example, federal officials this week announced they plan to rely on informants in order to determine which companies are enforcing their new (unconstitutional) vaccine mandate. The Biden Administration has used the Labor Departments Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as a means of implementing the rule without Congressional approval. Essentially the order says that companies will be heavily fined by the agency should they not demand their employees be vaccinated. But even the administration recognizes there are limits to their ability to enforce such a rule.

From the OSHA website:

Federal OSHA is a small agency; with our state partners we have approximately 1,850 inspectors responsible for the health and safety of 130 million workers, employed at more than 8 million worksites around the nation  which translates to about one compliance officer for every 70,000 workers.

So you do the math. The government has no way of actually catching the vast majority of companies should they flout this new mandate...that is unless employees decide to start reporting their own companies.

In another example, a new Texas abortion law actually pays citizens to identify and file lawsuits against abortion providers in the state. The legislation was written this way because the government cannot carry out these actions itself as it would be illegal under Roe v. Wade. But the Texas constitution has a citizen enforcement clause within it and it is this that lawmakers have chosen to hang their hats on. This plan of attack has of course caused much concern that similar tactics could be used in other states to similarly get around things like free speech protections and the Second Amendment.

And in Tennessee, the legislature had to pass a bill to protect doctors during a special COVID-19 session this Fall. The reason? The states medical board attempted to set up a system where residents could report doctors for spreading misinformation about COVID vaccines. The plan was to take their medical licenses as a result. You know, because reducing the number of doctors during a pandemic is great public policy.

A Look At History

These are serious issues. As limited government advocates have warned for some time, the entwinement of government and healthcare could ultimately lead to the government determining who gets healthcare, what kinds of services the doctors may provide, and the infringement of the bodily autonomy of patients. We may not yet have the government monopoly on healthcare progressives desperately want, but one could argue we are already seeing many of these rights violations nonetheless.

There are also of course blatant free speech, free market, and constitutional violations here. Doctors do not lose the right to their opinion because they are doctors. The government has absolutely no authority to make businesses force healthcare decisions on their employees. And like it or not, abortion is the law of the land until such a time the right can muster the support it needs to actually overturn Roe v. Wade. Undermining the rule of law by creating a system for citizens to stalk, harass, and sue one another is no way to conduct a society. And we should all shudder to think what this might look like should other states build upon this precedent. Rights could start slipping away very quickly if we embrace a culture in which Americans report on one another over such legal infringements.

This is perhaps the most concerning part of all: urging citizens to turn on their neighbors.

Governments throughout history (including our own) have often used this tactic to enforce horrible laws they would have had no chance of upholding without the help of citizens willing to sell out their fellow man.

During the second world war, for example, in his fireside chat of May 26, 1940, former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt insinuated that German and Italian Americans were probably Nazi sympathists and spies working for their homelands and encouraged Americans to be vigilant. Americans responded by calling the FBI with over 2,900 reports of suspected sabotage in just one day that May. According to the Associated Press, After Pearl Harbor, more than 11,000 German-Americans and 120,000 Japanese-Americans were rounded up and placed in internment camps for the duration of the war.

During the same war we also of course saw the atrocities of the Holocaust in Germany and other parts of Europe. These atrocities were made possible not only by the complacent citizens who stood by and allowed them to occur, but by the people who joined the government in its efforts. According to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum:

Within Nazi Germany many individuals became active or semi-active participants in Nazi racial and antisemitic policies aimed first at the isolation, impoverishment, and forced emigration of German Jews during the 1930s, then during World War II (19391945), the annihilation of European Jewry. They included civil servants engaged in their 'normal work' such as finance officials processing the steep 'tax on Jewish wealth' levied in 1938 or inventorying property seized following the wartime deportations; clerks who kept files of documents listing race or religion and addresses used in police roundups; teachers at all educational levels whose lessons incorporated racist and antisemitic content. Individual citizens chose to be involved when they voluntarily denounced their co-workers and neighbors to the police because of their alleged transgressions as Jews, friends of Jews, anti-Hitlerites, or gays. Teenagers also played a role in many communities when they enjoyed their newfound power to harass with impunity Jewish classmates and their parentsadults to whom youth were generally taught to deferthereby contributing to the targeted groups isolation. Many ordinary Germans became invested in the ongoing persecution after acquiring Jewish businesses, homes, or belongings sold at bargain prices or benefiting from reduced business competition as Jews were driven from the economy.

From a historical perspective, it is easy to see how mass human rights violations often begin with people being willing to hand over their neighbors to the government.

Do Americans really wish to embrace these examples and that of modern-day China? The Chinese Communist Partys social credit system is yet another example of an authoritarian government using the willingness of residents to snitch on one another to implement a ridiculous surveillance system. Under this system, Chinese people are rated based on a wide-range of activitiesfrom not paying fines, to being late to catch a trainand can lose state privileges should their score fall below a certain threshold.

The Buck Stops With You

Despite all of its spying, technology, and the incredible amount of people it employs, big government would still be unable to function without the complacency and eager cooperation of the everyday person. Its simply too big. There are too many laws. And the vast majority of the time people could still break those laws without getting caught.

This is why governments often rely on people who will do their job for thempeople who will lean into their own authoritarian and nosy instincts and gladly rat out their neighbor for the smallest infraction.

We know this type of person is prevalent in our society. Often called a Karen in pop-culture, we unfortunately have no shortage of supply for this personality type. And while we can mock their antics and make fun of their behavior, the end results of their actions are seldom funny. Rather these individuals get people killed in police interactions, rob them of their businesses, and get them fired because of their personal health choices.

As the Roman politician Tacitus said, The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. One look at the unbelievable number of laws on the books in the US should tell you something about the state of our government. But without our consent, complacency, and especially assistance, all of this madness stops. If we want to limit the government, we must commit to resistance and refuse to help the government carry out its injustices.
An Oklahoma lawmaker has filed a bill that will aim to ban any COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the state.

State Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, filed House Bill 1003X, nicknamed the "Liberty Bill," this week to end what he calls "shocking abuse" after receiving "numerous" calls from constituents who face loss of employment due to vaccine mandates.

Gann has echoed the familiar argument that the vaccine has not received full approval and remains available as part of the Emergency Use Authorization. The Pfizer vaccine has received approval from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), but it may not be widely available just yet.
When it comes to sycophants, Wall Street has no shortage of them willing to shill for its egregious private justice system called mandatory arbitration  a system which systematically guts the guarantee of a jury trial under the Seventh Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Think about that carefully, the industry that is serially charged with rigging markets and other felonious acts, is allowed by Congress to run its own privatized justice system. This is something one would expect to find in a banana republic, not in a country that lectures the rest of the world on democratic principles.

Wall Streets private justice system effectively locks the nations courthouse doors to both its workers and customers, sending the claims before conflicted arbitrators who do not have to follow legal precedent, case law or write legally-reasoned decisions.

One of Wall Streets serial toadies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was quick to release a statement on March 8 when it learned that the House of Representatives was likely to vote on and pass H.R. 963, the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act. (Last week the House Judiciary Committee voted favorably to move the bill out of Committee and on to the full House for a vote. The bill currently has 201 co-sponsors.)

Neil Bradley, Executive Vice President of the Chamber, had this to say in March:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce strongly opposes H.R. 963 / S. 505, the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act Members who do not cosponsor this legislation will receive credit for the Leadership component of their How They Voted rating. 

If that sounds to you like a threat to members of Congress that they will lose corporate campaign funding if they vote for passage of the bill, youre thinking along the right lines.

Bradley added this preposterously bogus statement: Arbitration is a fair, effective, and less expensive means of resolving disputes compared with going to court.

The speciousness of that last statement by Bradley has now been revealed by a study released by the American Association for Justice on October 27. The study found the following:

In years past, consumers were more likely to be struck by lightning than win a monetary award in forced arbitration. In 2020, that win rate dropped even further. Just 577 Americans won a monetary award in forced arbitration in 2020, a win rate of 4.1%  below the five-year-average win rate of 5.3%. For employees forced into arbitration, the likelihood of winning was even lower. Despite roughly 60 million workers being subject to forced arbitration provisions at their place of employment, just 82 employees won a monetary award in forced arbitration in 2020.

Wall Street is the only industry in America that has for decades contractually banned both its customers and its employees from utilizing the nations courts for claims against the Wall Street firm as a condition of opening an account or getting a job there.

Instead of being able to go to court with a claim of fraud if youre a customer, or a claim for labor law violations, like failure to pay overtime or sexual harassment if youre an employee, Wall Street makes its customers and employees sign an agreement to take all such claims into an industry-run or privately-run arbitration system. The above graphic from the study by the American Association for Justice shows how claimants faired in mandatory arbitration forums run by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and JAMS. The findings cover a broad range of industries, not just Wall Street.

These private justice systems are certainly not fair, and on Wall Street, they are far from cheap. Fees to claimants can run into tens of thousands of dollars as opposed to a few hundred dollars to file in court. Study after study has found that arbitrators most often rule in favor of the corporate interest over the consumer because the arbitrators are financially dependent on repeat business from these corporations.

What Wall Street and its army of lawyers like most about this private justice system is its darkness. Unlike a public courtroom, the press and the public are not allowed to attend the hearings. There are no publicly available transcripts of the hearings as there would be in court. It is next to impossible to bring a court appeal of an arbitration ruling because Wall Streets biggest law firms have spent decades convincing the courts that these arbitration decisions must be permanently binding.

Another fatal flaw for claimants in these private justice systems is that there is no jury selection from a large public pool of random citizens but rather a repeat-player pool of highly compensated arbitrators.

In September 2007, Public Citizen published a comprehensive 74-page study of mandatory arbitration with a central focus on the National Arbitration Forum. The report is titled The Arbitration Trap. Among its findings related to the National Arbitration Forum, Public Citizen found that in California between January 1, 2003 and March 31, 2007 a small cadre of arbitrators handled most of the cases that went to a decision. In total, 28 arbitrators handled 17,265 cases  accounting for a whopping 89.5 percent of cases in which an arbitrator was appointed  and ruled for the company nearly 95 percent of the timeTopping the list of the busiest arbitrators was Joseph Nardulli, who handled 1,332 arbitrations and ruled for the corporate claimant an overwhelming 97 percent of the time.

In 2009, Lori Swanson, the Attorney General of Minnesota, charged the National Arbitration Forum with consumer fraud, deceptive trade practices and false advertising. Swansons lawsuit revealed that the National Arbitration Forum was financially shackled to debt collection law firms representing major credit card companies. She provided a detailed roadmap of the financial ties. Less than a week after Swanson introduced her evidence into a court of law, the National Arbitration Forum settled the case by agreeing to stop hearing consumer arbitration cases.

Wall Streets own industry-run arbitration system also makes good use of the repeat player advantage. On July 20, 2000 the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA) issued a press release accusing the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) of rigging its computerized system of selecting arbitrators. The statement read: In direct and flagrant violation of federal law, the NASD systematically evaded the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Neutral List Selection System arbitration rule requiring arbitrators to be selected on a rotating basis. Instead, the NASD secretly programmed its computers to select some arbitrators on a seniority basis  just what the rule was designed to prevent.

PIABA had discovered the manipulation when a team of its attorneys demanded a test of the selection system at an NASD/PIABA meeting in Chicago on June 27, 2000. PIABA assessed the situation as follows:

this rule violation tainted hundreds or even thousands of compulsory securities arbitrations  many still ongoing. In every such instance, the substantive rights of public investors to a neutral panel have been cynically violated. Many public investors were thus twice cheated: first, by an NASD member firm that fraudulently conned them out of their lifes savings, and second by the NASD Arbitration Departments rigged panels.

The NASD-run system is now called the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority or FINRA Dispute Resolution Services. For how thats working out, see Susan Antillas 2015 article, Indicted Lawyers, Peeping Toms Can Wind Up Judges in FINRA Arbitration, published at TheStreet.com.

A provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 required that the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) study the use of mandatory arbitration. As part of the study, the CFPB asked for public comments. This is a sampling of what it heard from those not on the payroll (directly or indirectly) of Wall Street:

I represent a lot of elderly consumers in elder financial abuse cases. I have numerous situations where arbitration is compelled because they signed an arbitration clause with a bank, agent or brokerage firm. They generally have no idea what they have signed and it is buried in the fine print. I can send you many complaints. These incidents of elder abuse should be litigated in a public place where other consumers can learn about the problems.  Ingrid Evans, The Evans Law Firm, San Francisco, CA

Mandatory arbitration has deprived consumers of justice in our country. The presence of the ever-expanding scope of forcing people to arbitrate when they have been tricked or defrauded has damaged our economy more than any other factor. All businesses, from banks to car dealers, that impose arbitration clauses on their customers are then undeterred in their conduct and we suffer. Arbitrators are paid by the companies they sit in judgment of and they are ALWAYS more concerned about whether the company they are judging will select (and pay) them for the next case than justice for the consumer. Please end the scourge of mandatory arbitration.  Dave Angle, Columbia, MO

In Public Justices experience, the most significant effect of mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer financial services is to dampen and suppress the bringing of claims by consumers. While the civil justice system brings injunctive relief (such as the end of deceptive and misleading practices, the elimination of improperly claimed debts, and the cleaning of credit reports, among other things) and monetary compensation to hundreds of thousands or millions of borrowers each year, only about 1,000 or so consumer cases against corporations of any kind were arbitrated in 2009 and 2010. For a variety of reasons set forth in these comments, the existing evidence that the use of arbitration by lenders suppresses claims  ensures that the vast majority of consumers who suffer legal wrongs will never even try to pursue their rights under federal and state consumer protection laws  is more than adequate for the Bureau to exercise its authority to ban the use of arbitration clauses by all entities within its jurisdiction. The broad data, as well as a number of potent evidentiary records in particular cases, confirms the obvious  that if consumers must each individually pursue their claims in arbitration, lenders will be immunized from liability for all but a tiny proportion of the legal wrongs they may commit.  F. Paul Bland, Jr., Matthew Wessler, Leslie A. Bailey, Arthur H. Bryant, Amy Radon for the nonprofit organization, Public Justice.

Among the problems consumer advocates identify concerning the use of mandatory arbitration agreements is the imbalance of power between the drafters of the agreements (i.e., the businesses offering the products and services) and the consumer. This imbalance is particularly acute when mandatory arbitration agreements are included in contracts of adhesion and in transactions targeted at the low-income population.  Ron Elwood, Legal Services Advocacy Project, St. Paul, MN

Its long past the time for Congress to stop pretending that its studying this charade of a justice system and pass meaningful legislation to reopen the courthouse doors to all Americans.
UK troops are being freshly deployed in Poland to assist in strengthening the border fence at points of entry into the EU along the Belarus-Poland border, at a moment the showdown continues and as Minsk and Moscow are ramping up their rhetoric in condemning Europe's hypocrisy.

Polish defense minister Mariusz Baszczak made the announcement Friday, saying in a written statement that British military engineers will help repair and fortify border fences which have recently been breached by Middle East migrants on the other side, reportedly with the assistance of Belarusian security forces goading them on.

UK Ministry of Defence, file image

Poland and the Baltic allies Latvia and Lithuania, which have also declared states of emergencies at their respective borders with Belarus, have all charged the Alexander Lukashenko government with deliberately orchestrating the border provocations which have driven world headlines this week.

There are currently worries that the confrontation between Poland and Belarus could result in armed conflict, given currently both have troops on either side of the border, with thousands of migrants caught in the middle.

UK media reports detail that "The troops are likely from the light cavalry squadron that the UK currently has stationed in Poland as part of NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence, which includes soldiers from the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers.

The British troops will also provide reconnaissance support, given Poland has ramped up its monitoring activities of migrant caravan movements on the Belarusian side. Minsk has been further accused of actually flying migrants into Belarus from the Middle East in order to facilitation their passage into the EU. Most appear to be trying to make it to Germany given the ample social benefits provided there. The most contested EU cross appears to be in northeast Poland.

Mariusz Blaszczak tweeted Friday that "reconnaissance has begun before the support of British engineering troops will start. Our soldiers will establish cooperation in strengthening the fence on the Polish-Belarusian border."

The migrants seem to be building small huts on the border between #Poland and #Belarus pic.twitter.com/58haEEwoc1  Ali Ozkok (@Ozkok_A) November 12, 2021

On the other side, Russia has deployed paratroopers to Belarus to participate in joint drills. While it's unclear whether they will directly support Belarus at the border, it's at the very least a resounding message to the NATO and the West, at a moment the EU is readying fresh sanctions on Minsk.

The Daily Mail reports, "Belarus said the drill was in response to the 'build-up of military activity' at the Polish border, where 15,000 troops have been stationed to hold back the migrants, while Russia said it was to test the 'combat readiness' of its troops."

For now it appears both sides and their external backers are willing to escalate. Meanwhile, hundreds are still attempting to breach the border into the EU. Poland meanwhile has plans for a large, high-tech border fence, but which hasn't begun to be constructed.
If you're tired of censorship, cancel culture, and the erosion of civil liberties subscribe to Reclaim The Net.

Musician and podcaster Jordan Sarmo has announced that Instagram deleted his post about Kyle Rittenhouse, a teen who is on trial for first degree murder of two men  that he says he committed in self-defense, as he was being chased and feared for his life.

But the case has become just the latest in a flurry of highly divisive issues plaguing US society, and mainstream social media seem to have chosen to err on the side of censorship and stifle any voices supporting Rittenhouse, even though the trial is still in progress and he is therefore presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Sarmos post that Instagram censored showed Rittenhouse break down in tears while he was testifying about the events in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during the rioting in the summer of 2020.

In a follow-up post on Instagram, Sarmo was incredulous that the video from the courthouse  which is otherwise being shown on news outlets, without censorship by social media  was qualified as going against the rules enforced by Facebooks image sharing platform.

The comment Sarmo added to the video showing the distressed teen take the stand said that what the media had done to Rittenhouse was evil, and added, Prayers up for Kyle as he has to relive through this trauma.

Instagram said this went against its guidelines on violence or dangerous organizations, and the giant stuck to its guns even after Sarmo appealed against the decision to delete the post.

The podcaster and musicians comment on this was that free speech is really dead and that the situation is insane.

Over on Twitter, Sarmo posted the same video, once again urging people to pray for Rittenhouse and explaining that the defendant appeared to be having a panic attack as he recounted his encounter with the two men he ended up shooting, Joseph Rosenbaum and Joshua Zimiski.

As he was trying to describe the moments before shooting Rosenbaum, the teen became so upset that the judge called a break.

This post by Sarmo is still up on Twitter, the only difference being that unlike in the one on Instagram, this time, he did not call out the media.

Ashley St. Clair, a political commentator, also says that Instagram removed a video she posted that showed Kyle Rittenhouse crying during the ongoing trial. Instagram claimed the video violated its policies on supporting violence and dangerous organizations.

Instagram removed the video I posted of Kyle Rittenhouse crying, St. Clair explained in a Nov. 10 tweet. It apparently violates their guidelines on *squints* violence & dangerous organizations. Give me a break!

The tweet contained a screenshot of her original post on Instagram. She had captioned the video:

I STAND WITH KYLE RITTENHOUSE. Kyle Rittenhouse is very clearly suffering from PTSD. The vile comments about him faking it are the same type of comments used to invalidate victims of sexual assault & other traumas. Its aggressor-enabling rhetoric.

Instagram is also not the only Big Tech platform censoring posts about Kyle Rittenhouse. Facebook does not allow users to search Kyle Rittenhouse.

This article contained additional reporting from Cindy Harper.
There is fear in Russia that the U.S. is egging the Ukraine into a renewed active conflict with its renegade eastern Donbass region and thereby into a war with Russia.

In his latest RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP Patrick Armstrong recollects the most recent developments:

Earlier this year the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky closed TV and media that favored the opposition. Last week the 26 years old English language KyivPost outlet was shut down after its owner was threatened.

Zelensky has recently lost the majority in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. The leader of Zelenskys party 'Servant of the People Dmytro Razumkov, was removed from his position as speaker of the Rada after some conflict with Zelensky. Razumkov has now founded a new party and 21 parliament members from the 'Servant of the People joined him in a new faction. 226 seats are needed for a majority in the Rada. 'Servant of the People had 244 seats but is now down to 224.

Ukraine is in an energy crisis. It did not use the summer months to fill its gas storage. It lacks thermal coal to generate electricity and to heat its cities. It will now import coal from Poland, the United States and South Africa. That is not only expensive but also likely too late to avoid blackouts:

Considering these factors, the [Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko] stressed the need to develop domestic coal mining. "It is important that we look at the possibilities of rapidly increasing domestic production. And if there are such opportunities and there is an opportunity to invest in domestic coal, this is the key priority," he stressed.

The Donbass region has large coal reserves and mines. Rapidly increasing domestic coal production by occupying it might be some peoples idea to avoid rolling blackouts.

This week the Foreign Minister of the Ukraine was in Washington DC for U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Dialogue talks. There was a lot of war mongering about a 'Russian escalation that is not happening. Russia is not interested in one but had earlier said that it would protect the Russian people in the renegade Donbass provinces.

In July 2020 the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence wrote a Summary Assessment of Intentions of the Political Leadership of the Russian Federation. It concluded that Russia does not a war with NATO but would not back away from an immediate threat. It also says:

We assess that Moscow is increasingly concerned about U.S. military activity, especially in Europe, and that this increases the potential for unintended Russian escalation.

This month the U.S. Navy has send the guided missile destroyer Porter and the command ship Mount Whitney into the Black Sea. The later is of special interest:

"The region can already be viewed as a potential theater of war. The USS Mount Whitney command ship is known for its visits to trouble spots. It was seen near the coasts of Iraq and Libya, and visited the Black Sea in 2008, when a war broke out in South Ossetia. It sailed to our shores in 2014, too, after Crimea reunited with Russia," [military expert Vladislav Shurygin] added.

At the same time the U.S. is intensifying its aerial reconnaissance activity around the Black Sea:

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. NATO reconnaissance aircraft increased the number of flights near the Russian borders in the Black Sea region over the past 24 hours, Russias Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday. "Over the past 24 hours, reconnaissance aircraft of NATO countries increased the intensity of flights near the borders of the Russian Federation in the Black Sea region," the ministry said. On November 9, the radars of the Russian Aerospace Forces air defense troops tracked a US Air Force E-8C airborne ground surveillance, command and control aircraft over the Black Sea, it said. "Also, Russian anti-aircraft missile troops tracked three reconnaissance aircraft of NATO member states over the Black Sea in the past 24 hours," the statement says.

Meanwhile U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets as well as aerial tankers have been deployed to Bulgaria and Romania.

The fear in Moscow is not that the U.S. will attack Russia. But the high activity of U.S. forces in the area and the incitement Kiev gets from Washington might make the Ukrainian leadership believe that Washington has its back and will come to its help when it attacks the Donbass region and Russia hits back.

That believe would be false. Alastair Crooke notes a typical U.S. behavior towards Taiwan, Israel and the Ukraine. It incites them towards conflict but when the backlash will inevitably come is will be unable or unwilling to help them:

The West contrives to use Ukraine as the peg to threaten Russia with NATO action, even to the extent of NATO recently lowering the threshold for using its nuclear weapons  and yet  there is no way that Donbass can be seized back by Kiev. Moscow will never allow it, and NATO knows it cannot prevail over Russia in Ukraine, short of an unthinkable nuclear exchange. Either way, the U.S.  apparently  courts failure: Either Ukraine remains territorially status quo, and disintegrates from the weight its own dysfunctionality, economic collapse and endemic corruption. Or, in a futile gesture, it goes for broke versus the Donbass forces and ends dismembered, as Russia  very reluctantly  is forced to intervene.

After the Afghanistan debacle the Biden administration needs a foreign policy victory:

In Ukraine, provoking even a limited Russian military intervention into eastern Ukraine would be hailed [in Washington] as a political achievement. Never mind the damage, the deaths; Europe would fall under full Washington control, and NATO would re-discover its raison detre. But Europe and America would be weaker  and yet more of Americas traditional clients will assert themselves, through diversifying their relations, and projecting power through broader alliances. And the more they look eastward, the more deeply they engage with China.

Crooke compares this to the Clinton administrations ..

.. desire to rack up a string of miscellaneous, shallow achievements that would be boasted as successes to the electorate, so that the latter would conclude that foreign policy was in reasonably good shape. Yet they would be in error: The quest for racking-up these hollow achievements ignored the alarming void, in precisely the area of greatest importance: the question of whether policy was making it more or less likely that America would have to fight a major war in the near future. The U.S. is addicted to ephemeral success, whilst ignoring its strategic erosion ..

I also see analogies to Hong Kong where the Trump administration incited a student revolt but did nothing when China finally intervened. That was seen as a success by Trump and Pompeo but the opposition in Hong Kong lost out and Hong Kong is no longer the U.S.' easy entry point into China.

The Biden administrations war mongering towards Russia may be seem to be free of cost. But it takes only one miscalculation in Kiev or some unforeseen incident in the Black Sea region and the situation could seriously escalate.

Posted by b on November 12, 2021 at 18:28 UTC | Permalink

Comments
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.
How do you say we told you so without saying, we told you so?

MIKE DEAL/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Health and Seniors Care Minister Audrey Gordon speaks at a press conference in October. Columnist Deveryn Ross writes government officials must do more to curb the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba.

How do you say "we told you so" without saying, "we told you so"?

In August, I wrote that the Manitoba government wasnt doing enough to protect children from COVID-19 as they return to in-class instruction. I suggested school boards and local governments could do more to ensure Manitobas kids are safe and protected from the virus.

The same concerns were echoed by health-care professionals, teachers and media throughout the province as the school year drew closer. Its fair to ask if anybody was listening.

Were barely into November and there have already been more COVID-19 outbreaks in classrooms throughout the province than happened in the entire 2020-21 academic year.

Thats just multi-case "outbreaks." There have been more than 900 individual COVID-19 cases (students and staff) in schools since the school year began  and thats only the number of reported cases.

There have been many reports of kids arriving at school with COVID-19 symptoms but not being tested. There are other reports of parents sending their kids to school after giving them medication to mask symptoms.

Just last month, I wrote about the threat posed by a high number of unvaccinated individuals living in the Southern Health district. Like many others, I argued that strong public health restrictions were necessary in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 both within and outside the region.

Five weeks later, the situation in Southern Health is worse, posing a threat to nearby regions, including Westman and Winnipeg.

As of last week, the test positivity rate in Southern Health was 14.5 per cent, more than double the province-wide rate of 6.2 per cent. Of all COVID-19 deaths in the province since Oct. 1, more than half have been from the Southern Health region. More than half of the COVID-19 patients currently in Manitoba ICUs are from that area.

As of two days ago, Manitoba had the second-highest COVID-19 infection rate per 100,000 citizens among all provinces. We will likely pass Saskatchewan for first place in the next few days. Our rate is almost four times higher than Ontarios.

The facts are clear. The fourth COVID-19 wave is here and will worsen unless our government and public health leaders move quickly and deliberately to prevent the spread of the virus. That should start with limiting the movement of unvaccinated Southern Health residents, who appear to be the primary spreaders in the province.

And it would include temporarily closing schools in the region, where transmission rates among children are also high.

Based on comments by Dr. Brent Roussin earlier this week, however, its pretty clear thats not going to happen. We appear doomed to ride the COVID-19 roller coaster for a fourth time, with widespread restrictions likely in December, once things get really bad.

If youre thinking this doesnt impact you because youre double-vaccinated, think again. The immunity offered by the vaccine apparently wears off over time, and the latest stats show growing numbers of vaccinated Manitobans being infected and requiring hospitalization.

What should you do to protect yourself and your family? The answers havent changed.

Get both doses of the vaccine if you are 12 or older, and get the booster shot when you are eligible. Follow the fundamentals; wear a mask when out in public and wash your hands frequently. Continue social distancing and stay away from large crowds.

Dont get careless and let your guard down.

If I had young kids who are still too young to be vaccinated, I would think hard about whether they should be in school with other unvaccinated kids, who may bring the virus to school from their homes. I would stop after-school activities and do my best to ensure they consistently wear a mask and wash their hands often.

I would talk to their doctor about getting them vaccinated once a vaccine is approved for kids ages five to 11.

Our leaders in government and public health were urged to implement serious measures to prevent the onset of a fourth COVID-19 wave in Manitoba. They didnt take those steps, and now growing numbers of Manitobans are getting sick.

This was predicted. It could have been prevented. It didnt have to happen.

 deverynrossletters@gmail.com

 Twitter: @deverynross
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Posting of the Colors at the POW MIA Service of Remebrance was performed by the Branson High School Air Force JROTC.
SO FAR, SO GOOD (...but it was touch and go there for a while) - Jody McBrayer | Merge PR / Jody McBrayer

Nashville, TN - SO FAR, SO GOOD (...but it was touch and go there for a while) is Jody McBrayers life story, a testimony to the power of faith. Releasing November 23rd with Lucid Publishing and the foreword written by Dr. Roger Breland, SO FAR SO GOOD shares how God met Jody in unimaginable and miraculous ways. His life beautifully lays out life like a mosaicopportunities of acclaim among moments of regret, deep heartbreak, and personal disappointment, all culminating in a life destined for purpose.

If you have ever felt alone, uncertain, or overwhelmed, or questioned why God has allowed difficult circumstances to become part of your personal narrative, Jodys story is for you. Every word comes with the hope that you will find healing and comfort in knowing you are not alone.So Far, So Good is currently available for presale at all major outlets, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Jody McBrayer | Merge PR / Jody McBrayer

"Over the last several years Ive come to realize that there is healing in knowing youre not alone," Jody McBrayer shares. "There is hope in feeling that youre not the only one. This book is not just about my life, its about sharing the miraculous faithfulness of God and how, even through the most difficult of circumstances, He has always been there working on my behalf. My prayer is that through these words, someone will see themselves in me and find comfort, strength, and understanding. I pray it will help them to see that Jesus doesnt just love them, He is absolutely crazy about them and He will never stop working on their behalf.

Jody McBrayer is best known for being a member of the award-winning groups Avalon and Canas Voice. In addition to his group endeavors, Jody is also a solo artist, speaker, and worship leader. He has traveled the world telling his story and utilizing his gifts with countless people in the hope that through sharing his life experiences, others will be changed for the better. Jody lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife, Stephanie, and their daughter, Sarah-Clayton.
Musk - who is worth an estimated $US299 billion as the wealthiest person on earth - has been taking a stand against Bidens plans to hike taxes for Americas wealthy with the intention of helping to pay for his $US1.75 trillion social spending package. Eventually they run out of other peoples money, and then they come for you, he previously tweeted, urging people to write in protest to their local representatives. Bidens proposed tax would have been uniquely extended to include taxing unrealised assets, such as gains on held shares, instead of just income, despite many billionaires fortunes remaining on paper. Musks tweet this week dismayed some loyal supporters, who complained Teslas shares could tank, with one writing that this is taking money out of the pockets of the people who have believed in you.

It also prompted claims from one venture capitalist that he was orchestrating an obscenely expensive coin flip. According to tax experts, and the 50-year-old himself, he was already preparing to sell billions of dollars worth of shares to settle a mammoth tax bill. Loading Since 2012, the Tesla boss has been awarded some 22.8 million share options, and they will expire in August 2022 unless he exercises them. This is partly because, while it is common for executives to wait before they access these types of rewards, Musk has also opted to live largely off loans secured against his Tesla holdings rather than cash generated from share sales. His problem now is that while the options cost just $US6.24, Teslas shares have since rocketed north of $US1000. On the Friday before his Twitter poll, they stood at about $US1222 each.

At that price, exercising the options would have netted the billionaire almost $US28 billion in capital gains and left him facing a hefty $US15 billion bill with the US taxman. His overall rate of tax, including federal and state taxes, is expected to be 54.1 per cent, according to CNBC. Musk had publicly discussed the matter at a conference in California in September. I have not really bothered to take money off the table, which is a common thing that most people do. They sell some of their stock, he said. I have a bunch of options that are expiring early next year, so... a huge block of options will sell in Q4 because I have to, or theyll expire. The sharp drop in Teslas share price this week can be seen as fortuitous for the chief executive, whose liabilities will now have shrunk in cash terms. It means the sharp drop in Teslas share price this week can be seen as fortuitous for the chief executive, whose liabilities will now have shrunk in cash terms.

According to analysis by the Telegraph based on Wednesdays closing share price, the capital gains on his share options had dropped to $US24 billion and his potential tax bill to about $US13 billion. That means he may actually be liable for $US1.9 billion less in tax following his Twitter poll antics. Musks brother, Kimbal, was also revealed by regulatory filings to have offloaded about $US109 million worth of shares in Tesla the day before his brother called the vote. The tweets this week were not the first time Musk, 50, has caused a stir. In perhaps his most infamous episode, the chief executive was reprimanded by US stock market regulators for tweeting that he had funding secured for a bid to take Tesla private in 2018. His claim was found to be untrue and the authorities alleged it amounted to securities fraud.

After an investigation, the billionaire and Tesla were each forced to pay $US20 million fines and Musk was forced to give up his dual role as the companys chairman for at least three years as part of a settlement. Loading Officials also demanded that future tweets were reviewed by company lawyers before they were sent. But even after this episode, Musk carried on confounding traders with his online posts. In February 2019, he tweeted that Tesla car production rate would hit 500k in 2019 - without explaining this was actually an annualised figure - before later correcting it to 400,000. He then wiped around $US13 billion off his companys value in May last year by musing aloud that he thought Teslas stock price was too high.

And earlier this month he sent shares tumbling when he said of an announced deal with rental car firm Hertz: No contract has been signed yet. But with Tesla now one of just five listed companies worth $US1 trillion or more globally, the chief executive is still sitting on an enormous fortune. Now, however, his tax troubles mean Musk will finally have to convert more of it to old-fashioned money. Despite this squeeze, the entrepreneur is already back to talking about his favourite subject: plans to help humans settle on other planets and extend the light of consciousness beyond Earth. There are many other good causes, he tweeted, but this is my main reason for accumulating capital.
The following clip contains coarse language Even in the fog of early motherhood the two women mined their lives for material. Once a friend told them over coffee that kangaroos have three vaginas. So their f... -hole is different from the hole they give birth through, Sonia shrieks in an episode. They dont have to do pelvic floor exercises for the rest of their lives. Sometimes Yared and Thaine would call each other: Oh my god, Ive got a zinger!

Its kind of heightened and ridiculous, but everything in the scripts were stories that we came across, Yared says. We might not have personally met someone whod had the orgasmic birth, but we would overhear a conversation in a park or catch up with some other girlfriends and come back to each other with stories. While comedic, the series touches on darker themes; traumatic births, postnatal depression, mum-shaming and being drunk in the middle of the day. Cherrys amazing fantasy birth in a birthing pool with the local Glee West choir singing while the baby was born ended in an emergency caesarean three days into labour with enough drugs to tranquillise a horse and a bladder injury that means she cant piss on her own. The fantasy birth versus the reality is pretty much word for word what happened to me, Thaine says.

We tend not to talk about that stuff. I think its because you want the next person to have a really good experience. You dont want to burst peoples bubble, but I also wish that we talked a little bit more about what to expect or what could happen. Victoria Thaine and Petra Yared mined their lives for material. Credit:Justin McManus Mum Facebook groups were also a source of inspiration. One local mother was upset because she had borrowed a car which didnt have a booster seat in it to drop her child off at daycare, and when she did so another mother admonished her, later sending a text pointing out child restraint laws. The stickybeak mum then took her criticism one step further, saying she noticed the child was dropped off at childcare by different people, implying that she was farming her son out rather than parenting herself. She was so deeply hurt and furious, and I lifted that almost word for word into one of our episodes, Thaine says. Sonia has drunk a little bit too much and is reeling from this attack from another mother. Its so primal that hurt that you feel when someone criticises your parenting. The second season of Sonia & Cherry, a six part series on Facebook and YouTube, is produced by Naomi Mulholland and funded by Screen Victoria under the online project category.

Yared says the pair realised during rehearsals it was important viewers saw that, no matter how ridiculous the characters or the scenarios, the love the mums had for their children was never in question. Loading Its quite comically dark, but I think the point were trying to make is were always trying to present this image of being the perfect mum, Thaine says. My character Cherry, shes got the deck of positive parenting cards, and shes making the formula, shes into the attachment parenting, shes sort of desperately doing all of that, but its becoming her undoing. Thaine wrote Sonia & Cherry to challenge the idea of the perfect mother in a world where parents are overwhelmed with advice.
Glasgow: Each year at the end of global climate talks the Climate Action Network hands out a sort of dunce award to the nation its thousand-odd member organisations believe have been least helpful at the COP conference.

Climate activists stage a protest near the venue for the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow. Credit:PA

The award is called the Colossal Fossil, and as the sun set at what was meant to have been the last day of talks at the Glasgow climate summit, it was awarded to Australia for turning up with low targets, for declining to join international pledges to phase out coal or to reduce gas emissions, for what are seen as slack domestic emission reduction policies and for approving coal mines in the lead-up to the conference.

Beyond distracting the members of CAN, the award is largely meaningless. Except, says, ACF climate manager Gavan McFadzean who is in Glasgow as an observer, it does reflect a broader sentiment at the conference.

Australia was streets ahead in the vote, he says.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size I n a basement restaurant in Glasgow last weekend, Alden Meyer, a veteran of three decades of United Nations climate negotiations, gathered a group of journalists and experts together in the hope the latter could explain to the former what was actually going on in the climate talks. In his opening remarks, Meyer, who has advised many governments on climate and is now a senior associate of the think tank E3G, quoted a comment that Barack Obamas science adviser, John Holdren, once made about climate change. We basically have three choices: mitigation, adaptation and suffering, Holdren said in 2007. Were going to do some of each. The question is what the mix is going to be. The more mitigation we do, the less adaptation will be required and the less suffering there will be. We basically have three choices: mitigation, adaptation and suffering. Former US government science advisor John Holdren On those key metrics, the years since have been wasted, despite the success of the 2015 Paris talks in delivering an agreement on a course of action the world might follow to save itself. Chinas climate pact with the US gave the summit reason to hope, but the superpower was also among the nations trying to water down the final aims. Credit:Getty Asia Pacific

Advertisement

Big visions, small gains Carbon emissions have continued to rise steadily upwards, as has warming, as has extreme weather, as has ocean rise and acidification. Depending on which analysis you trust most, when the latest climate summit began, the world was headed for catastrophic warming of 2.7 degrees, should governments just act on their pledges. In the final hours of negotiations it is headed for catastrophic warming of just over or under two degrees. It might still come down further. But with the last hours of negotiating to come, it seems clear the central goal of COP26  to halve emissions by 2030 so the world has a hope of reaching net zero by 2050 and in turn, perhaps, stabilise the climate with a rise of 1.5 degrees  will not be met.

Advertisement

And whatever the final outcome of the talks, the terms of the terrible equation Holdren laid out a decade-and-a-half ago have now shifted. Due to past and ongoing failure on mitigation, there will now necessarily be far more suffering than there needed to be, and in the corridors of COP26, that fact is etched into the faces of delegates, particularly those from the global south. There will also need to be faster mitigation and more expensive adaptation. Meyers points out that if wed started acting decisively to drive down emissions as recently as 2018, we would have needed a 7 per cent cut in emissions each year to be on a 1.5 degree path. But we didnt, and now we need a 10 per cent cut each year, a figure that grows every month of inaction. We can now add the trillions of dollars needed for developing nations on the climate frontline. They are counting the cost of loss and damage caused by emissions released by wealthy nations over the past 200-odd years, since the industrial revolution began with the steam engines on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow Good cop or bad cop Well before this COP26 summit started, many had written it off.

Advertisement

There were those who feared that the United Kingdom had sidelined itself as a serious international player with Brexit, that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnsons support for the project was rhetorical rather than substantial. There were fears that the summits president, Alok Sharma, was too distracted by cabinet duties to focus on building momentum. The energy crisis would wreck it, said others. What Meyer referred to as the food fight and finger pointing between China and Russia would derail it. But overwhelming it all was the threat of COVID-19. Should the conference become a superspreader event, the cost to the UK hosts would have been catastrophic and the talks themselves could have been hampered as delegates retreated to lockdown in hotels. There were fears that a COVID outbreak could shut down proceedings; masks were everywhere, testing was daily. Credit:Getty Fearing (rightly) that representation from some of the most climate vulnerable countries would be curtailed by pandemic travel restrictions, the Climate Action Network in September called for the conference, which was to have been held last year, to be delayed again. That was never a serious consideration. In a very real sense, the hard work had already been under way for months. Britain, the United States, the G7 and the G20 had laid out a year of diplomacy leading up to this fortnight. It was locked in. We say No more blah, blah, blah... No more whatever the f--k theyre doing inside there Greta Thunberg As the event kicked into its second day, teenage activist Greta Thunberg offered her searing assessment of its worth to protests outside.

Advertisement

Change is not going to come from inside there. That is not leadership. This is leadership... We say No more blah, blah, blah... No more whatever the f--k theyre doing inside there. Hers was, is, an absolutely reasonable point. The world has failed on climate, and it has particularly failed her generation. No more blah, blah, blah: Greta Thunberg addresses protesters outside the COP26 summit. Credit:Getty But inside, on that second day, the end of the leaders meeting was approaching and the tone was sincere and urgent. Recent climate action announcements might give the impression that we are on track to turn things around. This is an illusion, said UN Secretary General Antonia Guterres, who has been carefully increasing the urgency of his own rhetoric for months. Failure to provide the critical finance  and that of loss and damage  is measured, my friends, in lives and livelihoods in our communities. This is immoral, and it is unjust, said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley in a standout address. For those who have eyes to see, for those who have ears to listen, and for those who have a heart to feel: 1.5 is what we need to survive. Two degrees ... is a death sentence for the people of Antigua and Barbuda, for the people of the Maldives, for the people of Dominica and Fiji, for the people of Kenya and Mozambique  and yes, for the people of Samoa and Barbados.

Advertisement
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size

Thump. Thump. As Cobargo Wildlife Sanctuarys Sara Tilling roamed her property, looking for a joey, she knew adult roo Mia was approaching her. I just thought, Here we go, and sure enough, she gave me a great wallop from behind, says Tilling. Shes done it before and usually I brace myself, but because I was wearing really bad shoes, I toppled over.

From the dirt, Tilling looked up wryly at Mia, who apparently found it hilarious: You can see it in her eyes, shes saying, Got ya. You can see her laughing. Shes gentle, but shes a prankster. It didnt hurt, she does it all the time  not to strangers, only to me and Gary, because were part of her mob.

At their wildlife rescue property on NSWs South Coast, Tilling and partner Gary Henderson regularly take in injured kangaroos and wallabies as well as

orphaned joeys; many have been hit by a car (Mia came in as a joey after her mother died this way), others have been attacked by dogs or impaled on fences.

Tilling recognises each of them instantly, including other previous wards whove healed successfully and hopped off into the wild. Every single one is different, she says. Their personalities are different, some are loving, some are cheeky, some are independent. They have beautiful natures.

Tilling and Henderson have woken in the morning to see two injured eastern grey kangaroos lying close together  never previously acquainted  gently grooming each others face. A group of released roos have returned from a nearby forest to keep an injured roo company as it lies on fresh grass.

Im lucky to see one kangaroo these days. Weve lost so many animals. I said to my mum after the fires, my greatest fear is that [the fires devastation] would all be forgotten.

Prankster Mia came back from the wild to give birth in the safety of their sanctuary. Its these moments that help the couple process the other part of their work  euthanising many more animals so badly injured, they simply dont have a chance of returning to the wild.
Alleged drug kingpin Mostafa Baluch has been formally denied bail in Sydney and will be transferred to Goulburns Supermax prison in a fortnight after being recaptured by police as he allegedly sought to flee Australia for an overseas haven.

Mr Baluch, who skipped bail on the northern beaches on October 25 and became the target of a nationwide manhunt, was discovered sitting in a Mercedes inside a shipping container on the back of a truck crossing from NSW into Queensland about 1am on Wednesday.

Mostafa Baluch landed at Bankstown airport on a NSW Police flight on Thursday evening. Credit:Brook Mitchell

He was detained by Queensland police and then extradited to NSW on a police flight on Thursday, touching down at Bankstown airport in the evening, shackled at the wrists and ankles and wearing prison greens.

Mr Baluch, 33, was transported to the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater and charged by police following the bail breach.
The driver of a BMW that went airborne while doing at least 120km/h near a busy Brisbane intersection and killed two people in the carnage that ensued has been jailed for 9 years.

Michael James Smith, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death or grievous bodily harm, excessive speeding and leaving the scene.

The wrecked BMW X3 at the scene, which belonged to Smiths brother. Credit:Nine News Queensland

Smith lost control of his brothers Black 2007 BMW X3 near the junction of Lutwyche Road and Newmarket Road in Windsor on Brisbanes northside just after midnight on May 18, 2019.

Moped rider Umberto Gatti, 32, and Subaru sedan driver Khalilullah Qurbani, 23, were both declared dead at the scene by paramedics after their vehicles bore the brunt of the out-of-control BMW.
Queensland has reported two new COVID-19 cases in home quarantine, linked to a cluster stemming from the NSW town of Moree, amid a critical period to manage a series of unlinked infections on the Gold Coast.

The update comes as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed the state was on track to pass its 70 per cent full-vaccination milestone for the 16-plus population on Sunday or Monday, triggering the first stage of the border reopening plan.

Acting Chief Health Officer Peter Aitken told reporters the two new cases were in two girls  one younger than 10 and the other a teenager  linked to the cross-border cluster now spanning dozens of cases.

The pair had already been identified as close contacts and so were isolated and did not spend any time infectious in the community.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size More young people are leaving NSW and Victoria to move to Queensland as the Millennial migration between Australian states is expected to peak. The shift comes as Brisbanes emerging global-city status continues to draw interstate interest, and will soon attract international migrants and overseas investment. The Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows Queensland gained the most people, about 7000, from net interstate migration over the March 2021 quarter, while Victoria lost the most at almost 5000, followed closely by NSW at 4500 people. In the March 2020 quarter, Queensland recorded the most arrivals across the country at 24,000. The state also recorded the highest arrivals again in March this year, at 28,500. The ABS said in net terms, NSW only gained people from Victoria, 880, and lost most to Queensland, about 3800. NSW and Victoria recorded lower arrivals than departures for the March 2021 quarter, while South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and the ACT had higher arrivals than departures, echoing Queensland.

Advertisement

Social researcher Mark McCrindle said Queensland was yet to see the peak in interstate arrivals, which would occur once there were no travel restrictions. He said younger people were realising they could have the housing affordability and lifestyle of Queensland, and the job market was expanding. Social researcher Mark McCrindle. Credit:Domino Postiglione In September, Queensland outshone every other state and territory with the biggest boost in the number of people in work, while recording the second-worst unemployment rate in Australia. It used to be the Baby Boomers, it was a story of retirement, Mr McCrindle said. But thats not what this is, its remarkable. Its the Millennial migration, its the younger generations moving into an area and the benefits of the diversity of generations heading into an area is that it creates broader demand for schooling, education at university and tertiary, theres a stimulus to the labour market as people work.

Advertisement

Mr McCrindle said Brisbane was emerging as a global city, following the announcement it would be the main host city of the 2032 Olympic Games. Problems of housing affordability, congestion and infrastructure bottlenecks in Sydney and Melbourne amplified the shift. In fact, theyre more a liability than an asset because not only have we not been going there [to CBDs], theyve been ghost towns, and its where all the high-rise living was, shared common places, public transport and all things people didnt want to do [during COVID-19], he said. Julia Matthews, who moved with her family from Sydneys south-western suburb of Camden to Redlands in Brisbanes east, said affordability, lifestyle and work-life balance were the major incentives. Julia Matthews and her family moved from Sydney to Brisbane at the end of 2020, buying their Redlands home unseen before the market surged. Wanting a sea change or tree change, the family considered the NSW Central Coast or southern coast, but was put off by housing prices and a lack of access to services such as medical facilities and universities.

Advertisement

Mortgage stress is a massive issue in south-western Sydney, Ms Matthews said. Families recognise that theyre up to their necks in mortgage repayments. I feel like life has just come down a few knots, rather than living fast-paced all the time in Sydney running around. I think it used to just be your retirees that would come up, move north, but now youre getting lots of young families that just want a good start for their kids and dont have that mortgage stress that they would in Sydney. Former Adelaide man Marc Mastrodomenico moved to Brisbane in January 2021 for work. Credit:Christian Hartung Photography Marc Mastrodomenico, who moved from Adelaide to Brisbane in January, said he did not regret making the jump. After searching for jobs in Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast, the 25-year-old said Queensland was more appealing because of the lifestyle, weather and culture.

Advertisement

I was working from home for three months, and then I lost my job for another three months, so I began actively applying for jobs in September last year, he said. Like most people in Adelaide, you think youll move to Melbourne, but the motorsport industry is very much on the Gold Coast. There were opportunities to stay in South Australia, but Queensland was more appealing because of the lifestyle, weather and culture and I got offered a job with a motorsport team on the Gold Coast. Moving had been on former Melburnian Nicky Milenkovskas mind for a long time. I shouldve done it 15 years ago when it was easier, but I havent had any issues, the 43-year-old said. Nicky Milenkovska (left) catches up with a friend in Brisbane, Simone, after her move from Melbourne. She moved with her partner in May this year after getting a job with the Australian Tax Office.

Advertisement
The recommended system overhaul would include: The introduction of restorative justice as a mainstream alternative to trials;

Government support to help survivors take civil action against offenders;

Mandatory training for judges, magistrates and barristers dealing with sexual offending to ensure all involved are specialists, and

A panel of experts created to give trial evidence at short notice to counter rape myths such as that delay in reporting reduces veracity. Ms Symes described it as an enormous job and vowed to work closely with survivors. Greg Barns, SC. Greg Barns SC, criminal barrister and spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, said the introduction of restorative justice, if reflected in sentencing, would encourage pleas of guilty, allowing victims a much more direct say in explaining the impact on their lives of the assault.

It would also relieve pressure on court waiting lists, which were horrific in the magistrates and County courts in Victoria, he said, adding Its a much better alternative than the winner takes all trial. Gabrielle Williams, Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, said sexual assault violated trust, autonomy and respect and victim-survivors had lived silently with the trauma of sexual violence for too long. Today, we honour their strength, resilience and courage  delivering reform that will assist in getting the justice they deserve, she said. The government will commit an initial $5.2 million for boosting sexual assault services to help respond to increasing demand. The commission, chaired by Justice Tony North, also recommended survivors be represented at all stages of the justice process by a legal advocate and a world-first Commission for Sexual Safety be established.

Survivor Saxon Mullins has lobbied for affirmative consent laws to be introduced. Credit:Janie Barrett The commission would oversee the independent review of police and prosecution decisions, which Mr North said was one of the very fraught areas, where victims crash in the process after being told a case would not go ahead based on the perceived chances of success. Victims have told us how very dissatisfied they are when the police say, Oh no, were not going to lay charges because we dont think the case would succeed, or theres not enough evidence. We think the answer to that is to have an independent panel to review those prosecutorial decisions, he said. Having taken 71 submissions to the inquiry, Mr North said the extent of how bad the justice process and outcomes were for women was horrifying. The commission had changed its thinking on affirmative consent since May this year, when Mr North said existing jury directions were strong enough.

This shift was in part due to the progress of the NSW legislation. Victims of Crime Commissioner, Fiona McCormack had also lobbied to have affirmative consent included. Loading This is a moment in history where we have to move in accordance with the tsunami [of sexual assault] thats been disclosed by the [likes of] Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins, Saxon Mullins and Nadia Bach. This is why we proposed such a far-reaching and powerful package overseen by a world-first commission, he said. Ms Tame has started a campaign to have a uniform definition of consent applied around Australia. The Commission for Sexual Safety would elevate the problem so that the community understands the government takes it incredibly seriously, so it will be a focal point for setting standards and monitoring, Mr North said.

There would be an enforceable duty on employers and others such as universities to eliminate sexual violence and harassment, and people would be able to report sexual offending confidentially online. Police need better training in how to respond to victim-survivors who report, the review said. Victims of Crime Commissioner Fiona McCormack lobbied for affirmative consent to be included in the VLRC recommendations after it indicated it would not recommend changes. Credit:Wayne Taylor Melbourne University criminology lecturer Dr Bianca Fileborn, a specialist in the field of sexual violence and harassment, said it was heartening to see the government take a progressive approach to sexual consent and put greater onus on defendants proving they obtained consent. These reforms will hopefully set a higher standard in terms of what is expected of members of the community in negotiating sexual consent, Ms Fileborn said.
A man charged with four counts of assaulting police in the midst of violent anti-lockdown demonstrations has been granted bail after his lawyer told a court he doesnt want to be involved in protests anymore.

On Thursday Elwood man Ulric Wharerau was charged with 20 offences over allegations he assaulted and resisted police, intentionally caused injury, committed assault with a weapon and rioted during the demonstrations in Melbournes inner-east on September 18.

Police lines were overrun in Hawthorn in September. Credit:David Estcourt

The 52-year-old was identified after Prime Taskforce detectives pored over footage provided by Seven News that captured many demonstrators hurling projectiles and abuse at authorities before surging through the police line, screaming and being soaked in capsicum spray as they went.

Mr Wharerau, a former bus driver who refused to get vaccinated and has since been laid off, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court via videolink from Moorabbin police station and said little throughout Friday afternoons bail application.
Your model will only be as good as the information you have, says Professor Jodie McVernon, director of Doherty Epidemiology at the Doherty Institute. Loading New variants. Different public health measures. More information about how effective vaccines are. As all this changes, so too does the modelling. The model projections are basically the best we can do with the available evidence at the time, Scott says. Over time, our picture of that data gets clearer and clearer. Even in the months since completing the major modelling used to underpin the countrys reopening plan, the data has vastly improved, McVernon says. At that point, Delta was a brand new thing, we didnt know as much about it, we hadnt had as much opportunity to see how well the vaccines worked. And so we made a whole set of assumptions based on what we knew back in July, she says.

But after going back and adjusting some of their parameters for the latest November modelling, McVernon says when they were put in the model, they got essentially the same results as July. So why didnt Sydney, for instance, end up with thousands of hospitalisations and ICU admissions, and a peak of 2000 cases a day? Jodie McVernon, Director of epidemiology at the Doherty Institute in Melbourne. Credit:Simon Schluter McVernon says its important to note that if the modelling said there was going to be hundreds of new cases a day, thats a scenario, not a prediction. That was allowing you to compare one strategy with another strategy; a different coverage level, a different set of measures, to see whether you would expect one [strategy] to be better or worse, she adds. New data has also played a role, specifically around the effectiveness of vaccines. In a huge positive, they have been far more effective at preventing hospitalisation and severe illness than originally thought, with all three vaccines currently being used in Australia performing better in real-world settings than they did in the original trials.

Its actually quite a clear example of why projections will change over time when new data becomes available, Scott says. In updated models, we have the benefit of more data on vaccines. So that all goes in and it helps to inform the next set of decisions that need to be made. As the data changes, so too do the questions that governments want answered. Prime Minister Scott Morrison in national cabinet in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen McVernon has regularly briefed national cabinet on the latest modelling. Early on, she said the countrys leaders needed broad answers. In very early scenarios, the biggest question we had was how severe was this disease going to be?, she said. And we had vast ranges of possibilities right back at the beginning.

Models themselves can also vary  from back-of-the-envelope calculations to detailed and complex mathematical equations. Assumptions about things including how effective the vaccine will be can have a huge impact on the results. While most modellers will try to use the best available evidence, the way they incorporate that into the model might be slightly different, McVernon says. So we have seen some models that have had more pessimistic predictions about clinical cases and others that have been less so. Projected case numbers and hospitalisations are one thing. But what governments and policymakers really want to know from the modelling is what is the best decision they can make. The original modelling looked at scenarios around how bad the pandemic could be for the country. The latest tranche was much more detailed. Rather than looking at a national scenario, there are granular investigations of outbreaks in school settings, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, local government area-specific modelling and a look at the risk of COVID-19 from international arrivals. The more information we have, the more we can bring that into the model. And that will actually make it more likely to produce meaningful outcomes, McVernon says.

Loading Modelling is also not in itself a solution. Its up to governments to decide what actions they should take and what risks theyre willing to bear. The reason that the actual model is useful is that a lot of these things are not linear, McVernon says. This has become increasingly obvious as states and territories reveal opening plans: NSW and Victoria are more willing to continue living with levels of COVID-19 in the community, while Western Australia wants at least 90 per cent of its population vaccinated before it considers fully reopening. The strength of modelling is it pulls together all the pieces of information at hand  the effectiveness of vaccines, the effect of social distancing and working-from-home measures  puts them in one spot and shows what happens when governments do or dont combine them.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne says she welcomes a climate agreement between the United States and China but it needs to be translated into action, conceding there are still many differences between the worlds two largest emitters.

In a boost to the flagging COP26 talks, Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and his US counterpart John Kerry stunned observers earlier this week by unveiling a joint declaration pledging tougher action this decade.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne, who met her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta on Thursday. Credit:Getty

After meeting her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta in the Blue Mountains on Friday, Senator Payne said anyone would welcome the worlds two biggest emitters agreeing to reduce emissions in the short term but the world now needed to see words translate into action.

But we know that the US Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry himself has noted that not withstanding an agreement like that there are indeed many differences in the context of the US-China relationship, she said.
Federal leaders have ignited a political fight on trust and honesty after Prime Minister Scott Morrison misrepresented several Labor policies while denying he had ever told a lie in public life.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese accused Mr Morrison of misleading voters after a campaign blitz in which both leaders tried to win voters in NSW and Victoria in a foretaste of next years federal election.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he does not believe he has told a lie in public life. Credit:Simon Schluter

Less than two weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron branded Mr Morrison a liar at the G20 summit in Rome, the Prime Minister was asked on Melbourne radio station 3AW whether he had ever told a lie in public life.

I dont believe I have, no, Mr Morrison said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has challenged corporate Australia to step up and end its rent-seeking approach by instead focusing on offering the cheaper, sustainable solutions that customers are demanding across Australia and in the worlds biggest economies.

In an interview with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, an upbeat Mr Morrison said he believes the world will beat climate change in the same way it has responded to other crises and warned against adopting the defeatist attitudes of climate activists and foreign leaders who say well all be ruined.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits the Toyota Hydrogen Centre in Altona. Credit:Wayne Taylor

Im very confident we can solve this, Mr Morrison said, sharpening his re-election pitch to voters ahead of next years poll. I have much more confidence based on the track record of world history that this will be solved by the entrepreneurs and the scientists and the industrialists and the risk-takers and the investors, and supported by smart regulation.

Modelling released on Friday of the governments plan to reach net zero emissions showed Australians would be $2000 per person better off by 2050 by reducing emissions. It found hundreds of thousands of jobs would be created in areas such as mining and manufacturing, but there would be substantial dislocation to the coal industry which is expected to halve in value. The modelling also found Australia would face high carbon tariffs imposed on its exports if it failed to adopt a net zero target.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has conceded he failed in his role as Treasurer to adequately fund palliative care, promising to fix the system rather than allow voluntary assisted dying.

Mr Perrottet began the debate into the bill to legalise assisted dying in NSW on Friday, revealing that only last week he was sitting by the hospital bed of his terminally ill grandmother.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said better palliative care in NSW was needed, not assisted dying. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

He said the 90-year-old was in severe pain and he knew that she wanted it to be over.

So this is not abstract for me, it is very real and very personal, Mr Perrottet told Parliament.
London: Britains Queen Elizabeth will attend a Remembrance Day Service on Sunday, Buckingham Palace said, in her first public engagement in person since she spent a night in hospital last month and was subsequently advised to rest.

Last month the 95-year-old queen spent a night in hospital for the first time in years for what the palace called preliminary investigations into an unspecified ailment.

Britains Queen Elizabeth. Credit:PA

She has been subsequently advised to rest, and has been undertaking light duties over the last few weeks including hosting some virtual audiences.

The Queen will attend the annual Remembrance Day Service at the Cenotaph on Sunday 14th November, Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Thursday (Friday AEDT) about the ceremony to remember those killed and wounded in conflict.
Glasgow: Negotiators have fought back tears while begging the worlds biggest polluters to do more in the fight against climate change, as a dispute between rich and poor countries forced the Glasgow summit to be extended into the weekend.

The COP26 talks, which have already run for nearly a fortnight, edged into Saturday, Glasgow time, while delegations thrash out the terms of a new blueprint to keep afloat the life and death goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5 degrees.

Greenpeace activists float a sign over a globe at the COP26 summit venue. Credit:Getty

Disagreement focuses on three key areas: emissions reduction pledges, compensation and financial aid for vulnerable developing nations, and the design of a voluntary international carbon market.

Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, India and Brazil were privately blamed for frustrating progress on phasing out coal, while a collection of nearly 140 developing nations known as the G77 dug its heels in over demands for wealthy nations to hand over billions of dollars to address loss and damage already caused by climate change. The bloc has the support of China, the worlds largest emitter and a key player in the talks.
Latest News Big Four reports suggest radical changes in home buying trends Both NAB and CBA have released data that suggests that Covid and housing affordability crisis have drastically altered how people buy property in Australia

Brokers are leading customers away from the Big Four, says research The broker channel is sending more clients than ever away from the Big Four  and customers are loving them for it

New research from SME fintech lender Prospa has indicated that demand for commercial financing is surging across Australia.

The study, carried out by RFi Group on behalf of Prospa, suggests that 37% of small businesses are in need of funds in the next 6-12 months, a number that grows to over 50% for those that are between two and five years old.

Those mid-aged SMEs are also the ones that need the most funding, with between $46,000 and $58,000 in financing required.

The demand is spread across several sectors, with standard financing arrangements such as asset finance for tools and equipment ranked alongside funding for digital transformation and restocking inventory after lockdown reopening as major drivers.

READ MORE: What brokers need to know about Bitcoin and property

Positive sentiment is on the rise with restrictions relaxing in time for end of year trade, one of the busiest times of the year, reflecting that the nation is entering a phase of strong economic recovery, said Roberto Sanz, national sales manager at Prospa. However, 37 per cent of businesses require credit to get the business back on track.

An incredible 87% of small businesses believe that an opportunity would be lost without access to credit, which highlights the importance of readily available funding.

With demand for funds high, and small businesses requiring it fast, we encourage brokers to consider alternative lenders such as Prospa. We offer funding in 24 hours, and now offering 8 weeks no repayments until the end of the year, to ensure this time tomorrow businesses can recover and thrive.

Over the past few months, restrictions may have led many small business owners to be more controlled with their cashflow and leading to the delaying of purchasing decisions. Now as the nation reopens, we expect small businesses would require credit to retool, restock, and rehire to seize opportunities.

We launched Prospa Plus Small Business Loans last month, a product that was designed after feedback from our partners, enabling us to now offer loans of up to $500,000 with improved terms to ensure brokers can service more of their clients.

Our team are readily available to listen to the feedback of our partner community and provide them with the right tools to ensure we can service more small businesses together.
Australian Broker TV brings you closer to the industry's most influential leaders and thinkers. Click on the videos below to watch the interviews:

Australia's top brokers share award-winning strategies The Big Four talk SLAs, competition, and dedication to the broker channel  full report in November's MPA
Healthcare major Enterprise on Friday reported an over fourfold jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 267.41 crore for the quarter ended September 30, mainly on account of a pick-up in non-COVID-19 revenue and steady return of patient mix to pre-COVID-19 levels.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 58.99 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Enterprise said in a regulatory filing.

Its consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 3,717.07 crore for the quarter under consideration. It was Rs 2,760.72 crore for the same period a year ago, it added.

Group Chairman Prathap C Reddy said, "We are glad to report a strong quarter that builds on the trajectory that we saw in the first three months of the year."



During the second quarter, the company also saw patients confidently returning to the hospitals including the OPDs and inpatient admissions. The trend has started to shift with an increase in non-COVID-19 revenue and a pick-up in surgical volumes, he added.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise through its existing subsidiary Assam Hospitals Ltd has entered into definitive agreements for the acquisition of a 64 per cent majority stake in Asclepius Hospitals and Healthcare Pvt Ltd, which runs a 180-bed multispeciality hospital in Guwahati under the name of Excelcare Hospital, the filing said.

"The acquisition would be for an Enterprise value of Rs 210 crore and would be funded by Assam Hospitals Ltd, primarily through its reserves," it added.

The company's board has approved the proposal for appointment of Rama Bijapurkar as an additional director with effect from November 12, 2021, to hold office as its independent director, the filing said.

As on September 30, 2021, Apollo Hospitals had 7,647 operating beds across the network.

(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 Aditya Birla groups holding firm, today said its consolidated revenue for the September quarter was up 26 per cent to Rs 22,564 crore while its profit after tax was up 41 per cent to Rs 1,359 crore on a year-on-year basis.

On a standalone basis, the company reported a 180 per cent jump in its standalone profit to Rs 979 crore in the September quarter when compared to the same period of fiscal 2021. Its revenues were up 67 per cent to Rs 4,933 crore in the September quarter on a standalone basis.

The company, which is making an entry into the paints business, said it has already acquired land in Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to make paints. These locations have been identified based on proximity to key consumption hubs across India. The process of environmental clearance is also underway for various project sites. The contracts for basic engineering and detailed engineering have been awarded, the company said.

On its VSF business, the company said it has made considerable progress in its commissioning schedule and its brownfield expansion at Vilayat has been commissioned in November, while the second line will be ready for commissioning by December-end as planned. "The Chinese textile demand was impacted by weak business sentiment in the value chain. The VSF prices in China moderated during the quarter, however, the prices have witnessed a considerable improvement since October -- driven by drastic operating rate cuts in fibre and yarn manufacturing," it said.

The company said the demand for textile products bounced back in India during the September quarter with the onset of the festive season, phased reopening of schools, educational institutions, offices and increased textile sourcing from India by global brands as a part of the China plus One strategy.

China Plus One is the business de-risking strategy of world-wide to avoid investing only in China and diversify business into other countries.

The VSF business also reported strong operational and financial performance driven by demand momentum and better product mix. The VSF business recorded the highest ever total sales volume with domestic sales volume, back to the pre-pandemic level. The share of value-added products in the overall sales mix almost doubled YoY to 27 per cent.

The company said caustic soda prices in India recovered from multi-quarter lows supported by the recovery in demand, tightness in supply led by production losses and higher export sales driven by better overseas realisation. The caustic soda capacity utilization stood at 86 per cent in Q2FY22, sequentially higher. The domestic demand for caustic soda was driven by the textile and pulp & paper sectors, it said.
The Friday agreed to hear on November 25 the plea on Ltd's family feud related to assets in which KBL CMD Sanjay Kirloskar has challenged the Bombay High Court order directing arbitration in the case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana, on July 27 had ordered status quo in the matter and asked the parties involved in the case to explore the possibility of mediation.

This was the Kriloskar family dispute wherein the this court on July 27 had expressed views on exploring the mediation possibility and it is very sad that we have written about even appointing the mediator now we are three-four months down and mediator has been appointed, senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Sanjay Kriloskar, told the bench which also comprised justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli.

Now, the other side has been coming out with new competing products, Singhvi said, urging to list the case.

The bench said it the plea may be listed for hearing on November 25.

Earlier, the bench had ordered status quo in the case between feuding family members of the Kriloskar group and it was also extended to the proceedings in the Pune civil court on KBL seeking damages for violation of the family deed.

Asking the parties involved in the case to explore the possibility of mediation, the bench had issued notice on the appeal by Sanjay Kirloskar and asked them to file replies within six weeks.

The top court had asked - Sanjay and Atul with others to explore mediation to resolve the family dispute relating to the assets.

"We both (judges) feel it is one of the reputed families and We feel the issues are sorted out by mediation or arbitration which is better in the interest of the company," the bench had said.

"You go on litigating in the civil courts, you know. I don't want to comment on the system. All the lawyers can sit together and solve a way out and if you want some external assistance we can appoint a retired judge. Why do you unnecessarily want to fight this litigation? You can have some alternative resolution. There must be some common family friends and they can mediate," the bench had said.

The feud over the deed of family settlement relating to the assets of the more than 130-year old Kirloskar group reached the apex court, with Sanjay Kirloskar moving the apex court against the Bombay High Court order that had relegated the dispute to arbitration.

The appeal contended that the order of the High Court is factually and legally untenable and misconceived and it contains serious errors of fact and law and incorrect findings have been arrived at on an erroneous basis.

"The Judge has grossly erred in referring the Deed of Family Settlement (DFS) Suit and the parties thereto, to arbitration even though certain entities/persons who are parties to the suit are not signatories of DFS, hence not signatories to the arbitration agreement," the appeal stated.

The Kirloskar family members had entered into the DFS in 2009.

As per the appeal, according to the DFS, disputes relating to Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies (KIAMS) and Kirloskar Foundation (KF) are to be resolved unanimously and in case there is no unanimity, the issue is to be referred to two arbitrators -- Anil Alwani and C H Naniwadekar. If they differ in opinion then the dispute is to be referred to the third arbitrator -- Srikrishna Inamdar.

DFS makes it clear however that only disputes relating to KIAMS and KF shall be referred for arbitration and not other disputes, the appeal said.

Another DFS clause states that no one in the family will compete with any other member in business. For instance, if one brother is manufacturing pumps, the other one would not engage in the same business, it added.

According to KBL, this clause has been violated by Rahul and Atul who have taken a stake in a pump manufacturing company, namely La Gajjar Machineries Pvt Ltd.

Being aggrieved, KBL had earlier filed a case in a Pune civil court seeking Rs 750 crore damages for violation of the agreement, the appeal said.

During the pendency of the suit in Pune court, Atul, Rahul and other respondents moved the Bombay High Court saying DFS had a clause that in case of dispute the parties can go in for Arbitration.

The high court, hearing their plea, had agreed with them and ordered resolution through Arbitration.

This order has now been challenged by Sanjay Kirloskar in the top court on the ground that only disputes relating to KIAMS and KF shall be referred for arbitration and no other disputes would be entertained by the arbitrators.

(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 Liz Lee and Jamie Freed

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - All three groups of creditors of Malaysian long-haul low-cost airline AirAsia X (AAX) have agreed to a restructuring scheme that proposes to pay just 0.5% of debt owed and to terminate all existing contracts, a person familiar with the matter said.

AAX said on Friday the first of three groups had voted 100% in favour of the plan to restructure 33.65 billion ringgit ($8.1 billion) of liabilities and the second had voted 97.6% in favour.

The only creditor in the final group is planemaker Airbus, which has also voted in favour of the deal, the person told Reuters on condition of anonymity, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg

An AAX spokesperson declined to comment, saying voting was ongoing. AAX shares rose as much as 33% on Friday to their highest since Nov. 1.

AAX last month said the airline faced liquidation if creditors did not agree to the plan, which will be followed by a 500 million ringgit equity raising.

It is one of many carriers in the Asia-Pacific region to have entered a court-overseen debt restructuring process to survive the pandemic. Others include Malaysia Airlines, Virgin Australia, Thai Airways and Philippine Airlines.

AAX needed 75% of each of the three classes of creditors to approve the plan for it to proceed.

The first class of AAX creditors includes airports, financial institutions and maintenance providers, according to a 127-page explanatory statement for the creditors meeting seen by Reuters.

The second class includes engine suppliers, lessors, trade creditors, travel agents and passengers, the document said.

Half of the airline's total liability is the cost of terminating airplane orders from Airbus for 78 A330neo widebodies and 30 A321neo narrowbodies, the document said.

AAX also said it is in negotiations with lessors of 29 planes and certain other creditors on commercial terms for continued or future business relationships.

The 0.5% of debt owed to each creditor will be paid from operating cash flow one year after the debt restructuring goes into effect, the airline said in the document.

AAX also proposed that if it were to garner more than 300 million ringgit in annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, lease rentals and restructuring costs during its 2023-2026 financial years, all creditors except Airbus would be entitled to 20% of those earnings.

(Reporting by Liz Lee in Kuala Lumpur and Jamie Freed in Sydney; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Lincoln Feast)

(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.)
Walmart-owned online fashion retailer Myntra, has announced the appointment of Nandita Sinha as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2022. Nandita will join from group company Flipkart, where, as vice president, Customer Growth and Marketing, she is currently leading the overall charter for marketing.



As a seasoned leader in the consumer internet space, Sinha has deep expertise in leading businesses, and driving tech-pivoted growth and innovation. During her nearly 8 year tenure at Flipkart, she has worked across multiple roles and categories, including beauty & personal care, books and general merchandise, home and furniture and has built a strong organisation, grooming several future leaders with her exemplary people skills.



She joined in August 2013 after stints in Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Britannia Industries Ltd. Before joining Flipkart, she was the co-founder at MyBabyCart.com, an e-commerce site, where she was responsible for driving revenue and customer growth. Nandita brings together a unique combination of deep customer and category understanding, strong business acumen, technology thinking and people leadership. Like her predecessor, Amar Nagaram, who led as the CEO for nearly three years, in her new role, Sinha will be reporting to the Group CEO, Kalyan Krishnamurthy.



 is integral to the group as an organisation that leads the charter on fashion, beauty and lifestyle, solving the dynamic needs of the modern fashion-conscious consumer," said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Group. "As the forerunner of several innovations and unique consumer experiences, our aspirations continue to grow for Myntra as a separate company. I am certain that with her strong background in driving businesses and an acute focus on customer-centricity, Nandita (Sinha) will be instrumental in defining the next phase of Myntras evolution as its CEO.



On her new role, Nandita Sinha, said as a leading player in the space, Myntra has played a key role in revolutionising how people shop fashion and beauty, on the back of an amazing customer experience. "I am very excited about my new role and look forward to the opportunity of driving Myntras vision of democratising fashion further while working with a very talented team at Myntra," said Sinha, who holds an MBA in Marketing & Strategy from FMS Delhi and is a BTech Graduate from IIT BHU.



Last month, Amar Nagaram, the chief executive officer of Myntra, quit the company. After nearly three years of leading Myntra, Nagaram decided to leave the Flipkart Group to pursue his own venture.
Auto ecommerce platform has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with markets regulator to raise Rs 3,000 crore in an initial public offering. The offer comprises a fresh issue of aggregating up to Rs 2,000 crore and an offer for sale of up to Rs 1,000 crore.

As a part of the OFS, Pte. Ltd, is the holding company based in Singapore, will sell up to Rs 1000 crore, according to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) filed with

Additionally, the company, in consultation with the lead bankers to the issue may consider a further issue of equity shares including a private placement aggregating up to Rs 400 crore. If such placement is completed, the fresh issue size will be reduced.

The company intends to utilise the net proceeds from the fresh issue to fund organic and inorganic growth initiatives aggregating to Rs 1,150 crore and Rs 400 crore respectively and towards general corporate purposes.

For the six months ended September 30, 2021, it has seen 89.27 million visits on its website and app, and has a network of 20,725 auto dealers present in 1,151 cities. It has 2,78,807 used vehicles in 11 categories listed valued at Rs 14,649 crore on its platform, and it sold 56,412 vehicles with a GMV of Rs 5,935 crore in H1 of FY22.

Its revenue in the June quarter was Rs 79 crore and it registered a net loss of Rs 33 crore in the period. Its revenue shrank 27 per cent from Rs 172 crore in FY20 to Rs 125 crore in FY21. Its losses reduced 23 per cent from Rs 90 crore in FY20 to Rs 69 crore in FY21.

ICICI Securities Limited, Axis Capital Limited, Edelweiss Financial Services Limited, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Limited and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Limited are the book running lead managers to the issue.
Ruchir Sharma, the head of emerging markets and chief global strategist at Investment Management, has quit the investment bank after working there for 25 years.

Sharma, who is based in New York, is the author of bestsellers including Breakout Nations in 2012 and The Rise and Fall of Nations in 2016.

has appointed Amy Oldenburg as head of emerging markets equity at its investment management business, replacing who is leaving after a 25-year stint at the bank, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Oldenburg has spent over 20 years in Morgan Stanleys asset management business and has been chief operating officer overseeing its emerging markets platform since 2013, reported Reuters on Friday.

Sharma joined Investment Management in 1996 and also served as its chief global strategist.

Eric Carlson will become head of sustainability, supporting the teams growth in sustainable investing solutions, the memo said.
Markets regulator on Friday invited objection or claims in respect of PACL's property at Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

Pursuant to a Supreme Court order passed in October 2021 and Delhi High Court's order passed in September 2021, the possession of Property No. 55, Block-C, Sector-57, has been taken over by the nodal officer cum secretary to the Justice (Retd.) R.M. Lodha Committee, as per a notice.

had set up a committee headed by former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha following a Supreme Court order to refund money to investors in the matter of Group.

Any person/ entity seeking to assert a claim in respect of the property, may do so in writing together with all requisite supporting documents within 14 days from the date of publication.

After this time period, it will be presumed that no such claim exists and/ or the same has been waived and discharged, said.

Such claim may be filed with the office of R.S. Virk, District Judge (Retd.) at the address given by Sebi in the notice.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Corp. is nearing a deal to buy a stake in technology unicorn Icertis Inc., valuing the enterprise software maker at about $5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.



The Japanese investor will pay about $80 million for the stake owned by Fidelity-backed Eight Roads Ventures, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isnt public. SoftBank is also looking to further raise its holdings in Icertis, the people said.

Icertis, which is based in Bellevue, Washington and has operations in India, is planning a potential initial public offering in the U.S. as early as next year, the people said. It was valued at about $2.8 billion in March when it secured $80 million in a series F funding round led by B Capital Group, according to a statement at the time.

Deliberations are ongoing and theres no certainty the transaction will go through, the people said. Representatives for SoftBank and Eight Roads Ventures India declined to comment, while Icertis didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

Fidelity Growth Partners India led Icertis $6 million series A funding round in 2015, along with Greycroft Partners, the software maker announced at the time. Fidelity Growth Partners was renamed Eight Roads Ventures shortly after.

Icertis is seeking to compete with giants such as SAP SE and Oracle Corp. to help businesses manage contracts in the cloud. Freshworks Inc., a startup founded in India, raised about $1 billion in a U.S. IPO in September.

Icertis says it helps customers worldwide manage over 10 million contracts, which have a total value of more than $1 trillion, according to its website.
Company, the flagship company of the $8.5 billion TVS Group, announced on Friday that it has joined Global Compact, the worlds largest sustainability initiative.

The company has become the first Indian two-wheeler and three-wheeler manufacturer to be a part of UN Global Compact, a voluntary initiative based on CEO commitments to implement universal sustainability principles. As a part of the Global Compact, we will be further able to build on our efforts across the supply chain with access to the right tools and experts. We also look forward to engaging in collaborative projects which advance the wider development goals of the United Nations, particularly the Sustainable Development Goals, said Venu Srinivasan, Chairman, Company.

All Company offices and operations globally, in India, Singapore, Indonesia, the UK, and Europe, will adhere to the commitment. This will also enable TVS Motor Company to access a wide range of tools and learn from the UN Global Compact expertise on this topic to take our sustainability efforts further. The company can extend the UN Global Compact to its other partners and vendors and bring them onboard as part of its effort in the future.

"The commitment to support UNGC Principles and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has encouraged socially responsible organisations across India to join the Global Compact initiative. We are delighted to welcome TVS Motor into the GCN India family and look forward to jointly pursuing goal-oriented initiatives towards the advancement of UN Global Compacts mandates and achievement of SDGs, said Subhash Kumar, President, UN-GCNI and Chairman of ONGC.

The Global Compact is a call to to align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Launched in 2000, the UN Global Compact is the largest corporate sustainability initiative globally, with more than 14,000 and 3,000 non-business signatories in over 160 countries and more than 70 Local Networks. Currently, UN Global Compact has around 400 participating organisations in India from various industries. TVS Motor Company will now support the principles of the United Nations Global Compact on human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption.
Union Home Minister and former president reached here on Friday and chaired a crucial party meeting to decide on the poll strategy ahead of the 2022 assembly elections.

Shah reached Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi on a two-day visit to a warm welcome with thousands of hoardings greeting him.

On his arrival, Shah was received by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister and BJP's UP affairs in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan, Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma and party state president Swatantra Dev Singh.

Before chairing the meeting, Shah reached Lanka Crossing and garlanded the statue of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and later reached Hastkala Sankul (trade facilitation centre for handicrafts to participate in the meeting.

The party functionaries who attended the crucial meet included in-charges of all 403 assembly constituencies of the states besides the district and regional level leaders.

It is Shah's second visit to the state within a fortnight. Earlier on Oct 29, he had launched a membership drive in the state capital and made it clear that Adityanath would be the party's chief ministerial face in the elections.

Thousands of hoardings have been put in Varanasi for welcoming the party leader, who had in past held responsibility of party's UP affiars in-charge in 2014.

Earlier in the day, about 50 Congress workers, protesting against the alleged misuse of government buildings for party (BJP) events, were detained by police.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Varuna Zone) Prabal Pratap Singh said about 50 Congress workers have been detained over the apprehension that they may disturb the peace.

Former Congress MLA Ajay Rai alleged the government buildings of the country and the state are constantly being misused by the Bharatiya Janata Party for their party events.

After the meeting, in which Shah is likely to give "winning tips" to the party leaders, he would be staying here and will attend All India Rajbhasha Sammelan.

He will also visit Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav's Lok Sabha constituency Azamgarh, where he will lay the foundation stone of a state university and will address a public meeting in Basti.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
has become Indias biggest security threat and the tens of thousands of troops and weaponry that New Delhi rushed to secure its disputed Himalayan border last year will not be able to return to base for a long time, the Chief of Defence Staff General said.

A lack of trust and growing suspicion is coming in the way of resolving the border dispute between the nuclear-armed neighbours, Rawat said late Thursday. Last month, the 13th round of border talks between Indian and Chinese military commanders ended in a stalemate as both sides couldnt agree on how to pull back from the border.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis administration has shifted its strategic focus from long-time rival Pakistan after the deadliest India- fighting in four decades erupted last summer. Since then, and India have been adding to infrastructure, troops and military hardware along the disputed Himalayan frontier, Rawat said. India is prepared for any misadventure along the border and in the sea, he said.

His comments coincided with Indias Foreign Ministrys criticism of new Chinese construction in areas that both sides claim. The defence chief said the Chinese are building villages along the Line of Actual Control.

The Chinese are building villages, possibly for billeting and locating their civilians or for the military in the future all along the LAC, particularly after the recent face offs that weve had, he said.
leader on Friday said his party's ideology is like a "beautiful jewel" with an unending power inside it, but it has been overshadowed by the BJP, and maintained Hindu and are different concepts.

If



crystalized, the ideology which is alive and vibrant will envelope that of the BJP-RSS, he said and emphasised on strengthening his party's ideas within the organisation and spreading them across the country. Gandhi was addressing online a four-day 'AICC orientation programme' organised at Sevagram Ashram in Wardha. representatives from across the states are participating in the programme. He said, "We have to accept that there are two ideologies in India - the Congress ideology and the RSS ideology. We have to accept the BJP-RSS has spread hatred in today's India." The former Congress president said there has been "complete capture" of the media by the saffron outfit. "The has overshadowed the loving, affectionate and nationalistic ideology of the Congress party. Our ideology is alive and vibrant, but it has been overshadowed by the BJP," said the Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad in Kerala. "It has been overshadowed partly because of complete capture of the media and complete capture of the Indian nation. It has also been overshadowed as we have not propagated our ideology among our own people aggressively," said Gandhi. Gandhi observed that and Hinduism are two different concepts. These are the types of things we need to explore and understand and develop a group of people...100, 200, 300, 500 people who deeply understand these differences, who can apply these differences to issues, behaviour, to action. Is Hinduism about beating a Sikh, or a Muslim. Hindutva, of course, is. In which book is it written? I have not seen it. I have read the Upanishads. I have not read it, he said. "We say there is a difference between and Hindu religion. It is a simple logic - if you are a Hindu then why do you need Hindutva? why do you need this new name?" he asked. The Congress leader said in today's India, ideological fight has become very important. "The Congress ideology...the ideology it follows has been existing in India for thousands of years. Just like the RSS has its icons, the Congress has its own icons... they are different icons. But, we have them, it is about bringing this ideological ocean and allowing our people to swim in it," he said. Gandhi admitted the Congress did not propagate its ideas properly in the past. "Now is the time to strengthen Congress ideology in its own organisation and spread its across India through party workers," he said. The Congress MP stressed on importance of ideological training, which he said, should be mandatory for all party workers. "The central way to propagate the party's ideology is by training people in a conversation about what it means to be a Congress person and how is that different from being an RSS person," Gandhi said. Ideologically training of party workers, in my view, should be made mandatory irrespective of seniority, Gandhi said in his address.

Gandhi said the Congress ideology, if studied and propagated deeply in the organisation, has answers of all questions related to various issues of public concern - ranging from Article 370, terrorism to nationalism, but the party doesn't give necessary tools to its workers to articulate them. Gandhi said the Congress ideology is like a "beautiful jewel" with an unending power inside it. "It is our strength...it is why we exist and it is important we discover it. They (BJP) have discovered their ideology and crystalized it. We have to crystalize our ideology and the moment we do that it will envelope their ideology. The hate that is being spread today will vanish and the future which seems uncertain will become certain," he added.

Recalling his conversation with former Uttarakhand minister Yashpal Arya who returned to the party fold last month, Gandhi said Arya told him for a Congressman, it is very suffocating to survive in the

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
on Friday recorded 812 new cases and 8 fatalities due to the infection. Three districts reported nil cases, according to a bulletin from the state government.

Chennai with 114 fresh COVID-19 cases and Coimbatore with 108 are the only districts that saw new infections above the 100-mark, thus taking the caseload to 27,13,216.

While Mayiladuthurai, Tenkasi and Theni saw no new cases today, 14 districts recorded cases in single digits and 19 other districts reported cases below 100, the bulletin said. With 8 deaths including 2 in private hospitals and 6 in government facilities, the toll increased to 36,259. A passenger who returned from UAE added to 812 positive cases today.

With 927 COVID-19 positive patients getting discharged following treatment today, the total recoveries so far has risen to 26,67,067. The number of active cases including those in isolation as of today remain at 9,890, the bulletin said. In Chennai, the COVID-19 related fatalities rose to 8,570. The active cases remain at 1,205 and the total cases have mounted to 5,56,045 while the cumulative recoveries in the city including 112 discharged today, stand at 5,46,270, the bulletin said. Meanwhile, Medical and Family Welfare Minister Ma Subramanian informed that 5,000 medical camps including 750 in Chennai will be held on Saturday. The weekly mega vaccination camps will be held on November 14.

We have planned to organise the mega COVID-19 vaccination camps at 50,000 places throughout the State on Sunday to cover the beneficiaries, the Minister said. Speaking to reporters here on Friday he said nearly 72 percent of the people have availed the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine while 33 percent received the second dose, so far. We hope to cover the people who require the second dose of the vaccine, he said.

To a question, the Minister replied that the State has reported only 493 active dengue cases and exuded hope that the cases would decline due to the monsoon.

(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 1,140 in active cases to take its count to 137,416. Indias share of global active cases now stands at 0.72 per cent (one in 139). The country is fifteenth among the most affected countries by active cases. On Wednesday, it added 12,516 cases to take its total caseload to 34,414,186 from 34,401,670  an increase of 0.1%. And, with 501 new fatalities, its Covid-19 reached 462,690, or 1.34 per cent of total confirmed infections.

With 5,381,889 more Covid-19 vaccine doses being administered on Thursday, Indias total count of vaccine shots so far reached 1,107,951,225. The count of recovered cases across India, meanwhile, reached 33,814,080 or 98.26 per cent of total caseload  with 13,155 new cured cases being reported on Friday.

Now the fifteenth-most-affected country by active cases, third by deaths, second by total cases and recoveries, India has added 80,432 cases in the past 7 days.

India now accounts for 0.72% of all active cases globally (one in every 139 active cases), and 9.08% of all deaths (one in every 11 deaths).

India has so far administered 1,107,951,225 vaccine doses. That is 3219.46 per cent of its total caseload, and 79.22 per cent of its population.

Among Indian states, the top 5 in terms of number of vaccine shots administered are Uttar Pradesh (142043853), Maharashtra (104334367), West Bengal (87381930), Gujarat (76916010), and Madhya Pradesh (76879966).

Among states with more than 10 million population, the top 5 in number of vaccine shots per one million population are Kerala (1207845), Gujarat (1204214), Jammu and Kashmir (1192116), Delhi (1180132), and Uttarakhand (1090986).

Backwards from here, the last 1 million cases for India have come in 56 days.

The count of active cases across India on Friday saw a net reduction of 1,140, compared with 1,127 on Thursday. States and UTs hat have seen the biggest daily net increase in active cases are Jammu and Kashmir (81), Manipur (37), West Bengal (28), Punjab (24), and Gujarat (19).

With 13,155 new daily recoveries, Indias recovery rate stands at 98.26%, while fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.34%.

The Indian states and UTs with the worst case fatality rates at present are Punjab (2.75%), Nagaland (2.16%), and Uttarakhand (2.15%). The rate in as many as 13 is higher than the national average.

Indias new daily closed cases stand at 13,565  501 deaths and 13,155 recoveries. The share of deaths in total closed cases stands at 3.69%.

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 1905.5 days, and for deaths at 639.8 days.

Overall, five states with the biggest 24-hour jump in total cases are Kerala (7224), Maharashtra (997), West Bengal (854), Tamil Nadu (820), and Mizoram (631).

India on Thursday conducted 1,165,286 to take the total count of tests conducted so far in the country to 621,067,350. The test positivity rate recorded was 1.1%.

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 (14.75%), Kerala (13.08%), Sikkim (11.94%), Goa (11.9%), and Maharashtra (10.4%).

Five states with the highest TPR by daily numbers for tests and cases added  are Mizoram (13.2%), Kerala (9.89%), Manipur (4.23%), West Bengal (2.12%), and Himachal Pradesh (1.73%).

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 (1593095), J&K (1222031), Kerala (1079595), Karnataka (766710), and Telangana (710055).

The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (6621420), Kerala (5042082), Karnataka (2991142), Tamil Nadu (2712404), and Andhra Pradesh (2069352).

Maharashtra, the most affected state overall, has reported 997 new cases to take its tally to 6621420.

Kerala, the second-most-affected state by total tally, has added 7224 cases to take its tally to 5042082.

Karnataka, the third-most-affected state, has reported 286 cases to take its tally to 2991142.

Tamil Nadu has added 820 cases to take its tally to 2712404.

Andhra Pradesh has seen its tally going up by 286 to 2069352.

Uttar Pradesh has added 7 cases to take its tally to 1710243.

Delhi has added 40 cases to take its tally to 1440270.
An Indo-US project has spurred Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur to develop a web-based system to monitor the health of the

The project has been jointly sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF).

The low-cost, multi-parameter, water quality monitor named Niracara Svayamsasita Vedh Shala (NSVS) consists an array of sensors and auto sampler on a stationary platform, which is semi-submersible, all-weather, robust and perfectly stable.

The Aquatic Autonomous Observatory would enable in situ monitoring, real-time data transmission and web-based visualisation of Ganga, said on Friday.

The project has been implemented by a team of earth scientists, and mechanical, electrical, and aerospace engineers from led by principal investigator Bishakh Bhattacharya.

 is not just a river but also a cultural heritage. Therefore, it is our responsibility to safeguard it. has been doing rigorous research and developing mechanisms to study its ecosystem and the impact of climate change, IIT Kanpur director Abhay Karandikar said.

The new system has now been installed at the Laxman Ghat on the banks of the in Bithoor, a town in Kanpur.

With its large riverine network, India battles frequent floods, foam-filled toxic water bodies, unexpected rise in water levels, polluted rivers and so on, impacted by global warming and human activity. In this context, the river monitoring system is expected to aid conservation efforts, the institute said.

The NSVS system can sense three parameters namely, pH (a scale to measure acidity/alkalinity), conductivity and dissolved oxygen capacity of water. This can be further utilised to estimate total dissolved solid, specific gravity and presence of metallic ions in water.

It also autonomously collects data every 15 minutes and reports it through a wireless network to the institute. For self-sustenance, the platform is equipped with energy harvesting systems comprising solar cells and a Vortex Induced Vibration system that can extract energy from the flow of river.

It has an open-platform architecture, as such other institutes may also integrate their similar projects with the IIT Kanpur module in a collaborative mode, Karandikar added.
India and on Friday agreed to expand bilateral cooperation for a free and open Indo-Pacific in line with the vision for the region by New Delhi and the 10-nation ASEAN.

Ways to enhance cooperation in the Indo-Pacific figured prominently at the 11th round of Political Consultations and the eighth strategic dialogue between the foreign ministries of the two countries.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the two sides agreed to enhance their bilateral cooperation in line with India's Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) and the ASEAN's Outlook on Indo-Pacific to achieve shared security, prosperity and growth for all in the region.

At the East Asia summit in Bangkok in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed setting up the IPOI to conserve and sustainably use the maritime domain and to make meaningful efforts to create a safe and secure maritime domain.

Since then, several countries came out in its support. The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is a major stakeholder in the Indo-Pacific.

The 10 member countries of ASEAN are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.

The ties between India and ASEAN have been on an upswing in the last few years with the focus being on ramping up cooperation in the areas of trade and investment as well as security and defence.

The virtual dialogue was held between Riva Ganguly Das, Secretary (East) in the MEA, and Vice Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dzung of

"Both sides reviewed the recent developments in India- Comprehensive Strategic Partnership guided by the 'joint vision for peace, prosperity and people' adopted by the prime ministers of India and Vietnam during their virtual summit in December 2020 and the plan of action for 2021-2023 signed by their foreign ministers," the MEA said.

It said in a statement that both sides also exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and explored new opportunities for partnership to support each other's economic revival.

"They expressed satisfaction over the sustained momentum in their multifaceted bilateral relations, despite the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, with frequent high-level engagements through virtual platform," the MEA said.

"They also discussed future cooperation agenda, including high-level exchanges and celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of India-Vietnam Diplomatic Relations in 2022," it said.

The MEA said both sides expressed satisfaction over their close coordination at multilateral forums, including at the UN Security Council, where both India and Vietnam are concurrently serving as non-permanent members.

(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 and will carry out a 12-day military exercise beginning Monday in the French port town of Frejus with a focus on counter-terror operations.

A platoon strength of a Gorkha Rifles Infantry Battalion will represent the while the French side will deploy troops of 21st Marine Infantry Regiment of 6th Light Armoured Brigade at the exercise, according to the defence ministry.

"Exercise Shakti will focus on counter-terrorism operations in the backdrop of semi-urban terrain under United Nations mandate with an aim to enhance military cooperation and interoperability between the two armies," it said.

The last edition of the exercise was conducted at Mahajan field firing ranges in Rajasthan in 2019.

The Indian Gorkha Rifles has a rich heritage marked by its military valour and supreme sacrifices with a glorious history of 68 years.

The French Army regiment has an illustrious operational history of more than 120 years and has participated in all the major wars involving the French Army.

The regiment specialises in amphibious warfare and has varied operational experiences in Africa, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Mali.

(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.)
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday visited some households in Natkur village in Lucknow under the 'Har Ghar Dastak' campaign and motivated the villagers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

He also inspected a COVID-19 vaccination centre in Natkur village in Sarojini Nagar in the capital and met health workers there and congratulated them for successfully running the inoculation drive, the minister said on Twitter.

The government recently has launched the month-long 'Har Ghar Dastak' campaign for house-to-house COVID-19 vaccination of those who are yet to take a dose and those whose second dose is overdue.

Noting that more than 12 crore beneficiaries are due for their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, Mandaviya on Thursday urged the health ministers of states and union territories to ensure that the entire adult population is covered with the first dose during the ongoing 'Har Ghar Dastak' campaign and those who are due for the second doses are motivated to take it.

The Union Health Ministry has also written to several states and UTs asking them to prioritise administering the second dose to beneficiaries who have not got themselves jabbed even after the expiry of the prescribed interval between the two doses, official sources said.

According to ministry officials, 80 per cent of India's eligible population has been administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 39 per cent have received both the shots.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The on Friday dismissed a petition seeking removal of the then Delhi Police Commissioner S N Srivastava from his post and punishment for police officials who allegedly failed to discharge their duty during the farmers' tractor rally in the capital on January 26 (Republic Day).

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Jyoti Singh 'dismissed for default' the plea filed by petitioner Dhananjai Jain, as nobody from the petitioner's side appeared in the matter.

In his plea, the petitioner sought the removal of Srivastava, who later retired, and punishment to all the police officers as the government and police 'completely failed' in maintaining law and order in an 'effective manner.'

The plea had been filed a day after farmers breached barricading and clashed with police in protest against the three new farm laws.

The petitioner further contended that the police personnel posted at the Red Fort were left abandoned due to a lack of timely decision-making by the Police Commissioner.

"Maintaining law and order is the prime responsibility of Delhi Police which is under the direct control of the Union Home Ministry, but both have miserably failed in the discharge of that duty," it alleged.

He also sought immediate removal of people squatting under the garb of the farmers' agitation and clearance of all roads and public places.

A request for adequate paramilitary forces to be deployed to protect monuments, life, and property of citizens was also made by the petitioner.

On January 26, farmers swarmed the Red Fort and waved farmer union flags on its ramparts. They even hoisted a pennant with a Sikh religious symbol from a flagpole.

--IANS

jw/svn/bg

(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 NCP on Friday demanded the revocation of Padma Shri conferred on actor for her controversial remarks on and said she should be booked for insulting fighters.

Taking a dig, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said the actor is talking too much after an excess dose of "Malana cream", a type of hashish that draws its name from Malana valley in Himachal Pradesh.

"We strongly condemn this statement, which has insulted lakhs of fighters, those who have sacrificed their lives. From Gandhiji to other fighters who waged a long battle for freedom, all have been insulted. We demand that her Padma Shri be revoked. She should be booked for insulting freedom fighters," Malik said.

Ranaut, at a recent event, said the India obtained in 1947 was "bheek" (alms) and that the country truly became free in 2014, a reference to the BJP coming to power at the Centre under Narendra Modi.

(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.)
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das has reasserted his tough stance on cryptocurrencies and claimed that they pose a threat to the financial stability of the country. Das also said that the central bank has conveyed its reservation on virtual currencies to the Union government, which, he said, is actively looking into it. The RBI had in 2018 banned the trade in cryptocurrencies, but the move was shot down by the Supreme Court in March last year. So, amid a growing interest in virtual currencies, where do the central bank and the government stand? Nykaas founder and CEO Falguni Nayar has been in the news for all the good reasons lately. From leading several as an investment banker to launching one herself at the age of 59, Nayar has broken all templates set for a founder.

So, how did she become one of Indias most successful and create the countrys first woman-led unicorn? September quarter results were a mixed bag for India Inc. While the combined net profit of consumer goods companies declined, profits for financials and commodity producers rose sharply. The companies, however, saw their operating profits and margins declining due to increased commodity prices. And the road ahead may not be different for India Inc. Unlike the cash market where the shares are purchased and sold daily, Futures and Options (F&O) are derivative contracts which allow a market participant to purchase and sell a stock or index at a specific price and on a future date. These leveraged products claim to offer some cushion to the investors against future fluctuations in the stock market. How does this instrument work? Listen to these and more in todays Business Standard Morning Show podcast.
Chief Minister who visited the rain-battered districts of Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram on Friday sprang a surprise by briefly stopping to sip tea and interact with the public. Also, he interacted with sanitary workers involved in clearing the silt in the inundated areas.

Like Chennai, both the neighbouring districts were battered by the rains which inundated several areas. The administration launched prompt measures to evacuate the affected people to relief camps and in bailing out water from the marooned areas.

The CM who distributed relief to the rain displaced families, had launched a special medical camp here today for treating the people during the Northeast Monsoon. While in Chengalpattu district, the Chief Minister stopped at a tea shop in Keezhakottaiyur and interacted with the public. As he was sipping tea, few youngsters including those working at the tea shop, approached him for a selfie which he obliged with a smile on his visage.

Rural industries minister T M Anbarasan, Sriperumbadur MP T R Baalu, district collector A R Rahul Nath were present on the occasion. At Mambakkam in the district, Stalin gave away relief to the people and housing pattas to Irula families. Later, the Chief Minister interacted with the sanitary workers in Tambaram. The Chief Minister has been inspecting several areas affected by since the last few days.

Apart from inspecting the flood mitigation work at Mudichur, Stalin reviewed the dredging work at Narayanapuram lake and the zero point and regulator of the Adyar River.

(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.)
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
At a summit organised by the Business Standard, governor expressed doubt over the credibility of reports claiming huge public interest in Das said it looked like a marketing ploy to attract more people into that system. He was referring to a recent report of a research firm which claimed that at least 7.9 per cent Indians have invested $10 billion dollars in Trade in is unregulated in India. The government is consulting various stakeholders, including the RBI, to finalise the contours of a bill on it. RBIs internal panel report on is also expected in a few days. So let us examine what the and the government are thinking about it RBIs stance The Reserve Bank of Indias stand on had been clear since the very beginning.

It always looked at it with suspicion and considered it as a threat to the country's macroeconomic and financial stability. On Wednesday, the governor reiterated his strong views against cryptocurrencies, saying that they are a cause for serious concern. At the Business Standard-BFSI Summit, this is what the RBI governor told to consulting editor Tamal Bandyopadhyay:

Cryptocurrencies are a cause for serious concern

They will have impact on macroeconomic and financial stability

The number of participants in the crypto market exaggerated

The governments stand so farThe government is reportedly considering a middle path on cryptocurrencies. A government source recently told a financial daily that while the hardline stance of banning cryptocurrencies outright was not considered feasible due to the large investments made in such instruments by Indians, these were also unlikely to be allowed as a legal tender.Meanwhile, the government is again examining a proposal to tax the ecosystem, which includes cryptocurrencies and NFTs. In fact, the tax department wants the framework for taxing the use of blockchain for commercial purposes to be implemented even before legislation on cryptocurrencies is brought in.Meanwhile, the tribe of crypto traders is growing in India. And all the stakeholders are looking towards the government to arrive at a consensus on the regulation of these virtual assets. According to some reports, the government is planning to table the bill in the budget session of Parliament next year.
AstraZeneca, the UK-headquartered biopharmaceutical company behind the manufacture of the Oxford University developed COVID-19 vaccine, said on Friday that it plans to start earning a modest profit from the doses being sold as part of new orders.

The Oxford/ vaccine, which is also being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) as part of an agreement, has until now been sold on a not-for-profit basis.

The company is now expecting to progressively transition the vaccine to modest profitability as new orders are received, notes the AstraZeneca's latest financial results update.

COVID-19 vaccine sales in Q4 2021 are expected to be a blend of the original pandemic agreements and new orders, with the large majority coming from pandemic agreements, it said.

In its latest financials, the Anglo-Swedish biopharma major said it had supplied USD 2.22 billion worth of the drug, representing delivery of 580 million doses, in the first nine months of 2021.

When including partners such as SII sub-licensed to make the vaccine, it has released 1.5 billion doses for supply in more than 170 countries, the company said.

"We are proud as a company of the impact we have had we've saved millions of hospitalisations. The (AstraZeneca) team continues to do a stellar job," chief executive Pascal Soriot told the BBC.

The company had said it would only start to make money from the vaccine when COVID-19 was no longer a pandemic. It has now revealed a series of for-profit agreements for next year, which are likely to have limited profit contribution.

"The virus is becoming endemic which means we have to learn to live with it. We started this to help, but we said we would transition (to making a profit on the vaccine). It's not something we see as a huge profit-earner," said Soriot.

The company plans to have tiered pricing for countries to make sure the vaccine remains affordable for all.

(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.)
is likely to end up in opposition to efforts at COP26 climate talks to phase out worldwide and urge countries to beef up their emissions plans as soon as next year.



Energy security concerns will keep from supporting the proposal on coal, according to a person familiar with Chinas position who asked not to be named. While plans to peak emissions by 2030, the country is now in the grips of an energy crisis and is ramping up output to record levels.

Beijing is also pushing back against a proposal at COP26 to urge governments to revise their official climate plans by the end of next year, a move aimed at curbing temperature increases as soon as possible. Chinas view is that working out a new plan for emissions so soon after its latest submission just ahead of the talks in Glasgow will be too time-consuming for the worlds biggest emitter. The press office of Chinas negotiating team didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

The latest position shows that China hasnt really budged from its objections even after a surprise agreement with the U.S. announced late Wednesday evening injected some hope into the talks. The two superpowers said they would work together to boost concrete action that would cut planet-warming emissions in the 2020s, a crucial decade. The bilateral pact also includes efforts to curb methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

In the last days of COP26, resistance remains to some key parts of a draft communique that has to be agreed by consensus. India, the worlds third-largest polluter, has also said it opposes the proposed line in an early draft of the Glasgow agreement to accelerate the phasing-out of and subsidies for fossil fuels. India is seeking more financial support from rich countries before it makes stronger climate commitments. Saudi Arabia has denied accusation it is blocking progress. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on leaders late Wednesday not to stand in the way of an ambitious deal.

COP26 talks have been made more complicated by the recent energy crisis. While China has resorted to mining more coal, the U.S. has been asking OPEC to pump more oil. Chinas daily coal output hit a record 12.05 million tons on Wednesday, and prices have fallen by more than half since hitting an all-time high last month.

Production capacity will likely rise 2.6% next year while demand will rise just 0.5% because of contraction in some heavy industries, Niu Hui, a coal analyst at Fenwei, said at a conference Friday. Prices could see a short-lived rebound if cold weather in December and January drives temporary demand surges, but the market will fall into over-supply after Lunar New Year, sending prices down next year, Niu said.

In October, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang warned that the nations green transition needs to be underpinned by a stable supply of energy and called for an in-depth assessment of the power crunch before setting any short-term targets for reaching peak emissions. Production of coal, natural gas and oil are still important to the countrys success and security, he said. Still, China has been moving ahead with a surge in renewable energy capacity, including a 100-gigawatt solar and wind project.

The country also argues that it will capture and store away some carbon dioxide produced from burning fossil fuels. Sun Zhen, a member of Chinas negotiation team who heads the climate change department under the environment ministry, said at an event in Glasgow that instead of focusing on reducing the use of coal, we should focus on how to reduce the emissions of coal using technology.
China on Friday said it was in "close communication" with the US to facilitate the first virtual summit between President and his US counterpart and hoped that Washington will work with it to bring the bilateral ties back to the "right track of sound and stable development."



US officials said last month that they had reached a tentative agreement with China to hold a virtual meeting between Biden and Xi before the end of the year, as part of an effort to ensure stability in one of the world's most consequential and fraught relationships.

While some reports said the meeting could take place as early as Monday, both sides have not given any specific details and a firm date.

Responding to a question regarding the Xi-Biden virtual summit at a regular Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing, a spokesperson said that China and the US are in "close communication on the specific arrangements of their leaders' meeting."



Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that this year, President Xi has had two phone conversations with President Biden at request. The two heads of state have agreed to maintain regular contact in various ways.

"We hope that the US side will work with China to make the meeting a success and bring China-US ties back to the right track of sound and stable development," Wang said in Beijing at a regular foreign ministry briefing.

Tensions between the US and China have escalated in the last several years.

President Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, followed a tough stance on China, beginning with trade. Trump levied tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of imports from China, prompting retaliation from Beijing.

The Biden administration has maintained Trump's tough position, and worked more with traditional U.S. allies to collectively put pressure on Beijing on a range of issues, including human rights, Taiwan, Xinjiang and Tibet.

However, in a surprise move, China and the US this week announced at that the two countries will boost climate co-operation. The US and China are the world's two biggest CO2 emitters.

The announcement by the two global rivals was made on Wednesday at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

The last time Biden and Xi spoke was in September, in a phone call that lasted roughly 90 minutes.

The two leaders also spoke for two hours in February -- their first phone call since Biden took office in January this year.

The tentative agreement to hold a virtual summit between Xi and Biden was the result of an extended, six-hour meeting between Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi in Switzerland, just days after Beijing sent record-breaking numbers of war planes into Taiwan's defence zone.

President Xi has not left China in 21 months, following moves to tighten the country's borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He skipped the G20 summit in late October, as well as the COP26 climate conference in Scotland this month.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The India-led Solar Alliance (ISA) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) signed a memorandum of understanding at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow on Friday, agreeing to collaborate and support countries in the implementation of ambitious national climate action in line with global efforts.

The MoU, signed by ISA Director-General Dr Ajay Mathur and UNFCCC Deputy Executive Secretary Ovais Sarmad, involves the two institutions working to jointly organise a set of activities to facilitate the implementation of mitigation action in the energy sector, facilitate the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Long-term Low Emission Development Strategies.

The agreement will also lend support to developing country stakeholders, including Small Island Nations (SIDs) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), in accelerating the adoption of policy options and approaches for decarbonisation technologies.

To act against climate change and achieve Nationally Determined Contributions relating to emission reduction before the target date can be made possible by deploying solar and clean energy, said Dr Mathur.

The UNFCCC has led from the front this climate challenge, and we are happy to partner, collaborate and endeavour to bring long-term, cost effective and impactful solutions, he said.

The ISA is an inter-governmental treaty-based organisation with a global mandate to catalyse global solar growth by helping to reduce the cost of financing and technology for solar.

The alliance is committed to establishing solar as a shared solution that simultaneously addresses climate, energy and economic priorities across geographies, facilitating Energy Transition at a global level, Energy Security at national levels, while also ensuring Energy Access at the local level.

The ISA said it is helping large nations scale global commitments, thereby serving the planet's needs for reduced carbon emissions, while also helping economically more vulnerable nations establish a self-sustaining energy alternative that reduces trade dependency and drives job creation.

Earlier this week at the Glasgow summit, which concludes on Friday, the US joined the alliance as its 101st member country, when US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry signed the ISA framework agreement to catalyse global energy transition through a solar-led approach.

The launch of the Solar Alliance was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Francois Hollande, former President of France, in November 2015 at the 21st session of United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP-21) in Paris, France.

(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 Takaya Yamaguchi and Leika Kihara

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's economic stimulus package will require fiscal spending worth 40 trillion yen ($350 billion), the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday, and a draft of the spending plan reviewed by Reuters features steps to ease the pain of rising oil prices.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, with his position strengthened by an election win last month, has vowed to compile a stimulus package "worth several tens of trillion yen" on Nov. 19 to spur the world's third-largest economy, which is reeling from the

The spending is likely to be financed by some new debt, adding to the industrial world's heaviest public debt at more than twice the size of Japan's economy, as Kishida prioritises recovery from the pandemic over fiscal reform.

Analysts were surprised by the bigger-than-expected spending plan.

"The spending is far bigger than the output gap of 22 trillion yen. (Kishida) must be coming under pressure to boost spending ahead of next summer's upper house election," said Saisuke Sakai, senior economist at Mizuho Research and Technologies.

"This looks like nothing but pork-barrel spending."

Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management, said despite higher spending, the impact would be limited on markets as the Bank of would keep borrowing costs low under its yield curve control policy.

Surging global crude oil prices, as well as a chip shortage and supply-chain constraints, undermined a trade-reliant seen to have shrunk in the third quarter as pandemic curbs and supply bottlenecks hurt consumption and output.

"We will prepare flexible measures on soaring energy costs in the coming stimulus package," Minister Daishiro Yamagiwa told reporters earlier on Friday.

"Steps will focus on sectors such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries as well as logistics firms, who cannot make a living without using fuel."

Other measures to be included in the package are steps to ramp up domestic production of semiconductors as well as a 10 trillion yen ($87.5 billion) fund aimed at giving universities more resources to boost science and technological research, the draft showed.

The spending plan will also get a boost from cash payouts to citizens aged 18 or younger, which would cost about 2 trillion yen, and to small firms hit hard by the pandemic, to total some 3 trillion yen, the Nikkei reported. It includes resumption of tourism promotion to stimulate demand after the pandemic.

($1 = 114.0500 yen)

(Reporting by Takaya Yamaguchi; Additional reporting by Kantaro Komiya, Sakura Murakami and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Lincoln Feast.)

(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.)
US President has signed the law to ban Chinese tech like Huawei and ZTE from getting approval for network equipment licences in the country.

The 'Secure Equipment Act of 2021' had received bipartisan support prior to it being signed by the President, ZDNet reported on Friday.

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designated Huawei and ZTE as national security threats to communications networks -- making it harder for US firms to buy equipment from them.

Under the new law, the FCC is required to no longer review or approve any authorisation application for equipment posing a clear risk to national security.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr had made repeated calls for the legislation to be passed since March this year.

"Once we have determined that Huawei or other gear poses an unacceptable national security risk, it makes no sense to allow that exact same equipment to be purchased and inserted into our communications networks as long as federal dollars are not involved. The presence of these insecure devices in our networks is the threat, not the source of funding used to purchase them," Carr had said.

Besides Huawei and ZTE, other Chinese firms touted as national security threats are Hytera Communications Corporation, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company, and Dahua Technology Company.

In June this year, Biden signed an executive order that increases the number of restricted Chinese firms from 48 to 59, expanding a Donald Trump-era ban on Chinese surveillance with alleged ties to the military.

The executive order bans Americans from investing in additional Chinese firms starting from August 2.

In October, the FCC Commissioner had warned that Chinese drone maker DJI "is collecting vast troves of sensitive data on Americans and US critical infrastructure, potentially operating as Huawei on wings".

Shenzhen-based DJI accounts for more than 50 per cent of the US drone market.

--IANS

na/ksk/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Santa won't be getting his traditional welcome in the Dutch city of Utrecht this year. The ceremonial head of Carnival celebrations in Germany's Cologne had to bow out because he tested positive for COVID-19. And Austria is planning a lockdown on unvaccinated people in two hard-hit regions.

Nearly two years into a global health crisis that has killed more than 5 million people, infections are again sweeping across parts of Western Europe, a region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures are largely a thing of the past.

The World Health Organisation said deaths rose by 10 per cent in Europe in the past week, and an agency official declared last week that the continent was back at the epicenter of the pandemic.

Much of that is being driven by spiraling outbreaks in Russia and Eastern Europe where vaccination rates tend to be low but countries in the west such as Germany and Britain recorded some of the highest new case tolls in the world.

While nations in Western Europe all have vaccination rates over 60 per cent and some like Portugal and Spain are much higher that still leaves a significant portion of their populations without protection.

Dr. Bharat Pankhania, senior clinical lecturer at Exeter University College of Medicine and Health, says that the large number of unvaccinated people combined with a widespread post-lockdown resumption of socialising and a slight decline in immunity for people who got their shots months ago is driving up the pace of infections.

Thanks largely to vaccination, hospitals in Western Europe are not under the same pressure they were earlier in the pandemic, but many are still straining to handle rising numbers of COVID patients while also attempting to clear backlogs of tests and surgeries with exhausted or sick staff.

Even the countries experiencing the most serious outbreaks in the region recorded far fewer deaths per person over the past four weeks than the United States did, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The question now is if countries can tamp down this latest upswing without resorting to stringent shutdowns that devastated economies, disrupted education and weighed on mental health. Experts say probably but authorities can't avoid all restrictions and must boost vaccination rates.

I think the era of locking people up in their homes is over because we now have tools to control COVID the testing, vaccines and therapeutics, said Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh.

So I hope people will do the things they have to do, like put on a mask.

Many European countries now use COVID passes proof of full vaccination, recovery from the virus or a negative test result to access venues like bars and restaurants.

Pankhania warned that the passes can give a false sense of security since fully vaccinated people can still get infected though their chances of dying or getting seriously sick are dramatically lower.

But restrictions don't go much further these days, although the Dutch government is reportedly planning a partial lockdown and German lawmakers are mulling legislation that would pave the way for new measures.

Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced Friday that unvaccinated people in two regions will only be able to leave home for specified reasons starting Monday, and he is considering implementing similar measures nationwide. But he has said he doesn't want to impose the restrictions on those who got the shot.

Austria is seeing one of the most serious outbreaks in Western Europe, along with Germany, which has reported a string of record-high infections in recent days.

We have a real emergency situation right now, said Christian Drosten, the head of virology at Berlin's Charite Hospital, which has started canceling scheduled surgeries.

Duesseldorf's university hospital said earlier this week that its ICU is full, though many facilities are struggling more with staff shortages than bed space.

Drosten said Germany must increase its vaccination rate of 67 per cent further and fast. But officials have balked at ordering vaccine mandates and want to avoid any blanket lockdowns.

Health Minister Jens Spahn indicated that Germany could improve its often lax enforcement of COVID pass requirements.

If my vaccination certificate is checked more often in one day in Rome than it sometimes is in four weeks in Germany, then I think more can be done, Spahn said recently.

The Netherlands is in a similar bind: The country announced the highest daily tally of new cases since the pandemic began Thursday, hospitals are warning the situation could get worse, but officials are reluctant to clamp down too hard.

Amid these concerns, organisers in Utrecht said they couldn't in good conscience bring tens of thousands of people together to greet Santa at the annual Sinterklaas party beloved of children.

Cities in Germany, by contrast, went ahead with outdoor Carnival celebrations this week but the head of Cologne's party, Carnival Prince Sven I., cancelled public appearances after testing positive.

In the United Kingdom, which lifted remaining restrictions in July and has seen big spikes as well as dips in cases since, Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists the country can live with the virus.

The government will only reimpose restrictions if the health service comes under unsustainable pressure, he says.

Spain, once one of Europe's hardest hit nations, perhaps offers an example of how the risks can be managed.

It has vaccinated 80 per cent of its population, and while face masks are no longer mandatory outdoors, many people still wear them. While infections have ticked up slightly recently, Rafael Bengoa, one of Spain's leading public health experts, said that given the high vaccination rate, the virus won't be able to dominate us again.

Several countries are hoping that pushing harder on immunisations will get them there. Germany plans to re-open vaccination centers across the country to speed booster shots. France is also pinning its hopes on booster doses while urging holdouts to get their first shots. Italy is also expanding its booster program as numbers edge higher.

Pankhania says that no single measure will control the pandemic.

To really control it, it has to be multi-layered ... avoid crowds, avoid poorly ventilated places, be immunized, wear your mask, 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.)
Pakistans dropped to a record low on investor concern about the delay in the government reviving a $6 billion loan from the Monetary Fund.

The South Asian nation has been in talks with the Washington-based lender to renegotiate the program with relaxations in some terms, including electricity and fuel price hikes. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin had earlier said the IMF deal would be completed in the week ended November 5.

The weakened 0.9 per cent to close at 175.73 a dollar Friday, according to State Bank of Pakistan data.
founder has been granted permission to marry his partner, Stella Moris, in prison, British authorities say.

Assange has been held in London's high-security Belmarsh Prison since 2019 as he fights a US attempt to extradite him on espionage charges.

The couple began their relationship during Assange's seven years living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on unrelated sex offenses allegations. Assange and Moris, a South Africa-born lawyer, have two young sons: Gabriel, 4, and Max, 2.

I am relieved that reason prevailed, and I hope there will be no further interference with our marriage, Moris said.

In January, a judge refused a US request to extradite Assange, but he remains in prison while a higher court considers the US government's appeal.

Assange and Moris made their relationship public in April 2020 and had applied to prison authorities for permission to wed.

They threatened legal action against the prison governor and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, accusing them of trying to prevent the marriage from taking place.

Mr. Assange's application was received, considered and processed in the usual way by the prison governor, as for any other prisoner, the Prison Service said Thursday.

No date has yet been set for the wedding.

U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks' publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents a decade ago.

(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.)
Shares of companies were in focus on Friday with two group stocks -- Adani Total Gas and -- hitting their respective record highs, while its flagship company trading close to its all-time high level on the BSE. In the past one month, these three stocks have outperformed the market by surging up to 20 per cent, as compared to a 0.28 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Individually, rallied 5 per cent to Rs 1,995, surpassing its previous high of Rs 1,990 hit on September 15, 2021, in the intra-day trade today. Adani Total Gas, on the other hand, was up 4 per cent to Rs 1,715 on the BSE in intra-day trade. Earlier, the stock had hit a high of Rs 1,680 on June 4, 2021. Currently, both these stocks are trading under T group on the BSE. In the T2T segment, each trade has to result in delivery and no intra-day netting of positions is allowed.

is the country's largest private transmission company with a cumulative transmission network of around 18,300 ckm, out of which around 13,700 ckm is operational and around 4,600 ckm is at various stages of construction. Adani Total Gas is one of India's leading private players in developing City Gas Distribution (CGD) networks to supply Piped Natural Gas (PNG) to industrial, commercial, domestic (residential) customers and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to the transport sector.

Separately, gained 2 per cent to Rs 1,696 in the intra-day trade today. The stock of the flagship company of the was trading higher for the 10th straight trading day, having rallied 22 per cent during the period. It had hit a record high of Rs 1,718.45 on June 7, 2021.

is presently focused on businesses related to airports, roads, water, data centre, solar manufacturing, defence and aerospace, edible oils and foods, mining, integrated resource solutions and integrated agri-supply chain.

Last month, Adani Wilmar (AWL) had received capital regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) go-ahead to launch initial share-sale. On August 2, 2021, Adani Enterprises announced that AWL, a 50:50 joint venture company between the and the Wilmar group (Singapore), had filed its draft red herring prospectus with the Sebi in relation to its proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO) to raise up to Rs 4,500 crore.

In the foods segment, AWL is one of the fastest growing FMCG companies in India. The Company provides the largest range of edible oils (drawn from soya, sunflower, mustard, rice bran, groundnut, cotton seed and others). As a growing foods brand, the Company ventured into the wider foods categories comprising packed basmati rice, pulses, soya chunks, besan, atta and khichdi. The companys products portfolio comprises prominent brands like Fortune, Kings, Bullet, Raag, Avsar, Pilaf, Jubilee, Fryola, Alpha, Alife and Aadhar.

The net proceeds from the IPO are proposed to be used by AWL to fund capital expenditure for expansion of AWL's existing manufacturing facilities and developing new manufacturing facilities, repayment/prepayment of borrowings, to fund strategic acquisitions and investments and for general corporate purposes.

Meanwhile, Adani Green Energy was up 3 per cent to Rs 1,265.55 on the BSE. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 1,394 on May 25, 2021. Adani Power and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, other stocks from Adani Group, were trading 1 per cent to 2 per cent higher on the BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.52 per cent at 09:57 am.




made a weak stock market debut, as the shares were listed at Rs 544.35, a 6 per cent discount to its issue price of Rs 577 per share on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday. On the BSE, the stock opened at Rs 548, a 5 per cent discount to the issue price.

At 10:01 am; was trading at Rs 582.55, a 1 per cent higher over its issue price on the BSE. The intraday high for the stock so far was Rs 583.35.

The initial public offering (IPO) of had received lukewarm response with overall subscribtion of just 2x. The institutional portion was subscribed 1.65 times, the wealthy investor portion by 21 per cent, the retail investor portion was subscribed close to 6 times, and the portion reserved for employees by 93 per cent.

The IPO consisted of Rs 300 crore of fresh fund raise and Rs 900 crore of secondary share sale by promoter Fino Paytech. The bank will use the fresh proceeds to augment its tier-1 capital base to meet its future capital requirements.

Fino Payments Bank is a fintech company offering a diverse range of financial products and services that are primarily digital and have a payments focus. This is the first a payments bank made stock market debut today. Paytm, which too has a payments bank license, will list next week.

As of August 2021, about 51 per cent of micro-ATM deployed in the country is from Fino Payments Bank followed by SBM Bank at 12 per cent & SBI at 8 per cent. Fino had largest network with 7.2 lakh banking touchpoints, followed by Airtel Payments Bank (5 lakhs) & India Post Payments Bank (1.4 lakhs).

The unique framework of distribution, technology and partnership (DTP) enables it to serve target market efficiently and improve on three key challenges - scale, service and sustainability. For period between April, 2021 and August, 2021, the bank has second largest debit card outstanding at 2.88 million. The bank incurs minimal capital expenditure costs in connection with onboarding merchants, because the on-boarding & setup capital expenditure costs are borne by the merchant, ICICI Securities said in a note.

Fintech companies' demand is poised for growth on the back of rising internet penetration, higher disposable income, development of technology, low-cost infrastructure, government initiatives like UPI, etc. Going forward, India presents a huge opportunity for growth of fintechs owing to high potential in the underpenetrated customer segments. To attract mid-to-low-income customers and the rural population, there is a need to develop tailor-made solutions. There will be huge growth potential for players in payments, lending, wealth, Insurance, etc. segments. We believe Fino Bank is one of the key beneficiaries of opportunities in the sector, analyst at Religare Broking said in IPO product note.
Referring to former Union Minister Salman Khurshid's new book on the Ayodhya verdict, Congress veteran on Thursday said comparing with and Jihadist Islam is factually wrong and an exaggeration.

Taking to Twitter, Azad said, "In Salman Khurshid's new book, we may not agree with as a political ideology distinct from the composite culture of Hinduism, but comparing with and Jihadist Islam is factually wrong and an exaggeration."

On Wednesday, Khurshid got embroiled in controversy for "defaming and comparing Hindusim with terrorism" in his recent book "Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times".

Khurshid's new book explored the Supreme Court's landmark judgement on the Ayodhya dispute.

The senior Congress leader Khurshid has compared Hindutva to radical terrorist groups like " and Boko Haram".

All these developments come in just months before Uttar Pradesh is slated to go for assembly elections in 2022.

(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.)
Gold worth Rs 22.67 lakhs was seized from two passengers who arrived in Trichy from Kuala Lumpur, informed the Air Intelligence Unit on Thursday.

"461 grams of gold of 24 karat purity worth Rs 22.67 lakhs was seized from two passengers who arrived in Trichy from Kuala Lumpur," Air Intelligence Unit said.

The Unit further informed that "gold powder mixed with talcum powder was concealed in talcum powder boxes.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The have asked the former Afghan Air Force pilots to return to the country and said that general amnesty has already been announced, reported local media.

"There will not be any security threat for these pilots in General amnesty has already been announced. They can come back and serve here," TOLOnews quoted the spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid as saying.

After the took over on August 15, reports emerged stating that the Afghan security force members had managed to flee to the neighbouring countries. However, tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers were still on the run and were being hunted down by the Taliban.

Reports said that the Taliban have been searching for people who they believe worked with and fought alongside the United States and NATO forces.

The statement from the Taliban comes at a time when the reports were released on Wednesday that these US-trained Afghan Air Force pilots and other personnel left for the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, reported TOLOnews.

It was also reported that these Afghan pilots were living in hardship in Tajikistan.

"These are intellectual assets of the country. They are trained and educated by Afghanistan's funds. They are experienced workers, so there should be a way and means for them to come back," TOLOnews quoted military expert Sarwar Neyazi as saying.

About 25 per cent of the Afghan Air Force's aircraft were flown to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after the fall of Kabul in August this year, the news channel reported Special Inspector General for Reconstruction as stating citing The New York Times.

(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 drug maker's consolidated net profit rose 15.29% to Rs 544.26 crore on 18.50% rise in net sales to Rs 2,799.99 crore in Q2 September 2021 over Q2 September 2020.

On a consolidated basis, profit before tax rose 6.17% year-on-year to Rs 581.54 crore. During the quarter, total expenses rose 22.15% YoY to Rs 2,260.41 crore. Employee expense jumped 21.20% YoY to Rs 494.49 crore. Raw material cost increased 63.22% YoY to Rs 773.16 crore.

Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) was Rs 624.4 crore, resulting in EBITDA margin of 22.3% as against 25.4% in Q2FY21. EBITDA grew by 4% YoY.

R&D expenses for the quarter was Rs 140.7 crore, or 5% of total revenue from operations compared to Rs 139.3 crore in Q2FY21 at 5.9% of total revenue from operations.

In Q2FY22, the company's India sales grew by 25.9% YoY, recording sales of Rs 1960.5 crore as against Rs 1557.4 crore in Q2FY21.

In Q2FY22, the company's International sales grew by 3.4% YoY, recording sales of Rs 805.2 crore as compared to Rs 779 crore in Q2FY21.

During the quarter, the company filed 6 abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) with the US FDA and received 7 approvals (including 2 tentative approvals).

Commenting on the results, Sandeep Singh, managing director, Alkem said, "First six months of the financial year has been a very healthy period for the Company's India business with over 40% YoY growth mainly driven by the acute therapies. Even in chronic therapies and trade generic business, the Company continues to grow ahead of the market. In the US business, new product launches have helped to offset significant pricing pressure in the base business. Our continuous efforts towards cost optimization and driving process efficiencies are also showing good results with improvement in profitability."

The US FDA had conducted a remote and virtual bio-analytical inspection of the company's Bioequivalence Center located at Taloja in Maharashtra from 26 to 28 July 2021. At the end of the inspection, no Form 483 was issued.

The company's formulations facility at St. Louis in the US was last inspected in June 2021. The facility received 2 observations. The company has already submitted a detailed response to the US FDA on the corrective and preventive actions it is taking to address them.

Alkem Laboratories is a leading Indian pharmaceutical company with global operations, engaged in the development, manufacture and sale of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products. The company produces branded generics, generic drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and nutraceuticals, which it markets in India and International markets.

Shares of Alkem Laboratories were up 0.93% to Rs 3564.70 on the BSE.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tata Power Company said that Moody's Investors Service has upgraded its rating on the company to 'Ba2' with 'stable' outlook from 'Ba3' with 'stable' outlook.

"The Ba2 corporate family rating assigned to Tata Power reflects the company's predictable cash flow from its regulated business, exposure to thermal coal prices for its Mundra project and Indonesian coal mines, growing renewable energy business, and moderately high financial leverage," says Abhishek Tyagi, a Moody's vice president and senior credit officer.

"The rating also benefits from Tata Sons 45.2% ownership in Tata Power and its track record of supporting the company," adds Tyagi.

Tata Power's regulated operations in Mumbai and Delhi support the company's consolidated financial profile. The recent acquisition of distribution companies in the state of Odisha has further increased the footprint of its regulated business. Tata Power's regulated business contributed 57%-58% of the company's EBITDA over the past two years, and Moody's expects a similar contribution over the next two to three years.

Tata Power's ratings consider the growth in its regulated and renewable energy businesses, which are more predictable and less volatile, and thus, reduce the impact of the company's commodity price-driven businesses, including coal mines in Indonesia and the Mundra power project in India.

Tata Power's credit profile considers its high carbon transition risk because a significant part of its generation business is reliant on coal-fired generation (69.5%). However, Tata Power's commitment to not add any new coal-based capacity, phase out the existing ones once their power purchase agreements expire and significantly increase its renewable energy footprint provides clarity regarding its carbon-transition plan.

The Ba2 rating factors in moderate governance risk given the concentrated shareholding of Tata Sons. However, this risk is partially tempered by the experienced management team, which is further supported by experienced board members in the areas of corporate governance, business strategy, and operational and financial capabilities, among others.

The stable outlook is based on Moody's expectation that Tata Power's underlying business and financial profile will remain steady and that Tata Sons will support the entity if required.

The Tata Power Company (TPC) is one of the largest private-sector power utilities in India, with an installed generation capacity of 12,808 megawatts as of September 2021. The company's business operations include power generation from thermal, hydro, solar and wind sources, transmission and distribution. The company also owns coal mines in Indonesia and a license for coal mining in Russia.

The company's consolidated net profit surged 36% to Rs 506 crore in Q2 FY22 from Rs 370.93 crore posted in Q2 FY21. Consolidated revenue rose 13% year on year to Rs 9,502 crore.

The scrip rose 1.18% to end at Rs 239.80 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.)
Motherson Sumi Systems reported 35.8% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 216.86 crore on a 5.9% decline in total revenue from operations to Rs 14,076.39 crore in Q2 FY22 over Q2 FY21.

Total expenses fell by 3% YoY to Rs 14,001.29 crore in the second quarter.

Profit before tax in Q2 FY22 stood at Rs 178.67 crore, down by 67.7% from Rs 553.58 crore in Q2 FY21. Total tax outgo was down 48.3% YoY to Rs 85.63 crore during the period under review.

Motherson Sumi said that cost controls along with partial revenue recovery in India (including SAMIL subsidiaries and JVs) have led to a strong operating performance despite headwinds. Sharp drop in OEM production across key geographies due to supply chain constraints have continued to have an adverse impact on revenues and profitability.

SMRPBV impacted by lower revenues along with higher input, labour and freight costs in key geographies; thereby adversely affecting profitability in Q2. PKC was impacted sharp drop in volumes QoQ in China and EU along with continued impact of elevated costs due to new launches and supply chain disruptions.

The company is awaiting NCLT approval for next steps of proposed re-organization. It had also announced acquisition of 55% in CIM Tools (India) and 60% in Nanchang JMCG Mekra Lang Vehicle Mirror Co., Ltd. (China) in October 2021.

With regard to auto industry, Motherson Sumi said that global demand for passenger vehicles remains strong. However, supply side challenges likely to continue in Q3 as well. Raw material prices remain elevated, although contractual lag in pricing is expected to narrow.

Vivek Chaand Sehgal, chairman, Motherson Sumi Systems, said, "The global automotive industry continues to face multiple challenges on account of supply chain disruptions. Our strategy of 3CX10 (no component, no country, no customer more than 10% of our turnover) has helped us limit the impact to our earnings. Our teams are working very hard to support the customers and deliver value to our stakeholders. We are focused on controlling our cost structure and conserve cash in the current volatile market conditions. We expect the industry headwinds to ease gradually in the upcoming quarters."

Motherson Sumi Systems is a specialised automotive component manufacturing companies for OEMs.

The scrip rose 0.99% to currently trade at Rs 239.55 on the BSE.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Power stocks were trading with gains, with the S&P BSE Power index rising 29.87 points or 0.85% at 3535.49 at 09:51 IST.

Among the components of the S&P BSE Power index, Adani Transmission Ltd (up 3.23%), Adani Green Energy Ltd (up 2.04%),NHPC Ltd (up 1.72%),Indian Energy Exchange Ltd (up 1.62%),Torrent Power Ltd (up 1.47%), were the top gainers. Among the other gainers were Adani Power Ltd (up 1.16%), K E C International Ltd (up 0.64%), Siemens Ltd (up 0.5%), and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (up 0.38%).

On the other hand, Tata Power Company Ltd (down 0.85%), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (down 0.77%), and ABB India Ltd (down 0.65%) moved lower.

At 09:51 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 325.74 or 0.54% at 60245.43.

The Nifty 50 index was up 100.25 points or 0.56% at 17973.85.

The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 86.79 points or 0.3% at 29246.18.

The S&P BSE 150 Midcap Index index was up 24.37 points or 0.27% at 9111.32.

On BSE,1709 shares were trading in green, 1020 were trading in red and 113 were unchanged.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Based on the agreement, the two companies will jointly develop eAxle products based on ePropelled's patented Dynamic Torque Switching (eDTS) technology that increases power efficiency by at least 15%, allowing manufacturers to reduce the size and cost of their battery packs. In addition, eDTS provides high torque at low speeds without drawing high current from the batteries as well as high speeds at low torque levels without using field weakening. This unique combination results in a highly scalable design that can be used in a variety of vehicles ranging from light EVssuch as scooters and three-wheelersto cars, light trucks, and large trucks.

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 issue received bids for 6.39 crore shares as against 96.63 lakh shares on offer.

The initial public offer (IPO) of Sapphire Foods India received bids for 6,39,45,000 shares as against 96,63,468 shares on offer. The issue was subscribed 6.62 times.

The retail individual investors category was subscribed 8.70 times. The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category was subscribed 7.50 times and non institutional investors category was subscribed 3.46 times.

The IPO opened for bidding on 9 November and it closed on 11 November. The price band was set at Rs 1120 to Rs 1180.

Ahead of the IPO, Sapphire Foods finalized allocation of 79,06,473 equity shares to anchor investors at Rs 1,180 per equity share, aggregating to Rs 932.96 crore.

The IPO was a complete offer for sale of shares worth Rs 2,073.25 crore by existing shareholders - Sapphire Foods Mauritius, QSR Management Trust, WWD Ruby, Amethyst, AAJV Investment Trust, Edelweiss Crossover Opportunities Fund and Edelweiss Crossover Opportunities Fund- Series II.

The company will not directly receive any proceeds from the offer, and all the offer proceeds will be received by the selling shareholders, in proportion to the offered shares sold by them.

The promoters of the company are Ravi Sapphire Foods Mauritius and QSR Management Trust.

The promoters and promoter group held an aggregate of 38,173,680 equity shares, aggregating to 60.08% of the pre-offer issued and paid-up equity share capital. The post IPO shareholding for the same is expected to be around 49.97%.

Sapphire Foods is one of YUM's franchisee operators in the Indian subcontinent. The company is also Sri Lanka's largest international QSR chain in terms of revenue for the financial year 2021 as also number of restaurants operated as of 31 March 2021. As of 30 June 2021, company owned and operated 209 KFC restaurants in India and the Maldives, 239 Pizza Hut restaurants in India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, and 2 Taco Bell restaurants in Sri Lanka.

The company reported a net loss of Rs 26.09 crore and sales of Rs 303.05 crore in the three months ended on 30 June 2021.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tata Steel rose 1.11% to Rs 1313.35 after the company recorded a consolidated net profit of Rs 12,548 crore in Q2 FY22 as against a net profit of Rs 9,768 crore in Q1 FY22, registering a growth of 28.5% on QoQ basis.

Total revenue from operations rose by 12.9% QoQ to Rs 60,283 crore during the quarter. The company said that revenues improved across key entities with increase in realisation across geographies and higher deliveries at India, partially offset by lower deliveries at Europe.

Raw material cost increased by 10.8% to Rs 22,218 crore in Q2 FY22 from Rs 20,044 crore in Q1 FY22. The increase was primarily due to increase in purchased iron ore and coal consumption cost across key entities, including higher purchase of finished & semi-finished goods.

Adjusted EBITDA improved by 12.1% QoQ to Rs 17,810 crore in the second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA per ton in Q2 FY22 was Rs 24,112, up by 7.8% from Rs 22,366 in Q1 FY22.

Profit before exceptional items and tax in Q2 FY22 was Rs 13,604 crore, up by 11% from Rs 12,259 crore in Q1 FY22.

The company recorded an exceptional gain of Rs 516 crore during the quarter, realized on account of sale of NatSteel operations and was partially offset by charge on employees separation scheme.

The steel maker's net profit and revenue have risen by 7.5 times and 54.8%, respectively, in Q2 FY22 as compared with Q2 FY21.

While steel production fell by 1.4% to 7.77 million tons, steel deliveries increased by 3.9% to 7.39 million tons in Q2 FY22 over Q1 FY22. As compared with Q2 FY21, the steel production is higher by 7.2% but deliveries are lower by 6.8%.

Consolidated free cash flow was Rs 3,322 crore during Q2 FY22, despite an increase in working capital of Rs 3,889 crore and dividend payment of Rs 3,020 crore.

The company spent Rs 2,191 crore on capex during the quarter, work on the pellet plant, the cold roll mill complex and the 5 MTPA expansion at Kalinganagar is ongoing.

Gross debt decreased to Rs 78,163 crore with repayments of Rs 11,424 crore in H1 FY22. Net debt declined to Rs 68,860 crore. Net debt to EBITDA improved to 1.21x; net debt to equity improved to 0.79x.

T V Narendran, chief executive officer & managing director, said: Tata Steel has delivered strong results across key geographies in this seasonally weaker quarter. Our steel deliveries in India expanded by 11% despite a contraction in market demand which is a testament to the strength of our franchise. We continue to drive value accretive growth in our chosen segments and our performance in key segments such as auto was very robust despite the sector being impacted by the semiconductor shortage. Our European operations have also delivered robust performance underpinned by strong improvement in realizations. We are watchful of the elevated coal prices and high energy cost as key risks to margins going forward.

We took another step in our sustainability journey and commissioned 5 TPD CO2 capture plant at Jamshedpur; first in India by a Steel company to extract CO2 directly from Blast Furnace gas. We continue to progress on our stated goals of expanding and consolidating our operations in India. Our 5 MTPA TSK phase II expansion including the pellet plant and CRM complex is progressing well and the merger of Tata Steel BSL with Tata Steel will be completed shortly. We have recently won the high quality Gandhalpada iron ore mines which helps us achieve raw material security beyond 2030. In line with our capital allocation strategy, we recently exited our operations in Singapore through the sale of NatSteel.

Tata Steel group is among the top global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of 33 million tonnes per annum.

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 IT major launched an automotive e-commerce cloud solution for direct-to-consumer marketplaces to launch and grow quickly.

Wipro unveiled Click-Shift-Drive, a contactless car-buying solution that addresses the complete automobile-buying journey. Scalable, flexible and rapidly deployed, the end-to-end solution enables automakers and dealers to offer everything from research and loan approval to purchase and delivery at a time when 50% of car-buying journeys begin online.

With Click-Shift-Drive, automakers and dealers can launch e-commerce solutions and provide a virtual direct-buying experience in just eight weeks. The solution uniquely incorporates a range of Salesforce technologies so companies can provide an enhanced user experience throughout the customer journey. In addition, Wipro partnered with ThreeKit 3D & Augmented Reality to provide an augmented reality component so buyers can visualize a virtual rendering of the automobile in their own driveway, the company said in a statement.

Research shows 59% of automotive customers are interested in buying cars entirely online. Click-Shift-Drive, part of Wipro's $1 billion investment in cloud over 3 years, empowers manufacturers and dealers to meet that demand by launching online marketplaces faster and with more features than ever before. As e-commerce gains prominence, Click-Shift-Drive is ideally suited to help industry leaders deliver an enhanced customer and purchasing experience, said Hari Raja, global salesforce practice head, Wipro.

Wipro is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company.

Wipro reported 9.6% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,930.7 crore in Q2 FY22 from Rs 3,242.6 crore in Q1 FY22. Revenue from operations increased by 7.8% QoQ to Rs 19,667.4 crore during the quarter.

Shares of Wipro were up 0.91% to Rs 646.35 on the BSE.

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 top leaders are feeling uneasy over the party's sure defeat in the upcoming assembly polls and that is why they are rushing to state repeatedly, Samajwadi Party president claimed on Friday.

Yadav made the claim shortly after Union Home Minister and former president Amit Shah reached Varanasi to discuss the party's poll strategy for the upcoming assembly election. Shah is also slated to visit Azamgarh, Yadav's parliamentary constituency during his current two-day visit.

Earlier during the day, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited Lucknow to attend a meeting for promoting investment in UP Defence Industrial Corridor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the Purvanchal Expressway on November 16.

"The top leadership is feeling uneasy seeing its defeat in the upcoming assembly polls. This is the reason every week some of its leaders are rushing to the state. The more they fear the prospect of the BJP defeat, the more BJP leaders will visit UP," Akhilesh said in a statement issued here.

Claiming that the BJP government in the state has proved to be a "complete failure" in the past four and a half years, he said due to its functioning, there is a resentment among the people amid the state's law and order becoming bad to worse



The SP chief alleged that under the BJP rule in the state, farmers have been left agitating, youths feeling desperate due to rising unemployment and women insecure even as the education and health services have reached their nadir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath may feel happy putting up their name plaques at as many places as they can but the people of the state know that the BJP government is befooling them, the former UP CM claimed.

Yadav also accused the Yogi government of misappropriating credits for the work done by his government before 2017.

He claimed it was his government which had planned to build the Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway from Lucknow to Ballia and had laid its foundation stone during its regime after acquiring the land.

"But the BJP government stopped the work out of malice and laid the foundation stone afresh after removing the Samajwadi word for taking credit, he said.

The BJP is now going to present it as its own work, 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.)
leader on Friday met party chief amid speculation over Cabinet reshuffle and organisation rejig in

His meeting came a day after Chief Minister met Gandhi here and the two leaders are learnt to have discussed the political situation as well as the impending cabinet reshuffle in the state.

Speaking with reporters after meeting Gandhi, Pilot said, "Whatever the party wants me to do, I am more than happy to do. In the last 20 years, whatever job has been assigned, I have done it diligently and now also whatever the party decides, what role I have...I am happy to do it."



"I am happy Mrs Gandhi took feedback from all of us. I think at the right time, AICC general secretary Mr (Ajay) Maken will take an appropriate decision viz-a-viz Rajasthan," the former deputy chief minister said.

A major reshuffle is on the cards in in the next few days and various modalities are being worked out by adopting the "one man, one post" formula while considering appointments in the cabinet, according to sources.

Pilot for long has been demanding that Cabinet expansion should happen and appointments to boards and corporations in the state be made soon. He has been asserting that workers and leaders working closely with him for the party should be given their dues.

Pilot and the MLAs supporting him had revolted against Gehlot last year over his style of functioning, after which Pilot was removed from the posts of the state party chief and the Rajasthan deputy chief minister.

(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.)
In yet another immigration-friendly move, the Biden administration has agreed to provide automatic work authorisation permits to spouses of H-1B visas holders, a step that would benefit thousands of Indian-American women.

The settlement in this regard was reached by the Department of Homeland Security in a class-action lawsuit, which was filed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) on behalf of immigrant spouses this summer.

"This (H-4 visa holders) is a group that always met the regulatory test for automatic extension of EADs (employment authorisation documents), but the agency previously prohibited them from that benefit and forced them to wait for reauthorisation. People were suffering. They were losing their high-paying jobs for absolutely no legitimate reason causing harm to them and US businesses," Jon Wasden from AILA said.

The litigation successfully achieved the reversal of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy that prohibited H-4 spouses from benefiting from the automatic extension of their employment authorisation during the pendency of stand-alone EAD applications.

"Although this is a giant achievement, the parties' agreement will further result in a massive change in position for the USCIS, which now recognises that L-2 spouses enjoy automatic work authorisation incident to status, meaning these spouses of executive and managers will no longer have to apply for employment authorisation prior to working in the United States," AILA said.

"We are delighted to have reached this agreement, which includes relief for H-4 spouses, through our litigation efforts with Wasden Banias and Steven Brown. It is gratifying that the administration saw that settling the litigation for non-immigrant spouses was something that should be done, and done quickly," said Jesse Bless, AILA director of federal litigation.

The Obama administration had given work authorisation to certain categories of spouses of holders. So far, more than 90,000 H-4 visa holders, a significant majority of whom are Indian-American women, have received work authorisation.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi (India), November 12 (ANI/PNN): How often do you hear of an everyday automation startup founded and managed by a 12-year-old coding prodigy and a new age entrepreneur? Not every day.

And yet such a startup has been formulated by an unconventional duo - Arjit Nanda, a Multi-talented Entrepreneur and Miraan Rai, a 12-year-old coder, who have decided to jump in on the startup bandwagon.

Robotics and home automation is still an untapped arena when it comes to the homegrown market in India. Nonetheless, AM Innomates is here to fill that gap and rule the future of home automation. Their introductory product - AM Dustbin - is a combination of automatic and manual controls to lift the lid of the bin and is the first of its kind in the Indian market.

It was only a year ago that young Miraan Rai (miraanrai.com) visited the TEMZ (thetemz.com) - Arjit Nanda's other company - office in New Delhi for the first time to strengthen his coding knowledge.

During this one year, Arjit and Miraan struck a connect, which resulted in them developing unique automated products, of which the AM Dustbin is the first. This rare combination of 12 and 28 years didn't find their age gap a barrier to their shared goals of developing products that could be sold in the market to make lives simpler. This led to the configuration of AM Innomates.

AM Dustbin is their first utility-based product in the market. The bin detects motion and opens and closes its lid automatically.

"AM Dustbin is a smart experience that enables contact-free waste disposal," explains Arjit. "We realised that during the Covid period, contact with a waste bin can be dangerous, even if it means just using our legs. AM Dustbin is automated to eliminate this contact."

The main difference between the other dustbins in the market and the AM Dustbin is that it can be used in dual mode. One can switch off the automatic mode if one wants to, simply with a press of a button. The bin comes with a rechargeable battery which can last up to 60 days on a single charge, depending on the usage. They have tested the efficiency of the product, both in a domestic as well as a corporate environment. Further attributing to the AM Dustbin is the fact that it is made of high-quality stainless steel and is being manufactured by Jindal Stainless, one of the world's largest and most reputed stainless steel producers.

AM Innomates is endowed with a vision to simplify day-to-day life through its innovative and useful inventions. "We aim to use our vast knowledge of robotics, along with an in-depth understanding of the nuances of daily life, to explore new possibilities and develop practical solutions," says Miraan excitedly, as the young mind shares his big vision for the company. "We aspire to become India's - and maybe one day even the world's - leading provider for everyday robotics-based wonders and make difficult tasks simple with advanced artificial intelligence."

(https://www.aminnomates.com)

This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi [India], November 12 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Alcor, a leading partner in the digital transformation space and global provider of cloud solutions, security, and implementation services, announced the successful completion of the Service Organization Control (SOC) 1 Type 1 certification for AccessFlow, an Identity and Access Management Solution.

AccessFlow is an automated, self-service access management product built on the ServiceNow Now Platform that offers seamless integration with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) environments.

As a Built on Now native application for ServiceNow, AccessFlow provides the performance, Security, and GUI of the Now Platform - designed and tested for fast, agile, secure, resilient, and connected digital transformation.

SOC 1 compliance certification is an attestation standard defined by the (https://us.aicpa.org/interestareas/frc/assuranceadvisoryservices/serviceorganization-smanagement) American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), certifying that AccessFlow's Internal Control over Financial Reporting (ICFR) are approved to meet the highest level of data protection for the customers. This report provides regulatory compliance that AccessFlow maintains effective internal controls over the design and operations efficiency relevant to financial statement reporting and financial transactions, mitigating risks over financial auditing and controls.

"The SOC1 certification is a big leap forward in building the trust of our customers - they will now be even more confident about AccessFlow having effective internal controls for data protection. This further highlights that AccessFlow can securely handle data of the organizations in highly regulated industries such as Healthcare, Banking, Insurance, Telecommunication, Transportation, Agriculture, and more," says Amit Singh, Chief Executive Officer at Alcor.

AccessFlow Product Manager, Jenifer Rubavathy adds, "As businesses engage outside vendors to conduct activities that are critical to their operations and strategy, there is a greater requirement for trust and transparency in cloud-based service providers' internal controls. As a result, we've completed SOC 1 audit and received the effectiveness of AccessFlow's internal control over financial reporting. This illustrates our capacity to ensure security while also fostering trust and confidence in our service's operational effectiveness."

To learn more about AccessFlow, please visit (https://www.alcortech.com/identity-access-management-iam-platform) AccessFlow Webpage or download the application from the (https://store.servicenow.com/sn_appstore_store.do) ServiceNow App Store.

For more information on Alcor Solutions, please visit the website at (https://www.alcortech.com), follow us on (https://www.linkedin.com/company/alcor-solutions) LinkedIn, (https://twitter.com/AlcorSolutions) Twitter, and (https://www.facebook.com/AlcorSolutions) Facebook.

This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi [India], November 12 (ANI/ThePRTree): Founder of I REE Group of Companies, Dr. Amit D Ojha has recently been nominated for the honorary post of 'Head- East Zone (India)' by the National Project Committee of 'Save Our Rivers.' He will be resuming his charge with immediate effect.

In his attempt to help with the river conservation projects in India, Dr. Amit joined the 'Save Our Rivers' campaign which is the World's First River Rejuvenation Cleaning Project. He will also work towards strengthening the campaign. Dr. Amit D Ojha, in his new avatar, will be responsible for fulfilling the objective of the initiative 'Save Our Rivers,' a project by Global Leaders Foundation (GLF). The founder of I REE Group of Companies will be coordinating directly with the National Head Ramesh Tripathi and will be responsible for looking after memberships, project sponsorships, project operations, and its monitoring for yielding the best results in the Eastern Zone covering three states- West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttrakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.

Commenting on his new role and the recognition that was given by Save Our Rivers, Dr. Amit D Ojha says, "I am very excited for my new role. It is my privilege to work for such a noble cause, doing our bit for the environment and Mother Earth. I am feeling happy as well as feeling more responsible for the task I have been assigned with. I am grateful to Ramesh Tripathi, the National Head of the Save Our Rivers Campaign for reposing faith in me and I hope I will be able to do justice to my new role as the Head- East Zone (India). I am also pretty much hopeful that I will be able to inspire people to join the initiative in large numbers."

Dr. Amit D Ojha who is a founder of the I REE Group of Companies has always been widely recognized for his social work and has a long list of awards and honors to his name. Recently, he has been felicitated with the Real Estate Startup Award during the Global Startup Summit and Awards 2021. Dr. Amit has also been honored with the prestigious 'Rashtra Prerna Award 2021.' The award was accorded at the Atma Nirbhar Bharat National Conference, 2021.

Moreover, his company- I REE Constructions India Pvt Ltd has been the reason why thousands of people who had, at some point in time, thought of purchasing their own house have their own house now. Dr. Amit D. Ojha has always supported causes related to the upliftment and welfare of the people.

By providing houses and commercial buildings at a very low cost without even taking any interest from their clients, Amit and his company have surely been a boon for many people.

This story is provided by ThePRTree. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/ThePRTree)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chennai (Tamil Nadu), November 12 (ANI/NewsVoir): IIT Madras-based Space Tech start-up, Agnikul unveiled its full-scale second-stage engine - Agnilet at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) and at the World Expo in Dubai.

Agnikul inked multiple agreements with various stakeholders in the event which will directly catalyze its efforts of launching in 2022.

Agnilet is the world's first single-piece 3D printed engine fully designed and manufactured in India and was successfully test-fired in early 2021 by Agnikul. Agnikul had an opportunity to showcase this engine at IAC 2021 which is the most prestigious space tech gathering in the world.

Speaking about IAC & revealing Agnilet there, Moin SPM, Co-founder & COO, Agnikul, said, "The unveiling of Agnikul's engine at a global stage such as the IAC, allowed us to showcase the capabilities of Indian space tech startups to the international community and allowed us to forge agreements with multiple commercial players such as NPC Spacemind and Precious Payload. We were humbled and excited to present ourselves in the India Pavilion of the Dubai World Expo 2021 with 194 countries participating."

The company signed an MoU with NPC Spacemind to provide end-to-end solutions for its customers as NPC manufactures advanced state-of-the-art satellite subsystems and small satellites deployers. NPC Spacemind's, Niccolo Benini, Business Development Manager, NPC Italy said, "We are thrilled to announce the signature of MoU with Agnikul, a company focusing on the design of modular launch vehicles exceptionally based on customer's requirements. This MoU poses the bases for future collaborations between NPC and Agnikul. Looking forward to launching with Agnikul soon."

Additionally, an agreement between Precious Payload was signed to get global access to customers. "We have been tracking several interesting small satellite launch projects, and Agnikul is one of them. We are happy to add Agnibaan, a customizable and scalable rocket, to our launch schedule and put this NewSpace team in front of our international customers," said CEO and Co-founder of Precious Payload, Andrew Maximov.

Agnikul also signed an agreement with India-based Asaco which will help the startup realise various structural subsystems of Agnibaan. Speaking about the agreement Rajesh Kothapalli, CEO, ASACO said, "This endeavour is a combination of ASACO's decades of experience in machining complex assemblies and Agnikul's bold vision for the next chapter in Indian space. We are proud to support a privately funded indigenous spacecraft and prove to the world that India has the capability to deliver on its vision."

Founded in 2017 by Srinath Ravichandran, Moin SPM & Prof. SR Chakravarthy (from IIT Madras), Agnikul is building India's first private small satellite launch vehicle - Agnibaan, a rocket that enables plug-and-play configuration and is capable of carrying up to 100 kg of payload to low Earth orbits. This on-demand rocket can be fully customized to the customer's needs at an affordable cost. Agnikul's diverse team of rocket scientists, engineers, and investors are working on the vision of making space accessible and affordable. The IIT Madras incubated start-up is looking to complete its first mission sometime next year.

In December 2020, Agnikul became the first company in the country to sign an agreement with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) under the IN-SPACe initiative to have access to the space agency's expertise and its facilities to build Agnibaan.

Agnikul Cosmos Private Limited is a Chennai, India-based start-up incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT Madras). It is building India's first private small satellite rocket, Agnibaan, that will be capable of carrying up to 100 kg of payload to low Earth orbits up to 700 km. The vehicle has the capability for a plug-and-play engine configuration that is configurable to precisely match the mission's needs.

For more information, visit (https://www.agnikul.in).

Precious Payload helps teams build satellite projects and ship payloads to space faster and cheaper.

For more information, visit (https://preciouspayload.com).

Spacemind is the aerospace division of the company N.P.C. New Production Concept S.r.l. with core business focused on research and development of products dedicated to space sector.

Its focus is to become a solution provider for nano satellite, cubesat and space related applications offering complete package solutions and permitting to bring a scientific research to a commercial industrialized product and service. Aerospace engineering know-how combined with more then 10 years experience in assembling complex automatic machines is our strategy to provide a solutions starting from engineering services to complete product design and realization.

Its innovative solutions range from small satellite missions, cubesat and nanosatellite hardware, up to professional observatory telescope mount and tracking systems.

For more information, visit (https://www.npcspacemind.com).

Asaco is one of India's leading suppliers of critical Aerospace components to the Industry and has decades of experience in manufacturing Industrial Machinery & Components/Sub Assemblies. It is the sole supplier of the critical PS4, fourth stage Liquid Propulsion Engines for the PSLV launch vehicle to ISRO. It has State of the art Facility with 4, 5 & 7 Axis CNC machines and World-class Quality Control Lab, AS9100 and ISO9001 Certified company and NADCAP Accredited EBW Facility

For more information, visit (https://www.asaco.in).

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.)
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], November 12 (ANI/NewsVoir): Khadim, India's leading footwear company, has demonstrated a robust recovery in the last one year.

The company has announced positive quarterly performance for the quarter ended September, 2021.

Revenue from operations for Q2FY22 grew by 83% QoQ and 33% YoY to INR 1616.46mn from 882.30mn in Q1FY22 and 1247.31mn in Q2FY21.

The company's Profit after tax for Q2FY22 amounted to INR 64.75mn compared to a loss of 108.90mn in Q1FY22 and loss of 211.43mn in Q2FY21. Thus, registering a strong recovery.

Khadim India Ltd. continued to strengthen its retail presence in tier II & III cities by opening 25 new franchise stores during the second quarter despite partial lockdown, taking the overall tally to 555 franchise stores. The company has achieved healthy revenue growth across both its business, retail and distribution, and significant improvement in margins for Q2FY22.

Key Performance Highlights

Revenue from operations grew by 33% YoY in Q2FY22 to reach INR 1616.46mn from INR 1217.47mn in Q2FY21

GM% improved by ~230 bps to 40.6% in Q2FY22 from 38.3% in Q2FY21

Achieved PAT of 64.75mn in Q2FY22 against a loss of INR 211.43mn in Q2FY21

The company opened 25 New Franchise Stores across India

Working capital efficiency has improved cash-flow position and strengthened the balance sheet

Owing to "affordable fashion" positioning of the Brand, Khadim is able to cater to India & Bharat simultaneously. From hi-street stores in metro cities, Tier I, Tier II (through retail) to the rural general trade multi brand footwear Outlets (through distribution) - the brand has established its footprint and shelf space everywhere.

Speaking about the efforts that led to recovery, Namrata Ashok Chotrani, CEO of Khadim India said, "The past year has been a lot of hard work especially because we just came out from a rough year behind us. We have reworked our range architecture, margin and cost structures, supply chains, and become more process driven and working capital efficient along with investing in growing our human capital and deepening our relationships with our business partners. All of these changes ensured that we were able to adapt to the changing macro-economic scenario, overcome the prior business inefficiencies and achieve a turnaround despite the impact of COVID on business and economy."

"The Novel coronavirus pandemic has been one of the biggest healthcare crises over the last century. The pandemic induced necessary lockdowns and healthcare initiatives have caused severe disruptions to the economy. Just like all other retail brands, we have also faced similar issues due to the COVID 1st and 2nd waves, but we stuck to the basics maximise sale recovery, protect margins, reduce fixed costs, regulate working capital with strict monitoring of cash-flows. In the post-COVID era, our affordable fashion positioning has resonated well with our existing and new customer base. All the hard work is paying off and we are looking forward to doing good business in coming future. This is just the beginning," she added further.

Khadim's began in the 1960's as a humble shoe store in Chitpur to become a popular and much-loved footwear brand of the new millennials. Today, Khadim has grown to 762 branded exclusive retail stores across 23 states and 1 Union Territory nationally.

The Company is the second largest footwear retailers in India, it has the largest presence in East India and is among the top three footwear brands in South India in terms of exclusive stores operating under the Khadim's brand through the Retail vertical. It also strives to become an emerging brand in West and North India The core business objective of Khadim is 'Fashion for Everyone', and the Company has established an identity as an 'affordable fashion' brand, catering to the entire family for all occasions.

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.)
Indore (Madhya Pradesh) [India], November 12 (ANI/NewsVoir): Sri Aurobindo Institute of Technology (SAIT), Indore signed a MoU with Indore Smart Seed Incubation Centre which is setup by Smart City Indore and (https://ciie.co) (Built at IIM Ahmedabad) to improve the entrepreneurship ecosystem of the city.

It will also include students from Sri Aurobindo Institute of Technology, Indore who are interested in Startups. Indore Smart Seed Incubation Centre is currently supporting around 11 startups from the incubation centre.

As a part of this MoU, Indore Smart Seed will guide the interested students on how to begin a Startup.

Apart from this, knowledge sharing sessions and workshops will be conducted on Business Model Development, Lean Startup, Fundraising and Industry Connects will be provided to selected students across a 4-month period. The aim of the program is to follow the mission of PM Modi in creating an Aatm Nirbhar Bharat so that the students of today can become job providers instead of job seekers.

The MoU was signed by Rishav Gupta, CEO, Smart City Indore and Kinshuk Trivedi, Vice President, Sri Aurobindo Group in the presence of Manish Singh, Collector, Indore; Pratibha Pal, Commissioner - Indore Municipal Corporation; Dr. Durgesh Mishra, Director, SAIT; Aditya Vyas from (https://ciie.co) and Vajid Ahmed, Head (Career Development, SAIT).

Rishav Gupta, CEO, Smart City Indore said, "We want to give the students a thorough grounding on the building blocks of a successful Startup with the team and expert mentors from (https://ciie.co). We are also in discussions for more partnerships and startup support programs at the incubation centre."

"Sri Aurobindo Institute of Technology is committed to provide best infrastructure & incubation facilities to budding entrepreneurs as a part of our startup support program. We foster an ecosystem to develop the entrepreneurial skills in students and provide them with better career prospects. This makes us stand amongst the best engineering institutes in Indore and Madhya Pradesh," said Kinshuk Trivedi, Vice President, Sri Aurobindo Group of Institutes.

For more information, please visit (https://aurogroup.ac/sait).

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.)
Surat (Gujarat) [India], November 12 (ANI/PNN): Surat, already known as the global hub of diamond cutting and polishing, is set to make a mark for itself in an entirely unrelated but critical area.

A nature park in Surat is set to play a significant role in conserving dozens of exotic birds and animals.

Spread over an area of 81 acres, the Kisna Nature Park was conceived with the idea to help in the conservation of exotic bird species from around the world by providing them with natural habitat.

Living up to its commitment, the park houses more than 40 exotic bird species such as Central African Parrots, Budgerigar bird, Sun Conure, Black Swan, Golden Pheasant, Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot, Lady Amherst's Pheasant, Scarlet Macaw, Eclectus, Zebra Finches, Ring Neck Dove, Black & Red Broadbill, to name a few.

The park aims to add more exotic birds going ahead. It is also home to a variety of fishes and ducks, as well as Iguana, rabbits, dogs, and alligators, among others.

Visitors get the unique opportunity to watch exotic species in natural settings from close quarters. They are also shown how the park is working on the conservation of rare bird species and wildlife. Visitors are also made aware of steps they can take to contribute to nature and wildlife conservation.

Moreover, visitors can also participate in activities such as nature walks, yoga, meditation, picnics, eating out, and several others in the tranquil lap of nature.

"The Kisna Nature Park has been developed with the vision of conservation of exotic bird species by providing them with natural home and creating awareness among people. The other activities at the park are also linked in one way or the other with conservation of nature," said a source of Kisna Nature Park.

The park encourages people to adopt birds and animals and organises photography and other competitions to get people more involved in the cause of conservation.

It is also home to a souvenir shop where visitors can choose from a range of souvenirs themed around the park's inhabitants.

This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC), a Global incubator in the heart of Dublin City  in the presence of Tanaiste, Leo Varadkar  this week launched its new 100,000ft2 space following a 10m expansion project.

A 1m phase two investment has now been announced and will commence immediately. Due to strong demand, the GEC has already committed 80% of its additional capacity to start-ups and expects to be at full capacity by early 2022.

Representing 11m in total investment, the expansion was funded by the GEC; Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF);) the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment' Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) administered by Enterprise Ireland; Dublin City Council; Diageo; and Dublin BIC.

The new space consists of two additional floors at the GECs home in Dublins Liberties and is enabling a 75% increase in net floor space with capacity for 762 start-up employees. Over the next five years, it is estimated that 3,000 additional jobs will be supported by the GECs expansion. This will include 1,500 direct jobs and 1,500 indirect jobs. The additional jobs will bring the total number of direct jobs supported by the GEC to 5,000 by 2026. Collectively, the investment will enable the GEC to support 150 resident companies  up from 85. The facility can accommodate 220 co-working companies, up from 160.

Resident companies will benefit from the GECs start-up and scaling ecosystem, which includes CoConnect  the GECs partnership with more than 50 regional and international hubs  the Prosper Programme, which introduces CXOs to key local decision-makers; and the University Programme, which gives start-ups access to MBA business executives in 35 top Irish and international business universities. In 2019, the GEC was named by UBI Global as a World Top Private Business Incubator.

GEC graduate companies include cyber telecoms security company, AdaptiveMobile Security, which was acquired for 45M this year; cryptocurrency start-up, Circle, which was recently valued at almost $3BN; and cloud software company, Qualio, which raised $50M in funding earlier this year. Current residents include gaming studio, Black Shamrock, which now employs more than 80 people; and digital health software company, Wellola, whose co-founder Sonia Neary was a finalist in the global Women in Tech Awards in Paris in 2019. Others include Selio Medical, Volograms, Benetel, Examfly, Kinia and Amnexis Digital Solutions.

Speaking this week, Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar said, "This expansion is fantastic news for the future of entrepreneurship in Dublin City and a real boost to those already putting their ideas into action. By providing the space and network for start-ups to thrive, we are bringing entrepreneurship and innovation into the heart of the city and providing the right environment for the creation of world-leading Irish companies."

Chairman at Guinness Enterprise Centre, David Varian added, "The newly-expanded space will give more entrepreneurs access to the supports, networks, learning and investment funds they need to scale globally. They will be creating more jobs in the local community and contribute significantly to Irelands economic growth. In the next five years, they will return almost 77M to the exchequer. We are creating a global entrepreneurial superhub that will give our start-ups every opportunity to become world industry disruptors."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Legato Health Technologies (Legato) yesterday announced the doubling of its Irish workforce to 120 by mid-2022 as it officially opened its R&D Hub in the National Technology Park, Limerick.

The announcement follows the initial 60 jobs committed to in September by Legato Health Technologies, which is committed to transforming healthcare through operational excellence, innovation and digital transformation. The company has 20,000 employees outside of Ireland.

The official opening of the R&D Hub  the US companys first investment in Europe - was performed yesterday by Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Niall Collins. The additional jobs commitment, the company said, reflects growth intentions for the Limerick operations as well as the opportunity for talent to work in a cutting-edge environment focussed on enhancing healthcare management and advancing predictive health.

The newly established Limerick base will be home to 120 high quality jobs across Business Analytics, Data Science, Machine Learning and Product Management. The investment is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.

Speaking at the launch in Limerick yesterday, President of Legato Health Technologies, Rajat Puri said, "Legato is delighted to officially open our new base here in Ireland, a location we chose due to the high levels of talent available. We are looking for highly skilled colleagues to develop cutting edge data science and engineering technologies that can be applied to provide innovation and digital transformation for the healthcare sector. Today is a very important day for the development of our company and we look forward to expanding our Limerick base further over the coming years."

Minister of State with responsibility for Skills and Further Education, Niall Collins added, "This announcement represents a significant opportunity for the people of Limerick and indeed Ireland. Health tech research and innovation provides us with tools to address key challenges in our society. Research activity attracts and retains high-quality health professionals in the system. New, innovative technologies like the ones that will be developed here will make it possible to deliver better clinical outcomes and improve the quality of life for people."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
There is an urgent need to close the global leadership gap in trade, globalization and climate change, Singapores Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said at Caixin Summit 2021 on Friday, noting the importance of more global coordination as the world has to navigate a more uncertain and complex road ahead.

Heng said in a speech delivered at the summit that a lack of coordination especially at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic has pointed to a global leadership deficit, noting that there can be no substitute for global leadership. If the global community can exercise greater leadership, I have every confidence that we will emerge from this crisis stronger than before, he said.

The Singaporean politician pointed out that the urgent need to close the leadership gap comes at a time of stress to the global order, with rising tensions from geopolitical contestation, and fraying consensus around globalization. He suggested focusing on 3 Ps, namely partnerships, people and our planet, to improve cooperation on trade relations, investment in people and climate talks.

Regarding trade, countries need to find new building blocks for global economic partnership, Heng said. It is important to build a stronger multilateral trading system, while free trade agreements among like-minded partners, which reduce tariff barriers and drive investment flows, can help make progress, the leader noted.

He said he is glad that some economies, including China, have applied or expressed their interest in joining the regional free trade agreement the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA). China has formally applied for a membership of both agreements earlier this year, according to the commerce ministry.

Singapore welcomes like-minded partners to be part of these regional frameworks, he said. By growing these frameworks over time, we can realize the vision of a more economically integrated global trading system.

Noting the impacts of globalization, Heng said governments should also ensure that their people benefit from globalization, stressing the importance of achieving a win-win paradigm.

Each country can better benefit from globalization if it commits to growing the overall pie, by transforming their companies and investing in their people across all ages, so that they can better capture the opportunities of globalization, he said, adding that such investment in people and companies requires stronger global leadership.

Meanwhile, an area that needs more long-term investment is the global response to climate change, Heng noted, as world leaders try to tackle the pressing issue at the COP26 United Nations climate summit in Glasgow that concludes Friday.

In a joint declaration announced Thursday at a high-level summit, China and the U.S. have pledged to work together to enhance climate action over the next decade, noting consensus on reducing methane emissions in the 2020s.

Responding to a question during a Q&A session, the Singaporean politician said that he sees very positive trends following the notes on bilateral cooperation between China and the U.S., the worlds two largest carbon emitters, and climate pledges such as no new investment in coal-fired power projects outside China.

Last month, Chinas cabinet released a new action plan to bring the countrys carbon emissions to a peak by 2030, which highlights the need to accelerate the development of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system.

As countries seek a painful energy transition, Heng said that all economies are facing challenges, though he noted that its a necessary pain.

We have to be prepared for the pain, because not doing anything will be worse, he said.

Contact reporter Cai Xuejiao (xuejiaocai@caixin.com) and editor Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com)

Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go.

Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
A Nio EP9 electric supercar is on display on July 17 in a Nio store in Shanghai. Photo: VCG

Welcome to Caixins Tech Insider, your twice-weekly wrap on the movers, shakers and deal-makers in Chinas tech scene.

Robot startup Gaussian raises $188 million in new funding

Chinese startup Gaussian Robotics said Wednesday on social media that it completed a 1.2 billion yuan ($188 million) series C funding round co-led by SoftBank Vision Fund and Capital Today to accelerate its global expansion.

Other investors in the round included lifestyle service and food delivery giant Meituan, Jinyi Capital and Bluerun Ventures.

Founded in 2013, Shanghai-based Gaussian said it focuses on developing delivery and cleaning robots for hotels, hospitals, airports and offices, with clients spanning 40 countries and regions.

SMIC vice chairman resigns less than a year after joining chipmaker

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) Vice Chairman Chiang Shang-Yi resigned after serving in the position for less than a year because he wants to spend more time with his family, according to a company filing on Thursday.

The resignation of Chiang, who helped turn Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. into the worlds largest contract chipmaker by market share, marks the second departure of a senior executive from SMIC in two months. In September, the chipmakers Chairman Zhou Zixue left SMIC, citing health reasons.

Indonesian tech firm GoTo raises $1.3 billion ahead of IPO

GoTo Group, an Indonesia-based tech company created after the merger of ride-hailing firm Gojek and e-commerce firm PT Tokopedia, has raised over $1.3 billion in the first close of a pre-IPO funding round from several investors including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Avanda Investment Management and Tencent, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

GoTo said that it expects more investors to join the fundraising in coming weeks. The firm has been aiming to raise as much as $2 billion at a valuation of $25 billion to $30 billion before launching an IPO at home and a subsequent U.S. share sale, Bloomberg reported in July citing sources familiar with the matter.

Alibabas Double 11 sales growth falls to new low

This years Double 11 shopping extravaganza set two new records for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the e-commerce titan that turned an unofficial holiday celebrating singletons into a consumerist juggernaut.

The first was a new sales record  540.3 billion yuan ($84.5 billion) worth of goods were sold across its platforms over the 11 days through Nov. 11. The second was record low growth in gross merchandise volume, which dipped below double-digits for the first time to hit 8.45%. In 2020, Alibaba almost doubled its annual GMV for the event when it expanded a traditional 24-hour run to a series of promotions over 11 days.

Despite the downward trend, the news has been met with optimism by stock markets, amid a lagging consumption recovery and tighter scrutiny of the countrys e-commerce giants this year that may have led investors to expect the worst.

NavInfo to provide compliance services for Volvos IoV platform

Tencent-backed mapper NavInfo Co. Ltd. has signed a three-year agreement with Volvo Cars Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. to provide compliance services for the carmakers cloud-based Internet of Vehicles platform, according to an exchange filing (link in Chinese) on Thursday.

Tuesdays announcement came a week after Beijing-based NavInfo announced a deal to supply its self-driving data management service to Daimler passenger cars sold in China through November 2024.

Tesla wannabe Nio narrows losses as sales grow

Chinese Tesla challenger Nio Inc. shrank its loss in the third quarter as it notched strong gains in deliveries despite a global chip shortage.

In the three months through September, the New York-listed electric-vehicle maker narrowed its net loss by 20.2% to 835.3 million ($129.6 million), according to its earnings report released on Tuesday.

Quarterly revenue totaled 9.8 billion yuan, up 116.6% year-on-year, about 88% of which came from vehicle sales. In the quarter, Nio delivered 24,439 cars, about double what it did in the same period last year, according to the report.

JD.com to increase overseas investment

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc. plans to beef up investment overseas, CNBC reported on Wednesday, citing a company executive.

Over the coming years, JD.com will increase investment in countries that conform to JDs strategies, no matter if it is on warehousing, logistics or supply chain, Xin Lijun, chief executive of JDs retail business, told CNBC. Xin said that JD was carrying out further strategic analysis in Vietnam and Europe as potential locations to expand in.

Xin viewed Beijings new regulations on areas including data protection and anticompetitive practices as positive, saying his company welcomes regulations because they help restrict companies behaviors, enable consumers to have better services and create a more fair competition environment.

Foxconn buys Lordstown Motors factory in Ohio for $230 million

Taiwans Foxconn has agreed to buy an Ohio assembly plant from cash-strapped U.S. electric-truck maker Lordstown Motors for $230 million, the two companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday, the latest step for the iPhone-assembler into vehicle manufacturing.

Foxconn has also agreed to pursue a contract manufacturing agreement to assemble Lordstown Motors first product, an all-electric pickup truck called the Endurance, according to the statement.

QCraft picks Nvidia platform to power its self-driving system

Beijing-based tech startup QCraft Inc. will use U.S. chipmaker Nvidias software-defined platform Nvidia Drive Orin to power its next-generation hardware solution designed for its Driven-by-QCraft autonomous driving system, Nvidia said in a blog on Tuesday.

Powered by a new system-on-a-chip, the Nvidia Drive Orin platform boasts a processing speed reaching 254 trillion operations per second, and is designed to handle the large number of applications and deep neural networks that run simultaneously in autonomous vehicles and robots.

In a separate statement released on Wednesday, QCraft, backed by TikTok-owner ByteDance, said that the hardware solution is equipped with a sensor system consisting of nine cameras, five lidars and four millimeter-wave radars.

This Caixin Tech Insider was compiled by Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com) and edited by Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com). Send us your tips and feedback.

Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go.

Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
In the fight against Covid-19, China needs an enhanced vaccination strategy, refined disease control and prevention measures, and new drugs to treat the disease, according to top infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong.

The mass vaccination in most countries globally has not been as effective as expected in controlling the spread of the disease, Zhang said Friday in a video appearance at the annual Caixin Summit. This led to the viruss prevalence remaining relatively high.

Zhang, the director of Chinas National Center of Infectious Diseases and director of the Infectious Diseases Department of Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, said the global effort to contain the pandemic has encountered huge challenges.

Now there is a growing belief that Covid-19 is likely to persist. Virologists worldwide agree that the coronavirus has become a resident pathogen, and the world will have to learn to coexist with it. Health experts emphasize the importance of vaccination for building herd immunity.

For China, Zhang said, a pressing challenge is that neighboring countries have been gradually reopening their borders while relaxing disease-control measures. This requires a new strategy better-suited to meeting the ongoing challenge while normalizing peoples lives and livelihoods, Zhang said.

Countries like Israel, Singapore and the U.K. have been giving booster vaccination shots to certain groups of people, Zhang said. A third dose of Covid-19 vaccine improves immunity, helping to enhance prevention and control, he said.

By administering booster shots to almost 50% of its population, Israel has recently achieved a significant reduction in the prevalence rate of the virus, Zhang said. He said China could learn from Israels experience.

The Chinese mainland has vaccinated nearly 80% of its more than 1.4 billion people and has started offering booster shots in several provinces and cities as new outbreaks of the highly transmissible delta mutation spread.

With a zero tolerance policy, China has largely brought the domestic spread of Covid-19 under control, though regional flare-ups of the delta variant continue to appear. Local Covid-19 outbreaks in mainland China that began in mid-October have spread to 20 of 31 provincial-level regions, with more than 1,000 locally transmitted infections recorded in dozens of cities in a month.

Top Chinese epidemiologist Zeng Guang said at a Saturday forum that the country will need to continue its zero-tolerance strategy with nationwide emergency responses until a barrier of immunity has been established. Then China will enter the next phase of normalizing disease control and prevention.

Zhang said progress in the research and development of Covid-19 drugs would also help keep mortality rates low.

Chinese pharmaceutical companies have been working on creating Covid-19 drugs. Sinopharm is developing two treatments for infected individuals with mild conditions, according to state media. Its Covid-19 intravenous injection drug obtained authorization for clinical trials in China and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Contact reporter Cai Xuejiao (xuejiaocai@caixin.com) and Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (hello@caixin.com)

Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go.

Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
Painter Zhang Ben opened his new exhibition on Nov. 6 at Shanghai's M50 Art Zone. Zhang, born in Huangshan, East Chinas Anhui province, in 1984, is now working at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Known for his Symbolist oil paintings, Zhang presents a surrealistic space that reflects his inner self, including religious elements. Xiangwai Artha, an art-sharing platform, contributed to todays gallery

Nov 19, 2021 06:03 PM
The Facebook Papers project represents a unique collaboration among 17 American news organizations, including The Associated Press. Journalists from a variety of newsrooms, large and small, worked together to gain access to thousands of pages of internal company documents obtained by Frances
Become A Subscriber

A subscription opens up access to all our online content, including: our interactive E-Edition, a full archive of modern stories, exclusive and expanded online offerings, photo galleries from Caledonian-Record journalists, video reports from our media partners, extensive international, national and regional reporting by the Associated Press, and a wide variety of feature content.
Modified On Nov 11, 2021 01:23 PM By Tarun for Hyundai Creta 2022

The facelifted model gets several cosmetic upgrades along with additional features like ADAS

Gets a fresh front fascia inspired by the Tucson, and reworked tail lamps.

The cabin remains unchanged save for the addition of a 10.25-inch fully digital instrument cluster.

Features ADAS with blind-spot monitoring, automatic emergency braking, lane-keep assist, and forward collision avoidance.

Should offer the same engines as before.

Expected to be launched in India in 2022.

Hyundai has unveiled the facelifted Creta at the GAIKINDO Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) 2021. The SUV gets revisions to the front and rear profile along with several feature additions.

The facelifted Creta now gets new LED DRLs blended in the Parametric Jewel front grille, refreshed LED headlamps, and a revised front bumper. Thanks to these changes, the front profile looks heavily inspired by the new Tucson.

It further gets reworked tail lights, thus keeping the side and rear profile largely unchanged. The front, side and rear profile also get heavy silver inserts. The visual enhancements are noticeable but maintain the silhouette of the pre-facelift SUV.

The cabin of the facelifted Creta remains unchanged save for the addition of the 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster from the Alcazar. The interior is finished in an all-black theme which is offered with the turbo DCT variants only in India.

Another notable addition to the Creta is ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems). ADAS in the Creta consists of features such as forward collision avoidance, blind-spot monitoring and collision avoidance, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-keep assist, driver attention monitoring, and autonomous emergency braking. It is highly likely that ADAS will be carried over to the India-spec model since its arch rival, the MG Astor, is the only one in the segment to offer it right now.

The Indonesia-spec Creta features an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay (the Indian model should continue with its 10.25-inch unit), connected car technology, cruise control, wireless phone charger, ventilated front seats, a panoramic sunroof, air purifier, and Bose eight-speaker setup. Safety is further covered by tyre pressure monitoring system, hill start assist, rear-view monitor, and up to six airbags.

The Indonesia-spec Hyundai Creta is powered by a single 115PS 1.5-litre petrol engine, paired with 6-speed manual and CVT. When it comes to India, it will be further offered with 115PS 1.5-litre diesel and 140PS 1.4-litre turbo-petrol engines. The facelifted Creta in India could also feature the iMT (clutchless manual transmission) paired with the 1.5-litre petrol unit.

Hyundai is expected to launch the facelifted Creta in India in 2022. It will demand a premium over the current price range of Rs 10.16 lakh to Rs 17.87 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The SUV rivals the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross , Kia Seltos , Renault Duster , Nissan Kicks , Volkswagen Taigun , Skoda Kushaq , and MG Astor. Its vast pricing range also puts it at par with Tata Harrier , Mahindra XUV700 and MG Hector

Read More on : Creta on road price
FILE - Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks to a reporter on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 24, 2021. This years $1 trillion infrastructure bill easily cleared the Senate by a 69-13 vote with some GOP support. But the bill crawled through the House last week by a 228-206 margin with just 13 Republican votes. Those 13 GOP members have come under harsh criticism from former President Donald Trump and others. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)
Tom Wolf, a member of Chapter 639 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, places his cap over his heart as he remembers those who have served their nation during a Veterans Day ceremony Thursday at the veterans memorial in Bayview Cemetery in Morehead City. (Cheryl Burke photo)
The Morehead City Council approved a 2022 paving plan that addresses some of the spots in worst condition on the citys roadways. (Metro photo)
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

Mostly clear early then increasing cloudiness after midnight. Low near 20F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear early then increasing cloudiness after midnight. Low near 20F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Not to be outdone by Illuminations Sing 2, Netflix has released the first trailer for its own koala-starring comic caper, Back to the Outback. The film will hit the streamer on December 10 and will also get a limited theatrical release.

The trailer introduces Pretty Boy, a world-famous koala with a misanthropic streak, and a ragtag gang of supposedly deadly animals who live in the zoo alongside him. Pretty Boy is caught up in a breakout staged by the animals, who flee across the outback with park rangers at their heels.

The film is directed by Clare Knight and Harry Cripps. Knight is an experienced editor who has worked on The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and the Kung Fu Panda trilogy; she was nominated for an Annie Award for her work on Kung Fu Panda 2.
For example, Ericsson has worked with the company to model cities in order to work out where to place 5G antennas in real life. Omniverse can also be used to train the AI components of robots and self-driving vehicles, or to simulate and study forest fires.

The underlying tech on which Omniverse develops its virtual worlds is well established in the animation industry: it is Universal Scene Description, a framework created by Pixar to let teams collaborate on creating high-end cg-animated scenes. Nvidia has described it as the HTML of 3d worlds.

At the conference, Nvidia also unveiled Omniverse Avatar, which enables virtual characters to interact with humans using speech recognition, synthetic speech, facial tracking, and real-time animation. CEO Jensen Huang demonstrated the tech by presenting an animated toy version of himself, which fielded questions about scientific subjects. (See the demo at the 28-minute mark in the video below.)

Nvidia stressed the potential of these avatars in the field of customer service. It remains to be seen how useful they will be in these roles, especially as they currently suffer from a lag of a few seconds. Still, the fact that yet another major corporation is embracing real-time animation spells big things for our industry.

Omniverse has been available in beta mode since December 2020. The platforms Enterprise version can now be licensed for $9,000 a year.
Photo: Contributed Kelowna-Lake Country MP Tracy Gray.

The United States recently reopened its land border to fully vaccinated travellers from Canada. After 20 long months, many Canadians are eager to head south to see friends and family.

If youre fully vaccinated, the United States doesnt require you to take a COVID-19 test to enter by land, but when youre returning from your trip, Canada still requires you to provide a negative molecular test to come home.

There are different kinds of molecular tests but the most commonly referred to is the PCR test, so for simplicity here, Ill refer to PCR. At a cost of $150 to $300 each, a family of four could be on the hook for testing costs of up to $1,200. Ive heard from local constituents who have struggled to find a PCR testing location in the United States, with some having to drive two hours to find one with availability. Constituents have also said many testing locations in the U.S. have indicated it may take longer than 72 hours to receive the PCR test results. However, if your test is older than 72 hours when attempting to cross the border back into Canada, its considered invalid.

Of course, keeping Canadians safe should be a priority. That being said, the federal government needs to clearly explain why someone who is fully vaccinated needs to take a costly, time-consuming, difficult to find PCR test, instead of a less costly and more readily available rapid antigen test. Rapid antigen tests are commonplace in the U.S., are approved for use in Canada, can provide results within 15 minutes and can be purchased at American pharmacies for as low as $24 USD.

The current requirement to have a negative PCR test adds a costly barrier that many families are saying they simply cant afford.

During this pandemic, my constituency office has been flooded with numerous residents of the Kelowna-Lake Country riding asking for help to navigate the confusing and continually changing federal public health measures.

This becomes even more difficult when the entry and re-entry requirements between Canada and the United States are at odds.

Figures from the Public Health Agency of Canada show that between Aug. 9 and Oct. 21, 0.18% of Covid-19 tests completed at the border amongst vaccinated travellers were positive. Constituents have asked me what data the government is using to require vaccinated travellers to take the PCR tests when there are cheaper, more readily available, alternatives.

Its not just travellers speaking up either. Business groups, tourism associations and border-area mayors have also called for the removal of the PCR testing requirement.

Protecting Canadians is a priority but that doesnt mean that there cant be room for improvement.

Its time for the federal government to review the data it is using to put in place Covid-19 safety measures at our borders, while using all the health tools available and acknowledge and respect all the work that has been done to get us to this point.

Are you planning to travel to the U.S. or anywhere else? Its always best to check the Government of Canada website to get all the most recent updates and requirements here: COVID-19 vaccinated travellers entering Canada - Travel restrictions in Canada  Travel.gc.ca.

As always, please reach out if you have any thoughts, ideas, or concerns on this or anything else, or if you need any assistance with federal services.You can contact [email protected] or 250-470-5075.

If youd like to stay up to date on my work in both Ottawa and Kelowna-Lake Country, visit tracygraymp.ca to join my newsletter.
Photo: NASA The fully assembled James Webb Space Telescope with its sunshield and unitized pallet structures that will fold up around the telescope for launch.

It is a wonderful thing that our world has a nice, dense atmosphere. Without it we would not be here.

However, it does not make life easy for astronomers. Apart from cloudy nights where only our radio telescopes can see out into the universe, instability in the atmosphere makes stars romantically twinkle, which manifests itself through our telescopes as images dancing around, flashing with spurious colours and hiding their detail.

Then, finally the atmosphere only lets in certain wavelength ranges. It is transparent to visible light and a large part of the radio spectrum. It blocks almost everything else.

This is again something that is good for us because dangerous short wavelength ultraviolet radiation and X-rays get almost totally blocked, as do high-energy particles.

It is still worth building telescopes on the ground because they can be bigger, more flexible and relatively cheap. We like to put our optical telescopes on mountain peaks surrounded by stable air. However, for seeing exceptional detail without the atmospheric shimmering, or to observe wavelengths that don't reach the ground, there is no alternative to putting telescopes in space, orbiting above the atmosphere.

This was the reason for launching the Hubble Space Telescope. The HST was launched in 1990 and is still in orbit doing science. It has a 2.4-metre diameter mirror, which is relatively small compared with the mirrors on ground-based telescopes, which are now getting into the 10-metre to 30-metre range.

The mirror on the HST was limited by the telescope having to fit into the cargo bay on the Space Shuttle, which is what was used to lift it into orbit. Since it was launched, the HST has justified itself many times. The images it sent back have been stunning and scientifically exciting.

Of course, every new view of the universe provides new questions. A lot of interest is now focused on understanding the early youth of the universe.

The Hubble Space Telescope continues to be a valuable scientific research tool but to look at the early universe, and especially the birth of the first stars and galaxies and seeing what they were like, we need a new and more sensitive instrument. That instrument is the James Webb Space Telescope, which is currently under final preparation for launching Dec. 18.

The JWST is a joint project of the U.S., European and Canadian space agencies. Thousands of scientists and engineers are involved some as employees of those space agencies and others distributed among some 248 companies that are contributing to the project. It is to be launched using one of the European Space Agency's Ariane 5 rockets.

This telescope has a 6.5-metre diameter mirror, much larger than the mirror on the HST and should collect much more light. This has been a challenge because there is no way such a large mirror will fit inside the launcher. So the mirror has to fold up.

It is therefore made up of a number of hexagonal panels. When in orbit this has to unfold into a perfect mirror. The detectors on it have to be kept very cold in order to operate with their best sensitivity. In space things naturally become very cold providing the Sun is not shining on them. So the JSWT is to be parked at a stable, Lagrange Point, where it remains permanently in the shadow of the Earth.

In addition, it has complex sunshades to keep away stray sunlight or heat from the Earth.

So astronomers around the world are looking forward to a wonderful Christmas present that will tell us more about the processes that gave rise to the universe, and us.

Once in orbit, the antenna and sunshades have to be deployed and this complex telescope set up, tested and calibrated. Only then can the science start.



 After sunset, Venus lies close to the southwest horizon.

 Jupiter and Saturn are low in the southern sky. Venus shines brighter than Jupiter, with Saturn a lot fainter.

 The Moon will be full on the Nov. 19.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Sudans top general reappointed himself as head of the army-run interim governing body on Thursday, a sign that he's tightening his grip on the country two weeks after he led a coup against civilian leaders.

The move by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan  along with other appointments he announced for the Sovereign Council  was expected to anger Sudan's pro-democracy protest movement, sidelined in the coup. Since the Oct. 25 takeover, pro-democracy leaders have demanded the military relinquish power and refuse to be part of any administration in which a military maintains a role.

Thursday's development, announced in a bulletin by Sudans state television, comes amid repeated promises from the military rulers that they will hand over power to civilian authorities. Since the coup, more than 100 government officials and political leaders have been detained, along with a large number of protesters and activists. Almost all remain in custody.

At least 14 anti-coup protesters have been killed due to excessive force used by the countrys security forces, according to Sudanese doctors and the United Nations. The military removed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok who has since been under house arrest in the capital, Khartoum, as Western powers and U.N. diplomats try to mediate a resolution to the crisis.

Sudan's culture and information minister, Hamza Baloul, who was arrested during the coup and later released, condemned the appointments. He described Thursdays announcement of the new council as an extension of the coup" and said pro-democracy protesters are right to refuse to negotiate with military leaders. Along with rejecting internationally backed initiatives to return to a power-sharing arrangement with the military, the protest movement has also called for a nationwide strike.

Were obviously taking a look at these developments. I would say theyre very concerning," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said later Thursday. We want to see a return to the transition as quickly as possible. We want to see the release from house arrest of Prime Minister Hamdok as well as all other politicians and leaders that have been detained.

Sudan has been in the midst of a fragile transition since a 2019 pro-democracy uprising led to the removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir. The 11-member Sovereign Council was first formed in the summer of 2019, after the military signed a power-sharing deal with pro-democracy forces.

A number of other members of the body sat on the previous council that Burhan headed before he dissolved it in the coup. Also reappointed to the body Thursday was the powerful paramilitary leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, as vice-president. And Burhan reappointed as council members another three generals who had served in the previous council.

Three others on the council are leaders of rebel groups who fought Bashir's government for years, but who have moved towards peace with the transitional government. They all also served on the previous council. One of them, Malik Agar, a prominent leader of the Sudan Revolutionary Front, a rebel movement in Sudan's southern Blue Nile States, was one of signees to a historic peace accord with the transitional government in Juba, South Sudan last year.

Five of the members are civilians, only one of whom  Raja Nicola, a Christian lawyer  served on the previous body. She is one of two women appointees.

The agreement under which the council was formed after Bashir's ouster stipulated that the council should include five civilians chosen by activists, five military representatives chosen by the armed forces and one civilian member to be chosen in agreement between civilians and the generals.

The make-up of the new council falls short of the demands of key pro-democracy groups in the African county. The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, the main group that spearheaded the uprising that culminated in the overthrow of al-Bashir, has said that it would oppose the reappointment of Burhan to the top decision-making position.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Hate speech, disinformation and online extremism can't be allowed to prevent people from enjoying the freedom that cyberspace offers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday at an international discussion on the internet.

"There is no doubt: the digital space has incredible power for good. But from disinformation on vaccines to online extremism, weve also seen the threat it can pose to our democratic values, systems and our citizens," Trudeau said via video link from Ottawa to the Paris Peace Forum.

"We can't allow the benefits of the digital space to come at the expense of people's rights or safety."

The forum bills itself as an effort to revitalize global institutions, and is focusing this year on the vast inequalities exposed by the pandemic.

In-person attendees included the host, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, and Canada's industry minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, who is also attending a conference on artificial intelligence in the French capital.

Harris said the U.S. is committed to working with its allies to eliminate online terrorist content.

"For the United States, our approach to the digital domain is rooted in our democratic principles," she said. "We will continue to advocate for an open, secure and interoperable internet and work to ensure that technology helps, not harms, the people of our world."

Trudeau was addressing a panel on the challenges of the digital domain after co-founding a new international program last year with called the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence.

He noted that Canada served as the chair of the partnership last year and "focused on bringing together the international community to ensure AI respects rights and freedoms and doesn't harm democratic societies."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressed the gathering from Washington where she has been holding meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden.

She said the EU and U.S. have deepened their co-operation on how to make AI more "trustworthy" for its users.

"AI is without any doubt already changing our lives for the better. It can help for example, detect cyberattack... it can support doctors in more precise cancer diagnosis," said von der Leyen.

"Yet, for people to trust AI, we must also manage the risks."

Before the speeches, Macron welcomed a roomful of masked and physically spaced international politicians and business leaders to a high-ceilinged Parisian conference centre. That included Champagne, one of two Canadian federal ministers travelling in Europe this week, with whom the French president exchanged an extended handshake.

Earlier this week, Champagne told The Canadian Press he is planning to table a new digital charter after the return of parliament to address the issues surrounding AI and the internet-based economy.

Champagne said earlier this week the technology needs to be mindful of protecting privacy and that the government needs to create an overarching framework that reflects Canadian values.

Von der Leyen told the gathering that the EU was joining France in its pursuit of building trust and security in cyberspace.

"Throughout the pandemic, indeed, the internet has been a lifeline for millions of companies, and the only connection to our loved ones for so many of us," she said.

"Yet cyberspace has also become a more dangerous place, with rising threats against our critical infrastructure, our democratic processes, and even our personal health and safety, including our children's."
Photo: The Canadian Press

The defence rested its case Thursday at the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, setting the stage for closing arguments Monday in the shootings that left Americans divided over whether he was a patriot taking a stand against lawlessness or a vigilante.

Rittenhouse's lawyers put on about 2 1/2 days of testimony to the prosecution's five, with the most riveting moment coming when the 18-year-old told the jury that he was defending himself from attack when he used his rifle to kill two men and wound a third on the streets of Kenosha in the summer of 2020.

Prosecutors have sought to portray Rittenhouse as the instigator of the bloodshed, which took place during a tumultuous night of protests against racial injustice.

He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him.

After closing arguments, names will be drawn from an old, brown lottery tumbler to decide which 12 jurors will deliberate and which ones will be dismissed as alternates. Eighteen people have been hearing the case. The panel appeared overwhelmingly white.

The protests in Kenosha were set off by the wounding of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer. Rittenhouse, then 17, went to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois, with a rifle and a medical kit in what the former police and fire youth cadet said was an effort to protect property after rioters set fires and ransacked businesses on previous nights.

Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, in an initial confrontation and just moments later shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27. Rittenhouse is white, as were those he shot.

The case has stirred fierce debate over vigilantism, self-defense, the Second Amendment right to bear arms, and the unrest that erupted around the U.S. over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other police violence against Black people.

Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, which is Wisconsin's murder count; attempted first-degree intentional homicide; first-degree reckless homicide; reckless endangering; and illegal possession of a weapon by a person under 18.

Prosecutors said they will ask Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder to allow the jury to consider possible lesser charges on some of the counts.

One of the final witnesses for the defence was a use-of-force expert, John Black, who testified that less than three seconds elapsed between the time somebody fired a bullet in the air and Rittenhouse opened fire on the first man he shot, Joseph Rosenbaum.

Black took the stand as part of an effort by Rittenhouse's lawyers to show that he had reason to fear for his life and acted in self-defence.

Rittenhouse, in his own turn on the stand Wednesday, testified that he heard a gunshot directly behind him as he was being chased by Rosenbaum. Authorities said the shot was fired by someone else in the crowd.

The account Rittenhouse gave has largely been corroborated by a wealth of video and the prosecutions own witnesses: Rittenhouse said that Rosenbaum cornered him and put his hand on the barrel of his rifle, the second man hit him with a skateboard, and the third man came at him with a gun of his own.

At one point Wednesday, his lawyers angrily demanded the judge declare mistrial and bar Rittenhouse from being retried  essentially asking that the whole case be thrown out. They accused the chief prosecutor of asking Rittenhouse out-of-bounds questions.

The judge lambasted the prosecutor but pressed on with the case.
Photo: Glacier Media

Metro Vancouver is in for a deluge of rain this weekend in what Environment Canada is calling yet another atmospheric river.

The federal forecaster issued a special weather statement the morning of Nov. 12 for the City of Vancouver Burnaby, New Westminster, the North Shore including West Vancouver and North Vancouver, Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Surrey, Langley, Richmond and Delta.

A series of moisture laden systems associated with an atmospheric river from the Pacific will begin arriving Saturday evening and bring heavy rain to the South Coast, Environment Canada wrote in the statement.

Meanwhile the freezing level will lift to over the mountain tops. Heavy rain in combination with the melting snow can result in high stream levels and local flooding.

The forecast calls for 75 to 150 mm of rain to fall between the evening of Nov. 13 to the morning of Nov. 14.

To monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada or to report severe weather you can send an email to [email protected] or tweet reports using #BCStorm.
If the B.C. Liberals are hoping for a political revival, and a come-back into B.C. politics, they will have to consider some major changes to their policies and attitude toward the people and their democratic rights, and looking at their list of candidates for the leadership does not show a lot of promise.

Two have never been a members of the BC Legislature (MLAs) and are severely lacking the basic criteria for any job  experience. One MLA is a first-term member of the (official) Opposition, not the governing party.

Another is a former chamber (of commerce) president who will be owned and operated (I feel) by the business community, meaning profits before that other critical part of any well-balanced governmenta social conscience to address critical issues like the thousands of British Columbians literally living in our parks and the streets, with no forwarding address.

Two have the experience, but their proposals for change remain elusive.

That leaves us with Ellis Ross, who is focusing on our basic needs and getting more people working in our resource industries.

We all know that our colonial political system does not work and needs some form of a proportional ballot.

We have had three referendums on electoral reform, the first two promoting a ranked, run-off preferential STV ballot that never was, and never will be, a proportional ballot.

During the last attempt, the B.C. Liberal party managed to turn it into a byelection-style political event, defeating the (proposal).

As a first step in the process of renewal, the B.C. Liberals will have to accept we need a proportional ballot or forget about ever becoming the government in B.C.

Projecting himself as an agent of change, is Ross ready to challenge the B.C. Liberals undemocratic sentiments and embrace and promote that ballot.

That would take courage and real leadership.

Andy Thomsen, Kelowna
Photo: Contributed

Most entrepreneurs would be happy with one successful exit. Two would be icing on the cake.

Milun Tesovic, who sold his third tech company in a decade this past summer, still has an appetite for more.

With Cmd, I was fortunate enough to have a good network to help me validate the idea, and also a great network that was very supportive in helping me build out that initial team, Tesovic said, referring to the cybersecurity firm he sold to Elastic NV back in August. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the serial entrepreneur said he was very happy with what the Vancouver company commanded on the market.

In the cases of Cmd and coding analytics firm Gitalytics  Tesovic sold the latter in 2019 to Microsoft Inc. subsidiary GitHub Inc.  both emerged from San Francisco startup studio Expa.

And while Canadians have long sought resources from the U.S., the pandemic has seen more American firms turn their attention northward as remote interactions become the norm.

A total of $8.3 billion in venture capital has been raised in over 394 deals in Canada during the first half of this year, according to research from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. That figure eclipses all previous full-year totals on record.

Its a very interesting time, because I think were all waiting for the bubble to burst, said Canadian lawyer Natasha Allen, a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP in San Francisco specializing in mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital.

Many investors were cautious during the early goings of the pandemic, which led to a buildup of extra capital, and its been gangbusters ever since, she said.

People are recognizing that you can effectively do business while not being in the same room with somebody. I know that a lot of investors previously liked to go visit sites and touch or be in contact with the companies that theyre investing with. But I think that what the pandemic has proven  with Zoom, you can touch the companies that are doing fantastic things all over the world.

Tesovic, who sold his first tech company, MetroLyrics, to CBS Interactive in 2011, said tapping a resource like Expa during his first crack at launching a business would have been a boon to the young entrepreneur.

While a tech accelerator begins with a team at its early stages of product development and scales from there, the less common startup studios like Expa generally begin with an idea, which becomes the catalyst for staff development and company expansion.

After departing MetroLyrics, Tesovic reached out to Garrett Camp, the Canadian co-founder of Uber Technologies Inc., for advice on what to do next.

Camp had already launched Expa, and Tesovic came on board as a partner when he began collaborating with Jake King, the former security operations lead at Hootsuite Inc.

The pair eventually decided on pursuing a server security platform geared towards the enterprise market and designed to help security experts log, understand, predict and control user behaviour within the Linux operating system.

While Expa began as a startup studio, its turning more of its attention towards funding companies, including those based in Canada.

Litebulb Technologies Inc., the Toronto company led by current Vancouver resident Gary Lin, tapped a pre-seed investment from Expa earlier this year. Expa typically offers startups US$250,000 to US$400,000 for 7% to 10% equity. Mentorship, networking and other resources are also provided to companies within Expas portfolio.

To date, Expa-backed companies have reached US$8B in valuations and raised more than US$1B in funding.

One of the things about Expa that we find relatively unique and why founders do like working with us is the vast majority of our team are ex-founders. Weve all built companies, weve sold companies, weve faced challenges that all the founders are going to be facing, Tesovic said.
Tension between India and Pakistan is rising after India's surgical strikes against terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir. India has clearly given up on strategic restraint against Pakistan.

However, what is not clear is how this situation might escalate. While denying that any cross-LoC strikes by Indian security forces took place, Pakistan has nonetheless warned that any misadventure by its adversaries will be met with a befitting response.

Strategic experts have warned that India should not indulge in chest thumping, and must not read too much into Pakistan underplaying the incident by denying it altogether. It could just be buying time to consider its various options of retaliating against India.

This retaliation could take place on the LoC, or it may even result in deniable terrorist strikes on Indian missions in Kabul, Jalalabad and Kandahar.

Watch this conversation with former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal, which explores the ways in which the present Indo-Pak tension could escalate, and its possible consequences.
Every Veterans Day is a reminder to thank a service member for their sacrifice to our country. Army veteran Wilbert Sherrod and his son will move into their new 1,400-square-foot home in Austell in just two weeks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established an office in Mexico in 2000. The CDC Mexico country office is part of CDCs Division of Global Migration and Quarantines, United States-Mexico Unit (USMU). The United States and Mexico share a land border of nearly 2,000 miles. Infectious diseases such as COVID-19, Zika, tuberculosis (TB), influenza, and measles affect both countries. This international border region includes residents who cross daily/weekly for work, social connection, shopping and medical care, as well as seasonal workers (such as H2A visa holders), and truck drivers crossing at cargo ports of entry. Mexico is the second largest supplier of imports in the United States, and its second-largest export market and trading partner. The capital, Mexico City, is one of the worlds largest cities (population of approximately 21 million) and is a frequent site for business meetings, mass gathering events, and tourism.

As new health threats emerge (e.g., COVID-19), the CDC Mexico country office provides technical support for investigation and control of binational and international infectious disease outbreaks; implements initiatives to enhance binational surveillance, laboratory capacity, and illness response; and communicates with U.S. and foreign government officials on policy initiatives critical to binational public health.

Download Mexico Factsheet pdf icon[PDF  2 pages]

CDC Impact in Mexico

CDC Quarantine Stations

Vehicles waiting to cross the border into the United States at the San Diego Port of Entry. Photo credit: Maureen Fonseca-Ford, USMU

USMU manages CDC quarantine stations in El Paso, TX, and San Diego, CA. These quarantine stations are responsible for sea, air and land ports of entry in the border regions of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

U.S. quarantine stations are part of a comprehensive quarantine system that serves to limit the introduction and spread of infectious diseases into the United States. USMU works to strengthen surveillance and laboratory capacity in the border regions and in Mexico. Binational collaboration improves our ability to identify pathogens, follow disease trends, and identify outbreaks.
A new round of Russian consolidation

12 November 2021

The RUB161m acquisition of Eurocement's assets by the Mikhailovsky Combine of Building Materials (Smikom group) in June 2021 has sent the Russian cement market into a new consolidation phase. Russian billionaire Lev Kvetnoy, who owns OOO Gazmetallproekt, the second-biggest Russian cement player, is now closing in on the acquisition of two former Inteko plants.

The Trust Bank put the two cement plants up for open auction on 18 October 2021. Applications will be accepted up to 8 December and the auction is scheduled for 13 December 2021. Lev Kvetnoy has used another of his assets, Aktualnye Investments JSC, which manages the flagship Novoroscement AO plant, to submit a petition to the Russian antitrust regulator, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, to acquire ZAO Uglegorsk-Cement and OOO Atakaycement.

Atakaycement is located near Novorossiysk, Krasnodar territory. The initial sale price for the plant is RUB4.3bn, while the total amount of the company's debt is over RUB4.5bn. Meanwhile, ZAO Uglegorsk-Cement is the only cement producer in the Rostov region. The value of rights of claims is RUB241.75m and the total amount of the debt is more than RUB3.5bn.

Aktualniye Investments also intends to acquire two enterprises for the extraction of stone, sand and clay in the Rostov region, Zhirnovskoe Gornoe Upravleniye and Klyuchevskoe Gornoe Upravleniye, the latter of which has debts of approximately RUB147.8m.

This would not be the first purchase of Inteko's cement assets by Lev Kvetnoy, a business worth US$1bn, according to Forbes Russia. Currently, Lev Kvetnoy also controls the Verkhnebakansky cement plant, which was acquired for an estimated US$300m in 2011 from Elena Baturina, formerly Russias richest woman and the founder of Inteko group.

The fate of the former Inteko group

In 2011 Inteko group was transferred to local businessman Mikail Shishkhanov, the then owner of the Russian B&N Bank. After the bankruptcy of the B&N Bank, the majority of Shishkhanov's business was transferred to Trust Bank, including Uglegorsk-Cement and Atakaycement.

Commenting on the forthcoming tender an official spokesman of Trust Bank said that the Bank plans to withdraw from cement business in 2021, as there is an optimal market situation for the sale of cement assets. "Given the constant high demand for building materials in general and for cement in particular, the production and sale of cement can be considered a promising direction, especially under the management of a major industry player," he added.

Further Russian market consolidation can be expected

Market analyst CMPRO has estimated Gazmetallproekt's domestic market share is approximately 10.1 per cent, which would grow to 11 per cent on the acquisition of the two Inteko plants. This would still leave Gazmetallproekt a long way behind market leader Smikon.



Mikhailovsky KSM, part of the Smikom group, associated with Oleg Deripaska's relative Pavel Ezubov, acquired the assets of Eurocement from Sberbank in the summer. Smikom has the largest market share in Russia of around 31 per cent. The top two producers would own 42 per cent of the market if Gazmetallproekt is successful in its bid to acquire Uglegorsk-Cement and Atakaycement. However, Russia's cement market will remain deeply fragmented with excess cement capacity and plant modernisation a pressing priority.

Current domestic market expands

Between January-August 2021, cement production in Russia increased by 5.1 per cent YoY to 39.3Mt, according to CMPRO. The market grew by 12.1 per cent in value to RUB207.8bn. Due to the market surplus, cement prices increased by only eight per cent. Meanwhile, prices for building materials in general rose by 27.67 per cent compared to January, states the Russian state federal statistics service, Rosstat.

Going forward, Russia's dynamic housing construction sector, which is expected by local analysts to reach a record 90Mm2 in 2022, should lead to an increase in cement consumption. The Global Cement Report 14th Edition states that Russian cement consumption could reach 57.7Mt in 2022 as it recovers from the pandemic.

Published under
Titan Group reports 9M21 revenues of EUR1.26bn

12 November 2021

Titan Group's consolidated revenue for the first nine months of 2021 reached EUR1.26bn, posting a five per cent increase on the 9M20. Revenue growth in local currencies was 10.1 per cent, while EBITDA came under pressure to registering EUR219.6m, a 4.3 per cent decline.

Revenue in the USA recorded a 8.7 per cent increase in US dollar terms in the first 9M21, translated into a corresponding increase of 2.1 per cent in euro terms to EUR731.3m. When compared to the 9M20, EBITDA softened to EUR126.7m, down 5.1 per cent decline in US dollar and 10.6 per cent in euro terms.

Total revenue for the region of Greece and western Europe in the 9M21 grew by 10.3 per cent to EUR194.5m while EBITDA came in at EUR20.4m versus EUR16.2m in the 9M20.

Revenue for the southeastern European region overall increased by 9.2 per cent to EUR214.6m while EBITDA declined by 5.2 per cent to EUR69m in the first 9M21.

Total revenue in the eastern Mediterranean reached EUR122.4m, posting an increase of 8.1 per cent YoY, while EBITDA jumped to EUR3.5m versus a EUR1.1m loss in the first 9M20.

The market in Brazil continued to grow, posting a 9.4 per cent increase in volumes versus the first nine months of 2020, supported by both residential and commercial sectors projects in the region. Titan subsidiary, Apodi Cement posted an increase in revenue to EUR60.6m (versus EUR50.5m in the first 9M20) as well as in EBITDA to EUR14.4m compared to EUR11.7m in 2020.

3Q21 performance

In the third quarter of 2021, group revenue increased by 6.2 per cent compared to last year reaching EUR441.7m testifying the continued strong demand momentum across most of our markets. Group EBITDA declined by 16.8 per cent to EUR77m, reflecting the sharp rise in energy, electricity and freight costs, said Titan Group. Net profits amounted to EUR24m compared to EUR35.5m in the same period of 2020, down by 32.5 per cent.

Published under
Buena Vista, CO (81211)

Today

Mostly clear. Low 24F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 24F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.
It wasnt easy, but the three newest graduates of the Conasauga Circuit Mental Health Court program say theyre thankful they were able to overcome a lifetime of challenges to receive their diplomas during a recent ceremony at the Whitfield County Courthouse.



There were a lot of obstacles I had to overcome, Adam said in a letter to Judge Scott Minter that he shared with family and other supporters during the ceremony. For instance, I had to get out of my head that my ways work, because they did not work for me in the past.

Mental Health Court Judge Scott Minter

I had a lot of help changing the way I think.Another graduate, Chris, said when he entered the program, he was living in a tent in his moms front yard and had been unemployed for three years, did not own a vehicle and had lost custody of his children because of drug use.When I first entered Mental Health Court, my intentions were just to get out of jail, he said. Shortly after, I relapsed. After my relapse, I entered Providence Ministries. That was the best thing that could have happened to me. It was life changing. Upon entering Providence, I met Ricky Long, the houseparent. His testimony was very similar to mine. I knew at that time that I wanted to change and that recovery was possible. Moving forward, I gave 100 percent.Kaye, meanwhile, came from a family of addicts, where drugs were considered a normal part of everyday life. I was raised to believe that authority figures were a bad thing, and they couldnt be trusted, she said. This view of officials made it harder for me to open up and be honest, so I could begin the healing process in my recovery.Fortunately, with the help of staff members, all three participants were able to complete the program, changing their lives in the process.My life now looks full of success and hope for my future, Kaye said, because for one reason, I have learned to set both short- and long-term goals. I now have a great family relationship and trust from them. I also have a great recovery family now because of learning to be trustworthy and open and honest.Adam says hes also in a great place today because of the program. I have so much more than I have ever had in my entire life, he says. My family spends time with me, and they dont mind talking to me and they dont mind helping me. I have an apartment. I dont have to live off of nobody  I live off of myself and my job.Hes grateful for the help hes received in the program, noting I really needed somebody to show me how to live and this program has taught me how to live. Im very happy about it cuz I know that Im going to succeed in life now without a doubt in my mind.The best thing about Mental Health Court, according to Chris, is learning coping skills to help him with his past. I now know how to cope with triggers without using drugs, he said. I now realize my self-worth.Adam praised the program for how much help you get.If you need food, theyll send you to the right place, he said. If you need clothes, theyll send you to the right place. If you need help with something personal, I promise you they give you some of the best advice.Kaye said earning the teams support and belief in her ability to succeed in the program, then being able to look back and see how far she progressed helped lead me to self-esteem and confidence in my ability to remain happy and substance free.The ceremony marked the participants completion of an intensive 18- to 24-month program of comprehensive mental health treatment, paired with co-occurring substance use disorder treatment, close supervision and accountability for residents of Whitfield and Murray counties.These three graduates put in a lot of hard work over these past two years,said, then speaking to the graduates, he added: Weve all been through a lot, havent we? Hasnt always been easy, has it? In fact, most of it hasnt been, but were here to celebrate your accomplishments in the Mental Health Court program. These three have put in a ton of work.Coordinator Angie Anderson agreed, saying, I know the path that has led each of you here has not been easy. In fact, in many ways, its been an uphill battle. Youve all had good days and bad days, and Im sure there were moments of doubt and difficulty when the way forward seemed anything but clear. For each of you, this program presented a challenge to be honest with yourself, your family and your friends.These graduates made it as a result of hard work, perseverance, and dedication. I hope all of our other current participants will be encouraged by what the graduates have accomplished and seize this opportunity to affirm your commitment to turn your life around, rebuild relationships with family and friends and overcome every obstacle that stands in your way. I know this program is strict and extraordinarily difficult to get through. Thats why I am so proud to celebrate the progress that Chris, Adam and Kaye have achieved.Ms. Anderson said treatment courts continue to demonstrate that they work better than jail, prison or probation. Learn more online about the Conasauga Mental Health Court and other treatment courts at whitfieldcountyga.com/sc/treatmentcourt.htm. National treatment court research is available at AllRise.org.

The Mental Health Court program, which serves residents in Whitfield and Murray counties, began in July 2018, with Ms. Anderson hired as coordinator at that time to start putting together policies and procedures and assembling the team of professionals on the staff.



Officials said, "In Georgia, treatment courts such as drug courts and mental health courts save up to $5,000 for every individual they serve, and each graduate returns as much as $22,125 back in economic benefit. Nationally, treatment courts return as much as $27 for every $1 invested."

The program offers a recovery-focused program for defendants in the criminal justice system who have been diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness and/or substance abuse disorder, and definitely fills a real need in our community, Judge Minter said.



The judge praised the really dedicated staff members who go the extra mile," noting, they really care about the participants, and all of them have had an impact on the lives of the participants."
Urgent Care for Children, a Birmingham-based pediatric urgent care provider, continues to extend its reach across the Tennessee Valley. UC4Cs twelfth clinic is located at 2122 Gunbarrel Road, next to Chipotle, and began serving patients on Oct. 12.

The after-hours pediatric provider operates from 2-10 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on weekends.

Our team of physicians and staff are thrilled to begin providing quality care with less waiting to the city of Chattanooga," said UC4C President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allury Arora. "We opened our Hixson location in March of 2021. We continue to receive positive reviews from the parents of Hixson and expansion in the greater Chattanooga community is a fitting progression for UC4C."

Urgent Care for Children creates a continuum of care, supplements the hours of local pediatric offices, and provides an affordable alternative to the emergency room.



We are extremely excited about our growing presence in the greater Chattanooga community and the opportunity to provide convenient, quality healthcare to families in the area," said Urgent Care for Children Chief Financial Officer, Rosh Plugge. "The new clinic, located in the heart of Hamilton Place, offers easy access for our patients and their families as we continue our mission to focus on convenience and patient experience while providing award-winning medical care."

UC4C opened its first clinic, located in Birmingham, in 2017 and rapidly opened its Trussville location in 2018, which was succeeded by the openings of clinics in Madison, Vestavia Hills, Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, Montgomery, and Daphne respectively, in 2019 and 2020. In 2021, the urgent care provider has expanded its reach into Tennessee with locations in Hixson, Collierville, Cordova and Chattanooga.

The Chattanooga clinic will host their grand opening alongside the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce on Friday at 11 a.m.






When Todd Morgan was younger and was on his way to Atlanta with his traveling party from Northeast Tennessee, they instead stopped in Chattanooga.

As fate would have it, that was early May of 1992, when the Tennessee Aquarium by chance was opening. Needless to say, he did not reach Atlanta that time.

While he happened to catch Chattanooga at a time when it was focusing on its future with the key project that started the downtown Chattanooga renaissance, he now has his first job here focusing more on Chattanoogas past.

Or, at least how the tangible past can continue to fit in viably with the present and future.

He was recently named as the new executive director of Cornerstones, Inc., the non-profit historic preservation advocacy group, after Ann Gray had served in that position for several years.

Interviewed last Friday from his office in the Cornerstones-owned old Chattanooga Choo Choo Terminal Station central dome building that was once a Southern Railway passenger waiting area, he said he was looking forward to getting started.

Im very happy to be here and looking forward to working with the folks in Chattanooga, he said. Everyone has been so kind and welcoming so far.

He had served as executive director of the Knox Heritage historic preservation group in Knoxville for the last three years, and he decided to make the somewhat parallel move to Chattanooga when an opening occurred due in part to family.

My husband, Steven, is from here and grew up here, he said. And for the last 10 years I have had a chance to explore the community.

And he liked what he found in the latter realm as well, he added.

I think Chattanooga has a fascinating history and beautiful architecture and appears to be very civic minded. There are a lot of people who care about the direction the city is going. All of that is very appealing to me.

Although he had been on the job less than a week during the interview and was still working on such details as where to park for his job instead of where Cornerstones, Inc., is headed, he said he was planning to meet with the groups board in the near future. Then, he will start planning some priorities and goals, he said, although he does know he wants to see the organization grow its footprint.

He also gave some leadership style hints, saying he hopes to work amicably with various aspects of the community to help in historic preservation and in educating interested parties where needed. He believes in cooperation and will not be someone who loudly runs and shouts to the media or a governing body when an important and historic architectural structure is threatened with possible demolition, he said.

I would like for people to look at us as a partner to make sure the architectural heritage of the community and the neighborhoods are well cared for and good economic assets for the community, he said. It takes a lot of people working together.

And we want to help people find viable solutions for difficult problems.

The former graduate of Morristown West High School emphasized that he hopes to be very engaged and active in the community.

Mr. Morgan comes to Chattanooga more than 40 years after residents first began trying to preserve historic structures collectively through the non-profit realm. After Garnet Chapin, Andy Smith and Ellen Happy Yates unsuccessfully fought to save a home at 23 Bluff View from demolition due to some expansion plans by what is now the Hunter Museum of American Art, they did form Landmarks Chattanooga in 1975.

And it began with a bury the hatchet cocktail hour event with members of the Hunter board at Rock City, then headed by Mr. Chapins father, E.Y. Chapin III.

Other charter members of Landmarks Chattanooga were Kay Gaston and Charlotte Hooker.

The groups first successful project was the saving and restoring of the Warner House at 800 Vine St. in Fort Wood.

By 1977, the group was led by President Matt Finley and Vice President Mark Hubbuch, and in 1980, it had its first executive director, Ray Manieri, who was 32 years old.

He had an office in the first floor of the Read House, as did later director Ned Pratt, who was often visible in the media in the early-to-mid-1980s.

By the late 1980s, though, as the group was seeing such projects as the preservation and reopening of the Walnut Street Bridge as a pedestrian bridge likely come to fruition, it became dormant.

However, plans to possibly tear down the Central Block at 7th and Market streets led in 1994 to the formation of a new group, Cornerstones, Inc., who helped save the still-standing building.

Mr. Morgan, who has two degrees from Carson-Newman University, has also worked in city planning and as the statewide director of the Main Street program focused on reviving and keeping vibrant downtown communities.

In those jobs he realized that the downtown areas and older neighborhoods near the inner cores of cities are where communities are distinctive and should especially be highlighted, he said.

Every place looks the same until you get to the historic area, he said. There is something amazing in our own backyard, and then we overlook it.

Although always interested in architecture, he had started in banking, but while looking at some blueprint plans for the bank in Morristown where he was working, he realized how much he was still interested in that fine art, especially as it related to older buildings. As a result, he soon felt a calling to switch careers.

At Knox Heritage, besides forming partnerships, he helped save a couple of houses in the Fort Sanders neighborhood from demolition as the Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center there was expanding. He also helped give the long-vacant Eugenia Williams home located on Lyons View Pike in Knoxville and which was once willed to the University of Tennessee a vibrant future with a sale to the Aslan Foundation. That foundation has since begun restoring it.

He admitted he is still trying to learn more about the stories of all the historic Chattanooga buildings, but he loves what he has seen, including the Main Street neighborhood around the old Terminal Station building and the Chattanooga Choo Choo.

Its an amazing neighborhood, he said. There are so many great restaurants. And I see people walking in all the time. They are very curious about the building.

Besides fixing up the Terminal Station central dome building the group owns, he and Cornerstones would also like to see the train-shaped Chattanooga Choo Choo sign above the Terminal dome restored, too.

He is also quite interested in the Chattanooga buildings designed by noted pre-World War II Chattanooga architect R.H. Hunt. Although the late UTC professor Dr. Gavin Townsend had done extensive research on him and worked with Cornerstones to write a minimally published book, Mr. Morgan hopes Mr. Hunts work can be showcased and celebrated even more.

The prolific Mr. Hunt designed such buildings as the Hamilton County Courthouse, the James Building, Carter Hall at Covenant College, the former Maclellan Building and Memorial Auditorium.

Mr. Morgan is also interested in Mr. Hunt because he lives in a home on Missionary Ridge that he has heard was designed by the architect. He said he hopes to find out for sure.

But he definitely knows he is excited to be in Chattanooga and hopes he can work with Cornerstones in helping people realize the importance of saving and reusing historic homes and buildings.

Its always sad to look back and say, I wish it was still there, he said. Thats why places like Cornerstones exist. We are here to look at every possible angle before its too late.

Jcshearer2@comcast.net
Cleveland State Community College is inviting the public to the grand opening of The George R. Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The event will be held on the colleges campus on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

The concept for the Center started with a conversation with the Johnson Family Board of Directors. Collectively, the college came up with an idea to create a Center honoring George Johnson in the business field. These conversations eventually led to this new Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

This Center is not just for Cleveland State, stated Dr. Bill Seymour, CSCC president. More so, it is for the whole community's benefit. I greatly appreciate the Johnson Family's commitment to supporting education and workforce development in our region.

The Center was created to establish encouragement and support entrepreneurial learning among students, alumni, faculty, and throughout the region. The Center will assist existing as well as potential business owners that are interested in building or growing their own enterprises. The intent is to connect future and current entrepreneurs with the resources needed to create, launch, and grow business.



The George R. Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation will combine the resources of regional businesses, Chambers of Commerce, Small Business Development Center, Cleveland Bradley Business Incubator, Cleveland State Community College and other private and public organizations to provide innovative and ongoing training. This will be accomplished through education, competitions, and relationships within the community.



Through this collaboration of our network of partners within the region, we are very excited about the opportunity The George R. Johnson Center will provide our students and community members by providing them with the resources, connections, and tools they need to be successful in developing their own enterprises, said Dr. Patty Weaver, vice president of Workforce and Economic Development at CSCC.

The Center will support and promote the Entrepreneurship concentration through the Business AAS degree program as well as provide continuing education training opportunities for practitioners in the field. In addition to providing education, training and resources, The George R. Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation will host Pitch Competitions allowing students the opportunity to win in-kind services to help them start their businesses.

The CEO- Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization, a student Entrepreneurship Club, led by full time faculty member, Sandra Godsey, will provide students with the opportunity to meet with local entrepreneurs in the community, compete in competitions at the local, state, and national level, as well as participate in community projects.

Scholarships exclusively for qualifying students enrolled in the Entrepreneurship program will be available each year. For more information regarding scholarships, email entrepreneurship@clevelandstatecc.edu.






Weston Wamp is asking for a series of debates in the county mayor's race.

He said after Matt Hullander announced he will run for the post, "Shelby and I welcome Matt and Jenny to the campaign to be the next Hamilton County Mayor. For the first time in 28 years, the county we both love has the opportunity to have a spirited, respectful debate about the future of Hamilton County.

"I look forward to sharing my distinctly different vision as a public school parent, one of the leaders of Tennessees technical college system and a longtime advocate for conservative policy in government.

"A series of discussions and debates across the county about the role of the county mayor is what the citizens want and deserve. Im ready and trust Matt is, also."


The Tennessee Department of Education on Friday announced two state finalists for the Recognizing Inspiring School Employees Award- Joshua Hinerman, director of Transportation for Robertson County Schools and Hal Taylor, director of Operations for Cleveland City Schools.

The RISE Award was created by Congress in 2019 and is overseen by the U.S. Department of Education to honor classified school employees, such as administrative, food and nutrition, health and student service, transportation or custodial staff, who provide exemplary service to students and their communities.

"Im proud to honor Mr. Hinerman and Mr. Taylor for their exemplary service to Tennessee students, said Governor Bill Lee. These individuals have worked hard to maintain positive learning environments for their communities, and they play a critical role in preparing students for success beyond the classroom.

Ensuring the operations and transportation roles and responsibilities are maintained at the highest level has been essential as our districts and schools continue to make adjustments and provide our students with the best possible education in the midst of a global pandemic, said Commissioner Penny Schwinn. With this nomination, we honor two of these amazing individuals who have truly gone above and beyond for students. Congratulations to Mr. Hinerman and Mr. Taylor and thank you for your commitment to students.

In coordination with the Governors Office, the Tennessee Department of Education selected these two finalists from a pool of nominees submitted from across the state by local educational agencies, school administrators, professional associations, nonprofits, parents, and community members. The U.S. Department of Education will announce the national honoree and present the individual with an award in the spring.

We are ecstatic that Mr. Hinerman has been chosen for this recognition," said Dr. Chris Causey, director of schools, Robertson County Schools. "You will find no one else who loves the yellow school bus more and who puts students first every day. From driving routes himself, to making sure families with no vehicle can make it to doctor's appointments even an hour away in Nashville, there is nothing Mr. Hinerman won't do for any child in our school system. We are proud that he is part of Robertson County Schools.

Hal Taylor is an example for each of us in the field of education," said Dr. Russell Dyer, director of schools, Cleveland City Schools. "His hard work, dedication, and willingness to improve the lives of our students and staff drives him to provide the very best facilities and transportation services. The RISE Award is an appropriate recognition for Mr. Taylor's work. Not only does he perform all of his job duties on a regular basis, but he rises above this daily to ensure the very best for all stakeholders in our district. I commend Mr. Taylor not only for how he performs his job, but also for his character and desire to do what is right each and every day.

For the purposes of the award, a classified school employee is defined as an employee of a state or any political subdivision of a state, or an employee of a nonprofit entity, who works in any grade from pre-kindergarten through high school in any of the following occupational specialties: paraprofessional, clerical and administrative services, transportation services, food and nutrition services, custodial and maintenance services, security services, health and student services, technical services, and skilled trades.

For more information about the RISE award, click here.
Bonnie Hathcock has been named Lee Universitys Honorary Alumnus of the Year. She was recognized for this honor during the Chancellors Choice Concert and a special dinner during Lees Homecoming.

Named One of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Human Resources, Ms. Hathcock has 37 years of corporate experience in Fortune 100 and 200 Companies around the United States. She started her corporate career at Xerox Corporation and has since served as vice president of human resources at Siemens Rolm Corporation, vice president of human resources at U.S. Airways, and senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Humana Inc., where she was also a member of the executive committee.

Bonnie Hathcock did not attend Lee, but we wish she had, said Dr. Mark Walker, president of the university. She demonstrates all of the qualities and the characteristics of what we believe a Lee graduate is.

In 2007, Ms. Hathcock was named HR Executive of the Year by HR Executive Magazine, and in 2010, she was inducted as a Fellow into the National Academy of Human Resources.

Ms. Hathcock has also been a member of numerous boards, including the WTCI Public Television in Chattanooga, the National Business Aviation Association and the Human Resources National Policy in Washington, D.C., and the United Way of Metro Louisville and the Fund for the Arts of Metro Louisville in Kentucky.

In 2017, she published a memoir, Lilac Dreams: My Journey from a Sewer Drain to the Boardroom.

She received her Master of Business Administration from Nova University and her Bachelor of Science in business education from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. She also completed post-graduate studies at Stanford Universitys School of Business Executive Human Resources Program. Ms. Hathcock has been honored as a distinguished alumnus at both Nova and Shippensburg.

All of us at Lee are so pleased that Bonnie would accept this award, said Dr. Brad Moffett, vice president for university relations at Lee. Her professional career, dedication to service, and her heart for the kingdom of God has distinguished her as an outstanding person, and Lee is honored to call her our Honorary Alum of the Year.

Now retired, Ms. Hathcock is an active member of the Lee and Cleveland communities. She resides in Cleveland with her husband, 1952 Lee alum Lindsay Levoy (Lee), and their dog.
The chemistry between country superstar Dolly Parton and late TV icon Johnny Carson was always noticeable when she visited her friend on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She stopped by for interviews often enough in the 70s to jokingly tell him, Im here about as much as you are.

The two usually had a good laugh, but things also tended to get a little flirtatious. However, even Carson seemed speechlessly surprised when Parton invited him to her concert and said, Maybe well get to be better friends. What did the late-night legend eventually say about crossing paths and getting closer to Parton off the show?

Dolly Parton and Johnny Carson | NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images

Johnny Carson and Dolly Parton shared a mutual admiration

In their first interview together, Carson and Parton seemed to admire each others work. But the conversation turned to her body and he told her hed pay to get a peek under her dress. Though some called the moment awkward, a giggling Parton didnt seem to take any offense and came back quite often.

During a visit in September of 1979 available on YouTube, she recalled how Carson came to visit her in her dressing room but she couldnt talk because she was in her petticoat. She told him shed wanted that chance to spend some time with him because she said, People think were great friends and I feel like we are.

Then, Carson read a letter that personally invited him to the dedication of the Dolly Parton Parkway in her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee. Though he said he wouldnt make it, he suggestively noted, Id like to see that parkway  especially the off-ramp.

Though Parton said she felt like they were already great friends at that point, she also suggested they could get to be even closer.

Dolly Parton told Johnny Carson, Maybe well get to be better friends

While visiting Carson in September of 1979, Parton told him she left two tickets for him to enjoy one of her concerts. She said she hoped they might see each other and added, Maybe well get to be better friends.

The audience hooted and hollered as Carson seemed a little speechless, but she didnt shy away from her statement. She told him, Im serious! I really mean that.

And as evidence to what an icon Parton is, the host seemed to stumble in finding the right words. I think yes, he nodded before adding, You see, this audience takes everything the wrong way. Friendship is very important.

Late-night people hit Dolly Partons fancy

Parton told W magazine shes just always had a thing for late-night hosts, admitting her celebrity crush is Jimmy Fallon. She explained, Sometimes you never know who youre gonna connect with. Ive always had good luck with late-night guys, you know? I always had a nice relationship with David Letterman and with Johnny Carson.

She explained the appeal further, saying, I guess theres something about that late-night people that kinda hits my fancy and I hit theirs somehow. I guess its cause you feel like you can be more free late at night. You dont have to worry about what you say.

RELATED: Why Did Dolly Parton Ask Johnny Carson to Pay Her Bail?
In the Greys Anatomy Season 9 premiere, fans said goodbye to Seattle Graces favorite plastic surgeon, Mark Sloan (Eric Dane). In the previous season, the surgical team was involved in a plane crash. Mark suffered severe chest wounds and entered a coma. When his condition worsened, the doctors chose to pull the plug upon his request. Before Mark died, did he have any children?

Eric Dane | Michael Desmond/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Mark Sloan had a daughter named Sloan Riley

Leven Rambin, and Eric Dane | Danny Feld/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

RELATED: Greys Anatomy: Where Is Eric Dane, Who Played Mark Sloan, Today?

Greys Anatomy fans were first introduced to Marks first daughter, Sloan Riley (Leven Rambin). At the age of 18, she became pregnant. So, she decided to fly to Seattle and meet her biological father. At first, she kept her pregnancy a secret from Mark and his current girlfriend, Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh). But, she revealed the secret out of fear of being kicked out. In turn, Mark decided to let her stay with him and Lexie.

Soon after, Sloan gave birth to a baby boy. However, she had to endure extensive surgery due to complications. After Sloan returned to Seattle, she told Mark that she wanted to give the baby to an adopted family. At first, Mark objected and tried to persuade her to keep the baby. If she decided to keep the baby, Mark said that he would be there for her. But, he didnt want her to keep the baby because of him. Mark reiterated that no matter what, shell always have him. In the end, Sloan gave the baby to the adopted parents.

Callie Torres and Mark Sloan welcomed a baby girl named Sofia

Eva Arial Binder | Ron Batzdorff/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

RELATED: Eric Dane Once Shared What His Greys Anatomy and Euphoria Character Have in Common

After Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) won a grant to help children in Malawi, African, Callie (Sara Ramirez) agreed to go with her. However, Arizona could tell she didnt want to go by her lack of enthusiasm. So, the couple breaks up. While Callie is heartbroken, she sleeps with Mark. Then, Callie discovered that she was pregnant with Marks baby. Arizona later returned from Malawi, asking Callie to forgive her for leaving. When Callie plans a weekend getaway for the two of them, they get into a car crash.

Due to her injuries, the baby was delivered by an emergency C-Section. Addison Forbes Montgomery (Kate Walsh) returned to Seattle to help deliver the baby. Sofia was a preemie baby, weighing only 1 pound and 1 ounce. Arizona resuscitated the baby and placed her in an incubator for her organs to mature. At one week old, she was able to breathe on her own. So, she was discharged and went home with Callie. Later, they named the little girl Sofia. Together, Arizona, Mark, and Callie helped raise Sofia.

Where are Sloan Riley and Sofia now?

Since Sloan Riley delivered her baby, she has not returned to Seattle. On the other hand, Sofia is being raised by Callie and Arizona. After moving to New York, Sofia decided to move back to Seattle and live with Arizona. While living in Seattle, she missed her mother, Callie. So, Arizona chose to move to New York for Sofia to have both mothers in her life. Meanwhile, she remains close friends with Zola, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), and Derek Shepherds (Patrick Dempsey) daughter.
Merck unveiled a representative study on scientific research productivity. Research productivity is defined in this study as the ratio of measurable input (e.g. number of researchers, financial investment) to measurable output (e.g. patents, publications). The study identified four factors that impact on research productivity in organizations worldwide:

Complexity: Science is increasingly complex: The increasing need for specialized skills, requiring larger teams, difficulty in keeping up with latest research, an increasing administrative burden and natural limits to innovation drag on research productivity. Short-termism: The pressure to produce results in shorter timeframes is increasing and may have negative consequences for research quality and limits the focus on research into new, unexplored areas. Collaboration: Internal and external collaboration are significant drivers of research productivity. Diversity is seen as important. Public funding: Government support is generally seen as supportive, but funding could be more balanced in terms of research priorities (experimental, applied and basic research). The level of public funding as a share of total funding decreased in the countries studied between 2000 and 2018.

Scientific research is an essential driver of economic growth and human progress as it generates a basis for innovation. So, indications from a number of well-respected economists that research productivity has declined across a range of countries concerned us. We decided to investigate whether this is true, and if so, why. This study makes an important contribution in identifying the enablers and disablers of research productivity, thereby giving us the opportunity to shape a research environment that delivers long-term impact on societal progress, Laura Matz, Chief Science and Technology Officer at Merck, said.

The global forecasting and quantitative analysis specialist, Oxford Economics, Oxford, UK, conducted the study on behalf of Merck to find out whether the productivity of scientific research is actually falling  as a body of academic research suggests  and to explore the key drivers of this engine of progress.

Our study shows a need for the scientific community to examine the best ways to measure the productivity of research, said Adrian Cooper, CEO at Oxford Economics. This should support more efficient innovation development over the long term.

Although widely cited economic studies point to a decline in research productivity, the study could not identify a clear trend. Survey respondents (from the industrial manufacturing and automotive, healthcare and high-tech sectors, as well as national research institutions) use a range of metrics used to measure productivity in their company, with no standard model. Data is publicly available on only a few  notably patents (or sector-specific equivalents, such as new active ingredients in pharmaceutical research) and scientific publications.

Short-termism: Pressure to publish and shorter funding cycles weigh on productivity

73% of respondents said pressure to produce scientific results or publish papers has increased in the last ten years. At the same time, 59% said that the quality of research was suffering. Three quarters (74%) agreed that shorter funding cycles lead to less research in unexplored areas and 55% said that the lack of longer funding cycles is detrimental to research productivity.

Complexity: Specialized teams and limits of innovation take a toll

85% of survey respondents said scientific research in their field is increasingly complex. In addition, 71% of respondents find it difficult to stay up to date with the latest research in their field. The increasing need for specialized skills, requiring larger and more complex teams, was cited by 36% of respondents as one of the top three barriers to research productivity. 34% of respondents believe the innovation frontier is further away, due to the existing stock of knowledge, and this is weighing on research productivity  a view supported by some of the literature.

Collaboration: Teamwork and diversity increase productivity

49% of respondents say a high level of internal collaboration is the most important organizational driver of research productivity. Just over one third of respondents indicated that their organizations are diverse in practice in terms of age, gender identity, and research disciplines, which one third say has a positive impact on research productivity. Outsourcing is rated positively  75% say outsourcing increased the return on research investment. In the long term, however, outsourcing could lead to a potential loss of knowledge that would improve in-house research efficiency.

Public financing: Right balance is critical

Government support is considered adequate in many areas: The majority (69%) do not see current government support as a significant barrier to productivity. However, statistical analysis shows that the proportion of government funding in total research funding has declined. This could be a problem for long-term research, most of which is supported by government funding. Additionally, government investment has been shown to stimulate private sector investment.

We want to discuss these results with the scientific community, the broader ecosystem of policy makers and funders and  longer-term  the general public to evaluate how to best support scientific research productivity. We need a broad discourse to best address these far-reaching issues, Matz continued. Factors such as collaboration and sufficient freedom are seen as conducive to the research environment. We need to look at how to promote them whilst still achieving business targets and fulfilling our social responsibility mandate, Matz explained.
Memorial service for Kevin Hair, 65, of Chickasha, OK will be held at 2:00pm, Saturday, November 13, 2021 at the Southern Oaks Church of Christ in Chickasha. Floyd Kevin Hair was a well loved father, son and brother. He was such a good brother-in-law that he just had to be called "brother." 
NAIROBI, Kenya, November 11, 2021 (Morning Star News)  Muslim extremists in eastern Uganda are suspected in the killing of a 60-year-old Christian elder who had led Muslims to Christ, sources said.

The decapitated body of Alex Mukasa of Busandha B village, Bukoova Town council in Luuka District, was found on Oct. 17. He had left home on Oct. 16 and did not return that day as expected, his brother said.

I waited for my brother, but he never returned back home, Elukana Kyotanalya told Morning Star News. It was at 7 a.m. on Oct. 17 when I got information that his motorcycle was abandoned along the Bukoova road, and that his body was beheaded and dumped in a sugarcane plantation. The assailants carried away his head.

Mukasa, elder of an area Church of Christ congregation, had received threats from local Muslims that he should leave the village for leading three Muslims to put their faith in Christ, Kyotanalya said.

He was given two weeks to vacate the place before he would meet his death, he said.

Farmers planting rice found Mukasas head in Nabisira swamp several days later, Kyotanalya said.

Police arrested two suspects, Ibrahim Galandi and Abubakari Bunyinza, who had threatened Mukasa and other Christians, sources said. District Police Commander John Fautine Oese said officers were also searching for other suspects not from heaven, that is, from the local community.

The murderers are not from heaven but from the community, so we call upon the community to give us information about the incident which can help us in arresting those behind this brutal murder, Oese said.

A Christian convert from Islam said he suspected there were at least five assailants.

He was a peaceful man whose murder shook the community members and the Church of Christ at large, said the Christian, unidentified for security reasons. He was a very respectable elder and leader who frequently offered timely advice and Gods messages to warring parties within our community. We were shocked to find out that he had been butchered by Muslim extremists.

The assault was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.

Ugandas constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate ones faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Ugandas population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/?

Article originally published by Morning Star News. Used with permission.

Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Kriangkrai Thitimakorn
The recent Christianity Today podcast, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, chronicles the skyrocket to pastoral fame of Seattle-based leader Mark Driscoll, and the churchs just as quick demise: Mars Hill unraveled due to his tyrant-like leadership tactics. What we find in the podcast is a common theme in many of these stories: charisma outpaced character.

When ministry leaders with amazing talent and best-practice skills in communication are placed on pedestals, podiums, and in pulpits before their spiritual and emotional depth has had time to mature, it is always a recipe for disaster. In a day and age when pastors are confused for (or confuse themselves for) celebrities, the American evangelical church needs to experience a new conversionour own come-to-Jesus-momentaround the kinds of leaders we esteem.

What is our responsibility as churchgoers and fellow sojourners in these stories? Are we choosing leaders who are striving for the next viral soundbite instead of those who humble themselves? Are we allowing sin to slide by, in the name of Instagram likes? And most importantly, how do we do the hard work of changing?That said, it is all too easy for us to the point the finger at certain big personality leaders, when we arent in their (fancy) sneakers. But what we also find in these stories is a magnifying classwe all have to ask ourselves how we have contributed to the creation and rise of such leaders.

Celebrate a biblical definition of success.

When we define success for our pastors by how many conferences they speak at, how many book deals they have, or how many followers they are accruing on social media, then the metrics for pastoring have gone off the rails. Those are worthy and wonderful accomplishments, but they cannot replace, or become the standard by which we determine success. Pastoral success ought to be defined by the transformative changes that are happening through the Spirit of God within a body of believers and within the churchs neighborhood. Church leaders must reclaim the role of shepherd, humble and sacrificial, through imitating the way of the Shepherd.

Make accountability and accessibility a part of church culture.

Peter Drucker, the late leadership guru, is famous for having said that the lead pastor role is one of the most difficult jobs in America. That may or may not be true, but because of the very real challenges of church leadership, many pastors and leadersif they arent carefulcan end up nurturing an undercurrent of entitlement, a belief that they deserve certain things because of their leadership burdens. Pastor Rich Villodas wrote recently, Resisting entitlement requires churches to ensure their pastors are accessible and accountable. In order to be both, a pastor needs to be relationally connected to those he or she is called to shepherd while also having a structure in place such as a non-familial board of elders to hold him/her responsible to his duties in both deed and character. Our gospel witness is at stake; lets make accountability and accessibility a normative part of our church leadership.

Bring darkness to light.

Sometimes congregations choose to overlook the misdeeds of their spiritual leader because of fruit that is happening as a result of their magnetism. But the fruit that comes from the roots of sin are always rotten.

The fruit that comes from the roots of sin are always rotten.

If we allow personality to (no pun intended) trump integrity, it will inevitably lead us to ignore questionable behavior, sinful missteps, and gross mishandling of difficult situations. Becoming a people who regularly and unapologetically bring darkness into the light is the only remedy to keep pastors and entire ministries from being swept away from the torrents of scandal and abuse.

The Bible tells us to take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them (Ephesians 5:11 ESV). Bringing out any deceitful, sinful patterns of behavior is a command given to us for this very reason, to keep the darkness of sin from corrupting leaders and the ministries in which they lead.



Become contributors to, not consumers of, the Kingdom and the Church.

We must recognize that we have all played a part in creating the perfect storms that oftentimes lead to massive damage in churches. We have turned the evangelical church in America into a commodity, a consumable product, rather than a community of people under Jesus, on mission together. We are contributors to Gods Kingdom, not consumers of a church product.

Subscribe to email digests from the Better Samaritan.

Pastors Brian From and Aubrey Sampson host The Common Good podcast Monday through Friday from 4 to 6pm (CT) on AM1160 Hope for Your Life. Aubrey is the author of Known: How Believing Who God Says You Are Changes Everything. Brian leads Four Corners Community Church in Darien, Illinois. They are passionate about civility, compassion, and unity in a divided world.
The language of prayer and the language of poetry share strong similarities. Prayer, like poetry, allows for, and even invites, the interplay between truth and beauty. A new book explores this connection between rational thought and aesthetic expression. Romantic Prayer: Reinventing the Poetics of Devotion, 17731832 (Oxford University Press, 2021), by Christopher Stokes, senior lecturer in Romantic literature with the University of Exeter, is a scholarly examination of several key poets of the British Romantic period, from pre-Romantic William Cowper to second-generation Romantics Percy Shelley and Lord Byron and a range of poets in between.

The poets examined in this book reflect shifts in forms of religious devotion. Stokes argues that the theology of prayer reflected in this age and its poets parallels the growing importance of individual practices in religious life, when devotion became as much about doing as believing. Poetry, likewise, was increasingly becoming a personal practice, not merely an objective art.

Living in a time of ongoing and culminating secularization, these poets illustrate the ways Christianity helped birth secularity, as debates about the modes of Christianity evolved into debates about Christianity itself. Even so, as Stokes shows, poetry can be a way to preserve and practice religious faith amid growing skepticism.

You call prayer an organ of faith because of the way it imprints an understanding of God in the one who prays. Poetry, too, is a language that forms or imprints itself on us. The foundation of your analysis is that the language of prayer and the language of poetry are deeply connected. How are they connected?

Theres certainly a deep historical connection between poetry and prayer. As I note in the book, the very earliest surviving poem in English, Caedmons Hymn, is a kind of prayer. And across the centuries, poetry has been energized by its relationship with private prayers, with hymnody, with liturgies, and with great scriptural texts like the Psalms or the Song of Songs. There are certain erasIm thinking of the 17th century and the Victorian period, for instancewhen devotional poetry really is as good as anything else being written in English literature, and you see poetry drawing this tremendous beauty and complexity from the great religious and theological shifts of its times.

So, its impossible to think about the development of English verseand literature never sheds its historieswithout thinking about prayer as well. The evangelical tradition often slighted set or memorized prayers and saw prayer as a much more visceral cry from the heart. Poetry also took inspiration from that notion.

More abstractly, there is also something interlinking the experience of prayer and the experience of lyric poetry (poetry spoken by an I), which has always captured the imagination of writers. Perhaps it has to do with the intimacy of voice, or the overtones of confession, or the idea of speaking in this strikingly unusual way (that prayer and poetry share) whereby there isnt necessarily an addressee present in the conventional way but there is still a fundamental sense that this language will be heard. Ive always been fascinated by those links.

The Romantic poets were, in many ways, reacting to seismic shifts in the 18th century, shifts brought about by the Enlightenment, by the factions within and outside the established church, and by the increased subjectivity that both enacted and reflected these changes. You call this a time in which prayer was a language under pressure. What do you mean by this?

Maybe prayer is always a language under pressure! The Enlightenment gets mischaracterized, I think, as a relentless critique of religion. Actually, the radical atheist or anti-Christian polemic we associate with, say, French thinkers, was a pretty extreme wing of a much broader sensibility across Europe, and most parts of it had no real desire to exit Christianity at all.

Article continues below

However, it is true that many Christian thinkers in the era were obsessed about the reasonableness of religion as a belief systemand prayer fit quite awkwardly into that rationalizing project. For example, the idea that God would intervene supernaturally in the carefully constructed natural universe he had elegantly and intelligently created just because someone prayswell, that just didnt sit well.

As the century went on, I would summarize two opposite reactions to this reasonableness. On the one hand, some Christians wanted to rationalize further, and their versions of prayer became closer to contemplation or meditation. On the other, the Methodists and the evangelicals offered something much more unapologetically spiritual and otherworldly, addressing a devotional need but provoking a lot of suspicion and even mockery from the mainstream. So, its a fascinating time when multiple ideas of prayer are circulating.

You describe the secular as a space opened up between theism and atheism. Can you elaborate on this idea?

Its a way of looking at history in a more complex way. It seems broadly clear that over a few hundred years in the West, we moved from a state of affairs where Christianity was this universally shared backdrop to a present moment where this isnt the case. Traditionally, the secularization hypothesis has described this change as a one-way street whereby religion inexorably gives more and more ground to reason, humanism, science, or whatever. Its a narrative of inevitable binary conflict between religion and modernity. The problem is that we generally find that black-and-white ways of looking at history nearly always fail the fine detail. Things such as science werent always the opposites of religion, and religion continued to generate profound ways of inhabiting the world across the 18th and 19th centuries and beyond.

Im trying to note that what the secular involves is not atheism triumphing over theism and hence bringing in the modern world as an atheist world, but rather a range of theists, a range of skeptics, and a range of agnostics all developing their ideas in a culture which no longer has that common background of shared Christianity. Basically, its just an acknowledgment that Christianity (or any religion) doesnt stop having intellectual vibrancy just because other forms of belief or nonbelief suddenly share its cultural space; there are modern expressions of the Christian tradition. Put that way, you have to question why scholars ever thought that wasnt the case!

Within the Evangelical Revival, prayer becomes not just an act of reasonable devotion or duty but, as you write, a struggle, a wrestling, a matter of life or death. You further explain that Evangelical prayer involves a transformation and transposition of self, and that this is because evangelicalisms sense of self involves an experience of alterity and decentering. How does prayer itself contribute to this kind of intensified spiritual existence?

I think all traditions recognized different forms and experiences of prayer, but they also privileged certain kinds as more prototypical. For the 18th-century mainstream, prayer tended to be something that composed and oriented the self. Its all prayer as an action which places your thoughts and feelings into a structure that referred to God. For the evangelical tradition, prayer was not so much a doing as a state of beingand importantly, a state of new being.

Article continues below

So, prayer was a couple of things to the 18th-century evangelical. It was an invitation for a divine influx to make the self anew. It was also the language of authentic life breaking through from the depths of the soul, an embryo of God, a spark of fire divine, as Anna Letitia Barbauld puts it. And its also the record of the struggle of the sinner undergoing that transformation. Its all much more dramatic than the mainstream account, because its about change in your whole existence.

In your chapter on the poetry of the evangelical William Cowper (most famous for his collaboration with John Newton on the Olney Hymns), you address the connection between the practice of prayer within the Evangelical Revival and radical interiority, or a sense of an authentic self. And you describe the decline of Cowpers lifelong fragile mental health as, in part, the failing of prayer. Can you explain this connection? Do any of Cowpers most popular hymns illustrate this connection?

William Cowpers Calvinism has always been seen as a problem. The great emotional power of Wesley and the Methodists came from the controversial doctrines of sanctification, but what if sublime confidence in salvation was replaced with a potent assurance of your failure to be saved? Prayer comes in because a prayerful state was seen as one of the likely signs of election, and in finding prayer a tormenting struggle, Cowper feared he was encountering his own spiritual nullity. Yet the advice given to an evangelical struggling to pray was, in effect, to pray moreto pray for the power to pray. This became something of a tragic circle for Cowper.

Its probably true, and perhaps understandable, that the most popular of Cowpers hymns take more optimistic positions, but motifs of estrangement and inadequacy are still very much present: the melancholic nostalgia of O for a closer walk with God, or the poor lisping / stammring tongue envisaged in the grave in There is a fountain filled with blood. The circular logic is also apparent in the rhetoric of love in Hark, my soul, it is the Lord, a poem whose beautifully tender images of care anticipate some of the quieter recesses of prayer in Cowpers later long poem The Task.

For Anna Letitia Barbauld, a Dissenter whom you identify as probably the most theologically literate writer in your study, prayer is less interior, more social and physical (involving the act of kneeling, an act done in a physical and often communal space). How does that different understanding of prayer play out in her theology, practice, and poetry?

Barbauld is a fascinating figure, not least because she illustrates how poetry can not only express theology but contest it. This wing of 18th-century Dissent was increasingly embracing an ideal of prayer as solitary reflection: minimizing petition, suspicious of collective prayer, often privileging the wordless, and in some versions cautious about even addressing God. This trajectory just doesnt make sense for Barbauld, and in her religious poetry she repeatedly evokes scenes of solo philosophical contemplation only to interrupt them with something much more intimate and direct. As her career progresses, I think she finds the most authentic religious passions are found not in a single mind reflecting on the infinite, but those generated through shared experiences within family or chapel. Elegantly, she writes in 1792: We neither laugh alone, nor weep alone, why then should we pray alone?

Article continues below

One of the most beautiful and memorable moments of prayer in all of Romantic poetry is the moment in Samuel T. Coleridges haunting Rime of the Ancient Mariner when a curse placed on the seafarer after wantonly killing an albatross is broken when he bursts forth in spontaneous prayer in response to seeing the beauty of sea creatures at play upon the water. What does this moment in the poem illuminate about the deep connections between prayer, poetry, beauty, and the limits and the power of language?

This is perhaps the most famous prayer in Romantic poetry. The first thing I would say is that in at least one sense I cant tell you what this moment means. What Coleridge evokes is something uncanny and wondrous: Its a narrative pivot around which the whole mysterious poem turns, but it is strangely depthless. Of course, critics have tried to interpret it: The mariner is having an ecological epiphany or facing up to the guilt of the slave trade or philosophically converted to the pantheistic doctrine of the one life. But, in effect, the point is its uninterpretability. It just falls, like grace.

As a young philosophical radical, Coleridge had been a full-blown rationalist Unitarian, but by the late 1790s he was beginning to feel the truth (his own words) of religious doctrines like original sin and the Trinity, although he couldnt explain them and didnt have a theology to account for their consequences. These poems attempted to fill the gap between what he could explain and what he was beginning to feel. In his late career, he would go on to attempt a philosophy of prayer, which tried to explain how prayer could be both absolutely valid but lie partly beyond the forms of human reason. The fact that some extraordinary lines in a poem of the 1790s could do what his theological labors of the 1820s couldnt tells you a lot, I think, about the relation between prayer, poetry, theology, and language.
Daystar Television, AFA claim federal vaccine mandate is 'sin against Gods Holy Word': lawsuit

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Daystar Television Network, one of the largest Christian television networks in the world and The American Family Association, a nonprofit Christian organization, said in a lawsuit Tuesday that a federal vaccine mandate forcing large companies to require their employees to get the COVID-19 vaccinated is a sin against Gods Holy Word.

The statement from the two Christian organizations comes in the wake of a federal courts decision last Saturday to temporarily block the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate which requires businesses with 100 or more employees to get vaccinated or be tested weekly for the virus and wear a mask.

Private employers that don't comply with the mandate would also face fines of up to $14,000. Employees can also be terminated for noncompliance.

Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Utah and several businesses had sued the Department of Labor and OSHA over the mandate.

AFA and Daystar have religious objections to forcing their employees to test their conscience about receiving the vaccine. AFA and Daystar believe that if they implement the required vaccine mandate, they will wound the consciences of their employees and potentially cause them to sin, lawyers for both organizations wrote in a court filing cited by Deseret News.

In addition, AFA and Daystar believe that if they even put their employees to the test, the very act of implementing the vaccine mandate is a sin against Gods Holy Word, they added.

The American Family Association, which is based in Mississippi, owns and operates some 180 radio stations across the country under the American Family Radio name while Daystar Television, based in Dallas, Texas, is owned by the Word of God Fellowship.





The AFA and Daystar said in their filing that because they believe the right of conscience is sacred, they had no other choice but to resist the mandate which doesnt allow employees to apply for religious or medical exemptions.

AFA and Daystar must obey Gods Word. They have no other choice. AFA and Daystar have a sincerely held religious belief that they cannot force their employees to test their beliefs or conscience by requiring them to obtain any of the COVID-19 vaccines, the filing said. Putting their employees to that test is a violation of Gods Holy Word.

Last month, Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed an executive order instructing state agencies to resist the Biden administrations vaccine mandate after calling it outrageous overreach.

The federal governments outrageous overreach has simply given us no other option, but to begin taking action, which is why I am issuing this executive order to fight these egregious COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Ivey said in a statement. Alabamians  and Americans alike  should and must have the choice to roll up their sleeves to get this shot and certainly not forced by government. While President Biden laughs at the idea of protecting your freedoms, I will continue fighting for Alabama businesses and their employees.

At the time, at least 24 Republican state attorneys general had threatened legal action against the federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates and Ivey also joined in.

If the federal government presses on with these new federal mandates, then the Biden White House has once again failed the American people, Ivey said.  I believe is an illegal overreach, and I am confident we will win the battle in the courts.
Journalist arrested, charged after reporting on attacks against Christians in Nigeria

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

A Nigerian journalist faces prolonged detention allegedly for his reporting about attacks against predominantly Christian communities in Nigeria and the governments response.

Luka Binniyat, a Nigerian Roman Catholic journalist and father who writes for the anti-communist Epoch Times, was arrested last week. On Tuesday, Binniyat was arraigned at the Barnawa Magistrates Court in Kaduna state. He was charged with cyberstalking, a charge that critics say is often used in the African country to silence the media.

On Nov. 4, Binniyat informed Epoch Times Africa Desk Editor Doug Burton that he was arrested and urged the editor to contact all relevant persons.

Burton elaborated on the circumstances leading up to Binniyats arrest and the dangers he faces in an interview with The Christian Post.

Burton attributed Binniyats arrest to an Oct. 29 article he wrote titled In Nigeria, Police Decry Massacres as Wicked But Make No Arrests. The article is part of The Epoch Times coverage of the deadly persecution of Christian farming communities in the African country that human rights advocates say have escalated to near genocidal levels in recent years as thousands have been killed.

In the article, Binniyat pushed back on Kadunas Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwans characterization of an attack on Christian farmers in the state as a clash.

The Nigerian government has long refuted claims by human rights activists that a religious genocide is taking place in Nigerias Middle Belt states, where radicals from the Fulani herding community have been accused of invading countless Christian farming communities. The government has long attributed attacks and reprisals as being part of decades-old farmer-herder clashes.

In his article, Binniyat included a quote from a Nigerian senator, who accused the Kaduna government of using Samuel Aruwan, a Christian, to cause confusion to cover up the genocide going on in Christian Southern Kaduna by describing the measure as a clash as opposed to a targeted act of violence against Christians.

What he [Binniyat] did there is he showed that the commissioner was projecting a false narrative, Burton explained. For this reason, I think the authorities, though they knew they would get pushback for prosecuting a dissident journalist, they decided they had to do it because  they want to shut his voice down.

Burton told CP that the journalist was accused of cyberstalking Aruwan. Cyberstalking is a federal offense.

The magistrate ruled that he does not have authority to try the charge of cyberstalking because its a federal charge, its a federal statute. So the case will have to be transferred to a federal court. And so, therefore, in the meantime, he cant get bail because the magistrate doesnt have authority to give him bail since he doesnt have authority over this crime.

Sources Burton spoke to believe that the prosecution is using a legal technicality to keep Luka in jail.

By having his charges presented first in a lower court, a district court where he was charged, they expected him to be charged with defamation and injurious falsehood, Burton said. These are statutes  in the criminal code in Nigeria and can be tried at the lower court level.

But the charge of  cyberstalking is a federal charge that  has to be issued by a higher court, he continued. And so by doing that deliberately, the prosecution knew that bail couldnt be given, and that is the whole idea.

On Monday morning, Binniyat texted that he felt like his life was in danger, Burton said.

Additionally, Binniyat said he had been held for five days in a very cramped and dingy cell that he described as uncomfortable. Binniyat further alleged that he hadnt gotten much sleep.

He texted to another person, another journalist I know named John Shiklam. And Shiklam said he feared for his life, Burton detailed.

Based on conversations with other people who have faced detention for cyberstalking in Nigeria, Burton estimates that Binniyat could spend about five months in prison.

Burton specifically cited the case of Stephen Kefas, who wrote something on Facebook that embarrassed a government official. The government official claimed he was being cyberstalked and feared he could be attacked because of what Kefas wrote.

Burton indicated that prolonged detention could have an impact on Binniyats physical health.

The folks who have to spend time in custody, they have to endure pretty harsh conditions and they get sick, he warned.

Kefas contracted Hepatitis C while in prison, and members of the Adara tribe who spent time in prison caught malaria, typhoid and/or dysentery, Burton stressed.

Based on what I have learned with my many conversations with Steven Kefas, the conditions in prison are not only uncomfortable, but theyre dangerous and toxic, he stated. The Adara elders were in a common cell with other criminals. They had no toilet. They have a sewer trench that goes through the middle of the cell, which serves as their toilet. Apparently, the prisoners dont have proper protection from mosquitoes because many of them come out with malaria.

Based on a conversation Burton had International Committee on Nigeria Executive Director Kyle Abts, who has delivered rations to prisoners in the past, the prisons  and jails dont provide food and water for the prisoners.

All their food and water has to be brought to them by their relatives, he said.

Those without relatives or anyone to bring them food and water can beg for charitable donations from other prisoners.

Because Binniyat is not wealthy, Burton predicted he will need assistance in his legal proceedings.

His legal bills will have to be paid by his friends. That would be the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, SKPU, and also he will be getting some financial aid probably from the International Committee on Nigeria, Burton detailed. His friends and allies are  planning some kind of a legal defense fund, but its not clear who will take the lead.

Binniyats arrest for cyberstalking is not the first time the journalist has faced legal headwinds for his reporting.

Burton recalled that Binniyat was previously imprisoned in 2017 for breach of the peace.

Binniyat had previously served as the bureau chief of Vanguard Newspapers until 2017.

Then after he was imprisoned, I dont think he got hired by any newspaper group because, the way it was explained to me, hes considered a controversial reporter, he said.

So I started working with him in March this year, maybe May of this year. And I encouraged him to  compile reports for The Epoch Times. I worked with him as his editor. And so hes published some very timely and factual reports about kidnappings and mass murders this year.

Burton maintained that the central claim made by Aruwan highlighted in Binniyats Oct. 29 story, that the attacks on Christian farming communities in Nigeria are simply clashes between farmers and herders, is widely held and promoted by Nigerian government officials.

That is a distorted representation of whats really happening. In fact, there is a farmer-herder aspect to the violence, the editor added. But that discounts the fact that the preponderance of the attacks are sectarian in  nature.

1

2

Next
Vermont becomes first state to mandate access to free condoms for middle schoolers

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Vermont has become the first state in the U.S. to require public middle schools and high schools to provide free condoms for students.

A law that was signed by Gov. Phil Scott last year which amends the Vermont Statutes to require condoms for secondary schools has officially taken effect.

In order to prevent or reduce unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, each school district shall make condoms available to all students in its secondary schools, free of charge. School district administrative teams, in consultation with school district nursing staff, shall determine the best manner in which to make condoms available to students, reads the measure, in part.

At a minimum, condoms shall be placed in locations that are safe and readily accessible to students, including the school nurse's office.

The condoms will be freely provided by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, a regional chapter of the nation's largest abortion business, NBC's affiliate WCAX.

Signed into law last October, the condoms mandate for secondary schools was promoted as a means to help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions among youth.

Republican state Rep. Topper McFaun, who introduced the bill, told Vermont Public Radio last year that the condoms mandate was an effort to make sure that girls don't have to make the decision, that crucial decision, to have an abortion or not.

 thats what Im trying to prevent, he continued, as reported by VPR. And the way to do that is to provide ways to allow people to protect themselves.

Critics of the legislation included Sharon Toborg of the Vermont Right to Life Committee, who believed that the bill, while likely built on good intentions, will encourage sexual promiscuity among minors.

But the reality is that when you encourage sexual activity among young kids, and treat it as normal and acceptable for 12-year-olds to be engaging in sexual activity, you are creating an atmosphere that will lead to more sexual activity and more unintended pregnancies, Toborg told VPR last year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, no school-based program of condom distribution has resulted in an increase in sexual activity among students.

CDC researchers systematically reviewed scientific papers that evaluated school-based CAPs in the U.S. and found that no programs reported any increase in sexual activity, number of sex partners, frequency of sex, or other sexual risk behaviors, stated the CDC.

Two school districts actually showed lower levels of sexual risk among their students in schools with CAPs, perhaps because of educational materials or messages handed out with condoms.
Veterans Day: The debt we still owe

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Yesterday was Veterans Day, the day we as a nation set aside to honor all our veterans, living and dead. Every one of us owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to all our veterans for the sacrifices they have made to protect our safety and preserve our wonderful and cherished freedoms as Americans.

As the poet Charles M. Province has pointed out, without the soldiers willingness to take up arms and defend our rights, they would be great, noble, but unrealized ideals:

It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate.

It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag. (Charles M. Province, The Soldier)

I hope you will take the opportunity of Veterans Day weekend to thank all the veterans you know, and their families, for their service and sacrifices. Let them know how much you appreciate their service.

I am personally extremely grateful that in times of grave crisis we have always had men and women who were willing to answer the call to duty and don the uniforms of our military branches and put themselves in harms way and risk their lives for us and for our freedoms.

When I was living in England in the early 1970s, I was visiting a beautiful Anglican church in a picturesque English village, and, as was usually the case, there was a memorial to those horrifyingly large numbers of men who died in the terrible carnage of World Wars I and II. In this little village church, the memorial, which contained a disturbingly high number of names, contained an inscription that so touched me that I wrote it down. It said, In Englands hour of greatest need, they sacrificed all their tomorrows that England might remain free. How touching  and how true.

All the men and women who were killed in defending America died before their natural time. Most of them were in their teens and 20s. My father, a World War II Navy veteran with 13 battle stars in the Pacific, to the day he died at 92, fondly remembered the men he served with, the men who died in their early 20s like he was, far from home. They did indeed sacrifice all their tomorrows, never having the joy of becoming fathers or grandfathers because their lives were tragically and violently cut short defending our freedoms.

Being of a certain age, I am acutely aware of one generation of Americans whose sacrifice is particularly poignant. As I graduated from high school in 1965 the U.S. was in the midst of sending approximately 500,000 American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines to Vietnam. (The joke going around at the time was, They warned me if I voted for Goldwater in the 64 election, we would have half a million troops in Vietnam, and you know what? I did, and they were right!)

In many very important ways, the Vietnam War became the defining event for at least the first half of the Baby Boom Generation (1946-1957). Ken Burns and Lynn Novak, in their excellent documentary on the Vietnam War, pointed out that that war drove a stake right into the heart of America and that it has not completely healed yet.

Whatever your views about the war were, and are, the soldiers who were called to serve did their duty and served bravely and with honor, and we shouldnt have taken our frustrations and animosities out on them.

They did not start the war, they did not mismanage it, and they did not mislead the American people. And make no mistake about it, we now know that all of us were lied to by our government, conservative and liberal alike.

We should be grateful for our fellow countrymen and their sacrifices. As one platoon commander in Vietnam said as he was being interviewed for Ken Burns documentary: Nineteen-year-old high school dropouts from the lowest socioeconomic rung of American society, they werent going to be awarded for service in Vietnam, and yet their infinite patience, their loyalty to each other, their courage under fire, was phenomenal. And you ask yourself, he said, how does America produce young men like this?

These men deserved better when they came home than the opprobrium, disdain, and hostility they far too often encountered. This truth was brought home to me in a personal way several years ago. I was between flights in an airport, and I observed several passengers thanking uniformed servicemen for their service.

I noticed an older gentleman wearing a Vietnam Veterans cap observing the scene rather wistfully. I went over and thanked him for his service. He teared up and in a breaking voice said, I just wish someone had thanked us when we came home.

Ever since then, when I encounter Vietnam Veterans, I thank them for their service and tell them I hope they know they have the gratitude of a grateful nation. I have yet to have one vet who has not been visibly moved by my gesture.

The most recent episode was the day before yesterday in the waiting room of my surgeons office, as I awaited encouraging news concerning my very successful back surgery. I approached a man in his early 70s wearing a Vietnam Veterans cap, and I thanked him for his service. Both he and his wife teared up and thanked me for my expression of gratitude and respect.

This has happened before, with wives expressing to me how grateful they are for my comments because when their husbands came home they were called a baby killer and a war criminal. I had one wife tell me that her husband had encountered such hostility when he first arrived back in the U.S. that he went into the airport restroom and changed out of his uniform into civilian clothes before he went home.

He deserved better than that. They all did. It is obviously a very deep wound that may have scabbed over but has never healed.

As Sylvester Stallones Vietnam Era Green Beret character, John Rambo, put it succinctly, We want our country to love us as much as we love it.

Time is running out on the opportunity to rectify this injustice. The vast majority of these Vietnam Vets are between 65 and 75. We have a limited window left to heal this great wound and do the right thing by these fellow Americans and say, thank you for your service.

I hope and pray we will all take up this challenge and do the right thing for our fellow Americans.
Babylon Bee makes fun of the Left in newly released Guide to Wokeness

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

The minds behind the popular Christian satire site The Babylon Bee have released a new book that pokes fun at the ideas and actions of those who identify as woke.

The Babylon Bee Guide to Wokeness was released earlier this month as a satirical critique of woke ideology. The book was dedicated to communist dictator Joseph Stalin, whom it calls a woke hero and champion of the oppressed proletariat.

The book promises to help readers take your wokeness to the next level by canceling friends, breaking windows, and burning it all to the ground.

Wokeness isnt a private religion you can keep to yourself, explains the introduction. Once you see the world through woke eyes, youll never be the same, and youll never be able to stop telling your friends about your new beliefs. Kind of like when you join CrossFit or become vegan  or get an air fryer.

The guide defines woke as [f]inding your identity not in objective reality, but in your feelings, [w]orshiping the planet because humanity is evil, [f]inding the racism, sexism, and hatred in everything and [b]rainwashing your kids to hate life and be miserable.

Because you dont want to raise a generation of happy, well-adjusted kids  thats what NAZIS do, the guide warns.

Babylon Bee Managing Editor Joel Berry, one of the guides authors, told The Christian Post about why they focused on wokeness, some of the books influences and if he believed woke ideology had any valid points.

Below are some excerpts from Berrys interview with CP.

CP: Given that The Babylon Bee is known for sparing no one, why did you all decide to focus the book on woke ideology?

Berry: There are several reasons.

One of those reasons being its the prevailing conversation thats been happening in our culture for the last couple years. And the ideology that undergirds it has become so much a part of our institutions, our universities, our churches, our corporate life, HR departments and the way we interact at work and then in the news cycle.

Its just become such a pervasive ideology that we decided it warranted a more longer-form critique, Babylon Bee style.

So much about it is very low-hanging fruit for comedy.

Theres a lot thats inherently funny about wokeness, and what was funny in writing this book is we found that we didnt have to exaggerate wokeness all that much for it to be funny. We could present it in an overly honest way, and that alone created quite a lot of comedy.

CP: At one point in the book, you quoted C.S. Lewis classic book The Screwtape Letters. Did Lewis book also serve as an inspiration for how you wrote your book?

Berry: The interesting thing about what he did with The Screwtape Letters is he talked about how, well, it is a satirical work, but he really hated writing in the voice of a demon. He felt like it just wasnt good for his spirit to be writing that.

We werent writing in the voice of a demon, but we were writing in the voice of a very earnest, maybe not very self-aware, woke person. So, in that sense, we kind of followed that format where were writing it from someone elses perspective and explaining it as a woke person might explain wokeness to someone who wants to learn how to be more woke.

And so, we are very much inspired by writers like C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton before him, other great satirists like Mark Twain. These guys were very prophetic in their understanding of the culture, what it was doing and where it was going, and we find a lot of wisdom in what they wrote. It helps us see our current moment a lot more clearly, as well.

CP: Although you have just released a book that pokes fun at wokeness, are there any aspects of woke ideology  be it Black Lives Matter, critical race theory, etc.  that might hold merit or have a level of validity?

Berry: I think that at its core, wokeness appeals to our better instincts or maybe our desire to be good people. And they do use seeds of truth to accomplish that.

For example, you talked about CRT or racial wokeness, for lack of a better term. It does use that kernel of truth that there was racism, prejudice and oppression in Americas past, and it kind of preys on everyones desire to make those historical injustices right.

Where it errs is it then takes that good and godly desire to right past wrongs and correct injustices and shoehorns in this very materialistic, neo-Marxist ideology that strips away the value and individual worth of humans, as made in the image of God. And instead, replaces it with this value based on a group identity.

It replaces original sin with whiteness. It replaces individual sin with systemic sin and systemic injustice. And in that sense, it kind of pulls peoples attention away from where the Gospel wants our attention, which is on the sin of our own heart.

Jesus is a great example, where He appeared to what was essentially a politically and socially oppressed minority when He came and lived as a Jew and appeared to the Jews. The Jews wanted a revolutionary liberator who would throw off the oppression of the Romans and correct all of these political injustices that they were experiencing. But instead, Jesus came and talked to them about the sin that was in their heart. And that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. I think that rubs all of us the wrong way.

People on the left and people on the right are both guilty of this. Everyone wants to take this person of Jesus and turn Him into the avatar of whatever their preferred political ideology is. Right-wingers want a right-wing Jesus and left-wingers want a left-wing Jesus. When you look at Jesus honestly, as He presents Himself in the Gospels, Jesus is not as easy to pin down as we might like, and He kind of has a way of cutting past all of our partisan divides and speaking directly to the sin thats in our hearts. And Hes going to say stuff thats going to tick people off on both sides.

Part of our critique of wokeness is what it tries to do to Jesus in turning Him into a political liberator instead of the Savior of the world who came to save us from our sins.

CP: What do you hope readers take away from your book?

Berry: I hope it works on two levels.

I hope people can come away with a better understanding of what wokeness is. In spite of the silliness of our book, we did read the critical theorists and the peer-reviewed papers and try to really make sure that we were understanding and properly defining what we were critiquing.

And on a different level, we hope it just works as a laugh riot for people. There are a lot of really silly illustrations, silly diagrams.

Its an easy book to just pick up and find something fun in.

In addition to informing people about wokeness, we hope it entertains. We hope it helps people to laugh a little bit and kind of lighten up about this crazy situation our culture is in. Theres a lot to laugh about, and its not always good to be despairing and handwringing over the way we feel our culture is going.

Sometimes, laughter is warranted and its a healing thing.
Ask Chuck: I may lose my job over the vax mandate

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Dear Chuck,

If I do not get the COVID-19 vaccine, I could lose my job with a federal contractor. If I get it, I go against my conscience and the liberty I have to protect my familys health, a fundamental right of Americans. I am not anti-vax, but I hate coercion. My wife and I are bracing for the financial consequences, but we want your advice.

Standing Against the Mandatory Vax

Dear Standing Against the Mandatory Vax,

I am sorry that you and your family have been placed in such a hard position. This is not a spat with a strongly opinionated believer in the hallways of the church; unlike others with an opinion on the issue, you are faced with a possible job loss.

Evaluate some of your options

Companies are required to make "reasonable accommodations" if an employee objects to receiving a vaccine for valid reasons. Such accommodations could include allowing the employee to work remotely or take a leave of absence. The employee could also show a negative COVID-19 test once a week, per the President's mandate. Ask to work remotely, or agree to get tested weekly. It would appear to me that if you are denied those options, then the law would be in your favor should you get wrongfully terminated.

Religious exemption?

Seek wise counsel before crafting this defense. My understanding is that this route is unlikely to be successful without a history of taking this position with other vaccines.

David Schrock argues this posture from a unique angle: ...we have seen an unending array of executive orders and economic decisions that have further tied the citizens to the state (think: government bailouts) and forced the state on the citizens (think: all the policies of the CDC). Topping the list of government intrusions is the vaccine mandate. And because this mandate has come with all the trappings of a religion, we now have a state that is forcing its religion on its citizens, (emphasis mine). In other words, argue for separation of religion and state.

Appeal to your superiors

One of my friends used a very strong appeal to a high-ranking superior in the company. While not claiming a religious exemption, he believes that Americans should not be coerced into making a choice about their own health. Quoting from the Nuremberg Trials of 1947, he noted:

Coercion into medical treatment violates the direct purpose of the 'Nuremberg Code' which was developed after World War 2 in order to set a series of medical principles and regulations. It states (emphasis mine):

"The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the interventionof any element of force,fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision."

He is yet to hear the outcome of this appeal.

Facing the consequences

The financial implications for your choice are potentially numerous. My understanding is that termination would be based on failure to comply with company policy and would, therefore, cause ineligibility for unemployment benefits. You will also face the stress of finding another job, the cost of regular testing, the possibility of higher healthcare costs, the chance of having to relocate, and more.

It is admirable that you and your family are willing to face the loss of your job based upon your convictions. Millions of Americans in a wide diversity of sectors are doing the same thing. Some companies are backing off of stringent compliance expectations.

Be proactive

Set aside your fear, and place your full confidence in God.

fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10 ESV)

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! (Psalm 46:1,10 ESV)

Begin planning now for the possibility of a job change. Consider ways to supplement your income should the day come when you need to seek other employment. Possibly, your company or another can hire you on as an independent consultant. Use your network wisely by letting others know you are open to a job or career change. Networking for an inside connection is the best use of your time. Be specific on the type of opportunity you would consider. Activate your prayer partners.

Gods promises are most relevant in a time when we experience great need and come to fully and sincerely rely upon Him. Should you face termination, you will not be separated from Gods faithfulness. He will guide you through the storm and take care of you and your family. He also promises to work this all out for your good. The final outcome is yet to be determined. May God grant you peace as you trust Him with the consequences, whatever they may be.

Now is also a good time to address any problems you may have with personal debt. For more guidance, especially if your debt is related to credit cards, please consider contacting Christian Credit Counselors. They are a trusted source of help.
Defense attorney in Ahmaud Arbery trial doesn't want any more black pastors in courtroom

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Kevin Gough, an attorney for one of three white men standing trial for the 2020 killing of 25-year-old unarmed black man Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, lashed out against the presence of high-profile members of the black community attending the trial Thursday, saying in court, we dont want any more black pastors coming in here.

While noting he had no problems with civil rights leaders like The Rev. Al Sharpton, he argued that Sharptons presence or the presence of other high profile black ministers like The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. in the courtroom could consciously or unconsciously  pressure or influence the jury against his client.

His client, William Roddie Bryan Jr, is being tried for Arberys murder, along with the father-son duo of 65-year-old Gregory McMichael and 35-year-old Travis McMichael. Arbery was fatally shot while jogging in Glynn County on February 23, 2020.

Im guessing he [Sharpton] was there [at the back of the courtroom on Wednesday] at the invitation of the victims family in this case. I have nothing personal against Mr. Sharpton, Gough told the judge before raising concern about the presence of high profile members of the African American community in the courtroom.

If were going to start a precedent that started yesterday, were going to bring high profile members of the African American community in the courtroom to sit with the family during the trial in the presence of the jury. I believe thats intimidating, and its an attempt to pressure  could be consciously or unconsciously  an attempt to pressure or influence the jury, Gough argued. To my knowledge, Rev. Sharpton has no church in Glynn County. He never has.

The lawyer then added: We dont want any more black pastors coming in here or other  Jesse Jackson, whoever was in here earlier this week  sitting with the victims family trying to influence a jury in this case.

Judge Timothy Walmsley of the Georgia Superior Court Eastern Judicial Circuit said he had no objections to Sharpton being in the courtroom as long as his rules are being followed and the proceedings arent disrupted.

In a statement Thursday, Sharpton called Goughs comments arrogant insensitivity.

The arrogant insensitivity of attorney Kevin Gough in asking a judge to bar me or any minister of the familys choice underscores the disregard for the value of the human life lost and the grieving of a family in need [of] spiritual and community support, Sharpton said.

My attendance yesterday [Wednesday] and in the days to come is not disruptive in any way and was at the invitation of the family of Ahmaud Arbery, who have stated that publicly. The only way I could have been identified as a member of the ministry is if I was recognized for my public position and leadership. How else would the defense attorney know who was a black pastor' or not? he asked.

This objection was clearly pointed at me and a disregard to the fact that a mother [and] father sitting in a courtroom with three men that murdered their son do not deserve the right to have someone present to give spiritual strength to bear this pain. This is pouring salt into their wounds, Sharpton added. I respect the defense attorney doing his job, but this is beyond defending your client. It is insulting the family of the victim.

Black pastor and prominent progressive activist The Rev. William J. Barber II was also in Brunswick for trial Thursday. He told CNN that he left a member of his organization there to be with the family and called Sharpton to have additional ministers come down in the coming days.

He can say whatever he wants to, Barber said of Goughs comments. He has to understand, for me, Im not a minister; Im a pastor first. I pastor people. Ive had to go to families when theyve had people killed and I sit in courtrooms.

He further challenged Goughs claim that the jury could be intimidated by the presence of the black activist pastors, arguing instead that the attorney is intimidated by the truth.

This is ultimately about the truth and to suggest that we are the intimidating ones when this case is about white men who were riding around with guns ... shooting an unarmed black man ... it just shows how disjointed this case is, Barber contends. Truth is intimidating for people who want to run a lie.
'Bible in a Year' podcast takes No. 1 spot on Apple podcasts list in US

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) podcast has taken the top spot in Apples All Podcasts list, beating out news, commentary and other mainstream podcasts.

The Bible study podcast, run by the Catholic group Ascension Presents, landed at No. 1 in the United States, becoming the most popular podcast for Apple users at the start of this year.

Podcast host Friar Mike Schmitz, is a well-known Catholic priest who's in charge of the young adult ministry in the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota. Listeners of the 25-minute podcast can hear the minister read Scripture and then share his own theological and historical context of the teachings.

The Bible in a Year podcast began in 2020 with three episodes but officially kicked off in 2021. Apple users have already explored the first few chapters of Genesis and as well as some passages in Psalms and chapters in Job and Proverbs.

The faith-based podcast also beat out The New York Times' podcast "The Daily" which landed at No. 2, along with popular political commentator Ben Shapiro and "The Joe Rogan Experience."

Another Bible-based podcast by D-Group(a discipleship group), landed at No. 33 on the same list of most popular podcasts. Titled "The Bible Recap" this listening experience primarily consists of summaries of Scripture rather than reading the Scripture text itself. This podcast is only six minutes in length.

"So many of us are hungry for more than the news, for rest within a world fraught with division, National Review reporter Alexandra Desanctis said of the reason people are tuning in to the Bible podcast. People long for clarity beyond the sound bites, for a reality that is meaningful and soul-filling, for an answer to the ache we feel for peace and stability amidst suffering and turmoil."

In 2020, searches on the popular YouVersion Bible app increased by 80%, to nearly 600 million.

A report released by the app revealed that Isaiah 41:10 was the verse that was bookmarked, highlighted and shared the most.

Dont be afraid, for I am with you. Dont be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand, the scripture reads.

Some 43.6 billion Bible chapters were read and 7.5 billion audio chapters played, YouVersion said, revealing that it saw its highest levels of global Bible engagement in app history.

The increase of Bible reading and faith-based podcast listening is linked to the uncertainty in the world.

This has been a challenging year with many people facing devastating loss, loneliness, and fear, said YouVersion founder Bobby Gruenewald in a statement. While 2020 is a year so many say theyd like to forget, we see it as a year to remember how God used the Bible App to help so many people who are searching for answers. Through every hardship, people continue to seek God and turn to the Bible for strength, peace, and hope.
Christian social media influencer gives away her belongings after hearing command from God

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

On the eve of her Nov. 3 birthday, outspoken Christian social media influencer Khafi Ekpata of London was in the middle of taking a shower and thinking of ways to celebrate her special day when she believes she heard the voice of God tell her: Just give everything away.

That same day, on Nov. 2, the now 32-year-old host of Premier Gospels Naked Love Podcast posted a video on Instagram announcing her decision to celebrate her birthday in obedience to Gods instruction by offering to give away all of her belongings except for her baby boy.

And she decided to keep only essential items needed to survive.

In the video, Ekpata told her 1.4 million followers to send her a direct message on Instagram if they live in London and are interested in receiving a time and location to receive her items for free.

She said she received close to 200 messages from people interested in receiving some of her belongings.

She told The Christian Post that she gave away electronics, including multiple cameras and tripods. She also gave away makeup, furniture, clothing, kitchen supplies, toaster, microwave and various books.

Over the weekend, she planned to continue her generosity by donating bathroom and cosmetic items, a sofa and more. She kept her bed, oven and washing machine as essentials.

I just felt such peace in my spirit while I was giving things away and I have no plans to replace anything immediately because I want to see how long I can go without non-essentials, Ekpata told CP in an interview.

There were some things that I had to take a deep breath and say nope, give it away because I felt a bit panicked at first about how I can do this. But it felt incredibly liberating and freeing, and I just did it. I kept things I absolutely needed and I gave away non-essentials. God can replace anything. Just give.

Ekpata said she finds that people tend to avoid donating their belongings by making excuses about why they shouldnt  which is something that she had to work through in her own mind.

I think sometimes people dont give away their things because a lot of the times people think they dont have enough or what they have isnt great enough, she said.

Jesus was able to multiply fish and bread. And at first, I was wondering if people would find my stuff useful. And I was very surprised that so many people found my things helpful. God will multiply and magnify what we give. And this is not just tangible items, but Im also referring to sharing physical gifts and talents to glorify God, etc.

When Ekpata first decided she would give away her things, she called her church asking for help to distribute the items. She said that she was told by the church not to give away all your items.

I wanted to be obedient. But oftentimes, our thoughts and the thoughts of others can hinder our obedience to Christ because we often shy away out of fear of what could happen if we take a leap of faith, Ekpata stated, noting that many of the clothing items that she gave away still had tags on them because they were never used.

Ekpata said one factor that encouraged her generosity was watching a sermon by Pastor Michael Todd of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which she said was about sowing seeds in all areas of life.

Michael Todd said to bless people with things, and his sermon opened my spirit more to giving to others despite me wrestling with the question: Did God really tell me to give away everything or am I just crazy? she recalled.

Giving to others to fulfill a duty to God was not always Ekpatas priority.

She did not surrender her life fully to Christ until her late teens. She was raised by a Muslim father and a Christian mother.

As a teenager, she did not find herself connected to any religious practice, despite attending many functions either in a church or mosque. But at 17 years old, an encounter with Christ led her to become a Christian.

I was at a function with a group of people, when out of nowhere, I felt a wave of intense loneliness wash over me. And I wondered, how can I be so alone when I am with so many people, Ekpata recounted.

And then I felt the voice of God say: Its Me that youre missing. And I knew it was the God of the Bible talking to me. I responded to God by saying, If thats the case, then I want to know You. And the next day, I went to buy a Bible from a bookshop. And later, I found a church and got planted. And just like that, my faith started up, she continued.

In addition to God and Todds sermon, Ekpata said her baby son also inspired her to do the giveaway.

Its interesting when you have a child because I realized my child is a gift from God, and that brings me to the Bible verse: Freely you have received, freely you should give, Ekpata said. My son makes me want to give away more to others. Obviously, I would never want to give my son away, but he inspires me to give back to others. And I feel like now that I have given so much away, God is now making way for the new to come into my life.

She assured, however, that she does not give for the blessings but to help others and bring God glory.

Ekpata also took to social media on her birthday to share her view on the importance of gratitude in life.

On her Instagram page, she shared a picture of a letter she once wrote at age 13 titled: How I see myself in ten years time. The letter was about what she hoped she would see happen in her life within the decade.

In the letter, the 13-year-old Ekpata viewed herself as stingy and hoped that shed become a more generous person over time.

She also wished that in 10 years, she would be able to say to people that she is helpful, loving and very nice.

Sometimes you need to look back and realize that you prayed for the things you have now, Ekpata wrote on Instagram.

I wrote this when I was 13-years-old. And everything has come true, and more.  Another ten years on and the terrain is bigger and wider and God still isnt through with me yet. Can you imagine?

In the post, Ekpata further detailed how she used to mope around on her birthdays because it reminded her of what she hadnt yet achieved or done. But over time, she said she has learned how to have more gratitude.

[T]his is the first birthday in a while that I am soooo HAPPY, she wrote. Im not looking at what I dont have, but what I do and I give thanks today on my birthday and I will forever more.
COVID vaccine mandate: Police, military officers facing heavy-handed bullying

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

I am not an anti-vaxxer, and plenty of my friends and colleagues have been vaccinated. From the perspective of those who believe that the COVId vaccinations are safe and effective and even life-saving, I can understand the desire to see everyone vaccinated. But what I cannot possibly understand is the threatening, vindictive, heavy-handed bullying in conjunction with the mandates. Not only are these unfair and even cruel, but they give fuel to the fire of those who view the mandates as nothing less than dangerous governmental overreach.

Consider this October 18 story from The Hill which states that, "Chicago police officers could face repercussions, including losing retirement benefits, if they choose to not comply with the city's vaccine mandate, according to a memo from the Chicago Police Department."

"The memo states that anyone who chooses to disobey the city's vaccination policy will become the subject of a disciplinary investigation that could result in a penalty up to and including separation from the Chicago Police Department, according to CNN."

"'Furthermore, sworn members who retire while under disciplinary investigations may be denied retirement credentials,' it continues."

How can this possibly be justified?

Were talking about people who, in good conscience, will not be vaccinated, be it for medical reasons or religious reasons, or something else (including having natural immunity after having COVID). They are even willing to lose their jobs rather than get vaccinated.

But, as if that was not bad enough, according to this report, the city of Chicago may actually strip away their retirement benefits. Is this anything less than outrageous?

A few weeks ago on my radio broadcast, a caller asked for counsel regarding the vaccine. He had served in the military for years but had serious reservations about getting vaccinated. He explained what would happen if he were to pass on vaccination: Not only would he be dismissed but he would lose all the military benefits he had accrued over the years.

I was shocked to hear this, searching online for confirmation after the show (although the caller seemed quite sure that this was the case).

Although there are varied reports circulating online, early last month, House legislators openly challenged the announcement that those who refused vaccination would receive a dishonorable discharge. (For the record, and as noted on a military transition website, "A Dishonorable Discharge is the harshest discharge status a military service member can receive, as it is given via court-martial and not by the military administration. Service members who receive this standing are accused of felonies involving homicide, fraud, desertion, and crimes that would put any person, service member or not, in hot water. If you receive a Dishonorable Discharge, it is not possible to reenlist with the military.")

But was this charge true? Were military members being threatened with a dishonorable discharge? Some fact-checkers have said plainly that this is not correct and that the Biden administration does not have the authority to do this.

Yet this does beg the question of why the Military.com website reported on September 2 that, "House lawmakers have backed legislation prohibiting dishonorable discharges for troops who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine." It also begs the question of how and why news outlets were reporting this very thing. Was it manufactured out of thin air?

Even if this was being reported erroneously and dishonorable discharges were never being considered, we do know that on October 15, it was reported that, "The US Navy said Thursday that personnel who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 will be expelled from the force, ahead of the November 28 deadline for the injection."

And this: "People expelled for refusing the vaccine will receive a general honorable discharge, but could lose certain benefits or be forced to repay the cost of training and education in some cases" the statement said.

Note carefully those words: lose certain benefits. And all because, in good conscience, they will not be vaccinated. How can this be justified?

The article also stated that "Navy personnel who can claim an exemption from mandatory vaccines, for health or other reasons, can be reassigned from their current duties."

And, it explained, "The Navy has been particularly sensitive to the pandemic, because of the risk that a single COVID case could infect an entire ship or submarine at sea, forcing it out of action."

But what about natural immunity for all those who have had COVID? Since this is far more effective than a vaccine, why must those people be vaccinated? As reported on Medical News Today, a major study from Israel "indicated that people who had never had the infection and received a vaccine in January or February of 2021 were up to 13 times more likely to contract the virus than people who had already had the infection."

Yet these people face the choice of vaccination or else, and that or else is quite ominous. How can this be justified?

When it comes to those serving in the military, were talking about people who, for the most part, are in one of the lowest demographics for COVID fatalities. And were talking about people who have chosen to serve in the military, some for many years of their lives. And in some cases, were talking about people who have risked their lives and disrupted their families, and perhaps even been wounded in the field of duty.

Yet, if for reasons that are valid in their eyes, they cannot receive the vaccination, not only do they lose their current jobs. Not only do they lose their military career trajectories (where that applies), but they also lose all the benefits they have accrued over the years.

What an outrage, especially when you consider that it is for those very benefits, such as college tuition aid, that some of them enrolled in the first place.

Again, I am not an anti-vaxxer. As much as I very strongly differ with the vaccine mandates, I can understand some of the thinking behind the mandates. But these vindictive and punitive measures are outrageous and completely unjustifiable. In the end, they will do more harm than good, hurting lives more than saving lives while increasing our general mistrust of authority.

May those in government (along with others enforcing these mandates) think long and hard. There is still time to reconsider, retract, and reverse course. That would be the honorable thing to do.
Parents group slams school survey asking students how often they have sex, if they're transgender

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

A parent advocacy group is slamming the largest school district in Virginia for administering a voluntary survey that asks students personal questions about their sex lives.

Fairfax County Public Schools, located just outside Washington, D.C., allows students in grades 8, 10 and 12 to participate in a Youth Survey, which includes a section probing the minors about their sex lives and gender identity.

Specifically, students are asked if they ever had sexual intercourse, how old they were when they had sexual intercourse for the first time, how many people they had sexual intercourse with in their lives and the past three months and if they used contraception or took drugs or alcohol before engaging in such activity.

The section asking students questions about their sexual behavior concludes with an inquiry about whether or not they had oral sex.

The survey also includes a question noting that some people describe themselves as transgender when their sex at birth does not match the way they think or feel about their gender. The survey asks the respondent if they identify as transgender.

Another question at the beginning of the survey asks students to identify their sexual orientation.

Fairfax County Public Schools cites the surveys as necessary for determining the effectiveness of prevention and intervention programs.

The countys school board administers the surveys in conjunction with the board of supervisors, which described the purpose of the questionnaire as to examine the risks, protective factors and health behaviors that influence the health and well-being of our countys youth.

Students are asked not to put their names on the surveys as the answers are confidential.

While the school district has defended the survey, a parents advocacy group contends that the questions are irrelevant to the school districts educational mission.

The advocacy group Do Better FCPS was formed in response to the disapproval of the districts actions during the coronavirus pandemic and seeks to increase its perceived lack of accountability, transparency, excellence in leadership and focus on high caliber education.

How exactly does knowing how many sexual partners a student has improve your ability to educate? the group asked in a Twitter post.

Explain it to us as if we are Kindergarteners, @fcpsnews. How exactly does knowing how many sexual partners a student has improve your ability to educate? Are you providing interventions based on the information? Are the programs race based? Tie it all together, please. https://t.co/FXv2UAGc5npic.twitter.com/ZasZcURrAz  Do Better FCPS (@DoBetterFCPS) November 10, 2021

Do Better FCPS founder Sue Zoldak elaborated on her concerns during an interview with local news outlet WJLA.

Is it the schools role to know whether our children are sexually active, how many partners theyve had? she asked. How does that connect to a positive educational outcome?

Do Better FCPS founder @SueZoldak asks, "How does this survey connect to a quality education?" https://t.co/FXv2UAGc5n  Do Better FCPS (@DoBetterFCPS) November 10, 2021

In an Oct. 15 letter to parents, Superintendent of Schools Scott Brabrand explained that parents have the right to preview the survey and deny permission for your child to participate.

If a student is uncomfortable with any question on the survey, the student does not have to answer that question or may elect to discontinue the survey, Brabrand assured.

Students whose parents deny permission for them to complete the survey will be given an alternative assignment to work on while the other students complete the survey electronically at some time during school hours between Nov. 15 and Nov. 30.

While students in sixth grade will also participate in a Youth Survey, they will fill out a shorter questionnaire that does not include questions about sexual activity and sexual orientation.

In a statement, a Fairfax County spokesperson assured that the survey is voluntary and anonymous.

The current survey questions were selected from nationally recognized surveys that follow rigorous testing and validation procedures, the statement reads. The survey is an important tool to assess youth needs and strengths, develop programs, monitor trends, measure countywide outcomes and guide countywide planning of prevention efforts.

As 7News reports, Fairfax County is not the only school district in Virginia administering the survey as Prince William County Public Schools has also confirmed that it administers the survey. The Virginia Department of Health told the local news outlet that schools are randomly selected for participation.

A Fairfax County spokesperson said the survey has been administered annually since 2009 but was not administered in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Do Better FCPS stated in a tweet, Fairfax County has published the results of previous years survey by race to every single question.

The tweet was accompanied by a screenshot of a report illustrating the results of previous versions of the Youth Survey conducted from 2015 to 2019. The results were broken down by grade level, race and ethnicity and gender.

Concerned about the news @fcpsnews surveys kids about sexual behavior? Be even more concerned @fairfaxcounty publishes the results by race. To every single question. Re-upping our thread here ???? https://t.co/uoyNDg810n  Do Better FCPS (@DoBetterFCPS) November 9, 2021

The backlash surrounding the Youth Survey is not the first occasion that Fairfax County has received criticism from parents over prompts and material their children are exposed to in school. At a September school board meeting, an outraged parent read aloud and shared graphic images from material she likened to child pornography, which students have access to in the districts libraries.
YouVersion Bible app amasses over 500M installs on devices worldwide

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

The popular Bible mobile app YouVersion has amassed over 500 million installs after starting as one of only 200 free apps in the iOS App Store in 2008.

The milestone was announced on Wednesday in a verse of the day video from Craig Groeschel, the founding pastor of Life.Church, which created the app. He called the achievement a testimony to the goodness of God and the power of His word.

As of today, the YouVersion Bible app is now on one-half of a billion devices around the world, he said. To celebrate this moment, our verse of the day is Hebrews 4:12, which says, For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Bobby Gruenewald, the founder of the app, told The Christian Post in an interview Thursday that before the platform was created, he was below average in the duration and frequency he would read the Bible.

In the hopes of changing this, YouVersion was created as a website first, hoping that it would increase his desire and the desire of others to read the Bible more consistently and draw an audience of Bible readers.

But, he said the website failed at first. Despite drawing a lot of attention, there wasnt a continued interest in those who used the website.

Gruenewald said he and his team realized that the YouVersion website was unsuccessful because it was not a mobile-friendly platform. With the hope of potentially keeping a more expansive audience engaged, they launched the YouVersion app in July 2008 as the only Bible app available when the App Store first came into existence.

During the first weekend after the app was released, the app brought 83,000 installs, a number Gruenewald didnt think would be hit until after a year of being launched.

The entire ministry was about me getting to read the Bible more because I always wanted to read the Bible more, and I thought there were probably more people in my situation, Gruenewald stated. And, of course, we had no idea of what it would become. It started simple and as a small effort.

Its extremely humbling to have reached 500 million downloads. Just the fact that God could do something so big through us, Gruenewald added. Its important that people understand that this is something God did, not us. We cant take credit for this. God did this through me, and its so crazy that God would use me. And theres a lot more that God will do and can do in future.

When the YouVersion app first launched, the app was only available in two languages: English and Spanish.

Now, there are over 1,750 languages in which the Bible can be read within the app. Since 2010, the app has allowed users to participate in Bible plans on different faith-based topics as well as read devotionals and Scripture commentaries.

In 2017, the app began allowing users to select friends to be in community with through the platform.

The app also offers a guided-prayer function that gives users guidance and support as they connect with Gods word.

In 2020, the app launched the verse of the day, which allows users to view new interactive video content geared towards a different Scripture Verse daily.

Gruenewald said the most rewarding part of his involvement with the app is witnessing the many lives that have changed through the platform.

He said that his 10-year-old daughter recently downloaded the app and is working on a devotional plan with her friends.

He said the feature in the app called streak, which counts the days the app is used, has increased his usage in the past few years. He currently has an over 1,560-day streak.

The app changed how much I read the bible, which has impacted my family and how I lead them, the father of four children admitted to CP. I have heard numerous stories that have been reported about how the YouVersion app has helped people overcome severe depression, suicidal thoughts or saved their lives or restored their broken marriages and relationships.

God spoke to them through the app. Their eternity is changed, he added. And its not the app, its the Bible that is transformative.

Gruenewald said he has high hopes for the future of the app and would like to continue adding new content areas. He said what people have seen of YouVersion so far is simply the beginning of whats to come.

We have been in a process of expanding the features of the app to focus more on intimacy with God, Gruenewald said. The Bible is not the only pathway to intimacy with God, but there is also prayer, worship, generosity and community.

Over time, I have grown to think much more is possible, he continued. And when we started, I would have never thought this would be the outcome.
Thank God that it went well: Franklin Graham undergoes heart surgery at Mayo Clinic

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Noted evangelical leader the Rev. Franklin Graham underwent surgery on Monday at the Mayo Clinic for a heart problem and said the procedure was a success.

In a statement shared with The Christian Post, Samaritan's Purse said:

Franklin Graham successfully underwent a specialized heart surgery today at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In recent months, Franklin had developed constrictive pericarditis, inflammation, and hardening of the sac around the heart that compresses the heart and prevents it from working properly. The surgery involved removing the pericardium. His doctors expect a full recovery and assured him that he should be able to return to his normal activity and ministry schedule. Mr. Graham said that he is looking forward to multiple opportunities across the globe in 2022 to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invite people to put their faith in Him. He is also eager to resume riding his motorcycle by springtime. He and his family appreciate everyones prayers.

The 69-year-old president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritans Purse posted an update on his Facebook page Tuesday morning.

Graham explained that he had developed constrictive pericarditis, an inflammation and hardening of the sac around the heart, which involves compressing of the heart.

The surgery involved removing the pericardium, and we thank God that it went well, wrote Graham. The team here at Mayo Clinic does such an incredible job  I couldnt speak more highly of them.

Graham went on to note that doctors expect the evangelist to make a full recovery and will eventually be able to return to my normal ministry schedule.

I look forward to many opportunities around the world in 2022 to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invite people to put their faith and trust in Him, he added.

Im also looking forward to being able to ride my motorcycle by the time warm weather hits! I appreciate everyones prayers.

The son of the late Rev. Billy Graham has taken up his fathers mantle as a traveling preacher and evangelist.

From Sept. 19 to Oct. 2, Graham launched an eight-city evangelism campaign known as the God Loves You tour, which included approximately 56,000 attendees, among whom approximately 5,000 people indicated a decision to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Cities on the recently completed tour included: Flagstaff, Arizona; Joliet, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; Springfield, Missouri; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Amarillo, Texas; and San Bernardino, California.

Franklin shared the Good News at each stop, offering the hope of Jesus Christ during a time when many are struggling with the death of loved ones, loss of employment, or fear of what lies ahead, explained the tours website.

He invited those who dont know Christ to surrender their lives to Him and discover His lasting peace.

In addition to Graham speaking at the tour, there were also musical groups involved in the events, including the Newsboys and Marcos Witt.

"Times change, culture changes, but people's need for a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ, doesn't change," Graham said last month.

"With all the bad news around us day in and day out, people need hope. I want people along Route 66  and the rest of this nation  to know that God loves them."
Liberty University files restraining order against 'whistleblower' suing for wrongful firing

Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Liberty University is asking a federal court to stop a former employee from disclosing confidential information and documents amid a legal battle over claims that the evangelical Christian school wrongfully fired him for speaking out about how it handled sexual assault allegations.

Scott Lamb, formerly the schools senior vice president of communications, sued the Lynchburg-based university and claimed that he was dismissed because he expressed concern over how Liberty officials handled sexual assault claims.

Liberty filed a request for a temporary restraining order last Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia against Lamb, arguing that he is still bound to his confidentiality agreement with the university.

The motion also asks for Lamb to, among other things, deliver all documents or other information, including all privileged, confidential, and/or trade secret information to Liberty and to disclose all the people to whom he has sent such sensitive documents or information.

In a memorandum of law filed in support of the motion, a copy of which was emailed to The Christian Post on Monday, Liberty argued that Lamb promised not to disclose any confidential information without Liberty approval and to return all confidential Liberty information upon his departure when he signed a confidentiality agreement in 2018.

Although many of these materials were likely protected trade secrets, privileged communications or attorney work product protected information, Lamb has admitted that he disclosed them to the media, general public and commercial enemies of Liberty without privilege or prior permission as contractually required, the memorandum reads.

Perhaps most shockingly, Lamb has demonstrated no regard for the attorney-client privilege, freely discussing privileged advice regarding litigation strategy and other matters on national media.

Liberty filed a counterclaim to Lambs lawsuit, denying certain statements made in his filing last month. Liberty contends that Lamb was fired "for insubordination, expense mismanagement, and overall poor performance."

In a statement emailed to CP, the university said that while it made every possible effort to avoid taking this action, it believes that Lamb simply continues to make egregious, false claims and to violate the law.

We simply had to act to protect the institutions mission. We will let the lawsuit speak for itself. It speaks clearly and factually. We have absolutely no doubt that in court our claims will be irrefutable, Liberty maintained.

Lamb directed CP to a statement he posted to Twitter on Monday in which he explained that he tried to change Liberty from within regarding alleged abuses. He claimed that Liberty is lying about the reason for my termination.

Because Liberty University has neither the law nor the facts on its side, its strategy is to pound on the one who sought to reform from within  the whistleblower, tweeted Lamb.

As I allege in my lawsuit, I spoke about abuses at Liberty during my entire duration of employment. I spoke out loudly, often, and with little regard for hanging to my job, because I spoke as one who will give an account to God.

In his statement, Lamb said that he gave over 20 hours of testimony when the Baker Tilly firm interviewed him during an independent investigation in 2021.

Before my first minute of testimony, I was given a 2-page letter of whistleblower protection, signed by interim president Jerry Prevo, instructing me to speak honestly, forthrightly, thoroughly, and without any regard to the reputation of the school, its leadership, or its board. And Prevo promised that there would be no retaliation for my honest testimony, he wrote.

I indicted the former president, the Board of Trustees for negligence and Jerry Prevo as the chairman of the trustees during the entire presidency of Jerry Falwell Jr. Baker Tilly presented their report to Jerry Prevo and the Board of Trustees on September 29. Seven days later, Jerry Prevo fired me.

Lamb further added that he has enough documentary evidence to prove his claims in court and would be happy to give testimony under penalty of perjury to federal agencies or U.S. Congress.

Lamb added that while Liberty can hire every lawyer and PR firm in the land to attempt to silence me, this will not stop the truth from breaking out of Libertys conspiracy of silence.

God help me if I do anything else but speak up for the true heroes of this story  those who were silenced previously but now are shouting from the rooftops, he concluded.

Last month, ProPublica published an investigative piece titled, The Liberty Way: How Liberty University Discourages and Dismisses Students Reports of Sexual Assaults.

ProPublica interviewed former Liberty students who detailed experiences in which the university allegedly mishandled sexual assault allegations and claimed the school even threatened accusers.

The article mentioned how Lamb was allegedly fired for expressing concerns over how the university was handling the allegations of sexual misconduct.

Concerns about sexual assault would go up the chain and then die, Lamb told ProPublica, adding that he believed Liberty engaged in a conspiracy of silence regarding allegations.

In July, 12 unnamed women filed a class-action suit against Liberty, claiming the school violated Title IX federal discrimination law by failing to process allegations properly.

Liberty University has intentionally created a campus environment where sexual assaults and rapes are foreseeably more likely to occur than they would in the absence of Libertys policies, stated the lawsuit.

The suit claimed The Liberty Way, the schools honor code, was used to silence accusers by not clarifying if a woman who reports being sexually assaulted will be punished for violating the code if she admits to breaking other aspects of the code, such as the ban on drinking, when reporting an alleged assault.

Liberty President Jerry Prevo issued a statement declaring that The Liberty Way should never be misused to cover up wrongdoing.

It is also the case that as a Christian university we will remain unwavering in our commitment to cultivating a culture in our Liberty community that honors Gods Word and embraces Gods principles for life, stated Prevo.

While The Liberty Way must never be used to discourage victims from reporting wrongdoing, we also believe that we do not have to choose between embracing our code of conduct as a Christian university and in complying with our legal Title IX obligations.
Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

The road to obtaining a college degree is filled with many difficulties as it is, but statistics show that women suffer numerous added tolls. On average, college women experience higher levels of stress and anxiety than their male peers. One reason for these higher stress levels is the prevalence of sexual assault.



A study published by the Association of American Universities found that one in four female undergraduate students surveyed had experienced sexual assault during their college years and that fewer than 30% of women who had been assaulted sought assistance from their school or filed a report against their aggressor. To make matters worse, female students faced with unplanned pregnancies are often led to believe that their only options are to get an abortion or risk failing academically.

The pro-abortion group Advocates for Youth recently launched new posters for their Abortion Out Loud campaign that encourage pro-abortion students on college campuses to advertise information about where their peers can undergo an abortion in their local community. The posters have fill-in-the-blank boxes in which students can write the address of the closest abortion facility, how students can find transportation to get there, and whether student health insurance covers the cost of an abortion. The posters also openly refer to pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) as fake abortion clinics and caution students to avoid specific PRCs in their area.

This campaign, created in time for Advocates for Youths Week of Action from November 7-13, is intended to culminate in a National Health Center Call-In Day. On this day, students are encouraged to call their college health centers demanding access to abortion on campus.

For pro-abortion extremists, it is not enough that college-aged women can travel to an abortion facility  they want academic institutions themselves to offer abortion access. Meanwhile, they never mention also providing resources for women who do not want an abortion. It is clear that the so-called pro-choice movement believes abortion to be the only right choice for women in college.

Best Colleges, a website that primarily exists to offer information about college rankings, recently published an article advertising the perceived need for abortion for college-aged women. The article describes a 2019 study of women who were pregnant in college, with one group receiving abortions and the other group giving birth. Although Best Colleges admits that women in both groups stayed in school at similar rates, the article states, only 27% of the women denied an abortion earned a college degree, while 71% of those who received an abortion became college graduates.

The argument Best Colleges is making is that women are more academically successful when they undergo an abortion rather than give birth. What Best Colleges fails to realize, however, is that this academic disparity exists because of a lack of resources and support for female college students who desire to give birth to their child.

The abortion industry thrives on manipulating vulnerable women who are experiencing unplanned pregnancies into believing that their only real option is abortion. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 42% of abortions are carried out on women between the ages of 18 and 24. The many young women on college campuses that have been traumatized by sexual assault deserve better than having their bodies further abused through abortion.

In July, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced the Protecting Life on College Campus Act in coordination with Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.). This legislation, which seeks to protect women on college campuses from undergoing dangerous do-it-yourself chemical abortions, generated helpful discourse on the best ways legislators could support women who become pregnant while in college.

According to Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, Students who find themselves pregnant should be lovingly embraced by their campus communities. Our schools and legislators should invest in creating resources, programs and support for pregnant women, enabling them to achieve their academic and career goals.

Abortion on college campuses is a band-aid solution to the deeper issue of irresponsible sexual activity or the tragedy of sexual assault. Rather than coercing young women to bury their trauma and abort a child, colleges ought to provide counseling services and extra support for pregnant students so that they can achieve their dreams without subjecting themselves and their children to abortion.

Originally published at the Family Research Council.
Cars, dogs and cheering up the universe: the Futurist visions of Giacomo Balla

The Italian artists career, currently being celebrated in Rome on the 150th anniversary of his birth, was impelled by Divisionism, Futurism and socialism  but perhaps above all, by movement

Born in Turin in 1871, Giacomo Balla lost his father, an industrial chemist, at the age of nine. The familys financial position soon became precarious, and young Giacomo was obliged to take up work in a lithography workshop. He would go on to study at Turins Accademia Albertina before moving to Rome in the mid-1890s, where he made his living as a caricaturist and portrait painter. In 1900, he travelled to Paris to see the Exposition Universelle. Fascinated and confused in equal measure by that metropolis, he ended up staying for the best part of a year. It was there, fatefully, that he saw the chronophotographic experiments of the French scientist Etienne-Jules Marey. These recorded successive, instantaneous stages of movement on a single photographic plate.

From Divisionism to socialism In the early years of the 20th century, Balla fell under the spell of Divisionism. This was a radical Italian movement, so called because of its artists use of divided (that is, individual) strokes of unmixed colour. The thinking was that these strokes would fuse optically at a certain distance, thus resulting in maximum luminosity. Balla was part of a second generation of Divisionists  and much influenced by the likes of Angelo Morbelli and Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo from the first. What set him apart from most other members of the group was a concern for humanitarian issues. The unification of Italy in the mid-19th century had accelerated an industrial and technological advance, which gave rise to numerous social tensions. It was in this context that Balla produced works such as Il contadino (a portrait of a struggling farm worker, today found in Romes National Academy of Saint Luke). At this time, he also designed covers for the weekly socialist newspaper Avanti della Domenica.

Futurism with Severini and Boccioni In 1909 the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published the Futurist Manifesto, in which he exalted machines  and rejected anything that couldnt be mechanised as irrelevant in the new century. A roaring motor car is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace, he wrote, in denigration of the famous Greek sculpture. Balla was enthused, to say the least, and his studio soon became a meeting point for Futurist artists, including his former students Gino Severini and Umberto Boccioni.

Essentially, Futurism was about capturing in art the dynamism and energy of the modern world. A celebrated early example by Balla in this vein was Street Light (today part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York), in which he depicted one of Romes first electric street lights. Balla now left the delicate mark-making of Divisionism behind, in this case replacing it with bold, spiky chevrons of illumination. In 1912, he produced his most famous work  indeed, one of the most famous works of all Futurism: Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash. It portrays, in close-up, a dachshund being walked by its female owner. Balla got around the age-old problem of conveying bodily movement in a static image by presenting the pets legs, the womans feet and the leash as a flurry of blurry overlays.

The debt owed to Mareys chronophotography in works such as this is clear. Boccioni declared himself flabbergasted at how, in just two or three years, his former teacher had managed to effect a complete transformation of his art. In 1913, Balla decided to sell off all his pre-Futurist paintings at an antique dealership in Rome, stretching a large banner outside, which read: Balla is dead. Here are sold the works of the late Balla.

Motor cars and Abstract Velocity Admittedly, the subject of a dog on a leash didnt quite match Marinettis demands for the mechanical, but Balla had a lyrical sensibility that frequently came out in his art. He once said that the best way of reconstructing the universe [would be] by cheering it up.

Before long, however, Balla was capturing more characteristically Futurist fare, in the form of images of motor cars. He used to have a spot on corner of the Via Veneto, where he would sit day after day and study the vehicles passing by. In 1913-14, he produced a stunning set of works known as Abstract Velocity, in which his kinetic examinations of old were supplanted by a move towards almost complete abstraction. In works such as Abstract Speed + Sound (today found in the Guggenheim Museum in New York), Ballas focus shifted from the moving object to the essence of movement itself.

It wasnt cars that Balla was now depicting, so much as the dynamic sensation of speed  through freely cavorting lines, arcs and planes.

Balla the designer and creator of Casa Balla Two paintings sold at Christies reveal what a master abstractionist Balla became: 1914s Compenetrazione iridescente  Eucalyptus and 1923s Espansionauree di pessimismo ottimismo. (The latter captured an imagined battle between the dark, jagged vectors of Pessimism and the luminous, blue, swirling forms of Optimism.)

Futurism was more than just an art movement, however. It aimed at revolutionising all of society. Balla kept this firmly in mind, with various Futurist endeavours beyond the visual arts. He designed clothing, from swimwear to footwear, as well as ceramics, toys, tapestries, whole suites of furniture, and interiors for a number of buildings, including nightclubs and shops.

Theres perhaps a mistaken view that Balla is somehow a figure of the Italian avant-garde rather than the international one  specialist Renato Pennisi

He even opened up his apartment to members of the public on Sunday afternoons. He regarded Casa Balla, filled as it was with his own kaleidoscopic creations, as an artwork in its own right. To mark the 150th anniversary of the artists birth, the apartment has temporarily reopened to the public, after a two-year restoration under the direction of Romes Maxxi Museum.

The market for Balla During the 1930s, Balla gradually dissociated himself from Futurism, returning to a more traditional form of representation that he would pursue for the rest of his life. In 1955, he was invited to participate in the first edition of the now prestigious contemporary art festival, Documenta (held every five years in the German city of Kassel). Balla died in 1958, aged 86. When it comes to the market for his work today, Renato Pennisi, director of Modern and Contemporary Art at Christies Italy, says that its still quite conservative, with good margin for growth. The aforementioned Compenetrazione iridescente  Eucalyptus is one of no more than a dozen Ballas to have surpassed $1 million at auction. Pennisi adds, When you consider that his abstractions overlapped in time with Kandinskys, and that he was a pioneer of a movement as important as Futurism, hes probably underestimated in the market.

Sign up today Christies Online Magazine delivers our best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe
On July 25, Jeremy McAnulty, the director of health protection for the Australian state of New South Wales, turned himself into a meme. While presenting the state's daily covid-19 hospitalization numbers, McAnulty said 141 people were in the hospital with covid, 43 of those in intensive care. He provided an age breakdown of the hospitalized and of those in the ICU. And then he said something utterly unexpected: "All but one are vaccinated."

This was, to anyone who knew anything about the coronavirus and the vaccines, not just improbable but effectively impossible. The simplest, most obvious explanation was that McAnulty had misspoken, saying "vaccinated" when he meant "unvaccinated." And this was exactly what had happened. When he took questions a short while later, a reporter asked about his statement, and he said: "I think I misspoke before. Of the 43 people in intensive care units, 42 have not been vaccinated."

But it was too late. Anti-vaxxers around the world flooded Facebook and Twitter with clips of McAnulty's misstatement. The right-wing "news" site Gateway Pundit picked up and amplified the false information. These posts and tweets of course omitted the fact that McAnulty had quickly corrected himself, with some adding a lie by claiming that McAnulty had been speaking not just of ICU patients in New South Wales but of all the covid hospitalizations there. They trumpeted what he had said as evidence that the vaccines were "literally useless" at best and downright harmful at worst.

The speed and efficiency with which McAnulty's misstatement traveled testify to the way anti-vaxxers and vaccine skeptics use social media to disseminate the message that the vaccines are unnecessary, ineffective and dangerous. But they also demonstrate how the successful spread of that message depends on an unfortunate fact: An awful lot of people just don't do math. The message lands easily because of the general innumeracy - and specifically the ignorance of statistics - of the people consuming it. It takes only an elementary grasp of math to see that McAnulty's initial statement was self-evidently unbelievable. At the time, most of New South Wales's population was unvaccinated. So even if the vaccines were totally ineffective, meaning vaccinated and unvaccinated people were equally likely to be hospitalized, some unvaccinated people would have ended up in the hospital with covid. But tens of thousands of people happily believed otherwise without a second thought.

What's often called motivated reasoning is at least partly to blame - people believed something that was mathematically nonsensical because they wanted to believe it. But too many people couldn't recognize it as mathematically nonsensical. Americans are generally bad at math. A 2012 global study of the math skills of 16-to-65-year-olds found that American adults were less numerate than adults in most other developed countries. On a scale ranking skills from Level 1 to Level 5, with Level 5 the highest, 60% of Americans were at Level 2 or below, and almost 30% were at Level 1, which meant they struggled with even two-step calculations. That's a serious problem when it comes to evaluating vaccine effectiveness, since doing so requires multiple steps: looking at what percentage of total covid hospitalizations or deaths are among the vaccinated, looking at what percentage of the population is vaccinated, and then adjusting for that and for age to calculate how much more likely an unvaccinated person is to be hospitalized or die.

Lots of people, of course, never get that far. They make simpler mistakes: thinking that if 30% of people testing positive are vaccinated, that means 30% of vaccinated people tested positive, or believing that if a vaccine is 95% effective against hospitalization, that means 5% of vaccinated people will end up in the hospital. And it isn't just random people on Twitter who make these errors. CNN, in an article on how to fly safely, infamously suggested that a 90% effective vaccine would still mean that 10% of vaccinated fliers might catch the coronavirus. (What it really means is that a vaccinated person's risk of being infected on the plane would be 90% lower than an unvaccinated person's risk.)

Innumeracy, as the CNN example suggests, is not the province of any one group. And both sides in the information war over vaccines have used dubious statistics. But since the numbers show that vaccination offers excellent protection against hospitalization and death, covid skeptics and anti-vaxxers have become adept at exploiting people's innumeracy to instill doubts.

Some of these tricks are straightforward. When Vermont, which has the highest vaccination rate of any state, saw coronavirus cases rise from a very low base in late summer to a few hundred a day, and saw hospitalizations climb into the double digits,vaccine skeptics didn't say that Vermont still had some of the nation's lowest case and hospitalization rates, or that its absolute numbers were still very small. Instead, they said Vermont's cases were up "10,000%." Saying "Vermont has 300 cases a day" wouldn't have had quite the same effect, especially given that states like Florida were recording five times as many cases at the time. They also failed to mention that unvaccinated people in Vermont were far more likely to test positive for the coronavirus and to be hospitalized for it. The mere fact that Vermont's cases were up was taken as evidence that the vaccines don't work.

Similarly, when vaccine skeptics focus on countries that have had (or have) high case rates despite also having high vaccination rates, like Israel and Britain, and compare them unfavorably with the United States, they never mention that these other countries test far more than the United States does. That means that those countries identify many more infections than the United States does, and that their larger per capita caseloads are largely an artifact of testing. This summer, for instance, Southern states with low rates of vaccination had much higher positive test rates than Israel did, suggesting that their coronavirus infection rate was much higher as well. But because they were testing so much less, the states' case counts looked better. And so the most common social media refrain from vaccine skeptics in July and August was "What about Israel?," not "What about Tennessee and Mississippi?"

The most important place where innumeracy has helped foster vaccine skepticism is in the debate over vaccine effectiveness against severe illness and death. Vaccinated people can, and do, get severely ill and die of covid. So skeptics regularly point to the absolute number of deaths from breakthrough cases, or the share of total covid deaths accounted for by vaccinated people, as proof that the vaccines are failing.

The problems with this "analysis" are straightforward. First, if you're trying to determine the effectiveness of vaccines, you need to know more than the percentage of hospitalizations and deaths that vaccinated people account for. You also need to factor in the percentage of people who have been vaccinated, and adjust accordingly to determine the mortality and hospitalization rates for vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

Second, to get a true picture of vaccine effectiveness, you also have to adjust for age. There are two basic facts about covid and vaccines: Since the pandemic began, seniors have accounted for most covid deaths and severe illness; and seniors are the most vaccinated group, while most unvaccinated people are young. As a result, naive comparisons of the covid mortality and hospitalization rates for vaccinated and unvaccinated people understate vaccine effectiveness, since so many unvaccinated people are young and therefore less likely to be hospitalized with covid or to die of it.

To correctly measure vaccine effectiveness, then, you need to compare the mortality and hospitalization rates for vaccinated and unvaccinated people of the same age. And when you do this, it becomes clear how risky being unvaccinated is. In Oklahoma, for instance, the state says around 17% of seniors are not fully vaccinated. But those 17% account for 70% of all senior hospitalizations in the state over the past month. That means unvaccinated seniors in Oklahoma are 11 times more likely to be hospitalized for covid than vaccinated seniors are.

The math behind that "11 times" number isn't complicated. But it isn't obvious, either, and it does take a willingness to do it yourself, which lots of people understandably can't or don't want to do. As a result, simply presenting big numbers without context - a 10,000% increase; 3o% of hospitalizations - ends up being an effective technique for making vaccines look bad. And while there are lots of people on social media debunking fake stats and providing more rigorous statistical analysis, if you don't trust them, there's no reason you'll trust their math.

Public health authorities have often made this situation worse by the way they collect (or don't collect) data and present it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's state vaccination numbers, for instance, sometimes conflict with the numbers provided by state departments of health, and it's not clear why.While some states - among them Oklahoma and Connecticut - do a good job of presenting data on cases, severe illness and death among the vaccinated and unvaccinated, plenty of other states do much less. Go to Florida's covid-19 website, and you will search in vain for the daily numbers of reported cases and tests. And the state offers no data at all on hospitalizations and deaths by vaccination status.

Public health officials have also hurt their credibility by oscillating between making statistically dubious claims about vaccine effectiveness - Anthony Fauci's saying that coronavirus surges like the ones we saw last year were unlikely once the vaccination rate reached 50% in a community, for example - and making scary, dubious claims about the risks of the delta variant to the vaccinated. There is no quick fix for innumeracy. But public health officials can help mitigate the problem by being rigorous in their messaging and careful to present data in a clear, comparative way. (Connecticut's weekly covid reports, for instance, show not just the absolute numbers but also the relative risk of infection and hospitalization for unvaccinated people in an easy-to-understand format.) If they don't, their mistakes will be weaponized by anti-vaxxers to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt.

- - -

James Surowiecki is the author of "The Wisdom of Crowds" and a business columnist for Marker by Medium.
The Lone Star State has 511 ghost towns  the most of any U.S. state, according to GeoTab, a GPS hardware company which has researched more than 3,800 ghost towns across America. Wilson County contains the most, with 31, while there are 25 ghost towns within 25 miles of New Braunfels, according to GeoTab's map.

Ghost towns were once thriving communities that have dwindled over the decades, according to the website. Some vanished entirely or were absorbed into newer settlements, but many of these towns still stand, at least in part, allowing us glimpses of what these now-abandoned places once were.

Ghost towns are primarily associated with the Wild West frontier and people flocking to areas with valuable mineral resources, including gold and silver in the Rockies and oil in Texas, GeoTab reports. That means most such towns date from the 1880 to 1940 period.

Texas and California top the list thanks to mining and oil towns. Other top states include those in the Great Plains, such as Kansas, Oklahoma and the Dakotas. They have the ruins of farming communities destroyed by the Dust Bowl and economic downturns of the 1930s.

Courtesy of The Villa de la Mina

Maria Schmidt, who operates Mysterious Adventures Tours, says those visiting ghost towns should keep in mind that its a historical location, so they should always take precautions relating to the integrity of the physical structure, history and, per Schmidt, its potential supernatural exchange.

The cardinal rule is to be smart, safe and a good citizen when visiting ghost towns, especially those that are abandoned. If able and available, ask permission to enter and respect Private Property or Do not enter signs, she says. The best bet is to choose Open to the Public locations that may even offer historical tours.You will be contributing to historic preservation efforts needed by the ghost town.

In addition, she said its important to familiarize yourself with potential dangers or risks in ghost town explorations, such as unstable structures, condemned conditions, or even harmful air quality.

Avoid venturing on your own. Having a friend with you will allow you to share the experience at that moment and will serve as a resource for assistance. Dress smart and bring the right tools and equipment with you. Good walking shoes and plenty of flashlights will smartly serve you.

According to the Texas Historical Commission, these are a few ghost towns worth checking out in the state:

Terlingua, Brewster Co.

Big Bend National Park

Tucked in the lowland desert between the national and state parks lie the small communities of Study Butte, Terlingua and Lajitas. The remains of the Big Bend Quicksilver Mine can be found at the base of Study Butte, which serves as the western entrance to the national park. A smattering of motels, restaurants, shops and outfitters occupy the streets where miners once struggled to survive on meager wages. The name Terlingua has been applied to three different settlements in this area, with the current version founded after the discovery of quicksilver in the late 1800s. In 1906, wealthy businessman Howard Perry built a mansion overlooking the town. The Chisos Mining Company provided employment for hundreds of workers, many of whom lived in the simple, stacked-rock structures that still stand. Quicksilver mining peaked by the end of World War I. Many of the original mining buildings are filled with saloons, eateries, and small shops today, and a number of the tiny rock structures have been restored to serve as residences for Big Bends desert dwellers. The Perry Mansion underwent a restoration in 2014, and guest rooms are available in the historic old building.

Thurber, Erath/Palo Pinto Co.

In the early 20th century, a prosperous coal and brick operation made Thurber a thriving city between Fort Worth and El Paso. Owned by the Texas and Pacific Coal Company, the booming company town became Americas first totally unionized community. In 1917, the companys entrepreneurial executive, W.K. Gordon, struck oil in nearby Ranger, setting the stage for the West Texas oil boom. Ironically, steam locomotives began burning oil instead of locally mined bituminous coal. The company continued operation of the brick plant, but by the late 1930s, Thurber was a ghost town. The W.K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas, a component of Tarleton State University, uses lively interactive exhibits to trace Thurbers boom-to-bust story. The museum and research center also highlights the broader industrial past of Texas and the Southwest.

Mobeetie, Wheeler Co.

In 1875, a trading post and buffalo hunter camp sprang up near Fort Elliott, one of Texas last frontier forts. The fort was served by African American troops called Buffalo Soldiers, among them West Points first black graduate, Henry O. Flipper. The settlement grew into Mobeetie, one of the Panhandles earliest towns and the original Wheeler County seat. Mobeeties colorful history is retold at the Old Mobeetie Jail Museum. The flagpole from the forts original parade grounds stands out front, while half a mile away, a granite historical marker pinpoints the original site of Fort Elliott. A visitor center, housed in a 1923 school, chronicles the Red River War and displays paintings by Texas artist Kenneth Wyatt. Visit the nearby town of Wheeler to see the Wheeler Historical Museum and restored Wheeler County Courthouse.
Click here to read the full article.

Attorneys Ben Crump and Alex Hilliard have filed lawsuits on behalf of over 200 victims from the Astroworld tragedy, the two attorneys told reporters outside of Harris County Civil Courthouse on Friday. The duo have filed 93 lawsuits, including one on Friday on behalf of 90 plaintiffs.

Among those Crump is representing is the family of nine-year-old Ezra Blount, who remains in critical condition after falling off his fathers shoulders and getting trampled during the crowd rush. Crump said Blounts family didnt have a further update on Ezras health beyond asking for prayers.

Nine people have died so far following the festival, the most recent being 22-year-old Bharti Shahani, whose family confirmed her death Thursday after Shahani spent several days on a ventilator at Houston Methodist Hospital.

There are 20 different defendants across the lawsuits, Crump said, including Travis Scott and concert promotion giant Live Nation, who were both named in the new suit. During the Friday conference, Crump most directly pointed toward Live Nation, who he said needs particular focus given their place as the largest body in the concert space.

This lawsuit isnt just about seeing justice for [the victims]. Its about making sure that Live Nation and all of the organizers, promoters, and anybody else who had anything to do with the failure here know that you cannot allow this to ever happen in the future, even if you have to immediately stop the concert, Crump said. We dont want it to get lost that Live Nation is the largest concert promoter in the world. They do these every day. If Travis Scott is accountable, he absolutely should be held accountable. If we want the change to make sure people are going to be safe, we have to talk to the industry leader, thats the only way you get change, that we save lives.

We continue to support and assist local authorities in their ongoing investigation so that both the fans who attended and their families can get the answers they want and deserve, and we will address all legal matters at the appropriate time, Live Nation said in a statement.

Scott and his team released a statement Thursday encouraging victims families to reach out directly to him.

Over the last week, Travis Scott and his team have been actively exploring routes of connection with each and every family affected by the tragedy through the appropriate liaisons, the statement said. He is distraught by the situation and desperately wishes to share his condolences and provide aid to them as soon as possible, but wants to remain respectful of each familys wishes on how theyd best like to be connected. To those families who would like to reach out directly to his team, please send an email to the below address where we will have a team on hand to assist. AW21information@gmail.com.

Hilliard similarly focused on organizers, noting that issues began well before the concert started over a lack of planning and compounded with understaffed medical experts. He described the event as 45 minutes of torture. Hilliard said that through their own inspection of NRG Park following the incident, the lawyers own team determined the concert shouldve never been approved.

There was no plan in place for this to happen. They are legally required as the organizers, the risk directors, the security personnel to protect over 50,000 people and they didnt have a plan, Hilliard said. The medical staff was egregiously short staffed. They didnt have enough personnel, they did not have enough stretchers, they did not have enough defibrillators to try to resuscitate all the people whose hearts werent beating.

Accompanying Crump and Hilliard at the conference were several plaintiffs in the suit who said they suffered physical injuries and/or psychological damages since attending Astroworld.

34-year-old Houston resident Uniqua Smith, who was near the front lefthand of the stage  where several of those who died were  recalled a woman behind her suffering a seizure as the crowd rushed toward the stage as Travis Scotts set began.

The Astroworld music festival was by far the most traumatizing experience of my life, she said, adding that she didnt know anyone had died until the next morning. I remember being crushed from every side from human bodies all around me. I was not able to stand on my own. By the third or fourth song, I remember trying to make my way out of the crowd and tapped a woman to ask her to move out of my way; you could tell she was having trouble breathing on her own. The woman began to have a seizure. Her best friend started screaming out, Oh my god shes having a seizure, please someone get a medic.'

The woman, Smith said, fell to the ground by Smiths feet, and Smith tried to avoid falling on top of her. Smith eventually got out and fainted as soon as she was away from the crowd.

Theres discussions in person and online about what people in the crowd should have done, saying if you were in the crowd and you know that people dying around you, why didnt you help,' Smith said. Im not a licensed medical professional. The only thing I could think about was me not falling on top of this woman and not crushing her to death. Im not trained for how to respond to a crisis like that.

25-year-old Reyna Iraheta described a hectic environment from the moment she entered the festival grounds. People fought by the merchandise lines, water was scarce and authorities didnt stop the chaos.

31-year-old Dishon Isaac said he saw Danish Baig  who died at the festival trying to help his fiancee  in the crowd as Isaac tried to get away from the chaos.

When Travis came out, I realized I had to get out of there or Id get crushed to death, Isaac said. He eventually made his way to a fence on the side of the crowd where several people had fallen down. Those on the ground were trying to use him to prop themselves back up.

I remember thinking if I fall, its over for me, he said. He eventually made it out of the crowd, where he sat down in a daze for a few minutes on the sidewalk and eventually walking home. Ill never forget the look of terror on peoples faces. Thats the thing that will stick with me the most.

59-year-old Gertrude Daughtry said she hurt her back and ankle at the concert after she herself was knocked down in the crowd. I literally thought I was going to die, she said with tears in her eyes. It was a nightmare I couldnt forget. I cant sleep at night. Every time I close my eyes I see it.
Click here to read the full article.

Welcome to the state of affairs in 2021s MAGAfied GOP, where House Republicans who voted for a bipartisan infrastructure bill find themselves on the receiving end of death threats.

Its amazing people want to kill me over paving roads and clean water, Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) recently told Buzzfeed News.

The congressman is one of 13 House Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill. And for that, he has been receiving increasingly unhinged messages, including from one man who has been arrested for threatening Garbarinos life. Kenneth Gasper was arrested by Nassau Police and has been charged with aggravated harassment, Buzzfeed reported on Thursday. Garbarinos spokesperson told Buzzfeed that the congressman has received one specific death threat and numerous other instances of harassment both over the phone and in person at our offices.

How did we get here? How did people come to decide that supporting funding for smooth roads, timely trains, and non-collapsing bridges was tantamount to treason and punishable by death?

Well, it turns out that when you keep telling people that Democrats are allied with domestic terrorists in a bid to turn America into an anti-white socialist dystopia, at some point theyre going to take you seriously.

Speaking about the GOP members who voted for the bill, former President Trump said they are not real Republicans and should be ashamed of themselves. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted on Twitter the phone numbers for the 13 members of Congress who voted to support the infrastructure package. These are the 13 Republicans who handed over their voting cards to Nancy Pelosi to pass Joe Bidens Communist takeover of America via so-called infrastructure, she wrote.

Garbarino is not the only one receiving threats for supporting the bipartisan bill. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) released audio of a voicemail threatening his life as well as his family and staff this week. I hope your fucking family dies. I hope everybody in your fucking staff dies, you fucking piece of fucking shit. Traitor! an anonymous caller said in the message to Upton.

We have seen civility really downslide here, Upton said on CNN. He told The Detroit News that he received more than 1,000 calls within four days of the vote, including multiple nasty death threats. More than 90 percent of those calls, he said, came from outside his district.

One Republican member was so sick of the harassing calls that their office rerouted all of their incoming calls to Greenes office, Politicos Olivia Beavers reported. She can answer the phones, a GOP source told Beavers.

These threats are part of a larger trend of rising death threats against elected officials. chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, J. Thomas Manger, told the Associated Press in September that his department estimates authorities will respond to nearly 9,000 threats against members of Congress this year.

Garbarino told Buzzfeed that he hopes they will stop fanning the flames.

I dont think my colleagues want to get me killed, but they should stop with the rhetoric, he said.
Sam Owens /Staff photographer

The San Antonio International Airport has proposed a $2.5 billion plan to reimagine the San Antonio International Airport (SAIA). The plan in question describes a new terminal, more gates, parking, and rejuvenated infrastructure anticipating expanded international flights.

"SAT's strategic development plan envisions a modern airport with a strong sense of place that firmly lands San Antonio a world class airport," says a statement in a video released by the airport.
ARDMORE, Okla. (AP)  Two former Oklahoma police officers face up to 10 years in prison after being convicted of murder for using their stun guns more than 50 times on an unarmed man who later died.

A Carter County jury last week convicted former Wilson police officers Brandon Dingman, 35, and Joshua Taylor, 27, of second-degree murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. They each face up to 10 years in prison when theyre formally sentenced next month.

Taylor's attorney, Warren Gotcher, said he was extremely disappointed" with the verdict.

We obviously hope an appeal will correct this injustice," Gotcher said.

Dingman's attorney didnt immediately respond Friday to messages seeking comment.

Court documents said on July 4, 2019, the two officers used their stun guns on 28-year-old Jared Lakey more than 50 times, which was a substantial factor in Lakeys death. Lakey died two days later.

Taylor and Dingman had come into contact with Lakey after responding to a call that he was acting in a disorderly way, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which investigated Lakey's death. The agency said that when Lakey wouldnt comply with the officers commands, they used their stun guns.

A deputy with the Carter County sheriffs office eventually responded to the scene and helped get Lakey into custody. OSBI said that shortly after that, Lakey stopped breathing and became unresponsive. He was taken to the hospital.

An attorney for Lakey's family, J. Spencer Bryan, said the family was pleased with the jury's verdict.

The Lakey family is grateful to the jury and the district attorney for the convictions, but the risk to the public remains because these officers didnt violate their policy or training," Bryan said in a statement. The Wilson police chief testified that Jareds torture was consistent with policy, which is how Wilson has decided to police the community."

A telephone message left Friday for Wilson Police Chief Kevin Coley wasn't immediately returned.

Lakey's family has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Wilson, the two officers, the Carter County Sheriff's Office and one of its deputies and the City of Lone Grove and one of its police officers who responded to the call, Bryan said.

Wilson is located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  Two men imprisoned for nearly 30 years for a murder they said they did not commit have been freed following plea deals with the state of North Carolina.

Brandon Jones, 49, and Leroy Spruill, 63, had to drop their long-running innocence claims as part of the deal, but the state agreed DNA evidence tested years after their convictions, while not conclusive, could have had a direct and material bearing on their case, WRAL reported Friday.

Jones and Spruill entered Alford pleas in the case and were sentenced to time served. An Alford plea allows someone to maintain their innocence while acknowledging there is enough evidence for a conviction.

A Superior Court judge vacated the convictions Monday and followed on Wednesday with a written court order. The men were released Tuesday afternoon.

The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission reviewed the two cases over nine years. In October 2018, the commission unanimously decided there was enough evidence for a panel of judges to review the case. The hearings were delayed, in part because authorities could not find a witness whose story shifted several times but was key to the convictions.

Jones and Spruill were convicted in the 1995 murder of Frank Swain, who was beaten, stabbed and had his throat cut in what appeared to be a robbery. They maintained they were together at a bar that night and never wavered, despite plea deals promising much less prison time if either flipped on the other.

A tire iron found at the scene did not have any fingerprints on it, according to court records. It had DNA from three people, but none from the accused, records show. These and other inconsistencies convinced observers the two men did not commit the slaying.

Willie Williams, an investigator in the initial murder case and now police chief in Plymouth, declined to comment Wednesday. Washington County District Attorney Seth Edwards also declined to comment because he had been Spruills defense counsel. Edwards also testified on Spruills behalf in Innocence Inquiry proceedings.

By dropping their innocence claims, Jones and Spruill forgo the possibility of a pardon and the $750,000 payment theyd each be eligible for if proven innocent. Chris Mumma, executive director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, said the issue could be reopened, though, if new evidence is found. The Center on Actual Innocence would provide the men with some financial support and raise money online to help them restart their lives, she said.

Spruill said he plans to return to his native Washington County, where he was convicted. Jones will head to Tennessee, where he has family.

I cant say it strongly enough or often enough, but these two men are absolutely innocent, Mumma said. Had nothing to do with the murder of Frank Swain.
Nov. 5-11, 2021

This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published by Associated Press photographers in Asia and Pacific.
HELENA, Mont. (AP)  Part of a Montana election law that states how many signatures minor parties must gather for their candidates to appear on ballots is unconstitutional, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.

The Montana Green Party in 2018 challenged the rules that require minor parties to gather signatures equal to at least 5% of the total votes cast for the winner in the most recent gubernatorial election in at least 34 of 100 state House districts.

Signature requirements are capped at 150 per House district and parties need a minimum of 5,000 total signatures.

The number and distribution of signatures are in place to require the party to make a showing of a significant modicum of support and to show more than localized support, state law says.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled in March 2020 that the ballot access law did not create an undue burden for minor parties and did not violate the right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit ruled Monday, however, that setting signature requirements based on the number of people in each House district who voted for the winning governor leads to petition signatures being valued differently in districts with similar populations.

Because the distribution requirement is tied to the votes cast in each house district for the winner of the gubernatorial race, the required number depends on the political orientation of a district, and varies substantially from one district to another, the panel wrote.

For the 2018 election, there were 21 House districts in which a minor party would have had to gather between 55 and 99 signatures, another 53 districts required between 100 and 140 signatures, and 26 required the maximum of 150 signatures, court records said.

The state has provided no reason, much less a compelling reason, for requiring far more signatures in some equal-population districts than in others," Judge William Fletcher wrote. "Nor has the state explained why the number of signatures required should be indexed to votes for the last successful gubernatorial candidate, a rule that arbitrarily devalues the signatures of voters in house districts that most strongly supported the current governor.

The case is being sent back to Judge Morris to determine the relief to which the Montana Green Party is entitled, Montana Green Party attorney Quentin Rhoades said Friday. He said he also plans to request attorney fees from the state.

An email to a spokesperson for Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen seeking comment was not immediately returned Friday.

The Montana Legislature could not change the law until it is scheduled to meet again in 2023. The judges said neither the state nor the plaintiffs addressed whether the now-invalid distribution requirement can be severed from the rest of the primary ballot access law.
NEW HAVEN  Avelo Airlines began its service from Tweed New Haven Regional Airport to a fourth Florida destination Thursday with a 2:30 p.m. departure to Fort Myers.

The addition of Fort Myers service follows Avelos inaugural New Haven flights to Orlando on Nov. 3, Fort Lauderdale on Friday and Tampa on Monday. Routes to Fort Myers Southwest Florida International Airport began Thursday, with service to Palm Beach and Sarasota-Bradenton to follow on Dec. 16 and Jan. 13, respectively.

Tickets for all routes are on sale at www.aveloair.com, with introductory one-way fares starting at $49.

As we continue our East Coast service expansion, we are excited to take flight today for Fort Myers  Avelos fourth popular sun-soaked Florida destination, said Avelo Chairman and CEO Andrew Levy in a release. With our very low introductory fares and the amazing convenience of HVN, getting to Southwest Florida is easier and more affordable than ever.

The Fort Myers service, on Boeing Next Generation 737-700 aircraft, operates Thursdays and Sundays. The flight will depart Tweed at 2:30 p.m. and arrive in Fort Myers at 5:50 p.m. The northbound flight will depart Fort Myers at 6:30 p.m. and arrive in New Haven at 9:25 p.m.

Todays first departure destined for Fort Myers is yet another exciting milestone in our rapidly-growing partnership with Avelo here at HVN, said Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority Executive Director Sean Scanlon. The energy here at the airport and in the community in the last few days has been incredible as we kick off a new and more vibrant era at HVN, he said.

We are very pleased to welcome Avelo Airlines to Southwest Florida International Airport today, said Ben Siegel, executive director of the Lee County Port Authority. It is exciting to have a new air carrier at RSW and our first nonstop service to New Haven, Conn.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne said Friday she plans to seek reelection in the 3rd Congressional District, ending speculation that she might challenge Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds next November.

Axne, Iowas only Democrat in Congress, said she went to Washington to fight for Iowans and their needs and that she has delivered tax cuts, disaster relief and critical support to Iowa's families and businesses, but my work is far from over.
David Zalubowski/AP

DENVER (AP)  Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who sidestepped federal guidelines this week by allowing all adults age 18 and older to get COVID-19 booster vaccines, insisted Friday that boosters are key to stemming an ongoing spike in cases  and strongly suggested his administrations efforts to convince the unvaccinated to get shots have reached their limit.

Polis said his Thursday executive order on booster shots is essential to relieve pressure on hospitals overwhelmed by patients sick with the contagious coronavirus delta variant. He insisted Colorado has enough vaccines for everyone needing a booster shot.
ST. HELENA ISLAND, S.C. (AP)  Ricky Wright points to the bank of a creek to show one way his hometown has been affected by climate change. Many banks have eroded or collapsed, and now some favorite fishing spots that were once on solid ground are reachable only by boat.

Wright is part of the Gullah Geechee, a group of Black Americans who descended from slaves and live off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The community that has endured for centuries is now imperiled by a combination of rising seas devouring their land, higher temperatures changing how they farm and fish, and destructive storms threatening their way of life.

I would say (its) depressing to lose places like that, especially if you grew up there," said the 65-year-old fisherman, who noted other changes, like the great white shark migrating to waters off St. Helena Island. Its scary.

The risks to the Gullah Geechee and other communities have intensified enough to raise a startling question: Should some populated places simply be abandoned to nature? One strategy gaining traction is so-called managed retreat, which is the planned relocation of vulnerable people.

This is a huge issue. By my reckoning, there will be 30 million people who are displaced by midcentury, and there will be mass migrations in the United States," said Stephen F. Eisenman, director of strategy for the Anthropocene Alliance, a climate and environmental justice group. The biggest question is whether the retreats are planned and methodical or unplanned and chaotic.

The issue also raises concerns about economic fairness in this landscape that is home to Hilton Head Island, a popular destination for well-heeled tourists visiting its many resorts.

While the Gullah Geechee are told to think about moving, the hotels stay open and industry gets new permits, said Harriet Festing, co-founder of the alliance. "So there's a lot of distrust of government intention and the messages that are coming to them.

Forms of managed retreat have existed in the U.S. since at least 1989, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency began buying properties in flood-prone areas. Parts of Louisiana, Wisconsin and Illinois have used planned relocation to try to save communities from flooding and rising seas.

With help from government buyouts, some communities simply move to nearby areas that are less prone to disaster. Others migrate to different parts of the country or different countries altogether.

But buyouts aren't the only component. Other strategies include restoring habitats, replacing concrete-laden areas with green space and using zoning laws to limit development in troubled places.

Parts of Florida, California and New York could someday need to use the same strategy.

Imagine New York City over the next hundred years shifting its density north. It could happen, said A.R. Siders, an assistant professor at the University of Delawares Disaster Research Center.

One reason why the idea is met with resistance is because of its name. Managed retreat is too technical for some and too defeatist for others. Proponents are starting to adopt other language, including planned relocation and climate migration.

But regardless of what it's called, more and more communities have considered some version of the idea, especially, Siders said, in the aftermath of major disasters such as Hurricane Sandy.

The concept pushes us to do better adaptation, she said. But its also a challenge because it scares people. They get scared that theyre going to be forced out of their home.

In a study published in Science Advances in 2019, Siders and other researchers found that FEMAs buyout program was more likely to help wealthier, more densely populated counties. But even within those communities, FEMA buyouts were concentrated in less affluent, less densely populated areas with lower English proficiency and more racial diversity.

Environmental activist Hilton Kelley has been trying for years to get federal assistance to relocate himself and members of his community from Port Arthur, Texas. Port Arthur is closer to the Gulf Coast than much of Houston, and both communities have been ravaged by hurricanes over the last 20 years. But Houston has received more attention and more money for relocation because of its vastly larger population, he said.

This town has been devastated, he said. But weve never gotten our fair shake when it comes to giving support to vulnerable populations, particularly the low-lying communities of color.

Many people in Port Arthur are ready to relocate if help were available and they could take the lead in planning the move, Kelley said. But thats not the case in other cities.

Tiny DeSoto, Missouri, has been hit with destructive flash floods four times in the last eight years. After a particularly bad flood in 2016, Susan Sherrow Lilley started organizing her neighbors to accept buyouts, but they only seemed interested in the immediate aftermath of a flood.

It hasnt flooded in five years, and people are very comfortable now thinking that its not going to again. But it will, she said.

Lilley and other concerned residents have organized 22 homes and one business to apply for FEMA money, but thats only about a third of the structures that were recommended for buyouts by the Army Corps of Engineers.

She said they need buyouts for everyone because even when people move to higher ground, their abandoned homes often get bought, fixed up and put back on the market.

And then the people go through a flood, and its just this vicious cycle over and over again, she said.

A recent World Bank report predicts that 200 million people around the globe will be forced to move because of climate change by 2050. Other countries have already begun planning massive relocations, including Jakarta and the Marshall Islands.

The process is "extremely complex, and there is a high risk that it leaves communities even worse off than they were before, said Ezekiel Simperingham, global migration lead for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and Red Crescent Societies.

Among the Gullah Geechee, big storms have become familiar. At least seven named storms have struck the region of the Southeast U.S. where they live, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Irma in 2017 and Dorian in 2019.

Thomas Mitchell, a crabber who lives on St. Helena Island, comes from a family that catches fish, shrimp and oysters. But oysters have been hard to come by because they need cold weather to survive, and the warm seasons have become longer.

The oysters dont come until its cold, and it doesnt get cold" anymore, he said.

But the idea of abandoning their historical home is a nonstarter for many of the Gullah Geechee.

The only way Im going to relocate is when I meet my demise, Wright said.

Marquetta Goodwine, a community leader on the island known as Queen Quet, said the Gullah Geechee are inextricably linked to the land.

Im not running. I dont come from the stock of people who run, she said. I come from the stock of people who fight, people who hold on, people who stand for what they believe in. And we are rooted in this soil.

As he waited for a fish to tug on his bait at the creek, Wright echoed those sentiments.

When we (were) kids, our parents taught us ... if you ever have to run anywhere, dont run away from home. Make sure you run and come home, he said. And so thats instilled in me, and this is home.

___

Borenstein reported from Kensington, Maryland. Follow Drew Costley and Seth Borenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/drewcostley and https://twitter.com/borenbears.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

___

Follow APs coverage of the climate conference at http://apnews.com/hub/climate.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP)  A federal court is allowing a team of environmental groups to continue with a lawsuit against the U.S. government that seeks to create stronger rules to protect rare whales from collisions with ships.

The environmental groups want to protect North Atlantic right whales, which are vulnerable to ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. The whales numbered only 366 in 2019, and its population fell to 336 in 2020, a group of scientists said last month.

The petitioners want the National Marine Fisheries Service to expand areas and times in which a speed limit rule that protects the whales applies. They've also called for the government to make speed rules mandatory and apply them to both small and large vessels.

The administration of President Joe Biden has pushed back against the suit and sought to have it dismissed, but the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied that request Wednesday, court records state. The court ruled the government cannot avoid its obligation to consider the request, records state.

The lawsuit is a chance to protect the declining whales and also make waters safer for shippers, said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of the North American office of Whale and Dolphin Conservation, one of the petitioning environmental groups.

That's especially important because right whales have been spotted outside their typical migratory patterns in recent years, and that can take boaters by surprise, Asmutis-Silvia said.

This isn't just about protecting right whales, it's about protecting boaters, too, Asmutis-Silvia said. To me, it's a safety issue for both the vessels and the right whales. They're not easy to see, and they're in newer habitats that people aren't as used to seeing them in.

A spokesperson for the fisheries service declined to comment because the lawsuit is still active.

Right whale conservation has been a contentious topic in recent years because of the potential economic impact of protecting the whales on shipping and commercial fishing. The Maine lobster industry is dealing with a suite of new rules to try to save the whales.

However, a Maine lobster fishing union in October won relief in court to try to stop the closure of fishing grounds off the state. A federal judge said the rules had the potential to economically damage the fishing industry without protecting the whales.

The whales were once abundant off New England, but they were decimated during the commercial whaling era. They've been protected under the Endangered Species Act for decades.
BEIJING (AP)  Chinese leader Xi Jinping emerged from a party conclave this week not only more firmly ensconced in power than ever, but also with a stronger ideological and theoretical grasp on the ruling Communist Partys past, present and future. That lays the groundwork for him to take a third five-year term as party leader at next years national congress, elevating to the likes of Mao Zedong, who founded the Peoples Republic in 1949, and Deng Xiaoping, who opened up the economy three decades later.

A look at some of the meaning behind the recent developments.

WHAT'S THE SIGNIFANCE OF XI'S ELEVATION?

Though the rules were unwritten, Xis two immediate predecessors served just two terms as head of the party in keeping with term limits on the presidency. Xi, 68, had the constitution amended, however, to eliminate presidential term limits and could therefore remain in office until he dies, steps down or is forced out.

Though he is the son of a former high official, a friend to both Mao and Deng, Xi rose to the pinnacle by applying what is now referred to as the hybrid economic theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era." Though not new, Xi has made it one of his standards, alongside his call for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" and the Chinese dream" of relative prosperity.

Key to realizing those goals are the two centenaries," namely building a relatively prosperous society" by the party's 2021 centenary, which it claims to have achieved, and a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious" by the centenary of the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.

All such terms aim to project the image that the party under Xi has engineered a system that adapts to the times and delivers on its citizens' desire for better quality of life for themselves and their families, and greater respect for China in the international community.

WHAT DID THE MEETING DO FOR XI?

Although already named the core leader," Xi gains further cachet from such phrases' inclusion in the resolution issued Thursday by the party's Central Committee on historical questions concerning the party over the past 100 years. That was only the third such document issued by the party; the first was in 1945 under Mao, the second in 1981 under Deng. To wield such authority in the eyes of party historians and theoreticians certainly makes Xi one of the most dominant Chinese figures of the century.

Naturally, only positive achievements are mentioned. While extolling the partys successes, the resolution glosses over less flattering periods such as the massive famine and industrial failure of the Great Leap Forward in the late 50s and early 60s, the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution and the political upheaval of the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement in Beijing that was crushed by the army.

WHAT WAS THE MEETING'S PURPOSE?

Like all meetings of the 95 million-member party's Central Committee of 400 or so top officials, the gathering aimed to achieve unity of thinking and unity of purpose. Heavy on ceremony it featured Xi seated center stage in an enormous room in the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing. The party holds roughly seven such gatherings between each of its national congresses, which are held once every five years.

By firmly supporting and upholding General Secretary Xis core position, the whole party will have an anchor, the entire Chinese people will have a backbone and the giant vessel of Chinas rejuvenation will have a steady hand on the helm," Jiang Jinquan, director of the Central Committees Policy Research Office, told reporters at a Friday briefing. No matter what choppy waves we might encounter, we will always be able to stay calm and composed.

While Xi is almost certain to remain head of the party after next year's congress, likely to be held around November, it's not clear how many of the other six members of the Politburo Standing Committee  the apex of political power in China  will stay on. Premier Li Keqiang, the party's No. 2 after Xi, meets the age criteria to remain, although such rules allow for a certain amount of flexibility.

WHAT CHALLENGES DOES XI FACE NEXT?

Xi faces no political rivals at home, but he does face a difficult economic situation and China's zero tolerance" approach toward COVID-19 has yet to stamp-out the outbreak while taking a toll on many people's personal and financial lives. China's economy is also heavily dependent on housing sales and construction, and a major slump in the industry is causing jitters, chilling auto and retail sales. Financial markets are on edge about whether one of the biggest developers, Evergrande Group, might be allowed to collapse under 2 trillion yuan ($310 billion) in debt as a warning to others.

Economic strategy has been sometimes contradictory since Xi took power in 2012. The party promises to make the economy more open and competitive. At the same time, it is building up state-owned national champions that dominate banking, oil and other industries while also tightening control over private sector tech giants that are Chinas biggest success stories of the past three decades.

Abroad, Xi has pushed a bold line, with the government angrily dismissing complaints about issues from his signature Belt-and-Road" infrastructure initiative, to human rights, the sharp curtailing of rights in Hong Kong and mass detentions and other abuses against Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority groups in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. Relations with the U.S. are especially tense amid disputes over trade, technology and China's threats against Taiwan, the self-governing island that Xi has vowed to bring under Chinese control at a time that some analysts believe is growing increasingly near.

Under the strong leadership of the partys central committee with comrade Xi Jinping as the core, we will rally the entire party like a piece of unbreakable iron and march forward in lockstep," Qu Qingshan, director of the Institute of Party History and Literature, said at Friday's briefing.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP)  A powerful Haitian gang leader said Friday he is easing a chokehold on fuel deliveries that has caused a growing crisis for hospitals, gas stations and even water supplies across the nation's capital.

G9 gang leader Jimmy Barbecue Cherizier held a news conference to announce a seven-day reprieve for hospitals, schools and gas stations to send trucks to the refueling station at the port.

But he said the relaxation is only temporary, and he repeated calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whom he accuses of involvement in the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Cherizier said he will shut the port down again in a week and will keep it that way until Henry steps down.

Shortly after Cheriziers announcement, The Associated Press saw two tanker trucks arrive at the port, take on fuel and leave without incident.

The capital and much of the country has been at a standstill since last month, when the G9 sealed entry into the port where fuel is stored and distributed.

Government police and troops have seemed helpless to confront G9 and other gangs even as the closing of gas stations stifled much of the already precarious economy.

Hospitals reported turning away patients due to a lack of generators, many buses stopped running and banks, government offices and schools were closed for lack of transportation. Lack of fuel threatened water pumping stations.

Anger over lack of fuel caused protests and rioting by frustrated truck, bus and taxi drivers.

The G9 group is among many gangs that have terrorized the country's capital, prompting thousands to flee from criminal-controlled neighborhoods.

One of those groups has been holding 17 members of a missionary group from Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries since Oct. 16, demanding millions of dollars in ransom.

The U.S. government this week urged U.S. citizens to leave Haiti because of the countrys deepening insecurity and the severe lack of fuel. Canada announced Friday it was pulling all but essential personnel from its embassy.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Influential Kansas business groups have strong misgivings about Republican proposals aimed at financially protecting workers refusing COVID-19 inoculations while vocal anti-mandate activists don't think the measures go far enough.

A joint legislative committee on Friday endorsed a proposal to make it easier for workers to claim religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and another to provide unemployment benefits to workers who are fired for refusing to get vaccinated. Both are a response to vaccine mandates from President Joe Biden applying to more than 100 million workers.

Republican lawmakers have forced a Thanksgiving-week special session of the GOP-controlled Legislature to consider the two GOP proposals for resisting the mandates. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has expressed opposition to the Democratic president's mandates but has not embraced specific proposals. Lawmakers are set to convene Nov. 22.

The proposals drew criticism from the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business. They fear that the unemployment measure will prove costly, raising the state taxes on businesses that help finance the benefits. They said the other measure could force business owners to choose between facing federal fines for granting exemptions too easily or facing lawsuits from aggrieved employees who don't get them.

We didn't ask to be here, said chamber lobbyist Eric Stafford. We ask that you not punish us.

Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, drafted the proposals after the committee heard two days of testimony from dozens of people, almost all of them strongly opposed to the mandates.

But the strongest vaccine-mandate critics were not pleased with Masterson's proposals, viewing them as too weak.

Some want to also allow exemptions for people who have non-religious objections to COVID-19 vaccines, while others want to prohibit private employers from imposing mandates.

The draft bills we are being asked to comment on today, while a step in the right direction, dont go far enough to end the madness, said Gary Morgan, a resident of the Kansas City suburb of Shawnee.

Masterson shrugged off the criticism during a break in the committee's meeting. He serves on the panel.

You know what? Good legislation doesn't make anybody happy, he said.

Support for a special legislative session among Republicans grew quickly this week after Masterson outlined his proposals Tuesday. The Kansas Constitution required Kelly to call a special session if two-thirds of both chambers demanded one by petition and with that condition met, Kelly issued a the call Friday evening. The full Legislature has been out of session since May and wasn't set to reconvene until January.

A third proposal on vaccine mandates emerged Friday from Democratic Rep. Vic Miller, of Topeka, but it's not yet clear whether Republican leaders will allow it to be considered during the special session. It would allow workers to sue their employers if those employers imposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates separate from the federal mandates and the workers were harmed by the shots.

It is possible for employers to do it on their own, independent of the feds, Miller said. When you cause injury, you should be responsible.

Some mandate critics are generally are anti-vaccine, and some have repeated widespread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

A few critics have compared Bidens mandates to the Holocaust that killed millions of Jews during World War II, despite sharp criticism. That happened again Friday, when Kansas City, Kansas, resident Daran Duffy and two members of his family wore large yellow Stars of David on their chests, a reference to the stars Jews were forced to wear in Germany under the Nazis.

State Sen. Pat Pettey, a Kansas City Democrat, objected so strongly that the committee's GOP chairwoman gaveled her down.

You are not respecting Jewish people, she told Duffy. You are desecrating that memory.

Masterson later tweeted that GOP senators rejected such analogies in the strongest possible terms, adding, Such comparisons are inappropriate and bear no resemblance to the issues we are debating today.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the Senate president outlined his proposals Tuesday, not Monday.

___

Andy Tsubasa Field is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

____

On Twitter, follow John Hanna at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna and Andy Tsubasa Field at https://twitter.com/AndyTsubasaF
LINDEN, Ala. (AP)  Gov. Kay Ivey and other officials held a ceremony Friday to break ground on a project to construct a four-lane highway spanning rural western Alabama from north to south.

Expected to cost some $758 million over five years, the West Alabama Corridor project will provide an interstate-type highway that will eventually connect Mobile and Tuscaloosa. A bypass at the Marengo County city of Linden is the first phase of the project.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  An Iowa State Patrol Trooper died last month in a crash after he swerved to avoid a deer while speeding to respond to a call, the patrol said Friday.

Trooper Ted Benda, 37, of rural Decorah, crashed Oct. 14 on Highway 51 north of Postville. After he swerved to avoid the deer, his vehicle lost traction, went into a ditch, hit an embankment and rolled, Sgt. Alex Dinkla said in an email to The Cedar Rapids Gazette.
NEW YORK (AP)  Donald Trumps company wont have to pay hefty legal bills incurred by his former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who became a vocal critic of the ex-president and went to prison after pleading guilty to tax and other crimes, a New York judge ruled Friday.

Judge Joel M. Cohen threw out Cohens breach of contract lawsuit against the Trump Organization, rejecting his claims that the company had promised to cover his legal bills and finding that fees he racked up as a result of the criminal investigation into his conduct werent the companys responsibility.

Michael Cohen said in the lawsuit, filed in March 2019, that the Trump Organization owed him at least $1.9 million for the cost of his defense. The judge noted in his ruling that after the lawsuit was filed, Trumps company did go ahead and pay some of his bills.

In a nutshell, Mr. Cohens legal fees arise out of his (sometimes unlawful) service to Mr. Trump personally, to Mr. Trumps campaign, and to the Trump Foundation, but not out of his service to the business of the Trump Organization, which is the only defendant in this case, the judge wrote in his decision.

Michael Cohen and the judge are not related.

Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Michael Cohen, tweeted that the decision was unfair, and asked for contributions to a GoFundMe page set up for Cohens legal defense in 2018. So, far the page has raised more than $217,000.

In a statement, the Trump Organization touted the ruling as an incredible victory and said it would seek monetary damages against Mr. Cohen for all of his despicable conduct.

Mr. Cohen attempted to invent a basis for requiring the Trump Organization to pay his legal fees for personal criminal conduct (including perjury), the companys statement said. Mr. Cohens attempts at self-enrichment, however, once again failed.

Cohen, in the lawsuit, claimed the Trump Organization stopped paying his mounting legal fees after he began cooperating with federal prosecutors in their investigations related to Trumps business dealings in Russia and attempts to silence women with embarrassing stories about his personal life.

The lawsuit said the company stopped paying for Cohens legal defense about two months after the FBI raided Cohens home and office. It says that was around the time Cohen began discussing privately with friends and family that he was considering cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in New York.

Cohen pleaded guilty in August 2018 to tax crimes, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations, some of which involved his role in orchestrating payments to two women to keep them from talking publicly about alleged affairs with Trump.

Cohen served about a year in prison before being released to home confinement as part of an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 in federal prisons. On social media hes been counting the days until his home confinement is over. As of Friday, he posted he had nine left.

Cohens lawsuit said that as part of his work for Trump, the company agreed to indemnify him for his company-related work. It said the Trump Organization initially lived up to that promise, footing the bill for more than $1.7 million in Cohens legal fees.

Cohens lawsuit sought $1.9 million in legal fees and $1.9 million he was ordered to forfeit as part of his sentence, which he said arose from conduct he undertook at the behest of the Trump Organization and its principals, directors, and officers.

Cohen was one of Trumps lawyers and closest advisers for a decade until the public split in 2018. Cohen has since written a tell-all book about working for Trump and hosts a weekly podcast where he and guests routinely knock the former president.

__

Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak
LIHUE, Hawaii (AP)  Kauais electric utility plans to use an irrigation system dating to sugar plantation days to help store solar power for use at night.

Officials say the project will provide about one-quarter of Kauais energy needs and allow the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative to obtain 80% of its power from renewable sources by 2025, The Garden Island newspaper reported.

The utility routinely meets 100% of the islands daylight energy demands using renewable resources. But battery limitations and lack of sunlight currently force the cooperative to rely on fossil fuels during early morning and night hours.

The West Kauai Energy Project would divert water from four streams along the Kokee Ditch Irrigation System near Kekaha and Waimea. It would restore existing reservoirs and build new pipelines and gate structures.

Two reservoirs at different elevations would be connected by a penstock, or pipe. A solar-powered plant would pump water up the penstock during the daytime. Water would then flow down the penstock to generate energy at night and in the early morning.

When cranking at full capacity, it will have enough power to energize 18,000 homes on our island, said Beth Tokioka, the utilitys communications manager. On the environmental side, it would be reducing our fossil fuel usage by 8 million gallons a year and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 80,000 tons of C02 per year.

Utility officials and engineers explained these details at a recent talk story session about the project.

Resident Kaua Mata asked what would happen if Waimea River levels were to drop in the future.

Tokioka said the state Commission on Water Resource Management decides how much water the utility may divert from streams and the utility would abide by these decisions.

The project site is on lands owned and managed by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, the state Department of Hawaiian Homelands and the state Agribusiness Development Corporation.
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP)  A man fatally shot by a Virginia state trooper after a police chase and a crash that killed his passenger had been mentally ill for years, according to court records.

Brian Michael Price, 45, was judged not guilty by reason of insanity to malicious wounding after striking his mother with a baseball bat in the southeastern Virginia city of Chesapeake in 2014.

He was released from a mental hospital in March 2020 under conditions including that he take his prescribed medications, go to therapy and routinely meet with a psychiatrist, according to court records first reported on by The Associated Press.

What led to the police shooting on Nov. 6 remains under investigation. But Price is already part of a glaring statistic: More than one in five people whove been fatally shot by police since 2015 have been known to have mental illness, according to a Washington Post database.

In Virginia, lawmakers have increased their focus on the issue, passing legislation last year that aims to dispatch mental health providers alongside police to help stabilize people in crisis situations. Named after a Black high school teacher killed by police in Richmond, the law takes effect in parts of Virginia in December.

Price, who was white, also was among a much smaller group of people charged with a crime but held not responsible because of mental illness. Many are eventually released from hospitals, under orders by the courts, and required to live under restrictions to ensure mental stability.

The majority of people do well, said Michael J. Vitacco, a psychiatry professor at Augusta University in Georgia who has conducted research on insanity acquittals, including in Virginia. The combination of mandated treatment and follow-up is very much protective for the community.

Price was driving a Chevy sedan in Newport News when officers tried to stop him for suspected aggravated assault, abduction and impaired driving. He drove onto an interstate instead, and state police took over the pursuit. Price's car and a trooper's vehicle eventually made contact, causing both vehicles to run off the roadway in opposite directions, a state police statement said.

Prices vehicle overturned in a line of trees, killing passenger Amity Jo Grey on impact, the statement said.

As the trooper attempted to verbally engage the male suspect, an altercation ensued during which the trooper was assaulted by the male suspect, the statement said. "The trooper then shot the male suspect.

Grey's family has more questions than answers, according to her former stepmother, Lynn Teravainen. She said she didn't know Price and hadn't seen Grey  who was known as Ami  for years. But she has been speaking to the media on behalf of Grey's family.

They were in love. They were planning to get married, Teravainen said of Price and Grey. We're still waiting to find out what caused the chase ... Did Ami make the call? ... We can't even get an answer as to who actually made that 911 call.

Price was treated at Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg following his insanity acquittal. The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services, which oversees the state's mental hospitals, declined to comment on any former patients because of privacy laws.

Speaking generally about the insanity acquittal process, Deputy Director of Forensic Services Christine Schein said punishing people for crimes that were due to mental illness does not serve a purpose.

The thought is if we can work on the mental illness and provide them support, then theyll be able to safely return to the community, Schein said.

After Price left the hospital last year, his care was managed by Chesapeake Integrated Behavioral Healthcare, a community services board that filed reports on his mental health and treatment with a Chesapeake court. Executive Director Joseph J. Scislowicz declined to comment, citing federal privacy laws.

Price's diagnosis included schizoaffective disorder, court records stated. The condition is characterized primarily by schizophrenia symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions, as well as symptoms that can include mania, according to the National Alliance of Mental Illness.

Price initially struggled after his release  he was incarcerated and hospitalized twice during a chaotic first six months, according to evaluations submitted to a Chesapeake court.

But he also showed signs of improvement this year, according to an evaluation from September. He was working in construction, living in an apartment approved by the community services board and keeping his appointments with his case manager and others overseeing his care.

Despite some illegal use of amphetamines to self-treat his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the September evaluation recommended that his conditional release from the hospital continue.
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP)  The jurors who will decide Kyle Rittenhouses fate will be allowed to consider lesser charges if they opt to acquit him on some of the original counts prosecutors brought, the judge said Friday during a contentious hearing in which both sides could claim partial victory.

Rittenhouse, of nearby Antioch, Illinois, testified that he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot two protesters and wounded a third during an August 2020 night of unrest in Kenosha following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating on Monday after closing arguments in a case that has left Americans divided over whether Rittenhouse was a patriot who took a stand against lawlessness or a vigilante who brought a gun to a protest to provoke a response.

With a verdict near, Gov. Tony Evers said Friday that 500 National Guard members would be prepared for duty in Kenosha if local law enforcement requested them.

Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, is charged with intentional homicide and other counts for killing Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz.

Wisconsin law allows the prosecution and defense to ask that jurors be told they can consider lesser charges as part of the instructions they receive before deliberating. Defense lawyers can object to lesser charges, and in some cases Friday, they did. For those that they didn't object to, Judge Bruce Schroeder asked Rittenhouse to confirm that he agreed with his attorneys' decision.

Schroeder told Rittenhouse that by including the lesser charges, youre raising the risk of conviction, although youre avoiding the possibility that the jury will end up compromising on the more serious crime. And youre also decreasing the risk that youll end up with a second trial because the jury is unable to agree.

Rittenhouse said he understood.

Schroeder said he would issue his final rulings Saturday, but he made some findings from the bench and indicated how he might rule on others. For counts where jurors will be allowed to consider lesser charges, they will be instructed to only consider them if they first acquit Rittenhouse of the more serious original corresponding charge.

Friday's arguments over jury instructions were contentious at times, with attorneys rehashing debates they had earlier in the case. At one point, as prosecutors were seeking to add an instruction that would allow the jurors to consider whether Rittenhouse was provoked, the two sides debated about what a particular photo showed. Schroeder lost his temper, snapping: Youre asking me to give an instruction. I want to see the best picture!

Schroeder ultimately said he would allow the provocation instruction, which would ask the jury to consider whether Rittenhouse provoked Rosenbaum into attacking him. If the jury finds he did, that would negate self-defense.

Rittenhouse, now 18, faces one count of first-degree reckless homicide in the killing of Rosenbaum, who was the first person he shot after Rosenbaum chased him in a used car lot. Prosecutors sought to add a second-degree reckless homicide charge, but the defense objected. Schroeder said he was unlikely to allow the lesser charge because he thought a guilty verdict on the lesser charge would be overturned on appeal.

Rittenhouse also faces two charges of first-degree reckless endangerment: one for firing at an unknown man who tried to kick him in the face and another because a reporter was in the line of fire when Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum.

Schroeder said he was inclined to allow a lesser charge of second-degree reckless endangerment when it comes to endangering the reporter, but he might not. He said he would not allow the lesser charge in the case of the unidentified man who tried to kick Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse also faces one count of first-degree intentional homicide in Hubers death. That's the most serious charge against him and carries a mandatory life sentence. Huber swung his skateboard at Rittenhouse shortly after Rittenhouse killed Rosenbaum.

The defense did not object to adding lesser counts of second-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide as it relates to Huber. It did object to adding a charge of second-degree reckless homicide. Schroeder said he embraced that argument.

Rittenhouse also faces one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide for shooting and wounding Grosskreutz in the arm. Grosskreutz, who had a gun in his hand, confronted Rittenhouse right after Rittenhouse shot Huber.

Prosecutors asked to add second-degree attempted intentional homicide, first-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree reckless endangerment options. Rittenhouse attorney Corey Chirafisi didn't object to the second-degree attempted homicide count, but he objected to adding the reckless endangerment counts, saying he doesn't believe someone can attempt to be reckless.

Schroeder said he would mull it over but was inclined to agree with prosecutors.

Rittenhouse is also charged with possessing a dangerous weapon while under the age of 18. It was not clear Friday what Schroeder intended to tell jurors on that charge.

Legal observers said both sides got some wins during the hearing. Julius Kim, a Milwaukee criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, said no matter how confident Rittenhouse may be of his defense, accepting the lesser charge on the most serious count minimizes the risk of him being convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

I think that they recognize it could be a good thing for Mr. Rittenhouse to allow the jury to potentially convict him of a lesser offense if they convict him of anything, Kim said, adding that the lack of a defense objection on that count could signal that they might not be confident in an acquittal.

Still, the fact that prosecutors are seeking a lesser offense is a tacit acknowledgement that they aren't confident the jury will convict Rittenhouse on the original charges.

I think they are trying to salvage something at his point in time, Kim said.

Michael OHear, a criminal law professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, agreed, saying lesser included charges are usually sought by the defense.

Normally the prosecutor would not request a lesser included instruction if the prosecution had a very high degree of confidence in the likelihood of conviction of the greater offense," O'Hear said, noting that adding it practically invites the jury to compromise on the lesser offense.

Testimony in the case ended Thursday after nearly two weeks. The most riveting moment in the trial came when Rittenhouse told the jury that he was defending himself from attack when he used his rifle to shoot the three men.

Closing arguments will be Monday, after which names will be drawn to decide which 12 jurors will deliberate and which will be dismissed as alternates. Eighteen people have been hearing the case. The panel appears to be overwhelmingly white, like Rittenhouse and those he shot.

The protests were set off by the wounding of Blake by a white police officer. Rittenhouse went to the protest with a rifle and a medical kit in what the former police and fire youth cadet said was an effort to protect property after rioters set fires and ransacked businesses on previous nights.

The case has stirred fierce debate over vigilantism, self-defense, the Second Amendment right to bear arms and the unrest that erupted throughout the U.S. over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other police violence against Black people.

___

Bauer reported from Madison and Forliti reported from Minneapolis.

___

Find APs full coverage of the Rittenhouse trial: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
BOSTON (AP)  A New Jersey man who with the help of an alleged accomplice submitted more than 100 fraudulent claims for federal COVID-19-related unemployment benefits that resulted in more than $1.2 million in payments pleaded guilty to wire fraud on Friday, federal prosecutors said.

Omar Thompson, 39, of Paterson, New Jersey, and the other person, whose name was redacted from court documents, filed the claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance through the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Boston.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP)  New Mexico State University's chief academic administrator has been placed on paid administrative leave and an acting replacement has been named.

The university told employees in a letter Thursday that Vice President Renay Scott will be acting provost, filling in for Provost Carol Parker, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.

The letter by Chancellor Dan Arvizu and President John Floros did not say why Parker was put on leave or how long it would last.

Last week, the NMSU Faculty Senate and the Associated Students of New Mexico State University approved similar resolutions of no confidence in Parker and Floros.

The resolutions contend the university spends too much on the administration that hasnt listened to concerns from faculty and staff. The resolutions recommended the Board of Regents immediately remove Parker and Floros.

Parker's attorney, Kate Ferlic, told The Associated Press on Friday that Parker denies the allegations made against her.

In her role as provost, she has always put the students of NMSU first," she wrote in an email. Dr. Parker looks forward to the regents supporting her and allowing her to continue serving the entire university community.

Parker became provost in 2019 after previously holding senior administrative posts at the University of Texas at El Paso and at the University of New Mexico.
NEW YORK (AP)  A 65-year-old man was shot and killed by New York City police officers after he fled from a traffic stop, crashed his vehicle into a police car and then pointed a gun at the officers, police said.

The encounter started when a highway patrol officer pulled the man over for speeding on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn at about 4 p.m. Thursday, Chief of Department Rodney Harrison said at a news conference.

As the officer was approaching the man's car, he sped off, Harrison said. The officer chased the fleeing driver and positioned her unmarked police car in front of his Jeep, Harrison said. The man then crashed into the officers car and drove off, Harrison said.

The officer called for backup, and the man was pulled over again, Harrison said. The man then got out of the Jeep, reached into the back seat for a gun and approached the two police vehicles with it, he said. The officers got out of their cars and told the man to drop his weapon, but he did not comply, Harrison said.

The subject continued to advance towards the officers, at which time two officers fired multiple rounds at the individual, striking him several times," the chief said.

The man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His name was not immediately released.

The officers were taken to a hospital for evaluation.

___ This story has been corrected to show that Rodney Harrison is chief of department, not chief of police.
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP)  An 18-year-old man has been charged in a hit-and-run crash that killed a six-year-old girl in the Detroit area.

Jyon Collins was arraigned Friday on failure to stop at a scene resulting in death and driving without a license charges, the Wayne County prosecutor's office said.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP)  The latest on the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow:

GLASGOW, Scotland --- Several charities are offering to provide funds to kick-start a separate and independent mechanism for rich countries to support vulnerable nations from climate change.

The groups say in a statement that they will contribute an initial $3 million to start with for the Glasgow Loss and Damage Facility -- effectively a vehicle to give money to poor nations for irreversible damages from climate shocks.

This proposed separate fund is one of the crucial stumbling in negotiations, with rich nations opposing it.

The non-profit Childrens Investment Fund Foundation, the European Climate Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and others are inviting all nations and financial institutions to lend support to the fund.

___

GLASGOW, Scotland  Climate talks in Glasgow are at a bit of a stalemate and the United States, with support from the European Union, is holding back talks, according to Lee White, the Gabonese minister for forests and climate change.

White said Friday there's a lack of trust between rich and poor nations over payments from rich countries to the poor for damage from the worst effects of global warming, funds for adapting to climate change and carbon markets.

Developing nations went to a meeting Thursday thinking they had come to an agreement to create an independent fund for loss and damage finance. But Gabon's White said rich countries werent ready and felt that they hadnt been consulted enough. They said, we never agreed to that. It wont work. Its too complicated.

White said rich countries are reluctant to create a new fund, and developing nations feel that existing climate finance mechanisms are already overstretched. So, were at a bit of a stalemate ... The U.S. is reluctant to give money for adapting to climate finance, and want it to be purely voluntary. White added that the EU is supporting the American stance.

___

GLASGOW, Scotland  As the clock hit 6 p.m. in Glasgow, government negotiators were still hard at work, seeking consensus on thorny issues including the future of fossil fuels and money for poor countries to handle the effects of climate change.

Running late is nothing unusual for the U.N. negotiations. The previous climate conference, in the Spanish capital of Madrid in 2019, went well beyond its Friday evening deadline, ending on the following Sunday.

How long the Glasgow talks will continue is anyones guess, but many delegates are preparing for a long night Friday.

___

LONDON  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says coming up with more money for countries at greatest risk from climate change is key to securing a deal at the United Nations' COP26 conference in Glasgow.

As negotiators strained to reach consensus among almost 200 nations, Johnson said the developing world needs to see the cash on the table.

He said: Thats what needs to happen in the next few hours. People need to see that theres enough cash to make a start, and theres enough commitment to make a start.

Johnson, who is not in Glasgow, said he is pressing world leaders to do more. He spoke Friday with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

He urged countries to agree to the draft text of the final summit agreement, which is still being tweaked. The conference is scheduled -- but unlikely -- to end at 6 p.m. (1800GMT) on Friday.

We either find a way of agreeing it or we risk blowing it, Johnson said.

He said: If they can have the courage to do this deal, to agree the cover decision thats on the table today, then we will have a road map that will enable us to go forward and start to remove the threat of anthropogenic climate change.

___

GLASGOW, Scotland  While the word urges may sound more pressing on its face than requests, its the other way around in the diplomatic language used at the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow.

That's why environmental activists applauded when the latest draft of a potential summit agreement had the section on nations setting new national emission-cutting goals in 2022 presented as something that merited an updated emphasis, with requests" in place of urges.

Environmental Defense Fund Vice President Kelley Kizzier, who used to be a lead negotiator on carbon markets for the European Union, said the definitional distinction confused her when she first got involved in negotiations, but now it's just part of the lingo to her.

Its quite a passive-aggressive place, she said.

You know in common English, urge is stronger," Kizzier said. But diplomats told her request is like a legal requirement, which is stronger than encouragement urge carries, she said.

Within the context of the closing days of the Glasgow conference, the change would represent a big move, if it stays in the final decision, she said.

In 2015, negotiators debated about requiring new emission-cutting targets in five to 10 years. Now, they are talking about one year, Kizzier said.

___

GLASGOW, Scotland -- U.S. climate secretary John Kerry says his country is backing part of a draft U.N. climate deal that calls for phasing out use of unabated coal and ending at least some fossil fuel subsidies by governments.

Kerry spoke to fellow national delegations in the closing hours of the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland on Friday, laying out the U.S. take on what should be in the final agreement by about 190 governments.

Kerry supported one of the most-talked-about new provisions in the draft deal  a statement that would encourage governments to stop the dirtiest-burning kind of coal-fired power plants and inefficient subsidies to fossil fuel industries.

Climate groups welcome the explicit targeting of climate-wrecking fossil fuels in the draft. But like a lot of the terms being debated, its not clear just what negotiators mean by unabated. That could range from standard scrubbers on smokestacks to cutting-edge technology.

Were not talking about eliminating coal, Kerry told fellow climate diplomats. Referring to coals particularly damaging impact on the environment, he asked, how could we possibly in 2021, knowing what the evidence is, be wishy washy on that subject?

___

GLASGOW, Scotland  The European Unions climate chief says clinching an agreement is a personal issue for negotiators at the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow because it will affect the lives of their children and grandchildren.

Frans Timmermans told fellow negotiators on Friday that he had received a picture of his grandson in the morning.

If we succeed, hell be living in a world thats livable, Timmermans said. If we fail, and I mean fail now in the next couple of years, he will fight with other human beings for water and food. Thats the stark reality we face.

This is personal, he stressed, noting that the consequences of climate change would be even more dire for representatives of low-lying Pacific islands and other nations vulnerable to flooding because youre standing with your feet in the water.

Timmermans called for strong action on coal power and subsidies for fossil fuels to be included in the final agreement, and called for holding all major emitters accountable.

___

GLASGOW, Scotland -- U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and European Commission climate official Frans Timmermans have huddled for about an hour with diplomats of island nations whose survival is threatened by rising oceans.

Negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland on the worlds next moves in response to global warming entered their final hours Friday.

Many of the island nations at risk of disappearing under water under the current track of global warming are among the blocs pressing hardest to resolve some of the key debated points in the negotiations. Those include cutting fossil fuel pollution fast and soon enough to sharply rein in the Earths warming, and demands for the U.S. and other developed nations historically responsible for much of climate change to provide financial aid to developing countries.

In a statement, diplomats of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific said sticking to an emissions-cutting target that would allow theirs and other island nations to survive must be the North star for any deal.

They also demanded an end to government subsidies for fossil fuels, and doubling of financial support to help less-developed nations deal with climate change.

Kerry went out a different door after the talks and did not speak to reporters. Timmermans, asked about his mood on the last day of scheduled talks, pulled down his face mask to show his smile.

___

GLASGOW, Scotland  Alok Sharma, the British official presiding over this years U.N. climate talks, has dismissed suggestions that he is trying to ratchet up pressure on negotiators in an effort to get them to seal a deal at the Glasgow meeting.

I think people have sometimes described me as no drama Sharma, he said Thursday, barely cracking a smile.

Sharma said the draft agreements already circulated showed that a lot has been achieved.

But we are still some way away from finalizing those very critical issues which have been outstanding, he added. And I dont think we can overemphasize how difficult this is. If it was easy we would have resolved this over the past six years.

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  The United States on Friday imposed economic sanctions on the military and ruling party of Eritrea over their role in neighboring Ethiopias brutal yearlong war, and it warned it would sanction Ethiopia's government and rival Tigray forces if there is no meaningful progress toward a cease-fire and talks.

A Treasury Department statement cited the continued role the Eritreans play in the war that has killed thousands and displaced millions. Ethiopia's government allowed Eritrean soldiers to enter Ethiopias Tigray region, where witnesses have accused them of some of the wars worst abuses, but then denied the soldiers were there for months.

The U.S. statement noted numerous reports of looting, sexual assault, killing civilians, and blocking humanitarian aid" by Eritrean forces. The soldiers have been seen disguised in old Ethiopian military uniforms, manning checkpoints, obstructing and occupying critical aid routes, and threatening medical staff in one of northern Ethiopias few operating hospitals, the statement said.

Notably, the Treasury Department pointed out that Eritrea's military is led by longtime President Isaias Afwerki, but he was not sanctioned.

The department also warned that if there is not tangible progress toward a cessation of hostilities, the U.S. was ready to sanction others, including Ethiopias government and the Tigray forces who long dominated the national government before a political falling-out with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

There was no immediate comment from Eritrea, which human rights groups have described as one of the world's most repressive nations.

In a separate statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Eritreas presence in Ethiopia is posing a significant obstacle to a cessation of hostilities, and threatening the integrity of the Ethiopian state. He called again for Eritrean soldiers to withdraw immediately.

Blinken said the U.S. was not imposing sanctions on Ethiopias government and the Tigray forces to allow time and space to see if efforts by African Union envoy Olusegun Obasanjo to urge them into talks without preconditions make progress.

Without meaningful progress, Blinken said, such sanctions could be imposed.

In separate comments to reporters, he expressed concern that Ethiopia, Africa's second most-populous country, could implode. Blinken spoke before he visits neighboring Kenya next week as part of efforts to calm the crisis.

The U.S. sanctions imposed Friday also targeted Abraha Kassa Nemariam, the head of the Eritrean National Security Office; Hidri Trust, the holding company of the Eritrean ruling party's business enterprises; the Red Sea Trading Corporation, which managed the ruling party's financial interests; and the corporation's chief executive, Hagos Ghebrehiwet W. Kidan.

Ethiopias war has created one of the worlds worst crises. Hundreds of thousands of people face famine conditions in the Tigray region under what the United Nations has called a de facto humanitarian blockade.

People are dying because of lack of supplies, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus told reporters Friday, calling the blockade systemic.

Tedros, a former Ethiopian foreign minister under the previous government, also accused Ethiopias current government of ethnic profiling and detaining people by the thousands.

This is blatant and open, he said.

Witnesses have told The Associated Press that ethnic Tigrayans, including American and British citizens, are being swept up in a new wave of detentions since Ethiopias government imposed a state of emergency last week as Tigray forces moved closer to the capital.

___

Matt Lee in Washington contributed.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday vetoed a bill that would prohibit Michigan's workplace safety agency from fining employers for first-time violations of COVID-19 rules and require reimbursements if they violated her 2020 executive orders that were later declared unconstitutional.

The Democratic governor said the Republican-sponsored legislation would cause the state, which enforces workplace safety rules, to fall below minimum standards required by federal law.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP)  Going into overtime Friday night, negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow were still trying to find common ground on phasing out coal, when nations need to update their emission-cutting pledges and, especially, on money.

Talks are at a bit of a stalemate, and the United States, with support from the European Union, is holding back talks, said Lee White, the Gabonese minister for forests and climate change.

Mohamed Adow of Power Shift Africa, a long-time talks observer, said poorer nations are beyond disappointed with the way the United Kingdom presidency has come up with drafts and that this has become a rich world negotiation. He said poorer nations cannot accept what has been proposed.

As the talks approached midnight, rich nations had a much more optimistic view, showing the split that might occur after new drafts appear Saturday.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host of the meeting, said through a spokesperson that he believes an ambitious outcome is in sight.

U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry told The Associated Press on Friday night that climate talks were working away, commenting after a late night meeting with his Chinese counterpart and before a hallway chat with Indias minister.

Chinese Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhua told Kerry in the hallway: I think the current draft is more close in a conversation that AP witnessed. When Kerry asked him if he felt better about it, Xie answered: Yes, I feel better about it because Alok Sharma is a smart guy.

No agreement was ready by the 6 p.m. local time scheduled end of the conference. And sometimes that helps diplomats get in a more deal-making mood.

The negotiating culture is not to make the hard compromises until the meeting goes into extra innings, as we now have done, said long-time climate talks observer Alden Meyer of the European think tank E3G. But the U.K. presidency is still going to have to make a lot of people somewhat unhappy to get the comprehensive agreement we need out of Glasgow.

Three sticking points were making people unhappy on Friday: cash, coal and timing.

A crunch issue is the question of financial aid for poor countries to cope with climate change. Rich nations failed to provide them with $100 billion annually by 2020, as agreed, causing considerable anger among developing countries going into the talks.

A Friday morning draft reflects those concerns, expressing deep regret that the $100 billion goal hasnt been met and urging rich countries to scale up their funding for poor nations to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change  an issue with which developed countries are also grappling.

Poorer nations say regret isnt enough.

Dont call them donor countries. Theyre polluters. They owe this money, said Saleemul Huq, a climate science and policy expert who is director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh.

The draft also proposes creating a loss-and-damage fund to help poor countries tap existing sources of aid when they face the devastating impacts of climate change. But rich nations such as the United States, which have historically been the biggest source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, are opposed to any legal obligation to compensate poor countries.

But Gabon's White said rich countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, had said they werent ready. They said we never agreed to that. It wont work. Its too complicated.

The proposal for creating this mechanism is like creating a bank account, said Adow of Power Shift Africa. We dont need to push cash into the account now. It is just the opening of the account.

This was the elephant in the room, said Lia Nicholson, lead negotiator for the alliance of small islands at the summit. She said that developing nations and China had a united position on this but the proposal hadnt met with significant pushback from rich countries.

Small islands cant always be the ones who are asked to compromise our interest with the objectives of reaching consensus, she said.

That Friday draft also called on countries to accelerate the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.

A previous draft Wednesday had been stronger, calling on countries to accelerate the phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuel.

Kerry said Washington backed the current wording. Were not talking about eliminating coal, he told fellow climate diplomats. But, he said: Those subsidies have to go.

Kerry said it was a definition of insanity that trillions were being spent to subsidize fossil fuels worldwide. Were allowing to feed the very problem were here to try to cure. It doesnt make sense.

But there was a mixed response from activists and observers on how significant the addition of the words unabated and inefficient was.

Richie Merzian, a former Australian climate negotiator who directs the climate and energy program at the Australia Institute think tank, said the additional caveats were enough that you can run a coal train through it.

Countries like Australia and India, the worlds third-biggest emitter, have resisted calls to phase out coal any time soon.

Scientists agree it is necessary to end the use of fossil fuels as soon as possible to meet the 2015 Paris accord's ambitious goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). But explicitly including such a call in the overarching declaration is politically sensitive, including for countries, such as Saudi Arabia, that fear oil and gas may be targeted next.

Another issue from Friday mornings draft concerns when nations have to come back with new emission-cutting targets which they were supposed to submit before the Glasgow talks. Because the pledges werent enough, the draft calls on the nations to submit another tougher target by the end of 2022, but some nations, such as Saudi Arabia, are balking about this said World Resources Institutes David Waskow.

In 2015 in Paris, there was a debate about whether targets should be updated every five or 10 years so going to one year after Glasgow is a big deal, said Environmental Defense Fund Vice President Kelley Kizzier, a former EU negotiator.

Negotiators from almost 200 nations gathered in Glasgow on Oct. 31 amid dire warnings from leaders, activists and scientists that not enough is being done to curb global warming.

According to the proposed decision, countries plan to express alarm and utmost concern that human activities have already caused around 1.1C (2F) of global warming and that impacts are already being felt in every region.

While the Paris accord calls for limiting temperature to well below 2C (3.6F), ideally no more than 1.5C, by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times, the draft agreement notes that the lower threshold would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change and resolves to aim for that target.

In doing so, it calls for the world to cut carbon dioxide emission by 45% in 2030 compared with 2010 levels, and to add no additional CO2 to the atmosphere by mid-century. So far the world is not on track for that.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told The Associated Press this week that the 1.5C-goal is still in reach but on life support.

The annual meetings, first held in 1995 and only skipped once last year due to the pandemic, are designed to get all countries to gradually ratchet up their efforts to curb global warming.

But for many vulnerable nations the process has been far too slow.

We need to deliver and take action now, said Seve Paeniu, the finance minister of the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. Its a matter of life and survival for many of us.

___

Ellen Knickmeyer, Philipp Jenne and Karl Ritter contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the talks at http://apnews.com/hub/climate
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  A 16-year-old youth sought in a double homicide in Albuquerque has been arrested in Denver.

The youth was sought in the Jan. 27 shooting deaths of Aerial Mallam, 21, and Jessica Casaus Lucero, 31, at an apartment complex where a third person was shot and wounded, Albuquerque police said late Thursday.

According to Albuquerque police, the youth exchanged gunfire with a fourth person as the youth tried unsuccessfully to take a vehicle.

The youth was wounded but ran off, police said.

Interviewed by police after being to a hospital by his father, the youth gave conflicting statements and then asked for a lawyer, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

The youth was released from the hospital and it wasn't clear whether he was ever detained by police before a warrant was issued for his arrest in the double homicide, the Journal reported.

Police said the youth is charged with murder, armed robbery, aggravated battery, child abuse and tampering with evidence.

Online court records dont list an attorney for the youth who could comment on the allegations.

The Associated Press generally does not identify crime defendants who are juveniles.
Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

LYNCHBURG, Tenn. (AP)  The Tennessee distillery producing Jack Daniels whiskey is teaming with a military support group to help service members and their families get home for the holidays.

More than 1,700 service members and relatives will head home through Operation Ride Home, organizers said. It's the most participants in program history.
Texas A&M University College Station announced its president Katherine Banks has tested positive for COVID-19 early Friday morning.

According to a news release from the university, Banks is now following positive test protocols, which include 10 days of self-isolation. Banks is fully vaccinated, according to Greg Hartman, the Texas A&M senior vice president and chief operating officer.

"President Banks is extremely disappointed to miss the many university activities scheduled for the next 10 days," Greg Hartman, Texas A&M senior vice president and chief operating officer, stated in the release.

"The president is grateful to be fully vaccinated. Studies have shown that vaccinated individuals usually have less severe symptoms with the virus. Getting vaccinated remains the best way to protect Aggieland and keep the people close to us safe from this deadly disease."
Florida, FL (34429)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 74F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low 47F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Canadian politicians take to social media to highlight issues at IRCC Immigration critics call for new immigration minister to address backlogs and Afghan crisis.

Canadian politicians take to social media to highlight issues at IRCC Immigration critics call for new immigration minister to address backlogs and Afghan crisis.

Canadian politicians take to social media to highlight issues at IRCC Immigration critics call for new immigration minister to address backlogs and Afghan crisis. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

Sans Font Size A

A

Members of Canadas opposition parties have shared their open letters to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser on how to improve the immigration system.



Jasraj Singh Hallan from the Conservative Party and Jenny Kwan from the New Democratic Party are incumbent shadow ministers for the immigration department. Their job is to hold the government accountable and participate in the Standing Committee on Immigration and Citizenship. The committee is made up of members of different political parties in Canadian Parliament. It oversees Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), conducts studies and offers recommendations to create new policies.

Fraser is a member of the Liberal Party, which currently holds minority power in the government.

Discover if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration

Kwan touches on a number of points in her four-page letter to the immigration minister.

She starts with the backlogs that have built up since the pandemic. Although Mendicino promised to modernize the immigration system, she points out it could take five years for the upgrade to take effect. Kwan says in the meantime, processing delays are keeping families apart and slowing down economic immigration, which affects Canadian industries that are struggling to find workers. Also, it appears some who have applied long ago are stuck in processing limbo while others who applied more recently are further along the process.

Furthermore, the backlog from 2020 could take three years to resolve, she says. Some of the resources at IRCC have been moved to finalize applications for the Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence (TR to PR) program, which was created to meet the ambitious immigration targets of 2021. As a result, people who applied for permanent residency before could be made to wait even longer for a decision.

Kwan is asking Fraser for his office to provide detailed information on the current state of the backlogs, as well as the anticipated timelines for IRCC to get back on track.

She is also calling for more transparency from IRCC that would allow immigration applicants to more easily check the status of their application, and for Fraser to pay attention to the recommendations from the study on how COVID-19 affected the immigration system. In particular, she wants him to look into creating an ombudsman position, which would review IRCC policies and procedures.

On the issue of Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) holders whose documents expired amid travel restrictions, Kwan reiterates her position that their documents should be automatically renewed. In doing so, she says, it would help IRCC clear the backlogs.

She also wants Fraser to provide more programs to transition temporary residents to permanent residents and to regularize undocumented migrants who are already working in Canada.

Her last points touch on how Canada can better support the international community and refugees, namely Afghanistan refugees, the situation in Hong Kong, and humanitarian and compassionate immigration applicants. She wants Canada to resume the normal processing of refugees, as well as end the Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S.

Here is a copy of my letter to Minister Fraser congratulating him on becoming the new Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and highlighting a number of concerns on the current state of IRCC that needs to be addressed. pic.twitter.com/eiyYagHk0O  Jenny Kwan (@JennyKwanBC) November 10, 2021

Hallans letter focuses on Afghan refugees. When Marco Mendicino was the immigration minister, the Liberals had promised to bring 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada. Consequently, IRCC created two new pathways for Afghan nationals who assisted Canadian forces, and for those who are from certain vulnerable groups and have fled Afghanistan.

Hallan says the Afghan nationals that he has spoken to report receiving little communication from IRCC.

Every time theyve contacted IRCC through the resources the department has provided, they feel their case is falling on deaf ears, the letter says, There are no status updates, no officers to talk to, and no sense of urgency from the government to protect Afghans in harms way.

He also brings up the IRCC data breach that compromised the privacy of 200 Afghans seeking refuge, and the increasingly precarious situation that Afghan nationals are facing. Hallan ends his letter calling for Fraser to put partisanship aside and develop a real plan and timeline for Afghan refugees.

Over the past few months, I have been asking the immigration Minister to take action on the dire situation in Afghanistan. For my full statement please visit my Facebook Page: https://t.co/ULwJATql8G pic.twitter.com/FyrNEnLng3  Jasraj Singh Hallan (@jasrajshallan) November 10, 2021

Discover if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
My recent conversations with CIOs and IT Managers alike have revealed that some of the financial roadblocks that previously stood in the way of digitalisation strategies are lifting for the first time in recent memory.

Recent research from Gartner confirmed that CIOs across Australia and New Zealand are not only increasingly being called on to take organisations into the future, but that this has indeed risen since the height of the pandemic.

According to the analyst firms 2021 CIO Agenda report, CIOs reported a seven per cent year-on-year increase in the high-value and strategic IT requests they received from organisational leaders. Now, 70 per cent of CIOs assume leadership of high-impact initiatives, and 66 per cent have seen increased strength in CIO-CEO relationships.

But, as with most things, challenges have evolved. Workforces on both sides of the Tasman have contended with months in and out of lockdown, and leaders have shouldered the unique responsibility of managing a hybrid work model while supporting the wellbeing of employees and ensuring there is no compromise to customer service standards.

Historically, these hurdles were addressed with a polarised view to technology: most would either spend excessively on new systems, or completely tighten their purse strings and rely on outdated technologies.

However, you dont actually need to splurge on new technologies, nor sweat your assets to the point of stagnant operations.

Depolarise digital decisions

Organisations have understandably invested in the latest products on the market to improve operational efficiencies and stay ahead of the curve. This has been especially pertinent since the onset of the pandemic, which has ramped up cloud spending to enable remote work and support the wellbeing of staff during a time of external stress.

But excessive adoption of technologies typically results in a commodity environment where investments are under-utilised, and the capabilities of existing solutions, including their potential for easing workloads and improving the overall experience, remains unlocked. Whenever off-the-shelf products are shoe-horned into environments to address scenarios and processes they were never designed to handle, the job completed is mediocre at best.

This approach can have a negative impact on employees, especially if they are required to switch between separate video conferencing, messaging, email and task management applications to complete their jobs, and by extension customers, who are subject to longer wait times. A recent study conducted by RMIT University found that leaders from both the private and public sectors attributed their recent digital overload to the amount of communication and collaboration tools they are required to use each day, which, on average, is nine.

On the other hand, expecting that outdated systems, or the stop-gap measures that were rolled out last year, will enable your employees to navigate the always-on digital economy and improve customer experiences is unrealistic.

Its not just about productivity gains, either. Last year, 40 per cent of remote workers identified loneliness and a lack of communication and collaboration as their biggest struggles. This has even promoted the NSW government to introduce a Code of Practice to manage psychological issues in the workplace, after discovering that only one in five businesses had simple measures in place to handle them.

In the context of todays broad range of challenges, the basic video tools that helped many through 2020 dont cut the mustard in uncertain times.

Even the scales

It is critical to establish a balance between the two approaches. That starts with reviewing existing investments and optimising their use, then building a strategy for composable technology adoption; look at whats already switched on, and what was left off in the past year to get the most out of your budget.

The rate at which you convert temporary measures into long-term, technology-led improvements will dictate how quickly employees stand to benefit, and ultimately how well your business will bounce back from the events of the last year and a half.

Once your organisation is capitalising on whats in place, you can ease the load for your employees and create increased capacity by introducing the likes of automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to handle time-consuming administrative tasks, such as the generation of meeting minutes.

Similarly, data analytics capabilities add further value by streamlining workflows and simultaneously supporting the wellbeing of individual employees. Presence indicators, for example, give the workforce control of their workdays by offering the option to disconnect with the virtual time-outs they choose, all based around their unique personal and professional circumstances.

With the end of the financial year behind us and our new budgets set, now is the time to realign workflows and processes using technology to enable your people and drive business outcomes. While polarising spending habits have been prevalent, supporting employees, customers and pockets amid todays operational and economic conditions takes an even scaled approach. Determine what you want to achieve and assess whether your current systems can deliver these on goals to make new investments count.

Jeremy Paton is Team Engagement Solutions Lead for Asia-Pacific at Avaya, a communications and collaboration software company.
Ravi Gopinath

Industries have drawn inspiration from the challenges of the past 18 months, confirms new AVEVA research, revealing that over 850 leaders have strengthened their commitment to driving digital transformation.

Quite simply, the industrial sectoralong with almost all other business verticalswill never be the same again. The virus and its attendant lockdowns accelerated technology investment within the industrial world as data proved itself a valuable new currency.

Business leaders are turning to the power of the cloud, AI, data, and smart analytics to empower their industrial teams to collaborate better, operate with agility, and elevate what they can achieve in terms of cost efficiency and sustainability.

Our global executive survey reveals that 85% of businesses plan to increase their investment in digital transformation over the next three years in order to tackle climate change, embrace automation, and unlock the performance benefits of advanced technologies.

While every industry is expecting to boost investment, the levels of significantly increased investment vary. The power industry expects to make the largest levels of new investment, with 42% of businesses planning a significant upswing in their technology spend, according AVEVA research. Manufacturing is also higher than the mean, with 30% predicting significant spending.

Leveraging Performance Intelligence

Many plants and factories implemented cloud-based communications, digital collaboration tools, and productivity software to enable functionality during lockdowns, and this sudden shift to remote working catalyzed appetites for long-term digital transformation. Businesses have become acutely aware of the power of Performance Intelligencehow AVEVA defines the capacity to harness data-led insights so people can maximize sustainable value across assets, processes, locations, and organizations. Industrial leaders are now leveraging technology to rethink how they design, engineer, and operate.

As data rapidly becomes the new global currency, sharing accurate, industrial information with multidisciplinary project teams is proven to drive higher performance. This is key to remaining competitive and driving sustainability.

Performance Intelligence is crucial for businesses looking to accelerate sustainable growth over the immediate future. According to our survey, 75% of companies believe they are on a journey to realize Performance Intelligence in their businesses, and this is set to transform how we all live and work.

Welcome to the Age of Performance

Human insight, creativity, and experience will undoubtedly continue to represent the cornerstone of success for every business. But the role that technology can play in augmenting and enhancing human capabilities is evolving. The scope and scale of the cloud to improve collaboration, combined with the predictive capabilities of machine learning, AI, and smart engineering, are all elevating data to industrial intelligence.

Nine out of 10 industrial companies see combining advanced technologies such as AI and cloud with their teams insight as key to driving better performance in a post-pandemic world. AI and automation are now necessary technologies in order to provide the insights needed to keep pace with competitors. Put simply, the wheels are in motion, and the Age of Performance is drawing ever closer.

Technology drives sustainability

As the world focuses on climate action, the majority of industrial enterprises (90%) say the climate emergency is a core action area for the business. Nine in 10 (89%) are committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions across their business and to tackling climate change within a five-year horizon.

Amid a backdrop of growing and critical sustainability concerns, Performance Intelligence lends greater operational agility and resilience to industries, enabling operational processes to benefit from rich, reliable datathereby optimizing the entire industrial lifecycle. The power of data visualization empowers companies to future-scope, make faster and more precise decisions, and boost environmental performance.

As the industrial world readies for the Age of Performance, businesses will need to develop robust strategies for driving data-led digital operating models that ensure business sustainability in every way.
Sorry, no valid subscriptions were found for this Publication. Please select from an option below to start a subscription.

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

24 Hour Access
Bring your animals, and enjoy you farm life close to town, the farm is just across the city limits line , house is not livable so build your dream home on 24.30 acres. It does have a good size two car garage on and a small storage building about 17 acres are cleared the rest is wooded and co
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.




Bethany, Connecticut

Submit your own pictures of this town and show them to the world



OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 5,563.

Population change since 2000: +10.4%

5,563.+10.4%

Males: 2,808 (50.5%) Females: 2,755 (49.5%)

Median resident age: 44.9 years Connecticut median age: 39.2 years

Zip codes: 06524.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $106,979 (it was $74,898 in 2000)

Bethany: $106,979 CT: $78,833

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $49,047 (it was $31,403 in 2000)



Bethany town income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $385,806 (it was $223,200 in 2000) Bethany: $385,806 CT: $280,700

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $286,890; detached houses: $312,086; townhouses or other attached units: $188,225; in 2-unit structures: $202,190; in 3-to-4-unit structures: $175,155; in 5-or-more-unit structures: $145,618; mobile homes: $75,104 $106,979 ($74,898$49,047 ($31,403$385,806 ($223,200$286,890;$312,086;$188,225;$202,190;$175,155;$145,618;$75,104

March 2019 cost of living index in Bethany: 129.5 (high, U.S. average is 100)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:



4,988 89.7% White alone 268 4.8% Asian alone 137 2.5% Hispanic 102 1.8% Black alone 50 0.9% Two or more races 11 0.2% Other race alone 7 0.1% American Indian alone

Races in Bethany detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of Connecticut and other state lists, there were 2 registered sex offenders living in Bethany, Connecticut as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Bethany is 2,782 to 1.

The ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is much lower than the state average.







Latest news from Bethany, CT collected exclusively by city-data.com from local newspapers, TV, and radio stations

Bethany, CT City Guides: Bethany, CT Guides 2

Ancestries: Italian (20.2%), English (17.1%), Irish (16.9%), German (13.5%), Polish (9.8%), Russian (5.2%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 114 feet

Land area: 21.0 square miles. Population density: 265 people per square mile (very low).

362 residents are foreign born (4.0% Europe, 1.8% Asia). This town: 7.2% Connecticut: 10.9%

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units in 2000: Bethany town: 1.7% ($3,812) Connecticut: 1.8% ($2,961)

Latitude: 41.42 N, Longitude: 73.00 W

Area code commonly used in this area: 203

Single-family new house construction building permits: 1997: 21 buildings , average cost: $192,500

21 $192,500 1998: 29 buildings , average cost: $229,300

29 $229,300 1999: 27 buildings , average cost: $239,100

27 $239,100 2000: 29 buildings , average cost: $199,300

29 $199,300 2001: 16 buildings , average cost: $348,300

16 $348,300 2002: 42 buildings , average cost: $334,800

42 $334,800 2003: 35 buildings , average cost: $320,800

35 $320,800 2004: 30 buildings , average cost: $295,000

30 $295,000 2005: 30 buildings , average cost: $295,000

30 $295,000 2006: 27 buildings , average cost: $295,000

27 $295,000 2007: 9 buildings , average cost: $267,600

9 $267,600 2008: 5 buildings , average cost: $295,400

5 $295,400 2009: 5 buildings , average cost: $290,400

5 $290,400 2010: 2 buildings , average cost: $217,600

2 $217,600 2012: 3 buildings , average cost: $399,500

3 $399,500 2013: 2 buildings , average cost: $282,300

2 $282,300 2014: 2 buildings , average cost: $227,200

2 $227,200 2015: 3 buildings , average cost: $353,200

3 $353,200 2016: 3 buildings , average cost: $248,500

3 $248,500 2017: 2 buildings , average cost: $283,500

2 $283,500 2018: 4 buildings , average cost: $266,400

4 $266,400 2019: 5 buildings, average cost: $322,200

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 5.4% Connecticut: 7.7%

Most common industries in Bethany, CT (%) Both Males Females

Educational services (14.0%)

Health care (13.5%)

Construction (8.6%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (8.0%)

Finance & insurance (4.4%)

Accommodation & food services (4.3%)

Public administration (3.6%)

Construction (15.5%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (10.3%)

Health care (7.2%)

Educational services (6.3%)

Metal & metal products (6.1%)

Public administration (5.0%)

Accommodation & food services (5.0%)

Educational services (22.5%)

Health care (20.4%)

Finance & insurance (6.6%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (5.4%)

Social assistance (4.4%)

Accommodation & food services (3.5%)

Administrative & support & waste management services (2.9%) Most common occupations in Bethany, CT (%) Both Males Females

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (9.0%)

Preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school teachers (4.0%)

Sales representatives, services, wholesale and manufacturing (4.0%)

Other production occupations, including supervisors (3.8%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (3.2%)

Material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers (3.1%)

Top executives (2.8%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (8.3%)

Sales representatives, services, wholesale and manufacturing (6.0%)

Other production occupations, including supervisors (5.6%)

Metal workers and plastic workers (3.8%)

Top executives (3.2%)

Media and communications workers (3.1%)

Physicians and surgeons (3.0%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (9.8%)

Preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school teachers (8.0%)

Therapists (4.7%)

Health technologists and technicians (4.5%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (3.9%)

Material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers (3.2%)

Customer service representatives (3.1%)

Average climate in Bethany, Connecticut Based on data reported by over 4,000 weather stations

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI CO NO 2 SO 2 Ozone PM 10 PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 90.2. This is worse than average. City: 90.2 U.S.: 74.2

Carbon Monoxide (CO) [ppm] level in 2018 was 0.264. This is about average. Closest monitor was 8.6 miles away from the city center. City: 0.264 U.S.: 0.267

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 12.4. This is significantly worse than average. Closest monitor was 5.7 miles away from the city center. City: 12.4 U.S.: 5.6

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 0.243. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 5.7 miles away from the city center. City: 0.243 U.S.: 1.789

Ozone [ppb] level in 2018 was 26.0. This is better than average. Closest monitor was 5.2 miles away from the city center. City: 26.0 U.S.: 33.3

Particulate Matter (PM 10 ) [g/m3] level in 2004 was 41.5. This is significantly worse than average. Closest monitor was 6.9 miles away from the city center. City: 41.5 U.S.: 19.6

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 7.99. This is about average. Closest monitor was 6.8 miles away from the city center. City: 7.99 U.S.: 8.46

Tornado activity: Bethany-area historical tornado activity is near Connecticut state average. It is 31% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 7/10/1989, a category F4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 6.0 miles away from the Bethany town center injured 40 people and caused between $50,000,000 and $500,000,000 in damages. On 7/29/1971, a category F3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 9.4 miles away from the town center injured 2 people and caused between $50,000 and $500,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Bethany-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Connecticut state average. It is 70% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 10/7/1983 at 10:18:46, a magnitude 5.3 (5.1 MB, 5.3 LG, 5.1 ML, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 188.1 miles away from the city center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.3 (5.3 ML, Depth: 3.0 mi) earthquake occurred 216.9 miles away from Bethany center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MB, 4.2 MS, 5.2 MW, 5.0 MW) earthquake occurred 215.3 miles away from the city center

On 8/23/2011 at 17:51:04, a magnitude 5.8 (5.8 MW, Depth: 3.7 mi) earthquake occurred 357.5 miles away from the city center

On 1/19/1982 at 00:14:42, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 MD, 4.5 LG, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 160.8 miles away from Bethany center

On 10/16/2012 at 23:12:25, a magnitude 4.7 (4.7 ML, Depth: 10.0 mi) earthquake occurred 192.5 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), duration magnitude (MD), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in New Haven County (26) is a lot greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 15

Emergencies Declared: 11



Causes of natural disasters: Storms: 7, Hurricanes: 6, Floods: 5, Snowstorms: 5, Winter Storms: 4, Blizzards: 3, Snows: 3, Snowfall: 1, Tornado: 1, Tropical Storm: 1, Wind: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Bethany: SHADY KNOLL (Nursing Home, about 3 miles away; SEYMOUR, CT)

I P P: AMITY GROUP HOME (Hospital, about 4 miles away; WOODBRIDGE, CT)

GLENDALE CENTER (Nursing Home, about 4 miles away; NAUGATUCK, CT)

VNA SERVICES, INC (Home Health Center, about 5 miles away; HAMDEN, CT)

HAMDEN HEALTH CARE CENTER (Nursing Home, about 5 miles away; HAMDEN, CT)

ARDEN HOUSE REHABILITATION AND NURSING CENTER (Nursing Home, about 6 miles away; HAMDEN, CT)

WILLOWS REHABILITATION AND NURSING CENTER (Nursing Home, about 6 miles away; WOODBRIDGE, CT)

Amtrak stations near Bethany: 10 miles: NEW HAVEN (50 UNION AVE.) . Services: ticket office, partially wheelchair accessible, enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, snack bar, ATM, paid short-term parking, paid long-term parking, car rental agency, taxi stand, intercity bus service, public transit connection.

NEW HAVEN (50 UNION AVE.) . ticket office, partially wheelchair accessible, enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, snack bar, ATM, paid short-term parking, paid long-term parking, car rental agency, taxi stand, intercity bus service, public transit connection. 10 miles: WALLINGFORD (37 HALL AVE.) . Services: partially wheelchair accessible, enclosed waiting area, public payphones, free short-term parking, call for car rental service, call for taxi service.

WALLINGFORD (37 HALL AVE.) . partially wheelchair accessible, enclosed waiting area, public payphones, free short-term parking, call for car rental service, call for taxi service. 14 miles: MERIDEN (60 STATE ST.) . Services: ticket office, partially wheelchair accessible, enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, vending machines, call for car rental service, call for taxi service, public transit connection.

Local government website: www.munic.state.ct.us/BETHANY/bethany.htm

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Bethany: Quinnipiac University ( about 6 miles; Hamden, CT ; Full-time enrollment: 8,153)

6 ; 8,153) Southern Connecticut State University ( about 7 miles; New Haven, CT ; FT enrollment: 8,708)

7 ; 8,708) Yale University ( about 9 miles; New Haven, CT ; FT enrollment: 13,121)

9 ; 13,121) Gateway Community College ( about 9 miles; New Haven, CT ; FT enrollment: 4,672)

9 ; 4,672) University of New Haven ( about 10 miles; West Haven, CT ; FT enrollment: 6,205)

10 ; 6,205) Post University ( about 10 miles; Waterbury, CT ; FT enrollment: 5,808)

10 ; 5,808) University of Connecticut-Tri-Campus (about 10 miles; Waterbury, CT; FT enrollment: 2,250) Public elementary/middle schools in Bethany: BETHANY COMMUNITY SCHOOL ( Students: 557, Location: 44 PECK ROAD, Grades: PK-6)

( 557, 44 PECK ROAD, PK-6) AMITY MIDDLE SCHOOL: BETHANY (Location: 190 LUKE HILL ROAD, Grades: 7-8) See full list of schools located in Bethany

Library in Bethany: CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY (Operating income: $109,980; Location: 538 AMITY RD.; 41,173 books; 18 e-books; 465 audio materials; 1,625 video materials; 30 state licensed databases; 56 print serial subscriptions)

New Haven County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Highest Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in Bethany and their reported violations in the past: WOODHAVEN COUNTRY CLUB (Population served: 25, Groundwater): Past health violations: MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In MAR-2009 , Contaminant: Coliform . Follow-up actions: St Public Notif requested (APR-14-2009) , St Violation/Reminder Notice (APR-14-2009) , St Public Notif received (APR-28-2009) , St Compliance achieved (APR-30-2009)

MAR-2009 Coliform St Public Notif requested (APR-14-2009) St Violation/Reminder Notice (APR-14-2009) St Public Notif received (APR-28-2009) St Compliance achieved (APR-30-2009) MCL, Monthly (TCR) - Between JAN-2009 and MAR-2009, Contaminant: Coliform. Follow-up actions: St Violation/Reminder Notice (MAR-17-2009), St Public Notif requested (MAR-17-2009), St Public Notif received (MAR-26-2009), St Compliance achieved (APR-30-2009) Past monitoring violations: Monitoring, Repeat Major (TCR) - Between JAN-2009 and MAR-2009 , Contaminant: Coliform (TCR) . Follow-up actions: St Compliance achieved (APR-30-2009), St Public Notif requested (MAY-28-2009), St Violation/Reminder Notice (MAY-28-2009), St Public Notif received (JUN-05-2009)

JAN-2009 MAR-2009 Coliform (TCR) St Compliance achieved (APR-30-2009), St Public Notif requested (MAY-28-2009), St Violation/Reminder Notice (MAY-28-2009), St Public Notif received (JUN-05-2009) 3 routine major monitoring violations WOODHAVEN COUNTRY CLUB (25Groundwater):

Average household size: This town: 2.8 people Connecticut: 2.5 people

Percentage of family households: This town: 81.7% Whole state: 66.3%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This town: 4.1% Whole state: 6.6%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.6% of all households

0.6% Gay men: 0.4% of all households Residents with income below the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 2.6% Whole state: 7.9% Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 1.6% Whole state: 3.9%

4 people in group homes intended for adults in 2010

Banks with branches in Bethany (2011 data): Webster Bank, National Association: Bethany Branch at Amity Shopping Center, 696 Amity Road, branch established on 1989/04/08. Info updated 2008/12/23: Bank assets: $18,674.3 mil, Deposits: $13,861.5 mil, headquarters in Waterbury, CT, positive income, Commercial Lending Specialization, 167 total offices, Holding Company: Webster Financial Corporation

For population 15 years and over in Bethany: Never married: 19.6%

19.6% Now married: 69.1%

69.1% Separated: 0.4%

0.4% Widowed: 3.6%

3.6% Divorced: 7.3%

For population 25 years and over in Bethany: High school or higher: 95.8%

95.8% Bachelor's degree or higher: 48.0%

48.0% Graduate or professional degree: 24.8%

24.8% Unemployed: 2.5%

2.5% Mean travel time to work (commute): 28.4 minutes

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 11.2 Connecticut average: 12.8



Religion statistics for Bethany, CT (based on New Haven County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Catholic 304,677 104 Mainline Protestant 52,851 149 Evangelical Protestant 33,484 208 Other 19,943 79 Black Protestant 6,471 35 Orthodox 3,731 11 None 441,320 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 172 New Haven County : 2.04 / 10,000 pop. Connecticut : 2.21 / 10,000 pop. Number of supercenters and club stores: 7 This county : 0.08 / 10,000 pop. State : 0.07 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 96 New Haven County : 1.14 / 10,000 pop. Connecticut : 1.02 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 186 New Haven County : 2.20 / 10,000 pop. State : 2.27 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 764 Here : 9.05 / 10,000 pop. State : 9.19 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: This county : 8.2% Connecticut : 7.3% Adult obesity rate: New Haven County : 24.0% Connecticut : 21.5% Low-income preschool obesity rate: This county : 15.4% State : 15.8%

4.17% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($58,955 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.17% Connecticut average: 4.51% 0.03% of residents moved from foreign countries ($381 average AGI) New Haven County: 0.03% Connecticut average: 0.04%

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Fairfield County, CT 0.98% ($57,745 average AGI) from Hartford County, CT 0.48% ($54,707) from Middlesex County, CT 0.25% ($62,540)



5.02% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($67,766 average adjusted gross income) Here: 5.02% Connecticut average: 5.34% 0.07% of residents moved to foreign countries ($768 average AGI) New Haven County: 0.07% Connecticut average: 0.07%

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Fairfield County, CT 0.74% ($67,908 average AGI) to Hartford County, CT 0.57% ($52,965) to Middlesex County, CT 0.32% ($68,153)

Strongest AM radio stations in Bethany: WELI (960 AM; 5 kW; NEW HAVEN, CT; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WFNW (1380 AM; 5 kW; NAUGATUCK, CT; Owner: CANDIDO DIAS CARRELO)

CANDIDO DIAS CARRELO) WADS (690 AM; daytime; 3 kW; ANSONIA, CT; Owner: RADIO AMOR, INC.)

RADIO AMOR, INC.) WTIC (1080 AM; 50 kW; HARTFORD, CT; Owner: INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.)

INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.) WATR (1320 AM; 5 kW; WATERBURY, CT; Owner: WATR, INC.)

WATR, INC.) WQUN (1220 AM; 1 kW; HAMDEN, CT; Owner: QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY)

QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY) WNNZ (640 AM; 50 kW; WESTFIELD, MA; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WFAN (660 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WCBS (880 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WGSM (740 AM; 25 kW; HUNTINGTON, NY; Owner: K RADIO LICENSEE, INC.)

K RADIO LICENSEE, INC.) WMCA (570 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: SALEM MEDIA OF NEW YORK, LLC)

SALEM MEDIA OF NEW YORK, LLC) WXCT (990 AM; 3 kW; SOUTHINGTON, CT; Owner: THE ADD RADIO GROUP, INC.)

THE ADD RADIO GROUP, INC.) WABC (770 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: WABC-AM RADIO, INC.) Strongest FM radio stations in Bethany: WPLR (99.1 FM; NEW HAVEN, CT; Owner: COX RADIO, INC.)

COX RADIO, INC.) WKCI-FM (101.3 FM; HAMDEN, CT; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WYBC-FM (94.3 FM; NEW HAVEN, CT; Owner: YALE BROADCASTING CO., INC.)

YALE BROADCASTING CO., INC.) W226AG (93.1 FM; HAMDEN, CT; Owner: SAINT THOMAS SEMINARY)

SAINT THOMAS SEMINARY) WRXC (90.1 FM; SHELTON, CT; Owner: MONROE BOARD OF EDUCATION)

MONROE BOARD OF EDUCATION) WKSS (95.7 FM; HARTFORD-MERIDEN, CT; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WWYZ (92.5 FM; WATERBURY, CT; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WZMX (93.7 FM; HARTFORD, CT; Owner: INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.)

INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.) WHCN (105.9 FM; HARTFORD, CT; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WMRQ (104.1 FM; WATERBURY, CT; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WPKT (90.5 FM; MERIDEN, CT; Owner: CONNECTICUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING, INC)

CONNECTICUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING, INC) WDRC-FM (102.9 FM; HARTFORD, CT; Owner: BUCKLEY BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

BUCKLEY BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WEZN-FM (99.9 FM; BRIDGEPORT, CT; Owner: CXR HOLDINGS, INC.)

CXR HOLDINGS, INC.) WRCH (100.5 FM; NEW BRITAIN, CT; Owner: INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.)

INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.) WSHU-FM (91.1 FM; FAIRFIELD, CT; Owner: SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY, INC.)

SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY, INC.) WPKN (89.5 FM; BRIDGEPORT, CT; Owner: WPKN, INC.)

WPKN, INC.) W227AJ (93.3 FM; NORTHFORD, CT; Owner: SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY)

SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY) WMNR-FM1 (88.1 FM; HUNTINGTON, CT; Owner: MONROE BOARD OF EDUCATION)

MONROE BOARD OF EDUCATION) WMNR (88.1 FM; MONROE, CT; Owner: MONROE BOARD OF EDUCATION)

MONROE BOARD OF EDUCATION) WTIC-FM (96.5 FM; HARTFORD, CT; Owner: INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.) TV broadcast stations around Bethany: WTNH ( Channel 8; NEW HAVEN, CT; Owner: WTNH BROADCASTING, INC.)

8; NEW HAVEN, CT; WTNH BROADCASTING, INC.) WEDY ( Channel 65; NEW HAVEN, CT; Owner: CONNECTICUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING, INC.)

65; NEW HAVEN, CT; CONNECTICUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING, INC.) WCTX ( Channel 59; NEW HAVEN, CT; Owner: WTNH BROADCASTING, INC.)

59; NEW HAVEN, CT; WTNH BROADCASTING, INC.) WTIC-TV ( Channel 61; HARTFORD, CT; Owner: TRIBUNE TELEVISION COMPANY)

61; HARTFORD, CT; TRIBUNE TELEVISION COMPANY) W11BJ ( Channel 11; HARTFORD, CT; Owner: COMMUNICATIONS SITE MANAGEMENT LLC)

11; HARTFORD, CT; COMMUNICATIONS SITE MANAGEMENT LLC) WSAH ( Channel 43; BRIDGEPORT, CT; Owner: WSAH LICENSE, INC.)

43; BRIDGEPORT, CT; WSAH LICENSE, INC.) WTXX ( Channel 20; WATERBURY, CT; Owner: WTXX INC.)

20; WATERBURY, CT; WTXX INC.) WVIT ( Channel 30; NEW BRITAIN, CT; Owner: OUTLET BROADCASTING, INC)

30; NEW BRITAIN, CT; OUTLET BROADCASTING, INC) WEDH ( Channel 24; HARTFORD, CT; Owner: CONNECTICUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING, INC.)

24; HARTFORD, CT; CONNECTICUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING, INC.) WEDW ( Channel 49; BRIDGEPORT, CT; Owner: CONNECTICUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING, INC.)

49; BRIDGEPORT, CT; CONNECTICUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING, INC.) WUVN ( Channel 18; HARTFORD, CT; Owner: ENTRAVISION HOLDINGS, LLC)

18; HARTFORD, CT; ENTRAVISION HOLDINGS, LLC) W28AJ ( Channel 28; ALLINGTOWN, CT; Owner: PAGING ASSOCIATES, INC.)

28; ALLINGTOWN, CT; PAGING ASSOCIATES, INC.) WFSB ( Channel 3; HARTFORD, CT; Owner: MEREDITH CORPORATION)

3; HARTFORD, CT; MEREDITH CORPORATION) WHPX ( Channel 26; NEW LONDON, CT; Owner: PAXSON HARTFORD LICENSE, INC.)

26; NEW LONDON, CT; PAXSON HARTFORD LICENSE, INC.) W51BZ ( Channel 51; NEW HAVEN, CT; Owner: it COMMUNICATIONS, INC.)

51; NEW HAVEN, CT; it COMMUNICATIONS, INC.) W12BH (Channel 12; WATERBURY, CT; Owner: CONN.PUBLIC BROADCASTING, INC.)

Bethany fatal accident statistics for 1975 - 2019

See more detailed statistics of Bethany fatal car crashes and road traffic accidents for 1975 - 2019 here

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

4 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 10ft / 2.8m Total length

Total length 9,541 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 402 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 14,176 Total future (year 2031) average daily traffic

FCC Registered Antenna Towers: 19 (



FCC Registered Broadcast Land Mobile Towers: 7 Fire Hdqrtrs Amity Rd ( Lat: 41.421750 Lon: -72.996500), Call Sign: KNFJ233, Licensee ID: L00525297,

Assigned Frequencies: 153.800 MHz, Grant Date: 01/30/1997, Expiration Date: 04/22/2002, Cancellation Date: 08/25/2002, Registrant: Bethany, Town Of, Town Hall 40 Peck Rd, Bethany, CT 06525

41.421750 -72.996500), KNFJ233, L00525297, 153.800 MHz, 01/30/1997, 04/22/2002, 08/25/2002, Bethany, Town Of, Town Hall 40 Peck Rd, Bethany, CT 06525 State Police Troop I ( Lat: 41.426194 Lon: -73.009278), Call Sign: KCA789,

Assigned Frequencies: 42.0400 MHz, 42.4800 MHz, 42.5800 MHz, 42.6400 MHz, 45.8600 MHz, 154.665 MHz, 154.695 MHz, Grant Date: 05/31/2012, Expiration Date: 08/18/2022, Registrant: State Of Connecticut, 1111 Country Club Road, Middletown, CT 06457, Phone: (860) 685-8280, Fax: (860) 685-8345, Email:

41.426194 -73.009278), KCA789, 42.0400 MHz, 42.4800 MHz, 42.5800 MHz, 42.6400 MHz, 45.8600 MHz, 154.665 MHz, 154.695 MHz, 05/31/2012, 08/18/2022, State Of Connecticut, 1111 Country Club Road, Middletown, CT 06457, (860) 685-8280, (860) 685-8345, State Police Troop 1 Rt 69 ( Lat: 41.426194 Lon: -73.009278), Call Sign: KNHT372, Licensee ID: L00399980,

Assigned Frequencies: 151.355 MHz, Grant Date: 09/01/1998, Expiration Date: 11/21/2003, Cancellation Date: 01/25/2004, Registrant: State Of Connecticut, 84 Wadsworth St, Hartford, CT 06106

41.426194 -73.009278), KNHT372, L00399980, 151.355 MHz, 09/01/1998, 11/21/2003, 01/25/2004, State Of Connecticut, 84 Wadsworth St, Hartford, CT 06106 BETHANY 26, Amity Road ( Lat: 41.433972 Lon: -72.994000), Type: Gtower, Structure height: 55 m, Overall height: 59 m, Call Sign: WNSM680,

Assigned Frequencies: 851.012 MHz, 851.275 MHz, 851.512 MHz, 851.637 MHz, 852.012 MHz, 852.137 MHz, 852.512 MHz, 852.700 MHz, 853.012 MHz, 853.312 MHz, 853.900 MHz, Grant Date: 03/31/2015, Expiration Date: 06/19/2025, Certifier: Michael Stemmler, Registrant: State Of Connecticut, 1111 Country Club Road, Middletown, CT 06457, Phone: (860) 685-8280, Fax: (860) 685-8345, Email:

41.433972 -72.994000), Gtower, 55 m, 59 m, WNSM680, 851.012 MHz, 851.275 MHz, 851.512 MHz, 851.637 MHz, 852.012 MHz, 852.137 MHz, 852.512 MHz, 852.700 MHz, 853.012 MHz, 853.312 MHz, 853.900 MHz, 03/31/2015, 06/19/2025, Michael Stemmler, State Of Connecticut, 1111 Country Club Road, Middletown, CT 06457, (860) 685-8280, (860) 685-8345, Amity Rd ( Lat: 41.416750 Lon: -72.999556), Call Sign: KNFG323,

Assigned Frequencies: 151.865 MHz, Grant Date: 01/31/1997, Expiration Date: 03/31/2002, Cancellation Date: 02/05/2002, Registrant: Frank Perrotti & Sons Inc, 136 Bradley Rd, Woodbridge, CT 06525, Phone: (203) 387-2021

41.416750 -72.999556), KNFG323, 151.865 MHz, 01/31/1997, 03/31/2002, 02/05/2002, Frank Perrotti & Sons Inc, 136 Bradley Rd, Woodbridge, CT 06525, (203) 387-2021 Lat: 41.446250 Lon: -72.926556, Call Sign: WPYR417,

Assigned Frequencies: 462.387 MHz, Grant Date: 07/23/2013, Expiration Date: 10/06/2023, Certifier: Mike Tassie, Registrant: New Haven Regional Water Authority, 90 Sargent Dr., New Haven, CT 06511, Phone: (203) 401-2542, Email:

41.446250 -72.926556, WPYR417, 462.387 MHz, 07/23/2013, 10/06/2023, Mike Tassie, New Haven Regional Water Authority, 90 Sargent Dr., New Haven, CT 06511, (203) 401-2542, Lat: 41.415611 Lon: -73.037417, Call Sign: WQDY656,

Assigned Frequencies: 452.412 MHz, 457.412 MHz, Grant Date: 11/21/2015, Expiration Date: 12/01/2025, Certifier: Paul Falcone, Registrant: Federal Licensing Inc, 1588 Fairfield Road, Gettysburg, PA 17325, Phone: (717) 334-9262, Fax: (717) 334-6440

FCC Registered Microwave Towers: 3 TROOP I, Troop 1 631 Amity Rd ( Lat: 41.433694 Lon: -72.994250), Type: Ltower, Structure height: 54.9 m, Call Sign: WPJF852,

Assigned Frequencies: 6605.00 MHz, 6226.89 MHz, Grant Date: 03/30/2021, Expiration Date: 06/25/2031, Registrant: State Of Connecticut, 1111 Country Club Road, Middletown, CT 06457, Phone: (860) 685-8280, Fax: (860) 685-8345, Email:

41.433694 -72.994250), Ltower, 54.9 m, WPJF852, 6605.00 MHz, 6226.89 MHz, 03/30/2021, 06/25/2031, State Of Connecticut, 1111 Country Club Road, Middletown, CT 06457, (860) 685-8280, (860) 685-8345, BETHANY CT, 93 Old Amity Road (088008) ( Lat: 41.404750 Lon: -72.999972), Type: Tower, Structure height: 103.3 m, Overall height: 113.1 m, Call Sign: WQIT217,

Assigned Frequencies: 10835.0 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, Grant Date: 05/07/2008, Expiration Date: 05/07/2018, Cancellation Date: 11/07/2009, Certifier: William Chastain, Registrant: Radio Dynamics Corporation, Silver Spring, MD 20914, Phone: (301) 493-5171, Fax: (301) 576-4553, Email:

41.404750 -72.999972), Tower, 103.3 m, 113.1 m, WQIT217, 10835.0 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, 05/07/2008, 05/07/2018, 11/07/2009, William Chastain, Radio Dynamics Corporation, Silver Spring, MD 20914, (301) 493-5171, (301) 576-4553, STATION, 1 Amity Rd State Police Barracks Troop I (Lat: 41.427583 Lon: -73.007306), Overall height: 54.9 m, Call Sign: WLS78,

Assigned Frequencies: 2130.80 MHz, 2136.40 MHz, Grant Date: 04/11/2002, Expiration Date: 07/09/2012, Cancellation Date: 09/15/2010, Phone: (203) 238-6429

FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses: 33 (



FAA Registered Aircraft: 7 Aircraft: PIPER PA-32-260 ( Category: Land, Seats: 6, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 126 mph), Engine: LYCOMING 0-540 SERIES (250 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 3803W, N3803W, N-3803W, Serial Number: 32-731, Certificate Issue Date: 10/02/2018

Registrant (Individual): Paul R Rieur, 66 Bear Hill Rd, Bethany, CT 06524

PIPER PA-32-260 ( Land, 6, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 126 mph), LYCOMING 0-540 SERIES (250 HP) (Reciprocating) 3803W, N3803W, N-3803W, 32-731, 10/02/2018 Paul R Rieur, 66 Bear Hill Rd, Bethany, CT 06524 Aircraft: GRUMMAN AMERICAN AVN. CORP. AA-1B ( Category: Land, Seats: 2, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 100 mph), Engine: LYCOMING 0-235 SERIES (115 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 6269L, N6269L, N-6269L, Serial Number: AA1B-0069, Airworthiness Date: 01/04/1973, Certificate Issue Date: 12/07/2020

Registrant (Corporation): Airyard Inc, 325 Amity Rd, Bethany, CT 06524

GRUMMAN AMERICAN AVN. CORP. AA-1B ( Land, 2, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 100 mph), LYCOMING 0-235 SERIES (115 HP) (Reciprocating) 6269L, N6269L, N-6269L, AA1B-0069, 01/04/1973, 12/07/2020 Airyard Inc, 325 Amity Rd, Bethany, CT 06524 Aircraft: DEHAVILLAND TIGER MOTH DH-82C ( Category: Land, Seats: 2, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 67 mph), Engine: DEHAV ENG GIPSY MAJOR (140 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 6853, N6853, N-6853, Serial Number: 1600, Year manufactured: 1942, Airworthiness Date: 04/02/2016, Certificate Issue Date: 10/20/2015

Registrant (Individual): Geoffrey R King, 27 Whippoorwill Ln, Bethany, CT 06524

DEHAVILLAND TIGER MOTH DH-82C ( Land, 2, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 67 mph), DEHAV ENG GIPSY MAJOR (140 HP) (Reciprocating) 6853, N6853, N-6853, 1600, 1942, 04/02/2016, 10/20/2015 Geoffrey R King, 27 Whippoorwill Ln, Bethany, CT 06524 Aircraft: MARK W SCOTT AVIPRO BEARHAWK ( Category: Land, Seats: 4, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds), Engine: LYCOMING AEIO-540-D4A5 (260 HP) (4 Cycle)

N-Number: 83ME, N83ME, N-83ME, Serial Number: 073-141/142-953, Year manufactured: 2014, Airworthiness Date: 02/02/2014, Certificate Issue Date: 07/02/2013

Registrant (Individual): Mark W Scott, 49 Tuttle Ct, Bethany, CT 06524

MARK W SCOTT AVIPRO BEARHAWK ( Land, 4, Up to 12,499 Pounds), LYCOMING AEIO-540-D4A5 (260 HP) (4 Cycle) 83ME, N83ME, N-83ME, 073-141/142-953, 2014, 02/02/2014, 07/02/2013 Mark W Scott, 49 Tuttle Ct, Bethany, CT 06524 Aircraft: CESSNA 172M ( Category: Land, Seats: 4, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 108 mph), Engine: LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 HP) (4 Cycle)

N-Number: 9320H, N9320H, N-9320H, Serial Number: 17266085, Year manufactured: 1975, Airworthiness Date: 10/14/1975, Certificate Issue Date: 03/17/2010

Registrant (LLC): Plane Tail LLC, 783 Amity Rd, Bethany, CT 06524

CESSNA 172M ( Land, 4, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 108 mph), LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 HP) (4 Cycle) 9320H, N9320H, N-9320H, 17266085, 1975, 10/14/1975, 03/17/2010 Plane Tail LLC, 783 Amity Rd, Bethany, CT 06524 Aircraft: CESSNA 195 ( Category: Land, Seats: 5, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 146 mph), Engine: JACOBS R755A SERIES (300 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 9330A, N9330A, N-9330A, Serial Number: 7409, Year manufactured: 1949, Airworthiness Date: 06/07/1956, Certificate Issue Date: 06/01/1971

Registrant (Individual): Paul K Manger, Bethmour Road, Bethany, CT 06525

CESSNA 195 ( Land, 5, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 146 mph), JACOBS R755A SERIES (300 HP) (Reciprocating) 9330A, N9330A, N-9330A, 7409, 1949, 06/07/1956, 06/01/1971 Paul K Manger, Bethmour Road, Bethany, CT 06525 Aircraft: PIPER PA-22 (Category: Land, Seats: 4, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 94 mph), Engine: LYCOMING 0-290 SERIES (140 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 1455A, N1455A, N-1455A, Serial Number: 22-356, Year manufactured: 1951, Certificate Issue Date: 04/05/1967

Registrant (Individual): Raybern C Perry, Fatima Dr, Bethany, CT 06525

Deregistered: Cancel Date: 04/14/2020

19 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Antenna Towers in Bethany 33 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses in Bethany

2002 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents Based on the data from the years 2002 - 2018 the average number of fires per year is 10. The highest number of reported fires - 33 took place in 2002, and the least - 3 in 2015. The data has a declining trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Bethany, CT



68 40.2% Outside Fires



65 38.5% Structure Fires



26 15.4% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



10 5.9% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most incidents belonged to: Outside Fires (40.2%), and Structure Fires (38.5%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Bethany, CT

Houses and condos Apartments 85.6% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

6.1% Electricity

3.4% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

2.4% Wood

1.7% Utility gas

0.5% No fuel used

0.4% Other fuel 93.1% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

3.5% Utility gas

3.5% Wood





Bethany compared to Connecticut state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Median age above state average.

above Foreign-born population percentage below state average.

below Renting percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Length of stay since moving in significantly above state average.

significantly above Number of rooms per house significantly below state average.

significantly below House age significantly below state average.

significantly below Percentage of population with a bachelor's degree or higher above state average.

Bethany on our top lists: #2 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: therapists (population 5,000+)"

#3 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: architects, surveyors, and cartographers (population 5,000+)"

#5 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: other management occupations except farmers and farm managers (population 5,000+)"

#13 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: media and communication equipment workers (population 5,000+)"

#16 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: painters and paperhangers (population 5,000+)"

#20 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: other health diagnosing and treating practitioners and technical occupations (population 5,000+)"

#26 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: miscellaneous nondurable goods merchant wholesalers (population 5,000+)"

#44 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: other direct selling establishments (population 5,000+)"

#55 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: professional and commercial equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers (population 5,000+)"

#91 on the list of "Top 101 cities with the most people taking a motorcycle to work (population 5,000+)" #75 (06524) on the list of "Top 101 zip codes with the largest percentage of Lithuanian first ancestries (pop 5,000+)" #7 on the list of "Top 101 counties with highest percentage of residents voting for Obama (Democrat) in the 2012 Presidential Election"

#14 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Catholic congregations"

#36 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Catholic adherents"

#38 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the lowest percentage of residents that keep firearms around their homes"

#47 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the highest carbon monoxide air pollution readings in 2012 (ppm)"

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Center Ossipee, New Hampshire

Submit your own pictures of this place and show them to the world



OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 561.

Males: 168 (30.0%) Females: 393 (70.0%)

Median resident age: 49.6 years New Hampshire median age: 43.0 years

Zip codes: 03814.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $64,111

Center Ossipee: $64,111 NH: $77,933

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $38,650



Center Ossipee CDP income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $261,077 Center Ossipee: $261,077 NH: $281,400

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $353,918; detached houses: $379,039; townhouses or other attached units: $417,310; in 2-unit structures: $399,549; in 3-to-4-unit structures: $335,357; in 5-or-more-unit structures: $152,567; mobile homes: $83,212 $64,111$38,650$261,077$353,918;$379,039;$417,310;$399,549;$335,357;$152,567;$83,212

Median gross rent in 2019: $435.

March 2019 cost of living index in Center Ossipee: 97.8 (near average, U.S. average is 100)

Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2019: 18.2%

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:

Most recent value % change since 2k Data: Median household income ($) Median household income (% change since 2000) Household income diversity Ratio of average income to average house value (%) Ratio of average income to average rent Median household income ($) - White Median household income ($) - Black or African American Median household income ($) - Asian Median household income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median household income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median household income ($) - Multirace Median household income ($) - Other Race Median household income for houses/condos with a mortgage ($) Median household income for apartments without a mortgage ($) Races - White alone (%) Races - White alone (% change since 2000) Races - Black alone (%) Races - Black alone (% change since 2000) Races - American Indian alone (%) Races - American Indian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Asian alone (%) Races - Asian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Hispanic (%) Races - Hispanic (% change since 2000) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (%) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (% change since 2000) Races - Two or more races (%) Races - Two or more races (% change since 2000) Races - Other race alone (%) Races - Other race alone (% change since 2000) Racial diversity Unemployment (%) Unemployment (% change since 2000) Unemployment (%) - White Unemployment (%) - Black or African American Unemployment (%) - Asian Unemployment (%) - Hispanic or Latino Unemployment (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Unemployment (%) - Multirace Unemployment (%) - Other Race Population density (people per square mile) Population - Males (%) Population - Females (%) Population - Males (%) - White Population - Males (%) - Black or African American Population - Males (%) - Asian Population - Males (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Males (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Males (%) - Multirace Population - Males (%) - Other Race Population - Females (%) - White Population - Females (%) - Black or African American Population - Females (%) - Asian Population - Females (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Females (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Females (%) - Multirace Population - Females (%) - Other Race Coronavirus confirmed cases (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (Nov 21, 2021) Coronavirus confirmed cases (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Daily increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Weekly increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Cases doubled (in days) (Nov 21, 2021) Hospitalized patients (Nov 21, 2021) Negative test results (Nov 21, 2021) Total test results (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (Nov 21, 2021) Likely homosexual households (%) Likely homosexual households (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (%) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (%) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (% change since 2000) Cost of living index Median gross rent ($) Median contract rent ($) Median monthly housing costs ($) Median house or condo value ($) Median house or condo value ($ change since 2000) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, detached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, attached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 2 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure by units in structure - 3 or 4 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 5 or more ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Boat, RV, van, etc. ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Mobile home ($) Median house or condo value ($) - White Median house or condo value ($) - Black or African American Median house or condo value ($) - Asian Median house or condo value ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median house or condo value ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median house or condo value ($) - Multirace Median house or condo value ($) - Other Race Median resident age Resident age diversity Median resident age - Males Median resident age - Females Median resident age - White Median resident age - Black or African American Median resident age - Asian Median resident age - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Multirace Median resident age - Other Race Median resident age - Males - White Median resident age - Males - Black or African American Median resident age - Males - Asian Median resident age - Males - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Males - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Males - Multirace Median resident age - Males - Other Race Median resident age - Females - White Median resident age - Females - Black or African American Median resident age - Females - Asian Median resident age - Females - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Females - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Females - Multirace Median resident age - Females - Other Race Commute - mean travel time to work (minutes) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (%) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (%) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (% change since 2000) Marital status - Never married (%) Marital status - Now married (%) Marital status - Separated (%) Marital status - Widowed (%) Marital status - Divorced (%) Median family income ($) Median family income (% change since 2000) Median non-family income ($) Median non-family income (% change since 2000) Median per capita income ($) Median per capita income (% change since 2000) Median family income ($) - White Median family income ($) - Black or African American Median family income ($) - Asian Median family income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median family income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median family income ($) - Multirace Median family income ($) - Other Race Median year house/condo built Median year apartment built Year house built - Built 2005 or later (%) Year house built - Built 2000 to 2004 (%) Year house built - Built 1990 to 1999 (%) Year house built - Built 1980 to 1989 (%) Year house built - Built 1970 to 1979 (%) Year house built - Built 1960 to 1969 (%) Year house built - Built 1950 to 1959 (%) Year house built - Built 1940 to 1949 (%) Year house built - Built 1939 or earlier (%) Average household size Household density (households per square mile) Average household size - White Average household size - Black or African American Average household size - Asian Average household size - Hispanic or Latino Average household size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average household size - Multirace Average household size - Other Race Occupied housing units (%) Vacant housing units (%) Owner occupied housing units (%) Renter occupied housing units (%) Vacancy status - For rent (%) Vacancy status - For sale only (%) Vacancy status - Rented or sold, not occupied (%) Vacancy status - For seasonal, recreational, or occasional use (%) Vacancy status - For migrant workers (%) Vacancy status - Other vacant (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level (%) Children below poverty level (%) Poor families by family type - Married-couple family (%) Poor families by family type - Male, no wife present (%) Poor families by family type - Female, no husband present (%) Poverty status for native-born residents (%) Poverty status for foreign-born residents (%) Poverty among high school graduates not in families (%) Poverty among people who did not graduate high school not in families (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - White Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Black or African American Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Asian Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Hispanic or Latino Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Multirace Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Other Race Air pollution - Air Quality Index (AQI) Air pollution - CO Air pollution - NO2 Air pollution - SO2 Air pollution - Ozone Air pollution - PM10 Air pollution - PM25 Air pollution - Pb Crime - Murders per 100,000 population Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Arson per 100,000 population Crime - City-data.com crime index Crime - Violent crime index Crime - Property crime index Crime - Murders per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Arson per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - City-data.com crime index (5 year average) Crime - Violent crime index (5 year average) Crime - Property crime index (5 year average) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Dole) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Gore) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Kerry) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (McCain) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Romney) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Biden) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other Ancestries Reported - Arab (%) Ancestries Reported - Czech (%) Ancestries Reported - Danish (%) Ancestries Reported - Dutch (%) Ancestries Reported - English (%) Ancestries Reported - French (%) Ancestries Reported - French Canadian (%) Ancestries Reported - German (%) Ancestries Reported - Greek (%) Ancestries Reported - Hungarian (%) Ancestries Reported - Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Italian (%) Ancestries Reported - Lithuanian (%) Ancestries Reported - Norwegian (%) Ancestries Reported - Polish (%) Ancestries Reported - Portuguese (%) Ancestries Reported - Russian (%) Ancestries Reported - Scotch-Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Scottish (%) Ancestries Reported - Slovak (%) Ancestries Reported - Subsaharan African (%) Ancestries Reported - Swedish (%) Ancestries Reported - Swiss (%) Ancestries Reported - Ukrainian (%) Ancestries Reported - United States (%) Ancestries Reported - Welsh (%) Ancestries Reported - West Indian (%) Ancestries Reported - Other (%) Educational Attainment - No schooling completed (%) Educational Attainment - Less than high school (%) Educational Attainment - High school or equivalent (%) Educational Attainment - Less than 1 year of college (%) Educational Attainment - 1 or more years of college (%) Educational Attainment - Associate degree (%) Educational Attainment - Bachelor's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Master's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Professional school degree (%) Educational Attainment - Doctorate degree (%) School Enrollment - Nursery, preschool (%) School Enrollment - Kindergarten (%) School Enrollment - Grade 1 to 4 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 5 to 8 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 9 to 12 (%) School Enrollment - College undergrad (%) School Enrollment - Graduate or professional (%) School Enrollment - Not enrolled in school (%) School enrollment - Public schools (%) School enrollment - Private schools (%) School enrollment - Not enrolled (%) Median number of rooms in houses and condos Median number of rooms in apartments Housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities (%) Housing units lacking complete kitchen facilities (%) Density of houses Urban houses (%) Rural houses (%) Households with people 60 years and over (%) Households with people 65 years and over (%) Households with people 75 years and over (%) Households with one or more nonrelatives (%) Households with no nonrelatives (%) Population in households (%) Family households (%) Nonfamily households (%) Population in families (%) Family households with own children (%) Median number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Median number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Median number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Median number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mortgage status - with mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with second mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - with both second mortgage and home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - without a mortgage (%) Average family size Average family size - White Average family size - Black or African American Average family size - Asian Average family size - Hispanic or Latino Average family size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average family size - Multirace Average family size - Other Race Geographical mobility - Same house 1 year ago (%) Geographical mobility - Moved within same county (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different county within same state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from abroad (%) Place of birth - Born in state of residence (%) Place of birth - Born in other state (%) Place of birth - Native, outside of US (%) Place of birth - Foreign born (%) Housing units in structures - 1, detached (%) Housing units in structures - 1, attached (%) Housing units in structures - 2 (%) Housing units in structures - 3 or 4 (%) Housing units in structures - 5 to 9 (%) Housing units in structures - 10 to 19 (%) Housing units in structures - 20 to 49 (%) Housing units in structures - 50 or more (%) Housing units in structures - Mobile home (%) Housing units in structures - Boat, RV, van, etc. (%) House/condo owner moved in on average (years ago) Renter moved in on average (years ago) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1999 to March 2000 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1995 to 1998 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1990 to 1994 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1980 to 1989 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1970 to 1979 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1969 or earlier (%) Means of transportation to work - Drove car alone (%) Means of transportation to work - Carpooled (%) Means of transportation to work - Public transportation (%) Means of transportation to work - Bus or trolley bus (%) Means of transportation to work - Streetcar or trolley car (%) Means of transportation to work - Subway or elevated (%) Means of transportation to work - Railroad (%) Means of transportation to work - Ferryboat (%) Means of transportation to work - Taxicab (%) Means of transportation to work - Motorcycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Bicycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Walked (%) Means of transportation to work - Other means (%) Working at home (%) Industry diversity Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (%) Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (%) Most Common Industries - Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (%) Most Common Industries - Construction (%) Most Common Industries - Manufacturing (%) Most Common Industries - Wholesale trade (%) Most Common Industries - Retail trade (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing, and utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing (%) Most Common Industries - Utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Information (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance (%) Most Common Industries - Real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and technical services (%) Most Common Industries - Management of companies and enterprises (%) Most Common Industries - Administrative and support and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services, and health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services (%) Most Common Industries - Health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation (%) Most Common Industries - Accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Other services, except public administration (%) Most Common Industries - Public administration (%) Occupation diversity Most Common Occupations - Management, business, science, and arts occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management, business, and financial occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Business and financial operations occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer, engineering, and science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer and mathematical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Architecture and engineering occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Life, physical, and social science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, legal, community service, arts, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Community and social service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Legal occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, training, and library occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health diagnosing and treating practitioners and other technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health technologists and technicians (%) Most Common Occupations - Service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Protective service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Fire fighting and prevention, and other protective service workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Law enforcement workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Food preparation and serving related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Personal care and service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and office occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Office and administrative support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Construction and extraction occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production, transportation, and material moving occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Transportation occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Material moving occupations (%) People in Group quarters - Institutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - Correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Federal prisons and detention centers (%) People in Group quarters - Halfway houses (%) People in Group quarters - Local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups) (%) People in Group quarters - Military disciplinary barracks (%) People in Group quarters - State prisons (%) People in Group quarters - Other types of correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Nursing homes (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards, hospices, and schools for the handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards and hospices for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospices or homes for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Military hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Other hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals or wards for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Mental (Psychiatric) hospitals or wards (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the deaf (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the blind (%) People in Group quarters - Orthopedic wards and institutions for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in general hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in military hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Juvenile institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Long-term care (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for abused, dependent, and neglected children (%) People in Group quarters - Residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed children (%) People in Group quarters - Training schools for juvenile delinquents (%) People in Group quarters - Short-term care, detention or diagnostic centers for delinquent children (%) People in Group quarters - Type of juvenile institution unknown (%) People in Group quarters - Noninstitutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - College dormitories (includes college quarters off campus) (%) People in Group quarters - Military quarters (%) People in Group quarters - On base (%) People in Group quarters - Barracks, unaccompanied personnel housing (UPH), (Enlisted/Officer), ;and similar group living quarters for military personnel (%) People in Group quarters - Transient quarters for temporary residents (%) People in Group quarters - Military ships (%) People in Group quarters - Group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Homes or halfway houses for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally ill (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Other group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Religious group quarters (%) People in Group quarters - Dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Agriculture workers' dormitories on farms (%) People in Group quarters - Job Corps and vocational training facilities (%) People in Group quarters - Other workers' dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Crews of maritime vessels (%) People in Group quarters - Other nonhousehold living situations (%) People in Group quarters - Other noninstitutional group quarters (%) Residents speaking English at home (%) Residents speaking English at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking English at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking English at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking other language at home (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Foreign born (%) Class of Workers - Employee of private company (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed in own incorporated business (%) Class of Workers - Private not-for-profit wage and salary workers (%) Class of Workers - Local government workers (%) Class of Workers - State government workers (%) Class of Workers - Federal government workers (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed workers in own not incorporated business and Unpaid family workers (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - No fuel used (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - No fuel used (%) Armed forces status - In Armed Forces (%) Armed forces status - Civilian (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Veteran (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Nonveteran (%) Fatal accidents locations in years 2005-2019 Fatal accidents locations in 2005 Fatal accidents locations in 2006 Fatal accidents locations in 2007 Fatal accidents locations in 2008 Fatal accidents locations in 2009 Fatal accidents locations in 2010 Fatal accidents locations in 2011 Fatal accidents locations in 2012 Fatal accidents locations in 2013 Fatal accidents locations in 2014 Fatal accidents locations in 2015 Fatal accidents locations in 2016 Fatal accidents locations in 2017 Fatal accidents locations in 2018 Fatal accidents locations in 2019 Alcohol use - People drinking some alcohol every month (%) Alcohol use - People not drinking at all (%) Alcohol use - Average days/month drinking alcohol Alcohol use - Average drinks/week Alcohol use - Average days/year people drink much Audiometry - Average condition of hearing (%) Audiometry - People that can hear a whisper from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - People that can hear normal voice from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - Ears ringing, roaring, buzzing (%) Audiometry - Had a job exposure to loud noise (%) Audiometry - Had off-work exposure to loud noise (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high blood pressure (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Checking blood pressure at home (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Frequently checking blood cholesterol (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high cholesterol level (%) Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at supermarket/grocery store Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at other stores Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on eating out Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on carryout/delivered foods Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at supermarket/grocery store (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at other stores (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on eating out (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on carryout/delivered foods (%) Current Health Status - General health condition (%) Current Health Status - Blood donors (%) Current Health Status - Has blood ever tested for HIV virus (%) Current Health Status - Left-handed people (%) Dermatology - People using sunscreen (%) Diabetes - Diabetics (%) Diabetes - Had a blood test for high blood sugar (%) Diabetes - People taking insulin (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Diet health (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Milk product consumption (# of products/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals not home prepared (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals from fast food or pizza place (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Ready-to-eat foods (#/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Frozen meals/pizza (#/month) Drug Use - People that ever used marijuana or hashish (%) Drug Use - Ever used hard drugs (%) Drug Use - Ever used any form of cocaine (%) Drug Use - Ever used heroin (%) Drug Use - Ever used methamphetamine (%) Health Insurance - People covered by health insurance (%) Kidney Conditions-Urology - Avg. # of times urinating at night Medical Conditions - People with asthma (%) Medical Conditions - People with anemia (%) Medical Conditions - People with psoriasis (%) Medical Conditions - People with overweight (%) Medical Conditions - Elderly people having difficulties in thinking or remembering (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever received blood transfusion (%) Medical Conditions - People having trouble seeing even with glass/contacts (%) Medical Conditions - People with arthritis (%) Medical Conditions - People with gout (%) Medical Conditions - People with congestive heart failure (%) Medical Conditions - People with coronary heart disease (%) Medical Conditions - People with angina pectoris (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had heart attack (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had stroke (%) Medical Conditions - People with emphysema (%) Medical Conditions - People with thyroid problem (%) Medical Conditions - People with chronic bronchitis (%) Medical Conditions - People with any liver condition (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had cancer or malignancy (%) Mental Health - People who have little interest in doing things (%) Mental Health - People feeling down, depressed, or hopeless (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble sleeping or sleeping too much (%) Mental Health - People feeling tired or having little energy (%) Mental Health - People with poor appetite or overeating (%) Mental Health - People feeling bad about themself (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble concentrating on things (%) Mental Health - People moving or speaking slowly or too fast (%) Mental Health - People having thoughts they would be better off dead (%) Oral Health - Average years since last visit a dentist Oral Health - People embarrassed because of mouth (%) Oral Health - People with gum disease (%) Oral Health - General health of teeth and gums (%) Oral Health - Average days a week using dental floss/device Oral Health - Average days a week using mouthwash for dental problem Oral Health - Average number of teeth Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to control insects (%) Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to kill weeds (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People walking or bicycling (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - Average hours a day doing sedentary activities Physical Activity - Average hours a day watching TV or videos Physical Activity - Average hours a day using computer Physical Functioning - People having limitations keeping them from working (%) Physical Functioning - People limited in amount of work they can do (%) Physical Functioning - People that need special equipment to walk (%) Physical Functioning - People experiencing confusion/memory problems (%) Physical Functioning - People requiring special healthcare equipment (%) Prescription Medications - Average number of prescription medicines taking Preventive Aspirin Use - Adults 40+ taking low-dose aspirin (%) Reproductive Health - Vaginal deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Cesarean deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Deliveries resulted in a live birth (%) Reproductive Health - Pregnancies resulted in a delivery (%) Reproductive Health - Women breastfeeding newborns (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had a hysterectomy (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had both ovaries removed (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever taken birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women taking birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used Depo-Provera or injectables (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used female hormones (%) Sexual Behavior - People 18+ that ever had sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had anal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had any sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had anal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had any kind of sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first had sex Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female vaginal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a woman (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of woman performed oral sex on in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male anal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a man (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male oral sex partners in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - People using protection when performing oral sex (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of times people have vaginal or anal sex a year Sexual Behavior - People having sex without condom (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male vaginal sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Circumcised males 18+ (%) Sleep Disorders - Average hours sleeping at night Sleep Disorders - People that has trouble sleeping (%) Smoking-Cigarette Use - People smoking cigarettes (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with smell (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with taste (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had wisdom teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had tonsils teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a loss of consciousness because of a head injury (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a broken nose or other serious injury to face or skull (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had two or more sinus infections (%) Weight - Average height (inches) Weight - Average weight (pounds) Weight - Average BMI Weight - People that are obese (%) Weight - People that ever were obese (%) Weight - People trying to lose weight (%) Settings Get link Loading data... Based on 2000-2020 data Loading data...

123 Hide US histogram





According to our research of New Hampshire and other state lists, there were 6 registered sex offenders living in Center Ossipee, New Hampshire as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Center Ossipee is 68 to 1.





Ancestries: American (41.0%), French (20.6%), Italian (20.0%), British (9.4%), English (6.5%), Irish (1.6%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 529 feet

Latitude: 43.76 N, Longitude: 71.15 W

Area code: 603

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 4.0% New Hampshire: 3.5%

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI Ozone PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 58.7. This is better than average. City: 58.7 U.S.: 74.2

Ozone [ppb] level in 2018 was 31.7. This is about average. Closest monitor was 15.6 miles away from the city center. City: 31.7 U.S.: 33.3



Tornado activity: Center Ossipee-area historical tornado activity is below New Hampshire state average. It is 69% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 7/18/1963, a category F2 (max. wind speeds 113-157 mph) tornado 11.0 miles away from the Center Ossipee place center caused between $5000 and $50,000 in damages. On 6/22/1981, a category F2 tornado 22.5 miles away from the place center caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Center Ossipee-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above New Hampshire state average. It is 72% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.3 (5.3 ML, Depth: 3.0 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 136.8 miles away from the city center

On 10/16/2012 at 23:12:25, a magnitude 4.7 (4.7 ML, Depth: 10.0 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 27.1 miles away from Center Ossipee center

On 1/19/1982 at 00:14:42, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 MD, 4.5 LG) earthquake occurred 28.5 miles away from the city center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MB, 4.2 MS, 5.2 MW, 5.0 MW) earthquake occurred 137.1 miles away from Center Ossipee center

On 10/7/1983 at 10:18:46, a magnitude 5.3 (5.1 MB, 5.3 LG, 5.1 ML) earthquake occurred 159.7 miles away from the city center

On 8/21/1996 at 07:54:14, a magnitude 3.8 (3.8 LG, 3.6 LG, Depth: 6.2 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: II - III) earthquake occurred 31.3 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), duration magnitude (MD), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Carroll County (29) is a lot greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 17

Emergencies Declared: 9



Causes of natural disasters: Storms: 12, Floods: 11, Winter Storms: 5, Hurricanes: 4, Snows: 4, Snowstorms: 2, Blizzard: 1, Heavy Rain: 1, Ice Storm: 1, Snowfall: 1, Tornado: 1, Tropical Storm: 1, Wind: 1, Other: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Center Ossipee: MOUNTAIN VIEW NURSING HOME (Nursing Home, about 5 miles away; OSSIPEE, NH)

MOULTONBORO VNS (Home Health Center, about 13 miles away; MOULTONBOROUGH, NH)

HUGGINS HOSPITAL Critical Access Hospitals (about 13 miles away; WOLFEBORO, NH)

Critical Access Hospitals VNA HOSPICE OF S CARROLL CO AND VICINITY (Hospital, about 13 miles away; WOLFEBORO, NH)

WOLFEBORO BAY CARE AND REHABILITATION CENTER (Nursing Home, about 13 miles away; WOLFEBORO, NH)

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Center Ossipee: Plymouth State University ( about 27 miles; Plymouth, NH ; Full-time enrollment: 4,838)

27 ; 4,838) Saint Joseph's College of Maine ( about 34 miles; Standish, ME ; FT enrollment: 2,010)

34 ; 2,010) NHTI-Concord's Community College ( about 42 miles; Concord, NH ; FT enrollment: 2,865)

42 ; 2,865) University of New England ( about 44 miles; Biddeford, ME ; FT enrollment: 4,539)

44 ; 4,539) University of Southern Maine ( about 45 miles; Portland, ME ; FT enrollment: 6,647)

45 ; 6,647) University of New Hampshire-Main Campus ( about 45 miles; Durham, NH ; FT enrollment: 15,243)

45 ; 15,243) Southern Maine Community College (about 47 miles; South Portland, ME; FT enrollment: 4,666)

Library in Center Ossipee: OSSIPEE PUBLIC LIBRARY (Operating income: $207,944; Location: 74 MAIN STREET; 27,311 books; 1,937 audio materials; 2,977 video materials; 22 state licensed databases; 47 print serial subscriptions)

Carroll County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Highest Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in Center Ossipee and their reported violations in the past: OSSIPEE WATER DEPT (Population served: 850, Groundwater): Past monitoring violations: Monitoring and Reporting (DBP) - Between JAN-01-2009 and APR-01-2009, Contaminant: Chlorine. Follow-up actions: St Violation/Reminder Notice (MAY-05-2009), St Compliance achieved (AUG-17-2009) TERRACE PINES CAMPING (Population served: 375, Groundwater): Past health violations: MCL, Monthly (TCR) - Between JUL-2007 and SEP-2007, Contaminant: Coliform. Follow-up actions: St Public Notif requested (AUG-23-2007), St Violation/Reminder Notice (AUG-23-2007), St Public Notif received (SEP-18-2007), St Compliance achieved (JUN-04-2008) Past monitoring violations: One routine major monitoring violation TERRACE PINES HIGHLAND (Population served: 38, Groundwater): Past monitoring violations: One routine major monitoring violation OSSIPEE WATER DEPT (850Groundwater):TERRACE PINES CAMPING (375Groundwater):TERRACE PINES HIGHLAND (38Groundwater):

Average household size: This place: 2.4 people New Hampshire: 2.5 people

Percentage of family households: This place: 60.7% Whole state: 66.3%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This place: 7.4% Whole state: 8.3%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.4% of all households

0.4% Gay men: 0.0% of all households

19 people in group homes intended for adults in 2010

For population 15 years and over in Center Ossipee: Never married: 14.2%

14.2% Now married: 27.3%

27.3% Separated: 2.1%

2.1% Widowed: 12.5%

12.5% Divorced: 43.9%

For population 25 years and over in Center Ossipee: High school or higher: 85.5%

85.5% Bachelor's degree or higher: 5.3%

5.3% Graduate or professional degree: 4.6%

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 5.2 New Hampshire average: 10.6



Religion statistics for Center Ossipee, NH (based on Carroll County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Catholic 4,304 2 Mainline Protestant 4,266 30 Evangelical Protestant 1,241 14 Other 366 5 None 37,641 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 20 Carroll County : 4.23 / 10,000 pop. State : 2.14 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 12 Carroll County : 2.54 / 10,000 pop. New Hampshire : 1.78 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 40 Here : 8.47 / 10,000 pop. New Hampshire : 4.02 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 114 Carroll County : 24.13 / 10,000 pop. New Hampshire : 9.70 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: Here : 8.8% New Hampshire : 7.6% Adult obesity rate: Carroll County : 21.2% New Hampshire : 24.4% Low-income preschool obesity rate: Carroll County : 16.9% New Hampshire : 15.9%

6.65% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($75,215 average adjusted gross income) Here: 6.65% New Hampshire average: 6.87% 0.09% of residents moved from foreign countries ($486 average AGI) Carroll County: 0.09% New Hampshire average: 0.04%

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Strafford County, NH 0.71% ($48,471 average AGI) from Belknap County, NH 0.53% ($41,867) from Rockingham County, NH 0.46% ($72,404)



6.48% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($70,102 average adjusted gross income) Here: 6.48% New Hampshire average: 6.70% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Strafford County, NH 0.75% ($37,119 average AGI) to Belknap County, NH 0.46% ($58,343) to Rockingham County, NH 0.36% ($65,532)

Businesses in Center Ossipee, NH H&R Block: 1

1 True Value: 1

Strongest AM radio stations in Center Ossipee: WASR (1420 AM; 5 kW; WOLFEBORO, NH; Owner: RADIO WOLFEBORO, INC.)

RADIO WOLFEBORO, INC.) WMTW (870 AM; 10 kW; GORHAM, ME; Owner: RADIO PARTNERS OF MAINE, L.P.)

RADIO PARTNERS OF MAINE, L.P.) WGIN (930 AM; 10 kW; ROCHESTER, NH; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WRKO (680 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WEZS (1350 AM; 5 kW; LACONIA, NH; Owner: GARY W. HAMMOND)

GARY W. HAMMOND) WEEI (850 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WPNH (1300 AM; 5 kW; PLYMOUTH, NH; Owner: NORTHEAST COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION)

NORTHEAST COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION) WCRN (830 AM; 50 kW; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WGAN (560 AM; 5 kW; PORTLAND, ME; Owner: SAGA COMMUNICATIONS OF NEW ENGLAND, LLC)

SAGA COMMUNICATIONS OF NEW ENGLAND, LLC) WBZ (1030 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WNNZ (640 AM; 50 kW; WESTFIELD, MA; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WKOX (1200 AM; 50 kW; FRAMINGHAM, MA; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WBNC (1050 AM; 1 kW; CONWAY, NH; Owner: MT. WASHINGTON RADIO & GRAMOPHONE, L.L.C.) Strongest FM radio stations in Center Ossipee: WSCY (106.9 FM; MOULTONBOROUGH, NH; Owner: NORTHEAST COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION)

NORTHEAST COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION) WPKQ (103.7 FM; NORTH CONWAY, NH; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) WHOM (94.9 FM; MT. WASHINGTON, NH; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) WMEA (90.1 FM; PORTLAND, ME; Owner: MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WVFM (105.7 FM; CAMPTON, NH; Owner: DEVON BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

DEVON BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WLKZ (104.9 FM; WOLFEBORO, NH; Owner: TELE-MEDIA COMPANY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, L.L.C.)

TELE-MEDIA COMPANY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, L.L.C.) WVMJ (104.5 FM; CONWAY, NH; Owner: MT. WASHINGTON RADIO & GRAMOPHONE, L.L.C.)

MT. WASHINGTON RADIO & GRAMOPHONE, L.L.C.) WMWV (93.5 FM; CONWAY, NH; Owner: MT. WASHINGTON RADIO & GRAMOPHONE, L.L.C.)

MT. WASHINGTON RADIO & GRAMOPHONE, L.L.C.) WPNH-FM (100.1 FM; PLYMOUTH, NH; Owner: NORTHEAST COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION)

NORTHEAST COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION) WBLM (102.9 FM; PORTLAND, ME; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) WMEX (106.5 FM; FARMINGTON, NH; Owner: WIMMEX, LLC)

WIMMEX, LLC) WNHI (93.3 FM; BELMONT, NH; Owner: CONCORD BROADCASTING, L.L.C.)

CONCORD BROADCASTING, L.L.C.) WHDQ (106.1 FM; CLAREMONT, NH; Owner: GREAT NORTHERN RADIO, L.L.C.)

GREAT NORTHERN RADIO, L.L.C.) WLNH-FM (98.3 FM; LACONIA, NH; Owner: WLNH RADIO, INC)

WLNH RADIO, INC) WPHX-FM (92.1 FM; SANFORD, ME; Owner: FNX BROADCASTING LLC)

FNX BROADCASTING LLC) WSEW (88.5 FM; SANFORD, ME; Owner: WORD RADIO EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

WORD RADIO EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WJBQ (97.9 FM; PORTLAND, ME; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) WBHG (101.5 FM; MEREDITH, NH; Owner: WLNH RADIO, INC)

WLNH RADIO, INC) WFTN-FM (94.1 FM; FRANKLIN, NH; Owner: NORTHEAST COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION) TV broadcast stations around Center Ossipee: WMTW-TV ( Channel 8; POLAND SPRING, ME; Owner: WMTW BROADCAST GROUP, LLC)

8; POLAND SPRING, ME; WMTW BROADCAST GROUP, LLC) WCSH ( Channel 6; PORTLAND, ME; Owner: PACIFIC AND SOUTHERN COMPANY, INC.)

6; PORTLAND, ME; PACIFIC AND SOUTHERN COMPANY, INC.) WMEA-TV ( Channel 26; BIDDEFORD, ME; Owner: MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORP.)

26; BIDDEFORD, ME; MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORP.) WGME-TV (Channel 13; PORTLAND, ME; Owner: WGME LICENSEE, LLC)

Center Ossipee fatal accident list: Aug 25, 2008 11:09 AM, Sr-25e, Lat: 43.764840, Lon: -71.125260, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 1, Fatalities: 1

Feb 22, 2002 04:49 PM, Sr-16, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 1, Fatalities: 1

Sep 4, 1997 08:41 PM, Thurley Rd, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 1, Fatalities: 1, Drunk persons involved: 1

Nov 26, 1989 01:07 AM, 56314, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 2, Fatalities: 1





FCC Registered Broadcast Land Mobile Towers: 1 Tuftonboro Rd (Lat: 43.735361 Lon: -71.152833), Structure height: 21 m, Call Sign: KCB627,

Assigned Frequencies: 47.9000 MHz, 48.3200 MHz, 48.9200 MHz, Grant Date: 05/29/2013, Expiration Date: 07/21/2023, Cancellation Date: 02/04/2015, Registrant: New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, Inc., 579 Tenney Mtn Hwy, Plymouth, NH 03264, Phone: (603) 536-8811, Fax: (603) 536-8687, Email:

FCC Registered Microwave Towers: 1 WHITTIER, 1 Mile Southwest Of The Intersection Of Nh Rt 16 And Nh Rt 25 (Lat: 43.808806 Lon: -71.214833), Type: Tower, Structure height: 21.3 m, Call Sign: WQOH923,

Assigned Frequencies: 6820.62 MHz, 6226.89 MHz, Grant Date: 10/03/2011, Expiration Date: 10/03/2021, Certifier: James Kowalik, Registrant: Electronic Service Solutions, Inc., 15 Worth Street, South Hackensack, NJ 07606, Phone: (856) 764-3809, Email:

FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses: 19 (



FAA Registered Aircraft: 2 Aircraft: CESSNA 172M ( Category: Land, Seats: 4, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 108 mph), Engine: LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 HP) (4 Cycle)

N-Number: 13680, N13680, N-13680, Serial Number: 17262937, Year manufactured: 1974, Airworthiness Date: 02/07/1974, Certificate Issue Date: 10/28/2014

Registrant (Individual): Douglas S Maciver, 1850 Route 16, Center Ossipee, NH 03814

CESSNA 172M ( Land, 4, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 108 mph), LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 HP) (4 Cycle) 13680, N13680, N-13680, 17262937, 1974, 02/07/1974, 10/28/2014 Douglas S Maciver, 1850 Route 16, Center Ossipee, NH 03814 Aircraft: PIPER PA-28-180 (Category: Land, Seats: 4, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 107 mph), Engine: LYCOMING O&VO-360 SER (180 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 7965N, N7965N, N-7965N, Serial Number: 28-5381, Year manufactured: 1969, Airworthiness Date: 04/08/1969, Certificate Issue Date: 03/04/2019

Registrant (Individual): Michael E Leclaire, 4 Fairway Dr, Center Ossipee, NH 03814

19 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses in Center Ossipee

2002 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents Based on the data from the years 2002 - 2018 the average number of fire incidents per year is 13. The highest number of fires - 30 took place in 2011, and the least - 1 in 2003. The data has a rising trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Center Ossipee, NH



146 63.8% Structure Fires



50 21.8% Outside Fires



17 7.4% Other



16 7.0% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires When looking into fire subcategories, the most reports belonged to: Structure Fires (63.8%), and Outside Fires (21.8%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Center Ossipee, NH

Houses and condos Apartments 87.0% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

13.0% Bottled, tank, or LP gas 80.1% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

19.9% Electricity





Center Ossipee compared to New Hampshire state average: Median house value significantly below state average.

significantly below Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Renting percentage above state average.

above Number of rooms per house significantly below state average.

significantly below Number of college students significantly below state average.

significantly below Percentage of population with a bachelor's degree or higher significantly below state average.

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Charlton, Massachusetts

Submit your own pictures of this town and show them to the world



OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 12,981.

Population change since 2000: +15.3%

12,981.+15.3%

Males: 6,378 (49.1%) Females: 6,603 (50.9%)

Median resident age: 41.2 years Massachusetts median age: 39.2 years

Zip codes: 01507.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $103,152 (it was $63,033 in 2000)

Charlton: $103,152 MA: $85,843

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $40,192 (it was $23,626 in 2000)



Charlton town income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $333,911 (it was $153,500 in 2000) Charlton: $333,911 MA: $418,600

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $345,896; detached houses: $359,605; townhouses or other attached units: $293,904; in 2-unit structures: $294,624; in 3-to-4-unit structures: $296,728; in 5-or-more-unit structures: $198,605; mobile homes: $74,819; occupied boats, rvs, vans, etc.: $20,048 $103,152 ($63,033$40,192 ($23,626$333,911 ($153,500$345,896;$359,605;$293,904;$294,624;$296,728;$198,605;$74,819;$20,048

March 2019 cost of living index in Charlton: 128.5 (high, U.S. average is 100)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:



12,233 94.2% White alone 374 2.9% Hispanic 146 1.1% Two or more races 114 0.9% Asian alone 75 0.6% Black alone 20 0.2% American Indian alone 11 0.08% Other race alone 8 0.06% Native Hawaiian and Other

Pacific Islander alone

Races in Charlton detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of Massachusetts and other state lists, there were 9 registered sex offenders living in Charlton, Massachusetts as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Charlton is 1,442 to 1.

The ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is near the state average.





Crime rates in Charlton by year Type 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Murders

(per 100,000) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) Rapes

(per 100,000) 1

(8.0) 0

(0.0) 1

(7.8) 2

(15.6) 5

(39.6) 2

(15.2) 4

(30.3) 5

(37.7) 3

(22.4) 2

(14.9) 4

(29.6) 0

(0.0) 2

(14.6) Robberies

(per 100,000) 1

(8.0) 0

(0.0) 2

(15.7) 3

(23.4) 3

(23.8) 4

(30.4) 2

(15.2) 0

(0.0) 1

(7.5) 2

(14.9) 2

(14.8) 1

(7.3) 0

(0.0) Assaults

(per 100,000) 25

(199.2) 21

(164.5) 12

(94.2) 10

(77.9) 13

(103.0) 13

(98.9) 16

(121.3) 10

(75.4) 3

(22.4) 7

(52.1) 13

(96.1) 12

(87.9) 6

(43.9) Burglaries

(per 100,000) 34

(270.9) 43

(336.9) 40

(314.0) 55

(428.5) 48

(380.2) 47

(357.6) 33

(250.1) 40

(301.7) 37

(276.2) 12

(89.4) 10

(73.9) 11

(80.6) 16

(117.0) Thefts

(per 100,000) 90

(717.1) 75

(587.5) 74

(580.8) 86

(670.0) 88

(697.0) 117

(890.3) 77

(583.6) 51

(384.7) 64

(477.8) 63

(469.1) 71

(525.0) 69

(505.4) 36

(263.2) Auto thefts

(per 100,000) 20

(159.4) 16

(125.3) 17

(133.4) 16

(124.7) 9

(71.3) 8

(60.9) 3

(22.7) 9

(67.9) 9

(67.2) 5

(37.2) 8

(59.2) 8

(58.6) 3

(21.9) Arson

(per 100,000) 1

(8.0) 0

(0.0) 2

(15.7) 0

(0.0) 2

(15.8) 2

(15.2) 1

(7.6) 1

(7.5) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 1

(7.4) 1

(7.3) 1

(7.3) City-Data.com crime index 109.0 90.0 85.7 101.8 119.6 106.6 95.7 87.2 68.5 54.8 78.2 50.3 40.9 The City-Data.com crime index weighs serious crimes and violent crimes more heavily. Higher means more crime, U.S. average is 270.6. It adjusts for the number of visitors and daily workers commuting into cities. Click on a table row to update graph

Crime rate in Charlton detailed stats: murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, arson



Full-time law enforcement employees in 2016, including police officers: 22 (18 officers).

Officers per 1,000 residents here: 1.34 Massachusetts average: 2.57



Latest news from Charlton, MA collected exclusively by city-data.com from local newspapers, TV, and radio stations

Ancestries: French (22.4%), Irish (19.4%), English (17.6%), Polish (11.1%), Italian (10.4%), French Canadian (7.2%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 895 feet

Land area: 42.5 square miles. Population density: 305 people per square mile (very low).

177 residents are foreign born This town: 1.6% Massachusetts: 12.2%

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units in 2000: Charlton town: 1.1% ($1,661) Massachusetts: 1.3% ($2,336)

Latitude: 42.14 N, Longitude: 71.97 W

Area codes: 508, 774

Single-family new house construction building permits: 1997: 67 buildings , average cost: $122,800

67 $122,800 1998: 92 buildings , average cost: $106,600

92 $106,600 1999: 79 buildings , average cost: $105,300

79 $105,300 2000: 85 buildings , average cost: $106,200

85 $106,200 2001: 88 buildings , average cost: $118,300

88 $118,300 2002: 110 buildings , average cost: $176,800

110 $176,800 2003: 81 buildings , average cost: $172,900

81 $172,900 2004: 95 buildings , average cost: $194,200

95 $194,200 2005: 73 buildings , average cost: $166,500

73 $166,500 2006: 62 buildings , average cost: $179,400

62 $179,400 2007: 30 buildings , average cost: $192,700

30 $192,700 2008: 25 buildings , average cost: $240,500

25 $240,500 2009: 28 buildings , average cost: $198,600

28 $198,600 2010: 23 buildings , average cost: $211,300

23 $211,300 2011: 16 buildings , average cost: $199,800

16 $199,800 2012: 13 buildings , average cost: $200,000

13 $200,000 2013: 47 buildings , average cost: $194,900

47 $194,900 2014: 32 buildings , average cost: $226,600

32 $226,600 2015: 27 buildings , average cost: $257,200

27 $257,200 2016: 37 buildings , average cost: $261,800

37 $261,800 2017: 36 buildings , average cost: $267,800

36 $267,800 2018: 36 buildings , average cost: $266,000

36 $266,000 2019: 29 buildings, average cost: $262,400

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 4.5% Massachusetts: 6.2%

Most common industries in Charlton, MA (%) Both Males Females

Educational services (11.4%)

Health care (10.4%)

Construction (8.9%)

Finance & insurance (7.8%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (5.7%)

Accommodation & food services (4.2%)

Public administration (3.6%)

Construction (15.2%)

Educational services (7.3%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (6.4%)

Finance & insurance (6.1%)

Metal & metal products (6.0%)

Computer & electronic products (3.5%)

Other transportation, support activities, couriers (3.2%)

Health care (19.2%)

Educational services (16.1%)

Finance & insurance (9.8%)

Accommodation & food services (6.0%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (4.9%)

Social assistance (4.7%)

Public administration (4.2%) Most common occupations in Charlton, MA (%) Both Males Females

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (4.9%)

Preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school teachers (4.9%)

Computer specialists (4.4%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (4.2%)

Electrical equipment mechanics and other installation, maintenance, and repair workers, including supervisors (3.4%)

Material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers (3.4%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (3.3%)

Computer specialists (7.1%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (6.4%)

Electrical equipment mechanics and other installation, maintenance, and repair workers, including supervisors (5.9%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (5.2%)

Metal workers and plastic workers (4.7%)

Operations specialties managers, except financial managers (4.3%)

Carpenters (4.1%)

Preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school teachers (8.2%)

Secretaries and administrative assistants (6.8%)

Registered nurses (6.4%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (5.8%)

Sales representatives, services, wholesale and manufacturing (3.3%)

Material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers (3.2%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (3.1%)

Average climate in Charlton, Massachusetts Based on data reported by over 4,000 weather stations

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI CO NO 2 SO 2 Ozone PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 73.3. This is about average. City: 73.3 U.S.: 74.2

Carbon Monoxide (CO) [ppm] level in 2018 was 0.280. This is about average. Closest monitor was 12.2 miles away from the city center. City: 0.280 U.S.: 0.267

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 11.2. This is significantly worse than average. Closest monitor was 10.9 miles away from the city center. City: 11.2 U.S.: 5.6

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 0.507. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 10.9 miles away from the city center. City: 0.507 U.S.: 1.789

Ozone [ppb] level in 2018 was 30.9. This is about average. Closest monitor was 10.8 miles away from the city center. City: 30.9 U.S.: 33.3

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 6.57. This is better than average. Closest monitor was 12.3 miles away from the city center. City: 6.57 U.S.: 8.46

Tornado activity: Charlton-area historical tornado activity is slightly above Massachusetts state average. It is 19% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 6/9/1953, a category F4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 25.3 miles away from the Charlton town center killed 90 people and injured 1228 people and caused between $50,000,000 and $500,000,000 in damages. On 6/9/1953, a category F3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 10.5 miles away from the town center injured 17 people and caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Charlton-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Massachusetts state average. It is 71% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 10/7/1983 at 10:18:46, a magnitude 5.3 (5.1 MB, 5.3 LG, 5.1 ML, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 173.7 miles away from Charlton center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.3 (5.3 ML, Depth: 3.0 mi) earthquake occurred 186.0 miles away from Charlton center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MB, 4.2 MS, 5.2 MW, 5.0 MW) earthquake occurred 184.9 miles away from Charlton center

On 1/19/1982 at 00:14:42, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 MD, 4.5 LG, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 96.2 miles away from Charlton center

On 10/16/2012 at 23:12:25, a magnitude 4.7 (4.7 ML, Depth: 10.0 mi) earthquake occurred 121.1 miles away from Charlton center

On 8/22/1992 at 12:20:32, a magnitude 4.8 (4.8 MB, 3.8 MS, 4.7 LG, Depth: 6.2 mi) earthquake occurred 226.7 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), duration magnitude (MD), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Worcester County (27) is a lot greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 15

Emergencies Declared: 12



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 9, Storms: 8, Hurricanes: 6, Snowstorms: 5, Winter Storms: 4, Blizzards: 2, Snows: 2, Fire: 1, Heavy Rain: 1, Snowfall: 1, Tornado: 1, Wind: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers in Charlton: OVERLOOK VNA AND HOSPICE SERVICES (88 MASONIC HOME ROAD, PO BOX 1000)

OVERLOOK MASONIC HEALTH CENTER (MASONIC HOME ROAD PO BOX 1000) Other hospitals and medical centers near Charlton: SANDALWOOD CARE AND REHABILITATION CENTER (Nursing Home, about 6 miles away; OXFORD, MA)

LIBERTY HOUSE (Nursing Home, about 6 miles away; SOUTHBRIDGE, MA)

PROVIDENCE HOUSE N H OF SOUTHBRIDGE (Nursing Home, about 6 miles away; SOUTHBRIDGE, MA)

RADIUS HEALTHCARE-SOUTHBRIDGE (Nursing Home, about 6 miles away; SOUTHBRIDGE, MA)

HARRINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL Acute Care Hospitals (about 6 miles away; SOUTHBRIDGE, MA)

Acute Care Hospitals KINDRED TRANSITIONAL CARE AND REHAB-THE MEADOWS (Nursing Home, about 7 miles away; ROCHDALE, MA)

LIFE CARE CENTER OF AUBURN (Nursing Home, about 7 miles away; AUBURN, MA)

Amtrak station near Charlton: 13 miles: WORCESTER (WORCHESTER, 45 SHREWSBURY ST.) . Services: ticket office, fully wheelchair accessible, enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, vending machines, free short-term parking, free long-term parking, call for taxi service, public transit connection.

Library in Charlton: CHARLTON PUBLIC LIBRARY (Operating income: $341,026; Location: 40 MAIN ST.; 28,286 books; 930 e-books; 2,708 audio materials; 2,568 video materials; 3 local licensed databases; 34 state licensed databases; 95 print serial subscriptions)

Birthplace of: William T. G. Morton - Physician, Linus B. Comins - Politician.

Worcester County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Highest Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in Charlton and their reported violations in the past: RMZ, LLC; DBA SHAKERZ (Serves RI, Population served: 100, Groundwater): Past monitoring violations: One routine major monitoring violation Drinking water stations with addresses in Charlton that have no violations reported: OVERLOOK LIFE CARE COMMUNITY ( Population served: 857 , Primary Water Source Type: Groundwater)

857 Groundwater) BOW MUNICIPAL WATER SYSTEM (Serves NH, Population served: 25, Primary Water Source Type: Groundwater) RMZ, LLC; DBA SHAKERZ (RI100Groundwater):

Average household size: This town: 2.8 people Massachusetts: 2.5 people

Percentage of family households: This town: 77.1% Whole state: 63.0%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This town: 7.5% Whole state: 7.0%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.7% of all households

0.7% Gay men: 0.4% of all households Residents with income below the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 5.6% Whole state: 9.3% Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 2.8% Whole state: 4.4%

people in nursing facilities/skilled-nursing facilities in 2010

4 people in other noninstitutional facilities in 2010

People in group quarters in Charlton in 2000: 180 people in nursing homes

15 people in other nonhousehold living situations

2 people in homes for the mentally retarded 153in 2010in 2010

Banks with branches in Charlton (2011 data): Country Bank for Savings: Overlook Life Care Community Branch at 88 Masonic Home Road , branch established on 2006/06/12; Charlton Branch at 37 Worcester Road , branch established on 2004/04/23 . Info updated 2006/09/29: Bank assets: $1,431.1 mil , Deposits: $953.8 mil , headquarters in Ware, MA , positive income , Mortgage Lending Specialization , 15 total offices

88 Masonic Home Road 2006/06/12; Charlton Branch 37 Worcester Road 2004/04/23 2006/09/29: $1,431.1 mil $953.8 mil Ware, MA , Mortgage Lending Specialization 15 Savers Co-operative Bank: Charlton Branch at 90 Worcester Road , branch established on 1987/10/01 . Info updated 2011/08/19: Bank assets: $414.6 mil , Deposits: $307.9 mil , headquarters in Southbridge, MA , positive income , Mortgage Lending Specialization , 6 total offices

90 Worcester Road 1987/10/01 2011/08/19: $414.6 mil $307.9 mil Southbridge, MA , Mortgage Lending Specialization 6 Southbridge Savings Bank: Charlton Branch at 63 Main Street, branch established on 1976/02/23. Info updated 2008/10/14: Bank assets: $419.3 mil, Deposits: $329.4 mil, headquarters in Southbridge, MA, positive income, Commercial Lending Specialization, 9 total offices, Holding Company: Green Valley Bancorp, Mhc

For population 15 years and over in Charlton: Never married: 20.5%

20.5% Now married: 63.9%

63.9% Separated: 1.0%

1.0% Widowed: 5.9%

5.9% Divorced: 8.7%

For population 25 years and over in Charlton: High school or higher: 86.8%

86.8% Bachelor's degree or higher: 26.4%

26.4% Graduate or professional degree: 10.5%

10.5% Unemployed: 2.2%

2.2% Mean travel time to work (commute): 28.3 minutes

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 10.9 Massachusetts average: 13.1



Religion statistics for Charlton, MA (based on Worcester County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Catholic 306,925 118 Mainline Protestant 43,326 171 Evangelical Protestant 37,511 203 Other 18,931 69 Orthodox 7,935 15 Black Protestant 497 6 None 383,427 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 135 This county : 1.73 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 1.98 / 10,000 pop. Number of supercenters and club stores: 4 Worcester County : 0.05 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 0.05 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 140 Worcester County : 1.79 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 2.22 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 174 Worcester County : 2.22 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 1.77 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 569 Here : 7.27 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 8.76 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: Worcester County : 8.0% Massachusetts : 8.1% Adult obesity rate: This county : 24.0% State : 22.5% Low-income preschool obesity rate: Worcester County : 16.6% Massachusetts : 16.5%

4.16% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($64,114 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.16% Massachusetts average: 5.79% 0.03% of residents moved from foreign countries ($598 average AGI) Worcester County: 0.03% Massachusetts average: 0.05%

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Middlesex County, MA 1.22% ($72,434 average AGI) from Norfolk County, MA 0.28% ($80,228) from Suffolk County, MA 0.20% ($65,864)



4.47% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($70,534 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.47% Massachusetts average: 6.31% 0.03% of residents moved to foreign countries ($414 average AGI) Worcester County: 0.03% Massachusetts average: 0.08%

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Middlesex County, MA 0.92% ($71,780 average AGI) to Norfolk County, MA 0.26% ($69,053) to Suffolk County, MA 0.23% ($82,087)

Businesses in Charlton, MA Name Count Name Count CVS 1 MasterBrand Cabinets 1 Dunkin Donuts 1 McDonald's 2 FedEx 1 U-Haul 1 Jones New York 1

Strongest AM radio stations in Charlton: WCRN (830 AM; 50 kW; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WVNE (760 AM; daytime; 25 kW; LEICESTER, MA; Owner: BLOUNT MASSCOM, INC.)

BLOUNT MASSCOM, INC.) WALE (990 AM; 50 kW; GREENVILLE, RI; Owner: NORTH AMERICAN BROADCASTING CO., INC.)

NORTH AMERICAN BROADCASTING CO., INC.) WKOX (1200 AM; 50 kW; FRAMINGHAM, MA; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WNNZ (640 AM; 50 kW; WESTFIELD, MA; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WBIX (1060 AM; 40 kW; NATICK, MA; Owner: LANGER BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

LANGER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WESO (970 AM; 1 kW; SOUTHBRIDGE, MA)

WEEI (850 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WORC (1310 AM; 5 kW; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: CHOWDER BROADCAST GROUP LLC)

CHOWDER BROADCAST GROUP LLC) WRKO (680 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WAMG (890 AM; 25 kW; DEDHAM, MA; Owner: MEGA COMMUNICATIONS OF DEDHAM LICENSEE, LLC)

MEGA COMMUNICATIONS OF DEDHAM LICENSEE, LLC) WTAG (580 AM; 5 kW; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WVEI (1440 AM; 5 kW; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) Strongest FM radio stations in Charlton: WYCM (90.1 FM; CHARLTON, MA; Owner: BAY PATH VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL)

BAY PATH VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL) WAAF (107.3 FM; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WWFX (100.1 FM; SOUTHBRIDGE, MA; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) WORC-FM (98.9 FM; WEBSTER, MA; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) WSRS (96.1 FM; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WBPR (91.9 FM; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS)

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS) WFCR (88.5 FM; AMHERST, MA; Owner: UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS)

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS) WICN (90.5 FM; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: WICN PUBLIC RADIO, INC)

WICN PUBLIC RADIO, INC) WBMX (98.5 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.)

INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.) WHYN-FM (93.1 FM; SPRINGFIELD, MA; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WJMN (94.5 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.)

AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.) WXLO (104.5 FM; FITCHBURG, MA; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) WCRB (102.5 FM; WALTHAM, MA; Owner: CHARLES RIVER BROADCASTING WCRB LICE)

CHARLES RIVER BROADCASTING WCRB LICE) WTKK (96.9 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WAMH (89.3 FM; AMHERST, MA; Owner: TRUSTEES OF AMHERST COLLEGE)

TRUSTEES OF AMHERST COLLEGE) WROR-FM (105.7 FM; FRAMINGHAM, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WBOS (92.9 FM; BROOKLINE, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WGBH (89.7 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WRNX (100.9 FM; AMHERST, MA; Owner: WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS RADIO COMPANY)

WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS RADIO COMPANY) WFEX (92.1 FM; PETERBOROUGH, NH; Owner: FNX BROADCASTING OF NEW HAMPSHIRE LLC) TV broadcast stations around Charlton: WYDN ( Channel 48; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC TV CORPORATION)

48; WORCESTER, MA; EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC TV CORPORATION) WUNI ( Channel 27; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: ENTRAVISION HOLDINGS, LLC)

27; WORCESTER, MA; ENTRAVISION HOLDINGS, LLC) WCRN-LP ( Channel 34; LEICESTER, MA; Owner: CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

34; LEICESTER, MA; CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WUTF ( Channel 66; MARLBOROUGH, MA; Owner: TELEFUTURA BOSTON LLC)

66; MARLBOROUGH, MA; TELEFUTURA BOSTON LLC) WCVB-TV ( Channel 5; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WCVB HEARST-ARGYLE TV, INC.)

5; BOSTON, MA; WCVB HEARST-ARGYLE TV, INC.) WGBH-TV ( Channel 2; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

2; BOSTON, MA; WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WPXQ ( Channel 69; BLOCK ISLAND, RI; Owner: OCEAN STATE TELEVISION, L.L.C.)

69; BLOCK ISLAND, RI; OCEAN STATE TELEVISION, L.L.C.) WHDH-TV ( Channel 7; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WHDH-TV)

7; BOSTON, MA; WHDH-TV) WMFP ( Channel 62; LAWRENCE, MA; Owner: WSAH LICENSE, INC.)

62; LAWRENCE, MA; WSAH LICENSE, INC.) WBZ-TV ( Channel 4; BOSTON, MA; Owner: VIACOM INC.)

4; BOSTON, MA; VIACOM INC.) WGBX-TV ( Channel 44; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

44; BOSTON, MA; WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WSBK-TV ( Channel 38; BOSTON, MA; Owner: VIACOM INC.)

38; BOSTON, MA; VIACOM INC.) WLVI-TV ( Channel 56; CAMBRIDGE, MA; Owner: WLVI, INC.)

56; CAMBRIDGE, MA; WLVI, INC.) WFXT ( Channel 25; BOSTON, MA; Owner: FOX TELEVISION STATIONS INC.)

25; BOSTON, MA; FOX TELEVISION STATIONS INC.) WTIC-TV ( Channel 61; HARTFORD, CT; Owner: TRIBUNE TELEVISION COMPANY)

61; HARTFORD, CT; TRIBUNE TELEVISION COMPANY) WNAC-TV ( Channel 64; PROVIDENCE, RI; Owner: WNAC, LLC)

64; PROVIDENCE, RI; WNAC, LLC) WPRI-TV ( Channel 12; PROVIDENCE, RI; Owner: TVL BROADCASTING OF RHODE ISLAND, LLC)

12; PROVIDENCE, RI; TVL BROADCASTING OF RHODE ISLAND, LLC) WLNE-TV ( Channel 6; NEW BEDFORD, MA; Owner: FREEDOM BROADCASTING OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND, INC.)

6; NEW BEDFORD, MA; FREEDOM BROADCASTING OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND, INC.) WJAR ( Channel 10; PROVIDENCE, RI; Owner: OUTLET BROADCASTING, INC.)

10; PROVIDENCE, RI; OUTLET BROADCASTING, INC.) W40BO (Channel 40; BOSTON, MA; Owner: PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LPTV, INC.)

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

34 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 194ft / 58.6m Total length

Total length $39,098,000 Total costs

Total costs 566,540 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 39,882 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 505,661 Total future (year 2032) average daily traffic

New bridges - historical statistics

1 1910-1919

3 1940-1949

25 1950-1959

1 1960-1969

2 1970-1979

1 1980-1989

1 2010-2018 See full National Bridge Inventory statistics for Charlton, MA

2002 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents According to the data from the years 2002 - 2018 the average number of fire incidents per year is 69. The highest number of fires - 80 took place in 2013, and the least - 59 in 2007. The data has a decreasing trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Charlton, MA



671 56.9% Structure Fires



280 23.7% Outside Fires



217 18.4% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



11 0.9% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most reports belonged to: Structure Fires (56.9%), and Outside Fires (23.7%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Charlton, MA

Houses and condos Apartments 72.7% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

12.0% Wood

8.4% Electricity

4.4% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

1.0% Coal or coke

0.9% Utility gas

0.5% Other fuel 57.8% Electricity

28.6% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

7.4% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

3.2% Utility gas

1.5% Wood

1.5% Other fuel





Charlton compared to Massachusetts state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Renting percentage below state average.

below Length of stay since moving in significantly above state average.

significantly above Number of rooms per house significantly below state average.

significantly below House age significantly below state average.

Charlton on our top lists: #11 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: operations specialties managers except financial managers (population 5,000+)"

#19 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: other health diagnosing and treating practitioners and technical occupations (population 5,000+)"

#27 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: communications equipment operators (population 5,000+)"

#49 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: supervisors of construction and extraction workers (population 5,000+)"

#51 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: nonmetallic mineral products (population 5,000+)"

#70 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: paper (population 5,000+)"

#70 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: u. s. postal service (population 5,000+)"

#76 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: computer specialists (population 5,000+)"

#78 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: miscellaneous manufacturing (population 5,000+)" #90 (01507) on the list of "Top 101 zip codes with the largest percentage of Lithuanian first ancestries (pop 5,000+)" #4 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the highest carbon monoxide air pollution readings in 2012 (ppm)"

#5 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Catholic congregations"

#12 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the highest surface withdrawal of fresh water for public supply"

#16 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the highest total withdrawal of fresh water for public supply"

#23 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the highest Sulfur Oxides Annual air pollution readings in 2012 (g/m3)"

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Chelyan, West Virginia

Submit your own pictures of this place and show them to the world



OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 776.

Males: 477 (61.5%) Females: 299 (38.5%)

Median resident age: 27.2 years West Virginia median age: 42.9 years

Zip codes: 25035.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $47,759

Chelyan: $47,759 WV: $48,850

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $29,608



Chelyan CDP income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $106,800 Chelyan: $106,800 WV: $124,600

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $83,557; detached houses: $111,343; mobile homes: $19,889 $47,759$29,608$106,800$83,557;$111,343;$19,889

Median gross rent in 2019: $617.

March 2019 cost of living index in Chelyan: 86.0 (less than average, U.S. average is 100)

Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2019: 61.9%

(59.7% for White Non-Hispanic residents, 100.0% for two or more races residents)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:

Most recent value % change since 2k Data: Median household income ($) Median household income (% change since 2000) Household income diversity Ratio of average income to average house value (%) Ratio of average income to average rent Median household income ($) - White Median household income ($) - Black or African American Median household income ($) - Asian Median household income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median household income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median household income ($) - Multirace Median household income ($) - Other Race Median household income for houses/condos with a mortgage ($) Median household income for apartments without a mortgage ($) Races - White alone (%) Races - White alone (% change since 2000) Races - Black alone (%) Races - Black alone (% change since 2000) Races - American Indian alone (%) Races - American Indian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Asian alone (%) Races - Asian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Hispanic (%) Races - Hispanic (% change since 2000) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (%) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (% change since 2000) Races - Two or more races (%) Races - Two or more races (% change since 2000) Races - Other race alone (%) Races - Other race alone (% change since 2000) Racial diversity Unemployment (%) Unemployment (% change since 2000) Unemployment (%) - White Unemployment (%) - Black or African American Unemployment (%) - Asian Unemployment (%) - Hispanic or Latino Unemployment (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Unemployment (%) - Multirace Unemployment (%) - Other Race Population density (people per square mile) Population - Males (%) Population - Females (%) Population - Males (%) - White Population - Males (%) - Black or African American Population - Males (%) - Asian Population - Males (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Males (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Males (%) - Multirace Population - Males (%) - Other Race Population - Females (%) - White Population - Females (%) - Black or African American Population - Females (%) - Asian Population - Females (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Females (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Females (%) - Multirace Population - Females (%) - Other Race Coronavirus confirmed cases (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (Nov 21, 2021) Coronavirus confirmed cases (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Daily increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Weekly increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Cases doubled (in days) (Nov 21, 2021) Hospitalized patients (Nov 21, 2021) Negative test results (Nov 21, 2021) Total test results (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (Nov 21, 2021) Likely homosexual households (%) Likely homosexual households (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (%) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (%) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (% change since 2000) Cost of living index Median gross rent ($) Median contract rent ($) Median monthly housing costs ($) Median house or condo value ($) Median house or condo value ($ change since 2000) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, detached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, attached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 2 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure by units in structure - 3 or 4 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 5 or more ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Boat, RV, van, etc. ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Mobile home ($) Median house or condo value ($) - White Median house or condo value ($) - Black or African American Median house or condo value ($) - Asian Median house or condo value ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median house or condo value ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median house or condo value ($) - Multirace Median house or condo value ($) - Other Race Median resident age Resident age diversity Median resident age - Males Median resident age - Females Median resident age - White Median resident age - Black or African American Median resident age - Asian Median resident age - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Multirace Median resident age - Other Race Median resident age - Males - White Median resident age - Males - Black or African American Median resident age - Males - Asian Median resident age - Males - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Males - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Males - Multirace Median resident age - Males - Other Race Median resident age - Females - White Median resident age - Females - Black or African American Median resident age - Females - Asian Median resident age - Females - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Females - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Females - Multirace Median resident age - Females - Other Race Commute - mean travel time to work (minutes) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (%) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (%) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (% change since 2000) Marital status - Never married (%) Marital status - Now married (%) Marital status - Separated (%) Marital status - Widowed (%) Marital status - Divorced (%) Median family income ($) Median family income (% change since 2000) Median non-family income ($) Median non-family income (% change since 2000) Median per capita income ($) Median per capita income (% change since 2000) Median family income ($) - White Median family income ($) - Black or African American Median family income ($) - Asian Median family income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median family income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median family income ($) - Multirace Median family income ($) - Other Race Median year house/condo built Median year apartment built Year house built - Built 2005 or later (%) Year house built - Built 2000 to 2004 (%) Year house built - Built 1990 to 1999 (%) Year house built - Built 1980 to 1989 (%) Year house built - Built 1970 to 1979 (%) Year house built - Built 1960 to 1969 (%) Year house built - Built 1950 to 1959 (%) Year house built - Built 1940 to 1949 (%) Year house built - Built 1939 or earlier (%) Average household size Household density (households per square mile) Average household size - White Average household size - Black or African American Average household size - Asian Average household size - Hispanic or Latino Average household size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average household size - Multirace Average household size - Other Race Occupied housing units (%) Vacant housing units (%) Owner occupied housing units (%) Renter occupied housing units (%) Vacancy status - For rent (%) Vacancy status - For sale only (%) Vacancy status - Rented or sold, not occupied (%) Vacancy status - For seasonal, recreational, or occasional use (%) Vacancy status - For migrant workers (%) Vacancy status - Other vacant (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level (%) Children below poverty level (%) Poor families by family type - Married-couple family (%) Poor families by family type - Male, no wife present (%) Poor families by family type - Female, no husband present (%) Poverty status for native-born residents (%) Poverty status for foreign-born residents (%) Poverty among high school graduates not in families (%) Poverty among people who did not graduate high school not in families (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - White Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Black or African American Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Asian Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Hispanic or Latino Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Multirace Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Other Race Air pollution - Air Quality Index (AQI) Air pollution - CO Air pollution - NO2 Air pollution - SO2 Air pollution - Ozone Air pollution - PM10 Air pollution - PM25 Air pollution - Pb Crime - Murders per 100,000 population Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Arson per 100,000 population Crime - City-data.com crime index Crime - Violent crime index Crime - Property crime index Crime - Murders per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Arson per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - City-data.com crime index (5 year average) Crime - Violent crime index (5 year average) Crime - Property crime index (5 year average) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Dole) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Gore) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Kerry) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (McCain) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Romney) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Biden) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other Ancestries Reported - Arab (%) Ancestries Reported - Czech (%) Ancestries Reported - Danish (%) Ancestries Reported - Dutch (%) Ancestries Reported - English (%) Ancestries Reported - French (%) Ancestries Reported - French Canadian (%) Ancestries Reported - German (%) Ancestries Reported - Greek (%) Ancestries Reported - Hungarian (%) Ancestries Reported - Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Italian (%) Ancestries Reported - Lithuanian (%) Ancestries Reported - Norwegian (%) Ancestries Reported - Polish (%) Ancestries Reported - Portuguese (%) Ancestries Reported - Russian (%) Ancestries Reported - Scotch-Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Scottish (%) Ancestries Reported - Slovak (%) Ancestries Reported - Subsaharan African (%) Ancestries Reported - Swedish (%) Ancestries Reported - Swiss (%) Ancestries Reported - Ukrainian (%) Ancestries Reported - United States (%) Ancestries Reported - Welsh (%) Ancestries Reported - West Indian (%) Ancestries Reported - Other (%) Educational Attainment - No schooling completed (%) Educational Attainment - Less than high school (%) Educational Attainment - High school or equivalent (%) Educational Attainment - Less than 1 year of college (%) Educational Attainment - 1 or more years of college (%) Educational Attainment - Associate degree (%) Educational Attainment - Bachelor's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Master's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Professional school degree (%) Educational Attainment - Doctorate degree (%) School Enrollment - Nursery, preschool (%) School Enrollment - Kindergarten (%) School Enrollment - Grade 1 to 4 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 5 to 8 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 9 to 12 (%) School Enrollment - College undergrad (%) School Enrollment - Graduate or professional (%) School Enrollment - Not enrolled in school (%) School enrollment - Public schools (%) School enrollment - Private schools (%) School enrollment - Not enrolled (%) Median number of rooms in houses and condos Median number of rooms in apartments Housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities (%) Housing units lacking complete kitchen facilities (%) Density of houses Urban houses (%) Rural houses (%) Households with people 60 years and over (%) Households with people 65 years and over (%) Households with people 75 years and over (%) Households with one or more nonrelatives (%) Households with no nonrelatives (%) Population in households (%) Family households (%) Nonfamily households (%) Population in families (%) Family households with own children (%) Median number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Median number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Median number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Median number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mortgage status - with mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with second mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - with both second mortgage and home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - without a mortgage (%) Average family size Average family size - White Average family size - Black or African American Average family size - Asian Average family size - Hispanic or Latino Average family size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average family size - Multirace Average family size - Other Race Geographical mobility - Same house 1 year ago (%) Geographical mobility - Moved within same county (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different county within same state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from abroad (%) Place of birth - Born in state of residence (%) Place of birth - Born in other state (%) Place of birth - Native, outside of US (%) Place of birth - Foreign born (%) Housing units in structures - 1, detached (%) Housing units in structures - 1, attached (%) Housing units in structures - 2 (%) Housing units in structures - 3 or 4 (%) Housing units in structures - 5 to 9 (%) Housing units in structures - 10 to 19 (%) Housing units in structures - 20 to 49 (%) Housing units in structures - 50 or more (%) Housing units in structures - Mobile home (%) Housing units in structures - Boat, RV, van, etc. (%) House/condo owner moved in on average (years ago) Renter moved in on average (years ago) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1999 to March 2000 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1995 to 1998 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1990 to 1994 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1980 to 1989 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1970 to 1979 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1969 or earlier (%) Means of transportation to work - Drove car alone (%) Means of transportation to work - Carpooled (%) Means of transportation to work - Public transportation (%) Means of transportation to work - Bus or trolley bus (%) Means of transportation to work - Streetcar or trolley car (%) Means of transportation to work - Subway or elevated (%) Means of transportation to work - Railroad (%) Means of transportation to work - Ferryboat (%) Means of transportation to work - Taxicab (%) Means of transportation to work - Motorcycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Bicycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Walked (%) Means of transportation to work - Other means (%) Working at home (%) Industry diversity Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (%) Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (%) Most Common Industries - Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (%) Most Common Industries - Construction (%) Most Common Industries - Manufacturing (%) Most Common Industries - Wholesale trade (%) Most Common Industries - Retail trade (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing, and utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing (%) Most Common Industries - Utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Information (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance (%) Most Common Industries - Real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and technical services (%) Most Common Industries - Management of companies and enterprises (%) Most Common Industries - Administrative and support and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services, and health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services (%) Most Common Industries - Health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation (%) Most Common Industries - Accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Other services, except public administration (%) Most Common Industries - Public administration (%) Occupation diversity Most Common Occupations - Management, business, science, and arts occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management, business, and financial occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Business and financial operations occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer, engineering, and science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer and mathematical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Architecture and engineering occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Life, physical, and social science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, legal, community service, arts, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Community and social service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Legal occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, training, and library occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health diagnosing and treating practitioners and other technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health technologists and technicians (%) Most Common Occupations - Service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Protective service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Fire fighting and prevention, and other protective service workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Law enforcement workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Food preparation and serving related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Personal care and service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and office occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Office and administrative support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Construction and extraction occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production, transportation, and material moving occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Transportation occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Material moving occupations (%) People in Group quarters - Institutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - Correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Federal prisons and detention centers (%) People in Group quarters - Halfway houses (%) People in Group quarters - Local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups) (%) People in Group quarters - Military disciplinary barracks (%) People in Group quarters - State prisons (%) People in Group quarters - Other types of correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Nursing homes (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards, hospices, and schools for the handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards and hospices for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospices or homes for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Military hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Other hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals or wards for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Mental (Psychiatric) hospitals or wards (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the deaf (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the blind (%) People in Group quarters - Orthopedic wards and institutions for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in general hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in military hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Juvenile institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Long-term care (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for abused, dependent, and neglected children (%) People in Group quarters - Residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed children (%) People in Group quarters - Training schools for juvenile delinquents (%) People in Group quarters - Short-term care, detention or diagnostic centers for delinquent children (%) People in Group quarters - Type of juvenile institution unknown (%) People in Group quarters - Noninstitutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - College dormitories (includes college quarters off campus) (%) People in Group quarters - Military quarters (%) People in Group quarters - On base (%) People in Group quarters - Barracks, unaccompanied personnel housing (UPH), (Enlisted/Officer), ;and similar group living quarters for military personnel (%) People in Group quarters - Transient quarters for temporary residents (%) People in Group quarters - Military ships (%) People in Group quarters - Group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Homes or halfway houses for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally ill (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Other group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Religious group quarters (%) People in Group quarters - Dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Agriculture workers' dormitories on farms (%) People in Group quarters - Job Corps and vocational training facilities (%) People in Group quarters - Other workers' dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Crews of maritime vessels (%) People in Group quarters - Other nonhousehold living situations (%) People in Group quarters - Other noninstitutional group quarters (%) Residents speaking English at home (%) Residents speaking English at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking English at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking English at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking other language at home (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Foreign born (%) Class of Workers - Employee of private company (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed in own incorporated business (%) Class of Workers - Private not-for-profit wage and salary workers (%) Class of Workers - Local government workers (%) Class of Workers - State government workers (%) Class of Workers - Federal government workers (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed workers in own not incorporated business and Unpaid family workers (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - No fuel used (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - No fuel used (%) Armed forces status - In Armed Forces (%) Armed forces status - Civilian (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Veteran (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Nonveteran (%) Fatal accidents locations in years 2005-2019 Fatal accidents locations in 2005 Fatal accidents locations in 2006 Fatal accidents locations in 2007 Fatal accidents locations in 2008 Fatal accidents locations in 2009 Fatal accidents locations in 2010 Fatal accidents locations in 2011 Fatal accidents locations in 2012 Fatal accidents locations in 2013 Fatal accidents locations in 2014 Fatal accidents locations in 2015 Fatal accidents locations in 2016 Fatal accidents locations in 2017 Fatal accidents locations in 2018 Fatal accidents locations in 2019 Alcohol use - People drinking some alcohol every month (%) Alcohol use - People not drinking at all (%) Alcohol use - Average days/month drinking alcohol Alcohol use - Average drinks/week Alcohol use - Average days/year people drink much Audiometry - Average condition of hearing (%) Audiometry - People that can hear a whisper from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - People that can hear normal voice from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - Ears ringing, roaring, buzzing (%) Audiometry - Had a job exposure to loud noise (%) Audiometry - Had off-work exposure to loud noise (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high blood pressure (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Checking blood pressure at home (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Frequently checking blood cholesterol (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high cholesterol level (%) Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at supermarket/grocery store Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at other stores Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on eating out Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on carryout/delivered foods Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at supermarket/grocery store (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at other stores (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on eating out (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on carryout/delivered foods (%) Current Health Status - General health condition (%) Current Health Status - Blood donors (%) Current Health Status - Has blood ever tested for HIV virus (%) Current Health Status - Left-handed people (%) Dermatology - People using sunscreen (%) Diabetes - Diabetics (%) Diabetes - Had a blood test for high blood sugar (%) Diabetes - People taking insulin (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Diet health (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Milk product consumption (# of products/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals not home prepared (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals from fast food or pizza place (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Ready-to-eat foods (#/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Frozen meals/pizza (#/month) Drug Use - People that ever used marijuana or hashish (%) Drug Use - Ever used hard drugs (%) Drug Use - Ever used any form of cocaine (%) Drug Use - Ever used heroin (%) Drug Use - Ever used methamphetamine (%) Health Insurance - People covered by health insurance (%) Kidney Conditions-Urology - Avg. # of times urinating at night Medical Conditions - People with asthma (%) Medical Conditions - People with anemia (%) Medical Conditions - People with psoriasis (%) Medical Conditions - People with overweight (%) Medical Conditions - Elderly people having difficulties in thinking or remembering (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever received blood transfusion (%) Medical Conditions - People having trouble seeing even with glass/contacts (%) Medical Conditions - People with arthritis (%) Medical Conditions - People with gout (%) Medical Conditions - People with congestive heart failure (%) Medical Conditions - People with coronary heart disease (%) Medical Conditions - People with angina pectoris (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had heart attack (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had stroke (%) Medical Conditions - People with emphysema (%) Medical Conditions - People with thyroid problem (%) Medical Conditions - People with chronic bronchitis (%) Medical Conditions - People with any liver condition (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had cancer or malignancy (%) Mental Health - People who have little interest in doing things (%) Mental Health - People feeling down, depressed, or hopeless (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble sleeping or sleeping too much (%) Mental Health - People feeling tired or having little energy (%) Mental Health - People with poor appetite or overeating (%) Mental Health - People feeling bad about themself (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble concentrating on things (%) Mental Health - People moving or speaking slowly or too fast (%) Mental Health - People having thoughts they would be better off dead (%) Oral Health - Average years since last visit a dentist Oral Health - People embarrassed because of mouth (%) Oral Health - People with gum disease (%) Oral Health - General health of teeth and gums (%) Oral Health - Average days a week using dental floss/device Oral Health - Average days a week using mouthwash for dental problem Oral Health - Average number of teeth Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to control insects (%) Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to kill weeds (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People walking or bicycling (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - Average hours a day doing sedentary activities Physical Activity - Average hours a day watching TV or videos Physical Activity - Average hours a day using computer Physical Functioning - People having limitations keeping them from working (%) Physical Functioning - People limited in amount of work they can do (%) Physical Functioning - People that need special equipment to walk (%) Physical Functioning - People experiencing confusion/memory problems (%) Physical Functioning - People requiring special healthcare equipment (%) Prescription Medications - Average number of prescription medicines taking Preventive Aspirin Use - Adults 40+ taking low-dose aspirin (%) Reproductive Health - Vaginal deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Cesarean deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Deliveries resulted in a live birth (%) Reproductive Health - Pregnancies resulted in a delivery (%) Reproductive Health - Women breastfeeding newborns (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had a hysterectomy (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had both ovaries removed (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever taken birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women taking birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used Depo-Provera or injectables (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used female hormones (%) Sexual Behavior - People 18+ that ever had sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had anal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had any sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had anal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had any kind of sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first had sex Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female vaginal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a woman (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of woman performed oral sex on in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male anal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a man (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male oral sex partners in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - People using protection when performing oral sex (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of times people have vaginal or anal sex a year Sexual Behavior - People having sex without condom (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male vaginal sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Circumcised males 18+ (%) Sleep Disorders - Average hours sleeping at night Sleep Disorders - People that has trouble sleeping (%) Smoking-Cigarette Use - People smoking cigarettes (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with smell (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with taste (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had wisdom teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had tonsils teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a loss of consciousness because of a head injury (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a broken nose or other serious injury to face or skull (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had two or more sinus infections (%) Weight - Average height (inches) Weight - Average weight (pounds) Weight - Average BMI Weight - People that are obese (%) Weight - People that ever were obese (%) Weight - People trying to lose weight (%) Settings Get link Loading data... Based on 2000-2020 data Loading data...

123 Hide US histogram



928 94.7% White alone 53 5.4% Two or more races

Races in Chelyan detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of West Virginia and other state lists, there were 2 registered sex offenders living in Chelyan, West Virginia as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Chelyan is 445 to 1.

The ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is lower than the state average.





Ancestries: English (25.8%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 619 feet

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with mortgages in 2019: $986 (0.7%)

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with no mortgage in 2019: $236 (0.6%)



Latitude: 38.20 N, Longitude: 81.49 W

Area code commonly used in this area: 304

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 6.3% West Virginia: 5.7%

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI CO SO 2 Ozone PM 10 PM 2.5 Pb

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 62.8. This is about average. City: 62.8 U.S.: 74.2

Carbon Monoxide (CO) [ppm] level in 2018 was 0.230. This is about average. Closest monitor was 12.4 miles away from the city center. City: 0.230 U.S.: 0.267

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 0.497. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 11.7 miles away from the city center. City: 0.497 U.S.: 1.789

Ozone [ppb] level in 2018 was 21.3. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 12.4 miles away from the city center. City: 21.3 U.S.: 33.3

Particulate Matter (PM 10 ) [g/m3] level in 2015 was 11.1. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 8.9 miles away from the city center. City: 11.1 U.S.: 19.6

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 8.56. This is about average. Closest monitor was 12.6 miles away from the city center. City: 8.56 U.S.: 8.46

Lead (Pb) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 0.00349. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 5.4 miles away from the city center. City: 0.00349 U.S.: 0.00984

Tornado activity: Chelyan-area historical tornado activity is below West Virginia state average. It is 79% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 4/23/1968, a category F5 (max. wind speeds 261-318 mph) tornado 57.8 miles away from the Chelyan place center killed 7 people and injured 93 people and caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages. On 4/4/1974, a category F3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 37.5 miles away from the place center killed one person and injured 11 people and caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Chelyan-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above West Virginia state average. It is 9% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 8/23/2011 at 17:51:04, a magnitude 5.8 (5.8 MW, Depth: 3.7 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 194.6 miles away from the city center

On 7/27/1980 at 18:52:21, a magnitude 5.2 (5.1 MB, 4.7 MS, 5.0 UK, 5.2 UK) earthquake occurred 133.3 miles away from Chelyan center

On 8/9/2020 at 12:07:37, a magnitude 5.1 (5.1 MW, Depth: 4.7 mi) earthquake occurred 120.9 miles away from the city center

On 9/25/1998 at 19:52:52, a magnitude 5.2 (4.8 MB, 4.3 MS, 5.2 LG, 4.5 MW, Depth: 3.1 mi) earthquake occurred 235.3 miles away from the city center

On 9/7/1988 at 02:28:09, a magnitude 4.6 (4.5 MB, 4.6 LG, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 129.8 miles away from Chelyan center

On 11/2/2006 at 17:53:02, a magnitude 4.3 (4.3 MB, Depth: 0.6 mi) earthquake occurred 72.7 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Kanawha County (28) is a lot greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 22

Emergencies Declared: 5



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 15, Storms: 14, Landslides: 8, Winter Storms: 5, Hurricanes: 3, Mudslides: 3, Blizzard: 1, Fire: 1, Heavy Rain: 1, Snowfall: 1, Snowstorm: 1, Tornado: 1, Wind: 1, Other: 2 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Chelyan: MONTGOMERY GEN. ELDERLY CARE (Nursing Home, about 10 miles away; MONTGOMERY, WV)

HIGHLAND HOSPITAL (Hospital, about 10 miles away; CHARLESTON, WV)

HEARTLAND OF CHARLESTON (Nursing Home, about 11 miles away; CHARLESTON, WV)

FMS - CHARLESTON (Dialysis Facility, about 12 miles away; CHARLESTON, WV)

AMEDISYS HOME HEALTH OF WEST VIRGINIA (Home Health Center, about 12 miles away; CHARLESTON, WV)

EAST END GROUP HOME (Hospital, about 13 miles away; CHARLESTON, WV)

OAK RIDGE CENTER (Nursing Home, about 13 miles away; CHARLESTON, WV)

Amtrak stations near Chelyan: 10 miles: MONTGOMERY (WASHINGTON ST. & 3RD AVE.) . Services: public payphones, free short-term parking, free long-term parking, call for taxi service, public transit connection.

MONTGOMERY (WASHINGTON ST. & 3RD AVE.) . public payphones, free short-term parking, free long-term parking, call for taxi service, public transit connection. 14 miles: CHARLESTON (350 MCCORKLE AVE. SE) . Services: ticket office, fully wheelchair accessible, enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, vending machines, free short-term parking, free long-term parking, call for taxi service, public transit connection.

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Chelyan: West Virginia State University ( about 20 miles; Institute, WV ; Full-time enrollment: 2,133)

20 ; 2,133) New River Community and Technical College ( about 32 miles; Beckley, WV ; FT enrollment: 2,234)

32 ; 2,234) Marshall University ( about 54 miles; Huntington, WV ; FT enrollment: 11,450)

54 ; 11,450) Concord University ( about 60 miles; Athens, WV ; FT enrollment: 2,698)

60 ; 2,698) Ashland Community and Technical College ( about 66 miles; Ashland, KY ; FT enrollment: 2,482)

66 ; 2,482) West Virginia University at Parkersburg ( about 71 miles; Parkersburg, WV ; FT enrollment: 2,619)

71 ; 2,619) Big Sandy Community and Technical College (about 79 miles; Prestonsburg, KY; FT enrollment: 2,660)

Kanawha County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level less than 2 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Low Potential

Average household size: This place: 2.2 people West Virginia: 2.4 people

Percentage of family households: This place: 58.3% Whole state: 65.8%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This place: 4.2% Whole state: 6.6%



No gay or lesbian households reported





For population 15 years and over in Chelyan: Never married: 69.7%

69.7% Now married: 14.4%

14.4% Separated: 2.2%

2.2% Widowed: 3.9%

3.9% Divorced: 9.8%

For population 25 years and over in Chelyan: High school or higher: 42.2%

42.2% Bachelor's degree or higher: 3.5%

3.5% Graduate or professional degree: 3.5%

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 8.8 West Virginia average: 11.0



Religion statistics for Chelyan, WV (based on Kanawha County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Evangelical Protestant 31,202 219 Mainline Protestant 27,583 114 Catholic 7,331 11 Black Protestant 3,114 12 Other 2,020 10 Orthodox 1,136 2 None 120,677 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 47 This county : 2.46 / 10,000 pop. West Virginia : 2.41 / 10,000 pop. Number of supercenters and club stores: 3 Kanawha County : 0.16 / 10,000 pop. West Virginia : 0.28 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 10 Kanawha County : 0.52 / 10,000 pop. West Virginia : 1.09 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 98 This county : 5.13 / 10,000 pop. West Virginia : 5.38 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 132 Kanawha County : 6.90 / 10,000 pop. West Virginia : 6.22 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: Kanawha County : 12.1% West Virginia : 12.2% Adult obesity rate: Kanawha County : 29.6% State : 31.1% Low-income preschool obesity rate: Here : 12.0% West Virginia : 13.1%

4.58% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($43,214 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.58% West Virginia average: 5.10% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved from foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Putnam County, WV 0.69% ($44,780 average AGI) from Cabell County, WV 0.24% ($30,903) from Fayette County, WV 0.16% ($34,483)



5.35% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($56,107 average adjusted gross income) Here: 5.35% West Virginia average: 5.62% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Putnam County, WV 0.87% ($49,738 average AGI) to Cabell County, WV 0.25% ($37,543) to Jackson County, WV 0.15% ($46,532)

Strongest AM radio stations in Chelyan: WCAW (680 AM; 10 kW; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON)

WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON) WCHS (580 AM; 5 kW; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON)

WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON) WOAY (860 AM; 10 kW; OAK HILL, WV; Owner: COMMISSIONED COMMUNICATIONS, INC.)

COMMISSIONED COMMUNICATIONS, INC.) WVTS (950 AM; 5 kW; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: BRISTOL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

BRISTOL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WSCW (1410 AM; daytime; 5 kW; SOUTH CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: L.M. COMMUNICATIONS OF KENTUCKY, LLC)

L.M. COMMUNICATIONS OF KENTUCKY, LLC) WIWS (1070 AM; daytime; 10 kW; BECKLEY, WV; Owner: SOUTHERN COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION)

SOUTHERN COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION) WMON (1340 AM; 1 kW; MONTGOMERY, WV; Owner: L.M. COMMUNICATIONS OF KENTUCKY, LLC)

L.M. COMMUNICATIONS OF KENTUCKY, LLC) WJLS (560 AM; 5 kW; BECKLEY, WV; Owner: FIRST MEDIA RADIO, LLC)

FIRST MEDIA RADIO, LLC) WWNR (620 AM; 5 kW; BECKLEY, WV; Owner: DYNASTAR COMMUNICATIONS, INC.)

DYNASTAR COMMUNICATIONS, INC.) WTVN (610 AM; 50 kW; COLUMBUS, OH; Owner: CITICASTERS LICENSES, L.P.)

CITICASTERS LICENSES, L.P.) WSWW (1490 AM; 1 kW; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON)

WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON) WBGS (1030 AM; daytime; 10 kW; POINT PLEASANT, WV; Owner: BIG RIVER RADIO, INC.)

BIG RIVER RADIO, INC.) WVOW (1290 AM; 5 kW; LOGAN, WV; Owner: LOGAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION) Strongest FM radio stations in Chelyan: WKVW (93.3 FM; MONTGOMERY, WV; Owner: EDUCATIONAL MEDIA FOUNDATION)

EDUCATIONAL MEDIA FOUNDATION) WKAZ (107.3 FM; MIAMI, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON)

WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON) WXAF (90.9 FM; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: MARANATHA BROADCASTING, INC.)

MARANATHA BROADCASTING, INC.) WCIR-FM (103.7 FM; BECKLEY, WV; Owner: SOUTHERN COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION)

SOUTHERN COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION) WKLC-FM (105.1 FM; ST. ALBANS, WV; Owner: WKLC, INC.)

WKLC, INC.) WVAF (99.9 FM; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON)

WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON) WKWS (96.1 FM; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON)

WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON) WZAC-FM (92.5 FM; DANVILLE, WV; Owner: PRICE BROADCASTING COMPANY)

PRICE BROADCASTING COMPANY) WVPN (88.5 FM; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY)

WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY) WDBS (97.1 FM; SUTTON, WV; Owner: SUMMIT MEDIA BROADCASTING, L.L.C.)

SUMMIT MEDIA BROADCASTING, L.L.C.) WRVZ (98.7 FM; POCATALICO, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON)

WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON) WVSR-FM (102.7 FM; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: BRISTOL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

BRISTOL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WZJO (94.5 FM; DUNBAR, WV; Owner: BRISTOL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC)

BRISTOL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC) WQBE-FM (97.5 FM; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: BRISTOL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

BRISTOL BROADCASTING COMPANY) WAXS (94.1 FM; OAK HILL, WV; Owner: PLATEAU BROADCASTING, INC.)

PLATEAU BROADCASTING, INC.) WVPB (91.7 FM; BECKLEY, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY)

WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY) WMTD-FM (102.3 FM; HINTON, WV; Owner: SOUTHERN COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION)

SOUTHERN COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION) WVWV (89.9 FM; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY)

WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY) WVOW-FM (101.9 FM; LOGAN, WV; Owner: LOGAN BROADCASTING CORP.)

LOGAN BROADCASTING CORP.) W208AK (89.5 FM; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: LOWER OHIO VALLEY EDUCATIONAL CORP.) TV broadcast stations around Chelyan: WVAH-TV ( Channel 11; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WVAH LICENSEE, LLC)

11; CHARLESTON, WV; WVAH LICENSEE, LLC) WCHS-TV ( Channel 8; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WCHS LICENSEE, LLC)

8; CHARLESTON, WV; WCHS LICENSEE, LLC) WLPX-TV ( Channel 29; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: PAXSON CHARLESTON LICENSE, INC.)

29; CHARLESTON, WV; PAXSON CHARLESTON LICENSE, INC.) WPBY-TV ( Channel 33; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY)

33; HUNTINGTON, WV; WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY) WOAY-TV ( Channel 4; OAK HILL, WV; Owner: THOMAS BROADCASTING CO.)

4; OAK HILL, WV; THOMAS BROADCASTING CO.) WSAZ-TV ( Channel 3; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: EMMIS TELEVISION LICENSE CORPORATION)

3; HUNTINGTON, WV; EMMIS TELEVISION LICENSE CORPORATION) WOWK-TV ( Channel 13; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA MEDIA HOLDINGS, LLC)

13; HUNTINGTON, WV; WEST VIRGINIA MEDIA HOLDINGS, LLC) W16CE ( Channel 16; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: EMMIS TELEVISION LICENSE CORPORATION)

16; CHARLESTON, WV; EMMIS TELEVISION LICENSE CORPORATION) W31CA (Channel 31; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: NATIONAL MINORITY T.V., INC.)

Chelyan, West Virginia

Fatal accident count 13

Vehicles involved in fatal accidents 21

Fatal accidents involving drunk persons: 3

Fatalities 15

Persons involved in fatal accidents 33

Pedestrians involved in fatal accidents 1 West Virginia average

Fatal accident count 4136

Vehicles involved in fatal accidents 5983

Fatal accidents involving drunk persons 1101

Fatalities 4638

Persons involved in fatal accidents 10460

Pedestrians involved in fatal accidents 227 See more detailed statistics of Chelyan fatal car crashes and road traffic accidents for 1975 - 2019 here

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

18 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 486ft / 148m Total length

Total length $1,450,000 Total costs

Total costs 167,039 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 22,006 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 230,053 Total future (year 2035) average daily traffic

New bridges - historical statistics

2 1970-1979

7 1980-1989

8 1990-1999

1 2010-2018 See full National Bridge Inventory statistics for Chelyan, WV

FCC Registered Cell Phone Towers: 1 (

FCC Registered Antenna Towers: 27 (



FCC Registered Broadcast Land Mobile Towers: 1 1 Mi Sw (Lat: 38.186944 Lon: -81.514167), Type: Tower, Structure height: 73.2 m, Overall height: 75 m, Call Sign: KQA858,

Assigned Frequencies: 44.1400 MHz, 48.7000 MHz, Grant Date: 01/28/2014, Expiration Date: 02/14/2024, Registrant: Eastern Gas Transmission And Storage, Inc., 925 White Oaks Blvd., Bridgeport, WV 26330, Phone: (681) 842-3701, Email:

FCC Registered Microwave Towers: 4 CHELYAN, .89 Km W Of I77 Interchange 3 @ ( Lat: 38.195361 Lon: -81.510944), Overall height: 60.7 m, Call Sign: WMN292,

Assigned Frequencies: 2178.00 MHz, Grant Date: 03/06/2001, Expiration Date: 02/01/2011, Cancellation Date: 07/10/2002, Certifier: Glenn S Rabin, Registrant: Alltel Communications, Inc., One Allied Drive, B2f02-A, Little Rock, AR 72202, Phone: (501) 905-8555, Fax: (501) 905-6193

38.195361 -81.510944), 60.7 m, WMN292, 2178.00 MHz, 03/06/2001, 02/01/2011, 07/10/2002, Glenn S Rabin, Alltel Communications, Inc., One Allied Drive, B2f02-A, Little Rock, AR 72202, (501) 905-8555, (501) 905-6193 Chelyan, Turnpike Entrance ( Lat: 38.194528 Lon: -81.500667), Type: Pole, Structure height: 10.7 m, Call Sign: WPJD957,

Assigned Frequencies: 6835.00 MHz, Grant Date: 02/23/2011, Expiration Date: 04/09/2021, Registrant: Eastern Gas Transmission And Storage, Inc., 925 White Oaks Blvd., Bridgeport, WV 26330, Phone: (681) 842-3701, Email:

38.194528 -81.500667), Pole, 10.7 m, WPJD957, 6835.00 MHz, 02/23/2011, 04/09/2021, Eastern Gas Transmission And Storage, Inc., 925 White Oaks Blvd., Bridgeport, WV 26330, (681) 842-3701, Jackson, 1 Mi Sw ( Lat: 38.186944 Lon: -81.514167), Type: Tower, Structure height: 73.2 m, Overall height: 75 m, Call Sign: WQDD269,

Assigned Frequencies: 6675.00 MHz, 6585.00 MHz, 6625.00 MHz, Grant Date: 07/09/2015, Expiration Date: 07/27/2025, Certifier: James G Claypool, Registrant: Eastern Gas Transmission And Storage, Inc., 925 White Oaks Blvd., Bridgeport, WV 26330, Phone: (681) 842-3701, Email:

38.186944 -81.514167), Tower, 73.2 m, 75 m, WQDD269, 6675.00 MHz, 6585.00 MHz, 6625.00 MHz, 07/09/2015, 07/27/2025, James G Claypool, Eastern Gas Transmission And Storage, Inc., 925 White Oaks Blvd., Bridgeport, WV 26330, (681) 842-3701, STATION, One Mi Sw (Lat: 38.187028 Lon: -81.514278), Overall height: 75 m, Call Sign: KDK91,

Assigned Frequencies: 6865.00 MHz, Grant Date: 04/09/1996, Expiration Date: 11/01/2000, Cancellation Date: 10/07/1999, Phone: (304) 623-8365

FCC Registered Paging Towers: 1 0.55 Miles West Of I-77 (Lat: 38.195083 Lon: -81.511222), Call Sign: KNKL577,

Assigned Frequencies: 454.525 MHz, 454.525 MHz, Grant Date: 10/27/2009, Expiration Date: 11/04/2019, Cancellation Date: 12/03/2010, Certifier: Glenn S Rabin, Registrant: Verizon Wireless, 1120 Sanctuary Pkwy, #150 Gasa5reg, Alpharetta, GA 30009-7630, Phone: (770) 797-1070, Fax: (770) 797-1036, Email:

FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses: 2 Call Sign: KE8HZP, Licensee ID: L00765543, Grant Date: 10/19/2017, Expiration Date: 10/19/2027, Cancellation Date: 11/10/2017, Certifier: Burton V Sands, Registrant: Burton V Sands, 107 Monroe St, Chelyan, WV 25035

KE8HZP, L00765543, 10/19/2017, 10/19/2027, 11/10/2017, Burton V Sands, Burton V Sands, 107 Monroe St, Chelyan, WV 25035 Call Sign: WV8BVS, Previous Call Sign: KE8HZP, Licensee ID: L00765543, Grant Date: 11/10/2017, Expiration Date: 11/10/2027, Certifier: Burton V Sands, Registrant: Burton V Sands, 107 Monroe St, Chelyan, WV 25035

1 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Cell Phone Towers in Chelyan 27 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Antenna Towers

2003 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents According to the data from the years 2003 - 2018 the average number of fire incidents per year is 11. The highest number of fires - 24 took place in 2018, and the least - 1 in 2005. The data has a growing trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Chelyan, WV



90 52.9% Structure Fires



41 24.1% Outside Fires



33 19.4% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



6 3.5% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most incidents belonged to: Structure Fires (52.9%), and Outside Fires (24.1%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Chelyan, WV

Houses and condos Apartments 85.2% Utility gas

14.8% Electricity 69.8% Electricity

30.2% Utility gas





Chelyan compared to West Virginia state average: Median house value significantly below state average.

significantly below Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below House age above state average.

above Percentage of population with a bachelor's degree or higher significantly below state average.




Coinjock, North Carolina

Submit your own pictures of this place and show them to the world



OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 335.

Males: 138 (41.4%) Females: 197 (58.6%)

Median resident age: 39.6 years North Carolina median age: 39.1 years

Estimated median household income in 2019: $73,474

Coinjock: $73,474 NC: $57,341

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $33,130



Coinjock CDP income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $288,064 Coinjock: $288,064 NC: $193,200

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $498,903; detached houses: $493,838 $73,474$33,130$288,064$498,903;$493,838

Median gross rent in 2019: $746.

March 2019 cost of living index in Coinjock: 81.3 (low, U.S. average is 100)

Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2019: 2.3%

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:

Most recent value % change since 2k Data: Median household income ($) Median household income (% change since 2000) Household income diversity Ratio of average income to average house value (%) Ratio of average income to average rent Median household income ($) - White Median household income ($) - Black or African American Median household income ($) - Asian Median household income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median household income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median household income ($) - Multirace Median household income ($) - Other Race Median household income for houses/condos with a mortgage ($) Median household income for apartments without a mortgage ($) Races - White alone (%) Races - White alone (% change since 2000) Races - Black alone (%) Races - Black alone (% change since 2000) Races - American Indian alone (%) Races - American Indian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Asian alone (%) Races - Asian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Hispanic (%) Races - Hispanic (% change since 2000) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (%) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (% change since 2000) Races - Two or more races (%) Races - Two or more races (% change since 2000) Races - Other race alone (%) Races - Other race alone (% change since 2000) Racial diversity Unemployment (%) Unemployment (% change since 2000) Unemployment (%) - White Unemployment (%) - Black or African American Unemployment (%) - Asian Unemployment (%) - Hispanic or Latino Unemployment (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Unemployment (%) - Multirace Unemployment (%) - Other Race Population density (people per square mile) Population - Males (%) Population - Females (%) Population - Males (%) - White Population - Males (%) - Black or African American Population - Males (%) - Asian Population - Males (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Males (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Males (%) - Multirace Population - Males (%) - Other Race Population - Females (%) - White Population - Females (%) - Black or African American Population - Females (%) - Asian Population - Females (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Females (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Females (%) - Multirace Population - Females (%) - Other Race Coronavirus confirmed cases (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (Nov 21, 2021) Coronavirus confirmed cases (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Daily increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Weekly increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Cases doubled (in days) (Nov 21, 2021) Hospitalized patients (Nov 21, 2021) Negative test results (Nov 21, 2021) Total test results (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (Nov 21, 2021) Likely homosexual households (%) Likely homosexual households (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (%) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (%) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (% change since 2000) Cost of living index Median gross rent ($) Median contract rent ($) Median monthly housing costs ($) Median house or condo value ($) Median house or condo value ($ change since 2000) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, detached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, attached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 2 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure by units in structure - 3 or 4 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 5 or more ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Boat, RV, van, etc. ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Mobile home ($) Median house or condo value ($) - White Median house or condo value ($) - Black or African American Median house or condo value ($) - Asian Median house or condo value ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median house or condo value ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median house or condo value ($) - Multirace Median house or condo value ($) - Other Race Median resident age Resident age diversity Median resident age - Males Median resident age - Females Median resident age - White Median resident age - Black or African American Median resident age - Asian Median resident age - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Multirace Median resident age - Other Race Median resident age - Males - White Median resident age - Males - Black or African American Median resident age - Males - Asian Median resident age - Males - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Males - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Males - Multirace Median resident age - Males - Other Race Median resident age - Females - White Median resident age - Females - Black or African American Median resident age - Females - Asian Median resident age - Females - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Females - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Females - Multirace Median resident age - Females - Other Race Commute - mean travel time to work (minutes) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (%) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (%) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (% change since 2000) Marital status - Never married (%) Marital status - Now married (%) Marital status - Separated (%) Marital status - Widowed (%) Marital status - Divorced (%) Median family income ($) Median family income (% change since 2000) Median non-family income ($) Median non-family income (% change since 2000) Median per capita income ($) Median per capita income (% change since 2000) Median family income ($) - White Median family income ($) - Black or African American Median family income ($) - Asian Median family income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median family income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median family income ($) - Multirace Median family income ($) - Other Race Median year house/condo built Median year apartment built Year house built - Built 2005 or later (%) Year house built - Built 2000 to 2004 (%) Year house built - Built 1990 to 1999 (%) Year house built - Built 1980 to 1989 (%) Year house built - Built 1970 to 1979 (%) Year house built - Built 1960 to 1969 (%) Year house built - Built 1950 to 1959 (%) Year house built - Built 1940 to 1949 (%) Year house built - Built 1939 or earlier (%) Average household size Household density (households per square mile) Average household size - White Average household size - Black or African American Average household size - Asian Average household size - Hispanic or Latino Average household size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average household size - Multirace Average household size - Other Race Occupied housing units (%) Vacant housing units (%) Owner occupied housing units (%) Renter occupied housing units (%) Vacancy status - For rent (%) Vacancy status - For sale only (%) Vacancy status - Rented or sold, not occupied (%) Vacancy status - For seasonal, recreational, or occasional use (%) Vacancy status - For migrant workers (%) Vacancy status - Other vacant (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level (%) Children below poverty level (%) Poor families by family type - Married-couple family (%) Poor families by family type - Male, no wife present (%) Poor families by family type - Female, no husband present (%) Poverty status for native-born residents (%) Poverty status for foreign-born residents (%) Poverty among high school graduates not in families (%) Poverty among people who did not graduate high school not in families (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - White Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Black or African American Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Asian Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Hispanic or Latino Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Multirace Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Other Race Air pollution - Air Quality Index (AQI) Air pollution - CO Air pollution - NO2 Air pollution - SO2 Air pollution - Ozone Air pollution - PM10 Air pollution - PM25 Air pollution - Pb Crime - Murders per 100,000 population Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Arson per 100,000 population Crime - City-data.com crime index Crime - Violent crime index Crime - Property crime index Crime - Murders per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Arson per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - City-data.com crime index (5 year average) Crime - Violent crime index (5 year average) Crime - Property crime index (5 year average) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Dole) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Gore) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Kerry) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (McCain) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Romney) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Biden) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other Ancestries Reported - Arab (%) Ancestries Reported - Czech (%) Ancestries Reported - Danish (%) Ancestries Reported - Dutch (%) Ancestries Reported - English (%) Ancestries Reported - French (%) Ancestries Reported - French Canadian (%) Ancestries Reported - German (%) Ancestries Reported - Greek (%) Ancestries Reported - Hungarian (%) Ancestries Reported - Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Italian (%) Ancestries Reported - Lithuanian (%) Ancestries Reported - Norwegian (%) Ancestries Reported - Polish (%) Ancestries Reported - Portuguese (%) Ancestries Reported - Russian (%) Ancestries Reported - Scotch-Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Scottish (%) Ancestries Reported - Slovak (%) Ancestries Reported - Subsaharan African (%) Ancestries Reported - Swedish (%) Ancestries Reported - Swiss (%) Ancestries Reported - Ukrainian (%) Ancestries Reported - United States (%) Ancestries Reported - Welsh (%) Ancestries Reported - West Indian (%) Ancestries Reported - Other (%) Educational Attainment - No schooling completed (%) Educational Attainment - Less than high school (%) Educational Attainment - High school or equivalent (%) Educational Attainment - Less than 1 year of college (%) Educational Attainment - 1 or more years of college (%) Educational Attainment - Associate degree (%) Educational Attainment - Bachelor's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Master's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Professional school degree (%) Educational Attainment - Doctorate degree (%) School Enrollment - Nursery, preschool (%) School Enrollment - Kindergarten (%) School Enrollment - Grade 1 to 4 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 5 to 8 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 9 to 12 (%) School Enrollment - College undergrad (%) School Enrollment - Graduate or professional (%) School Enrollment - Not enrolled in school (%) School enrollment - Public schools (%) School enrollment - Private schools (%) School enrollment - Not enrolled (%) Median number of rooms in houses and condos Median number of rooms in apartments Housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities (%) Housing units lacking complete kitchen facilities (%) Density of houses Urban houses (%) Rural houses (%) Households with people 60 years and over (%) Households with people 65 years and over (%) Households with people 75 years and over (%) Households with one or more nonrelatives (%) Households with no nonrelatives (%) Population in households (%) Family households (%) Nonfamily households (%) Population in families (%) Family households with own children (%) Median number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Median number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Median number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Median number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mortgage status - with mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with second mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - with both second mortgage and home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - without a mortgage (%) Average family size Average family size - White Average family size - Black or African American Average family size - Asian Average family size - Hispanic or Latino Average family size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average family size - Multirace Average family size - Other Race Geographical mobility - Same house 1 year ago (%) Geographical mobility - Moved within same county (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different county within same state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from abroad (%) Place of birth - Born in state of residence (%) Place of birth - Born in other state (%) Place of birth - Native, outside of US (%) Place of birth - Foreign born (%) Housing units in structures - 1, detached (%) Housing units in structures - 1, attached (%) Housing units in structures - 2 (%) Housing units in structures - 3 or 4 (%) Housing units in structures - 5 to 9 (%) Housing units in structures - 10 to 19 (%) Housing units in structures - 20 to 49 (%) Housing units in structures - 50 or more (%) Housing units in structures - Mobile home (%) Housing units in structures - Boat, RV, van, etc. (%) House/condo owner moved in on average (years ago) Renter moved in on average (years ago) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1999 to March 2000 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1995 to 1998 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1990 to 1994 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1980 to 1989 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1970 to 1979 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1969 or earlier (%) Means of transportation to work - Drove car alone (%) Means of transportation to work - Carpooled (%) Means of transportation to work - Public transportation (%) Means of transportation to work - Bus or trolley bus (%) Means of transportation to work - Streetcar or trolley car (%) Means of transportation to work - Subway or elevated (%) Means of transportation to work - Railroad (%) Means of transportation to work - Ferryboat (%) Means of transportation to work - Taxicab (%) Means of transportation to work - Motorcycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Bicycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Walked (%) Means of transportation to work - Other means (%) Working at home (%) Industry diversity Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (%) Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (%) Most Common Industries - Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (%) Most Common Industries - Construction (%) Most Common Industries - Manufacturing (%) Most Common Industries - Wholesale trade (%) Most Common Industries - Retail trade (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing, and utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing (%) Most Common Industries - Utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Information (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance (%) Most Common Industries - Real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and technical services (%) Most Common Industries - Management of companies and enterprises (%) Most Common Industries - Administrative and support and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services, and health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services (%) Most Common Industries - Health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation (%) Most Common Industries - Accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Other services, except public administration (%) Most Common Industries - Public administration (%) Occupation diversity Most Common Occupations - Management, business, science, and arts occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management, business, and financial occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Business and financial operations occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer, engineering, and science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer and mathematical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Architecture and engineering occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Life, physical, and social science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, legal, community service, arts, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Community and social service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Legal occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, training, and library occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health diagnosing and treating practitioners and other technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health technologists and technicians (%) Most Common Occupations - Service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Protective service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Fire fighting and prevention, and other protective service workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Law enforcement workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Food preparation and serving related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Personal care and service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and office occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Office and administrative support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Construction and extraction occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production, transportation, and material moving occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Transportation occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Material moving occupations (%) People in Group quarters - Institutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - Correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Federal prisons and detention centers (%) People in Group quarters - Halfway houses (%) People in Group quarters - Local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups) (%) People in Group quarters - Military disciplinary barracks (%) People in Group quarters - State prisons (%) People in Group quarters - Other types of correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Nursing homes (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards, hospices, and schools for the handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards and hospices for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospices or homes for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Military hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Other hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals or wards for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Mental (Psychiatric) hospitals or wards (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the deaf (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the blind (%) People in Group quarters - Orthopedic wards and institutions for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in general hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in military hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Juvenile institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Long-term care (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for abused, dependent, and neglected children (%) People in Group quarters - Residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed children (%) People in Group quarters - Training schools for juvenile delinquents (%) People in Group quarters - Short-term care, detention or diagnostic centers for delinquent children (%) People in Group quarters - Type of juvenile institution unknown (%) People in Group quarters - Noninstitutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - College dormitories (includes college quarters off campus) (%) People in Group quarters - Military quarters (%) People in Group quarters - On base (%) People in Group quarters - Barracks, unaccompanied personnel housing (UPH), (Enlisted/Officer), ;and similar group living quarters for military personnel (%) People in Group quarters - Transient quarters for temporary residents (%) People in Group quarters - Military ships (%) People in Group quarters - Group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Homes or halfway houses for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally ill (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Other group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Religious group quarters (%) People in Group quarters - Dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Agriculture workers' dormitories on farms (%) People in Group quarters - Job Corps and vocational training facilities (%) People in Group quarters - Other workers' dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Crews of maritime vessels (%) People in Group quarters - Other nonhousehold living situations (%) People in Group quarters - Other noninstitutional group quarters (%) Residents speaking English at home (%) Residents speaking English at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking English at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking English at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking other language at home (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Foreign born (%) Class of Workers - Employee of private company (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed in own incorporated business (%) Class of Workers - Private not-for-profit wage and salary workers (%) Class of Workers - Local government workers (%) Class of Workers - State government workers (%) Class of Workers - Federal government workers (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed workers in own not incorporated business and Unpaid family workers (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - No fuel used (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - No fuel used (%) Armed forces status - In Armed Forces (%) Armed forces status - Civilian (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Veteran (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Nonveteran (%) Fatal accidents locations in years 2005-2019 Fatal accidents locations in 2005 Fatal accidents locations in 2006 Fatal accidents locations in 2007 Fatal accidents locations in 2008 Fatal accidents locations in 2009 Fatal accidents locations in 2010 Fatal accidents locations in 2011 Fatal accidents locations in 2012 Fatal accidents locations in 2013 Fatal accidents locations in 2014 Fatal accidents locations in 2015 Fatal accidents locations in 2016 Fatal accidents locations in 2017 Fatal accidents locations in 2018 Fatal accidents locations in 2019 Alcohol use - People drinking some alcohol every month (%) Alcohol use - People not drinking at all (%) Alcohol use - Average days/month drinking alcohol Alcohol use - Average drinks/week Alcohol use - Average days/year people drink much Audiometry - Average condition of hearing (%) Audiometry - People that can hear a whisper from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - People that can hear normal voice from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - Ears ringing, roaring, buzzing (%) Audiometry - Had a job exposure to loud noise (%) Audiometry - Had off-work exposure to loud noise (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high blood pressure (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Checking blood pressure at home (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Frequently checking blood cholesterol (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high cholesterol level (%) Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at supermarket/grocery store Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at other stores Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on eating out Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on carryout/delivered foods Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at supermarket/grocery store (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at other stores (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on eating out (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on carryout/delivered foods (%) Current Health Status - General health condition (%) Current Health Status - Blood donors (%) Current Health Status - Has blood ever tested for HIV virus (%) Current Health Status - Left-handed people (%) Dermatology - People using sunscreen (%) Diabetes - Diabetics (%) Diabetes - Had a blood test for high blood sugar (%) Diabetes - People taking insulin (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Diet health (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Milk product consumption (# of products/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals not home prepared (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals from fast food or pizza place (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Ready-to-eat foods (#/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Frozen meals/pizza (#/month) Drug Use - People that ever used marijuana or hashish (%) Drug Use - Ever used hard drugs (%) Drug Use - Ever used any form of cocaine (%) Drug Use - Ever used heroin (%) Drug Use - Ever used methamphetamine (%) Health Insurance - People covered by health insurance (%) Kidney Conditions-Urology - Avg. # of times urinating at night Medical Conditions - People with asthma (%) Medical Conditions - People with anemia (%) Medical Conditions - People with psoriasis (%) Medical Conditions - People with overweight (%) Medical Conditions - Elderly people having difficulties in thinking or remembering (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever received blood transfusion (%) Medical Conditions - People having trouble seeing even with glass/contacts (%) Medical Conditions - People with arthritis (%) Medical Conditions - People with gout (%) Medical Conditions - People with congestive heart failure (%) Medical Conditions - People with coronary heart disease (%) Medical Conditions - People with angina pectoris (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had heart attack (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had stroke (%) Medical Conditions - People with emphysema (%) Medical Conditions - People with thyroid problem (%) Medical Conditions - People with chronic bronchitis (%) Medical Conditions - People with any liver condition (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had cancer or malignancy (%) Mental Health - People who have little interest in doing things (%) Mental Health - People feeling down, depressed, or hopeless (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble sleeping or sleeping too much (%) Mental Health - People feeling tired or having little energy (%) Mental Health - People with poor appetite or overeating (%) Mental Health - People feeling bad about themself (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble concentrating on things (%) Mental Health - People moving or speaking slowly or too fast (%) Mental Health - People having thoughts they would be better off dead (%) Oral Health - Average years since last visit a dentist Oral Health - People embarrassed because of mouth (%) Oral Health - People with gum disease (%) Oral Health - General health of teeth and gums (%) Oral Health - Average days a week using dental floss/device Oral Health - Average days a week using mouthwash for dental problem Oral Health - Average number of teeth Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to control insects (%) Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to kill weeds (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People walking or bicycling (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - Average hours a day doing sedentary activities Physical Activity - Average hours a day watching TV or videos Physical Activity - Average hours a day using computer Physical Functioning - People having limitations keeping them from working (%) Physical Functioning - People limited in amount of work they can do (%) Physical Functioning - People that need special equipment to walk (%) Physical Functioning - People experiencing confusion/memory problems (%) Physical Functioning - People requiring special healthcare equipment (%) Prescription Medications - Average number of prescription medicines taking Preventive Aspirin Use - Adults 40+ taking low-dose aspirin (%) Reproductive Health - Vaginal deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Cesarean deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Deliveries resulted in a live birth (%) Reproductive Health - Pregnancies resulted in a delivery (%) Reproductive Health - Women breastfeeding newborns (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had a hysterectomy (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had both ovaries removed (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever taken birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women taking birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used Depo-Provera or injectables (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used female hormones (%) Sexual Behavior - People 18+ that ever had sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had anal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had any sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had anal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had any kind of sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first had sex Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female vaginal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a woman (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of woman performed oral sex on in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male anal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a man (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male oral sex partners in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - People using protection when performing oral sex (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of times people have vaginal or anal sex a year Sexual Behavior - People having sex without condom (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male vaginal sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Circumcised males 18+ (%) Sleep Disorders - Average hours sleeping at night Sleep Disorders - People that has trouble sleeping (%) Smoking-Cigarette Use - People smoking cigarettes (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with smell (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with taste (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had wisdom teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had tonsils teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a loss of consciousness because of a head injury (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a broken nose or other serious injury to face or skull (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had two or more sinus infections (%) Weight - Average height (inches) Weight - Average weight (pounds) Weight - Average BMI Weight - People that are obese (%) Weight - People that ever were obese (%) Weight - People trying to lose weight (%) Settings Get link Loading data... Based on 2000-2020 data Loading data...

123 Hide US histogram



405 77.6% White alone 50 9.6% Black alone 49 9.4% Hispanic 14 2.7% Asian alone

Races in Coinjock detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of North Carolina and other state lists, there was 1 registered sex offender living in Coinjock, North Carolina as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Coinjock is 315 to 1.





Ancestries: American (62.0%), Scottish (5.6%), English (5.3%), Ukrainian (4.9%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 7 feet

28 residents are foreign born (2.7% Europe). This place: 5.4% North Carolina: 8.0%

Latitude: 36.34 N, Longitude: 75.95 W

Area code: 252

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 4.7% North Carolina: 6.1%

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI Ozone

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2004 was 84.6. This is about average. City: 84.6 U.S.: 74.2

Ozone [ppb] level in 2004 was 34.1. This is about average. Closest monitor was 9.5 miles away from the city center. City: 34.1 U.S.: 33.3

Tornado activity: Coinjock-area historical tornado activity is below North Carolina state average. It is 44% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 11/23/1992, a category F3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 15.5 miles away from the Coinjock place center injured 44 people and caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages. On 3/28/1984, a category F3 tornado 31.7 miles away from the place center killed 2 people and injured 10 people and caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Coinjock-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above North Carolina state average. It is 67% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 8/23/2011 at 17:51:04, a magnitude 5.8 (5.8 MW, Depth: 3.7 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 154.0 miles away from the city center

On 12/9/2003 at 20:59:14, a magnitude 4.5 (4.5 MB, 4.5 LG, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 137.9 miles away from the city center

On 12/9/2003 at 20:59:18, a magnitude 4.5 (4.5 ML, Depth: 6.2 mi) earthquake occurred 154.4 miles away from Coinjock center

On 1/15/2019 at 23:30:48, a magnitude 4.6 (4.6 MW, Depth: 6.2 mi) earthquake occurred 174.2 miles away from the city center

On 8/25/2011 at 05:07:52, a magnitude 4.5 (4.5 ML, Depth: 4.2 mi) earthquake occurred 157.0 miles away from the city center

On 8/9/2020 at 12:07:37, a magnitude 5.1 (5.1 MW, Depth: 4.7 mi) earthquake occurred 286.3 miles away from Coinjock center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), local magnitude (ML), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Currituck County (16) is near the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 7

Emergencies Declared: 7



Causes of natural disasters: Hurricanes: 13, Storms: 2, Tornadoes: 2, Flood: 1, Other: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Coinjock: SENTARA NURSING CENTER (Nursing Home, about 4 miles away; BARCO, NC)

ALBEMARLE HOSPITAL AUTHORITY Acute Care Hospitals (about 15 miles away; ELIZABETH CITY, NC)

Acute Care Hospitals ALBEMARLE HOME CARE (Home Health Center, about 16 miles away; ELIZABETH CITY, NC)

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Coinjock: Elizabeth City State University ( about 16 miles; Elizabeth City, NC ; Full-time enrollment: 2,803)

16 ; 2,803) Regent University ( about 35 miles; Virginia Beach, VA ; FT enrollment: 3,429)

35 ; 3,429) ECPI University ( about 37 miles; Virginia Beach, VA ; FT enrollment: 10,694)

37 ; 10,694) Norfolk State University ( about 39 miles; Norfolk, VA ; FT enrollment: 6,032)

39 ; 6,032) Tidewater Community College ( about 40 miles; Norfolk, VA ; FT enrollment: 20,975)

40 ; 20,975) Old Dominion University ( about 43 miles; Norfolk, VA ; FT enrollment: 19,825)

43 ; 19,825) Hampton University (about 52 miles; Hampton, VA; FT enrollment: 4,494)

Points of interest: Click to draw/clear place borders

Currituck County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level less than 2 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Low Potential

Average household size: This place: 2.4 people North Carolina: 2.5 people

Percentage of family households: This place: 65.7% Whole state: 66.7%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This place: 11.4% Whole state: 5.9%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.7% of all households

0.7% Gay men: 2.1% of all households

For population 15 years and over in Coinjock: Never married: 37.9%

37.9% Now married: 50.4%

50.4% Separated: 0.0%

0.0% Widowed: 0.0%

0.0% Divorced: 11.7%

For population 25 years and over in Coinjock: High school or higher: 84.4%

84.4% Bachelor's degree or higher: 22.2%

22.2% Graduate or professional degree: 0.0%

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 10.6 North Carolina average: 11.8



Religion statistics for Coinjock, NC (based on Currituck County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Evangelical Protestant 4,502 18 Mainline Protestant 1,611 11 Black Protestant 607 4 Catholic 290 1 Orthodox 25 1 Other 6 - None 16,506 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 9 This county : 3.77 / 10,000 pop. North Carolina : 2.05 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 1 Here : 0.42 / 10,000 pop. North Carolina : 0.92 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 20 This county : 8.38 / 10,000 pop. State : 4.75 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 28 This county : 11.74 / 10,000 pop. North Carolina : 7.57 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: This county : 8.7% North Carolina : 9.8% Adult obesity rate: Currituck County : 27.2% State : 28.3% Low-income preschool obesity rate: This county : 15.4% North Carolina : 15.6%

10.03% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($60,459 average adjusted gross income) Here: 10.03% North Carolina average: 7.88% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved from foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Virginia Beach city, VA 1.68% ($56,619 average AGI) from Chesapeake city, VA 1.49% ($75,345) from Dare County, NC 1.40% ($44,707)



8.52% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($45,371 average adjusted gross income) Here: 8.52% North Carolina average: 7.23% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Dare County, NC 1.26% ($37,839 average AGI) to Chesapeake city, VA 0.93% ($54,839) to Virginia Beach city, VA 0.75% ($53,143)

Businesses in Coinjock, NC La-Z-Boy: 1

Strongest AM radio stations in Coinjock: WCKO (1110 AM; daytime; 50 kW; NORFOLK, VA; Owner: WORD BROADCASTING NETWORK, INC.)

WORD BROADCASTING NETWORK, INC.) WTAR (850 AM; 50 kW; NORFOLK, VA; Owner: SINCLAIR COMMUNICATIONS)

SINCLAIR COMMUNICATIONS) WGH (1310 AM; 20 kW; NEWPORT NEWS, VA; Owner: CHESAPEAKE BAY BROADCASTING, LLC)

CHESAPEAKE BAY BROADCASTING, LLC) WGAI (560 AM; 1 kW; ELIZABETH CITY, NC; Owner: MAX RADIO OF THE CAROLINAS LICENSES LLC)

MAX RADIO OF THE CAROLINAS LICENSES LLC) WPMH (1010 AM; 10 kW; PORTSMOUTH, VA; Owner: ABC, INC.)

ABC, INC.) WRJR (670 AM; 20 kW; CLAREMONT, VA; Owner: CHESAPEAKE-PORTSMOUTH BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

CHESAPEAKE-PORTSMOUTH BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WHKT (1650 AM; 10 kW; PORTSMOUTH, VA; Owner: ABC, INC.)

ABC, INC.) WRVA (1140 AM; 50 kW; RICHMOND, VA; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WFOG (1050 AM; 5 kW; NORFOLK, VA; Owner: CHESAPEAKE BAY BROADCASTING, LLC)

CHESAPEAKE BAY BROADCASTING, LLC) WCNC (1240 AM; 1 kW; ELIZABETH CITY, NC; Owner: EAST CAROLINA RADIO, INC.)

EAST CAROLINA RADIO, INC.) WVAB (1550 AM; 5 kW; VIRGINIA BEACH, VA)

WPTF (680 AM; 50 kW; RALEIGH, NC; Owner: FIRST STATE COMMUNICATIONS)

FIRST STATE COMMUNICATIONS) WKGM (940 AM; 10 kW; SMITHFIELD, VA; Owner: WKGM, INC.) Strongest FM radio stations in Coinjock: WKOC (93.7 FM; CHESAPEAKE, VA; Owner: COMMONWEALTH RADIO, L.L.C.)

COMMONWEALTH RADIO, L.L.C.) WCXL (104.1 FM; KILL DEVIL HILLS, NC; Owner: MAX RADIO OF THE CAROLINAS LICENSES LLC)

MAX RADIO OF THE CAROLINAS LICENSES LLC) WFMI (100.9 FM; SOUTHERN SHORES, NC; Owner: COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC.)

COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC.) WGPS (88.3 FM; ELIZABETH CITY, NC; Owner: CSN INTERNATIONAL)

CSN INTERNATIONAL) WRSF (105.7 FM; COLUMBIA, NC; Owner: EAST CAROLINA RADIO, INC.)

EAST CAROLINA RADIO, INC.) WHRO-FM (90.3 FM; NORFOLK, VA; Owner: HAMPTON ROADS EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION,INC)

HAMPTON ROADS EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION,INC) WHRV (89.5 FM; NORFOLK, VA; Owner: HAMPTON ROADS EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION,INC)

HAMPTON ROADS EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION,INC) WFMZ (104.9 FM; HERTFORD, NC; Owner: MARANATHA BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

MARANATHA BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WRVS-FM (89.9 FM; ELIZABETH CITY, NC; Owner: ELIZABETH CITY STATE UNIVERSITY)

ELIZABETH CITY STATE UNIVERSITY) WERX-FM (102.5 FM; COLUMBIA, NC; Owner: LAWRENCE LOESCH & MARGARET LOESCH)

LAWRENCE LOESCH & MARGARET LOESCH) WBHH (92.1 FM; MOYOCK, NC; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) TV broadcast stations around Coinjock: WSKY-TV ( Channel 4; MANTEO, NC; Owner: SKY TELEVISION, L.L.C.)

4; MANTEO, NC; SKY TELEVISION, L.L.C.) WUND-TV ( Channel 2; COLUMBIA, NC; Owner: UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA)

2; COLUMBIA, NC; UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA) WTKR ( Channel 3; NORFOLK, VA; Owner: NEW YORK TIMES MANAGEMENT SERVICES)

3; NORFOLK, VA; NEW YORK TIMES MANAGEMENT SERVICES) WVBT ( Channel 43; VIRGINIA BEACH, VA; Owner: WAVY BROADCASTING, LLC)

43; VIRGINIA BEACH, VA; WAVY BROADCASTING, LLC) WTVZ-TV ( Channel 33; NORFOLK, VA; Owner: WTVZ LICENSEE, LLC)

33; NORFOLK, VA; WTVZ LICENSEE, LLC) WHRO-TV ( Channel 15; HAMPTON-NORFOLK, VA; Owner: HAMPTON ROADS EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOC, INC.)

15; HAMPTON-NORFOLK, VA; HAMPTON ROADS EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOC, INC.) WPXV ( Channel 49; NORFOLK, VA; Owner: PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LICENSE COMPANY, LLC)

49; NORFOLK, VA; PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LICENSE COMPANY, LLC) WVEC-TV ( Channel 13; HAMPTON, VA; Owner: WVEC TELEVISION, INC.)

13; HAMPTON, VA; WVEC TELEVISION, INC.) WITD-CA ( Channel 23; CHESAPEAKE, VA; Owner: WAVY BROADCASTING, LLC)

23; CHESAPEAKE, VA; WAVY BROADCASTING, LLC) WGNT ( Channel 27; PORTSMOUTH, VA; Owner: UPN TELEVISION STATIONS INC.)

27; PORTSMOUTH, VA; UPN TELEVISION STATIONS INC.) WNLO-CA ( Channel 45; NORFOLK, VA; Owner: WAVY BROADCASTING, LLC)

45; NORFOLK, VA; WAVY BROADCASTING, LLC) W18BB (Channel 18; ELIZABETH CITY, NC; Owner: ELIZABETH CITY STATE UNIVERSITY)

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

2 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 259ft / 79.2m Total length

Total length 15,910 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 1,254 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 31,820 Total future (year 2025) average daily traffic

FCC Registered Cell Phone Towers: 2 (

FCC Registered Antenna Towers: 51 (



FCC Registered Broadcast Land Mobile Towers: 1 E Side Currituck Co High School Hwy 158 2 Mi N (Lat: 36.373500 Lon: -75.965750), Type: Tank, Structure height: 76 m, Call Sign: KDV529,

Assigned Frequencies: 155.055 MHz, 155.055 MHz, Grant Date: 08/02/2014, Expiration Date: 09/29/2024, Registrant: Gately Communication Co., 320 West Lake Drive, Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948, Phone: (252) 441-2066, Fax: (252) 441-0913, Email:

FCC Registered Microwave Towers: 3 COINJOCK, 1 Mi Sse Of ( Lat: 36.333500 Lon: -75.942889), Type: Tower, Structure height: 86.8 m, Overall height: 90.8 m, Call Sign: WMK894,

Assigned Frequencies: 6625.00 MHz, 6093.45 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, Grant Date: 05/11/2010, Expiration Date: 06/01/2020, Cancellation Date: 01/09/2014, Certifier: John T Scott Iii, Registrant: Verizon Wireless, 1120 Sanctuary Pkwy, #150 Gasa5reg, Alpharetta, GA 30009-7630, Phone: (770) 797-1070, Fax: (770) 797-1036, Email:

36.333500 -75.942889), Tower, 86.8 m, 90.8 m, WMK894, 6625.00 MHz, 6093.45 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, 05/11/2010, 06/01/2020, 01/09/2014, John T Scott Iii, Verizon Wireless, 1120 Sanctuary Pkwy, #150 Gasa5reg, Alpharetta, GA 30009-7630, (770) 797-1070, (770) 797-1036, COINJOCK, North Edge Of ( Lat: 36.346806 Lon: -75.954083), Overall height: 68 m, Call Sign: KJG97,

Assigned Frequencies: 6234.30 MHz, 6352.90 MHz, Grant Date: 02/13/2001, Expiration Date: 02/01/2011, Cancellation Date: 09/23/2009, Certifier: Craig T Smith, Registrant: Centurylink, 805 Broadway, Vancouver, WA 98660, Phone: (360) 905-6839, Fax: (360) 905-5953, Email:

36.346806 -75.954083), 68 m, KJG97, 6234.30 MHz, 6352.90 MHz, 02/13/2001, 02/01/2011, 09/23/2009, Craig T Smith, Centurylink, 805 Broadway, Vancouver, WA 98660, (360) 905-6839, (360) 905-5953, COINJOCK, 1/4 Mi S Of State Route 158 And Old State Route 158 (Lat: 36.347694 Lon: -75.957417), Type: Tower, Structure height: 103.6 m, Overall height: 108.2 m, Call Sign: WLU693,

Assigned Frequencies: 6615.00 MHz, Grant Date: 01/19/2011, Expiration Date: 02/01/2021, Cancellation Date: 10/14/2015, Certifier: Glenn S Rabin, Registrant: Verizon Wireless, 1120 Sanctuary Pkwy, #150 Gasa5reg, Alpharetta, GA 30009-7630, Phone: (770) 797-1070, Fax: (770) 797-1036, Email:

FCC Registered Maritime Coast & Aviation Ground Towers: 4 Canal Rd ( Lat: 36.347944 Lon: -75.984361), Type: Building, Overall height: 4 m, Call Sign: KCE242, Licensee ID: L00698200,

Assigned Frequencies: 156.425 MHz, 156.800 MHz, 156.450 MHz, Grant Date: 08/11/2003, Expiration Date: 06/03/2013, Cancellation Date: 08/03/2013, Registrant: Coinjock Marina, 321 Waterlily Rd, Coinjock, NC 27923, Phone: (252) 453-3271, Fax: (252) 453-4069, Email:

36.347944 -75.984361), Building, 4 m, KCE242, L00698200, 156.425 MHz, 156.800 MHz, 156.450 MHz, 08/11/2003, 06/03/2013, 08/03/2013, Coinjock Marina, 321 Waterlily Rd, Coinjock, NC 27923, (252) 453-3271, (252) 453-4069, St Rd 1165 Lot 4 ( Lat: 36.356000 Lon: -75.960194), Type: Tower, Overall height: 0 m, Call Sign: WHF797, Licensee ID: L01024071,

Assigned Frequencies: 156.425 MHz, 156.800 MHz, 156.450 MHz, Grant Date: 06/11/2005, Expiration Date: 07/28/2015, Cancellation Date: 10/03/2015, Registrant: Sejer Corp, 157 Coinjock Dev Rd, Coinjock, NC 27923, Phone: (252) 453-3625

36.356000 -75.960194), Tower, 0 m, WHF797, L01024071, 156.425 MHz, 156.800 MHz, 156.450 MHz, 06/11/2005, 07/28/2015, 10/03/2015, Sejer Corp, 157 Coinjock Dev Rd, Coinjock, NC 27923, (252) 453-3625 Sr 1144 ( Lat: 36.353778 Lon: -75.950194), Type: Tower, Call Sign: WHF954,

Assigned Frequencies: 156.450 MHz, 156.425 MHz, 156.800 MHz, Grant Date: 01/04/2001, Expiration Date: 02/22/2006, Cancellation Date: 04/29/2006, Registrant: Harrisons Marina Inc, Sr 1144, Coinjock, NC 27923

36.353778 -75.950194), Tower, WHF954, 156.450 MHz, 156.425 MHz, 156.800 MHz, 01/04/2001, 02/22/2006, 04/29/2006, Harrisons Marina Inc, Sr 1144, Coinjock, NC 27923 Water Lilly Rd Annex (Lat: 36.355722 Lon: -75.960194), Type: Building, Overall height: 6 m, Call Sign: WQB344,

Assigned Frequencies: 156.425 MHz, 156.450 MHz, 156.800 MHz, Grant Date: 07/11/1994, Expiration Date: 07/11/1999, Cancellation Date: 05/06/2001, Registrant: Sejer Corp Dma, Water Lilly Rd, Coinjock, NC 27923

FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses: 1 Call Sign: KJ4DEY, Licensee ID: L01387583, Grant Date: 04/10/2008, Expiration Date: 04/10/2018, Cancellation Date: 04/11/2020, Certifier: Jeri L Holm, Registrant: Jeri L Holm, Coinjock, NC 27923

2 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Cell Phone Towers in Coinjock 51 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Antenna Towers

Houses and condos Apartments 75.3% Electricity

14.0% Utility gas

6.7% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

4.0% Bottled, tank, or LP gas 100.0% Electricity





Coinjock compared to North Carolina state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below House age above state average.




Cos Cob, Connecticut

Submit your own pictures of this place and show them to the world



OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 6,770.

Males: 3,283 (48.5%) Females: 3,487 (51.5%)

Median resident age: 42.8 years Connecticut median age: 41.2 years

Zip codes: 06807.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $97,053

Cos Cob: $97,053 CT: $78,833

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $58,815



Cos Cob CDP income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $444,500 Cos Cob: $444,500 CT: $280,700

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: over $1,000,000; detached houses: over $1,000,000; townhouses or other attached units: $856,848; in 2-unit structures: over $1,000,000; in 3-to-4-unit structures: $814,207; in 5-or-more-unit structures: $752,518 $97,053$58,815$444,500over $1,000,000;over $1,000,000;$856,848;over $1,000,000;$814,207;$752,518

Median gross rent in 2019: $2,008.

March 2019 cost of living index in Cos Cob: 132.7 (high, U.S. average is 100)

Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2019: 6.5%

(5.4% for White Non-Hispanic residents, 14.4% for Hispanic or Latino residents, 17.6% for other race residents, 9.5% for two or more races residents)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:

Most recent value % change since 2k Data: Median household income ($) Median household income (% change since 2000) Household income diversity Ratio of average income to average house value (%) Ratio of average income to average rent Median household income ($) - White Median household income ($) - Black or African American Median household income ($) - Asian Median household income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median household income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median household income ($) - Multirace Median household income ($) - Other Race Median household income for houses/condos with a mortgage ($) Median household income for apartments without a mortgage ($) Races - White alone (%) Races - White alone (% change since 2000) Races - Black alone (%) Races - Black alone (% change since 2000) Races - American Indian alone (%) Races - American Indian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Asian alone (%) Races - Asian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Hispanic (%) Races - Hispanic (% change since 2000) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (%) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (% change since 2000) Races - Two or more races (%) Races - Two or more races (% change since 2000) Races - Other race alone (%) Races - Other race alone (% change since 2000) Racial diversity Unemployment (%) Unemployment (% change since 2000) Unemployment (%) - White Unemployment (%) - Black or African American Unemployment (%) - Asian Unemployment (%) - Hispanic or Latino Unemployment (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Unemployment (%) - Multirace Unemployment (%) - Other Race Population density (people per square mile) Population - Males (%) Population - Females (%) Population - Males (%) - White Population - Males (%) - Black or African American Population - Males (%) - Asian Population - Males (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Males (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Males (%) - Multirace Population - Males (%) - Other Race Population - Females (%) - White Population - Females (%) - Black or African American Population - Females (%) - Asian Population - Females (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Females (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Females (%) - Multirace Population - Females (%) - Other Race Coronavirus confirmed cases (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (Nov 21, 2021) Coronavirus confirmed cases (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Daily increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Weekly increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Cases doubled (in days) (Nov 21, 2021) Hospitalized patients (Nov 21, 2021) Negative test results (Nov 21, 2021) Total test results (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (Nov 21, 2021) Likely homosexual households (%) Likely homosexual households (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (%) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (%) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (% change since 2000) Cost of living index Median gross rent ($) Median contract rent ($) Median monthly housing costs ($) Median house or condo value ($) Median house or condo value ($ change since 2000) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, detached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, attached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 2 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure by units in structure - 3 or 4 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 5 or more ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Boat, RV, van, etc. ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Mobile home ($) Median house or condo value ($) - White Median house or condo value ($) - Black or African American Median house or condo value ($) - Asian Median house or condo value ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median house or condo value ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median house or condo value ($) - Multirace Median house or condo value ($) - Other Race Median resident age Resident age diversity Median resident age - Males Median resident age - Females Median resident age - White Median resident age - Black or African American Median resident age - Asian Median resident age - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Multirace Median resident age - Other Race Median resident age - Males - White Median resident age - Males - Black or African American Median resident age - Males - Asian Median resident age - Males - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Males - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Males - Multirace Median resident age - Males - Other Race Median resident age - Females - White Median resident age - Females - Black or African American Median resident age - Females - Asian Median resident age - Females - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Females - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Females - Multirace Median resident age - Females - Other Race Commute - mean travel time to work (minutes) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (%) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (%) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (% change since 2000) Marital status - Never married (%) Marital status - Now married (%) Marital status - Separated (%) Marital status - Widowed (%) Marital status - Divorced (%) Median family income ($) Median family income (% change since 2000) Median non-family income ($) Median non-family income (% change since 2000) Median per capita income ($) Median per capita income (% change since 2000) Median family income ($) - White Median family income ($) - Black or African American Median family income ($) - Asian Median family income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median family income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median family income ($) - Multirace Median family income ($) - Other Race Median year house/condo built Median year apartment built Year house built - Built 2005 or later (%) Year house built - Built 2000 to 2004 (%) Year house built - Built 1990 to 1999 (%) Year house built - Built 1980 to 1989 (%) Year house built - Built 1970 to 1979 (%) Year house built - Built 1960 to 1969 (%) Year house built - Built 1950 to 1959 (%) Year house built - Built 1940 to 1949 (%) Year house built - Built 1939 or earlier (%) Average household size Household density (households per square mile) Average household size - White Average household size - Black or African American Average household size - Asian Average household size - Hispanic or Latino Average household size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average household size - Multirace Average household size - Other Race Occupied housing units (%) Vacant housing units (%) Owner occupied housing units (%) Renter occupied housing units (%) Vacancy status - For rent (%) Vacancy status - For sale only (%) Vacancy status - Rented or sold, not occupied (%) Vacancy status - For seasonal, recreational, or occasional use (%) Vacancy status - For migrant workers (%) Vacancy status - Other vacant (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level (%) Children below poverty level (%) Poor families by family type - Married-couple family (%) Poor families by family type - Male, no wife present (%) Poor families by family type - Female, no husband present (%) Poverty status for native-born residents (%) Poverty status for foreign-born residents (%) Poverty among high school graduates not in families (%) Poverty among people who did not graduate high school not in families (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - White Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Black or African American Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Asian Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Hispanic or Latino Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Multirace Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Other Race Air pollution - Air Quality Index (AQI) Air pollution - CO Air pollution - NO2 Air pollution - SO2 Air pollution - Ozone Air pollution - PM10 Air pollution - PM25 Air pollution - Pb Crime - Murders per 100,000 population Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Arson per 100,000 population Crime - City-data.com crime index Crime - Violent crime index Crime - Property crime index Crime - Murders per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Arson per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - City-data.com crime index (5 year average) Crime - Violent crime index (5 year average) Crime - Property crime index (5 year average) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Dole) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Gore) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Kerry) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (McCain) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Romney) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Biden) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other Ancestries Reported - Arab (%) Ancestries Reported - Czech (%) Ancestries Reported - Danish (%) Ancestries Reported - Dutch (%) Ancestries Reported - English (%) Ancestries Reported - French (%) Ancestries Reported - French Canadian (%) Ancestries Reported - German (%) Ancestries Reported - Greek (%) Ancestries Reported - Hungarian (%) Ancestries Reported - Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Italian (%) Ancestries Reported - Lithuanian (%) Ancestries Reported - Norwegian (%) Ancestries Reported - Polish (%) Ancestries Reported - Portuguese (%) Ancestries Reported - Russian (%) Ancestries Reported - Scotch-Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Scottish (%) Ancestries Reported - Slovak (%) Ancestries Reported - Subsaharan African (%) Ancestries Reported - Swedish (%) Ancestries Reported - Swiss (%) Ancestries Reported - Ukrainian (%) Ancestries Reported - United States (%) Ancestries Reported - Welsh (%) Ancestries Reported - West Indian (%) Ancestries Reported - Other (%) Educational Attainment - No schooling completed (%) Educational Attainment - Less than high school (%) Educational Attainment - High school or equivalent (%) Educational Attainment - Less than 1 year of college (%) Educational Attainment - 1 or more years of college (%) Educational Attainment - Associate degree (%) Educational Attainment - Bachelor's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Master's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Professional school degree (%) Educational Attainment - Doctorate degree (%) School Enrollment - Nursery, preschool (%) School Enrollment - Kindergarten (%) School Enrollment - Grade 1 to 4 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 5 to 8 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 9 to 12 (%) School Enrollment - College undergrad (%) School Enrollment - Graduate or professional (%) School Enrollment - Not enrolled in school (%) School enrollment - Public schools (%) School enrollment - Private schools (%) School enrollment - Not enrolled (%) Median number of rooms in houses and condos Median number of rooms in apartments Housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities (%) Housing units lacking complete kitchen facilities (%) Density of houses Urban houses (%) Rural houses (%) Households with people 60 years and over (%) Households with people 65 years and over (%) Households with people 75 years and over (%) Households with one or more nonrelatives (%) Households with no nonrelatives (%) Population in households (%) Family households (%) Nonfamily households (%) Population in families (%) Family households with own children (%) Median number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Median number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Median number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Median number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mortgage status - with mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with second mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - with both second mortgage and home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - without a mortgage (%) Average family size Average family size - White Average family size - Black or African American Average family size - Asian Average family size - Hispanic or Latino Average family size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average family size - Multirace Average family size - Other Race Geographical mobility - Same house 1 year ago (%) Geographical mobility - Moved within same county (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different county within same state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from abroad (%) Place of birth - Born in state of residence (%) Place of birth - Born in other state (%) Place of birth - Native, outside of US (%) Place of birth - Foreign born (%) Housing units in structures - 1, detached (%) Housing units in structures - 1, attached (%) Housing units in structures - 2 (%) Housing units in structures - 3 or 4 (%) Housing units in structures - 5 to 9 (%) Housing units in structures - 10 to 19 (%) Housing units in structures - 20 to 49 (%) Housing units in structures - 50 or more (%) Housing units in structures - Mobile home (%) Housing units in structures - Boat, RV, van, etc. (%) House/condo owner moved in on average (years ago) Renter moved in on average (years ago) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1999 to March 2000 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1995 to 1998 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1990 to 1994 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1980 to 1989 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1970 to 1979 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1969 or earlier (%) Means of transportation to work - Drove car alone (%) Means of transportation to work - Carpooled (%) Means of transportation to work - Public transportation (%) Means of transportation to work - Bus or trolley bus (%) Means of transportation to work - Streetcar or trolley car (%) Means of transportation to work - Subway or elevated (%) Means of transportation to work - Railroad (%) Means of transportation to work - Ferryboat (%) Means of transportation to work - Taxicab (%) Means of transportation to work - Motorcycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Bicycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Walked (%) Means of transportation to work - Other means (%) Working at home (%) Industry diversity Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (%) Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (%) Most Common Industries - Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (%) Most Common Industries - Construction (%) Most Common Industries - Manufacturing (%) Most Common Industries - Wholesale trade (%) Most Common Industries - Retail trade (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing, and utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing (%) Most Common Industries - Utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Information (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance (%) Most Common Industries - Real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and technical services (%) Most Common Industries - Management of companies and enterprises (%) Most Common Industries - Administrative and support and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services, and health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services (%) Most Common Industries - Health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation (%) Most Common Industries - Accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Other services, except public administration (%) Most Common Industries - Public administration (%) Occupation diversity Most Common Occupations - Management, business, science, and arts occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management, business, and financial occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Business and financial operations occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer, engineering, and science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer and mathematical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Architecture and engineering occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Life, physical, and social science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, legal, community service, arts, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Community and social service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Legal occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, training, and library occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health diagnosing and treating practitioners and other technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health technologists and technicians (%) Most Common Occupations - Service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Protective service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Fire fighting and prevention, and other protective service workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Law enforcement workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Food preparation and serving related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Personal care and service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and office occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Office and administrative support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Construction and extraction occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production, transportation, and material moving occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Transportation occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Material moving occupations (%) People in Group quarters - Institutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - Correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Federal prisons and detention centers (%) People in Group quarters - Halfway houses (%) People in Group quarters - Local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups) (%) People in Group quarters - Military disciplinary barracks (%) People in Group quarters - State prisons (%) People in Group quarters - Other types of correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Nursing homes (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards, hospices, and schools for the handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards and hospices for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospices or homes for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Military hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Other hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals or wards for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Mental (Psychiatric) hospitals or wards (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the deaf (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the blind (%) People in Group quarters - Orthopedic wards and institutions for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in general hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in military hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Juvenile institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Long-term care (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for abused, dependent, and neglected children (%) People in Group quarters - Residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed children (%) People in Group quarters - Training schools for juvenile delinquents (%) People in Group quarters - Short-term care, detention or diagnostic centers for delinquent children (%) People in Group quarters - Type of juvenile institution unknown (%) People in Group quarters - Noninstitutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - College dormitories (includes college quarters off campus) (%) People in Group quarters - Military quarters (%) People in Group quarters - On base (%) People in Group quarters - Barracks, unaccompanied personnel housing (UPH), (Enlisted/Officer), ;and similar group living quarters for military personnel (%) People in Group quarters - Transient quarters for temporary residents (%) People in Group quarters - Military ships (%) People in Group quarters - Group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Homes or halfway houses for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally ill (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Other group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Religious group quarters (%) People in Group quarters - Dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Agriculture workers' dormitories on farms (%) People in Group quarters - Job Corps and vocational training facilities (%) People in Group quarters - Other workers' dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Crews of maritime vessels (%) People in Group quarters - Other nonhousehold living situations (%) People in Group quarters - Other noninstitutional group quarters (%) Residents speaking English at home (%) Residents speaking English at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking English at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking English at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking other language at home (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Foreign born (%) Class of Workers - Employee of private company (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed in own incorporated business (%) Class of Workers - Private not-for-profit wage and salary workers (%) Class of Workers - Local government workers (%) Class of Workers - State government workers (%) Class of Workers - Federal government workers (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed workers in own not incorporated business and Unpaid family workers (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - No fuel used (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - No fuel used (%) Armed forces status - In Armed Forces (%) Armed forces status - Civilian (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Veteran (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Nonveteran (%) Fatal accidents locations in years 2005-2019 Fatal accidents locations in 2005 Fatal accidents locations in 2006 Fatal accidents locations in 2007 Fatal accidents locations in 2008 Fatal accidents locations in 2009 Fatal accidents locations in 2010 Fatal accidents locations in 2011 Fatal accidents locations in 2012 Fatal accidents locations in 2013 Fatal accidents locations in 2014 Fatal accidents locations in 2015 Fatal accidents locations in 2016 Fatal accidents locations in 2017 Fatal accidents locations in 2018 Fatal accidents locations in 2019 Alcohol use - People drinking some alcohol every month (%) Alcohol use - People not drinking at all (%) Alcohol use - Average days/month drinking alcohol Alcohol use - Average drinks/week Alcohol use - Average days/year people drink much Audiometry - Average condition of hearing (%) Audiometry - People that can hear a whisper from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - People that can hear normal voice from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - Ears ringing, roaring, buzzing (%) Audiometry - Had a job exposure to loud noise (%) Audiometry - Had off-work exposure to loud noise (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high blood pressure (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Checking blood pressure at home (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Frequently checking blood cholesterol (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high cholesterol level (%) Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at supermarket/grocery store Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at other stores Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on eating out Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on carryout/delivered foods Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at supermarket/grocery store (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at other stores (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on eating out (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on carryout/delivered foods (%) Current Health Status - General health condition (%) Current Health Status - Blood donors (%) Current Health Status - Has blood ever tested for HIV virus (%) Current Health Status - Left-handed people (%) Dermatology - People using sunscreen (%) Diabetes - Diabetics (%) Diabetes - Had a blood test for high blood sugar (%) Diabetes - People taking insulin (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Diet health (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Milk product consumption (# of products/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals not home prepared (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals from fast food or pizza place (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Ready-to-eat foods (#/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Frozen meals/pizza (#/month) Drug Use - People that ever used marijuana or hashish (%) Drug Use - Ever used hard drugs (%) Drug Use - Ever used any form of cocaine (%) Drug Use - Ever used heroin (%) Drug Use - Ever used methamphetamine (%) Health Insurance - People covered by health insurance (%) Kidney Conditions-Urology - Avg. # of times urinating at night Medical Conditions - People with asthma (%) Medical Conditions - People with anemia (%) Medical Conditions - People with psoriasis (%) Medical Conditions - People with overweight (%) Medical Conditions - Elderly people having difficulties in thinking or remembering (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever received blood transfusion (%) Medical Conditions - People having trouble seeing even with glass/contacts (%) Medical Conditions - People with arthritis (%) Medical Conditions - People with gout (%) Medical Conditions - People with congestive heart failure (%) Medical Conditions - People with coronary heart disease (%) Medical Conditions - People with angina pectoris (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had heart attack (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had stroke (%) Medical Conditions - People with emphysema (%) Medical Conditions - People with thyroid problem (%) Medical Conditions - People with chronic bronchitis (%) Medical Conditions - People with any liver condition (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had cancer or malignancy (%) Mental Health - People who have little interest in doing things (%) Mental Health - People feeling down, depressed, or hopeless (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble sleeping or sleeping too much (%) Mental Health - People feeling tired or having little energy (%) Mental Health - People with poor appetite or overeating (%) Mental Health - People feeling bad about themself (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble concentrating on things (%) Mental Health - People moving or speaking slowly or too fast (%) Mental Health - People having thoughts they would be better off dead (%) Oral Health - Average years since last visit a dentist Oral Health - People embarrassed because of mouth (%) Oral Health - People with gum disease (%) Oral Health - General health of teeth and gums (%) Oral Health - Average days a week using dental floss/device Oral Health - Average days a week using mouthwash for dental problem Oral Health - Average number of teeth Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to control insects (%) Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to kill weeds (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People walking or bicycling (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - Average hours a day doing sedentary activities Physical Activity - Average hours a day watching TV or videos Physical Activity - Average hours a day using computer Physical Functioning - People having limitations keeping them from working (%) Physical Functioning - People limited in amount of work they can do (%) Physical Functioning - People that need special equipment to walk (%) Physical Functioning - People experiencing confusion/memory problems (%) Physical Functioning - People requiring special healthcare equipment (%) Prescription Medications - Average number of prescription medicines taking Preventive Aspirin Use - Adults 40+ taking low-dose aspirin (%) Reproductive Health - Vaginal deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Cesarean deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Deliveries resulted in a live birth (%) Reproductive Health - Pregnancies resulted in a delivery (%) Reproductive Health - Women breastfeeding newborns (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had a hysterectomy (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had both ovaries removed (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever taken birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women taking birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used Depo-Provera or injectables (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used female hormones (%) Sexual Behavior - People 18+ that ever had sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had anal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had any sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had anal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had any kind of sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first had sex Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female vaginal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a woman (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of woman performed oral sex on in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male anal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a man (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male oral sex partners in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - People using protection when performing oral sex (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of times people have vaginal or anal sex a year Sexual Behavior - People having sex without condom (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male vaginal sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Circumcised males 18+ (%) Sleep Disorders - Average hours sleeping at night Sleep Disorders - People that has trouble sleeping (%) Smoking-Cigarette Use - People smoking cigarettes (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with smell (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with taste (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had wisdom teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had tonsils teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a loss of consciousness because of a head injury (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a broken nose or other serious injury to face or skull (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had two or more sinus infections (%) Weight - Average height (inches) Weight - Average weight (pounds) Weight - Average BMI Weight - People that are obese (%) Weight - People that ever were obese (%) Weight - People trying to lose weight (%) Settings Get link Loading data... Based on 2000-2020 data Loading data...

123 Hide US histogram



5,153 73.9% White alone 867 12.4% Hispanic 730 10.5% Asian alone 155 2.2% Two or more races 19 0.3% Other race alone 12 0.2% American Indian alone 5 0.07% Black alone

Races in Cos Cob detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of Connecticut and other state lists, there were 2 registered sex offenders living in Cos Cob, Connecticut as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Cos Cob is 3,276 to 1.

The ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is much lower than the state average.





Cos Cob, CT City Guides: Cos Cob, CT Guides 2

Ancestries: Italian (18.3%), Irish (9.8%), European (5.4%), German (5.2%), Eastern European (3.7%), American (3.2%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 25 feet

1,636 residents are foreign born (7.2% Latin America, 5.9% Europe). This place: 23.4% Connecticut: 14.6%

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with mortgages in 2019: $8,328 (0.7%)

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with no mortgage in 2019: $7,908 (0.8%)



Latitude: 41.03 N, Longitude: 73.60 W

Area code commonly used in this area: 203

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 7.7% Connecticut: 7.7%

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI CO NO 2 SO 2 Ozone PM 10 PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 103. This is worse than average. City: 103 U.S.: 74

Carbon Monoxide (CO) [ppm] level in 2018 was 0.295. This is about average. Closest monitor was 1.4 miles away from the city center. City: 0.295 U.S.: 0.267

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 13.5. This is significantly worse than average. Closest monitor was 0.2 miles away from the city center. City: 13.5 U.S.: 5.6

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 0.436. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 0.2 miles away from the city center. City: 0.436 U.S.: 1.789

Ozone [ppb] level in 2018 was 27.8. This is about average. Closest monitor was 1.4 miles away from the city center. City: 27.8 U.S.: 33.3

Particulate Matter (PM 10 ) [g/m3] level in 2001 was 22.6. This is about average. Closest monitor was 2.1 miles away from the city center. City: 22.6 U.S.: 19.6

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 6.52. This is better than average. Closest monitor was 4.3 miles away from the city center. City: 6.52 U.S.: 8.46

Tornado activity: Cos Cob-area historical tornado activity is slightly below Connecticut state average. It is 41% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 7/10/1989, a category F4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 40.6 miles away from the Cos Cob place center injured 40 people and caused between $50,000,000 and $500,000,000 in damages. On 7/19/1971, a category F2 (max. wind speeds 113-157 mph) tornado 10.0 miles away from the place center caused between $5000 and $50,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Cos Cob-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Connecticut state average. It is 69% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 10/7/1983 at 10:18:46, a magnitude 5.3 (5.1 MB, 5.3 LG, 5.1 ML, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 205.5 miles away from the city center

On 8/23/2011 at 17:51:04, a magnitude 5.8 (5.8 MW, Depth: 3.7 mi) earthquake occurred 316.6 miles away from Cos Cob center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.3 (5.3 ML, Depth: 3.0 mi) earthquake occurred 240.7 miles away from Cos Cob center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MB, 4.2 MS, 5.2 MW, 5.0 MW) earthquake occurred 239.0 miles away from Cos Cob center

On 1/16/1994 at 01:49:16, a magnitude 4.6 (4.6 MB, 4.6 LG, Depth: 3.1 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 136.8 miles away from the city center

On 1/19/1982 at 00:14:42, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 MD, 4.5 LG) earthquake occurred 199.0 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), duration magnitude (MD), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Fairfield County (24) is greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 13

Emergencies Declared: 11



Causes of natural disasters: Storms: 6, Floods: 5, Hurricanes: 5, Snowstorms: 4, Blizzards: 3, Snows: 3, Winter Storms: 3, Tropical Storms: 2, Snowfall: 1, Wind: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Cos Cob: GREENWICH HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION Acute Care Hospitals (about 2 miles away; GREENWICH, CT)

Acute Care Hospitals G A R C: CROSS RIDGE (Hospital, about 3 miles away; OLD GREENWICH, CT)

STAMFORD DIALYSIS (Dialysis Facility, about 3 miles away; STAMFORD, CT)

WITHERELL, NATHANIEL (Nursing Home, about 3 miles away; GREENWICH, CT)

EDGEHILL HEALTH CENTER (Nursing Home, about 3 miles away; STAMFORD, CT)

STAMFORD HOSPITAL Acute Care Hospitals (about 3 miles away; STAMFORD, CT)

Acute Care Hospitals TANDET, WM AND SALLY CTR FOR CONT CARE (Nursing Home, about 3 miles away; STAMFORD, CT)

Amtrak stations near Cos Cob: 4 miles: STAMFORD (WASHINGTON BLVD. & E. STATE ST.) . Services: ticket office, fully wheelchair accessible, enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, snack bar, ATM, paid short-term parking, paid long-term parking, call for car rental service, taxi stand, public transit connection.

STAMFORD (WASHINGTON BLVD. & E. STATE ST.) . ticket office, fully wheelchair accessible, enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, snack bar, ATM, paid short-term parking, paid long-term parking, call for car rental service, taxi stand, public transit connection. 13 miles: NEW ROCHELLE (DEPOT PLAZA NORTH) . Services: enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, paid short-term parking, paid long-term parking, call for car rental service, taxi stand, public transit connection.

NEW ROCHELLE (DEPOT PLAZA NORTH) . enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, paid short-term parking, paid long-term parking, call for car rental service, taxi stand, public transit connection. 18 miles: YONKERS (FOOT OF DOCK ST. & WELLS AVE.) . Services: fully wheelchair accessible, enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, snack bar, paid short-term parking, paid long-term parking, call for car rental service, taxi stand, public transit connection.

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Cos Cob: SUNY at Purchase College ( about 6 miles; Purchase, NY ; Full-time enrollment: 4,415)

6 ; 4,415) Manhattanville College ( about 7 miles; Purchase, NY ; FT enrollment: 2,299)

7 ; 2,299) Norwalk Community College ( about 10 miles; Norwalk, CT ; FT enrollment: 4,085)

10 ; 4,085) SUNY Westchester Community College ( about 11 miles; Valhalla, NY ; FT enrollment: 10,278)

11 ; 10,278) Iona College ( about 13 miles; New Rochelle, NY ; FT enrollment: 3,775)

13 ; 3,775) The College of New Rochelle ( about 14 miles; New Rochelle, NY ; FT enrollment: 3,635)

14 ; 3,635) Mercy College (about 15 miles; Dobbs Ferry, NY; FT enrollment: 8,602) Public elementary/middle school in Cos Cob: COS COB SCHOOL (Students: 472, Location: 300 EAST PUTNAM AVENUE, Grades: KG-5) See full list of schools located in Cos Cob

Fairfield County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Highest Potential

Average household size: This place: 2.6 people Connecticut: 2.5 people

Percentage of family households: This place: 72.5% Whole state: 66.3%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This place: 4.0% Whole state: 6.6%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.3% of all households

0.3% Gay men: 0.4% of all households

People in group quarters in Cos Cob in 2010: 10 people in emergency and transitional shelters (with sleeping facilities) for people experiencing homelessness

10 people in group homes intended for adults

6 people in residential treatment centers for juveniles (non-correctional)

Banks with branches in Cos Cob (2011 data): The First Bank of Greenwich: The First Bank Of Greenwich at 444 East Putnam Avenue , branch established on 2006/12/20 . Info updated 2012/03/13: Bank assets: $75.3 mil , Deposits: $62.4 mil , local headquarters , negative income in the last year , Commercial Lending Specialization , 2 total offices

444 East Putnam Avenue 2006/12/20 2012/03/13: $75.3 mil $62.4 mil , Commercial Lending Specialization 2 People's United Bank: Cos Cob Branch at 119 East Putnam Avenue , branch established on 2005/10/10 . Info updated 2012/02/16: Bank assets: $27,319.3 mil , Deposits: $20,835.4 mil , headquarters in Bridgeport, CT , positive income , Commercial Lending Specialization , 374 total offices

119 East Putnam Avenue 2005/10/10 2012/02/16: $27,319.3 mil $20,835.4 mil Bridgeport, CT , Commercial Lending Specialization 374 First Niagara Bank, National Association: Cos Cob Branch at 211 East Putnam Avenue , branch established on 1995/09/19 . Info updated 2011/06/09: Bank assets: $32,750.6 mil , Deposits: $19,595.4 mil , headquarters in Buffalo, NY , positive income , Commercial Lending Specialization , 351 total offices , Holding Company: First Niagara Financial Group, Inc.

211 East Putnam Avenue 1995/09/19 2011/06/09: $32,750.6 mil $19,595.4 mil Buffalo, NY , Commercial Lending Specialization 351 First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. Bank of America, National Association: Cos Cob Branch at 162 Post Road , branch established on 1946/11/15 . Info updated 2009/11/18: Bank assets: $1,451,969.3 mil , Deposits: $1,077,176.8 mil , headquarters in Charlotte, NC , positive income , 5782 total offices , Holding Company: Bank Of America Corporation

162 Post Road 1946/11/15 2009/11/18: $1,451,969.3 mil $1,077,176.8 mil Charlotte, NC 5782 Bank Of America Corporation Hudson City Savings Bank: East Putnam Avenue Branch at 100 East Putnam Avenue , branch established on 1999/09/15 . Info updated 2012/01/09: Bank assets: $45,373.6 mil , Deposits: $25,645.6 mil , headquarters in Paramus, NJ , negative income in the last year , Mortgage Lending Specialization , 135 total offices

100 East Putnam Avenue 1999/09/15 2012/01/09: $45,373.6 mil $25,645.6 mil Paramus, NJ , Mortgage Lending Specialization 135 Citibank, National Association: Cos Cob Branch at 453 E. Putnam Avenue , branch established on 1993/12/10 . Info updated 2012/01/10: Bank assets: $1,288,658.0 mil , Deposits: $882,541.0 mil , headquarters in Sioux Falls, SD , positive income , International Specialization , 1048 total offices , Holding Company: Citigroup Inc.

453 E. Putnam Avenue 1993/12/10 2012/01/10: $1,288,658.0 mil $882,541.0 mil Sioux Falls, SD , International Specialization 1048 Citigroup Inc. JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association: Cos Cob Banking Center Branch at 371 East Putnam Avenue, branch established on 2012/02/10. Info updated 2011/11/10: Bank assets: $1,811,678.0 mil, Deposits: $1,190,738.0 mil, headquarters in Columbus, OH, positive income, International Specialization, 5577 total offices, Holding Company: Jpmorgan Chase & Co.

For population 15 years and over in Cos Cob: Never married: 32.1%

32.1% Now married: 52.6%

52.6% Separated: 0.4%

0.4% Widowed: 4.0%

4.0% Divorced: 10.8%

For population 25 years and over in Cos Cob: High school or higher: 96.3%

96.3% Bachelor's degree or higher: 71.2%

71.2% Graduate or professional degree: 33.4%

33.4% Mean travel time to work (commute): 31.6 minutes

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 9.5 Connecticut average: 12.3



Religion statistics for Cos Cob, CT (based on Fairfield County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Catholic 404,341 94 Mainline Protestant 82,604 175 Evangelical Protestant 46,888 242 Other 32,501 95 Orthodox 9,215 21 Black Protestant 4,144 27 None 337,136 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 223 Here : 2.50 / 10,000 pop. Connecticut : 2.21 / 10,000 pop. Number of supercenters and club stores: 5 Here : 0.06 / 10,000 pop. Connecticut : 0.07 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 76 This county : 0.85 / 10,000 pop. State : 1.02 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 151 Here : 1.70 / 10,000 pop. Connecticut : 2.27 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 861 This county : 9.67 / 10,000 pop. Connecticut : 9.19 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: This county : 6.5% Connecticut : 7.3% Adult obesity rate: Fairfield County : 17.9% Connecticut : 21.5% Low-income preschool obesity rate: This county : 17.2% Connecticut : 15.8%

Businesses in Cos Cob, CT Name Count Name Count Baskin-Robbins 1 JoS. A. Bank 1 CVS 1 RadioShack 1 DHL 1 Starbucks 1 Domino's Pizza 1 Toyota 1 Dunkin Donuts 1 UPS 1

Strongest AM radio stations in Cos Cob: WFAN (660 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WCBS (880 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WGCH (1490 AM; 1 kW; GREENWICH, CT; Owner: THE GREENWICH BROADCASTING CORP.)

THE GREENWICH BROADCASTING CORP.) WGSM (740 AM; 25 kW; HUNTINGTON, NY; Owner: K RADIO LICENSEE, INC.)

K RADIO LICENSEE, INC.) WABC (770 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: WABC-AM RADIO, INC.)

WABC-AM RADIO, INC.) WMCA (570 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: SALEM MEDIA OF NEW YORK, LLC)

SALEM MEDIA OF NEW YORK, LLC) WOR (710 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: BUCKLEY BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

BUCKLEY BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WBBR (1130 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: BLOOMBERG COMMUNICATIONS INC.)

BLOOMBERG COMMUNICATIONS INC.) WEPN (1050 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: NEW YORK AM RADIO, LLC)

NEW YORK AM RADIO, LLC) WINS (1010 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WADO (1280 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: WADO-AM LICENSE CORP.)

WADO-AM LICENSE CORP.) WQEW (1560 AM; 50 kW; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: THE NEW YORK TIMES ELECTRONIC MEDIA COMPANY)

THE NEW YORK TIMES ELECTRONIC MEDIA COMPANY) WSTC (1400 AM; 1 kW; STAMFORD, CT; Owner: COX RADIO, INC.) Strongest FM radio stations in Cos Cob: WEDW-FM (88.5 FM; STAMFORD, CT; Owner: CONNECTICUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING, INC)

CONNECTICUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING, INC) WKHL (96.7 FM; STAMFORD, CT; Owner: COX RADIO, INC.)

COX RADIO, INC.) WPLJ (95.5 FM; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: WPLJ-FM RADIO, INC.)

WPLJ-FM RADIO, INC.) W211AI (90.1 FM; STAMFORD, CT; Owner: SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY, INC.)

SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY, INC.) WXPK (107.1 FM; BRIARCLIFF MANOR, NY; Owner: NASSAU BROADCASTING HOLDINGS, INC.)

NASSAU BROADCASTING HOLDINGS, INC.) WFAS-FM (103.9 FM; WHITE PLAINS, NY; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WFAF (106.3 FM; MOUNT KISCO, NY; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WKCR-FM (89.9 FM; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN NEW YORK)

TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN NEW YORK) WARY (88.1 FM; VALHALLA, NY; Owner: WESTCHESTER COMMUNITY COLLEGE)

WESTCHESTER COMMUNITY COLLEGE) WKTU (103.5 FM; LAKE SUCCESS, NY; Owner: AMFM RADIO LICENSES, LLC)

AMFM RADIO LICENSES, LLC) WQCD (101.9 FM; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: EMMIS RADIO LICENSE CORPORATION)

EMMIS RADIO LICENSE CORPORATION) WAXQ (104.3 FM; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: AMFM NEW YORK LICENSES, LLC)

AMFM NEW YORK LICENSES, LLC) WHTZ (100.3 FM; NEWARK, NJ; Owner: AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.)

AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.) WWPR-FM (105.1 FM; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.)

AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.) WCAA (105.9 FM; NEWARK, NJ; Owner: WADO-AM LICENSE CORP. ("WADO"))

WADO-AM LICENSE CORP. ("WADO")) WBAI (99.5 FM; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: PACIFICA FOUNDATION, INC.)

PACIFICA FOUNDATION, INC.) WBLS (107.5 FM; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: ICBC BROADCAST HOLDINGS-NY, INC.)

ICBC BROADCAST HOLDINGS-NY, INC.) WLTW (106.7 FM; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: AMFM NEW YORK LICENSES, LLC)

AMFM NEW YORK LICENSES, LLC) WQXR-FM (96.3 FM; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: THE NEW YORK TIMES ELECTRONIC MEDIA COMPANY)

THE NEW YORK TIMES ELECTRONIC MEDIA COMPANY) WSKQ-FM (97.9 FM; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: WSKQ LICENSING, INC.) TV broadcast stations around Cos Cob: W27CD ( Channel 27; STAMFORD, CT; Owner: WLNY-TV, INC.)

27; STAMFORD, CT; WLNY-TV, INC.) WNYW ( Channel 5; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: FOX TELEVISION STATIONS, INC.)

5; NEW YORK, NY; FOX TELEVISION STATIONS, INC.) WCBS-TV ( Channel 2; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: CBS BROADCASTING INC.)

2; NEW YORK, NY; CBS BROADCASTING INC.) WABC-TV ( Channel 7; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANIES, INC)

7; NEW YORK, NY; AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANIES, INC) WPIX ( Channel 11; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: WPIX, INC.)

11; NEW YORK, NY; WPIX, INC.) WWOR-TV ( Channel 9; SECAUCUS, NJ; Owner: FOX TELEVISION STATIONS, INC.)

9; SECAUCUS, NJ; FOX TELEVISION STATIONS, INC.) W38CL ( Channel 38; BRONX, NY; Owner: RENARD COMMUNICATIONS CORP.)

38; BRONX, NY; RENARD COMMUNICATIONS CORP.) WNJU ( Channel 47; LINDEN, NJ; Owner: WNJU LICENSE CORPORATION)

47; LINDEN, NJ; WNJU LICENSE CORPORATION) WXNY-LP ( Channel 32; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: ISLAND BROADCASTING COMPANY)

32; NEW YORK, NY; ISLAND BROADCASTING COMPANY) WFUT ( Channel 68; NEWARK, NJ; Owner: UNIVISION NEW YORK LLC)

68; NEWARK, NJ; UNIVISION NEW YORK LLC) WPXN-TV ( Channel 31; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LICENSE COMPANY, LLC)

31; NEW YORK, NY; PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LICENSE COMPANY, LLC) W68DN ( Channel 68; CHERRY HILL, ETC., NJ; Owner: MARCIA COHEN)

68; CHERRY HILL, ETC., NJ; MARCIA COHEN) WNYE-TV ( Channel 25; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION)

25; NEW YORK, NY; NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION) WNBC ( Channel 4; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

4; NEW YORK, NY; NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WNET ( Channel 13; NEWARK, NJ; Owner: EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

13; NEWARK, NJ; EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WXTV ( Channel 41; PATERSON, NJ; Owner: WXTV LICENSE PARTNERSHIP, G.P.)

41; PATERSON, NJ; WXTV LICENSE PARTNERSHIP, G.P.) W17CD ( Channel 17; STAMFORD, CT; Owner: it COMMUNICATIONS, INC.)

17; STAMFORD, CT; it COMMUNICATIONS, INC.) WKOB-LP ( Channel 53; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: WKOB COMMUNICATIONS, INC.)

53; NEW YORK, NY; WKOB COMMUNICATIONS, INC.) WEBR-CA ( Channel 17; MANHATTAN, NY; Owner: K LICENSEE INC.)

17; MANHATTAN, NY; K LICENSEE INC.) WRNN-LP ( Channel 57; NYACK, NY; Owner: LP NYACK LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

57; NYACK, NY; LP NYACK LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) W60AI ( Channel 60; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: VENTANA TELEVISION, INC.)

60; NEW YORK, NY; VENTANA TELEVISION, INC.) WPXO-LP ( Channel 34; EAST ORANGE, NJ; Owner: PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LPTV, INC.)

34; EAST ORANGE, NJ; PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LPTV, INC.) WFME-TV ( Channel 66; WEST MILFORD, NJ; Owner: FAMILY STATIONS, INC.)

66; WEST MILFORD, NJ; FAMILY STATIONS, INC.) WNYX-LP ( Channel 35; NEW YORK, NY; Owner: ISLAND BROADCASTING COMPANY)

35; NEW YORK, NY; ISLAND BROADCASTING COMPANY) W33BS (Channel 33; DARIEN, CT; Owner: CT&T BROADCASTING, INC.)

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

1 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 3ft / 1.3m Total length

Total length 3,800 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 76 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 5,646 Total future (year 2035) average daily traffic



FCC Registered Broadcast Land Mobile Towers: 1 Boston Post Rd (Lat: 41.042861 Lon: -73.590694), Call Sign: KNAK564,

Assigned Frequencies: 150.845 MHz, Grant Date: 01/26/1996, Expiration Date: 03/07/2001, Cancellation Date: 05/13/2001, Registrant: Als Auto Service Station Inc, Boston Post Rd, Cos Cob, CT 06807, Phone: (203) 869-1488

FCC Registered Maritime Coast & Aviation Ground Towers: 1 7 River Rd 311 (Lat: 41.033972 Lon: -73.598194), Type: Building, Overall height: 9 m, Call Sign: KEB279,

Assigned Frequencies: 156.425 MHz, 156.450 MHz, 156.800 MHz, Grant Date: 07/12/1999, Expiration Date: 09/08/2004, Cancellation Date: 11/13/2004, Registrant: Vito De Nardo, 7 River Rd 311, Cos Cob, CT 06807

FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses: 24 (

24 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses in Cos Cob

2007 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents According to the data from the years 2007 - 2018 the average number of fires per year is 17. The highest number of fires - 31 took place in 2016, and the least - 1 in 2007. The data has a growing trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Cos Cob, CT



89 44.1% Structure Fires



82 40.6% Outside Fires



18 8.9% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



13 6.4% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most incidents belonged to: Structure Fires (44.1%), and Outside Fires (40.6%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Cos Cob, CT

Houses and condos Apartments 72.8% Utility gas

17.2% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

6.8% Electricity

2.3% Wood

0.9% Bottled, tank, or LP gas 49.0% Utility gas

25.7% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

24.1% Electricity

1.3% Bottled, tank, or LP gas





Cos Cob compared to Connecticut state average: Median house value significantly above state average.

significantly above Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Foreign-born population percentage above state average.

above Length of stay since moving in below state average.

below Number of rooms per house above state average.

above Percentage of population with a bachelor's degree or higher significantly above state average.

Cos Cob on our top lists: #13 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: finance and insurance (population 5,000+)"

#27 on the list of "Top 101 cities with the most residents born in Sweden (population 500+)"

#27 on the list of "Top 101 cities with the most residents born in Argentina (population 500+)"

#35 on the list of "Top 100 cities with highest ratio of median house value to median household income (pop. 5,000+)"

#54 on the list of "Top 101 cities with the most residents born in Venezuela (population 500+)"

#57 on the list of "Top 101 cities with the most residents born in Japan (population 500+)"

#68 on the list of "Top 101 cities with the most people taking railroad to work (population 5,000+)"

#72 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: sales and related occupations (population 5,000+)"

#81 on the list of "Top 100 cities with highest median house value (pop. 5,000+)" #14 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Orthodox congregations"

#18 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the best general health status score of residents (1-5), 3 years of data"

#21 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Catholic congregations"

#21 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Catholic adherents"

#22 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the highest percentage of residents that visited a dentist within the past year"

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Dedham, Maine

Submit your own pictures of this town and show them to the world



OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 1,681.

Population change since 2000: +18.2%

1,681.+18.2%

Males: 865 (51.5%) Females: 816 (48.5%)

Median resident age: 46.2 years Maine median age: 43.0 years

Zip codes: 04429.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $77,836 (it was $47,917 in 2000)

Dedham: $77,836 ME: $58,924

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $41,612 (it was $22,975 in 2000)



Dedham town income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $216,230 (it was $100,400 in 2000) Dedham: $216,230 ME: $200,500 $77,836 ($47,917$41,612 ($22,975$216,230 ($100,400

March 2019 cost of living index in Dedham: 92.2 (less than average, U.S. average is 100)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:



1,630 97.0% White alone 13 0.8% Hispanic 11 0.7% Two or more races 10 0.6% Asian alone 8 0.5% American Indian alone 6 0.4% Black alone 3 0.2% Other race alone

Races in Dedham detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of Maine and other state lists, there was 1 registered sex offender living in Dedham, Maine as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Dedham is 1,681 to 1.

The ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is much lower than the state average.







Latest news from Dedham, ME collected exclusively by city-data.com from local newspapers, TV, and radio stations

Ancestries: English (23.3%), Irish (16.4%), French (10.4%), United States (8.2%), German (7.2%), Italian (4.9%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 136 feet

Land area: 39.2 square miles. Population density: 43 people per square mile (very low).

18 residents are foreign born This town: 1.3% Maine: 2.9%

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units in 2000: Dedham town: 1.2% ($1,192) Maine: 1.5% ($1,417)

Latitude: 44.69 N, Longitude: 68.59 W

Area code commonly used in this area: 207

Single-family new house construction building permits: 1997: 16 buildings , average cost: $91,700

16 $91,700 1998: 9 buildings , average cost: $95,700

9 $95,700 1999: 9 buildings , average cost: $95,700

9 $95,700 2000: 9 buildings , average cost: $95,700

9 $95,700 2001: 13 buildings , average cost: $121,400

13 $121,400 2002: 24 buildings , average cost: $130,700

24 $130,700 2003: 18 buildings , average cost: $132,800

18 $132,800 2004: 26 buildings , average cost: $137,000

26 $137,000 2005: 15 buildings , average cost: $172,000

15 $172,000 2006: 8 buildings , average cost: $190,500

8 $190,500 2007: 3 buildings , average cost: $199,400

3 $199,400 2008: 1 building , cost: $220,200

1 $220,200 2009: 1 building , cost: $225,300

1 $225,300 2010: 5 buildings , average cost: $214,600

5 $214,600 2011: 7 buildings , average cost: $193,200

7 $193,200 2012: 2 buildings , average cost: $210,300

2 $210,300 2013: 3 buildings , average cost: $207,700

3 $207,700 2014: 4 buildings , average cost: $211,200

4 $211,200 2015: 2 buildings , average cost: $257,200

2 $257,200 2016: 4 buildings , average cost: $261,800

4 $261,800 2017: 1 building , cost: $267,800

1 $267,800 2019: 2 buildings, average cost: $282,200

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 5.2% Maine: 4.7%

Most common industries in Dedham, ME (%) Both Males Females

Health care (14.3%)

Educational services (13.5%)

Construction (8.1%)

Public administration (4.0%)

Accommodation & food services (3.8%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (3.5%)

Motor vehicle & parts dealers (3.3%)

Construction (14.7%)

Educational services (7.1%)

Health care (5.9%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (5.7%)

Public administration (4.8%)

Paper (4.8%)

Motor vehicle & parts dealers (4.3%)

Health care (23.8%)

Educational services (20.6%)

Accommodation & food services (5.3%)

Finance & insurance (4.3%)

Social assistance (4.0%)

Public administration (3.2%)

Personal & laundry services (2.7%) Most common occupations in Dedham, ME (%) Both Males Females

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (7.0%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (5.8%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (5.0%)

Preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school teachers (4.4%)

Retail sales workers, except cashiers (4.0%)

Driver/sales workers and truck drivers (3.9%)

Secretaries and administrative assistants (3.6%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (9.3%)

Driver/sales workers and truck drivers (6.2%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (5.7%)

Electrical equipment mechanics and other installation, maintenance, and repair workers, including supervisors (5.5%)

Retail sales workers, except cashiers (4.5%)

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (3.6%)

Material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers (3.1%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (9.9%)

Preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school teachers (8.0%)

Secretaries and administrative assistants (6.7%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (4.5%)

Registered nurses (4.3%)

Material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers (4.3%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (4.3%)

Average climate in Dedham, Maine Based on data reported by over 4,000 weather stations

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI Ozone PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 59.4. This is better than average. City: 59.4 U.S.: 74.2

Ozone [ppb] level in 2018 was 32.7. This is about average. Closest monitor was 2.9 miles away from the city center. City: 32.7 U.S.: 33.3

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 5.28. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 11.8 miles away from the city center. City: 5.28 U.S.: 8.46

Earthquake activity: Dedham-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Maine state average. It is 80% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 10/16/2012 at 23:12:25, a magnitude 4.7 (4.7 ML, Depth: 10.0 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 127.4 miles away from Dedham center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.3 (5.3 ML, Depth: 3.0 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 251.9 miles away from Dedham center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MB, 4.2 MS, 5.2 MW, 5.0 MW) earthquake occurred 253.1 miles away from Dedham center

On 1/19/1982 at 00:14:42, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 MD, 4.5 LG) earthquake occurred 170.7 miles away from the city center

On 10/7/1983 at 10:18:46, a magnitude 5.3 (5.1 MB, 5.3 LG, 5.1 ML) earthquake occurred 289.2 miles away from the city center

On 2/26/1999 at 03:38:43, a magnitude 3.8 (3.8 LG, Depth: 2.0 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: II - III) earthquake occurred 48.2 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), duration magnitude (MD), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Hancock County (18) is near the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 11

Emergencies Declared: 6



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 9, Storms: 8, Snows: 5, Blizzard: 1, Heavy Rain: 1, Hurricane: 1, Ice Storm: 1, Landslide: 1, Snowfall: 1, Wind: 1, Winter Storm: 1, Other: 2 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Dedham: NEW HOPE HOSPICE INC (Hospital, about 8 miles away; EDDINGTON, ME)

KINDRED TRANSITIONAL CARE AND REHAB-BREWER (Nursing Home, about 11 miles away; BREWER, ME)

MAINE VETERANS HOME - BANGOR (Nursing Home, about 12 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

EASTERN MAINE MEDICAL CENTER Acute Care Hospitals (about 12 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

Acute Care Hospitals HOSPICE OF EASTERN MAINE HHA (Home Health Center, about 12 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

ELIZABETH LEVINSON CENTER (Hospital, about 12 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

AMEDISYS HOME HEALTH OF BANGOR (Home Health Center, about 12 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Dedham: Husson University ( about 15 miles; Bangor, ME ; Full-time enrollment: 2,421)

15 ; 2,421) University of Maine ( about 16 miles; Orono, ME ; FT enrollment: 8,931)

16 ; 8,931) University of Maine at Augusta ( about 65 miles; Augusta, ME ; FT enrollment: 3,204)

65 ; 3,204) University of Maine at Farmington ( about 77 miles; Farmington, ME ; FT enrollment: 2,036)

77 ; 2,036) Southern Maine Community College ( about 109 miles; South Portland, ME ; FT enrollment: 4,666)

109 ; 4,666) University of Southern Maine ( about 110 miles; Portland, ME ; FT enrollment: 6,647)

110 ; 6,647) Saint Joseph's College of Maine (about 112 miles; Standish, ME; FT enrollment: 2,010)

Hancock County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Highest Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in Dedham that have no violations reported: LUCERNE INN (Population served: 705, Primary Water Source Type: Groundwater)

Average household size: This town: 2.4 people Maine: 2.3 people

Percentage of family households: This town: 69.9% Whole state: 62.9%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This town: 10.0% Whole state: 9.4%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.9% of all households

0.9% Gay men: 0.4% of all households Residents with income below the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 5.2% Whole state: 10.9% Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 3.1% Whole state: 4.1%

For population 15 years and over in Dedham: Never married: 25.3%

25.3% Now married: 61.0%

61.0% Separated: 0.8%

0.8% Widowed: 4.4%

4.4% Divorced: 8.5%

For population 25 years and over in Dedham: High school or higher: 92.0%

92.0% Bachelor's degree or higher: 30.5%

30.5% Graduate or professional degree: 11.0%

11.0% Unemployed: 3.2%

3.2% Mean travel time to work (commute): 27.0 minutes

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 10.1 Maine average: 11.2



Religion statistics for Dedham, ME (based on Hancock County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Mainline Protestant 4,691 58 Catholic 2,523 9 Evangelical Protestant 1,288 23 Other 820 11 None 45,096 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 32 Hancock County : 6.01 / 10,000 pop. Maine : 2.80 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 9 Here : 1.69 / 10,000 pop. State : 2.20 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 26 This county : 4.89 / 10,000 pop. Maine : 5.75 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 115 Hancock County : 21.61 / 10,000 pop. Maine : 11.02 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: Hancock County : 7.4% Maine : 8.2% Adult obesity rate: Here : 25.4% Maine : 25.0%

5.41% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($65,377 average adjusted gross income) Here: 5.41% Maine average: 5.91% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved from foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Penobscot County, ME 1.08% ($64,636 average AGI) from Waldo County, ME 0.26% ($34,712) from Cumberland County, ME 0.22% ($62,686)



5.12% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($50,554 average adjusted gross income) Here: 5.12% Maine average: 5.73% 0.10% of residents moved to foreign countries ($758 average AGI) Hancock County: 0.10% Maine average: 0.06%

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Penobscot County, ME 1.13% ($39,233 average AGI) to Cumberland County, ME 0.41% ($56,269) to Waldo County, ME 0.23% ($48,585)

Strongest AM radio stations in Dedham: WABI (910 AM; 5 kW; BANGOR, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WZON (620 AM; 5 kW; BANGOR, ME; Owner: THE ZONE CORPORATION)

THE ZONE CORPORATION) WDEA (1370 AM; 5 kW; ELLSWORTH, ME; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WNZS (1340 AM; 1 kW; VEAZIE, ME; Owner: WATERFRONT COMMUNICATIONS INC.)

WATERFRONT COMMUNICATIONS INC.) WSKW (1160 AM; 10 kW; SKOWHEGAN, ME; Owner: MOUNTAIN WIRELESS, INCORPORATED)

MOUNTAIN WIRELESS, INCORPORATED) WRKO (680 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WTME (780 AM; 10 kW; RUMFORD, ME; Owner: MOUNTAIN VALLEY BROADCASTING, INC.)

MOUNTAIN VALLEY BROADCASTING, INC.) WEEI (850 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WBZ (1030 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WCRN (830 AM; 50 kW; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WNNZ (640 AM; 50 kW; WESTFIELD, MA; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WKOX (1200 AM; 50 kW; FRAMINGHAM, MA; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WFAU (1280 AM; 5 kW; GARDINER, ME; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) Strongest FM radio stations in Dedham: WWMJ (95.7 FM; ELLSWORTH, ME; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WMEH (90.9 FM; BANGOR, ME; Owner: MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WEZQ (92.9 FM; BANGOR, ME; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WKIT-FM (100.3 FM; BREWER, ME; Owner: THE ZONE CORPORATION)

THE ZONE CORPORATION) WBFB (104.7 FM; BELFAST, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WERU-FM (89.9 FM; BLUE HILL, ME; Owner: SALT POND COMMUNITY B/C COMPANY)

SALT POND COMMUNITY B/C COMPANY) WWBX (97.1 FM; BANGOR, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WHCF (88.5 FM; BANGOR, ME; Owner: BANGOR BAPTIST CHURCH)

BANGOR BAPTIST CHURCH) WFZX (101.7 FM; SEARSPORT, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WVOM (103.9 FM; HOWLAND, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WNSX (97.7 FM; WINTER HARBOR, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WLKE (99.1 FM; BAR HARBOR, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WBZN (107.3 FM; OLD TOWN, ME; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WQCB (106.5 FM; BREWER, ME; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WMEP (90.5 FM; CAMDEN, ME; Owner: MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORP.)

MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORP.) WQSS (102.5 FM; CAMDEN, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WBQI (107.7 FM; BAR HARBOR, ME; Owner: MARINER BROADCASTING, L.P.)

MARINER BROADCASTING, L.P.) WMEB-FM (91.9 FM; ORONO, ME; Owner: UNIVERSITY OF MAINE SYSTEM) TV broadcast stations around Dedham: WMEB-TV ( Channel 12; ORONO, ME; Owner: MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

12; ORONO, ME; MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WLBZ ( Channel 2; BANGOR, ME; Owner: PACIFIC AND SOUTHERN COMPANY, INC.)

2; BANGOR, ME; PACIFIC AND SOUTHERN COMPANY, INC.) W66CL ( Channel 66; BANGOR, ME; Owner: MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC)

66; BANGOR, ME; MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC) WBAN-LP ( Channel 9; BANGOR, ME; Owner: BANGOR MEDIA GROUP, LLC)

9; BANGOR, ME; BANGOR MEDIA GROUP, LLC) WBGR-LP ( Channel 33; BANGOR/DEDHAM, ME; Owner: MAINE FAMILY BROADCASTING, INC.)

33; BANGOR/DEDHAM, ME; MAINE FAMILY BROADCASTING, INC.) WVII-TV ( Channel 7; BANGOR, ME; Owner: BANGOR COMMUNICATIONS, INC.)

7; BANGOR, ME; BANGOR COMMUNICATIONS, INC.) WCKD-LP ( Channel 30; BANGOR/DEDHAM, ME; Owner: J. MCLEOD, ME FAMILY B/CING., INC.)

30; BANGOR/DEDHAM, ME; J. MCLEOD, ME FAMILY B/CING., INC.) WFVX-LP ( Channel 22; BANGOR, ME; Owner: ROCKFLEET BROADCASTING III, LLC)

22; BANGOR, ME; ROCKFLEET BROADCASTING III, LLC) W39CC ( Channel 39; BANGOR, ME; Owner: MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC)

39; BANGOR, ME; MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC) W42BZ ( Channel 42; BANGOR, ME; Owner: MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC)

42; BANGOR, ME; MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC) W50BX ( Channel 50; BANGOR, ME; Owner: MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC)

50; BANGOR, ME; MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC) W54CG ( Channel 54; BANGOR, ME; Owner: MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC)

54; BANGOR, ME; MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC) WABI-TV ( Channel 5; BANGOR, ME; Owner: COMMUNITY BROADCASTING SERVICE)

5; BANGOR, ME; COMMUNITY BROADCASTING SERVICE) W36CK (Channel 36; BANGOR, ME; Owner: TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK)

Dedham, Maine

Fatal accident count 8

Vehicles involved in fatal accidents 15

Fatal accidents involving drunk persons: 3

Fatalities 12

Persons involved in fatal accidents 23

Pedestrians involved in fatal accidents 0 Maine average

Fatal accident count 1218

Vehicles involved in fatal accidents 1775

Fatal accidents involving drunk persons 406

Fatalities 1348

Persons involved in fatal accidents 2701

Pedestrians involved in fatal accidents 112 See more detailed statistics of Dedham fatal car crashes and road traffic accidents for 1975 - 2019 here

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

1 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 26ft / 7.6m Total length

Total length 10,891 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 544 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 15,247 Total future (year 2036) average daily traffic

2003 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents Based on the data from the years 2003 - 2018 the average number of fire incidents per year is 14. The highest number of fires - 32 took place in 2010, and the least - 3 in 2018. The data has a decreasing trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Dedham, ME



129 57.6% Structure Fires



60 26.8% Outside Fires



28 12.5% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



7 3.1% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most reports belonged to: Structure Fires (57.6%), and Outside Fires (26.8%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Dedham, ME

Houses and condos Apartments 78.7% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

13.2% Wood

5.8% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

1.0% Electricity

0.8% Other fuel

0.4% Utility gas 69.2% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

11.5% Wood

9.0% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

7.7% Electricity

2.6% Other fuel





Dedham compared to Maine state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage below state average.

below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Renting percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Length of stay since moving in significantly above state average.

significantly above Number of rooms per house significantly below state average.

significantly below House age significantly below state average.

significantly below Number of college students below state average.

no other airmen in this city. There are 4 pilots andother airmen in this city.

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Ferrisburgh, Vermont

Submit your own pictures of this town and show them to the world



OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 2,775.

Males: 1,423 (51.3%) Females: 1,352 (48.7%)

Median resident age: 44.3 years Vermont median age: 45.8 years

Estimated median household income in 2019: $69,967

Ferrisburgh: $69,967 VT: $63,001

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $35,871



Ferrisburgh town income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $255,731 Ferrisburgh: $255,731 VT: $233,200

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $267,254; detached houses: $282,459; townhouses or other attached units: $208,673; in 2-unit structures: $227,602; in 3-to-4-unit structures: $355,488; in 5-or-more-unit structures: $589,794; mobile homes: $117,796 $69,967$35,871$255,731$267,254;$282,459;$208,673;$227,602;$355,488;$589,794;$117,796

March 2019 cost of living index in Ferrisburgh: 90.4 (less than average, U.S. average is 100)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:



2,645 95.3% White alone 48 1.7% Hispanic 39 1.4% Two or more races 19 0.7% Asian alone 17 0.6% Black alone 4 0.1% American Indian alone 3 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other

Pacific Islander alone







According to our research of Vermont and other state lists, there were 3 registered sex offenders living in Ferrisburgh, Vermont as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Ferrisburgh is 925 to 1.

The ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is lower than the state average.





Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 218 feet

Latitude: 44.21 N, Longitude: 73.25 W

Area code commonly used in this area: 802

Single-family new house construction building permits: 1997: 20 buildings , average cost: $91,700

20 $91,700 1998: 6 buildings , average cost: $116,700

6 $116,700 1999: 25 buildings , average cost: $130,500

25 $130,500 2000: 19 buildings , average cost: $150,000

19 $150,000 2001: 14 buildings , average cost: $160,700

14 $160,700 2002: 12 buildings , average cost: $172,100

12 $172,100 2003: 15 buildings , average cost: $171,000

15 $171,000 2004: 18 buildings , average cost: $148,600

18 $148,600 2005: 5 buildings , average cost: $570,000

5 $570,000 2006: 25 buildings , average cost: $254,400

25 $254,400 2007: 8 buildings , average cost: $237,500

8 $237,500 2008: 5 buildings , average cost: $229,600

5 $229,600 2009: 4 buildings , average cost: $231,300

4 $231,300 2010: 5 buildings , average cost: $230,000

5 $230,000 2011: 4 buildings , average cost: $190,000

4 $190,000 2012: 10 buildings , average cost: $261,000

10 $261,000 2013: 5 buildings , average cost: $161,000

5 $161,000 2014: 2 buildings , average cost: $217,500

2 $217,500 2015: 5 buildings , average cost: $175,000

5 $175,000 2016: 7 buildings , average cost: $160,700

7 $160,700 2017: 5 buildings , average cost: $462,800

5 $462,800 2018: 5 buildings , average cost: $320,000

5 $320,000 2019: 7 buildings, average cost: $179,200

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 2.4% Vermont: 2.8%

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI CO NO 2 SO 2 PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 58.3. This is better than average. City: 58.3 U.S.: 74.2

Carbon Monoxide (CO) [ppm] level in 2018 was 0.309. This is about average. Closest monitor was 18.8 miles away from the city center. City: 0.309 U.S.: 0.267

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 5.67. This is about average. Closest monitor was 18.8 miles away from the city center. City: 5.67 U.S.: 5.56

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2004 was 2.59. This is significantly worse than average. Closest monitor was 15.2 miles away from the city center. City: 2.59 U.S.: 1.79

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 6.63. This is better than average. Closest monitor was 18.8 miles away from the city center. City: 6.63 U.S.: 8.46

Earthquake activity: Ferrisburgh-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Vermont state average. It is 70% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.3 (5.3 ML, Depth: 3.0 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 30.8 miles away from Ferrisburgh center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MB, 4.2 MS, 5.2 MW, 5.0 MW) earthquake occurred 30.4 miles away from Ferrisburgh center

On 10/7/1983 at 10:18:46, a magnitude 5.3 (5.1 MB, 5.3 LG, 5.1 ML) earthquake occurred 57.2 miles away from the city center

On 1/19/1982 at 00:14:42, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 MD, 4.5 LG, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 95.5 miles away from Ferrisburgh center

On 10/16/2012 at 23:12:25, a magnitude 4.7 (4.7 ML, Depth: 10.0 mi) earthquake occurred 135.8 miles away from the city center

On 4/20/2002 at 11:04:42, a magnitude 3.7 (3.7 ML, Depth: 3.1 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: II - III) earthquake occurred 29.4 miles away from Ferrisburgh center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), duration magnitude (MD), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Addison County (23) is greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 16

Emergencies Declared: 3



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 16, Storms: 15, Drought: 1, Heavy Rain: 1, Hurricane: 1, Ice Storm: 1, Landslide: 1, Snow: 1, Snowstorm: 1, Tornado: 1, Tropical Storm: 1, Wind: 1, Winter Storm: 1, Other: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Ferrisburgh: CLARK NURSING HOME (Nursing Home, about 3 miles away; VERGENNES, VT)

WAKE ROBIN-LINDEN NURSING HOME (Nursing Home, about 11 miles away; SHELBURNE, VT)

HELEN PORTER HEALTHCARE AND REHAB (Nursing Home, about 15 miles away; MIDDLEBURY, VT)

PORTER HOSPITAL, INC Critical Access Hospitals (about 15 miles away; MIDDLEBURY, VT)

Amtrak stations near Ferrisburgh: 11 miles: WESTPORT (HWY. 9 N. & D&H RAILROAD TRACKS) . Services: enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, free short-term parking, free long-term parking.

WESTPORT (HWY. 9 N. & D&H RAILROAD TRACKS) . enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, free short-term parking, free long-term parking. 17 miles: PORT HENRY (RTE. 9 NORTH & RTE. 22) . Services: enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, free short-term parking, free long-term parking, call for car rental service, call for taxi service.

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Ferrisburgh: Middlebury College ( about 15 miles; Middlebury, VT ; Full-time enrollment: 3,077)

15 ; 3,077) Champlain College ( about 19 miles; Burlington, VT ; FT enrollment: 2,623)

19 ; 2,623) University of Vermont ( about 20 miles; Burlington, VT ; FT enrollment: 11,566)

20 ; 11,566) Community College of Vermont ( about 21 miles; Winooski, VT ; FT enrollment: 3,394)

21 ; 3,394) Saint Michael's College ( about 21 miles; Colchester, VT ; FT enrollment: 2,336)

21 ; 2,336) Norwich University ( about 30 miles; Northfield, VT ; FT enrollment: 4,221)

30 ; 4,221) SUNY College at Plattsburgh (about 36 miles; Plattsburgh, NY; FT enrollment: 5,934) Public elementary/middle school in Ferrisburgh: FERRISBURGH CENTRAL SCHOOL (Students: 204, Location: 56 LITTLE CHICAGO ROAD, Grades: PK-6) See full list of schools located in Ferrisburgh

Addison County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level between 2 and 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Moderate Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in Ferrisburgh and their reported violations in the past: FERRISBURG ARTISANS GUILD (Address: 5371 ROUTE 7 Population served: 159, Groundwater): Past health violations: MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In NOV-2009, Contaminant: Coliform. Follow-up actions: St Boil Water Order (DEC-10-2009), St Formal NOV issued (DEC-10-2009), St Tech Assistance Visit (DEC-10-2009), St Public Notif requested (DEC-10-2009), St Compliance achieved (FEB-07-2011) Past monitoring violations: 4 routine major monitoring violations FERRISBURG ARTISANS GUILD (5371 ROUTE 7 159Groundwater):

Average household size: This town: 2.5 people Vermont: 2.3 people

Percentage of family households: This town: 69.5% Whole state: 62.5%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This town: 9.1% Whole state: 9.2%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.8% of all households

0.8% Gay men: 0.2% of all households

3 people in workers' group living quarters and job corps centers in 2010

Religion statistics for Ferrisburgh, VT (based on Addison County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Catholic 5,892 6 Mainline Protestant 3,491 27 Evangelical Protestant 801 13 Other 560 6 None 26,077 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 17 Here : 4.64 / 10,000 pop. Vermont : 3.84 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 5 This county : 1.36 / 10,000 pop. Vermont : 1.95 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 24 Addison County : 6.55 / 10,000 pop. Vermont : 6.40 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 31 Here : 8.45 / 10,000 pop. Vermont : 11.52 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: This county : 5.8% Vermont : 6.8% Adult obesity rate: Here : 20.9% Vermont : 22.3% Low-income preschool obesity rate: Here : 9.1% Vermont : 13.3%

6.21% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($50,085 average adjusted gross income) Here: 6.21% Vermont average: 5.96% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved from foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Chittenden County, VT 1.86% ($43,573 average AGI) from Rutland County, VT 0.65% ($37,757) from Washington County, VT 0.27% ($46,558)



6.11% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($50,265 average adjusted gross income) Here: 6.11% Vermont average: 6.30% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Chittenden County, VT 1.80% ($49,773 average AGI) to Rutland County, VT 0.90% ($34,831) to Washington County, VT 0.28% ($29,400)

Strongest AM radio stations in Ferrisburgh: WCHP (760 AM; 35 kW; CHAMPLAIN, NY; Owner: CHAMPLAIN RADIO, INC.)

CHAMPLAIN RADIO, INC.) WVMT (620 AM; 5 kW; BURLINGTON, VT; Owner: SISON BROADCASTING, INC.)

SISON BROADCASTING, INC.) WDEV (550 AM; 5 kW; WATERBURY, VT; Owner: RADIO VERMONT, INC.)

RADIO VERMONT, INC.) WVAA (1390 AM; 5 kW; BURLINGTON, VT; Owner: RADIO VERMONT, KDR, LLC)

RADIO VERMONT, KDR, LLC) WICY (1490 AM; 50 kW; MALONE, NY; Owner: CARTIER COMMUNICATIONS INC.)

CARTIER COMMUNICATIONS INC.) WEAV (960 AM; 5 kW; PLATTSBURGH, NY; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WGY (810 AM; 50 kW; SCHENECTADY, NY; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WTWK (1070 AM; daytime; 5 kW; PLATTSBURGH, NY; Owner: CHAMPLAIN COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION)

CHAMPLAIN COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION) WNNZ (640 AM; 50 kW; WESTFIELD, MA; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WIRD (920 AM; 5 kW; LAKE PLACID, NY; Owner: RADIO LAKE PLACID INC)

RADIO LAKE PLACID INC) WFAD (1490 AM; 1 kW; MIDDLEBURY, VT; Owner: ADDISON BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

ADDISON BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WPTR (1540 AM; 50 kW; ALBANY, NY; Owner: KIMTRON, INC.)

KIMTRON, INC.) WRKO (680 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) Strongest FM radio stations in Ferrisburgh: WIZN (106.7 FM; VERGENNES, VT; Owner: BURLINGTON BROADCASTERS, INC.)

BURLINGTON BROADCASTERS, INC.) WDEV-FM (96.1 FM; WARREN, VT; Owner: RADIO VERMONT, INC.)

RADIO VERMONT, INC.) WXZO (96.7 FM; WILLSBORO, NY; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WCVT (101.7 FM; STOWE, VT; Owner: RADIO VERMONT CLASSICS, L.L.C.)

RADIO VERMONT CLASSICS, L.L.C.) WVPS (107.9 FM; BURLINGTON, VT; Owner: VERMONT PUBLIC RADIO)

VERMONT PUBLIC RADIO) WEZF (92.9 FM; BURLINGTON, VT; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WNCS (104.7 FM; MONTPELIER, VT; Owner: MONTPELIER BROADCASTING, INC.)

MONTPELIER BROADCASTING, INC.) WLKC (103.3 FM; WATERBURY, VT; Owner: RADIO BROADCASTING SERVICES, INC.)

RADIO BROADCASTING SERVICES, INC.) WWFY (100.9 FM; BERLIN, VT; Owner: VOX ALLEGANY, LLC)

VOX ALLEGANY, LLC) WGLY-FM (91.5 FM; BOLTON, VT; Owner: CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES, INC.)

CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES, INC.) WCLX (102.5 FM; WESTPORT, NY; Owner: WESTPORT BROADCASTING)

WESTPORT BROADCASTING) WEBK (105.3 FM; KILLINGTON, VT; Owner: 6 JOHNSON ROAD LICENSES, INC.)

6 JOHNSON ROAD LICENSES, INC.) WJJR (98.1 FM; RUTLAND, VT; Owner: 6 JOHNSON ROAD LICENSES, INC.)

6 JOHNSON ROAD LICENSES, INC.) WZRT (97.1 FM; RUTLAND, VT; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WGLV (91.7 FM; WOODSTOCK, VT; Owner: CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES INC)

CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES INC) WCEL (91.9 FM; PLATTSBURGH, NY; Owner: WAMC)

WAMC) WHDQ-FM1 (106.1 FM; RUTLAND, VT; Owner: GREAT NORTHERN RADIO, L.L.C.)

GREAT NORTHERN RADIO, L.L.C.) WEXP (101.5 FM; BRANDON, VT; Owner: VOX VERMONT, L.L.C.)

VOX VERMONT, L.L.C.) WCPV (101.3 FM; ESSEX, NY; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WJEN (94.5 FM; RUTLAND, VT; Owner: 6 JOHNSON ROAD LICENSES, INC.) TV broadcast stations around Ferrisburgh: W19BR ( Channel 19; MONKTON, VT; Owner: PLATTSBURGH PARTNERS)

19; MONKTON, VT; PLATTSBURGH PARTNERS) W25BT ( Channel 25; MONKTON, VT; Owner: MOUNTAIN LAKES PUB.TELECOMM.COUNCIL)

25; MONKTON, VT; MOUNTAIN LAKES PUB.TELECOMM.COUNCIL) W62BY ( Channel 62; MONKTON, VT; Owner: VERMONT WIRELESS COOPERATIVE)

62; MONKTON, VT; VERMONT WIRELESS COOPERATIVE) W64BP ( Channel 64; MONKTON, VT; Owner: VERMONT WIRELESS COOPERATIVE)

64; MONKTON, VT; VERMONT WIRELESS COOPERATIVE) W66BX ( Channel 66; MONKTON, VT; Owner: VERMONT WIRELESS COOPERATIVE)

66; MONKTON, VT; VERMONT WIRELESS COOPERATIVE) W68CK ( Channel 68; MONKTON, VT; Owner: VERMONT WIRELESS COOPERATIVE)

68; MONKTON, VT; VERMONT WIRELESS COOPERATIVE) WPTZ ( Channel 5; NORTH POLE, NY; Owner: HEARST-ARGYLE STATIONS, INC.)

5; NORTH POLE, NY; HEARST-ARGYLE STATIONS, INC.) W16AL ( Channel 16; BURLINGTON, VT; Owner: TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK)

16; BURLINGTON, VT; TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK) W60AO (Channel 60; PORT HENRY, NY; Owner: MOUNTAIN LAKES PUB.TELECOMM.COUNCIL)



FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses: 3 Call Sign: N1LXD, Grant Date: 04/07/1992, Expiration Date: 04/07/2002, Cancellation Date: 04/08/2004, Registrant: Donald G Harrington, Rr 1 Box 1785, Ferrisburgh, VT 05456

N1LXD, 04/07/1992, 04/07/2002, 04/08/2004, Donald G Harrington, Rr 1 Box 1785, Ferrisburgh, VT 05456 Call Sign: KB1EXH, Licensee ID: L00220282, Grant Date: 01/06/2010, Expiration Date: 03/21/2020, Certifier: Lawrence H Keyes, Registrant: Lawrence H Keyes, 515 Greenbush Rd, Ferrisburgh, VT 05456

KB1EXH, L00220282, 01/06/2010, 03/21/2020, Lawrence H Keyes, Lawrence H Keyes, 515 Greenbush Rd, Ferrisburgh, VT 05456 Call Sign: KB1IZQ, Licensee ID: L00594359, Grant Date: 06/19/2013, Expiration Date: 06/19/2023, Certifier: William J Clark, Registrant: William J Clark, 457 South Middlebrook Rd, Ferrisburgh, VT 05491

FAA Registered Aircraft: 4 Aircraft: PIPER PA-23-250 ( Category: Land, Engines: 2, Seats: 6, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 150 mph), Engine: LYCOMING TI0-540 SER (310 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 116MF, N116MF, N-116MF, Serial Number: 27-3522, Year manufactured: 1966, Airworthiness Date: 01/26/1967, Certificate Issue Date: 08/05/2010

Registrant (LLC): Gl And Td LLC, 2365 Hawkins Rd, Ferrisburgh, VT 05456

PIPER PA-23-250 ( Land, 2, 6, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 150 mph), LYCOMING TI0-540 SER (310 HP) (Reciprocating) 116MF, N116MF, N-116MF, 27-3522, 1966, 01/26/1967, 08/05/2010 Gl And Td LLC, 2365 Hawkins Rd, Ferrisburgh, VT 05456 Aircraft: TAYLORCRAFT BL-65 ( Category: Land, Seats: 2, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 78 mph), Engine: LYCOMING 0-145B SERIES (65 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 27684, N27684, N-27684, Serial Number: 2326, Year manufactured: 1940, Airworthiness Date: 07/11/1956, Certificate Issue Date: 06/02/2015

Registrant (Individual): Ralph H Jr Shepard, 288 Sand Rd, Ferrisburgh, VT 05456

TAYLORCRAFT BL-65 ( Land, 2, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 78 mph), LYCOMING 0-145B SERIES (65 HP) (Reciprocating) 27684, N27684, N-27684, 2326, 1940, 07/11/1956, 06/02/2015 Ralph H Jr Shepard, 288 Sand Rd, Ferrisburgh, VT 05456 Aircraft: FOUND AIRCRAFT CANADA INC FBA-2C3 ( Category: Land, Seats: 4, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds), Engine: LYCOMING IO-580-B1A (315 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 35010, N35010, N-35010, Serial Number: 310, Year manufactured: 2012, Airworthiness Date: 10/12/2012, Certificate Issue Date: 10/11/2012

Registrant (Individual): James W Gamble, 5520 Sand Rd, Ferrisburgh, VT 05456

FOUND AIRCRAFT CANADA INC FBA-2C3 ( Land, 4, Up to 12,499 Pounds), LYCOMING IO-580-B1A (315 HP) (Reciprocating) 35010, N35010, N-35010, 310, 2012, 10/12/2012, 10/11/2012 James W Gamble, 5520 Sand Rd, Ferrisburgh, VT 05456 Aircraft: PIEL EMERAUDE 301 WH (Category: Land, Seats: 2, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 67 mph), Engine: CONT MOTOR C85 SERIES (85 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 4702, N4702, N-4702, Serial Number: RB101, Year manufactured: 1973, Airworthiness Date: 06/16/1979, Certificate Issue Date: 07/24/2019

Registrant (Co-Owned): David F Bowles, 3454 Shellhouse Mountain Rd, Ferrisburgh, VT 05456, Other Owners: Tyler F Bowles



2002 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents According to the data from the years 2002 - 2018 the average number of fire incidents per year is 11. The highest number of reported fire incidents - 23 took place in 2012, and the least - 3 in 2017. The data has a declining trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Ferrisburgh, VT



87 46.3% Structure Fires



77 41.0% Outside Fires



21 11.2% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



3 1.6% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most incidents belonged to: Structure Fires (46.3%), and Outside Fires (41.0%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Ferrisburgh, VT







Ferrisburgh compared to Vermont state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage below state average.

below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Length of stay since moving in significantly above state average.

significantly above Number of rooms per house significantly below state average.

significantly below House age significantly below state average.

significantly below Number of college students significantly below state average.

significantly below Percentage of population with a bachelor's degree or higher significantly below state average.

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia

Submit your own pictures of this place and show them to the world



OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 817.

Males: 421 (51.5%) Females: 396 (48.5%)

Median resident age: 44.9 years West Virginia median age: 42.9 years

Zip codes: 25515.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $48,188

Gallipolis Ferry: $48,188 WV: $48,850

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $25,750



Gallipolis Ferry CDP income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $91,262 Gallipolis Ferry: $91,262 WV: $124,600

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $99,546; detached houses: $111,325; mobile homes: $44,229 $48,188$25,750$91,262$99,546;$111,325;$44,229

Median gross rent in 2019: $593.

March 2019 cost of living index in Gallipolis Ferry: 85.7 (less than average, U.S. average is 100)

Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2019: 18.0%

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:

Most recent value % change since 2k Data: Median household income ($) Median household income (% change since 2000) Household income diversity Ratio of average income to average house value (%) Ratio of average income to average rent Median household income ($) - White Median household income ($) - Black or African American Median household income ($) - Asian Median household income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median household income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median household income ($) - Multirace Median household income ($) - Other Race Median household income for houses/condos with a mortgage ($) Median household income for apartments without a mortgage ($) Races - White alone (%) Races - White alone (% change since 2000) Races - Black alone (%) Races - Black alone (% change since 2000) Races - American Indian alone (%) Races - American Indian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Asian alone (%) Races - Asian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Hispanic (%) Races - Hispanic (% change since 2000) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (%) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (% change since 2000) Races - Two or more races (%) Races - Two or more races (% change since 2000) Races - Other race alone (%) Races - Other race alone (% change since 2000) Racial diversity Unemployment (%) Unemployment (% change since 2000) Unemployment (%) - White Unemployment (%) - Black or African American Unemployment (%) - Asian Unemployment (%) - Hispanic or Latino Unemployment (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Unemployment (%) - Multirace Unemployment (%) - Other Race Population density (people per square mile) Population - Males (%) Population - Females (%) Population - Males (%) - White Population - Males (%) - Black or African American Population - Males (%) - Asian Population - Males (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Males (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Males (%) - Multirace Population - Males (%) - Other Race Population - Females (%) - White Population - Females (%) - Black or African American Population - Females (%) - Asian Population - Females (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Females (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Females (%) - Multirace Population - Females (%) - Other Race Coronavirus confirmed cases (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (Nov 21, 2021) Coronavirus confirmed cases (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Daily increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Weekly increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Cases doubled (in days) (Nov 21, 2021) Hospitalized patients (Nov 21, 2021) Negative test results (Nov 21, 2021) Total test results (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (Nov 21, 2021) Likely homosexual households (%) Likely homosexual households (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (%) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (%) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (% change since 2000) Cost of living index Median gross rent ($) Median contract rent ($) Median monthly housing costs ($) Median house or condo value ($) Median house or condo value ($ change since 2000) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, detached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, attached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 2 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure by units in structure - 3 or 4 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 5 or more ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Boat, RV, van, etc. ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Mobile home ($) Median house or condo value ($) - White Median house or condo value ($) - Black or African American Median house or condo value ($) - Asian Median house or condo value ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median house or condo value ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median house or condo value ($) - Multirace Median house or condo value ($) - Other Race Median resident age Resident age diversity Median resident age - Males Median resident age - Females Median resident age - White Median resident age - Black or African American Median resident age - Asian Median resident age - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Multirace Median resident age - Other Race Median resident age - Males - White Median resident age - Males - Black or African American Median resident age - Males - Asian Median resident age - Males - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Males - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Males - Multirace Median resident age - Males - Other Race Median resident age - Females - White Median resident age - Females - Black or African American Median resident age - Females - Asian Median resident age - Females - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Females - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Females - Multirace Median resident age - Females - Other Race Commute - mean travel time to work (minutes) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (%) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (%) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (% change since 2000) Marital status - Never married (%) Marital status - Now married (%) Marital status - Separated (%) Marital status - Widowed (%) Marital status - Divorced (%) Median family income ($) Median family income (% change since 2000) Median non-family income ($) Median non-family income (% change since 2000) Median per capita income ($) Median per capita income (% change since 2000) Median family income ($) - White Median family income ($) - Black or African American Median family income ($) - Asian Median family income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median family income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median family income ($) - Multirace Median family income ($) - Other Race Median year house/condo built Median year apartment built Year house built - Built 2005 or later (%) Year house built - Built 2000 to 2004 (%) Year house built - Built 1990 to 1999 (%) Year house built - Built 1980 to 1989 (%) Year house built - Built 1970 to 1979 (%) Year house built - Built 1960 to 1969 (%) Year house built - Built 1950 to 1959 (%) Year house built - Built 1940 to 1949 (%) Year house built - Built 1939 or earlier (%) Average household size Household density (households per square mile) Average household size - White Average household size - Black or African American Average household size - Asian Average household size - Hispanic or Latino Average household size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average household size - Multirace Average household size - Other Race Occupied housing units (%) Vacant housing units (%) Owner occupied housing units (%) Renter occupied housing units (%) Vacancy status - For rent (%) Vacancy status - For sale only (%) Vacancy status - Rented or sold, not occupied (%) Vacancy status - For seasonal, recreational, or occasional use (%) Vacancy status - For migrant workers (%) Vacancy status - Other vacant (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level (%) Children below poverty level (%) Poor families by family type - Married-couple family (%) Poor families by family type - Male, no wife present (%) Poor families by family type - Female, no husband present (%) Poverty status for native-born residents (%) Poverty status for foreign-born residents (%) Poverty among high school graduates not in families (%) Poverty among people who did not graduate high school not in families (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - White Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Black or African American Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Asian Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Hispanic or Latino Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Multirace Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Other Race Air pollution - Air Quality Index (AQI) Air pollution - CO Air pollution - NO2 Air pollution - SO2 Air pollution - Ozone Air pollution - PM10 Air pollution - PM25 Air pollution - Pb Crime - Murders per 100,000 population Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Arson per 100,000 population Crime - City-data.com crime index Crime - Violent crime index Crime - Property crime index Crime - Murders per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Arson per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - City-data.com crime index (5 year average) Crime - Violent crime index (5 year average) Crime - Property crime index (5 year average) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Dole) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Gore) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Kerry) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (McCain) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Romney) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Biden) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other Ancestries Reported - Arab (%) Ancestries Reported - Czech (%) Ancestries Reported - Danish (%) Ancestries Reported - Dutch (%) Ancestries Reported - English (%) Ancestries Reported - French (%) Ancestries Reported - French Canadian (%) Ancestries Reported - German (%) Ancestries Reported - Greek (%) Ancestries Reported - Hungarian (%) Ancestries Reported - Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Italian (%) Ancestries Reported - Lithuanian (%) Ancestries Reported - Norwegian (%) Ancestries Reported - Polish (%) Ancestries Reported - Portuguese (%) Ancestries Reported - Russian (%) Ancestries Reported - Scotch-Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Scottish (%) Ancestries Reported - Slovak (%) Ancestries Reported - Subsaharan African (%) Ancestries Reported - Swedish (%) Ancestries Reported - Swiss (%) Ancestries Reported - Ukrainian (%) Ancestries Reported - United States (%) Ancestries Reported - Welsh (%) Ancestries Reported - West Indian (%) Ancestries Reported - Other (%) Educational Attainment - No schooling completed (%) Educational Attainment - Less than high school (%) Educational Attainment - High school or equivalent (%) Educational Attainment - Less than 1 year of college (%) Educational Attainment - 1 or more years of college (%) Educational Attainment - Associate degree (%) Educational Attainment - Bachelor's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Master's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Professional school degree (%) Educational Attainment - Doctorate degree (%) School Enrollment - Nursery, preschool (%) School Enrollment - Kindergarten (%) School Enrollment - Grade 1 to 4 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 5 to 8 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 9 to 12 (%) School Enrollment - College undergrad (%) School Enrollment - Graduate or professional (%) School Enrollment - Not enrolled in school (%) School enrollment - Public schools (%) School enrollment - Private schools (%) School enrollment - Not enrolled (%) Median number of rooms in houses and condos Median number of rooms in apartments Housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities (%) Housing units lacking complete kitchen facilities (%) Density of houses Urban houses (%) Rural houses (%) Households with people 60 years and over (%) Households with people 65 years and over (%) Households with people 75 years and over (%) Households with one or more nonrelatives (%) Households with no nonrelatives (%) Population in households (%) Family households (%) Nonfamily households (%) Population in families (%) Family households with own children (%) Median number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Median number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Median number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Median number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mortgage status - with mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with second mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - with both second mortgage and home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - without a mortgage (%) Average family size Average family size - White Average family size - Black or African American Average family size - Asian Average family size - Hispanic or Latino Average family size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average family size - Multirace Average family size - Other Race Geographical mobility - Same house 1 year ago (%) Geographical mobility - Moved within same county (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different county within same state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from abroad (%) Place of birth - Born in state of residence (%) Place of birth - Born in other state (%) Place of birth - Native, outside of US (%) Place of birth - Foreign born (%) Housing units in structures - 1, detached (%) Housing units in structures - 1, attached (%) Housing units in structures - 2 (%) Housing units in structures - 3 or 4 (%) Housing units in structures - 5 to 9 (%) Housing units in structures - 10 to 19 (%) Housing units in structures - 20 to 49 (%) Housing units in structures - 50 or more (%) Housing units in structures - Mobile home (%) Housing units in structures - Boat, RV, van, etc. (%) House/condo owner moved in on average (years ago) Renter moved in on average (years ago) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1999 to March 2000 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1995 to 1998 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1990 to 1994 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1980 to 1989 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1970 to 1979 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1969 or earlier (%) Means of transportation to work - Drove car alone (%) Means of transportation to work - Carpooled (%) Means of transportation to work - Public transportation (%) Means of transportation to work - Bus or trolley bus (%) Means of transportation to work - Streetcar or trolley car (%) Means of transportation to work - Subway or elevated (%) Means of transportation to work - Railroad (%) Means of transportation to work - Ferryboat (%) Means of transportation to work - Taxicab (%) Means of transportation to work - Motorcycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Bicycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Walked (%) Means of transportation to work - Other means (%) Working at home (%) Industry diversity Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (%) Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (%) Most Common Industries - Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (%) Most Common Industries - Construction (%) Most Common Industries - Manufacturing (%) Most Common Industries - Wholesale trade (%) Most Common Industries - Retail trade (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing, and utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing (%) Most Common Industries - Utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Information (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance (%) Most Common Industries - Real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and technical services (%) Most Common Industries - Management of companies and enterprises (%) Most Common Industries - Administrative and support and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services, and health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services (%) Most Common Industries - Health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation (%) Most Common Industries - Accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Other services, except public administration (%) Most Common Industries - Public administration (%) Occupation diversity Most Common Occupations - Management, business, science, and arts occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management, business, and financial occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Business and financial operations occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer, engineering, and science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer and mathematical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Architecture and engineering occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Life, physical, and social science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, legal, community service, arts, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Community and social service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Legal occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, training, and library occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health diagnosing and treating practitioners and other technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health technologists and technicians (%) Most Common Occupations - Service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Protective service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Fire fighting and prevention, and other protective service workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Law enforcement workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Food preparation and serving related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Personal care and service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and office occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Office and administrative support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Construction and extraction occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production, transportation, and material moving occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Transportation occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Material moving occupations (%) People in Group quarters - Institutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - Correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Federal prisons and detention centers (%) People in Group quarters - Halfway houses (%) People in Group quarters - Local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups) (%) People in Group quarters - Military disciplinary barracks (%) People in Group quarters - State prisons (%) People in Group quarters - Other types of correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Nursing homes (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards, hospices, and schools for the handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards and hospices for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospices or homes for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Military hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Other hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals or wards for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Mental (Psychiatric) hospitals or wards (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the deaf (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the blind (%) People in Group quarters - Orthopedic wards and institutions for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in general hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in military hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Juvenile institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Long-term care (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for abused, dependent, and neglected children (%) People in Group quarters - Residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed children (%) People in Group quarters - Training schools for juvenile delinquents (%) People in Group quarters - Short-term care, detention or diagnostic centers for delinquent children (%) People in Group quarters - Type of juvenile institution unknown (%) People in Group quarters - Noninstitutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - College dormitories (includes college quarters off campus) (%) People in Group quarters - Military quarters (%) People in Group quarters - On base (%) People in Group quarters - Barracks, unaccompanied personnel housing (UPH), (Enlisted/Officer), ;and similar group living quarters for military personnel (%) People in Group quarters - Transient quarters for temporary residents (%) People in Group quarters - Military ships (%) People in Group quarters - Group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Homes or halfway houses for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally ill (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Other group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Religious group quarters (%) People in Group quarters - Dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Agriculture workers' dormitories on farms (%) People in Group quarters - Job Corps and vocational training facilities (%) People in Group quarters - Other workers' dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Crews of maritime vessels (%) People in Group quarters - Other nonhousehold living situations (%) People in Group quarters - Other noninstitutional group quarters (%) Residents speaking English at home (%) Residents speaking English at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking English at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking English at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking other language at home (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Foreign born (%) Class of Workers - Employee of private company (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed in own incorporated business (%) Class of Workers - Private not-for-profit wage and salary workers (%) Class of Workers - Local government workers (%) Class of Workers - State government workers (%) Class of Workers - Federal government workers (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed workers in own not incorporated business and Unpaid family workers (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - No fuel used (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - No fuel used (%) Armed forces status - In Armed Forces (%) Armed forces status - Civilian (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Veteran (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Nonveteran (%) Fatal accidents locations in years 2005-2019 Fatal accidents locations in 2005 Fatal accidents locations in 2006 Fatal accidents locations in 2007 Fatal accidents locations in 2008 Fatal accidents locations in 2009 Fatal accidents locations in 2010 Fatal accidents locations in 2011 Fatal accidents locations in 2012 Fatal accidents locations in 2013 Fatal accidents locations in 2014 Fatal accidents locations in 2015 Fatal accidents locations in 2016 Fatal accidents locations in 2017 Fatal accidents locations in 2018 Fatal accidents locations in 2019 Alcohol use - People drinking some alcohol every month (%) Alcohol use - People not drinking at all (%) Alcohol use - Average days/month drinking alcohol Alcohol use - Average drinks/week Alcohol use - Average days/year people drink much Audiometry - Average condition of hearing (%) Audiometry - People that can hear a whisper from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - People that can hear normal voice from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - Ears ringing, roaring, buzzing (%) Audiometry - Had a job exposure to loud noise (%) Audiometry - Had off-work exposure to loud noise (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high blood pressure (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Checking blood pressure at home (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Frequently checking blood cholesterol (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high cholesterol level (%) Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at supermarket/grocery store Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at other stores Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on eating out Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on carryout/delivered foods Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at supermarket/grocery store (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at other stores (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on eating out (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on carryout/delivered foods (%) Current Health Status - General health condition (%) Current Health Status - Blood donors (%) Current Health Status - Has blood ever tested for HIV virus (%) Current Health Status - Left-handed people (%) Dermatology - People using sunscreen (%) Diabetes - Diabetics (%) Diabetes - Had a blood test for high blood sugar (%) Diabetes - People taking insulin (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Diet health (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Milk product consumption (# of products/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals not home prepared (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals from fast food or pizza place (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Ready-to-eat foods (#/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Frozen meals/pizza (#/month) Drug Use - People that ever used marijuana or hashish (%) Drug Use - Ever used hard drugs (%) Drug Use - Ever used any form of cocaine (%) Drug Use - Ever used heroin (%) Drug Use - Ever used methamphetamine (%) Health Insurance - People covered by health insurance (%) Kidney Conditions-Urology - Avg. # of times urinating at night Medical Conditions - People with asthma (%) Medical Conditions - People with anemia (%) Medical Conditions - People with psoriasis (%) Medical Conditions - People with overweight (%) Medical Conditions - Elderly people having difficulties in thinking or remembering (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever received blood transfusion (%) Medical Conditions - People having trouble seeing even with glass/contacts (%) Medical Conditions - People with arthritis (%) Medical Conditions - People with gout (%) Medical Conditions - People with congestive heart failure (%) Medical Conditions - People with coronary heart disease (%) Medical Conditions - People with angina pectoris (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had heart attack (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had stroke (%) Medical Conditions - People with emphysema (%) Medical Conditions - People with thyroid problem (%) Medical Conditions - People with chronic bronchitis (%) Medical Conditions - People with any liver condition (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had cancer or malignancy (%) Mental Health - People who have little interest in doing things (%) Mental Health - People feeling down, depressed, or hopeless (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble sleeping or sleeping too much (%) Mental Health - People feeling tired or having little energy (%) Mental Health - People with poor appetite or overeating (%) Mental Health - People feeling bad about themself (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble concentrating on things (%) Mental Health - People moving or speaking slowly or too fast (%) Mental Health - People having thoughts they would be better off dead (%) Oral Health - Average years since last visit a dentist Oral Health - People embarrassed because of mouth (%) Oral Health - People with gum disease (%) Oral Health - General health of teeth and gums (%) Oral Health - Average days a week using dental floss/device Oral Health - Average days a week using mouthwash for dental problem Oral Health - Average number of teeth Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to control insects (%) Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to kill weeds (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People walking or bicycling (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - Average hours a day doing sedentary activities Physical Activity - Average hours a day watching TV or videos Physical Activity - Average hours a day using computer Physical Functioning - People having limitations keeping them from working (%) Physical Functioning - People limited in amount of work they can do (%) Physical Functioning - People that need special equipment to walk (%) Physical Functioning - People experiencing confusion/memory problems (%) Physical Functioning - People requiring special healthcare equipment (%) Prescription Medications - Average number of prescription medicines taking Preventive Aspirin Use - Adults 40+ taking low-dose aspirin (%) Reproductive Health - Vaginal deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Cesarean deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Deliveries resulted in a live birth (%) Reproductive Health - Pregnancies resulted in a delivery (%) Reproductive Health - Women breastfeeding newborns (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had a hysterectomy (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had both ovaries removed (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever taken birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women taking birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used Depo-Provera or injectables (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used female hormones (%) Sexual Behavior - People 18+ that ever had sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had anal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had any sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had anal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had any kind of sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first had sex Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female vaginal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a woman (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of woman performed oral sex on in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male anal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a man (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male oral sex partners in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - People using protection when performing oral sex (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of times people have vaginal or anal sex a year Sexual Behavior - People having sex without condom (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male vaginal sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Circumcised males 18+ (%) Sleep Disorders - Average hours sleeping at night Sleep Disorders - People that has trouble sleeping (%) Smoking-Cigarette Use - People smoking cigarettes (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with smell (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with taste (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had wisdom teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had tonsils teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a loss of consciousness because of a head injury (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a broken nose or other serious injury to face or skull (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had two or more sinus infections (%) Weight - Average height (inches) Weight - Average weight (pounds) Weight - Average BMI Weight - People that are obese (%) Weight - People that ever were obese (%) Weight - People trying to lose weight (%) Settings Get link Loading data... Based on 2000-2020 data Loading data...

123 Hide US histogram





According to our research of West Virginia and other state lists, there were 14 registered sex offenders living in Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Gallipolis Ferry is 56 to 1.





Ancestries: German (22.3%), Irish (14.0%), American (9.6%), English (9.2%), Eastern European (6.6%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 579 feet

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with mortgages in 2019: $710 (0.8%)



Latitude: 38.77 N, Longitude: 82.20 W

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 6.1% West Virginia: 5.7%

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI SO 2

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2010 was 19.7. This is significantly better than average. City: 19.7 U.S.: 74.2

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2010 was 3.22. This is significantly worse than average. Closest monitor was 12.9 miles away from the city center. City: 3.22 U.S.: 1.79

Tornado activity: Gallipolis Ferry-area historical tornado activity is slightly above West Virginia state average. It is 55% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 4/23/1968, a category F5 (max. wind speeds 261-318 mph) tornado 3.4 miles away from the Gallipolis Ferry place center killed 7 people and injured 93 people and caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages. On 4/23/1968, a category F4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 39.6 miles away from the place center killed 6 people and injured 364 people and caused between $5,000,000 and $50,000,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Gallipolis Ferry-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above West Virginia state average. It is 1% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 7/27/1980 at 18:52:21, a magnitude 5.2 (5.1 MB, 4.7 MS, 5.0 UK, 5.2 UK, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 102.2 miles away from Gallipolis Ferry center

On 8/23/2011 at 17:51:04, a magnitude 5.8 (5.8 MW, Depth: 3.7 mi) earthquake occurred 238.8 miles away from the city center

On 8/9/2020 at 12:07:37, a magnitude 5.1 (5.1 MW, Depth: 4.7 mi) earthquake occurred 169.9 miles away from Gallipolis Ferry center

On 9/25/1998 at 19:52:52, a magnitude 5.2 (4.8 MB, 4.3 MS, 5.2 LG, 4.5 MW, Depth: 3.1 mi) earthquake occurred 210.9 miles away from Gallipolis Ferry center

On 9/7/1988 at 02:28:09, a magnitude 4.6 (4.5 MB, 4.6 LG, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 100.8 miles away from the city center

On 1/31/1986 at 16:46:43, a magnitude 5.0 (5.0 MB) earthquake occurred 203.4 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Mason County (18) is near the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 13

Emergencies Declared: 4



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 9, Storms: 9, Landslides: 4, Winter Storms: 3, Hurricanes: 2, Blizzard: 1, Mudslide: 1, Snowfall: 1, Wind: 1, Other: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Gallipolis Ferry: FMC - GALLIPOLIS (Dialysis Facility, about 4 miles away; GALLIPOLIS, OH)

WOODLAND CENTERS INC (Hospital, about 4 miles away; GALLIPOLIS, OH)

GALLIPOLIS DEVELOPMENTAL CENTER (Hospital, about 4 miles away; GALLIPOLIS, OH)

ART INC-MIDDLETON ESTATES (Hospital, about 4 miles away; GALLIPOLIS, OH)

HOLZER HOME CARE (Home Health Center, about 6 miles away; GALLIPOLIS, OH)

HOLZER MEDICAL CENTER Acute Care Hospitals (about 6 miles away; GALLIPOLIS, OH)

Acute Care Hospitals HOLZER SENIOR CARE CENTER (Nursing Home, about 6 miles away; BIDWELL, OH)

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Gallipolis Ferry: Marshall University ( about 28 miles; Huntington, WV ; Full-time enrollment: 11,450)

28 ; 11,450) Ashland Community and Technical College ( about 33 miles; Ashland, KY ; FT enrollment: 2,482)

33 ; 2,482) West Virginia State University ( about 36 miles; Institute, WV ; FT enrollment: 2,133)

36 ; 2,133) Ohio University-Main Campus ( about 39 miles; Athens, OH ; FT enrollment: 26,181)

39 ; 26,181) Shawnee State University ( about 44 miles; Portsmouth, OH ; FT enrollment: 4,160)

44 ; 4,160) Hocking College ( about 47 miles; Nelsonville, OH ; FT enrollment: 4,146)

47 ; 4,146) West Virginia University at Parkersburg (about 49 miles; Parkersburg, WV; FT enrollment: 2,619) Public elementary/middle school in Gallipolis Ferry: BEALE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (Students: 320, Location: RT. #1, Grades: PK-6) See full list of schools located in Gallipolis Ferry

Mason County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level between 2 and 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Moderate Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in Gallipolis Ferry and their reported violations in the past: GALLIPOLIS FERRY (Address: 378 SANDFORK ROAD Population served: 973, Purch groundwater): Past monitoring violations: One routine major monitoring violation GALLIPOLIS FERRY (378 SANDFORK ROAD 973Purch groundwater):

Average household size: This place: 2.3 people West Virginia: 2.4 people

Percentage of family households: This place: 69.9% Whole state: 65.8%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This place: 5.4% Whole state: 6.6%



No gay or lesbian households reported





For population 15 years and over in Gallipolis Ferry: Never married: 14.5%

14.5% Now married: 69.2%

69.2% Separated: 0.0%

0.0% Widowed: 2.9%

2.9% Divorced: 13.4%

For population 25 years and over in Gallipolis Ferry: High school or higher: 83.6%

83.6% Bachelor's degree or higher: 9.5%

9.5% Graduate or professional degree: 1.9%

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 6.7 West Virginia average: 11.0



Religion statistics for Gallipolis Ferry, WV (based on Mason County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Mainline Protestant 4,296 33 Evangelical Protestant 1,849 21 Catholic 171 1 Other - 1 None 21,008 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 4 Here : 1.57 / 10,000 pop. West Virginia : 2.41 / 10,000 pop. Number of supercenters and club stores: 1 Mason County : 0.39 / 10,000 pop. West Virginia : 0.28 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 2 Mason County : 0.78 / 10,000 pop. West Virginia : 1.09 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 11 This county : 4.31 / 10,000 pop. West Virginia : 5.38 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 12 Mason County : 4.70 / 10,000 pop. West Virginia : 6.22 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: This county : 14.1% West Virginia : 12.2% Adult obesity rate: Here : 31.9% West Virginia : 31.1% Low-income preschool obesity rate: Here : 14.5% State : 13.1%

4.03% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($41,276 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.03% West Virginia average: 5.10% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved from foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Gallia County, OH 0.51% ($31,200 average AGI) from Cabell County, WV 0.51% ($60,622) from Putnam County, WV 0.42% ($54,568)



4.14% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($40,271 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.14% West Virginia average: 5.62% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Cabell County, WV 0.53% ($36,674 average AGI) to Putnam County, WV 0.53% ($31,652) to Gallia County, OH 0.43% ($28,947)

Businesses in Gallipolis Ferry, WV Subway: 1

Strongest AM radio stations in Gallipolis Ferry: WBGS (1030 AM; daytime; 10 kW; POINT PLEASANT, WV; Owner: BIG RIVER RADIO, INC.)

BIG RIVER RADIO, INC.) WJEH (990 AM; 1 kW; GALLIPOLIS, OH; Owner: LEGEND COMMUNICATIONS OF OHIO, LLC)

LEGEND COMMUNICATIONS OF OHIO, LLC) WTVN (610 AM; 50 kW; COLUMBUS, OH; Owner: CITICASTERS LICENSES, L.P.)

CITICASTERS LICENSES, L.P.) WMPO (1390 AM; 5 kW; MIDDLEPORT-POMEROY, OH; Owner: POSITIVE RADIO GROUP, INC. OF OHIO)

POSITIVE RADIO GROUP, INC. OF OHIO) WVHU (800 AM; 5 kW; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WCAW (680 AM; 10 kW; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON)

WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON) WCHS (580 AM; 5 kW; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON)

WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CHARLESTON) WRVC (930 AM; 5 kW; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: FIFTH AVENUE BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

FIFTH AVENUE BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WZZW (1600 AM; 5 kW; MILTON, WV; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WLW (700 AM; 50 kW; CINCINNATI, OH; Owner: JACOR BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

JACOR BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WHRD (1470 AM; 5 kW; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: CONCORD MEDIA GROUP, INC.)

CONCORD MEDIA GROUP, INC.) WVTS (950 AM; 5 kW; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: BRISTOL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

BRISTOL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WWVA (1170 AM; 53 kW; WHEELING, WV; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) Strongest FM radio stations in Gallipolis Ferry: WRYV (101.5 FM; GALLIPOLIS, OH; Owner: LEGEND COMMUNICATIONS OF OHIO, LLC)

LEGEND COMMUNICATIONS OF OHIO, LLC) WBYG (99.5 FM; POINT PLEASANT, WV; Owner: BIG RIVER RADIO, INC.)

BIG RIVER RADIO, INC.) WPCN (88.1 FM; POINT PLEASANT, WV; Owner: POSITIVE ALTERNATIVE RADIO, INC.)

POSITIVE ALTERNATIVE RADIO, INC.) WAMX (106.3 FM; MILTON, WV; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WVWV (89.9 FM; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY)

WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY) WKLC-FM (105.1 FM; ST. ALBANS, WV; Owner: WKLC, INC.)

WKLC, INC.) WPAY-FM (104.1 FM; PORTSMOUTH, OH; Owner: RADIO STATIONS WPAY/WPFB, INC.)

RADIO STATIONS WPAY/WPFB, INC.) WEMM (107.9 FM; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: MORTENSON BROADCASTING CO. OF WEST VIRGINIA, LLC)

MORTENSON BROADCASTING CO. OF WEST VIRGINIA, LLC) W219AZ (91.7 FM; GALLIPOLIS, OH; Owner: THE MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO)

THE MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO) WBKS (107.1 FM; IRONTON, OH; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WOSP (91.5 FM; PORTSMOUTH, OH; Owner: THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY)

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY) WLWF (93.1 FM; RAVENSWOOD, WV; Owner: LEGEND COMMUNICATIONS OF WEST VIRGINIA, LLC)

LEGEND COMMUNICATIONS OF WEST VIRGINIA, LLC) WTCR-FM (103.3 FM; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WDGG (93.7 FM; ASHLAND, KY; Owner: FIFTH AVENUE B/CASTING COMPANY, INC.)

FIFTH AVENUE B/CASTING COMPANY, INC.) WYVK (92.1 FM; MIDDLEPORT, OH; Owner: POSITIVE RADIO GROUP, INC. OF OHIO)

POSITIVE RADIO GROUP, INC. OF OHIO) WKEE-FM (100.5 FM; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WRVC-FM (92.7 FM; CATLETTSBURG, KY; Owner: FIFTH AVENUE BROADCASTING CO., INC)

FIFTH AVENUE BROADCASTING CO., INC) WRZZ (106.1 FM; ELIZABETH, WV; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WBVB (97.1 FM; COAL GROVE, OH; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WKOV-FM (96.7 FM; WELLSTON, OH; Owner: JACKSON COUNTY BROADCASTING, INC.) TV broadcast stations around Gallipolis Ferry: WSAZ-TV ( Channel 3; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: EMMIS TELEVISION LICENSE CORPORATION)

3; HUNTINGTON, WV; EMMIS TELEVISION LICENSE CORPORATION) WPBY-TV ( Channel 33; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY)

33; HUNTINGTON, WV; WEST VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY) WOWK-TV ( Channel 13; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA MEDIA HOLDINGS, LLC)

13; HUNTINGTON, WV; WEST VIRGINIA MEDIA HOLDINGS, LLC) WVAH-TV ( Channel 11; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WVAH LICENSEE, LLC)

11; CHARLESTON, WV; WVAH LICENSEE, LLC) WCHS-TV ( Channel 8; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: WCHS LICENSEE, LLC)

8; CHARLESTON, WV; WCHS LICENSEE, LLC) WLPX-TV ( Channel 29; CHARLESTON, WV; Owner: PAXSON CHARLESTON LICENSE, INC.)

29; CHARLESTON, WV; PAXSON CHARLESTON LICENSE, INC.) W36CR ( Channel 36; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: NATIONAL MINORITY T.V., INC.)

36; HUNTINGTON, WV; NATIONAL MINORITY T.V., INC.) WOUB-TV ( Channel 20; ATHENS, OH; Owner: OHIO UNIVERSITY)

20; ATHENS, OH; OHIO UNIVERSITY) W14CU ( Channel 14; HUNTINGTON, WV; Owner: VENTANA TELEVISION, INC.)

14; HUNTINGTON, WV; VENTANA TELEVISION, INC.) WTSF (Channel 61; ASHLAND, KY; Owner: TRI STATE FAMILY BROADCASTING, INC.)

Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia

Fatal accident count 17

Vehicles involved in fatal accidents 33

Fatal accidents involving drunk persons: 5

Fatalities 19

Persons involved in fatal accidents 66

Pedestrians involved in fatal accidents 0 West Virginia average

Fatal accident count 5175

Vehicles involved in fatal accidents 7500

Fatal accidents involving drunk persons 2068

Fatalities 5751

Persons involved in fatal accidents 12691

Pedestrians involved in fatal accidents 346 See more detailed statistics of Gallipolis Ferry fatal car crashes and road traffic accidents for 1975 - 2019 here

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

10 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 52ft / 16.2m Total length

Total length $1,420,000 Total costs

Total costs 9,698 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 522 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 15,601 Total future (year 2033) average daily traffic

New bridges - historical statistics

4 1970-1979

1 1980-1989

4 1990-1999

1 2000-2009 See full National Bridge Inventory statistics for Gallipolis Ferry, WV



FCC Registered Antenna Towers: 3 Jacob T Chapman, 25239 Huntington Rd (281141) ( Lat: 38.683583 Lon: -82.168944), Type: 106.7, Structure height: 54053 m, Overall height: 105.2 m, Registrant: American Towers, LLC., Faa-Fcc@americantower.Com, , Wobur-n, Phone: (678) 265-6730

38.683583 -82.168944), 106.7, 54053 m, 105.2 m, American Towers, LLC., Faa-Fcc@americantower.Com, , Wobur-n, (678) 265-6730 Kristen Cesana, 25239 Huntington Rd (281141) ( Lat: 38.683583 Lon: -82.168944), Type: 106.7, Structure height: 54053 m, Overall height: 105.2 m, Registrant: American Towers, LLC., Faa-Fcc@americantower.Com, , Wobur-n, Phone: (678) 265-6730

38.683583 -82.168944), 106.7, 54053 m, 105.2 m, American Towers, LLC., Faa-Fcc@americantower.Com, , Wobur-n, (678) 265-6730 Quinn Burton, 25239 Huntington Rd (281141) (Lat: 38.683583 Lon: -82.168944), Type: 106.7, Structure height: 54053 m, Overall height: 105.2 m, Registrant: American Towers, LLC., Faa-Fcc@americantower.Com, , Wobur-n, Phone: (678) 564-3236

FCC Registered Broadcast Land Mobile Towers: 2 1 Km South Of Gallipolis Ferry ( Lat: 38.775639 Lon: -82.201806), Type: Tower, Structure height: 13 m, Call Sign: WPSA211,

Assigned Frequencies: 451.112 MHz, Grant Date: 01/11/2011, Expiration Date: 03/20/2021, Cancellation Date: 02/05/2021, Certifier: Robert E Smith, Registrant: Spectrum And Licensing Services, 11 Lee Street, Hanover, PA 17331, Phone: (717) 630-0816, Fax: (717) 637-8300, Email:

38.775639 -82.201806), Tower, 13 m, WPSA211, 451.112 MHz, 01/11/2011, 03/20/2021, 02/05/2021, Robert E Smith, Spectrum And Licensing Services, 11 Lee Street, Hanover, PA 17331, (717) 630-0816, (717) 637-8300, Lat: 38.747111 Lon: -82.176667, Call Sign: WQKQ953,

Assigned Frequencies: 72.1000 MHz, Grant Date: 08/18/2009, Expiration Date: 08/18/2019, Cancellation Date: 10/19/2019, Certifier: Gary Mitchell, Registrant: Primex Wireless, Inc., 965 Wells Street, Lake Geneva, WI 53147, Phone: (262) 249-2344

FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses: 4 Call Sign: KC8LKQ, Grant Date: 12/15/1998, Expiration Date: 12/15/2008, Cancellation Date: 12/16/2010, Registrant: Wanda N Corfee, Rt 1 Box 71a, Gallipolis Ferry, WV 25515

KC8LKQ, 12/15/1998, 12/15/2008, 12/16/2010, Wanda N Corfee, Rt 1 Box 71a, Gallipolis Ferry, WV 25515 Call Sign: KC8NXZ, Licensee ID: L00213822, Grant Date: 06/23/2020, Expiration Date: 03/02/2030, Certifier: Charles W Belcher, Registrant: Charles W Belcher, 1303 Horse Lick Rd, Gallipolis Ferry, WV 25515

KC8NXZ, L00213822, 06/23/2020, 03/02/2030, Charles W Belcher, Charles W Belcher, 1303 Horse Lick Rd, Gallipolis Ferry, WV 25515 Call Sign: KE8ABK, Licensee ID: L01912112, Grant Date: 12/23/2014, Expiration Date: 12/23/2024, Cancellation Date: 11/03/2015, Certifier: Harrison M Roach, Registrant: Harrison M Roach, 4291 Three Mile Road, Gallipolis Ferry, WV 25515

KE8ABK, L01912112, 12/23/2014, 12/23/2024, 11/03/2015, Harrison M Roach, Harrison M Roach, 4291 Three Mile Road, Gallipolis Ferry, WV 25515 Call Sign: W8NAP, Previous Call Sign: KE8ABK, Licensee ID: L01912112, Grant Date: 11/03/2015, Expiration Date: 11/03/2025, Certifier: Harrison M Roach, Registrant: Harrison M Roach, 4291 Three Mile Road, Gallipolis Ferry, WV 25515



2004 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents Based on the data from the years 2004 - 2018 the average number of fires per year is 10. The highest number of reported fires - 19 took place in 2014, and the least - 2 in 2004. The data has an increasing trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Gallipolis Ferry, WV



71 47.0% Structure Fires



59 39.1% Outside Fires



15 9.9% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



6 4.0% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most incidents belonged to: Structure Fires (47.0%), and Outside Fires (39.1%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Gallipolis Ferry, WV

Houses and condos Apartments 62.4% Electricity

37.6% Utility gas 100.0% Electricity





Gallipolis Ferry compared to West Virginia state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Length of stay since moving in below state average.

below Percentage of population with a bachelor's degree or higher below state average.




Glenburn, Maine

Submit your own pictures of this town and show them to the world



OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 4,594.

Population change since 2000: +15.9%

4,594.+15.9%

Males: 2,270 (49.4%) Females: 2,324 (50.6%)

Median resident age: 41.2 years Maine median age: 43.0 years

Zip codes: 04401.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $61,652 (it was $41,885 in 2000)

Glenburn: $61,652 ME: $58,924

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $29,808 (it was $17,544 in 2000)



Glenburn town income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $175,830 (it was $88,200 in 2000) Glenburn: $175,830 ME: $200,500

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $170,506; detached houses: $186,641; townhouses or other attached units: $165,470; in 2-unit structures: $188,869; in 3-to-4-unit structures: $447,223; in 5-or-more-unit structures: $287,906; mobile homes: $67,592; occupied boats, rvs, vans, etc.: $26,279 $61,652 ($41,885$29,808 ($17,544$175,830 ($88,200$170,506;$186,641;$165,470;$188,869;$447,223;$287,906;$67,592;$26,279

March 2019 cost of living index in Glenburn: 92.2 (less than average, U.S. average is 100)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:



4,453 96.9% White alone 46 1.0% Two or more races 31 0.7% American Indian alone 23 0.5% Asian alone 17 0.4% Black alone 20 0.4% Hispanic 4 0.09% Other race alone

Races in Glenburn detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of Maine and other state lists, there were 9 registered sex offenders living in Glenburn, Maine as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Glenburn is 510 to 1.

The ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is near the state average.





Ancestries: English (18.4%), United States (16.6%), Irish (14.8%), French (14.7%), French Canadian (6.9%), Scotch-Irish (5.3%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Land area: 27.2 square miles. Population density: 169 people per square mile (very low).

55 residents are foreign born This town: 1.4% Maine: 2.9%

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units in 2000: Glenburn town: 1.4% ($1,266) Maine: 1.5% ($1,417)

Latitude: 44.92 N, Longitude: 68.84 W

Area code commonly used in this area: 207

Single-family new house construction building permits: 1997: 20 buildings , average cost: $85,800

20 $85,800 1998: 24 buildings , average cost: $109,600

24 $109,600 1999: 14 buildings , average cost: $104,700

14 $104,700 2000: 26 buildings , average cost: $121,300

26 $121,300 2001: 32 buildings , average cost: $135,700

32 $135,700 2002: 43 buildings , average cost: $150,000

43 $150,000 2003: 49 buildings , average cost: $159,000

49 $159,000 2004: 63 buildings , average cost: $192,600

63 $192,600 2005: 36 buildings , average cost: $175,700

36 $175,700 2006: 21 buildings , average cost: $203,600

21 $203,600 2007: 18 buildings , average cost: $199,600

18 $199,600 2008: 10 buildings , average cost: $91,200

10 $91,200 2009: 12 buildings , average cost: $153,600

12 $153,600 2010: 6 buildings , average cost: $201,500

6 $201,500 2011: 10 buildings , average cost: $140,400

10 $140,400 2012: 11 buildings , average cost: $146,400

11 $146,400 2013: 8 buildings , average cost: $216,500

8 $216,500 2014: 1 building , cost: $211,200

1 $211,200 2015: 6 buildings , average cost: $251,900

6 $251,900 2016: 5 buildings , average cost: $261,800

5 $261,800 2017: 7 buildings , average cost: $267,800

7 $267,800 2018: 5 buildings , average cost: $249,800

5 $249,800 2019: 12 buildings, average cost: $276,800

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 4.0% Maine: 4.7%

Most common industries in Glenburn, ME (%) Both Males Females

Health care (14.8%)

Construction (10.0%)

Educational services (9.2%)

Public administration (5.8%)

Accommodation & food services (5.7%)

Food & beverage stores (4.9%)

Truck transportation (3.3%)

Construction (17.2%)

Health care (7.6%)

Public administration (6.3%)

Truck transportation (5.7%)

Educational services (4.5%)

Motor vehicle & parts dealers (4.1%)

Paper (4.1%)

Health care (23.0%)

Educational services (14.7%)

Accommodation & food services (9.1%)

Food & beverage stores (6.5%)

Public administration (5.3%)

Department & other general merchandise stores (4.7%)

Finance & insurance (3.5%) Most common occupations in Glenburn, ME (%) Both Males Females

Driver/sales workers and truck drivers (6.6%)

Retail sales workers, except cashiers (4.5%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (4.5%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (3.8%)

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (3.6%)

Material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers (3.3%)

Health technologists and technicians (3.1%)

Driver/sales workers and truck drivers (11.8%)

Material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers (4.9%)

Electrical equipment mechanics and other installation, maintenance, and repair workers, including supervisors (4.8%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (4.6%)

Laborers and material movers, hand (4.1%)

Construction traders workers except carpenters, electricians, painters, plumbers, and construction laborers (4.1%)

Metal workers and plastic workers (4.0%)

Health technologists and technicians (6.1%)

Retail sales workers, except cashiers (5.8%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (5.3%)

Cashiers (5.2%)

Secretaries and administrative assistants (5.0%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (4.6%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (4.4%)

Average climate in Glenburn, Maine Based on data reported by over 4,000 weather stations

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI Ozone PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 59.4. This is better than average. City: 59.4 U.S.: 74.2

Ozone [ppb] level in 2018 was 32.7. This is about average. Closest monitor was 8.8 miles away from the city center. City: 32.7 U.S.: 33.3

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 5.26. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 7.7 miles away from the city center. City: 5.26 U.S.: 8.46

Earthquake activity: Glenburn-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Maine state average. It is 81% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.3 (5.3 ML, Depth: 3.0 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 240.2 miles away from the city center

On 10/16/2012 at 23:12:25, a magnitude 4.7 (4.7 ML, Depth: 10.0 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 128.0 miles away from Glenburn center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MB, 4.2 MS, 5.2 MW, 5.0 MW) earthquake occurred 241.5 miles away from Glenburn center

On 10/7/1983 at 10:18:46, a magnitude 5.3 (5.1 MB, 5.3 LG, 5.1 ML) earthquake occurred 279.6 miles away from the city center

On 1/19/1982 at 00:14:42, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 MD, 4.5 LG) earthquake occurred 168.2 miles away from Glenburn center

On 2/26/1999 at 03:38:43, a magnitude 3.8 (3.8 LG, Depth: 2.0 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: II - III) earthquake occurred 45.0 miles away from Glenburn center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), duration magnitude (MD), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Penobscot County (19) is greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 11

Emergencies Declared: 7



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 9, Storms: 8, Snows: 5, Heavy Rains: 2, Blizzard: 1, Hurricane: 1, Ice Storm: 1, Snowfall: 1, Wind: 1, Winter Storm: 1, Other: 2 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Glenburn: BANGOR AREA VISITING NURSES (Home Health Center, about 8 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

HOSPICE OF EASTERN MAINE (Hospital, about 8 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

ROSS MANOR (Nursing Home, about 8 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

KINDRED NURSING AND REHABILITATION-WESTGATE (Nursing Home, about 8 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

STILLWATER HEALTH CARE (Nursing Home, about 8 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

ACADIA HOSPITAL,THE (Hospital, about 8 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

TAYLOR HOSPITAL (Hospital, about 8 miles away; BANGOR, ME)

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Glenburn: Husson University ( about 7 miles; Bangor, ME ; Full-time enrollment: 2,421)

7 ; 2,421) University of Maine ( about 9 miles; Orono, ME ; FT enrollment: 8,931)

9 ; 8,931) University of Maine at Augusta ( about 62 miles; Augusta, ME ; FT enrollment: 3,204)

62 ; 3,204) University of Maine at Farmington ( about 67 miles; Farmington, ME ; FT enrollment: 2,036)

67 ; 2,036) Saint Joseph's College of Maine ( about 111 miles; Standish, ME ; FT enrollment: 2,010)

111 ; 2,010) Southern Maine Community College ( about 112 miles; South Portland, ME ; FT enrollment: 4,666)

112 ; 4,666) University of Southern Maine (about 113 miles; Portland, ME; FT enrollment: 6,647) Public elementary/middle school in Glenburn: GLENBURN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (Location: 991 HUDSON RD, Grades: PK-8) See full list of schools located in Glenburn

Library in Glenburn: GLENBURN LIBRARY (Operating income: $18,555; Location: 991 HUDSON ROAD; 16,429 books; 374 audio materials; 257 video materials; 52 other licensed databases; 12 print serial subscriptions)

Penobscot County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Highest Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in Glenburn and their reported violations in the past: GLENBURN MUNICIPAL BUILDING (Population served: 30, Groundwater): Past health violations: MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In AUG-2006, Contaminant: Coliform. Follow-up actions: St Public Notif requested (AUG-28-2006), St Violation/Reminder Notice (AUG-28-2006), St Public Notif received (2 times from OCT-16-2006 to OCT-16-2006), St Compliance achieved (SEP-07-2011), St Intentional no-action (SEP-09-2011) Past monitoring violations: One routine major monitoring violation GLENBURN MUNICIPAL BUILDING (30Groundwater):

Average household size: This town: 2.5 people Maine: 2.3 people

Percentage of family households: This town: 71.9% Whole state: 62.9%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This town: 11.1% Whole state: 9.4%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.4% of all households

0.4% Gay men: 0.4% of all households Residents with income below the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 11.0% Whole state: 10.9% Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 3.9% Whole state: 4.1%

5 people in homes for the mentally retarded in 2000

For population 15 years and over in Glenburn: Never married: 22.3%

22.3% Now married: 58.6%

58.6% Separated: 1.1%

1.1% Widowed: 4.1%

4.1% Divorced: 13.9%

For population 25 years and over in Glenburn: High school or higher: 89.0%

89.0% Bachelor's degree or higher: 12.8%

12.8% Graduate or professional degree: 3.2%

3.2% Unemployed: 4.0%

4.0% Mean travel time to work (commute): 23.2 minutes

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 8.6 Maine average: 11.2



Religion statistics for Glenburn, ME (based on Penobscot County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Catholic 16,581 15 Mainline Protestant 9,715 59 Evangelical Protestant 7,523 80 Other 2,936 22 Orthodox 300 1 None 116,868 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 34 This county : 2.29 / 10,000 pop. Maine : 2.80 / 10,000 pop. Number of supercenters and club stores: 2 Here : 0.13 / 10,000 pop. State : 0.14 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 38 Penobscot County : 2.56 / 10,000 pop. Maine : 2.20 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 85 Here : 5.72 / 10,000 pop. State : 5.75 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 110 This county : 7.41 / 10,000 pop. Maine : 11.02 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: Penobscot County : 9.0% Maine : 8.2% Adult obesity rate: This county : 28.0% State : 25.0%

4.70% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($42,368 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.70% Maine average: 5.91% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved from foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Hancock County, ME 0.46% ($39,233 average AGI) from Somerset County, ME 0.31% ($32,551) from Waldo County, ME 0.30% ($35,315)



5.36% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($47,844 average adjusted gross income) Here: 5.36% Maine average: 5.73% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Cumberland County, ME 0.52% ($78,156 average AGI) to Hancock County, ME 0.43% ($64,636) to Waldo County, ME 0.35% ($39,428)

Businesses in Glenburn, ME U-Haul: 1

Strongest AM radio stations in Glenburn: WZON (620 AM; 5 kW; BANGOR, ME; Owner: THE ZONE CORPORATION)

THE ZONE CORPORATION) WABI (910 AM; 5 kW; BANGOR, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WNZS (1340 AM; 1 kW; VEAZIE, ME; Owner: WATERFRONT COMMUNICATIONS INC.)

WATERFRONT COMMUNICATIONS INC.) WSKW (1160 AM; 10 kW; SKOWHEGAN, ME; Owner: MOUNTAIN WIRELESS, INCORPORATED)

MOUNTAIN WIRELESS, INCORPORATED) WDEA (1370 AM; 5 kW; ELLSWORTH, ME; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WRKO (680 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WTME (780 AM; 10 kW; RUMFORD, ME; Owner: MOUNTAIN VALLEY BROADCASTING, INC.)

MOUNTAIN VALLEY BROADCASTING, INC.) WEEI (850 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WBZ (1030 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WCRN (830 AM; 50 kW; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WNNZ (640 AM; 50 kW; WESTFIELD, MA; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WFAU (1280 AM; 5 kW; GARDINER, ME; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WCHP (760 AM; 35 kW; CHAMPLAIN, NY; Owner: CHAMPLAIN RADIO, INC.) Strongest FM radio stations in Glenburn: WBZN (107.3 FM; OLD TOWN, ME; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WWBX (97.1 FM; BANGOR, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WVOM (103.9 FM; HOWLAND, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WQCB (106.5 FM; BREWER, ME; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WKIT-FM (100.3 FM; BREWER, ME; Owner: THE ZONE CORPORATION)

THE ZONE CORPORATION) WHCF (88.5 FM; BANGOR, ME; Owner: BANGOR BAPTIST CHURCH)

BANGOR BAPTIST CHURCH) WMEH (90.9 FM; BANGOR, ME; Owner: MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WEZQ (92.9 FM; BANGOR, ME; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WWMJ (95.7 FM; ELLSWORTH, ME; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WBFB (104.7 FM; BELFAST, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WGUY (102.1 FM; DEXTER, ME; Owner: CONCORD MEDIA GROUP, INC.)

CONCORD MEDIA GROUP, INC.) WMEB-FM (91.9 FM; ORONO, ME; Owner: UNIVERSITY OF MAINE SYSTEM)

UNIVERSITY OF MAINE SYSTEM) WFZX (101.7 FM; SEARSPORT, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WERU-FM (89.9 FM; BLUE HILL, ME; Owner: SALT POND COMMUNITY B/C COMPANY)

SALT POND COMMUNITY B/C COMPANY) WHSN (89.3 FM; BANGOR, ME; Owner: HUSSON COLLEGE)

HUSSON COLLEGE) WJCX (99.5 FM; PITTSFIELD, ME; Owner: CSN INTERNATIONAL)

CSN INTERNATIONAL) W275AE (102.9 FM; BANGOR, ME; Owner: SALT POND COMMUNITY BROADCASTING, INC.) TV broadcast stations around Glenburn: WABI-TV ( Channel 5; BANGOR, ME; Owner: COMMUNITY BROADCASTING SERVICE)

5; BANGOR, ME; COMMUNITY BROADCASTING SERVICE) WMEB-TV ( Channel 12; ORONO, ME; Owner: MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

12; ORONO, ME; MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WLBZ ( Channel 2; BANGOR, ME; Owner: PACIFIC AND SOUTHERN COMPANY, INC.)

2; BANGOR, ME; PACIFIC AND SOUTHERN COMPANY, INC.) WBGR-LP ( Channel 33; BANGOR/DEDHAM, ME; Owner: MAINE FAMILY BROADCASTING, INC.)

33; BANGOR/DEDHAM, ME; MAINE FAMILY BROADCASTING, INC.) WCKD-LP ( Channel 30; BANGOR/DEDHAM, ME; Owner: J. MCLEOD, ME FAMILY B/CING., INC.)

30; BANGOR/DEDHAM, ME; J. MCLEOD, ME FAMILY B/CING., INC.) W36CK ( Channel 36; BANGOR, ME; Owner: TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK)

36; BANGOR, ME; TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK) W66CL ( Channel 66; BANGOR, ME; Owner: MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC)

66; BANGOR, ME; MS COMMUNICATIONS, LLC) WBAN-LP (Channel 9; BANGOR, ME; Owner: BANGOR MEDIA GROUP, LLC)

Glenburn fatal accident statistics for 1975 - 2019



Glenburn fatal accident list: Jul 20, 2019 11:36 AM, Sr-15 Broadway St, Pineview Ave, Lat: 44.883211, Lon: -68.865600, Vehicles: 2, Persons: 4, Fatalities: 1

Mar 13, 2016 04:04 PM, Sr-15 Broadway St, Lat: 44.890669, Lon: -68.875569, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 2, Fatalities: 1, Drunk persons involved: 1

Jul 17, 2016 06:00 AM, Sr-Broadway Street, Lat: 44.867389, Lon: -68.843711, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 2, Fatalities: 2, Drunk persons involved: 1

Dec 17, 2014 04:20 PM, Pushaw Rd, Lat: 44.931350, Lon: -68.820569, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 1, Pedestrians: 1, Fatalities: 1

Dec 16, 2003 12:00 AM, Pushaw Road, Vehicles: 2, Persons: 3, Fatalities: 1

Jun 1, 2000 04:30 PM, Aa Landing Rd, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 3, Pedestrians: 1, Fatalities: 1

May 10, 1998 07:50 PM, Lancaster-Road, Vehicles: 2, Persons: 3, Fatalities: 3





FCC Registered Microwave Towers: 1 Glenburn, Route 222 (Lat: 44.864139 Lon: -68.908028), Type: Tower, Structure height: 59.4 m, Overall height: 60.6 m, Call Sign: WQJF677,

Assigned Frequencies: 10628.1 MHz, Grant Date: 08/21/2008, Expiration Date: 08/21/2018, Cancellation Date: 08/06/2015, Certifier: John T Scott Iii, Registrant: Verizon Wireless, 1120 Sanctuary Pkwy, #150 Gasa5reg, Alpharetta, GA 30009-7630, Phone: (770) 797-1070, Fax: (770) 797-1036, Email:

FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses: 14 (



FAA Registered Aircraft: 7 Aircraft: CIRRUS DESIGN CORP SR22 ( Category: Land, Seats: 4, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds), Engine: CONT MOTOR IO-550 SERIES (300 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 224JC, N224JC, N-224JC, Serial Number: 0914, Year manufactured: 2004, Airworthiness Date: 04/29/2004, Certificate Issue Date: 03/16/2015

Registrant (Co-Owned): Ventures & Agency Services Inc 109, 118 Cedar Breeze S, Glenburn, ME 04401, Other Owners: LLC Nsg-1

CIRRUS DESIGN CORP SR22 ( Land, 4, Up to 12,499 Pounds), CONT MOTOR IO-550 SERIES (300 HP) (Reciprocating) 224JC, N224JC, N-224JC, 0914, 2004, 04/29/2004, 03/16/2015 Ventures & Agency Services Inc 109, 118 Cedar Breeze S, Glenburn, ME 04401, LLC Nsg-1 Aircraft: PIPER PA-18-150 ( Category: Land, Seats: 2, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 97 mph), Engine: LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 3860Z, N3860Z, N-3860Z, Serial Number: 18-7633, Year manufactured: 1961, Airworthiness Date: 05/11/1961, Certificate Issue Date: 09/27/2010

Registrant (Individual): Robert C Krueger, 40 Cedar Breeze N, Glenburn, ME 04401

PIPER PA-18-150 ( Land, 2, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 97 mph), LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 HP) (Reciprocating) 3860Z, N3860Z, N-3860Z, 18-7633, 1961, 05/11/1961, 09/27/2010 Robert C Krueger, 40 Cedar Breeze N, Glenburn, ME 04401 Aircraft: TAYLORCRAFT BC12-D ( Category: Land, Seats: 2, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 78 mph), Engine: CONT MOTOR A&C65 SERIES (65 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 43040, N43040, N-43040, Serial Number: 6699, Year manufactured: 1946, Airworthiness Date: 04/09/1955, Certificate Issue Date: 09/27/2010

Registrant (Individual): Robert C Krueger, 40 Cedar Breeze N, Glenburn, ME 04401

TAYLORCRAFT BC12-D ( Land, 2, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 78 mph), CONT MOTOR A&C65 SERIES (65 HP) (Reciprocating) 43040, N43040, N-43040, 6699, 1946, 04/09/1955, 09/27/2010 Robert C Krueger, 40 Cedar Breeze N, Glenburn, ME 04401 Aircraft: CHAMPION 7CCM ( Category: Land, Seats: 2, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 90 mph), Engine: CONT MOTOR C90-12F (95 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 4575E, N4575E, N-4575E, Serial Number: 7CCM-142, Year manufactured: 1949, Airworthiness Date: 04/04/2007, Certificate Issue Date: 06/09/1973

Registrant (Individual): John S Jr Craig, 61 Pine Hill Dr, Glenburn, ME 04401

CHAMPION 7CCM ( Land, 2, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 90 mph), CONT MOTOR C90-12F (95 HP) (Reciprocating) 4575E, N4575E, N-4575E, 7CCM-142, 1949, 04/04/2007, 06/09/1973 John S Jr Craig, 61 Pine Hill Dr, Glenburn, ME 04401 Aircraft: CESSNA 180G ( Category: Land, Seats: 6, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 121 mph), Engine: CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 4666U, N4666U, N-4666U, Serial Number: 18051366, Year manufactured: 1964, Airworthiness Date: 05/28/1982, Certificate Issue Date: 03/13/2019

Registrant (LLC): Paradise Adventures LLC, 35 Aspen Ridge Rd, Glenburn, ME 04401

CESSNA 180G ( Land, 6, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 121 mph), CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 HP) (Reciprocating) 4666U, N4666U, N-4666U, 18051366, 1964, 05/28/1982, 03/13/2019 Paradise Adventures LLC, 35 Aspen Ridge Rd, Glenburn, ME 04401 Aircraft: PIPER PA-11 ( Category: Land, Seats: 2, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 67 mph), Engine: CONT MOTOR C90 SERIES (95 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 4677M, N4677M, N-4677M, Serial Number: 11-186, Year manufactured: 1947, Airworthiness Date: 05/14/1956, Certificate Issue Date: 12/17/1975

Registrant (Individual): Timothy D Hodgkins, 35 Luckys Landing Rd, Glenburn, ME 04401

PIPER PA-11 ( Land, 2, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 67 mph), CONT MOTOR C90 SERIES (95 HP) (Reciprocating) 4677M, N4677M, N-4677M, 11-186, 1947, 05/14/1956, 12/17/1975 Timothy D Hodgkins, 35 Luckys Landing Rd, Glenburn, ME 04401 Aircraft: AERONCA 7AC (Category: Land, Seats: 2, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 90 mph), Engine: CONT MOTOR C90 SERIES (95 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 82015, N82015, N-82015, Serial Number: 7AC-641, Year manufactured: 1946, Airworthiness Date: 08/27/1979, Certificate Issue Date: 05/15/1978

Registrant (Individual): John S Jr Craig, 61 Pine Hill Dr, Glenburn, ME 04401

14 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses in Glenburn

2003 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents Based on the data from the years 2003 - 2018 the average number of fire incidents per year is 8. The highest number of fires - 25 took place in 2015, and the least - 2 in 2014. The data has an increasing trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Glenburn, ME



93 69.4% Structure Fires



30 22.4% Outside Fires



8 6.0% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



3 2.2% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most reports belonged to: Structure Fires (69.4%), and Outside Fires (22.4%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Glenburn, ME

Houses and condos Apartments 89.3% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

8.1% Wood

1.9% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

0.7% Electricity 63.3% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

20.5% Electricity

7.2% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

4.8% No fuel used

4.2% Wood





Glenburn compared to Maine state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Renting percentage below state average.

below Length of stay since moving in significantly above state average.

significantly above Number of rooms per house significantly below state average.

significantly below House age significantly below state average.

significantly below Percentage of population with a bachelor's degree or higher below state average.

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Joppa, Alabama

Submit your own pictures of this place and show them to the world



OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 501.

Males: 254 (50.7%) Females: 247 (49.3%)

Median resident age: 35.0 years Alabama median age: 43.1 years

Estimated median household income in 2019: $44,186

Joppa: $44,186 AL: $51,734

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $25,198



Joppa CDP income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $87,414 Joppa: $87,414 AL: $154,000 $44,186$25,198$87,414

March 2019 cost of living index in Joppa: 80.1 (low, U.S. average is 100)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:

Most recent value % change since 2k Data: Median household income ($) Median household income (% change since 2000) Household income diversity Ratio of average income to average house value (%) Ratio of average income to average rent Median household income ($) - White Median household income ($) - Black or African American Median household income ($) - Asian Median household income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median household income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median household income ($) - Multirace Median household income ($) - Other Race Median household income for houses/condos with a mortgage ($) Median household income for apartments without a mortgage ($) Races - White alone (%) Races - White alone (% change since 2000) Races - Black alone (%) Races - Black alone (% change since 2000) Races - American Indian alone (%) Races - American Indian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Asian alone (%) Races - Asian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Hispanic (%) Races - Hispanic (% change since 2000) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (%) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (% change since 2000) Races - Two or more races (%) Races - Two or more races (% change since 2000) Races - Other race alone (%) Races - Other race alone (% change since 2000) Racial diversity Unemployment (%) Unemployment (% change since 2000) Unemployment (%) - White Unemployment (%) - Black or African American Unemployment (%) - Asian Unemployment (%) - Hispanic or Latino Unemployment (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Unemployment (%) - Multirace Unemployment (%) - Other Race Population density (people per square mile) Population - Males (%) Population - Females (%) Population - Males (%) - White Population - Males (%) - Black or African American Population - Males (%) - Asian Population - Males (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Males (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Males (%) - Multirace Population - Males (%) - Other Race Population - Females (%) - White Population - Females (%) - Black or African American Population - Females (%) - Asian Population - Females (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Females (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Females (%) - Multirace Population - Females (%) - Other Race Coronavirus confirmed cases (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (Nov 21, 2021) Coronavirus confirmed cases (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Daily increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Weekly increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Cases doubled (in days) (Nov 21, 2021) Hospitalized patients (Nov 21, 2021) Negative test results (Nov 21, 2021) Total test results (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (Nov 21, 2021) Likely homosexual households (%) Likely homosexual households (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (%) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (%) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (% change since 2000) Cost of living index Median gross rent ($) Median contract rent ($) Median monthly housing costs ($) Median house or condo value ($) Median house or condo value ($ change since 2000) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, detached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, attached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 2 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure by units in structure - 3 or 4 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 5 or more ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Boat, RV, van, etc. ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Mobile home ($) Median house or condo value ($) - White Median house or condo value ($) - Black or African American Median house or condo value ($) - Asian Median house or condo value ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median house or condo value ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median house or condo value ($) - Multirace Median house or condo value ($) - Other Race Median resident age Resident age diversity Median resident age - Males Median resident age - Females Median resident age - White Median resident age - Black or African American Median resident age - Asian Median resident age - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Multirace Median resident age - Other Race Median resident age - Males - White Median resident age - Males - Black or African American Median resident age - Males - Asian Median resident age - Males - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Males - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Males - Multirace Median resident age - Males - Other Race Median resident age - Females - White Median resident age - Females - Black or African American Median resident age - Females - Asian Median resident age - Females - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Females - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Females - Multirace Median resident age - Females - Other Race Commute - mean travel time to work (minutes) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (%) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (%) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (% change since 2000) Marital status - Never married (%) Marital status - Now married (%) Marital status - Separated (%) Marital status - Widowed (%) Marital status - Divorced (%) Median family income ($) Median family income (% change since 2000) Median non-family income ($) Median non-family income (% change since 2000) Median per capita income ($) Median per capita income (% change since 2000) Median family income ($) - White Median family income ($) - Black or African American Median family income ($) - Asian Median family income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median family income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median family income ($) - Multirace Median family income ($) - Other Race Median year house/condo built Median year apartment built Year house built - Built 2005 or later (%) Year house built - Built 2000 to 2004 (%) Year house built - Built 1990 to 1999 (%) Year house built - Built 1980 to 1989 (%) Year house built - Built 1970 to 1979 (%) Year house built - Built 1960 to 1969 (%) Year house built - Built 1950 to 1959 (%) Year house built - Built 1940 to 1949 (%) Year house built - Built 1939 or earlier (%) Average household size Household density (households per square mile) Average household size - White Average household size - Black or African American Average household size - Asian Average household size - Hispanic or Latino Average household size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average household size - Multirace Average household size - Other Race Occupied housing units (%) Vacant housing units (%) Owner occupied housing units (%) Renter occupied housing units (%) Vacancy status - For rent (%) Vacancy status - For sale only (%) Vacancy status - Rented or sold, not occupied (%) Vacancy status - For seasonal, recreational, or occasional use (%) Vacancy status - For migrant workers (%) Vacancy status - Other vacant (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level (%) Children below poverty level (%) Poor families by family type - Married-couple family (%) Poor families by family type - Male, no wife present (%) Poor families by family type - Female, no husband present (%) Poverty status for native-born residents (%) Poverty status for foreign-born residents (%) Poverty among high school graduates not in families (%) Poverty among people who did not graduate high school not in families (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - White Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Black or African American Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Asian Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Hispanic or Latino Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Multirace Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Other Race Air pollution - Air Quality Index (AQI) Air pollution - CO Air pollution - NO2 Air pollution - SO2 Air pollution - Ozone Air pollution - PM10 Air pollution - PM25 Air pollution - Pb Crime - Murders per 100,000 population Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Arson per 100,000 population Crime - City-data.com crime index Crime - Violent crime index Crime - Property crime index Crime - Murders per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Arson per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - City-data.com crime index (5 year average) Crime - Violent crime index (5 year average) Crime - Property crime index (5 year average) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Dole) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Gore) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Kerry) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (McCain) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Romney) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Biden) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other Ancestries Reported - Arab (%) Ancestries Reported - Czech (%) Ancestries Reported - Danish (%) Ancestries Reported - Dutch (%) Ancestries Reported - English (%) Ancestries Reported - French (%) Ancestries Reported - French Canadian (%) Ancestries Reported - German (%) Ancestries Reported - Greek (%) Ancestries Reported - Hungarian (%) Ancestries Reported - Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Italian (%) Ancestries Reported - Lithuanian (%) Ancestries Reported - Norwegian (%) Ancestries Reported - Polish (%) Ancestries Reported - Portuguese (%) Ancestries Reported - Russian (%) Ancestries Reported - Scotch-Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Scottish (%) Ancestries Reported - Slovak (%) Ancestries Reported - Subsaharan African (%) Ancestries Reported - Swedish (%) Ancestries Reported - Swiss (%) Ancestries Reported - Ukrainian (%) Ancestries Reported - United States (%) Ancestries Reported - Welsh (%) Ancestries Reported - West Indian (%) Ancestries Reported - Other (%) Educational Attainment - No schooling completed (%) Educational Attainment - Less than high school (%) Educational Attainment - High school or equivalent (%) Educational Attainment - Less than 1 year of college (%) Educational Attainment - 1 or more years of college (%) Educational Attainment - Associate degree (%) Educational Attainment - Bachelor's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Master's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Professional school degree (%) Educational Attainment - Doctorate degree (%) School Enrollment - Nursery, preschool (%) School Enrollment - Kindergarten (%) School Enrollment - Grade 1 to 4 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 5 to 8 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 9 to 12 (%) School Enrollment - College undergrad (%) School Enrollment - Graduate or professional (%) School Enrollment - Not enrolled in school (%) School enrollment - Public schools (%) School enrollment - Private schools (%) School enrollment - Not enrolled (%) Median number of rooms in houses and condos Median number of rooms in apartments Housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities (%) Housing units lacking complete kitchen facilities (%) Density of houses Urban houses (%) Rural houses (%) Households with people 60 years and over (%) Households with people 65 years and over (%) Households with people 75 years and over (%) Households with one or more nonrelatives (%) Households with no nonrelatives (%) Population in households (%) Family households (%) Nonfamily households (%) Population in families (%) Family households with own children (%) Median number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Median number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Median number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Median number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mortgage status - with mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with second mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - with both second mortgage and home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - without a mortgage (%) Average family size Average family size - White Average family size - Black or African American Average family size - Asian Average family size - Hispanic or Latino Average family size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average family size - Multirace Average family size - Other Race Geographical mobility - Same house 1 year ago (%) Geographical mobility - Moved within same county (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different county within same state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from abroad (%) Place of birth - Born in state of residence (%) Place of birth - Born in other state (%) Place of birth - Native, outside of US (%) Place of birth - Foreign born (%) Housing units in structures - 1, detached (%) Housing units in structures - 1, attached (%) Housing units in structures - 2 (%) Housing units in structures - 3 or 4 (%) Housing units in structures - 5 to 9 (%) Housing units in structures - 10 to 19 (%) Housing units in structures - 20 to 49 (%) Housing units in structures - 50 or more (%) Housing units in structures - Mobile home (%) Housing units in structures - Boat, RV, van, etc. (%) House/condo owner moved in on average (years ago) Renter moved in on average (years ago) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1999 to March 2000 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1995 to 1998 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1990 to 1994 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1980 to 1989 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1970 to 1979 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1969 or earlier (%) Means of transportation to work - Drove car alone (%) Means of transportation to work - Carpooled (%) Means of transportation to work - Public transportation (%) Means of transportation to work - Bus or trolley bus (%) Means of transportation to work - Streetcar or trolley car (%) Means of transportation to work - Subway or elevated (%) Means of transportation to work - Railroad (%) Means of transportation to work - Ferryboat (%) Means of transportation to work - Taxicab (%) Means of transportation to work - Motorcycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Bicycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Walked (%) Means of transportation to work - Other means (%) Working at home (%) Industry diversity Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (%) Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (%) Most Common Industries - Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (%) Most Common Industries - Construction (%) Most Common Industries - Manufacturing (%) Most Common Industries - Wholesale trade (%) Most Common Industries - Retail trade (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing, and utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing (%) Most Common Industries - Utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Information (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance (%) Most Common Industries - Real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and technical services (%) Most Common Industries - Management of companies and enterprises (%) Most Common Industries - Administrative and support and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services, and health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services (%) Most Common Industries - Health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation (%) Most Common Industries - Accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Other services, except public administration (%) Most Common Industries - Public administration (%) Occupation diversity Most Common Occupations - Management, business, science, and arts occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management, business, and financial occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Business and financial operations occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer, engineering, and science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer and mathematical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Architecture and engineering occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Life, physical, and social science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, legal, community service, arts, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Community and social service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Legal occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, training, and library occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health diagnosing and treating practitioners and other technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health technologists and technicians (%) Most Common Occupations - Service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Protective service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Fire fighting and prevention, and other protective service workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Law enforcement workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Food preparation and serving related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Personal care and service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and office occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Office and administrative support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Construction and extraction occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production, transportation, and material moving occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Transportation occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Material moving occupations (%) People in Group quarters - Institutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - Correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Federal prisons and detention centers (%) People in Group quarters - Halfway houses (%) People in Group quarters - Local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups) (%) People in Group quarters - Military disciplinary barracks (%) People in Group quarters - State prisons (%) People in Group quarters - Other types of correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Nursing homes (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards, hospices, and schools for the handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards and hospices for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospices or homes for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Military hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Other hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals or wards for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Mental (Psychiatric) hospitals or wards (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the deaf (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the blind (%) People in Group quarters - Orthopedic wards and institutions for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in general hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in military hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Juvenile institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Long-term care (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for abused, dependent, and neglected children (%) People in Group quarters - Residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed children (%) People in Group quarters - Training schools for juvenile delinquents (%) People in Group quarters - Short-term care, detention or diagnostic centers for delinquent children (%) People in Group quarters - Type of juvenile institution unknown (%) People in Group quarters - Noninstitutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - College dormitories (includes college quarters off campus) (%) People in Group quarters - Military quarters (%) People in Group quarters - On base (%) People in Group quarters - Barracks, unaccompanied personnel housing (UPH), (Enlisted/Officer), ;and similar group living quarters for military personnel (%) People in Group quarters - Transient quarters for temporary residents (%) People in Group quarters - Military ships (%) People in Group quarters - Group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Homes or halfway houses for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally ill (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Other group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Religious group quarters (%) People in Group quarters - Dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Agriculture workers' dormitories on farms (%) People in Group quarters - Job Corps and vocational training facilities (%) People in Group quarters - Other workers' dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Crews of maritime vessels (%) People in Group quarters - Other nonhousehold living situations (%) People in Group quarters - Other noninstitutional group quarters (%) Residents speaking English at home (%) Residents speaking English at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking English at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking English at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking other language at home (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Foreign born (%) Class of Workers - Employee of private company (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed in own incorporated business (%) Class of Workers - Private not-for-profit wage and salary workers (%) Class of Workers - Local government workers (%) Class of Workers - State government workers (%) Class of Workers - Federal government workers (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed workers in own not incorporated business and Unpaid family workers (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - No fuel used (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - No fuel used (%) Armed forces status - In Armed Forces (%) Armed forces status - Civilian (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Veteran (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Nonveteran (%) Fatal accidents locations in years 2005-2019 Fatal accidents locations in 2005 Fatal accidents locations in 2006 Fatal accidents locations in 2007 Fatal accidents locations in 2008 Fatal accidents locations in 2009 Fatal accidents locations in 2010 Fatal accidents locations in 2011 Fatal accidents locations in 2012 Fatal accidents locations in 2013 Fatal accidents locations in 2014 Fatal accidents locations in 2015 Fatal accidents locations in 2016 Fatal accidents locations in 2017 Fatal accidents locations in 2018 Fatal accidents locations in 2019 Alcohol use - People drinking some alcohol every month (%) Alcohol use - People not drinking at all (%) Alcohol use - Average days/month drinking alcohol Alcohol use - Average drinks/week Alcohol use - Average days/year people drink much Audiometry - Average condition of hearing (%) Audiometry - People that can hear a whisper from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - People that can hear normal voice from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - Ears ringing, roaring, buzzing (%) Audiometry - Had a job exposure to loud noise (%) Audiometry - Had off-work exposure to loud noise (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high blood pressure (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Checking blood pressure at home (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Frequently checking blood cholesterol (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high cholesterol level (%) Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at supermarket/grocery store Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at other stores Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on eating out Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on carryout/delivered foods Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at supermarket/grocery store (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at other stores (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on eating out (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on carryout/delivered foods (%) Current Health Status - General health condition (%) Current Health Status - Blood donors (%) Current Health Status - Has blood ever tested for HIV virus (%) Current Health Status - Left-handed people (%) Dermatology - People using sunscreen (%) Diabetes - Diabetics (%) Diabetes - Had a blood test for high blood sugar (%) Diabetes - People taking insulin (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Diet health (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Milk product consumption (# of products/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals not home prepared (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals from fast food or pizza place (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Ready-to-eat foods (#/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Frozen meals/pizza (#/month) Drug Use - People that ever used marijuana or hashish (%) Drug Use - Ever used hard drugs (%) Drug Use - Ever used any form of cocaine (%) Drug Use - Ever used heroin (%) Drug Use - Ever used methamphetamine (%) Health Insurance - People covered by health insurance (%) Kidney Conditions-Urology - Avg. # of times urinating at night Medical Conditions - People with asthma (%) Medical Conditions - People with anemia (%) Medical Conditions - People with psoriasis (%) Medical Conditions - People with overweight (%) Medical Conditions - Elderly people having difficulties in thinking or remembering (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever received blood transfusion (%) Medical Conditions - People having trouble seeing even with glass/contacts (%) Medical Conditions - People with arthritis (%) Medical Conditions - People with gout (%) Medical Conditions - People with congestive heart failure (%) Medical Conditions - People with coronary heart disease (%) Medical Conditions - People with angina pectoris (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had heart attack (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had stroke (%) Medical Conditions - People with emphysema (%) Medical Conditions - People with thyroid problem (%) Medical Conditions - People with chronic bronchitis (%) Medical Conditions - People with any liver condition (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had cancer or malignancy (%) Mental Health - People who have little interest in doing things (%) Mental Health - People feeling down, depressed, or hopeless (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble sleeping or sleeping too much (%) Mental Health - People feeling tired or having little energy (%) Mental Health - People with poor appetite or overeating (%) Mental Health - People feeling bad about themself (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble concentrating on things (%) Mental Health - People moving or speaking slowly or too fast (%) Mental Health - People having thoughts they would be better off dead (%) Oral Health - Average years since last visit a dentist Oral Health - People embarrassed because of mouth (%) Oral Health - People with gum disease (%) Oral Health - General health of teeth and gums (%) Oral Health - Average days a week using dental floss/device Oral Health - Average days a week using mouthwash for dental problem Oral Health - Average number of teeth Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to control insects (%) Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to kill weeds (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People walking or bicycling (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - Average hours a day doing sedentary activities Physical Activity - Average hours a day watching TV or videos Physical Activity - Average hours a day using computer Physical Functioning - People having limitations keeping them from working (%) Physical Functioning - People limited in amount of work they can do (%) Physical Functioning - People that need special equipment to walk (%) Physical Functioning - People experiencing confusion/memory problems (%) Physical Functioning - People requiring special healthcare equipment (%) Prescription Medications - Average number of prescription medicines taking Preventive Aspirin Use - Adults 40+ taking low-dose aspirin (%) Reproductive Health - Vaginal deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Cesarean deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Deliveries resulted in a live birth (%) Reproductive Health - Pregnancies resulted in a delivery (%) Reproductive Health - Women breastfeeding newborns (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had a hysterectomy (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had both ovaries removed (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever taken birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women taking birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used Depo-Provera or injectables (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used female hormones (%) Sexual Behavior - People 18+ that ever had sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had anal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had any sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had anal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had any kind of sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first had sex Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female vaginal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a woman (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of woman performed oral sex on in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male anal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a man (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male oral sex partners in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - People using protection when performing oral sex (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of times people have vaginal or anal sex a year Sexual Behavior - People having sex without condom (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male vaginal sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Circumcised males 18+ (%) Sleep Disorders - Average hours sleeping at night Sleep Disorders - People that has trouble sleeping (%) Smoking-Cigarette Use - People smoking cigarettes (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with smell (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with taste (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had wisdom teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had tonsils teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a loss of consciousness because of a head injury (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a broken nose or other serious injury to face or skull (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had two or more sinus infections (%) Weight - Average height (inches) Weight - Average weight (pounds) Weight - Average BMI Weight - People that are obese (%) Weight - People that ever were obese (%) Weight - People trying to lose weight (%) Settings Get link Loading data... Based on 2000-2020 data Loading data...

123 Hide US histogram



391 78.0% White alone 86 17.2% Hispanic 19 3.8% Two or more races 4 0.8% American Indian alone 1 0.2% Black alone







According to our research of Alabama and other state lists, there were 7 registered sex offenders living in Joppa, Alabama as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Joppa is 72 to 1.





Current Local Time: CST time zone

Elevation: 1014 feet

Latitude: 34.30 N, Longitude: 86.56 W

Area code commonly used in this area: 256

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 3.4% Alabama: 4.0%

Tornado activity: Joppa-area historical tornado activity is slightly above Alabama state average. It is 173% greater than the overall U.S. average.

On 3/11/1963, a category F4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 8.2 miles away from the Joppa place center killed 2 people and injured 6 people and caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages. On 4/3/1974, a category F4 tornado 8.4 miles away from the place center killed 3 people and injured 178 people and caused between $5,000,000 and $50,000,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Joppa-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Alabama state average. It is 148% greater than the overall U.S. average.



On 4/29/2003 at 08:59:39, a magnitude 4.9 (4.4 MB, 4.6 MW, 4.9 LG, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 54.6 miles away from Joppa center

On 1/18/1999 at 07:00:53, a magnitude 4.8 (4.8 MB, 4.0 LG, Depth: 0.6 mi) earthquake occurred 73.7 miles away from Joppa center

On 4/29/2003 at 08:59:39, a magnitude 4.6 (4.6 MW, Depth: 12.3 mi) earthquake occurred 54.6 miles away from the city center

On 6/24/1975 at 11:11:36, a magnitude 4.5 (4.5 MB) earthquake occurred 83.8 miles away from the city center

On 4/18/2008 at 09:36:59, a magnitude 5.4 (5.1 MB, 4.8 MS, 5.4 MW, 5.2 MW, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 296.7 miles away from the city center

On 3/25/1976 at 00:41:20, a magnitude 5.0 (4.9 MB, 5.0 LG) earthquake occurred 232.9 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Crenshaw County (22) is greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 13

Emergencies Declared: 6



Causes of natural disasters: Storms: 11, Floods: 9, Hurricanes: 8, Tornadoes: 7, Winds: 5, Drought: 1, Snowfall: 1, Winter Storm: 1, Other: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Joppa: MARSHALL MANOR NURSING HOME (Nursing Home, about 15 miles away; GUNTERSVILLE, AL)

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Joppa: George C Wallace State Community College-Hanceville ( about 21 miles; Hanceville, AL ; Full-time enrollment: 4,486)

21 ; 4,486) Snead State Community College ( about 24 miles; Boaz, AL ; FT enrollment: 2,023)

24 ; 2,023) University of Alabama in Huntsville ( about 30 miles; Huntsville, AL ; FT enrollment: 6,006)

30 ; 6,006) John C Calhoun State Community College ( about 34 miles; Tanner, AL ; FT enrollment: 7,911)

34 ; 7,911) Alabama A & M University ( about 34 miles; Normal, AL ; FT enrollment: 4,524)

34 ; 4,524) Gadsden State Community College ( about 39 miles; Gadsden, AL ; FT enrollment: 4,650)

39 ; 4,650) Northeast Alabama Community College (about 41 miles; Rainsville, AL; FT enrollment: 2,409) See full list of schools located in Joppa

Points of interest: Click to draw/clear place borders Churches in Joppa include: Joppa United Methodist Church (A) , Joppa Church of God (B) , New Jerusalem Baptist Church (C) . Display/hide their locations on the map

Crenshaw County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level less than 2 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Low Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in Joppa that have no violations reported: JOPPA, HULACO & RYAN WATER AUTHORITY (Population served: 4,692, Primary Water Source Type: Purch surface water)

Average household size: This place: 2.8 people Alabama: 2.5 people

Percentage of family households: This place: 75.7% Whole state: 67.8%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This place: 7.3% Whole state: 4.7%



No gay or lesbian households reported





Religion statistics for Joppa, AL (based on Crenshaw County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Evangelical Protestant 7,442 52 Mainline Protestant 875 13 Black Protestant 244 2 Other 223 1 None 5,122 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 6 Crenshaw County : 4.36 / 10,000 pop. Alabama : 1.89 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 11 This county : 7.99 / 10,000 pop. Alabama : 6.32 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 7 Crenshaw County : 5.08 / 10,000 pop. Alabama : 5.75 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: This county : 12.4% Alabama : 11.8% Adult obesity rate: This county : 34.6% Alabama : 31.7% Low-income preschool obesity rate: Here : 18.7% Alabama : 13.5%

5.71% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($34,322 average adjusted gross income) Here: 5.71% Alabama average: 5.95% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved from foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Montgomery County, AL 0.88% ($32,524 average AGI) from Pike County, AL 0.84% ($24,750) from Covington County, AL 0.73% ($30,514)



5.49% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($34,294 average adjusted gross income) Here: 5.49% Alabama average: 5.97% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Montgomery County, AL 1.05% ($34,560 average AGI) to Pike County, AL 0.78% ($30,568) to Covington County, AL 0.52% ($44,400)

Strongest AM radio stations in Joppa: WLOR (1550 AM; 50 kW; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: BCA RADIO, LLC)

BCA RADIO, LLC) WDJC (850 AM; 50 kW; BIRMINGHAM, AL; Owner: KIMTRON, INC.)

KIMTRON, INC.) WRAB (1380 AM; 1 kW; ARAB, AL; Owner: REED BROADCASTING, LLC)

REED BROADCASTING, LLC) WNSI (810 AM; 50 kW; JACKSONVILLE, AL; Owner: UNITED BROADCASTING NETWORK, INC.)

UNITED BROADCASTING NETWORK, INC.) WJOX (690 AM; 50 kW; BIRMINGHAM, AL; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) WAPI (1070 AM; 50 kW; BIRMINGHAM, AL; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) WWAM (820 AM; daytime; 50 kW; JASPER, TN; Owner: SHELTON BROADCASTING SYSTEM)

SHELTON BROADCASTING SYSTEM) WMCJ (1460 AM; 5 kW; CULLMAN, AL)

WDJL (1000 AM; daytime; 10 kW; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: JAMES K. SHARP DBA 5TH AVE BROADCASTING)

JAMES K. SHARP DBA 5TH AVE BROADCASTING) WVNN (770 AM; 10 kW; ATHENS, AL; Owner: ATHENS BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

ATHENS BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WKNG (1060 AM; daytime; 50 kW; TALLAPOOSA, GA; Owner: WKNG, INC.)

WKNG, INC.) WFLI (1070 AM; 50 kW; LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, TN; Owner: WFLI, INC.)

WFLI, INC.) WBXR (1140 AM; daytime; 15 kW; HAZEL GREEN, AL; Owner: LOW COUNTRY CORPORATION, INC.) Strongest FM radio stations in Joppa: WAFN-FM (92.7 FM; ARAB, AL; Owner: FUN MEDIA GROUP, INC.)

FUN MEDIA GROUP, INC.) WRSA-FM (96.9 FM; DECATUR, AL; Owner: NCA, INC.)

NCA, INC.) WYDE-FM (101.1 FM; CULLMAN, AL; Owner: KIMTRON, INC.)

KIMTRON, INC.) WRJL-FM (99.9 FM; EVA, AL; Owner: ROJO, INC.)

ROJO, INC.) W298AF (107.5 FM; HADEN, AL; Owner: HADEN RADIO COMPANY)

HADEN RADIO COMPANY) WAHR (99.1 FM; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: BCA RADIO, LLC)

BCA RADIO, LLC) W289AC (105.7 FM; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: WILLIAM PAXTON ROGERS)

WILLIAM PAXTON ROGERS) WTWX-FM (95.9 FM; GUNTERSVILLE, AL; Owner: GUNTERSVILLE BROADCASTING CO., INC.)

GUNTERSVILLE BROADCASTING CO., INC.) WLRH (89.3 FM; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: ALABAMA EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION COMMISSION)

ALABAMA EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION COMMISSION) WXQW (94.1 FM; MERIDIANVILLE, AL; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WTAK-FM (106.1 FM; HARTSELLE, AL; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) W293AH (106.5 FM; NORMAL, AL; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WKUL (92.1 FM; CULLMAN, AL; Owner: JONATHAN CHRISTIAN CORP.)

JONATHAN CHRISTIAN CORP.) WQSB (105.1 FM; ALBERTVILLE, AL; Owner: SAND MOUNTAIN BROADCASTING SERVICE, INC.)

SAND MOUNTAIN BROADCASTING SERVICE, INC.) WRTT-FM (95.1 FM; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: BCA RADIO, LLC)

BCA RADIO, LLC) WRAX (107.7 FM; BIRMINGHAM, AL; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) W249BB (97.7 FM; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: WAY-FM MEDIA GROUP, INC.)

WAY-FM MEDIA GROUP, INC.) W275AA (102.9 FM; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: ARCHIE C. BOBO, PERSONAL REP. OF DORSEY E. NEWMAN ESTATE)

ARCHIE C. BOBO, PERSONAL REP. OF DORSEY E. NEWMAN ESTATE) W300AH (107.9 FM; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: PORTER L. BATTS)

PORTER L. BATTS) WJIA (88.5 FM; GUNTERSVILLE, AL; Owner: LAKE CITY EDUCATIONAL B/CASTING INC.) TV broadcast stations around Joppa: WZDX ( Channel 54; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: HUNTSVILLE TELEVISION ACQUISITION CORP.)

54; HUNTSVILLE, AL; HUNTSVILLE TELEVISION ACQUISITION CORP.) WPXH ( Channel 44; GADSDEN, AL; Owner: PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LICENSE COMPANY, LLC)

44; GADSDEN, AL; PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LICENSE COMPANY, LLC) WAAY-TV ( Channel 31; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: PIEDMONT TELEVISION OF HUNTSVILLE LICENSE LLC)

31; HUNTSVILLE, AL; PIEDMONT TELEVISION OF HUNTSVILLE LICENSE LLC) WHNT-TV ( Channel 19; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: NEW YORK TIMES MANAGEMENT SERVICES)

19; HUNTSVILLE, AL; NEW YORK TIMES MANAGEMENT SERVICES) WTJP ( Channel 60; GADSDEN, AL; Owner: TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK)

60; GADSDEN, AL; TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK) W64BJ ( Channel 64; SCOTTSBORO, AL; Owner: TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK)

64; SCOTTSBORO, AL; TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK) WCQT-LP ( Channel 52; CULLMAN, AL; Owner: FIRST CULLMAN BROADCASTING, INC.)

52; CULLMAN, AL; FIRST CULLMAN BROADCASTING, INC.) W67CO (Channel 67; HUNTSVILLE, AL; Owner: TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK)

Joppa fatal accident list: Oct 23, 2010 00:14 AM, Sr-69, Lat: 34.295800, Lon: -86.562492, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 1, Fatalities: 1, Drunk persons involved: 1

Dec 22, 2009 11:45 AM, 1851, Lat: 34.295047, Lon: -86.556531, Vehicles: 2, Persons: 3, Fatalities: 2

Nov 9, 2006 01:21 PM, Sr-69, Lat: 34.300890, Lon: -86.551550, Vehicles: 2, Persons: 2, Fatalities: 1

Apr 1, 2005 07:18 AM, 1847, Lat: 34.296180, Lon: -86.541080, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 2, Fatalities: 1



National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

2 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 7ft / 2.0m Total length

Total length $801,000 Total costs

Total costs 6,640 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 728 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 9,252 Total future (year 2033) average daily traffic

FCC Registered Antenna Towers: 17 (



FCC Registered Broadcast Land Mobile Towers: 3 Meter Pit 665 Hulaco Rd ( Lat: 34.319528 Lon: -86.540556), Type: Mast, Structure height: 7 m, Call Sign: WPPB942,

Assigned Frequencies: 173.237 MHz, Grant Date: 10/13/1999, Expiration Date: 10/13/2004, Cancellation Date: 12/18/2004, Certifier: Mary Taylor, Registrant: Duke Instrument Service, Po Box 189, Saraland, AL 36571, Fax: (334) 675-5938

34.319528 -86.540556), Mast, 7 m, WPPB942, 173.237 MHz, 10/13/1999, 10/13/2004, 12/18/2004, Mary Taylor, Duke Instrument Service, Po Box 189, Saraland, AL 36571, (334) 675-5938 NVAL, Approx. 1/2 Mile Nw Of Hwy 69 On Old Hulaco Rd. ( Lat: 34.319167 Lon: -86.540556), Type: Mast, Structure height: 6 m, Call Sign: WQGX874,

Assigned Frequencies: 453.162 MHz, Grant Date: 05/18/2007, Expiration Date: 05/18/2017, Cancellation Date: 07/22/2017, Certifier: Mary R Taylor, Registrant: Cpi Technologies, Inc., 1022 Commerce Blvd., Pelham, AL 35124, Phone: (205) 987-3200, Fax: (205) 987-3205, Email:

34.319167 -86.540556), Mast, 6 m, WQGX874, 453.162 MHz, 05/18/2007, 05/18/2017, 07/22/2017, Mary R Taylor, Cpi Technologies, Inc., 1022 Commerce Blvd., Pelham, AL 35124, (205) 987-3200, (205) 987-3205, Lat: 34.294611 Lon: -86.568972, Call Sign: WQQS229,

Assigned Frequencies: 154.250 MHz, 154.250 MHz, Grant Date: 02/20/2013, Expiration Date: 02/20/2023, Certifier: Jeff Hadley, Registrant: Washington Radio Reports, 1588 Fairfield Rd Ste 7, Gettysburg, PA 17325, Phone: (717) 334-0668, Fax: (717) 334-6440, Email:

FCC Registered Microwave Towers: 3 9BH2518A, 14 Julian Rd (Al09932-A) ( Lat: 34.350556 Lon: -86.616917), Type: Ltower, Structure height: 76.5 m, Overall height: 78.3 m, Call Sign: WQXK579,

Assigned Frequencies: 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, Grant Date: 03/31/2016, Expiration Date: 03/31/2026, Certifier: David Werblow, Registrant: T-Mobile Usa, Inc., 12920 Se 38th Street, Bellevue, WA 98006, Phone: (425) 383-8401, Fax: (425) 383-4040, Email:

34.350556 -86.616917), Ltower, 76.5 m, 78.3 m, WQXK579, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 11095.0 MHz, 03/31/2016, 03/31/2026, David Werblow, T-Mobile Usa, Inc., 12920 Se 38th Street, Bellevue, WA 98006, (425) 383-8401, (425) 383-4040, Joppa Water Tank, Al-69 ( Lat: 34.287722 Lon: -86.582472), Type: Tank, Structure height: 33 m, Overall height: 34 m, Call Sign: WRCP838,

Assigned Frequencies: 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz... (+14 more), Grant Date: 11/30/2018, Expiration Date: 11/30/2028, Certifier: David Young, Registrant: Intelpath, Hinsdale, IL 60522, Phone: (312) 841-9188, Email:

34.287722 -86.582472), Tank, 33 m, 34 m, WRCP838, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11485.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz... (+14 more), 11/30/2018, 11/30/2028, David Young, Intelpath, Hinsdale, IL 60522, (312) 841-9188, TRS, 1386 Hulaco Rd (Lat: 34.316306 Lon: -86.552528), Type: Ltower, Structure height: 18 m, Overall height: 19 m, Call Sign: WREL777,

Assigned Frequencies: 10995.0 MHz, 10995.0 MHz, 10995.0 MHz, 10995.0 MHz, 10995.0 MHz, 10995.0 MHz, Grant Date: 10/30/2019, Expiration Date: 10/30/2029, Certifier: David Young, Registrant: Intelpath, Hinsdale, IL 60522, Phone: (312) 841-9188, Email:

FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses: 17 (



FAA Registered Aircraft: 2 Aircraft: CESSNA 182M ( Category: Land, Seats: 4, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 119 mph), Engine: CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 71132, N71132, N-71132, Serial Number: 18259507, Year manufactured: 1968, Airworthiness Date: 01/09/1969, Certificate Issue Date: 11/14/2018

Registrant (Individual): Bruce G Neale, 1495 Midfield Rd, Joppa, AL 35087

CESSNA 182M ( Land, 4, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 119 mph), CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 HP) (Reciprocating) 71132, N71132, N-71132, 18259507, 1968, 01/09/1969, 11/14/2018 Bruce G Neale, 1495 Midfield Rd, Joppa, AL 35087 Aircraft: HIPPS SUPERBIRDS J3 KITTEN (Category: Land, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds), Engine: AMA/EXPR UNKNOWN ENG (4 Cycle)

N-Number: 126AP, N126AP, N-126AP, Serial Number: P4351J3, Year manufactured: 1984, Airworthiness Date: 11/04/2007, Certificate Issue Date: 08/29/2007

Registrant (Individual): Arthur L Pevahouse, 141 Densmore Rd, Joppa, AL 35087

Deregistered: Cancel Date: 06/21/2017

17 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Antenna Towers in Joppa 17 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses in Joppa

2003 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents Based on the data from the years 2003 - 2018 the average number of fire incidents per year is 7. The highest number of reported fires - 23 took place in 2004, and the least - 0 in 2010. The data has a rising trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Joppa, AL



56 53.8% Outside Fires



35 33.7% Structure Fires



11 10.6% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



2 1.9% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most incidents belonged to: Outside Fires (53.8%), and Structure Fires (33.7%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Joppa, AL







Joppa compared to Alabama state average: Median house value below state average.

below Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly above state average.

significantly above Median age significantly below state average.

significantly below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Length of stay since moving in significantly above state average.

significantly above Number of rooms per house significantly below state average.

significantly below House age significantly below state average.

significantly below Number of college students significantly below state average.

significantly below Percentage of population with a bachelor's degree or higher significantly below state average.

no pilots and There arepilots and 2 other airmen in this city.

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Middleton, Massachusetts

Submit your own pictures of this town and show them to the world



OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 8,987.

Population change since 2000: +16.1%

8,987.+16.1%

Males: 5,030 (56.0%) Females: 3,957 (44.0%)

Median resident age: 41.5 years Massachusetts median age: 39.2 years

Zip codes: 01949.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $132,265 (it was $81,395 in 2000)

Middleton: $132,265 MA: $85,843

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $49,722 (it was $29,031 in 2000)



Middleton town income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $617,533 (it was $274,400 in 2000) Middleton: $617,533 MA: $418,600

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $515,094; detached houses: $553,813; townhouses or other attached units: $428,504; in 2-unit structures: $442,683; in 3-to-4-unit structures: $433,809; in 5-or-more-unit structures: $291,088; mobile homes: $94,228; occupied boats, rvs, vans, etc.: $117,672 $132,265 ($81,395$49,722 ($29,031$617,533 ($274,400$515,094;$553,813;$428,504;$442,683;$433,809;$291,088;$94,228;$117,672

March 2019 cost of living index in Middleton: 145.5 (very high, U.S. average is 100)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:



7,845 87.3% White alone 640 7.1% Hispanic 202 2.2% Asian alone 153 1.7% Black alone 119 1.3% Two or more races 15 0.2% Other race alone 13 0.1% American Indian alone

Races in Middleton detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of Massachusetts and other state lists, there were 4 registered sex offenders living in Middleton, Massachusetts as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Middleton is 2,247 to 1.

The ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is lower than the state average.





Crime rates in Middleton by year Type 2006 2007 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Murders

(per 100,000) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 1

(10.2) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) Rapes

(per 100,000) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 1

(10.3) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 1

(10.3) 2

(20.3) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) Robberies

(per 100,000) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) Assaults

(per 100,000) 12

(128.6) 8

(83.7) 12

(124.2) 7

(75.4) 10

(110.6) 14

(153.3) 11

(117.1) 11

(113.0) 6

(60.9) 14

(143.0) 17

(170.2) 5

(49.4) Burglaries

(per 100,000) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 6

(64.6) 3

(33.2) 3

(32.9) 4

(42.6) 5

(51.4) 3

(30.5) 4

(40.9) 6

(60.1) 3

(29.7) Thefts

(per 100,000) 69

(739.6) 79

(826.2) 102

(1,056) 75

(807.8) 96

(1,062) 77

(843.4) 70

(745.2) 70

(719.0) 50

(507.5) 56

(572.1) 40

(400.4) 35

(346.1) Auto thefts

(per 100,000) 2

(21.4) 3

(31.4) 5

(51.7) 0

(0.0) 1

(11.1) 2

(21.9) 1

(10.6) 2

(20.5) 1

(10.2) 7

(71.5) 2

(20.0) 3

(29.7) Arson

(per 100,000) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 1

(11.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) City-Data.com crime index 57.0 52.3 79.5 51.9 67.8 68.5 57.1 64.8 51.7 80.5 55.9 28.2 The City-Data.com crime index weighs serious crimes and violent crimes more heavily. Higher means more crime, U.S. average is 270.6. It adjusts for the number of visitors and daily workers commuting into cities. Click on a table row to update graph

Crime rate in Middleton detailed stats: murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, arson



Full-time law enforcement employees in 2019, including police officers: 18 (16 officers).

Officers per 1,000 residents here: 1.58 Massachusetts average: 2.37



Latest news from Middleton, MA collected exclusively by city-data.com from local newspapers, TV, and radio stations

Ancestries: Irish (22.6%), Italian (19.6%), English (14.4%), French (9.4%), French Canadian (5.3%), German (5.1%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 94 feet

Land area: 14.0 square miles. Population density: 643 people per square mile (low).

321 residents are foreign born (2.7% Europe, 0.9% Asia, 0.4% North America). This town: 4.1% Massachusetts: 12.2%

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units in 2000: Middleton town: 1.2% ($3,183) Massachusetts: 1.3% ($2,336)

Latitude: 42.60 N, Longitude: 71.01 W

Single-family new house construction building permits: 1997: 74 buildings , average cost: $208,500

74 $208,500 1998: 59 buildings , average cost: $222,800

59 $222,800 1999: 29 buildings , average cost: $218,100

29 $218,100 2000: 55 buildings , average cost: $204,600

55 $204,600 2001: 44 buildings , average cost: $235,200

44 $235,200 2002: 64 buildings , average cost: $194,400

64 $194,400 2003: 56 buildings , average cost: $202,600

56 $202,600 2004: 81 buildings , average cost: $214,000

81 $214,000 2005: 51 buildings , average cost: $244,900

51 $244,900 2006: 43 buildings , average cost: $272,500

43 $272,500 2007: 35 buildings , average cost: $263,500

35 $263,500 2008: 25 buildings , average cost: $238,800

25 $238,800 2009: 34 buildings , average cost: $372,400

34 $372,400 2010: 37 buildings , average cost: $417,100

37 $417,100 2011: 36 buildings , average cost: $422,400

36 $422,400 2012: 44 buildings , average cost: $440,200

44 $440,200 2013: 36 buildings , average cost: $519,500

36 $519,500 2014: 32 buildings , average cost: $516,600

32 $516,600 2015: 27 buildings , average cost: $522,800

27 $522,800 2016: 35 buildings , average cost: $519,600

35 $519,600 2017: 41 buildings , average cost: $333,100

41 $333,100 2018: 19 buildings , average cost: $437,700

19 $437,700 2019: 16 buildings, average cost: $533,300

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 5.3% Massachusetts: 6.2%

Most common industries in Middleton, MA (%) Both Males Females

Construction (10.4%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (9.2%)

Health care (8.2%)

Educational services (6.7%)

Finance & insurance (6.5%)

Accommodation & food services (5.5%)

Public administration (4.5%)

Construction (17.8%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (9.6%)

Public administration (5.3%)

Finance & insurance (5.2%)

Health care (4.6%)

Accommodation & food services (4.4%)

Real estate & rental & leasing (4.1%)

Health care (12.8%)

Educational services (10.5%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (8.8%)

Finance & insurance (8.2%)

Accommodation & food services (6.9%)

Administrative & support & waste management services (3.6%)

Public administration (3.4%) Most common occupations in Middleton, MA (%) Both Males Females

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (6.4%)

Sales representatives, services, wholesale and manufacturing (5.4%)

Top executives (5.3%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (5.2%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (4.3%)

Preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school teachers (3.3%)

Computer specialists (3.1%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (9.5%)

Top executives (8.7%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (5.1%)

Construction traders workers except carpenters, electricians, painters, plumbers, and construction laborers (4.5%)

Sales representatives, services, wholesale and manufacturing (4.2%)

Carpenters (4.1%)

Operations specialties managers, except financial managers (3.9%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (9.3%)

Sales representatives, services, wholesale and manufacturing (6.8%)

Preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school teachers (6.7%)

Registered nurses (6.4%)

Secretaries and administrative assistants (5.2%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (5.2%)

Cashiers (4.4%)

Average climate in Middleton, Massachusetts Based on data reported by over 4,000 weather stations

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI CO NO 2 SO 2 Ozone PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 74.4. This is about average. City: 74.4 U.S.: 74.2

Carbon Monoxide (CO) [ppm] level in 2018 was 0.236. This is about average. Closest monitor was 10.5 miles away from the city center. City: 0.236 U.S.: 0.267

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 12.0. This is significantly worse than average. Closest monitor was 1.2 miles away from the city center. City: 12.0 U.S.: 5.6

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 0.527. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 3.8 miles away from the city center. City: 0.527 U.S.: 1.789

Ozone [ppb] level in 2018 was 26.0. This is better than average. Closest monitor was 2.0 miles away from the city center. City: 26.0 U.S.: 33.3

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 7.21. This is about average. Closest monitor was 9.1 miles away from the city center. City: 7.21 U.S.: 8.46

Tornado activity: Middleton-area historical tornado activity is near Massachusetts state average. It is 45% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 9/29/1974, a category F3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 9.6 miles away from the Middleton town center injured one person and caused between $50,000 and $500,000 in damages. On 6/9/1953, a category F4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 33.2 miles away from the town center killed 90 people and injured 1228 people and caused between $50,000,000 and $500,000,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Middleton-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Massachusetts state average. It is 73% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.3 (5.3 ML, Depth: 3.0 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 188.5 miles away from the city center

On 10/7/1983 at 10:18:46, a magnitude 5.3 (5.1 MB, 5.3 LG, 5.1 ML) earthquake occurred 191.9 miles away from the city center

On 1/19/1982 at 00:14:42, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 MD, 4.5 LG, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 68.8 miles away from the city center

On 10/16/2012 at 23:12:25, a magnitude 4.7 (4.7 ML, Depth: 10.0 mi) earthquake occurred 71.2 miles away from Middleton center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MB, 4.2 MS, 5.2 MW, 5.0 MW) earthquake occurred 188.1 miles away from the city center

On 8/22/1992 at 12:20:32, a magnitude 4.8 (4.8 MB, 3.8 MS, 4.7 LG, Depth: 6.2 mi) earthquake occurred 244.5 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), duration magnitude (MD), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Essex County (33) is a lot greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 20

Emergencies Declared: 13



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 14, Storms: 11, Hurricanes: 6, Snowstorms: 5, Winter Storms: 5, Snows: 3, Blizzards: 2, Fire: 1, Heavy Rain: 1, Snowfall: 1, Water Main Break: 1, Wind: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Middleton: CHARLES V HOGAN REGIONAL CENTER (Hospital, about 3 miles away; HATHORNE, MA)

NORTHEAST CLINICAL SERVICES (Home Health Center, about 4 miles away; DANVERS, MA)

VINE HOMECARE AND STAFFING (Home Health Center, about 4 miles away; DANVERS, MA)

CEDAR GLEN CARE AND REHABILITATION CENTER (Nursing Home, about 4 miles away; DANVERS, MA)

CEDAR GLEN NURSING HOME (Nursing Home, about 4 miles away; DANVERS, MA)

SUTTON HILL CENTER (Nursing Home, about 4 miles away; NORTH ANDOVER, MA)

ROSEWOOD NURSING AND REHABILITATION CENTER (Nursing Home, about 5 miles away; PEABODY, MA)

Amtrak stations near Middleton: 9 miles: WOBURN (100 ATLANTIC AVE.) . Services: ticket office.

WOBURN (100 ATLANTIC AVE.) . ticket office. 13 miles: HAVERHILL (WASHINGTON ST. @ RAILROAD SQUARE) . Services: ticket office.

HAVERHILL (WASHINGTON ST. @ RAILROAD SQUARE) . ticket office. 17 miles: BOSTON, NORTH STATION (BOSTON, 126 CAUSEWAY ST.) . Services: ticket office, enclosed waiting area.

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Middleton: North Shore Community College ( about 3 miles; Danvers, MA ; Full-time enrollment: 5,195)

3 ; 5,195) Merrimack College ( about 8 miles; North Andover, MA ; FT enrollment: 2,734)

8 ; 2,734) Salem State University ( about 10 miles; Salem, MA ; FT enrollment: 8,027)

10 ; 8,027) Endicott College ( about 10 miles; Beverly, MA ; FT enrollment: 4,064)

10 ; 4,064) Northern Essex Community College ( about 14 miles; Haverhill, MA ; FT enrollment: 4,737)

14 ; 4,737) Middlesex Community College ( about 15 miles; Bedford, MA ; FT enrollment: 6,040)

15 ; 6,040) Tufts University (about 15 miles; Medford, MA; FT enrollment: 9,041) Public elementary/middle schools in Middleton: FULLER MEADOW ( Students: 523, Location: 143 SOUTH MAIN STREET, Grades: KG-2)

( 523, 143 SOUTH MAIN STREET, KG-2) HOWE-MANNING (Students: 341, Location: 26 CENTRAL STREET, Grades: PK-6) See full list of schools located in Middleton

Library in Middleton: FLINT PUBLIC LIBRARY (Operating income: $348,534; Location: 1 SOUTH MAIN ST.; 41,466 books; 2,177 audio materials; 2,628 video materials; 1 local licensed databases; 34 state licensed databases; 3 other licensed databases; 114 print serial subscriptions)

Birthplace of: Charles L. Flint - First Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, Tim Johnson (cyclist) - Professional racing cyclist, John James Ingalls - Politician.

Essex County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Highest Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in Middleton and their reported violations in the past: DANVERS WATER DEPT. (Population served: 26,762, Surface water): Past monitoring violations: Monitoring and Reporting (DBP) - In SEP-2007 , Contaminant: TTHM . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-23-2007)

SEP-2007 TTHM St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-23-2007) Monitoring and Reporting (DBP) - In AUG-2007 , Contaminant: TTHM . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-23-2007)

AUG-2007 TTHM St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-23-2007) Monitoring and Reporting (DBP) - Between JUL-2007 and SEP-2007 , Contaminant: Total Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-23-2007)

JUL-2007 SEP-2007 Total Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-23-2007) Monitoring of Treatment (SWTR-Filter) - In JUL-2007 . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (NOV-16-2007)

JUL-2007 St AO (w/o penalty) issued (NOV-16-2007) One routine major monitoring violation

29 regular monitoring violations MIDDLETON WATER DEPT. (Population served: 5,476, Purch surface water): Past monitoring violations: One routine major monitoring violation

One minor monitoring violation DANVERS WATER DEPT. (26,762Surface water):MIDDLETON WATER DEPT. (5,476Purch surface water):

Average household size: This town: 2.7 people Massachusetts: 2.5 people

Percentage of family households: This town: 72.0% Whole state: 63.0%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This town: 4.9% Whole state: 7.0%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.5% of all households

0.5% Gay men: 0.2% of all households Residents with income below the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 3.7% Whole state: 9.3% Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 1.0% Whole state: 4.4%

People in group quarters in Middleton in 2010: 1,196 people in local jails and other municipal confinement facilities

14 people in group homes intended for adults

5 people in residential treatment centers for adults People in group quarters in Middleton in 2000: 1,332 people in local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups)

25 people in short-term care, detention or diagnostic centers for delinquent children

15 people in homes for the mentally retarded

2 people in religious group quarters

Banks with branches in Middleton (2011 data): North Shore Bank, a Co-operative Bank: Middleton Branch at 161 South Main Street , branch established on 1986/09/08 . Info updated 2006/11/03: Bank assets: $453.6 mil , Deposits: $345.2 mil , headquarters in Peabody, MA , positive income , Commercial Lending Specialization , 8 total offices , Holding Company: North Shore Bancorp

161 South Main Street 1986/09/08 2006/11/03: $453.6 mil $345.2 mil Peabody, MA , Commercial Lending Specialization 8 North Shore Bancorp People's United Bank: Middleton Branch at 2 Central Street , branch established on 1989/01/03 . Info updated 2012/02/16: Bank assets: $27,319.3 mil , Deposits: $20,835.4 mil , headquarters in Bridgeport, CT , positive income , Commercial Lending Specialization , 374 total offices

2 Central Street 1989/01/03 2012/02/16: $27,319.3 mil $20,835.4 mil Bridgeport, CT , Commercial Lending Specialization 374 Salem Five Cents Savings Bank: Middleton Branch at 100 South Main Street , branch established on 2006/07/24 . Info updated 2011/07/11: Bank assets: $2,876.6 mil , Deposits: $2,019.1 mil , headquarters in Salem, MA , positive income , Commercial Lending Specialization , 23 total offices , Holding Company: Salem Five Bancorp

100 South Main Street 2006/07/24 2011/07/11: $2,876.6 mil $2,019.1 mil Salem, MA , Commercial Lending Specialization 23 Salem Five Bancorp Sovereign Bank, National Association: Middleton Branch at 39 South Main Street , branch established on 1958/04/17 . Info updated 2012/01/31: Bank assets: $78,146.9 mil , Deposits: $48,042.9 mil , headquarters in Wilmington, DE , positive income , Commercial Lending Specialization , 718 total offices , Holding Company: Banco Santander, S.A.

39 South Main Street 1958/04/17 2012/01/31: $78,146.9 mil $48,042.9 mil Wilmington, DE , Commercial Lending Specialization 718 Banco Santander, S.A. TD Bank, National Association: Middleton Branch at 232 South Main Street, branch established on 1971/01/04. Info updated 2010/10/04: Bank assets: $188,912.6 mil, Deposits: $153,149.8 mil, headquarters in Wilmington, DE, positive income, 1314 total offices, Holding Company: Toronto-Dominion Bank, The

For population 15 years and over in Middleton: Never married: 17.1%

17.1% Now married: 67.6%

67.6% Separated: 2.8%

2.8% Widowed: 5.6%

5.6% Divorced: 6.9%

For population 25 years and over in Middleton: High school or higher: 80.5%

80.5% Bachelor's degree or higher: 29.3%

29.3% Graduate or professional degree: 11.9%

11.9% Unemployed: 2.4%

2.4% Mean travel time to work (commute): 28.3 minutes

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 12.5 Massachusetts average: 13.1



Religion statistics for Middleton, MA (based on Essex County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Catholic 341,970 55 Mainline Protestant 33,710 140 Evangelical Protestant 20,925 160 Other 15,882 63 Orthodox 11,590 13 Black Protestant 376 3 None 318,706 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 145 Essex County : 1.98 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 1.98 / 10,000 pop. Number of supercenters and club stores: 3 Here : 0.04 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 0.05 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 144 This county : 1.97 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 2.22 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 95 Essex County : 1.30 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 1.77 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 557 Essex County : 7.60 / 10,000 pop. State : 8.76 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: Essex County : 8.4% Massachusetts : 8.1% Adult obesity rate: This county : 23.7% State : 22.5% Low-income preschool obesity rate: Here : 20.7% State : 16.5%

4.63% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($78,981 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.63% Massachusetts average: 5.79% 0.03% of residents moved from foreign countries ($629 average AGI) Essex County: 0.03% Massachusetts average: 0.05%

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Middlesex County, MA 1.58% ($88,059 average AGI) from Suffolk County, MA 0.77% ($91,101) from Rockingham County, NH 0.31% ($57,814)



5.00% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($70,979 average adjusted gross income) Here: 5.00% Massachusetts average: 6.31% 0.07% of residents moved to foreign countries ($1,049 average AGI) Essex County: 0.07% Massachusetts average: 0.08%

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Middlesex County, MA 1.25% ($66,782 average AGI) to Rockingham County, NH 0.58% ($74,166) to Suffolk County, MA 0.53% ($81,995)

Businesses in Middleton, MA Name Count Name Count CVS 1 Sprint Nextel 1 Dairy Queen 1 Subway 1 Dunkin Donuts 4 U-Haul 1 FedEx 1 UPS 1 H&R Block 1 Walgreens 1 McDonald's 1

Strongest AM radio stations in Middleton: WRKO (680 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WWZN (1510 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ROSE CITY RADIO CORPORATION)

ROSE CITY RADIO CORPORATION) WNSH (1570 AM; 5 kW; BEVERLY, MA)

WBZ (1030 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WEEI (850 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WKOX (1200 AM; 50 kW; FRAMINGHAM, MA; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WRCA (1330 AM; 25 kW; WALTHAM, MA; Owner: WRCA LICENSE, LLC)

WRCA LICENSE, LLC) WBIX (1060 AM; 40 kW; NATICK, MA; Owner: LANGER BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

LANGER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WEZE (590 AM; 5 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: NEW ENGLAND CONTINENTAL MEDIA, INC.)

NEW ENGLAND CONTINENTAL MEDIA, INC.) WROL (950 AM; 5 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: SCA LICENSE CORPORATION)

SCA LICENSE CORPORATION) WAMG (890 AM; 25 kW; DEDHAM, MA; Owner: MEGA COMMUNICATIONS OF DEDHAM LICENSEE, LLC)

MEGA COMMUNICATIONS OF DEDHAM LICENSEE, LLC) WILD (1090 AM; daytime; 5 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: RADIO ONE OF BOSTON LICENSES, LLC)

RADIO ONE OF BOSTON LICENSES, LLC) WUNR (1600 AM; 20 kW; BROOKLINE, MA; Owner: CHAMPION BROADCASTING SYSTEMS, INC.) Strongest FM radio stations in Middleton: WQSX (93.7 FM; LAWRENCE, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WKLB-FM (99.5 FM; LOWELL, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WXKS-FM (107.9 FM; MEDFORD, MA; Owner: AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.)

AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.) WMJX (106.7 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WXRV (92.5 FM; HAVERHILL, MA; Owner: BEANPOT BROADCASTING CORP.)

BEANPOT BROADCASTING CORP.) W227AM (93.3 FM; ANDOVER, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WBMX (98.5 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.)

INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.) WJMN (94.5 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.)

AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.) WCRB (102.5 FM; WALTHAM, MA; Owner: CHARLES RIVER BROADCASTING WCRB LICE)

CHARLES RIVER BROADCASTING WCRB LICE) WTKK (96.9 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WROR-FM (105.7 FM; FRAMINGHAM, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WBOS (92.9 FM; BROOKLINE, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WBCN (104.1 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: HEMISPHERE BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

HEMISPHERE BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WZLX (100.7 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING CORPORATION OF BOSTON)

INFINITY BROADCASTING CORPORATION OF BOSTON) W267AI (101.3 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: MCC BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

MCC BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WGBH (89.7 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WFNX (101.7 FM; LYNN, MA; Owner: MCC BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

MCC BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WERS (88.9 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: EMERSON COLLEGE)

EMERSON COLLEGE) WBUR-FM (90.9 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY)

TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY) WODS (103.3 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) TV broadcast stations around Middleton: WFXZ-CA ( Channel 24; BOSTON, MA; Owner: BOSTON BROADCASTING CORP.)

24; BOSTON, MA; BOSTON BROADCASTING CORP.) WCVB-TV ( Channel 5; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WCVB HEARST-ARGYLE TV, INC.)

5; BOSTON, MA; WCVB HEARST-ARGYLE TV, INC.) WGBH-TV ( Channel 2; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

2; BOSTON, MA; WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WBPX ( Channel 68; BOSTON, MA; Owner: PAXSON BOSTON-68 LICENSE, INC.)

68; BOSTON, MA; PAXSON BOSTON-68 LICENSE, INC.) WHDH-TV ( Channel 7; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WHDH-TV)

7; BOSTON, MA; WHDH-TV) WMFP ( Channel 62; LAWRENCE, MA; Owner: WSAH LICENSE, INC.)

62; LAWRENCE, MA; WSAH LICENSE, INC.) WSBK-TV ( Channel 38; BOSTON, MA; Owner: VIACOM INC.)

38; BOSTON, MA; VIACOM INC.) WLVI-TV ( Channel 56; CAMBRIDGE, MA; Owner: WLVI, INC.)

56; CAMBRIDGE, MA; WLVI, INC.) WBZ-TV ( Channel 4; BOSTON, MA; Owner: VIACOM INC.)

4; BOSTON, MA; VIACOM INC.) WGBX-TV ( Channel 44; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

44; BOSTON, MA; WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WFXT ( Channel 25; BOSTON, MA; Owner: FOX TELEVISION STATIONS INC.)

25; BOSTON, MA; FOX TELEVISION STATIONS INC.) WTMU-LP ( Channel 32; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ZGS BOSTON, INC.)

32; BOSTON, MA; ZGS BOSTON, INC.) WCEA-LP ( Channel 58; BOSTON, MA; Owner: CHANNEL 19 TV CORPORATION)

58; BOSTON, MA; CHANNEL 19 TV CORPORATION) WUTF ( Channel 66; MARLBOROUGH, MA; Owner: TELEFUTURA BOSTON LLC)

66; MARLBOROUGH, MA; TELEFUTURA BOSTON LLC) W40BO ( Channel 40; BOSTON, MA; Owner: PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LPTV, INC.)

40; BOSTON, MA; PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LPTV, INC.) WHDN-LP ( Channel 26; BOSTON, MA; Owner: GUENTER MARKSTEINER)

26; BOSTON, MA; GUENTER MARKSTEINER) WUNI ( Channel 27; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: ENTRAVISION HOLDINGS, LLC)

27; WORCESTER, MA; ENTRAVISION HOLDINGS, LLC) WNDS ( Channel 50; DERRY, NH; Owner: CTV OF DERRY, INC)

50; DERRY, NH; CTV OF DERRY, INC) WWDP (Channel 46; NORWELL, MA; Owner: NORWELL TELEVISION, LLC)

Middleton fatal accident statistics for 1975 - 2019

See more detailed statistics of Middleton fatal car crashes and road traffic accidents for 1975 - 2019 here

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

6 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 23ft / 6.7m Total length

Total length $6,239,000 Total costs

Total costs 84,328 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 5,834 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 139,216 Total future (year 2031) average daily traffic

2002 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents According to the data from the years 2002 - 2018 the average number of fires per year is 96. The highest number of reported fires - 217 took place in 2007, and the least - 10 in 2002. The data has a growing trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Middleton, MA



1,201 73.5% Structure Fires



272 16.6% Outside Fires



95 5.8% Other



66 4.0% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires When looking into fire subcategories, the most reports belonged to: Structure Fires (73.5%), and Outside Fires (16.6%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Middleton, MA

Houses and condos Apartments 64.8% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

25.7% Utility gas

7.4% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

1.2% Electricity

0.5% No fuel used

0.4% Wood 30.5% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

26.9% Electricity

23.9% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

15.7% Utility gas

3.0% Coal or coke





Middleton compared to Massachusetts state average: Median household income above state average.

above Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Renting percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Length of stay since moving in significantly above state average.

significantly above Number of rooms per house significantly below state average.

significantly below House age significantly below state average.

significantly below Institutionalized population percentage significantly above state average.

significantly above Number of college students below state average.

Middleton on our top lists: #4 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: sales representatives, services, wholesale and manufacturing (population 5,000+)"

#8 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: transportation, tourism, and lodging attendants (population 5,000+)"

#10 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (population 5,000+)"

#13 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: petroleum and petroleum products merchant wholesalers (population 5,000+)"

#15 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: air transportation (population 5,000+)"

#15 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: electrical and electronic goods merchant wholesalers (population 5,000+)"

#16 on the list of "Top 101 cities with the largest percentage of people in local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups) (population 1,000+)"

#18 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: operations specialties managers except financial managers (population 5,000+)"

#25 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: top executives (population 5,000+)"

#25 on the list of "Top 101 cities with the lowest number of burglaries per 100,000 residents (population 5,000+)"

#26 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: fuel dealers (population 5,000+)"

#26 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: metals and minerals, except petroleum, merchant wholesalers (population 5,000+)"

#32 on the list of "Top 100 low-educated but high-earning cities (pop. 5,000+)"

#35 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: other transportation, and support activities, and couriers (population 5,000+)"

#42 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: machinery, equipment, and supplies merchant wholesalers (population 5,000+)"

#43 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: vehicle and mobile equipment mechanics, installers, and repairers (population 5,000+)"

#43 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: vending machine operators (population 5,000+)"

#45 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: leather and allied products (population 5,000+)"

#48 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: data processing, libraries, and other information services (population 5,000+)"

#55 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: clothing and accessories, including shoe, stores (population 5,000+)" #21 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the lowest percentage of residents that keep firearms around their homes"

#21 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Orthodox adherents"

#23 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the highest carbon monoxide air pollution readings in 2012 (ppm)"

#30 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Catholic adherents"

#36 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Orthodox congregations (pop. 50,000+)"

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




New Vienna, Iowa

Submit your own pictures of this city and show them to the world



OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2019: 411 (0% urban, 100% rural).

Population change since 2000: +2.8%

411 (0% urban, 100% rural).+2.8%

Males: 206 (50.1%) Females: 205 (49.9%)

Median resident age: 48.0 years Iowa median age: 38.5 years

Zip codes: 52065.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $61,346 (it was $36,500 in 2000)

New Vienna: $61,346 IA: $61,691

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $30,837 (it was $25,285 in 2000)



New Vienna city income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $132,044 (it was $82,300 in 2000) New Vienna: $132,044 IA: $158,900

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $197,179; detached houses: $208,419; townhouses or other attached units: $194,482; in 2-unit structures: $72,178; in 3-to-4-unit structures: $342,201; in 5-or-more-unit structures: $128,172; mobile homes: $37,724 $61,346 ($36,500$30,837 ($25,285$132,044 ($82,300$197,179;$208,419;$194,482;$72,178;$342,201;$128,172;$37,724

Median gross rent in 2019: $658.

March 2019 cost of living index in New Vienna: 82.6 (low, U.S. average is 100)

Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2019: 9.0%

(8.7% for White Non-Hispanic residents, 100.0% for Black residents)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:

Most recent value % change since 2k Data: Median household income ($) Median household income (% change since 2000) Household income diversity Ratio of average income to average house value (%) Ratio of average income to average rent Median household income ($) - White Median household income ($) - Black or African American Median household income ($) - Asian Median household income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median household income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median household income ($) - Multirace Median household income ($) - Other Race Median household income for houses/condos with a mortgage ($) Median household income for apartments without a mortgage ($) Races - White alone (%) Races - White alone (% change since 2000) Races - Black alone (%) Races - Black alone (% change since 2000) Races - American Indian alone (%) Races - American Indian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Asian alone (%) Races - Asian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Hispanic (%) Races - Hispanic (% change since 2000) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (%) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (% change since 2000) Races - Two or more races (%) Races - Two or more races (% change since 2000) Races - Other race alone (%) Races - Other race alone (% change since 2000) Racial diversity Unemployment (%) Unemployment (% change since 2000) Unemployment (%) - White Unemployment (%) - Black or African American Unemployment (%) - Asian Unemployment (%) - Hispanic or Latino Unemployment (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Unemployment (%) - Multirace Unemployment (%) - Other Race Population density (people per square mile) Population - Males (%) Population - Females (%) Population - Males (%) - White Population - Males (%) - Black or African American Population - Males (%) - Asian Population - Males (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Males (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Males (%) - Multirace Population - Males (%) - Other Race Population - Females (%) - White Population - Females (%) - Black or African American Population - Females (%) - Asian Population - Females (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Females (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Females (%) - Multirace Population - Females (%) - Other Race Coronavirus confirmed cases (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (Nov 21, 2021) Coronavirus confirmed cases (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Daily increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Weekly increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Cases doubled (in days) (Nov 21, 2021) Hospitalized patients (Nov 21, 2021) Negative test results (Nov 21, 2021) Total test results (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (Nov 21, 2021) Likely homosexual households (%) Likely homosexual households (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (%) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (%) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (% change since 2000) Cost of living index Median gross rent ($) Median contract rent ($) Median monthly housing costs ($) Median house or condo value ($) Median house or condo value ($ change since 2000) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, detached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, attached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 2 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure by units in structure - 3 or 4 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 5 or more ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Boat, RV, van, etc. ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Mobile home ($) Median house or condo value ($) - White Median house or condo value ($) - Black or African American Median house or condo value ($) - Asian Median house or condo value ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median house or condo value ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median house or condo value ($) - Multirace Median house or condo value ($) - Other Race Median resident age Resident age diversity Median resident age - Males Median resident age - Females Median resident age - White Median resident age - Black or African American Median resident age - Asian Median resident age - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Multirace Median resident age - Other Race Median resident age - Males - White Median resident age - Males - Black or African American Median resident age - Males - Asian Median resident age - Males - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Males - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Males - Multirace Median resident age - Males - Other Race Median resident age - Females - White Median resident age - Females - Black or African American Median resident age - Females - Asian Median resident age - Females - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Females - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Females - Multirace Median resident age - Females - Other Race Commute - mean travel time to work (minutes) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (%) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (%) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (% change since 2000) Marital status - Never married (%) Marital status - Now married (%) Marital status - Separated (%) Marital status - Widowed (%) Marital status - Divorced (%) Median family income ($) Median family income (% change since 2000) Median non-family income ($) Median non-family income (% change since 2000) Median per capita income ($) Median per capita income (% change since 2000) Median family income ($) - White Median family income ($) - Black or African American Median family income ($) - Asian Median family income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median family income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median family income ($) - Multirace Median family income ($) - Other Race Median year house/condo built Median year apartment built Year house built - Built 2005 or later (%) Year house built - Built 2000 to 2004 (%) Year house built - Built 1990 to 1999 (%) Year house built - Built 1980 to 1989 (%) Year house built - Built 1970 to 1979 (%) Year house built - Built 1960 to 1969 (%) Year house built - Built 1950 to 1959 (%) Year house built - Built 1940 to 1949 (%) Year house built - Built 1939 or earlier (%) Average household size Household density (households per square mile) Average household size - White Average household size - Black or African American Average household size - Asian Average household size - Hispanic or Latino Average household size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average household size - Multirace Average household size - Other Race Occupied housing units (%) Vacant housing units (%) Owner occupied housing units (%) Renter occupied housing units (%) Vacancy status - For rent (%) Vacancy status - For sale only (%) Vacancy status - Rented or sold, not occupied (%) Vacancy status - For seasonal, recreational, or occasional use (%) Vacancy status - For migrant workers (%) Vacancy status - Other vacant (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level (%) Children below poverty level (%) Poor families by family type - Married-couple family (%) Poor families by family type - Male, no wife present (%) Poor families by family type - Female, no husband present (%) Poverty status for native-born residents (%) Poverty status for foreign-born residents (%) Poverty among high school graduates not in families (%) Poverty among people who did not graduate high school not in families (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - White Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Black or African American Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Asian Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Hispanic or Latino Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Multirace Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Other Race Air pollution - Air Quality Index (AQI) Air pollution - CO Air pollution - NO2 Air pollution - SO2 Air pollution - Ozone Air pollution - PM10 Air pollution - PM25 Air pollution - Pb Crime - Murders per 100,000 population Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Arson per 100,000 population Crime - City-data.com crime index Crime - Violent crime index Crime - Property crime index Crime - Murders per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Arson per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - City-data.com crime index (5 year average) Crime - Violent crime index (5 year average) Crime - Property crime index (5 year average) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Dole) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Gore) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Kerry) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (McCain) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Romney) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Biden) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other Ancestries Reported - Arab (%) Ancestries Reported - Czech (%) Ancestries Reported - Danish (%) Ancestries Reported - Dutch (%) Ancestries Reported - English (%) Ancestries Reported - French (%) Ancestries Reported - French Canadian (%) Ancestries Reported - German (%) Ancestries Reported - Greek (%) Ancestries Reported - Hungarian (%) Ancestries Reported - Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Italian (%) Ancestries Reported - Lithuanian (%) Ancestries Reported - Norwegian (%) Ancestries Reported - Polish (%) Ancestries Reported - Portuguese (%) Ancestries Reported - Russian (%) Ancestries Reported - Scotch-Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Scottish (%) Ancestries Reported - Slovak (%) Ancestries Reported - Subsaharan African (%) Ancestries Reported - Swedish (%) Ancestries Reported - Swiss (%) Ancestries Reported - Ukrainian (%) Ancestries Reported - United States (%) Ancestries Reported - Welsh (%) Ancestries Reported - West Indian (%) Ancestries Reported - Other (%) Educational Attainment - No schooling completed (%) Educational Attainment - Less than high school (%) Educational Attainment - High school or equivalent (%) Educational Attainment - Less than 1 year of college (%) Educational Attainment - 1 or more years of college (%) Educational Attainment - Associate degree (%) Educational Attainment - Bachelor's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Master's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Professional school degree (%) Educational Attainment - Doctorate degree (%) School Enrollment - Nursery, preschool (%) School Enrollment - Kindergarten (%) School Enrollment - Grade 1 to 4 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 5 to 8 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 9 to 12 (%) School Enrollment - College undergrad (%) School Enrollment - Graduate or professional (%) School Enrollment - Not enrolled in school (%) School enrollment - Public schools (%) School enrollment - Private schools (%) School enrollment - Not enrolled (%) Median number of rooms in houses and condos Median number of rooms in apartments Housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities (%) Housing units lacking complete kitchen facilities (%) Density of houses Urban houses (%) Rural houses (%) Households with people 60 years and over (%) Households with people 65 years and over (%) Households with people 75 years and over (%) Households with one or more nonrelatives (%) Households with no nonrelatives (%) Population in households (%) Family households (%) Nonfamily households (%) Population in families (%) Family households with own children (%) Median number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Median number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Median number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Median number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mortgage status - with mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with second mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - with both second mortgage and home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - without a mortgage (%) Average family size Average family size - White Average family size - Black or African American Average family size - Asian Average family size - Hispanic or Latino Average family size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average family size - Multirace Average family size - Other Race Geographical mobility - Same house 1 year ago (%) Geographical mobility - Moved within same county (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different county within same state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from abroad (%) Place of birth - Born in state of residence (%) Place of birth - Born in other state (%) Place of birth - Native, outside of US (%) Place of birth - Foreign born (%) Housing units in structures - 1, detached (%) Housing units in structures - 1, attached (%) Housing units in structures - 2 (%) Housing units in structures - 3 or 4 (%) Housing units in structures - 5 to 9 (%) Housing units in structures - 10 to 19 (%) Housing units in structures - 20 to 49 (%) Housing units in structures - 50 or more (%) Housing units in structures - Mobile home (%) Housing units in structures - Boat, RV, van, etc. (%) House/condo owner moved in on average (years ago) Renter moved in on average (years ago) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1999 to March 2000 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1995 to 1998 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1990 to 1994 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1980 to 1989 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1970 to 1979 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1969 or earlier (%) Means of transportation to work - Drove car alone (%) Means of transportation to work - Carpooled (%) Means of transportation to work - Public transportation (%) Means of transportation to work - Bus or trolley bus (%) Means of transportation to work - Streetcar or trolley car (%) Means of transportation to work - Subway or elevated (%) Means of transportation to work - Railroad (%) Means of transportation to work - Ferryboat (%) Means of transportation to work - Taxicab (%) Means of transportation to work - Motorcycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Bicycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Walked (%) Means of transportation to work - Other means (%) Working at home (%) Industry diversity Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (%) Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (%) Most Common Industries - Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (%) Most Common Industries - Construction (%) Most Common Industries - Manufacturing (%) Most Common Industries - Wholesale trade (%) Most Common Industries - Retail trade (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing, and utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing (%) Most Common Industries - Utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Information (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance (%) Most Common Industries - Real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and technical services (%) Most Common Industries - Management of companies and enterprises (%) Most Common Industries - Administrative and support and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services, and health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services (%) Most Common Industries - Health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation (%) Most Common Industries - Accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Other services, except public administration (%) Most Common Industries - Public administration (%) Occupation diversity Most Common Occupations - Management, business, science, and arts occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management, business, and financial occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Business and financial operations occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer, engineering, and science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer and mathematical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Architecture and engineering occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Life, physical, and social science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, legal, community service, arts, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Community and social service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Legal occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, training, and library occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health diagnosing and treating practitioners and other technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health technologists and technicians (%) Most Common Occupations - Service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Protective service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Fire fighting and prevention, and other protective service workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Law enforcement workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Food preparation and serving related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Personal care and service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and office occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Office and administrative support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Construction and extraction occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production, transportation, and material moving occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Transportation occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Material moving occupations (%) People in Group quarters - Institutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - Correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Federal prisons and detention centers (%) People in Group quarters - Halfway houses (%) People in Group quarters - Local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups) (%) People in Group quarters - Military disciplinary barracks (%) People in Group quarters - State prisons (%) People in Group quarters - Other types of correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Nursing homes (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards, hospices, and schools for the handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards and hospices for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospices or homes for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Military hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Other hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals or wards for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Mental (Psychiatric) hospitals or wards (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the deaf (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the blind (%) People in Group quarters - Orthopedic wards and institutions for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in general hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in military hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Juvenile institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Long-term care (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for abused, dependent, and neglected children (%) People in Group quarters - Residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed children (%) People in Group quarters - Training schools for juvenile delinquents (%) People in Group quarters - Short-term care, detention or diagnostic centers for delinquent children (%) People in Group quarters - Type of juvenile institution unknown (%) People in Group quarters - Noninstitutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - College dormitories (includes college quarters off campus) (%) People in Group quarters - Military quarters (%) People in Group quarters - On base (%) People in Group quarters - Barracks, unaccompanied personnel housing (UPH), (Enlisted/Officer), ;and similar group living quarters for military personnel (%) People in Group quarters - Transient quarters for temporary residents (%) People in Group quarters - Military ships (%) People in Group quarters - Group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Homes or halfway houses for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally ill (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Other group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Religious group quarters (%) People in Group quarters - Dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Agriculture workers' dormitories on farms (%) People in Group quarters - Job Corps and vocational training facilities (%) People in Group quarters - Other workers' dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Crews of maritime vessels (%) People in Group quarters - Other nonhousehold living situations (%) People in Group quarters - Other noninstitutional group quarters (%) Residents speaking English at home (%) Residents speaking English at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking English at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking English at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking other language at home (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Foreign born (%) Class of Workers - Employee of private company (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed in own incorporated business (%) Class of Workers - Private not-for-profit wage and salary workers (%) Class of Workers - Local government workers (%) Class of Workers - State government workers (%) Class of Workers - Federal government workers (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed workers in own not incorporated business and Unpaid family workers (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - No fuel used (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - No fuel used (%) Armed forces status - In Armed Forces (%) Armed forces status - Civilian (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Veteran (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Nonveteran (%) Fatal accidents locations in years 2005-2019 Fatal accidents locations in 2005 Fatal accidents locations in 2006 Fatal accidents locations in 2007 Fatal accidents locations in 2008 Fatal accidents locations in 2009 Fatal accidents locations in 2010 Fatal accidents locations in 2011 Fatal accidents locations in 2012 Fatal accidents locations in 2013 Fatal accidents locations in 2014 Fatal accidents locations in 2015 Fatal accidents locations in 2016 Fatal accidents locations in 2017 Fatal accidents locations in 2018 Fatal accidents locations in 2019 Alcohol use - People drinking some alcohol every month (%) Alcohol use - People not drinking at all (%) Alcohol use - Average days/month drinking alcohol Alcohol use - Average drinks/week Alcohol use - Average days/year people drink much Audiometry - Average condition of hearing (%) Audiometry - People that can hear a whisper from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - People that can hear normal voice from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - Ears ringing, roaring, buzzing (%) Audiometry - Had a job exposure to loud noise (%) Audiometry - Had off-work exposure to loud noise (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high blood pressure (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Checking blood pressure at home (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Frequently checking blood cholesterol (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high cholesterol level (%) Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at supermarket/grocery store Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at other stores Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on eating out Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on carryout/delivered foods Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at supermarket/grocery store (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at other stores (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on eating out (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on carryout/delivered foods (%) Current Health Status - General health condition (%) Current Health Status - Blood donors (%) Current Health Status - Has blood ever tested for HIV virus (%) Current Health Status - Left-handed people (%) Dermatology - People using sunscreen (%) Diabetes - Diabetics (%) Diabetes - Had a blood test for high blood sugar (%) Diabetes - People taking insulin (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Diet health (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Milk product consumption (# of products/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals not home prepared (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals from fast food or pizza place (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Ready-to-eat foods (#/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Frozen meals/pizza (#/month) Drug Use - People that ever used marijuana or hashish (%) Drug Use - Ever used hard drugs (%) Drug Use - Ever used any form of cocaine (%) Drug Use - Ever used heroin (%) Drug Use - Ever used methamphetamine (%) Health Insurance - People covered by health insurance (%) Kidney Conditions-Urology - Avg. # of times urinating at night Medical Conditions - People with asthma (%) Medical Conditions - People with anemia (%) Medical Conditions - People with psoriasis (%) Medical Conditions - People with overweight (%) Medical Conditions - Elderly people having difficulties in thinking or remembering (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever received blood transfusion (%) Medical Conditions - People having trouble seeing even with glass/contacts (%) Medical Conditions - People with arthritis (%) Medical Conditions - People with gout (%) Medical Conditions - People with congestive heart failure (%) Medical Conditions - People with coronary heart disease (%) Medical Conditions - People with angina pectoris (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had heart attack (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had stroke (%) Medical Conditions - People with emphysema (%) Medical Conditions - People with thyroid problem (%) Medical Conditions - People with chronic bronchitis (%) Medical Conditions - People with any liver condition (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had cancer or malignancy (%) Mental Health - People who have little interest in doing things (%) Mental Health - People feeling down, depressed, or hopeless (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble sleeping or sleeping too much (%) Mental Health - People feeling tired or having little energy (%) Mental Health - People with poor appetite or overeating (%) Mental Health - People feeling bad about themself (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble concentrating on things (%) Mental Health - People moving or speaking slowly or too fast (%) Mental Health - People having thoughts they would be better off dead (%) Oral Health - Average years since last visit a dentist Oral Health - People embarrassed because of mouth (%) Oral Health - People with gum disease (%) Oral Health - General health of teeth and gums (%) Oral Health - Average days a week using dental floss/device Oral Health - Average days a week using mouthwash for dental problem Oral Health - Average number of teeth Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to control insects (%) Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to kill weeds (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People walking or bicycling (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - Average hours a day doing sedentary activities Physical Activity - Average hours a day watching TV or videos Physical Activity - Average hours a day using computer Physical Functioning - People having limitations keeping them from working (%) Physical Functioning - People limited in amount of work they can do (%) Physical Functioning - People that need special equipment to walk (%) Physical Functioning - People experiencing confusion/memory problems (%) Physical Functioning - People requiring special healthcare equipment (%) Prescription Medications - Average number of prescription medicines taking Preventive Aspirin Use - Adults 40+ taking low-dose aspirin (%) Reproductive Health - Vaginal deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Cesarean deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Deliveries resulted in a live birth (%) Reproductive Health - Pregnancies resulted in a delivery (%) Reproductive Health - Women breastfeeding newborns (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had a hysterectomy (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had both ovaries removed (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever taken birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women taking birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used Depo-Provera or injectables (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used female hormones (%) Sexual Behavior - People 18+ that ever had sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had anal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had any sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had anal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had any kind of sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first had sex Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female vaginal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a woman (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of woman performed oral sex on in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male anal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a man (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male oral sex partners in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - People using protection when performing oral sex (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of times people have vaginal or anal sex a year Sexual Behavior - People having sex without condom (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male vaginal sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Circumcised males 18+ (%) Sleep Disorders - Average hours sleeping at night Sleep Disorders - People that has trouble sleeping (%) Smoking-Cigarette Use - People smoking cigarettes (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with smell (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with taste (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had wisdom teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had tonsils teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a loss of consciousness because of a head injury (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a broken nose or other serious injury to face or skull (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had two or more sinus infections (%) Weight - Average height (inches) Weight - Average weight (pounds) Weight - Average BMI Weight - People that are obese (%) Weight - People that ever were obese (%) Weight - People trying to lose weight (%) Settings Get link Loading data... Based on 2000-2020 data Loading data...

123 Hide US histogram



390 96.1% White alone 6 1.5% Native Hawaiian and Other

Pacific Islander alone 3 0.7% Asian alone 2 0.5% Black alone

Races in New Vienna detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of Iowa and other state lists, there was 1 registered sex offender living in New Vienna, Iowa as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in New Vienna is 384 to 1.







Latest news from New Vienna, IA collected exclusively by city-data.com from local newspapers, TV, and radio stations

Ancestries: German (63.8%), American (16.5%), English (2.4%), European (2.4%), Norwegian (1.6%), Irish (1.2%).

Current Local Time: CST time zone

Elevation: 1020 feet

Land area: 0.45 square miles. Population density: 914 people per square mile (low).

3 residents are foreign born This city: 0.7% Iowa: 5.3%

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with mortgages in 2019: $1,346 (1.1%)

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with no mortgage in 2019: $1,846 (1.2%)



Latitude: 42.55 N, Longitude: 91.11 W

Area code: 563

Single-family new house construction building permits: 1998: 1 building , cost: $175,000

1 $175,000 1999: 3 buildings , average cost: $133,300

3 $133,300 2000: 2 buildings , average cost: $123,500

2 $123,500 2001: 1 building , cost: $190,000

1 $190,000 2002: 2 buildings , average cost: $150,000

2 $150,000 2003: 1 building , cost: $118,000

1 $118,000 2004: 2 buildings , average cost: $157,500

2 $157,500 2005: 2 buildings , average cost: $175,000

2 $175,000 2006: 1 building , cost: $175,000

1 $175,000 2009: 1 building , cost: $188,000

1 $188,000 2010: 6 buildings , average cost: $179,500

6 $179,500 2011: 5 buildings , average cost: $179,500

5 $179,500 2017: 1 building, cost: $178,000

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 3.3% Iowa: 3.1%

Population change in the 1990s: +24 (+6.4%).

Most common industries in New Vienna, IA (%) Both Males Females

Wood products (9.4%)

Finance & insurance (9.0%)

Machinery (7.1%)

Construction (6.1%)

Miscellaneous manufacturing (5.7%)

Educational services (5.7%)

Metal & metal products (5.7%)

Wood products (15.2%)

Construction (9.8%)

Repair & maintenance (8.0%)

Machinery (8.0%)

Metal & metal products (7.1%)

Agriculture, forestry, fishing & hunting (5.4%)

Miscellaneous manufacturing (4.5%)

Finance & insurance (17.0%)

Educational services (12.0%)

Miscellaneous manufacturing (7.0%)

Accommodation & food services (7.0%)

Machinery (6.0%)

Clothing & accessories, including shoe, stores (6.0%)

Metal & metal products (4.0%) Most common occupations in New Vienna, IA (%) Both Males Females

Assemblers and fabricators (8.0%)

Other production occupations, including supervisors (6.6%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (6.6%)

Retail sales workers, except cashiers (4.2%)

Vehicle and mobile equipment mechanics, installers, and repairers (3.8%)

Metal workers and plastic workers (3.8%)

Secretaries and administrative assistants (3.3%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (8.0%)

Vehicle and mobile equipment mechanics, installers, and repairers (7.1%)

Other production occupations, including supervisors (7.1%)

Material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers (6.3%)

Electrical equipment mechanics and other installation, maintenance, and repair workers, including supervisors (6.3%)

Farmers and farm managers (5.4%)

Retail sales workers, except cashiers (5.4%)

Assemblers and fabricators (13.0%)

Waiters and waitresses (7.0%)

Secretaries and administrative assistants (7.0%)

Other production occupations, including supervisors (6.0%)

Operations specialties managers, except financial managers (5.0%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (5.0%)

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (4.0%)

Average climate in New Vienna, Iowa Based on data reported by over 4,000 weather stations

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 63.9. This is about average. City: 63.9 U.S.: 74.2

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 8.49. This is about average. Closest monitor was 21.9 miles away from the city center. City: 8.49 U.S.: 8.46

Tornado activity: New Vienna-area historical tornado activity is near Iowa state average. It is 80% greater than the overall U.S. average.

On 3/13/1990, a category F4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 10.3 miles away from the New Vienna city center caused between $5,000,000 and $50,000,000 in damages. On 8/12/1974, a category F4 tornado 23.2 miles away from the city center injured 12 people and caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: New Vienna-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Iowa state average. It is 95% greater than the overall U.S. average.



On 4/18/2008 at 09:36:59, a magnitude 5.4 (5.1 MB, 4.8 MS, 5.4 MW, 5.2 MW, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 330.2 miles away from the city center

On 6/28/2004 at 06:10:52, a magnitude 4.2 (4.2 MW, Depth: 6.2 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 136.4 miles away from the city center

On 6/10/1987 at 23:48:54, a magnitude 5.1 (4.9 MB, 4.4 MS, 4.6 MS, 5.1 LG) earthquake occurred 308.4 miles away from the city center

On 4/18/2008 at 09:36:59, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MW, Depth: 8.9 mi) earthquake occurred 330.3 miles away from New Vienna center

On 2/10/2010 at 09:59:35, a magnitude 3.8 (3.8 MW, Depth: 6.2 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: II - III) earthquake occurred 139.8 miles away from the city center

On 6/18/2002 at 17:37:15, a magnitude 5.0 (4.3 MB, 4.6 MW, 5.0 LG) earthquake occurred 361.2 miles away from New Vienna center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Dubuque County (18) is near the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 16

Emergencies Declared: 1



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 16, Storms: 13, Tornadoes: 5, Heavy Rain: 1, Hurricane: 1, Wind: 1, Other: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to New Vienna: University of Wisconsin-Platteville ( about 35 miles; Platteville, WI ; Full-time enrollment: 7,679)

35 ; 7,679) Upper Iowa University ( about 41 miles; Fayette, IA ; FT enrollment: 5,275)

41 ; 5,275) Kirkwood Community College ( about 52 miles; Cedar Rapids, IA ; FT enrollment: 11,503)

52 ; 11,503) Northeast Iowa Community College-Calmar ( about 58 miles; Calmar, IA ; FT enrollment: 3,365)

58 ; 3,365) Hawkeye Community College ( about 63 miles; Waterloo, IA ; FT enrollment: 7,160)

63 ; 7,160) Luther College ( about 64 miles; Decorah, IA ; FT enrollment: 2,700)

64 ; 2,700) University of Iowa (about 66 miles; Iowa City, IA; FT enrollment: 24,735) Private elementary/middle school in New Vienna: HENNESSY CATHOLIC SCHOOL (Students: 68, Location: 7420 COLUMBUS ST, Grades: PK-6)

Birthplace of: Steven Lukan - Politician.

Dubuque County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Highest Potential

Average household size: This city: 2.4 people Iowa: 2.4 people

Percentage of family households: This city: 68.2% Whole state: 64.7%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This city: 3.5% Whole state: 6.7%



No gay or lesbian households reported





Banks with branches in New Vienna (2011 data): Citizens State Bank: New Vienna Savings Bank Branch at 7352 Columbus Street, branch established on 1925/07/20. Info updated 2009/11/18: Bank assets: $316.8 mil, Deposits: $266.0 mil, headquarters in Monticello, IA, positive income, Agricultural Specialization, 7 total offices, Holding Company: Herky Hawk Financial Corp.,

For population 15 years and over in New Vienna: Never married: 25.7%

25.7% Now married: 63.8%

63.8% Separated: 0.9%

0.9% Widowed: 5.2%

5.2% Divorced: 4.3%

For population 25 years and over in New Vienna: High school or higher: 91.9%

91.9% Bachelor's degree or higher: 16.6%

16.6% Graduate or professional degree: 6.2%

6.2% Unemployed: 4.5%

4.5% Mean travel time to work (commute): 26.9 minutes

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 9.4 Iowa average: 10.3



Religion statistics for New Vienna, IA (based on Dubuque County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Catholic 49,917 29 Mainline Protestant 7,457 24 Evangelical Protestant 5,613 30 Other 979 6 Orthodox 70 1 Black Protestant - 1 None 29,617 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 11 Here : 1.19 / 10,000 pop. State : 2.14 / 10,000 pop. Number of supercenters and club stores: 1 This county : 0.11 / 10,000 pop. State : 0.23 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 4 Here : 0.43 / 10,000 pop. Iowa : 0.43 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 49 Dubuque County : 5.31 / 10,000 pop. Iowa : 5.55 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 90 This county : 9.75 / 10,000 pop. Iowa : 8.01 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: This county : 7.2% Iowa : 7.8% Adult obesity rate: Here : 27.3% Iowa : 27.3% Low-income preschool obesity rate: This county : 12.7% State : 14.5%

Local government employment and payroll (March 2017) Function Full-time employees Monthly full-time payroll Average yearly full-time wage Part-time employees Monthly part-time payroll Sewerage 1 $4,386 $52,632 0 $0 Police Protection - Officers 0 $0 2 $2,101 Other Government Administration 0 $0 1 $635 Totals for Government 1 $4,386 $52,632 3 $2,737

Expenditure Revenue New Vienna government finances - Expenditure in 2017 (per resident): Construction - Regular Highways: $133,000 ($323.60)

$133,000 ($323.60) Current Operations - Sewerage: $83,000 ($201.95) Regular Highways: $60,000 ($145.99) Water Utilities: $59,000 ($143.55) General Public Buildings: $36,000 ($87.59) Solid Waste Management: $23,000 ($55.96) Parks and Recreation: $22,000 ($53.53) Police Protection: $18,000 ($43.80) Financial Administration: $10,000 ($24.33) Local Fire Protection: $9,000 ($21.90) Central Staff Services: $3,000 ($7.30) General - Other: $2,000 ($4.87) Judicial and Legal Services: $1,000 ($2.43)

$83,000 ($201.95) General - Interest on Debt: $9,000 ($21.90)

$9,000 ($21.90) Total Salaries and Wages: $76,000 ($184.91) New Vienna government finances - Revenue in 2017 (per resident): Charges - Sewerage: $70,000 ($170.32) Solid Waste Management: $26,000 ($63.26)

$70,000 ($170.32) Local Intergovernmental - Other: $2,000 ($4.87)

$2,000 ($4.87) Miscellaneous - Sale of Property: $77,000 ($187.35) Interest Earnings: $2,000 ($4.87) Fines and Forfeits: $1,000 ($2.43) Rents: $1,000 ($2.43) General Revenue - Other: $1,000 ($2.43)

$77,000 ($187.35) Revenue - Water Utilities: $68,000 ($165.45)

$68,000 ($165.45) State Intergovernmental - Highways: $42,000 ($102.19) General Local Government Support: $4,000 ($9.73)

$42,000 ($102.19) Tax - Property: $146,000 ($355.23) General Sales and Gross Receipts: $60,000 ($145.99) Other License: $1,000 ($2.43) New Vienna government finances - Debt in 2017 (per resident): Long Term Debt - Beginning Outstanding - Unspecified Public Purpose: $389,000 ($946.47) Outstanding Unspecified Public Purpose: $343,000 ($834.55) Retired Unspecified Public Purpose: $46,000 ($111.92) New Vienna government finances - Cash and Securities in 2017 (per resident): Other Funds - Cash and Securities: $718,000 ($1746.96)

$718,000 ($1746.96) Sinking Funds - Cash and Securities: $207,000 ($503.65)

4.03% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($49,247 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.03% Iowa average: 5.97% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved from foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Jackson County, IA 0.25% ($36,814 average AGI) from Jo Daviess County, IL 0.24% ($53,208) from Grant County, WI 0.24% ($41,211)



4.74% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($47,249 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.74% Iowa average: 6.23% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Jo Daviess County, IL 0.29% ($40,743 average AGI) to Linn County, IA 0.24% ($37,883) to Cook County, IL 0.22% ($28,191)

Strongest AM radio stations in New Vienna: KXEL (1540 AM; 50 kW; WATERLOO, IA; Owner: KXEL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

KXEL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) KDTH (1370 AM; 5 kW; DUBUQUE, IA; Owner: RADIO DUBUQUE, INC.)

RADIO DUBUQUE, INC.) WMT (600 AM; 5 kW; CEDAR RAPIDS, IA; Owner: CITICASTERS LICENSES, L.P.)

CITICASTERS LICENSES, L.P.) WTMJ (620 AM; 50 kW; MILWAUKEE, WI; Owner: JOURNAL BROADCAST CORPORATION)

JOURNAL BROADCAST CORPORATION) KKHQ (950 AM; 5 kW; OELWEIN, IA; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WHO (1040 AM; 50 kW; DES MOINES, IA; Owner: CITICASTERS LICENSES, L.P.)

CITICASTERS LICENSES, L.P.) WSCR (670 AM; 50 kW; CHICAGO, IL; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WGN (720 AM; 50 kW; CHICAGO, IL; Owner: WGN CONTINENTAL BROADCASTING CO.)

WGN CONTINENTAL BROADCASTING CO.) WBBM (780 AM; 50 kW; CHICAGO, IL; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WSPT (1010 AM; 50 kW; STEVENS POINT, WI)

WISN (1130 AM; 50 kW; MILWAUKEE, WI; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WMVP (1000 AM; 50 kW; CHICAGO, IL; Owner: ABC, INC.)

ABC, INC.) WLS (890 AM; 50 kW; CHICAGO, IL; Owner: WLS, INC.) Strongest FM radio stations in New Vienna: KDST (99.3 FM; DYERSVILLE, IA; Owner: DESIGN HOMES, INC.)

DESIGN HOMES, INC.) KOEL-FM (92.3 FM; OELWEIN, IA; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) KFMW (107.9 FM; WATERLOO, IA; Owner: KXEL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

KXEL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) KATF (92.9 FM; DUBUQUE, IA; Owner: RADIO DUBUQUE, INC.)

RADIO DUBUQUE, INC.) KUNI (90.9 FM; CEDAR FALLS, IA; Owner: UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA)

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA) KGRR (97.3 FM; EPWORTH, IA; Owner: RADIO DUBUQUE, INC.)

RADIO DUBUQUE, INC.) KOKZ (105.7 FM; WATERLOO, IA; Owner: KXEL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

KXEL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WJOD (103.3 FM; ASBURY, IA; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) KMCH (94.7 FM; MANCHESTER, IA; Owner: FIFE COMMUNICATION COMPANY, L.C.)

FIFE COMMUNICATION COMPANY, L.C.) K239AB (95.7 FM; DUBUQUE, IA; Owner: AUGUSTANA COLLEGE)

AUGUSTANA COLLEGE) KDAT (104.5 FM; CEDAR RAPIDS, IA; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WVRE (101.1 FM; DICKEYVILLE, WI; Owner: RADIO DUBUQUE, INC.)

RADIO DUBUQUE, INC.) K254AE (98.7 FM; DUBUQUE, IA; Owner: UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA)

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA) KLYV (105.3 FM; DUBUQUE, IA; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) KXGE (102.3 FM; DUBUQUE, IA; Owner: CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.)

CUMULUS LICENSING CORP.) WGLR-FM (97.7 FM; LANCASTER, WI; Owner: QUEENB RADIO WISCONSIN, INC.)

QUEENB RADIO WISCONSIN, INC.) KIYX (106.1 FM; SAGEVILLE, IA; Owner: QUEENB RADIO WISCONSIN, INC.)

QUEENB RADIO WISCONSIN, INC.) WPVL-FM (107.1 FM; PLATTEVILLE, WI; Owner: QUEENB RADIO WISCONSIN, INC.)

QUEENB RADIO WISCONSIN, INC.) KCTN (100.1 FM; GARNAVILLO, IA; Owner: DESIGN HOMES, INC.) TV broadcast stations around New Vienna: KWWL ( Channel 7; WATERLOO, IA; Owner: RAYCOM AMERICA, INC.)

7; WATERLOO, IA; RAYCOM AMERICA, INC.) KGAN ( Channel 2; CEDAR RAPIDS, IA; Owner: KGAN LICENSEE, LLC)

2; CEDAR RAPIDS, IA; KGAN LICENSEE, LLC) KCRG-TV ( Channel 9; CEDAR RAPIDS, IA; Owner: CEDAR RAPIDS TELEVISION CO.)

9; CEDAR RAPIDS, IA; CEDAR RAPIDS TELEVISION CO.) KRIN ( Channel 32; WATERLOO, IA; Owner: IOWA PUBLIC BROADCASTING BOARD)

32; WATERLOO, IA; IOWA PUBLIC BROADCASTING BOARD) KFXB ( Channel 40; DUBUQUE, IA; Owner: DUBUQUE TV LTD. PARTNERSHIP)

40; DUBUQUE, IA; DUBUQUE TV LTD. PARTNERSHIP) KFXA ( Channel 28; CEDAR RAPIDS, IA; Owner: SECOND GENERATION OF IOWA, LTD.)

28; CEDAR RAPIDS, IA; SECOND GENERATION OF IOWA, LTD.) W22CI ( Channel 22; BLOOMINGTON, WI; Owner: STATE OF WISCONSIN - EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS BOARD)

22; BLOOMINGTON, WI; STATE OF WISCONSIN - EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS BOARD) KPXR (Channel 48; CEDAR RAPIDS, IA; Owner: PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LICENSE COMPANY, LLC)

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

12 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 69ft / 21.1m Total length

Total length 9,040 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 1,212 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 9,040 Total future (year 2036) average daily traffic

New bridges - historical statistics

1 1900-1909

2 1920-1929

2 1970-1979

3 1980-1989

2 1990-1999

1 2000-2009

1 2010-2018 See full National Bridge Inventory statistics for New Vienna, IA

FCC Registered Cell Phone Towers: 1 (

FCC Registered Antenna Towers: 14 (



FCC Registered Broadcast Land Mobile Towers: 3 2 Blocks E Of Hwy 136 2 Blocks S Of New Vienna Bridge ( Lat: 42.550000 Lon: -91.112361), Call Sign: KDP251,

Assigned Frequencies: 35.0600 MHz, Grant Date: 06/14/2011, Expiration Date: 08/28/2021, Registrant: Co-Op Oil Co., 1829 Wente Road, New Vienna, IA 52065, Phone: (563) 921-2525, Fax: (563) 921-2525, Email:

42.550000 -91.112361), KDP251, 35.0600 MHz, 06/14/2011, 08/28/2021, Co-Op Oil Co., 1829 Wente Road, New Vienna, IA 52065, (563) 921-2525, (563) 921-2525, Hwy 136 One Mile S And 1/2 Mi E ( Lat: 42.536667 Lon: -91.106528), Call Sign: WDK719, Licensee ID: L00096016,

Assigned Frequencies: 467.025 MHz, Grant Date: 04/13/1998, Expiration Date: 05/23/2003, Cancellation Date: 10/01/2002, Registrant: Taylor Construction Incorporated, Rr, New Vienna, IA 52065, Phone: (319) 921-2315

42.536667 -91.106528), WDK719, L00096016, 467.025 MHz, 04/13/1998, 05/23/2003, 10/01/2002, Taylor Construction Incorporated, Rr, New Vienna, IA 52065, (319) 921-2315 Lat: 42.733417 Lon: -91.080250, Call Sign: WPWX531,

Assigned Frequencies: 462.525 MHz, 464.625 MHz, Grant Date: 06/20/2013, Expiration Date: 02/04/2023, Certifier: Lee Wulfekuhle, Registrant: Cara Enterprises Inc, Las Vegas, NV 89140-0124, Phone: (702) 838-9728, Fax: (702) 363-4607, Email:

FCC Registered Microwave Towers: 7 NEW VIENNA, 1.0 Mi E On County Rd D17 ( Lat: 42.543611 Lon: -91.095694), Type: Tower, Structure height: 19.8 m, Call Sign: WNEX300,

Assigned Frequencies: 958.350 MHz, Grant Date: 07/24/2009, Expiration Date: 09/29/2019, Cancellation Date: 11/30/2019, Registrant: Central Iowa Power Cooperative, 1400 Hwy 13 Se, Cedar Rapids, IA 52406, Phone: (319) 734-4334, Fax: (319) 366-6328, Email:

42.543611 -91.095694), Tower, 19.8 m, WNEX300, 958.350 MHz, 07/24/2009, 09/29/2019, 11/30/2019, Central Iowa Power Cooperative, 1400 Hwy 13 Se, Cedar Rapids, IA 52406, (319) 734-4334, (319) 366-6328, LUXEMBURG, 20626 Route 136 (Aka South Andres) ( Lat: 42.598139 Lon: -91.072361), Type: Gtower, Structure height: 92.9 m, Overall height: 97.5 m, Call Sign: WPTF791,

Assigned Frequencies: 6123.10 MHz, Grant Date: 08/23/2011, Expiration Date: 09/24/2021, Certifier: John E Rooney, Registrant: Holland & Knight LLP, 800 17th Street, N.W., Suite #1100, Washington, DC 20006-3906, Phone: (202) 955-3000, Fax: (202) 955-5564, Email:

42.598139 -91.072361), Gtower, 92.9 m, 97.5 m, WPTF791, 6123.10 MHz, 08/23/2011, 09/24/2021, John E Rooney, Holland & Knight LLP, 800 17th Street, N.W., Suite #1100, Washington, DC 20006-3906, (202) 955-3000, (202) 955-5564, New Vienna, Lat: 42.549833 Lon: -91.113611, Type: Building, Structure height: 22 m, Overall height: 25 m, Call Sign: WQXC388,

Assigned Frequencies: 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, Grant Date: 01/28/2016, Expiration Date: 01/28/2026, Certifier: Brent Boies, Registrant: Intelpath, 111 Fuller Road, Hinsdale, IL 60521, Phone: (312) 841-9188, Email:

42.549833 -91.113611, Building, 22 m, 25 m, WQXC388, 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, 11565.0 MHz, 01/28/2016, 01/28/2026, Brent Boies, Intelpath, 111 Fuller Road, Hinsdale, IL 60521, (312) 841-9188, NEWVIENNA WT, 6849 Columbus St ( Lat: 42.541111 Lon: -91.113639), Type: Tank, Structure height: 33.5 m, Overall height: 34.5 m, Call Sign: WQZB516,

Assigned Frequencies: 11245.0 MHz, 11325.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz, 11325.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz, 11325.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz, 11325.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz, 11325.0 MHz... (+26 more), Grant Date: 03/28/2017, Expiration Date: 03/28/2027, Certifier: Tim Burbach, Registrant: Comelec Services, 4190 Pennsylvania Ave, Dubuque, IA 52002, Phone: (563) 513-8984, Fax: (563) 556-2702, Email:

42.541111 -91.113639), Tank, 33.5 m, 34.5 m, WQZB516, 11245.0 MHz, 11325.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz, 11325.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz, 11325.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz, 11325.0 MHz, 11245.0 MHz, 11325.0 MHz... (+26 more), 03/28/2017, 03/28/2027, Tim Burbach, Comelec Services, 4190 Pennsylvania Ave, Dubuque, IA 52002, (563) 513-8984, (563) 556-2702, Luxemburg, 20626 Route 136 (Aka South Andres) ( Lat: 42.598139 Lon: -91.072361), Type: Ltower, Structure height: 92.9 m, Overall height: 97.5 m, Call Sign: WRCW452,

Assigned Frequencies: 11155.0 MHz, 11155.0 MHz, 11155.0 MHz, 11155.0 MHz, 11155.0 MHz, Grant Date: 02/12/2019, Expiration Date: 02/12/2029, Cancellation Date: 06/17/2020, Certifier: Fcc Contact, Registrant: Intelpath, Hinsdale, IL 60522, Phone: (312) 841-9188, Email:

42.598139 -91.072361), Ltower, 92.9 m, 97.5 m, WRCW452, 11155.0 MHz, 11155.0 MHz, 11155.0 MHz, 11155.0 MHz, 11155.0 MHz, 02/12/2019, 02/12/2029, 06/17/2020, Fcc Contact, Intelpath, Hinsdale, IL 60522, (312) 841-9188, Luxemburg, 20626 Route 136 (Aka South Andres) ( Lat: 42.598139 Lon: -91.072361), Type: Gtower, Structure height: 92.9 m, Overall height: 97.5 m, Call Sign: WRDN634,

Assigned Frequencies: 6063.80 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, 6063.80 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, 6063.80 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, 6063.80 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, 6063.80 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, Grant Date: 06/12/2019, Expiration Date: 06/12/2029, Certifier: Mark Murphy, Registrant: Racom, 201 W. State St., Marshalltown, IA 50158, Phone: (888) 752-1016, Fax: (641) 752-0674, Email:

42.598139 -91.072361), Gtower, 92.9 m, 97.5 m, WRDN634, 6063.80 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, 6063.80 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, 6063.80 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, 6063.80 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, 6063.80 MHz, 5974.85 MHz, 06/12/2019, 06/12/2029, Mark Murphy, Racom, 201 W. State St., Marshalltown, IA 50158, (888) 752-1016, (641) 752-0674, LIBERTY, 31028 Wente Road (Lat: 42.543611 Lon: -91.095694), Type: Mtower, Structure height: 19.8 m, Call Sign: WRFM861, Licensee ID: L00002579,

Assigned Frequencies: 958.350 MHz, Grant Date: 03/31/2020, Expiration Date: 03/31/2030, Certifier: Kevin Lyons, Registrant: Central Iowa Power Cooperative, 1400 Hwy 13 Se, Cedar Rapids, IA 52406, Phone: (319) 734-4334, Fax: (319) 366-6328, Email:

1 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Cell Phone Towers in New Vienna 14 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Antenna Towers

2002 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents According to the data from the years 2002 - 2018 the average number of fire incidents per year is 7. The highest number of reported fire incidents - 15 took place in 2012, and the least - 1 in 2005. The data has a constant trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in New Vienna, IA



58 51.8% Outside Fires



37 33.0% Structure Fires



15 13.4% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



2 1.8% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most incidents belonged to: Outside Fires (51.8%), and Structure Fires (33.0%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for New Vienna, IA

Most common first names in New Vienna, IA among deceased individuals Name Count Lived (average) Frank 8 87.0 years John 8 78.6 years Mary 7 84.3 years Anna 6 82.6 years George 6 84.3 years Joseph 5 82.4 years Hugo 4 80.7 years Clarence 4 78.3 years Henry 4 82.8 years Lawrence 4 71.0 years Most common last names in New Vienna, IA among deceased individuals Last name Count Lived (average) Bockenstedt 9 75.3 years Kluesner 7 80.6 years Boeckenstedt 6 87.2 years Hermsen 5 82.0 years Lansing 5 80.8 years Oberbroeckli 5 73.2 years Gaul 5 50.6 years Klas 5 82.2 years Ahlers 4 75.5 years Pasker 4 76.8 years

Houses and condos Apartments 80.8% Utility gas

10.6% Electricity

4.6% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

2.6% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

1.3% Wood 87.5% Utility gas

12.5% Electricity





New Vienna compared to Iowa state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Renting percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Length of stay since moving in above state average.

above Number of college students below state average.

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




North Reading, Massachusetts

Submit your own pictures of this town and show them to the world



OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 14,892.

Population change since 2000: +7.6%

14,892.+7.6%

Males: 7,325 (49.2%) Females: 7,567 (50.8%)

Median resident age: 42.0 years Massachusetts median age: 39.2 years

Zip codes: 01864.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $135,467 (it was $76,962 in 2000)

North Reading: $135,467 MA: $85,843

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $54,960 (it was $30,902 in 2000)



North Reading town income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $613,631 (it was $263,200 in 2000) North Reading: $613,631 MA: $418,600

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $641,107; detached houses: $664,100; townhouses or other attached units: $563,829; in 2-unit structures: $666,179; in 3-to-4-unit structures: $638,509; in 5-or-more-unit structures: $479,342; mobile homes: $99,101; occupied boats, rvs, vans, etc.: over $1,000,000 $135,467 ($76,962$54,960 ($30,902$613,631 ($263,200$641,107;$664,100;$563,829;$666,179;$638,509;$479,342;$99,101;over $1,000,000

March 2019 cost of living index in North Reading: 149.1 (very high, U.S. average is 100)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:



13,991 93.9% White alone 397 2.7% Asian alone 231 1.6% Hispanic 149 1.0% Two or more races 84 0.6% Black alone 24 0.2% Other race alone 16 0.1% American Indian alone

Races in North Reading detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of Massachusetts and other state lists, there was 1 registered sex offender living in North Reading, Massachusetts as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in North Reading is 14,892 to 1.

The ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is much lower than the state average.





Crime rates in North Reading by year Type 2006 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Murders

(per 100,000) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) Rapes

(per 100,000) 0

(0.0) 1

(7.1) 1

(7.0) 2

(13.9) 3

(20.0) 1

(6.6) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 2

(12.7) 6

(38.0) 0

(0.0) 3

(19.1) Robberies

(per 100,000) 3

(21.4) 0

(0.0) 1

(7.0) 1

(6.9) 4

(26.7) 5

(32.9) 3

(19.5) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 5

(31.7) 1

(6.3) 1

(6.4) Assaults

(per 100,000) 3

(21.4) 10

(71.2) 18

(126.3) 18

(124.9) 11

(73.4) 9

(59.3) 9

(58.4) 17

(109.4) 8

(51.1) 18

(114.6) 13

(82.4) 15

(94.6) 12

(76.5) Burglaries

(per 100,000) 21

(149.6) 29

(206.6) 25

(175.5) 41

(284.4) 28

(186.9) 40

(263.5) 17

(110.3) 11

(70.8) 18

(114.9) 3

(19.1) 6

(38.0) 6

(37.9) 10

(63.7) Thefts

(per 100,000) 27

(192.4) 91

(648.1) 90

(631.6) 84

(582.6) 111

(740.8) 101

(665.3) 112

(727.0) 85

(547.1) 68

(434.1) 53

(337.3) 52

(329.5) 35

(220.8) 44

(280.5) Auto thefts

(per 100,000) 6

(42.8) 2

(14.2) 5

(35.1) 3

(20.8) 6

(40.0) 7

(46.1) 5

(32.5) 3

(19.3) 3

(19.2) 4

(25.5) 7

(44.4) 3

(18.9) 6

(38.2) Arson

(per 100,000) 0

(0.0) 2

(14.2) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 1

(6.7) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 1

(6.4) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) City-Data.com crime index 32.3 61.5 73.3 83.0 84.6 75.7 56.9 50.3 37.2 50.0 75.8 33.8 51.3 The City-Data.com crime index weighs serious crimes and violent crimes more heavily. Higher means more crime, U.S. average is 270.6. It adjusts for the number of visitors and daily workers commuting into cities. Click on a table row to update graph

Crime rate in North Reading detailed stats: murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, arson



Full-time law enforcement employees in 2019, including police officers: 34 (31 officers).

Officers per 1,000 residents here: 1.98 Massachusetts average: 2.37



Latest news from North Reading, MA collected exclusively by city-data.com from local newspapers, TV, and radio stations

Ancestries: Irish (30.0%), Italian (24.6%), English (16.2%), German (6.3%), French (6.2%), United States (5.7%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 100 feet

Land area: 13.3 square miles. Population density: 1,124 people per square mile (low).

782 residents are foreign born (2.7% Europe, 1.1% Asia, 1.0% Latin America). This town: 5.7% Massachusetts: 12.2%

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units in 2000: North Reading town: 1.3% ($3,366) Massachusetts: 1.3% ($2,336)

Latitude: 42.58 N, Longitude: 71.10 W

Area code: 978

Single-family new house construction building permits: 1997: 61 buildings , average cost: $190,800

61 $190,800 1998: 74 buildings , average cost: $278,200

74 $278,200 1999: 65 buildings , average cost: $221,400

65 $221,400 2000: 38 buildings , average cost: $286,600

38 $286,600 2001: 33 buildings , average cost: $339,000

33 $339,000 2002: 43 buildings , average cost: $269,900

43 $269,900 2003: 43 buildings , average cost: $338,900

43 $338,900 2004: 41 buildings , average cost: $294,900

41 $294,900 2005: 32 buildings , average cost: $329,900

32 $329,900 2006: 31 buildings , average cost: $274,100

31 $274,100 2007: 31 buildings , average cost: $269,300

31 $269,300 2008: 18 buildings , average cost: $243,100

18 $243,100 2009: 19 buildings , average cost: $278,500

19 $278,500 2010: 22 buildings , average cost: $327,500

22 $327,500 2011: 17 buildings , average cost: $308,800

17 $308,800 2012: 17 buildings , average cost: $309,700

17 $309,700 2013: 27 buildings , average cost: $349,900

27 $349,900 2014: 29 buildings , average cost: $290,200

29 $290,200 2015: 20 buildings , average cost: $310,400

20 $310,400 2016: 26 buildings , average cost: $266,100

26 $266,100 2017: 12 buildings , average cost: $305,900

12 $305,900 2018: 25 buildings , average cost: $325,400

25 $325,400 2019: 17 buildings, average cost: $315,900

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 5.4% Massachusetts: 6.2%

Most common industries in North Reading, MA (%) Both Males Females

Health care (10.9%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (9.7%)

Educational services (8.3%)

Finance & insurance (7.5%)

Public administration (5.8%)

Construction (5.0%)

Accommodation & food services (4.4%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (10.2%)

Finance & insurance (8.2%)

Construction (8.2%)

Public administration (7.0%)

Computer & electronic products (6.2%)

Educational services (4.9%)

Health care (4.2%)

Health care (18.6%)

Educational services (12.3%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (9.0%)

Finance & insurance (6.6%)

Accommodation & food services (4.7%)

Public administration (4.4%)

Social assistance (3.7%) Most common occupations in North Reading, MA (%) Both Males Females

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (6.9%)

Secretaries and administrative assistants (4.2%)

Top executives (3.6%)

Computer specialists (3.5%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (3.5%)

Engineers (3.4%)

Registered nurses (3.3%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (9.6%)

Engineers (5.7%)

Top executives (5.3%)

Computer specialists (4.8%)

Vehicle and mobile equipment mechanics, installers, and repairers (4.8%)

Electrical equipment mechanics and other installation, maintenance, and repair workers, including supervisors (4.2%)

Sales representatives, services, wholesale and manufacturing (3.9%)

Secretaries and administrative assistants (8.8%)

Registered nurses (6.9%)

Preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school teachers (6.1%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (4.7%)

Information and record clerks, except customer service representatives (4.2%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (3.9%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (3.2%)

Average climate in North Reading, Massachusetts Based on data reported by over 4,000 weather stations

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI CO NO 2 SO 2 Ozone PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 74.4. This is about average. City: 74.4 U.S.: 74.2

Carbon Monoxide (CO) [ppm] level in 2018 was 0.222. This is better than average. Closest monitor was 6.4 miles away from the city center. City: 0.222 U.S.: 0.267

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 10.3. This is significantly worse than average. Closest monitor was 5.5 miles away from the city center. City: 10.3 U.S.: 5.6

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 0.631. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 6.8 miles away from the city center. City: 0.631 U.S.: 1.789

Ozone [ppb] level in 2018 was 26.0. This is better than average. Closest monitor was 6.2 miles away from the city center. City: 26.0 U.S.: 33.3

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 7.29. This is about average. Closest monitor was 8.6 miles away from the city center. City: 7.29 U.S.: 8.46

Tornado activity: North Reading-area historical tornado activity is near Massachusetts state average. It is 41% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 6/9/1953, a category F4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 29.1 miles away from the North Reading town center killed 90 people and injured 1228 people and caused between $50,000,000 and $500,000,000 in damages. On 9/29/1974, a category F3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 5.8 miles away from the town center injured one person and caused between $50,000 and $500,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: North Reading-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Massachusetts state average. It is 73% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.3 (5.3 ML, Depth: 3.0 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 186.5 miles away from North Reading center

On 10/7/1983 at 10:18:46, a magnitude 5.3 (5.1 MB, 5.3 LG, 5.1 ML) earthquake occurred 188.8 miles away from the city center

On 1/19/1982 at 00:14:42, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 MD, 4.5 LG, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 68.3 miles away from North Reading center

On 10/16/2012 at 23:12:25, a magnitude 4.7 (4.7 ML, Depth: 10.0 mi) earthquake occurred 73.6 miles away from North Reading center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MB, 4.2 MS, 5.2 MW, 5.0 MW) earthquake occurred 186.0 miles away from North Reading center

On 8/22/1992 at 12:20:32, a magnitude 4.8 (4.8 MB, 3.8 MS, 4.7 LG, Depth: 6.2 mi) earthquake occurred 244.0 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), duration magnitude (MD), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Middlesex County (31) is a lot greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 17

Emergencies Declared: 14



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 12, Storms: 9, Hurricanes: 6, Snowstorms: 6, Winter Storms: 5, Blizzards: 2, Snows: 2, Explosion: 1, Heavy Rain: 1, Snowfall: 1, Water Main Break: 1, Wind: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers in North Reading: GREEN GROVE NURS HOME (134 NORTH ST)

MEADOW VIEW CARE AND REHABILITATION CENTER (134 NORTH STREET)

MEADOWVIEW CONVALESCENT HOME (134 NORTH ST)

Amtrak stations near North Reading: 6 miles: WOBURN (100 ATLANTIC AVE.) . Services: ticket office.

WOBURN (100 ATLANTIC AVE.) . ticket office. 14 miles: HAVERHILL (WASHINGTON ST. @ RAILROAD SQUARE) . Services: ticket office.

HAVERHILL (WASHINGTON ST. @ RAILROAD SQUARE) . ticket office. 16 miles: BOSTON, NORTH STATION (BOSTON, 126 CAUSEWAY ST.) . Services: ticket office, enclosed waiting area.

Library in North Reading: FLINT MEMORIAL LIBRARY (Operating income: $438,365; Location: 147 PARK ST.; 70,312 books; 4,353 audio materials; 3,358 video materials; 34 state licensed databases; 3 other licensed databases; 161 print serial subscriptions)

Birthplace of: Thomas N. Hart - Politician, Bradley Jones, Jr. - Politician, Frank Putnam Flint - Politician.

Middlesex County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Highest Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in North Reading and their reported violations in the past: NORTH READING WATER DEPT. (Population served: 14,897, Purch surface water): Past health violations: MCL, Average - Between APR-2014 and JUN-2014 , Contaminant: TTHM

APR-2014 JUN-2014 TTHM MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In SEP-2013, Contaminant: Coliform. Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-15-2013) Past monitoring violations: Monitoring and Reporting (DBP) - Between JUL-2013 and SEP-2013 , Contaminant: Chlorine . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-15-2013)

JUL-2013 SEP-2013 Chlorine St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-15-2013) Monitoring and Reporting (DBP) - Between JUL-2007 and SEP-2007 , Contaminant: Total Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-26-2007)

JUL-2007 SEP-2007 Total Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-26-2007) Monitoring and Reporting (DBP) - Between JUL-2007 and SEP-2007 , Contaminant: TTHM . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-26-2007)

JUL-2007 SEP-2007 TTHM St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-26-2007) Follow-up Or Routine LCR Tap M/R - In OCT-01-2006 , Contaminant: Lead and Copper Rule . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-23-2006), St Compliance achieved (AUG-02-2007)

OCT-01-2006 Lead and Copper Rule St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-23-2006), St Compliance achieved (AUG-02-2007) 38 regular monitoring violations NORTH READING WATER DEPT. (14,897Purch surface water):

Average household size: This town: 2.7 people Massachusetts: 2.5 people

Percentage of family households: This town: 73.6% Whole state: 63.0%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This town: 4.6% Whole state: 7.0%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.4% of all households

0.4% Gay men: 0.3% of all households Residents with income below the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 1.5% Whole state: 9.3% Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 0.8% Whole state: 4.4%

People in group quarters in North Reading in 2010: 104 people in nursing facilities/skilled-nursing facilities

29 people in group homes intended for adults

2 people in other noninstitutional facilities People in group quarters in North Reading in 2000: 113 people in nursing homes

8 people in homes for the mentally retarded

4 people in homes for the physically handicapped

Banks with branches in North Reading (2011 data): RBS Citizens, National Association: North Reading Branch at 72 Main Street , branch established on 1969/10/04; North Reading Stop & Shop Branch at 265 Main Street, Rt 28 , branch established on 2002/03/27 . Info updated 2007/09/19: Bank assets: $106,940.6 mil , Deposits: $75,690.2 mil , headquarters in Providence, RI , positive income , 1135 total offices , Holding Company: Uk Financial Investments Limited

72 Main Street 1969/10/04; North Reading Stop & Shop Branch 265 Main Street, Rt 28 2002/03/27 2007/09/19: $106,940.6 mil $75,690.2 mil Providence, RI 1135 Uk Financial Investments Limited Winter Hill Bank, FSB: 265mainstreet Branch at 271 Main Street , branch established on 1906/01/01 . Info updated 2012/02/16: Bank assets: $256.4 mil , Deposits: $222.8 mil , headquarters in Somerville, MA , positive income , Commercial Lending Specialization , 4 total offices

271 Main Street 1906/01/01 2012/02/16: $256.4 mil $222.8 mil Somerville, MA , Commercial Lending Specialization 4 The Savings Bank: North Reading Branch at 6 Washington Street , branch established on 2005/05/02 . Info updated 2009/07/02: Bank assets: $443.8 mil , Deposits: $385.0 mil , headquarters in Wakefield, MA , positive income , 9 total offices

6 Washington Street 2005/05/02 2009/07/02: $443.8 mil $385.0 mil Wakefield, MA 9 Reading Co-operative Bank: North Reading Branch at 170 Park Street , branch established on 2002/01/28 . Info updated 2011/04/20: Bank assets: $347.2 mil , Deposits: $277.5 mil , headquarters in Reading, MA , positive income , Mortgage Lending Specialization , 6 total offices

170 Park Street 2002/01/28 2011/04/20: $347.2 mil $277.5 mil Reading, MA , Mortgage Lending Specialization 6 Bank of America, National Association: North Reading Branch at 172 Park Street, branch established on 1982/07/23. Info updated 2009/11/18: Bank assets: $1,451,969.3 mil, Deposits: $1,077,176.8 mil, headquarters in Charlotte, NC, positive income, 5782 total offices, Holding Company: Bank Of America Corporation

For population 15 years and over in North Reading: Never married: 22.4%

22.4% Now married: 65.3%

65.3% Separated: 0.8%

0.8% Widowed: 5.7%

5.7% Divorced: 5.8%

For population 25 years and over in North Reading: High school or higher: 92.2%

92.2% Bachelor's degree or higher: 41.0%

41.0% Graduate or professional degree: 13.3%

13.3% Unemployed: 0.9%

0.9% Mean travel time to work (commute): 30.3 minutes

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 10.5 Massachusetts average: 13.1



Religion statistics for North Reading, MA (based on Middlesex County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Catholic 718,209 107 Mainline Protestant 70,053 269 Other 68,480 199 Evangelical Protestant 41,270 304 Orthodox 23,641 28 Black Protestant 2,276 8 None 579,156 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 251 Middlesex County : 1.71 / 10,000 pop. State : 1.98 / 10,000 pop. Number of supercenters and club stores: 5 Middlesex County : 0.03 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 0.05 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 314 This county : 2.14 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 2.22 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 203 This county : 1.38 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 1.77 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 1,153 Here : 7.84 / 10,000 pop. State : 8.76 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: Middlesex County : 7.8% Massachusetts : 8.1% Adult obesity rate: Middlesex County : 21.5% Massachusetts : 22.5% Low-income preschool obesity rate: Here : 18.0% State : 16.5%

6.33% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($87,519 average adjusted gross income) Here: 6.33% Massachusetts average: 5.79% 0.09% of residents moved from foreign countries ($2,206 average AGI) Middlesex County: 0.09% Massachusetts average: 0.05%

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Suffolk County, MA 1.44% ($85,882 average AGI) from Essex County, MA 0.62% ($66,782) from Norfolk County, MA 0.57% ($104,103)



7.01% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($98,266 average adjusted gross income) Here: 7.01% Massachusetts average: 6.31% 0.13% of residents moved to foreign countries ($1,907 average AGI) Middlesex County: 0.13% Massachusetts average: 0.08%

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Suffolk County, MA 1.21% ($121,025 average AGI) to Essex County, MA 0.77% ($88,059) to Worcester County, MA 0.60% ($72,434)

Businesses in North Reading, MA Name Count Name Count 7-Eleven 1 New Balance 1 Ace Hardware 1 Stop & Shop 1 AutoZone 1 Subaru 1 CVS 1 Subway 2 Dairy Queen 1 True Value 2 Dunkin Donuts 3 U-Haul 1 FedEx 2 UPS 3 Marshalls 1 Walgreens 1 MasterBrand Cabinets 6 Walmart 1 McDonald's 1

Strongest AM radio stations in North Reading: WRKO (680 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WWZN (1510 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ROSE CITY RADIO CORPORATION)

ROSE CITY RADIO CORPORATION) WEEI (850 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WBZ (1030 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WRCA (1330 AM; 25 kW; WALTHAM, MA; Owner: WRCA LICENSE, LLC)

WRCA LICENSE, LLC) WKOX (1200 AM; 50 kW; FRAMINGHAM, MA; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WBIX (1060 AM; 40 kW; NATICK, MA; Owner: LANGER BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

LANGER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WEZE (590 AM; 5 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: NEW ENGLAND CONTINENTAL MEDIA, INC.)

NEW ENGLAND CONTINENTAL MEDIA, INC.) WNSH (1570 AM; 5 kW; BEVERLY, MA)

WROL (950 AM; 5 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: SCA LICENSE CORPORATION)

SCA LICENSE CORPORATION) WAMG (890 AM; 25 kW; DEDHAM, MA; Owner: MEGA COMMUNICATIONS OF DEDHAM LICENSEE, LLC)

MEGA COMMUNICATIONS OF DEDHAM LICENSEE, LLC) WILD (1090 AM; daytime; 5 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: RADIO ONE OF BOSTON LICENSES, LLC)

RADIO ONE OF BOSTON LICENSES, LLC) WUNR (1600 AM; 20 kW; BROOKLINE, MA; Owner: CHAMPION BROADCASTING SYSTEMS, INC.) Strongest FM radio stations in North Reading: WQSX (93.7 FM; LAWRENCE, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WKLB-FM (99.5 FM; LOWELL, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) W227AM (93.3 FM; ANDOVER, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WXKS-FM (107.9 FM; MEDFORD, MA; Owner: AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.)

AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.) WMJX (106.7 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WXRV (92.5 FM; HAVERHILL, MA; Owner: BEANPOT BROADCASTING CORP.)

BEANPOT BROADCASTING CORP.) WBMX (98.5 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.)

INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.) WJMN (94.5 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.)

AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.) WCRB (102.5 FM; WALTHAM, MA; Owner: CHARLES RIVER BROADCASTING WCRB LICE)

CHARLES RIVER BROADCASTING WCRB LICE) WTKK (96.9 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WROR-FM (105.7 FM; FRAMINGHAM, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WBOS (92.9 FM; BROOKLINE, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WFNX (101.7 FM; LYNN, MA; Owner: MCC BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

MCC BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WGBH (89.7 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WBCN (104.1 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: HEMISPHERE BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

HEMISPHERE BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WZLX (100.7 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING CORPORATION OF BOSTON)

INFINITY BROADCASTING CORPORATION OF BOSTON) W267AI (101.3 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: MCC BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.)

MCC BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC.) WBUR-FM (90.9 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY)

TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY) WERS (88.9 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: EMERSON COLLEGE)

EMERSON COLLEGE) WODS (103.3 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) TV broadcast stations around North Reading: WFXZ-CA ( Channel 24; BOSTON, MA; Owner: BOSTON BROADCASTING CORP.)

24; BOSTON, MA; BOSTON BROADCASTING CORP.) WCVB-TV ( Channel 5; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WCVB HEARST-ARGYLE TV, INC.)

5; BOSTON, MA; WCVB HEARST-ARGYLE TV, INC.) WGBH-TV ( Channel 2; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

2; BOSTON, MA; WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WHDH-TV ( Channel 7; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WHDH-TV)

7; BOSTON, MA; WHDH-TV) WMFP ( Channel 62; LAWRENCE, MA; Owner: WSAH LICENSE, INC.)

62; LAWRENCE, MA; WSAH LICENSE, INC.) WBPX ( Channel 68; BOSTON, MA; Owner: PAXSON BOSTON-68 LICENSE, INC.)

68; BOSTON, MA; PAXSON BOSTON-68 LICENSE, INC.) WSBK-TV ( Channel 38; BOSTON, MA; Owner: VIACOM INC.)

38; BOSTON, MA; VIACOM INC.) WBZ-TV ( Channel 4; BOSTON, MA; Owner: VIACOM INC.)

4; BOSTON, MA; VIACOM INC.) WGBX-TV ( Channel 44; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

44; BOSTON, MA; WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WLVI-TV ( Channel 56; CAMBRIDGE, MA; Owner: WLVI, INC.)

56; CAMBRIDGE, MA; WLVI, INC.) WFXT ( Channel 25; BOSTON, MA; Owner: FOX TELEVISION STATIONS INC.)

25; BOSTON, MA; FOX TELEVISION STATIONS INC.) WTMU-LP ( Channel 32; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ZGS BOSTON, INC.)

32; BOSTON, MA; ZGS BOSTON, INC.) WCEA-LP ( Channel 58; BOSTON, MA; Owner: CHANNEL 19 TV CORPORATION)

58; BOSTON, MA; CHANNEL 19 TV CORPORATION) WUTF ( Channel 66; MARLBOROUGH, MA; Owner: TELEFUTURA BOSTON LLC)

66; MARLBOROUGH, MA; TELEFUTURA BOSTON LLC) W40BO ( Channel 40; BOSTON, MA; Owner: PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LPTV, INC.)

40; BOSTON, MA; PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LPTV, INC.) WUNI ( Channel 27; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: ENTRAVISION HOLDINGS, LLC)

27; WORCESTER, MA; ENTRAVISION HOLDINGS, LLC) WHDN-LP ( Channel 26; BOSTON, MA; Owner: GUENTER MARKSTEINER)

26; BOSTON, MA; GUENTER MARKSTEINER) WNDS ( Channel 50; DERRY, NH; Owner: CTV OF DERRY, INC)

50; DERRY, NH; CTV OF DERRY, INC) WWDP (Channel 46; NORWELL, MA; Owner: NORWELL TELEVISION, LLC)

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

7 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 30ft / 8.8m Total length

Total length $6,755,000 Total costs

Total costs 110,100 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 5,879 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 182,096 Total future (year 2031) average daily traffic

2002 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents According to the data from the years 2002 - 2018 the average number of fires per year is 52. The highest number of reported fires - 102 took place in 2002, and the least - 17 in 2014. The data has a dropping trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in North Reading, MA



463 51.9% Structure Fires



286 32.1% Outside Fires



82 9.2% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



61 6.8% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most reports belonged to: Structure Fires (51.9%), and Outside Fires (32.1%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for North Reading, MA

Most common first names in North Reading, MA among deceased individuals Name Count Lived (average) Mary 87 82.4 years John 85 74.9 years William 75 73.5 years Joseph 56 75.3 years George 55 75.1 years Robert 54 69.7 years James 49 70.7 years Helen 38 81.8 years Ruth 36 78.0 years Charles 33 74.1 years Most common last names in North Reading, MA among deceased individuals Last name Count Lived (average) Murphy 23 75.9 years Johnson 19 76.6 years Smith 17 79.3 years Anderson 11 80.9 years Roberts 9 82.8 years Doucette 9 59.4 years Taylor 9 74.9 years Walsh 9 75.8 years Campbell 9 78.4 years Miller 9 75.9 years

Houses and condos Apartments 62.1% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

34.6% Utility gas

1.4% Electricity

0.7% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

0.7% Other fuel

0.5% Wood 72.1% Utility gas

18.1% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

7.2% Electricity

2.6% Bottled, tank, or LP gas





North Reading compared to Massachusetts state average: Median household income above state average.

above Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Renting percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Length of stay since moving in significantly above state average.

significantly above Number of rooms per house significantly below state average.

significantly below House age significantly below state average.

North Reading on our top lists: #4 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: fuel dealers (population 5,000+)"

#40 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: furniture and home furnishings, and household appliance stores (population 5,000+)"

#49 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: operations specialties managers except financial managers (population 5,000+)"

#61 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: entertainers and performers, sports, and related workers (population 5,000+)"

#72 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: registered nurses (population 5,000+)"

#79 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: financial clerks except bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (population 5,000+)"

#85 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: other transportation, and support activities, and couriers (population 5,000+)"

#89 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: business operations specialists (population 5,000+)"

#94 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: professional and commercial equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers (population 5,000+)"

#98 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: book stores and news dealers (population 5,000+)"

#98 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: computer and electronic products (population 5,000+)"

#100 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: engineers (population 5,000+)"

#100 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: other transportation, and support activities, and couriers (population 5,000+)" #43 (01864) on the list of "Top 101 zip codes with the largest percentage of Irish first ancestries (pop 5,000+)" #4 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Orthodox adherents"

#7 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Catholic adherents"

#7 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Mainline Protestant congregations"

#7 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Orthodox congregations"

#8 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the lowest percentage of residents that keep firearms around their homes"

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Sardis, Ohio

Submit your own pictures of this place and show them to the world



OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 559.

Males: 279 (50.0%) Females: 280 (50.0%)

Median resident age: 47.1 years Ohio median age: 39.6 years

Estimated median household income in 2019: $46,921

Sardis: $46,921 OH: $58,642

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $27,506



Sardis CDP income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $118,682 Sardis: $118,682 OH: $157,200

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $140,347; detached houses: $139,859 $46,921$27,506$118,682$140,347;$139,859

Median gross rent in 2019: $497.

March 2019 cost of living index in Sardis: 83.5 (less than average, U.S. average is 100)

Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2019: 5.6%

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:

Most recent value % change since 2k Data: Median household income ($) Median household income (% change since 2000) Household income diversity Ratio of average income to average house value (%) Ratio of average income to average rent Median household income ($) - White Median household income ($) - Black or African American Median household income ($) - Asian Median household income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median household income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median household income ($) - Multirace Median household income ($) - Other Race Median household income for houses/condos with a mortgage ($) Median household income for apartments without a mortgage ($) Races - White alone (%) Races - White alone (% change since 2000) Races - Black alone (%) Races - Black alone (% change since 2000) Races - American Indian alone (%) Races - American Indian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Asian alone (%) Races - Asian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Hispanic (%) Races - Hispanic (% change since 2000) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (%) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (% change since 2000) Races - Two or more races (%) Races - Two or more races (% change since 2000) Races - Other race alone (%) Races - Other race alone (% change since 2000) Racial diversity Unemployment (%) Unemployment (% change since 2000) Unemployment (%) - White Unemployment (%) - Black or African American Unemployment (%) - Asian Unemployment (%) - Hispanic or Latino Unemployment (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Unemployment (%) - Multirace Unemployment (%) - Other Race Population density (people per square mile) Population - Males (%) Population - Females (%) Population - Males (%) - White Population - Males (%) - Black or African American Population - Males (%) - Asian Population - Males (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Males (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Males (%) - Multirace Population - Males (%) - Other Race Population - Females (%) - White Population - Females (%) - Black or African American Population - Females (%) - Asian Population - Females (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Females (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Females (%) - Multirace Population - Females (%) - Other Race Coronavirus confirmed cases (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (Nov 21, 2021) Coronavirus confirmed cases (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Daily increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Weekly increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Cases doubled (in days) (Nov 21, 2021) Hospitalized patients (Nov 21, 2021) Negative test results (Nov 21, 2021) Total test results (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (Nov 21, 2021) Likely homosexual households (%) Likely homosexual households (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (%) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (%) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (% change since 2000) Cost of living index Median gross rent ($) Median contract rent ($) Median monthly housing costs ($) Median house or condo value ($) Median house or condo value ($ change since 2000) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, detached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, attached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 2 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure by units in structure - 3 or 4 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 5 or more ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Boat, RV, van, etc. ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Mobile home ($) Median house or condo value ($) - White Median house or condo value ($) - Black or African American Median house or condo value ($) - Asian Median house or condo value ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median house or condo value ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median house or condo value ($) - Multirace Median house or condo value ($) - Other Race Median resident age Resident age diversity Median resident age - Males Median resident age - Females Median resident age - White Median resident age - Black or African American Median resident age - Asian Median resident age - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Multirace Median resident age - Other Race Median resident age - Males - White Median resident age - Males - Black or African American Median resident age - Males - Asian Median resident age - Males - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Males - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Males - Multirace Median resident age - Males - Other Race Median resident age - Females - White Median resident age - Females - Black or African American Median resident age - Females - Asian Median resident age - Females - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Females - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Females - Multirace Median resident age - Females - Other Race Commute - mean travel time to work (minutes) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (%) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (%) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (% change since 2000) Marital status - Never married (%) Marital status - Now married (%) Marital status - Separated (%) Marital status - Widowed (%) Marital status - Divorced (%) Median family income ($) Median family income (% change since 2000) Median non-family income ($) Median non-family income (% change since 2000) Median per capita income ($) Median per capita income (% change since 2000) Median family income ($) - White Median family income ($) - Black or African American Median family income ($) - Asian Median family income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median family income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median family income ($) - Multirace Median family income ($) - Other Race Median year house/condo built Median year apartment built Year house built - Built 2005 or later (%) Year house built - Built 2000 to 2004 (%) Year house built - Built 1990 to 1999 (%) Year house built - Built 1980 to 1989 (%) Year house built - Built 1970 to 1979 (%) Year house built - Built 1960 to 1969 (%) Year house built - Built 1950 to 1959 (%) Year house built - Built 1940 to 1949 (%) Year house built - Built 1939 or earlier (%) Average household size Household density (households per square mile) Average household size - White Average household size - Black or African American Average household size - Asian Average household size - Hispanic or Latino Average household size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average household size - Multirace Average household size - Other Race Occupied housing units (%) Vacant housing units (%) Owner occupied housing units (%) Renter occupied housing units (%) Vacancy status - For rent (%) Vacancy status - For sale only (%) Vacancy status - Rented or sold, not occupied (%) Vacancy status - For seasonal, recreational, or occasional use (%) Vacancy status - For migrant workers (%) Vacancy status - Other vacant (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level (%) Children below poverty level (%) Poor families by family type - Married-couple family (%) Poor families by family type - Male, no wife present (%) Poor families by family type - Female, no husband present (%) Poverty status for native-born residents (%) Poverty status for foreign-born residents (%) Poverty among high school graduates not in families (%) Poverty among people who did not graduate high school not in families (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - White Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Black or African American Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Asian Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Hispanic or Latino Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Multirace Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Other Race Air pollution - Air Quality Index (AQI) Air pollution - CO Air pollution - NO2 Air pollution - SO2 Air pollution - Ozone Air pollution - PM10 Air pollution - PM25 Air pollution - Pb Crime - Murders per 100,000 population Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Arson per 100,000 population Crime - City-data.com crime index Crime - Violent crime index Crime - Property crime index Crime - Murders per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Arson per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - City-data.com crime index (5 year average) Crime - Violent crime index (5 year average) Crime - Property crime index (5 year average) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Dole) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Gore) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Kerry) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (McCain) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Romney) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Biden) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other Ancestries Reported - Arab (%) Ancestries Reported - Czech (%) Ancestries Reported - Danish (%) Ancestries Reported - Dutch (%) Ancestries Reported - English (%) Ancestries Reported - French (%) Ancestries Reported - French Canadian (%) Ancestries Reported - German (%) Ancestries Reported - Greek (%) Ancestries Reported - Hungarian (%) Ancestries Reported - Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Italian (%) Ancestries Reported - Lithuanian (%) Ancestries Reported - Norwegian (%) Ancestries Reported - Polish (%) Ancestries Reported - Portuguese (%) Ancestries Reported - Russian (%) Ancestries Reported - Scotch-Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Scottish (%) Ancestries Reported - Slovak (%) Ancestries Reported - Subsaharan African (%) Ancestries Reported - Swedish (%) Ancestries Reported - Swiss (%) Ancestries Reported - Ukrainian (%) Ancestries Reported - United States (%) Ancestries Reported - Welsh (%) Ancestries Reported - West Indian (%) Ancestries Reported - Other (%) Educational Attainment - No schooling completed (%) Educational Attainment - Less than high school (%) Educational Attainment - High school or equivalent (%) Educational Attainment - Less than 1 year of college (%) Educational Attainment - 1 or more years of college (%) Educational Attainment - Associate degree (%) Educational Attainment - Bachelor's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Master's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Professional school degree (%) Educational Attainment - Doctorate degree (%) School Enrollment - Nursery, preschool (%) School Enrollment - Kindergarten (%) School Enrollment - Grade 1 to 4 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 5 to 8 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 9 to 12 (%) School Enrollment - College undergrad (%) School Enrollment - Graduate or professional (%) School Enrollment - Not enrolled in school (%) School enrollment - Public schools (%) School enrollment - Private schools (%) School enrollment - Not enrolled (%) Median number of rooms in houses and condos Median number of rooms in apartments Housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities (%) Housing units lacking complete kitchen facilities (%) Density of houses Urban houses (%) Rural houses (%) Households with people 60 years and over (%) Households with people 65 years and over (%) Households with people 75 years and over (%) Households with one or more nonrelatives (%) Households with no nonrelatives (%) Population in households (%) Family households (%) Nonfamily households (%) Population in families (%) Family households with own children (%) Median number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Median number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Median number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Median number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mortgage status - with mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with second mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - with both second mortgage and home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - without a mortgage (%) Average family size Average family size - White Average family size - Black or African American Average family size - Asian Average family size - Hispanic or Latino Average family size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average family size - Multirace Average family size - Other Race Geographical mobility - Same house 1 year ago (%) Geographical mobility - Moved within same county (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different county within same state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from abroad (%) Place of birth - Born in state of residence (%) Place of birth - Born in other state (%) Place of birth - Native, outside of US (%) Place of birth - Foreign born (%) Housing units in structures - 1, detached (%) Housing units in structures - 1, attached (%) Housing units in structures - 2 (%) Housing units in structures - 3 or 4 (%) Housing units in structures - 5 to 9 (%) Housing units in structures - 10 to 19 (%) Housing units in structures - 20 to 49 (%) Housing units in structures - 50 or more (%) Housing units in structures - Mobile home (%) Housing units in structures - Boat, RV, van, etc. (%) House/condo owner moved in on average (years ago) Renter moved in on average (years ago) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1999 to March 2000 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1995 to 1998 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1990 to 1994 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1980 to 1989 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1970 to 1979 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1969 or earlier (%) Means of transportation to work - Drove car alone (%) Means of transportation to work - Carpooled (%) Means of transportation to work - Public transportation (%) Means of transportation to work - Bus or trolley bus (%) Means of transportation to work - Streetcar or trolley car (%) Means of transportation to work - Subway or elevated (%) Means of transportation to work - Railroad (%) Means of transportation to work - Ferryboat (%) Means of transportation to work - Taxicab (%) Means of transportation to work - Motorcycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Bicycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Walked (%) Means of transportation to work - Other means (%) Working at home (%) Industry diversity Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (%) Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (%) Most Common Industries - Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (%) Most Common Industries - Construction (%) Most Common Industries - Manufacturing (%) Most Common Industries - Wholesale trade (%) Most Common Industries - Retail trade (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing, and utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing (%) Most Common Industries - Utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Information (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance (%) Most Common Industries - Real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and technical services (%) Most Common Industries - Management of companies and enterprises (%) Most Common Industries - Administrative and support and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services, and health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services (%) Most Common Industries - Health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation (%) Most Common Industries - Accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Other services, except public administration (%) Most Common Industries - Public administration (%) Occupation diversity Most Common Occupations - Management, business, science, and arts occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management, business, and financial occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Business and financial operations occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer, engineering, and science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer and mathematical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Architecture and engineering occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Life, physical, and social science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, legal, community service, arts, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Community and social service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Legal occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, training, and library occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health diagnosing and treating practitioners and other technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health technologists and technicians (%) Most Common Occupations - Service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Protective service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Fire fighting and prevention, and other protective service workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Law enforcement workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Food preparation and serving related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Personal care and service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and office occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Office and administrative support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Construction and extraction occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production, transportation, and material moving occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Transportation occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Material moving occupations (%) People in Group quarters - Institutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - Correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Federal prisons and detention centers (%) People in Group quarters - Halfway houses (%) People in Group quarters - Local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups) (%) People in Group quarters - Military disciplinary barracks (%) People in Group quarters - State prisons (%) People in Group quarters - Other types of correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Nursing homes (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards, hospices, and schools for the handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards and hospices for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospices or homes for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Military hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Other hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals or wards for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Mental (Psychiatric) hospitals or wards (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the deaf (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the blind (%) People in Group quarters - Orthopedic wards and institutions for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in general hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in military hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Juvenile institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Long-term care (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for abused, dependent, and neglected children (%) People in Group quarters - Residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed children (%) People in Group quarters - Training schools for juvenile delinquents (%) People in Group quarters - Short-term care, detention or diagnostic centers for delinquent children (%) People in Group quarters - Type of juvenile institution unknown (%) People in Group quarters - Noninstitutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - College dormitories (includes college quarters off campus) (%) People in Group quarters - Military quarters (%) People in Group quarters - On base (%) People in Group quarters - Barracks, unaccompanied personnel housing (UPH), (Enlisted/Officer), ;and similar group living quarters for military personnel (%) People in Group quarters - Transient quarters for temporary residents (%) People in Group quarters - Military ships (%) People in Group quarters - Group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Homes or halfway houses for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally ill (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Other group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Religious group quarters (%) People in Group quarters - Dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Agriculture workers' dormitories on farms (%) People in Group quarters - Job Corps and vocational training facilities (%) People in Group quarters - Other workers' dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Crews of maritime vessels (%) People in Group quarters - Other nonhousehold living situations (%) People in Group quarters - Other noninstitutional group quarters (%) Residents speaking English at home (%) Residents speaking English at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking English at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking English at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking other language at home (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Foreign born (%) Class of Workers - Employee of private company (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed in own incorporated business (%) Class of Workers - Private not-for-profit wage and salary workers (%) Class of Workers - Local government workers (%) Class of Workers - State government workers (%) Class of Workers - Federal government workers (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed workers in own not incorporated business and Unpaid family workers (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - No fuel used (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - No fuel used (%) Armed forces status - In Armed Forces (%) Armed forces status - Civilian (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Veteran (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Nonveteran (%) Fatal accidents locations in years 2005-2019 Fatal accidents locations in 2005 Fatal accidents locations in 2006 Fatal accidents locations in 2007 Fatal accidents locations in 2008 Fatal accidents locations in 2009 Fatal accidents locations in 2010 Fatal accidents locations in 2011 Fatal accidents locations in 2012 Fatal accidents locations in 2013 Fatal accidents locations in 2014 Fatal accidents locations in 2015 Fatal accidents locations in 2016 Fatal accidents locations in 2017 Fatal accidents locations in 2018 Fatal accidents locations in 2019 Alcohol use - People drinking some alcohol every month (%) Alcohol use - People not drinking at all (%) Alcohol use - Average days/month drinking alcohol Alcohol use - Average drinks/week Alcohol use - Average days/year people drink much Audiometry - Average condition of hearing (%) Audiometry - People that can hear a whisper from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - People that can hear normal voice from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - Ears ringing, roaring, buzzing (%) Audiometry - Had a job exposure to loud noise (%) Audiometry - Had off-work exposure to loud noise (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high blood pressure (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Checking blood pressure at home (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Frequently checking blood cholesterol (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high cholesterol level (%) Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at supermarket/grocery store Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at other stores Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on eating out Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on carryout/delivered foods Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at supermarket/grocery store (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at other stores (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on eating out (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on carryout/delivered foods (%) Current Health Status - General health condition (%) Current Health Status - Blood donors (%) Current Health Status - Has blood ever tested for HIV virus (%) Current Health Status - Left-handed people (%) Dermatology - People using sunscreen (%) Diabetes - Diabetics (%) Diabetes - Had a blood test for high blood sugar (%) Diabetes - People taking insulin (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Diet health (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Milk product consumption (# of products/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals not home prepared (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals from fast food or pizza place (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Ready-to-eat foods (#/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Frozen meals/pizza (#/month) Drug Use - People that ever used marijuana or hashish (%) Drug Use - Ever used hard drugs (%) Drug Use - Ever used any form of cocaine (%) Drug Use - Ever used heroin (%) Drug Use - Ever used methamphetamine (%) Health Insurance - People covered by health insurance (%) Kidney Conditions-Urology - Avg. # of times urinating at night Medical Conditions - People with asthma (%) Medical Conditions - People with anemia (%) Medical Conditions - People with psoriasis (%) Medical Conditions - People with overweight (%) Medical Conditions - Elderly people having difficulties in thinking or remembering (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever received blood transfusion (%) Medical Conditions - People having trouble seeing even with glass/contacts (%) Medical Conditions - People with arthritis (%) Medical Conditions - People with gout (%) Medical Conditions - People with congestive heart failure (%) Medical Conditions - People with coronary heart disease (%) Medical Conditions - People with angina pectoris (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had heart attack (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had stroke (%) Medical Conditions - People with emphysema (%) Medical Conditions - People with thyroid problem (%) Medical Conditions - People with chronic bronchitis (%) Medical Conditions - People with any liver condition (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had cancer or malignancy (%) Mental Health - People who have little interest in doing things (%) Mental Health - People feeling down, depressed, or hopeless (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble sleeping or sleeping too much (%) Mental Health - People feeling tired or having little energy (%) Mental Health - People with poor appetite or overeating (%) Mental Health - People feeling bad about themself (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble concentrating on things (%) Mental Health - People moving or speaking slowly or too fast (%) Mental Health - People having thoughts they would be better off dead (%) Oral Health - Average years since last visit a dentist Oral Health - People embarrassed because of mouth (%) Oral Health - People with gum disease (%) Oral Health - General health of teeth and gums (%) Oral Health - Average days a week using dental floss/device Oral Health - Average days a week using mouthwash for dental problem Oral Health - Average number of teeth Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to control insects (%) Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to kill weeds (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People walking or bicycling (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - Average hours a day doing sedentary activities Physical Activity - Average hours a day watching TV or videos Physical Activity - Average hours a day using computer Physical Functioning - People having limitations keeping them from working (%) Physical Functioning - People limited in amount of work they can do (%) Physical Functioning - People that need special equipment to walk (%) Physical Functioning - People experiencing confusion/memory problems (%) Physical Functioning - People requiring special healthcare equipment (%) Prescription Medications - Average number of prescription medicines taking Preventive Aspirin Use - Adults 40+ taking low-dose aspirin (%) Reproductive Health - Vaginal deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Cesarean deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Deliveries resulted in a live birth (%) Reproductive Health - Pregnancies resulted in a delivery (%) Reproductive Health - Women breastfeeding newborns (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had a hysterectomy (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had both ovaries removed (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever taken birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women taking birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used Depo-Provera or injectables (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used female hormones (%) Sexual Behavior - People 18+ that ever had sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had anal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had any sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had anal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had any kind of sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first had sex Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female vaginal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a woman (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of woman performed oral sex on in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male anal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a man (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male oral sex partners in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - People using protection when performing oral sex (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of times people have vaginal or anal sex a year Sexual Behavior - People having sex without condom (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male vaginal sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Circumcised males 18+ (%) Sleep Disorders - Average hours sleeping at night Sleep Disorders - People that has trouble sleeping (%) Smoking-Cigarette Use - People smoking cigarettes (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with smell (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with taste (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had wisdom teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had tonsils teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a loss of consciousness because of a head injury (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a broken nose or other serious injury to face or skull (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had two or more sinus infections (%) Weight - Average height (inches) Weight - Average weight (pounds) Weight - Average BMI Weight - People that are obese (%) Weight - People that ever were obese (%) Weight - People trying to lose weight (%) Settings Get link Loading data... Based on 2000-2020 data Loading data...

123 Hide US histogram



629 92.8% White alone 47 6.9% Asian alone

Races in Sardis detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of Ohio and other state lists, there were 5 registered sex offenders living in Sardis, Ohio as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Sardis is 68 to 1.





Ancestries: European (40.2%), German (14.4%), Icelander (13.5%), Dutch (10.5%), Irish (7.2%), Swiss (6.6%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 668 feet

45 residents are foreign born This place: 6.6% Ohio: 4.6%

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with mortgages in 2019: $1,304 (1.4%)

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with no mortgage in 2019: $1,282 (0.9%)



Latitude: 39.62 N, Longitude: 80.91 W

Area code commonly used in this area: 304

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 6.9% Ohio: 5.2%

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI SO 2 PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 37.1. This is significantly better than average. City: 37.1 U.S.: 74.2

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 1.58. This is about average. Closest monitor was 10.5 miles away from the city center. City: 1.58 U.S.: 1.79

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2017 was 11.5. This is worse than average. Closest monitor was 22.4 miles away from the city center. City: 11.5 U.S.: 8.5

Tornado activity: Sardis-area historical tornado activity is significantly below Ohio state average. It is 57% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 10/1/1986, a category F3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 23.4 miles away from the Sardis place center injured one person and caused between $50,000 and $500,000 in damages. On 7/28/1981, a category F2 (max. wind speeds 113-157 mph) tornado 22.7 miles away from the place center injured 8 people and caused between $50,000 and $500,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Sardis-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Ohio state average. It is 32% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 8/23/2011 at 17:51:04, a magnitude 5.8 (5.8 MW, Depth: 3.7 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 199.5 miles away from the city center

On 9/25/1998 at 19:52:52, a magnitude 5.2 (4.8 MB, 4.3 MS, 5.2 LG, 4.5 MW, Depth: 3.1 mi) earthquake occurred 132.0 miles away from Sardis center

On 1/31/1986 at 16:46:43, a magnitude 5.0 (5.0 MB) earthquake occurred 137.5 miles away from the city center

On 7/27/1980 at 18:52:21, a magnitude 5.2 (5.1 MB, 4.7 MS, 5.0 UK, 5.2 UK) earthquake occurred 190.3 miles away from the city center

On 8/9/2020 at 12:07:37, a magnitude 5.1 (5.1 MW, Depth: 4.7 mi) earthquake occurred 217.9 miles away from the city center

On 9/7/1988 at 02:28:09, a magnitude 4.6 (4.5 MB, 4.6 LG, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 189.6 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Monroe County (19) is greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 14

Emergencies Declared: 2



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 13, Storms: 12, Landslides: 3, Mudslides: 3, Tornadoes: 3, Winds: 2, Blizzard: 1, Heavy Rain: 1, Hurricane: 1, Snowstorm: 1, Tropical Storm: 1, Winter Storm: 1, Other: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Sardis: WETZEL COUNTY HOMECARE (Home Health Center, about 3 miles away; NEW MARTINSVILLE, WV)

NEW MARTINSVILLE CARE AND REHABILITATION (Nursing Home, about 4 miles away; NEW MARTINSVILLE, WV)

NEW MARTINSVILLE DIALYSIS FACILITY (Dialysis Facility, about 5 miles away; NEW MARTINSVILLE, WV)

WETZEL COUNTY HOSPITAL Acute Care Hospitals (about 5 miles away; NEW MARTINSVILLE, WV)

Acute Care Hospitals REM-WV, INC., NEW MARTINSVILLE (Hospital, about 6 miles away; NEW MARTINSVILLE, WV)

SISTERSVILLE GENERAL HOSPITAL Critical Access Hospitals (about 7 miles away; SISTERSVILLE, WV)

Critical Access Hospitals MONROE COUNTY CARE CENTER (Nursing Home, about 15 miles away; WOODSFIELD, OH)

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Sardis: West Liberty University ( about 41 miles; West Liberty, WV ; Full-time enrollment: 2,728)

41 ; 2,728) Fairmont State University ( about 42 miles; Fairmont, WV ; FT enrollment: 3,714)

42 ; 3,714) West Virginia University at Parkersburg ( about 43 miles; Parkersburg, WV ; FT enrollment: 2,619)

43 ; 2,619) Waynesburg University ( about 44 miles; Waynesburg, PA ; FT enrollment: 2,080)

44 ; 2,080) Muskingum University ( about 51 miles; New Concord, OH ; FT enrollment: 2,073)

51 ; 2,073) West Virginia University ( about 52 miles; Morgantown, WV ; FT enrollment: 27,429)

52 ; 27,429) Franciscan University of Steubenville (about 55 miles; Steubenville, OH; FT enrollment: 2,572) See full list of schools located in Sardis

Monroe County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level between 2 and 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Moderate Potential

Average household size: This place: 2.2 people Ohio: 2.4 people

Percentage of family households: This place: 65.3% Whole state: 65.0%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This place: 5.0% Whole state: 6.8%



No gay or lesbian households reported





Banks with branches in Sardis (2011 data): The Citizens National Bank of Woodsfield: Sardis Branch at State Route 7, branch established on 1977/03/21. Info updated 2006/11/03: Bank assets: $71.8 mil, Deposits: $64.6 mil, headquarters in Woodsfield, OH, positive income, 3 total offices, Holding Company: Cnb Bancorp, Inc.

For population 15 years and over in Sardis: Never married: 10.5%

10.5% Now married: 75.6%

75.6% Separated: 0.0%

0.0% Widowed: 6.3%

6.3% Divorced: 7.6%

For population 25 years and over in Sardis: High school or higher: 89.7%

89.7% Bachelor's degree or higher: 29.8%

29.8% Graduate or professional degree: 10.5%

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 9.1 Ohio average: 10.8



Religion statistics for Sardis, OH (based on Monroe County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Evangelical Protestant 4,168 44 Mainline Protestant 2,583 28 Catholic 756 4 None 7,135 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 4 This county : 2.81 / 10,000 pop. Ohio : 1.89 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 2 Monroe County : 1.40 / 10,000 pop. State : 1.25 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 11 Monroe County : 7.72 / 10,000 pop. Ohio : 2.93 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 9 This county : 6.32 / 10,000 pop. Ohio : 6.25 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: Here : 11.3% Ohio : 10.3% Adult obesity rate: This county : 31.0% Ohio : 29.1% Low-income preschool obesity rate: This county : 13.7% Ohio : 11.9%

4.15% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($50,960 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.15% Ohio average: 5.51% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Belmont County, OH 1.07% ($36,500 average AGI) to Washington County, OH 0.55% ($34,667) to Wetzel County, WV 0.37% ($35,600)

Strongest AM radio stations in Sardis: WETZ (1330 AM; 1 kW; NEW MARTINSVILLE, WV; Owner: DAILEY CORPORATION)

DAILEY CORPORATION) WWVA (1170 AM; 53 kW; WHEELING, WV; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WVLY (1370 AM; 5 kW; MOUNDSVILLE, WV; Owner: SCOTT RADIO GROUP, LLC)

SCOTT RADIO GROUP, LLC) KDKA (1020 AM; 50 kW; PITTSBURGH, PA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WTVN (610 AM; 50 kW; COLUMBUS, OH; Owner: CITICASTERS LICENSES, L.P.)

CITICASTERS LICENSES, L.P.) WKNR (850 AM; 50 kW; CLEVELAND, OH; Owner: CARON BROADCASTING, INC.)

CARON BROADCASTING, INC.) WMMN (920 AM; 5 kW; FAIRMONT, WV; Owner: FANTASIA BROADCASTING, INC.)

FANTASIA BROADCASTING, INC.) WBRJ (910 AM; 5 kW; MARIETTA, OH; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WTAM (1100 AM; 50 kW; CLEVELAND, OH; Owner: JACOR BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

JACOR BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WJAW (630 AM; 1 kW; ST. MARYS, WV; Owner: JAWCO, INC.)

JAWCO, INC.) WKKX (1600 AM; 5 kW; WHEELING, WV; Owner: SCOTT RADIO GROUP, LLC)

SCOTT RADIO GROUP, LLC) WHK (1220 AM; 50 kW; CLEVELAND, OH; Owner: CARON BROADCASTING, INC.)

CARON BROADCASTING, INC.) WADC (1050 AM; 5 kW; PARKERSBURG, WV; Owner: BURBACH OF DE, LLC) Strongest FM radio stations in Sardis: WYMJ (99.5 FM; NEW MARTINSVILLE, WV; Owner: DAILEY CORPORATION)

DAILEY CORPORATION) WXCR (92.3 FM; NEW MARTINSVILLE, WV; Owner: SEVEN RANGES RADIO COMPANY, INC.)

SEVEN RANGES RADIO COMPANY, INC.) WETZ-FM (103.9 FM; NEW MARTINSVILLE, WV; Owner: DAILEY CORPORATION)

DAILEY CORPORATION) WRSG (91.5 FM; MIDDLEBOURNE, WV; Owner: TYLER COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION)

TYLER COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION) WRKP (96.5 FM; MOUNDSVILLE, WV; Owner: RKP INTERNATIONAL CORP.)

RKP INTERNATIONAL CORP.) WOVK (98.7 FM; WHEELING, WV; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WEGW (107.5 FM; WHEELING, WV; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WAJR-FM (103.3 FM; SALEM, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF SALEM)

WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF SALEM) WZWA (90.1 FM; CLARKSBURG, WV; Owner: MARANATHA BROADCASTING, INC.)

MARANATHA BROADCASTING, INC.) WBNV (93.5 FM; BARNESVILLE, OH; Owner: W. GRANT HAFLEY)

W. GRANT HAFLEY) WEEL (95.7 FM; SHADYSIDE, OH; Owner: OHIO VALLEY COMMUNICATIONS, INC.)

OHIO VALLEY COMMUNICATIONS, INC.) WGIE (92.7 FM; CLARKSBURG, WV; Owner: BURBACH OF DE, LLC)

BURBACH OF DE, LLC) WRRR-FM (93.9 FM; ST. MARYS, WV; Owner: SEVEN RANGES RADIO COMPANY, INC.)

SEVEN RANGES RADIO COMPANY, INC.) WWLW (106.5 FM; CLARKSBURG, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CLARKSBURG)

WEST VIRGINIA RADIO CORPORATION OF CLARKSBURG) WKJL (88.1 FM; CLARKSBURG, WV; Owner: HE'S ALIVE, INC.)

HE'S ALIVE, INC.) WOBG-FM (105.7 FM; SALEM, WV; Owner: BURBACH OF DE, LLC)

BURBACH OF DE, LLC) WOMP-FM (100.5 FM; BELLAIRE, OH; Owner: KEYMARKET LICENSES, LLC)

KEYMARKET LICENSES, LLC) W225AC (92.9 FM; SISTERSVILLE, WV; Owner: SEVEN RANGES RADIO COMPANY, INC.) TV broadcast stations around Sardis: WTRF-TV ( Channel 7; WHEELING, WV; Owner: WEST VIRGINIA MEDIA HOLDINGS, LLC)

7; WHEELING, WV; WEST VIRGINIA MEDIA HOLDINGS, LLC) WOUC-TV (Channel 44; CAMBRIDGE, OH; Owner: OHIO UNIVERSITY)

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

7 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 16ft / 5.4m Total length

Total length $46,000 Total costs

Total costs 9,842 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 1,181 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 13,660 Total future (year 2039) average daily traffic

Houses and condos Apartments 77.0% Utility gas

17.7% Electricity

5.3% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. 100.0% Electricity





Sardis compared to Ohio state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Median age above state average.

above Foreign-born population percentage above state average.

above Number of college students significantly below state average.

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Sperryville, Virginia

Submit your own pictures of this place and show them to the world



OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 342.

Males: 176 (51.7%) Females: 166 (48.3%)

Median resident age: 44.7 years Virginia median age: 38.5 years

Zip codes: 22740.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $76,520

Sperryville: $76,520 VA: $76,456

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $43,236



Sperryville CDP income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $399,413 Sperryville: $399,413 VA: $288,800

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $278,754; detached houses: $276,623 $76,520$43,236$399,413$278,754;$276,623

Median gross rent in 2019: $836.

March 2019 cost of living index in Sperryville: 85.4 (less than average, U.S. average is 100)

Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2019: 0.0%

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:

Most recent value % change since 2k Data: Median household income ($) Median household income (% change since 2000) Household income diversity Ratio of average income to average house value (%) Ratio of average income to average rent Median household income ($) - White Median household income ($) - Black or African American Median household income ($) - Asian Median household income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median household income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median household income ($) - Multirace Median household income ($) - Other Race Median household income for houses/condos with a mortgage ($) Median household income for apartments without a mortgage ($) Races - White alone (%) Races - White alone (% change since 2000) Races - Black alone (%) Races - Black alone (% change since 2000) Races - American Indian alone (%) Races - American Indian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Asian alone (%) Races - Asian alone (% change since 2000) Races - Hispanic (%) Races - Hispanic (% change since 2000) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (%) Races - Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (% change since 2000) Races - Two or more races (%) Races - Two or more races (% change since 2000) Races - Other race alone (%) Races - Other race alone (% change since 2000) Racial diversity Unemployment (%) Unemployment (% change since 2000) Unemployment (%) - White Unemployment (%) - Black or African American Unemployment (%) - Asian Unemployment (%) - Hispanic or Latino Unemployment (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Unemployment (%) - Multirace Unemployment (%) - Other Race Population density (people per square mile) Population - Males (%) Population - Females (%) Population - Males (%) - White Population - Males (%) - Black or African American Population - Males (%) - Asian Population - Males (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Males (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Males (%) - Multirace Population - Males (%) - Other Race Population - Females (%) - White Population - Females (%) - Black or African American Population - Females (%) - Asian Population - Females (%) - Hispanic or Latino Population - Females (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Population - Females (%) - Multirace Population - Females (%) - Other Race Coronavirus confirmed cases (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (Nov 21, 2021) Coronavirus confirmed cases (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Deaths caused by coronavirus (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) Daily increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Weekly increase in number of cases (Nov 21, 2021) Cases doubled (in days) (Nov 21, 2021) Hospitalized patients (Nov 21, 2021) Negative test results (Nov 21, 2021) Total test results (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (per 100k population) (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses distributed (Nov 21, 2021) COVID Vaccine doses administered (Nov 21, 2021) Likely homosexual households (%) Likely homosexual households (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (%) Likely homosexual households - Lesbian couples (% change since 2000) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (%) Likely homosexual households - Gay men (% change since 2000) Cost of living index Median gross rent ($) Median contract rent ($) Median monthly housing costs ($) Median house or condo value ($) Median house or condo value ($ change since 2000) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, detached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 1, attached ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 2 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure by units in structure - 3 or 4 ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - 5 or more ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Boat, RV, van, etc. ($) Mean house or condo value by units in structure - Mobile home ($) Median house or condo value ($) - White Median house or condo value ($) - Black or African American Median house or condo value ($) - Asian Median house or condo value ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median house or condo value ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median house or condo value ($) - Multirace Median house or condo value ($) - Other Race Median resident age Resident age diversity Median resident age - Males Median resident age - Females Median resident age - White Median resident age - Black or African American Median resident age - Asian Median resident age - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Multirace Median resident age - Other Race Median resident age - Males - White Median resident age - Males - Black or African American Median resident age - Males - Asian Median resident age - Males - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Males - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Males - Multirace Median resident age - Males - Other Race Median resident age - Females - White Median resident age - Females - Black or African American Median resident age - Females - Asian Median resident age - Females - Hispanic or Latino Median resident age - Females - American Indian and Alaska Native Median resident age - Females - Multirace Median resident age - Females - Other Race Commute - mean travel time to work (minutes) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (%) Travel time to work - Less than 5 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 5 to 9 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 10 to 19 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 20 to 29 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 30 to 39 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 40 to 59 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (%) Travel time to work - 60 to 89 minutes (% change since 2000) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (%) Travel time to work - 90 or more minutes (% change since 2000) Marital status - Never married (%) Marital status - Now married (%) Marital status - Separated (%) Marital status - Widowed (%) Marital status - Divorced (%) Median family income ($) Median family income (% change since 2000) Median non-family income ($) Median non-family income (% change since 2000) Median per capita income ($) Median per capita income (% change since 2000) Median family income ($) - White Median family income ($) - Black or African American Median family income ($) - Asian Median family income ($) - Hispanic or Latino Median family income ($) - American Indian and Alaska Native Median family income ($) - Multirace Median family income ($) - Other Race Median year house/condo built Median year apartment built Year house built - Built 2005 or later (%) Year house built - Built 2000 to 2004 (%) Year house built - Built 1990 to 1999 (%) Year house built - Built 1980 to 1989 (%) Year house built - Built 1970 to 1979 (%) Year house built - Built 1960 to 1969 (%) Year house built - Built 1950 to 1959 (%) Year house built - Built 1940 to 1949 (%) Year house built - Built 1939 or earlier (%) Average household size Household density (households per square mile) Average household size - White Average household size - Black or African American Average household size - Asian Average household size - Hispanic or Latino Average household size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average household size - Multirace Average household size - Other Race Occupied housing units (%) Vacant housing units (%) Owner occupied housing units (%) Renter occupied housing units (%) Vacancy status - For rent (%) Vacancy status - For sale only (%) Vacancy status - Rented or sold, not occupied (%) Vacancy status - For seasonal, recreational, or occasional use (%) Vacancy status - For migrant workers (%) Vacancy status - Other vacant (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level (%) Children below poverty level (%) Poor families by family type - Married-couple family (%) Poor families by family type - Male, no wife present (%) Poor families by family type - Female, no husband present (%) Poverty status for native-born residents (%) Poverty status for foreign-born residents (%) Poverty among high school graduates not in families (%) Poverty among people who did not graduate high school not in families (%) Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - White Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Black or African American Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Asian Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Hispanic or Latino Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - American Indian and Alaska Native Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Multirace Residents with income below the poverty level (%) - Other Race Air pollution - Air Quality Index (AQI) Air pollution - CO Air pollution - NO2 Air pollution - SO2 Air pollution - Ozone Air pollution - PM10 Air pollution - PM25 Air pollution - Pb Crime - Murders per 100,000 population Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population Crime - Arson per 100,000 population Crime - City-data.com crime index Crime - Violent crime index Crime - Property crime index Crime - Murders per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Rapes per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Robberies per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Assaults per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Burglaries per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Auto thefts per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - Arson per 100,000 population (5 year average) Crime - City-data.com crime index (5 year average) Crime - Violent crime index (5 year average) Crime - Property crime index (5 year average) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Dole) 1996 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Gore) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2000 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Kerry) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Bush) 2004 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (McCain) 2008 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Obama) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Romney) 2012 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Clinton) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2016 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Democratic Party (Biden) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Republican Party (Trump) 2020 Presidential Elections Results (%) - Other Ancestries Reported - Arab (%) Ancestries Reported - Czech (%) Ancestries Reported - Danish (%) Ancestries Reported - Dutch (%) Ancestries Reported - English (%) Ancestries Reported - French (%) Ancestries Reported - French Canadian (%) Ancestries Reported - German (%) Ancestries Reported - Greek (%) Ancestries Reported - Hungarian (%) Ancestries Reported - Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Italian (%) Ancestries Reported - Lithuanian (%) Ancestries Reported - Norwegian (%) Ancestries Reported - Polish (%) Ancestries Reported - Portuguese (%) Ancestries Reported - Russian (%) Ancestries Reported - Scotch-Irish (%) Ancestries Reported - Scottish (%) Ancestries Reported - Slovak (%) Ancestries Reported - Subsaharan African (%) Ancestries Reported - Swedish (%) Ancestries Reported - Swiss (%) Ancestries Reported - Ukrainian (%) Ancestries Reported - United States (%) Ancestries Reported - Welsh (%) Ancestries Reported - West Indian (%) Ancestries Reported - Other (%) Educational Attainment - No schooling completed (%) Educational Attainment - Less than high school (%) Educational Attainment - High school or equivalent (%) Educational Attainment - Less than 1 year of college (%) Educational Attainment - 1 or more years of college (%) Educational Attainment - Associate degree (%) Educational Attainment - Bachelor's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Master's degree (%) Educational Attainment - Professional school degree (%) Educational Attainment - Doctorate degree (%) School Enrollment - Nursery, preschool (%) School Enrollment - Kindergarten (%) School Enrollment - Grade 1 to 4 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 5 to 8 (%) School Enrollment - Grade 9 to 12 (%) School Enrollment - College undergrad (%) School Enrollment - Graduate or professional (%) School Enrollment - Not enrolled in school (%) School enrollment - Public schools (%) School enrollment - Private schools (%) School enrollment - Not enrolled (%) Median number of rooms in houses and condos Median number of rooms in apartments Housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities (%) Housing units lacking complete kitchen facilities (%) Density of houses Urban houses (%) Rural houses (%) Households with people 60 years and over (%) Households with people 65 years and over (%) Households with people 75 years and over (%) Households with one or more nonrelatives (%) Households with no nonrelatives (%) Population in households (%) Family households (%) Nonfamily households (%) Population in families (%) Family households with own children (%) Median number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in owner occupied houses Median number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Mean number of bedrooms in renter occupied houses Median number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in owner occupied houses Median number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mean number of vehichles in renter occupied houses Mortgage status - with mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with second mortgage (%) Mortgage status - with home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - with both second mortgage and home equity loan (%) Mortgage status - without a mortgage (%) Average family size Average family size - White Average family size - Black or African American Average family size - Asian Average family size - Hispanic or Latino Average family size - American Indian and Alaska Native Average family size - Multirace Average family size - Other Race Geographical mobility - Same house 1 year ago (%) Geographical mobility - Moved within same county (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different county within same state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from different state (%) Geographical mobility - Moved from abroad (%) Place of birth - Born in state of residence (%) Place of birth - Born in other state (%) Place of birth - Native, outside of US (%) Place of birth - Foreign born (%) Housing units in structures - 1, detached (%) Housing units in structures - 1, attached (%) Housing units in structures - 2 (%) Housing units in structures - 3 or 4 (%) Housing units in structures - 5 to 9 (%) Housing units in structures - 10 to 19 (%) Housing units in structures - 20 to 49 (%) Housing units in structures - 50 or more (%) Housing units in structures - Mobile home (%) Housing units in structures - Boat, RV, van, etc. (%) House/condo owner moved in on average (years ago) Renter moved in on average (years ago) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1999 to March 2000 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1995 to 1998 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1990 to 1994 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1980 to 1989 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1970 to 1979 (%) Year householder moved into unit - Moved in 1969 or earlier (%) Means of transportation to work - Drove car alone (%) Means of transportation to work - Carpooled (%) Means of transportation to work - Public transportation (%) Means of transportation to work - Bus or trolley bus (%) Means of transportation to work - Streetcar or trolley car (%) Means of transportation to work - Subway or elevated (%) Means of transportation to work - Railroad (%) Means of transportation to work - Ferryboat (%) Means of transportation to work - Taxicab (%) Means of transportation to work - Motorcycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Bicycle (%) Means of transportation to work - Walked (%) Means of transportation to work - Other means (%) Working at home (%) Industry diversity Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (%) Most Common Industries - Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (%) Most Common Industries - Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (%) Most Common Industries - Construction (%) Most Common Industries - Manufacturing (%) Most Common Industries - Wholesale trade (%) Most Common Industries - Retail trade (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing, and utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Transportation and warehousing (%) Most Common Industries - Utilities (%) Most Common Industries - Information (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Finance and insurance (%) Most Common Industries - Real estate and rental and leasing (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Professional, scientific, and technical services (%) Most Common Industries - Management of companies and enterprises (%) Most Common Industries - Administrative and support and waste management services (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services, and health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Educational services (%) Most Common Industries - Health care and social assistance (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Arts, entertainment, and recreation (%) Most Common Industries - Accommodation and food services (%) Most Common Industries - Other services, except public administration (%) Most Common Industries - Public administration (%) Occupation diversity Most Common Occupations - Management, business, science, and arts occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management, business, and financial occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Management occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Business and financial operations occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer, engineering, and science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Computer and mathematical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Architecture and engineering occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Life, physical, and social science occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, legal, community service, arts, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Community and social service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Legal occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Education, training, and library occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health diagnosing and treating practitioners and other technical occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Health technologists and technicians (%) Most Common Occupations - Service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Healthcare support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Protective service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Fire fighting and prevention, and other protective service workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Law enforcement workers including supervisors (%) Most Common Occupations - Food preparation and serving related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Personal care and service occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and office occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Sales and related occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Office and administrative support occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Construction and extraction occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production, transportation, and material moving occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Production occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Transportation occupations (%) Most Common Occupations - Material moving occupations (%) People in Group quarters - Institutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - Correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Federal prisons and detention centers (%) People in Group quarters - Halfway houses (%) People in Group quarters - Local jails and other confinement facilities (including police lockups) (%) People in Group quarters - Military disciplinary barracks (%) People in Group quarters - State prisons (%) People in Group quarters - Other types of correctional institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Nursing homes (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards, hospices, and schools for the handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals/wards and hospices for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospices or homes for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Military hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Other hospitals or wards for chronically ill (%) People in Group quarters - Hospitals or wards for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Mental (Psychiatric) hospitals or wards (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Schools, hospitals, or wards for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the deaf (%) People in Group quarters - Institutions for the blind (%) People in Group quarters - Orthopedic wards and institutions for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in general hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Wards in military hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere (%) People in Group quarters - Juvenile institutions (%) People in Group quarters - Long-term care (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for abused, dependent, and neglected children (%) People in Group quarters - Residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed children (%) People in Group quarters - Training schools for juvenile delinquents (%) People in Group quarters - Short-term care, detention or diagnostic centers for delinquent children (%) People in Group quarters - Type of juvenile institution unknown (%) People in Group quarters - Noninstitutionalized population (%) People in Group quarters - College dormitories (includes college quarters off campus) (%) People in Group quarters - Military quarters (%) People in Group quarters - On base (%) People in Group quarters - Barracks, unaccompanied personnel housing (UPH), (Enlisted/Officer), ;and similar group living quarters for military personnel (%) People in Group quarters - Transient quarters for temporary residents (%) People in Group quarters - Military ships (%) People in Group quarters - Group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Homes or halfway houses for drug/alcohol abuse (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally ill (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the mentally retarded (%) People in Group quarters - Homes for the physically handicapped (%) People in Group quarters - Other group homes (%) People in Group quarters - Religious group quarters (%) People in Group quarters - Dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Agriculture workers' dormitories on farms (%) People in Group quarters - Job Corps and vocational training facilities (%) People in Group quarters - Other workers' dormitories (%) People in Group quarters - Crews of maritime vessels (%) People in Group quarters - Other nonhousehold living situations (%) People in Group quarters - Other noninstitutional group quarters (%) Residents speaking English at home (%) Residents speaking English at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking English at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking English at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking Spanish at home - Foreign born (%) Residents speaking other language at home (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Born in the United States (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Native, born elsewhere (%) Residents speaking other language at home - Foreign born (%) Class of Workers - Employee of private company (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed in own incorporated business (%) Class of Workers - Private not-for-profit wage and salary workers (%) Class of Workers - Local government workers (%) Class of Workers - State government workers (%) Class of Workers - Federal government workers (%) Class of Workers - Self-employed workers in own not incorporated business and Unpaid family workers (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in houses and condos - No fuel used (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Utility gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Bottled, tank, or LP gas (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Electricity (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Fuel oil, kerosene, etc. (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Coal or coke (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Wood (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Solar energy (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - Other fuel (%) House heating fuel used in apartments - No fuel used (%) Armed forces status - In Armed Forces (%) Armed forces status - Civilian (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Veteran (%) Armed forces status - Civilian - Nonveteran (%) Fatal accidents locations in years 2005-2019 Fatal accidents locations in 2005 Fatal accidents locations in 2006 Fatal accidents locations in 2007 Fatal accidents locations in 2008 Fatal accidents locations in 2009 Fatal accidents locations in 2010 Fatal accidents locations in 2011 Fatal accidents locations in 2012 Fatal accidents locations in 2013 Fatal accidents locations in 2014 Fatal accidents locations in 2015 Fatal accidents locations in 2016 Fatal accidents locations in 2017 Fatal accidents locations in 2018 Fatal accidents locations in 2019 Alcohol use - People drinking some alcohol every month (%) Alcohol use - People not drinking at all (%) Alcohol use - Average days/month drinking alcohol Alcohol use - Average drinks/week Alcohol use - Average days/year people drink much Audiometry - Average condition of hearing (%) Audiometry - People that can hear a whisper from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - People that can hear normal voice from across a quiet room (%) Audiometry - Ears ringing, roaring, buzzing (%) Audiometry - Had a job exposure to loud noise (%) Audiometry - Had off-work exposure to loud noise (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high blood pressure (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Checking blood pressure at home (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Frequently checking blood cholesterol (%) Blood Pressure & Cholesterol - Has high cholesterol level (%) Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at supermarket/grocery store Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on food at other stores Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on eating out Consumer Behavior - Money monthly spent on carryout/delivered foods Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at supermarket/grocery store (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on food at other stores (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on eating out (%) Consumer Behavior - Income spent on carryout/delivered foods (%) Current Health Status - General health condition (%) Current Health Status - Blood donors (%) Current Health Status - Has blood ever tested for HIV virus (%) Current Health Status - Left-handed people (%) Dermatology - People using sunscreen (%) Diabetes - Diabetics (%) Diabetes - Had a blood test for high blood sugar (%) Diabetes - People taking insulin (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Diet health (%) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Milk product consumption (# of products/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals not home prepared (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Meals from fast food or pizza place (#/week) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Ready-to-eat foods (#/month) Diet Behavior & Nutrition - Frozen meals/pizza (#/month) Drug Use - People that ever used marijuana or hashish (%) Drug Use - Ever used hard drugs (%) Drug Use - Ever used any form of cocaine (%) Drug Use - Ever used heroin (%) Drug Use - Ever used methamphetamine (%) Health Insurance - People covered by health insurance (%) Kidney Conditions-Urology - Avg. # of times urinating at night Medical Conditions - People with asthma (%) Medical Conditions - People with anemia (%) Medical Conditions - People with psoriasis (%) Medical Conditions - People with overweight (%) Medical Conditions - Elderly people having difficulties in thinking or remembering (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever received blood transfusion (%) Medical Conditions - People having trouble seeing even with glass/contacts (%) Medical Conditions - People with arthritis (%) Medical Conditions - People with gout (%) Medical Conditions - People with congestive heart failure (%) Medical Conditions - People with coronary heart disease (%) Medical Conditions - People with angina pectoris (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had heart attack (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had stroke (%) Medical Conditions - People with emphysema (%) Medical Conditions - People with thyroid problem (%) Medical Conditions - People with chronic bronchitis (%) Medical Conditions - People with any liver condition (%) Medical Conditions - People who ever had cancer or malignancy (%) Mental Health - People who have little interest in doing things (%) Mental Health - People feeling down, depressed, or hopeless (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble sleeping or sleeping too much (%) Mental Health - People feeling tired or having little energy (%) Mental Health - People with poor appetite or overeating (%) Mental Health - People feeling bad about themself (%) Mental Health - People who have trouble concentrating on things (%) Mental Health - People moving or speaking slowly or too fast (%) Mental Health - People having thoughts they would be better off dead (%) Oral Health - Average years since last visit a dentist Oral Health - People embarrassed because of mouth (%) Oral Health - People with gum disease (%) Oral Health - General health of teeth and gums (%) Oral Health - Average days a week using dental floss/device Oral Health - Average days a week using mouthwash for dental problem Oral Health - Average number of teeth Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to control insects (%) Pesticide Use - Households using pesticides to kill weeds (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity work activities (%) Physical Activity - People walking or bicycling (%) Physical Activity - People doing vigorous-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - People doing moderate-intensity recreational activities (%) Physical Activity - Average hours a day doing sedentary activities Physical Activity - Average hours a day watching TV or videos Physical Activity - Average hours a day using computer Physical Functioning - People having limitations keeping them from working (%) Physical Functioning - People limited in amount of work they can do (%) Physical Functioning - People that need special equipment to walk (%) Physical Functioning - People experiencing confusion/memory problems (%) Physical Functioning - People requiring special healthcare equipment (%) Prescription Medications - Average number of prescription medicines taking Preventive Aspirin Use - Adults 40+ taking low-dose aspirin (%) Reproductive Health - Vaginal deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Cesarean deliveries (%) Reproductive Health - Deliveries resulted in a live birth (%) Reproductive Health - Pregnancies resulted in a delivery (%) Reproductive Health - Women breastfeeding newborns (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had a hysterectomy (%) Reproductive Health - Women that had both ovaries removed (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever taken birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women taking birth control pills (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used Depo-Provera or injectables (%) Reproductive Health - Women that have ever used female hormones (%) Sexual Behavior - People 18+ that ever had sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had anal sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Males 18+ that ever had any sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had vaginal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever performed oral sex on a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had anal sex with a man (%) Sexual Behavior - Females 18+ that ever had any kind of sex with a woman (%) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first had sex Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female vaginal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a woman (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of woman performed oral sex on in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male anal sex partners in lifetime (males 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average age people first performed oral sex on a man (18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male oral sex partners in lifetime (18+) Sexual Behavior - People using protection when performing oral sex (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of times people have vaginal or anal sex a year Sexual Behavior - People having sex without condom (%) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of male vaginal sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Average number of female sex partners in lifetime (females 18+) Sexual Behavior - Circumcised males 18+ (%) Sleep Disorders - Average hours sleeping at night Sleep Disorders - People that has trouble sleeping (%) Smoking-Cigarette Use - People smoking cigarettes (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with smell (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ having problems with taste (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had wisdom teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had tonsils teeth removed (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a loss of consciousness because of a head injury (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had a broken nose or other serious injury to face or skull (%) Taste & Smell - People 40+ that ever had two or more sinus infections (%) Weight - Average height (inches) Weight - Average weight (pounds) Weight - Average BMI Weight - People that are obese (%) Weight - People that ever were obese (%) Weight - People trying to lose weight (%) Settings Get link Loading data... Based on 2000-2020 data Loading data...

123 Hide US histogram





According to our research of Virginia and other state lists, there were 3 registered sex offenders living in Sperryville, Virginia as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Sperryville is 70 to 1.





Ancestries: American (57.5%), European (22.5%), German (20.0%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 678 feet

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with mortgages in 2019: $2,597 (1.0%)

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with no mortgage in 2019: $2,836 (1.0%)



Latitude: 38.66 N, Longitude: 78.23 W

Area code: 540

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 3.3% Virginia: 4.6%

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI SO 2 Ozone PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 50.6. This is significantly better than average. City: 50.6 U.S.: 74.2

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2006 was 1.58. This is about average. Closest monitor was 7.6 miles away from the city center. City: 1.58 U.S.: 1.79

Ozone [ppb] level in 2018 was 38.3. This is about average. Closest monitor was 13.9 miles away from the city center. City: 38.3 U.S.: 33.3

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 4.75. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 14.6 miles away from the city center. City: 4.75 U.S.: 8.46

Tornado activity: Sperryville-area historical tornado activity is slightly above Virginia state average. It is 22% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 9/24/2001, a category F4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 14.6 miles away from the Sperryville place center injured 2 people and caused $2 million in damages. On 9/17/2004, a category F3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 21.5 miles away from the place center injured 2 people and caused $250,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Sperryville-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Virginia state average. It is 50% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 8/23/2011 at 17:51:04, a magnitude 5.8 (5.8 MW, Depth: 3.7 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 54.0 miles away from Sperryville center

On 8/25/2011 at 05:07:52, a magnitude 4.5 (4.5 ML, Depth: 4.2 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 51.1 miles away from the city center

On 12/9/2003 at 20:59:18, a magnitude 4.5 (4.5 ML, Depth: 6.2 mi) earthquake occurred 61.5 miles away from Sperryville center

On 12/9/2003 at 20:59:14, a magnitude 4.5 (4.5 MB, 4.5 LG) earthquake occurred 76.1 miles away from the city center

On 9/25/1998 at 19:52:52, a magnitude 5.2 (4.8 MB, 4.3 MS, 5.2 LG, 4.5 MW, Depth: 3.1 mi) earthquake occurred 227.2 miles away from Sperryville center

On 8/9/2020 at 12:07:37, a magnitude 5.1 (5.1 MW, Depth: 4.7 mi) earthquake occurred 217.9 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Rappahannock County (19) is greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 14

Emergencies Declared: 4



Causes of natural disasters: Storms: 5, Winter Storms: 5, Floods: 4, Hurricanes: 4, Snowstorms: 2, Tropical Storms: 2, Blizzard: 1, Drought: 1, Ice Storm: 1, Tornado: 1, Wind: 1, Other: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers near Sperryville: PAGE MEM HOSP HH CARE (Home Health Center, about 14 miles away; LURAY, VA)

PAGE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, INC Critical Access Hospitals (about 14 miles away; LURAY, VA)

Amtrak station near Sperryville: 18 miles: CULPEPER (CULPEPPER, 109 S. COMMERCE ST.) . Services: public payphones, free short-term parking, free long-term parking, call for taxi service, intercity bus service.

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Sperryville: Lord Fairfax Community College ( about 27 miles; Middletown, VA ; Full-time enrollment: 4,144)

27 ; 4,144) Germanna Community College ( about 32 miles; Locust Grove, VA ; FT enrollment: 4,455)

32 ; 4,455) Shenandoah University ( about 36 miles; Winchester, VA ; FT enrollment: 3,010)

36 ; 3,010) James Madison University ( about 39 miles; Harrisonburg, VA ; FT enrollment: 19,727)

39 ; 19,727) University of Virginia-Main Campus ( about 46 miles; Charlottesville, VA ; FT enrollment: 22,274)

46 ; 22,274) Blue Ridge Community College ( about 47 miles; Weyers Cave, VA ; FT enrollment: 2,891)

47 ; 2,891) Piedmont Virginia Community College (about 48 miles; Charlottesville, VA; FT enrollment: 3,029) Private high school in Sperryville: HEARTHSTONE SCHOOL (Students: 21, Location: 11576 LEE HWY, Grades: PK-12)

Rappahannock County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level between 2 and 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Moderate Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in Sperryville and their reported violations in the past: SPERRYVILLE CORNER STORE (Population served: 97, Groundwater): Past health violations: MCL, Monthly (TCR) - Between JUL-2012 and SEP-2012 , Contaminant: Coliform . Follow-up actions: St Public Notif requested (AUG-17-2012) , St Formal NOV issued (AUG-17-2012) , St Compliance achieved (AUG-30-2012)

JUL-2012 SEP-2012 Coliform St Public Notif requested (AUG-17-2012) St Formal NOV issued (AUG-17-2012) St Compliance achieved (AUG-30-2012) MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In AUG-2010 , Contaminant: Coliform . Follow-up actions: St Public Notif requested (AUG-10-2010) , St Formal NOV issued (AUG-10-2010) , St Compliance achieved (SEP-30-2010)

AUG-2010 Coliform St Public Notif requested (AUG-10-2010) St Formal NOV issued (AUG-10-2010) St Compliance achieved (SEP-30-2010) MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In JUN-2010 , Contaminant: Coliform . Follow-up actions: St Public Notif requested (JUL-22-2010) , St Formal NOV issued (JUL-22-2010) , St Compliance achieved (SEP-30-2010)

JUN-2010 Coliform St Public Notif requested (JUL-22-2010) St Formal NOV issued (JUL-22-2010) St Compliance achieved (SEP-30-2010) MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In JUL-2008 , Contaminant: Coliform . Follow-up actions: St Compliance achieved (AUG-05-2008) , St Public Notif requested (AUG-22-2008) , St Formal NOV issued (AUG-22-2008)

JUL-2008 Coliform St Compliance achieved (AUG-05-2008) St Public Notif requested (AUG-22-2008) St Formal NOV issued (AUG-22-2008) MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In JUN-2008 , Contaminant: Coliform . Follow-up actions: St Compliance achieved (AUG-05-2008) , St Public Notif requested (AUG-07-2008) , St Formal NOV issued (AUG-07-2008)

JUN-2008 Coliform St Compliance achieved (AUG-05-2008) St Public Notif requested (AUG-07-2008) St Formal NOV issued (AUG-07-2008) MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In MAY-2008 , Contaminant: Coliform . Follow-up actions: St Public Notif requested (JUN-09-2008) , St Formal NOV issued (JUN-09-2008) , St Compliance achieved (AUG-05-2008)

MAY-2008 Coliform St Public Notif requested (JUN-09-2008) St Formal NOV issued (JUN-09-2008) St Compliance achieved (AUG-05-2008) 10 other older health violations Past monitoring violations: Monitoring, Repeat Major (TCR) - In OCT-2006 , Contaminant: Coliform (TCR) . Follow-up actions: St Public Notif requested (NOV-27-2006), St Formal NOV issued (NOV-27-2006), St Compliance achieved (MAR-30-2007), Fed Formal NOV issued (APR-09-2007), Fed Compliance achieved (DEC-12-2007)

OCT-2006 Coliform (TCR) St Public Notif requested (NOV-27-2006), St Formal NOV issued (NOV-27-2006), St Compliance achieved (MAR-30-2007), Fed Formal NOV issued (APR-09-2007), Fed Compliance achieved (DEC-12-2007) Monitoring, Repeat Major (TCR) - In SEP-2006 , Contaminant: Coliform (TCR) . Follow-up actions: St Formal NOV issued (NOV-27-2006), St Compliance achieved (MAR-30-2007), Fed Formal NOV issued (APR-09-2007), Fed Compliance achieved (DEC-12-2007)

SEP-2006 Coliform (TCR) St Formal NOV issued (NOV-27-2006), St Compliance achieved (MAR-30-2007), Fed Formal NOV issued (APR-09-2007), Fed Compliance achieved (DEC-12-2007) Notification, Public - In JUN-2006 , Contaminant: Coliform (TCR) . Follow-up actions: St Formal NOV issued (JUL-07-2006), Fed Formal NOV issued (APR-09-2007), Fed Compliance achieved (DEC-12-2007)

JUN-2006 Coliform (TCR) St Formal NOV issued (JUL-07-2006), Fed Formal NOV issued (APR-09-2007), Fed Compliance achieved (DEC-12-2007) 26 routine major monitoring violations

5 minor monitoring violations

11 regular monitoring violations SPERRYVILLE CORNER STORE (97Groundwater):

Average household size: This place: 2.3 people Virginia: 2.5 people

Percentage of family households: This place: 68.0% Whole state: 67.0%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This place: 4.1% Whole state: 5.7%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.7% of all households

0.7% Gay men: 0.7% of all households

For population 15 years and over in Sperryville: Never married: 31.2%

31.2% Now married: 48.0%

48.0% Separated: 0.0%

0.0% Widowed: 9.1%

9.1% Divorced: 11.6%

For population 25 years and over in Sperryville: High school or higher: 93.8%

93.8% Bachelor's degree or higher: 32.8%

32.8% Graduate or professional degree: 9.0%

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 10.0 Virginia average: 12.1



Religion statistics for Sperryville, VA (based on Rappahannock County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Evangelical Protestant 1,320 11 Mainline Protestant 934 5 Catholic 401 1 Other 3 1 None 4,715 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 2 Rappahannock County : 2.78 / 10,000 pop. Virginia : 2.03 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 4 This county : 5.55 / 10,000 pop. State : 4.03 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 6 This county : 8.33 / 10,000 pop. Virginia : 7.65 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: Here : 9.9% Virginia : 9.3% Adult obesity rate: This county : 25.9% State : 26.7% Low-income preschool obesity rate: Rappahannock County : 23.1% Virginia : 18.6%

6.88% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($58,053 average adjusted gross income) Here: 6.88% Virginia average: 9.50% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved from foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Fauquier County, VA 1.50% ($46,844 average AGI) from Culpeper County, VA 0.96% ($39,241)



7.10% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($51,939 average adjusted gross income) Here: 7.10% Virginia average: 9.76% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Culpeper County, VA 1.49% ($50,711 average AGI) to Fauquier County, VA 1.23% ($38,811)

Businesses in Sperryville, VA FedEx: 1

Strongest AM radio stations in Sperryville: WKCW (1420 AM; 50 kW; WARRENTON, VA; Owner: WAY BROADCASTING, INC.)

WAY BROADCASTING, INC.) WKTR (840 AM; daytime; 8 kW; EARLYSVILLE, VA; Owner: WKTR, INC.)

WKTR, INC.) WSVA (550 AM; 10 kW; HARRISONBURG, VA; Owner: M. BELMONT VERSTANDIG, INC.)

M. BELMONT VERSTANDIG, INC.) WMET (1150 AM; 50 kW; GAITHERSBURG, MD; Owner: BELTWAY ACQUISITION CORPORATION)

BELTWAY ACQUISITION CORPORATION) WTEM (980 AM; 50 kW; WASHINGTON, DC; Owner: AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.)

AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.) WCBM (680 AM; 50 kW; BALTIMORE, MD; Owner: WCBM MARYLAND, INC.)

WCBM MARYLAND, INC.) WWGB (1030 AM; daytime; 50 kW; INDIAN HEAD, MD; Owner: GOOD BODY MEDIA, LLC)

GOOD BODY MEDIA, LLC) WTOP (1500 AM; 50 kW; WASHINGTON, DC; Owner: BONNEVILLE HOLDING COMPANY)

BONNEVILLE HOLDING COMPANY) WPRZ (1250 AM; 5 kW; WARRENTON, VA; Owner: PRAISE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.)

PRAISE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.) WPGC (1580 AM; 50 kW; MORNINGSIDE, MD; Owner: INFINITY WPGC(AM), INC.)

INFINITY WPGC(AM), INC.) WBAL (1090 AM; 50 kW; BALTIMORE, MD; Owner: HEARST RADIO, INC.)

HEARST RADIO, INC.) WUST (1120 AM; daytime; 20 kW; WASHINGTON, DC)

WBIS (1190 AM; 50 kW; ANNAPOLIS, MD; Owner: NATIONS RADIO, LLC) Strongest FM radio stations in Sperryville: WMXH-FM (105.7 FM; LURAY, VA; Owner: EASY RADIO, INC.)

EASY RADIO, INC.) W243AF (96.5 FM; FLINT HILL, VA; Owner: CSN INTERNATIONAL)

CSN INTERNATIONAL) WINC-FM (92.5 FM; WINCHESTER, VA; Owner: MID ATLANTIC NETWORK, INC.)

MID ATLANTIC NETWORK, INC.) WPER (89.9 FM; CULPEPER, VA; Owner: POSITIVE ALTERNATIVE RADIO INC.)

POSITIVE ALTERNATIVE RADIO INC.) WYFT (103.9 FM; LURAY, VA; Owner: BIBLE BROADCASTING NETWORK, INC.)

BIBLE BROADCASTING NETWORK, INC.) WACL (98.5 FM; ELKTON, VA; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WCUL (103.1 FM; CULPEPER, VA; Owner: JOYNER LICENSE, INC.)

JOYNER LICENSE, INC.) WQPO (100.7 FM; HARRISONBURG, VA; Owner: M. BELMONT VERSTANDIG, INC.)

M. BELMONT VERSTANDIG, INC.) WTRM (91.3 FM; WINCHESTER, VA; Owner: TIMBER RIDGE MINISTRIES, INC.)

TIMBER RIDGE MINISTRIES, INC.) WTOP-FM (107.7 FM; WARRENTON, VA; Owner: BONNEVILLE HOLDING COMPANY)

BONNEVILLE HOLDING COMPANY) W228BA (93.5 FM; LEESBURG, VA; Owner: CSN INTERNATIONAL)

CSN INTERNATIONAL) WVTU (89.3 FM; CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA; Owner: VIRGINIA TECH FOUNDATION INC)

VIRGINIA TECH FOUNDATION INC) WCYK-FM (99.7 FM; STAUNTON, VA; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WBPS-FM (94.3 FM; WARRENTON, VA; Owner: MEGA COMMUNICATIONS OF WARRENTON LICENSEE, L.L.C.)

MEGA COMMUNICATIONS OF WARRENTON LICENSEE, L.L.C.) WTON-FM (94.3 FM; STAUNTON, VA; Owner: HIGH IMPACT COMMUNICATIONS INC)

HIGH IMPACT COMMUNICATIONS INC) WAZR (93.7 FM; WOODSTOCK, VA; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WMRA (90.7 FM; HARRISONBURG, VA; Owner: JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY BOARD OF VISITORS)

JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY BOARD OF VISITORS) WBHB-FM (96.1 FM; BROADWAY, VA; Owner: HJV LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

HJV LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WJMA-FM (98.9 FM; ORANGE, VA; Owner: PIEDMONT COMMUNICATIONS, INC)

PIEDMONT COMMUNICATIONS, INC) WWRT (104.9 FM; STRASBURG, VA; Owner: MID ATLANTIC NETWORK, INC.) TV broadcast stations around Sperryville: WHSV-TV (Channel 3; HARRISONBURG, VA; Owner: GRAY MIDAMERICA TV LICENSEE CORP.)

Sperryville fatal accident list: Jan 6, 2019 08:05 PM, Us-211, Rte 667, Lat: 38.654300, Lon: -78.245231, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 1, Pedestrians: 1, Fatalities: 1

Nov 11, 2012 01:22 PM, Us-211, Estes Mill Rd, Lat: 38.654692, Lon: -78.244381, Vehicles: 5, Persons: 8, Fatalities: 1

Aug 10, 2006 12:00 AM, Us-211, Lat: 38.653380, Lon: -78.249380, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 1, Fatalities: 1

Jul 24, 2005 12:30 AM, Us-211, Rt 667, Lat: 38.653520, Lon: -78.248470, Vehicles: 1, Persons: 1, Fatalities: 1



National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

24 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 131ft / 40.0m Total length

Total length $286,000 Total costs

Total costs 22,568 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 512 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 32,947 Total future (year 2035) average daily traffic

New bridges - historical statistics

2 1920-1929

5 1930-1939

3 1940-1949

3 1950-1959

3 1960-1969

2 1970-1979

2 1980-1989

3 1990-1999

1 2000-2009 See full National Bridge Inventory statistics for Sperryville, VA



FCC Registered Antenna Towers: 5 SIGNATURE ON FILE, 11871 Lee Highway - Rt. 211 (168a) ( Lat: 38.656889 Lon: -78.239444), Type: 62.5, Overall height: 59.5 m, Registrant: Apc Realty And Equipment Co., LLC, Vtable01@sprintspectrum.Com, , Bethe-sda, Phone: (301) 214-9259

38.656889 -78.239444), 62.5, 59.5 m, Apc Realty And Equipment Co., LLC, Vtable01@sprintspectrum.Com, , Bethe-sda, (301) 214-9259 Valerie H Moore, 11871 Lee Highway - Rt. 211 (168a) ( Lat: 38.656889 Lon: -78.239444), Type: 62.5, Overall height: 59.5 m, Registrant: Apc Realty And Equipment Co., LLC, Vmoore01@sprintspectrum.Com, , Mahwa-h, Phone: (201) 684-4292

38.656889 -78.239444), 62.5, 59.5 m, Apc Realty And Equipment Co., LLC, Vmoore01@sprintspectrum.Com, , Mahwa-h, (201) 684-4292 Carla Greenhalgh, 11871 Lee Highway - Rt. 211 (168a) ( Lat: 38.656889 Lon: -78.239444), Type: 62.5, Overall height: 59.5 m, Registrant: Apc Realty And Equipment Co, Cgreen31@sprintspectrum.Com, , MS: KSOPHN0116-1B518 Overl-and Park, Phone: (913) 315-9931

38.656889 -78.239444), 62.5, 59.5 m, Apc Realty And Equipment Co, Cgreen31@sprintspectrum.Com, , MS: KSOPHN0116-1B518 Overl-and Park, (913) 315-9931 VALERIE MOORE, 11871 Lee Highway - Rt. 211 (168a) ( Lat: 38.656889 Lon: -78.239444), Type: 62.5, Overall height: 59.5 m, Registrant: Apc Realty And Equipment Co, Vmoore01@sprintspectrum.Com, , Mahwa-h, Phone: (201) 684-4292

38.656889 -78.239444), 62.5, 59.5 m, Apc Realty And Equipment Co, Vmoore01@sprintspectrum.Com, , Mahwa-h, (201) 684-4292 VALERIE MOORE, 11871 Lee Highway - Rt. 211 (168a) (Lat: 38.656889 Lon: -78.239444), Type: 62.5, Overall height: 59.5 m, Registrant: Apc Realty And Equipment Co, Vmoore01@sprintspectrum.Com, , Mahwa-h, Phone: (201) 684-4292

FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses: 8 (



FAA Registered Aircraft: 2 Aircraft: CESSNA 172C ( Category: Land, Seats: 4, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 105 mph), Engine: CONT MOTOR 0-300 SER (145 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 1613Y, N1613Y, N-1613Y, Serial Number: 17249313, Airworthiness Date: 05/01/1962, Certificate Issue Date: 09/17/2018

Registrant (Individual): John C Iv Miller, 87 Mount Vernon Ln, Sperryville, VA 22740

CESSNA 172C ( Land, 4, Up to 12,499 Pounds, 105 mph), CONT MOTOR 0-300 SER (145 HP) (Reciprocating) 1613Y, N1613Y, N-1613Y, 17249313, 05/01/1962, 09/17/2018 John C Iv Miller, 87 Mount Vernon Ln, Sperryville, VA 22740 Aircraft: RYAN NAVION (Category: Land, Seats: 5, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 126 mph), Engine: CONT MOTOR E185 SERIES (205 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 4606K, N4606K, N-4606K, Serial Number: NAV-4-1606, Year manufactured: 1948, Airworthiness Date: 11/24/1955, Certificate Issue Date: 03/20/2018

Registrant (Co-Owned): David A Jamieson, Po Box 14, Sperryville, VA 22740, Other Owners: John M Jamieson

8 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses in Sperryville

2002 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents According to the data from the years 2002 - 2018 the average number of fires per year is 15. The highest number of fires - 25 took place in 2018, and the least - 4 in 2012. The data has a growing trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Sperryville, VA



117 45.2% Outside Fires



99 38.2% Structure Fires



22 8.5% Other



21 8.1% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires When looking into fire subcategories, the most reports belonged to: Outside Fires (45.2%), and Structure Fires (38.2%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Sperryville, VA

Houses and condos Apartments 53.6% Wood

22.6% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

14.3% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

9.5% Electricity 66.7% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

33.3% Electricity





Sperryville compared to Virginia state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Median age significantly above state average.

significantly above Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Number of rooms per house below state average.

below House age significantly above state average.

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Sterling, Massachusetts

Submit your own pictures of this town and show them to the world



OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 7,808.

Population change since 2000: +7.6%

7,808.+7.6%

Males: 3,841 (49.2%) Females: 3,967 (50.8%)

Median resident age: 44.0 years Massachusetts median age: 39.2 years

Zip codes: 01564.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $109,952 (it was $67,188 in 2000)

Sterling: $109,952 MA: $85,843

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $49,069 (it was $28,844 in 2000)



Sterling town income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $425,492 (it was $195,600 in 2000) Sterling: $425,492 MA: $418,600

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $345,896; detached houses: $359,605; townhouses or other attached units: $293,904; in 2-unit structures: $294,624; in 3-to-4-unit structures: $296,728; in 5-or-more-unit structures: $198,605; mobile homes: $74,819; occupied boats, rvs, vans, etc.: $20,048 $109,952 ($67,188$49,069 ($28,844$425,492 ($195,600$345,896;$359,605;$293,904;$294,624;$296,728;$198,605;$74,819;$20,048

March 2019 cost of living index in Sterling: 134.7 (high, U.S. average is 100)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:



7,441 95.3% White alone 158 2.0% Hispanic 67 0.9% Asian alone 67 0.9% Two or more races 52 0.7% Black alone 13 0.2% American Indian alone 5 0.06% Native Hawaiian and Other

Pacific Islander alone 5 0.06% Other race alone

Races in Sterling detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of Massachusetts and other state lists, there were 4 registered sex offenders living in Sterling, Massachusetts as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Sterling is 1,952 to 1.

The ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is lower than the state average.





Crime rates in Sterling by year Type 2006 2007 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Murders

(per 100,000) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) Rapes

(per 100,000) 1

(12.8) 0

(0.0) 3

(37.5) 3

(38.7) 1

(12.7) 0

(0.0) 3

(38.0) 1

(12.6) 1

(12.5) 3

(37.5) 2

(24.7) 0

(0.0) 3

(36.7) Robberies

(per 100,000) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 1

(12.7) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 1

(12.5) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) Assaults

(per 100,000) 12

(153.5) 6

(75.7) 4

(49.9) 8

(103.3) 4

(50.9) 14

(177.1) 8

(101.3) 4

(50.4) 3

(37.6) 7

(87.6) 7

(86.4) 7

(85.6) 1

(12.2) Burglaries

(per 100,000) 35

(447.7) 37

(466.8) 48

(599.3) 44

(568.1) 40

(509.2) 31

(392.2) 21

(266.0) 32

(403.2) 11

(138.0) 19

(237.7) 12

(148.1) 9

(110.0) 2

(24.5) Thefts

(per 100,000) 16

(204.7) 32

(403.7) 38

(474.5) 41

(529.4) 39

(496.4) 56

(708.5) 48

(608.0) 52

(655.2) 31

(388.8) 33

(412.9) 60

(740.6) 21

(256.7) 13

(159.0) Auto thefts

(per 100,000) 6

(76.8) 0

(0.0) 5

(62.4) 4

(51.6) 5

(63.6) 2

(25.3) 3

(38.0) 0

(0.0) 3

(37.6) 2

(25.0) 7

(86.4) 2

(24.4) 1

(12.2) Arson

(per 100,000) 1

(12.8) 1

(12.6) 3

(37.5) 2

(25.8) 1

(12.7) 1

(12.7) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) 1

(12.5) 1

(12.5) 2

(24.7) 0

(0.0) 0

(0.0) City-Data.com crime index 86.6 64.0 105.9 116.7 81.0 93.2 100.4 74.6 45.8 86.5 83.9 37.0 40.9 The City-Data.com crime index weighs serious crimes and violent crimes more heavily. Higher means more crime, U.S. average is 270.6. It adjusts for the number of visitors and daily workers commuting into cities. Click on a table row to update graph

Crime rate in Sterling detailed stats: murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, arson



Full-time law enforcement employees in 2016, including police officers: 14 (13 officers).

Officers per 1,000 residents here: 1.63 Massachusetts average: 2.57



Latest news from Sterling, MA collected exclusively by city-data.com from local newspapers, TV, and radio stations

Sterling, MA City Guides: Sterling, MA Guides 1

Ancestries: Irish (25.3%), Italian (20.3%), French (15.8%), English (13.8%), German (11.2%), French Canadian (8.0%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Elevation: 502 feet

Land area: 30.5 square miles. Population density: 256 people per square mile (very low).

130 residents are foreign born This town: 1.8% Massachusetts: 12.2%

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units in 2000: Sterling town: 1.2% ($2,419) Massachusetts: 1.3% ($2,336)

Latitude: 42.44 N, Longitude: 71.77 W

Area code: 978

Single-family new house construction building permits: 1997: 73 buildings , average cost: $120,600

73 $120,600 1998: 65 buildings , average cost: $118,900

65 $118,900 1999: 54 buildings , average cost: $121,700

54 $121,700 2000: 42 buildings , average cost: $130,000

42 $130,000 2001: 45 buildings , average cost: $138,200

45 $138,200 2002: 48 buildings , average cost: $144,700

48 $144,700 2003: 39 buildings , average cost: $152,700

39 $152,700 2004: 29 buildings , average cost: $162,100

29 $162,100 2005: 54 buildings , average cost: $177,500

54 $177,500 2006: 48 buildings , average cost: $177,500

48 $177,500 2007: 13 buildings , average cost: $203,800

13 $203,800 2008: 8 buildings , average cost: $160,600

8 $160,600 2009: 6 buildings , average cost: $225,300

6 $225,300 2010: 7 buildings , average cost: $319,400

7 $319,400 2011: 8 buildings , average cost: $170,600

8 $170,600 2012: 7 buildings , average cost: $321,400

7 $321,400 2013: 11 buildings , average cost: $258,600

11 $258,600 2014: 17 buildings , average cost: $283,000

17 $283,000 2015: 29 buildings , average cost: $257,200

29 $257,200 2016: 29 buildings , average cost: $261,800

29 $261,800 2017: 20 buildings , average cost: $200,000

20 $200,000 2018: 12 buildings , average cost: $269,300

12 $269,300 2019: 16 buildings, average cost: $285,700

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 5.4% Massachusetts: 6.2%

Most common industries in Sterling, MA (%) Both Males Females

Health care (11.1%)

Educational services (7.6%)

Construction (6.8%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (6.8%)

Computer & electronic products (5.2%)

Public administration (4.0%)

Finance & insurance (3.9%)

Construction (11.0%)

Computer & electronic products (8.6%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (7.2%)

Public administration (5.4%)

Educational services (4.6%)

Repair & maintenance (4.6%)

Miscellaneous manufacturing (3.9%)

Health care (20.7%)

Educational services (11.0%)

Professional, scientific, technical services (6.3%)

Administrative & support & waste management services (5.3%)

Finance & insurance (5.1%)

Personal & laundry services (5.0%)

Social assistance (4.0%) Most common occupations in Sterling, MA (%) Both Males Females

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (5.6%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (5.1%)

Other production occupations, including supervisors (4.8%)

Secretaries and administrative assistants (4.0%)

Engineers (3.7%)

Computer specialists (3.1%)

Preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school teachers (3.0%)

Other production occupations, including supervisors (6.8%)

Engineers (6.6%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (5.5%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (5.3%)

Computer specialists (4.5%)

Driver/sales workers and truck drivers (4.1%)

Top executives (4.0%)

Secretaries and administrative assistants (8.6%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (5.7%)

Preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school teachers (4.9%)

Other management occupations, except farmers and farm managers (4.9%)

Registered nurses (4.8%)

Health technologists and technicians (4.0%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (3.9%)

Average climate in Sterling, Massachusetts Based on data reported by over 4,000 weather stations

Air pollution and air quality trends

(lower is better) AQI CO NO 2 SO 2 Ozone PM 2.5

Air Quality Index (AQI) level in 2018 was 71.4. This is about average. City: 71.4 U.S.: 74.2

Carbon Monoxide (CO) [ppm] level in 2018 was 0.280. This is about average. Closest monitor was 11.8 miles away from the city center. City: 0.280 U.S.: 0.267

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 11.2. This is significantly worse than average. Closest monitor was 9.3 miles away from the city center. City: 11.2 U.S.: 5.6

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 ) [ppb] level in 2018 was 0.559. This is significantly better than average. Closest monitor was 6.2 miles away from the city center. City: 0.559 U.S.: 1.789

Ozone [ppb] level in 2018 was 29.7. This is about average. Closest monitor was 9.3 miles away from the city center. City: 29.7 U.S.: 33.3

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) [g/m3] level in 2018 was 6.81. This is better than average. Closest monitor was 11.0 miles away from the city center. City: 6.81 U.S.: 8.46

Tornado activity: Sterling-area historical tornado activity is slightly above Massachusetts state average. It is 19% smaller than the overall U.S. average.

On 6/9/1953, a category F4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 16.0 miles away from the Sterling town center killed 90 people and injured 1228 people and caused between $50,000,000 and $500,000,000 in damages. On 6/22/1981, a category F3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 10.1 miles away from the town center injured 3 people and caused between $5000 and $50,000 in damages.

Earthquake activity: Sterling-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Massachusetts state average. It is 71% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 10/7/1983 at 10:18:46, a magnitude 5.3 (5.1 MB, 5.3 LG, 5.1 ML, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 166.6 miles away from Sterling center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.3 (5.3 ML, Depth: 3.0 mi) earthquake occurred 173.0 miles away from the city center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MB, 4.2 MS, 5.2 MW, 5.0 MW) earthquake occurred 172.1 miles away from Sterling center

On 1/19/1982 at 00:14:42, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 MD, 4.5 LG, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 74.1 miles away from the city center

On 10/16/2012 at 23:12:25, a magnitude 4.7 (4.7 ML, Depth: 10.0 mi) earthquake occurred 98.2 miles away from Sterling center

On 8/22/1992 at 12:20:32, a magnitude 4.8 (4.8 MB, 3.8 MS, 4.7 LG, Depth: 6.2 mi) earthquake occurred 242.6 miles away from the city center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), duration magnitude (MD), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Worcester County (27) is a lot greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 15

Emergencies Declared: 12



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 9, Storms: 8, Hurricanes: 6, Snowstorms: 5, Winter Storms: 4, Blizzards: 2, Snows: 2, Fire: 1, Heavy Rain: 1, Snowfall: 1, Tornado: 1, Wind: 1 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Hospitals and medical centers in Sterling: STERLING VILLAGE (18 DANA HILL ROAD) Other hospitals and medical centers near Sterling: OAKDALE NURSING HOME (Nursing Home, about 4 miles away; WEST BOYLSTON, MA)

OAKDALE REHABILITATION AND SKILLED NURSING CENTER (Nursing Home, about 4 miles away; WEST BOYLSTON, MA)

CLINTON HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION Acute Care Hospitals (about 5 miles away; CLINTON, MA)

Acute Care Hospitals CLINTON MANOR NURSING HOME (Nursing Home, about 5 miles away; CLINTON, MA)

KINDRED NURSING AND REHABILITATION-RIVER TERRACE (Nursing Home, about 6 miles away; LANCASTER, MA)

PRESENTATION HEALTH CARE CENTER (Nursing Home, about 7 miles away; LEOMINSTER, MA)

FAIRLAWN N H (Nursing Home, about 7 miles away; LEOMINSTER, MA)

Airports located in Sterling: Sterling Airport (3B3) (Runways: 2, Air Taxi Ops: 20, Itinerant Ops: 14,000, Local Ops: 35,200, Military Ops: 35)

Amtrak station near Sterling: 13 miles: WORCESTER (WORCHESTER, 45 SHREWSBURY ST.) . Services: ticket office, fully wheelchair accessible, enclosed waiting area, public restrooms, public payphones, vending machines, free short-term parking, free long-term parking, call for taxi service, public transit connection.

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Sterling: Quinsigamond Community College ( about 9 miles; Worcester, MA ; Full-time enrollment: 5,877)

9 ; 5,877) Assumption College ( about 11 miles; Worcester, MA ; FT enrollment: 2,580)

11 ; 2,580) Fitchburg State University ( about 11 miles; Fitchburg, MA ; FT enrollment: 5,010)

11 ; 5,010) Worcester Polytechnic Institute ( about 12 miles; Worcester, MA ; FT enrollment: 3,930)

12 ; 3,930) Worcester State University ( about 13 miles; Worcester, MA ; FT enrollment: 5,426)

13 ; 5,426) Clark University ( about 14 miles; Worcester, MA ; FT enrollment: 3,687)

14 ; 3,687) College of the Holy Cross (about 14 miles; Worcester, MA; FT enrollment: 3,125) Public elementary/middle schools in Sterling: HOUGHTON ELEMENTARY ( Students: 503, Location: 32 BOUTELLE ROAD, Grades: KG-4)

( 503, 32 BOUTELLE ROAD, KG-4) CHOCKSETT MIDDLE SCHOOL (Students: 425, Location: 40 BOUTELLE ROAD, Grades: 5-8) See full list of schools located in Sterling

Library in Sterling: CONANT FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY (Operating income: $320,791; Location: 4 MEETINGHOUSE HILL ROAD; 26,444 books; 97 e-books; 2,079 audio materials; 2,178 video materials; 3 local licensed databases; 34 state licensed databases; 77 print serial subscriptions; 2 electronic serial subscriptions)

Birthplace of: Jay Cutler (bodybuilder) - Bodybuilder, Prentiss Mellen - Judge, Nathaniel Wright - Politician, Patrick Tatten - Film actor.

Worcester County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Highest Potential

Drinking water stations with addresses in Sterling and their reported violations in the past: STERLING WATER DEPARTMENT (Population served: 6,288, Groundwater): Past health violations: MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In JUL-2010 , Contaminant: Coliform . Follow-up actions: St Boil Water Order (JUL-21-2010) , St Compliance achieved (SEP-20-2010) , St AO (w/o penalty) issued (SEP-20-2010)

JUL-2010 Coliform St Boil Water Order (JUL-21-2010) St Compliance achieved (SEP-20-2010) St AO (w/o penalty) issued (SEP-20-2010) MCL, Average - Between JUL-2008 and SEP-2008 , Contaminant: Perchlorate . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (NOV-18-2008)

JUL-2008 SEP-2008 Perchlorate St AO (w/o penalty) issued (NOV-18-2008) MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In AUG-2006 , Contaminant: Coliform . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-10-2006)

AUG-2006 Coliform St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-10-2006) MCL, Monthly (TCR) - In JUL-2006, Contaminant: Coliform. Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (OCT-10-2006) Past monitoring violations: Monitoring and Reporting (DBP) - Between APR-2014 and JUN-2014 , Contaminant: Chlorine . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (SEP-10-2014)

APR-2014 JUN-2014 Chlorine St AO (w/o penalty) issued (SEP-10-2014) Follow-up Or Routine LCR Tap M/R - In JUL-01-2009 , Contaminant: Lead and Copper Rule . Follow-up actions: St AO (w/o penalty) issued (MAR-01-2010), St Compliance achieved (JUN-05-2012)

JUL-01-2009 Lead and Copper Rule St AO (w/o penalty) issued (MAR-01-2010), St Compliance achieved (JUN-05-2012) 5 minor monitoring violations

24 regular monitoring violations STERLING WATER DEPARTMENT (6,288Groundwater):

Average household size: This town: 2.7 people Massachusetts: 2.5 people

Percentage of family households: This town: 77.2% Whole state: 63.0%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This town: 4.7% Whole state: 7.0%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.4% of all households

0.4% Gay men: 0.0% of all households Residents with income below the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 2.9% Whole state: 9.3% Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 0.6% Whole state: 4.4%

141 people in nursing facilities/skilled-nursing facilities in 2010

4 people in group homes intended for adults in 2010

Banks with branches in Sterling (2011 data): Sovereign Bank, National Association: Sterling Branch at 37 Main Street , branch established on 1972/08/26 . Info updated 2012/01/31: Bank assets: $78,146.9 mil , Deposits: $48,042.9 mil , headquarters in Wilmington, DE , positive income , Commercial Lending Specialization , 718 total offices , Holding Company: Banco Santander, S.A.

37 Main Street 1972/08/26 2012/01/31: $78,146.9 mil $48,042.9 mil Wilmington, DE , Commercial Lending Specialization 718 Banco Santander, S.A. Clinton Savings Bank: Sterling Branch at One Main Street, branch established on 1979/05/07. Info updated 2012/04/03: Bank assets: $479.5 mil, Deposits: $362.7 mil, headquarters in Clinton, MA, positive income, Mortgage Lending Specialization, 7 total offices, Holding Company: Clinton Financial Services, Mhc

For population 15 years and over in Sterling: Never married: 21.1%

21.1% Now married: 67.0%

67.0% Separated: 1.3%

1.3% Widowed: 4.5%

4.5% Divorced: 6.1%

For population 25 years and over in Sterling: High school or higher: 91.7%

91.7% Bachelor's degree or higher: 35.9%

35.9% Graduate or professional degree: 12.2%

12.2% Unemployed: 1.7%

1.7% Mean travel time to work (commute): 28.8 minutes

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 10.1 Massachusetts average: 13.1



Religion statistics for Sterling, MA (based on Worcester County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Catholic 306,925 118 Mainline Protestant 43,326 171 Evangelical Protestant 37,511 203 Other 18,931 69 Orthodox 7,935 15 Black Protestant 497 6 None 383,427 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 135 This county : 1.73 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 1.98 / 10,000 pop. Number of supercenters and club stores: 4 Worcester County : 0.05 / 10,000 pop. State : 0.05 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 140 This county : 1.79 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 2.22 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 174 Worcester County : 2.22 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 1.77 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 569 This county : 7.27 / 10,000 pop. Massachusetts : 8.76 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: This county : 8.0% Massachusetts : 8.1% Adult obesity rate: Here : 24.0% Massachusetts : 22.5% Low-income preschool obesity rate: Worcester County : 16.6% State : 16.5%

4.16% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($64,114 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.16% Massachusetts average: 5.79% 0.03% of residents moved from foreign countries ($598 average AGI) Worcester County: 0.03% Massachusetts average: 0.05%

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Middlesex County, MA 1.22% ($72,434 average AGI) from Norfolk County, MA 0.28% ($80,228) from Suffolk County, MA 0.20% ($65,864)



4.47% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($70,534 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.47% Massachusetts average: 6.31% 0.03% of residents moved to foreign countries ($414 average AGI) Worcester County: 0.03% Massachusetts average: 0.08%

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Middlesex County, MA 0.92% ($71,780 average AGI) to Norfolk County, MA 0.26% ($69,053) to Suffolk County, MA 0.23% ($82,087)

Businesses in Sterling, MA Name Count Name Count Dunkin Donuts 1 True Value 1 FedEx 1 UPS 1 MasterBrand Cabinets 5

Strongest AM radio stations in Sterling: WCRN (830 AM; 50 kW; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WTAG (580 AM; 5 kW; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WKOX (1200 AM; 50 kW; FRAMINGHAM, MA; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WBIX (1060 AM; 40 kW; NATICK, MA; Owner: LANGER BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

LANGER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WRKO (680 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WVNE (760 AM; daytime; 25 kW; LEICESTER, MA; Owner: BLOUNT MASSCOM, INC.)

BLOUNT MASSCOM, INC.) WEEI (850 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WAMG (890 AM; 25 kW; DEDHAM, MA; Owner: MEGA COMMUNICATIONS OF DEDHAM LICENSEE, LLC)

MEGA COMMUNICATIONS OF DEDHAM LICENSEE, LLC) WAZN (1470 AM; 7 kW; MARLBOROUGH, MA; Owner: MULTICULTURAL RADIO BROADCASTING, INC.)

MULTICULTURAL RADIO BROADCASTING, INC.) WALE (990 AM; 50 kW; GREENVILLE, RI; Owner: NORTH AMERICAN BROADCASTING CO., INC.)

NORTH AMERICAN BROADCASTING CO., INC.) WWZN (1510 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ROSE CITY RADIO CORPORATION)

ROSE CITY RADIO CORPORATION) WEIM (1280 AM; 5 kW; FITCHBURG, MA; Owner: LIVEAIR COMMUNICATIONS, INC.)

LIVEAIR COMMUNICATIONS, INC.) WVEI (1440 AM; 5 kW; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) Strongest FM radio stations in Sterling: WXLO (104.5 FM; FITCHBURG, MA; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY)

CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) WAAF (107.3 FM; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WSRS (96.1 FM; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WFEX (92.1 FM; PETERBOROUGH, NH; Owner: FNX BROADCASTING OF NEW HAMPSHIRE LLC)

FNX BROADCASTING OF NEW HAMPSHIRE LLC) WICN (90.5 FM; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: WICN PUBLIC RADIO, INC)

WICN PUBLIC RADIO, INC) WBMX (98.5 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.)

INFINITY RADIO OPERATIONS INC.) WJMN (94.5 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.)

AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.) WCRB (102.5 FM; WALTHAM, MA; Owner: CHARLES RIVER BROADCASTING WCRB LICE)

CHARLES RIVER BROADCASTING WCRB LICE) WTKK (96.9 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WROR-FM (105.7 FM; FRAMINGHAM, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WBOS (92.9 FM; BROOKLINE, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WGBH (89.7 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WBUR-FM (90.9 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY)

TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY) WXKS-FM (107.9 FM; MEDFORD, MA; Owner: AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.)

AMFM RADIO LICENSES, L.L.C.) WMJX (106.7 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.)

GREATER BOSTON RADIO, INC.) WODS (103.3 FM; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WFCR (88.5 FM; AMHERST, MA; Owner: UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS)

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS) WGIR-FM (101.1 FM; MANCHESTER, NH; Owner: CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP)

CAPSTAR TX LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) WBPR (91.9 FM; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS)

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS) WAHL (99.9 FM; ATHOL, MA; Owner: CITADEL BROADCASTING COMPANY) TV broadcast stations around Sterling: WUNI ( Channel 27; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: ENTRAVISION HOLDINGS, LLC)

27; WORCESTER, MA; ENTRAVISION HOLDINGS, LLC) WUTF ( Channel 66; MARLBOROUGH, MA; Owner: TELEFUTURA BOSTON LLC)

66; MARLBOROUGH, MA; TELEFUTURA BOSTON LLC) WCVB-TV ( Channel 5; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WCVB HEARST-ARGYLE TV, INC.)

5; BOSTON, MA; WCVB HEARST-ARGYLE TV, INC.) WGBH-TV ( Channel 2; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

2; BOSTON, MA; WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WHDH-TV ( Channel 7; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WHDH-TV)

7; BOSTON, MA; WHDH-TV) WMFP ( Channel 62; LAWRENCE, MA; Owner: WSAH LICENSE, INC.)

62; LAWRENCE, MA; WSAH LICENSE, INC.) WBZ-TV ( Channel 4; BOSTON, MA; Owner: VIACOM INC.)

4; BOSTON, MA; VIACOM INC.) WGBX-TV ( Channel 44; BOSTON, MA; Owner: WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION)

44; BOSTON, MA; WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION) WSBK-TV ( Channel 38; BOSTON, MA; Owner: VIACOM INC.)

38; BOSTON, MA; VIACOM INC.) WLVI-TV ( Channel 56; CAMBRIDGE, MA; Owner: WLVI, INC.)

56; CAMBRIDGE, MA; WLVI, INC.) WFXT ( Channel 25; BOSTON, MA; Owner: FOX TELEVISION STATIONS INC.)

25; BOSTON, MA; FOX TELEVISION STATIONS INC.) WYDN ( Channel 48; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC TV CORPORATION)

48; WORCESTER, MA; EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC TV CORPORATION) W40BO ( Channel 40; BOSTON, MA; Owner: PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LPTV, INC.)

40; BOSTON, MA; PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS LPTV, INC.) WBPX ( Channel 68; BOSTON, MA; Owner: PAXSON BOSTON-68 LICENSE, INC.)

68; BOSTON, MA; PAXSON BOSTON-68 LICENSE, INC.) WCRN-LP ( Channel 34; LEICESTER, MA; Owner: CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

34; LEICESTER, MA; CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) WFXZ-CA ( Channel 24; BOSTON, MA; Owner: BOSTON BROADCASTING CORP.)

24; BOSTON, MA; BOSTON BROADCASTING CORP.) WTMU-LP ( Channel 32; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ZGS BOSTON, INC.)

32; BOSTON, MA; ZGS BOSTON, INC.) WCEA-LP ( Channel 58; BOSTON, MA; Owner: CHANNEL 19 TV CORPORATION)

58; BOSTON, MA; CHANNEL 19 TV CORPORATION) WNDS (Channel 50; DERRY, NH; Owner: CTV OF DERRY, INC)

Sterling fatal accident statistics for 1975 - 2019

See more detailed statistics of Sterling fatal car crashes and road traffic accidents for 1975 - 2019 here

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics

31 Number of bridges

Number of bridges 302ft / 92.1m Total length

Total length $56,436,000 Total costs

Total costs 464,211 Total average daily traffic

Total average daily traffic 62,844 Total average daily truck traffic

Total average daily truck traffic 653,107 Total future (year 2031) average daily traffic

New bridges - historical statistics

1 1910-1919

1 1940-1949

20 1970-1979

5 1980-1989

1 1990-1999

2 2000-2009

1 2010-2018 See full National Bridge Inventory statistics for Sterling, MA

2002 - 2018 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents According to the data from the years 2002 - 2018 the average number of fire incidents per year is 38. The highest number of fire incidents - 61 took place in 2007, and the least - 11 in 2002. The data has a growing trend.



Fire incident types reported to NFIRS in Sterling, MA



264 40.7% Structure Fires



214 33.0% Outside Fires



112 17.3% Mobile Property/Vehicle Fires



59 9.1% Other When looking into fire subcategories, the most incidents belonged to: Structure Fires (40.7%), and Outside Fires (33.0%). See full National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Sterling, MA

Houses and condos Apartments 89.9% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

3.2% Electricity

3.0% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

2.6% Wood

0.6% Solar energy

0.5% Utility gas

0.3% Coal or coke 66.5% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

21.3% Electricity

6.8% Bottled, tank, or LP gas

2.9% Other fuel

2.6% Wood





Sterling compared to Massachusetts state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Median age above state average.

above Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Renting percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Length of stay since moving in significantly above state average.

significantly above Number of rooms per house significantly below state average.

significantly below House age significantly below state average.

significantly below Number of college students below state average.

Sterling on our top lists: #13 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: personal and laundry services (population 5,000+)"

#18 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: financial managers (population 5,000+)"

#23 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: nonmetallic mineral products (population 5,000+)"

#31 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: plastics and rubber products (population 5,000+)"

#32 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: nonmetallic mineral products (population 5,000+)"

#36 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: repair and maintenance (population 5,000+)"

#43 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: therapists (population 5,000+)"

#48 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: miscellaneous manufacturing (population 5,000+)"

#51 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: computer and electronic products (population 5,000+)"

#53 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: mathematical science occupations (population 5,000+)"

#55 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: motor vehicle operators except bus and truck drivers (population 5,000+)"

#58 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in occupations: engineers (population 5,000+)"

#61 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in occupations: operations specialties managers except financial managers (population 5,000+)"

#61 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of females in industries: machinery, equipment, and supplies merchant wholesalers (population 5,000+)"

#70 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: printing and related support activities (population 5,000+)"

#74 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: book stores and news dealers (population 5,000+)"

#75 on the list of "Top 101 cities with largest percentage of males in industries: electrical and electronic goods merchant wholesalers (population 5,000+)" #60 (01564) on the list of "Top 101 zip codes with the largest percentage of Scottish first ancestries (pop 5,000+)" #4 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the highest carbon monoxide air pollution readings in 2012 (ppm)"

#5 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the most Catholic congregations"

#12 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the highest surface withdrawal of fresh water for public supply"

#16 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the highest total withdrawal of fresh water for public supply"

#23 on the list of "Top 101 counties with the highest Sulfur Oxides Annual air pollution readings in 2012 (g/m3)"

Cost of Living Calculator Your current salary: State of origin: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming Destination state: Choose state Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming




Woodville, Maine

Submit your own pictures of this town and show them to the world



OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

General Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map OSM Map

Google Map

MSN Map Please wait while loading the map...

Population in 2010: 248.

Population change since 2000: -13.3%

248.-13.3%

Males: 130 (52.4%) Females: 118 (47.6%)

Median resident age: 44.8 years Maine median age: 43.0 years

Zip codes: 04457.

Estimated median household income in 2019: $52,438 (it was $35,625 in 2000)

Woodville: $52,438 ME: $58,924

Estimated per capita income in 2019: $26,320 (it was $15,491 in 2000)



Woodville town income, earnings, and wages data



Estimated median house or condo value in 2019: $130,378 (it was $65,400 in 2000) Woodville: $130,378 ME: $200,500

Mean prices in 2019: all housing units: $170,506; detached houses: $186,641; townhouses or other attached units: $165,470; in 2-unit structures: $188,869; in 3-to-4-unit structures: $447,223; in 5-or-more-unit structures: $287,906; mobile homes: $67,592; occupied boats, rvs, vans, etc.: $26,279 $52,438 ($35,625$26,320 ($15,491$130,378 ($65,400$170,506;$186,641;$165,470;$188,869;$447,223;$287,906;$67,592;$26,279

March 2019 cost of living index in Woodville: 91.3 (less than average, U.S. average is 100)

Business Search - 14 Million verified businesses

Search for: near:



244 98.4% White alone 4 1.6% Two or more races

Races in Woodville detailed stats: ancestries, foreign born residents, place of birth





According to our research of Maine and other state lists, there was 1 registered sex offender living in Woodville, Maine as of November 21, 2021.

The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Woodville is 248 to 1.





Ancestries: United States (37.4%), French (13.3%), Irish (8.7%), English (8.0%), French Canadian (3.8%), German (3.5%).

Current Local Time: EST time zone

Land area: 42.9 square miles. Population density: 5.8 people per square mile (very low).

3 residents are foreign born This town: 1.0% Maine: 2.9%

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units in 2000: Woodville town: 1.1% ($750) Maine: 1.5% ($1,417)

Latitude: 45.50 N, Longitude: 68.44 W

Area code commonly used in this area: 207

Single-family new house construction building permits: 1997: 1 building , cost: $22,000

1 $22,000 1998: 1 building , cost: $22,000

1 $22,000 1999: 1 building , cost: $22,000

1 $22,000 2000: 1 building , cost: $22,000

1 $22,000 2001: 1 building , cost: $22,000

1 $22,000 2010: 1 building, cost: $25,000

Unemployment in November 2020:

Here: 10.9% Maine: 4.7%

Most common industries in Woodville, ME (%) Both Males Females

Paper (28.4%)

Health care (9.5%)

Construction (6.9%)

Public administration (6.9%)

Educational services (6.9%)

Metal & metal products (4.3%)

Administrative & support & waste management services (4.3%)

Paper (41.4%)

Construction (11.4%)

Administrative & support & waste management services (7.1%)

Machinery (5.7%)

Metal & metal products (4.3%)

Wood products (4.3%)

Truck transportation (4.3%)

Health care (23.9%)

Educational services (17.4%)

Public administration (13.0%)

Paper (8.7%)

Publishing, motion picture & sound recording industries (6.5%)

Metal & metal products (4.3%)

Food & beverage stores (4.3%) Most common occupations in Woodville, ME (%) Both Males Females

Electrical equipment mechanics and other installation, maintenance, and repair workers, including supervisors (9.5%)

Laborers and material movers, hand (6.9%)

Other production occupations, including supervisors (6.9%)

Metal workers and plastic workers (6.0%)

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (5.2%)

Registered nurses (5.2%)

Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides (4.3%)

Electrical equipment mechanics and other installation, maintenance, and repair workers, including supervisors (15.7%)

Other production occupations, including supervisors (11.4%)

Laborers and material movers, hand (11.4%)

Metal workers and plastic workers (7.1%)

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (5.7%)

Other sales and related occupations, including supervisors (5.7%)

Other material moving workers, except laborers (5.7%)

Registered nurses (13.0%)

Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides (10.9%)

Other office and administrative support workers, including supervisors (8.7%)

Media and communications workers (6.5%)

Information and record clerks, except customer service representatives (4.3%)

Cooks and food preparation workers (4.3%)

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (4.3%)

Average climate in Woodville, Maine Based on data reported by over 4,000 weather stations

Earthquake activity: Woodville-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Maine state average. It is 83% smaller than the overall U.S. average.



On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.3 (5.3 ML, Depth: 3.0 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 265.9 miles away from Woodville center

On 4/20/2002 at 10:50:47, a magnitude 5.2 (5.2 MB, 4.2 MS, 5.2 MW, 5.0 MW) earthquake occurred 267.3 miles away from Woodville center

On 10/16/2012 at 23:12:25, a magnitude 4.7 (4.7 ML, Depth: 10.0 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 171.0 miles away from Woodville center

On 10/7/1983 at 10:18:46, a magnitude 5.3 (5.1 MB, 5.3 LG, 5.1 ML) earthquake occurred 309.0 miles away from the city center

On 1/19/1982 at 00:14:42, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 MD, 4.5 LG) earthquake occurred 208.4 miles away from Woodville center

On 9/16/1994 at 04:22:42, a magnitude 3.6 (3.6 LG, Depth: 3.1 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: II - III) earthquake occurred 17.2 miles away from Woodville center

Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), duration magnitude (MD), local magnitude (ML), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW)

Natural disasters: The number of natural disasters in Penobscot County (19) is greater than the US average (15).

Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 11

Emergencies Declared: 7



Causes of natural disasters: Floods: 9, Storms: 8, Snows: 5, Heavy Rains: 2, Blizzard: 1, Hurricane: 1, Ice Storm: 1, Snowfall: 1, Wind: 1, Winter Storm: 1, Other: 2 (Note: some incidents may be assigned to more than one category).

Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Woodville: University of Maine ( about 44 miles; Orono, ME ; Full-time enrollment: 8,931)

44 ; 8,931) Husson University ( about 50 miles; Bangor, ME ; FT enrollment: 2,421)

50 ; 2,421) University of Maine at Farmington ( about 102 miles; Farmington, ME ; FT enrollment: 2,036)

102 ; 2,036) University of Maine at Augusta ( about 105 miles; Augusta, ME ; FT enrollment: 3,204)

105 ; 3,204) Saint Joseph's College of Maine ( about 154 miles; Standish, ME ; FT enrollment: 2,010)

154 ; 2,010) Southern Maine Community College ( about 156 miles; South Portland, ME ; FT enrollment: 4,666)

156 ; 4,666) University of Southern Maine (about 156 miles; Portland, ME; FT enrollment: 6,647)

Penobscot County has a predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L (pico curies per liter) - Highest Potential

Average household size: This town: 2.5 people Maine: 2.3 people

Percentage of family households: This town: 78.0% Whole state: 62.9%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners: This town: 4.0% Whole state: 9.4%



Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households) Lesbian couples: 0.0% of all households

0.0% Gay men: 1.0% of all households Residents with income below the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 7.3% Whole state: 10.9% Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2009:

This town: 3.6% Whole state: 4.1%

For population 15 years and over in Woodville: Never married: 14.1%

14.1% Now married: 69.6%

69.6% Separated: 1.0%

1.0% Widowed: 3.1%

3.1% Divorced: 12.0%

For population 25 years and over in Woodville: High school or higher: 81.5%

81.5% Bachelor's degree or higher: 2.4%

2.4% Graduate or professional degree: 0.0%

0.0% Unemployed: 1.7%

1.7% Mean travel time to work (commute): 25.1 minutes

Education Gini index (Inequality in education) Here: 7.4 Maine average: 11.2



Religion statistics for Woodville, ME (based on Penobscot County data) Religion Adherents Congregations Catholic 16,581 15 Mainline Protestant 9,715 59 Evangelical Protestant 7,523 80 Other 2,936 22 Orthodox 300 1 None 116,868 - Source: Clifford Grammich, Kirk Hadaway, Richard Houseal, Dale E.Jones, Alexei Krindatch, Richie Stanley and Richard H.Taylor. 2012. 2010 U.S.Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Jones, Dale E., et al. 2002. Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center. Graphs represent county-level data

Food Environment Statistics: Number of grocery stores: 34 Here : 2.29 / 10,000 pop. Maine : 2.80 / 10,000 pop. Number of supercenters and club stores: 2 Penobscot County : 0.13 / 10,000 pop. State : 0.14 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (no gas): 38 Here : 2.56 / 10,000 pop. Maine : 2.20 / 10,000 pop. Number of convenience stores (with gas): 85 Here : 5.72 / 10,000 pop. Maine : 5.75 / 10,000 pop. Number of full-service restaurants: 110 Penobscot County : 7.41 / 10,000 pop. State : 11.02 / 10,000 pop. Adult diabetes rate: Here : 9.0% State : 8.2% Adult obesity rate: Penobscot County : 28.0% State : 25.0%

4.70% of this county's 2016 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2015 ($42,368 average adjusted gross income) Here: 4.70% Maine average: 5.91% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved from foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2015 and 2016:

from Hancock County, ME 0.46% ($39,233 average AGI) from Somerset County, ME 0.31% ($32,551) from Waldo County, ME 0.30% ($35,315)



5.36% of this county's 2015 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2016 ($47,844 average adjusted gross income) Here: 5.36% Maine average: 5.73% 10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2015 and 2016.

Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2015 and 2016:

to Cumberland County, ME 0.52% ($78,156 average AGI) to Hancock County, ME 0.43% ($64,636) to Waldo County, ME 0.35% ($39,428)

Strongest AM radio stations in Woodville: WZON (620 AM; 5 kW; BANGOR, ME; Owner: THE ZONE CORPORATION)

THE ZONE CORPORATION) WSYY (1240 AM; 1 kW; MILLINOCKET, ME; Owner: KATAHDIN BROADCASTING, INC.)

KATAHDIN BROADCASTING, INC.) WABI (910 AM; 5 kW; BANGOR, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WREM (710 AM; daytime; 5 kW; MONTICELLO, ME; Owner: ALLAN H WEINER)

ALLAN H WEINER) WSKW (1160 AM; 10 kW; SKOWHEGAN, ME; Owner: MOUNTAIN WIRELESS, INCORPORATED)

MOUNTAIN WIRELESS, INCORPORATED) WRKO (680 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WTME (780 AM; 10 kW; RUMFORD, ME; Owner: MOUNTAIN VALLEY BROADCASTING, INC.)

MOUNTAIN VALLEY BROADCASTING, INC.) WEEI (850 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC)

ENTERCOM BOSTON LICENSE, LLC) WFST (600 AM; 5 kW; CARIBOU, ME; Owner: NORTHERN BROADCAST MINISTRIES, INC.)

NORTHERN BROADCAST MINISTRIES, INC.) WBZ (1030 AM; 50 kW; BOSTON, MA; Owner: INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.)

INFINITY BROADCASTING OPERATIONS, INC.) WNNZ (640 AM; 50 kW; WESTFIELD, MA; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WCHP (760 AM; 35 kW; CHAMPLAIN, NY; Owner: CHAMPLAIN RADIO, INC.)

CHAMPLAIN RADIO, INC.) WCRN (830 AM; 50 kW; WORCESTER, MA; Owner: CARTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION) Strongest FM radio stations in Woodville: WVOM (103.9 FM; HOWLAND, ME; Owner: CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.)

CLEAR CHANNEL BROADCASTING LICENSES, INC.) WHCF (88.5 FM; BANGOR, ME; Owner: BANGOR BAPTIST CHURCH)

BANGOR BAPTIST CHURCH) WHMX (105.7 FM; LINCOLN, ME; Owner: BANGOR BAPTIST CHURCH)

BANGOR BAPTIST CHURCH) WSYY-FM (94.9 FM; MILLINOCKET, ME; Owner: KATAHDIN COMMUNICATIONS, INC.) TV broadcast stations around Woodville: W34CN (Channel 34; MEDWAY, ME; Owner: TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK)

FCC Registered Antenna Towers: 8 (



FCC Registered Microwave Towers: 1 Woodville, 51 Glidden Lane (#284992) (Lat: 45.476000 Lon: -68.491694), Type: Ltower, Structure height: 76.5 m, Overall height: 78 m, Call Sign: WQXS909,

Assigned Frequencies: 11225.0 MHz, 11385.0 MHz, 11225.0 MHz, 11385.0 MHz, 11225.0 MHz, 11385.0 MHz, 11225.0 MHz, 11385.0 MHz, 11225.0 MHz, 11385.0 MHz... (+8 more), Grant Date: 05/31/2016, Expiration Date: 05/31/2026, Cancellation Date: 09/17/2020, Certifier: Jessica B Lyons, Registrant: At&t Services, Inc., 208 S. Akard St., Room 2100, Dallas, TX 75202, Phone: (855) 699-7073, Email:

FAA Registered Aircraft: 1 Aircraft: PIPER J3C-65 (Category: Land, Seats: 2, Weight: Up to 12,499 Pounds, Speed: 67 mph), Engine: CONT MOTOR A&C65 SERIES (65 HP) (Reciprocating)

N-Number: 92439, N92439, N-92439, Serial Number: 16906, Year manufactured: 1946, Airworthiness Date: 11/23/1955, Certificate Issue Date: 08/10/1987

Registrant (Individual): Walter V Goodine, 1497 Woodville Rd, Woodville, ME 04457

8 ( See the full list of FCC Registered Antenna Towers in Woodville

Houses and condos Apartments 92.3% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

4.4% Wood

3.3% Bottled, tank, or LP gas 62.5% Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.

37.5% No fuel used





Woodville compared to Maine state average: Median house value below state average.

below Unemployed percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Black race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Hispanic race population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Renting percentage significantly below state average.

significantly below Length of stay since moving in significantly above state average.

significantly above Number of rooms per house significantly below state average.

significantly below House age significantly below state average.

significantly below Percentage of population with a bachelor's degree or higher significantly below state average.
In 2020, ten South Carolina newspapers closed. Unfortunately, The Union Times could not survive the COVID-19 Virus and the havoc it has wreaked upon the world, one editor from Union County wrote in his farewell note. The same was true for many publications across the country, where the pandemic exacerbated the attrition already plaguing many community newsrooms. Now, the Post and CourierSouth Carolinas largest newspaper and a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2021has launched a project intended to fill in some of the gaps. The project is called Uncovered, and it devotes Post and Courier resources toward reporting in communities that no longer have access to robust accountability reporting of their own.

When so many local newspapers started to go belly-up amid the pandemic, it only made sense to spread the resources across the state. This year, the Post and Courier team started reaching out to local community newspapers and offering support on corruption stories: reporting resources, FOIA funding, offering fully-reported stories for free. Having experienced parachute reporting from national outlets in the past, the team was wary of stepping on local reporters work, Tony Bartelme, one of the papers lead investigative journalists, says. We kind of tentatively said, Look, were gonna do these stories, and were gonna give them to you for nothing. And you can participate if you want. If you dont, no worries. Their model is flexible, Glenn Smith, the project editor, adds. We can either come in and work alongside you to report the story. If we write a story and youre more interested in doing something a little more narrow in your area, you can absolutely cite our findings and do your own story.

In 2018, a team of Post and Courier reporters broke the news that a South Carolina prosecutor named Dan Johnson had spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on parties and personal luxuries: home plate seats at a Minnesota Twins game, a stay at a deluxe hotel in the Galapagos Islands, high-end Uber rides. The story led to an investigation by South Carolinas Attorney General; a federal judge sentenced Johnson to a year in prison, and eventually, Johnson was disbarred. Soon after, the Post and Couriers team dug in deep on the task of investigating state-wide corruption; for an investigation into local police department spending, they blanketed the state with FOIA requests and found uncovered corruption in multiple counties. In reporting one of the sheriff stories, the Post and Courier team worked closely with a reporter in Chester County. The team got a sense of how difficult it was to do the intensive work of accountability reporting at smaller papers and how much heavy lifting local reporters were doing already. They saw an opportunity for a mutually beneficial relationship, Smith says. Community newspapers had the sourcing and the institutional knowledge; the Post and Courier had resources. The epiphany that we had was that this collaboration actually enhances everybodys well being, if done properly, Bartelme says. We were so used to competing, and we realized that we were going after different readers, and were serving different readers.

Since the project launched in late 2020, the Uncovered teamwhich comprises six full-time reportershas produced investigations, created a statewide corruption tracker map, and maintained running updates on local investigations. Board members of a natural gas authority in one South Carolina county are now required to disclose discounts and rebates received, and lawmakers investigated questionable spending practices at a public residential high schoolfirst reported by the Uncovered project. Bartelme says these check-ins with their community partners can really move the story along.

And readers have responded with support. Around the time the Post and Courier launched the Uncovered series, the paper re-focused its efforts on a new investigative reporting fund, one that had already amassed $20,000 in donations. After the Uncovered project launched, the Post and Courier aimed to raise $100,000 dollars in 100 days. They have raised more than $500,000 for their investigative work.

Even while it tries to supplement the role of local community newspapers across the state, the Uncovered project has also tried to highlight both the vulnerability of such papers and their importance. Corruption has flourished in South Carolina as newspapers close and shrink, creating news deserts and ghost papers across the Palmetto State, the projects About page says. In mid-October, reporters Jennifer Berry Hawes and Stephen Hobbs published a deeply-reported piece highlighting the work of some of South Carolinas surviving community newspapers. Its important not to just say that newspapers across the state are closing, or that there are small newspapers that are running small staffs, Hobbs told CJR. Its to see what that looks like in practice, and show that.

Sign up for CJR 's daily email

Though Hawes says she weighed the possibility that journalism about the loss of journalism could come across as self-interested, in this case, that was a risk she was willing to take. I do think that we have to take off that hat once in a while and allow ourselves to be part of the news because there is a real impact on the communities when these newspapers are gone, Hawes says. That is news that we should cover.

Matthew Hensley, managing editor of Greenwoods Index Journal, has worked on investigations in his community with support from the Post and Courier (which has provided, among other things, funding for FOIA requests). He says that the Uncovered project has also drawn attention to the value of accountability reporting in small communities. A lot of local people have become more aware of what the laws are, and become more concerned, Hensley says. This is why this is important.

We realize the public has to understand, Hawes adds. You may not think its gonna matter to have your newspapers gone, or you dont subscribe, because you dont want to fork out your ten bucks a month, but theres a real impact, and you need to be aware.

The Journalism Crisis Project aims to train our focus on the present crisis, and to foster a conversation about what comes next. We hope youll join us. (Click to subscribe!)

EXPLORE THE TOW CENTERS COVID-19 CUTBACK TRACKER: Over the past year, researchers at the Tow Center have collected reports of a wide range of cutbacks amid the pandemic. Theres an interactive map and searchable database. You can find it here.

Below, more on recent media trends and changes in newsrooms:

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Lauren Harris is a freelance journalist. She writes CJR's weekly newsletter for the Journalism Crisis Project. Follow her on Twitter @LHarrisWrites.
GLASGOW  Yesterday, I was leaving the media center at the COP26 climate conference when I found the exit obstructed by a media scrum. A small group of people were holding what looked like an impromptu press conference; several of them were brandishing a newspaper ad (from the Financial Times, I think) asking whether the US had kept its climate-finance promises to poorer nations and answering NOPE, in the style of Shepard Faireys Obama HOPE poster. So many journalists were crowded around the group that it was hard for me to hear what was being said. A Spanish journalist asked me what was going on, and I said I had no idea. He took out his phone, hit record, and thrust it over the heads of the reporters in front of us. Soon after that, a cameraman politely said excuse me and nudged past me without waiting for me to excuse him. He gently knocked the Spanish journalist on the head with his camera; thirty seconds later, he walked off. Eventually, the scrum atomized into separate mini-scrums as the speakers took individual questions from reporters. Security staffers seemed annoyed that we were blocking the door.

This morning, I returned to the media center before 8am, Glasgow time, and it was very quiet. Downstairs, a journalist unwittingly flirted with putting butter in his tea but was advised not to; upstairs, a handful of reporters were already perched at long rows of desks. As I took a seat, rain began to sweep over the River Clyde, which was visible through a long glass wall to my right, and patter on the flared tents that make up the ceiling. The media center is as far from the entrance to the conference venue as you can physically get (if the floor plan looks a bit like a gravy boat, security is the handle and the media center is the spout); it has a small cafe, outdoor seating, various studios and broadcast facilities, and individual toilet cubicles that are vigorously disinfected by a small army of attendants every time someone uses one. Most of the time, the media center isnt too noisy, but its usually just noisy enough to make recording audio difficult. Yesterday, I tried to join a remote podcast taping in a downstairs room that shook every time someone walked over the top of it. (I was sick and tired of everything when I called in last night from Glasgow. I wasnt actually, but I did promise to make this joke and this is my last chance.)

Previously at COP26: The Peoples Summit, Extinction Rebellion, and the press

In the middle of the morning, I retraced my steps out of the media center to see what was going on in the rest of the venue. The conference is slated to conclude early this evening, but no one, not least the journalists here, expects the finish time to be respected, and the vibe this morning was calm before the storm, despite the looming official deadline. I stopped by a convenience store within the venue and noticed that its newspaper rack was empty; when Id seen it empty in the evening of a previous day, Id assumed that COP delegates must have voracious reading habits, but a cashier told me today that newspaper suppliers have actually been unable to access the venue. In a nearby auditorium, an anchor for the British network Sky, which is COPs official media partner, stood in a brightly lit mini-studio and began a broadcast for Climate Live, Skys special channel dedicated to COP. An enormous globe hanging from the ceiling rotated slowly over her right shoulder; on the outside of the mini-studio, a screen displayed counters for degrees of warming and global CO2 emissions, both of which were ticking up. As I walked back to the media center, reporters for another British network, who had clearly just had a tipoff, planted themselves in the middle of a corridor; sure enough, John Kerry, the American climate envoy, soon strode past with an entourage. He ducked their shouted question about US responsibilities to poorer countries, then slipped into a sealed zone.

Its no surprise, of course, but its struck me this week that the perspective you get covering an event of this magnitude from the inside is very different to the perspective you get observing coverage from thirty thousand feet (which is what I typically do). In some respects, being here feels clarifying, but in many other respects, Ive found the opposite to be truewhenever Ive knuckled down to chase a COP media story, the immensity of the rest of the conference has slipped beyond my grasp, physically and conceptually. Early this morning, with the media center still quiet, I checked in on major outlets topline coverage going into the final (maybe) day of the conference. I found COP on most of the homepages I checked; the storys prominence varied, as did the angle, though variations on the time is running out theme were common. Being here feels like being at the center of the news universe, especially today. But for many Western news consumers, in particular, COP is just another block on a homepage, another chyron on cable news. Looking from inside here to out there, you sense an urgency gap that yawns wide.

Whatever ends up happening tonightor tomorrow, or Sundaythe media response isnt hard to predict: diligent reporters inside the venue (and out) will cover the agreements diligently, take-mongers will declare it an unqualified success or failure when neither is the case, major Western publications will promote the reporting and takes to the top of the news cycle for a bit, and then something else will happen and COP26 will fade into memory. The diligent reporters wont forget it, and will doubtless work to hold countries to the pledges they did (or didnt) make here; when they do, we will all owe them our attention. Exactly how much attention well owe the next COP might still be a matter for the negotiators at this one: while these conferences are annual, governments currently are only expected to concretely improve their pledges every five years (2021 marks one of those intervals, adjusted from 2020 due to the pandemic); many parties (though not the US) think, in light of a lack of progress at this conference, that the timetable should become yearly. Not that the attention we pay the climate story should depend on this happening, of course. COPs and their pledges are good starting points for coverage if you accept our media ecosystems reliance on hard news pegs. It would be much better to see them as staging posts in a year-round story.

Sign up for CJR 's daily email

The subjects of yesterdays scrum in the media center included negotiators from Ghana and Tuvalu as well as representatives from environmental organizations; theyd come to talk to reporters in a bid to pile pressure on American officials to be more ambitious as the talks conclude, including around the payment of reparations to poorer countries that have already sustained huge climate damage. Despite having been a few feet away, there were so many people between me and them that I learned most of this only later, from a report in the Washington Post. I had immediately recognized one of the speakers, though: Saleemul Huq, a long-time fixture of COP negotiations who leads the International Center for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh. Id spoken with him about media coverage of COPs before this one began, and incorporated his views into my first dispatch from Glasgow, on Monday.

Yesterday, as other speakers continued to be mobbed by journalists, Huq peeled away and I ended up standing next to him in the drinks line. I remembered something hed said to me during our first conversationthat COPs as annual events have become redundant as news stories, given the increasing regularity of extreme-weather events all over the worldand asked him about it; the focused scrum of media interest that hed just been a part of, I noted, isnt really equivalent to the dynamics of the climate story outside the conferences walls. The conference has value, Im not saying it doesnt, Huq replied. Media people, you need a hook to report. We paid for our drinks and reconvened in a seating area. The climate change story is not talking about doing something at the COP. The climate change story is tackling climate change on the ground, preventing millions of people dying from climate change, Huq said. Thats the reality of climate change and thats the story of climate change in the rest of the world. Itll come to you. Because you havent prevented it. So get ready for it. Thats the storm.



Other notable stories, by Mathew Ingram:

As many news outlets cut back on publishing mugshots, Keri Blakinger writes for the Marshall Project that some states and cities are grappling with a more fundamental question: Why do police release the imagesand should they be allowed to? The Justice Department has repeatedly refused to release mugshots, Blakinger says, arguing that theres no public safety interest in releasing pictures that are a lasting image of what can be one of the most difficult episodes in an individuals life. Several states have also stopped releasing them, and some have even banned their release. In San Francisco, the police department only publishes arrest photos when they serve a clear law enforcement purposelike finding a suspect or a missing person, writes Blakinger. Corey Hutchins wrote about the negative effects of publishing mugshots for CJR in 2018.

Ethan Porter, a researcher with the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, and Evan J. Wood, a researcher with the Department of Political Science at Ohio State University, write for the Washington Post about a study they published in the September issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about the effects of fact-checking on misinformation on social networks. Experiments conducted with fact-checking organizations around the world showed that fact-checking does have an impact on stemming the flow of misinformation, their research shows. In four countriesArgentina, Nigeria, South Africa, and Britainfact checks made people more accurate, effectively leading them to reject the misinformation.

For CJR, Maria Bustillos interviewed Brian Bonner, editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Post, an English-language newspaper in Ukraine that was recently shut down by its owner, the Syrian-born construction mogul Adnan Kivan, amid tension with the newsroom over plans to start a new version of the paper. Tensions came to a head some weeks ago, when Channel 7s Olena Rotari announced on Facebook that she would be heading a Ukrainian-language version of the Kyiv Post, with its own staff, Bustillos writes. Trust appears to have broken down during subsequent discussions regarding the exact parameters of the Kyiv Posts editorial independence. Bonner said there is a movement underway to get Kivan to sell the paper to a group of former staffers who want to form an NGO.

A senior executive at a UK fashion magazine has been suspended by the company after more than a dozen women accused him of sending sexually inappropriate messages, The Guardian reports. Max Clarkthe fashion editor at i-D magazine, which is owned by Vice Mediahas worked there since 2014, and also worked as a stylist for a number of high-end fashion brands such as Prada and Burberry. Messages reviewed by The Guardian show women claiming Clark made unwanted advances towards them, with the separate alleged incidents taking place over several years, The Guardian said. Their claims were collected semi-anonymously via Instagram before being passed to Vices human resources department, prompting the company to launch a formal investigation and suspend Clark last week.

A survey conducted by the Reuters Institute at Oxford for its Changing Newsrooms 2021 report shows that newsrooms are making uneven progress when it comes to returning to the office post-COVID. The report was based on a survey of 132 senior industry leaders from forty-two countries, as well as a series of in-depth interviews, and Reuters said the data makes clear that hybrid working will soon be the norm for the vast majority of journalists in many news organisationswith some people in the office and others working remotely. The institute said the study also shows that the media industry is still struggling with attracting talent and addressing lack of diversity.

LGBTQ employees are quitting the BBC because of how the state-funded broadcaster handles stories related to LGBTQ people, according to a report from Vice. In a listening session held by the network over Zoom on Monday, which the magazine got access to, five former staff members talked about how they felt hidden and ashamed during their time at the BBC, which eventually led them to quit. The most recent resignation was last week. Current employees also talked about being disappointed and frustrated by recent issues which have come about in the corporation, Vice reported. The session was organised following the huge backlash the BBC recently received after publishing an article which claimed some trans women are rapists.

Ko Bragg writes for CJR about hurricanes and resisting the looting myths that often spring up in the wake of such disasters. News outlets had sixteen years, to the day, to consider the consequences of sensational coverage that emphasized looting beyond the realities on the ground, Bragg writes, referring to Hurricane Katrina. Then Hurricane Ida hit, and news outlets, drawing once more on official sources, pushed looting back into their headlines. Two decades of debunking myths post-Katrina was seemingly for naught. Not enough reporters openly questioned whether anti-looting squads were the best use of resources during a crisis, Bragg says, or whether they were even effective at stemming robberies. Without those questions, reporters risk telling stories that validate expanded police details and actions.

Victor Pickard, a professor of media policy and political economy at the University of Pennsylvanias Annenberg School for Communication, and Antoine Haywood, a PhD candidate and a fellow at the Annenberg School, wrote in an essay at the Nieman Journalism Lab that public access television channels are an untapped resource for building local journalism. Instead of letting such channels gradually decline due to commercial market pressures, the two argued, we should publicly fund and expand the precious communication infrastructure that access media offers we should leverage and expand such invaluable community infrastructures before they vanish altogether.

ICYMI: The Kyiv Posts Brian Bonner on why silence is not golden

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.
NEW DELHI (AP)  At least 14 people have died in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu during days of heavy rains, officials said Thursday.

Several districts in the state are on high alert, bracing for more torrents as a depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal was set to cross northern Tamil Nadu on Thursday evening. The Indian Meteorological Department warned of intense rains in isolated places.

The heavy rains first struck over the weekend, hitting the capital, Chennai. Photos and videos from the city showed residents wading through knee-deep waters and vehicles nearly submerged in the heavily flooded roads.

Two people died in the last 24 hours, said N Subbaiyan, the director of the states disaster management, adding that the other 12 were killed over the past few days.

At least 800 huts have been destroyed this past week by the rains, said Kumar Jayant of the states revenue department.

Multiple teams of the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed to help local authorities with rescue efforts.

In Chennai, which is among the worst hit, officials have evacuated hundreds of people from vulnerable areas. Authorities have also set up over 100 relief centers and distributed free food, local media reported.

Flights into Chennai have been suspended.

The rains this week are among the heaviest to hit the city since 2015.

Experts have warned that more heavy rains can trigger further flooding and devastation.

The public should not go out, Greater Chennai Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi told New Delhi Television on Wednesday. He said authorities had managed to drain the majority of the floodwaters, but cautioned that low-lying areas could once again get inundated.

Rains at this time in Tamil Nadu are not unusual, but experts have warned that climate change has exacerbated the problem, making the downpours more intense and frequent.

Last month, flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains killed at least 28 people in neighboring Kerala state.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I wanted somewhere my children can have the same upbringing as I had, so they can run free, said Eves, 72, who built a caravan park in the village that he still runs with his son. Youve got the sea, youve got the mountains. Its just a stunning place to live.

That changed suddenly in 2014, when authorities identified Fairbourne as the first coastal community in the U.K. to be at high risk of flooding due to climate change.

Predicting faster sea level rises and more frequent and extreme storms due to global warming, the government said it could only afford to keep defending the village for another 40 years. Officials said that by 2054, it would no longer be safe or sustainable to live in Fairbourne.

Authorities have been working with villagers on the process of so-called managed realignment  essentially, to move them away and abandon the village to the encroaching sea.

Overnight, house prices in Fairbourne nosedived. Residents were dubbed the U.K.s first climate refugees. Many were left shocked and angry by national headlines declaring their whole village would be decommissioned. Seven years on, most of their questions about their future remain unanswered.

Theyve doomed the village, and now theyve got to try to rehome the people. Thats 450 houses, said Eves, who serves as chair of the local community council. If they want us out by 2054, then theyve got to have the accommodation to put us in.

No one here wants to leave. While many are retirees, there are also young families raising a next generation. Locals speak proudly of their tight-knit community. And although the village center only consists of a grocers, a fish and chip shop and a couple of restaurants, residents say the pebbly beach and a small steam train draw bustling crowds in the summer.

Natural Resources Wales, the government-sponsored organization responsible for the sea defenses in Fairbourne, said the village is particularly vulnerable because it faces multiple flooding risks. Built in the 1850s on a low-lying saltmarsh, Fairbourne already lies beneath sea level at high spring tide. During storms, the tidal level is more than 1.5 meters (5 feet) above the level of the village.

Scientists say U.K. sea levels have risen about 10 centimeters (4 inches) in the past century. Depending on greenhouse gas emissions and actions that governments take, the predicted rise is 70 centimeters to 1 meter by 2100.

Fairbourne is also at the mouth of an estuary, with additional risks of flash floods from the river running behind it. Officials have spent millions of pounds in strengthening a sea wall and almost 2 miles of tidal defenses.

While there are flood risks in many other villages along the Welsh coast, decisions on which areas to protect ultimately boil down to cost. Officials say that in the case of Fairbourne, the cost of maintaining flood defenses will become higher than the value of what were protecting.

The effects of climate change that negotiators at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, are working to mitigate already are a reality here.

Catrin Wager, a cabinet member of Gwynedd Council, the local authority overseeing Fairbourne, stressed that while Fairbourne may be the first Welsh coastal village to be designated unviable due to climate change, it certainly wont be the only one. Theres no precedent for how to develop policies for helping the villagers adapt, she said.

We need more answers from the Welsh and U.K. governments, thats my message going into this (U.N. summit), Wager said. We really need to get some guidance on not only mitigating the effects of climate change, but about how we adapt for things that are already happening.

Across the U.K., half a million properties are at risk of coastal flooding  and that risk figure will jump to 1.5 million by the end of the 2080s, according to the Climate Change Committee, an independent advisory body set up under climate change laws.

Britains government, which is hosting the U.N. climate summit, needs to be much more upfront about such risks, said Richard Dawson, a member of the committee and professor of engineering at Newcastle University.

Ultimately, difficult decisions need to be made about many coastal settlements with disproportionately high numbers of older and poorer residents, he said, and officials need to prepare people for moving inland.

Whatever happens at COP the sea level will continue to rise around the U.K., thats something we absolutely need to prepare for, Dawson said. We have to be realistic. We cant afford to protect everywhere. The challenge for government is that the problem is not being confronted with the urgency or openness that we need.

In Fairbourne, a continuing standoff between villagers and officials underlines that challenge. Residents feel they have been unfairly singled out, and arent convinced there is a clear timeframe on how quickly sea levels will rise enough to threaten their homes. When and how will evacuation take place? Will they be compensated, and if so how much should it be?

There are no answers. The village vicar, Ruth Hansford, said many residents suffered emotional fatigue from years of uncertainty and negativity. Others simply decided to carry on with their lives.

Becky Offland and her husband recently took on the lease of the Glan Y Mor Hotel, going against the grain and investing in the villages future. Theyre hopeful their business will bring more visitors and financial support to Fairbourne.

Its like a big family, this place. Its not a village, its a family, said Offland, 36. Well all fight to keep it where it is.

Down the street, Fairbourne Chippy owner Alan Jones, 64, also said he has no plans to go anywhere.

Until water actually comes in here, til we physically cant work, well carry on, he said.

Eves said he and his son believe that what will be, will be. But he will mourn the inevitable disintegration of the village he loves.

You cant sort of take this village here, and put it over there and expect it to work again, he said. What you have here is a human catastrophe, albeit on a small scale.

About the photo: The sea defense wall behind the World War II anti tank defenses along the beach in Fairbourne village in Gwynedd in Wales, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
It was after a pair of Catholic churches caught ablaze last summer, one in Southern California and another in Florida, that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops decided to start documenting and tracking vandalism at Catholic sites across the country.

The two fires occurred on the same morning: July 11, 2020. One destroyed the rooftop of the historic San Gabriel Mission  the fourth of a series of missions across California that Father Junipero Serra founded during the Spanish colonization era. The other ignited in Queen of Peace Catholic Church as parishioners prepared for Mass in Ocala, Florida.

Nobody was injured, but Aaron M. Weldon  of the USCCBs Office of Religious Liberty  said the fires were the impetus for us to start monitoring these sorts of events.

Since then, the USCCB has tracked more than 105 incidents of vandalism of Catholic sites in the U.S., including arson, graffiti and defaced statues. The organization has logged news reports of such incidents dating back to May 2020, but it doesnt yet have a detailed breakdown that categorizes the different kinds of vandalism.

The USCCB has dedicated a page on its website listing news stories of vandalism by month.

In California, statues of Father Junipero Serra have been toppled in protest of what activists have called the enslavement of Native Americans. A monument for babies whose lives are ended by abortion was knocked over at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Bloomingburg, New York. The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, Colorado, was recently marked with graffiti that read Satan lives here and included references to child rapists.

While these incidents point to specific issues  the colonization of Indigenous people, the churchs stance on abortion, the priest abuse scandals  Weldon said there isnt always messaging left behind at vandalized Catholic sites. He said damaged statues, such as monuments to Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary, make up a large portion of the vandalism theyve documented.

When youre talking about a statue being smashed, its kind of hard to know whats going on. Theres not really a message there, he said. Did they single out the Catholic Church, or is it simply that our symbols of religion are so visible that they make an easy target?

Were kind of working on learning more about whats going on, Weldon said.

Through an interfaith effort, the USCCB has been advocating for more funding from FEMAs nonprofit security grant program to improve security measures in their buildings. Because its not just Catholic churches that have to deal with this, Weldon said. Jewish houses of worship, Weldon said, face this worse than we do.

New FBI stats show the number of hate crimes (8,263) reported in fiscal year 2020 was the highest since 2001. Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,244 offenses, and more than half (683) were antisemitic.

While only 73 were anti-Catholic hate crimes, that represents an annual increase since 2013. There were 64 anti-Catholic hate crimes reported in 2019, and 51 in 2018, according to the FBI data.

To Brian Levin _ director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino  just the sheer volume of Catholic sites can make these spaces easy targets if someone wants to make a statement against Catholicism or religion in general.

Catholics are the most represented religious faith in the U.S., Levin said.

But theres a mix of issues that could be contributing to the multi-year rise in anti-Catholic hate crimes, Levin said.

The fact that President Joe Biden is Catholic makes Catholicism more covered generally, as well as conflicts within the particular faith, Levin said.

Additionally, the Catholic church has made its own headlines lately. Unmarked graves have been discovered at a number of residential schools operated by Catholic orders or dioceses in Canada. And in the U.S., bishops and other Catholics have sought to restrict Communion to pro-choice politicians over their stance on abortion.

Combine that with the spread of religious conspiracy theories, a rise in religious skepticism and closures due to COVID-19, and a Catholic Church might be the closest place for a would-be offender to strike, Levin said.

In Colorado, the Archdiocese of Denver is keeping its own tally and has documented at least 25 parishes or ministry locations that, since February 2020, have been targets of vandalism, property destruction or theft, said Mark Haas, a spokesman with the archdiocese.

This has included broken windows, damaged and defaced statues, graffiti, attempted arson, stolen religious items, break-ins and thefts, Haas said. More than 10 incidents have occurred in the last six months.

Some of these incidents have been clearly targeted at the Catholic Church, but not all of them, according to a statement provided by Haas. The number could be higher because some minor incidents are not always reported.

Haas said some of the incidents the diocese has tallied have not been included in the USCCBs record, including a theft that appeared to be profit-motivated.

We continue to pray for the conversion of those who carry out acts of desecration against our churches, statues and religious symbols, the statement read.

But to a handful of protesters in Northern California who took down a Serra monument last year on Indigenous Peoples Day, doing so was an act of healing, Morning Star Gali, a member of the Ajumawi band of the Pit River Tribe, told Religion News Service in a previous interview. Gali has advocated for the protesters, known as the Indigenous Peoples 5, who are facing felony vandalism charges.

This is an opportunity for them to help rectify issues of the past and the violence that the church is responsible for, said Gali, project director for Restoring Justice for Indigenous Peoples.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone has applauded the charges as a breakthrough moment for Catholics. It does not appear that any other protesters who have toppled or vandalized Serra statues have faced any kind of charges.

In downtown Los Angeles, St. Peters Italian Catholic Church was vandalized on Oct. 11 with graffiti reading, STOP COLONIZING OUR LAND and Land Back. Red paint splattered the front of the church, which was established in 1904. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

The Rev. Fernando Cuevas Preciado, who pastors St. Peters, said he believed the people responsible for the vandalism, which occurred on Indigenous Peoples Day, were using the church to protest.

It wasnt something against the Catholic church, he said.

To Preciado, it appears the vandalism was likely related to Columbus Day and what Christopher Columbus, who was Italian, represents. While Columbus was Italian, his voyages were sponsored by Spain.

Preciado said vandalizing a church or monument should not be a form of protest.

To me this is a sign of intolerance that we are seeing as a society, a lack of values, he said. I believe in dialogue and harmony.

About the photo: Employees of the Basilica Of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle National Shrine cover its front doors in San Juan, Texas on Tuesday, May 26, 2020, after graffiti was sprayed painted overnight by vandals. (Delcia Lopez/The Monitor via AP, File)

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
An insurer wrongly denied uninsured motorist coverage to a policyholder who was injured while riding his motorcycle even though the policy excluded damages caused by motorcycle accidents, the Montana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The high court ruled that the insurance contract written by USAA Casualty Insurance Co. for policyholder Joseph Richard Goss violates public policy because Goss could not fulfill the terms. USAA does not insure motorcycles, but excludes UIM coverage for accidents that happen on motorcycles that it doesnt insure, even if the policyholder had purchased UIM insurance for other vehicles.

While USAA is free to decline to insure motorcycles, or to require that an owned vehicle be insured with USAA, it cannot then exclude coverage on the ground the insured failed to have his vehicle insured with USAA when that is impossible, the 5-0 opinion says. We conclude that such an exclusion of coverage by way of an unattainable condition precedent is contrary to public policy.

The court reversed a ruling by Cascade County District Court Judge Gregory R. Todd granting summary judgment on that point in favor of USAA.

Goss was injured on May 21, 2015 when he crashed into a car driven by Diann Stevens, who turned left in front of his motorcycle at an intersection in Great Falls, Montana. Goss had separate uninsured motorist policies, each with a $300,000 limit for three vehicles. But he insured his motorcycle with Progressive, which has a partnership with USAA to provide motorcycle coverage for policyholders who insure their other vehicles through USAA.

After the accident, USAA paid Goss $25,000 in uninsured motorist benefits but refused to pay the limits of the policy, citing the exclusion. Goss, who suffers severe and disabling injuries, filed suit. The insurer argued that Goss could have purchased UIM coverage for his motorcycle through Progressive, but chose not to.

In a brief, Goss attorney said that he his client had paid premiums for uninsured motorist coverage in three policies that together provided up to $900,000 in coverage, but USAA was refusing to honor the contract only because it includes terms that Goss could never meet.

The high court agreed that the policy cannot stand because it made it impossible for Goss to meet the conditions for coverage. UIM coverage is personal and portable in Montana, the court said, meaning that claims can be made for coverage regardless of whether the insured was injured by an accident in his or her own vehicle or any other vehicle.

The court said Goss was without meaningful choice at the time the parties entered the insurance contract at issue because he was unable to satisfy USAAs condition for coverage,' the opinion says, citing a previous court decision.

Goss had done all he could to satisfy the condition by insuring his other vehicles with USAA, the opinion says.

A footnote in the opinion explains that the facts in Goss complaint are different than the circumstances in another case, where a U.S. District Court judge upheld a policy with a similar exclusion. In that case, the policyholder was able to purchase UIM coverage but had elected not to.

The decision wasnt a total loss for USAA. The court affirmed dismissal of one count in the complaint that sought $15,000 in medical payment coverage because that coverage was clearly excluded for any motorcycle accident.
Avis "Darlene" Searan, age 75, formerly of California, passed away at Restwell Home Plus in Oskaloosa, KS, on Tuesday, November 16, 2021. She was born the daughter of Leo Abraham and Avis Amelia (Gabbert) Searan in Claremore, OK, on June 25, 1946. Darlene loved watching baseball, especially,
There are few things more precious than your freedom or that of a loved one. A close second is personal reputation. Both of these can be at risk in a criminal prosecution.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  A health reform advocate has warned that placing Metro Manila under the lowest alert level could lead to more coronavirus infections, especially during the Christmas season.

Dr. Tony Leachon, a former adviser to the National Task Force Against COVID-19, told CNN Philippines on Friday that although the positivity rate in the capital region is currently at 3%  well within the benchmark set by the World Health Organization  it could easily change because the public traditionally go out more during the holiday season.

"If we loosen up the restrictions, there will be an increase on mobility then, of course, mobility will increase the viral transmission," he explained.

"This will actually be risky particularly this holiday season when you expect increase in the number of the volume of people going to of course, to the malls and other areas," he added.

Leachon, meanwhile, said the policy to allow children in public spaces could lead to superspreader events since only a few minors have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

"I should be cautious and not too aggressive or complacent and I don't think it's time for Alert Level 1," he pointed out.

"We should maintain the Alert Level 2 and observe the recourse and the number of cases, the number of deaths and the positivity rate in the next few weeks," he also said.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Metro Manila may ease to Alert Level 1 if the country's COVID-19 cases recorded per day drop to below 1,000.

The National Capital Region is under Alert Level 2 until Nov. 21.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  More schools are joining the pilot implementation of face-to-face classes, the Department of Education announced on Friday.

With the approval of the Office of the President, the DepEdwill increase the number of participating schools in the pilot implementation of face-to-face classes, it said in a statement.

The development came after the DepEd and the Department of Health assessed that more schools qualified to be included in the pilot run of in-person classes.

The DepEd said 484 of the 638 schools passed DOHs criteria for low-risk status for COVID-19. Previously, only 100 public schools and 20 private schools were supposed to participate.

The DepEd added it also received appeals from local governments to include schools in their jurisdictions in the pilot implementation.

The Education department will release the final list of schools soon.

Meanwhile, the initial 100 public schools will start the pilot implementation of physical classes on Nov. 15 while the 20 private schools will begin on Nov. 22, the DepEd said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  The government will not be held liable for possible adverse effects arising from unauthorized COVID-19 booster shots, a Health official said on Friday.

"'Pag nagkaroon ng aberya o kaya (Should there be issues or) untoward reactions to these booster doses, government cannot be held accountable. The ones accountable will be the ones who gave you those vaccines and who have sourced out the vaccines," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online media briefing.

"Pangalawa (Second), you are violating national protocols," she added.

Vergeire issued the warning after "hearing a lot of reports" of people getting booster shots.

Vergeire also called out groups that warned of a spike in COVID-19 cases if the government does not give booster shots soon, saying their statements cause confusion among the public. She did not name the groups.

A fellow from OCTA Research Team recently noted the need to administer booster shots in the first or second quarter of 2022. "Otherwise, the risk for a Delta re-surge will increase," Nicanor Austriaco said Thursday.

"May we call on...all of those groups stating this kind of statements to be very careful and cautious because the public is getting confused," Vergeire said.

"Let us all be responsible in issuing our statements," she added.

The Food and Drug Administration has yet to decide which vaccine brands will be given as booster shots.

Manufacturers of Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, and Sputnik V vaccines have applied for amendments to their emergency use authorization to include a third dose or booster shot in their regimen, FDA chief Eric Domingo said early this month.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  The regional party founded by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte was just as surprised about her sudden resignation and eventual transfer to national party Lakas-CMD amid brewing speculations that she will seek the country's highest post before the substitution deadline.

"I had no idea," Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) secretary general Anthony del Rosario told CNN Philippines' The Source on Friday when asked if he knew Mayor Sara was leaving HNP for Lakas-CMD.

"Even the oath taking with Lakas, we were also equally surprised," del Rosario said. "We knew she was probably going to join a national party in order for her to avail of the substitution process if she was going to run for president or vice president but we did not expect that she would be joining a national party as early as last night."

Del Rosario said that as early as 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, Mayor Duterte only texted him about her plan to go to Balesin and Cavite.

Three hours later, however, he said he received a handwritten letter of her resignation from HNP.

Prior to Sara Duterte's oath-taking with Lakas-CMD, the party of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, she took a quick trip to Balesin Island in Quezon Province to attend the birthday celebration of House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco.

In the afternoon, she went to a farm in Silang, Cavite to serve as a principal sponsor in the wedding of Sen. Bong Revilla's daughter.

Del Rosario said he assumed that Duterte only crafted the letter just before boarding a plane to Balesin in the morning.

He said he tried to reach out to her immediately upon receipt of the letter, but Mayor Duterte could not be reached anymore.

News only broke out about her HNP resignation on Thursday afternoon. Hours later, she took her oath with Lakas-CMD, still donning the dress she wore to the wedding.

Del Rosario, nonetheless, assured that HNP is "not offended" by Duterte's sudden decision. He said the local party will talk about its next plans, including a potential alliance with Lakas-CMD.

"Kami po sa (We in) HNP, there is no doubt we will support Sara in whatever post she chooses in 2022," Del Rosario said.

"Going forward, we are having a meeting today, the officers of HNP and one of the options is to have an alliance between HNP and Lakas para mas maliwanag ang pagsuporta ng HNP sa aming mahal na (so that we could strengthen HNP's support for our beloved) former chairperson," he also said.

Under Comelec's substitution scheme, an aspirant has to first join a national political party before qualifying as a substitute candidate for whoever filed a candidacy for a national post.

Mayor Duterte has yet to personally disclose her next steps, but she left a message to her supporters on Thursday.

"Nagpapasalamat ako sa mga supporters ko and I hope na kung ano man ang mangyari sa mga susunod na mga araw ay maibigay ko sa kanila kung ano ang gusto nila," she stated.

[Translation: I thank my supporters and I hope whatever happens in the coming days I will be able to give them what they want.]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  The government will require all on-site employees in areas with enough COVID-19 vaccine supply to get inoculated beginning Dec. 1, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque announced on Friday.

The Inter-Agency Task Force said all public transportation workers should also be fully vaccinated to continue operations.

The government stressed that unvaccinated workers cannot be terminated, but they will be required to take regular RT-PCR or antigen tests at their own expense.

The IATF also said those who are ineligible for vaccination must present a medical clearance issued by a government health office or birth certificate as proof.

Incentives

The IATF also urged establishments to refuse entry or deny service to individuals who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

To ramp up demand for vaccination, local government units were encouraged to issue ordinances providing incentives for fully vaccinated individuals. Government agencies were also told to implement measures prioritizing fully vaccinated individuals availing of government programs and services.

Mandating vaccination and giving incentives is part of the government's efforts to boost the inoculation rate in the country. Over 30 million people in the country are now fully vaccinated, while 36 million have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  Muntinlupa City no longer requires the use of face shields outside and inside establishments, with the exception of hospitals and clinics.

In a signed ordinance, officials cited the high percentage of vaccinated individuals against COVID-19, and the decreasing number of cases.

The document also mentioned the downgrading of Metro Manila's alert level to 2.

The order defined hospitals as healthcare institutions that are "built, staffed and equipped for the diagnosis of disease, for the treatment, both medical and surgical of the sick and the injured, and for their confinement."

Muntinlupa is the second city in the National Capital Region to scrap the controversial face shield policy, shortly following Manila - which removed the rule four days ago.

However, Malacanang earlier said Manila's new policy was "null and void," as local government units were told to wait for the Inter-Agency Task Force's final decision on the use of face shields.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 12)  The graduate of University of the Philippines Manila who topped the October 2021 Physician Licensure Examinations (PLE) wants to get into teaching before serving on the front lines with his fellow doctors.

In an interview with CNN Philippines' The Source on Friday, Ian Gabriel Juyad shared his next plans after ranking first in the medical board exam taken by 2,302 aspiring doctors last month.

RELATED: UP Manila grad tops October 2021 Physician Licensure Exams

"For this coming year, I plan to teach po muna (first). I really love to teach and I hope I get the opportunity to teach in some way because that's also how I reviewed. I was imagining I was teaching someone," Juyad shared.

"After that, I plan to take internal medicine," he added. "I have interest in pulmonology and cardiology."

Juyad recounted how he learned about the examination results that were released on Thursday.

"I really just wanted to pass. Being a topnotcher is too much," he said. "When I found out the results, we were actually (praying) the rosary. And then towards the end of the rosary, my girlfriend Rochelle called and told me I was Top 1. I couldnt believe it.

"I had to see it for myself and when I saw it, I wailed and I was so happy. But to be honest, I really did not expect it po. It's still a shock to me," he added.

Juyad said that he had to discipline himself to stick to a routine, which involved waking up at 7 a.m., studying for the whole day, and only taking short breaks for meals.

He also shared a message to his fellow board exam passers about the importance of serving in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We really have a big responsibility as healthcare workers, especially now. This is beyond ourselves only, we have to look out for each other," he said.

"I look forward to practicing and hopefully, all of us who graduated and passed PLE, to contribute in the current situation of the country to the best that we can," he added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  The government's One Hospital Command Center (OHCC), a healthcare referral network, has reduced its bed capacity in isolation facilities as COVID-19 cases drop.

"Sa isolation facilities, dahil sa pagbaba ng cases nagbawas rin kami ng beds," Dr. Marylaine Padlan, OHCC medical officer, said during a virtual briefing Friday.

[Translation: Because of the declining cases, we also decreased the bed capacity in isolation facilities.]

But Padlan noted that if the Philippines - especially the capital and nearby provinces - witness another spike in cases, the OHCC is ready to boost the bed capacity.

The OHCC representative did not elaborate on where the isolation units are located, or how much had been slashed.

As for the volume of calls received by the OHCC, Padlan said they have been averaging 150 requests per day in the past weeks.

Padlan, however, added that they have yet to study the impact of the Alert Level 2 in Metro Manila.

The Inter-Agency Task Force earlier approved the shift to the lower alert status, starting Nov. 5 until 21 - allowing business establishments to cater to more customers as capacities have been expanded to up to 70%.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  Senatorial aspirant Paolo Capino on Friday said he would withdraw his candidacy due to low survey ranking.

"I am officially announcing my withdrawal from the Senate race. The last survey which included my name in it, means my chances of winning are slim to none," he said in a tweet.

The former journalist is part of the senatorial slate of the tandem of Senator Panfilo Lacson and Senate President Vicente Sotto.

Capino said he realized he needs to further introduce himself and his advocacies, which include amplifying the voice of the sector of persons with disabilities.

He also said he believes Lacson and Sotto will continue to fight for the rights of PWDs if they are elected president and vice president, respectively.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12) A faction within the ruling PDP-Laban party said Friday it is weighing all options for the 2022 elections, including the initial plan to field the tandem of Senator Bong Go and President Rodrigo Duterte.

We continue to monitor the developments in the national political landscape and we are exploring all options as the dominant majority party, including our original plan of fielding a Go-Duterte tandem, the group headed by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said in a statement.

In the meantime, we continue to consult PDP leaders in the provinces and cities so our ultimate decision will be reflective of the sentiments on the ground, it added.

In September, the PDP-Laban wing nominated Go and Duterte as its standard bearers for the upcoming polls. At that time, the chief executive said he would push through with his vice presidential bid, while the senator maintained he would be declining the endorsement.

The party surprised the public a month later when Go filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for vice president. He explained that he decided to "take on the challenge" after Duterte said he would be withdrawing from the 2022 race and would be retiring from politics.

PDP-Laban then fielded Senator Ronald Bato Dela Rosa as its presidential bet. The neophyte senator, however, said he was willing to step aside if Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte decides to run for the countrys highest post and would be adopted by the party.

Sara withdrew her candidacy for reelection in Davao City. She has yet to announce her plans for next years polls. On Thursday, the presidential daughter officially joined national party Lakas-CMD after resigning from her regional group Hugpong ng Pagbabago, where she was the founder and chairperson.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 12)  The government is facing delays in obtaining syringes to administer mRNA vaccines like those developed by Pfizer and Moderna due to the "apparent global shortage," a Health official said Friday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire disclosed the supply issue during a Health department forum. The question stemmed from the World Health Organization's warning of a possible shortage of one to two billion syringes for COVID-19 vaccinations in 2022.

"Early part of this year, we have placed our orders... but hanggang sa ngayon medyo nagkakaroon ng delays ang kanilang (UNICEF) deliveries sa atin and this is because of the apparent global shortage," Vergeire said.

[Translation: Until now, we still experience delays in deliveries from UNICEF and this is because of the apparent global shortage.]

She said the government ordered 44 million syringes from UNICEF.

Pending the imported supply, vaccinators are using an alternative called tuberculin syringes used for tuberculosis tests, Vergeire said, adding that the government is looking for other suppliers.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 13)  Presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos said he will not agree to share the presidency with Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte or with anyone else.

Marcos was asked by reporters about the possible term-sharing after Lakas-CMD co-chairman and Quezon province governor Danilo Suarez floated the idea Friday morning.

Suarez said Marcos and Duterte can share the presidency if they can't decide between themselves on who will run for the top government post.

"That is not a good formula for stability. The reason why it's six years is because we want some stability in the policies of government," Marcos said.

"And if we change government every three years, which is effectively what the term-sharing scheme you're saying will do, then urong-sulong na naman tayo (we will just move forwards and then backwards)," he added.

There are speculations that Marcos and Duterte will team up for next year's elections - a tandem that Marcos' sister Imee described as "made in heaven."

Duterte initially declared she had no plans to run for any national post, but later dropped her reelection bid and left her local party Hugpong ng Pagbabago to join Lakas-CMD. It's still unclear if she will run for president or vice president in 2022.

As for Vice President and presidential aspirant Leni Robredo, the presidency and vice presidency should not be occupied by officials who are subject to an "internal arrangement."

She added that a term-sharing agreement would violate the Constitution.

"Binobotohan natin for six years iyong pangulo at saka pangalawang pangulo. Hindi naman ito subject ng any internal arrangements," she said in a press briefing in Cebu City.

[Translation: We vote for the president and vice president for six-year terms. This is not subject to any internal arrangements.]
Starting on the first day of November, Penn State managing chefs from each dining hall across campus toasted to a new month  literally, with a toast competition.

Organized by Penn State Campus Dining, Toasting the Competition allowed these chefs to put their own unique spin on toast.

Managing Chef at North Halls Warnock Commons Jeff Varcoe said competitions were created to keep the menus at each location feeling fresh.

Every year, and actually every semester, we talk about different events to try and break up our service. We normally serve a three-week cycle menu, Varcoe said. We know that our students [and] guests start to maybe get a little tired of the same thing every three weeks. So we like to try to do pop-up events, special dinners and pepper those throughout the semester.

Penn State Campus Dining set up a poll on social media, allowing customers to vote for their favorite recipe.

Despite the title and poll, Managing Chef of Pollocks Nittany Lion Training Table Jason Kroboth said he saw the event as a fun gesture to get the kids to see what [the chefs] are about.

To me, I think it's more of a friendly competition amongst us, just to kind of see what we have to offer the kids, Kroboth said. [Its] something a little bit different. You know, it's a fun kind of competition.

Varcoe said Penn State Dining and the managing chefs look at what trending foods are on the horizon when creating their events.

So when we're doing these types of events, we often look to trends and things that we know are interesting and new on the food scene, Varcoe said. So with avocado toast being so huge right now, those interesting different toasts are also kind of growing as a trend right now. We thought that would be a fun thing for us to work with as chefs and to give our students something different.

Each of the chefs pulled from a variety of influences to create toasts that are unique and new to students.

Managing Chef at Redifer Commons Stephan Gawlowicz said his toast was a mix of French and Spanish influences.

I chose this recipe with some of my background influence since I was born and raised and fed in France, Gawlowicz said. Also I put some Spanish influence there. I wanted to duplicate something like tapas.

Gawlowicz chose a multigrain toast from the Penn State Bakery as the foundation for his toast.

So the cheese was kind of a camembert type, very close to [authentic camembert]. So that was the French influence, Gawlowicz said. The Spanish influence was more with the tomatoes and the toasted jamon. In Italy, they call it prosciutto. In Spain, they call it jamon serrano.

Kroboth said his toast was a spinoff of rarebit, a classic English dish.

I had a toasted brown Irish soda bread that came from the Penn State Bakery. So I buttered and toasted that, Kroboth said. Then I [made] a Guinness cheddar beer sauce, and then I roasted off [bratwurst] with some Guinness beer then it was just sliced green onions [that were left to add]. Everybody likes beer and sausages.

MORE LIFESTYLE CONTENT

Kroboth said his inspiration for basing his toast off of an English dish was out of need to serve students something unique.

I wanted to go through the current recipes that [we] had and pick something that was different, Kroboth said. [Something] that wasn't avocado toast or something basic that I think the kids have probably seen many times.

Varcoe said his toast was inspired by a sandwich recipe Elvis Presley made famous, saying It's got that fun element that, Elvis used to eat this. So I decided to run with that.

It's bread, peanut butter, bananas, honey and bacon, Varcoe said. And not to mention, bacon on everything is a hot trend as well. So I like to get into some of those things.

Citing the coronavirus pandemic, Varcoe said he wanted to capitalize on comfort food.

Debuting his rarebit toast on Nov. 4, Kroboth said he noticed a good reaction from the students.

The kids really liked it. You always know you're doing well when people come up and get a second piece, Kroboth said. So I think we did really well. In my mind, I don't care really if I win or lose. I know that the people that [ate] it liked it.

Despite being unable to speak with students at the time of his toasts debut, Gawlowicz also said he believed his toast was a success.

The only thing I could see [was] that people were coming back and took it twice, Gawlowicz said. I sold out after an hour and a half of service. So I had 200 portions, and we started at 11. I sold out by 12:30 p.m.

Gawlowicz also said the popularity of the toast allowed Redifer Commons to avoid [making] any waste.

Varcoe said he found the competition and seeing the reactions of students to be a lot of fun.

There [were] definitely a lot of surprised faces as [students] tasted it, Varcoe said. I had whole pieces of toast out for people who were ready to take on the full experience, but I had also taken some of the pieces of toast and cut them into little bite-sized pieces. A lot of people would just come up and just give it a taste and be like, Oh, that was good.

Stating his first and foremost goal was to please the customer as opposed to competing, Gawlowicz said he was happy about how the event went.

All the customers were happy and glad to have something new and different on the line, Gawlowicz said. When I saw people coming back to get a second plating, for me, it was the best reward.

Kroboth said the event was a great experience, which allowed him to meet a lot of new people, and it called some more attention to the managing chefs across campus.

Chefs are always in the back and are always kind of hidden, Kroboth said. And we don't get out as often as we'd like.

However, Kroboth said this is because the chefs can make sure everything's good and tasty and exactly what the guests are looking for.

It's good to get out and see people and have people meet us, he said. So hopefully they come back, and they can enjoy everything else at Pollock  and we'll do more of these.

MORE LIFESTYLE CONTENT

Judd Schiffman brings story of self-identification, mysticism to State College through ceramic art display Currently inside State Colleges art gallery Maake Projects is Mystic Vision, a ceramic show designed to express self-realization in the nat
The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania has granted Mount Nittany Medical Center "Excellence in Patient Safety Recognition" for 2021, according to a Mount Nittany Health release Thursday.

HAP awards this recognition to hospitals that show low rates of health care-related infections, the release said.

Mount Nittany Medical Center is one of 17 hospitals across the state that have received this acknowledgement, according to the release.

This recognition honors those hospitals that have taken extraordinary steps to improve patient-safety outcomes, even as they contend with intensified challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, HAP President and CEO Andy Carter said in a statement.

MORE BOROUGH COVERAGE

Mount Nittany Health announces new facility in Toftrees West Mount Nittany Health announced plans to construct a new multi-story outpatient healthcare fa
Penn State University President Eric Barron is quarantining for five days until he can be tested for coronavirus after having close contact with someone who later tested positive for COVID-19, according to the university.

The university said Barron is disappointed to miss this weeks events, but is quarantined out of an abundance of caution in an effort to prevent spreading the virus further.

Barron is currently asymptomatic, fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and has received his booster shot, according to the university.

MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE

Penn State extends deadline for employees to upload vaccination status After announcing the employee vaccination mandate in October, Penn State has extended the de
In the latest sign Arvada Republican Lang Sias is preparing to launch a campaign for office, a top GOP operative formed a nonprofit this week called "Lang Sias for Colorado," according to records obtained by Colorado Politics.

The attorney, former Top Gun instructor, one-term state lawmaker and 2018 GOP nominee for lieutenant governor has been considering challenging Democratic State Treasurer Dave Young, who is seeking a second term in next year's election but has yet to draw a Republican opponent, Colorado Politics was first to report in August.

The nonprofit corporation was registered on Tuesday with the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. Republican operative Katie Kennedy, the compliance officer for dozens of conservative and Republican campaign committees, filed the paperwork as its registered agent.

Sias, who pilots international routes for FedEx, told Colorado Politics nearly two years ago that he had ruled out running for office in 2020 or 2022, though he advised prospective Republican candidates that the "pendulum will swing" in Colorado, where the GOP has been on the ropes in recent cycles.

While Republicans have been slow to field candidates for Democratic-held statewide offices in next year's election, a Republican sweep in last week's Virginia election has been fueling renewed confidence that the party can rebound from a string of top-ticket losses since 2016.

Sias didn't immediately respond to multiple requests for comment on Friday. A spokeswoman for Young's campaign declined to comment.

Sias, who flew F-18s for 11 years in the Navy and is a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Air National Guard, was the featured guest Thursday at a Foothills Republican club luncheon in Lakewood billed as a Veterans Day tribute.

The office of state treasurer in Colorado has traditionally been a springboard to higher office, including two recent governors who ascended from the office, Democrat Roy Romer and Republican Bill Owens, as well as unsuccessful gubernatorial candidates Gail Schoettler and Cary Kennedy, both Democrats, and Walker Stapleton, the Republican who tapped Sias as his running mate three years ago.

The Stapleton-Sias ticket lost to Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera. Sias ran for office four times before that  winning a full term in 2016 to represent House District 27 after being appointed to the seat to fill a vacancy, losing two Senate District 19 bids in 2012 and 2014, and losing a 7th Congressional District primary in 2010.
Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday.
More Information

If you feel inclined to help with Afghan resettlement across central Missouri you can find out more from Catholic Charities here and can support the MU graduate students here.
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
Janet May True, 82, from Covington, IN, a former Danville resident went to be with the Lord at 9:45 P. M. Thursday November 18, 2021 at the home of her daughter in Champaign. She was born December 17, 1938 at Los Angles, CA the daughter of Jack and Vera Mary (Branch) Guyer. She was a homemak
This is a relatively light Patch Tuesday update from Microsoft, though wo significant vulnerabilities in the Windows platform (CVE-2021-38631 and CVE-2021-41371), both relating to Remote Desktop Protocol handling, have been disclosed and are lending some urgency to applying Windows updates. And we have another technically challenging update to Microsoft Exchange Server to manage as well.

Pay close attention to the Servicing Stack Updates (SSU) this month, as it may affect how your applications install (with particular focus on the un-installation process). Microsoft has already said there will not be a C patch cycle release next month, which means the December Patch Tuesday release should be light. You can find more information about the risk of deploying these Patch Tuesday updates with this infographic.

Key testing scenarios

There are no reported high-risk changes to the Windows platform this month. However, there is one reported functional change, and an additional feature:

You will have to test your printers again. Try using Notepad first, then Adobe Reader (PDFs) and include images (PNG, JPG, BMP). Testing is especially important if you have V3 printer drivers.

If your line-of-business apps are using COM (or heaven forbid DCOM), you will need a full burn-in test. Changes in the COM STA Threading model could lead to difficult trouble-shooting scenarios.

Using the Microsoft Movies and TV application , play MP4 videos and check for audio issues.

Movies and TV application You may not be using Internet explorer (IE), but applications may have dependencies on IE components (IEFRAME.DLL). Assess your application portfolio for this key dependency, and then test for Office component integration issues and tabbed browsing.

Also, have a look at Microsoft Timeline , as minor changes have been made to how your data is managed.

The biggest issue (or engineering task) this month is the need to validate that your applications install, repair, update, and uninstall correctly. Check your Windows Installer logs (0's for success). I think this is a big job as we commonly focus on application installations; this time we have to look at how applications are uninstalled. Once an application has been uninstalled, the target machine should be clean, error logs empty, and no applications broken. Getting this right will allow for the next MSI Installer update to run smoothly.

Known issues

Each month, Microsoft includes a list of known issues that relate to the operating system and platforms included in this update cycle. Here are a few key issues that relate to the latest builds from Microsoft, including:

After installing the June 21, 2021 ( KB5003690 ) update, some devices cannot install new updates, such as the July 6, 2021 (KB5004945) or later updates. You will receive the error message, "PSFX_E_MATCHING_BINARY_MISSING." For more information and a workaround, see KB5005322 .

Some Windows 10 LTSC systems are encountering an issue after installing KB4493509 . Devices with some Asian language packs installed may receive the error, "0x800f0982 - PSFX_E_MATCHING_COMPONENT_NOT_FOUND." Microsoft is currently working on a fix.

Windows print clients might encounter the following errors when connecting to a remote printer shared on a Windows print server: 0x000006e4 (RPC_S_CANNOT_SUPPORT), 0x0000007c (ERROR_INVALID_LEVEL), 0x00000709 (ERROR_INVALID_PRINTER_NAME). Microsoft is working on this issue. We expect that there may be an OOB update to address these before December's B release (Patch Tuesday). The good news here is that most of these reported printer issues relate to corporate environments (e.g., printer servers combined with a domain controller); most home users will not be affected by the security concerns or printing problems.

After installing this month's Microsoft update, connecting to devices in an untrusted domain using Remote Desktop might fail to authenticate when using smart card authentication. You might receive the prompt "Your credentials did not work." This issue is resolved using Known Issue Rollback (KIR)  which is kind of exciting. Microsoft now allows for policy-driven execution paths of managed code. In case you encounter issues, you can roll back the execution path of the affected files, putting that piece of code back to a "pre-patch" state. To do this successfully, you need to make sure you have the correct policy files for your platform. You can find the relevant policy files for each Windows version here:

One of the best ways to see whether there are known issues that affect your target platform is to check out the many configuration options for downloading patch data at the Microsoft Security Update guidance site or the summary page for this month's security update.

Major revisions

No major revisions (or even documentation updates) this month.

Mitigations and workarounds

As of Nov. 12, Microsoft has not published any mitigations or workarounds relating to this month's update cycle.

Each month, we break down the update cycle into product families (as defined by Microsoft) with the following basic groupings:

Browsers (Microsoft IE and Edge);

Microsoft Windows (both desktop and server);

Microsoft Office;

Microsoft Exchange;

Microsoft Development platforms ( ASP.NET Core, .NET Core and Chakra Core);

Adobe (retired???, not yet).

Browsers

Microsoft has released a single important update to Microsoft Edge. At its core, this patch is a Chromium code update, but it affects how Edge's IE mode operates. The potential enterprise impact of this update is marginal, so add this relatively straightforward update to your regular release schedule.

Windows

The Microsoft Windows platform received 28 updates, with three rated as critical and the remaining patches rated as important. The biggest concern are the two publicly reported Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) issues (CVE-2021-38631 and CVE-2021-41371). Microsoft has been working on the RDP protocol extensively for the past year with significant updates released with each Patch Tuesday. I have always had my doubts about RDP, though Microsoft offers some guidance and tools to secure your remote desktops. Given the recent supply chain problems, and the lack of fully integrated RDP alternatives, I think patching early and often is our best option. Add these updates to your Windows "Patch Now" schedule.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft released four updates, all of them rated as important. Affecting Access, Word, and Excel, these vulnerabilities require both local access to the target system and user interaction. Unfortunately, one Excel related issue (CVE-2021-42292) has been reported as exploited (though registered by Microsoft as proof-of-concept). Though these Office related security issues are not "wormable," a publicly reported exploitation of a remote code execution vulnerability raises the risk significantly for enterprise customers. Add these updates to your "Patch Now" release schedule.

Microsoft Exchange Server

Microsoft released three important updates (CVE-2021-1349, CVE-2021-42305, CVE-2021-42321) for Exchange Server this month. All three updates link back to a single Knowledge Base (KB) article, KB5007049. These updates will require a server reboot and there is a distinct probability that this may cause an installation failure or break the Exchange Server ("break" as in no remote login). There are a number of known issues with this update relating to manual installs and UAC issues. Thoroughly test this update before any production deployments.

Microsoft development platforms

This month's update is a little more interesting than usual. We have two updates (both rated as important) to Visual Studio that could lead to elevation-of-privilege scenarios. And unusually, Microsoft has added an Open Source project vulnerability from August to this month's November update. The critical rated issue in the OpenSSL cryptography framework (CVE-2021-3711) is consumed by Microsoft Visual Studio and therefore was considered a significant risk to Visual Studio users. This is a great call by Microsoft and really demonstrates its commitment to these types of open-source projects. Add these updates to your regular developer roll-out schedule.

Adobe (really just Reader)

This month, Adobe has released three lower rated issues affecting their RoboHelp (APSB21-87), InCopy (APSB21-110) and Creative Cloud desktop (APSB21-111) applications. Though there are no updates to Adobe Reader, we highly recommend that you test out printing your PDF's due to the changes in the Windows printing system. In addition, you may need to check that the auto-update feature is still working in Adobe Reader once this month's update has been installed.
Congratulations, mysassydate.com got a very good Social Media Impact Score! Show it by adding this HTML code on your site:

Mysassydate.com scored 79 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 4/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 16 Jan 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

The total number of people who shared the mysassydate homepage on Delicious. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the mysassydate homepage on Twitter + the total number of mysassydate followers (if mysassydate has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the mysassydate homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. The total number of people who shared the mysassydate homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the mysassydate homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if mysassydate has a Facebook fan page).

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE MySassyDate - Completely Free Dating Sites DESCRIPTION 100% Free soul mate dating and matchmaking service for singles, with real members! We are completely free dating sites dedicated to all singles in the world, simply the best singles dating websites. Still singles or looking to meet more friends? Then join KEYWORDS soul mate dating, singles dating websites, free single dating, internet dating website, local free dating sites, new free dating sites, completely free dating sites, local date, free dating website, free dating usa, free australia dating, australia free d OTHER KEYWORDS dating, united, united states of america, united states of, states of america, united states, states of



The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE WINDOWS-1252 DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache/2.2.22 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.22 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 mod_fcgid/2.3.5 (PHP/4.4.9) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux

Type of server and offered services. Operative System running on the server. The language of mysassydate.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Character set and language of the site. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0)

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for mysassydate.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND

The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The type of Facebook page. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The URL of the found Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page.

Twitter account link

TWITTER PAGE LINK FOUND TWITTER PAGE twitter.com/#!/mysassydate DESCRIPTION Love and be-loved ACCOUNT CREATED ON 15 Jun 2009 LOCATION United States TWEETS 454 FOLLOWERS 624 LISTED 10
Funeral service for Otis C. Harrison, Jr., 47, formerly of Oakwood, passed away November 6, 2021 in Cypress, CA. Viewing will be on, Monday, November 22 at Emanuel Funeral Home of Palestine from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Funeral will be held on Tuesday, November 23, at True Vine DOXA Center, Fairfie
The 6 samples in which mercury was reported were imported creams from Pakistan, available in online portals like Amazon and Flipkart



Thus, it is clear that the mercury-laden creams are easily available in the country and are being sold both in offline shops and on online portals despite the strict regulations in place to contain mercury in cosmetics, the study said.

Availability of highly toxic and non-compliant products in shops and on online portals are serious breach of the national rules and need to be acted upon immediately by the regulators said Satish Sinha, Associate Director, Toxics Link.

The use of these products could result in severe health risks. Therefore, there is an urgent need for periodic monitoring of imported skin whitening creams by the regulatory authorities, to safeguard the health of the consumers. A proper surveillance system needs to be in place to prevent high mercury-containing toxic skin whitening creams to be imported to India. said Piyush Mohapatra, senior programme coordinator, Toxics Link.

Key findings Mercury was reported in six out of fifteen skin whitening cream samples purchased from Mumbai, Delhi, Trivandrum, and Vijayawa

Five samples were found to contain very high mercury concentrations (4000 to 14000 ppm)

One sample had a mercury concentration of 0.3 ppm, i.e., below the permissible limit of 1 ppm

All the six samples in which mercury was reported were imported creams from Pakistan and are also available in online portals like Amazon and Flipkart

All the Indian manufactured brands are within the safe limit of 1 ppm of mercury. The 2019 samples were purchased from the online portals Amazon and Flipkart. The study also found that, apart from these brands, other high mercury containing brands manufactured in the countries like China, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia were also found to be available in India through these online portals.Thus, it is clear that the mercury-laden creams are easily available in the country and are being sold both in offline shops and on online portals despite the strict regulations in place to contain mercury in cosmetics, the study said.Availability of highly toxic and non-compliant products in shops and on online portals are serious breach of the national rules and need to be acted upon immediately by the regulators said Satish Sinha, Associate Director, Toxics Link.The use of these products could result in severe health risks. Therefore, there is an urgent need for periodic monitoring of imported skin whitening creams by the regulatory authorities, to safeguard the health of the consumers. A proper surveillance system needs to be in place to prevent high mercury-containing toxic skin whitening creams to be imported to India. said Piyush Mohapatra, senior programme coordinator, Toxics Link.

Dangerously high levels of mercury, a heavy metal and neurotoxin, were found in imported skin whitening creams being sold in Indian markets, Toxics Link, a well-known environmental research and advocacy non-profit, has said in its latest report Dark truth of skin whitening creams: Presence of Mercury in skin whitening creams.Based in Delhi, Toxics Link is part of the global alliance of Zero mercury Working Group (ZMWG) and claims to be involved in the mercury policy project. ZMWG is an international coalition of more than 110 public interest environmental and health non-governmental organizations from over 55 countries from around the world formed in 2005 by the European Environmental Bureau and the Mercury Policy Project.According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), mercury is hazardous to health and has the potential to cause damage to the central nervous system, the gastrointestinal system and the kidneys. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has also shown concern over the fact that mercury bio-accumulates in the body tissue and its long-term exposure can have impact to the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and immune system particularly, in unborn children and babiesThe NGO research team enlisted 15 skin whitening creams of different brands manufactured in India, Pakistan and Philippines. The samples were collected from different cities of India, Mumbai, Vijayawada, Delhi and Trivandrum, and tested in the Shriram Institute for Industrial Research, New Delhi, using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) by a standardized method.The study detected mercury in six out of 15 samples. Five samples had alarming levels of mercury ranging from 4,000 to 14,000 ppm. Only one out of six samples had mercury concentration below 1 ppm, i.e., 0.3 ppm. The samples were purchased from Gaffer market in Delhi, Vashi in Navi Mumbai and Tarapet Market in Vijayawada.The study also revealed that all the six samples containing mercury were manufactured in Pakistan, according to the labels in the packaging. Moreover, the test results revealed that all the samples manufactured in India had mercury below detectable limits.In India, there is a stringent regulation, under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 2020, to prevent mercury from being added to cosmetics. Manufacturing and import of cosmetics containing mercury compounds are completely prohibited; but unintentional mercury is allowed up to 1 ppm. However, the study regretted, the mercury-containing products are still available in the Indian market. India has also ratified the Minamata convention on Mercury which restricts mercury use in cosmetics to 1 ppm.Said the study, it is disturbing that the mercury concentrations in some of the imported samples were found to be as high as 1,000 times more than the current permissible limit of 1 ppm. Significantly, a previous study by Toxics Link in 2019 had also reported high mercury concentrations in same brands, it added.
Crossville, TN (38555)

Today

Cloudy with rain ending overnight. Areas of patchy fog. Low near 40F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy with rain ending overnight. Areas of patchy fog. Low near 40F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Isaiah 55:6 (NIV)

Seeking the LORD while he may be found means coming to Him fully through the way Jesus made on the cross, and being filled by the Holy Spirit, which allows us the capability to experience and understand God on a supernatural level. A more recognizable verse in this chapter of Isaiah lies just a few verses past the one above. It proclaims, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD (Is. 55:8 NIV). Isaiah prophesied of the coming Messiah, the rescue of Gods people from an exile that hadnt happened yet, and the eventual restoration of Gods Kingdom on earth.

What Does the Bible Mean by 'Seek the Lord While He May Be Found'?

Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Isaiah 55:6 (NLT)

The New International Version of Isaiah chapter 55 is titled, Invitation to the Thirsty. The New Living Translation titles it Invitation to the LORDs Salvation. The English Standard Version, The Compassion of the LORD. The Passion Translation, Invitation to an Abundant Life. The Message Paraphrase, But Without Money. And the Amplified Bible, The Free Offer of Mercy. These chapter headings aid us in understanding the meaning of verse 6. Found, in this context, has 26 different definitions according to Strongs, some meaning to find or attain, to encounter, learn, meet, to be found. We are no longer separated from God as His people were at the time Isaiah was writing. He is accessible to us through Christ Jesus and wants us to turn to Him through His Son so He can fill us with His Holy Spirit!

Isaiahs name means The Lord Saves. (NIV) The great prophet spent most of his life in Jerusalem and was married with children. In his divinely inspired message, he was projected into the future, much like the apostle John was in writing the book of Revelation. He warned Judah of their exile and spoke of their restoration by God, the Messiah to come, and Gods Kingdom on earth. Through the work of Gods Messiah, people who do not know the Lord will come to know him, the NIV Study Bible explains. We need forgiveness, and we cannot pay for it. The good news of the suffering servant, however, is that God has paid the price for it. Justice has been satisfied through a sufficient substitute.

The Book of Isaiah highlights Gods sovereignty, judgement, compassion, and salvation. His heart for His people (and us) not to perish without hope is evident in His promise to restore them continually, though they are constantly falling by the wayside. We pick up with Isaiah in chapter 55, when he is speaking of the predicted restoration from exile. Spiritual thirst describes a deep need for God. Isaiah 41:17 says, The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. (NIV)

Isaiah begins chapter 55 by stating: Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no many, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Is. 55:1 (NIV)

Jesus proclaims He is the Living Water in the New Testament, but at the time Isaiah is writing, He has yet to come. Through Jesus, we experience a quenching of thirst in our souls, which was impossible to achieve before He defeated death on the cross.

Why Would Isaiah Say 'Seek the Lord' to the Israelites?

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. Isaiah 55:6 ESV)

Isaiah had connected with God and been given a peek into what is to come. The closeness he has experienced with God undoubtably caused him to want others to experience Him intimately, too! Through Isaiah, the Lord told His people- and encourages us today- to seek Him with our whole hearts so He can unlock what we dont even know we dont know! To seek the Lord in the context of Isaiah 55:6 is to seek Him wholeheartedly, not hypocritically.

Seeking the Lord benefits our souls. It leads us to a rich and satisfying life by Gods terms, not the shallow and fleeting ways of the world. Though the temple curtain was torn at Jesus crucifixion, many still live their lives behind a curtain that no longer separates them from God. Its a guard we put up and a barricade we can break through, but dont always choose to. We have to come to Him freely, seeking Him wholeheartedly. Christ made a way, but we must walk through it.

Jeremiah 29:13-14 reads: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the LORD, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile. (NIV)

Amos 5:4 pleads, Seek me and live! Again in verse 6 the prophet wrote, Seek the LORD and live And once again in verse 14, Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. (NIV)

Jesus came so we would live our lives to the full (John 10:10)! God has a purpose for everyone on this earth, and He desires each of us to travel the path of His will for our lives in a fulfilling, joy-filled journey of faithfulness.

Why Should You Seek the Lord Today?

Seek the Lord Yahweh when he makes himself approachable; call upon him when you sense he is near. Isaiah 55:6 (TPT)

In order to live life to the fullest, we must seek the Lord with our whole hearts. Who wants to live half a life?! No one wants to be left in the dark as their friends laugh joyfully over a joke they share or an experience which brought them joy. Nor does God want us to miss out on experiencing Him, to the full, through Christ.

Jesus spoke of the same thirst for water Isaiah prophesied about. John recorded Jesus words about living water on two occasions. The first was in conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well: Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.' John 4:13-14 (NIV)

He spoke again of living water at the Festival of Tabernacles: On the last and greater day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. John 7:37 (NIV)

Instead of drinking from the well of the world, which will never satisfy our spiritual thirst, Jesus provides a way for us to connect completely to the Father in Heaven by the Holy Spirit living in us. The Passion Translation of John 4:14 says, For when you drink the water I give you, it becomes a gushing fountain of the Holy Spirit, flooding you with endless life!

The gift of the Holy Spirit is available to all of us, yet so often we choose to pass. There are many in this world who do not know of the quenching available through Christ. They are wandering in thirst. We are part of Gods plan to make Him known throughout the earth! But some of us, though we drink from the well of Living Water, sit idle in our calling to Go. James wrote: My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. James 1:19-21 (NIV)

The Passion Translation reads: My dearest brothers and sisters, take this to heart: Be quick to listen, but slow to become angry, for human anger is never a legitimate tool to promote Gods righteous purpose. So this is why we abandon everything morally impure and all forms of wicked conduct. Instead, with a sensitive spirit we absorb Gods Word, which has been implanted within our nature, for the Word of Life has power to continually deliver us.

We are set in our generations, purposefully, to listen to the LORD. As we seek Him wholeheartedly, the light of the Lord in us shines onto everyone around us.

Prayer to Seek the Lord

So turn your attention and seek the Eternal One while it is still possible; call on Him while he is nearby. Isaiah 55:6 (VOICE)

Father,

Just a few verses past the one we have studied today, You spoke through Isaiah, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8 NIV)

We come close to You, God, because we need You to show us, guide us, and fill us with the wisdom we need to walk inYour ways, which we are not fully capable of understanding as human beings on this earth. As we learn to yield to the Spirit of God in us, which connects us to You intimately, let us grow in discernment, able to hear, listen, obey, and learn from our close connectedness to You. In Christ, we are able to draw near to You, Father. You take up residence in us, and we are amazed. Its too much for us to comprehend, let alone know what to do with on a daily basis! Help us to humbly submit to and seek You with all of our hearts, fully and genuinely, all the days of our lives.

In Jesus Name,

Amen.

Seek the LORD while he may be found; Call on Him [for salvation] while He is near. Isaiah 55:6 (AMP)

The Lord is near to us, every day and all of the time. We only need to turn to Him in order to experience life to the full, as we look forward to eternity with Him. No matter how many times we mess up the same things, He opens His arms and welcomes us home. God will always forgive us and never love us less. When we truly understand how long, wide, and deep His love is for us, we come to Him with repentant hearts, listening allowing Him to change us and become more like Christ each day through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit living in us. Seek the Lord while He may be found.

Additional Resources:

The NIV Grace and Truth Study Bible. Copyright  2021 by Zondervan. All rights reserved.

NIV Study Bible Notes, Fully Revised Edition. NIV Study Bible, Copyright  1985, 1995, 2002, 2008, 2011 by Zondervan.

Photo Credit: Unsplash/BenWhite
Yes, I have been a victim.

No, but not for lack of trying.

I don't think so.

Vote

View Results
REvil is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that has extorted large amounts of money from organizations worldwide over the past year. Its name stands for Ransomware Evil and was inspired by the Resident Evil movie series. According to recent reports from security firms, it is the most widespread ransomware threat and the group behind it doubles down on its extortion efforts by also stealing business data and threatening to release it.

REvil, also known as Sodinokibi, first appeared in April 2019 and rose to prominence after another RaaS gang called GandCrab shut down its service. In the early days of REvil, researchers and security firms identified it as a strain of GandCrab, or at least established multiple links between the two. An alleged member of the group, using the handle Unknown, confirmed in a recent interview that the ransomware was not a new creation and that it was built on top of an older codebase that the group acquired.

Developers behind RaaS operations rely on other cybercriminals known as affiliates to distribute the ransomware for them. In fact, ransomware developers earn between 20% to 30% of the illegal proceeds with the rest going to the affiliates who do the legwork of gaining access to corporate networks and deploying the malware.

The more successful a RaaS operation is, the more likely it is to attract skilled affiliates and if one operation closes, affiliates quickly shift to a different one. This happened with GandCrab in the past and more recently with the Maze group, whose members announced their retirement earlier this month and whose affiliates promptly moved to a new ransomware family called Egregor, also known as Sekhmet.

In July 2021, REvil affiliates exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in a systems management and monitoring tool developed by a company called Kaseya to compromise over 30 managed service providers (MSPs) from around the world and over 1,000 business networks managed by those MSPs. The attack attracted widespread media attention and even triggered a discussion on the topic of ransomware between US President Joe Biden and Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Shortly after the talks, REvil's websites stopped working and the group went silent, prompting speculation that Russian law enforcement might have taken action against it. Kaseya also received a master decryption key that worked for all victims from an unnamed "trusted third party."

On September 9, cybercrime analysts from Flashpoint reported that REvil's websites are back online and that a new representative for the group posted messages on underground forums to explain what happened. According to those posts, the master decryption key was generated accidentally by one of the group's coders and was bundled with the individual decryption keys for some of the victims. The group is also working to mend relationships with its collaborators and affiliates after its abrupt disappearance, Flashpoint reported.

On November 9, the DOJ announced indictments against two suspected REvil affiliates: Yaroslav Vasinskyi, 22, from Ukraine and Yevgeniy Polyanin, 28, from Russia. Vasinskyi was charged in connection with the attack against Kaseya and was arrested in Poland. Authorities are seeking to extradite him to the US. Polyanin was charged in connection with REvil attacks against other organizations and he has not been apprehended yet, but authorities managed to seize $6.1 million in funds that he allegedly obtained from ransomware payments.

The same day, Europol announced that five suspected REvil affiliates have been arrested since February, including two in November in Romania. The agency noted that these efforts were part of an international law enforcement operation named GoldDust that involved 17 countries and started with an investigation into GandCrab. When it was shut down in 2019, GandCrab was one of the top ransomware families. Some of the GandCrab affiliates are believed to have later moved to REvil, Europol said.

How successful is REvil?

In September, the IBM Security X-Force Incident Response team reported that one in four cybersecurity incidents it was called to remedy this year in customer networks was a ransomware infection. Furthermore, one in every three ransomware infections involved REvil/Sodinokibi.

"The ransomware strain IBM Security X-Force has seen most frequently in 2020 is Sodinokibi (also known as REvil)a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) attack model that has been capitalizing on blended ransomware and extortion attacks this year," the researchers said at the time. "This malware has been involved in ransomware and data theft attacks and in some cases, its operators stole and auctioned off sensitive data on the internet when they were not able to coerce victims to pay up. Sodinokibi also makes up 29% of all IBM Security X-Force ransomware engagements in 2020, suggesting that Sodinokibi actors are more skilled at gaining access to victim networks when compared to other ransomware strains."

IBM Security X-Force estimated that REvil hit at least 140 organizations since it appeared in April 2019 with wholesale, manufacturing, and professional services being the most frequently targeted industries. Around 60% of the gang's victims are organizations from the US, followed by UK, Australia and Canada.

The company also estimates that a third of REvil victims paid the ransom and that one in ten had their sensitive information auctioned off on the dark web. A third of the group's victims had their data stolen.

The REvil gang appears to adjust its ransom requests based on the annual revenue of the victim organizations, which is why its requests varied widely between $1,500 and $42 million and up to 9% of the victim's yearly revenue. IBM has also identified some overlap between REvil and a cybercriminal group known as FIN7, also known as Carbanak, though this might be because an affiliate contracts with both.

The IBM researchers estimate that REvil's profits over the past year were at least $81 million. An interview by a Russian blogger with the alleged REvil group representative Unknown appears to confirm that. The cybercriminal claims the group made over $100 million from its ransomware attacks. In late September, the group deposited $1 million in bitcoin on a hacker forum in an attempt to recruit more skilled hackers to become its affiliates, BleepingComputer reported.

Data theft, extortion and empty promises

Earlier this month, Coveware, a company that specializes in ransomware incident response, reported that REvil/Sodinokibi had the largest market share among ransomware groups during the third quarter of 2020 being responsible for 16% of infections. The group also led during the previous quarter. Almost half of all ransomware cases investigated by the company also involved threats to release exfiltrated data, with an increasing number of groups adopting this technique.

"Coveware feels that we have reached a tipping point with the data exfiltration tactic," the security firm said. "Despite some companies opting to pay threat actors to not release exfiltrated data, Coveware has seen a fraying of promises of the cybercriminals (if that is a thing) to delete the data."

In particular, Coveware has seen incidents where victims who already paid were re-extorted by REvil a few weeks later with threats to release the same data. Other groups also failed to keep their promises by publishing the data of victims who chose to pay or by showing fake evidence of data deletion.

"Unlike negotiating for a decryption key, negotiating for the suppression of stolen data has no finite end," the company said. "Once a victim receives a decryption key, it cant be taken away and does not degrade with time. With stolen data, a threat actor can return for a second payment at any point in the future. The track records are too short and evidence that defaults are selectively occurring is already collecting. Accordingly, we strongly advise all victims of data exfiltration to take the hard, but responsible steps. Those include getting the advice of competent privacy attorneys, performing an investigation into what data was taken, and performing the necessary notifications that result from that investigation and counsel."

Unknown, the REvil representative, told the Russian blogger that the group is also looking into adopting other techniques, such as launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to force the hand of organizations that suspend negotiations.

How REvil works

REvil is one of the ransomware programs deployed during human-operated ransomware campaigns, similar to Ryuk, WastedLocker and others. This means that after breaking in, hackers use a variety of tools and techniques to map the network, perform lateral movement, obtain domain administrator privileges, and deploy the ransomware on all computers to maximize the impact.

Since REvil is distributed by different affiliates, the initial access vectors differ among phishing emails with malicious attachments to compromised RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) credentials and the exploitation of vulnerabilities in various public-facing services. For example, last year REvil hackers gained access to systems by exploiting a known vulnerability in Oracle Weblogic (CVE-2019-2725).

According to Coveware's report, REvil is now distributed primarily through compromised RDP sessions (65%), phishing (16%), and software vulnerabilities (8%). Unknown also confirmed in his interview that many REvil affiliates use brute force attacks to compromise RDP.

REvil stands apart from other ransomware programs through its use of Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman key exchange instead of RSA and Salsa20 instead of AES to encrypt files. These cryptographic algorithms use shorter keys, are highly efficient and are uncrackable if implemented correctly.

The ransomware kills some processes on the infected machines, including email clients, SQL and other database servers, Microsoft Office programs, browsers and other tools that might keep important files locked or backed into RAM. It then deletes Windows shadow copies of files and other backups to prevent file recovery.

How to defend against REvil

Organizations should always secure their remote access with strong credentials and two-factor authentication and should consider making such services available over VPN only. All publicly exposed servers, applications, and appliances should be kept updated and should regularly be scanned for vulnerabilities, misconfiguration, and suspicious behavior. Brute force protections that block excessive login attempts with the wrong credentials should also be enabled where possible.

Inside local networks, take these actions:

Block unneeded SMB and RPC communications between endpoints that can be used for lateral movement.

Monitor privileged accounts for suspicious behavior.

Reduce the attack surface on endpoints with stricter access control rules on folders and processes.

Secure network shares.

Train employees on how to detect phishing attempts.

Have a data backup process in place that stores backups offsite and tests that restoring from backups can be done in a timely manner.

Have clearly defined incident response plans in place so that action can be taken immediately if an attack is detected. It should be clear who is involved in this process and what are their responsibilities. NIST has published a draft guide on detecting and responding to ransomware.

"Certain industries, such as healthcare, may seem to be more heavily targeted than others, because of the sensitive data they hold and their relative intolerance of downtime," the Coveware researchers said. "However, what we have observed over time is that the presence of cheap-to-exploit vulnerabilities, that happen to be common within a given industry, are what causes an industry concentration to appear."

The Coveware researchers believe professional services such as law or accounting firms are especially vulnerable. The 4.2 million US professional services firms makes up about 14% of all businesses in the country, but make up 25% of attacks. These firms are more likely to take the threat of ransomware less seriously, the researchers said. They commonly leave vulnerabilities like RDP open to the internet and are victimized much more regularly than companies in other industries. It is critical that small professional services firms recognize that there is no such thing as being too small to be targeted. The cyber-extortion industry does not work like that. If you present a cheap vulnerability to the internet, you will get attacked. It is just a question of when, not if."

Editor's note: This article, originally published on November 17, 2020, has been updated to include events that occurred in July, September and November of 2021.
The risk of cybercrime is not spread equally across the globe. Cyberthreats differ widely, with internet users in some countries at much higher risk than those in nations that offer more security due to strong cybercrime legislation and widely implemented cybersecurity programs, according to fraud-detection software company SEON.

SEON combined data from a variety of cybersecurity indices and indicators to come up with a global ranking of countries that are least and most at risk of cybercrime. Cybersecurity for internet users is strongest in Denmark, where people are protected from cybercrime through both legislation and technology, according to the SEON ranking. It is followed, in order, by Germany and the US.

How cybersecurity rankings were determined

To arrive at its Global Cyber-Safety Index, SEON first collected data from the National Cyber Security Index (NCSI), which ranks every country based on the strength of their cybersecurity measures. The company then took data from a similar ranking, the Global Cybersecurity Index 2020, which also ranked countries based on their respective cybersecurity practices. Data from both of these sources were used since they used different criteria to rank each country.

SEON also used the Basel AML Index: 9th Edition, which ranks countries based on the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing. This illegal activity is most commonly done digitally, so it is a good indicator of how well-policed and secure the internet is in each country.

To come up with its overall ranking, SEON also took into account the Cybersecurity Exposure Index (CEI) 2020, which measures how at-risk internet users are in each country.

In addition to these various indices, SEON looked at the strength of cybercrime legislation in each country.

We assigned each country one point for each piece of legislation, and half a point if the legislation was only in draft form. We then added an extra point for each regulatory category that this covered, thereby including the coverage of legislation as a part of the scoring process. The scores from all of these factors were converted into a single, equally-weighted score out of 10, says Gergo Varga, author of the report.

The lowest-risk countries for cyberthreats

At the top of the ranking for most cybersecure countries, Denmark secured an overall cybersafety score of 8.91, doing particularly well on the Cybersecurity Exposure Index, where it scored just 0.117.

SEON SEON combined data from different cybersecurity indices to rank countries in terms of their exposure to cybercrime.

Germany had a cybersafety score of 8.76, while the US scored 8.73. The relatively overall high rank for US was due in part to its first place score in the Global Cybersecurity Index, while also ranking well in terms of overall cybersecurity exposure and strong legislation.

Other countries that made it to the top 10 of most secure countries were, in order of ranking, Norway, the UK, Canada, Sweden, Australia, Japan and Netherlands.

At the other end of the scale are the countries that offer the least protection against cybercrime. These countries have very weak legislation regarding cybercrime or even none at all, and therefore carry the greatest risk to transactions that involve personal information, the report said.

The highest-risk countries for cyberthreats

Myanmar has the worst ranking for internet safety, scoring just 2.22 on SEONs Global Cyber-Safety Index. The country scored poorly across the board, especially in terms of legislation, as hardly any has been enacted to put barriers in the way of cybercriminals.

Based on the methodology of the report, most of the rationale behind the risk ranking comes down to legislation and an involved government infrastructure focused on regulation and enforcement, said Liz Miller, a vice president at Constellation Research.

SEON SEON combined data from different cybersecurity indices to come up with a list of countries that are most exposed to cybercrime.

But if we are being honest, a regulatory environment will only get you so far, for example, even if a country has passed or is in the process of passing legislation around consumer privacy or digital safety, if there are no real ramifications or consequences to those crimes, be it for the criminals executing those crimes or for businesses who refuse to invest in compliance or those who purposefully ignore privacy and safety regulations  then what? You have a piece of paper with great intentions and no teeth, Miller added.

Cambodia follows Myanmar with a cybersafety score of 2.67, the second-worst overall score in the SEON rankings. Cambodia performs marginally better than Myanmar in every metric other than the Global Cybersecurity Index.

Honduras takes third place with a score of 3.13. The Central American country scored lowest on the Global Cybersecurity Index of any in the study while performing poorly in all other areas. However, Honduras does perform twice as well as Myanmar and Cambodia in terms of anti-cybercrime legislation.

The other countries in the list of those most at risk of cyberthreats are (from most at risk to least): Bolivia, Mongolia, Algera, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and El Salvador.

Most common forms of cybercrime

The SEON report also focuses on the most commonly reported cybercrimes of 2020. It said that phishing emails and pharming are the top online threat to US internet users, accounting for 32.9% of all reported cybercrime in the country in 2020. Phishing and pharming refer to the fraudulent practice of luring people into revealing personal information, such as passwords, login details and credit card numbers.

The second most common type of cybercrime was non-payment and non-delivery, which was reported 108,869 times and made up 14.9% of cybercrimes in the US. Non-payment refers to a buyer not paying for goods or services received, while non-delivery refers to the failure to deliver goods or services that have been paid for.

Extortion is the third most common form of cybercrime, with 76,741 reported incidents in 2020 in the US, reflecting 10.4% of all cybercrime in the country. Extortion comes in several forms, with the most common being the use of ransomware to seize access to files and devices, followed by a demand for money, cryptocurrency, gift cards or any other form of payment.

Strong security requires resources

To really dig into why some countries may be at higher risk than others, resources and the wealth of targets need to be considered, Constellation Research's Miller said. Security requires resources that some organizations in some countries may not have access to, be it the budget to implement proactive protection measures or the talent and time to staff security teams and operations. Companies that lack resources may also prioritize operations over security and that, according to Miller, creates an environment that is opportunistic for bad actors looking to exploit vulnerabilities.

Countries that are most at risk should take steps toward regulation and public education, Miller says.

The average consumer simply does not see themselves as part of the vulnerability supply chain, with some calling for the government to resolve these issues of faceless strangers lurking in basements wearing hoodies. But we all know that the faceless hoodie guy didnt click the link in the email that really didnt come from the bank, Miller says.

If a government is truly serious about addressing threats, partnerships will be key, Miller says. The public and private sectors will need to come together on solutions and shared intelligence for the purpose of early detection and rapid mitigation in order to stay ahead of bad actors.
A multi-state cannabis company has closed one deal and signed two more to acquire three firms with marijuana dispensaries and a cultivation facility in Connecticut, according to an announcement this week.

Verano Holdings Corp., which has active operations in 12 states, closed its agreement with Willow Brook Wellness on Oct. 25. It signed agreements Wednesday to, if finalized, acquire Caring Nature and Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions Inc.

The move signals the Chicago-based companys interest in entering Connecticut ahead of the launch of the states recreational-use program, after sales were legalized earlier this year. Its one of several multi-state companies interested in the burgeoning Connecticut market.

Verano operates under brands such as Zen Leaf and MUV. It has East Coast operations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Massachusetts

Willow Brook Wellness has a dispensary in Meriden, and Caring Nature has a dispensary in Waterbury. Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions has a cultivation and production facility in Rocky Hill.

The Connecticut Pharmaceutical acquisition includes $113.25 million in voting shares and $18.5 million more in subordinate voting shares of the company upon the first adult-use sale of cannabis in Connecticut, according to a Verano news release.

The 216,532-square-foot facility is one of just four cannabis producers licensed in Connecticut, online records show. The medical program has enrolled about 54,000 patients.

We are excited about the continued expansion of both our national platform and our East Coast hub. Entering the Connecticut market ahead of its adult-use transition provides a clear runway for sustainable, long-term growth, George Archos, Verano founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement included in the news release.

Its not the only large company drawn to Connecticut markets by talks of recreational legalization.

In March, multi-state cannabis company Greenrose Acquisition Corp announced that it would acquire Theraplant, one of the other production facilities in Connecticut.

In emerging medical markets with recreational potential like Connecticut, where our company is generating strong cash flow, we are excited about this growth potential as the market evolves, Mickey Harley, chief executive officer and director of Greenrose, said in a news release at the time.

Amid 2019 talks of recreational legalization, Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries announced its $80 million acquisition of Advanced Grow Labs in West Haven. Curaleaf, the states only other production facility, is headquartered in Massachusetts and operates businesses in 23 states.

Through the program, medical providers will be able to apply for hybrid licenses that allows them to sell both recreational and medical products. Existing dispensaries and production facilities will be able to apply for the hybrid licenses without being subject to the lottery process for new applicants.

Theyll have to submit plans for preserving the medical program as well as a workforce development plan for approval by Connecticuts Social Equity Council. The council is charged with overseeing social equity measures designed to ensure funds from the adult-use program flow into communities most affected by the war on drugs.

Dispensaries conversion fees will be cut in half  from $1 million to $500,000  for applicants who participate in at least one joint venture with an equity partner, according to documents from the state Department of Consumer Protection.

Requirements for production facilities that want to convert to an expanded production license to produce both adult-use and medical products are similar. Theyll have to submit a workforce development plan and a medical cannabis preservation plan.

The conversion fee is $3 million, and will halved if companies have at least two joint equity ventures. Production facilities will either have to pay $500,000 to the social equity council to convert or show evidence they have a social equity partner.

Licensees with medical licenses wont be allowed to terminate their pharmaceutical programs through this process.
STRATFORD  Perched on a low dune of pink-and-tan seashells, the snowy owls arctic camouflage was conspicuous Wednesday to a crowd of birders and photographers who hovered nearby, rapidly clicking away with their cameras.

After a few moments, the stillness of the beach was disrupted by a woman who approached within several yards of the owl, prompting it to depart with a few flaps of its wings to a nearby jetty. The crowd of onlookers soon followed, a few raising their voices in frustration and apparent concern for the bird.

The woman, who later identified herself as Lisa Dickal, a state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator, said she had intentionally flushed out the bird to determine whether it was healthy enough to fly or whether it needed to be potentially rescued.

A nearby Department of Energy and Environmental Protection police officer quickly intervened, backing up Dickal and warning some of the photographers to stop crowding around the bird. Dickal identified the owl as a juvenile that had likely wandered south from its place of birth, thousands of miles away in the high arctic.

After tensions eased  with the help of DEEP and Stratford police who were on the scene monitoring the crowds  Dickal expressed her frustration with some of the bird-watchers, ultimately attributing their reaction to a misunderstanding.

This whole purpose wasnt to ruin peoples day, it was to assess the bird, she said. The experience overall was upsetting because maybe three people would listen, the rest were extremely combative.

The commotion surrounding the rare snowy owl that appeared in Stratford this week is indicative of what conservationists in Connecticut described as a growing conflict between public enthusiasm for nature and the need to protect vulnerable species and their habitats from disturbing crowds.

Interest in outdoor activities such as birdwatching surged during the COVD-19 pandemic, prompting some veteran hobbyists and scientists to call for a closing of ranks around sharing information that can draw large crowds when a particularly rare species is spotted.

Another snowy owl, for instance, was at the center of a similar controversy last year when it alighted in New Yorks Central Park, drawing hundreds of curious onlookers.

This one bird has really uncovered some huge problems on both sides of the issue, said Patrick Comins, executive director of the Connecticut Audubon Society.

Obviously were a conservation organization and were concerned about the well-being of every snowy owl thats here. But people kind of come up with their own guidelines of what people should be doing or shouldnt be doing, and then theyre not shy about espousing those opinions and then thats causing some conflict, Comins said.

Adding to the concern for some is the popularity of crowdsourcing birding apps such as e-Bird, where users can report sightings, receive alerts of rare birds and track their own life lists of species that they have seen.

Its like literally the paparazzi alert system, Dickal said.

To address the concerns, e-Bird keeps a list of of sensitive bird species that prevents sharing of specific location data on those sightings with the general public. The snowy owl is not on that list, but e-Birds website says that large crowds following owls in winter can disrupt their feeding habits, and it encourages users to show ethical behavior around all owls.

Experts said a few snowy owls can typically be seen along the Connecticut coast each winter; their stark white-and-black plumage makes them a particularly attractive draw for birders.

My obsession is owls, but the snowy owl is my favorite, said Elizabeth Tsimbidaros, who drove from her home in Southbury to watch the bird through her telescopic lens. Its very early this year; usually I don't hear about them until December.

Most snowy owls in Connecticut are juveniles in search of new hunting grounds, and they are exhausted after the long flight from the arctic tundra. Crowds can scare away the owls preferred food of small rodents and prevent them from resting during the day, draining the energy they have left.

Globally, the owls are considered vulnerable, with an estimated 28,000 mature individuals in the wild.

Christine Cummings, president of A Place Called Hope, a birds-of-prey rescue in Killingworth, said that attention likely contributed to the death of a snowy owl rescued by her team in Connecticut several years ago.

It came in, it was so depleted, it couldnt hunt and it died in our care, Cummings said.

Earlier this year, the Audubon Society similarly blamed the death of an American oystercatcher chick at the nonprofits Milford Point preserve on four wildlife photographers who attempted to capture images of the nest at close range. Two chicks in the nest were too young to fly, the Audubon Society said, and the parents appeared wary of leaving the nest unattended to find food.

Even after a ranger asked the photographers to back up, they stayed in place for nearly four hours, according to a post on the nonprofit's website. After they left, one of the oystercatcher chicks was found starved to death.

Still, Comins from the Audubon Society said he viewed the increased popularity of bird-watching as a positive and hoped it would steer more support to conservation efforts.

We dont want to love nature to death, and there are plenty of ways that even experienced naturalists can inadvertently cause some harm to the environment, Comins said. But I feel that the more people that are aware of and engaged with and in awe of the wonders of nature, that is only going to be beneficial to nature itself.

Comins also pointed to individual actions, such as following a birding code of ethics or waiting until after migrations season to post sightings of rare birds, that he said could help ameliorate potential harm to wildlife.

In Stratford on Wednesday, Barbara Garbarino said she shared the concerns of conservationists after driving from her home in Putnam County, N.Y., to spend two days photographing the snowy owl.

At about 8 a.m., she said she had stood among a crowd of other birders and photographers, mindful to keep a respectful distance.

I would be heartbroken if anything were to happen to that owl, Garbarino said. I look at it, and its such a beautiful bird.
Viktoria Sundqvist / Hearst Connecticut Media

A Rhode Island man admitted his role in a scheme to steal tires and rims from new vehicles at car dealerships across the Northeast and then selling them nationwide, according to federal prosecutors.

Michael Farias, 56, of Providence, pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of stolen property before Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford. Farias faces up to 10 years in prison.
JERUSALEM (AP)  Izzeldin Abuelaish captured widespread sympathy in Israel when he lost three daughters and a niece in an Israeli strike during the 2009 war in the Gaza Strip. Now, the Palestinian doctor is seeking justice in Israel's highest court.

Abuelaish is scheduled to appear before the Supeme Court in Jerusalem on Monday in hopes of receiving an apology from Israel and compensation for his loss.

The Harvard-educated doctor, a widower who moved to Canada after the tragedy, says he is hopeful that he will prevail. But after a lower court rejected his case in 2018, he knows he might have traveled 9,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) only to lose again.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Abuelaish said that such an outcome would only shine a brighter light on the injustice of his family's pain. Either way, he says, the retelling of the story is a step in itself on the path toward a legacy of peace for his daughters  of creating life from death and killing.

If we have a positive answer from the court, this is a great success, Abuelaish said. But whatever the legal result, I am determined we are not the victims anymore.

Abuelaish, 66, was an obstetrician and peace activist well known in Israel even before the tragedy. He had worked in an Israeli hospital while living in Gaza. And during the war, launched to end Hamas' rocket fire on Israeli border towns, he often gave updates to Israeli media in fluent Hebrew.

But on Jan. 16, 2009, live television broadcast a nightmarish, real-time report from Abuelaish to Israelis watching Channel 10 for news about the war.

My daughters have been killed, he sobbed into a phone. A journalist listened at the other end of the line as the audio aired live.

The blast from the Israeli strike took the lives of his daughters Aya, 14, Bessan, 21, and Mayar, 15, as well as his niece Noor, 17. Footage from the scene shows Abuelaish directing the evacuation of another daughter, Shatha, 17, who was severely wounded but survived.

For 13 years, Abuelaish has battled in Israeli courts and the public arena to deliver justice to his family for what he says was a terrible mistake by the Israeli army.

The government says the law shields the military from liability for wartime actions. In 2018, a lower court sided with the army. Abuelaish's appeal to that ruling had been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, until Monday.

There have been bright spots, Abuelaish said. Two weeks ago, he learned that an expectant Israeli mother had read of his journey and decided to name her baby Aya  after his own daughter. Abuelaish says he'll meet the girl, now 8 years old, and her family over the weekend.

I am so moved, he said, reading from the letter a few days before leaving his home in Toronto for Israel this week. I didn't know what to do, what to say.

That's rare for the widower and father of five surviving children, who has spoken around the world about the need for facts, truth and equality  and the cost of hate and war. He's been clear about what he wants to make of his daughters' legacy. His book is titled in part, I Shall Not Hate.

Abuelaish's presence in Israel is an accomplishment in itself. Few Gazans are allowed to enter the country and the success of his cooperation with friends and colleagues in Israel is even rarer.

He has established the Daughters For Life Foundation to give out scholarships, as it did on Thursday to two young women at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

He also wants to establish a college for Middle Eastern women, perhaps in Cyprus, named for the foundation and dedicated to his daughters. On Wednesday in Jerusalem, he lobbied members of the Knesset to support that project.

My daughters' names now are written on their graves, in the stone, Abuelaish told reporters outside Israel's parliament. I want to see their names written on an institution that spreads light and hope and wisdom to young women.

He hopes for the validation of Israel's high court on Monday, but the legal outlook is difficult, one expert said. The Supreme Court will consider whether the lower court's finding was correct under Israels tort law.

The court wont even get to the question of whether the military acted properly, said Yuval Shany, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and a law professor at Hebrew University.

In a statement to the AP on Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Ministry pointed to the lower court ruling that the strike on the Abuelaish home occurred during a war.

It also reiterated expert testimony that shrapnel retrieved from two bodies was traced to equipment used by Palestinian militants. That, the ministry said, supports the contention that the five-story home was thought to have served as a Hamas position.

Abuelaish vociferously denies that. He is adamant that there were no militants and no warning until the shells struck.

The 2009 conflict was the first of four wars between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007. The bitter enemies fought their fourth war in May.

Still, there are signs of change in the region  a new diverse coalition of eight parties took office in Israel in June, with Arabs part of the government for the first time. Dovish Jewish-led parties are also part of the government.

Abuelaish says he got an empathetic reception this week from lawmakers in Knesset, an improvement from his last visit to Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid gave him a hug.

Maybe," said Shany, this government will be more open than the previous one to making such a statement of apology, "just because the composition is more diverse.

Win or lose in court, Abuelaish has plans afterward  in Gaza.

I want to go to my daughters grave, to say to them: 'I am here. I didnt give up, I didnt forget you', he told reporters in Jerusalem. Until then ... I am educating for your justice.

___

AP videojournalist Moshe Edri in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
BANGKOK (AP)  A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Friday sentenced U.S. journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison with hard labor, the maximum penalty under three charges, despite calls by the United States and rights groups for his release.

It was the harshest punishment yet among the seven journalists known to have been convicted since the military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February.

Fenster, the managing editor of the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, still faces additional terrorism and treason charges under which he could receive up to life in prison.

The court found him guilty on Friday of spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations, lawyer Than Zaw Aung said.

Fenster wept after hearing the sentence and has not yet decided whether to appeal, the lawyer said.

The harsh penalty is the ruling military's latest rebuff of calls from around the world for a peaceful end to Myanmars political crisis. The government is refusing to cooperate with an envoy appointed by Southeast Asian governments to mediate a solution, and has not bowed to sanctions imposed by the United States and several other Western countries.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price in a statement called Fensters sentencing an unjust conviction of an innocent person.

Price added: The United States condemns this decision. We are closely monitoring Dannys situation and will continue to work for his immediate release. We will do so until Danny returns home safely to his family.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said Fensters conviction and harsh sentence is emblematic of the wider plight of journalists in Myanmar who have been facing constant repression since the Feb. 1 military coup.

According to Bachelet, at least 126 journalists, media officials or publishers have been detained by the military since the military seized power and 47 remain in detention, including 20 charged with crimes.

Nine media outlets have had their licenses revoked, 20 others have had to suspend operations, and dozens of journalists remain in hiding due to outstanding arrest warrants, she said.

Journalists have been under attack since Feb. 1, with the military leadership clearly attempting to suppress their attempts to report on the serious human rights violations being perpetrated across Myanmar as well as the extent of opposition to the regime, Bachelet said. Myanmar has quickly reverted to an environment of information control, censorship and propaganda seen under military regimes in the past.

I urge the military authorities to immediately release all journalists being detained in relation to their work, she said, stressing that people are being deprived of life-saving information.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supports Bachelet's views, and reiterated that journalists everywhere, including those in Myanmar, must be allowed to work without harassment and that reporting facts is not and must not be seen as a crime, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Its clear that Danny is being made an example of, and what it shows is that the junta do not care what the international community thinks," said Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. They would do as they want, and this is one example of how they are basically showing the international community that they cannot be held accountable.

The army's takeover was opposed by widespread peaceful protests that were put down with lethal force. Security forces killed more than 1,200 civilians and arrested about 10,000 others, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Armed resistance has since spread, and U.N. experts and other observers fear the incipient insurgency could slide into civil war.

Fenster was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he was about to board a flight to go to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family.

The military-installed government has cracked down hard on press freedom, shutting down virtually all critical outlets. Of the seven journalists known to have been convicted, six are Myanmar nationals and four were released in a mass amnesty on Oct. 21.

Some of the closed media outlets have continued operating without a license, publishing online as their staff members dodge arrest.

At least three other foreign journalists, from Japan, the United States and Poland, have been detained. The American, Nathan Maung, said he was tortured while in custody.

The hearings on the original three charges against Fenster were held at a court in Yangons infamous Insein Prison, where he is jailed. They were closed to the media and the public, and accounts of the proceedings have come from Fensters lawyer.

Despite testimony from more than a dozen prosecution witnesses, it was never clear exactly what Fenster was alleged to have done, and it appeared that he was judged guilty by association.

Much of the prosecutions case appeared to hinge on his being employed by Myanmar Now, another online news site, that was ordered closed this year. But Fenster left his job at Myanmar Now in July last year, joining Frontier Myanmar the following month.

Prosecution witnesses testified that they were informed by a letter from the Information Ministry that its records showed that Fenster continued to be employed this year by Myanmar Now.

Both Myanmar Now and Frontier Myanmar issued public statements that Fenster had left the former publication last year, and his lawyer said defense testimony, as well as income tax receipts, established that he works for Frontier Myanmar.

Than Zaw Aung said he was unable to produce a government official to testify, and the judge took into account only the Information Ministry letter.

Therefore, according to this letter, Danny is responsible for Myanmar Now and the judge said thats why Danny was sentenced, the lawyer said.

He said Fenster told him that the editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now allegedly forgot to inform the Information Ministry of his resignation last year.

The U.S. government, human rights groups, press freedom associations and Fensters family had pressed strongly for the 37-year-old journalists release.

Myanmar must stop jailing journalists for merely doing their job of reporting the news, said Shawn Crispin, Southeast Asia representative of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

I am devastated by the news of the sentencing of my constituent, journalist Danny Fenster, said Michigan Rep. Andy Levin, a Democrat from suburban Detroit.

Despite Dannys attorney demonstrating evidence to clear him of these charges or any wrongdoing whatsoever, this verdict comes down in a case where there has not been a scintilla of justice, he said in a statement.

___

Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Mike Householder in Detroit contributed to this report.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP)  A Missouri man who admitted to burying his wifes body and misleading authorities for more than a year about her whereabouts was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder.

After deliberating for almost seven hours, a jury found Joseph Elledge guilty in the killing of 28-year-old Mengqi Ji, whom he married after she moved to the U.S. from China to study at the University of Missouri.

Elledge reported Ji missing in October 2019, prompting months of extensive searches. Her remains were found in a park near Columbia, Missouri, in March.

Elledge was charged with first-degree murder, but Circuit Judge J. Hasbrouck Jacobs told jurors they could consider charges of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and first-degree or second-degree involuntary manslaughter. Elledge was acquitted of the first-degree murder charge.

First-degree murder requires the state to prove that Elledge killed Ji intentionally after deliberating about it, and Elledges intent was central to arguments throughout the trial.

The jury will hear evidence from both sides and recommend a sentence to the judge, according to KMIZ-TV. Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Knight has asked for life in prison, while Elledges attorney, Scott Rosenblum, is asking for 10 years, the news station reported. The judges sentence cant exceed what the jury recommends.

An attorney for Ji's family told the Columbia Daily Tribune before the trial started that they didn't plan to provide a statement, but said on Wednesday they're pleased with Knight's efforts.

During closing arguments on Thursday, Knight told the jury that Elledge was a stone cold killer who was guilty of first-degree murder because he intentionally killed his wife.

Rosenblum argued that his client was awkward and made unbelievably dumb decisions after she died. But he said Elledge never intended to kill his wife and should never have been charged with murder.

During his trial, Elledge said Jis death was accidental. He said she fell and hit her head on Oct. 8, 2019, after he pushed her during an argument and he found her dead in bed the next morning. He said he panicked, put her body in the trunk of her car and did not report what happened while he tried to decide what to do.

He did not tell anyone, including Jis mother, about her disappearance.

On Oct. 10, with the couples young daughter in the car, Elledge drove to Rock Bridge State Park about 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of Columbia, where they lived. There, he dug a grave and buried Ji at a site a half-mile from where he proposed to her. He then returned home and reported her missing.

Prosecutors used social media posts, audio tapes and a journal Elledge kept to document the couples volatile relationship. The evidence showed them frequently yelling at each other and arguing, with Elledge often criticizing his wife for her appearance and for how she treated him.

Elledge said that in the days before her death, he discovered Ji had been exchanging sexually suggestive messages with a man from China via social media. He also testified that the couples relationship suffered because of tension caused by her parents who moved from China to live with them after their daughter was born on Oct. 3, 2018.

The couple met in 2015 at Nanova, a company that makes dental products, where Ji was Elledges supervisor. They began dating the following year and eventually traveled to China, where he asked Jis parents for permission to marry her. The couple married in 2017.

Ji earned a masters degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Missouri in December 2014. Elledge was a student at the university when his wife died.
Its always a challenge to comment on pending legislation in Congress before it becomes law, because until it is enacted, changes can be made during the legislative process. What exists in one form might not be present when the bill reaches the finish line.

That being said, something recently caught my eye that appeals to my efforts to promote financial literacy.

The bill is H.R. 5779, the Financial Fitness Act (tinyurl.com/bfbdvb6e). It was introduced in the House of Representatives on Oct. 28 by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Democrat from New Mexico, and co-sponsored by Rep. Victoria Spartz, a Republican from Indiana.

The main focus of the bill is: To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require the Secretary of Education to create a personal finance education portal on a centralized website of the Department of Education pertaining to Federal financial aid.

In other words, this bill would make available a financial education program for those receiving federal student financial aid. What makes it even more interesting to me is that concepts related to saving for retirement will be among the topics in the program, something I believe is sorely needed.

In Section 2 of the bill, titled Findings, it states that Nearly 43,000,000 people owe an average of $36,406 in Federal student loans, and student loan debt in the United States totals $1,730,000,000,000, growing 6 times faster than the Nations economy. Those numbers represent a huge financial impact for 43 million people, which only adds to the need to have financial literacy be an important part of the discussion.

There are other points in the Findings section that relate to the issue of retirement planning. Paragraph six notes that student debt has increased for older adults  people who are closing in on retirement  as many of them are financing higher education for their children and grandchildren.

Also, according to the Findings section, Just over 2 in 10 non-retirees under age 45 have retirement savings that meet their age-specific thresholds. 42 percent of Americans age 18-29 have no retirement savings; 26 percent of those age 30-44; 17 percent of those age 45-59; and 13 percent of those over age 60.

Thats a problem with long-term repercussions, especially since saving for retirement early in ones working life means you are taking advantage of the math of compound growth, a key element in building up retirement funds.

In Section 3, the bill calls for the Education secretary to create a personal finance education portal within three years of the bills passage. The portal would be on a centralized and publicly available website of the Department pertaining to Federal financial aid for the voluntary use by recipients of aid awarded under this title. Id be inclined to replace "voluntary with mandatory, considering the importance of financial knowledge and planning.

And where does retirement planning fit in when it comes to the portal? According to the bill, the portal should include the concept of compound growth as it applies to savings and retirement savings, with information about the different types of retirement savings accounts. Also, under the section for Managing student loan repayment, the bill lists the interaction between savings and retirement decisions and Federal student loan repayment plans.

Financial literacy education is a must, especially if you are graduating from college and heading into a career field while dragging along a load of student debt and trying to plan for the future. At that point, when you need financial knowledge the most, you might be behind -- according to the bill, less than half of States make personal finance a core part of basic education.

It would be nice if all states were offering financial education at younger ages. In the meantime, a bill like this could make a difference for young and old  provided it is enacted, of course.

Julie Jason, JD, LLM, a personal money manager (Jackson, Grant of Stamford) and author, welcomes your questions/comments (readers@juliejason.com). Her awards include the 2020 Clarion Award, symbolizing excellence in clear, concise communications. Her latest book, a curated collection of Julies columns, is Retire Securely: Insights on Money Management From an Award-Winning Financial Columnist. To hear Julie speak, visit juliejason.com/events.
AP

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  Five Republican Oklahoma lawmakers urged GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt on Thursday to grant clemency to death row inmate Julius Jones, who is scheduled to be executed next week.

Among the five are two state House members who represent parts of the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, where Paul Howell was shot to death during a carjacking in 1999. Jones was convicted of Howells killing and sentenced to death.
THORNTON, Colo. (AP)  Navy veteran Jordon Daniel was busy when the United States pulled its last troops out of Afghanistan at the end of August.

More than 7,000 miles (11,265 kilometers) and a world away, he and a group of fellow veterans were moving furniture, folding towels and sorting silverware in drawers during a hot, dry summer day in the Denver area.

Their mission: To furnish homes for Afghan refugees seeking safety in the United States.

Daniel had just finished furnishing the last of three or four homes for refugees that day when he received an alert on his cellphone that the final U.S. military aircraft had departed Kabul after two decades of war.

I got in my truck and just sat there and was just kind of reflecting," said Daniel, who signed up for the Navy after 9/11 and spent time in Afghanistan on a security detail. You know, 20 years of war, Americas longest war coming to an end. And you know, for me it was kind of coming full circle.

On Wednesday, Daniel and volunteers with the veteran-focused disaster relief organization Team Rubicon were continuing their mission, dubbed Operation Eagle Landing, by furnishing two suburban Denver apartments that will soon house Afghan families that left their home country behind to escape Taliban rule.

The team assembled furniture, washed dishes, lugged heavy couches and dressers up stairs and carefully placed donated backpacks and stuffed animals on children's beds. A family of eight will live in one apartment, and a family of five will live in the other.

Since August, Team Rubicon has helped settle more than 110 Afghan families in Colorado, said Daniel, the Denver city administrator for the group.

Tens of thousands of Afghans have been flown to the U.S. since the war wound down, and most are still living in temporary housing at military bases across the country. Between 1,000 and 2,000 Afghan refugees are expected to arrive in Colorado by the end of the year.

That means Daniel and his team could have their work cut out for them  a task they seem to relish.

For us veterans, service is kind of in our blood. ... The veteran component, it adds that special piece of camaraderie to it, that sense of service, that sense of purpose, Daniel said. He said it's also a rewarding experience to help those who aided coalition forces in Afghanistan during the war.

Its just a chance for us to kind of express our gratitude as well. And just thanking them and welcoming them to the neighborhood.

Team Rubicon was formed in the days following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that caused widespread destruction in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in January 2010, according to the group's website. Haitis government put the death toll at more than 300,000, although an exact accounting was impossible given the widespread devastation.

Two U.S. Marines, Jake Wood and William McNulty, gathered supplies and volunteers before traveling to Haiti in the following days, and Team Rubicon was born. It has since grown into an international nonprofit organization that boasts more than 130,000 volunteers.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping will hold their much-anticipated virtual summit on Monday evening as the two sides look to dial back tensions after a rough start to the U.S.-China relationship since Biden took office earlier this year.

The White House is setting low expectations for the video call between the leaders. Biden looks to stress that the two nations need to set guardrails in deepening areas of conflict in the increasingly complicated relationship between the two nations. White House officials said that no major announcements are expected to come from the meeting.

I wouldnt set the expectation ... that this is intended to have major deliverables or outcomes," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who added that the two leaders would discuss how to manage the countries' competition and cooperate in areas where interests align.

The meeting will be the third engagement between the two leaders since February. It comes after the U.S. and China this week pledged at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland to increase their cooperation and speed up action to rein in climate-damaging emissions.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi came to an agreement on holding the Biden-Xi virtual summit by year's end when they met last month for talks in Zurich but the two sides had not settled on a date.

The virtual meeting was proposed after Biden, who spent a substantial amount of time with Xi when the two were vice presidents, mentioned during a September phone call with the Chinese leader that he would like to be able to see Xi again, according to the White House.

Xi has not left China during the coronavirus pandemic. White House officials proposed a virtual summit as the best available substitute for the two leaders to have a substantive conversation on a number of issues that have put strains on the U.S.-China relationship.

We hope the U.S. will work together with China to jointly strive to make the leaders summit a success and bring China-U.S. ties back to the right track of sound and stable development, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Friday.

There has been no shortage of tension in the relationship in recent months as Biden has made clear he sees Beijing's actions on a number of fronts as concerning.

The president has criticized China for human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in northwest China, squelching pro-democracy efforts in Hong Kong, and resisting global pressure to cooperate fully with investigations into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Tensions have also been exacerbated recently by the Chinese militarys flying dozens of sorties near the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.

The White House suggested that Biden would raise his concerns on many of those issues during Monday's meeting. There will be a broad range of topics that will be discussed and the President is certainly not going to hold back on areas where he is concerned," Psaki said.

Biden, at the Group of 20 meeting in Rome and again at the U.N. climate gathering, criticized Xi for failing to show up to the summits, where world leaders discussed the way forward on the pandemic and steps to ease the impact of climate change.

"I think its been a big mistake, quite frankly, for China ... not showing up,  Biden said in Glasgow. The rest of the world is going to look to China and say, what value added have they provided?"

Both leaders took part in Fridays Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) virtual meeting, where leaders discussed efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic and support the global economic recovery.
FAIRFIELD  Early in the morning on April 18, 1945, Lt. Michael Daly lead his company through the wreckage of Nuremberg, Germany when heavy machine gun fire caught his unit in an exposed position.

What he did next resulted in Daly being awarded the countrys highest military decoration  the Medal of Honor.

According to his official Medal of Honor citation, Daly dashed forward alone, and, as bullets whined about him, shot the three-man guncrew with his carbine. He then went on to single handedly eliminate three more groups of German soldiers, taking out two more machine gun nests and a patrol.

But Deirdre Daly, Michael Dalys daughter, said her late father was an incredibly giving person, and very humble. He died in 2008 at the age of 83.

If you would ask him about his service, he would say that The real heroes are people that didnt come back  not me, she said. When he returned from the war, he really dedicated his life to helping people.

The hometown hero and recipient of the nations highest military service award was honored at the towns Veterans Day ceremony on Thursday.

Approximately 100 residents, including town and state officials, scouts and dozens of veterans, gathered around the Veterans Wall of Honor late Thursday morning. Throughout the event, people spoke of what the holiday meant to them.

I believe in the saying Freedom does not come cheap, said Joe Lebinski, the adjutant of VFW 9427 and senior vice commander of American Legion Post 74, pointing to the names on the honor wall as evidence.

Chris DeWitt, the commander of American Legion Post 143 and the vice-chair of the Board of Finance, said it is important to recognize veterans who are still serving and those coming home in need, in addition to older ones.

Dalys name will also be honored with the dedication of the nearby flag pole.

First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said Selectman Tom Flynn presented the dedication idea to her several months ago. She said Daly was the definition of a true American and hometown hero.

Kupchick noted the Board of Selectman voted to have a plaque ordered to place at the base of the flag pole, adding it did not come in time because of supply chain issues.

Throughout the ceremony, everyone who spoke of Daly said he was dedicated to his community. Flynn said he had the pleasure of meeting Daly about 18 years ago when he first ran for public office.

What came across was what a humble man he was, and what an honorable human being he was, and how much he loved our country and how much he loved our town, Flynn said. So, the ability to recognize him as a town and naming the flag pole after him, makes the most sense to me.

Flynn said Daly represents the courage and honor of all of Fairfields veterans.

He was a giant in life, but an incredibly kind, gentle man despite his enormous heroic acts when he was only 19, Daly said of her father. What he was really about was caring for other human beings  all different kinds of people  he was a very grounded, unpretentious person.

She said her father spent many years working with St. Vincents Hospital, which has since named its emergency room after him. She said he was the type of person who went to everyones bedside when they were sick and to everyones funeral.

Her father did not talk much about his service in World War II, Daly said, adding that he found the movie Saving Private Ryan very realistic and had to leave the movie theater.

One interesting fact, Daly said, is that her father was awarded the Medal of Honor because his actions on April 18, and eventually married his wife Margaret Noble Wallace, who had that birthday.

Daly noted the plaque being put at the base of the flag pole is large and draws the eyes upward, inspiring hope  something everyone needs.

I think there is already a plaque near there in honor of John Sullivan, who was the first selectman for so many years, she said. My father and John Sullivan were really close friends. Its meaningful to us to think about the fact that they are going to be next to each other at the bottom of that strong, tall flagpole.

joshua.labella@hearstmediact.com
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  State Sen. Hugh Leatherman, South Carolinas oldest and most powerful state lawmaker, died Friday at the age of 90.

Leatherman died at his home in Florence, his office said, after being diagnosed with an inoperable cancer.

As he entered hospice care last month, Leathermans staff began notifying lawmakers that the nonagenarian Republican had been hospitalized with severe abdominal pain, and that doctors discovered the cancer while removing parts of his intestine.

Ever the stubborn optimist, Leatherman continued to work, drafting legislation and receiving budget briefings for the upcoming legislative session, according to a family statement.

While his passing brings us great sorrow, we take solace and joy knowing that up until his last days, he was active in the Florence community and continued serving the people of Florence and South Carolina, they wrote.

Calling Leatherman a powerful force for the progress and prosperity of our people, Gov. Henry McMaster said in a statement he would order flags lowered in Leatherman's honor as soon as funeral arrangements were announced.

Leatherman was in his 11th term and among the longest-serving lawmakers in South Carolinas Legislature. First elected to the Senate in 1980 as a Democrat, he later ran unsuccessfully for governor before switching parties in the 1990s, one of a number of lawmakers who did so as Republicans gained dozens of seats in Congress.

Leatherman soon assumed the chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee, and in a state where the governor has less control, Leatherman was long considered South Carolinas most powerful politician for his dominance over the state budget.

Leatherman also sat on a number of fiscal oversight boards, including the State Fiscal Accountability Authority and the Joint Bond Review Committee. A new port terminal in Charleston bears his name.

Leatherman played a key role in building up the states business economy, including backing a massive tax incentive package that helped lure Boeing to the state. For years, the longtime lawmaker fielded criticism for how much state funding was directed toward his home district, as well as millions in state contracts given to the concrete company he founded, and from which he continued to draw a salary.

He got criticized some for taking the bacon home to Florence, former Sen. Larry Martin, a Pickens Republican who served nearly four decades with Leatherman, told The Associated Press on Friday. But if you look at the totality of his service, his heart was in moving South Carolina forward.

Never shy to skirmish with those in his own party, Leatherman had contentious relationships with Republican governors and others seeking to rise in the GOP.

When Gov. Mark Sanford in 2009 threatened to reject hundreds of millions of dollars in federal stimulus money, or use it to pay down state debt, Leatherman wrote that he hoped the governor will understand the seriousness of the damage to our people if we dont get that money and called the debt substitution request foolish.

In 2016, Gov. Nikki Haley actively campaigned against Leatherman, endorsing his GOP primary opponent and saying there is not a tax that he hasnt tried to raise.

Two years later, he became a frequent target for GOP gubernatorial contender John Warren, who criticized Leatherman as not being conservative enough for the state. In a runoff debate against McMaster  whom Leatherman ultimately endorsed  Warren referred to the longtime lawmaker as among the rotten apples he would work to root out of the Legislature if elected.

Sen. Tom Davis, who was serving as Sanford's chief of staff when he first got to know Leatherman over clashes in state budget funding, said the adversarial nature of their initial rapport bled over into Davis' 13 years of service with Leatherman in the Senate.

I butted heads with him a lot, the Beaufort Republican told the AP Friday, saying he admired Leatherman's hard-nosed, pragmatic considerations, particularly on budget reconciliation. I really enjoyed working with him, in the end.

For a time, Leatherman presided over his chamber as Senate president pro tempore. Some fellow Republicans, including Sen. Shane Massey, said that role combined with Leatherman's committee leadership posts put way too much power in the hands of a single lawmaker.

Leatherman briefly stepped away from that position in 2017 when McMaster  then lieutenant governor  was elevated to the governorship following Haleys departure to join the Trump administration.

As Senate leader, Leatherman would have been next in line to assume the states No. 2 position, according to the state constitution. But, opting not to take on what then was a largely ceremonial role, he stepped down from the post, allowing another lawmaker to become lieutenant governor before reassuming the president pro tem slot a day later.

Massey called the move a shameless and obvious game of musical chairs.

After a 2018 rule change meant that a lawmaker couldnt lead the chamber and also chair a committee, Leatherman opted to keep his Finance chairmanship rather than seek the new post of Senate president, setting down the presiding gavel for good.

This state is steeped in tradition, he said in 2019, reflecting on the continuity of the chamber in which he had sat for more than four decades. We dont change often.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

___

Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A defense attorney raised questions in court Friday about the mental health of his 29-year-old client, who was shot and wounded by law enforcement officers in a confrontation at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

Erik Keith Legried remained jailed after treatment for gunshot wounds and refused to attend an initial court appearance where a judge set bail at $100,000 with strict electronic monitoring if hes released.

Legried is due again in court Tuesday on charges including battery with a deadly weapon against a first responder and resisting arrest.

Prosecutor Shanon Clowers told court Hearing Officer Daniel Westmeyer that four law enforcement officers were involved in Legrieds shooting Thursday morning near the Red Rock Canyon visitor center.

Details of the shooting and Legried's injuries were not disclosed, and there was no reference to Legried having had a gun.

Authorities have said Nevada Highway Patrol, U.S. Bureau of Land Management officers and Las Vegas police responded a little after sunrise Thursday to calls about a man in distress and armed with a weapon at Red Rock Canyon. Las Vegas police have said no Metro officers fired a weapon.

Legried was shot, arrested and hospitalized after he was accused of ramming patrol vehicles with a pickup truck near the visitor center of the popular scenic destination about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of the Las Vegas Strip.

Clowers said there were about 20 people at the center at the time and described the shooting as gunfire to stop the threat. No other injuries were reported.

Defense attorney Christopher Mishler told Westmeyer that Legried had serious mental health issues and may have abused drugs or alcohol, but that his parents in Colorado were trying to get him into treatment.

Mishler asked for Legrieds release to the custody of his father, who was in court. He did not say where Legried's parents live. Mishler also said his client had a job working remotely as a high school debate coach.

Outside court, the attorney and Mishlers father declined to speak with reporters.

Clowers told Westmeyer that Thursdays incident began when Legried allegedly rammed his rented Toyota pickup truck into a fence at a campground, drove into Las Vegas followed by police, and returned to Red Rock Canyon.

Clowers said Legried lives in another state and had rented the pickup in Colorado before driving to Las Vegas. She said he made statements to police about suicide and wanting to kill himself in jail.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  New Mexicos top water official says a persistent lack of financial support to protect the states water resources is behind his decision to step down.

A well-known water expert with decades of experience, John DAntonio submitted his resignation Thursday. His last day as state engineer will be Dec. 31, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

DAntonio will be just the latest appointee to leave Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams cabinet, resulting in another leadership vacuum that won't easily be filled. The first-term Democratic governor has seen a wave of retirements among department heads, from education to public safety.

D'Antonio's departure comes as New Mexico remains locked in an ongoing legal battle with Texas before the U.S. Supreme Court over management of the Rio Grande and as the state grapples with a decades-long drought that has resulted in record low reservoir levels and river flows.

DAntonio in a written statement said he is optimistic about his agencys work to limit New Mexicos liability in the Texas case, but he cited the lack of resources for the Office of the State Engineer and unfunded mandates as factors in his resignation. He expects several senior staff members who are eligible for retirement to announce departures, too.

Weve taken the agency as far as we can, given the current agency staffing level and funding resources, DAntonio said.

DAntonio said his office was directed to submit a flat budget this year, despite strong growth in projected state revenues.

Sen. Liz Stefanics, chair of the legislative Water and Natural Resources Committee, said she agrees New Mexico should dedicate more money to water projects. She plans during the upcoming legislative session to request another $50 million for a water trust fund that helps pay for such projects.

The issue around resources is absolutely true, Stefanics told the Journal.

Nora Meyers Sackett, a spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, said the governor has worked to boost funding for the state engineer since taking office in 2019. She also said the administration is grateful for DAntonios many years of service and his work to protect and preserve New Mexicos resources and waterways.

Rep. Susan Herrera, a member of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, said she and other legislators are talking about how to ensure state agencies that are suffering get the financial support they need.

If were going to have clean drinking water and wastewater in this state, we need to invest, Herrera said. Its as simple as that.

Environmental groups also have concerns, citing the effects of climate change on New Mexico's water supplies and the need to ensure water quality for the future.

Lujan Grisham appointed DAntonio to the states top water position in 2019. He also held the post under Richardson from 2003 to 2011.

The Office of the State Engineer oversees water rights, and the state engineer serves as secretary of the Interstate Stream Commission, which manages interstate water compacts and long-term water planning. The state engineer also is New Mexicos representative on several interstate water compact commissions.

In 2020, DAntonio successfully persuaded the Rio Grande Compact commissioners from Colorado and Texas to approve an 11 billion gallon emergency release of water from El Vado Reservoir to boost river flows in central New Mexico. He also has been part of conversations about management of the Colorado River and recently testified before Congress that water managers need to balance scientific data and legal obligations as the basin enters a third decade of drought.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Gulf nation of Qatar has agreed to represent the United States in Taliban-run Afghanistan following the closure of the American Embassy in Kabul and withdrawal of all U.S. forces from the country in late August.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Qatari counterpart, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, announced Friday that Qatar will serve as the U.S. protecting power in Afghanistan. The announcement is a clear indication the Biden administration doesnt intend to re-open the embassy anytime soon after bringing America's longest-running war to an end after 20 years.

Blinken, meanwhile, said the U.S. has offered the opportunity to leave Afghanistan to all American citizens it has identified as remaining in the country who wish to depart and have appropriate travel documents. He and al-Thani also signed an agreement formalizing Qatar's role as a main transit hub for evacuees.

The protecting power agreement means Qatar will set up a U.S. interests section within its own embassy in Kabul to handle consular services for American citizens in Afghanistan, deal with routine official communications between Washington and the Taliban government, and assume responsibility for the protection of now-vacated U.S. diplomatic facilities there.

Shortly after the deal was signed, al-Thani told The Associated Press in an interview that Qatar took its obligations seriously and would add staff to its Kabul embassy to handle the increased workload.

Given the Afghan situation, it isn't going to be an easy job," he said. "The situation in Afghanistan overall is a complicated situation. So definitely, there are a lot of complicated issues that need to be worked out and need to be settled.

The U.S. has numerous protecting power arrangements in countries where it does not have a diplomatic presence. Those notably include Switzerland in Iran, Sweden in North Korea and the Czech Republic in Syria.

Qatar has been a key player in discussions between the Taliban and the United States for many years. It hosted months of U.S.-Taliban peace talks and has since been critical to the evacuation of American citizens and others from Afghanistan. Roughly half the people who have left the country have transited through Qatar.

On the evacuation of American citizens and U.S. green card holders from Afghanistan, Blinken said that all of those who had expressed interest in leaving and had proper documentation had been given the opportunity to depart.

As of Nov. 10, all U.S. citizens who have requested assistance from the United States government to depart and who weve identified as being prepared to depart, having the necessary travel documents, have been offered an opportunity to do so, he said.

There was no way to independently confirm this and the administration has been heavily criticized for the chaotic nature of the withdrawal. It has also been accused of leaving thousands of Americans, green card holders, their families and at-risk Afghans behind.

Several hundred Americans are reported to still be in Afghanistan, though not all have indicated they want to leave, Biden administration officials have said.

Friday's agreement formalizing Qatar as the main transit hub for those fleeing Afghanistan is intended to regularize the standards for the arrival and processing of evacuees as they make their way to other destinations, al-Thani told The AP.

We need to make sure thats regulated and governed and properly, he said. Its very important for us to do the proper vetting and security processes in order to ensure that we dont end up with the wrong people in our countries.

But some humanitarian groups have complained that stringent entry requirements in transit countries like Qatar put the most at-risk Afghans in further peril as they are unable to get proper travel documentation from Taliban authorities.

Al-Thani said Qatar would continue to facilitate evacuations through charter flights on its state-run Qatar Airways. "We will continue to be an instrument of peace and stability in the region," he said.
Former UConn guard and current Atlanta Dream co-owner Renee Montgomery announced she and wife Sirena Grace privately married back in April 2020 through a story published by PEOPLE Thursday afternoon.

Montgomery, who retired from the WNBA in February 2021, met Grace at an Atlanta Hawks game in March 2019. Grace had gone to the game to sing the national anthem and Montgomery says immediately she was taken away when she first saw her.

Its the only game I went to that whole entire season, Montgomery told PEOPLE. And here comes a whole goddess.

The two-time WNBA champion then reached out to Grace, asking if she would be interested in doing a performance for the Dream. The two hit it off and began dating just weeks later.

It just happened very quickly from there, Grace told PEOPLE.

On a trip to France in November 2019, Montgomery proposed to Grace kneeling next to a pile of rose petals which spelled out Merry Me.

I was waiting for her on one knee, playing Marry Me by Train, Montgomery said. I already told her when we first started dating, if you hear this song playing anywhere that Im in the vicinity, you better be ready because Im probably going to be proposing.

Because of the pandemic, the couple held a private wedding at their home in Atlanta on April 20, 2020. They lit their hallway with lights to create a makeshift aisle and had Graces cousin conduct the ceremony virtually via Zoom. Friends and family watched live virtually as Graces son, Angel, was the couples ring bearer, flower guy, best man and man of honor. PEOPLE also reported that Grace wore a wedding dress which she had bought after their trip to France, while Montgomery wore a red suit.

Even though it was a Zoom wedding, and people werent actually in person, it didnt feel any different. I was still crying when I saw her walking down our hallway, Montgomery said. When I saw her walking, it still hit me the same that I think it wouldve hit me if I was standing on an altar. I just didnt know if it was going to feel real or if it was going to feel like it should feel.

The couple told PEOPLE they were waiting for the right time to publicly announce their marriage especially after the pandemic surged through 2020  Montgomery chose to sit out during the WNBAs Wubble season to focus on social justice reform  and 2021 went by fast, with Montgomery taking over co-ownership responsibilities with the Dream.

Montgomery played at UConn from 2005 to 2009 before being drafted with the No. 4 overall pick by Minnesota in the 2009 WNBA Draft. The 2009 Nancy Lieberman Award winner is tied for second on UConns all-time list with 13 assists in a single game (one behind all-time leader and current sophomore Paige Bueckers) and first with 11 steals in a single game.

The 2011 WNBA All-Star played 11 years in the WNBA before officially retiring in 2021. She was named the 2012 WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year while with the Connecticut Sun.

maggie.vanoni@hearstmediact.com
During February 2022s Foundation Dinner, Credit Union Hall of Famer, Roger Heacock, will receive the Herb Wegner Memorial Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement, recognizing his decades-long support and leadership at a national level.

After 45 years of leadership in the credit union system, Roger Heacock retired from his role as President and CEO of Black Hills Federal Credit Union in January 2021. His legacy is as monumental and everlasting as the rock carvings of Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse in the South Dakota communities he served.

Beginning his career at the small Rosebud Federal Credit Union (which later became part of Sentinel FCU), Roger joined Black Hills Federal Credit Union (BHFCU) in 1978 and was promoted to president five years later.

Under his leadership, the Rapid City-based organization experienced incredible growth, in both assets and membership. The $10 million institution Roger first joined had $1.65 billion in assets at the time of his retirement; owned by 79,500 members, up from 11,000 in the early 80s.
Theres no getting around itnavigating the ins and outs of health benefits is a complicated task for business owners. You are not only tasked with determining what type of health insurance plans to offer your employeesyou also have to figure out the best funding strategy for your business.

There are many potential benefits to moving from a fully funded or traditional health insurance plan to a self-funded plan. In addition to enhanced cash flow, immediate savings can be realized by avoiding taxes and profit margins built into your premiums under a traditional fully-insured arrangement. Plan flexibility, customization, and utilization reporting are also greatly enhanced.

The pricing model is different for both plans, but you can remember them easily by comparing each funding option to some common utility bills!

In this blog post, well cover the basics of fully funded and self-funded insurance models to help you determine which strategy is best for your business. Well also highlight the main difference between paying a fixed premium under a fully funded plan and the more flexible pricing of a self-funded plan using everyday utility bills.
This month, we celebrate Veterans Day. It is an important day to recognize the sacrifices our fellow citizens have made and continue to make while serving our nation and securing our freedoms. While some of these sacrifices make headlines, many of them will never be widely known. Yet, we enjoy our freedoms today because our fellow citizens made the choice to serve.

Many people forget that our military service is voluntary. People choose to join the military knowing they must waive certain freedoms to serve. Starting with a grueling bootcamp and challenging technical trainings, they are then assigned far from their hometowns and support systems to begin a hard life based on strict discipline, immense pressure, and a commitment to values apart from the rest of society.

Throughout their time in uniform, there is the imminent knowledge that at any moment, they will be harms way. I am amazed how many people selflessly volunteer to join our armed forces given the sacrifices that come with service are no secret. Yet, we continue to sleep well at night because these brave men and women answer the call to duty and develop a passion for service.

While deployed, they do more than just serve our country, they serve the communities to which they are assigned. Whether this means helping local farmers get their crops to market, securing time and space for religious leaders to practice their ministry, or simply letting children play outsidethey represent the best of America to the rest of the world.

Even after taking off the uniform, Veterans continue to serve their communities for the rest of their lives. Serving their country is part of who they are; it is engrained in their DNA.

And for all that, it is important to say THANK YOU!

Those of us in the credit union industry understand this call and passion for service. It is evident in all that we do for our members each day. From our dedication to the un- and underbanked communities and other vulnerable populations to our commitment to financial education for all, the credit union difference is everywhere. Providing these services is the heart and soul of our movement.

I recently saw this credit union spirit in action as credit unions stepped up to help our Afghan Allies, who were brought to our nations shores with nothing but the clothes on their back. Our credit unions have been instrumental in providing immediate financial relief so other aid agencies could provide food, clothing, and shelter.

Many of these allies still face challenges in gaining access to the U.S. financial system. Our own Armed Forces Financial Network (AFFN) is helping to fill this gap with pre-funded debit cards. AFFN has done all this without any hassle, long wait times, or frustrating bureaucratic decision cycles. It is simply people helping people in the finest tradition of service!

Service before self is what drives excellence in any organization. People helping people and serving those who serve our country arent just words to us; they underscore everything we do. Yet, we would not be able to complete our mission without the brave men and women serving in our armed forces around the world.

From one group of service-focused members to another, we say thank you. Thank you for service, thank you for your sacrifice, and thank you for representing the best that we can be.
Elizabeth City, NC (27909)

Today

Rain likely. High 58F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low 31F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Reva Mae Love, age 75, of Dalton, Georgia passed away on Thursday, November 18, 2021. She was born on September 10, 1946. She is preceded in death by parents, Herbert and Lela "Grant" Lawson; brother, Charles Lawson. She is survived by her husband, Bubba (Harold) Love of Dalton; son, Brian F
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.
Put yourself for a moment in the shoes of Gabriella Ratcliffe. Aged seven, the same age as my youngest daughter, she should be enjoying her primary school years without a care in the world.

But she spent her early childhood cruelly separated from both parents, only allowed to visit her mum once a month in a grim Iranian jail.

Shes now watching her dad and sole carer  a softly spoken accountant with steely resolve  publicly starve himself in an act of utter desperation. Its hard to imagine the impact of such unspeakable trials on a young life.

Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Iranian detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, on the 19th day of his hunger strike outside The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London, following his wife losing her latest appeal in Iran

In fairness, ministers are also desperate to get her mother, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, home. They have been since long before my tenure as Foreign Secretary. Five foreign ministers flew to Tehran on Theresa Mays watch to try to resolve this issue of dual national British citizens facing arbitrary detention.

The truth is that this is a vile, heartless regime which has no qualms about falsely imprisoning and torturing innocent people to create diplomatic leverage. This is hostage diplomacy, and using a young mum and her daughter in a brutal game of cat and mouse is nothing to them. So there can be no excuses for this wicked, terrorist-sponsoring regime  and thanks to Richards courage the world finally knows about Irans hostage taking. But that doesnt mean there is nothing we can do to get our people home: That is to settle a 400million debt we owe Iran for tanks that were never delivered during the time of the Shah.

Of course it sticks in the throat to give money to a murderous regime. If this was ransom money I would not support paying it  but a court has decided we owe the money and even the Defence Secretary has said we do. Britain is founded on respect for the rule of law and we should pay our legal debts; finding the loan shark unsavoury unfortunately doesnt get you off the hook.

There are all sorts of bureaucratic obstacles to paying up: We can wait for yet one more court ruling to confirm that the debt is legally due. We can hide behind sanctions which make it hard to transfer the money, even though such issues can be resolved.

Put yourself for a moment in the shoes of Gabriella Ratcliffe (pictured with her mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe). Aged seven, she should be enjoying her primary school years without a care in the world

President Obama repaid a similar American debt so it is unlikely we would get much opposition from the President who served under him. Our new Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is a tenacious freedom-fighter.

Our values  and her values  are founded on respect for individual human rights, so what better way to demonstrate that than securing the freedom of Nazanin, Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz?

It is time to bite the bullet, get them home and form a united front with our allies so that Irans hostage taking is stamped out once and for all.
The location could not have been more bizarre. Walt Disney World in Florida.

Outside the theatre Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck were performing their familiar routines before the giggling crowds of holidaymakers.

Inside, onstage the most powerful man on the planet: the President of the United States Richard Nixon.

His audience: a bunch of political journalists, including me, who thought wed seen it all.

Boris Johnson speaking during Prime Minister's Questions on November 3. Now, Johnson has invited us to believe that this country might be corrupt

We were about to learn we hadnt.

It was November 17, 1973, and Nixon was being questioned about his role in the Watergate scandal.

He offered the usual well-rehearsed replies to his questioners  but then went dramatically off-script.

People have got to know, he said, whether or not their President is a crook. Well, Im not a crook.

There was, for a moment, a stunned silence.

Had he really just said that? Had he really denied he was a crook when no one had suggested he was?

Ten months later, I stood on the lawn of the White House watching him board the presidential helicopter that would fly him to political oblivion.

Like many others who reported on Watergate from start to finish, I have no doubt that he had sealed his fate in those few unguarded seconds in that Disney theatre.

I recalled it a few days ago when we heard Boris Johnson tell journalists in Glasgow, the United Kingdom is not remotely a corrupt country.

Just like Nixon, Johnson was answering a question that had not been asked.

Just like Nixon, he must have felt he had to because political sleaze is back in the headlines  indeed, it has become the undercurrent to the national conversation.

And just like Nixon, an awful lot of people are blaming him for it.

Nixon had disastrously invited the American people to believe that he might be a crook.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks towards the fountains at the Polish Air Force Memorial on November 12 in his constituency of Uxbridge

Now, Johnson has invited us to believe that this country might be corrupt.

A country of which he happens to be Prime Minister. Does he protest too much? Well no, not if you believe the statistics.

There are indexes that measure these things. The most recent Corruption Perceptions Index has Denmark and New Zealand as the least corrupt countries in the world.

We come in at a respectable 11th.

The French, our close allies and neighbours (when were not threatening to go to war with each other) are 23rd.

Within living memory two French presidents and one prime minister have been convicted of offences that come under the broad heading of corruption. The two former presidents have been given jail sentences.

Leading British politicians arent even in the same league.

So, on the face of it, Mr Johnson is perfectly entitled to claim that Britain is not remotely corrupt.

And theres a reason for that  but its not necessarily that our politicians are uniquely virtuous.

Over the centuries we have kept a very beady eye on the powerful who might be tempted to use public office to line their own pockets.

John Humphrys: Within living memory two French presidents and one prime minister have been convicted of offences that come under the broad heading of corruption. The two former presidents have been given jail sentences. Leading British politicians arent even in the same league

We have built up a system of impartial scrutiny. We have an independent judiciary. We have specific regulatory bodies that lay down the rules and police them rigorously.

And, of course, we have the fourth estate.

The great Thomas Jefferson put it perfectly when he said if he had to choose between living in a country without government or one without newspapers hed opt for the former.

Our liberty, he said, depends on the freedom of the Press and that cannot be limited without being lost.

He was right and the Press in this country have been doing exactly what they are meant to do.

What this newspaper and others have been uncovering over the past weeks proves how badly we need adequate scrutiny.

Jonathan (now Lord) Evans knows a thing or two about scrutiny. He ran MI5 for six years and now chairs the Committee on Standards in Public Life. And hes a worried man.

He told Radio 4s Today programme this week we could slip into being a corrupt country.

At the top of his worry list is the way the Prime Minister dealt with the former cabinet minister Owen Paterson.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found Paterson had committed serious breaches of the rules by lobbying for companies in return for hefty payments. They said he should be suspended from parliament for a month.

That was bad enough. Johnsons extraordinary response made it infinitely worse. He ordered his MPs to save his old friends bacon by voting to change the rules.

The response was instant and damning. Johnson was forced into one of the most humiliating U-turns in parliamentary history.

He had managed to turn an embarrassment into a full-blown crisis.

And it didnt end there. The dam of public outrage had burst. It wasnt just Johnsons appalling political judgment being called into question. It was his whole career  both as journalist and politician.

A career characterised by his cavalier attitude to the truth and his careless disregard for accepted standards of decent behaviour.

One newspaper ran a column likening him to a dodgy character walking down the street checking car door handles just in case one was unlocked.

And this was not the lefty Guardian but the august Financial Times.

The former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major, his voice shaking with anger on the radio, used that lethal word: corrupt.

When the court of the people delivered its verdict it was damning.

For the first time in a year opinion polls have been showing Labour in the lead. Polling for this newspaper a week ago had given the Tories a lead of three points. Yesterday it gave Labour a lead of five.

A nine-point collapse in a week is not just a slap on the wrist for Johnson from voters: its a punch in the kidneys.

Members of the House of Lords take their seats in the chamber for the State Opening of Parliament by Queen Elizabeth II,

So what? If hes proved anything in his political career its that he can charm his way out of trouble.

He makes us laugh. He makes us feel good about ourselves. He ruffles his unruly hair, gives us that rueful smile that says: I know Im a bit of a naughty boy sometimes, but you know you can trust me when it comes to the big things that really matter.

And anyway, arent I making a great job of Brexit? Didnt I steer us through the worst pandemic weve ever experienced? Arent I levelling up the nation so the very poorest will benefit?

And theres something else that he might also be thinking: Ive got a stonking majority in parliament. I can do what I like.

But that is no longer true. Even in parliament he is now skating on very thin ice. He would not have that stonking majority had it not been for the so-called red wall seats.

In 2019 he managed to persuade northern voters, many of whom had faithfully voted Labour for generations, that theyd be better off under the Tories because he would cut their taxes.

The promise was repeated relentlessly, day in and day out: Were lowering your taxes so that you can keep more of what you earn.

Two years on from that campaign, the polls now tell us people associate the Tories with high taxes.

As Andrew Pierce brilliantly illustrated in these pages yesterday, there is a deep divide between the old guard in parliament, described by one Tory as the toffs, and the newcomers.

He called them the oiks. If thats true, they are oiks with a conscience. They dont like the toffs spending their time lining their pockets outside parliament when they should be serving their constituents.

They dont like ministers signing off contracts during a pandemic with companies that have more friends in high places than technical competence.

More than a hundred of them refused to vote for their leaders preposterous motion last week even though they were ordered to support it.

As one of them, Mark Fletcher, put it: I know the difference between right and wrong.

And they take note when even the Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivers a blatant rebuke to his leader. No one doubted who his target was when he said we need to do better and we know that.

But I wonder if Boris Johnson really does know that.

Were all familiar with the old saying that the fish rots from the head.

Obviously its not biologically true. The rot starts in the gut. But in politics? If I were a Tory MP I think Id be worried.
For much of this month the eyes of the world have been focused on Glasgow, where world leaders have been wrestling with climate change.

Meanwhile, 2000 miles away, and with a lot less fanfare, another global drama has been unfolding.

The gathering of thousands of would-be immigrants to the EU on the border between Eastern Europe's last dictatorship, Belarus, and Poland is creating a crisis that, if mishandled, could have consequences every bit as grave as those debated at Cop26  but far sooner. Yesterday, the temperature rose further when Russian paratroopers started landing in Belarus  just 20 miles from the Polish border. This was the Kremlin showing its backing for its only ally in Europe.

On paper it does not look too alarming. Yes, the thought of Russian troops mobilising will always prompt a chill in the West, a legacy of the bad old days of the Cold War. But for most of us, Belarus is a remote outpost and its politics reverberate little beyond its borders. The truth is, however, that the mounting tensions there should be of great concern to all of us.

Located between the EU and Russia, and crossed by major continental transit routes, Belarus is strategically important. To the west, it borders three former communist countries (Latvia, Lithuania and Poland) which are now members of Nato and the EU. To the east lie Russia and the Ukraine.

Against this already volatile superpower rivalry, Belarus' authoritarian leader, president Alexander Lukashenko, has stepped up his own standoff with his Western neighbours, writes Mark Almond

The Belarussian capital, Minsk, is just 400 miles from Moscow  spitting distance in that vast, sprawling location  and the two countries are allies of longstanding.

Discontent and conflict has been simmering in the region since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimea and backed separatist rebels in the Donbas region of south-east Ukraine, to the consternation of Western leaders.

In recent days these tensions have escalated after the Ukraine used a drone to attack a rebel post earlier this month, infuriating the Russians. They have now moved their own troops  together with tanks and artillery towards the Ukrainian border.

Enter the Americans, who only a few days ago warned European allies that Russia's mobilisation could be in preparation for an invasion of Ukraine's eastern borders.

Against this already volatile superpower rivalry, Belarus' authoritarian leader, president Alexander Lukashenko, has stepped up his own standoff with his Western neighbours. His disputed- victory in the country's 2020 presidential election, which was mired in widespread allegations of vote-rigging and mass protests against which he instigated a brutal crackdown, led to EU sanctions.

Now Lukashenko wants to punish the EU for daring to sanction him  and 'weaponising' migrants from the Middle East is his latest ploy. In recent weeks, Belarus has granted tourist visas to thousands of Iraqis, Syrians and some Africans, and then helped them try to cross into the EU via its bordering countries  mainly Poland, which has deployed 15,000 troops to hold them back.

Many of the migrants  mainly young men, but including some women and children  are now stranded at the border in deteriorating conditions

Many of the migrants  mainly young men, but including some women and children  are now stranded at the border in deteriorating conditions. In response, the European Commission has accused Belarus of state-sponsored people smuggling, while Lukashenko is playing up Western 'hypocrisy' on human rights and free movement.

Yet the current migrant crisis on the Polish border, and that in the English Channel, could be harbingers of graver things to come. Warmings of a famine in Afghanistan may lead to an exodus next year.

Lukashenko is also provoking the West on a second front as he tries to 'weaponise' Europe's energy supply crisis, threatening to block the pipelines through his country which supply Russian gas to Europe. It might upset his Russian backers but would certainly harm us as the depths of winter approach, with gas prices already spiking. And Lukashenko calculates that Vladimir Putin will back him to the hilt for fear of a pro-Western government replacing him in Belarus if he falls  a strategy now rattling nerves in NATO.

Lukashenko is also provoking the West on a second front as he tries to 'weaponise' Europe's energy supply crisis, threatening to block the pipelines through his country which supply Russian gas to Europe

History has too many examples of how quickly tensions in Eastern Europe can escalate with dire geo-political consequences. Lest we forget, in 1914 a small crisis in the Balkans dragged the members of the then big alliances  Britain, France and Russia against Germany and Austria-Hungary  into the First World War. It is not too hard to imagine that, even if Moscow and Washington do not want a war, a simple shot fired by a border guard or provocation by Lukashenko could set these tensions spinning out of control.

Britain, like America, has sent token forces to support the Poles, but the real danger is that if tensions spike, Putin might gamble on the West blinking first. Would we?
Davie Fogarty never gives up.

He started with an iPhone case business, tried his hand at personal training, before attempting a seasoning business.

There was even a Vietnamese roll shop.

He finally landed on 'The Oodie', the wearable blanket brand that has capitalised on Covid-19 lockdowns across the world that left millions stranded on their couch.

'I think most successful people in business have a fear of failure,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Davie Fogarty (pictured) from Adelaide, launched the The Oodie in 2018 while selling weighted blankets and furniture

The Oodie is a cosy, wearable blanket with a warm sherpa fleece interior and front kangaroo pocket (pictured)

The university drop out, from Adelaide, has opened up about how he built his global business with $500 before turning it into a $280million brand that is looking at expanding across the world.

'Every failure or mistake can be used as a learning experience to improve upon and find success down the track,' he said about his strings of hits and misses.

'By not becoming blinded by hubris, you will not overextend and take on unjustified risks.

'When I first started, I was really strategic and had learnt from the mistakes I made in previous business ventures that had ultimately failed.

'Were also exploring new markets, such as Japan.'

The young entrepreneur launched the brand in 2018 while selling weighted blankets and furniture.

When millions of people were stuck at home due to ongoing lockdowns, The Oodie skyrocketed.

The 27-year-old now owns 10 brands that have brought in more than 3.9million unit sales to date with more than $200million in annual revenue.

'Fortunately the Oodie has been a much-loved product since the beginning and we've been able to build a strong brand and following, mainly through social media,' he said.

Mr Fogarty's first product, Calming Blankets, a line of weighted blankets designed to reduce stress and improve sleep, was launched in 2018 several months before The Oodie

Mr Fogarty didn't study business at university and left a marketing and mining engineering degree during his first year

His first product, Calming Blankets, a line of weighted blankets designed to reduce stress and improve sleep, was launched in 2018 several months before The Oodie.

Other brands including Pupnaps, a range of calming beds for pets, generated more than $1million in revenue in its seventh month,

He also founded Australian Furniture Warehouse with his parents, which sells furniture through warehouse sales.

Mr Fogarty didn't study business at university and left a marketing and mining engineering degree during his first year.

But he does have experience launching different brands and working for companies to grow their social media presence.

'I started out growth-hacking Instagram accounts after I finished high school and grew Instagram accounts for different businesses to around 600,000 followers,' he said.

More than 20,000 Victorians purchased Oodies that month before sales increased to 85,000 by the end of October

Davie's top business secrets to success: 1. Have a product idea that solves a problem 2. Have strong digital marketing skills and developing creative video content 3. Plan a pre-sale strategy 4. Take every opportunity to learn and build your skills 5. Stay on top of trends Advertisement

'From there, I discovered my interest in marketing and social media and taught myself the algorithms and systems behind major social media platforms.

'My motivation is always learning and solving complex problems - eCommerce is a fast emerging industry and you need to constantly be learning to stay ahead.'

Mr Fogarty said with Covid lockdowns and restrictions forcing Australians into their homes, customers turned to The Oddie as a source of comfort during the difficult time.

'Loungewear in particular has grown in popularity since the pandemic and we found there was a strong appetite for Oodies and other items over the last 18 months,' he said.

Sales of The Oodie spiked in Victoria in July 2020 during the prolonged lockdown.

More than 20,000 Victorians purchased Oodies that month before sales increased to 85,000 by the end of October.


A savvy mum has shared how she revamped an old IKEA TV unit into a super stylish cabinet.

Mother-of-four Ebony Basten, from the Gold Coast, Queensland, flipped the unit by sanding it down to expose the natural wood on the top, painting the body a stunning sage green and adding stylish hardware.

She found the old unit for free on Facebook Marketplace and used her savvy DIY skills to turn a profit, selling the new and improved cabinet for $250.

Scroll down for video

The savvy mum found the old unit (left) for free on Facebook marketplace and used her DIY skills to turn a profit, selling the new and improved cabinet (right) for $250

Ebony started by using a belt sander to tear the black paint off the top and legs revealing the natural wood underneath, and an orbital sander to scruff the body to prep it for painting.

She then sealed the top and legs with two coats of clear polyurethane and applied paintable wallpaper from Bunnings to the front of the drawers for added texture.

After priming the body with Dulux's maximum strength adhesion primer and coated it with three layers of olive leaf green paint.

Ebony used a belt sander to tear the black paint off the top and legs revealing the natural wood underneath then sealed the top and legs with two coats of clear polyurethane

After priming the body with Dulux's maximum strength adhesion primer and coated it with three layers of olive leaf green paint

For the handles, Ebony made two on-trend leather pulls from scratch.

She folded over two strips of leather and secured them to the front of the drawers with a couple of screws.

The thrifty mum's video has racked up more than 233,700 views and hundred of comments.

How the thrifty mum revamped an old IKEA cabinet - Clean unit and remove old hardware - Fill damage using poly timber filler - Sand the top and legs using a Makita belt sander to get rid of the paint - Scruff sand the body using Makita orbital sander - Seal the top and legs two coats of Cabots clear polyurethane - Apply paintable wallpaper from Bunnings to the front of the drawers - Use cover strap moulding to build the frames for the edge of the drawers - Tape the top and legs with Frog Tape to protect them from primer and paint - Prime the body with Dulux Precision Maximum Strength Adhesion Primer - Paint the bosy using three coats of 'Olive leaf' paint from Dulux - For the handles, take two straps of leather, folded them over and secure to the front of the drawers with a screw Advertisement

The woman made stylish handles by folding over two strips of leather and securing them to the front of the drawers with a couple of screws

'It's almost worth buying the cabinet from IKEA and doing this!' one woman replied.

'You have such an amazing eye for design and colour, AMAZING work, love it,' added another.

Ebony has lots of videos showcasing her DIY projects for her own home and to sell.

She said she hopes to make a business out of furniture flipping when her youngest daughter starts school next year.
A reformed drug smuggler has revealed how he became the first and only Westerner to escape a maximum security prison in Thailand in an audacious plot involving Chinese Triads, umbrella and a DIY ladder.

British-Australian David McMillan, now 64, was sent to the notorious Klong Prem Central Prison - ironically nicknamed the 'Bangkok Hilton' - in 1993 after being arrested on drug trafficking charges.

McMillan, who had already spent 11 years in an Australian prison on drugs charges, resolved to escape the 'Bangkok Hilton' after learning he was facing the death penalty and could be executed within weeks.

Speaking in an interview with LADBible, McMillan recalled how he broke out from his prison cell with the help of a criminal nicknamed the 'Viking', a poster containing hacksaws, and an ability to adapt when his original plan to swim across the prison moat fell apart.

'From the moment I stepped into that prison in Bangkok, escape was on my mind,' he said.

Reformed criminal: British-Australian David McMillan, now 64, was sent to the notorious Klong Prem Central Prison - ironically nicknamed the 'Bangkok Hilton' - in 1993 after being arrested on drug trafficking charges. Pictured, McMillan as a young man

Escape: Speaking in an interview with LADBible, McMillan recalled how he broke out from his prison cell with the help of a criminal nicknamed the 'Viking', a poster containing hacksaws, and an ability to adapt when his original plan to swim across the prison moat fell apart

Audacious: McMillan became the first and only Westerner to escape Klong Prem Central Prison in Thailand, pictured from above, by breaking out of his cell, avoiding guards, scaling a wall using a makeshift ladder and 'walking' through the front gate under an umbrella

McMillian became involved in the drugs trade in Australia in the 1970s, eventually building an international smuggling ring involving 'couriers', or mules, operating across South America, Europe, Thailand and Australia.

He was first jailed in 1982, after he was found guilty of drug trafficking. He was sentenced to 11 years at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison, during which time he survived a fatal fire in the high security unit that claimed the lives of six fellow inmates.

In 1993, while still on parole in Australia, he flew to Thailand to collect money he had stored there. But moments before boarding an outbound flight at Bangkok Airport, he was spotted by police and later arrested in the city's Chinatown neighbourhood.

'My head was burning with rage, I can't tell you had careful I had been, or thought I had been, to make sure no one knew where I was,' he said.

He was found with a forged passport and enough drugs to be arrested and convicted of drug trafficking. The maximum sentence for a drug trafficking charge in Thailand is death.

McMillan was transferred to Klong Prem, considered one of the world's worst prisons, which holds up to 20,000 inmates across a number of different sections, including a women's prison and a correctional institute for drug addicts.

The main men's prison, where McMillan was held, has in the region of 8,000 inmates.

'The foreigners section was nothing more than a broken collection of ruined people that the wind had blown into a corner of Asia,' he said. 'Nobody in there was going anywhere. The sentences were usually between 40 years to life.'

Criminal past: McMillian, pictured, became involved in the drugs trade in Australia in the 1970s, eventually building an international smuggling ring involving 'couriers', or mules, operating across South America, Europe, Thailand and Australia

McMillan was in a shared cell on the third floor of block six. Among his cellmates was a Swedish man, named Sten, who was known as 'the Viking'.

After more than two years in Klong Prem, McMillan decided to escape after learning his case would be 'brought to an end'.

'[I was told] I would be found guilty and within two weeks I would be sentenced to death. The execution wasn't pretty. It was by machine gun. The prisoner was tied a plank and a machine gun that is welded to a bench has three strings tied to it and three guards pull those strings so none of the guards can say "it was my gun who had ended that man's life".'

Cramped cells and riddled with disease: Life inside Thailand's 'Bangkok Hilton' Inside the cramped Klong Prem prison, diseases spread quickly, prisoners are tattooed to stave off boredom, and relationships with ladyboys are permitted - but prisoners have to be careful due to high HIV rates in Thailand's transgender population. And if inmates have problems with each other, they're given boxing gloves and fight it out inside the ring. A typical cell is just 1.5 by 3 metres, and sleeps five prisoners side-by-side on blue mattresses, according to Reuters. It is known as the Bangkok Hilton, named after the fictional TV series which shows the brutal horrors of a Thai prison, and is considered one of the toughest prisons in the world because of its overcrowding and tough conditions. Advertisement

One night, McMillan noticed the guard who was usually posted outside of his window was not there and he made the decision to escape.

It all relied on being able to get out of the single, small window in the cell that was blocked with heavy metal bars.

'I had had time to build furniture which could come apart and go back together as a stepladder to the tall upper window, the only window in the cell,' McMillan explained.

'Then I went into the shower and took apart a poster that somebody had sent me which [contained] two hacksaw blades... Other tools I took out, from a pocket knife to a laser pen, flashlight, were hidden around the cell. I started to work on the bars.'

Also in his pack were wooden frames, procured by Sten under the pretense of wanting to take up painting, which would be tied together with cable ties and '100m of Army boot webbing' - taken from the base of his bed - to create two makeshift ladders.

McMillan had made a rough plan for the escape but sawing apart the window bars took far longer than he expected.

'The first stroke of that tungsten steel [hacksaw] on these old bars was like the worst violin player in town. While Sten worked on that, I had my eyes glued to the cracks in the cell bars to the sleeping guard about 60ft away.'

One of his cellmates, anxious at the potential repercussions if they were caught with the knowledge of someone escaping, began to moan. McMillan threatened to

At around 3am, Sten was able to prise the bars apart enough to give McMillan '6in clearance' to force himself through.

'On the side of the wall there was a plank of wood which slid into the side of the bars and projected out into the night air,' he continued. 'It was held in place by a footstool. The plank was held in place sideways and poking out, so I could get out of that locked cell. Which was only the first step.

McMillan was transferred to the Klong Prem, which holds up to 20,000 inmates across a number of different sections, including a women's prison and a correctional institute for drug addicts. Pictured, a prison guard stands watch over the sleeping quarters of one section

'I had to strip down to next to nothing, grease up, put a towel on the cut section of the bar of the window so it wouldn't scratch my back and levered myself up.'

Once suspended on the blank, McMillan threw his army belt webbing to the ground and shimmied down. 'I flipped the rope off and Sten slid back that plank into the cell so it wouldn't be seen.'

McMillan had spent time building a mental map of the complex, drawing on the time he had spent out of the block during weekly trips to church. He knew roughly where the guards were and planned to eventually scale an outer wall and cross a 25m moat to freedom.

But it took longer to cross the sprawling prison than McMillan had originally planned and he was fast losing the vital cover of darkness he needed to make his escape.

McMillan has since turned his life around and is now an author and has been featured in TV programmes

At one point he had to freeze when he came close to a guard who suddenly stood up to take some water.

'I had a sea of walls to cover and felt I had no energy left,' he said. 'But knowing what would happen, knowing I would die slowly and horribly [if I was caught], I went on.'

One of his obstacles was 'Mars Bar creek', the name given to the open sewer that ran along the perimeter of the prison, which he crossed using his ladder and rope. Next he climbed the high outer wall, climbing slowly up to the top.

He continued: 'I used the last bit of army boot webbing to make a rope to sail to the ground and found myself before the main moat and realised there wasn't time to go across that.

'It would have been noisy, it was so quiet. I had to go around to the one place I could walk: the front entrance.'

McMillan took out long khaki pants from his pack. The clothing proved a savvy choice: only guards were permitted to wear khaki trousers, prisoners had to be in shorts at all times.

The change of plan meant McMillan had to muster his courage to walk around the edge of the prison before cutting across to exit close to the main front gate.

The key to this brazen escape was a pop-up umbrella he had put in his bag.

'It was just raining enough so that I had an excuse to put up that umbrella. As I walked slowly towards the front crossing bridge, at the front of the prison - this is where guards are arriving for work and where there are shops and people are setting up for the day - I thought, somebody looking down would think, "that's a guard coming in late". One thing is for sure, escaping prisoners don't take the trouble to bring an umbrella in case it rains.'

McMillan made it to the front of the complex, across the walkway, and onto the six-lane highway that led straight out to the airport.

He continued: 'I turned around and looked at the prison, looked back upon 12,000 people, two and a half years of my life.'

The meticulous planning continued for what happened when McMillan reached the outside.

Although he had left most of his money with his cellmates (to be used to protect themselves from the worst of the guards' ire when McMillan's escape was discovered), he still had enough to take taxis to a safehouse in Bangkok.

McMillan had liaised with a contact, a former cellmate named Harry who was a member of the powerful Chinese Triads, who had arranged for a forged passport to be left behind a mirror in the bathroom at the back of the property.

Once he found the passport, McMillan was back to the airport 'within minutes'.

'[At the airport] I picked up a travelling bag which was left in the long-term luggage office by another good friend. I put my ATM card in and it said "please contact your bank".' A second card did work, however, and he was able to withdraw $500.

McMillan booked a flight to Singapore and breathed a sigh of relief once he had made his way through immigration.

The problems didn't end once he left Klong Prem. McMillan was later arrested in Lahore, Pakistan, where he spent three years in and out of prison.

McMillan has since turned his life around and is now an author and has been featured in TV programmes such as Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men.

Now, almost two decades later, McMillan still has nightmares of his time in prison and acknowledges his time as a criminal brought with it huge losses.

He added: 'As far as my waking life is concerned, would I be willing to forgo everything I have seen and learned and understood for a quieter life? Yes and no.

'But it does [bring] huge destruction. I do think in some ways it was a wasted life. If a person has the capacity to do something good, or more interesting, or even helpful, that is the choice that is better made because the regrets of loss are so large that, even though there are some things I've come to understand that perhaps not many people have, a very high price was paid.'
Gordon Ramsay is serving up an eyewatering 275-per-head Christmas Day lunch at his posh London restaurant, Savoy Grill.

The British celebrity chef's team will be rustling up festive roast dinners with all of the trimmings for customers looking to escape the stress of making their own food at home.

The six-course meal includes an array of starters and several mains - turkey, beef wellington and Dover sole - but the price does not cover a 2 cover charge per guest or service - meaning patrons will be forking out in the region of 320 per head.

Drinks are also not included, so prices could quickly skyrocket once a festive tipple or two - like a 17 signature cocktail - is added.

Gordon Ramsay is serving up an eyewatering 275 Christmas Day lunch at his posh London restaurant, Savoy Grill. The six-course meal includes the succulent beef wellington, above

The 'exquisite' 6-course lunch includes canapes, pumpkin veloute, souffle, Norfolk turkey, beef Wellington or Dover sole. Pictured, Savoy Grill's Christmas lunch menu

The British celebrity chef has previously come under fire for his pricey offerings at his upmarket London restaurant. Pictured, Ramsay at a Las Vegas nightclub in 2015

The New Year's Eve set meal will set you back 405 once service charge is taken into account.

The 'exquisite' 6-course Christmas lunch includes canapes, pumpkin veloute, souffle, Norfolk turkey, beef Wellington or Dover sole.

And for those with a sweet tooth, dessert has a choice of orange sorbet, Christmas pudding or a cheeseboard.

A description of the feast online reads: 'Join us for an unforgettable day and let us treat you and your loved ones to our exquisite 6-course Savoy Grill Christmas Day menu. There's all the traditional trimmings and children's menus are available, too (125 per guest).'

It comes almost a year after Gordan Ramsey divided fans over a 140 Christmas dinner at his Bread Street Kitchen restaurant (pictured)

But with a signature cocktail costing a whopping 17, while a glass of fancy champagne can cost up to 150 - not to mention the 12.515% discretionary charge they have too - diners are looking at one hefty bill come the end of the night.

It comes almost a year after Gordan Ramsey divided fans over a 140 Christmas dinner at his Bread Street Kitchen restaurant, which had no Yorkshire pudding and gravy that 'looks like Bisto.'

He posted a picture to his Instagram showing the London restaurant's Christmas dinner offering which included gravy being poured over a turkey wellington, cabbage with chopped up sprouts, pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce.

In the background of the video was a separate plate with roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots.

Gordon Ramsay has been savaged online over his Sunday lunch (pictured), with diners branding it a 'child's portion' and questioning where the rest of the trimmings are

But while Gordon, 53, labelled the 'sirloin of beef with all the trimmings' 'absolutely stunning' (above), several of his 9.8million followers were left unimpressed by the three baby carrots and roast potatoes offered - with one person asking: 'Where's the rest of it?'

And while some fans thought the meal looked good, others were quick to comment on the consistency of gravy, with one saying it looked 'thinner than her dead nan's arm'.

Previously Ramsay has been savaged online over his Sunday lunch, with diners branding it a 'child's portion' and questioning where the rest of the trimmings are.

The British chef took to his Instagram page over the weekend to share a snap of his roast, which he serves at his Savoy Grill restaurant in London, as part of a two-course 40 set menu.

But while Gordon, 53, labelled the 'sirloin of beef with all the trimmings' 'absolutely stunning', several of his 9.8million followers were left unimpressed by the three baby carrots and roast potatoes offered - with one person asking: 'Where's the rest of it?'
An NHS midwife has won three apartments after taking part in a 3 raffle.

Sade Oluwaleimu, from London, has bagged herself the impressive prize of three renovated flats of different sizes, including two one-beds and one three-bed in the heart of Bristol town centre.

The competition, run by Tramway Path, promised the winner the homes mortgage-free, with Sade free to do as she wishes with her newly-gained property portfolio.

The swanky apartments are kitted out with neutral, chic decor and modern appliances.

Sade Oluwaleimu, from London, has bagged herself the impressive prize of three renovated flats of different sizes

The competition, run by Tramway Path, promised the winner the homes mortgage-free, with Sade free to do as she wishes with her newly-gained property portfolio. Pictured, the living room and kitchen area in the third of the three apartments won by Sade

The swanky apartments are kitted out with neutral, chic decor and modern appliances. Pictured, a bedroom in the third of the three apartments won by Sade Oluwaleimu

Sade entered with a 3 ticket and was revealed as the winner in a live draw which was posted on the Tramway Path Instagram page. Pictured, a bedroom in the first of the three apartments won by Sade Oluwaleimu

Sade entered with a 3 ticket and was revealed as the winner in a live draw which was posted on the Tramway Path Instagram page (@tramwaypath).

'I'm absolutely ecstatic about this win,' Sade said.

'I'd like to give all praise to the lord Jesus Christ my personal lord and saviour, and a massive thank you to Tramway Path for their vision to bring financial freedom to others.

'As a trained A&E nurse and midwife, serving others is innate within me and this win will allow me to serve without boundaries or financial worry.

Sade said she is 'absolutely ecstatic' about the win. Pictured, the modern bathroom in the third of the three apartments won by the NHS midwife

The NHS midwife said a massive thank you to Tramway Path for their 'vision to bring financial freedom to others.' Pictured, the lounge area in the first of the three apartments won by Sade

The renovated flats (pictured, the exterior of the building) include two one-beds and one three-bed in the heart of Bristol town centre

The brothers have made it their mission to help other people get on the property ladder. Pictured: the living and dining area in the second of the three apartments won by Sade

Will, Jason and Dan Twenefour announce the winner of the Bristol competition (pictured)

Will, Jason and Dan Twenefour announce the winner of the Bristol competition (pictured)

'I can finally follow my dreams of becoming a missionary in Africa, paying particular attention to improving maternity services across the continent.

'I aim to accomplish this through supporting, educating and equipping midwives to deliver the best care possible.'

The competition was the third of its kind launched by three brothers, Daniel, 29, Jason, 36, and Will Twenefour, 35  the faces behind Tramway Path.

Previously, they helped an NHS occupational therapist and single-mother-of-one get a roof over her head, as well as handed over the keys to a luxury pad to a 22-year-old graduate who was struggling to scrounge up a deposit.

Among them, Daniel raffled off his newly refurbished 415,000 three bedroom house in Mitcham, south London, for just 2 a ticket.

He hoped to sell 200,000 tickets to raise 400,000, and awarded the winner the home - 6 Tramway Path - mortgage-free.

Daniel, a technical project manager, also made donations to local charities including Jigsaw4U - focused on caring for vulnerable young people in the area - and the NHS Charities Together, a federation of over 250 charitable organisations that support the National Health Service, its staff, volunteers and patients.

Sade said that as a trained A&E nurse and midwife, serving others is innate within her so this win will allow her to serve without boundaries or financial worry. Pictured, the second of the three apartments

The modern toilet and hallway in the second of the three apartments won by Sade (pictured)

The newly renovated kitchen in the third of the three apartments won by the NHS midwife

Daniel said that having a roof over your head shouldn't be such an out-of-reach target. Pictured, left and right, Will, Jason and Dan Twenefour announce the winner

The competition was the third of its kind launched by three brothers, Daniel, 29, Jason, 36, and Will Twenefour, 35  the faces behind Tramway Path (pictured)

Now, the brothers have made it their mission to help other people get on the property ladder.

'Having a roof over your head shouldn't be such an out-of-reach target,' Daniel, who also works as a technical project manager, said.

'For a lot of people, it's the number one goal in their life but it is hurdles upon hurdles.

'One of the big reasons we're doing this is to disrupt the property market  it's such a struggle for both old and young to get on the ladder.

'I'm so tired of seeing hardworking people trying and failing to get together a big enough deposit, or being priced out of cities by luxury developers or foreign buyers.

'Sure, there are schemes that allow you to buy with a lower deposit, which is great, but the maximum amount a mortgage company will lend to you is 4.5 times your salary, which for a lot of people, particularly in London, can't really get you that much.

'If you don't have great credit you're limited to a select number of expensive lenders.

'It's time for the underdog to get a slice of the pie and we intend to make that happen.'

Previously, they helped an NHS occupational therapist and single-mother-of-one get a roof over her head, as well as handed over the keys to a luxury pad to a 22-year-old graduate who was struggling to scrounge up a deposit. Pictured, with previous winner Prescilla Massia
Simon Reeve has claimed that his new series on the Lake District exposes the plight of the 'rural, white working class' who have been edged out of the countryside by the middle classes snapping up second homes they don't live in.

The BBC adventurer, 49, who lives on the east side of Dartmoor with his wife, Anya, and their son, Jake, 10, focuses on the issue of class in his new show, The Lakes with Simon Reeve.

'The biggest realisation for me in the series was that there is a great risk of the countryside becoming a place primarily, or just, for the middle class,' he said, speaking to The Telegraph. 'It's definitely getting harder to be poorer in rural Britain.'

He went on to explain how properties within national parks are approximately 20 per cent more expensive than those outside the area - noting that shockingly, in one village near Ambleside, just two out of 28 houses are lived in full-time.

Simon Reeve, 49, who lives on the east side of Dartmoor with his wife, Anya, and their son, Jake, 10, focuses on the issue of class in his new show, Touring the Lake District. Pictured, at Haweswater, Lake District National Park

In his latest adventure, the best-selling author and broadcaster also explores the financial struggles of hill farmers. Pictured, with with farmer, David Thompson and his Fell Ponies in the Lake District National Park

In his latest adventure, the best-selling author and broadcaster also explores the financial struggles of hill farmers and hears from locals who are angry by the rapid increase in second homes and holiday lets in the countryside.

He also pays a visit to Whitehaven and Barrow-in-Furness  towns outside the national park  where he learns that job opportunities are scarce, meaning possible struggles for younger generations.

'We want functioning communities in rural Britain, and we've really got to address how the countryside is a space for all,' said the BBC travel presenter.

'We don't want a situation where the worker bees are in small towns around the edge of national parks and commute in to serve the tourists and the wealthy.'

The adventurer appeared on ITV's Lorraine on 14 October 2021

The adventurer used Switzerland, where they cap the percentage of second homes in a community at 20 per cent, as a role model example, suggesting the issue should be spoken about in Britain sooner rather than later.

'These are bits of Britain we don't always get to see,' he added. 'And definitely one of the most under-served, under-reached parts of the country has been the rural, white working class.'

Reeve, who reveals he lost his west London accent quickly when he started working at a newspaper to 'fit in,' also urged his son to follow in his footsteps so that he too, would be able to flit between different situations 'seamlessly.'

He went on to question whether the nation has become so self-obsessed.

'What the hell would Brits say today if they were called up to fight the Nazis?' he added. 'I really wonder whether we've been so brainwashed by individualism and "because you're worth it" that we'd say, "Well, not bloody me."'
Sex and the City star Kristin Davis has sparked a flurry of plastic surgery rumors after fans of the hit show called out her 'unrecognizable' appearance in a new trailer for HBO Max's spinoff series And Just Like That.

The network sparked a frenzy of excitement when it released the first trailer for the hotly-anticipated Sex and the City spinoff on Friday. But the debut of the teaser debut also prompted a flurry of speculation about 56-year-old Davis' looks - with many viewers questioning whether her altered appearance is the result of cosmetic work.

Davis, who plays Charlotte York in the series, first appeared on screens in the role when Sex and the City debuted in 1998; now, more than two decades later, she is returning to the role alongside co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon.

But while many viewers were quick to voice their excitement over the first look at the upcoming series, several couldn't help but call out the actress's 'new face', with some suggesting that it is the result of 'awful plastic surgery'.

Sex and the City star Kristin Davis has sparked plastic surgery rumors after fans noted her very different appearance in the trailer for the HBO show's spinoff (right) compared to how she looked in the original series (left), which debuted more than 20 years ago

Following the release of the trailer on November 12, several viewers took to social media to remark on the 56-year-old's appearance as beloved character Charlotte

Then and now: Kristin is seen as Charlotte in the original Sex and the City show in 2000 (left) and in the upcoming spinoff series And Just Like That... (right)

Back in action: Davis returns to her role in the new series, 11 years after the final SATC movie premiered, alongside co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon

'And just like that, Charlotte has a new face,' one person wrote. Another added, 'What did Charlotte do to her face?'

A third viewer tweeted, 'I completely understand the pressure women are under to look a certain way, and will likely have plastic surgery myself if I have the resources. That said, Kristin Davis looks like she ingested Smylex.'

Smylex is a chemical from the Batman comics that 'forces the human body to smile and/or laugh uncontrollably.'

'Every time they show Kristin Davis's face for #AndJustLikeThat, I wonder how much she paid for such awful plastic surgery. She was such a natural beauty before,' someone else tweeted, with one of their followers responding, 'Its literally ALL I can see.'

The 56-year-old previously claimed during an interview with New Beauty in 2018 that she didn't want to surgically alter the way she looked because she was 'scared of needles, scared of complications and scared of doing something that looks bad and not being able to go back and fix it.'

The HBO star also opened up trying to change her body after becoming self conscious about the way she looks while chatting with AOL in 2018.

'And just like that, Charlotte has a new face,' one person wrote

Another added, 'What did Charlotte do to her face?'

One Twitter user claimed that it looked like she had ingested 'Smylex' - a chemical from the Batman comics that 'forces the human body to smile and/or laugh uncontrollably'

Someone else said that Kristin's 'awful plastic surgery' was 'all they could see' while watching the new trailer

The 56-year-old previously claimed that she didn't want to go under the knife because she was 'scared of doing something that looks bad and not being able to go back and fix it'

In 2018, Davis (pictured left in 2001 and right this month) admitted that she had struggled with insecurities in the past, revealing that she 'killed herself' trying to change her body

'I used to go to the gym six days a week, two hours a day. I worked hard. It was a struggle because that was not really my body, and I was killing myself trying to change it,' she said.

'I dont know if Ill ever be able to say that [beauty standards] don't concern me or that I dont think about them, but on the other hand, I feel stronger in who I am and that my body is my body and a lot of people love my body.'

Kristin continued: 'Maybe there are people who dont, but thats always going to be the case. Dont even give it weight. It is what it is, and youre never going to please everyone.

'The truth is that its just part of our job. Its a visual job, and its tough. You have to hear everyone else discuss it, in print, too.

'Part of the reason that its hard to do is that you go in and play parts where you cant avoid having to wear certain things in our jobs.

'Its been a stressful thing for me over time and hard to get enough self-worth where I can be like, "Im just gonna look however Im gonna look on screen."'

Rumors: Fans first started calling attention to Davis' appearance when the show's three stars shared the first image of themselves together back in June

More than 20 years have passed since Davis made her debut as Charlotte in Sex and the City, which premiered in 1998. The actress is seen left in a season one promo and right in June

Questions: Several Instagram users left comments on the photo of the three actresses, asking 'what happened to Charlotte's face?' and accusing her of getting 'filler'

Back in July, Washington D.C.-based Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon Michael Somenek told OK! Magazine that he thought the actress definitely had fillers put in.

'Her cheeks appear to be overfilled creating a rather distorted appearance to her eyes and making her face look much wider than her traditionally slimmer face from the past,' he told them.

'Her lips have been injected which is why they have a somewhat stiff appearance when she is smiling. Alternatively she may have also gotten a lip lift to elevate her upper lip. Overall, it has created a rather disproportionate look to her face.'

The new Sex and the City show is going to follow favorite characters Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda - played by Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin, and Cynthia Nixon - as they 'navigate the journey from the complicated reality of life and friendship in their thirties to the even more complicated reality of life and friendship in their 50s.'

The 10-part reboot will premiere on December 9, 2021. The first two episodes will hit the streaming platform on that day, with the rest of the episodes coming out every Thursday after that.

It's been almost 20 years since Sex and the City went off the air, but your favorite characters are about to be back and better than ever. The 10-part reboot will premiere on December 9

The original show aired in June of 1998 and went on for six seasons before it concluded in February of 2004. It was based on the book of the same name by Candace Bushnell

The new show is going to follow Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda - played by Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin, and Cynthia Nixon - as they navigate life in their 50s

Despite much of the original cast returning for the new show, Kim Cattrall, who played Samantha, is not going to appear in the reboot

The original show aired in June of 1998 and went on for six seasons before it concluded in February of 2004. It was based on the book of the same name by Candace Bushnell.

'They say some things never change. But the truth is, life is full of surprises. And as your story unfolds, the city reinvents itself. And just like that, a new chapter begins,' Sarah could be heard saying in the trailer.

Despite much of the original cast returning for the new show, Kim Cattrall, who played Samantha, is not going to appear in the reboot, and many fans are not happy about it.

Earlier this year, HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys responded to the backlash over Kim's absence, and he told TVLine: 'Just as in real life, people come into your life, people leave. Friendships fade, and new friendships start. So I think it is all very indicative of the real stages, the actual stages of life.

'Theyre trying to tell an honest story about being a woman in her 50s in New York. So it should all feel somewhat organic, and the friends that you have when youre 30, you may not have when youre 50.'
An 11-year-old girl caught gonorrhoea from a natural thermal pool in Italy while on holiday, doctors have revealed.

The child, from Austria, was bathing at the edge of the 'Mirror of Venus', a lake fed by volcanic hot springs on the island of Pantelleria, off the coast of Sicily.

She is believed to have caught the infection, which is usually transmitted sexually, from the water, which had been used by a person with gonorrhoea.

Temperatures in the pools can come close to body temperature, and in this case could have provided a way for the bacteria to infect the young girl, experts claimed.

Bathing in hot springs is a popular past time in many British holiday hotspots such as Italy, Turkey, and Iceland.

With more Britons going on holiday now that Covid travel restrictions have eased, experts say people need to know about the dangers of using these pools.

The picturesque 'Mirror of Venus', also known Specchio di Venere/Lago di Venere, is a tourist hotspot famous for the hot pools on its shores. But this was also the place where an 11 year old girl got gonorrhoea by sharing a pool with an infected stranger

Official NHS guidance states that gonorrhoea cannot be caught by sharing water, but there are historical cases of it happening, experts say.

In the case, detailed in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, the Austrian girl was holidaying with her parents and seven-year-old-sister in August 2020.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF GONORRHOEA? More than 35,000 people a year are infected with gonorrhoea in England, including record numbers of baby boomers. Only chlamydia and genital warts are more prevalent. Figures show 78 million people worldwide contract gonorrhoea, which can often go symptomless for weeks, each year. Symptoms usually strike within two weeks of infection - but can stay hidden for many months. In women, symptoms of gonorrhoea can include: an unusual vaginal discharge, which may be thin or watery and green or yellow in colour

pain or a burning sensation when passing urine

pain or tenderness in the lower abdominal area (this is less common)

bleeding between periods, heavier periods and bleeding after sex (this is less common) In men, symptoms of gonorrhoea can include: an unusual discharge from the tip of the penis, which may be white, yellow or green

pain or a burning sensation when urinating

inflammation (swelling) of the foreskin

pain or tenderness in the testicles (this is rare) Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

After swimming in the lake itself, the 11-year-old relaxed by soaking for an hour in a 20cm deep thermal pool at the lake's edge with her father and other tourists.

Meanwhile her sister and mother were bathing in a similar but separate pool also by the lake side.

Two days later the child began to feel a painful burning sensation.

She was given an over-the-counter anti-fungal cream for a week while the family continued their holiday.

While this helped, it did not completely eradicate the symptoms so the family took the 11-year-old to their family GP when they returned to Austria two weeks later.

After inspecting the girl, the doctor took a swab which returned a positive for gonorrhoea.

All the family members were then tested for the sexually transmitted infection (STI) but these came back negative.

While sexual transmission was considered, the girl insisted she had not had sex.

With the symptoms having started on the holiday, and with 'no evidence' of sexual contact, it was concluded that she must have been infected by the pool water.

The girl, upon learning she had an STI, was mortified, and terrified of her classmates finding out.

She was treated with an antibiotic injection in hospital, followed by a course of an antibiotic tablets.

While Professor Felicity Goodyear-Smith, author of the case report said while there had been slight delays between diagnosis and treatment due to the Covid pandemic, the girl has fully recovered.

In discussing the case, the authors noted that pools on the edge of the 'Mirror of Venus' have a range of factors which could make the transmission of the bacteria which causes gonorrhoea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, possible.

They described the pools as being 'almost stagnant', near body temperature, slightly acidic, and containing organic material, all factors that could make help the gonorrhoea bacteria survive in its shallow water.

Professor Goodyear-Smith said the public need to know about the possible dangers of sharing STI contaminated water in these holiday hot spots.

'There needs to be public understanding that people bathing in heavily frequented shallow thermal pools risk exposure to pathogens through inoculation by other bathers,' she said.

But she added that the providers of these facilities also need to do more to ensure people use them hygienically and safely.

'We suggest provision of a shower and antibacterial soap near the hot springs. A sign should make visitors aware of strict hygiene before entering the pools,' she said.

The authors also note that young girls are particularly susceptible to this type of very unusual gonorrhoea infection.

The bacteria that causes the gonorrhoea infection, called Neisseria gonorrhoeae (graphic representation pictured) is commonly transmitted via sexual contact but a new case suggests it can also be transmitted via sharing water in certain conditions

This is because young girls' genitals are less acidic than adult women's, and therefore more vulnerable to gonorrhoea bacteria, they explained.

Professor Goodyear-Smith said it was 'almost certain' that the girl had caught gonorrhoea from the contaminated pool rather than sexual contact.

But they emphasised it was critical the circumstances surrounding all gonorrhoea infections in children are fully investigated, to identify any possible sexual abuse.

The authors also noted, that while rare, this was not the first recorded instances of children catching gonorrhoea in non-sexual ways.

They cited cases where children had caught gonorrhoea from a public toilet seat, and from sharing towels with infected family members.

Historically children had also caught gonorrhoea from common baths in places like hospitals, the authors said.

Professor Anna Geretti, an infectious disease expert at King's College London, told MailOnline that the case, while extreme, was not outside the realm of possibility.

'It's not completely far-fetched,' she said.

'Reports made in the late 1800s and early 1900s talk about, particularly in prepuberal girls, contracting this infection.'

'We've somehow lost the memory of this knowledge.' In the specific case involving the 11-year-old

However, she agreed with authors that all cases of gonorrhoea in children must be investigated fully in case of possible abuse.

Professor Geretti explained an incredible combination of factors such as the perfect water temperature for gonorrhoea and proximity to an infected stranger would have to be present in this specific case.

This would make any chance of a repeat incident extremely low, she said.

'The gonorrhoea bacterium grows very well between 25 and 39 degrees but is killed if you go above 50 to 55,' she said.

'We know from experiments done in the lab that the bacteria can survive for a few hours in when it is released into warm and humid conditions.'

Professor Geretti, said people should always shower with soap after using shared the thermal baths for hygiene reasons.


Findings could 'curb the growing burden of type 2 diabetes', researchers said

Reduction is easy to achieve through medication or healthy lifestyle changes

Pills taken by millions of Britons to lower blood pressure could help combat the nations diabetes crisis, a review suggests.

The drugs are known to protect against heart attacks and strokes but new research shows they also cut the odds of type 2 diabetes.

Researchers from Oxford and Bristol universities analysed data from 19 global studies, involving 145,939 people.

Each was tracked for an average of 4.5 years, during which time 9,883 developed type 2 diabetes.

A 5 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure  the top number in a reading  was found to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 11 per cent.

Such a reduction is easy to achieve through commonly prescribed medication or healthy lifestyle changes, the academics say.

Writing in The Lancet medical journal, they added: Blood pressure lowering is an effective strategy for the prevention of new-onset type 2 diabetes.

This evidence supports the indication for selected classes of antihypertensive drugs for the prevention of diabetes.

Experts have previously warned that Britains diabetes crisis threatens to bankrupt the NHS as one in every eight pounds spent on prescriptions is now for disease.

The health service spent 1.19billion on the likes of anti-diabetes pills and insulin in England last year  up a quarter since 2015/16.

Nearly five million people in the UK are thought to have diabetes, of which nine in ten have type 2.

Experts have previously warned that Britains diabetes crisis threatens to bankrupt the NHS as one in every eight pounds spent on prescriptions is now for disease. The health service spent 1.19billion on the likes of anti-diabetes pills and insulin in England last year  up a quarter since 2015/16. Nearly five million people in the UK are thought to have diabetes, of which nine in ten have type 2. Pictured: a nurse giving a patient a diabetes test

The researchers examined the differing effects of five major types of blood pressure drugs from 22 clinical trials, each compared to a placebo.

They found angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor-II blockers (ARBs) had the strongest protective effect, with both reducing a persons risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 16 per cent.

WHAT IS DIABETES? Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person's blood sugar level to become too high. There are 2 main types of diabetes: type 1 diabetes  where the body's immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin type 2 diabetes  where the body does not produce enough insulin, or the body's cells do not react to insulin Type 2 diabetes is far more common than type 1. In the UK, around 90 per cent of all adults with diabetes have type 2. The condition stops the body being able to break down glucose into energy. This is because there's either not enough insulin to move the glucose, or the insulin produced does not work properly. Type 2 diabetes can lead to heart disease, stroke, nerve damage, foot problems, vision loss and blindness. Advertisement

However, other types of blood pressure-lowering drugs were not protective.

Calcium channel blockers had no effect on diabetes risk, while beta-blockers and thiazide diuretics increased the risk despite their known beneficial effects to prevent heart attacks and strokes.

This risk is already known and doctors consider it when prescribing these drugs.

The varied effect of the different types of drugs on diabetes risk is thought to be due to the different ways they act in the human body.

Patients at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes are currently advised to keep a healthy weight and stick to a healthy lifestyle.

But researchers say ACEs and ARBs should now be considered in the treatment plan for some of these patients.

Using ACE inhibitors or ARBs to lower blood pressure in people at risk of type 2 diabetes could result in 30,000 fewer diagnoses of type 2 diabetes in the UK each year.

Professor Kazem Rahimi, lead researcher of the study at the University of Oxford and consultant cardiologist, said: Current clinical guidelines do not provide clear recommendations on lowering blood pressure as a strategy to prevent type 2 diabetes.

Our research provides clear evidence that giving ACE inhibitors or ARBs, which are widely available and affordable worldwide, to patients at high risk could curb the growing burden of type 2 diabetes.

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, which partially funded the review, said: Diabetes and high blood pressure are two important and growing problems which increase a persons chance of developing an array of other serious health complications, including heart attacks and strokes.

This research shows that the two are inter-connected and that lowering blood pressure could be a powerful way to reduce the risk of developing diabetes.

It also shows that different commonly used drugs for lowering blood pressure have very different effects on risk of diabetes.

Researchers from Oxford and Bristol universities analysed data from 19 global studies, involving 145,939 people. Each was tracked for an average of 4.5 years, during which time 9,883 developed type 2 diabetes. A 5 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure  the top number in a reading  was found to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 11 per cent. Pictured: women giving herself an insulin injection to treat diabetes

Doctors should therefore consider the patients risk of developing diabetes when they are choosing an anti-hypertensive drug to lower their blood pressure.

The beneficial effect of the anti-hypertensive drugs was confirmed using a genetic data analysis approach called Mendelian randomisation.

This uses naturally occurring genetic differences to randomly divide participants into groups, mimicking the effects of a clinical trial.

People with a genetic predisposition to lower blood pressure had a 12 per cent smaller risk of type 2 diabetes than those without.

Type 1 diabetes is an unpreventable autoimmune disease that usually develops in childhood but type 2 is largely preventable and is linked to obesity.

The condition can lead to blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks and strokes. Some people require limb amputations.

The prescription data only examines pharmaceutical treatments and excludes the cost of dealing with such complications.

Other studies have put the total cost to the NHS at 14billion a year or more than 25,000 every minute.
Despite having the highest vaccination rate in the country, Vermont has been dealing with a dramatic increase of COVID-19 cases.

Infections have risen by 55 percent over the last two weeks to an average of about 300 per day, according to a recent report from the state's Department of Financial Regulation.

Yet 80.9 percent of the state's total population has had at least one dose - second only to Massachusetts - and 71.8 percent are fully vaccinated, higher than anywhere else, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

So why is The Green Mountain State facing its worst Covid surge?

Experts say there are a few reasons for this including low vaccination rates among younger people, college students gathering unmasked for Halloween parties, and not enough residents with natural immunity.

Vermont is the most vaccinated state in the nation with 80.9% of the population with one dose and 71.8% fully vaccinated but cases are surging (file image)

A new report finds that Covid cases have risen 55% over the last two weeks to an average of about 300 per day (pictured)

One of the reasons for Vermont's increase in cases is younger people who have not yet been vaccinated against Covid.

According to the report, residents under age 30 are the most responsible for new infections of the virus.

Kids between ages zero and nine are recording the highest number of cases at 70 per 100,000 in this group.

However, this group only recently became eligible for vaccination, meaning that it remans to be seen if pediatric vaccines will help drive down COVID-19 cases.

The next highest per capita case rate is among 20-to-29-year-olds and 10-to-19-year-olds with about 65 cases per 100,000.

Teenagers between ages 12 and 15 only became eligible in May to be vaccinated in May while young adults have been among the least likely to get shots due to the belief that they don't need them.

Additionally, case rates are highest in counties with low vaccination rates.

Experts say one of the causes behind the surge is the number of young people, such as adults between ages 20 and 29, who aren't vaccinated

Unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated people have a case rate 3.7 times greater than the fully vaccinated popualtio

Essex County, which is the least-vaccinated Vermont county in the state, is reporting the highest number of weekly cases at 1,022 cases per 100,000 between November 2 and 8, the report found.

By comparison, Grand Isle County, the most vaccinated county, reported 160 per 100,000 over that same time period.

'Across the United States and in Vermont, we're seeing the impact of the highly contagious Delta variant,' Dr Jan Carney, associate dean for public health and health policy at the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine, told ABC News.

'It really is so contagious, it seeks out pretty much every unvaccinated person.'

The report finds that over the last seven days, 67 percent of hospitalizations have been as have 64 percent of critical care stats.

Another factor is behavioral changes, including more people congregating together maskless and having parties, such as for Halloween

At Saint Michael's College - three-and-a-half miles northwest of Vermont - 89 students tested positive for Covid last week and the week priior, according to the college's dashboard.

Some experts say not enough people developed natural immunity to the virus due to low case rates in Vermont throughout the pandemic and fewer than two percent in Vermont have natural immunity (light purple) compared to other states (shaded in darker purple)

Lorraine Sterritt, the college president, blamed the outbreak on Halloween parties.

'We were doing really well as a community up to the point where there were numerous Halloween parties where students were unmasked and in close contact,' she wrote in a letter on Sunday.

Additionally, some experts say there are not enough residents with natural immunity to also prevent COVID-19 cases.

We are 'a victim of our success because we kept the virus at such low levels throughout the entire pandemic,' Dr Mark Levine, Vermont's health commissioner, said on Tuesday.

CDC data show that Vermont has one of the lowest rates of residents who developed natural immunity to Covid at less than two percent.
On Monday morning, I eagerly logged onto the NHS website and booked myself a Covid booster jab.

There was such high demand that I had to wait a couple of minutes to make a booking, which added to the excitement.

It was like trying to buy tickets to Glastonbury. Almost.

Sadly, there are still lots of people who dont share my enthusiasm for a Covid vaccine.

Although more than 50 million Brits have had at least one jab, there are still 4.5 million who havent, among them quite a few people who work for the NHS (more than 100,000 arent fully vaccinated).

Dr Michael Mosley: Although more than 50 million Brits have had at least one jab, there are still 4.5 million who havent, among them quite a few people who work for the NHS (more than 100,000 arent fully vaccinated)

So there was an entirely predictable backlash this week when the Government confirmed that NHS staff will have to get vaccinated by next April if they want to keep their jobs.

There are arguments on both sides, but I think this measure is not only sensible but long overdue and Id like to see these changes happen sooner, ideally before an inevitable winter spike.

Of course, it would be better if reluctant staff can be persuaded, rather than forced, and there are genuine fears this will lead to large-scale walkouts.

But evidence from countries that have mandatory vaccination suggests this wont happen.

In the U.S., where some healthcare groups already make staff jobs dependent on being jabbed, hospitals such as Houston Methodist have managed to increase vaccine uptake to 98 per cent without losing more than a handful of staff.

And since being double jabbed not only cuts the risk of staff infecting patients but also of needing time off work through sickness, making vaccines compulsory may ensure there are more staff when needed.

What drives vaccine hesitancy? Some people have medical reasons for declining and some claim religious exemption (though leaders of all the major religions back vaccination).

Some, of course, are hardcore antivaxxers, like a nurse I met who said she wasnt getting vaccinated despite having lost a father and brother to Covid because the vaccine is experimental.

In the U.S., where some healthcare groups already make staff jobs dependent on being jabbed, hospitals such as Houston Methodist have managed to increase vaccine uptake to 98 per cent without losing more than a handful of staff

A recent survey by the Office for National Statistics found that 96 per cent of those surveyed had a positive sentiment towards a Covid jab, while only 4 per cent said they were genuinely vaccine hesitant.

Whats needed, to get the numbers up, is more urgent and powerful nudging.

And time is running out. Over the coming winter many of the unvaccinated will get Covid, become seriously ill and end up in hospital. This puts their lives at risk but will also put further pressure on the NHS.

More than four billion people worldwide have had a Covid vaccine, so we know they are effective at preventing serious illness and even death. We also know that if youre infected, youre 29 times more likely to end up in hospital if unvaccinated and twice as likely to pass Covid on. Thats why governments around the world are getting tougher on refuseniks.

In Singapore, from December, only the unvaccinated will have to pay for their treatment if they get ill, while in the U.S., from January, government workers will need a jab or have to start looking for a new job.

Not so long ago the UK was leading the world with our impressive vaccine rollout.

Now weve fallen behind many European countries, including France, which was initially far slower out of the blocks.

Last December 60 per cent of French people said they would never get vaccinated, compared to just 23 per cent of Brits.

In response, the French government decided to apply pressure. Now in France you have to provide proof of immunisation or a negative Covid test to go to a cinema, restaurant, club or bar, and to use any form of long-distance public transport.

Since September, ambulance drivers, doctors, hospital staff, fire officers or anyone caring for the elderly must have a jab or face suspension without pay.

Last December 60 per cent of French people said they would never get vaccinated, compared to just 23 per cent of Brits

While there was initial resistance, the impact of these measures has been impressive.

Not only are vaccination rates in France now higher than ours, but they have four times fewer people in hospital with Covid.

And these tough measures are popular, with polls showing 70 per cent approval.

Scotland and Wales have introduced their own, less draconian, vaccine passports, which could explain why vaccination rates are higher than in England (72 per cent are fully vaccinated, compared with 68 per cent in England). Neither country plans to make vaccines mandatory.

Mandatory vaccination is hardly new  170 years ago, smallpox was rampant but thankfully, the British government had access to a safe and effective vaccine.

Unfortunately, a significant chunk of the population didnt want to get vaccinated, fearing potential side-effects.

So in 1853 the government made vaccination of children compulsory, with large fines for parents who didnt comply.

This led to riots, and the all-too-familiar complaints that vaccinations are unnatural and being used by the government to control the population.

But due to the widespread take up of the smallpox vaccine, a virus that killed an estimated 500 million people in the 20th century alone, is now extinct.

So please do book your Covid jab  or booster  even if youre not convinced you are at risk.

Following a campaign by the parents of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, the teenager who had a fatal allergic reaction after eating a baguette containing sesame seeds, all the ingredients must now be included on pre-packed foods.

Known as Natashas Law, this should help protect those with food allergies.

But its also important to prevent allergies developing. The number of children with nut allergies has doubled over 20 years.

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recommends babies be given peanuts (perhaps in the form of peanut butter) between four and six months old.

This has been shown to reduce the risk of a nut allergy fivefold.

A survey suggests many parents are not doing this, nor are their doctors giving this advice.

Its time to bury the myth that giving peanuts early in life results in allergies when the opposite is true.

How to train yourself to have a better nights sleep

Im a lark, waking up early and normally fast asleep by 11pm.

So I was delighted to see a study this week suggesting that going to sleep between 10pm and 11pm is optimal to lower your risk of heart disease.

However, going to sleep after midnight  or before 10pm  raises the risk by 25 per cent, and even going to sleep just a bit later, i.e. between 11pm and midnight, is linked to a 12 per cent greater risk compared with a 10 to 11pm bedtime.

I promptly showed this to my wife, Clare, who is more of an owl, hoping to encourage her to aim for an earlier bedtime.

But why might sleep timing have this effect? The researchers from Exeter University suggested going to bed after midnight may mean missing out on early morning light and disrupting the body clock  which is normally synchronised with the day/night cycle.

The body clock regulates not only when we sleep but also processes such as the release of stress hormone cortisol, which has an effect on cardiovascular health. If youre an owl and want to move your bedtime earlier, the following daily steps will shift your body clock forward by two hours after three weeks:

 Wake up at least two hours earlier than normal.

 Expose yourself to plenty of early morning light.

 Avoid bright lights during the evening and head to bed a couple of hours earlier than normal.

 Exercise only in the mornings.

 Avoid naps or caffeine after 4pm.

Night owls who do this are found to be less stressed and do better in cognitive tests (possibly as theyre more in sync with the natural world and with schedules of modern working life).

And now it seems you may also be doing your heart a power of good.
Discount chain The Works has posted impressive results following a challenging start to the year when lockdown restrictions forced its stores to temporarily close.

Booming online purchases combined with high footfall in its outlets helped the company's sales for the six months to 31 October jump by 17.9 per cent on the equivalent period two years ago.

It credited strong back-to-school trade and demand for 'fidget frenzy' goods like fidget spinners and neon balls for its performance, and believes it may have profited from the growth in staycations among Britons.

Store popularity: Booming online purchases combined with high footfall in its outlets helped the company's first-half sales jump by 17.9 per cent on the equivalent period two years ago

The retailer also said it benefited from consumers doing their Christmas shopping sooner than usual this year and is confident this trend will persist into the height of the festive season.

Warwickshire-based The Works, which sells stationery, toys and games, amongst other items, saw total sales plunge by a fifth during the previous fiscal year despite an acceleration in online revenues.

It was forced to shut its stores by the UK Government during national lockdowns because they were considered 'non-essential' just like hospitality venues, clothing shops and theatres.

To try and boost trade, the business has reoriented its strategy towards strengthening its digital platform and refurbishing existing stores instead of opening new ones, and said it has achieved 'great progress' in doing so.

Chief executive Gavin Peck said: 'It's clear from these results that our products resonated extremely well with customers during the pandemic, helping them to read, learn, play and craft through lockdown.

'Our strong sales in recent months demonstrate that demand has been maintained and customers continue to value our offer. It's particularly pleasing to see that, whilst our online sales continue to run at almost double their pre-pandemic levels, store sales are also growing.'

New term: The Works credited high levels of back-to-school trade and demand for 'fidget frenzy' goods like fidget spinners and neon balls for its performance

The firm admitted that it was currently being impacted by a shortage of haulage drivers and shipping capacity, but stated that its decision to strengthen its supply chain earlier this year means its stock levels in the run-up to Christmas were robust.

Even with higher freight costs, The Works is forecasting results for this financial year will be in line with initial expectations thanks to the larger-than-anticipated levels of trading in recent months.

Peck added: 'Looking ahead, we have a fantastic range of products for our customers this Christmas with initial demand for them already very strong.

'We are cautiously optimistic about prospects for our peak sales season and our ability to trade through the ongoing supply chain challenges faced by the majority of our sector.'

Superior position: Discount retailer B&M has had a much better pandemic than The Works as it has been allowed to keep its stores open in the UK during strict lockdown period

The company's trading update comes a day after fellow discount retailer B&M declared upbeat results following the reopening of stores in France and solid demand for general merchandise and seasonal goods.

B&M has had a much better pandemic than The Works because it has been allowed to keep its stores open in the UK during strict lockdown periods and is planning to launch another 45 stores this year.

It returned 3.7million in furlough money to the exchequer and waived 80million in business rates relief towards the end of last year as customer numbers took off when the first lockdown started.

B&M has also been affected by increasing supply chain costs but had imported their stock earlier than it normally would in preparation for the Christmas trading season.

Shares in The Works ended trading 0.2 per cent at 57.1p on Friday and have seen their value grow by more than half since the start of 2021.
The FTSE 100 has slipped back today, closing some 36.3 points lower at 7,347.9, while the FTSE 250 has fallen 16.5 points to 23,557.5.

In company news, AstraZeneca said it would start making a profit on its Covid-19 vaccine from the next quarter onwards and use the cash to cover the costs of investment in its antibody treatment for the virus.

The pharma giant, which had promised to sell the jab it developed with Oxford University 'at cost' during the pandemic, has said it will now 'progressively' shift to 'modest profitability' as new orders are received.

Meanwhile, Redrow has become the latest housebuilder to shrug off concerns over the ongoing supply chain crisis thanks to booming house prices.

Japan's Toshiba is set to break up into three independent companies by spinning off its core energy and infrastructure businesses, as well as its device and storage business.

Elsewhere, Britain's jobs market is experiencing record numbers of vacancies with nearly 2.7million now being advertised, research found today amid rising demand for driving instructors, prison officers and forklift truck drivers.

> If you are using our app or a third-party site click here to read Business Live
Financial services giants Bank of America and Investec have been hired to propel the public listing of Burger King's British arm, according to a report.

Sky News has said that private equity firm Bridgepoint Group has brought on the pair in the hopes of completing the fast-food company's initial public offering sometime in the first half of next year.

Bridgepoint currently owns the exclusive right to the Burger King brand in the UK and has around 150 of the hamburger chain's outlets under its control, including 17 it bought from Essex-based franchisee Zing Leisure back in May.

Franchisee: Bridgepoint Capital holds the UK master franchise and a stake in the French franchise of the Burger King chain from Restaurant Brands International (RBI)

It had initially been looking to sell the business and began a process earlier in the summer to find a buyer, something Sky also first reported, but the news channel said it had spoken to sources in the City who believe an IPO is more likely.

As well as the UK franchise, Bridgepoint holds a stake in the French franchise of the chain from Restaurant Brands International (RBI), a holding company formed in 2014 from the merger of Burger King and Canadian brand Tim Hortons.

Bridgepoint has a long history of investing in hospitality businesses, including being the owner of Pret a Manger, which it sold to Krispy Kreme owner JAB Holdings for 1.5billion just seven years after buying it for 364million.

In addition, the group purchased restaurant brands ASK Italian and Zizzi, took a minority stake in East Asian-inspired dining chain Itsu earlier this year and has put money into takeaway firm Deliveroo.

The company recently went public on the London Stock Exchange, intending to raise around 300million to fund its expansion plans and potentially enter new markets, including infrastructure and real estate, and boost investor returns.

This came after a decade of significant expansion where the level of assets under its administration more tripled from 9billion in 2011 to 27.4billion this year.

Going green: Burger King UK is aiming to become a more sustainable business, with pledges to get rid of single-use plastic by 2025 and have half of its menu items be plant-based by 2031

'Floating will represent a bet for Burger King's management team and stock market investors on a sustained recovery for the UK's pandemic-hit restaurant industry,' Sky remarked.

Burger King UK has benefited significantly this year from its partnerships with delivery firms such as Just Eat, which have themselves seen orders made on their online platforms soar through the roof during the pandemic.

Looking ahead, the group is aiming to become a more sustainable business, with pledges to get rid of single-use plastic within four years and have half of its menu items be plant-based by 2031.

A few hospitality businesses have been listed on the London markets this year, including Mexican-themed chain Tortilla and Deliveroo, which had a disastrous opening due to investor concerns about the delivery platform's lack of profitability and treatment of staff.

This has come amidst a surge of IPOs in the UK, such as greeting cards seller Moonpig, bootmaker Dr Martens and payments app Wise, which had the largest ever listing by a technology firm on the London Stock Exchange with a value of over 8billion when it debuted on July 7.

More companies started listing on the UK capital's markets in the first nine months of 2021 than at any time since 2014, though the number of new entries has slowed somewhat since then.

Burger King UK has not yet commented on the Sky News story.
Only a fifth of people say they plan to downsize in their retirement, with the top reason being that they are simply 'too attached' to their home.

Those nearing retirement age are even less likely to have downsizing plans, according to research by investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown.

Among those aged 45 to 54, just 17 per cent said they would move to a smaller home, while this fell further to 14 per cent among 55 to 64-year-olds.

Those nearing retirement age can downsize to a smaller property to access cash tied up in their home - but a survey had found that only 20 per cent want to do so

This is despite house prices increasing rapidly in the past year, with larger homes benefitting most, meaning downsizers could have more money to buy a smaller property.

However, those moving from larger homes in the countryside or on the edge of towns may find the difference eroded by higher prices closer to town centres.

While 20 per cent said they would downsize, another 38 per cent said they would not and 42 per cent were unsure, according to the survey of 2,000 people.

People often buy a less expensive property in retirement and use the money from the sale of their old home in order to top up their pension income, help out their family financially or simply enjoy their retirement.

Those in the best position to downsize are people who have paid off their mortgage, or a large chunk of it, as they can use the money from the sale to buy their next home mortgage-free.

However, more people are now struggling to pay off their home before they retire  and it can also be difficult to remortgage once you have reached a certain age.

Financial worries also weigh on people's decisions not to downsize, according to the Hargreaves Lansdown survey.

Around one in ten didn't believe they would make enough money from downsizing, while almost a quarter said it would be too expensive.

'The financial reality may not be as positive as the fantasy, with the costs of moving taking a chunk out of their proceeds and leaving them with far less than they hoped for,' said Helen Morrissey, senior pensions and retirement analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Almost a quarter of respondents said the costs of downsizing would be too expensive

However, the most-cited reason why the respondents didn't want to live somewhere smaller was that they were too attached to their home, which 28 per cent claimed.

Morrissey added: 'When you've won the race for space, it's very difficult to give up.

'Massive house price growth makes the prospect of downsizing in retirement tempting but on closer inspection it is clear not many people are convinced.

'The pandemic has reminded people how valuable it is to have room to roam at home, and the prospect of giving that up at a time when they may be spending more time at home isn't appealing.'

Geographically, Londoners were the most likely to want to downsize with 39 per cent having plans to do so in their retirement. This compared to 16 per cent of residents in the South-East.

Homeowners in the capital stand to make significant gains when they sell, especially if they have been in their property for a long time, as prices have increased rapidly.

Those with mortgages outstanding on London homes may also struggle to service a big loan on their retirement income.

What are the options if you don't want to downsize?

Downsizing in retirement is becoming a necessity, rather than a choice, for many as the cost of living increases and workplace pension plans become less generous.

There are other ways to help fund your retirement, including working for longer or cutting down on other outgoings.

Another option is to release equity from your home, using a lifetime mortgage.

This is when a homeowner takes out a loan from a specialist equity release provider for part of the value of their home.

They can stay in their property and are still the owner, and the loan is then repaid through the sale of the home when they die or go into long-term care.

Downsizing can release extra funds for retirement but often homeowners find that high prices for suitable properties can mean they don't get as much as they think

However, equity release should be approached cautiously as there are interest charges and other fees involved, and it can make it more difficult to move home again if you need to.

It also reduces the inheritance that an older person may want to leave for their family.

Morrissey adds: 'This comes at a real cost, not just because of the fees involved, but also because in most cases interest on the loan will roll up, and the amount you owe can easily double before you repay it.

'Equity release can also stop you from downsizing later if you change your mind, if the debt has eaten so far into the equity in your home that you can't afford a smaller place.

Another option is to take out a Retirement Interest-only mortgage (Rio).

Here, the homeowner remortgages their property with a mainstream lender, but they do not need to pay any more off the balance of their home - they only need to pay the interest on the loan.

This can reduce the monthly outgoings, and again the loan only needs to be repaid when the homeowner dies or goes into care.

Unlike with equity release, however, the borrower will need to have enough income to pass a bank's affordability assessments.

It is also possible to continue with mainstream mortgages, if the borrower is under lenders' minimum age thresholds and has the income to do so.

They could then cut their monthly payments by extending their mortgage term, or release some equity by remortgaging to a higher loan-to-value product.

Morrissey added: 'The right answer is different for everyone, but it's important to consider it all carefully before you rule out downsizing.'
Just weeks before her alleged abduction, Cleo Smith endured a family tragedy involving an adored relative not much younger than her.

It was in late July this year that Cleo lost her young cousin Mason to a rare genetic disease around the time of his third birthday.

The two little cousins had enjoyed a close relationship according to social media posts, with one image showing Cleo tenderly touching her cousin's face during a family holiday.

In another image, captioned 'cousin love', Cleo, then aged three, embraced two-year-old Mason and both children were in the arms of their grandmother, Sheryl Gliddon.

'Mason is blessed to have the most wonderful big cousin and a new little one on the way,' read the November 2020 photo's caption, which referred to the impending birth of Cleo's little sister, Isla, in March this year.

Cleo Smith tenderly touches younger cousin Mason (above) on a family holiday before the little boy's untimely death from a rare disorder 11 weeks before Cleo's alleged abduction

Cleo Smith, above in her mum Ellie's arms at Carnarvon police station on Tuesday, lost her little cousin Mason in another tragedy to strike the family just weeks earlier

Back then, in the world of Cleo's mother and stepfather (Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon), it was Jake's sister Shakira Otway and her husband Les who had been touched by tragedy.

Born in July 2018, Mason began to have uncontrollable seizures by the following January, according to the Facebook page set up by his family to chart Mason's journey.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) flew the infant to Perth Children's Hospital (PCH) and 'there he was diagnosed with Lissencephaly a rare brain condition that has caused Mason's brain to develop smoothly', the page says.

'He has also been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, vision impairment and global development delays.'

In the November 2020 Facebook post featuring the photo of little Mason with his cousin Cleo cuddling one another, a friend has written 'gorgeous photo of Cleo and Mason'.

A post written by Mason's parents says the family had a holiday at Exmouth, 360km north of Carnarvon, and that the little boy 'loved sitting by the pool and getting lots of cuddles from everyone'.

Cleo's stepfather Jake Gliddon, above loading gifts into the family car on Tuesday, is the uncle of Mason who died from rare disorder lissencephaly in late July this year

'The memories we make with Mason are becoming ever more precious as the horrible year of hospital stays continues,' the Facebook post read.

'Sadly we had another RFDS flight to PCH last night as Mason got a fever, seizures and respiratory issues once again.

'Fingers and toes are crossed this is a short visit and we can come home soon.'

As Jake and Ellie welcomed the birth of Cleo's younger sister Isla, it appeared that Mason's condition was deteriorating.

WA detective Cameron Blaine wearing a blue forensic suit at the Carnarvon crime scene on Tuesday

According to Families of Lissencephaly, an Australian group formed to help sufferers and educate others, children with the condition suffer seizures, and feeding and respiratory issues.

Jake Gliddon and his sister Shakira come from a family who live in Carnarvon and and are well-respected in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, and renowned as fishing, motor bike and quad bike enthusiasts.

Their parents Terrance and Sheryl originally hail from the Pinjarra and Dwellingup regions south of Perth.

Jake Gliddon attended Carnarvon Senior High School, now known as Carnarvon Community Colege.

Jake Gliddon (above with Ellie Smith) went from being an uncle who helped support his sister and brother-in-law with their sick boy, to a stepfather grieving the disappearance of Cleo

This is the same school listed on Facebook by the man accused of kidnapping Cleo Smith, although he attended the school years before Jake's 2008 graduation..

From November 2019, Shakira and Les Otway began recording on a special Facebook page 'a little boy's story about his life with lissencephaly'.

The page was subtitled 'Never Give Up'.

Like other parents of children with Lissencephaly have around the world, the Otways shared Mason's 'adventures, struggles and accomplishments with all his friends and family'.

Then on July 26, Shakira and Les Otway posted two photos of their son smiling into the camera and broke some tragic news.

The post read: 'It gives us the greatest pain to tell you all that our little warrior Mason Jay Otway lost his fight Sunday night in the arms of his Mum and Dad.

'Rest easy little warrior, we will always love you. Mum and Dad.'

Of the many heartfelt responses to the sad announcement, one friend wrote: 'Shakira and Les, my heart breaks for you.

'You gave Mason the best life a little guy could ask for, filled with fun, explorations and more love than he could know.

'Thinking of you and all your extended family at this time.'

On September 8, Shakira Otway posted a video of a smiling Mason two days in advance of international Lissencephaly Awareness Day, writing 'Forever watching over us with that sparkle in your eye and cheeky smile on your face'.

Just seven week later, Ms Otway and her relatives were posting about the disappearance of Mason's cousin, four-year-old Cleo from the Quobba Blowholes campsite north of Carnarvon.

Cleo vanished from the tent shared with her baby sister Isla, mother Ellie Smith and stepfather Jake Gliddon sometime between 1.30am and 6am on October 16.

On that day, friends of Shakira posted messages on Facebook to her, saying 'big hugs and love to you' and 'Keep looking for that little darling. My heart goes out to you all'.

For 18 days the family lived in a new, different nightmare until the miracle moment just after 1am on Wednesday, November 3.

Terrance Kelly being transported from Carnarvon to Casuarina Prison, south of Perth on November 5

WA detectives entered a locked, dilapidated house in the Carnarvon suburb of Brockman and found Cleo alive and playing with toys in a room.

A 36-year-old man, Terence Darrell Kelly, had been arrested in his vehicle minutes earlier.

He was transported from Carnarvon to Casuarina Prison, south of Perth on November 5.

Daily Mail Australia has approached the family for a response.
Two doctors whose fertility companies are accused of implanting the wrong embryos in parents both live in multi-million-dollar private gated mansions in Los Angeles.

Despite multiple legal claims against their firms, doctors Eliran Mor and Peyman Saadat have been successful in their fertility practices, which charge up to $23,000 per IVF cycle according to past patients.

Daphna and Alexander Cardinale claim Dr. Mor and Dr. Saadat's company In VitroTech Inc. mixed up their embryo with another couple's, causing both mothers to unwittingly bear, birth and raise for over three months each other's babies before negotiating a swap of the infants.

Fertility clinics, In VitroTech labs, owned by Dr. Peyman Saadat (left) and the California Center for Reproductive Health, owned by Dr. Eliran Mor (right) are at the center of a IVF baby mix up lawsuit

Alexander Cardinale, 41 (left), and Daphna Cardinale, 43, (right) filed a lawsuit against California Center for Reproductive Health and In VitroTech labs Monday after they discovered they had been raising someone else's child due to a 'nightmare' IVF mix up

Swapped: The couple eventually learned that their IVF clinic had swapped their embryo with another one. The two babies are pictured together

In VitroTech and Dr. Saadat have been sued before over claims of misappropriating embryos, even allegedly covering up bungles and lying to patients.

Yet Mor and Saadat have continued their extremely lucrative practices, one of which raked in an estimated $14.7million in 2018 according to CDC figures and patient bills.

Mor, 52, lives on a private, gated one-acre estate in Beverly Hills worth an estimated $6.1million according to Realtor.com.

The 5,152 sq ft mansion has 4 beds, 5 baths, a wine cellar and second outdoor kitchen.

The architectural house is neighbors with Mark Wahlberg's mansion in the hills overlooking the city and has skylights in high ceilings and a pool.

Mors is married to Or Shlofman-Mor, 52, who works as an office manager at his clinic, according to her LinkedIn page.

Originally from Ramat Hasharon in Israel and educated at Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine, Mor has spent most of his life in the US.

The Cardinales, who went to Dr. Mor and his California Center for Reproductive Health, claim they did not know he had outsourced their IVF treatment to his other companies including In VitroTech, which Mor runs with Saadat.

Dr. Saadat studied medicine at the University of Southern California and completed his residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology and a subspecialty Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility there. He lives in Bel Air with his dentist wife, Shoreh (right)

Dr. Saadat, 50, lives in a $3.8M mansion in a gated community in Bel Air, according to real estate records

The fertility specialist lives with his dentist wife Shoreh in a four-bed, five-bath, 4,996 sq ft home

Saadat's fertility clinic raked in an estimated $14.7million in 2018 according to CDC figures and patient bills. He and his wife are pictured above with their two children

Dr. Saadat, 50, also lives in a gated community in Bel Air in a 4 bed, 5 bath, 4,996 sq ft home worth $3.8million according to Realtor.com.

He lives there with his LA dentist wife, Shoreh.

Saadat graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles in 1988, then from California State University Northridge in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology.

He studied medicine at the University of Southern California and completed his residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology and a subspecialty Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility there.

The California Medical Board has not taken any disciplinary actions against either doctor.

Dr. Saadat's website claims he was 'Voted Top Doctor in 2019 for Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility Specialist'.

He was also named 'America's Best Physician 2016' by the National Consumer Advisory Board (NCAB) according to a press release from his office at the time.

Mor has spent most of his life in the US but is originally from Ramat Hasharon, Israel and educated at Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine. His wife Or Shlofman-Mor, 52, (right) works as an office manager at his clinic, according to her LinkedIn page

Dr. Mor, 52, lives on a private, gated one-acre estate in Beverly Hills worth an estimated $6.1million, according to Realtor.com

The 5,152 sq ft mansion has 4 beds, 5 baths, a wine cellar and second outdoor kitchen

However, NCAB appears to be a homeless healthcare organization with no connection to the America's Best Physician award.

Saadat's press release links to a site called America's Best Physicians, which charged $12 per month for a 'preferred listing' and told its customers 'Your award can be extremely impressive if you inform others that you were selected' according to a 2017 MEL Magazine report.

But when contacted in 2017 the site told the magazine 'the National Consumer Advisory Board is another organization with a similar name.'

Saadat's clinic offers In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), egg freezing, egg donation surrogacy and says it supports LGBT families.

A 2013 press release for the opening of his West Hollywood-based Reproductive Fertility Center boasted a 'brand new, state of the art IVF laboratory, along with our additional locations in Santa Monica, Burbank, Diamond Bar and Riverside' and claimed 'the center's most current pregnancy success rate is 48% across all age groups, compared with the national average rate for clinical pregnancies of approximately 30%.'

Saadat advertised his patient success stories in a 2018 commercial (pictured)

The ad claimed Saadat's success rate 'was one of the highest in the country,' however, CDC data shows his clinic was underperforming the national average

According to the latest 2018 CDC data the clinic, the percentage of 'intended egg retrievals that resulted in live births' at Saadat's and Mor's clinics was 45.3% for women under 35, compared to a national average of 52%

A TV commercial Saadat created and shared on his YouTube channel also claimed superior success rates.

On camera, a man with his arm around a woman said: 'We came to the conclusion that we wanted to be treated by Dr. Saadat. His success rate was one of the highest in the country.'

However, according to the latest 2018 CDC data the clinic, which the CDC combines with Dr. Mor's California Center For Reproductive Health, it is underperforming the national average.

The percentage of 'intended egg retrievals that resulted in live births' at Saadat's and Mor's clinics was 45.3% for women under 35, compared to a national average of 52%.

Sarah Robertson (pictured) sued In VitroTech labs in 2016 claiming doctors lost some of her late husband's sperm and used it on other women without her consent

The only age group for which the clinic outperformed was women aged 35 to 37, who had a success rate of 39.2% with Dr. Saadat compared to 38.1% nationally.

CDC data showed Saadat's clinic performed 638 IVF cycles in 2018. One former patient said cycles can cost $23,000  which would mean revenue of $14,674,000.

Of the 638 cycles, a total 188 infants were born according to the figures.

Saadat has also created commercials for his center targeting Chinese couples.

'They were so helpful, and also have staff members that speak Mandarin!' a couple on camera said in subtitles with Mandarin in the commercial.
Victoria's construction workers have just one day until they are required to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to continue working on site.

The controversial mandate, which sparked violent protests across Melbourne in September, requires all tradies to have had two doses of a vaccine by Saturday to continue working on construction sites.

The state's chief health officer Brett Sutton issued a warning that several vaccination deadlines are 'approaching', in a statement on Thursday.

Victoria's construction workers have just one day until they are required to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to continue working on site

The deadline for residential aged care workers is also fast-approaching, as they must be fully vaccinated by Monday November 15 to continue working.

About one million of Victoria's essential workers will be required to be double-jabbed by November 26.

Anyone with a valid medical exemption will be able to continue working.

The vaccine mandate sparked mass protests across Melbourne with demonstrators marching on the CFMEU head office and Shrine of Remembrance in September.

Protestors hurled bread crates and shouted verbal abuse at CFMEU union officials on Elizabeth Street.

The demonstrators carried on throughout the week with protestors staging their next rally at the Shrine of Remembrance.

Some were decked out in body armour or helmets in anticipation of a police attack while others sang chants urging officers not to arrest them out of 'respect for the Anzacs'.

The Department of Health has also noted a change to requirements for fully vaccinated international travellers and aircrew arriving in the state.

In an update on Twitter, the department said anyone wanting to enter Victoria from overseas must obtain an international COVID-19 vaccination certificate or proof of a medical exemption.

Additionally, those aged over 12 must have tested negative for COVID-19 no earlier than 72 hours before departure to Victoria and must have applied for an international passenger travel permit via Services Victoria.

Upon arrival, travellers and crew must be tested for coronavirus within 24 hours and evidence of all of the above must be carried with them for 14 days.

The controversial mandate, which sparked violent protests across Melbourne in September, requires all tradies to have had two doses of a vaccine by Saturday to continue working on construction sites

Victoria reported another 1313 COVID-19 cases and four deaths on Thursday, as the state government announced some elective surgeries will resume.

Private hospital and day procedure centres in Melbourne and Geelong will scale up to 50 per cent of their elective surgery list from Monday.

Non-urgent procedures had been put on hold to increase the state's coronavirus capacity.

The change comes as COVID-19 hospitalisations begin to stabilise. There are now 457 people in hospital with the virus, with 79 in intensive care and 48 on a ventilator.
Daniel Andrews and Scott Morrison are pictured in Melbourne on Thursday

Scott Morrison has criticised Daniel Andrews' proposed laws that would give him sweeping new powers to manage pandemics.

The laws, which have passed Victoria's lower house and will be debated in the upper house next week, would give the premier the power to declare a pandemic for an unlimited period of time even if there are no cases of a virus.

The move would let the health minister make 'any order' he deems reasonably necessary' which could include lockdowns, vaccine mandates, enforced mask-wearing and much more, with fines of up to $454,350 for rule-breakers.

The Prime Minister said Premier's bid to secure more power was 'confusing' when Australia is finally opening up after 18 months of Covid-19 restrictions - and said Aussies want governments to stop interfering in their lives.

'Victorians have gone through the worst of the pandemic... I can understand their frustration where governments are seeking to have more involvement in their lives,' he told radio 3AW on Friday.

'We're going in the opposite direction... Australians have had enough of governments telling them what to do.

'That's been necessary for a couple of years but we're coming out of that now and I think the timing of this is confusing.'

Protesters march against the new laws through the streets of Melbourne on Tuesday

But Mr Morrison refused to criticise any harder, saying he would leave that job to the Victorian Opposition.

'Well, look, I'm always respectful of the Federation, and I am respectful. I don't give lectures to through this pandemic. I respect the Federation,' he said.

'I work with all the premiers and chief ministers but the key message about this is it's your call, your responsibility and don't expect the federal government to go and argue your case when it's not a policy that we have.'

It comes after Victoria's top barristers called for Mr Andrews to delay and wind back the proposed laws.

The laws would give broad powers to the health minister to make orders and the police (pictured last month in Melbourne) to enforce them

Victorian Bar president Christopher Blanden QC previously called the proposed laws 'extreme' and said the Stasi, the secret police in communist East Germany from 1950 to 1990, would be happy with the powers.

On Wednesday the Bar - made up of hundreds of top barristers - published a submission to the Department of Health which listed several problems with the laws and demanded changes.

What are the main concerns with the Bill? No definition of a pandemic Broad powers to the Health Minister to make 'any order' Reasons for detaining someone not defined 'Breathtakingly broad' powers to public officials to enforce laws Allows orders such as lockdowns to apply to people based on political views or association Health advice does not have to be published until 14 days after decision Rules that breach human rights laws may not be invalidated and overturned Source: Victorian Bar Advertisement

It came as Mr Andrews was forced to cancel a press conference outside Bendigo TAFE on Wednesday on police advice because angry protesters unhappy with the laws were gathered outside.

In its submission, the Bar said it wants a definition of a 'pandemic disease' to be spelled out and the health minister's power to be limited to specific actions.

The lawyers want the minister to have to consider the 'harm and inconvenience' his orders may cause before he makes them.

The Bar said the law gives 'breathtakingly broad' powers to public officials who would be able to 'take any action or give any direction' - except detain someone - to enforce pandemic orders and wants these powers to have a time limit.

The laws would also allow the health minister to order someone be detained. The lawyers want the reasons for possible detention spelled out and an independent review process to oversee this.

The Bar has also raised concerns the laws allow orders such as lockdowns to be applied to people based on attributes protected by the Equal Opportunity Act such as race, gender and political association.

'The Victorian Bar is particularly concerned about the inclusion of an express power to make pandemic orders that apply to a person by reference to their political belief, industrial activity or personal association with others,' the submissions said.

'The Victorian Bar recommends that the Bill be amended to exclude differentiation based on attributes that are of no obvious relevance to a person's health risk profile.'

The lawyers said 'serious concerns' had been raised and want the Bill to be delayed.

Mr Andrews relies on three crossbenchers to get the laws through. Reason Party MP Fiona Patten has said 'there will be amendments' after listening to concerns of lawyers and human rights advocates.

Mr Andrews (pictured) relies on three crossbenchers to get the laws through parliament

Huge fines and jail

The new laws state a person can be fined up to $21,909 for breaching a pandemic order.

This could include not wearing a mask, breaking a movement limit, attending an illegal protest or a gathering, refusing to get tested or failing to show ID.

Businesses can be fined up to $109,044 for breaking rules which may include failing to make sure customers check-in or show proof of vaccine status.

The new law will allow the health minister to make 'any order' he deems 'reasonably necessary' including lockdowns, vaccine mandates and enforced mask-wearing. Pictured: Melbourne in lockdown in October

In addition, there is a new aggravated offence for breaches that 'cause a serious risk to the health of another individual'.

These can be punished with a $90,870 fine and two years in jail. An example given in the bill is someone going to work when they are infectious and should be isolating.

Businesses can also be guilty of an aggravated offence, with a maximum fine of $454,350 if, for example, they refuse to obey a lockdown and encourage customers to also flout the rules.

What are the fines in Daniel Andrews' new law? $21,909: This fine is for breaching a pandemic order such as not wearing a mask, breaking a movement limit, attending an illegal protest or a gathering, refusing to get tested or failing to show ID. $90,870: This fine is for an aggravated offence for breaches that 'cause a serious risk to the health of another individual' such as going to work when infectious. $109,044: This fine is for businesses breaking rules which may include failing to make sure customers check-in or show proof of vaccine status. $454,350: This fine is for an 'aggravated' offence by a business such as encouraging customers to flout lockdown rules . Advertisement

Power to the premier

Under the new laws the premier would be able to declare a pandemic for three months an unlimited number of times.

The current state of emergency laws require a parliamentary vote to extend them every 12 months - but the new laws have no time limit.

The health minister will be able to sign off on public health orders instead of the Chief Health Officer, a role currently held by Brett Sutton.

This gives the health minister the power to enforce lockdowns, shut down businesses, restrict movement, require masks, ban public gatherings, and enforce quarantine and isolation - powers currently held by the unelected CHO.

These powers can be implemented regardless of the number of disease cases or severity.

The bill will also extend the mandatory payment for hotel quarantine beyond 31 December.

Vaccine mandates and lockdowns for anti-vaxxers

The bill states that a pandemic order such as a lockdown or a vaccine mandate 'may apply to, differentiate between or vary in its application to persons or classes of person'.

This allows the Government to select who it wants to apply the order to, including people who have been at a certain event, who live in a certain area or who have a certain type of job.

The Government can discriminate based on 'presence in a pandemic management area; participation at an event; an activity they have undertaken; their characteristics, attributes or circumstances,' the bill says.

It also allows the Government to lockdown unvaccinated people only.

Under the new laws the premier would be able to shut down businesses, restrict movement and ban public gatherings even if there were no disease cases in Victoria. Pictured: A protester is arrested by police at a protest in St Kilda in October

The bill says the Government can discriminate based on attributes defined in the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 which include race, religion, sexual orientation, marital status and political views.

The group of lawyers against the bill warned a future health minister could target people based on their 'political beliefs or activities that involve questioning or opposing the government public health measures.'

But Health Minister Martin Foley said those factors would not be taken into account.

'Any suggestion that those other considerations of the public health processes, that is just really mischief making. These are recommendations that come forward on clinical and epidemiological grounds. Not those kinds of characteristics,' he said.

Professor Brett Sutton said attributes and characteristics could refer to 'intimate partners having the opportunity to see other individuals... people normally resident in regional Victoria... children under 16 years of age because they haven't had a vaccination opportunity... vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals in a vaccinated economy.

'You need the agility to spread to those characteristics and attributes that might exclude someone from a public health order and that might be directed at someone,' he said.

Tiered fines system

In a small win for disadvantaged people, the bill will allow disadvantaged people to apply for a 'concessional' fine.

Greens leader Samantha Ratnam negotiated this in discussions with the Government.

She said: 'I'm pleased that the Greens have been able to make sure these new laws have more transparency and are fairer for all Victorians, especially those facing disadvantage.'

Barista Maelys is seen at work at Cafe Chez Mademoiselle in Prahran, Melbourne, in October

Make health advice public

The Victorian Government has faced constant criticism for not releasing the health advice that its lockdown decisions are based on.

The bill will require the publication of the reasons for the Chief Health Officer recommending a pandemic order.

It will also establish an Independent Pandemic Management Advisory Committee to scrutinise Government decisions and health advice.

Under the new laws the premier would be able to declare a pandemic for an unlimited time, with an extension required every three months. Pictured: Victoria Police in October

QR safeguards

The new laws will ensure stronger safeguards to stop unlawful access to QR code check-in or contact tracing data, with a new offence in place.

It means police can only get hold of the data if there is an 'imminent threat' to someone's life.

Officers must acquire a Supreme Court order to access the data.

This comes after it was revealed in June that police failed three times to get access to QR code data.

Reaction to the law

Opposition leader Matthew Guy said he would throw out the laws if he won the November 2022 election.

'I've never seen such an attack on Australian democracy as rules like this' where 'one man can rule by decree,' he said.

The existing power of Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton (left) to make special public health orders would be passed over to health minister Martin Foley (right) under the new laws

The Opposition will propose a 60 per cent majority in both houses of parliament be required before a pandemic or an extended state of emergency can be declared.

Under the proposed alternative, the state of emergency powers and the need for them would have to be re-examined and voted on every 30 days.

But Greens leader Samantha Ratnam backs the laws because she says they are better than the current state of emergency powers.

'I'm pleased that the Greens have been able to make sure these new laws have more transparency and are fairer for all Victorians, especially those facing disadvantage,' she said.
Shocking video captured an NYPD officers pummeling a homeless man until he was apparently unconscious as cops try to clear encampments that have sprung up around crime-plagued New York City.

The video shows the unidentified officer landing blow after blow on a homeless man he was trying to arrest on a sidewalk in Greenwich Village.

'Oh, he knocked him out! He's not moving,' a bystander can be heard saying in the video, which was posted Thursday.

It is not clear when the incident took place. A spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio did not comment on the incident. Spokespersons for the NYPD and Mayor-elect Eric Adams did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Watch below

An officer is attempting to detain this homeless main as they clear out an encampment in Manhattan

A struggle begins after the homeless man appears to try and get up while being detained

A second officer arrives from the left to assist the first as the officers struggle the homeless man to the ground

The first officer is then seen throwing about a half dozen punches to the man's midsection

The first officer emerges from the incident as the homeless man lies motionless, with multiple people declaring he was 'knocked out'

The video, posted by WorldStar.com, begins with the officer attempting to handcuff the prone homeless man along restaurant-lined McDougal Street in the trendy neighborhood.

The man tries to stand up and grabs the cops leg before his partner rushes over to knock the vagrant back to the ground, according to the video.

The cop grabs for his gun belt as the two tumble to the ground before the officer throws a half-dozen punches that seemingly connected with the man's head and midsection, the video shows.

The beaten man is seen lying motionless after the officers step away for the remaining 25 seconds of the 37-second clip.

The incident comes as homelessness in the city has reached its highest levels since the Great Depression. Overcrowded homeless shelters have led to encampments sprouting up in nearby Tompkins Square Park, as well as under bridges spanning the East River.

The number of single adults sleeping in municipal shelters spiked by 103 percent in the past decade - from 25,000 to 50,000 - and has continued to soar since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the New York Coalition for the Homeless.

There were 47,979 homeless people - including 14,881 homeless children - sleeping each night in the NYC municipal shelter system in August 2021, according to the agency. In the same month, there were 18,357 single adults in shelters.

The coalition added that thousands of homeless people sleep throughout the streets, subways and other public spaces but there is 'no accurate measure' of such data and city surveys 'significantly underestimate the number of unsheltered homeless New Yorkers'.

Many have said that de Blasio's attempts to handle an already existing mental health crisis have only exacerbated it despite De Blasio facing regular condemnation for being too soft on crime and its causes.

Just last week, the lame-duck mayor again blamed the courts for NYC's skyrocketing crime numbers as he touted a small decrease in the murder rate while ignoring the jump in overall crime.

According to the NYPD's crime stats, through November 7, felony assaults are up 8.3 percent, while rapes and robberies are up 2 percent each and overall crimes are up 1.7 percent.

But De Blasio cited statistics claiming that felony trials are down 92 percent from 2019. He also said pleas in felony cases are down 53 percent and sentencing is down 55 percent.

'I'll tell you what's not working, and this is a profound problem: Our court system,' De Blasio said at his press conference Wednesday.

A spokesman for the city's court system slammed de Blasio's comments in a statement provided to DailyMail.com.

'Someone should alert the Mayor that Charles Lindbergh made it to Paris, since that would mirror how out of touch the Mayor is regarding activity in the New York Courts,' said spokesman Lucian Chalfen.

Powers was also not too keen on the city's present - and future - government officials.

A homeless encampment was pictured on the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn on Monday

The homeless crisis in New York appears to increase as more people are left without a place to stay

A makeshift shelter was made with two umbrellas and garbage cans. It was pictured surrounded with water bottles, carts and even a pet carrier

A homeless person sleeps in front of ABC studios in Times Square as people watch the taping of the show through the window

After noting that he thinks President Biden is too old and has Alzheimer's while Vice President Kamala Harris 'doesn't seem fit to run the country,' he added that he also wasn't too happy with De Blasio or Eric Adams's sweeping victory in NYC's mayoral election.

Adams, a former NYPD officer, has vowed to stamp down on violent crime in the city after it recorded more than 1,500 shootings in 2020 - nearly twice as many as 2019.

Violence in the Big Apple so far in 2021 is also at its highest level since the early 2000 after Mayor Bill de Blasio sought to slash $1billion from the police budget despite the surging crime rate.

'Not all black people are cool,' Powers said when talking about Adams, noting that he was fearing the former police officer would bring back the Stop-and-Frisk policy, which drew attention to cops racial profiling and was deemed unconstitutional in 2013.

He predicted that if the policy resurfaced many people struggling with addiction on the streets would be thrown into jail instead of getting proper help.

'Anti-crime was good with gun violence but now all gun crime is gang-related,' he told DailyMail.com before citing a string of fatal shootings that happened in Brooklyn over the summer.

Shooting victims rocketed by 12 percent, from 944 between January and the start of August 2020, to 1,057 from the start of 2021 to August of this year.

'It was all Bloods,' Powers said, referring to the street and prison gang known for its rivalry to the Crips.

The conflict between the two gangs originated on the west coast. The United Blood Nation (UBN) - also known as the East Coast Bloods - is a faction of the California-based gang and is active in NYC.

'That's how you get into a gang. You shoot someone. Not someone from a rival gang but any person,' he said, noting that going to prison gives the gang members ' more street cred'.
A defense attorney for one of the three white men charged in the murder of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery said the presence of Rev. Al Sharpton in the courtroom is 'intimidating' jurors as the lawyer made a plea for the judge to ban 'any more black pastors' from attending the trial.

Defense attorney Kevin Gough on Thursday raised his concerns with the famed New York activist's presence in the Georgia court, but did not find a receptive audience in Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley.

'If we're going to start a precedent, starting yesterday, where we're going to bring high-profile members of the African American community into the courtroom to sit with the family during the trial in the presence of the jury, I believe that's intimidating and it's an attempt to pressure... or influence the jury,' said Gough, who represents William 'Roddie' Bryan.

He added: 'There's only so many pastors they can have. If their pastor is Al Sharpton right now that's fine. But that's it. We don't want any more black pastors in here.'

Defense attorney Kevin Gough on Thursday sought to ban Rev. Al Sharpton from the courtroom where three men are standing trial in the death of Ahmaud Arbery

Sharpton (front left) on Wednesday attended the trial with Arbery's family and participated in a press conference slamming the mostly-white makeup of the jury

Travis McMichael (left), Gregory McMichael (center) and William Bryan Jr. (right) have all pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment

'I think people can understand my concern about bringing people in who don't have any ties to this case apart from political interests,' Gough went on.

'We want to keep politics out of this case. So I am asking the court to take appropriate steps to make sure the gallery isn't being utilized for a purpose that could be viewed as improper.

'If a bunch of folks came in here dressed as Colonel Sanders with white masks sitting in the back...,' he said, referring to the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, before not getting a chance to finish his sentence.

Arbery was shot and killed on Feb. 23, 2020

Judge Walmsley cut Gough off at that point and dismissed the request, saying: 'I am not going to blanketly exclude members of the public from this courtroom.'

The judge said that he hadn't heard of 'any distraction whatsoever' yesterday adding: 'From what I hear is that nobody was even aware that he (Sharpton) was in here'.

Along with Bryan, 52, Gregory McMichael, 65, and his son Travis McMichael, 35, have pleaded not guilty to murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. They face life in prison if convicted of murder.

Sharpton had spoken with reporters Wednesday outside the Glynn County courthouse, where he held the hands of Arbery's parents while leading a prayer for justice. Sharpton criticized the disproportionately white makeup of the jury.

Judge Walmsley allowed the jury to be sworn in last week after prosecutors objected, saying several black potential jurors were excluded because of their race, leaving only one black juror on the panel of 12.

The population of the county where the trial is being held is nearly 27 percent black.

'It's an insult to the intelligence of the American people,' Sharpton said. 'If you can count to 12 and only get to one that's black, you know something's wrong.'

Family attorney Benjamin Crump, right, speaks as Marcus Arbery, second from right, his former wife Wanda Cooper, left, and the Rev. Al Sharpton listen on Wednesday

Arbery's mother Wanda Cooper-Jones (above) denounced Gough's argument for a ban on prominent African-Americans in the court

On Thursday, Arbery's mother Wanda Cooper-Jones denounced Gough's argument for a ban on prominent African-Americans at court as the fifth day of the trial of the three Georgia men concluded.

Speaking outside the Glynn County Superior courthouse at the end of the day, Cooper-Jones dismissed the notion that such a thing could influence jurors.

'I don't think that anything can sway the jury,' she said. 'I think if the jury takes the evidence that is presented that we will get justice for Ahmaud.

'For everyone that played a part in the killing of Ahmaud, they get sentenced to jail forever.'

The mom also referenced the testimony of Larry English, who called 911 after seeing Arbery enter his under-construction home on surveillance video, saying he did not have a problem with others entering his property, only her son.

'It was just a problem when it was Ahmaud. Ahmaud was the one paid most attention to,' she said.

'They didn't have problems with other people on the property, only Ahmaud.'

Mark McGuire, a lawyer assisting Cooper-Jones, said of the English testimony and related videos: 'All that it revealed was that Ahmaud had been on that property and never committed a crime, he had never destroyed anything, never taken anything or done anything to justify any of the brutal response that they saw that occurred on February 23.'

On Thursday, the jury was shown grainy surveillance footage of Arbery walking around a vacant property on earlier visits to the mostly white southern Georgia neighborhood where he was chased and shot dead.

Grainy video footage of Ahmaud Arbery roaming around a partly-constructed home on five occasions in the months before he was shot dead last year was played in front of the jury Thursday

The 25-year-old is seen above at the same home on February 23, 2020 - the day he was chased and killed

A 45-second clip from October 25 (pictured) showed him wandering around near the back of the house at night. Larry English, who was constructing his 'dream second home', called 911 to report a 'trespasser' who he suspected was 'maybe drunk or on drugs'

The videos were pulled from surveillance cameras installed in an unoccupied, half-built house in Satilla Shores that plays a crucial role in the case. Arbery visited the site multiple times at night in the months before his death, the final visit taking place just minutes before he was shot.

'I got a trespasser,' English, the property owner, said in a call to police after the first recorded visit made by Arbery on the night of October 25, 2019, which was played in Glynn County Superior Court on Thursday.

The visits to the unoccupied property have become a central part of the defense case.

The McMichaels say they were aware of reports of an unidentified Black man wandering around the property and that Travis McMichael had even glimpsed Arbery on the property on an earlier visit in February.

They thought Arbery might have been that same man when he ran past the McMichaels' driveway in Satilla Shores on Feb. 23, 2020. Prosecutors say Arbery was an avid runner out for a Sunday afternoon jog.

The men pursued Arbery in pickup trucks before the younger McMichael pointed a shotgun and fired as Arbery ran toward him and reached at the weapon. Their lawyers say this was justified self defense.

In a video deposition recorded in September and played to the jury, English said he had been slowly building his riverside house in Satilla Shores.

The jury watched a four-hour recorded deposition from English (right) who was quizzed by prosecutor Paul Camarillo (left). He confirmed he never saw Arbery steal anything from the property and agreed that there was no evidence Arbery was drunk

'My dream was to have a place on the water,' he said. He knew local kids sometimes roamed about the property, which was unfenced. He testified that he worried about people having an accident around the boat dock out back so installed surveillance cameras that sent videos to his phone.

The clip of Arbery walking around the dock during the visit in October 2019 was played, along with a recording of the call English made to police to report a trespassing 'colored guy' with tattoos on his arms and curly hair. English told police the man may have been drunk or on drugs as he was 'plundering around' the property.

In the deposition, English said he decided soon after that it was more likely the man was not intoxicated but moving cautiously in the dark in a way that looked odd on the night-vision video.

Nothing was taken that night, English said. A clip from November showing a man and woman, both white, wandering through the property at night was also played, along with the call English made to police to report them.

Videos of three other night-time visits made by Arbery in November, December and February were played. Some fishing equipment and a cooler had gone missing from one of English's boats at some point, but nothing was taken on the days Arbery was seen there, English said.

English showed the clips of Arbery to some of his neighbors, and the McMichaels have said they knew about the reports of an unknown Black man roaming around the English property when Arbery ran by their driveway on Feb. 23, 2020.

English said he sometimes made friendly chitchat with the McMichaels, and that he had never met or spoken with Bryan.

He said he asked only one neighbor to keep an eye on his property, and it was not any of the defendants. He later heard that Travis McMichael had joined that neighbor and called 911 during the visit Arbery made on the night of Feb. 11, 2020, to report an unfamiliar Black man on the property.

English has also said through a lawyer that he later concluded that Arbery had been stopping by for a drink of water from a faucet on his property, which was not in the view of any of the surveillance cameras.
Strict lockdowns pushed by White House advisers Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx failed to stop the vulnerable dying from COVID-19, while families suffered and children lost out on their education, according to a forthcoming book by Trump adviser Dr. Scott Atlas.

His is the latest contribution to unpicking how the Trump administration responded to the pandemic.

And the former Stanford radiologist offers an unsparing account of dysfunction and political paralysis that allowed Trump's two most high-profile scientific advisers to publicly contradict the president and hijack the response.

'A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America,' is published on November 23 by Bombardier.

'People were dying from the virus, and the lockdown policies were not preventing the deaths,' he writes in a copy obtained by DailyMail.com

'The simple logic of assuming you could stop the spread of, and some said eliminate, a highly contagious virus by shutting down society after millions had been infected was worse than nonsensical.

'The idea of stopping all businesses and closing schools while quarantining healthy young people at little risk from a disease in order to protect those aged seventy and over - that is simply irrational.'

His account will reignite some of the most contentious debates of the past year over how to handle COVID-19, and attract fresh accusations that he is peddling misinformation.

In a new book, Dr Scott Atlas accuses coronavirus advisers Drs Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx of sticking to 'irrational' lockdown policies that failed to protect vulnerable Americans

Atlas accuses the scientists around Trump - specifically Fauci and Birx - of implementing policies that harmed children and families by closing schools and families

Atlas's book, 'A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America,' is published by Bombardier Books on Nov 23

Although the U.S. has made progress with vaccinations, the death toll is still ticking up and currently stands at more than three quarters of a million people.

Atlas was a divisive and controversial figure as soon as he was brought into the White House in August last year, apparently as a bulwark to the influence of Fauci and Birx.

Critics said he was appointed more for his appearances on Fox News than any infectious disease expertise he would have picked up as a radiologist.

He had already published essays arguing that lockdowns were harming public health through their impacts on missed medical appointments, the harm of school closures, mental health effects and other negative outcomes.

And his book describes how he repeatedly clashed with Birx and Fauci - the public face of the White House response.

Not only were their lockdowns harming the economy, he says, but they failed to protect America's most vulnerable people.

'By the time I arrived, lockdowns had already been implemented throughout the country for monthsincluding strict business restrictions and school closures as well as quarantines of healthy, asymptomatic people,' he writes.

'Those lockdowns were continually pushed, successfully, by Drs. Fauci and Birx to nearly all governors and throughout the media.

'Those policies - the Birx-Fauci lockdowns - were widely implemented, and they were destroying Americas children and families.

'Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of deaths kept piling up, including tens of thousands of elderly Americans - their policies were in place and were failing.'

Throughout, he portrays his role as critical thinker, asking awkward questions of the conventional wisdom while his opponents sought to block the president's wishes.

Why, he asks, were scientists developing and promoting White House policy when their role should have been to offer advice and expertise to the nation's elected leaders.

Instead, Atlas says he pushed for reopening coupled with shielding of those at risk.

Trump announced that Atlas would join his administration as an adviser on COVID-19 on August 10, 2020. Atlas resigned at the end of November just before his 130-day term expired

Testing and isolating healthy people, he said, was a waste of time and resources, and compounded a culture of fear.

Leaks quickly suggested he was pushing for a policy of 'herd immunity,' essentially by letting the virus spread until the level of natural immunity meant the coronavirus had nowhere left to go.

He denies that is what he was proposing, instead describing how he once described the principle of 'herd immunity' in a meeting.

'Not once did I advocate allowing infections to spread - not in that meeting nor in any other meeting, and never to the president,' he says.

Throughout, he expresses frustration that the White House coronavirus task force was dominated by the views of Fauci and Birx - even as they advocated policies that contradicted Trump's stated desire to reopen schools and businesses.

Trump's inner circle, he writes, seemed reluctant to rock the boat and reduce the power of two advisers that were popular with the public ahead of the election.

'They had let Birx and Fauci tell governors to prolong the lockdowns and school closures and continue the severe restrictions on businesses - strategies that failed to stop the elderly from dying, failed to stop the cases, and destroyed families and sacrificed children,' he writes.

'The closest advisers to the president, including the VP, seemed more concerned with politics, even though the task force was putting out the wrong advice, contrary to the presidents desire to reopen schools and businesses.'

The result, he says, was dangerous and confusing mixed messaging from the White House.

Atlas resigned in November, shortly before his term was due to end.

Since then Fauci has been a target of Republicans, who accuse him of flip-flopping in his recommendations and of misleading the public over 'gain-of-function' research that they say may have triggered the pandemic.

Both have been unstinting in their criticism of Atlas.

In recent closed-door testimony to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, Birx accused Atlas of using incomplete information to draw dangerous conclusions.

'I was constantly raising the alert in the doctors meetings of the depth of my concern about Dr. Atlas position, Dr. Atlas access, Dr. Atlas theories and hypothesis, and the depths and breadths of my concern,' she said.

She also confirmed that she refused to attend meetings where he would be present.

'I felt like by my presence and my discussions with him, by even legitimizing my responses to him, that I was giving his theories credibility,' she said
Retiring Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama plans to spend $5 million of his own campaign money to help his former chief of staff beat the candidate backed by Donald Trump to replace him, a new report said on Thursday.

Shelby has told allies he will help fund an independent SuperPAC supporting Katie Britt, who, after leaving his staff, served as the CEO of the Business Council of Alabama, to win the GOP nomination to replace him, The Washington Post reported, citing two poeple who know of the senator's plans.

The massive infusion of cash will likely have a deep impact on the race, where Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, who has pushed Trump's election conspiracies, has struggled to raise the funds needed to win the primary.

Shelby, who is retiring in 2022 after six terms in the Senate, has $9.7 million in cash in his campaign account and $6.5 million in his leadership PAC.

Retiring Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama plans to spend $5 million of his own campaign money to help his candidate defeat Donald Trump's in primary to replace him

Sen. Richard Shelby is backing his former chief of staff Katie Britt in GOP primary while Donald Trump is backing Republican Rep. Mo Brooks

Blair Taylor, a spokeswoman for Shelby, would not speak to the Post about the senator's spending plans.

'The Senator's support for Katie is well known,' she said in a statement. 'He will continue to back her as the race develops in whatever ways are most appropriate, as he believes she is the best candidate to serve the people of Alabama.'

Republicans are expected to hold Shelby's seat in the deep red state, making the primary contest the one to win.

Brooks told the Post he is not surprised by Shelby's support of Britt.

'I entered this race after factoring in that Richard Shelby would probably put millions in on Katie Britt's behalf,' Brooks said. 'They are hand in glove.'

Brooks, who has served in the House since 2011, has supported Trump's false theories the election was stolen from him. He has the endorsement of the former president, who won Alabama with 62 percent in 2020.

He spoke at a rally near the White House before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, urging his fellow Republicans to reject the presidential election results.

Donald Trump has been making endorsements in GOP primaries ahead of 2022 midterm election

Trump endorsed GOP Senate candidate Tommy Tuberville in 2020 and Tuberville won - Trump and Tuberville are seen together on the campaign trail in June 2020

Tuberville defeated Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, seen above making his concession speech on election night 2020

Trump has been vocal in his support for Brooks and has called Britt a 'RINO' - a Republican In Name Only - who would answer to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

Britt is 'not what Alabama wants,' Trump said in a statement in July shortly after she announced her campaign.

'I see that the RINO Senator from Alabama, close friend of Old Crow Mitch McConnell, Richard Shelby, is pushing hard to have his 'assistant' fight the great Mo Brooks for his Senate seat,' Trump said.

But Shelby defied Trump and backed Britt from the start of the campaign, telling Politico she is 'family.'

'She's like family. She'd make a good candidate. She's probably the best-qualified candidate to come along in a long time,' Shelby said. 'I'd support her, I'd vote for her.'

Some Republicans have been concerned about Trump's interference in the primaries for the 2022 midterms.

There are fears that, if the more conservative candidate Trump favors wins the primary, the GOP could lose the general election and thus endangering the party's chances to take control of Congress in next year's election.

That is unlikely to happen in Alabama, which has a history of sending Republicans to Washington D.C.

Doug Jones was the last Democrat the state elected to the Senate. He won after Republican candidate Roy Moore was accused of inappropriate contact with teenage girls while in his 30s.

Jones was the first Democrat to represent the state in the U.S. Senate since 1997.

Shelby made waves in 2017 when he announced weeks before the special Senate election that he would not vote for Moore, citing Moore's behavior with girls.

Jones ran for a full term in 2020 and lost to Republican Tommy Tuberville, who was Trump's choice for the Senate.
Eurocrats want Boris Johnson to step in and break the Brexit deadlock on Northern Ireland.

European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic told a private meeting of MEPs that there will be no breakthrough without a direct intervention from the Prime Minister.

His comments came as an EU official suggested customs checks between the British mainland and Northern Ireland could be slashed further if the UK agrees to a role for the European Court of Justice, something Lord Frost is set against.

European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic told a private meeting of MEPs that there will be no breakthrough without a direct intervention from the Prime Minister

Lord Frost needs political instruction, Mr Sefcovic said, urging Mr Johnson to get involved in the faltering discussions.

There has been no move at all from the UK side. Wider EU-UK relations are in question.

Mr Sefcovic will hold more talks with Lord Frost on Friday.

His remarks emerged as a senior Commission official suggested the EU could offer a new blueprint to cut border checks and red tape.

Eurocrats want Prime Minister Boris Johnson to step in and break the Brexit deadlock on Northern Ireland

One month ago, Eurocrats unveiled a plan that they claimed would reduce the checks and paperwork by half, and checks on supermarket goods by 80 per cent.

A further compromise could come if Britain dropped its unattainable demand on the role of European judges and the ECJ, a source said last night.

We have moved, and its time for the UK to, the source added.

A Government source said: Lord Frost and the Prime Minister are completely aligned on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced two new community Covid cases in the state on Friday morning but there were no new cases linked to the Gold Coast Uber driver.

Both of the new cases - a girl under 10 and a girl in her teens linked to the recent Goondiwindi and Moree clusters - were detected in home quarantine and are considered low risk.

Acting Chief Health Officer Peter Aitken said the two cases identified on the Gold Coast this week were 'genomically linked' but health authorities remain unsure of the link.

The earlier Gold Coast case was a 32-year-old Pacific Pines man.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced two new community Covid cases in the state on Friday morning at Redbank Plains School, Ipswich

Ms Palaszczuk repeated her statement from Thursday that the next 24 to 48 hours will determine if tighter COVID-19 restrictions are needed on the Gold Coast after an Uber driver tested positive having been infectious for three days.

'We don't want to entertain it at the moment,' Ms Palaszczuk said when asked whether the Gold Coast would enter a lockdown. 'It will depend on whether there is unlinked transmission.'

Across the state, the first-dose vaccination rate is 80.55 per cent, while 68.84 per cent are fully vaccinated.

'We should be getting that 70 per cent double dosed milestone either on Sunday or Monday,' Ms Palaszczuk said.

A man claiming to have been a weekend customer said the Gold Coast Uber driver was not wearing a mask during their trip (pictured, Burleigh Heads)

The fully-vaccinated man in his 50s was one of two new cases reported yesterday, with a teenager from the Scenic Rim town of Beaudesert - linked to an existing cluster - also testing positive.

Contact tracers are working to find any passengers potentially exposed over the three days he was infectious in the community.

'The [Gold Coast] is not out of the woods but we have to monitor this very carefully,' Ms Palaszczuk said.

'We know community transmission can happen, we have large numbers of people who are vaccinated on the Gold Coast but I want to see more.'

There has been concern about the vaccination rate in the region, and Ms Palaszczuk said residents should consider wearing masks where social distancing isn't possible.

Dr Aitken said one concern with the Gold Coast cases was that the city would soon host the annual Schoolies festival.

'At this stage were not doing anything more in regards to restrictions on the Gold Coast. But we are worried because Schoolies is coming up,' he said.

'If we can get through the next week, Im quite confident Schoolies would be just fine.'

Ms Palaszczuk said Schoolies taking place will depend on whether there is further community transmission on the Gold Coast 'in the next seven days'.

The warning to the region comes less than a day after the state reached the 80 per cent target for first vaccine doses, and mask restrictions relaxed as a result.

The developing situation differs from previous cases in the southern town of Goondiwindi, where vaccination rates were among the highest in the state.

'They had very, very high vaccination rates... we don't have that on the Gold Coast, so I am concerned,' Ms Palaszczuk said.

'If we see more unlinked community transmission on the Gold Coast in the next 24 to 48 hours, we may have to put in place some further restrictions,' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (pictured said on Thursday

The Gold Coast region is nearly at 80 per cent of first doses for eligible residents, she said.

Paul Erasmus, who claimed to have been a passenger in the Uber driver's car last weekend, told 9News Queensland the was not wearing a mask during their trip.

'He wasn't wearing a mask in the car the whole ride, as soon as I got in,' Mr Erasmus said.

'I noticed him coughing once.'

Mr Erasmus said he was notified by Queensland Health on Wednesday that he had been identified as a close contact due to the weekend fare.

He now has to self-quarantine for two weeks.

Uber said in a statement later on Thursday: 'We have processes in place to temporarily remove an individual's access to the Uber app if authorities report an infection.

'We may also limit other individuals' access to the app if health authorities advise there is a risk.

The Gold Coast region is nearly at 80 per cent of first doses for eligible residents (pictured, Surfers Paradise)

'To help protect the health and safety of everyone, we are advising anyone riding or driving with Uber in Queensland to wear a mask, unless exempt by law.'

Queensland Health later listed two new casual contact exposure sites at Robina on the Gold Coast - a coffee shop and a JB Hi-Fi - on Sunday.

The second case reported on Thursday was also infectious for two days in the town of Warwick and less than a day in Beaudesert, and is linked to a cluster in Moree, NSW.

The state recorded one additional case in hotel quarantine.
Footage has been released showing police bust an alleged 'dial-a-dealer' cocaine syndicate - with a young woman arrested at a service station one of three arrests that saw $127,500 worth of cocaine seized.

The 23-year-old woman was arrested by police at a service station at Bexley, in Sydney's south, just before 3pm on Thursday.

Police released photos showing the woman wearing a crop hoodie, black sweatpants and pair of Lacoste slides as she was placed in handcuffs by officers.

Her arrest comes after police seized $127,000 worth of cocaine and $98,000 in cash after arresting two more people including a driver who ran into a police car.

The 23-year-old woman was arrested by police at 7-Eleven at Bexley, in Sydney's south, just before 3pm on Thursday

The 26-year-old driver was waiting in his vehicle on Argyle Street at The Rocks at 7.30pm on Wednesday

Her arrest comes after police seized $127,000 worth of cocaine and $98,000 in cash after arresting two more people including a driver who ran into a police car

The 26-year-old driver was waiting in his vehicle on Argyle Street at The Rocks at 7.30pm on Wednesday.

Police approached the stationary vehicle to speak to the driver before he allegedly drove into a parked police car.

Police allege the driver attempted to swallow five resealable bags containing cocaine during his arrest.

They retrieved the bags before sending the man to St Vincents Hospital for treatment.

Officers later searched a unit and home at Bankstown and another home in Greenacre, in south-west Sydney.

They seized 430g of cocaine worth $127,500 and $98,000 in cash.

They then arrested a 24-year-old Greenacre man at a shopping centre carpark at Bankstown.

The 23-year-old woman was charged with supply prohibited drugs on an ongoing basis and participate criminal group contribute criminal activity.

The 26-year-old driver was charged with supply prohibited drug (commercial quantity), deal with property proceeds of crime, knowingly direct activities of criminal group and knowingly drive vehicle in manner menaces other.

Police approached the stationary vehicle to speak to the driver before he allegedly drove into a parked police ca

Officers later searched a unit and home at Bankstown and another home in Greenacre, in south-west Sydney before they seized 430g of cocaine worth $127,500

Police found $98,000 in cash following the raids in the two homes and unit in south-west Sydney on Wednesday

The pair were refused bail and will front Sutherland Local Court on Friday.

The 24-year-old man was charged with supply prohibited drug (commercial quantity), deal with property proceeds of crime and knowingly direct activities of a criminal group.

He fronted Bankstown Local Court on Thursday where he was refused bail and ordered to reappear on January 20.

Detective acting inspector Matthew Stratton warned police had seen a surge in the number of dial-a-dealers active in the community.

'With the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, we have once again seen a rise in the number of criminal groups using the 'Dial-a-Dealer' methodology to supply cocaine and other prohibited drugs across Sydney,' he said.

'With Christmas approaching, we want to ensure everyone across the state has a happy and safe holiday season, so the message remains the same  if you are dealing or using drugs, you will be charged and put before the courts.'
Jen Psaki will return to the White House briefing room on Friday, 13 days after revealing she had tested positive for COVID despite being vaccinated, the White House announced Thursday evening.

It will be her first press briefing since October 27. On President Joe Biden's daily schedule for Friday, Psaki is listed as giving the daily press briefing, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. EDT.

Her top deputy, Karine Jean-Pierre, had been filling in for her while she recovered from the illness.

When she announced her positive test for COVID-19, Psaki said she would return to the White House after a 10-day quarantine and a negative rapid test result.

Psaki, 42, had dropped out of Biden's trip to Europe for the G20 and COP26, citing a family emergency. She later revealed a positive COVID diagnosis.

Jen Psaki will return to the White House briefing room on Friday, 13 days after revealing she had tested positive for COVID despite being vaccinated - she is seen above at her last press briefing on October 27

Psaki's top deputy, Karine Jean-Pierre, had been filling in for her

On Sunday, October 31, as Biden was finishing up his his meetings with world leaders in Rome, Psaki announced she tested positive for COVID even after having two doses of the vaccine.

She was the most visible and senior member of the Biden administration to have publicly announced she had tested positive.

'While I have not had close contact in person with the president or senior members of the White House staff since Wednesday  and tested negative for four days after that last contact  I am disclosing todays positive test out of an abundance of transparency,' she said in a statement.

'I last saw the president on Tuesday, when we sat outside more than six-feet apart, and wore masks,' she said.

She worked from home while recovering from the illness and said her symptoms were mild.

'Thanks to the vaccine, I have only experienced mild symptoms which has enabled me to continue working from home,' she said.

'I will plan to return to work in person at the conclusion of the ten day quarantine following a negative rapid test, which is an additional White House requirement, beyond CDC guidance, taken out of an abundance of caution,' she noted at the time.

Biden tested negative for COVID on Sunday, the same day Psaki announced she was positive for the disease, as he prepared to depart Italy for the next leg of his five-day trip to Europe.

Jean-Pierre said the PCR test was a routine test taken as part of entry requirements for attendance at the COP26 climate conference in Scotland, which Biden was traveling to after the G20 meeting in Rome.

Jean-Pierre also said Psaki's positive test had not had an impact on the rest of the White House.

'Fortunately her symptoms are mild,' she said.

'We can we cannot wait to have our her back, to have all of us back together safely and are sending the very best to Jen and her family,' she added.

Psaki is seen here with Jean-Pierre and other members of the press team at the White House

Psaki issued on her COVID test result

Senior White House staff are vaccinated but regularly take COVID tests out of precaution and because of their proximity to the president.

Biden is also vaccinated and got his booster shot on Sept 27, shortly after federal regulators approved the third dose for the elderly and those at high risk.

A White House staffer traveling with Biden to Scotland for COP26 also tested positive for COVID and remained in that country to isolate. Travelers with Biden on his five-day trip to Rome and Scotland were tested daily.

Biden tested negative for the virus on Tuesday before his return to the States. A negative COVID test is required for re-entry into the U.S. after travel abroad.

Break through COVID cases are rare but can happen. The White House discloses cases of anyone who has close contact with the president, first lady, vice president or second gentleman.
The moment it became clear to me that South Africas grotesque and absurd system of racial apartheid was finally about to die remains vivid in my memory.

I was in President F.W. de Klerks office in Cape Town in early 1990. De Klerk was sitting directly opposite me at his desk, and the room was shrouded in the smoke of the foul-smelling South African cigarettes he chain-smoked for most of his adult life.

The Berlin Wall had come down a few months before. The Soviet Union was tottering. There was a sense then that change was in the air, in Africa, and all around the world.

I put it to De Klerk that there was a real danger that if he moved too fast to reform apartheid, the Afrikaners would entirely desert his National Party for the overtly racist Right-wing parties, which had performed strongly in recent whites-only elections.

He fixed me with a hard stare and took another puff on his cigarette.

With respect, you have it absolutely the wrong way round, he said in his heavily accented English. I have to move so fast that my people have no idea what I am up to.

The long road to freedom: Mandela celebrates becoming president in 1994 with F.W. de Klerk

Apartheids time was up and De Klerk was right, of course. Had he dithered, had he got bogged down at that pivotal period in the first weeks of 1990, he would have been crushed between Left and Right, between black and white.

Yesterday, De Klerk, the former president of South Africa who came to power under apartheid and was a key figure in its abolition, died aged 85. The manner in which he introduced reform, demolishing the reviled regime without civil war, saved his country and gained him plaudits worldwide. He released Nelson Mandela from jail, shared the Nobel Prize with him in 1993 and, a year later, saw him elected South Africas first black president.

De Klerks place in history rests on his clear-eyed understanding that apartheid could not be reformed, but had to be entirely swept away, and quickly. Crucially, this was a decision based on pragmatism  a political priority for him, rather than a moral imperative. Rarely in his public pronouncements did he ever betray any sense of the repugnance of apartheid.

Yesterday, however, following his death at home in Cape Town from cancer, came the exception when the F.W. de Klerk Foundation released an extraordinary video recording of him, in which he expressed contrition.

In faltering tones, De Klerk declared: I without qualification apologise for the pain and hurt and the indignity and the damage that apartheid has done to black, brown and Indians in SA.

The video was described by him as a last message, an attempt perhaps finally to settle his legacy which even yesterday was proving deeply divisive.

Statesman: With Mrs Thatcher in 1990

While Boris Johnson praised his steely courage and realism in doing what was manifestly right, human rights lawyers were calling him an apologist for apartheid.

Even before De Klerk took the highest office in 1989, he had decided he was to be South Africas last white president. He understood that white South Africa was cornered.

The South African economy, hobbled by sanctions, was in deep trouble. Confidence in white rule had collapsed so starkly that he realised Nelson Mandela, the worlds most celebrated political prisoner, might have to be released after 27 years behind bars.

To most white South Africans, this was a shocking prospect. For decades, government propaganda had placed Mandela at the apex of the global, Communist-led total onslaught against white rule in South Africa.

That this view had to change seems obvious to us now, but it certainly did not seem inevitable, or indeed sensible, to many white South Africans 32 years ago.

So in addition to creating conditions in which constitutional negotiations could begin, De Klerk had to operate in such a way that his white supporters did not know where he was taking them  which was black majority rule.

True to his word, on February 2, 1990, De Klerk stood up in the segregated white chamber of Parliament in Cape Town to deliver the most important speech in South African history.

Mandela was to be released within a week, and the African National Congress (ANC) and other black political groups instantly unbanned, and the death penalty suspended. National Party MPs gasped in shock; those further to the Right shouted oaths in Afrikaans at De Klerk, whom they had once regarded as one of them.

Previous South African leaders such as P.W. Botha had over-promised reform and then under-delivered. De Klerk did the opposite. His drastic actions had been kept so secret that the handful of Cabinet ministers informed of his plan had to swear not to tell their wives.

Judged against his own political record, the man born Frederik Willem de Klerk into a staunchly nationalist Johannesburg family  whose Huguenot forebears had left Europe in the 17th-century  was almost comically ill-suited to the role of dismantler of white rule in South Africa.

De Klerk (right) released Nelson Mandela (left) from jail, shared the Nobel Prize with him in 1993 and, a year later, saw him elected South Africas first black president

His ascent up the ranks of the National Party  he was a qualified attorney who was first elected as an MP in 1972  was fuelled by the perception he always gave of being on the verkrampte, or on the hardline wing of the party.

In Parliament and later in the Cabinet before assuming the presidency, he could not glance at an apartheid regulation without trying to tighten it. He spoke out reliably against any move to legalise racially mixed marriages, integrated sport or mixed residential areas.

He opposed black trade union rights, even the rights of black South Africans to have permanent residence outside their supposed tribal homelands, which many blacks had never actually visited.

When the foreign minister Pik Botha tentatively suggested in 1986 that South Africa might one day have a black president, it was F.W. de Klerk who demanded he publicly recant his monstrously defeatist prediction.

As late as 1987, he urged whites to report South Africans of colour to the authorities if they were suspected of living in white group areas, even though by then the police were increasingly turning a blind eye to it.

But if F.W. de Klerk was derided by blacks and white liberals for antediluvian racial views, he was comfortably outshone by his wife Marike, an unabashed white supremacist.

When asked to deliver a few soothing words during a tour of an old peoples home, Marike gratuitously shared her thoughts on South Africas mixed-race Coloured popula-tion, the descendants of early white settlers and indigenous Africans. (Coloured was a legally defined term under apartheid.)

They were, she averred, a negative group of non-persons, South Africas historic left-overs. Inevitably there was much amusement in 1991, when the De Klerks adopted son Willem declared he was in a serious relationship with a Coloured woman and intended to marry her.

That relationship foundered, partly, it was said, as a result of Marikes meddling which succeeded in snuffing out the couples love across the racial divide.

De Klerk ground his way through the negotiations with the ANC preparing for South Africas first fully democratic elections.

As president, he had Mandela smuggled in darkness from his prison cell for preliminary talks, and both men had decided they could do business with the other.

De Klerks place in history rests on his clear-eyed understanding that apartheid could not be reformed, but had to be entirely swept away, and quickly

Relations were often fraught between the pair of stubborn black and white nationalists, however, and there was a clear lack of human warmth.

Even after the two men won the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in ending apartheid, the partnership tended to remain frosty.

De Klerk was wounded when they went to Oslo to collect their award and his fellow laureate was cheered everywhere he went while he was booed in the street.

When Mandela became president in 1994, De Klerk stayed on to serve somewhat awkwardly as a deputy president. Nelson Mandela famously became friends with some of his prison guards, but he found it much harder to forgive F.W. de Klerk for the sins of apartheid, even though he had brought it down.

At home, De Klerks long marriage to Marike collapsed after he fell in love with a family friend, Elita Georgiadis. To save the marriage the new lovers did not see one another for two years, but he could not give her up. For once in my life my heart took control, he recalled in his autobiography.

Towards the end of his life, De Klerk let it be known to friends that he was deeply depressed about South Africa, and particularly the President Jacob Zuma, under whose misrule cronies were enriched and the public finances looted

Marikes life was to end tragically. She sank into depression following the collapse of their marriage and she was brutally murdered in her Cape Town apartment by a young security guard. Some saw her death as emblematic of the profound state of lawlessness South Africa had sunk to under black majority rule.

Towards the end of his life, De Klerk let it be known to friends that he was deeply depressed about South Africa, and particularly the President Jacob Zuma, under whose misrule cronies were enriched and the public finances looted.

De Klerk was an old-fashioned, paternalistic man, who seemed to see South Africans as members of tribes  which, of course, is how apartheid viewed them.

And yet it was his courage and determination that ensured the demise of that repellent form of government and changed the course of South African history.
A Minnesota principal who allowed a boy accused of sexually assaulting two classmates to remain in school vowed to punish students if they staged a walkout - and then called cops on a concerned mom who questioned why the boy was allowed to prowl the same hallways as the alleged victims.

Parents in Zimmerman, a town about 40 miles north of Minneapolis, were left fuming at not only Principal Marco Voce but at the school board after it refused to address the allegations during a meeting on Monday.

A judge overseeing the boy's court proceedings allowed him to continue attending the school, parents said.

Meantime, students at Zimmerman Middle/High School staged a walkout last Friday to express their dismay and were warned by Voce that they could be suspended for participating and breaking district rules.

Cassie Bonine, whose daughter is a student at the high school, attended Monday nights Independent School District 728's board meeting with hopes of asking questions, but learned none would be answered.

We were all denied, she told DailyMail.com on Thursday. None of us were allowed to speak at the meeting.

Bonine said she later encountered Voce on her way to the restroom.

Zimmerman Middle/High School Principal Marco Voce warned students not to stage a walkout over decision to let a boy accused of sexually assaulting two students to remain in school. He then called cops on a parent who questioned his decision, informing her that she is no longer allowed on school grounds

Zimmerman Middle-High School students staged a walkout last Friday to protest an alleged sexual assaulter attending classes at the school, which two of his accusers also attend

She asked Voce why he hadnt responded to an email she sent five days earlier regarding the sexual assault.

He claimed he hadnt received it, she said, adding that she rushed to the bathroom after becoming tearful.

She emerged from the bathroom and showed him the email on her phone.

I then asked him if he had children. He said he had two daughters, she said. And I asked him what if it were your daughters? How would you feel in this situation?

Days later, there was a knock at Bonines front door.

It was sheriffs visiting to hand her a trespassing notification, forbidding her from going onto the school property for the next year.

It says: The trespass notice is given due to your verbal altercation with principal Marco Voce, which you instigated, was witnessed by others and was acknowledged on social media and was considered to be aggressive, intimidating and inappropriate.

Bonine received a trespassing notice after attending a school board meeting and approaching the school principal with concerns about how the allegations were being handled

Bonine admitting to raising her voice but refuted being aggressive or threatening.

And now I am no longer allowed to step foot on the school grounds that my daughter attends, she said.

I can't drop her off. I can't pick her up. I can't attend her volleyball games. I can't go to her conferences. If she's sick, I can't go there. If she's injured, I can't go there.

She said she is now working to transfer her daughter to a different district.

Zimmerman students are pictured calling for more rights for sexual assault survivors

Ahead of last Friday's walkout in protest of the alleged sex assaults, the principal warned students that they could face consequences for participating.

ISD 728 does not condone, support, or sponsor student walkouts, Voce said in a letter to parents.

 students who participate in a walkout that violates any ISD 728 policy, which includes any type of bullying, harassment, discrimination etc., may receive significant discipline which could include out of school suspension.

The warning didnt stop students from walking out of class last Friday holding signs with messages such as: ISD 728 how would you like to be in class with your rapist?

Details of the alleged assaults are unclear.

The school sent out an email ahead of the rally, warning students that they could be suspended for participating

The Sherburne County Sheriffs Office did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Voce.

None of the ISD 728 board members responded to a DailyMail.com inquiry.

Other parents who attended the board meeting Monday were also upset that they were not given the opportunity to express their concerns.

I just think thats horrible, parent Beth McClelland said on TikTok.

Friday's protest was followed on Monday by a school board meeting, which parents attended with hopes of asking questions about the alleged assaults

They said they were not allowed to ask questions during the meeting

Im not sure if Im being out of line, but I just feel like if you were a parent of a child who sexually assaulted another person, why would you even want them at that school?

Their reputation is going to be probably pretty terrible and as a parent, youd want to respect the victim. The victim shouldnt have to change her life.

School districts throughout the nation have been under fire in recent months for alleged sexual assault coverups and secrecy.

Organizers circulated this rally ahead of last Friday's scheduled walkout

A 15-year-old North Carolina girl was suspended from high school - and ordered to take a class called sexual harassment is preventable - after she reported being sexually assaulted by a male classmate, according to a report.

The Charlotte teen, whose identity was protected due to the nature of the case, told a local media station that she was harassed nearly every day by a fellow Hawthorne Academy High School student.

She reported his behavior after it escalated.

The girl's mom said she fears the district's response to the case will make other sexual assault victims afraid to come forward

She's a student at Hawthorne Academy High School in Charlotte, North Carolina

He would, like, come into the bathroom and he would push me into the stall, the girl told WBTV. He put his hands in my pants and then he was like touching my breasts.

She said she initially reported the assault to the school, which handed the file over to police, who confirmed to WBTV that a minor was charged with sexual battery as a result of her complaint.

The formal charge didnt stop school administrators from accusing the victim of filing a false report and issuing a one-day suspension last month, the girls mother said.

The school did their investigation, gave me a phone call, and said, Hey, look, unfortunately, it looks like theres no evidence that shows that what your daughter saying took place, the mother said.

[They told me] Were going to have to give her a day of suspension, so then I asked the principal, Well if the police are telling me that he did do these things, he admitted to them, and that I have the right to press charges, youre telling me this didnt happen? And she said, Well, unfortunately, what the law does has nothing to do to do with CMS, so, unfortunately, we have nothing else that we can do about this.

In October, the furious parents of a 15-year-old high schooler said they were suing Loudon County in Virginia after their daughter was allegedly raped by a 'skirt-wearing male student' in a 'gender fluid' school bathroom.

Jess and Scott Smith allege that the district attempted to cover up the alleged assault. They claim that Superintendent Scott Ziegler alleged there was no record of the May 28 incident at Stonebridge High School in Leesburg, Virginia, despite Loudoun County Sheriff's office conducting a two-month long investigation into the allegations.

Scoot (left) and Jess Smith (right) are suing Loudon County under the provisions of Title X after their 15-year-old daughter was allegedly raped by a 'skirt-wearing male student' in a 'gender fluid' restroom at Stone Bridge High School in Leesburg, Virginia on May 28

The Smiths also allege an attempted cover-up, saying that Superintendent Scott Ziegler claimed 'we don't have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms' even though the sheriff's Office was investigating the allegations (Pictured: Stone Bridge High School)

The alleged attacker, who has not been named, but is also 15 years-old, is further accused of carrying out another attack at Broad Run High School in Loudoun County on October 6, and was in custody.

The Smiths are suing under the provisions of Title IX of the United States' federal civil rights law  which prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational institutions.

'The sexual assault our daughter endured should never happen to any young girl, or any child, attending a public school,' the Smiths said in a press release about the suit that was obtained by Fox News.

Their lawyer, Brian Stanley, said his firm intends to 'protect the interests of their daughter at every turn' and 'will pursue federal Title IX actions against the local government and all officials who are responsible for allowing this harm' to come to the girl.
A man has been charged with attempted murder in Brisbane after allegedly assaulting and suffocating a woman before slashing her throat with a knife.

About 10.15am on Thursday, the 38-year-old woman visited a unit in Woodridge to collect property when the 35-year-old man, known to her, allegedly assaulted her.

The man contacted police an hour later and was arrested, before being transported to Logan Hospital where he remains under police guard.

A man has been charged with attempted murder in Brisbane after allegedly assaulting and suffocating a woman before slashing her throat with a knife

He was charged with attempted murder and will face Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Friday.

The woman remains in a stable condition at the Princess Alexandra Hospital after suffering significant head and facial injuries.
Almost all Uber drivers accused of sexual misconduct in NSW were allowed to carry on driving for the rideshare app, a government audit has found.

The confidential report by the NSW Point to Point Transport Commission found 94 per cent of drivers kept picking up passengers after a sex pest complaint.

Some were even allowed to stay on the app despite repeated complaints 'without appropriate action or investigation', says the audit.

'The systems and processes look at incidents of each category in isolation but not overall,' the audit found.

'As a result, the drivers with multiple incidents remain undetected and active in the platform.'

Almost all Uber drivers accused of sexual misconduct in New South Wales were allowed to carry on driving for the rideshare app, a government audit has found. (Pictured, a stock image of a woman using her iPhone)

As well as sexual misconduct, The Australian revealed drivers were also accused of being dangerously distracted by their phone while driving and driving while drowsy.

Investigators also found Uber failed to report some incidents that they were required to by law, including violent clashes between passengers and drivers.

And the report slammed the app's poor driver training, with more than a quarter of Uber drivers surveyed getting less than 20 minutes of tuition and one in 10 got going after just 10 minutes.

Uber were fined $200,000 for the breaches and given notes on 13 areas where they needed to improve - but the audit has not been made public.

It also found some incidents had been trivialised, including one which was written off as a verbal altercation, after a driver claimed a passenger punched the back of his head, while the passenger accused the driver of spitting and swearing at him.

A confidential report by the NSW Point to Point Transport Commission found 94 per cent of drivers kept picking up passengers after a sex pest complaint. (Pictured, a stock image of an Uber vehicle)

Similar incidents should be reported to the regulator but the audit found Uber had ignored hundreds of flare-ups.

Uber later admitted they had found 735 incidents that should have been reported.

Investigators also found almost four out of ten drivers worked for more than 12 hours, with some working up to 17 hours, raising serious driver fatigue fears.

An Uber spokesman told Daily Mail Australia that they 'welcomed any opportunity to improve safety'.

'Sexual harassment pervades every industry and every community globally  and rideshare and other transport modes are no exception.

Some drivers were even allowed to stay on the Uber app (pictured) despite repeated complaints 'without appropriate action or investigation', says the audit

'That is why we encourage reporting from both driver-partners and riders to help keep the entire Uber community safe.

'While many of the most common unwanted sexual experiences may not fall into the most severe category of sexual assault, they may nevertheless leave the rider feeling uncomfortable.

'We encourage reporting, including sexual misconduct which includes incidents of asking personal questions, staring or leering, and inappropriate comments or gestures.'

Uber added: 'On-Trip Reporting enables riders to discreetly report non-emergency situations where they may feel uncomfortable and Ubers safety team follows up after the trip.

'Repeated reports of such misconduct may result in permanent loss of access to the Uber app.

'When we receive more serious reports of sexual misconduct or of sexual assault access to the app is suspended while our specialist team looks into the report, and permanent loss of access generally follows.

'We also assist in police investigations and routinely support law enforcement to help keep bad actors out of the rideshare industry.'

NSW Point to Point Transport Commissioner Anthony Wing (pictured) said Uber had responded to all the 'directions in connection with the safety audit that have been due to date'.

NSW Point to Point Transport Commissioner Anthony Wing told The Australian that Uber had responded to all the 'directions in connection with the safety audit that have been due to date.'

The commission defended keeping the audit secret, saying the reports were not made public to protect commercially sensitive information.

A spokesman told Daily Mail Australia: 'Safety is the Commissioners priority.

'All service providers must make sure their systems and process are being consistently and effectively applied.

'Audits are conducted regularly to ensure all service providers systems and process are working as they should.

'Ubers incident management system was generally not effective enough and required improvement.'
Boris Johnson and his senior team thrashed out their differences in a five-hour meeting last night after the Chancellor said the government 'needs to do better'.

In his first intervention on the crisis, Rishi Sunak hinted at Cabinet divisions over the Prime Ministers disastrous attempt to block the suspension of former minister Owen Paterson for breaking lobbying rules.

During a round of media interviews yesterday, Mr Sunak said: Reflecting over recent events  I think for us as a Government, its fair to say that we need to do better than we did last week, and we know that.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet meeting was ostensibly focusing on the Levelling Up agenda with ministers due to lay out how their department is contributing to the drive.

Originally the team had planned an away-day at Chequers, but plans for this were dropped and they met at Downing Street instead.

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey arrived armed with an A3 map seemingly to help get her message across.

However, the political discussion is believed to have also addressed how to quell the rising tide of criticism about second jobs, conflicting interests and cronyism among MPs.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Housing Secretary Michael Gove and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke were among those seen departing Downing Street after gathering for crunch talks late into the night.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak hinted at Cabinet divisions over the Prime Ministers disastrous attempt to block the suspension of former minister Owen Paterson for breaking lobbying rules

Boris Johnson (pictured on Armistice Day) and his senior team thrashed out their differences in a five-hour meeting last night after the Chancellor said the government 'needs to do better'

Allies of the Chancellor say he was dismayed by the decision last week to order Tory MPs to vote to tear up Parliaments anti-sleaze laws in order to save Mr Paterson.

The Prime Minister won the vote after imposing a three-line whip. Mr Sunak was absent for the vote because he was at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow at the time.

But the plan was abandoned the following day in the face of a huge public outcry, prompting Mr Paterson to resign as an MP.

The episode has triggered a wave of sleaze allegations against the Conservatives and seen the outside interests of all MPs come under fresh scrutiny.

It has also resulted in a Tory slump in the polls, with Labour taking the lead for the first time in a year in several surveys.

Mr Sunak did not comment directly on the cases of either Mr Paterson or Sir Geoffrey Cox, the former attorney general who has racked up more than 5.5million in outside earnings.

Housing Secretary Michael Gove seen leaving Downing Street after a five-hour Cabinet meeting, which was ostensibly focusing on the Levelling Up agenda

Health Secretary Sajid Javid smiles as he exits Downing Street after the mammoth five-hour talks

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace seen leaving 10 Downing Street last night. Originally the team had planned an away-day at Chequers, but plans for this were dropped and they met at Downing Street instead

He said: People will have different motivations for doing what they do, the pay is set by an independent body, thats absolutely right.

And with regard to second jobs, theres an independent process that we have thats set by Parliament that governs all of those things. And its absolutely right that that process is followed to the letter.

Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay expressed regret this week for the mistake made in attempting to force through a change in the rules on the back of Mr Patersons case.

As condemnation grew, the PM moved to remind MPs that they should devote yourself primarily and above all to your constituents. But he proposed no new measures to restore public confidence. And he has so far refused to offer any apology for opening up a damaging line of attack for Labour.

An ally of Mr Sunak said he viewed last weeks events as a mistake and believed that point needs to be made by someone in the Cabinet.

Environment Secretary George Eustice seen leaving Downing Street. The political discussion is believed to have also addressed to how to quell the rising tide of criticism about second jobs, conflicting interests and cronyism among MPs.

Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg leaving Downing Street last night after five-hour talks

No 10 sources played down suggestions of Cabinet divisions, saying: The PM has said that it is vital MPs focus on their constituents and obey the rules. He thinks those who break the rules should be punished. We are all agreed on this.

But another Cabinet source said the PM had f***ed up and that the attempt to block the suspension of Mr Paterson looked totally crooked. Business minister Paul Scully hinted at anger over the damage caused by the sleaze row yesterday.

Questioned about the conduct of Sir Geoffrey, he told Sky News: Im not going to defend Geoffrey. Im not going to say anything.

Backbench Tories also voiced anger at the events of the last week, which have left many of them facing a backlash from constituents.

One former minister told the Daily Mail: The last week has been a hideous nightmare  it is dirtying us all. When we made him PM we knew there would be periods of chaos but that was a price worth paying to defeat Corbyn and get Brexit done.

Those two tasks are completed now and his situation is more perilous than people think.
British tourists aged 65 and over could be banned from hotels and restaurants in France if they havent had a booster jab, it has emerged.

The new rules were outlined in updated travel advice on the Foreign Office website yesterday.

It said: The French government has announced that from December 15, those who are 65 and over and who have been fully vaccinated for more than six months and five weeks will need to demonstrate that they have received an approved Covid-19 booster injection in order to access the pass sanitaire (Covid health pass) in France.

British tourists aged 65 and over could be banned from hotels and restaurants in France if they havent had a booster jab, it has emerged. Pictured: Les Deux Magots in Paris

We will update this page with further information when it becomes available.

The Pass Sanitaire is needed to enter most indoor venues and tourist attractions in France.

President Emmanuel Macron announced earlier this week that booster jabs would become an obligatory part of the passport for older people.

British tourists face falling foul of the rules as the NHS Covid Pass does not currently allow Britons to show they have had a third jab.

France follows Israel, Austria and Croatia in setting expiry dates for vaccines.

Around 11.4million have now had a booster in the UK.
Advertisement

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spent Veterans Day on an army base in New Jersey, enjoying lunch with service members and sharing stories of the mental health challenges of being in the armed forces.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex - who on Wednesday night dazzled at a gala honoring the military in Manhattan, on the Intrepid aircraft carrier - on Thursday traveled from New York to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey.

The site is the Department of Defense's only tri-service base and is home to over 46,000 members of the armed forces and their families.

The duke and duchess hosted a luncheon with service members from all six branches of the military, and were pictured laughing over lunch and listening intently to a discussion.

Harry - who spent a decade in the British army until retiring in 2015, and completed two tours of Afghanistan - discussed the isolation service members often feel when returning home, and stressed the importance of supporting veterans.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are seen on Thursday visiting Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey to mark Veterans Day

Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40, are seen listening intently as military personnel discuss their experiences

The couple ate lunch with the service members, with Harry beaming as he shared his stories of a decade in the British army

The group discussed their families, community, and the value of service, according to a spokesman for the couple

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex look around the Intrepid Museum at the Salute to Freedom Gala on Wednesday night

A photograph supplied via Archewell showing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Intrepid Museum on Wednesday night

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the 2021 Salute To Freedom Gala at the Intrepid Museum in New York City last night

The couple wear red poppies on their outfits as a symbol of remembrance at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum last night

'My experience in the military made me who I am today, and I will always be grateful for the people I got to serve with  wherever in the world we were,' he said.

'But in war, you also see and experience things you hope no one else has to.

'These stay with us, sometimes like a slideshow of images.'

A spokesman for their charitable foundation, Archewell, said: 'Throughout their visit, they discuss mental health, the value of community and living a life of service.'

The spokesman said the couple have 'committed themselves to remembering, reflecting and honoring service members, veterans, and military families from around the world'.

Last year, the couple marked Veterans' Day with a solo trip to the Los Angeles National Cemetery, laying flowers on the military graves.

2020 -- To mark Remembrance Sunday in 2020, Harry and Meghan visited the Los Angeles National Cemetery

2019 -- Prince Harry with his brother Prince William and uncle Prince Andrew at a Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph in London on November 10, 2019

2018 -- Harry and his brother on November 11 in 2018 at the annual Remembrance Sunday commemoration in London

The year before, while he was still a serving member of the royal family, he attended a ceremony at the Cenotaph in London, as per tradition. On Sunday his grandmother the Queen, 95, will preside over the ceremony, despite being unwell for several weeks and urged by her doctors to rest.

Harry and Meghan left the United Kingdom in January 2020 and now call California home, having resigned from their roles.

As a result of their resignation, he is now banned from wearing military uniform after he was stripped of his honorary military titles. He was, however, allowed to pin his medals on his black tie suit at Wednesday night's event.

Despite his decade of army service, the duke lost his titles of Captain General Royal Marines; Honorary Air Commandant, RAF Honington; and Commodore-in-Chief, Small Ships and Diving, Royal Naval Command.

Harry received the Golden Jubilee medal in 2002, the Operational Service medal for Afghanistan in 2018 after his frontline service in Helmand province and the received the Diamond Jubilee medal in 2012.

2008 -- Prince Harry is pictured in January 2008 in Helmand province in Afghanistan while serving with the British Army

2008 -- Prince Harry eats his boil-in-the-bag lunch in the desert during his military deployment in Helmand Province in 2008

2012 -- Known as Captain Wales, Prince Harry is pictured in November 2012 serving in southern Afghanistan

The couple's trip to the East Coast - their second in two months, after a September visit to the UN and 9/11 memorial - came after Meghan apologized to the Court of Appeal in London on Wednesday for failing to remember she told a royal aide to brief the authors of the Finding Freedom biography.

The duchess, who previously insisted she and Harry did not co-operate with the two writers of the gushing book, said she had 'forgotten' providing the aide details of what to reveal 'when you sit down with them'.

The Mail on Sunday is seeking to defend itself against Meghan's claims that it unlawfully breached her privacy by publishing extracts of a letter to her father Thomas Markle.
The House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection in the Capitol told former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows that he must appear for his deposition at 10 a.m. on Friday or he will be considered in contempt of Congress.

Panel chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, wrote to Meadows' attorney on Thursday night to say there is 'no valid legal basis' for Meadow's noncompliance with panel's subpoena.

'Simply put, there is no valid legal basis for Mr. Meadows's continued resistance to the Select Committee's subpoena. As such, the Select Committee expects Mr. Meadows to produce all responsive documents and appear for deposition testimony tomorrow, November 12, 2021, at 10:00 a.m,' Thompson wrote to Meadows' lawyer George Terwilliger.

His threat comes shortly after the White House counsel's office told Meadows he had no claims of priviledge to avoiding appearing before the committee.

Thompson warned that Meadows could face criminal charges if he doesn't appear.

'The Select Committee will view Mr. Meadows's failure to appear at the deposition, and to produce responsive documents ... as willful non-compliance. Such willful noncompliance with the subpoena would force the Select Committee to consider invoking the contempt of Congress procedures,' Thompson noted, 'which could result in a referral from the House of Representatives to the Department of Justice for criminal charges.'

The House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection in the Capitol told former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows that he must appear for his deposition at 10 am on Friday or he will be considered in contempt of Congress.

The panel had said it was subpoening Meadows because he was within the 'vicinity' of Donald Trump on Jan. 6, and had communications with Trump and others 'regarding the events at the Capitol' and 'are a witness concerning events that day'

The White House on Thursday notified Meadows' lawyer that President Joe Biden would waive any executive privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee's investigation.

White House deputy counsel Jonathan Su wrote to George Terwilliger to tell him of the finding.

'The President believes that the constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information reflecting an effort to subvert the Constitution itself, and indeed believes that such an assertion in this circumstance would be at odds with the principles that underlie the privilege,' Su wrote.

Biden 'has determined that he will not assert executive privilege with respect to your client's deposition testimony on these subjects, or any documents your client may possess that bear on them,' Su noted. 'For the same reasons, underlying his decisions on executive privilege, President Biden has determined that he will not assert immunity to preclude your client from testifying before the Select Committee.'

Thompson noted that finding in his letter to Terwilliger, writing the ruling from Biden's White House counsel on the matter 'eviscerates any plausible claim of testimonial immunity or executive privilege, and compels compliance with the Select Committee's subpoena.'

But Terwilliger suggested in a statement earlier Thursday - after receiving Su's letter but before Thompson's letter - that Meadows would not comply with the committee's demands until the legal disputes were resolved.

'Contrary to decades of consistent bipartisan opinions from the Justice Department that senior aides cannot be compelled by Congress to give testimony, this is the first president to make not effort whatsoever to protect presidential communications from being the subject of compelled testimony,' he wrote.

'Mr. Meadows remains under the instruction of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege. It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict,' he noted.

Trump has ordered his former aides not to cooperate with the House committee's probe.

The committee has subpoenaed Meadows and more than two dozen other people as part of its investigation.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6th Attack on the Capitol ssued its first subpoenas on September 21  targeting Meadows, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, longtime Trump and White House aide Dan Scavino, and former Pentagon chief of staff Kash Patel.

Meadows featured prominently in Trump's efforts to pressure state official in Georgia and other states where Trump pushed claims of election fraud as part of his election overturn effort.

'While serving as White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows reportedly communicated with officials at the state level and in the Department of Justice as part of an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election or prevent the election's certification,' according to the committee release on the subpoena.

The Meadows letter says it appears he was within the 'vicinity' of Trump on Jan. 6, and had communications with Trump and others 'regarding the events at the Capitol' and 'are a witness concerning events that day.'

Mark Meadows, a former congressman, served as Trump's chief of staff in the final days of the administration - above the two men are seen together in November 2019

Former Trupm aide Steve Bannon (pictured) defied his subpoena and was held in contempt of Congress - the Justice Department is deciding whether to pursue charges

It also cites documents already obtained from the Justice Department, and states that 'while you were the President's Chief of Staff, you directly communicated with the highest officials at the Department of Justice requesting investigations into election fraud matters in several states.'

Bannon also refused to comply with his subpeona and was held in contempt of Congress.

The House voted 229 to 202, mostly along party lines, on October 27 to find Bannon in contempt, which sent the matter to the Justice Department. DoJ will decide whether or not to prosecute Bannon.

Thompson has also threatened contempt against Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who helped orchestrate Trumps effort to subvert the 2020 election results.

Thompson's letter to Meadows on Thursday comes hours after a blow to the committee's investigation of what happened the day thousands of Trump supporters swarmed the Capitol to try and stop the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory.

A federal appeals court blocked the imminent release of Trump's records - including his White House calls and activities related to the Jan. 6 attack - after a lower court found that Biden can waive his predecessor's claim to executive privilege.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted a temporary injunction while it considers Trump's request to hold off any release pending appeal.

The case was fast-tracked for a hearing Nov. 30.
Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg faces bizarre allegations

A school board president in Arizona has been accused of maintaining a secret online dossier containing personal details about parents who opposed mask mandates and Critical Race Theory.

Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg's access to the Google Drive file was revealed after he accidentally displayed the link in a screenshot he sent to a parent in a heated email chain.

The drive contained files labeled 'SUSD Wackos' and 'Anti Mask Lunatics' among others in a sprawling database tracking the online activities of parents in the district.

The drive was set to public, allowing anyone with a link to view it, and the contents, including the Social Security numbers, financial information and divorce records of parents, quickly set off a firestorm of calls for Greenburg to resign, according to AZ Free News.

The district blames Greenburg's father Mark, who shares a home and computer with his son, for creating the bizarre dossier, and the school board president has denied involvement, vowing an investigation by 'forensic IT staff'.

The link to the Google Drive was accidentally made public when Greenburg shared this screenshot with a parent, who discovered that the drive was public

A spokeswoman for SUSD did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com on Thursday night.

The unusual affair is just one example of the increasing tensions between parents and school leadership across the country, with passions running high over a range of issues from curriculum and reopening to mask and vaccine mandates.

The existence of the Scottsdale dossier first came to light in August, when Jann-Michael Greenburg apparently sent a screenshot of a Facebook conversation to area resident Kim Stafford, accusing her of anti-Jewish sentiment.

Stafford dismissed the accusation in a reply, saying that Greenburg had read the conversation out of order and misinterpreted her post accusing someone else of anti-Islamic sentiment.

However, the mom noticed that at the top of the screenshot, a Google Drive address was visible, and when she entered the address into her browser, found that the cloud drive was publicly accessible.

The drive has since been set to private, but a copy of its contents has been reviewed by DailyMail.com.

The sprawling drive contains folders with names including 'SUSD Wackos,' 'Press Conference Psychos' and 'Anti Mask Lunatics.'

Amy Carney, who is calling for Greenburg's resignation, speaks on behalf of parents during a protest last May against critical race theory being taught at Scottsdale schools

The drive contains a disorganized collection of hundreds of screenshots of Facebook posts, memes mocking parents, and an investigative background report on certain parents

It contains a disorganized collection of hundreds of screenshots of Facebook posts and conversations in Facebook groups dedicated to the Scottsdale school system, with the apparent theme of tracking the political sentiments of various parents.

Some of the files include memes mocking certain parents, PTA leaders and local elected officials.

Disturbingly, the drive also contains a background report that appears to have been generated by a private investigator, which includes personal details such as financial and criminal records of parents.

Among the files are bodycam videos that appear to have been filmed by Mark Greenburg, the school board president's father, as he rides his motorcycle.

In one video, Mark Greenburg is heard confiding with friendly parents in the parking lot of a school, apparently before a school board meeting.

'Somewhere around here, we have a private investigator, who's writing down all their plates,' he can be heard saying.

'That you've hired?' asks one of the allied moms.

'Yeah, I did. Yeah. I had our law firm do it so that it's protected. So that we can get the information,' Mark Greenburg is heard saying.

Mark Greenburg was listed as the owner of the original Google Drive, which was also linked to Jann-Michael Greenburg, according to Independent Newsmedia.

In a phone interview with the outlet, Jann-Michael Greenburg furiously denied that he was behind the sprawling dossier.

'I categorically deny having anything to do with any of this. If you are going to claim in a story right now, that I had anything to do with this, I would argue that crosses the line,' Jann-Michael said, while his father was also on the call.

'We are going to have forensic IT staff look into this and figure out what that is. You can file with law enforcement, I am not sure even why we are looking at these photos.'

Asked if his father had access to the Google Drive, he replied: 'I am not my father's keeper.'

'I think that has been made clear previously,' he added, apparently referring to his father's creation of a parody website targeting a former SUSD board member.

'I have been sent screenshots on what is done on [a parent's Facebook group]. I have been sent videos, and, yes, from parents, including my own father,' he said. 'Yes, people send me emails and text messages, but I don't store them and I don't know who stores them if that is what you are asking.'

Jann-Michael Greenburg has filed to run for reelection in November 2022, but is already facing angry calls for his immediate resignation.

'I am calling for the immediate resignation of our board president Jann-Michael Greenburg,' Amy Carney, who is running for a seat on the Scottsdale Governing Board next year, told AZ Free News.

'We cannot allow anyone in a leadership position to secretly compile personal documents and information on moms and dads who have dared speak out publicly or on social media about their grievances with the district,' said the mother of six.
The fate of a landmark global agreement on climate change was hanging in the balance last night as major coal-producing countries demanded that it be watered down.

Saudi Arabia, Russia and India insisted that references to phasing out coal and fossil fuel subsidies should be removed from the final deal which delegates were hoping to unveil in Glasgow today.

It had been hoped that including such an unprecedented commitment would send a powerful message to fossil fuel producing countries to find alternative sources of energy.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned delegates that hopes of limiting global warming to 1.5C  the key aim of the climate talks in Glasgow  were on life support, but added until the last moment, hope should be maintained

But last night, it appeared the commitment would be deleted from the final text of the deal following opposition from the three countries.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned delegates that hopes of limiting global warming to 1.5C  the key aim of the climate talks in Glasgow  were on life support, but added until the last moment, hope should be maintained.

Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief who oversaw the 2015 Paris summit, said world leaders will have to return to the negotiating table next year with improved plans to cut greenhouse gases because the proposed targets agreed at the Cop26 summit were too weak.

Saudi Arabia, Russia and India insisted that references to phasing out coal and fossil fuel subsidies should be removed from the final deal which delegates were hoping to unveil in Glasgow today

Cop26 had been due to finish today but last night delegates warned that deep rifts among the negotiating parties meant the talks were likely to over-run. Sources said that security guards had been booked to work on Sunday.

Cop26 president Alok Sharma tried to play down claims that the Glasgow talks would flop, saying delegates had no choice but to strain every sinew to make the summit a success.

It came as the United States and China were praised yesterday for putting aside their differences to co-operate on fighting climate change.

Boris Johnson tweeted: I welcome the strong show of commitment from China and the US last night to step up climate action this decade and keep 1.5C in reach.
Jailed Oscar Pistorius has sent an 'emotionally distressing' letter to the parents of his murdered girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a move which their lawyer described as 'like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound'.

Pistorius, 34, has been eligible for parole since July after he was convicted of murder for shooting model Ms Steenkamp multiple times through a toilet door at his home in Pretoria, South Africa, on Valentine's Day 2013.

The Paralympic gold medalist sent her parents June and Barry Steenkamp a letter as part of South Africa's 'restorative justice' parole process whereby prisoners must take responsibility for their actions.

Their lawyer, Tania Koen, told the Mirror: 'I cannot divulge the contents of that letter.

'It was quite emotionally distressing for them. They did not know it was coming and it was sent to me by his attorney.'

Oscar Pistorius has sent an 'emotionally distressing' letter to the parents of his murdered girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a move which their lawyer described as 'like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound'

Pistorius, 34, has been eligible for parole since July after he was convicted of murder for shooting model Reeva Steenkamp (pictured) multiple times through a toilet door in his home Pretoria, South Africa, on Valentine's Day 2013

The Paralympic gold medalist sent her parents June and Barry Steenkamp an 'emotionally distressing' letter as part of South Africa's 'restorative justice' parole process whereby prisoners must take responsibility for their actions

The attorney also said that the parents were upset to learn that Pistorius has been eligible for parole since July when they had been told he would not be released from prison until March 2023.

A parole hearing had been scheduled for last month but it was cancelled, partly because a meeting between Pistorius and Steenkamp's parents had not been arranged. The date for a new hearing has not yet been set.

Pistorius, who has served half of his 13-year sentence after being convicted of murder in 2015, must also meet June and Barry before he is considered for release.

The Steenkamps want a face-to-face meeting with Pistorius, as is their right under South Africa's victim-offender dialogue policy.

They have previously said they want to challenge Pistorius on why he shot their daughter and they would get to do that, with victim-offender meetings aimed at achieving some kind of closure for families of victims of crimes.

Ms Koen told the Mirror: 'Yes, they want to do that face to face.

'Barry has said for years he wants to meet Oscar and he has questions to ask. They are not emotionally prepared, but are prepared to meet Oscar.

'They accept the day will come when Oscar will be eligible for parole and they would give their input.'

Ms Koen said earlier this week: 'They (Barry and June) feel that Reeva has got a voice. They are Reeva's voice, and they owe it to their beloved daughter.'

Parents of the late Reeva Steenkamp, June, left, and Barry right, Steenkamp, right attend court in 2014 during the murder trial

But she said Barry and June were left upset by the way the parole board has handled Pistorius's parole.

Ms Koen said: 'What was also very upsetting was the disregard for their emotional wellbeing.

'They had to find out the parole board had already convened a date for parole and never advised them about it.

'The proper procedure was not followed.'

The Steenkamps will be allowed to make recommendations to the parole board, although Koen wouldn't say if they will oppose Pistorius' release.

'We have discussed it,' Koen said, but declined to give details.

The opinion of victims' families is considered by a parole board when deciding whether to release an offender, but it's not the only criteria.

Pistorius could be taken from where he is incarcerated at the Atteridgeville Correctional Center in the capital, Pretoria, to the Steenkamps' home city of Gqerberha for the victim-offender meeting because, according to Ms Koen, Barry Steenkamp is unable to travel due to his health.

Pistorius lawyer Julian Knight said it might 'turn out' that way but the corrections department would decide. Mr Knight said he was hopeful that the meeting between Pistorius and the Steenkamps, which must happen before a parole hearing, could take place by the end of the year.

It was a 'huge surprise' for the Steenkamps when corrections services officials contacted them last month to say that Pistorius is eligible for parole, Ms Koen said. They believed he would only be eligible in 2023, she said.

'(It) opens a lot of wounds, or rips off the plasters they had put on those wounds,' Ms Koen said.

The confusion over when he would be eligible emanated from Pistorius' long and protracted murder trial and two subsequent appeals by prosecutors. Pistorius went on trial in 2014 and his case was only finalised in 2018.

The multiple Paralympic champion was initially found guilty of culpable homicide - an offense comparable to manslaughter - for shooting Steenkamp with his licensed 9 mm pistol.

He claimed at his trial it was a tragic accident and he mistook her for a dangerous intruder.

Prosecutors appealed the manslaughter finding and secured a murder conviction.

Pistorius (pictured at the London Olympic Games) was sentenced to six years in jail for murder, but prosecutors again appealed what they called a shockingly light punishment for murder. The Supreme Court of Appeal then more than doubled his sentence in 2017

Pistorius was sentenced to six years in jail for murder, but prosecutors again appealed what they called a shockingly light punishment for murder. The Supreme Court of Appeal then more than doubled his sentence in 2017.

Mr Knight later sought clarification over the sentence from the Supreme Court to see if the time Pistorius had already served in prison for culpable homicide should count toward his parole.

It did, Mr Knight said, meaning Pistorius could be considered for parole two years earlier than courts had initially indicated.

Knight said he believed Pistorius had met the requirements to be released early.

'From what I have observed of him he has been a model prisoner while he has been in prison,' Knight said. 'My view is that he does meet the requirements to be placed on parole but the procedures must be followed.'

Mr Knight said a parole board could impose a range of conditions on Pistorius if he is released, like only being allowed to leave home to go to work during the week, and only for a limited time on weekends to buy groceries and attend church.
Environmental protestors stopping trains full of exports goods including coal, grain and cotton are costing the Australian economy millions each day, industry figures claim.

Climate change protest group Blockade Australia has posted photos and videos of its efforts to disrupt coal deliveries by train into the port of Newcastle.

The group has claimed responsibility for closing train tracks in the Hunter area eight times alone this week.

Protestors had suspended themselves above the tracks in scaffolding or from power poles, while one activist reportedly packed a car on the railway tracks at Sandgate north of the port.

NSW Police confirmed it had arrested seven protestors this week for trespass and rail disruption offences.

Blockade Australia activist 'Zelda', dressed in a gas mask and hazmat suit, climbed on top of a coal train where she started to shovel coal onto the tracks

'I'm here to return this dirty coal back to the earth where it came from,' Zelda said in a video posted on the Blockade Australia Facebook page

Climate change protest group Blockade Australia has posted photos and videos of its efforts to disrupt coal deliveries by train into the port of Newcastle this week

The cancellation of about 20 freight trains carrying export goods such as coal, cotton and grain in the Hunter region was costing the economy around $1 million on each occasion, claimed Paul Scurrah, chief executive officer of rail freight operator Pacific National.

'At a time when Australia needs to recover from the economic shocks of the coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdowns, one of the most critical rail freight networks in this country  the Hunter Valley system  has been brought to a complete standstill because of dangerous protests from environmental extremists, Mr Scurrah told The Daily Telegraph.

'These radicals not only put the safety of our train crews in great peril but their actions in the last 48 hours have led to 20 cancelled Pacific National rail services to the Port of Newcastle.'

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet also slammed the actions of the protestors, whose behaviour had disrupted the lives of 'many ordinary people who are just trying to earn a living', he said.

The cancellation of about 20 freight trains carrying export goods such as coal, cotton and grain in the Hunter region was costing the economy around $1 million on each occasion, claimed Paul Scurrah, the boss of rail freight operator Pacific National

'When protesters use disruptive tactics they put themselves at risk of harm and also put the police and emergency personnel responding to these incidents in danger as well,' he said.

On its Facebook page yesterday, Blockade Australia posted an image of activist 'Zelda' in a gas mask and hazmat suit who had climbed on top of a coal train where she started to shovel coal onto the tracks.

'I'm here to return this dirty coal back to the earth where it came from,' Zelda said in a video posted on the page. 'It should never have been dug up in the first place so I'm just here to put some of it back.'

The group confirmed it was the eighth action it had taken to block trains into Newcastle this week.

'These actions are a response to Australia killing the world,' it claimed.

Some prrotestors had suspended themselves above the tracks in scaffolding or from power poles, while one activist reportedly packed a car on the railway tracks at Sandgate

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce told Radio 2GB's Mornings Host Ray Hadley that fines should be increased to deter the activists, who he described as 'Gretas on steroids'.

'What theyre stopping is the payments to your police force, your hospitals, your schools,' Mr Joyce said.

'If you can just give us $2 million and we can come and start collecting your furniture, and selling it to see if we can cover some of this, their attitude might change.

'They get involved with the zeitgeist, but they dont understand the price price.'

One freight company owner, Jason Ferguson of Southern Shorthaul Railroad, told News the stunts were costing his business over $300,000 a week.

'They think theyre targeting coal but theyre shutting down the whole network -grain, cotton, passengers - its having a devastating effect,' he said.
Police are searching for a group of shoplifters who were captured flinging household products into their two stolen vehicles after swiping the items from a Connecticut grocery store before speeding away.

The four crooks snatched some $1,500 worth of goods from Market 32 in the Quarry Walk Plaza in Oxford shortly after 6 am Tuesday morning, police say.

Stunned onlookers watched as the brazen bandits methodically unloaded shopping carts full of laundry detergent and paper towels into a minivan and an SUV that police say were stolen.

Scroll Down For Video:

A group of shoplifters were caught loading shopping carts filled with laundry detergent into their vehicles before taking off

One of the shoplifters loads his vehicle with laundry detergent as fast as he can before he speeds off

Video of the robbery, which has gone viral, captures the four thieves unloading the merchandise into two separate cars waiting outside the grocery store.

Onlookers call out for someone to call 911 and then begin too chastise the thieves, who don't react and just continue with their broad daylight robbery.

'That's why prices go up, because of these (bleeps),' someone says. 'Can't get a job like the rest of us.'

The two cars then take off at full speed, with one of the vehicles hitting a shopping cart before fleeing the scene.

The shoplifters ignored concerned onlookers and loaded their cars up with the stolen merchandise before speeding off

The shoplifters, whose faces were covered, loaded up their cars with the shopping cart full of goods while onlookers chastised them for stealing

Connecticut State Police said the thieves stole the goods from Market 32 (pictured) in the Quarry Walk Plaza shortly after 6 am Tuesday morning

Police said they have identified at least two of the suspects and linked them to similar crimes across Connecticut and outside the state.

Cops are withholding publicly identifying the two suspects because investigations are still ongoing, FOX 61 News reported.

The thieves would face only misdemeanor larceny charges because the total value of the stolen goods was between $1,000 and $2,000. Those stealing more than $2,000 and up to $10,000 would be hit with a felony rap.

State police said a 911 call was never placed but instead a call reporting the robbery came in through the routine phone line at the Oxford Resident Trooper's Office 10 minutes after the crime had already occurred.

'Had 911 been contacted in a timely manner, police personnel would have been able to attempt to intercept those involved,' state police said in a news release.

Trooper Sgt. John Acampora said that police believe that the thieves will try to sell the stolen items on social media and within their communities.

Residents of the town located about 30 miles west of New Haven say this type of crime is unusual in their neighborhood.

'It's very unusual that anything like that happened here and I guess, while it's good that it was caught on video so they might be able to get the guys, no one was doing anything about it, they just kind of let it happen,' Vinny Brophy from Beacon Falls told Fox 61 News.

The bold robbery is part of a rise in shoplifting incidents around the country.

Walgreens was forced to shut five of its stores in San Francisco last month due to rampant shoplifting by thieves who waltz past security guards and sell the items outside the drugstore chain's doors.

In total, the national chain has closed 17 of its 70 San Francisco locations in the past two years because of the shelf raiders, who have swiped everything not behind lock and key.

Thefts in the chain's 53 remaining stores in San Francisco are five times the average for their stores elsewhere in the country, according to company officials.

Viral videos taken throughout the summer have shown shoplifters brazenly sauntering out of stores with armfuls of stolen goods as witnesses watch in shock.

In September, a gang of shoplifters were filmed ransacking a Chicago UIta Beauty store in the Norridge suburb.

Footage of the incident showed a gang of three hooded thieves emptying its shelves of expensive Christian Dior and Armani makeup into black trash bags.

It was shared on social media with the shocked cameraman, who hasn't been named, saying: 'Look at this, this is insane,' as he films the theft unfolding before his eyes.
Three universities paid their bosses more than half a million pounds last year  despite lecture halls being empty for months due to Covid.

Vice chancellor of Exeter, Sir Steve Smith, who has now been appointed the UKs international education champion, was the highest earner on 584,000.

Professor Alice Gast, the head of Imperial College investigated over an alleged culture of bullying, was second on 527,000, with the London School of Economics Dame Minouche Shafik third on 507,000.

Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, last night branded the payments immoral and unsustainable.

Imperial College London (pictured) came second with a total remuneration of 527,000 to their head Professor Alice Gast

The figures from the Office for Students (OfS) are for the 2019/20 academic year - the most recent available.

In the March of that year, the government imposed a lockdown and students were forced to learn remotely.

Salaries are decided by a remuneration committee much in advance of every academic year.

John OConnell, chief executive of the TaxPayers Alliance, also condemned the large payments.

He said: Students and taxpayers want to see much better value from university bosses.

Pay remains extremely generous while higher education has been beset by covid disruption, lecturer strikes and students being shunted onto online courses.

University leaders must do more to improve value for money in their institutions and earn their steep salaries.

According to the analysis, remuneration paid to vice-chancellors and other heads of higher education providers rose in 93 providers - 56 per cent.

It fell in 60 providers - 36 per cent - and remained the same in 12 providers - 7 per cent.

Overall, the mean paid basic salary for the heads of all providers was 219,000 for 2019/20 and the mean total remuneration was 269,000 - both up slightly.

The figures have been published after staff at universities voted in favour of strike action in two ballots over pensions and pay and working conditions.

London School of Economics' head paid Dame Minouche Shafik 507,000, despite lecture halls being empty for months due to Covid

Students at 58 institutions could be affected by walkouts by the University and College Unions (UCU) before the end of the year.

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive at the OfS, said: Some of these salaries.... will appear very high.

Those universities should not be surprised to be asked difficult questions about this.

A spokesman for Exeter said: Our former vice-chancellor was one of the longest serving and most experienced in the sector, who achieved extraordinary success during his 18-year tenure at the University of Exeter.

His salary and reward arrangements were independently set by the universitys remuneration committee and the details made publicly available.

This included an exceptional target-led, conditional and long-term incentive scheme, agreed in 2013, and which is shown in the figures for 2019/20.

Vice chancellor of the University of Exeter, pictured, Sir Steve Smith, who has now been appointed the UKs international education champion, was the highest earner on 584,000.

Under the terms of this contractual retention scheme the vice-chancellor was eligible for a bonus each year, which was only paid on condition that he remained at the university until 2020.

This reflected the value and importance of the vice-chancellors experience, guidance and expertise to the achievement of the universitys strategic objectives over several years.

The OfS said pay for the vice chancellors may have reduced in the following year if they waived their pay due to Covid.
New Zealand schools are being told to call the police if any staff member turns up to work unvaccinated against Covid-19 next week.

The New Zealand Ministry of Education has said that all early-learning staff and school teachers must have had their first Pfizer vaccination by Monday, November 15, or face considerable fines.

The advice, published in the ministry's gazette on Thursday, tells school leaders that if they, or any education staff, turn up to work on Monday unvaccinated against Covid-19, they will be committing an offence.

New Zealand teachers will not be allowed to return to work from Monday, November 15 if they are unvaccinated (pictured: vaccination in New Zealand) against Covid-19, or do not have a medical exemption in their possession or requested, and will face fines.

The advice being given to schools follows the no jab, no job policy that was enacted by the New Zealand Government last month.

'The staff member will be committing an infringement offence if they have not had their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and are onsite 15 November. This means they may be liable for a fine,' the advice read.

'If staff do turn up on site after this date, we encourage school leaders to deal with this in the usual manner you would if other inappropriate people were to turn up on site.

'If you feel your safety or the safety of akonga (pupils or students) or other staff is compromised, you could consider contacting the police.'

The advice also stated that an unvaccinated person could no longer work on-site at a school without a valid medical exemption, or a written letter from a doctor outlining an exemption request has been sought.

The NZ Ministry of Education is advising school leaders to call the police from Monday should unvaccinated employees or staff without a medical exemption turn up to work, because they said it risks the health of students

Teachers have until Novermber 15 to get their first dose of Pfizer, and until January 1 2022 to get their second dose, according to the New Zealand Ministry of Education

Earlier confusion on this announcement meant some educators thought they could still work on-site until January 1 next year without a vaccination, which is actually when they needed to have had their second vaccination by.

New Zealand's Ministry of Education confirmed only staff that have received their first vaccine dose by November 15 could work on-site with students.

For more information on New Zealand's vaccination framework, click here.
Mothering Sunday (15, 104 min)

Verdict: Gorgeously, ineffably English

Rating:

Cry Macho (12, 104 min)

Verdict: A Mexican-American turkey

Rating:

Watching Mothering Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, it felt like a genuine privilege to be English.

I was sitting next to a German critic who, as we filed out at the end, told me she had been thoroughly bored throughout. There may even have been a fierce expletive.

Well, I adored it. But it is so ineffably English, a kind of cinematic version of a ploughmans lunch at a Chilterns pub, that it is, indeed, hard to imagine anyone not from Britain truly grasping all its nuances.

An adaptation of Graham Swifts 2016 novel, Eva Hussons film unfolds, mostly, on an unseasonally warm Mothers Day in 1924. Jane Fairchild, charmingly played by the Australian actress Odessa Young, is a maid at the handsome Home Counties home of the Nivens (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman), over whom the long shadow of the Great War still falls. They, like their good friends the Sheringhams, lost sons on the Western Front.

Watching Mothering Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, it felt like a genuine privilege to be English. Pictured: Paul, played by Josh O'Connor

Firth performs his kindly, repressed, upper-class Englishman act to absolute perfection. But in a way, Colman is the cleverer bit of casting. We are so used to that toothy dazzler of hers, a smile that could guide ships through fog, that not to see it at all is faintly disorientating.

Mrs Niven, it emerges, was heaps of fun in the old days. But now she radiates only misery and irascibility, and her daily trigger is her mild husbands attempted bonhomie. Godfrey, for goodness sake! she snaps, her fuse shortened by grief.

So much for the Jazz Age. So often in the movies, the 1920s roar; here, they weep.

Meanwhile, and heres the nub of the story, Jane is having a passionate affair, necessarily clandestine because of its affront to class boundaries, with the Sheringhams only surviving son, Paul (Josh OConnor). He is a law student, about to marry the imperious daughter of a third set of friends, the Hobdays.

On Mothering Sunday, when nice Mr Niven gives Jane the day off, she cycles over to the Sheringhams home for a tryst with Paul before he has to motor down to Henley to join his parents, along with the Nivens and Hobdays, for a picnic lunch and stilted conversation on the banks of the Thames.

Jane Fairchild, charmingly played by the Australian actress Odessa Young (pictured), is a maid at the handsome Home Counties home of the Nivens (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman), over whom the long shadow of the Great War still falls

With a cameo for Glenda Jackson as the elderly Jane Fairchild, Alice Birchs beautifully crafted screenplay moves us from that 1924 day back and forth through time.

These skips forward and back gradually fill in the story; its like doing a really pleasurable jigsaw. But the spiritual heart of the film is when Jane, left alone at the Sheringhams home after Paul has reluctantly gone to join his own kind, languidly wanders naked through the big house, further defying all the social rules she is already breaking by being his secret lover.

Theres a lot of nudity in this film, including a lingering full-frontal of OConnor that I wouldnt mention except that his lovely performance is strikingly reminiscent of his Prince Charles in The Crown  a privileged young man in love with the wrong woman  so its rather startling to get such an eyeful of, as it were, the crown jewels.

Morgan Kibbys gorgeous score  all plinky piano and plaintive strings  also deserves acknowledgment. It is as impeccably judged as everything else.

But heres the thing: Kibby is American and Husson, the director, is French. So maybe Im wrong to assume that to really get Mothering Sunday you need to come from the land of hope and glory. After all, the film it reminded me of most was directed by Joseph Losey, from Wisconsin. Thats The Go-Between (1971), another frightfully English period tale, adapted from a novel, of unseasonal sunshine and forbidden love.

From the sublime to the preposterous, Cry Macho is the latest movie from 91-year-old Clint Eastwood, who directs, produces and stars.

I yield to nobody in my admiration for the great man, and cowboy hats off to his continuing productivity. But he looks and acts his years now. A scene in which a voluptuous Mexican siren, maybe half a century his junior, attempts to seduce him looks like a Help the Aged wheeze gone terribly wrong.

From the sublime to the preposterous, Cry Macho is the latest movie from 91-year-old Clint Eastwood (pictured), who directs, produces and stars

The story in general is scarcely more believable, with Eastwood playing a retired rodeo rider who, despite his tremendous age, is despatched south of the border by his former employer, whose teenage son has gone rogue somewhere in Mexico City. His unlikely mission is to bring the boy back to the U.S., and we are clearly meant to invest in the odd-couple pairing as, together with a spirited cockerel named Macho, they make their misadventure-strewn way.

The scenery is jolly nice but the acting and writing are as desperately flimsy as the premise. Never mind Macho the cockerel; Im sorry to report that old Clint has delivered a scrawny turkey.

Musicals man gets the birthday blues

Tick Tick...Boom (PG, 115 min)

Verdict: It's showtime!

Rating:

Unless you are hopelessly in love with musical theatre, watching Tick, Tick . . .Boom! is akin to standing just inside the door of a fabulous party to which you havent been invited.

Slickly directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, its a semi-autobiographical musical set in New York City and written for the stage by the late Jonathan Larson (with a screenplay by Steven Levenson), who most famously conceived the long-running Broadway hit Rent. Tragically, Larson didnt live to reap the rewards. He died suddenly in 1996, aged just 35.

This film chronicles his efforts to hit the big time as a composer while his 30th birthday bears down on him like an unforgiving truck, his relationship with his girlfriend (Alexandra Shipp) falters and around him his gay friends are diagnosed with HIV.

Andrew Garfield gives a thunderous performance as Larson, a real tour de force, and there are some marvellous moments, notably a scene in which inspiration strikes while he is underwater at his local pool. But, as I say, if youre not addicted to the world of musical theatre, it might not be for you.

Andrew Garfield (pictured, with Shipp) gives a thunderous performance as Larson, a real tour de force, and there are some marvellous moments, notably a scene in which inspiration strikes while he is underwater at his local pool

Nor, if sports not your thing, would I recommend two documentaries, Dettori () and Arsene Wenger: Invincible ().

But if it is, take a look at them both, because each tells the compelling story of an extraordinary high-achiever  jockey Frankie Dettori and Wenger, the former Arsenal manager  both of whom came to England and rose to the top, but whose ferocious will to win can be traced directly back to a fiercely strict, impossible-to-please father.

Wenger, we learn in Gabriel Clarkes excellent film, so hated losing that he was sometimes physically sick after an Arsenal defeat (although in 2003-04 the team were unbeaten in the league, hence invincible).

Among those paying tribute are his bitterest rival, former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who explains eloquently how Wengers arrival made him raise his own game: When you see someone coming up behind you, you accelerate.

But for a while even the all-conquering Fergie was overtaken by the driven Frenchman. Fascinating stuff.
The National School Boards Association liaised with the White House and Justice Department before writing to Joe Biden, it emerged on Thursday, with their infamous letter complaining that threats made by parents against board members should be taken as seriously as domestic terrorism.

Viola Garcia, president of the National School Boards Association, wrote to Joe Biden on September 29 asking for federal support for board meetings

The NSBA, in an internal memo sent on October 12, revealed that they had held discussions with White House officials before sending the letter. The association represents more than 90,000 school board members in 14,000 public school districts.

The memo - obtained by Fox News - states that, on September 14, members of a liaison group 'were informed there had been a meeting with White House staff that morning and that NSBA was preparing to send a letter to the President.'

On September 17, executive directors for states were told by the interim Executive Director that 'a letter requesting federal assistance would be sent.'

On September 29, the letter was sent to Biden, asked for federal assistance to investigate and stop threats made over school policies such as curriculum, gendered bathrooms, and mask mandates.

The letter was sent after a combustible summer, which saw school board meetings become scenes of at times violent unrest.

Loudoun County in Virginia became the epicenter of anger, with people arrested after a confrontation in June.

Amy 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 on June 22

Protesters in Loudoun County on June 22 forced the meeting to end early amid wild scenes

Issues of critical race theory, gendered bathrooms and COVID protocols have sparked angry scenes

'As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,' the NBSA wrote in the letter.

Viola Garcia, president of the NBSA, who wrote the letter, had altered the text to satisfy the White House, according to another email obtained by Fox.

She worked with Chip Slaven, an NBSA executive, and the White House team 'for weeks', according to a September 29 email from Slaven.

'In talks over the last several weeks with White House staff, they requested additional information on some of the specific threats, so the letter also details many of the incidents that have been occurring,' Slaven wrote to the NSBA board of directors.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, responded on October 4, expressing concern at 'an increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation's public schools.'

He wrote: 'Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation's core values.

'Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.'

Merrick Garland (pictured) responded to the NBSA letter on October 4

Garland directed the FBI to arrange meetings with local law enforcement leaders to discuss 'strategies for addressing this disturbing trend.'

He said: 'These sessions will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment and response by law enforcement.'

The NSBA letter, and Garland's response to it, attracted a furious response, with accusations that the Biden administration was equating parents and domestic terrorists.

On October 22, the NBSA issued another letter, saying that they 'regret and apologize for the letter' sent to Biden.

'To be clear, the safety of school board members, other public school officials and educators, and students is our top priority, and there remains important work to be done on the issue.

'However, there was no justification for some of the language included in the letter.

'We should have had a better process in place to allow for consultation on a communication of this significance.'

On October 22 the NBSA rescinded its earlier letter to Biden

Biden himself has not spoken about the NBSA's letter or the furore it sparked

Yet Garland refused to rescind his October 4 memo, and insisted on October 27 that the FBI consultations must continue.

The NSBA has now removed its letter to Biden from its website, but the attorney general said their plea for help still stood.

'The obligation of the Justice Department is to protect the American people against violence, including threats of violence, and that particularly includes public officials,' Garland told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

'That is still a concern for the department.'
The annual Schoolies festival on the Gold Coast is under threat as two new Covid cases remain a mystery to health authorities.

Students from around Australia leaving Year 12 have traditionally arrived on Australia's party strip in late November for a parent-free party to celebrate the end of school.

At Queensland's Covid update on Friday, the state's acting chief health officer Dr Peter Aitken expressed fears about the upcoming event going ahead after the Covid cases of unknown origin were discovered on the Gold Coast.

'At this stage were not doing anything more in regards to restrictions on the Gold Coast. But we are worried because Schoolies is coming up,' DrAitken said.

'If we can get through the next week, Im quite confident Schoolies would be just fine.'

Queensland's acting chief health officer Dr Peter Aitken expressed worries about Schoolies going ahead after two Covid cases of unknown origin were discovered on the Gold Coast

The first groups of school-leavers from Queensland are due to arrive for Schoolies on November 20, with students from NSW, Victoria and other parts of Australia replacing them in the second week beginning November 27

'We dont want to cancel Schoolies... But its going to depend on what happens over the next seven days,' Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said

The first groups of school-leavers from Queensland are due to arrive on November 20, with students from NSW, Victoria and other parts of Australia replacing them in the second week beginning November 27.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she hoped the the event will proceed but developments in the next week would be crucial.

'We dont want to cancel Schoolies... But its going to depend on what happens over the next seven days,' she said.

A fully vaccinated Uber driver from Carrara and a 32-year-old man from Pacific Pines are the Gold Coast cases of concern.

Their source remains a mystery though on Friday, Dr Aitken revealed the two cases are 'genomically linked' and work was proceeding to establish how they had originated.

Ms Palaszczuk said the Gold Coast was 'not out of the woods yet'.

'We have to monitor this very carefully,' she said.

'We know that community transmission can happen, but whats good news is that we have large numbers of people that are vaccinated on the Gold Coast but we want to see more.'

Ms Palaszczuk said the Gold Coast was 'not out of the woods yet', while Dr Aitken (left) revealed the two new cases in the city were 'genomically linked'

Schoolies officials said attendees of the mostly ticketed events would receive refunds and credit vouchers should new public health orders cause cancellation of the event

She said a lockdown in the city would depend on whether unlinked transmission continued to occur.

Queensland first-dose vaccination rate is 80.55 per cent, while 68.84 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Residents on the Gold Coast lag behind the state average with 66.3 per cent of residents aged 16 and above now fully vaccinated.

The official Schoolies website states the attendees of the mostly ticketed events would receive refunds and credit vouchers should new public health orders cause cancellation of the event.

'A full refund of monies paid over and above the non-refundable deposit (excluding existing amendment fees and credit card charges if applicable). A Credit Voucher for the non-refundable deposit,' it states.

Refunds, however, are not available if a school leaver tests positive to Covid, must isolate as a result of being a close contact of a Covid positive person, or for not complying with government health requirements.
Geoffrey Cox has agreed to two more weeks of work for the British Virgin Islands this month while the Commons is sitting, according to reports.

The former attorney general is under fire for spending weeks working as a high-ranking lawyer in the Caribbean while Parliament has been sitting, apparently with the approval of the Tory Party.

Sir Geoffrey voted in Parliament remotely from the Caribbean while advising the government of the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven accused of corruption.

He has also been referred to Parliament's sleaze watchdog after appearing to use his Commons office for a hearting via Zoom.

It has now come to light that the Tory MP will undertake more work representing ministers from the British Virgin Islands, although it is understood that this will not involve him travelling to the Caribbean.

He will appear before an inquiry examining the countrys governance standards and carry out the work from 15 to 26 November, reports The Guardian.

It follows Lord Evans, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said that sitting in Parliament 'takes time and concentration' amid the fallout from the MP's extra-parliamentary activities.

Geoffrey Cox has agreed to two more weeks of work for the British Virgin Islands this month while the Commons is sitting, according to reports

The Tory MP is under fire for spending weeks working as a high-ranking lawyer in the Caribbean while Parliament has been sitting, apparently with approval of the Conservatives

A spokesperson for Cox told the newspaper: 'Sir Geoffrey is assisted by a legal team who will carry out most of the work.

'Therefore, he will only need to make himself available for a period of approximately two hours on one day, during that time.

'This will not conflict with his parliamentary responsibilities.'

Meanwhile Lord Evans, the former head of MI5, told the BBC yesterday: 'If somebody is spending a huge amount of their time on a second job, then they can't be maintaining support for their constituents.'

Asked whether it matters more about how much time an MP spends on their outside work rather than how much they are earning, Lord Evans replied: 'I don't think it is ultimately a matter of how much, I think it is a matter of is it clear that the MP who has been elected by their constituents, that their main focus, their main priority is on being the best MP that they can be?

'And that takes time and that takes concentration.'

It came as a Government minister refused to defend Sir Geoffrey for voting by proxy from the British Virgin Islands.

Business minister Paul Scully told Sky News: 'I'm not going to defend Geoffrey or say anything - that's up to Geoffrey, it is between him and his voters.'

Asked whether he could see that the 'optics were not good' in relation to the second jobs debate, Mr Scully replied: 'Absolutely, I can see how it looks.

'It is really regrettable that we've got to this situation.'

Pressed on what was regrettable about the situation, he added: 'That we've got in a position that, first of all, last week we allowed the situation for one individual (Owen Paterson) to be conflated with the standards procedures, which do need looking at, they do need an appeals process, but in order to do that we need a cross-party consensus.

Lord Evans, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said that sitting in Parliament 'takes time and concentration' amid the fallout from the extra-parliamentary activities of Geoffrey Cox.

'Then, as I say, for a number of other issues to be conflated which we need to tackle, but we need to tackle in a level-headed way and certainly not to get into a party political bun fight.'

Mr Scully later told LBC MPs should be able to have second jobs but 'paid advocacy and the like ... needs to be absolutely stamped out'.

Last night Boris Johnson said MPs who broke the rules should be punished. And in a sign of concern that the sleaze row is damaging Britains international reputation, he told the UN-sponsored climate summit in Glasgow that the UK is not a remotely corrupt country, and nor do I believe our institutions are corrupt.

But the PM backed the right of MPs to continue taking paid second jobs, saying they had actually strengthened our democracy over centuries.

His effort to bring MPs back into line was undermined by a defiant statement from Sir Geoffrey, in which he claimed his work trip to the Caribbean during lockdown in April had been sanctioned by the Governments chief whip Mark Spencer.

Last night it was claimed Sir Geoffrey was in another tax haven  Mauritius  for business this week.

The Daily Mirror reported that the MP was on a short business trip on the island nation where he met quite a few people for meetings.

A government source told the Mail they did not know where Sir Geoffrey was, but they expected he would be back in Parliament next week.
A massive funnel web spider with fangs so long they could bite through a human fingernail has been donated to a lifesaving antivenom program at the Australian Reptile Park.

The arachnid has been named Megaspider and the park says she is roughly twice the size of a typical funnel web spider, more comparable to a tarantula.

The 8cm funnel web spider's 2cm fangs will be milked for venom that can be turned into antivenom.

This 8cm funnel web has 2cm fangs which will be milked for their venom at the Australian Reptile Park. It will be used to make anti-venom

The Australian Reptile Park on the NSW central coast is the only funnel web spider venom milking facility in the country and the antivenom produced there saves up to 300 lives a year, the park says.

Australian Reptile Park education officer Michael Tate has 'never seen a funnel web spider this big'.

'She is unusually large and if we can get the public to hand in more spiders like her, it will only result in more lives being saved due to the huge amount of venom they can produce,' he said.

The park encourages citizen scientists to safely catch funnel web spiders to donate to the antivenom program.

The Megaspider was donated in a clear plastic container with no marking to say where it came from, and the park is now seeking its donor to find out where it came from in the hope of finding similarly large spiders.

Spiders can be donated to the park itself, as well as at a number of drop off points around Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle.
A beauty queen living with a personality disorder has told how her condition has left her reliant on others to maintain her self-esteem and unable to produce internal validation.

Miss World Australia finalist Kanika Batra, 26, has narcissistic personality disorder - a condition she says gives her impulsive urges, feelings of emptiness and unstable moods.

Ms Batra said she relies on others - such as her 180,000 followers on Instagram - to boost her sense of self-worth but goes 'into a very, very dark place' when those external sources of affirmation dry up.

Scroll down for video

Kanika Batra, 26, has narcissistic personality disorder - a condition she says gives her impulsive urges, feelings of emptiness and unstable moods

'When I get positive comments it's wonderful and I do feel them - but they don't tend to stay with me. They are very fleeting,' she told SBS Insight.

'However if I do start getting insults, those do really hurt more than I could possibly explain.

'I have irrational reactions sometimes when I feel the narcissistic supply draining - I'm so used to external validation that I don't know how to produce internal validation.'

The Sydney model - who has also written a psychological thriller - said she often goes into 'rage spirals' when someone or something offends her.

'I'm hot-tempered so sometimes I'll burn bridges I don't need to and I will do really reckless, impulsive things like spend all my money,' she said.

Ms Batra has also been diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder, which she says means she lacks empathy, guilt or remorse.

Model and Miss World Australia finalist Kanika Batra (pictured) has antisocial and narcissistic personality disorder

'It's not something I was born with. It's not something I've ever experienced - but I feel like that doesn't make me a bad person,' she said.

Ms Batra said she relies on others to boost her sense of self-worth but goes 'into a very, very dark place' when those compliments dry up

Ms Batra, who is currently engaged to her boyfriend, Sam, has previously revealed in a YouTube interview that she cheated in three relationships because she didn't feel the guilt that typically comes with betrayal.

'I just didn't have that sort of regard for that person because it didn't make me feel bad to see somebody else,' she said.

'It didn't make me feel guilty. I didn't get home and then like, not sleep at night because I had betrayed somebody. It's easy for us to switch that part off [and] compartmentalise.'

But after seeing a psychiatrist, Ms Batra said she managed to unlearn this behaviour and become more self-aware, which has changed how she sees both herself and her fiance.

'The main difference is that now I do respect my partner,' she said.

'I do understand that his needs need to be met as well as my own.'

Ms Batra (picturedd), who is currently engaged to her boyfriend, Sam, said she has cheated in three of her past five relationships

The Sydney model (pictured) said she has been assessed by 'a dozen' psychiatrists who all concluded that she has an 'anti-social and narcissistic personality'

Ms Batra (pictured) said she can be 'quite vengeful' and is likely to show her 'mean streak' to anyone who hurts her

However, Ms Batra said she still can be 'quite vengeful' and show her 'mean streak' to anyone who hurts her.

Although she feels no remorse for her past wrongdoings, Ms Batra said she tries to learn from them to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

And when it comes to positive emotions, Ms Batra said it's rare that she feels truly happy.

'I feel satisfied with life, I feel that I'm doing adequately well, but I don't think I experience happiness in the same way a neurotypical would,' she said.

While she likes to be 'open and upfront' with people she dates, Ms Batra said she doesn't reveal her personality disorder until she gets to know a potential partner.

Seven signs that someone is a sociopath A sociopath is someone with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Someone with this disorder will manipulate, antagonise and treat others with indifference. They show no remorse or guilt for the actions and behaviour. Sociopaths are prone to recklessness and risky behaviour because of what's known as their 'compromised moral compass', and are often perceived as irresponsible. 1. Lack of empathy - they feel no remorse of guilt because they don't feel the emotions of those around them 2. Manipulative - they are opportunists and highly ambitious individuals who rely on lying and manipulation to get where they want 3. Dangerously charming - they use charisma and charm to attract others, particularly those more vulnerable than themselves 4. Ill tempered and impulsive - prone to engaging in risky and illegal behaviours 5. Strained relationships - they are likely to be controlling and possessive 6. Narcissistic - not all narcissists are sociopaths, but most sociopaths are narcissists 7. Find enjoyment in the suffering of others - sadistic anti-socials use empathy to derive pleasure from the pain of other people Source: Psych2Go YouTube Advertisement

'With all of the stigma and all of the hatred that's shoved down your throat, I like to give myself a chance,' she said.

In the early stages of a relationship, Ms Batra said she and others with ASPD are prone to 'love bombing', an attempt to influence a person by overt gestures of attention and affection that stems from manipulative behaviour.

'This is just us getting to know you,' she said.

'We don't really know how to control ourselves in that sort of way so all we do is we message you to find out everything about you, and we want to see you all the time - that's just how we kind of get to feel what this relationship will be.'

Ms Batra (pictured) said she had to 'physically teach' herself to blink because her tendency to lock eye contact unnerved those around her

Ms Batra said she had to 'physically teach' herself to blink because her tendency to lock eye contact unnerved those around her.

She said she learned charm and charisma by mirroring actions and emotional responses and has built her persona around the identities of others.

'I feel like if you strip all of that away, at the core, there would be nothing...it's quite sad,' Ms Batra said.

For more information about personality disorders, please visit Way Ahead Australia here.
Kyle Rittenhouse's mother on Thursday night accused Joe Biden of painting her son as a white supremacist a year ago in a cynical bid to win the presidential election, but said she was confident that the judge in the case had ensured a fair trial.

Wendy Rittenhouse spoke hours after the defense rested its case in the high-profile trial.

Her 18-year-old son is charged with murdering two people and wounding a third during the rioting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the shooting of Jacob Blake by police.

His lawyers insist Rittenhouse was acting in self defense, and on Monday both sides will sum up their arguments before the jury retires for deliberations.

Wendy, a mother of three, told Fox News' Sean Hannity that she was still angry with Biden for his labeling her son a white supremacist last year.

Wendy Rittenhouse on Thursday night was asked about Joe Biden's 2020 tweet labelling her son a white supremacist

Biden shared a video clip on Twitter denouncing white supremacists that including a photo of Rittenhouse wielding a gun

Biden's campaign team included footage of Rittenhouse alongside neo-Nazis parading the streets, in a bid to undermine support for his rival, Donald Trump.

During a presidential debate, Trump refused to condemn the Proud Boys, and in response Biden tweeted a still of the campaign video - showing Rittenhouse - with the caption: 'There's no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night.'

Wendy told Hannity: 'When I saw that, I wasn't shocked. I was angry.

'President Biden don't know my son whatsoever.

'He's not a white supremacist, he's not a racist.

'He did that for the votes and for a while I was so angry at him.

'And what he did for my son - he defamed him.'

But she said she was optimistic the jury would come to the right decision.

'The judge is very fair,' she said.

'People that I talk to who lived in Kenosha all their lives say Judge Schroeder is a very fair judge, and he does not allow no nonsense in his courtroom.'

Rittenhouse, 18, is seen on Thursday morning before the case began for the day

Rittenhouse was 17 when he took to the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020 - too young to legally carry a rifle

Judge Bruce Schroeder (pictured) is known for his stern demeanor and tough sentences

Wendy Rittenhouse told Hannity of her horror at seeing the scenes in Kenosha on August 25, 2020, saying she feared for her son's life

The case, which began on November 2, has been noted for clashes between Judge Bruce Schroeder - at 75, the longest-serving circuit court judge in the state - and Thomas Binger, prosecuting.

In pre-trial hearings Schroeder disappointed Binger by preventing him from introducing information to the court, such as Rittenhouse's prior remarks about wanting to shoot someone with his AR-15, and refused to allow Binger to refer to the people Rittenhouse shot as victims.

Kyle Rittenhouse, at 17, was not legally allowed to carry a gun in Wisconsin

Wendy said she felt the jury was taking it seriously.

'They do,' she told Hannity.

'With a jury, they have been keeping a close eye on every evidence, every testimony, and they are paying good attention to what was said. That's the truth.'

She admitted that sitting in the courtroom every day has been harrowing, and broke down in tears when she described watching the video of the violent unrest in Kenosha.

'I was scared, I was frightened,' she said.

'I thought my son was going to die that night.

'When I look at the video with that guy pointing a gun to my son's head I thought he was going to die. This guy just pointed a gun at his head.

'And it took a long time to... just to grasp that he was alive.

'And knowing that he is with me, I'm grateful and I'm relieved that he's OK.

'But he has a lot of healing to do.

'He does have nightmares from this.'

Rittenhouse himself sobbed on the stand on Wednesday.

'I just broke down with Kyle crying like that,' she said.

'It made me feel heartbroken, sad, and I wanted to just go up there and hug him and tell him it would be OK.'

Defense rests in Kyle Rittenhouse trial after days of dramatic meltdowns, explosive testimony and courtroom clashes that could still see the case tossed with a mistrial

The defense in the Kyle Rittenhouse's trial has rested its case after two and a half days of explosive testimony and high courtroom drama that may yet see the case tossed with a mistrial.

Judge Schroeder dismissed the jury for the day Thursday afternoon with the words, 'We're in the final stretch.'

The attorneys will be back in court Friday to finalize charges and agree on jury instructions but the jurors will not be back until Monday when closing arguments and jury instructions will take place. Names will be drawn to pick the 12 jurors who will deliberate.

Judge Schroeder has informed both the defense and the prosecution that they must limit their closing arguments and rebuttal statements to no more than two and a half hours.

He had originally put a cap of one and a half hours on arguments but relented on Binger's request with the warning, 'I will be tough. I may tell you to sit down mid-sentence if you keep going and I did it to one of the DAs [recently].'

Earlier he had quoted a former US District Judge who said, 'The brain cannot absorb what the seat cannot endure.'

He added, 'And if you don't like that advice President Roosevelt one of the renowned speakers of the 30s and 40s when asked by his son for some advice on speaking said, 'Be sincere. Be brief. And be seated.'

The defense in Kyle Rittenhouse's trial rested its case it its eighth day Thursday

Kyle Rittenhouse and defense attorneys Natalie Wisco and Corey Chirafisi, talk during Rittenhouse's trial

Early this morning Judge Bruce Schroeder revealed that the court has been inundated with communications from members of the public during the trial  many in the form of offensive emails, some calling the judge a racist

Early this morning Judge Bruce Schroeder revealed that the court has been inundated with communications from members of the public during the trial  many in the form of offensive emails, some calling the judge a racist. The attorneys have also been recipients of hateful messages.

Speaking ahead of the start of testimony, Judge Schroeder said he would deal with all such things adding, 'I wouldn't want to be those people.'

What's next in the Kenosha shooter trial? Closing arguments in the Kenosha Shooter case will begin Monday when Judge Bruce Schroeder will instruct the jury on the law and how they are to apply it on each charge. The details of those charges will be finalized between the judge and attorneys Friday. The jury will not be present during these proceedings when the state is expected to inform the judge if they intend to ask for lesser charges to be considered on any counts. As it stands Rittenhouse is charged on six counts: First Degree Reckless Homicide, Use of a Dangerous Weapon in the death of Joseph Rosenbaum, First Degree Intentional Homicide, Use of a Dangerous Weapon in the shootings of both Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz, two counts of First Degree Recklessly Endangering Safety in the case of Richie McGinniss who was all but in the line of fire when Rosenbaum was shot and jump-kick man  the unidentified male at whom Rittenhouse shot twice  and one count of Possession of a Dangerous Weapon by a Person Under 18. A seventh curfew violation was dismissed earlier in the week. The most serious charges, first-degree intentional homicide, carries a mandatory life sentence, while attempted first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide, are both punishable by up to 60 years in prison. First-degree reckless endangerment carries a maximum prison term of 12 years and requires prosecutors to show that Rittenhouse put someone in harm's way by showing an utter disregard for life. Many doubt that the prosecutors have been successful in shouldering this burden of proof. Speaking Thursday afternoon Assistant District Attorney James Kraus revealed that the state may seek possible findings of lesser charges on the homicide of Anthony Huber and attempted homicide of Gaige Grosskreutz. But he said they were not inclined to accept a lesser finding in the case of Joseph Rosenbaum, or on the reckless endangerment charge that Rittenhouse faces with respect to Richie McGinniss. Judge Schroeder has placed a cap of two and a half hours on closing arguments for both sides, time which is to include any rebuttal they should wish to make. The judge had originally put a cap of one and a half hours on arguments but relented on Assistant District Attorney Thomas Bingers request for more time due to the states intention to replay as much as 30 minutes of video footage. But he warned, I will be tough. I may tell you to sit down mid-sentence if you keep going. I did it to one of the DAs recently. The jury will not now return to the courthouse until Monday when names will be drawn to determine the 12 who will deliberate. Eighteen of the original 20 jurors remain after one was excused on medical grounds and another was removed having made a racial joke to a court deputy. Judge Schroeder dismissed them for the long weekend with the words, Were in the final stretch now. Advertisement

The defense started the day by bringing use of force expert witness, John Black to the stand. Black, a veteran and former police officer is also a specialist in intelligence and video analysis and through his testimony the defense hopes to show the jury just how quickly events that the prosecution has 'stretched out' happened on the night of August 25, 2020.

The time between Rittenhouse shouting 'Friendly! Friendly! Friendly!' as he was walked through crowds pelting police vehicles with rocks to the moment he surrendered himself to police was just two minutes 55 seconds.

The furious pace at which the entire episode unfolded, from the first shot to Rittenhouse trying to surrender, was further underlined as the jury heard that the time that elapsed between the first and final shot fired by Rittenhouse at Rosenbaum was just three-quarters of a second.

During their case, the state presented the fact that Rittenhouse shot four times as tantamount to him having made four conscious decisions to keep shooting even after, they contend, any perception of threat must have been gone.

But today the court heard how the shots were fired all but instantaneously.

Taking the first shot as time zero, Black told the court, 'The time between the second shot and shot one was 0.263 seconds. Between the second and third shot, 0.247seconds, between the third and fourth shots 0.229 seconds. The total of those shots fired occurred in approximately 0.739 seconds.'

The court then watched footage of the night unfold as Rittenhouse fled and an unknown person ran at him and knocked his hat from his head. This, Black testified, was just 28 seconds after he had fired his last shot at Rosenbaum.

Dismantling the notion forwarded by the state that Rittenhouse had shot in a calculated fashion, Richards took his witness methodically through footage of Rittenhouse being attacked first by 'jump kick man' at whom he fired twice, then Antony Huber at whom he fired once and Gaige Grosskreutz at whom he fired once.

The state had shown these events as stills, broken down and studied in painstaking detail.

Today Black told the court that the images shown would have taken place as action that lasted less than half a second.

Indeed, the entire interaction from jump-kick man to Grosskreutz happened across just 5.468 seconds: 0.602 seconds elapsed between the two shots fired at 'jump-kick man.'

Rittenhouse fired on Huber just 1.933 seconds later and then at Grosskreutz as he came at him 2.933 seconds after that.

Addressing the jury, he explained that video 'absolutely had the benefit of helping us objectively understand what happened.'

The defense's aim was to put Rittenhouse's actions in context, bolstering their claim of self-defense by highlighting the speed under which his decisions were made.

Binger rose to object as Richards methodically questioned Black about his methods before getting into the meat of the video sequences and the events of the night. He began with the moment Rittenhouse shouted 'Friendly! Friendly! Friendly!'

Black had been allowed to testify only on condition that his testimony was limited to timing of events that, Binger argued this meant only the timing of the shots.

The defense has arguably already played their biggest card putting Kyle Rittenhouse on the stand yesterday to give his own powerful account of the night he shot two men dead and wounded another.

Black had been ready to testify Wednesday. Instead the wheels very nearly came off the trial entirely with the defense moving for a mistrial with prejudice and accusing Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger of 'prosecutorial misconduct' and 'over-reach.'

Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum (left), 36, with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle after Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse across a parking lot and threw a plastic bag at him shortly before midnight on August 25, 2020. Moments later, as Rittenhouse was running down a street, he shot and killed Anthony Huber (right), 26, a protester from Silver Lake, Wisconsin

Today the defense started the day by bringing use of force expert witness, John Black to the stand

With the jury out of the room, Assistant District Attorney James Kraus, Judge Schroeder, and defense attorney Corey Chirafisi look over a video monitor to examine photographic evidence during a dispute over the reliability of enlarged digital images during Kyle Rittenhouse's tria

Judge Schroeder could call a mistrial at any time should he decide that Binger has over-stepped in any way.

Armed with a fire extinguisher, his medical bag and his AR-15, Rittenhouse said, 'I started running towards the Car Source number three to put out fires, pausing occasionally to catch my breath and walk

The defense is moving rapidly towards the conclusion of its case and could rest today. It has just three witnesses left to call with all three expected today and the state set to then mount a rebuttal.

Rittenhouse's attorney, Mark Richards, won in his bid to have a use of force expert take the stand in October on the condition that his testimony is limited to the timing of events, including when the teen got to the area, began shooting and surrendered to police.

Again the prosecutor clashed with the judge as he argued his point after the jury had been sent out.

Judge Schroeder told Binger, 'It certainly was my intention that we were talking about video of the entire episode.'

Binger pulled a face that drew an irritated Judge Schroeder to ask, 'Is there something that I'm saying that draws the face that you're making?'

Binger replied, 'Yesterday I was the target of your ire for disregarding your order. Today the defense is disregarding your order.'

Judge Schroeder was unconvinced prompting Binger to re-iterate, 'Yesterday I was under the court's ire. If I'm being held to obey the court's orders I'm asking that the defense be held to [the same standard].'

Once again Binger had crossed a line as far as the judge was concerned. Judge Schroeder interrupted him, 'I'm going to let you talk, but I was talking yesterday about the constitution of the United States and how the Supreme Court has interpreted it for 50 years.

'That is not what we're talking about here today.'

Judge Schroeder accepted only one of Binger's objections that some of the language on Black's expert report was 'conclusory' and 'to be avoided.'

Binger gave as an example a point on the video pin-pointed by Black as 'JR [Jospeh Rosenbaum] Change in elevation-lunge decision point.'

The judge agreed he would have to find a way to express the time point without using such language.

Ed Lasiowski protests outside the Kenosha County Courthouse during Kyle Rittenhouse's trial on Thursday

Kenosha Police Officer Brittni Bray was the defense's penultimate witness and testified briefly. She told the court that she had collected rifle shell casings from the scene of Huber and Grosskreutz's shootings

Bray also confirmed that she had taken collection of Grosskreutz Glock along with loaded magazine containing nine bullets and an unfired .40 caliber round

Kenosha Police Officer Brittni Bray was the defense's penultimate witness and testified briefly. She told the court that she had collected rifle shell casings from the scene of Huber and Grosskreutz's shootings.

She also confirmed that she had taken collection of Grosskreutz Glock along with loaded magazine containing nine bullets and an unfired .40 caliber round.

These last items had been collected by former marine Jason Lackowski on the night of the shootings.

Gaige Grosskreutz was shot by Kyle Rittenhouse on August 25, 2020 and his right bicep was almost entirely blown away. Grosskreutz, the state's star witness, took the stand Monday morning

When he testified he told jurors how he picked up Grosskreutz's firearm and made it safe by emptying the chamber which was armed with one round and dropping the magazine from the weapon.

Prosecutors did not call an eye-witness with whom they had contact who saw Rosenbaum 'charging Kyle Rittenhouse from behind' and 'lunge towards him very clearly,' before Rittenhouse shot him.

Videographer Frank Andrew Hernandez is the last witness called by the defense and today testified that he not only witnessed these events with his own eyes, but recorded using body-camera and cell-phone footage.

He told the court that he had handed between 80 to 100 videos over to both prosecutors and the defense. Yet the prosecution never reached back out to him or called him as a witness.

As footage was shown to the court Hernandez told the court that he had seen both Rittenhouse and Rosenbaum across the night of August 25, 2020.

He said, 'The first time I saw he actually de-escalated [a] situation.'

Hernandez told the court that he witnessed Rittenhouse pacifying a group of 'rioters who initiated conflict' outside of the Car Source property he was protecting.

In stark contrast he recalled the first time he saw Rosenbaum he was 'pushing a flaming dumpster on fire into police officers and human beings.'

Right after, he said, Rosenbaum appeared 'triggered and physically aggressive' towards people attempting to put the fire out.

He said later he then watched as Rosenbaum 'led the charge' into the Ultimate Gas Station and again attempt to start altercations.

In more video shown to the court Rosenbaum, now wearing a T-shirt over his face, can be seen attempting to 'light a trash can on fired.'

Kyle Rittenhouse could be tried again if judge declares mistrial - but not if it's mistrial with prejudice Kyle Rittenhouse's trial is now being conducted under the specter of a possible mistrial. The defense has requested one to be declared with prejudice on the grounds of 'prosecutorial impropriety.' If granted this would mean that the case would be tossed and could not be brought again  a highly unusual move but applicable under such circumstances. The judge has taken the defense's request for a mistrial with prejudice under consideration, meaning should he feel it necessary, he can now call a mistrial at any moment with no need for further arguments in court or in camera. Lead attorney Mark Richards accused prosecutor Thomas Binger of behaving in bad faith and of behavior designed to provoke a mistrial. A simple mistrial would mean the case could be tried again. He accused him of doing this to 'throw' the trial that is going badly for the state, prevent it from ending with an acquittal and open the possibility of 'another kick of the cat.' The prosecutor was admonished on three occasions by Judge Bruce Schroeder shortly after beginning his cross examination. He was twice admonished for questioning Rittenhouse's right to remain silent post being charged  a move deemed a 'grave constitutional violation' by the judge who first reprimanded him in front of the jury and then sent the jury out to read him the riot act a second time. Binger also attempted to bring into evidence information that the judge had specifically excluded in pre-trial motions. As an experienced trial attorney Binger's actions 'astonished' both the defense team and the judge neither of whom accept that he was acting in good faith. Essentially, he stands accused of doing things that he knows will see the trial thrown out of court and the defense has therefore called for a mistrial of their own on terms that would prohibit the state from prosecuting Rittenhouse again. Corey Chirafisi set out the defense's stance. He said, 'Normally a mistrial does not preclude a retrial [unless] a defendant's motion is necessitated by a prosecutorial impropriety designed to avoid an acquittal.' But, he continued, 'What has happened is two times the state commented on Mr Rittenhouse's right to remain silent. 'The first time he was admonished by the court. The second time the judge had the jury leave, and he was re-admonished.' As far as bringing in the excluded material Chirafisi said, 'The prosecutor's actions must be intentional[with] an awareness that his activity would be prejudicial. 'You had warned him. You had told him prior to Mr Rittenhouse testifying. 'You had warned him about the infringement of his constitutional right to remain silent. He did it again. 'The second one says that the prosecutor's actions were designed to allow another chance to convict, to provoke a mistrial to get another kick at the cat because the first trial is going badly.' Addressing Binger, Judge Schroeder said, 'You're an experienced trial attorney and you're telling me when the judge says, 'I'm excluding this' you decide to bring it in because you think you've found a way around it. Come on!' 'When you say you were acting in good faith, I don't believe you.' Advertisement

In the background, Corey Chirafisi pointed to, 'This person holding a fire extinguisher [who] has purple gloves on his hand.'

As Rittenhouse walked Rosenbaum was initially seen ahead of him but later, Chirafisi pointed out, 'he appears to be behind him.'

Hernandez testified that he heard somebody say 'F*** you' though did not know who. He then testified, 'I was at the corner of Car Source, Rosenbaum was charging Kyle Rittenhouse and as he's charging him a firearm goes off.

He continued, 'As the firearm goes off Rosenbaum is already charging Kyle from behind. He attempts to throw a bag at him and Kyle is right at the corner. He turns around and Rosenbaum is lunging towards him very clearly.'

Hernandez said he both videoed and 'saw this with his [own] eyes.'

Standing to cross-examine Binger attempted to undermine Hernandez by suggesting he was bias. Questioning him as to his place of work Hernandez said he was a commentator for right wing website Real America's Voice.

Chirafisi objected and once again Binger drew Schroeder's ire who told him, 'This is not a political trial and I don't know how you would isolate a person's particular politics and determine that that person is going to evaluate the evidence one way or another.'

Videographer Frank Andrew Hernandez is the last witness called by the defense and today testified that he not only witnessed these events with his own eyes, but recorded using body-camera and cell-phone footage

Rittenhouse's attorneys Mark Richards and Corey Chirafisi began making their case Tuesday afternoon and quickly played their biggest card  bringing Kyle Rittenhouse to the stand Wednesday morning.

Rittenhouse, 18, broke down and sobbed on the witness stand as he recounted the events of the night of August 25, 2020 when he shot dead two men and gravely wounded a third.

He said he did not want to shoot anyone that night but did so because he was 'ambushed and attacked.'

Rittenhouse recalled how Joseph Rosenbaum chased and lunged at him, and voiced his belief that if Rosenbaum had managed to get his gun he would have killed him and probably a lot more people that night.

He said that he shot Anthony Huber as he felt the man pulling his gun from his body and Gaige Grosskreutz because he came at him with his own firearm, a Glock 27, pointed at him.

As Rittenhouse spoke his mother Wendy wept uncontrollably in the public gallery.

But it was Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger who brought the highest drama of the day when he was accused by both Richards and Judge Schroeder of acting 'in bad faith' and attempting to provoke a mistrial.

Binger was eviscerated by the judge for questioning Rittenhouse's right to remain silent after charges were brought.

He did this twice before the jury who the judge ultimately sent out before laying into the prosecutor and accusing him of a 'grave constitutional violation.'

Later Binger attempted to bring in evidence that had already been excluded in a pre-trial motion. The evidence was from Rittenhouse's social media and a post in which he commented about wishing he had his AR-15 so he could 'shoot some shoplifters.'

Incandescent with rage Judge Schroeder laid into Binger. When the prosecutor said he had been 'acting in good faith,' Schroeder snapped, 'I don't believe you.'

The defense has requested a mistrial based on this 'prosecutorial misconduct' and 'over-reach.' They argue that Binger was trying to provoke a mistrial to avoid the case ending in acquittal and so as to, 'have another kick at the cat' and bring a fresh prosecution.

Judge Schroeder has taken their request for a mistrial with prejudice  meaning that the case could NOT be re-tried  under consideration and has yet to make a final ruling on it.

Kyle Rittenhouse broke down on the witness stand as recalled the moment he was 'ambushed' by Joseph Rosenbaum the night he shot him dead

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger brought the highest drama of Wednesday when he was accused by both Richards and Judge Schroeder of acting 'in bad faith' and attempting to provoke a mistrial

Shortly before the defense rested the judge heard arguments concerning an expert that the state planned to recall as part of their rebuttal.

Judge Schroeder called forensic imaging expert James Armstrong to explain the algorithms used to enlarge and enhance FBI surveillance footage entered into evidence by the state.

The state argued that they should be able to enter enlarged drone footage images entered into evidence that, they claim, show Rittenhouse pointing a gun at people before he was chased by Rosenbaum.

The defense objected on grounds that the images had been altered and were not therefore accurate depictions of the original footage.

As testimony dwelt on software and pixels Judge Schroeder shook his head and joked, 'I'm still using watercolors.'

Assistant District Attorney James Kraus said that the defense's argument was 'a canard' and a 'dishonest argument.'

He said, 'With respect your honor I think the defense is trying to take advantage of your lack of technical knowledge which you've already expressed.'

He said that their attempt to present this as 'voodoo magic' was 'preposterous.'

Judge Schroeder snapped back, 'You have the burden of proof not them. The witness was just here and when he's asked what does [the software do] he says, 'I don't know.'

'This is the person who's providing your information to support your claim that it is an accurate depiction.'

The judge added, 'I will tell you that I totally agree with our comment about my lack of familiarity with these concepts although I have some logical skills. The fact that I can accurately blow something up on my phone doesn't mean that the particular crime lab is doing an accurate [job].

'What does peer review mean to me? You haven't presented any evidence as to the science or the algorithm.'

After scrutinizing the images himself Judge Schroeder allowed the evidence and said that the jury could draw their own conclusions.
Scott Morrison is facing a crisis after a second Liberal senator threatened to pull his support from the Government over Covid-19 vaccination mandates.

South Australia senator Alex Antic said he intends to follow his Queensland colleague Gerard Rennick and abstain from voting.

Pauline Hanson's One Nation has gone one step further, vowing to vote against all Government legislation unless Mr Morrison stops vaccine discrimination.

Scott Morrison (pictured at Bert Newton's funeral on Friday) is facing a crisis after a second Liberal senator threatened to pull his support from the Government over Covid-19 vaccination mandates

A protester on a megaphone during the 'Rise Up! Melbourne Rally for Health Rights and Freedom' in St Kilda last month

If both senators Antic and Rennick stick to their guns and withhold support, the Government cannot pass any laws opposed by Labor, the Greens and One Nation when Parliament next sits on November 22.

This would include the controversial plan to require voters to show ID at polling booths which Senator Hanson called for.

The Federal Government insists the Covid vaccine is optional but state and territory governments as well as private companies have enforced vaccine mandates, requiring jabs for activities like going to work, the pub or the shops.

Senator Hanson - who is unvaccinated - has introduced a bill to over-ride the states and ban all vaccine discrimination.

Her petition to 'let our leaders know that these Australians have a right not to be bullied, threatened or coerced into a medical procedure' has gained 143,209 signatures.

South Australia senator Alex Antic (left) said he intends to follow his Queensland colleague Gerard Rennick (right) and abstain from voting

In a Facebook post on Friday, Senator Antic said he decided to threaten the drastic step of withdrawing support from the Government because he supports personal choice.

'Australians are being coerced into taking Covid vaccinations against their will,' he wrote.

'This week I have indicated my intention to follow the lead of Senator Gerard Rennick and withhold my vote in the Senate until Australians are given protection from discrimination based upon their vaccine status and personal choice to refuse a vaccine.

'Australians deserve the freedom to choose their own medical treatment and way of life.

'It is not reasonable for Australians to be discriminated against based on their decision to submit (or otherwise) to a medical procedure.

'We must say NO to vaccine discrimination.'

Pauline Hanson has vowed to vote against all Government legislation unless Mr Morrison stops vaccine discrimination

Senator Rennick made his shock move last week, writing on his Facebook page: 'Vaccine mandates need to be lifted immediately. They should never have been implemented but they are going to cause so many issues including labour shortages, endless legal lawsuits, loss of livelihoods, discrimination.'

He also complained about rules which prevent the unvaccinated from participating in society because they pose an increased health risk.

'Since when was the threat of losing your job, unable to enter stores, go to the gym or cross borders, voluntarily. It's this kind of double speak that is undermines trust in government,' he wrote.

This is despite the fact that unvaccinated people are roughly 20 times more likely to spread Covid than vaccinated people, according to University of Melbourne professors Christopher Baker and Andrew Robinson.

On Wednesday Mr Morrison said anti-vaxxers should not be demonised for 'making their own choices'.

'We live in a country where we are not going to go around demonising those who want to make their own choices. It think that's very important. That's not how my Government sees it,' he told Seven's Sunrise.

The comments contrasted with Mr Morrison's rhetoric last year when he said in a 3AW interview in August 2020: 'I would expect it [the Covid jab] to be as mandatory as you can possibly make it.'
Texas law enforcement officials claim that drug cartels have been killing people on the United States side of the southern border as America's immigration crisis continues.

Lt. Chris Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety said that on October 26, his department found a woman murdered by presumed members of Mexican cartels in Texas.

They believe the woman was not only killed, but mutilated, raped and tortured by the drug gangs.

'These criminal organizations come across from Mexico to the US side and they murder individuals,' Olivarez told Fox News. 'We've had several incidents that have taken place along the border using professional-type weapons. Very professional and methodical about how they do it and then they go back to Mexico.'

Texas Department of Public Safety officials along with local law enforcement have found cartel killings on the US side of the nation's border with Mexico in recent weeks

The drug gangs have been a huge source of the arrests under Governor Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star program

Fox News' Sara Carter talking to Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez

Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez

Since Abbott imposed criminal trespass laws there have been over 1,800 arrests of people trying to get away from law enforcement, according to Olivarez

Olivarez noted that the cartels usually do this to send messages to rivals but that the bodies showing up on the US side of the border are something they haven't seen before.

Texas Department of Public Safety is working with special operations officers as well as law enforcement as part of Governor Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star to attempt to ease the border crisis.

Fox News' Sara Carter said that since Abbott imposed criminal trespass laws, there have been over 1,800 arrests of people trying to get away from law enforcement. That's just a fraction of the people who've avoided arrest.

Abbott called out President Joe Biden on Wednesday evening for turning 'a blind eye' to the growing problems at the southern border while showing concern for the refugee crisis along the Belarusian-Polish border in Eastern Europe.

'President Bidens concern for other nations borders, while he turns a blind eye to the United States borders that he swore to protect and defend, is appalling,' Abbott's Press Secretary Renae Eze told DailyMail.com.

'His reckless open border policies have created an ongoing crisis along our southern border, leading to a 61-year record-high number of illegal immigrants surging into our state.'

Nearly 1.7 million people were encountered trying to cross the US southwest border in the 12 month period that ended in October, US Customs and Border Protection announced.

The record-shattering number of migrants has overwhelmed state and local officials who have been pleading for help from the Biden administration and spurred further concern over the spread of COVID-19.

Abbott's press secretary claims the Lone Star State was forced to 'step up' to secure the border while Biden's government was 'absent.'

'Texas continues stepping up to secure our southern border and protect Texans in the federal governments absence,' Eze said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott accused President Joe Biden of a double-standard in a statement to DailyMail.com on Wednesday evening

'Since Governor Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March, the National Guard and DPS have apprehended over 76,000 migrants and arrested over 8,800 who committed a state or federal crime, including smugglers and human traffickers, to crack down on illegal crossings of migrants coming from over 150 countries around the world.'

Border encounters hit a 21-year high in July, with 213,593 people intercepted by immigration officials.

Though the number has gone down somewhat to 192,001 in September, the most recent data available, it's still significantly higher than the roughly 52,000 migrants encountered during the same period in 2020.

Biden has yet to visit the southern border and Vice President Kamala Harris, who he dubbed his border czar, hasn't been there since June.

The president acknowledged his absence in late October at a CNN town hall, stating 'I guess I should go down.'

By contrast he appears to be taking swift action on the migrant crisis aggravating tensions between the European Union and Belarus's authoritarian government.

Migrants walk along a road in a caravan heading to the northern border, in Santo Domingo Zanatepec, Mexico November 10

Abbott said Texas' government was working to secure the border without the Biden administration's help

Western governments in the EU and NATO accused Belarusian strongman dictator Alexander Lukashenko of luring migrants to his country and sending them to cross into Poland in retaliation for sanctions over his government's human rights abuses.

White House National Security Council official didn't address the problem at the US border went asked for comment from DailyMail.com.

Instead, the official condemned the situation in Belarus and said the Biden administration would be adding 'follow-up sanctions' to punish the autocratic regime.

'We are deeply concerned by the Lukashenka regimes inhumane actions and strongly condemn their callous exploitation and coercion of vulnerable people,' the official said.

'We are preparing follow up sanctions in close coordination with the EU and other partners and Allies that hold the Lukashenka regime accountable for its ongoing attacks on democracy, human rights, and international norms.'

The official added that while the situations in Belarus and the United States are different, the Biden administration has been consistent on its condemnation of human trafficking across the world.

The Europe migrants, primarily from the Middle East and Africa, are hoping to cross into the European Union through Poland but have been subjected to brutal treatment by Belarusian troops and violence from Polish forces as well.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lent fresh support to Lukashenko Thursday by sending nuclear bombers to carry out drills in Belarusian airspace for the second day in a row.

The European Union is preparing to widen the existing sanctions over what it called an 'attack' on western democracies.

Lukashenko hit back with threats to cut off Europe's gas supply.

Migrants in a tent camp on the Belarusian-Polish border on November 11

Migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere warm up at the fire gathering at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Thursday. The Biden administration announced it's preparing to possibly sanction Belarus for weaponizing desperate migrants

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Biden at the White House for a wide-ranging discussion that included the recent crisis.

After the meeting she told reporters that they both 'share the opinion that this is a hybrid attack of an authoritarian regime to try and de-stabilize Democratic neighbors.'

'This will not succeed. We will protect our democracies,' von der Leyen said.

Part of their agreement on the matter was to reach out to the countries the refugees are coming from to caution them 'to not fall into the trap of the Lukashenko regime.'

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis similarly pointed out a double standard between Biden's swift response to Europe's crisis and relative silence domestically.

DeSantis' office accused Biden's administration of 'refus[ing] to enforce Americas immigration laws' on Wednesday.

'It is absurd that Biden can express concern about a border halfway across the world, while he turns a blind eye to the illegal migration crisis in our own backyard,' DeSantis Press Secretary Christina Pushaw told DailyMail.com.
Pauline Hanson has launched a bizarre cartoon series in which she appears as a glamorous school teacher trying to control the clueless leading men of Australian politics.

Episode one of Pauline Hanson's Please Explain takes special aim at Defence minister Peter Dutton, imagining him as Lord Voldemort; Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, who has a beetroot for a head, and the Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Mr Morrison appears as a disheveled try-hard, beach bum who is late to class.

'Aloha douchebags, it's me ScoMo!' Morrison says, yanking open the classroom door while the other classmates are seated.

The PM's annoying character looks like he's come straight from a Hawaiian holiday and can't stop saying 'ScoMo!'

Defence minister Peter Dutton gets possibly the harshest treatment in Pauline Hanson's viral political cartoon - as Lord Voldemort

The clip, which was going viral by Friday afternoon, was posted on social media platforms and quickly had nearly 6,000 engagements.

'Damn, l demand episode two. I never laughed so hard,' wrote Jessica Collins.

'Love this. Especially the Scott Morrison 'guy'! Yip...a true version of him,' Maureen Snyman said.

The web-series was launched with the message that it 'aims to entertain and answer some of the most common questions I've been asked over the years while bringing a whole new audience up to date with the issues of the day.'

The strange but funny clip depicts Opposition leader Anthony Albanese as clueless that his own party members are about to stab him, Greens leader Adam Bandt as an unpopular nerd and Craig Kelly as a phone-addicted troublemaker.

Pauline Hanson is a sassy young schoolteacher in the cartoon her team created. The Prime Minister Scott Morrison comes across as a try-hard who can't stop saying 'ScoMo!'

The depiction of National leader Barnaby Joyce was predictable but still funny

Also featured are Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Bob Katter and Matt Canavan.

The ghoulish Dutton character asks where Christian Porter is but he doesn't appear as Hanson says he is 'suspended'.

The only non-politician character is Victorian construction union boss John Setka, who looks like a jacked-up muscleman.

In the clip, schoolteacher Hanson tells her misbehaving class 'over the next few weeks I'm going to teach you about Australian politics, am I understood.'

The class dutifully says 'Yes Miss Senator Hanson.'

'Now listen closely, because at the end of this term there will be... an election,' she says - to a chorus of disapproval.

Notably there is no room for any senior female politicians in Ms Hanson's class aside from the knife-wielding Tanya Plibersek - no Penny Wong, no Michaela Cash, no Marise Payne or Karen Andrews.

The ALP's only appearance in the cartoon is not flattering - with Anthony Albanese facing a knifing from former leader Bill Shorten and shadow minister for women, Tanya Plibersek

Hanson is treated more kindly by animators, as a sassy, younger, almost pin-up version of herself, with sparkling green eyes and red lipstick.

The cartoon looks like a definite play for the youth vote, not just because of the animations.

The clip ends with a bright orange page emblazoned with Pauline Hanson's One Nation, with what sounds like a dancefloor banger kicking off.
A 'getaway bag' of toiletries and food carried by alleged drug kingpin Mostafa Baluch has been spotted with detectives - as police released video of his flight back to Sydney.

A large plastic bag labelled 'Baluch' was seen in the hands of a NSW police detective on the tarmac at Gold Coast Airport as the alleged drug lord was flown back to Sydney on Thursday.

Its contents reveal the alleged escapee was carrying a grab-bag of bare essentials when discovered by local police at the Queensland-NSW border on Tuesday morning.

Inside can be seen Nivea moisturizer, a disposable razor, a Colgate toothbrush, an adidas garment with a $59.99 price tag, his driver's licence, sunglasses, deodorant and what appears to be a packet of Maggi instant noodles.

A 'Queensland Prisoner Property Sheet' is also seen, on which is written in texta, 'Watch and cash in safe'.

A large plastic bag labelled 'Baluch' was seen in the hands of a NSW police detective on the tarmac at Gold Coast Airport, its contents revealing the alleged escapee was carrying a grab-bag of bare essentials

Baluch - dubbed 'Australia's Pablo Escobar' by NSW Police Minister David Elliott - was on PolAir6 Cessna Grand Caravan for the flight from Coolangatta to Sydney's Bankstown Airport yesterday

Baluch spent a night in the Southport watchhouse on the Gold Coast following his stunning discovery inside a container on the back of a truck in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

After extradition was granted in Southport Magistrates Court, Baluch - dubbed 'Australia's Pablo Escobar' by NSW Police Minister David Elliott - was on PolAir6 Cessna Grand Caravan for the flight to Sydney's Bankstown Airport.

He boarded the plane dressed in prison greens and handcuffs fastened to a belt.

Police video released from inside the plane shows the alleged escapee appearing sullen and motionless, barely glancing out the window during the rainy flight out of Coolangatta.

An officer seated to his right appears to be watching him intently for any movement as rain streams down the windows of the plane.

The flight brought to an end a 17-day furlough by the 33-year-old, who had evaded police after allegedly cutting off his ankle bracelet and fleeing Sydney on October 25.

He had been released on bail just days earlier.

The flight brought to an end a 17-day furlough by the 33-year-old, who had evaded police after allegedly cutting off his ankle bracelet and fleeing Sydney on October 25

Baluch had been facing charges on alleged drug offences related to a 900kg shipment of cocaine into Australia with a street value of $270 million.

He had allegedly planned to escape Australia by boat from Far North Queensland before sailing to Indonesia and onto Thailand.

From there, he allegedly planned to fly to Eastern Europe to meet connections.

Baluch's case was mentioned in court on Friday where he did not appear and his lawyer Moustafa Kheir did not apply for bail.

A fresh charge of breaching bail was also laid by NSW Police.

The matter was adjourned and Baluch will reappear on December 1.
NRL star James Tedesco has been fined $10,000 over a night out where he was accused of yelling 'Squid Games' at a woman of Vietnamese descent.

The Sydney Roosters captain allegedly shouted the reference to the hit South Korean Netflix series at Tiffany Trinh, 20, outside Bondi's Beach Road Hotel last month.

That sparked an NRL Integrity Unit investigation, which didn't prove any allegations of racist behaviour. He was instead fined for drunken behaviour.

Ms Trinh previously said she was waiting with a friend for a lift home when she was approached by Tedesco and a group of friends.

'It was a group of about ten footy boys, and I was pretty intimidated,' she told Sydney Morning Herald.

'A 20-year-old tiny girl, waiting for a lift home and you have a bunch of guys come up to you and laugh at you for being Asian.'

The NRL Integrity Unit could not substantiate an allegation Roosters captain James Tedesco made a racist remark, but fined him for drunken behaviour (pictured, Tedesco with partner Maria Glinellis)

Ms Trinh later told her family when her outraged sister penned an open letter to the NRL skipper and posted it to her Instagram

Ms Trinh later told her family when her outraged sister Katherine penned an open letter to the NRL skipper and posted it to her Instagram.

'You don't know me, or my family. However, last night you felt compelled to say "squid game" at my sister when you walked past her outside of Beach Road in Bondi,' Katherine claimed.

'She was shocked, and in the moment, was too embarrassed to say anything because you were with a group of footy players. However, her friend called you out on it and you responded, "Do you know who I am?"'

Ms Trinh's sister called Tedesco entitled and said he needed to be held accountable for his actions.

'A quick Google, shows you are quite the footy player, and even represented our home state! No doubt, you are a role model to many. As such, you need to be held accountable for your words and actions.'

The Roosters defended its star player and claimed that Tedesco (pictured with partner Maria Glinellis) had been discussing the hit Korean television show with friends within earshot of Ms Trinh

The social media post prompted The Roosters to launch an investigation into the matter.

The club has defended its star player and claimed that Tedesco had been discussing the hit Korean television show with friends within earshot of Ms Trinh.

'After we found out about the Instagram post we thoroughly investigated the matter,' Roosters chief executive Joe Kelly said.

'There was absolutely no interaction between James Tedesco with this group of people. We categorically deny that anything untoward occurred.'

Daily Mail Australia contacted the Roosters for comment.

The NRL has revealed it will be launching its own investigation into the matter.
An attorney for the founder of Project Veritas has accused the Department of Justice of tipping off the New York Times about recent raids on current and former employees, while suggesting federal prosecutors may have also leaked the group's legal communications.

Project Veritas, the conservative activist group founded by James O'Keefe, has come under federal scrutiny in relation to the alleged theft of the diary of President Joe Biden's daughter Ashley, which the group considered publishing but never did.

The FBI conducted raids at O'Keefe's New York home and those of others connected to Project Veritas early Saturday morning, seizing two of O'Keefe's cell phones, among other items.

Days later, on Thursday, the New York Times published a report based on memos from the group's lawyer, revealing his legal advice on the group's use of false identities and undercover filming, tactics that are eschewed by most modern journalists.

Later that day, a federal judge ordered the DOJ to stop extracting data from the phones, granting a request from O'Keefe's legal team made the day before for an independent party to be appointed to oversee the review of the confiscated devices.

O'Keefe's attorney Harmeet Dhillon in an interview on Thursday night slammed the Times' report as a 'hit piece' and questioned whether the DOJ had leaked the legal memos to the Times, an extraordinary and possibly illegal step.

'I can't say how the New York Times got this information, but they got it in a way that is illegal and unethical,' Dhillon told Fox News.

Joined @TuckerCarlson on @FoxNews tonight re FBI raid of James OKeefes home, to which @nytimes was tipped off. Now theyre publishing privileged docs, while the DOJ was ordered to stop extracting data from his phone until further review. #ProjectVeritas pic.twitter.com/WA1pjxoNwK  Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 12, 2021

(2/2): Journalists deserve to be protected from the thuggish and unconstitutional behavior that the #Biden administration and the DOJ have exhibited in this case. pic.twitter.com/rp0kV9Ns1A  Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 12, 2021

Attorney Harmeet Dhillon in an interview on Thursday night slammed the Times report as a 'hit piece' and questioned whether the DOJ had leaked the legal memos

The FBI conducted raids at O'Keefe's New York home and those of others connected to Project Veritas, seizing O'Keefe's cell phone among other items

'We have a disturbing situation of the US Attorney's office or the FBI tipping off the New York Times to each of the raids on Project Veritas current and former employees,' Dhillon said.

'We know that because minutes after these raids occurred they got calls from the New York Times which was the only journalism outlet that knew about it. And they published this hit piece today, which is really despicable. I don't think I've ever seen this low from the New York Times before, to publish people's private legal communications,' she added.

'This is a scandal of epic proportions. Every journalist who is not worried about this should hang up their journalism card, and all First Amendment lawyers as well,' said Dhillon.

Dhillon also hailed District Court Judge Analisa Torres for her Thursday ruling, calling it a 'temporary victory' amid the federal bodies' alleged misconduct - but added that her team was a long way off from holding the FBI and DOJ accountable for the alleged leak.

Dhillon hailed District Court Judge Analisa Torres for her ruling Thursday that halted the DOJ's review of two iPhones confiscated from her client, calling it a 'temporary victory' - but added that her team was a long way off from holding the FBI and DOJ accountable for the alleged leak

'We are gratified that the Department of Justice has been ordered to stop extracting and reviewing confidential and privileged information obtained in their raids of our reporters, including legal, donor, and confidential source communications.

'The First Amendment won a temporary victory today, but Project Veritas has a long way to go to hold the DOJ and FBI accountable for their actions.'

Dhillon added that the federal government seizing any data from Project Veritas' employees containing donor information, communications with attorneys and sources from within the Biden administration raise 'multiple First Amendment issues.'

'We went to the court and asked the court to order a special master to review this information and not let the Southern District of New York prosecutors and the FBI look at it without somebody separating out this information.' Dhillon told Tucker Carlson.

'The government would not agree to do that voluntarily but we went to court and today a federal judge did order the government to stop looking at these phones. So ultimately, we're going to get some answers as to what was reviewed and what they did with it.'

The attorney went on to say that the justice department broke the law with the probe into her client, ignoring their own set regulations, and called federal agents' actions 'thuggish.'

'The DOJ has specific regulations about this. There's also a federal statute called the Privacy Protection Act that protects journalists and their information from exactly this type of thuggish behavior that the DOJ has done in this case.

'They have blown federal law, they blown the Constitution, they blown due process and civil rights and now they're so easily communicating in some level for sure with the New York Times,' Dhillon added.

According to the order, the DOJ must prove to the court by Friday that it has halted its review of O'Keefe's two iPhones, with the devices not to be touched until an independent party, referred to as a 'special master' in the document, is appointed to look through them.

A 'special master' is a legal term for a person appointed by a court to carry out an action on its behalf.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com outside of business hours on Friday.

The Times report quotes legal advice that attorney Benjamin Barr gave Project Veritas about the laws surrounding covert recordings and deceptive false identities in various situations and jurisdictions.

In one case, he consulted on a plan to use Tinder to 'meet prospective agents of the Deep State or those with national security clearances' and advised against attempting to obtain or publish any information related to national security.

Attorney Harmeet Dhillon calls the New York Times report a 'hit piece' and 'really despicable'

On Thursday, the New York Times published a report based on memos from the lawyer advising Project Veritas, revealing his legal advice to the group

In another, he warned that attempting to use a false identity to enter campaign events where the Secret Service vets attendees could result in federal charges of lying to a government agent.

The Times has its own longstanding feud with Project Veritas, after the conservative group published a series of undercover tapes of Times employees in 2017.

The conservative group describes itself as a journalism outlet dedicated to setting the record straight amid widespread liberal media bias, but critics say that its hidden camera tactics and selective editing are beyond the pale.

On Saturday, the FBI raided O'Keefe's home as part of its investigation into Ashley Biden's stolen diary.

Project Veritas did not publish the diary, but the group says it did discuss it with sources in the waning days of the 2020 election.

Portions of the diary were published by another conservative outlet, which said they were provided by a frustrated employee of a media outlet that passed on them.

On Saturday, the FBI raided O'Keefe's home as part of its investigation into Ashley Biden's stolen diary

A Manhattan apartment building that was among the raid sites is seen above

The mainstream media and other conservative outlets largely ignored the publication of the diary, which was highly personal.

Authorities raided O'Keefe's Westchester County residence in Mamaroneck just a day after O'Keefe himself acknowledged Project Veritas was being probed.

'I woke up to a pre-dawn raid, banging on my door. I went to my door to answer the door and there were ten FBI agents with a battering ram, white blinding lights, they turned me around, handcuffed me and threw me against the hallway,' he told Fox News.

'They confiscated my phone. They raided my apartment. On my phone were many of my reporters' notes. A lot of my sources unrelated to this story and a lot of confidential donor information to our news organization.'

'I've heard ''the process is the punishment.'' I didn't really understand what that meant until this weekend. I wouldn't wish this on any journalist,' O'Keefe said.

'If they can do this to me, if they can do it to any journalist.'
Dramatic footage has shown the moment a 65-year-old man was shot dead by New York City police after he approached officers waving a gun and reportedly shouted: 'You're not gonna stop me.'

Motorists driving along the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, watched in horror as the confrontation played out and ducked behind their cars after a barrage of more than 20 bullets were fired.

The incident began at around 4pm when a cop attempted to pull over a Jeep Cherokee near the Bay 8th St exit.

The driver sped away east on the parkway, and the officer followed in pursuit.

A driver live streamed the incident in Brooklyn on Thursday

Two police officers, guns drawn, can be seen challenging the gunman who approached them

The Jeep Cherokee can be seen speeding away from the traffic stop

'The officer followed the car and positioned her unmarked car in front of his vehicle,' said Rodney Harrison, NYPD Chief of Department.

'The male then rear ended the officer's car in the vicinity of the Verrazzano Bridge and continued east, driving on the Belt Parkway without stopping.'

Audio from police scanners recorded the officers requesting backup.

A second Highway Unit vehicle responded, and the Jeep was pulled over at the Bay Parkway exit about a mile away.

The driver then got out the vehicle, waving a gun and approached the police.

The Jeep Cherokee, with its door open, can be seen surrounded by officers when it was finally pulled over

Adam Butler, who pulled over after police shut down the busy highway, told CBS New York: 'The gentleman said, 'You're not gonna stop me. You have to let me go, you have to let me go.'

'And at some point when he raised the gun high enough, I think the cops had to at least get him on the ground.

'He was rolling on the ground. Even after being shot, he was still attempting to shoot back.

'They weren't trying to use deadly force, but he was actively trying to shoot.

'He was raising the weapon trying to shoot back. What are you supposed to do after that?'

There was a barrage of at least 16 gunshots, followed by a pause, then another shot, then another pause, then another two.

Several seconds passed before two more shots were heard.

One witness ducked behind his car as he streamed a live feed of the shooting on Instagram.

People driving along the highway livestreamed the shooting

The 65-year-old could be seen lying in the road after his fatal encounter with the police

The shooting caused a large tailback along the Belt Parkway - a major artery around Brooklyn

NYPD released a photo of the gun recovered at the scene

Rodney Harrison (center), the NYPD Chief of Department, said his officers had little choice but to take down the man waving the gun and 'stop the threat'

Harrison said: 'The subject continued to advance towards the officers, at which time two officers fired multiple rounds at the individual, striking him several times.'

He was taken to Lutheran Hospital, CBS reported, where he later died. He has not been named.

His gun was recovered at the scene, and he had seven prior arrests.

Investigators are looking into whether the man wanted to commit 'suicide by cop,' sources told the Daily News.

'Listen it's a dangerous situation,' said Harrison.

"It's unfortunate there had to be a negative ending but we did what we had to do to stop the threat.'
A Republican candidate for the US Senate in Ohio defended an ad attacking his Jewish opponent's 'Christian values' after it was criticized for being anti-Semitic.

Mark Pukita, an IT entrepreneur and candidate in the crowded Ohio Republican primary, spoke Thursday night at a candidate forum where he was confronted about the ad, which refers to frontrunner and former Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel.

In it, a voice asks: 'Are we seriously supposed to believe the most Christian values Senate candidate is Jewish?'

Pukita defended the ad when asked to respond to claims that it was anti-Semitic at the forum, which was held by the Ohio Press Network at North Columbus Baptist Church.

'In terms of anti-Semitism, all I did in an ad was pointed out that Josh is going around saying he's got the Bible in one hand and the Constitution in the other. But he's Jewish,' Pukita said. 'Everybody should know that though, right?'

Watch the ad below

Ohio Senate candidate and IT entrepreneur Mark Pukita, who has been criticized for a radio ad that has been called anti-Semitic

Pukita's ad features a questioning of fellow candidate Josh Mandel, who is Jewish, for courting the Christian and Evangelical vote

Former Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel

Pukita was uninvited from a forum hosted by a Christian group after the ad was deemed anti-Semitic.

At the time, Pukita slammed claims of anti-Semitism.

'Mark Pukita is absolutely, unequivocally, undeniably a complete supporter of religious tolerance and of Israel,' said Robert Gray, a campaign spokesperson, in a statement. 'He is not a supporter of phonies and panderers.'

Pukita tweeted a response to the controversy at the forum later Thursday.

'I'm anti-facade, not anti-Semitic,' he said. 'Josh is a complete facade. A caricature. An actor. He's going to Evangelical churches, talking about making decisions with the Constitution in one hand, the Bible in the other. That's not something to question?'

Pukita tweeted a response to the controversy at the forum later Thursday

Businessman Bernie Moreno (pictured above) immediately condemned Pukita's remarks once it was his turn to speak

Pukita was uninvited to the Center for Christian Virtue candidate forum (pictured above) where fellow candidates former Republican Party chair Jane Timken, state Sen. Matt Dolan, investment banker Mike Gibbons, author JD Vance, former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, and Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno

'Hilbilly Elegy' author JD Vance, himself a candidate, did not appear at the event

Bernie Moreno, the next Republican candidate to speak, quickly trashed Pukita's remarks.

'Josh, nobody should question your faith. That's not right,' Moreno said. 'The Jewish religion, the Bible is the Bible. That was hard to hear. I'm sorry about that. That's not right. We're better than that, guys.'

Mandel is currently seen as the leader in the 11-way primary to replace retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman.

'Hilbilly Elegy' author and fellow candidate JD Vance did not attend the event, nor did former Ohio Republican Party chair and candidate Jane Timken.

Former President Donald Trump has not yet endorsed a candidate in the race.
A Beefeater who lives at the Tower of London has revealed estate agents asked if he would sell his home.

Spike Abbott, who guards the historic castle with around 36 others, said Foxtons sent a letter showing interest in his 12th Century house.

But the Yeoman Warder, 59, warned the London-based firm its for sale sign would 'raise a few eyebrows' if placed outside the fortress.

The Beefeaters are the oldest existing military corp and oldest of the royal bodyguards in the country.

In recent years the former soldiers have proved popular with tourists as a reminder of Britain's history, but they are still tasked with the protecting the castle.

Spike Abbott (pictured), who guards the historic castle with around 36 others, said Foxtons sent a letter showing interest in his 12th Century house

But the Yeoman Warder, 59, warned the London-based firm its for sale sign would 'raise a few eyebrows' if placed outside the fortress

Mr Abbott, who is battling Covid, tweeted Foxtons' letter to 'the legal owner' of one of the homes in The Casemates, which sit in the outer rampart of the tower.

He wrote: 'Thanks for the very kind offer @foxtons to sell or rent out the 12th century property that HM Tower of London provide me with.

'However, I think it may raise a few eyebrows when your sign appears outside my house @WappingLondon.'

He shared the post with a picture of the view from his house looking towards Tower Bridge.

The letter is understood to have been sent by the Wapping Sales and Lettings branch of Foxtons.

It said 'we are valuing property in your area next week' before offering a 'professional opinion of the sales or rental value of your property in the current market' with 'no strings attached.'

It added that the estate agents would stick by Covid protocols when calling in for a valuation.

He shared the post with a picture of the view from his house looking towards Tower Bridge (pictured)

Mr Abbott, who is battling Covid, tweeted Foxtons' letter to 'the legal owner' of one of the homes in The Casemates (pictured), which sit in the outer rampart of the tower

Mr Abbott is a former RAF serviceman who swapped his wings for the classic red Tudor uniform when he started working at the tower six years ago.

Formerly of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, he joined 36 other Yeoman Warders living out their retirement as full-time custodians of the castle.

Yeoman Warders are descended from the ancient band of warders who guarded the tower's gates and royal prisoners, as well as the Crown Jewels.

Only ex-servicemen with at least 22 years under their belt can take on the role, which nowadays also involves showing tourists around the London attraction.

Mr Abbott joined the RAF in 1980 and was stationed at RAF Abingdon the following year, where he worked with aircraft salvage and transportation.

In 1983 he moved to Germany with 20 Squadron working as a mechanic on Jaguar planes.

In 1988 he was stationed at RAF Lyneham in 47 Hercules Squadron as a loadmaster, helping with cargo and refuelling.

The Beefeaters live in The Casemates in the outer rampart of the historic Tower of London (pictured)

The Tower of London was built by William the Conqueror in the 1070s and is now owned by the Queen

He later moved to RAF Brize Norton in 1992, working with Vickers VC10s as part of a support crew - and later on with 99 Squadron as a loadmaster on the C17s.

He reached the rank of Master Aircrewman before retiring in April 2015.

At the time he started as a Yeoman Warder, he said: 'It's great to continue serving the sovereign and it's fantastic living in the heart of London in such a vibrant area.

'I'm living in a two-bedroom flat in a converted hospital block with all the other Beefeaters. It's got a village feel. We even have our own pub, the Yeoman's Club.'

His wife Lisa, 57, joined him at the central London flat while son Luke, 30, remained in Abingdon.

He added: 'My wife can be a lady of leisure when she comes here. She can't wait to get here and start experiencing London life.'

The Tower of London was built by William the Conqueror in the 1070s and is now owned by the Queen.

It was Henry VIII who decreed that Yeoman Warders must guard the building permanently.

Foxtons has been contacted for comment.

The oldest existing military corp and royal bodyguards: The origins of Yeoman Warders The Yeoman Warders were formed in 1485 by the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, after the Battle of Bosworth. It is the oldest existing military corp and oldest of the royal bodyguards. Henry VIII decided that the Tower should be protected by part of the royal bodyguard after he moved his official resident away in 1509. These 'Yeoman Warders' were eventually granted the right to wear the splendid red uniform, which today is known as the state dress uniform and is worn on state occasions such as the monarch's birthday. The more durable everyday dark blue 'undress' uniform was introduced in the 19th century. The state dress uniform is worn on state occasions such as the monarch's birthday Yeoman Warders are a detachment of the 'Yeomen of the Guard' and they have formed the Royal Bodyguard since at least 1509. Their origins stretch back as far as the reign of Edward IV (1461-83) As of 2018, there were 37 Yeoman Warders and on Chief Warder and their role is primarily ceremonial - greeting and guiding visitors. Yeomen Warders participate in the Ceremony of the Keys each night - an ancient ritual when the main gates are locked for the night. It is one of the oldest extant military ceremonies in the world. The first female Yeoman Warder in the history of the institution, Moira Cameraon, was hired in 2007. Advertisement

Plans for skyscraper which would overshadow Tower of London rejected

Proposed skyscraper would have been second tallest building in western Europe

It was anticipated The Tulip would have attracted 1.2 million visitors per year

The building would have featured a viewing platform and have rotating pods

Plans for a new skyscraper that would overshadow the Tower of London just half a mile away have been rejected.

The proposed development, dubbed The Tulip, would have been the second tallest building in western Europe after the Shard, also in London, standing 305.3 metres high.

But the building, featuring a viewing platform with rotating pods and a sky bar, would overshadow the World Heritage Site, Historic England said.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, opposed its construction. The Tower of London is pictured above

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, dismissed the application on Thursday.

It was anticipated that The Tulip would have attracted 1.2 million visitors per year, but the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, opposed its construction.

A spokesman for the mayor said: 'The mayor is delighted that the secretary of state has dismissed this appeal outright, agreeing that the Tulip Tower would be the wrong type of building for central London and that it would have a negative, long-term impact on London's skyline.

'Sadiq has long argued that the proposed tower would be little more than a concrete lift shaft with a viewing gallery at the top, offering very little in terms of benefits for Londoners, with no new office space or housing.'

In the rejected application from Brazil's J Safra Group and Foster + Partners, The Tulip, which was to stand next to the Gherkin, in the City of London, was imagined as being a 'hub for culture, business and learning'.

The proposed development, dubbed The Tulip, would have been the second tallest building in western Europe after the Shard, also in London, standing 305.3 metres high

Chief executive of Historic England, Duncan Wilson, said: 'We have always opposed the proposal, mainly due to the impact it would have on the Tower of London, and so are pleased with this decision.

'We have long been of the opinion that the Tulip would be visually intrusive and highly incongruous from key viewpoints of the Tower, detracting from the experience of visiting the site for millions of tourists and Londoners.

'It is also our view that it would harm the extraordinary significance of the Tower of London as a World Heritage Site, and therefore the proposals ran contrary to local and national planning policies.

'We welcome this outcome, which will help to protect one of the world's great historic monuments that has provided a stage for our shared history for over 900 years.'
Black Lives Matter today became the latest group to demand Oxford University hands back 12.3million of 'dirty' money from the Mosley family.

As the row over cash given to St Peter's and Lady Margaret Hall following the death Max Mosley, BLM has said the university should not take money from 'violent racists'.

The UK wing of BLM has written to Oxford's vice-chancellor and to the master of St Peter's College hours after the Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said Oxford must explain to Jewish students why it accepted money from the Mosley charitable trust.

'We have written in protest laying out what we rightfully and morally expect Oxford and St Peter's to do,' a BLM spokesman said.

'We wrote to tell them in essence that the Mosley money should be returned. No university should touch money belonging to fascists and racists, especially violent racists'.

The university was given 6million from a charitable trust set up by motor-racing tycoon Max Mosley from the inheritance he received from his father, Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, the Telegraph reported.

The newspaper also revealed two colleges, St Peter's College and Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) previously accepted more than 6.3 million from the Mosley family trust.

The UK wing of BLM has written to Oxford's vice-chancellor and to the master of St Peter's College telling them to hand back any Mosley cash

Oxford University has been accused of a 'moral failure' after accepting millions in donations from a trust set up by Max Mosley, pictured in 2011, to house the fortune he inherited from his Fascist leader father

Oxford was given 6million from a charitable trust set up by the former Formula 1 tycoon for the inheritance he received from his father Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists

Oxford academics have called on students to launch a 'Mosley Must Fall' campaign and urged the Government and Charity Commission to intervene after the university accepted millions in donations from a Max Mosley trust set up to house the fortune inherited from his Fascist leader father

Nadhim Zahawi warned that antisemitism is a 'present danger' and 'not simply a historic debate' as he said Oxford should explain to Jewish students why it accepted money from the Mosley family fortune

The Sunday Telegraph added Imperial College was given almost 2.5 million from the trust, and University College London 500,000.

Nadhim Zahawi warned yesterday that anti-Semitism is a 'present danger' and 'not simply a historic debate' as the row over the cash continues.

Mr Zahawi was asked how Oxford could repair relations with Jewish students over the Mosley money, and he told the Telegraph: 'By reaching out and making sure they consult and explain the decision-making process that took place for them to have landed on this donation.'

The newspaper said Mr Zahawi added: 'I would expect our great seats of learning like Oxford to be quite capable of dealing with these issues in an appropriate and sensitive way.'

Mr Zahawi, who was speaking from Auschwitz, told the Telegraph: 'Let me be very clear. Antisemitism is not simple a historic debate, it is a present danger and a scourge that exists, sadly, on our campuses.'

Both Oxford colleges said the donations were subject to a 'robust' review process, while Imperial college said all gifts were subject to 'thorough due diligence processes', according to the papers.

Professor Lawrence Goldman, emeritus fellow in history at St Peter's, said the money was 'essentially tainted and dirty'.

Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, he said: 'Oxford has lots of money and can continue to get money from other sources, it does all the time, and I don't really buy the argument that because you can do some good in Oxford, you should just continue to hold on to what is essentially tainted and dirty money.'

Max Mosley with his mother Lady Mosley and father Sir Oswald Mosley - leader of the British Union of Fascists - in 1962

The Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust (AMCT) was named after Max Mosley's son, an alumnus of St Peter's College who died of a heroin overdose in 2009.

Some 6 million received by Oxford University will go towards the creation of the Alexander Mosley Professor of Biophysics Fund, while a 5 million donation will go to St Peter's College to build a new block of student accommodation, the Telegraph reported.

Initially, the block was to be called Alexander Mosley House but the college has confirmed a name will now be chosen through an internal consultation involving students.

Meanwhile, an Imperial College London spokeswoman said: 'These charitable donations support medical research into new therapies for treatment-resistant depression and other serious mental health conditions.

'Like all gifts, they are subject to Imperial's thorough due diligence processes.'
Advertisement

Climate activists have been slammed as 'idiots' after deflating the tyres of 60 'gas-guzzling luxury cars' including Range Rovers and other 4x4 vehicles parked in one of Glasgow's wealthiest districts during COP26.

The group - which calls itself 'Tyred of SUVs' - said it let down tyres of the sport utility vehicles in the West End of the city, which were owned by local residents rather than attendees of the climate change conference in Glasgow.

Police Scotland said it had put on 'increased patrols in the area to provide reassurance to local residents', but also confirmed no arrests have been made and refused to tell MailOnline whether any further action will be taken.

The protesters placed fake 'climate violation' flyers on windscreens which were made to look like parking tickets, and condemned motorists for being part of a trend of 'unnecessary luxury lifestyle choices in rich countries'.

The fluorescent yellow posters stated: 'Your SUV contributes to the second biggest cause of carbon emissions rises in the last decade. This is why we have disarmed your car by deflating one or more of its tyres.'

The campaigners, who are among thousands of protesters who have travelled to Glasgow over the past fortnight to take part in demonstrations, added on the flyer: 'Action is required from you: Go small. Go public transport.'

It is not clear what offence any of the activists - if identified - could be arrested or charged with under Scottish law, although one possibility is vandalism under the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995.

This legislation states under section 52 that 'any person who, without reasonable excuse, wilfully or recklessly destroys or damages any property belonging to another shall be guilty of the offence of vandalism'.

Those convicted of this offence in a district court can be imprisoned for a maximum of 60 days or given a fine of up to 1,000. In a sheriff court they could be sent to prison for up to three months or given a fine of 10,000.

The average house price in Glasgow West End - the area targeted - over the last year was 270,561 according to RightMove, which was 70,753 or 35 per cent more than the average price across the whole city of 199,808.

Tyred of SUVs have 'strongly denied' damaging any tyres - which have to be pumped back up - and insisted that 'deflation via the valve is by far the quickest and easiest way to deflate a tyre, and leaves the tyre intact'.

RAC road safety spokesman Simon Williams told MailOnline: 'Providing a vehicle hasn't been driven on flat tyres and there's no damage caused to the tyres or valves, they should just be able to be pumped up without issue.

'If, however, a car is driven with one or more flat tyres it can cause damage. There's also a far greater risk of a vehicle being involved in an accident due to the negative effect on steering and braking.'

Jack Cousens, the AA's head of roads policy, added: 'Letting down tyres is for the most part just a big irritation but there will be occasions when delaying health professionals and other people with essential jobs is irresponsible.

'It has to be remembered that Scotland's bad weather and more rural landscape outside the cities often makes a larger 4x4-type vehicle essential.'

Tyred of SUVs is made up of breakaway activists from Glasgow Calls Out Polluters (GCOP), a group of fossil fuel divestment campaigners who formed after the city was announced in August 2019 as the COP26 host location.

GCOP is not thought to be directly linked to Insulate Britain, a group of eco zealots who have blocked roads on 19 days since September 13, causing misery for drivers stuck around London, Manchester, Birmingham and Dover.

At least 161 people have been involved in the roadblock protests over the past two months and there have been at least 860 arrests. Up to 32 of the group's activists face up to two years in jail for breaching a High Court injunction.

It comes as COP26 ends today with the fate of a landmark global agreement on climate change hanging in the balance with major coal producing countries such as India and Russia demanding that it be watered down.

Climate activists have deflated the tyres of 60 'gas-guzzling luxury cars' parked in the West End of Glasgow yesterday

A Mercedes G-Wagon with tyres deflated by activists in protest at their carbon emissions is pictured in Glasgow last night

The group said the tyres of the sport utility vehicles in the West End of Glasgow were let down during its action yesterday

The protesters placed fake 'climate violation' flyers on windscreens yesterday which were made to look like parking tickets

The summit is expected to have a carbon footprint twice as large as the last conference on climate change, making it the most carbon-intensive summit of its kind, according to a preliminary report for the UK Government by consultants Arup which states 102,500 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) is due to be released by the event.

And there has been criticism of long flights taken by world leaders and business magnates including Amazon's Jeff Bezos whose 48million Gulf Stream led a 400-strong parade of private jets into COP26 a fortnight ago, including those belonging to Prince Albert of Monaco, scores of royals and dozens of 'green' chief executives.

What to do if your vehicle tyre has been deflated Climate activists at 'Tyred of SUVs' say they deflated the tyres, and did not damage them. They insisted that 'deflation via the valve is by far the quickest and easiest way to deflate a tyre, and leaves the tyre intact'. But a flat tyre needs to be pumped up before driving away because this could otherwise damage the wheels. Halford recommends removing the cap and inserting an LED tyre pressure gauge into the valve, which displays pressure in PSI (pound force per square inch). You can then compare the measured PSI to the recommended PSI of your tyres. This can be established by checking the numbers on the sidewall of the tyre, to give its size. This can then be compared against the recommended pressures, which will be in the owner's manual and often on the inside of the driver's door sill or the fuel cap. You can then top up the pressure using a tyre inflator, by removing the value caps and press the hose fitting down on the valve. Then press the lever, or, if the hose has a screw fitting, screw until tight. Once the inflator is turned on, you should feel air flowing through the hose. The gauge will show when the correct pressure has been reached. You should then recheck the pressures with the digital gauge, and put the valve caps back on. Advertisement

GCOP have been involved in various protests over the past fortnight and joined with Extinction Rebellion on Monday to block a busy road by chaining themselves to bicycles in the city, leading to 16 arrests.

Among the motorists affected by the protests was pharmacist Jamie MacConnacher, who discovered the two front tyres of his Land Rover had been deflated yesterday morning  along with several other cars in the local area.

He told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme: 'I don't think targeting individuals that have these vehicles is the right way to do it. They don't know what the reason for somebody having that car is.

'I understand that there is a need for change, I'm totally for that. I would have an electric car but it's the logistics in the West End of Glasgow. There's nowhere to charge outside your flat so it just doesn't work for me.'

Solicitor and mother Lucy Conn, 31, who lives in Glasgow's West End, said she found her tyres had been deflated after leaving her house at about 12.30pm yesterday to go on the nursery run.

But she said her car was unfairly targeted because it is a two-wheel car with a 1.6 litre engine  and not an SUV.

Ms Conn added that the tyres of her neighbour's car, which has a 1.2 litre engine, had also been deflated.

She told The Scotsman: 'I thought it was a bit mean given there were two car seats in the back of the car  it's obviously not a car for one person. It is always normal folk that get the brunt of it.'

Tyred of SUVs later apologised for this specific incident, telling the newspaper: 'Our intention was to target SUVs only. If Ms Conn's car was targeted by our group, we apologise.

'The mistake may have been due to the fact that more and more non-SUVs are being designed to look like SUVs  apparently, climate destruction is fashionable.'

Other motorists hit by the action took to social media to air their frustration, including Victoria Young who tweeted: 'To the idiots who did this to my car as I'm trying to get to Paisley High Court this morning.

The campaigners wrote at the bottom of the flyers on cars: 'Action is required from you: Go small. Go public transport'

Tyred of SUVs, which left the above leaflets on car windscreens yesterday, have 'strongly denied' damaging any tyres

'Did it ever occur to you that the driver might have to use their vehicle in an emergency? It's being reported to Police Scotland.'

The average house price in Glasgow West End - the area targeted (and circled) - over the last year was 270,561

One member of Tyred of SUVs, known only as Fin, told the BBC: 'We feel we need to do this because we need to point to the people who are responsible - rich people in the global north.

'This is a minor inconvenience that is not going to disrupt them in a huge way. What is really going to disrupt people's lives and kill them is the climate crisis caused by rich people - basically SUV owners.'

Tyred of SUVs said that no tyres were damaged in the action. A spokesman for the group said: 'If 44 drivers were a nation, they'd be the 7th biggest polluters on the planet (Source: International Energy Agency).

'If the 1 per cent won't take responsibility for the climate destruction they wreak, we'll make them.'

A Police Scotland spokesman told MailOnline: 'We are aware of these incidents and there will be increased patrols in the area to provide reassurance to local residents.'

COP26 'had carbon footprint TWICE as big as last conference': Preliminary report finds 102,500 tonnes of CO2 was pumped into atmosphere due to Glasgow summit... compared to 51,101 from Madrid in 2019

Report states 102,500 tonnes of CO2 equivalent is due to be released by summit

Around 60% is from international flights taken by world and business leaders

Jeff Bezos led a 400-strong parade of private jets into Cop26 a fortnight ago

Findings come as conference nears the end of its second full week in Glasgow

By KATIE WESTON FOR MAILONLINE

Cop26 is expected to have a carbon footprint twice as large as the last conference on climate change, making it the most carbon-intensive summit of its kind.

A preliminary report for the UK Government by consultants Arup states 102,500 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) is due to be released by the summit in Glasgow.

This comes in comparison to 51,101 tCO2e from Cop25 in Madrid in 2019.

Around 60 per cent is produced by international flights taken by world leaders and business magnates including Amazon's Jeff Bezos, said The Scotsman newspaper.

His 48million Gulf Stream led a 400-strong parade of private jets into Cop26 a fortnight ago, including those belonging to Prince Albert of Monaco, scores of royals and dozens of 'green' CEOs.

The findings come as Cop26 nears the end of its second full week in Glasgow, with more than 30,000 people expected to attend the conference.

US President Joe Biden is pictured boarding Air Force One at Edinburgh Airport after attending the UN Climate Change Conference Cop26 on November 2

Boris Johnson, who was condemned after returning to London last Tuesday via private jet, is pictured arriving at the Cop26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow on November 10

The UK Government said this year's summit is the largest climate change conference so far, and the Arup report includes emissions from both the blue and green zones.

The Arup report said its figure of 102,500 tCO2e represented 'the best working assessment of the emissions from the event'.

Commenting on the report, Greenpeace UK's Dr Doug Parr said: 'The meeting in Glasgow is not supposed to be a demonstration of sustainable lifestyles, and it shouldn't be judged in those terms.

'But the failure to reach any meaningful agreement about limiting aviation's vast carbon emissions - at a conference where 60% of their emissions came from aviation, with a backing chorus of media outrage at the private jet hypocrisy of the elites - really highlights the lack of equity in these talks.

'Creating loopholes for the use of the rich not only maintains their disproportionately high emissions, but makes it so much harder to persuade anyone else to cut.'

The total greenhouse gas emissions for Cop25, which was held in Madrid in 2019, stood at 51,101 tCO2e, while at Cop21 in Paris in 2015 the figure was 43,000 tCO2e.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives in Edinburgh, Scotland, to attend COP26 on November 1. Delegates have been asked to consider low-carbon methods of travel to Cop26

French President Emmanuel Macron arrives for Cop26 in Glasgow on November 1. A definitive total of the event's carbon footprint is expected to be published in coming months

Jeff Bezos' Gulfstream private jet - which reportedly cost him 48million - arrives at Prestwick Airport near Glasgow on October 31

Cop15 in Copenhagen in 2009 produced around 26,000 tCO2e of emissions.

Jeff Bezos is accused of being a hypocrite for lecturing COP26 about cutting emissions after flying in on his 48million private jet Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos was accused of hypocrisy after telling world leaders that going to space made him realise 'how thin the globe's atmosphere is' and 'the private sector must also play its part to reduce carbon emissions'. The billionaire has been criticised by Prince William among others for the amount of fossil fuel that space exploration consumes - and arrived at the UN climate change summit in his 48m private jet, fresh from celebrating Microsoft founder Bill Gates' 66th birthday on a superyacht off the coast of Turkey. Billionaire Mr Bezos, who earlier this year made a short journey to space in the first crewed flight of his rocket ship, New Shepard, has pledged $2billion (1.47 billion) for land restoration in Africa, paid as part of the Bezos Earth Fund. He told delegates: 'I was told that seeing the Earth from space changes the lens through which you see the world. But I was not prepared for how much that would be true. Looking back at earth from up there, the atmosphere seems so thin. The world so finite and so fragile. Now in this critical year, and what we all know is the decisive decade, we must all stand together to protect our world.' Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, was among Mr Bezos's critics, calling him a 'hypocrite' and writing: 'Amazon has a carbon footprint larger than most countries.' Advertisement

Arup's seven-page executive summary of the Cop26 carbon management plan notes the 102,500 tCO2e total includes: business travel during pre-event planning; energy, waste, and water use in the accommodation for all blue zone attendees; and operational emissions from emergency service vehicles.

Arup said the figure represented 'the best working assessment of the emissions from the event,' based on planning parameters, carbon reporting for previous Cops, and lessons learnt from the foot-printing of previous similar events.

Flight radar data also shows that some jets have been flying from Glasgow Airport in Paisley, Renfrewshire, to Glasgow Prestwick Airport in South Ayrshire in order to park - a journey of less than 30 miles.

Delegates have been asked to consider low-carbon methods of travel to Cop26.

Mr Johnson was condemned after returning to London from Glasgow last Tuesday via private jet to reportedly attend a function at a men-only private members' club.

Downing Street said the journey was taken with consideration of 'time restraints', but Anneliese Dodds, the Labour party chair, accused Mr Johnson of 'staggering hypocrisy'. When the Prime Minister returned to Glasgow on Wednesday, he did so by train.

Monica Lennon, Scottish Labour's spokeswoman for net zero, energy, and transport, said at the time: 'If Cop26 is to deliver the bold change needed, then those involved should lead by example.

'Travel emissions were always going to be inevitable, but this stark rise will no doubt raise some eyebrows.

'We all have a responsibility to do our part and those setting the rules must be willing to play by them.

'Warm words will ring hollow if they're not matched with action.'

The UK Government has pledged COP26 will be carbon neutral, a promise it aims to uphold via the purchase of UNFCCC-recognised offsets such as certified emission reductions.

It says that Glasgow will be the first COP to achieve validation using the PAS2060 international standard on carbon neutrality, and the 'key priority' of its carbon management plan was to 'reduce and avoid emissions'.

A spokeswoman for the UK Government said: 'As official UNFCCC figures show, Cop26 is a substantially bigger event than other recent Cops, with over 39,000 participants as against nearly 27,000 at Cop25.

MailOnline observed 41 private jets leave in total on November 2 between 2pm and 11pm  the majority of them rental services making it hard to identify who was on board

The US President seen boarding Air Force One at Edinburgh Airport after attending the UN Climate Change Conference Cop26 on November 2

'Cop26 will be a carbon neutral event and will be the first Cop to demonstrate carbon neutrality validation through PAS2060, the internationally recognised standard on carbon neutrality.

'As part of its analysis, the Government has for the first time included both the full blue and green zone impacts, giving a fuller and more accurate picture of emissions from the site.'

The Government said the Arup report is a baseline assessment which would not fully reflect many of the emission-reduction measures, while final emissions will be confirmed following the event.

A definitive total of the event's carbon footprint is expected to be published in coming months, once the data has been received and analysed.

** Were you targeted by the protesters? Please email: tips@dailymail.com **
An American journalist in military-ruled Myanmar has been jailed for 11 years after being found guilty of incitement against the military, unlawful association, and breaching visa rules.

Danny Fenster, 37, the managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar, was sentenced in a junta court on Friday, dealing a blow to US efforts to secure his release.

He is the first Western journalist to be jailed in recent years in Myanmar, where a February 1 coup by the military against an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi ended a decade of tentative steps towards democracy and triggered nationwide protests.

US journalist Danny Fenster, 37, (pictured) the managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar, was found guilty of incitement against the military and jailed for 11 years in a junta court in Myanmar on Friday

Fenster was arrested while trying to leave the country in May to see his family and has since been held in Yangon's notorious Insein prison.

He was charged with additional and more serious offences of sedition and violations of the terrorism act earlier this week, without an explanation by authorities.

Those charges are punishable by a maximum 20 years in prison each and could see him jailed for life.

His magazine, Frontier Myanmar, described the sentences as 'the harshest possible under the law'.

'There is absolutely no basis to convict Danny of these charges,' said Thomas Kean, editor-in-chief of Frontier Myanmar, one of the country's top independent news outlets.

Fenster was charged with additional and more serious offences of sedition and violations of the terrorism act earlier this week, without an explanation by authorities, which could see him jailed for life (pictured, working out of his van in Detroit in 2018)

'Everyone at Frontier is disappointed and frustrated at this decision. We just want to see Danny released as soon as possible so he can go home to his family.'

His family has repeatedly called for his release, saying it was 'heartbroken' about his detention.

Fenster's trial had not been made public and a spokesman for the junta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The sentencing was based on evidence from the junta-appointed information ministry that showed at the time of his arrest Fenster had been working at local outlet, Myanmar Now, which had its licence revoked shortly after the coup, his lawyer, Than Zaw Aung said.

Fenster's team were barred from cross-examining the ministry's permanent secretary, he said, and the court did not consider tax evidence that Fenster had already left the outlet and was working for Frontier for around a year.

His lawyer said his client had not decided whether he would appeal.

Fenster was arrested while trying to leave the country in May to see his family and has since been held in Yangon's notorious Insein prison while the US embassy attempted to secure his release

The American is among dozens of journalists who were detained in Myanmar after protests and strikes erupted following the coup, hampering the military's efforts to consolidate power. Independent media has been accused by the junta of incitement.

The military has squeezed the press since taking power, arresting dozens of journalists critical of its crackdown on dissent, throttling internet access and revoking the licences of local media outlets.

More than 100 journalists have been arrested since the coup, according to Reporting ASEAN, a monitoring group. It says 31 are still in detention.

More than 1,200 civilians have been killed in protests and thousands detained since the coup, according to activists cited by the United Nations.

The United States has been pushing for Fenster's release. The US embassy in Myanmar did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday's verdict.

He is the first Western journalist to be jailed in recent years in Myanmar, where a February 1 coup by the military ended a decade of tentative steps towards democracy and triggered nationwide protests (pictured, protest against the military coup on Feb 22)

The State Department had earlier said his detention was 'profoundly unjust' and 'plain for the world to see', urging the junta to release him immediately.

Myanmar authorities overlooked Fenster in a recent amnesty for hundreds of people detained over anti-junta protests, which included some journalists.

During nearly half a century of harsh rule by the Tatmadaw, as the military is known, news reporting was tightly controlled by the state but Myanmar's media blossomed after the a quasi-civilian government introduced tentative reforms from 2011.

Since the February coup, however, the military has rescinded media licenses, imposed curbs on the internet and satellite broadcasts and arrested dozens of journalists, in what human rights groups have called an assault on the truth.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report in July that Myanmar's rulers had effectively criminalised independent journalism.

The American is among dozens of journalists who were detained in Myanmar after protests and strikes erupted following the coup in which more than 1,200 civilians were killed (pictured, anti-coup protesters run around their burning barricade on March 28)

Frontier Myanmar's publisher, Sonny Swe, who spent eight years in prison during the previous era of military rule, announced Fenster's imprisonment on Twitter under the message: 'A lot of things are going so wrong in this country.'

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said Fenster's jailing was outrageous and intended to send warning messages to the media and the United States.

'The junta's rationale for this outrageous, rights abusing sentence is first to shock and intimidate all remaining Burmese journalists inside Myanmar by punishing a foreign journalist this way,' he said.

'The second message is more strategic, focused on sending a message to the U.S. that the Tatmadaw's generals don't appreciate being hit with economic sanctions and can bite back with hostage diplomacy,' he said.
Advertisement

David Blair served as the Titanic's original second officer

He's infamous as the sailor who was blamed by some for the sinking of the Titanic, but the collection of medals which belonged to David Blair reveal his true heroism.

Blair, from Dundee, Scotland, served as the Titanic's original second officer, but was replaced at the last minute and left the ship in Southampton, saving his life.

In his haste to disembark, however, he forgot to leave a key which was needed in the crow's nest to access binoculars and a telescope.

Frederick Fleet, who was on lookout duty the night the ship sank after hitting an ice berg on April 14, 1912, later testified that the disaster could have been averted if only he'd had binoculars to spot the danger.

As such, Blair is known to history for his unwitting part in the sinking  but the officer had in fact won a series of prestigious medals for his bravery and military service.

Roughly a year after the Titanic sank, Aldridge was serving as first officer on the SS Majestic - another White Star ocean liner - when he swam to the rescue of a drowning man who had thrown himself overboard.

For his bravery, King George V awarded Blair a Sea Gallantry Medal at Buckingham Palace.

He earned further medals during the First World War, when he served with distinction in the navy.

Blair, who was known as Davy, was also commended with an OBE and the Legion d'Honneur  France's highest order of merit.

The medals are being sold tomorrow at auction house Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd, in Devizes, Wiltshire, and are expected to fetch up to 15,000.

Andrew Aldridge, managing director of Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd in Devizes, Wiltshire, which is handling the sale, said that Blair was in fact a 'military hero'.

Blair was replaced at the last minute and left the ship in Southampton, saving his life. In his haste to disembark, however, he forgot to leave a key which was needed in the crow's nest to access binoculars and a telescope

The officer had in fact won a series of prestigious medals for his bravery and military service. The medals are being sold tomorrow at auction house Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd, in Devizes, Wiltshire, and are expected to fetch up to 15,000. Pictured from left to right: Most Excellent Order of the British Empire; Sea Gallantry Medal, G.V.R.; 1914-15 Star; British War and Victory Medals, 1914-1919; Royal Naval Reserve Decoration, G.V.R.; France, Legion d'Honneur

Roughly a year after the Titanic sank, Aldridge was serving as first officer on the SS Majestic - another White Star ocean liner - when he swam to the rescue of a drowning man who had thrown himself overboard. For his bravery, King George V awarded Blair a Sea Gallantry Medal at Buckingham Palace. Above: The citation letter

Blair also won these two medals, the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society Medal and the Royal Humane Society Medal, in bronze

'It's a bit of an unfair label that he has,' said Mr Aldridge.

'Yes he had the binocular box key, however if they had wanted to access the binoculars, naturally there are ways and means to open a box and you don't necessarily need a key.

'So it's a bit of an unfair label that he gained because he was a very worthy, well-decorated military hero.'

Binoculars could have saved Titanic, lookout tells official inquiry During the official US inquiry into the sinking, lookout Fred Fleet said he had previously used binoculars - known as glasses - on the RMS Oceanic, another trans-Atlantic liner. Senator Smith, chair of the inquiry, asked Fleet: 'Suppose you had glasses ... could you have seen this black object [the iceberg] at a greater distance?' Fleet replied: 'We could have seen it a bit sooner.' Asked 'How much sooner?', he said: 'Well, enough to get out of the way.' In David Blair's defence, Mr Aldridge added: 'Blair would have been rushing about tidying up his loose ends before then. 'In his rush it slipped his mind to hand over the key so the fate of the Titanic was in his hands in a round-about way. 'But in terms of blame then you have to look at the captain, EJ Smith. The ship was going too fast in an ice field which he had warnings about.' He continued: 'There was a pair of binoculars on the bridge and a pair for the crows nest because Blair had them just days before. 'But the failure to provide the lookouts with them could have been down to Lightoller not knowing where they were. 'He would have found them had he been able to open the locker. So in the end all the lookouts had were their own eyes.' Advertisement

The auctioneer added: 'That's a fair chestful of medals he's got there,

'You've got to be a fairly brave guy to jump off an ocean liner into the Atlantic to pull someone out of the water, and I think that's a better reflection of him rather than the man who sank the Titanic.

'But as with all these things, he will forever be known as the man who took the binocular box key, because of the enormity of the Titanic disaster and how it is ingrained into our psyches.'

Blair was shuffled off the Titanic's crew when the ship's captain, Edward J. Smith, appointed Henry Wilde as his chief officer.

The original chief officer, William Murdoch, was consequently demoted to first officer, replacing Charles Lightoller, who was himself demoted to second officer.

Blair was therefore left without a posting.

'Basically, Smith was the captain and he wanted his own man on board,' said Mr Aldridge.

'David Blair was the round peg in the square hole, so he moved off the Titanic.'

In a postcard to his sister-in-law before the sinking, Blair lamented the loss of his post.

He wrote: 'Am afraid I shall have to step out to make room for chief officer of the Olympic.

'This is a magnificent ship, I feel very disappointed I am not to make her first voyage I hope eventually to get back to this ship.'

When the ship subsequently sank, duty lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee survived.

At an inquiry, Fleet said that, with binoculars, 'we could have seen it [the iceberg] a bit sooner'.

Asked how much sooner, he added: 'Well, enough to get out of the way.'

Blair held on to his fateful key until his death in 1955, aged 80,

Mr Aldridge said: 'He spoke very little about it, but you found that with a lot of Titanic survivors  they just didn't talk about it.

'And yes, he got off in Southampton, but there were a lot of his friends on that ship and a lot of them didn't make it, so he wasn't one to talk about those experiences at all.'

The seaman's medals, along with citations and other historical documents, are expected to fetch up to 15,000 at auction.

'It's a fantastic lot, what I would call a cross-collectible,' said Mr Aldridge.

'Because what you've got is a fantastic group of medals that celebrate his bravery.

'But most importantly, within those medals, you have a direct link to a man who was a senior officer on the most famous ship of the 20th century.'

After Blair's death, his key passed to his daughter.

It later sold for 90,000 at an auction in 2007 before going up for sale again in 2018 for 18,000.

After Blair's death, his key passed to his daughter. It later sold for 90,000 at an auction in 2007 before going up for sale again in 2018 for 18,000

The seaman's medals, along with citations and other historical documents, are expected to fetch up to 15,000 at auction
A jury in Missouri recommended a sentence of up to 28 years in jail for a man who killed his wife in a fit of rage after her parents moved into their home and he caught her sending sexual text messages to a man in China.

Joseph Elledge was convicted of second-degree murder by the Boone County jury Thursday for killing Mengqi Ji, 28, his wife and the mother of their baby girl, Anna.

The jury of five women and seven men in Columbia, Missouri deliberated for nearly seven hours.

Sentencing by Circuit Judge J. Hasbrouck Jacobs is scheduled for December 17. The judge cannot extend his sentence beyond what the jury recommended.

Joseph Elledge, center, sits in court with his lawyers Scott Rosenblum, right, and Matei Stroescu, Thursday, November 11 before being convicted of second-degree murder

Elledge smiles at family members as he walks into the courtroom before closing arguments in his murder trial on Thursday, November 11, in Columbia, Missouri

Elledge (left) was recommended to 28 years behind bars for the murder of Mengqi Ji (right) his wife and the mother of his young daughter Anna (center)

Elledge had admitted during the trial to burying his wifes body- half-mile from where he proposed to her- and misleading authorities for more than a year about Ji's whereabouts. He reported her missing in October 2019, prompting months of extensive searches. Her remains were found in a park near Columbia, Missouri in March.

On the stand, Elledge said his wife had a temper and they often argued as a way to control the other person's emotions.

Elledge said that in the days before her death, he discovered Ji had been exchanging sexually suggestive messages with a man from China via social media.

But Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Knight explained that combing through videos of Ji and her daughter during his investigation into the case led him to understand that Ji was 'kind, giving and selfless,' unlike her husband.

'Its such a huge waste, that a life like Mengqi would be snuffed out by such a selfish psychopath like the defendant,' Knight said.

Knight had urged the jury to find Elledge guilty of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence, but he said he was satisfied with the second-degree verdict, which requires Elledge to serve at least 85% of his sentence before being eligible for parole.

'I feel good about that under the circumstances with them coming back with murder in the second degree,' Knight said. 'The good thing as far as I'm concerned is that he's going to be incarcerated for a long time.'

Elledge's attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said Elledge and his family were aware during the trial that he was not going to be acquitted but had hoped the jury would convict him of manslaughter, KOMU-TV and KMIZ-TV reported.

'He knew that at the end of the day I wasnt going be asking the jury to return a verdict of not guilty. He certainly wanted to avoid a conviction of murder in the first degree,' said Rosenblum, who added Elledge was grateful he will be eligible for parole.

'He'll be eligible for parole in approximately 20, 21 years I think,' Rosenblum said. 'I guess his mindset at this point is he's grateful for that.'

Rosenblum said he and the family will meet in the next week to discuss whether to appeal the verdict, which the attorney claims he has a good case for.

Knight presents his closing argument during murder trial in Columbia, Missouri on Thursday, November 11

Defense attorney Scott Rosenblum presents his closing argument during murder trial on Thursday November 11. He claims to have a good case to appeal the verdict

Elledge awaits the reading of the verdict in his trial Thursday, November 11, after he admitted to burying his wife's body and misleading authorities for more than a year

An attorney for Ji's family told the Columbia Daily Tribune before the trial started that they didn't plan to provide a statement, but said on Wednesday they were pleased with the prosecutor's efforts.

During closing arguments on Thursday, Knight told the jury that Elledge was a 'stone cold killer' who was guilty of first-degree murder because he intentionally killed his wife.

Nearly a dozen of Ji's friends sat in the court room during the closing arguments with her picture pinned to their shirts, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported.

Rosenblum argued that his client was awkward and made 'unbelievably dumb' decisions after his wife died. But he said Elledge never intended to kill his wife and should never have been charged with murder.

Prosecutors rested their cases on Monday after presenting a week of evidence that detailed the couple's troubled and deteriorating relationship before Ji's death. They argued that Elledge killed his wife to avoid a costly divorce and to stop her from fleeing to China with the couples young daughter.

During his trial, Elledge said Jis death was accidental. He said she fell and hit her head on October 8, 2019, after he pushed her during an argument but was able to get into bed that night. He found her dead in their bed the next morning when he said he panicked, put her body in the trunk of her car and did not report what happened while he tried to decide what to do.

He did not tell anyone about her disappearance.

Ji was found buried in Rock Bridge State Park; Elledge dug her grave half-mile from where he proposed to her

On October 10, with the couples young daughter in the car, Elledge drove to Rock Bridge State Park about 5 miles south of Columbia, where they lived. There, he dug a grave and buried Ji. He then returned home and reported her missing.

Ji moved from China to Missouri to study at the University of Missouri where she earned a masters degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering in December 2014. Elledge was a student at the university when his wife died.

The couple met in 2015 at Nanova, a company that makes dental products, where Ji was Elledge's supervisor.

They began dating the following year and eventually traveled to China, where he asked Jis parents for permission to marry her. The couple married in 2017.

Prosecutors used social media posts, audio tapes and a journal Elledge kept to document the couples volatile relationship. The evidence showed them frequently yelling at each other and arguing, with Elledge often criticizing his wife for her appearance and for how she treated him.

Knight said Elledge recorded reasons why he hated his wife in a journal titled 'Grievances.' And he said Elledge had a notebook that outlined how he should behave toward the media concerning his wifes disappearance.

Elledge looks at a card that chronicles he and his wife's relationship and marriage during cross examination during his murder trial Wednesday, November 10

Elledge looks at a computer screen displaying some of the numerous text messages he and his late wife exchanged while fighting before her death

Elledge also testified that the couples relationship suffered because of tension caused by her parents. Elledge said he initially got along well with Ji's parents but tension arose after they moved from China to live with them after their daughter was born on October 3, 2018.

He said Ji's parents began interfering with their child's care and often spoke Chinese with their daughter, while she translated for him.

Ji's remains are still in the U.S. as their return to China will depend on when Knight approves the release, Ji family attorney Amy Salladay Salladay stated.

Two separate cases stemming from Ji's murder deal with Ji's finances- which amounted to a significant sum of money in her bank account at the time of her death- and a custody case related to Elledge and Ji's daughter.
Advertisement

Hopes for a major deal to limit global temperature increases at Cop26 were in tatters today as plans for a curb on fossil fuels were watered down in the face of opposition from the world's worst polluters.

Leaders at the UN summit in Glasgow today published a new draft of a potential agreement from the Glasgow summit amid warnings that hopes of a new consensus were on 'life support'.

The first draft of the 'cover decision' for the overarching agreement at the summit, published earlier this week, called for countries 'to accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels'.

But a new draft produced today has changed to calling on countries to accelerate the shift to clean energy systems, 'including by rapidly scaling up clean power generation and accelerating the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels'.

The inclusion of a reference to fossil fuels was a first for a UN decision document of this type but was expected to get fierce pushback from some countries like China and India which are heavily reliant on coal - and still may not survive to the final text.

Cop26 president Alok Sharma today urged countries to achieve agreement and identify issues that require 'urgent collective attention'.

'This is our collective moment in history, this is our chance to forge a cleaner, healthier, more prosperous world,' he told the event.

'This is our time to deliver on the high ambition set by our leaders at the start of this summit. We must rise to the occasion.'

Talks went on through the night and look set to overrun from their finish time of Friday evening as negotiators come under pressure to resolve issues around finance for poor countries, fossil fuels, the efforts of countries to cut emissions in the 2020s and rules on carbon markets and transparency.

Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan said: 'It could be better, it should be better, and we have one day left to make it a lot, lot better. Right now the fingerprints of fossil fuel interests are still on the text and this is not the breakthrough deal that people hoped for in Glasgow.'

It came as Nicola Sturgeon demanded Boris Johnson return to Scotland to help a climate deal over the line.

The First Minister said a deal needed 'every shoulder to the wheel' and questioned why the PM returned to London having made a day trip to the Glasgow UN summit on Wednesday.

Mr Johnson made a fleeting visit to Cop26 on Wednesday, but returned to the capital after an awkward 22 minute press conference dominated by Government sleaze questions

The First Minister said a deal needed 'every shoulder to the wheel' and questioned why the PM returned to London having made a day trip to the Glasgow UN summit on Wednesday.

It came after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last night warned that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is 'on life support'.

The summit in Scotland officially ends at 6pm today but there are suggestions that it may not go on into the weekend in search of a viable end product. No Cop in the past decade has finished on time.

Ms Sturgeon told Sky News: 'In these final hours, the Prime Minister if necessary should come back here and drive this deal over the line.'

Asked if she was calling for Boris Johnson to come to Glasgow, Ms Sturgeon said: 'If that is what it is going to take, then yes. He was here on Wednesday, I welcomed that. In his shoes, I may have stayed here for the remainder of the summit, but come back... every shoulder to the wheel.

'I'm not in the negotiating room. That can feel frustrating sometimes. But get there, and make sure that no stone is left unturned in getting this agreement to where it needs to be.'

And she warned that failure would be down to 'a lack of political will, political determination and political leadership'.

The inclusion of a reference to fossil fuels was a first for a UN decision document of this type but was expected to get fierce pushback from some countries - and still may not survive to the final text.

Talks went on through the night and look set to overrun from their finish time of Friday evening as negotiators come under pressure to resolve issues around finance for poor countries, fossil fuels, the efforts of countries to cut emissions in the 2020s and rules on carbon markets and transparency.

The latest draft appears to have strengthened language on getting countries to 'revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets' in their national action plans by the end of 2022 to align with global goals to limit temperature rises to 'well below' 2C and try to limit them to 1.5C.

The new version 'requests' countries do so, thought to be stronger language within the UN system than the previous version, which only urged them to do so.

There is now a date - missing from the first draft - for when developed countries should double the provision of finance to help developing countries adapt to climate change - by 2025.

The summit began with a bang as world leaders descended on Glasgow armed with a string of headline announcements, from a commitment to slash methane emissions to a plan to save the rainforests.

But progress has stalled in the underlying technical and now minister-level negotiations.

With one day left of scheduled talks, countries are hardly any closer to agreement over whether national emissions cutting plans must be ramped up in the short term, how climate action is reported, and how vulnerable nations are supported.

Negotiations received a shot in the arm Wednesday when the United States and China - the two largest emitters - unveiled a joint climate action plan.

Although it was light on detail, observers said the pact allayed concerns that frosty US-China relations entering into COP26 would derail the talks.

But trust levels between rich polluters and developing nations are low after developed countries failed to stump up the $100 billion a year they promised by 2020.

Finance more generally is holding up progress in Glasgow, with developing nations insisting on more money for adaptation that can help them brace for future climate shocks.

Developed nations meanwhile favour a greater push on emissions reductions, something countries yet to fully electrify their grids - and largely blameless for emissions - feel is unfair.
Residents in a South African village are worried that a werewolf is roaming free and is behind the death of a man whose body was found covered in bite marks last month.

Diesel Michael Makambi, 59, died near the Buffalo River in Kwaqongqota Village and his family denounced the claims that a mythical creature is to blame.

His family poured scorn only widely-held local theories that a werewolf killed him, saying it was likely pitbulls.

R102 Road by Quonce, where Kwaqongqota Village is situated off. Its residents are worried that a werewolf is roaming free and is behind the death of a man whose bite-marked body was found near a river last month

Eastern Cape police also said Mr Makambi, who was buried this past weekend, was bitten by wild sea dogs according to witnesses.

But villagers are still terrified of a wild werewolf and have shared posts on social media alerting others to stay away from Kwaqongqota.

One warning from a Qonce running club told members not to jog near the area until the werewolf was captured or killed.

Villagers are still terrified of a wild werewolf and have shared posts on social media alerting others to stay away from Kwaqongqota

Another post included a sketch of a man with wolf characteristics which was found online.

Mr Makambi's mother, 96-year-old Nongenile Liziwe Makambi, told News24: 'Before he passed on, he managed to tell the boys that he was attacked by three dogs and pleaded for help.

'We heard that a woman had seen my son being attacked by the dogs and screamed for people to rescue him but by the time the boys got there, it was too late.

'The dogs tore my son into pieces.'

A spokesperson for the force said Ndevana police opened a 'murder docket' for investigation after his death.

ANC councillor-elect Kholiwe Faku urged Kwaqongqota residents to stop spreading werewolf myths and said Mr Makambi was killed by pitbulls from a nearby town.

She added: 'People must understand that a family is grieving, therefore we must be very sensitive about things we say.

'People must refrain from spreading this werewolf myth, as it has a potential to upset the family. There is no werewolf.'
The new Lord Mayor of London today urged businesses to get more staff back to their desks as it was revealed the City remains half empty and as much as 80 per cent of UK office space is still not being used.

Big businesses have even started offering 'goodies' such as free breakfast and lunch as well as beer and wine at the end of the day to encourage workers to come back after the easing of lockdown restrictions failed to prompt a mass return.

The BBC Radio 4 Today programme said this morning that industry data suggests that just 20 per cent of office space is currently occupied in the UK. And staff surveys from over the summer revealed that fewer than one in five workers had returned to their offices since 'Freedom Day' in July.

A recent poll also found that the majority of people now want a 'hybrid' of office and working from home with big businesses including NatWest concluding that five days in the office for most staff is over.

Many of these hybrid working staff have been branded 'TWaTs' - because they only commute in Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday - amid claims fewer than one in five workers have returned to their offices despite the vaccination rollout and fewer Covid-19 deaths compared to a year ago.

Vincent Keaveny, who is also a partner at international law firm DLA Piper LLP, will be installed as the 693rd Lord Mayor of London today, and is urging businesses to keep pushing for workers to come in.

He said: 'The City is coming back to life. It's a really important thing for the younger people in our sector to get the training they need, creativity and the collegially that being back in the office together brings.

'The buzz around the office is fantastic. I think every company is coming at this from a different angle - and we won't be telling them how to do it - but the pubs, bars and restaurants are really busy now. The City is there and we would love to see more people coming back'.

Lord Mayor of London elect Vincent Keaveny said today that staff who go back to the office will benefit from the 'buzz' of being with colleagues

Recent data shows that the City of London remains half as busy as it was before the pandemic and office space out of London is even quieter

A study by Orbital Insight, a California-based firm able to monitor movement of people through satellites and mobile phone data, found that the most recent data for London, the City was half full compared to before the pandemic.

In mid-October the Square Mile was at 51% of February 2020 levels while Canary Wharf, home to HSBC and JP Morgan, was at 59%. Wall Street in New York was slightly higher at 66%.

While traders at many banks are now in five days a week, anecdotally, the majority of of staff are in for no more than two days a week.

In order to ease people in, HSBC rolled out 'refresher weeks' for employees returning to the office, to tease people away from working at home. They still require employees to book a desk in advance for "internal track and trace purposes" and while there is no diktat to return, internally staff are being encouraged to come back in at least one day a week.

As social distancing between desks and in lifts was scrapped, Goldman Sachs said recently that around 50% of its 6,000 London staff were back at its Plumtree Court headquarters.

While JPMorgan, the world's biggest investment bank, said around 40% of London employees were coming into the office.

The ability to save money while at home and avoiding packed trains and Tubes are cited as the main reason for staying at home, especially workers with families.

Research commissioned by the South Westminster Business Alliance last month revealed that half of London office workers would be prepared to work from home less in order to help struggling businesses recover from the pandemic.

Research has shown the continued reluctance of many to get back to the office after well over a year of working from home [Stock image]

Earlier this year KMPG said it was keeping a 'flexible' model while a source at Deloitte told MailOnline bosses were welcoming employees back into the office but not prescribing a set number of days.

Similarly, an employee at Goldman Sachs reported a 'steady increase' in people in the office but it is not full.

A senior employee at JP Morgan said staff were being offered 'goodies' to coax them to return, telling MailOnline: 'The message at the moment is they want people working from the office more often than they're at home.

'They've said they'll be goodies like breakfast and lunches provided in coming weeks. The feeling is that people value flexibility and will be more likely to seek other opportunities if that's taken away.'

Fewer than one in five workers returned to their offices after 'Freedom Day in July.

But data suggested Britons were keener to venture back into town centres to socialise  though overall footfall still remains half that of pre-pandemic levels.

The research was hailed as more evidence of the reluctance of many to get back to the office after well over a year of working from home.

Over the summer, an audit of 18 of the UK's biggest firms at the start of the Autumn, which together employ more than half a million staff, found that half of their office workers are expected to return in September. Only three demanded a return by the end of September.

The drive to bring Britain back to the office came amid growing frustration among ministers that the Civil Service has failed to take the lead.

Official 'work from home' Whitehall guidance was removed on July 19 and businesses have been told that the Government 'expects and recommends a gradual return over the summer'.

But insiders said Whitehall had only seen a slight increase in staff back at their desks, with the numbers in the office still 'pretty low'.

Meanwhile, women who continue to work from home risk hurting their careers, a top female economist has warned.

Catherine Mann, who is on the Bank of Englands Monetary Policy Committee, said a hybrid form of working could open two tracks and widen the gender gap.

A disparity between the number of men and women returning to the workplace is emerging due to difficulties accessing childcare and disruptions to schooling related to Covid, the former Citigroup global chief economist explained. This means more men are returning to offices while women continue working from home or taking a hybrid approach.

Virtual platforms are way better than they were even five years ago. But the extemporaneous, spontaneity - those are hard to replicate in a virtual setting, she told a Financial News virtual event for women in finance.

There is the potential for two tracks. Theres the people who are on the virtual track and people who are on a physical track, she said.

I do worry that we will see those two tracks develop, and we will pretty much know whos going to be on which track, unfortunately.

She added being seen in person is a vital way for women to build their careers and become known in the workplace.

The number of those working from home has decreased since national restrictions began to ease in March and by October only 15 per cent of those surveyed were working solely from home, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The furious widow of a Queensland police officer killed more than four years ago says she is being silenced after being refused permission to read her victim impact statement at his inquest.

Senior Constable Brett Forte, a father of three, died after his vehicle was peppered with 27 bullets when Ricky Maddison opened fire with an automatic weapon in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, on May 29, 2017.

His widow Susie Forte - also a police officer - was to read her 9,000-word victim impact statement at the inquest in Brisbane on Friday - but state coroner Terry Ryan refused permission.

Counsel for police officers represented at the inquest said they had been 'ambushed' by the 21-page document that was 'in the very least defamatory', potentially contemptuous of proceedings and contained allegations of criminal conduct including against people who were not there to respond.

During the legal representatives' discussion about the statement, Mrs Forte stood up, asking Mr Ryan if she could speak, saying she had waited four-and-a-half years to have her say.

'The QPS (Queensland Police Service) has not looked out for me whatsoever,' she said.

'They have tried to silence me. The truth hurts.

'I would not be here if my husband wasn't murdered... and, what, you're going to make me wait even further?'

Senior constable Brett Forte was killed in May of 2017 when Ricky Maddison opened fire with an automatic weapon in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane

Susie Forte - also a police officer - was to read a victim impact statement at the inquest in Brisbane on Friday, but state coroner Terry Ryan refused permission, leaving her irate

Cop killer Ricky Maddison (pictured) was later killed by officers following a 20 hour siege

Other family members also stood and spoke.

'Susie's husband, my brother, is laying in a box up in Toowoomba,' Luke Forte said.

'Surely she gets the right to say what she wants to say to finish these proceedings off.'

Outside court, Mr Forte said Queensland Police had failed in their duty of care and failed his brother.

'Our QPS system is broken - you can be a widow with three children in the most horrific and public circumstances be bullied, intimidated and isolated yet you still can't be afforded the right to speak as a victim,' he fumed.

'I am beyond heartbroken ... (and) beyond angry at the way she has been treated and I know Brett would be rolling in his grave, but I am not beyond fighting for the truth and Susie to be heard.'

Mr Ryan ruled that Mrs Forte's statement could not be published for a week, while other parties make submissions or consider further action.

Sen Constable Brett Forte is survived by his loving wife Susan (pictured together) and their three children Emma, Brodie and Sam

The inquest also heard from operational tactical expert Acting Inspector Tim Mowle who said the fatal shooting would have been one of the most volatile, confrontational and dynamic situations he has knowledge of.

'The way it transpired with a person with very little warning stepping out a vehicle with a high powered semi-automatic weapon and blatantly shooting at police who were simply trying to do their job,' the officer with 30 years of experience added.

'When you talk about confrontations by individuals against police in Australia, I can't think of any that come to mind that equal this.'

Acting Insp Mowle said he found missed opportunities in the lead-up to the shooting.

These included trying to facilitate a tactical arrest after using surveillance to find out where Maddison was hiding out.

Brett Forte's children place a teddy bear on his casket during his funeral service in 2017

Maddison led police off the highway and over a dirt embankment that was only accessible to 4WD vehicles - like the one driven by Sen Constable Forte (pictured is the Lockyer Valley)

With his tactical experience and knowledge that Maddison had access to a firearm Acting Insp Mowle said he would have kept a safe distance once Maddison's vehicle stopped, giving time for the police helicopter and SERT officers to arrive.

Another missed opportunity was for an officer to take overall tactical command during the pursuit which would have included providing information to other police units that could have helped.

An on-ground supervisor has since been introduced in the Toowoomba area, but Acting Insp Mowel said such a role been in place at the time the outcome may have been different.

'Based on the information I was provided I believe that confrontation was inevitable,' he told the inquest.

'I believe that if we did have an on-ground supervisor that had provided a bit more clarity in regards to tactics and the other members that were involved in and around that activity had that direction, the outcome may have been different.

'We may have been able to isolate and contain, potentially there still would have been confrontation and gun fire, but the outcome might have been different.'
Advertisement

Alexander Lukashenko's 'weaponised migrants' cheered today as they smashed through a Polish border fence - only to be met by another barrier and more guards.

Video showed around a hundred refugees pouring across a highway and reaching a grassy knoll where they cheered defiantly at Polish riot police and troops stationed along a barbed wire fence.

Thousands of desperate migrants from the Middle East and North Africa have been ferried to the Belarus-Poland border this week by Lukashenko's security forces, prompting Poland to deploy 15,000 troops along the line.

The EU accuses Lukashenko of luring the migrants to Belarus and the country's Belavia airline has been forced to deny it is involved in trafficking the refugees as part of the 'hybrid war.'

Belavia said citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen, would be blocked from flights as of Friday 'in accordance with the decision of competent authorities in Turkey.

Amid the chaos on Europe's doorstep, the White House last night warned Brussels to brace for a Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

The CIA briefed European officials about a possible Russian assault to capture territory in eastern Ukraine similar to the 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

As military hardware massed on Ukraine's eastern front, the Kremlin today announced it was sending paratroopers to the Belarus-Poland frontier for snap drills just 30 miles from where the migrants are camped.

'A unit of Russian paratroopers will practise a landing in an unknown territory in the Hrodna region of Belarus on November 12 as part of drills to inspect combat readiness of the paratrooper forces,' the Russian defence ministry said.

Russian nuclear bombers were also flying over Belarus for a third day running as Putin remained firmly behind Lukashenko.

Video showed around a hundred refugees pouring across a highway at the border and reaching a grassy knoll where they cheered defiantly at Polish riot police and troops stationed along a barbed wire fence

Polish soldiers and riot police face off with migrants camped at the border on Friday

A group of migrants gathered at the border on Friday. Belarusian soldiers can be seen amongst them while Polish border guards stand on the other side of the fence

Migrants are camped right beside a barbed wire barrier which has been erected along the Polish frontier with Belarus

Polish soldiers stand on parade next to a line of armoured cars and trucks as they keep guard against the migrants at the border

A group of migrants were seen violently clashing with one and other as food supplies were handed out by an aid organisation on Thursday

A Russian Tu-160 (the closer jet) nuclear bomber over Belarusian airspace. Putin dispatched jets for the third day running to show the world his support for Lukashenko was undiminished

A toddler is carried by its mother, swaddled in blankets to protect her from the harsh Belarusian November chill at the border

A Belarusian military doctor provides medical care to a migrant at the camp at the Belarus-Polish border in the Grodno region

Kremlin-backed tyrant Lukashenko (pictured at the presidential palace in Minsk on Thursday) remains defiant in the face of increased sanctions from Brussels, threatening on Thursday to cut off Russian gas supplies to Europe from a major pipeline which runs through Belarus

Kremlin-backed tyrant Lukashenko remains defiant in the face of increased sanctions from Brussels, threatening on Thursday to cut off Russian gas supplies to Europe from a major pipeline which runs through Belarus.

But Vladimir Putin doused that threat on Friday as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov assured reporters that 'the reliability of Russia as a [gas] supplier under current and future contracts is beyond doubt.'

Fears that Russia might invade Ukraine have been sparked by the build-up of tens of thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces close to the border, with satellite images revealing large camps of vehicles at Yelnya, Bryansk and Kursk.

Ukraine - which has been fighting a proxy-war against Russian-backed separatists in its eastern regions for years - has moved 8,500 more troops to the border in response.

Meanwhile, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have also been warning of the risk of conflict between Belarus - a close ally of Moscow - and Poland amid a migrant crisis on their shared border.

On Thursday, Lukashenko warned of the risk of a conflict and accused armed groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine of trying to ship weapons to the migrants on the Polish border in order to spark fighting.

'They are Kurds, and the Kurds are militant,' he said according to Polish newspaper Wyborcza. 'When Poles beat them, cut them, torment them, etc., they become desperate. One rifle, one gun, and armed conflict is ready.'

European countries and the US condemned Belarus Thursday following an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has urged the EU to open diplomatic talks with Belarus to resolve the situation over some 4,000 migrants camped on the Polish border with Belarus in freezing temperatures.

Poland is refusing to allow the migrants to cross, accusing Minsk of luring them to Belarus to send across the border in revenge for sanctions.

After an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council on the crisis the US and European delegations condemned 'the orchestrated instrumentalization of human beings whose lives and wellbeing have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus.'

Minsk is aiming at 'destabilizing neighboring countries and the European Union's external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations,' they said in a joint statement.

The statement made no mention of Belarus ally Russia, which before the meeting rejected western allegations that it was working in conjunction with Minsk to send the migrants over the EU's eastern border into Poland.

And in his second phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in as many days, Putin 'spoke in favour of restoring contacts between EU states and Belarus in order to resolve this problem,' the Kremlin said in a statement.

The EU has so far refused any direct contacts with Belarus's strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who on Thursday warned that any new sanctions could see Minsk cut off natural gas transit to Europe.

The Yamal-Europe is one of three major Russian pipelines into Europe and represents around 20 per cent of Russia's supplying capacity. Russia supplies around 50 per cent of the EU's natural gas imports. Unlike much of Europe, the UK is not reliant on Russia for its gas supply. Although Britain imports most of its gas, less than 5 per cent comes from Russia (which Gazprom delivers through the BBL Pipeline from the Netherlands, as shown on map). Most of the gas Britain imports comes from Norway.

Migrants press towards the border fence as others are seen erecting structures made from timber and branches from the fir trees taken from the surrounding primeval forest

The migrants appear to be in for the long haul, setting up shelters made from trees and branches beside the fence

Migrants warm themselves on their camp at the Belarus-Polish border in the Grodno region, not far from the checkpoint Bruzgi, Belarus, on Thursday night

Amid the dispute, some 4,000 desperate refugees from war-torn countries are camped at the border in makeshift camps with limited supplies of food and water and temperatures plunging below freezing at night

The bloc severed contacts with Lukashenko and imposed sanctions after a heavy crackdown on the opposition following a disputed presidential election last year.

The EU is expected to decide next week to impose new sanctions on Belarus for human trafficking because of the migrant crisis.

Lukashenko said Thursday that Minsk 'must respond' if the EU takes new measures, raising the possibility of cutting off transit through a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas through Belarus to Poland and further into Europe.

'We are heating Europe, and they are threatening us,' he said. 'And what if we halt natural gas supplies?'

Belarussian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said Lukashenko was bluffing about cutting off gas and urged the EU to stand firm.

'It would be more harmful for him, for Belarus, than for the European Union and I can suppose it's bluffing,' Tikhanovskaya, who fled Belarus after claiming victory in last year's vote, told AFP in Berlin.

'We are grateful for the principled position of European countries that they are not going to communicate with (an) illegitimate person,' she said.

Poland has deployed 15,000 troops along its border, put up a fence topped with barbed wire and approved construction of a wall on the frontier with Belarus.

In a statement released for Poland's Independence Day on Thursday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his country was facing a 'new kind of war' whose 'ammunition is civilians'.

Migrants have been trying to cross the border for months but the crisis came to a head when hundreds made a concerted effort on Monday and were pushed back by Polish border guards.

They set up a camp on the border, sheltering in tents and burning wood from local forests to keep warm, blocked by Polish guards behind razor-wire.

A wailing child at the Belarusian-Poland border on Thursday. Belarus is accused of 'weaponising' migrants by flying them in from the Middle East and North Africa and taking them to the EU border

At least 10 migrants have died on the border in recent months, seven of them on the Polish side, according to Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.

Teams from the UN refugee agency, the International Organization for Migration and the Red Cross visited the camp on Thursday to check on conditions and deliver aid, including hygiene kits and diapers.

Journalists and charity workers have been banned from the immediate border area by Polish authorities under state of emergency rules.

Residents in the Polish town of Sokolka near the border said they were worried by the growing tensions but voiced support for the Polish government's tough stance.

'I'm afraid of the migrants getting through and what the consequences would be,' said Henryk Lenkiewicz, a 67-year-old pensioner walking by a community noticeboard in the town centre.

Poland has accused Putin of masterminding the crisis, a claim the Kremlin has dismissed as 'irresponsible'.

Moscow and Minsk have close economic, political and military ties and Russian air force planes have been flying patrols over Belarus this week, including two Tu-160 strategic bombers on Thursday that were accompanied by Belarusian Su-30S fighter jets.
An Australian mother-of-five is 30 weeks pregnant with her own grandchild after making a rare and incredible sacrifice for her daughter who is unable to carry her own baby.

Maree Arnold, 54, from Lilydale in Tasmania, offered to act as a surrogate for her daughter Meagan White's baby after the 28-year-old found out in her teen years that she had a rare medical disorder.

Meagan was diagnosed at the young age of 17 with Mayer-Rokitansky-Hauser syndrome (MRKH), a disorder that meant she was born without a uterus and therefore could never carry a child.

Maree Arnold (left), 54, from Tasmania, offered to act as a surrogate for her daughter Meagan White's (right) baby after the 28-year-old found out in her teen years that she had a severe condition

The rare syndrome affects about one in every 5,000 women.

'When I was a teenager, I was waiting around to start my menstrual cycle and it never happened,' Meagan said.

'Mum and I went to see a doctor and discovered I had MRKH, which means I was born without a uterus and therefore would never have a period.'

While it meant she could never have a child, Meagan, who has a background in nursing, said she did have working ovaries which meant she could have a biological child through surrogacy.

Meagan was diagnosed at 17 with Mayer-Rokitansky-Hauser syndrome (MRKH), a disorder that meant she was born without a uterus and therefore could never carry a child (Pictured: Meagan and her mother Maree)

'Of course, as I was just a teenager at the time, I didn't think about it much,' she said.

But when Meagan met her now-husband Clayde, 28, in 2015, she realised that she wanted to be a mother and start a family.

'Thankfully he was always so supportive of me and said we were going to be parents one day no matter what it took for it to happen.'

Meagan didn't think about the fact she couldn't have children unless she took the surrogacy route until she met her now-husband Clayde (pictured right) and realised she wanted a family

The couple began to pursue surrogacy and eventually found a volunteer in Canada named Allison through an agency in January 2019.

Meagan and Clayde were able to connect with the volunteer online for nine months and get to know her.

The couple then flew to Canada in September 2019 to meet Allison in person.

'Shortly after returning home to Australia, we went ahead with the first transfer which failed, but the second was successful and Allison got pregnant in December 2019,' Meagan said.

The couple began to pursue the surrogacy path and eventually found a volunteer in Canada named Allison through an agency in January 2019

However, the couple received tragic news when they found out in March 2020 that their baby girl hadn't developed kidneys and wouldn't survive.

Meagan was shattered and feared that her dream of becoming a mother would never come true.

'Everyone was heartbroken, and after that I just felt like giving up. Then once the pandemic began, overseas travel was prohibited, so everything felt impossible.'

Their surrogate got pregnant in December 2019, but the couple were left heartbroken when they found out in March 2020 that their baby girl hadn't developed kidneys and wouldn't survive

Meagan's mother Maree said she was heartbroken watching her daughter suffer but never imagined she could volunteer to be a surrogate, as she believed she would be deemed 'too old' to be allowed to carry a child.

But after extensive research, legal advice, medical screenings and psychological assessments, doctors deemed it possible.

With Maree already having gone through menopause, she was given medications to reverse the process and thicken her uterus lining to prepare for pregnancy.

The mother-of-five, who runs her own farm, said: 'I always just assumed I'd be too old to do something like this but it just goes to show you always need to ask questions.

'I believe 45 is the usual cut off, however as I am her mother, the doctors are more lenient.'

After three failed embryo transfers, Meagan and Maree said they both began to feel a bit defeated and thought perhaps the process was not going to work.

Maree said she was heartbroken watching her daughter suffer but never imagined she could be a surrogate until doctors deemed it possible after going through several processes (Pictured: Maree holding Meagan as a baby)

But thankfully, the fourth transfer was a success and Maree is now nearly 30 weeks pregnant with her grandson.

'I was very happy once we got past the first 20 weeks, after that I was really confident,' Maree added.

The mother said that it is a memorable experience being able to help her daughter have a child.

Despite it being 22 years since she has been pregnant, Maree says she feels great and is embracing the journey.

She said: 'I know that I'm obviously older with this pregnancy, and I do get a bit more tired than when I was last pregnant 22 years ago.

'But I'm still up and about, mowing the lawns and doing this around the house. I feel great.

Despite it being 22 years since she has been pregnant, Maree says she feels great and is embracing the journey and that the entire family is ready to meet their grandson (Pictured: Maree and father Leigh with their five children)

Maree further added that in today's age, people are able to get pregnant in many different ways and that the path her and her daughter are taking is one of them.

'We really want to raise awareness to let people know this is possible. We all can't wait to meet our grandson.'

Maree could possibly be Australia's oldest surrogate to date, with Antonietta Di Maggio, from Sydney, making headlines back in 2015 for giving birth to her grandson for daughter Claudia Luca at the age of 53.

Meagan's little boy is due to enter the world in January 2022 through a C-section.

She added: 'It's so funny, for the first 20 weeks I've been worrying about the baby, but now I've been worrying about mum.

'Mum and I are so close, we talk every day. I can't even put it into words how grateful I am for my mum. It's so special.

'There is nobody else I'd rather be going through this with.'
A rock legend's ex-wife is embroiled in a bitter 3 million court battle with her songwriter brother over their dead mother's home.

Jan Jones, the ex-wife of The Who and Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones, performed as part of the sibling pop duo, Gary and Jan Lorraine in the sixties, with her brother, Gary.

Gary Osborne has enjoyed a glittering five-decades long career in music, penning the lyrics for Jeff Wayne's best-selling album and working with stars such as Elton John and Val Doonican.

But the siblings are now fighting in court, amid claims that Mr Osborne, 72, exercised 'undue influence' over their mother Joan Osborne to get her to give him her 3m west London home.

Ms Jones claims their mother, an alternative therapist, was declining with dementia and vulnerable to her son's pressure when he 'exploited' her and took possession of her Little Venice flat in 2002.

But Mr Osborne vehemently denies the allegations, claiming that his mother - with whom he had a 'very close and loving relationship' - gave him the 3million property to avoid inheritance tax when she died.

Gary Osborne (right) and sister Jan Jones are locked in a bitter court spat over their mother's 3m home. They are pictured together in 1965, as the sibling pop duo Gary and Jan Lorraine

Mr Osborne (fourth from left) is accused of exercising 'undue influence' over his mother, Joan Osborne and 'exploiting' her into giving him her 3m flat in 2002. He denies the allegations. Pictured (L-R) Don Black, Bill Martin, Marty Wilde, Gary Osborne and Van Morrison in 2017

Mr Osborne sold his mother's flat in Little Venice, West London (pictured) for 3m after she gifted it to him in 2002

Jan Jones (left), the ex-wife of The Who and Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones, claims their mother was declining with dementia and vulnerable to her son's pressure when he 'exploited' her and took possession of her Little Venice flat in 2002

Child prodigy Mr Osborne began his songwriting career at the age of only 15 and had his first US chart hit with The Seekers when he was just 17-years-old.

In the 1970s, Mr Osborne collaborated with Elton John on his 'A Single Man' album, taking over from Bernie Taupin as lyricist, and they later had hits together with 'Little Jeannie' and 'Blue Eyes'.

But his biggest success was in writing the lyrics to Jeff Wayne's musical retelling of HG Wells' 'War of the Worlds', which finally scored him an Ivor Novello Award in 2011.

He and sister Janet had in 1965 released a single together 'I'm Not To Blame' - but the pair are now squarely pointing the finger at each other in a bitter court fight following their mother's death, aged 94, in 2018.

Ms Jones, who had two children with husband Kenney before divorcing, claims her brother exercised 'undue influence' to get his mother to give him the flat at a time when she was declining with dementia.

Outlining the case in court documents, her barrister Constance McDonnell QC made submissions that the siblings' mother had been deeply committed to alternative health treatments and practised as a therapist up to her retirement.

She had lived at a house in Warwick Avenue, Little Venice, west London, but in the late 1990s decided to downsize to a flat in the house next door, using the proceeds of sale of her old home to fund the 550,000 purchase.

Joan and Gary had briefly fallen out at that time, after her son threatened to hold up the sale if he was not given a large portion of the sale proceeds, having helped her buy it with a mortgage, the QC submitted.

However, they reconciled and by the time the flat was given to Mr Osborne, she was 'vulnerable' due to declining mental health and spending more and more time with her son and his wife, according to Ms Jones' claim.

In 2002, 78-year-old Joan executed a deed of transfer, by far her most valuable asset according to the claim, to Mr Osborne for no consideration.

Lawyers for Mrs Jones submitted that due to Joan's 'deteriorating mental health' she lacked the mental capacity to 'make the transfer of property'.

The pensioner moved in with Mr Osborne (pictured) in 2003, staying for three years before she moved into a care home, where she remained until her death 12 years later

Kenney Jones at Heathrow Airport in London with his then-wife Jan Jones and their son Dylan Jones in January 1974

'In the premises, Mrs Jones avers that the deceased lacked capacity to make the transfer of the property to Mr Osborne in 2002,' Ms McDonnell QC argued.

'The value of the property represented almost all of her capital assets, which she had intended should be distributed between the parties and their children following her death.

'In particular, by the date of the transfer of the property to Mr Osborne, the deceased was very vulnerable to undue influence by him.

'Mr Osborne was able to exploit, and did exploit, the deceased's said vulnerability to his advantage to as to procure the gift of the property to himself.'

Ms McDonnell claims that a letter to Mrs Osborne's solicitor beginning the process of gifting the house to her son could not have been written by her.

She was incapable of typing at that time, it is claimed, and so it must have been her son behind the letter.

Mr Osborne, 72, (right) has enjoyed a glittering five-decade long career in the songwriting industry. He is pictured with Bill Martin in 2017

In her claim, Mrs Jones, of Newnham-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, is asking for an order that her brother hand back to their mother's estate the 3million which he received when he sold the Warwick Avenue apartment.

It would then be split up under the terms of her will, with the siblings getting a quarter each and the rest split between grandchildren.

But for Mr Osborne, barrister Hazel Hobbs claims that the transfer of the property to the son was not tainted and was simply a method of avoiding inheritance tax.

Although mother and son had fallen out around the time it was originally purchased, they were soon reconciled, she says in his defence to the action.

She had even provided him with a permanent room in the flat, where he could stay during his regular visits to London. He currently lives on the seafront near Littlehampton, Hants.

'It should be noted that the deceased was a vivacious, intelligent woman, whom Mr Osborne held a very close and loving relationship with,' she says.

'It is averred that the deceased made the conscious decision to dispose of her assets for the purposes of inheritance tax and knowing that Mr Osborne would continue to support her, which he did.'

The pensioner had even moved in with her son in 2003, staying for three years before she moved into a care home, where she remained until her death 12 years later.

Mr Osborne also denies that his mother was significantly in decline at the time, pointing out that she had continued driving and working.

'At the time of the transfer, the deceased was living independently and was not reliant on Mr Osborne at all,' his barrister adds.

'The deceased remained an astute, charismatic individual and continued to deliver colonic irrigation therapies to her clients.'

Mr Osborne claims that he was already entitled to a share of the apartment, as he had contributed to the purchase price of her former home, meaning he was entitled to a share of the proceeds, which were then mostly ploughed into buying the flat.

He denies that she made the transfer without legal assistance, she having instructed local solicitors to advise her.

Mr Osborne also argues that his sister was given high-value gifts by their mother around the same time, including cash, a car and a property in Gloucestershire.

She had also bought her daughter a colonic irrigation machine and paid for her to be trained in using it.

The case reached court for a pre-trial hearing last week, ahead of a full court battle, scheduled to take place in 2022 or 2023.
Durham University has been accused of 'failing to protect students' and 'legitimising a dangerous industry' by offering training to students to help them stay safe while doing sex work.

The Russell Group university insists it is simply trying to teach its students to make informed choices after they had received requests from a small number of concerned students over a number of years, noting that engagement in sex work, which includes online activities, is a feature within the HE sector across the UK.

A fully-booked session, advertised by the university's student union, held last night via Zoom was billed as 'an interactive course that explores the challenges student sex workers can face'.

It comes after a poll of 3,200 students last year claimed that four per cent of British students  almost one in 20  were using sex work to fund their courses, while one in ten say they would do it in a 'cash emergency'.

This was double the number from 2017, according to the Save The Student website.

The Russell Group university insists it is simply trying to teach its students to make informed choices because they noticed an 'emerging trend' of them selling sexual favours (stock picture)

With a total student population of 2.38million, this could mean that more than 95,000 students across Britain are currently doing sex work.

Among the student sex workers, 28 per cent said they had slept with someone or escorted, while 71 per cent had sent intimate photos, web-cammed or sold images of themselves on clip-sharing subscription sites such as OnlyFans.

One Durham University student told The Times: 'This could cause a real problem, making it part of university culture and making work in the sex industry a normalised activity...

'Everyone who I've spoken to is pretty disgusted that adult sex-worker training classes are being promoted by our own students' union...

'It suggests that being an adult sex worker is another run-of-the-mill activity and is put down as an official DSU position.'

And the university has received numerous complaints over the classes.

A fully-booked session, advertised by the university's student union, held last night via Zoom was billed as 'an interactive course that explores the challenges student sex workers can face'

Minister for higher and further education, Michelle Donelan, has accused the university of 'legitimising a dangerous industry' and failing in their duty to protect students.

And Durham is not the only prestigious university to have shown support for sex workers in recent times.

Last month Leicester University told students that charging people to watch them strip and providing services to sugar daddies were legal and highlighted the only three illegal activities - including soliciting on the street or managing a brothel.

Ministers fear that encouraging sex worker training could normalise exploitation of students.

And the Department for Education said that universities should be helping students who may have come upon hard times by making all efforts to prevent them from working in the sex industry.

An official 'Student Sex Work Toolkit' published by Leicester University for students and staff in December

Youngsters can make hundreds of pounds a month on sex websites relatively easily by selling pornographic images and videos of themselves.

Separate figures released last year also showed that 500,000 students are now signed up to the Seeking Arrangement website looking to be 'sugar babies'  typically accepting money or gifts from wealthy older customers in exchange for intimacy.

Last year a member of Cambridge Students' Union distributed flyers at its annual conference which made the controversial assertion that 'not all sex work is abusive'.

In June 2020, Bristol's student union pledged to 'challenge the stigma attached [to] sex work' and said it would 'lobby the University to take an explicit non-exclusionary stance towards students who work in the sex industry', as well as distributing information packs on campus.

Goldsmiths, University of London student union claimed in 2015 that 'sex work is work . . . the exchange of money for labour, like any other job'.

While Brighton made it clear that it 'does not promote sex work as an option to students', the student union 'freshers' fairs' of Sussex and Brighton universities hosted stalls for the Sex Workers' Outreach Project Sussex (Swop)

In 2014, Edinburgh University's student union averred that it would 'take a zero-tolerance attitude towards whorephobia, and place whorephobia in its safe-space policy'.

The student unions at UCL, York, Manchester, Plymouth and Sheffield Hallam have all supported sex work in recent years, echoing a 2018 briefing from the National Union of Students which offered 'solidarity with student sex workers'.

That same year, the student union 'freshers' fairs' of Sussex and Brighton universities went one step further  even hosting stalls for the Sex Workers' Outreach Project Sussex (Swop), which handed out free condoms.

While Brighton made it clear that it 'does not promote sex work as an option to students', Professor Alison Phipps, who lectures on gender studies at Sussex University, thanked the charity for its 'great work'.

Durham University said it was acting responsibly by offering students advice on how to stay safe in sex work, after Higher and Further Education Minister Michelle Donelan said she was 'deeply concerned' by the move.

Durham University said the training was to ensure students were safe and was brought in following requests over the years 'from a small number of concerned students'.

A spokesman said: 'We are emphatically not seeking to encourage sex work but we are seeking to provide support to our students.

'We don't judge, we listen, support and give practical help.

'We run many courses for students and staff on topics from mental health and wellbeing to drug and alcohol awareness.

'The intent here is to ensure that social stigma does not prevent students who might be vulnerable or at risk from accessing the support they need and to which they are entitled.'

The spokesman added: 'We make no apologies for working to ensure that Durham is a safe environment for all of our students and staff.

'We are extremely disappointed by the way the intentions for, and content of this session, have been misinterpreted.'
A Columbia professor has accused the judge in the Kyle Rittenhouse case of using 'racist stereotypes' because he joked about Asian food for lunch being delayed by the supply-chain crunch.

Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder had said: 'I hope the Asian food isn't coming... isn't on one of those boats from Long Beach Harbor'.

Schroeder appeared to be referencing the queues of boats waiting to dock at Long Beach Harbor that have exacerbated the supply-chain crunch across the US.

Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of History at Columbia University Mae Ngai said: 'All I can say is, Ugh. Old racist stereotypes die hard'.

A Columbia professor has accused Judge Bruce Schroeder (pictured), who is presiding over the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, of using 'racist stereotypes' because he joked about Asian food for lunch being delayed the US' supply-chain crunch

Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of History at Columbia University Mae Ngai said: 'All I can say is, Ugh. Old Racist stereotypes die hard'

The defense in Kyle Rittenhouse's trial rested its case it its eighth day Thursday

Civil rights activists DeRay Mckesson reacted in outrage, saying: 'It's pretty clear that this man should not be the judge of anything'.

While John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said: 'It harms our community and puts us in the crosshairs of micro aggressions as well as actual physical violence'.

'Maybe I'm supposed to applaud him for not saying "Oriental food".

'Seriously, this remark can only be seen as a joke at the expense of Asians/Asian Americans. During a trial that clearly has race implications, no less. Definitely not okay.

'This is a great illustration of how Asian Americans are not immune from racial bias and discrimination in our criminal justice system,' Yang said.

Meanwhile Eric Feigl-Ding, a health economist and fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, said: 'Racist, me thinks, the judge, is... What a complete joke and circus this #KyleRittenhouseTrial now is.'

He added: 'And yes it is RACIST. The boats in the harbor are majority boats from Asia. And he said Asian food - which further connects the Asian boats. Its racist cmon.'

Schroeder also faced backlash for asking for 'a round of applause to the people who've served our country' on Veterans Day.

The longtime judge asked if any of the jurors or others in the courtroom had served. Only one person indicated he had: The man about to testify in support of Rittenhouse's defense.

'What branch?' Schroeder asked use-of-force expert John Black.

'Army, sir,' Black said.

'I think we give a round of applause to the people who've served our country,' Schroeder said, leading the room including jurors in clapping.

Black then took the stand, testifying that less than three seconds elapsed between the time a protester fired a shot in the air and Rittenhouse opened fire with his rifle.

For some trial observers, Schroeder's opening was a clear mistake that could have swayed jurors' opinion of a defense witness at the expense of prosecutors' already shaky case.

But other watchers shrugged it off, suggesting prosecutors were best served letting the moment pass without objection.

Steven Wright, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Law, characterized the moment as a mistake. Schroeder making Black's military service clear to the jury risked making him more credible in their eyes, Wright said.

But the issue is unlikely to be scrutinized, whatever the outcome of this trial.

Schroeder, who wore a tie Thursday emblazoned with American flags and whose phone ringtone heard in court was the Lee Greenwood ode to patriotism 'God Bless the U.S.A.,' has singled out veterans before.

He called for a round of applause for veterans last week during jury selection, when he compared the solemnity of jury duty to the seriousness of being drafted. He also thanked the Marines during Wednesday's court session, and when an officer in the courtroom said he was a Marine, Schroeder called for more applause.

It comes after Judge Schroeder revealed yesterday the court has been been inundated with communications from members of the public during the trial  many in the form of offensive emails, some calling the judge a racist.

He added the attorneys have also been recipients of hateful messages during the course of the trial. Speaking ahead of the start of testimony, Judge Schroeder said he would deal with all such things adding, 'I wouldn't want to be those people.'

With the jury out of the room, Assistant District Attorney James Kraus, Judge Schroeder, and defense attorney Corey Chirafisi look over a video monitor to examine photographic evidence during a dispute over the reliability of enlarged digital images during Kyle Rittenhouse's trial

Rittenhouse breaks down on the stand as he testifies about his encounter with the late Joseph Rosenbaum during his trial at Kenosha County Courthouse on Wednesday, November 10

The defense rested yesterday after two and a half days of explosive testimony and high courtroom drama in which Rittenhouse's lawyers insisted he acted in self defense.

The attorneys will be back in court Friday to finalize charges and agree on jury instructions but the jurors will not be back until Monday when closing arguments and jury instructions will take place. Names will be drawn to pick the 12 jurors who will deliberate.

The defense rested yesterday after two and a half days of explosive testimony and high courtroom drama in which Rittenhouse's lawyers insisted he acted in self defense

Judge Schroeder has informed both the defense and the prosecution that they must limit their closing arguments and rebuttal statements to no more than two and a half hours.

He had originally put a cap of one and a half hours on arguments but relented on Binger's request with the warning, 'I will be tough. I may tell you to sit down mid-sentence if you keep going and I did it to one of the DAs [recently].'

Earlier he had quoted a former US District Judge who said, 'The brain cannot absorb what the seat cannot endure.'

He added, 'And if you don't like that advice President Roosevelt one of the renowned speakers of the 30s and 40s when asked by his son for some advice on speaking said, 'Be sincere. Be brief. And be seated.'

The case, which began on November 2, has been noted for clashes between Judge Bruce Schroeder - at 75, the longest-serving circuit court judge in the state - and Thomas Binger, prosecuting.

In pre-trial hearings Schroeder disappointed Binger by preventing him from introducing information to the court, such as Rittenhouse's prior remarks about wanting to shoot someone with his AR-15, and refused to allow Binger to refer to the people Rittenhouse shot as victims.

Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle after Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse across a parking lot and threw a plastic bag at him shortly before midnight on August 25, 2020.

Moments later, as Rittenhouse was running down a street, he shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, a protester from Silver Lake, Wisconsin.

Rittenhouse also shot Gaige Grosskreutz, who appeared as the state's star witness, and almost entirely blew away his right bicep.

Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum (left), 36, with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle after Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse across a parking lot and threw a plastic bag at him shortly before midnight on August 25, 2020. Moments later, as Rittenhouse was running down a street, he shot and killed Anthony Huber (right), 26, a protester from Silver Lake, Wisconsin

Gaige Grosskreutz was shot by Kyle Rittenhouse on August 25, 2020 and his right bicep was almost entirely blown away. Grosskreutz, the state's star witness, took the stand Monday morning
Advertisement

Britons woke up to sodden conditions across much of the country this morning as an area of low pressure whirled in from across the Atlantic.

Pictures from Warwick showed cars wading through pools of standing water, while in London office workers armed themselves with umbrellas as they endured a damp commute.

The rain is expected to last for much of the day before easing off tonight in advance of a dry - but gloomy - weekend.

Temperatures are mild for the time of the year, hitting 15C in parts of the south-east, and this trend will continue over Saturday and Sunday with averages of 14C on Saturday and 13C on Sunday.

Forecasters have warned of snow of up to 2.5mm in places by next week. Meanwhile, the Met Office has said 'wintry conditions' are likely across high ground in the north later this month.

Pictures from Warwick showed cars wading through pools of standing water as much of Britain was hit by rain this morning

Met Office forecaster Alex Deakin said: 'Today it will be mild but very wet for some, including in Northern Ireland and south and central Scotland. Elsewhere will see more showers but some brighter spells.

'Parts of East Anglia and southern England may not see showers at all, while despite a noticeable breeze temperatures will remain above average for the time of year, up to 15C in the south-east.

'Through Friday evening there will still be some outbreaks of rain across southern Scotland and the north of England but elsewhere it will ease off. The winds will ease down as well.

'On the weekend it won't be as wet or windy but don't expect huge amounts of sunshine, it will remain predominantly cloudy.'

The rain is expected to last for much of the day before easing off tonight in advance of a dry - but gloomy - weekend. Pictured: Met Office maps for today (left) and Saturday (right)

In London office workers armed themselves with umbrellas as they endured a damp commute across London Bridge

Met Office forecaster Alex Deakin said: 'Today it will be mild but very wet for some, including in Northern Ireland and south and central Scotland. Elsewhere will see more showers but some brighter spells'

A spokesman added: 'On Saturday it will staying cloudy in eastern parts with some showers.

'Conditions will be mostly dry elsewhere with some sunny spells, particularly over northwest England and Scotland. There will be light rain and drizzle later for Northern Ireland.

'On Sunday it will stay cloudy, but largely dry away from northwest. Rain and strong winds in the far northwest will sink southeast, with blustery showers following.'

Temperatures are mild for the time of the year, hitting 15C in parts of the south-east, and this trend will continue over Saturday and Sunday with averages of 14C on Saturday and 13C on Sunday. Pictured: Warwick today

Commuters carrying umbrellas to try and keep try while crossing London Bridge into the City of London this morning
Britain sought to calm a row with the EU over Northern Ireland today, playing down the risk of unilateral action to scrape hated goods checks.

Brexit Minister Lord Frost is due to meet his Brussels counterpart Maros Sefcovic in London today and tell him the UK wants a deal to solve the post-Brexit impasse.

The two sides are at loggerheads over the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Brexit agreement, which seeks to avoid a hard customs border on the island of Ireland by introducing one for goods crossing from Britain to Ulster.

Boris Johnson has threatened to unilaterally halt the checks using Article 16 of the protocol, amid fury from the unionist community and complaints that checks are hitting business.

But that sparked warnings from Brussels that it would retaliate, potentially throttling trade with the continent ahead of Christmas.

European Commission vice-president Mr Sefcovic told a private meeting of MEPs that there will be no breakthrough without a direct intervention from the Prime Minister.

A Whitehall source told the Times today that using Article 16 was not a foregone concluding, saying; 'Triggering Article 16 does not solve the problems we face. Even if we were to do it, eventually we'd still have to get back round the table.'

It came as Irish minister for European affairs Thomas Byrne warned the UK that a 'tough guy' approach when it comes to Northern Ireland will lead to 'disaster'.

Brexit Minister Lord Frost is due to meet his Brussels counterpart Maros Sefcovic in London today and tell him the UK wants a deal to solve the post=Brexit impasse.

European Commission vice-president Mr Sefcovic told a private meeting of MEPs that there will be no breakthrough without a direct intervention from the Prime Minister.

Boris Johnson has threatened to unilaterally halt the checks using Article 16 of the protocol, amid fury from the unionist community and complaints that they are hitting business.

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme if there is a serious danger of a full-scale trade war, Mr Byrne said: 'There is a serious danger of complete instability in Northern Ireland and that's what motivates the Irish Government in all of our dealings in relation to the protocol.'

He said the countries involved have worked together for decades to ensure stability, saying 'we now have a division, it seems, because of threats by the British Government to, what they say, is to suspend the protocol under Article 16. We're not entirely clear what that's about.'

Challenged on current instability in Northern Ireland and the current arrangements, he said: 'I don't think that the people who are burning buses in Northern Ireland at the moment ... are fully aware of all of the details and the intricacies of the protocol. What they need to see, and what people in Northern Ireland need to see, is both governments working together.'

Irish minister for European affairs Thomas Byrne warned the UK that a 'tough guy' approach when it comes to Northern Ireland will lead to 'disaster'.

He said the EU has listened to the concerns of Northern Ireland and is in 'solutions mode', adding: 'A tough approach, or a tough guy approach, when it comes to Northern Ireland can only be counter-productive and will lead to disaster.'

He said he is 'very glad despite that gloomy atmosphere' that there are talks taking place on Friday, adding 'there is a prize of stability and peace in Northern Ireland' as well as continuing good diplomatic relations between Britain and the EU.

In October, the EU offered a series of changes to the protocol, which would remove 80 per cent of checks on goods between Northern Ireland and the UK mainland.

But the UK Government wants further alterations, including removing the role of the judges in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) as the arbitrators of disputes, something the EU has ruled out.

The talks over the protocol, which is designed to maintain free-flowing borderless trade on the island of Ireland, remain deadlocked.

Lord Frost told the House of Lords on Wednesday that triggering Article 16 - which would effectively suspend elements of the arrangements - would be the UK's only option if the dispute was not resolved.

He there was 'a real opportunity to turn away from confrontation, to move beyond our current difficulties and put in place a new, and better, equilibrium' in the talks.

But he added it was 'not inevitable' that Article 16 would be triggered.

The Irish Government has held talks with US President Joe Biden's administration about the protocol.

On Thursday, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said contact with the US government was designed to 'encourage progress' in negotiations.

The protocol effectively keeps Northern Ireland inside the EU's single market for goods, resulting in some checks for products crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's hunger-striking husband and relatives of other Britons held captive in Iran are 'depressed' over a lack of progress toward their freedom.

Calls are growing for the country to repay its 400million debt to the Tehran regime in a bid to get them to free the Brits imprisoned in their country.

The Shah of Iran paid Britain 650million for 1,750 Chieftain tanks in the 1970s but only 185 had been delivered when he was toppled in 1979 and the new government cancelled the order.

Britain was told to pay back 450million by the International Chamber of Commerce in a 2009 ruling but sanctions on military equipment prevent payment.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's hunger-striking husband (pictured, Richard Ratcliffe) and relatives of other Britons held captive in Iran are 'depressed' over a lack of progress toward their freedom

Pictured: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who was imprisoned in Iran since April 2016

Richard Ratcliffe has described a meeting with Foreign Office minister James Cleverly as 'depressing' after telling him he was coming away from it with 'no hope'.

The meeting followed talks between UK Government officials and Iran's deputy foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani.

And prisoner Anoosheh Ashoori's wife, Sherry Izadi, said her husband will be 'depressed' at a lack of progress in face-to-face talks between the two nations, and that the next step is for the UK to pay the debt owed to Iran.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Izadi said that when she tells her husband no 'concrete result' was achieved yesterday, she thinks he will 'be feeling pretty depressed - it's been quite an emotional seesaw the last few days'.

Left to right: Aryan Ashoori, the son of Anoosheh Ashoori, Richard Ratcliffe, Sherry Izadi, the wife of Anoosheh Ashoori, MP for Lewisham East Janet Daby and Elika Ashoori, the daughter of Anoosheh Ashoori

'We'd pinned our hopes that something would be achieved from a face-to-face meeting, but it seems that we're back at square one.'

She added: 'Even to get to this stage, there has been a lot of effort to actually force the Government to acknowledge that there is a link between the payment of this debt and the dual national cases, and then to acknowledge that it's actually a debt and not a ransom, so we're making small headway.

'It's taken several years. So the next step is for them to pay it.'

MP Jeremy Hunt yesterday wrote that he believed the UK should repay its debt.

He said: 'The truth is that this is a vile, heartless regime which has no qualms about falsely imprisoning and torturing innocent people to create diplomatic leverage. This is hostage diplomacy, and using a young mum and her daughter in a brutal game of cat and mouse is nothing to them.

Pictured: Anoosheh Ashoori with his wife and daughter

'So there can be no excuses for this wicked, terrorist-sponsoring regime  and thanks to Richards courage the world finally knows about Irans hostage taking.

'But that doesnt mean there is nothing we can do to get our people home: That is to settle a 400million debt we owe Iran for tanks that were never delivered during the time of the Shah.'

The meetings on Thursday came as Mr Ratcliffe endured his 19th day on hunger strike outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in London.

Mr Ratcliffe began his demonstration last month after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran, saying his family is 'caught in a dispute between two states'.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Mr Cleverly, Mr Ratcliffe said: 'If I'm honest, quite a depressing meeting.

Pictured: Anoosheh Ashoori with his wife, Sherry Izadi

'In terms of what we got told, well, not much.'

He said Mr Cleverly wanted to emphasise that the meeting with the Iranian delegation had been 'cordial'.

Mr Ratcliffe added: 'He'd raised Nazanin's case, the case of the others (detainees). He said that was a good step. Couldn't give a timeline on when things were going to move forwards.'

He told reporters he would continue his hunger strike outside the FCDO 'this evening', but said he was nearing the end of it 'as a strategy'.

Asked if he was going to carry on, Mr Ratcliffe said: 'For this evening, yes.

'I think there's a basic medical limit on how long you do a hunger strike for.

'I made a promise to Nazanin, I made a promise to my family, mum in particular, and to the family doctors, that I won't take it too far.

'But yeah, I don't think we walk away head held high feeling like it's all been sorted.'

Asked how he would break the news to his daughter, Gabriella, he said: 'Well, she probably doesn't think in terms of ministerial meetings, she's just asked when mummy's coming home.

'I'm a little bit more deflated today than I was this time yesterday.'

Anoosheh Ashoori's wife, Sherry Izadi (pictured together), said her husband will be 'depressed' at a lack of progress in face-to-face talks between the two nations, and that the next step is for the UK to pay the debt owed to Iran

The Shah of Iran paid Britain 650million for 1,750 Chieftain tanks (pictured) in the 1970s but only 185 had been delivered when he was toppled in 1979 and the new government cancelled the order

Mr Ratcliffe said his family is 'stuck in the same status quo' after the meeting.

'If I'm honest, it felt like, you know, perfectly nice, sincere, caring, everyone in the room was caring.

'But you know we're still stuck in the same status quo. We're still stuck in the same problems that led us to end up on hunger strike.

'I don't feel they've given a clear enough message to Iran that hostage-taking is wrong. I don't think there are any consequences to Iran at present for its continuing taking hostages of British citizens and using them.

'There was acknowledgement that clearly Nazanin is being held as leverage. No readiness to change course,' he said.

Locked up for 10 years while visiting his elderly mother: Who is Iranian prisoner Anoosheh Ashoori? Anoosheh Ashoori, 67, has been imprisoned in a notorious Iranian jail since 2017, when he was arrested while visiting his mother. Mr Ashoori, who is a British-Iranian citizen, is being held in Evin Prison in Tehran. His family claimed he was surrounded by mice and rats and has been banned from calling relatives in the past. He was landed with a 10-year sentence after being accused of spying. His wife, mother-of-two Sherry Izadi, 57, who lives in south London, believes his incarceration is being used as leverage to force the UK to pay back a 450million debt from 1979. She told the Mirror: 'To this day we haven't once had any form of engagement from Boris Johnson (who was Foreign Secretary at the time of Mr Ashoori's imprisonment). 'He's done nothing whatsoever.' Ms Izadi and the couple's two adult children, Elika and Aryan, have been desperately calling on the government to give him diplomatic protection - as it did for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Ms Izadi said it is growing harder to believe that her husband will be released before the end of his 10 year sentence. After his initial arrest, Mr Ashoori was put into solitary confinement for four months. He now shares a room with 14 people in 'dire' living conditions. Ms Izadi said: 'They tell us that they're doing their best but we're never privy to what negotiations are going on, if indeed they are having any. Really I've seen nothing... They want their debt back from the British government. I believe there's no other credible motive. I think reclaiming this money has become a matter of prestige.' Advertisement

Mr Ratcliffe said he was 'pretty irritable' in the meeting.

'I said to him (Mr Cleverly) at the end, ''I come away with no hope. I felt that in your strategy it's all carrots to Iran. There's no stick''.

'I can't see what's stopping them from continuing to play games with Nazanin.

'I think by being here, Nazanin is probably safe for a few weeks. But what's to stop them threatening to put her in prison again?'

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, has been in custody in Iran since 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

She was taking the couple's daughter, Gabriella, to see her family when she was arrested and sentenced to five years in jail, spending four years in Evin Prison and one under house arrest.

According to her family, she was told by Iranian authorities that she was being detained because of the UK's failure to pay an outstanding 400million debt to Iran.

Mr Ratcliffe said the Government 'clammed up' and would not talk about the debt to Iran, adding: 'We asked about the debt and they wouldn't talk about it, I mean really clammed up.

'He (Mr Cleverly) said ''our position is well known'', and we said ''well, look, frankly it's not well known, you haven't told us. I don't know if you've told anyone else but we've never heard it''.'

Mr Ratcliffe told reporters: 'I had hoped there would have been some kind of a breakthrough and recognition in the meeting with Iran - maybe that will be happening away from us, but I don't have any hopes.'

Asked how he would give the news to his wife, he said: 'I will probably wait a few hours and calm down.

'I think probably my expectations were higher than hers.'

He added: 'I think things either move forwards or they move backwards. I don't feel they moved forwards today. It may be that there are parts of the conversation I am not privy to and there are parts the minister shares down the line.'

A Foreign Office spokesman said the Iranian deputy foreign minister met Mr Cleverly and senior government officials on Thursday, and Foreign Office representatives reiterated that Iran should take the opportunity to conclude the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) deal on the table.

They added: 'The Iranian deputy foreign minister was also pressed on the need for Iran to urgently release all British nationals unfairly detained in Iran, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz.

'Minister Cleverly met Richard Ratcliffe again today to reaffirm our commitment to reuniting his wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, with her family in the UK.

'The Foreign Secretary, minister Cleverly and the FCDO continue to work hard to secure the release of all those British nationals unfairly detained in Iran.'
A female British Army instructor who told junior recruits 'You're mine now, bitches' has been demoted after being convicted of punching two teenage soldiers.

Following a court martial, Corporal Kimberley Hey was found to have hit one 16-year-old in the stomach on his first day of training and delivered a similar blow to another recruit because he had 'smirked' at her.

Witnesses claim Cpl Hey ordered teenage trainees who answered questions wrong in tests to raise their arms and loosen their belt buckles before hitting them in the stomach.

The 34-year-old, who has boxed throughout her army career, was accused of dishing out regular punches to soldiers half her age - both male and female and all under 18 - as they underwent training.

Reducing her in rank to Lance Corporal, Judge Advocate Alistair McGrigor told her that although the punches were at a 'low level', she had 'abused' her relationship with the recruits and her acts had the potential to 'erode public trust' in the armed forces' training.

'You were a very experienced instructor in charge of junior soldiers,' he said. 'You had the interests of the junior soldiers at heart but this was an abuse of your relationship.

'It's an extremely bad example to give young, impressionable soldiers at the start of their army life. Such behaviour had the potential to erode public confidence in training young soldiers.

'You have forfeited your rank by such behaviour.'

Corporal Kimberly Hey, 34, pictured outside Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire, was demoted after she was convicted of punching teenage junior soldiers

Cpl Hey, who has served in the armed forces for 18 years, had denied the charges, insisting her actions only amounted to 'mutual flicking' that was part of 'bonding' with the soldiers.

But she was found guilty during a three-day trial at Bulford Military Court, Wilts, of two counts of battery relating to junior recruits Craftsman Joseph Wiggin and Craftsman Jonathan Bryan.

She was acquitted of six other charges of battery relating to three other soldiers including allegations that she had punched recruits for failing in tests.

The court heard Cpl Hey, of 3rd Regiment Royal Logistics Corps, worked as part of the Directing Staff at Army Foundation College Harrogate, North Yorks.

Junior soldiers undergo training at AFC Harrogate in North Yorkshire, where their sessions are split into three terms of around six weeks.

One trainee told the court martial Cpl Hey explained to new recruits, 'You're mine now, bitches' shortly after they first arrived.

Signaller Hannah Harwood, who gave evidence via video link from the Falkland Islands, spoke of multiple incidents on 'the company line' - a line running down a corridor at the base along which recruits would line up.

She said: 'Cpl Hey addressed the platoon at the beginning of the first term, when we first arrived.

'She said something along the lines of, "You're mine now, bitches".

'At the start of the second term Cpl Hey addressed the platoon again. She asked us, "Who thinks they're hardest?".

'Three people put their hands up and Cpl Hey punched them all in the stomach.'

Craftsman Jonathan Bryan (pictured outside court) said Cpl Hey jabbed him in the stomach one time but described her as 'strict but fair'

Craftsman Wiggin told the court Cpl Hey had punched 'everyone in the platoon' on their first day in training, when he was just 16 years old.

Cfn Wiggin said: 'The platoon was called onto the line on the first day of training.

'Our section was on the line and we were all punched. There was no malice behind it - it was more of a sort of bonding thing.

'My arms were behind my back as we were all at ease. She didn't say anything or give any reason, and I didn't know she was going to punch me.

'I would have been 16 at the time.'

Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire heard that Cpl Hey dished out stomach punches while working as an army instructor

Craftsman Bryan told the court: 'Cpl Hey gave me a jab in the stomach on one occasion.

'The whole platoon were on the line. I was smirking at the time and she jabbed me in the stomach.

'I slightly anticipated it because she would do it as a joke with a few from her section.

'Cpl Hey was a good DS; she was strict but fair. She treated us more like friends and joked around with us.'

Handing down the sentence, Judge Advocate McGrigor said: 'You punched Private [Joseph] Wiggin on his first day as he stood in line with his whole platoon.

'Later you punched Private [Jonathan] Bryan because he smirked at you. The court rejected that this was "mutual flicking" as you said.

'We do, however, accept that these punches were at the very low level.'
A bomb has exploded inside a mosque in Afghanistan during Friday prayers, leaving multiple people wounded and injured.

An IED planted inside a mosque in the village of Traili, Nangarhar province, exploded around 1.30pm while prayers were underway, Taliban officials said.

Initial reports of casualties varied, though it appears at least 15 people were hurt. One Taliban official also said there had been 'fatalities', but did not give a figure.

An IED planted inside a mosque in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, has exploded - wounding at least 15 people and causing 'fatalities', Taliban officials said

It is just the latest in a series of bomb attacks that have targeted Afghani mosques during Friday prayers, aimed at undermining Taliban rule.

Many Afghans supported the Taliban returning to power in the belief that the Islamist group would provide greater security.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for today's explosion, though Nangarhar province is home territory for ISIS-K - the terror group's Afghan branch.

ISIS-K has been behind many of the recent mosque bombings in Afghanistan.

Today's attack appears unusual because locals said the target was a Sunni house of prayer. All previous attacks have hit Shia mosques.

ISIS-K is a fundamentalist Sunni group, whose members view Muslims of other sects as apostates and therefore legitimate targets for attacks.

Since coming to power in Afghanistan three months ago, the Taliban have been waging a counterinsurgency campaign, vowing to put down the threat from IS.

IS is an enemy of the Taliban. The two groups share a hard-line interpretation of Islam and over the years engaged in some of the same violent tactics, such as suicide bombings.

However, the Taliban have focused on seizing control of Afghanistan, while IS adheres to global jihad.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Taliban intelligence service told reporters in Kabul that the agency has arrested close to 600 IS members, including key figures and financial supporters.

The spokesman, Khalil Hamraz, said at least 33 IS members have been killed in gun battles with Taliban security forces.
A British man, 36, has admitted murdering his Canadian ex-girlfriend with a hammer and gunshot but denied killing her 22-month-old daughter.

Robert Leeming's guilty plea comes two years after he led undercover cops to a shallow grave with the bodies of Jasmine Lovett, 25, and her daughter Aliyah Sanderson in Kananaskis, near where he lived in Calgary.

He pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Lovett and not guilty to the second-degree murder of Aliyah at the beginning of his trial.

HGV mechanic Leeming, of Wiltshire, told the Calgary court he flew into a rage with his lodger and former lover Lovett and attacked her with a hammer before shooting her in the head when she accused him of injuring her daughter.

He denied killing Aliyah, describing her as a 'great kid', and claimed she died from injuries sustained when she fell down stairs.

After the pair disappeared in April, Leeming claimed he 'did nothing wrong' and that he was on a date with another woman when Lovett and Sanderson went missing.

But he later led two undercover police officers, who had befriended him offering to help remove the bodies, to the grave in Grizzly Creek, leading to his arrest.

Robert Leeming, 36, has admitted murdering his Canadian ex-girlfriend with a hammer and gunshot but denied killing her 22-month-old daughter

Leeming's guilty plea comes two years after the bodies of Jasmine Lovett, 25, (pictured) and her daughter Aliyah Sanderson were found in a shallow grave in Kananaskis, near Calgary

Leeming was the only witness to testify for the defence.

The court heard the 36-year-old 'just snapped' at Lovett and bludgeoned her with a hammer before shooting her in the head with a 0.22 calibre rifle as she lay bleeding heavily on the floor.

He said he was 'happy' to look after Aliyah during his on-and-off relationship with her mother and that he and Lovett were 'friends'.

The court heard Lovett had skull fractures and had been shot in the head while Aliyah died of blunt force trauma to the head.

On the first day of his trial at the Court of Queen's Justice last month, Leeming's defense lawyer Balfour Der said there was no evidence the 36-year-old had killed Aliyah.

Der added a medical examiner had testified it was possible she died from injuries sustained in a fall.

He said: 'The absence of evidence will support reasonable doubt. The verdict should be not guilty but, I say, as an alternative, there may be a finding of manslaughter.'

Prosecutor Doug Taylor pushed back on Der's statement, arguing Leeming had never told police the child's death was an accident.

'No one would pass up that opportunity unless it was not an accident,' he said.

Taylor also told the court Leeming's story of a fall did not fit with forensic evidence and 'defies logic' and pointed out that he had lied repeatedly.

'He told lie after lie after he murdered Jasmine and, so says the Crown, Aliyah. He lied to the police. He lied to the public. He lied to his ex-wife. He lied to his employer.

'All of this was a calculated scheme to get away with murder - and not just one, but two.'

Taylor also told the court it 'does not have to be able to find with certainty the exact mechanisms of how it is that the accused would have committed the murder against Aliyah Sanderson, just so long as he is found to be legally responsible for it'.

Leeming told police he flew into a rage and attacked Lovett when she questioned him about whether he had caused injuries to Aliyah (pictured) who fell down the stairs while he was looking after her

Aliyah's grandmother Jodi Sanderson attended court and told reporters it was 'hard to watch' and that she was eager for the case to come to an end.

'You know what happened, but to hear it explained in detail was pretty traumatic. I'm glad we're finally coming to a close and it'll be all over soon,' she said, adding that she wanted to see Leeming convicted.

'That would be the biggest relief. He's already admitted to Jasmine. That's another thing that really rocks me to the core. To not admit to Aliyah, at least some wrongdoing, is very hard to listen to.'

Speaking outside court during the trial last month, Lovett's mother Kim Blankert said: 'It's kind of like getting hit by a truck every day that we come in here, but we still come and stand up for Jasmine and Aliyah.

'It doesn't matter to me what happens to Robert Leeming because it doesn't change anything, it doesn't bring the girls back. Obviously, we want justice, but it doesn't matter in the long run, as far as the healing goes.

'The healing comes from after this is all over, and we can just move forward and away from all of the violence.'

Lovett and Aliyah were reported missing on April 16 after they failed to show up for a family dinner. Leeming was initially arrested in connection with the disappearance but later released.

He was re-arrested after police found the bodies - doused in gasoline, wrapped in blue blankets, and covered in dirt and branches - in a shallow grave in Kananaskis, 70 miles west of the home where Lovett and Leeming lived.

In a statement at the time, police said: 'At approximately 4am on Monday, May 6, 2019, we located the bodies of a woman and child, believed to be that of Jasmine Lovett and Aliyah Sanderson, in Kananaskis.

'The investigation led officers to a heavily wooded area near Grizzly Creek located off Highway 40, where the bodies were discovered.

'A suspect has been taken into custody and charges are pending.'

Police had been searching for the bodies in the Bragg Creek area which is located 40 miles closer to where Leeming said he last saw the pair at his house.

But after making a breakthrough they moved their search near Grizzly Creek where the pair were found on May 6, 2019.

Leeming led two undercover police officers to the shalow grave in Grizzly Creek after they told him they had retrieved a bag of evidence from a nosy neighbour

Leeming led two undercover police officers to the site after they told him they had retrieved a bag of evidence from a nosy neighbour and offered to help with his troubles by removing the bodies, the Global Times reported.

The officers were led to the site on foot by Leeming, who knew exactly where to take them, according to their testimony.

'I said, "OK, where to?" And [Leeming] goes, "You're looking at it." And he points down. And underneath and against my left foot were branches and a pile,

'[Leeming] goes and he grabs a branch and lifts it up as if to prove what's underneath all these branches. As he does that, I see a small bit of blue that I believe to be the moving blankets.'

The find came days after Leeming boasted to reporters outside a bar while a forensics team searched his house: 'They will find nothing because I did nothing wrong.'

The undercover officers also told the court Leeming had gloated about hiding raw bacon around his house and filling his car with mulch in an effort to throw police off his trail.

In a recording played during his trial, Leeming could be heard telling cops he filled the trunk of his car with mulch because 'it smells like death'.

Asked if he had cleaned up the car properly after transporting the bodies, he said 'oh, yeah'.

Leeming was also heard telling undercover officers he was pleased his car - a 2014 Mercedes - was an older model so police would not be able to use a computer in the vehicle to work out where he had been.

Lovett and Sanderson were lodging with Leeming before their deaths. He had been in an intimate relationship with Lovett, who had lived with him for the previous seven months.

Leeming, who was born on a British Army base in Germany and later lived in Wiltshire, told police he went for a picnic with the pair on April 17.

He said he then went out on a date with a woman who he had been seeing for a few months. Lovett's bank card was used for an online purchase the following day.

The court will set a date for a verdict on December 3.
Advertisement

These are the jaw-dropping photos that have been honoured for capturing Britain at its magical best.

From fairy-tale pathways to misty hills, these stunning frames of the United Kingdom display the patience and expertise of outdoor photographers.

Now in its 14th year, the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition showcases exquisite images of landscapes and cityscapes from around the UK.

This year's overall winner is Mara Leite for her mesmerising image of the Mill Lane tree tunnel in Halnaker, West Sussex.

Ms Leite, from Seattle, USA, said: 'I was looking for a different composition when I decided to turn the other way and saw this beautiful sight.

Mara Leite, from Seattle, USA, won the overall award for Landscape Photographer of the year with this image of Mill Lane in Halnaker, West Sussex said: 'I was looking for a different composition when I decided to turn the other way and saw this beautiful sight.

This image, which is a runner up, was taken by Itay Kaplan. It features a full moon shining above the Prince of Wales bridge over the River Severn. The moon is bracketed by the bridge's two pillars

Daniel Langer was highly commended for this atmospheric image of a pair of rutting stags in Richmond Park, London

'I love the gate in the background and how the morning light is hitting the leaves and softly entering the tunnel.'

Patient Andy Gray scooped runner-up in the Your View category with a snowy photo captured near his Derbyshire home in Matlock in the Peak District.

Mr Gray said: 'I first discovered this spot while commuting to work a few years back.

'It's located just off a main road with no obvious parking so I only ever glanced at it briefly through the window while passing.

'In my mind's eye I could sense it had potential.'

He finally made the trip to the pathway last winter with his camera in tow.

Reflecting on the winning shot, he added: 'I liked the combination of snow, mist and light coming from the left.'

An awe-inspiring shot of the Jacobite steam train crossing the Glenfinnan Viaduct in Scotland's highlands - as seen in Harry Potter movies - tops the podium in the Lines in the Landscape category.

Lensman Malcolm Blenkey said: 'I decided on this viewpoint rather than using the usual vantage points as I thought that if the sun broke through the cloud as the train arrived it would be the best way to show the juxtaposition of the natural beauty of the location in contrast to the mighty man-made structure.'

Snapper Daniel Langer's magnificent shot of Richmond Park, in Richmond upon Thames, south-west London, was highly commended in the Urban Life category.

Philip George visited Chesterton Windmill in Warwickshire several times before the weather conditions were perfect

Matthew Turner was in position as the Alberta crossed the Dent Head Viaduct in Cumbria as a heavy rain shower approached from the hills in the background

James Ewer captured this image of the Golden Rocks in Bat's Head in Dorset, England as the beach was illuminated by the low sun

Mike Middlebrook won a prize in the black and white category with this image of daybreak beside teh River Brathay / Skelwith Bridge in Cumbria

James Rushforth was in a perfect position to capture this photograph of Comet Neowise over Stonehenge, Wiltshire

Bethan Rackyleft won a prize in the youth competition for an urban photograph. She said: ' This photo was captured on a heavenly summer's evening at the Royal Albert Docks in Liverpool. I had gone for a walk with just my camera, not expecting a good sunset, but was taken aback when the sky errupted with colour. Thankfully there was enough light to shoot hand-held and I was able to capture the stunning reflections across the water'

Jason Hudson was on a pre-dawn climb up Grisdale Pike in the Lake District. He said: 'I noticed the light trails through the mist and thought it would make a compelling image'

Tommaso Carrara was in Piccadilly Circus in London when he took this image. He said: 'The silhouette of a man smoking a cigarette catches my attention as a doubledecker cuts trough the road with the advertising boards on the back. This trilogy made of human, adverts and transportation is, to me, amongst the essence of this city'

He says that the photograph shows 'two juvenile red deer stags developing skills of the rut in preparation for the real event in seasons to come'.

Mr Langer added: 'I got lucky with a combination of being at the right place at the right time during the right conditions.

'I noticed a small raised clearing within the bracken and several red deer nearby so I set up my tripod looking in the direction of the sunrise.

'These two stags climbed onto the mound and locked antlers for a practice rut.

'I couldn't believe my luck.'

He compared the scene to 'a street fight, with the deer entering the arena and the spectators watching on from afar'.

David Queenan was was in South Queensferry, West Lothian, when he took this image. He said: 'The Gaelic name for the upper reach of the river is Abhainn Dubh, meaning 'Black River'. I used a long exposure of 20 seconds the capture the streak of light from a train as it crossed the bridge. Low rain clouds added to the moody atmosphere as they reflected the bridge floodlights'

David Lyon was highly commended for this composite image of The Sentinals in Somerset

Paul Constable was walking in Newmarket in Suffolk with his camera when he spotted this scene. He said: I captured this image on an evening exercise walk during the 3rd lockdown. I had never visited the location before but was struggling to find inspiration in my usual local spots. I loved the fallen branch in the bottom right of the image. It made me think of David and Goliath'

Lucie Averill was in Brighton, Sussex when she took this photograph. She said: 'Seeing the derelict remains of the West Pier, it is hard to imagine that this was once a major tourist attraction in Brighton. However, this iconic structure still commands great presence, and I'm always intrigued to see how it is faring whenever I visit. On this occasion I chose to make a long exposure to smooth the water, giving a minimal feel and more definition to the skeletal metal work. The slightly cool tones give the image a more sombre atmosphere, which I feel is appropriate for this grand old lady'

Mark Bauer captured his image in Westcombe, Devon. He said: ' I'd hoped for a colourful sunset, but when the sun dipped into thick haze on the horizon, it clearly wasn't going to happen. So I opted for black and white and a composition based around the strong shapes and textures in the bay'

This year's competition also incorporates three special awards, including the Historic Britain and separate youth categories.

Winners share a prize fund worth 20,000, with a top prize of 10,000.

The competition's founder Charlie Waite, a leading landscape snapper, said: 'With the glorious ring lighting and splash of golden light at the top, there is a sense of security and protection as much as secrecy that emerges from this delicate photograph where we are beckoned to go forward.

'Despite the gate at the far end, perhaps there is an additional feeling that one would never wish to reach it.'

An exhibition of shortlisted and winning entries will premiere at London Bridge on November 15 until January 9, before going on a tour of the country.

Adam Furneaux took this photograph in Brixham, Devon. 'I took this image late last year, in my local area which is Brixham. To achieve this image I woke up early in the morning, so that I could capture the butterflies. For this image the sun beaming off the cliff side created a minimalistic backdrop for the butterflies when shot at a low aperture. When it comes to the shutter speed I shot this at around 1/250, this is due to the windy conditions on the day.'

Ian Asprey was in Anglesey, North Wales with his camera when he saw this scene. He said: 'Cloud coverage was forecast at 30% so I took a chance. I wanted to get an iconic landmark with this extra terrestrial treat, so a lot of planning and app using brought me to Anglesey.A I got the sky I was praying for and I took lots and lots of images and chose this one as I liked the way the cloud mimicked the land adding some sort of symmetry. It was a shoot at all costs situation as I knew my eyes would never witness this space odyssey again, marrying our world with the unknown'

David Griffiths was also on Anglesea, North Wales when he took this photograph. He said: 'Barely able to stand in the teeth of a howling Irish Sea gale, I'd waited for these very specific conditions. The highest spring tides over the causeway to the Church in the Sea, often create these wave patterns, and they're at their very best during stormy conditions. It's my nearest coastline, just a mile from home so I've waited it out many a time! I knew it would be a nightmare keeping the lens free of sea spray, but I was glad I persevered'

Tony Higginson was in Tilberthwaite , Cumbria, when he captured this image: 'Standing with a friend in a whiteout blizzard I was questioning my sanity until I settled on this composition in which this wonderfully shaped larch sits with a distant fell just visible through the snow.'

Aled Davies of Coed y Bedw, Cardiff captured his image. He said: 'I was Initially drawn to this hazel tree's elegant form, contrasted against its backdrop of regimented Sitka Spruce trees. Intrigue morphed to melancholy as I realised that Its untypical, bleached, slender form was caused by its struggle for light in the plantation forest. It took numerous visits in different seasons and weathers, before I captured what I considered to be the appropriate atmosphere, to best represent this trees story in an image'

Henri Abbott was in Paulton, Somerset with his drone. He said the photograph captured some fog rolling in from the left

James Whitesmith was in the Yorkshire Dales National Park with his drone. He said: 'Traditional dry stone walls zig zag across the fields beneath Malham Lings in the Yorkshire Dales, as the rising sun begins to light the scene. I arrived on location well before sunrise and the entire valley was filled with thick fog, but as the minutes ticked by it began to shift and retreat. This particular scene caught my eye and fortunately the swirling mist revealed the copse at the decisive moment with the first direct light washing over the landscape'

Tomasz Rojek took this image of Dunnottar Castle, Aberdeenshire. He said: 'The photo was taken during my trip to Scotland in May 2019. This is Dunnottar Castle during the sunrise. The man in the upper right corner shows the scale of the landscape'

Robert Birkby was in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. He said: 'I've wanted to visit this street in atmospheric conditions for some time, but on arrival was disappointed to see the fog wasn't quite as dense as hoped. I took a few shots in the rain anyway, as the cobbles and dark gritstone houses of the Upper Calder Valley look dramatic in the wet. I was just about to pack up and leave when a friendly gentleman approached and we chatted for quite a while. As he walked away I noticed the fog had thickened somewhat so I quickly increased the ISO and took this shot as he walked down the hill. Thankfully I already had a cable release attached to allow optimal timing'

Evie Easterbrook was in Southwold harbour Suffolk England. She said: 'I took this photo at Southwold harbour in Suffolk. I was surprised to see the gulls forming such an orderly queue!'

Arthur Homewood was on Saunton Sands beach Devon England. He said: 'The fog is my favourite condition to shoot in due to the potential for minimalistic compositions and the way the background appears to go on indefinitely. On Christmas Eve 2018 my family and I went to Saunton Sands for a walk but when we arrived the foggy conditions were unlike anything I had scene before on the beach. I moved straight toward the coastline and after a short time these children came running up to play in the shallow water. They made for perfect subjects as they were were extremely energetic, running on excitement for the following day.'

Mark Amphlett was in Loch Awe Argyll and Bute. He said: ' It was a very overcast morning on Loch Awe, the forecast was for mist and was hoping for a light covering around the lake, instead the whole area was covered in thick, low lying cloud. My initial images from that morning were very flat. I waited for around an hour and chatted to a fellow photographer, in the end my patience was rewarded as suddenly a tiny break in the cloud illuminated the castle and brought the whole scene to life. As often happens with beautiful light it only lasted around two minutes, but I couldn't have placed it more perfectly.'

Tony Gill was in Quarr Hill Dorset . He said: 'This place has always felt familiar under my walking boots, but at the beginning of the year, with the world in the grip of a pandemic, it now felt alien and otherworldly. A hard frost and chance of mist had sent me high upon the Downs, as the dawn sky blushed with warmth yet the ground was still iron. So, what am I doing here?'

Robin Dodd was in Oxfordshire. He said: 'A runner in the dawn mist along the towpath near Henley On Thames. My nightly routine is to check my apps for morning mist or fog down by the river. I will take the camera down there before dawn if the conditions look right. I set up opposite the towpath with a tripod and then start shooting as the mist and sun play out their show. I then blend the best of the movement with the landscape to give the viewer the same emotional vision I had when watching that stunning light show myself. Time-lapse all in one image. A simple and effective technique for that part of the rivers daily life. Rowers, runner, cyclists, dog walkers - there are endless combinations to play with when its time to go home for breakfast.'

Colin Jones was in the capital when he took this photograph. He said: 'I came across this tree in London Victoria. It immediately caught my eye as it sat perfectly within the triangle of the building behind. I really enjoy the contrast between modern structural architecture and nature. I waited for the golden hour to get a nice side light which lit the tree up beautifully, creating more contrast'

Ashley Groom was up at 5am in The Shambles in York when he took this ghostly image

Karen Brickley was in Eastbourne, East Sussex when she took this photograph. 'Blue skies and sunshine showed off the art installation "Dance Diagonal" by Lother Gotz on the Towner Gallery perfectly. I stood in position and waited for a passer-by to complete the shot'

Kathy Medcalf was in Convoy, Taunton, Somerset. She said: 'I spotted this location on Google Earth and decided to do some research into it. I visited on a day when I the rail was closed and I hoped the trains would be in the yard. The light and time of day played a big part too as I didn't want shadow to overwhelm the main focus'

Stuart NcGlennon visited the Hardknott Roman Fort in Eskdale, Cumbria. He said: 'The Hardknott Roman Fort is a place that's always intrigued me, the history behind this location is fascinating and I often wonder what life would have looked like watching the sun set over the Irish Sea in the distance from this viewpoint back in the age of the Romans. From a personal standpoint I love the view especially in the winter when the low afternoon sun lights up the many intricate patterns in the walls'

Grant Bulloch was in South Queensferry, West Lothian early in the morning. He said: ' Dawn at the Forth Bridges saw low mist and cloud start to tumble down from the hills of Fife and visually separate the lighthouse below the rail bridge from the background. The two early morning yachts sailing into the shot added an extra dimension'

Stephen Cheatley took this intriguing image of the M62 as it crossed The Pennines in Scammoden, West Yorkshire. He said: 'This is a scene I have shot a few times and I never get tired of visiting the location to capture light trails along the M62 motorway as they wind around the famous farmhouse in the middle of the two carriageways as they pass over the Pennine Moors between Huddersfield & Manchester. I had to choose a specific spot for this composition so I did not clip off the left hand carriageway, which meant walking along the embankment away from the Scammonden Bridge to a place where I could get a clearer shot of the whole motorway. I had to use a long enough exposure (2.5 minutes) which would ensure the trails were continuous for the whole motorway, and that there would be a nice flow with no breaks. The idea was to capture the trails as dusk fell, so the landscape would not be completely black'
Advertisement

'Zero-Covid' scientists today demanded the Government activates its winter 'Plan B' to protect the NHS, despite the fact coronavirus cases and hospital admissions are falling.

Independent Sage, a pressure group of eminent experts who've pushed for an Australian-style virus elimination strategy, said compulsory masks and widespread WFH were 'urgently' needed to 'save the NHS and Christmas'.

The group  which includes a former Government chief scientific adviser, a Communist Party member and some of No10's own scientists  claimed the 'very high levels of Covid' were putting 'extreme pressure' on the health service.

Independent Sage's call to action comes after a swathe of shocking statistics laid bare the extent of the crisis within the NHS, with waiting lists for routine care soaring to another high and 999 calls and ambulance waits hitting record levels.

Doctors said the NHS was being brought 'to its knees' with patients being left to die in the back of ambulances and waiting rooms because staff are so busy.

But other experts argue the current Covid situation doesn't justify moving to Plan B, given that admissions for the virus have fallen for nearly a week straight and are projected to fall even more in the coming weeks.

Covid cases have also been trending down since October 24, in line with the country's major surveillance study which found a 16 per cent weekly fall last week, and death rates have also started to follow suit.

'The Government needs to urgently bring in Plan B... The pressure on the NHS is extreme and increasing, the backlog of treatment is at a record high, it needs to act now,' Independent Sage said.

'Most importantly, working from home where possible and mandated facemasks in indoor spaces are needed. We also believe additional protective measures should be brought in, including ensuring good ventilation in schools and other public spaces and financial support for self-isolation.'

No10 has said it will only revert to its winter Covid 'Plan B' strategy if the NHS faces 'unsustainable' pressure, which ministers argue is not the case yet despite health leaders insisting otherwise.

Cambridge University epidemiologist Dr Raghib Ali, who is also an NHS consultant in acute medicine, said the current NHS crisis was not the result of Covid but a 'chronic staffing shortage'.

He said reverting to Plan B now would not solve the problem, adding: 'Although there has often been too much alarmism, this is a genuine problem which is harming many patients... [but] there is no easy short-term solution.'

There are questions about whether the current Covid situation is to blame for the NHS crisis, given that there are half as many Covid inpatients now than this time last year (shown)

Admissions for the virus have fallen for nearly a week straight (shown) with around 800 per day on average now compared to almost 1,600 in November 2020

The NHS waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has reached 5.83million, official data revealed on Thursday, marking the eleventh month in a row that the figure has hit a record high. Some 1.6million more Britons were waiting for elective surgery  such as hip and keen operations  at the end of September compared to the start of the pandemic

Despite the total A&E admissions in England being just two per cent more than one month earlier and equal to the number of people who came forward during the same month in 2019, 7,059 patients were forced to wait more than 12 hours to be seen at A&E. The record-high figure is 40 per cent more than the 5,024 forced to wait that long one month earlier. It is also five times bigger than in September 2020 and ten times more than the same month in 2019

The NHS has long struggled to meet its recommended ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents which include medical emergencies such as strokes and severe burns but the last few months months have seen unprecedented rise with patients waiting nearly an hour on average for an ambulance after calling 99.

A record number of 999 calls were made in England in October with 1,012,143 urgent calls for medical help made. But the time it took answer these calls also increased to a record 56 seconds

Independent Sage's Professor Susan Michie, a behavioural expert who also sits on the Government's official science panel SAGE, slammed Mr Johnson directly.

'To save the NHS and Christmas, the Government needs to enable behaviours to get our high transmission rates down,' she said. 'The PM walking mask less round a hospital with vulnerable patients undermines that effort.'

Professor Michie, a member of Communist Party of Britain for more than 40 years, added: 'Enabling behaviour change is everyone's responsibility especially those in positions of authority and influence.

'The PM walking mask-less round a hospital with vulnerable patients undermines the behaviours needed to keep us all safe.'

Mr Johnson was criticised this week after he was pictured walking through a hospital corridor without a mask in Northumberland on Monday - even though the NHS trust leapt to his defence and claimed he wore one in wards.

Dr Ali said the focus should be on the booster vaccines, which are proven to be highly effective at preventing hospital admissions, rather than masks which only slightly reduce transmission.

He added: 'Of course there are many other things you can and should do to help yourself (and the pressure on NHS) by taking care of your health but most of these won't impact in the very short-term hence my focus on the booster jabs which can reduce admissions by 80 per cent within two weeks.'

The demands come after monthly NHS England data published yesterday revealed that the NHS is facing a crisis even without a major surge in Covid.

The Office for National Statistics, which calculates case numbers based on thousands of random swab tests, found 925,400 people in the country were infected on any given day in the week ending November 6. The figure equates to one in 60 people having the virus and is 16.1 per cent lower than the estimated 1,103,300 cases one week earlier, when one in 50 people were infected

No10's top scientists tracking the R rate  which measures the speed the outbreak is growing at  estimated that it was between 0.8 and 1 in England. This suggests that for every ten people who have the virus, they are passing it on to between eight and 10 others

A record-high 5.83million patients are now on the NHS waiting list for routine treatment, with the mammoth toll having snowballed during the pandemic.

Army to continue supporting crisis-hit NHS Scotland after being called in in October The Army will continue helping two health boards with acute services after their request for the assistance to be extended was approved by the Ministry of Defence. Army personnel were called in to help NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Borders in October amid pressures on the health service. A request by the health boards to extend the acute services Military Aid to the Civilian Authority (MACA) task, which was originally due to last until November 10, has now been approved by Ministry of Defence, the Army said. In total 84 personnel will continue with the work, with 21 personnel in the Borders and 63 in Lanarkshire. Their involvement is expected to continue until December 8 in the Borders and December 17 in Lanarkshire, with the timelines kept under regular review. The Army is also supporting the Scottish Ambulance Service with non-emergency drivers and delivering testing through mobile units. An Army statement said: 'More than 450 Armed Forces personnel are supporting multiple MACA tasks in Scotland. These tasks fall under Operation Rescript, defence's efforts to support the UK's response to the pandemic which began in March 2020. 'Defence have supported communities across the UK throughout the pandemic, from planning support alongside resilience teams and governments, to ambulance drivers and health care assistants in hospitals, as well as the vaccine rollout. 'The Armed Forces stand ready to step up and support civil authorities, devolved nations and communities as required in the coming months where the requests meet the MACA principles.' Advertisement

At the same time, the average ambulance response time for heart attack and stroke patients is now nearly an hour, which paramedics admitted is putting patients' lives 'at risk'.

And 999 response times for category two calls are now three times above the health service's 18-minute safety target.

Doctors warned the grim performance figures were 'concerning' because winter pressures and staffing absences have yet to hit peak levels.

A poll of NHS bosses found nine in 10 felt the current situation  dealing with the pandemic-induced backlog and Covid  is 'unsustainable' and patient care is being compromised.

There have been reports of some elderly Brits having to wait up to 14 hours for an ambulance, and investigations are underway into the deaths of several patients in parked ambulances unable to handover patients to overwhelmed A&Es.

NHS England statistics reveal it took crews nearly 55 minutes to respond to Category 2 calls  including strokes, heart attacks and severe burns  in October, compared to the 18-minute target.

The most urgent incidents, which includes events such as cardiac arrests and life-threatening accidents, also saw record delays last month. Paramedics took, on average, nine minutes and 20 seconds to respond to Category 1 calls, well above the target of seven minutes.

Trade union GMB warned the ambulance wait times showed the NHS was at risk of moving from a winter crisis to a winter catastrophe.

Ambulance leaders described how they are facing the 'highest level of emergency activity in history' and raised concerns about the time lost to hospital handover delays.

It came as a poll for the NHS Confederation found that health leaders believe the pressure on the NHS is now at unsustainable levels and patient safety and care are being put at risk by staff shortages.

NHS leaders in England warned the health service has reached 'tipping point', with nearly nine in 10 (88 per cent) saying the demands on their organisation are unsustainable.

Almost the same number (87 per cent) said a lack of staffing in the NHS as a whole is putting patient safety and care at risk.

The survey of 451 leaders included those from hospitals, ambulance services, mental health providers, community services and primary care.

But Covid cases in England dropped by 16 per cent last week, leading to questions about the virus is truly behind the NHS pressure.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which calculates case numbers based on thousands of random swab tests, found 925,400 people in the country were infected on any given day in the week ending November 6.

The figure equates to one in 60 people having the virus and is 16.1 per cent lower than the estimated 1,103,300 cases one week earlier, when one in 50 people were thought to be infected.

And cases appear to be dropping in all age groups, most notably among 11 to 16-year-olds, with 4.8 per cent thought to have the virus in the last week, compared to 7.5 in the previous seven days.

It comes as one expert said the drop has been triggered 'almost entirely by the wall of immunity, rather than behavioural changes or restrictions'.

JVT says Covid crisis a 'lot calmer' after Easter... but other scientist warns of EIGHT years of misery Britain's Covid crisis is set to become 'a lot calmer' after Easter, Jonathan Van-Tam predicted today  but other scientists warned it could drag on another eight years. England's deputy chief medical officer warned there will be some 'twists and bumps' along the way and admitted that the situation was becoming harder to forecast. But he told a medical conference today: 'I think, generally speaking, waters will be quite a lot calmer after Easter.' Professor Van-Tam warned this was dependent on the successful roll out of the booster doses, which are being offered to all over-50s. His words were in stark contrast to eminent epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector, who warned that it could take years to become a manageable, seasonal virus. 'We need to be thinking in terms of time scales  it is not in months, it is not by next Christmas, it is a question as to whether it will be three years or eight years,' he said. Advertisement

And separate data published yesterday by the UK's largest symptom-tracking study revealed cases fell by almost a fifth in the biggest weekly drop since the summer.

Meanwhile, Department for Health data yesterday showed Covid cases increased 14 per cent, marking the first rise in 10 days. But hospitalisations and deaths both fell week-on-week too.

There are about 6,800 Covid patients in English hospitals now compared to more than 12,000 at the same point last year.

Meanwhile, it emerged today that the Army will continue helping two health boards in Scotland with acute services after their request for the assistance to be extended was approved by the Ministry of Defence.

Army personnel were called in to help NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Borders in October amid pressures on the health service.

A request by the health boards to extend the acute services Military Aid to the Civilian Authority (MACA) task, which was originally due to last until November 10, has now been approved by Ministry of Defence, the Army said.

In total 84 personnel will continue with the work, with 21 personnel in the Borders and 63 in Lanarkshire.

Their involvement is expected to continue until December 8 in the Borders and December 17 in Lanarkshire, with the timelines kept under regular review.

The Army is also supporting the Scottish Ambulance Service with non-emergency drivers and delivering testing through mobile units.

An Army statement said: 'More than 450 Armed Forces personnel are supporting multiple MACA tasks in Scotland. These tasks fall under Operation Rescript, defence's efforts to support the UK's response to the pandemic which began in March 2020.

'Defence have supported communities across the UK throughout the pandemic, from planning support alongside resilience teams and governments, to ambulance drivers and health care assistants in hospitals, as well as the vaccine rollout.

'The Armed Forces stand ready to step up and support civil authorities, devolved nations and communities as required in the coming months where the requests meet the MACA principles.'

Meanwhile, the latest daily coronavirus figures show Scotland recorded 17 Covid-linked deaths and 3,349 new cases in the past 24 hours.

It means the death toll under this daily measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - is 9,375.

The daily test positivity rate was 9.8 per cent, up from 8.2 per cent the previous day, according to data published by the Scottish Government on Friday.

There were 759 people in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down nine, with 55 in intensive care, down five.

So far, 4,325,523 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 3,922,893 have had their second.
The next head of a 'militant' medical union considering industrial action over No10's plan to boost face-to-face GP appointments could be a doctor who wants practices to stop offering patients 'vital' services.

Dr Farah Jameel, a GP in Camden, London, is one of two contenders shortlisted for the vacant role of chair of the British Medical Association's (BMA) general practitioners committee.

Outgoing boss Dr Richard Vautrey last week announced he would step down at the end of November, after leading the union's rebellion against Government plans to force GPs to see more patients in person.

His resignation came on the same day ballots were sent to surgeries across England asking if they would be willing to take industrial action.

Rumours soon began to circulate that Dr Vautrey actually decided to jump ship after finding himself at odds with more militant members of both his committee and the wider BMA.

Now MailOnline can reveal one of the two candidates ready to take over his position has already complained about family doctors having to provide additional services.

In Dr Jameel's first-person piece for publication GPOnline in 2018, the United Arab Emirates-born medic claimed offering non-core services 'is another example of GPs' goodwill being exploited and taken advantage of.'

The article was attached with a strap that said: 'You wouldn't expect a builder to do a job on the side for free, or ask a lawyer to do some extra work without being paid for it. So why should it be any different for GPs?'

The same publication that Dr Jameel's article was published in once described them as being a 'vital' part of service.

Non-core services include inserting pessaries, phlebotomies and spirometries. The NHS doesn't pay for these, meaning doctors don't have to offer them.

But critics say doctors should offer the services regardless and today condemned Dr Jameel's 'lax attitude'.

Dr Farah Jameel, a GP in Camden, north London, was today named as one of two contenders for vacant British Medical Association GP Committee chair role. She is currently one of three member of the committee's executive team. In an article in 2018, she wrote that GPs should not be expected to carry out non-core work, such as ECG recordings, spirometry  a test to diagnose and monitor lung conditions  and post-operation stitch removal. It is 'completely unacceptable' that doctors were doing this work without extra funding, she said

Dr Chandra Kanneganti, a Conservative councilor and Lord Mayor for Stoke-on-Trent, was revealed as the other candidate hoping to replace outgoing chair Dr Richard Vautrey, whou last week announced he would step down from the role later this month amid a row over patient access to face-to-face appointments

Dr Richard Vautrey will step down as chair of the BMA's GP committee later this month

A survey by GPOnline in 2018, the same year it described the services as vital, found 60 per cent of practices provided the non-funded care.

Dr Vautrey said at the time that doctors provide these services out of 'goodwill and their feeling of professional responsibility, for no additional resource'.

In her article, Dr Jameel, who is one of three members of the BMA GP committee's executive team, wrote it is 'completely unacceptable' that doctors were doing this work without funding.

She said: 'General practice is under tremendous pressure as it is, without having to take on activity that is not funded.

'At a time when doctors tell us that workload in general practice is reaching unmanageable and frankly unsafe levels, it is another example of GPs' goodwill being exploited and taken advantage of.'

NHS waiting list hits ANOTHER record-high with 5.83MILLION patients in need of routine operations such as hip and knee replacements now stuck in queue A record 5.83million patients are now on NHS waiting lists for routine treatment in England, official data revealed yesterday as hospital bosses warned they are already under 'unsustainable' pressure heading into winter. The mammoth figure  which has snowballed since Covid struck  includes 10,000 patients who have spent two years in the queue for elective surgery, such as hip and knee replacements. Hospitals were forced to cancel thousands of operations during the darkest days of the pandemic to make room for the infected, leaving lives 'on hold' for thousands of patients battling milder conditions. Doctors yesterday warned the build-up was 'concerning' because winter pressures and staffing absences have yet to hit peak levels, describing the health service as being 'on its knees'. A poll of NHS bosses found nine in 10 felt the current situation  dealing with the pandemic-induced the backlog and Covid  is 'unsustainable' and patient care is being compromised. Meanwhile, Labour slammed the 'dangerously lengthy' waiting times and warned the 'coming weeks are set to be the most challenging in history for the NHS'. Social care bosses have warned No10's controversial 'no jab, no job' policy introduced yesterday for care home staff will only pile more pressure on NHS wards because the sector has less capacity to take on patients needing to be discharged from hospitals. There are fears the same mandate, which will apply to all frontline NHS workers from spring, will lead to an exodus of staff just as the health service comes out of a tough winter and starts to tackle the backlog. One sign of hope is that Covid appears to be shrinking, with hospital and death rates starting to fall in line with cases now. Advertisement

Dr Jameel, who would be the first female chair of the committee if appointed, said offering the services without being paid for them meant doctors were 'stretching themselves to the extent that they risk the quality and safety of the essential services they are contracted to provide'.

Dr Jameel, who is in her late thirties, said not correctly funding the services would cause GP morale to further plummet, as well as worsen staff recruitment and retention.

She added: 'This is not about restricting GP services.

'It is about providing safe, quality and accessible care to patients, at a time when GPs are being prevented from doing so by excessive and inappropriate or unresourced work, which is taking them away from their prime duty of care as GPs.'

Dr Jameel is running up against Dr Chandra Kanneganti, Conservative councilor and Lord Mayor for Stoke-on-Trent, Pulse magazine reported.

No other GP candidates put themselves forward. A vote deciding which one will be appointed will take place at a meeting on November 18.

John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, told MailOnline: 'Services should not suffer because some GPs are only willing to do the bare minimum.

'The determination to pull out all the stops to help patients is one of the most admirable things about the NHS, but that is being threatened by BMA bean counting.

'Taxpayers pay huge amounts for a comprehensive health service and expect to get the vital services they need.'

Morgan Schondelmeier, of the Adam Smith Institute thinktank, told MailOnline: 'It's concerning that a leading candidate for the BMA GP committee chair has such a lax attitude to patient care.

'After over 18 months of remote GPs, the first priority should be ensuring patients can access necessary face-to-face treatments.

'The answer isn't to encourage GPs to turn away needy patients, but to reform the GP structure entirely.

'We should pursue a new system which allows patients to decide which GP they see  including private GPs  enabling rapid and high quality treatment while reducing burden on the NHS.'

Dennis Reed, head of campaign group for older people Silver Voices, told MailOnline he gets 'loads of emails' from people because most GP practices 'refuse to deal with' patients requiring ear syringing or that have eye infections.

Instead, patients face paying up to 80 for these services, he said.

'This has a real impact on older people who obviously can't afford those sorts of that sort of money  it's half a week's state pension,' he said.

The trend of GP services being cut back is 'extremely disturbing' and shows the contract between GPs and the Government is 'no longer fit for purpose', Mr Reed said

Latest figures showed four in ten GP appointments were still not being carried out face-to-face in September. For comparison, over the same period two years ago more than nine in ten were in person

Health Secretary Sajid Javid unveiled bold measures to get more GPs to see patients earlier this month. But his initiative was slammed by doctors who said that it was 'unfair' and indefensible. He is pictured above visiting a surgery in London last month

GPs dispute Javid's claim lack of appointments is overloading A&Es Top doctors have rejected claims that Britons are overwhelming emergency departments due to problems securing an appointment with their GP. Sajid Javid told MPs last week a lack of GP appointments were to blame for the A&E crisis - which saw record numbers waiting 12 hours to be seen in September - but the Royal College of GPs disputed the claim. Professor Martin Marshall, the college's chair, said its 54,000 members 'are dismayed and disappointed at the media coverage of your evidence session, which suggested that the lack of face-to-face GP appointments was placing additional strain on accident and emergency departments', according to the Guardian. He added: 'You told the [health and social care select] committee you had seen data which showed that more patients were presenting at A&E departments because they were unable to access primary care. 'I am not aware of any evidence to suggest that this is happening and would welcome sight of any data you have.' It is the latest development in the growing row between doctors and Government over patient access. Around six in 10 doctor appointments took place face-to-face in September, compared to eight in 10 before the pandemic. The Government unveiled plans to give surgeries cash to increase their resources to see patients in-person and 'name and shame' those that did not see people in sufficient numbers. The move triggered the British Medical Association to poll its members on taking industrial action over the plans. The results are due on November 18. Advertisement

'Face to face appointments, the out of hours service and home visits are now rarely taking place,' he told MailOnline.

'It is extremely disturbing that not only are some doctors actually welcoming these changes, but they want to go further in reducing what they regard as peripheral services to patients.

'They really just have to be a tightening up of the contract and the government needs to get a grip on this otherwise there'll be hardly any services at GP surgeries.'

A BMA spokesperson told MailOnline: 'The article in question was published more than three-and-a-half years ago, long before the pandemic wreaked havoc on all health services.

'When Covid first struck, general practice was quick to completely overhaul the way it operated to protect patients and ensure they could access the care they needed. While general practice looks very different to how it did 20 months ago, it is under pressure like never before, and practices are delivering 2.7million more appointments a month than before the pandemic.

'Meanwhile we have lost the equivalent of 1,700 full-time, fully-qualified GPs since 2015.

'With current workload reaching unmanageable levels, and amid plummeting staff morale, there is an urgent need to address how quality and safety can be guaranteed. This means all work must be appropriately commissioned and properly resourced.

'Inappropriate and unfunded workload takes GPs and their staff away from caring for the core needs of patients, and also wastes appointments which could be available for other ill patients needing to see their GP.'

Before announcing he would step down, Dr Vautrey, a GP in Leeds, said doctors should 'not feel pressured to return to a traditional ten-minute treadmill of face-to-face consultations' and urged them not to take on new patients.

Latest figures show four in ten GP appointments were still not being carried out face-to-face in England this September.

For comparison, over the same period two years ago, before the pandemic struck, more than nine in ten were in person.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid last month unveiled a 250million package of measures to get patients more face-to-face appointments, including a controversial proposal that would effectively 'name and shame' underperforming surgeries.

The BMA launched an indicative ballot of GP practices in England, asking if they support taking industrial action in four key areas. Critics described the union as acting 'militant'.

These include refusing to carry out some parts of their job, including providing patients who are medically exempt from getting a Covid jab with a letter.

The ballot closes on November 14 and could pave the way for the first industrial action by doctors since the junior doctors strike five years ago.

But five years ago, before Dr Vautrey became chair of the BMA committee, he said remote consultations would be ineffective, as doctors would struggle to pick up on visual cues.

Patient groups, MPs and moderate doctors had all urged the BMA to back down and reach a compromise with ministers for the sake of millions of patients.

Dr Vautrey's was chair of the BMA's GP committee for four years and was part of its executive committee since 2004.
An 18-year-old student fears she has become the latest victim of a nightclub needle spiking attack after she woke up in a toilet with a bite mark on her arm.

Hattie Brown blacked out on a night out with friends in Fever nightclub near her university in Exeter, Devon, and when she regained consciousness alone in the toilet noticed teeth marks on her right forearm which left nasty bruising.

The student has no memory of being bitten and fears the blackout could be the result of a spiking.

Her shocking ordeal comes after a spate of alleged needle attacks on young women that have plagued nightclubs across the country.

She said today: 'I can only assume I was spiked as I don't remember anything. I refuse to be a girl who wears armour into a club because I don't want to be spiked with a needle or bitten.

Hattie Brown (pictured) blacked out on a night out with friends in Fever nightclub near her university in Exeter, Devon, and when she regained consciousness alone in the toilet noticed teeth marks on her right forearm which left nasty bruising

'It's ridiculous. It's one of those things that you think is never going to happen to you. I don't think it's something I'll ever understand.

'If this is going to be a thing that women need to look out for, then it's terrifying.'

Ms Brown woke up the next dar with a swollen arm covered in bruises and doesn't believe she was drunk enough to not feel someone biting her.

She said: 'I just looked down at my arm and there were just teeth marks on my arm.

'It wasn't like I'd banged my arm or something - there were indentations of teeth.

'Then I started to freak out because I was like ''I have been bitten on the arm by a human''.

The student has no memory of being bitten and fears the blackout could be the result of a spiking

'I think it sobered me up a bit because of the panic and the adrenaline. It's like something out of a horror movie.'

She decided to leave the club for safety and was picked up by a friend.

But she didn't report it to police because she didn't think they would catch the attacker but went to get medical treatment.

An NHS walk-in centre advised Hattie that as her skin hadn't been broken, she was unlikely to have caught anything from the bite.

But the religion and theology student has spoken with her family who are helping write an email to the club to let them know what happened.

Her shocking ordeal comes after a spate of alleged needle attacks on young women that have plagued nightclubs across the country

Women across the UK have boycotted nightclubs in recent weeks for a so-called 'Girls Night In' to highlight the issue of spiking.

However, Ms Brown is determined not to let it ruin her university experience, so is keen to introduce measures with her friends - and calls for young women across the UK to do the same.

She warned young girls on nights out to have protocols in place to reunite if one goes missing or needs help.

Spiking is a criminal offence carrying a maximum 10-year prison sentence but most women don't report it because they don't think they have enough information.

Biting is classed as ABH and carries a maximum sentence of five years, or a fine.
Tiernan Darnton, 21, was sentenced to a minimum term of 15 years at Preston Crown Court on Friday after killing his stepgrandmother Mary Gregory, 94, by starting a fire in her home (Pictured: Undated police handout of Darnton)

A student obsessed with serial killers has been sentenced to life in prison after murdering his own stepgrandmother by intentionally setting her house on fire.

Tiernan Darnton, 21, was sentenced to a minimum term of 15 years at Preston Crown Court on Friday.

Darnton killed Mary Gregory, 94 - his stepfather's mother - by setting light to a curtain in her bungalow in Heysham, Lancashire in May 2018.

In a victim impact statement read to the court today, Mrs Gregory's son Peter said he will 'never forget the vile cruelty' his mother was subjected to, adding that the images of her in her final days, in which she lay in a hospital bed 'choking on her own words', still 'haunt' him.

He told the court: 'When we got the call in the middle of the night to tell us that mum's house was on fire and she had been trapped inside a burning building, screaming for help, it was devastating.

'My poor mum had suffered such horrendous smoke inhalation that even after being bathed by the nurses, still she had smoke damage on her skin and hair and the whole of the inside of her mouth was black.'

He branded Darnton's actions 'disgusting' and 'shattering' and said the traumatic ordeal has caused a rift in the family as his brother - the killer's stepfather Chris Gregory - has 'chosen to support an individual who murdered his own mother, rather than co-operate with the police inquiries.'

The grieving son said his mother 'despised and distrusted' Darnton, and that she 'did not want him anywhere near her.'

He said: 'I must live with the burden that my brother did not heed the warnings from his mother to stop him going into her house, and even gave him keys.'

He added: 'Losing a parent is always hard but when they are taken from you by such a callous act, it is simply heartbreaking... having learnt that my mum's death was at the hands of Tiernan Darnton, whom we had willingly welcomed into our family home, is disgusting and shattering.'

Peter said he never believed his mother's death was an accident and that now he hopes his family can get some closure.

It came as the court also heard today how Darnton was 'fascinated' by serial murderers and was found in possession of plans to stalk and attack women.

Mary Gregory, who died following a fire at her bungalow in Heysham, Lancashire in May 2018

Warped student's murder of 94-year-old stepgrandmother has caused rift in family who have been left traumatised and 'shattered' The son of Tiernan Darnton's victim Mary Gregory, Peter, addressed the court Friday after the 21-year-old was sentenced to at least 15 years in prison over her murder. He revealed the traumatic ordeal has left a rift in the family as his brother - the student's stepfather - continues to support Darnton. He said: 'On Monday May 28 2018 my life changed forever. When we got the call in the middle of the night to tell us that mum's house was on fire and she had been trapped inside a burning building, screaming for help, it was devastating. 'We travelled to Lancaster (Royal Infirmary) immediately to learn that she had stopped breathing but had been resuscitated by the emergency services. We found her on a ventilator in intensive care and were utterly shocked and horrified at her injuries. 'My poor mum had suffered such horrendous smoke inhalation that even after being bathed by the nurses, still she had smoke damage on her skin and hair and the whole of the inside of her mouth was black. 'Watching her try to speak, choking on her words, was truly awful. That is a memory I will never erase from my mind. Nor will I ever forget the vile cruelty she was subjected to. The images of her in her final days haunt me. 'Mum's death hit my whole family extremely hard. She was in reasonable health for a lady of almost 95 and I believe she would still be here with us today if Darnton had not killed her. 'Losing a parent is always hard but when they are taken from you by such a callous act, it is simply heartbreaking. My three children lost a dearly loved, kind and caring grandmother, and my wife a close friend and mother-in-law. 'My children have suffered through the actions of Tiernan Darnton. My middle child was in the middle of her GCSEs when mum was killed. Imagine a 16-year-old having to sit in a public exam when her grandmother has just had the most traumatic death conceivable. 'The actions of Darnton have had, and continue to have, repercussions throughout my family. Even now three years on, my two younger children are having their school and university educations disrupted by the mental trauma they have suffered and the repercussions of the trial. 'Having learnt that my mum's death was at the hands of Tiernan Darnton, whom we had willingly welcomed into our family home, is disgusting and shattering. 'He was frequently in mum's house in the final months leading to mum's death. She despised and distrusted him, and did not want him anywhere near her. 'I must live with the burden that my brother (Chris Gregory, Darnton's stepfather) did not heed the warnings from his mother to stop him going into her house, and even gave him keys. 'Not only have I lost my darling mum but I have now also lost my brother who has chosen to support an individual who murdered his own mother, rather than co-operate with the police inquiries. 'I never accepted that this was an accident caused by my mum. My family and I have had to live with that knowledge and anguish of not knowing what really happened on the night of May 28 2018. Now we do and I pray it gives us some closure.' Advertisement

He even had his own chilling 'kill list' containing the names of multiple people - after an investigation found he had googled the terms 'urge to kill again' and 'I want to cause evil.'

Sentencing Darnton to life on Friday, Mrs Justice Yip told him: 'Murder had been on your mind for some time.

'On your own evidence, you were fascinated by serial killers and their crimes. You had dark thoughts.

'Internet searches which you made before and after you killed Mrs Gregory paint a worrying picture.

'Your opportunity to act on your dark thoughts came when your stepfather was away.

'In the early hours of 28 May 2018, you went to Mrs Gregory's home and deliberately started a fire in one of the bedrooms.'

The judge added: 'It is hard to imagine the horror Mrs Gregory must have felt when she realised her house was on fire and was filling with smoke.

'Neighbours heard her screams. Despite her frailty, she tried to get out, but she had been trapped. The fire service found her near to the conservatory doors, where you had blocked her exit.

'Her final days were spent in hospital. Quite understandably, her condition in those days continues to haunt those who loved her.

'The manner of her death was particularly cruel.'

The court heard that 'disturbing material' - not presented to the jury in Darnton's trial - had also been found in the defendant's possession, including the plans to stalk and attack women and his ominous 'kill list'.

When he was caught, Darnton claimed the murder of Mrs Gregory was a mercy killing but detectives found chilling internet searches on his phone including, 'good alibi' and 'I want to cause evil'.

The pensioner was discovered under a table in the conservatory and died four days after the blaze in hospital.

An inquest in 2018 ruled that Mrs Gregory was the victim of an accidental fire after Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service concluded the most probable cause was a dropped or carelessly discarded cigarette and ruled out any third party involvement.

But police reopened the case in 2019 after Darnton told a counsellor he used a lighter to set a curtain on fire at the address.

He claimed he started the blaze because he did not want Mrs Gregory 'to suffer any longer from dementia', Preston Crown Court heard.

However, police examination of Darnton's phone and laptop found internet searches made after the fire including 'I'm a murderer', 'I'm a monster and I'm going to hell', and 'Urge to kill again'.

A month before the blaze - when Darnton was 17 - he also searched 'Under 18 murder'.

Evidence shown to the jury included drawings found at Darnton's home address, outlining the floor plan of the 94-year-old's bungalow.

They contained labels including 'good hiding place' and 'quick exit', as well as references to needing a 'good alibi'.

A packet of Tunnock's teacakes and a can of Coca-Cola, bought by Darnton from a nearby service station less than two hours before the fire, were also discovered at the scene.

During the inquiry it emerged the student had made a similar confession several weeks after Mrs Gregory's death during a game of Truth or Dare with friends, in which he revealed his 'darkest secret'.

He told them: 'I have a secret I haven't told anyone. I may have killed someone.'

The defendant closed his eyes briefly after the jury foreman returned the unanimous verdict and his stepfather rushed out of the courtroom as other members of the family broke down in tears.

Darnton's friends did not believe him and he persuaded them to keep quiet, but he told a counsellor in May 2019 about a friend 'who could send me to prison cos of what he knows'.

Evidence shown to the jury also included drawings found at Darnton's home address outlining the floorplan of Mrs Gregory's bungalow

Darnton, a former student at Kendal College and Lancaster & Morecambe College, was arrested at his family home in Combermere Road, Heysham, in May 2019

Evidence that placed Darnton at Mrs Gregory's house around the time of the fire. This featured a packet of Turnock's teacakes and a can of Coca Cola

He added that he had felt 'powerful' at an event involving a person who had died - thought to be Mrs Gregory's funeral - as he 'knew what had happened and everyone else in the room didn't'.

The female counsellor ended the session by saying to him 'I'm not really clear what you're saying but I think you're trying to tell me you've killed someone', to which Darnton mouthed 'Yes'.

A week later he told the counsellor and his stepfather, Chris Gregory, 66, that he had started the fire and the matter was later passed to the police by the counsellor, the court was told.

Darnton, a former student at Kendal College and Lancaster & Morecambe College, was arrested at his family home in Combermere Road, Heysham, in May 2019.

Darnton killed Mrs Gregory by starting a blaze at her bungalow in Heysham, Lancashire

Giving evidence at his trial, Darnton said the case was 'all a big misunderstanding' and his confessions were false.

He said he only wanted to impress his 'edgy' friends in the Truth or Dare game and felt he had to say something believable, although he knew it was 'messed up'.

Darnton said his comments to the counsellor that he had killed somebody were 'attention-seeking' but denied saying he had set his step-grandmother's house alight.

He claimed his Google searches were related to his interest in killers and true crime, and said he did not even understand at the time the true definition in law of murder.

An investigator from Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service ruled in August 2018 that the probable cause of the fire at Mrs Gregory's home was a cigarette and told the jury his opinion was unchanged.

When pressed, Darnton said he started the blaze because he did not want Mrs Gregory, formerly from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, to suffer any longer from dementia, Preston Crown Court (pictured) heard

However, a fire examination expert for the prosecution said the chances of that were 'extremely remote' and he believed the blaze was most likely started by naked flame ignition near the front bedroom window of the property.

The Crown said attempts were also made to hamper any escape by Mrs Gregory, with a table placed in front of the conservatory doors, the unplugging of a phone cable and the dismantling of a smoke alarm.

Mr Gregory, giving evidence for the defence, said Darnton - whom he home-schooled - had been suffering from depression for a number of years and was 'plagued by intrusive thoughts which were very, very disturbing'.

He told the jury he would have taken Darnton to the police himself if he believed he had hurt his mother in any way.

Following the verdict, Detective Chief Inspector Zoe Russo, from Lancashire Police, said: 'Darnton regularly visited Mrs Gregory's home after her son took him under his wing at a young age.

'Darnton would spend time at Mrs Gregory's bungalow and not only took advantage of Mrs Gregory's kind nature, he also used his access to her home to meticulously plan his murderous act.'
Donald Trump has defended supporters who threatened to 'hang' then-Vice President Mike Pence during the Capitol riot on January 6 because they were angry about voter fraud allegations in a newly released audio clip of an interview.

During a taped interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl, obtained by Axios, Trump can be heard playing down the chanted threats, saying 'the people were very angry.'

In the clip, Karl initially asks whether Trump was worried about his Vice President.

'No, I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape,' Trump replies during the interview for Karl's book 'Betrayal' at Mar-a-Lago, conducted on March 18. 'No. Because I had heard he was in very good shape.'

'Because you heard those chants  that was terrible,' Karl replies. 'He could have  well, the people were very angry,' Trump says.

'They were saying "hang Mike Pence,"' Karl pushes.

'Because it's common sense, Jon. It's common sense that you're supposed to protect,' Trump replies. 'How can you  if you know a vote is fraudulent, right?' he says, touting the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.

'How can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that?'

The chants were heard as Trump's supporters laid siege to the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6 following a rally held by the then-president outside the White House, forcing those inside the building - including Pence - to evacuate.

The new audio was released after a federal appeals court gave Trump lawyers until November 30 to argue that White House documents from January 6 should not be handed to the Democrat-led committee investigating the riot.

His former chief of staff Mark Meadows has also been threatened with contempt of court charges if he doesn't respond to request to testify before the panel by 10am on Friday.

SCROLL DOWN FOR AUDIO

Pictured: Former President Donald Trump is seen in a recent video on Veteran's day. It was revealed today that Trump defended his supporters who threatened to 'hang' then-Vice President Mike Pence during the Capitol riots on January 6

Pictured: Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi preside over a Joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 Electoral College results after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol earlier in the day on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 (file photo)

Pictured: A noose is seen having been put up by supporters of then-President Donald Trump outside the US Capitol building on January 6, as other stormed the building following a rally held by Trump calling for the 2020 election results to be overturned. It has been revealed that Trump defended calls to 'hang' his Vice President Mike Pence by his supporters at the riots

'The people were very angry': Full transcript from the audio clip of Q&A between Trump and Jonathan Karl Jonathan Karl: 'Were you worried about him during that siege? Were you worried about his safety?' Trump: 'No, I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape. No. Because I had heard he was in very good shape. But, but, no, I think - ' Karl: 'Because you heard those chants  that was terrible. I mean - ' Trump: 'He could have - well, the people were very angry.' Karl: 'They were saying "hang Mike Pence."' Trump: 'Because it's common sense, Jon. It's common sense that you're supposed to protect. How can you  if you know a vote is fraudulent, right?  how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that? 'And I'm telling you: 50/50, it's right down the middle for the top constitutional scholars when I speak to them. Anybody I spoke to  almost all of them at least pretty much agree, and some very much agree with me  because he's passing on a vote that he knows is fraudulent. 'How can you pass a vote that you know is fraudulent? Now, when I spoke to him, I really talked about all of the fraudulent things that happened during the election. I didn't talk about the main point, which is the legislatures did not approve  five states. 'The legislatures did not approve all of those changes that made the difference between a very easy win for me in the states, or a loss that was very close, because the losses were all very close.' Advertisement

Despite no evidence to back his claims, Trump is heard telling Karl 'top constitutional scholars' he has spoken to agreed that Pence should not have ratified President Joe Biden's election victory, which he was in the process of doing when the mob attacked.

'Anybody I spoke to  almost all of them at least pretty much agree, and some very much agree with me  because he's passing on a vote that he knows is fraudulent,' Trump says in the audio clip.

'How can you pass a vote that you know is fraudulent? Now, when I spoke to him, I really talked about all of the fraudulent things that happened during the election.

'I didn't talk about the main point, which is the legislatures did not approve  five states,' Trump says. 'The legislatures did not approve all of those changes that made the difference between a very easy win for me in the states, or a loss that was very close, because the losses were all very close.'

Pictures from the January 6 insurrection showed thousands of MAGA supporters outside the Capitol building, while others broke through the defences and rampaged through its halls.

Outside, gallows had been erected west of the Capitol with the chants of 'hang Mike Pence' being heard after he rejected the false claims by Trump and others that the Vice President had the power to overturn the election results.

Trump and Pence are on track to run against each other for the GOP nomination in 2024, amid suggestions that their relationship soured after January 6.

The audio segment is just a small 30-second clip from a wider 90-minute interview, with more from the discussion expected to air on Sunday on ABC's 'This Week'.

The insurrection came after the Trump campaign held a 'Save America' rally on the Ellipse outside the White House on January 6, which saw the president speak for over an hour to a large crowd of MAGA supporters.

Trump has since faced accusations that he and other MAGA figures used the 'Save America' rally to rile up his supporters ahead of the riot.

MAGA protesters were told by Trump and his allies to head to Capitol Hill where lawmakers were scheduled to confirm Biden's presidential victory.

The chants were heard as Trump's supporters laid siege to the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6 following a rally held by the then-president outside the White House (pictured, file photo), forcing those inside the Capitol building - including Pence - to evacuate

Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they storm the US Capitol in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021

In the hours that followed, a violent mob stormed the Capitol, breaking through police barricades and smashing windows to enter the building.

Five people were killed as a result of the riots. One female Trump supporter, US Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, was shot dead by Capitol Police as she tried to climb through a window.

Another person died from a drug overdose and three others from natural causes. Meanwhile, 138 Capitol police officers were injured and four have since gone on to commit suicide.

The interview between Trump and Karl was for the writer's new book, 'Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show' (pictured)

Lawmakers were forced to go into hiding for several hours as Capitol police grappled to take back control while the mob rioted in the Senate and House, invaded Nancy Pelosi's office and looted items.

At least 600 people have been charged in connection with the capitol riots so far, including members from far-right anti-government group the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and Three Percenters.

Earlier this week, Karl claimed that Mike Pence was hiding in the 'bowels of the Capitol' - a loading dock in underground parking garage - as rioters breached security on January 6.

Karl claimed on Stephen Colbert's The Late Show on Tuesday that Pence had been hiding with a White House photographer, who took photos of the bizarre five hours that the vice president was in hiding.

'I got ahold of the photographer, saw all of the photographs - by the way, it is wild to see - he was in a loading dock in an underground parking garage, beneath the Capitol complex, no place to sit, no desk, no chairs.'

'With his family, this is the vice president of the US. He's like holed up in a basement,' Karl continued.

When I interviewed Trump for "Betrayal" and asked him about his supporters chanting "Hang Mike Pence", he didn't condemn them, he defended them. Here's a clip from the interview. More audio from the genuinely shocking interview will air Sunday on @ThisWeekABC pic.twitter.com/MlnhTgw8Cu  Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) November 12, 2021 Twitter Privacy Policy

A supporter of President Donald Trump carries a Confederate battle flag on the second floor of the U.S. Capitol near the entrance to the Senate after breaching security defenses, in Washington, U.S., January 6, 2021 (file photo)

The reporter was promoting his new book, 'Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show' that releases on Tuesday.

'They refused to let me publish the photographs but I have a suspicion the January 6 Committee is going to want to see those photos,' Karl said. 'Those aren't his photos, we paid for those photos.'

Karl said that one of the images depicted Pence's chief of staff Marc Short showing the vice president his phone, where President Trump had tweeted that Pence 'didn't have the courage' to overturn the election.

Pence was removed from the Senate chamber at 2:14 p.m., according to video footage from that day. He was hidden in a room nearby, with his wife Karen and daughter Charlotte.

Trump sent his tweet at 2:24 p.m.

'Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution,' he wrote.

At 2:26 p.m., Pence was moved again - this time from the room he was in near the Senate chamber to a more secure location in the Capitol complex.

Former Vice President Mike Pence was hiding in the 'bowels of the Capitol' - a loading dock in underground parking garage - as rioters breached security on Jan. 6, ABC's Jonathan Karl has claimed

The rioters had broken into the Capitol at 2:11 p.m., prompting the removal of Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was presiding in the House.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is lashing out against ABC News' chief Washington reporter on Monday after an excerpt from the journalist's new book detailed allegations of a stunning stand-off between the former president and the very political party that got him to the White House.

'ABC Non News and 3rd rate reporter Jonathan Karl have been writing fake news about me from the beginning of my political career,' Trump said.

'Just look at what has now been revealed about the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. It was a made up and totally fabricated scam and the lamestream media knew it. It just never ends!'

The confrontation reportedly took place on January 20, his last day in office, according to an excerpt from the new book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show by Jonathan Karl.

A furious Trump told the Republican National Committee chair that he was 'done' with the GOP and would start a new party- adding that Republicans would 'lose forever' without him.

'This is what Republicans deserve for not sticking up for me,' he reportedly said.

Trump told Karl the idea he wanted to start a new party was 'bulls**t,' the author wrote. 'You mean I was going to form another party or something?...Oh, that is bulls**t, it never happened,' the ex-president reportedly said.
Advertisement

Prince Charles is 'drawing a line under his past' as he prepares to become King, a royal expert said today after his right-hand man Michael Fawcett dramatically quit over the 'cash for honours' inquiry.

Mr Fawcett, who last night resigned from his post as chief executive of The Prince's Foundation, has been a 'key adviser for a very long time' and 'closely involved in overseeing every bit of the prince's life', another added.

The 59-year-old top aide, whom friend said was 'heartbroken' and 'shattered' by events, has also had his private contract to organise events for Charles severed. It follows reports that the prince's former valet offered to help a billionaire Saudi donor to the prince's charity secure a knighthood and British citizenship.

The Daily Mail understands Mr Fawcett, who rose to become one of the most powerful and influential figures in the future king's court, is not seeking to preempt an official investigation into the claims, which has yet to report back.

And Peter Hunt, who was the BBC's royal correspondent from 2003 to 2017, said today: 'Palace officials will be keen to present this as Charles drawing a line under his past as he prepares for kingship. They'll be less keen to talk about the size of the severance package given to the servant who once squeezed his master's toothpaste.'

Mr Hunt added: 'Palace officials will also be praying that there isn't a police investigation into the allegations.'

Friends say the scandal  which broke in early September  has had a 'devastating' effect on Mr Fawcett, and he has only now felt well enough to make a decision about his future. The friend said: 'Michael has resigned and he will never be coming back. He has lost five stone in weight and is a shadow of his former self.'

And royal expert Roya Nikkhah told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Michael Fawcett really has been the Prince of Wales's right-hand man for many decades now. He started as a footman at Buckingham Palace but Charles has had him as his key adviser for a very long time on everything. He has been so closely involved in overseeing every bit of the prince's life for a lot of the prince's life. He will be an enormous loss to the Prince of Wales.'

The Sunday Times royal correspondent added that Charles's wife the Duchess of Cornwall may have influenced the decision for Mr Fawcett to leave, saying: 'Camilla was concerned that Michael Fawcett's ongoing presence in the household was detracting from the Prince's work and damaging the Prince's reputation.

'And the Duchess of Cornwall is steadfastly loyal to the Prince of Wales, as you would expect her to be, and my understanding was - and I've had no pushback - that she was keen to see him to go, and go he has.'

The chief operating officer of the Prince's Foundation, Emily Cherrington, has been standing in for Mr Fawcett since he temporarily stepped down in early September amid the probe, and she is said to be a 'safe pair of hands'.

A Scotland Yard spokesman told MailOnline today that it was not investigating. He said: 'On Sunday, September 5 the Metropolitan Police Service received a letter relating to this matter. Officers are carrying out an assessment of the information within the letter and are making initial inquiries. No investigation has been launched.'

Former Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said the episode showed a 'lack of judgment' by the future king, while royal author Penny Junor said the aide is 'crucial' to the prince and is likely be back in his employment.

When the allegations against Mr Fawcett were first made Mr Baker wrote to the Metropolitan Police asking the force to launch a criminal probe into the claims. The former MP, author of a book about royal family finances titled And What Do You Do?, said: 'I think it has damaged Prince Charles and I think it shows over the years he's shown a lack of judgment when it comes to judging an individual's character.'

He speculated that Mr Fawcett could now receive a severance payment. 'I would think he would certainly get some financial recompense from the prince. That's what's happened on previous occasions, I don't see why it shouldn't happen again. And if previous behaviour is to be repeated, which it may well do, then in a few weeks or a few months, Michael Fawcett might re-emerge from the back door, back into Prince Charles's favour.'

Ms Junor said of Mr Fawcett: 'I know that the prince loves him and he's indispensable to him but there has been too much scandal attached to him over the years.' She described the former royal footman as 'a bit like a boomerang or a homing pigeon' for his ability to return to Charles and said he is 'crucial to him'.

The author added: 'My guess is Fawcett will not be gone from the prince's life entirely; maybe officially, but I would almost bet my boots he will still have a role in the prince's life in some way or another.'

Michael Fawcett (pictured outside his South West London home on Sunday) has resigned from his post as chief executive of The Prince's Foundation, with friends saying he is 'heartbroken' and 'shattered' by events

For the best part of four decades, Mr Fawcett was the man Charles famously could not live without. Pictured together during a royal tour

Earlier this autumn, questions were raised over Saudi billionaire Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz (pictured), who received an honorary CBE personally from Charles in 2016

A spokesman for The Prince's Foundation confirmed: 'Michael Fawcett has resigned from his post as CEO of The Prince's Foundation.'

Clarence House told the Mail it was cutting ties with Mr Fawcett on a personal basis and would not work with his events company, Premier Mode, again, sealing his catastrophic fall from grace.

Footman to top man: The rise and fall of Prince Charles' aide Michael Fawcett 1981: As a teenager, Michael Fawcett lands a job as junior footman to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. He later moves to Kensington Palace as assistant valet to Prince Charles, who is setting up home with Diana. 1990: He is reportedly trusted to squeeze toothpaste on to Charles's brush when the prince broke an arm playing polo. 1992: When the royal couple separate, Diana has the locks of the marital apartment changed to keep out Fawcett, who pinned his loyalties to Charles. 1998: Three members of palace staff go to the prince to complain about Fawcett's allegedly overbearing and bullying manner, and he quits. But his resignation leaves Charles in tears and he is reinstated and promoted within a week. 2000: Fawcett is appointed a Member of the Victorian Order by the Prince in the New Year's Honours  an honour normally reserved for Royal Household members. 2003: He is again forced out for supposedly selling on behalf of Charles gifts the prince did not want. An internal inquiry clears him of any financial misconduct. He resigns but the prince rewards him with a 500,000 severance packet. Fawcett sets up a private events company, Premier Mode. 2005: Premier Mode organises Charles and Camilla's wedding party. 2017: Fawcett joins the board of A G Carrick, a company Charles set up to sell mementoes at his Highgrove shop. Fawcett also runs the trust set up to run Prince Charles's pet project, Dumfries House. 2018: Fawcett is appointed to a 95,000-a-year role as chief executive of Charles's charity, The Prince's Foundation. 2021: It is alleged that Fawcett fixed a CBE for a Saudi billionaire who had donated more than 1.5 million to royal charities. Fawcett resigns for the third time. Advertisement

A spokesman said: 'Michael Fawcett and Premier Mode will not be providing services to us in the future. We have all agreed to end these arrangements.'

For the best part of four decades, Mr Fawcett was the man Charles famously could not live without.

But he was dogged by controversy and was twice forced to resign after being accused of bullying staff and selling unwanted royal gifts.

On both occasions he was reinstated and Premier Mode was later awarded a lucrative contract by the prince to organise most of his official and private entertaining.

In 2007, Mr Fawcett was made chief executive of Scotland's Dumfries House, a stately home Charles helped save for the nation which has since been turned into a community facility and hub for his considerable charitable activities.

In 2018, following a reorganisation of those charities, Mr Fawcett was appointed as 95,000-a-year chief executive of the newly created The Prince's Foundation, much to the surprise  and concern  of some current and former household staff.

Mr Fawcett set about becoming a 'fundraiser extraordinaire', raising millions to support the prince's philanthropic work every year.

However, it was his success in drumming up multi-million-pound donations which led to his downfall.

Earlier this autumn, questions were raised over Saudi billionaire Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, who received an honorary CBE personally from Charles in 2016.

He had donated 1.5 million, spent mostly on renovating two of Charles's Scottish properties, where parts of the grounds are named after him. It was alleged that he paid tens of thousands to fixers with links to the prince who had told him they could secure him an honour. Mr Mahfouz denies any wrongdoing.

Significantly, a letter emerged which Mr Fawcett wrote to Mr Mahfouz in 2017, in which he said: 'In light of the ongoing and most recent generosity of His Excellency Sheikh Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, I am happy to confirm to you, in confidence, that we are willing and happy to support and contribute to the application for citizenship.

'I can further confirm we are willing to make an application to increase His Excellency's honour from Honorary CBE to that of KBE in accordance with Her Majesty's Honours Committee.' Sources said Prince Charles was not aware of any link between donations to the foundation and honours and was 'deeply shocked'.

The Prince's Foundation said it took the allegations seriously and immediately ordered an investigation.

Mr Fawcett announced he would 'temporarily' step down from his post while the matter was probed. Now he has decided to make that decision permanent, even before the findings have been revealed.

A friend said that despite his 'many mis-steps' over the years, Mr Fawcett had been a 'loyal and faithful servant' to the prince and had played a crucial role in his philanthropic efforts, helping Charles to raise more than 120 million for charity each year. Some royal insiders have questioned how the heir to the throne will manage to keep his charitable ventures  including Dumfries House  afloat without Mr Fawcett to 'rattle the cans'.

A source said: 'Michael will have no more dealings with either His Royal Highness or Clarence House from now on. That is absolutely clear. He's not coming back in any way, shape or form, that cannot be stressed enough.

Mr Fawcett set about becoming a 'fundraiser extraordinaire', raising millions to support the prince's philanthropic work every year. Pictured, Prince Charles with Mr Fawcett at Sandringham in 1990

Prince Charles with Mr Fawcett on the Christmas Shoot at Sandringham in Norfolk in December 1992

Prince Charles is pictured with Mr Fawcett. Mr Fawcett's departure will be seen by his enemies  who viewed him as a pernicious influence on the royal household  as long overdue. And it will certainly provide the Prince of Wales with a 'clean sheet' when he becomes king

Some royal insiders have questioned how the heir to the throne will manage to keep his charitable ventures  including Dumfries House  afloat without Mr Fawcett (pictured) to 'rattle the cans'

In 2007, Mr Fawcett was made chief executive of Scotland's Dumfries House, a stately home Charles helped save for the nation which has since been turned into a community facility and hub for his considerable charitable activities

'The report hasn't been finished yet. It is his decision and his decision alone, and he is not pre-empting anything that may or may not be found.

'This really is the earliest he has felt able to make any sort of decision about his future.'

The friend said the pressure of the scandal had had a 'shattering effect' on Mr Fawcett's health. 'Michael isn't a well man  he has lost lots of weight and has shrunken into himself. No one is seeking sympathy, it's a fact. He has been shattered by this.

'He has made this decision because he needs time to get through this crisis. And he wants more than anything to be left alone while he goes through this difficult time.'

Mr Fawcett's departure will be seen by his enemies  who viewed him as a pernicious influence on the royal household  as long overdue. And it will certainly provide the Prince of Wales with a 'clean sheet' when he becomes king.

A friend said that despite his 'many mis-steps' over the years, Mr Fawcett had been a 'loyal and faithful servant' to the prince and had played a crucial role in his philanthropic efforts. Pictured, Mr Fawcett with the Prince of Wales and Lord Thurso during a tour in 2019

There were some who had feared that at this point, Mr Fawcett could even be promoted to Master of the Household at Buckingham Palace.

It has been claimed that one of those who will not be upset to see the back of him is the Duchess of Cornwall, once a supporter of Mr Fawcett but who now feels her husband can start a new chapter.

The Prince of Wales is said to have been told about Mr Fawcett's decision, which will be made public by officials today. He feels 'sadness' about the way things have ended, but accepts it.

As well as The Prince's Foundation, Scotland's charity regulator is also investigating the claims against Mr Fawcett.

A Clarence House spokesman said previously: 'The Prince of Wales fully supports the investigation now under way at the foundation.'

For Prince Charles it's a bitter loss - and this time there is no way back: Twice Michael Fawcett has had to leave royal service... and twice he's been re-hired. The reason? He was 'indispensable'. Not any more, writes RICHARD KAY

by Richard Kay for The Daily Mail

This time there will be no reprieve, no last-minute appeal for clemency and most certainly no gathering of land-owning grandees offering to make a special plea for his salvation.

For the first time in 40 years, the man from nowhere is back where he started.

The story of the rise and fall of Michael Fawcett is a tragedy in two parts.

For Fawcett it is about being raised to a status that was unimaginable when he first arrived at Buckingham Palace as a lowly footman  and then flying too high.

For the Prince of Wales it is about losing the one man whose service and loyalty he prized above all others, and of whom he once said: 'I can manage without just about anyone except for Michael.'

Eighteen years ago, when Fawcett's name was linked to unsavoury allegations concerning the disposal of royal gifts, a report exonerated him of wrongdoing. He was made the scapegoat nonetheless yet, through an adroit piece of royal manoeuvring, Fawcett not only survived but prospered. Just as he had five years earlier when rival staff, tired of his bullying and overbearing manner, plotted to oust him  only for well-connected royal friends to come racing to his rescue.

Mr Fawcett, the Prince of Wales and Camilla are pictured together in 2018. The Daily Mail's revelation that the prince has accepted the resignation of the man who had been with him through thick and thin  and once seemed unsackable  is tinged not with triumph but sadness and sorrow

But this time the claims against him were of an altogether graver nature. Mired in allegations that he had helped secure honours and British citizenship for a wealthy Saudi tycoon who had bankrolled Charles's charities, it has been a question of not if Fawcett would depart, but when.

The Daily Mail's revelation that the prince has accepted the resignation of the man who had been with him through thick and thin  and once seemed unsackable  is tinged not with triumph but sadness and sorrow.

Technically, the high-flyer whose life began in a modest bungalow resigned from the Prince's Foundation, of which he was chief executive. But his exit would not have been sanctioned without the endorsement of Prince Charles.

This time there will be no cosy return once the dust has settled. For the man with the spit-and-polished tasselled loafers, Turnbull & Asser shirts and hand-tailored suits  a style epitomised by the prince he served with such devotion  is severing every royal connection.

He has relinquished his role at Dumfries House, the Scottish treasure Charles saved from destruction and which, even his enemies would agree, Fawcett has overseen with a forensic eye for detail.

And perhaps most significantly of all, Fawcett's private company Premier Mode, the events business he established after a previous 'sacking', has severed its links with Clarence House.

Technically, the high-flyer whose life began in a modest bungalow resigned from the Prince's Foundation, of which he was chief executive. But his exit would not have been sanctioned without the endorsement of Prince Charles. Pictured, Mr Fawcett with his wife Debbie

This means it is not only the end of the royal road for Fawcett but also his wife Debbie. She too was a symbol of selfless service, having completed her final task this week  purchasing the presents on the prince's Christmas list.

As brutal as only a Palace coup can be, Fawcett's departure represents the most significant transition for Charles from Prince of Wales to king-inwaiting.

Courtiers who have long viewed Fawcett as a negative presence in the prince's life are understood to view his leaving as a vital and necessary step.

Not so long ago, Fawcett was being talked of as a future Master of the Household under King Charles  a position of considerable influence.

There was talk too of a knighthood, which would be the ultimate honour for the son of a cashier and a district nurse brought up in suburban Bexley, Kent. He repeatedly bounced back because of the seemingly unbreakable bond between the master and his 'indispensable' servant, forged in the acrimony of the royal marriage break-up. But not this time.

Fawcett might once have escaped this uproar over cash for access. But with the prince nearing the throne, the taint of wrong-doing, however well-intentioned, was simply too toxic to tolerate any longer.

The writing was on the wall when, instead of backing him as she always had in the past, the Duchess of Cornwall withdrew her support. This was a pivotal moment in the fallout from the scandal.

Years ago, first in 1998 and later in 2003, it was the then Mrs Parker Bowles who was the most vociferous of Fawcett's defenders. But two months ago it was revealed that Fawcett, who was appointed head of The Prince's Foundation in 2018, had helped to fix a CBE for a Saudi tycoon who donated 1.5million to royal charities.

He also accepted a six-figure donation from a controversial Russian businessman who Charles later thanked and offered to meet.

In a third incident he is reported to have offered to help secure a knighthood  and British citizenship  for another foreign donor.

The writing was on the wall when, instead of backing him as she always had in the past, the Duchess of Cornwall withdrew her support. This was a pivotal moment in the fallout from the scandal. Pictured, Prince Charles, Diana and Mr Fawcett in 1990

The disclosures shone a light on an unseemly world of favours and royal backscratching.

Fawcett stood down from his 90,000-a-year role while an independent inquiry investigated.

I understand that he has not had sight of the inquiry's report  which has not yet been completed in any case  but yesterday's dramatic move indicates that Fawcett fears its findings will be damning.

What is beyond doubt is that he has been shattered by the fallout from the revelations, which has had a significant effect on his health and wellbeing.

A friend who has seen the father of two, who married a former Palace maid, says he has lost five stone. He tells me: 'Michael has always been an incredibly positive and confident fellow but he is causing concern.

'He has been receiving professional help and he is heartbroken at the turn of events.'

Another insider says: 'Michael has given the prince the ultimate gift  his resignation, thus avoiding any unpleasantness later on.'

The bond of trust between the two men dates back more than four decades.

Fawcett has been an unwavering constant in the prince's life  as 'non-negotiable as Camilla used to be', observes a Palace aide  while others in his household, some far more senior, have come and gone. 'No one understood the prince's moods and eccentricities quite like Michael  and no one had his skill in dealing with them,' says an old friend.

'We are not just talking about his petty foibles, how he likes his napkins folded or just how little vermouth should go in to his dry martini... Michael has trained others to do that. It's that he gets his sensibilities and understands him aesthetically, philosophically and commercially. They are powerful assets and it is easy to see why the prince is so reliant on him.'

Using the same silky skills he once used to sell off unwanted royal gifts from foreign dignitaries on the prince's behalf (a practice which led to him being nicknamed 'Fawcett the fence'), he was the vital link between the prince and wealthy donors

Certainly there was no clearer indication of that dependence than when Charles put Fawcett  the man who squeezed his toothpaste for him after he broke his arm playing polo in 1990  in charge of his beloved Dumfries House, the Palladian mansion which he saved for the nation.

The costly restoration has been a labour of love for the prince, who gambled on securing the fundraising to make it all happen.

Fawcett's role in turning the historic Scottish house into a busy venue for weddings and conferences, while employing as many local people as possible, was crucial. From the beginning he was there three or four days a week. 'It was the next best thing to having the Prince of Wales do the job himself,' one figure from those days recalled.

Using the same silky skills he once used to sell off unwanted royal gifts from foreign dignitaries on the prince's behalf (a practice which led to him being nicknamed 'Fawcett the fence'), he was the vital link between the prince and wealthy donors.

For a man of modest beginnings he was a master at making the rich and powerful feel as though all their demands were the most normal thing in the world.

In return, they gladly opened their wallets.

'Michael was not just securing the money... he was also the impresario arranging all the extravagant events where the pampered guests would get out their chequebooks,' says a former aide. 'He's persuasive in a very charming manner.'

But this was also how the seeds of his destruction were sown.

Image was crucial, hence those polished loafers, the silk pochette he wore in his breast pocket, and the way he liked to touch his shirt cuffs and stand with hands clasped behind his back  an affectation he copied from the prince.

All the same, his was an extraordinary rise for someone who not so long ago also held down a Saturday job in a Jermyn Street menswear shop (where he was in the habit of securing discounted clothing).

There are scarcely any below-stairs retainers still at Buckingham Palace who can recall Michael David Fawcett arriving in 1981. He came straight out of catering college to start work as one of the Queen's footmen, wearing a polyester pullover. Those sweaters later became something of a Fawcett in-joke. When a new police bodyguard arrived in the mid-1990s, he sniggered: 'You're a walking fire risk, dear.'

Former staff remember him as a 'Billy Liar' figure who embellished a modest background, claiming he was the son of a wealthy accountant. At one point he grandly styled himself 'Buxton-Fawcett'  Buxton was his mother's maiden name  but fellow staff were unimpressed and took to addressing him as 'Sir Michael.'

Taken under the patronage of the Queen Mother's staff at Clarence House, he was a fast learner and rose to become sergeant footman. This gave him authority over the very people who had been mocking him  and also brought him to the notice of the Prince of Wales, who invited him to become his assistant valet.

When the newlyweds Charles and Diana set up home in Kensington Palace, Fawcett went too. He and Diana, just a year his senior, got on well at first but their easy friendship did not last. As the royal marriage disintegrated, Fawcett was firmly on Charles's team.

When the royal couple separated in 1992, Diana had the locks of the marital apartment changed not just to keep out Charles but the interfering Fawcett too.

In the years that followed, Fawcett's influence grew and he was promoted from valet to personal assistant. By now increasingly overbearing, he became the subject of a complaint from other servants. Fawcett resigned  only to be reinstated after Camilla intervened on his behalf.

Five years later Fawcett stepped down again, after an internal inquiry found he had broken regulations by accepting and selling gifts that Charles did not want. Crucially, the investigation cleared him of any financial wrongdoing, and he was soon back at the prince's side.

His emotional intelligence, attention to detail and ability to override everything if he thought it was in the prince's interests endeared him to both Charles and Camilla... but even their patience has now been exhausted. 'Michael became too high maintenance,' says one courtier.

For Prince Charles, this is likely to have been the most difficult parting since his divorce from Princess Diana. It may, however, ensure that  as king  his reign will not be tarnished by a man whose capacity for trouble was simply no longer worth his support.
An Adelie penguin a long way from home has been released back to sea in the third documented visit of the species to New Zealand.

The juvenile male Adelie, affectionately nicknamed Pingu by locals, was spotted on Birdlings Flat Beach near Christchurch on Wednesday night.

The Adelie is native to the Antarctic coastline, and would have swum thousands of miles before reaching his unlikely destination.

(Photo credit Allanah Purdie) Pingu had travelled 1,900 miles from home when he ended up in Christchurch

The amazing journey of Pingu the Adelie had him travel 1,900 miles from the coast of Antarctica to a beach near Christchurch

(Photo credit Allanah Purdie) The adorable little Pingu spent much of his free time in New Zealand enjoying the beach

(Photo credit Allanah Purdie) Adelie penguins typically roam about before they reach breeding age

He was spotted by local Harry Singh, who stayed with the penguin as he ran around on the beach, flapping his wings and wiggling his tail - but not returning to the water.

New Zealand's Department of Conservation senior ranger Anita Spencer said the agency worked with a rehab team to prepare the penguin for his return journey.

'When he was picked up from the beach a couple of nights ago he was a bit underweight and exhausted,' she told AAP.

Blood tests performed on Pingu showed that he was underweight and dehydrated. He has since been given fluids and fed via a feeding tube.

'He's been given some fish smoothies. He was looking good and ready to go back to sea.'

The DOC is aware of just two previous Adelie sightings on the New Zealand mainland, the latest near Kaikoura in 1993.

Pingu, the world's most adventurous penguin, was rescued from the beach in the night by New Zealand's Department of Conservation

'I wouldn't say that he was lost though,' Ms Spencer said.

'Juvenile penguins do roam. They don't breed until they are three to six years of age. So he's gone for a trip before making his way back to the colony.'

Ms Spencer said the visitor was showing signs of stress on Friday, which is to be expected given the un-Antarctic local temperature of 26C.

After his fishy feed, the penguin was taken to a carefully chosen beach on the Banks Peninsula for his release.

The adorable little man is seen enjoying his long-haul holiday to New Zealand before his adoring fans

'He's hopefully heading south but there are no guarantees. It's all up to him really,' Ms Spencer said.

'We picked a south-facing bay with not too many visitors and no dogs.

'It started calling when he was back at the beach and close to the sea. It's always great to see birds back into their natural habitat.'

'He jumped across a couple of boulders, went down to the water's edge, the waves came in and he dove in.'

'They're very vulnerable and the safest place for them is at sea.'
A schoolboy died from 'severe injuries to the head and neck' after being attacked by a savage dog, an inquest has heard.

Jack William Lis, 10, was killed by the dog after calling into a friend's house after school.

A coroner heard his injuries were 'unsurvivable' with a pathologist giving the provisional cause of Jack's death as severe head and neck wounds.

The inquest in Newport heard Jack was outside his house in Penyrheol, Caerphilly, where he had been 'playing with a friend'.

The two then went to his friend's home in a neighbouring street after classes on Monday when the dog attack happened.

Tragic Jack Lis, pictured, was with a school friend when he was attacked by a dog on Monday

Jack Lis, pictured, suffered unsurvivable injuries to the head an neck after he was attacked by a dog on Monday in Caerphilly, his inquest heard

The hearing heard Jack was attacked by a dog after he entered a friends home. Police later destroyed the dog, pictured

Coroner Caroline Saunders said Jack's death had been 'violent and unnatural'. She adjourned the inquest pending the outcome of a criminal investigation

Caroline Saunders, senior coroner for Gwent, said: 'Upon entering the home Jack was attacked by a dog'.

The court heard paramedics were called but Jack's injuries were 'unsurvivable' and he was pronounced dead just after 4pm.

Jack was identified by family photos provided to the mortuary manager at the Royal Gwent Hospital.

Miss Saunders said the circumstances surrounding Jack's death were 'violent and unnatural' and so formally opened an inquest into his death.

The inquest heard a 28-year-old woman has been arrested over the death

The coroner then adjourned the inquest for 'further inquiries' to be made and it will be resumed at a later date.

The powerful eight-stone dog which savaged schoolboy Jack had only been with his friends family for days after being sold by roofer Lee Jenkins.

Jenkins called the dog 'Beast' when he advertised as being 'grate with people.'

The ad on Facebook described the animal as having a height of 24ttw - about the same as a labrador - and weighing 115lbs.

The powerful brown and white beast was shot seven times by armed officers after it launched a horror attack on schoolboy Jack.

Neighbours described the animal as having 'huge muscles' protruding from its shoulders as they saw it moments after Jack's death.

Police say a dog legislation expert has now been brought in to examine its features to see if it the dog is a breed allowed in the UK.

Chief Superintendent Mark Hobrough said experts will 'look at the character traits of the dog' to see if it is a banned breed.

He said: 'We are looking at all potential offences and all potential actions that need to come as a result of this investigation.'

The grieving family of ten-year-old Jack Lis are raising money in his memory following the brutal dog attack.

They hope to raise 5,000 for his mother Emma to pay for the youngster's funeral.

Matthew Young, Emma's cousin, said: 'Many people have expressed their deepest condolences and have asked to contribute in some way towards the funeral costs to help the family at this very difficult and emotional time.

'So it is with extreme heartache that I write this to give those wishing to donate, a place to do so.'

He added: 'Jack was a loving caring young boy who will be greatly missed, never forgotten, and always in our hearts. Fly high 'sweet, sweet boy'.

Gwent Police said a 28-year-old woman from Caerphilly had been released on conditional bail after being arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control which resulted in Jack's death.

They added two men - a 34-year-old from the Mountain Ash area and a 19-year-old from the Caerphilly area - had both been released after voluntarily speaking to police over being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control.
A man who wore T-shirts supporting the military wing of a banned Palestinian group in Golders Green has admitted terror offences.

Feras Al Jayoosi, 34, from Swindon, pleaded guilty to four counts of wearing an article supporting a proscribed organisation at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.

The charges relate to him wearing T-shirts supporting the military wing of the Palestinian organisation Hamas - Hamas Izz al-Din al Qassem Brigades - and Palestine Islamic Jihad.

Both groups are proscribed as terrorist organisations in the UK.

Feras Al Jayoosi, 34, from Swindon, pleaded guilty to four counts of wearing an article supporting a proscribed organisation at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday. Pictured: Stock image of T-shirt supporting Hamas Izz al-Din al Qassem Brigades

Al Jayoosi wore the garments in Golders Green, an area of north London with a large Jewish population, on June 8 and 9 this year. Three of the charges relate to these occasions.

The fourth charge relates to Al Jayoosi wearing the T-shirts at Barbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort in Wiltshire, on May 30 this year.

Al Jayoosi stood in the dock to confirm his name, date of birth and address before pleading guilty to the charges.

Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring adjourned sentencing until December 17 for reports to be prepared.

He said: 'These are difficult cases to sentence.

'There is a fine line between support for a legitimate cause and support for a proscribed organisation and you have entered your pleas on that basis.'

He released Al Jayoosi, who the court heard has been diagnosed with autism, on conditional bail.
The ex-wife of a killer who strangled his mistress and then used the 'rough sex' defence in court has blasted the Court of Appeal for refusing to lengthen his jail sentence.

Louise Hewitt, 29, accused the judges of 'victim blaming' in the case of her ex-husband Sam Pybus, 32, who was jailed for four years and eight months after admitting the manslaughter of vulnerable mother-of-two Sophie Moss, 33 whom he strangled to death on February 7.

She said: 'It is extremely disappointing. It doesn't reflect the lifetime of grief that he has inflicted on Sophie's family, especially her two sons who have to grow up with that narrative about their mum.

'It sends out a really clear message to men and women that the rough sex defence is valid and works, even though the Domestic Abuse Act was supposed to abolish it.

'I think it was a very lenient sentence and it places the responsibility on Sophie, which to me is victim blaming and that should not be allowed to happen.'

The sentencing judge accepted the married defendant did not intend to kill the 33-year-old and his remorse was genuine.

Pybus was originally charged with murder, but a Home Office pathologist found that the amount of pressure applied to the vulnerable mother-of-two's neck was towards the lower end of cases which resulted in death.

At the Court of Appeal on Friday, three judges rejected a bid by Attorney General Suella Braverman, who attended the appeal in person, to increase Pybus's sentence.

Lady Justice Macur said she believe the evidence suggested Ms Moss had consented to the practice of erotic asphyxiation.

She said: 'The evidence before the court, and that is independent of the offender, suggests that her participation in that practice was consensual and also initiated by her.'

Lady Justice Macur, sitting with Lady Justice Carr and Mr Justice Murray, said 'Bearing all the circumstances of this case in mind, we are not persuaded that the judge was wrong in categorisation, was wrong in the uplift he applied... or was wrong in the element of discount that he gave for mitigation and then for his plea of guilty.'

The sentence sparked outrage across the country and was referred to the Court of Appeal as 'unduly lenient' by the Attorney General.

Sam Pybus, 32, with his now ex-wife Louise Howitt, was jailed for four years and eight months after admitting the manslaughter of Sophie Moss, a vulnerable mother-of-two who he strangled to death in bed

Pybus, 32, killed his mistress Sophie Moss, 33, (pictured) by applying pressure to her neck during sex

Campaign group We Can't Consent to This took to Twitter to voice their outrage

And feminist author Julie Bindel also voiced her anger at the decision

Ms Hewitt, who had been married to Pybus for almost five years when he killed Ms Moss in February, vowed to continue campaigning about violence against women.

She said: 'I would have liked to have thought that today was going to be the end of it but this decision feels like it has kicked the conversation on, they haven't listened so we will have to shout even louder.

'I feel if I didn't shout and scream about this, I would regret it.

'I know it is strange for some people that I would want to speak up for Sophie, given the circumstances.

'Sam is responsible for what happened to Sophie, not her.'

Ms Hewitt said it is hard for her to talk in the media about what her husband had done behind her back.

'But it's nowhere near the grief and disappointment that Sophie's family will be feeling right now,' she said.

'I get to change my name and step away from it in some way - they don't get that privilege.'

She said she has seen TikTok videos in which teenage boys boast about choking during sex, and young girls have commented that they want to have it done to them too.

Ms Hewitt said: 'That's the most concerning thing, as a teacher.

'If this becomes more normalised they are going to think this is the right way to have sex, and that is problematic.

'I have been accused of kink-shaming people but men need to start questioning why they get a kick out of strangling and hurting women.'

MP Harriet Harman has called for a new law to ensure men who claim the rough sex gone wrong defence are prosecuted for murder and are handed a mandatory life sentence after the Court of Appeal declined to increase the sentence of Sam Pybus.

The Labour MP said: 'This is the ultimate victim blaming and it's the ultimate male excuse for domestic violence.

'The law should say if a man intends to do what it was that killed the woman, and he was doing it in the course of sexual gratification then that is murder.'

Campaign group We Can't Consent to This took to Twitter to voice their outrage at the Appeal court judges' decision.

They wrote: 'The Attorney General appeal failed - Sam Pybus's sentence will not be increase. Our attempt to intervene was rejected.

'More to come but this could not be clearer case to show that the law (what it says and how it works) must change. Sophie Moss deserves better. '

And feminist author Julie Bindel wrote: 'The judges in the Sam Pybus case just further enshrined in law that men have a ready defence if they choke women to death by saying that she asked for it, despite the abolition of the so-called rough sex defence in the domestic abuse act last year.

'We're living in terrible times.'

Pybus appeared via video link from Holme House prison for the approximately two-hour hearing, wearing a grey long-sleeved shirt.

Attorney General Suella Braverman QC told the Court of Appeal that the mother-of-two could not consent to any act after she became unconscious, and that the risk should have been 'obvious' to Pybus.

The Attorney General said: 'Sophie Moss could not, and did not, consent to being strangled beyond the point of unconsciousness.'

She argued that any consent the 33-year-old gave was 'limited' to the restriction of her breathing to increase her pleasure during sex.

'Indeed, once unconscious, she was no longer capable of consenting to anything at all,' Ms Braverman said.

She continued: 'In order for Sophie Moss to have died at the hands of the offender, it was necessary for him to strangle her to the point of unconsciousness and beyond.

'To compress her neck for long enough that injury was caused and to leave her in a state in which she was unable to do or say anything to prevent further harm from coming to her.'

The Attorney General continued: 'It may well have been seconds, it may well have been minutes, but it was still strong enough to kill her.

'She would no longer have been an active participant in the act the offender claims she was enjoying.'

Sam Green QC, for Pybus, said there was no evidence about how long he had strangled Ms Moss, calling the Attorney General's argument 'speculation'.

He said: 'There must have been some point between unconsciousness and death. What we don't know, on the evidence, was whether the manual pressure to the neck continued after unconsciousness.

'We don't know if it even occurred up to the point of unconsciousness, we don't know when unconsciousness occurred.'

Lady Justice Macur, sitting with Lady Justice Carr and Mr Justice Murray, declined the Attorney General's request to refer the sentence.

'We find on the basis of the facts in this case, on the evidence and not speculation... that there was no error of law which can be identified in terms of the assessment of the judge as being irrational or perverse,' Lady Justice Macur said.

What is the unduly lenient sentence scheme? The Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme provides for the public to ask the Attorney General to refer a sentence to the Court of Appeal for being too low. The Attorney Generals Office can review very low sentences given by the Crown Court in England and Wales, if asked to do so. Only sentences for specific offences can be reviewed, including murder, manslaughter and rape. To meet the criteria to be judged as 'unduly lenient', the law states that the given sentence must 'fall outside the range of sentences which the judge, applying his mind to all the relevant factors, could reasonably consider appropriate.' Anyone can request for a sentence to be reviewed - even if they are not directly involved in the case. If the Attorney General decides to send the case to the Court of Appeal, they will then decide whether to leave the sentence as it is, find it to be unduly lenient and increase it or refuse to hear the appeal. Advertisement

'We do not accept the submission of Madam Attorney General that the judge fell into error by considering the starting point in this case to be identified... as one of six years,' she continued.

Lady Justice Macur agreed with the sentencing judge that 'the nature of the evidence was such that it would not be possible to expect a jury to convict this offender of murder' and there was no evidence capable of proving that Pybus intended to kill or cause really serious harm to Ms Moss.

The judge also added that the evidence suggested Ms Moss had consented to the practice of erotic asphyxiation.

'The evidence before the court, and that is independent of the offender, suggests that her participation in that practice was consensual and also initiated by her,' Lady Justice Macur said, adding that her consent was not enough to be a defence to manslaughter.

Lady Justice Macur said Ms Moss's death 'has left a great loss to those who loved her'.

The judge concluded: 'Bearing all the circumstances of this case in mind, we are not persuaded that the judge was wrong in categorisation, was wrong in the uplift he applied... or was wrong in the element of discount that he gave for mitigation and then for his plea of guilty.'

After the ruling, Ms Braverman said: 'There cannot be any guarantees with how a court will decide any matter, and I referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal because I considered it to be too low.

'The Court of Appeal decided otherwise, I'm disappointed with the outcome but I respect the judgment and I'm grateful to the courts for considering the matter in some detail.

'It's undeniable that this was a tragic case, a disturbing sequence of events in which Sophie Moss lost her life at the hands of the offender.

'This government is committed to supporting women and girls through the criminal justice system and preventing them from suffering in broader criminal matters.

'We're here to support victims and that's our priority.'

Teesside Crown Court heard how Pybus was drunk when he applied pressure to her neck for tens of seconds or even minutes at her flat in Darlington, County Durham, in February.

Pybus woke up and found Ms Moss naked and unresponsive but did not dial 999, waiting in his car for 15 minutes before driving to a police station to raise the alarm, the court heard.

A post-mortem examination revealed he had applied enough pressure to her neck for long enough to kill. There was no evidence of any other injuries or violence.

The Crown Prosecution Service said there was not sufficient evidence to support a charge of murder as there was nothing to suggest he intended to kill her or cause serious harm.

Pybus, of Middleton St George, Darlington, told police he and Ms Moss had been in a casual relationship for three years, and that she encouraged him to strangle her during consensual sex.

The court heard that Ms Moss's long-term partner, not named in court, said likewise.

Pybus's court sentence sparked widespread revulsion and disgust due to its length

At the Court of Appeal on Friday, three judges rejected a bid by Attorney General Suella Braverman (pictured), who attended the appeal in person, to increase Pybus's sentence

The Centre for Women's Justice and the campaign group We Can't Consent to This have applied for permission to intervene in the case 'to ensure the court has information on the latest understanding of the harms of strangulation, and the prevalence and understanding of strangulation within the context of domestic abuse'.

Lady Justice Macur, Lady Justice Carr and Mr Justice Murray will hear the case at the Royal Courts of Justice in London from 10am on Friday.

During the court case, Ms Moss's older brother James told Judge Paul Watson QC how his family would never be able to shake the belief that she 'was taken advantage of and exploited'.

Pybus's ex-wife is pushing for the killer's sentence to be extended. Louise Howitt said: 'It seems to me like a massive injustice to Sophie, her family and her two children.

Sam Pybus (right) who strangled Sophie Moss to death during sex is more concerned about not seeing his pet dog than showing remorse for his victim, his wife Louise Pybus (left) has said

'I don't think that her sons should grow up with the wrong narrative about their mum's death.

'She shouldn't be made out to be responsible in any way for it, I think it's a massive insult to suggest that she is somehow brought this on herself - it's just victim blaming.

'It is a case of abuse and exploitation and that's not the way it has been shown in court.

'I don't think what [Pybus] has been sentenced to reflects what Sophie's kids are going to go through.

'Four years eight months and being out in just over two, it does not reflect the lifetime of grief he has put those two kids through and her entire family. My heart breaks for them.,' she added to Darlington Live.

A judge heard how Pybus didn't call an ambulance or attempt to resuscitate Ms Moss.

Instead he got dressed, left her flat and sat in his car for 15 minutes, deciding what to do, before turning himself in at Darlington Police Station.

Tragically by the time paramedics arrived at the 'joyous' 33-year-old mum's home, they couldn't save her.

In the days that followed, Ms Howitt, who hadn't realised Pybus had left their home until the following morning, began to put the pieces together.

'[Police said] we can't tell you what he's done - they were obviously still trying to work out what had happened themselves - but through our line of questioning you will draw your own conclusions,' said Ms Howitt.

'The first question they asked was 'did Sam ever strangle you in bed?'

'My initial reaction was he does like doing that.

'There was not one part of me that thought he wouldn't do that - immediately I thought that made sense.

'I did tell them he had done it to me at the start of our relationship. We had been together eight years but he quickly got the impression that wasn't really for me. We never had a conversation about it, he never asked can I do this to you.

'They were very much focused on how did he do it, what did he do, what his intent was when he was doing it.

'They didn't really ask any more delving questions. At the time I didn't realise what I was going through with him was abuse, I thought he was a very messed up person.

'It was like they were finding evidence for him trying to back up his story..'

Ms Howitt says Pybus was financially and emotionally abusive during their relationship - claiming he got them into around 10,000 worth of debt through pay day loans and reckless spending, was manipulating and gas-lighted her into thinking she was the reason he felt forced to cheat when she had previously discovered his infidelity.
A 60-year-old British man detained in Dubai Central Prison over his son's business debts has described being tortured and witnessing the horrific treatment of other prisoners, some of who were raped.

He also described seeing other incarcerated people take their own lives in front of him.

Albert Douglas, originally from London, has fought a 1m legal battle to prove he was not liable for money owed by his son Wolfgang's business.

Albert Douglas and his wife Naomi emigrated to Dubai in 2003 and he built up a successful business called Alomni Flooring, specialising in real wood floors

In a tape heard by MailOnline, Mr Douglas said: 'Since I've been in prison in UAE I've been beaten and tortured by the police for asking for my heart medicine.

'My left shoulder's dislocated, I've three bones broken in my right arm and I've got permanent head and back injuries.

'I'd spent two days traveling through the desert in the back of a van.

'I've been forced to drink from a communal toilet basin. For five months I've been deprived of my heart medicine and any medical treatment for injuries.'

Mr Douglas also spoke of witnessing the systematic abuse of 'African and Asian people simply because of the colour of their skin' in the prison.

The once prosperous man who once lived in luxurious villa on the Palm Jumeriah Island and drove a Rolls Royce, says his only 'crime' had been to be listed on legal documents of the flooring company his son had set up in 2007.

Mr Douglas with his son Wolfgang (left) and his two grandkids. He was arrested in September 2019, after a court found him liable for his son's debts and imposed a three-year sentence

Under Dubai law anyone linked to a company that owes money can be found liable for their debts - and family members are often pursued for payments.

In the tape he said he was detained earlier this year because authorities appear to think he signed a cheque to Abu Dhabi Finance, which Mr Douglas says he didn't write and claims forensic investigators have already proven the signature to not be his.

Because his son Wolfgang, 34, was back in Britain when the company got into trouble, creditors took Mr Douglas to court and won a judgement against him instead.

He was arrested in September 2019. A court found him liable for his son's debts and imposed a three-year sentence. Mr Douglas was also ordered to pay 2.5m in fines.

He was sentence to two years but will is now set to face another three years in the prison.

He said: 'Several hours of interrogation, police trying to force me to confess to signing a cheque to Abu Dhabi Finance.

'It's all in Arabic, I've no idea what's going on and this is despite their own forensic experts verifying it wasn't my signature so they known it wasn't me.

'I was told by the public prosecution to just say I signed the cheque, otherwise they said I'll stay there for a very long time, which I did.'

When Mr Douglas was finally granted surgery to his left shoulder, which took nine months to get, he said he was 'forced to do what's called a promotional video' while surrounded by police.

Mr Douglas with his grandchild. A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said it has raised his case with authorities in the country and are in contact with his family in the UK

'I had to say how well I was being treated by Dubai police,' he added.

While he previously led a life of luxury, Mr Douglas says he has now lost everything.

Mr Douglas and his wife Naomi emigrated to Dubai in 2003 and he built up a successful business called Alomni Flooring, specialising in real wood floors.

During the massive property boom in the United Arab Emirates, as hotels and holiday homes transformed the country into a top tourist destination, his company thrived.

The father of four lived a luxury lifestyle and persuaded his eldest son Wolfgang to move to Dubai from his home in London.

Wolfgang started the company TimberWolf and his father was one of the signatories on the business. The business relationship ended in 2018 when Albert gave up any involvement.

'I lost everything, the lot's gone,' he said. 'Bank accounts, frozen. Stock, gone. Warehouse, ransacked.'

He urged MPs to hear his pleas to do something about his dire situation and other British people facing horrific conditions in jail in UAE.

He said: 'I just don't want other people to end up in the same situation. Just do something, try. Not just for my sake.

'People haven't got a chance. They have crimes and they need people to be held and found guilty for those crimes to say all crimes have been solved.'

Baroness Janet Whitaker and Andy Slaughter, MP released a letter requesting the urgent diplomatic assistance Dominic Raab.

They have asked him to speak with his counterpart in the UAE to bring Mr Douglas home.

Radha Stirling, a human rights lawyer and the CEO of Detained in Dubai, said: 'British courts refuse to extradite to the UAE based on the "real risk of human rights violations and torture", and yet the British government has failed to warn citizens on the FCO travel advisory website.

Mr Douglas pictured with his family. The father of four lived a luxury lifestyle and persuaded his eldest son Wolfgang to move to Dubai from his home in London

'Moreover, business, trade, commerce, security, arts and education projects are actively promoted by the British government. It beggars belief.

'In the 13.5 years of operating Detained in Dubai, I have come to know dozens of UAE torture victims.

'Torture is so unfortunately common, that we are producing an in depth report on the issue.

'It is not acceptable that since the death of Lee Bradley Brown in police custody, the UK government has not issued more severe warnings or demanded better treatment of citizens.

'Albert Douglas, who remains in prison, joins Matthew Hedges, Lee Bradley Brown, Artur Ligeska, Karam Al Sadeq and Princess Latifa in his complaints of brutality.

Radha Stirling, pictured, has urged the British government to 'confront these ongoing issues' and 'ensure the safety of British nationals abroad'

'The UK must act swiftly to bring Albert Douglas home and take affirmative steps to ensure the safety of British nationals abroad.

'This must include increased travel warnings. The UAE should not be able to market themselves as a modern expat and tourist destination in our media, without ramifications for the abuse of citizens they have deceived into visiting.

'If we do not confront these ongoing issues, we will see further abuses and the loss of life.'

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson told MailOnline: 'We are supporting a British man following his arrest in the UAE, have raised his case with authorities in the country and are in contact with his family in the UK.

'We take all allegations of torture or mistreatment seriously. We have raised the allegations with the UAE authorities and requested that they are investigated.'
A bereaved husband has called on men to better recognise signs of ill mental health in their menopausal partners after his wife of 41 years took her own life.

Linda Salmon, of Keighley, West Yorks., was just 56 when she took her own life last April after her anxiety suffered during the onset of the first national lockdown.

Classified as an essential worker because she was employed with a local supermarket in the Yorkshire town, mother-of-two Mrs Salmon was signed off work because she feared catching Covid. She took her life just days later.

Linda's husband, David Salmon, said his wife's death opened his eyes to the potentially deadly consequences the menopause can have on vulnerable women.

He warned in an interview with the BBC: 'The physical side of symptoms you might see, but the mental ones are hidden.

'I didn't know there were all these other symptoms. I honestly thought the menopause was you got a bit warm and had a few moods and then when I saw the programme highlighting suicide it all came together.'

Mr Salmon believes both he and his wife would have sought help if they have understood more about the link between suicide and the menopause.

Linda Salmon, of Keighley, West Yorks., was just 56 when she took her own life last April after her anxiety suffered during the onset of the first national lockdown. Her husband, David, (right) has called on men to better recognise signs of ill mental health in their menopausal partners

David recalled his wife's tragic case in an interview with the BBC, where he warned the mental strain of the menopause isn't always visible

At the onset of Britain's first nationwide lockdown, Mrs Salmon worked in a supermarket in Keighley, West Yorkshire, but took her life days after she was signed off work for mental health reasons.

David, who was married to Linda for more than 40 years, believes the menopause significantly contributed to her poor mental health and claimed the pandemic 'pushed her over the edge'.

Menopause symptoms often include sleeping issues, anxiety, night sweats, loss of libido and bladder issues.

Menopause normally begins between ages 45 and 55, with the average age of menopause being 51. In Britain, there were around 13million women who were in peri or post-menopause in 2016.

Data from the Samaritans showed the highest rate of suicide among women was between the ages of 45 and 54.

Diane Danzebrink, 55, found of community interest group Menopause Support, told the BBC: 'The vast majority of women will be peri-menopausal by the age of 45, the average age of menopause is 51.

'It's become absolutely clear to those who work and campaign and advocate in this area that this is simply not a coincidence.'

David and Linda had been married for 41 years before she took her life in April 2020

Diane Danzebrink, 55, found of community interest group Menopause Support, says she felt compelled to set up the organisation after realising she had not received the support she needed during the menopause

Having once contemplated committing suicide herself, Diane says she felt compelled to set up the organisation after realising she had not received the support she needed.

Her mental health was deteriorating and she suffered 'crippling anxiety', meaning she felt unable to leave her home and eventually stopped answering the phone or collecting post.

'Eventually it got to the point where I remember standing in my bedroom and thinking if this is my life, I don't think I want it any more,' she added.

Her doctor prescribed her Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) after recognising her behaviour as extreme symptoms of the menopause.

Earlier this year, TV presenter Gabby Logan, 47, discussed a variety of symptoms including increased anxiety and disturbed sleep and called on men to learn more about the menopause.

Speaking to Jeremy Vine, she said: 'I feel like if a man was going through all of this, I think we'd probably be able to get HRT from vending machines.

'I think maybe men also need to have that frank conversation with themselves, mens testosterone drops off too Jeremy, it just does it at a slower rate.'

Mr Salmon said his goal was now to help other families spot symptoms so he can hopefully prevent others from suffering the same fate as his wife.

'We need to talk about it and make people aware. It's the mental side of it, not just the physical side,' he explained.

'If you are in a similar situation, I would say help your wife, hold her hand, get her through it.

'You don't want to be where I am today, nobody needs to do that.'

For confidential support call Samaritans on 116123 or visit a Samaritans branch
Defence Minister Peter Dutton says Australia will help defend Taiwan against China if war breaks out and our allies are forced to act - as he revealed why France was kept in the dark about the ditched $90billion submarine deal.

Celebrating 20 years in parliament, Mr Dutton acknowledged China's status as an economic and military superpower but said backing the US to protect Taiwan was vital to leave Australia in a global position of strength.

'(China's) been very clear about their intent to go into Taiwan and we need to make sure that there is a high level of preparedness, a greater sense of deterrence by our capability, and that is how I think we put our country in a position of strength,' he told The Australian.

'It would be inconceivable that we wouldn't support the US in an action if the US chose to take that action.'

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has explained how Australia intends to help defend Taiwan - and why France was kept in the dark about a $90billion submarine deal

A Chinese invasion of Taiwan is inevitable within the next five or six years, with the US and its allies such as Australia forced to come to its defence, military experts warn

Professor Peter Dean, Chair of Defence Studies and Director of UWA's Defence and Security Institute, told Daily Mail Australia in October war was a real possibility in the region within five or six years.

'You certainly can't rule out the potential for the use of force. If the Chinese get to the point where they think they can take Taiwan by force, win and be successful, and they think either that US resolve is lacking or won't be enough, they could be encouraged to risk something really stupid,' he said.

'We've seen them be much more risky in recent years under Xi Jinping as he's become more authoritarian.'

But Professor Dean said it's the current so-called 'grey-zone warfare', with China signalling its stance over Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ), that posed the greatest current risk to world security.

'What the Chinese are really risking here is an incident that comes about by accident or someone gets trigger-happy,' he said.

CHINA-TAIWAN - A TIMELINE OF TENSION 1949: Chiang Kai-shek and his troops fled Mao Zedong's Communist armies to the island of Taiwan, where the remnants of his Kuomintang (KMT) government set up a new nation. China continued to regard Taiwan as part of the mainland, as it does to this day. 1980s: China developed its 'one country, two systems' policy for Taiwan, offering it a degree of political and economic autonomy if it accepted Chinese reunification. Taiwan resisted the offer. 1991: Taiwan proclaimed the war with the People's Republic of China on the mainland was over. Unofficial talks between representatives from both sides continued. 2000: Taiwan elected pro-independence president Chen Shui-bian, alarming the mainland. 2004: China passed a law giving it the right to use 'non-peaceful means' against Taiwan if it tried to secede from the mainland. 2016: Current president Tsai Ing-wen was elected. Her party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), is known to favour official independence from China. August 2020: Taiwan began to report increased activity by Chinese military aircraft over its air defence identification zone (ADIZ). April 2021: The Taiwanese government said China flew the largest number of military jets into its air defence zone for a year. October 1-3, 2021: China flies a record 150 into the ADIZ in its largest show of force to date, leading Taiwan's Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng to say relations between it and the mainland were the worst in 40 years. Advertisement

'The real risk in the region is we don't have any proper, formal mechanisms for de-escalating these things.

'The Chinese are being very adventurous, very coercive, and really raising the levels of risk to levels they really shouldn't be doing.'

The Chinese Communist Party has claimed Taiwan ever since it was established as the Republic of China by the Nationalist Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, after they fled mainland China during its civil war.

Professor Peter Dean, Chair of Defence Studies and Director of UWA's Defence and Security Institute, told Daily Mail Australia in October war was a real possibility in the region within five or six years

The Republic of China views itself as an autonomous country, while China sees it as a breakaway province.

Diplomatically, western nations such as the US and Australia acknowledge a 'One China' policy which recognises Beijing as the government.

For nations to maintain diplomatic relations with China, it insists they do not formally recognise Taiwan.

Yet the US has sold billions in arms to Taiwan and has repeatedly said it would help defend the island from military threat, despite an official policy of 'strategic ambiguity'.

On the topic of the dumped $90billion French submarine deal, Mr Dutton was adamant its rejection at the eleventh hour was necessary.

'If you had have informed the French earlier and they had have made that public and not respected the advice that we had given them, the Americans probably would have pulled out of the deal with the violent reaction from the French,' he said.

Earlier this month the French ambassador to Australia accused the Australian government of a 'stab in the back' for the way it cancelled a deal to buy 12 French submarines, causing an ongoing diplomatic crisis

On the topic of the dumped $90billion French submarine deal, Mr Dutton was adamant its rejection at the eleventh hour was necessary (The French Ambassador to Australia pictured)

Australia's defence minister went on to reject the notion from US President Joe Biden that the cancellation of the contract and announcement of AUKUS were poorly handled, insisting 'it was was choreographed to the minute'.

Earlier this month the French ambassador to Australia accused the Australian government of a 'stab in the back' for the way it cancelled a deal to buy 12 French submarines, causing an ongoing diplomatic crisis.

Jean-Pierre Thebault said Prime Minister Scott Morrison intended to deceive France before he scrapped the contract in favour of a nuclear submarine partnership with the US and UK in September.

'This decision was deliberately kept secret for months, even years,' Mr Thebault told the National Press Club in Canberra on November 3.

Mr Thebault said Australia never consulted France about the possibility of nuclear-powered subs and instead turned its back on its ally to announce a new AUKUS partnership.

Scott Morrison has conceded Mr Macron was not aware of negotiations with the US and the UK

'The way this Australian government decided to turn its back on our solemn and far reaching partnership without ever frankly consulting with France, when there were countless opportunities, without having shared frankly and openly, or having looked for alternatives with France, is just out of this world,' he said.

Mr Morrison announced his decision to cancel the French submarine contract in a joint press conference with Boris Johnson and Mr Biden on September 16, labelling the new union between countries as AUKUS.

Mr Morrison wants US or UK-style nuclear-powered submarines, which are faster, stealthier and can stay at sea longer than conventional submarines, by 2040.

The Prime Minister conceded Mr Macron was not aware of negotiations with the US and the UK, but said the French leader was told as early as June that Australia was consulting on other options for submarines.

He denied lying to President Macron but Mr Thebault said his leader was 'misled' and this amounted to a lie among allies.
Advertisement

America has warned Vladimir Putin will be making a 'serious mistake' if he invades Ukraine after the Russian president provoked the West by deploying troops in Belarus and sending bombers over the North Sea.

Vice President Kamala Harris said the 'eyes of the world' are on the Belarus border and the US is 'looking at the tools it has' after a day of rapid-fire developments led to fears of war breaking out on Europe's eastern border.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused dictator Alexander Lukashenko of using migration as a political weapon against the EU as Vice President Harris condemned his 'very troubling actions' on Poland's border.

Harris spoke about the situation at a press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron  after Russia conducted bombing exercises with Belarusian forces and built up troops along its border with Ukraine  prompting the US to assert its 'ironclad' commitment to Ukrainian security.

'On the issue of Belarus and what is happening at the border with Poland, we are very concerned about that and closely paying attention to it,' she said. She also gave a warning to President Alexander Lukashenko's government.

'The Lukashenko regime, I believe is engaged in very troubling activity. It is something that I discussed with President Macron, and the eyes of the world and its leaders are watching what is happening there,' she said.

Defiant apparatchiks in Minsk hit back, as Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin accused western nations of trying to 'initiate conflict' using 'ultimatums, threats and blackmail' while vowing to 'respond harshly to any attacks'.

It comes after Russia and Belarus held snap paratrooper drills just 20 miles from a border crossing where thousands of migrants are gathered, saying it was to 'test the readiness' of their troops, at the same time as two Russian bombers flew close to the UK - with RAF Typhoons scrambled to escort them.

A 'small' detachment of British troops, thought to be from Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers, were also deployed to the Polish border to help beef up the defences, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.

Separately, the US also warned that Putin could be preparing for an attack on eastern Ukraine after he was spotted massing thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces near the border. Ukraine's defence minister accused Russia of waging 'hybrid warfare' on Europe, saying Putin is ultimately responsible for the Polish border crisis.

Elsewhere today:

The EU said it is alarmed by Russian military activities close to Ukraine, is watching the situation closely and 'looking at further steps' along with the United States and Britain

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia is waging 'hybrid warfare' on Europe using migrants

Kamala Harris said 'eyes of the world' are on situation at Belarus-Poland border and US is watching 'closely'

US and European delegations accused Minsk of endangering lives for political ends at UN Security Council

Former UK defence minister Tobias Ellwood called Russia's moves 'deeply concerning' and a 'test of resolve'

Turkey barred citizens from Iraq, Syrian and Yemen from flying to Belarus amid fears they will head to border

Fears are growing of an imminent conflict in eastern Europe as Russia and Belarus carry out snap military drills close to where a migrant crisis is playing out on Poland's border, while Washington warns Putin is preparing to invade eastern Ukraine

Russia and Belarus said paratroopers from both countries had been involved in joint drills in Gozhsky today, located just 20 miles from the Polish border where migrants are trying to cross

The Belarusian defence ministry said the troops practiced capturing bridges, hunting down and destroying targets, and defeating enemy patrols during the drill to 'test combat readiness'

The surprise training mission came as it was revealed British military engineers are now at the border to strengthen the defences, amid warnings from all sides that the situation risks spilling over into armed conflict

Poland has deployed some 15,000 troops to its eastern border where they have spent much of this week trying to hold back thousands of migrants that Lukashenko's regime is accused of forcing into the region

Poland, along with the leaders of nearby Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, has been warning that the crisis has the potential to spill over into a full-blown conflict

The military drills are taking place just 20 miles from the Kuznica border crossing with Poland, where thousands of migrants are currently gathered trying to cross over

Poland has reported dozens of attempts to cross the border today, including a group of migrants who broke through the Belarusian side of the crossing and began trying to cross the Polish side of the fence

Lukashenko wants payback for EU sanctions and Putin enjoys mischief: Why Belarus and Russia are causing chaos in Europe What is behind the crisis? Belarus was rocked by months of massive protests following the August 2020 election that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office. The opposition and the West rejected the result as a sham. Belarusian authorities responded to the demonstrations with a fierce crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police. The European Union and the U.S. reacted by imposing sanctions on Lukashenko's government. Those restrictions were toughened after an incident in May when a passenger jet flying from Greece to Lithuania was diverted by Belarus to Minsk, where authorities arrested dissident journalist Roman Pratasevich. The EU called it air piracy and barred Belarusian carriers from its skies and cut imports of the country's top commodities, including petroleum products and potash, an ingredient in fertilizer. A furious Lukashenko shot back by saying he would no longer abide by an agreement to stem illegal migration, arguing that the EU sanctions deprived his government of funds needed to contain flows of migrants. Planes carrying migrants from Iraq, Syria and other countries began arriving in Belarus, and they soon headed for the borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Pavel Latushka, a member of the Belarusian opposition, claimed that state-controlled tourist agencies were involved in offering visa support to migrants and helping them drive to the border. The EU accused Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns in a 'hybrid attack' against the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for the sanctions. Lukashenko denies encouraging the flow of migrants and said the EU is violating migrants' rights by denying them safe passage. What has been the response by EU countries? During the summer, Lithuania introduced a state of emergency to deal with an influx of migrants and strengthen its border with Belarus. It set up tent camps to accommodate the growing number of migrants. In previous months, small groups of asylum-seekers tried to sneak into Lithuania, Poland and Latvia at night, using forest paths away from populated areas. This week, much larger groups gathered openly at the Polish border, and some people used shovels and wire cutters to try to break through a razor-wire fence at Poland's border. Authorities in Warsaw estimated the crowds at about 3,000-4,000 and said they prevented hundreds of people from entering the country. Poland deployed riot police and other forces to bolster the border guards. Eight deaths have been confirmed at the Belarus-Poland border,, and temperatures have fallen below freezing at night. The EU has made a strong show of solidarity with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. EU officials are expected to discuss another round of sanctions against Belarus, and European Council President Charles Michel said for the first time that the bloc would consider the possibility of financing 'physical infrastructure' such as barriers or fences on the border. What is Russia's role? Belarus has received strong support from its main ally, Russia, which has helped buttress Lukashenko's government with loans and political support. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the migrants flows resulted from the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Western-backed Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. He challenged the EU to offer financial assistance to Belarus to deal with the influx. At the same time, the Kremlin angrily rejected Poland's claim that Russia bears responsibility for the crisis. Usau said Russia could step in as a mediator in the hope of improving ties with Germany and other EU nations. Advertisement

French ministers warned their Russian counterparts of 'serious consequences' if Ukraine is invaded and called on the Kremlin to re-open dialogue with Kiev.

But Kremin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed those allegations, saying that Russia 'doesn't threaten anyone' while describing fears of an attack on Ukraine as a 'hollow and unfounded attempt to incite tensions'.

Peskov also claimed that Russia needed to protect its security against 'increasing provocations' near its borders.

He pointed at the US naval deployment to the Black Sea and increasingly frequent US and NATO intelligence flights. 'We take measures to ensure our security when our opponents take defiant action near our borders,' Peskov said. 'We can't stay indifferent to that; we must be on our guard.'

Poland has moved 15,000 troops to its border to help manage the unfolding crisis, while Ukraine has deployed 8,500 soldiers to the eastern border region where it has been fighting a years-long war with Russian-backed separatist rebels.

Russia's defence ministry said the unannounced drill involved paratroopers from both countries dropping at the Gozhsky range, just 20 miles from where thousands of migrants are gathered at the Polish border, where they practiced capturing bridges as well as hunting down and destroying enemy patrols.

Belarus said the drill was in response to the 'build-up of military activity' at the Polish border, where 15,000 troops have been stationed to hold back the migrants, while Russia said it was to test the 'combat readiness' of its troops.

At the same time, Polish defence minister Mariusz Baszczak revealed that British military engineers have been deployed to help strengthen the border defences, amid warnings from all sides that the crisis risks spilling over into an armed conflict. The MoD confirmed a 'small team' has been sent to provide engineering support.

The troops are likely from the light cavalry squadron that the UK currently has stationed in Poland as part of NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence, which includes soldiers from the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers.

Amidst the tensions, RAF Typhoons from Lossiemouth & Coningsby were also scrambled to escort two Russian nuclear-capable bombers which flew over the North Sea and towards the English Channel today. They were joined on the mission by a Voyager Tanker from RAF Brize Norton, the RAF said.

Meanwhile Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defence minister, warned his French counterparts that the military situation in Europe 'continues to deteriorate' while slamming NATO for 'building up its military presence' near Russia's border.

Speaking after a meeting with French officials in Paris, Shoigu insisted that Russia is working to 'increase predictability and reduce the risk of incidents' in the border region.

Former British defence minister Tobias Elwood, who now chairs the Commons Defence Committee, said: 'Russia and Belarus's aggression in Eastern Europe is not mutually exclusive and should deeply concern the West.

'It's a test of our collective resolve. If we are not resolute in our support for Poland and Ukraine then authoritarianism wins and we invite further destabilising adventurism.'

NATO said on Friday it is looking out for any escalation in the situation on its members' borders with Belarus, after Belarusian and Russian paratroopers staged joint drills near the Polish and Lithuanian borders.

'We will remain vigilant against the risk of further escalation and provocation by Belarus at its borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, and will continue to monitor the implications for the security of the alliance,' the North Atlantic Council, representing the alliance's member states, said in a statement.

'NATO allies call on Belarus to cease these actions, to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to abide by international law.'

American intelligence sources briefed their European counterparts of a possible Kremlin military operation in Ukraine's east to annex territory similar to the 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, Bloomberg reported.

The US has refused to share exactly what intel it has of an imminent attack, but the warning comes after satellite images revealed a build-up of tens of thousands of Russian troops, tanks and artillery pieces close to the border.

The EU accuses Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko of forcing migrants to make illegal crossings into Poland in a cynical attempt to destabilise the bloc using vulnerable people as his weapon.

A man holds a child in a migrants' makeshift camp on the Belarusian-Polish border in the Grodno region

A Belarusian service member fist bumps with children in a migrants' makeshift camp on the Belarusian-Polish border

A group of migrants walks near a barbed wire fence while moving toward a makeshift camp on the Belarusian-Polish border

Migrants unload wood logs during the distribution of humanitarian aid in a makeshift camp on the Belarusian-Polish border

On Thursday, Lukashenko himself warned of the risk of a conflict and accused armed groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine of trying to ship weapons to the migrants on the Polish border in order to spark fighting.

'They are Kurds, and the Kurds are militant,' he said according to Polish newspaper Wyborcza. 'When Poles beat them, cut them, torment them, etc., they become desperate. One rifle, one gun, and armed conflict is ready.'

Lukashenko has also threatened to cut off natural gas supplies running from Russia and through his country into Europe - though that threat was angrily slapped down by Moscow today.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said Lukashenko had not coordinated with Moscow before making the remark and added that Russian pledged to fulfil gas contracts are 'beyond doubt'.

It came after Lukashenko spoke out at a meeting of government officials on Thursday, musing: 'We are heating Europe and they are threatening us... What if we cut off their natural gas?

'I would recommend the Polish and Lithuanian authorities to think before they speak up.'

Russia's Yamal-Europe pipeline runs through Belarus and into Poland, representing about 20 per cent of the country's total gas-carrying capacity into Europe.

The continent relies on natural gas for around a quarter of its energy needs, more than half of which is piped in from Russia - which sits on top of the world's largest gas reserves.

Just weeks ago, European leaders were trying to negotiate with Russia to increase supplies as stockpiles of gas ran low due to surging demand as economies reopen post-Covid.

The EU accused Putin of throttling the flow of gas as a political bargaining tool to try and get a new gas pipeline - the multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 2 - opened. He denied the allegations.

Concerns about Russian troops on Ukraine's border have been ongoing since at least April this year, when Putin moved around 100,000 soldiers, tanks and artillery pieces to the region without warning.

He later said the exercise was to test 'military readiness' and pulled some of the units back, but NATO warned that many of them had remained at the front even after the 'exercise' was over.

Drone footage taken by Belarus border guards shows part of a large migrant camp that has sprung up along the Polish border, as the EU accuses Belarus of forcing vulnerable people into harm's way

Poland has been complaining that Belarus has been sending migrants to its borders for months, but the crisis dramatically escalated this week with the sudden arrival of thousands of migrants in the area

Washington's warning comes as Putin masses his forces close to Ukrainian territory, with satellite images taken in the last few weeks showing large camps of tanks and artillery pieces in the region

Ukraine warns there are now some 90,000 Russian soldiers near its border, where it has been fighting a years-long insurgency in its eastern regions by Russian-backed separatists

Poland has moved some 15,000 troops to its border with Belarus to help contain a migrant crisis that the EU accuses Lukashenko of engineering, amid warnings that situation could also spill over into conflict

Polish troops have accused their Belarusian counterparts of inflaming tensions by firing blank rounds and pushing migrants through the border fence in an attempt to provoke a confrontation

Russia has been flying nuclear-capable bombers over Belarus - its close ally - in a show of strength amidst the crisis

Amid the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, Belarus is pressuring Europe over migrants and has threatened to cut off gas supplies to the continent by shutting the Yamal-Europe pipeline which runs through its territory (pictured)

Russia then held more military drills around the Crimean peninsula and Ukraine's eastern border over the summer, with yet more troops moved to the region.

The drills were closely watched by western powers with tensions almost spilling over into confrontation, including an episode in which Russian warships fired warning shots at a British vessel.

More troop and tank movements spotted via satellite in recent weeks spooked Washington even further, and prompted this week's warning to European leaders about a confrontation.

CIA Director Bill Burns even flew to Moscow and have a rare one-on-one with Putin.

There he shared the US's 'serious' concerns over the military buildup, sources told CNN.

DailyMail.com reached out to the State Department for comment but was referred to comments made on Wednesday by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when he echoed similar concerns in a press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

'We're concerned by reports of unusual Russian military activity near Ukraine. We're monitoring the region very closely, as we always do, we'll continue to consult closely as well with allies and partners on this issue,' Blinken told reporters.

'And as we've made clear, any escalatory or aggressive actions would be of great concern to the United States. We continue to support de-escalation in the region and diplomatic resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.'

The report comes as fighting between Russian-backed groups and Ukrainian forces heats up. It began in 2014 after Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula following a revolution that overthrew Ukraine's former president who was widely seen as another mouthpiece of Putin's.

Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation, a militarized force created in 2018 to defend the country in the ongoing conflict in the Donbas region, accused Russia of violating the ceasefire agreement five times over a 24-hour period on Monday.

In a statement posted to Facebook the JFO accused Russia of 'armed aggression,' though the Kremlin has consistently denied involvement in the conflict.

Tensions in Europe have been inflamed by a gas shortage, with Russian company Gazprom, the continent's top energy supplier, having decreased its daily outflow in October in order to meet the needs of Putin's domestic replenishment campaign.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Putin of intentionally engineering the gas crisis and urged western Europe to act swiftly with punishment.

But Gazprom increased its output to Europe earlier this week after Russia' stockpile was deemed full.

The Biden administration is reportedly warning European allies of the possibility of an imminent attack by Russia on Ukraine, though Russia denied the accusations

Belarusian troops stand guard while id workers had out food on the Belarusian side of the border on Friday

Migrants unload logs during the distribution of humanitarian aid in a makeshift camp on the Belarusian-Polish border

Belarus denies engineering the crisis and has warned that armed groups in Ukraine are trying to give weapons to the migrants to spark a conflict (pictured, Belarusian troops marshal thousands of migrants near the border)

Migrants gather for getting humanitarian aid spread by Belarusian militaries at the camp at the Belarus-Polish border on November 11. Belarus's strongman dictator threatened to choke off Europe's gas supply from Russia if the west follows through on its promise of sanctions over the growing refugee crisis in the region

Russia has also been accused of helping engineer the crisis, which the West has called a 'hybrid attack'

But the burgeoning refugee crisis on the border between Poland and Russia's neighbor Belarus is threatening to further complicate the situation, which could grow more dire going into winter.

Much of Russia's oil supply to Europe runs through Belarus and Poland.

Over the last week western democracies have accused Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko of 'weaponizing' migrants from Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East by enabling them to fly to his country before seeking to break into the EU.

Devastating scenes have emerged from the region of desperate migrants getting brutal treatment from soldiers on both sides. Some even froze to death in the harsh Eastern European climate this time of year.

In response to threats of expanded sanctions, Lukashenko threatened to shut down the oil supply coming in from Russia to the rest of Europe.

'I would recommend the leadership of Poland, Lithuanians and other empty-headed people to think before speaking,' he said.

Among the countries vowing sanctions over the conflict are NATO and EU member states, as well as the US.

Russia has also been accused of escalating the crisis, and the EU is reportedly in talks to target national airline Aeroflot as part of a new sanctions package.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia had nothing to do with the migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland border and rejected the suggestion as 'crazy.'

It instead blamed the EU itself, claiming the international body was trying to 'strangle' Belarus.

However, two supersonic Tu-22M3 nuclear bombers were seen performing 'tasks of combat alert for air defense' in support of the Belarus leader, the Russian defense ministry said in response to the rising tensions on the border.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a joint news conference with his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei that he hoped responsible Europeans would 'not allow themselves to be drawn into a spiral that is fairly dangerous'.

Lukashenko's 'weaponised migrants' cheer as they smash through Polish border fence: Belarus airline STOPS flying more from Turkey in bid to halt build-up of refugees as Putin vows Europe's gas will NOT be cut off

Alexander Lukashenko's 'weaponised migrants' cheered today as they smashed through a Polish border fence - only to be met by another barrier and more guards.

Video showed around a hundred refugees pouring across a highway and reaching a grassy knoll where they cheered defiantly at Polish riot police and troops stationed along a barbed wire fence.

Thousands of desperate migrants from the Middle East and North Africa have been ferried to the Belarus-Poland border this week by Lukashenko's security forces, prompting Poland to deploy 15,000 troops along the line.

Video showed around a hundred refugees pouring across a highway at the border and reaching a grassy knoll where they cheered defiantly at Polish riot police and troops stationed along a barbed wire fence

A toddler is carried by its mother, swaddled in blankets to protect her from the harsh Belarusian November chill at the border

A Belarusian military doctor provides medical care to a migrant at the camp at the Belarus-Polish border in the Grodno region

The EU accuses Lukashenko of luring the migrants to Belarus and the country's Belavia airline has been forced to deny it is involved in trafficking the refugees as part of the 'hybrid war.'

Belavia said citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen, would be blocked from flights as of Friday 'in accordance with the decision of competent authorities in Turkey.

Amid the chaos on Europe's doorstep, the White House last night warned Brussels to brace for a Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

The CIA briefed European officials about a possible Russian assault to capture territory in eastern Ukraine similar to the 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

As military hardware massed on Ukraine's eastern front, the Kremlin today announced it was sending paratroopers to the Belarus-Poland frontier for snap drills just 30 miles from where the migrants are camped.

'A unit of Russian paratroopers will practise a landing in an unknown territory in the Hrodna region of Belarus on November 12 as part of drills to inspect combat readiness of the paratrooper forces,' the Russian defence ministry said.

Russian nuclear bombers were also flying over Belarus for a third day running as Putin remained firmly behind Lukashenko.

Kremlin-backed tyrant Lukashenko remains defiant in the face of increased sanctions from Brussels, threatening on Thursday to cut off Russian gas supplies to Europe from a major pipeline which runs through Belarus.

But Vladimir Putin doused that threat on Friday as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov assured reporters that 'the reliability of Russia as a [gas] supplier under current and future contracts is beyond doubt.'

Fears that Russia might invade Ukraine have been sparked by the build-up of tens of thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces close to the border, with satellite images revealing large camps of vehicles at Yelnya, Bryansk and Kursk.

Ukraine - which has been fighting a proxy-war against Russian-backed separatists in its eastern regions for years - has moved 8,500 more troops to the border in response.

A group of migrants were seen violently clashing with one and other as food supplies were handed out by an aid organisation on Thursday

Kremlin-backed tyrant Lukashenko (pictured at the presidential palace in Minsk on Thursday) remains defiant in the face of increased sanctions from Brussels, threatening on Thursday to cut off Russian gas supplies to Europe from a major pipeline which runs through Belarus

Meanwhile, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have also been warning of the risk of conflict between Belarus - a close ally of Moscow - and Poland amid a migrant crisis on their shared border.

On Thursday, Lukashenko warned of the risk of a conflict and accused armed groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine of trying to ship weapons to the migrants on the Polish border in order to spark fighting.

'They are Kurds, and the Kurds are militant,' he said according to Polish newspaper Wyborcza. 'When Poles beat them, cut them, torment them, etc., they become desperate. One rifle, one gun, and armed conflict is ready.'

European countries and the US condemned Belarus Thursday following an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has urged the EU to open diplomatic talks with Belarus to resolve the situation over some 4,000 migrants camped on the Polish border with Belarus in freezing temperatures.

Poland is refusing to allow the migrants to cross, accusing Minsk of luring them to Belarus to send across the border in revenge for sanctions.

After an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council on the crisis the US and European delegations condemned 'the orchestrated instrumentalization of human beings whose lives and wellbeing have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus.'

Minsk is aiming at 'destabilizing neighboring countries and the European Union's external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations,' they said in a joint statement.

The statement made no mention of Belarus ally Russia, which before the meeting rejected western allegations that it was working in conjunction with Minsk to send the migrants over the EU's eastern border into Poland.

And in his second phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in as many days, Putin 'spoke in favour of restoring contacts between EU states and Belarus in order to resolve this problem,' the Kremlin said in a statement.

The EU has so far refused any direct contacts with Belarus's strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who on Thursday warned that any new sanctions could see Minsk cut off natural gas transit to Europe.

The bloc severed contacts with Lukashenko and imposed sanctions after a heavy crackdown on the opposition following a disputed presidential election last year.

The EU is expected to decide next week to impose new sanctions on Belarus for human trafficking because of the migrant crisis.
Dominic Cummings accused Boris Johnson of second-jobs hypocrisy today, claiming the Prime Minister wanted to spend 'a lot of time' writing a book after entering No10 to pay for his 'expensive divorce'.

Mr Johnson has attempted to read the riot act to Tory MPs taking paid roles outside parliament amid a sleaze row over consultancies in the wake of Owen Paterson's resignation as MP for North Shropshire.

He has also censured former attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox over a lucrative career as a high-flying barrister that has seen him had to the Caribbean and vote remotely.

But Mr Cummings claimed that the PM asked him before the pandemic whether he could get away with devoting a large chunk of his attention to a biography of Shakespeare.

Writing in his Substack newsletter the PM's now estranged former top aide said Mr Johnson wanted to use the money from the book to pay for his 'very expensive' divorce from second wife Marina Wheeler, the mother of four of his children.

Mr Cummings said the discussion came in January 2020, just weeks after Mr Johnson had won the general election giving him a huge Tory majority.

He accused the PM of likening the UK's top political job to 'getting up every morning pulling a 747 down the runway', but told him: 'People expect you to be doing the PM's job.'

Mr Johnson has attempted to read the riot act to Tory MPs taking paid roles outside parliament amid a sleaze row over consultancies in the wake of Owen Paterson's resignation as MP for North Shropshire.

But Mr Cummings claimed that the PM asked him before the pandemic whether he could get away with devoting a large chunk of his attention to a biography of Shakespeare.

ennifer Arcuri, an American tech entrepreneur who had a fling with Mr Johnson when he was London mayor, said he had fostered greater 'distrust' of politicians

'You get the idea. Within a month of the election he was bored with the PM job and wanted to get back to what he loves while shaking down the publishers for some extra cash,' Mr Cummings wrote.

'In February as Covid spread he was in Chevening writing about Shakespeare and messaging No10 that Covid was ''the new swine flu''  though as I told MPs, we actually did not want him to stop his holiday as we thought he would return and tell everyone it was a hoax. Which of course is what he did when he returned at the end of February.

'So WTF is he doing having a go at MPs given all his own outside earnings  and attempted outside earnings ... while he's supposed to be pretending to be PM?!'

One of Mr Johnson's former lovers also took aim at his probity today. Jennifer Arcuri, an American tech entrepreneur who had a fling with Mr Johnson when he was London mayor, said he had fostered greater 'distrust' of politicians, telling Politico: 'At some point, the world will find out the truth of what happens when one sells one's soul in a quest for power.'

Boris Johnson summoned his Cabinet to Downing Street to find a way out of the sleaze mire engulfing the Conservative Party - as one of his most senior ministers played down the severity of the crisis.

The Prime Minister held a five-hour summit over wine and canapes at No10 last night to thrash out a plan of action after days of negative headlines about MPs lining their own pockets while serving in Parliament.

It's understood the meeting focused on his levelling up agenda, with ministers arriving carrying maps.

But the same evening Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries told a Tory junior minister he was over-reacting when he voiced concerns of a voter backlash.

In a WhatsApp message obtained by the Times she told George Freeman: 'The expenses scandal, which began the day of the European elections in 2009 and ended on the day of the ballot, was a billion times worse than last week.

'The duck house was a Conservative. Every single MP was in the media. Half a dozen MPs were banged into prison. Many had to pay huge sums of money back in expenses claimed. We dominated ... the front page of every single newspaper and news bulletin for five whole weeks.

'One year later, almost to the day, we monstered Labour in the local elections and David Cameron became PM breaking 13 years of Labour domination.

'Last week wasn't great, but it was a long way from the worst.'
Former President Donald Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro confirmed that he remains unvaccinated, saying the COVID-19 vaccine should be reserved for 'people who need it.'

Navarro sat down with Yahoo News for an interview promoting his new book, In Trump Time, A Journal of America's Plague Year - and shared his vaccination status.

'I had the chance to get it early,' the 72-year-old Navarro said of the coronavirus vaccine. 'I went on my exit medical interview, I was at Walter Reed, I told them, 'Look, we got few supplies, give it to people who need it.'

'Vaccinate who need it, the elderly and people with comorbidities,' he continued. 'But you don't jab a 6-year-old. You don't jab a professional athlete. That's insane.'

Former President Donald Trump's (left) trade adviser Peter Navarro (right) confirmed in an interview with Yahoo News that he remains unvaccinated, saying the COVID-19 vaccine should be reserved for 'people who need it'

In Trump Time: My Journal of America's Plague, by former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro came out earlier this month

Navarro was an eccentric figure in the Trump White House.

A former high school athlete who served in the Peace Corps and earned a Ph.D in economics at Harvard, he commuted to the White House by bicycle. Navarro writes about taking a daily 10-minute cold-plunge bath in 50-degree water 'like some Mad Russian.'

Despite his economic lane, he penned long memos on the 'Art of the Steal' alleging a massive voter fraud involving multiple states after the 2020 election.

He also wrote a key early memo calling for more action to confront the coronavirus, which he refers to as the 'Chinese Communist Party Virus.'

During Trump's last year in office, when the COVID-19 pandemic raged, Navarro had been named the National Defense Production Act policy coordinator.

As part of that role, he assured the American people that there would be enough vaccine for everyone when one or more was developed.

'We won't be in a situation where we have too little,' Navarro told Yahoo News in June 2020. 'If, in fact, one of the five or six vaccine developers comes up with what we need, we will have already been able to produce that.'

During the recent interview with Yahoo, however, Navarro - who has no medical training - suggests that mass vaccination will actually hinder the country's ability to escape the coronavirus pandemic.

'When you universally vaccinate, the science tells us we run the risk of a super-mutation that could kill everybody who's been vaccinated,' Navarro claimed.

Viruses mutate to become more transmissible - not more deadly.

Navarro also continues to be a prominent proponent of the 'lab leak' theory on the origin of COVID-19.

Navarro has pushed the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was created in the Wuhan lab using U.S. funding green-lit by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top virus expert, who worked for Trump and stayed on for the Biden administration.

In his interview with Yahoo, Navarro claimed the Chinese Communist Party used COVID-19 'like a bioweapon - and likely designed it as such.'

While most scientists believe COVID-19 occurred naturally, U.S. intelligence agencies haven't been able to draw a firm conclusion on COVID origins because China won't cooperate on the matter.
Overseas buyers have raided the property market in England and Wales as it tripled in a decade, new figures show.

Foreign owners, many based in registered tax havens or Asia, of houses and flats surged from 88,000 in 2010 to nearly 250,000 this year, researchers found.

The analysis by the Centre for Public Data raises fears locals are being priced out of their own area by wealthy people from abroad.

And it comes at a rotten time for the housing market as prices swelled from an average of 167,500 at the start of 2010 to 264,000 in August.

Foreign owners, many based in registered tax havens or Asia, of houses and flats surged from 88,000 in 2010 to nearly 250,000 this year, researchers found (file photo)

A staggering 247,000 homes in England and Wales are owned by people based overseas, the Centre for Public Data found, which is one per cent of all properties.

The figure has rocketed from just 88,000 in 2010, according to the figures obtained via Freedom Of Information requests to HM Land Registry.

Three-quarters of the foreign buyers can be traced back to just 20 countries, the research says.

Almost 25,000 homes were bought by investors in Hong Kong - the highest ranked source of buyers - up from 2,170 homes in 2010.

Meanwhile Singapore and Malaysian buyers were also found to be heavily invested in the UK property market.

Tax havens Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and the British Virgin Islands were also featured on the list, with close to 50,000 owners living in these areas.

Anna Powell-Smith, Director of the Centre for Public Data, said: 'There are long-standing concerns about the role the UK property market plays as a vehicle for tax avoidance and corruption. So the fact that many of these titles are registered in tax havens is alarming.

'There are also concerns about the impact overseas buyers are having on the affordability of housing, with second homes often scooped up as an asset.

'We urgently need better data about housing demand to properly understand the factors driving our broken housing market.

'The Government should start by bringing forward the draft Registration of Overseas Entities Bill, to improve the transparency of property.'

The area with the highest concentration of foreign owners is Westminster, where close to one in ten are controlled by someone based abroad.

But poorer areas such as Tower Hamlets, Mewham and Lambeth have also seen a spike in interest.

Other larger cities including Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds have been targeted by foreign buyers amid huge developments over the last decade.

An eye-watering 8,000 homes have been snapped up in the Merseyside city from abroad, marking a fourfold increase since 2010.

Overseas ownership is a murky world with little official data available to scrutinise how properties are purchased and who by.

Despite the surge in interest, it is not simply to track foreign owners moving into the market in England and Wales.

The Centre for Public Data told the government it should bring in a register to list these buyers.

Ministers pledged this in 2018 but they are yet to implement legislation enforcing the move.
A couple appeared in court today charged over the death of a one-year-old baby boy they were trying to adopt just months after he was placed into care.

Laura Castle, 38, has been charged with murder while Scott Castle, 34, has been charged with causing or allowing a person's death, after Leiland Corkill was rushed to hospital with a severe head injury and died the following day.

The one-year-old, originally from Whitehaven in Cumbria, had been taken into care just two days after he was born, and was living with the prospective adoptive parents in Barrow, Cumbria when he died.

Laura Castle spoke only to confirm her name and address during a short hearing at South Cumbria Magistrates' Court on Friday afternoon.

She was remanded in custody ahead of her next appearance at Preston Crown Court on Monday. Her husband Scott is expected to face magistrates this afternoon.

One-year-old Leiland Corkill (pictured) died after he was rushed to Furness General Hospital in Cumbria with a severe head injury on January

Leiland was taken from his natural mother Laura Corkill when he was just 48 hours old and placed into the care of Cumbria Social Services.

Paramedics were called to a house in Barrow-in-Furness on January 6 where they found Leiland with an injury, prompting them to call police.

He was transferred to Alder Hey Children's Hospital from Furness General Hospital for specialist medical care due to his critical condition.

Tragically, Leiland passed away on the afternoon of January 7, with detectives launching a murder probe.

He was still under the care of Cumbria County Council at the time of his death.

It is a requirement of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 that a child lives with their adoptive parents for a period before an application for an adoption order can be made.

When a child is placed with adopters they assume Parental Responsibility, but the child also remains 'looked after' by the Local Authority until an adoption order is granted.

Pictures show 'happy and cheerful' Leiland Corkill with his birth mother, Laura, before his tragic death earlier this year

Police received a report from North West Ambulance Service on January 6 this year regarding the incident at a property in Cumbria. Pictured: Cumbria County Council

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said: 'Two people have been charged in connection with an investigation into the death of a one-year-old boy in Barrow.

'Laura Castle, 38, from Barrow, has been charged with murder.

'Scott Castle, 34, from Barrow, has been charged with causing or allowing a person's death.

'Both have been remanded in police custody and are set to appear at Barrow-in-Furness Magistrates' Court today.

'The charges relate to the death of a one-year-old boy who died in January.'

John Readman, executive director at Cumbria County Council, said: 'This is a deeply distressing case and our thoughts are with the little boy's family.

'We can confirm that he was looked after by the local authority and at the time of his death was placed with adoptive parents.'

He added: 'A police investigation is also ongoing, and so we are unable to make any further comment at this stage.'
BBC newsman Rory Cellan-Jones' elderly Collie has been found after thieves targeted a dog-walker's van today.

In a series of frantic tweets this morning, Mr Cellan-Jones appealed for the public's help after thieves stole the vehicle while his beloved pet Cabbage and five other pooches were inside.

Mr Cellan-Jones told how the black Transit van was taken at 10.20am from a road in East Acton, London.

All six dogs have now been returned to their owners, with Mr Cellan-Jones sharing a sweet photograph of his 12-year-old dog by a food bowl with the caption 'Cabbage is home!'

Five of the dogs were found 'wandering around Park Royal together' and were quickly reunited with their owners. One dog, an adult golden Cockerpoo named Bafi, was found a few hours after the others in Putney.

BBC newsman Rory Cellan-Jones shared a sweet photograph of his dog by a food bowl with the caption 'Cabbage is home!'

A relieved Mr Cellan-Jones tweeted to reveal his beloved pooch had been found safe

The dogs were found 'wandering around Park Royal together' and were quickly reunited with their owners

Cabbage took a nap in a blanket after the day-long ordeal on Friday

The former BBC technology correspondent, who retired in August, two years after revealing he was battling both cancer and Parkinson's disease, regularly tweets pictures of himself with his Collie, from regular walks to relaxing at home.

But his usually jovial tweets turned to frantic pleas for help this morning as he revealed his elderly pet was snatched by thieves who leapt into his dog-walker's vehicle while he parked up to collect another pooch ahead of a morning stroll.

This morning's theft comes amid a rise in dog thefts across the capital, with reports of pets stolen in burglaries or at knife-point rising 75 percent over the recent lockdowns.

A panicked, Mr Cellan-Jones tweeted today at 11.51am: 'Something terrible has happened. Our dog walkers van with our dog Cabbage in it has been stolen while he was picking up another pet.

An adult golden Cockerpoo named Bafi (pictured) was found after the others in Putney

Bafi was found separated from the other dogs hours later in Putney

Rory Cellan-Jones (pictured) tweeted out for help after Cabbage went missing along with his dog-walker's black van this morning

Mr Cellan-Jones posts frequently about Cabbage alongside pictures of the two of them on walks since the former BBC technology correspondent's retirement in August

Toby and B Bau: Two of the six dogs that were inside their dog-walker's black Ford Transit van when it was snatched by thieves this morning

Sam: Brown and white cross was stolen along with Cabbage, and four other dogs that were in their dog-walker's van today

The request for help that Mr Cellan-Jones sent out included a description of the black transit van and number plate for the stolen vehicle

Only 180 dog thefts were reported in the capital in 2016 compared with 317 last year.

The Government has been urged to make pet theft a specific crime as it currently only amounts to property theft in law.

The rise in pet theft coinicded with heightened demand for animal companions during Covid lockdowns as potential pet owners found themselves at home for longer periods of time.

'Our dog walkers van with our dog Cabbage in it has been stolen while he was picking up another pet.

'Please look out for a black Ford Transit reg AF20 XZD.

'Take a photo and DM me or just ring the police'.

A fellow doglover added to his tweet saying that the other dog that had been snatched was their pooch named Sam.

Twitter account Missing Dogs GB confirmed that 6 dogs had been snatched by the thieves.

B Bau, a male tri-coloured beagle, and Toby, another beagle were also stolen in the raid.

The journalist retired in August, two years after it was revelaed he was battling both cancer and Parkinson's disease concurrently.

Sharing the news on Twitter in the summer, he wrote: Some personal news..in late October I shall be leaving the BBC.

Ive had the most fabulous time working with brilliant people, but after 40 years its time to move on.

The van was stolen on East Acton Lane in Ealing as the dog-walker was collecting another dog

Mr Cellan-Jones has made Cabbage a feature of his Twitter account since his retirement from the BBC.

He regularly posts pictures of his pet on walks with one coming as soon as this morning before Cabbage was nabbed alongisde the van.

Former colleague of Mr Cellan-Jones, Rich Preston tweeted his sympathy.

The BBC reporter said: 'Oh Rory thats awful Im so sorry - hope he is found quickly and returned home safe and well'.

Another wellwisher said: 'Im so so sorry to hear this.

'Hope Cabbage is found soon.'
The woman standing in for Michael Fawcett at the Prince's Foundation following his resignation is a working mother-of-two described as a 'safe pair of hands'.

Emily Anne Cherrington, 38, has been acting chief executive of the Dumfries House-based organisation since Mr Fawcett temporarily stepped down in early September.

It comes after reports that Charles's ex-valet Mr Fawcett offered to help a billionaire Saudi donor to the prince's charity secure a knighthood and British citizenship.

Mrs Cherrington is married to husband James with whom she has a son and a daughter, and they live in the Leicestershire town of Market Harborough.

She has been with the charity for more than four years, having joined in May 2017 as senior deputy executive director and then being appointed COO in January 2020.

She is said to be a 'safe pair of hands' and sources at the Prince's Foundation told MailOnline she would 'continue' in this role while an investigation is carried out.

The confirmation comes after 59-year-old Mr Fawcett, who was Charles's right-hand man, dramatically quit last night over the 'cash for honours' inquiry.

Emily Anne Cherrington, 38, is the acting chief executive of the Prince's Foundation

Michael Fawcett (right, in 2019) was seen as the man Prince Charles could not live without

The Daily Mail understands Mr Fawcett is not seeking to preempt an official investigation into the claims, which has yet to report back.

But Mrs Cherrington has been assuming Mr Fawcett's responsibilities at the for the London-based organisation during the probe and will continue to do so.

Footman to top man: The rise and fall of Prince Charles' aide Michael Fawcett 1981: As a teenager, Michael Fawcett lands a job as junior footman to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. He later moves to Kensington Palace as assistant valet to Prince Charles, who is setting up home with Diana. 1990: He is reportedly trusted to squeeze toothpaste on to Charles's brush when the prince broke an arm playing polo. 1992: When the royal couple separate, Diana has the locks of the marital apartment changed to keep out Fawcett, who pinned his loyalties to Charles. 1998: Three members of palace staff go to the prince to complain about Fawcett's allegedly overbearing and bullying manner, and he quits. But his resignation leaves Charles in tears and he is reinstated and promoted within a week. 2000: Fawcett is appointed a Member of the Victorian Order by the Prince in the New Year's Honours  an honour normally reserved for Royal Household members. 2003: He is again forced out for supposedly selling on behalf of Charles gifts the prince did not want. An internal inquiry clears him of any financial misconduct. He resigns but the prince rewards him with a 500,000 severance packet. Fawcett sets up a private events company, Premier Mode. 2005: Premier Mode organises Charles and Camilla's wedding party. 2017: Fawcett joins the board of A G Carrick, a company Charles set up to sell mementoes at his Highgrove shop. Fawcett also runs the trust set up to run Prince Charles's pet project, Dumfries House. 2018: Fawcett is appointed to a 95,000-a-year role as chief executive of Charles's charity, The Prince's Foundation. 2021: It is alleged that Fawcett fixed a CBE for a Saudi billionaire who had donated more than 1.5 million to royal charities. Fawcett resigns for the third time. Advertisement

The mother grew up in the Lincolnshire village of Kirkby Underwood, near Bourne.

It comes as Mr Fawcett has resigned from his post as chief executive of The Prince's Foundation, with friends saying he is 'heartbroken' and 'shattered' by events.

Mr Fawcett, who rose to become one of the most powerful and influential figures in the future king's court, has also had his private contract to organise events for Charles severed.

Friends say the scandal has had a 'devastating' effect on Mr Fawcett, and he has only now felt well enough to make a decision about his future.

The friend said: 'Michael has resigned and he will never be coming back. He has lost five stone in weight and is a shadow of his former self.'

A spokesman for The Prince's Foundation confirmed: 'Michael Fawcett has resigned from his post as CEO of The Prince's Foundation.'

Clarence House told the Mail it was cutting ties with Mr Fawcett on a personal basis and would not work with his events company, Premier Mode, again, sealing his catastrophic fall from grace.

A spokesman said: 'Michael Fawcett and Premier Mode will not be providing services to us in the future. We have all agreed to end these arrangements.'

For the best part of four decades, Mr Fawcett was the man Charles famously could not live without.

But he was dogged by controversy and was twice forced to resign after being accused of bullying staff and selling unwanted royal gifts.

On both occasions he was reinstated and Premier Mode was later awarded a lucrative contract by the prince to organise most of his official and private entertaining.

In 2007, Mr Fawcett was made chief executive of Scotlands Dumfries House, a stately home Charles helped save for the nation which has since been turned into a community facility and hub for his considerable charitable activities.

In 2018, following a reorganisation of those charities, Mr Fawcett was appointed as 95,000-a-year chief executive of the newly created The Princes Foundation, much to the surprise  and concern  of some current and former household staff.

Mr Fawcett set about becoming a fundraiser extraordinaire, raising millions to support the princes philanthropic work every year.

However, it was his success in drumming up multi-million-pound donations which led to his downfall.

Earlier this autumn, questions were raised over Saudi billionaire Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, who received an honorary CBE personally from Charles in 2016.

Michael Fawcett, 59, is pictured outside his home in South West London on Sunday

He had donated 1.5 million, spent mostly on renovating two of Charless Scottish properties, where parts of the grounds are named after him. It was alleged that he paid tens of thousands to fixers with links to the prince who had told him they could secure him an honour. Mr Mahfouz denies any wrongdoing.

Significantly, a letter emerged which Mr Fawcett wrote to Mr Mahfouz in 2017, in which he said: In light of the ongoing and most recent generosity of His Excellency Sheikh Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, I am happy to confirm to you, in confidence, that we are willing and happy to support and contribute to the application for citizenship.

I can further confirm we are willing to make an application to increase His Excellencys honour from Honorary CBE to that of KBE in accordance with Her Majestys Honours Committee. Sources said Prince Charles was not aware of any link between donations to the foundation and honours and was deeply shocked.

The Princes Foundation said it took the allegations seriously and immediately ordered an investigation.

Mr Fawcett announced he would temporarily step down from his post while the matter was probed. Now he has decided to make that decision permanent, even before the findings have been revealed.

A friend said that despite his many mis-steps over the years, Mr Fawcett had been a loyal and faithful servant to the prince and had played a crucial role in his philanthropic efforts, helping Charles to raise more than 120 million for charity each year.

Earlier this autumn, questions were raised over Saudi billionaire Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz (pictured), who received an honorary CBE personally from Charles in 2016

Some royal insiders have questioned how the heir to the throne will manage to keep his charitable ventures  including Dumfries House  afloat without Mr Fawcett to rattle the cans.

A source said: Michael will have no more dealings with either His Royal Highness or Clarence House from now on. That is absolutely clear. Hes not coming back in any way, shape or form, that cannot be stressed enough.

The report hasnt been finished yet. It is his decision and his decision alone, and he is not pre-empting anything that may or may not be found.

This really is the earliest he has felt able to make any sort of decision about his future.

The friend said the pressure of the scandal had had a shattering effect on Mr Fawcetts health. Michael isnt a well man  he has lost lots of weight and has shrunken into himself. No one is seeking sympathy, its a fact. He has been shattered by this.

A friend said that despite his 'many mis-steps' over the years, Mr Fawcett had been a 'loyal and faithful servant' to the prince and had played a crucial role in his philanthropic efforts. Pictured, Mr Fawcett with the Prince of Wales and Lord Thurso during a tour in 2019

He has made this decision because he needs time to get through this crisis. And he wants more than anything to be left alone while he goes through this difficult time.

Mr Fawcetts departure will be seen by his enemies  who viewed him as a pernicious influence on the royal household  as long overdue. And it will certainly provide the Prince of Wales with a clean sheet when he becomes king.

There were some who had feared that at this point, Mr Fawcett could even be promoted to Master of the Household at Buckingham Palace.

It has been claimed that one of those who will not be upset to see the back of him is the Duchess of Cornwall, once a supporter of Mr Fawcett but who now feels her husband can start a new chapter.

The Prince of Wales is said to have been told about Mr Fawcetts decision, which will be made public by officials today. He feels sadness about the way things have ended, but accepts it.

As well as The Princes Foundation own investigation, Scotlands charity regulator is investigating further allegations regarding donations to the foundation.

A Clarence House spokesman said previously: The Prince of Wales fully supports the investigation now under way at the foundation.
A murderer has been jailed for at least 30 years for strangling a 16-year-old schoolgirl to death and trying to kill her stepfather in a Chinese takeaway revenge attack.

Chun Xu, 32, was sentenced to life in prison after a jury convicted him of the murdering Wenjing Lin, also known as Wenjing Xu, by strangling her at the Blue Sky restaurant in Ynyswen, Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, on March 5.

Illegal immigrant Xu was also found guilty of attempting to murder family friend Wenjing's stepfather, Yongguan Jiang.

His Honour Judge PH Thomas QC, sentencing, told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in Xu's absence: 'You cruelly murdered an innocent 16-year-old girl in her own home.

'You killed her as a wicked act of revenge upon her mother; Wenjing had done nothing wrong to you at all.

Chun Xu (pictured), 32, was sentenced to life in prison after a jury convicted him of the murdering Wenjing Lin, also known as Wenjing Xu, by strangling her at the Blue Sky restaurant in Ynyswen, Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, on March 5

'You, however, ended her life by strangling her with your hands, face to face.

'It has left her mother utterly bereft, her only daughter taken away from her by you, someone she considered to be a member of her extended family.'

The judge said there was 'no doubt' the 'vengeful and murderous attack' on the family was planned 'well in advance'.

'The revenge motive, cruelly, savagely and carefully planned and executed, is clearly in its own right a substantial, aggravating feature,' he said.

After sentencing, he added: 'So that everyone understands the sentence, you will be in your 60s before you can apply to be released.

'That will be in the year 2051. The fact you are able to be released does not mean that you will be released then.

'You may never leave prison if it's not considered safe and appropriate.'

His Honour Judge PH Thomas QC, sentencing, told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in Xu's absence: 'You cruelly murdered an innocent 16-year-old girl in her own home' (pictured: Wenjing)

Wenjing lived at the takeaway in Baglan Street with her mother, Meifang Xu, and Mr Jiang.

The trial heard that Xu was a heavy gambler and owed the family 14,000.

He was said to have visited them armed with a kitchen knife, and, an hour before the attacks, had Googled 'Can fingerprints be destroyed by fire'.

When he was later questioned by a psychologist about his fitness to be interviewed by police, he said: 'I didn't mean to hurt the little girl. I wanted revenge on her mother.

'She upset me on many times and didn't listen to what I say.'

Wenjing's mother, speaking to the court via a translator, was tearful as she said her life has been 'turned upside down' by the incident.

She added that the whole family is missing Wenjing 'terribly' and that she will 'be in our hearts forever'.

She said: 'She was my only child and my best friend. She was my everything, I can't imagine my life without her.

'I still make breakfast for her every morning and make her a cup of tea every night.

'But our beautiful daughter has gone, I can never forgive him.'

The trial heard that Xu (pictured) was a heavy gambler and owed the family 14,000

Mr Jiang told the court he is missing his stepdaughter 'unbelievably' and spoke of the 'scars' he was left with after he was attacked.

Despite not being blood relations, Xu, also known as Little Gang, was regarded as a nephew by Ms Xu.

The family entrusted him with 20,000 that he said he would send back to China for them to pay a friend who had lent them money to start their business in the UK.

However, Xu only sent some of the money back and gambled away 14,000, which he had then begun paying back.

On March 4 2021, he rang Ms Xu and asked if he could go to see them, but told her not to tell anyone about his visit, before he strangled to death 16-year-old Wenjing the next morning.

After killing Wenjing, Xu began attacking her stepfather with two knives, stabbing him in the neck and body.

When Mr Jiang asked Xu why he was attacking him, Xu replied: 'Money, money, money.'

Mr Jiang fought Xu off and went to find Wenjing. He discovered her lying on her back by the takeaway counter.

Despite attempts by the family and then paramedics to resuscitate the teenager, she was pronounced dead at the scene at 12.59pm.

Police found Xu in the kitchen, having cut his own throat. He was treated at the University Hospital of Wales before being arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

Prosecutor Michael Jones QC, told the court that Xu first came to the attention of immigration authorities in 2015 after a raid on a Chinese takeaway in Merthyr Tydfil.

He applied for asylum in the UK and was invited for an interview in May of 2016 but failed to attend.

The court heard it has been confirmed that Xu has never been given permission to stay in the UK.
This is the heart-stopping moment RAF Typhoon jets intercepted Russian nuclear bombers over the north sea.

British troops were deployed at the Polish border amid a Kremlin-backed migrant crisis as the Typhoons were scrambled from Lossiemouth, Scotland, and Coningsby, Lincolnshire, along with a refuelling jet from Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, on Friday.

The two Russian Tu-160 'White Swan' bombers entered 'the UK area of interest,' the MoD confirmed, without giving further details. Photographs show the RAF jets escorting the bombers.

The Kremlin warplanes approached Dutch airspace before being intercepted by the RAF and were seen heading north into international airspace over the North Sea at around 12.45pm, according to Mil Radar.

The incursion comes with Europe at battle stations: Vladimir Putin is backing a 'hybrid war' using migrants to sow chaos at Poland's border while sending tens of thousands of troops to the frontier with Ukraine for a possible invasion.

British troops were deployed at the Polish border amid a Kremlin-backed migrant crisis as the Typhoons were scrambled (pictured) from Lossiemouth, Scotland, and Coningsby, Lincolnshire, along with a refuelling jet from Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, on Friday

An RAF fighter jet intercepting a Russian military aircraft approaching a UK area of interest

The Kremlin warplanes approached Dutch airspace before being intercepted by the RAF and were seen heading north into international airspace over the North Sea at around 12.45pm, according to Mil Radar

British Royal Engineers were today deployed along the Polish frontier with Belarus to carry out 'reconnaissance' with their NATO allies.

That move came just hours after Russian soldiers parachuted from the sky in snap drills, just 30 miles from the migrant encampment.

Poland's defence minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, said: '[Polish and British] soldiers will co-operate in strengthening the fence of the Polish-Belarusian border.'

The MoD added: 'A small team of UK Armed Forces personnel have deployed following an agreement with the Polish Government to explore how we can provide engineering support to address the ongoing situation at the Belarus border.'

Russian nuclear bombers were also flying over Belarus for a third day running as Putin remained firmly behind Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko who is accused of 'weponising migrants' by the West.

Thousands of desperate refugees from the Middle East and North Africa have been ferried to the Belarus-Poland border this week by Lukashenko's security forces, prompting Poland to deploy 15,000 troops along the line.

Separately, Washington warned its European allies that Putin could be preparing for an invasion of Ukraine's eastern borders - hundreds of miles from where the migrant crisis is playing out - after satellites spotted troops, tanks and artillery pieces massing there.

Flight tracking data was available for the RAF Tanker Voyager which left Brize Norton to support the Typhoons. A NATO jet also left Cologne to circle around Norway. The two Russian Tu-160 bombers flew over the North Sea before heading back north into international airspace

A Typhoon fighter jet over RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire (file photo)

A Russian Tu-160 (the closer jet) over Belarusian airspace today

Fears are growing of an imminent conflict in eastern Europe as Russia and Belarus carry out snap military drills close to where a migrant crisis is playing out on Poland's border, while Washington warns Putin is preparing to invade eastern Ukraine

Tupolev Tu-160 'White Swan' heavy bomber Crew: 4 Length: 177 ft Wingspan: 183 ft Empty weight: 242,508 lb Gross weight: 589,957 lb Max takeoff weight: 606,271 lb Powerplant: 4 x Samara NK-321 afterburning turbofan engines Max speed: 1,380 mph Range: 7,600 miles Combat range: 1,200 miles Service ceiling: 52,000 ft Armaments: Two internal weapon bays for 99,208 lb of ordnance. Two internal rotary launchers each holding 6 x Raduga Kh-55SM/101/102/555 cruise missiles (primary armament) or 12 AS-16 Kickback short-range nuclear missiles Advertisement

RAF Eurofighter Typhoon Crew: 1/2 Length: 52 ft Wingspan: 35 ft Empty weight: 24,251 lb Gross weight: 35,274 lb Max takeoff weight: 51,809 lb Powerplant: 2 x Eurojet EJ200 afterburning turbofan engines Maxi speed: 1,320 mph Range: 1,800 miles Combat range: 863 miles Service ceiling: 65,000 ft Armaments: Guns: 1 x 27 mm Mauser BK-27 revolver cannon with 150 rounds Hardpoints: Total of 13, 8 x under-wing; and 5 x under-fuselage pylon stations; holding in excess of 19,800 lb of payload. Advertisement

Ukraine - which has been fighting a proxy-war against Russian-backed separatists in its eastern regions for years - has moved 8,500 more troops to the region in response.

Addressing the crisis today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced what he called 'increased provocations' against Russia, saying his country 'can't stay indifferent to that; we must be on our guard.'

'We take measures to ensure our security when opponents take defiant action near our borders,' Peskov added.

Meanwhile Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defence minister, warned his French counterparts that the military situation in Europe 'continues to deteriorate' while slamming NATO for 'building up its military presence' near Russia's border.

Speaking after a meeting with French officials in Paris, Shoigu insisted that Russia is working to 'increase predictability and reduce the risk of incidents' in the border region.

Former British defence minister Tobias Elwood, who now chairs the Commons Defence Committee, said: 'Russia and Belarus's aggression in Eastern Europe is not mutually exclusive and should deeply concern the West.

'It's a test of our collective resolve. If we are not resolute in our support for Poland and Ukraine then authoritarianism wins and we invite further destabilising adventurism.'

NATO said on Friday it is looking out for any escalation in the situation on its members' borders with Belarus, after Belarusian and Russian paratroopers staged joint drills near the Polish and Lithuanian borders.

'We will remain vigilant against the risk of further escalation and provocation by Belarus at its borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, and will continue to monitor the implications for the security of the alliance,' the North Atlantic Council, representing the alliance's member states, said in a statement.

'NATO allies call on Belarus to cease these actions, to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to abide by international law.'

American intelligence sources briefed their European counterparts of a possible Kremlin military operation in Ukraine's east to annex territory similar to the 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, Bloomberg reported.

Russia and Belarus said paratroopers from both countries had been involved in joint drills in Gozhsky today, located just 20 miles from the Polish border where migrants are trying to cross

The Belarusian defence ministry said the troops practiced capturing bridges, hunting down and destroying targets, and defeating enemy patrols during the drill to 'test combat readiness'

The surprise training mission came as it was revealed British military engineers are now at the border to strengthen the defences, amid warnings from all sides that the situation risks spilling over into armed conflict

Poland has deployed some 15,000 troops to its eastern border where they have spent much of this week trying to hold back thousands of migrants that Lukashenko's regime is accused of forcing into the region

Poland, along with the leaders of nearby Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, has been warning that the crisis has the potential to spill over into a full-blown conflict

The military drills are taking place just 20 miles from the Kuznica border crossing with Poland, where thousands of migrants are currently gathered trying to cross over

Poland has reported dozens of attempts to cross the border today, including a group of migrants who broke through the Belarusian side of the crossing and began trying to cross the Polish side of the fence

The US has refused to share exactly what intel it has of an imminent attack, but the warning comes after satellite images revealed a build-up of tens of thousands of Russian troops, tanks and artillery pieces close to the border.

The EU accuses Lukashenko of forcing migrants to make illegal crossings into Poland in a cynical attempt to destabilise the bloc using vulnerable people as his weapon.

On Thursday, Lukashenko himself warned of the risk of a conflict and accused armed groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine of trying to ship weapons to the migrants on the Polish border in order to spark fighting.

'They are Kurds, and the Kurds are militant,' he said according to Polish newspaper Wyborcza. 'When Poles beat them, cut them, torment them, etc., they become desperate. One rifle, one gun, and armed conflict is ready.'

Lukashenko has also threatened to cut off natural gas supplies running from Russia and through his country into Europe - though that threat was angrily slapped down by Moscow today.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said Lukashenko had not coordinated with Moscow before making the remark and added that Russian pledged to fulfil gas contracts are 'beyond doubt'.

It came after Lukashenko spoke out at a meeting of government officials on Thursday, musing: 'We are heating Europe and they are threatening us... What if we cut off their natural gas?

'I would recommend the Polish and Lithuanian authorities to think before they speak up.'

Russia's Yamal-Europe pipeline runs through Belarus and into Poland, representing about 20 per cent of the country's total gas-carrying capacity into Europe.

The continent relies on natural gas for around a quarter of its energy needs, more than half of which is piped in from Russia - which sits on top of the world's largest gas reserves.

Just weeks ago, European leaders were trying to negotiate with Russia to increase supplies as stockpiles of gas ran low due to surging demand as economies reopen post-Covid.

The EU accused Putin of throttling the flow of gas as a political bargaining tool to try and get a new gas pipeline - the multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 2 - opened. He denied the allegations.

Concerns about Russian troops on Ukraine's border have been ongoing since at least April this year, when Putin moved around 100,000 soldiers, tanks and artillery pieces to the region without warning.

He later said the exercise was to test 'military readiness' and pulled some of the units back, but NATO warned that many of them had remained at the front even after the 'exercise' was over.

The Royal Netherlands Air Force on Friday said that it had also scrambled fighters, two F-16s, to the North Sea after spotting the Russian bombers. The air force said it handed over to allies from the RAF.

Flight tracking data showed a NATO warplane was dispatched from Cologne and circled around the Norwegian coast before heading back to Germany.

An RAF spokesman said: 'Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighters from RAF Lossiemouth & Coningsby, supported by a Voyager Tanker from RAF Brize Norton, have been launched against an unidentified aircraft approaching the UK area of interest.

'We will not be offering any additional detail on this ongoing operation until complete.'
Prosecutors at the Kenosha shooter trial have admitted that 'a reasonable jury or juror' could acquit Kyle Rittenhouse on the most serious charges that he faces.

Assistant District Attorney James Kraus made the extraordinary admission as he pressed for 'a multitude of lesser charges' to be put before the jury when they are sent out to deliberate Monday.

Rittenhouse has been charged with First Degree Reckless Intentional Homicide in the death of Joseph Rosembaum, First Degree Intentional Homicide in the death of Anthony Huber and First Degree Attempted Intentional Homicide in the shooting of Gaige Grosskreutz. These are the most serious of six counts.

But today the state admitted that they had no confidence that the testimony presented in court would see him convicted as they attempted to enter second degree and lesser charges as possible verdicts across the board.

And in a startling turn of events the judge may even dismiss the least of the charges - the one that seemed a state slam-dunk - illegal possession of a firearm.

Prosecutors at the Kenosha shooter trial have admitted that 'a reasonable jury or juror' could acquit Kyle Rittenhouse on the most serious charges that he faces

Assistant District Attorney James Kraus (left) made the extraordinary admission as he pressed for 'a multitude of lesser charges' to be put before the jury when they are sent out to deliberate Monday

Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum (left), 36, with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle after Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse across a parking lot and threw a plastic bag at him shortly before midnight on August 25, 2020. Moments later, as Rittenhouse was running down a street, he shot and killed Anthony Huber (right), 26, a protester from Silver Lake, Wisconsin

Judge Schroeder once again showed his impatience with prosecutors as they insisted that they had 'proof' the Rittenhouse had provoked Rosenbaum and pointed his gun at people before the shooting and asked for the judge to include this in his instructions to jurors.

500 National Guard troops will be on stand-by in Wisconsin for Rittenhouse verdict as police forces across America brace for acquittal 500 National Guard troops have been put on standby in Wisconsin in anticipation of a verdict in the case of Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse. Governor Tony Evers announced that the guardsmen will be stationed outside Kenosha, ready to support local police in the event of unrest over the weekend and next week. 'We continue to be in close contact with our partners at the local level to ensure the state provides support and resources to help keep the Kenosha community and greater area safe. 'The Kenosha community has been strong, resilient, and has come together through incredibly difficult times these past two years, and that healing is still ongoing. 'I urge folks who are otherwise not from the area to please respect the community by reconsidering any plans to travel there and encourage those who might choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights to do so safely and peacefully,' he said. Closing arguments begin on Monday and the likelihood of an acquittal or mistrial is growing by the day. Police forces across America are preparing for potential unrest, should the verdict trigger protests in other cities. Advertisement

The usually dull, procedural matter of deciding on juror instructions became heated after Kraus claimed the proof lay in drone footage and images that, the defense contends, had been 'manipulated' by the state's expert for 20 hours.

The judge asked to see the picture. 'That's your best picture?' he asked in disgust as he squinted at the blurry image.

When Kraus pushed back saying that it was not the entirety of their proof, Judge Schroeder exploded, 'You're asking me to give in instruction I'm asking you to show me the best picture!'

Rittenhouse leaned over the judge's shoulder as he and the legal teams watched drone footage in a bid to see what the state claimed was 'clear.'

Judge Schroeder appeared unconvinced but ultimately conceded saying, 'It's the jury's case and I think they should make the critical decisions.

'My decision will be to submit the case with the provocation instruction and you can argue the strength, or lack of strength, of the evidence.'

The defense argued that the state has failed to prove the entire statute which, in Wisconsin, not only requires that a person be under 18 but that that barrel of the gun possessed is outside the legal range.

In the charges relating to the shootings first degree requires the jury to conclude that Rittenhouse displayed 'an utter disregard for human life.'

Addressing Judge Bruce Schroeder Friday morning Kraus admitted, 'When attorney Binger asked in regard to each person shot or shot at if the defendant even cared if he killed the person he alluded to, the defendant denied [it].

'He said he had to shoot him, he denied that he did not care about their life.

'I believe that the jury could find that the defendant did not have an utter disregard for human life and that he didn't really want to kill anyone.'

Schroeder denied the request saying, 'I just don't think it appropriate if I were to give this statement over the objections of the defense and the jury found a verdict on [the lesser charge] I would expect it to be reversed.'

It was the first blow to the prosecution as they attempted to open the possibility of a plethora of lesser offenses.

The judge said that he would consider including a lesser offense on the reckless endangerment charge regarding Daily Call journalist Richie McGinniss.

But he warned the prosecution should 'not be surprised' if it isn't there when he emails them the finalized list Saturday.

He did not allow a lesser charge to be included in relation to 'jump-kick man.'

Judge Bruce Schroeder is seated in front of a large video monitor as Kyle Rittenhouse and attorneys for both sides argue about a video

Judge Bruce Schroeder will instruct the jury on the law and how they are to apply it on each charge

Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi dismissed the state's contention as 'illogical.' He said, 'It's difficult to [agree with] and argument that a jury would believe that because he stopped shooting or missed that he wasn't showing utter disregard'

Rittenhouse shot twice as an unidentified male jumped across him as he lay on the ground, kicking him in the face.

Gaige Grosskreutz was shot by Kyle Rittenhouse on August 25, 2020 and his right bicep was almost entirely blown away. Grosskreutz, the state's star witness, took the stand Monday morning

Kraus argued that a reasonable jury could find Rittenhouse guilty of second-degree reckless endangerment for the two shots he took at 'jump-kick man' even thought they might not find 'utter disregard' for human life because he 'missed' and 'stopped firing.'

Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi dismissed the state's contention as 'illogical.'

He said, 'It's difficult to [agree with] and argument that a jury would believe that because he stopped shooting or missed that he wasn't showing utter disregard.

'I think the [first degree] is the appropriate instruction. They're either going to accept it was self-defense or they're not, but to say that two shots at point blank range might not show an utter disregard because either he missed or stopped? I don't think that's logical'

The judge agreed with the defense and denied the state's request. He said, 'I do not believe there is a reasonable basis for acquittal on the greater charge and conviction on the lesser.'

The defense did not object to lesser charges being included in the charges relating to Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz. In both cases the state has asked for second degree charges to be added.

In response to the defense's objections to the gun charge faced by Rittenhouse Judge Schroeder seemed to lean towards their call for its dismissal.

After hearing arguments, he told the state to, 'go through the evidence' and see if they have 'proved [the barrel length] beyond a reasonable doubt so that [the charge] can even go to the jury,'

Judge Schroeder will decide on the final charges over the weekend.

Closing arguments in the Kenosha shooter case will begin Monday after Judge Schroeder instructs the jury on the law and how they are to apply it on each charge.

Closing arguments in Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial will begin Monday

As it stands 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse is charged on six counts: First Degree Reckless Homicide, Use of a Dangerous Weapon in the death of Joseph Rosenbaum, First Degree Intentional Homicide, First Degree Attempted Intentional Homicide, Use of a Dangerous Weapon in the shootings of both Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz, First Degree Recklessly Endangering Safety in the case of Richie McGinniss who was all but in the line of fire when Rosenbaum was shot and 'jump-kick man'  the unidentified male at whom Rittenhouse shot twice  and one count of Possession of a Dangerous Weapon by a Person Under 18.

A seventh curfew violation was dismissed earlier in the week.

The most serious charges, first-degree intentional homicide, carries a mandatory life sentence, while attempted first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide, are both punishable by up to 60 years in prison.

State Witnesses that Turned the Tide...for the Defense They were supposed to be the state's star witnesses but their testimony could prove to be the fatal blow to it's case Daily Caller Chief Video Director Richie McGinniss upended the states case with his powerful testimony Thursday. Rittenhouse has been charged with reckless endangerment of McGinniss for shooting when the journalist  who had followed him and Joseph Rosenbaum - was all but in the line of fire when the teen turned and shot. A key eye-witness, McGinniss testified in court that Rosenbaum had chased Rittenhouse down then lunged for the muzzle of his rifle in the moment that he was shot. Assistant District Attorney desperately sought to recast this as Rosenbaum falling forward because he had been shot but McGinniss pushed back repeatedly. He told the court, He was lunging, falling, I would use those as synonymous terms  he threw his momentum towards the weapon. His momentum was going forward and thats the point in which he [Rittenhouse] fired. Military veteran Ryan Balch, a self-proclaimed vigilante and boogaloo boi who was also armed with an AR-15 on the night of August 25, 2020, spent much of the evening alongside Rittenhouse. He told the court that Rosenbaum was hyper-aggressive and acting out in a violent manner, that evening. He said that Rittenhouse was by his side when Rosenbaum, got in his face yelling and screaming. Most damning of all, he told the court that Rosenbaum had threatened to kill any of the group should he get them alone. According to Balch, he said, If I catch any of you guys alone tonight, Im going to f****ing kill you. Balch testified that when Rosenbaum said this it was within earshot of Rittenhouse. Gaige Grosskreutz should have been the states star witness  the sole survivor of Rittenhouses shootings that night. The prosecution presented him as a peaceable paramedic  the real deal where Rittenhouse was a wannabe, who falsely claimed to be an EMT. Grosskreutz, they insisted, was only there that evening to administer medical aid. The state attempted to paint him as a do-gooder who posed no threat when Rittenhouse shot him in the arm at close range shortly after shooting Anthony Huber dead. But under cross examination Grosskreutz was forced to admit that he had lied to police in his original statement when he did not admit that he was armed with a Glock 27. It was also revealed that he left this fact out of two lawsuits which he has brought, one against the city of Kenosha claiming $10million and one in Federal court. In a stunning piece of courtroom drama attorney Corey Chirafisi not only exposed Grosskreutzs lies but converted the states witness by forcing his admission that he was pointing his own gun at Rittenhouse and advancing on him when he was shot. Showing images from the moment he was shot, Chirafisi pointed out, You would agree that when you were three to five feet from him [Rittenhouse] with your hands up in the air, he didnt fire did he? Grosskreutz agreed. Chirafisi continued, It wasnt until you were advancing on him with your gun pointed at him that he fired? Grosskreutz responded, Correct. Advertisement

First-degree reckless endangermenta brutal blow to the prosecutions case carries a maximum prison term of 12 years and requires prosecutors to show that Rittenhouse put someone in harm's way by showing an utter disregard for life.

Many doubt that the prosecutors have been successful in shouldering this burden of proof.

Judge Schroeder has placed a cap of two and a half hours on closing arguments for both sides, time which is to include any rebuttal they should wish to make.

The judge had originally put a cap of one and a half hours on arguments but relented on Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger's request for more time due to the state's intention to replay as much as 30 minutes of video footage.

But he warned, 'I will be tough. I may tell you to sit down mid-sentence if you keep going. I did it to one of the DAs recently.'

The jury will not return to the courthouse until Monday when names will be drawn to determine the 12 who will actually deliberate.

Eighteen of the original 20 jurors remain after one was excused on medical grounds and another was removed having made a racial 'joke' to a court deputy.

Judge Schroeder dismissed them for the long weekend with the words, 'We're in the final stretch now.'

Kyle Rittenhouse and defense attorneys Natalie Wisco and Corey Chirafisi, talk during Rittenhouse's trial

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger brought the highest drama of Wednesday when he was accused by both Richards and Judge Schroeder of acting 'in bad faith' and attempting to provoke a mistrial

What's next in the Kenosha shooter trial? TODAY Details of charges will be finalized between Judge Schroeder and attorneys. The jury will not be present during these proceedings when the state is expected to inform the judge if they intend to ask for lesser charges to be considered on any counts. MONDAY Closing arguments begin and Judge Schroeder will instruct the jury on the law and how they are to apply it on each charge. The judge has placed a cap of two and a half hours on closing arguments for both sides, time which is to include any rebuttal they should wish to make. THE JURY The jury will not return to the courthouse until Monday when names will be drawn to determine the 12 who will deliberate. Eighteen of the original 20 jurors remain after one was excused on medical grounds and another was removed having made a racial 'joke' to a court deputy. THE CHARGES As it stands 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse is charged on six counts: First Degree Reckless Homicide, Use of a Dangerous Weapon in the death of Joseph Rosenbaum, First Degree Intentional Homicide, First Degree Attempted Intentional Homicide, Use of a Dangerous Weapon in the shootings of both Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz, First Degree Recklessly Endangering Safety in the case of Richie McGinniss who was all but in the line of fire when Rosenbaum was shot and 'jump-kick man'  the unidentified male at whom Rittenhouse shot twice  and one count of Possession of a Dangerous Weapon by a Person Under 18. A seventh curfew violation was dismissed earlier in the week. POSSIBLE SENTENCES The most serious charges, first-degree intentional homicide, carries a mandatory life sentence, while attempted first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide, are both punishable by up to 60 years in prison. First-degree reckless endangerment carries a maximum prison term of 12 years and requires prosecutors to show that Rittenhouse put someone in harm's way by showing an utter disregard for life.

Advertisement

The defense rested Thursday afternoon after two and a half days of explosive testimony and high courtroom drama that may yet see the case tossed with a mistrial.

Rittenhouse's attorneys Mark Richards and Corey Chirafisi began making their case Tuesday afternoon and quickly played their biggest card  bringing Kyle Rittenhouse to the stand Wednesday morning.

Rittenhouse, 18, broke down and sobbed on the witness stand as he recounted the events of the night of August 25, 2020 when he shot dead two men and gravely wounded a third.

He said he did not want to shoot anyone that night but did so because he was 'ambushed and attacked.'

He recalled how Joseph Rosenbaum chased and lunged at him, and voiced his belief that if Rosenbaum had managed to get his gun he would have killed him and probably a lot more people that night.

He said that he shot Anthony Huber as he felt the man pulling his gun from his body and Gaige Grosskreutz because he came at him with his own firearm, a Glock 27, pointed at him.

As Rittenhouse spoke his mother Wendy wept uncontrollably in the public gallery.

On Thursday night, his mother appeared on Fox News Wendy and said she was still angry with President Biden for his labeling her son a white supremacist last year.

But it was Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger who brought the highest drama of the day when he was accused by both Richards and Judge Schroeder of acting 'in bad faith' and attempting to provoke a mistrial.

Binger was eviscerated by the judge for questioning Rittenhouse's right to remain silent after charges were brought.

He did this twice before the jury who the judge ultimately sent out before laying into the prosecutor and accusing him of a 'grave constitutional violation.'

Later Binger attempted to bring in evidence that had already been excluded in a pre-trial motion. The evidence was from Rittenhouse's social media and a post in which he commented about wishing he had his AR-15 so he could 'shoot some shoplifters.'

Incandescent with rage Judge Schroeder laid into Binger. When the prosecutor said he had been 'acting in good faith,' Schroeder snapped, 'I don't believe you.'

The defense has requested a mistrial based on this 'prosecutorial misconduct' and 'over-reach.' They argue that Binger was trying to provoke a mistrial to avoid the case ending in acquittal and so as to, 'have another kick at the cat' and bring a fresh prosecution.

Judge Schroeder has taken their request for a mistrial with prejudice  meaning that the case could NOT be re-tried  under consideration and has yet to make a final ruling on it.

The defense concluded their case with a use of force expert who testified that, in reality, the events that the state has sought to slow down, asking Rittenhouse what he was thinking and feeling moment by moment, took place in a matter of seconds.

From the moment that he walked through a crowd hurling rocks at police vehicles, yelling, 'Friendly! Friendly! Friendly!' to the moment he tried to surrender himself to the police just two minutes and 55 seconds elapsed.

Kyle Rittenhouse broke down on the witness stand as recalled the moment he was 'ambushed' by Joseph Rosenbaum the night he shot him dead

As Rittenhouse spoke his mother Wendy wept uncontrollably in the public gallery

Armed with a fire extinguisher, his medical bag and his AR-15, Rittenhouse said, 'I started running towards the Car Source number three to put out fires, pausing occasionally to catch my breath and walk

The defense also called the Kenosha Police Officer who collected the spent shell casing from the downtown road where the shootings occurred and a videographer and commentator who was an eye-witness to the night and the shooting but whom the prosecution had not called and attempted to brand as bias and intent on aiding Rittenhouse's cause.

Shortly before the defense rested the judge heard arguments concerning an expert that the state planned to recall as part of their rebuttal.

Judge Schroeder called forensic imaging expert James Armstrong to explain the algorithms used to enlarge and enhance FBI surveillance footage entered into evidence by the state.

The state argued that they should be able to enter enlarged drone footage images entered into evidence that, they claim, show Rittenhouse pointing a gun at people before he was chased by Rosenbaum.

The defense objected on grounds that the images had been altered and were not therefore accurate depictions of the original footage.

As testimony dwelt on software and pixels Judge Schroeder shook his head and joked, 'I'm still using watercolors.'

Assistant District Attorney James Kraus said that the defense's argument was 'a canard' and a 'dishonest argument.'

He said, 'With respect your honor I think the defense is trying to take advantage of your lack of technical knowledge which you've already expressed.'

He said that their attempt to present this as 'voodoo magic' was 'preposterous.'

Ed Lasiowski protests outside the Kenosha County Courthouse during Kyle Rittenhouse's trial on Thursday

Judge Schroeder snapped back, 'You have the burden of proof not them. The witness was just here and when he's asked what does [the software do] he says, 'I don't know.'

'This is the person who's providing your information to support your claim that it is an accurate depiction.'

The judge added, 'I will tell you that I totally agree with our comment about my lack of familiarity with these concepts although I have some logical skills. The fact that I can accurately blow something up on my phone doesn't mean that the particular crime lab is doing an accurate [job].

'What does peer review mean to me? You haven't presented any evidence as to the science or the algorithm.'

After scrutinizing the images himself Judge Schroeder allowed the evidence and said that the jury could draw their own conclusions.

On recalling the jury the defense immediately rested and the rebuttal began.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump each phoned in 2018 to give assurances that they could work together after he met with President Trump about serving as chief of staff  despite his past role prosecuting Kushner's father, Charles.

Christie met with Trump as the president was considering pushing out chief of staff John Kelly  one of a line of chiefs the president hire and then sour upon. Trump ultimately went through four of them.

Christie met with Trump in December 2018 to discuss the job, only to withdraw himself from consideration for what he said publicly were family reasons. (He said at the time that 'now is not the right time for me or my family to undertake this serious assignment.'

According to his new book, Republican Rescue, Trump offered him the job. Among the reasons he turned it down was a bad reaction when someone leaked word of his meeting with the president. Trump would later admit it was he who put out the information, Christie writes, the Daily Beast reported after obtaining a copy of the book.

Former Donald Trump met with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and offered him the job of White House chief of staff in 2018, Christie writes. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner phoned to provide reassurances

Trump offered him the powerful position and gave him some time to think it over. But word of their meeting soon made it into the press.

'I couldn't help but wonder. There were only three people in that room at the White House. I knew I didn't leak the story. It seemed unlikely to me that Melania did. Who was left? Did Trump really have someone leak that story even before I'd gotten off the train?' Christie writes.

According to Christie, two key Trump White House advisors: daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, phoned to give assurances they were on board with him taking the job.

They may have found it necessary to assure him there was no bad blood that would get in the way of working together professionally. As a former US Attorney, Christie had helped send Kushner's father, Charles, to federal prison for witness tampering and filing false tax returns.

Christie would later call it 'one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I ever prosecuted.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner phoned Christie and his wife Mary Pat to let him know they could all work together, despite Christie having helped send Kushner's father to prison

Trump (pictured with Christie and Rudy Giuliani in the background) cycled through four chiefs of staff

Charles Kushner, with Jared and brother Josh, pleaded guilty to witness tampering and filing false tax returns

Charles Kushner hired a prostitute to try to lure his son-in-law, William Schulder, at a time Kushner was being investigated over illegal campaign contributions and Schulder was a federal witness.

'I mean If a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, and videotapes it, and then sends the videotape to his sister to attempt to intimidate her from testifying before a grand jury, do I really need any more justification than that?,' Christie told PBS in 2019.

But after he met with Trump, Christie says he got a call from Jared Kushner, who told him he was 'fine' with him coming on board.

Chris Christie's new book, Republican Rescue, calls for saving the GOP from 'conspiracy theorists'

'I'll be fully supportive of you,' he said, according to Christie.

Then Ivanka called his wife, Mary Pat.

'I know there have been problems between the governor and my husband's family in the past. But you have my word, wife to wife, mother to mother, that I will make sure that nothing like that happens if the governor comes here,' she told his wife, according to Chrisite.

He writes that Mary Pat was 'taken aback' by the call.

Christie says he decided to take himself out of consideration, in part due to the leak. The high-powered lobbying didn't help.

'By that point, I had pretty much decided there was no way I was going to take this job,' Christie writes. 'And the high-pressure campaign from the next generation, especially Ivanka's call to Mary Pat, wasn't about to convince me otherwise.

Instead, Christie would stay outside for the duration of the administration, and ultimately condemn Trump for having 'lied' to supporters about a stolen election, saying after Joe Biden's inauguration 'it's shameful that they're doing it.'
An illegal Albanian immigrant who went on the run for more than 11 years after his car hit and killed a man walking home from a night out was today jailed for 15 months.

Aleksi Shyti was using a fake Greek identity document when the white Rover 211 he was driving struck Ricky Burlton, who was thrown into the path of three other cars.

Shyti, who had never held a driving licence, carried on along the A10 Hoddesdon bypass in Hertfordshire with a smashed windscreen for another hundred metres before leaving the scene on foot.

He was seen with his face covered in blood, walking along the side of the road.

Aleksi Shyti (pictured) was using a fake Greek identity document when the white Rover 211 he was driving struck Ricky Burlton, who was thrown into the path of three other cars

Rather than call the emergency services to help the 20-year-old mechanic and scout leader, he rang a friend to help him get to hospital.

Prosecutor Simon Wilshire told St Albans crown court that shortly after the accident Shyti, now 42, left the jurisdiction and returned to his native Albania.

A European Arrest Warrant was issued in May 2012 and was finally executed in September this year in Bulgaria.

Mr Wilshire said Ricky, who lived in Enfield, had been out for the night with friends in Hertford and was walking home on the edge of the road when he was killed at around 2.30am on Friday June 4, 2010. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Others called emergency services and when the police searched the abandoned Rover they found Shyti's false Greek identity document in the name of Georgious Tsoulos.

Shyti was tracked to Chase Farm Hospital, Enfield, where he had undergone facial surgery. He told the police he was Georgious Tsoulos.

Ricky Burlton (pictured) had been returning from a night out when he was hit by the car driven by Shyti

At some point shortly after that Shyti, who had been living in Hertford since 2009, fled the UK.

Mr Wilshire said Shyti had never had a driving licence in the UK or Albania. He had used the fake ID to buy insurance, claiming he had held a licence for 10 years and 10 months.

He appeared for sentence having pleaded guilty to possessing a false identity document, the Greek identity card, with intent.

He also admitted making a false statement to obtain insurance by claiming that he had held a UK driving licence for 10 years.

Earlier the court heard that Shyti would no longer face a charge relating to causing the death of Ricky Burlton.

In a victim personal statement Ricky Burlton's mother Dawn, from Enfield, said her son, who was in process of becoming a Scout leader, had everything to live for, was 'selfless and kind and would do anything to help others.'

She said: 'The defendant had no right to drive and departed the scene. He did not call the emergency services and instead called a friend, leaving my son where he had driven into him.

'When he received medical attention he made a conscious decision to leave the UK. The facts continue to haunt me and will do for the rest of my life.'

She said: 'I have been robbed of my son by a man who should not have been driving. We as a family will forever grieve and mourn. The defendant will serve his sentence. We will continue to serve a life sentence. '

Defending, Oliver Renton said: 'He is truly sorry for the loss the family sustained. He recognises that in failing to returned to the jurisdiction he has contributed to their distress.'

Following the incident, Shyti was seen with his face covered in blood

Mr Renton said Shyti was seriously hurt. He suffered sight loss to one eye and had deep wounds and scars to his forehead, eye, nose and chin.'

Judge Michael Simon said: 'A 20-year-old man with everything to live for lost his life and his family lost a beloved son and brother.'

'It is trite to say nothing this court does can ameliorate the very tangible impact it has had on his family and friends.

'The defendant is not and could not in law be charged with any offence relating to Ricky's death. The results from experts concluded his death was the result of a tragic road accident. The defendant has been found to bear no direct criminal responsibility.'

The judge said he hoped Ricky's family would accept the court's limited sentencing powers.

He told Shyti he had been 'living a lie' since April 2009 when he arrived in the UK on a false identity document and been able to obtain insurance even though he did not hold a UK, Albanian or any other driving licence.

As the sentence was greater than 12 months, the judge said Shyti will be eligible for immediate deportation.

Referring to the document offences, the judge said: 'The public would be horrified to learn that when assertions are made by individuals it would seem that not even the most perfunctory checks were made. It is the court's hope that since that date matters have been rectified so appropriate checks are made.'
This is the horrifying moment a female architect was hacked to death in the street in Istanbul by a stranger who 'wanted to kill a woman'.

Footage shows Basak Cengiz, 27, walking down a road in Istanbul closely followed by a man carrying a concealed samurai sword.

The suspect, identified by police as Can Goktug Boz, can be seen grabbing Cengiz from behind and making a stabbing motion as she collapses.

He appears to inflict several wounds on the 27-year-old as she tries to roll away before he flees the scene as passing cars stop to help.

Boz tailed Cengiz on November 9 after seeing her walk past his apartment block on her way home from work several times, police said.

He told police his actions were 'influenced by films he watched' and was described by officers as 'mentally unstable'.

This is the horrifying moment female architect Basak Cengiz, 27, was hacked to death in the street in Istanbul but a stranger who 'wanted to kill a woman'

The suspect appears to inflict several wounds on the 27-year-old as she tries to roll away before he flees the scene as passing cars stop to help

The suspect, identified by police as Can Goktug Boz, can be seen grabbing Cengiz from behind and making a stabbing motion as she collapses

The suspect, identified by police as Can Goktug Boz, (not pictured) tailed Basak Cengiz, 27, (right) on November 9 after seeing her walk past his apartment block on her way home from work several times, police said

Cengiz, who was engaged and soon due to be married, was rushed to a private hospital in Atasehir district of Istanbul in a critical condition but was later declared dead.

The 27-year-old usually lives in the Turkish capital Ankara but was visiting Istanbul for a work assignment. She did not know the suspect.

On the day of the incident, she was due to catch a work shuttle to a hotel she was staying at with her colleagues but had decided to walk back after staying late at the office.

The suspect, police said, tailed Cengiz before the fatal attack on November 9 after seeing her walk past his apartment block on her way home from work several times

The samurai sword can be seen glinting in the streetlights in the grainy footage moments before the suspect flees the scene

Footage shows the suspect (centre) walk away from the scene as passing cars and bystanders rush to help the victim

Police arrested Boz in his apartment in Atasehir district of Istanbul after reviewing footage from the apartment block's security cameras.

Officers from the Atasehir Public Security Bureau raided the residence and arrested the suspect.

Police recovered the samurai sword at the address where they also found phrases such as 'stab them in the stomach', 'set a trap', and 'kill those who argue' written on the walls.

Police recovered the samurai sword (pictured) at the address where they also found phrases such as 'stab them in the stomach', 'set a trap', and 'kill those who argue' written on the walls

Cengiz, (pictured with her fiancee) who was engaged and soon due to be married, was rushed to a private hospital in Atasehir district of Istanbul in a critical condition but was later declared dead

Boz was later taken to the Gayrettepe Public Security Branch for questioning, where he was reported as being 'mentally unstable'.

During his first interrogation, officers reportedly asked him: 'Why did you commit this murder?' To which he reportedly replied: 'I was influenced by the films I watched'.

The suspect remains in custody as the investigation continues.
Advertisement

The Home Office has blown thousands of pounds on kebabs and pizzas feeding the record number of migrants who arrived in Britain yesterday.

Officials ordered 3,000 chicken shish for 14.50 from four Turkish restaurants dotted across Kent as well hundreds of pizzas from the Domino's in Dover.

Staff said they were rushed off their feet trying to prepare the huge order for morning and evening meals for those at the Tug Haven Border Force camp.

It comes as a record 1,185 people reached the UK on Thursday after risking death on board small boats in the English Channel.

Lifeboat crews, Border Force and French authorities spent hours intercepting boats in the Dover Strait throughout the day.

But despite their efforts three people are feared lost at sea after two kayaks were found adrift off the coast of Calais.

Officials ordered 3,000 chicken shish for 14.50 from four Turkish restaurants dotted across Kent as well hundreds of pizzas from the Domino's in Dover (pictured today)

Staff said that they were rushed off their feet trying to prepare the huge order for morning and evening meals for those at the Tug Haven Border Force camp (pictured today)

Officials put in a huge order today for meals to feed the migrants from four Aspendos Turkish restaurants dotted across Kent

Meanwhile pictures show a huge mess left at the camp after migrants were given hundreds of Domino's pizzas from the Dover branch

What's on the menu? What migrants can expect to eat from Aspendos Turkish restaurant in Dover MAINS: Chicken Shish - 14.50 Marinated cubes of chicken grilled on charcoal grill Lamb Shish - 14.50 Marinated cubes of lamb grilled on charcoal grill SIDES: Rice - 3 Bread - 2 DRINKS: Canned drinks - 1.50 Ayran - 1.50 Advertisement

Officials put in a huge order today for meals to feed the migrants from four Aspendos Turkish restaurants dotted across Kent.

They asked for 270 meals this morning and 270 more in the evening from the Dover branch, while also placing requests at stores in Deal, Folkestone and Ashford.

Migrants will be fed chicken shish kebabs, which are served as 'marinated cubes of chicken grilled on charcoal grill' and cost 14.50 each.

They will also be given sides including rice, which is an extra 3, and bread, which adds another 2, meaning each meal is worth 19.50.

An Aspendos worker told MailOnline this afternoon: 'We are rushed off our feet. It's so many meals to make but we'll get there.'

The restaurant, which bills its food as 'a diverse menu filled with delightful dishes', also sells a family special which feeds four to five people for 55.

Punters would get lamb shish, chicken shish, two kofte kebabs, four lamb chops, eight of lamb ribs, eight chicken wings, humus, cacik, tarama and olives.

The chain says on its website it is 'bringing an authentic taste of Turkey to diners throughout Kent'. and has a 4.7-star average on Google reviews.

The word Aspendos comes from an ancient Greco-Roman city in Antalya province of Turkey, also known as Aspendus.

Border Force workers were spotted helping to unload around 1,000 of them at Tug Haven - a short-term holding facility - earlier today, moving them from a red van into a trolley and over to the base.

Border Force officials ordered more than 540 meals from Turkish restaurant Aspendos in Dover, (pictured above) to feed recently-arrived migrants on 14.50 chicken shish

The restaurant, which bills its food as 'a diverse menu filled with delightful dishes', also sells a family special which feeds four to five people for 55. Pictured: The plush interior of Aspendos in Dover, which features detailed wall art and a piano

They asked for 270 meals this morning and 270 more in the evening from the Dover branch, while also placing requests at stores in Deal, Folkestone and Ashford

They will also be given sides including rice, which is an extra 3, and bread, which adds another 2, meaning each meal is worth 19.50

Aspendos, which bills its food as 'a diverse menu filled with delightful dishes', also sells a family special which feeds four to five people for 55

Aspendos, which bills its food as 'a diverse menu filled with delightful dishes', also sells a family special which feeds four to five people for 55

Meanwhile pictures show a huge mess left at the camp after migrants were given hundreds of Domino's pizzas from the Dover branch.

Stacks of empty boxes were shoved in bin bags and left along with other rubbish by the holding area, with one Mighty Meaty - which cost up to 17.99 - strewn all across the ground with the garlic dip still sealed.

A note on one of the orders said: 'This was an urgent need to feed a large number of migrants that had been on the Tug Haven compound in Dover for over 12 hours, and were likely to stay over 24 hours due to issues blocking their movement with resources and the Irc [immigration removal centre] estate.'

Another added: 'Purchased by Clandestine Operational Response Team (Cort) for use at Tug Haven where we have migrants arriving on small boats.

'Due to the high number of migrants arriving and the length of time they had not eaten, it was agreed to purchase 200 pizzas.'

A lorry driver who works in the area said that when he drove through last night it sounded like the migrants were having a party - laughing and eating pizza.

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We are committed to delivering the best value for money for the British taxpayer.

'We ensure all spending is carefully scrutinised to make sure that every pound of taxpayers' money is spent in the most effective way.'

Stacks of empty boxes were shoved in bin bags and left along with other rubbish by the holding area, with one Mighty Meaty - which cost up to 17.99 - strewn all across the ground with the garlic dip still sealed

A lorry driver who works in the area said that when he drove through last night it sounded like the migrants were having a party - laughing and eating pizza

Empty boxes of crisps are chucked in a trolley outside the temporary accommodation for the exhausted migrants in Dover, Kent

A record 1,185 people reached the UK on Thursday after risking death on board small boats in the English Channel, a new record for a single day

A record 1,185 people reached the UK on Thursday after risking death on board small boats in the English Channel, a new record for a single day.

Lifeboat crews, Border Force and French authorities spent hours intercepting boats in the Dover Strait throughout the day.

However, despite their efforts, three people are feared lost at sea after two kayaks were found adrift off the coast of Calais.

Thursday's total, confirmed by the Home Office on Friday, is the highest for daily arrivals during the current crisis, surpassing the previous record of 853 set earlier this month.

More than 23,500 people have now reached the UK after crossing the English Channel on board small boats this year, according to data compiled by the PA news agency.

In the last seven days, more than 2,400 people have crossed to Britain - the most in any such period during the current crisis and more than the entirety of 2019.

The Channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world and has claimed lives in the past, including two people in recent weeks.

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to 'stop blaming others' over the crossings.

He tweeted: 'Time and time again, we keep hitting new records with crossings - people risking their lives to make this treacherous journey. It is time for the Home Secretary to take some responsibility and stop blaming others.'

A record 1,000 people reached the UK in a single day after risking their lives in small boats in the English Channel - taking the November total soaring past 3,000 (pictured yesterday)

A young girl wrapped in a red jacket was carried ashore in Dover on Thursday, one of the masses brought into the Kent port after being picked up at sea

Lifeboat crews and Border Force boats were busy well into the evening after spending hours intercepting boats in the Dover Straight throughout the day

Thursday's total surpasses the previous single-day record for the current crisis of 853 set earlier this month

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, by Coastguard officers yesterday

In what has become a familiar sight at the docks in Dover, a young girl wrapped in a red jacket was seen being carried ashore on Thursday, one of hundreds of people brought in after being picked up at sea.

Border officials were busy past nightfall in the Kent harbour as they worked to process the hundreds of arrivals.

The cries of children waiting within the compound amid the November chill could be heard, adding to the usual hustle and bustle noise of the busy trade port.

Further along the coast, more people were reportedly seen arriving on Hastings beach in East Sussex after being picked up by the RNLI.

Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK's refugee and migrant rights director, said: 'The people making these perilous sea crossings are doing so out of desperation, largely because there are no safe and legal routes open to them, and many have family and other connections here.

'Instead of seizing on these highly visible crossings to manufacture a supposed 'national emergency' in their attempts to justify draconian new asylum policies, ministers ought to be working constructively with the French authorities to provide safe access to asylum procedures on both sides of the Channel.

'With its current approach, the Government is wilfully endangering people it should be helping. These are cruel tactics and they should end.'

Border officials were busy well into Thursday evening in Dover as they worked to process the many arrivals

Children wrapped in jackets and blankets against the autumn chill, some carried in the arms of adults, were among being helped onto the quayside throughout the day

Further along the coast, more people were reportedly seen arriving on Hastings beach after being picked up by the RNLI

Yesterday's 1,000 arrivals mean the figure for this year is almost 24,000  close to three times as many as in 2020

Jon Featonby, refugee and asylum policy manager at British Red Cross, said: 'Nobody puts their life at risk unless they are absolutely desperate and feel they have no other options.

'It is a brutal, life-threatening journey, especially in the worsening winter weather.

'There are no simple answers, but we urge the Government to rethink its plans. As it stands, the Nationality and Borders Bill will make the UK's asylum system harsher and not address the reasons why people take such dangerous journeys.'

In 2019, Home Secretary Ms Patel promised to make migrant crossings an 'infrequent phenomenon' by spring 2020, and then pledged in August last year to 'make this route unviable'.

During this time, the Government has agreed to pay France millions of pounds to increase security on its northern coast.

Disagreements between the UK and French Governments over what is expected have sometimes boiled over into sharp words exchanged across the Dover Strait.

Earlier this year, Ms Patel threatened to withhold the 54 million promised to France to help stop crossings unless more people were prevented from reaching the UK.

Speaking to BBC News on Friday, Calais MP Pierre-Henri Dumont said: 'We've got hundreds of police forces, gendarmerie patrolling, but we have 300, 400 kilometres of shore to monitor every night, and that's quite impossible to stop all the crossings.'

Despite the increasing numbers of small boats arrivals, the UK continues to see far fewer boat arrivals and asylum claims than many of its European counterparts.

At least 100,907 people have arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean by land and sea so far this year, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

At least 1,313 people are estimated to be dead or missing, according to the same data.

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'The number of illegal migrants we have seen departing from France is unacceptable.

'The British public have had enough of seeing people die in the Channel while ruthless criminal gangs profit from their misery and our New Plan for Immigration will fix the broken system which encourages migrants to make this lethal journey.'
Advertisement

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was warned Russian President Vladimir Putin he would be making a 'serious mistake' if he invaded Ukraine and Kamala Harris said the 'eyes of the world' are on the Belarus border as the Biden administration waded into the chaos in eastern Europe.

The vice president said Friday the U.S. is 'very concerned' about Russian military movements amid a tense immigration crisis in Belarus that has the potential to spill over into other countries in Europe.

And President Joe Biden issued his own expression of concern as he left the White House for Camp David on Friday.

'Its of great concern. Weve communicated our concern to Russia. Weve communicated our concern to Belarus. We think its a problem,' he said in response to a shouted question from a reporter.

Harris spoke about the situation at a press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron  after Russia conducted bombing exercises with Belarusian forces and built up troops along its border with Ukraine  prompting the U.S. to assert its 'ironclad' commitment to Ukrainian security.

'On the issue of Belarus and what is happening at the border with Poland, we are very concerned about that and closely paying attention to it,' she said.

She also gave a warning to President Alexander Lukashenko's government.

'The Lukashenko regime, I believe is engaged in very troubling activity. It is something that I discussed with President Macron, and the eyes of the world and its leaders are watching what is happening there,' she said.

Amid the chaos on Europe's doorstep, the White House last night warned Brussels to brace for a Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

The CIA briefed European officials about a possible Russian assault to capture territory in eastern Ukraine similar to the 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

The EU said it is alarmed by Russian military activities close to Ukraine, is watching the situation closely and 'looking at further steps' along with the United States and Britain.

The situation escalated on Friday with developments including:

The EU said it is alarmed by Russian military activities close to Ukraine, is watching the situation closely and 'looking at further steps' along with the United States and Britain

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia is waging 'hybrid warfare' on Europe using migrants

US and European delegations accused Minsk of endangering lives for political ends at UN Security Council

Former UK defense minister Tobias Ellwood called Russia's moves 'deeply concerning' and a 'test of resolve'

Turkey barred citizens from Iraq, Syrian and Yemen from flying to Belarus amid fears they will head to border

'Very troubling': Vice President Kamala Harris said the U.S. is 'very concerned' about the situation in Belarus amid a Russian troop buildup on the Ukrainian border

Fears are growing of an imminent conflict in eastern Europe as Russia and Belarus carry out snap military drills close to where a migrant crisis is playing out on Poland's border, while Washington warns Putin is preparing to invade eastern Ukraine

Amid the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, Belarus is pressuring Europe over migrants and has threatened to cut off gas supplies to the continent by shutting the Yamal-Europe pipeline which runs through its territory (pictured)

Blinken on Wednesday warned Moscow against making another 'serious mistake' in Ukraine, in reference to its 2014 invasion.

He addressed the situation once again on Friday.

'We are also very concerned by efforts by Belarus to use migration as a political weapon. I am not going to preview any possible sanctions, but we are looking at various tools that we have,' he said, speaking at a press conference with Qatari officials.

At the White House, press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated administration concerns about Russia's military moves as well as 'harsh rhetoric.'

She said the administration has made clear in discussions with Russian officials that 'escalatory aggressive actions would be of great concern to the United States.'

Russia is carrying out snap military drills in Belarus just a few miles from the Polish border today, as fears grow that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for an invasion in eastern Europe.

The U.S. and European allies accuse Lukashenko of seeking to destabilize its neighbors by deliberately massing migrants from the Middle East and North Africa along the Polish border and seeking to push them across.

Thousands of migrants have been brought into Belarus, and are lined up along the border with Poland and Lithuania but are blocked from entering. The European Union calls it a 'hybrid attack' and is preparing sanctions on Minsk.

Russia has defended its ally and has denied Belarus is using the immigrants as a 'tool of war' to pressure European countries.

'Russia doesnt threaten anyone,' said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov. 'The movement of troops on our territory shouldnt be a cause for anyones concern,' he told reporters, the Associated Press reported.

Russia's defense ministry said the unannounced drill involved paratroopers from both countries dropping at the Gozhsky range, just 20 miles from where thousands of migrants are gathered at the Polish border, where they practiced capturing bridges as well as hunting down and destroying enemy patrols.

Belarus said the drill was in response to the 'build-up of military activity' at the Polish border, where 15,000 troops have been stationed to hold back the migrants, while Russia said it was to test the 'combat readiness' of its troops.

At the same time, Polish defense minister Mariusz Baszczak revealed that British military engineers have been deployed to help strengthen the border defenses, amid warnings from all sides that the crisis risks spilling over into an armed conflict. The MoD confirmed a 'small team' has been sent to provide engineering support.

The troops are likely from the light cavalry squadron that the UK currently has stationed in Poland as part of NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence, which includes soldiers from the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers.

Amidst the tensions, RAF Typhoons from Lossiemouth & Coningsby were also scrambled to escort two Russian nuclear-capable bombers which flew over the North Sea and towards the English Channel today. They were joined on the mission by a Voyager Tanker from RAF Brize Norton, the RAF said.

Separately, Washington warned its European allies that Putin could be preparing for an invasion of Ukraine's eastern borders - hundreds of miles from where the migrant crisis is playing out - after satellites spotted troops, tanks and artillery pieces massing there.

Ukraine - which has been fighting a proxy-war against Russian-backed separatists in its eastern regions for years - has moved 8,500 more troops to the region in response.

Addressing the crisis today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced what he called 'increased provocations' against Russia, saying his country 'can't stay indifferent to that; we must be on our guard.'

'We take measures to ensure our security when opponents take defiant action near our borders,' Peskov added.

Russia and Belarus said paratroopers from both countries had been involved in joint drills in Gozhsky today, located just 20 miles from the Polish border where migrants are trying to cross

The Belarusian defense ministry said the troops practiced capturing bridges, hunting down and destroying targets, and defeating enemy patrols during the drill to 'test combat readiness'

The surprise training mission came as it was revealed British military engineers are now at the border to strengthen the defenses, amid warnings from all sides that the situation risks spilling over into armed conflict

Poland has deployed some 15,000 troops to its eastern border where they have spent much of this week trying to hold back thousands of migrants that Lukashenko's regime is accused of forcing into the region

Poland, along with the leaders of nearby Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, has been warning that the crisis has the potential to spill over into a full-blown conflict

The military drills are taking place just 20 miles from the Kuznica border crossing with Poland, where thousands of migrants are currently gathered trying to cross over

Poland has reported dozens of attempts to cross the border today, including a group of migrants who broke through the Belarusian side of the crossing and began trying to cross the Polish side of the fence

Meanwhile Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defense minister, warned his French counterparts that the military situation in Europe 'continues to deteriorate' while slamming NATO for 'building up its military presence' near Russia's border.

Speaking after a meeting with French officials in Paris, Shoigu insisted that Russia is working to 'increase predictability and reduce the risk of incidents' in the border region.

Former British defense minister Tobias Elwood, who now chairs the Commons Defence Committee, said: 'Russia and Belarus's aggression in Eastern Europe is not mutually exclusive and should deeply concern the West.

'It's a test of our collective resolve. If we are not resolute in our support for Poland and Ukraine then authoritarianism wins and we invite further destabilising adventurism.'

NATO said on Friday it is looking out for any escalation in the situation on its members' borders with Belarus, after Belarusian and Russian paratroopers staged joint drills near the Polish and Lithuanian borders.

'We will remain vigilant against the risk of further escalation and provocation by Belarus at its borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, and will continue to monitor the implications for the security of the alliance,' the North Atlantic Council, representing the alliance's member states, said in a statement.

'NATO allies call on Belarus to cease these actions, to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to abide by international law.'

American intelligence sources briefed their European counterparts of a possible Kremlin military operation in Ukraine's east to annex territory similar to the 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, Bloomberg reported.

The US has refused to share exactly what intel it has of an imminent attack, but the warning comes after satellite images revealed a build-up of tens of thousands of Russian troops, tanks and artillery pieces close to the border.

The EU accuses Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko of forcing migrants to make illegal crossings into Poland in a cynical attempt to destabilise the bloc using vulnerable people as his weapon.

On Thursday, Lukashenko himself warned of the risk of a conflict and accused armed groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine of trying to ship weapons to the migrants on the Polish border in order to spark fighting.

'They are Kurds, and the Kurds are militant,' he said according to Polish newspaper Wyborcza. 'When Poles beat them, cut them, torment them, etc., they become desperate. One rifle, one gun, and armed conflict is ready.'

Lukashenko has also threatened to cut off natural gas supplies running from Russia and through his country into Europe - though that threat was angrily slapped down by Moscow today.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said Lukashenko had not coordinated with Moscow before making the remark and added that Russian pledged to fulfil gas contracts are 'beyond doubt'.

It came after Lukashenko spoke out at a meeting of government officials on Thursday, musing: 'We are heating Europe and they are threatening us... What if we cut off their natural gas?

'I would recommend the Polish and Lithuanian authorities to think before they speak up.'

Russia's Yamal-Europe pipeline runs through Belarus and into Poland, representing about 20 per cent of the country's total gas-carrying capacity into Europe.

The continent relies on natural gas for around a quarter of its energy needs, more than half of which is piped in from Russia - which sits on top of the world's largest gas reserves.

Just weeks ago, European leaders were trying to negotiate with Russia to increase supplies as stockpiles of gas ran low due to surging demand as economies reopen post-Covid.

The EU accused Putin of throttling the flow of gas as a political bargaining tool to try and get a new gas pipeline - the multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 2 - opened. He denied the allegations.

Concerns about Russian troops on Ukraine's border have been ongoing since at least April this year, when Putin moved around 100,000 soldiers, tanks and artillery pieces to the region without warning.

He later said the exercise was to test 'military readiness' and pulled some of the units back, but NATO warned that many of them had remained at the front even after the 'exercise' was over.

Drone footage taken by Belarus border guards shows part of a large migrant camp that has sprung up along the Polish border, as the EU accuses Belarus of forcing vulnerable people into harm's way

Poland has been complaining that Belarus has been sending migrants to its borders for months, but the crisis dramatically escalated this week with the sudden arrival of thousands of migrants in the area

Washington's warning comes as Putin masses his forces close to Ukrainian territory, with satellite images taken in the last few weeks showing large camps of tanks and artillery pieces in the region

Ukraine warns there are now some 90,000 Russian soldiers near its border, where it has been fighting a years-long insurgency in its eastern regions by Russian-backed separatists

Poland has moved some 15,000 troops to its border with Belarus to help contain a migrant crisis that the EU accuses Lukashenko of engineering, amid warnings that situation could also spill over into conflict

Polish troops have accused their Belarusian counterparts of inflaming tensions by firing blank rounds and pushing migrants through the border fence in an attempt to provoke a confrontation

Russia has been flying nuclear-capable bombers over Belarus - its close ally - in a show of strength amidst the crisis

Russia then held more military drills around the Crimean peninsula and Ukraine's eastern border over the summer, with yet more troops moved to the region.

The drills were closely watched by western powers with tensions almost spilling over into confrontation, including an episode in which Russian warships fired warning shots at a British vessel.

More troop and tank movements spotted via satellite in recent weeks spooked Washington even further, and prompted this week's warning to European leaders about a confrontation.

CIA Director Bill Burns even flew to Moscow and have a rare one-on-one with President Vladimir Putin.

There he shared the US's 'serious' concerns over the military buildup, sources told CNN.

DailyMail.com reached out to the State Department for comment but was referred to comments made on Wednesday by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when he echoed similar concerns in a press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

'We're concerned by reports of unusual Russian military activity near Ukraine. We're monitoring the region very closely, as we always do, we'll continue to consult closely as well with allies and partners on this issue,' Blinken told reporters.

'And as we've made clear, any escalatory or aggressive actions would be of great concern to the United States. We continue to support de-escalation in the region and diplomatic resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.'

The report comes as fighting between Russian-backed groups and Ukrainian forces heats up. It began in 2014 after Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula following a revolution that overthrew Ukraine's former president who was widely seen as another mouthpiece of Putin's.

Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation, a militarized force created in 2018 to defend the country in the ongoing conflict in the Donbas region, accused Russia of violating the ceasefire agreement five times over a 24-hour period on Monday.

In a statement posted to Facebook the JFO accused Russia of 'armed aggression,' though the Kremlin has consistently denied involvement in the conflict.

Tensions in Europe have been inflamed by a gas shortage, with Russian company Gazprom, the continent's top energy supplier, having decreased its daily outflow in October in order to meet the needs of Putin's domestic replenishment campaign.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Putin of intentionally engineering the gas crisis and urged western Europe to act swiftly with punishment.

But Gazprom increased its output to Europe earlier this week after Russia' stockpile was deemed full.

The Biden administration is reportedly warning European allies of the possibility of an imminent attack by Russia on Ukraine, though Russia denied the accusations

Belarusian troops stand guard while id workers had out food on the Belarusian side of the border on Friday

Migrants unload logs during the distribution of humanitarian aid in a makeshift camp on the Belarusian-Polish border

Belarus denies engineering the crisis and has warned that armed groups in Ukraine are trying to give weapons to the migrants to spark a conflict (pictured, Belarusian troops marshal thousands of migrants near the border)

Migrants gather for getting humanitarian aid spread by Belarusian militaries at the camp at the Belarus-Polish border on November 11. Belarus's strongman dictator threatened to choke off Europe's gas supply from Russia if the west follows through on its promise of sanctions over the growing refugee crisis in the region

Russia has also been accused of helping engineer the crisis, which the West has called a 'hybrid attack'

But the burgeoning refugee crisis on the border between Poland and Russia's neighbor Belarus is threatening to further complicate the situation, which could grow more dire going into winter.

Much of Russia's oil supply to Europe runs through Belarus and Poland.

Over the last week western democracies have accused Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko of 'weaponizing' migrants from Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East by enabling them to fly to his country before seeking to break into the EU.

Devastating scenes have emerged from the region of desperate migrants getting brutal treatment from soldiers on both sides. Some even froze to death in the harsh Eastern European climate this time of year.

In response to threats of expanded sanctions, Lukashenko threatened to shut down the oil supply coming in from Russia to the rest of Europe.

'I would recommend the leadership of Poland, Lithuanians and other empty-headed people to think before speaking,' he said.

Among the countries vowing sanctions over the conflict are NATO and EU member states, as well as the US.

Russia has also been accused of escalating the crisis, and the EU is reportedly in talks to target national airline Aeroflot as part of a new sanctions package.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia had nothing to do with the migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland border and rejected the suggestion as 'crazy.'

It instead blamed the EU itself, claiming the international body was trying to 'strangle' Belarus.

However, two supersonic Tu-22M3 nuclear bombers were seen performing 'tasks of combat alert for air defense' in support of the Belarus leader, the Russian defense ministry said in response to the rising tensions on the border.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a joint news conference with his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei that he hoped responsible Europeans would 'not allow themselves to be drawn into a spiral that is fairly dangerous'.

Lukashenko's 'weaponised migrants' cheer as they smash through Polish border fence: Belarus airline STOPS flying more from Turkey in bid to halt build-up of refugees as Putin vows Europe's gas will NOT be cut off

Alexander Lukashenko's 'weaponised migrants' cheered today as they smashed through a Polish border fence - only to be met by another barrier and more guards.

Video showed around a hundred refugees pouring across a highway and reaching a grassy knoll where they cheered defiantly at Polish riot police and troops stationed along a barbed wire fence.

Thousands of desperate migrants from the Middle East and North Africa have been ferried to the Belarus-Poland border this week by Lukashenko's security forces, prompting Poland to deploy 15,000 troops along the line.

Video showed around a hundred refugees pouring across a highway at the border and reaching a grassy knoll where they cheered defiantly at Polish riot police and troops stationed along a barbed wire fence

A toddler is carried by its mother, swaddled in blankets to protect her from the harsh Belarusian November chill at the border

A Belarusian military doctor provides medical care to a migrant at the camp at the Belarus-Polish border in the Grodno region

The EU accuses Lukashenko of luring the migrants to Belarus and the country's Belavia airline has been forced to deny it is involved in trafficking the refugees as part of the 'hybrid war.'

Belavia said citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen, would be blocked from flights as of Friday 'in accordance with the decision of competent authorities in Turkey.

As military hardware massed on Ukraine's eastern front, the Kremlin today announced it was sending paratroopers to the Belarus-Poland frontier for snap drills just 30 miles from where the migrants are camped.

'A unit of Russian paratroopers will practise a landing in an unknown territory in the Hrodna region of Belarus on November 12 as part of drills to inspect combat readiness of the paratrooper forces,' the Russian defence ministry said.

Russian nuclear bombers were also flying over Belarus for a third day running as Putin remained firmly behind Lukashenko.

Kremlin-backed tyrant Lukashenko remains defiant in the face of increased sanctions from Brussels, threatening on Thursday to cut off Russian gas supplies to Europe from a major pipeline which runs through Belarus.

But Vladimir Putin doused that threat on Friday as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov assured reporters that 'the reliability of Russia as a [gas] supplier under current and future contracts is beyond doubt.'

Fears that Russia might invade Ukraine have been sparked by the build-up of tens of thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces close to the border, with satellite images revealing large camps of vehicles at Yelnya, Bryansk and Kursk.

Ukraine - which has been fighting a proxy-war against Russian-backed separatists in its eastern regions for years - has moved 8,500 more troops to the border in response.

A group of migrants were seen violently clashing with one and other as food supplies were handed out by an aid organisation on Thursday

Kremlin-backed tyrant Lukashenko (pictured at the presidential palace in Minsk on Thursday) remains defiant in the face of increased sanctions from Brussels, threatening on Thursday to cut off Russian gas supplies to Europe from a major pipeline which runs through Belarus

Meanwhile, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have also been warning of the risk of conflict between Belarus - a close ally of Moscow - and Poland amid a migrant crisis on their shared border.

On Thursday, Lukashenko warned of the risk of a conflict and accused armed groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine of trying to ship weapons to the migrants on the Polish border in order to spark fighting.

'They are Kurds, and the Kurds are militant,' he said according to Polish newspaper Wyborcza. 'When Poles beat them, cut them, torment them, etc., they become desperate. One rifle, one gun, and armed conflict is ready.'

European countries and the US condemned Belarus Thursday following an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has urged the EU to open diplomatic talks with Belarus to resolve the situation over some 4,000 migrants camped on the Polish border with Belarus in freezing temperatures.

Poland is refusing to allow the migrants to cross, accusing Minsk of luring them to Belarus to send across the border in revenge for sanctions.

After an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council on the crisis the US and European delegations condemned 'the orchestrated instrumentalization of human beings whose lives and wellbeing have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus.'

Minsk is aiming at 'destabilizing neighboring countries and the European Union's external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations,' they said in a joint statement.

The statement made no mention of Belarus ally Russia, which before the meeting rejected western allegations that it was working in conjunction with Minsk to send the migrants over the EU's eastern border into Poland.

And in his second phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in as many days, Putin 'spoke in favour of restoring contacts between EU states and Belarus in order to resolve this problem,' the Kremlin said in a statement.

The EU has so far refused any direct contacts with Belarus's strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who on Thursday warned that any new sanctions could see Minsk cut off natural gas transit to Europe.

The bloc severed contacts with Lukashenko and imposed sanctions after a heavy crackdown on the opposition following a disputed presidential election last year.

The EU is expected to decide next week to impose new sanctions on Belarus for human trafficking because of the migrant crisis.
Doug Emhoff defended his wife Kamala Harris during the couple's official visit to France, saying being a woman and a trailblazer is 'hard,' as the White House doubled down in backing the vice president.

'One of things I've learnt from being married to Kamala Harris is that to be first in so many things is hard. She said once that breaking barriers involves breaking, and when you break something sometimes you get cut, and when you get cut, sometimes you bleed,' Emhoff said Thursday at an event with France's Minister for Gender Equality.

'But it's worth it,' he noted.

His comments come as Harris' approval rating has reached a historic low level, with only 28 per cent thinking she is doing a good job, according to the USA Today/Suffolk poll, out on November 8. And a 51 per cent majority of respondents said they disapproved of the job Harris is doing as vice president.

Doug Emhoff defended his wife Kamala Harris during the couple's official visit to France, saying being a woman and a trailblazer is 'hard

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain also defended Harris: '@VP is an incredible leader and representative of our country,' he tweeted

Doug Emhoff conducted his own events on French trip, including meeting with French first lady Brigitte Macron

The vice president has struggled with the many high-profile issues tasked to her, including examining the 'root causes' that led to increased migrant crossings at the border, voter rights issues, and pushing for more people to get their COVID vaccine.

President Joe Biden has praised his hand-picked running mate, saying she is the last person in the room when he makes decisions. He has compared their relationship to the one he had with Barack Obama when he served as vice president.

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain also defended Harris, tweeting an article about her trip to France and writing: 'It's great that the world is getting to see what we see in the WH every day: @VP is an incredible leader and representative of our country.'

Harris, the country's first female vice president, is on a five-day trip to Paris, her third foreign trip. She has been resetting American-Franco relations after French fury over a submarine contract Australia signed with the United States, causing the French to lose out on a $90 billion sub deal with the Aussies.

Her trip has not garnered the kind of coverage past American VIPs have received. Politico noted that her 'visit to France has not garnered the kind of popular or media interest that visits by Presidents Barack Obama or Donald Trump did' and the 'French media coverage has been minimal.'

Harris was also mocked online for appearing to attempt a French accent during a short speech to the Pasteur institute.

Emhoff, who gave up his partnership at the high-profile law firm DLA Piper when he became second gentleman, has been a staunch defender and supporter of his wife.

'Advancing gender equality, it's been said, is a shared deeply held value between France and the United States and I really have felt that during this trip. But the urgency of this issue cannot be understated. We cannot let anything slide, we need to continue to focus on it and move forward,' he said at the event with Elisabeth Moreno, France's Minister for Gender Equality, Diversity, and Equal Opportunities.

'This issue concerns everyone, not just women... Our societies cannot succeed unless everyone succeeds,' he said.

Closing the event, Emhoff reflected on the role men need to play in backing women.

'I just did this on the regular. I just thought it was the right thing to do to support women. I always have... Men need to step up and be part of the solution and not be part of the problem. I'm going to do everything I can in this role to keep on messaging that,' he said.

Emhoff has joined Harris at official events in France - including a posh dinner with President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte at the Elysee Presidential Palace on Thursday night.

He's also had his own schedule, including a sit down with Brigitte Macron on Friday.

Doug Emhoff joined Kamala Harris during a tour of Suresnes American Cemetery in Suresnes, France

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke at a dinner Thursday night as Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff listen

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron talk with Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff as ahead of a dinner on the first day of the Paris Peace Forum, at the Elysee Palace in Paris

At this early stage of a modern presidency, Harris' numbers in the USA Today/Suffolk poll are unprecedented.

The closest comparison  which involves slightly different methodology and margins of error  would be former Vice President Dick Cheney, the most unpopular vice president in polling history.

He bottomed out at 30 per cent in Gallup's tracking survey, but that wasn't until the end of former President George W. Bush's second term in 2007.
A cocaine-fuelled husband who stabbed his wife 18 times after searching gay porn on his computer is facing life behind bars after being convicted of her murder.

Anil Gill, 47, stabbed his wife Ranjit in the living room of their Milton Keynes home before wrapping her body in a duvet and hiding it in their garage.

Four deep stab wounds to her chest were what caused her death.

The killing, in January of this year, came as the couple's relationship was floundering and dogged by heavy drinking, constant rows and drug-taking.

Gill (pictured) was found guilty of his wife's murder this morning after the jury rejected his claims during the trial that he had lost self control and acted in a frenzy after she had taunted him about an affair she had had. He had earlier admitted his wife 's manslaughter

Over the years Gill had regularly shouted at his wife, hit or slapped her and, on one occasion, had struck her around her head.

Once he had kicked her ankle and there had been another time when he hit her across her back with a plank.

He had threatened her with a knife and had pushed her down the stairs. On another occasion he was said to have threatened Ranjit with a Japanese sword and held a knife to her neck.

During the month long trial, Luton crown court heard that when Ranjit's sister advised her to leave her husband, she told her sibling that if she did, she feared 'he would hunt her down and kill her.'

Anil Gill, 47, stabbed his wife Ranjit (pictured) in the living room of their Milton Keynes home before wrapping her body in a duvet and hiding it in their garage

In the early hours of January 31 this year the couple were at home in Beresford Close, Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes after an evening spent taking cocaine and drinking.

Shortly before the killing the husband had been on his computer searching gay porn sites; one search term used had been 'Cocaine brings out the gay in me.'

Around 1am in the early hours of the Sunday morning a woman neighbour had gone to bed when she had heard the sound of a woman screaming followed by a 'thumping or pounding sound.'

Charles Ward-Jackson prosecuting said: 'It's very likely she heard the sound of Ranjit being stabbed to death.'

After killing his wife, Gill spent the next few hours cleaning up and wrapping up his wife's body in a duvet and black bin liners, which he then dragged to the garage.

He cleaned the carpet in the living room using bleach and the two knives were put in a bin bag, having been cleaned. Around 10 am that morning he finally called the police.

Gill was found guilty of his wife's murder this morning after the jury rejected his claims during the trial that he had lost self control and acted in a frenzy after she had taunted him about an affair she had had. He had earlier admitted his wife 's manslaughter.

By law anyone convicted of murder has to receive a life sentence.

The only question for Judge Mark Bishop will be to determine the number of years the husband must spend behind bars before he can be considered for release by the parole board

During the trial the court heard at first the couple's marriage was a happy one, but after he lost his well paid job in IT in 2011 and she had health problems, things changed.

The killing, in January of this year, came as the couple's relationship was floundering and dogged by heavy drinking, constant rows and drug-taking. Pictured: The couple's home after Ranjit's murder

In 2018 the police had attended the couple's home following an incident between them, but when she refused to tell officers what had happened, no action was taken.

From then on, the jury was told, she began drinking heavily to cope with the abuse and in the summer of 2020 she had an affair with a man who would supply her with drugs.

Towards the end of the year Ranjit had called a domestic violence charity hotline and the husband was also looking into starting possible divorce proceedings.

Mr Ward-Jackson said in the weeks leading up to the killing both were drinking to excess and taking cocaine bought from the man Ranjit had been seeing.

The court heard that having been arrested and taken into custody, Mr Gill was seen by a psychiatric nurse and told him how he didn't drink and never took drugs, which was a lie.

He claimed he had agreed to take alcohol and cocaine the previous night and the combination had 'turned him into a killer.'

But the prosecution said a sample of the husband's hair was taken for analysis and revealed traces of cocaine in it, showing he had to have been taking the drug from late December of 2020 to late January of 2021 and not just the night before.

Gill is set to be sentenced at Luton Crown Court on Monday.
The needlework collection made 268,275, with a flurry of interest putting the total makings at 1.08million

Micheal and Elizabeth Feller lived at Upper Slaughter Manor near Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds

An Elizabethan house's contents with one of the finest collections of needlework sold for more than 1million

Advertisement

The lavish contents of an Elizabethan country house that featured one of the world's finest collection of needlework have sold for more than 1million.

Micheal Feller, a butcher in Oxford, and his wife Elizabeth lived in the fittingly-named Upper Slaughter Manor near Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds countryside for more than 35 years.

The couple sold the manor as they were downsizing and parted with almost 1,000 items including rare embroideries, early English furniture, pottery and paintings.

The two-day sale by auctioneers Woolley and Wallis included the Fellers' collection of more than 300 samplers and needleworks.

It was expected to raise 500,000 but a flurry of interest meant the contents fetched an overall hammer price of 864,000, with extra fees taking the final figure to 1.08million. The needlework collection alone made 268,275.

The auctioneers said the Fellers were 'over the moon' with the result and that several pieces were sold to 'significant national or international collections'.

The two-day sale made more than 1million and was included a collection of over 300 samplers and needleworks. Pictured: Auctioneer, Mark Yuan-Richards is holding a William IV needlework slave emancipation sampler sold for 2500

Yellow needlework shoes, one of which was held here by auctioneer Emily O'Donnell, sold for 2000 were part of the sale

Micheal Fuller, a butcher by trade, and his wife Elizabeth have owned the fittingly-named Upper Slaughter Manor in the Cotswolds countryside since 1985. Pictured: Auctioneer Mark Yuan-Richards holding a Victorian needlework sample that had an estimate of 1,200

The Victorian bedroom includes an early Victorian bed that had a 1,200 estimate and Victorian rosewood armchairs (to the left of the room) that were estimated at between 5,00 and 1,000

A pair of carved marbled angels had an estimate for 6,000 and the columns they're on had an estimate of 1,500 (left). A 17th century Elizabethan style cupboard had an estimate of 8,000 (right)

The Fullers have downsized and sold almost 1,000 items including rare embroideries, early English furniture, pottery and paintings. Pictured: A china dinner service with an estimate of 500

A collection of historic household objects known as 'Treen' featured in the sale. Treen are small domestic wooden objects, especially antiques.

The panelled room had a George II yew and walnut dresser with drawers which had an estimate of 8,000. There were also three portraits of children from the 1600's which had estimates of 1,500 each

Auctioneer Yuan-Richards with a 17th Adam and Eve plate that had an estimate of 3,000. Mr Yuan-Richards was pictured among some of the Manor House items crammed into one of the Woolley and Wallis salerooms

Mr Yuan-Richards said: 'The Fellers were over the moon with the result of the sale, which was met with huge enthusiasm by the collecting community.' Pictured: Upper Slaughter Manor

The auctioneer added: 'The success of the auction is largely down to the rarity and extent of the collection that Micheal and Elizabeth have put together over the last few decades. 'Several pieces have now gone into significant national or international collections'

A white marble bird bath (centre) had an estimate of 3,000 and a pair of carved marbled angels (one of them pictured right in the far corner of the room) had an estimate of 6,000

Some of the 300 samplers and needleworks of the Fellers' collection was hanging up in the Manor house (left). A 17th century oak settle had an estimate of 5,000 and a portrait of William III (on the wall) had an estimate of 3,000 (right)

Auctioneer Mr Yuan-Richards added: 'The Fellers were present in the saleroom for both days and, although it was an emotional time for them, they enjoyed watching items they have collected and loved find new homes where they will be similarly appreciated'

There were a variety of flasks up for auction, as pictured here in the Woolley and Wallis saleroom. The objects helped make more than 1million

There were various pottery pieces in the sale and this oak cupboard that had an estimate of 1,500 (left). The huge needlework collection was hanging throughout the manor (right)
Three unvaccinated carers who were sacked from the same home overnight have told of their heartbreak at No10's 'unfair' no jab, no job rule.

Theresa Ingram-Gettins, who runs the Boldmere Court Care Home in Birmingham, yesterday broke down in tears after firing six unjabbed staff, consigning them to poverty in the run up to Christmas.

Niamh Bradley, 23, one of the workers who had her contract torn up, told MailOnline she had been forced out of the job she loved into a role in retail.

It really breaks my heart because I love caring work and now I am working part-time in retail which is not my forte.

'It seems a waste when I have spent years getting the skills and education to be a carer and put my heart into it.

Shevorn Perkins, 28, who was also sacked from the home's 120-strong team, said she wanted to talk to her GP before getting the injection but struggled to get an appointment.

And Justina Ugo, 47, the third carer to speak out, said she put her 'life in danger throughout the pandemic' and is now 'very sad' at having to work as a part-time cleaner. The mother-of-seven has been left unemployed just weeks before Christmas.

Up to 57,000 care home staff were barred from their workplace as of yesterday as England's new rule kicked in, despite desperate pleas from the sector for it to be delayed

Niamh Bradley, 23, one of the workers who had her contract torn up, said the Government's decision to implement the rule is 'ridiculous', because the industry is 'already under-staffed and highly stressed'.

Shevorn Perkins, 28, who was also sacked from the home's 120-strong team, said she wanted to talk to her GP before getting the injection but struggled to get an appointment

Around 10 per cent of care home staff did not get vaccinated against Covid, meaning up to 57,000 were barred from their workplace as of yesterday as England's 'no jab, no job' policy kicked in, despite desperate pleas from the sector for it to be delayed

Ms Bradley, who joined Boldmere Court in June, said: I think it is ridiculous to make these rules for an industry that is already under-staffed and highly stressed.

All the residents have had the vaccine and we are being tested every day before our shifts. We also wear PPE and if I am feeling at all unwell I will not be entering the home.

We are following all these policies and procedures and yet they are still willing to let us go.

It makes no sense when the same rules do not apply to relatives visiting residents.

Care home boss breaks down in tears after having to sack SIX members of staff over No10's 'no jab, no job' policy - as she pleads with Boris Johnson to 'give us a break' A care home manager broke down today after being forced to sack six staff members who refused to get vaccinated against Covid  as she pleaded with Boris Johnson to 'give us a break'. Theresa Ingram-Gettins  who runs the Boldmere Court Care Home in Birmingham  said it was 'very difficult' to have to let staff go, knowing that she is sending some of them 'into poverty'. Ms Ingram-Gettins told how one relative of an elderly resident was left 'sobbing' in her arms because her mother's 'special' carer had been let go. She claimed England's controversial new 'no jab, no job' policy was 'affecting people's mental health' after it kicked in at midnight and forced up to 60,000 carers out of work. The care boss added that staff still in employment were now being forced to work extra hours to make up for the vacancies, which was taking a toll on their 'physical wellbeing'. She told Good Morning Britain: 'We're tired, we're worn out, we've just come through a pandemic  give us a break Boris.' All care home workers in England, including cleaners and receptionists, are now legally required to have had both of their Covid vaccines. Boldmere, which is home to 60 residents, is one of nearly 18,000 care homes affected by the move. It's thought that as many as 57,000 care home staff failed to hit the jab deadline today, which care bosses say will create dangerous staffing levels that puts residents' lives at risk. The sector was already short of 100,000 workers before the pandemic struck. Unions have warned that the new rule was like 'taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut', given that 90 per cent of the workforce was already vaccinated. One facility in Liverpool revealed that it had lost seven per cent of its staff overnight. Advertisement

They may have had no vaccine but can come in after a test and they will get just as personal with the residents just as we do but they will not be in full PPE.

Ms Bradley said she has been 'really stressed' since the policy was announced in August.

She said: Before this, it was a very enjoyable and friendly place to work but the rules are putting extra pressure on us all.

The management wanted us to get it and they are under pressure and they then pressure us.

My family is split on it. One side is pro-vaccine and the others are not. I just need more time to make the decision.

My cousin had the vaccine and now he has problems with his heart and his liver and I have read other accounts of people suffering a variety of complications after having had it.

There are heart problems and thrombosis in my family so it is not an easy decision.'

Ms Perkins, who has been a carer for three years, said: I really loved my job  the residents, the staff, the management  it was great to be part of a team doing a really important job.

This just seems so unfair when we have been through the whole pandemic without a vaccine, working in PPE and doing extra shifts because of shortages.

It has been really hard, especially at the start of the year when we had Covid in the home and lots of staff off sick.

I gave it my all and now I would just like more time to make up my mind.

NHS staff have until next April before the rule applies to them.

Ms Perkins, a mother of one, added: In July we were told we had until September 16 to get our first dose of the vaccine.

I sat at home and cried. I just did not feel mentally prepared to do it. I lost a friend who was 27 to a blood clot just after hed had the vaccine so I am very nervous about it.

Everyone has different reactions to it and as I already suffer with chest problems, I just dont feel ready.

I would have liked to talk it through with my GP but getting an appointment is hard.

In the end I will probably have the vaccine. I am just angry that they would not give us more time when we have given our all during this pandemic and are following such strict procedures to keep residents safe.

I am trying to find other work that can fit in around being a single mum and its very difficult.

Losing her job in the run-up to Christmas is especially difficult for mother-of-seven Justina Ugo.

In 2019 she gave up working in early years education to pursue her passion  caring for elders

Now the 47-year-old, finds herself out of work and missing the companionship of working in a team.

She said bad reactions to childhood jabs for malaria had put her off the vaccine.

I dont want to take something that may give me long term health problems, she said. I have had allergic reactions to injections in the past and now they are asking me to put my health into the hands of people I do not really trust.

Theresa Ingram-Gettins (pictured), who runs the Boldmere Court Care Home in Birmingham, yesterday broke down in tears after firing six unjabbed staff, consigning them to poverty in the run up to Christmas

Six members of staff were yesterday sacked from the Boldmere Court Care Home in Birmingham (pictured). Bosses at the home, which has 120 members of staff, said they face a 'very difficult Christmas' and expected shortages to get worse

I have had three months of torturing myself over this decision. It has been so difficult to know what to do because I just love my job as a carer.

But having grown up in Africa and had injections for malaria I know that I get so many side-effects and have a definite allergy to chloroquine.

Care work needs people who are passionate about it and I have that passion. I put my life in danger throughout the pandemic and to find myself now having to take a part-time cleaning job makes me very sad.

Of course the loss of income will hurt. When you have seven children there are a lot of demands.

The Home itself say their residents are now suffering because of the loss of staff due to the new policy.

Deputy manager Blessed Maramba, said: We are suffering shortages and having to use agency which is never good for the continuity of care for our residents.

In addition, we have had situations where we cant let people into the home like nutritionists and physios and occupational health if they are not fully vaccinated.

Either the residents miss out or we lose our jobs for defying the rule.

It makes no sense to bully staff as they have when relatives are able to come in whether they have had a job or not.

We are now facing a very difficult Christmas where staff will be going on annual leave and the shortages will get worse.

My daughter is 17. She has always wanted to go into medicine but having seen how staff are treated she is thinking again now. It is a very sad situation.
Two teenagers who took part in a knife fight that ended with a schoolboy dead were jailed for two years each.

Kayjon Lubin, 15, was stabbed to death after two groups of armed youths in Pier Parade, Beckton, east London, had a confrontation over a stolen e-scooter at 6.30pm on December 11 last year.

The jury at the Old Bailey heard that Kayjon and his friend Azhar Miah, 28, were set upon by two youths who believed the pair had stolen their electric scooter.

Kayjon was stabbed to death and was pronounced dead less than an hour later.

After recently turning 18, the two youths responsible can now be named.

Kayjon Lubin, 15, was stabbed to death after two groups of armed youths in Pier Parade, Beckton, east London, had a confrontation over a stolen e-scooter

Raymond McGill and Gift Osondu, both 17 at the time, were cleared of murder and manslaughter but convicted of violent disorder and having a bladed article by a jury after a six-week trial.

Kayjon's friend Miah was also convicted of violent disorder and having a bladed article during the incident.

Judge Simon Mayo QC, sentencing McGill and Osondu today, added that there had been a significant degree of planning.

It is a sad, needless, and tragic loss of a young mans life,' he said.

I am satisfied that you [McGill and Osondu] were the instigators of the incident and that you each played a leading role.

You were each armed with large knives, this makes your offending considerably more serious.

You were both masked in an attempted to avoid detection.

Mr Osondu you had also moved your backpack onto the front of your chest so that you could quickly access the knife you had concealed within.

I am sure you were intent on finding Kayjon Lubin and Azhar Miah and recovering the scooter that Kayjon had taken minutes earlier.

I am sure that you were prepared to use force to do so.

The defence barristers for both McGill and Osondu, Steven Perian QC and Yasin Patel respectively, had previously offered their clients' young ages and immaturity in mitigation.

Judge Mayo made reference to this: In your cases Raymond McGill and Gift Osondu I must give proper weight to your age and immaturity.

Kayjon was pronounced dead at the scene and a post-mortem examination established cause of death as a single stab wound to the chest

I will therefore significantly reduce the sentence that I would have imposed upon you had you been older.'

Miah was also jailed for 17 months.

He continued: In your case Azhar Miah...I proceed on the basis that you did not initiate this confrontation but were drawn into this incident when Raymond McGill and Gift Osondu arrived in the square armed with knives and Kayjon Lubin approached them.

I take into account the fact that you are profoundly deaf and as a result any period of custody is likely to be more difficult for you.

The court also heard an order for the forfeiture and destruction of the knives.

James Mulholland, prosecuting, earlier told the court that Kayjon was stabbed twice in a street in North Woolwich.

One of the injuries entered his chest and penetrated to a depth of just under three inches piercing his right lung and causing massive blood loss.

Kayjon Lubin thereafter briefly ran from his attackers and sought sanctuary in a nearby shop but he collapsed within seconds of the blows being inflicted.

Members of the public tended to him at the scene as did police and doctors but it was to no avail.

He was pronounced dead less than an hour later at 19.40 hours.

'He was only 15 years of age.

It is the prosecution case that his attackers were the two defendants.'

Jurors were told that minutes before the stabbing, the 17-year-olds arrived at Pier Parade Square to confront Kayjon and Miah over the e-scooter.

They were looking to reclaim the scooter that had been taken from them and were clearly prepared to use force to achieve that goal, the prosecutor said.

They found Kayjon and his friend talking in a small group a short distance from Kayjon Lubins home.

Almost immediately after these defendants arrived at the square, all four individuals had pulled out large knives and, over the next couple of minutes, a confrontation took place between them as others looked on.

Both sets of youths moved around this square each, from time to time, on their toes and bobbing from side to side.

Occasionally an individual would move quickly forward towards another before then backing off all without any physical contact being made.

That came to an end.

'The distance between two pairs eventually increased and the incident was ended by young Kayjon Lubin, who began to walk away from his adversaries along with Azhar Miah in the opposite direction.

He was heading in the general direction of his home address.

Both he and Azhar Miah put away their knives.

They left the square and began to cross a nearby road as they departed the scene.

Neither male posed any immediate threat at that stage. They had put away their knives and they were leaving the area.'

Police at the scene in Woodman Street, Newham in east London where a Kayjon Lubin, 15, died after being stabbed on December 11 last year

The 17-year-olds initially went in a different direction, but appeared to change their mind, and started to follow their rivals.

Mr Mulholland continued: They saw it as an opportunity to take Kayjon Lubin, and, we submit, Azhar Miah, by surprise and to cause really serious harm.

There was some shouting and then the words wait there were heard.

Both the teenagers then started to sprint from a distance away with knives in their hands towards Kayjon Lubin and Azhar Miah who by now had already crossed the road and were still seeking to leave the area.

Someone is heard to shout run but by that stage it was too late for them to do so.'

Kayjon managed to get his own knife out of his coat and grazed the cheek of one of his attackers but he ended up stabbed in the chest, the court heard.

He and Miah ran away and sought refuge in a nearby Nisa shop.

Kayjon Lubin collapsed within seconds of arriving in Cromwell Stores and the emergency services were called by the shopkeeper,' the prosecutor explained.

Meanwhile Azhar Miah sought to dispose of the knives that he and Kayjon Lubin had been carrying that evening with the help of others.

These were eventually recovered from a nearby bin in a residential flat.

McGill and Osondu, both from east London, denied and were cleared of murder and manslaughter.

They were both convicted of violent disorder and having a bladed article and were each sentenced to two years in a young offenders institution.
Andrew Cuomo's political enemies are terrified of how he'll exact revenge and are waiting with baited breath while the former Governor bides his time, fishing in the Hamptons with his inner circle, according to new claims in New York Magazine.

Cuomo, 63, was ousted in August after a lengthy report by Attorney General Letitia James that labeled him as a serial sex harasser and bully.

He denies both claims but is now preparing to go to court to defend himself against a single Class A misdemeanor charge of forcible touching, relating to one of his accuser's claims.

In the meantime, he has kept a remarkably low profile, going between the Hamptons and Manhattan, spending his time with his CNN-host brother Chris, his sisters' husbands and his three adult daughters.

In an interview with New York Magazine, he insisted 'all he was doing' now was spending time with family never having had the time to when he was in office.

But sources close to him told The New York Post his team is considering a run for Attorney General - a post he previously held before becoming Governor.

'People in Cuomos orbit are tossing it out there. Theyre floating it and gauging peoples reactions,' one said.

Cuomo has been keeping a low profile, going between Manhattan and the Hamptons where he fishes with his dog Captain. He claims he has no plans to make a political comeback, but his enemies in Albany are dubious

'I never took summer vacations. I didnt do that. I never took vacations  period. So Im just enjoying time with family and friends. Thats all Im doing.'

'I dont know what the future holds. Im at peace. Look, its simple: I trust the people and the truth will [win] out.

Cuomo is convinced he is the victim of a political hit job by AG Letitia James, whose recent announcement that she is running for governor next year supports his theory

But former staff say it would be a total betrayal of his character not to fight back in some form at some point, and that it's just a matter of time before he does.

Cuomo was not impeached so can still run for governor again next year if he wants to.

It's unclear if that is likely, but one anonymous Albany lawmaker told New York Magazine they fear he may attack them by bankrolling their opponents in smaller local elections.

'To say hes, like, an intense person doesnt quite capture it,' said one former aide who did not want to give their name for fear of reprisal.

Another spoke of their time with him in office.

'Youre always at war. Youre battling COVID or youre battling de Blasio.... war for the sake of war itself.

'Were losing our weekends, and were having this family strife, and were really giving up all this, engaging in this mental agony and stress because we believe this is somehow the magic that makes it work,' they said.

Those close to him believe he has been set up by Letitia James, who is running for governor next year.

'I think that what Tish is doing is so cheap and so disrespectful because any time anyone asks her a specific question about any one of these individual claims  she just pivots to "I believe all women."

Cuomo, through his attorney, his spokesperson and himself, has repeatedly denied ever inappropriately touching any woman in his office or otherwise. He is shown with Brittany Commisso, the woman who reported him to police

'You do not try people or make determinations based on their gender. How dangerous is that? What if you said "I believe all white people," "I believe all Hispanics," "I believe all Black people"?

'Like, you have to look at things with a critical eye and scrutinize them and question motivations,' one former adviser said.

Cuomo thinks he's the victim of a conspiracy cooked up in the 'Twittersphere' that was egged on by the left-leaning media.

But some who worked for him say they are now seeking therapy after a spectacular fall from grace.

'After all these years, people are starting to question it and saying we didnt have to go through that pain to accomplish what we accomplished.

'It went from such a high  it was one of the best brands just a year and a half ago  and now its an embarrassment.'

Cuomo, through his attorney, his spokesperson and himself, has repeatedly denied ever inappropriately touching any woman in his office or otherwise.

He says at worst, he made inappropriate jokes that might have been misinterpreted.
The ability to buy a drink is on the line for unvaccinated Russians who may soon need to prove they've had a jab to buy booze.

A taskforce set up to stop the spread of coronavirus in the Sverdlovsk region is considering barring the sale of alcohol to people who don't have a QR code showing they've been vaccinated.

In a new move from local authorities, drinkers from the nation typically known to enjoy a tipple may have to prove they've had a shot of the vaccine before getting a shot of vodka.

People during a QR code check at an entrance to the Passazh shopping mall in the Sverdlovsk region in Russia

Artyom Bakhterev, the regional minister of the agro-industrial complex, announced the update through its Telegram channels.

He said: 'We know about the initiative of market participants to enter QR codes for buying alcohol.

'We are ready to discuss this measure with colleagues and experts at the next meeting of the operational headquarters.'

It was originally proposed by restaurateur Yevgeny Uryupin from Yekaterinburg, a city in the oblast, on his Instagram, Vesti.ru reported.

He said that the initiative could encourage people to get vaccinated and motivate them to consume less alcohol.

Since October 18 many areas in the country imposed restrictions to deal with a growing coronavirus crisis through a QR code system.

A QR code requirement notice at the entrance to a shop at the Madagascar shopping mall, in Russia's Republic of Chuvashia

In many places public venues are now only open to those who are vaccinated, have a negative coronavirus test or have recently recovered from Covid.

Only those who show a QR code proving they meet the criteria are allowed to enter.

Some regions have also announced mandatory vaccinations for those over 60.

According to Reuters only around 48 million out of 144 million Russians were fully vaccinated as of mid-October, with 51 million having received one shot.

The country is currently the highest in the world for daily average number of new deaths reported.
Advertisement

Britain's daily Covid cases rose by nearly a fifth today as Boris Johnson used Europe's soaring epidemic as a warning of what's to come if Britons don't get their booster vaccines.

The Department of Health reported another 40,375 infections across the UK over the past 24 hours, marking a rise of 19 per cent compared to last Friday.

It is the second day in a row that cases have risen week-on-week and brings an abrupt end to nearly a fortnight of falling infection numbers.

The rebounding figures came moments after the Prime Minister pointed to outbreaks in Europe and warned there were 'storm clouds gathering over the continent' that could hit Britain next.

Austria will become the first Western European country to impose a lockdown since the summer from Monday, with unvaccinated people in the two worst-hit regions subjected to restrictions again. The Netherlands is also reintroducing a 7pm curfew on bars, restaurants and other amenities from Saturday.

'Ive got to be absolutely frank with people, weve been here before  and we remember what happens when a wave starts rolling in,' Mr Johnson said during a visit to a pharmacy in South London.

The PM, who is currently embroiled in a Tory sleaze row, warned that Britain's fate this winter hinges on how many people get their boosters. 'What Im saying today is the urgency of getting that booster jab is more evident than ever,' he said.

'If you can get it, its a great thing, the levels of protection it gives you are terrific and so over-50s, who were calling forward, should come and get it.'

But he added: 'What Im also saying is that if we dont do it fast enough, we can see the potential risks to the state of the pandemic in whats happening in other parts of Europe.'

However, experts told MailOnline the UK's third wave peaked months ahead of Europe's. Cambridge University epidemiologist Dr Raghib Ali said: 'Britain could well suffer a spike this winter, but it won't be because of imported cases from Europe, like in previous waves.'

Meanwhile, latest hospital data shows there were 993 Covid admissions on November 8 which was 7 per cent lower than the figure the previous week.

Another 145 coronavirus deaths were also registered today in a 25 per cent decrease compared to the toll last Friday. Hospitalisations and deaths  which are both lagging indicators  have been falling for seven and four days in a row, respectively.

Despite the falling hospital numbers, Independent SAGE today demanded the Government activates its winter 'Plan B' to protect the NHS.

The pressure group, made up of eminent experts who've pushed for an Australian-style virus elimination strategy, said compulsory masks and widespread WFH were 'urgently' needed to 'save the NHS and Christmas'.

There are questions about whether the current Covid situation is to blame for the NHS crisis, given that there are half as many Covid inpatients now than this time last year (shown)

The group  which includes a former Government chief scientific adviser, a Communist Party member and some of No10's own scientists  claimed the 'very high levels of Covid' were putting 'extreme pressure' on the health service.

Independent Sage's call to action comes after a swathe of shocking statistics laid bare the extent of the crisis within the NHS, with waiting lists for routine care soaring to another high and 999 calls and ambulance waits hitting record levels.

Doctors said the NHS was being brought 'to its knees' with patients being left to die in the back of ambulances and waiting rooms because staff are so busy.

But other experts argue the current Covid situation doesn't justify moving to Plan B, given that admissions for the virus have fallen for nearly a week straight and are projected to fall even more in the coming weeks.

Covid cases have also been trending down since October 24, in line with the country's major surveillance study which found a 16 per cent weekly fall last week, and death rates have also started to follow suit.

'The Government needs to urgently bring in Plan B... The pressure on the NHS is extreme and increasing, the backlog of treatment is at a record high, it needs to act now,' Independent Sage said.

'Most importantly, working from home where possible and mandated facemasks in indoor spaces are needed. We also believe additional protective measures should be brought in, including ensuring good ventilation in schools and other public spaces and financial support for self-isolation.'

Admissions for the virus have fallen for nearly a week straight (shown) with around 800 per day on average now compared to almost 1,600 in November 2020

The NHS waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has reached 5.83million, official data revealed on Thursday, marking the eleventh month in a row that the figure has hit a record high. Some 1.6million more Britons were waiting for elective surgery  such as hip and keen operations  at the end of September compared to the start of the pandemic

Despite the total A&E admissions in England being just two per cent more than one month earlier and equal to the number of people who came forward during the same month in 2019, 7,059 patients were forced to wait more than 12 hours to be seen at A&E. The record-high figure is 40 per cent more than the 5,024 forced to wait that long one month earlier. It is also five times bigger than in September 2020 and ten times more than the same month in 2019

The NHS has long struggled to meet its recommended ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents which include medical emergencies such as strokes and severe burns but the last few months months have seen unprecedented rise with patients waiting nearly an hour on average for an ambulance after calling 99.

A record number of 999 calls were made in England in October with 1,012,143 urgent calls for medical help made. But the time it took answer these calls also increased to a record 56 seconds

No10 has said it will only revert to its winter Covid 'Plan B' strategy if the NHS faces 'unsustainable' pressure, which ministers argue is not the case yet despite health leaders insisting otherwise.

Cambridge University epidemiologist Dr Raghib Ali, who is also an NHS consultant in acute medicine, said the current NHS crisis was not the result of Covid but a 'chronic staffing shortage'.

He said reverting to Plan B now would not solve the problem, adding: 'Although there has often been too much alarmism, this is a genuine problem which is harming many patients... [but] there is no easy short-term solution.'

Independent Sage's Professor Susan Michie, a behavioural expert who also sits on the Government's official science panel SAGE, slammed Mr Johnson directly.

'To save the NHS and Christmas, the Government needs to enable behaviours to get our high transmission rates down,' she said. 'The PM walking mask less round a hospital with vulnerable patients undermines that effort.'

Professor Michie, a member of Communist Party of Britain for more than 40 years, added: 'Enabling behaviour change is everyone's responsibility especially those in positions of authority and influence.

'The PM walking mask-less round a hospital with vulnerable patients undermines the behaviours needed to keep us all safe.'

Mr Johnson was criticised this week after he was pictured walking through a hospital corridor without a mask in Northumberland on Monday - even though the NHS trust leapt to his defence and claimed he wore one in wards.

Dr Ali said the focus should be on the booster vaccines, which are proven to be highly effective at preventing hospital admissions, rather than masks which only slightly reduce transmission.

He added: 'Of course there are many other things you can and should do to help yourself (and the pressure on NHS) by taking care of your health but most of these won't impact in the very short-term hence my focus on the booster jabs which can reduce admissions by 80 per cent within two weeks.'

The demands come after monthly NHS England data published yesterday revealed that the NHS is facing a crisis even without a major surge in Covid.

The Office for National Statistics, which calculates case numbers based on thousands of random swab tests, found 925,400 people in the country were infected on any given day in the week ending November 6. The figure equates to one in 60 people having the virus and is 16.1 per cent lower than the estimated 1,103,300 cases one week earlier, when one in 50 people were infected

A record-high 5.83million patients are now on the NHS waiting list for routine treatment, with the mammoth toll having snowballed during the pandemic.

Army to continue supporting crisis-hit NHS Scotland after being called in in October The Army will continue helping two health boards with acute services after their request for the assistance to be extended was approved by the Ministry of Defence. Army personnel were called in to help NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Borders in October amid pressures on the health service. A request by the health boards to extend the acute services Military Aid to the Civilian Authority (MACA) task, which was originally due to last until November 10, has now been approved by Ministry of Defence, the Army said. In total 84 personnel will continue with the work, with 21 personnel in the Borders and 63 in Lanarkshire. Their involvement is expected to continue until December 8 in the Borders and December 17 in Lanarkshire, with the timelines kept under regular review. The Army is also supporting the Scottish Ambulance Service with non-emergency drivers and delivering testing through mobile units. An Army statement said: 'More than 450 Armed Forces personnel are supporting multiple MACA tasks in Scotland. These tasks fall under Operation Rescript, defence's efforts to support the UK's response to the pandemic which began in March 2020. 'Defence have supported communities across the UK throughout the pandemic, from planning support alongside resilience teams and governments, to ambulance drivers and health care assistants in hospitals, as well as the vaccine rollout. 'The Armed Forces stand ready to step up and support civil authorities, devolved nations and communities as required in the coming months where the requests meet the MACA principles.' Advertisement

At the same time, the average ambulance response time for heart attack and stroke patients is now nearly an hour, which paramedics admitted is putting patients' lives 'at risk'.

And 999 response times for category two calls are now three times above the health service's 18-minute safety target.

Doctors warned the grim performance figures were 'concerning' because winter pressures and staffing absences have yet to hit peak levels.

A poll of NHS bosses found nine in 10 felt the current situation  dealing with the pandemic-induced backlog and Covid  is 'unsustainable' and patient care is being compromised.

There have been reports of some elderly Brits having to wait up to 14 hours for an ambulance, and investigations are underway into the deaths of several patients in parked ambulances unable to handover patients to overwhelmed A&Es.

NHS England statistics reveal it took crews nearly 55 minutes to respond to Category 2 calls  including strokes, heart attacks and severe burns  in October, compared to the 18-minute target.

The most urgent incidents, which includes events such as cardiac arrests and life-threatening accidents, also saw record delays last month. Paramedics took, on average, nine minutes and 20 seconds to respond to Category 1 calls, well above the target of seven minutes.

Trade union GMB warned the ambulance wait times showed the NHS was at risk of moving from a winter crisis to a winter catastrophe.

Ambulance leaders described how they are facing the 'highest level of emergency activity in history' and raised concerns about the time lost to hospital handover delays.

It came as a poll for the NHS Confederation found that health leaders believe the pressure on the NHS is now at unsustainable levels and patient safety and care are being put at risk by staff shortages.

NHS leaders in England warned the health service has reached 'tipping point', with nearly nine in 10 (88 per cent) saying the demands on their organisation are unsustainable.

Almost the same number (87 per cent) said a lack of staffing in the NHS as a whole is putting patient safety and care at risk.

The survey of 451 leaders included those from hospitals, ambulance services, mental health providers, community services and primary care.

But Covid cases in England dropped by 16 per cent last week, leading to questions about the virus is truly behind the NHS pressure.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which calculates case numbers based on thousands of random swab tests, found 925,400 people in the country were infected on any given day in the week ending November 6.

No10's top scientists tracking the R rate  which measures the speed the outbreak is growing at  estimated that it was between 0.8 and 1 in England. This suggests that for every ten people who have the virus, they are passing it on to between eight and 10 others

The figure equates to one in 60 people having the virus and is 16.1 per cent lower than the estimated 1,103,300 cases one week earlier, when one in 50 people were thought to be infected.

And cases appear to be dropping in all age groups, most notably among 11 to 16-year-olds, with 4.8 per cent thought to have the virus in the last week, compared to 7.5 in the previous seven days.

It comes as one expert said the drop has been triggered 'almost entirely by the wall of immunity, rather than behavioural changes or restrictions'.

JVT says Covid crisis a 'lot calmer' after Easter... but other scientist warns of EIGHT years of misery Britain's Covid crisis is set to become 'a lot calmer' after Easter, Jonathan Van-Tam predicted today  but other scientists warned it could drag on another eight years. England's deputy chief medical officer warned there will be some 'twists and bumps' along the way and admitted that the situation was becoming harder to forecast. But he told a medical conference today: 'I think, generally speaking, waters will be quite a lot calmer after Easter.' Professor Van-Tam warned this was dependent on the successful roll out of the booster doses, which are being offered to all over-50s. His words were in stark contrast to eminent epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector, who warned that it could take years to become a manageable, seasonal virus. 'We need to be thinking in terms of time scales  it is not in months, it is not by next Christmas, it is a question as to whether it will be three years or eight years,' he said. Advertisement

And separate data published yesterday by the UK's largest symptom-tracking study revealed cases fell by almost a fifth in the biggest weekly drop since the summer.

Meanwhile, Department for Health data yesterday showed Covid cases increased 14 per cent, marking the first rise in 10 days. But hospitalisations and deaths both fell week-on-week too.

There are about 6,800 Covid patients in English hospitals now compared to more than 12,000 at the same point last year.

Meanwhile, it emerged today that the Army will continue helping two health boards in Scotland with acute services after their request for the assistance to be extended was approved by the Ministry of Defence.

Army personnel were called in to help NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Borders in October amid pressures on the health service.

A request by the health boards to extend the acute services Military Aid to the Civilian Authority (MACA) task, which was originally due to last until November 10, has now been approved by Ministry of Defence, the Army said.

In total 84 personnel will continue with the work, with 21 personnel in the Borders and 63 in Lanarkshire.

Their involvement is expected to continue until December 8 in the Borders and December 17 in Lanarkshire, with the timelines kept under regular review.

The Army is also supporting the Scottish Ambulance Service with non-emergency drivers and delivering testing through mobile units.

An Army statement said: 'More than 450 Armed Forces personnel are supporting multiple MACA tasks in Scotland. These tasks fall under Operation Rescript, defence's efforts to support the UK's response to the pandemic which began in March 2020.

'Defence have supported communities across the UK throughout the pandemic, from planning support alongside resilience teams and governments, to ambulance drivers and health care assistants in hospitals, as well as the vaccine rollout.

'The Armed Forces stand ready to step up and support civil authorities, devolved nations and communities as required in the coming months where the requests meet the MACA principles.'

Meanwhile, the latest daily coronavirus figures show Scotland recorded 17 Covid-linked deaths and 3,349 new cases in the past 24 hours.

It means the death toll under this daily measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - is 9,375.

The daily test positivity rate was 9.8 per cent, up from 8.2 per cent the previous day, according to data published by the Scottish Government on Friday.

There were 759 people in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down nine, with 55 in intensive care, down five.

So far, 4,325,523 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 3,922,893 have had their second.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced Friday that she's running for re-election next year, which will pit her against a Trump-backed GOP primary opponent.

In a video announcing her run, Murkowski pushed that 'lower 48 outsiders are going to try to grab Alaska's Senate seat for their partisan agendas.'

'They don't understand our state and frankly, they couldn't care less about your future,' she added.

Former President Donald Trump is actively trying to take out Republican lawmakers who voted for his impeachment including Murkowski, and formally endorsed Kelly Tshibaka, Alaska's Commissioner of Administration, in June.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced Friday that she's running for re-election next year, saying in a video that 'lower 48 outsiders are going to try to grab Alaska's Senate seat for their partisan agendas,' as she runs against a Trump-backed GOP hopeful

'Lisa Murkowski is bad for Alaska,' Trump said in a statement. 'I look forward to campaigning in Alaska for Kelly Tshibaka,' he added, giving her his 'Complete and Total Endorsement.'

Trump called Tshibaka a 'fighter who stands for Alaska values and America First.'

'She is MAGA all the way, pro-energy, strong on the Border, tough on Crime and totally supports our Military and our great Vets,' he continued. 'Kelly is a powerful supporter of the Second Amendment and JOBS!'

Trump said he was against Murkowski because she voted in favor of President Joe Biden's pick to head the Interior Department, Secretary Deb Haaland.

Haaland has said she is against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Trump pointed out, saying Murkowski's vote for the former Democratic congresswoman was a vote against Alaskan jobs.

'Murkowski has got to go!' Trump said.

Alaska Department of Administration Commissioner Kelly Tshibaka got former President Donald Trump's endorsement in the Alaska Senate GOP primary in June. Tshibaka announced she would challenge GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski in late March

Former President Donald Trump said he wasn't backing Sen. Lisa Murkowski because she supported the nomination of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who is against Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling. Missing from the statement was that Murkowski backed impeachment

Left out of the statement was the fact that Murkowski was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump of inciting the January 6 insurrection during his second impeachment trial.

Tshibaka jumped into the Alaska Senate race in late March.

By then, Trump had already told Politico he would 'not be endorsing, under any circumstances, the failed candidate from the great State of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski.'

'She represents the state badly and her county even worse,' Trump said. 'I do not know where other people will be next year, but I know where I will be - in Alaska campaigning against a disloyal and very bad Senator.'

Tshibaka, whose run was first reported by Fox News, said she was running to represent a 'new generation of Alaska conservatives.'

Her stances include being tough on immigration, pro-Second Amendment and anti-abortion.

Tshibaka is an Alaska native and went to high school in the state before attending Texas A&M University and then Harvard Law School, according to the Anchorage Daily News, who shared a copy of her resume when she was appointed by Alaska's governor to lead the Department of Administration in January 2019.

She spent nearly 17 years in the Washington, D.C. working for the federal government under the Bush 43, Obama and Trump administrations.

Tshibaka worked for the office of inspector general for the U.S. Postal Service, the Federal Trade Commission, the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department.

The Anchorage Daily News also reported that she and her husband Niki are pastors and launched the Lighthouse Fellowship during their time in D.C.

On her campaign website, Tshibaka describes herself as a 'fighter.'

'I fought hard to be the first in my family to pursue a college degree and attend law school. I fought to expose waste, fraud and abuse in government, and Ill bring that same fight to the US Senate where I will always defend Alaska values,' Tshibaka said.

Murkowski has taken out a fellow Republican in the past.

In 2010, when former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin backed Murkowski's Tea Party challenger Joe Miller, Murkowski lost the Republican primary, but still won the general election race by mounting a successful write-in campaign.
Donald Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows is facing criminal contempt of Congress charges for refusing to appear for testimony in front of the January 6 committee on Friday.

Panel chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, wrote to Meadows' attorney on Thursday night to say there is 'no valid legal basis' for Meadow's noncompliance with panel's subpoena and gave him until 10am on Friday to respond.

Meadows defied the request and now could be the second Trump ally to be potentially hit with charges after the House referred Steve Bannon to the Department of Justice last month.

The next step will be for Congress to hold a vote over whether to give Meadows a criminal refer in a move the Democratic majority will likely pass.

The White House counsel's office told Meadows he had no claims of privilege to avoiding appearing before the committee and on Thursday Thompson warned that Meadows could face criminal charges if he doesn't appear.

'The Select Committee will view Mr. Meadows's failure to appear at the deposition, and to produce responsive documents ... as willful non-compliance. Such willful noncompliance with the subpoena would force the Select Committee to consider invoking the contempt of Congress procedures,' Thompson noted, 'which could result in a referral from the House of Representatives to the Department of Justice for criminal charges.'

Meadows' attorney George Terwilliger has said his client 'remains under the instruction of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege.'

'Legal disputes are appropriately resolved by courts,' said Terwilliger said in a statement Friday morning. 'It would be irresponsible for Mr. Meadows to prematurely resolve that dispute by voluntarily waiving privileges that are at the heart of those legal issues.'

The House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection in the Capitol told former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows that he must appear for his deposition at 10 am on Friday or he will be considered in contempt of Congress.

The panel had said it was subpoenaing Meadows because he was within the 'vicinity' of Donald Trump on Jan. 6, and had communications with Trump and others 'regarding the events at the Capitol' and 'are a witness concerning events that day'

White House deputy counsel Jonathan Su wrote to George Terwilliger to tell him of the finding.

'The President believes that the constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information reflecting an effort to subvert the Constitution itself, and indeed believes that such an assertion in this circumstance would be at odds with the principles that underlie the privilege,' Su wrote.

Biden 'has determined that he will not assert executive privilege with respect to your client's deposition testimony on these subjects, or any documents your client may possess that bear on them,' Su noted. 'For the same reasons, underlying his decisions on executive privilege, President Biden has determined that he will not assert immunity to preclude your client from testifying before the Select Committee.'

Thompson noted that finding in his letter to Terwilliger, writing the ruling from Biden's White House counsel on the matter 'eviscerates any plausible claim of testimonial immunity or executive privilege, and compels compliance with the Select Committee's subpoena.'

But Terwilliger suggested in a statement earlier Thursday - after receiving Su's letter but before Thompson's letter - that Meadows would not comply with the committee's demands until the legal disputes were resolved.

'Contrary to decades of consistent bipartisan opinions from the Justice Department that senior aides cannot be compelled by Congress to give testimony, this is the first president to make not effort whatsoever to protect presidential communications from being the subject of compelled testimony,' he wrote.

'Mr. Meadows remains under the instruction of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege. It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict,' he noted.

Trump has ordered his former aides not to cooperate with the House committee's probe.

The committee has subpoenaed Meadows and at least 35 others in their investigation into what happened at the White House on January 6 and the efforts to overturn the election results.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6th Attack on the Capitol issued its first subpoenas on September 21  targeting Meadows, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, longtime Trump and White House aide Dan Scavino, and former Pentagon chief of staff Kash Patel.

Meadows featured prominently in Trump's efforts to pressure state official in Georgia and other states where Trump pushed claims of election fraud as part of his election overturn effort.

'While serving as White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows reportedly communicated with officials at the state level and in the Department of Justice as part of an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election or prevent the election's certification,' according to the committee release on the subpoena.

The Meadows letter says it appears he was within the 'vicinity' of Trump on Jan. 6, and had communications with Trump and others 'regarding the events at the Capitol' and 'are a witness concerning events that day.'

Trump aides called to testify to House over the Capitol Riot and bid to overturn the election: List of subpoenas and the committee's reason behind them Mark Meadows: While serving as White House Chief of Staff, Meadows reportedly communicated with officials at the state level and in the Department of Justice as part of an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election or prevent the election's certification. Daniel Scavino: White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Scavino was with the former President on January 5th during a discussion of how to convince Members of Congress not to certify the election for Joe Biden. Prior to the January 6th March for Trump, Mr. Scavino promoted the event on Twitter, encouraging people to 'be a part of history.' And records indicate that Mr. Scavino was tweeting messages from the White House on January 6, 2021 Kashyap Patel: Patel was serving as chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller. The former President had appointed Mr. Patel to this position on November 10, the day after then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was replaced. Stephen Bannon: Bannon reportedly communicated with former President Trump on December 30th, 2020, urging him to focus his efforts on January 6th. Mr. Bannon also reportedly attended a gathering at the Willard Hotel on January 5th, 2021, as part of an effort to persuade Members of Congress to block the certification of the election the next day. He is also quoted as saying on January 5 that 'all Hell is going to break lose tomorrow'. Nicholas Luna: Luna, who served as the former President's personal assistant, was reportedly in the Oval Office the morning of January 6th, 2021, when the former President was on a phone call to Vice President Pence pressuring him not to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election Molly Michael: Michael served as Special Assistant to the President and Oval Office Operations Coordinator, was involved in sending information about alleged election fraud to various individuals at the direction of President Trump, according to information obtained by the Select Committee. Benjamin Williamson: While serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Willliamson was reportedly contacted by a former White House official during the attack on the U.S. Capitol who urged him and Mr. Meadows, without success, to have the former President issue a statement addressing the attack and condemning the violence. Christopher Liddell: Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, was in the White House on January 6th and reportedly considered resigning on that day but stayed on 'after a great deal of persuasion.' John McEntee: The former White House Personnel Director, was reportedly present in the Oval Office when Rudolph Giuliani, Justin Clark, the former President, and former Vice President Pence discussed the audit process in Georgia and listened as Mr. Giuliani suggested seizing Dominion voting machines because of alleged fraud. Mr. McEntee was also reportedly involved in communications with officials in various federal agencies regarding loyalty to President Trump and specifically discouraged a number of individuals from seeking employment after the election as it would appear to be a concession of President Trump's defeat. In addition, according to reports, Mr. McEntee was in the White House on January 6th and was with former President Trump when he traveled to the Ellipse and spoke at the 'Stop the Steal' rally Keith Kellogg: Vice President Pence's National Security Advisor who reportedly participated in at least one January 2021 meeting with the former President and Pat Cipollone during which the former President insisted that former Vice President Pence not certify the election. He was reportedly in the White House with the former President as he watched the January 6th attack unfold and has direct information about the former President's statements about and reaction to the insurrection. During that day, it is reported that Lt. Gen. Kellogg met with the former President and others before the rally at the Ellipse and then, after the rally, he urged the former President to send out a tweet to his supporters at the U.S. Capitol to help control the crowd. Kayleigh McEnany: Former White House Press Secretary, who allegedly made multiple public statements from the White House and elsewhere about purported fraud in the November 2020 election. For example, in the first White House press conference after the election, Ms. McEnany claimed that there were 'very real claims' of fraud that the former President's reelection campaign was pursuing, and said that mail-in voting was something that 'we have identified as being particularly prone to fraud.' At another press conference, Ms. McEnany accused Democrats of 'welcoming fraud' and 'welcoming illegal voting.' In addition, Ms. McEnany was reportedly present at times with the former President as he watched the January 6th attack Stephen Miller: Senior Advisor to the former President who, by his own account participated in efforts to spread false information about alleged voter fraud in the November 2020 election, as well as efforts to encourage state legislatures to alter the outcome of the November 2020 election by appointing alternate slates of electors. Cassidy Hutchinson: Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, who reportedly was at the White House on January 6th and was with the former President when he spoke at the 'Stop the Steal' rally that day. She also reportedly reached out directly via email and phone to Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs relating to a trip to Georgia by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to attend an election audit. Kenneth Klukowski: The former Senior Counsel to Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, was involved in drafting a letter that urged legislatures in certain states to delay certification of the election, according to the report recently released by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The report also states that Mr. Clark contacted Mr. Klukowski to prepare for an Oval Office meeting with the former President that took place on January 3rd, 2021. William 'Bill' Stepien: He served as manager of the Trump 2020 reelection campaign. The campaign reportedly urged state and party officials to affect the outcome of the November 2020 election by asking states to delay or deny certification of electoral votes and by sending multiple slate of electoral votes to the United States Congress. Jason Miller: According to the committee, the Senior Advisor to Trump's 2020 reelection campaign, spread the false claim that the November 2020 had been tainted by widespread fraud. Even before the election, Mr. Miller publicly claimed that Democrats would 'steal' the election, a message that individuals who attacked the U.S. Capitol echoed on January 6th. After the election, Mr. Miller coordinated with Mr. Trump and Rudolph Giuliani, and claimed in public press events that the election was rigged. Additionally, according to public reports, Mr. Miller participated in a meeting on January 5th, 2021 at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., in which Mr. Giuliani, Stephen Bannon, and others discussed options for overturning the results of the November 2020 election by, among other things, pressuring Vice President Pence to not certify the electoral college results. Angela McCallum: National executive assistant to Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, who reportedly participated in efforts to spread false information about alleged voter fraud in the November 2020 election and to encourage state legislatures to alter the outcome of the November 2020 election. Specifically, there is a publicly available recording of a voicemail that Ms. McCallum reportedly left for an unknown Michigan state representative. In the recording, Ms. McCallum wanted to know whether the Trump campaign could 'count on' the representative and said that the individual had the authority to appoint an alternate slate of electors based on purported evidence of widespread election fraud John Eastman: Attorney who reportedly advised President Trump and others that Vice President Pence could reject electors from certain states in order to deny Joe Biden a majority of the Electoral College vote. In the days before January 6th, Mr. Eastman is reported to have participated in a briefing for nearly 300 state legislators regarding purported election fraud, during which he told the group that it was 'the duty of the[] legislatures to fix this, this egregious conduct, and make sure that we're not putting in the White House some guy that didn't get elected.' Mr. Eastman reportedly participated in the January 5th, 2021 meeting at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. and he spok Michael Flynn: Former national security advisor who reportedly attended a December 18th, 2020 meeting in the Oval Office during which participants discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency, invoking certain national security emergency powers, and continuing to spread the false message that the November 2020 election had been tainted by widespread fraud. The day before, Flynn gave an interview on Newsmax TV during which he talked about seizing voting machines, foreign influence in the election, and the purported precedent for deploying military troops and declaring martial law to 'rerun' the election. Bernard Kerik: Former NYPD Commissioner who reportedly participated in the January 5th, 2021 meeting at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. Mr. Kerik reportedly paid for rooms and suites in Washington, D.C. hotels that served as election-related command centers, and also worked with Mr. Rudolph Giuliani to investigate allegations of voter fraud and promote baseless litigation and 'Stop the Steal' efforts Jeffrey Clark: Former DOJ lawyer who was reportedly involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and interrupt the peaceful transfer of power. The subpoena seeks deposition testimony and records from Mr. Clark as part of the Select Committee's investigation into the events of January 6th and the causes of that day's violence Ali Alexander: Submitted permits for 'Stop the Steal' rally Nathan Martin: Submitted permits for 'Stop the Steal' rally Stop the Steal, LLC Amy Kremer: Founder and Chair of Women for America First. Kylie Kremer: Founder and Executive Director of WFAF. Cynthia Chafian: Submitted the first permit application on behalf of WFAF for the January 6th rally, and founder of the Eighty Percent Coalition. Caroline Wren: Listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'VIP Advisor.' Maggie Mulvaney: Wife of chief of staff Mick Mulvaney who was listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'VIP Lead.' Justin Caporale, of Event Strategies, Inc., listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'Project Manager.' Tim Unes, of Event Strategies, Inc., listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'Stage Manager.' Megan Powers, of MPowers Consulting LLC, listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'Operations Manager for Scheduling and Guidance.' Hannah Salem, of Salem Strategies LLC, listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'Operations Manager for Logistics and Communications.' Lyndon Brentnall, of RMS Protective Services, listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'On-Site Supervisor.' Katrina Pierson, former Trump campaign official, reportedly involved in the organization of the January 5th and 6th rallies and was in direct communication with the former President about the rallies. (Source - January 6 Committee) Advertisement

Mark Meadows, a former congressman, served as Trump's chief of staff in the final days of the administration - above the two men are seen together in November 2019

Former Trupm aide Steve Bannon (pictured) defied his subpoena and was held in contempt of Congress - the Justice Department is deciding whether to pursue charges

It also cites documents already obtained from the Justice Department, and states that 'while you were the President's Chief of Staff, you directly communicated with the highest officials at the Department of Justice requesting investigations into election fraud matters in several states.'

Bannon also refused to comply with his subpoena and was held in contempt of Congress.

The House voted 229 to 202, mostly along party lines, on October 27 to find Bannon in contempt, which sent the matter to the Justice Department. DoJ will decide whether or not to prosecute Bannon.

Thompson has also threatened contempt against Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who helped orchestrate Trump's effort to subvert the 2020 election results.

Thompson's letter to Meadows on Thursday comes hours after a blow to the committee's investigation of what happened the day thousands of Trump supporters swarmed the Capitol to try and stop the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory.

A federal appeals court blocked the imminent release of Trump's records - including his White House calls and activities related to the Jan. 6 attack - after a lower court found that Biden can waive his predecessor's claim to executive privilege.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted a temporary injunction while it considers Trump's request to hold off any release pending appeal.

The case was fast-tracked for a hearing Nov. 30.

Trump DEFENDS supporters who shouted 'hang Mike Pence' during Capitol riot, insists the chant was 'just common sense' and says he thought VP would be safe because he was 'in good shape' in newly released interview

Donald Trump has defended supporters who threatened to 'hang' then-Vice President Mike Pence during the Capitol riot on January 6 because they were angry about voter fraud allegations in a newly released audio clip of an interview.

During a taped interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl, obtained by Axios, Trump can be heard playing down the chanted threats, saying 'the people were very angry.'

In the clip, Karl initially asks whether Trump was worried about his Vice President.

'No, I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape,' Trump replies during the interview for Karl's book 'Betrayal' at Mar-a-Lago, conducted on March 18. 'No. Because I had heard he was in very good shape.'

'Because you heard those chants  that was terrible,' Karl replies. 'He could have  well, the people were very angry,' Trump says.

'They were saying 'hang Mike Pence,'' Karl pushes.

'Because it's common sense, Jon. It's common sense that you're supposed to protect,' Trump replies. 'How can you  if you know a vote is fraudulent, right?' he says, touting the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.

'How can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that?'

The chants were heard as Trump's supporters laid siege to the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6 following a rally held by the then-president outside the White House, forcing those inside the building - including Pence - to evacuate.

The new audio was released after a federal appeals court gave Trump lawyers until November 30 to argue that White House documents from January 6 should not be handed to the Democrat-led committee investigating the riot.

His former chief of staff Mark Meadows has also been threatened with contempt of court charges if he doesn't respond to request to testify before the panel by 10am on Friday.

Pictured: Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi preside over a Joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 Electoral College results after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol earlier in the day on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 (file photo)
Since we last met, the House has suffered a very grievous loss in the death of one of its most distinguished Members, and of a statesman and public servant who, during the best part of three memorable years, was first Minister of the Crown.

The fierce and bitter controversies which hung around him in recent times were hushed by the news of his illness and are silenced by his death.

In paying a tribute of respect and of regard to an eminent man who has been taken from us, no one is obliged to alter the opinions which he has formed or expressed upon issues which have become a part of history; but at the Lychgate we may all pass our own conduct and our own judgments under a searching review.

It is not given to human beings, happily for them, for otherwise life would be intolerable, to foresee or to predict to any large extent the unfolding course of events.

In one phase men seem to have been right, in another they seem to have been wrong.

Then again, a few years later, when the perspective of time has lengthened, all stands in a different setting. There is a new proportion.

There is another scale of values. History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.

What is the worth of all this?

The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions.

It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honour.

It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man.

But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused?

They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart-the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour.

Whatever else history may or may not say about these terrible, tremendous years, we can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted with perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority, which were powerful, to save the world from the awful, devastating struggle in which we are now engaged.

This alone will stand him in good stead as far as what is called the verdict of history is concerned.

But it is also a help to our country and to our whole Empire, and to our decent faithful way of living that, however long the struggle may last, or however dark may be the clouds which overhang our path, no future generation of English-speaking folks-for that is the tribunal to which we appeal-will doubt that, even at a great cost to ourselves in technical preparation, we were guiltless of the bloodshed, terror and misery which have engulfed so many lands and peoples, and yet seek new victims still.

Herr Hitler protests with frantic words and gestures that he has only desired peace.

What do these ravings and outpourings count before the silence of Neville Chamberlain's tomb?

Long, hard, and hazardous years lie before us, but at least we entered upon them united and with clean hearts.

I do not propose to give an appreciation of Neville Chamberlain's life and character, but there were certain qualities always admired in these Islands which he possessed in an altogether exceptional degree.

He had a physical and moral toughness of fibre which enabled him all through his varied career to endure misfortune and disappointment without being unduly discouraged or wearied.

He had a precision of mind and an aptitude for business which raised him far above the ordinary levels of our generation.

He had a firmness of spirit which was not often elated by success, seldom downcast by failure, and never swayed by panic. when, contrary to all his hopes, beliefs and exertions, the war came upon him, and when, as he himself said, all that he had worked for was shattered, there was no man more resolved to pursue the unsought quarrel to the death.

The same qualities which made him one of the last to enter the war, made him one of the last who would quit it before the full victory of a righteous cause was won.

I had the singular experience of passing in a day from being one of his most prominent opponents and critics to being one of his principal lieutenants, and on another day of passing from serving under him to become the head of a Government of which, with perfect loyalty, he was content to be a member.

Such relationships are unusual in our public life. I have before told the House how on the morrow of the Debate which in the early days of May challenged his position, he declared to me and a few other friends that only a National Government could face the storm about to break upon us, and that if he were an obstacle to the formation of such a Government, he would instantly retire.

Thereafter, he acted with that singleness of purpose and simplicity of conduct which at all times, and especially in great times, ought to be the ideal of us all.

When he returned to duty a few weeks after a most severe operation, the bombardment of London and of the seat of Government had begun.

I was a witness during that fortnight of his fortitude under the most grievous and painful bodily afflictions, and I can testify that, although physically only the wreck of a man, his nerve was unshaken and his remarkable mental faculties unimpaired.

After he left the Government he refused all honours. He would die like his father, plain Mr. Chamberlain.

I sought permission of the King, however, to have him supplied with the Cabinet papers, and until a few days of his death he followed our affairs with keenness, interest and tenacity.

He met the approach of death with a steady eye. If he grieved at all, it was that he could not be a spectator of our victory; but I think he died with the comfort of knowing that his country had, at least, turned the corner.

At this time our thoughts must pass to the gracious and charming lady who shared his days of triumph and adversity with a courage and quality the equal of his own.

He was, like his father and his brother Austen before him, a famous Member of the House of Commons, and we here assembled this morning, Members of all parties, without a single exception, feel that we do ourselves and our country honour in saluting the memory of one whom Disraeli would have called an 'English worthy.'

Source: Winstonchurchill.org
Dramatic police bodycam footage of Gregory and an armed Travis McMichael hunting for Ahmaud Arbery 12 days before the black jogger was killed was played to the jury in their murder trial Friday.

The night time video shows both men at the partly-constructed house of neighbor Larry English on February 11, 2020 after Travis, 35, had made a breathless six-minute 911 call saying he had confronted a black male at the home.

The jury was shown a 24-minute clip as Glynn County police officer Robert Rash, who had responded to the call in the predominantly white Satilla Shores neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia, took the witness stand.

At one point in the video Gregory, 65, tells the cop, 'Travis just walked down there', referring to the back of the property. 'He's armed by the way,' he adds.

The two McMichaels and their neighbor William 'Roddie' Bryan have pleaded not guilty to murder, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment.

Prosecutors are seeking to discredit the defense's claims that the McMichaels were trying to make a citizen's arrest on Arbery under a now-repealed Georgia law.

The law requires there to be reasonable belief that someone is fleeing from a serious felony crime they just committed.

The jury heard how Travis had chased Arbery - although his identity was not known at the time - after seeing him at the property.

Scroll down for video

Police bodycam footage played in court Friday shows Gregory and Travis McMichael searching for Ahmaud Arbery around a partly-constructed home in the Satilla Shores neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia on February 11, 2020

The jury heard Travis (pictured) had chased Arbery - although his identity was not known at the time  after seeing him at the property

Glynn County police officer Robert Rash (bottom left) took the witness stand on the sixth day of trial on Friday. The cop responded to the scene after Travis called 911

He then went back to get his phone and pistol before returning to the house with his father, the court was told.

The pair and neighbor Diego Perez were at the home when Officer Rash arrived to investigate and two other neighbors later followed.

Rash, with his gun drawn, can be seen on the video going into the house to start searching after back-up officers had arrived.

Arbery was not found at the house, with the searchers speculating he had vanished out the back.

Rash told the court he had previously spoken to both McMichaels about a black male being seen at the property on October 25, 2019 and showed them a screenshot of video of Arbery there.

Arbery was shot and killed on February 23, 2020

This was part of his quest to identify and speak to Arbery over possible trespass.

Rash, also linked up McMichael with English, 51, because he believed the ex-cop's expertise might be useful if the black male returned and an experienced witness was needed, the court heard.

Travis, panting heavily, told the 911 operator he had 'caught a guy running into a house being built' the jury heard earlier this week.

'Black male, red shirt. He is in the house.' He also said the man reached into his pocket and 'could be armed'.

Rash today said the dispatcher told him there was a burglary in progress when he was called to investigate and he was running 'lights and sirens' as he approached Satilla Drive.

'I was the first officer and on my arrival Travis McMichael and Greg McMichael were on the scene. I stood by for other officers to get there before proceeding to check the property for the unidentified male.

'I believe they (the McMichaels) told dispatch about having guns, but I didn't see them brandishing guns.'

Neighbor Perez is seen in a blue shirt on the beginning of the bodycam shining a flashlight as he walks to the side of the property. Rash enters with his pistol in his outstretched arms and with his own flashlight illuminating his way.

Rash told the court he had previously spoken to both McMichaels about a black male being seen at the property and showed them a screenshot of video of Arbery there

Both Gregory and Travis, 35, are clearly seen in the footage after Officer Rash was called to the scene in the predominantly white Satilla Shores neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia on February 11, 2020.

Rash's bodycam footage showed the cop entering the home with his gun drawn after back-up officers had arrived

The officer shouts Glynn County Police as he enters  admitting under cross examination that his heart was pounding  and searches through the internal timber uprights that form the uncompleted walls of the house.

After Arbery is nowhere to be seen, Rash moves outside. Speaking with the other officer on radio, he says: 'The neighbor came by and saw the flashlight, somebody in here.'

'We don't see him back there unless he jumped the fence,' he adds.

At that point Greg McMichael is heard saying: 'Travis just walked down there, down to my back yard and to check back this way. He's armed by the way.'

Rash: 'So Travis actually saw him?'

Greg McMichael: 'Yeah he said he turned around and put the lights on him as he hauled a** inside the house.'

Rash: 'This guy, he's always on foot, nobody in the neighborhood knows who he is.

'We can't identify him. I've been about every house door to door trying to ID. He's been on their video.

'They have video over here, we've caught him we've caught him on several video cameras. But we just can't find where he's'

Rash then calls English to look back at his latest camera footage to compare with previous occasions. English confirms it is the same person from previous videos.

Defendants Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael are seen in court earlier this week

Travis McMichael (left), Gregory McMichael (center) and William Bryan Jr. (right) have all pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment

Travis McMichael, wearing a white baseball cap, then returns. Rash shows him a video of a previous visit by Arbery and he responds: 'Same kid. That's him. I didn't see the tattoos.'

One of the other neighbors who can be seen on the footage is Matt Albenze, who gave evidence earlier this week.

He was the person who first spotted Arbery in the same house on February 23, which eventually led to the deadly chase by the McMichaels in their pick-up truck.

Under cross examination, Rash agrees he did not object to Travis having a gun, of his father Greg if he had one. But he insisted he did not plan to deputize them in the search for Arbery.

He said he was looking for Arbery for possible trespass, not burglary  and it would be up to English to decide if the young black man was prosecuted if he was found.

Rash also confirmed Arbery had taken nothing from the English property  and the homeowner had not reported any thefts to police 'to my knowledge'.

Grainy video footage of Ahmaud Arbery roaming around a partly-constructed home on five occasions in the months before he was shot dead last year was played in front of the jury Thursday

The 25-year-old is seen above at the same home on February 23, 2020 - the day he was chased and killed

Rash testified that he had planned to give Arbery a trespass warning for repeatedly entering the unfinished home if he had caught him at the scene.

'Once we make contact with the person on the property, we explain to them the homeowner does not want them there, they have no legal reason to be there,' he said.

'I explain to that person, if you ever come back onto this property for any reason, you will be arrested.'

Later in Friday's proceedings, the jury was shown video retracing the route taken by third defendant William 'Roddie' Bryan, who followed the McMichaels' truck in his own vehicle  and took the shocking cell phone footage of Arbery being shot dead.

Georgia Bureau of Investigations agent Jason Seacrist took Bryan out in a vehicle  before he was eventually arrested and charged  to run through the route and events of that fateful day.

Bryan can be seen in the video making hand gestures to assist the agent to indicate his actions as he tried to follow Arbery.

It ends along Holmes Road, near the intersection with Satilla Drive and where Arbery tussled with Travis McMichael who was holding a gun which went off.

Agent Seacrist explained the video to the jury, as they could see the vehicle move to the left at one point near a ditch, and at other times back up - and once do a three-point turn.

Later on in Friday's proceedings, witness, Jason Seacrist (pictured center) a Georgia Bureau of Investigations agent, showed the jury a video retracing the route taken by third defendant William 'Roddie' Bryan, who followed the McMichaels' truck in his own vehicle  and took the shocking cell phone footage of Arbery being shot dead

Seacrist had taken Bryan out in a vehicle  before he was eventually arrested and charged  to run through the route and events of that fateful day

Earlier this week the jury heard Bryan angled his truck three times to cut off Arbery, but denied striking the running man (Pictured: Image from Twitter video purporting to show Ahmaud Arbery stumbling and falling to the ground after being shot by Travis McMichael)

The agent also told the court of his interview with Bryan, who was eventually arrested on May 21.

The McMichaels had been arrested on May 8  two and a half months after the killing.

Bryan was outside his home when he saw Arbery run past and the McMichaels chasing him.

Agent Seacrist read out a transcript of his interview, with Byran saying: 'At that point, I was like, you know, well he's chasing him in the truck.

'Whoever is in the truck, you know. And I'm figuring, I don't know. I don't know what's going on at that point. But I am figuring something's wrong.

'And I said, not out loud, but y'all need help. Something like that. Nobody could hear me though I'm sure.'

Agent Seacrist said Bryan then grabbed his keys in his kitchen.

Asked why he had done that, Bryan said: 'I guess just to see what was going on. If anything needed to be done. If I could help, or whatever. I mean I didn't know.

Officer-worn body camera footage presented in court on Monday showed Gregory McMichael, 65, (left) consoling his son, Travis McMichael (right), after the 35-year-old shot Ahmaud Arbery

Gregory McMichael (left) allegedly told police that he, his son (right) and their neighbor had Ahmaud Arbery (pictured on the pavement) 'trapped like a rat,' noting that the jogger 'knew he wasn't going to get away'

'And to be honest with you I didn't know what I was doing I'm thinking through my mind that he's done something. The guy running, and I just

Bryan said he recognized the McMichael truck. And he told the agent he tried to slow down Arbery in the chase.

'I figured if I slowed him down and got a picture that maybe something would happen in the end other than him just getting away and cops not knowing who he was,' he said.

'Because I figured he had done something wrong. I didn't know for sure. It was just instinct man, I don't know. I figured that if I slowed down and got a picture.'

Agent Seacrist Bryan told him he believed Arbery should stop running. 'You know, I figured he stole something. I didn't know if he'd shot somebody. I didn't know what was up,' he said.

The officer said Bryan did not say anything about asking Arbery to get him to stop or arrest him.

Bryan told Seacrist: 'I think I remember seeing Ahmaud turn round and look towards me.'

He continued: 'Pulling up or almost pulled, I ain't quite stopped yet, think he runs around the righthand side of the truck and I figure at this point he's going to cut the corner and go right on Satilla Drive.'

The latest testimony came after another dramatic day in court  and some racially-charged controversy out of earshot of the nearly all-white jury listening to a case in a predominantly black city.

Defense lawyer Kevin Gough made explosive comments Thursday when he appealed to the judge to have veteran civil rights campaigner Rev Al Sharpton banned from the court, claiming high profile African-Americans might intimidate the jury.

He even made the opposite comparison for a black jury of having people dressed as Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Sanders 'in white masks' to try to ram home his point.

'There's only so many pastors they can have. If their pastor is Al Sharpton right now that's fine. But that's it. We don't want any more black pastors in here,' he said.

Gough, who represents William 'Roddie' Bryan, made his plea the day after Sharpton and leading civil rights lawyer Ben Crump sat with close Arbery family in court.

Gough apologized for his explosive remarks at the start of proceedings Friday and insisted he would clarify his intentions after the weekend.

He told the judge: 'I will let the court know that if my statements yesterday were overly broad, I will follow up with a more specific motion on Monday putting those concerns in the proper context.

'And my apologies to anyone who might have inadvertently been offended.'

Defense attorney Jason Sheffield, who is representing Travis McMichael, later issued his own statement condemning Gough's comments.

'That statement was totally asinine, ridiculous and I think Kevin (Gough) has realized that, in the heat of what's happened in court and having concerns that this jury could be influenced by various things, that he said that.

'But in no way do we want to exclude anyone from this process. Everyone is welcome. Come one come all,' he added.

Leading civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who represents Arbery's father Marcus, later announced on Friday that one hundred black pastors will join Ahmaud Arbery's family at the trial, following Gough's remarks.

Mr Crump said: 'The parents of Ahmaud Arbery suffered the unspeakable loss of their son, who was hunted down, cornered and shot, for being a Black man jogging in a white neighborhood.

'It is not illegal of inappropriate for Black pastors to be present or to support the parents of Ahmaud or any other Black victims.

'We are going to bring 100 Black pastors to pray with the family next week, and we welcome those who want to show their support and their prayers to ours.'

Gough had told the judge before the jury arrived for the afternoon session Thursday: 'If we're going to start a precedent starting yesterday where we're going to bring high-profile members of the African-American community into the courtroom to sit with the family during the trial in the presence of the jury.. I believe intimidating, that's an attempt to pressure or influence.

He added: 'There's only so many pastors they can have. If their pastor is Al Sharpton right now that's fine. But that's it.

'We don't want any more black pastors in here.

William 'Roddie' Bryan sat quietly and took notes as the footage of his drive with Agent Seacrist was played to the court

The drive ended along Holmes Road, near the intersection of Satilla Drive and where Arbery tussled with Travis McMichael who was holding a gun which went off

'I think people can understand my concern about bringing people in who don't have any ties to this case apart from political interests. We want to keep politics out of this case. So I am asking the court to take appropriate steps to make sure the gallery isn't being utilized for a purpose that could be viewed as improper.

'If a bunch of folks came in here dressed at Colonel Sanders with white masks sitting in the back' But he didn't finish his sentence before Judge Timothy Walmsley cut him off.

The judge dismissed the bid, saying: 'I am not going to blanketly exclude members of the public from this courtroom.' Referring to Sharpton's visit, he added: 'I did not hear from anyone there was any distraction whatsoever. From what I've here is that nobody was even aware that he (Sharpton) was in here'.

Judge Walmsley has already made his views plain on the fact that only one of the 12 jurors are black while the rest all white.

Black people make up nearly 55 per cent of Brunswick's 16,000 population and 27 per cent of Glynn County.

The panel was finally chosen after two and a half weeks of wrangling, with the defense accused of disproportionately striking qualified black jurors.

Defense attorney Kevin Gough on Thursday sought to ban Rev. Al Sharpton from the courtroom where three men are standing trial in the death of Ahmaud Arbery

Sharpton (front left) on Wednesday attended the trial with Arbery's family and participated in a press conference slamming the mostly-white makeup of the jury

'This court has found that there appears to be intentional discrimination,' the judge said, while allowing the case to go forward.

Arbery's mother Wanda Cooper-Jones denounced Gough's argument for a ban on prominent African-Americans in a passionate and dignified rebuttal.

Speaking outside the Glynn County Superior courthouse at the end of the day, she dismissed the idea that jurors would be influenced by the alleged intimidation.

'I don't think that anything can sway the jury,' she said. 'I think if the jury takes the evidence that is presented that we will get justice for Ahmaud.

'For everyone that played a part in the killing of Ahmaud, they get sentenced to jail forever.'

The mom also referenced the lengthy video testimony of Larry English, in whose partly-constructed home Arbery was filmed on five occasions by security cameras tripped by motion sensors.

Four of these were at night  the fifth being during the day of February 23 last year moments before he ran down the street chased by the McMichaels and ending up blasted to death.

Construction boss English, 51  who lived 90 miles away in Douglas, Georgia and was building the 'dream' home himself on weekends - called 911 when Arbery roamed around the house on the night time visits.

But the court heard other people had entered the property, including a white couple and some children.

Family attorney Benjamin Crump, right, speaks as Marcus Arbery, second from right, his former wife Wanda Cooper, left, and the Rev. Al Sharpton listen on Wednesday

Arbery's mother Wanda Cooper-Jones (above) denounced Gough's argument for a ban on prominent African-Americans in the court

Cooper-Jones alleged English did not have a problem with others going on to his waterfront construction site, only her son.

She said: 'It was just a problem when it was Ahmaud. Ahmaud was the one paid most attention to. They didn't have problems with other people on the property, only Ahmaud.'

Defense attorneys are arguing their clients tried to make a lawful citizens arrest of Arbery who they suspected of burglary after they and other neighbors became concerned about trespassers on English's property

English said in his testimony that he'd told neighbors he had had items stolen. But he admitted later in the deposition that he could not confirm they were taken from the construction site or a different location  and did not subsequently correct this information with the neighbors.

This led to them to continue to believe English's home was a burglary target, possibly by a then unidentified black man.

Jurors were shown the footage of Arbery's five visits during the four-hour recorded deposition by English, who was building a 'dream second home' two houses away from the McMichaels.

The jury watched a four-hour recorded deposition from English (right) who was quizzed by prosecutor Paul Camarillo (left). He confirmed he never saw Arbery steal anything from the property and agreed that there was no evidence Arbery was drunk

The property owner said he had installed about eight security cameras at the site in 2019 after reports of people entering. Images were relayed to English's cell phone after the motion sensors tripped.

Arbery was first seen at the property on October 25, 2019 before visiting again on November 18, December 17, and on February 11, 2020.

A 45-second clip from October 25 shows him wandering around near the back of the house at night.

Dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, he strolled around the rear of the waterfront property and is last seen heading on to a metal boat ramp. There is a boat nearby and a tool box, but he does not take anything.

Prosecutor Paul Camarillo, who conducted the deposition, played a recording of the 911 call English placed after he became aware of a possible trespasser.

'I have a house under construction I got a camera system there. I got a trespasser there. He's a colored guy, tattooed down both arms. And he's just kind of wandering around,' says English.

'Send someone out for me please. He's got curly messed up hair. He's maybe drunk or on drugs.' Arbery was identified in the deposition by Camarillo.

English agreed that there was no evidence Arbery was drunk and that he could have been feeling his way through the dark.

But Arbery was not the only nocturnal visitor to the house, the court was shown. On November 17, a white couple was caught on English's cameras approaching the front of the home, although there was no footage of them inside. The property owner called 911.

In none of the videos is Arbery seen taking anything or interfering with anything.

English told the court he did not believe anything was stolen during the young black man's visits.

In the November 18 footage, Arbery is seen walking around the garage section of the home, the same place he was spotted in the December 17 video. The house did not have any panels for walls, just upright timbers.

In the December 17 video, is also seen heading out of the front, strolling on to the patch of grass near the road and then running off in shorts and a t-shirt.

In the February 11 footage he again just wanders around inside the house framework. The jury saw him on the day he was killed in much clearer images.

Arbery walks in, wearing a white t-shirt, gray looking shorts and with a green bandana around his neck.

There is a white truck in a driveway and Arbery is seen walking up to the front of the property and past a security camera on the outside of the building.

Internal cameras then pick him up strolling around inside in an area English identified to the jury as his RV garage. He then goes into the car garage.

English told the jury he bought the house site as a vacant lot four or five years ago to build a 'dream home' because he has a terminal illness.

He kept a camper there for when he stayed and the site was full of tools and building materials plus a boat. None of this was disturbed by Arbery.

Mark McGuire, a lawyer assisting Cooper-Jones, said of the English testimony and related videos after they were shown: 'All that it revealed was that Ahmaud had been on that property and never committed a crime.

'He had never destroyed anything, never taken anything or done anything to justify any of the brutal response that they saw that occurred on February 23.'
A mother-of-two died after waiting 'almost an hour' for an ambulance to arrive, having been 'struggling to breathe' and was heard screaming 'help me, I'm dying, I can't breathe' in 999 call recordings.

Bina Patel, 56, from Ashton-under-Lyne, in Tameside, Greater Manchester already had 'no pulse' by the time paramedics got to her home, said her son Ashkay.

She died from a 'suspected cardiac arrest', according to a patient report completed by North West Ambulance Service (NWAS).

Ashkay had called for an ambulance 'seven times' as her condition deteriorated, in the early hours of October 11, and sat with her as she took her final breaths.

The 27-year-old desperately tried to save her - and blames NWAS for her death.

Mother-of-two Bina Patel (above) died after waiting 'almost an hour' for an ambulance to arrive, having been 'struggling to breathe' and was heard screaming 'help me, I'm dying, I can't breathe' in 999 call recordings. The 56-year-old, from Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester already had 'no pulse' by the time paramedics got to her home, said her son Ashkay

In the weeks following the tragedy, he has demanded answers, saying 'my mum suffocated for almost an hour' and that her life 'could have been saved'.

It comes as new figures revealed patients suffering heart attacks and strokes are waiting for more than an hour for an ambulance amid crippling NHS pressure.

Mrs Patel, who worked in the town's Asda as a cashier for 15 years, had been out to meet friends in Leicester on October 10 before returning home and heading to bed. All seemed well and she was happy, said her son.

But in the early hours of the next morning, Ashkay woke to the sounds of her shouting for his help, frightened that she was struggling to breathe.

This came as a shock to Ashkay, who claims his mother had long-term diabetes but no unexpected, underlying conditions that would leave her short of breath.

The pair, who shared a home after the death of Ashkay's father, tried to calm Mrs Patel's breathing - but to no avail.

When her condition deteriorated, he claims he made his first of seven calls to 999, asking for an ambulance just after 2.30am.

The call handler told him an ambulance would be on its way and that he should attempt to keep the patient calm, said Ashkay.

Mrs Patel died from a 'suspected cardiac arrest', according to a patient report completed by North West Ambulance Service (NWAS). Ashkay (above with his mother) had called for an ambulance 'seven times' as her condition deteriorated, in the early hours of October 11, and sat with her as she took her final breaths. The 27-year-old desperately tried to save her - and blames NWAS for her death

During the next 55 minutes, he said he called 999 again and again as no ambulance was arriving and his mother was becoming severely ill.

Mrs Patel's distress could be heard in recordings of two of the 999 calls, which Ashkay requested from NWAS.

In the horrific calls, Mrs Patel can be heard screaming, saying on multiple occasions 'help me, I'm going to die', with the screaming being acknowledged by the call handler as Ashkay tries to help his mother.

The times of the calls, following the initial report at 2.30am, were 2.52am, 3.03am, 3.10am, 3.17am, 3.23am and another a few seconds later.

NWAS provided recordings of the calls at 2.52am and 3.17am. During the call at 2.52, the call handler can be heard saying that the wait for an ambulance is an 'hour and a half' as 'we're very busy'.

In the second recording, from the call at 3.17am, Ashkay tells the emergency service that his mother has now stopped breathing entirely.

A call handler can be heard saying that there is 'nothing' Ashkay can do to help, and that he should wait for paramedics to arrive. The call handler then says they have 'another call coming in and [they] have to hang up'.

Ashkay said an ambulance and paramedic car arrived at 3.27am, nearly an hour after his initial 999 call. By this point, he had been doing CPR as directed by the call handler to no effect and his mother was already dead, he claims.

A patient report completed by NWAS, again requested by Ashkay as he lodged a formal complaint against the service, and seen by Manchester Evening News (MEN), reads that an ambulance was mobile and on the way to the scene at 3.18am.

On the paramedics' arrival, Mrs Patel was showing 'no pulse, no respirations' and had a 'suspected cardiac arrest', reads the report. Bina Patel was pronounced dead shortly after.

Ashkay said he has been left 'scarred' by the loss, and the terrifying circumstances in which it happened - exacerbated by the fact the family home is very close to Tameside Hospital A&E.

'The level of care received on that evening was just atrocious,' he told MEN.

'Tameside Hospital is two minutes up the road from where we live. If I could have got her in the car and driven her up there myself, I would have. But she just couldn't.

'At about 2.10am, my mum was struggling to breathe. She shouted my name, I jumped out of bed and saw that she couldn't even stand.

Ashkay said he has been left 'scarred' by the loss, and the terrifying circumstances in which it happened - exacerbated by the fact the family home is very close to Tameside Hospital A&E (file image)

'She was wheezing, she looked dizzy. I sat her down, got her a glass of water and I called the ambulance at about 2.30am to tell them she was having breathing difficulties.

'Knowing the hospital was so close, I expected someone to be there as soon as possible. No one arrived.

'I left it 15 minutes, her breathing was just getting more difficult and more difficult. Again, I called the ambulance service to chase, I explained that her breathing was becoming worse.

'She was screaming and screaming " can't breathe, I'm going to die". I genuinely thought she was going to die.

'I called them seven times that evening. It got to the point where she collapsed on the floor. I rang 999 and, on my final 999 call at 3.23am, they were telling me how to give CPR to my mum.

'At 3.27am, five minutes later, that's when an ambulance and paramedic car arrived at the scene. They put adrenaline shots in her and put a machine on her and they did fight for her for a good 30 minutes. But it was too late by then, there was no pulse.

'I was so angry at them. I told them "I rang you over an hour ago, that's when you should have been here, when she was still alive and just struggling for breath".

Ashkay said he will always look back on the night wondering if he could have done things differently.

He now wants answers to know why an ambulance was only able to be mobilised to his home at 3.17am, after he first called to report the breathing difficulties almost 50 minutes prior.

It's just scarred me for life. Knowing the NHS wasn't there when I needed it. I can't trust the ambulance service at all. Bina Patel's son Ashkay

'A life potentially could have been saved that night because she was struggling for breath for a full hour while waiting for the ambulance service,' he said.

'Throughout that whole hour, her lips went from red to white, things I thought I'd never witness in my life. Every time I made a call, they kept saying "calm the patient down". How do you calm someone who is struggling to get breath?

'An hour before, I was there, with my mum, trying to help her get her breath. An hour later, she's lying in front of me, passed away.

'I'm traumatised because there was no help from the people I needed it from. The service that you and I pay into. None of it makes sense to me. There's unanswered questions, why was I let down?

'For anyone it's heartbreaking to see a parent die in front of you. That whole scenario is always going to be in the back of my mind, I'm never going to forget what I witnessed that night. Never in my life.

'It's just scarred me for life. Knowing the NHS wasn't there when I needed it. I can't trust the ambulance service at all. No one can believe the ambulance took that long. The first question the 999 call handler asks is "is the patient breathing?".

'She just suffocated for that whole hour. Imagine being underwater for a full hour. You're not going to survive. That's the position the ambulance [service] put her in.

'If they came in time, something could have been done. The fact that I had to call 999 to get instructions on how to give CPR to my own mother, it's sickening.

'NWAS is the reason my mum died, in my opinion. They caused her death by not coming in time. I feel like they killed her, I blame them for her death. They didn't do their jobs properly. I don't think they took it seriously enough.'

NWAS is now making internal enquiries into the incident, said Ashkay, and has promised him a response within 60 days.

In response to MEN's questions over the death of Bina Patel, a North West Ambulance Service spokesperson said: 'We wish to pass on our deepest sympathies to Mr Patel and his family for the loss of his mother.

'We can confirm we have received an official complaint, and the investigation is ongoing. We are in contact with the family and will update them with our findings.'

Ashkay and his brother hope to raise money in her memory for their local temple and the British Heart Foundation.

'Bina Patel was so well known in the community,' said Ashkay. 'She was the most loving and caring person you could ever come across. Any help and guidance you ever needed, she was there.

'Even now people are coming to my house talking about the happy times they had with her, I had with her. My mum did the best she could, throughout her entire life. She was so proud of my brother and I and what we've achieved.

'She made Indian feasts for the local homeless shelter. Her speciality was cooking. No one is going to cook that feast anymore.

'She was an amazing person who could connect with anyone in the world. You'll never find a character like her. My mum was spectacular.'

He added: 'I'm so angry that if I saw an ambulance with blue lights on, I don't even think I'd move out of the way for it. When I needed them the most, they weren't there for me.

'My mum was only 56. My mind will never settle until I know why I was let down that night. It took the ambulance 57 minutes to get here, and I live two minutes from a hospital.'
A defense attorney for one of the three white men charged in the murder of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery has apologized 'to anyone who might have inadvertently been offended' for comments he made about Reverend Al Sharpton.

Defense attorney Kevin Gough on Thursday said the presence of Sharpton in the courtroom is 'intimidating' jurors as the lawyer made a plea for the judge to ban 'any more black pastors' from attending the trial.

Speaking on Friday, Gough, who represents defendant William Roddie Bryan, said: 'I will let the court know that if my statements yesterday were overly broad, I will follow up with a more specific motion on Monday putting those concerns in the proper context.

'And my apologies to anyone who might have inadvertently been offended,' he added.

Gough on Thursday raised his concerns with the famed New York activist's presence in the Georgia court, but did not find a receptive audience in Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley.

'If we're going to start a precedent, starting yesterday, where we're going to bring high-profile members of the African American community into the courtroom to sit with the family during the trial in the presence of the jury, I believe that's intimidating and it's an attempt to pressure... or influence the jury,' said Gough, who represents William 'Roddie' Bryan.

He added: 'There's only so many pastors they can have. If their pastor is Al Sharpton right now that's fine. But that's it. We don't want any more black pastors in here or other Jesse Jackson, whoever was in here earlier this week, sitting with the victim's family trying to influence a jury in this case.'

Travis McMichael's attorney Jason Sheffield has since distanced himself from Gough's remarks. He said Friday the statement was 'totally asinine, ridiculous ... in no way do we want to exclude anyone from this process. Everyone is welcome. Come one come all.'

The three defendants in the well-publicised case are white, as are 11 out of 12 jurors.

Defense attorney Kevin Gough on Thursday sought to ban Rev. Al Sharpton from the courtroom where three men are standing trial in the death of Ahmaud Arbery

Sharpton (front left) on Wednesday attended the trial with Arbery's family and participated in a press conference slamming the mostly-white makeup of the jury

Travis McMichael (left), Gregory McMichael (center) and William Bryan Jr. (right) have all pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment

'I think people can understand my concern about bringing people in who don't have any ties to this case apart from political interests,' Gough went on.

'We want to keep politics out of this case. So I am asking the court to take appropriate steps to make sure the gallery isn't being utilized for a purpose that could be viewed as improper.

'If a bunch of folks came in here dressed as Colonel Sanders with white masks sitting in the back...,' he said, referring to the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, before not getting a chance to finish his sentence.

Arbery was shot and killed on Feb. 23, 2020

Judge Walmsley cut Gough off at that point and dismissed the request, saying: 'I am not going to blanketly exclude members of the public from this courtroom.'

The judge said that he hadn't heard of 'any distraction whatsoever' yesterday adding: 'From what I hear is that nobody was even aware that he (Sharpton) was in here'.

Rev. Sharpton said in a statement that Kevin's comments showed 'arrogant insensitivity.'

Sharpton said: 'I respect the defense attorney doing his job but this is beyond defending your client, it is insulting the family of the victim.'

Along with Bryan, 52, Gregory McMichael, 65, and his son Travis McMichael, 35, have pleaded not guilty to murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. They face life in prison if convicted of murder.

They are accused of chasing Arbery in vehicles and killing him on February 23, 2020 in in Brunswick, Georgia.

Sharpton had spoken with reporters Wednesday outside the Glynn County courthouse, where he held the hands of Arbery's parents while leading a prayer for justice. Sharpton criticized the disproportionately white makeup of the jury.

Judge Walmsley allowed the jury to be sworn in last week after prosecutors objected, saying several black potential jurors were excluded because of their race, leaving only one black juror on the panel of 12.

The population of the county where the trial is being held is nearly 27 percent black.

'It's an insult to the intelligence of the American people,' Sharpton said. 'If you can count to 12 and only get to one that's black, you know something's wrong.'

Family attorney Benjamin Crump, right, speaks as Marcus Arbery, second from right, his former wife Wanda Cooper, left, and the Rev. Al Sharpton listen on Wednesday

Arbery's mother Wanda Cooper-Jones (above) denounced Gough's argument for a ban on prominent African-Americans in the court

On Thursday, Arbery's mother Wanda Cooper-Jones denounced Gough's argument for a ban on prominent African-Americans at court as the fifth day of the trial of the three Georgia men concluded.

Speaking outside the Glynn County Superior courthouse at the end of the day, Cooper-Jones dismissed the notion that such a thing could influence jurors.

'I don't think that anything can sway the jury,' she said. 'I think if the jury takes the evidence that is presented that we will get justice for Ahmaud.

'For everyone that played a part in the killing of Ahmaud, they get sentenced to jail forever.'

The mom also referenced the testimony of Larry English, who called 911 after seeing Arbery enter his under-construction home on surveillance video, saying he did not have a problem with others entering his property, only her son.

'It was just a problem when it was Ahmaud. Ahmaud was the one paid most attention to,' she said.

'They didn't have problems with other people on the property, only Ahmaud.'

Mark McGuire, a lawyer assisting Cooper-Jones, said of the English testimony and related videos: 'All that it revealed was that Ahmaud had been on that property and never committed a crime, he had never destroyed anything, never taken anything or done anything to justify any of the brutal response that they saw that occurred on February 23.'

On Thursday, the jury was shown grainy surveillance footage of Arbery walking around a vacant property on earlier visits to the mostly white southern Georgia neighborhood where he was chased and shot dead.

Grainy video footage of Ahmaud Arbery roaming around a partly-constructed home on five occasions in the months before he was shot dead last year was played in front of the jury Thursday

The 25-year-old is seen above at the same home on February 23, 2020 - the day he was chased and killed

A 45-second clip from October 25 (pictured) showed him wandering around near the back of the house at night. Larry English, who was constructing his 'dream second home', called 911 to report a 'trespasser' who he suspected was 'maybe drunk or on drugs'

The videos were pulled from surveillance cameras installed in an unoccupied, half-built house in Satilla Shores that plays a crucial role in the case. Arbery visited the site multiple times at night in the months before his death, the final visit taking place just minutes before he was shot.

'I got a trespasser,' English, the property owner, said in a call to police after the first recorded visit made by Arbery on the night of October 25, 2019, which was played in Glynn County Superior Court on Thursday.

The visits to the unoccupied property have become a central part of the defense case.

The McMichaels say they were aware of reports of an unidentified Black man wandering around the property and that Travis McMichael had even glimpsed Arbery on the property on an earlier visit in February.

They thought Arbery might have been that same man when he ran past the McMichaels' driveway in Satilla Shores on Feb. 23, 2020. Prosecutors say Arbery was an avid runner out for a Sunday afternoon jog.

The men pursued Arbery in pickup trucks before the younger McMichael pointed a shotgun and fired as Arbery ran toward him and reached at the weapon. Their lawyers say this was justified self defense.

In a video deposition recorded in September and played to the jury, English said he had been slowly building his riverside house in Satilla Shores.

The jury watched a four-hour recorded deposition from English (right) who was quizzed by prosecutor Paul Camarillo (left). He confirmed he never saw Arbery steal anything from the property and agreed that there was no evidence Arbery was drunk

'My dream was to have a place on the water,' he said. He knew local kids sometimes roamed about the property, which was unfenced. He testified that he worried about people having an accident around the boat dock out back so installed surveillance cameras that sent videos to his phone.

The clip of Arbery walking around the dock during the visit in October 2019 was played, along with a recording of the call English made to police to report a trespassing 'colored guy' with tattoos on his arms and curly hair. English told police the man may have been drunk or on drugs as he was 'plundering around' the property.

In the deposition, English said he decided soon after that it was more likely the man was not intoxicated but moving cautiously in the dark in a way that looked odd on the night-vision video.

Nothing was taken that night, English said. A clip from November showing a man and woman, both white, wandering through the property at night was also played, along with the call English made to police to report them.

Videos of three other night-time visits made by Arbery in November, December and February were played. Some fishing equipment and a cooler had gone missing from one of English's boats at some point, but nothing was taken on the days Arbery was seen there, English said.

English showed the clips of Arbery to some of his neighbors, and the McMichaels have said they knew about the reports of an unknown Black man roaming around the English property when Arbery ran by their driveway on Feb. 23, 2020.

English said he sometimes made friendly chitchat with the McMichaels, and that he had never met or spoken with Bryan.

He said he asked only one neighbor to keep an eye on his property, and it was not any of the defendants. He later heard that Travis McMichael had joined that neighbor and called 911 during the visit Arbery made on the night of Feb. 11, 2020, to report an unfamiliar Black man on the property.

English has also said through a lawyer that he later concluded that Arbery had been stopping by for a drink of water from a faucet on his property, which was not in the view of any of the surveillance cameras.
A 34-year-old who suffered years of abuse at the hands of Britain's most sadistic foster mother hanged herself when she could no longer cope with the anguish, an inquest has heard.

Victoria Spry killed herself in her flat in Cheltenham after years of worrying her childhood abuser Eunice, who was released from prison in 2014, might try to 'exact revenge', the coroner heard.

Victoria, who published a book called 'Torture' about her traumatic experiences at the hands of Eunice, was found dead at her flat by her fiance Anthony Smart on September 22 last year.

She had been discharged from a psychiatric hospital following six months of treatment just two weeks before her death.

Her fiance had spoken to her at 7.50am on the days she died. She assured him she was OK and said she would see him the next day, giving no indication of what she was about to do, the inquest was told.

Recording a conclusion of suicide, the assistant Gloucestershire Coroner Roland Wooderson said: 'This is indeed a tragic death. I have been through the evidence and I have to say it is difficult to contemplate the mental anguish from which she suffered from a very early age.

Victoria Spry (pictured) killed herself in her flat in Cheltenham after years of worrying her childhood abuser Eunice, who was released from prison in 2014, might try to 'exact revenge', the coroner heard

'The documentation shows she endured a history of what can only be termed as horrendous abuse at the hands of her mother and uncle.'

Victoria also suffered life changing injuries at the age of 14 in a car crash in which two of her siblings died, he said.

'Despite all of that Miss Spry was described as a bright, caring and determined individual, well liked by all. Indeed she had authored a book,' said the coroner.

'This is a tragic, dreadful, death. It is clear to me that as a result of the tragic circumstances and history of her life she intended to take her life that day.'

Detective Sgt Jonathan Williams stated that he went to the flat after the alarm was raised by Mr Smart, who was there with his father when the officer arrived.

'I was told she had recently been discharged from hospital and had been telling people she was suicidal,' Sgt Williams stated.

'There were no signs of other injuries to her or of any struggle or disturbance in the flat. There were no notes or letters that would explain the circumstances.

'On the basis of what I have been told about her recent mental health problems and talk of self harm and possible preparation I am satisfied there was no third party involvement in her death.'

Victoria, who published a book called 'Torture' about her traumatic experiences at the hands of Eunice (pictured), was found dead at her flat by her fiance Anthony Smart on September 22 last year

Tamara Pascoe, a senior occupational therapist with the Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, said in a statement that she was part of the Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Recovery Team that provides support to people with enduring mental illness.

'Victoria had sadly had multiple referrals to psychiatric services since June 1997,' stated Ms Pascoe.

'She had a diagnosis of emotional unstable personality disorder in the context of significant childhood abuse and trauma.

'She had been discharged from the Honeybourne Unit (a Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Trust rehabilitation unit in Cheltenham) two weeks before her death.

'She had stopped taking her medications and there had been a significant decline in her mental health. She had made an attempt to hang herself two days prior to her death. She had been seen by our teams the day before she died. '

Over a period of nearly 20 years, Spry broke bones and routinely abused and starved the children or, in Victoria's (pictured) case, rubbed her face with sandpaper

The coroner said he had received a 'most detailed' 74-page report from the NHS Trust about Victoria's troubled life and the treatment and support she had received.

Mr Wooderson read out passages from the report, which began with a 'pen portrait' of Victoria that said: 'The patient was a bright, caring, determined individual who was well liked by all who worked with her.

'She had authored a book about her childhood experiences and it was so popular it was translated into three languages. She loved dogs, especially Labradors.

'She valued her own flat because it provided her with space, peace and quiet. She had expressed a desire to study English and Maths and to return to work, even if it was on a voluntary basis - she said this just a week before her death.

'She had expressed an interest in hairdressing and childcare.'

In the early years, Victoria had intensive physiotherapy, went to college and worked as a nursery nurse

The report continued: 'She struggled to trust anyone, especially those in authority. She talked about hearing the voices of people in her past and described how they traumatised her. They (the voices) were often derogatory in nature. She dulled this with alcohol and drugs.

'She was engaged to be married and her fiance was a source of support.

'She had experienced abuse at the hands of her foster/adoptive mother and her uncle. Her foster mother had received a custodial sentence for the harm she caused the patient and her siblings.

'The abuse was systematic. It started at one year of age and continued for 17-18 years and was severe. It is clear the patient never forgot the experiences she suffered and this cast a long shadow over her childhood.

'She feared her mother might make contact to exact revenge for her long custodial sentence. Her foster mother has been out of prison for several years and as from September 2018 she was free to enter Gloucestershire as the licence preventing her from so doing had expired.

'The patient had significant trust issues. She used substance and alcohol misuse to protect her from having to deal with and manage her emotional feelings.

'The systematic abuse she had endured clearly had a marked and detrimental effect on her personality. This effect was still present at the time of her death.'

The report said the road accident which badly injured Victoria and killed two of her siblings twenty years ago had also had 'a marked and long term effect on her mental health.'

Victoria first sought help from mental health services in 2011 when she was 25, the report said. In November 2019 she was detained by police under the Mental Health Act after she jumped from a window of her flat and ran into the road.

A month later she was found in a 'drowsy state in a fast food restaurant' after taking opiod pain killer tablets.

Two days later in Wotton Lawn psychiatric hospital in Gloucester she took an overdose and lost consciousness.

The report said that on March 9 last year she was admitted to the Honeybourne Unit and was discharged on September 9. She said she was 'excited' about leaving and getting back to her flat but a week or so later she stopped taking her medication and 'disengaged from her social care package'.

Her risk of suicide was assessed as high at that point and she was referred to the crisis resolution and home care team. After her attempted suicide two days before her death a care plan was put into place.

The report concluded that despite the problems and restrictions of Covid last year the Trust had done all it could for Victoria and she had received an 'appropriate, comprehensive, coherent and cohesive package of care'.

Spry was released in July 2014, which was a difficult time for all of the siblings, especially Victoria, who harboured worries that Eunice would track her down

Clinical staff had been 'robust and persistent' in trying to help her, said the report.

'Although the outcome of the case was tragic, the mental health team involved in her care exercised due diligence and adhered to best practice guidelines.'

After the inquest, Victoria's fiance said: 'It is all still very raw. It's terribly sad. I had known her for 11 years. We hadn't made any wedding plans but we had been talking about it.'

In 2007 at Bristol crown court Eunice, then aged 62, was convicted of 26 charges including unlawful wounding, cruelty to a person under 16, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, perverting the course of justice, and witness intimidation.

The court heard she had beaten Victoria and two other children with sticks and metal bars, scrubbed their skin with sandpaper, and forced them to eat lard, bleach, vomit and even their own faeces.

She treated the children as if they were her slaves and ordered one of them to use a wheelchair for four years - even though the girl could walk normally - so that she could claim State Benefits.

A Jehovah's Witness, Eunice was regarded as a pillar of her community in Tewkesbury - but behind closed doors she would punish the children because they were 'possessed by the Devil'.

She once kept two of them imprisoned, naked and starving, in a room for a month.

She was sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment by Judge Simon Darwall-Smith, who told her: 'You were careful to carry out what can be described as sadistic torture without being found out. If it were solely my decision, you would be facing a sentence from which you would not be released.'

Spry's sentence was reduced to 12 years on appeal and she was freed on parole in 2014.

For confidential support call Samaritans on 116123 or visit a Samaritans branch.
Legal experts have questioned how Katie Price has travelled to the US just weeks after admitting in court that she had taken cocaine while pleading guilty to drink-driving charges.

Katie, 43 arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday with her fiance Carl Woods, 32, where they plan to marry.

Just six weeks earlier on 29 September, Katie pleaded guilty at Crawley Magistrates' Court to three charges of drink driving, driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance after she flipped her car following an all-night alcohol and cocaine bender.

Prosecutors dropped a drug-driving charge in light of her guilty drink-driving plea, but magistrates were told that a drugs test gave a positive reading for cocaine.

Katie, from Horsham, West Sussex, who was already banned from driving, flipped her car on a country road at 6.20am near West Grinstead, close to her home.

After the hearing, she checked into The Priory rehab clinic and only left earlier this week as she headed to the US.

Katie Price, 43 arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday with her fiance Carl Woods (pictured together), 32, where they plan to marry

American immigration lawyers based in the UK told MailOnline that they are 'mystified' as to how she was able to travel to the US given the fact that she admitted to taking illict drugs.

Following the crash, Katie told police: 'I was just going to my friend's house. I know I shouldn't. I've been banned four times. I took drugs. I should not be driving. I admit it all.'

Most travellers to the US apply through ESTA, an automated system that determines the eligibility of visitors to the country and does not require them to get a visa.

But those who are convicted of drug offences or simply admit to consuming them, either during a court appearance or following a high-profile incident are automatically prevented from ESTA and are forced to apply for a visa, which can take anything up to two years, because of a COVID backlog.

Kaitlin Davies (pictured) is a lawyer for London-based firm DaviesLegal, which specialises in US immigration law

Kaitlin Davies, a lawyer for London-based firm DaviesLegal, which specialises in US immigration law said: 'Her case was at the end of September and it would be near impossible for Price to get to the US this quickly by applying for an ESTA.

'You don't have to disclose a driving under the influence of alcohol conviction for ESTA but if you have admitted in court to taking illicit substances, even if you are not convicted or charged for this, an ESTA would be denied.'

Ms Davies cited the case of Nigella Lawson, who in 2014 was stopped from flying to the US four months after she confessed to taking cocaine during a court hearing.

Ms Davies revealed that when an ESTA is denied, only two other options are open for travellers to the US; to apply for what is known as a B-visa or an O-visa, which are only issued to high profile entertainers or VIPs.

Referring to B-visas, she said: 'This involves going to the US embassy, being interviewed and then your case is sent to the Admissibility Review Office in the US for final consideration.

'Because of the COVID backlog, you cannot get an interview at the US embassy in London at the moment for love nor money. The whole process can take anything up to two years.'

US attorney Melissa Chavin, head of London-based Chavin Immigration, which specialises in immigration to the US said: 'O-visas are issued to very high-profile entertainers and VIPs and Katie Price would qualify for this.

'But given that she has been involved in a recent incident of drug taking, which received a lot of media attention, the advice would have been for her to apply for an O-visa in a years' time, when things have moved on a bit. She is unlikely to get one so quickly.'

American immigration lawyers based in the UK told MailOnline that they are 'mystified' as to how she was able to travel to the US given the fact that she admitted to taking illict drugs

O-visas are also issued if the person applying can prove that they have scheduled work in the US or there is a compelling reason of national interest for them to visit.

Apart from revealing her plans to marry, Katie claims that she is in the US to visit Carl's parents and visit tourist sights.

Ms Davies said: 'These are not compelling reasons, and she has admitted very recently to taking illicit drugs, so the whole visa process for somebody like Katie Price would be a lot more complicated.'

Both lawyers accept that Katie may have had visas issued prior to her arrest and court appearance but under US laws she is obliged to report this, which could lead to her permission to travel to the country being denied.

Ms Davies said: 'Any entrant to the US has an obligation to notify authorities of any material change in circumstances.'

Ms Chavin added: 'Even if she already had a visa, Price would had to have reported the incidents and her drug taking.

'It's very hard to get into the US if you have admitted to taking illegal substances. Even a caution for minor drug offences, which may have even expired, can cause serious problems.'

MailOnline has approached Katie Price's representative for comment.
The CEO of Air Canada is being criticized for admitting he doesn't speak French after delivering a mostly-English speech in Quebec, where French is the official language of the government, commerce and the courts.

Michael Rousseau, CEO of Air Canada, gave the speech to business leaders in Quebec earlier this month. Rousseau answered questions from the media after the speech, the first of which he did not understand because it was asked in French, forcing him to admit his lack of French understanding.

'My comprehension isn't as good as I'd like it to be,' he told the media after asking the reporter to repeat the question in English.

Rousseau, who has lived in Quebec for nearly 14 years, told reporters that learning French wasn't a 'priority' and that living Montreal without knowing French was 'easy.'

Michael Rousseau, CEO of Air Canada, has been highly-criticized by the public and members of the country's government after he admitted he did not speak French

Chrystia Freeland, Canada's deputy prime minister and finance minister, wrote the company's chairman a letter recommending that 'Knowledge of French' be added as a job requirement

Following his admission, Canada's deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland wrote a letter to the chairman of Canada's biggest airline suggesting that 'Knowledge of French' be added as a job requirement.

She specifically noted Rousseau's inadequate knowledge of French recommending that 'significant improvement' in his French 'should be incorporated as one of his key performance goals.'

The CEO's confession drew a wave of harsh criticism with some even calling for his removal. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau deemed the situation 'unacceptable' and Quebec Premier Francois Legault called it 'insulting.'

Rousseau's comments were considered so egregious that even the president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, which represents English-language groups, Marlene Jennings condemned the CEO.

'Mr. Rousseau's narrow-minded comment that he does not feel the need to learn French feeds the myth that English-speaking Quebecers are a privileged minority indifferent to French,' Jennings said. 'His attitude simply does not reflect the values of our community.'

The controversy of the CEO one of Quebec's largest businesses seeming to dismiss the French language added to fuel to the current fight Francophones have taken to the legislature.

Bill 96 is currently in the committee stage but may have been given added strength by Rousseau's recent scandal.

Rousseau, who has lived in Quebec for nearly 14 years, has never learned French despite it being the official language of the government, commerce and the courts in the province

Air Canada is one of Quebec's largest business, making the province a transportation hub

Justin Trudeau called Rousseau's remarks and failure to learn French 'unacceptable'

The bill seeks to add clauses to the Canadian Constitution to acknowledge Quebec as a 'nation' and declare French its official language. It enhances the French Language Charter by setting clear markers to enhance the use and importance of French in the province.

For years Francophones have worried about the encroachment of English in the mostly-French speaking province. Bill 96, An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Quebec, establishes several measures to reinforce French as the dominant language.

The proposed law would require: all businesses with 25 or more employees to function entirely in French- that number is currently set at 50, commercial signage include predominantly larger text in French, a 17.5% maximum of Francophone students allowed to attend English-language colleges, the removal of renewability of visas allowing children whose parents are on work visas to attend English schools, English-language services provided to immigrants to be diminished, and the removal of the requirement for all provincial judges to be bilingual.

If passed, the bill would come as the first major overhaul of Bill 101, the seminal language legislation the Parti Quebecois government passed in 1977.

The dominance of French in Quebec has slowly declined over the past century but Franchophones worry the dip will quickly steepen in 15 years. While in 2016 an estimated 95% of Quebecers spoke French, projections show that number could drop to 70% by 2036, The Washington Post reported.

Bill 96 is seen by some as strengthening the province's identity while opponents claim the bill will negatively impact Quebec.

Some critics have claimed that the strict enforcement of French will deter businesses, educational institutions, and immigrants from the area.
President Joe Biden will meet virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday evening, the White House announced on Friday.

The two will discuss ways to 'responsibily manage the competition between the United States and the PRC [People's Republic of China],' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

President Biden 'will make clear U.S. intentions and priorities and be clear and candid about our concerns with the PRC,' Psaki noted.

The meeting comes after administration officials criticized Xi for not attending the G20 or the COP26 summit in person. Xi joined the G20 virtually but he has not left China during the COVID pandemic.

It also comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade deals, the situation in Taiwan, the COVID pandemic and climate change.

The White House had said Biden would hold a one-on-one with his Chinese counterpart before the end of the year.

The much- anticipated meeting will be the third engagement between the two leaders since February. It comes after the U.S. and China this week pledged at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland to increase their cooperation and speed up action to rein in climate-damaging emissions.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi came to an agreement on holding the Biden-Xi virtual summit by year's end when they met last month for talks in Zurich but the two sides had not settled on a date.

President Joe Biden will meet virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday evening in a much-anticipated meeting

The virtual meeting was proposed after Biden, who spent a substantial amount of time with Xi when the two were vice presidents, mentioned during a September phone call with the Chinese leader that he would like to be able to see Xi again, according to the White House.

Xi has not left China during the coronavirus pandemic. White House officials proposed a virtual summit as the best available substitute for the two leaders to have a substantive conversation on a number of issues that have put strains on the U.S.-China relationship.

'We hope the U.S. will work together with China to jointly strive to make the leaders summit a success and bring China-U.S. ties back to the right track of sound and stable development,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Friday.

The meeting comes as Xi faces a crucial year ahead with Beijing's hosting of the Winter Olympic Games and a key Communist Party Congress where he looks to secure an unprecedented third term.

A senior U.S. administration official said Biden would use the meeting to make clear that he welcomes stiff competition with China, but doesn't want conflict, and downplayed the likelihood of a long list of outcomes often tied to senior leader meetings.

'This is not about seeking specific deliverables or outcomes,' the official told reporters.

'As we compete with the PRC, President Biden expects President Xi and the PRC to play by the rules of road-and he will make that point throughout the meeting,' the official said.

There has been no shortage of tension in the relationship in recent months as Biden has made clear he sees Beijing's actions on a number of fronts as concerning.

The president has criticized China for human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in northwest China, squelching pro-democracy efforts in Hong Kong, and resisting global pressure to cooperate fully with investigations into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

President Joe Biden leaving the G20 summit in Rome; President Xi Jinping didn't attend and hasn't left China during the COVID pandemic

Taiwan will be on agenda for Biden/Xi meeting - Tanks are seen in a procession .during a shore defense operation as part of a military exercise simulating the defense against the intrusion of Chinese military, amid rising tensions between Taipei and China

Tensions have also been exacerbated recently by the Chinese militarys flying dozens of sorties near the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.

Biden, at the Group of 20 meeting in Rome and again at the U.N. climate gathering, criticized Xi for failing to show up to the summits, where world leaders discussed the way forward on the pandemic and steps to ease the impact of climate change.

'I think its been a big mistake, quite frankly, for China ... not showing up, ' Biden said in Glasgow. 'The rest of the world is going to look to China and say, what value added have they provided?'

Both leaders took part in Fridays Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) virtual meeting, where leaders discussed efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic and support the global economic recovery.
Claridge's star chef has been sacked from his 150-a-head restaurant because bosses refuse to allow him to turn the restaurant fully vegan.

Daniel Humm, 45, will leave his post at Davies and Brook at the end of December following tense talks with the five-star hotel's management.

The vegan chef wanted to create a fully plant-based kitchen at the hotel's fine-dining restaurant.

But bosses said 'this is not the path we wish to follow here at Claridge's at the moment' in a statement posted to Twitter.

The hotel and Mr Humm have 'mutually' decided to part ways as the US-born chef aims to bring a 'bold new vision' of fully plant-based eating to London.

The statement added: 'We wish to thank Daniel Humm and his extraordinary team at Davies and Brook for what they have created here at Claridge's since they opened in 2019, gaining accolades along the way under challenging circumstances.

Daniel Humm (pictured), 45, will leave his post at Davies and Brook at the end of December following tense talks with the five-star hotel's management

'We completely respect and understand the culinary direction of a fully plant-based menu that Daniel has decided to embrace and champion and now wants to introduce to London.

'However, this is not the path we wish to follow here at Claridge's at the moment, and therefore, regretfully, we have mutually decided to go our separate ways.

'Daniel has been a long standing friend of the hotel for many years and we wish him nothing but continued success as he spearheads this bold new vision.

'Davies and Brook will continue to operate under his direction until the end of December 2021, and we will update on future plans at Claridge's in due course.'

Yesterday one hotel insider told the Daily Mail's Richard Eden 'it's a nightmare'. They added: 'Bosses are terrified that Humm will leave if his demands are not met, which would mean they would be without him during the Christmas season, their busiest time of year.

The hotel and Mr Humm have 'mutually' decided to part ways as the US-born chef aims to bring a 'bold new vision' of fully plant-based eating to London

Yesterday one hotel insider told the Daily Mail's Richard Eden 'it's a nightmare'. They added: 'Bosses are terrified that Humm will leave if his demands are not met.' Pictured, Claridge's

'But if they turn the restaurant vegan, they will upset thousands of regular guests.'

It comes after Mr Humm turned the 250-a-head menu at his three-Michelin-starred New York restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, plant-based.

Items on the menu now include cucumber with melon and smoked daikon; fried pepper with Swiss chard; and courgette with lemongrass and tofu.

Meanwhile, a four-course menu at the Claridge's menu Davies And Brook, costs 125 a head and includes caviar; roasted venison with beetroot; and foie gras with black truffle.

A Claridge's spokesman yesterday said the hotel was in talks with Mr Humm. 'We are constantly reviewing the offerings at Davies And Brook, including the possible introduction of a fully plant-based menu,' they said.

Mr Humm recently attended the Cop26 eco summit in Glasgow, where he said his mission in life was 'to make plant-based food delicious, magical and luxurious'.

He added: 'It's better for our planet and our health.'
The number of migrant adults posing as unaccompanied children at the border rose slightly in the first month in October along the El Paso sector.

Newly released U.S. Border Patrol data show that since October 1 in the El Paso sector, 55 adults attempted to present themselves as children. In the 12 months between October 1 2020 to September 30 2021, 559 adult migrants were stopped.

The El Paso sector encompasses 264 miles of the southwestern border in New Mexico and west Texas.

The sector reported 193,918 undocumented migrants at the border for fiscal year 2021, the fourth-highest amount among U.S. Border Patrol's nine sectors. At least 22,906 minors were stopped by border officers.

Agents of the El Paso sector work with the Department of Homeland Security to identify the fraudulent scheme. It is commonly used by criminal organization who provide smuggling services through the Mexico-United States border for migrants.

U.S. Border Patrol encountered about 200 migrants in Normandy, Texas, after the group crossed the Mexico-United States border on November 3. According to U.S. Border Patrol's El Paso Sector announced Friday that 55 adults attempted to present themselves as unaccompanied children since October 1 after 559 adult migrants were stopped in all of fiscal year 2021

Yery Noel Medina Ulloa lied to U.S. Border agents about his name and said he was 17 before he was stopped for unlawful border entry late this summer. Authorities in Jacksonville, Florida, revealed his identity and age, 24, after he was arrested October 7 for killing 46-year-old Francisco Javier Cuellar, who took him into his home and provided him a job at his family-operated business

According to U.S. federal immigration guidelines, an unaccompanied minor is considered a person under the age of 18.

Adults who have been caught impersonating unaccompanied minors can be sentenced to up to five years in prison for lying to a federal law enforcement officer and conspiring to defraud the U.S.

El Paso sector spokesman Carlos A. Rivera told DailyMail.com that most of the adult migrants posed as 15-, 16- or 17-year-olds coming to the United States without their parents.

'El Paso Sector agents, working jointly with HSI and the US Attorney's office, are working tirelessly to identify and prosecute adult migrants entering the United States illegally who fraudulently claim to be an unaccompanied child or juvenile,' said El Paso Sector Border Patrol Chief Gloria I. Chavez.

DailyMail.com reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to confirm the number of adults stopped for lying about being minors in the other nine sectors along the southwestern border.

Some have circumvented the federal immigration agency. Yery Noel Medina Ulloa, 24, pleaded not guilty November 4 to second-degree murder and evidence tampering charges in Jacksonville, Florida, after he was arrested October 7 in the fatal stabbing of 46-year-old Francisco Javier Cuellar. The attack was caught on camera.

As many as 20 migrants were detained by the Texas Department of Public Safety after officers stopped the vehicle in which they were traveling near Van Horn, Texas, on October 28

Six of the 12 undocumented migrants who were detained by Border Patrol agents near Laredo, Texas, after they were spotted swimming across the Rio Grande on Tuesday

A group of migrants was found inside a truck during an checkpoint inspection conducted by border patrol agents in Laredo, Texas, on November 4

At the time of his apprehension, the suspect provided officers a fake name - Reynel Alexander Hernandez - and said he was 17.

It took authorities nearly a week to verify his real name and age after CBP got a response from the Honduran consulate.

CBP declined to answer a question from DailyMail.com about which border sector processed Medina Ulloa.

In an interview with Univision, his mother, Wendy Florencia Ulloa, said her son entered the U.S. using another name so that he could be placed in a shelter for minors.

A police report showed that Medina Ulloa has been in the U.S. for two months and was staying at Cuellar's home. He gave Ulloa a job at his family-run store.

While it's unknown how Ulloa ended up at Cuellar's home, his daughter told the New York Post that he had gone to the airport to pick Ulloa up. She thought Ulloa may have been on one of the several flights used by the Biden administration to resettle migrants.

'My dad told me one day he was going to the airport, and then this guy came out of nowhere and was at work the next day,' MaryCarmen Cuellar said.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a constant critic of President Biden, described Ulloa's criminal actions as 'the latest example of how unfettered illegal migration costs Floridians' lives' in a statement to Jacksonville television station WJXT.

'If not for the Biden Administration's unlawful 'catch and release' policy, Francisco Cuellar would still be alive today,' he said.

The most recent CBP monthly southwestern border report showed that U.S. Border Patrol agents reported 1.7 million encounters with migrants who unlawfully crossed the United States-Mexico border in fiscal year 2021, the highest since 1986.

As many as 146,925 unaccompanied children were taken into custody at the southwestern border.
Advertisement

Matt Hancock is set to write a 'How I Won The Covid War' book on his 'heroic' role in the UK vaccine campaign.

The former health secretary is in talks with HarperCollins over a blow-by-blow account of 'heated' lockdown rows with ministers, aides, scientists and medics.

The book, which could earn him an advance of 100,000, will allow him to dispute claims that he was to blame for key blunders in the pandemic as well as push his case for a Cabinet comeback.

It is understood he will hit back at former No 10 aide Dominic Cummings who has accused him of incompetence and lying.

Matt Hancock is set to write a 'How I Won The Covid War' book on his 'heroic' role in the UK vaccine campaign. The former health secretary is in talks with HarperCollins over a blow-by-blow account of 'heated' lockdown rows with ministers, aides, scientists and medics. (Above, the then-Health Secretary during a press conference in January 2021)

Mr Hancock is keen to resist pressure to use the book to describe the affair with aide Gina Coladangelo (together, left, in September 2019) that led to his resignation in June  or the leaked photo of their kiss (right, inside his ministerial office in May) that ended his marriage

The book, which could earn Mr Hancock an advance of 100,000, will allow him to dispute claims that he was to blame for key blunders in the pandemic as well as push his case for a Cabinet comeback. It is understood he will hit back at former No 10 aide Dominic Cummings (pictured) who has accused him of incompetence and lying

According to insiders, he will fuel their vicious war of words with the explosive claim that Mr Cummings' 'destructive antics' delayed the vaccine breakthrough.

They suggest he will also take aim at EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen over Covid jab rows.

Mr Hancock last night told the Mail: 'I have been approached to write a book, but no decisions have been made.'

He is said to want it published just before the official Covid inquiry starts in the spring.

He intends to portray himself in a 'heroic light' and 'get his version of events out there' before he faces the inquiry.

A well-placed source said: 'Matt paints a picture of a man burning the midnight oil night after night, staying cool under fire, saving the NHS and rising above petty Downing Street squabbles.

Mr Hancock last night told the Mail: 'I have been approached to write a book, but no decisions have been made.' He intends to portray himself in a 'heroic light' and 'get his version of events out there' before he faces the inquiry. (Above, Mr Hancock with Gina Coladangelo in Manchester in 2019, attending the Conservative Party Conference)

'If you believe the book, the vaccine is all down to him for backing it against all odds, treating anti-vaxxers with contempt and winning over a sceptical public.'

He is said to be planning to 'go out of his way to be flattering' about Boris Johnson, seen by some as a further sign that he is determined to win back his seat round the Cabinet table  and the 140,000 salary that comes with it.

Mr Hancock is keen to resist pressure to use the book to describe the affair with aide Gina Coladangelo that led to his resignation in June  or the leaked photo of their kiss that ended his marriage.

In a separate development, this newspaper has learned new details of Mr Hancock's visit to the HQ of the healthcare firm that paid fellow disgraced ex-minister Owen Paterson 500,000  and won 500million of Covid contracts from Mr Hancock.

Mr Hancock's visit to Randox in March 2019 was arranged by Mr Paterson who resigned as an MP last week after being found guilty of breaking lobbying rules for the firm.

Mr Hancock is said to be planning to 'go out of his way to be flattering' about Boris Johnson, seen by some as a further sign that he is determined to win back his seat round the Cabinet table  and the 140,000 salary that comes with it. (Pictured, Mr Hancock gives a Covid update on November 26, 2020)

According to insiders, Mr Hancock will also take aim at EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen over Covid jab rows. (Above, Ursula von der Leyen at COP26 in Glasgow this month)

A smiling Mr Hancock was photographed alongside Randox boss Peter FitzGerald, both men wearing a lab coat with a Randox logo. Labour has called for an investigation into whether Mr Paterson was linked to Randox winning the 500million deal.

Mr Paterson also took part in a phone call with health minister Lord Bethell and Mr FitzGerald in April 2020 when Randox won its first Covid testing contract, worth 133million.

Mr Hancock later defended the company when 750,000 of its testing kits made in China bought mainly for care homes in the UK had to be recalled because they were not sterile.

Former lobbyist and night club manager Lord Bethell, who gave 5,000 to Mr Hancock's 2019 Tory leadership campaign, was made a health minister by him in March 2020.

Three days after his appointment he provided a Lords pass to Miss Coladangelo. An inquiry cleared the peer of wrongdoing.
Several developments this week have lead to increased tensions with fears of war breaking out in Eastern Europe.

The European Union has accused the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, of aiding illegal border crossings in retaliation for EU sanctions but Lukashenko denies encouraging migration to Europe.

Meanwhile Russia and Belarus held snap paratrooper drills just 20 miles from the border where migrants are gathered, saying it was to 'test the readiness' of their troops.

Separately, the US also warned that Putin could be preparing for an attack on eastern Ukraine after he was spotted massing thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces near the border.

Ukraine's defence minister accused Russia of waging 'hybrid warfare' on Europe, saying Putin is ultimately responsible for the Polish border crisis.

But what exactly has lead to the crisis at the border? A look back at the events behind the increasingly tense situation.

What is behind the crisis?

Belarus was rocked by months of massive protests following the August 2020 election that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office. The opposition and the West rejected the result as a sham.

Belarusian authorities responded to the demonstrations with a fierce crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police.

The European Union and the U.S. reacted by imposing sanctions on Lukashenko's government.

Belarus was rocked by months of huge protests following an August 2020 election that gave dictator and Kremlin-backed President Alexander Lukashenko (pictured) a sixth term in office

Those restrictions were toughened after an incident in May when a passenger jet flying from Greece to Lithuania was diverted by Belarus to Minsk, where authorities arrested dissident journalist Roman Pratasevich.

The EU called it air piracy and barred Belarusian carriers from its skies and cut imports of the country's top commodities, including petroleum products and potash, an ingredient in fertilizer.

A furious Lukashenko shot back by saying he would no longer abide by an agreement to stem illegal migration, arguing that the EU sanctions deprived his government of funds needed to contain flows of migrants.

Planes carrying migrants from Iraq, Syria and other countries began arriving in Belarus, and they soon headed for the borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Pavel Latushka, a member of the Belarusian opposition, claimed that state-controlled tourist agencies were involved in offering visa support to migrants and helping them drive to the border.

The EU accused Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns in a 'hybrid attack' against the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for the sanctions. Lukashenko denies encouraging the flow of migrants and said the EU is violating migrants' rights by denying them safe passage.

Roman Protasevich (pictured) was on a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius on Sunday when it was forced to change course to head for the Belarus capital after a reported bomb scare

What has been the response by EU countries?

During the summer, Lithuania introduced a state of emergency to deal with an influx of migrants and strengthen its border with Belarus. It set up tent camps to accommodate the growing number of migrants.

In previous months, small groups of asylum-seekers tried to sneak into Lithuania, Poland and Latvia at night, using forest paths away from populated areas.

This week, much larger groups gathered openly at the Polish border, and some people used shovels and wire cutters to try to break through a razor-wire fence at Poland's border.

Authorities in Warsaw estimated the crowds at about 3,000-4,000 and said they prevented hundreds of people from entering the country.

Poland deployed riot police and other forces to bolster the border guards. Eight deaths have been confirmed at the Belarus-Poland border,, and temperatures have fallen below freezing at night.

The EU has made a strong show of solidarity with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. EU officials are expected to discuss another round of sanctions against Belarus, and European Council President Charles Michel said for the first time that the bloc would consider the possibility of financing 'physical infrastructure' such as barriers or fences on the border.

The EU called the Ryanair incident air piracy and barred Belarusian carriers from its skies and cut imports of the country's top commodities including petroleum products and potash, a fertilizer ingredient. Pictured: President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen

Analysts say Lukashenko's heavy-handed approach would likely backfire.

'Such brutal tactics would make Belarus toxic and delay the prospect of talks with the EU,' said Artyom Shraybman, a Belarusian political analyst who was forced to leave the country under pressure from authorities. 'European politicians won't engage in talks under pressure.'

Pavel Usau, head of the Center for Political Analysis and Prognosis based in Poland, also said Lukashenko is mistaken if he thinks he can force the EU into concessions.

'Lukashenko expects the EU to give in to pressure and ask Poland to let migrants cross into Germany,' Usau said.

'But the EU realizes that doing so would allow Lukashenko to emerge as the winner and encourage him to continue to take further such steps, raising the number of migrants to tens of thousands.'

The Belarusian opposition has urged the EU to take even tougher measures, including a trade embargo and a ban on transit of cargo via Belarus.

The Biden administration is reportedly warning European allies of the possibility of an imminent attack by Russia on Ukraine, though Russia denied the accusations

What is Russia's role?

Belarus has received strong support from its main ally, Russia, which has helped buttress Lukashenko's government with loans and political support.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the migrants flows resulted from the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Western-backed Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.

He challenged the EU to offer financial assistance to Belarus to deal with the influx.

At the same time, the Kremlin angrily rejected Poland's claim that Russia bears responsibility for the crisis.

Usau said Russia could step in as a mediator in the hope of improving ties with Germany and other EU nations.

What comes next?

Belarus is estimated to host between 5,000 and 20,000 migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

Many have run out of money and grown increasingly desperate as the winter approaches. Belarusian residents are uneasy about their presence, raising pressure on the authorities to act.

Poland has deployed 15,000 troops to its border where they have spent much of this week trying to stop thousands of migrants Lukashenko's regime is accused of forcing into the region

Some observers expect Lukashenko to escalate the crisis and pressure the EU to ease sanctions.

'As a minimum, Lukashenko wants to take revenge against the EU, and as a maximum he aims to soften the European sanctions that have dealt a painful blow to key Belarusian industries,' said independent analyst Valery Karbalevich.

'Belarusian authorities have tried unsuccessfully to persuade the EU to engage in talks and bargaining, and migrants are just an instrument in a hybrid attack by Minsk.'

'Lukashenko has nothing to lose,' he added. 'He's no longer worried about his reputation.'
The judge presiding over the Kyle Rittenhouse trial has been slammed as a racist and had his life threatened in a torrent of abusive and menacing emails, letters, postcards and faxes received by Kenosha County Courthouse and seen by DailyMail.com

DailyMail.com has reviewed the hundreds of offensive communications sent to Judge Bruce Schroeder, and today we can reveal the extraordinary outpouring of vitriol that the high-profile trial has inspired.

One email, sent Wednesday, reads simply, 'Wow way to name a white skinhead hot head to be a judge. No wonder they burn down your city.'

Others calls for the 'racist' judge, the longest serving in the county, to be dismissed and disbarred.

One addressed to 'Your Honor' reads, 'I didn't know that under your black robes of justice you wear a white robe of the klan. There is no way a fair trial can be heard under your supervision. Better yet, resign.'

On Thursday Judge Bruce Schroeder revealed that he had been sent offensive emails during the trial, some calling him a racist

One email addressed to 'Your Honor' reads, 'I didn't know that under your black robes of justice you wear a white robe of the klan

Another reads, 'Enjoy your term, judge, it's going to be your LAST. If I ever meet you in person, I fully intend to spit directly into your face'

Among the most disturbing is one that threatens the lives of the judge's children, promises 'pay back,' and states that Rittenhouse 'won't live long' if acquitted

One email, sent Wednesday, reads simply, 'Wow way to name a white skinhead hot head to be a judge. No wonder they burn down your city'

Along with what were perceived to be one-sided rulings against the prosecution, the judge has been lambasted for everything from his God Bless America ringtone to his joke about whether his Chinese lunch when he said 'I hope the Asian food isn't coming  isn't on one of those boats from Long Beach Harbor.'

Among the most disturbing messages to the judge was one that threatens the lives of the judge's children, promises 'pay back,' and states that Rittenhouse 'won't live long' if acquitted.

The email, much of which is too offensive to reproduce, states the hope that one day Judge Schroeder's 'kids become victims to the most heinous homicide known to man so he feels the pain an [sic]we will call his kids not victims but b******s.'

Kyle Rittenhouse is on trial for the August 25, 2020 shooting deaths of two men and injuring a third

It is one of a deluge of hate-filled missives that were sent as a direct response to the judge's ruling last month that prosecutors could not refer to Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz - the men shot by Rittenhouse - as 'victims.'

Meanwhile he permitted the defense to use the terms 'looters' and 'rioters' when describing the events of the night of August 25, 2020, when Rittenhouse shot the three men during a night of BLM protests and rioting.

The unrest flared last summer in the wake of a Kenosha police shooting of black man, Jacob Blake. It was in Blake's name that some of the people present marched across three nights that descended into violence during which Kenosha burned.

Another sinister email sent in reaction to the October ruling reads, 'This is outrageousWhat fresh hell is this???? Rittenhouse is a murderous thug and trying to protect him says a LOT about this judge.

'We are watching.'

It continues, 'Enjoy your term, judge, it's going to be your LAST. If I ever meet you in person, I fully intend to spit directly into your face, regardless the cost. You're disgusting.'

The emailer signs off, as many do, using his full name.

The hate-filled missives were sent as a direct response to the judge's ruling last month that prosecutors could not refer to Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz - the men shot by Rittenhouse - as 'victims'

Numerous emails are, of course, sent anonymously or using pseudonyms

Speaking in court earlier this week Judge Schroeder referenced the 'thousands of communications,' that he and his staff have received in the course of the trial which has been watched by millions.

He promised he would 'deal with' the senders and said, 'I wouldn't want to be those people.'

Numerous emails are, of course, sent anonymously or using pseudonyms.

One claiming to be from Jesus is signed J.C. It reads, 'Make sure and tell Schroeder what a worthless piece of s*** he is. He'll find out officially when his heart seizes up I a few years and he has to stand before a real judge.'

The judge again gave a nod to the influx of emails he has received on Friday when he heard arguments for the inclusion of lesser charges and the details of jury instructions in the case.

Judge Schroeder promised he would 'deal with' the senders and said, 'I wouldn't want to be those people'

Another sinister email sent in reaction to the October ruling reads, 'This is outrageousWhat fresh hell is this???? Rittenhouse is a murderous thug and trying to protect him says a LOT about this judge'

Informing defense attorney Corey Chirafisi that motions are emailed to him directly in Kenosha rather than via his clerk he said, 'Believe me I wish fewer people had my email address these days.'

And while the judge made light today in court, a police car sits outside his property guarding him 24/7.

Closing arguments will take place on Monday, when the jury will begin its deliberations, as the case that has dominated this small Wisconsin town since last summer draws to its tumultuous close and Kenosha braces for the outcome.
During the final weeks of his life, those who knew RAF chief engineer Alan Warrender watched him become a shadow of his former self. If he had always been partial to the odd glass of whisky, then by the spring of 1993 he was drinking it in alarming quantities. The 43-year-old father of four was in despair, struggling with spiralling debts and chased down by loan sharks.

But what pushed him over the edge in April that year was the discovery that his wife, Penny, was cheating on him.

While Alan took his own life days after finding out about her affair, Penny went on to marry her lover and two decades later, in a crime that shocked the nation, stabbed him to death in cold blood at their home in Somerset while he was on the phone to the emergency services.

Alan and Beverley Warrender were married (pictured) before he was with Penelope Jackson and later took his own life

Now, a fortnight after Penelope Jackson, 66, was jailed for life for murdering retired Army officer David Jackson, the Mail can reveal the untold story of the other husband whose life was ultimately destroyed by the so-called 'pyjama killer'.

'There's no question that the affair drove him to his death,' says one of Alan's relatives, a family member so intimidated by Penny that even though the killer is behind bars, she still wishes to remain anonymous.

'After what she did to him and his family before she went on to murder her next husband, she should never be released from prison,' says the relative. 'She is a ruthless, greedy, angry woman. She is a danger to society.'

At the time Alan and Penny met at RAF St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales in the late 1980s, Penny Rothwell, as she was then, was just emerging from her second short-lived marriage to another MoD worker, Tony Rothwell. Alan was married to his first wife, Beverley, a WRAF servicewoman and former steward in the mess at the same base.

The Jacksons were married. Jackson killed her fourth husband (left) after a row

'Alan and Beverley had a fabulous life together,' says the relative. 'They really were soulmates. They met in the mess when they were barely in their 20s and they pretty much eloped with a week's honeymoon in Devon. Their wedding was a very small affair, just them and a couple of witnesses.'

Alan and Beverley got married in 1971 in St Austell, close to the RAF station at St Mawgan in Newquay where they were then based. The couple went on to have two daughters and then adopted a son.

After living in Cornwall they spent time at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and RAF Bruggen in Germany as they moved around Europe according to Alan's job. They took holidays in the Norfolk Broads, where Alan shared his passion for boats and fishing with his children.

By the mid-1980s, however, they'd returned to Beverley's native Wales and were once again living in RAF accommodation close to RAF St Athan where mother-of-two Penny was also working as an MoD budget manager.

Mr Warrender was married to his first wife, Beverley, a WRAF servicewoman and former steward in the mess at the same base when he met Jackson. Soon he was having an affair with Jackson and when his wife died from breast cancer he moved in with her and the two married. Pictured: The moment Jackson was arrested for killing her fourth husband earlier this year

Soon, says the relative, Beverley was remarking that her husband had become distant towards her. 'She said to me: 'If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was having an affair',' says the relative. 'Alan just wasn't the same man that he'd been before. He started dressing differently and staying out late. We all knew something was going on.'

Tragically, the realisation that her husband of 16 years was being unfaithful coincided with Beverley's discovery, in early 1987, that she had breast cancer. While she underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, doctors broke the news that the cancer had spread throughout her body. According to the relative, she died 'broken-hearted' in August that year, aged 36.

'She knew Alan was seeing someone else but by the end she was too sick to think about it any more. She was so tired. She said to me: 'I just want to go to sleep'.'

While Jackson was Alan's second wife, he was her third, and penultimate, husband. Pictured: Jackson's mugshot after killing fourth husband

Within weeks, Alan and Penny had moved in together and, five months later in January 1988, they married. While Penny was Alan's second wife, he was her third, and penultimate, husband.

'It was as if Beverley had never existed,' says the relative. 'He had been such a family man when he was with Beverley, but Penny had no interest in his children with Beverley.'

Within months of their wedding, the girls were sent away to boarding school while the son Alan and Beverley had adopted eventually went to live with Beverley's family after Penny and Alan tried to return him to the care system.

'He was going to be sent back to a children's home,' says the relative, 'but there was no way that we were going to let that happen.'

By 1990, Penny and Alan were living in a smart detached house in Grantham, Lincolnshire, and Alan was working at RAF Swanton Morley in Norfolk. In October 1990, Penny, already a mother of two from her first marriage, gave birth to their daughter, Isabelle. Her two daughters from her first marriage were not living with her at the time.

But according to the relative: 'Things were not going well for Alan. He couldn't afford the life they were leading. When he was with Beverley, they lived in furnished married quarters but now he and Penny had a smart house and he was driving around in a BMW. Penny was very extravagant in her tastes. He started borrowing money to keep up with it all.'

Ironically, as the debts mounted and Alan became increasingly desperate, he turned to his first wife's family for help.

But while his former in-laws knew he had financial troubles, they had no idea his second wife was also now cheating on him. Pictured: Jackson after her arrest

'He said he needed money for the grandchildren,' says the relative. 'Beverley's parents took out loans to give him the money, even though they were angry with him for cheating on their daughter. But they couldn't understand where all the money was going. It was never paid back.

None of us had ever seen Alan like that. He used to be a man who really loved life. When he was with Beverley, he was so happy-go-lucky but once he was with Penny, it was like he was a broken man.'

As money became tighter, Alan quit the RAF and went to work in Saudi Arabia.

But while his former in-laws knew he had financial troubles, they had no idea his second wife was also now cheating on him. While Alan was away on his four-month contract, Penny embarked on an affair with married Lieutenant Colonel David Jackson after meeting him in the officers' mess at Prince William of Gloucester Barracks near her home.

Alan found out about her infidelity days after returning from the Middle East in April 1993. He also learnt Penny had paid for his two healthy Rottweiler dogs to be put down.

Enraged, he went to the nearby Army barracks where David Jackson was staying, away from his family, and dragged his love rival outside. The two men fought, David was left with a black eye and Alan returned home with blood on his shirt. Days later, on April 9, he took his own life.

The inquest into his death found he had committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning while the balance of his mind was disturbed. Reported in a local newspaper under the headline 'Man took his life after marital stress' Penny told coroner John Pert that on April 9 one of her daughters had told her that the family's car appeared to have gone.

'I thought my husband had gone to his mother in Manchester,' she said.

She added she later found the car in the garage with the engine running and her husband lying on the back seat.

During Penny's trial at Bristol Crown Court last month, her daughter from her first marriage, Victoria Mullins, said that the night before Alan died 'he drank a bottle of whiskey and tablets. A man who does that, we should have expected him to do something.'

During Penny's trial at Bristol Crown Court last month, her daughter from her first marriage, Victoria Mullins, said that the night before Alan died 'he drank a bottle of whiskey and tablets. A man who does that, we should have expected him to do something.' Pictured: Jackson with daughter Isabel and her murdered fourth husband

Penny told the jury Alan killed himself after she admitted an affair with Mr Jackson. She said the initial 'one-night stand' took place while her husband was away working as an engineer in Saudi Arabia.

'I had a one-night stand, which I regretted. Alan found out about the affair in early 1993 and they had a fight. I begged him to leave Saudi Arabia and if he had come back we wouldn't be here now. He was angry, distraught. I loved him.'

But earlier this month, Alan's brother Stewart Warrender told the Mail he believed that rather than simply finding his brother unconscious in his car after he had gassed himself, Penny may have actually persuaded him to do it. He said his former sister-in-law regarded husbands as 'disposable'.

'I was never fully satisfied with the inquest verdict,' he said. 'It didn't ring true in my mind. I've always thought my brother passed away before his time in circumstances that were unknown  that's probably the best way to put it. I don't think he was the type of person who would kill himself over a relationship.'

But earlier this month, Alan's brother Stewart Warrender told the Mail he believed that rather than simply finding his brother unconscious in his car after he had gassed himself, Penny may have actually persuaded him to do it. Pictured: Jackson at her trial for murdering her army officer fourth husband in February

He said his suspicions were first aroused when Penny did not appear to be upset at Alan's funeral. 'There was something off about her behaviour during Alan's funeral,' said Stewart, speaking from his home in Cheadle, Cheshire. 'I know people grieve in different ways but she seemed strangely upbeat for someone whose husband had just committed suicide.

'It wasn't the case that Alan had been ill for some time and his death was expected. It was sudden and a shock but she didn't appear to be too upset. There was a distinct lack of empathy with her that day. 'It's why I've always had the niggling thought in my head about Alan's death.'

The relative who spoke to the Mail said she also believes there is more to what happened than has ever been revealed. The Alan she knew 'wasn't someone who would have despaired. He wasn't the kind of man to let things get on top off him. He would accept things and move on. He was a very strong man.

'But something was destroying him. Once he was with Penny, he wasn't the same person any more.'

Not long after the funeral, Penny paid an extraordinary visit to her husband's former in-laws at their small three-bedroom home in Llanrumney, a suburb of Cardiff, to discuss a family matter.

After Alan's death, MoD worker Penny was posted from Grantham to Andover in Hampshire while David Jackson was sent to nearby Bulford Camp in Wiltshire. They carried on their affair and married in 1996, by which time all traces of Alan had been wiped from Penny's life. Pictured: The Jacksons

'She arrived in a posh car, dressed to the nines with perfect hair and make-up and matching shoes and handbag,' says the relative, who was there that day.

'You could smell her perfume even before she got to the front door and her voice was loud and angry. She was agitated.

'I was shaking with nerves and anger when she walked into the house. I couldn't believe the nerve of her, visiting Beverley's parents' house, given that she'd broken their daughter's heart in her dying days by cheating with Alan.

'I will never forget the moment I first saw her. The first thing that struck me was her eyes. They really scared me. I couldn't bear to be in the same room as her.'

After Alan's death, MoD worker Penny was posted from Grantham to Andover in Hampshire while David Jackson was sent to nearby Bulford Camp in Wiltshire. They carried on their affair and married in 1996, by which time all traces of Alan had been wiped from Penny's life.

David adopted Penny and Alan's daughter Isabelle and she grew up believing he was her natural father until, years later when she was a teenager, her half-sisters from Alan's marriage to Beverley got in touch via social media and the truth spilled out.

David adopted Penny and Alan's daughter Isabelle and she grew up believing he was her natural father until, years later when she was a teenager, her half-sisters from Alan's marriage to Beverley got in touch via social media and the truth spilled out. Pictured: Mr Jackson before he was killed

The relative who spoke to the Mail said she heard no more of Penny until her trial last month. 'When I saw the pictures of her, I kept thinking I knew those eyes,' she says. 'She has such evil eyes. It sent shivers down my spine. I couldn't work it out at all at first but eventually I realised it was her.'

During her trial at Bristol Crown Court, it became clear that Penny Jackson's entire life was riddled with secrets and lies, with chaos and heartache never far behind.

For the family of Alan Warrender's first wife, it's as if the horrific chain of events leading up to the murder of 78-year-old David Jackson in February this year was really set in motion more than three decades ago, as Beverley lay dying, knowing she had already lost her husband to another.

'I'm glad she's in jail,' says the relative. 'She's caused so much pain and suffering to others. I hope she stays inside for a very long time so she can't hurt anyone else.'

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See www.samaritans.org for details
Seven-year-old Zohra sits on the dusty doorstep of her family's hut in the province of Ghor, north-west Afghanistan, playing with her younger sister's hair and pulling the hood on her red fleece over her ears as bitter winds sweep their settlement.

As dusk falls, the family starts a fire to cook dinner outside. Zohra and five of her siblings  she also has a 20-day-old sister  will eat bread made out of their last remaining food: a bucket of flour that sits on the floor.

Hunger is destroying the children's health. Their father, Qadir, 35, used to work as a labourer, earning up to 2 a day, but since the Taliban took over in August, even that work has dried up.

He says: 'I don't have money for food. I am scared for my kids because in winter they will die due to cold.'

So much so, that two years ago Qadir was forced to do something few of us could even contemplate, to ensure his family survived. He sold Zohra, his eldest daughter.

He was paid 170,000 Afghanis  1,386  for the little girl, then aged five, by a 52-year-old man he doesn't know.

Two weeks ago, as 'the cold season came', Halim decided to sell his eight-year-old daughter, Noqra (above), a once lively girl who enjoys playing with leaves outside the family's concrete hut. The 70-year-old plans to sell Noqra within a month by declaring his intentions to their community. 'We will announce we have a daughter for sale,' he says, hoping the 100,000 Afghanis (820) she may fetch would get them enough food to stay alive

He doesn't know when her purchaser will come and pick up his 'goods'. 'I had to sell her to keep the others alive. I didn't have a choice,' he says.

But all of the money he was paid has since been spent, largely on medical care for one of Qadir's four sons and paying off a debt he owed their local shopkeeper for food.

With every passing month, Zohra acquires a new, agonising understanding of her horrific predicament. Her eyes fill with tears as the Mail asks her how she feels to be sold, and she replies: 'I'm scared.'

Qadir, as tormented as his daughter, adds: 'She cries all the time. She asks her mother why we sold her. Her future is ruined. I am unsure how the man will live with her, as she is so small. I can't sleep.'

Even before the Taliban seized Afghanistan this summer, ending 20 years of an Afghan government supported by the West, decades of conflict, drought and the pandemic had made millions destitute.

When a regime the West refused to recognise was propelled to power, the population was plunged further into disaster.

Seven-year-old Zohra (above) currently lives in her family's hut in the province of Ghor, north-west Afghanistan. Her father, Qadir, 35, used to work as a labourer, earning up to 2 a day, but since the Taliban took over in August, even that work has dried up. Two years ago, he was forced to do something few of us could even contemplate, to ensure his family survived. He sold Zohra, his eldest daughter. He was paid 170,000 Afghanis - 1,386 - for the little girl, then aged five, by a 52-year-old man he doesn't know. He doesn't know when her purchaser will come and pick up his 'goods'

Foreign aid payments that constituted 40 per cent of the country's GDP ceased. Banks closed and jobs were lost.

According to the UN, only 5 per cent of families have enough food to eat every day, while more than half of the population face starvation.

'Afghanistan is among the world's worst humanitarian crises, if not the worst,' said David Beasley, the executive director of the UN's World Food Programme. 'We are on a countdown to catastrophe.'

Even those hardened to human tragedy have been moved.

This week BBC journalist John Simpson, 77, broke down on air as he reported on an Afghan mother of seven trying to feed her family. 'I've seen a lot of bad things in my time, but this hasn't yet happened, and yet you know it's just round the corner. And they know it,' he says.

Last month, BBC reporter Yogita Limaye spoke to a mother who was forced to sell her baby for 370 to a buyer who wants her as a future bride for his son.

Paid half upfront, and part on collection once the child can walk, the mother, from a village near Herat, in the west of Afghanistan, said: 'My other children were dying of hunger so we had to sell her. How can I not be sad? She is my child.'

Alarmingly, this Daily Mail investigation found hers is far from an isolated case. 'As poverty and hunger increase, more people are selling their daughters,' says Afghan civil rights activist Mohammad Naeem Nazim.

'This is getting more common in our culture, which is worrying and terrifying.'

Sadly, the sale of girls in Afghanistan is not new. Most are purchased, illegally, for marriage, often as part of deals to settle debts as well as to acquire vital income.

The girls are usually bought by older men, their lives then jeopardised when they become pregnant before their bodies are ready to give birth.

In 2017, the Afghan government launched a 'National Action Plan to Eliminate Early and Child Marriage'  an encouraging development in a country where the legal age for girls to marry was 16 and 33 per cent are married before they're 18.

Now the government has been overthrown, presumably rendering pre-existing laws obsolete, that progress is lost  and the girls are being sold younger.

The parents the Mail spoke to gave permission for their families to be named to help the world understand the extent of their crisis.

Most vulnerable to child selling are those in rural areas such as Ghor province. Here, fewer than 10 per cent of the population have clean drinking water. Drought ravages summers, while snowfall over the winter blocks entry to the area.

A lack of produce has caused the price of basic foods such as wheat to soar by 66 per cent.

Until recently, 14-year-old Najiba (above) was a student who dreamt of being a teacher. But the Taliban ordered high schools to only re-open for boys, ending any hopes of continuing her education. Drought had already destroyed her family's livelihood and four years ago they were forced from their home in Muqur, in southern Afghanistan, to Badghis province, in the north-west. Last year, Najiba's father died. Her uncle, Ahmad, 44, is helping her mother, Mastana, raise Najiba, her two sons and younger daughter. Three months ago, he decided the family would not survive without selling Najiba as a child bride

Orlaith Minogue, Save The Children's senior conflict and humanitarian adviser, says parents are sacrificing their own food, selling possessions and sending their children to work 'to make sure they had enough food for that day'.

Zohar's father Qadir was introduced to her buyer, of whom he knows nothing other than his name and that he lives three miles away, through a friend.

There was no contract for the sale, and no agreement as to when the handover would happen. 'The buyer didn't say when he will come,' says Qadir. 'And I don't have any control.' His wife, Zahra, adds: 'Day and night my daughter cries.' Zahra understands her husband's decision, but says: 'I am so worried.'

It is almost impossible to envisage their nightmare of wondering whether each day with Zohra will be their last.

With every passing month, they have more time to reflect on what they've done, and when, days ago, the buyer did turn up, they begged for more time.

'My wife and daughter cried and my daughter said, "Father, I won't go",' says Qadir.

'We told him, 'Give us time, we will find money and give it to you to take back our daughter.' Now, I am looking for a way.'

His chances, however, seem negligible, and not just because he is penniless. When the Mail's reporter found the buyer this week, he seemed in no mood to negotiate. 'I paid the money,' he says. 'I have the responsibility and authority of her. If I marry or sell her, it's my right.'

As he laments his impending loss, Qadir concedes he may have to sell another daughter. 'I want to get my daughter back, but if no one helps us I will have to sell another.'

Two weeks ago, as 'the cold season came', Halim decided to sell his eight-year-old daughter, Noqra, a once lively girl who enjoys playing with leaves outside the family's concrete hut.

After fighting broke out this summer, Halim says he and his wife Yasmin, 50, Noqra and her brother, Pirzad, 13, were forced to move from their village in the Ghor province to a another village.

Among the 3.5 million Afghan people displaced within their country, the only signs of family life inside their hut are a threadbare rug, a canister and some pots on the shelves to cook with. Noqra sits cross-legged on the floor, sobbing onto her mother's knee.

'I told her, "We are forced to sell you." She didn't say anything, but cried all the time,' says Halim, a fragile-looking man whose eyes water as he speaks. 'She is my heart. It's hard and upsetting.'

His daughter, meanwhile, says, 'They sell me due to hunger,' before tears prevent her from talking.

Halim, 70, had lost his job as a labourer by the time the Taliban took over, and has been unable to find income since. 'No one will hire me because I am too old,' he says. His family's only source of food is a wood seller, who gives him rice or potatoes for odd jobs.

Both he and Yasmin, who has also lost her job as a crafter, have been ill 'due to hunger'. Halim says: 'When your money is finished it affects you a lot like sickness.'

He plans to sell Noqra within a month by declaring his intentions to their community. 'We will announce we have a daughter for sale,' he says, hoping the 100,000 Afghanis (820) she may fetch would get them enough food to stay alive.

Both Yasmin and Pirzad accept his decision. 'If someone gives us something to eat, we eat, otherwise we cannot find food,' says Yasmin. 'We have nothing to keep warm with. There is no other way but to sell.'

Sometimes, a man and his son will pay for a child bride together, as is the case with Eqlima, ten, whose father is dead and whose mother, Kimya, 44, has sold her to provide food for her son.

Eqlima's buyer sold his animals to help finance the 300,000 Afghani fee (2,500); his son has travelled to Iran to work to earn money to pay for the rest. Kimya, also from Ghor, has received half of the money.

It has gone to pay off debts and she will be paid the rest when Eqlima leaves. 'We don't have any income. My son is small. We are forced to marry off my daughter,' she says.

The older a girl grows, the more she might understand about what she stands to lose when she is sold.

According to the UN, only 5 per cent of families have enough food to eat every day, while more than half of the population face starvation. 'Afghanistan is among the world's worst humanitarian crises, if not the worst,' said David Beasley, the executive director of the UN's World Food Programme. 'We are on a countdown to catastrophe'

Until recently, 14-year-old Najiba was a student who dreamt of being a teacher. But the Taliban ordered high schools to only re-open for boys, ending any hopes of continuing her education.

Drought had already destroyed her family's livelihood and four years ago they were forced from their home in Muqur, in southern Afghanistan, to Badghis province, in the north-west.

Last year, Najiba's father died. Her uncle, Ahmad, 44, is helping her mother, Mastana, raise Najiba, her two sons and younger daughter.

Three months ago, he decided the family would not survive without selling Najiba as a child bride.

'They are selling me because we don't have anything to eat,' says Najiba, whose black scarf slips as she speaks. 'It's not my time to get married, but there is no option. I have no elder brother or father to work and feed us.'

Mastana is upset for Najiba's missed opportunities. 'She is too young to marry. I want her to be able to choose her life partner, but we have nothing to eat.'

Najiba has also fallen ill due the prospect of being sold. 'A month ago I felt sick because of the overthinking and was admitted to hospital,' she says. 'I even had blood coming out of my mouth.'

Malnutrition has added to her poor health. 'There is only bread and salty water. The children are slowly getting sicker because of hunger,' says Ahmad, a father of four who has already sold his own 11-year-old daughter for 570.

When he is lucky, Ahmad finds odd jobs that earn him around 50p a day. 'I would do whatever job I could get, but there is none, now.'

He hopes to be able to sell Najiba for 50,000 Afghanis (430). 'It is nothing but, facing the winter, can buy bread and medication for her mother and siblings.'

He cannot be choosy about whom she marries. 'I'm not sure she will be happy in her married life,' he admits, adding, however, that he cannot 'look after her happiness'.

As Najiba, in tears of resignation, puts it: 'Whoever pays them would get me, even if he is old or not a good person. Because there is poverty, even if I'm not happy they would force me to accept .
Advertisement

About 50 people became trapped in an RV park in Oregon after the area was hit by heavy rainfall.

The US Coast Guard has pulled out at least a dozen of the estimated 50 campers from Neskowin Creek RV Resort of Highway 101 on Friday after severe flooding hit the park. The highway shutdown due to flooding.

The Neskowin area, roughly 70 miles from Portland, received three to seven inches of rain and is in danger of a mudslide, according to weather.com.

'There's an RV park with the threat of a mudslide in the area,' Petty Officer Michael Clark of the Coast Guard's 13th District in Seattle told weather.com.

The area is expected to get another one to three inches and surrounding areas have already experienced mudslides and flooding.

An estimated 50 people got stuck at an RV camp in Oregon after the area experienced heavy rainfall. The US Coast Guard deployed two helicopters and one swimmer to evacuate campers and so far have rescued 12 people and one dog

Camper Hugh Jhanis posted a video to a Facebook group showing the dangerously high waters of the Neskowin Creek

Nearby the RV resort, a firetruck was deployed in dangerously high waters to rescue while authorities warn about severe weather

Russ Hiner of Sequim, Washington, posted photos of the RV park at 6.15am this morning and said he found 'six or seven' inches of standing water under his two RVs.

'Woke up (6:15am) to someone driving around the park honking their horn. Looking out the fogged up windows and see someone with a flashlight running around. They come and bang on the door, the park is FLOODING everyone out."' Hiner wrote on Facebook.

Hiner later reported he was able to get his two RVs out of the park by 7.30am, but not everyone was as lucky.

Apparently will be going live in awhile https://t.co/NFI6Ixiubz pic.twitter.com/df9YyJw52C  Wash Co Scanner (@WashCoScanner) November 12, 2021

The RV camp started flooding around 6.15am (pictured) with water already up to six or seven inches, according to camper Russ Hiner

Standing water was already up to the tops of tires in some parts of the park in the early morning

Around 12.30pm, another camper Hugh Jhanis uploaded a video of what appears to be the creek with dangerously high water rushing through as four men stand on a sliver of dry land.

The US Coast Guard sent out two helicopters and a swimmer around 1pm to help evacuate campers, arriving on the scene just before 1.30pm.

'A Coast Guard rescue swimmer is on scene coordinating evacuation at RV park in Neskowin, OR. Two helicopters are on scene. Evacuation efforts are ongoing at this time,' the Coast Guard tweeted around 1pm.

The team reported around 3pm that 12 people and a dog had been evacuated from the scene.

The evacuation is ongoing as of 4pm.

Nearby, a rockslide occurred westbound on Highway 138 between Elkton and Sutherlin early this morning.

A landslide also happened nearby, causing Highway 18 to shut down. It is unknown if the road is reopened

Several roads across the area experienced flooding and high water. The area is expected to get an additional one to three inches

The Oregon Department of Transportation reported an estimated 7,000 cubic yards of rock and debris slid into the roadway and will need to be cleared before the highway can be opened.

The rockslide happened around 6am and it unknown if the highway has reopened.

A landslide also occurred near Highway 18 in Lincoln County, Oregon.

Lincoln County Sheriff's Department did not give a reason for the landslide but told locals to watch 'small streams, creeks on or near your property for changing conditions.'

It is unknown if the road has reopened, although it was expected to around noontime.
An Asian woman was waiting for a subway in Times Square Friday afternoon when police say a homeless man snatched her purse and shoved her onto the tracks.

The violent attack took place just before 1:45pm on the uptown R subway platform.

Witnesses immediately jumped into action and detained the suspect until police arrived to arrest him.

An Asian woman was on the uptown R train platform in Times Square when a man snatched her purse and shoved her onto tracks at 1.45pm Friday. She is pictured being removed from the station by firefighters

The victim was rescued from the tracks by Good Samaritans. She is pictured with a bandage around her head and blood on her face

The woman was taken to a hospital to be treated for head and neck injuries. She appeared conscious and alert

Meanwhile, Good Samaritans rescued the victim from the tracks. She was taken to a hospital to be treated for head and neck injuries, reported ABC 7 NY.

Photos taken at the scene showed the unnamed woman being taken away in a wheelchair, with a bloody bandage wrapped around her head and blood streaming down her face. She appeared alert and conscious.

Police have not identified the suspect, who was described as a man in his 40s and homeless. Charges against him are pending.

The incident comes less than three days after a man was accosted by a group of teenagers, who slashed him in the face and stabbed him in the neck just steps away from Times Square.

An FDNY truck is pictured outside the busy subway hub in Times Square

Witnesses to the attack were said to have detained the assailant until police arrived

Charges against the suspect, described as a man in his 40s and homeless, are pending

The stabbing took place before dawn on Wednesday at the corner of West 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue.

The victim was taken to a hospital in stable condition. No arrests have been announced in connection with that case.

New York City continues to be in the throes of a massive crime surge, even as it welcomes back international tourists after the U.S. ended its 20-month COVID travel restrictions.

Visitors from 33 countries, including the UK, Russia and China, can now travel to the US provided they are fully vaccinated, a landmark moment in New York's bid to recover economically from the pandemic.

Overall crime in New York City continues to steadily grow

About 8.5 million foreign tourists are expected to visit New York in 2022.

The latest data show that felony assaults went up 8.3 per cent compared to the same time last year. Robberies have gone up 2.1 per cent, and transit crime spiked nearly 14 per cent during the same time period.

While murders dropped 2.4 per cent and shootings decreased 1.3 per cent, overall crime is still up 1.73 per cent from last year.
Between sobs, Wendy Buffrey poured out her relief  and her anger. I cant believe its all over, she declared at the Royal Courts of Justice in London in April this year.

Nearly 14 years . . . Its horrendous we were all put in this position in the first place. How do you replace that time? Its just . . . gone.

She pulled herself up and said a little more clearly: Now all we need is for the people who are responsible for this to be held accountable.

Just minutes earlier, Lord Justice Holroyde had overturned the convictions of Wendy and 38 other Subpostmasters who had been prosecuted by the Post Office  and some of them even jailed  for fraud, theft and false accounting offences they didnt commit but which, as had finally been dragged out of the Post Office, were due to flaws in its computerised IT accounting system.

As the cork popped on a bottle of prosecco, I looked on from the sidelines. I had followed this story for the past decade as a journalist and broadcaster, reporting on every move in the campaign to correct a terrible miscarriage of justice.

Aged 19, Tracy Felstead, 38 from Telford, found that 11,500 had 'gone missing' from her south London post office when she returned from holiday.

Those 39 now exonerated in court were just the tip of the iceberg. More than 700 were hauled before the courts between 2000 and 2015 while hundreds more lost their jobs, their homes and their reputations in a massive scandal encompassing incompetence, buck-passing and cover-up.

Others were thousands of pounds out of pocket after making up supposed losses from their own savings. A number had died with convictions still hanging over them. There was at least one suicide.

And all because the Post Office management persisted blindly in its belief that its so-called Horizon computer system  whose touch-screen terminals sat on every counter  was robust and reliable when it manifestly wasnt.

As Lord Justice Holroyde summed it up, instead of trying to work out why discrepancies were occurring, the Post Office management effectively steamrolled over any Subpostmaster who sought to challenge its accuracy.

The problem was a glaring one.

In the four years before the rollout of the Horizon system, the Post Office had prosecuted 52 Subpostmasters or Post Office staff for shortfall-related offences.

In the four years after the rollout, the number more than quadrupled to 220. No one outside the Post Office queried this leap because no one was aware of it: the Post Office was not required to publish its numbers.

So no alarm bells rang.

Using techniques which began with telling confused and frightened people they were the only ones having problems with Horizon, by 2010 the Post Office had turned the criminalisation of its Postmasters into a mini-industry.

They were put at the mercy of an organisation stuffed with managerial incompetents who exercised their responsibilities with a toxic mixture of prejudice and indifference.

The Post Offices blanket denial of IT faults and the vast institutional firepower at its disposal meant that anyone racking up mysterious discrepancies didnt stand a chance, innocent or not.

Those who panicked and either hid their discrepancies or just gave up were criminally prosecuted. Those who tried to work with the Post Office to get their problems resolved were either sacked, criminally prosecuted anyway, or pursued through the civil courts.

Former post office worker Wendy Buffrey (left), from Cheltenham, celebrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, after having her conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal

Thirty-nine former subpostmasters who were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting because of the Post Office's defective Horizon accounting system have had their names cleared by the Court of Appeal, including Wendy Buffrey, pictured left

To expose this scandal and right this grievous wrong would take organised resistance by a group of brave Subpostmasters led by Alan Bates who set up the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance  cynically dismissed by Post Office executives as a tiny bunch of cranks with imaginary grievances.

There would be several parliamentary inquiries, an epic High Court litigation, two BBC Panorama programmes and newspaper campaigns with the Daily Mail in the forefront. The scandal would end up costing the Post Office and the Government (which owns it) half a billion pounds.

But the greatest cost was in ruined lives. The distress that those who fell foul of the system went through was immense, their stories harrowing in the extreme. Not least because they could not understand why it was happening to them when they had done nothing wrong.

Wendy Buffreys case was a typical one. Subpostmaster at Up Hatherley Post Office in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, from 1998 to 2008, she and her husband Doug bought the business from the outgoing Subpostmaster and it wasnt long before they were enjoying life at the centre of the community.

One afternoon Wendy did a cash-and-stock balance and was horrified to see her Horizon terminal showing she had an extra 9,000 worth of stamps in stock. She never had anything like 9,000 worth of stamps in her branch and knew this was some kind of error.

She reversed the stock out of the balance. In doing so, her Horizon discrepancy doubled to 18,000. When she tried the procedure again, the discrepancy doubled again  to 36,000.

Terrified to do anything else in case the discrepancy doubled, Wendy spent hours going through her transaction receipts. A high-value error of this nature should be easy to spot. But Wendy couldnt find anything. She looked again the next morning before the Post Office opened. And again that evening. And again the following day.

Nothing. Every waking moment Wendy wasnt actually serving customers she was ploughing through 3in strips of records and receipts, stock and cash with a rising sense of panic. Doug was very ill and Wendy did not want to burden him with a worry which might turn out to be nothing.

At the end of her four-weekly trading period, rather than call the helpline, Wendy made what she now describes as the single biggest mistake of my life. She balanced to zero, which, in the Post Offices eyes, meant she was accepting she had 36,000 worth of stamps on the premises.

She didnt. If Wendy was audited, stamps to the value of 36,000 would be found to be missing and she would be held liable. (Her business contract with the Post Office  as for all Subpostmasters  stated she alone was responsible if money went missing and would have to make up the difference without delay.)

Feeling sick, in the pit of my stomach every day, Wendy continued to hope Horizon would come up with a correction. Over a period of seven months, she pumped 10,000 of her own and borrowed money into the system. But still there was no transaction correction, and she didnt find the error.

In October 2008, three Post Office auditors knocked at the door. Wendy told them they would find a 26,000 discrepancy in the accounts. She was suspended on the spot.

Four weeks later, she was called for an interview at which for three hours Post Office investigators repeatedly asked her where the money was. She replied there was no missing money. It looked to her like some kind of computer error.

I kept asking them why the stamps appeared like they did and why the reversal doubled. But they wouldnt admit the computer system had messed up. They couldnt even tell me how Id messed up. Despite this, she was fired.

Wendy went back to her old job with the ambulance service, helping to ferry elderly and sick patients around Birmingham. She made plans with her husband to sell their home in order to raise the money the Post Office said she owed.

In early 2010, after more than a year of silence from the Post Office, Wendy received a summons to court. She was being prosecuted for theft and false accounting. Doug was still off sick.

Wendys mental health began to fall apart. I was like a zombie, she said. But I had to work as we had no other income.

With the demand for 26,000 still hanging over her, Wendy and Doug then received a letter from the Post Offices solicitors informing them their assets would be frozen under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Their home was sold at a knock-down price and the Post Office got their 26,000 but the Buffreys were left homeless.

Former subpostmasters Janet Skinner, Seema Misra and Tracy Felstead outside the Royal Courts of Justice in March this year

They moved in with their son.

Wendy had pleaded not guilty all the way  she knew she hadnt stolen anything. But on the day the trial began she was advised by her solicitor that if she pleaded guilty to false accounting, the theft charge would be dropped and she would likely avoid going to jail.

Traumatised by the prospect of prison, she agreed and was sentenced to 150 hours community service and costs of 1,500.

The next day she was sacked from her job with the ambulance service. She was also told by St John Ambulance (where she volunteered) that she was no longer welcome. That hit me worse than losing my job, she says.

Eight weeks after receiving her sentence, Wendy had a complete breakdown. I didnt want to get up. I didnt want to do anything, she remembers.

Wendy made it to her GP. I remember the doctor saying to me: Have you ever had serious thoughts of suicide? and I can remember saying to him: If youre saying people dont think about it all the time, then you dont know what youre talking about! Thats how off the edge I was. I was obviously thinking about it all the time and . . . I thought that was normal.

In November 1999, 17-year-old Tracy Felstead nervously stepped through the door of her local Crown Post Office in Camberwell Green, South London. She was young, keen, just out of school and had been invited to an interview for the post of counter assistant. The interview went well. She was offered the job. Tracy was sent on a two-day training course to learn her way round Horizon, the new computerised till system, and she was soon using it to

serve customers.

After each shift, Tracy would cash up, checking the money in her till against the figures on the Horizon screen. She would then sign a receipt displaying the till balance.

One day, she found herself with a small deficit but her manager was not concerned. She said: Oh, its fine, it will rectify itself. Tracy was a popular employee and she flew through the hectic pre-Christmas period without any serious mishaps. Then half way through 2000 she suffered another spate of discrepancies. I did a cash up at the end of the week and I had a 1,300 loss.

Again, her boss seemed relaxed. She took over at the terminal, did something and the loss went up to 1,800. And then she said: Oh, leave it, Ill sort it out.

In February 2001 Tracy locked her till tray in the office safe and went on a family holiday. It was her parents 15th wedding anniversary, so they chose somewhere special  the Dominican Republic.

The day before Tracy got back from holiday, a loss of 11,503.28 was found on her stock record. On her return to work, Tracy was asked if she knew how the discrepancy had come about. She remembers shaking her head and firmly telling her manager she had no idea.

The next day, she cashed up and signed off her stock unit with the 11,503.28 discrepancy still outstanding. As nothing more was said, she put it to the back of her mind. Two weeks later she walked into work and was given a shock.

Ive got two strapping, great big guys sitting there waiting for me, and they want to interview me. And I said: OK, thats absolutely fine. They asked whether I wanted legal representation and I told them: No, I havent done anything wrong, so I dont need anybody. 

The men were from the Post Offices internal security unit.

The interview turned into an interrogation. They were constantly asking: What did you spend the money on? I remember looking at them and saying: Seriously, I havent taken any money. You can have access to anything you want. Bank accounts, whatever. I havent taken any money. 

Tracy was suspended. I was absolutely distraught. But part of me actually thought  well, theyll get me sorted because I havent stolen any money. Three weeks later the same Post Office investigators knocked on the door of her boyfriends parents home, where she was staying. With them to keep the peace were two police officers. Im not sure what they thought I was going to do. Im only 5ft 3in and these were massive, intimidating, huge men.

Martin Griffiths tragically took his own life after being wrongly accused in the Post Office Horizon scandal. He ran Hope Farm Road Subpost Office in Great Sutton, Cheshire for 13 years

The investigators seemed fascinated by the family holiday. They said: Did you pay for everybody to go? .

Tracys mum and dad got involved. We said: You can have access to everybodys bank accounts so you can see exactly how people have paid and where the moneys come from.

The investigators were not satisfied. Three weeks later, at the end of April 2001, Tracy was sacked.

She was charged by the Post Offices criminal prosecutors with theft and false accounting. Tracys solicitor was unamused. The Post Office investigators had no evidence of theft. The prosecution didnt make sense.

Word of the prosecution leaked into the local community and Tracy found herself the victim of a whispering campaign. I had people looking at me as if I was a thief.

Her self-belief began to crumble quickly. The only way to explain it is that youre in a black hole. You feel trapped . . . suffocated. I couldnt understand how anyone could think I would steal. My mental health took a hit.

Over the summer of 2001, Tracy took an overdose in her room. She was found by a friend and rushed to hospital, where she had her stomach pumped. A few weeks later she took another overdose.

I thought I cant deal with this any more. I just didnt want to be alive. I didnt want to feel the pain. Again, she was found just in time. She was committed to a secure psychiatric unit where she responded well to treatment but once she was out, she had to deal with being prosecuted.

Tracy was clearly not a well woman, but the Post Office still felt it was important to nail her. She was sent for trial in front of a jury at Kingston Crown Court.

She remembers shivering in the dock as she watched the trial happen around her. She cant recall much about what was said, but she remembers a moment during her cross-examination.

Janet Skinner (left) and Tracy Felstead outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, ahead of their appeal against a conviction of theft, fraud and false accounting

They were saying: Your signature is there. Its your till. Youve taken the money. I said: I went to the manager and explained, and I was told it would be OK. But it didnt seem like they wanted to listen. She was convicted by a majority verdict. I just couldnt believe what I was hearing.

Tracy wasnt sentenced immediately. Because of her fragile mental state the judge wanted psychiatric reports. Her family were told if they paid the Post Office the missing 11,503.28, a prison sentence was less likely. Between Tracys family and Jons parents they raised the money, and handed it over.

Tracy hit the roof. I was like: Why are you paying them something I havent taken? I thought people would see it as a sign of guilt. At her sentencing, Tracy was told by the judge she was a liar, she had stolen money from pensioners and disgraced her family.

She was invited to apologise. She refused: Im not saying sorry for something I have not done.

The judge decided this lack of remorse required a custodial sentence and sent her to prison for six months. Tracys father watched his daughter being led from the dock to the cells in handcuffs.

I was absolutely petrified, remembers Tracy. My barrister came and saw me. He said: Somethings not right, but I dont know how to prove it. 

Tracy was taken in an armoured van to Holloway where she was put on suicide watch and given medication to calm her down. I was in a high-security prison at the age of 19. I walked in and . . . youve got to strip. Youve got to be searched.

She was brought before the prison governor. He said to me: What are you doing here? A girl like you shouldnt be here. 

She became even more desperate listening to the tales of prisoners who had murdered people. One afternoon, she walked into a cell to find the body of a girl who had hanged herself. She began to have nightmares. There were fights  people screaming theyre going to kill someone, she says.

Tracy spent three months in Holloway. On the day of her release, her fiance Jon and her parents were waiting. Jon gave me my engagement ring back and I put it on my finger. When I got home, I said: Dont close the door. And still to this day I cant have doors closed in my house because it takes me back to that sound of the prison door slamming.

Tracy spent the next 20 years battling the mental health repercussions of her experience. In 2020, the Post Office admitted her prosecution was an abuse of process. The following year, the Court of Appeal ruled it was more than that. It was an affront to the entire justice system and should never have happened.

BUT at least Tracy survived. Martin Griffiths, a well-loved family man, did not. In 2008, he was running Hope Farm Road Subpost Office in Great Sutton, Cheshire.

He had been Subpostmaster there for 13 years, while his wife Gina ran the retail side of their busy shop.

Martin was dedicated to his business  the first person to arrive and the last to leave. Martin and Gina built the business up and were doing well, taking home around 50,000 a year.

In 2009, the problems with Horizon began. Large discrepancies showed up on Martins computer screen.

First thousands, then tens of thousands of pounds went missing. Martin could not find out what was causing it.

Rather than declare a false balance, as other Subpostmasters had done in similar circumstances, he acknowledged his discrepancies to the Post Office. Their response was uncompromising: Horizon was functioning perfectly; Martin was not running his Post Office properly; he would have to make good his losses.

Which he did  by taking money from his savings. As Subpostmaster, Martin saw it as his responsibility to make good the discrepancies and discover their source. But the stress began to take its toll.

As Martin fought to make sense of the losses he could not explain, his state of mind started to deteriorate. Instead of coming back from a long day at work and being his normal garrulous self, hed sit and brood in the family front room.

In 2011, Martin was audited. He had a 23,000 discrepancy. The Post Office suspended him. A temporary Subpostmaster was installed. This was another blow to Martins self-esteem.

After three months, he got his job back, but the losses continued to escalate, and Martin seemed unable to stop them.

Between January 2012 and October 2013 another 57,000 went missing from Hope Farm Road. Martin emptied the Griffithss savings accounts to make good the discrepancies, then turned to his parents, who gave him money from their life savings. It was swallowed up.

One day in May 2013, Martin opened the armoured door of his counter to hand over a large bag of parcels to a Royal Mail collection driver, when two balaclava-clad men burst in.

Martin tried to retreat behind the safety of the counter but one of the robbers brought the crowbar down hard on Martins hand and got into the secure area. He was told that if he didnt hand over the contents of the safe he would be beaten to a pulp.

He complied. The robbers left with around 54,000 in cash.

Within days, one of the robbers was arrested and 15,000 in cash was returned to the Post Office.

But 39,000 remained unaccounted for. Interviewed by a Post Office investigator, Martin acknowledged his security door had been open something a lot of subpostmasters did when handing over parcels for collection. But this was deemed a failure to secure his counter.

Not long after, he was sacked  on the grounds that he had failed to manage the discrepancies at his branch and still owed thousands of pounds to the Post Office. This was followed by a letter telling him he was being held responsible for 7,500 of the missing 39,000 stolen during the robbery. He was told to send the Post Office a cheque.

Martin was already broken. This was the final straw. One Monday morning in September 2013, he deliberately stepped into the path of an oncoming bus.

A note was found in which Martin apologised to Gina and his family and told them he loved them. He died in hospital three weeks later. The coroner at his inquest returned a verdict of suicide.

Adapted from The Great Post Office Scandal by Nick Wallis, published by Bath Publishing at 25.  Nick Wallis 2021 To order a copy for 22.50 (offer valid to 28/11/21; UK P&P free), visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937.
Netflix has nixed a Latina housekeeper character from its upcoming sitcom Uncoupled, which stars Neil Patrick Harris, after a veteran actor read for the part and publicly slammed it as 'hurtful and derogatory.'

The show, set to release next year, follows a gay man, played by Harris, 48, who is thrust into the New York dating scene after his husband of 17 years suddenly leaves him.

In September, a script for the series' first episode initially featured a small role of Latina cleaning lady, named Carmen, who dotes on Harris' character.

However, the streaming service has since done away with the part, after veteran actress Ada Maris, 64, read for the role, and subsequently penned an open letter to Harris and the show's creator, Darren Star - the mind behind popular programs like Beverly Hills, 90210; Melrose Place; and Sex and the City.

Maris also shared the letter with Variety days after reading for the role, and told the outlet that the housekeeper was stereotypical and flat.

'When I opened it and saw that it wasnt even funny - it was hurtful and derogatory - I was shocked because I walked in expecting something very different given the way things are nowadays and the progress we've made,' the Mexican-American actress, whose real name is Ada Marentes, griped to the outlet of the role.

'When I opened it and saw that it wasnt even funny - it was hurtful and derogatory - I was shocked because I walked in expecting something very different given the way things are nowadays and the progress we've made,' Mexican-American actress Ada Maris, whose real name is Ada Marentes, said of the role, after reading a script on September 27

According to Variety, the Carmen character is initially introduced in the series' first episode, the script that Maris read for.

She is 'hysterical' on the phone with Harris character and speaks in broken English about a suspected robbery.

'Mister, I just get here and they stole!' the character reportedly says in a thick, stereotypical accent, the outlet reported Thursday. 'They stole! They rob you! I dont know how they get in.'

In a second scene, Carmen brandishes a glass that Harris' character leaves in the sink and says, 'No, I do that. You dont clean good, you always leave a ring.'

Maris said she was angered by the simplistic depiction of a Latina housekeeper, at odds with a move toward more nuanced and layered depictions of Latinx characters.

Harris, an executive producer on the series, was not involved in writing the episode or the casting of the Carmen role. The show, set to release next year, follows a gay man, played by Harris who is thrust into the New York dating scene after his husband suddenly leaves him

The show's creator, Darren Star - the mind behind popular programs like Beverly Hills, 90210; Melrose Place; and Sex and the City - also received Maris' letter

A few days after reading the script on September 27, Maris, who is known for her roles in TV series Mayans MC, Star Trek: Enterprise and the 1986 NBC drama Nurses, penned the open letter to Harris and Star, which she then shared with Variety, chastising the actor and screenwriter for taking part in a production that features over-the-top caricatures of marginalized communities.

Maris has starred in TV series Star Trek: Enterprise (pictured), Mayans MC, and the 1986 NBC drama Nurses

'You are modern gay men. How would you like to watch or play an outdated, offensively stereotypical gay part?' Maris said in the letter, Variety reported.

In a statement to Variety, Netflix profusely apologized to Maris, and attested that the character was no longer part of the show.

'Were sorry that Ms. Maris had a negative experience,' a Netflix spokesman said.

'This character will not appear in the series,' the network then declared.

Harris, an executive producer on the series, was not involved in writing the episode or the casting of the contentious Carmen role - but it's still unclear if the part was written out of the series because of Maris publicized objections to the actor and Star.

What's more, Netflix announced on October 25 five supporting cast members for Uncoupled - and the Carmen character was not among the roles.

'Sometimes people have to sit with the discomfort,' Maris told Variety after the ordeal. 'I would hope they would rethink this. I would hope they would recognize the harm that it does to everyone. Both to people who are Latino and people who are not.'

'Im just fed up,' she then proclaimed. 'I just want [writers] to think the next time they write a character like that. Im speaking out for the younger actors coming up so they face even less of that than my generation has.

'Young people are impressionable,' the actress added. 'These media images shape our ideas of ourselves. Thats why its really important that the portrayals be more realistic, not hurtful. We need to see ourselves more like we really are.'
Steve Bannon was indicted by a grand jury on Friday after he defied a subpoena to testify before the House's select committee on the January 6th Capitol attack

President Donald Trump's former top strategist Steve Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday for defying a subpoena to testify before the House's select committee on the January 6th Capitol attack.

Two charges of contempt of Congress were filed against Bannon, a former White House staffer, over his refusal to appear before Congress and give up documents in the probe.

A judge issued an arrest warrant and he is expected to surrender in Washington D.C. on Monday to appear in court, 26 days after the House voted to send his criminal referral to the Justice Department.

'Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law,' said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement announcing the indictment. 'Todays charges reflect the departments steadfast commitment to these principles.'

If convicted, Bannon could face as little as 30 days or up to one year in prison on each count. Fines range between $100 and $1,000.

Around two hours before the charges were announced and likely before he was informed, Bannon told his War Room podcast listeners: 'Remember, there are no whining and no tears in the War Room.

'Were taking action and that action is were taking over school boards, were taking over the Republican Party through the precinct committee strategy. Were taking over all the elections.'

Bannon's lawyer Robert Costello his client would not comply with any committee requests because Trump had directed him not to and argued that any testimony being sought was protected by executive privilege.

Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows, who also defied his testimony by refusing to appear on Friday, is using the executive privilege argument and is being loyal to Trump.

GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the committee, told CNN as the news broke that he hopes Bannon's indictment sends a 'chilling message' to other witnesses who are considering ignoring subpoenas.

The January 6 committee also released a statement saying: 'Steve Bannons indictment should send a clear message to anyone who thinks they can ignore the Select Committee or try to stonewall our investigation: no one is above the law.

'We will not hesitate to use the tools at our disposal to get the information we need.'

It is the second time Bannon has been indicted in 15 months. In August 2020 he was charged with duping thousands of donors who believed their money would help build Trump's wall, but the former president pardoned him the night before Joe Biden's inauguration.

Bannon's lawyer Robert Costello his client would not comply with any committee requests because Trump had directed him not to and argued that any testimony being sought was protected by executive privilege. Trump and Bannon are pictured together in 2017

Congressional investigators said they were interested in hearing from Bannon, who has been a private citizen since 2017, because he reportedly communicated with Trump on December 30, telling the president he should focus his energy on January 6, when Congress was set to certify President Joe Biden's election.

According to journalist Bob Woodward, Bannon was among the Trump allies who met the day before January 6 MAGA riot at the Willard Hotel.

At a so-called 'war room' meeting at the property, Bannon and Trump lawyer John Eastman were among those trying to pressure Vice President Mike Pence into tossing out electoral vote counts from states where Trump was falsely claiming voter fraud.

Eastman tried to push a fringe legal theory that because Pence was presiding over the count he could pick and choose slates of electors.

The select committee said that Bannon was quoted saying on January 5 that 'all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.'

Bannon's indictment is unique, NBC News reported, as no individual has ever been charged with contempt of Congress when executive privilege has been asserted.

The privilege claim, however, came from Trump.

Additionally, past defendants have been pressed to testify about their government service.

Bannon hadn't been a White House official for several years by the time he met with the president's allies on January 5.

Beyond Bannon, Mark Meadows is facing criminal contempt of Congress charges for refusing to appear for testimony in front of the January 6 committee on Friday.

Panel chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, wrote to Meadows' attorney on Thursday night to say there is 'no valid legal basis' for Meadow's noncompliance with panel's subpoena and gave him until 10am on Friday to respond.

Meadows defied the request and now could be the second Trump ally to be potentially hit with charges after the House referred Bannon's to the Department of Justice last month.

The next step will be for Congress to hold a vote over whether to give Meadows a criminal refer in a move the Democratic majority will likely pass.

The White House counsel's office told Meadows he had no claims of privilege to avoiding appearing before the committee and on Thursday Thompson warned that Meadows could face criminal charges if he doesn't appear.

'The Select Committee will view Mr. Meadows's failure to appear at the deposition, and to produce responsive documents ... as willful non-compliance. Such willful noncompliance with the subpoena would force the Select Committee to consider invoking the contempt of Congress procedures,' Thompson noted, 'which could result in a referral from the House of Representatives to the Department of Justice for criminal charges.'

Meadows' attorney George Terwilliger has said his client 'remains under the instruction of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege.'

'Legal disputes are appropriately resolved by courts,' said Terwilliger said in a statement Friday morning. 'It would be irresponsible for Mr. Meadows to prematurely resolve that dispute by voluntarily waiving privileges that are at the heart of those legal issues.'

The House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection in the Capitol told former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows that he must appear for his deposition at 10 am on Friday or he will be considered in contempt of Congress.

The panel had said it was subpoenaing Meadows because he was within the 'vicinity' of Donald Trump on Jan. 6, and had communications with Trump and others 'regarding the events at the Capitol' and 'are a witness concerning events that day'

White House deputy counsel Jonathan Su wrote to George Terwilliger to tell him of the finding.

'The President believes that the constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information reflecting an effort to subvert the Constitution itself, and indeed believes that such an assertion in this circumstance would be at odds with the principles that underlie the privilege,' Su wrote.

Biden 'has determined that he will not assert executive privilege with respect to your client's deposition testimony on these subjects, or any documents your client may possess that bear on them,' Su noted. 'For the same reasons, underlying his decisions on executive privilege, President Biden has determined that he will not assert immunity to preclude your client from testifying before the Select Committee.'

Thompson noted that finding in his letter to Terwilliger, writing the ruling from Biden's White House counsel on the matter 'eviscerates any plausible claim of testimonial immunity or executive privilege, and compels compliance with the Select Committee's subpoena.'

But Terwilliger suggested in a statement earlier Thursday - after receiving Su's letter but before Thompson's letter - that Meadows would not comply with the committee's demands until the legal disputes were resolved.

'Contrary to decades of consistent bipartisan opinions from the Justice Department that senior aides cannot be compelled by Congress to give testimony, this is the first president to make not effort whatsoever to protect presidential communications from being the subject of compelled testimony,' he wrote.

'Mr. Meadows remains under the instruction of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege. It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict,' he noted.

Trump has ordered his former aides not to cooperate with the House committee's probe.

The committee has subpoenaed Meadows and at least 35 others in their investigation into what happened at the White House on January 6 and the efforts to overturn the election results.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6th Attack on the Capitol issued its first subpoenas on September 21  targeting Meadows, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, longtime Trump and White House aide Dan Scavino, and former Pentagon chief of staff Kash Patel.

Meadows featured prominently in Trump's efforts to pressure state official in Georgia and other states where Trump pushed claims of election fraud as part of his election overturn effort.

'While serving as White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows reportedly communicated with officials at the state level and in the Department of Justice as part of an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election or prevent the election's certification,' according to the committee release on the subpoena.

The Meadows letter says it appears he was within the 'vicinity' of Trump on Jan. 6, and had communications with Trump and others 'regarding the events at the Capitol' and 'are a witness concerning events that day.'

Trump aides called to testify to House over the Capitol Riot and bid to overturn the election: List of subpoenas and the committee's reason behind them Mark Meadows: While serving as White House Chief of Staff, Meadows reportedly communicated with officials at the state level and in the Department of Justice as part of an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election or prevent the election's certification. Daniel Scavino: White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Scavino was with the former President on January 5th during a discussion of how to convince Members of Congress not to certify the election for Joe Biden. Prior to the January 6th March for Trump, Mr. Scavino promoted the event on Twitter, encouraging people to 'be a part of history.' And records indicate that Mr. Scavino was tweeting messages from the White House on January 6, 2021 Kashyap Patel: Patel was serving as chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller. The former President had appointed Mr. Patel to this position on November 10, the day after then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was replaced. Stephen Bannon: Bannon reportedly communicated with former President Trump on December 30th, 2020, urging him to focus his efforts on January 6th. Mr. Bannon also reportedly attended a gathering at the Willard Hotel on January 5th, 2021, as part of an effort to persuade Members of Congress to block the certification of the election the next day. He is also quoted as saying on January 5 that 'all Hell is going to break lose tomorrow'. Nicholas Luna: Luna, who served as the former President's personal assistant, was reportedly in the Oval Office the morning of January 6th, 2021, when the former President was on a phone call to Vice President Pence pressuring him not to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election Molly Michael: Michael served as Special Assistant to the President and Oval Office Operations Coordinator, was involved in sending information about alleged election fraud to various individuals at the direction of President Trump, according to information obtained by the Select Committee. Benjamin Williamson: While serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Willliamson was reportedly contacted by a former White House official during the attack on the U.S. Capitol who urged him and Mr. Meadows, without success, to have the former President issue a statement addressing the attack and condemning the violence. Christopher Liddell: Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, was in the White House on January 6th and reportedly considered resigning on that day but stayed on 'after a great deal of persuasion.' John McEntee: The former White House Personnel Director, was reportedly present in the Oval Office when Rudolph Giuliani, Justin Clark, the former President, and former Vice President Pence discussed the audit process in Georgia and listened as Mr. Giuliani suggested seizing Dominion voting machines because of alleged fraud. Mr. McEntee was also reportedly involved in communications with officials in various federal agencies regarding loyalty to President Trump and specifically discouraged a number of individuals from seeking employment after the election as it would appear to be a concession of President Trump's defeat. In addition, according to reports, Mr. McEntee was in the White House on January 6th and was with former President Trump when he traveled to the Ellipse and spoke at the 'Stop the Steal' rally Keith Kellogg: Vice President Pence's National Security Advisor who reportedly participated in at least one January 2021 meeting with the former President and Pat Cipollone during which the former President insisted that former Vice President Pence not certify the election. He was reportedly in the White House with the former President as he watched the January 6th attack unfold and has direct information about the former President's statements about and reaction to the insurrection. During that day, it is reported that Lt. Gen. Kellogg met with the former President and others before the rally at the Ellipse and then, after the rally, he urged the former President to send out a tweet to his supporters at the U.S. Capitol to help control the crowd. Kayleigh McEnany: Former White House Press Secretary, who allegedly made multiple public statements from the White House and elsewhere about purported fraud in the November 2020 election. For example, in the first White House press conference after the election, Ms. McEnany claimed that there were 'very real claims' of fraud that the former President's reelection campaign was pursuing, and said that mail-in voting was something that 'we have identified as being particularly prone to fraud.' At another press conference, Ms. McEnany accused Democrats of 'welcoming fraud' and 'welcoming illegal voting.' In addition, Ms. McEnany was reportedly present at times with the former President as he watched the January 6th attack Stephen Miller: Senior Advisor to the former President who, by his own account participated in efforts to spread false information about alleged voter fraud in the November 2020 election, as well as efforts to encourage state legislatures to alter the outcome of the November 2020 election by appointing alternate slates of electors. Cassidy Hutchinson: Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, who reportedly was at the White House on January 6th and was with the former President when he spoke at the 'Stop the Steal' rally that day. She also reportedly reached out directly via email and phone to Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs relating to a trip to Georgia by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to attend an election audit. Kenneth Klukowski: The former Senior Counsel to Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, was involved in drafting a letter that urged legislatures in certain states to delay certification of the election, according to the report recently released by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The report also states that Mr. Clark contacted Mr. Klukowski to prepare for an Oval Office meeting with the former President that took place on January 3rd, 2021. William 'Bill' Stepien: He served as manager of the Trump 2020 reelection campaign. The campaign reportedly urged state and party officials to affect the outcome of the November 2020 election by asking states to delay or deny certification of electoral votes and by sending multiple slate of electoral votes to the United States Congress. Jason Miller: According to the committee, the Senior Advisor to Trump's 2020 reelection campaign, spread the false claim that the November 2020 had been tainted by widespread fraud. Even before the election, Mr. Miller publicly claimed that Democrats would 'steal' the election, a message that individuals who attacked the U.S. Capitol echoed on January 6th. After the election, Mr. Miller coordinated with Mr. Trump and Rudolph Giuliani, and claimed in public press events that the election was rigged. Additionally, according to public reports, Mr. Miller participated in a meeting on January 5th, 2021 at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., in which Mr. Giuliani, Stephen Bannon, and others discussed options for overturning the results of the November 2020 election by, among other things, pressuring Vice President Pence to not certify the electoral college results. Angela McCallum: National executive assistant to Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, who reportedly participated in efforts to spread false information about alleged voter fraud in the November 2020 election and to encourage state legislatures to alter the outcome of the November 2020 election. Specifically, there is a publicly available recording of a voicemail that Ms. McCallum reportedly left for an unknown Michigan state representative. In the recording, Ms. McCallum wanted to know whether the Trump campaign could 'count on' the representative and said that the individual had the authority to appoint an alternate slate of electors based on purported evidence of widespread election fraud John Eastman: Attorney who reportedly advised President Trump and others that Vice President Pence could reject electors from certain states in order to deny Joe Biden a majority of the Electoral College vote. In the days before January 6th, Mr. Eastman is reported to have participated in a briefing for nearly 300 state legislators regarding purported election fraud, during which he told the group that it was 'the duty of the[] legislatures to fix this, this egregious conduct, and make sure that we're not putting in the White House some guy that didn't get elected.' Mr. Eastman reportedly participated in the January 5th, 2021 meeting at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. and he spok Michael Flynn: Former national security advisor who reportedly attended a December 18th, 2020 meeting in the Oval Office during which participants discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency, invoking certain national security emergency powers, and continuing to spread the false message that the November 2020 election had been tainted by widespread fraud. The day before, Flynn gave an interview on Newsmax TV during which he talked about seizing voting machines, foreign influence in the election, and the purported precedent for deploying military troops and declaring martial law to 'rerun' the election. Bernard Kerik: Former NYPD Commissioner who reportedly participated in the January 5th, 2021 meeting at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. Mr. Kerik reportedly paid for rooms and suites in Washington, D.C. hotels that served as election-related command centers, and also worked with Mr. Rudolph Giuliani to investigate allegations of voter fraud and promote baseless litigation and 'Stop the Steal' efforts Jeffrey Clark: Former DOJ lawyer who was reportedly involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and interrupt the peaceful transfer of power. The subpoena seeks deposition testimony and records from Mr. Clark as part of the Select Committee's investigation into the events of January 6th and the causes of that day's violence Ali Alexander: Submitted permits for 'Stop the Steal' rally Nathan Martin: Submitted permits for 'Stop the Steal' rally Stop the Steal, LLC Amy Kremer: Founder and Chair of Women for America First. Kylie Kremer: Founder and Executive Director of WFAF. Cynthia Chafian: Submitted the first permit application on behalf of WFAF for the January 6th rally, and founder of the Eighty Percent Coalition. Caroline Wren: Listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'VIP Advisor.' Maggie Mulvaney: Wife of chief of staff Mick Mulvaney who was listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'VIP Lead.' Justin Caporale, of Event Strategies, Inc., listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'Project Manager.' Tim Unes, of Event Strategies, Inc., listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'Stage Manager.' Megan Powers, of MPowers Consulting LLC, listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'Operations Manager for Scheduling and Guidance.' Hannah Salem, of Salem Strategies LLC, listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'Operations Manager for Logistics and Communications.' Lyndon Brentnall, of RMS Protective Services, listed on permit paperwork for the January 6th rally as 'On-Site Supervisor.' Katrina Pierson, former Trump campaign official, reportedly involved in the organization of the January 5th and 6th rallies and was in direct communication with the former President about the rallies. (Source - January 6 Committee) Advertisement

Mark Meadows, a former congressman, served as Trump's chief of staff in the final days of the administration - above the two men are seen together in November 2019

It also cites documents already obtained from the Justice Department, and states that 'while you were the President's Chief of Staff, you directly communicated with the highest officials at the Department of Justice requesting investigations into election fraud matters in several states.'

Bannon also refused to comply with his subpoena and was held in contempt of Congress.

The House voted 229 to 202, mostly along party lines, on October 27 to find Bannon in contempt, which sent the matter to the Justice Department. DoJ will decide whether or not to prosecute Bannon.

Thompson has also threatened contempt against Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who helped orchestrate Trump's effort to subvert the 2020 election results.

Thompson's letter to Meadows on Thursday comes hours after a blow to the committee's investigation of what happened the day thousands of Trump supporters swarmed the Capitol to try and stop the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory.

A federal appeals court blocked the imminent release of Trump's records - including his White House calls and activities related to the Jan. 6 attack - after a lower court found that Biden can waive his predecessor's claim to executive privilege.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted a temporary injunction while it considers Trump's request to hold off any release pending appeal.

The case was fast-tracked for a hearing Nov. 30.

Trump DEFENDS supporters who shouted 'hang Mike Pence' during Capitol riot, insists the chant was 'just common sense' and says he thought VP would be safe because he was 'in good shape' in newly released interview

Donald Trump has defended supporters who threatened to 'hang' then-Vice President Mike Pence during the Capitol riot on January 6 because they were angry about voter fraud allegations in a newly released audio clip of an interview.

During a taped interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl, obtained by Axios, Trump can be heard playing down the chanted threats, saying 'the people were very angry.'

In the clip, Karl initially asks whether Trump was worried about his Vice President.

'No, I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape,' Trump replies during the interview for Karl's book 'Betrayal' at Mar-a-Lago, conducted on March 18. 'No. Because I had heard he was in very good shape.'

'Because you heard those chants  that was terrible,' Karl replies. 'He could have  well, the people were very angry,' Trump says.

'They were saying 'hang Mike Pence,'' Karl pushes.

'Because it's common sense, Jon. It's common sense that you're supposed to protect,' Trump replies. 'How can you  if you know a vote is fraudulent, right?' he says, touting the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.

'How can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that?'

The chants were heard as Trump's supporters laid siege to the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6 following a rally held by the then-president outside the White House, forcing those inside the building - including Pence - to evacuate.

The new audio was released after a federal appeals court gave Trump lawyers until November 30 to argue that White House documents from January 6 should not be handed to the Democrat-led committee investigating the riot.

His former chief of staff Mark Meadows has also been threatened with contempt of court charges if he doesn't respond to request to testify before the panel by 10am on Friday.

Pictured: Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi preside over a Joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 Electoral College results after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol earlier in the day on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 (file photo)
On the streets of Mombasa, the mercury will touch 32c (90f). Inside the modern law chambers the air-con will be working overtime  but the atmosphere will be as oppressive.

For nine torturous years, following the death of his son Alexander in police custody, Lord (Nicholas) Monson of Burton has fought to bring his alleged murderers to justice, without ever seeing them in the flesh.

In Court No.1 at 9am on Monday, however, the 66-year-old aristocrat will at last turn his gaze on Sergeant Naftali Chege, retired Chief Inspector Charles Wangombe Munyiri and constables John Pamba and Ishmael Baraka Bulima, as they file into the dock for the denouement of a stop-start trial that has dragged on agonisingly since 2018.

By the end of the day, Lord Monson should not only know whether one or more of these men  who have remained free on bail and, for a long time, continued to serve in the Kenyan Police  are guilty of bludgeoning Alexander to death after his arrest for a minor drug offence.

Should they be convicted he could hear the judge, Justice Eric Ogola  a fiercely independent figure  sentence them to hang. As this scion of one of Englands oldest noble families told me in an exclusive interview this week, it will be a moment that stirs seismic feelings.

A moment he was repeatedly warned he would never see during a long and dangerous struggle against one of the worlds most ruthless and corrupt police forces. I expect the sheer emotion and drama of just seeing these b******s face to face will be quite extraordinary, he says, the anticipation glinting in his eyes.

For nine torturous years, following the death of his son Alexander in police custody, Lord (Nicholas) Monson of Burton (left) has fought to bring his alleged murderers to justice, without ever seeing them in the flesh

Many told me I was wasting my time, taking on the Kenyan police in their own country. It has taken a heavy toll on my health [doctors say his heart has weakened and he suffers bouts of depression] and it has cost me tens of thousands.

But I wasnt about to give up and see the men who did this to Alexander walk away.

With a lineage dating back to the Hundred Years War, his privileged upbringing and Eton education, Lord Monson does not fit the stereotypical mould of a justice campaigner pitted against the forces of law and order. Many might also imagine him to have huge financial resources and friends in high places.

But titles can be deceptive. In truth, by dint of family differences, he is a man of limited means.

Not having inherited the Lincolnshire lands left by his late father, the 11th Baron Monson, he and third wife Silvana, live largely off income from a boutique guesthouse in Stratford-upon-Avon and reside in a one-bedroom flat above a printers shop, in South-West London.

Nor does he sit in the House of Lords, for the Monson seat, conferred in 1728, fell victim to Tony Blairs cull of hereditary peerages during the late 1990s.

Alexander (pictured) went to a school for dyslexics (a condition inherited from his father) before going to Marlborough College

Indeed when, in desperation, he sought the British Establishments help in bringing Alexanders alleged killers to account, he got short shrift. He claims one well-known former government minister sneered: What do you expect us to do? Send gunboats to Mombasa? The advice from the British High Commission in Nairobi was that he should take a softly-softly approach. I replied, No, Ill go in bloody hard.

He expected support from Kenyas Independent Policing Oversight Authority  set up ten years ago and funded with British overseas aid  for investigating Alexanders death was its very first task, and regarded as a litmus test of its effectiveness.

Yet all it did was protect the accused officers and perpetuate the myth they promulgated: that a drugs overdose killed Alexander. It is ironic that, though his campaign has fallen on deaf ears in Britain, it has made Lord Monson a hero to many ordinary Kenyans in their struggle against police corruption and brutality.

They will express their admiration volubly when the man they affectionately call Mister Lordy Monson steps off the plane at Mombasa airport, at lunchtime today.

Banner-waving human rights activists plan to form a guard of honour in the terminal. For in Kenya, the 100,000-strong police service is despised and feared in equal measure; a paramilitary force, many of whose members extort, subjugate, torture and kill with impunity.

The 54 million population live in fear of being hauled off the streets and forced to pay bribes. Statistics reveal the fate of those who resist: last year, 167 people were killed or disappeared in police custody.

However, according to Francis Auma, a human rights campaigner in Mombasa, matters have improved  if only slightly  in recent years; and by showing that the police can be brought to account, Lord Monson has made a significant contribution to the clean-up. The whole country will be watching out for his case, because it will show how far we have come, Mr Auma told me.

Yet as Lord Monson watches proceedings, flanked by ex-wife Hilary  who settled in a beach resort near Mombasa after they divorced 30 years ago and with whom Alexander was staying when he died  he may reflect on the events that led him to this drab, post-colonial courthouse, 4,500 miles from London.

At the time of Alexanders birth in 1987, he was working irregular hours as a journalist on The Times, so spent a lot of time looking after him. They developed a tremendous bond, strained only briefly during his sons turbulent adolescence.

Alexander went to a school for dyslexics (a condition inherited from his father) before going to Marlborough College. Like his great-grandfather, who was commissioned to paint the young Queen Elizabeths portrait, he was a talented artist and won a scholarship at Chelsea Art College. Lord Monson hoped he might make this his career, but Alexander drifted through his 20s and, months before his death, decamped to Kenya, where his sister Isabella, 35, an advertising copywriter, also lived.

His mother gave him some land and he planned to cultivate a commercial bamboo plantation. While many British ex-pats keep to their own circle in Kenya, he fell in with a group of local friends.

As his father says: He didnt have any kind of snobbish element about him. In fact, he abhorred the idea of privilege. He was immensely personable and likeable and he had enough savoir faire to mix easily in any milieu.

He was out socialising with these friends at a beach-front restaurant when he was arrested, in the early hours of Saturday, May 19, 2012. Later that morning Lord Monson, who was staying on the Costa del Sol, received a phone call as he played Scrabble with his Brazilian third wife and friends. His son had died, apparently from a drug overdose, he was told.

In the dock: The four police officers accused of killing Alexander Monson

He suspected this to be untrue from the outset. For, as Alexanders friends confirmed, though he smoked pot, he was not a hard-drug user. After scrambling a flight to Kenya 48 hours later, he began piecing together the real story.

Owing to Kenyas laborious justice system, and the climate of fear and secrecy that protects rogue Kenyan police officers, it has yet to be told openly in full.

But with the help of an inside source and the painstaking work of British experts  among them a barrister and a leading forensic physician  Lord Monson believes he has a good idea of what happened.

His campaign has taken him to Kenya several times and the authorities have not welcomed his vocal presence. He was once arrested at gunpoint for simply taking a photo of the police station where Alexander died; he has been followed by a shadowy figure and warned to leave the country because the police had plans for him if he continued to make waves.

There have been other disquieting occurrences. An outside police officer deployed to investigate the episode died in a car crash, for instance, just hours after beginning his assignment.

Then there was the deeply suspicious death of Kenyas deputy president and security minister, George Saitoti.

He was killed while travelling in a police helicopter which blew up in mid-air and crashed into the mountains. Just ten days earlier, he had met Lord Monson in his Nairobi office and pledged to prosecute Alexanders killers and purge the police of corruption.Coincidences? Perhaps, but Lord Monson is not so sure.

He points out the infamous case of a Kenyan human rights lawyer representing a man who claimed to have been shot by the police. In 2016, both the lawyer and his client were killed and flung into a crocodile-infested river.

Five years later, the four officers accused of murdering them still await trial. We are entering a universe to which you and I are not privy, but the facts are there, he says grimly.

Tangling with the Kenyan police is like Mississippi Burning, but ten times worse. They are like the Mafia. Mombasa is the biggest port on the East African coast for heroin and cocaine smuggling and the police take their cut. They dont take kindly to people trying to clean up their corruption.

Marijuana use is commonplace in Kenya, so even if Alexander was smoking a joint that night, his arrest was unusual. He was picked up with a friend who was freed after apparently being bailed out by his father. But Alexander was held in the cells.

The following morning, when a family friend arrived, he found the young man slumped unconscious beneath the charge desk. Nobody seemed very bothered. His credit card and phone were missing.

Claiming he had taken an overdose, the accused officers reluctantly agreed to take him  still handcuffed  to hospital. There he was shackled to the bed. Had the medical staff turned him over, they would have seen the major wound on the back of his head. He died hours later, with his mother clutching his manacled hand.

An autopsy confirmed that his death was caused by a blunt force trauma, a view backed up in 2018 at a belated inquest, elicited after unremitting pressure from Lord Monson and Alexanders mother (who has also campaigned tirelessly on his behalf).

His testicles were so badly bruised they had turned black. Ludicrously, one police witness suggested this might have been caused by Alexander having vigorous sex. He also had a wound to his left arm, presumed to have been inflicted as he tried vainly to protect himself.

When Kenyan police officers extort money from uncooperative victims, Lord Monson has discovered, the standard procedure is to kick them in the groin so that they bend over double, then beat them over the head with a rifle butt or heavy truncheon.

The four officers were charged with murder on the recommendation of Richard Odenyo, the magistrate who presided over the inquest. He said they were the prime suspects and there was sufficient evidence to try them.

There were attempts from several witnesses herein to obfuscate the facts surrounding the death, Odenyo observed, adding that Alexander had been in good health when he was booked into the police station at 2.30am and that his life was cut short by the unlawful actions of others while in the custody of police.

Criminal proceedings in Kenya go through three stages. Firstly, the prosecution must prove there is a reasonable case to answer. Secondly, the defence evidence is heard. Thirdly the judge, who sits without a jury, reads his verdict and sentence. Since an attempt by the four police officers lawyers to have the case thrown out has failed, the third and final stage has at last been reached.

So, on Monday, Lord Monson should hear precisely how, and by whom, his sons fatal injuries were inflicted. Painful as that will be, however, if the officers are found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang, he will appeal for their lives to be spared.

Though the death penalty has not been carried out in Kenya since 1987 (when two coup plotters were sent to the gallows for treason) it remains on the statute books and it is not unusual for it to be handed down.

However, Lord Monson, whose younger son Rupert, 21, committed suicide five years ago during a psychotic episode evidently induced by his addiction to skunk cannabis, explains his rationale. The two young constables  who served as Alexanders cell guards  deserve clemency, he avers, as they would have faced severe reprisals for failing to carry out their orders.

As for the two superior officers, he would sooner they spent the rest of their days rotting in one of Kenyas notorious prisons. I think of death as eternal peace. Why should those brutes in uniform have that?

After what they did to Alexander, I would rather they lived and suffered, he says  readying himself for that moment, nine long years in the making, when he can look them squarely in the eyes.
The snow clouds are already gathering and the temperature is dropping in Afghanistan. This winter, crops are in short supply. The country is facing utter disaster.

Aid agencies warn that 23 million people here now face famine, and economists say that 90 per cent or more of working people will lose any form of income.

On Monday, while I was being interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about this crisis, I let my emotions get the better of me. I choked up when I started to talk about a family I had just been filming.

After 55 years as a foreign affairs correspondent you might have thought I could control myself better.

On Monday, while I was being interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about this crisis, I let my emotions get the better of me. I choked up when I started to talk about a family I had just been filming

Though people were moved by my account, the BBC sends me round the world to report, not emote.

But I can explain why it happened.

A woman we interviewed, Fatima, lived in a hut built on a cliff-face in Bamyan. She is a widow with seven children.

The family has no furniture, just a cheap old carpet, yet the rooms, which were floored with the sandstone rock of the cliff, were spotless.

Fatima couldn't offer us tea  the usual thing to give a guest in Afghanistan  because there wasn't any. This family subsists on a piece of flatbread each day.

I've seen plenty of grinding poverty around the world, but I'm not sure I've ever seen people so dignified and decent in the midst of such deprivation.

Why should we even think of reaching out a hand to the Taliban (above), one of the world's nastier collection of thugs? Because it might be the only way of feeding those at risk of starvation, and governments and aid agencies have to start acting very soon if they are to be saved

I have two daughters who are now grown women with children, and a son by my second marriage who is 15. I felt I was looking at my own family when I saw them.

If the winter is as bad as forecast, Fatima's children may be skeletal  even dead  by January.

As I sat talking to her I asked if she'd thought of selling her daughters in marriage, as others have, to make enough money to survive the winter. Yes, she said, and she looked at the two eldest girls.

It would be a terrible thing to do, but if it meant saving the lives of the family, she would have to do it.

The daughters said they would hate the idea  but again, if it was necessary, they would agree. It won't happen in their case.

The BBC doesn't pay people for interviews, but my team and I made sure Fatima and her family will survive.

These were the things swirling round in my mind when I spoke in the Today studio.

Why should we care about Fatima and her family? Because they're frightened of what will happen in the next few months, if no one helps Afghanistan.

Why should we even think of reaching out a hand to the Taliban, one of the world's nastier collection of thugs?

Because it might be the only way of feeding those at risk of starvation, and governments and aid agencies have to start acting very soon if they are to be saved.

It's people such as Fatima and her children who count.

If I attracted a little more attention for their plight by embarrassing myself on radio with my lack of professionalism, then I really don't care too much.
500 National Guard troops have been put on standby in Wisconsin in anticipation of a verdict in the case of Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse.

Governor Tony Evers announced that the guardsmen will be stationed outside Kenosha, ready to support local police in the event of unrest over the weekend and next week.

'We continue to be in close contact with our partners at the local level to ensure the state provides support and resources to help keep the Kenosha community and greater area safe.

'The Kenosha community has been strong, resilient, and has come together through incredibly difficult times these past two years, and that healing is still ongoing.

'I urge folks who are otherwise not from the area to please respect the community by reconsidering any plans to travel there and encourage those who might choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights to do so safely and peacefully,' he said.

Closing arguments begin on Monday and the likelihood of an acquittal or mistrial is growing by the day.

National Guard troops will be on standby in Kenosha as the Kyle Rittenhouse trial draws to a close over the coming days. Wisconsin Guardsmen are shown in August last year

Teenage Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse is on trial for first degree reckless homicide for killing two white BLM protesters last summer. The trial is expected to come to a close either this week or next week. He is shown in court on Friday

Police forces across America are preparing for potential unrest, should the verdict trigger protests in other cities.

Rittenhouse, 18, is on trial for murdering two white BLM protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August. The teenage gunman claims he was defending his hometown from an angry mob, but his critics say he embodies the systemic racism the victims were protesting against.

Closing arguments are expected next week but the case has already been thrown into chaos, with many expecting it will either end in acquittal or mistrial.

Rittenhouse's lawyers have asked for a mistrial because prosecutors introduced banned evidence. Some legal experts have now suggested it was a deliberate move to throw the trial as their chances of convicting grew narrower.

Court is now back in session, but the heat surrounding the case is increasing and police forces across the country are among those watching closely as to how it will play out.

Early this morning, the judge revealed that the court has been inundated with 'communications from members of the public' including offensive emails.

The judge was branded a racist in some of them, and attorneys on both sides have also been targeted.

Chicago PD sent a memo to officers this week notifying them that one of their days off this weekend had been canceled, claiming it was due to 'current crime patterns' in the city. Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara claims it is in anticipation of 'upheaval' from the Rittenhouse trial.

Chicago PD has canceled officers days off this weekend to 'enhance public safety' and police unions say it is to do with the Rittenhouse verdict looming

He said in a video posted on YouTube on Monday, he fumed at the canceled time-off, and said: 'They do not get to keep saying we need manpower just in case a verdict doesn't go positive, and all of a sudden there's upheaval.'

The police department is now refusing to confirm or deny his claims, or whether they anticipate uprising this weekend or next week.

All they will say is: 'To enhance public safety and to address current crime patterns, all full-duty sworn members will have one regular day off cancelled this upcoming weekend between November 12, 2021 through November 14, 2021.'

Other departments in major cities are also being tight-lipped on whether they anticipate trouble, and what they are doing - if anything - to offset it.

The LAPD refused to reveal whether or not any special preparations had been made because of the trial when contacted by DailyMail.com on Thursday morning.

All a spokesman would say was: 'The Los Angeles Police Department will have sufficient amount of officers in an event if anything arises.'

There was silence from the NYPD, LA County Sheriff, DC Metro Police, Minneapolis Police and Philadelphia PD.

Now youve got what could be violent nights ahead, vax mandates where police officers are being sent home by the hundreds if not thousands... we could have some trouble brewing Sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith, National Police Association

Portland Police Department, which was almost disbanded entirely by BLM and now only has 788 officers, told DailyMail.com it was 'monitoring' the situation but hadn't yet deployed any extra resources.

'PPB is monitoring the situation and will deploy resources if needed based on information available,' a spokesman said.

Washington DC Metropolitan Police said: 'MPD closely monitors leading events across the country and across the world.

'MPD maintains a level of preparation that would allow it to respond appropriately to any emerging concerns that may arise should it become necessary.'

Sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith, spokesman for the National Police Association and a retired cop who worked in the Chicago area for decades, said forces will not want to disclose exactly what they are doing for fear of alerting protesters who can then circumvent them.

'Id guess that perhaps theyre just trying to be prepared without too much being known to potential protesters. A lot of jurisdictions will be doing that.

'One of the things, when we go back to George Floyd riots and others, some departments were caught unawares of hw bad the situation was going to be.

'Law enforcement has learned from recent history...they're going to try to be prepared,' Sgt. Brantner Smith told DailyMal.com on Thursday.

She said there was potential for things to turn 'ugly' in Kenosha, Madison and Milwaukee.

'Im sure Kenosha are preparing for riots. That was one of the things  when Jacob Blake shooting happened that led to the Kenosha riots, it was because the city leadership in Kenosha did not get a handle on it.

'Theyre going to have to make preparations for the safety of the jurors, everyone involved in the trial.

'Madison, there may be some issues there, Milwaukee  a large, large city. Im sure theres preparations being made there.'

One potential problem, she said, would be police staff shortages that have been compounded by COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

'With cities like Portland and Chicago- there are staffing shortages already and then lets add the vax mandates, and the shortages caused from that.

'Now youve got what could be violent nights ahead, vax mandates where police officers are being sent home by the hundreds and thousands, we could have some trouble brewing,' she said.

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara claims it is in anticipation of 'upheaval' from the Rittenhouse trial.

Riots raged throughout the summer last year and some rose again in April after the killing of Daunte Wright, a black man killed by cops in summer. Police forces say they will be 'ready' for any uprising that comes from the Kenosha verdict next week

In Kenosha, where the trial is ongoing, shopkeepers still have boards on their windows from last year's protests.

The police department there will not discuss what is being done to offset any potential uproar, but it appears officers are on high alert.

'KPD wants our community to know that our priority during the upcoming trial is the safety of our community and every person that calls Kenosha home or visits our city,' the police department said at the start of the trial.

Police across the US are bracing for uproar as Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse's trial draws to a close.

Rittenhouse was 17 when he shot and killed two white BLM protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August using an AR-15 at the height of civil unrest across America.

The case divided America; some viewed him as a patriotic vigilante who was defending his town from an angry mob.

At the same time as the Rittenhouse trial, the men charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery are on trial in Georgia

Others said he embodied the systemic racism that sent thousands onto the streets to protest police brutality, especially because Rittenhouse, a young white man, was treated with a soft touch by law enforcement before eventually being arrested.

Whether he is acquitted or convicted, outrage is guaranteed.

There is also the possibility that the judge may declare a mistrial, given the prosecution's decision to introduce evidence that had been specifically banned earlier this week.

Rittenhouse's lawyers asked for a mistrial with prejudice yesterday.

If the judge grants it, it means the teenager cannot be retried on the same charges.

There are also concerns that a trial verdict may be reached around the same time as a jury reaches a verdict in the killing of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.

Arbery was shot dead in February 2020 by three white men who claimed they thought he was a burglar. They are on trial for murder as a hate crime in Brunswick.
Oysters and other popular seafood could be off the Christmas menu for many Australian families.

South Australian health authorities are warning people to stay away from raw oysters, but also cold prawns and salmon, after a shocking outbreak of a rare type of gastro.

The SA government said there have been 36 cases of vibrio parahaemolyticus infections recorded since September and it is yet to determine the source or reason for the outbreak.

The state recorded no such cases in 2020 and only eight in 2019.

Many Australian families may choose to go without the traditional seafood spread after the South Australian government reported a major outbreak of vibrio parahaemolyticus. Pregnant women, older Aussies and those weakened immune systems are most at risk

The serious infection , which causes vomiting, fever, diarrhoea, headaches, stomach cramps and nausea, is most often caused within a day of eating raw oysters

Joanne Cammans, SA Health's Acting Director of Food and Controlled Drugs Branch, said the outbreak could be serious for vulnerable people.

That includes pregnant women, older Australians and those with weak immune systems.

'This increase in such a short period of time is very concerning, as food-borne illnesses can be quite serious for more vulnerable people,' Ms Cammans said.

Also vulnerable are people lowered gastric acidity, such as those who are taking antacids, and people with liver disease.

The infection causes gastro symptoms, including vomiting, fever, diarrhoea, headaches, stomach cramps and nausea and usually occurs within 24 hours of eating contaminated food.

The SA government those vulnerable groups against 'eating seafood eaten raw or ready-to-eat cold cooked prawns or cold smoked salmon'.

'The infection can be acquired by eating undercooked shellfish and fish however raw oysters are often the most common cause,' said Ms Cammans.

The SA government warned vulnerable people against eating cooked ready-to-eat prawns, as well as raw oysters

Cold salmon is also off the menu for vulnerable people, according to SA health warnings

SA biosecurity teams are investigating, but haven't yet identified the source or reason for the outbreak, said Nathan Rhodes, from the Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA).

''[So far] inspections by PIRSA officers have found that food safety practices are being appropriately applied on farm.'
Former Barclays boss Jes Staley exchanged 1,200 emails with billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over a four-year period, including unexplained references to 'snow white'.

The scale of their correspondence was unknown until the emails were examined by UK regulators.

Mr Staley, 64, resigned from Barclays last week after the bank was shown the result of an official City investigation before it will be made public.

He had previously told Barclays his relationship was purely professional having been Epstein's private banker at JP Morgan.

Former Barclays boss Jes Staley (pictured) exchanged 1,200 emails with billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over a four-year period

But it is understood that the investigation suggests the father-of-two may have played down his role in Epstein's affairs.

Many of the emails between Mr Staley and Epstein, dating from 2008 to 2012, were general in nature  talking about meeting up for drinks or news stories. But the chummy tone will raise eyebrows, as may the unexplained reference to 'snow white'.

But no conclusions have yet been drawn over the phrase by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), according to the Financial Times.

Kathleen Harris, a lawyer for Mr Staley, said: 'We wish to make it expressly clear that our client had no involvement in any of the alleged crimes committed by Epstein, and codewords were never used by Mr Staley in any communications with Epstein, ever.'

Jeffrey Epstein (pictured) killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in America

Epstein killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Mr Staley's ties with the paedophile tycoon began in the early 2000s when Epstein, who managed money for billionaires, was a client of JP Morgan's private bank.

They became close enough that Mr Staley visited Epstein while he was serving a prison sentence in Florida in 2009 for procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.

And in common with the Duke of York and others, Mr Staley stayed in touch with him for several years after his downfall.

He has said their relationship began to 'taper off' after he left the US bank in 2013. But just a few months before joining Barclays in 2015, Mr Staley and his wife sailed their 90ft yacht to Epstein's private Caribbean island, Little Saint James, for lunch. Epstein carried out many of his crimes against underage girls on the island.

Mr Staley, who is married to interior designer Debbie, has been replaced at Barclays by CS Venkatakrishnan. The bank said last week he was entitled to 12 months' notice and so will continue to receive his current fixed annual pay of 2.4million in cash, Barclays shares, a pension allowance of 120,000 and other benefits until October 31 next year.

Barclays pointed to an earlier statement that said 'the investigation makes no findings that Mr Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Epstein's alleged crimes'. A spokesman for Mr Staley said he 'intends to contest the initial findings of the FCA and PRA investigation'.
A Kentucky driver who has been credited with helping rescue a kidnapped 16-year-old girl from the car of a suspected pedophile has revealed that he did not recognize her distress hand signal that she saw on TikTok, contrary to a sheriff's claim.

David Isaacs, 50, said he called 911 after seeing the abducted girl, who he said appeared distraught, repeatedly mouthing the words 'help me' as she was being transported by James Brick in his Toyota Corolla on Interstate 75 last week.

'I didnt recognize a gesture,' Isaacs, of Berea, Kentucky, told NBC News. 'She was mouthing "help me."

'She said "help me, help me" twice,' Isaacs said. 'I think she even lip-synced "call 911."'... It looked like she had been crying.

James Brick, 61, was arrested for kidnapping a 16-year-old girl in North Carolina. A driver on the interstate called 911 after spotting the girl mouthing 'help me,' not because she made a TikTok-famous hand signal

David Isaacs called 911 after seeing the girl in distress in Brick's car on Interstate 75

Isaacs did recall that the teen kept showing four fingers with her thumb folded against the window, but he said he did not recognize it as a signal of domestic violence that has been popularized on TikTok.

Laurel County Sheriff's Office said in a statement last week that the driver contacted the authorities after he recognized the signal and saw that the teen 'appeared to be in distress.'

As of Friday, the sheriff's office has not commented on the apparent discrepancy between Isaacs' version of events and its earlier statement.

'Those guys are the heroes,' Isaacs said of the officers who responded to his call and rescued the girl. 'Im just glad I could see it through and make sure she got help. I feel like it was a happy ending.'

Brick, 61, was arrested on November 4 on charges of kidnapping and possession of child pornography. He remained jailed at the Laurel County Correctional Center on $50,000 bail.

The rescued girl said she had been abducted from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, and driven through her home state, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Her parents had reported her missing.

The hand signal that the teen showed, demonstrated on multiple TikTok accounts, including one set up by news site NowThis, sees a person raise their palm and tuck their thumb, then lower their fingers so that the thumb is 'trapped' inside them, with the signal resembling a clenched fist.

It is designed to show others that the signaler is suffering from domestic abuse.

Many on TikTok have shared videos on how to discretely perform a distress hand sign in order to combat domestic abuse. The teen said she learned the sign from these types of videos

This graphic explains how the hand signal used by the girl works

'It was learned through investigation that the female passenger was a reported missing juvenile  reported by her parents on Tuesday morning missing from Asheville, North Carolina,' the Laurel Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post. 'A check through NCIC confirmed that she was a reported missing person.'

The missing teen told police that she and Brick had traveled to Ohio, where Brick's family lived, but left shortly after his family realized she was underaged and reported missing by her parents.

She began making the hand signs that she learned on TikTok when they were driving back to North Carolina on Interstate 75, where drivers she caught the attention of other drivers.

Officers quickly arrested Brick and also found a phone in his possession 'that allegedly portrayed a juvenile female in a sexual manner.'

It is unclear if that is the same girl was the teenager found in the car. Cops have also yet to explain whether Brick knew his alleged victim before the attack, and more details about how he had been able to take her.

The Laurel County Sheriff's Office said the investigation over the incident is still ongoing.
British soldiers were deployed to the Polish border with Belarus yesterday as tensions in Eastern Europe threatened to spill over.

The escalating migrant crisis at the edge of the EU triggered a rapid military build-up in the region, with Russian paratroopers touching down on the opposite side of the border.

The deployment of Royal Engineers on a reconnaissance mission came as a pair of Kremlin nuclear-capable bombers forced the RAF to defend British airspace.

Vladimir Putin was also warned against making a 'serious mistake' after America said satellite images of troops suggested Russia could be planning to invade Ukraine.

The small forward party of British soldiers, thought to number about ten, will help Polish forces strengthen their border with Belarus, where as many as 4,000 migrants, mainly from Iraq, Syria and Yemen, have gathered hoping to cross into Europe.

The escalating migrant crisis at the edge of the EU triggered a rapid military build-up in the region, with Russian paratroopers touching down on the opposite side of the border

Belarus started building camps yesterday to house those who have spent night after night sleeping in freezing forests with little food

Another 15,000 migrants are thought to be in Belarus and heading for the border, having been brought in from the Middle East to flood into Europe by president Alexander Lukashenko in revenge for EU sanctions

RAF Typhoons intercept Russian bombers A pair of Russian nuclear bombers yesterday forced the RAF to defend British airspace over the North Sea. Amid a heightening of tensions between East and West thanks to the escalating crisis on the Polish-Belarus border, two TU-160 'Blackjack' strategic bombers, which are capable of launching cruise missiles, launched a menacing sortie. The entered the Nato zone  for which the Netherlands is responsible  without warning the Dutch, Amsterdam's defence ministry confirmed. Belgium and the Netherlands take turns to look after air defence in the area for Nato on behalf of the Benelux region, which also includes Luxembourg. Belgian F-16s escorted the Russian aircraft out of the area towards a zone policed by Britain, where they were met by a pair of RAF Typhoons from the Quick Reaction Alert force at RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, north-east Scotland, along with a refuelling jet from Brize Norton, Oxfordshire. The TU-160s were then 'deterred from entering UK aerial territory', with the Russian pilots turning back and heading north. The RAF's protection mission was completed by 2.30pm when all British aircraft returned to base, nearly three hours after take-off. Last night, an RAF spokesperson confirmed that it scrambled the British Typhoons, which 'intercepted and escorted two Russian TU-160 Blackjack, long-range strategic bomber aircraft'. Advertisement

Belarus started building camps yesterday to house those who have spent night after night sleeping in freezing forests with little food.

Katarzyna Zdanowicz, spokesman for Poland's border guards in the eastern Podlasie region, said 'The scale of the problem is not diminishing.'

She said Belarusian forces had brought wood and water to migrant camps on the border, adding: 'We can see they are preparing for a longer stay.'

Another 15,000 migrants are thought to be in Belarus and heading for the border, having been brought in from the Middle East to flood into Europe by president Alexander Lukashenko in revenge for EU sanctions.

Moscow, a key Lukashenko ally, has been accused of helping to fuel the crisis.

As the Royal Engineers arrived in the region, hundreds of Russian paratroopers jumped from military aircraft into Belarus. They conducted tactical rehearsals 25 miles from the flashpoint at the border. The Russian defence ministry said the troops, two of whom died, flew home after the exercise, which was interpreted as a show of support for Lukashenko.

Last night, Tory former defence minister Tobias Ellwood backed the Ministry of Defence's demonstration of solidarity with Poland.

He said: 'Nato states will need to act swiftly to stay ahead of the threat, while countries which share borders with Russia will require further support.

'Any failure to do so would be interpreted as weak behaviour by President Putin.

'He could absolutely invade Ukraine. It is a reflection of just how weak the West has become.'

America warned European leaders this week that Russia may be about to invade Ukraine, having annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014. The warning was based on satellite images showing tens of thousands of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Moscow would commit a 'serious mistake' if any of the 90,000 Russian troops positioned to march into Ukraine did so.

Last night, Tory former defence minister Tobias Ellwood backed the Ministry of Defence's demonstration of solidarity with Poland

He assured Kiev this week that Washington's commitment to Ukraine's security was 'iron-clad'.

He said yesterday: 'We don't know Russia's intentions. But we do know that we've seen in the past  Russia mass forces on Ukraine's borders, claim some kind of provocation by Ukraine, and then invade. That's what they did in 2014.'

France urged Russia to use its ties with Belarus to bring the migrant crisis to an end, and warned that any Russian threat to Ukraine would have 'serious consequences'. The EU expressed alarm at Russia's activities by Ukraine's border.

Belarus said it was ready to defend itself, accusing Poland of an 'unprecedented' military build-up on the border, with 15,000 troops and guards backed by tanks, air defences and other weapons.

Defence minister Viktor Khrenin added: 'Belarus armed forces are ready to respond harshly to any attacks.'

Turkey said yesterday that Iraqis, Syrians and Yemenis would no longer be allowed on flights to Belarus. Iraq also stopped direct journeys, and said it would repatriate Iraqis in Belarus.

It comes after Russia and Belarus held snap paratrooper drills just 20 miles from a border crossing where thousands of migrants are gathered, saying it was to 'test the readiness' of their troops, at the same time as two Russian bombers flew close to the UK - with RAF Typhoons scrambled to escort them.

A 'small' detachment of British troops, thought to be from Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers, were also deployed to the Polish border to help beef up the defences, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.

Separately, the US also warned that Putin could be preparing for an attack on eastern Ukraine after he was spotted massing thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces near the border. Ukraine's defence minister accused Russia of waging 'hybrid warfare' on Europe, saying Putin is ultimately responsible for the Polish border crisis.

Fears are growing of an imminent conflict in eastern Europe as Russia and Belarus carry out snap military drills close to where a migrant crisis is playing out on Poland's border, while Washington warns Putin is preparing to invade eastern Ukraine

Lukashenko wants payback for EU sanctions and Putin enjoys mischief: Why Belarus and Russia are causing chaos in Europe What is behind the crisis? Belarus was rocked by months of massive protests following the August 2020 election that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office. The opposition and the West rejected the result as a sham. Belarusian authorities responded to the demonstrations with a fierce crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police. The European Union and the U.S. reacted by imposing sanctions on Lukashenko's government. Those restrictions were toughened after an incident in May when a passenger jet flying from Greece to Lithuania was diverted by Belarus to Minsk, where authorities arrested dissident journalist Roman Pratasevich. The EU called it air piracy and barred Belarusian carriers from its skies and cut imports of the country's top commodities, including petroleum products and potash, an ingredient in fertilizer. A furious Lukashenko shot back by saying he would no longer abide by an agreement to stem illegal migration, arguing that the EU sanctions deprived his government of funds needed to contain flows of migrants. Planes carrying migrants from Iraq, Syria and other countries began arriving in Belarus, and they soon headed for the borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Pavel Latushka, a member of the Belarusian opposition, claimed that state-controlled tourist agencies were involved in offering visa support to migrants and helping them drive to the border. The EU accused Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns in a 'hybrid attack' against the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for the sanctions. Lukashenko denies encouraging the flow of migrants and said the EU is violating migrants' rights by denying them safe passage. What has been the response by EU countries? During the summer, Lithuania introduced a state of emergency to deal with an influx of migrants and strengthen its border with Belarus. It set up tent camps to accommodate the growing number of migrants. In previous months, small groups of asylum-seekers tried to sneak into Lithuania, Poland and Latvia at night, using forest paths away from populated areas. This week, much larger groups gathered openly at the Polish border, and some people used shovels and wire cutters to try to break through a razor-wire fence at Poland's border. Authorities in Warsaw estimated the crowds at about 3,000-4,000 and said they prevented hundreds of people from entering the country. Poland deployed riot police and other forces to bolster the border guards. Eight deaths have been confirmed at the Belarus-Poland border,, and temperatures have fallen below freezing at night. The EU has made a strong show of solidarity with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. EU officials are expected to discuss another round of sanctions against Belarus, and European Council President Charles Michel said for the first time that the bloc would consider the possibility of financing 'physical infrastructure' such as barriers or fences on the border. What is Russia's role? Belarus has received strong support from its main ally, Russia, which has helped buttress Lukashenko's government with loans and political support. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the migrants flows resulted from the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Western-backed Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. He challenged the EU to offer financial assistance to Belarus to deal with the influx. At the same time, the Kremlin angrily rejected Poland's claim that Russia bears responsibility for the crisis. Usau said Russia could step in as a mediator in the hope of improving ties with Germany and other EU nations. Advertisement

French ministers warned their Russian counterparts of 'serious consequences' if Ukraine is invaded and called on the Kremlin to re-open dialogue with Kiev.

But Kremin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed those allegations, saying that Russia 'doesn't threaten anyone' while describing fears of an attack on Ukraine as a 'hollow and unfounded attempt to incite tensions'.

Peskov also claimed that Russia needed to protect its security against 'increasing provocations' near its borders.

He pointed at the US naval deployment to the Black Sea and increasingly frequent US and NATO intelligence flights. 'We take measures to ensure our security when our opponents take defiant action near our borders,' Peskov said. 'We can't stay indifferent to that; we must be on our guard.'

Poland has moved 15,000 troops to its border to help manage the unfolding crisis, while Ukraine has deployed 8,500 soldiers to the eastern border region where it has been fighting a years-long war with Russian-backed separatist rebels.

Russia's defence ministry said the unannounced drill involved paratroopers from both countries dropping at the Gozhsky range, just 20 miles from where thousands of migrants are gathered at the Polish border, where they practiced capturing bridges as well as hunting down and destroying enemy patrols.

Belarus said the drill was in response to the 'build-up of military activity' at the Polish border, where 15,000 troops have been stationed to hold back the migrants, while Russia said it was to test the 'combat readiness' of its troops.

At the same time, Polish defence minister Mariusz Baszczak revealed that British military engineers have been deployed to help strengthen the border defences, amid warnings from all sides that the crisis risks spilling over into an armed conflict. The MoD confirmed a 'small team' has been sent to provide engineering support.

The troops are likely from the light cavalry squadron that the UK currently has stationed in Poland as part of NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence, which includes soldiers from the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers.

Amidst the tensions, RAF Typhoons from Lossiemouth & Coningsby were also scrambled to escort two Russian nuclear-capable bombers which flew over the North Sea and towards the English Channel today. They were joined on the mission by a Voyager Tanker from RAF Brize Norton, the RAF said.

Meanwhile Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defence minister, warned his French counterparts that the military situation in Europe 'continues to deteriorate' while slamming NATO for 'building up its military presence' near Russia's border.

Speaking after a meeting with French officials in Paris, Shoigu insisted that Russia is working to 'increase predictability and reduce the risk of incidents' in the border region.

NATO said on Friday it is looking out for any escalation in the situation on its members' borders with Belarus, after Belarusian and Russian paratroopers staged joint drills near the Polish and Lithuanian borders.

'We will remain vigilant against the risk of further escalation and provocation by Belarus at its borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, and will continue to monitor the implications for the security of the alliance,' the North Atlantic Council, representing the alliance's member states, said in a statement.

'NATO allies call on Belarus to cease these actions, to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to abide by international law.'

American intelligence sources briefed their European counterparts of a possible Kremlin military operation in Ukraine's east to annex territory similar to the 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, Bloomberg reported.

The US has refused to share exactly what intel it has of an imminent attack, but the warning comes after satellite images revealed a build-up of tens of thousands of Russian troops, tanks and artillery pieces close to the border.

The EU accuses Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko of forcing migrants to make illegal crossings into Poland in a cynical attempt to destabilise the bloc using vulnerable people as his weapon.

On Thursday, Lukashenko himself warned of the risk of a conflict and accused armed groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine of trying to ship weapons to the migrants on the Polish border in order to spark fighting.

'They are Kurds, and the Kurds are militant,' he said according to Polish newspaper Wyborcza. 'When Poles beat them, cut them, torment them, etc., they become desperate. One rifle, one gun, and armed conflict is ready.'

Lukashenko has also threatened to cut off natural gas supplies running from Russia and through his country into Europe - though that threat was angrily slapped down by Moscow today.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said Lukashenko had not coordinated with Moscow before making the remark and added that Russian pledged to fulfil gas contracts are 'beyond doubt'.

Washington's warning comes as Putin masses his forces close to Ukrainian territory, with satellite images taken in the last few weeks showing large camps of tanks and artillery pieces in the region

Ukraine warns there are now some 90,000 Russian soldiers near its border, where it has been fighting a years-long insurgency in its eastern regions by Russian-backed separatists

It came after Lukashenko spoke out at a meeting of government officials on Thursday, musing: 'We are heating Europe and they are threatening us... What if we cut off their natural gas?

'I would recommend the Polish and Lithuanian authorities to think before they speak up.'

Russia's Yamal-Europe pipeline runs through Belarus and into Poland, representing about 20 per cent of the country's total gas-carrying capacity into Europe.

The continent relies on natural gas for around a quarter of its energy needs, more than half of which is piped in from Russia - which sits on top of the world's largest gas reserves.

Just weeks ago, European leaders were trying to negotiate with Russia to increase supplies as stockpiles of gas ran low due to surging demand as economies reopen post-Covid.

The EU accused Putin of throttling the flow of gas as a political bargaining tool to try and get a new gas pipeline - the multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 2 - opened. He denied the allegations.

Amid the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, Belarus is pressuring Europe over migrants and has threatened to cut off gas supplies to the continent by shutting the Yamal-Europe pipeline which runs through its territory (pictured)

Concerns about Russian troops on Ukraine's border have been ongoing since at least April this year, when Putin moved around 100,000 soldiers, tanks and artillery pieces to the region without warning.

He later said the exercise was to test 'military readiness' and pulled some of the units back, but NATO warned that many of them had remained at the front even after the 'exercise' was over.

Russia then held more military drills around the Crimean peninsula and Ukraine's eastern border over the summer, with yet more troops moved to the region.

The drills were closely watched by western powers with tensions almost spilling over into confrontation, including an episode in which Russian warships fired warning shots at a British vessel.

The heart-stopping moment RAF Typhoon jets intercept Russian nuclear bombers over the north Sea as British troops help defend Polish borders from Putin-backed 'weaponised migrants'

This is the heart-stopping moment RAF Typhoon jets intercepted Russian nuclear bombers over the north sea.

British troops were deployed at the Polish border amid a Kremlin-backed migrant crisis as the Typhoons were scrambled from Lossiemouth, Scotland, and Coningsby, Lincolnshire, along with a refuelling jet from Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, on Friday.

The two Russian Tu-160 'White Swan' bombers entered 'the UK area of interest,' the MoD confirmed, without giving further details. Photographs show the RAF jets escorting the bombers.

The Kremlin warplanes approached Dutch airspace before being intercepted by the RAF and were seen heading north into international airspace over the North Sea at around 12.45pm, according to Mil Radar.

The incursion comes with Europe at battle stations: Vladimir Putin is backing a 'hybrid war' using migrants to sow chaos at Poland's border while sending tens of thousands of troops to the frontier with Ukraine for a possible invasion.

British troops were deployed at the Polish border amid a Kremlin-backed migrant crisis as the Typhoons were scrambled (pictured) from Lossiemouth, Scotland, and Coningsby, Lincolnshire, along with a refuelling jet from Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, on Friday

An RAF fighter jet intercepting a Russian military aircraft approaching a UK area of interest

The Kremlin warplanes approached Dutch airspace before being intercepted by the RAF and were seen heading north into international airspace over the North Sea at around 12.45pm, according to Mil Radar

British Royal Engineers were today deployed along the Polish frontier with Belarus to carry out 'reconnaissance' with their NATO allies.

That move came just hours after Russian soldiers parachuted from the sky in snap drills, just 30 miles from the migrant encampment.

Poland's defence minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, said: '[Polish and British] soldiers will co-operate in strengthening the fence of the Polish-Belarusian border.'

The MoD added: 'A small team of UK Armed Forces personnel have deployed following an agreement with the Polish Government to explore how we can provide engineering support to address the ongoing situation at the Belarus border.'

Flight tracking data was available for the RAF Tanker Voyager which left Brize Norton to support the Typhoons. A NATO jet also left Cologne to circle around Norway. The two Russian Tu-160 bombers flew over the North Sea before heading back north into international airspace

A Typhoon fighter jet over RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire (file photo)

A Russian Tu-160 (the closer jet) over Belarusian airspace today

Fears are growing of an imminent conflict in eastern Europe as Russia and Belarus carry out snap military drills close to where a migrant crisis is playing out on Poland's border, while Washington warns Putin is preparing to invade eastern Ukraine

Tupolev Tu-160 'White Swan' heavy bomber Crew: 4 Length: 177 ft Wingspan: 183 ft Empty weight: 242,508 lb Gross weight: 589,957 lb Max takeoff weight: 606,271 lb Powerplant: 4 x Samara NK-321 afterburning turbofan engines Max speed: 1,380 mph Range: 7,600 miles Combat range: 1,200 miles Service ceiling: 52,000 ft Armaments: Two internal weapon bays for 99,208 lb of ordnance. Two internal rotary launchers each holding 6 x Raduga Kh-55SM/101/102/555 cruise missiles (primary armament) or 12 AS-16 Kickback short-range nuclear missiles Advertisement

RAF Eurofighter Typhoon Crew: 1/2 Length: 52 ft Wingspan: 35 ft Empty weight: 24,251 lb Gross weight: 35,274 lb Max takeoff weight: 51,809 lb Powerplant: 2 x Eurojet EJ200 afterburning turbofan engines Maxi speed: 1,320 mph Range: 1,800 miles Combat range: 863 miles Service ceiling: 65,000 ft Armaments: Guns: 1 x 27 mm Mauser BK-27 revolver cannon with 150 rounds Hardpoints: Total of 13, 8 x under-wing; and 5 x under-fuselage pylon stations; holding in excess of 19,800 lb of payload. Advertisement

Russian nuclear bombers were also flying over Belarus for a third day running as Putin remained firmly behind Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko who is accused of 'weponising migrants' by the West.

Norwegian undersea surveillance network capable of detecting submarines has cables mysteriously cut as police are called in to investigate - while suspicion swirls that Russia may have 'sabotaged' the equipment A Norwegian undersea surveillance network that is capable of detecting submarines has had its cables mysteriously cut. Police were called in to investigate amid suspicion Russia could have 'sabotaged' the undersea sensors, which predominantly monitor fish but can pick up the movement of submarines. The cables were cut and then disappeared, with the Institute of Marine Research describing 'extensive damage' to the outer area of the Lofoten-Vesteralen (LoVe) Ocean Observatory. LoVe consists of a network of underwater cables and sensors located on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, an area of strategic interest for both Norway and Russia. LoVe, which was only declared fully operational in August 2020, has been offline since the outage in April. Police were called in to investigate amid suspicion Russia could have 'sabotaged' the undersea sensors, which predominantly monitor fish but can pick up the movement of submarines. Pictured, the surveillance network Norway's military and the country's Police Security Service are allegedly investigating what could have happened to the research surveillance system, which is in place to monitor the effects of climate change. It measures methane emissions and fish stocks, providing scientists with a live feed of imagery, sound and other data. Data gathered by its sensors, which can also pick up submarine activity, is first sent to the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI). 'FFI is believed to routinely remove traces of any submarine activity in the area before turning over the observatorys data to IMR so that it only contains fishing, currents, and climate information,' according to a report from Norways News in English website. 'We dont care so much about the submarines in the area (located not far from onshore military installations at Andya, Evenes and other bases in Northern Norway), but we know the military is,' IMR director Sissel Rogne told the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Nringsliv. 'You could see whats going on down there regarding all types of U-boats [submarines] and all other countries U-boats.' In a press statement last Friday Geir Pedersen, the LoVe project leader, said 'something or someone has torn out cables in outlying areas'. More than 2.5miles of LoVe's 40 miles of fiber optic and electrical cables were removed, reports claimed. An unmanned submarine traced the cause to Node 2, a surveillance platform 820 feet underwater that was dragged away from its normal location. Another mission in September found Node 3 had also been moved and its cables were missing And the observatory has been affected by interference since at least last April, according to reports in the Dagens Nringsliv. That was when the connection between the sensor network and the control station at Hovden on the northern island of Langya was lost. An unmanned submarine traced the cause to Node 2, a surveillance platform 820 feet underwater that was dragged away from its normal location. Another mission in September found Node 3 had also been moved and its cables were missing. Rogne told Dagens Nringsliv whatever vessel severed it would need considerable power because of the cables' size and weight. Around 9.5 tonnes of cable remains missing, as IMRs ystein Brun claimed it was likely they were cut deliberately. The damage could not have been an accident, Rogne claimed, because a vessel would notice dislodging the cables and would have reported it. But any vessel that could have tampered with the cables could be untraceable because its transponder would likely be off, meaning it wasn't transmitting its position to the Coast Guard. Advertisement

Thousands of desperate refugees from the Middle East and North Africa have been ferried to the Belarus-Poland border this week by Lukashenko's security forces, prompting Poland to deploy 15,000 troops along the line.

Separately, Washington warned its European allies that Putin could be preparing for an invasion of Ukraine's eastern borders - hundreds of miles from where the migrant crisis is playing out - after satellites spotted troops, tanks and artillery pieces massing there.

Ukraine - which has been fighting a proxy-war against Russian-backed separatists in its eastern regions for years - has moved 8,500 more troops to the region in response.

Addressing the crisis today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced what he called 'increased provocations' against Russia, saying his country 'can't stay indifferent to that; we must be on our guard.'

'We take measures to ensure our security when opponents take defiant action near our borders,' Peskov added.

Meanwhile Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defence minister, warned his French counterparts that the military situation in Europe 'continues to deteriorate' while slamming NATO for 'building up its military presence' near Russia's border.

Speaking after a meeting with French officials in Paris, Shoigu insisted that Russia is working to 'increase predictability and reduce the risk of incidents' in the border region.

Former British defence minister Tobias Elwood, who now chairs the Commons Defence Committee, said: 'Russia and Belarus's aggression in Eastern Europe is not mutually exclusive and should deeply concern the West.

'It's a test of our collective resolve. If we are not resolute in our support for Poland and Ukraine then authoritarianism wins and we invite further destabilising adventurism.'

NATO said on Friday it is looking out for any escalation in the situation on its members' borders with Belarus, after Belarusian and Russian paratroopers staged joint drills near the Polish and Lithuanian borders.

'We will remain vigilant against the risk of further escalation and provocation by Belarus at its borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, and will continue to monitor the implications for the security of the alliance,' the North Atlantic Council, representing the alliance's member states, said in a statement.

'NATO allies call on Belarus to cease these actions, to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to abide by international law.'

American intelligence sources briefed their European counterparts of a possible Kremlin military operation in Ukraine's east to annex territory similar to the 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, Bloomberg reported.

The US has refused to share exactly what intel it has of an imminent attack, but the warning comes after satellite images revealed a build-up of tens of thousands of Russian troops, tanks and artillery pieces close to the border.

The EU accuses Lukashenko of forcing migrants to make illegal crossings into Poland in a cynical attempt to destabilise the bloc using vulnerable people as his weapon.

On Thursday, Lukashenko himself warned of the risk of a conflict and accused armed groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine of trying to ship weapons to the migrants on the Polish border in order to spark fighting.

'They are Kurds, and the Kurds are militant,' he said according to Polish newspaper Wyborcza. 'When Poles beat them, cut them, torment them, etc., they become desperate. One rifle, one gun, and armed conflict is ready.'

Lukashenko has also threatened to cut off natural gas supplies running from Russia and through his country into Europe - though that threat was angrily slapped down by Moscow today.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said Lukashenko had not coordinated with Moscow before making the remark and added that Russian pledged to fulfil gas contracts are 'beyond doubt'.

It came after Lukashenko spoke out at a meeting of government officials on Thursday, musing: 'We are heating Europe and they are threatening us... What if we cut off their natural gas?

'I would recommend the Polish and Lithuanian authorities to think before they speak up.'

Russia's Yamal-Europe pipeline runs through Belarus and into Poland, representing about 20 per cent of the country's total gas-carrying capacity into Europe.

The continent relies on natural gas for around a quarter of its energy needs, more than half of which is piped in from Russia - which sits on top of the world's largest gas reserves.

Just weeks ago, European leaders were trying to negotiate with Russia to increase supplies as stockpiles of gas ran low due to surging demand as economies reopen post-Covid.

The EU accused Putin of throttling the flow of gas as a political bargaining tool to try and get a new gas pipeline - the multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 2 - opened. He denied the allegations.

Concerns about Russian troops on Ukraine's border have been ongoing since at least April this year, when Putin moved around 100,000 soldiers, tanks and artillery pieces to the region without warning.

He later said the exercise was to test 'military readiness' and pulled some of the units back, but NATO warned that many of them had remained at the front even after the 'exercise' was over.

Russia and Belarus said paratroopers from both countries had been involved in joint drills in Gozhsky today, located just 20 miles from the Polish border where migrants are trying to cross

The Belarusian defence ministry said the troops practiced capturing bridges, hunting down and destroying targets, and defeating enemy patrols during the drill to 'test combat readiness'

The surprise training mission came as it was revealed British military engineers are now at the border to strengthen the defences, amid warnings from all sides that the situation risks spilling over into armed conflict

Poland has deployed some 15,000 troops to its eastern border where they have spent much of this week trying to hold back thousands of migrants that Lukashenko's regime is accused of forcing into the region

Poland, along with the leaders of nearby Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, has been warning that the crisis has the potential to spill over into a full-blown conflict

The military drills are taking place just 20 miles from the Kuznica border crossing with Poland, where thousands of migrants are currently gathered trying to cross over

Poland has reported dozens of attempts to cross the border today, including a group of migrants who broke through the Belarusian side of the crossing and began trying to cross the Polish side of the fence

The Royal Netherlands Air Force on Friday said that it had also scrambled fighters, two F-16s, to the North Sea after spotting the Russian bombers. The air force said it handed over to allies from the RAF.

Flight tracking data showed a NATO warplane was dispatched from Cologne and circled around the Norwegian coast before heading back to Germany.

An RAF spokesman said: 'Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighters from RAF Lossiemouth & Coningsby, supported by a Voyager Tanker from RAF Brize Norton, have been launched against an unidentified aircraft approaching the UK area of interest.

'We will not be offering any additional detail on this ongoing operation until complete.'

Lukashenko wants payback for EU sanctions and Putin enjoys mischief: Why Belarus and Russia are causing chaos in Europe Several developments this week have lead to increased tensions with fears of war breaking out in Eastern Europe. The European Union has accused the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, of aiding illegal border crossings in retaliation for EU sanctions but Lukashenko denies encouraging migration to Europe. Meanwhile Russia and Belarus held snap paratrooper drills just 20 miles from the border where migrants are gathered, saying it was to 'test the readiness' of their troops. Separately, the US also warned that Putin could be preparing for an attack on eastern Ukraine after he was spotted massing thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces near the border. Ukraine's defence minister accused Russia of waging 'hybrid warfare' on Europe, saying Putin is ultimately responsible for the Polish border crisis. But what exactly has lead to the crisis at the border? A look back at the events behind the increasingly tense situation. What is behind the crisis? Belarus was rocked by months of massive protests following the August 2020 election that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office. The opposition and the West rejected the result as a sham. Belarusian authorities responded to the demonstrations with a fierce crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police. The European Union and the U.S. reacted by imposing sanctions on Lukashenko's government. Belarus was rocked by months of huge protests following an August 2020 election that gave dictator and Kremlin-backed President Alexander Lukashenko (pictured) a sixth term in office Those restrictions were toughened after an incident in May when a passenger jet flying from Greece to Lithuania was diverted by Belarus to Minsk, where authorities arrested dissident journalist Roman Pratasevich. The EU called it air piracy and barred Belarusian carriers from its skies and cut imports of the country's top commodities, including petroleum products and potash, an ingredient in fertilizer. A furious Lukashenko shot back by saying he would no longer abide by an agreement to stem illegal migration, arguing that the EU sanctions deprived his government of funds needed to contain flows of migrants. Planes carrying migrants from Iraq, Syria and other countries began arriving in Belarus, and they soon headed for the borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Pavel Latushka, a member of the Belarusian opposition, claimed that state-controlled tourist agencies were involved in offering visa support to migrants and helping them drive to the border. The EU accused Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns in a 'hybrid attack' against the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for the sanctions. Lukashenko denies encouraging the flow of migrants and said the EU is violating migrants' rights by denying them safe passage. Roman Protasevich (pictured) was on a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius on Sunday when it was forced to change course to head for the Belarus capital after a reported bomb scare What has been the response by EU countries? During the summer, Lithuania introduced a state of emergency to deal with an influx of migrants and strengthen its border with Belarus. It set up tent camps to accommodate the growing number of migrants. In previous months, small groups of asylum-seekers tried to sneak into Lithuania, Poland and Latvia at night, using forest paths away from populated areas. This week, much larger groups gathered openly at the Polish border, and some people used shovels and wire cutters to try to break through a razor-wire fence at Poland's border. Authorities in Warsaw estimated the crowds at about 3,000-4,000 and said they prevented hundreds of people from entering the country. Poland deployed riot police and other forces to bolster the border guards. Eight deaths have been confirmed at the Belarus-Poland border,, and temperatures have fallen below freezing at night. The EU has made a strong show of solidarity with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. EU officials are expected to discuss another round of sanctions against Belarus, and European Council President Charles Michel said for the first time that the bloc would consider the possibility of financing 'physical infrastructure' such as barriers or fences on the border. The EU called the Ryanair incident air piracy and barred Belarusian carriers from its skies and cut imports of the country's top commodities including petroleum products and potash, a fertilizer ingredient. Pictured: President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen Analysts say Lukashenko's heavy-handed approach would likely backfire. 'Such brutal tactics would make Belarus toxic and delay the prospect of talks with the EU,' said Artyom Shraybman, a Belarusian political analyst who was forced to leave the country under pressure from authorities. 'European politicians won't engage in talks under pressure.' Pavel Usau, head of the Center for Political Analysis and Prognosis based in Poland, also said Lukashenko is mistaken if he thinks he can force the EU into concessions. 'Lukashenko expects the EU to give in to pressure and ask Poland to let migrants cross into Germany,' Usau said. 'But the EU realizes that doing so would allow Lukashenko to emerge as the winner and encourage him to continue to take further such steps, raising the number of migrants to tens of thousands.' The Belarusian opposition has urged the EU to take even tougher measures, including a trade embargo and a ban on transit of cargo via Belarus. The Biden administration is reportedly warning European allies of the possibility of an imminent attack by Russia on Ukraine, though Russia denied the accusations What is Russia's role? Belarus has received strong support from its main ally, Russia, which has helped buttress Lukashenko's government with loans and political support. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the migrants flows resulted from the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Western-backed Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. He challenged the EU to offer financial assistance to Belarus to deal with the influx. At the same time, the Kremlin angrily rejected Poland's claim that Russia bears responsibility for the crisis. Usau said Russia could step in as a mediator in the hope of improving ties with Germany and other EU nations. What comes next? Belarus is estimated to host between 5,000 and 20,000 migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa. Many have run out of money and grown increasingly desperate as the winter approaches. Belarusian residents are uneasy about their presence, raising pressure on the authorities to act. Some observers expect Lukashenko to escalate the crisis and pressure the EU to ease sanctions. 'As a minimum, Lukashenko wants to take revenge against the EU, and as a maximum he aims to soften the European sanctions that have dealt a painful blow to key Belarusian industries,' said independent analyst Valery Karbalevich. 'Belarusian authorities have tried unsuccessfully to persuade the EU to engage in talks and bargaining, and migrants are just an instrument in a hybrid attack by Minsk.''Lukashenko has nothing to lose,' he added. 'He's no longer worried about his reputation.' Advertisement

This is how war starts: Troops mobilising, a Russian autocrat eager to show his strength and a toxic climate of hubris, fear and distrust... DOMINIC SANDBROOK says the echoes of history have never been so pertinent

Tomorrow morning, at exactly 11 oclock, Britain will fall silent. Young and old, black and white, rich and poor, millions of people will stand united to remember the fallen.

Known originally as Armistice Day, Britains first day of remembrance was held on November 11, 1919, marking the first anniversary of the end of World War I. Today, as Remembrance Sunday, it remains one of the few truly sacred moments in our national calendar.

But what was it all about, that first Great War? Why did it happen? And how did more than five million young men from Britain and Ireland find themselves on the beaches of Gallipoli, in the deserts of Mesopotamia, in the hills of Palestine and, above all, in the mud of the Western Front?

At the time, ordinary soldiers found the whole thing utterly baffling. What devil has brought this war upon us? they would mutter. What is all this about, God help us?

And even now, more than 100 years after the guns fell silent, historians still argue about the underlying causes.

Imperial greed? Nationalist bloodlust? Or simply a saga of accidents and misunderstandings?

Today, with the planet so febrile, understanding the causes of World War I has never been so important. As in the years before 1914, we live in an age of feverish uncertainty. The certainties of the Cold War, terrifying as they were, are gone.

With China challenging U.S. power in the Pacific, and Vladimir Putin and his clients rattling their sabres in Belarus and eastern Ukraine, who would bet against provocation escalating into war one of these days?

In the past few weeks, there have been reminders of the chilling fragility of the peace we take for granted.

China has reasserted its claim to the U.S.-backed island of Taiwan, while the U.S. State Department has explicitly warned that Russian troops are massing on the border of Ukraine. An exercise, or the prelude to invasion? Who knows?

The footage that emerged yesterday of Russian and Belarusian paratroopers taking part in unnannounced military drills close to the Polish border  where thousands of migrants are gathering  is certainly little cause for comfort.

Has the global situation ever been so unpredictable?

And isnt it possible that the resulting adventurism, hubris, fear and distrust could build into precisely the same kind of cataclysm that tore the world apart in 1914?

Here, then, is a lesson in how arrogance, weakness, insecurity and the psychological flaws of individual leaders can lead to disaster  and many millions of deaths.

First, let us get back to what history is really all about  not vast, impersonal forces, but human beings. With a grim irony, given the agonies World War I brought to millions of mothers, the story begins with that most fundamental human instinct  a mothers love for her child.

A British ammunition column during World War I, circa 1915

Pawns in a chilling power game: MARK ALMOND on the global drama unfolding in Eastern Europe For much of this month the eyes of the world have been focused on Glasgow, where world leaders have been wrestling with climate change. Meanwhile, 2000 miles away, and with a lot less fanfare, another global drama has been unfolding. The gathering of thousands of would-be immigrants to the EU on the border between Eastern Europe's last dictatorship, Belarus, and Poland is creating a crisis that, if mishandled, could have consequences every bit as grave as those debated at Cop26  but far sooner. Yesterday, the temperature rose further when Russian paratroopers started landing in Belarus  just 20 miles from the Polish border. This was the Kremlin showing its backing for its only ally in Europe. On paper it does not look too alarming. Yes, the thought of Russian troops mobilising will always prompt a chill in the West, a legacy of the bad old days of the Cold War. But for most of us, Belarus is a remote outpost and its politics reverberate little beyond its borders. The truth is, however, that the mounting tensions there should be of great concern to all of us. Located between the EU and Russia, and crossed by major continental transit routes, Belarus is strategically important. To the west, it borders three former communist countries (Latvia, Lithuania and Poland) which are now members of Nato and the EU. To the east lie Russia and the Ukraine. The Belarussian capital, Minsk, is just 400 miles from Moscow  spitting distance in that vast, sprawling location  and the two countries are allies of longstanding. Discontent and conflict has been simmering in the region since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimea and backed separatist rebels in the Donbas region of south-east Ukraine, to the consternation of Western leaders. In recent days these tensions have escalated after the Ukraine used a drone to attack a rebel post earlier this month, infuriating the Russians. They have now moved their own troops  together with tanks and artillery towards the Ukrainian border. Enter the Americans, who only a few days ago warned European allies that Russia's mobilisation could be in preparation for an invasion of Ukraine's eastern borders. Against this already volatile superpower rivalry, Belarus' authoritarian leader, president Alexander Lukashenko, has stepped up his own standoff with his Western neighbours. His disputed- victory in the country's 2020 presidential election, which was mired in widespread allegations of vote-rigging and mass protests against which he instigated a brutal crackdown, led to EU sanctions. Now Lukashenko wants to punish the EU for daring to sanction him  and 'weaponising' migrants from the Middle East is his latest ploy. In recent weeks, Belarus has granted tourist visas to thousands of Iraqis, Syrians and some Africans, and then helped them try to cross into the EU via its bordering countries  mainly Poland, which has deployed 15,000 troops to hold them back. Many of the migrants  mainly young men, but including some women and children  are now stranded at the border in deteriorating conditions. In response, the European Commission has accused Belarus of state-sponsored people smuggling, while Lukashenko is playing up Western 'hypocrisy' on human rights and free movement. Yet the current migrant crisis on the Polish border, and that in the English Channel, could be harbingers of graver things to come. Warmings of a famine in Afghanistan may lead to an exodus next year. Lukashenko is also provoking the West on a second front as he tries to 'weaponise' Europe's energy supply crisis, threatening to block the pipelines through his country which supply Russian gas to Europe. It might upset his Russian backers but would certainly harm us as the depths of winter approach, with gas prices already spiking. And Lukashenko calculates that Vladimir Putin will back him to the hilt for fear of a pro-Western government replacing him in Belarus if he falls  a strategy now rattling nerves in NATO. History has too many examples of how quickly tensions in Eastern Europe can escalate with dire geo-political consequences. Lest we forget, in 1914 a small crisis in the Balkans dragged the members of the then big alliances  Britain, France and Russia against Germany and Austria-Hungary  into the First World War. It is not too hard to imagine that, even if Moscow and Washington do not want a war, a simple shot fired by a border guard or provocation by Lukashenko could set these tensions spinning out of control. Britain, like America, has sent token forces to support the Poles, but the real danger is that if tensions spike, Putin might gamble on the West blinking first. Would we? Advertisement

Marija Princip, a farmers wife from the tiny village of Obljaj, in the wooded mountains of Bosnia-Herzegovina, had great hopes for her son Gavrilo. The boy was bright and bookish, and when he was 13, Marija persuaded her husband to send him to the capital, Sarajevo. There, she thought, he could go to school and become a great man.

In August 1907, Gavrilo Princips train pulled into Sarajevo, a bustling city of mosques and bazaars that were overwhelming to a country boy.

At first, he knuckled down to his studies but, lonely, awkward and short of money, he began to fall behind. He started to miss lessons and when, aged 17, he skipped a crucial exam, that was that.

Gavrilo had found a new and incendiary passion  politics. He sought somebody to blame for his misfortunes and, like other youngsters from his Bosnian Serb background, he focused on the Austrians who had ruled Bosnia since 1878.

Over the years, Gavrilos hatred festered. He moved to Belgrade, the capital of the neighbouring Kingdom of Serbia, and became involved with nationalist terrorist groups.

Then, in the spring of 1914, one of his friends showed him a newspaper cutting. In June the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, would be visiting Sarajevo. Gavrilo saw the potential for a terrorist spectacle that would shock the world.

So it was that on June 28, 1914, the Archduke and his assassin were brought together in one of the most fateful moments in human history.

When Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie drove into Sarajevo, one of Gavrilos comrades threw a bomb at their car, but it missed by inches. Shaken but determined to continue, the couple went on to a reception. Then, in a change of plans, they decided to visit the wounded in hospital. En route, their driver made a wrong turn and put the car into reverse. The engine cut out.

For a moment, the vehicle was motionless, as if frozen in time. Then a man stepped forward from the pavement  thin, frail and shabbily dressed, with an unblinking stare. It was Gavrilo Princip. Scarcely believing his luck, he took out his pistol and fired two shots. Sophie was hit in the abdomen; Franz Ferdinand in the neck. As his wife slumped at his side, the Archduke whispered: Sophie, Sophie, dont die. Stay alive for our children!

News of the murders flashed around the world, setting in train the events that led to war.

After rounding up Princip and his friends, the Austrians decided on military reprisals. Not unreasonably, their generals held Serbia responsible.

For years Serbias politicians had whipped up anti-Austrian sentiment, and Princips gang had been encouraged and armed by Serbian intelligence agents.

Now, it was time to teach Serbia a lesson. There was, however, an obvious problem.

If Austria declared war, Serbia would undoubtedly appeal to its most powerful protector, the eastern colossus of tsarist Russia.

So, a week after Franz Ferdinands murder, on Sunday, July 5, two men had lunch in Berlin. One was the Austrian ambassador. The other was perhaps the most powerful man in Europe: Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany.

Later, Allied propaganda painted Wilhelm as a blood-crazed monster. In fact, he was simply bumptious and insecure.

At Wilhelms birth almost 60 years earlier, the doctors had accidentally torn the nerves in his neck. His left arm was crippled and useless, and as a child he suffered from agonising earaches.

His mother Vicky  a daughter of Queen Victoria  treated him like a freak, and he never got over it. Even after becoming Kaiser in 1888, he remained hot-tempered, needy and desperate for attention.

On the international stage, Wilhelm cut a ridiculous figure, forever fuming at his British relatives. The English, he said bitterly, will be brought low some day!

What was more, he and his generals felt threatened by their neighbours: France to the west, Russia to the east. They were convinced that Russia, industrialising at a breakneck rate, was bound to challenge them at some point.

Indeed, some German generals thought they should fight Russia now, before it became too strong. War the sooner the better, the army chief, Helmuth von Moltke, told the Kaiser in 1912.

So when the ambassador confided Austrias plans to strike against Serbia, Wilhelm offered them a blank cheque, promising unconditional support.

Did he seriously think this meant war? Almost certainly not. Wilhelm was never entirely convinced that the Austrians would follow through, and certainly never thought the Russians would risk a global conflagration to resist them.

In fact, the very next day he left for his summer yachting holiday hardly the behaviour of a would-be warmonger.

But in the next few weeks the crisis spiralled out of control, driven not just by the alliances of European powers but by the flaws and anxieties of some very powerful men.

In other circumstances, Russias Nicholas II might have hesitated to pour petrol on the flames. But now his own family background came into play.

Nicholass father, the domineering Alexander III, had taught him to rule as an autocrat. That had provoked years of domestic unrest, including an abortive revolution in 1905.

As a result, Nicholass advisers were desperate to win popularity at home by asserting Russian strength abroad.

Then there were the French, seething with resentment after their defeat by Wilhelms grandfather in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. Terrified of falling farther behind, they urged the Russians to stand up to German pressure.

Polish Military Police soldiers guard the fence during 'Operation Strong Support' near the Polish-Belarusian border crossing in Kuznica, eastern Poland, 09 November 2021

Today we often assume these men had no idea what was coming. But thats simply not true. Their letters and diaries show they knew that in an age of aeroplanes, battleships, barbed wire and machine guns, millions of people might be killed.

So why did they do it? The basic truth is that they were frightened. Afraid of looking weak, afraid of being left behind by their rivals, none wanted to back down.

Instead, they gambled on standing firm, staking the lives of millions on a bet they might easily lose.

So, one by one, they tumbled over the brink. Austria declared war on Serbia. Russia mobilised its troops against Austria, then Germany declared war on Russia and France.

But what about Britain? Few ordinary Britons had given Franz Ferdinands murder much thought  including the Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith.

A clever, worldly Yorkshireman, he had been running the country since 1908 and now, in his 60s, was desperately weary.

He also had other things on his mind. He was completely besotted with his daughters best friend, Venetia Stanley, who was in her early 20s. He wrote her hundreds of love letters, often several times a day.

Both sides, he told her, were as bad as each other. The Serbs deserved a thorough thrashing, but the Austrians were quite the stupidest people in Europe.

If war broke out, it might build into a real Armageddon. But there seems to be no reason why we should be anything more than spectators. His Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, had other ideas.

For years he had worked to bind Britain into close alliance with France, and he was determined to honour it.

Grey lived under a deepening shadow. His wife had died young and his brother had been killed by a lion in Africa. Now he was beginning to lose his eyesight  a cruel affliction for a passionate birdwatcher.

Brooding, lonely and depressive, he became convinced that Britain must fight. If we stayed out, he thought, the Germans would win, France would be finished and we would be friendless on the world stage.

Was he right? Some historians think he was. Sceptics, however, argue that Britains youth paid a heavy price for Greys loneliness and pessimism.

Yet on the first weekend of August 1914, as Germany and France headed for war, Britains destiny remained uncertain. But now came the decisive twist.

To deal with a war on two fronts, the Germans had concocted a plan to knock out the French first, striking through neutral little Belgium.

The Kaisers generals knew Britain was pledged to guarantee Belgiums independence. So that Sunday night, August 2, 1914, they took a catastrophic gamble, perhaps the worst mistake of World War I.

Hoping to bully the Belgians into agreement  and thereby avoid British reprisals  they issued an ultimatum, demanding free passage. The Belgians, a proud people, said no.

Two days later, on August 4, the German army crashed across the Belgian border.

At midday, King Albert asked Britain for help. Two hours later, our government delivered an ultimatum to the Kaiser. If he failed to reply by 11 that evening, it would mean war. Darkness fell.

In his office overlooking St Jamess Park, Sir Edward Grey stood with a friend, watching the men light the lamps in the street below.

The lamps are going out all over Europe, he said quietly. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.

At 11pm, the chimes of Big Ben echoed through the open windows, followed by the sound of crowds singing God Save The King. There had been no reply from Berlin. A few moments later, a signal flashed from the Admiralty to Britains fleet across the world. It read simply: Commence Hostilities At Once Against Germany.

And so began the Great War. Not by design, but through a combination of accidents, misadventures and miscalculations, born of the insecurities of a handful of individuals, from a disaffected teenage dropout to the master of imperial Germany.

Some 886,000 British and colonial servicemen and women lost their lives  leaving almost a million families scarred by grief and loss.

Was it worth it? The debate will never be settled, but the lessons are surely clear. Today, more than ever, the Western world needs clear, decisive, unambiguous leadership.

Impulsive posturing and naive adventurism are just as dangerous as spineless appeasement and vague good intentions.

And in the face of mounting provocation from Russia and China, our leaders need to remain calm and think clearly. They need to be firm, but not aggressive  and above all to keep talking.

Tomorrow, though, what matters is to remember the fallen, not just in World War I but in all Britains wars ever since.

There are more than 80,000 war memorials in every corner of the UK, from the solemn grandeur of the Cenotaph to the tiniest country village.

Behind every name is a once living, breathing human being, with hopes and dreams of their own, who gave their life to defend this country. And tomorrow, as the clocks strike 11 and The Last Post sounds, we should remember them.

Adventures In Time: The First World War, by Dominic Sandbrook, is published by Particular Books at 14.99. Dominic Sandbrook 2021. To order a copy for 13.49, go tomailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937. Free UK delivery on orders over 20. Promotional price valid until 28/11/2021.
One thing we have come to learn about the Duchess of Cornwall is that she never does things in haste.

She was 48 when she ended her first marriage to Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, even though they had been estranged for years, and it was another decade before she agreed to marry the Prince of Wales.

As princely consort, she has witnessed all the ups and downs of Charless later life while enduring her own sometimes difficult encounters not just with the public, but also within the hierarchical world behind palace walls.

It was at Camillas urging  some seven years after their Windsor Castle wedding  that the prince decided to finally correct a few of the myths that have grown up around him.

Of these the most eccentric was that at breakfast, seven eggs each boiled to a different degree of softness were set before him so that he could choose the one with the right consistency.

Caught in the middle: The duchess with Michael Fawcett and Prince Charles

While hardly the most egregious of fables, she was frustrated that this and other misleading beliefs about the man she loves were allowed to remain unchallenged.

So it was with that same clarity of purpose that Camilla approached this latest crisis over Michael Fawcett, convincing the prince that while a personal tragedy, the aides departure was not just essential but long overdue.

There is a toughness about the former Mrs Parker Bowles that is often underestimated.

The years of hostility she has endured as the princes second wife has given her an unerring instinct for doing the right thing, however unpalatable.

She has also brought into Charless life real-world experience, whether it is shopping at the supermarket or dealing with parking tickets and managing a household budget.

Crucially, she recognised that, as her husband nears the throne, Fawcett represented a present danger.

For all his proven skills as a fixer, Michael was also toxic, says a courtier. And the duchess who has a surprisingly forensic eye for detail recognised that. While others would traditionally brush things under the carpet, she knows that the modern world is unforgiving about such matters, especially those involving money, charity and honours.

Above all, says the courtier, she knows that the graveyards are full of indispensable men.

Yesterdays exclusive revelations in the Daily Mail that after 40 years of devoted royal service, Fawcett had resigned over reports that he offered to help a billionaire Saudi businessman secure a knighthood and British citizenship in exchange for a donation to Charless charity, was a highly significant moment in the princes transformation from heir to the throne to King-in-waiting.

Step by step obstacles that might destabilise the monarchy under a King Charles have been overcome. Marriage to Camilla was one, accepting the departure of Fawcett another.

And amid the frenzy of below- stairs glee that greeted the news of his fall yesterday, it is surely the emerging role of Camilla that lies behind the move.

Twice before she had been responsible for restoring Fawcett to his royal position after he had reigned over earlier scandals. But both occasions, in 1998 and again in 2003, were before her marriage to Charles.

In those early days she had tolerated Fawcetts often overbearing behaviour because he made the prince happy by ensuring that everything ran like clockwork.

And because, friends say, she is not ambitious for herself, she often allowed the ever available Michael to have the final word in the princes ear.

Times, though, have changed.All those years when she was in the royal shadows suited not just her but also Fawcett who did not like any impediment to come between him and the prince.

Prince Charles with his valet and personal aid Michael Fawcett pictured out shooting with dogs

Future chroniclers of this epic moment in royal life will not just point to the hubris of a man from humble beginnings who rose so high only to fall so absolutely, but also to the sudden prominence of Camilla and her elevation from mere passenger to decision-maker within the royal Firm.

In the immediate aftermath of the cash-for-honours revelations two months ago, figures around Charles were divided over how to deal with the matter.

Some were insistent that whatever had happened, Fawcett, who had stood down as chief executive of The Princes Foundation, should not return to the post.

They believed he had been over-promoted as CEO and was not equipped to manage the large fundraising operation necessary to keep the Foundation and the princes pet project Dumfries House in Scotland going.

He was great at all the hand-pressing and glad-handing to secure the money, but he was less secure when it came to the oversight and processes needed for any modern charity, says one official.

Unaware of Fawcetts activities, the prince initially blamed others for leaving Michael exposed. For years his attitude towards his former valet has always been summed up thus: I dont know how he does it. He is amazing.

But Camilla rapidly realised this was no longer good enough.

Reports began circulating that because of the effect of the Covid pandemic on fundraising, some of the princes donors had received quite forceful appeals for help. One is understood to have been a long-standing friend of the prince and duchess.

Camilla didnt have far to go to hear of Fawcetts sometimes aggressive tactics. I understand her sister Annabel Elliot, who has done interior design work for both the Duchy of Cornwall and Dumfries House, has had some personal experience of working with Fawcett and not all of it was complimentary.

She came to the view that there should be no opportunity for Fawcett to return  and that this time he should not be allowed to come back after a suitable interval, a friend of the duchess says.

Duchess of Cornwall visits the Field of Remembrance in Westminster on this year's Remembrance Day

The involvement of the Metropolitan Police, who are looking into the allegations, and the potential risk to the princes reputation were also compelling. So too was Camillas intolerance of bullying, typified by her charitable work supporting victims of abuse.

She became the driving force behind making Charles accept that the man who first came to work for him as a nursery footman at Kensington Palace soon after his wedding to Princess Diana, had no future at his side.

The fact that the prince accepted the advice of his wife demonstrates how far Camilla has travelled from mistress to serious royal player.

How things have changed. It was Camilla who saved Fawcett from the sack some years ago when palace staff were in revolt. Three of them  chauffeur Simon Solari, equerrys assistant Lyn Howley and valet Clive Allen  resigned over what they complained was Michaels autocratic style.

A tearful Charles informed his treasured personal assistant he would have to go. Camilla talked Charles round, so Fawcett stayed. Five years later, the Fawcett saga took a different turn after he was implicated in a report investigating how unwanted royal gifts were being flogged off.

He was removed from his post only to return a week later on a freelance contract through his Premier Mode events company. Again it was Camilla who had intervened.

Over the years several figures on Charless staff who have left considered themselves to be victims of Fawcetts rise.

When in 2006 Sir Malcolm Ross moved from Buckingham Palace  where he had been in charge of the Queen Mothers funeral arrangements  to Clarence House as Master of the Household, there were many private hopes that he would be able to break Fawcetts hold on the prince.

But in 2008 it wasnt Fawcett who was on his way, but Sir Malcolm.

Earlier, Charless much-liked senior equerry Rupert Lendrum, a former Life Guards officer, quit, it is said, because Fawcett encroached on his remit.

And soon after, career courtier Andrew Farquharson, who had moved with Sir Malcolm from Buckingham Palace, was abruptly made redundant.

Others too have left, blaming the influence of Fawcett.

In recent times with Fawcett based at Dumfries House, the Palladian masterpiece the prince saved for the nation, his authority over day-to-day royal matters had diminished while his relationship with the prince became even more entrenched.

But as unsavoury allegation followed allegation over the cash-for-honours affair and Fawcetts position unravelled, the prince accepted his wifes shrewd advice.

rince Charles and Camilla Duchess of Cornwall visit Duchy Of Cornwall Nursery, Lostwithiel, in July this year.

A trusted former confidante of the prince was despatched to visit Fawcett, who has a comfortable semi-detached home in Hampton, Middlesex.

Royal officials insist it was Fawcetts decision and his decision alone to resign.

As for Camilla, her uncompromising stance is likely to be a taste of things to come. She has recognised that, with the Queen now 95, her husbands smooth transition requires no more pitfalls of the kind Michael Fawcett represented.

Theres a new buzz-phrase around the couple, KP. No, not Kensington Palace but Kings Path.

Who now would bet against Camilla being crowned Queen at Charless side rather merely observing his coronation as the princess consort?
Dominic Cummings launched a fresh attack on Boris Johnson yesterday, claiming he wanted to spend his time writing a lucrative book while pretending to be Prime Minister.

The former chief aide said Mr Johnson wanted to work on a book about Shakespeare to raise the large sums needed for his very expensive divorce  and because he was bored with being Prime Minister.

Writing on his blog, Mr Cummings said it was hypocritical for Mr Johnson to have a go at MPs over the issue of second jobs given all his own outside earnings.

Last night, No 10 strongly denied the claims, insisting they were not true.

It came as Mr Johnsons former lover Petronella Wyatt launched an extraordinary attack on him over the latest Tory sleaze allegations.

The journalist and author, who had an affair with him two decades ago, said he was like an increasingly bent copper on the beat who sympathises with other rule-breakers.

Dominic Cummings launched a fresh attack on Boris Johnson yesterday, claiming he wanted to spend his time writing a lucrative book while pretending to be Prime Minister

It also emerged yesterday that Mr Johnson had earned more than 4million from outside interests over the past 14 years while London mayor and in Parliament. The Financial Times revealed that after he re-entered Parliament in 2015 he made 1.6million, mostly during his brief spell as a backbencher in 2018 and 2019.

His earnings included 450,000 from speeches, 600,000 from columns and 500,000 from book advances and royalties. In mid-2015, when Mr Johnson was London mayor, he signed a deal with Hodder and Stoughton to write the book for a reported 500,000. Publication has repeatedly been put back.

Mr Cummings wrote on his blog yesterday that Mr Johnson asked him a month after winning the December 2019 election whether its OK if I spend a lot of time writing my Shakespeare book.

He said the Prime Minister said: This f****** divorce, very expensive. And this job. Its like getting up every morning pulling a 747 down the runway.

I love writing, I love it, I want to write my Shakespeare book.

Mr Cummings claimed that he replied: I think people expect you to be doing the PMs job, I wouldnt talk to people about this if I were you.

The former aide wrote: Within a month of the election he was bored with the PM job and wanted to get back to what he loves while shaking down the publishers for some extra cash.

In February as Covid spread he was in Chevening writing about Shakespeare and messaging No 10 that Covid was the new swine flu.

So WTF is he doing having a go at MPs given all his own outside earnings  and attempted outside earnings and illegal secret donations, while hes supposed to be pretending to be PM?!

Miss Wyatt was deputy editor of The Spectator while Mr Johnson was its editor in the early 2000s.

He was sacked from Michael Howards shadow cabinet after it emerged that he had lied about their affair.

In an article for The Sun, she wrote: Like many great showmen, Boris can be a charlatan. He can no more avoid it than he can avoid blinking his eyes.

The former chief aide said Mr Johnson wanted to work on a book about Shakespeare to raise the large sums needed for his very expensive divorce  and because he was bored with being Prime Minister

She accused him of surrounding himself with a Cabinet of Lilliputians and aides like the cast of St Trinians, writing: I am no longer sure that anything can be salvaged from the scrapheap of the man I once knew and liked.

She said she believed Red Wall Tory MPs will not forget being asked to save Owen Paterson, harming their own credibility with their voters.

You must now get a grip, Boris  on yourself and on No 10, she wrote.

Otherwise the prognosis is worrying. I wouldnt be surprised if the Queen has asked to be kept informed.

Miss Wyatt added: I always thought it would be sleaze, not sex, that would be Boris Johnsons downfall.

Unless he quickly pulls himself together, what began as the Owen Paterson affair may be duly marked by historians as the moment my old friend descended too deeply into the mud of the political crossroads.
Boris Johnsons own ethics watchdog was accused last night of failing to declare important business interests.

Lord Geidt, an ex-Private Secretary to the Queen, has been accused by the union of a top university of at least three serious, financial... conflicts of interest.

It is not yet clear whether the allegations have merit but the row threatens to undermine his position as independent adviser on ministers interests. He could be called upon by the Prime Minister to investigate members of the Cabinet over their business dealings in the growing storm over MPs second jobs.

Lord Geidt, an ex-Private Secretary to the Queen, has been accused by the union of a top university of at least three serious, financial... conflicts of interest

Lord Geidt, 60, who was appointed in April, is now facing accusations from staff at Kings College London, whose governing council he chairs, that he never disclosed what they say was his role as adviser to the Sultan of Oman. Staff describe Oman  which Lord Geidt visited with the Queen in 2010  as a dictatorship that systematically violates human rights and engages in torture, whose institutions have multiple partnerships with the college.

According to a letter sent to the head of Kings by its branch of the University and College Union, Lord Geidts alleged advisory role in Oman has been wholly undisclosed to the college  and does not appear in his parliamentary register of interests.

It is also claimed he has failed to declare what they describe as paid roles for two firms that the union says Kings has invested in  arms dealer BAE Systems and asset management firm Schroders.

The letter, sent to President Professor Shitij Kapur, demands a full account of all potential conflicting interests and an account of profit from Lord Geidts roles, concluding that he should be suspended pending a review.

Labours deputy leader Angela Rayner (pictured) said: Lord Geidt clearly has questions to answer

Lord Geidt stepped down from his role at BAE Systems before becoming Mr Johnsons ethics watchdog.

Labours deputy leader Angela Rayner said: Lord Geidt clearly has questions to answer.

A Kings College London spokesman insisted: These claims of conflicts of interest are simply untrue, as we have robust processes to ensure that investment management decisions are made entirely independently...

The university does not have any investments in BAE systems...

We strongly reject the unfounded allegations that Lord Geidt has used his personal position at Kings for his own benefit.
A man has died and a woman in her 80s is fighting for her life after a double stabbing in west London, as police hunt for the killer knifeman.

The male victim, believed to be in his twenties, was pronounced dead at the scene of the stabbing in Albany Parade, Brentford, around 8pm on Friday.

Police say the woman, aged in her eighties, was rushed to hospital where she is believed to be in a critical condition.

Officers are tonight investigating the double stabbing, which took place in a mainly residential street, with a pub, betting shop and a takeaway.

Police say there is 'nothing to suggest' that the incident is linked to terrorism.

No arrests have been yet made and enquiries are ongoing. The male victim has yet to be formally identified.

Betty Walsh, 84, was reportedly defended from the knifeman by the man in his 20s who later died at the scene

A man has died and a woman in her 80s is fighting for her life after a double stabbing in west London , as police tonight launch a hunt for the killer knifeman. Pictured: Police at the scene

Officers are tonight investigating the double stabbing, which took place in a mainly residential street, with a pub, betting shop and a takeaway. Pictured: A police forensic officer at the scene

No arrests have been yet made and enquiries are ongoing. The male victim has yet to be formally identified. Pictured: Police at the scene

A spokesperson for the Met Police said in a statement tonight: 'An investigation has been launched after two people were stabbed at around 8pm on Friday, 12 November, in Albany Parade, Brentford.' Pictured: Police at the scene

Police say there is 'nothing to suggest' that the incident is linked to terrorism. Pictured: Police at the scene

A spokesperson for the Met Police said in a statement tonight: 'An investigation has been launched after two people were stabbed at around 8pm on Friday, 12 November, in Albany Parade, Brentford.

'One man, believed to be aged around 20 years, was pronounced dead at the scene.

'Enquiries are ongoing to establish his identity, as such his family have not yet been informed. A post-mortem examination will be arranged in due course.

Police say the woman, aged in her eighties, was taken to hospital suffering stab injuries. Her condition is believed to be critical, officers say. Police are tonight investigating the double stabbing

The man, believed to be in his twenties, was pronounced dead at the scene of the double stabbing in Albany Parade, Brentford (pictured), this evening

'A woman, aged in her 80s, was taken to hospital suffering stab injuries. Her condition is believed to be critical.

'Enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances. At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that the incident is linked to terrorism. There has been no arrest.'

'Witnesses or anyone with information are asked to call 101 ref 6423/12nov.'

The latest stabbing is believed to be the 111th murder investigation launched by the Met Police in the capital in 2021.

It comes after police arrested and charged three men with murder over the death of Mohammed Aqil Mahdi, 22, who was found dead in Navigation Road next to the River Lea, Bromley-by-Bow, Tower Hamlets, on November 6.

Police also recently charged a man on suspicion of the murder of Mohamed Muhiyidin, 28, who was found collapsed on the side of the road in Sipson Lane, Harlington, at 6.16am on October 31.

A postmortem confirmed the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest.
A 26-year-old woman who was reported missing has been found dead following a single car crash.

Krissie-Lee Sheridan was found inside her white 1995 Toyota Prado at Gin Gin, in the Bundaberg region in Queensland, on Friday afternoon.

Police found Ms Sheridan dead after she was involved in a single car crash.

Ms Sheridan had been driving from Hervey Bay to Blackwater when she did not arrive at her destination on Wednesday.

Krissie-Lee Sheridan was found inside her white 1995 Toyota Prado at Gin Gin, in the Bundaberg region in Queensland, on Friday afternoon

Her mother Shanyn Pederson had taken to Facebook to urge the public for help to find her missing daughter

She was reported missing on Thursday before police found her body the following day.

Her mother Shanyn Pederson had taken to Facebook to urge the public for help to find her missing daughter.

'How can you sleep when your baby is missing,' she wrote in one post.

Ms Pederson described her daughter's sudden disappearance as out of character in another post.

'She has not touched her email, Facebook or bank accounts since the 8th,' she wrote.

'This is very out of character. We are extremely concerned.

'Everyone in Gin Gin please report anything suspicious as this is the last place that has footage.'

Ms Sheridan was reported missing after she did not arrive at Blackwater in her white Toyota on Wednesday

Ms Pederson described her daughter's sudden disappearance as out of character in another post

Ms Pederson uploaded photos of her missing daughter including one that showed the pair smiling happily together as they posed for the camera.

Distraught residents have shared their condolences on the social media posts.

'So deeply sorry..send lots of love,' one person wrote.

Another person wrote: 'My condolences to her family and friends. RIP Krissie.'

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.
A 71-year-old Vietnam veteran from Alabama has pleaded guilty to bringing 11 Molotov cocktails and unlicensed weapons to the Capitol riot on January 6.

Lonnie Leroy Coffman admitted to one federal count of possessing an unregistered firearm or destructive device and one local count of carrying a pistol without a license in DC court on Friday.

His plea deal appeared in danger when he claimed in court that the gasoline in the devices was too old to ignite.

That prompted US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to warn him that refuting elements of the charges against him could scupper his own plea deal.

Coffman, a native of Falkville, Alabama who has been held in custody since his January arrest, faces up to 46 months in prison under non-binding sentencing guidelines, with a sentencing hearing set for April 1.

Photos from the Capitol riot on January 6 show Lonnie Coffman, 71, walking with a crowd near the federal building. He had two loaded firearms on him when he was arrested that night

Coffman's pickup truck, which he lived in for a week prior to the January attacks, was full of Molotov cocktails, machetes and handwritten notes

Most shockingly, officers found eleven mason jars with holes punched at the top and a flammable liquid inside, suggesting they were Molotov cocktails ready to be thrown

On January 6, Capitol Police found Coffman's red GMC Sierra 1500 pickup truck packed with 11 mason jars filled with a flammable liquid 'with a hole punched in the top of each jar, along with lighters and rags,' according to prosecutors.

The truck was parked near the Capitol as officers conducted a search for explosives in nearby buildings. Coffman had driven it to DC and been living inside it for a week prior to the deadly riots.

They discovered a loaded rifle, a loaded handgun and a loaded shotgun; a crossbow with bolts; several machetes; camouflage smoke devices, and a stun gun, prosecutors said.

When he was arrested, Coffman was also found to have two unlicensed pistols on his person, according to court documents

On January 11, a grand jury indicted Coffman on 17 charges including possession of unregistered firearms, unlawful possession of ammunition and possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device.

Under the terms of his plea agreement, the rest of the 17-count indictment was dropped in exchange for his guilty plea on two counts.

In court on Friday, Coffman endangered his deal by claiming he had created the Molotov devices several years ago, and that the gasoline inside them was too old to ignite.

'If you're not agreeing to it, I'm not accepting it,' Judge Kollar-Kotelly warned Coffman of his plea deal.

After consulting with his attorney, Coffman admitted that while he did not 'plan any action' with the devices, he knew that they 'could have been used' as Molotov cocktails and may have still been incendiary.

Prosecutors say police found hundreds of rounds of ammunition in Coffman's truck

The Army veteran from Alabama also took a crossbow with bolts to the riot

Officers stumbled across Coffman's truck as they were searching the perimeter for bombs

In 2014, the FBI identified him as part of Camp Lonestar, a gathering for Texas militia groups

Coffman is an Army veteran who served two tours during the Vietnam War.

According to family members, he dealt with depression and 'often spoke about the difficulty he had dealing with the experiences from the war,' according to court documents.

A family member said Coffman 'became a hermit after he separated from his wife,' according to the court document.

Prosecutors say Coffman went to Washington in December 2020, a month before the Capitol riot, to try to find the house of Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.

Coffman allegedly called Cruz's office to discuss concerns over perceived 'election fraud,' and staffers at Cruz's office noted that Coffman seemed 'unbalanced' or 'not 100 percent there.'

In May, a judge denied him bond citing his part in the camp and the large stockpile of weapons

A grand jury indicted Coffman on seventeen counts, including carrying a rifle or a shotgun

Coffman is one of hundreds arrested after rioters supporting then-President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on January 6 and disrupted the certification of President Joe Biden's election win.

Photos from the riot show him walking with a crowd near the Capitol during the unrest.

Police also found handwritten notes on his truck, including one with a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln that read, 'We The People Are The Rightful Masters Of Both The Congress And The Courts, Not To Overthrow The Constitution But To Overthrow The Men Who Pervert The Constitution.'

Officers found the weapons and notes during a sweep of the area after pipe bombs were found near two buildings.

The Capitol Police bomb squad was investigating reports of explosives at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters and the National Republican Club - both minutes away from the Capitol - when they found Coffman's loaded truck in the area.

Coffman had allegedly gone to Sen. Ted Cruz's office a month before the riot to discuss 'election fraud,' and staffers there said he appeared 'unbalanced' and 'not 100 percent there'

Five people died after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol building, breaking in while Congress was certifying the 2020 election for Joe Biden

Prosecutors said Coffman left his truck on the morning of the riot and was arrested when he returned to the vehicle in the evening. He had two more loaded weapons on him, according to prosecutors, suggesting that he participated in the riot with the weapons on him.

A judge in May denied Coffman bond citing his participation in a militia training camp and large stockpile of weapons.

According to earlier court filings, the FBI in 2014 identified Coffman as a participant at Camp Lonestar, a reported gathering place for Texas militia groups, and said he had information about two other militia groups.
Paraguayan police have detained two Germans and a Chilean suspected of brutally killing a German man and his daughter while stealing documents proving the authenticity of highly valuable violins.

Bernard von Bredow, a museum owner and instrument maker, was killed along with his 14-year-old daughter Lydia at their home in Aregua last month, and police said Mr Von Bredow's body showed signs of torture.

Police commissioner Hugo Grance said four violins believed to have been made by revered Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari as well as several large rifles were found in the possession of Volker Grannass, a 58-year-old German who lived near the Von Bredow residence.

Also arrested were Yves Steinmetz, 60, and Chilean Stephen Darchinger, 51.

Chilean Stephen Darchinger, 51, German Volkner Grannass, 58, and German Yves Steinmetz, 60, were arrested by Paraguayan police for their alleged involvement in the double murder and theft

Police also found several large rifles in the possession of one of the suspects

Mr Grance said that Mr Von Bredow apparently had left the violins with Grannas during a trip to Germany, and was told when he returned that they had been destroyed in a fire.

'Our principal hypothesis is that the motive for the double crime was to find the international certification of authenticity of the violins so they could be sold,' he said.

Prosecutor Lorena Ledesma said officials were seeking further evidence because they suspect more people were involved.

Violins crafted by Stradivari in the 17th and 18th centuries can sell for millions of dollars.

Mr Von Bredow gained notice as a teenager when he discovered the complete skeleton of a mammoth near his hometown of Siegsdorf in Bavaria. He later founded a museum on mammoths and also pursued work in biology, geology and other fields, according to the biography on his museum's website.

Von Bredow's estate in Aregua, Paraguay was 'was found in complete disarray and blood stains indicated that the Germans were probably killed elsewhere on the property.'

(Picture from file) Stradivarius violins are some of the most sought after musical instruments on the planet for their craftsmanship, acoustic sound, and value

Neighbours in Aregua said Mr Von Bredow had settled in the town two years ago and dedicated himself to making violins.

Mr Grance said last week that the Von Bredow house 'was found in complete disarray and blood stains indicated that the Germans were probably killed elsewhere on the property. The man had traces of having been tortured.'

The officer said the evidence at the scene indicates 'that two or more individuals sought something' inside the house.
A Saudi teenager, who was facing the death penalty for a murder he was accused of committing aged 14, has had his conviction overturned after a long campaign by his family.

Abdullah al-Howaiti, 18, denied having anything to do with the murder of a jewellery shop owner during a robbery in his home town of Tabuk four years ago.

Howaiti has now been proven innocent - as phone records support the claim that Howaiti was in Duba, a seaside town, located 120 miles away during the incident.

Abdullah al-Howaiti now faces a retrial following his conviction being overturned, in accordance with Saudi law

Howaiti has claimed that he and his brother were beaten in front of each other by police while in captivity to force a confession.

The Saudi government has said it had abolished the death penalty for minors, however it is still in practice for murder cases.

Saudi Arabia still uses crucifixion and beheadings as means of punishment after 'successfully' abolishing floggings in 2020.

Howaiti's lawyer, Abdulaziz al-Shammari, confirmed that a hearing at the supreme court had over turned the original conviction.

The chilling situation is far from over however, as in accordance with Saudi law, there will now be a retrial.

UK anti-death penalty charity Reprieve has said it is calling on the Saudi prosecutors not to push for an execution.

'This is an opportunity for Saudi Arabia to show it is serious about abolishing the death penalty for childhood crimes,' Reprieve's director, Maya Foa, said.

'That this case even reached the supreme court shows how urgently real reform is needed. Abdullah was 14 years old at the time of the alleged offence and should never have been facing a death sentence.'

'Saudi authorities have claimed, many times, that they are eliminating capital punishment for juvenile offences. If those statements are to be trusted, the death penalty should be off the table in this case.'

Howaiti claims that he and his brother were tortured by local police trying to force a confession

In September, Conservative MP for Worthing West, Sir Peter Bottomley, wrote to the foreign secretary, then Dominic Raab, to express his anger over the situation.

This is the latest success for the campaign against the death penalty for minors in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.

Ali al-Nimr, 26, who spent nine years in prison and was sentenced to be beheaded and crucified for allegedly taking part in violent protests when he was 17, was freed two weeks ago.

However, another teenage prisoner, Mustafa al-Darwish, was executed in June for 'participating in armed rebellion', despite his family saying he was only 17 at the time.
If you live in a block of flats and only own the leasehold, you may decide it is time to take action.

You may be fed up with paying high ground rents and maintenance charges, and forking out for work that isn't up to scratch or costs much more than expected.

Once you've decided that you want to club together and buy the freehold - via a legal process called collective enfranchisement - there are certain steps that you will need to take, including finding out whether you are eligible.

Once this has been confirmed and the leaseholders have signed a participation agreement, the process can begin in earnest. This includes agreeing a fair market price with the existing freeholder.

We take a look at the steps involved in buying a freehold once you have established that your building qualifies. They are outlined here by Lucy Barber, from the law firm Forsters.

The leaseholders may have decided to club together and buy the freehold - via a legal process called collective enfranchisement

Steps under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993

The Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 is where tenants can collectively join together and require the landlord to sell them the freehold.

It is subject to the building satisfying the qualifying criteria under the 1993 Act, according to Mrs Barber.

1. Instruct a surveyor and carry out a valuation

It is crucial to make sure that the premium payable to the freeholder has been correctly valued. There is a helpful calculator on the Leasehold Advisory Service website which can help provide an indication of what the price will be.

2. Sign a participation agreement

Circulate the valuation and if at least 50 per cent of the qualifying tenants in the building wish to join together to purchase the freehold, the tenants will then usually sign a participation agreement where they all agree with each other to proceed with the freehold purchase statutory procedure.

3. Serve the statutory notice

Serve the statutory notice of claim upon the landlord requiring them to serve the freehold. The notice includes an offer price.

4. Landlord serves a counter notice

The landlord serves a counter notice and if it accepts the claim, it will likely propose a counter figure for the sum to be paid to the freehold. Landlords can only reject the notice of claim if the building does not satisfy the qualifying criteria under the 1993 Act or the notice of claim has been prepared incorrectly.

5. Negotiations

Negotiations take place between the respective party's valuers as to the price to be paid for the freehold.

6. Tribunal application

Within six months of the date of the counter notice the tenants need to make an application to the First Tier Tribunal if the terms have not been agreed. The Tribunal can determine the terms of the acquisition should the parties not reach agreement.

The terms of acquisition are the purchase price and also the terms of the transfer of the property

7. Terms agreed

Either there is a First Tier Tribunal hearing and the tribunal determines the terms of acquisition, or terms are agreed between the parties amicably. The terms of acquisition are the purchase price and also the terms of the transfer of the property.

5. Contract

Usually, but it is not essential, a contract is drafted by the landlord and sent to the tenants for approval.

6. Exchange of contracts

7. Completion of the transfer of the freehold

There are various statutory deadlines that need to be met throughout the process, and so it is important to obtain legal advice.

Enfranchisement under Landlord and Tenant Act 1987

This is the Act used when a landlord wishes to sell the freehold of a building containing two or more residential flats and the building fulfils the criteria set out under the 1987 Act.

The landlord first has to serve a Section 5 notice upon all the residential tenants offering them the opportunity to purchase the freehold at a price outlined in the notice, according to Mrs Barber.

The tenants can accept the notice provided that more than 50 per cent of the qualifying tenants all join together and accept the notice.

If the tenants do not accept the notice the landlord is free to sell the freehold to whoever they wish within the next 12 month period, but they are not allowed to sell it for a sum less than they offered it to the tenants for.

The following are the steps of this process

1. Section 5 notices

The landlord serves the section 5 notice offering the tenants the opportunity to purchase the freehold and sets out in the notice all the terms of the acquisition including the sale price in the notice or attaches the relevant contract of transfer document proposed to be entered into.

2. Nomination notice

The tenants have two months within which to accept that notice and if they accept the notice they have a further two months to serve a nomination notice - which is a notice telling the landlord who will purchase the property on behalf of all of the participating tenants.

3. The landlord issues a contract to the tenants for approval

4. Exchange of contracts for the sale of the freehold

5. Completion of the sale of the freehold

Mrs Barber explained: 'The landlord does not have to serve section 5 notices in order to sell the freehold to the tenants pursuant to the 1993 Act.'

But she added: 'A situation could arise where an appropriate amount of tenants will decide to club together to purchase the freehold and rather than serve a notice of claim under the 1993 Act they approach the landlord to see if he would be willing to sell them the freehold without going through the 1993 Act.

'If the landlord is amenable to that it is possible for the parties to agree the purchase price and once they agree the purchase price, the landlord has to serve section 5 notices and the steps above in the 1987 Act then apply.'
The Leonids Meteor Shower is set to peak on Wednesday night and through to Thursday dawn, with up to 15 shooting stars every hour, experts say.

The annual spectacle, which happens in November every year, occurs when small rocks fall towards the Earth after breaking off from a comet called Tempel-Tuttle.

The Leonids are considered to be some of the fastest meteors in existence, according to NASA, travelling at speeds of 44 miles (71 km) per second.

If you trace the path that the Leonids take, they seem to originate from a point in the constellation of Leo  hence the event's name.

Next week's peak is the night of November 17 to 18 (Wednesday night to Thursday dawn), although viewing conditions could be fairly cloudy in parts of the UK, Met Office told MailOnline.

The radiant (the point where the meteors seem to stream from) is at the head or 'sickle' of the constellation Leo the Lion, hence the name

The Leonids travel at speeds of 44 miles (71 km) per second, and are considered to be some of the fastest meteors out there, NASA says. Pictured, the Leonids Meteor Shower over New Mexico, 1998

LEONIDS METEOR SHOWER The Leonids are usually one of the more prolific annual meteor showers, with fast, bright meteors associated with Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The radiant (the point where the meteors seem to stream from) is at the head or 'sickle' of the constellation Leo the Lion, hence the name. As the comet follows its path around the sun, it leaves a path of tiny debris. The cometary debris enters our planets atmosphere at speeds of up to 43 miles (70 km) per second, vaporising and causing the streaks of light we call meteors. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich Advertisement

To get the best possible view of next week's peak, find a place with clear skies and far from sources of light pollution like big cities.

There is no advantage to using binoculars or a telescope  observers just need to look up unaided and take in the widest possible view of the sky, as long as it's not obscured by cloud.

According to the Met Office, during the early hours of Wednesday, the north of the UK may see a mixture of cloud and rain and 'perhaps some clear spells'.

'The south will be drier but may also be fairly cloudy with some fog patches around,' Greg Dewhurst, senior meteorologist at the Met Office, told MailOnline. 'Details will become clearer as we get nearer the time.'

Meteors, also known as shooting stars, come from leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids.

When comets come around the sun, the dust they emit gradually spreads into a dusty trail around their orbits.

Every year the Earth passes through these debris trails, which allows the bits to collide with our atmosphere where they disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky.

The pieces of space debris that interact with our atmosphere to create the Leonids originate from comet Tempel-Tuttle, which takes 33 years to orbit the Sun once.

Picture of the Leonids in 1998. The Leonids are usually one of the more prolific annual meteor showers, with fast, bright meteors associated with comet Tempel-Tuttle

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

Tempel-Tuttle is a small comet  its nucleus measures only about 2.24 miles (3.6 km) across, comparable in size to the island of Manhattan.

Its debris fragments burn up and vaporise before they hit the Earth's surface  causing a streak of hot air which we see as a shooting star.

The beautiful streaks seen in the night sky can actually be caused by cosmic particles as small as a grain of sand.

The radiant (the point where the meteors seem to stream from) is at the head or 'sickle' of the constellation Leo the Lion, hence the shower's name.

'The Leonids meteor shower is named after the constellation of Leo the lion,' Anna Gammon-Ross, astronomer at Royal Observatory Greenwich, told MailOnline.

'This is because, although meteors appear all over the sky, they all appear to emerge or radiate from a single point that lies within this constellation.'

If you miss the peak period, the shower continues at a reduced rate for several days either side, so there should be plenty of chances to see the display.

'On Wednesday night, the radiant (the easiest region to see them) will be rising a little after 10pm here in the UK,' said Gammon-Ross.

'So the early hours of the morning will be the best time to look out for this shower, when Leo is nice and high in the sky.'

Every 33 years, or so, viewers on Earth may experience a Leonid 'storm' that can peak with hundreds to thousands of meteors per hour, depending on the location of the observer.

NASA says: 'Viewers in 1966 experienced a spectacular Leonid storm  thousands of meteors per minute fell through Earth's atmosphere during a 15 minute period.

'There were so many meteors seen that they appeared to fall like rain. The last Leonid meteor storm took place in 2002.'

After the Leonids, there will be another two meteor showers in 2021  the Geminids, which will peak December 14-15, and the Ursids, which peak December 21-22.
The fastest animal on land may not be quick enough to outrace extinction, according to experts.

There are barely 7,000 cheetahs left in the wild, down from an estimated 100,000 worldwide a century ago.

Much of that is due to their being hunted by poachers and farmers, and the removal of their habitat for agricultural and commercial purposes.

Experts say a growing trend in keeping the beautiful but wild cats as pets in rich Gulf states has only worsened the problem, with many cats not surviving the gruesome journey as they're smuggled out of the Horn of Africa to the Middle East.

Now, conservationists are working with government officials in Somaliland to fight back against the illegal wildlife trade.

Scroll down for video

The rapid decline in cheetahs is fueled by wealthy Gulf types who want them as status-symbol pets. in Somaliland, Cheetah cubs seized from the illegal wildlife trade are often in poor health and about half succumb to illness

Tiny, weeks-old cheetah cubs suckled from baby bottles and purred weakly at a the Cheetah Conservation Fund rescue center in Somaliland.

CCF founder Laurie Marker is worried the smallest of this lot, a frail infant nicknamed 'Green' who weighs less than two pounds, won't pull through.

'It was very touch and go with Green,' Marker said, inspecting the mewling cub.

Green and the others at the 'Cheetah Safe House' are the lucky ones. Every year, an estimated 300 cheetah cubs are trafficked through Somaliland to wealthy buyers in the Middle East seeking exotic pets.

Every year an estimated 300 cheetah cubs are trafficked through Somaliland to wealthy buyers in the Middle East seeking exotic pets

Snatched from their mothers, shipped out of Africa to war-torn Yemen and onward to the Gulf, cubs that survive the ordeal can fetch up to $15,000 on the black market.

It is a busy trade, one less familiar than criminal markets for elephant ivory or rhino horn, but equally devastating for Africa's most endangered big cat.

Cheetahs which are capable of reaching speeds of up to 70 mph, according to the African Wildlife Foundation , are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, but in the wake of significant population declines, scientists are calling for them to be upgraded to 'endangered.'

In North Africa and Asia, cheetahs are already considered 'critically endangered.'

Snatched from their mothers, shipped out of Africa to war-torn Yemen and onward to the Gulf, a cheetah cub that survives the ordeal can fetch up to $15,000 on the black market

Between 2010 and 2019, more than 3,600 live cheetahs were illegally traded, many going from the Horn of Africa to the Gulf region

Their numbers have been devastated by human encroachment and habitat destruction, but the steady plunder of cubs from the wild to satisfy the pet trade only compounds this decline.

Between 2010 and 2019, more than 3,600 live cheetahs were illegally traded worldwide, according to research that documented hundreds of advertisements for cubs on social media platforms, including YouTube and Instagram.

'If this keeps going... that kind of [market] causes the population to go extinct in a very short time,' said Marker.

CCF shelters 67 rescued cheetahs across three safe houses in the Somaliland capital Hargeisa. Cheetahs have been sought after as exotic pets for centuries but today demand for cubs is placing enormous strain on the vulnerable species

Pictured: Adult cheetahs at one of CCF's rescue shelters. The organization has worked with the Somaliland government to crack down on the illegal cub trade

In addition to bringing cheetahs to the safe house, CCF works to mitigate the animal's decline by restoring habitat, conducting scientific research, and reducing conflicts with humans.

They've even provided Anatolian and Kangol shepherd dogs to farmers in in Namibia and Somaliland to serve as guard dogs for livestock threatened by the fleet felines.

Cheetahs have been prized as pets and hunting companions since the Roman Empire.

Breeding them in captivity is notoriously difficult, making wild-caught cubs the only option.

Part of the campaign to stop the modern-day trade has focused on changing attitudes in prosperous Gulf states, the main buyer market, where cheetahs are still coveted status symbols.

Marker said wealthy owners liked to show off their cheetahs in selfies as much as their cars and cash.

There are barely 7,000 cheetahs left in the wild, down from approximately 100,000 a century ago. Pictured: A mother cheetah in the wild with her cubs

'There's kind of a one-upmanship on it, and there's bragging power. One of our messages is do not 'like' this kind of thing on social media,' Marker said.

After years of pressure from animal welfare groups, the United Arab Emirates banned the owning, trading, and breeding of cheetahs and other big cats in 2017.

The law caries penalties of up to $136,000 in fines and up to six months in prison, according to CCF.

Combatting this criminal trade is particularly challenging because it revolves around Somaliland, a self-declared republic without international recognition.

Roughly the size of Syria, with 530 miles of coastline facing Yemen, Somaliland is a breakaway region between Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somalia.

It's one of the world's poorest regions, already stretched thin policing its porous borders.

Interior Minister Mohamed Kahin Ahmed told AFP that a small coast guard unit was doing its best but, apart from patrolling for cheetahs, they have human traffickers and gun runners to contend with.

The cubs that slip through the net suffer terrible mistreatment along the smuggling route, fed improperly and confined to tiny cages, sometimes with their legs bound with zip ties.

Marker said one particular seizure in 2019 illustrated the cruelty.

'When they dumped them out, there were live ones dying on top of dead ones,' she said 'It was just horrible.'

Fighting the criminal trade in cheetah cubs is particularly challenging because it revolves around Somaliland, a self-declared republic without international recognition, and one of the world's poorest regions

In recent years, confiscations have soared as the government has cracked down on the trade.

From just a handful of cubs in 2018, today CCF shelters 67 rescued cheetahs across three safe houses in the Somaliland capital Hargeisa.

Laws criminalizing the sale of cheetahs have also started being enforced: In October 2020, a smuggling ring was shattered and a high-profile trafficker prosecuted in a landmark trial.

Through a program funded by the British government, Somaliland is expanding intelligence sharing with neighboring countries and Yemen to fight the criminals robbing Africa of the iconic species.

But Somaliland officials are also working with impoverished rural communities, whose conflict with cheetahs is another driver in the trade.

Somaliland is expanding intelligence sharing with neighboring countries and Yemen to better tackle the illegal trade of cheetah cubs

Of the 13 cubs confiscated between September and November, at least four were taken by farmers hoping to sell them and recoup losses after claiming their livestock were killed by cheetahs.

'The next generation may never see a cheetah if this illicit trade continues,' Edna Adan Ismail, Somaliland's former foreign minister, told an anti-poaching conference in September.

Local veterinarian Ahmed Yusuuf Ibrahim is determined this grim prophecy does not pass.

The 27-year-old has been learning how to nurse sickly cubs back to health and has developed a close fondness for the cheetahs under his care.

They cannot fend for themselves, and eventually will be relocated to a larger natural enclosure outside Hargeisa.

But for now, Ibrahim is their doting custodian, right down to making sure cheetahs young and old get their fair share of camel meat.

'I care for them. I feed them, I clean them,' he said. 'They are my babies.'
A rare 'half groat' or two-penny piece minted during the reign of Henry VII is likely the oldest English coin found in Canada, experts reveal.

The stunning silver coin was found by archaeologists in Newfoundland, Canada this year, at the site of a former English colony.

It's 'likely the oldest English coin to ever be found in Canada, and possibly all of North America', says the Government of Newfoundland.

The 'major find' was minted in Canterbury, England more than 520 years ago, sometime between the years of 1493 and 1499.

Henry VII, the first monarch of the House of Tudor, reigned England from August 1485 to April 1509.

Both sides of the half groat, or two-penny piece, minted in Canterbury, England sometime between 1493 and 1499 and discovered at the Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site in 2021

WHAT IS A HALF GROAT? The two pence (tuppence) coin, also known as a half groat, was a coin circulated from the time of Edward I through the reigns of monarchs including Edward III and Henry VIII. Manufacturing of the half groat ended in the mid 1800s. Groat is the traditional name of a defunct English and Irish silver coin worth four pence. Source: Bullion by Post Advertisement

The coin was found by a team at Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site, an active archaeological dig site at the modern-day town of Cupids, and the location of a former English colony.

It was likely transported across the Atlantic to the colony at some point after the colony's establishment in 1610, before being lost.

'Some artefacts are important for what they tell us about a site, while others are important because they spark the imagination,' said William Gilbert, head archaeologist at Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site. 'This coin is definitely one of the latter.

'One can't help but wonder at the journey it made, and how many hands it must have passed through from the time it was minted in Canterbury until it was lost in Cupids sometime early in the 17th century.

'This is a major find and I am proud of my team for all their hard work. We look forward to the next great discovery.'

Gilbert discovered the historical site in 1995, which was established by English merchant adventurer John Guy in 1610, during the reign of James I, the first Stuart king.

Guy, a Bristolian, had visited Newfoundland in 1608 to select a possible location for a colony, before being granted a charter to proceed with the colonisation of Newfoundland in 1610.

The coin was found by a team at Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site, an active archaeological dig site at the modern-day town of Cupids, and the location of a former English colony.

Government of Newfoundland says: 'Research on the coin is ongoing. It is expected that it will go on display at the Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site in time for the opening of the 2022 tourist season'

Henry VII reigned England from 1485 to 1509. This portrait of Henry VII is the earliest painting in the National Portrait Gallery's collection. The inscription says it was painted on October 29, 1505 by order of Herman Rinck, an agent for Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The portrait was likely painted as part of an unsuccessful marriage proposal, as Henry hoped to marry Maximillian's daughter

Government of Newfoundland said research on the coin is ongoing, but that it's expected to go on display at the Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site next year.

The town of Cupids was the first attempt at permanent English settlement in what would become Canada, according to National Trust for Canada, although this is disputed by some.

'The historical significance of the Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site has long been known and its value to the local tourism industry is proven,' said Steve Crocker, Government of Newfoundland Minister of Tourism, Culture, Arts and Recreation.

'It is incredible to imagine that this coin was minted in England and was lost in Cupids over 100 years later. It links the story of the early European exploration in the province and the start of English settlement.'

Consultation with Paul Berry, former curator of the Bank of Canada's Currency Museum, indicates the location and time of its minting.

Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site is an active archaeological dig site at the modern-day town of Cupids, and the location of a former English colony

This 'very worn' coin is an Elizabeth I silver groat (four-penny piece), minted at the Tower of London sometime between December 1560 and October 1561. It was also unearthed at Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site - back in 2001. This is its reverse side

In 2001, an Elizabethan coin, minted at the Tower of London between December 1560 and October 1561, was unearthed on the same site.

At that time, the coin was considered the oldest English coin ever found in Canada.

This newly discovered coin is about 60 years older and would have been in circulation for at least 111 years before it was lost at Cupids, Government of Newfoundland says.

This 111 years covers the last year of Henry VII's reign (1499) and the year the colony was established (1610).
At the extreme pressures found at the bottom of the Earth's outer core, iron assumes a stronger form to cope with the stress in a process called 'twinning'.

This is the conclusion of a study by researchers from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory who recreated the pressures of the core in the laboratory.

They did this by shining two lasers at a sample of iron the width of a human hair. The first created a shock wave that fleetingly heated and compressed the metal.

The second laser  part of SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source  enabled the team to probe the effect on the atomic structure of the iron within a billionth of a second.

At the extreme pressures found at the bottom of the Earth's outer core (shown in the above artistic cutaway), iron assumes a stronger form to cope with the stress in a process called 'twinning'. This is the conclusion of a study by researchers from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory who recreated the pressures of the core in the laboratory

Much of the iron you might encounter out and about  whether for example in buildings, machinery, Victorian lampposts, etc.  has a structure that crystallographers would refer to as 'body-centred cubic'.

This means that the crystal lattice is arranged into a pattern of nanoscopic cubes, with iron atoms at each cube's centre, as well as each of the eight corners.

When iron is subjected to higher pressures, however, this structure changes  taking, above 10 gigapascals, a hexagonal form that allows the atoms to pack together more closely.

In their study, paper author and geologist Arianna Gleason of SLAC and her colleagues wanted to see what would happen to the hexagonal close-packed form of iron if you continued to pile on the pressure up to that found in the Earth core.

'We didn't quite make inner core conditions, but we achieved the conditions of the outer core of the planet  which is really remarkable,' said Professor Gleason.

The team were unsure how iron would respond to such extreme conditions  equivalent to some 360 million times the pressure at the Earth's surface and as hot as surface of the Sun  as no-one has previously been able to observe such.

It turns out that iron undergoes another structural transition, much like the one from a cubic to a hexagonal form it experiences at much lower pressures.

'As we continue to push it, the iron doesn't know what to do with this extra stress,' Professor Gleason explained.

She continued: 'It needs to relieve that stress, so it tries to find the most efficient mechanism to do that.'

The coping mechanism that iron resorts to  twinning  sees the arrangement of atoms shunted to the side, rotating all the hexagonal prisms by nearly 90 degrees.

Twinning is a common pressure response in various minerals and metals, including calcite, quartz, titanium and zirconium.

'Twinning allows iron to be incredibly strong  stronger than we first thought  before it starts to flow plastically on much longer time scales [than it would have otherwise,' Professor Gleason said.

'As we continue to push it, the iron doesn't know what to do with this extra stress,' Professor Gleason explained. 'It needs to relieve that stress, so it tries to find the most efficient mechanism to do that.' The coping mechanism that iron resorts to  twinning  sees the arrangement of atoms shunted to the side, rotating the hexagonal prisms by nearly 90

'Now we can give a thumbs up, thumbs down on some of the physics models for really fundamental deformation mechanisms,' said Professor Gleason.

'That helps to build up some of the predictive capability we're lacking for modelling how materials respond at extreme conditions.'

Alongside this, the team explained, the same methods could be applied to better understand how other materials behave under extreme conditions.

Prior to their experiments, the researchers were unsure if iron would respond too fast for them to measure or too slow for them to ever see.

'The fact that the twinning happens on the time scale that we can measure it as an important result in itself,' explained paper author and geophysicist Sebastien Merkel of the University of Lille, France.

Twinning is a common pressure response in various minerals and metals, including calcite, quartz, titanium and zirconium. Pictured: a twinned crystal of quartz

'The future is bright now that we've developed a way to make these measurements,' added Professor Gleason, noting as well that recent upgrades to the Linac Coherent Light Source will allow materials to be studied at higher X-ray energies.

This, she explained, will enable studied of 'thicker alloys and materials that have lower symmetry and more complex X-ray fingerprints'  while also allowing larger samples to be observed, permitting a more comprehensive look at iron's behaviour.

Furthermore, Gleason said, 'we're going to get more powerful optical lasers with the approval to proceed with a new flagship petawatt laser facility.

'That'll make future work even more exciting because well be able to get to the Earth's inner core conditions without any problem,' she concluded.

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Researchers at Harvard University have developed a robotic exosuit that swiftly calibrate to an individual wearer in a matter of seconds.

The system uses ultrasound to measure a user's muscle dynamics and then develops an activity-specific profile, whether they're strolling in the park, stopped at a crosswalk, or running up a hill.

Compared with not wearing the device, the 'muscle-based assistance (MBA) ankle exosuit' reduced metabolic demand by nearly one-sixth.

Engineers have long worked on exosuits that help people with disabilities walk, but the obstacle has always been developing a frame that can adapt to how humans often change pace and encounter new terrain.

'This approach may help support the adoption of wearable robotics in real-world, dynamic situations by enabling comfortable, tailored, and adaptive assistance,' Harvard Biodesign Lab founder director Conor J. Walsh, who helped develop the exosuit, said in a statement.

Scroll down for video

Rsearchers at Harvard have developed a robotic exosuit that calibrates to an individual in a matter of seconds and can adjust to various walking activities

How people walk is influenced by a multitude of factors, including height, gender, age, and muscle strength, and can be influenced by disabilities like Parkinson's Disease or a stroke.

That's a major challenge for wearable robotics to augment walking in the real world, instead of just a laboratory treadmill, the scientists say.

'To date, customizing wearable robotic assistance to an individual's walking requires hours of manual or automatic tuning,' according to the release. '[It's] a tedious task for healthy individuals and often impossible for older adults or clinical patients.'

Partnering with the Harvard Biodesign Lab and Howe's Harvard Biorobotics Laboratory, which has experience with ultrasound imaging, researchers at Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) looked 'under the skin,' lead author Richard Nuckols said in the release.

Compared normal walking on a flat surface, the 'muscle-based assistance (MBA) ankle exosuit' reduced metabolic demand by nearly one-sixth (15.7 percent)

'Our muscles and tendons have compliance,' Nuckols said, 'which means there is not necessarily a direct mapping between the movement of the limbs and that of the underlying muscles driving their motion.'

The exosuit straps around a user's calves, with wires leading up to a battery pack worn around the waste.

A miniature ultrasound system images the wearer's calve muscles and estimates how much additional force is needed to counter the demand from any number of walking tasks.

The research team strapped a portable ultrasound system to participants' calves and imaged their muscles as they performed a series of walking tasks

The system only needs a few seconds of walkingeven just one stride, in some casesto profile the wearer and their situation.

When tested in real-world situations, the exosuit was able to quickly adapt to changes in walking speed and incline, the researchers said.

Its muscle-based assistance reduced the metabolic demand on the wearer by an average of 15.9 percent for walking on a level surface at a pace of about three mph and 8.9 percent when moving at about four mph.

'Our muscles and tendons have compliance, which means there is not necessarily a direct mapping between the movement of the limbs and that of the underlying muscles driving their motion,' said robotics expert Richard Nuckols

A participant tests the muscle-based assistance (MBA) generation with a mobile ankle exosuit

For someone going three miles per hour on an incline of 5.71 degrees, it still provided a 7.8 percent reduction in metabolic demand, which is measured by analyzing oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production.

'By measuring the muscle directly, we can work more intuitively with the person using the exosuit,' said co-author Sangjun Lee, a SEAS graduate student.

'The exosuit isn't overpowering the wearer, it's working cooperatively with them.'

The device reduced metabolic demand by an average of 15.9 percent on a level surface at a pace of about three mph and 8.9 percent at about four mph. For someone going three mph on an incline of 5.71 degrees, it still provided a 7.8 percent reduction

The researchers hope to improve the system's calibration to allow for even faster real-time adjustments.

WHAT IS AN EXOSKELETON? Exoskeletons are wearable devices that work in tandem with the user. Exoskeletons are placed on the users body and act as amplifiers that augment, reinforce or restore human performance. The opposite would be a mechanical prosthetic, such as a robotic arm or leg that replaces the original body part. Exoskeletons can be made out of rigid materials such as metal or carbon fibre, or they can be made entirely out of soft and elastic parts. Exoskeletons can be powered and equipped with sensors and actuators, or they can be entirely passive. Exoskeletons can be mobile or fixed/suspended and can cover the entire body, just the upper or lower extremities, or even a specific body segment such as the ankle or the hip. Advertisement

'In the field of wearable robotics, there is a clear need for customizing assistance to the user and task,' they wrote in a paper published in the journal Science Robotics.

'We developed a muscle-based assistance (MBA) strategy wherein exosuit assistance was derived from direct measurements of individuals' muscle dynamics during specific tasks.'

If perfected, the frame could be worn by soldiers, firefighters or rescue workers to lighten their load.

It could also improve mobility and quality of life for seniors and disabled people.

In 2017, a different team published another Science Robotics paper on a tethered soft exosuit that can reduce the metabolic cost of running on a treadmill by more than 5 percent.

Using thin, flexible wires, the high-tech 'running shorts' are designed to apply force to the hip joint, which ultimately assists the muscles during each stride.

'Homo sapiens has evolved to become very good at distance running,' co-author Philippe Malcolm, a biomechanics expert at the University of Nebraska, said in a statement. 'But our results show that further improvements to this already extremely efficient system are possible.'

The shorts incorporate flexible wires anchored to the back of the thigh and waist belt, which are then linked to an external actuation unit.

As the wearer runs, the actuation unit pulls on the wires, which act as a second pair of hip extensors applying force to the legs with each stride.

The Guardian XO (pictured above) is an exoskeleton developed jointly by Delta and Sarcos robotics that makes lifting airplane tires and other heavy objects seem like a piece of cake

While many exosuits are aimed at assisting with normal walking, others are designed to give people superhuman abilities.

In January 2020, Delta Airlines debuted the Guardian XO, a relatively small full-body exoskeleton that allows an individual to easily lift a 130-pound airplane tire.

Demonstrating the suit at the Consumer Electronic Showcase (CES) in Las Vegas, Delta and its partner, Sarcos Robotics, said the Guardian can make lifting 200 pounds feel like a mere 20 pounds.

The suit could have numerous industrial uses, from aiding construction to quickly moving luggage on and off a plane.
Climate change is shape-shifting the bodies of birds in the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, a concerning new study shows.

Researchers have found several bird species have become smaller with longer wings over several generations in response to hotter and drier conditions.

Smaller bodies are more efficient at dissipating heat, while bigger wings reduces the amount of metabolic heat generated to stay aloft.

Affected species include the golden-crowned spadebill, the gray antwren, McConnell's flycatcher and the dusky-throated antshrike.

Scroll down for video

Golden-crowned spadebill (Platyrinchus coronatus). This species shows decreasing wing and mass-to-wing ratio over time

Variegated antpitta (Grallaria varia). The team studied data collected on more than 15,000 individual birds that were captured, measured, weighed, marked with a leg band and released, over 40 years of field work in Brazilian Amazonia

Gray antwren (Myrmotherula menetriesii). This species shows decreasing mass, mass-to-wing ratio and increasing wing length over time

SOME AFFECTED BIRD SPECIES - Golden-crowned Spadebill (Platyrinchus coronatus) - Gray Antwren (Myrmotherula menetriesii) - McConnell's Flycatcher (Mionectes macconnelli) - White-crowned Manakin (Pseudopipra pipra) - Dusky-throated Antshrike (Thamnomanes ardesiacus) - White-chested Puffbird (Malacoptila fusca) Advertisement

Adapting to shifting environmental conditions may include 'new physiological or nutritional challenges' for birds, say the scientists, who claim to have eliminated other factors that may have influenced these changes  in other words, there's no doubt climate change is to blame.

'Even in the middle of this pristine Amazon rainforest, we are seeing the global effects of climate change caused by people, including us,' said study author Vitek Jirinec, an ecologist at the Integral Ecology Research Center, Blue Lake, California.

Jirinec and colleagues studied data collected on more than 15,000 individual birds that were captured, measured, weighed, marked with a leg band and released, over 40 years of field work in Brazilian Amazonia, at a research location near the city of Manaus.

In total, the scientists investigated 77 species of rainforest birds that live there, from the cool, dark forest floor to the warmer, sunlit midstory.

The midstory is the layer of vegetation in a forest consisting of trees with a height somewhere between the heights of the smallest and tallest trees.

The wing of a rufous-capped Antthrush (Formicarius colma). The data revealed nearly all of the birds' bodies have reduced in mass, or become lighter, since the 1980s. Formicarius colma is significantly changing all three (losing mass, increasing wing, decreasing mass-to-wing ratio

McConnell's flycatcher (Mionectes macconnelli). This species shows decreasing mass and mass-to-wing ratio. Species were captured and measured before being released

The data revealed nearly all of the birds' bodies have reduced in mass, or become lighter, since the 1980s.

SMALLER SIZE, GREATER HEAT LOSS The greater the surface area-to-volume ratio of an animal, the more heat it loses relative to its volume. The larger the animal, the smaller the surface area-to-volume ratio and so the less relative area there is to lose heat. This means that for identically shaped animals of different sizes, the large one will keep its temperature more easily. In other words, being bigger means being warmer. Source: Lance Mangham Advertisement

All species studied currently have a lower average mass than they did in the early 1980s.

In all, 36 species lost up to almost 2 per cent of their body weight per decade since 1980.

For an average bird species that weighed about 30 grams in the 1980s, the population now averages about 27.6 grams.

Also, 61 of the species showed an average increase in wing length, and all of the species showed an average reduction in their mass-to-wing ratio.

'These birds don't vary that much in size. They are fairly fine-tuned, so when everyone in the population is a couple of grams smaller, it's significant,' said co-author Philip Stouffer, conservation biologist at Louisiana State University.

The team also discovered that birds residing in the highest section of the midstory  and the most exposed to heat and drier conditions  had the most dramatic change in body weight and wing size.

These birds also tend to fly more than the birds that live on the forest floor.

The thinking is that these birds have adapted to a hotter, drier climate by reducing their 'wing loading'  the total mass divided by the area of its wing  to become more energy efficient in flight.

This is akin to a fighter jet with a heavy body and short wings that requires a lot of energy to fly fast, compared with a glider plane with a slim body and long wings that can soar with less energy.

Weighing a white-crowned manakin (Pseudopipra pipra). This species shows decreasing mass, mass-to-wing ratio, and increasing wing length over time

Dusky-throated antshrike (Thamnomanes ardesiacus). This species shows decreasing mass, mass:wing ratio, and increasing wing length over time

If a bird has a higher wing loading, it needs to flap its wings faster to stay aloft, which requires more energy and produces more metabolic heat.

Reducing body weight and increasing wing length leads to more efficient resource use while also keeping cooler in a warming climate.

The data set covers a large range of the rainforest so the changes in the birds' bodies and wings across communities are not tied to one specific site, which means that the phenomenon is common throughout a wide area.

Collared puffbird (Bucco capensis) - a representative of midstory species. The midstory is the layer of vegetation in a forest consisting of trees with a height somewhere between the heights of the smallest and tallest trees. Bucco capensis is losing mass-to-wing ratio significantly through time

Pictured is a black-faced Antthrush (Formicarius analis). The study indicates that tropical birds in the heart of the worlds largest rainforest are rapidly evolving in response to pressures from human-caused climate change

'This is undoubtedly happening all over and probably not just with birds,' Stouffer said.

'If you look out your window, and consider what you're seeing out there, the conditions are not what they were 40 years ago and it's very likely plants and animals are responding to those changes as well.

'We have this idea that the things we see are fixed in time, but if these birds aren't fixed in time, that may not be true.'

The question of the future capacity of Amazonian birds to deal with increasingly hotter and drier surroundings, especially in the dry season, remains unanswered, the team conclude.

Their study has been published in the journal Science Advances.
No wonder Weatherfields undertaker George Shuttleworth is always smiling, he must be raking it in. With so many deaths in soaps, its no surprise that Coronation Street and EastEnders added funeral parlour businesses to the shows. Being such a magnet for serial killers, youd think some sharp business brain would set one up in Emmerdale too.

Just like weddings, christenings and criminal trials, funerals in Soapland come around at the speed of light. And strange affairs they are too, with the mourners mostly neighbours rather than family members.

This week we saw Sam Blakeman in Coronation Street lay his mum Natasha to rest. But why would her funeral be in Weatherfield? Her only connection there was Sams dad, Nick, whom she dated a decade ago. There was a vague reference to her siblings but why would they let an ex-partner and his new love (Leanne  who was indirectly responsible for Natashas death) make the funeral plans? At least with more pubs, cafes and bistros than you can shake a stick at there are no shortage of venues for a wake.

EASTENDERS: GRAYS FLIPPIN BIG SECRET

Newly engaged Chelsea moves in with Gray and is delighted to receive a sparkly ring. She wont be so delighted when she finds out that her high-flying lawyer fiance is now flipping burgers for a living (pictured)

Newly engaged Chelsea moves in with Gray and is delighted to receive a sparkly ring. She wont be so delighted when she finds out that her high-flying lawyer fiance is now flipping burgers for a living.

When Whitney calls Grays old legal company to tell him that Mia is sick, shes shocked to learn that they no longer employ him. Whitney sets about finding the truth and wonders whether she should tell Chelsea that her fiance is lying to her. Again.

Drunken Eve turns up at the cafe and Jean says that she can live with her and the Slaters. The only problem is they have nowhere to live, as Suki is determined to boot them out of their house by the end of the week.

Kat asks Phil if they can all move in with him. What will he say? No, if hes got any sense. It brings us once again to the issue of Albert Square and its Tardis homes. If the Slater brood move in with Phil, Callum and Ben then that will make 13 people according to my maths. It wont do much for Phils anger issues.

Tiffany continues to pursue a romance with Aaron, who is so horrible he makes Keegan seem like a good bet. When Harvey takes the bins out he discovers one of Aarons bloodied shirts. Later the police arrive at the cab office to ask Harvey if he can account for his sons movements on a certain night. I have a feeling that boy is going to make his dad look like a pussycat.

EMMERDALE: WOOING AT THE WOOLIE

Al presses ahead with his plans to revamp The Woolpack but Paddy (pictured right) and Marlon arent impressed when he hires son Ellis

Al presses ahead with his plans to revamp The Woolpack but Paddy and Marlon arent impressed when he hires son Ellis. You cant blame them, Ellis hardly made a success of the last major project he was tasked with  the Home Farm survival challenge  did he?

When Al hears that Paddy is away he invites Chas to a business dinner and flirts with her, and she responds. Is she playing him or are there sparks there?

When Meena learns that David and Victoria have gone to Portugal together she sneaks into Victorias house and smashes it up. Still taking the split with David well, then?

CORONATION STREET: KELLY NEEDS A HERO

Stu, the tramp who was never heard of a month ago and now seems to pop up everywhere, tells Kelly where she can get a free meal (pictured)

Feeling unsafe at her accommodation, and with her old friends turning their backs on her, Kelly ends up sleeping rough and scavenging for food. Stu, the tramp who was never heard of a month ago and now seems to pop up everywhere, tells her where she can get a free meal.

Theres a glimmer of hope when Aadi gets Dev to agree to let her stay with them. But when Kelly overhears Asha say shes not welcome she pretends shes going to stay with her mother instead.

Johnny Connor is given a traditional Weatherfield send-off. Traditional in the sense that Jenny gets absolutely wasted at the wake and manages to offend everyone.

Tim visits Faye in prison, which comes as a bit of a shock because shes been there for seven months (for attacking Adam Barlow) and her family seem to have forgotten she exists. Sally is more concerned about parking than her stepdaughter languishing in a cell.

Also off everyones radar is Ray, who gets a visit in prison from Debbie. She tells him she knows he paid someone to create the sinkhole at the Platts house and unless he pleads guilty to sexually assaulting Faye, shell tell the police.
Brooke Blurton has spoken about the hardships she dealt with growing up in the Western Australian town of Carnarvon.

The coastal town has recently become infamous as the home of four-year-old kidnap victim Cleo Smith and her alleged abductor.

And Blurton gave details of her own harrowing childhood in the region in an interview with SBS' Noongar Dandjoo.

Brooke Blurton (pictured) has spoken about the hardships she dealt with growing up in the Western Australian town of Carnarvon

The 26-year-old star of this year's The Bachelorette told the program she lived in Carnarvon 'up until I was about 11, when my mum, unfortunately, passed away... she committed suicide.'

She spoke of developing her passion for mental health after 'growing up with a lot of drug and alcohol violence in my childhood'.

She said at one stage life with her 'volatile' mum 'had gotten so bad that we were once removed from school and put straight into a foster home without her knowledge.'

'We were treated well in care and that became the comparison that helped me to develop expectations.'

The coastal town has recently become infamous as the home of four-year-old kidnap victim Cleo Smith (pictured) and her alleged abductor

'I did have a loving family but my mum just struggled to provide us with what we needed,' she explained. 'There were socio-economic environmental factors that affected us.'

In her TED Talk, How Do You Introduce Yourself?, Brooke disclosed that following her mother's death, she was sexually abused, and went to live with her father.

She was later kicked out of his home at the age of 15 and 'the same feelings I had at 11 came rushing back.'

She recalled asking herself, "'Why won't I be loved? Why will I never be good enough? And why do I honestly keep bouncing from home to home?'"

The 26-year-old star of this year's The Bachelorette lived in Carnarvon 'up until I was about 11, when my mum, unfortunately, passed away... she committed suicide.' Brooke pictured here with her late mother

Carnarvon is a coastal town situated approximately 900 kilometres north of Perth.

It had a population of 4426 as of the 2016 Census.

Carnarvon native Cleo's disappearance from a remote Western Australian campsite on October 16 sparked a mass police search and made headlines around the world.

It coincidentally occurred the day after Blurton's interview about her hometown was published.

Carnarvon is a coastal town situated approximately 900 kilometres north of Perth. Pictured

She was found alive and well inside a Carnarvon home 18 days later, having been allegedly abducted by Terry Kelly, 36, who was later arrested and is awaiting trial.

Detectives used crowbars and battering rams to kick in the door and free Cleo about 12.46am last Wednesday from a home just seven minutes away from where she lives with her mum Ellie, stepdad Jake Gliddon and baby sister Isla.

Remarkable bodycam footage captured the moment Cleo was rescued by detectives, with the brave little girl clinging to her savior as she is gently spoken to and told she would soon see her 'mummy'.

'I did have a loving family but my mum just struggled to provide us with what we needed,' Blurton explained of her childhood in the region

In her TED Talk, How Do You Introduce Yourself?, Brooke disclosed that following her mother's death, she was sexually abused, and went to live with her father

Earlier this year, tragedy struck again for Blurton when she received the news her sister Kye had died.

'I do like to think I live a very private life but I kinda felt like I wanted to share with you where I'm at,' she shared on Instagram back in August.

'I've thankfully had huge support from production and friends working tirelessly to get me back into WA,' she added.

Brooke was granted a special exemption to attend her sister's WA funeral amid the state's strict Covid lockdown.
Nightclub mogul Nick Russian and his wife Rozalia celebrated the opening of their trendy new bar and restaurant venue Bar Bambi on Thursday alongside the who's who of the Melbourne social scene.

And social media Influencer Rozalia, 31, made sure she stole the spotlight by wearing a very revealing red dress.

The brunette bombshell looked nothing short of sensational as she flaunted her cleavage and washboard abs in the cut-out frock.

Exciting times: Nightclub mogul Nick Russian and his wife Rozalia celebrated the opening of their trendy new bar and restaurant venue Bar Bambi on Thursday alongside the who's who of the Melbourne social scene

Rozalia completed her look with strappy white heels and sported a fresh blow wave.

Meanwhile, Nick looked dapper in a black Gucci suit which retails for $4,160.

The pair, who married in February 2012, cuddled up to pose for several pictures inside the stunning late night venue.

Red hot: The brunette bombshell looked nothing short of sensational as she flaunted her cleavage and washboard abs in the cut-out frock

Handsome: Meanwhile, Nick looked dapper in a black Gucci suit which retails for $4,160

Star power! Guests at the event included Rebecca and husband Chris Judd

Nick is Melbourne's most prolific nightclub owner and entrepreneur, who rose to fame on Temptation Island back in 2002.

He became an official candidate for Lord Mayor of Melbourne last year, after the Liberal Party reportedly called for him to make a bid for the city's top job.

Following his stint as a reality television star, Nick ran the popular nightclub Eve Bar, where he became friends with a slew of celebrities before selling the venue in 2015.

He now runs Together Events, which is 'a luxury lifestyle and events brand created for sophisticated, fun and fashion-conscious individuals'.

Rozalia is a former ballerina turned influencer, who promotes several brands such as Dior, Louis Vuitton and L'Oreal Paris.
Matthew Newton's marriage to his long-term girlfriend Catherine Schneiderman has finally been confirmed.

During Bert Newton's state funeral on Friday, Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Werner Utri, referred to Catherine as Matthew's wife.

'Good morning and welcome to the state funeral of Mr Bert Newton... I'd like to begin by acknowledging a number of people with us today,' he said.

Confirmed: Matthew Newton's marriage to long-term girlfriend Catherine Schneiderman (pictured) was confirmed during his father Bert's state funeral on Friday

'First and foremost, Bert Newton's wife Patti, his daughter Lauren, his son-in-law Matt and grandchildren.'

Fr Utri added: 'Unfortunately Bert's son Matthew and his wife Catherine were unable to join us as they are in New York.'

Matthew became engaged to girlfriend Catherine Schneiderman in October 2016.

Reports later emerged that the couple secretly tied the knot, however it has never been confirmed by the couple.

Matthew became engaged to girlfriend Catherine Schneiderman in October 2016. Reports later emerged that the couple secretly tied the knot, however it has never been confirmed by the couple

Who is Catherine Schneiderman? Catherine Schneiderman is the daughter of former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Catherine's romance with Matthew raised some eyebrows, due to her father Eric's known stance against domestic violence. In 2006, Matthew was convicted of assaulting his then-fiancee, actress Brooke Satchwell. In 2010, he announced his split with ex-fiancee Rachael Taylor, after two violent and unprovoked attacks in Rome, which prompted her to take out an AVO against him. The former Attorney passed a bill in 2010 to increase the punishment handed to those involved in such crimes. 'The time to criminalise this horrific form of abuse is now,' he told a press conference according to the New York Senate. 'I am proud of the overwhelming bipartisan support for this legislation. It sends a strong message that we must do everything in our power to ensure that no one is immune from accountability for committing such a heinous crime.' New Idea magazine previously claimed Catherine was aware of the Australian actor's past but she 'sees Matt as a misunderstood genius.' Advertisement

A family friend told New Idea in 2017 that the couple exchanged 'I dos' at the home of Catherine's mother in New York.

'[Matthew] rang his parents prior to the big day and invited them but with Bert's health being a little strained in recent months they decided a long-haul flight to New York might not be a great idea,' the source explained at the time.

'This is the best news ever for Bert and Patti ... they're just so happy for Matthew.'

The insider added: 'Matthew's battled a lot of demons over the years, but he finally feels like he's found his place in the world in New York with Cat.

Troubled past: Matthew was previously involved in two assaults against ex-girlfriends Brooke Satchwell (left) and Rachael Taylor (right)

Bert Newton was laid to rest at Melbourne's St Patricks Cathedral on Friday

Matthew had a troubled few years with domestic violence charges against him by then girlfriend Brooke Satchwell in 2006 and fiancee Rachael Taylor in 2010.

He was also arrested twice in Miami, Florida in 2012 - the first for trespassing and resisting officers, while a second incident saw him charged with battery and resisting arrest after he attacked a hotel receptionist.

Following the charges, Matt, who suffers from bipolar disorder, checked into the Betty Ford Centre in California for 90 days of alcohol and drug treatment.
Advertisement

Just after announcing his new Selling Sunset spinoff series Selling The OC, Jason Oppenheim picked up a new home in Orange County.

The 44-year-old real estate broker plunked down $7 million for a Newport Beach mansion, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The home is just a few miles from his new Oppenheim Group office in Corona Del Mar, where his new show Selling The OC will be based out of.

New home: Just after announcing his new Selling Sunset spinoff series Selling The OC, Jason Oppenheim picked up a new home in Orange County

New crib: The 44-year-old real estate broker plunked down $7 million for a Newport Beach mansion, according to The Los Angeles Times

The 13,000 square-foot Mediterranean-style home was built in 2017, the third-largest home to sell in Orange County this year.

The home includes six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, two garages and several indoor-outdoor spaces.

Other amenities include a billiards room, movie theater, wine cellar and dog-washing station inside, with a swimming pool and spa outside, all overlooked by a Julien balcony.

Mediterranean: The 13,000 square-foot Mediterranean-style home was built in 2017, the third-largest home to sell in Orange County this year

Garage: The home includes six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, two garages and several indoor-outdoor spaces

Oppenheim also opened up to People about why he decided to pick up this home, in lieu of the spin-off.

'Now that I will be spending some more time in Newport Beach filming my new show, as well as taking on more listings in the area and working out of that office probably one or two days a week, I wanted to have real estate in the area,' Oppenheim said.

When asked what attracted him to this particular house, Oppenheim said it was not only the size, but the quality.

Why: Oppenheim also opened up to People about why he decided to pick up this home, in lieu of the spin-off

'I was drawn to the house because of the quality of construction as well as it's impressive size,' Oppenheim said.

'Not just the size of the house, but it also is set on an impressive plot of land,' Oppenheim added.

Netflix announced on Monday that production is under way on Selling The OC, which will debut sometime in 2022.

Size: 'I was drawn to the house because of the quality of construction as well as it's impressive size,' Oppenheim said

Spin-off: Netflix announced on Monday that production is under way on Selling The OC, which will debut sometime in 2022

The show will follow Oppenheim as he expands his real estate company with a second office in Newport Beach.

Oppenheim will be featured alongside other agents such as Alexandra Hall, Austin Victoria and Brandi Marshall.

It was also confirmed that Selling Sunset star Heather Rae El Moussa will not be featured on Selling The OC, though it's unclear if Oppenheim's current girlfriend, Chrishell Strause, will be featured in the show.

Expand: The show will follow Oppenheim as he expands his real estate company with a second office in Newport Beach
Alexa Chung looked flawless as she attended Aimee Phillips' 40th Birthday at The MAINE Mayfair on Thursday in London.

The model, 38, exuded elegance in a grey silk midi dress which featured long puffed sleeves and a sweet bow ribbon.

Donning a pair of cream ballet pumps, she wore her chocolate locks in a chic middle parting and highlighted her natural beauty with a minimal amount of make-up.

Looking good: Alexa Chung looked flawless as she attended Aimee Phillips' 40th Birthday at The MAINE Mayfair on Thursday in London

She soon snuggled up to the birthday girl who looked nothing short of sensational in a pastel pink midi dress and bright orange curly hair.

Having painted her eyelids an eye-popping shade of blue, the DJ sported a pair of dazzling silver drop earrings and pose dup a storm for the camera.

Pixie Geldof cut a chic figure in a tiger print jacket, which she teamed up with a black polo top and a coordinating pair of trousers.

Wow! The model, 38, exuded elegance in a grey silk midi dress which featured long puffed sleeves and a sweet bow ribbon

Sensational: She soon snuggled up to the birthday girl (right) who looked nothing short of sensational in a pastel pink midi dress and bright orange curly hair

Centre of attention: Having painted her eyelids an eye-popping shade of blue, the DJ sported a pair of dazzling silver drop earrings and pose dup a storm for the camera

She wore her sandy tresses in a tousled bun, which allowed for a selection of strands to loosely frame her face.

Nick Grimshaw looked dapper in a buttoned-down charcoal shirt which he layered beneath a matching blazer and coordinating trousers.

His boyfriend Meshach Henry appeared on fine form while sporting an onyz zip-up top and a pair of coordinating shorts.

Trendy: Pixie Geldof cut a chic figure in a tiger print jacket, which she teamed up with a black polo top and a coordinating pair of trousers

Stunning: She wore her sandy tresses in a tousled bun, which allowed for a selection of strands to loosely frame her face

Alexa appeared at the event without her boyfriend Orson Fry, who she was first linked to in 2019.

They first sparked romance rumours when they were spotted together at All Points East Festival in May.

It was then revealed that the pair had been dating for two months.

A source told The Mail's Katie Hind at the time: 'They instantly hit it off. Now they're inseparable and he's practically living at her place. It's all moving very fast, but she's smitten.

Suave: Nick Grimshaw (left) looked dapper in a buttoned-down charcoal shirt which he layered beneath a matching blazer and coordinating trousers as he posed with beau Meshach Henry

Style icon: Boy George looked typically stylish as he arrived at the event

'They're also not shy when it comes to public displays of affection and were recently seen getting very cosy at the festival. They are very much enjoying themselves.'

The source also revealed that even though the romance was new, Orson had as good as moved into her apartment in Dalston, east London.

Meanwhile, the fashion designer is said to have been regularly cheering him on when he performed at pubs and small venues across the capital with his band, Soundtown.

Before finding love with Orson, Alexa previously dated True Blood actor Alexander Skarsgard until their split in 2018.
Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk opened up on the on-set safety differences between the U.S. and Korea in the wake of last month's fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by Alec Baldwin on the New Mexico set of the movie Rust.

'We of course have a prop master, but also in Korea, we're not really a gun-owning country, so only the police can have and own a gun,' Hwang, 50, told Variety Monday while at the LACMA's Art + Film Gala.

Hwang continued: 'Because of that, bullets are not really easily as distributed as they are maybe here, so there's a very low, low possibility of any safety issues happening on set.'

The latest: Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, 50, opened up on the on-set safety differences between the U.S. and Korea in the wake of last month's fatal shooting on the New Mexico set of the movie Rust. He was snapped in LA earlier this week

Hwang noted that he has 'never seen a real bullet' in his life, adding, 'I have only seen them in the movies.'

Squid Game actor Park Hae-soo told the outlet that he 'felt so sad about tragedy,' adding that he wanted to relay his 'condolences.'

On Wednesday, a negligence suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against Baldwin and more than a dozen others by Rust head of lighting Serge Svetnoy in connection with the October 21 incident.

Also named in the lawsuit included assistant director David Halls, who handed Baldwin the weapon; and armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, according to the AP.

Hwang said 'there's a very low, low possibility of any safety issues happening on set' in Korea due to different gun laws

On Wednesday, a negligence suit was filed against Baldwin and more than a dozen others by Rust head of lighting Serge Svetnoy in connection with the October 21 incident in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Svetnoy's lawyer Gary A. Dordick said in a news conference that producers 'should never, ever, have had live rounds on this set.'

Svetnoy said in court docs that he suffered 'severe emotional distress' after he was almost struck by the bulled that killed Hutchins and injured the film's director, Joel Souza.

Svetnoy's legal team said that 'he felt a strange and terrifying whoosh of what felt like pressurized air from his right' and 'felt what he believed was gunpowder and other residual materials directly strike the right side of his face.'

According to court docs, Svetnoy said he had previously warned responsible parties that he had seen guns left unattended on the set.

Svetnoy told reporters at a news conference that Hutchins was his friend, and that they had worked together on eight previous projects.

Baldwin, 63, spoke with photographers in Manchester, Vermont last month in a clip posted on TMZ, calling the shooting a 'one-in-a-trillion event.'

Baldwin, who's also a producer on Rust, said, 'We were a very, very well-oiled crew shooting a film together and then this horrible event happened.'
Lupita Nyong'o looked radiant as she arrived to the premiere of the Off Broadway comedy Nollywood Dreams in New York City on Thursday.

The 38-year-old Academy Award-winner posed on the pre-show red carpet at the Newman Mills Theater in a stunning teal metallic blouse.

Nyong'o paired her striking top with some fitted black trousers and a pair of black patent leather booties.

Radiant: Lupita Nyong'o looked radiant as she arrived to the premiere of the Off Broadway comedy Nollywood Dreams in New York City on Thursday

The Us actress accessorized with a pair of dangling gold earrings that coordinated with the gold hardware on her designer handbag.

She also rocked a single gold bangle.

Furthering the glamour, Lupita wore a sparkly patterned headscarf.

The Blank Panther star sported a noticeably glowing complexion and drew attention to her pout with a bit of maroon lipstick.

Marvelous in metallic: The 38-year-old Academy Award-winner posed on the pre-show red carpet at the Newman Mills Theater in a stunning teal metallic blouse

Curves: She added skinny black pants and black ankle boots

She complete the understated makeup look with some eyeliner.

After posing for a slew of solo shots, Lupita eagerly mingled with playwright Jocelyn Bioh, as well as director Saheem Ali and actor/writer Gbenga Akinnagbe.

According to Playbill, Nollywood Dreams is a play 'set in the 1990s in Lagos, Nigeria, as the Nollywood film industry is exploding.'

It follows a young woman named Ayamma whose life is turned upside down after she 'lands an audition for a new film and comes head-to-head with director Gbenga Ezie's former leading lady.'

Accessorize: The Us actress accessorized with a pair of dangling gold earrings that coordinated with the gold hardware on her designer handbag

Beautiful: Furthering the glamour, Lupita wore a sparkly patterned headscarf

After hosting previews in October, Nollywood Dreams officially premiered at the Newman Mills Theater on Thursday, November 11.

It will run through November 28.

After facing postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's production reunites the entire cast from the 2020 MCC production.

Glowing: The Blank Panther star sported a noticeably glowing complexion and drew attention to her pout with a bit of maroon lipstick

The cast includes Abena, Charlie Hudson III, Nana Mensah, Sandra Okuboyejo, Ade Otukoya, and Emana Rachelle. Understudies included Yao Dogbe, Shiro Kihagi, and Marsha Regis.

'Nothing thrills me more than to be reuniting with the Nollywood Dreams cast and finally getting the chance to share this play with the world,' gushed Jocelyn Bioh to the outlet.

'Being the first show back at MCC is an honor, and we promise to fill the theatre with laughter and pure joy.'
Foy plays Emily Richardson, a governess to Wain's younger siblings. The first line uttered to her in the film is: 'Please get out of the wardrobe Miss Richardson.' For me, it immediately signalled that this was to be no leaden costume drama

Claire Foy marches nonchalantly into the hotel bar with all the confidence she displayed portraying the Queen in The Crown  wearing fluffy white slippers.

'It's so shameful!' she hooted, explaining that she had ditched her Christian Louboutin stilettos.

They look pretty, she said. 'But they're not meant to be comfortable. They're meant to be in a cabinet,' added Foy, admonishing herself for not carrying blister plasters.

This whole carry on with the slippers is delivered with effortless comic timing, reminding me fondly of how we're first introduced to Foy's character in her latest film, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the artist who became famous for his drawings and paintings of bug-eyed cats.

Foy plays Emily Richardson, a governess to Wain's younger siblings. The first line uttered to her in the film is: 'Please get out of the wardrobe Miss Richardson.' For me, it immediately signalled that this was to be no leaden costume drama.

Indeed, Foy had said as much to the picture's director Will Sharpe when he tracked her down while she was shopping at Ikea.

She told him that she didn't want to be in a period biopic  'I've got no interest in doing stuff that I've done before.'

The beauty of The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is that it explores the artist's life (and that of Richardson, who was to become his soulmate) in a way that's wholly engaging and at times deeply moving.

Louis suffered from a mental illness, more than likely schizophrenia. 'The world wants to pigeon-hole people in a particular way, but the director doesn't,' said Foy of the way the cinematic project was handled.

Instead, the film celebrates what Wain achieved against all odds. He was the sole breadwinner, having to look after his mother and sisters.

Foy's Emily is at the heart of the film 'in the sense that she sees Louis very clearly. She does have to be quite steady.'

In real life, the actress is not a cat person, however, even though the film is full of them.

The beauty of The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is that it explores the artist's life (and that of Richardson, who was to become his soulmate) in a way that's wholly engaging and at times deeply moving

'It doesn't mean I don't like cats,' she adds quickly. 'I have a healthy respect for them and really love their disdain for human beings and their superiority.' Dogs though 'are just so sweet and loving. Although I genuinely think a cat could disarm an atomic bomb; a dog would eat it. They're just not on the same playing field.'

Foy and Cumberbatch have great screen chemistry. 'I've known Ben for ever,' says Foy of her co-star, explaining that she first met him when they worked on the 2011 film Wreckers.

Sherlock (with Cumberbatch in the title role on TV) came out not long afterwards.

'I remember watching from a distance as somebody you know becomes globally huge,' she said of Cumberbatch, who'll also be seen this season in Jane Campion's top awards contender The Power Of The Dog.

I point out that she hasn't done badly, either, playing one of the few people who have had their face on a stamp. Foy won two Emmy awards for her Elizabeth II in The Crown.

Such is the power of the ongoing Netflix series that people are already savaging the next instalment that won't be shown for 12 months, which doesn't make much sense.

Foy wonders if people don't get that The Crown is a drama. After all, she says, it is not the Queen in The Crown, it's a succession of actresses playing a 'version' of her.

In fact, Foy's thinking of setting up a club for old Queens  the ones who have pretended to be the real HRH. There's Olivia Colman ('or God' as she jokingly calls her) who stepped into the role after Foy; and Imelda Staunton, who will take over as Her Maj in the next series.

Louis suffered from a mental illness, more than likely schizophrenia. 'The world wants to pigeon-hole people in a particular way, but the director doesn't,' said Foy of the way the cinematic project was handled

'A private members club,' says Foy. 'We could also have Helen Mirren [who played her in Stephen Frears' 2006 film The Queen] and Kristin Scott Thomas because she played her on stage. We could sneak in Kristen Stewart [currently on screen as Princess Diana in Spencer] even though she wasn't Queen. Maybe we could all have a meal!'

But first she wants to see The Electrical Life of Louis Wain launched on January 1 in cinemas, and A Very British Scandal which will be shown on BBC1 and Amazon.

The latter is about the Duchess of Argyll, her many liaisons, and subsequent bitter divorce from the Duke of Argyll 'which was scandalous and all that jazz'.

Foy says the Queens club could include Olivia Colman, who stepped into the role after her

Imelda Staunton, who will take over as Her Majesty in the next series, also qualifies for the Queens club

Foy says Argyll was a 'deeply flawed woman, and everything you would expect from the entitled, wealthy debutante of that period', but she wasn't the debauched party girl many people assume her to have been (though in the 1980s I used to see her at a lot of nightclubs).

'It was actually very innocent and frivolous,' says Foy of the Duchess's romantic life. 'Lots of love affairs, but by letter.'

Looking farther ahead, Foy will also be starring in a film about Facebook, and later on there could be one set in the House of Commons  but I'm not sure if its dress code allows for fluffy white slippers.

The comical success Pride And Prejudice (*sort of) a riotous adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel, with five Scottish women in all the roles, has been playing to packed houses at the Criterion Theatre. Global domination awaits. The original West End cast  Isobel McArthur, Christina Gordon, Tori Burgess, Hannah Jarrett-Scott and Meghan Tyler  are planning a world tour in 2022. Producer David Pugh confirmed the comedy of hilarious manners will go to Toronto, Los Angeles, Melbourne and beyond.

Real life drifts in to scorching musical

Beverley Knight's rationale was simple: if she could portray Emmeline Pankhurst, as she did in a musical called Sylvia at the Old Vic three years ago, she had no objection to a white author writing a show about The Drifters and the woman who ran them.

Knight portrays Fay Treadwell in the scorching new musical The Drifters Girl at the Garrick Theatre, with Adam J. Bernard, Tarinn Callender, Matt Henry and Tosh Wanogho-Maud playing the many men who drifted in and out of the group over several decades.

Ed Curtis, who wrote the show, told me that he would have stepped aside if the cast had felt uncomfortable working with him.

Knight portrays Fay Treadwell in the scorching new musical The Drifters Girl at the Garrick Theatre

'There's something going on over who has the right to tell stories,' Curtis told me.

And as cast members talked about their lives, Curtis found himself incorporating elements of what they told him.

Callender, for instance, a young actor from North London, told a story about what he does whenever police pull him over in his BMW. He puts his dashboard video on, places his hands out of the car where they can be seen and smiles.

'I felt it was crucial to include something like that,' said Curtis. He added that he and producer Michael Harrison wanted the show to be entertaining (and it is phenomenal). But it's also what he calls 'progressive', in that it shows some of what Treadwell and The Drifters endured. Just wait till you hear them sing numbers such as Saturday Night At The Movies and many others. They're electrifying.

Watch out for...

Samantha Barks (pictured, currently starring as Elsa in Frozen at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane), who will sing You Must Love Me from Evita

Samantha Barks (pictured, currently starring as Elsa in Frozen at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane), who will sing You Must Love Me from Evita as part of a memorial tribute this afternoon to much-loved producer Andre Ptaszynski, who died last year.

She will be accompanied by its composer Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Cambridge Theatre, home to Matilda, another show he was involved in along with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Matilda songwriter Tim Minchin and the show's cast will also perform.

Students from Mountview stage school will do songs from Return To The Forbidden Planet, which Ptaszynski produced.

Theatre producer Nicholas Allott told me that Ptaszynski's family want guests to sing along to Good Vibrations, one of the late showman's favourites.

Lolita Chakrabarti's breathtaking adaptation of Yann Martel's The Life of Pi, about a boy adrift on a lifeboat on the ocean with a tiger and other animals, which played to packed houses at the Crucible in Sheffield in 2019 and will begin performances at London's Wyndham's Theatre on Monday.

Producer Simon Friend took me backstage to show me how the auditorium has been transformed, with a raised stage shaped like a ship's bow and audience seating lifted up to meet the imaginary sea. Views from the top tier circle are fantastic. 'It's a piece of escapism that engages so deeply with the heart,' said Friend.
Helena Christensen looked every bit the bombshell as she appeared on Instagram on Thursday.

The 52-year-old Danish supermodel put her exceptional cleavage on display in a skintight black bodysuit with a plunging neckline.

The bodysuit suit also featured a high-legged cut that allowed Helena to show off her long, toned stems.

Bombshell: Helena Christensen looked every bit the bombshell as she appeared on Instagram on Thursday

The former Victoria's Secret Angel posed for the sizzling snapshots at-home in front of a large floor-to-ceiling mirror.

Helena's lengthy brunette hair was styled in an array of voluminous curls, with her grown out fringe tossed to one side.

Being that her face was mostly obscured in her body shots, Helena included a sultry selfie in her Instagram slideshow.

Taken on set of a recent photoshoot, the runway maven rocked a face of natural glam makeup consisting of a soft brown smokey eye and muted nude lip.

Adding to the glamour, she rocked a pair of silver chandelier earrings.

Busty: The 52-year-old Danish supermodel put her exceptional cleavage on display in a skintight black bodysuit with a plunging neckline

Full glam: Helena's lengthy brunette hair was styled in an array of voluminous curls, with her grown out fringe tossed to one side

Instead of her bodysuit, Christensen appeared to be wearing an even sexier piece from her brand STRK&CHRISTENSEN.

'BTS glam and a little black number,' captioned the brunette beauty, who nearly 900,000 followers on the platform.

Helena created STRK&CHRISTENSEN - which ranges from home design pieces to resortwear and jewelry - with her close friend and collaborator Camilla Strk.

They launched the brand in 2016.

Christensen's Instagram glamour shots come less than two months after her son Mingus, 21, was charged with misdemeanor assault over an alleged attack on a stranger.

Drama: Christensen's Instagram glamour shots come less than two months after her son Mingus, 21, (pictured) was charged with misdemeanor assault over an alleged attack on a stranger

Alleged attack: He was reportedly taken into custody on Friday, September 24 after allegedly punching a 24-year-old woman in the face while attending Manhattan's San Gennaro street festival in New York City; pictured in 2017

He was reportedly taken into custody on Friday, September 24 after allegedly punching a 24-year-old woman in the face while attending Manhattan's San Gennaro street festival in New York City.

The alleged victim was rushed to hospital and treated for facial injuries.

Sources told The New York Daily News that Mingus did not know the woman, and he attacked her after they became embroiled in an argument.

Mingus had already been released by authorities when reports of the incident began to surface.

Helena shares Mingus - who is her only child - with Walking Dead star Norman Reedus, 52, who she split from 2003.
He's spoken about being homesick for Australia after being trapped in the US during the coronavirus pandemic, and now Paul Hogan has revealed he's finally coming home.

In an interview with Today on Friday, the 82-year-old Los Angeles-based actor said he'll be returning to Australia for Christmas.

'I'm surviving. I'm homesick, but I'll be back for Christmas... Looking forward to the end of this stupid disease,' he said.

Home sweet home: He's spoken about being homesick for Australia, and now Paul Hogan has revealed he's finally coming home. Pictured on Today on Friday

While it's not known if he's returning for just a visit or something more permanent, a large cardboard moving box was visible in the background as Paul spoke with the morning show's hosts from his LA home via video call.

In an interview with Sunrise back in May, Paul said he was 'desperate' to return to Australia and leave his life in America behind.

'I am desperately homesick,' he told hosts David 'Kochie' Koch and Natalie Barr during a video chat from his $4.5million LA mansion.

'I'm surviving. I'm homesick, but I'll be back for Christmas... Looking forward to the end of this stupid disease,' he said, referencing the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured in Sydney

Paul lives in the once-elite beachside suburb of Venice, where a vast increase in homelessness has seen hundreds of tents line the beach's famous boardwalk and resulted in a sharp increase in crime.

'You're living in the country, alongside New Zealand, that's the light of the world,' Paul told the presenters.

'And I'm living in LA County, which is 10 million people and half of them have got Covid. So am I homesick? You bet your life,' he complained.

'Homesick': In an interview with Sunrise back in May, Paul said he was 'desperate' to return to Australia and leave his life in America behind

'Hell on earth': Paul lives in the once-elite beachside suburb of Venice, where a vast increase in homelessness has seen hundreds of tents line the beach's famous boardwalk and resulted in a sharp increase in crime

When asked how he was coping with Los Angeles' recent crime wave, Paul simply said he 'doesn't go anywhere'.

'[I'm] bored in lockdown, and the minute I can get on the plane without being locked in a hotel for two weeks, I'm back,' he said.

The movie star went on to explain he 'wouldn't survive' Australia's mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine.

Fears: Paul is holed up inside his 'fortress-like' $4.5million mansion with his son Chance, 23

'My son [Chance] would have to be with me... we'd strangle each other,' he said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Paul said he was sick of anti-vaxxers in America, calling them 'brainless cowards'.

'They don't care about anyone else. [They say], "I'm brave, I like freedom." What about your grandma? You killed her. All of that gets on top of you, and I want to escape it for a while,' he said.

Locked in: When asked how he was coping with Los Angeles' recent crime wave, Paul simply said he 'doesn't go anywhere'

Paul is currently holed up inside his 'fortress-like' $4.5million mansion with his son Chance, 23, according to reports.

'Where Paul lives is hell on earth,' Paul's neighbour Tyler Proctor, a local politician, told Woman's Day on Monday.

'His house is like a fortress and it needs to be. I can see why [he] wants to move out,' Mr Proctor added.

'I can't wait for this stupid disease to go away so I can get out': The comedian revealed last year that he was itching to leave the U.S. as soon as the coronavirus pandemic is over

Paul moved to the United States permanently in 2005, after growing up in Granville in Sydney's western suburbs.

However, the comedian revealed last year that he was itching to leave the US as soon as the coronavirus pandemic is over.

'I can't wait for this stupid disease to go away so I can get out,' Paul revealed in the News Corp podcast Evenin' Viewers with Paul Hogan.

'I'm here out of paternal duty': Despite yearning to come back to Australia, Paul said he would remain living in Venice to be a part of his son Chance's life. Pictured in December 2016

'I'm like a kangaroo in a Russian zoo - I don't belong here.'

Despite yearning to come back to Australia, Paul said he would remain living in Venice to be a part of his son's life.

Paul shares Chance with his Crocodile Dundee co-star Linda Kozlowski, whom he married in 1991 before divorcing in 2014.

Terrifying situation: It comes as residents of Venice say soaring crime rates and the exploding homeless population have made life in the elite beachside community unbearable

'I'm here out of paternal duty because my kid is an American,' he said.

'My kid is a "Yaussie", a yank Aussie, he went to school here, his friends are here, his band is here.'

Paul added that if Chance was prepared to move with him to Australia, Paul would be 'out of here in a flash'.

Tent city: The world-famous beach community, 16 miles from downtown Los Angeles, has traditionally been a major tourism drawcard for the Californian city. However, now the palm trees and promenade are blighted by hundreds of tents

Police patrol the Venice Beach Boardwalk on April 20, which has seen an explosion in homeless numbers during COVID lockdowns

It comes as residents of Venice say soaring crime rates and the exploding homeless population have made life in the elite beachside community unbearable.

Business owners say they are being forced to close their doors and longterm residents are afraid to leave their homes after dark after being subjected to violent attacks and intimidation.

The world-famous beach community, 16 miles from downtown Los Angeles, has traditionally been a major tourism drawcard for the Californian city.

Venice Family Clinic's Director of Homeless Services Dr. Coley King, left, treats Kenard Durr, center, at the world-famous beach. A homeless encampment at the beach has exploded during COVID lockdown (April 20)

However, now the palm trees and promenade are blighted by hundreds of tents.

Venice Neighbourhood Council member Soledad Ursua said the homeless encampments had exploded during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

She said residents were afraid to be out after dark, and there were fights several times a day and shootings and stabbings on a weekly basis.

Rubbish and waste litter the golden sands of Venice Beach. Anti-social elements have made it dangerous to go out after dark, residents say

Fights occur several times a day, while shootings and stabbings are common, say residents of Venice Beach, who are fearful of increased crime rates since the homeless encampments became permanent

'It's just a very dangerous time to be a Venice resident right now,' she said.

According to figures from the Los Angeles Police Department provided to the Venice Neighbourhood Council, the violent robberies in the neighbourhood are up 177 per cent from last year.

The same period has also seen a 162 per cent increase in cases of assault with a deadly weapon involving a homeless person.

'Venice's world famous beach and boardwalk are crippled,' a letter to city and county officials from residents says

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents have put their signatures to a letter pleading for help from city and county officials.

'Venice's world famous beach and boardwalk are crippled,' it says.

'Local children are refusing to come to the beach because they're frightened by what they've witnessed. Seniors who live on or near the boardwalk are terrified of walking in their own neighbourhoods.'
Hilary Duff glowed in a first-look cast picture that surfaced this Thursday for the new How I Met Your Mother spin-off.

Entitled How I Met Your Father, the Hulu show will have the same framing device as the original series - children being told about the way their parents got together.

Within that framing device the bulk of the show will be told through flashbacks where the leading lady will be played by Hilary, 34.

All together: Hilary Duff featured in a first-look How I Met Your Father picture with co-stars Suraj Sharma, Francia Raisa, Tom Ainsley, Tien Tran and Chris Lowell

The new first-look picture shows Hilary's character with her co-stars Suraj Sharma, Francia Raisa, Tom Ainsley, Tien Tran and Chris Lowell.

All of them will be starring as a group of friends living in New York - signified by the first-look picture which shows the cast on a set of Brooklyn Bridge.

While the flashbacks will be set this year, the framing device will feature an older version of Hilary's character played by Kim Cattrall, Deadline revealed last week.

Kim, 65, has famously declined to be a part of the upcoming spin-off of the show that made her a global star, Sex And The City.

Original: Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan, Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders and Neil Patrick Harris are lal pictured together on the original series How I Met Your Mother

Her decision not to join the Sex And The City reboot came after years of reports alleging she had a strained relationship with her co-stars.

Over the years Kim herself has taken multiple public jabs at Sarah Jessica Parker who fronted the series as sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw.

How I Met Your Mother was a smash hit network sitcom that ran for nine seasons on CBS before airing its finale in 2014.

Selective: Kim Cattrall, who became a star on Sex And The City (pictured), has declined to be in its reboot but will play an older version of Hilary on How I Met Your Father

On that show Bob Saget played the older version of the leading man Ted Mosby, whose younger version was portrayed by Josh Radnor.

Other members of the main cast included Cobie Smulders, Jason Segel, Neil Patrick Harris, Cristin Milioti and Alyson Hannigan.

Hilary at one point was going to star in a revival of her own Disney Channel sitcom Lizzie McGuire, the show that shot her to fame.

Remember when: Hilary shot to fame as a child star on the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire (pictured) whose planned reboot has died on the vine

Shooting had even begun on the reboot before the coronavirus lockdowns swept the country but that project has now died on the vine.

Showrunner Terri Minsky was fired last January and then in December Hilary announced that the show had been canceled entirely.

The month after Terri was fired Hilary hinted at some of the creative issues behind the scenes by writing on Instagram: 'I'd be doing a disservice to everyone by limiting the realities of a 30 year old's journey to live under the ceiling of a PG rating.'
Lena Dunham is back in business with HBO, teaming up with Ruth Wilson for a new series Mob Queens.

The show is an adaptation of the Stitcher podcast of the same name, with Dennis Lehane (Shutter Island) also coming aboard, according to Variety.

Wilson will star in the series and serve as executive producer, while Dunham and Lehane will co-write and executive produce, with Dunham also directing.

Lena: Lena Dunham is back in business with HBO, teaming up with Ruth Wilson for a new series Mob Queens

Writer: The show is an adaptation of the Stitcher podcast of the same name, with Dennis Lehane (Shutter Island) also coming aboard, according to Variety

Ruth stars: Wilson will star in the series and serve as executive producer, while Dunham and Lehane will co-write and executive produce, with Dunham also directing

The series will follow the life of Anna Genovese (Wilson), the second wife of infamous Mafia leader Vito Genovese of the Genovese crime family.

She was also well-known as a fixture in the Village's drag bar scene in the 1930s, running a number of well-known clubs.

Anna reached a new level of infamy when she left her husband in 1950, ultimately breaking the rules of the Sicilian mafia, a.k.a. Cosa Nostra, by revealing her husband's illegal criminal dealings in the divorce proceedings.

Ruth stars: The series will follow the life of Anna Genovese (Wilson), the second wife of infamous Mafia leader Vito Genovese of the Genovese crime family

Divorce: Anna reached a new level of infamy when she left her husband in 1950, ultimately breaking the rules of the Sicilian mafia, a.k.a. Cosa Nostra, by revealing her husband's illegal criminal dealings in the divorce proceedings

She passed away in 1982 after suffering a serious stroke, surrounded by her lover, Jackie, daughter Marie, and granddaughter, Mia.

The Mob Queens podcasts debuted in 2019, hosted by writers Jessica Bendiger and Michael Seligman.

The writers had researched Anna for four years, after Seligman discovered a cache of letters written by Genovese while cleaning out the storage unit of an older friend who had passed away.

Podcast: The Mob Queens podcasts debuted in 2019, hosted by writers Jessica Bendiger and Michael Seligman

Michael P. Cohen of Good Thing Going will also executive produce with Dunham, Wilson and Lehane.

Also executive producing are Ryan Selzer of Lady Lazarus, Stitcher, Animal Kingdom, and podcast hosts Michael Seligman and Jessica Bendinger.

Wilson currently stars on HBO's His Dark Materials, which is in production on its third and final season.

Filming: Wilson currently stars on HBO's His Dark Materials, which is in production on its third and final season

Producer: Michael P. Cohen of Good Thing Going will also executive produce with Dunham, Wilson and Lehane

Dunham is best known for creating the hit HBO series Girls, which ran for six seasons from 2012 to 2017.

She also created HBO's Camping and, most recently she wrote an episode of Genera+ion, which debuted on HBO Max in June.

Lehane is a novelist and screenwriter best known for his books Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone and Shutter Island, while also writing on The Outsider and Mr. Mercedes.
She's the former magazine journalist turned beauty entrepreneur who is worth millions.

And on Friday, Zoe Foster Blake made a glamorous arrival at her book signing at Dymocks in Sydney.

The 41-year-old looked chic in a $4,325 outfit as she made her way into the store.

All dressed up: Beauty guru Zoe Foster Blake looked glamorous on Friday as she arrived at her book signing in Sydney in a $4,300 outfit

Zoe stepped out in a $425 green and white midi dress from the brand Alemais, which featured a puff sleeve and high neck.

She teamed the look with strappy beige heels and carried what appeared to be a mustard Loewe handbag, which retails for around $3,900.

The Go-To skincare founder wore her dark and short locks out and neatly straightened and natural looking makeup.

Turning heads: Zoe stepped out in a $425 green and white midi dress from the brand Alemais, which featured a puff sleeve and high neck

Designer accessories: She teamed the look with strappy beige heels and carried what appeared to be a mustard Loewe handbag, which retails for around $3,900

All in the details: The Go-To skincare founder wore her dark and short locks out and neatly straightened and natural looking makeup

She kept covid-safe wearing a face mask and wheeled in a maroon suitcase into the store.

Zoe was signing copies of her new children's book, called Scaredy Bath.

Her 13th title is a picture book which aims to help ease the anxiety around bath time for children and parents.

New work: Zoe was signing copies of her new children's book, called Scaredy Bath. Her 13th title is a picture book which aims to help ease the anxiety around bath time for children and parents

Zoe started her career in magazines back in 2002 as a beauty journalist, before turning her hand to books and eventually starting her skincare company in 2014.

Late last year, the entrepreneur debuted on the Financial Review's Young Rich List with an estimated net worth of $36million thanks to her skincare line.

However it was reported in August by News.com.au that she sold a 50.1 per cent share of her company to BWX for $89million.

The ASX-listed company is also behind Aussie skincare brand Sukin, and has a lucrative five-year supplier deal with Chemist Warehouse.
He was lucky to score an invitation to the star-studded wedding of Paris Hilton and Carter Reum.

And Aussie supermodel Jordan Barrett arrived for the nuptials, held at the socialite's late grandfather Barron Hilton's Bel-Air estate, in style on Friday evening.

Jordan, who tied the knot with his boyfriend Fernando Casablancas in August, looked incredibly chic in a beige pinstripe suit from Martin Asbjrn.

That's hot! Supermodel Jordan Barrett looked incredibly chic in a pinstripe Martin Asbjrn suit as he arrived for Paris Hilton and Carter Milliken Reum's wedding in Bel-Air on Friday evening

He flaunted a hint of his chest by wearing a V-neck sweater underneath and wore some funky dress shoes on his feet.

The 24-year-old styled his sandy locks in a messy bedhead style and he was glowing thanks to a hint of bronzer on his face.

The star-studded bash - with A-List attendees including Kim Kardashian - is taking place on Friday evening.

Aerial shots of Paris' late grandfather Barron Hilton's Bel-Air estate - taken on Wednesday - showed a huge white canopy erected over an enormous wooden dancefloor, that was seen earlier this week.

Looking sharp: He flaunted a hint of his chest by wearing a v-neck sweater underneath and wore some funky dress shoes on his feet

There have also been glimpses of flower arrangements in the shape of the bride and groom's initials.

Paris and Carter, both 40, announced they were engaged in February and the ceremony is set to be an incredibly lavish affair.

Days earlier, Paris proudly flashed her gigantic engagement ring when she attended a Los Angeles Rams game in Inglewood, California, with her soon-to-be husband.

The emerald-cut diamond ring from Jean Dousset was rumoured to have set Carter back an eye-watering $2million when he proposed in February.

Paris and Carter have been romantically involved since December of 2019, although they had known each other for over a decade.

Paris and Carter, both 40, announced they were engaged in February and the ceremony is set to be an incredibly lavish affair

On Friday, Paris confirmed that her former stylist turned mega-star Kim Kardashian snagged an invitation to her wedding.

The heiress confirmed that Kim was invited to her lavish nuptials, but remained mum on whether or not Pete Davidson would be allowed as a plus one, when asked by TMZ.

Famously Paris helped aid the reality star's rise to fame in the early 2000s when Kim worked as her stylist, but the duo's friendship incurred ups and downs before they got things back on track.

It was revealed this month by Page Six that Paris changed her wedding venue just one week before she is set to walk down the aisle with entrepreneur Carter.

Sweet: Paris and Carter have been romantically involved since December of 2019, although they had known each other for over a decade

The estate will also host the newlyweds' reception.

It had previously been reported that the ceremony portion of the lavish-three day affair would be taking place at the Good Shepherd Church in Beverly Hills, however an invited guest divulged that plans had now changed.

'It changed about a week or so ago. It's changed several times. Originally, they were going to get married in the church, but they switched it about a week or so ago,' a source told the publication.
Emma Roberts had Cade Hudson on her arm while arriving to Paris Hilton's star-studded wedding in the ritzy Bel Air enclave of LA on Thursday.

The Scream Queens star, 30, was the image of elegance as she strode into thetaffair donning a black tulle dress with a jacket over her shoulders.

Holding hands with the beauty was Britney Spears' longtime manager and Roberts' best friend, not her partner of two-plus years Garrett Hedlund.

Date night: Emma Roberts held hands with Cade Hudson while attending Paris Hilton's star-packed wedding in the Bel Air neighborhood of LA on Thursday

They arrived with showman Jeff Beacher in the same ride.

Inside, Emma was seen sitting on Cade's lap and kissing him on the cheek - all but signaling they're more than friends.

Roberts and Hedlund welcomed a son named Rhodes Robert Hedlund last December 27th.

But rumors of a rift began after social media sleuths discovered the pair were no longer following each other on Instagram.

New guy? Cade Hudson is Britney Spears' longtime agent, not Roberts' partner of two-plus years Garrett Hedlund

PDA: Inside, Emma was seen sitting on Cade's lap and kissing him on the cheek - all but signaling they're more than friends.

The last time the pair was photographed together was at a Oscars Party celebrating Andra Day and the cast of The United States Vs. Billie Holiday back on April 25th.

Though the couple have kept quiet about their relationship, back in June sources told E! News that the couple was closer than ever.

'Emma and Garrett are in a much better place since welcoming their son,' the insider dished, also admitting the pair hit a 'rough patch' during her pregnancy.

New guy? There has been no official reports of a breakup between Emma and Garrett

Motherly love: Roberts and Hedlund welcomed a son named Rhodes Robert Hedlund last December 27th

The Tron: Legacy actor was arrested for a DUI in January of 2020.

Months later, Emma's mom Kelly Cunningham accidentally shared that the couple was expecting their first child.

After going through court-mandated conseling, Garret was reportedly 'in a solid and great place' by November ahead of the birth of their son.

Last seen: The last time the pair was photographed together was at a Oscars Party celebrating Andra Day and the cast of The United States Vs. Billie Holiday back on April 25th. Pictured with Evan Ross at the event, above

'When the incident occurred, Garrett immediately sought treatment which was successful,' the insider explained.

Roberts previously dated her American Horror Story co-star Evan Peters.

It was a tumultuous relationship which crescendoed when We're the Millers star was arrested in 2013 after a fight with Peters left him with a bloody nose.

Their reps later told Us that it was an 'unfortunate incident and a misunderstanding' and that they were 'working together to move past it.'
Laura May Gibbs looked strained on Friday when she was spotted in public for the first time since her split from Hollywood star Simon Baker.

The activewear designer, 36, stepped out for a solo trip in Byron Bay, days after Daily Mail Australia confirmed she and the Australian actor, 52, had quietly parted ways several months ago.

Laura appeared glum as she held two coffee cups and walked home after visiting the town's popular Roadhouse cafe.

Public outing: Activewear designer Laura May Gibbs looked strained on Friday when she was spotted in public for the first time since her split from Hollywood star Simon Baker

While she is usually clad in activewear from her own brand Nagnata, the Pilates enthusiast covered up in a baggy white T-shirt and trousers.

She revealed her arm tattoos in the short sleeve top and she appeared to be makeup free.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for The Mentalist actor told Daily Mail Australia that he and Laura, 36, quietly parted ways several months ago.

The couple were last pictured together in August, laughing and joking during a trip to the beach in Byron Bay.

Laura made headlines in October after her activewear brand Nagnata announced on Instagram it would not re-open its Byron Bay store until unvaccinated customers were legally allowed to shop there.

Posting to its official page at the time, Nagnata uploaded a photo of three models of different ethnicities, alongside a declaration that the brand would 'reopen when ALL are welcome without fear of judgement'.

Glum: Laura appeared glum as she held two coffee cups and walked home after visiting the town's popular Roadhouse cafe

Over: On Tuesday, a spokesperson for The Mentalist actor told Daily Mail Australia that he and Laura, 36, quietly parted ways several months ago

The lengthy caption spoke about the importance of 'inclusivity' and opposing 'discrimination' when it comes to the Covid-19 vaccine.

The designer also attended a rally at the NSW-Queensland border protesting vaccine mandates earlier this month.

The demonstration was part of a series of rallies across the country against mandatory Covid jabs for certain industries and occupations.

Vaccinations are vital to reducing the spread of preventable diseases, and any suggestion otherwise flies in the face of science and the advice of medical experts around the globe.

Final outing: The couple were last pictured together in August, laughing and joking during a trip to the beach in Byron Bay

Simon and Laura first sparked romance rumours in February after they were pictured frolicking in the surf together in Byron Bay.

The pair are said to have met in Byron, where Laura's sustainable fashion design studio is based near his farm in Nashua.

News of the couple's relationship came weeks after Simon announced his split from wife Rebecca Rigg on January 29.

Controversial: Laura made headlines in October after her activewear brand Nagnata announced on Instagram it would not re-open its Byron Bay store until unvaccinated customers were legally allowed to shop there

The pair told PEOPLE in a joint statement: 'We remain close friends and our three children will always be the most important focus of our lives.'

But according to Fox News, they actually split nine months earlier, in April last year.

Simon met Rebecca in the early '90s and they married in 1998 after five years of living together. They share three children, Stella, 27, Claude, 22, and Harry, 19.

Vocal: The designer also attended a rally at the NSW-Queensland border protesting vaccine mandates earlier this month

Protest: The demonstration was part of a series of rallies across the country against mandatory Covid jabs for certain industries and occupations
Orange Is the New Black actress Uzo Aduba on Thursday spoke about her secret wedding to filmmaker Robert Sweeting while appearing on Live with Kelly and Ryan.

Host Ryan Seacrest, 46, brought up the wedding, telling Aduba, 40, 'I think you kept this secret from Kelly [Ripa] and I a couple of times when you were a guest on the show.'

'What secret is that?' Aduba joked, adding, 'I got married.'

The latest: Orange Is the New Black actress Uzo Aduba, 40, on Thursday spoke about her secret wedding to filmmaker Robert Sweeting while appearing on Live with Kelly and Ryan

The Boston native said on the show that she and Sweeting in September chose to go public with news of their marriage as they readied to celebrate their one-year anniversary.

'We were just taking the year to ourselves to enjoy the time and have some quiet time together, and then we were having our anniversary come up,' Aduba said.

Aduba, who plays the role of Dr. Brooke Taylor on the show In Treatment, said that she and Sweeting enjoyed their anniversary celebration in Tulum, Mexico.

Aduba opened up on the challenges of putting together a wedding during the pandemic last year.

Aduba and Sweeting were snapped at the Emmy Awards in September in LA

The Boston native said on the show that she and Sweeting in September chose to go public with news of their marriage as they readied to celebrate their one-year anniversary

Aduba said her wedding was held 'quietly and with a small group' of their 'most loved and closest family and friends'

She said that 'a lot of Amazon and Etsy gets you through' and that the toned-down proceedings were 'awesome.'

Aduba said the wedding was held 'quietly and with a small group' of their 'most loved and closest family and friends.'

Aduba in September took to Instagram with a wedding shot alongside Sweeting and a quote from the 1989 film When Harry Met Sally, 'When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.'

Aduba, who plays the role of Dr. Brooke Taylor on the show In Treatment, said that she and Sweeting enjoyed their anniversary celebration in Tulum, Mexico

Aduba said of her wedding, 'For some of us, it can feel like we spend our whole lives waiting for our special someone. My heart, my love - I'm so happy my life started last year with you. You're the best thing that ever happened to me.'

Later in the month, she posted a vacation shot from Mexico with her new husband, writing, 'Some much needed restoration, recovery, and relaxation.

'So thankful to get away and celebrate Robert and my anniversary with a couple of our favorite humans.'

In the appearance, Aduba opened up on the challenges of putting together a wedding during the pandemic last year
Advertisement

She gave birth to her second baby six months ago.

And Kirsten Dunst emphasized her enviable figure in a cinched-in applique frock as she attended her latest swank Hollywood event this Thursday.

The 39-year-old actress was swinging by the iconic TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard for a screening of her new film The Power Of The Dog.

A mother again: Kirsten Dunst emphasized her enviably post-baby body in a cinched-in frock as she attended her latest swank Hollywood event this Thursday

Kirsten opted that evening for an elaborate pale green frock that featured sheer long sleeves and was covered in floral embroidery.

The film is centered around a charismatic rancher Phil Burbank inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.

Her new movie is a western and her ensemble included some fitting throwback chic touches reminiscent of the Old West.

The blonde bombshell's sleeves were slightly puffed out just above the cuff and the frock was heavily frilled over the waistline and around the hem.

Sharpening her unmistakable features with makeup including a slick of crimson lipstick, she let her signature blonde locks fall free.

On the town: The 39-year-old actress was swinging by the iconic TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard for a screening of her new film The Power Of The Dog

Terrific: The blonde bombshell's sleeves were slightly puffed out just above the cuff and the frock was heavily frilled over the waistline and around the hem

On brand: Her new movie is a western and her ensemble included some fitting throwback chic touches reminiscent of the Old West

There they are: She was captured on camera while in the midst of a confab with the movie's director, the highly regarded New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion

Quartet: In one dazzling star-studded group shot to remember Kirsten posed up with her co-stars Kodi Smit-McPhee and Benedict Cumberbatch as well as their director

Kirsten shares her sons Ennis, three, and James, six months, with her fiance Jesse Plemons whom she co-starred with in Fargo.

While on the red carpet Kirsten, who also co-starred with Jesse in The Power Of The Dog, was seen mingling with some of her collaborators.

She was captured on camera while in the midst of a confab with the movie's director, the highly regarded New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion.

Kirsten also enjoyed a hobnob with Scott Stuber, the dashing head of original films at Netflix, where The Power Of The Dog will bow on December 1.

All together now: Kirsten and Jane also stood together on the red carpet to get photographed with producer Tanya Seghatchian and cinematographer Ari Wegner

Meanwhile: Benedict had arrived at the celebrity-strewn red carpet event on the arm of his wife Sophie Hunter whom he has been married to since 2015

Heartthrob: Benedict, who has allowed a mustache and goatee to sprout in, kept his look simple by teaming a charcoal suit with a silver tie

In one dazzling star-studded group shot to remember Kirsten posed up with her co-stars Kodi Smit-McPhee and Benedict Cumberbatch as well as their director.

Kirsten and Jane also stood together on the red carpet to get photographed with producer Tanya Seghatchian and cinematographer Ari Wegner.

Meanwhile Benedict had arrived at the celebrity-strewn red carpet event on the arm of his wife Sophie Hunter whom he has been married to since 2015.

Benedict, who has allowed a mustache and goatee to sprout in, kept his look simple by teaming a charcoal suit with a silver tie.

Hollywood history: Harvey Keitel, who had starred in Jane's acclaimed film The Piano in the 1990s, hit the red carpet alongside his wife Daphne Kastner, while Kodi (right) brought back a slightly 1960s air

Australian actress: Natasha Bassett, who is not in the movie, was nevertheless a showstopping presence at the TCL Chinese Theatre

Making a splash: She slipped into a plunging tulle gown that hinted at her cleavage as she strutted her stuff across the red carpet that evening

Stars: Inside the screening, Kirsten and her co-stars Ben and Codi cosied up for a sweet snap as they smized at the camera side by side

Sophie meanwhile cut a fashionable figure in a flared black and white dress that featured chain and bow prints.

Harvey Keitel, who had starred in Jane's acclaimed film The Piano in the 1990s, hit the red carpet alongside his wife Daphne Kastner.

Kodi brought back a slightly 1960s air, wearing a walnut-brown suit over an even darker brown turtleneck and adding a glinting necklace.

Australian actress Natasha Bassett, who is not in the movie, was nevertheless a showstopping presence at the TCL Chinese Theatre.

She slipped into a plunging tulle gown that hinted at her cleavage as she strutted her stuff across the red carpet that evening.

Like Kirsten she modeled an outfit that included a bit of throwback Old West chic including floral embroidery with a distinctly retro feel.

Having a ball: At one point she playfully grabbed the outer mesh skirt of her ensemble and spread it wide, throwing her head gleefully back

Posing up a storm: Kathryn Hahn arrived in a collared denim jumpsuit that included sloping silver, black and blue stripes that brought back memories of Art Deco

Wow factor: Kathryn looked fashionable as always

Night out: The Big Bang Theory's Simon Helberg stepped out with his wife and actress Jocelyn Towne in a chic black top and gingham skirt as they enjoyed the festivities before the movie

At one point she playfully grabbed the outer mesh skirt of her ensemble and spread it wide, throwing her head gleefully back.

Kathryn Hahn arrived in a collared denim jumpsuit that included sloping silver, black and blue stripes that brought back memories of Art Deco.

She could be seen mingling with Andrea Longacre-White, whose credits include being an associate producer on 20th Century Women starring Annette Bening.

By the way: She could be seen mingling with Andrea Longacre-White, whose credits include being an associate producer on 20th Century Women starring Annette Bening

Q&A: They took to the stage alongside the film's director Jane and appeared in high spirits as they chatted about The Power Of The Dog Together

Insight: Ben and Kodi put on pensive displays as they thought about their answers

Upbeat: Kristen looked radiant as she appeared on the stage to answer questions

Inside the screening, Kirsten and her co-stars Ben and Kodi cosied up for a sweet snap as they smized at the camera side by side.

They took to the stage alongside the film's director Jane and appeared in high spirits as they chatted about The Power Of The Dog Together.

Kristen looked radiant as she appeared on the stage to answer questions while Ben and Kodi put on pensive displays as they thought about their answers.

All eyes on her: She commanded the attention of her co-stars as she spoke into the microphone

Chat: Benedict looked similarly upbeat as they discussed their latest film in front of the cinema audience

Artist: The actors and director were joined on stage by the film's cinematographer Ari

Elsewhere, inside the event, film editor Peter Sciberras relaxed on the sofas in a chic navy bomber jacket.

Canadian actress Daphna Kastner and Resevoir Dogs star Harvey Keite sipped on cocktails ahead of The Power Of The Dog screening.

And the Big Bang Theory's Simon Helberg stepped out with his wife and actress Jocelyn Towne in a chic black top and gingham skirt as they enjoyed the festivities before the movie.

Chilling: Elsewhere, inside the event, film editor Peter Sciberras relaxed on the sofas in a chic navy bomber jacket
Peter Helliar is the latest celebrity to test positive for Covid-19.

The Project host made the announcement on Instagram on Friday, but praised science and credited the vaccine for his 'mild' symptoms.

Posing for a smiling selfie, the 46-year-old wrote: 'So I was sick of friends saying they didnt know anyone with Covid. So I went and got Covid (not deliberately of course).'

Peter Helliar has tested positive for Covid-19. The Project host made the announcement on Instagram on Friday, but praised science and credited the vaccine for his 'mild' symptoms

He continued: 'I am nearing the end of my quarantine and I feel absolutely fine. The worse it got was a mild cold.'

The comedian then praised the vaccine and said it was due to his fully vaccinated status that he was able to avoid more serious symptoms.

'Not because the virus didnt have bad intentions but because science is brilliant and being fully immunised meant I had a whole bunch of vaxxy goodness protecting me. My family are safe and I am grateful,' he wrote.

'Ill be back to work next week for an extremely viral Wednesday!'

Mild: 'I am nearing the end of my quarantine and I feel absolutely fine. The worse it got was a mild cold'

Peter didn't stop there, professing that he has a 'crush on science' and than profusely thanking Australia's health care workers.

'Thank you Science. I think I got a crush on you,' he gushed.

'Also to all the health workers and services. Luckily I didnt need to go to hospital but everyone I spoke to on the phone were completely compassionate, professional, caring & incredibly patient.

'The system is undoubtedly under a great deal of stress but they are doing a wonderful job.'

Peter and his Project co-host Carrie Bickmore got their first jab of the vaccine back in June.

Jabbed: Peter and his Project co-host Carrie Bickmore (pictured together) got their first jab of the vaccine back in June

The father-of-three is not only a vaccine advocate, but has come out against bodily autonomy to support vaccine mandates.

In August, he debated with his Project co-host Waleed Aly about whether companies should be allowed to mandate the jab.

Waleed said he's 'not comfortable' with the idea that employers should be the ones to decide, insisting it is the responsibility of government.

But comedian Peter disagreed, saying hospitality bosses should have the right to make workers get the vaccine.

Health: The father-of-three is not only a vaccine advocate, but has come out against bodily autonomy to support vaccine mandates

'It should be government, but there should be some sectors that I think need to be vaccinated,' he said.

'Hospitality is one. If I owned a cafe, I'd want all my staff vaccinated because they have been through a bit.'

Carrie Bickmore said mandating vaccines for some workers and threatening their livelihood may be what's needed to encourage Australians to get the jab.

'Perhaps when it comes to employment and you realise its going to effect your job, that might be a different motivation the same way it is motivating people that are in lockdown and want to get out of lockdown,' she said.
Taylor Swift may have just revealed the reason behind her and Jake Gyllenhaal's shock split in 2010.

In a new 10-minute version of the breakup ballad - featured on the re-recording of her 2012 album Red - the 31-year-old musician seemingly suggests that their nine-year age gap played a role.

'You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine / And that made me want to die,' sings Swift, who has never officially confirmed that the song is about Gyllenhaal.

Spilling the tea: New lyrics from the extended version of Taylor Swift's song All Too Well seemingly suggest that her and Jake Gyllenhaal's nine-year age gap played a role in their 2010 split

The 40-year-old actor reportedly dated the Grammy Award-winner from October to December 2010. By early 2011, Swift began crafting the emotional track.

Other lyrics featured in the re-recording suggest that the breakup was particularly hard on Taylor.

'They say all's well that ends well but I'm in a new hell / Every time you double cross my mind,' the lyrics read.

Though he may have been opposed to age-gap relationships at the time, Jake has changed his tune over the years.

Changing his tune: Though age may have played a role in his romance with Taylor, it appears to be no issue in his currently relationship with 25-year-old French model Jeanne Cadieu who is 15 years his junior; seen in September

The Donnie Darko star has been romantically linked to 25-year-old French model Jeanne Cadieu since late 2018, who is 15 years his junior.

Along with the extended version of All Too Well, Taylor's re-recording of Red includes six other unreleased songs.

A new review of the album in The Sun theorizes that one of the unearthed numbers, I Bet You Think About Me, is also about Jake.

The original version of the album had already contained multiple songs that were widely assumed to be about her breakup with Jake.

There she is: Taylor Swift's new re-recorded version of her 2012 album Red is set to contain some more previously unreleased material thought to be about her ex Jake Gyllenhaal; seen in May

The review quotes the song: 'You can't help who you fall for, and you and I fell like an early spring snow. But reality crept in, you said we're too different.'

Her lyrics accuse her unnamed love interest of having 'laughed at my dreams' and 'rolled your eyes at my jokes.'

Taylor, whose ex Jake was by that point known for prestige films like Zodiac and Brokeback Mountain, taunts the subject of her song: 'Mr. Superior Thinking, do you have all the space that you need?'

The singing sensation adds: 'I don't have to be your shrink to know that you'll never be happy and I bet you think about me.'

New track: A new review of the album in The Sun theorizes that one of the six unearthed numbers, I Bet You Think About Me, is also about Jake; Jake see in October

Taylor, who is nearly a decade younger than Jake and dated him for two months at the end of 2010, says her used-to-be is 'scared not to be hip, scared to get old.'

So much speculation has been swirling about the supposed Jake material on the re-release of Red that by Thursday he had already begun to trend on Twitter.

Two smash singles from the original Red, We Are Never Getting Back Together and I Knew You Were Trouble, were widely regarded as being directed at Jake.

The 2012 version also included a song called All Too Well that was originally written to be 10 minutes long but was whittled down to about five and a half minutes.

History: Two smash singles from the original Red, such as I Knew You Were Trouble whose music video is pictured, were widely regarded as being directed at Jake

Now on the new version released Friday, Taylor will finally be treating fans to the entire 10 minute number as it was first written.

In what some fans interpreted as a reference to Jake's actress sister Maggie Gyllenhaal the lyrics dished: 'I left my scarf there at your sister's house.'

About a half-decade later Maggie was asked about the line on Watch What Happens Live and replied: 'I am in the dark about the scarf. It's totally possible I don't know.'

In the offing: Now this Friday the 31-year-old will drop a new Taylor's Version of Red with six songs she had written for the first version but decided not to include at the time

The year after the original version of Red came out Taylor told Vulture without giving names that she had 'heard from the guy that most of Red is about.'

Said she: 'He was like: 'I just listened to the album, and that was a really bittersweet experience for me. It was like going through a photo album.' That was nice.'

Taylor has been feuding for years now with music mogul Scooter Braun, who manages acts like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.

Remember when: The year after the original version of Red (pictured) came out Taylor told Vulture without giving names that she had 'heard from the guy that most of Red is about'

Their public battle of wills kicked off after Scooter bought the company that owns the masters to Taylor's first six albums.

Now their clash has reached such a fever pitch that she is rerecording all six albums to release versions that she herself will own.

She began with her second studio album Fearless, which she dropped her rerecording of in April, and is following it up with Red.
Strictly's Johannes Radebe gushed on Friday's episode of Lorraine that his partner John Whaithe is 'perfect for him' after the pair were sighted looking cosy as they left It Takes Two Filming the night before.

The pro dancer, 34, who is one half of the first male same-sex couple on Strictly, said: 'He's perfect for me. It's the first time I've ever had anyone match my strength.'

John, 34, - who has been lifting Johannes in the air for parts of their choreography - added: 'I've never felt so trusted in my life. At first I felt overwhelmed. But we click, we click so perfectly.'

Affectionate: Strictly's Johannes Radebe gushed that John Whaithe is 'perfect for him' as a dance partner - after the pair were sighted looking cosy as they left It Takes Two Filming the night before

He continued: 'We just have a lot of respect for each other, and we've maintained it throughout.'

'It's a risk. We could break each others' necks spinning around. It is dangerous. We've bashed each others' heads once or twice but we live to tell the tale.'

Of their success as dance partners, Johannes added: 'I've never made it this far in the competition. And that's the reality: He's here and we've got this far.'

Referencing the potential controversy of an all-male couple, John said: 'We're conditioned as gay people to take flack. But we've had no flack. It just goes to show that the world is ready for this. People don't see two men they see dance partners.'

Close: It comes after Bake Off star John placed his hand affectionately on his partner Johannes' leg as they left It Takes Two in the back of a taxi on Thursday night

'Injustice has to be remedied with justice, and then that leads to equality. Next year there might be three all male couples,' he added.

The heartwarming chat comes after John placed his hand affectionately on his Johannes' leg as they left It Takes Two in the back of a taxi on Thursday night.

The Bake Off starand his professional dancerlooked cosy as they departed the TV studios in London together to head home.

Partners: John looked suave in a black leather jacket and jeans as he leant over to rest his hand on Johannes' thigh

John looked suave in a black leather jacket and jeans as he leant over to rest his hand on Johannes' thigh before giving a cheerful thumbs up.

Meanwhile Johannes looked smart in a black three-piece suit which he wore over a velvet roll neck.

The pair both put safety first and donned surgical face masks as they sat in the back of the vehicle.

Style: Meanwhile Johannes looked smart in a black three-piece suit which he wore over a velvet roll neck

John has been in a relationship with graphic designer Paul Atkins since 2008 while Johannes is thought to be single.

In a recent candid interview with Attitude magazine, they discussed being the show's first ever all-male pairing.

The Bake Off star told the publication he was 'anxious' about dancing with a male because he believes gay people are 'conditioned' to expect 'hate and flack', and he thought he would be targeted by trolls.

'As soon as I found out, I felt a little bit anxious. I think as gay people, we have to choose the places we go to, we have to choose the people we speak to, who we even look at, because we have been conditioned to kind of expect hate and flack.

Precautions: The pair both put safety first and donned surgical face masks as they sat in the back of the vehicle

'So honestly, I was quite anxious about it. I knew that it was an important thing to do, that it was hopefully going to change the way TV is, change the way that children feel when they watch TV  its massive  but I was expecting to get a lot of hate, like [people] sliding into the DMs and saying, "Youre disgusting" and that kind of thing.'

The baker explained that he feels uncomfortable with people calling him and Johannes 'role models' as they have people helping them behind the scenes from make-up artists to costume designers, insisting they are 'lucky' to be 'representing for our people'.

Johannes recently revealed he feels the need to change how he dresses after he was accosted by the police.

Spoken for: John has been in a relationship with graphic designer Paul Atkins since 2008 while Johannes is thought to be single

Dance partners: John looked over at Johannes as they left the studio together

During an appearance on Channel 4's Stephs Packed Lunch last month, the South African stressed that it is crucial it is to consider both his location and appearance when out and about.

Johannes recalled his 'terrible' experiences and admitted that he now avoids wearing a leather jacket and cap.

He said: 'Im going to stop wearing a cap and a black leather jacket.

Scary: Johannes recently revealed he feels the need to change how he dresses after he was accosted by the police

Historic: They are the show's first all-male pairing

Out and about: The pair will perform a Samba on Saturday night's show

'I say that because I get stopped all the time, and they [the police] go, "Oh sorry, its not you."

'Im tall, Im black its important who you are and what you do and where you hang around.'

The talented dancer revealed how he has to make an effort to dress 'civilised' in a bid to prevent being stopped by the police.
Benedict Cumberbatch cut a suave figure as he attended the premiere of his new Netflix film, The Power of the Dog, at the 2021 AFI Fest in Hollywood on Thursday.

The actor, 45, donned a crisp white shirt, a tailored black suit, grey tie and black dress shoes, as he walked the red carpet with his glamorous wife Sophie Hunter.

Benedict portrays the role of chain-smoking ranch owner Phil Burbank in the movie, and recently admitted to getting nicotine poisoning three times during filming.

Leading the arrivals: Benedict Cumberbatch, 45, looked suave in a tailored suit at the premiere for his new Netflix film, Power of the Dog, with his glamorous wife Sophie Hunter in Los Angeles on Thursday

Sophie, who Benedict wed in 2015, stunned in a black and white tulle dress with bow detail, teamed with black strappy heels and delicate drop earrings.

The brunette beauty styled her locks into an elegant up-do with statement fringe, and enhanced her striking facial features with elegant makeup.

Benedict recently detailed to Esquire UK how he literally suffered for his art when preparing for the lead role in Power of the Dog.

Suave: Benedict donned a tailored black suit, a crisp white dress shirt, a narrow grey tie and black dress shoes

Gorgeous: Sophie, who Benedict wed in 2015, stunned in a black and white tulle dress with bow detail, teamed with black strappy heels and delicate drop earrings

In profile: The brunette beauty styled her locks into an elegant up-do with statement fringe, and enhanced her striking facial features with elegant makeup

Having quit smoking in 2014, he revealed how consistently lighting up a smoke take after take 'genuinely is horrible'.

Describing how he got nicotine poisoning filming scenes as the 'sadistic ranch owner', Benedict said: '[Smoking] was really hard. Filterless rollies, just take after take after take.

'I gave myself nicotine poisoning three times. When you have to smoke a lot, it genuinely is horrible.'

Cast assembled: Benedict is pictured with from L to R: Co-stars Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst, director Jane Campion and co-star Frances Conroy

Latest role: Benedict portrays the role of chain-smoking ranch owner Phil Burbank in the movie

Stars: Inside the screening, Kirsten and her co-stars Ben and Codi cosied up for a sweet snap as they smized at the camera side by side

Q&A: They took to the stage alongside the film's director Jane and appeared in high spirits as they chatted about The Power Of The Dog Together

Nicotine poisoning is when a person has too much nicotine in their body following ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact.

Symptoms of nicotine poisoning include nausea, excess saliva in the mouth, vomiting, loss of appetite, dehydration, headaches, eye irritation and dizziness.

Despite the smoking difficulties, Benedict told how he fully submerged himself into the role and embraced the stench of the character not only on set, but away from the cameras too.

Upbeat: Kristen looked radiant as she appeared on the stage to answer questions

All eyes on her: She commanded the attention of her co-stars as she spoke into the microphone

Chat: Benedict looked similarly upbeat as they discussed their latest film in front of the cinema audience

Insight: Ben and Kodi put on pensive displays as they thought about their answers

He said: 'I wanted that layer of stink on me. I wanted people in the room to know what I smelt like. It was hard, though. It wasn't just in rehearsals. I was going out to eat and meet friends of Jane [Campion  the film's writer and director] and stuff.'

This isn't the only time the TV star has been struck down with nicotine poisoning, as he also suffered with it while filming a Sherlock episode called A Scandal In Belgravia back in 2012.

A scene in season two of the BBC crime drama in which he plays the titular sleuth saw him having to puff on a cigarette as his alter-ego succumbed to his old habit.

Oh no! The actor recently revealed to Esquire UK how he got nicotine poisoning three times during filming (Pictured in the film)

Not a good experience: Benedict, who quit smoking in 2014, described how consistently lighting up a smoke take after take for the role 'genuinely is horrible'

Benedict had to take deep drag after deep drag as they filmed several takes for the scene, which led to him getting nicotine poisoning.

On whether he'll reprise his role as Sherlock, Benedict teased to Esquire UK: 'Never say never', adding that the 'circumstances' for the potential return need to be correct.

He also added that it is currently 'too soon' to see the series have 'another life' as he remarked that it has 'had its moment for now.' The series ended in 2017.

Again: This isn't the only time the TV star has been struck down with nicotine poisoning, as he also suffered with it while filming a Sherlock episode called A Scandal In Belgravia back in 2012 (Pictured in the film)

The Academy Award nominee stars with Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee in the Netflix Western.

Benedict stars as a Montana rancher in the 1920s who seems determined to terrorise his sister-in-law's son from a previous relationship after becoming enamoured of him.

The Power of the Dog will receive a limited theatrical release beginning November 17, followed by a streaming debut on Netflix on December 1.
Victoria Ekanoye has been pictured for the first time since revealing she has been diagnosed with breast cancer just months after welcoming her first child.

The Coronation Street star, 39, enjoyed a night out with friends including fashion designer Zeynep Kartal, at The Ivy restaurant in Manchester on Thursday.

Holding onto a large bunch of flowers, the soap actress donned a glamorous teal silk dress, a tortoiseshell waist belt, a chic black trench coat and black suede booties.

In good company: Coronation Street's Victoria Ekanoye, 39, enjoyed a night out with friends in Manchester on Thursday after revealing her breast cancer diagnosis

Victoria added a black turban to the look, along with a pair of gold hoop earrings.

The soap star smiled for the cameras while joined by Zeynep, who wore a black jumpsuit, a tan faux-fur jacket draped over her shoulders, and two-toned heels.

Victoria announced her heartbreaking breast cancer diagnosis to OK! Magazine this week, as she revealed she discovered a lump in her breast while feeding Theo, 11 months, who she shares with husband Jonny Lomas, before doctors investigated.

Thoughtful: Joined by friends including fashion designer Zeynep Kartal (left), Victoria was gifted a large bunch of flowers while dining at The Ivy restaurant

Gorgeous: Victoria donned a glamorous teal silk dress, a tortoiseshell waist belt, a chic black trench coat and black suede booties for the outing. She also added a black turban, along with gold hoop earrings to the look

She said: 'I was diagnosed on October 13 with DCIS, which is Ductal carcinoma in situ. It basically means that cells have turned cancerous within the milk ducts.'

Earlier this year, Victoria, who played Angie Appleton in the iconic British soap, revealed she feared her 'miracle' baby boy would die during her traumatic three-day labour due to complications involving her sickle cell anaemia.

Victoria told the publication: 'Back in July I was feeding Theo and I noticed there was a small lump protruding at the top of my left breast.

Pained: Victoria revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer just months after welcoming her first child in an interview with OK! Magazine this week (pictured on-set)

'My mum had breast cancer at 41, and her sister at 39 - so many people in my family, in fact. So I don't really leave any time before I check these things...

'I was diagnosed on the thirteenth of October with DCIS, which is Ductal carcinoma in situ. It basically means that cells have turned cancerous within the milk ducts...

'We're being really optimistic, and positive, and really lucky that we've caught it as early as we have. I don't know if lucky is the right word, but that's how I feel.'

Shock: The soap actress revealed she discovered a lump in her breast while feeding Theo, 11 months, who she shares with husband Jonny Lomas (pictured), before doctors investigated

Expecting: She is pictured while pregnant with her son last year

Breastcancer.org defines DCIS as: 'Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is non-invasive breast cancer. Ductal means that the cancer starts inside the milk ducts, carcinoma refers to any cancer that begins in the skin or other tissues (including breast tissue) that cover or line the internal organs, and in situ means "in its original place."

'DCIS is called "non-invasive" because it hasn't spread beyond the milk duct into any normal surrounding breast tissue. DCIS isn't life-threatening, but having DCIS can increase the risk of developing an invasive breast cancer later on.'

In March, Victoria revealed she feared her 'miracle' baby boy would die during her traumatic three-day labour.

The actress gave birth to her first child, a boy named Theodore Christopher on January 16, with complications due to her sickle cell anaemia.

Terrified: In March, Victoria revealed she feared her 'miracle' baby boy would die during her traumatic three-day labour

Victoria told how she and Jonny worried that their baby 'wouldn't make it', adding how the thought of losing her son willed her to push through the painful labour which left her struggling to walk or speak.

Victoria was induced on January 13th at 39 weeks, however, it wasn't until three days later that she gave birth.

She then told how due to her sickle cell anaemia, she was advised to have pain relief during the labour, however, she suffered a severe reaction to the drugs, resulting in her throwing up and struggling to function.

She explained: 'With sickle cell it's not advised to have a birth without painkillers as it can trigger a sickle cell crisis [episodes of pain], so I was induced and put on pain medication. But I had a really bad reaction.
They are nearing the end of their mammoth four-year-long No Filter world tour.

But Mick Jagger, 78, showed no signs of fatigue as he took to the stage with the Rolling Stones at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday.

Pulling out all the stops, the rocker dazzled the crowd with his signature flamboyant style as he donned a statement sequin blazer.

Rock n roll: Mick Jagger dazzled in Atlanta in an energetic performance with the Rolling Stones as they near the end of their mammoth world tour on Thursday

Featuring a satin collar and cuffs, frontman Mick paired the loud number with a glitzy silk shirt and black skinny jeans as he gyrated in classic Jagger style.

Mick gave it his all wowing the crowd throughout the 19 song strong setlist in the energetic performance.

Fellow bandmate Keith Richards, 77, toned it down as he opted for a navy blue velvet blazer, green t-shirt and a beanie hat.

Jumpin' Jack Flash: Mick, 78, dazzled the crowd with his signature flamboyant style

Legend: He paired the loud number with a glitzy silk shirt and black skinny jeans as he gyrated in classic Jagger style and gave the crowd his all

It's Only Rock and Roll: Keith Richards, 77, toned it down as he opted for a navy blue velvet blazer, green t-shirt and a beanie hat

Standout: Ronnie Wood, 74, could be seen playing his gold leafed guitar to the crowd

Ronnie Wood, 74, chose a very rock and roll leather jacket with zip detailing and skinny jeans as he played his gold leafed guitar.

Also joining them on stage was most recent member, Steve Jordan, 64, who replaced the late drummer Charlie Watts on the tour.

The Rolling Stones kicked off their North American tour last month, but the Sympathy for the Devil hitmaker admitted he and his bandmates are still not used to being on stage without the late drummer.

Mick told SiriusXM DJ Howard Stern: 'Every time we get together now and rehearse, we say, "Oh, Charlie would say this, then he would do that."

New drummer: Also joining them on stage was most recent member, Steve Jordan, 64, who replaced the late drummer Charlie Watts on the tour

Music legend: The Rolling Stones kicked off their North American tour last month following Charlie's death (Charlie pictured in 2018)

An official cause of death has not been revealed but he suffered from a series of health problems in recent years, including a diagnosis of throat cancer in 2004.

According to Noise11 the band played the extremely rare track, Shes A Rainbow in only its 20th live performance in over 50 years of its release as fans have recently been able to vote on setlist choices.

They might have firmly established their place as one of the most influential bands of all time, but the band are not immune to controversy today.

Setlist: The crowd saw them play a 19 song setlist including rare hit She's A Rainbow

Despite fan outrage, the hit track, Brown Sugar was still absent from the set list after it came under fire over its depiction of slavery and sexual violence last month.

The song was axed from the 13-date US tour over fears the British rockers would be 'cancelled' by woke music fans who take issue with lyrics like the opening lines: 'Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields / Sold in the market down in New Orleans / Skydog slaver knows he's doin' all right / Hear him whip the women just around midnight.'

Confirming its removal from this setlist in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Keith Richards said the band did not want to get into 'conflicts' over the song.

Icons: Despite fan outrage, the hit track, Brown Sugar was still absent from the set list after after coming under fire last month

But furious Rolling Stones fans said they don't understand the controversy surrounding the track as it is clearly anti-slavery, with many saying artists should be free to express themselves without fearing 'cancel culture'.

Mick, when asked about the song's absence from their recent set lists, told The Los Angeles Times they had decided to give the song a break.

He said: 'We've played 'Brown Sugar' every night since 1970, so sometimes you think, We'll take that one out for now and see how it goes. We might put it back in.'

Controversy: Keith when asked about controversial track Brown Sugar said: 'I'm hoping that we'll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory'

Speaking about the song's meaning, Keith added that he was trying to figure out where the problem was:

'Didn't they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? But they're trying to bury it. At the moment I don't want to get into conflicts with all of this s***.

'But I'm hoping that we'll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track.'
They may have been married for almost half a century but Sir Michael Caine and his wife Shakira looked as loved up as ever.

The couple, were dressed to the nines as they headed for dinner at la Loma in London on Thursday with the 88-year-old actor wearing a navy-blue suit, light blue shirt and black shoes.

Shakira, 78, meanwhile looked glam in a little black dress, bedazzling boucle coat and black heels.

Stepping out: Sir Michael Caine and his wife Shakira looked as loved up as ever as they enjoyed date night at la Loma restaurant in London on Thursday night

She accessorised the elegant look by wearing some of her prized pearls around her neck and wore matching earrings.

She finished the look with a sequin bag while also linking arms with her beloved husband.

Sir Michael has been spotted using a walking stick since injuring his ankle after slipping on ice in February 2018.

The couples love affair has proved to be one of the longest marriages in showbiz, after tying the knot in Las Vegas in 1973.

Power couple: Their romance has proved to be one of the longest marriages in showbiz, after tying the knot in Las Vegas in 1973

Their relationship began when the Dark Knight star spotted the actor in a British television advertisement for Maxwell House coffee in 1971

The couple have one daughter together, Natasha, 48, while the Alfie star has another daughter Dominique, 65, from his previous marriage with actress Patricia Haines.

Last month, Sir Michael revealed he was not stepping away from the Hollywood mainstream after prompting retirement rumours during a recent interview.

Loved up: Their romance has proved to be one of the longest marriages in showbiz, after tying the knot in Vegas in 1973. Michael first saw Shakira on a coffee commercial (pictured in 1972)

The veteran star, was appearing on BBC Radio 5 to promote his latest movie Best Sellers when he bemoaned the lack of opportunities for older actors.

He referred to the film as 'my last part, really,' noting that he has limited mobility and adding: 'There's not exactly scripts pouring in for a leading man that's 88, you know?'

He has since clarified that he will not be walking away from the acting world in a tongue-in-cheek post shared with followers.

Using his iconic catchphrase, the British star wrote: 'I'm not retiring, and not a lot of people know that!'
Married At First Sight's Marilyse Corrigan shared a beaming snap from her hospital bed on Friday after donating one of her kidneys to save her ex Shaun's life.

The reality star, 37, took part in a kidney donation scheme, where her organ went to a woman she has never met before, meaning Shaun received one in exchange.

Shaun suffers with polycystic kidney disease, which causes numerous cysts to grow , reducing kidney function and leading to kidney failure.

Amazing: Married At First Sight's Marilyse Corrigan shared a beaming snap from her hospital bed on Friday after donating one of her kidneys to save her ex Shaun's life

In the post she happily proclaimed that 'her job was done now' and that she was going home to rest, before adding an update on Shaun's condition saying he was 'doing well'.

Posting from her hospital bed, the star who looked relaxed in a cream hoodie, said: 'We did it! I look far better than I feel for sure.

'Thank you for all the messages of support.

'It has honestly helped get me through the last few days. Hearing so many stories of donations, I have read every message and it has been so comforting to read.

Family: The reality star, 37, took part in a kidney donation scheme, where her organ went to a woman she has never met before, meaning Shaun received one in exchange (Shaun is pictured with their son Josh, 13)

'I've just been to see Shaun, he is doing well, he actually looks better than I do! Which is to be expected.

'Home time. Need my bed & lots of rest now. My job is now done.'

Although Marilyse is healthy, tests results showed she was not the correct fit for her former partner, who was told he would need dialysis and a donor transplant in 2019.

The mum of two, who shares Josh, 13, and Callum, 15, with Shaun, kept her plans completely secret until recently and was motivated by the distress of her children.

Happy: In the post she happily proclaimed that 'her job was done now' and that she was going home to rest, before adding an update on Shaun's condition saying he was 'doing well'

She told OK! magazine, 'They were very upset because they don't understand it. And we had to explain to them what it meant and they had to witness, when they were staying with their dad and he'd be on the [dialysis] machine every night.'

The reality star went on to add that none of his family are able to give their own kidney due to various reasons, including their own health conditions, and Shaun had been on a very competitive waiting list for a dead donor.

After Shaun had visited her house to see their boys, Marilyse surprised him with a letter which detailed her plans. After she presented it to him, he was moved to tears by the kind gesture, she said.

Wow! The mum of two, who shares Josh, 13, (right) and Callum, 15, (left) with Shaun, kept her plans completely secret until recently and was motivated by the distress of her children

However, things took a turn for the worst when the coronavirus pandemic meant all operations were cancelled, meaning the operation had been on standby for nearly two years .

'I signed all the paperwork and Covid hit. Shaun couldn't have the kids because he had to isolate  he was a high risk patient. So I had the kids for a year while he did a few window visits to say hi to them.

What is Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) is a genetic disorder in which fluid filled sacs, called cysts, grow on the kidneys. Signs and symptoms of the disease include high blood pressure, headaches, abdominal pain, blood in the urine, excessive urination and back pain. There are currently no approved treatment or therapies to prevent the progression of the disease. Advertisement

'So for me, this is my kids needing the kidney because I needed it for their dad, so that's how I look at it. And because my kids are so important and valuable to me then it makes the whole situation right.'

Marilyse was in hospital for only one night, but joked that she 'won't be able to lift anything other than a cup of tea' but will tune in to Married At First Sight Australia.

Meanwhile, Shaun will be treated with medication in hospital for between seven and days due to the risk of his body rejecting the kidney.

The Yorkshire native wed military man and fellow fitness fanatic Franky, 47, on the latest series of the E4 show.

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, she revealed her relationship with Franky turned into more of a friendship.

'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.

Moving: After Shaun had visited her house to see their boys, Marilyse surprised him with a letter which detailed her plans. After she presented it to him, he was moved to tears

Marilyse said her children 'really got on with Franky', who she is still friends with.

However the star has since revealed that she speaks with 'amazing' Luke Dawson - who married Morag Crichton, 31, from Essex - every day.

She told The Sun: 'I'll say it, I do really like Luke, I think he's a lovely guy and he has the potential to be the perfect partner for me.'

'We have a very close friendship; we speak most days and I think he's really cool and amazing.'

She continued: 'I kind of clicked with him at the first dinner party  we're both the same age, we're both reserved, laidback and not out there.'

However, Marilyse went on to say that she doesn't know whether the off-show recoupling would work because the pair are 'so similar' - but added on the contrary, that may also be a reason it does work.

Despite admitting she's only ever looked at Luke in a 'friendly way,' she added that she 'doesn't know what the future holds.'

Marilyse is raising funds for Kidney Research UK and has set up a Just Giving page.
He's the Married At First Sight groom who was recently dumped by his girlfriend.

But Nasser Sultan put on a brave face as he attended the No Time To Die premiere in Sydney on Friday.

The 53-year-old former reality star was all smiles as he posed for photos on the VIP red carpet with a water pistol in hand.

Night out: Former Married At First Sight star Nasser Sultan put on a brave face as he attended the No Time To Die premiere in Sydney on Friday

Doing his best James Bond, Nasser donned a classic black suit, teamed with a white shirt and black tie.

He added a sporty twist to his look by accessorising with a pair of black and white classic Adidas trainers.

As the night progressed, he found a few friends, including former Bachelor star Juliette Herrera and her boyfriend Alessandro 'Alex' Del Conte.

The pair were so comfortable in Nasser's presence, he even helped give Juliette a boost on the red carpet.

Playing the part! Doing his best James Bond, Nasser donned a classic black suit, teamed with a white shirt and black tie

Sporty: He added a sporty twist to his look by accessorising with a pair of black and white classic Adidas trainers

Need a helping hand? As the night progressed, he found a few friends, including former Bachelor star Juliette Herrera and her boyfriend Alessandro 'Alex' Del Conte

And it appears Nasser has a few friends who are a part of The Bachelor alumni, including Emma Roche.

In one picture, he was seen mid-conversation with a stern look on his face.

However, it wasn't long before the larrakin was back to his hilarious ways, making Emma giggle as he held tightly onto her waist.

Why so serious? In one picture, he is seen mid-conversation with a stern look on his face

Too funny! However, it wasn't long before the larrakin was back to his hilarious ways, making Emma giggle as he held tightly onto her waist

Nasser's wild outing comes three months after his ex-girlfriend of two years, Engy El Salawy confirmed their split.

Engy, 39, confirmed the break-up to Daily Mail Australia on in August, saying Nasser's desperate pursuit of fame was the reason for their split.

'He would do anything to be famous,' she said of the former music promoter.

End of the road: Engy, 39, confirmed the break-up to Daily Mail Australia on Monday, saying Nasser's desperate pursuit of fame was the reason for their split

'He lives in a bubble and life is too short for that,' said Engy, who hails from Sydney's western suburbs.

Engy explained that despite being in a relationship with Nasser since mid-2019, he asked her to keep their romance secret so he could capitalise on his fleeting fame.

'I tried for two years and he just doesn't want to take it serious. He is looking for a reality show and followers,' she said.

Nasser claimed he was the one who ended their romance, adding that Engy 'didn't understand' his obsession with fame.

. 'I have a mission': Nasser claimed he was the one who ended their romance, adding that Engy 'didn't understand' his obsession with fame. Pictured on March 29

'I have a mission and I want to keep going as a celebrity,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Nasser said he's now looking for someone who understands his 'need to be a star' and isn't worried about having children.

The socialite was paired with Gabriel Bartlett on Nine's Married At First Sight in 2018.

But the couple didn't make it to the end of the experiment as they struggled with intimacy and Nassers unwillingness to compromise.
Steve Coogan was almost unrecognisable as he transformed into an ageing Jimmy Savile on the set of The Reckoning in North Wales on Wednesday.

The Alan Partridge star, 56, is tackling the role of the late paedophile for the controversial BBC drama and while shooting this week he was seen in a short grey wig and a royal blue tracksuit.

Alan furrowed his brow as he got into character in chunky gold jewellery and an 80s shell suit, which became a staple of the TV personality's eccentric wardrobe decades ago.

In character: Steve Coogan was almost unrecognisable as he transformed into an ageing Jimmy Savile on the set of The Reckoning in North Wales on Wednesday

In the latest scenes, Steve was seen making conversation with an elderly woman on a public bench.

They chatted intensely as Steve's companion sheltered from the rain under a large umberella while they talked.

Steve and his co-star looked downbeat as they furrowed their brows and looked to the floor while they exchanged dialogue surrounding by film crew.

In the instantly recognisable Savile costume, Steve looked haggard as whisps of light grey hair escaped from beneath his beanie hat.

Based on: The 80s shell suit became a staple of the TV personalities eccentric wardrobe decades ago (pictured in 2006)

Costume: The actor is tackling the role of the late pedophile for the controversial BBC drama and while shooting this week he was seen in a short grey wig and a royal blue tracksuit

Performance: Alan furrowed his brow as he got into character in chunky gold jewellery and a 80s shell suit

Plot development: In the latest scenes, Steve was seen making conversation with an elderly woman on a public bench

Steve could be seen walking through the streets with a brown leather briefcase in his hand.

The actor had been significantly aged by special effect makeup with deep lines between his brows and wrinkles around his mouth.

He had perfected the TV personalities mannerisms as he threw his weight backwards and splayed out his hands while he spoke.

Serious: They chatted intensely as Steve's companion sheltered from the rain under a large umberella while they talked

Down beat: Steve and his co-star looked downbeat as they furrowed their brows and looked to the floor while they exchanged dialogue surrounding by film crew

Aged: In the instantly recognisable Savile costume, Steve looked haggard as whisps of light grey hair escaped from beneath his beanie hat

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'.

Coogan, who famously portrays fictional comedic character Alan Partridge, 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.'

What's in the bag? Steve could be seen walking through the streets with a brown leather briefcase in his hand

Turning forward time: The actor had been significantly aged by special effect makeup with deep lines between his brows and wrinkles around his mouth

Taking note: He had perfected the TV personalities mannerisms as he threw his weight backwards and splayed out his hands while he spoke

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.

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.

Sensitive: The decision to chronicle Savile's life has come under fire from many, however BBC has stated that they worked with his victims to portray a story 'with sensitivity and respect'

Job: Steve previously explained in a statement the decision to play Savile was not one 'I took lightly'

Explanation: He added: 'Neil McKay has written an intelligent script tackling sensitively a horrific story which, however harrowing, needs to be told'

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.

'Steve has a unique ability to inhabit complex characters and will approach this role with the greatest care and integrity.'

Gone: Savile, who rose from a humble working-class upbringing to become one of British television's biggest stars, passed away aged 84 in 2011

Drama: He fought to quell growing speculation about his illegal exploits throughout his illustrious career - with victim testimony expected to be brought to life in the new drama

Horrifying: 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

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.

'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.

Awful: His horrific reign of abuse could be charted 'in the corridors, canteens, staircases and dressing rooms of every BBC premises', their 2016 report found

Important: Executive producer, Jeff Pope, said: 'We must understand why a man like Jimmy Savile seemed to remain immune for so long to proper scrutiny and criminal investigation'

He added: 'Steve has a unique ability to inhabit complex characters and will approach this role with the greatest care and integrity'

'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.

For confidential support for adults who suffered any type of abuse in childhood call NAPAC on 0808 801 0331, free from landlines and mobiles, or click here for details.

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
They join forces to present Heart Breakfast.

And Amanda Holden and Ashley Roberts let their hair down on Thursday following their daily morning show, enjoying a lunch date in West London.

The radio hosts, 50 and 40 respectively, looked in high spirits as they put on an animated display after their meal, with Amanda looking as though she was about to plant a kiss on her co-host's cheek.

Pals: Amanda Holden and Ashley Roberts let their hair down at a fun lunch in West London after presenting Heart FM together on Thursday

The duo were keen to keep the good times rolling as they waited for a taxi to pick them up, with Ashley appearing to have a dance in the street as another female friend laughed.

In another captured moment, Amanda appeared taken aback by something she'd heard, her mouth agape as she engaged in conversation with a friend.

The former Pussycat Doll was going hell for leather in an edgy brown coat and black trousers while Amanda was borrowing from the Seventies in an elegant look.

Cheery: The radio hosts, 50 and 40 respectively, looked in high spirits as they put on an animated display after their meal

The work outing comes after Amanda and fellow presenter Davina McCall got into the Christmas spirit on Wednesday as they hosted a JD Williams festive event on the banks of London's River Thames.

The BGT judge and the Long Lost Family host, 54, who are joint ambassadors for the brand, put on an animated display during the retail company's unveiling of their Christmas range.

And always ones to put on a good show, both Amanda and Davina showed off their cheeky side as they larked around for the camera.

Fun: The duo were keen to keep the good times rolling as they waited for a taxi to pick them up, with Ashley appearing to have a dance in the street as another female friend laughed

Shock: In another captured moment, Amanda appeared taken aback by something she'd heard, her mouth agape as she engaged in conversation with a friend

The duo pulled off a number of hilarious expressions as Davina seemingly made to grab Amanda's assets, much to the star's amusement.

Away from work, Ashley recently revealed that she is still looking for love. The star split from Strictly Come Dancing professional Giovanni Pernice back in 2020.

At the time the couple, who met on Strictly when Ashley was a contestant, kept their romance a secret and only revealed they were an item when the show ended.

Sizzling: The duo posed together on Instagram through the day

Fun times: The work outing comes after Amanda and fellow presenter Davina McCall got into the Christmas spirit on Wednesday as they hosted a JD Williams festive event on the banks of London's River Thames

The couple dated for over a year and Giovanni went on to date former Love Islander Maura Higgins - who he split from earlier this month.

Now that lockdown restrictions have been lifted, Ashley has admitted that she was eager to get out and about.

Ashley spoke to Fabulous Magazine, where she outlined the kind of partner she is hoping to meet. She said: 'I've been really good at being driven and taking care of myself, and I would like for someone to come in and support me...

'Not financially, and not that I need a man to take care of me, but I would like to share my life with someone whose company I enjoy and who supports me.

'But, then again, I'm really good on my own. So this is the thing, it's finding someone to go on adventures with.

'I want to experience the world with someone that makes me laugh, but who also has the emotional intelligence to have an interesting conversation.'
They tied the knot with in 2012.

And, James Corden, 43, and wife Julia Carey, 41, kept things casual in laid-back attire as they enjoyed a dinner date in Santa Monica, on Thursday.

The couple wore muted ensembles - with Julia opting for all-black and James choosing tracksuit bottoms - as they stepped out to grab dinner with friends at Giorgio Baldi.

Date night: James Corden, 43, and wife Julia Carey, 41, kept things casual in laid-back attire as they enjoyed a dinner date in Santa Monica, on Thursday

James teamed his light grey joggers with a navy jumper and added a dose of designer with Gucci trainers

The loved-up pair looked happier as ever as they flashed wide smiles while climbing into their car after enjoying their meal.

The married couple are parents to 10-year-old son Max and daughters Carey, six, and Charlotte, three.

Low-key: The couple wore muted ensembles, with James choosing tracksuit bottoms and Gucci trainers, as they stepped out to grab dinner with friends at Giorgio Baldi

The outing comes as James is set to becomes the UK's best paid television personality after reportedly signing a 15million, two-year deal with US TV chiefs.

The Londoner could surpass Ant and Dec as the highest earning TV star, with his potential 7.5million annual income topping the duo's 6.6million for their stints on ITV.

James' deal with television network CBS expires next year, after six years of being the acclaimed host of The Late Late Show.

However, according to reports in The Sun, industry sources are keen to keep the A-lister on board as the face of the talk show.

An LA TV insider said: 'CBS has no plan B, James is their guy and who they see staying with them.

'He is one of the faces of the network, he fronts a massively successful show and drives lots of traffic to them online. The figures that are being discussed are around 15million for two years.'

MailOnline contacted representatives for James and CBS for comment at the time.

James' successful spell on the renowned show has seen him bag three awards, including an Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special.

Yet it is not just this that makes him appealing to the television industry, as the star's online segments such as Carpool Karaoke and Crosswalk Musical rake in further revenue.
Emily Ratajkowski 'totally embarrassed' herself in front of Beyonce at the Met Gala.

The 30-year-old model has recalled being introduced to the chart-topping icon by her sister Solange at the annual gala in New York City.

'I totally embarrassed myself. I was like, "No man has done what you have done with Lemonade." I had had like a little bit of champagne and I just decided to go for it, and it was wrong,' the Versace model told Andy Cohen when on Watch What Happens Live on Thursday.

Oops: Emily Ratajkowski 'totally embarrassed' herself in front of Beyonce at the Met Gala. The 30-year-old model has recalled being introduced to the chart-topping icon by her sister Solange at the annual gala in New York City

Yikes: 'I totally embarrassed myself. I was like, "No man has done what you have done with Lemonade." I had had like a little bit of champagne and I just decided to go for it, and it was wrong,' the Versace model told Andy Cohen when on Watch What Happens Live on Thursday

Emily did not say what year the meeting took place but it appears to have been in 2016.

Emily admits that her embarrassing encounter prompted her to change how she speaks to other celebrities at the Met.

The brunette beauty explained: 'She was so nice, of course, because she's used to people losing their minds, but I've never lived it down, or recovered.

'I just keep it together now at the Met. I'm like, 'It's all right, we don't have to say hi to that person. We'll be fine.''

Bey was nice: The brunette beauty explained: 'She was so nice, of course, because she's used to people losing their minds, but I've never lived it down, or recovered,' said Emily. Beyonce and Jay-Z at the Met Gala in 2015

Red-y for fun: Ratajkowski attends The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art in September

Meanwhile, Emily recently revealed that she was made to feel 'replaceable' earlier in her career.

The London-born star - who shot to fame in Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines' music video - is now one of the best-paid people in the modelling industry, but she can still recall being scared by influential people in the business at the start of her career.

Emily shared: 'I've found ways to carve out control where I can, and that's been really helpful to me.

'The industry really teaches you that you're replaceable, and that the less agreeable you are, the less likely you are to be hired. That felt very scary when I was a young model doing it for money.

'But the other thing is that I'm in a different position. Now, I'm not an unknown model.'

The star is coming out with a book, titled My Body, which she has been promoting all month.
The 29th series of The Only Way Is Essex comes to a close on Sunday night - and the finale will undoubtedly fuel the last bouts of drama.

The tenth and final episode in the series will see TOWIE longtimer Chloe Sims throw a birthday gala for her 40th birthday, taking inspiration from Hollywood's elite.

The swanky soiree will be the perfect opportunity for fellow TOWIE veteran Amy Childs to introduce her new gym-owner beau, Billy Delbosq.

TOWIE SPOILER: Chloe Sims throws a swanky soiree for her 40th birthday - where Amy Childs introduces new beau Billy to the gang (in scenes set to air on Sunday)

Last month, the television personality went Instagram official with Billy, 37, who previously had a stint on Channel 4's First Dates.

An introduction has the potential to go one of two ways: it could prove to be an overwhelming experience, or Billy may hold his own and get the seal of approval from Amys nearest and dearest.

Elsewhere, a firm favourite on the ITVBe reality show, Pete Wicks, is heartbroken to miss Chloe's birthday party.

Meet: The swanky soiree will be the perfect opportunity for fellow TOWIE veteran Amy Childs to introduce her new gym-owner beau, Billy Delbosq

New flame: Last month, the television personality went Instagram official with Billy, 37, who previously had a stint on Channel 4's First Dates

Loved up: An introduction could prove to be an overwhelming experience, or Billy may hold his own and get the seal of approval from Amys nearest and dearest

In a bid to make up for his absence, Pete gets Chloe a spectacular gift, hoping to wow her.

In other news, Chloe Brockett is ready to move onwards and upwards after a turbulent few weeks.

Acknowledging her harsh words to Frankie and being on friendly terms with ex Jack Fincham, the Miss Babe owner seems ready to grab the opportunities shes been given with both hands, even if they arent in Essex.

Making it up: Elsewhere, a firm favourite on the ITVBe reality show, Pete Wicks, is heartbroken to miss Chloe's birthday party

Thoughtful: In a bid to make up for his absence, Pete gets Chloe a spectacular gift, hoping to wow her

Emotional: The TOWIE longtimer appears shocked when she receives the gift

Moving on: In other news, Chloe Brockett is ready to move onwards and upwards after a turbulent few weeks

Uh oh: In developing drama, Roman Hackett has had enough of holding onto other peoples secrets and decides a birthday party is the best time to gift Dani Imbert and Gatsby some home truths about their relationship

Drama: Newer cast members Dani and Roman have a friendship that dates back years, however the revelations could possibly spell the end of their bond

Exciting: A budding relationship could be on the cards for Diags

In developing drama, Roman Hackett has had enough of holding onto other peoples secrets and decides a birthday party is the best time to gift Dani Imbert and Gatsby (Liam Blackwell) some home truths about their relationship.

Newer cast members Dani and Roman have a friendship that dates back years, however the revelations could possibly spell the end of their bond.

A budding relationship could be on the cards for Diags - James Bennewith - as he plucks up the courage to ask Chloe Brocketts friend Angel on a date.

Watch The Only Way is Essex on Sunday 14 November at 9pm ITVBe and ITV Hub
She's never been far from an on-screen blunder after missing the show by sleeping in.

And on Friday Kate Garraway, 54, was left in hysterics as she frantically searched for her phone after its alarm rang twice during Good Morning Britain.

Co-host Ben Shephard, 46, blames Kate for interrupting a conversation on the climate crisis, immediately saying: 'That's Kate's phone!' leaving her to try and find it under her seat.

Oh dear! Kate Garraway's alarm went off twice on Good Morning Britain as she frantically searched for her phone in a hilarious blunder on Friday

Kate dismisses Ben's claims as before he reminds her that she is actually sitting on her phone, as he reiterates: 'It is you're sitting on it.'

She could be seen as she frantically searched for her phone before finding it on the chair underneath her.

The presenter is quick to blame her kids for the 'really awkward' blunder as Ben laughed and asked: 'Is that the alarm to wake you up?'

'It is you're sitting on it': Ben proclaims that the noise is definitely Kates phone and she must be sitting on it

Hilarious: She could be seen frantically searching for her phone before finding it on the chair underneath her, leaving herself and Ben in hysterics

The duo laughed as Kate struggled to turn off the alarm that was set randomly for 6:34AM.

A producer could be seen entering the shot to removes her phone from the television set to prevent a reoccurring incident.

Elsewhere on the show Kate branded a magician 'incredible' after he made the corner of the card she had requested disappear, before revealing it could be found enclosed in the pages of the book that had been in front of her the whole time.

Joel Mawhinney, 24, from Belfast, who has over 15.5 million TikTok followers and has received 1 billion views online, left presenters Kate and Ben gob smacked as he demonstrated one of his magic tricks.

Who is calling me? The duo laughed as Kate struggled to turn off the alarm that was set randomly for 6:34AM

'We have a deck of cards,' he explained. 'They're different and you're going to pick one for me Kate. Since you're so keen, I'll let you pick two.'

After showing viewers that all of the cards were different, he then asked Kate to say stop wherever she liked as he shuffled the pack in front of her.

'These two cards [5 of spades and a 2 of hearts] are going to be important in a second,' he said, placing them front down on the table.

Turning his attention to Ben, he continued: 'They're going to tell me about the card you're about to pick.'

Card tricks: Joel Mawhinney (pictured), from Belfast, 24, left the presenters gobsmacked as he demonstrated one of his magic tricks on Good Morning Britain today

After asking Ben to say 'stop' as he shuffled the pack, Joel explained: 'We don't know exactly what this is, but if we've done this right, these two cards should tell us what that card is [pointing to Kate's card]. Maybe, I hope!'

Revealing the cards to be a heart and a five, he then pointed to Ben's card and said: 'So if that card was to be a five of hearts that'd be a weird coincidence. It should be the five of hearts - or close.'

Flipping the card over, he added: 'We were close - six of hearts.'

But he wasn't finished there. Taking the card, he then ripped the corner which had a heart on it and made it disappear from his hand, before telling Kate she could find it if she turned to page 52 of the book in front of her.
Advertisement

Love was in the air for Simon Cowell and Lauren Silverman on Friday as they puckered up for a kiss at the star-studded Shooting Star Ball in London.

The X Factor boss, 62, cut a dapper figure in a navy suit while his stunning partner, 44, was sensational in a black gown with sparkling embellishments.

Meanwhile, never one to be outdone, Joan Collins was as glamorous as ever in a white sequinned gown as she attended ball alongside husband Percy Gibson.

Romance: Love was in the air for Simon Cowell and Lauren Silverman on Friday as they puckered up for a kiss at the star-studded Shooting Star Ball in London

Simon and Lauren looked as happy as ever as they cosied up in front of the cameras at the star-studded event.

The music mogul teamed his dark two-piece with a crisp white shirt, rounding off his look with pointed dark brown shoes.

While Lauren showed off her figure in the figure-hugging black number which was finished off nicely with a colourful bejewelled belt.

The mother-of-two finished off her look with diamond stud earrings, while she wore her brunette locks in loose waves with a centre parting.

Wow: Meanwhile, never one to be outdone, Joan Collins was as glamorous as ever in a white sequinned gown as she attended ball alongside husband Percy Gibson

Happier than ever: Simon and Lauren looked as happy as ever as they cosied up in front of the cameras at the star-studded event

Style: The music mogul teamed his dark two-piece with a crisp white shirt, rounding off his look with pointed dark brown shoes

Cosy: The mother-of-two finished off her look with diamond stud earrings, while she wore her brunette locks in loose waves with a centre parting

Close: The couple could barely keep their hands off each other as they shared a kiss in front of the cameras

The duo were in great spirits at the glitzy bash, which raises money for children with life-limiting conditions across London and Surrey in aid of the Shooting Star Children's Hospices.

Joan, 88, meanwhile dazzled in a glittering floor-length number which was adorned with feathered detailing on the sleeves as she joined her dapper partner, 56, on the red carpet.

The Dynasty star added diamond drop earrings and collection of silver rings and bracelets, rounding off her show-stopping outfit with a silver poppy brooch.

Her husband Percy also dressed to impress on the night, looking smart in a black tuxedo.

Joan certainly was in a great spirits on the night as she was also spotted mingling with Spandau Ballet star Tony Hadley, who like her husband, looked nice in black tux.

Dressed up: The Dynasty star added diamond drop earrings and collection of silver rings and bracelets, rounding off her show-stopping outfit with a silver poppy brooch

Lovely couple: Her husband Percy also dressed to impress on the night, looking smart in a black tuxedo

Look who it is: Joan certainly was in a great spirits on the night as she was also spotted mingling with Spandau Ballet star Tony Hadley, who like her husband, looked nice in black tux

Gold-en moment: The duo were seen chatting away as they bumped into each other at the star-studded ball

Glam: Joan highlighted her features with bold make-up including purple eye-shadow and hot pink lips

Chin-chin: The Hollywood icon enjoyed a crisp glass of white wine at the bash

Elsewhere, Lizzie Cundy looked sensational in a glittering emerald green Pia Michi gown with a daring split at the front.

The TV personality added a black fur stole and studded nude heels to her jaw-dropping look, while her caramel tresses were styled in soft waves.

Never one to be shy in front of the camera, Lizzie expertly posed for the cameras, turning this way and that as she showed off her phenomenal figure.

Green goddess: Elsewhere, Lizzie Cundy looked sensational in a glittering emerald green Pia Michi gown with a daring split at the front

Green with envy: Never one to be shy in front of the camera, Lizzie expertly posed for the cameras, turning this way and that as she showed off her phenomenal figure

Sizzling: The TV personality added a black fur stole and studded nude heels to her jaw-dropping look, while her caramel tresses were styled in soft waves

In attendance: Elsewhere, Keith Lemon opted for a simple black suit, which he jazzed up with a bright blue hat and leopard print platform shoes

Dressed for the occasion: Keith added bright touches to his black outfit, with Julian Clary also opting for a black suit on the night, with the comedian's attire featuring an embossed pattern

Elsewhere, Keith Lemon opted for a simple black suit, which he jazzed up with a bright blue hat and leopard print platform shoes.

With Julian Clary also opting for a black suit on the night, with the comedian's attire featuring an embossed pattern.

Also in attendance at the ball was Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and his glamorous wife Jackie.

The interior designer was his typically flamboyant self, slipping on a silver and black jacquard blazer teamed with black trousers and shiny shoes.

Meanwhile, Jackie pulled out all the stops, donning a strapless white satin gown with a black lace overlay.

The added to her eye-catching outfit with a white stole draped across her shoulders, finishing things up with long black gloves, an elaborate black necklace and co-ordinating earrings.

Date night: Also in attendance at the ball was Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and his glamorous wife Jackie

Stepping out in style: The interior designer was his typically flamboyant self, slipping on a silver and black jacquard blazer teamed with black trousers and shiny shoes
La La Anthony has revealed that she underwent emergency surgery in June to treat a heart condition that she had struggled with for years.

In a new interview with Self magazine, the 39-year-old television personality described the harrowing experience during which she was rushed to the hospital after she became so light-headed that she could barely stand.

'I never felt anything like that before,' La La told the magazine.

Scary: La La Anthony has revealed that she underwent emergency surgery in June to treat a heart condition that she had struggled with for years. Seen in November 2021

The former MTV VJ said that her heart was racing, she was sweating and her cousins told her that that she looked pale.

La La's family including her 14-year-old son Kiyan began pleading with her to let them call an ambulance

'Kiyan was like, 'Mom, please let them call because you don't look like yourself,'' the Brooklyn native said.

Terrifying: In a new interview with Self magazine, the 39-year-old television personality described the harrowing experience during which she was rushed to the hospital after she became so light-headed that she could barely stand

La La initially resisted calling the ambulance and when the EMTs arrived, she tried to assure them that she would be fine.

Yet, she was convinced to go to the hospital when one of the EMTs told her, 'If you were my sister, I would say you have to go right now.'

For years, La La had been plagued by premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), extra heartbeats that begin in one of the heart's two lower ventricles and disrupt a person's regular heart rhythm.

However, she had been postponing undergoing a surgical procedure to correct her heartbeat.

After arriving at the hospital, the Think Like A Man actress underwent a two-hour surgery, part of which she had to be awake due to medical necessity.

La La explained, 'There were a lot of scary moments.'

'They would wake me up during the procedure and say, 'We're going to speed your heart up now. Just take deep breaths.'

'Those doctors were just so incredible,' she continued. 'But it was a terrifying experience.'

Harrowing: 'Those doctors were just so incredible,' she continued. 'But it was a terrifying experience'

After the surgery, La La spent four days in the hospital. She had soreness in her chest for two weeks and was told not to overexert herself as she recovered.

In 2019, a doctor who was examining La La while she was in Vancouver shooting BH90210 became concerned when he listened to her heart. He asked if she had talked to anyone about her PVCs and recommended that she go to the hospital for further testing .

La La declined because she wanted to wait until she was home in New York before seeking out further medical attention.

At the time, La La had been experiencing the symptoms of premature ventricular contractions for several years but had not been formally diagnosed.

'I felt my heart racing all the time, but because it's all I ever really knew, I didn't even know that it was necessarily something wrong,' she said. 'I just thought, Oh, you just feel your heart racing sometimes because you're working too much, you haven't slept, you're stressed.'

Ongoing: At the time, La La had been experiencing the symptoms of premature ventricular contractions for several years but had not been formally diagnosed

'You know, we, especially Black people, like to self-diagnose. We got all the answers.'

However, La La became concerned when her symptoms became more persistent.

'You know how the mind works,' she said. 'I started feeling it even morelike this fluttering and this racing all the time. I was like, 'What is going on?''

She saw a doctor when she returned to New York. Her doctor became alarmed by her EKG results which showed that she was experiencing 25% more heartbeats over the course of the day than the average person.

'They were very, very concerned,' she says. 'Within a 24-hour period, they said, my heart was beating 30,000 extra beats more than the average person. It was going fast constantly. Your heart is a muscle. If a muscle is working so hard all the time, eventually the muscle will get weak and cause heart attack, stroke, death, whatever it is.'

La La was prescribed medication which she eventually stopped taking due to its side effects which included fatigue.

However, she had been advised that she would have to receive a cardiac ablation if her symptoms continued.

La La, who has a fear of needles, resisted getting the surgery which involves the insertion of multiple catheters into the heart.

'Had it not happened [as an emergency],' La La said. 'I probably would have still just been continuing to put it off, put it off, put it off.'

Since receiving the surgery, La La's heartbeat has returned to normal. Now she advises others to address their health concerns as soon as possible.

'You want to be able to live it to the fullest, and you don't want something that can easily be corrected to be a reason why you're not able to enjoy life or be there for your family or your friends. Use me as an example of why not to wait.'
She may have been taking on the character of real life high-fashion socialite Patrizia Reggiani.

But Lady Gaga praised her director for empowering her to be 'ugly' in the role.

The 35-year-old entertainer gushed about working with legendary film director Ridley Scott, 83, on House Of Gucci in a new interview with the New York Times.

Bond: Lady Gaga gushed about working with legendary film director Ridley Scott, 83, on House Of Gucci in a new interview with the New York Times

Big shoes to fill: In the highly-anticipated film the 35-year-old entertainer took on the character of real life high-fashion socialite Patrizia Reggiani

Gaga praised the Alien director for collaborating with her on the role of Reggiani - who famously plotted the death of her ex-husband Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) - as the filmmmaker made her feel 'empowered... as a woman.'

The Bad Romance hitmaker explained: 'I have to say this, Ridley: There's not a lot of men that are directors who would empower a woman to be ugly on camera.'

As the film documents, Patrizia had married into the Gucci empire but is dropped from the iconic fashion family when Maurizio left her from a younger woman.

Sweet: Gaga praised the Alien director for collaborating with her on the role of Reggiani - who famously plotted the death of ex-husband Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) - as the filmmmaker made her feel 'empowered... as a woman,' as the trio are seen filming in Milan in March

Bizarre love triangle: As the film documents, Patrizia had married into the Gucci empire but is dropped from the iconic fashion family when Maurizio left her from a younger woman

Gaga said that Scott did not try to make the events and her character out to be much more glamorous than they actually were as she said: 'When I aged and had scenes where I was in this embarrassing, desperate state, he embraced the ugliness of this character and that should be commended, because it is ugly to be disposed of for your looks, it is ugly to be left for a younger woman.

'So I appreciate that Ridley took something that was sort of a "sexy murder" and he let it be ugly'

The praise did not end there as she said that Scott's collaborative nature on the project made for the most pleasant experience that she's ever had for a filmmaker.

'He embraced the ugliness of this character and that should be commended': Gaga said that Scott did not try to make the events and her character out to be much more glamorous than they actually were

'I've never had a better experience with a director': The praise did not end there as she said that Scott's (seen on the Milan set in March) collaborative nature on the project made for the most pleasant experience that she's ever had for a filmmaker

Gaga gushed: 'I've never had a better experience with a director. He loves artists, and some directors don't. They love themselves.'

The cold-blooded murder of fashion scion Maurizio Gucci in 1995 shocked the world  especially when his glamorous ex-wife Patrizia was found guilty of arranging it.

During the murder trial, which transfixed Italy, Reggiani arrived each day wearing head-to-toe Gucci clothes and accessories.

The court heard how she had ordered the murder of her husband after he offered her $650,000 in a divorce settlement.

Golden? House Of Gucci has won rave early reviews from critics following its world premiere in London on Tuesday evening

House Of Gucci has won rave early reviews from critics following its world premiere in London on Tuesday evening.

At the forefront of the praise was Gaga, whose role as Patrizia , who married Adam's character Maurizio in the 1970s - and had him killed by a hit man in the 1995 a decade after their divorce, was tipped for award glory by the pros.

Despite a flood of glowing feedback, some were less than impressed with the eagerly-awaited Ridley Scott movie. One reviewer penned: 'House of Gucci is a bloated & uneven mess that feels like two different movies rolled in one.

House Of Gucci - which also stars Salma Hayek, Jared Leto, Al Pacino, and Jeremy Irons - is set for release in the US on Wednesday, November 24 with a UK release following two days later on November 26.

Highly-anticipated: House Of Gucci - which also stars Salma Hayek, Jared Leto, Al Pacino, and Jeremy Irons - is set for release in the US on Wednesday, November 24 with a UK release following two days later on November 26
She's long been known as one of Hollywood's most glamorous stars.

And Joan Collins was once again the picture of elegance as she attended the star-studded Shooting Star charity ball at The Royal Lancaster, in London on Friday.

The actress, 88, was the picture of sophistication in a jaw-dropping white gown adorned with sequins as she arrived with her dapper husband Percy Gibson, 56.

Happy: Joan Collins was once again the picture of elegance as she attended the Shooting Star charity ball at The Royal Lancaster, in London with her husband Percy Gibson on Friday

Joan certainly amped up the glamour in the white gown covered with silver sequins and a matching feathered trim.

The former Dynasty star accessorised her outfit with a chunky silver bracelet and white earrings.

Meanwhile Percy cut a dapper figure in a charcoal grey suit and suede loafers as he accompanied his glamorous wife to the event.

Sensational: The actress was the picture of sophistication in a jaw-dropping white gown adorned with sequins

Lovely: Joan certainly amped up the glamour in the white gown covered with silver sequins and a matching feathered trim

As the couple made their arrival, Joan was seen chatting to Spandau Ballet legend Tony Hadley, with the pair sharing a laugh together at the event.

The actress married producer, Percy almost two decades ago in 2002 but Joan has recently credited the coronavirus lockdown for bringing them closer than ever.

The couple, who have a 31-year age gap, spend most of their time in St. Tropez, but also split their time between Los Angeles and England.

Gorgeous: The former Dynasty star accessorised her outfit with a chunky silver bracelet and white earrings

Beaming: The actress married producer, Percy almost two decades ago in 2002 but Joan has recently credited the coronavirus lockdown for bringing them closer than ever

During an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show last month, Dame Joan branded William Shatner 'a fool' while criticising his trip to space.

Actor William, 90, made history in October when he became the oldest man to meet space after rocketing up into the atmosphere in one of Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin vessels.

Dame Joan was seemingly unamused by William's mission as she told Jonathan: 'Let's take care of this planet first before we start going off.'

Outspoken: During an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show last month, Dame Joan branded William Shatner 'a fool' while criticising his trip to space

The performer, who appeared on alongside Succession star Brian Cox, 75, comedian Rob Beckett, 35, and television presenter Alex Scott, 37, added: 'Who wants to do that? No, absolutely not! Did you see Bill Shatner? He was in the air and they were turning him upside down.'

Echoing Dame Joan's sentiment, Brian said after being asked whether he would venture into space: 'No, absolutely not. I think it's ridiculous.'

The actor continued: 'I remember watching [Sir Richard] Branson and [Jeff] Bezos going up for their 11 minutes or whatever No, we do not need more spaceships, we've got enough c**p flying around up there, we do not need any more.'
With Connecticuts lost conglomerate now breaking up into three smaller companies, General Electric has not yet said how the moves will impact the companys remaining finance and tax staff in Norwalk who drove the companys profits in its heyday.

At stake are hundreds of Connecticut jobs  GE wont say how many  mostly in various financing businesses that remained after the company sold off massive chunks of GE Capital between the 2008 recession and 2017.

Now an already shrunken GE is spinning off its health care and energy businesses to focus on aviation. All three companies will their shares traded publicly under the plan announced this week.

GE Healthcare will be the first of the final two spinouts, with the company setting a target of early 2023 for the transaction, and early 2024 for the energy business.

A GE spokesperson told Hearst Connecticut Media on Wednesday that it was too early to say what the impact will be on the Norwalk office or others. The spokesperson also did not respond to a request for an updated employee count in Connecticut.

GE Capital entered this year with about 2,000 employees across four units under CEO Jennifer VanBelle, who is also treasurer of GE.

The company is still working through a lot of details with each business, but is not anticipating a change at this time, Jaclyn Cochrane, communications leader for GE Energy Financial Services, said in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media. Boston will remain an important hub.

CEO Larry Culp Jr. will lead the aviation company anchored by jet engine manufacturer GE Aviation based in Evendale, Ohio, a rival of East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney. The energy business  which traces its heritage to Thomas Edison  will be led by Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Power, which has its headquarters in Atlanta.

The company has yet to announce the final landing place for the General Electric name itself and its legendary blue logo that looms large in U.S. corporate history.

I think as weve seen in so many instances outside of GE over the last decade, spinning good businesses heightens focus and accountability, Culp said Tuesday during a conference call. Up and down the chain  from the board to the team and including investors  that alignment that you get with pure-plays is really helpful. So you put all that together, on top of what we have been able to achieve, I think we feel strongly this is the right decision. This is the right time.

The decision cements the dismantling of the conglomerate once based in Fairfield that former CEO Jeffrey Immelt inherited from Jack Welch in September 2001. Immelt sold off once-prized divisions like NBCUniversal in New York City and GE Plastics based in Pittsfield, Mass., in addition to billions of dollars in GE Capital businesses.

In 2016, Immelt moved GEs headquarters from Fairfield to Boston, citing the citys innovation vibe, only for GE to replace Immelt the following year as its stock continued to lag behind other blue chip companies. Culp took the corner office in 2018, having previously led the industrial systems manufacturer Danaher.

In 2000, GE Capital was the companys crown jewel, generating just over half of General Electric revenue. Two decades later, GE Capital contributes less than 10 percent of the parent companys total revenue.

The 2008 crisis prompted GE to negotiate a $3 billion infusion from Berkshire Hathaway to meet immediate cash needs. The U.S. government included GE Capital among lenders classified as too big to fail and subject to far stricter regulatory scrutiny.

In addition to the prestige GE lent Connecticut via its former corporate headquarters off the Merritt Parkway, the company was a dominant Connecticut employer on the strength of GE Capital. Culp has continued carving off pieces of GE Capital, with the company projecting $75 billion in debt reduction this year.

Culp referenced GE Capital directly only once in the Tuesday conference call, noting the aviation business will shoulder the remnants of an insurance division that sold long-term care policies on which GE continues to pay out claims.

I think were doing a better job not only managing that portfolio but also, frankly, running the business in terms of finding opportunities to raise premium; as well as, frankly, managing claims smarter, Culp said Tuesday. Well continue down that path. If things change, well deal with that in time, but this is an obligation that weve run well  again, a runoff obligation.

In addition to the existing GE Capital office in Norwalk, GE has hundreds of employees in the Hartford area that it picked up in its 2015 acquisition of Alstoms power grid product lines.

Separately that year, GE spun off Synchrony Financial as an independent retail finance company, which remains based in Stamford.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Descendants of people enslaved in Louisiana are seeking to keep a $400 million grain terminal out of their community by suing to abolish the lands 1990 corrupt rezoning as industrial.

That ordinance was pushed through as part of a Formosa Plastics Corp. deal that collapsed and later sent a former parish president to prison, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in state court.

Greenfield Louisiana LLC, which plans to build a grain elevator, loading terminal and 54 silos, said the project would be clean, safe and provide more than 100 jobs.

Some residents doubt this. They are led by twins whose great-great grandmother was born into slavery and whose parents opposed use of the same land for a Formosa Plastics Corp. rayon plant 30 years ago.

Although we won the battle we did not win the war, because Greenfield Louisiana is now using the zoning created for Formosa, Jo Banner said at a livestreamed news conference after the lawsuit was filed.

Jo and Joy Banner say there's no place for such a terminal in Wallace, a mostly Black community of 775 about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from New Orleans.

Their suit stems from the 1990 corrupt rezoning, a news release said.

Six years after the land was rezoned, former St. John the Baptist president Lester Millet Jr. was convicted of extorting $200,000 from the friend he chose to broker the land sale.

After arranging the sale, Millet promised Formosa that if it purchased the Whitney Plantation for the rayon facility, he would use his authority to push through the needed rezoning, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in 1997. That opinion upheld Millets 1996 conviction for extortion, money laundering and a racketeering-related charge, his sentence of nearly 5 years, and an order to repay the money.

Formosa had dropped its plans in late 1992 in part because of mounting public opposition and in part because of the activities of Lester Millet, the federal appeals court wrote.

Banner said her parents withstood pressure 30 years ago: either sell or the parish will take our home."

Some homes in Wallace would be only 260 feet (79 meters) away, from the project, which also would include "a conveyor structure nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty, the lawsuit states.

Whitney Plantation and Museum, which casts a cold eye on slavery, now owns part of the land originally rezoned for the Formosa project. The museum, a historic church founded by freedmen after the Civil War, and a cafe owned by the Banners are among those that would be hurt if Greenfield builds there, according to the suit.

Greenfield's parent company, Medlock Investments, is owned by San Francisco investor Christopher Medlock James, whose Engine No. 1 investment firm unseated three ExxonMobil board members earlier this year.

Recently, he has been the subject of numerous glowing profiles hailing the activist investor for allegedly making Exxon more eco-friendly, Tuesday's news release said. He has managed to maintain his reputation as a crusading environmentalist only because his central role in the grain terminal is not yet widely known, the Banners say.

James backs the cleanest, safest and most-efficient way to support U.S. farmers, Greenfield Louisiana responded by email Wednesday through a public relations firm.

The project has won support from residents and public officials because of its direct local benefits, including good jobs, it continued.

Dust control systems, enclosed conveyor belts, ship loading spouts designed to eliminate dust during loading, self-cleaning silos and hazardous monitoring systems would keep it clean and safe, the website states.

The project will meet and far exceed all environmental protection standards, the email said.

State District Judge J. Sterling Snowdy set a hearing Dec. 16 in Edgard for the zoning challenge, said Bill Quigley, an attorney for the grain terminal opponents.

When you allege that a law is a nullity, you get to move to the front of the line, he said.
Michael Probst/AP

BERLIN (AP)  Lufthansa said Friday that it has repaid all the aid it received from the German government last year to help the airline through the coronavirus pandemic.

Germanys biggest airline, which also owns carriers including Austrian Airlines and Swiss, received a 9 billion euro ($10.3 billion) government rescue package in mid-2020. The German government took a 20% stake in the company, which has long made clear that it wanted to pay back the aid quickly.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Biden administration is nominating its first set of U.S. Marshals, including the first Black man to serve as the U.S. Marshal in Minnesota, along with a slate of other historic firsts for U.S. attorney posts across the nation.

The nomination of Eddie Frizell to be the U.S. Marshal in the District of Minnesota comes months after two sheriffs deputies shot and killed a Black man in Minneapolis while assigned to a Marshals Service fugitive task force, sparking controversy about how the Justice Department was implementing its policy on body-worn cameras.

The shooting of Winston Boogie Smith Jr. in June sparked nights of protest in a city still reeling from the death of George Floyd. The officers, deputies from local sheriffs offices who work on the federal fugitive task force, were not wearing body cameras. Issues with local officers being prohibited from wearing body cameras has led some local police departments in Minnesota to pull their officers from federal task forces.

Frizell is a well-known figure in Minnesota law enforcement, having served as chief of the Metro Transit Police Department in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area since 2019. Before taking that position, he was a longtime police official in Minneapolis, serving in various positions, including as deputy chief of patrol, and as an inspector.

Andrew Luger, a former Obama-era U.S. attorney and partner at the law firm Jones Day, is being nominated to be U.S. attorney in Minnesota. Luger had previously served in the role as U.S. attorney in Minnesota from 2014 until 2017 and previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Minnesota and New York.

The White House is also nominating the first Black women to serve as U.S. attorneys in the Northern District of Ohio and the Eastern District of Michigan. And it will nominate the first Black men to serve as U.S. attorneys in Nevada and in the Middle District of Louisiana.

The Justice Departments 93 U.S. attorneys, who are responsible for federal criminal prosecutions in their respective districts, are likely to be central to efforts to combat violent crime.

The candidates were chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials in this field, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice, the White House said.

Biden has now nominated 37 people to serve as U.S. attorneys, positions that have been filled for months by acting U.S. attorneys.

Nevada Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson is being nominated to be the U.S. attorney in that state. Frierson has served in the state Assembly since 2010 and also works as an assistant public defender in Clark County, Nevada, the county home to Las Vegas. Frierson was elected to his current Assembly run in 2016 after previously serving from 2011 to 2014. He has been the speaker of the lower chamber since 2016.

In Michigan, the White House has nominated Mark Totten to be U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan. Totten, a former law school professor, has served as Chief Legal Counsel for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer since 2019. He is also a former federal and local prosecutor. And in the Eastern District of Michigan, officials are nominating Dawn Ison, who has served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the office since 2002.

The other nominees include Brandon Brown, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Western District of Louisiana, to run that office, and Ronald Gathe, Jr., to be the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana. Gathe is the chief of trials for the 18th Judicial District Attorneys Office in Louisiana and previously served as an assistant district attorney. He previously worked in private practice and is also the Vice President of Membership for the National Black Prosecutors Association, helping to establish the first and only chapter in Louisiana.

The White House will also nominate Ryan Buchanan to be the U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Georgia, where he has worked as an assistant U.S. attorney and deputy chief of the offices Violent Crime and National Security Section. And officials are also announcing the nomination of Marisa Darden to be U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Ohio, where she worked as a prosecutor from 2014 until 2019.

The White House is also announcing it is nominating LaDon Reynolds to serve as U.S. Marshal in the Northern District of Illinois, which includes Chicago. Reynolds is the police chief of the Oak Park Police Department in Illinois. The longtime officer also serves as the departments emergency preparedness coordinator.
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.
Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the 'RBI retail direct scheme' on Friday to allow retail investors to invest easily in government securities.

As per the scheme, investors will be able to directly open and maintain their government securities account free of cost with the central bank. The move would help widen the investor base to fund the governments massive borrowing programme.

The government will borrow Rs 5.03 lakh crore in the second half of the current fiscal to fund the revenue gap for reviving the economy. During the first half (April-September), the government has raised Rs 7.02 lakh crore via bonds.

Through the portal, an investor can invest in central government securities, treasury bills, state development loans and sovereign gold bonds. Individual investors can access the online portal to open a securities account with the RBI, bid in primary auctions and buy and sell securities. No fee is charged for the services under the scheme.

The retail direct gilt account (RDG account) with the RBI could be opened by filling up the online form and use the OTP received on the mobile number and e-mail ID to authenticate and submit the form. Payment can be made through net-banking/UPI facility from the linked bank account.

The retail direct scheme offers a safe, simple and direct channel for investment in government securities, the RBI said. The scheme places India in a list of a select few countries offering such a facility.

Ajay Manglunia, MD and head institutional fixed income at JM Financial, explained, Retail participation till now continues to remain low in government bonds primarily because buying and selling of bonds is not seamless. For example, if an investor buys a government bond and has made the payment, he has to wait for the security to be converted from Subsidiary General Ledger (SGL) form to demat form to put through trades on Negotiated Dealing System Order Matching (NDS-OM). Similarly for selling the bond he will have to wait for conversion from demat to Subsidiary Gen-eral Ledger (SGL) form.

Secondly, prices of the retail lot are not so efficient because of the smaller lot size. The market lot in government bonds is minimum Rs 5 crore and in multiples of Rs 5 crore thereof. So, if a small investor wants to trade in smaller lots, he has to pay an extra price. Similarly, if he wants to sell, he gets a lower price. These issues are old and well known to all of us, hopefully now they have been addressed in the RBI retail direct scheme.

Another scheme to be launched by the prime minister is the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, which aims to improve the grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against entities regulated by the central bank i.e banks, NBFCs and non-bank payment system participants.

The grievance redressal mechanism currently comprises three Ombudsman schemesthe Banking Ombudsman Scheme, the Ombudsman Scheme for NBFCs and the Ombuds-man Scheme for Digital Transactions. This will be unified for single point of reference for the customers.
Mumbai: Makers of Drushyam 2 have released the teaser and release date for the upcoming sequel to the much-loved Telugu superhit Drushyam (2014).

Headlined by Venkatesh Daggubati, the thriller is set to release in Telugu on Amazon Prime Video on November 25, 2021, in India and across 240 countries and territories. The sequel is the remake of Mohanlal-starrer Drishyam 2 released in Malayalam.

The teaser gives a glimpse of the film, set six years since the events of Drushyam. The plot delves deep into the life of Rambabu, a changed man now. However, a criminal investigation ensues threatening the wellbeing of his family.

As tables turn, it's upon Rambabu to give it his all and protect his close ones yet again in this gripping tale of deceit, lies and mystery. The riveting crime drama is all set to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Will Rambabu be able to protect his family this time?

Directed by Jeethu Joseph and produced by D. Suresh Babu, Rajkumar Sethupathy and Antony Perumbavoor of Suresh Productions, Rajkumar Theatres and Max Movies, the film also stars Meena, Tanikella Bharani, Nadhiya, Naresh, Sampath Raj, Kruthika, Jayakumar and Esther Anil.

The movie is set to release on Amazon Prime Video on November 25.
The CAG, in its report submitted at the state assembly on Thursday, said the flood plains in the state are yet to be demarcated and the flood plain zoning law is yet to be enacted. (AFP Photo)

Thiruvananthapuram: A day after a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India picked holes in the flood management of the Kerala government, the opposition Congress on Friday said the 'tragic failure' in the dam management had aggravated the impact of 2018 floods in the state and the findings of the central agency had already been pointed out by them in the Assembly.

The flood situation was made worse by those who did not know even the basics of dam management but instead of conducting a probe, the Left government tried to protect the accused, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan told reporters here.

"The government, in its reply to CAG's questions in the Assembly, admitted that the dam management had failed. However, contrary to that, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the House that there was nothing wrong with the same," he said.

Stating that he himself had sought notice for three adjournment motions on the subject in the Assembly, he also charged that the government had a role in the massive destruction of life and property of people in the floods.

The opening of all dams at a stretch without a co-ordinated reservoir management system was the cause for the aggravated impact of the deluge, he added.

Pointing out the references about the grim financial situation of the state in the CAG report, Satheesan said at a time when the state was facing such a huge debt trap, the government was trying to implement the Rs 1.24 lakh crore-worth Silver Line project.

"Where to find such a mammoth amount? The government is making a vicious attempt to impose a liability of Rs 1.24 crore on the state," he alleged.

The CAG, in its report submitted at the state assembly on Thursday, said the flood plains in the state are yet to be demarcated and the flood plain zoning law is yet to be enacted.

The authorities had failed to issue precautionary alerts or warning when the deluge had wreaked havoc in the southern state in 2018, it said in a latest report.

"The Kerala State Water Policy 2008 was not updated in accordance with the National Water Policy and lacked provisions for flood control and flood management in the state," the CAG said in the report titled "Preparedness and Response to floods in Kerala".

The CAG's Finance audit report, also tabled in the Assembly, said that the state did not achieve any of the targets fixed in the Medium Term Fiscal Plan.

"The overall debt as a percentage of GSDP for 2019-20 increased from 31.05 per cent to 32.07 per cent," it added.

The CAG also continued to criticise the state government's off-budget borrowing through the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and the Kerala Social Security Pension Limited.
Facebook (now called Meta) is stifling an independent report it commissioned to probe hate speech on its platforms in India, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday citing human rights groups.

The human rights team at Facebook, which is facing intense scrutiny worldwide, including in India, has reportedly "narrowed the draft report's scope and are delaying a process that has already taken more than a year, the groups say".

According to independent human rights groups, they have provided extensive input to a US law firm that Facebook commissioned in mid-2020 to undertake the report.

Also Read | Hate speech content decreasing on Facebook, Instagram: Meta

"The groups say they supplied hundreds of examples of inflammatory content and suggested ways Facebook could better police its services in India," the report mentioned.

"They are trying to kill it," said Ratik Asokan of India Civil Watch International.

Facebook has faced criticism from rights groups for failing to sanitise its platform in India.

Also Read | Facebook whistleblower fears the metaverse

The social network has more than 300 users, along with over 400 million on WhatsApp in India.

According to a Facebook spokesperson, with a complex project like this, the goal is to be thorough, not to meet an arbitrary deadline.

"We look forward to our independent assessor, Foley Hoag, completing their India assessment," the spokesperson told the WSJ.

Also Read | Facebook parent Meta to take politics, race out of ad targeting

The WSJ reported last month that Facebook researchers have found that its products in India are full of "inflammatory content that one report linked to deadly religious riots, according to internal documents".

After whistleblower Frances Haugen accused Facebook of not taking action on fear-mongering and hate content related to India because of "the lack of Hindi and Bengali classifiers," experts have said Facebook has no mechanism to deal with hate content in local or regional languages.

Arvind Gupta, social media expert and head of Digital India Foundation, told IANS, "Whether Facebook accepts it or not, it is a fact that it has no mechanism to deal with content in regional languages and that is why this kind of problem keeps arising."

Also Read | What to do about Facebook, and what not to do

In the past, Facebook has faced several allegations of inaction against hate content in India.

In January this year, a Parliament Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) had issued summons to officials of Facebook and Twitter to question them over misuse of the social media or online news platforms. The committee has also questioned Facebook's India head, Ajit Mohan, over the issue of political bias on the social media platform.

The allegations of a Facebook bias towards the BJP were reported in The Wall Street Journal in August 2020 and had claimed that Ankhi Das, the platform's then India Policy Head had opposed the idea of removing hate posts by BJP leaders, warning that this could hamper their "commercial interests".

Das later quit Facebook.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
A raging measles outbreak has sickened thousands and killed nearly 100 in crisis-ravaged Afghanistan this year, the World Health Organization said Friday, warning that many more would die without urgent action.

The UN health agency said the outbreak was particularly concerning since Afghanistan is facing surging food insecurity and malnutrition.

"For malnourished children, measles is a death sentence," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told journalists in Geneva via video-link from Kabul.

She stressed the need to urgently scale up disease surveillance and testing in the country, but said that even without sufficient monitoring, it was clear that "a measles outbreak is raging."

"We have seen higher numbers of cases this year and we are seeing new cases every day," she said.

Also read: At least 3 killed in blast at Afghanistan mosque

Since the start of the year, more than 24,000 cases of the highly contagious disease have been diagnosed clinically in Afghanistan, including 2,397 laboratory-confirmed cases.

"Sadly, we've had 87 deaths reported," Harris said, warning that "we will see so many more if we don't move on this quickly."

The United Nations has repeatedly warned that Afghanistan is on the brink of the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than half the country facing "acute" food shortages and winter forcing millions to choose between migration and starvation.

Harris said Friday that over three million children under the age of five in the country are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of this year.

More than one million of them could suffer from the most severe form of malnutrition and risk dying.

Harris said the WHO did not have specific numbers for how many children have already died from malnutrition in the country.

But she said the agency staff was hearing anecdotally of a number of cases and seeing devastating scenes in health centres treating severally malnourished children.

"It is happening and it is happening now," she said.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
A Ugandan activist channelled the fears of many young people and vulnerable countries at Thursday's UN climate talks in Glasgow that world leaders won't take the action needed to prevent potentially lethal levels of global warming.

The latest available science tells us that in order to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, we must reduce global CO2 emissions by somewhere between 7% to 11% this year, and next year, and every year after year, until we get to zero, Vanessa Nakate told business and political leaders in an impassioned speech at the conference.

In reality, annual emissions are expected to surge in 2021, as the world economy bounces back from the pandemic.

"So I hope you can understand why many of the activists who are here in Glasgow, and millions of activists who could not be here, do not see the success that is being applauded within these halls, said Nakate.

Also Read | COP26: Climate pledges 'hollow' without fossil fuel phase out

Experts say that all of the latest pledges made by governments around the world could, if fully realised, bend the curve of global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit)  the upper threshold set in the 2015 Paris accord.

But scenarios that look at what countries have committed to in the short term put warming at 2.7C (4.9F), far beyond levels scientists consider safe for human civilisation. The head of the United Nations told The Associated Press on Thursday that he believes the more ambitious Paris goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C is now on life support.

Where I live, a two-degree world means that a billion people will be affected by extreme heat stress, said Nakate.

Some places in the global south will regularly reach a wet bulb temperature of 35 degrees Celsius (95 F)," she said, referring to a situation of extreme heat that researchers say is becoming increasingly common.

At that temperature the human body, cannot cool itself by sweating, said Nakate. "Even healthy people sitting in the shade will die within six hours.

Her words echoed dramatic warnings coming from others at the talks such as Tuvalu, whose foreign minister delivered a speech to the UN climate talks knee-deep in the ocean waters that will engulf his island nation if global warming continues on its current track.

The Pacific island nation's finance and climate minister, Seve Paeniu, said Tuvalu was already looking at a massive project to lift the surface of the island nation above the rising ocean level at a cost of hundreds of millions.

It threatens the survival of our people, he said.

Nakate called for drastic action (that) will pull us back from the abyss, saying past promises on climate change had been repeatedly broken.

I'm actually here to beg you to prove us wrong, the 24-year-old said. We desperately need you to prove us wrong. Please prove us wrong. God, help us all, if you fail to prove us wrong. God help us.
Europe has become the epicentre of the pandemic again, prompting some governments to consider re-imposing unpopular lockdowns in the run-up to Christmas and stirring debate over whether vaccines alone are enough to tame Covid-19.

Europe accounts for more than half of the average 7-day infections globally and about half of latest deaths, according to a Reuters tally, the highest levels since April last year when the virus was at its initial peak in Italy.

The fresh concerns come as successful inoculation campaigns have plateaued ahead of the winter months and flu season.

About 65 per cent of the population of the European Economic Area (EEA) - which includes the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway - have received two doses, according to EU data, but the pace has slowed in recent months.

Also Read | Human brain cells not infected by Covid virus: Study

Take-up in southern European countries is around 80 per cent, but hesitancy has hampered rollout in central and eastern Europe and Russia, leading to outbreaks that could overwhelm healthcare.

Germany, France and the Netherlands are also experiencing a surge in infections, showing the challenge even for governments with high acceptance rates.

To be sure, hospitalisations and deaths are much lower than a year ago and big variations by country in use of vaccines and boosters as well as measures like social distancing make it hard to draw conclusions for the whole region.

'Don't take eye off the ball'

But a combination of low vaccine take-up in some parts, waning immunity among those inoculated early and complacency about masks and distancing as governments relaxed curbs over the summer are likely to blame, virologists and public health experts told Reuters.

"If there's one thing to learn from this it's not to take your eye off the ball," said Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick Medical School in the UK.

The World Health Organization's report for the week to Nov. 7 showed that Europe, including Russia, was the only region to record a rise in cases, up 7 per cent, while other areas reported declines or stable trends.

Similarly, it reported a 10 per cent increase in deaths, while other regions reported declines.

Governments and companies are worried the prolonged pandemic will derail a fragile economic recovery, and a slew of countries are taking measures to curb the spread.

Also Read | New RNA-based therapy protects mice from Covid virus, variants: Study

In the Netherlands, bars and restaurants will close early and sporting events will be held without audiences under a three-week partial lockdown that will be Western Europe's first since the summer and that is expected to be announced on Friday evening.

Germany will reintroduce free Covid-19 tests from Saturday, acting health minister Jens Spahn said on Friday. A draft law in Germany would allow for measures such as compulsory face masks and social distancing in public spaces to continue to be enforced until next March.

Austria's government is likely to decide on Sunday to impose a lockdown on people who are not vaccinated, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said on Friday.

Booster Shots

Most EU countries are deploying extra shots to the elderly and those with weakened immune systems, but expanding vaccination to more of the population should be a priority to avoid steps like lockdown, scientists said.

"The real urgency is to widen the pool of vaccinated people as much as possible," said Carlo Federico Perno, head of microbiology and immunology diagnostics at Rome's Bambino Gesu Hospital.

The EU's medicines regulator is also evaluating the use of Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine in 5 to 11-year-olds.

Norway will offer a third Covid-19 vaccine dose to everyone aged 18 and older and will give municipalities the option of using digital "corona passes", the government said on Friday. Norway has so far given a third dose only to those aged 65 and older.

From Dec. 1, Italy will also offer the third dose to people over 40.

"This (outbreak) will probably make the EU look at booster doses and say 'we do need them pronto'," said Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton.

Central, Eastern Europe

Still struggling to ramp up shots, central and eastern European governments have had to take drastic action.

Latvia, one of the least vaccinated countries in the EU, imposed a four-week lockdown in mid-October.

The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia have also tightened restrictions. The Czech cabinet will consider on Friday whether fresh measures are needed.

Vaccines alone are not the silver bullet to defeat the pandemic in the long term, virologists say.

Several pointed to Israel as an example of good practice: in addition to inoculations, it has reinforced mask wearing and introduced vaccine passports after cases spiked a few months ago.

Measures such as spacing, masks and vaccine mandates for indoor venues are essential, said Antonella Viola, professor of immunology at Italy's University of Padua.

"If one of these two things is lacking, we see situations such as we are seeing in many European countries these days."

Check out the latest videos from DH:
Pakistan has long played an active and, by many accounts, disruptive and destabilising role in Afghan affairs, including through the provision of support to the Taliban, a latest Congressional report on Afghanistan has said.

In the report, which has been prepared by independent subject area experts, the bipartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) said that if other countries such as Pakistan, Russia, China, or US partners such as Qatar move towards greater acceptance of the Taliban, it could isolate the United States, weakening its leverage and giving the Taliban greater opportunities to evade or counter the US pressure.

Most immediately, a more punitive US approach could exacerbate the already dire humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan with uncertain implications for Taliban rule and regional dynamics.

Also Read | Taliban in Afghanistan interested in communicating with world, says Pakistan FM Qureshi at Troika Plus meet

CRS reports are prepared for lawmakers to make informed decisions on various issues of their interest. It is not considered an official view or report of the US Congress.

"Pakistan has long played an active and, by many accounts, disruptive and destabilising role in Afghan affairs, including through the provision of active and passive support to the Taliban.

"Many observers see the Taliban's takeover (of Afghanistan) as a substantive triumph for Pakistan, bolstering its influence in Afghanistan and advancing its decades-long efforts to limit Indian influence there," the report said.

"Still, Pakistani officials claim that their influence over the Taliban is limited. More broadly, despite some implicitly pro-Taliban statements from top Pakistani officials, the Taliban's takeover may present challenges and complications for Pakistan," it said.

Pakistan has been trying to convince the world to diplomatically engage with the Taliban after they seized control of Kabul on August 15. However, the international community is still sceptical about the hardline Islamists, especially on issues like terrorism emanating from the war-torn country and their promises to respect human rights.

Also Read | Afghanistan 'at brink of economic collapse', warns Pakistan

The report stated that the acceptance of a Taliban government that acts to secure some US national security interests (such as combatting ISKP) while not governing democratically or protecting human rights could also pose a difficult, if familiar, challenge for US policymakers.

It said that a US policy response that rejects and seeks to weaken the Taliban may have broad domestic support, given the history of conflict and Taliban policies that undermine US interests. It is unclear to what extent, if at all, the Taliban might change their behaviour in response to US actions, but the group appears to be prioritising internal cohesion over compromises that might appeal to foreign actors.

"A less oppositional US approach towards the Taliban could allow for greater US access to, and perhaps influence over, the group and events in Afghanistan. Engagement with a Taliban government that acts in support of some US interests and against others could compel US policymakers to weigh and prioritise those interests, posing a difficult challenge," the report said.

The Taliban swept across Afghanistan in August, seizing control of all key towns and cities in the backdrop of withdrawal of the US forces that began on May 1. The militant group ousted the elected government of President Ashraf Ghani, forcing him to flee the country.

The US froze over $9 billion of assets of the Afghan central bank after the Taliban insurgents seized power in the country.

Check out DH's latest videos:
By David Goodman for The Conversation,

As the Chinese Communist Partys sixth plenary session wraps up in Beijing, much of the focus outside China has been on two key aspects.

The first is the meeting was primarily designed to strengthen the political position of Xi Jinping as both general secretary of the CCP and president of the country heading into next years Party Congress when he looks certain to secure a third five-year term as leader.

The second is the approval of a resolution on Communist Party history. This was intended not only to cement Xis position in the party, but also determine the official narrative of CCP history that will provide an ideological guide to future policies.

Notwithstanding Xis centrality in all of this  as well as the significance of a resolution on party history  these interpretations of the events may be somewhat misleading.

How Mao and Deng cemented power

The inner political dynamics of the CCPs leadership are largely unknown. Commentators guess intelligently about groups and factions, about policy divides and preferences, about past experiences and future visions.

Xi occupies the leading position in the political system, and has done since 2012. At the same time, Xis current position in the party is different to that of former leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping when they initiated the previous resolutions on party history in 1945 and 1981, respectively.

Also read: Under Xi, China up against many challenges

Both Mao and Deng had well-established political authority that was in many ways independent of their formal positions in the CCP.

From 1927 to the early 1940s, Mao had been on the outside of the party leadership in many ways. It was his insistence on a rural-based, guerrilla strategy to acquire national political power and to fight the Japanese that eventually proved successful  and proved others wrong. This became the political base of the CCP that was celebrated in 1945.

When the CCP used this strategy to take control of China in 1949, it essentially bestowed on Mao an almost unchallengeable authority over others, including apparently close colleagues (including Deng). That authority was a major contributing factor in the development of the Cultural Revolution.

A recognition of the political errors of the years from 1966 to Maos death in 1976 was a major point of the 1981 resolution on party history, passed under Dengs leadership.

Deng was able to bring about Chinas opening up and economic reforms in the late 1970s. He also had the power to re-interpret the past because of his role in the CCPs early development, and the fact he had been a victim of the Cultural Revolution, as well as one of Maos righthand men from the early 1930s.

During those years, he developed close relationships with others in the CCPs leadership, which helped him when he was in trouble, such as during the Cultural Revolution.

How strong is Xis support?

It is reasonable to assume Xi has had close supporters within the leadership of the CCP, and even among former leaders. However, they are not as visible, for the most part, as was the case for Mao and Deng.

In both their cases, many of their supporters and allies were relatively well-known. In Xis case, this is remarkably less the case.

Also read: China's leader Xi Jinping warns against 'Cold War' in Asia-Pacific

At the moment, he certainly does not have the degree of independent political authority enjoyed by Mao and Deng, though he may be considerably respected in his positions as the Chinese president and general secretary of the CCP.

The CCPs formal events, such as this weeks plenary session and next years Party Congress, do not determine policies or party ideology, or decide on appointments and leaders. All these actions are settled well in advance. The purpose of such meetings is to transmit political messages.

Much attention will inevitably be paid to how the new resolution on party history deals with the interpretation of the past 100 years since the founding of the CCP. Of more immediate interest, though, are the pointers to the future.

Xis role is clearly seen as central to the partys leadership, and especially its ideological development.

Much has been made of the change to the PRC constitution in 2018 to remove the two-term limit on presidents, enabling Xi to stay in the office after 2023. Interestingly, though, there have never been any term limits to the significantly more important position of CCP general secretary.

Only time will tell whether this will result in a personal political position with the same kind of authority and independence as Mao or Deng, as some have claimed, or the further manifestation of the coalition of ideas, people and forces who have supported him since 2012.

What other messages emerged from the meeting?

The party meeting is also significant because it confirms recent shifts in the partys policies and strategies. These are not as dramatic as those formulated in 1981 when the country opened up, but they are likely to prove significant not just for China, but also the rest of the world.

Much of the recent commentary on political change in China over the last few years, for example, has highlighted the CCPs appeals to nationalism and patriotism.

The communique from the meeting reinforces this, focusing on the strength of Chinas emerging position in both the region in the world.

China was content in the early years of its post-Mao economic growth to keep a low profile internationally. Now, however, it has become more assertive in its international reach, not only towards Hong Kong and the South China Sea, but also through international economic institutions and strategies such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road Initiative.

At the same time, domestic considerations are central to the CCPs new ideological goals. Most obvious is the drive to grow a middle class consumer society, a goal frequently described by the CCP as creating an olive-shaped society.

The new (but so far largely undetailed) policy goal of common prosperity is designed to assist poorer people to learn new skills to improve their economic positions, while reassuring the still relatively small middle class their social status and economic wealth are not under threat.

The party was less explicit, however, in how it will deal with the likely challenge of generational change in China and the publics continued belief in the CCPs centrality in political life and wider society.

Generational change within the CCP leadership may also be of concern to many of its senior members.

This is where Xi may play a central role in holding together the CCPs leadership coalition. Certainly this would seem to be the case from the formal communique of the party meeting.

Xis contributions to the partys leadership since 2012 and for the future are indeed emphasised. At the same time, this is part of a historical trajectory that highlights not only Mao and Deng, but also Xis immediate predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao.

(The author is a Director at China Studies Centre and Professor of Chinese Politics at University of Sydney)
Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla is in West Bengal to discuss pending land acquisition cases for the construction of a border fence, road projects and other issues with the chief secretary of the state.

Bhalla's visit to Kolkata for a meeting with West Bengal Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi is the first after a row erupted over the summoning of the then state chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay by the Centre for not being present at a cyclone review meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May.

The Union home secretary is visiting Kolkata for a meeting with the state chief secretary to discuss pending land acquisition cases for the construction of a border fence and road projects, border outposts and integrated checkposts, a home ministry official said.

West Bengal shares borders with Bangladesh (over 2,200 km), Bhutan (about 183 km) and Nepal (about 100 km).

In May, the Centre had accused Bandyopadhyay, the principal advisor to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, of indulging in conduct that is "unbecoming of an IAS officer" by not attending the cyclone review meeting held by the prime minister.

Bandyopadhyay was asked to report to the Centre but the state government had refused to release the top officer and instead, allowed him to retire on May 31.

Subsequently, he was appointed as the principal advisor to the chief minister.

Check out latest videos from DH:
Amid spiralling allegations against the BJP government in the bitcoin scam, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advised him not to worry about the issue and instead work for the people with dedication and honesty.

Bommai, who called on Modi in the capital, said the matter was not discussed during the half-hour meeting with the prime minister.

However, when I tried to raise it during the meeting, the PM told me not to bother about all these issues, Bommai said.

The state government has come under criticism in the cryptocurrency case, as blacklisted bitcoins from a crypto exchange allegedly hacked by notorious hacker Sriki were transferred to unknown wallets.

Bommai said he also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President J P Nadda separately on Wednesday night but the bitcoin controversy did not come up for discussion.

Also Read | PM wants scholarship scheme for farmers' children successfully implemented in Karnataka: Bommai

The CM, however, said he discussed with Modi the recent Assembly bypolls in which the BJP lost in Hangal.

The PM said wins and defeats in elections are common. Gaining peoples confidence and delivering good governance are more important, Bommai said, adding that Modi advised me to focus on winning maximum seats in the 2023 Assembly polls and work hard for delivering people-friendly governance.

The chief minister said he has invited the PM to lay the foundation stone for the Bengaluru suburban railway project, inaugurate the Ambedkar School of Economics and upgrade 100 ITIs and some other projects. The PM has agreed to visit Karnataka in December, he said.

Only developmental issues and state politics were discussed with Shah and Nadda, he said, adding that Nadda has promised to visit Bengaluru soon and hold meeting with state leaders.

Bommai also met Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and requested him to permit the procurement of ragi and jowar locally under the public distribution system.

Check out DH's latest videos
The top BJP leaders are feeling uneasy over the partys sure defeat in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and that is why they are rushing to state repeatedly, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav claimed on Friday.

Yadav made the claim shortly after Union Home Minister and former BJP president Amit Shah reached Varanasi to discuss the partys poll strategy for the upcoming assembly election. Shah is also slated to visit Azamgarh, Yadavs parliamentary constituency during his current two-day visit.

Earlier during the day, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited Lucknow to attend a meeting for promoting investment in UP Defence Industrial Corridor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the Purvanchal Expressway on November 16.

"The top BJP leadership is feeling uneasy seeing its defeat in the upcoming assembly polls. This is the reason every week some of its leaders are rushing to the state. The more they fear the prospect of the BJP defeat, the more BJP leaders will visit UP," Akhilesh said in a statement issued here.

Also read: Amit Shah reaches Varanasi to attend meet ahead of UP Assembly polls

Claiming that the BJP government in the state has proved to be a "complete failure" in the past four and a half years, he said due to its functioning, there is a resentment among the people amid the states law and order becoming bad to worse.

The SP chief alleged that under the BJP rule in the state, farmers have been left agitating, youths feeling desperate due to rising unemployment and women insecure even as the education and health services have reached their nadir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath may feel happy putting up their name plaques at as many places as they can but the people of the state know that the BJP government is befooling them, the former UP CM claimed.

Yadav also accused the Yogi government of misappropriating credits for the work done by his government before 2017. He claimed it was his government which had planned to build the Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway from Lucknow to Ballia and had laid its foundation stone during its regime after acquiring the land.

"But the BJP government stopped the work out of malice and laid the foundation stone afresh after removing the Samajwadi word for taking credit, he said. The BJP is now going to present it as its own work, he said.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
Amid a row over his views on Hindutva, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Thursday stood by what he has written in his new book and asserted that Hindutva has pushed aside 'Sanatan Dharma' and Hinduism and taken an aggressive position similar to Boko Haram and the likes.

Khurshid sparked a controversy by comparing a "robust version" of Hindutva to the jihadist Islam of terror groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram, in his book prompting the BJP to accuse the Congress of weaving a "web like a spider against Hindus".

Asked about the row, Khurshid told PTI, "I have not called these guys terrorists, I have just said they are similar in distorting religion. What Hindutva has done, it has pushed aside Sanatan Dharma' and Hinduism and it has taken over a robust, aggressive position similar to Boko Haram and those other guys."

"I could not find anybody else that they could be similar to. I said they are similar to them, that's all, nothing to do with Hinduism. Hindutva, as portrayed by its proponents, is distorting religion," he said.

Also Read | Complaint against Salman Khurshid for comparing Hindutva to ISIS, Boko Haram

Khurshid's remarks also came in for criticism from within the Congress party with senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad dismissing as "factually wrong and an exaggeration" Khurshid's comparison.

On Azad's remarks, Khurshid said, "Mr Azad has said he disagrees with the ideology of Hindutva... I have explained why we disagree."

"After that he (Azad) said this is an exaggeration. Now exaggeration, measurement and assessment and perception that varies from person to person. It may seem exaggerated to him, it does not seem exaggerated to me," the former Union minister said.

Dismissing the notion of little or a lot of distortion, Khurshid asserted that if there is a distortion, it is a distortion.

"I don't want to engage him (Azad) in an argument because I think he must have said it in a casual moment when he had nothing serious thoughtful consideration of it. But if he said it, we respect him for what he says, he is a senior person, but it will not make me change my mind," he said.

Also Read | Comparing Hindutva with ISIS, jihadist Islam 'factually wrong, exaggeration': Azad on Khurshid book

Azad, a former leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and a member of the Group of 23 leaders that wrote to party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking organisational overhaul, tweeted, "In Mr. Salman Khursheed's new book, we may not agree with Hindutva as a political ideology distinct from composite culture of Hinduism, but comparing Hindutva with ISIS and Jihadist Islam is factually wrong and an exaggeration."

The book by former Union minister Khurshid on the Ayodhya verdict, titled 'Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times', was released on Wednesday.

A Delhi-based lawyer has filed a complaint with the Delhi Police seeking registration of an FIR against Khurshid on the matter.

According to lawyer Vivek Garg, Khurshid in his book writes: "Sanatan Dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints were being pushed aside by a robust version of Hindutva, by all standards a political version similar to the jihadist Islam of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram of recent years."

Check out DH's latest videos
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday had a meeting with a visiting delegation of the American Congress, led by Senator John Cornyn, who recently argued that President Joe Bidens administration should grant India a waiver from the United States sanctions under the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

Jaishankar and the visiting American Congress members discussed the situation in the Indo-Pacific, where India and the United States forged a coalition with Japan and Australia to counter the geopolitical influence of China.

They also discussed the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban of late returned to power taking advantage of the withdrawal of troops by the US and its NATO allies.

Also Read | PM Modi holds fruitful meeting with Israeli Premier Bennett; review bilateral ties

Pleased to meet US Congress Delegation led by Sen @JohnCornyn today in New Delhi. A productive exchange of views on bilateral cooperation and regional issues, including Indo-Pacific and Afghanistan, Jaishankar posted on Twitter.

New Delhi is hosting the American congressional delegation just shortly after three US Senators introduced a proposed amendment to the National Defence Authorization Act 2022 to make it difficult for the Biden Administration or the successive dispensations in Washington DC to impose the CAATSA sanctions on India for procuring S-400 Triumf missile defence system.

Three Republican Partys Senators  Ted Cruz, Todd Young and Roger Marshall  introduced the proposed amendment to the NDAA 2022, seeking to make it mandatory for the US President to certify to an appropriate committee of the American Congress before imposing the CAATSA sanctions on India, Japan or Australia  the partners of the US in Quad  that the particular country had failed to cooperate with the US in security matters critical to the strategic interests of the US.

Also Read | Indias support to Africa has always been without any conditionalities or hidden agenda: Jaishankar

Cornyn, who is leading the American Congress delegation visiting New Delhi, also pointed out that India had substantially lessened its reliance on Russia for military hardware and had shown interest to buy more weapons from the US and hence should not be placed under the CAATSA sanctions.

Wendy Sherman, US Deputy Secretary of State, said during a visit to New Delhi last month that Indias decision to buy S-400 Triumf missile defence systems from Russia was a problem in the relationship between New Delhi and Washington D.C., as it was not in the security interests of anyone. She, however, said that the US and India shared a strong partnership and the two nations would hopefully be able to address the issue and resolve it through bilateral talks, just as they dealt with other problems in the relations.

The US hinted on several occasions in the past that New Delhis S-400 missile deal with Moscow could threaten future US-India defence cooperation and put India at risk of sanctions under Section 231 of the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

Also Read | Jaishankar discusses growing bilateral relations, global strategic affairs with Israeli President Herzog

India in October 2018 inked a $ 5.4 billion deal to buy five S-400 Triumf long-range surface-to-air missile systems from Almaz-Antey Corporation of Russia and is expecting the delivery to start by the end of this year.

The US Congress had in July 2017 passed the CAATSA to impose sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea. The then US President Donald Trump had signed it into law in August 2017 and its scope had been further expanded in October 2017.

Section 231 of the CAATSA mandates secondary sanctions to any nation entering into high-value deals to procure military hardware from Russia.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
A war of words ensued between Amit Mitra, Bengals former finance minister and serving principal chief advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, once again exposing the uneasy relationship between the state government and the Raj Bhavan.

Governor Dhankar, on Tuesday, tweeted, asking the chief minister to put forward a white paper on the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS), an event to highlight investment opportunities in the state, announced on Monday for April 20 and 21 next year.

Call upon @MamataOfficial to come out with a WHITE PAPER #BGBS so that information is available in transparent and accountable manner. It is our obligation that we subscribe to sanctity of facts and not dictate actions by mere optics of advertisements and statements.

Call upon @MamataOfficial to come out with a WHITE PAPER #BGBS so that information is available in transparent and accountable manner. It is our obligation that we subscribe to sanctity of facts and not dictate actions by mere optics of advertisements and statements.  Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) November 9, 2021

The tweet also slammed the CM's lack of response to critical issues the governor flagged about the summit in 2020. Concerned at lack response @MamataOfficial on critical issues flagged a year ago on 5 editions #BGBS. Ground reality belies resounding success syndrome. Rule of law, respect for human rights & democratic values are imperative for investment. Much needs to be done on these fronts.

Mitra on Wednesday responded with a thread of tweets alleging that while the governor has earlier talked about working together, he has tweeted the opposite. Mitra also posted a letter, dated September 29, 2020 addressed to the governor that detailed BGBS. It is shocking that he seeks response when I had officially responded with a 4-page letter on Summits, giving data on investment offers UNDER IMPLEMENTATION, EMPLOYMENT generation etc, (read letter below). Is he suffering from AMNESIA & needs HELP or is it a Machiavellian omission?

Hon Governors tweet on Business Summits is a classic case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.On 9th Nov he strongly supported CMs plan of next Summit I will leave nothing undone..&togetherness& within 24 hours he tweets venom on Summits,by putting out a year old letter to CM & FM,(me)!  Dr Amit Mitra (@DrAmitMitra) November 10, 2021

Hon Governors tweet on Business Summits is a classic case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. On 9th Nov he strongly supported CMs plan of next Summit I will leave nothing undone..&togetherness& within 24 hours he tweets venom on Summits, by putting out a year old letter to CM & FM,(me)! the tweet added.

Governor Dhankar responded, Never expected such low from Dr Mitra. Blissfully he takes to tangential evasive route. Where is response to the five issues issues flagged by me. A probe would reveal all skeletons so far well stacked."

On Thursday, Governor Dhankar once again tweeted a video message, asking Mitra to offer details on investments made, investors details, and employment generated.

Check out DH's latest videos
The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh is contemplating banning in the state, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid's book in which he has compared Hindutva to radical jihadist groups like ISIS and Boko Haram, after taking legal opinion on the matter, said Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Friday.

The minister also hit out at Khurshid over the book on the Ayodhya verdict, titled Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times, which was released on Wednesday. Talking to reporters in Bhopal, Mishra said, "We will take the opinion of legal experts on the book and get it banned in Madhya Pradesh."

Also Read | Book row: Khurshid stands by his views on Hindutva

Mishra criticised Khurshid over the controversial content of the book and accused the former Union minister of targeting Hindutva and attempting to divide the majority community.

"These people do not leave any opportunity to target Hindutva and divide Hindus on caste lines. After 'Bharat Tere Tukde Honge Inshallah Inshallah', Rahul Gandhi was the first to go there (on that path). Salman Khurshid is now taking forward the same idea," he said.

Mishra stated that Congress leader Kamal Nath had earlier said this is not "Mahan Bharat" but a "Badnam Bharat" (in context of coronavirus pandemic), and his party colleague Khurshid is now moving in the same direction.

Khurshid, in his book, writes: "Sanatan Dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints were being pushed aside by a robust version of Hindutva, by all standards a political version similar to the jihadist Islam of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram of recent years."
In a scathing attack on the BJP and RSS ideology, top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that Hinduism is not about violently targeting "innocent" people but 'Hindutva' is and wondered why there are two words to describe both if they are the same as claimed by the right-wing.

At the same time, he admitted that the "divisive, hateful ideology" of the BJP and RSS has "overshadowed the loving, affectionate, nationalistic ideology" of the Congress, and said that they can "no longer not accept it".

Rahul's remarks came during his digital address to the delegates of the training programme organised by the Congress in Sevagram in Maharashtra's Wardha. His statement also came at a time senior leader Salman Khurshid equated the Hindutva supporters with jihadi fundamentalists like the Islamic State and Ghulam Nabi Azad finding fault with such a formulation.

Also Read | BJP govt in Madhya Pradesh to get Salman Khurshid's book banned, says Narottam Mishra

Rahul said that the Congress is following the ideology of the country but the overshadowing of their philosophy happened because they did not propagate it "progressively" among themselves as well as due to the "complete capture of the media and Indian nation" by those following Hindutva.

Targeting the RSS and BJP, he said, "Is there something in common between what Guru Nanak or Kabir said and Hindutva ideology? Is there something in common between Gandhi-ji or King Ashoka said and Hindutva ideology? What is the difference between Hinduism as we know it and Hindutva? Are they the same thing? Can they be the same thing? If they are the same thing, why don't they have the same name? Why do they have different names?"

Also Read | Modi govt does not have strategy on China, Mr 56 scared, alleges Rahul Gandhi

"Why do you use the word Hinduism, why not just use Hindutva if they are the same thing? They are obviously different things. Is Hinduism about beating a Sikh or a Muslim? Hindutva, of course, is. But is Hinduism about killing...in which book is it written? I have read the Upanishads. I have not seen it. Where is it written that you should kill an innocent man? I am unable to find this in Hindu scriptures, Islamic scriptures, Sikh scriptures. I can see it in Hindutva," he said.

The former Congress president advocated the need for training its leaders and workers and involving them in a conversation about what it meant to be a Congressman and what is the difference between being an RSS follower.

Emphasising the need to fight Hindutva ideology, he said, "our ideology is alive. It is vibrant but it has been overshadowed" and said that though some leaders may have a difference of opinion, he believed that training on ideology should be mandatory and all leaders and workers should undergo a "rigorous course" to develop a real understanding of what it is to be a Congressman."

Also Read | Comparing Hindutva with ISIS, jihadist Islam 'factually wrong, exaggeration': Azad on Khurshid book

Rahul said that if the Hindutva followers have their icon in V D Savarkar, the Congress supporters have in Mahatma Gandhi.

Referring to a conversation he had with Uttarakhand leader Yashpal Arya, who returned to Congress, Rahul said the Congress leader told him that it was difficult to stay in the BJP and the saffron party did not want to change the society but to use those who join them. "Some people leave because of fear but they cannot stay there," he said.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
India and France will carry out a 12-day military exercise beginning Monday in the French port town of Frejus with a focus on counter-terror operations.

A platoon strength of a Gorkha Rifles Infantry Battalion will represent the Indian Army while the French side will deploy troops of 21st Marine Infantry Regiment of 6th Light Armoured Brigade at the exercise, according to the defence ministry.

"Exercise Shakti will focus on counter-terrorism operations in the backdrop of semi-urban terrain under United Nations mandate with an aim to enhance military cooperation and interoperability between the two armies," it said.

The last edition of the exercise was conducted at Mahajan field firing ranges in Rajasthan in 2019.

The Indian Gorkha Rifles has a rich heritage marked by its military valour and supreme sacrifices with a glorious history of 68 years.

The French Army regiment has an illustrious operational history of more than 120 years and has participated in all the major wars involving the French Army.

The regiment specialises in amphibious warfare and has varied operational experiences in Africa, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Mali.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
The Supreme Court Friday granted time till November 15 to the Uttar Pradesh government for apprising its stand on the suggestion that a former judge of a different high court should monitor the state SIT probe on day-to-day basis in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people including four farmers were killed on October 3.

Would your Lordships give me time till Monday? I have almost got it done. We are working something out, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the UP government, told the bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana.

List on Monday, said the bench which, also comprised justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, acceding to the request.

The apex court, on November 8, had expressed dissatisfaction over the probe and suggested that to infuse "independence, impartiality and fairness in the ongoing investigation, a former judge of a different high court should monitor it on day-to-day basis.

Also Read  Lakhimpur violence: Forensics report confirms shot fired from Ashish Mishra's gun

The bench had also said that it has no confidence and does not want the one-member judicial commission appointed by the state to continue probe into the case.

Retired Allahabad High Court judge Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava was named by the state government to enquire into the eruption of violence on Tikonia-Banbirpur road in Lakhimpur Kheri district.

The state government was asked to inform about its stand on the suggestion of monitoring of probe by a former judge of a different high court.

We, somehow or the other, are not confident and we do want any judicial commission appointed by your state government to continue, the bench had said.

Observing that the investigation was not going the way it expected, the bench had red flagged some of the issues pertaining to the SIT probe conducted so far and said: prima facie it appears that one particular accused (in the farmers mowing down case) is sought to be given benefit by securing or procuring evidence from witnesses in the subsequent case related to the lynching of political activists by the farmers mob.

It was also very critical of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of state police for seizing the mobile of Ashish Mishra, one of the arrested 13 accused, and rest of the phones belonged to the witnesses to the alleged mowing down of the farmers.

We have seen the status report. There is nothing in the status report except to say that some more witnesses have been examined. We granted 10 days time. Laboratory reports have not come. No, no, no...it is not going the way we expected, it had said.

We propose to appoint a person like say from Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Ranjit Singh, who has an expertise in criminal law and army background... let an independent judge like Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, again from the same HC, monitor everything, it had said.

Also Read  OPINION | A 'no confidence'in UP probe

Prior to this, the bench had directed the Uttar Pradesh government to provide protection to witnesses under the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018 and to record the statements of other witnesses before the judicial magistrate under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and expedite the examination of digital evidence by experts.

The police has so far arrested 13 accused, including Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra, in connection with the case. The apex court was hearing a matter about the October 3 violence in Lakhimpur Kheri in which eight persons including four farmers were killed during a farmers' protest.

Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV in the convoy at Lakhimpur Kheri when a group agitating against the Centre's three new farm laws was holding a demonstration against the visit of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on October 3.

Two BJP workers and a driver were beaten to death allegedly by the angry protesters, and a local journalist was killed in the violence.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
Hitting out at actor Kangana Ranaut for describing India's Independence in 1947 as 'bheek' or alms, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra slammed the actor for her "insensitive comments" and urged the Centre to withdraw the Padma Shri conferred on her and also demanded her arrest.

Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik said she has insulted the freedom fighters and suggested that the actor might have made the comments under the influence of drugs.

"Looks like Kangana Ranaut took a heavy dose of Malana Cream before making such a statement," he said.

The MVA leaders also demanded clarification on her statement from the opposition BJP.

Read | Kangana in trouble for remarks on India's independence

Kangana Ranaut has a habit of making such statements. She has insulted the countryshe should apologise to the nation. All her national awards must be withdrawn, Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member said.

State Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant said: This is BJP's Jhansi ki Rani who dares to insult the freedom struggle and sacrifices of freedom fighters, martyrs by saying aazadi bheek me mili hai. Such puppets are being nurtured by BJP deliberately for this filth. So these parrots are not real culprits but their master is, he said.
Lashing out at Kangana Ranaut, Mahatma Gandhis great-grandson Tushar Gandhi has described the actor as an agent of hate and even criticised the Prime Ministers Office.

Padma Shri Kangana Ranaut is an agent of hate, intolerance and rabidity. It is not surprising that she feels that India got its freedom in 2014. Hate, intolerance, sham patriotism, intolerance and oppression were liberated in India in 2014, tweeted Gandhi, who is based in Mumbai.

Also Read | Kangana Ranaut says 1947 was bheek and India got 'real freedom' in 2014, triggers outrage

when a very poisonous and vicious ideology gained dominance in India, personified by the Prime Minister. So it is natural that a vicious and petty person like Ms. Ranaut should feel that India got its freedom in 2014.  Tushar (@TusharG) November 12, 2021

According to him, purveyors of hate got official sanction to freely propagate hate in 2014. This is what happens when a poisonous ideology is given official sanction. It is not at all surprising that subscribers of such hate would not feel that sacrifices of our freedom fighters are significant, he said.

Also Read | 'Looks like she took a heavy dose of Malana Cream': Nawab Malik slams Kangana Ranuat over independence remark

In a criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said: "It is not surprising that such statements were made In a function attended by the PM. After all, today the PMO has become the fountain of hate that flows abundantly in our country.
Union Home Minister and former BJP president Amit Shah reached here on Friday and chaired a crucial party meeting to decide on the poll strategy ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

Shah reached Prime Minister Narendra Modis parliamentary constituency Varanasi on a two-day visit to a warm welcome with thousands of hoardings greeting him.

On his arrival, Shah was received by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister and BJPs UP affairs in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan, Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma and party state president Swatantra Dev Singh.

Also read | Ahead of UP polls, Amit Shah to hold 'election masterclass' for state BJP leadership

Before chairing the meeting, Shah reached Lanka Crossing and garlanded the statue of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and later reached Hastkala Sankul (trade facilitation centre for handicrafts to participate in the meeting. The party functionaries who attended the crucial meet included in-charges of all 403 assembly constituencies of the states besides the district and regional level leaders.

It is Shah's second visit to the state within a fortnight. Earlier on Oct 29, he had launched a BJP membership drive in the state capital and made it clear that Adityanath would be the party's chief ministerial face in the elections.

Thousands of hoardings have been put in Varanasi for welcoming the party leader, who had in past held responsibility for the party's UP affairs in charge in 2014. Earlier in the day, about 50 Congress workers, protesting against the alleged misuse of government buildings for party (BJP) events, were detained by police.

Also Read | UP Polls: Opposition vying to be Hindutva's 'B' team

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Varuna Zone) Prabal Pratap Singh said about 50 Congress workers have been detained over the apprehension that they may disturb the peace.

Former Congress MLA Ajay Rai alleged the government buildings of the country and the state are constantly being misused by the Bharatiya Janata Party for their party events.

After the meeting, in which Shah is likely to give "winning tips" to the party leaders, he would be staying here and will attend All India Rajbhasha Sammelan. He will also visit Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav's Lok Sabha constituency Azamgarh, where he will lay the foundation stone of a state university and will address a public meeting in Basti.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
Drug abuse is a grave issue that the country is faced with but it is being addressed with the support of all concerned quarters, Union minister Virendra Singh said on Friday.

He was here to preside over an award ceremony of Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan held at SKICC.

The event was held to felicitate individuals and officials for their contributions towards making the country drug-free. It was organised by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) in collaboration with the Jammu and Kashmir Department of Social Welfare.

Singh said the cooperation of common people is of paramount importance and the dream of a drug-free India cannot be achieved by a single ministry or department alone.

He congratulated all stakeholders associated with the mission and said that the 10 districts of Jammu and Kashmir selected under the campaign have shown very good and promising results so far.

The Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment said drug abuse is a grave issue that the country is faced with and asserted that with the support of all concerned quarters the problem is being addressed.

Drug abuse is a problem that affects not only individuals but entire families and the society at large, he said, and thanked all those who are putting in their efforts to bring people, especially youth out of the menace.

Joint Secretary, MoSJE, Radhika Chakravarty earlier gave a brief overview of the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan.

She said there was no official data about substance abuse available in the country before 2019 and it was then that the government decided to carry out a survey to understand the gravity of the problem.

She said over six crore people are involved in substance abuse in the country and out of them, more than 1.2 crore are children under the age of 18.

Chakravarty said these disturbing figures led to the launch of the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan by the MoSJE.

Addressing the gathering through video conferencing, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said with the support of the Centre, Jammu and Kashmir has been able to make considerable progress towards making Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan a success.

He thanked all stakeholders for their efforts towards ensuring a drug-free society.

The categories in which the awards were presented include Rehabilitated Youth, Volunteers, NGOs, Colleges, Schools, Master Volunteers, District Social Welfare Officers and Deputy Commissioners, an official statement said.

Check out the latest videos from DH:
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that the country's national security is "unpardonably compromised" as the government does not have a strategy on China.

He cited a news report where the External Affairs Ministry and the Chief of Defence Staff had a different take on the China border issue.

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawat on Thursday said the controversy about the Chinese coming into the Indian territory and building a new village is "not true", and that the villages were well within the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

He also asserted that China has not transgressed the Indian "perception" of the LAC.

Also read: China not transgressing on Indian perception of LAC, building villages within its side: Bipin Rawat

In its recent report, the US Department of Defence said China built a large village inside disputed territory between its Tibet Autonomous Region and India's Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern sector of the LAC.

Earlier in an official reaction to the US report, the External Affairs Ministry said India has neither accepted China's "illegal occupation of its territory nor any unjustified Chinese claims".

While taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his "56-inch chest" remarks, Gandhi said on Twitter, "Our national security is unpardonably compromised because GOI has no strategy and Mr 56 is scared".

                    Mr 56                                  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 12, 2021

"My thoughts are with the soldiers risking their lives to guard our borders while GOI churns out lies," he further alleged.

Also read: India takes note of US report on 'illegal' Chinese construction activities

In the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Modi had said it takes a 56-inch chest to convert Uttar Pradesh into Gujarat in terms of development.

Attacking the government over the issue, Congress leader P Chidambaram said it is time Defence Minister Rajnath Singh drew a line in his ministry and asked the CDS to remain "well within his side of the LAC".

"MEA said that China is in 'illegal occupation' of Indian territory and India will not accept 'unjustified Chinese claims'.

"Within hours, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) said that the Chinese 'have not transgressed anywhere on our perception of the LAC' and they are 'well within their side of the LAC'," Chidambaram said in a series of tweets.

The former Union finance minister also said the Chinese are laughing all the way from the Plenum to the 20th Congress of the Communist party.

"It is time for the Defence Minister to draw a LAC in the Defence Ministry and ask the CDS to remain well within his side of the LAC," the Congress leader said.

Last month, India and China failed to make any headway in resolving the 18-month standoff in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh during the 13th round of military talks between the two countries.

Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the sensitive sector of eastern Ladakh.

Check out latest videos from DH:
Following a stern warning of contempt, the Army on Friday agreed before the Supreme Court to grant permanent commission to 11 women officers within 10 days, in accordance with its judgment, and also to other officers, who haven't approached court but meet the criteria.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna recorded a statement from the law officer in this regard.

"The 11 women officers will be granted permanent commission (PC) within a period of 10 days. The ASG officers, who are not before the Supreme Court in contempt proceedings, but meet the criteria will be granted PC within the period of three weeks," the bench noted.

Also Read: 39 women officers to be granted permanent commission, Centre tells SC

During the hearing, the bench told the Army that the court will hold it guilty of contempt for not granting PC to women officers, in accordance with its order. The Army's counsel had said the decision regarding the remaining women officers will be taken speedily and sought some time to take instructions in the matter.

The bench noted that the Army may be supreme in its authority, but the constitutional court is also supreme.

"We have given you a long rope.... The remarks we had made in the judgement allowing you to file an affidavit on the consideration taken was to ensure that you say what you are doing," the bench said.

In the post lunch hearing, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain and senior advocate colonel R Balasubramanian, appearing for the Centre and Ministry of Defence submitted before the top court that the Army is also keen for this matter to achieve finality.

They clarified that those officers, who do not have disciplinary and vigilance proceedings, will also be eligible for grant of PC in accordance with its judgment. Two officers Lt Colonel Akansha Shrivastava and Himalini Pant would also be duly considered for PC, as per the criteria laid down, within one month.

Out of 72 officers, one had applied for premature release, 39 have been granted PC and a letter has been issued on October 29, 2021 in compliance with its verdict.

A total of 36 officers were not considered for PC. After a review, 21 out of the 36 officers were granted PC and the case of one is under consideration. And, out of the remaining 14 officers, three are considered medically unfit.

In March this year, the top court had declared certain terms in the evaluation criteria adopted by the Indian Army for grant of PC to women officers as "arbitrary and irrational".

The top court had held that the evaluation criteria perpetuated gender stereotypes based on patriarchal notions and amounted to "systemic discrimination".

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
Former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot on Friday met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi amid talks of an imminent reshuffle in Ashok Gehlot ministry and expressed confidence that "very soon" there will be a decision that will consider "credibility, performance, regional balance and caste combination" as factors for assignments.

Pilot's meeting with Sonia comes a day after Chief Minister Gehlot's meeting during which the contours of the reshuffle was discussed. Pilot had earlier met Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal while Gehlot had a meeting with Congress General Secretaries Priyanka Gandhi, Venugopal, Ajay Maken in the past couple of days.

"Extensive discussions took place about Rajasthan, about the government, party organisation, and I put forward my points about the political situation in the state. I am happy that the Congress president is constantly taking interest in Rajasthan and is taking feedback about the work of the government and on the organisation," Pilot told reporters after the hour-long meeting.

Also read: Will Ashok Gehlot vs Sachin Pilot tiff end with Rajasthan cabinet reshuffle?

Dismissing division within Congress, he said there is no factionalism in the party as depicted by the media. "We won on the symbol of the party and this is not the time for 'tera-mera', we are moving together in Rajasthan. There are some posts vacant in the government and balance has to be maintained. They have to be filled to set the balance in the government," he said.

Emphasising that he was more than happy to do whatever the party assigns him, he said that the committee set up by Sonia to look into the issues raised by him a year ago has also competed its work. Venugopal and Maken were submitting reports from time to time.

"The party high command is also talking about taking action on the points we had put forward last year and I think very soon decisions will be taken on it," he said while citing the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason for the delay in deciding on the cabinet and organisational reshuffle.

Also Read | Ashok Gehlot meets Priyanka Gandhi, Ajay Maken over possible cabinet reshuffle in Rajasthan

"I think whatever changes that need to be made in the government and organisation, the AICC and the chief minister will decide at an appropriate time. But I believe that now less than two years time is left in the next election and we want to fight the next election with full force because there has always been a custom that for five years there is a Congress government in Rajasthan, and then for five years, there is a BJP government," he added.

He further mentioned, "This time we want to prepare the organisation very strongly. The workers should get respect, everyone's participation is important, there should be balance in power, and we should move forward taking all sections of the society along."

With the party going in for the "one man, one post" formula, Rajasthan Congress President and Minister Govind Singh Dotasra as well as ministers Raghu Sharma and Harish Chaudhary may have to sit out. Sharma and Chaudhary are also party in-charges in Gujarat and Punjab respectively.

In such a scenario, there will be 12 vacancies. At present, Gehlot Ministry has 21 ministers and it can have up to 30 ministers.

Check out latest videos from DH:
Ahead of a BJP meeting scheduled to be chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, about 50 Congress workers, protesting against the alleged misuse of government buildings for such party events, were detained on Friday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Varuna Zone) Prabal Pratap Singh said about 50 Congress workers have been detained over the apprehension that they may disturb the peace. Former Congress MLA Ajay Rai alleged the government buildings of the country and the state are constantly being misused by the Bharatiya Janata Party for their party events.

In this sequence, the BJP is holding a meeting of its election management wing in Hastkala Sankul (trade facilitation centre for handicrafts) later this evening in which Home Minister Shah is also taking part.

Several Congress workers were present at the Natniyadai temple at Bhojubir to protest this BJPs act when the police took everyone into custody, Ajay Rai told PTI on phone. Rai said besides himself, district president Rajeshwar Patel and metropolitan president Raghavendra Choubey have been detained.

An important BJP meeting on the upcoming elections is scheduled at the Hastkala Sankul, Bara Lalpur later in the evening.

To be chaired by Shah, the meeting is to be attended by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, partys election affairs in-charge in UP Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP state president Swatantradev Singh, and organization minister Sunil Bansal among others.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
An 18th century idol of Goddess Annapurna, smuggled to Canada from the Kashi Vishwanath temple in 1913, has embarked on a ceremonial journey back home at a time when Uttar Pradesh is set for a high voltage election campaign around Hindutva and development issues.

The Uttar Pradesh government, led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath which is on backfoot on handling of Covid-19 and farmers' protests, has upped the ante against the opposition for ignoring Hindu interests and has been juxtaposing this with the commitment of BJP towards the revival of temples and honouring religious icons such as Adi Shankaracharya.

The idol of Annapurna, measuring 17 x 9 x 4 cm, was brought back to India last month and is currently on a procession across 18 districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Ayodhya, the epicentre of Hindutva politics of BJP.

Also Read | Married daughters in UP eligible for dependent quota

Adityanath will install the idol in the Kashi Vishwanath temple premises in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday amid much fanfare and appropriate rituals.

The re-development of Kashi Vishwanath precincts is also high on the agenda of the Modi government and is likely to be unveiled at a gala event next month.

After the ceremonial handover of the Annapurna idol to the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday, a flower-bedecked vehicle carried it from Delhi to Aligarh from where it was taken to Kannauj on Friday.

The idol is expected to reach Ayodhya on Sunday and make its way to Varanasi on Monday.

Also Read | Women unsafe in Uttar Pradesh: Priyanka Gandhi

Annapurna is worshipped as a goddess of food and nourishment and a manifestation of Goddess Parvati. The legend has it that Lord Shiva had sought alms from Annapurna to ensure that no one goes hungry in Kashi.

Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's relentless pursuit for ensuring the return of Indian artefacts that had been smuggled to foreign countries over the years.

I would like to thank our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and our Minister for External Affairs Shri S Jaishankar who made efforts to bring home our Gods from abroad, Reddy said, adding that 157 more antiques will be brought back to the country soon.

The Annapurna idol was in the University of Reginas collection at its Mackenzie Art Gallery when it was handed over by the university to Indias High Commissioner to Canada Ajay Bisaria last year.

Since 1976, 55 idols have been returned to India, out of which 42 were returned after 2014 when the Modi government came to power, Reddy said.

Check out the latest DH videos here:
The doctors at Delhi's Hindu Rao Hospital have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from November 18 over the non-payment of their due salaries and DA pending for the past three months.

The resident doctors of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run hospital have not been paid for the last three months.

The nurses of the hospital are already on protest, working for half-day only from Tuesday over the salary issues. The nurses' union has stopped working from 9.00 am to 12.30 pm.

Earlier, the Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) had announced a pen-down strike from November 11 asking for salaries to be released by the evening of November 10. However, after the assurance of Medical Superintendent and seeing the rising cases of Dengue in the city, the doctors postponed the strike.

However, the RDA doctors in a fresh letter to MSA have threatened to go on pen down strike on November 15,16 and 17 from 9 am to 12.30 pm and indefinite strike from November 18 if pending salaries and DA are not paid by evening of November 14.

Earlier, in a letter to the Medical Superintendent, the RDA doctors had said, "If our salaries and DA up to date are not released on or before November 14, we will go on pen-down strike strike on November 15, 16 and 17 from 9 am to 12.30 pm and unfortunately, we will go on indefinite strike from November 18 Thursday."

Due to the ongoing tussle between the doctors, nurses and hospital administration, major activities of the hospital have been impacted. The operation theatres also remained closed and a large number of surgeries have been cancelled.

The MCD-run 980-bed Hindu Rao Hospital has over 50 per cent vacant posts for nurses and also a large number of vacancies for doctors.

Check out latest videos from DH:
The family members of a 22-year-old man, who died in police custody in this Uttar Pradesh district, has rejected the police theory of suicide and demanded justice and strict punishment for those responsible for his death.

The family has said that police are showing a letter purportedly signed by the victim's father, which gives a clean chit to the men in khaki, and alleged that it was obtained under pressure.

Abrar Ahmad, the paternal uncle of Altaf who died in police custody in Kasganj on Tuesday, told reporters here that the letter that carries Altaf's father's thumb impression "has been managed through police pressure".

Also Read | Mayawati seeks probe into custodial death of youth in Kasganj

Speaking to reporters at the Press Club here on Thursday night, Abrar said, "My brother is illiterate and his thumb impression on a piece of paper at a time when he was in a state of shock is meaningless."

"My brother is a broken man and is hardly able to move and that is why I have come to Aligarh to speak on his behalf," he added.

Replying to a question, Abrar said the Kasganj police has given a sum of Rs 5 lakh to one of the family members but he is not aware as to whom the money was handed over as his brother is in no condition to speak.

Also Read | 22-year-old dies in police custody in UP's Kasganj; 5 policemen suspended

"Our main demand is that those guilty are duly punished because this theory that Altaf committed suicide by hanging himself is totally concocted by the police," he said.

Students of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) took out a protest march in the campus on Thursday and demanded a judicial probe by a sitting judge of the Allahabad High Court.

While the victim's family has alleged that he was killed by the police personnel on duty, police have said he strangulated himself using a string from his jacket hood in the washroom of the lock-up.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
A Pocso court on Thursday sentenced a 39-year-old man to life imprisonment till death for raping a 4-year-old girl in Surat, in a record 29 days since the FIR was registered.

It also ordered a compensation of Rs 15 lakh to the survivors family. The special court of Prakashchandra Kala found Hanuman Nishad guilty of raping the girl on October 12. The victim was found abandoned in an industrial area.

The order states that although Nishad has no criminal antecedent the offence, which has been proved against him, is against a minor girl. It says that these types of incidents are on the rise as helpless minor girls are not able to defend themselves, which makes such offences more serious. The court observed that the survivor will remain affected forever in her life and showing mercy to the accused would give a wrong message to society.

To get the verdict in record time, the court held hearings till 12 in the night. In a record three days, the court examined 35 witnesses. This exercise was done only with the purpose to get speedy justice and send a strong message to perpetrators of such crimes, the public prosecutor said.

Check out latest videos from DH:
Zika virus has moved beyond Kanpur and two cases of the virus have been found in Uttar Pradesh's state capital Lucknow.

Ved Vrat Singh, Director General, Medical and Health in the Uttar Pradesh government, said one positive Zika virus case each was detected in Lucknow's Hussainganj and LDA Colony areas.

The two cases in Lucknow come against the backdrop of rising Zika virus cases in Kanpur district that has reported 105 cases so far. One case was reported from Kannauj district and Lucknow is the third district in Uttar Pradesh to have a Zika footprint.

The samples of Zika virus patients in Lucknow were tested at King George's Medical University here and the reports came in on Thursday evening.

"Both the patients (in Lucknow) are stable and have no symptoms. We have taken samples of close contacts and got fogging and anti-larva spray done in the vicinity of their homes. More sampling will be done," said K.P. Tripathi, the official in-charge of vector-borne disease control in Lucknow.

Also Read | Kanpur's Zika virus tally crosses 100 mark with 16 new cases

One of the patients is a 30-year-old man residing in the Hussainganj area of Lucknow. The other is a 24-year-old woman from the Krishna Nagar area on Kanpur Road in the state capital.

"We have isolated both the patients and also asked their family members to remain at home. The neighbours in a 50-metre area have been educated about preventive measures against the Zika virus. On Friday, we will further check people in a 100-metre area and fogging will be repeated during the night," Tripathi added.

Uttar Pradesh Health Minister, Jai Pratap Singh said rapid action has been taken to stop the spread of the Zika virus, adding that the major reason behind its spread has been the first case found in the Kanpur Chakeri Airbase camp. The people who came in contact with the affected individuals have been also been tested positive for the virus. Now, through surveillance, identification has been done by testing the vulnerable groups.

A vector-borne disease caused by a virus transmitted primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, symptoms of Zika virus include mild fever, rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or a headache.

According to the World Health Organisation, Aedes mosquitoes bite mostly during the day. This is the same mosquito that spreads dengue and chikungunya. Zika virus infection is not a serious problem among most people, but it can be extremely dangerous for pregnant women, and especially for the newborn child.

Earlier, cases of Zika virus were detected in Kerala and Maharashtra.

Check out DH's latest videos
At least 13 cases of norovirus have been reported in Kerala's Wayanad district, while 15 more are showing symptoms, a new worry for the state that is still reporting a high number of Covid-19 cases.

All the infected are inmates of the ladies hostel of the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Pookode, near Vythiri.

Wayanad district collector A Geetha said on Friday that diarrhoea and vomiting were reported from several parts of the district and hence the health department was maintaining a high vigil. They were also advised to ensure hygiene while awareness programmes were carried out in the district.

Health department sources said that there is not much concern over the infection.

Kerala, which has seen norovirus cases in the past, had reported a similar outbreak in Alappuzha district a few months ago.

Besides, Kerala continues to battle Covid-19 infections in the state with active cases count as high as 70,000 while the positivity rate remained around 10 per cent.

One case of Nipah virus death was also reported in the state two months ago.

The district collector said that samples from the students of the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences were subjected to test at National Institute of Virology's centre at Alappuzha after many students developed symptoms.

The infection mainly spreads through contaminated water, with diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain being the common symptoms.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin who visited the rain-battered districts of Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram on Friday sprang a surprise by briefly stopping to sip tea and interact with the public.

Also, he interacted with sanitary workers involved in clearing the silt in the inundated areas. Like Chennai, both the neighbouring districts were battered by the rains which inundated several areas.

The administration launched prompt measures to evacuate the affected people to relief camps and in bailing out water from the marooned areas.

Also Read | Tamil Nadu announces Rs 4 lakh compensation for kin of those killed in heavy rainfall

The CM who distributed relief to the rain displaced families had launched a special medical camp here today for treating the people during the Northeast Monsoon.

While in Chengalpattu district, the Chief Minister stopped at a tea shop in Keezhakottaiyur and interacted with the public.

As he was sipping tea, a few youngsters including those working at the tea shop, approached him for a selfie which he obliged with a smile on his visage.

Rural industries minister T M Anbarasan, Sriperumbadur MP T R Baalu, district collector A R Rahul Nath were present on the occasion.

Also Read | Rain woes continue for Chennai residents

At Mambakkam in the district, Stalin gave away relief to the people and housing pattas to Irula families. Later, the Chief Minister interacted with the sanitary workers in Tambaram.

The Chief Minister has been inspecting several areas affected by heavy rains since the last few days.

Apart from inspecting the flood mitigation work at Mudichur, Stalin reviewed the dredging work at Narayanapuram lake and the zero point and regulator of the Adyar River.

Check out the latest videos from DH:
Intense showers battered Chennai and other northern regions of Tamil Nadu on Thursday while the depression over the Bay of Bengal crossed the coast by evening near here. As many as 14 people were killed in rain-related incidents in the state, standing crops were submerged, trees uprooted and over 1,000 tenements, mostly huts suffered damage across Tamil Nadu.
Incidents of stone-pelting were reported in Nanded, Amravati and Malegaon of Maharashtra during protest rallies by the Muslim community in the wake of recent communal violence in Tripura.

At least two police personnel were injured, reports said.

State Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil reviewed the situation and appealed for calm. "I appeal to all Hindus and Muslims to maintain peace," Walse-Patil said.

He said that he was personally monitoring the situation and those indulging in violence will not be spared.

Read | Tripura riots and the misuse of UAPA

Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis asked the government to ensure that law and order prevails. "The violence, stone-pelting during the morchas is serious," he said.

In the Mumbai metropolitan region, a bandh of sorts was observed in Bhiwandi and Mumbra, however, there were no incidents of violence.

The tension mainly was reported from Malegaon in Nashik district and Amravati and Nanded.

Public Works Minister Ashok Chavan said that some unscrupulous elements were involved in violence in Nanded. "We will not tolerate this," said Chavan, the Guardian Minister of Nanded.

The Tripura Police last week had booked 102 social media account holders under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), criminal conspiracy and forgery charges and served notices to the authorities of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to freeze their accounts and inform all particulars of those persons to it.

Recently, the north-eastern state witnessed incidents of arson, looting and violence after reports emerged from Bangladesh that the Hindu minorities there had been attacked during Durga Puja on allegations of blasphemy.
The IAS and IPS owe their existence to Sardar Patel - it was he, as the home minister in the interim government in October 1945, who got a resolution adopted at a conference of the Congress chief ministers authorising the setting up of IAS and IPS to succeed ICS and IP.

The opposition, particularly to IAS, has since been increasing manifold. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, seems to have expressed his unhappiness about the IAS in his speech in Parliament in February 2021. He said, ...IAS ban gaye matlab woh fertiliser ka kaarkhana bhi chalayega, chemical ka kaarkhana bhi chalayega, IAS ho gaya toh woh hawai jahaz bhi chalayega. Yeh kaunsi badi taakat bana kar rakh di hai humne? Babuon ke haath mein desh de karke hum kya karne waale hain?... (An IAS officer runs fertilisers and chemicals factories and aeroplanes. What is this extra power centre we have created? What are we going to do by resting the nation in the hands of officials?)

These remarks by the PM in the context of a debate on private sector investment were meant to emphasise the importance of private-sector professionals but it has certainly given further ammunition to the critics of IAS. The Central government wants to induct a considerable number of outside professionals laterally at the joint secretaries level after already inducting a few joint secretaries. These developments have clearly put the IAS on notice as quite a few CMs and other politicians would be happy to see the back of the IAS sooner than later.

Has the IAS lived up to the expectations of Sardar Patel? If not, what are the reasons for the dilution in the standards of conduct among its members? It is unfortunate that the IAS has become a heterogenous service whose direct recruits age, at the entry, varies from about 22 years to 35 years. They also come from a very diverse background and have diverse expectations from the service. This makes it difficult for some to mould themselves to the requirements of the service. They are also politically much more aware of the limitations of their powers vis-a-vis their political masters. This has, to a large extent, resulted in many members of the service coming closer to the political executives in the states as well as at the Centre, quite often short-circuiting the hierarchical chain of command. Some of the members of the service also develop political ambitions and for that, they are willing to compromise their values of honesty and integrity. The IAS Association and the senior members have hardly any influence over the conduct of individual members of the service. There is practically no espirit de corp in the IAS. In its absence, it is merely a service in which most of its members pursue their lonely journey.

Some civil servants have been joining various political parties from time to time. However, it is only the recent entry, of quite a few retired senior civil servants into politics and also in the central cabinet, which has sent disturbing signals both to the senior civil services as well as to the political parties. It is not only likely to tempt more and more senior civil servants to eye for such post-retirement employment but it is equally a matter of grave concern for the rank and file of all political parties as it will block many of them from climbing up the ladder of their political hierarchy. I would not like to comment on how the rank and file of political parties may react to it. However, let me address it from the point of view of the civil services in general and IAS in particular.

Firstly, politicisation of civil services poses an existential threat to its very relevance to Indian administration as it is supposed to function independently of political considerations. Secondly, any politicised civil service cannot be expected to give free, fair and unbiased advice to their pollical bosses which are also one of the very fundamental expectations enshrined in its conduct rules. Thirdly, it will have a very damaging impact on the hierarchical chain of command which, again, is one of the very important aspects of organised civil services.

Introspect seriously

Members of the IAS must seriously introspect the direction in which it is rapidly moving and the long-term consequences it may have on its very relevance and existence. There is still time to save it from its extinction as India needs a strong IAS, more than ever before. It still has a large number of its members who are not cultivating politicians and who are discharging their duties expected of them. What is needed is to discourage them from being politicised. Here are a few suggestions for that:

1. No civil servant should be allowed to join any political party and hold a political office, including a ministerial position, within at least four years from the date of his retirement on superannuation. However, those civil servants who still have five or more years to superannuate may be permitted to join any political party after a cooling-off period of two years. Civil services members who are willing to forego their pension need not have any cooling off period.

2. Selection of civil servants for various regulatory bodies and other statutory/constitutional positions should be done through an independent constitutional body whose members cannot be removed by the pollical executive and such members must be selected and appointed to such positions when they still have at least three years to superannuate.

3. No civil servant shall be given any extension of service under any circumstances.

4. The practice of appointing civil servants as advisors or governors/Lt governors or nominating them to state legislatures and parliament should be completely stopped.

I wonder whether these suggestions will find favour with the IAS and other services as well as the governments at the states and the Centre. I will be happy if at least it leads to a public debate as it is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians and civil servants alone to decide as it affects the entire nation.

(The writer is a retired IAS officer)
Merriam-Webster dictionary says a footpath is a narrow path for pedestrians. Its where the urban homo sapiens supposedly walk, without being distracted by the ongoing traffic.

Our roads have footpaths on either side, of varying width  anywhere between one foot to five feet or even more  slightly raised (four inches to one foot) vis-a-vis the adjoining road. Come to think of it, many of our footpaths have gutters as their underbellies.

Generally, people get on footpaths to avoid being run over by trucks, buses, cars or hit by humble two-wheelers. Theyre safe as long as they keep themselves to their narrow corridors. If they spill onto the road, trucks, buses, cars, or two-wheelers may consider running over them.

Footpaths just help in segregating the traffic: motorised and non-motorised. Simply put, the traffic that does not depend on petrol, diesel, or batteries makes use of the footpath. Then what fuel does this particular traffic use? No bronze medal for guessing!

Footpaths are often employed for other purposes than mentioned above. If youve got one in front of your house, you may park your two-wheeler or even a four-wheeler if it is wide enough. Fearing this mode becoming popular, our municipal geniuses have built one-foot wide footpaths in most places. No worry! You can still park your two-wheeler along the length of the footpath. And for four-wheelers, you may, partially or fully, get down to the road.

There are also those who sell fried peanuts, pakoras, fruits, vegetables, or even have a tire puncture shop on footpaths. Gobi Manchurian and pani puri carts are particularly fond of footpaths. Youll also find pan shops, where they sell bidis, cigarettes, bananas, and pans. People often hang out with friends on footpaths, smoking, chewing pans, or tobacco. No problem even if they spit on the footpath while chewing a pan or tobacco. Their right to spit is always safeguarded.

Last but not least come footpath dwellers, who cook, eat, sleep on footpaths. Its better our government starts a kind of akrama sakrama scheme for these hapless folks. Ditto for the businesses.

Now, back to those who make use of the footpath just to wade from point A to point B. If they come across a puncture shop, or a pan shop, or a fruit or vegetable vendor, what will they do? Theyll simply get down the road, round the business or businesses, and climb back onto the footpath and walk on till another business stops them. They can use it wherever theyve left the strip blank.

Many footpath users, whore not so polite, curse under their breath, whereas the polite, law-abiding folks simply exclaim: God! Show me the way!
Farming can be profitable if the farmer knows value addition says Kusuma, an ardent practitioner of organic farming who is well-versed in the art of value addition.

Kusuma and her husband Balachandra run Sayimane thota, an eight- acre land rich with a variety of fruit-bearing trees, paddy fields, and different flowering plants situated in Devimane village of Siddapura taluk in Uttara Kannada district.

Kusuma has found a unique way to add value to agriculture  designing jewellery and other organic products. She makes rudrakhsis, arrowroot flour, murugalu tuppa (ghee extracted from kokum seeds), different types of necklaces, key chains, and other ornaments from bamboo, and so on.

The best part is that the produce is sourced from her farm.

Kusumas success story is a result of her persistence, love for agriculture and concern for the environment. Born into an agricultural family, Kusuma says she inherited her fathers passion of collecting and developing rare plant varieties.

It has been 15 years since Kusuma ventured into agriculture along with her husband Balachandra, a conservationist.

Over the years, Kusuma has also tried her hand at soap preparation, hair oil, tooth powder, kokum squash, kokum ghee, uppage (garcinia gummi-gutta) ghee, bio enzymes etc, using naturally available raw materials.

She not only trained herself by attending physical and online classes, but also trained several other women, and provided them with an eco-friendly livelihood.

Burma bamboo, which grows abundantly in their farm, was another avenue for Kusumas creativity.

She procured a laser machine for cutting the bamboo and prepared different items. The bamboo was transformed into the form of earrings, hangings, pen stands etc.

Marketing products

During the pandemic, the agri-entrepreneur was worried about the market, but the Mahila marukatte (womens market) in Bengaluru offered her a ray of hope. Soon, she was uploading pictures of her products, along with their modes of preparation.

Other new products, kokum butter balm, arrowroot powder, jackfruit pulp, raw banana powder, rakhees made of rudraksha and seeds are also popular.

Organic farming is a way of life, not merely an economic activity that focuses on profit and loss. It is mindful living, says Kusuma. But she cautions that agricultural life is not as simple as it appears.

There is the destruction of crops due to natural calamities; monkeys and other wild animals keep visiting the land for their share. There are many challenges. But at a time when youth are losing interest in agriculture, people like Kusuma have shown youngsters a path they can follow.

(Translated by Rajeshwari Joshi)
The late 1800s was an interesting time for architecture in India. There was an explosion of construction as new markets, town halls and other public buildings were built in cities around the country. While Mumbais buildings showcased the Gothic Revival, in Chennai, architects like Chisholm and Napier championed a new, Indo-Saracenic style of architecture.

Bengaluru witnessed a somewhat different architectural drama, thanks to its divided administrative history. From 1831 till the Rendition in 1881, the city was under British administration. Post the Rendition, the city had twin administrations  the old pete areas were under the Mysore Maharajas administration, while the British administered the Civil and Military Station.

As a result, the city has inherited buildings from two very different architectural traditions. Colonial engineer-architects tended to choose Classical or neo-Renaissance proportions and styles for their buildings. On the other hand, post the Rendition, public buildings that were erected by the Mysore government showed experimentation, eclecticism, and a synthesis of different styles of architecture.

The building housing the Revenue Survey Offices in Bengalurus K R Circle is testimony to this. It is easily one of the most striking buildings in the city and even though road and underpass construction now precludes a complete view of it, it still elicits an admiring glance from motorists stuck at K R Circle.

The plans for this edifice were made in 1889 but it was built and completed only in 1903. Archival records do not mention the architect but it is likely to have been designed by W McHutchin, the Chief Engineer in the Mysore administration at the time, assisted by R T Scaldwell, the Executive Engineer.

The department itself is much older, of course. Its origins go back to the Revenue Survey and Settlement Department which was set up in 1863 by the then Commissioner LB Bowring. The department worked on matters related to taxation on land and agriculture. It initiated the first comprehensive land survey with the help of professional surveyors and also framed survey and settlement rules.

The Revenue Survey Office was only the second building to come up at the circle; the PWD offices were then close to where the Krishnarajendra Silver Jubilee Technological Institute stands today.

The Revenue Survey Offices are built of brick and lime-mortar. The double-storeyed structure has a central courtyard and offices around it. The front facade is the cynosure of visitors and passers-by. The lively, curlicued Flemish pediments on the roofline and the distinctively tall windows seem to have been inspired by the Flemish Revival that was in vogue in England from the 1870s till the early 1900s, popularised by architects like Richard Norman Shaw and Everest George.

Most other details in the building take inspiration from local materials and architecture, beginning with the symbol of the erstwhile Mysore kingdom prominently placed in the centre of the Flemish pediment. Sloping eaves and the curved decorative brackets supporting them  both quite local in style  are prominent on the entrance porch, on the roofs and also mark the division between the two floors.

The front elevation is quite remarkable for its pointed arches in the porch, and especially its first-floor arcade of slender pointed arches supported on slim, square stone columns. The projections at either end of the two wings have delightfully decorative cusped arches.

The entrance leads into a large central hall where a grand teakwood staircase with ornate cast-iron balusters sweeps its way up to the first floor. From here, you can see the tall windows of the front facade silhouetted against the light from outside, which shows off their unusual tracery patterns including hexagons, stars and other geometric designs that are typical of Islamic art. Windows and doors in the rest of the building have simple trellis patterns in the glass above them.

Barely half a kilometre away from this elegant building are the all-Classical, decidedly European High Court and Museum, both designed by Richard Sankey before the Rendition. One of the buildings in the Mayo Hall complex which was built just a year after the Revenue Survey Offices also sticks faithfully to a neo-Classical style. And so, you could traverse entire worlds in just a few kilometres in this part of Bengaluru!

(Meera Iyer is the author of Discovering Bengaluru and the Convenor of INTACH Bengaluru Chapter)
Private hospitals in Bengaluru say pharmaceutical major Bharat Biotech has insisted on giving them a credit note in lieu of unused vaccines with which they can buy other products from the company. In some cases, it has insisted that the hospital somehow utilise the doses before the expiry date.

Hospitals have paid Rs 1,050 for a dose and have Rs 10 lakh to Rs 60 lakh tied up in unused doses. Hospitals say the pharma major can at least supply the vaccines to other countries if it takes them back now. But it wont be able to export them if the doses are taken back just one month before the expiry date.

A standalone city hospital has bought 850 Covaxin doses at Rs 8.92 lakh.

We are able to exhaust only 30 doses a week. We have a margin of only Rs 150 per dose over the landing price of the stock, which is not much as we have to invest in HR and cold chain maintenance. Forget profit, we are losing out on operational costs, said the hospital administrator.

Also Read | Phase-3 trial results show 78% efficacy for Covaxin

We cannot open the vial unless there are 10 people to take the jabs. If there are just one or two patients, we take their phone numbers to call them once there are 10 people. But when we call them back, they would have already taken the shot at a government centre, he added.

Manipal Hospitals 10 branches had 577 Covaxin doses worth Rs 6.05 lakh till Wednesday, and Narayana Health had 15,000 Covaxin doses worth Rs 1.57 crore as of November 2.

Guruprasad B R, director of strategy, Sparsh Hospital, said, We have Rs 1.48 crore lakh tied up in 14,100 Covaxin doses. Bharat Biotech says it wont take back the stock since the shelf life has been extended and insists that we sell the stock somehow. We wont be able to sell this stock even by the renewed expiry date as there is simply no demand.

Bharat Biotech did not respond to DHs queries.

Check out DH's latest videos
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday asserted that nobody from his government is involved in the bitcoin scam, which he said is now being probed by central agencies.

Our government is open. We neednt protect anybody and none of our people are involved, Bommai said. While he did not specify, Bommai could be referring to speculation on the involvement of BJP leaders and even police personnel.

Bommai also dismissed speculation that his position was in danger because of the bitcoin case. Thats all political, he said.

Allegations need substantiation. It is said that the scam ranges from Rs 2,600 crore to Rs 8,000 crore. Whats the basis? My humble request to whomsoever it may concern is, please tell us what the scam is and who is involved. If you give this minimum information, we can probe, he said.

Also read: Siddaramaiah questions PM Modi on bitcoin scam

As far as the state government is concerned, the case has been handed over to the ED some 8-9 months back. ED has raised a case and they are investigating, he said.

Weve also referred it to the CBI Interpol branch. Theyre also probing since there are international ramifications.

Bommai urged the naysayers to provide whatever little information they have to the investigating agencies. They arent controlled by the state government. Let the truth come out.

Also read: Hacker Sriki was drugged in police custody, claims Congress

Asked about the disappearance of stolen bitcoins, Bommai said this allegation needed proof. All these allegations have to be proved by documents. This is hearsay. Lots of articles have come. But, whats the real scam here, he asked.

He also added that he would not like to react to the bitcoin case everyday.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
The Karnataka Congress on Friday released documents to claim lapses in the investigation of the bitcoin scam, with former IT minister Priyank Kharge flashing a court paper that suggests hacker Srikrishna aka Sriki was drugged in police custody.

Laying out a chronology of events, Kharge called it probably the first and biggest cryptocurrency scam in India and demanded a probe under a sitting Supreme Court judge.

On January 11, 2021, Srikis father Gopal Ramesh filed an application in court claiming that his son had been administered mind-altering drugs by the police in their custody, especially Alprazolam. When the magistrate asks him, Sriki says yes. How can this happen in police custody, Kharge asks.

According to Kharge, the magistrate sought a test of Srikis blood and urine samples. The test is never done. In fact, the document states that the patient (Sriki) needs a stomach wash to rule out poisoning. Why? Isnt this destruction of evidence? Kharge said.

The Congress leader charged that new cases were slapped on Sriki each time his police custody was ending. The hacker was first held on November 14, 2020. He surrendered along with one Robin Khandelwal. It goes unreported for three days. Hes shown to be arrested on November 17 in crime number 91/2020 and sent to 14-day custody. This crime deals with the e-procurement cell and the complainant is the investigating officer Sridhar Pujar, Kharge said.

Again, on December 2, in crime number 153/2020, hes remanded to 12-day custody. This case deals with Sriki getting hydro-ganja through bitcoins from overseas. Then, under crime number 287/2020, hes taken into additional 14-day custody for hacking into gaming sites and making money illegally, Kharge said.

Also read: Siddaramaiah questions PM Modi on bitcoin scam

On December 23, he goes into 14-day custody again in crime number 45/2020. This is where bitcoins come in and the case talks about transfer, exchange of bitcoins and converting them to cash through hawala, he pointed out.

What we need to observe is that just when his custody is coming to an end, a new case is filed. Cases arent filed at once. Officials should explain why, Kharge said.

Further, the former minister picked holes in three panchnamas done by the police. The first panchnama in crime number 45 deals with recovery of 31 bitcoins worth Rs 9 crore. They had a junior lineman and a powerman as witnesses, he said.

In the second panchnama on January 18, they had commercial tax officers as witnesses for the recovery of 0.8 bitcoins. Police create their own wallet to deposit these bitcoins in their own walled, he said.

In the third panchnama dated January 27, Kharge said people from Unicoin and other cyber experts were called. This was to transfer 31.8 bitcoins to the police wallet from Srikis wallet. When they opened the wallet, it had 186 bitcoins. Still, the transfer was initiated. On verifying, they find that the transaction ID never existed, Kharge said, asking where the 186 bitcoins are.

Further, Kharge alleged that the police delayed in roping in central agencies. On February 15, the ED wrote to the CCB asking for details on this case. There was a response 20 days later. Why this delay, he asked.

We have no faith that a dispassionate and transparent probe will happen under this government. So, we demand that a sitting Supreme Court judge should probe this, he said.

Watch the latest DH Videos here:
Softening its stance on cryptocurrencies, the Government of India is now planning to hold talks with top crypto exchanges and stakeholders in the country including CoinSwitch Kuber, CoinDCX, WazirX, and Crypto Assets Council (BACC). As per reports, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance will serve these stakeholders on November 15 where they will possibly discuss issues concerning the future of cryptocurrencies in India.

What is the future of cryptocurrency in India?

Reports state that during the meeting, both the government and industry representatives and stakeholders will discuss the "impact that cryptocurrencies can have on the Indian currency and overall economy". The meeting Hearing of the views of associations, industry experts on the subject of CryptoFinance: Opportunities and challenges, is not the first time that government representatives are sitting down with crypto stakeholders to figure out a sustainable solution for the future of cryptocurrencies in the country. However, this will be one of the few times, when the first one when it will be in a formal capacity.

The move also signals a change in the government's stance on cryptocurrencies, which over the past few years have had to deal with a lot of uncertainty. To recall, in 2018, the Reserve Bank of India had imposed a ban on banks dealing with crypto businesses. Since then, the Supreme Court overturned the order in 2020. However, even after that, there were reports of the government wanting to ban cryptocurrencies earlier this year.

Could cryptocurrency boost the country's economy?

As such, attempts to now have deeper conversations with the stakeholders involved now signal the government intend to move away from its rigid stance from before and look at possible ways of including them to not only appease crypto enthusiasts in the country but also look at ways to help use them to achieve Indias digital ambition and in the process also boost the economy.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 series recently debuted in China and is now tipped to launch in global markets. However, the popular Redmi Note 11 series will have an all-new design and will be powered by the Snapdragon chips when it launches in global markets. This comes from a new report that suggests that the Redmi Note 11 lineup will launch in a new avatar in the first quarter of 2022.

As per a report by the Vietnamese website The Pixel, Xiaomi is looking to launch a redesigned Redmi Note 11 series which will be powered by the latest Qualcomm processors. Another interesting point in the report is that the company will launch the same phones under a different name in China later next year.

There are rumours suggesting that the Redmi Note 11 lineup will be powered by the Snapdragon 695 and Snapdragon 778G Plus chipsets. However, at the point of writing this, there are no details on the specifics of the global variant of the Redmi Note 11 series.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 series specifications

The Redmi Note 11 series that launched in China consists of the Redmi Note 11, Redmi Note 11 Pro and Redmi Note 11 Pro+. The Redmi Note 11 features a 6.6-inch Full HD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate while the Redmi Note 11 Pro and Redmi Note 11 Pro+ have a 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10 support and Gorilla Glass 5 topping.

The Note 11 is powered by the Dimensity 810 chip while the Note 11 Pro and Note 11 Pro+ are powered by the Dimensity 920 chip. All three phones are compatible with 5G networks.

The Note 11 has a 50MP primary camera along with an 8MP ultra-wide camera while the Note 11 Pro and Pro+ has a 108MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP macro camera. All three phones have a 16MP selfie camera.

The Note 11 has a 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging support while the Note 11 Pro has a 5,160mAh battery with 67W fast charging. As for the Note 11 Pro+, it supports 120W fast charging and has a 4,500mAh battery.

Also Read: Xiaomi 12 tipped to feature 100W fast charging and 50MP primary camera
Subscriber content preview

Some residents of The Dalles are concerned about Google's secrecy over water use.



By ANDREW SELSKY

Associated Press

SALEM, Ore.  The council of a small Oregon city has approved a deal with Google that will enable the technology giant to build two more water-guzzling data centers there, though some residents worry about drought and secrecy.

A single data center can churn through millions of gallons of water per day to keep hot-running equipment cool, and the placement of these facilities in drought-prone areas is an increasing concern around the globe, even as reliance on them is growing. Data centers form the cloud that helps people stream movies, conduct research at the touch of a button, buy things and store photos and videos.





. . .
Scoil Mhuire na Trocaire students totally rocked in national times tables competition.

The pupils and teaching staff at Scoil Mhuire na Trocaire, Ardee are excited to announce that Emily Flanagan, 6th Class finished first in Ireland Rocks 2021 - a nationwide times tables competition run by the internationally renowned learning platform, Times Tables Rock Stars. Her classmate, Jessica Stanzcak finished a very close third place in the national competition.

Ireland Rocks 2021, held over four days from 18th to 23rd October, required children to correctly answer as many multiplication and division questions as possible, to give their class and school the best chance of winning.

The competition was fierce with almost five million questions answered collectively by 3747 pupils from more than 80 schools and 240 classes around the country.

Emily answered an astonishing 46,644 sums correctly and Jessica answered 34,995 correctly over the four days.

Their school stats were astonishing too finishing in 4th class overall in the competition.

Ms Greenan, maths co-ordinator in the school said: The pupils excelled themselves throughout Ireland Rocks 2021.

"Not only did they engage in some friendly competition but there was also a clear improvement in their recall and speed as time went on. "Thats always been our goal - to make learning maths basics so fun that pupils give it their all. We totally smashed it and cannot wait for the next Ireland Rocks in 2022.
Claremont, NH (03743)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 47F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low around 25F. Winds light and variable.
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 digest of recent news from the EBRD. You can also subscribe to instant email updates on EBRD news about our countries, sectors and topics such as climate finance. Sign up And you can follow us on social media Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Instagram YouTube

EBRD President visits Turkey

The President of the EBRD, Odile Renaud-Basso visited Turkey this week. In her meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Minister of Treasury and Finance and EBRD Governor Lutfi Elvan, and Central Bank Governor Sahap Kavcioglu, Ms Renaud-Basso stressed the importance of macroeconomic stability, credible and independent institutions and a predictable business climate for the development of the private sector.

Ms Renaud-Basso also underlined the EBRDs support for Turkish municipalities in meetings with the Mayors of Ankara, Istanbul and Gaziantep. Along with Izmir, the three cities have joined the EBRD Green Cities programme, which helps address the enormous environmental challenges presented by urban conurbations.

She held discussions with several small businesses, including women-run companies, which benefitted from the EBRDs support, and met civil society organisations.

Learn more

Ms Renaud-Basso also reiterated the Banks commitment to help develop decarbonisation strategies and finance the countrys green transition.

Learn more

Pledging 600 million in new financing for Turkish women-led firms

The EBRD is making available 600 million in new financing for Turkish women entrepreneurs. The funds will be channelled through local banks and lent to eligible women-run businesses under the Banks expanded Women in Business programme.

Learn more

EBRD Transition Report 2021-22  System Upgrade: Delivering the Digital Dividend

Digitalisation will remain one of the key forces shaping our world. The Transition Report 2021-22 explores how economies in the EBRD regions can deliver the digital dividend, both during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. Building on rich sources of data, it introduces a new index of digital transformation and highlights digital divides across and within countries. The report looks at how addressing these divides will be vital to the success of economies.

Learn more

Read the digital report

Lack of trust and low levels of digital skill constrain remote working

The EBRD conducted a survey of employees in 15 economies to find out why, during the Covid-19 pandemic, there had been lower levels of remote working in the regions where the Bank operates. It found that fewer people than expected had worked from home, even when they had the type of job that made remote working possible.

Learn more

Transition Report launch event

Beata Javorcik, Oleksandr Bornyakov, Dina Matta, Daron Acemoglu and Toomas Hendrik Ilves discussed digitalisation, the digital divides in EBRD countries, artificial intelligence and more during the reports launch event live streamed on YouTube.

Watch

EBRD adopts first Digital Approach

The EBRD adopted its inaugural digital approach to advancing transition to address the urgent need for economies to embrace rapid technological change and overcome the challenges exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The document sets out a comprehensive framework on how the Bank will use its three instruments  investment, policy engagement and advisory services  to support the digital transition in the economies where it invests.

Learn more

Download the EBRDs Digital Approach

Flagship EBRD Green Cities doubles in size

Finance for the EBRDs pioneering urban sustainability programme, EBRD Green Cities, is doubling in size with a further 2 billion allocated to invest in green urban infrastructure over the next two years.

With the new funding, more than 5 billion will be dedicated to supporting EBRD Green Cities. The successful programme has already grown to include 52 cities, most recently Gaziantep in Turkey.

Learn more

EBRD and international partners promote gender equality

CDC Group, the UKs development finance institution, the EBRD and the EIB are joining forces under the framework of the 2X Climate Finance Task Force to promote gender equality and womens empowerment in climate finance investments.

The international partners presented their new toolkit  the Gender-Smart Climate Finance Guide  on behalf of the 2X Collaborative, a new global industry body for gender-lens investing, at the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow.

Learn more

EBRD and partners welcome establishment of Ukraines Ethics Council

As Ukraines international partners supporting the judicial reforms in Ukraine, the EBRD welcome the establishment of the Ethics Council by law.

The Ethics Council will undertake an important task of reviewing the integrity of the High Council of Justice members  the highest judicial governance body in Ukraine.

Learn more

Mehmet Uvez appointed new head of EBRDs Ankara office

The EBRD has appointed Mehmet Uvez to lead its office in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Mr Uvez will manage the Banks partnership with the government of Turkey, as well as its interactions with Ankara-based international financial institutions, diplomatic missions and civil-society organisations. He will oversee the Banks extensive policy work in various sectors and manage the operations of the Ankara office.

Learn more

Project signings and agreements

Turkeys Arcelik secures 150 million EBRD loan for green manufacturing

The EBRD is extending a 150 million loan to Turkeys leading household appliance manufacturer, Arcelik, to support a three-year environmentally sustainable investment programme.

Learn more

Turkeys Akbank receives US$ 50 million EBRD loan to finance women-led firms

To boost the ability of Turkeys banking sector to finance women-led businesses, the EBRD is providing a US$ 50 million loan to Akbank, a key Turkish lender.

In addition, the EBRD is stepping up its trade finance support for Akbank through a new limit and, under a dedicated Risk Sharing Framework, will also share up to 50 per cent of the risk on individual Akbank loans to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Learn more

Investing in PPCs capital increase in Greece

The EBRD is supporting the transformation of the Public Power Corporation (PPC), Greeces largest power producer and electricity supplier, with an investment of 75 million in the companys 1.35 billion share-capital increase.

The new capital will enable PPC to accelerate its investments in renewable energy, both in Greece and in south-eastern Europe, and to become a financially and environmentally sustainable, modern and digital utility.

Learn more

Donors

The EBRD organised tree-planting events in Sarajevo and Podgorica, under its Green Economy Financing Facility (GEFF) programme. With support from the European Union and Austria, GEFF helps businesses and households in the Western Balkans become greener.

Learn more

EBRD donors to the Early Transition Countries Fund gathered to discuss priorities and how to have greater impact by supporting environmental infrastructure.

Learn more

Japan and Norway announced new donor contributions to support sustainable infrastructure in the EBRD regions.

Learn more

Slovakias accession to the EU called for the closure of two Soviet-era nuclear reactors. This required a substantial upgrade of the countrys electricity transmission network. Together with its donors, the EBRD helped to manage the decommissioning support fund that financed the work.

Watch the video

EBRD in the media

EBRD President in Turkey

Ms Odile Renaud-Basso spoke to Bloomberg HT TV, Anadolu Agency and Reuters during her visit to Turkey.

Learn more

Zen and the art of long distance driving

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. At times of economic social environmental and other shocks government spending is used as an economic accelerator pedal by policymakers.

Read EBRD Chief Economist Beata Javorciks article in Handelsblatt:

In German

Open electricity bill of Ukraine

Grzegorz Zielinski spoke to FAZ about Ukrenergos first green bond, which "paves the way for more renewable energies to be developed through competitive auctions or other innovative commercial structures". This will give Ukraine "much cheaper and cleaner electricity" in the future.

Read more

EBRD Managing Director for Central Asia, Zsuzsanna Hargitai, spoke to Tajikistans Asia Plus.

Read more

EBRD on social media

EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso met Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during her visit to the country Among the topics discussed was the importance of policies which foster economic stability.

Learn more

The President summed up her trip in a post on her LinkedIn account

Learn more

She also discussed our projects in Ankara with the Mayor of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality.

Learn more

EBRD and Citi signed an MOU to accelerate green transition in sustainable supply chain financing.

Learn more

Were helping Uzbekistan to achieve carbon neutrality! We signed an MoU with Uzbekistan to advance its transition to the green economy.

Learn more

Ukraine presented its updated NDC at COP26 and discussed what it is doing in climate policy, GHG emissions reduction and adaptation to climate change.

Watch

We hosted a COP26 webinar exploring challenges and opportunities in the move to low carbon agri-food systems, as identified through the EBRD and FAO joint study, Carbon neutrality: utopia or the new green wave?

Watch

The gender-smart climate finance event saw the launch of the Gender Lens Climate Financing Investing Guide by the 2X Gender and Climate Finance Taskforce, an initiative powered by EIB, CDC and EBRD.

Watch

As climate change impacts become more apparent, the need for systemic climate resilience becomes clearer.

Watch
A CORK cancer survivor feels she is being ostracised from society after making the decision not to get vaccinated.

Catherine Mellerick from Togher is among those who marched in Cork in a recent protest against Covid-19 restrictions.

The Cork woman explained she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder cancer in 2013, and is now in remission after battling the illness twice. Ms Mellerick said she opted not to get the vaccine out of fear.

I was given one to two years to live, she said of her initial cancer diagnosis.

When I was diagnosed, I was fighting a battle to keep myself alive. Even now, I dont drink tap water or even use paint or nail varnish in case it affects my health.

This is my choice. I have gone through enough already. Its getting worse. We are constantly being told the unvaccinated are the problem. However, the treatment of us has been too hardcore. I wonder where its going to end?

Hearing that the vaccination passports are now being extended keeps me awake at night. People are asking what society should do with people like me, branding us as selfish anti-vaxxers. We are being told that the vulnerable are being protected, but instead, they are being persecuted.

The Togher woman said she feels the unvaccinated are being discriminated against.

I was relieved that I had the freedom to decline surgery after my diagnosis without any coercion, but this is different. The topic of conversation always elicits seething rage and hatred. I get frightened and clam up at the thought of having to tell people.

Its frightening and dangerous, and Im not the only one experiencing it. A minority of people arent vaccinated, and they have legitimate reasons for making that choice.

She expressed her concerns about the future.

Not being able to eat in restaurants because Im not vaccinated is the least of my worries, she said.

I heard one person publicly say that the unvaccinated should have to stay in their bedrooms, which wasnt a balanced comment.

It wasnt a surprise to me when I heard they were extending the legislation. I find it terrifying because of what is potentially down the line.

Is it going to get to a point where the unvaccinated have to stay within 5km of their homes, while other people can wander freely? From what I can see, things are becoming dangerously unbalanced.

Ms Mellerick said she feels that hostility towards the unvaccinated is unnecessary.

I believe that Covid exists and that its very dangerous, she said. However, I also feel that the discrimination facing people who are unvaccinated is bringing us into dangerous territory. Peoples attitudes are hardening. Right now, this is way more worrying than the cancer. Its difficult when the reality sinks in about what the world has become.

"Now when I leave the house I have to be careful who I talk to. I dont want to live like that anymore. I can understand why people would be uncomfortable with someone coughing in a closed space or showing Covid symptoms in public. However, the discrimination towards people who havent been vaccinated is too much.

Reassurance

Meanwhile, Fine Gael councillor and GP Dr John Sheehan, who owns Blackpool Bridge Surgery offered reassurance to medically vulnerable people hesitant about getting the jab.

If you look at the evidence in terms of people who are vulnerable, they probably benefit the most from the vaccines, he said.

When we were first giving out vaccines the people who were immunocompromised in terms of cancer treatments and things like that were the ones who were prioritised, because they were the ones who were most at risk. However, they were also the ones who benefitted the most from the vaccine.

At this stage, there is so much evidence showing that the vaccine is effective in all age groups in terms of reducing the rate of infection and lowering hospitalisations and deaths.

Nonetheless, he urged people not to be judgemental towards the unvaccinated.

People shouldnt be left to feel ashamed or ostracised, he said. People have many reasons for not wanting something. As a society, we should be mature enough to respect that, but equally, I think people against vaccinations have a responsibility not to scaremonger, generalise, or feed into conspiracy theories. The responsibility lies on both sides of that debate.

My advice to people would be to look at the facts from reputable organisations both locally and internationally. There is so much information out there from the National Immunisation Office to the WHO. All of them have looked at the evidence and come up with similar recommendations.
CORK County Council has launched a new project that aims to increase knowledge of the countys 1912 to 1923 revolutionary period.

The project will audit and record various memorials from across the county to create a powerful commemoration resource that is hoped to someday be used to create an interactive map for the public.

The initiative is being completed as part of the Decade of Centenaries programme and the aim is to help people interpret how the events of the period have been remembered.

Memorials commemorating the War of Independence and the Civil War will be documented as part of the project, as well as lesser-known sites and socially relevant events, such as the Representation of the People Act of 1918 which gave women the right to vote for the first time.

To create the database, researchers will be reaching out to a wide variety of groups including historical societies, community groups, churches, political parties, An Garda Siochana, the Defence Forces, and organisations such as the National Graves Association.

Cork County Councils Commemorations Committee has appointed Mac Conmara Heritage Consultants to carry out the project.

Mayor of the County of Cork Cllr Gillian Coughlan said that the project was a wonderful initiative.

The audit sets out to be inclusive, while also recognising that we cannot ignore differences and divisions that existed within our county during that time. There are monuments and memorials to key people and events from a century ago in almost every village, town, and parish in County Cork. This project plays an important role in ensuring that these monuments and the events of 100 years ago will not be forgotten.

Council staff, members of the public, local history societies, churches, and community groups are being invited to submit details on sites for consideration. To request a survey record sheet email commemorations@corkcoco.ie
The High Court has directed that a search be made of Ryanair group chief executive Michael OLearys messages as part of the airlines action over a threatened 2019 pilots strike, which was called off after a court injunction was obtained.

Mr Justice Brian OMoore also refused a Ryanair application for the divulging of all documents that the budget airline said Aer Lingus has in relation to confidential and commercially sensitive information about the threatened 48-hour industrial action in August 2019.

Ruling on a number of discovery matters on Thursday, the judge directed that a search be made for such text messages, telephone records, WhatsApp messages or other instant messages made, related to this matter, generated or maintained by Mr OLeary.

It was not enough for Ryanair to say Mr OLeary had minimal involvement to prevent relevant searches being made of records made, generated or maintained by Mr OLeary, the judge said.

Meeting notes

Ryanair relied on the fact that Mr OLearys assistant is identified by Ryanair as a custodian and that any relevant electronically stored documents, meeting notes and handwritten notes made or generated by Mr OLeary will be discovered as a result of a search of his assistants records.

The judge said he was not prepared to accept this was so. Ryanair did not suggest that text messages, telephone records, WhatsApp messages or other instant messages made, generated or maintained by Mr OLeary will emerge from a search of the assistants records.

He, therefore, made the direction for a search to be made of Mr OLearys records.

He also directed that an explanation be given on affidavit as to how it is that all electronically stored documents, meeting notes and handwritten notes of Mr OLeary can confidently be said to be within the procurement of Mr OLearys assistant, as custodian of that material.

The judge also noted there had been no affidavit from Mr OLeary saying that he had little or no relevant involvement in the dealings with Forsa in 2018 and 2019  dealings which were obviously quite important as far as the airline was concerned.

One would expect that the group CEO would have such an involvement, even if he was not the main driver of or participant, in the mediation with the union in relation to the threatened industrial action, he said.

Union dispute

Ryanair is suing the trade union Forsa and a number of pilots, including the president of pilots union Ialpa, Capt Evan Cullen, claiming it suffered millions in losses as a result of the threatened 48-hour industrial action in August 2019.

The defendants deny the claims.

The ruling followed applications by both sides in the dispute for discovery of documents. On Tuesday, there was a hearing in relation to what is termed non-party discovery against Aer Lingus, which is not a party in the proceedings.

Ryanair sought discovery of any communication between Mr Cullen and Aer Lingus chief operating officer Mike Rutter arising out of emails exchanged between the two men in the run-up to the threatened strike.

Martin Hayden SC, with Eoin OShea BL, said the information was of significant commercial importance to its rival Aer Lingus during the summer of 2019. It would assist his clients case or could undermine the defendants case.

Aer Lingus opposed the application. The defendants had no position on that application.

Mr Justice OMoore refused the Ryanair application for a number of reasons.

He said in reality the discovery application arose from Ryanair concerns that its confidential information was being shared with Aer Lingus.

Viewed properly, the (Cullen/Rutter) emails did not support the proposition that Aer Lingus had documents relevant to the issues actually being litigated in these proceedings, and the breadth of the discovery sought, he said.

The scope of the discovery, which Ryanair declined to limit at the hearing, was the least of several reasons why the discovery application fails, he said.


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.

Social media giant Facebook has a new name -- Meta. But the old name will remain the face on the digital conversation book.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday announced the company's name is changing to reflect its growing focus on the metaverse. But the social platform's users and detractors will not see much in the way of restructuring its operation.

"From now on, we're going to be the metaverse first, not Facebook first," Zuckerberg said at the company's Connect 2021 conference when announcing the corporate name change. The new name reflects his view for the company's vision of the metaverse "beyond" now. The term "meta" originates from the Greek prefix and preposition for "after" or "beyond."

At Connect, Zuckerberg said Meta brings together Facebook's apps and technologies under one new company brand. Meta's focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses.

"Our corporate structure is not changing, however, as we announced on our earnings call, how we report on our financials will. We will report on two operating segments beginning with our Q4 2021 results, one covering our Family of Apps and one covering Reality Labs," Facebook spokesperson Lisa Stratton told TechNewsWorld.

Reality Labs Research is Facebook's technology research division, which recently got its own rebranding from being called Facebook's AR/VR Team. The corporate name transition to Meta puts a number of platforms under one umbrella organization. Those divisions include Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp,

Turning the Page

Facebook's rebranding takes a page from Google's playbook. Google in 2015 created Alphabet as the parent company for Google and several related companies.

For Facebook, the name change comes in the wake of mounting criticism following the leak of documents revealing internal research and decision making. That prompted ongoing investigations by congressional committees comprised of both parties.

Federal lawmakers over the last two months have been questioning Facebook about how its services impact the mental health of teens and children. Some congressional committees are calling for regulations resulting from Facebook's scandals involving safety, data privacy abuses, and alleged misinformation.

"Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can't possibly represent everything that we're doing today, let alone in the future. Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and identity on what we're building toward," said Zuckerberg.

What Comes Next

Part of the rebrand reflects Facebook's efforts to shift from its social network base to the next stage in social technology. The metaverse vision depicts an immersive virtual reality world with real-time users engaging the platform for work, concerts, family gatherings, and more.

Technology experts said such a move could take a decade or more to fully develop at a large scale. The Meta concept could move the traditional social media platform beyond 2D screens toward more immersive experiences. Meta will use augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to build an evolutionary social technology platform.

Zuckerberg during his keynote address at Connect praised Facebook's accomplishments. He said moving beyond what is possible today, beyond the constraints of screens, and the limits of distance and physics was exciting.

"We move towards a future where everyone can be present with each other, create new opportunities, and experience new things. It is a future that is beyond any one company and that will be made by all of us," he said.

Zuck Still in Command

Like many past corporate rebranding efforts, Facebook's adoption of the Meta moniker seems likely little more than an attempt to distract customers, shareholders, and users from the reams of bad news plaguing the company, suggested Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

"The focus on VR and AR tech is hardly surprising, given the $2B Facebook bet on Oculus in 2014. That wager has yet to pay off, but the company's leadership appears to believe that muscular new next-gen networking and compute will help drive users to new immersive services. Despite their optimism, the odds of that happening seem very long to me," he told TechNewsWorld.

A larger point is made clear in the Meta announcement, he added. Despite the new name, Facebook's corporate structure is not changing. This is still Mark Zuckerberg's company, literally since he owns the majority of shares.

"Whatever he decides to call the organization, this decision has a very strong whiff of, 'Here comes the new boss. Looks like the old boss'," King said.

Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open-source technologies. He is an esteemed reviewer of Linux distros and other open-source software. In addition, Jack extensively covers business technology and privacy issues, as well as developments in e-commerce and consumer electronics. Email Jack.


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.
Call outs for three of the Island's RNLI lifeboats



RNLI

The RNLI lifeboats from Douglas, Port Erin, and Peel were called out yesterday to two separate incidents, one either side of the Island, in deteriorating weather conditions with winds at force 7, gusting to 8, amid swells of 2 to 2.5 metres.

The Douglas crew went to the aid of a fishing boat that had suffered an engine fire. The two crew on the 16m fishing boat had advised the Coastguard that they had been able to extinguish a fire in their engine but were now immobile approximately five miles south east of Douglas and required assistance.

Heading for the last reported position of the fishing vessel by the time Douglas lifeboat located the casualty vessel it had actually drifted a consideriable distance north driven by the strong winds and the tide. Having first ensured that both crewmen on board were not in need of any immediate assistance the fishing boat was taken under tow back to a berth on the King Edward Pier. Towing the 16m vessel against the strong wind, and the tide, made for a long trip back to Douglas. Coxswain, Edd Christian, described the conditions as Challenging.

With the fishing vessel left in the care of the Coastguard, and with the Douglas Fire Brigade on hand to check for any hot spots remaining in the vessels engine room, the lifeboat returned to station to be recovered into the boathouse, washed down and refueled and was made ready again for service by 5.30pm.

On the other side of the Island Port Erins inshore lifeboat crew were paged at 3:09pm. Port Erin Coastguard reported a kite surfer being blown out to sea off Fleshwick bay. Helmsman Matty Preston took the Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat Martin Fredrick Whithouse with a volunteer crew into the deteriorating weather conditions to begin a search along the coast going north past Niarbyl. With daylight fading, Peel's all-weather lifeboat was called out around 4.30 pm to assist with the search along with HM Coastguard Helicopter Rescue 936 from Caernarfon.

In what was the first shout for Peels RNLI lifeboat since going into service, the first Shannon all-weather lifeboat to be stationed in the Isle of Man, the Frank and Brenda Winter joined Port Erin lifeboat in the task.

Under the command of Coxswain Jon Corlett, the volunteer crew set out into less than ideal conditions. Jon explained: Port Erins inshore lifeboat searched along the coast, while we were some distance further out, heading south and working a search pattern with three crew members on the searchlights.

With Peels lifeboat and the Coastguard helicopter on scene, due to the continuing deterioration of the sea conditions, increasing lack of visibility, and at the upper end of weather limits for their Atlantic 85, the helmsman decided to take the Port Erin inshore lifeboat and its volunteer crew back to the station where the lifeboat was rehoused and was made ready again for service by 6.20pm.

Subsequently the Peel lifeboat was stood down by Belfast Coastguard when it became clear that no kite surfer had been reported missing but that a yacht had been seen in the area around the time of the sighting.

Peels coxswain added: Our crew responded with professional calm in their first shout aboard our new Shannon. Their training over the past few months, both afloat and ashore, was certainly tested in this evenings conditions. We are all pleased that this potential incident did not have a tragic outcome.

The possible sighting turned out to be a yacht. It was a false alarm with good intent. We wish to thank the passer-by for raising their concerns, and if you ever see anyone in difficulty, please call 999 or 112 and ask for the coastguard.
Sandra Ellen Dunn Locke of Elkmont, Alabama, passed away at Cape Canaveral Hospital on October 31, 2021. She was a loving and caring wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. Sandra is survived by her husband, Anthony Locke and their daughter, Ashley Norman; her son, Andrew Tybergh
A debate between lawyers and Judge Schroeder in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse focused on pinching-to-zoom on an iPad, a feature thats been on Apple devices since 2007's iPod Touch.

Thomas Binger, the assistant district attorney leading the prosecution, planned to play a video on an iPad, showing Rittenhouse shooting Joseph Rosenbaum. When the assistant DA said hed use a zoom function on the iPad, the defense lawyers objected, claiming an iPad's pinch-to-zoom function could modify footage of the incident, "creating what it thinks is there, not what necessarily is there."

This lead to the onus being on the prosecution to show the imagery remained in its "virginal state," not on the defense to prove manipulation. Pinch-to-zoom on all devices may use algorithms, but only to scale the image  it doesn't change the content itself.

According to The New York Times, Binger said zooming in on images on devices is a routine part of daily life that all jurors would understand and asked for an adjournment, which was denied. The judge ordered a 15-minute recess, suggesting that Mr. Binger could within minutes get someone to testify regarding the accuracy of the zoomed-in video.

 Mat Smith

It will build a million fewer units than it forecast earlier, according to a report.

Sony's PlayStation 5 may not be able to beat the PS4's first year sales record due to an ongoing component shortage, according to Bloomberg . The company has reportedly cut its production forecast of 16 million down to 15 million, putting its target of 14.8 million PS5 sales by March in jeopardy, if the report is accurate. It also makes a bad situation worse for anyone hoping to pick up a PS5 over the holidays.

Continue reading.

The best Windows creator laptop.

Engadget

The ASUS ProArt StudioBook 16 OLED appeals to some of the most demanding creators, with a stunning color-accurate 4K OLED display and ASUS dial to control Adobe Creative Cloud apps. Theres a lot packed into this machine to ensure it can compete with desktop machines, offering excellent performance for video and photo editing, 3D apps and more thanks to the RTX 3070 GPU, AMD Ryzen 9 eight-core CPU and high-speed NVMe SSD. Its fluid, fast and offers good battery life. The main downside is the high-tech but currently useless SD Express card reader.

Continue reading.

Yes, a vacuum is fun.

Enough careful advice, its time for Engadgets editors to talk about what theyd love to get for the holidays. And were a bunch with diverse interests. Our suggestions cover Tamagotchis, sex toys, massage guns and flip-phones.

Continue reading.

You won't need new hardware for any of the new features.

HTC has updated its excellent but expensive Vive Focus 3 business-focused headset with a much larger play area, WiFi 6E and more. The software update comes with no change in hardware as HTC "secretly built in the 6E required hardware from day 1," tweeted HTC's global head of hardware products, Shen Ye.

Continue reading.

A 'critical' battery issue forced the company's hand.

Panic

Weve reported on this intriguing handhelds delays at least five times. Whats six between friends? The company announced the delay Thursday, attributing it to a critical battery issue it discovered late in the process of manufacturing the first 20,000 production units of the console. We made the difficult, expensive call to replace all of our existing batteries with new ones from a totally different battery supplier, said Panics Cabel Sasser. The company says the new power cell features much better battery life than the previous one. So at least theres that.

Continue reading.

The biggest news stories you might have missed

Biden signs law blocking Huawei and ZTE from receiving FCC licenses

Engadget Deals: Google's Nest Learning Thermostat is 28 percent off right now

MoviePass may return in 2022

Netflix enables its bandwidth-saving AV1 codec on PS4 Pro and select TVs

HP Chromebook X2 review: Do we really need a Chrome OS convertible?
January 2, 1942 - November 20, 2021 Meron Kay Highfill Burleson went home to her Lord on November 20, 2021. She will be cremated at her request. There will be no memorial service at this time. A private memorial service to celebrate her life and going home will be held at a later date. Meron
FILE - Sudan's head of the military, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, speaks during a press conference at the General Command of the Armed Forces in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. The U.N.s top human rights body is holding an urgent session about Sudan on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021, after a military coup there nearly two weeks ago, with Britain, the United States, Germany and Norway leading a push to commission an expert to monitor the situation. The push for a human rights expert comes amid mounting pressure on Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the forces loyal to him who dissolved Sudans transitional government and detained other government officials and political leaders in the Oct. 25 coup.
Click for the latest, full-access Enid News & Eagle headlines | Text Alerts | app downloads

 The News & Eagle Editorial Board meets weekly to form the newspaper's stances on mostly local and state and occasionally national issues.

 Submit your opinion for publication to editor@enidnews.com. Find out more about submitting letters to the editor at https://www.enidnews.com/opinion/.

Have a question about this opinion piece? Do you see something we missed? Do you have an editorial idea for the News & Eagle? Send an email to editor@enidnews.com.
Disney+ Day is coming to a close, and there has been an absolute (tweet) storm of information coming our way from them - and if you're a Marvel stan, you had to wait an extra 45 minutes this morning to get yours.

In case you got distracted while you were waiting and totally forgot to look again, here's a roundup of everything you missed on the Marvel front. There's a lot of new stuff that they announced, and you can only see the trailers if you've got a Disney+ account - but we've got the scoop on what everything's about if you don't!

Moon Knight

Moon Knight is a new MCU original series about a vigilante who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, a mental illness usually brought on by trauma that causes one to have periods where they completely black out and become an entirely different person for a while.

His multiple identities get him into trouble: Like, "insert yourself into a war of ancient Egyptian gods" trouble. Moon Knight is coming in 2022.

She-Hulk

There's been plenty of buzz about the new Hulk coming to town: Actress Tatiana Maslany is Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who specializes in superhuman-oriented legal cases, may be getting some superhuman abilities of her very own - and she'll be joined by a host of other MCU characters, from the OG Hulk to The Abomination, who will be played by Tim Roth.

She-Hulk will arrive on Disney+ In 2022.

Ms. Marvel

Get ready, fanfic lovers, this one's for you: Kamala Khan is a 16-year-old Pakistani American from Jersey City. She's an artist, a gamer, and yes, a fan-fiction writer, and a a huge fan of the Avengers - particularly Captain Marvel. (Same, kid.) When she gets some of the same superpowers she's been writing about for so long, she becomes Ms. Marvel.

Actress Iman Vellani will jump onto screens in the series Ms. Marvel in Summer 2022.

What If...? (Season 2)

It's confirmed! The second season of the fan-favorite animated series is coming back next year. According to Marvel:

"After enlisting the Guardians of the Multiverse to stop Infinity Ultron, The Watcher returns in Season 2 of What If...? to meet new heroes and explore more strange new worlds in the MCU's ever-expanding Multiverse."

Also: NEW PROJECTS JUST DROPPED

Get ready to start spinning new theories, Marvel-lovers, because Disney+ also just announced a bunch of new projects in the beginning stages over at the MCU. Here's what we know is coming:

Echo: A series starring Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, a new character who will be introduced in Hawkeye.

Ironheart: A new series starring Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, a genius inventor who creates the most advanced suit of armor since the Iron Man suit - she's kinda the "next Iron Man," so to speak.

Agatha: House of Harkness: We've already heard a little bit about it, but today Disney confirmed a series starring Kathryn Hahn as her character, the witchy Agatha Harkness, from WandaVision.

Secret Invasion: Samuel L. Jackson is back as Nick Fury, joined by Ben Mendelsohn as the Skrull Talos. These characters, who first met in Captain Marvel, will spend this series fighting "a faction of shape-shifting Skrulls who have been infiltrating Earth for years" - though there's no word on exactly WHEN it's set.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: That's right: It's Christmas special written and directed by Guardians of the Galaxy veteran James Gunn, with all your faves coming into your home to spread some holiday cheer. (If they don't decorate Groot it will be a travesty.)

X-MEN '97: This one's different for a few reasons: First of all, it's an animated series from Marvel Studios - classically animated, from the looks of it. Second, it's not necessarily set in the actual MCU: the Disney press release stated that it "explores new stories in the iconic '90s timeline of the original series."

Spider-Man: Freshman Year: Okay, here's your origin story. This animated series follows Peter Parker on his way to becoming Spider-Man in the MCU, and they've promised a slightly different journey than the one we're used to seeing (jury's still out on whether we'll have to watch Uncle Ben die AGAIN) and "a style that celebrates the character's early comic book roots."

I Am Groot: OH. MY .GOSH. This series is gonna be adorable. Disney has simply described it as "a series of original shorts exploring Baby Groot's glory days growing up, and getting into trouble, among the stars."

We're ALL here for more Baby Groot.

Marvel Zombies: A new animated series, no doubt a spinoff from that one What If...? episode with all the zombies, Marvel Zombies will "explore Marvel Universe as a new generation of heroes battle against an ever-spreading zombie scourge." Who knows, perhaps this project is the start (or the next step) of many branching timelines for the MCU, much like the comic books have.
12 November 2021

Desole. Actuellement, cette page n'existe pas en francais.

Today, EPO President Antonio Campinos met online with Mr Kiyoshi Mori, the new Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office (JPO). Mr Campinos and Mr Mori aligned on several common endeavours, including those of direct relevance to this year's meeting with Trilateral Industry on 16 November 2021, which the JPO is hosting as part of the 39th Trilateral Conference.

Today's meeting also provided the opportunity for the heads of the two offices to launch the latest edition of a unique joint report. The "Comparative study on computer-implemented inventions/ software-related inventions", first published in 2018, includes new up-to-date examples from the rapidly growing areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, as well as a further new example about graphical user interfaces (GUI). The publication aims to promote a better understanding of EPO and JPO legal requirements and working practices, with a view to supporting applicants drafting AI-related patent applications.

Two headline takeaways from the new examples are worth noting. First, for the purposes of drafting claims, applicants may benefit from taking into consideration that the JPO and the EPO apply different approaches when examining the inventive step of AI-related inventions. Second, in relation to sufficiency of disclosure (EPO) and the enablement requirement (JPO), both the legal requirements and the outcomes of the sample cases are comparable.

Next steps

Looking ahead to the annual meeting of the IP5 heads of office, which the EPO hosts in June 2022, the EPO and JPO agreed to work together closely in promoting the benefits of IP to building a sustainable economic recovery after the pandemic and highlighting the positive contributions that IP can make to achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
Turkey banned Syrian, Yemeni and Iraqi citizens from flights to Minsk, potentially closing off one of the main routes that the EU says Belarus has used to fly in migrants by the thousand to engineer a humanitarian crisis on its frontier.
Russia dismissed a media report suggesting Moscow might be weighing an attack as inflammatory. 'Such headlines do nothing more than pointlessly and groundlessly fuel tensions,' said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Two San Antonio bars, their principals and an automaker have been named in a wrongful-death lawsuit over a 2019 fiery car crash allegedly caused by a drunk driver.

The suit against Paramour, Bar America and Ford Motor Co. seeks more than $1 million in damages.

The complaint also names as defendants: Martin Phipps, a prominent San Antonio attorney who is manager of the company that does business as Paramour; Bar America managing member Brian Correa; and Dave Michael Estes, who is facing criminal charges in the fatal crash.

Melissa L. Edwards, 40, her son Brendan, 11, of Spring Branch, and her 93-year-old grandfather, Walton Parker of Rockport, were killed Nov. 10, 2019, after Estes 2015 Nissan Altima collided with a 2018 Ford Escape driven by Edwards on FM 306 in Comal County.

The Escape immediately burst into flames, causing Edwards, Brendan and Parker to be burned alive, the lawsuit says.

On ExpressNews.com: Bar named in $20 million wrongful death lawsuit over death of San Antonio cyclist

Estes, 45, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.175, more than than double the legal limit, according to the crash report. He suffered non-life threatening injuries.

The New Braunfels man was charged with three counts of intoxication manslaughter. Additional charges include three counts of manslaughter, Comal County court records show. All are second-degree felonies, each punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

A criminal jury trial is scheduled for Nov. 29 in Estes case.

File photo

Reached Friday, Estes said he wasnt aware of the civil lawsuit and had no comment.

The wrongful-death action was filed in state District Court in San Antonio on Monday, two days shy of the second anniversary of the crash.

The suit was brought by Edwards husband and Brendans father, Kenneth Edwards, the couples three surviving children and her mother, Holly Johnson.

Paramour, a cocktail lounge above Phipps law firms offices at 102 Ninth St. along the River Walk, and Southtowns Bar America at 723 S. Alamo St., allegedly served alcoholic beverages to Estes while he was obviously intoxicated, the suit says.

Phipps is manager of Holy Spirits LLC, which does business as Paramour. Separately, he is part of the legal team that has been representing Bexar County in litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors.

We are unaware of any lawsuit, however, our most heartfelt condolences go out to any families dealing with the loss of a loved one, Cande Olivo, Paramours general manager, said in an email.

A call to Bar America was not returned Friday.

All of the defendants are accused of gross negligence and proximately causing the fatal injuries.

SA Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox

According to the crash report, Estes was driving eastbound on FM 306 when his vehicle left the roadway and went onto the grassy shoulder. The vehicle reentered the roadway and moved into the westbound lane, where it collided with the Escape. The Escape then caught fire.

A Comal County Sheriffs deputies used a patrol vehicle to move Estes vehicle because they were concerned it also would catch fire.

The civil lawsuit alleges that Ford is strictly liable for the manufacturing and design defect in the Escape. The car maker should have known the vehicle was susceptible to catching fire and/or bursting into flames and burning or fatally injuring occupants or those nearby, the complaint says.

A Ford spokesman said it typically doesnt comment on pending litigation.

Courtesy /Carlos Gverrero

The suit also blames Estes for the crash, alleging he was negligent and careless.

Bexar County District Court records show Estes was arrested for driving while intoxicated in 2002. It appears he served probation and received a $500 fine.

Daniel Sciano, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, couldnt be reached for comment.

pdanner@express-news.net
Scott Wynn loves parasailing, parachuting and just about any other outdoor action where the wind smacks him in the face. So when Wynn, a home remodeler who lives in McKinney, gets the chance to zip-line closer to home at Helotes Hill Country Ziplines, he leaps at the opportunity to once again cut through the air.

Ive done it in Costa Rica as well, zigzagging across rivers with alligators and in the jungle, Wynn said. So for Texas, it was a lot of fun. It was a blast.

Helotes Hill Country Ziplines is just one of a several companies around the San Antonio area sure to give you that aerial rush, minus the gators. It just takes a little gravity and a lot of galvanized cable with a secured harness and pulley system. And its easy to zip around year-round.

Weve got people that like to come out in the middle of August. I did it in the snow (and) it was fun. Anytime you want to zip-line is a good time, said Helotes Hill Country Ziplines course manager and co-owner, Rodney Madla.

On ExpressNews.com: In the '80s, San Antonio teens played at Malibu Grand Prix and Castle Golf and Games

Zip lines originally were used centuries ago to transport goods and people across the Himalayas and other mountainous terrains. Then in the 1970s, biologists started using canopy zip lines to research rain forests. That included Costa Rica, where recreational zip-lining was born in 1997 when Canadian entrepreneur Derrick Hreniuk opened the first public canopy tour.

Skyline Eco-Adventures in Hawaii established the Haleakala Zipline in 2002 as the first zip-line company in the United States. According to Skyline, more than 200 zip-line courses now crisscross the nation.

Once it took off it basically snowballed, Madla said.

Madla describes zip-lining as the closest sensation to flying without being in an airplane. You dont get the roller coaster dip-in-your-stomach or any other dizzying or jostling sensations on the ride. You simply glide through the air, usually at speeds of 15 to 40 miles per hour.

And you get plenty of support. Madla said the typical zip line holds 13 tons, while the zip-liners full-body harness can handle 5,000 pounds, and the three lanyards that connect the harness to the trolley on the main line each hold more than 3,000 pounds.

That said, zip-line companies usually require riders weigh at least 50 pounds but no more than 250 pounds.

On ExpressNews.com: St. Anthony, military dogs and more: A guide to 7 San Antonio statues you didn't know existed

Other things to keep in mind before you take that zip trip: Wear comfortable closed-toe shoes with pants or long shorts. Tie your hair back if its past your shoulders and remove any dangling jewelry. And arrive early to familiarize yourself with the equipment.

Oh, and remember that zipping down is the easy part. You could be in for at least a three-story climb to the zipline starting line. Zip-lining isnt recommended for those who have trouble with stairs, are pregnant or who have recently had surgery or a back or neck injury.

Here are some zip-line options to take you over the South Texas jungles.

Alpine Tower & Zipline at Don Strange Ranch: And you thought Don Strange Ranch was just for upscale events. The historic Hill Country venue also is home to some truly up-scale fun, courtesy two ziplines at the front of the ranch and a 60-foot tall ropes tower at the back. You even get a burger with all the fixings at the end of your adventure. Hows that for fine zip-line dining?

103 Welfare Road in Boerne, donstrangeranch.com , 830-537-3156. Available by appointment only, $65 per person with group discounts available.

Helotes Hill Country Ziplines: The Madla family-owned ranch offers nine zip lines ranging from 100 to 1,000 feet, with speeds reaching up to 35 mph. You get two hours to ride, and the zip lines take you from one to the other. You even get driven up to the starting line. And while the zip line is single rider only, guides can provide tandem rides to children younger than age 9. Just make sure you contact them prior to arrival to make the necessary arrangements.

18026 Frank Madla Rd. in Helotes, heloteshillcountryziplines.com , 210-695-8783. Reservations required. $100 per person, $90 for military and per person for groups of 10 or more.

On ExpressNews.com: Your first look inside Santikos Cibolo movie theater's immersive digital gaming rooms by Electric Gamebox

Twisted Trails at Natural Bridge Caverns: Natural Bridge Caverns has its share of above-ground delights, too. At 60 feet up youll find Twisted Trails, a four-level course of rope ladders, weave walks and other winding ways that includes seven zip rails. Closer to earth, toddlers and children less than 4 feet tall can explore the Tykes version of the larger course, where grownups can guide their little ones through kid-friendly ropes and their own zip rail. Natural Bridge Caverns also offers climbing walls for those who really like to rise to the occasion on their own steam. Climbers can go on their own, in groups or even face to face on a special see-through setup.

26495 Natural Bridge Caverns Road., naturalbridgecaverns.com , 210-651-6101. Zip Rail and Ropes Course $26.99 or $24.99 online, Tykes Zip Rail and Ropes Course $8.99 or $7.99 online. Climbing $9.99.

Wimberley Zipline Adventures: The Four Winns Ranch in Wimberley is home to 10 zip lines, which run from 150 to 900 feet between two hillsides. Expect a birds eye view of the Wimberley Valley at heights up to around 100 feet, with hawk-like speeds of more than 30 mph. Tours run 1 to 2 hours and include about a half-miles worth of hiking.

376 Winn Valley Drive in Wimberley, wimberleyzipline.com , 512-847-9990. Reservations only. $110 per person, ages 9 and older, $20 off on Tuesdays.

rguzman@express-news.net | Twitter: @reneguz
Texas Department of Public Safety

Bexar County investigators on Thursday helped return a missing toddler to her family and arrested her abductor, Sheriff Javier Salazar said.

Austin police issued an Amber Alert for 3-year-old McKenzie Byrne early Thursday morning after her noncustodial father, Brian Byrne, took her during a violent domestic assault, Salazar said. The Bexar County Organized Crime Intelligence Unit, with help from the U.S. Marshals, tracked down Byrne and McKenzie in San Antonio.
Footage of a man shot and killed by officers after they said he attempted to pull a gun was released by San Antonio police.

The dash camera and body camera footage, released Thursday evening, shows the deadly encounter between two officers and Rodolfo Gonzales, 46. The police department warns that the content of this video may contain graphic images and not be suitable for all audiences.

The officers were on patrol around midnight Sept. 12 in the area of Pima Street and Palo Alto Road, around a known narcotics house, officials said.

They spotted a man on a bike heading toward the house, police said.

On ExpressNews.com: Officials ID one of two men killed by police over the weekend in Bexar County

Given the circumstances, officials wrote in a statement, the officers signaled the man to pull over.

The bicyclist, identified as Gonzales, appeared to stop at first, but then fled.

Officers pursued Gonzales before cutting him off in the 200 block of Pima.

The body cam footage shows one officer opening his driver side door in front of Gonzales before a struggle ensues.

The struggle is difficult to make out from either officers body camera footage, but police said Gonzales was reaching for a firearm from his waistband.

The officers were attempting to wrestle the gun away, but Gonzales wouldnt let go, police said.

Toward the end of the struggle, which lasted about 20 seconds, an officer could be heard shouting Hes got a gun. Watch out, watch out!

One of the officers starts shooting, firing off several shots, before the other officer fires as well.

On ExpressNews.com: Grand jury indicts 7 San Antonio-area men accused of soliciting children on social media

Both officers opened fire out of fear that Gonzales would shoot them, police said.

Gonzales was pronounced dead at the scene. Police did not say how many times Gonzales was struck.

Gonzales firearm was recovered at the scene, investigators said. A portion of the footage shows a handgun on the ground next to Gonzales right hand and a tire of the police vehicle just after the shooting.

Mariah Medina, a police spokeswoman, said investigations in deadly force can take more than a year.

As of Thursday, the investigation is ongoing, police said.

Officials have not identified either of the officers involved in the incident.

jbeltran@express-news.net
A federal trial to decide how much money the Air Force must pay victims and families of the 2017 Sutherland Springs mass shooting is headed to closing arguments after testimony wrapped up on Friday.

Medical experts for the government spent most of the week explaining why the governments estimates for damages for the victims are lower than what the plaintiffs experts have argued. Others challenged the methodology used by plantiffs experts in calculating their numbers.

In exhibits shown during testimony, the plaintiffs estimated present value life care plans for about 15 plaintiffs is more than $37 million, while the government argues its closer to $12.9 million, a difference of nearly $23.8 million.

Other categories, such as damages for lost earnings, showed huge differences as well.

On Nov. 5, 2017, disgraced former airman Devin Kelley went to First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs and opened fire with an assault-style rifle, killing 26 people and wounding more than 20 others.

Kelley was booted from the Air Force in 2014 because of his propensity for violence. Before his discharge, he was convicted of domestic violence and sent to jail for a year for an incident in which he seriously injured his stepson. He had been barred from Holloman AFB in New Mexico because of a pattern that included threats to superiors and bringing firearms onto the base.

In July, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez found the Air Force mostly liable for the shooting for failing to report the conviction to a national FBI database  as required by law  which might have prevented Kelley from legally buying firearms, including the rifle he used.

In the trial this week, government witnesses including Dr. James Scott, testified that some items the plaintiffs experts included in their proposed life care plans for some of the survivors didnt seem necessary.

For instance, Scott disagreed that David Colbath, who was shot eight times, would need certain medications that could end up costing thousands, like antidepressants.

I dont think hes on them now, Scott testified. He doesnt appear to want them. I dont see that depression is an active problem for Mr. Colbath. He strikes me as a guy who looks at the positive side of things.

Closing arguments in the trial are set for late November.

guillermo.contreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland
Crosspoint Inc. and UT Health San Antonio broke ground recently on a Womens Wellness Campus that will expand care for the communitys most vulnerable women and children and marks the end of a legal battle.

The UT Health School of Nursing and Crosspoint  a nonprofit provider of behavioral health, community justice and residential transitional services  will build a 10,200-square-foot, 40-bed residential facility called Casa Mia at 1526 Semlinger Road for women recovering from substance-use disorders and their children.

Casa Mia will be the states first campus of its kind to operate a primary care clinic and specialty 24-hour nursery for its residents, and it may also provide a home for human trafficking victims, homeless veterans and women in need of recovery and supportive housing services following hospitalization for mental illness.

The new campus, when completed, will replace the Casa Mia facility in the Monte Vista neighborhood. It has operated nearly at capacity since it opened with 20 beds in late 2018.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio nonprofit, UT Health seek rezoning approval to build Women's Wellness Campus

We were one of the first programs to allow mothers with substance-use disorders to recover with their babies or young children, said Lisa Cleveland, a pediatric nurse practitioner and professor with the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing.

At the groundbreaking, which drew more than 100 people last Wednesday afternoon, Cleveland talked about how much San Antonio needs such a facility to help mothers recover from substance-use disorders.

Bexar County has the highest rate of babies born with opioid withdrawal in Texas, accounting for one-third of neonatal abstinence syndrome cases in the state.

Traditionally, women in treatment were separated from their children, she said. But we have found that mothers who can recover in stable housing with their babies develop a stronger bond with their children and are more motivated to recover.

Cleveland said she strongly believes the Womens Wellness Campus will become a national model of best practices in the care of women and children.

Crosspoint CEO Kevin Downey said the new campus is expected to be completed by December 2022, and the cost is projected to top $9.2 million.

The nursing school has contributed more than $2 million in grant funding from the Texas Department of State Health Services to begin construction of the campus.

The nonprofit has started a capital campaign to eventually add four buildings, including three residential housing units and a kitchen and dining facility, extending total space to 43,200 square feet on the 2.9-acre site.

On ExpressNews.com: East Side church trustees sue pastor, elder to stop transitional home for mothers and their babies

The land for the campus was bought from the Emmanuel AME Church, which will remain next door.

The road here wasnt without bumps.

Nearly a year ago, as Crosspoint went through the rezoning process to build in the historic Dellcrest subdivision, the organization encountered public opposition from church members and residents who objected to the project because it would bring another halfway house to the East Side.

Ultimately, the City Council approved Crosspoints request to build on the site near the intersection of Loop 410 and Rigsby Avenue.

In February, three church trustees sued Rev. Carl Garmon and Elder W. Raymond Bryant in an effort to stop the land sale that they said was not in the churchs best interest.

Lawyer Kenneth Grubbs represented trustees Otis Spears, Oscar Minor and Bruce ONeal and several other members of the congregation until last month.

The trustees testified that a majority of the churchs five-member board had voted against the property sale, but that negotiations between Crosspoint and the churchs pastor and elder had continued.

The case was dismissed on March 30 by Judge Cathleen Stryker, and the group appealed to the 4th Court of Appeals on April 6.

Spears said, during interviews over the summer, that the ordeal caused divisions within the churchs congregation, which were made worse during the coronavirus pandemic because the church was physically closed.

Were hurt. Were divided, and theres a lot of people who dont want to say anything because were church folks and they dont want to talk against the pastor, he said.

The appeals court dismissed the case on Oct. 6, according to court records.

Grubbs said in an email Friday that his clients decided not to pursue another appeal because of the cost and the lack of financial help from the other people in their group.

Bexar County Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert addressed the legal challenges during the groundbreaking ceremony, admonishing those who opposed the project.

Calvert said they were hating and had unfairly cast judgment on the future facilitys clients who had made mistakes while struggling with addiction.

This is a groundbreaking of changing attitudes. This is a groundbreaking that will actually bring us closer as a beloved community, he said during the event. We cannot have community unless were all welcome into it.

There were two longtime Dellcrest homeowners in attendance, Mamie Watson and Verna Eskridge, who had lived in the neighborhood for 42 and 64 years, respectively.

Verna said she thinks those who opposed the new campus will have a change of heart.

I think once it opens people will see that theyre not going to be ruining the neighborhood, she said. Its much needed.

laura.garcia@express-news.net
The flags and flowers are fading from Veterans Day 2021, the first since Americas 20-year odyssey in Afghanistan ended.

We all saw those final days in Kabul, a heartbreaking spasm of violence, courage, grit and humanity. The truth for the brave women and men on the ground during those frenzied weeks was likely much worse than what we saw on our televisions or cellphones.

Recall the images of the thousands swarming the gates at Hamid Karzai International Airport, the faces of the 13 Americans killed in the Abbey Gate bombing and the fuzzy green night vision of the last general boarding the plane.

A thought that comes to mind is if only they werent there in the first place.

And then, these words from my friend Brian Turner, a U.S. soldier poet. The poems title, Sadiq, is Arabic for friend or honesty.

On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: Playlists, but no soundtracks, for Iraq and Afghanistan wars

Sadiq

Kin Man Hui /Staff photographer

It is a condition of wisdom in the archer to be patient because when the arrow leaves the bow, it returns no more.

Sadi (a Persian poet)

It should make you shake and sweat,

nightmare you, strand you in a desert

of irrevocable desolation, the consequences

seared into the vein, no matter what adrenaline

feeds the muscle its courage, no matter

what god shines down on you, no matter

what crackling pain and anger

you carry in your fists, my friend,

it should break your heart to kill.

Only two months later, and Afghanistan seems so far away. Call it collective indifference. The phenomenon is no surprise, and there are many reasons for it  both intentional and not.

Consider the civil-military divide, and the fact that less than 1 percent of our nation serves in the armed forces, is a veteran or a dependent family member. This statistic holds true when you look at the numbers. There are 1.35 million serving today, 2.6 million dependent family members of those serving and 19 million veterans. The U.S. population is roughly 333 million.

With fewer military ties to communities, its easier to look away, and in many ways, society lost interest in the Middle East conflicts years ago.

The government blames the media for a lack of  or inaccurate  reporting. The media blame the government for poor access and transparency. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

Either way, as the conflicts wore on, the volume went down on the news coming from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: In purging archive, DOD transparency takes a step back

The most recent example occurred around the time of the departure from Afghanistan when the Defense Department purged the content produced between 1994-2014 from its primary website, Defense.gov. Its also veiled 140,000 images and videos from the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS, to protect Afghan allies.

If DOD is suppressing previously publicly released info, one can imagine how many records are overclassified and wont become public for years.

Then theres our nations short attention span and a quick-moving news cycle. Add to that the relentless and toxic political rhetoric, cutthroat partisanship and growing extremism that dominate our countrys dialogue.

Perspective comes with distance, and in the aftermath of the Kabul airlift the reality that the U.S.s small wars have largely ended is starting to feel real.

But dont forget Afghanistan and Iraq have come back to the U.S. with those who served there. Its not good or bad, but a fact, just as it was for those who served in Desert Storm, Vietnam, Korea, World War II and our countrys countless other conflicts and skirmishes throughout history.

Views & Voices: Editorials, columns and commentary, delivered to your inbox

These places live in memories regardless of the individuals experience.

For some, the impacts  whether physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, moral or some combination  can reverberate through families for generations. And these costs arent limited to those whove served in conflict zones.

While the armed services continue to develop respectful and inclusive cultures and programs to enhance military and family members health, resiliency and wellness, theres always more to be done.

Supporting veterans, those still serving and their families, is more than thank you for your service and discounts. Its a need for less valorization, more empathy and an effort to meet people where they are in life. Part of that is paying attention, demanding government accountability and doing everything possible to avoid sending young people to war.

On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: As Afghanistan falls, memories haunt

In a perfect world, there would be less conflict or need for vast militaries. On future Veterans Days, in a perfect world, there would be fewer and fewer veterans to celebrate.

Sadiq published with permission from Brian Turner.

brandon.lingle@express-news.net
Warning to the reader. I teach critical race theory.

For 48 years, I have taught political science and international relations at local Catholic liberal arts universities. From the beginning, I taught with an approach that analyzes racism from both individual actions and socially constructed forms of systemic, structural and institutional injustice or sin. This is now frequently described as critical race theory.

Critics of critical race theory claim it is Marxist and admonishes all white citizens for being oppressors against all people of color. This is simply wrong. However, this interpretation is used to promote cultural fear among the far right.

Professor Tara J. Yosso of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside wrote that critical race theory can be used to examine and challenge how race and racism implicitly and explicitly impact social structures, practices and discourses. She observed that scholarship that ignores race is not demonstrating neutrality but adherence to the existing social hierarchy.

Law schools began introducing this methodology in the 1970s. It is now found more broadly in research of education, criminal justice, health care, economics, sociology and my field of political science.

For the past decade, I have taught a class called Practice of Citizenship at St. Marys University. Responsible citizenship encourages students to learn, among other things, systemic causes of racism.

Long before I became aware of critical race theory, the framework I used to introduce students to systemic racism and injustice was Catholic social teaching. That theory consists of documents beginning with Pope Leo XIIIs 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum. For the past 130 years, a common theme throughout Catholic social teaching is an understanding that sin transcends the individual.

A number of Catholic leaders and professors have since developed our understanding of race in the context of Catholic social teaching.

Men rightly consider unjustifiable and reject as inadmissible the tendency to maintain or introduce legislation or behavior systematically inspired by racialist prejudice, wrote Pope Paul VI in 1971.

Vincent Rougeau, president of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., in a recent episode of the Gloria Purvis Podcast, supported the argument that critical race theory is compatible with Catholic Social Teaching, saying, The idea that personal actions of goodwill alone are going to break down structures that have built up over centuries  thats just naive.

Rougeau said we must stop pretending that having a good heart and loving everyone is just gonna make justice come into the world. It takes more than that.

Patrick Saint-Jean, a Jesuit psychologist at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., writes in U.S. Catholic that critical race theory is a form of truth-seeking not designed to feed political partisanship.

Both critical race theory and Catholic social teaching recognize laws can be either instruments of oppression or liberation. In a 1980 statement on capital punishment, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recognized that legal and criminal justice systems work in a society which bears in its psychological, social, and economic patterns the marks of racism, which remain long after demolishing the legal institution of segregation.

Reporter Brian Fraga of the National Catholic Reporter linked critical race theory with Catholic social teaching, saying that both understand racism is codified in laws, embedded in structures and woven into public policy rejecting the idea that racism can be eradicated through meritocracy or color blindness.

In my Practice of Citizenship courses, students research both critical race theory and Catholic social teaching. Critical race theory gives students the tools to see and judge our society, recognizing and analyzing systemic racism  the first steps of Catholic social teaching. It is then up to us to act.

Larry Hufford is a professor of political science and international relations at St. Marys University.
The groundbreaking Express-News domestic violence project, Nowhere to Hide, that began this month and continues today shares the harrowing story of how, over and over, the systems developed to rescue domestic violence victims fail.

More than two years in the making, the project is testament to the depth of San Antonios failure to save some domestic violence victims and the power of community journalism.

This team of journalists genuinely care, as do so many others. The myriad professionals who work in the system care, yet the challenges they face are daunting. Their compassion and empathy go a long way, but innovation  possibly including intervention from state and federal officials  is imperative.

On ExpressNews.com: Domestic violence resources: How to get help

The more Express-News journalists Emilie Eaton and Melissa Stoeltje, who retired in November, dug in, the more they uncovered. Early on, we realized there was a huge lack of data on fatalities. We decided to create our own database, Eaton said.

Eaton spent months reviewing police records and news reports to determine exactly how many deaths in Bexar County could be credited to domestic violence. Several times, she found fatalities linked to domestic violence that authorities hadnt labeled as such.

How can this be? To solve any problem, you must collect and analyze data, then address the findings. No amount of awareness can overcome a lack of constructive problem-solving. And why is Bexar County so generous with plea bargains, probation and dismissals in domestic violence cases?

Its no mystery why domestic violence victims lose faith in the system meant to protect them.

While there will always be tragedies, the Express-News team  numbering more than a dozen  points out the broken safety nets deep flaws.

The Express-News conducted more than 75 interviews with police, prosecutors, judges and experts in the field. Reporters sought out survivors of abuse and listened to their stories. They scoured police reports, court files and other records to create a comprehensive database of family violence fatalities. Among their grave findings:

In 2016, 27 people in Bexar County were killed in family violence assaults, eight more than the year before. In 2017, the death toll climbed to 35. It hovered around that level for two years before shooting up to 43 during the pandemic year of 2020.

Family violence killings have been climbing faster than homicides overall. In 2016, they accounted for 16 percent of all homicides recorded by the San Antonio Police Department and the Bexar County Sheriffs Office. Last year, they represented 33 percent of all homicides.

On ExpressNews.com: Preyor-Johnson: On domestic violence, be aware - but also take action

In 2017, women in Bexar County were killed by intimate partners at the highest rate among Texas most populous counties, according to the nonprofit Texas Council on Family Violence. In 2020, Bexar had the second-highest rate, trailing only Tarrant County.

For every family violence killing, there are thousands of nonfatal assaults. In 2020, San Antonio police officers filed 14,050 reports on incidents of family violence  55 percent more than in 2014.

Bexar County had the lowest conviction rate for domestic violence assaults and the highest dismissal rate among Texas major urban counties from 2011 to 2020.

My heart hurt, Eaton shared on Twitter after the project was published.

There will be more heartbreak  more stories will be published throughout the month. And, tragically, more deaths will happen.

But we cannot acquiesce. These are human beings who leave behind loved ones. For the victims and their families, there are no do-overs.

Our community must push forward. Changing that community members feel they have nowhere to hide from domestic violence must be our priority.

May we never give up trying to find a solution.
Sam Owens /San Antonio Express-News

Former 225th District Court Judge Peter Sakai says hell run next year for Bexar County judge, hoping to succeed Nelson Wolff as the countys top elected official.

Sakai, who announced in September that he would resign from his judicial bench on Oct. 31, revealed this week that he has filed paperwork designating former county district clerk Margaret Montemayor as his campaign treasurer. Sakai will seek to assume the role of county judge in January 2023, using his experience dealing with social challenges faced by many Bexar County families.
KU Leuven, Belgium

Re-imagining Class: Working-Class Identity and Intersectionality in Contemporary Culture

Workshop, KU Leuven (Belgium), 5-6 May 2022

Call for Papers



In the past few years, the concept of class has reemerged as a theme in academic discourse as well as in a wide array of cultural forms of expression, albeit in novel, untraditional ways. Until the 1970s, class was primarily imagined in terms of antagonism, especially through the figure of a proletariat fighting the upper classes. Work was the most defining aspect of class identity. Because of the shifting focus to gender and race, is the notion of class moved to the background and even tended to be considered as an outdated Marxist concept. It is striking that recently the idea of class has strongly resurfaced in debates on the political potential of aesthetic practices. These discussions aim to examine the sustained potential of thinking in terms of class and to explore novel forms of class distribution and consciousness, often in intersection with other identity categories. This furthermore implies a recognition of the fact that the nature of work has drastically changed since the 1970s, and so has the socio-political imaginary which has reflected and formed our understanding of class and class identity. Social mobility due to the flexibilization of labor across economic sectors has not only generated new opportunities for social ascension by education and excellence in a highly competitive market of short-term jobs (e.g., the gig economy); it has also resulted in a growing group of precarious workers, consisting of the traditional manual laborers and the poor as well as working subjects in sectors traditionally seen as prestigious, like the arts and academia. Competition between workers and the diminishment of the unions power have impacted class solidarity and enforced social atomization and isolation.



Against this background, the insistence with which figures of class have re-emerged is remarkable. A sociological study published in 2013 by researchers of the London School of Economics identified seven social classes in the UK, based on their access to economic, cultural and social capital. Guy Standing introduced the precariat to name a diverse class-in-becoming. While Oliver Nachtwey claims that the precarization does not amount to a repeat of the traditional class struggle, the German investigative journalist Julia Friedrichs has rebranded the traditional notion of social class to describe the surge of insecure lives in her bestselling documentary Working Class (2021), giving a voice to actual precarious workers. In the literary field, authors like Didier Eribon (Retour a Reims, 2009), Edouard Louis (En finir avec Eddy Bellegeuele, 2014), Deniz Ohde (Streulicht, 2020), Christian Baron (Ein Mann seiner Klasse, 2020), and J. D. Vance (Hillbilly Elegy, 2016) return to their working-class origins in autobiographical (semifictional) testimonies that are written after having ascended the social ladder and that critically operate with figures of class not in the least also in relation to race, gender and sexuality. Class is an important theme in fiction, as illustrated by novels of James Kelman, Bov Bjerg (Serpentinen, 2021), Diamela Eltit (Sumar, 2018), Tryno Maldonado (Teoria de las catastrofes, 2012), Antonio Ortuno (Recursos humanos, 2007), Elena Ferrante, Annie Ernaux, Douglas Stuart (Shuggie Bain, 2020), Sally Rooney (Normal People, 2018), and Bernardine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other, 2019). Furthermore, inequality appears as a theme in TV series like Years and Years (2020) and Lupin (2021), and films like Sorry to Bother You (2018), Weitermachen Sanssouci (2019), Parasite (2019) and Nomadland (2021).



These are just a few examples taken from a proliferating archive of representations of precarious work, whether or not explicitly framed in terms of working-class identity. In this workshop, we take these and comparable examples to explore a set of questions related to the persistence and reformulations of class in cultural imaginaries of the present. How has the diversification of social classes been mapped in literary and visual culture, in the broadest sense of the word? How have different kinds of cultural expression drawn attention to precarious subjectivities, and to what extent do old class imaginaries and vocabularies still help to analyze or even still give shape to contemporary culture? How does contemporary culture reflect and negotiate class identities? Does it generate affective attachment or detachment, identification and disidentification? To what extent and how does contemporary culture think class in relation to other identity categories like race, religion, sexuality and gender? To what extent does the representation of precarious work opens up important ethical questions (e.g., the aestheticization of social exploitation; the tacit power relations in mediations of precarious voices; the truthfulness and authenticity of precarity depictions, etc.)? We will address these and related issues in dialogue with three keynote speakers, Guy Standing (SOAS University of London), Magnus Nilsson (Malmo University) and Marissia Fragkou (Canterbury Christ Church University).



We warmly welcome abstracts (appr. 150 words) for 20-minute presentations on aforementioned and related questions before 30 November 2021.

Please send your proposals to Michiel.Rys@kuleuven.be and Liesbeth.francois@kuleuven.be.
Sterling, VA (20165)

Today

Cloudy early with partial sunshine expected late. Slight chance of a rain shower. High around 50F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low 29F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
Sterling, VA (20165)

Today

Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. Slight chance of a rain shower. High around 50F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low 29F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
Brick + Wood, a popular wood-fired pizzeria in Fairfield, closed its doors suddenly Wednesday, but a new restaurant will be soon filling its space at 1275 Post Road in the Brick Walk development.

The restaurant posted a note to its social media pages and to its website early Wednesday, announcing the closing. Brick + Wood opened in 2014, and earned raves for its Neapolitan pizzas, Italian street food-style appetizers and small plates, and housemade mozzarella and burrata.

"Thank you for 7 years!" the post read. "Our time has come to an end here. We look forward to seeing you all again and until then...remember to Love Life & Pizza."

Brick + Wood owner Clara Cavalli-Chiappardi did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. But the town's planning and zoning commission Tuesday night approved an application from RGR Hospitality, Inc. for expanded restaurant use at that address.

Mark S. Barnhart, Fairfield's director of community and economic development, said the space will become home to Sophie's, a pizza bar and salumeria with thin-crust pies, housemade mozzarella and Italian street food. The owners are part of the restaurant group that operates Fairfield restaurants The Sinclair, Molto and Malibu Taco, he said.

"I know [Brick + Wood] had been for sale quietly a bit," Barnhart said. "They had a good product, and a good run here."

"It's pretty sad to see Brick + Wood close. It had a very loyal following here, and a lot of people were very disappointed with the sudden announcement," he said. "But it is certainly good news that we have somebody else going into the space, so it's not going to be vacant for very long."

Barnhart said he doesn't know exactly when Sophie's will open, but he expects it could be relatively soon. "It's pretty well already outfitted as a full-scale restaurant, so hopefully it won't be won't be dark for too long," he said.

Representatives for RGR Hospitality did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)  A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts pulled up Thursday at the International Space Station, their new home until spring.

It took 21 hours for the flight from NASAs Kennedy Space Center to the glittering outpost.

The one German and three U.S. astronauts said it was an emotional moment when they first spotted the space station 20 miles (30 kilometers) distant  a pretty glorious sight, according to Raja Chari, commander of the Dragon capsule.

Floating in space and shining like a diamond," noted German astronaut Matthias Maurer. We're all very thrilled, very excited.

The Dragon's entire flight was automated, with Chari and pilot Tom Marshburn monitoring the capsule systems, ready to take control if necessary. At one point, they reported what looked like a gnarled knob or possibly a small mechanical nut floating past their camera's field of view, but SpaceX Mission Control said it posed no concern. The docking occurred 263 miles (423 kilometers) above the eastern Caribbean.

The stations welcoming committee consisted of three astronauts instead of the originally planned seven. Thats because SpaceX returned four of the station residents on Monday, after the new arrivals' launch kept getting delayed.

I cant tell you how happy I am to see these smiling faces, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei said after embracing each of the newcomers. Every one of us, all seven of us, are friends, and we're going to become even better friends as time goes on.

Vande Hei and one of the two Russians on board are midway through a one-year mission that wont end until March.

While Chari, Marshburn, Maurer and NASA astronaut Kayla Barron were adapting to weightlessness  all but Marshburn are space rookies  the previous crew was adjusting to life back on Earth. Gravity sucks, but getting used to it slowly, Japanese astronaut Akihoki Hoshide tweeted.

The new crew will spend the next six months at the space station and, during that time, host two groups of visiting tourists. Russia will launch the first bunch in December and SpaceX the second in February.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A Louisiana board on Friday voted to pardon Homer Plessy, whose decision to sit in a whites-only" railroad car to protest discrimination led to the U.S. Supreme Courts 1896 separate but equal ruling affirming state segregation laws.

The state Board of Pardons' unanimous decision to clear the Creole mans record of a conviction now goes to Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has final say over the pardon.

Gov. Edwards is traveling today but looks forward to receiving and reviewing the recommendation of the Board upon his return Tuesday evening, spokeswoman Christina Stephens said.

The Plessy v. Ferguson decision cemented racial segregation for another half-century, justifying whites-only spaces in trains and buses, hotels, theaters, schools and other public accommodations until the Supreme Court unanimously overruled it with their Brown v. the Board of Education decision in 1954. That decision led to the widespread desegregation of schools and the eventual stripping away of vestiges of the Jim Crow laws that discriminated against Black citizens.

The pardon recommendation came as New Orleans began a weekend marking the tumultuous integration of its public schools on Nov. 14, 1960, six years after the Brown decision.

I think it will be a very good thing to pardon Mr. Homer Plessy after all these years, Leona Tate, 67, said at a City Hall news conference, where she stood between Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost. The three, as 6 year olds, were escorted by U.S. marshals past angry white mobs and into McDonogh #19 elementary school building, the same day Ruby Bridges, the subject of an iconic Norman Rockwell painting, entered the all-white William Franz Elementary School in another part of town.

Keith Plessy, 64, who is descended from a cousin of Homer Plessy, attended the news conference. Later, he told the pardon board that he remembers meeting civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who refused in 1955 to leave a whites-only seat on a bus in Birmingham, Alabama, and kneeling to honor her.

She said to me, Get up boy, your name is Plessy  youve got work to do,'" Keith Plessy said.

Homer Plessy, described in the Supreme Court opinion as of one-eighth African blood, was arrested in 1892 after boarding the train car as part of an effort by civil rights activists to challenge a state law that mandated segregated seating. The 18-member Citizens Committee was trying to overcome laws that rolled back post-Civil War advances in equality.

Plessy, a 30-year-old shoemaker, lacked the business, political and educational accomplishments of most of the other members, Keith Weldon Medley wrote in the book We As Freemen: Plessy v. Ferguson.

His one attribute was being white enough to gain access to the train and black enough to be arrested for doing so, Medley wrote.

More than six decades before Parks was arrested in Alabama, police forcibly removed Plessy from the car, and he was imprisoned in the parish jail.

The Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that state racial segregation laws didnt violate the Constitution as long as the facilities for the races were of equal quality.

Plessy pleaded guilty to violating the Separate Car Act a year later and was fined $25. He died in 1925 with the conviction still on his record.

Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, the great-great-granddaughter of John Howard Ferguson, the judge who oversaw his case in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, now lead a nonprofit that advocates for civil rights education.

We cannot undo the wrongs of the past but we can and should acknowledge them, Phoebe Ferguson told the pardon board.

The New Orleans City Council honored Plessys role in history in 2018 by giving his name to a section of the street where he tried to board the train.

Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson both credited New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams' Civil Rights Office with seeking the pardon. Williams, who took office in January, ran for the open district attorney's post on a reform platform, with a stress on reviewing and reversing wrongful past convictions.

In an interview Friday, Williams noted that Plessy pleaded guilty to the Separate Car Act violation on Jan. 11, 1897  exactly 124 years before Williams took office. I think it just means that this was absolutely meant to be, Williams said.

The move to pardon Plessy comes amid a wider discussion about whether convictions or arrest records of civil rights activists should be overturned or removed.

Claudette Colvin, a Black woman who was 15 when she refused to move to the back of a bus months before Parks did so, has sued to wipe out her conviction. Civil rights attorney Fred Gray, who represented Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., has said he might file a suit to do the same for them.

But some civil rights advocates have said they don't want their arrest records expunged.

King biographer Clayborne Carson called his own civil rights arrest record a badge of honor. Expunging the record "doesnt change the historical reality that you were arrested, he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

After the Supreme Court ruling in 1896, Homer Plessy returned to obscurity, Medley wrote.

He worked as a laborer, warehouseman, clerk and, starting in 1910, a collector for a Black-owned insurance company.

His obituary noted only the date and time of death and that he was the "beloved husband of Louise Bordenave.

__

Associated Press reporters Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Kevin McGill in New Orleans and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta contributed to this report.
HONOLULU (AP)  A biological sister of a 6-year-old Hawaii girl reported missing by their adoptive parents told police the parents forced her to keep it a secret that Isabella Kalua was not breathing inside a dog cage in the bathroom, with duct tape on her mouth and nose.

The new details were revealed in documents filed in court Friday to justify the arrests of Isaac and Lehua Kalua, who adopted Isabella and two of her siblings and were foster parents to another biological sibling, on suspicion of second-degree murder.

The Kaluas on Sept. 13 had reported to police that Isabella  also referred to by Honolulu police by her birth name of Ariel Sellers  was missing and that they had last seen her asleep in her room the night before.

Police arrested the Kaluas on Wednesday, saying they believe the girl was killed a month before they reported her missing. But a body has not been found.

The parents were being held without bail and appeared in court via video from a cellblock on Friday.

A deputy public defender entered not guilty pleas for them, but it's not yet clear who their attorneys will be, said state Public Defender James Tabe. He said if they both qualify for public defenders, one of them will have a private attorney appointed.

An attorney who has acted as their spokesperson, William Harrison, said he is not representing them in the case but has spoken on their behalf as a family friend.

All I can say is Im obviously saddened by whats written, he said of the court filing. I dont know the details.

During an interview a week ago with a detective, Isabella's sister said the Kaluas asked her about two months ago to keep secret what happened: That Isabella was in the bathroom in a dog cage, duct tape on her mouth and nose, and she didn't wake up, according to the police affidavit in support of warrants for the Kaluas' arrests.

The sister was identified by initials I.M.K. in the court documents, which indicate she was born in 2009.

During a news conference announcing the arrests of the Kaluas, police declined comment on why they believe Isabella is dead. The timing of the sister's interview last Friday with the detective coincides with Honolulu police homicide Lt. Deena Thoemmes saying the case turned into a murder investigation at the end of last week.

The sister, who is older, said she knows Isabella is dead because she was there, the court documents said.

Lehua then filled the bathtub with water and put (Isabella) in it to see if she would wake up, but it did not work, the documents said.

The sister had to help carry Isabella to their bedroom, the documents said.

The mother then drained the tub and a few days later, Isaac Kalua went to a hospital pretending he had COVID-19 symptoms, the documents said.

The sister told police she knew he was pretending because he took time off work to help mom, the documents said, to get rid of the stuff ... evidence."

The sister told police Lehua Kalua bought the dog cage on the internet even though they didn't have a dog. Kalua said she bought it because Isabella would sneak around at night and want to eat because she was hungry. The sister said Isabella would be hungry because Kalua wouldn't feed her and the sister tried to sneak food to her sometimes, according to the court documents.

Isabella was kept in the cage at night, the sister told police.

After reporting Isabella missing, Lehua Kalua told police the girl had a habit of going into the garage and falling asleep and would sometimes leave doors unlocked, according to the affidavit. She also told police their home surveillance system constantly stops working.

According to the affidavit, police recovered surveillance footage on Sept. 13 that showed Isabella was last seen on cameras on Aug. 18.
Part 1 of 2 Articles (Part 2 Here)

Rejection used to be common for medical sociologist Thomas LaVeist when he tried to get his research published on the effects of racism on the health of black people. Now, said the 60-year-old dean of Tulane Universitys School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, I have those same journals asking me to write articles for them.

LaVeists experience illustrates the dramatic transformation in medical research, accelerating in the past few years. While few would dispute that black Americans are more prone to chronic health problems and have shorter life expectancies than whites, the medical community generally sought answers in biology, genetics and lifestyle. Research, like LaVeists, that focused on racism was frowned upon as lacking rigor or relevance, an amateurish detour from serious intellectual inquiry.

Today medical journal editors are clamoring for a racial lens and apologizing for what they call their past moral blindness. In recent years, and especially since Black Lives Matter protests erupted last year, systemic racism has been transformed from a fringe theory to a canonical truth.

Medical researchers are now able to offer a sweeping socio-political explanation for racial health disparities by citing the hundreds of peer-reviewed articles authored by LaVeist and a host of others, thus conferring upon the study of systemic racism the imprimatur of scholarly authority and even settled science.

This year, top officials at the National Institutes of Health issued an apology to all who have suffered from structural racism in biomedical research. The NIH, the nations largest funder of biomedical research, announced that it is dedicating $90 million to the study of health disparities and structural racism, engaging in more than 60 diversity and inclusion initiatives, and committing every tool at our disposal to remediate the chronic problem of structural racism.

In an August special issue dedicated to racial health disparities, the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association stated that systemic racism is a scientific fact beyond dispute, and disagreeing on this point is wrong, misguided and uninformed. Systemic racism is a reality to be assumed in medical research rather than a sociological hypothesis to be tested by skeptical researchers.

Deemed incontestable, systemic racism provides the political rationale for dismantling  in the words of no less an authority than the National Institutes of Health  the social institutions and cultural standards that, according to the frameworks advocates, were constructed and are maintained to uphold white supremacy.

The consequences of ignoring this new prime directive for racially focused research were made abundantly clear this year when the top two editors of JAMA were pressured to resign after the organization ran a podcast that questioned whether systemic racism explains health disparities between blacks and other Americans.

When JAMA sends a call for paper on structural racism, when the NIH director sends out an apology letter for racism in the NIH and when the CDC for the first time uses the term racism, these are highest-level determinants of what research will be done in coming years in this country, said Shervin Assari, an associate professor of family medicine and urban public health at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, one of four historically black medical schools in the nation.

This is the first time the NIH has issued a call for research on structural racism. This is the first time JAMA fires an editor who said something wrong about racism, said Assari, who has published more than 350 papers on race, social determinants and health equity. Now NIH is paying good money to the best researchers in this country who are competing to understand how structural racism works, rather than if it exists.

Systemic racism, generally unseen but known by its perceived effects, doesnt directly cause diabetes, hypertension or depression, but it purportedly creates the living conditions in which chronic conditions opportunistically thrive, advocates say. Such living conditions include unsafe neighborhoods, aggressive policing, substandard schools, discriminatory workplaces, inferior medical care and the resulting stress, despair and self-destructive behavior, the theory states.

To institutionalize its new policy, JAMA is revising its peer review standards and diversifying its ranks to advance health care equity, a term that refers to narrowing or even eliminating racial health disparities in chronic conditions and life expectancies. Similar steps are being adopted throughout the medical profession  by the cluster-hiring of minority applicants, hiring of diversity and equity officers, and training staff on white privilege, implicit bias, microaggressions, and allyship.

A lead editorial in the August special issue, co-signed by 15 people, including JAMAs newly installed executive editor and executive managing editor, along with other JAMA leaders, said all medical journals are morally obligated to assume systemic racism as a fact and document this fact in their research.

At this point in the arc of medicine and scientific publication, JAMA stated, it is crucial for all journals to fulfill renewed editorial and journal missions that include a heightened and appropriate emphasis on equity and publication of information that addresses structural racism with the goal of overcoming its effects in medicine and health care.

This rapid turn of events has blindsided traditional doctors, who are put off by the intense focus on race and the strong rhetoric.

The spectacle of the gatekeepers of medical publications announcing a political blueprint that medical authors must follow  or else  is pretty breathtaking, Thomas Huddle, who retired this year as professor at the medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said by email.

The medical gatekeepers are in the grip of a moral panic, said Huddle, who has published on medical ethics and edited several medical journals. The JAMA convulsion over the podcast was positively Maoist in its fervor for achieving moral correctness and purging the impure.

It's an open secret that some find the systemic explanation to be nothing more than leftist polemic, while others are skeptical it convincingly explains everything it claims to explain. These skeptics worry about the career implications of publicly dissenting from the new orthodoxy, but it's not inconceivable that blaming an entire national culture for racial disparities will prompt independent scholars and conservative think tanks to produce opposing research that explores black-on-black murder, racial disparities in IQ testing and other taboo subjects.

The dramatic transformation sweeping through the health care profession is not happening in a vacuum. It mirrors social justice movements committed to exposing structural racism that allegedly pervades education, criminal justice, the arts, hard sciences and other domains of U.S. society. Activists in those fields, as well as medicine, talk of dismantling white supremacy and other structures that operate by means of race-neutral laws and colorblind norms that cause racial and gender power imbalances and harm non-white groups.

Skeptical physicians say that medical journal editors are essentially replacing the scientific method with a political ideology, namely critical race theory, and leaving little room for alternative explanations  such as personal agency or cultural differences.

Theres a tremendous amount of groupthink, said Stanley Goldfarb, a former dean for curriculum who taught about kidney disease at the University of Pennsylvania medical school before retiring this summer. If you dont agree with all that, youre a bad person.

This is an argument that youre not allowed to have  thats the problem here, said Goldfarb, who has served on the editorial boards of three medical journals and was editor-in-chief of a nephrology journal.

Racial health disparities underlie the four-year gap in black-white life expectancy in the United States. The factors that contribute to this disparity include chronic conditions, unintentional injuries, suicide and homicide, which is the leading cause of death for black males aged 44 and younger. Scholars committed to the systemic racism explanation blame the disproportionately high crime rates in poor black neighborhoods on discrimination, substandard schools and other manifestations of systemic racism.

The body of research into racial health disparities has broken into the mainstream after establishing credibility through the time-honored system of academic citations and referrals. Since LaVeist began his work in the 1990s, a small stream of articles has swelled into a critical mass that now allows medical researchers to assume systemic racism as a proven fact and cite the evidence in footnotes, as established knowledge, instead of arguing the case each time.

When the weight of the evidence becomes so overwhelming that we reach consensus, we no longer continue to question whether or not [it is true], LaVeist said. We dont question gravity anymore because the consensus is that gravity is a thing.

One of the JAMA articles in the August special issue found that the major health care spending disparity is that whites spend more on dental, pharmaceutical, and outpatient care, while blacks spend more on emergency room and inpatient hospital care, suggesting that black people are more likely to be uninsured and otherwise lack access to routine medical care.

Instead of detailing the precise reasons that may explain this gap, the authors invoke previous articles: There are many mechanisms that have already been identified that explain how structural racism shapes health and healthcare.

In a phone interview, the lead author, Joseph Dieleman, associate professor of health metric sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, said: These are taken as a given by us. These are not to be debated, or being tested, in our analysis.

Health Affairs, dubbed by a Washington Post columnist as the bible of health policy, is redoubling its focus on systemic racism, anti-racism, and equity, not only in its published content but also in attending to the racial makeup of its published authors and reviewers.

We acknowledge that the dominant voices in our work are those with power and privilege, Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil wrote in January. Even as we have dramatically increased the volume of our content focused on equity, the narrative has primarily been written by those in power. We vow to change this.

Weil, who was trained in critical legal theory, a precursor to critical race theory, as a Harvard law student in the 1980s, said in a phone interview that the concepts of merit and quality are often used to maintain power and privilege, and these structures must be examined for bias.

Were just talking about  forgive the language that is used by the believers  interrogating ourselves, Weil said.

Systemic racism, a core tenet of critical race theory, doesnt have a settled definition but it has broad applicability. One of the peculiar features of systemic racism is that the mechanism is not evident to those who are not initiated into the theory, but ubiquitous to its acolytes.

For best-selling and award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi, whose writings are considered essential reading at some medical schools, any disparity can signify racism. The concept can refer to all manner of disparate outcomes  in murder rates, arrest rates, life expectancies, education levels, school discipline, household income, standardized tests scores and grades  even in the fact that black people are nowhere to be seen in the corridor portraits of medical school dignitaries and are underrepresented in symphony orchestras.

There is no official definition of structural racism, states a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine. All definitions make clear that racism is not simply the result of private prejudices held by individuals, but is also produced and reproduced by laws, rules, and practices, sanctioned and even implemented by various levels of government, and embedded in the economic system as well as in cultural and societal norms.

One line of attack against the status quo is the movement to eliminate long-accepted practices to promote merit and excellence that, according to activists, operate as colorblind mechanisms to produce unequal outcomes: gifted and talented programs, gifted schools, and admissions tests for elite high schools, as well as standardized test scores for university admission. In medicine, the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination test is changing from a graded score to pass/fail to help minority students, while Northwestern University and its Feinberg School of Medicine are promoting diversity by eliminating a six-decade-old Honors Program in Medical Education.

Still, the concept provides special challenges for medicine. Unlike bacteria, for instance, systemic racism is an invisible force that can only be measured indirectly, by its perceived effects. Nevertheless, LaVeist is convinced that systemic racism is the best explanation for racial health disparities because the correlation of race and health is consistent across numerous studies for multiple chronic conditions.

We cannot make direct causal inferences. The best we can do is look at plausible causality, LaVeist said. What we have is a case where once youve ruled out all of the plausible explanations, the only thing left is systemic racism.

LaVeist and Weil agree that health and other disparities can have other causes than systemic racism, and good scholarship should be cognizant of other potential variables. LaVeist said that without allowing for other factors, people of color would have no free will, but it is important to note that African American culture is also shaped by white racism.

One of LaVeists early co-authored papers that was rejected by several journals before finding a publisher concluded that black people who experience rudeness at the hands of white people have longer life expectancies if they blame systemic racism, or some other external factor, for being treated disrespectfully.

An implication of the study: Even if the rude behavior by the white person isnt caused by racism or an external factor, its strategically beneficial for black people to attribute the rudeness to someone elses racism, boorishness or insensitivity, rather than blaming themselves.

Yes  racism, or some other external attribution, LaVeist said. If you make an external attribution, that is going to be healthier than you thinking, Oh theyre right, I am a bad person, I deserve to be mistreated.

Assari specializes in the study of diminished returns in quality of life and health that black people and other marginalized groups experience as they gain education and income in U.S. society. His research contends that black people reap fewer benefits  such as income and health  as they rise in education, compared to white people, which he attributes to structural racism. He has written half of the 300-some academic papers on that subject cited by the National Library of Medicine.

He makes connections that would not be self-evident to someone who lacks training in his specialty. One of his recent papers, published in the Journal of Health Economics, says that Americans are less likely to smoke as their income level rises. But that rule doesnt hold for high-income Chinese Americans, who are more likely to smoke as they generate more income. So Assari postulates that upwardly mobile Chinese Americans resort to nicotine as a means of coping with the anti-Asian bias they encounter in this countrys elite institutions.

Yet, he also said that even though the anti-racist movement seems invincible now, overweening claims about systemic racism will eventually invite scholarly criticism, especially if equity policies and interventions now being implemented fail to deliver results.

I think there will be a very strong backlash against critical race theory very soon, Assari said. I dont think it is sustainable. And it is falsifiable. So there would be an anti-CRT movement among other group of social scientists.

Nevertheless, Assari said systemic racism is a reliable theoretical framework because it parsimoniously explains the marginalization of many racial groups.

This is one model which explains many of our observations, Assari said.

A theory is [reliable] when an observation or assumption holds regardless of the context, setting, place, population, design, sample. It is replicated many times across a diverse group of settings, age groups, resources, and outcomes.

LaVeist said segregation, much of it rooted in historical practices such as redlining and Jim Crow, is the primary driver of disparities. Poor neighborhoods are generally more polluted, closer to highways and industrial zones, and have less access to quality restaurants, grocery stores, public schools, and green spaces. Such environments tend to breed despair, which leads to crime and an overly aggressive police response.

The constant stress of dealing with these hassles and micro-aggressions wears on the body, research into health disparities says, echoing arguments made by critical race theorists in the 1980s. One medical paper, published in The Lancet in 2017 and cited more than 1,500 times as of November, says that residential segregation is the foundation of structural racism, and notes that growing research is linking interpersonal racism to various biomarkers of disease and well-being, including allostatic load, inflammatory markers, and hormonal dysregulation.

There are those who say the medical establishment is not going far enough in this research direction.

The STAT News health information website reported in September that anti-racism and equity have become so trendy that white scholars are colonizing research on health disparities. According to the STAT investigation, white researchers are caught up in a gold rush mentality and rushing to scoop up grants and publish papers. The white scholars are replicating work done by black researchers without giving sufficient credit, a new form of exploitation practiced by health equity tourists and opportunistic scientific carpetbaggers.

One of the worst offenders: JAMAs August special issue on health disparities. Not one of the five research papers published in the issue included a Black lead or corresponding author, and just one lead author was Hispanic, STAT reported.

Weil sympathizes with these concerns and said Health Affairs is creating a mentorship program to help scholars of color get their papers published in the journal. Weil, who said about 5% of submitted papers are accepted for publication at Health Affairs, is confident that dismantling power and privilege wont necessitate compromising standards of excellence, and he considers such criticisms to be generally false and intentionally inflammatory.

Equitable representation should be the outcome of an equitable process, not the jerry-rigged result of a change of standards for one group  that is not where we want to be, Weil said. So if the fix here is an equitable outcome by lowering standards for a certain group, our readers will notice, and thats not the end point Im looking for.

Weils biggest concern is not that the anti-racist movement in medical research will go too far, but that the momentum and resolve will fizzle out.

I think its very hard to tell where you are on a swinging pendulum when youre in the middle of it, he said. I am much more concerned that this will become a rote exercise where everyone genuflects to anti-racism but does nothing about it, than I am that this is an overcorrection.

jmurawski@realclearinvestigations.com
It was a diplomatic mission, albeit a non-commissioned one, and the White House was less than pleased with the unofficial overture.

But this one bore an even stranger twist: Donald Trump had dispatched his former director of national intelligence to eastern Europe this week to discuss relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and while the strained relationship between those two powers is certainly significant, the fact that Richard Grenell was there at all was highly unusual.

Washington first learned of the foreign excursion not through normal diplomatic channels but from Trumps political action committee. The announcement was delivered via email Thursday morning, and it reported that Grenell would be touring the Kosovo-Serbia border later that day to highlight the so-called Washington agreement that the two republics had struck almost a year prior in the Oval Office.

This agreement was historic, and should not be abandoned, the former president said in a statement, because many lives are at stake. And Grenell, who had hosted talks between the two parties previously, was there now to tour the area as my Envoy Ambassador, Trump explained. There was a final line of encouragement (peace is possible, dont give up  long term prosperity for those two nations is at stake) and then directly below that a big red button soliciting political donations.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, dismissed it all as theatrics. A senior official told RealClearPolitics that outside of his very active imagination, Donald Trump is no longer President and doesnt have any envoy ambassadors representing the United States.

Despite the Trump-granted honorific, Grenell is a private citizen and therefore not authorized to conduct diplomatic negotiations of any kind on behalf of the United States. Hence, the first words out of his mouth at a press conference along the border. I want to start by saying that I am no longer with the U.S. government. I come here as a private citizen, said Grenell, who had also previously served as ambassador to Germany. He added, I am here solely as a private citizen from the Trump administration.

But that administration ended last January, and the former president is not in a position to be negotiating anything, a fact that his critics quickly seized upon. They speculated that Trump had violated the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from interfering with diplomatic relations between the United States and foreign governments.

Tom Nichols quipped that envoy ambassador was just above Platinum Tier member. A professor at the U.S. Naval War College, he added that the odd episode was evidence of a former president dispatching former appointees to foreign countries to engage in foreign policy.

For his part, Grenell stressed to reporters that what he was there to do was try to implement these economic agreements now from the private sector side. He told the foreign press that the Biden administration has to be much more aggressive on leadership, complaining that the region had been overlooked and that they don't have an ambassador in Kosovo.

Tensions are, in fact, rising between Serbia and Kosovo, where war raged in the 1990s before peace was established by the United Nations. The leader of the U.N. Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, Zahir Tanin, recently warned that conflicts over anti-smuggling operations in the region could flare up and unravel the steady but fragile progress made in rebuilding trust among communities in Kosovo and Serbia. Last month, Kosovo police clashed with ethnic Serbs during one of those anti-smuggling operations. According to the Associated Press, at least 11 people were injured.

The overseas overture came as Trump continues to court Republicans ahead of elections next year and in 2024. Before he sent his old diplomat across the Atlantic, the former president was taking credit for Glenn Youngkins victory in the Virginia governors race, reigniting hostilities with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for daring to tell the GOP to get over their 2020 loss, and then hinting at another presidential campaign.

You think I kid, Trump told a Mar-a-Largo crowd last weekend of a potential rematch with Joe Biden, but Im actually not. Im actually not.

Representatives from the governments of Kosovo and Serbia did not return RCPs requests for comment. Neither did a Trump spokesperson. But a former Trump staffer told RCP that the Grenell gambit should be dismissed as a publicity stunt. Its just classic, the former senior White House official said. This falls somewhere between denial and boredom.
Good morning, it's Friday, Nov. 12, 2021, the day of the week when I reprise quotations intended to be uplifting or educational. Today's comes from Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the towering 19th century suffragist who was born on this date in 1815.

Before she'd said a single word to the delegates attending the first international conference on women's rights on the morning of March 25, 1888, Elizabeth Cady Stanton received a standing ovation. The enthusiastic applause must have been like that given to lifetime achievement Oscar recipients at the Academy Awards. It had been four decades since the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, N.Y., and Stanton had been working for those rights even longer than that.

Although she reminded her audience American women did not yet have the vote, she expressed faith that it was only a matter of time. "We have opened a pathway," she said, "to the promised land."

In her speech that day, which RCP published a year and a half ago, Stanton once again made the case for women's equality and allowed herself to muse aloud about the difference that female voters and policymakers would make in the global policy questions of the age. These ranged from the cosmic (war and peace) to the relatively trivial, such the contemporaneous squabble between Canada and the U.S. over territorial fishing rights.

"As to the much-vexed question of the fisheries, we would say, in view of our vast Atlantic and Pacific coast, thousands of miles in extent, do let Canada have three miles of the ocean if she wants it," she said. "If the cod is the bone of contention, as it is the poorest of all fish, let the Canadians eat it in peace so long as we have oysters, shad, bass and the delicate salmon from our Western lakes and California."

This sounds to modern ears as though Ms. Stanton was being puckish. Perhaps there was some of that, but I think she was trying to show that women, absent the machismo and jingoistic impulses of men, would be reasonable compromisers when it came to public policy. She certainly thought they would be more civilized and compassionate. Speaking 26 years before the horrors of World War I, she said this: "The question is continually asked: If women had the right of suffrage, how would they vote on national questions? I think I might venture to say that the women on this platform would all be opposed to war."

She also said this: "As to a treaty with Russia to send back her political prisoners to be tortured in her prisons and the mines of Siberia, our verdict would be no, no. America must ever be the great university in which the lovers of freedom may safely graduate with the highest honors, and under our flag find peace and protection."

And that's our quote of the week.

Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon.
Developers of a new 46m grain distillery in the Borders which will source thousands of local wheat and barley annually have welcomed the green light to start construction.

Plans to create Scotlands first grain distillery in 10 years have taken a significant step forward after it was approved by planners earlier this week.

The St. Boswells Distillery, based at Charlesfield Industrial Estate in the Scottish Borders, will also become Scotlands lowest carbon grain distillery.

It will produce 20 million litres of pure alcohol a year to meet the growing demand for grain whisky for use in Scotch Whisky blending and a Scottish grain neutral spirit for gin and vodka.

The site will source local cereals from growers in the surrounding Tweed Valley and process them sustainably with renewable energy into the spirit.

The cereals, once spent, will be passed to the adjacent anaerobic digestion plant, where they will be converted into methane, with the remaining material being used as soil conditioner for the crops.

Jack Distillers, the firm behind the facility, said the development will create about 20 permanent jobs and 200 during construction.

(Photo: Michael Laird Architects)

The 18 month construction period is scheduled to begin in 2022, and spirit will be produced in 2024.

Trevor Jackson, founder & CEO of Jackson Distillers, welcomed the planners decision: This is another significant step forward in the process to create the Scottish Borders first major grain distillery.

We have had great support for our proposals from local stakeholders across the region and have worked closely with Scottish Borders Council to ensure we created plans that fit into the landscape.

"We are grateful to everyone who has helped us to get to this stage and will continue to work with local stakeholders as we now progress with construction.
The Scrapie Monitoring Scheme (SMS) has been amended to allow for a new status that will support vital breeding sheep sales between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Around 9,000 breeding sheep move annually to NI but since the protocol came into effect at the end of 2020, only a very small number of sheep have been traded.

This new qualifying status is an amendment to existing EU trade rules to allow sheep imports into the EU single market, which includes NI, without full scrapie monitoring status.

The Scrapie Qualifying Status (SQS) will allow Scottish flocks to register straight away, but this must be done by 31 December 2021.

Once registered, flocks will move to the full scheme after three years of monitoring and the temporary scheme will close.

If a Scottish seller misses the 31 December deadline for SQS, it will take at least three years in the SMS to achieve controlled risk status which would allow them to export to NI.

NFU Scotland has welcomed the introduction of this status as it would resume trade to NI, which is of particular importance to Scotland's Blackface sheep breeders.

The union's livestock policy manager, Hannah Baker said: While this is an important breakthrough in restarting this valuable trade in breeding sheep, we urge all those to make themselves aware of the SMS rules which they will be required to meet as part of the SQS.

Of note is the requirements around trading with non-SMS registered flocks and that if any animals are brought onto a holding from an unregistered farm they need to be kept separate or the SQS/SMS status is lost.

Trading only with those signed up to the Scrapie Monitoring Scheme of the Qualifying Scheme may not be practical for some Scottish farmers and could limit the popularity of signing up for SQS.

The SQS is an important and valuable step forward. While we have not been able to solve the trade issues for breeding sheep travelling to NI completely, this qualifying scheme has the potential to restart this valuable trade.

The scrapie monitoring scheme is being facilitated by Scotlands Rural College (SRUC) on behalf of Defra.
Amendments have been made to Scottish legislation to improve controls on the storage of slurry and digestate to reduce leakage, along with more targeted spreading to reduce emissions.

Changes to the way that slurry and digestate is stored and spread on Scottish farms could lead to a reduction of up to 70% of the harmful ammonia that is released, the Scottish government said.

While slurry and digestate are important nutrients for use on farms, they can also be damaging to the natural environment if not used properly.

A key element of the regulation is the phasing out of broadcast spreading of slurries by splash plates and the introduction of low-emission, precision spreading equipment.

The changes are being made following a 12-week public consultation and engagement with the agricultural groups, such as NFU Scotland.

The Scottish government said the changes will be phased in, with some farms having up to five years to comply.

Minister for Environment Mairi McAllan said: By using low emission, precision equipment, we can reduce the ammonia emissions by up to 70%, protecting our vital water environment and reducing the agricultural impact on climate change.

This will also make an important contribution to the commitments on reducing air pollutant emissions from agricultural activity, which are set out in our new air quality strategy published earlier this year."

She said the Scottish government had listened to the concerns of farmers and made alterations to the legislation, as 'farms will not be able to introduce changes overnight'.

We will continue to work with our farming communities to ensure a continued thriving agricultural sector, while meeting our obligations to achieve net zero," the minister added.

The Water Environment (Controlled Activities)(Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 will come into force from 1 January 2022.
2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Fauquier community has proven resilient. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you for your continued support, wed like to offer all our subscribers -- new or returning --

4 WEEKS FREE DIGITAL AND PRINT ACCESS.

We understand the importance of working to keep our community strong and connected. As we move forward together into 2021, it will take commitment, communication, creativity, and a strong connection with those who are most affected by the stories we cover.

We are dedicated to providing the reliable, local journalism you have come to expect. We are committed to serving you with renewed energy and growing resources. Let the Fauquier Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come.
One Monday night a month, a trio of team members from Barred Owl Butcher & Table in Columbia, Missouri, pause to play with fire.

Barbacoas del Norte  one of two Barred Owl-based pop-ups  is the brainchild of head baker Tim Eisenhauer, bar manager Frances Harvey and co-owner Joshua Smith. The concept brings Mexican-style barbecue to the area, adding variety to what Eisenhauer considered a monotonous barbecue scene in mid-Missouri.

The combination of food and fire has been a longtime professional passion for Eisenhauer, who operated a wood-fired pizza truck, aptly named Playing with Fire, in Columbia before joining the Barred Owl crew. What attracted me to barbecue was the opportunity to work with wood and fire, he says. There are places in town that have followers, but nobody  except now Buds BBQ  relies on wood-fired smokers.

The formula for the menu at Barbacoas del Norte is two meats plus two sides served on a platter for two, with the option to add dessert and/or a cocktail crafted by Harvey especially for each event. Past offerings include a Mezcal Manhattan and a Mezcal Margarita, but the trio lets their taste buds take the lead in pinpointing exactly what to prepare when it comes to the drinks as well as the fare.

Its what were hungry for, Eisenhauer says of the menu. Last months Oktoberfest menu featured smoked black pepper knackwurst, Weisswurst, pulled pork with Hatch chile mustard sauce, fried Brussels sprouts with citrus-puya chile glaze, German potato salad and Logboat knothole rolls.
The word mant derives from mantu, meaning dumplings.

The dumplings typically consist of a spiced meat mixture, usually lamb or ground beef, in a thin dough wrapper and either boiled or steamed. Mant is traditionally served with a garlicky yogurt sauce and a red pepper or tomato sauce.

The origin is somewhat uncertain, it is thought that the dish may have originated in the territories of the Mongol Empire. Some variations may be traced back to the Uyghur people of northwest China. One of the earliest mentions of manta is found in the 1330 manuscript Yinshan Zhengyao by Hu Sihui, a court therapist in service of the Yuan Dynasty.

It is a shared culinary heritage that the nomadic Turkish tribes brought with them when they travelled from Central Asia towards Anatolia, todays Turkey, during the 13th century. According to author Holly Chase, Turkic and Mongol horsemen on the move were supposed to have carried frozen or dried mant, which could be quickly boiled over a camp fire

Migrating Turkic-speaking peoples brought the dumpling with them to Anatolia, where it evolved into the Turkish mant. When the Tatars settled into the central Kayseri region of modern-day Turkey, the area became known for its Kayseri mants.

Kayseri mants

Kayseri mants is tiny and served with yoghurt, melted butter flavored with Aleppo pepper, dried mint and seasoning, In Kayseri, when a couple is engaged to be married, the mother of the groom visits the brides house and during this visit the bride should prepare mant for her prospective mother-in-law. The smaller the mant dumplings are, the more skillful the bride is considered to be in the kitchen. Traditionally the dumplings prepared for the prospective mother-in law are supposed to be so small that 40 of them can be fit into one spoon.

Mant may be made from shredded meat of quail, chicken or goose in some regions of Turkey, while bos mant (empty dumpling) lack filling entirely.

Turkish cuisine includes also other dumplings similar to mant, such as hingel and Tatar boregi. These are typically larger than Kayseri mants.

Hingel

Tatar boregi.

How to make Turkish mant

Although you can easily find mant in shops and supermarkets, theres nothing quite like having a go at making your own. Heres a recipe from Ozlems Turkish Table.

Mant, Turkish dumplings with ground meat, onion and spices

Serves 4 people

Dough ingredients:

300gr/ 2 cups/ 10  oz. all-purpose plain flour (plus a little extra for rolling)

1 egg, beaten

4 fl. oz. /  cup water

30ml/2 tbsp. olive oil

5ml/1 tsp sea salt

For the filling:

225gr/8oz ground beef or lean ground lamb

1 onion, grated or very finely chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the garlic yoghurt:

500gr/2  cups thick and creamy plain yogurt

1 -2 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped

Salt to taste

For the sauce:

15ml/1 tbsp. Turkish hot pepper paste, (biber salcas) or tomato paste

60ml/4 tbsp. olive oil

10 ml/2 tsp. dried mint (kuru nane)

5 ml/1 tsp. (or more) ground sumac (optional)

5 ml/ 1 tsp. (or more) Turkish red pepper flakes (chilli flakes, pul biber)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F

First make the dough. Sift the flour and salt into a wide bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour in the beaten egg and the water and using your hands, draw the flour into the liquid and mix to a dough. Pour in the olive oil and knead the dough for about 5-8 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic. Mant dough needs to be quite hard; cover the dough with a cling film or kitchen towel and leave to rest in a cold place or in the fridge for 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, make the filling. Grate or finely chop the onion and combine with the ground meat. Season with salt and ground black pepper and mix well.

In a separate bowl, beat the yogurt with the garlic and season with salt to your taste.

Cut the dough into 3 pieces. Working one piece of dough at a time (and cover the rest of the dough pieces with a damp towel in the meantime so they dont dry out), roll the dough as thinly as you can into a sheet, on a lightly floured surface. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into small squares (roughly 2.5cm/1in). Spoon a little of the filling, rounded at a size of half a chickpea, into the middle of each square.

Pinch the opposite corners to form a little a little pouch and press the seams together to seal firmly.

Bake uncovered for 10 minutes, until the mant dumplings start to get light golden.

Repeat with the rest of the dough and place the stuffed dumplings in a greased oven proof dish, stacking them next to one another. Bake uncovered for 10 minutes, until the mant starts to get light golden. Take them out of the oven and cool. You can freeze some of the baked mant in a sealed bag for up to 3 weeks.

Pour the hot water and pinch of salt to a large pan and bring to the boil. Place the baked dumplings gently to the boiling water and simmer for about 8- 10 minutes, until they are cooked. Once cooked, drain the water and return the mant to the pan. Drizzle a little oil over them so that they dont stick together.

While mant is cooking, prepare your sauce. Heat the oil in a wide pan and add the hot pepper paste, biber salcasi or the tomato paste. Stir in the red pepper flakes, dried mint and sumac, combine well and simmer for 1-2 minutes.

Arrange mant on a warm serving dish and spoon the garlic yogurt over them. Drizzle spices infused olive oil and tomato/red pepper paste sauce over the garlic yogurt. You can decorate with extra red pepper flakes, dried mint and sumac and serve immediately.

Please follow the link below for Ozlems recipe for vegetarian mant.

Vegetarian mant, Turkish dumplings with sauteed onions, chickpeas and spices

Afiyet Olsun

Source: Wikipedia/Ozlems Turkish Table
Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-Category


Kartik Aaryan is truly on a roll and we must say that hes all set for a Dhamak-edaar career high. Experimenting with his roles, Kartiks next Dhamaka will see him in a never seen before avatar.





Today in an interview with Bombay Times, Kartik Aaryan reveals how he shot for the film in mere 10 days and compliments his director Ram Madhvani and the team. He says that it was a difficult task but the team and his prep work helped to finish the film amidst the pandemic in mere 10 days. He says, I had started my prep months before the shoot began. By the time I was on set, I was living Arjun Pathak mentally. That is how we managed to complete the shoot smoothly and on time, which was quite cool.



Talking about his role Arjun Pathak whos under intense circumstances to report a tense situation live, Kartik reveals that it has been the most difficult character that he has played. Speaking to BT he said he has always been a high spirited person in reality and hence it has been comfortable for him to play romcom roles, but Dhamaka pushed his boundaries. Dhamaka pushed me to expand my boundaries as an actor. He said that his prep was more detailed and he studied the lives of news reporters and watched various documentaries for better understanding. Arjuns character is layered and intense, so I really worked to live him in every way possible. I studied the lives of news reporters and documentaries.







Adding further he said that working with Ram Madhvani has been a dream come true for the young actor. He says he gave his best because it was his directors presence on the set which is phenomenal and leaves him inspired.

Apart from Dhamaka, Kartik will also be seen in Freddy, Shehzada, Captain India and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2.


Shahid Kapoor always keeps his fans and the media awaited to announce his next. The actor makes sure that the script is right and only then he moves forward to make an official announcement and come on board. This morning he has announced his next film with director Ali Abbas Zafar.





Shahid Kapoor took to his social media and shared a lovely click with the director. In the picture we see both of them smiling and his caption reads, Day 1  Blood crime and lots of action. Here we go @aliabbaszafar better get your game face on.

Now looking at that click and reading that caption, it looks like the director-actor duo are ready for some major action flick.



View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ali Abbas Zafar (@aliabbaszafar)





Ali Abbas Zafar too took to his social media and shared the same click and said, Lets get this started @shahidkapoor are you ready for a crazy, quirky, mad ride of guns & gangs. It's always a treat to watch Shahid Kapoor in action mode.

Shahid Kapoor recently finished shooting for his web debut with Raj and Krishna DK. The actor shot a major part of the show in Goa and we hear that the content will blow our minds off. He has Jersey up for theatrical release as well.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 11, 2021) - Nano One Materials Corp. (TSX: NANO) (OTC Pink: NNOMF) (FSE: LBMB) ("Nano One" or the "Company") is a clean technology company with patented processes for the low-cost, low-environmental footprint production of high-performance cathode materials used in lithium-ion batteries.

Nano One wishes to provide an update regarding the news issued today by Johnson Matthey about their plans to exit the battery materials business. At this time, the Company can advise that the news today was unexpected. As details and next steps emerge, Nano One will provide updates to the market.

Nano One has a strong balance sheet and is well placed to be a valued contributor to a battery supply chain that hasn't even begun to reach its full momentum. The Company is committed to advancing its technology with its multiple partners and is confident in the value Nano One's One-Pot and M2CAM technology can bring to the supply chain.

###

About Nano One

Nano One Materials Corp (Nano One) is a clean technology company with a patented, scalable and low carbon intensity industrial process for the low-cost production of high-performance lithium-ion battery cathode materials. The technology is applicable to electric vehicle, energy storage, consumer electronic and next generation batteries in the global push for a zero-emission future. Nano One's One-Pot process, its coated nanocrystal materials and its Metal to Cathode Active Material (M2CAM) technologies address fundamental performance needs and supply chain constraints while reducing costs and carbon footprint. Nano One has received funding from various government programs and the current "Scaling of Advanced Battery Materials Project" is supported by Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) and the Innovative Clean Energy (ICE) Fund of the Province of British Columbia. For more information, please visit www.nanoone.ca

Company Contact:

Paul Guedes

info@nanoone.ca

(604) 420-2041

Media Contact:

Chelsea Nolan

Antenna Group for Nano One

nanoone@antennagroup.com

(646) 854-8721

Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of terminology such as 'believe', 'expect', 'anticipate', 'plan', 'intend', 'continue', 'estimate', 'may', 'will', 'should', 'ongoing', 'target', 'goal', 'potential' or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made are not, and cannot be, a guarantee of future results or events. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including but not limited to: the Company's ability to achieve its stated goals; the commercialization of the Company's technology and patents; the execution of the Company's plans, development of materials, methods of production and study for pre-pilot, pilot and scaled up manufacturing on the path to commercialization; and other risk factors as identified in Nano One's MD&A and its Annual Information Form dated March 15, 2021, both for the year ended December 31, 2020, and in recent securities filings for the Company which are available at www.sedar.com. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that is incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103186
Washington, D.C., Nov 12, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - The American Blockchain Political Action Committee (PAC) has officially launched its goal to raise $300 million dollars to advance and support present and future innovation of digital assets and blockchain in the United States.The American Blockchain PAC seeks to advance American innovation and dominance by challenging all proposed federal legislation, including the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021), that would place regressive taxation onto cryptocurrency exchanges, digital asset transfers, miners, node operators, Bitcoin ATM operators, and software developers."As federal officials seek policy methodologies to navigate how public blockchain platforms and innovators should be regulated, the American Blockchain PAC will serve as a critical source of knowledge and information for donors and decision-makers on issues impacting this ecosystem," American Blockchain PAC Founder Todd White said."There are several key initiatives the PAC will be steering, such as leading efforts to build a vanguard of new Congressional candidates and reelecting officials who believe in and support cryptocurrency-blockchain innovation and transformation," said American Blockchain Super PAC Chief Executive Officer Adelle Nazarian."To win the future, America needs blockchain legislation that promotes innovation while keeping abuse in check," said American Blockchain PAC Board of Directors Advisor Dr. W. Scott Stornetta. Stornetta -- considered by many to be a founding father of the blockchain -- added, "donating my time to help Congressional leaders better understand the value-creating potential of blockchain is, in my mind, a civic responsibility."The American Blockchain PAC is on the frontlines of protecting and mainstreaming the most effective uses of blockchain and digital assets in America. Leadership is headed by Founder Todd August White; Chief Executive Officer Adelle Nazarian; Dr. W. Scott Stornetta, who serves as a pro bono advisor to the Board of Directors; and Kevin Mehrabi of Tezos, and Ariel Jalali, who serve as advisors to the hybrid PAC.Press Contact: Press@AmericanBlockchainPac.orgSource: Plato Data Intelligence: https://PlatoBlockchain.comSource: American Blockchain PACCopyright 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.
- Commencing in January 2022, Arabesque Asset Management Singapore Pte. Ltd. (Arabesque) will be embarking on an AI project that focuses on financial knowledge graphs, understanding data bias with application to transfer learning, and general machine learning approaches for financial analysis and modelling.

- The project will be used to enhance Arabesque's existing AI business activities such as identifying alpha opportunities.

- An engineering and research unit dedicated to the advancement of AI and automation in asset management will be established as part of the project.

- Arabesque is hiring AI engineers and researchers in Singapore that will help establish Singapore as a leading centre for AI in finance.

SINGAPORE, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Arabesque today announced that it will embark on an AI project which focuses on financial knowledge graphs, understanding data bias with application to transfer learning, and general machine learning approaches for financial analysis and modelling. This will enhance Arabesque's existing AI business activities such as identifying alpha opportunities.

Commencing in January 2022, the project will run for two years and support Arabesque in developing capabilities in cutting-edge areas of AI. The work undertaken by the AI research unit is expected to enhance Arabesque's existing business activities such as developing data engineering capabilities, improving the accuracy at which alpha opportunities are identified for its investment strategies, and utilising new unstructured sources of data as inputs into its financial models.

The project is supported under the Financial Sector Technology & Innovation - Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics (FSTI - AIDA) scheme, which aims to strengthen the AIDA ecosystem in the Singapore financial sector. The FSTI - AIDA scheme is funded by the Financial Sector Development Fund, administered by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The project will involve the establishment of an AI engineering and research unit based in Singapore, which will be dedicated to the advancement of AI and automation in asset management. Arabesque will be hiring a team of AI engineers and researchers in Singapore as part of the new unit.

The team will be led by Arabesque's Dr Qasim Nasar-Ullah, a co-founder of Arabesque's AI business, who will take on a new role at the firm's Singapore office. All work undertaken by the AI unit will be used to enhance Arabesque's existing AI capabilities, and will be utilised to help establish Singapore as a world-leading centre for AI in asset management.

Dr Yasin Rosowsky, CEO of Arabesque AI, said:

"Artificial intelligence will play a vital role in financial services over the next decade and will help accelerate the shift towards more sustainable capital markets. We are honoured to have been awarded the FSTI - AIDA grant and look forward to working on developments that will advance the innovative application of AI in asset management.

We are excited at the prospect of building an AI engineering and research team in Singapore to deliver cutting-edge AI solutions for the fintech ecosystem of Singapore and beyond."

Headquartered in London, Arabesque Asset Management is part of the Arabesque Group, which aims to advance sustainable finance through investment solutions, market-leading data assets, AI, and financial technology expertise.

About the Arabesque Group

The Arabesque Group is comprised of three businesses, Arabesque Asset Management, Arabesque S-Ray, and Arabesque AI, that work together to advance sustainable finance through investment solutions, AI and financial technology expertise. Established independently in 2013, Arabesque's mission is to enable clients and other stakeholders to implement sustainability in their investments and financial decision-making. Arabesque counts many of the world's leading banks, asset managers, asset owners and custodians as clients. arabesque.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1686388/Arabesque.jpg
Millicom (Tigo)to acquire full control of Tigo Guatemala

Luxembourg, November12, 2021 - Millicom announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire the remaining 45% equity interest in its joint venture businesses in Guatemala (collectively, "Tigo Guatemala") from our local partner for $2.2 billion in cash. The transaction was signed today and is expected to close later today. As a result, Millicom will own a 100% equity interest in Tigo Guatemala. The transaction is expected to be significantly and immediately accretive to Millicom's cash flow and net income and to increase Millicom's equity free cash flow1 by approximately $200 million before incremental financing costs.

Bridge financing to fund the transaction is being provided by a group of leading international banks. Millicom intends to refinance the bridge with the planned issuance of approximately $1.5 billion of new long-term debt, and approximately $750 million of new equity via a rights offering2 expected for Q1 2022. Giving effect to the transaction and the planned equity offering, Millicom's leverage1 is expected to be approximately 3.1x in Q1 2022 and to continue to decline thereafter towards the company's leverage target of 2.0x.

With this transaction, Millicom consolidates its position as the leading telecommunication service provider in Central America.

Millicom CEO Mauricio Ramos said: "We are delighted to have signed this agreement to consolidate a 100% ownership position in Tigo Guatemala, one of our most successful businesses. The transaction is right in line with our stated inorganic capital allocation strategy, which includes the acquisition of the remaining minority interests owned by third parties in our operations, when those transactions can be executed in an accretive manner."

"We thank our partners for their important role developing Tigo Guatemala and for the support for this transaction. For Millicom, this new investment reflects our continued confidence in the thriving economy of Guatemala and our renewed commitment to the digital transformation of its society. Hand in hand with the vision and strong commitment of our team of more than 3,100 employees in the country, we will continue to build the digital highways that connect people, improve lives, and develop communities all throughout Guatemala," Ramos added.

He finished by saying that: "With this transaction, we will transform the financial profile of Millicom, significantly increase our cash flow and net income and greatly simplify our structure."

About Tigo Guatemala

As of September 30, 2021, Tigo Guatemala was the leading mobile player with 11.6 million subscribers, the leading broadband internet provider with 392,000 subscribers, and the second largest pay TV provider with 567,000 customers. Tigo Guatemala is the most profitable business within the Millicom Group, with an EBITDA margin above 51%. In addition, Tigo Guatemala also owns extensive infrastructure assets, including approximately 4,400 towers, two tier 3 data centers, and more than 21,000 km of fiber.

In 2020, Tigo Guatemala revenue grew 4.8% to $1.5 billion, EBITDA rose 4.0% to $778 million, operating cash flow ("OCF") increased 3.9% to $597 million, and equity free cash flow after leases ("EFCF") was $360 million. Based on its robust financial and operating performance in the first nine months of 2021, Tigo Guatemala's financial targets3 for full year 2021 are:

Revenue of about $1.6 billion, up 6% year-over-year;

EBITDA of $850 million, implying an EBITDA margin of 53% and growth of 9%;

OCF (EBITDA less Capex) of $650 million, implying an OCF margin of 41% and growth of 9%;

EFCF after leases of approximately $450 million, implying growth of 25%; and

Net income of approximately $350 million, up 32%.





Based on Tigo Guatemala's full year 2021 targets2, the purchase price implies the following valuation multiples: EFCF yield of around 9.0%, EV/OCF of 8.2x, and EV/EBITDA of 6.2x. As a result of the transaction, Millicom will fully consolidate Tigo Guatemala's results and balance sheet.

Millicom management will host a video conference call to discuss the transaction on November 12, 2021 at 14:00. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing details about joining the video conference. Participants who wish to ask a question during the live event must notify the Investor Relations team via email to investors@millicom.comafter the start of the event. Participants may also join the conference in listen-only mode by dialing any of the following numbers and entering the Webinar ID: 842 7814 8770:

US: +1 929 205 6099 Sweden: +46 850 539 728

UK: +44 330 088 5830 Luxembourg: +352 342 080 9265

Additional international numbers are available at the following link. Presentation slides detailing the transaction are available on the company's website at: http://www.millicom.com/investors/presentations.

For further information, please contact

Press:

Vivian Kobeh, Director Corporate Communications

+1-786-628-5300

press@millicom.com







Yocasta Valdez, Group Manager Digital Media & Communications

+1-305-929-5417

press@millicom.com (mailto:press@millicom.com) Investors:

Michel Morin, VP Investor Relations

+1-786-628-5270

investors@millicom.com (mailto:investors@millicom.com)







Sarah Inmon, Director Investor Relations

+1-786-628-5303

investors@millicom.com (mailto:investors@millicom.com)

About Millicom

Millicom. Connect with Millicom on Twitter, Instagram, Facebookand LinkedIn.

RegulatoryStatement

This information was prior to this release inside information and is information that Millicom is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 01:45 CET on November 12, 2021.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements included herein that are not historical facts, including without limitation statements concerning future strategy, plans, objectives, expectations and intentions, projected financial results, liquidity, growth and prospects, are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time. In the event such risks or uncertainties materialize, Millicom's results could be materially adversely affected. In particular, there is uncertainty about the spread of the COVID-19 virus and the impact it may have on Millicom's operations, the demand for Millicom's products and services, global supply chains and economic activity in general. The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following:

global economic conditions and foreign exchange rate fluctuations as well as local economic conditions in the markets we serve;

potential disruption due to diseases, pandemics, political events, piracy or acts by terrorists, including the impact of the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and the ongoing efforts throughout the world to contain it;

telecommunications usage levels, including traffic and customer growth;

competitive forces, including pricing pressures, the ability to connect to other operators' networks and our ability to retain market share in the face of competition from existing and new market entrants as well as industry consolidation;

legal or regulatory developments and changes, or changes in governmental policy, including with respect to the availability of spectrum and licenses, the level of tariffs, tax matters, the terms of interconnection, customer access and international settlement arrangements;

adverse legal or regulatory disputes or proceedings;

the success of our business, operating and financing initiatives and strategies, including partnerships and capital expenditure plans;

the level and timing of the growth and profitability of new initiatives, start-up costs associated with entering new markets, the successful deployment of new systems and applications to support new initiatives;

relationships with key suppliers and costs of handsets and other equipment;

our ability to successfully pursue acquisitions, investments or merger opportunities, integrate any acquired businesses in a timely and cost-effective manner and achieve the expected benefits of such transactions;

the availability, terms and use of capital, the impact of regulatory and competitive developments on capital outlays, the ability to achieve cost savings and realize productivity improvements;

technological development and evolving industry standards, including challenges in meeting customer demand for new technology and the cost of upgrading existing infrastructure;

the capacity to upstream cash generated in operations through dividends, royalties, management fees and repayment of shareholder loans; and

other factors or trends affecting our financial condition or results of operations.

A further list and description of risks, uncertainties and other matters can be found in Millicom's Registration Statement on Form 20-F, including those risks outlined in "Item 3. Key Information-D. Risk Factors," and in Millicom's subsequent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, all of which are available at www.sec.gov. To the extent COVID-19 adversely affects Millicom's business and financial results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the risks described in its filings.

All forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof. Except to the extent otherwise required by applicable law, we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Non-IFRS Measures

This press release contains financial measures not prepared in accordance with IFRS. These measures are referred to as "non-IFRS" measures and include: non-IFRS service revenue, non-IFRS EBITDA, and non-IFRS Capex, among others defined below. Annual growth rates for these non-IFRS measures are often expressed in organic constant currency terms to exclude the effect of changes in foreign exchange rates, the adoption of new accounting standards, and are proforma for material changes in perimeter due to acquisitions and divestitures. The non-IFRS financial measures are presented in this press release as Millicom's management believes they provide investors with an additional information for the analysis of Millicom's results of operations, particularly in evaluating performance from one period to another. Millicom's management uses non-IFRS financial measures to make operating decisions, as they facilitate additional internal comparisons of Millicom's performance to historical results and to competitors' results, and provides them to investors as a supplement to Millicom's reported results to provide additional insight into Millicom's operating performance. Millicom's Remuneration Committee uses certain non-IFRS measures when assessing the performance and compensation of employees, including Millicom's executive directors.

The non-IFRS financial measures used by Millicom may be calculated differently from, and therefore may not be comparable to, similarly titled measures used by other companies - refer to the section "Non-IFRS Financial Measure Descriptions" for additional information. In addition, these non-IFRS measures should not be considered in isolation as a substitute for, or as superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with IFRS, and Millicom's financial results calculated in accordance with IFRS and reconciliations to those financial statements should be carefully evaluated.

Financial Measure Descriptions

Service revenue is revenue related to the provision of ongoing services such as monthly subscription fees, airtime and data usage fees, interconnection fees, roaming fees, mobile finance service commissions and fees from other telecommunications services such as data services, short message services, installation fees and other value-added services excluding telephone and equipment sales.

EBITDA is operating profit excluding impairment losses, depreciation and amortization, and gains/losses on fixed asset disposals. In respect of the segments Latam or Africa it is shown after the allocation of Corporate Costs and inter-company eliminations.

EBITDA after Leases (EBITDAaL) represents EBITDA excluding lease interest and principal repayments.

EBITDA Margin represents EBITDA in relation to Revenue.

Proportionate EBITDA is the sum of the EBITDA in every country where Millicom operates, including its Guatemala and Honduras joint ventures, pro rata for Millicom's ownership stake in each country.

Organic growth represents year-on-year growth excluding the impact of changes in FX rates, perimeter, and accounting. Changes in perimeter are the result of acquisitions and divestitures. Results from divested assets are immediately removed from both periods, whereas the results from acquired assets are included in both periods at the beginning (January 1) of the first full calendar year of ownership.

Net debt is Debt and financial liabilities less cash and pledge and time deposits.

Net financial obligations is Net debt plus lease liabilities.

Proportionate financial obligations is the sum of the net financial obligations in every country where Millicom operates, including its Guatemala and Honduras joint ventures, pro rata for Millicom's ownership stake in each country.

Leverage is the ratio of net financial obligations over LTM (Last twelve month) EBITDA, proforma for acquisitions made during the last twelve months.

Leverage after leases is the ratio of net debt over LTM (Last twelve month) EBITDA after leases, proforma for acquisitions made during the last twelve months.

Proportionate leverage is the ratio of proportionate net financial obligations over LTM proportionate EBITDA, proforma for acquisitions made during the last twelve months.

Proportionate leverage after leases is the ratio of proportionate net debt over LTM (Last twelve month) EBITDA after leases, proforma for acquisitions made during the last twelve months.

Capex is balance sheet capital expenditure excluding spectrum and license costs and lease capitalizations.

Cash Capex represents the cash spent in relation to capital expenditure, excluding spectrum and licenses costs.

Operating Cash Flow (OCF) is EBITDA less Capex.

Operating Free Cash Flow (OFCF) is OCF less changes in working capital and other non-cash items and taxes paid.

Equity Free Cash Flow (EFCF) is OFCF less finance charges paid (net), less advances for dividends to non-controlling interests, plus dividends received from joint ventures.

Equity Free Cash Flow after Leases(EFCFaL) is EFCF, less lease principal repayments.

Operating Profit After Tax displays the profit generated from the operations of the company after statutory taxes.

Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) is used to assess the Group's efficiency at allocating the capital under its control to and is defined as Operating Profit After Tax, including Guatemala and Honduras as if fully consolidated, divided by the average invested Capital during the period.

Average Invested Capital is the capital invested in the company operation throughout the year and is calculated with the average of opening and closing balances of the total assets minus current liabilities (excluding debt, joint ventures, accrued interests, deferred and current tax, cash as well as investments and non-controlling interests), less assets and liabilities held for sale.

Underlying measures, such as Underlying service revenue, Underlying EBITDA, Underlying equity free cash flow, Underlying net debt, Underlying leverage, etc., include Guatemala and Honduras, as if fully consolidated.

Average Revenue per User per Month (ARPU) for our Mobile customers is (x) the total mobile and mobile financial services revenue (excluding revenue earned from tower rentals, call center, data and mobile virtual network operator, visitor roaming, national third parties roaming and mobile telephone equipment sales revenue) for the period, divided by (y) the average number of mobile subscribers for the period, divided by (z) the number of months in the period. We define ARPU for our Home customers in our Latin America segment as (x) the total Home revenue (excluding equipment sales, TV advertising and equipment rental) for the period, divided by (y) the average number of customer relationships for the period, divided by (z) the number of months in the period. ARPU is not subject to a standard industry definition and our definition of ARPU may be different to other industry participants.

Please refer to our 2020 Annual Report for a list and description of non-IFRS measures.

1 Non-IFRS measure. Please refer to millicom.com/investors/reporting-center for non-IFRS disclosures and reconciliations to the nearest equivalent IFRS measures.

2 With preferential rights for existing shareholders. Further information on the rights issue will be disclosed at a later date.

3 Before incremental costs related to the transaction.

Attachment
50 customers licensed the technology for more than 100 AI chips in 10 major market segments

VeriSilicon (688521.SH), a leading Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaS) company, today announced its neural network processor (the Vivante1 NPU) IP designed for artificial intelligence (AI) applications now features in more than 100 AI chips supplied by 50 licensees. These chips with built-in VeriSilicon Vivante NPUs are in 10 major market segments, including Internet of Things (IoT), wearables, smart TVs, smart home, security monitoring, servers, automotive electronics, smartphones, tablets and smart healthcare.

VeriSilicon's Vivante NPU is a high-performance computer vision and AI processor with scalable, programmable and low-power architecture. The NPU's performance with a single convolutional kernel can range from 0.5 TOPs to 20 TOPS, however 500 TOPs can be reached after the extension of multi-convolutional computing kernels. This range of performance enables a wide array of applications ranging from ultra-low power wearables to high-performance computing in data centers. Licensees can customize the Vivante NPU to fit different chip sizes and power budgets, making it a cost-effective premium neural network acceleration engine. The complete software stack and SDK supports mainstream deep learning frameworks, including TensorFlow, PyTorch, ONNX, Apache TVM, and IREE. The Vivante NPU also provides proven solutions from model conversion, quantization, image optimization, and online/offline compilation, to the final deployment of devices to help customers quickly launch products.

As China's leading semiconductor IP provider and the seventh-largest globally2, VeriSilicon has six categories of in-house processor technologies, which include the Vivante NPU, graphics processor (GPU), video processor (VPU), digital signal processor (DSP), image signal processor (ISP), and display processor. VeriSilicon's Vivante NPU can be used with VeriSilicon's other proprietary processors to enhance images, audio, and other signals in real time to improve the user experience. These combinations are now used by leading TV manufacturers in their flagship products.

"Neural network processing technology can deeply interconnect and intelligently enhance other technologies such as ISP to create disruptive applications," said Wei-Jin Dai, Executive VP and GM of IP Division at VeriSilicon. "Based on the successful Vivante NPU, we are focusing on building a comprehensive AI ecosystem (hardware and software) providing open-source standards and machine learning frameworks support. Our open-source TIM-VX (Tensor Interface Module) project has now been widely adopted enabling leading companies to build their intelligent ecosystems.

About VeriSilicon

VeriSilicon Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (VeriSilicon, 688521.SH) is committed to providing customers with platform-based, all-round, one-stop custom silicon services and semiconductor IP licensing services leveraging its in-house semiconductor IP. Under the unique "Silicon Platform as a Service" (SiPaaS) business model, depending on the comprehensive IP portfolio, VeriSilicon can create silicon products from definition to test and package in a short period of time, and provides high performance and cost-efficient semiconductor alternative products for IDM, Fabless, system vendors (OEM/ODM) and large Internet companies, etc. VeriSilicon's business covers consumer electronics, automotive electronics, computer and peripheral, industry, data processing, Internet of Things and other applications.

VeriSilicon presents a variety of customized silicon solutions, including high-definition video, high-definition audio and voice, In-Vehicle Infotainment, video surveillance, IoT connectivity, data center, etc. In addition, VeriSilicon has six types of in-house processor IPs, namely GPU IP, NPU IP, VPU IP, DSP IP, ISP IP and Display Processor IP, and more than 1,400 analog and mixed signal IPs and RF IPs.

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Shanghai, China, VeriSilicon has 6 design and R&D centers in China and the United States, as well as 11 sales and customer service offices worldwide. VeriSilicon currently has more than 1,300 employees.

1 Vivante is a brand of VeriSilicon's IP product line

2 Data source: IPnest Design IP Report, 2021

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211111005844/en/

Contacts:

For more information, please contact:

VeriSilicon

Miya Kong

miya.kong@verisilicon.com
Oseltamivir phosphate is used in the treatment of acute uncomplicated influenza infection in adults, adolescents and children

BEIJING, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hetero, a globally renowned vertically integrated pharmaceutical organization and Shenzhen Beimei Pharmaceuticals jointly announced that they have received import drug license for Oseltamivir phosphate under the brand name Oselavir from China's drug regulator, the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).

Oseltamivir phosphate is an antiviral drug used in the treatment of acute uncomplicated influenza infection in adults, adolescents and children (=2 weeks of age). Oselavir will be made available in China in the dosage form - 12.5ml: 75mg powder for oral suspension.

WHO estimates that seasonal influenza may result in 290,000-650,000 deaths each year due to respiratory diseases alone. The estimate does not take into account deaths from other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, which can be influenza-related1.

Dr. Vamsi Krishna Bandi, Managing Director, Hetero Group of Companies said, "We are happy that Hetero in partnership with Shenzhen Beimei Pharmaceuticals, China, received approval of Oselavir (Oseltamivir) in China. This is the first finished product approval for Hetero in China, and we are committed to bring more products to China in the near future."

Ms. Guangmei Wu, President and CEO of Shenzhen Beimei Pharmaceuticals said, "With mutual trust and support between Beimei and Hetero teams, Oselavir was launched in China as the first Chinese approved Oseltamivir product in paediatric-specific dosage form. I express gratitude to the Hetero team for their hard work and effort in the whole process of product development, registration application and launch preparation for Oselavir. We look forward to exploring more products with Hetero for global pediatric healthcare in the future."

About Hetero

Hetero is a globally renowned vertically integrated pharmaceutical organization engaged in research and development, manufacturing, and marketing of high-quality chemical and biologic medicines across diverse therapeutic areas. For more information on Hetero, please visit www.heteroworld.com.

About Shenzhen Beimei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd

Shenzhen Beimei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., headquartered in Shenzhen, China, is a well-established, innovation-driven company focused on paediatric prescription medicines in China. For more information on Beimei, please visit http://www.beimeiyaoye.com/

1https://www.who.int/images/default-source/departments/global-influenza-programme/estimate-of-respiratory-deaths-thumbnail.png'sfvrsn=750096ec_0


HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - German-based international real estate investment company Deutsche EuroShop AG (DUSCF.PK) reported that its funds from operations for the nine-month period ended 30th September 2021 declined to 88.2 million euros from 90.9 million euros in the previous year.



Profit was 44.07 million compared to a loss of 105.53 million euros, as adjusted, in the prior year.



Earnings before interest and taxes or EBIT were 111.5 million euros, down from the previous year's 118.1 million euros, due largely to the coronavirus-driven decline in revenue.



Revenue for the reporting period came in at 157.8 million euros. On a like-for-like basis, this constituted a decrease of 6.4% compared with the same period last year's 168.7 million euros due to the longer store closure periods compared with 2020.



The company still expects funds from operations to be in the range of 1.70 euros to 1.90 euros per share for the 2021 financial year.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

DEUTSCHE EUROSHOP-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de


BONN (dpa-AFX) - Deutsche Telekom AG (DTEGY.PK) said it plans to propose to the Annual General Meeting a dividend of 0.64 euros per share for 2021. The company paid a dividend of 0.60 euros per share for the financial year 2020.



At the Capital Markets Day 2021, Deutsche Telekom presented the planned dividend policy for the years 2021 to 2024.It plans to increase dividend from 1.20 euros in the 2020 financial year to more than 1.75 euros by 2024. The minimum for the dividend is set at 0.60 euros per share. Deutsche Telekom raised the minimum dividend to this level in November 2019.



The planned total dividend payout for 2021 is therefore 3.19 billion euros, compared to a payout of 2.85 billion euros for the financial year 2020.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

DEUTSCHE TELEKOM-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
HONG KONG, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Suning Financial Services (Hong Kong) has recently joined forces with Nium, a global provider of payments and card issuance services, to issue Visa corporate cards for companies in Hong Kong. The corporate cards enable global e-commerce transactions and settlement.

Driven by digitalisation and globalisation, the cross-border payment industry has grown rapidly, accelerating the rise of e-commerce payment card businesses. Currently, e-commerce payment cards are widely used across various business scenarios, such as social search engine advertising, shop rent debits, and buyer shopping payments for overseas e-commerce businesses, bringing a more flexible and efficient digital experience to companies. This Visa Corporate card, jointly created by Suning Financial and Nium, will focus on cross-border e-commerce, advertising and promotion, and other trending fields.

Suning Financials' General Manager for Cross-border Payments, He Zhong said, "This partnership will enable transactions to be fully safeguarded for convenience and security, thanks to high-quality merchant resources, a strong global clearing network and risk control system, as well as the advanced technical service capabilities of each party."

Nium's Chief Revenue Officer, Frederick Crosby, added, "This partnership with Suning Financial is yet another example of how our payment and card issuance services can truly empower global businesses. Like Suning Financial, we believe that virtual cards with multicurrency payment capabilities are the future of e-commerce - and we're proud to make this a reality for businesses across Hong Kong."

Users can apply for the corporate cards online and enjoy global multi-currency payment services. This is a breakthrough solution, considering the limitations of traditional physical cards in terms of media and payment scenarios. The solution is also expected to bring new growth opportunities for Suning Financials' cross-border payment business.

Suning Financial will leverage Nium's global ecosystem for cross-border payments. Based on its financial capacity and O2O online-to-offline omni-channel business advantages, Suning Financial will continue to improve the interaction between its supply chain and payment business, provide customers with more complete financial solutions, achieve sustainable product and brand development, accelerate the globalisation of cross-border payments, and expand China's technological and inclusive financial services to more countries and regions.

About Suning Financial Services (Hong Kong): Suning Financial Services (Hong Kong) Co., Limited was granted the Hong Kong Money Service Operator Licence (MSO Licence) in July 2021 and will soon launch offshore foreign exchange services, e-commerce card services, etc.

About Suning Financial Cross-border Payment: This is the cross-border payment business of Suning Financial. It's main entity in China is Nanjing Suning Payment Technology Co., Ltd., which is qualified by the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange to provide foreign exchange and cross-border RMB settlement and sale and international card acquiring services for customers. It is the industry leader in terms of product offerings, capital compliance, and business maturity.

About Nium:

Nium is a leading embedded fintech company that provides banks, payment providers, travel companies, and businesses of any size with access to global payment services via one API. Its modular platform provides services for pay-outs, pay-ins, card issuance, and banking-as-a-service. Once connected to the Nium platform, businesses have the ability to pay out in more than 100 currencies to over 190 countries - 85 of which in real time. Funds can be received in 33 markets, including Southeast Asia, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, India, and the US. Nium's growing card issuance business is already available in 32 countries, including Europe (SEPA), the UK, Australia and Singapore. Core to Nium is its license infrastructure, built over time in some of the fastest growing economies. Nium owns the broadest license portfolio, covering 11 of the world's jurisdictions, enabling seamless global payments and rapid integration, regardless of geography.

For more information, visit:?https://www.nium.com

Media Contacts

Jie Wu

21060513@suning.com

Mira Millane

mira.millane@nium.com
BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - Chinese online retail giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) said Thursday that its 2021 11.11 Global Shopping Festival generated RMB 540.3 billion or $84.54 billion in gross merchandise volume during the 11-day campaign from November 1 to 11, an increase of about 14% from last year's $74.1 billion. According to the company, 290,000 brands participated in the 13th Shopping Festival, of which 65% are small and medium-sized businesses, manufacturers from industrial belts and new brands. 78 brands grew to surpass RMB100 million in GMV this year, up from RMB10 million in GMV last year, while 698 brands grew to surpass RMB10 million this year from RMB1 million in GMV last year, the company said in a statement. More than 45% of consumers that made purchases were born in the '90s and '00s. Consumers born in '00s increased by 25% year-over-year. The 11.11 Global Shopping Festival began in 2009 with participation from 27 merchants as an event for merchants and consumers to raise awareness about the value of online shopping. More than 290,000 brands participated in this year's event, the company said. 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.
Cape Town, South Africa--(Newsfile Corp. - November 11, 2021) - When the unimaginable happens, young impoverished children in Africa get CHD or congenital heart disease, and they are often denied life-saving surgeries, simply because their families cannot afford the procedures. This is shocking to many Europeans and Americans because so often we forget how lucky we are to have even the most flawed of healthcare systems.

That's why organizations like Young Hearts Africa have to step in to help. The initiative serves the children of Southern Africa by raising awareness and raising funds to perform these life-saving surgeries.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the most common single causes of death in the continent of South Africa. Founder and chair of the Young Hearts Africa Foundation, Dr. Wilhelm Lichtenberg explains that the burden of this disease is not just devastating for the health and wellness of the children but their families as well. Because of how common this disease is becoming in sub-Saharan Africa, it is nearly 10 times more likely to occur there than in developed countries., Dr Lichtenberg, himself a cardiac surgeon, sees this initiative as being one of the most vital organizations in the world.





Young Hearts Africa Image 1



To view an enhanced version of Image 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8397/103223_vot1.jpg

But organizations such as Young Hearts Africa often struggle to maintain enough funding to do the amazing work they set out to do. Finding funding comes from bringing awareness to organizations such as these, so the people of the world can help. That's where a surprising duo, made up of rock legend Queen band member Brian May and Broadway and West End superstar Kerry Ellies come in. They have joined together to help the Young Hearts Africa Organization raise money so that Dr. Lichtenberg and the members of his team can help the children who need it most, with no cost to them or their families.

The first project of the Young Hearts Africa Foundation is a project that will both inspire you and give you something amazing to listen to. The song the project has produced is called "Who Wants to Live Forever", which was one of Queen's biggest hits of the 80s. It's now been given a new arrangement and new purpose to help the Young Hearts Africa Organization.

The song maintains its gorgeous and memorable melody while getting a brand new Broadway infused classic rock makeover, in an arrangement created by musician Riaan Steyn. Steyn has done many things in the music industry, from producing music, arranging songs, and composing some of the best melodies in business. Steyn felt it was important to include the rich sounds of Africa within the song, bringing a fresh take to an old classic.

The song takes this amazing arrangement to the next level mixing the vocals of Wilhelm Lichtenberg and Kerry Ellis, bringing dimension to the sounds and giving it a rich texture. Ellis brings the clear vibrato of Broadway while Lichtenberg (affectionately dubbed the "Singing Surgeon" in his home country of South Africa who has an award winning classical album and several acclaimed music videos in his resume) brings the house down with his incredible tenor. The song also features a full symphony orchestra, a choir, and a rock band, as well as the quintessentially rich African sounds of double Grammy Award winning Soweto Gospel Choir.

The marriage of these musical styles serves as a symbol for what can be accomplished when people from all walks of life and experiences come together and work towards a common goal. May describes the song as "pure genius", and we couldn't agree more.





Young Hearts Africa Image 2



To view an enhanced version of Image 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8397/103223_vot2.jpg

All funds raised by the masterpiece that is "Who Wants To Live Forever" will be directly donated to the Children's Cardiac Foundation For Africa and 1000 Hearts initiative by the Christiaan Barnard Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery. The song aims to assist the Cardiothoracic Surgery division at the Groote Schuur Hospital as well as the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town, who are on the front lines helping children of South Africa and Africa as a whole.

The Young Hearts Africa Foundation is in search of a high-powered network that will help them bring their foundation to America, as well as assist them in promoting the video which was produced to go along with the record (https://youtu.be/FahBuDp2ScI).

Guitar legend Brian May, a partner to the Young Heart Africa group, and the mind behind the lyrics will be visiting South Africa next year to play two concerts to aid the foundation and bring awareness to the cause.

With so much going on in the world right now, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and stagnant. But we must open our minds and our hearts to help these children and their families. Through the simple support of a song that has meant so much to so many over the years, you can help children who aren't able to help themselves.

"Who Wants To Live Forever" gives humanity a chance to come together and protect our most vulnerable all while listening to a beautiful piece of music.

For more information or to donate please visit: Young Hearts Africa , https://lnk.to/WhoWantsToLIveForever

Press Contact:

Email: Info@youngheartsafrica.org

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103223
EQS Group-Ad-hoc: Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA / Key word(s): Miscellaneous

RICHEMONT AND FARFETCH IN ADVANCED TALKS TO FURTHER THEIR PARTNERSHIP



12-Nov-2021 / 07:02 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Richemont is pleased to announce that further progress has been made towards creating a neutral, industry-wide platform, built on the latest omnichannel retail technologies, to support the digitisation of the luxury industry.

In this context, Richemont is in advanced discussions with Farfetch with a view to enhancing the partnership it established last year. The scope of the current discussions includes:

Farfetch investing directly in YOOX NET-A-PORTER as a minority shareholder, with other investors to be invited to participate alongside; YOOX NET-A-PORTER leveraging Farfetch Platform Solutions to support its ongoing transition to a hybrid 1P/3P business model; Richemont Maisons leveraging Farfetch technology to accelerate their Luxury New Retail developments; and Richemont Maisons joining the Farfetch marketplace.

Other industry players and investors have already indicated their interest in investing in YOOX NET-A-PORTER alongside Richemont and Farfetch. The ultimate objective is for YOOX NET-A-PORTER to be a neutral platform, with no controlling shareholders.

Richemont continues to work with Farfetch towards definitive agreements and will provide an update in due course, if and when appropriate. There can be no certainty that the discussions will lead to definitive agreements, nor as to the timing or terms of any transaction. Any transaction would be subject to the receipt of clearances from relevant anti-trust authorities.

About Richemont

At Richemont, we craft the future. Our unique portfolio includes prestigious Maisons distinguished by their craftsmanship and creativity, alongside Online Distributors that cultivate expert curation and technological innovation to deliver the highest standards of service. Richemont's ambition is to nurture its Maisons and businesses and enable them to grow and prosper in a responsible, sustainable manner over the long term.

Richemont operates in four business areas: Jewellery Maisons with Buccellati, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels; Specialist Watchmakers with A. Lange & Sohne, Baume & Mercier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis and Vacheron Constantin; Online Distributors with Watchfinder & Co., NET-A-PORTER, MR PORTER, THE OUTNET, YOOX and the OFS division; and Other, primarily Fashion & Accessories Maisons with Alaia, AZ Factory, Chloe, Delvaux, dunhill, Montblanc, Peter Millar, Purdey and Serapian. Find out more at www.richemont.com.

Richemont 'A' shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, Richemont's primary listing, and are included in the Swiss Market Index ('SMI') of leading stocks. Richemont South African Depository Receipts are listed in Johannesburg, Richemont's secondary listing.



Investor/analyst and media enquiries

Sophie Cagnard, Group Corporate Communications Director

James Fraser, Investor Relations Executive

Investor/analyst enquiries: +41 22 721 30 03; investor.relations@cfrinfo.net

Media enquiries: +41 22 721 35 07; pressoffice@cfrinfo.net; richemont@teneo.com
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, November 12, 2021 - Bavarian Nordic A/S (OMX: BAVA) announced today its interim financial results for the first nine months of 2021 and business progress for the third quarter of 2021.

Paul Chaplin, President & Chief Executive Officer of Bavarian Nordic said: "We continued to experience a challenging market environment for our travelers vaccine business during the third quarter, due to COVID-19. Despite these headwinds, we remain on track to meet our guidance as both our smallpox and Ebola vaccine sales remain unaffected. This truly highlights the importance of a broader and more diversified product portfolio. We are very pleased with the strong pipeline progress seen during the quarter, where highly promising results for our COVID-19 booster vaccine candidate were reported and funding for the remaining phases was secured. Likewise, we have presented strong results for our RSV vaccine candidate, which showed remarkable efficacy in reducing symptomatic RSV infections in a challenge study. These assets provide an encouraging outlook for Bavarian Nordic, and we look forward to providing more updates as the work progresses."

Financial highlights

Total revenue in the first nine months was DKK 1,354 million comprised of DKK 1,323 million from combined product sales and DKK 31 million from contract work.

Revenue in the third quarter totaled DKK 449 million comprised of DKK 214 million from sales of MVA-BN smallpox vaccine, DKK 160 million from sales of Rabipur/RabAvert, DKK 72 million from sales of Encepur and DKK 3 million from contract work.

EBITDA in the first nine months was DKK 44 million.

Strong cash position of DKK 2,182 million** at the end of the period.

Full-year guidance maintained with expected revenue of approximately DKK 1,900 million, EBITDA of approximately DKK 100 million and securities, cash and cash equivalents at year-end of approximately DKK 1,400 million.

DKK million Q3 2021 Q3 2020 9m 2021 9m 2020 2021 Guidance Revenue 449 558 1,354 1,623 ~1,900 EBITDA 52 163 44 1,001* ~100 Securities, cash and cash equivalents 2,182** 2,569 2,182** 2,569 ~1,400

* EBITDA in the first nine months of 2020 was positively impacted by the sale of the Priority Review Voucher (DKK 628 million).

** Unutilized credit facilities of DKK 243 million not included. Repo pledged securities deducted.

Other highlights

In August, initial results from the first-in-human trial of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate, ABNCoV2 were reported, which demonstrated that the vaccine candidate was well tolerated and induced a strong antibody response, higher than currently approved vaccines. Results from the high dose groups are now available and suggest a plateau in the responses as similar high antibody titers were shown for these groups. Importantly, a strong neutralization response was demonstrated against SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the Delta variant.

In August, Bavarian Nordic initiated a phase 2 clinical trial of ABNCoV2 to investigate the vaccine's potential as a universal booster vaccine for individuals with existing immunity from prior COVID-19 disease or vaccination. Initial results from the study are expected in December 2021.

In August, Bavarian Nordic entered a funding agreement with the Danish Ministry of Health, under which the Company will be eligible to receive up to DKK 800 million to further advance the development of ABNCoV2 as a booster vaccine for COVID-19. The agreement was finally executed in September upon approval from the Finance Committee of the Danish Parliament.

In September, Bavarian Nordic reported positive results from the human challenge trial of MVA-BN RSV. The trial achieved the primary endpoint of the pivotal study by demonstrating a statistically significant reduction in viral load in vaccinated versus control (placebo) treated volunteers. The vaccine demonstrated a 79% efficacy in reducing symptomatic RSV infections. Preparations for a phase 3 trial in 2022 continue, pending a final decision driven by regulatory discussions and feedback on the trial design and funding/partnering considerations.

Events after the reporting date

In accordance with the shareholder authorization for the board of directors and the Company's remuneration policy, the board of directors has today decided to issue warrants to executive management and certain employees in the Bavarian Nordic Group. In accordance with the Company's remuneration policy, President and CEO, Paul Chaplin will receive an extraordinary grant as further explained on page 6 in the interim report. A total of 716,256 warrants have been issued, which entitle the warrant holders to subscribe for up to 716,256 shares in total, with a nominal value of DKK 10 each at an exercise price of DKK 353.06 per share.

Conference call and webcast

The management of Bavarian Nordic will host a conference call today at 2 pm CET. To join the Q&A session, use one of the following dial-in numbers: Denmark: +45 32 72 80 42, UK: +44 (0) 844 571 8892, USA: +1 631-510-7495. Participant code is 2839609.

Contacts

Europe: Rolf Sass Srensen, Vice President Investor Relations, Tel: +45 61 77 47 43

US: Graham Morrell, Paddock Circle Advisors, graham@paddockcircle.com , Tel: +1 781 686 9600

Company Announcement no. 35 / 2021

About Bavarian Nordic

Bavarian Nordic is a fully integrated vaccines company focused on the development, manufacturing and commercialization of life-saving vaccines. We are a global leader in smallpox vaccines and have been a long-term supplier to the U.S. Government of a non-replicating smallpox vaccine, which has been approved by the FDA, also for the protection against monkeypox. The vaccine is approved as a smallpox vaccine in Europe and Canada. Our commercial product portfolio furthermore contains market-leading vaccines against rabies and tick-borne encephalitis. Using our live virus vaccine platform technology, MVA-BN, we have created a diverse portfolio of proprietary and partnered product candidates designed to save and improve lives by unlocking the power of the immune system, including an Ebola vaccine, which is licensed to the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. We are also committed to the development of a next generation COVID-19 vaccine. For more information visit www.bavarian-nordic.com .

Forward-looking statements

This announcement includes forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning our plans, objectives, goals, future events, performance and/or other information that is not historical information. All such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements and any other cautionary statements which may accompany the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances after the date made, except as required by law.

Attachment
GENEVA (dpa-AFX) - Richemont (CFRUY.PK) said higher sales, a higher gross profit and good cost control have resulted in a six-month operating profit of 1.95 billion euros, up by 331% over the prior-year period. Sales increased by 63% at actual exchange rates and 65% at constant exchange rates from a year ago. On a two-year comparison basis, sales exceeded pre-Covid-19 levels by 20% and 24%, at actual and constant exchange rates, respectively, the company noted. Headline earnings for the period was 1.23 billion euros compared to 154 million euros, previous year. Headline earnings per share was 2.150 euros compared to 0.272 euros. Profit attributable to owners of the parent company increased to 1.23 billion euros from 159 million euros, last year. Earnings per ?A' share/10 ?B' shares was 2.145 euros compared to 0.281 euros. Sales were 8.91 billion euros compared to 5.48 billion euros, previous year. Richemont also said the company is in advanced talks with Farfetch with a view to enhancing the partnership it established last year. The scope of the discussions includes: Farfetch investing directly in YOOX NET-A-PORTER as a minority shareholder, and Richemont Maisons joining the Farfetch marketplace. 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.
ISTANBUL, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As a famous automobile brand with the largest export volume of passenger cars in China for 18 consecutive years, Chery has been focusing on the R&D of core technologies, which has applied for 20,794 patents and gained 13,153 authorized patents. 24 years' accumulation of technological innovation has accomplished "Technology Chery". According to Chery's global strategic plan, Chery will bring its new products with the latest technology to enter the Turkish market in 2022.

"Technology Chery" breaks the monopoly of giants

From engine to gearbox, core components to platform development, and traditional automobile technology to new technologies such as new energy and intelligent network connection, Chery has broken the core technical barriers monopolized by automobile giants during the independent innovation.

For example, as far as the engine technology, the "heart" of a car, is concerned, Chery has developed ACTECO series engines with independent intellectual property rights, which filled the gap in the field of Chinese brand high-performance engines and led the upsurge of independent R&D of engines of Chinese automobile enterprises. Up to now, six engines have been selected as Top Ten Engines with "Chinese Heart".

The ever-increasing list of patent applications and authorizations has witnessed Chery's confidence of "firmly mastering its own core technologies" and the ever-stronger innovation strength of "Technology Chery". Up to now, Chery has applied for 20,794 patents and gained 13,153 authorized patents, including 3,692 invention patents, ranking the leading level among Chinese automobile enterprises. Chery has nearly 30 Chinese state-level innovative enterprises, technology centers and laboratories, etc., and has won the honors of National Science and Technology Progress Award and Top Ten Innovative Enterprises in China for more than 10 times.

"Technology Chery" focuses on cutting-edge technology layout

Chery has been keeping up with the development trend of automobiles, optimizing the patent layout, and increasing the layout of cutting-edge technical fields on the basis of traditional automobile core technologies. In the ranking of "Automobile Patent Innovation Index" released by CATARC, Chery ranks first among Chinese brand automobile enterprises in terms of patent quality with the highest value; In the field of intelligent network connection, which represents the cutting-edge technology, it ranks among the top 20 global automobile enterprises and ranks first in China.

For further information, please contact

Chery's official social media account in Turkey:

Facebook: Chery Turkey

Instagram: chery _turkey

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1679013/image_5019164_46677983.jpg
CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / November 12, 2021 / Valeura Energy Inc. (TSX:VLE)(LSE:VLU) (the "Company" or "Valeura"), an upstream oil and gas company with assets in the Thrace Basin of Turkey, reports its unaudited financial and operating results for the three month period ended September 30, 2021.

Highlights

Financial position - Cash position of US$41.7 million at September 30, 2021;

- Cash position of US$41.7 million at September 30, 2021; Royalties - Valeura is now due royalty payments in connection with the sale of its conventional gas producing business. Given current gas prices, these are now expected to reach the capped total of US$2.5 million within the coming year; and

- Valeura is now due royalty payments in connection with the sale of its conventional gas producing business. Given current gas prices, these are now expected to reach the capped total of US$2.5 million within the coming year; and Strategy - Continuing to pursue near-term inorganic growth opportunities and seeking a suitable partner to farm in to the Company's 20 Tcfe unrisked mean prospective resource deep, tight gas play.

Sean Guest, President and CEO commented:

"Our third quarter results demonstrate the stability of our financial position as we continue to pursue our strategy from a position of strength. With no debt, a cash position of US$41.7 million, and a lean organisation, we are aggressively evaluating new business opportunities without putting strain on our balance sheet.

"During the third quarter we have experienced a strengthening in the business environment for global upstream oil and gas investments, with stronger benchmark oil and gas prices. This reinforces our view on the ability for mergers and acquisitions-led growth to contribute meaningful near-term cash flow, and we remain especially focused on those opportunities which also provide the potential for follow-on investment in the medium term.

"We are encouraged by the substantial improvement in European gas market fundamentals, as well. This underscores the inherent long-term value of our 20 Tcfe unrisked mean prospective resource gas play. We also stand to benefit directly from increased gas prices in the near term by the start of royalty payments from the shallow gas producing business we sold earlier this year. We anticipate receiving the full capped maximum royalty payment of $2.5 million within the coming year."

Click on, or paste the following link into your web browser, to view the associated PDF document.

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/1640S_1-2021-11-11.pdf

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. 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: Valeura Energy Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/672502/Valeura-Energy-Inc-Announces-Third-Quarter-2021-Results


BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Deutsche Wohnen SE (DWHHF.PK), a German property company, on Friday posted a rise in its Funds From Operations for the nine-month period ended in September. It also reported increase in earnings amidst an increase in returns from the residential property management segment. In addition, the company has reaffirmed its earnings guidance for the current fiscal.



The Berlin-headquartered property firm posted its Funds From Operation (FFO) at 422.2 million euros or 1.22 euros per share, for the nine-month to September, compared with 420.7 million euros or 1.20 euros per share, reported for the same period, last year.



The company reported its FFO including disposals at 428.3 million euros or 1.13 euros per share, for the January to September period as against 449.2 million euros or 1.29 euros per share, year-on-year basis.



Earnings before taxes (EBIT) for the three-quarter period rose by 222.7 percent to 1.47 billion euros, year-over-year basis. However, adjusted EBIT fell by 10.8 percent to 416.3 million euros.



The company's earnings after taxes reported at 840.6 million euros or 2.31 euros per share for the nine-month period to September, versus 337.9 million euros or 0.95 per share of a year ago period.



For the 36-week period ended on September 30, adjusted EBITDA of the German firm dropped to 575.3 million euros, from 589.8 million euros last year.



Owing to a rise in demand, earnings from residential property management segment rose to 560.8 million euros for the 36-week period, from 553.9 million euros, recorded for the same period of 2020.



The company has reiterated its previous FFO guidance for the full year of 544.1 million euros or 1.56 euros per share, flat with last year.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

DEUTSCHE WOHNEN-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
VENICE, Italy, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NetStorming SRL and Vervotech have entered into a strategic partnership to provide unified hotel content to leading travel companies. Hotel and Room Mapping is an important part of effective aggregation and this partnership will strengthen the world-renowned booking engine 'TOWeRS' furthermore.

Hotel and room mapping are an important node in the distribution landscape and is becoming increasingly relevant in modern travel industry. With such strategic partnerships and industry-leading products, Vervotech is quickly becoming the mapping API of choice for in the industry.

Nicola Rizzardini, CEO and founder at NetStorming said, "Our team has welcomed another tool for mapping. We have integrated with Vervotech Mappings as our mapping partner. Now, we'll make all our data more streamlined for all our suppliers. This will also ensure improved business performance on our end so as to provide our clients with the best possible experience."

The progressive mapping API and curated content provided by Vervotech coupled with NetStorming SRL's effective booking engine will revolutionize and standardize the distribution of descriptive and illustrative content in the travel space. Travel agencies partnered with NetStorming SRL can leverage Vervotech Mappings for real-time hotel mapping and maximize travel reservation accuracy.

Key differentiators of Vervotech Mappings:

Real-time content updates with insights

99.999% mapping accuracy and 98% mapping coverage with reduced processing time

Opinionated content to deliver streamlined user experience

Curated content to improve travel agencies' master hotel catalogue

Marvel Puri, VP of Partnerships at Vervotech said, "We see great synergies working with NetStorming team. They have deep coverage of accommodation content and Vervotech Mappings is going to solidify their platform. This is also special since they are our first partner in Italy and partnering with them is a testimonial for agencies considering Vervotech for mappings technology."

About Vervotech Mappings: Vervotech was founded with the vision of Establishing a global standard for accommodation data. With 99.99% accuracy and completeness, Vervotech's Hotel Mapping and Room Mapping platforms use large-scale aggregation, AI-based processing, and ever-evolving ML models to de-duplicate and show unified hotels and rooms coming from multiple suppliers.

About NetStorming SRL: Founded in 2004, Netstorming is an Italian-based technology company specialized in the development of software for tour operators, travel agencies and DMC. The partnership with leading Italian and foreign tour operators have made Netstorming a successful player in tourism sector.

Vervotech Media Contact:

Shivam Tak

marketing@vervotech.com

+91 9923203143

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1599871/Vervotech_Mappings_Logo.jpg
Press Release

Nokia calls for accelerated digitalization and green energy uptake, sets sights on 100% green electricity by 2025

Nokia advocates for the world to digitalize to reach net zero and align the digital and green transformations.

New 100% renewable electricity target across Nokia facilities, including offices, R&D labs, and factories.

Call for public sector to provide framework for stimulus, regulation and standardization that supports greener, digitalized world.





12 November 2021

Espoo, Finland - Nokia has called for accelerated digitalization and green energy uptake,as well as settingits sights on 100% renewable electricity in its own operations by 2025.

The announcement comes with world leaders having convened in Glasgow, Scotland for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). Nokia President and CEO Pekka Lundmark joined political, business, and civil society leaders at the conference, calling for an acceleration in the uptake of green technology to reach net zero.

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO of Nokia, said: "There is no green without digital. Only 30% of the world's economy is currently digitalized, and we must now work to connect the remaining 70% to ensure the world can reach net zero. 5G and related technologies play a critical role in making other industries more sustainable. At the same time the ICT industry needs to minimize its footprint and accelerate the use of green electricity"

Nokia now targets to achieve 100% purchased electricity from renewable sources by 2025 to power its offices, R&D labs, and factories. [1] While renewable energy is not currently available in all 120 countries where Nokia operates, it will work with the broader ecosystem to drive greater uptake of sustainable electricity.

Digitalization is critical for making industries more sustainable - resulting in less waste, more resource efficiency and greater productivity. For instance, in the energy sector, digitalization can help wind farm operators automate offshore windfarms, allowing them to operate more productively. [2] In agriculture, the adoption of digital technology can increase yields, reduce costs, and cut water use. [3] Across manufacturing, converting to smart manufacturing can help secure annual productivity and energy-saving gains of 10-20%. [4] While recent research suggests the COVID-19 pandemic speeded up digitalization by an average of six years, the greater part of the world's economy lacks access to key digital technologies. [5]

Nokia has already committed to reducing its emissions by 50% across its value chain, including own operations, products in use, logistics, and final assembly supplier factories by 2030. Its commitments have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to be in line with the Paris Agreement's aim of limiting global warming to 1.5C. With 90% of its emissions coming from customer use of products, Nokia continually invests in improving product energy efficiency - even as capacity grows. [6]

About Nokia

At 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.

Notes to editors

[1] In 2020, 39% of Nokia's total purchased electricitywas from renewable sources.

[2] Improved connectivityatoffshore wind farmscan improve safety, allowing workers to operate safely to their full capacity, as well as enabling early detection and prevention of wind turbine failure with remote monitoring, control and inspections.

[3] Nokia Bell Labs estimates that if 25 percent of all farms adopted precision farmingby 2030, it would lead to yield increases of up to 300 million tons per year, a reduction in farming costs of up to US$100 billion per year and a reduction of waste water by up to 150 billion cubic meters per year.

[4] According to research by Nokia and GSMA Intelligence, annual productivity and energy-saving gains of 10-20% can be realized through the conversion to smart factories.

[5] A recent survey of over 2,500 companies across all industries worldwide found that

COVID-19 has accelerated the implementationof digital communications by six years on average.

[6] Nokia's ReefShark powered plug-in cards cut power consumptionby up to 75%, while its FP5 routing silicon reduces power consumptionby 75% compared to previous generations. New cooling systems developed by Nokia for energy-intensive base stations can reduce energy useby roughly 70%.

Media Inquiries:

Nokia

Communications

Phone: +358 10 448 4900

Email: press.services@nokia.com
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / NOVEMBER 12, 2021 / Musk Metals Corp. ("Musk Metals" or the "Company") (CSE:MUSK)(OTC PINK:EMSKF)(FSE:1I30) is pleased to announce that follow up work on till anomalies identified during its Phase Two (2) exploration program on the 100% owned 'Elon Lithium Property' (the 'Property'). The Property is strategically located in Abitibi, Qc at approximately 600 meters northeast of the North American Lithium Project, formerly known as Mine Quebec Lithium, which produced over 907,000 tons of material at 1.40% Li2O between 1955 and 1965 (Boily et al, 1989).

The Company completed, at the beginning of 2021, a phase 1 high-resolution heliborne magnetic survey (see news release dates April 26, 2021), which identified multiple magnetic anomalies throughout the Elon Lithium Property.

Phase 2 exploration works focused on the interpreted intrusion, magnetic structures and mafic units identified by the airborne survey (see news release dates August 13, 2021). A first site visit was conducted in July 2021 and returned 29 till samples (down-ice from the potential intrusion) and 44 rock samples from boulders and outcrops.

A follow-up till sampling campaign is planned for the month of November 2021. The survey will consist of pit digging in till to retrieve boulders and clasts in the areas that are of interest regarding lithium exploration, including the two (2) recently identified anomalous areas in till (see news release dated October 6th, 2021), as shown in figure 1 below. The objective of the survey is to obtain mineralization evidence from rocks and boulders of the previously prospected area in order to associate the source of the till anomalies with a mineralization style in the host rocks it originates from, and its correlated mineralogy and alterations.

Following that investigation, the Company will be able to prepare a geophysics program that will target the specific mineralization style found out during the survey and this should lead to drill work in 2022.

Figure 1. Till anomalies results from July 2021 Geochemical Till Survey with Magnetic Survey results interpretation.

References:

Boily, M., Pilote, P., Raillon, H., 1989: La metallogenie des metaux de haute technologie en Abitibi-Temiscamingue. Ministere des Ressources Naturelles, MB 89-29.

Qualified Person

This press release was prepared by Pierre-Alexandre Pelletier, P.Geo OGQ, and Steven Lauzier, P.Geo OGQ whom are qualified persons as defined under National Instrument 43-101, and who reviewed and approved the geological information provided in this news release.

Make sure to follow the company on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as well as subscribe for company updates at www.muskmetals.ca

About Musk Metals Corp.

Musk Metals is a publicly traded exploration company focused on the development of highly prospective, discovery-stage mineral properties located in some of Canada's top mining jurisdictions. The growing portfolio of mineral properties exhibit favorable geological characteristics in underexplored areas within the prolific "Electric Avenue" pegmatite field of northwestern Ontario, the "Abitibi Lithium Camp" of southwestern Quebec, the "Golden Triangle" district of British Columbia, the Mineral Rich "Red Lake" mining camp of Northwestern Ontario and the "Chapais-Chibougamau" mining camp, the second largest mining camp in Quebec, Canada.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Nader Vatanchi

CEO & Director

For more information on Musk Metals, please contact:

Phone: 604-717-6605

Corporate e-mail: info@muskmetals.ca

Website: www.muskmetals.ca

Corporate Address: 303 - 570 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, V6C 2P1

Neither Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Musk Metals Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/672519/Musk-Metals-Announces-a-Prospecting-Follow-Up-on-Lithium-Anomalies-in-Till-Defined-During-Phase-Two-of-Its-Exploration-Program-on-Its-100-Owned-Elon-Lithium-Project-in-Quebec-Canada
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Datametrex AI Limited (TSXV: DM) (FSE: D4G) (OTCQB: DTMXF) (the "Company" or "Datametrex") is pleased to announce that it has received an artificial intelligence ("AI") Purchase Order ("P.O.") for up to $1,000,000 CAD from an electric vehicle ("EV") charging platform company.

"Under the terms of the P.O., the Company will be providing its AI technology to EV charging platform to enhance the experience of EV owners, contributing to the development of sustainable EV infrastructure," stated Marshall Gunter, CEO of the Company.

According to the Patterns Journal, the marketplace in EV charging stations is projected to reach $27 billion by 2027. The growth in the number of EV's charging stations and the development of vehicle-to-grid ("V2G") technologies to optimize charging systems will be driven by AI. In a market report with marketsandmarkets.com, the global Electric Vehicle Charging Station market size is projected to grow from 2,115 thousand units in 2020 to 30,758 thousand units by 2027, at a CAGR of 46.6%.

"Datametrex feels that AI will improve the efficiency and forecasting that support EV charging platform. With the innovations that its AI brings, Datametrex will be in a leadership position as the market expands," stated Andrew Ryu, Chairman of the Company.

On November 4th at the United Nations Climate Conference or COP26 climate conference, a new release was issued End of Coal in Sight at COP26 that announced a transition away from coal for electricity generation, plus the reduction in use of fossil fuel vehicles, EV use can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and subsequently lower air pollution and global warming. Swedish luxury maker Volvo, which intends to become a fully electric carmaker by 2030, called for in a new report at COP26 for the world's leaders and energy providers to move much faster toward a fully renewable electric grid globally.

About Datametrex

Datametrex AI Limited is a technology-focused company with exposure to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nexalogy (www.nexalogy.com). Datametrex's mission is to provide tools that support companies in fulfilling their operational goals, including Health and Safety, with predictive and preventive technologies. By working with companies to set a new standard of protocols through Artificial Intelligence and health diagnostics, Company provides progressive solutions to support the supply chain.

For additional information on Datametrex and other corporate information, please visit the Company's website at www.datametrex.com.

For further information, please contact:

Marshall Gunter - CEO

Phone: (514) 295-2300

Email: mgunter@datametrex.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor it's Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements:

All statements included in this press release that address activities, events, or developments that the Company expects, believes, or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions made by the Company based on its experience, perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. In addition, these statements involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections, and other forward-looking statements will prove inaccurate, certain of which are beyond the Company's control. In particular, there is no guarantee that the parties will successfully negotiate and enter into a definitive agreement on mutually acceptable terms or complete the Transaction in the manner contemplated herein, if at all, that the due diligence of any of the parties will be satisfactory, or that the parties will obtain any required board, shareholder, third-party and/or regulatory or other governmental approvals, if any. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake to revise or update these forward-looking statements after the date hereof or revise them to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/102895
MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today's market conditions require that online traders have access to software at all times, for a healthy decision-making process. For that reason, global online indices trading brand Beneffx.com has released a new and improved version of its trading app, suitable for Android devices. This version of the app is already available on Google Play, downloadable for all registered users at no extra cost.

"It was important for us, while building and designing this app, to focus on its interface," explained Blake White, spokesperson for Beneffx.com. "We know that today's reality calls for a focus on mobile trading, and it has to be fast and convenient, otherwise the full potential of the markets cannot be exploited. That's why we've put the best minds to work on the app for the past few months, and I can truly say that we are proud of the end result, and confident that our traders will like it."

Mobility is the future

Aside from the mentioned app, Beneffx.com also grants access to all traders to its proprietary mobile WebTrader, Be-Mobile. The WebTrader is packed with useful tools and features, and does not require any download, meaning that mobile trading is enabled from any device. Additionally according to the company's representatives, an iOS version of Beneffx.com's app will be available soon as well, and an update regarding this will be published in the near future.

"When we founded Beneffx.com, we had one main goal in mind - to make online trading as accessible and user-friendly as possible," added White. "This is just one step toward that goal. Our clients can rest assured that we are always working on ways to improve their trading experience. We invite traders from all over the world to give us a try."

About Beneffx.com

Established with the goal of bringing a much-needed change to the online trading world, Beneffx.com has already managed to gain the status of a reputed trading brand around the world, offering a service level which can't be matched by other providers. As of today, clients have access to social trading tools, in the form of forex, cryptocurrencies, stocks, commodities and indices. A demo account is available at no charge for beginner traders, as well as an Islamic account for religious traders, also at no extra charge.
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.
As the only internet company invited from the energy industry in China, NewLink demonstrated the link between digital practices and carbon neutrality

BEIJING, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NewLink, China's fastest growing online energy technology company, was invited to the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2021 where it delivered a keynote speech themed, Smart Energy Network to Boost Carbon Neutrality, revealing the innovative practice of carbon emissions reduction that can boost transportation energy to achieve carbon neutrality.

The day prior to the delivered speech, China and the United States released the China-U.S. Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s during the ongoing 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to promote cooperation and multilateral progress through the joint creation of a Working Group on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s. As transportation accounts for 16.2% of all global emissions, NewLink believes its digital technology experience and expertise in achieving zero carbon can bring a win-win solution to industrial partners and end users.

With the mission of realizing zero-carbon energy through digitalization, NewLink has devised a business scope structured with "two networks, one supply chain and one neutralization," that promotes fossil energy carbon emissions reduction, the use of new energy, and carbon neutrality in transportation energy. NewLink continues to lead the digital energy industry, winning honors including the Global Top 500 New Energy Companies and unicorn company status domestically in China as well as overseas.

NewLink has built up its products and services laying out an upstream and downstream industrial supply chain since its founding in 2016 and forged two digital energy supply networks named Tuanyou and Kuaidian, along with a digitalized energy supply chain with NewLink Logistics as the foundation. Both Tuanyou and Kuaidian feature mobile app functionality and The TuanyouApp ranks 79th in China's Top 100 Apps of User Traffic Value, the No. 1 spot among energy industry apps; while the Kuaidian App made it into the Top 3 in China's Electrical Supply App Rankings in October, while also taking the spot among independent charging applications.

Recently, NewLink has also partnered with SGS Group, the internationally renowned inspection, testing, and certification organization, to jointly explore carbon neutrality standards and regulations in the transportation and energy industry, helping the energy industry to achieve the "dual carbon" goal.
The 1.4 GW Phu Cuong Soc Trang offshore wind project, being developed as a joint venture between Mainstream Renewable Power and the Phu Cuong Group, is located off the southern coast of Vietnam and will be the largest offshore wind farm in South-East Asia

and will be the largest offshore wind farm in The first 200 MW of the project has received a Decision on Investment and an Investment Registration Certificate (IRC) from the Soc Trang Province , representing a significant step towards financial close, expected in 2022

OSLO, Norway, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In a vital step for the Phu Cuong Soc Trang Offshore Wind Farm, Mainstream Renewable Power ("Mainstream") today announces its receipt of a Decision on Investment and an Investment Registration Certification (IRC) from the provincial government of Soc Trang for the first 200 MW of the offshore wind farm. The project, once fully complete, will have a capacity of up to 1.4 GW and will generate enough electricity to power over 1.6 million homes, as well as mitigating 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

The project is anticipated to reach financial close in 2022, enabling first power to commence as early as 2023.

The project is a joint venture between Mainstream and its Vietnamese partner the Phu Cuong Group, with Mainstream owning 70 percent of the asset and the Phu Cuong Group owning the remaining 30 percent.

The project follows a multi-stage development approach, with 200 MW of capacity set to be delivered in phase 1 and the remaining 1.2 GW to be developed thereafter. Today's announcement represents a significant milestone for Mainstream's presence in Vietnam. The project has already completed its wind measurement campaign and other site studies, and the procurement process to secure a wind turbine supplier and balance of plant contractor is well advanced.

Moving forward, Mainstream will work closely with EVN, Vietnam's national electricity company, to finalise the grid connection agreement, as well as the project's Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

Mainstream, which his owned 75 percent by Aker Horizons, has been present in Vietnam since 2016 where it is developing 2.3 GW of solar and offshore wind assets.

Cameron Smith, Mainstream's General Manager for APAC, said:

"We are excited to be a part of Vietnam's energy transition with the Phu Cuong Soc Trang project, which is being developed to the highest international standards, drawing on Mainstream's extensive experience. Being leaders in renewable development in many countries, we understand the importance of community engagement, and we are pleased to have had such positive support from the Soc Trang community.

We commend the government for the progress made in encouraging the development of renewable energy in Vietnam to date. The Phu Cuong Soc Trang project promises to be a catalyst for the development of a true offshore wind industry of a scale that will promote the achievement of net zero by 2050."

Mr Nguyen Viet Cuong, Chairman of the Phu Cuong Group, said:

"The Phu Cuong Soc Trang offshore wind farm is an essential investment in Vietnam's clean energy infrastructure and will make a major contribution towards the country's carbon neutrality roadmap. This wind farm, which will be the largest in the region, will play a key role in accelerating the development of Vietnam's economy by promoting the growth of industrialization. The government's supportive policies to promote renewable energy are important for promoting foreign direct investment in co-operation with Vietnamese partners."

For further information, please contact:

Ivar Simensen, Communications, Tel: +47 46 40 23 17, ivar.simensen@akerhorizons.com

Christian Yggeseth, Investor Relations, Tel: +47 915 10 000, christian.yggeseth@akerhorizons.com

Emmet Curley, Head of Communications & Positioning, Tel P: +353 86 2411 690, emmet.curley@mainstreamrp.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/aker-horizons/r/mainstream-renewable-power-secures-investment-decision-from-provincial-government-for-flagship-offsh,c3452028
BARCELONA, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- How will we get around the cities of the future? Which forms of transportation will redefine the urban landscape? From 16th to 18th November the answers to these questions will be found in the innovation and demonstration zones of the pilot edition of Tomorrow Mobility World Congress (TMWC). The new urban vehicles on display at the event will include a robot for the delivery of purchases from local shops, an autonomous hydrogen-powered micro-shuttle and a camera with radar to improve cyclists' safety.

Jointly organised by Fira de Barcelona and EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, TMWC promotes the design and adoption of new models of sustainable urban mobility. At its pilot event Tomorrow Mobility World Congress will bring together more than a hundred companies and organisations and feature 75 international speakers in its congress schedule.

The examples include the Deliverbot, a small autonomous vehicle for local commerce by British company Delivers.ai that is designed to make deliveries within a maximum radius of one mile. The device is equipped with cameras, radar and sensors enabling it to move along pavements while avoiding pedestrians and carry out contactless deliveries.

The TMWC demo zone will also showcase the Auve Tech micro-shuttle, a vehicle whose small size makes it suitable for highly customised routes. Developed by an Estonian company, it is the first in the world in its category to be equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell engine, one of the most sustainable motorisations, as its exhaust only emits steam.

Sustainable personal transport systems such as bicycles also form part of the future of urban mobility and TMWC will showcase innovations in this field. Germany's Dashbike has designed a device equipped with micro-cameras and radar to improve cyclists' safety. The Dashbike is placed under the saddle, automatically measuring the passing distance of the vehicles overtaking the cyclist and storing video sequences that include all the relevant metadata on the manoeuvre. In the event of an accident, the recordings can be used as evidence in court.

To promote startups in the mobility sector, TMWC will organise meetings between investors and over 20 companies, including Homyhub, Shotl, Fluctuo, Elonroad, Knot, Nemi, Qucit, Living Map, BlockCity, Hopu, SmartBox4U, TruckY, Vonzu, Nivel.no, Smart Point City, Bia Power, Vianova, SmartMonkey.io and BlueCity.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1686473/Tomorrow_Mobility.jpg
LONDON, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Unity Project will connect creators, influencers and entrepreneurs so anyone can launch a project on the Blockchain without learning to code.

With Unity, any individual or small team without technical skills and expertise will be able to set up their NFT or DeFi project, or create their own crypto token.

Anyone can be behind the next Shiba Inu token (recently overtaking Deutsche Bank with a $30 billion market cap), Safemoon, or NFT collection - their very own competitor to Cryptopunks or Bored Apes.

How Unity Project Works

NFTs and Cryptos are here to stay - there's no doubt about that, with Bitcoin making a new all-time high this week approaching $70,000 - but today only a few technically skilled developers can launch projects on the Blockchain, which is unfair. Unity solves this.

Unity Project has been launched by serial entrepreneurs in order to bring non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) to the masses.

Unity is a cross-chain platform that connects individual artists with their community and aims to tokenize online communities and creators' work, bringing their ecosystem into the digital age.

'Social tokens will grow into a trillion-dollar industry. It's the biggest thing I've ever seen' - Reveal Vision's Raoul Pal, former hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs

Millions of online entrepreneurs are expected to move to the Blockchain for investment and networking opportunities in the coming years and decades.

They're not going to want to learn to code - Unity's aim is to act as a 'Blockchain as a service' platform, the same way software as a service (SAAS) startups revolutionized Web 2.0, and form a bridge between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, so anyone can launch their project with advanced coding skills or knowledge.

Unity will connect and work with the most popular social media platforms, online businesses and big tech companies in the crypto space.

Much of the tech needed to launch the Unity platform is already in place, and a private sale of Unity NFTs for early investors will take place on Nov 15th.

Buy Unity Project NFTs

To get involved with Unity and be an early adopter of the project, interested individuals can now get their hands on one of their NFTs.

Owning a Unity NFT will give individuals access to the private presale of the Unity token and more lucrative benefits, including voting rights and rewards on the project.

The private mint sale is planned for November 15th, followed shortly by the public mint sale on the 19th. Read the full roadmap, meet the development team and join the official Telegram and Discord communities at the Unity website.

- Website: https://www.unityproject.co/

- NFT site: https://www.unityproject.co/nft

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1686262/Unity_Project.jpg
MoneyTV with Donald Baillargeon television program, Copyright MMXXI, all rights reserved. MoneyTV does not provide an analysis of companies' financial positions and is not soliciting to purchase or sell securities of the companies, nor are we offering a recommendation of featured companies or their stocks. Information discussed herein has been provided by the companies and should be verified independently with the companies and a securities analyst. MoneyTV provides companies a 3 to 4 month corporate profile with multiple appearances for a cash fee of $6,950.00 to $11,995.00, does not accept company stock as payment for services, does not hold any positions, options or warrants in featured companies. The information herein is not an endorsement by Donald Baillargeon, the producer, publisher or parent company of MoneyTV.

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 (dpa-AFX) - Eurozone industrial output dropped less than expected in September, data released by Eurostat showed on Friday. Industrial production dropped 0.2 percent month-on-month, slower than the 1.7 percent decline seen in August. Economists had forecast a monthly decline of 0.5 percent. Among main industrial grouping, non-durable consumer goods posted the biggest growth of 1 percent, followed by the 0.5 percent rise in durable consumer goods output. Production of capital goods was down 0.7 percent and intermediate goods output dropped 0.2 percent. Meanwhile, output of energy remained unchanged in September. On a yearly basis, industrial production growth accelerated to 5.2 percent from 4.9 percent in the previous month. The rate was expected to ease to 4.1 percent. Industrial production in the EU27 decreased 0.5 percent on month in September, but expanded 5 percent from the same period last year. 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.
The "Homecare and Supported Living UK Market Report (4th Edition)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The fourth edition of the Homecare and Supported Living UK Market Report is indispensable reading for anyone involved in this fragmented and complex market. This includes advisors, investors, commissioners and policymakers as well as service providers. Read together with Adult Specialist Care and Care Homes for Older People UK Market Reports, Homecare and Supported Livingcompletes a series that illustrates the state of non-residential and residential care for adults over the age of 18 and gives a comprehensive market picture not found anywhere else.

Written during the summer of 2021, the report includes fully updated data and market insights regarding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the sector. It also provides an initial analysis of the likely impact on the homecare and supported living sector of the government's announcement on 7 September 2021 about new funding for the NHS and social care.

The report shows the value of the UK market for homecare and supported living to be 10.3 billion (2019/20) and estimates that around 1 million people are in receipt of care. Through the Covid-19 pandemic, the sector showed itself to be resilient in the face of the challenges its faced and the financial impact on most homecare providers was limited. This was down to the remarkable efforts of the people working in the sector, as much as the support of government grants.

The report also includes the findings of new research which looks at how profitability is driven by location and the scale of the provider. It considers the increasing digitisation of homecare and supported living as 'tech enabled' providers join the list of market leaders.

Companies Mentioned:

AMP Capital

Apposite Capital

Business Growth Fund

Bridges Fund Management

Charterhouse Capital Partners

Duke Street

Elysian Capital

Icon Infrastructure

Montreux Capital Management

OMERS Private Equity

Passion Capital

Sovereign Capital Partners

Vitruvian Partners

Key Topics Covered:

1. MARKET

1.1 Market definition

1.2 Further context on market definitions

1.2.1 Adult social care services

1.2.2 Non-residential adult social care services

1.2.3 Complex care

1.2.4 Clinical homecare

1.2.5 NHS Community Health Services

1.2.6 Informal care

1.3 Market size

1.4 Segmentation

1.5 Market growth historical

1.6 Funding

1.7 Supply and demand

1.8 Drivers of demand future growth prospects

1.8.4 Telecare (and telehealth) drivers of demand

1.9 Homecare and supported living in Scotland and Wales

1.10 Business models homecare and supported living

1.11 Key operational statistics

1.12 Performance measures

1.12.1 EBITDA as a percentage of revenue

1.12.2 CQC ratings in England

1.12.3 Service user satisfaction in England

2. GOVERNMENT POLICY AND REGULATION

2.1 History: emergence of the independent sector as the dominant supplier of adult social care services from the late 1970s

2.1.1 Emergence of a large scale, publicly financed homecare sector from 1993

2.1.2 Benign financial environment 2003-2009

2.1.3 Austerity 2011/12

2.1.4 Why did outsourcing of social care become mainstream so rapidly?

2.2 Policy context much cross-party consensus, other than on funding

2.3 Main areas of government policy that impact on the operating environment for homecare and supported living

2.4 Public funding of social services

2.5 Regulation of social services

2.5.1 Underpinning legislation in England Health and Social Care Act 2008

2.5.2 Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

2.5.3 Scope of regulation services covered and not covered in England

2.5.4 Scope of regulation in Wales and Scotland

2.5.5 Registrable entities

2.5.6 History of last two decades deregulation accompanied by tougher enforcement

2.5.7 Scotland's rating system

2.6 Regulation of payroll costs

2.6.1 National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage

2.6.2 Pension legislation

2.7 Integration of health and social care

2.7.1 Integrated Care Systems and Accountable Care Organisations

2.7.2 The Better Care Fund

2.7.3 Scotland's health and social care integration policy

2.7.4 Bed blocking inadequate integration at the health and social care interface

2.8 Other government policies relating to adult social care

2.8.1 Personalisation self-directed care: Direct Payments and personal budgets

2.8.2 Intermediate Care

2.8.3 Charges for publicly funded non-residential care services

2.8.4 National eligibility criteria

2.8.5 Other aspects of The Care Act 2014

2.8.6 National Service Framework for older people and the single assessment process

2.8.7 Consumer information to support choice

2.8.8 Long-term care costs a fair balance between the state and property owners

3. PAYORS

3.1 Payor profile overview

3.2 Financial environment by payor type

3.2.1 Public funding austerity not yet over for social care in 2021/22

3.2.2 The NHS and social care funding announcement in September 2021

3.2.3 Impact of a decade of austerity on public funding of social care

3.2.4 Expansion of supported housing an exception to austerity

3.2.5 Private funding

3.3 Market dynamics by payor type balance of market power

4. MARKET STRUCTURE

4.1 Market structure homecare and supported living

4.1.1 Provider sector and service type

4.1.2 Spectrum of providers

4.1.3 Absence of diversification among major homecare groups

4.1.4 Market concentration and market leaders by revenue

4.1.5 Limited consolidation

4.1.6 Scale of individual services

4.1.7 Exits and entries

4.1.8 Business failures and recapitalisations

4.1.9 Sources of capital

4.1.10 Segmentation by provider sector

4.1.11 Economies of scale and scope

4.1.12 Value of brands

4.1.13 Diversification

4.2 Market structure clinical homecare

5. INVESTORS

5.1 Major transactions in the homecare and supported living space

5.2 Current investors in homecare and supported living and their portfolios

5.3 Past investors

6. MARKET POTENTIAL

6.1 Artificial intelligence

6.2 Tech-enabled homecare providers

6.3 Integration of health and social care

6.4 Alternative models emerging from the social work and nursing professions

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/o29wlx

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005511/en/

Contacts:

ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

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
LOUISVILLE, KY / ACCESSWIRE / November 12, 2021 / Charah Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:CHRA) (the "Company"), a leading provider of mission-critical environmental services and byproduct sales to the power generation industry, today announced that Roger Shannon, CFO and Treasurer, will present at the Southwest IDEAS Investor Conference on Thursday, November 18th, 2021 at the Westin Dallas Downtown in Dallas, TX. Charah Solutions' presentation is scheduled to begin at 9:30am CT. The presentation will be webcast live and may be accessed through the conference host's main website: IDEASconferences.com and in the investor relations section of the Company's website: charah.com.

About IDEAS Investor Conferences

The mission of the IDEAS Conferences is to provide independent regional venues for quality companies to present their investment merits to an influential audience of investment professionals. Unlike traditional bank-sponsored events, IDEAS Investor Conferences are "SPONSORED BY INVESTORS. FOR INVESTORS." and for the benefit of regional investment communities. Conference sponsors collectively have more than $200 billion in assets under management and include: 1102 Partners, Adirondack Research and Management, Allianz Global Investors: NFJ Investment Group, Ariel Investments, Aristotle Capital Boston, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss, BMO Global Asset Management, Constitution Research & Management, Inc., Fidelity Investments, First Wilshire Securities Management, Inc., Gamco Investors, Granahan Investment Management, Great Lakes Advisors, Greenbrier Partners Capital Management, LLC, GRT Capital Partners, LLC, Hodges Capital Management, Ironwood Investment Management, Keeley Teton Advisors, Luther King Capital Management, Marble Harbor Investment Counsel, Perritt Capital Management, Punch & Associates, Westwood Holdings Group, Inc., and William Harris Investors.

The IDEAS Investor Conferences are held annually in Boston, Chicago and Dallas and are produced by Three Part Advisors, LLC. Additional information about the events can be located at www.IDEASconferences.com.

About Charah Solutions, Inc.

With 30 years of experience, Charah Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of environmental services and byproduct sales to the power generation industry. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, Charah Solutions assists utilities and independent power producers with all aspects to sustainably manage and recycle ash byproducts generated from the combustion of coal in the production of electricity. The Company also designs and implements solutions for ash pond management and closure, landfill construction, fly ash sales, and structural fill projects. Charah Solutions is the partner of choice for solving customers' most complex environmental challenges, and as an industry leader in quality, safety, and compliance, the Company is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions for a cleaner energy future. For more information, please visit, please visit https://charah.com/ or download our 2020 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report at charah.com/sustainability.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as "may," "expect," "estimate," "project," "plan," "believe," "intend," "achievable," "anticipate," "will," "continue," "potential," "should," "could," and similar terms and phrases. These statements are based on certain assumptions made by the Company based on management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, anticipated future developments and other factors believed to be appropriate. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied or expressed by the forward-looking statements. See the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 and other periodic reports as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for further information regarding risk factors.

Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to correct or update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

Investor Contact

Roger Shannon

Charah Solutions

(502) 245-1353

ir@charah.com

Media Contact

Tamara Davis

PriceWeber Marketing

(270) 202-8516

media@charah.com

SOURCE: Charah Solutions, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/672395/Charah-Solutions-to-Present-at-the-13th-Annual-Southwest-IDEAS-Investor-Conference-on-November-18th-in-Dallas-TX
DGAP Post-admission Duties announcement: Haier Smart Home Co.,Ltd. / Third country release according to Article 50 Para. 1, No. 2 of the WpHG [the German Securities Trading Act]

Haier Smart Home Co.,Ltd.: Announcement on the Implementation Result of the Increase in Shareholdings of the Company by Actual Controller's Concerted Actor



12.11.2021 / 12:50

Dissemination of a Post-admission Duties announcement according to Article 50 Para. 1, No. 2 WpHG transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Announcement on the Implementation Result of the Increase in Shareholdings of the Company by Actual Controller's Concerted Actor Qingdao / Shanghai / Frankfurt / Hongkong, 12 November 2021 - Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. (the "Company" or "Haier Smart Home", D-share 690D.DE, A-share 600690.SH, H-share 06690.HK) today published on the Shanghai Stock Exchange an announcement with regard to the Implementation Result of the Increase in Shareholdings of the Company by Actual Controller's Concerted Actor. Reminder of important content: - General Information of the Shareholding Increase Plan: Qingdao Haichuangzhi Management Consulting Enterprise (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Haichuangzhi"), a concerted actor of Haier Group Corporation which is the actual controller of Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. intended to increase their shareholdings in the Company's A-shares through the trading system of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (hereinafter referred to as "SSE") within 6 months from 18 June 2021 and within the time frame permitted by relevant laws and regulations, with an accumulated amount of shareholding increase no less than RMB300 million and the shares of which shall not exceed 2% of the Company's total share capital at that time (hereinafter referred to as the "Shareholding Increase Plan"). - Implementation of the Shareholding Increase Plan: On 18 June 2021, Haichuangzhi increased its holdings of A-shares in the Company by 362,490 shares through the trading system of SSE, accounting for 0.0039% of the Company's total share capital in issue at that time (hereinafter referred to as the "First Shareholding Increase"). Since the date of First Shareholding Increase and as of 12 November 2021, Haichuangzhi had accumulatively increased its holdings of A-shares in the Company by 31,899,216 shares through SSE trading system, accounting for 0.34% of the total share capital in issue of the Company so far. The average price of the increased shares was RMB25.08/share with a total amount of RMB800,000,600 (commissions and other charges inclusive). Haier Group Corporation and its concerted actors including Haichuangzhi together hold 3,205,153,558 shares of the Company, accounting for 34.11% of the Company's issued total share capital so far. As of the date of this announcement, the Shareholding Increase Plan has been properly implemented. I. General information of the entity implementing Shareholding Increase Plan and the main content of the Shareholding Increase Plan

(I) Entity implementing the Shareholding Increase Plan: Haichuangzhi, being a concerted actor of the Haier Group Corporation.

(II) Prior to implementation of the Shareholding Increase Plan, Haichuangzhi already held 73,011,000 A-shares of the Company, accounting for 0.78% of the Company's total share capital at that time.

(III) Implementation of the Shareholding Increase Plan: On 22 June 2021, the Company published the Announcement on the Increase in Shareholdings in the Company by the Actual Controller's Concerted Actor. Based on the long-term development of China's capital market and confidence in the Company's business prospects, Haichuangzhi increased its holdings of A-shares in the Company by 362,490 shares on 18 June 2021 through the trading system of SSE, accounting for 0.0039% of the Company's total share capital in issue at that time. Meanwhile, Haichuangzhi and/or other parties acting in concert with Haier Group intended to continue to increase their shareholdings in the Company's A-shares through the trading system of SSE within the time frame permitted by relevant laws and regulations in the next 6 months (since the First Shareholding Increase), with an accumulated amount of shareholding increase no less than RMB300 million and the shares of which shall not exceed 2% of the Company's total share capital in issue (including the increased shares of the First Shareholding Increase). The source of funds for the increased shares is self-owned/self-raised funds. There is no price range for the shareholding increase, and Haichuangzhi and/or other parties acting in concert with Haier Group would gradually implement the Shareholding Increase Plan according to the Company's stock price fluctuations and the overall trend of the capital market. II. Implementation result of the Shareholding Increase Plan

According to Haichuangzhi's notice, taking into account the price fluctuations of A-shares and capital market trends, the implementation of the Shareholding Increase Plan has been completed. As of the date of this announcement, the particulars of the Shareholding Increase Plan implemented is as follows: Entity implementing the Shareholding Increase Plan Method Number of shares increased (shares) Average price for shares increased (RMB/share) Amount for shares increased (RMB'0,000) Percentage of the total share capital(%) Haichuangzhi Centralized price bidding through the trading system of SSE 31,899,216 25.08 800,000,600 0.34 III. Other explanations

(I) The Company has disclosed, in accordance with relevant regulations, the Shareholding Increase Plan and its progress of Haichuangzhi, the Company's the actual controller's concerted actor. For details, please refer to the relevant announcements disclosed by the Company each month.

(II) Regarding the above mentioned increase in shareholding, Zhong Lun Law Firm issued a legal opinion with concluding comment that Haichuangzhi owns the qualification for being the entity implementing the Shareholding Increase Plan; this shareholding increase is in line with the provisions of paragraph 2 (2) of Article 63 of the Administrative Rules on Acquisition of Listed Company, so as to be exempted from submitting an application to the China Securities Regulatory Commission for exemption from the takeover offer; as of the date of issuance of this verification opinion, Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. has fulfilled the necessary information disclosure obligation at this stage for this increase in shareholding, and is required to publish this announcement on the implementation results of this shareholding increase.

(III) The entity implementing the Shareholding Increase has undertaken that it will not reduce its shareholdings in the Company within the statutory period. Note: This Announcement has been prepared in both Chinese and English. Should there be any discrepancies or misunderstandings between the two versions, the Chinese version shall prevail.

IR Contact:

Haier Smart Home Hong Kong

T: +852 2169 0000

Email: ir@haier.hk Press Contact:

CROSS ALLIANCE communication GmbH

Sven Pauly

Sara Pinto

sp@crossalliance.de

T: +49 (0) 89 1250903 35



About Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd.:

Haier is one of the world's leading manufacturers of household appliances with a focus on smart home solutions and customized mass production. Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. develops, produces and distributes a wide range of household appliances. These include refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, air conditioners, water heaters, kitchen appliances as well as smaller household appliances and an extensive range of intelligent household appliances. The Company distributes its products through leading household brands such as Haier, Casarte, Leader, Candy, GE Appliances, AQUA and Fisher & Paykel. Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. has launched Smart Home Experiential Cloud, which connects homes, users, enterprises and ecosystem partners, and facilitates the integration of Haier's online, offline and micro-store businesses and supports user interaction to further optimize the user experience.

12.11.2021 The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de


Positive Phase 1a data presented at SITC demonstrates safety, tolerability and clinical activity of MTL-CEBPA in combination with pembrolizumab, supporting continued development in solid tumour malignancies

Positive translational data published in Clinical Cancer Research demonstrates MTL-CEBPA's immunological mechanism of action across different tumour models and in liver cancer patients

MiNA Therapeutics Limited ("MiNA" or the "Company"), the pioneer in small activating RNA (saRNA) therapeutics, announces positive safety data from the Phase 1a/b TIMEPOINT study of MTL-CEBPA in combination with pembrolizumab in adult patients with advanced solid tumours. The data will be initially presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting, taking place on 10-14 November 2021. Separately, MiNA also highlights the publication of positive data in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Cancer Research, demonstrating MTL-CEBPA's mechanism of action across different tumour models and in cancer patients.

Robert Habib, CEO of MiNA Therapeutics, commented:

"The data presented at SITC and published in Clinical Cancer Research further adds to the strong foundation of clinical evidence we have established for MTL-CEBPA. Multiple studies across different tumour models and in cancer patients have demonstrated the unique immunological effects of MTL-CEBPA and its role as a potential combination treatment in cancer. We are excited to progress into Phase 1b the development of MTL-CEBPA in patients with solid tumour malignancies."

Data presented at SITC from the ongoing Phase 1a/b, first-in-human, open-label, multicenter TIMEPOINT study demonstrates the safety and tolerability of MiNA's lead candidate, MTL-CEBPA in combination with pembrolizumab, an approved anti-PD-1 (programmed death receptor-1) checkpoint inhibitor. The study is enrolling patients with advanced solid tumour treatment settings in which anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors are not approved therapies.

At the three dose levels tested, the combination was generally well tolerated, with no dose-limiting toxicity and no serious adverse events observed. Encouragingly, anti-tumour activity was also observed in three patients. These included two confirmed partial responses in patients with advanced ovarian cancer and malignant pleural mesothelioma. The data package to date supports the continuation of this programme and MiNA is currently enrolling patients into a Phase 1b dose expansion cohort, which will additionally assess immunological changes as well as clinical activity of the combination treatment. Analysis of approximately 40 patients in the Phase 1b dose expansion cohort is expected to complete in the second half of 2023.

Additionally, translational proof-of-concept data further establishing MTL-CEBPA's mechanism of action was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Cancer Research. The data demonstrated that therapeutic up-regulation of C/EBP-a by MTL-CEBPA caused inactivation of immune-suppressive myeloid cells, potentiating anti-tumour responses in patients with advanced primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)), as well as in several pre-clinical tumor models, including liver cancer, lung carcinoma, and colon adenocarcinoma.

This data provides evidence to support the role of MTL-CEBPA to counteract a key cancer immune evasion pathway by inhibiting immune suppression by myeloid cells, and for the potential of MTLCEBPA in combination treatment with immunotherapies across multiple tumour types. This data also supports MiNA's strategy in liver cancer, where the Company is investigating MTL-CEBPA in patients with advanced HCC in combination with sorafenib (standard-of-care multi-kinase inhibitor), with a randomised Phase 2 clinical trial (OUTREACH-2) expected to initiate around the end of 2021.

Both the poster presented at SITC and paper published in Clinical Cancer Research will be made available on the Company's website in the Publications section under "RNA Activation".

About the TIMEPOINT study

TIMEPOINT is a global Phase 1a/1b clinical study in patients with solid tumour malignancies that will assess the safety and tolerability of MTLCEBPA in combination with pembrolizumab in patients who are ineligible or resistant to standard therapies. The study has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). To learn more about the TIMEPOINT clinical study, please visit our listing at clinicaltrials.gov.

About MTL-CEBPA

MTL-CEBPA is the first therapy that specifically up-regulates CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha (C/EBP-a), a transcription factor that acts as a master regulator of myeloid cell lineage determination and differentiation. Dysregulated myeloid cells have been implicated in several diseases and in solid tumour cancers have been identified as a critical barrier for many therapies to induce clinical responses. In pre-clinical studies MTL-CEBPA has been shown to improve the anti-tumour activity of cancer therapies by targeting dysregulated myeloid cells and reducing their suppressive effect in the tumour micro-environment. MTL-CEBPA is currently in clinical development as a combination therapy for the treatment of advanced liver cancer and advanced solid tumour malignancies.

About MiNA Therapeutics

MiNA Therapeutics is the leader in small activating RNA therapeutics. Harnessing innate mechanisms of gene activation, small activating RNA therapeutics are a revolutionary new class of medicines that can restore or boost normal function in patients' cells. We are advancing a proprietary pipeline of new medicines with an initial focus on cancer and genetic diseases, while collaborating with leading pharmaceutical companies to apply our technology platform across a broad range of therapeutic areas. Based on our unique know-how in RNA activation we are expanding the possibilities of RNA-based medicine for patients. www.minatx.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005191/en/

Contacts:

MiNA Therapeutics

Robert Habib, CEO Robin Wright, CFO

Phone: +44 208 811 6700

E-Mail: info@minatx.com

Media requests:

Victoria Foster Mitchell Tim Stamper

FTI Consulting

Phone: +44 203 727 1000

E-Mail: MiNATherapeutics@fticonsulting.com
TORONTO and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. (TSX: PMN) (OTCQB: ARFXF) ("ProMIS or the Company"), a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of antibody therapeutics targeting toxic oligomers implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases, today announced its operational and financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021.



"We are pleased to be ramping up our efforts to advance our lead asset, PMN 310, closer toward the clinic," said Gene Williams, ProMIS' Chairman and CEO. "The financing we secured earlier this year is enabling us to unlock the potential of our platform, which we believe could have significant impact on the treatment of several neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Parkinson's Disease and ALS. The strengthening of our management team and Board this quarter has also enabled us to leverage worldwide development and patent expertise and strengthen our overall competitive position."

Corporate Highlights

On July 2, 2021, the Company announced the voting results of its annual meeting of shareholders held on June 30, 2021, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. All resolutions described in the Management Proxy Circular and placed before the meeting were approved by the shareholders.

On July 8, 2021, the Company announced that it had filed and obtained a receipt for the Prospectus with the securities regulators in each of the provinces and territories of Canada, except Quebec.

On August 25, 2021, we announced the closing of a public offering for gross proceeds of US$20,125,000 (CDN$25,522,525).

On October 7, 2021, we announced that we would hold a special general meeting of shareholders (the "Special Meeting") on December 1, 2021. We set October 18, 2021, as the record date for the Special Meeting. The purpose of the Special Meeting is to ask shareholders to grant the Board of Directors the authority, exercisable in the Board's discretion, to consolidate (or reverse split) the Company's issued and outstanding common shares in furtherance of a potential listing of the Company's shares on a stock exchange in the United States.

People

On September 1, 2021, the Company appointed Josh Mandel-Brehm to the board of directors. Mr. Mandel-Brehm has held various key business development and operations leadership roles at leading biotechnology companies.

On September 23, 2021, the Company appointed Maggie Shafmaster, JD, PhD, to the board of directors. Dr Shafmaster has approximately 30 years of experience providing intellectual property advice to biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

On October 22, 2021, the Company announced the expansion of its senior management team. The following changes were announced:

Eugene Williams, formerly Executive Chairman, takes on the role of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), with immediate effect.

Dr. Elliot Goldstein resigned from his current role as CEO with immediate effect and continues to support us as President and special consultant to the CEO.

Gavin Malenfant joins our senior management team as Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Malenfant brings more than 30 years of biopharmaceutical experience to our team, with special focus on providing expert management and oversight of drug development programs. The top priority in the near term will be to support the timely development of the PMN310 program to completion of IND enabling activities, anticipated in the second half of 2022. He will be working with Mr. Williams and the leadership of the PMN310 project team, whose key members include: Michael Grundman, MD, Senior Medical Adviser. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Grundman was Associate Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study at the University of California, San Diego ("UCSD") and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Neurosciences at UCSD. Dr. Grundman previously served on the FDA Peripheral and Central Nervous System Advisory Committee. Ernest Bush, PhD, Head of Pharmacology/Toxicology. Dr. Bush has 35 years of experience working in the field of biomedical research and development, driving development of innovative therapies for treatment of human diseases. He has served as a consultant in non-clinical development providing advice and insight into Investigational New Drug ("IND") enabling programs, pre-clinical data-set analysis for due diligence and evaluation and audits of Good Laboratory Practices ("GLP") bioanalytical and toxicology facilities and studies. Dennis Chen, PhD, Head of Manufacturing. Dennis has more than 25 years of prior pharmaceutical experience in working with companies from virtual to global and all phases of development. Dennis provides Regulatory Affairs, Chemistry, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls ("CMC") and Biopharmaceutical Development support to ProMIS with expertise in peptides, proteins and oligonucleotides.



Financial Results

Results of Operations - Three months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020

The following table summarizes our results of operations for the three months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020:

Three Months Ended September 30, 2021 2020 Change Revenues $ 5,101 $ - $ 5,101 Operating expenses Research and development $ 1,192,865 $ 1,053,769 $ 139,096 General and administrative 852,695 510,264 342,431 Total operating expenses 2,045,560 1,564,033 481,527 Loss from operations 2,040,459 1,564,033 476,426 Other income (1,078,483 ) - (1,078,483 ) Net loss $ 961,976 $ 1,564,033 $ (602,057 )



Research and Development

Research and development expenses consist of the following:

Three Months Ended September 30, 2021 2020 Change Direct research and development expenses by program: $ 590,940 $ 390,917 $ 200,023 Indirect research and development expenses: Personnel related (including stock-based compensation) 218,210 488,888 (270,678 ) Consulting expense 180,604 73,885 106,719 Patent expense 187,734 98,411 89,323 Amortization expense 15,377 1,668 13,709 Total research and development expenses $ 1,192,865 $ 1,053,769 $ 139,096

The increase in research and development expense for the three months ended September 30, 2021, compared to the three months ended September 30, 2020, is primarily attributed to increased costs associated with external contract research organizations for internal programs of $200,023 as the company ramps up key internal programs, increased patent expense of $89,323 due to increased maintenance fees, increased outside consultants of $106,719 and increase in amortization of property and equipment and intangible asset of $13,709 offset by decreased contracted research salaries and associated costs of $247,792 due to reduction in compensation to management and attrition of contract staff and decreased share-based compensation of $22,886 due to the forfeiture of share options.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses consist of the following:

Three Months Ended

September 30, 2021 2020 Change Personnel related (including stock-based compensation) $ 374,055 $ 242,571 $ 131,484 Professional and consulting fees 470,493 337,446 133,047 Facility-related and other 8,147 (69,753 ) 77,900 Total general and administrative expenses $ 852,695 $ 510,264 $ 342,431

The increase for the three months ended September 30, 2021, compared to the three same period in 2020, is primarily attributable to by an increase in share-based compensation of $212,237 due to the grant of share options, increased legal expense of $52,959, increased to other professional fees of $150,162 and foreign exchange losses of $88,451 due to the foreign exchange on U.S. denominated assets and liabilities offset by a reduction in contracted corporate salaries and associated facility costs of $91,304 due to reduction in compensation to management and attrition of contracted staff and decreased investor relations of $70,074 due to scale down of investor relations activities and consultants

Other Income

The increase in other income is primarily the change in the fair value of the derivative liability associated with the convertible debenture financing warrant liability arising from the August 2021 financing.

Results of Operations - Nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020

The following table summarizes our results of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020:

Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 2020 Change Revenues $ 5,101 $ 1,578 $ 3,523 Operating expenses Research and development 2,451,985 2,926,242 (474,257 ) General and administrative 1,554,509 2,051,506 (496,997 ) Total operating expenses 4,006,494 4,977,748 (971,254 ) Loss from operations 4,001,393 4,976,170 (974,777 ) Other expense 4,857,346 - 4,857,346 Net loss $ 8,858,739 $ 4,976,170 $ 3,882,569



Research and Development

Research and development expenses consist of the following:

Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 2020 Change Direct research and development expenses by program: $ 1,173,873 $ 885,179 $ 288,694 Indirect research and development expenses: Personnel related (including stock-based compensation) 476,161 1,566,083 (1,089,922 ) Consulting expense 370,052 176,898 193,154 Patent expense 386,018 293,078 92,940 Other operating costs 45,881 5,004 40,877 Total research and development expenses $ 2,451,985 $ 2,926,242 $ (474,257 )

The decrease in research and development expense for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2020, reflects the conservation of cash resources and decreased contract salaries and associated costs of $921,576 due to reduction in compensation to management and attrition of contracted staff and decreased share-based compensation of $168,346 due to forfeiture of unvested/vested share options due to termination of consulting arrangement offset by increased costs associated with external contract research organizations for internal programs of $288,694 as the company ramps up key internal programs, increased patent expense of $92,940 due to increased maintenance fees, increased consulting expense of $193,154 and increase in amortization of property and equipment and intangible asset of $40,877.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses consist of the following:

Nine Months Ended

September 30, 2021 2020 Change Personnel related (including stock-based compensation) $ 802,356 $ 910,769 $ (108,413 ) Professional and consulting fees 950,285 1,083,745 (133,460 ) Facility-related and other (198,132 ) 56,992 (255,124 ) Total general and administrative expenses $ 1,554,509 $ 2,051,506 $ (496,997 )

The decrease for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, compared to the same period in 2020, is primarily attributable to a reduction in contracted corporate salaries and associated facility costs of $342,084 due to reduction in compensation to management and attrition of contracted staff, decreased investor relations of $451,033 due to a reduction of investor relation activities and consultants and foreign exchange gains of $204,561 on U.S. denominated assets and liabilities offset by increased legal expense of $152,531, increased other professional fees of 165,042 and increased share-based compensation of $183,108, related to the grant of share options.

Other Expense

The increase in other expense is primarily the valuation of the derivative liability associated with the convertible debenture financing.

Outlook

Going forward we will focus on therapeutic programs in our core business area of differentiated antibodies for neurodegenerative and other mis-folded protein diseases.

PMN310, ProMIS antibody therapy selective for toxic oligomers in Alzheimer's disease, is our highest priority. In Q3, we made significant progress, in line with plans, on all the program elements discussed in the prospectus supplement in August 2021, including cell line development, GLP toxicology work, and CMC manufacturing. We are on track to complete all IND enabling work in H2 2022.

The top priority for our scientific validation efforts, largely centered in Dr. Neil Cashman's lab at UBC, is currently our ALS portfolio. This portfolio includes antibodies targeting mis-folded forms of TDP-43, RACK1, SOD1, and ataxin2. The most advanced of these is the program targeting TDP-43. We have initiated both in vitro assays (assessing the impact of drug on motor neuron cell lines) and in vivo (mouse model) assays and expect readouts over the next several months.

In addition, we are continuing to expand the application of our unique discovery platform, with which we can "rationally design" antibodies to be selective for only mis-folded, pathogenic proteins involved in disease. Our Chief Physics Officer, David Wishart, and his team are pursuing multiple novel targets. We have acquired access to the AlphaFold database of over 300,000 normal protein conformations, which is the starting point for our predictions of conformational epitopes on mis-folded molecular species using our proprietary computational algorithm Collective Coordinates.

About ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc.

ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. is a development stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing antibody therapeutics selectively targeting toxic oligomers implicated in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer's disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's disease (PD). The Company's proprietary target discovery engine is based on the use of two complementary techniques. The Company applies its thermodynamic, computational discovery platform - ProMIS and Collective Coordinates - to predict novel targets known as Disease Specific Epitopes on the molecular surface of misfolded proteins. Using this unique approach, the Company is developing novel antibody therapeutics for AD, ALS and PD. ProMIS is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ProMIS is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol PMN, and on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol ARFXF.

Visit us at www.promisneurosciences.com, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

For Investor Relations please contact:

Alpine Equity Advisors

Nicholas Rigopulos, President

nick@alpineequityadv.com

Tel. 617 901-0785

The TSX has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This information release contains certain forward-looking information. Such information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by statements herein, and therefore these statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. All forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to it as well as other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified by the Company in its public securities filings, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.


VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 12, 2021 / Cielo Waste Solutions Corp. (TSXV:CMC; OTCQB:CWSFF) ("Cielo" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an operational update and production forecast including project timelines, corporate goals and objectives associated with its operating demonstration facility at Aldersyde, Alberta, (the "Aldersyde Facility") as well as Cielo's planned research and development facility at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta (the "R&D Facility").

The Company's business strategy is focused on converting waste to fuel through proprietary technology centred on a thermal catalytic depolymerization process. Today's update builds upon the Company's press release dated September 27, 2021, in which Cielo confirmed that engineering design enhancements and system modifications were underway at the Aldersyde Facility, in order to resolve the System Issues (defined below) and achieve steady-state production. Within that same press release, the Company announced its plans for the development of the R&D Facility.

Aldersyde Demonstration Facility Overview

The objectives of the Aldersyde Facility are focused on demonstrating the steady-state production of distillate for the sale of diesel and naphtha derived from wood waste utilizing used motor oil ("UMO") as the carrier fluid. The facility will also serve the purposes of generating revenue, product yield and control systems optimization, operations training, maintenance planning, and establishing best practices. Operational experience and philosophy from the Aldersyde Facility will translate to larger full-scale facilities.

Improving the Aldersyde Facility

Cielo is focused on increasing production rates at the Aldersyde Facility to a commercial level that supports revenue generation. Earlier this year, the Company implemented various process modifications which resulted in an improvement in production performance and enabled Cielo to achieve continuous production. However, these process modifications created unintended system bottlenecks and plugging issues which resulted in decreased operational run times (the "System Issues"). Immediate efforts to rectify the System Issues proved unsuccessful. In August 2021, Cielo commenced a comprehensive analysis of the Aldersyde Facility by utilizing an internal engineering team, with the support of third-party engineering consultants and technical experts.

Utilizing the findings from this comprehensive analysis, the engineering design work at the Aldersyde Facility has continued since August 2021, with the focus on reducing downtime to achieve steady-state production. Engineering modification and design are being undertaken on three elements of the existing process: (i) the process infeed mixing system, (ii) reactor modifications and improvements, and (iii) the biomass waste system management (together, the "Aldersyde Project"). The Company is pleased to announce that it is on schedule to execute the following planned work for the Aldersyde Project:

Engineering design - commenced - August 2021

Initiation of equipment procurement - to commence - December 2021

Construction initiation - to commence - January 2022

Commissioning and start-up - forecast - April 2022

Benefits of Aldersyde Facility Improvements

By completing the planned work for the Aldersyde Project, Cielo anticipates realizing the following benefits at the Aldersyde Facility:

Improved Reliability - system constraints, process plugging issues and system deficiencies will be addressed.

- system constraints, process plugging issues and system deficiencies will be addressed. Steady-State Production - once current design modifications are implemented, commissioned and optimized, the Aldersyde Facility's maximum throughput level can be established, enabling Cielo to better assess the economics associated with anticipated increases in production rates.

- once current design modifications are implemented, commissioned and optimized, the Aldersyde Facility's maximum throughput level can be established, enabling Cielo to better assess the economics associated with anticipated increases in production rates. Potential Production Increases - as steady-state production is stabilized, Cielo can explore production improvements related to limitations of the Aldersyde Facility's physical area and any equipment upgrade requirements needed to support investing in an expansion of the Aldersyde Facility.

- as steady-state production is stabilized, Cielo can explore production improvements related to limitations of the Aldersyde Facility's physical area and any equipment upgrade requirements needed to support investing in an expansion of the Aldersyde Facility. Revenue Generation - as the Aldersyde Facility achieves steady-state production, Cielo will be able to produce both high sulphur content diesel and low sulphur content diesel from distillate and be in a position to generate revenue and report on product sales, volumes and revenue, along with clarity on operating costs plus revenue per litre.

Historical and Forecasted Production

Based upon the historic production level realized at the Aldersyde Facility and the expected outcomes from the Aldersyde Project, Cielo is in a position to predict the cumulative volumes of distillate production at the Aldersyde Facility during 2022 and 2023 with base, mid-case, and high-case scenarios.

The graph below illustrates the historical distillate production that Cielo produced into its storage tanks over the period from Q4 2020 to the date of this press release. The graph also illustrates the forecasted range of cumulative distillate production for 2022 and 2023 calendar years.

2020 and 2021 Actual and Forecast - The 2020 production was realized while operating the facility in a batch mode. Modifications to the Aldersyde Facility were made in early Q1 2021 where continuous production was attained but not sustained due to operational bottlenecks and plugging issues. Currently the facility continues to operate at a reduced rate as the Company addresses the System Issues.

2022 Forecast - The Q1 2021 production forecast reflects the Aldersyde Facility downtime associated with the construction activities for the Aldersyde Project. Upon completion and successful commissioning of the Aldersyde Project, a range of forecasted cumulative distillate production volumes are presented for the balance of 2022 as the Aldersyde Facility is anticipated to perform in a steady-state mode with significantly reduced downtime.

2023 Forecast - The 2023 full year forecast reflects a range of cumulative distillate production with increased volumes compared to 2022, as a result of the anticipated continuous operational and systems improvements.

Further Aldersyde Facility Enhancements

Following completion of the Aldersyde Project, Cielo will undertake a third phase of enhancements at the Aldersyde Facility, targeting upgrades to existing instrumentation, measurement and process system controls that are needed to improve production run time, reduce operating costs and optimize process management.

Cielo also anticipates completing engineering feasibility reviews for the following:

Design of a distillate fractionation system to improve the quality and value of the diesel and naphtha produced at the Aldersyde Facility and enable the production of kerosene in commercial volumes.

Design of UMO pre-treating and pre-conditioning to drive a more consistent carrier fluid for utilization in the conversion of wood waste into distillate, as well as potentially generating an additional revenue stream by flashing off the light ends of the UMO which could be captured as diesel.

Following commissioning and start-up of the Aldersyde Facility, the Company's strategy is to generate revenue streams that can assist in funding future projects and apply the operational experience and philosophy from the Aldersyde Facility to larger full-scale facilities.

Fort Saskatchewan R&D Facility Overview

Cielo previously announced the purchase of a 60-acre land and an approximately 32,000 square feet industrial building at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta (the "Site"). Cielo intends to build a R&D Facility with a capacity of 60 litres per hour ("lph") at the Site, which will guide the planning and design for its full-scale waste-to-fuel facility to be located at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta (the "Full-Scale Facility"). The R&D Facility will consist of a scaled-down version of a full-scale facility, equipped with the latest process control technology for data trending, system automation, remote monitoring and process analytics. The objectives of the R&D Facility will be to determine optimal reactor design for various biomass inputs and catalyst combinations in order to maximize distillate production, improve carbon intensity score, and determine the best operational practices (collectively, the "Data"). Given the size of the Aldersyde Facility, the Data cannot be obtained in a cost-efficient manner from the Aldersyde Facility.

Cielo previously estimated a full-scale facility would have a capacity of approximately 4,000-lph; however, the Company intends to assess the economics of establishing an even larger full-scale facility given the significant footprint offered by the Site. Since the R&D Facility has a smaller 60-lph capacity, it will be fabricated and constructed within the warehouse, while the Full-Scale Facility will be constructed on the currently vacant land.

Engineering output data from the R&D Facility will provide critical information to fully understand material balance, energy balance, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics for the system which is required for modelling and scale-up calculations. These calculations would then be provided to a qualified Engineering, Procurement and Construction ("EPC") firm capable of fabricating a full-scale, state-of-the-art, commercial waste-to-fuel facility.

R&D Facility Activities and Milestones

Current work at the Company's Fort Saskatchewan location is focused on the design, procurement and construction of the R&D Facility. The primary objective is to produce high quality engineering data for the front-end engineering design of a full-scale waste-to-fuel facility. Thereafter, the R&D Facility will undertake continuous testing of plastics, organics, railway ties, and other waste products. In 2021 the Company has made progress on meeting milestones related to construction and commissioning of the R&D Facility as follows:

Engineering design and document approval - commenced - August 2021

Detailed engineering - expected completion - November 2021

Equipment procurement - expected completion - November 2021

Construction - to commence - November 2021

Vessel and equipment fabrication - to commence - January 2022

Structural fabrication - to commence - February 2022

Commissioning and start-up - forecast - August 2022

Pilot testing and control experimentation start-up - forecast - August 2022

Expected Outcomes from the R&D Facility Testing

Immediately following commissioning of the R&D Facility, the system will be put into operation and Cielo intends to realize the following outcomes:

Testing and data collection of using wood waste as the biomass infeed will commence following the engineering testing conditions and parameters;

Obtaining a full energy balance and material balance for the conversion of wood waste to fuel;

Identification of optimum reactor design, reactor configuration, catalyst combination, product loading and operational philosophy for wood waste;

Inputting of all testing results and experiment data for process simulation modelling, calibration and tuning that is required for system scale up calculations to predict optimum process system flow and product quality; and

Data provided to the EPC firm will enable preparation of cost estimates for the fabrication of a full-scale facility and allow Cielo to provide economic metrics on a per litre basis.

R&D Facility Next Steps

Following completion of process testing with wood waste and the acquisition of sufficient data, Cielo will begin a controlled engineering approach to experiment, test and analyze plastics as the biomass infeed to produce distillate at a commercial scale. This work will include engineering design for front end process modifications and tuning of the reactor waste management system to achieve maximum yields and optimal product quality. Following testing and studies of using plastics as biomass infeed, the Company will commence additional research on commercial quantities of fuel production utilizing organic materials, railway ties, and other waste.

Full-Scale Facility Design at Fort Saskatchewan

Once testing and engineering data analysis from the R&D Facility concludes, the Company plans to commence concept work and front-end engineering design for the Full-Scale Facility. Cielo then intends to construct the Full-Scale Facility with specific capacity design, production rates, product revenue streams, operating costs, capital costs and overall economic metrics determined based on data from the R&D Facility as well as the operational characteristics observed at the Aldersyde Facility. Contemplation of the design engineering of the Full-Scale Facility is expected to commence in early 2023.

Details and timing of the Company's plans for the Aldersyde Facility, the R&D Facility and Cielo's future larger full-scale facilities are dependent on funding, which the Company anticipates obtaining through future revenues and financing as needed from time to time. Cielo remains committed to providing updates to shareholders on a timely basis as the Company continues to meet its milestones, and as new key objectives are established.

Company Contact: Chris Sabat

Email: csabat@cielows.com

Telephone: 1-(403)-348-2972

Website: www.cielows.com For further information please contact: Cielo Investor Relations

Email: investors@cielows.com

Telephone: 1-(403)-348-2972

Website: www.cielows.com RB Milestone Group LLC (USA):

Trevor Brucato, Managing Director

Email: cielo@rbmilestone.com

New York, NY & Stamford, CT

About Cielo Waste Solutions Corp.

Cielo utilizes proprietary technology that transforms certain types of landfill garbage into high-grade diesel, kerosene (aviation jet and marine fuel) and naphtha. Cielo's proven and patented technology is currently being deployed in the Company's Aldersyde Facility, where wood waste is converted into renewable fuels. Cielo's experienced management team is well positioned with strategic partners to expand aggressively across Canada, into the US and then globally. The waste/feedstock that will be used in the Company's green facilities is the world's widely available and inexpensive feedstock, including household, commercial and construction garbage, used tires, railway ties, telephone poles, as well as all types of plastic, some of which currently cannot be recycled or deposited into landfills. Cielo's goal is to manufacture waste to fuel while ridding the world of unwanted and problematic garbage.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements

This News Release contains certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "achieve", "could", "believe", "plan", "intend", "objective", "continuous", "ongoing", "estimate", "outlook", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should" or similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes.

Forward-looking statements are subject to both known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. CIELO is making forward looking statements, with respect to, but not limited to: in general, production forecast including project timelines, corporate goals and objectives associated with the Aldersyde Facility and the R&D Facility; anticipated projects and the results therefrom including production of distillate and waste derived fuel at both the Aldersyde Facility and for the R&D Facility; the objectives of the Aldersyde Facility and the purpose(s) to be served by the Aldersyde Facility; the timeline for certain milestones for the Aldersyde Facility, leading up to commissioning and start-up in March or April 2022; the generation of revenue at the Aldersyde Facility; the anticipated benefits realized at the Aldersyde Facility following the completion of the Aldersyde Project milestones; forecasted range of volumes of distillate that may be produced at the Aldersyde Facility during 2022 and 2023, including the activities during each identified period affecting such volumes; the future ability to increase efficiency by minimizing down-time and maintenance at the Aldersyde Facility based on data to be obtained from the R&D Facility; details of, and activities in connection with, the third phase of enhancements following completion of the Aldersyde Project; the intended completion of engineering feasibility studies and the substance thereof, including the design of a distillate fractionation system and its effects and the design of a UMO pre-treating and pre-conditioning system and the effects and benefits thereof, including the potential for additional revenues streams; additional purposes of the Aldersyde Facility and the effects thereof, including returns generated with respect to future facilities; the use for the Company's site in Fort Saskatchewan, including for the construction of the R&D Facility and for the future construction of a full-scale facility; the objectives associated with the R&D Facility; the design and construction of an additional full-scale facility(s) at Fort Saskatchewan or other locations; potential capacity for Cielo's future full-scale facilities; the anticipated data and related benefits from the R&D Facility and the use of such data; the ability to complete anticipated milestones and enhancements at the Aldersyde Facility and at the Fort Saskatchewan location; further research with plastics, railway ties and other waste; the anticipated timeline and milestones for the construction and commissioning of the R&D Facility; the intended outcomes to be realized from and following the commissioning of the R&D Facility; experimentation, testing and analysis to follow process testing of the R&D Facility and details of the related activities, and the subsequent commencement of utilizing other waste materials; plans related to the design of a full-scale facility in Fort Saskatchewan following testing and analysis at the R&D Facility and subsequent construction and the timing thereof; operational updates to be provided by the Company in the future generally and with respect to its facilities at Aldersyde and Fort Saskatchewan and the timing and content thereof. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are described herein. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual performance and results to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required by law, neither the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such statements to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange), nor OTCQB nor WKN, have reviewed, and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of, the content of this News Release.

SOURCE: Cielo Waste Solutions Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/672543/Cielo-Provides-Operational-Update-and-Production-Forecast-for-Aldersyde-and-Fort-Saskatchewan-Facilities
For immediate release

iSTAR Medical presentfinalresults from STAR-II European trialfor MINIject in glaucoma patients at AAO

Data from STAR-II trial show consistently outstanding performance and safety in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma up to two-years post implantation

WAVRE, Belgium - 12 November 2021: iSTAR Medical, a medtech company pioneering novel minimally-invasive implants for glaucoma surgeryTM. These data show consistently outstanding performance and a favourable safety profile in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma up to two years of follow-up. The trial results will be presented at the 125th American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) meeting in New Orleans, LA (USA), from 12 to 15 November 2021.

Two-year results from STAR-II

The two-year results from the MINIject STAR-II European trial indicated sustained, powerful efficacy and favourable safety outcomes in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma. Consistent with all MINIject trial outcomes to date, mean intraocular pressure (IOP) was remarkably reduced by 36% from 24.6mmHg at baseline to 15.5mmHg at two-year follow-up, with a 52% reduction in glaucoma medication use from 2.9 at baseline to 1.4 at trial completion. Furthermore, corneal health results in this study were outstanding, which is of pivotal importance for long-term safety.1,2,3

"The remarkable outcomes observed throughout the European trial keep adding to a significant body of evidence showing how MINIject offers a powerful, bleb-free option for the treatment of patients with primary open-angle glaucoma," said Dr I. Paul Singh, The Eye Centres of Racine & Kenosha, WI (USA), who is presenting the trial results at AAO. "This may enable more effective glaucoma management and better quality of life for patients that need lower IOP and who are uncontrolled or struggling to comply with multiple medications."

In the STAR-II trial, 29 patients with open-angle glaucoma were implanted with MINIject across eight centres in Germany, France and Spain. These patients were followed for two years post-intervention.

Three-year data from STAR-GLOBAL

In addition, interim data from the STAR-GLOBAL trial indicate that MINIject's sustained efficacy and safety results, including the limited need for reoperations, have now been maintained for up to three years, with favourable results for corneal health.

"These preliminary longer-term data on MINIject are particularly encouraging, as they show a very solid sustained performance and safety profile, which are consistent throughout this trial so far and across all trials with the device to date," said Dr Steven Vold, Vold Vision, Fayetteville, AR (USA) who is presenting the STAR-GLOBAL data at AAO.

STAR-GLOBAL is a prospective, long-term follow-up trial, which enrolls patients already implanted with MINIject and followed for two years as part of previous STAR trials, to evaluate long-term efficacy and safety up to five years.

MINIject leveragesthe advantages of the supraciliary space

Unlike MIGS devices commercially available, MINIject is implanted into the supraciliary space, a natural fluid-drainage pathway for powerful reduction of eye pressure. Unlike previous supraciliary MIGS devices, MINIject has not seen issues with scarring around the implant (fibrosis) nor substantial reductions of corneal cell health.1,2,3,4,5

"The antifibrotic properties and flexible structure of the MINIject porous proprietary STAR material are enabling a safe use of the supraciliary space while unlocking unprecedented MIGS results in patients with glaucoma. These results indicate a balance of sustained efficacy and favourable safety, and may conclusively demonstrate in time that MINIject outperforms alternative MIGS options," said iSTAR Medical CEO, Michel Vanbrabant.

The STAR-II and STAR-GLOBAL outcomes will be available as on-demand posters throughout the AAO meeting, starting from Friday 12 November.

- Ends -

For more information

Katherin Awad

Head of Marketing, iSTAR Medical

news@istarmed.com; +32 10 77 16 54

For media

Consilium Strategic Communications

Amber Fennell, Chris Welsh, Kris Lam

iSTAR@consilium-comms.com

About iSTAR Medical

iSTAR Medical SA is a medtech company developing minimally invasive ophthalmic implants for the treatment of glaucoma patients. iSTAR Medical has exclusive rights for ophthalmic use of the STAR material, developed by the University of Washington, Seattle

About MINIject

MINIjectis iSTAR Medical's revolutionary MIGS device for patients with primary open-angle glaucoma. MINIject combines the unique porous structure of its proprietary STAR material with the power offered by the supraciliary space. As a result, it is designed to enhance natural fluid outflow, reducing intraocular pressure (IOP) and the need for medication, while bio-integrating with surrounding tissue, limiting inflammation, fibrosis and subsequent complications.

About Glaucoma

Glaucomais a progressive disease and the leading cause of irreversible blindness, affecting over 100 million people globally, of which primary open-angle glaucoma is the most common form.6,7 IOP reduction, through medication or surgery, helps delay disease progression.8 Medication is generally the first line treatment, but the progressive addition of multiple drops can burden patients with side effects, compliance challenges and costs.6,8 Invasive surgery can present risks with irreversible complications.6,8 MIGS is the most promising and fastest-growing glaucoma therapy due to its enhanced safety profile.8 MINIject is potentially best-in-class for its promising long-term efficacy and safety.

1 Lass, J.H., Benetz, B.A., He, J., et al. Corneal Endothelial Cell Loss and Morphometric Changes 5 Years after Phacoemulsification with or without CyPass Micro-Stent. Am J Ophthalmol, 2019; 208: 211-218, doi: 10.1016/j/ajo.2019.07.016.

2 HORIZON data submitted to FDA: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf17/P170034B.pdf

3 iStent inject data submitted to FDA: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf17/P170043B.pdf

4 Grierson, I., Minckler, D., Rippy, M.K., et al. A novel suprachoroidal microinvasive glaucoma implant: in vivo biocompatibility and biointegration. BMC Biomed Eng, 2020; 2, 10, doi: 10.1186/s42490-020-00045-1.

5 Denis, P., Hirnei, C., Durr, G.M., et al. Two-year outcomes of the MINIject drainage system for uncontrolled glaucoma from the STAR-I first-in-human trial. Br J Ophthalmol. 2020; 0:1-6, doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2020-316888

6 Market Scope, "Glaucoma Surgical Device Market Report", August 2020. https://www.market-scope.com/pages/reports/202/2020-glaucoma-surgical-device-market-report-a-global-analysis-for-2019-to-2025-august-2020

7 Jonas JB, Aung T, Bourne RR et al. "Glaucoma". Lancet 2017; 390: 2083-93

8 European Glaucoma Society, "Terminology and Guidelines for Glaucoma", 4th Edition: B J Ophthalmol. 2017; 101:1-195, doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2016-EGSguideline.002
St. Albert, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Enterprise Group, Inc. (TSX: E) (the "Company" or "Enterprise"), a consolidator of services to the energy sector; focused primarily on specialized equipment rental; today released its Q3 2021 results.

Three months Sept 30, 2021 Three months Sept 30, 2020 Nine months

Sept 30, 2021 Nine months Sept 30, 2020 Revenue $3,916,528 $2,505,840 $13,001,357 $11,636,960 Gross margin $1,196,418 $352,221 $4,466,484 $3,407,573 Gross margin % 31% 14% 35% 29% EBITDA(1) $725,496 $11,425 $3,243,839 $2,301,716 EBITDA %(1) 19% 0% 25% 20% Net loss and comprehensive loss $(969,492) $(1,555,677) $(2,502,402) $(2,895,946) Loss per share $(0.02) $(0.03) $(0.05) $(0.06)

(1) Identified and defined under "Non-IFRS Measures".

Revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2021, was $3,916,528 compared to $2,505,840 an increase of $1,410,688. Revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, was $13,001,357 compared to $11,636,960.

Gross margin for the three months ended September 30, 2021, was $1,196,418 compared to the prior period of $352,221, an increase of $844,197. On a percentage basis, gross margin for the three months increased by 17% over the prior period to 31%. EBITDA was $725,496 for the three months ended September 30, 2021, compared to EBITDA of $11,425 in the prior period, an increase of $714,071. Gross margin for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, was $4,466,484 compared to the prior period of $3,407,573, an increase of $1,058,911. On a percentage basis, gross margin for the nine months increased by 6% over the prior period to 35%. EBITDA was $3,243,839 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, compared to of $2,301,716 in the prior period, an increase of $942,123.

Effective September 7, 2021, the Company changed lenders and replaced its bank loan facility with a $30,000,000 revolving line of credit. There are no required principal repayments until the due date, September 7, 2024. The facility is subject to certain borrowing restrictions and bears interest at the 10.00%. The facility is secured by a first charge on all the Company's assets except those secured with other lenders. The facility has an option to extend for an additional twelve months if both parties mutually agree on the terms. The flexibility of the new facility, gives the Company the ability to meet the needs of our customers more quickly through increased capital asset spending and organic growth, and to pursue acquisition targets more aggressively.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2021, the company generated cash flow from operations of $3,467,365 which is consistent with the prior period of $3,558,993. Also, for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, the Company purchased and cancelled 1,407,000 shares at a cost of $316,239, reducing the share capital account by $2,010,702.

Since the initiation of the share buyback program, the Company has purchased and cancelled 7,466,500 shares at a cost of $2,196,942 and as a result, the Company's share capital account has been reduced by $10,570,683 over the entire share buyback program. Enterprise believes its stock remains undervalued and will continue to re-invest positive cash flow to buy-back shares to enhance shareholder value.

The Company continues to utilize a combination of cash flow and debt to right-size and modernize its equipment fleet to meet customer demands. During the nine months ended September 30, 2021, the Company purchased $3,190,054 of capital assets, primarily for natural gas power generation equipment and upgrading the energy efficiency of existing equipment. The Company also sold equipment during the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and received $1,098,551 of proceeds from those sales which were re-invested in new equipment.

The downturn in the energy industry, compounded by COVID-19, has significantly reduced activity throughout Enterprise's business sector. Reduced activity from COVID-19 began at the end of the first quarter of 2020, continued throughout 2020 and into 2021. Although COVID-19 protocols have allowed Enterprise's customers to return to work, activity levels have not yet returned to pre COVID-19 levels. Enterprise's customers have also modified their behaviours and requirements due to COVID-19. Over the past few years, Enterprise has been updating and modernizing its systems and processes to be effectively used in a cloud computing environment. The Company's fleet tracking, business intelligence and finance systems have all been modernized and, as a result, Enterprise was able to work effectively and adapt to COVID-19 protocols with respect to the workplace, social distancing and working remotely.

The Company is utilizing the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy Program as in tended, keeping employees working and on payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Company continues to monitor changes to all government programs and will alter its cost structure accordingly if required. Utilizing the CEWS and CERS programs, the Company recorded $360,624 ($333,798 - September 2020) against direct costs for the three months ended September 30, 2021, and $417,890 ($700,080 - September 2020) against EBITDA for the three months ended September 30, 2021. Utilizing the CEWS and CERS programs, the Company recorded $1,620,502 ($1,082,880 - September 2020) against direct costs for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, and $1,877,242 ($1,226,917 - September 2020) against EBITDA for the nine months ended September 30, 2021.

About Enterprise Group, Inc.

Enterprise Group, Inc. is a consolidator of services to the energy sector. The Company's focus is primarily on specialized equipment rental. The Company's strategy is to acquire complementary service companies in Western Canada, consolidating capital, management, and human resources to support continued growth. More information is available at the Company's website www.enterprisegrp.ca. Corporate filings can be found on www.sedar.com.

For questions or additional information, please contact:

Leonard Jaroszuk, President & CEO, or

Desmond O'Kell, Senior Vice-President

780-418-4400

contact@enterprisegrp.ca

Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or the Company's future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Company's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. The Company's Annual Information Form and other documents filed with securities regulatory authorities (accessible through the SEDAR website www.sedar.com) describe the risks, material assumptions and other factors that could influence actual results and which are incorporated herein by reference. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be expressly required by applicable securities laws.

Non-IFRS Measures

The Company uses International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). EBITDA is not a measure that has any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and is therefore referred to as a non-IFRS measure. This news release contains references to EBITDA. This non-IFRS measure used by the Company may not be comparable to a similar measure used by other companies. Management believes that in addition to net income, EBITDA is a useful supplemental measure as it provides an indication of the results generated by the Company's principal business activities prior to consideration of how those activities are financed or how the results are taxed. EBITDA is calculated as net income excluding depreciation, amortization, interest, taxes and stock based compensation.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103269
Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. (TSE:4151, President and CEO: Masashi Miyamoto, "Kyowa Kirin") today announced that following a re-examination procedure the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) issued a negative opinion for istradefylline as an add-on treatment to levodopa (L-Dopa) based regimens in adults living with Parkinson's, experiencing end-of-dose motor fluctuations. Parkinson's is a chronic, progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects small regions in the brain that control movement, balance and posture.1 It is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disorder in the world.2

"We are disappointed by the CHMP opinion. We will take time to assess our plans for istradefylline in EMEA," said Tomohiro Sudo, Executive Officer, Head of Global Product Strategy Department at Kyowa Kirin. "We appreciate the collaboration we have had with all stakeholders and applaud the Parkinson's community for their commitment to supporting people living with this chronic, debilitating condition."

The Kyowa Kirin Group companies strive to contribute to the health and well-being of people around the world by creating new value through the pursuit of advances in life sciences and technologies. The company is committed to bringing our innovative therapies to patients.

About istradefylline

Istradefylline was developed as a novel, first-in-class non-dopaminergic, adenosine A2A receptor antagonist that reduces 'OFF' time in people living with Parkinson's through selective targeting of adenosine A2A receptors in the basal ganglia. Whilst dopaminergic treatment targets the dopamine receptors in the direct and indirect pathways to facilitate movement, istradefylline, as an add-on to L-Dopa, reduces the activity of the indirect pathway which suppresses movement.3,4 Consequently, it helps restore the balance within the basal ganglia.1,2

About Parkinson's and 'OFF' episodes

There are an estimated 10 million people in the world currently living with Parkinson's.5 Although it is classically characterised by motor symptoms (symptoms involving movement), people living with the condition also experience a large range of non-motor symptoms, which add to the complexity of living with the condition.5 Although Parkinson's is not life threatening there is currently no cure.1 Over time symptoms progress and can be unpredictable, imposing a significant impact on daily life.1 This impact can extend to caregivers, friends and family, whose own wellbeing and quality of life can deteriorate as a result.6

'OFF' episodes is used to describe the return of Parkinson's symptoms, also known as 'OFF' symptoms, and can be triggered by a variety of phenomena, including:7

Delayed onset of response to medication

Reduced duration of benefit from a medication

Reduced or no efficacy of a dose of medication

About Kyowa Kirin

Kyowa Kirin strives to create and deliver novel medicines with life-changing value. As a Japan-based Global Specialty Pharmaceutical Company with a more than 70-year heritage, we apply cutting-edge science including an expertise in antibody research and engineering, to address the needs of patients and society across multiple therapeutic areas including Nephrology, Oncology, Immunology/Allergy and Neurology. Across our four regions Japan, Asia Pacific, North America and EMEA/International we focus on our purpose, to make people smile, and are united by our shared values of commitment to life, teamwork/Wa, innovation, and integrity. You can learn more about the business of Kyowa Kirin at: https://www.kyowakirin.com/.

Kyowa Kirin International is a subsidiary of Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd.

Kyowa Kirin International

http://www.international.kyowa-kirin.com

Galabank Business Park

Galashiels, TD1 1QH

United Kingdom

References

1. European Parkinsons Disease Association. About Parkinson's, https://www.epda.eu.com/about-parkinsons/what-is-parkinsons/ [Last accessed Novemeber 2021].

2. Dorsey ER, Sherer T, Okun MS, et al. The Emerging Evidence of the Parkinson Pandemic. J Parkinsons Dis 2018; 8: S3-s8. 2018/12/26. DOI: 10.3233/jpd-181474.

3. Saki M, Yamada K, Koshimura E, et al. In vitro pharmacological profile of the A2A receptor antagonist istradefylline. Naunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol 2013; 386: 963-972. 2013/07/03. DOI: 10.1007/s00210-013-0897-5.

4. LeWitt PA, Aradi SD, Hauser RA, et al. The challenge of developing adenosine A(2A) antagonists for Parkinson disease: Istradefylline, preladenant, and tozadenant. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2020; 80 Suppl 1: S54-s63. 2020/12/23. DOI: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2020.10.027.

5. Ball N, Teo W-P, Chandra S, et al. Parkinson's Disease and the Environment. Frontiers in Neurology 2019; 10. Mini Review. DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2019.00218.

6. Armstrong MJ, Rastgardani T, Gagliardi AR, et al. The impact of off periods on persons with Parkinson's and care partners: a qualitative study. Neurol Clin Pract 2020;10.1212/CPJ.0000000000000921.

7. Freitas ME, Hess CW and Fox SH. Motor Complications of Dopaminergic Medications in Parkinson's Disease. Semin Neurol 2017; 37: 147-157. 2017/05/17. DOI: 10.1055/s-0037-1602423.

KKI/INT/IST/0142

Date of preparation: November 2021

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005565/en/

Contacts:

Contacts for Kyowa Kirin International:

Media

Sarah Evans

Email: Sarah.Evans@kyowakirin.com



Contacts for Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd.:

Media

Hiroki Nakamura

Email: media@kyowakirin.com
Natuzzi S.p.A. (NYSE: NTZ) ("Natuzzi" or the "Company") will disclose its 2021 third quarter financial results on Friday November 26, 2021, after the market closes.

The Company will host a conference call on Monday November 29, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (4.00 p.m. Italy time, or 3.00 p.m. UK time) to discuss financial results.

To join the live conference call, interested persons will need to click on the following link:

https://www.c-meeting.com/web3/join/3PQUFXRW48XTKQ

Once the meeting is officially opened on the day of the event, participants will be given the option to join the event by video or by telephone.

A replay of the call will be available from Monday November 29, 2021, 1:00 p.m. ET until Wednesday December 29, 2021. To access the replay of the conference call, interested persons need to dial +1-844-512-2921 (toll-free) for calls from U.S. and Canada, and +1-412-317-6671 for calls from other countries. The access code for the replay is: 13725051

_______________________________________________________________________________

About Natuzzi S.p.A.

Founded in 1959 by Pasquale Natuzzi, Natuzzi S.p.A., Natuzzi is one of the most renowned brands in the production and distribution of design and luxury furniture. With a global retail network of 577 mono-brand stores as of June 30, 2021, in addition to galleries, Natuzzi distributes its collections worldwide. Natuzzi products embed the finest spirit of Italian design and the unique craftmanship details of the "Made in Italy", where a predominant part of its production takes place. Natuzzi has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since May 13, 1993. Always committed to social responsibility and environmental sustainability, Natuzzi S.p.A. is ISO 9001 and 14001 certified (Quality and Environment), ISO 45001 certified (Safety on the Workplace) and FSC certified (Forest Stewardship Council).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005571/en/

Contacts:

NATUZZI INVESTOR RELATIONS

Piero Direnzo tel. +39.080.8820.812 pdirenzo@natuzzi.com

NATUZZI CORPORATE COMMUNICATION

Vito Basile (Press Office) tel. +39.080.8820.676 vbasile@natuzzi.com


NEW BRUNSWICK (dpa-AFX) - Healthcare major Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) on Friday said it plans to separate its Consumer Health business, to create a new public company. The planned organizational design for the New Consumer Health Company is expected to be complete by the end of 2022.



Alex Gorsky, Chairman and CEO of J&J, said,'. The Consumer Health business is the best way to accelerate our efforts to serve patients, consumers, and healthcare professionals, create opportunities for our talented global team, and drive profitable growth...'



The transaction is intended to qualify as a tax-free separation for U.S. federal income tax purposes. In addition, it is expected that the overall shareholder dividend will remain at least at the same level following the completion of the transaction, the company said in a statement.



The New Consumer Health Company aims to have a portfolio of brands-comprising four $1 billion megabrands and 20 brands of over $150 million- with notable positions in Self Care, Skin Health and Essential Health, which includes baby care, feminine care, wound care, and oral health.



The Consumer Health segment of J&J is expected to generate revenue of about $15 billion for full-year 2021-22 and, following the planned separation, the New Consumer Health Company targets to generate sales in over 100 countries.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

JOHNSON & JOHNSON-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
CAMBRIDGE (MASSACHUSETTS) (dpa-AFX) - Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) said the European Medicines Agency's CHMP adopted a positive opinion for the label extension of KAFTRIO in a combination regimen with ivacaftor, for the treatment of cystic fibrosis in patients ages 6 through 11 years old who have at least one F508del mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene. KAFTRIO in combination with ivacaftor is approved in the European Union for the treatment of cystic fibrosis in patients ages 12 years and older who have at least one copy of the F508del mutation in the CFTR gene. 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.
BANGALORE, India, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- FPGA Market is segmented By Type - SRAM, Antifuse, FLASH, By Application - Telecommunication, Industrial and Security, Military and Aerospace, Others. Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast 2021 - 2027. It is published in Valuates Reports under the Health Category.

In 2020, the global Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) market size was USD 5708.9 million and it is expected to reach USD 11420 million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 10.4% during 2021-2027.

Major Factors Driving The Growth Of The Fpga Market Are:

The FPGAs market is predicted to expand as the production volume and demand for telecommunications, data centers, and automotive products and solutions such as wireless baseband solutions, radio solutions, wireless modems, network processing cards, and electrical devices grow. FPGAs are increasingly being employed in data centers to offload and speed specialized services. This factor is predicted to propel the FPGA industry forward. '

The increasing need for customizable integration is expected to drive the FPGA market. FPGAs offer several advantages such as rapid prototyping, easy debugging, low cost and lower the danger of product annihilation.

Get Your Sample Today: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-32M392/FPGA_Market

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF THE FPGA MARKET

The expansion of the FPGA market is likely to be aided by the significant increase in demand for data centers as a result of the increasing incorporation of IoT in many sectors. FPGA helps data centers boost their processing performance. The growing demand for efficient computing, greater scalability, dependability, and storage, as well as the use of HPC in the cloud, are projected to propel the FPGA market forward.

The increasing application of FPGA in the telecom industry is expected to further accelerate the FPGA market growth. System designers can employ FPGAs to create silicon devices that implement their own ideas rather than relying on merchant silicon that may or may not meet their needs. When the power is turned on, most FPGAs are set up in the target system. This enables system designers to construct hardware before the FPGA logic is finalized, as well as to quickly upgrade the system to address bugs or add new features. From comprehensive system on chip (SoC) designs to simple connections between different interfaces on commercial silicon devices, FPGAs are employed in a variety of ways. FPGAs are also well-suited to low-cost applications in which security and reliability are critical.

Furthermore, the FPGA market is expected to grow due to the increased use of FPGAs as an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) resource by cloud customers. Several cloud service providers are using field programming gate arrays to speed up network encryption, deep learning, memory caching, webpage ranking, high-frequency trading, and video conversion.

Browse The Table Of Contents And List Of Figures At https://reports.valuates.com/reports/QYRE-Auto-32M392/global-field-programmable-gate-array-fpga

Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) Market Share Analysis

Based on type, the SRAM segment is expected to be the most lucrative. Because it allows for easy reconfiguration, SRAM is the most often used technology for programming FPGAs. SRAM-based FPGAs are created using the CMOS fabrication method, which allows for higher power efficiency and logic density than previous technologies, which is propelling the market forward.

Based on application, the data centers & computing segment is expected to be the most lucrative. The continued usage of high-performance computing (HPC) in cloud storage, as well as significant technological breakthroughs in the fields of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and deep learning, are driving this segment's growth.

Based on region, APAC is projected to be the most lucrative region. The increasing Internet penetration, ongoing technological advancements such as the introduction of 4G and 5G, and growing data traffic due to the rising number of technologically advanced consumer electronic devices and connected device users are all contributing to the market's growth in this region. The region has a substantial presence of major semiconductor foundries that provide manifesting services to FPGA firms. The APAC FPGA market is likely to be driven by the telecommunications, industrial, automotive, consumer electronics, and computer industries.

Inquire For Customization:

https://reports.valuates.com/request/customisation/QYRE-Auto-32M392/FPGA_Market

TOP COMPANIES IN THE FPGA MARKET

With a sales share of 36 percent in 2018, Xilinx is the world's top maker of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), followed by Intel, Microsemi, latTic, and Achronix Semiconductor Corporation. The top five businesses have a combined market share of 90% of the overall global market.

FPGA Market By Region

North America

United States



Canada

Asia-Pacific

China



Japan



South Korea



India



Southeast Asia



Australia



Rest of Asia-Pacific

Europe

Germany



France



U.K.



Italy



Russia



Nordic Countries



Rest of Europe

Latin America

Mexico



Brazil



Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

& Turkey



Saudi Arabia



UAE



Rest of MEA



FPGA Market By Company

Xilinx

Intel

Microsemi

latTic

Achronix Semiconductor Corporation

Inquire For Chapter Cost: https://reports.valuates.com/request/chaptercost/QYRE-Auto-32M392/FPGA_Market

Buy Now for Single User + Covid-19 Impact: https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Auto-32M392&lic=single-user

SUBSCRIPTION

We have introduced a tailor-made subscription for our customers. Please leave a note in the Comment Section to know about our subscription plans.

SIMILAR REPORTS :

- The global FPGA in Telecom market size is projected to reach USD 1366.7 million by 2027, from USD 960.8 million in 2020, at a CAGR of 5.1% during 2021-202

- Global FPGA Module Market Research Report 2021

- Global FPGA Accelerators Market Research Report 2021

- Global Embedded Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) Sales Market Report 2021

- Global FPGA Design Services Market Size, Status and Forecast 2021-2027

- Global FPGA and PLD Market Research Report 2021

- Global FPGA Configuration Memory Sales Market Report 2021

- Global Field Programmable Gate Array(FPGA) Development Board Sales Market Report 2021

Click Here To See Related Reports on FPGA

ABOUT US

Valuates offers in-depth market insights into various industries. Our extensive report repository is constantly updated to meet your changing industry analysis needs.

Our team of market analysts can help you select the best report covering your industry. We understand your niche region-specific requirements and that's why we offer customization of reports. With our customization in place, you can request for any particular information from a report that meets your market analysis needs.

To achieve a consistent view of the market, data is gathered from various primary and secondary sources, at each step, data triangulation methodologies are applied to reduce deviance and find a consistent view of the market. Each sample we share contains a detailed research methodology employed to generate the report. Please also reach our sales team to get the complete list of our data sources.

CONTACT US:

Valuates Reports

sales@valuates.com

For U.S. Toll-Free Call 1-(315)-215-3225

For IST Call +91-8040957137

WhatsApp: +91-9945648335

Website: https://reports.valuates.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/valuatesreports

LinkedIn - https://in.linkedin.com/company/valuatesreports

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082232/Valuates_Reports_Logo.jpg
MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / November 12, 2021 / Star8 Corp (OTC PINK:STRH) and Tempucheck are pleased announce their gold-level sponsorship of the Human Resource Association of Broward County's (HRABC) annual conference for HR professionals. The event took place on October 29th, 2021 in Hollywood Beach, Florida.

"The Human Resource Association of Broward County's annual conference is a much-anticipated event that is both motivational and educational for attendees," said Mario Diez, Chief Executive Officer of Star8 Corp., parent company of TempuCheck. "We are proud to have been gold-level sponsors for this year's event, and look forward to partnering with HRABC again in years to come."

HRABC is the professional association for Broward County's 850+ human resources specialists. They are committed to advancing the human resources profession through education, valuable networks and collaborative opportunities such as the annual HRABC conference.

This year's conference lineup included addresses from keynote speakers Jeff Nischwitz (internationally known motivational speaker) and David Horning (HR industry guru). In addition to the keynote speakers, the conference featured several breakout sessions designed to strengthen talent acquisition techniques, advise on engaging a hybrid workplace, offer employee development tools, and more. For more information about the conference, please visit the event's homepage at hrabc.org/conference2021.

About TempuCheck

A subsidiary of Star8 Corp (OTC PINK:STRH) TempuCheck is an innovative technology company creating thermal sensor and automated facial recognition solutions for businesses. Developed with an Automated Pre-Temperature (APT) screen, the facial recognition capabilities are used in a variety of ways including managing access to secured points within a public space, to scanning for signs of illness, ensuring a safe and healthy premises. For more information about TempuCheck, please visit TempuCheck.com.

About Star8 Corporation

Star8 Corporation (OTC PINK:STRH) is a publicly traded company with expertise in technology and eCommerce driven solutions. Additionally, Star8 Corp. provides sustainable marketing, technology, sales and distribution consulting for clients. Its subsidiary companies are TempuCheck and Rari Nutrition. To learn more about star8 Corp. please visit Star8Corp.com.

About the Human Resource Association of Broward County

The Human Resource Association of Broward County (HRABC) was formed in 1968 to serve as the official society for human resources professionals. Since inception, HRABC has increased its membership from 19 charter members to well over 850 members, representing Broward County's diverse spectrum of industries and company size. For more information about HRABC, please visit their website hrabc.org.

For inquiries please contact: info@star8corp.com

Investor Inquiries:

Star8 Corp.

1-866-316-0808

Safe Harbor

Statements about the Company's future expectations and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. The above information contains information relating to the Company that is based on the beliefs of the Company and/or its management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company or its management. When used in this document, the words "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plans," "projects," and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company or its management, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current view of the Company regarding future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks and uncertainties noted. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or projected. In each instance, forward-looking information should be considered in light of the accompanying meaningful cautionary statements herein. Factors that could cause results to differ include, but are not limited to, successful performance of internal plans, the impact of competitive services and pricing and general economic risks and uncertainties. The Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: TempuCheck

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/672445/TempuCheck-a-subsidiary-of-Star8-Corp-Support-the-Human-Resource-Association-of-Broward-County-with-Gold-Level-Sponsorship-of-Annual-Conference
Additionally, new in vitro data also show Brilacidin targets both viral proteins and host factors, suggesting Brilacidin would be less prone to developing resistance compared to other antivirals

WAKEFIELD, MA / ACCESSWIRE / November 12, 2021 / Innovation Pharmaceuticals (OTCQB:IPIX) ("the Company"), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced the Company is conducting full data analysis of the Phase 2 Brilacidin COVID-19 clinical trial results to support Brilacidin's potential inclusion in government-sponsored COVID-19 trials. The Company also is pleased to announce public release of new in vitro data based on extensive research by scientists at the University of Arizona and the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), showing that Brilacidin functions as a dual-acting broad-spectrum inhibitor of coronaviruses.

Topline results for the Phase 2 Brilacidin COVID-19 clinical trial (see NCT04784897) have been reported. Complete analysis of trial results already has begun, with the aim to potentially identify positive trends in the data that could support Brilacidin for inclusion in larger COVID-19 platform trials, such as the U.K.'s CTAP program and the NIH's ACTIV program. The purpose of these programs is to prioritize development of promising COVID-19 therapeutics. Some COVID-19 drug candidates that did not meet their trial's primary endpoint, for example Relief Therapeutics' aviptadil, or those that showed inconclusive results in early clinical testing (e.g., anti-IL-6 drugs), have later gone on to be included in larger platform trials based on deeper analysis of trial results.

The Company's intent, should full analysis of the Brilacidin COVID-19 trial results yield promising data, is to submit Brilacidin for inclusion in these larger COVID-19 platforms. Sufficient intravenous Brilacidin drug supply is on hand to support further clinical testing of Brilacidin in COVID-19.

Highlights of New In Vitro Research

The new Brilacidin scientific findings, accessible as a preprint at the bioRxiv link provided below, are to be submitted for peer-review publication.

Yanmei Hu, Hyunil Jo, William DeGrado, Jun Wang. Brilacidin, a COVID-19 Drug Candidate, Demonstrates Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Activity Against Human Coronaviruses OC43, 229E and NL63 Through Targeting Both the Virus and the Host Cell. bioRxiv 2021.11.04.467344; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.04.467344

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.04.467344v1.full

University of Arizona and UCSF scientists characterized the antiviral activity of Brilacidin against multiple endemic human coronaviruses (HCoVs), including HCoV-OC43, HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, and SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus, in multiple human cell lines.

Various mechanistic studies were performed to inform Brilacidin's antiviral properties, which showed Brilacidin exerts antiviral activity by interfering with viral attachment to host cells. It is theorized that positively-charged Brilacidin binds to negatively-charged Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans (HSPGs) on the host cell surface, preventing viral attachment. HSPGs are important co-receptors through which many viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, gain entry into host cells.

In addition to exhibiting this blocking property, Brilacidin was also shown to target viral proteins directly, acting through a virucidal property. Brilacidin's hydrophobic characteristic, more than its cationic one, may be more relevant here, particularly when exerting antiviral activity against enveloped viruses.

Finally, drug combination studies revealed that Brilacidin exhibited a strong synergistic effect with remdesivir against HCoV-OC43 in cell culture.

"Human coronaviruses can cause severe acute respiratory syndrome, as well as contribute to a significant portion of upper and lower respiratory tract infections observed in humans worldwide," said Jun Wang, PhD, currently Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Arizona. Dr. Wang will assume a new academic position, in January 2022, as Associate Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at Rutgers University's Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. "Brilacidin was shown in our lab testing to inhibit different endemic human coronavirus strains, in addition to SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus, by targeting viral proteins and host factors. Our work supports Brilacidin's therapeutic potential as a broad-spectrum inhibitor of coronaviruses."

"These encouraging data assembled in this scientific paper reinforce Brilacidin's antiviral properties, including a likely ability of Brilacidin to be less prone to developing resistance than other classes of antivirals. Brilacidin was shown to possess a dual-acting antiviral mechanism of action-able to target both virus and host. Also, the broad spectrum of activity against multiple coronaviruses indicates that Brilacidin remains active over a large variation in the sequence of viral proteins and encoding viral RNA," said William F. DeGrado, PhD, Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California San Francisco and Scientific Advisor to the Company.

DeGrado continued: "I look forward to investigating Brilacidin further. Small molecule therapeutics with novel antiviral mechanisms of action will always be urgently needed. Given Brilacidin exerts antiviral activity prior to infection of cells, developing Brilacidin for potential prophylactic use by targeting the nasal passageway and lungs may be a particularly appealing clinical pathway."

In September, Dr. DeGrado gave the Spiers Memorial Lecture at the 2021 Faraday Discussion, where DeGrado's and peers' seminal work to discover Brilacidin was highlighted and later published.

About Brilacidin and COVID-19

Host Defense Peptides/Proteins (HDPs), and their mimetics such as Brilacidin, increasingly are being recognized for their therapeutic potential, including an ability to prevent and treat acute viral infections. Therapeutics, including small molecules with broad-spectrum activity that can inhibit key viral functions, such as cell entry, have been identified by the Biden administration for future government funding ($11.8 billion is proposed) to help prepare for and respond to future pandemics.

Brilacidin is the only non-peptidic HDP-mimetic drug candidate to be evaluated in a clinical trial as a treatment for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 (see NCT04784897). Innovation Pharmaceuticals is developing Brilacidin for the treatment of COVID-19 under FDA Fast Track designation. A dual-acting inhibitor able to target viral proteins and host factors, while also exhibiting robust anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, Brilacidin has shown potent and consistent inhibition in vitro against coronaviruses, alphaviruses and bunyaviruses (with lab testing against other viruses also underway), supporting Brilacidin's development as a broad-spectrum antiviral. The annual global antiviral drug market is estimated to reach $44 billion by 2026.

A peer-reviewed article in Viruses supporting Brilacidin's COVID-19 treatment potential can be accessed at the link below.

Bakovic, A.; Risner, K.; Bhalla, N. (et al). Brilacidin Demonstrates Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 in Cell Culture. Viruses 2021, 13, 271; https://doi.org/10.3390/v13020271

https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/2/271/htm

Two independent Machine Learning studies identified Brilacidin as one of the most promising inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, based on Brilacidin's molecular properties. Click here to learn more.

For more details on the Company's Expanded Access policy, please visit:

https://www.ipharminc.com/expanded-access-and-compassionate-use

Alerts

Sign-up for Innovation Pharmaceuticals email alerts is available at:

http://www.ipharminc.com/email-alerts/

About Innovation Pharmaceuticals

Innovation Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IPIX) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing a world-class portfolio of innovative therapies addressing multiple areas of unmet medical need, including inflammatory diseases, cancer, infectious diseases, and dermatologic diseases.

Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 including, without limitation, statements concerning future drug development plans, statements regarding the antiviral capabilities and therapeutic potential of Brilacidin and its potential impact on SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and other viruses. Other statements regarding future product developments, including with respect to specific indications, and any other statements which are other than statements of historical fact. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause the Company's actual results and experience to differ materially from anticipated results and expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements. The Company has in some cases identified forward-looking statements by using words such as "anticipates," "believes," "hopes," "estimates," "looks," "expects," "plans," "intends," "goal," "potential," "may," "suggest," and similar expressions. Among other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements are risks related to conducting pre-clinical studies and clinical trials and seeking regulatory and licensing approvals for Brilacidin and Kevetrin in the United States and other jurisdictions, including without limitation that the Company's compounds may not successfully complete pre-clinical or clinical testing, or be granted regulatory approval to be sold and marketed in the United States or elsewhere; prior test results may not be replicated in future studies and trials; the Company's need for, and the availability of, substantial capital in the future to fund its operations and research and development, including the amount and timing of the sale of shares of common stock under securities purchase agreements; and the Company's licensee(s) may not successfully complete pre-clinical or clinical testing and the Company will not receive milestone payments. A more complete description of these and other risk factors is included in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Many of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the information currently available to the Company on the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly the results of any revisions to any such forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by applicable law or regulation.

INVESTOR AND MEDIA CONTACTS

Innovation Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Leo Ehrlich

info@ipharminc.com

SOURCE: Innovation Pharmaceuticals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/672527/Innovation-Pharmaceuticals-Conducting-Full-Data-Analysis-of-Phase-2-Brilacidin-COVID-19-Trial-Results-to-Support-Brilacidins-Potential-Inclusion-in-Government-Sponsored-COVID-19-Trials
Companies Increasing Choice and Convenience for Global Customer Base

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, and Mastercard, a global technology company in the payments industry, have bolstered their decade-long strategic partnership. The deepened partnership expands Mastercard Send integration into Western Union's global money movement network, and also Mastercard's Cross-Border Services delivery via Western Union Business Solutions. It represents the latest iteration of Western Union's digital partnership strategy to become the world's leading global financial network.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005435/en/

Western Union/Mastercard partnership (Graphic: Business Wire)

The partnership expansion will broaden choice for both Western Union's consumers and Mastercard's business clients.

First, by integrating Mastercard Send, Western Union is broadening payout possibilities for its U.S. domestic money transfer receivers. This enables beneficiaries of Western Union transfers in the U.S. to re-direct any U.S. domestic transaction to a selected bank card. The service is available to load funds on any debit card network within the U.S., with money delivered in minutes to the receiver's debit-card-linked account.

Second, Western Union customers in 16 European markets1 will now have the option to leverage Mastercard Send to send money transfers, in near real time, directly to their receiver's Mastercard debit card, increasing transaction speed and simplifying the receive process. The service is live today with receive destinations including Russia, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Croatia and Kosovo. More countries on both the send and receive sides will be added in the coming months.

In addition, Mastercard will integrate into Western Union Business Solutions' global network, to pay out funds for Mastercard's Cross-Border Services, enhancing the offering to existing bank and trade network relationships.

"We're very proud of the relationship that we continue to build with Mastercard, and the role we play for them as a trusted partner and provider of innovative cross-border payment solutions," said Gabriella Fitzgerald, President, Americas Region at Western Union. "This is just one more example of the world's leading financial services companies coming to Western Union for our technology, expertise and the power of our omni-channel global financial network to meet their cross-border money movement and payments needs."

"Western Union is a critical partner for Mastercard as together we focus on digitizing and modernizing the movement of money for consumers and businesses," added Leigh Amaro, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Partnerships at Mastercard. "Combined, our networks offer unique global reach, for efficient and secure transactions."

WU-G

About Western Union

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments. Western Union's platform provides seamless cross-border flows and its leading global financial network bridges more than 200 countries and territories and over 130 currencies. We connect businesses, financial institutions, governments, and consumers through one of the world's widest reaching networks, accessing billions of bank accounts, millions of digital wallets and cards, and approximately 600,000 retail locations. Western Union connects the world to bring boundless possibilities within reach. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.

About Mastercard

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all. www.mastercard.com

1 Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Spain

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005435/en/

Contacts:

Claire Treacy/ Claire.Treacy@westernunion.com
Company Partners with Flow Capital Corp. to Power Strategic Acquisitions

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Kovo HealthTech Corporation (TSXV: KOVO) (the "Company" "Kovo") - a leader in healthcare Billing-as-a-Service - announced today it has entered into an agreement (the "Loan Agreement") to borrow up to approximately CAD$8.8 million from Flow Capital Corp. ("Flow") to fund the Company's ongoing acquisition growth strategy.

Accelerating Growth with Minimal Dilution

"We're excited to move forward with our partners at Flow to continue to deliver on our acquisition and growth model, while minimizing dilution for shareholders," explains Kovo CEO Greg Noble, who adds the Company's consistent cash flow and proven ability to add immediate accretive growth through "roll-up" acquisitions means the Company can manage short-term debt agreements as a way to accelerate its growth. Earlier this month, Kovo HealthTech Corporation announced an agreement to acquire The Cvikota Company, a Wisconsin-based medical billing specialist firm that has been in business for more than 50 years, providing SaaS-style billing services for physicians, health providers and healthcare clinics across the United States with offices in Wisconsin and Tennessee.

The Loan Agreement with Flow is structured as a non-revolving senior secured multi-draw term facility to fund acquisitions. Under the terms of the Agreement, up to US$7 million, or approximately CAD$8.8 million (the "Amount") may be loaned to Kovo in a series of draws. The first draw will be under CAD$2 million, (the "First Tranche Loan"). Pursuant to the First Tranche Loan, the Company will issue to the lender 2,133,943 warrants to acquire common shares of the Company ("Warrants") at an exercise price of CAD$0.35 per common share. The repayment terms are interest-only, and in the range of 15 to 16 per cent for the term of the loan with a balloon payment after 36 months from the first tranche being drawn and are subject to certain financial covenants. This transaction is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

About Kovo HealthTech Corporation and US Healthcare Billing-as-a-Service

Kovo HealthTech Corporation is a growing healthcare technology company that specializes in Billing-as-a-Service offering SaaS-style recurring revenue contracts and software for US healthcare clinics, hospitals and private practices. Kovo helps healthcare providers digitally track and manage complex patient care registration, services, billing and payments in a seamless way, using its proprietary OneRev technology platform. By offering effective billing practices and technology through long-term SaaS-style contracts, Kovo helps healthcare practitioners focus on offering quality care. To learn more about Kovo and to keep up-to-date on Kovo news, visit www.kovo.co.

For more information:

Greg Noble, CEO

investors@kovo.co

1-866-558-6777

Debra Quinn

deb@kovo.co

1-866-558-6777

Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking information") concerning the Company and its subsidiaries within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to the future financial outlook and anticipated events or results of the Company and may include information regarding the Company's financial position, business strategy, growth strategies, acquisition prospects and plans, addressable markets, budgets, operations, financial results, taxes, dividend policy, plans and objectives. Particularly, information regarding the Company's expectations of future results, performance, achievements, prospects or opportunities or the markets in which the Company operates is forward-looking information. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects", "budgets", "scheduled", "estimates", "outlook", "forecasts", "projects", "prospects", "strategy", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", or "will" occur. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances.

Many factors could cause the Company's actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including, without limitation, those listed in the "Risk Factors" section of the final prospectus of the Company dated May 26, 2021. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results, performance, or achievements could vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

Forward-looking information, by its nature, is based on the Company's opinions, estimates and assumptions in light of management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that the Company currently believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. Those factors should not be construed as exhaustive. Despite a careful process to prepare and review forward-looking information, there can be no assurance that the underlying opinions, estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking information. Although the Company bases its forward-looking information on assumptions that it believes were reasonable when made, which include, but are not limited to, assumptions with respect to the Company's future growth potential, results of operations, future prospects and opportunities, execution of the Company's business strategy, there being no material variations in the current tax and regulatory environments, future levels of indebtedness and current economic conditions remaining unchanged, the Company cautions readers that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that our actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and the development of the industry in which the Company operates may differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. In addition, even if the Company's results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and the development of the industry in which it operates are consistent with the forward-looking information contained in this press release, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other risk factors not presently known to the Company or that the Company presently believes are not material that could also cause actual results or future events to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which speaks only as of the date made (or as of the date they are otherwise stated to be made). Any forward-looking statement that is made in this press release speaks only as of the date of such statement.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103239
Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - KWESST Micro Systems Inc. (TSXV: KWE) (OTCQB: KWEMF) ("KWESST" or the "Company") today announced that General Dynamics Land Systems ("GDLS") has selected KWESST's Phantom electronic battlefield decoy as part of its ongoing efforts to develop a next-generation multi-domain mobile capability at the tactical level.

Over the next eighteen months, the KWESST engineering team will be working in close collaboration with GDLS to support readying a prototype vehicle with PhantomTM on board for trials by their U.S. military customer in the first part of 2023. The PhantomTM capability will be designed to meet evolving Electro-Magnetic Spectrum Operations ("EMSO") tactics, techniques, and procedures to be employed by vehicle operators in an RF contested environment.

KWESST stated that should GDLS be the successful bidder for the planned follow-on production program, and include the PhantomTM, the potential value to KWESST could be USD $40 million or more, depending on the number of PhantomTM units per vehicle.

"Today's announcement represents an important validating milestone and significant potential order flow for KWESST, with multi-year visibility," said Jeff MacLeod, KWESST founder, President and CEO.

The Company added that the U.S. military customer is at the forefront of thinking as it re-aligns to an operating environment in which EMSO capability is critical to operational superiority against peer and near-peer adversaries. "A capability like Phantom is a force multiplier," said MacLeod. "It is a programmable radio frequency ("RF") device that can mimic the electronic communications of NATO forces, thus fooling adversaries as to their location. As well, it can detect and display the RF signatures of both adversaries and friendly forces, thereby enabling reconnaissance patrols to plan and train for EMSO operations for maximum effect."

On October 4th KWESST's announced that it was in advanced negotiations with a global defense contractor to provide PhantomTM units as part of the contractor's tender for armored vehicles to a large NATO customer. "We are pleased to confirm that these negotiations were with GDLS and that we have now entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with them, leading to today's announcement," concluded Mr. MacLeod.





ATAK (Android Team Awareness Kit)



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7366/103196_df324f4bb41e7a8f_002full.jpg

As described in the Company's October 4th press release, the opportunity confirmed today is one of several in progress with NATO customers regarding PhantomTM as various end users pursue programs to create EMSO capability at the tactical level.

About GDLS

General Dynamics Land Systems is a global leader in designing, engineering, producing, supporting and sustaining tracked and wheeled military equipment, with military customers around the world.

https://www.gdls.com/

About KWESST

KWESST develops and commercializes breakthrough next-generation tactical systems that meet the requirements of security forces and personal defense for overmatch capability against adversaries. The company's current portfolio of unique proprietary offerings include its unique non-lethal Low Energy Cartridge (LEC) system with application across all segments of the non-lethal market, including law enforcement and personal defence. KWESST is also involved in the digitization of tactical forces for shared situational awareness and targeting with its signature TASCSTM (Tactical Awareness and Situational Control System) for real-time awareness and targeting information from any source (including drones) streamed directly to users' smart devices and weapons. Other KWESST products include counter-measures against threats such as drones, lasers and electronic detection. These include the autonomous GreyGhostTM soldier-portable micro drone missile system that defends against small hostile drones including swarms using high-speed kinetic impact; a Ground Laser Defence system to counter the emerging threat of weaponized lasers against personnel and the PhantomTM electronic battlefield decoy system to mask the electromagnetic signature of friendly forces with decoy signatures at false locations to deceive and confuse adversaries. These systems can operate stand-alone or integrate seamlessly with OEM products and battlefield management systems. The Company is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, with representative offices in Washington, DC, London, UK and Abu Dhabi, UAE. KWESST trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol KWE and on the U.S. OTCQB under the symbol KWEMF.

Contact: Jason Frame, Investor Relations: frame@kwesst.com

For more information, please visit https://kwesst.com/

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the expected size of the PhantomTM contract should GDLS win the tender for the armored vehicles . Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties. 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. KWESST disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

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 news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103196
The "Europe Carbon Fiber Market Forecast to 2027 COVID-19 Impact and Regional Analysis by Raw Material and End Use Industry" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The European carbon fiber market is expected to grow from US$ 721.82 million in 2019 to US$ 1,504.51 million by 2027; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 9.8% from 2020 to 2027.

The escalating usage of carbon fiber in the wind energy industry is bolstering the growth of the market in Europe. Growing demand for renewable resources has led to a surge in the installation for wind farms, with large tracts of land and coastal areas devoted to the operation of wind turbines.

Wind turbine manufacturers strive to produce more efficient and longer blades. Advanced composite materials such as carbon fiber are becoming a major part of the construction of wind turbines, specifically the blades. According to the studies conducted by companies operating in the market, the longer the blades on a turbine, the more energy it generates.

Carbon fibers play a crucial role in the wind energy industry. Large blades are typically designed for stiffness and deflection, rather than taking material strength into consideration. Carbon fibers, if used in the turbines, enable high stiffness characteristic that reduces blade deflection, allowing a larger tower diameter for a given blade-to-tower clearance. Carbon fibers are added in the spar cap, which is the backbone of the blade. These fibers are also considered an effective alternative to the glass fibers used in wind turbines, as they make the blades thinner, stiffer, and lighter.

Furthermore, they have relatively low damage tolerance, compressive strength, and ultimate strain. Thus, carbon fiber has come up as an impactful technology for turbine manufacturers such as Vestas Wind Systems A/S and Gamesa Technology Corp. These companies use carbon fiber in select structural parts of the blades. Lighter blades require less robust turbine and tower components, and hence, the cascading cost savings justify the additional cost of carbon.

The rising demands from the automotive and aerospace applications are among the other factors expected to positively influence the demand for carbon fiber in Europe during the forecast period.

In Europe, currently, the UK and Russia are the hardest-hit countries due to the COVID-19 outbreak pandemic. It is suffering an economic hit due to the lack of revenues generated from various industries, as the country recorded the highest number of COVID-19 confirmed cases followed by France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. Many member states have implemented drastic measures and travel restrictions, including partially closing their borders. These measures are impacting the growth of the European carbon fiber market.

The European carbon fiber market is segmented on the basis of raw material, end-use industry, and country. Based on raw material, the market is bifurcated into PAN and Pitch. In 2019, the PAN segment held a larger market share. Based on end-user industry, the European carbon fiber market is segmented into automotive, aerospace and defense, construction, sporting goods, wind energy, and others. The market for the aerospace and defense segment is expected to grow fastest during the forecast period.

The overall European carbon fiber market size has been derived using both primary and secondary sources. To begin the research process, exhaustive secondary research has been conducted using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the market.

The process also serves the purpose of obtaining an overview and forecast for the European carbon fiber market with respect to all the segments pertaining to the region. Also, multiple primary interviews have been conducted with industry participants and commentators to validate the data, as well as to gain more analytical insights into the topic.

Reasons to Buy

Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.

The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the European carbon fiber market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long-term strategies.

Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.

Scrutinize in-depth the market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.

Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.

Key Topics Covered:

Europe Carbon Fiber Market Key Industry Dynamics

Key Market Drivers

Surge in demands from automotive and aerospace applications

Escalating usage of carbon fiber in wind energy industry

Key Market Restraints

Increase in costs and other disadvantages associated with carbon fibers

Key Market Opportunities

Escalating usage of carbon fiber in the sporting goods industry

Key Future Trends

Rise in use of carbon in 3D printing

Impact Analysis

Carbon Fiber Europe Market Analysis

Europe Carbon Fiber Market Analysis by Raw Material

Europe Carbon Fiber Market Analysis By End-Use Industry

Country Analysis Of Europe Carbon Fiber Market

Overview Impact of COVID-19

Europe: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

Industry Landscape

Merger Acquisition

Product news

Investment Scenario

Company Profiles

Key Facts

Business Description

Products and Services

Financial Overview

SWOT Analysis

Key Developments

Companies Mentioned

DowAksa

Formosa Plastic Corporation

Hexcel Corporation

Hyosung Corporation

Kureha Corporation

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation

SGL Carbon

Solvay

Teijin Limited

Toray Industries,Inc

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ihmcu5

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005607/en/

Contacts:

ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

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
THUNDER BAY, ON / ACCESSWIRE / November 12, 2021 / Metals Creek Resources Corp. (the "Company" or "Metals Creek")(TSXV:MEK)(OTCQB:MCREF)(FRA:M1C1) is pleased to announce the Company has initiated a Deep Section Induced Polarization (IP) Survey on the Ogden Gold Project in Timmins Ontario. The Ogden Gold Project is a 50/50 Joint Venture with Newmont whereas MEK is the operator.

The Deep Section IP survey will target the Naybob South, Thomas Ogden (TOG) and Thomas Ogden West (TOGW) Zones to help further define down-plunge mineralization associated with fold structures at TOG and TOGW as well as further defining the plunge direction of known sulfide mineralization within Naybob South.

The company recently completed six diamond drill holes using a specialized oriented core logging tool focused on obtaining structural orientation data in the Ogden area mineralized zones. (See MEK news release dated August 12, 2021). The holes are in the process of being logged and sampled with special emphasis on acquiring core orientation data on relevant structures, veins and mineralization. Drilling has paused until assay results from these holes have been received and structural data has been interpreted. Results from a recently completed Spatiotemporal Geochemical Hydrocarbon (SGH) survey are also pending. Once this information, along with the Deep Section IP Survey data has been received and compiled a comprehensive drill program will be initiated targeting the projected down-dip and on-strike trends.

Alexander (Sandy) Stares states, "The Metals Creek team is excited to have exploration initiated at its two flagship properties at the same time as the Ogden surveys coincide with the start-up of drilling at the Dona Lake project. This should prove to be an exciting Fall/Winter for Metals Creek shareholders as we move forward on both Dona Lake and Ogden, which will ensure a steady news flow over the next six months."

Wayne Reid, P. Geo and a Director of the Corporation and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for this release, and supervised the preparation of the information forming the basis for this release.

About Metals Creek Resources Corp.

Metals Creek Resources Corp. is a junior exploration company incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario, is a reporting issuer in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, and has its common shares listed for trading on the Exchange under the symbol "MEK". Metals Creek has earned a 50% interest in the Ogden Gold Property from Newmont Corporation, including the past producing Naybob Gold mine, located 6 km south of Timmins, Ontario and has an 8 km strike length of the prolific Porcupine-Destor Fault (P-DF). In addition, Metals Creek has signed an agreement with Newmont Corporation, where Metals Creek can earn a 100% interest in the past producing Dona Lake Gold Project in the Pickle Lake Mining District of Ontario.

Metals Creek also has multiple quality projects available for option in Ontario and Newfoundland which can be viewed on the Corporation's website. Parties interested in seeking more information about properties available for option can contact the Corporation at the number below.

Additional information concerning the Corporation is contained in documents filed by the Corporation with securities regulators, available under its profile at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Alexander (Sandy) Stares, President and CEO

Metals Creek Resources Corp

telephone: (709)-256-6060

fax: (709)-256-6061

email: astares@metalscreek.com

www.MetalsCreek.com

Twitter.com/MetalsCreekRes

Facebook.com/MetalsCreek

SOURCE: Metals Creek Resources Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/672454/Metals-Creek-Initiates-Deep-Section-IP-Program-on-the-Ogden-Gold-Project
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Tower Resources Ltd. (TSXV: TWR) ("Tower" or the "Company") is pleased to report that infill till sampling on the exceptionally strong gold grain anomaly that Tower identified in May (see press release dated August 10, 2021) near Dominic Lake on the Company's Rabbit North porphyry Cu-Au property near Kamloops, B.C. (Fig. 1) has transformed the anomaly into a classic gold dispersal train and resolved the probable bedrock source of the gold sufficiently for an initial diamond drill test.

Dominic Lake Dispersal Train

In the May reconnaissance survey, two 10 kg till samples, Nos. 058 and 059 (Fig. 1) collected 200 m apart on a line across the southeast glacial ice flow path 200 m northwest of Dominic Lake and 1 km south of the highly prospective Durand Stock, yielded exceptionally strong, 617 and 540-grain gold anomalies. In October, 24 infill samples including 2 duplicate samples were collected from 22 sites 100 m apart along this line and on four parallel lines every 200 m up-ice to the northwest for a total distance of 800 m. Remarkably, the samples from 20 of the 22 sites contained more than 200 gold grains, with five exceeding 500 grains (Fig. 2). Together these and the two earlier samples define the strongest and most consistent gold grain dispersal train ever identified on a porphyry Cu-Au project in British Columbia, suggesting that the source mineralization is both substantial and unusually gold rich.

Samples collected along the northwest-southeast trending axis of the dispersal train typically contain 300-700 gold grains while those for 150 m to either side of the axis typically contain 150-300 grains for a total defined width of 300 metres (Fig. 2). By comparison, the peak gold response obtained from a very similar till survey performed by the federal and provincial governments at the Mount Polley open pit mine (past production of 118.8 million tonnes at 0.227% Cu and 0.277 g/t Au) was only 105 grains.

The dispersal train appears to narrow up-ice as expected but neither the total number of gold grains per sample nor the proportion of pristine grains to glacially deformed grains increases systematically up the train. This suggests that instead of having a point source at the head of the train the gold grains are derived from an elongate to linear mineralized zone that is oriented parallel to and directly underlies the dispersal train. The consistently high number of gold grains along the train further implies that the mineralized zone is several hundred metres long and is well mineralized throughout its length. A preliminary diamond drill test is planned as soon as a suitable drill can be secured.

The dispersal train is situated on a till plain that slopes gently southeast toward Dominic Lake in sympathy with the southeast sloping surface of the underlying bedrock. The thickness of the till on this plain is known to be approximately 20 metres. That so many gold grains were elevated 20 m to the surface of the till after such a short distance of glacial transport is probably due to the bedrock slope being downhill in the direction of ice flow, a relationship that is also observed at the large Blackwater gold deposit northwest of Kamloops.

The known Chrysocolla Zone, a Cu-Au zone with a central Au subzone, is only 300 m north of the northernmost line of till samples collected in October (Figs. 2, 3). The mineralized zone trends southeast parallel to the gold grain dispersal train and is only 150 m northeast across-ice from the axis of the train. The closest of 17 historical diamond drill holes on the Chrysocolla Zone intersected a 133 m mineralized interval averaging 0.19% Cu and 0.31 g/t Au, while one hole in the Au subzone returned 10 m of 12.5 g/t Au.

While the Chrysocolla Zone is close to the dispersal train, its topographic and geologic settings (Figs. 2, 3) are very different from those of the train. The Chrysocolla mineralization is hosted by the Durand Stock. It crops out on a bare ridge that stands 30 m above the surface of the adjacent till plain on which the dispersal train is located, and 50 m above the bedrock beneath the train which appears to be mainly of volcanic rather than intrusive origin.

The abrupt change in elevation and geology between the Dominic Lake dispersal train and Chrysocolla Zone suggests that they are separated by a southeast striking, train-parallel fault and thus that the Chrysocolla Zone did not contribute any gold grains to the dispersal train. However, the Au subzone of the Chrysocolla Zone is hosted by a shear zone having the same southeast strike as the dispersal train and may be responsible for a second, much narrower gold grain peak in Samples 093, 142 and 219 immediately east of the Dominic Lake train (Fig. 2).

If the main source of the Dominic Lake dispersal train is a porphyry Cu-Au zone rather than a shear-hosted Au zone, the host till would have contained high concentrations of Cu-sulphide grains in addition to the observed gold grains before it underwent sulphide-destructive post-glacial weathering. Most of the leached Cu appears to have been eliminated from the soil profile because the known Cu-Au showings in the Durand Stock (Fig. 3) are poorly reflected in Cu analyses from historical soil geochemical surveys that covered the stock.

Reconnaissance Samples

In addition to the 24 infill till samples, 79 samples were collected at a reconnaissance spacing similar to that used the inaugural May survey of the Core Claims on the Durand Stock (Fig. 1) and adjoining Southern Extension claims to the south. The objective of the reconnaissance sampling is to locate gold grain dispersal trains that are larger and stronger than those associated with the known Cu-Au zones in the Durand Stock and thus indicative of larger and/or higher grade Cu-Au deposits that extend to surface and have a high potential for development by open pit methods.

Most of the new samples were collected on the Western Extension claims west of the stock but a few were collected 6-8 km further north on the Northern Extension claims. The samples have not yet been processed for gold grains due to a backlog at the laboratory.

Methods and Qualified Person

As in the inaugural till survey in May, Overburden Drilling Management Ltd. (ODM) planned and executed the till survey and is processing the samples for gold grains at its heavy indicator mineral laboratory in Ottawa, Ontario.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Stuart Averill, P.Geo., a Director of the Company, Chairman of ODM and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Tower Resources

Tower is a Canadian based mineral exploration company focused on the discovery and advancement of economic mineral projects in the Americas. The Company's key exploration assets, both in B.C., are the Nechako gold-silver project near Artemis' Blackwater project and the Rabbit North copper-gold porphyry project located between the New Afton and Highland Valley Copper mines.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Tower Resources Ltd.

Joe Dhami, President and CEO

(778) 996-4730

www.towerresources.ca

Reader Advisory

This news release may contain statements which constitute "forward-looking information", including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company, its directors, or its officers with respect to the future business activities of the Company. The words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future business activities and involve risks and uncertainties, and that the Company's future business activities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, fluctuations in market prices, successes of the operations of the Company, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such information will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking information except as required under the applicable securities laws.

Neither 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.





Figure 1 - Gold grain abundance per 10 kg of till over and near the Durand Stock as determined from the May till survey. Samples 058 and 059 yielded 617 and 540 gold grains, respectively.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5023/103205_348817da44800ac8_002full.jpg





Figure 2 - Gold grain abundance per 10 kg in the Dominic Lake dispersal train. Note the apparent presence of a second, narrower dispersal train to the east of Samples 093, 219 and 142 in line with the Chrysocolla Zone.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5023/103205_348817da44800ac8_003full.jpg





Figure 3 - Location of the Dominic Lake gold grain dispersal train relative to the known Chrysocolla Zone. This zone contains both porphyry Cu-Au and shear-hosted Au subzones. While close to the dispersal train, it is 50 m higher in elevation than the bedrock surface beneath the dispersal train.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5023/103205_348817da44800ac8_004full.jpg

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103205
New collaboration will redefine how businesses access and implement intelligent automation at hyper-scale

LONDON, and AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Prism (AIM: PRSM), a global pioneer and a market leader in intelligent automation, and Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) today announced a global, multiyear strategic collaboration agreement to transform how businesses provision intelligent automation.

Expanding on a wide range of automation provided by both companies to date, such as Blue Prism Service Assist, which gives customers a 360-degree view of all customer interactions in the contact center, Blue Prism will build software as a service (SaaS) offerings on AWS whilst working closely with the AWS Intelligent Automation team to increase the intelligence and accessibility of Blue Prism's digital robots. This will allow the digital robots to benefit from the broad and deep capabilities available from the Amazon Machine Learning (Amazon ML) stack.

As a part of this collaboration, Blue Prism will accelerate its digital robots' integrations with AWS applications and services, including AWS's omnichannel cloud contact center, Amazon Connect; AWS productivity applications, such as Amazon Chime; and AWS artificial intelligence and Amazon ML services, such as Amazon Lex and Amazon Transcribe. Both organizations will align to create workloads supporting industry-specific use cases that drive proven customer business benefits.

The Blue Prism On Demand offering, available in AWS Marketplace in 2022, will provide one of the industry's first on-demand intelligent automation solutions portfolios available through a consumption-based pricing model. This new offering will enable organizations to assess their intelligent automation needs, unlock value and ROI across business processes, and scale across the enterprise easier than ever before.

For example, Sysco, a global foodservice distribution company, is now able to automate the processing of inbound customer orders received by digital fax by using Amazon Textract, which helps automatically extract printed text, handwriting, and data from any document. It's been so effective at removing order entry errors that Sysco's staff no longer have to use overtime to correct them. Sysco's automation program is realizing benefits like this across the business, with 60 digital robots that collectively process 6.2 million transactions and return more than 250,000 work hours to the business.

"As an AWS and Blue Prism customer, our cloud strategy was a critical lynchpin to help scale our automation initiatives. Automation had become a critical need almost overnight and in every area of our enterprise. It was time for us to put what we had planned and theorized into action," said Kim Meredith, Business Technology Lead, CoE at Sysco.

"The world and the workplace are rapidly changing, and there's enormous opportunity for organizations to use intelligent automation technology to enhance productivity, improve performance and reimagine the way their business operates," said Terry Walby, Chief Executive for Blue Prism Ventures. "The collaboration with Amazon Web Services will allow us to further enhance our ability to deliver intelligent automation solutions to organizations around the world seamlessly, on demand and at large or international scale."

"This relationship will give customers even greater access to intelligent automation solutions that can accelerate their business transformation goals," said Madhu Raman, Worldwide Head of Intelligent Automation at AWS. "Joint customers will have an extensive portfolio of real-world automation capabilities at their fingertips, including business process improvements. Customers will also benefit from more agile and flexible cloud-based contact center solutions that combine our technologies."

The increased availability of Blue Prism intelligent automation solutions on the cloud comes at an important time for customers across all sectors. Today, 92% of decision makers see robotic process automation (RPA) as important for driving digital transformation, and 83% agree that RPA and/or automation is essential for their business to remain competitive. (Knowledge Workers & IT Decision Makers on RPA and Automation, 2020).

Learn more about Blue Prism's growing number of solutions on AWS.

Notes to Editors

Source:

Knowledge Workers & IT Decision Makers on RPA and Automation, Sapio Research, April 2020

About Blue Prism

Blue Prism is a global leader in intelligent automation for the enterprise, transforming the way work is done. At Blue Prism, we have users in over 170 countries in more than 2,000 businesses, including Global 2000 and public sector organizations, that are creating value with new ways of working, unlocking efficiencies, and returning millions of hours of work back into their businesses. Our digital workforce is smart, secure, scalable and accessible to all; freeing up humans to re-imagine work. To learn more visit www.blueprism.com and follow us on Twitter @blue_prism and on LinkedIn.

 2021 Blue Prism Limited. "Blue Prism", the "Blue Prism" logo and Prism device are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Blue Prism Limited and its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1686928/Blue_Prism_AWS_Relationship.jpg
Press contact:

Victoire Grux

Tel.:+33 6 04 52 16 55

E-mail:victoire.grux@capgemini.com

Stockholm (Sweden) and Paris (France),November 12, 2021 - In support of its long-term commitment to innovation and technology,Capgeminiannounces today a three-year global partnership with Nobel Prize Outreachto supportinnovation and science, in line with Alfred Nobel's vision and legacy to honor achievements "for the greatest benefit to humankind"



Laura Sprechmann, CEO of Nobel Prize Outreach,Aiman Ezzat, CEO of Capgemini andVidar Helgesen, Executive Director, Nobel Foundationduring the signing of the partnership on November 12,2021 in Stockholm.

 Dan Lepp Nobel Prize Outreach

Capgemini joins the select group of Nobel International Partners, five companies that are all fueled by the same commitment and passion to share knowledge and excellence globally, to inspire people across borders and generations to engage in science, and to shed light on some of the greatest challenges of our time.

"Capgemini and Nobel Prize Outreach share the same vision of innovation as the foundation of a more sustainable and inclusive future for all," says Aiman Ezzat, CEO of Capgemini. "I amlooking forward to this opportunity to us joining forces to support research and innovation, to inspire more people all over the world, and turn ideas into action."

"This partnership with Capgemini will allow the ideas and knowledge that have been recognized and awarded by the Nobel Prize to reach a wider audience," says Laura Sprechmann, CEO of Nobel Prize Outreach. "To take on our time's greatest challenges we need to strengthen the ties between the business community, policy makers and the science community."

The Nobel International Partner program is run by Nobel Prize Outreach which role is to spread knowledge about Nobel Prize-awarded achievements and stimulate interest in science, literature and peace in line with Alfred Nobel's vision and legacy. The organization reaches a global audience of millions through its high quality productions within broadcast and digital media which includes the official Nobelprize.orgwebsite and podcast, the Nobel Prize Concert, as well as a series of intercontinental, inspirational lecture events featuring Nobel Prize laureates.

As a Nobel International Partner until at least 2024, Capgemini will leverage its deep expertise in innovation and technology to support a rich program of outreach events across the globe comprising in-person and digital formats. In particular, these include the Nobel Prize Dialogues - regular events that bring Nobel Prize laureates, scholars, students, inventors, decision makers and other great thinkers together with the public, to discuss solutions to some of the world's most pressing issues.

These events aim to promote fact-based decision-making, stimulate dialogue and inspire students, researchers, and decision makers worldwide to build an inclusive and sustainable future fostered by innovation. This exclusive partnership embodies Capgemini's focus on supporting world-class education and training and to contribute to the emergence of the world leaders and talents of tomorrow. The next Nobel Prize Dialogue will happen in Latin America on November 16. Entitled "United by Science", this session will bring together five Nobel Prize laureates and 80 students from across the Latin America Region and the Caribbean, and will explore how science and scientists can most effectively make a positive impact on society. This online eventwill be accessible publicly.

About Capgemini

Capgemini is a global leader in partnering with companies to transform and manage their business by harnessing the power of technology. The Group is guided everyday by its purpose of unleashing human energy through technology for an inclusive and sustainable future. It is a responsible and diverse organization of over 300,000 team members in nearly 50 countries. With its strong 50-year heritage and deep industry expertise, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to address the entire breadth of their business needs, from strategy and design to operations, fuelled by the fast evolving and innovative world of cloud, data, AI, connectivity, software, digital engineering and platforms. The Group reported in 2020 global revenues of 16 billion.

Get The Future You Want | www.capgemini.com

Disclaimer: Nobel Prize Outreach is not directly or indirectly involved in the process of nominating or selecting Nobel Prize laureates. These procedures are strictly confidential and regulated by the Nobel Prize awarding institutions.

Attachment
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Palamina Corp. (TSXV: PA) (OTCQB: PLMNF) common shares are now trading on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol "PLMNF" in the United States and continue to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange as its primary listing under the symbol "PA" in Canada.

"Palamina's maiden drill program at its flagship Usicayos gold project is underway in Peru where upgrading to an OTCQB listing will provide greater visibility, liquidity and exposure to US investors," commented Andrew Thomson, President of Palamina.

The OTCQB Venture offers investors transparent trading for entrepreneurial and development stage U.S. and international companies that may not yet qualify for OTCQX. To be eligible, companies must be current in their reporting and undergo an annual verification and management certification process. The OTCQB Venture quality standards provide a strong baseline of transparency, as well as the technology and regulation to improve the information and trading experience for investors.

U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and real-time Level 2 quotes for Palamina Corp. at http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/plmnf/overview.

About Palamina Corp.

Palamina has first mover advantage on 4 district scale gold projects in south eastern Peru in the Puno Orogenic Gold Belt (POGB). A maiden drill program is underway at its flagship Usicayos Gold Project. The Company also has rights to a silver-copper project in the Santa Lucia district and two copper-gold projects in Southern Peru. Palamina holds an 19.95% equity interest in Winshear Gold Corp. who are advancing the Gaban Gold Project to the drill discovery phase. Palamina has 65,284,836 shares outstanding and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PA and on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol PLMNF.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors:



Andrew Thomson, President

Phone: (416) 204-7536 or visit www.palamina.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103230
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Snowy Owl Gold Corp. (CSE: SNOW) (FSE: 84L) ("Snowy Owl" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results from preliminary summer field surveys on the Golden Eagle and Panache River Properties. Both properties were partially covered with an initial local reconnaissance mapping, prospecting, rock sampling, biogeochemical (black spruce twiggs) and B-Horizon soil sampling.

The properties are located within the Archean Abitibi Greenstone Belt of Urban-Barry hosting the Windfall, Barry Lake and Gladiator Gold Deposits and recent discoveries.





Property Location Map

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7300/103013_17cc6f8d449b8872_002full.jpg.

Golden Eagle property

On the Golden Eagle Property, a Heliborne Mag survey was completed in autumn 2020 with north-south, 100 meter spaced flight lines, the data of which were then re-analyzed and a three dimensional geological and structural interpretation was generated in order to define, rank and prioritize exploration targets and areas of interest.

Six (6) anomalous (greater than 1 ppb Au) prospective areas were identified from the biogeochemical orientation sampling survey associated with cross multiple potential source structures. Samples were collected every 100 meters on E-W oriented 200 meter spaced lines. The anomalous clusters are underlain by lithologic contacts, structural structures and local flanks of magnetic anomalous axes. A total of 81 biogeochemical samples, 81 B-Horizon soil samples and 51 rock samples were collected.





Sample locations and select results

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7300/103013_17cc6f8d449b8872_003full.jpg.





Biogeochemical results and anomalies correlating with geophysical anomalies

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7300/103013_17cc6f8d449b8872_004full.jpg.





Biogeochemical results plotted on geology map

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7300/103013_17cc6f8d449b8872_005full.jpg.

The observed outcrops mainly consisted of massive locally brecciated intermediate to mafic volcanic with at places quartz-carbonate tourmaline veins and veinlets locally associated with sulphides (traces to 5% locally of pyrite and pyrrhotite as well as traces of chalcopyrite). The sulphides are disseminated and as small veinlets in the walls of the quartz-carbonate veins with occasional tourmaline.





Outcrop of greenstone belt rocks with quartz-carbonate tourmaline veins and veinlets

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7300/103013_17cc6f8d449b8872_006full.jpg.

The next steps will consist of additional, complementary and detailed sampling of the anomalous areas followed by line cutting, basal till survey, induced polarisation-resistivity surveys and, if warranted, diamond drilling on the best targets.

The northern and northeastern parts of the property are under explored areas of the Abitibi Urban-Barry volcanic belt which hosts important recent gold deposits and discoveries. The volcanic stratigraphic rock units are also prospective for Cu-Zn volcanic massive sulphide deposits such as the Gonzague-Langlois deposit located 94 kms west-north-west of the property. The Golden Eagle property is located at proximity and north of the Grenville Front adding relevant structural geological features.

Panache property

On the Panache Property, 100 biogeochemical samples, 53 B-Horizon soil samples and 10 rock samples were collected for a combined total of 163 samples. Two (2) anomalous areas were observed with values between 0.20 and 1 ppb Au, coincident or nearby fault structures and/or magnetic anomaly axes.





Sample locations and select results

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7300/103013_17cc6f8d449b8872_007full.jpg.





Biogeochemical results plotted on mag map

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7300/103013_17cc6f8d449b8872_008full.jpg.

The observed geological units mainly consisted of andesite, basalt and diorite locally hosting quartz-carbonate veins with local tourmaline and pyrite associations.





Property geology map

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7300/103013_17cc6f8d449b8872_009full.jpg.

Future focus will consist of complementary and detailed biogeochemical, soil and rock sampling in the anomalous areas, basal till survey, line cutting, orientation electromagnetic and IP-Resistivity surveys and diamond drilling on priority targets.

The Panache Property is strategically well located in the western part of the Urban-Barry volcanic belt which is host of the Windfall, Barry Lake and Gladiator Gold Deposits. The property is underlain by volcanics at the contact with a granodiorite and tonalite pluton. Several precious and base metals occurrences are present in the immediate area.

Qualified Persons

The technical content of this release has been approved for disclosure by Alain-Jean Beauregard, P. Geo. (OGQ # 227) and Daniel Gaudreault, P. Eng. (OIQ #39834), of Geologica Groupe-Conseil Inc., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Alain-Jean Beauregard, P. Geo. (OGQ # 227) and Daniel Gaudreault are independent of the Company and are not employees of the Company or hold securities of the Company.

About Snowy Owl Gold Corp.

Snowy Owl Gold Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on acquiring, exploring, and developing gold projects in Quebec, Canada. The Company has 100% interest in the Panache Property, which consists of 12 map designated claims ("CDC") covering a total of 678 hectares, and the Golden Eagle Property, which consists of 161 map designated claims ("CDC") covering a total of 8,887.65 hectares (88.87 km2) within the Abitibi region located in Quebec, Canada. Additional information on Snowy Owl Gold Corp. is available at http://www.snowyowlgold.com/.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

SNOWY OWL GOLD CORP.

"Raymond Wladichuk"

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Elyssia Patterson - CFO

Tel: +1 (778) 683 4324

Email: info@snowyowlgold.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the CSE policies) accepts responsibility for this release's adequacy or accuracy.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements". Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Snowy Owl Gold's actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "could" or "should" occur.

Although Snowy Owl Gold believes the forward-looking information contained in this news release is reasonable based on information available on the date hereof, by their nature, forward-looking statements involve assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Examples of such assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, assumptions, risks and uncertainties associated with general economic conditions; the Covid-19 pandemic; adverse industry events; future legislative and regulatory developments in the mining sector; the Company's ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favorable terms; mining industry and markets in Canada and generally; the ability of Snowy Owl Gold to implement its business strategies; competition; and other assumptions, risks and uncertainties.

The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time except as required in accordance with applicable laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103013
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - NervGen Pharma Corp. (TSXV: NGEN) (OTCQX: NGENF) ("NervGen" or the "Company"), a clinical stage biotech company dedicated to creating innovative treatments for nervous system damage, is pleased to announce the closing of its previously announced public offering (the "Offering") including the full exercise of the underwriters' over-allotment option. The Offering was made pursuant to an underwriting agreement entered into with a syndicate of underwriters led by iA Private Wealth Inc. and including Canaccord Genuity Corp. and Paradigm Capital Inc. (collectively, the "Underwriters").

Pursuant to the Offering, the Underwriters purchased, on a "bought deal" basis, and the Company issued 3,680,000 units (the "Units") at a price of C$2.50 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of C$9,200,000, including the full exercise of the Underwriters' over-allotment option. Each Unit was comprised of one common share of the Company (the "Common Shares") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Common Share in the capital of the Company (a "Warrant Share") for a period of 24 months following the closing of the Offering at an exercise price of C$3.20 per Warrant Share.

In connection with the Offering, the Company issued to the Underwriters an aggregate of 257,600 broker warrants (the "Broker Warrants"). Each Broker Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Common Share at the exercise price of C$2.50 per Common Share for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Offering.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for continued development of their lead drug candidate, NVG-291, and general corporate purposes.

The Offering was conducted in each of the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia by way of prospectus supplement (the "Prospectus Supplement") to the Company's short form base shelf prospectus dated January 2, 2020. The Prospectus Supplement was filed with the securities regulatory authorities in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia on November 8, 2021 and is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in any jurisdiction.

The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) or persons in the United States unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available.

About NervGen

NervGen is restoring life's potential by creating innovative treatments of nervous system injury due to trauma or disease of the nervous system. The Company is initially developing NVG-291, a protein tyrosine phosphatase (protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma) modulator, that has demonstrated the potential to promote repair mechanisms in the central nervous system such as axonal regeneration; remyelination; plasticity; autophagy (a cellular self-cleaning mechanism that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components); and a non-inflammatory phenotype in microglia cells, the innate immune cells of the brain. protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma is a protein which has been shown to impede repair following injury to the nervous system. Nervous system injury can occur because of trauma, such as in the case of spinal cord injury or traumatic brain injury, or as a result of disease-specific mechanisms, such as multiple sclerosis or Alzheimer's disease.

For further information, please contact:

Huitt Tracey, Corporate Communications

htracey@nervgen.com

604.362.6209

Bill Adams, Chief Financial Officer

badams@nervgen.com

Follow NervGen on Twitter (@NervgenP), LinkedIn (NervGen Pharma Corp.), and Facebook (facebook.com/nervgen/) for the latest news.

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 Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements and information herein include, but are not limited to, the Company's current and future plans, expectations and intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements, or any other future events or developments constitute forward-looking statements, and the words "may", "will", "would", "should", "could", "expect", "plan", "intend", "trend", "indication", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "likely" or "potential", or the negative or other variations of these words or other comparable words or phrases, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements relating to: our development programs, including the development of NVG-291; our research for the treatment of spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative applications; and the use of proceeds of the Offering.

Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by the Company in light of management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that we believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. In making forward-looking statements, the Company has relied on various assumptions, including, but not limited to: the Company's ability to manage the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; the accuracy of the Company's financial projections; the Company obtaining positive results in its clinical and other trials; the Company obtaining necessary regulatory approvals; and general business, market and economic conditions.

Many factors could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements or future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including without limitation, a lack of revenue, insufficient funding, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, reliance upon key personnel, the uncertainty of the clinical development process, competition, and other factors set forth in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Information Form, Prospectus Supplement, financial statements and Management Discussion and Analysis which can be found on SEDAR.com. All clinical development plans are subject to additional funding.

Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements made in this news release. Furthermore, unless otherwise stated, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and we have no intention and undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103193
COMUNICATO STAMPA

OPENING OF THE THIRD AND FINAL "SEIF 2019 - 2021 WARRANTS" EXERCISE PERIOD

Roma, November 12, 2021 - Societa Editoriale Il Fatto ("Societa" o "SEIF") media content provider and publisher of various publishing and multimedia products, listed on Euronext Growth Milan and Euronext Growth Paris, announces that on 15 November 2021 the third and final subscription period for the "Warrant SEIF 2019-2021" (ISIN IT0005364143) ("Warrants") will open.

The Warrant's holders may request the exercise of the Warrants starting from 15 November 2021 until 30 November 2021, inclusive of the initial and final terms ("Third Exercise Period"), for each trading day, with the right to subscribe newly issued SEIF ordinary shares, without nominal value and the same characteristics of the SEIF ordinary shares outstanding on the issue date and traded on Euronext Growth Milan and Euronext Growth Paris ("Conversion Shares"), at a ratio of no. 1 (one) Conversion Share for every n. 4 (four) Warrants exercised.

The exercise price of the Warrants for the Third Exercise Period is equal to Euro 0.97 (zero point ninety-seven Euro cents) for each Conversion Share and must be paid in full at the time of the presentation of the request, without any additional commissions and expenses for the applicants.

Subscription requests must be submitted to the intermediary belonging to the centralised administration system of Monte Titoli S.p.A. with which the Warrants are deposited, on any bank working day during the Third Exercise Period.

The issue and availability, through Monte Titoli S.p.A., of the Conversion Shares subscribed to by the Warrant holders will take place on the settlement day following the end of the last day of the Third Exercise Period.

The right to subscribe to the Warrants must be exercised, under penalty of forfeiture, by submitting the subscription request by 30 November 2021 ("Exercise Deadline"). Therefore, as of the date following the Exercise Deadline, the Warrants for which no subscription request has been submitted will become definitively ineffective.

For further information, please refer to the Warrant Regulations available at www.seif-spa.it (Investor Relations section).

***

SOCIETA EDITORIALE IL FATTO S.P.A. (SEIF) is an independent media company, founded in Rome in 2009 and led by Cinzia Monteverdi, President and CEO. The company publishes several editorial and multimedia products, including Il Fatto Quotidiano, founded by Antonio Padellaro and edited by Marco Travaglio, the news website ilfattoquotidiano.it and the monthly magazine FQ Millennium, edited by Peter Gomez, and the publishing house Paper First, edited by Marco Lillo. SEIF has recently embarked on a process of diversification to become more and more of an all-round media content provider, launching a strategy to develop its products in a digital and data-driven key and to produce TV with the LOFT business unit.



For further information:

Press Office:

Close To Media - Societa fondata da Elisabetta Neuhoff

Via Caradosso 8 - 20123 Milano

Tel: 02.70006237

Fax: 02.89694809

www.closetomedia.it

Luca Manzato, Sofia Crosta

luca.manzato@closetomedia.it, sofia.crosta@closetomedia.it,





Euronext Growth Advisor

Alantra Capital Markets

Via Borgonuovo, 16 - 20121 Milano

tel. +39 02 63671613

Stefano Bellavita

mail: stefano.bellavita@alantra.com



SEIF - Investor relations

06 32818514

Cinzia Monteverdi (CEO): ir@seif-spa.it

Luigi Calicchia (CFO): l.calicchia@seif-spa.it

------------------------

This publication embed "Actusnews SECURITY MASTER ".

- SECURITY MASTER Key:

x21paJaYlGqYmW9sZJ5mmWpmbm5omZSdbWrGm2melZbFm5+SlZqTb5aaZnBinm1p

- Check this key: https://www.security-master-key.com.

------------------------



 Copyright Actusnews Wire

Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free

Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-71983-seif_cos_apertura-ultimo-periodo-warrant_12112021_eng.pdf
Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE: PIPR), a leading investment bank, is pleased to announce on Monday, November 15, 2021, The Valence Group co-brand will operate wholly under the brand name Piper Sandler. Piper Sandler acquired The Valence Group in April 2020, adding an industry-leading global chemicals advisory practice to its platform. The chemicals investment banking team, strategy, approach to execution and singular focus on the chemicals sector remains unchanged.

"Now is an opportune time to transition the name to Piper Sandler as we have achieved clear global market leadership in chemicals M&A. In the first 10 months of 2021, we have announced 13 transactions with an aggregate value of over $23 billion," said Peter Hall, head of European investment banking and global co-head of chemicals investment banking at Piper Sandler.

"We see many opportunities to serve our chemicals clients in new ways by further leveraging the expertise of our Piper Sandler partners in directly-relevant areas such as energy, healthcare and consumer, and through additional product capabilities such as equity and debt capital markets and restructuring advice," said Telly Zachariades, global co-head of chemicals investment banking at Piper Sandler.

ABOUT PIPER SANDLER

Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE: PIPR) is a leading investment bank driven to help clients Realize the Power of Partnership. Securities brokerage and investment banking services are offered in the U.S. through Piper Sandler Co., member SIPC and NYSE; in the U.K. through Piper Sandler Ltd., authorized and regulated by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority; and in Hong Kong through Piper Sandler Hong Kong Ltd., authorized and regulated by the Securities and Futures Commission. Alternative asset management and fixed income advisory services are offered through separately registered advisory affiliates.

Follow Piper Sandler: LinkedIn Facebook Twitter

2021. Since 1895. Piper Sandler Companies. 800 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402-7036

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005303/en/

Contacts:

Pamela Steensland

Tel: 612 303-8185

pamela.steensland@psc.com
Maintaining sustainable outer space environment through mitigation of in-orbit debris generation

Underpinning one of the pillars of our CSR policy

Regulatory News:

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005657/en/

On the occasion of the Paris Peace Forum, Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) (Paris:ETL) announces that it is joining the "Net Zero Space" initiative which has been launched today with support from several leading players in the space industry. The ambition of this international alliance is to create a sustainable outer space environment in 2030 by initiating immediate action to contain and mitigate the generation of in-orbit debris.

Taking this opportunity, Eutelsat reiterates its commitment to a safe and uncluttered orbital environment. This is notably reflected in the adoption of a Space Debris Mitigation Plan, a company-specific initiative that has been constantly updated since its launch in 2005. Under this plan, Eutelsat has achieved a success rate in excess of 95% for deorbiting its spacecraft, well ahead of the industry average. The plan also promotes full compliance with the requirements of the French Space Act, which ranks among the most stringent in the world when it comes to preventing the formation of space debris. The Group is also an active member of the Space Data Association and an ISO 9001 certified company for its satellite control operations.

Since the advent of the outer space era in 1957, more than 12,000 satellites have been placed in orbit and have progressively turned into more than 1 million stagnant objects of at least one centimetre in size that are now considered to be orbital debris. In the face of this situation, there is a compelling need for international action to ensure continued monitoring of progress in addressing outer space congestion, so that all stakeholders can develop their activities in a sustainable Earth's orbital environment.

"Eutelsat is honoured to work alongside the Paris Peace Forum on the crucial issue of outer space sustainability and to endorse the Net Zero Space initiative", said Eutelsat Deputy CEO Michel Azibert. "As a leading global satellite operator, it is of paramount importance for us to maintain a safe and sustainable outer space environment. Taking no action would increase the risk of space asset collisions, undermine the safety and sustainability of space operations and inflate the cost of access to the most useful orbits."

Preventing space clutter is at the core of Eutelsat's CSR commitments

This undertaking is in keeping with the Group's dynamic CSR policy, which believes that factoring in social, environmental and economic issues is fundamental to the success of its strategy and operations. Accordingly, the effective management of the satellite fleet, the prevention of space clutter and the mitigation of the environmental impact throughout the life cycle of satellites are priority areas of Eutelsat's environmental policy.

About Eutelsat Communications

Founded in 1977, Eutelsat Communications is one of the world's leading satellite operators. With a global fleet of satellites and associated ground infrastructure, Eutelsat enables clients across Video, Data, Government, Fixed and Mobile Broadband markets to communicate effectively to their customers, irrespective of their location. Around 7,000 television channels operated by leading media groups are broadcast by Eutelsat to one billion viewers equipped for DTH reception or connected to terrestrial networks. Headquartered in Paris, with offices and teleports around the globe, Eutelsat assembles 1,200 men and women from 50 countries who are dedicated to delivering the highest quality of service.

For more about Eutelsat go to www.eutelsat.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005657/en/

Contacts:

Media

Joanna Darlington

Tel.: +33 1 53 98 31 07

jdarlington@eutelsat.com



Marie Sophie Ecuer

Tel.: +33 1 53 98 32 45

mecuer@eutelsat.com



Jessica Whyte

Tel.: +33 1 53 98 46 21

jwhyte@eutelsat.com



Investors

Joanna Darlington

Tel.: +33 1 53 98 31 07

jdarlington@eutelsat.com



Cedric Pugni

Tel.: +33 1 53 98 31 54

cpugni@eutelsat.com



Alexandre Illouz

Tel.: +33 1 53 98 46 81

aillouz@eutelsat.com
HIGH QUALITY, CERTIFIED CREDITS COMPLEMENT MEANINGFUL EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS FOR ENTERPRISES TO MEET THEIR NET-ZERO MANDATES

GLASGOW, Scotland, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Accelerated Ventures (GAV) and ACTUAL are partnering with Bioassets, to integrate high quality, provenanced carbon credits with an A.I. augmented ESG transformation solution for large corporate enterprises. The Bioassets solution enables enterprises to make meaningful reductions in their carbon emissions in line with COP26 net-zero pledges. GAV and ACTUAL's collaboration structures solutions which climate pledges within the framework of positive financial returns and clear ESG risk and performance metrics. Leveraging each company's unique positioning and expertise, they have created a leading partnership to make decarbonization a reality at scale.

ACTUAL provides a first-of-its-kind digital toolkit, which enables organizations to rapidly plan and take action on decarbonization. GAV's expertise is rooted in organizational transformation, conservation management, and development finance, especially in emerging markets. Together, they provide a central solution for modern enterprises to meet complex climate goals. By partnering with Bioassets, GAV and ACTUAL can provide and structure high quality carbon credits to enterprises to meet their immediate as well as strategic management objectives.

"In this rapidly transforming business landscape, rather than a piecemeal offset purchase approach, our partnership mobilizes critical skillsets and assets to help enterprises structure a holistic ESG and carbon approach," said William Byun, Senior Partner, GAV.

The partnership has also recently been engaged by one of Southeast Asia's largest natural resources conglomerates for a comprehensive review of all of their current businesses and operations in their industrial plants and agribusiness developments to seek long-term paradigm transformation pathways in an increasingly carbon critical world.

"Bioassets has a long history of producing high quality, certified offsets which meet additionality and permanence hurdles. Our offsets have helped leading companies such as banks, insurance companies and airlines and others meet their carbon offset goals."

The partnership between GAV, ACTUAL, and Bioassets enables every company to meaningfully decarbonize. Decarbonization is one of humanity's most pressing challenges, and an incredibly complex endeavour for most enterprises with many moving parts. Enterprises need a single partner who can present an integrated plan that's solution agnostic. GAV and ACTUAL provide decarbonization plan building, change management, organizational transformation, and complete suite of ESG software tools to help enterprises get moving quickly, build momentum, and maintain progress for the decades-long journey of reducing emissions in the real world. The Bioassets partnerships enables high quality offsetting of remaining emissions in cases where emissions reductions are not yet possible due to technological or other constraints.

"ACTUAL's software has enabled global, nation-scale projects to get moving quickly, allowing organizations to rapidly plan scenarios and visualize pathways forward for the first time with positive impact at scale. Organizational carbon transformation is critical to meet the ambitious Net-Zero commitments announced during COP26, and we are proud to partner with Bioassets alongside GAV to help enterprises meet the ambition," said Karthik Balakrishnan, Ph.D., co-founder and President, ACTUAL.

The partnership has officially launched and enterprises interested in working with them can contact ACTUAL's President and Co-Founder Karthik Balakrishnan for more information.

Media Contact

Karthik Balakrishnan

k@actualhq.com

Bioassets

Bioassets was founded in 2000 and is one of Brazil's leading social enterprises involved in carbon credits generation through the development of projects in forest conservation and renewable energy, including having pioneered Brazil's first REDD+ credits in the Amazon.

https://bioassets.com.br/

Global Accelerated Ventures (GAV)

GAV partners with the world's leading research universities to accelerate the development and commercialization of R&D in sustainability and conservation as well as engage in organizational change management related to such technological adoption.

https://gaventures.co/

ACTUAL

The ACTUAL platform empowers leaders across industries to act on their ESG goals and set a path towards real change through a first-of-its-kind digital toolkit.
BANGALORE, India, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Crop Protection Chemicals Market is Segmented by Type (Herbicides, Insecticides, Fungicides, Others Acaricides, Nematicides, Rodenticides, Disinfectants, Fumigants, Mineral Oils, And Others (Which includes Crop Protection Chemicals Such as Sulfur, Petroleum Oils, And Sulfuric Acid)), by Application (Foliar Spray, Seed Treatment, Soil Treatment, Others (Which Include Chemigation and Fumigation)). The report covers global opportunity analysis and industry forecasts from 2021 to 2027. It is published in Valuates Reports under Chemicals Industry Category.

The global Crop Protection Chemicals market size is projected to reach USD 64520 Million by 2027, from USD 52630 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 2.9% during 2021-2027.

Crop protection chemicals are employed on all types of crops, but cereals and oilseeds, as well as fruits and vegetables, are the ones analyzed in this report.

Major factors driving the growth of the crop protection chemicals market are:

An increase in the need for food security owing to the rise in population is expected to drive the growth of the crop protection chemicals market.

Crop protection chemicals are a low-cost option for farmers to improve the yield and quality of their crops. They also make harvesting easier and ensure that harvests are constant from year to year. This feature is projected to propel the crop protection chemicals market forward.

Get your sample today: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-18Q6053/Global_Crop_Protection_Chemicals_Market

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF CROP PROTECTION CHEMICALS MARKET

People have reduced food security as a result limited cultivable land to meet the growing demand for food. Food production must be increased around the world in order to meet future food demand. The usage of crop protection chemicals is unavoidable in such a situation. Thus the growth of the crop protection chemicals market is expected to increase as a result of this circumstance.

The need for increased agricultural productivity is fueling the expansion of the crop protection chemicals industry. Crop protection chemicals also aid in the control of infectious insects. Flies and other pests infest livestock, spreading disease, inflicting painful bites, and causing stress. Insecticides serve a key role in managing these insects, allowing animals to convert their feed more efficiently into meat and milk, enhancing profitability.

The crop protection chemicals market is also fueled by the growing demand for biopesticides and the growing need for improved farming methods. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed market development in the short term, but it is expected to spur investment, particularly in biologicals, as part of a broader shift toward food security, sustainable crop production, and more reliable supply chains.

Browse the Table of Contents and List of figures at: https://reports.valuates.com/reports/QYRE-Auto-18Q6053/global-crop-protection-chemicals

CROP PROTECTION CHEMICALS MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

Based on type, the herbicides segment of the Crop protection chemicals is expected to be the most lucrative. Herbicides are widely used in the agriculture and landscaping turf management industries.

Based on application, the foliar spray segment of the Crop protection chemicals is expected to be the most lucrative segment. Foliar spray is majorly used for spraying herbicides and insecticides for removing unwanted weeds manually and also for eradicating insect attacks on crops.

Based on region, Asia Pacific is the most lucrative region during the forecast period. Growing public awareness regarding pesticides, as well as continual technological developments, are driving this industry forward. Agribusiness firms have also been pushed to extend their supplier and production bases in Asia-Pacific as a result of expanding crop demand and rising cultivation in the region.

Report Customization Request: https://reports.valuates.com/request/customisation/QYRE-Auto-18Q6053/Global_Crop_Protection_Chemicals_Market

MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE CROP PROTECTION CHEMICALS INDUSTRY

BASF SE

The DOW Chemical Company

I. Dupont De Nemours and Company

Sumitomo Chemical

Syngenta AG

Bayer Cropscience AG

FMC Corporation

Monsanto Company

Nufarm Limited

ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd.

Chapter Cost Request: https://reports.valuates.com/request/chaptercost/QYRE-Auto-18Q6053/Global_Crop_Protection_Chemicals_Market

Buy Now for Single User + Covid-19 Impact : https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Auto-18Q6053&lic=single-user

SUBSCRIPTION

We have introduced a tailor-made subscription for our customers. Please leave a note in the Comment Section to know about our subscription plans.

SIMILAR REPORTS

- The global crop insurance market size was valued at USD 34.05 Billion in 2019, and is projected to reach USD 53.02 Billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 6.1% from 2020 to 2027.

- Global Crop Seed Treatment Sales Market Report 2021

- The global Soil Treatment market size is projected to reach USD 44240 Million by 2027, from USD 26930 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 6.9% during 2021-2027.

- The global herbicide market size is expected to reach an overall market revenue of USD 7,998.9 Million by 2025, by growing at a CAGR of 4.8% during the forecast period.

- In 2020, the global Plant Fungicides market size was USD 17710 Million and it is expected to reach USD 23250 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 3.7% during 2021-2027.

- In 2020, the global Biorational Crop Protection (BCP) market size was USD 4319 Million and it is expected to reach USD 9161.5 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 10.9% during 2021-2027.

- In 2020, the global Crop Protection market size was USD 70340 Million and it is expected to reach USD 107870 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 6.3% during 2021-2027.

- In 2020, the global Generic Crop Protection market size was USD 49590 Million and it is expected to reach USD 61580 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 3.1% during 2021-2027.

- Global Fruit & Vegetable Crop Protection Market Size, Status and Forecast 2021-2027

- Global Insecticides in Agriculture Sales Market Report 2021

Click here to see related reports on Crop protection chemicals market

ABOUT US:

Valuates offers in-depth market insights into various industries. Our extensive report repository is constantly updated to meet your changing industry analysis needs.

Our team of market analysts can help you select the best report covering your industry. We understand your niche region-specific requirements and that's why we offer customization of reports. With our customization in place, you can request for any particular information from a report that meets your market analysis needs.

To achieve a consistent view of the market, data is gathered from various primary and secondary sources, at each step, data triangulation methodologies are applied to reduce deviance and find a consistent view of the market. Each sample we share contains detail research methodology employed to generate the report, Please also reach to our sales team to get the complete list of our data sources

CONTACT US:

Valuates Reports

sales@valuates.com

For U.S. Toll-Free Call +1-(315)-215-3225

For IST Call +91-8040957137

WhatsApp: +91 9945648335

Website: https://reports.valuates.com

Follow on Twitter - https://twitter.com/valuatesreports

Follow on Linkedin - https://in.linkedin.com/company/valuatesreports

Follow on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/valuatesreports

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082232/Valuates_Reports_Logo.jpg
TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The humble and happy Abnormal Beauty Company - DECIEM announces strategic expansion into Mexico in partnership with historic retailer El Palacio de Hierro . El Palacio de Hierro will become the first North American retail partner to house three of the seven DECIEM brands. This October, NIOD, The Ordinary and The Chemistry Brand will make their debut in Mexico, online and in key Palacio de Hierro doors.

"Mexico has always held a special part of our heart, and it has been amazing to watch our audience grow here. We're incredibly excited to now have a cozy home at El Palacio de Hierro and for our products to become even more accessible in Mexico. We can't wait to continue to build our brand in Mexico with love," says Nicola Kilner, CEO and Co-Founder of DECIEM.

With plans to expand into more doors in the future; four of Palacio's key doors; Palacio, Durango, Acoxpa and Satelite will retail the full NIOD assortment with retail exclusivity to the multi-awarding winning Copper Amino Isolate innovations; CAIL 1% and CAIS3 1:1.

"At DECIEM, we see NIOD as our crown jewel because it thrives on next-generation ingredients and state-of-the-art technology to optimise skin health. NIOD embodies our commitment to be at the forefront of science, and has been created to provide an at-home laboratory experience to our customers," says Prudvi Kaka, Chief Scientific Officer at DECIEM.

DECIEM has made strategic efforts to develop the brand's supply chain to ensure demand can be met and to continue the company's vision for honestly priced formulations accessible to all. For Mexician customers, DECIEM and El Palacio de Hierro's partnership showcases the rapidly growing demand for the evolutionary product formulations and transparency within the beauty industry. Whilst DECIEM does not yet have a bricks-and-mortar presence in Mexico, this expansion partnership aids the growth initiatives and adds a reliable supply chain for the Mexican audience.

Additional information about DECIEM may be found www.deciem.com | Instagram: @ deciem | Tik Tok: @deciem | YouTube: youtube.com/deciem |

About DECIEM

DECIEM is a Canadian-based, vertically integrated, multi-brand company, known as "DECIEM" or "The Abnormal Beauty Company." DECIEM is an industry disruptor with a consumer-focused approach. DECIEM's portfolio includes The Ordinary, an internationally recognised skincare brand renowned for its honestly priced formulations, alongside other skin and body care ranges. DECIEM's range of "functional beauty" brands and products are sold primarily through DECIEM-owned stores and retailer e-commerce partners, as well as its own freestanding stores.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1686068/DECIEM.jpg
On race day at the Formula 1 Heineken Grande Premio De Sao Paulo 2021, superstar DJs NERVO will take to the skies and perform in a hot air balloon for fans to enjoy the performance in a socially distanced, responsible way





To kick off the race weekend, Heineken brought together the Australian DJ duo and fellow Aussie, Daniel Ricciardo during an event at Interlagos





during an event at Interlagos They were joined by special guests, including Brazilian DJs Cat Dealers and F1 legends Felipe Massa , Sir Jackie Stewart and David Coulthard





, Sir and The performance from NERVO, along with a set from Cat Dealers, will be streamed through Beatport and Formula 1 social media channels

SAO PAULO, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Formula 1 returns to Sao Paulo this weekend, and global title race partner Heineken is celebrating in spectacular fashion, bringing superstar DJs NERVO to Interlagos for a unique performance aboard a hot air balloon above the track.

To kick-off the race weekend, Australian star DJ duo, and sisters, NERVO were joined by fellow Australian, music afficionado and McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo at a launch event at Interlagos along with Brazilian Formula 1 legend Felipe Massa, David Coulthard and Sir Jackie Stewart. The event also featured an exclusive set by Brazilian DJs Cat Dealers, one of the biggest names in the international electronic scene.

On Sunday, NERVO will be taking the skies above the track to give fans at Interlagos an exclusive pre-race performance, providing the perfect setting for fans to enjoy their biggest hits in a socially distant, responsible manner.

Fans at home will be able to watch a stream of their performance, as well as the set from Cat Dealers, on Monday.

Looking ahead to their performance in the hot air balloon, NERVO commented: "We've played in some pretty unique locations around the world, but I don't think anything compares to playing in a hot air balloon over the racetrack here in Sao Paulo, so we can't wait! We loved meeting fellow Aussie and music lover Daniel Ricciardo today, and we hope everyone enjoys the show."

McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo commented: ""What an awesome way to start the race weekend - mixing my two favourite things together - F1 and music! McLaren and Brazil have always had a special connection, particularly at this track, so it feels right to be doing something special here. Having DJs from my homeland makes it all the more sweet!"

On the performance, Cat Dealers said: "In Brazil, we're passionate aboutF1 and this race at Interlagos is a huge part of Brazilian culture. It's one of the biggest and most iconic events in Brazil, so we're honoured to have been invited by Heineken to perform in this unique setting."

Fans can watch the stream on EDM streaming service Beatport, the official F1 Facebook channel, as well as NERVO's Facebook and Cat Dealers' YouTube and Facebook channels on Monday.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1687187/1.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1687188/2.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1687189/3.jpg
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Loews Corp. (L) said the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that Loews breached the Boardwalk partnership agreement and awarded the class of former Boardwalk unitholders about $690 million, plus interest. Loews plans to appeal the ruling. The court issued the ruling in the class action litigation relating to Loews's 2018 acquisition of the minority limited partner interests in its Boardwalk Pipelines subsidiary. 'We are disappointed in the Court's ruling today, and believe that the Court misinterpreted both the factual underpinnings of the case as well as the applicable law,' said James Tisch, President and CEO of Loews. 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.
With additional data, the primary, secondary, and exploratory endpoints were met in Phase 2a study

Berwyn, Pennsylvania--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Annovis Bio, Inc. (NYSE American: ANVS) ("Annovis" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage drug platform company addressing Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and other neurodegenerative diseases, today reported new data on ANVS401 from the Company's Phase 2a study during the 14th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease conference (CTAD).

ANVS401 is an oral translational inhibitor of neurotoxic aggregating proteins (TINAPs) currently being developed for AD, AD in Down Syndrome, and PD. In the Phase 2a trial, ANVS401 was shown to be well-tolerated and safe, and its pharmacokinetics was found to be in line with levels measured earlier in humans, meeting both the primary and secondary endpoints. Additionally, exploratory endpoints were met when the Phase 2a data showed that ANVS401 treatment resulted in statistically significant improvement in motor function in PD patients and cognition in AD patients.

Data from the Phase 2a clinical trial presented today at CTAD showed that treatment with ANVS401 reduced neurotoxic proteins in both AD and PD patients (Figure 1). Further, ANVS401 decreased inflammation and improved axonal integrity and synaptic functions in both AD and PD patients (Figure 2 and Figure 3). All values are in comparison to placebo and are based on all data points.





Figure 1 - APP (and its downstream products), t-Tau, and p-Tau are the neurotoxic proteins involved in AD, while a-Synuclein (a-Syn) is the neurotoxic culprit of PD.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7656/103254_ddbba3fb040e389b_002full.jpg.





Figure 2 - Inflammatory markers are lowered in both AD and PD patients, showing a stabilization of inflammation in both neurodegenerative disorders.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7656/103254_ddbba3fb040e389b_003full.jpg.





Figure 3 - Neuronal and synaptic markers are lowered in both AD and PD patients, meaning that the nerve cells are healthier.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7656/103254_ddbba3fb040e389b_004full.jpg.

This data strengthens the understanding of optimal ANVS401-induced neurotoxic protein reduction in both animal models and humans. In the Phase 2a study, most biomarkers and inflammatory markers of both AD and PD treated patients were reduced by 3 to 20% at ANVS401 doses that saw significant improvement in cognition and function. This aligns with AD and PD mouse model studies that showed APP and a-Syn were reduced by 5 to 20% and 3 to 10%, respectively, at ANVS401 doses that also saw significant improvement in cognition and function. This suggests that slight changes in ANVS401-reduced neurotoxic proteins result in significant downstream effects in both animals and humans.

"We believe we have begun to unravel the relationship between biomarker reduction and efficacy, a topic that has been a focus of research for some time. By comparing biomarker levels at fully effective doses of ANVS401 in both mice and humans suffering from AD and PD, we see that a small reduction in biomarkers and inflammatory markers is sufficient to lead to statistically significant improvements in outcomes," commented Founder, President and CEO of Annovis Maria Maccecchini, Ph.D. "Meeting primary endpoints and the reversal of the toxic cascade combined with improvements in cognition and function are the foundation for us to ask the FDA for two meetings - one to move into two phase 3 clinical trials for AD and one to move into two phase 3 clinical trials for PD."

The primary endpoint of the Phase 2a clinical trials, safety, was met as no serious adverse events (AEs) and no AEs leading to dosage withdrawal were observed in both Phase 2a clinical trials. It should be noted that most AEs were due to spinal fluid collection, which typically results in headaches and back aches in patients. Another endpoint was pharmacokinetics and the plasma levels of ANVS401 measured in this study corresponded to plasma levels seen in previous human studies.

A replay of the presentation will be available on demand on the conference website after 48 hours. The presentation slides will be also available on the Investors & Media tab of the Annovis website.

About Annovis Bio, Inc.

Headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, Annovis Bio, Inc. (Annovis) is a clinical-stage, drug platform company addressing neurodegeneration, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and Alzheimer's in Down Syndrome (AD-DS). We believe that we are the only company developing a drug for AD, PD, and AD-DS that inhibits more than one neurotoxic protein and, thereby, improves the information highway of the nerve cell, known as axonal transport. When this information flow is impaired, the nerve cell gets sick and dies. We conducted two Phase 2 studies: one in AD patients and one in both AD and PD patients. In the AD/ PD study our drug improves memory loss and dementia associated with AD, as well as body and brain function in PD.

For more information on Annovis Bio, please visit the company's website www.annovisbio.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release contain "forward-looking statements" that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "expect," "believe," "will," "may," "should," "estimate," "project," "outlook," "forecast" or other similar words, and include, without limitation, statements regarding the timing, effectiveness, and anticipated results of ANVS401 clinical trials. Forward-looking statements are based on Annovis Bio, Inc.'s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled "Risk Factors" in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and Annovis Bio, Inc. undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

###

Media and Investor Contact:

Nic Johnson

Russo Partners, LLC

(303) 482-6405

nic.johnson@russopartnersllc.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103254
GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- (Correspondent: Guangzhou Foreign Affairs Office) The plenary session of the 2021 Global Mayors' Forum was held yesterday evening (Nov. 11) at the Guangzhou Yuexiu International Congress Center. Organizations, representatives, and guests from around the world attended either online or offline.

Ma Biao, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, sent a video message. Lin Songtian, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Wen Guohui, mayor of Guangzhou and president of the World Metropolis Association, Emilia Saiz, secretary general of the UCLG, and Zhong Nanshan, recipient of the Medal of the Republic and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, delivered speeches at the conference. Zhang Shuofu, secretary of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee, and Zhang Xin, vice governor of Guangdong Province, also attended the event.

Ma Biao stated in his speech that the United Cities and Local Governments and the World Metropolis Association are international organizations for local governments and cities with global influence to develop more effectively. The Chinese government encourages and supports its local governments to join it and actively expand the global network of city partnerships. Presently, changes unseen in the last one hundred years and one of the most serious pandemics in a century have been superimposed over each other. China is willing to support cities around the world to more effectively play their roles as the forefront and main force in the global fight against Covid-19, engine and benchmark of global development, partner and carrier of global cooperation, and participant and promoter of global governance. China supports platforms such as the Global Mayors' Forum and Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (presenter of the Guangzhou Award) in playing a greater role and hopes they will continue to make new and greater contributions to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and building of a community of a shared future for mankind.

Lin Songtian pointed out that cities are gathering places in their country where people live and work, and they are important carriers for friendly national relations that translate into benefits for the well-being of all people. He hopes that cities of all countries will focus on poverty reduction and promote global sustainable green development, build smart cities and promote the modernization of urban governance, strengthen exchange and mutual understanding to achieve common prosperity, practice true multilateralism, and uphold justice and equity in the world. The CPAFFC is willing to guide, coordinate, and encourage Chinese local governments, as always, to partner with local governments of all countries and pursue shared development.

Wen Guohui shared with the session's guests valuable experience from Guangzhou's urban development and governance acquired through prioritizing ecological preservation, pursuing green development, inheriting cultural traditions, opening up, and cooperative activities. He proposed that cities around the world should always partner with each other for a more prosperous economy. He feels that they should enhance exchange and mutual learning for a more equitable society, promote solidarity and cooperation for more resilient governance, always place people in a place of central focus, and build cities that people will be satisfied with. He called on everyone to join hands and together turn cities and the planet into a better home.

Emelia congratulated everyone for their participation in a successful conference. She hoped that, through the platform of the Global Mayors' Forum and Guangzhou Award, cities around the world will increase dialogues and cooperation, share their experiences in urban governance, continue to explore innovative issues, and build a better home in unison.

Zhong Nanshan introduced Guangzhou's experience and practices in fighting Covid-19. He noted that the global pandemic situation is still severe and hoped that the global community will unite and work together through broader and more thorough cooperation in scientific research, pandemic prevention, and treatment.

Also at the conference, Qu Dongyu, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, sent a video message. Li Yong, director-general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Francisco Carvalho, mayor of Praia, Cape Verde, Li Mingyuan, mayor of Xi'an, Eckart Wurzner, mayor of Heidelberg, Germany, Uwe Schneidewind, mayor of Wuppertal, Germany, Antonio Di Carlo, mayor of Bari, Italy, and Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul, Turkey, delivered their keynote speeches via video.

The 2021 Global Mayors' Forum, co-organized by the CPAFFC, UCLG, Metropolis, and Guangzhou Municipal Government, is held from November 8 to 13 in an online-offline hybrid format. Additionally, the 13th World Congress of the World Metropolis Association and the 5th Guangzhou Award are held concurrently. A total of 6 sub-forums, including Biodiversity and Urban Climate and Technology and New Infrastructure, will be held. The Alliance of Guangzhou International Sister-City Universities 2021 Annual Conference and the 2021 exchange meeting of the Guangzhou-Auckland-Los Angeles Tripartite Economic Alliance are the two thematic side events. Supplimental serial events of the Guangzhou Award and the Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Exhibition will also be held.

With Carlos Giralt, consul general of Mexico in Guangzhou as the head of the Consular Corps, 33 consular officials from 24 consulates general in Guangzhou attended the plenary session. Chen Qiuyan, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and leaders of the Guangzhou city government, Pan Jianguo, Wang Huanqing, and Zhang Yajie, participated in the event.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1687006/image.jpg
DGAP-News: CPI PROPERTY GROUP / Key word(s): AGM/EGM

CPI PROPERTY GROUP: CONVENING NOTICE OF THE COMPANY'S EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING TO BE HELD ON 16 DECEMBER 2021



12.11.2021 / 17:32

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



CPI PROPERTY GROUP

Societe Anonyme

40, rue de la Vallee

L-2661 Luxembourg

R.C.S. Luxembourg B 102254

(the "Company") CONVENING NOTICE

OF THE COMPANY'S EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING

TO BE HELD ON 16 DECEMBER 2021

Dear Shareholders, You are invited to attend the extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the Company (the "Meeting") to be held at the registered office of the Company at 40, rue de la Vallee, L-2661 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, on 16 December 2021 at 11:00 CET , in the presence of a Luxembourg notary public, to discuss and to vote on the agenda indicated below. The Meeting is convened in accordance with articles 450-3 and 450-8 of the Luxembourg law on commercial companies dated 10 August 1915, as amended from time to time (the "LCA") and article 3 of the law dated 24 May 2011 on the exercise of certain rights of shareholders in general meetings of listed companies, as amended from time to time, with the following points on the agenda: AGENDA

1. Decision to amend the last two paragraphs of the object clause of the Company contained in article 4 of the articles of association of the Company, so that such paragraphs shall be read as follows: "The corporation may borrow and grant any assistance, loan, advance or guarantee to companies in which it has a participation or in which it has a direct or indirect interest, or to any person (a "Holding Entity") which is for the time being a member of or otherwise has a direct or indirect interest in the Company or any body corporate in which a Holding Entity has a direct or indirect interest and any person who is associated with the Company in any business or venture, with or without the Company receiving any consideration or advantage (whether direct or indirect). The corporation may carry out any commercial, industrial or financial operations, as well as any transactions on real estate or on movable property, which it may deem useful to the accomplishment of its purposes, PROVIDED ALWAYS that the Company will not enter into any transaction which would constitute a regulated activity of the financial sector or require a business license under Luxembourg law without due authorisation under Luxembourg law." ATTENDING THE MEETING In the context of the present sanitary situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in accordance with the law of 23 September 2020, implementing measures concerning the holding of meetings in companies and other legal entities, as amended (the "Law of 23 September 2020"), the board of directors of the Company has decided as a temporary measure to ensure both the safety of the participants to the Meeting and the business continuity of the Company during the pandemic to hold the Meeting remotely without physical presence of participants. In accordance with the Law of 23 September 2020, the Company requires that (i) the Meeting be held without any participant attending in person, and (ii) shareholders and other participants participate to the meeting and exercise their rights exclusively by a vote in writing or by appointing a special attorney designated by the Company. Therefore, in order to participate to the Meeting, shareholders must provide the Company with the following three items as explained in greater detail below: (i) Record Date Confirmation, (ii) Attendance and Proxy Form, and (iii) Proof of Shareholding. Record Date Confirmation: This document shall be provided to the Company by a shareholder at the latest by 23:59 CET on the Record Date. The Record Date is 2 December 2021 (the "Record Date", i.e. the day falling fourteen (14) days before the date of the Meeting). The Record Date Confirmation must be in writing and indicate that a shareholder holds the Company shares and wishes to participate in the Meeting. A template form of the Record Date Confirmation is available on the Company's website at www.cpipg.com. The Record Date Confirmation must be sent to the Company by post or electronic means so that it is received by the Company at the latest by 23:59 CET on the Record Date, i.e. 2 December 2021 , to: CPI PROPERTY GROUP 40, rue de la Vallee, L-2661 Luxembourg Fax: + 352 26 47 67 67 email: generalmeetings@cpipg.com Attendance and Proxy Form: A template form is available on the Company's website at www.cpipg.com and is to be duly completed and signed by shareholders wishing to participate or be represented at the Meeting. Proof of Shareholding: This document must indicate the shareholder's name and the number of Company shares held at 23:59 CET on the Record Date. The Proof of Shareholding shall be issued by the bank, the professional securities' depositary or the financial institution where the shares are on deposit. Please note that Proof of Shareholding is not necessary for those shareholders whose shares are still recorded as registered shares in the Company's shareholders' register. Shareholders wishing to participate to the Meeting must send the Attendance and Proxy Form together with the relevant Proof of Shareholding by post or electronic means so that they are received by the Company at the latest by noon (12:00 noon CET) on 9 December 2021 , to: CPI PROPERTY GROUP 40, rue de la Vallee, L-2661 Luxembourg Fax: + 352 26 47 67 67 email: generalmeetings@cpipg.com Please note that only persons who are shareholders at the Record Date and have timely submitted their Record Date Confirmation, Attendance and Proxy Form, and Proof of Shareholding shall have the right to participate and vote in the Meeting. Documentation and information: The following documents and information are available for the shareholders on our website: www.cpipg.com: - the present convening notice;

- the total number of shares and the voting rights in the Company as at the date of this convening notice;

- the draft resolutions of the Meeting. Any draft resolution(s) submitted by shareholder(s) shall be added to the website as soon as possible after the Company has received them;

- the Record Date Confirmation template; and

- the Attendance and Proxy Form template. The above documents may also be obtained by shareholders upon written request sent to the following postal address: CPI PROPERTY GROUP, 40, rue de la Vallee, L-2661 Luxembourg. For further information, visit our website: www.cpipg.com. Quorum Requirement: With respect to all items of the agenda, the Meeting shall not validly deliberate, unless at least one half of the corporate capital is represented and if the agenda of the meeting includes the statutory changes to be considered. In the event that such quorum condition is not fulfilled, a second meeting may be convened by publishing this convening notice in the Luxembourg official gazette (Recueil Electronique des Societes et Associations), a Luxembourg newspaper and in such media which may reasonably be expected to be relied upon for the effective dissemination of information to the public throughout the European Economic Area, and which are accessible rapidly and on a non-discriminatory basis, seventeen (17) days prior to the date of the reconvened meeting provided that (i) the first Meeting was properly convened; and (ii) the agenda for the reconvened Meeting does not include any new item. The second meeting shall deliberate validly whatever the part of the corporate capital represented thereat. At both meetings, resolutions, in order to be adopted, must be carried by a majority of two-thirds of the votes cast. Votes cast shall not include votes attaching to shares in which the shareholder has not taken part in the vote or has abstained or has returned a blank or invalid vote. Right to add new items on the agenda : One or more shareholders together representing at least five per cent of the share capital has the right to (i) put one or more items on the agenda of the Meeting and (ii) table draft resolutions for items included or to be included on the agenda of the Meeting. Such requests must: - be in writing and sent to the Company by post (at the following address: CPI PROPERTY GROUP, 40, rue de la Vallee, L-2661 Luxembourg) or electronic means (at the following email address: generalmeetings@cpipg.com ) and be accompanied by a justification or draft resolution to be adopted in the Meeting; - include the postal or electronic address at which the Company may acknowledge receipt of the requests; - be received by the Company at least twenty two (22) days before the date of the Meeting, i.e. 24 November 2021. The Company shall acknowledge receipt of requests referred to above within (forty-eight) 48 hours from receipt. The Company shall prepare a revised agenda including such additional items on or before the fifteenth (15th) day before the date of the Meeting. For further information, visit our website: www.cpipg.com. If you need further assistance or information, please contact: CPI PROPERTY GROUP, 40, rue de la Vallee, L-2661 Luxembourg, Tel: + 352 26 47 67 58; Fax: + 352 26 47 67 67; email: generalmeetings@cpipg.com. Luxembourg, 12 November 2021 Yours faithfully, The Board of Directors of the Company







12.11.2021 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de


VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 12, 2021 / Condor Resources Inc. - ("Condor" or the "Company") (TSXV:CN) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Compania Minera Virgen de la Merced S.A.C. ("Virgen") of Peru, whereby Virgen may acquire Condor's remaining 34% net interest in the Ocros project in Peru. Consideration to be paid by Virgen is US$1million, paid in installments of U$100,000 every three months, with the first payment received on signing.

Virgen has earned a 51% interest in the Ocros project pursuant to an option agreement dated May 2017, which required Virgen to complete 6,000 metres of diamond drilling, and to make staged payments in the aggregate of US$250,000. After Virgen earned its 51% interest, a new company, Minera Eldorado Ocros S.A.C., ("Eldorado") was created to hold the Ocros project. Eldorado is owned by Virgen as to 51%, Condor as to 34%, and the property vendor as to 15%.

Upon receipt of the ten payments of US$100,000 (total US$1,000,000), Condor will transfer its minority share holdings in Eldorado to Virgen.

Since the Company acquired the Ocros project, a total of 9,685m of diamond drilling in seventeen drillholes has been completed by three operators. The exploration work includes seven drillholes by the Company, one by Compania Minera Casapalca SAC, and nine by Virgen. Virgen owns the concessions adjacent and to the south of Ocros, where Virgen has been conducting small scale mining for several years.

Condor is an active explorer focused exclusively on Peru, supplemented by a project generator and royalty model designed to generate exploration capital whilst minimizing shareholder dilution. Our objective in advancing our portfolio of projects is the discovery of a major new precious metals or base metals deposit in Peru. Project acquisition and exploration activities are managed by the Company's Lima based exploration team.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Lyle Davis,

President & Chief Executive Officer

For further information please contact the Company at 1-866-642-5707, or by email at info@condorresources.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

SOURCE: Condor Resources Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/672626/Option-Granted-to-Acquire-Condors-Interest-in-the-Ocros-Project
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

For immediate release

12 November 2021

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES

The Company announces that it has today purchased 33,271 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 907.57p per Ordinary Share. Such shares will be held in treasury by the Company.

The transaction was made pursuant to the authority granted at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 17 February 2021.

Following this transaction, the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury is 564,967; the total number of Ordinary Shares that the Company has in issue, less the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury following such purchase, and therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 224,426,336.

The figure of 224,426,336 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for calculations of interests in the Company's voting rights in accordance with the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

For and on behalf of

Frostrow Capital LLP

Company Secretary

For further information, please contact:

Victoria Hale

Frostrow Capital LLP

Tel: 020 3 170 8732
HONG KONG, Nov 13, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - Grand Ming Group Holdings Limited (the "Company" and together with its subsidiaries, the "Group", stock code: 1271.HK) today announces its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2021 ("FH 2021/22").Highlights:- Profit for the Period amounted to HK$69.2 Million- Declared an Interim Dividend of 4.0 HK Cents per Share- Revenue amounted to HK$586.1 million, a decrease of 25.4% from the last corresponding period.- Net profit was HK$69.2 million, representing a decrease of 1.4%.- Underlying profit, excluding changes in fair value of investment properties, decreased 65.0% to HK$29.2 million- Declared payment of an interim dividend of 4.0 HK cents per share.- Scale up investments in upgrading the infrastructure and facilities of its existing data centres and look forward to expand the build-to-lease high tier data centre network.- Seize opportunity to increase land reserve for property development in Hong Kong.- Execute the plan for property development in Nanning, Guangxi Province, China and eye to explore opportunities to step into the Greater Bay Area, both target for luxurious senior residential market.The Group's consolidated revenue decreased 25.4% from HK$786.1 million for the six months ended 30 September 2020 ("FH 2020/21") to HK$586.1 million for FH 2021/22. Decrease in revenue was attributed to lower revenue being recognised from the construction project in Kai Tak which was at the completion stage during the period under review.The Group's net profit for FH 2021/22 was approximately HK$69.2 million, representing a decrease of approximately 1.4% when compared to that of approximately HK$70.2 million for FH 2020/21. Earnings per share was 4.9 HK cents (2020: 4.9 HK cents). The Group's underlying profit for FH 2021/22, excluding the change in fair value of investment properties, amounted to approximately HK$29.2 million, representing a decrease of approximately 65.0% as compared to an underlying profit of approximately HK$83.4 million for FH 2020/21. Underlying earnings per share was 2.1 HK cents (2020: 5.9 HK cents). The decrease in net profit was mainly due to the combined effect of: (i) lower revenue and profit recognised from construction project in Kai Tak which was at the completion stage during FH 2021/22; (ii) lower margin attained from the sales of 5 typical units of Cristallo during FH 2021/22 as compared to sales of 1 duplex and 1 typical unit during FH 2020/21; and (iii) fair value gain from the revaluation of the Group's investment properties.The Board declares to pay an interim dividend of 4.0 HK cents (2020: 4.0 HK cents) per share, payable on 16 December 2021 to shareholders whose names appear on the Company's register of members on 3 December 2021.During FH 2021/22, revenue derived from the construction business decreased by approximately 43.4% or HK$233.7 million, from approximately HK$538.0 million for FH 2020/21 to approximately HK$304.3 million for FH 2021/22. The decrease was primarily because lower revenue was recorded from the construction project at Kai Tak that was at the completion stage during the period under review.The data centre leasing business achieved a healthy growth. Revenue derived from this segment increased by approximately 17.6% or HK$13.8 million, from approximately HK$78.1 million for FH 2020/21 to approximately HK$91.9 million for FH 2021/22, primarily driven by the increased utilisation of data centre spaces in iTech Tower 2 (one of the Group's current data centre in Kwai Chung). The Group on the other hand execute the plan to expand its data centre network by acquiring two land parcels at No.3 On Kiu Street and No.8 On Chuen Street in Fanling, the New Territories respectively in September 2020. These two lands are planned to develop into two new high-tier data centres which are targeted to deliver in mid-2025 and mid-2026. Application for change of land use of the two lands are now in progress.The Group's first property development project "The Grand Marine" at Tsing Yi, the New Territories is being developed into two residential towers with clubhouse and car park facilities. It provides a saleable area of approximately 345,000 square feet for 776 residential units. The property's pre-sale which began in November 2019 received applauding sentiment and over 92% of the residential units had been pre-sold contributing total contracted sales of approximately HK$4.8 billion. Interior fitting-out works are in progress and the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.The Group's luxury residential project, CRISTALLO, at No. 279 Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon was well sold. Sales and delivery of five apartments had been completed, and revenue of approximately HK$188.9 million was recognized accordingly.The Group continues to grow the property development business by actively replenishing its land banks. In January 2021, the Group acquired a land parcel at No.1 Luen Fat Street, Fanling, the New Territories and intends to develop into a residential-cum-retail complex with a total gross floor area of approximately 36,000 square feet. The Group has submitted development plan for approval and thereafter will proceed with the change of land use and land premiums application. In early October 2021 the Group acquired a site located at No. 41, 43 and 45 Pau Chung Street in To Kwa Wan, Kowloon and will redevelop it into a residential-cum-commercial project which comprises a residential tower with retail shops at the lower level covering a total gross floor area of approximately 31,000 square feet. The general building plan for this project had been approved. Its foundation works had already been completed, and the superstructure works is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2022.The Group rolls out the expansion into Mainland China as planned. In July 2021, it acquired its first land parcel through government public auction which is located at Guangxi-ASEAN Economic and Technological Development Zone, Wuming District, Nanning City, Guangxi Province with a site area of approximately 53,334 square metres. The Group plans to develop the land into a composite of residential and commercial complex coupled with luxury residence comprising villa and low-rise apartment for the elderly and retired and their families under the theme of leisure and healthy lifestyle. The land site had been handed over to the Group and site clearance works are now underway. Planning and design works are also in progress.Mr. Chan Hung Ming, Chairman and Executive Director of Grand Ming Group Holdings concluded, "Turning to the long-term, we believe sustainable growth of the Group lies in parallel development of our property development and data centre build-to-lease businesses. The residential property market in Hong Kong remained resilient even in midst of the severe pandemic period which boosts our confidence to actively accumulate our land bank for future development. The surging demand for high-tier data centres prevails as remote work and learning mode shifts to a long-term trend. We will stay focused for refining our data centre portfolio so as to provide up-to-date superior infrastructure and facilities for our customers, while looking for suitable sites to expand our data centre network. On the other hand, because of the boom of ageing population, we see huge potential in the senior housing market in Mainland China especially for affluent senior population. We finally make our first move into the Mainland China via the acquisition of the land parcel in Wuming, Nanning City, PRC and we will keep on exploring potential property development projects, in particular senior residence projects, in Nanning and cities in the Greater Bay Area."About Grand Ming Group Holdings Limited (Stock code: 1271.HK)The Group is principally engaged in the business of building construction, property leasing and property development. As a local wholesale co-location provider of high-tier data centres, the Group is one of the dedicated service providers in Hong Kong which owns and uses the entire building for leasing to customers for data centre use. Its clientele includes multinational data centre operator, telecommunications company and financial institutions. The Group owns and operates two high-tier data centre buildings, namely iTech Tower 1 and iTech Tower 2. It also acquired two pieces of land in Fanling, the New Territories for developing into two high-tier data centres. Furthermore, the Group launches a residential development project namely "The Grand Marine" at Sai Shan Road, Tsing Yi, as well as a luxury residential project, Cristallo, at Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon. The Group also owns a piece of land at No.1 Luen Fat Street, Fanling, New Territories with total gross floor area of approximately 36,000 square feet for developing a residential-cum-retail complex, as well as a site at No. 41, 43 and 45 Pau Chung Street, To Kwa Wan, Kowloon for redeveloping into a residential-cum-commercial project with a total gross floor area of approximately 31,000 square feet. In Mainland China the Group owns a piece of land at Guangxi-ASEAN Economic and Technological Development Zone, Wuming District, Nanning City, Guangxi Province with a site area of approximately 53,334 square metres. Please visit www.grandming.com.hk/eng/intro.php.Media Contacts:Angel YeungJovian Communications LtdEmail: news@joviancomm.comSource: Grand Ming Group Holdings LimitedCopyright 2021 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Sprout AI Inc. (CSE: BYFM) ("Sprout AI" or the "Company") is a technologically focused, sustainable vertical farming company that has developed scalable, AI-controlled aeroponic cultivation habitats. Sprout AI's technology provides solutions to the ever-increasing complexities surrounding the current and future needs of a sustainable global food production and supply chain.

Sprout AI Beyond Farming announces that the Company has filed trademarks on the following names: "Sprout AI" "Sprout AI Beyond Farming" "Sprout AI Beyond Farm" including logo and text with the Trademark Office. Chris Bolton, the CEO of Sprout AI notes, "The trademarks will cover 139 countries and will help the Company to further protect its intellectual property, maintain its leading position in vertical farming technology, and enhance the Company's core competitiveness."

The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Bolton, CEO of Sprout AI as corporate secretary. Sprout AI is also pleased to announce that it will be working with Cornerstone Governance Corporation ("Cornerstone") who will support Chris Bolton in his role as Corporate Secretary. Cornerstone supports small to mid-sized companies, in various industries across Canada and around the world, by providing comprehensive governance and compliance solutions.

The Company wishes to take this opportunity to update its investors on the OTCQB application process which the Company began in July of 2021. While the Company continues to pursue OTCQB approval, it has unfortunately faced a barrier outside of its control. Promotional posts not solicited by the Company have been found on the internet. OTC Markets Group has notified the Company that such posts, solicited or not, prevent the Company from launching on OTCQB. The Company deeply appreciates its investor support but would like to kindly request that any investors publishing their own promotional materials on websites to please refrain from such activity. This does not include free speech on social platforms. The Company wishes to confirm to its investors that the team is doing everything within their means to secure a successful launch on the OTCQB market in a timely fashion.

About Sprout AI

Sprout AI is a vertical farming technology company in the business of planning, designing, manufacturing and/or assembling sustainable and scalable AI-controlled vertical cultivation equipment for indoor vertical farming. The adaptive technology produces an environment with improved growing parameters and early detection of adverse conditions resulting in consistent and repeatable crops, with shorter cultivation cycles independent of geographic climates.

The self-contained multi-level rolling rack technology increases the cubic cultivation area while mitigating the risk of outside and cross-contaminants.

For more information about Sprout AI, please visit https://www.sproutai.solutions.

Chief Executive Officer

Chris Bolton

Sprout AI Inc.

Phone: +011 (507) 6384-8734

E-mail: mainweb@sproutai.solutions

Investor Relations Contact

Colleen McKay

Sprout AI Inc.

Tel: + 1 (289) 231-9026

E-mail: cmckay@sproutai.solutions

Website: https://www.sproutai.solutions

Address: International Business Park, Unit 5B, Building 3860

Panama Pacifico, Republic of Panama

THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE, NOR HAS OR DOES THE CSE'S REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, with respect to the Company. The forward-looking information included in this news release is not based on historical facts but, rather, on the expectations of the Company's management regarding the future growth of the Company, its results of operations, performance, business prospects and opportunities. This news release uses words such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" or similar expressions to identify forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information reflects the current beliefs of the Company's management based on information currently available to them.

This forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements relating to: the order, intentions, plans and future actions of the Company; statements relating to the business and future activities of the Company; and anticipated developments in operations of the Company. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by the Company in light of the experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, and expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate and are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Although the Company believes that the assumptions underlying these statements are reasonable, they may prove to be incorrect, and there can be no assurance that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Given these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, prospective investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Whether actual results, performance or achievements will conform to the expectations and predictions of the Company is subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, including: global or national health concerns, including the outbreak of pandemic or contagious diseases, such as COVID-19 and including the evolution of new variants of COVID-19, the duration and effect thereof and delays relating to vaccine development, procurement and distribution; risks relating to the effective management of the Company's growth; liabilities and risks, including environmental liabilities and risks associated with the Company's operations; the Company's ability to attract and retain customers; the competitive nature of the industries in which the Company operates; and the other risk factors described in the Company's final long form prospectus dated May 31, 2021.

If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results might vary materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Information contained in forward-looking statements in this news release is provided as of the date of this news release, and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events or results, except to the extent required by applicable Canadian securities laws. Accordingly, potential investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or the information contained in those statements.

All the forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements.

Wire Service Contact

InvestorWire (IW)

Los Angeles, California

www.InvestorWire.com

212.418.1217 Office

Editor@InvestorWire.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103282
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Sayward Capital Corp. (TSXV: SAWC.P) ("Sayward") is pleased to announce that, in connection with its previously announced qualifying transaction (the "Qualifying Transaction") with Field Safe Solutions Inc. ("Field Safe") and pursuant to TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") requirements, it has filed a filing statement dated November 12, 2021 (the "Filing Statement") on SEDAR.

For further information regarding the Qualifying Transaction, readers are strongly encouraged to review the Filing Statement as well as Sayward's news releases dated July 28, 2021, September 21, 2021, November 2, 2021 and November 8, 2021, all of which are available under Sayward's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About Sayward

Sayward is incorporated under the Business Corporations Act (Alberta) (the "ABCA") and is a capital pool company within the meaning of the policies of the TSXV. Sayward has not commenced operations and has no assets other than cash. Sayward's principal business is the identification and evaluation of assets or businesses with a view to completing a "Qualifying Transaction" under Policy 2.4 - Capital Pool Companies of the TSXV.

About Field Safe

Field Safe is a privately-held corporation existing under the ABCA, incorporated on March 20, 2014. Field Safe is a Canadian software as a service company located in Calgary, Alberta that provides an easy-to-use worker safety platform that connects workers, improves safety, optimizes operations and lowers costs. Field Safe has been experiencing rapid growth which is illustrated through a 2,225% revenue increase from 2017 to 2020. Field Safe is a leader in the digital safety space and has 10 Fortune 1000 Companies that currently use their digital safety platform, including one of Canada's largest LNG projects.

Further Information

All information contained in this news release with respect to Sayward and Field Safe was supplied by the respective party, for inclusion herein, without independent review by the other party, and each party and its directors and officers have relied on the other party for any information concerning the other party.

Completion of the Qualifying Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, TSXV final acceptance and, if applicable pursuant to TSXV requirements, majority of the minority shareholder approval. The Qualifying Transaction cannot close until the required Field Safe shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the Qualifying Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circular of Field Safe or the Filing Statement, any information released or received with respect to the Qualifying Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of Sayward should be considered highly speculative.

The TSXV has not in any way passed upon the merits of the proposed Qualifying Transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirement. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

For further information, please contact:

Luke Caplette, Director

Sayward Capital Corp.

Email: lukecaplette@hotmail.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 news release.

Not for distribution to U.S. news wire services or for dissemination in the United States

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103292
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Sego Resources Inc., (TSXV: SGZ) ("Sego" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has closed a financing for total gross proceeds of $465,080, as previously announced on October 26, 2021 and November 8, 2021. The financing has been accepted for filing and closing by the TSX Venture Exchange.

CEO J Paul Stevenson stated, "The Company is now funded to drill the new Southern Gold Zone on its Miner Mountain Project, near Princeton, BC. The Southern Gold Zone is an apparent intrusive related gold system. Drilling is starting immediately."

Pursuant to the private placement, Sego will issue in total 5,167,555 flow-through shares at $0.09 per share for gross proceeds of $465,080.

The securities issued on closing are subject to the applicable statutory four-month + one-day hold period ending March 13, 2022. The proceeds will be expended on the continued exploration of the Company's Miner Mountain Southern Gold Zone located near Princeton, BC.

Certain finder's fees are payable on a portion of the private placement and consist of 7% cash and 7% Broker's Warrant. Each Broker's Warrant entitles the holder to subscribe for an additional share for $0.09 for two years from the closing of the private placement.

PI Financial Corp. received 7% cash ($12,045.60), 7% Broker's Warrants (133,840). Odlum Brown Limited received 7% cash ($5,323.50), 7% Broker's Warrants (59,150). Sightline Wealth Management received 7% cash ($1,890.00 cash), 7% Broker's Warrants (21,000). Echelon Capital Markets received 7% cash ($1,890.00), 7% Broker's Warrants (21,000).

Any Broker's Warrants exercised prior to March 13, 2022 will be subject to the hold period.

Insiders of the company subscribed for , with Selina Tribe, CFO and a director of the company, subscribing for 55,555 shares, Julian Jaffary, a deemed insider of the company, subscribing for 200,00 shares Aggregate Pro Group Involvement - 5 placees, 820,000 shares.

As a result, the private placement is a related-party transaction (as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 [Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions]). The company relied upon Section 5.5(a) (Fair Market Value Not More Than $2.5 million), Section 5.5(c) (Distribution of Securities for Cash), and exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements, respectively, under MI 61-101.

The Company fully expects to spend the funds as stated, however, there may be circumstances, for sound business reasons, where a reallocation of funds may be necessary.

There is no material change about the issuer that has not been generally disclosed.

For further information please contact:

J. Paul Stevenson, CEO (604) 682-2933 or

For investor & shareholder information, please contact:

MarketSmart Communications Inc.

Ph: 1 (877) 261-4466

Email: info@marketsmart.ca

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained in this news release.

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statement of historical facts that address future production, reserve potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that the Company expects re forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and those actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103326
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Wilton Resources Inc. (TSXV: WIL) (the "Corporation") is pleased to announce that it closed its previously announced non-brokered private placement of units in the capital of the Corporation ("Units") at a purchase price of $0.36 per Unit (the "Offering Price"), for total aggregate gross proceeds of $252,000.00 (the "Offering"). The principal use of the proceeds of the Offering will be for general corporate purposes and as a reserve to pursue the acquisition of an international oil and gas property.

Each Unit is comprised of one common share in the capital of the Corporation ("Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant ("Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share for a period of 24 months following the closing date of the Offering at an exercise price of $0.48 (the "Exercise Price").

No commission, finder's fee or similar payment (whether in the form of cash, securities or an interest in assets) were paid by the Corporation in connection with the Offering.

The Common Shares and Warrants issued in connection with the Offering and the Common Shares underlying the Warrants are subject to a statutory hold period of four months plus one day from the date of completion of the Offering, in accordance with applicable securities legislation.

In connection with closing of the Offering, 700,000 Units were issued to an Insider of the Corporation (as such term is defined under the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange). The participation of the Insider in the Offering constitutes a "related party transaction" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Corporation is relying upon exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of MI 61-101 based on a determination that the fair market value of the Offering, insofar as it involves the related party, does not exceed 25% of the market capitalization of the Corporation. The Corporation was not in a position to file a material change report more than 21 days in advance of the closing of the Offering, as the participation of the related party was not confirmed at that time.

The Offering was approved by the Corporation's board of directors by means of a unanimous resolution. In connection with the closing of the Offering, Mr. Glenn Smith subscribed for a total of 700,000 Units. As a result of his participation in the Offering, the percentage of the total outstanding Common Shares of the Corporation controlled by Mr. Smith, on an undiluted basis, increased by approximately 1.57%. Mr. Smith now has beneficial ownership of an aggregate of 10,143,427 Common Shares and 2,221,427 Warrants, representing approximately 15.93% of the Corporation's 63,665,263 issued and outstanding Common Shares on an undiluted basis and approximately 16.84% on a partially-diluted basis.

The TSX Venture Exchange provided final acceptance of the Offering on November 11, 2021.

For more information concerning the Corporation, please refer to the Corporation's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "intend", "may", "will", "expect", and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Corporation's current beliefs or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, this press release contains forward-looking information with respect to the principal uses of the proceeds of the Offering. Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to the Corporation. The material facts and assumptions include the intended use of proceeds remaining in the best interests of the Corporation. The Corporation cautions the reader that the above list of risk factors is not exhaustive. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and the Corporation is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Due to the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein.

For more information, please contact:

Wilton Resources Inc.

Richard Anderson

Chief Executive Officer and President

(403) 619-6609

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this release.

THE SECURITIES OFFERED HAVE NOT BEEN REGISTERED UNDER THE U.S. SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED, AND MAY NOT BE OFFERED OR SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES ABSENT REGISTRATION OR AN EXEMPTION FROM THE REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS. THIS PRESS RELEASE SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY NOR SHALL THERE BE ANY SALE OF THE SECURITIES IN ANY STATE IN WHICH SUCH OFFER, SOLICITATION OR SALE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.

Not for distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. Securities Laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103338
Hewitt takes on the challenge to be the first disabled person to trek from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole, unsupported and unassisted

Hewitt aims to complete the 1,000KM polar trek in 45 days arriving at the South Pole ahead of the centenary of legendary polar explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton's death

Hewitt and record-breaking polar explorer, Louis Rudd , will haul all the food and equipment needed for the mission in a 95kg pulk

Trekking to the South Pole marks the penultimate phase of the Adaptive Grand Slam: Hewitt's mission to climb the highest peak on every continent and walk to both poles to inspire others to push their boundaries and achieve their potential

OAXHACA, Chile, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Martin Hewitt, founder of accessible exploring charity Adaptive Grand Slam and Louis Rudd, Director of Expeditions at Shackleton , have embarked on a world first polar mission, aiming for Hewitt to become the first disabled person to reach the South Pole unsupported and unassisted from the Antarctic coast.

Hewitt's arrival at the South Pole will mark a significant step in the completion of the Adaptive Grand Slam (AGS), an adaptation of the infamous Explorers Grand Slam , which sees explorers trek to both poles and climb the seven highest mountain peaks on each continent.

To date, Hewitt and a team of disabled adventurers have overcome adversity and their various disabilities to successfully reach the North Pole unsupported and summited Mount Denali, Mount Elbrus, Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Aconcagua and Mount Everest, to inspire others with life-long injuries and disabilities to achieve their potential.

After sustaining a life-changing injury during military service resulting in the paralysis of his right arm, Hewitt established the AGS foundation to train and develop disabled teams to tackle extreme expeditions and challenges, supported by professional expedition leaders, to help members of the disabled community regain confidence, independence and meaningful occupation.

In Antarctica, Hewitt will be guided by Louis Rudd, a record-breaking polar adventurer who became the first Briton to traverse Antarctica solo, unsupported and unassisted in 2018.

Following months of meticulous preparation and extensive training designed to simulate Antarctica's uniquely challenging conditions, Hewitt and Rudd aim to complete the 1,000KM trek in just 45 days.

As an unsupported and unassisted trek, the pair will haul all the food and equipment needed for the polar mission on a specially-designed 95kg pulk. After reaching the Pole, they will then attempt to climb Mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica.

To accomplish the gruelling challenge and withstand one of the coldest climates on earth, the team will trek using Shackleton's Expedition Pulk Suit, which is specifically designed to protect them from the elements where temperatures can routinely reach -40.

On his departure, Martin Hewitt said "After months of physical and mental preparation, I'm ready to take on this challenge and can't wait to get a step closer to completing the Adaptive Grand Slam. I hope that by succeeding in this challenge, I can show people that you can achieve anything you set your mind to if you have support, drive and determination, and that a debilitating injury should never stand in your way."

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Adaptive Grand Slam

The Adaptive Grand Slam group exists to train and enable disabled adventurers to take on some of the most extreme expeditions and testing challenges on the planet and inspire others with life-long injuries and disabilities to achieve their goals. If you'd like to support the AGS foundation and learn more, please follow this link https://www.adaptivegrandslam.com/

Shackleton

Shackleton designs and develops performance apparel for people living and working in the world's extremes. Driven by exploration and innovation, our company is built on the life and values of polar titan Sir Ernest Shackleton and exists to inspire, prepare and equip people for the challenge. We design in London and work with the highest quality manufacturers in the UK, Italy and around the world. Fur-free and RDS-compliant, we are committed to continual improvement of our sustainability standards.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1687350/Shackleton_Apparel.jpg
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Nutritional High International Inc. (CSE: FUZN) (OTCQB: SPLIF) (the "Company") announced today that its common shares remain halted pending the filing of articles of amendment to give effect to its name change from "Nutritional High International Inc." to "High Fusion Inc." (the "Name Change"), the reclassification of its common shares to "subordinate voting shares" (the "Share Reclassification") and the creation of a new class of shares called "multiple voting shares".

The Company has been unable to file the articles of amendment due to a technical issue with the Company's access to Corporation Canada's online filing platform. The Company is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Once the articles are filed the multiple voting shares will be nearly identical to the subordinate voting shares but for the fact that each multiple voting share will carry the right to ten votes per share and have the economic equivalent of ten subordinate voting shares. The multiple voting shares are being created in connection with the Company's acquisition of substantially all the assets of OutCo Labs Inc. Pursuant to the acquisition, the multiple voting shares are being created in order to minimize the proportion of the outstanding voting securities of the Company that are held by "U.S. persons" for purposes of determining whether the Company is a "foreign private issuer" pursuant to United States securities laws. Further information about the Share Reclassification is available in the Company's information circular dated August 17, 2021, which is available under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

The CUSIP number assigned to the subordinate voting shares following the Name Change and Share Reclassification will be: CUSIP 42967W102 (ISIN CA42967W1023).

In connection with the Name Change and Share Reclassification, the trading symbol for the subordinate voting shares trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange has been changed from "EAT" to "FUZN".

About High Fusion Inc.

Nutritional High, to be rebranded High Fusion, is focused on developing and manufacturing branded products in the cannabis industry with a specific focus on flower, pro-rolls, vapes, edibles and oil extracts for medical and adult recreational use. The Company operates and controls license in California, Colorado and Oregon.

Nutritional High has manufacturing, retail and grow operations in California through its acquisition of the business of OutCo and owns and operates oil extraction and edible manufacturing facilities in Colorado and Oregon. The Company's brand portfolio includes its award winning FLI edibles and vape product, along with a number of new brands including Red Octopus and Dubbi Brothers in addition to the OutCo and Thrive brands recently acquired.

The Company also owns Neural Therapeutics Inc. (formerly Psychedelic Science Corp.) which is focused on ethnobotanical drug-discovery and development company. Neural Therapeutics is focused on developing products and conducting research on the psychoactive cacti plants with the primary objective to find where the historical use in traditional medicine has proven to be effective and capitalize on the opportunities that can be applied in modern medical and natural health product markets.

For updates on the Company's activities and highlights of the Company's press releases and other media coverage, please follow Nutritional High on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or visit www.nutritionalhigh.com.

For further information, please contact:

Nutritional High International Inc.

Robert Wilson, Chief Financial Officer

416-666-4005

Email: rwilson@nutritionalhigh.com

Neural Therapeutics Inc.

Ian Campbell, Chief Executive Officer

info@neuraltherapeutics.com

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR OTC MARKETS GROUP INC., NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDERS HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements include statements regarding: the development of products by Neural Therapeutics; potential for additional synergistic acquisitions; and availability of capital to continue research and development; ability to retain staff. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. This forward-looking information reflects the Company's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to the Company and on assumptions the Company believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to: the ability of the Company and Neural Therapeutics to successfully execute their business plans; legal changes relating to the cannabis and psychedelic industries proceeding as anticipated; and the Company's continued response and ability to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic being consistent with, or better than, its ability and response to date.

The Company's securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. Persons", as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; general capital market conditions and market prices for securities; the actual results of the Company's future operations; competition; changes in legislation affecting the Company; obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals including acquiring and renewing U.S. state, local or other licenses, the uncertainty of existing protection from U.S. federal or other prosecution, regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. state-law legalization, market and general economic conditions of the cannabis sector or otherwise; the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals; risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures, service disruptions, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, economic activity, financing, supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession; and a deterioration of financial markets that could limit the Company's ability to obtain external financing.

A description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in the Company's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated.

Forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this press release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this press release and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. However, the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103331
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - REX Opportunity Corp. ("REX" or the "Corporation") announces the resignation of Daniel Im from the REX Board of Directors.

The Corporation thanks Daniel for his contributions as a director to REX and wishes him all the best in his future endeavours.

"We have been fortunate to have Daniel on our board in our formative period evolving REX's YouTube royalty business. Thank you Daniel and best wishes," said REX CEO, Jim Boyle.

About REX

REX is a royalty company giving investors exposure to the creator economy. We acquire interests in creators' broadcast and streaming channels, rolling them into a public company. We offer the opportunity to invest directly in creators. With REX, creators and investors have the opportunity to share in the growth of the content industry.

For further information contact:



REX Opportunity Corp.

Jim Boyle, CEO

jim@rexopportunity.com

www.rexopportunity.com



Doug Ibbitson, CIO

doug@rexopportunity.com

No securities regulatory authority, stock exchange or regulatory services provider has reviewed or accepts responsibility for the content of this release.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities of the Corporation will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of U.S. persons except in certain transactions exempt from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103262
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 12, 2021 / Skeena Resources Limited (TSX:SKE)(NYSE:SKE) ("Skeena" or the "Company") reports the interim financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2021. The financial statements and management's discussion and analysis (MD&A) are available on Skeena's website and have been posted under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

About Skeena

Skeena Resources Limited is a Canadian mining exploration and development company focused on revitalizing the past-producing Eskay Creek gold-silver mine located in Tahltan Territory in the Golden Triangle of northwest British Columbia, Canada. The Company released a Prefeasibility Study for Eskay Creek in July 2021 which highlights an open-pit average grade of 4.57 g/t AuEq, an after-tax NPV5% of C$1.4B, 56% IRR, and a 1.4-year payback at US$1,550/oz Au. Skeena is currently completing both infill and exploration drilling to advance Eskay Creek to full Feasibility by Q1 2022.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Skeena Resources Limited,

Walter Coles Jr.

President & CEO

Contact Information

Investor Inquiries: info@skeenaresources.com

Office Phone: +1 604 684 8725

Company Website: www.skeenaresources.com

The scientific and technical information in this press release was approved by Paul Geddes, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 and Vice President, Exploration and Resource Development for the Company.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

Certain statements and information contained or incorporated by reference in this press release constitute "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These statements relate to future events or our future performance. The use of words such as "anticipates", "believes", "proposes", "contemplates", "generates", "targets", "is projected", "is planned", "considers", "estimates", "expects", "is expected", "potential" and similar expressions, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "might", "will", "could", or "would" be taken, achieved, or occur, may identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Specific forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the results of the PFS, completion of a feasibility study, processing capacity of the mine, anticipated mine life, probable reserves, estimated project capital and operating costs, sustaining costs, results of test work and studies, planned environmental assessments, the future price of metals, metal concentrate, and future exploration and development. Such forward-looking statements are based on material factors and/or assumptions which include, but are not limited to, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the realization of resource and reserve estimates, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes and the assumptions set forth herein and in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") for the year ended December 31, 2020, and the Company's Annual Information Form ("AIF") dated March 25, 2021. Such forward-looking statements represent the Company's management expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances on the date the statements are made, and are necessarily based on several estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date hereof, are not guarantees of future performance. Actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein, and are subject to significant operational, business, economic, and regulatory risks and uncertainties. The risks and uncertainties that may affect the forward-looking statements in this press release include, among others: the inherent risks involved in exploration and development of mineral properties, including permitting and other government approvals; changes in economic conditions, including changes in the price of gold and other key variables; changes in mine plans and other factors, including accidents, equipment breakdown, bad weather and other project execution delays, many of which are beyond the control of the Company; environmental risks and unanticipated reclamation expenses; and other risk factors identified in the Company's 2020 MD&A and AIF, and in the Company's other periodic filings with securities and regulatory authorities in Canada and the United States that are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com or on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

Readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligations to update and/or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE: Skeena Resources Limited

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/672692/Skeena-Reports-Q3-2021-Financial-Results
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2021) - Silverton Metals Corp. (TSXV: SVTN) (OTCQB: SVTNF) ("Silverton" or the "Company") announces that it has terminated its engagement of Future Money Trends LLC ("FMT"), effective immediately, as the Company was unable to receive approval of their engagement from the TSX Venture Exchange.

As announced on October 15, 2021, the Company entered into an agreement with FMT dated October 8, 2021 to raise awareness of the Company's shares among investors. The engagement was for an aggregate cost of CDN $600,000 (which payment was made March 9, 2021) for a term of twelve months. An affiliate of FMT, Wallace Hill Partners Ltd. ("Wallace Hill"), purchased 750,00 units at $0.80 per unit for proceeds of CDN $600,000 under the Company's private placement financing completed in March 2021. As the investor relations agreement was terminated prior to any services commencing, the Company has demanded FMT return the entire CDN $600,000 of unearned fees.

On behalf of the Board

John Theobald

President, CEO & Director

Silverton Metals Corp

About Silverton Metals Corp

Silverton Metals Corp is a Canadian company focused on the exploration and development of quality silver projects. The company holds a 100% interest in three significant silver assets in Mexico - Pluton, in Durango, Penasco Quemado in Sonora and La Frazada in Nayarit. Silverton management and board have extensive experience identifying and evaluating acquisition targets and exploration prospects. The company intends to build a strong portfolio of silver and gold-silver projects to drive future growth by exploration success and from later stage projects with production potential. To achieve this growth the Silverton business plan calls for a dynamic combination of development of its existing properties, acquisitions, and partnerships.

For further information please contact:

Silverton Metals Corp.

W. Barry Girling, VP Corporate Development and Director

(604) 683-0911

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Silverton cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain, and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Silverton's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Silverton's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Silverton undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103350


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The popular streaming platform, Netflix Inc (NFLX), announced on Friday that it will extend its free streaming offer to Vietnam. The offer, which was introduced earlier this year in Kenya, to get people have a taste of the shows to bring more people to the platform.



To avail off the offer, one needs to have an android phone where the users will have to install the application. After that, the users needs to add their email id and age proof to start watching from chosen catalogue of famous series.



According to the company, if the shows impress the viewers, they will have the option to join the paid membership plan. However, The service is restricted to mobile phones for now. Cathy Conk, the Director of product innovation, said, 'At Netflix, we believe that great stories have the ability to uplift us, move us and bring us closer to each other. If you've never watched Netflix before, the Free Plan is a great way to experience these stories for yourselves. And if you like what you see, it's easy to upgrade to one of our paid plans so you can enjoy our full catalog, even more features, and the option to enjoy Netflix on your TV or laptop.'



Conk said that Netflix is going to launch this trial package only in the Vietnam in Asia. Among the shows that will be available for free will be the top rated fan favorites like Squid Game, The Witcher, Money Heist, and Kingdom.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

NETFLIX-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
HealthSnap, a Miami, FL-based Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) platform for virtual chronic disease management, raised $5M in funding.

The round was led by OPKO Health, with participation from W-5 Group and 6nine26 and follow-on investments from existing investors Florida Funders, MacDonald Ventures, and Hard Facts.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth, expand clinical services nationally, and invest in R&D for expanded clinical use cases.

Led by Co-Founder and CEO Samson Magid, HealthSnap is an integrated Virtual Care Platform for healthcare organizations to improve patient outcomes, reduce utilization, and diversify revenue streams, for chronic disease-agnostic Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), AI-guided care coordination, virtual care delivery, automated RPM billing, population analytics  and more.

The companys platform helps healthcare providers manage chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and heart failure virtually by combining an integrated RPM solution, pre-configured and cellular-enabled health devices, and patient care management services all in one end-to-end solution.

HealthSnap is currently hiring for sales, customer success, and nurse positions.

FinSMEs

12/11/2021
PactFi, a New York-based fintech company focused on solving the pain points of the private credit market, closed its first institutional venture capital funding round of undisclosed amount.

Backers were not disclosed.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach.

Led by co-founder and CEO Emma Zhang, who previously specialized in credit trading, origination and structuring at Deutsche Bank, and co-founder and CTO Alexa Halcomb, who came from Reorg Research, a distressed debt data and analysis company, PactFi provides workflow and data structuring platform which captures transaction data and helps deal managers with product distribution and investment management. Its first focus area is the middle market private credit space.

FinSMEs

11/11/2021
The Naked Market , a San Francisco, CA-based next generation CPG business building a portfolio of food & beverage brands, raised $27.5m in Series A funding.

The round was led by Integrated Capital with participation from Great Oaks Venture Capital, Pacific Tiger Group, Sope Creek Capital and Clearco.

With this new capital, which is a mix of equity and debt, the company will focus on in-house incubation (both internal brands & celebrity products), scaling existing brands and opportunistic acquisitions.

Founded in 2019 by Harrison Fugman, Alex Kost and Tim Marbach, The Naked Market creates food brands through the use of its internal tech tool, The Machine. The Naked Market has developed the infrastructure and end-to-end expertise to conceptualize ideas and bring them to market within two to three months, with all elements from ideation to distribution handled in-house. Since inception, The Naked Market has created five brands including Flock Chicken Chips, AvoCrazy, Project Breakfast and Beach House Bowls. Its latest brand launch, Robs Backstage Popcorn, is a joint venture with the global pop sensation, Jonas Brothers.

FinSMEs

12/11/2021
Videra Health, an Orem, Utah-based remote patient monitoring video platform for behavioral health, raised $3m in seed funding.

The round was led by Peterson Ventures, with participation from Rose Park Advisors, OATV and Jeremy Andrus.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach.

Led by Loren Larsen, founder and CEO, Videra Health is an FDA-registered digital platform that connects providers and patients anytime, anywhere between visits and post-discharge. Patients are invited to check-in with their provider by answering traditional healthcare assessments questions as well as answer on video. The platform then extracts both quantitative and qualitative patient data and organizes and analyzes that data to assist with clinical decision making.

FinSMEs

12/11/2021
The Design of a Better Future in Haiti

Motivated by the many tragic events and disasters that have shaken the nation of Haiti, Flagler College Assistant Professor Chris Smith has started using his knowledge of graphic design and virtual learning to better the lives of Haitian students looking for marketable skills.

Its easy to say that we care about people, Smith said, but its another thing to actually do something about it.

Smith has been involved with an organization called Foundation Pierre Smith Mondelus (FPSM) for two semesters. FPSM is missioned with reaching out to Northern Haitians to equip them with valuable trade skills, education and resources to build up Haitis economy in the wake ongoing civil unrest and natural disasters.

The idea is to enable them to stay there and work from a distance or work locally instead of leaving Haiti, Smith said, to create opportunities for them to build up the economy and their lives with their families.

Chris Smith

Smith teaches Haitian students via Zoom skills in graphic design that can be carried onto the students professional careers and give an opportunity of an education to better their lives and their country. Smith is not paid to teach nor do the Haitian students pay for the course, and they are provided with laptops and software at no cost to them.

The students are in the age range of 18-30, and they are grateful to have this opportunity, you can really see that, they have such an eagerness to learn, Smith said.

Inspired by Anthony Bourdains show No Reservations and Sean Penns relief organization Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) based in Haiti, Smith knew that Haiti was in dire need.

I was watching Anthony Bourdains show and they had an episode based in Haiti, and it showed the town of Port au Prince, and it was pretty striking, Smith said, Bourdain ran into Sean Penn who described his relief organization in Haiti. My wife and I were so impressed by that, we looked at each other and said we have to do something, we have to donate to Sean Penns organization.

Smith felt the urge to contribute to the cause for help in Haiti, but it was by chance that he was connected to FPSM.

Shortly after we had watched the show, I got an email out of the blue from FPSM to volunteer in relief efforts in Haiti, Smith said.

FPSMs logo. (Courtesy of FPSM)

A former international student of Smiths had recommended him to work with FPSM, and the organization happened to reach out at just the right time.

It was noteworthy, and so unusual, Smith said. It was almost a sign for me to take part in the work they are doing there.

Smiths courses are designed to mimic similar coursework from the Flagler College graphic design program, but the Haitian students do not earn a degree or certificate, only experience that they can build a protfolio and take into their professional lives. The class meets twice weekly via Zoom for class sessions and has projects to complete as coursework.

The course teaches the students the basic graphic design software, and the course lasts the same amount of time more or less as a semester at Flagler, except I dont grade them, I just give feedback on their work, Smith said. I encourage the students to gather the work they do in the course into a professional portfolio so that they can hopefully gain future employment.

Although Smith was initially inspired to give money to a charity in Haiti, he has imparted more than money could ever buy, he has donated skills to the young people of Haiti that they can use to get employment for themselves and carve out a better future.

You dont have to donate money to help people. Its just a matter of donating time and giving someone knowledge and that they can hopefully perpetuate themselves, Smith said.

A student named Calebs Photoshop assignment. (Courtesy of Chris Smith)

Cutting a check can only do so much for a country like Haiti that constantly grapples with economic and infrastructural issues that are tangled in corruption. Volunteers like Smith at FPSM impart life skills and resources for Haiti to improve their countrys own economy through the skilled employment of its own people.

With Zoom, it is so easy to work with people at a distance that theres no reason not to do something like this, I already have all of the course materials and resources, Smith said. The great thing about working with these students is that they are so thrilled to be doing this and eager to learn, it makes it so worthwhile.

FPSM also provides free K-12 education in Haiti, as well as trade skills such as graphic design and agriculture and sewing. FPSM is a religious-affiliated organization that has a mission to plant churches and seminary education, but volunteers and students do not have any religious obligation to the program.

Shannon Miller, a leader in FPSM sees the hope and progress that the students are experiencing with their education through the foundations.

I have heard it said that hope is born when opportunity meets agency, Miller said. Chris Smith has provided these students and friends with a life-changing opportunity. The students agency, drive, and will is beyond encouraging to observe. Hope is born in one of the most despairing countries in the western hemisphere and it is beautiful to witness.

As a leader of FPSM, Miller is a firsthand witness to many of these students journeys within the program.

I have known these students for 13 years, and since they were little kids, the students Michaelson and Kiki would draw on whatever they could get their hands on, she said. What a joy to watch their gift and passion be developed into a future profession. It is a dream come true for them.

One of the students, Michaelson, was one of these children, and is in Smiths graphic design course.

A graphic design project designed by one of Smiths students, Michaelson. (Courtesy of Smith)

This program is amazing, I learn so much and dream so much, Michaelson said.

Smith has also been able to mark progress and see the students grow as a result of learning meaningful skills that could create entire careers for these rising students.

You can tell they love the idea of graphic design, and love American culture, Smith said. Theyre intrigued by those ideas and they are eager to learn more. I keep telling them theres no pressure to continue and they just keep coming back.

In recent news coverage, Haitian migrants and refugees are leaving Haiti to the United States by the hundreds in search of a new life, and the economy is collapsing as a result.

A lot of them dont want to flee, their families and what they know is there, Smith said. The idea of the program is to enable them to stay there and work from a distance or work locally.

Miller affirms this goal of the program and sees work that the volunteers like Smith are contributing to the building up of Haitis economy and workforce.

Haitis economy is fragile. Equipping and empowering these students to participate in the global economy can provide them with a genuine hope for a sustainable future, Miller said. I am eternally grateful for Professor Chris willingness, generosity, and care in making this program a reality.

Smith says that he plans to stay with the program for as long as they have need, and would like to travel to Haiti in the future to meet his students.

Im a teacher and its only natural to want to help others, especially those who dont have the same access and privilege that we do here, Smith said. I feel that I am doing something significant, and that I am very lucky to be able to be in this position to help others.

Donation or contribution information:

FPSM: Provide Relief, Development & Reconciliation in Haiti (foundationpsm.org)

Tagged As
Tampa, FL (33646)

Today

Rain showers early with some sunshine later in the day. High 77F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 51F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
One of the highlight features of Android 12 is its ability to create and set a custom system-wide theme that is based on the phones wallpaper. At the moment, the feature is only supported on Pixel devices. However, that may change soon as other manufacturers are said to introduce dynamic theme support in their smartphones too.

The theming system in Android 12 is codenamed Monet and is currently available only on Pixel devices. According to a new piece of code in Googles Material Components library, there are references to support for Monet by other manufacturers. The list includes OPPO, realme, OnePlus, vivo, Xiaomi, Motorola, Itel, Tecno Mobile, Infinix, HMD Global, Sharp, Sony, TCL, Lenovo, Google, and Roboelectric.

The notable exception from the list is Samsung, who already has their own dynamic theme engine in their One UI 4 beta software. In fact, it is unclear as to whether these Android manufacturers will utilize Googles algorithms for generating custom colours for the themes. It is very possible that manufacturers will use their own algorithms for this purpose, and use Android 12s theme system to simply apply the colours throughout the OS.

Source | Via 1, 2
The mastermind behind the 2016 killing of a teenager at a park in Missouri City as part of an effort to silence him as a witness in a murder trial has been sentenced to life in prison, according to a Thursday news release from the Harris County District Attorneys Office.
Hutu refugees have become refugees in orbit due to their desperate journey to seek asylum in distant countries due to fear of being assassinated or abducted by spies from their home government. They

11 Nov 2021

Dr C Kavuro

Rwandan refugees, in particular Hutu refugees, have been victims of physical attacks planned and perpetrated by their home government for more than two decades.

They fled their home country because of inter-ethnic conflict and the Tutsi minority-dominated governments desire to control the Hutu majority, who are blamed  as a group  for having committed genocide against the Tutsis. As a result, they are hunted down. The fact that potential Hutu refugees are being tracked for elimination compels them to be always on the run. Unsurprisingly, they have become refugees in orbit.

According to the European Commission, a refugee in orbit refers to a refugee who, although not returned directly to a country where they may be persecuted, is denied asylum or unable to find a state willing to examine their request, and are shuttled from one country to another in a constant search for asylum.

In a similar fashion, Hutu refugees have become refugees in orbit due to their desperate journey to seek asylum in distant countries due to fear of being assassinated or abducted by spies from their home government. They keep moving. They have become nomads in their attempts to find a secured asylum.

Hutu refugees are invisible in host communities because they refrain from engaging in activities that may expose their status and identities. They are targeted and assassinated everywhere, including in South Africa.

Although Hutus are the main target, Tutsi refugees, who fell out with the Tutsi-dominated regime and oppose or criticise its autocracy, have also been assassinated. These assassinations led to the closure of the Rwandan embassy in Pretoria and to the reluctance of the South African government to issue visas to Rwandans who wish to visit the country. International ties have been severed simply because the Rwandan government has consistently disrespected South Africas territorial integrity.

Despite these developments, Rwandas Tutsi-dominated government used the countrys economic progress to convince the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and host countries that Rwanda was safe for Hutu refugees to return. Consequently, the UNHCR declared in September 2002 that Rwanda was a safe country for the return of refugees.

This declaration led to negotiations and conclusions of tripartite agreements between the UNHCR, Rwanda and a number of African countries hosting Rwandan refugees.

The first countries to sign the tripartite agreements in 2002 were the Central African Republic (CAR), Burundi and Tanzania. This was followed by the conclusion of similar agreements with Zambia, Congo-Brazzaville, Uganda, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in 2003 and, finally, South Africa in 2004.

Implementation of these agreements was therefore incorporated under the 2004 Dialogue on Voluntary Repatriation and Sustainable Reintegration in Africa, which focused on the massive repatriation of refugees in nine African countries  Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

With regard to Hutu refugees, host countries were expected to implement the agreements in compliance with the UNHCRs Implementation of the Comprehensive Strategy for the Rwandan Refugee Situation, including the agencys Recommendations on the Applicability of the Ceased Circumstances Cessation Clause of 30 December 2011 (the Comprehensive Strategy).

This Comprehensive Strategy was supposed to lead to the cessation of refugee status of Rwandan refugees by 30 June 2013. Unfortunately for the refugees, this didnt happen as the date was further postponed to 31 December 2017. One could argue that the Comprehensive Strategy has had a negative impact on the asylum enjoyed by the Hutu refugees who are unwilling to return.

Despite the cessation clause being in force, African countries couldnt reach an agreement on what should happen to Hutu refugees. For example, the Zambian government opted for local integration through naturalisation, whereas its Ugandan, Malawian and South African counterparts indicated that they would not expel those who are not ready to return voluntarily. Zimbabwe and the DRC were ready to expel.

As time went on, African countries showed no political willingness to implement the cessation clause even when it became known that Rwanda was a minority-controlled military state where ordinary people disappeared daily, either because of being Hutu or because of their political beliefs.

It is important to point out that South Africa did not heed the call to implement the Comprehensive Strategy on two main grounds: 1) it was discriminatory; and 2) discrimination was a tacit admission that Rwanda is unsafe.

In 2013, Dr Naledi Pandor, the home affairs minister at the time, stressed that the Comprehensive Strategy was discriminatory in nature as it applied to, first, Rwandan refugees who sought asylum in African countries; and second, to those who fled Rwanda before 31 December 1998. The pertinent questions were why this strategy singled out those refugees who fled Rwanda before 1998 and why it targeted those refugees on the African continent.

The truth is that the Rwandan government was indeed targeting those Hutu refugees who fled the country between 1994 and 1998. They are politically portrayed by the Rwandan government as fugitives or genocidaires who are running from a crime. Yet, Hutu refugees on the African continent were targeted simply because African countries tend to listen to international organisations. We shouldnt be surprised that the UNHCR has been used as a political tool to continue the oppression of Hutus beyond Rwandas borders.

Hutu refugees are being hunted down because they are witnesses to heinous atrocities committed by the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) prior to, during and after the 1994 genocide. The RDF committed these crimes during its guerrilla war as a rebel group under the banner of the Rwandan Patriotic Army between October 1990 and July 1994.

After ascending to power in July 1994, the RDF invaded the DRC to repatriate Hutu refugees en masse. In December 1996, their refugee camps were bombed. Shells and mortar were deliberately fired into densely populated refugee camps, killing many Hutus. It is crucial to note that similar military operations were used to close down the internally displaced camps that accommodated Hutus.

Although some scholars have classified these atrocities as genocide against Hutus, the Rwandan government has denied it. This issue of genocide is, however, noted by the UN Mapping Report of 2010, which states that Hutu refugees were rounded up by the RDF and executed. Fearing for their lives, they embarked on a long and arduous journey across the dense forest of the DRC towards Angola, the CAR or Congo-Brazzaville as they sought asylum somewhere else. They ended up scattered all around the globe.

There is an urgent need for African countries, including South Africa, to recognise the pain and suffering of these refugees and thus bring an end to their protracted refugee situation which has had a negative impact on their children in particular. They can do so through local integration by granting these refugees permanent residency and naturalisation. This can help to alleviate their plight and restore their human dignity.

Without lasting solutions to their refugee situation, the lives of these people remain at risk because refugees are politically vulnerable and thus easier to be victimised by anyone, including their own government from which they have fled.



https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2021-11-11-stateless-rwandan-refugees-are-nomads-in-orbit-as-they-wander-the-globe-fearing-retribution/
News

editor's pick centerpiece featured

Amped-up art: League City electrical boxes turned into mini murals

STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Artist and League City resident Thelma K. Brown paints a colorful sky on an electrical box on the corner of state Highway 3 and Walker Street in League City on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Artist and League City resident Adam Socie paints a blue jay mural on the electrical box on the corner of FM 518 and Maple Leaf Drive in League City on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Artist and League City resident Adam Socie paints detail on a blue jay mural he created on the electrical box on the corner of FM 518 and Maple Leaf Drive in League City on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. PHOTOS BY STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News I didnt want to do anything that was anything other than beautiful, artist Thelma K. Brown said of her colorful sky mural on a League City electrical box, Nov. 11, 2021. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Artist Adam Socie said he looks forward to doing more public art for League City. Being in places where theres no art at all, its depressing to drive around, he said. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Artist Thelma K. Brown said she found working with latex paint for her mural wasnt as difficult as she thought it was going to be, Nov. 11, 2021.

LEAGUE CITY

Thelma K. Brown stood at the corner of Walker Street and state Highway 3 painting clouds and a bright blue sky on an electrical box Thursday morning.

The League City artist was commissioned to turn the box into a work of art as part of the citys public art initiative. For her masterpiece, Brown painted a colorful scene of gulls flying above the beach.

I didnt want to do anything that was anything other than beautiful, Brown said as she added gray to her white clouds. I didnt want to do a controversial piece. I didnt want to do a political thing. I just wanted to bring beauty to this world.

Brown is one of five artists commissioned to paint six electrical boxes around town, city spokeswoman Sarah Greer Osborne said. The boxes are expected to be completed by the end of December, with another six planned for the spring, she said.

The artists were chosen by the Keep League City Beautiful Citizen Committee with the help of consultant UP Art Studio in Houston, Osborne said. The studio previously had helped the city with a survey to evaluate how to expand public art, she said. The 12 electrical boxes were selected because they were all new and wont need to be replaced anytime soon, she said.

Brown, who has always loved art and has sold a few paintings, was surprised when she found out she had been selected to paint one of the electrical boxes, she said. Originally from Louisiana, she and her husband moved to League City 10 years ago. Although she has painted for years, this was her first time tackling such a project, she said.

Its not as difficult as I thought it was going to be, she said. I thought it might be a little difficult working with latex paint because I wasnt used to it.

Professionals with UP Art Studio recommended products for Brown to use, and she learned tips for painting electrical boxes from YouTube, she said. She hopes to complete the box by Tuesday, she said.

The artists for the first six murals come from League City or the surrounding area, with the exception of one artist from Magnolia, and the boxes all have a theme, Osborne said.

The first six are all nature related, she said. The theme was League Citys natural assets.

One of those artists is Adam Pilot Socie, who has painted murals all over the world, including places with much less public art than League City.

Being in places where theres no art at all, its depressing to drive around, he said.

Socie painted an electrical box at the intersection of Maple Leaf Drive and FM 518 with blue jays, and hes excited for his family, who lives in the area, to see it on a regular basis, he said.

The hardest people to impress are the ones that live in my house, he said.

The artists for the other six still need to be selected from the artist registry managed by UP Art Studio, Osborne said. Those boxes will be on Main Street and decorated with art of League Citys history, she said.

The city also plans to partner with Clear Creek Independent School Districts League City schools to create student-designed wraps to cover additional boxes, Osborne said.

By the end of summer 2022, well have 12 painted boxes and an additional 20 wraps, she said.

The public art initiative isnt restricted to just electrical boxes. The city also opened a rotating art gallery in the Johnnie Arolfo Civic Center, 400 W. Walker St., in August with themed exhibits that change every month. Brown has had two of her pieces featured in the rotating exhibit.

More public art is planned for next year to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the citys incorporation, Osborne said. Although Osborne didnt want to reveal too much, she said there are plans to put in interactive murals for taking selfies.

Socie already has been commissioned to paint a mural in League Park the weekend after Thanksgiving, and he has plans for a larger mural next year.

I hope to do a lot more for League City, he said.

The publics response to all of the artistic endeavors has been more than expected, Osborne said.

Just the response from people who are artists in our community who enjoy art and that want to be a part of it is just really exciting, she said.

Browns electrical box already is bringing smiles to the faces of League City residents. As she was focused on perfecting the clouds, a man drove by in his car.

You bring out the best in humanity, he said before driving away.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Holberton , the software engineering education company, announced today that it has partnered with SAYNA, an online education & IT micro job company in Madagascar, to offer affordable, high-quality tech education in the country.



Holberton will work with SAYNA to create three, tailored, full-stack web curricula using Holbertons OS of education , a set of tools that enable organizations to quickly create courses or curricula on their own.

We are delighted to work with such an innovative education company in deploying our OS of education to create opportunities for students to join the digital revolution that is sweeping the world, said Julien Barbier , Holbertons CEO.

The Republic of Madagascar is the worlds second-largest island country, located in the Indian Ocean about 250 miles West of Africa. With a population of nearly 30 million, per capita annual income of $450 and GDP of $13 billion, Madagascar has been a surprising hotbed of recent technology innovations, with high local demand for software engineering talent. The worlds first 3D-printed school is being built in Madagascar.

The Holberton-SAYNA curricula in Madagascar include:

The Fighter program: a 12-month, flexible, part-time program to become a web developer;

The Student program: a 24-month, full-time program to become a software engineer;

The Executive program: a 9-month program for developers to specialize in new technologies.



SAYNA gives its students the opportunity for real-world work experience through IT micro tasks funded by companies such as Group AXIAN (global telecommunication - mobile banking - real estate - IT - energy firm), World Bank (institutions), Orange (telecommunications), Acces Banque (SMEs). Students not only progress through these IT micro tasks but earn money as well. The better students perform in their studies, the more access they have to high level IT micro tasks and future employment.

As elsewhere in 2020, online education boomed In Madagascar as many people lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic and sought retraining. Meanwhile, Madagascars demand for software developers has exploded.

With this partnership, SAYNA expects to train 500 new software developers this year alone and hopes for exponential growth from there.

Giving everyone in Madagascar access to high-quality software engineering training will help Madagascars economy, says Matina Razafimahefa, CEO of SAYNA. That growth will also develop the local startup ecosystem.

Are you in Madagascar and interested in becoming a software developer and participating in creating the future? Apply here !

About Holberton

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2015, Holberton s innovative and flexible delivery of the OS of Education provides a unique portfolio of tools, auto-graded tailored curricula and teaching methods to help its customers - education institutions, universities, corporations and franchisees - successfully train the next generation of digital talent at scale.

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on Twitter

About SAYNA

Founded in Madagascar in 2018, SAYNA , which means intelligence in Malagasy, is Africas first technology education and IT micro job platform. SAYNA links a community of developers it has trained with IT projects that have been broken down into micro tasks. SAYNA has already trained more than 200 students, and works with more than 150 qualified freelancers and more than 60 companies, including Groupe AXIAN, Orange Madagascar, World Bank, Access Bank and others.
Carson City, NV, Nov. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Franklin Mining CEO William Petty (OTC Pink: FMNJ) has signed an open future sales and purchase agreement with Mr. Carlos Terrones, the concessionaire of the San Javier Dorado Pororo mining grant. This agreement will allow Dolomite to be produced at the Pororo mining area, as part of the Amazon For Life project.

The Amazon For Life project plans to implement an approach known as Integrated Land Management throughout 14,826 Acres (6,000 ha) of private land and Indigenous Community land in order to plant a productive, fast-growing, and high-value tree species. The project is a large forestry and farming endeavor, in alliance with local Amazonian tribes and forest protection efforts.

In Bolivia, the Santa Cruz department is traditionally dedicated to intensive agriculture and cattle ranching. As a result, soils in the region are in urgent need of stabilization. Dolomite is a soil stabilizer required to balance the earth before fertilizers can be used. Currently imported from Brazil, the high cost of import makes its extended use difficult for farmers in the region. Having a local supply chain would improve farming conditions by increasing land rotation and reducing the need to expand into forested areas.

By signing this sales agreement, Franklin Mining can continue on its support for the preservation of the environment and food security for the people of Bolivia. Plantations will not disrupt the water table and no chemical fertilizers will be used. This project will be certified by a leading Carbon Credit organization to assure that international guidelines in order to help revert deforestation will be followed.

Franklin Mining realiza la primera venta de Dolomita, se une al proyecto Amazon For Life

Safe Harbor Act: This release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward- looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may," "future," "plan" or "planned," "will" or "should," "expected," "anticipates," "draft, eventually or projected." You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report.
NEW YORK, Nov. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the American Depositary Shares (ADSs) of Waterdrop Inc. (NYSE: WDH) pursuant and/or traceable to the Companys initial public offering conducted in May 2021 (the IPO), of the important November 15, 2021 lead plaintiff deadline.



SO WHAT: If you purchased Waterdrop ADSs pursuant and/or traceable to the IPO you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Waterdrop class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2158.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than November 15, 2021. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs Bar. Many of the firms attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, the IPOs registration statement featured false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Waterdrop had achieved a substantial portion of its historical revenue growth through illicit means that ran afoul of Chinese rules and regulations governing the insurance industry; (2) Waterdrop had been ordered by the Chinese government to shut down its mutual aid platform because of its failure to comply with Chinese law; (3) Waterdrop was under investigation by regulatory authorities for continued violations of Chinese law; (4) as a result of the foregoing, there existed a material undisclosed risk and substantial likelihood that Waterdrop would face severe adverse actions by regulatory authorities following the IPO; (5) Waterdrops operating losses had increased more than four-fold in the first quarter of 2021 as a result of the cessation of its mutual aid business and rapidly growing customer acquisition costs; and (6) as a result of the foregoing, the IPO registration statements representations regarding Waterdrops historical financial and operational metrics and purported market opportunities did not accurately reflect the actual business, operations, and financial results and trajectory of the Company in the lead up to the IPO, were materially false and misleading, and lacked a factual basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the Waterdrop class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2158.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investors ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:



Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

lrosen@rosenlegal.com

pkim@rosenlegal.com

cases@rosenlegal.com

www.rosenlegal.com
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES OR OVER UNITED STATES WIRE SERVICES



CARLSBAD, Calif., Nov. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aurora Spine Corporation (Aurora Spine or the Company) (TSXV: ASG) (OTCQB: ASAPF), a designer and manufacturer of innovative medical devices that improve spinal surgery outcomes, today announced it will issue its financial results press release for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021 on Tuesday, November 16, 2021. Management will host a webcast that day at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss the results.

Investors that would like to pose questions to the management team on the webcast are encouraged to do so by emailing ASAPF@Lythampartners.com.

Third Quarter 2021 Webcast Details

Date and Time: Tuesday, November 16, 2021, at 4:30 p.m. ET

Live Webcast Information: Interested parties can access the conference call via a live webcast, which is available in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at https://www.aurora-spine.com/investors-v02 or via the following link: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2422/43658.

Replay: A replay of the webcast will be available in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at https://www.aurora-spine.com/investors-v02 or at https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2422/43658 for 90 days.

About Aurora Spine

Aurora Spine is focused on bringing new solutions to the spinal implant market through a series of innovative, minimally invasive, regenerative spinal implant technologies. Additional information can be accessed at www.aurora-spine.com or www.aurorapaincare.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information that involves substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, most of which are beyond the control of Aurora Spine, including, without limitation, those listed under "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information" in Aurora Spine's final prospectus (collectively, "forward-looking information"). Forward-looking information in this news release includes information concerning the proposed use and success of the companys products in surgical procedures. Aurora Spine cautions investors of Aurora Spine's securities about important factors that could cause Aurora Spine's actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements included in this news release. Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not historical facts and may be forward-looking and may involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ unilaterally from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. No assurance can be given that the expectations set out herein will prove to be correct and, accordingly, prospective investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release and Aurora Spine does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

Contact:

Aurora Spine Corporation

Trent Northcutt

President and Chief Executive Officer

(760) 424-2004

Chad Clouse

Chief Financial Officer

(760) 424-2004

www.aurora-spine.com

Adam Lowensteiner

LYTHAM PARTNERS, LLC

Phoenix | New York

Telephone: 646-829-9700

asapf@lythampartners.com
NEW YORK, Nov. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized stockholder rights law firm, has launched an investigation into whether the officers or directors of Independence Holding Company (NYSE: IHC) breached their fiduciary duties or violated the federal securities laws in connection with the companys acquisition by Geneva Holdings, Inc.



Click here to learn more and participate in the action.

On November 9, 2021, Independence announced that it had entered into an agreement to be acquired by Geneva in an all-cash transaction. Pursuant to the merger agreement, Independence stockholders will receive $57 in cash for each share of Independence common stock owned.

Bragar Eagel & Squire is concerned that Independences board of directors oversaw an unfair process and ultimately agreed to an inadequate merger agreement. Accordingly, the firm is investigating all relevant aspects of the deal and is committed to securing the best result possible for Independences stockholders.

If you own shares of Independence and are concerned about the proposed merger, or you are interested in learning more about the investigation or your legal rights and remedies, please contact Melissa Fortunato or Alexandra Raymond by email at investigations@bespc.com or telephone at (646) 860-9157, or by filling out this contact form. There is no cost or obligation to you.

About Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.:

Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is a nationally recognized law firm with offices in New York, California, and South Carolina. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in commercial, securities, derivative, and other complex litigation in state and federal courts across the country. For more information about the firm, please visit www.bespc.com . Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
NEW YORK, Nov. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Gaotu Techedu Inc. f/k/a GSX Techedu Inc. (NYSE: GOTU, GSX) between March 22, 2021 and March 29, 2021, inclusive (the Class Period), of the important December 20, 2021 lead plaintiff deadline.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Gaotu securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Gaotu class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2182.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than December 20, 2021. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs Bar. Many of the firms attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Goldman Sachs) and Morgan Stanley sold a large amount of Gaotu American Depository Shares (ADSs) during the Class Period while in possession of material non-public information about Archegos Capital Management (at the time a family office with $10 billion under management) and its need to fully liquidate its position in Gaotu because of margin call pressure. As a result of these sales, the defendants in the case, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, avoided billions in losses combined.

To join the Gaotu class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2182.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investors ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:



Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

lrosen@rosenlegal.com

pkim@rosenlegal.com

cases@rosenlegal.com

www.rosenlegal.com
English French

OTTAWA, Nov. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 100th anniversary of the Poppy as the countrys symbol of Remembrance was the theme of Canadas National Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa. The gathering with all its traditional elements took place under a bright yet chilly sky. The yearly solemn commemoration honours all men and women who have given their lives in the service of this country.



Pandemic precautions restricted the number of participants once again this year, however due to recent changes to crowd restrictions in Ontario and Ottawa, spectators were welcome to attend. All who were present paid tribute accompanied by prayers, special music, a 21-gun salute, and a fly-past by CF-18 Hornet aircraft. The annual ceremony organized by The Royal Canadian Legion ensures the country never forgets our fallen Veterans.

We may sometimes take our freedoms for granted, said Dominion President Bruce Julian. However, we must always remember how fortunate we are, and hold our Veterans in our hearts not only on November 11, but throughout the year.

Mme. Josee Simard, this years National Silver Cross Mother laid a wreath on behalf of all military mothers who have lost children in service to their country. Her daughter, Canadian Army Corporal Karine Blais, died in 2009 when the vehicle she was in, hit a roadside bomb near Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Members of the Vice-Regal Party laid a wreath at the base of the National War Memorial. They included Canadas Governor-General Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary May Simon; Canadas Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau; the Minister of Veterans Affairs Canada, the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay; Acting Chief of the Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre; the Speaker of the Senate of Canada, The Honourable George Fury, and the Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, the Honourable Anthony Rota. Remembrance-themed poster and literary contest artists Ryan McCardle and Louise McCrow laid a wreath on behalf of the youth of Canada. The Legions Dominion President and representatives of Veteran organizations also paid tribute in this way.

Groups and individuals took time to place their poppies on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier after the official ceremony  a symbolic act that has become an ongoing tradition.

On November 11 over 117,000 animated poppies  each representing one of Canadas Fallen  will once again cascade on the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, and the Poppy Drop will appear on the Senate building and the National Arts Centres glass tower for a final evening, until midnight.

About The Royal Canadian Legion

Founded in 1925, the Legion is Canadas largest Veteran support and community service organization. We are a non-profit organization with a national reach across Canada as well as branches in the U.S., and Europe. With close to 250,000 members, many of whom volunteer an extraordinary amount of time to their branches, our strength is in our numbers.

Public Relations / Media Inquiries: Nujma Bond PublicRelations@Legion.ca/ 343-540-7604

Legion.ca

Facebook.com/CanadianLegion

Twitter.com/RoyalCdnLegion

Instagram.com/royalcanadianlegion

youtube.com/user/RCLDominionCommand

vimeo.com/royalcanadianlegion

Linkedin.com/company/royalcanadianlegion

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f4799880-f926-4257-9cdc-7db4ae1511ee

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8c4b1f41-902d-469a-9c44-75e11680f93b
Press Release

Nokia calls for accelerated digitalization and green energy uptake, sets sights on 100% green electricity by 2025

Nokia advocates for the world to digitalize to reach net zero and align the digital and green transformations.

New 100% renewable electricity target across Nokia facilities, including offices, R&D labs, and factories.

Call for public sector to provide framework for stimulus, regulation and standardization that supports greener, digitalized world.





12 November 2021

Espoo, Finland  Nokia has called for accelerated digitalization and green energy uptake, as well as setting its sights on 100% renewable electricity in its own operations by 2025.

The announcement comes with world leaders having convened in Glasgow, Scotland for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). Nokia President and CEO Pekka Lundmark joined political, business, and civil society leaders at the conference, calling for an acceleration in the uptake of green technology to reach net zero.

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO of Nokia, said: There is no green without digital. Only 30% of the worlds economy is currently digitalized, and we must now work to connect the remaining 70% to ensure the world can reach net zero. 5G and related technologies play a critical role in making other industries more sustainable. At the same time the ICT industry needs to minimize its footprint and accelerate the use of green electricity"

Nokia now targets to achieve 100% purchased electricity from renewable sources by 2025 to power its offices, R&D labs, and factories. [1] While renewable energy is not currently available in all 120 countries where Nokia operates, it will work with the broader ecosystem to drive greater uptake of sustainable electricity.

Digitalization is critical for making industries more sustainable  resulting in less waste, more resource efficiency and greater productivity. For instance, in the energy sector, digitalization can help wind farm operators automate offshore windfarms, allowing them to operate more productively. [2] In agriculture, the adoption of digital technology can increase yields, reduce costs, and cut water use. [3] Across manufacturing, converting to smart manufacturing can help secure annual productivity and energy-saving gains of 10-20%. [4] While recent research suggests the COVID-19 pandemic speeded up digitalization by an average of six years, the greater part of the worlds economy lacks access to key digital technologies. [5]

Nokia has already committed to reducing its emissions by 50% across its value chain, including own operations, products in use, logistics, and final assembly supplier factories by 2030. Its commitments have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to be in line with the Paris Agreements aim of limiting global warming to 1.5C. With 90% of its emissions coming from customer use of products, Nokia continually invests in improving product energy efficiency  even as capacity grows. [6]

About Nokia

At 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.

Notes to editors

[1] In 2020, 39% of Nokias total purchased electricity was from renewable sources.

[2] Improved connectivity at offshore wind farms can improve safety, allowing workers to operate safely to their full capacity, as well as enabling early detection and prevention of wind turbine failure with remote monitoring, control and inspections.

[3] Nokia Bell Labs estimates that if 25 percent of all farms adopted precision farming by 2030, it would lead to yield increases of up to 300 million tons per year, a reduction in farming costs of up to US$100 billion per year and a reduction of waste water by up to 150 billion cubic meters per year.

[4] According to research by Nokia and GSMA Intelligence, annual productivity and energy-saving gains of 1020% can be realized through the conversion to smart factories.

[5] A recent survey of over 2,500 companies across all industries worldwide found that

COVID-19 has accelerated the implementation of digital communications by six years on average.

[6] Nokias ReefShark powered plug-in cards cut power consumption by up to 75%, while its FP5 routing silicon reduces power consumption by 75% compared to previous generations. New cooling systems developed by Nokia for energy-intensive base stations can reduce energy use by roughly 70%.

Media Inquiries:

Nokia

Communications

Phone: +358 10 448 4900

Email: press.services@nokia.com
LISBON, Portugal, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Escrow Protocol, a decentralized funding platform made to protect investors from investment loss, announces the release of its first platform features and an upcoming exchange listing. Investors and projects within the crypto space, eagerly await to usher in the new digital era of investing.



Escrow Protocol is a Blockchain-based Web3 platform where investors can fund start-ups with extended control of their financial contributions. Funding is released based on the projects successful completion of pre-determined Milestones. The Escrow Protocol acts as a digital middleman that uses smart-contracts to enforce the to be respected parameters of funding conditions. In a crypto world where 90% of startups fail as they get all the funding at once upfront, projects often dont know how to plan and roadmap for the long term, resulting in this extremely high failure rate. Escrows milestone solution would enhance the chances of success of a startup as well as the return on investors funding through the many DeFi features the app is going to offer its users. A platform like this is a great step forward to establishing a safer, more secure and transparent way to invest in crypto startups.

Escrow secures investors funds through the time-honored practice of putting funds into escrow; then using community governance and smart contracts to release pre-arranged payouts for specific project developments that both parties have agreed to fulfill prior to fundraising.

In addition, Escrow held funds are allocated to Yield-Farming protocols, maximizing value appreciation through interest gains while waiting for pay-out on future funding targets, giving investors the best of both worlds. Saving & Investing in one.

Why Escrow?

Escrow is working towards positioning itself to become the standard of secure investments for both retail and institutional investors, opening doors to the New Digital World. With the many benefits in new technologies available, the project will implement unprecedented manners of financial interaction.

Being a first mover in the space, the platform is set to replace traditional escrow services with the power of the blockchain and governance mechanisms.

Should a funded projects development not be satisfactory, the investor community can vote to block further funding releases and return the invested money. Escrow held funds during development are appreciating on Yield Farming Protocols where over the course of 1 year the protocol is able to generate 15-20% in interest gains.

There is no need for any Start-Up to sit on gigantic sums of raised money for months or years while they are developing the basic infrastructure of their project. Instead of the entire raised capital being received by the project, it is released in pre-arranged sums. This allows investors to remain in control of their funds, and motivates the start-up to deliver quality results in a timely manner.

Escrow Protocol Web Platform Release

The company has announced the first release of the Web3 platform which will include features like User Registration that mints a unique NFT based ID-Card to access the site.

In addition users will be able to start utilizing the platforms staking pool where they can deposit their ESCROW earning up to 15% APY on their tokens. New features will be released in sections as developments get completed on a bi-weekly basis. It is expected to have the final release in early 2022, allowing for the first projects to premiere on Escrow Protocol for their fundraising rounds.

The Team has indicated that an exchange listing is imminent and will be announcing the date soon. Rumor has it that a Top Tier Exchange listing is in the works, getting Escrow off on a great start. In the meantime, the community is getting ready to secure their spots on the web3 platform and is excited for the public offering of ESCROW tokens, shaping a new era for crypto investing.

To learn more about Escrow Protocol visit escrowprotocol.app

Social Links

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EscrowProtocol

Telegram: https://t.me/Escrow_Protocol_Chat

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Escrow.Protocol

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/escrow_protocol/

Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRu2OSRV6gMWStoWCgXyiuw

Explainer Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeT493fSq24

Media Contact

Company: ESCROW PROTOCOL

Email: media@escrowprotocol.app

Website: https://escrowprotocol.app/

SOURCE: Escrow Protocol
New York, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Military Sensors Market Research Report by Component, by Platform, by Application, by Region - Global Forecast to 2026 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06183363/?utm_source=GNW



The Global Military Sensors Market size was estimated at USD 9,241.45 million in 2020 and expected to reach USD 10,268.18 million in 2021, at a CAGR 11.44% to reach USD 17,708.58 million by 2026.



Market Statistics:

The report provides market sizing and forecast across five major currencies - USD, EUR GBP, JPY, and AUD. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2019 are considered historical years, 2020 as the base year, 2021 as the estimated year, and years from 2022 to 2026 are considered the forecast period.



Market Segmentation & Coverage:

This research report categorizes the Military Sensors to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Component , the market was studied across Cybersecurity Solutions, Hardware, and Software. The Hardware is further studied across Networks, Processors, Sensors, and Storage. The Sensors is further studied across Accelerometers, Acoustic Sensors, Altimeter Sensors, Aoa Sensors, Flow Sensors, Force Sensors, Gas Sensors, Gps Sensors, Gyroscopes, Infrared Cameras, Laser Rangefinders, Laser Target Designators, Level Sensors, Lidar, Magnetic Sensors, Particle Sensors, Pitot Probes, Position Or Displacement Sensors, Pressure Sensors, Proximity Sensors, Radars, Seismic Sensors, Smoke Detectors, Sonars, Speed-sensors, Temperature Sensors, and Torque Sensors. The Software is further studied across Data Fusion and Data Processing.



Based on Platform , the market was studied across Airborne, Land, Munitions, Naval, and Space. The Airborne is further studied across Combat Support Aircraft, Fighter Aircraft, Helicopters, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The Land is further studied across Armored Ground Vehicles, Combat Support Vehicles, Operating Bases, Soldiers, and Unmanned Ground Vehicles. The Munitions is further studied across Artillery Systems, Guided Ammunition, Rockets & Missiles, and Torpedoes. The Naval is further studied across Combat Ships, Combat Support Ships, Submarines, and Unmanned Marine Vehicles.



Based on Application, the market was studied across Combat Operations, Command & Control, Communication & Navigation, Electronic Warfare, Intelligence & Reconnaissance, Surveillance & Monitoring, and Target Recognition.



Based on Region, the market was studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa is further studied across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.



Cumulative Impact of COVID-19:

COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market.



Competitive Strategic Window:

The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period.



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Military Sensors Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape.



Market Share Analysis:

The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits.



Competitive Scenario:

The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at the different stage while keeping up-to-date with the business and engage stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger & Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership, New Product Launch & Enhancement, Investment & Funding, and Award, Recognition, & Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitors strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service.



Company Usability Profiles:

The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Military Sensors Market, including Bae Systems Plc, Esterline Technologies Corporation, General Electric Company, Honeywell International Inc., Imperx, Kongsberg Gruppen, Lockheed Martin, Microflown Avisa B.V., Raytheon, Rockwest Solutions, Te Connectivity Ltd., Thales, Ultra Electronics, Vectornav Technologies, Llc, and Viooa Imaging Technology.



The report provides insights on the following pointers:

1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players

2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets

3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments

4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players

5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments



The report answers questions such as:

1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Military Sensors Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Military Sensors Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Military Sensors Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Military Sensors Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Military Sensors Market?

6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Military Sensors Market?

7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Military Sensors Market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06183363/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wingamm , the leading provider of luxury compact RVs in Europe, which recently announced its expansion to the US market, will debut their Oasi 540 at Santa Monica Place in Santa Monica, California, and Walt Whitman Shops in Long Island, NY. The Wingamm Oasi 540 will be the first of many compact Wingamm RV's to take the retail-first strategy and display in high foot-traffic locations in high-end malls.

Santa Monica Place, located just steps away from the Pacific Ocean and iconic Santa Monica Pier, is a unique, outdoor shopping destination that is home to luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Nike, Tiffany & Co., and more, as well as a collection of specialty shops, digitally native brands and inspired dining concepts.

"It is a dream come true to be able to bring Wingamm to the United States, and I can not think of a better place to debut it than in California, home to many RV lovers and to one of the most beautiful, beachside luxury malls in the country. The TM Motorhome Sales team and I look forward to having customers interact with the Oasi 540 and see for themselves just how special of a motorhome it truly is," said Lorena Turri, CEO of Wingamm.

Demand for the Wingamm Oasi 540 has already skyrocketed creating an extensive waitlist since the Company first announced its plan to bring the vehicle to the U.S. in July. The Oasi 540 is the first Micro Class RV - vehicles less than 18 feet long that can sleep four people and with a full indoor bathroom - to be available for sale in the United States. Wingamm's expansion to the U.S. marks a pivotal moment in the company's 45-year history, after becoming the leader in Europe and top performer in Asia.

"When it comes to sales, the world has changed. Most people buy day-to-day items online but there are some luxury products that you just have to see for yourself and experience to truly appreciate and that is where retail remains king. This was the case when Apple first debuted their iPhones in retail, Tesla unveiled its first model vehicle, and Peloton showcased their stationary bike. We believe the Oasi 540 is a one-of-a-kind product and like other innovators, we trust the consumer to experience and adopt it as their primary choice when considering a motorhome," says Tony Diamond, Co-Owner of TM Motorhome Sales.

Standout features of the Wingamm include its custom fiberglass monocoque shell which not only gives the Oasi 540 its distinct sleek look and compact size but allows for innovation in the design and functionality, particularly in the bedroom, bathroom, sewage system, and climate controls. In addition, the Oasi 540 is equipped with a satellite to make remote access concerns a thing of the past.

"Our customers come to Santa Monica Place because they know they will be treated to the best possible consumer experience and be among the first to see the most innovative, luxury products and technology on the market. We can not think of a better home to debut the Oasi 540 and look forward to showcasing it to our customers over the next six weeks," Stephanie Eglin, General Manager, Santa Monica Place.

The Wingamm Oasi 540 will be on display starting Nov. 15 through Dec. 15.

Santa Monica Place will be among many luxury retail destinations showcasing the Wingamm. Other confirmed locations include Walt Whitman Shops and a nationwide rollout by 2022.

About Wingamm:

Wingamm has been a family-owned and operated business since 1977 and our tradition of putting quality and the Wingamm customer's satisfaction first has never receded. In 1982 we were the first camper manufacturer in the world to create a living cell made with a fiberglass monocoque. With that, Wingamm was born. Today, the company is run by CEO Lorena Turri and based in Italy, and available globally.

About TM Motorhome LLC:

California-based TM Motorhome Sales, LLC was founded in 2020 and is Co-Owned by serial entrepreneur, Tony Diamond. TM Motorhome Sales, LLC has exclusive North American distribution rights to Wingamm's entire line of motorhomes. Please visit https://www.wingamm.com/us for more information.

About Santa Monica Place:

Located steps away from the Pacific Ocean and iconic Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica Place is a unique, outdoor shopping destination, home to Nordstrom, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Nike, and a collection of specialty shops, digitally native brands, and inspired dining concepts. For more information, visit SantaMonicaPlace.com or interact with us via Facebook or Instagram . Access the Concierge services anytime via text: (310) 499-2928 .

CONTACT:

Jennifer Buonantony

Jennifer@PressPassLA.com

Related Images











Image 1









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
Newport Beach, California, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Agtech Global International Inc., (OTC Pink: AGGL) is a vertically integrated, technology powered CBD manufacturing and online marketing company offering its own range of GENUS CBD products through its advanced Virtual Retail Marketing System, enabled by next generation BlockChain technology. (Name change to Galexxy Corporation pending)

I am thrilled to provide an update on our significant progress towards our Q1- 2022 and to address the following question says CEO, Ross Lyndon-James.

In such a competitive market, how will Agtech become successful and achieve increased shareholder value through exponential revenue growth going into 2022 for shareholders?

We expect to succeed through Bold Innovation, Differentiation and Creative Marketing

Through our recent corporate reorganization, Agtech is now a multi-faceted company offering science-based products and the latest patented, blockchain technologies to attract and serve a very large customer base. We are offering superior quality products coupled to an outstanding crypto customer rewards program.

In the last few months, we have acquired and are developing:

A Unique New Techno-Health Play for Market Domination

Inhouse product development and manufacturing capacity

New GENUS branded CBD based proprietary and blended products

Patented VRMS platform for installation in over 250,000 retail outlets

Free Business in a Box marketing App aimed at 2 million Genus brand advocates

Blockchain encrypted seed-to-sale operating platform for rapid and secure scaling

Blockchain JV for future digital currency trading

Blockchain solutions platform for Cannabis and Hemp businesses

Our latest development is a Memorandum of Understanding to acquire a 10% non-dilutable equity shareholding with attaching license rights and revenue participation in KRTL Biotech Inc., an international Psilocybin research and product development company.

Ross Lyndon-James stated that Investors who got into the cannabis industry early are now looking to medicinal psychedelics as the next big untapped market. According to Brightfield Group, It is worth noting that by mid-2021 there were dozens of publicly traded pharmaceutical companies in development phases on psilocybin or psychedelic based products.

In conclusion, Agtech is pleased to announce that an arrangement is being organized to include non-dilutive financing to fund Agtechs aggressive marketing plan for accelerated growth.

For further information:

Agtech Global International Inc.

Ross Lyndon-James

E: ross@galexxy.com

M: (949) 456 3972

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, statements). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this press release.

https://twitter.com/AgtechGlobal

https://www.aggl.net/

Attachment
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre, published by Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, by celebrated author Carole Boston Weatherford and acclaimed illustrator Floyd Cooper has been named a 2021 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Childrens Book. Previously, Unspeakable was also longlisted for the National Book Awards, named a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Nonfiction Honor Book, and was a finalist for the 2021 Kirkus Prize.

Released in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre and with six starred reviews, Unspeakable tells the story of a thriving African American community. The Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, had its own school system, libraries, churches, restaurants, post office, movie theaters, and more. But all that would change in the course of two terrible, unspeakable days.

On May 31 and June 1, 1921, a mob of armed white Tulsans attacked Greenwood. They looted homes and businesses and burned them to the ground as Black families fled. The police did nothing to protect Greenwood, and as many as three hundred African Americans were killed. More than eight thousand were left homeless. News of the Tulsa Race Massacreone of the worst incidents of racial violence in US historywas largely suppressed, and no official investigation occurred for seventy-five years.

To know that Coopers own grandfather was a member of that community, and passed down stories about the day, adds yet more dimension to the profound emotion this book elicits. Small wonder that Coopers exquisitely rendered faces are masterpieces of empathy. Bold in design, subtle in color, Unspeakable is Coopers last book; he died in July." The New York Times

For more information, videos from the author and illustrator, and a free educators guide for Unspeakable visit https://lernerbooks.com/unspeakable.

Praise for Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre:

All collections should consider this titles value in providing historical context to current conversations about racism. starred, School Library Journal

A somber, well-executed addition to the history. starred, Kirkus Reviews

[A] must-have for those seeking the painful and complete truth.starred, Booklist

[S]ucceeds in teaching the tragedy of the Tulsa Race Massacre and the legacy of Black Wall Street.starred, Publishers Weekly

[Implores] the reader to remember [this] story.starred, The Horn Book Magazine

Unspeakable deserves to be read by every student of American history. starred, BookPage

About the Author

Carole Boston Weatherford is the author of numerous books, including Caldecott Honor winners Freedom in Congo Square, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, illustrated by Ekua Holmes, and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, illustrated by Kadir Nelson. A Sibert Honor winner and two-time NAACP Image Award recipient, she won a Newbery Honor for Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom, illustrated by Michele Wood. Her writing spans the slavery and segregation eras and covers such topics as jazz and photography. When shes not traveling or visiting museums, Carole is mining the past for family stories, fading traditions, and forgotten struggles. The daughter of educators, she has a passion for rescuing events and figures from obscurity by documenting American history. She lives in North Carolina.

About the Illustrator

Floyd Cooper (1956-2021) received a Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations for The Blacker the Berry and won Coretta Scott King honors for Brown Honey in Broom Wheat Tea, Meet Danitra Brown, and I Have Heard of a Land. He illustrated numerous books, including Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey. Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he first heard about the Tulsa Race Massacre from his grandfather, who survived it as a young man. Floyd is survived by his wife and two sons in their home in Easton, Pennsylvania.

About the Publisher

Carolrhoda Books , an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, has been publishing high-quality, award-winning books since 1969. Our picture books spark childrens imaginations and offer new ways of looking at the world. Our middle-grade books stand out not only for their quality, but also for the breadth of genres encompassed, from coming-of-age stories to exceptional nonfiction to mysteries. Carolrhoda authors and illustrators have been honored with awards such as the Coretta Scott King Book Award, the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal, and the Jane Addams Childrens Book Award. We believe that all children should be able to find themselves in the pages of a book.

For more information, follow Lerner Books online:

Blog: lernerbooks.blog

Twitter: @LernerBooks

Facebook: Lerner Publishing Group

Instagram: @LernerBooks

Look inside at lernerbooks.com.

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre

Available Now

$17.99 Hardcover, Jacketed

$30.65 eBook

Ages 812

HC: 978-1-5415-8120-3

EB: 978-1-72841-738-7

32 Pages  9  x 11

Attachments
STAMFORD, Conn., Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rollease Acmeda, a global leader in the window covering industry, announced today that it has won the CEE Integrated Home Competition Special Recognition for Innovation in Design and Engineering Award for its Automate Motorized Roller Shade interior product. Rollease Acmeda was the sole winner in the Connected Window Attachments product category in this year's competition. The award was announced Wednesday, November 10, during the AERC Virtual Fall Meeting.

The Integrated Home Competition is an annual event that is part of the full CEE Integrated Home Initiative strategy and commenced in 2002 as the Lighting for Tomorrow competition. The competition has been historically a lighting technology award but expanded in 2019 to include other products and technologies, including window attachments, and rebranded as the Integrated Home Competition.

The purpose of the Integrated Home Competition is to:

Provide the utility industry with insight into innovative connected product attributes and offerings coming to market.

Support the development of connected products that deliver energy-saving benefits and consumer amenities.

Reward leadership through the promotion of solutions that demonstrate interoperability, reliability, and simplicity.

Sponsors of the competition include The U.S. Department of Energy, CEE, AERC, ACEEE, Building Performance Institute, UL, and many of the largest utilities across the United States and Canada.

The winning Rollease Acmeda Motorized Roller Shade comprised of a complete interior shading solution including Automate motorization, Pulse 2 hub, solar panel, and remote controls, as well as AERC certified Balmoral fabric and easy to install Skyline hardware and mounting system.

"Rollease Acmeda is extremely proud to win this prestigious award and to be recognized as an innovative leader within our industry," noted Mike Schratz, VP of Sales & Marketing for Rollease Acmeda. "The energy savings potential when considering motorized roller shades is extensive. Our goal is to reduce HVAC and artificial lighting requirements in the winter by utilizing natural light in the home during the day and leveraging the fabric insulating properties at night to conserve heat. In the summer, our goal is to keep shades closed where practical to block natural light and keep cooling bills down."

Judges from the Integrated Home Competition were looking for systems that are both energy-efficient and future-proof. For the Rollease Acmeda Automate motorized roller shade, the judges noted that they were particularly impressed with the quiet motor, hidden battery, and solar option for an interior product and want to recognize these innovations. The judges also appreciated the interoperability with other smart home products and systems.

Rollease Acmeda has partnered with AERC and other industry providers to aid in the development of industry standards for window attachments as they relate to energy efficiency, working together to define product and labeling requirements and engaging with utility partners to consider the technology for energy efficiency rebate programs for consumers.

Link to Press Image Kit

About Rollease Acmeda - Rollease Acmeda innovates, designs and manufactures window covering hardware components and systems, manual and automated, as well as specialty fabrics, for use in both commercial and residential applications. Rollease Acmeda is the largest independent engineered component and systems manufacturer and distributor in the window covering industry. Headquartered in Stamford, CT, Rollease Acmeda has a global team of over 250 employees and distribution facilities spanning the USA, Australia and Europe, serving thousands of customers in over 40 countries around the world. To learn more about the company, visit rolleaseacmeda.com.

About CEE - CEE is an award-winning consortium of efficiency program administrators from the United States and Canada. Members work to unify program approaches across jurisdictions to increase the success of efficiency in markets. By joining forces at CEE, individual electric and gas efficiency programs are able to partner not only with each other, but also with other industries, trade associations, and government agencies. Working together, administrators leverage the effect of their ratepayer funding, exchange information on successful practices and, by doing so, achieve greater energy efficiency for the public good.

About AERC - The AERC is an independent, public interest, non-profit organization whose mission is to rate, label and certify the energy performance of window attachments such as blinds, shades, shutters, and storm windows. AERC is made up of a diverse set of stakeholders, which include product and component manufacturers, non-profit organizations, government bodies, testing labs and utility companies. Partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), AERC provides accurate and credible information about the energy performance of window attachments, which helps the public  including homeowners, architects and builders  make informed decisions when it comes to buying window attachment products. To learn more about AERC certification or the AERC Energy Improvement Program, visit www.aercenergyrating.org.

Media Contact

Ciara Sachkowsky

Marketing Specialist

203-490-6791

ciara.sachkowsky@rolleaseacmeda.com

Related Images











Image 1









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
WATERFORD, Ireland, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Recently, Dogira began developing an ecosystem of Indie games on the Blockchain, featuring interoperable NFTs and a commitment to creating quality experiences.



As gaming continues to prove itself as a prime vehicle for new users to discover the blockchain, NFT technology has found a new use case. With NFTs becoming extremely popular during 2021, integrating them with gameplay to produce a truly unique experiences caught the eye of the Dogira team.

However, they do not intend to follow trends; they aim to become trendsetters. Many contemporary blockchain games tend to focus on the blockchain aspects of their innovations, while the actual game becomes an afterthought.

That is the opinion of Dogiras Lead Developer, Eoghan Hayes, who thinks that blockchain game developers can do betterby leading a team of renowned industry professionals in rewriting the rules of blockchain gaming from the ground up:

Building a quality game first and integrating the blockchain last.

Hayes is no stranger to gaming and innovation. A former developer on the Dogecoin Team from 2013 to 2014, he is also the creator of the Steam-based game Split or Steal , an indie project that Hayes designed, developed, and shipped by himself.

Split or Steal is a reimagining of the Prisoners Dilemma," where two randomly matched players are given two minutes to communicate before deciding to split or steal a potential reward from each other. Garnering over 150 thousand downloads on Steam, the title is a hallmark of indie gaming success stories.

Now, Hayes is growing his own game studio, Dogira Studios, to bring blockchain and NFT gaming to maturity.

In collaboration with Chainlink Labs , Hayes and his team are ready to bring their new studio to life. Planning to roll out its own blockchain gaming ecosystem on the Polygon network, their games are set to feature utility NFTsa quickly emerging hallmark of blockchain gaming that could revolutionize the industry.

The team at Dogira plans to incorporate interoperability into their NFTs, making them portable from game to game, tradeable on the open market and permanently stored on the blockchain.

This gives the NFTs both an intrinsic and extrinsic value, according to Skyler Ramsey, Dogira Studios head of Community and Marketing. Players may spend days, or even weeks, cultivating rare items only to have them localized to one gamesomething NFT-empowered blockchain gaming could change.

Dogira launched its V2 token ($DOGIRA) in September 2021, now available on Polygon with a supply capped at 1,000,000,000. While games will launch exclusively on Polygon, Dogira also supports Polygon/Ethereum bridging to ensure ease of access and to enable swapping between both MATIC and ERC-20 versions of $DOGIRA, NFTs, and other ERC-20 tokens.

Dogira V2 will also include a staking farm on the Polygon Network, chosen for its eco-friendliness and low transaction fees, allowing traders to stake DOGIRA or DOGIRA/MATIC liquidity pairs.

If Dogira is successful in its goals, it could redefine the way other developers approach building blockchain gamessetting off a chain reaction of innovation through their unique outlook and business strategy.

Media Contacts

Company: Dogira

E-mail: Marketing@dogira.net

Website: https://www.dogira.net/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DogiraOfficial

SOURCE: Dogira
Dallas, Texas, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Priority Aviation, Inc. (OTC Pink: PJET) (PJET) today announced it expects to begin generating revenue early next year and ramp up revenue in the second half of the year.

PJET has started alpha testing its Student Housing By Owner (SHBO) App. The development of the App is complete, and the App will now undergo an internal quality review.

The App is expected to launch in production before the end of the year. PJET anticipates receiving critical feedback on the App from early adopters in the first half of next year, 2022. PJET expects to see a substantial increase in users in the second half of the year after the App is updated in response to feedback from early adopters.

The App is designed to appeal to all students but particularly to students in special situations. U.S. Military Veterans for instance, are usually older than the typical college student after having served and sometimes come to school with a family.

PJET is planning to initiate its marketing campaign with a focus on various student groups where typical college housing accommodations may not be the best fit or at least not a first choice fit. Students with learning differences, for instance, and other students that may have special accommodation requirements. PJET will market to foreign students where advance travel to coordinate housing may not be feasible and the added one on one communications with renters can make the renting process more comfortable.

The target group marketing is a cost-effective approach to getting traction in the student housing market for an App that with appeal for all students.

PJET anticipates its Student Housing App to resonate with the resource constrained student housing market.

In addition to introducing an App intended to be the Airbnb of student housing making it easy for anyone with an extra bedroom, garage apartment, or empty house near a campus to now turn that extra space into income, the App is also architected to optimize advertising to the university student demographic.

21 million U.S. college students are estimated to have over $376 billion in spending power. In 2020, students spent $39 billion on food alone. Annual student spending on clothes and accessories is estimated at $67 billion. Universities themselves spend approximately $1 billion annually advertising to the university student demographic.

See College Student Spending Habits For 2021 to learn more.

PJETs Student Housing App design includes an artificial intelligence engine intended to optimize the Apps value to businesses looking to attract the university student demographic.

PJET is also building a brick and mortar component of its business. The company has reached terms to fund and build a student housing residential building in Texas that will support a small private university with an enrollment of approximately 1200 students. This is the first such project planned to support smaller universities and complement the Student Housing App initiative.

PJET redirected its operations earlier this year toward the student housing market. Look for much more to be coming soon on the companys new business direction.

Visit the companys new website periodically to look for the latest updates

Company Website  www.pjet-info.com
Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Millennia Companies (Millennia) today announced that Angelica Sinito has been promoted to Vice President, effective immediately, in accordance with the enterprises long-term strategy.

In her new role, Sinito will guide portfolio growth strategy, lead key asset management functions, establish new debt and equity platforms, and complete Tax-Exempt Bond and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit transactions, which support multi-million-dollar renovations and preserve the affordability of multifamily affordable housing developments, many of which have experienced years of decline.

I would like to congratulate Angelica on her well-deserved promotion, said Michael J. Pico, Chief Human Resource Officer at Millennia. Her finance and real estate expertise and extensive understanding of Millennias dynamic group of companies will play an integral role in Millennias growth and success for well into the future.

Sinito will continue to oversee the companys institutional investor relations activities and manage Year 15 and market-rate multifamily development projects.

Prior to Millennia, Sinito worked at Related Companies, where she focused on high yield credit investments across all asset classes and at R4Capital as an analyst . Sinito earned her Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of Michigans Stephen M. Ross School of Business where she studied Finance and Real Estate. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute.

About The Millennia Companies

In 1995, Frank T. Sinito founded The Millennia Companies, a high-performance business enterprise with a strong sense of mission to enrich lives. Millennia operates in a closely aligned set of sectors including real estate development and property management, and its portfolio includes more than 275 multifamily residential communities in 26 states - over 100 apartment developments have undergone transformative rehabilitations. In 2020, Affordable Housing Finance ranked Millennia #1 Top 10 Companies Completing Substantial Rehabilitations and #4 Top 50 Affordable Housing Owners; and Multi-Housing News ranked Millennia #18 Top Multifamily Development Firm.

Attachment
Waukesha, WI (53187)

Today

A mainly sunny sky. High 32F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Clear. Low 17F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
Unifrax, a manufacturer of high-performance specialty materials, introduced its Battery Advisory Board, which will meet regularly to provide strategic guidance as Unifrax grows its battery portfolio and enters the silicon anode market with its new SiFAB Silicon Fiber Anode Battery Technology. (Earlier post.)

SiFAB, a scalable proprietary silicon anode battery technology demonstrated in a number of applications, including electric vehicles, power tools, smartphones, personal computers, medical devices and aviation, can deliver up to a 20% increase in gravimetric energy density in lithium-ion batteries versus cells using a graphite anode. It has shown in advanced testing a high reversible capacity of greater than 1,000 mAh/g.

Unifrax recently broke ground on its first production line located in New Carlisle, IN, which is expected to come online in early 2022.

The SiFAB technology becomes part of a Unifrax battery portfolio that also consists of thermal management products and separator media.

Unifraxs Battery Advisory Board will include:
The Green River Chamber of Commerce claims it didnt intend to promote support for the failed 1% general purpose tax proposal.

Last weeks special election resulted in a massive defeat for the proposed tax, with 5,359 voting against it and 1,300 voting for it.

The chamber issued a one-paragraph press release Monday afternoon stating the chamber was asked to help encourage voters to show up at the polls last week.

Specifically the Chamber was asked to provide signage on the proposed general-purpose tax and share the taxs intended purpose: to support public safety and economic development, the release states.

The chamber claims it did not take a stance on the tax or intend to show support either for or against it, seeking to be a neutral party in the election. The chambers press release also doesnt identify the individual or organization that had asked it to produce the signs.

The chamber did not provide further comment nor did it respond to multiple attempts to seek further comment.

According to emails requested by the Green River Star, the signs intended purpose was to promote support for the tax.

As reported last week by the Star, Sweetwater County Commissioner Lauren Schoenfeld sent an email to Commissioner Roy Lloyd and Kaylee Hughes, an employee of Rocket City Creative and SweetwaterNOW, saying large signs supporting the tax needed to be placed after the Sweetwater GOP began placing signs urging voters to oppose it. A subsequent message from Lloyd asked if the signs could be considered promotional, to which Schoenfeld replied that they would be and the county wouldnt pay for them.

Lisa Herrera, CEO of the chamber, or other representatives from the chamber were not included in an email Schoenfeld sent with a proof of the sign. Those included in her email were Lloyd, Sweetwater County Attorney Dan Erramouspe, deputy county attorney John DeLeon, Green River City Attorney Galen West, City Administrator Reed Clevenger, Communications Administrator Steve Core and the citys Public Affairs and Grants Manager Ryan Rust.

Erramouspe said Monday he hadnt seen the email with the proof, learning of the signs after they were placed the week prior to the election. He said his main concern throughout the process was that government money would have been spent on promoting the tax to voters, though the county does need to provide information to voters.

The county has an actual obligation to provide information to voters, he said.

The postcard about the tax sent out on behalf of the county was heavily edited and modified from its original version according to Erramouspe, with anything that could be considered promotional language removed prior to printing. He said his office still received complaints about the mailer.

Prior to an opinion issued by the Wyoming Attorney Generals Office and the Rock Springs City Council opting not to support sharing costs with the county and Green River governments, a large marketing plan was initially proposed with the county and the two cities each providing money to the cause.

The initial $30,000 proposal from Rocket City Creative was sent from Core to Schoenfeld and Rock Springs Mayor Tim Kaumo Aug. 12. In that email, Core asked if the county, Rock Springs and Green River could contribute $10,000 apiece to the campaign and asked the two their thoughts on seeking funds from the countys smaller towns. He also questioned if the marketing money could be funneled to the chambers, main street/URA organizations and the Sweetwater County Economic Development Coalition.

Lloyd, included by Schoenfeld at Cores request, responded by asking if Hughes was doing the work independently or through SweetwaterNOW and if other proposals were sought and stated the initial $7,500 budget for signs seemed high based on his county commissioner campaign. The amount would have covered 500 yard signs in Green River and Rock Springs.

Core then responded by writing the work was done through the same group that had handled the Sweetwater Cares campaign, believing Rocket City Creative to be independent of SweetwaterNOW.

I did not seek others, frankly, not sure if there is (sic) others, Core wrote.

Clevenger responded to an email from the Star originally sent to Core Wednesday afternoon after the Star's press deadline. Clevenger admits Core using the word "funnel" was a poor choice of words, saying the city uses several outlets to promote information to educate Green River's residents and saying the idea of funneling money to an organization like the chambers or SECD is the same as if the city wanted to buy an advertisement in the Green River Star to educate residents.

"The fact is the city was bouncing ideas of the best way to educate the public about the tax initiative in the timeframe that was now in front of us," Clevenger wrote to the Star.

He said the city had multiple conversations with the commissioners, the Rock Springs municipal government and both chambers on how an educational initiative could be accomplished, with all of the groups in those discussions being asked to pay for that initiative at some point. He said the city also kept communication with their legal counsel and the state as they were working toward a plan to educate the county's residents. While he believes the education efforts were hampered by Rock Springs not giving its support to the initiative after the special election was approved, he said residents spoke with their vote and there were some lessons learned along the way.

"From the timing of the initiative, to the wording of it, the details that needed to be further vetted on the how and why the funding was needed, etc., are all items that will be worked on in the future for any such initiative that may be brought forward," he wrote. "Until then, we need to find ways to move forward and to continue offering the services residents expect and helping to diversify our economy in a meaningful way."
Sweetwater County School District No. 2 is one of six school districts included in a lawsuit aiming to overturn health orders related to COVID-19.

According to the Casper Star-Tribune, the suit was filed last Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Wyoming and centers on a Laramie High School student who was arrested for trespassing after refusing to comply with the schools mask mandate.

Grace Smith and her father Andy are joined by 17 other guardians of Wyoming students ranging in age from 4 to 17 years old.

They allege mask mandates and other orders were unfounded and claim the novel coro...
Green River Police Department reports for Nov. 2

At 1:05 p.m., officers responded to a report of an individual with an active warrant at Probation and Parole. Officers met with the individual, confirmed the warrant, and placed Travis Moon Hernandez, 49, of Farson, under arrest per the active warrant. Officers transported Hernandez to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident.

At 1:39 p.m., officers responded to a report of domestic violence. Officers met with the individuals involved in a verbal dispute and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD di...
Southwest Wyoming Off-Road Trails (SWOT) has a vision: connecting the communities of Southwest Wyoming with a series of off-road motorized trails.

SWOT was started by Mark Tesoro of Evanston, who visited Sweetwater County last week to present SWOTs goals and begin making connections in the community.

SWOT is an economic development project for southwest Wyoming, Tesoro explained to the commissioners.

The projects goal is to use existing trails and county roads to create a network of connected off-road trails that allow people with ATVs and side-by-sides to access commu...
Wyoming will see a federal oil and gas lease sale in early 2022 due to a federal court ruling that ended the Biden administration's 2021 moratorium. But the size of the lease sale will be much smaller than industry, and state leaders, hoped for.

The Bureau of Land Management will defer 264 lease parcels initially considered for the sale, it said, and will instead offer a total 195 parcels.

The parcels struck from the sale represent about 382,882 acres of Priority Habitat Management Areas for greater sage grouse, according to BLM Wyoming. The decision to defer is rooted in Obama-era federal...
GILLETTE  Six officers were assigned to the commission chambers Tuesday for the Campbell County Commissions regular meeting after the county sheriff had been asked to provide extra security.

The request was made because of behavior at the previous commission meeting when some people were asked to leave because they were being disruptive.

A group of library protesters showed up, as they have for the last few months, over concerns about library books. But on Tuesday, their signs were placed against the walls and chairs. And they were quiet for the whole meeting. Some of them were holdi...
After a life filled with love, kindness and devotion, Kaylou Lightner went to heaven Nov. 5, 2021, after a lengthy illness, surrounded by her loving family. She was 75.

Kaylou was a Rock Springs native, born Aug. 22, 1946 to Louis and Catherine McGarvey Muir.

Kaylou's mother died in November 1953, when Kaylou was just 7 and her younger brother, Louie, was 5. Several years later their father married Isabell Lucas who stepped in and help raise her and her brother.

Kaylou married the love of her life, Don Lightner, on Sept. 2, 1967, and spent the next 54 years in an adventurous and blessed li...
Troy Colby, 58, passed away on Saturday, October 30, 2021 at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs, Wyoming. He died following a lengthy illness.. Mr. Colby was a resident of Rock Springs, Wyoming for the past thirty years and former resident of Gretna, Nebraska.

He was born on December 4, 1962 in Hastings, Nebraska; the son of Larry Colby and Mary Schiable.

Mr. Colby attended schools in Gretna Nebraska and was a 1981 graduate of the Gretna High School. He attended and received his certification from Western Wyoming Community College in Electrical Instrumentation and j...
King Arthur, played by Timmy Golightly, strikes a pose and flashes a smile as he tries to recruit knights for the round table. He is accompanied by his faithful servant Patsy, played by Laural Kurth, who follows him banging coconuts together to make the sound of a horse's hooves.

The theater can be many things, but one is a place of escape - somewhere to get away, to laugh, to have fun and to forget the troubles of life for at least a little bit. This escape is something the Green River High School theater department hopes to provide with their newest production, "Spamalot."

"Monty Python's Spamalot" is a musical based on the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." GRHS Theater Director Bradlee Skinner said the musical follows the storyline of the film closely while adding music and incorporating elements from other Monty Python works. Like the film, the musical t...
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  Pacific Rim leaders agreed to do all they can to improve access to coronavirus vaccines and reduce carbon emissions, but failed to reach agreement on whether the U.S. should host talks in two years' time.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping were among those taking part in the online meeting of 21 leaders at the end of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Saturday, which was being hosted virtually by New Zealand.

The focus was on areas in which the unlikely mix of leaders could find common ground. But the failure of the group to endorse a U.S. bid to host APEC in 2023 pointed to some of the divisions that lie just beneath the surface.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she expected APEC would reach agreement around the U.S. bid by the end of the year, and said that the atmosphere in the room was pragmatic, despite the geopolitical tensions.

"It was constructive, it was positive and convivial, and there was a real common sense of purpose among members," Ardern said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed gratitude Friday to the vast majority of APEC members who support the U.S. as host of the 2023 gathering, but declined to name the lone country that had yet to agree to the U.S. bid. She was optimistic that the matter can be resolved.

Our hope is certainly that we move past this impasse, that it is resolved and that we can continue the positive momentum on economic cooperation through APEC, Psaki said.

In a White House statement issued after the meeting, Biden focused on deepening economic partnerships in the region with the goal of fair and open trade, and noted that America has shipped 64 million vaccine doses to APEC economies.

A joint statement by the leaders said widespread access to vaccines is a priority.

Because nobody is safe until everyone is safe, we are determined to ensure extensive immunization of our people against COVID-19 as a global public good, the statement read.

The APEC leaders said they supported efforts to share vaccines equitably and to expand vaccine manufacture and supply, including through the voluntary transfer of vaccine production technology.

The statement also said APEC supports improving trade in COVID-19 vaccines and related medical products, including through streamlined customs procedures.

The deep rifts between some members of the group were highlighted this week by a warning from Xi against allowing tensions to cause a relapse into a Cold War mentality.

And a Southeast Asian delegate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to publicly discuss the issue, said Russia had refused to support U.S. hosting the gathering unless some of its diplomats are removed from a U.S. blacklist or allowed to enter the U.S. to participate.

The delegate said the U.S. resisted Russias demands because issues involving Americas security are considered non-negotiable. Because APEC works on a consensus basis, Russia's objections were enough to at least temporarily derail the U.S. bid.

In other areas of agreement, the group emphasized the importance of the World Trade Organization as an arbiter of trade rules. APEC said they wanted to see a pragmatic, multilateral response to COVID-19 at a WTO ministerial meeting later this month.

APEC also said that climate change posed unprecedented challenges to the world.

We acknowledge the need for urgent and concrete action to transition to a climate resilient future global economy and appreciate net zero or carbon neutrality commitments in this regard, the statement read.

In all, APEC members account for nearly 3 billion people and about 60% of the worlds GDP.

Many countries in Asia face the challenge of balancing Chinese and U.S. influence on the economic and geopolitical fronts.

China claims vast parts of the South China Sea and other areas and has moved to establish a military presence, building islands in some disputed areas as it asserts its claims.

Both Taiwan and China have applied to join a Pacific Rim trade pact, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, with Beijing saying it will block Taiwans bid on the basis that the democratically governed island refuses to accept that its part of Communist-ruled China.

Officials said they made significant progress during some 340 preliminary meetings. APEC members had agreed to reduce or eliminate many tariffs and border holdups on vaccines, masks and other medical products important to fighting the pandemic.

___

Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines. Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Joshua Boak in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
GREENWICH  Students across town marked Veterans Day with special ceremonies this past week as they learned lessons about the sacrifices made by those who served the nation in the military.

Army Capt. Daniel Izzo was honored at the Veterans Day ceremony on Thursday at Old Greenwich School, which his children Colton, Tanner and Sadie attend.

Izzo has received the Bronze Star, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal and the U.S. Army Meritorious Service Medal during his career. He was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2002.

He served as an officer and Blackhawk helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army. In 2003, he was deployed to Tikrit, Iraq, as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot with the 4th Infantry Division. In 2005, he was deployed again with the 4th Infantry Division to Baghdad, Iraq, as a Blackhawk pilot and an aide to the commanding general. In 2009, he was deployed to Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne.

At Parkway School, school board Vice Chair Kathleen Stowe attended a Veterans Day ceremony with her father, former U.S. Army Capt. Thomas Jordan. He served from 1963 to 1971 in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and served in the DMZ in Korea in 1963 and 1964.

Stowes daughter, fourth-grader Mary Stowe, and mother, Marie Jordan, also attended the event.

At Riverside School, students and staff honored service men and service women, both past and present, in a special outdoor ceremony, which has been a school tradition for the past 21 years. Fourth- and fifth-grade classes were invited to participate in the ceremony on the schools front lawn along with a few volunteers, staff and local veterans.

First Selectman Fred Camillo, Police Chief Jim Heavey and veteran Peter LeBeau took part. Principal Christopher Weiss led the event, which included a flag-raising, the Pledge of Allegiance and placing a memorial wreath.

At North Street School, members of Girl Scout Troop 50303 joined with members of Scouts BSA Pack 9 to honor veterans. The Scouts led the Color Guard, placed a memorial wreath, recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang Day is Done.
GREENWICH  A parade of veterans and their families marched down Greenwich Avenue on Thursday, receiving applause along the way from merchants and passersby as the town officially marked Veterans Day and paid tribute to all who have served the country.

I am one of tens of million of Americans who, since our nations founding, placed their dreams and aspirations on hold in order to serve their country in time of war, Peter LeBeau, commander of the Greenwich American Legion, said at the packed ceremony held outdoors at the World War I memorial on Greenwich Avenue. We have done so not only to protect our beloved country from foreign aggression but to liberate tens of millions of people from oppressive, genocidal dictatorships. Our sacrifice has been great.

The annual ceremony included a Greenwich police honor guard and a rifle salute from the honor guard at the Byram Veterans Association. Town resident Stefanie Kies sang the National Anthem; GPD Capt. James Bonney performed Amazing Grace on the bagpipes; and Ken Pond of the Round Hill Volunteer Fire Department and Greenwich High School student Iris Araki played Taps.

First Selectman Fred Camillo placed a wreath at the memorial with LeBeau and retired Air Force Col. Alain Clair, who also delivered the keynote address. Camillo also carried a photo of his late father Al, a former Marine Corps drill instructor.

We recognize the men and women who stopped whatever they were doing to join the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, Camillo said. They left behind the lives they were living and they did so not because they were fueled by hate but because they were fueled by love  love of country, love of family, love of friends, love of neighbors, love of our history. They often did it in times of war.

In his keynote address from Clair, who served in Vietnam, spoke about American military history, including D-Day, the deadly attack on the USS Indianapolis in World War II and Augusts suicide bombing during the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan.

Clair asked the crowd to put themselves in the positions of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines as they faced death. He asked everyone to raise their hands if they believed these service members prayed to God, thought about their families or thought about our wonderful country and what it stands for.

Many raised their hands, but Clair then asked whether these service members would think it was wonderful if we had looting and rioting in our major cities or whether they would approve of defunding the police departments, or allowing anyone who wanted to come into our country to just walk across the borders or critical race theory in our schools or curriculum that teaches our country was founded on slavery and not on liberty and justice for all.

Surely theyre rolling over in their graves at our current state of affairs while asking if this is what I sacrificed my time and my blood for? Clair said.

After the event, state Rep. Stephen Meskers, D-150, said he was  disappointed in the content and nature of the speech.

My country, which I am proud to be a part of, is a diverse and wonderful melting pot. I belong to the political class which engages many times in bipartisan bickering, but when we stand before the public in celebration of those who made the sacrifice to serve our country, we stand together as Americans, Meskers said.

We celebrate their sacrifice. We acknowledge them as witnesses providing testimony to that sacrifice. Its abhorrent that one would take advantage of that platform to advance their own personal agenda, he said.

The annual event began with a parade that stepped off on Greenwich Avenue from Amogerone Crossway. Veterans from all over town, including the Byram Veterans Association, the American Legion Post and the Cos Cob VFW Post 10112, took part.

The veterans were joined by the Greenwich Police Department, dignitaries and supporters. By the time the march reached the World War I memorial, the crowd had grown to nearly 200.

Among the marchers was Vietnam veteran Andrew Sferra, who saw combat as a Naval officer from the Merchant Marine Academy. He marched with his son, Noah; his daughter-in-law, Jessica; and his 10-year-old grandson, Daschle, who was wearing a cap bearing the academy insignia.

This is nice, Sferra said. My family is what got me going to this today. This was their idea.

Its important for us to recognize the cultural heritage that my son has been gifted by family members who came before and that he understand the sacrifices that we made, Noah Sferra said. We want him to participate in this on a regular basis lest we forget.

Lori Mulcare came with with her 2-year-old daughter Julie and 2-year-old cousin Claire, and their friend Jen Vitiello. The kids both had American flags to wave, and the women said it was important for them to honor the veterans.

Their grandparents are veterans, Mulcare said. This is very important. My son Andrew is at North Street School and theyre having a ceremony today, too.

The Rev. Edward Pardoe, rector at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, gave the invocation.

Since our founding as a nation conceived in liberty, countless American men and women have stepped forward to defend from aggressors our country and many others and to liberate those held captive, Pardoe said. Today we revere and thank all our veterans, those who rest in honored glory, those who still suffer from the wounds of war and those who, with us, enjoy the blessing of living in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Other officials who attended included Selectwoman Lauren Rabin; Selectperson Jill Oberlander; state Sen. Ryan Fazio; state Reps. Kimberly Fiorello and Harry Arora; Tax Collector Heather Smeriglio; Selectwoman-elect Janet Stone McGuigan; Town Clerk-elect Jackie Budkins; and members of the Board of Estimate & Taxation and the Board of Education, .

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
GREENWICH  The holiday season in Greenwich is beginning right after Thanksgiving with the return of Santa and his reindeer to Sam Bridge Nurseries and Greenhouses.

Santa is set to arrive Nov. 26 along with three of his reindeer for the 13th annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival and Santas Workshop at Sam Bridge, 437 North St.

Event organizer Tamara Ketler calls the fest the North Pole on North Street.

Last year, COVID-19 made it impossible for the traditional visits with Santa, but everything is back in 2021.

The return to an in-person Reindeer Festival is a testament to how well our town and its residents responded to the pandemic, said First Selectman Fred Camillo in a news release. The festival is an event that celebrates our communitys holiday spirit and this year recognizes the efforts of our front-line health care workers who tirelessly cared for all of those affected by this disease.

An added component for 2021 is a celebration for the towns health care workers and front-line heroes at Greenwich Hospital. A mural sponsored by C. Parker Gallery and created by artist Rick Garcia is set to be unveiled Nov. 26 with a ceremony beginning just after noon.

People will have the chance to sign the mural after its unveiled and add personal messages to it before it is sent to the hospital.

Greenwich Hospital is very excited to participate in this years holiday event, hospital President Diane Kelly said.

COVID-19 challenged our team over the past 18 months, but the Greenwich Hospital staff courageously and compassionately cared for our patients and families throughout and greatly deserve this wonderful recognition.

Once the reindeer arrive, they will be at Sam Bridge until Dec. 22. Santa will be meeting with kids until Christmas Eve. Sam Bridge Nursery and Greenhouses is closed on Sundays.

The hours of operation will be Monday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

We are so excited to welcome back both the reindeer and photos with Santa, Maggie Bridge said. This has become a time-honored tradition not only for the community but for our own family as well.

Santa and his reindeer bring such a warm feeling of holiday cheer to Christmas at Sam Bridge and we truly enjoy hosting them. We cannot wait to share this holiday spirit with our community and friends.

Things will kick off at noon Nov. 26, with festivities going until 6 p.m., and then resume on Nov. 27 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with refreshments and vendors including Jenny Allen/Compass Hot Chocolate Station, the Long Ridge Schools Reindeer Craft Station, Super Coffee, The Vital Stretch, The Sew Queen and LeafFilter at these special Were Back Days.

The Reindeer Festival is presented by Jenny Allen/Compass and is sponsored by Sam Bridge Nursery and Greenhouses, Greenwich Hospital, ONS Orthopaedic & Neurosurgery Specialists and the Long Ridge School.

A portion of all the photos purchased through the holiday season will benefit Kids in Crisis, a nonprofit based in Cos Cob that offers services for the region, including 24/7 care to children and families in need of emergency shelter and counseling. There will be a Kids in Crisis Giving Tree in set up at Sam Bridge for people to offer their direct support to the non-profit.

As part of the Santas Workshop section at Sam Bridge, where kids can get their pictures taken with Santa, there will also be a reindeer coloring station and a spot for kids to write their letters to the Jolly Old Elf.

In addition, people can enter a contest to name the newly born reindeer calf.

More information is available online at www.greenwichreindeer

festival.com.
GREENWICH  Some neighbors of Chabad Lubavitch of Greenwich are unhappy with what they say has been an ongoing problem with noise and traffic since the private Jewish school moved to Lake Avenue in September 2020.

Those same neighbors now are criticizing a proposal before the Planning & Zoning Commission to add a preschool and kindergarten to the campus as well as more staff parking.

Its noise from outside activities, Jackie Kaufman, a lawyer hired by the Rock Ridge Association, the local neighborhood association, said during a commission meeting Tuesday. Its not the content of the noise, its the noise levels themselves.

The neighbors are concerned about intensification and a more active campus with larger groups of people involved under the plan, Kaufman said.

Chabad Lubavitch of Greenwich moved its operations from downtown more than a year ago to the Lake Avenue campus, which was formerly occupied by Carmel Academy. Carmel Academy, an independent school that offered education rooted in the Jewish faith, ceased operating at the site in spring 2020.

Now, Chabad is applying to the town Planning & Zoning Commission for two modifications to earlier approvals that would add preschool and kindergarten there, in addition to grades 1 through 9, which will slowly be filled.

It is also looking for more faculty parking in the short term; the Japanese School, which shares a parking lot with Chabad, is preparing to relocate in early 2022, according to the application.

Angelique Bell, a neighbor, said she was concerned about a much more intensive use of the site.

That Rock Ridge property has a long history of diversity, which were proud of, she said. But she questioned whether it was going to turn into a community center ... in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

Arthur Bass said amplified electronic sound was a problem over the summer when a day camp was in operation, and he said he could hear it inside his house with the air-conditioner running.

It was so loud, he said. All summer.

The proposal and the school also received a number of supportive comments.

I have not experienced any problems with noise or traffic-related issues, said Madison Evans, a Lake Avenue resident and Chabad parent. Its a benefit to the community and the surrounding neighbors.

Rabbi Yossi Deren said Chabad was looking to be an asset to the neighborhood and to the town: We want whats best for the town, he said.

He said he was striving to make good communications with neighbors a priority.

Our goal is to use this site in a way that shows our town is a place where people feel welcome and have a sense of belonging, he said.

The neighbors and the planning commission have been seeking a long-term master plan for the site. Deren said that Chabad had not yet finalized the sale of the property from Carmel Academy, putting them in a twilight zone in terms of future planning.

Kaufman said the commission should consider additional conditions on the site. Allowing special events that are not strictly educational at the campus should be reviewed and scrutinized by the commission. They do have to ask for that, she said.

Chairwoman Margarita Alban said the commission had its work cut out for it.

The job of the commission is always to make sure a school fits, and events there are such that residential uses are not significantly impacted, she said.

The fact that the school is part of a religious tradition  and therefore subject to certain legal protections  is another factor that the commissioners will address, Alban said.

There are issues with the intensity of the use in a school, she said. We have to treat everybody equitably, but we have to be conscious of the residents.

Alban also encouraged the school administration to communicate with the neighborhood.

Theres a lot to digest here, Commissioner Nick Macri said.

Deren concluded, We care about this town, were part of this town, were part of its fabric and we want to do everything the right way.

After the meeting, Deren sent an email to clarify some issues about the complaints over noise.

While we appreciate the concerns related to noise, it is our understanding that they stem primarily from isolated incidents last summer when COVID-related health and safety concerns required our summer camp to move certain activities outdoors. During those events, we tried to minimize noise levels and lowered volumes appropriately whenever it was requested, he said.

We recognize that any future applications will be judged in part by how we use the property for the preschool and are confident that the site will take shape in a manner that addresses concerns of our neighbors and enhances the entire Greenwich community, the rabbi said.

The application was held open for further review.

rmarchant@greenwichtime.com
BERLIN (AP)  A former German environment minister and outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff both announced that they will run for the leadership of Merkel's center-right party on Friday as the race to head it in opposition started to take shape.

The Christian Democratic Union has decided to hold a ballot of its entire roughly 400,000-strong membership on who will take over after incumbent Armin Laschet led it to defeat and its worst-ever national election result in September.

Nominations opened on Saturday but it took nearly a week for Norbert Roettgen to become the first officially to declare his candidacy. It is Roettgen's second run  he finished third when Laschet was elected in January.

Roettgen, 56, served as environment minister a decade ago and headed the foreign affairs committee in the last German parliament.

We lost votes and elections in the center, and we will win back these votes in the center, Roettgen told reporters in Berlin. He said that the party must fight for the young generation and argued that the CDU and its leader must embody competence and credibility in climate policy.

Roettgen argued that the CDU needs a fundamental renewal to preserve its status as a major party.

Merkel's chief of staff since 2018, Helge Braun, threw his hat in the ring later Friday. Braun, 49, announced his candidacy at a meeting of the party's branch in his home state of Hesse, regional governor Volker Bouffier said.

At least one more contender is in sight: conservative favorite Friedrich Merz is widely expected to make his third bid in three years after narrowly losing two previous contests. Outgoing Health Minister Jens Spahn, who was considered a likely contender, has ruled himself out.

This contest will be the third since Merkel stepped down as party chairwoman in late 2018 and announced she wouldnt seek a fifth term as chancellor.

Both Laschet and predecessor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer were narrowly elected by party congresses after three-way battles for the leadership. Both struggled to impose their authority. This time, local party bosses demanded a say for the wider membership.

Merz, 66, has a substantial following among CDU members, while Roettgen's previous run established him as a serious prospect for centrists in the party.

Braun's candidacy was unexpected, though. The emergency room doctor and close ally of the outgoing chancellor, another centrist, has coordinated Germany's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic but so far hasn't featured prominently in his party's internal politics. His prospects are uncertain.

Braun told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the party needs a comprehensive reform, not just in terms of substance but also organizationally and that he would offer a cooperative leadership style.

The two-party Union bloc, in which the CDU is by far the bigger party, finished behind the center-left Social Democrats in the election with only 24.1% of the vote. The Social Democrats are negotiating with two smaller parties to form a coalition government, which they hope will take office in early December, sending the Union into opposition.

A first round of voting on the new leader, by online and mail-in ballot, will be held in early December. If a runoff ballot is required, that would be completed in mid-January. A party congress Jan. 21-22 would officially sign off on the result.

___

Follow APs coverage of Germanys transition to a new government at https://apnews.com/hub/germany-election
PARIS (AP)  Talk about ignoring the elephant in the room: When she met this week with French President Emmanuel Macron, Vice President Kamala Harris says she didnt even discuss the secret submarine deal that plunged U.S.-French relations to a historic low.

On a four-day trip to France seen as a charm offensive, Harris said that instead she focused her visit on our mutual interest in European security and Africa, fighting the pandemic and cooperating to make cyberspace safer.

Both sides stressed that relations are moving into a new era  and the fact that they didn't even talk about the submarine problem drove that point home.

The crux of the issue: A secretly negotiated U.S.-British submarine deal with Australia announced in September that scuttled a prior, $66 billion French-Australian submarine contract. The U.S. agreement was framed around concern in Washington about Chinas military aggressiveness in the region.

But France was livid, saying it was kept in the dark about the deal and its interests were ignored despite having territories in the Indo-Pacific with 2 million people and 7,000 troops. The French accused the Biden administration of actions reminiscent of the Trump era.

The dispute was not the purpose of the trip and we didnt discuss it, Harris told reporters Friday. At her meeting Wednesday with Macron, she said, What we did discuss is the issues that are challenging us."

She said her presence itself in France shows the importance of alliances," and that the dispute was a reminder of both the strength and fragility of diplomatic relationships.

We can't take relationships for granted, she added.

After recalling France's ambassador for the first time in 250 years of diplomatic relations at the height of the crisis, Macron this week seemed ready to move forward  and happy to have Harris at his side as he hosted three days of international summits that put him and France center stage.

She and Macron agreed Wednesday that their countries are ready to work together again, though few firm U.S. promises have emerged from her trip, Harris' first to Europe as vice president. It comes after President Joe Biden told Macron the U.S. had been clumsy in handling the submarine issue.

Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff made a concerted effort to make up for that faux-pas while in Paris.

They visited a cemetery holding the graves of more than 1,500 Americans who died fighting for France in the two world wars, and she stood alongside Macron at a solemn Armistice Day ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe. Emhoff met with French groups fighting against inequality, and attended a no-cost cooking class for young people.

Stressing the theme of America is back on the global diplomatic stage, Harris reiterated U.S. hopes to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran, and took part in an international conference aimed at supporting Libya's upcoming elections after a decade of chaos and violence.

She and Macron also discussed tensions on the Belarus-Poland border, where thousands of migrants have amassed trying to enter the EU, encouraged by Belarusian authorities. The eyes of the world and its leaders are watching what is happening there," she said, without elaborating on what steps the U.S. might take.

With virus cases picking up across France and Europe, Harris shied away from a suggestion that the U.S. require virus vaccination passes similar to those used in several European countries to enter restaurants and other public venues.

___

Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.
Google recently rolled out Adaptive Sound to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, and the vanilla model has now picked up a couple more features as it gained heart rate and respiratory tracking support through Google Fit, which was announced by Google in March.

These features let you measure your heartbeat and track respiratory rate using the smartphone's camera and flash. The latter is required to boost the lighting when measuring heart rate to look for changes in your finger's color, but it could prove to be less handy on the Pixel 6 pair since the camera and flash on the duo are far apart.



Pixel 6  Pixel 6 Pro

That said, the ability to use the flashlight on the Pixel 6 is missing right now, which isn't surprising since the feature is currently in early access, and Google says that it's "being fine-tuned and may be removed."



Heart rate monitoring and respiratory tracking on Google Pixel 6

9to5Google reports that the heart rate monitoring feature on the Pixel 6 was accurate and matched the accuracy of the Pixel 5 and a Fitbit tracker. However, one reading in a darker room was inaccurate. Respiratory measurement on the Pixel 6 worked fine, but it's worth mentioning that these are marked as experimental right now, and even after they are fully ready for use, it's advisable to not rely on them for medical diagnosis.

Both features are available through Google Fit with an "early access" tag for some users, while others have them without it, suggesting a server-side rollout. When you get these, they will appear at the bottom of the Home tab or under the Browse > Vitals menu.

Source 1, Source 2
The main feature in Google's release of Android 12 is undoubtedly the auto-theming system that extracts colors from the wallpaper you've chosen to magically make a new theme every time you change said wallpaper.

This is a big user-facing change in how the operating system works, and we were skeptical as to how many Android device makers would choose to use it in their skins, since it's not always a given that big UI-related changes in Android make it through to all skins, especially the heaviest of them.

In this case, however, there seems to be good news. As outed today by a new code commit in Google's Material Components library, it seems like quite a few Android phone makers are ready to incorporate auto-theming into their respective skins.

The "Add supporting manufacturer list of dynamic colors" commit comes with the following list: Oppo, Realme, OnePlus, vivo, Xiaomi, Motorola, Nokia, Sony, TCL, Lenovo, Itel, Tecno, Infinix, Sharp, Roboelectric, and, of course, Google. We have to say we certainly didn't expect to see some of the names on that list, but we're happy they're there.

You may have noticed the huge name missing: Samsung. That's weird because in its latest One UI 4 beta builds, which are based on Android 12, the company has added a theming system based on the wallpaper, so we're thinking one of two things might explain its not making the list. It could just be that the list isn't extensive, and will be added to in the future; or Samsung isn't using Google's system in order to achieve the same result.

The former option definitely sounds better than the latter, and we really hope app developers won't have to work with two different systems for doing the same thing - then again, this wouldn't be the first time something like that happened. Also note that manufacturers can tweak the auto-theming algorithm for their devices, so the same wallpaper used on a Pixel and, say, an Oppo device, may yield a different looking theme.

Source




Haiti - FLASH : The United States asks American citizens to leave Haiti





"The Department of State urges U.S. citizens to make plans to depart Haiti now via commercial means.



U.S. citizens should carefully consider the risks of traveling to or remaining in Haiti in light of the current security situation and infrastructure challenges.



Widespread fuel shortages may limit essential services in an emergency, including access to banks, money transfers, urgent medical care, internet and telecommunications, and public and private transportation options.



The U.S. Embassy is unlikely to be able to assist U.S. citizens in Haiti with departure if commercial options become unavailable.



Seats on commercial flights currently remain available."



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Agriculture : Perspectives on food security (October 2021- May 2022)





In its bulletin on Haiti FEWS NET, (Perpsective October 2021 to May 2022) the international famine early warning network reports that socio-political instability accentuates the food aid needs in Haiti already high after the earthquake of August 14.



Extract from the report :



[...] The security climate has deteriorated since the beginning of September. Criminal activity and kidnappings for ransom have intensified. This, added to the persistent scarcity of fuel, has pushed the population to adopt days of strike resulting in the paralysis of economic activities, mainly in the big cities, resulting in the disruption of public transport, warehouses, businesses and schools.



[...] The irregularity in the spatio-temporal distribution of the rains, the residual effects of the earthquake and the tropical depression Grace on agricultural production respectively in the South, Grand'Anse, Nippes and the South-East, are characterized by through the loss of productive assets, including inputs, among others, limit the performance of the fall agricultural season.



[...] The Gourde / dollar exchange rate [98.81 Gourdes for $ 1] continues to depreciate, amplifying the volatility of household purchasing power. The prices of imported food products, strongly correlated with the informal market exchange rate, remain significantly above average.



[] The areas affected by the earthquake (South, Nippes, Grand 'Anse) and the Grace tropical depression (South-East), those where harvests will be below average (North-West, North-East, Haut-Plateau, Haut-Artibonite, West), and Port-au-Prince, under the influence of gangs, will be in Crisis (IPC Phase 3), households still forced to adopt crisis strategies (consumption of early harvests or seeds, sale of wood, reduction in the quality and/or quantity of meals, etc.) to maintain their food consumption. In some areas such as Camp Perrin, Maniche, and Pestel, food assistance will enable poor households to meet their food needs; they are then in Stress (IPC Phase 2).



Download the full report (PDF) (In French) : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/HT_FSO_Oct2021_May2022_vFinal.pdf



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : The Embassy of Canada is reducing its staff and asking its citizens to consider leaving Haiti





Global Affairs Canada said "The security situation in Haiti is rapidly deteriorating and is being exacerbated by ongoing fuel shortages.



As a result, Global Affairs Canada is temporarily withdrawing non-essential Canadian employees as well as family members of Canadian embassy staff from Haiti.



The safety of Canadians is our highest priority at all times, and to this end our embassy in Port-au-Prince remains open. Consular officials stand ready to help Canadians in Haiti who need emergency assistance. They can be reached at 011 (509) 2-812-9000 or by email at PRNCECS@international.gc.ca



We continue to advise Canadians to avoid non-essential travel to Haiti."



In addition, an email was sent to Canadians living in Haiti recommending that they plan their departure from the country where armed gangs extend their control every day. " The situation is deteriorating and changing rapidly. If you are in Haiti and your presence is not essential, consider leaving the country if you can do it safely".



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Tank trucks blocked at Varreux

On Thursday, November 11, the Haitian National Police escorted government tankers to the Varreux terminal. However, the drivers at the site waited hours without being able to fill their tanks or leave the area due to heavy fire from the bandits controlling the area. The day before, 2 government tankers were able to leave the Varreux terminal with 8,000 gallons of fuel.



Buses and hostages released

Thursday, Changeux Mehu, the President of the Association of Owners and Drivers of Haiti (APCH) confirmed that the hijacked bus and the passengers taken hostage Wednesday afternoon https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35220-haiti-news-zapping.html were released Thursday by the kidnappers without payment of ransom.



Arrest of rapist of 10-year-old girl

Jean Pierre Exantus (30) was arrested and charged with the rape of a 10-year-old girl in the toilets of the Gerard Cesar School, in Saint-Marc (Dept. Artibonite). The individual admitted to facts indicating that he had acted while under the influence of alcohol.



DR : 53 pregnant Haitians expelled

Wednesday, November 10, 83 Haitian migrants (28 men and 55 women including 25 pregnant) were repatriated by the Dominican authorities at the border at Belladere (Center). Thursday, November 11, 45 women, 28 of whom are several months pregnant, were repatriated to Belladere by the Dominican migration services. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/article-35171-haiti-rep-dom-fin-des-services-de-sante-aux-haitiens-illegaux-sauf-en- emergency.html



3 women kidnapped brutalized and raped

3 women kidnapped on Saturday, November 6 in the district of Guy Malary, in Hinche, were brutalized and raped by their captors, according to the testimony of one of the victims who was released the day after the events. The kidnappers are asking for $25,000 to release the other two hostages.



Death of Jean Robert Bonhomme

"Jean Robert Bonhomme, the Administrative Director of the Ministry of the Environment left too early and leaves a great void for all of us. I had the privilege and the honor to work with a great man, a serious, responsible, dynamic colleague with a great sense of the State and a feeling of belonging to the Ministry. May we remember the strong and happy moments shared with our friend Jean Robert Bonhomme. Rest in peace !" James Cadet Minister of the Environment



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Korean Movie | 2020

 Documentary

Directed by Kim Jung-in ()

99min | Release date in South Korea: 2021/05/05

Synopsis

Half of the students in special schools across the country face war-like mornings, commuting for 1 to 4 hours a day.



Due to unreasonable lack of special schools compared to the number of students with disability, mothers take it to the streets to oppose by kneeling on a platform to stand up for the children.



A world-changing photo begins with the mothers' courageous cry!
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
The preservation of planet Earth is an issue of interest to experts and researchers following this issue, which threatens the fate of the peoples of the world.

Despite the sensitivity and seriousness of this issue, the great Powers are now using this issue in their geopolitical conflicts, particularly between the United States on the one hand and Russia and China on the other.

Before a crucial moment and unprecedented implications

According to a recent United Nations report, climate change is the crucial issue of our time, and we are now facing a crucial moment. The global effects of climate change are widespread and unprecedented in scale, from changing weather patterns that threaten food production to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding. Adapting to these impacts will be more difficult and costly in the future if radical action is not taken now.

Glasgow Summit. Low Hopes

The latest round of climate change talks is being held under the auspices of the United Nations at its twenty-sixth session in Scotland this year.

t is an annual summit attended by 197 States to discuss climate change and what these countries and the world at large are doing to address and address this problem.

The Conference is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, an international treaty signed by almost all States and regions of the world aimed at reducing the impact of human activity on climate.

This Conference is the 26th since the entry into effect of the Treaty on 21 March 1994. This year, the Conference is being held in Glasgow, Scotland's largest city.

About this summit, the Lebanese environmental expert, Wilson Rizk, said during a special talk by ANHA agency: "In fact, I expect no radical change through this summit, which I do not see as very different from previous summits such as those of Tokyo, Kyoto or others."

Climate change is triggering major economic crisis for people

On the impact of climate change, Rizk said: "The climate change that is currently taking place has a negative impact on the future not only of people who depend on agricultural wealth but also of other people in various economic or health fields."

He explained that global warming caused scarce rainfall and heat and consequently a shortage of natural resources from which low-income people lived, hence the major economic crises.

Iraq and northern Syria are the most affected by climate change in the world

The Berkeley Earth Environmental Monitoring Organization (Berkeley Earth) noted that temperature increases in Iraq and eastern Syria of 4.1 degrees Celsius mean that each year the temperature in this region increases by 4.1 degrees Celsius, while the natural and current rate of temperature rise in all countries is only 1.5 degrees Celsius every year.

According to The Washington Post, Iraq and eastern Syria are the regions around the world most affected today by climate change, meaning water and food insecurity in that region, where many agricultural areas become uninhabitable every year, and many residential areas become uninhabitable in that region.

The north and east Syrian food basket is among the world's worst affected by the drought crisis and water scarcity.

A British Independent newspaper journalist, Bell True, conducted a thorough investigation prior to the Glasgow summit. has highlighted the fears of farmers and residents in north and east Syria from next year, especially after the country experienced the worst harvest season ever last year, at a time when about 75% of agricultural crops have been damaged this year.

According to a study published by the Kurdish Centre for Studies, "as a result of the collapse of the agricultural sector and the decline in groundwater and surface water, as a result of the policy of building dams by Turkey and racist policies by the Syrian regime, Syria today is suffering from the worst drought in 70 years."

A report by PAX said that the mercenaries of Turkey built three dams on the Khabur River, which runs from Ras al-Ain to Tel Tamr and Hasakah then drains into the Euphrates River in rural Deir ez-Zor.

The report, which drew on fieldwork and satellite imagery, found that putting dirt berms on the Khabur River at a time when the region faced the driest summer was "an unequivocal example of the use of water as a weapon of war."

The report showed that the three dams exacerbated the consequences of the harsh drought in the region. "The impact of extreme heat is amplified by limited rainfall, which means that farming communities have less water than ever before and more time they need."

For its part, the study of the Kurdish Centre for Studies addressed: "The Khabur River has been depleted as have other rivers, lakes and dams throughout the war-torn country, leading to the deterioration of agricultural crops, the loss of livestock and the scarcity of safe drinking water."

The Euphrates River is the main source of drinking water for more than 5 million people in Syria, with levels gradually declining on Tishreen and Tabqa Dams southwest of Raqqa, which serve about 3 million people in northern Syria, in terms of electricity, water and irrigation. According to the competent bodies, the level of dams has fallen to what is known as the "scary level." This caused electricity production to stop and the water plants to be disabled.

According to the Kurdish Centre for Studies, "North and East Syria are among the points that may experience environmental disasters in view of the overlap of Turkish threats with the consolidation of the drought crisis, as described by Wim Zweinburg, who works for the Dutch Peace Organization."Bax "reflects a potential environmental collapse in north and east Syria due to drought caused by climate change as well as environmental damage associated with war, conflict, and water politicization."

Turkey's last concern is the environmental situation

Under the pretext of failing to meet his country's security demands, the head of the Turkish occupying state, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, refused to participate in the climate summit.

On Turkey's stance on climate change, Rizk said: "The Turkish Government is not as concerned about the environmental and climate situation as it is about the political situation that is imposing its actions, most recently international endeavours."

He added: "I do not believe that the international community and the Glasgow Summit will respond to any demand that is inconsistent with the policies of the participating Governments and those of the Turkish state, all of whose concerns are beyond the environmental interest."

Warnings of the gravity of the situation, and States are concerned only with their interests

A few days ago, the American - Iranian thinker and historian Hamid Dabashi warned against flouting regimes in the Middle East over the drought that is hitting Iran, Iraq and Syria as a result of global warming. The model of the traditional nation-State and its leaders had become a ghost to the nations, peoples and individuals. While the world is burning, the accounts of the existing authorities and their opponents in the region underestimate the drought crisis and the breakdown of food security. And in the end, the new generation is on the brink of extinction.

In his turn, environmental expert Wilson Rizk, warned of the seriousness of the situation as well: "The situation, in my view, is very serious and the crisis of climate change will continue globally as long as the decision makers of the major and industrialized private Governments are the polluting plants and companies responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases, the most important of which is carbon dioxide."

On the seriousness of these countries, Rizk said: "I do not see any seriousness on the part of the Glasgow Summit participants because they are not the decision makers, but rather the decision-makers of their Governments, which are dominated by material profit, especially industry, of which they are the only ones who are the big profit regardless of the negative environmental impacts."



In this context, the leader and thinker Abdullah Ocalan believes that "the destruction of the environment, the disruption of the global biological balance, the emptying of the Earth, the polluting of its surface and climate disasters" are caused by the capitalist system seeking greater profit.

Leader Abdullah Ocalan says: "The age of financial finance is the culmination of the devastation of the economy and society. We face a reckless monster that drags almost half of society into unemployment, turns the production of the means of annihilation into a major economic sector in the name of the armed and profit-only economy, has nothing to do with the necessary needs of society, destroys the environment and turns all the resources of nature and society into a source of profit."

What's the solution?

The thinker Ocalan, in his turn, has developed practical solutions to the impact of this dilemma, which concerns the fate of mankind. "The economic system of the democratic nation not only stops the brutal practices but basically reestablishes the control of society over the economy. The quasi-economic independence is the minimum of reconciliation between the nation-State and the democratic nation and any compromise or lower-level solution, which is a surrender."

Leader Ocalan asserts that "the semi-independence economic system stands in a spirit of public mobilization in the face of desertification, and considers it a mortal enemy of society and neighborhoods. He also announces the protection of the soil and afforestation of the environment as the most sacred form of toil. Profit and capital within the nation-state, for the soil and forest arenas are the holiest arenas of work in the democratic nation, as they have secured the life of society throughout history.

In this context, Ocalan adds: "Social life can continue to exist without capitalism and industrialism. It's impossible to continue without the land and the forest. "

T/S

ANHA
All products picked below meet our established standards. Health Canal joins affiliate program of brands like: Spruce CBD, Talkspace, GundryMD We will earn a small commission from your purchase. Learn more about how we earn revenue by reading our advertise disclaimer

All products picked below meet our established standards. Health Canal joins affiliate program of brands, we will earn a small commission from your purchase. Learn more about how we earn revenue by reading our advertise disclaimer

Gender dysphoria is no fun. This is because you will mostly be struggling with your gender identity[1] and at times you are overwhelmed on how to handle things. This can also apply to a transgender who might still feel confused about gender identification.

If you have been feeling this way, you may want to consider getting an online gender therapist. Many online gender therapy sessions can help you learn more about your sex and how best to deal with gender dysphoria.

Since the sessions are online, you can always experience many benefits. This includes having private chats with a therapist, paying less compared to face-to-face counseling, and more. This guide helps you to learn more about online gender therapist services and how they can be beneficial to you.

best Online Therapy for Gender Dysphoria in (November. 2021) Online-Therapy.com  Best for Mental Health

Best for Mental Health Talkspace  Best response time

 Best response time Pride Counseling  Editors choice

 Editors choice Doctor on Demand  Best Emergency Mental Health Service

In A Hurry? Heres The Winner

Editors Choice

Pride Counseling Why is it better? Take good care of your mental health

Resolve gender problems

Anonymity can be maintained where necessary Read Review Details

The Lineup At A Glance

Online-therapy.com Easiest for Finding Therapist Near You Connects you with local therapists

In person or teletherapy options

Informative articles Sign Up Now Get 20% Discount With This Link Talkspace Most Affordable Anytime Counseling Unlimited texting

Appointments by text, phone, or video

Accepts insurance Sign Up Now 65% Off Coupon First Month: APPLY65 Doctor on demand Best Emergency Mental Health Service On demand session with counselor

Can prescribe some medications

Works with some insurances

Best Online therapy for Gender Dysphoria: Pride Counseling

Gender dysphoria should always be taken seriously. That is why Pride Counseling offers the services of registered therapists to help you deal with any gender issues you might be having. Do not be afraid to speak your mind as you can ask anything including sex identification.

Any good gender therapist on the platform will be willing to schedule better times for different individuals. This is understandable because the platform can have clients from different parts of the world. As such, therapists can also take care of various clients based on their time zones.

One of the biggest benefits of online therapy would be the privacy you get. That is also something Pride Counseling offers. Those who have experience with the platform claim they have never had their private conversations with therapists leaked. This should generally boost your feelings knowing that your experiences will not be shared with everyone.

In case you feel that the current therapist is not helping you much or rather your issues are not adequately addressed, you can switch to other therapists on the platform. This should make your sessions feel worth the time. Anyone who is transgender or LGBT would want to feel a sense of security and a therapist plays a huge role in such a case.

It does not always have to be expensive to talk about your gender issues. That is what Pride Counseling offers. This is because you can now pay a weekly subscription of $60 to $90 (billed every 4 weeks) and get unlimited messaging with a therapist. That is a bargain compared to asking questions to a conventional therapist in an office. You would have to pay a lot more for such an experience.

When should you use Pride Counseling?

Gender dysphoria is not something to brush off lightly. When you start to notice the symptoms of gender dysphoria, it is best to consult a gender therapist for counseling. The therapist will help you learn more about transitioning, sex identification, inter-person relationships, and more.

Another good reason to consider using Pride Counseling is when you have to take good care of your mental health as a person. Sometimes the societal pressures on gender issues can easily lead to mental health concerns and can drive someone to harm their body. When it gets to such a point, seek the help of a gender specialist to learn more.

Sometimes you may find dealing with gender questions is not easy and you need an individual or community that understands it all. That is how you would end up considering Pride Counseling to help resolve your health and other gender problems you may be dealing with.

When it seems other therapy services are too expensive, online therapy such as Pride Counseling can be good for you. This is because you do not always have to pay exorbitant fees to get the help that you deserve.



Pros

You gain access to registered therapists

Anonymity can be maintained where necessary

You can easily change therapists

The online service is more affordable even for mental health care

Most websites and apps are easy to use

You get unlimited messaging with therapists

Cons

Your insurance cover may not cover such costs

Some platforms may not be secure

Some have no control over the therapists they choose

How to find a good online gender therapy near me?

If you are feeling the discomfort of being another gender you are right now, it might be time to seek the help of gender therapists or transgender therapists online. So, what is the process on how to find a gender therapist? Here are a few tips.

The first thing is you have to do research. Proper research will help you learn more about the therapist or company so that you only use the top-rated companies only.

You also have to look at support groups mostly dealing with LGBT issues. You can be sure that someone might have had the same experience and shared the contact of the best online gender therapist

Inquire more about the qualifications of gender identity or transgender therapist. If the therapist is willing to share certifications, it gives you more confidence in the service.

Reputation is also important. Do not just pick the first therapist you come across. Look at what other people say about the therapist before making up your mind.

What is the cost? Do you get value for the money? Understandably, therapy can be expensive. But always make sure you are getting value for money. That is where reading more reviews on the therapist can help.

What to ask when you meet a gender counselor?

Let us say you have been matched with a gender dysphoria therapist. What would you ask on the platform?

One of the biggest questions is that you should ask the gender therapist about their professional training. Talk more about their experience working with people having gender identity issues.

This part helps you know if the therapist has all the important training to help you deal with your mental health, feelings, or any more sex questions you might have on transgender.

Below are some other sample questions to keep in mind when you meet your gender therapist.

What is the process and approach to helping someone with gender-based conflictions?

How many sessions do I need to help me talk about my feelings, life, health, or anything on gender dysphoria?

Am I supposed to commit to a certain number of sessions per week to get better?

What is your success rate with people who experience gender dysphoria? Are there any reviews about your services?

Are there any LGBT resources you can give me in my area or community?

So, the questions are likely to differ from person to person. What is important is that you are open when seeking counseling. This helps a lot in ensuring you can get the help that you need.

How does Pride Counseling work?

If you think you have gender dysphoria[2], but you are not sure how best to get help, you may want to consider Pride Counseling[3].

Pride Counseling is an online platform where you can get gender therapy in case you are experiencing gender dysphoria or gender identity issues. Since the platform is centered around counseling the LGBT community, you should have all the questions on sex among other things answered here.

Understandably, individuals with gender identity issues might be scared to try out traditional gender therapy. That is why online therapy is available to help improve their privacy and feel like no one is judging them outright.

As much as the counselors might not be in the LGBT community, they still understand what you go through and they are here to help you. Those who have tried the platform often claim that it helped them deal with depression and anxiety conditions. So, you too could be next to get the help you need.

Methods used in Gender Counseling

Before you can access counseling on the Price Counseling platform, first you have to fill a questionnaire. It is from the questionnaire that you can be matched with the best gender therapists.

All you have to do now is pay for the service and start chatting with qualified therapists to help you deal with gender dysphoria.

Your online therapy will be conducted either on the website through a browser or you can download the community app. These two platforms help you be in constant interaction with your counselor.

The platform supports the use of video calls, phone, and live chats. You can always ask any questions you may have on LGBT, sex, or gender dysphoria in general. So, it is up to you to find the appropriate form of communicating with your counselor. Since they are all in the US, sometimes it can be hard for live sessions all the time for international clients. However, they are always happy to help.

One thing you should know is that all the messages you have with your counselor about how to care for yourself, the body, or individual struggles will remain private. Also, the messages are stored in the chat room. This allows you to go back and re-read the messages to get a better understanding of the advice offered earlier.

You also get unlimited messages to talk to your therapist about gender and other things you might be facing. However, the term unlimited does not mean your counselor will always be there 24/7 to respond. As such, you can always schedule sessions that can work great for you both.

What is Gender Dysphoria?

Gender dysphoria can be described as a feeling of discomfort in someone who wants to be identified as a different gender than the sex assigned when born. This can also make them feel their gender role is a mismatch.

Previously, gender dysphoria was labeled as a gender identity disorder[4]. However, that has changed over time. Right now, the American Psychiatric Association classifies it under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders[5] or DSM-5. This has made it possible for people to understand it better. It is why you can now search for a gender dysphoria therapist near me on Google and get one right away.

Some people now have a better experience with gender dysphoria and their sessions and data have proven to be useful. Below, we look at the symptoms and causes of gender dysphoria to help you know when it is time to get a therapist for yourself.

Symptoms of Gender Dysphoria

Symptoms of gender dysphoria can quickly change how you live your life. It is why you need to learn more about the symptoms and know when it is time to get counseling from gender therapists.

Here are some of the things you may experience. Keep in mind they may vary from person to person.

You can experience a feeling of difference between your assigned gender at birth with what you feel is the inner gender identity. This feeling of difference can last over six months. This is likely to lead to depression and anxiety in some individuals as they might be confused.

Some are likely to experience the desire to get rid of their primary sex characteristics. This would mostly occur in young adolescents who are now starting to know more about themselves and having feelings about each other. This confusion would also make someone experience anxiety and depression.

You would still want to be treated as the other gender than what you are when you were born. A good example is a man feeling that he should be treated as a woman. That might not always happen for most people.

Gender dysphoria might also lead to impairment or distress in some aspects of life. This includes socializing or even not handling your occupation better than before.

Gender dysphoria mostly starts when you are young, but it will manifest itself when you are an adolescent and turning into an adult. Some might experience short periods of gender dysphoria then the absence of the condition. That is how some seek the help of a mental health professional thinking they might be going crazy.

What Causes Gender dysphoria?

Gender identity counseling and transitioning can only work once you understand the causes of gender dysphoria.

The exact causes are yet to be understood completely. However, they can all be linked to a few factors someone may experience in their body. These factors include genetics, hormonal changes during prenatal development, and sometimes environmental factors can also influence the development of gender dysphoria.

A good example is when a parent is exposed to some chemicals that might disrupt the normal sex determination development, it can lead to such issues later in life. That is not all as it can still affect the well-being and health of children during early development.

More research shows that there is a genetic link too to having gender dysphoria[6]. And it can be more prevalent in identical twins compared to fraternal twins.

Normally, children are raised based on their physical anatomy. That is how we determine the sex of a child. This subsequently leads to how we raise them over the years. However, at some point during their adolescent stage, that is when some might feel a mismatch between how they are raised and their inner sex identity. That is when gender representation can become a problem.

Final thought

Online gender therapy plays an important role in helping a person fully understand their gender identity and handle any gender dysphoria confusion that might come along. Since gender dysphoria can sometimes be overwhelming on your mental health, it is also good to seek the help of mental health professionals to handle your situation better.

The best part about talking to a gender therapist online is that you will not have to worry so much about someone judging you all the time. You can also get counseling without worrying much about privacy issues. Sometimes you can also get a gender therapist online free. It all depends on how well you do your research.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a gender therapist cost? The price depends on the company you choose. The average cost is $40 to $90 per week. It is best to do a comparison to get a good deal.

Does online therapy really work? Some feel safe when using online therapy. And they also feel it works too. So, you can always try it out for the first month to see how it works out for you before concluding more about online therapy. Is there any free online counseling? It is possible to get free online counseling. The resources might be limited, but you can always get help online for free. With a quick search on Google, you can access several free resources. How do I find a gender therapist? You may have to do more research to understand what a good therapist entails. Also, ask your friends or join forums on LGBT to help learn more about the best gender therapists available. Is gender therapy covered by insurance? Not always. Most insurance companies do not cover gender therapy. So, inquire from your insurance company first. Can you go to therapy for gender dysphoria? Yes. Other than online therapy options, there are many other traditional therapy options too. This is for those who love a face-to-face therapy session.
Cawthorn makes it official: He's switching to newly drawn district

U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn on Thursday made it official: He's switching from the 11th Congressional District to run in a newly drawn district that had been widely regarded as tailor-made for North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore.

Our state is growing and changing rapidly," Cawthorn said in a video message. "We now have a brand-new congressional district, and as it stands, the new lines have split my constituents. My house is almost directly on the line of separation for the 13th and the 14th Congressional districts, and now half of the counties in the new district are counties I currently represent. My people are split, and I am forced to make a very difficult decision. Ultimately, I have to answer this question: what choice would enable me to make the greatest impact on the affairs of our state and our nation, so that our children and grandchildren can inherit the best version of America we can possibly give them? After consulting my family, my constituents, and with prayerful consideration, the answer is clear. I will be running for Congress in the 13th congressional district."

Cawthorn's announcement triggered an immediate domino fall. Moore won't run for Congress. A close ally of Moore, House Appropriations Committee Chair Jason Saine, R-Linclonton, confirmed in a text message to the Raleigh News & Observer Thursday night that Moore instead will run for another term as House speaker.

David B. Wheeler, who leads the American Muckrakers PAC (firemadison.com), mocked Cawthorn's decision.

"Cawthorn, best known for supporting a violent insurrection against democracy on Jan. 6th and a no-show Congressman who skipped out of 22% of votes in his first year in the House of Representatives, has now chickened out of running for a second term in Western North Carolina," Wheeler said.

"After insisting he could best represent 'mountain values' and taking thousands of dollars of contributions from Western North Carolinians, Cawthorn is running away from the mountains as fast as he can to try to salvage his soiled reputation in the newly drawn 13th Congressional District that runs from Polk to Mecklenburg counties."

We want to thank everyone who helped to convince Cawthorn not to run again in Western North Carolina. He clearly realized he was going to be beat and is high tailing it out of his home town.

However, if Chicken Cawthorn thinks he can simply run for Congress in a new district and well stand down, then he clearly doesnt know anything about our donors or team," Wheeler continued. "We want him out of office. Our battle simply moves a little bit south and east to the 13th Congressional District. We have no intention of letting up. We will hold Chicken Cawthorn accountable until he is defeated once and for all.

Cawthorn video

Here's the "rough transcript" of the video announcement Cawthorn's campaign provided:



"North Carolinians dont settle for the status quo. We defy it. We made history together last year when you sent me to Washington to shake up the Swamp and fight for you. The Tarheel state put the Establishment on its heels. Its in our blood to do tough things, to stray outside our comfort zone and guide the pen of history. We were first in flight, first in freedom, and together, we will put America First for generations to come."



"Our state is growing and changing rapidly. We now have a brand-new congressional district, and as it stands, the new lines have split my constituents. My house is almost directly on the line of separation for the 13th and the 14th Congressional districts, and now half of the counties in the new district are counties I currently represent. ...



"I believe we have a unique opportunity to increase conservative leadership from North Carolina. I have every confidence in the world that regardless of where I run, the 14th congressional district will send a patriotic fighter to DC. Knowing the political realities of the 13th district, I am afraid that another establishment go along to get along republican would prevail there. I will not let that happen. I will be running for congress in the 13th congressional district.



"Friends I want to make something extraordinarily clear: You elected a fighter, and I have fought day and night to defend our values in a town that despises principled and fearless representation. This move is not an abandonment in fact quite the opposite. It is a move to take more ground for constitutional conservatism. In my heart I represent North Carolina as a whole not some arbitrary line that some politician drew this cycle.



"This was not an easy decision. Whichever path I choose, I am losing friends, neighbors, and constituents. But this decision was not flippant or based on personal preferences in the slightest. It is a tactical move to ensure North Carolinas conservative fighting spirit is strengthened."
Two Bangladeshi smugglers were killed by the Border Security Force (BSF) near the Indo-Bangladesh border at Sitai locality in Cooch Bihar district of West Bengal in the early morning of November 12 at around 3 AM. One BSF trooper was also injured after smugglers attacked the BSF patrolling party which tried to stop them while entering Indian territory.

According to the reports, the BSF team spotted some Bangladeshi smugglers trying to smuggle cattle by lifting them over the barbed wire fence using improvised cantilevers. They entered Indian territory by using ladders out of iron bars to cross the fence. When the BSF warned them to go back, the smugglers attacked BSF personnel with iron rods, sticks and sickles. One BSF personnel suffered injuries in the attack and he was rushed to the hospital. Initially, BSF personnel utilised non-lethal weapons to deter miscreants but used force after the smugglers attacked them. Later, two bodies of smugglers were spotted near the international boundary.

The miscreants from Bangladesh side ventured into Indian side, tried to smuggle cattle using improvised bamboo cantilever. BSF had warned them to go back. Our troops utilised non lethal weapons to deter miscreants, but they attacked on BSF troops with ironrods & sticks: BSF pic.twitter.com/CzvY3BjfMV  ANI (@ANI) November 12, 2021

BSF also issued a statement regarding the encounter. On 12th Nov 2021 at about 0300 hrs, miscreants from Bangladesh side ventured into Indian territory and tried to smuggle cattle heads by establishing improvised bamboo cantilever. BSF domination ahead of the fence warned them to go back, but miscreants didnt pay heed to BSF,  it said.

On the other hand, journalist Anupam Mishra claimed that not two but three died in the encounter between BSF and cattle smugglers. He also shared the video of a deceased smuggler.

Three dead in an encounter between BSF and cattle smugglers at coochbehar. Tmc claims that this incident is a fallout of centres notification expanding bsf jurisdiction to 50 km. Today Home secretary Ajay bhalla meeting with bengal home sec and chief sec on bsf jurisdiction issue pic.twitter.com/2FD5RZ4biv  Anupam Mishra (@Anupammishra777) November 12, 2021

He said that ruling TMC has alleged that this incident was a fallout of Centre expanding the jurisdiction of BSF to 50 km.

Notably, the Union Home secretary Ajay Bhalla today (November 12) is set to visit Kolkata and he will meet West Bengal chief secretary H K Dwivedi to discuss pending land acquisition for construction of border fence, road projects, Border Out Posts (BOPs) and Integrated Check Posts (ICPs). He is also set to meet officials of BSF, coast guard and district magistrates from border areas to discuss security-related issues.

Source : OpIndia
Now Open

12 November 2021

The much anticipated Hyde Hotel Dubai today opens in Business Bay in collaboration with owner, Emerald Palace Group. The stylish, understated hotel will provide a sanctuary for those in-the-know, offering a new-kind of bespoke hospitality dialing into guest's needs, interests, and aspirations. A hideaway in the heart of the city, Hyde Dubai celebrates true discovery and authentic human connection, aiming to create iconic, personal, and captivating moments.

Hyde Hotels, Resorts & Residences is part of Ennismore, a creative hospitality company rooted in culture and community, with a global portfolio of entrepreneurial and founder-built brands with purpose at their heart. Ennismore is a joint venture with Accor, formed in 2021.

With interiors developed and conceptualized by renowned Italian designer Ciarmoli Queda, each of the hotel's 276 rooms and suites have been expertly designed to reflect the hotel's stylish take on a city sanctuary with inspiration from art and design from around the world. South African designer, Tristan Plessis is the designer behind stunning outlets Cleo, Hudson Tavern and Katsuya, as well as the chic pool side area where guests can relax by the pool enjoying this enclave of exclusivity.

Take your pick from the many room categories on offer including the Deluxe Hyde Out rooms, complete with an inclusive balcony and Hyde signature King Bed or the Hyde and Seek twin room option. The premium Hyde Away rooms feature a unique view of the Burj Khalifa and accommodate two adults and a child; while the Hyde Us family room is home to a large, separate living room. The hotel's luxurious suites include the Junior Hyde Me suite, the Executive Hyde In and the Presidential Hydden Gem suite.

True to the Ennismore portfolio, Hyde Hotel Dubai will offer a variety of unique culinary concepts, cementing the hotel's belief that food is how you experience a destination. Whimsical and surprising, Katsuya merges traditional Japanese cuisine with modern techniques and flavours delivering an entirely original experience. Guests and locals can enjoy signature cocktails, unique rolls, specialty sushi and sashimi platters. A New York speakeasy vibe in Dubai is on offer at the Hudson Tavern, bringing an urban escape complete with craft burgers, master mixology and a laid-back atmosphere at this candlelit tavern. Guests and locals can enjoy familiar flavours enhanced by a worldly charm at Cleo, perfectly capturing the vibrancy of Eastern Mediterranean-inspired cuisine. With a revolving menu designed to surprise and delight with every visit, Cleo draws inspiration from Lebanon, Syria, Greece and Italy - putting a modern twist on classic Levantine cuisine. The Perq's partnership with the local, specialty coffee roaster, Nightjar, brings guests standout coffee with a daily selection of freshly baked homemade pastries and savoury snacks including gourmet quiches, salads, and toasts.

Inspired by beauty rituals from around the world, the Hyde Hotel's Spa, Cinq Mondes Dubai offers the epitome of personal wellbeing. Holistic treatments carried out by expert therapists strive for deep regeneration of the mind and body.
Press Release

12 November 2021

Singapore - The International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC), in partnership with the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP) awarded Siddhant Jhunjhunwala, Vice President of KSL Capital with the Rising Star Award Asia during the HICAP virtual event on 28 October 2021.

Advertisements

Siddhant Jhunjhunwala started his career while in high school, working for this family office in Mumbai, a pan-India real estate developer. He proceeded to complete his undergraduate studies at Yale University, where he was awarded the Stuart Lispenard Witherbee Scholarship. After completing his BA in Economics in 2015, he joined Morgan Stanley as an analyst in their Real Estate Investment Banking Division in New York. In 2017, he joined KSL Capital Partners in Denver and currently serves as a Vice President in KSLs Singapore office.

Tina Yu, Head of APAC for KSL Capital commented, (Siddhant) was instrumental to executing on our recent transactions including Baillie Lodges in Australia, Soneva in Maldives, Four Points Sydney, and most recently the Manathai portfolio purchase from Outrigger.

We are really pleased to honor Sidd with the Rising Star Award Asia. At the young age of 31, he has built a strong reputation in the industry. He has a very bright career ahead of him and I am excited to watch him reach his goals and shape the future of hospitality, commented Andrea Belfanti, Executive Director of ISHC.

Sidd is a perfect example of the impact the next generation of leaders is already having on the hotel industry, said Jeff Higley, President of The BHN Group, which operates HICAP. Hard work, in-depth knowledge with a desire to learn more, and an appetite to seize leadership opportunities are criteria that position rising stars such as Sidd for successful and rewarding careers ahead.

ISHC launched the Rising Star Award Asia in 2014 in partnership with HICAP to recognize young, emerging leaders in the Asia hospitality community. Nomination criteria requires an individual be 35 years or younger, currently working and living in Asia and working in the hospitality development and/or investment field. Past Rising Star Award Asia recipients include Corey Hamabata (2020), Daniel Yip (2019), Kieran Bestall (2018), Peter Harper (2017), Kiichi Mashita (2016), Nihat Ercan (2015) and Christopher Hur (2014).
External Article

12 November 2021

A travel body representing global distribution systems and online travel agencies has called for further action against Google, after a European court upheld a 2.42 billion fine imposed on the tech giant.

Advertisements

The General Court of the European Union has dismissed an appeal by Google, which was fined in 2017 by giving its own shopping recommendations an illegal advantage in search results.

The European Commission said Google had unfairly directed visitors to Google Shopping, to the detriment of competitors.

Eu travel tech welcomed the decision, calling it an important step in making Google stop its abusive practices and the damages they inflict on competition and consumers, but it should not end here.

It said in a statement that the European Commission must investigate Googles practices in the travel sector.

Todays decision of the EU General Court in the Google Shopping case marks an important turnaround by forcing Google to stop discriminatory practices of self-preferencing, said the statement.
Press Release

12 November 2021

Within the framework of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change COP26, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Government of Panama and the business group NOAH agreed to work together for the implementation of the United Nations Fund for Climate Neutrality of Tourism. The Fund represents an innovative financing instrument promoted by UNWTO to respond to threats posed by the climate emergency.

Advertisements

In recognition of the existential threat posed by the climate emergency, UNWTO, the government of Panama and NOAH (Network of Ocean Ambassadors Headquarters) will support the creation of a Capital Fund that will make possible the UN Fund for the Climate Neutrality of Tourism and the creation of a Smart Carbon Exchange Market (MIIC). Led by NOAH together with UNWTO, this market aims to promote the exchange of carbon credits in the most efficient way.

Mobilizing resources

With this agreement, Panama ratifies its climate leadership and its efforts to conserve and regenerate nature and, at the same time, unleash economic growth through tourism that benefits local communities. Panama is one of only three carbon negative countries in the world - that is, it absorbs more greenhouse gases than it emits.

The Minister of Tourism of Panama, Ivan Eskildsen, highlighted the role of UNWTO in bringing together a leader in climate response like Panama, firmly committed to tourism as a pillar for the future of people and the planet, and NOAH that will contribute technological and financial solutions to mobilize the necessary resources for a sustainable future for the benefit of all.

"These projects reflect UNWTO's commitment to transform the tourism sector to accelerate the decarbonization of the sector," said UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili. He stressed that this is an example of success based on cooperation between the UN system, international organizations, UNWTO Member States and the private sector in general.

Towards Blue Carbon

With Panama serving as a pilot country for these initiatives, NOAH will prepare a study in coordination with the Ministry of the Environment to estimate the blue carbon reserves in mangroves and seagrasses in protected areas of the country, as well as the reserves of carbon in wetlands.

For his part, the founder of NOAH, Frederic Degret, confirmed that to articulate this great project, Panama will host the international headquarters of an Intelligent Carbon Exchange Market, as we have agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding signed between UNWTO and NOAH.

The UNWTO, NOAH and Panama ensure the transition to a tourism sector with net zero emissions and focused on improving peoples lives.

RELATED LINKS
Rodney Goodie is the CEO of St. Hope Foundation, which operates several community health centers in the Houston region.

The nonprofit organization strives to address disparities in heatlh care among low-income and other disadvantaged populations by providing comprehensive and affordable medical services.

St. Hope not only vaulted to second among mid-sized employers on the Houston Chronicles list of 2021 Top Workplaces, but was also near the top of the most improved companies, jumping from 23rd last year. Goodie spoke with Chronicle about how St. Hope Foundation became a better workplace as well as the particular challenges posed by the pandemic to a health care provider.

Q: How has the pandemic changed your approach to leadership and management?

A: The leadership became more engaged in the employees overall well-being. Although very difficult in health care, we were able to increase telecommuting capacities through telehealth services for 35 percent of our team. The leadership managed virtual meeting burnout by streamlining team meetings and agendas.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Houstons charity clinics take a hit in coronavirus age

ST. HOPE FOUNDATION Industry: Health Care Employees: 166 2021 Rank: 2 2020 Rank: 23 (midsize) Years on Top Workplaces: 9 Source: Energage See More Collapse

Q: What are some things St. Hopes has done over the last year to maintain happy employees? How is that different from previous years?

A: We focused heavily on employee engagement events and activities that were fun, inspirational, and fostered team-bonding. We offered employee counseling services at no charge to the employee to help cope with stress and anxiety during the pandemic. We were successful in producing a virtual Mothers Day and Fathers Day luncheon for our staff where we conducted fun events and had Uber Eats sent to the employee residence.

Q: Given the work of St. Hopes, how concerned were you about employee burnout over the last year? And how did you combat that?

A: Health care was on the frontlines of the pandemic. Employee burnout was a key priority as we met weekly to discuss how to mitigate anxieties by employees and patients.

Q: Whats in store for St. Hopes over the next year? Any plans to expand? And how is the market different now that it was a year ago?

A: We are opening our health center in northwest Houston at the end of the year. All health centers offer free COVID testing and vaccinations. The need for healthcare remains critical as many residents have no insurance or limited financial resources. As a patient centered medical home, St. Hope serves both the uninsured and insured residents of our community with affordable health care.

robert.downen@chron.com
As oil and gas companies slowly become sources of cleaner energy, Texas schools may pay part of the price, according to research from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Researchers found that because of the emerging energy transition, K-12 education funding  which in Texas relies heavily on taxes from oil and gas production  could begin to fall short of spending needs sometime between 2022 and 2029 with average annual deficits of $2.5 billion to $5.8 billion.

Annual shortfalls could add up to well over $100 billion over the next three decades, researchers say.

We predict that education funding will decrease by between $13 billion and $120 billion over the next 30 years because of the shift toward renewable energy, the authors wrote.

OIL REBOUND: Once on the brink of bankruptcy, Oxy appears to have turned a corner

While those numbers seem large, they represent an average annual shortfall of about 2.8 percent of Texas total baseline K-12 funding over the next 30 years. The authors projections of the funding gap were made by taking the difference between the state Comptrollers 2020 forecast for K-12 education funding from oil and four possible forecasts produced by the Center for Houstons Future using the estimated price of a barrel over the next several decades.

Lawmakers could turn to property taxes to fill the potential gap, but they remain skeptical about asking homeowners to provide more education funding after widespread opposition to proposed increases.

The authors, however, said other taxes could fill in the projected budget hole. They suggested expanding the sales tax or opening the state up to gambling or recreational marijuana and heavily taxing those industries. For example, the study noted, the current statewide sales tax of 6.25 percent generated about $34 billion in revenue in 2020, which equates to about $5.4 billion for each percentage point of sales tax. The authors wrote that increasing the sales tax rate by one percentage point would nearly offset the annual worst-case scenario of lost oil revenue by 2050.

A NEW LEADER: Rice, still reckoning with its racially fraught roots, names first-ever Black, immigrant president

If the state taxed marijuana sales as Colorado does, researchers said, Texas could raise billions for education as well. The authors said if the state copied Colorados tax scheme and had the same demand, about $2.2 billion a year could be generated. The authors stopped short of endorsing any one method to offset potential revenue losses from diminishing oil and gas production.

We are not advocating for any single option, and we recognize that there are many other options available to fill the projected shortfalls, such as more fundamental reforms of the franchise tax or increasing excise tax rates, the authors wrote. More research on the economic effects of the various options is needed and will help policymakers determine the most efficient and equitable policy response.

shelby.webb@chron.com
Peter, the little brown boy swathed in a bright-red snowsuit, was the kid I wanted to be.

He was the star in Ezra Jack Keats classic childrens picture book, The Snowy Day, and his only mission was to play in the snow in his Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood.

The Snowy Day, which was published in 1962, captures the joy of childhood and the sweet enchantment of the first snow of winter. Its why the book, which won a Caldecott Medal, still captivates today. In the New York Library system, the book has been checked out nearly 500,000 times, more than any other book.

It was also the first mainstream childrens book with an African American child as a lead character, and it was written by a Jewish man who had changed his name in response to anti-Semitism.

I was about 7 when I experienced snow in Houston for the first time. Though there was hardly enough to make a snowball and it was gone by noon, the snow was as magical for me as it was for Peter. I read The Snowy Day so many times that I knew the story by heart.

I was saddened as Peter was when he discovered the snowball he put in his pocket had melted. I also was elated when he peered through the window the next morning at the new fallen snow. And I loved that Peter was brown like me.

Oliver Lapin Family Day hosts A Snowy Day with Houston Grand Opera When: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Nov. 14 Where: Jewish Community Center's Merfish Teen Center, 9000 S. Rice Details: for kids 10 and younger; $8-$12; erjcchouston.org See More Collapse

On Sunday, Oliver Lapin Family Day hosts A Snowy Day event with music, snow and crafts for ages up to 10 at the Jewish Community Centers Merfish Teen Center, 9000 S. Rice. Its part of the Ann & Stephen Kaufman Jewish Book & Arts Festival and will include excerpts and live elements from Houston Grand Operas The Snowy Day, which premieres Dec. 9-19 at Wortham Theater Center and features New York Times bestselling author Andrea Davis Pinkney, who wrote A Poem for Peter, as the librettist.

It has been a wonderful experience to shepherd the transformation of a childrens classic into an opera for all, said Patrick Summers, artistic and music director of Houston Grand Opera. One thing is certain: The Snowy Day is not a childrens opera but an opera about the childhood experience that is for everyone.

Pinckney, who was connected with HGO through the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, said she was invited by Viking, the original publisher of The Snowy Day, to create A Poem for Peter on the centennial of Keats birth in 2016. She said Keats book defined her childhood.

I was born when The Snowy Day was published, she said. At that time, there were so many important things happening. Martin Luther King gave his landmark I Have a Dream speech, so there was great hope on the horizon. Two weeks later, at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., four African American girls were the victims of a racially motivated terrorist bombing. So, you had these two very disparate realities. In the middle of that, here comes this groundbreaking book.

Though the books story is simple, Pinkney said its message is more complex.

The adventure that Peter represents is the impermanence of life. You go out on a snowy day, and theres Peter putting that snowball in his pocket, believing that its going to be there in the morning and then understanding, sadly, that it has melted. At the same time, hes looking out his window to see that new snow has fallen. I think that it is a great way to let children know that while something may melt in your life, theres enchantment and newness in the morning, she said.

The Snowy Day is also a celebration of the joy of exploration, of discovery, of enchantment, of simplicity. All things we need right now.

Pinkney, a former magazine editor, has written more than 30 books, including a number in which she has collaborated with her husband, Brian Pinkney, an award-winning childrens book illustrator. His father, Jerry Pinkney, whom Andrea Pinkney affectionately called Daddy Lion, also was a reknowned illustrator who produced more than 100 books, including the Caldecott Award-winning The Lion and the Mouse. He died in October at age 81.

Collectively, their work has celebrated African-American people, history and culture.

The most rewarding part is seeing the qualitative impact that a story can have on a young person, and a childrens book can have on a young person, Pinkney said. We, who create childrens books, or an opera like The Snowy Day, we have an opportunity to reach kids as they develop their perceptions of the world and those around them. Not just African American kids, all children.

Her next childrens book, Because of You, John Lewis, comes out this spring, and she and her husband have a picture book, Bright Brown Baby, which debuts in January.

Keats went on to write six more childrens books with Peter as the main character. Each captured the magic of childhood through the eyes of a boy who happened to be Black. A 2016 animated short film based on The Snowy Day featured the voices of Regina King, Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett.

Peters story is so universal and really speaks to the heart of childhood, Pinkney said. A great childrens book is one that will spark conversations and dialogue and allow the thought leaders of tomorrow to formulate their perceptions of the world today.

When it snowed in Houston last winter, I played in it, like a child, like Peter.

Maybe it will snow again this season.

joy.sewing@chron.com
With three young sons, getting away for vacation was increasingly difficult for Eric and Trisha English. So they decided to simplify getaway opportunities.

The Houston couple put Galveston on their radar and settled for the laid-back Pointe West neighborhood nearly all the way to the San Luis Pass.

In Houston, they live in the Heights, across from the ballpark where sons Ashton, 8, Owen, 6, and Boyd, 4, play Little League. Their street is busy, so life for the kids is more restricted, compared to their almost free-range lifestyle at their beachside vacation house, where they make new friends and chase ice cream trucks on weekends.

And Galveston is close enough that the kids never complain about the drive. For Trisha and Eric, both attorneys, its much less hassle than maneuvering vacation schedules whenever they want to go somewhere.

They finished building their three-story island home  designed by architect Cate Black of RISE Architecture and Design and interior designer Katie Davis of Katie Davis Design and built by Seaside Construction  just as the coronavirus pandemic shutdown hit.

The Englishes enjoy the house often on weekends and earlier in the pandemic would come for weeks at a time since work-from-home and school-from-home meant that Galveston could be their base. Even if the boys have games on Saturdays, staying just one night can be rejuvenating.

We see the sunrise over the ocean and the sunset over the bay, said Eric, who specializes in corporate restructuring and bankruptcy at the Porter Hedges law firm. Even cleaning up here, sweeping the garage, I enjoy it. Im so happy when Im here that Im happy even when Im sweeping the floor.

One advantage we love is that its more likely that our friends will actually come and visit with us here, said Trisha, 41, who has a solo practice and specializes in estate planning and probate, trust and estate litigation, Trisha English Law. Vacationing with friends is a big logistical issue. Theyre more likely to come and visit for a beach weekend.

Trisha and Eric, natives of the Northwest, met in college and married later when they were law school students at Pepperdine University in California. They landed in Houston for clerk jobs with federal judges and found such a welcoming community  both in work and in life  that they stayed.

They frequently invite a family or two to join them, and each couple gets a bedroom while the kids pile into the six-bed bunk room.

Each bunk has its own electrical outlet and reading light, and the room is decorated in a blue-and-white palette with shiplap and the same white oak floors that are found elsewhere in the house.

The main living area on the first floor  living room, dining area and kitchen  is what Eric calls the grownup floor.

White walls and shiplap mixed with a white sofa and a pair of swivel chairs and a blue sofa  all in performance fabrics  are warmed up with natural seagrass window shades and white oak flooring, along with a little more white oak on the rim of the range hood in the kitchen and fireplace mantel in the living room.

The dining area is casual and inviting, with a slightly rustic wood table that can hold up to 12 people, contemporary wood chairs painted black and a Sputnik-style chandelier with a black matte finish and clear glass globes.

In the kitchen, Davis recommended white subway tile that would give both a clean look and be cost effective.

The front powder bathroom is small but full of charm. Its shiplap was painted Benjamin Moores Lead Gray, a deep, dark blue-gray, and is paired with black-and-white floor tile.

The Englishes splurged in the primary bedroom suite, with a freestanding bathtub that Trisha doesnt have in her bathroom in Houston. They used quartz for kitchen counters but chose luxurious Carrara marble for this bathroom.

Davis noted that many stone vendors try to dissuade customers from choosing softer marbles to avoid post-installation complaints that it stains or gets knicked too easily.

Trisha left her job with a large law firm before the birth of their third child, and she was drawn to both Davis and her architect, Black, because they were in similar life experiences: young mothers leaving a job or profession to strike out on their own. Davis, in fact, was an attorney before she shifted to interior design.

(The Englishes) live in the Heights down the street from me. It was a blast to go down there and see Galveston in all four seasons as we worked on the house, Davis said. I grew up here but typically only went down there in the summer. Its such a different experience. The minute you hit the deck, it is so peaceful and your cares go out the window.

Black is a native of the Houston area and moved to Galveston with her husband more than a decade a go. She had worked for a larger firm, but launching her own business allowed her to have a better work-life balance.

Now, much of her residential design is for beachfront or vacation homes, so bringing in the beautiful views is offset by the need to keep the harsh sunlight out, she said.

That means that communal public spaces  the Englishes grownup floor  always face the water. Beachfront lots tend to be narrow, so designs go vertical.

As you go up, you have to think, What do we want to face the water? and then lay it out on the second and third floors, Black said. Out there, if youre high enough, you have a view to the beach and the bay.

Balconies and decks factor into entertaining spaces. But those decks  at least 10 feet deep  also create an overhang to keep the sun out when big windows are preferred, letting form, function and energy efficiency all work together.

Because of the hot, humid climate, engineered wood is a better option over regular hardwoods, and higher-end paints and even caulking have to be able to handle the more corrosive salty air, Black said.

The Englishes are so happy with their beach house that it made them harsher critics of their home in the Heights, a two-story Craftsman.

This house made me realize how much the rugs make every room so much better, Trisha said. We would go home and think, Yeah, we need to up our rug game.

So theyre working with Davis again on that house, refreshing their kitchen, building a new garage with a primary suite above it and creating another bedroom and a new playroom for their boys.

diane.cowen@chron.com
A final decision has been made regarding a book that was removed from a Spring Branch ISD library last month.

Cathy G. Johnsons novel The Breakaways remains, and will continue to be, withdrawn from all Spring Branch ISD elementary school libraries.

The book and the school district made news early last month when it was pulled from the Wilchester Elementary School library after a parent lodged a complaint about its content.

Over 800 books called into question: Texas lawmaker launches probe of school libraries books on race, sexuality

A committee made up of two librarians, two teachers, and an administrator reviewed the complaint and the book.

The reconsideration committee determined the book was not age appropriate nor was it appropriate for its intended educational use, reads part of a statement from Spring Branch ISD. The reconsideration committee recommended that The Breakaways not be available in elementary libraries. The book is no longer available in elementary schools.

While some people alleged that the book was removed because it contains a transgender character, the district maintains that it was banned from elementary school libraries due to content that is not age appropriate, not because of it having a transgender character.

The Breakaways from Cathy G. Johnson is a raw, and beautifully honest graphic novel that looks into the lives of a diverse and defiantly independent group of kids learning to make room for themselves in the world, reads the description from publisher Macmillan.

Spring Branch ISDs decision to remove The Breakaways from elementary school libraries came days after Katy ISD canceled a speaking engagement for author Jerry Craft and removed his books from district libraries after about 400 people signed a petition complaining that Crafts book promoted reverse racism and taught Critical Race Theory.

Following a counter petition, which had over 2,000 signatures, a review committee decided that the book in question, New Kid, was appropriate and put it back on library shelves and rescheduled the virtual event with Craft.

Gov. Greg Abbott released two recent open letters regarding the appropriateness of books in school libraries  one on Nov. 1 to Texas Association of School Boards Executive Director Dan Troxell, and one on Nov. 8 to Texas Education Agency commissioner Mark Morath, Texas State Library and Archives Commission chair Martha Wong, and Texas State Board of Education chairman Keven Ellis.

A growing number of parents of Texas students are becoming increasingly alarmed about some of the books and other content found in public school libraries that are extremely inappropriate in the education system, the first letter opens. The most flagrant examples include clearly pornographic images and substance that has no place in the Texas public educational system.

Abbotts second letter mentioned two specific examples, Maia Kobabes Gender Queer: A Memoir which was removed from a Keller ISD library after complaints about the books pornographic drawings, and Carmen Maria Machados In the Dream House which was one of multiple books removed from Leander ISDs libraries due to complaints about inappropriate content.

Because neither of the two letters were addressed to Spring Branch ISD, the district did not have a response to Abbotts letters.

Debate about books taking place all over: Kansas district orders 29 books removed from circulation

The debate about banning books is taking place nationwide with one side claiming that books need to be removed due to inappropriate content and another side claiming that the banning of books is a way to censor content relating to LGBTQ issues, race and other issues.

elliott.lapin@hearst.com
Representatives and community members from Harris County Precincts 3 and 4 gathered Thursday morning to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new community center, starting construction after last months adoption of a new precinct map that redistricts the area from Pct. 4 to 3.

The new facility, named the George H.W. Bush Community Center, begins construction this month at 6827 Cypresswood Drive. It will be a 24,500-square-foot building with a kitchen, a grand hall, and space for public events, meetings and other activities.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Harris County Flood Control starting Cypress Creek maintenance project

It is being built out of a facility that was previously owned by the Cypress Creek Christian Church and suffered severe damage from Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Precinct 4 purchased the facility in 2018.

Pct. 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle opened the ceremony by talking about parks and arts.

Parks and arts are to a community like paint and a lawn are to a house in a neighborhood, Cagle said. We can all live alone, but community centers allow us to live in community and they enhance our lives.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Kinsmen Lutheran Church celebrating 50 years of service in the community

The new center will also be located next to the Barbara Bush Branch Library, hence the center being named after the former president.

Barbara and George will continue to be able to serve the public, Cagle said.

Cagle said there are many things that arent a legitimate function of government, but that providing parks and community centers and places for the public to gather is a practice dating back to Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.

Bert Keller, director of special projects and community involvement for Harris County Pct. 3, was at the event on behalf of Pct. 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey, and told the attendees he believes the community will feel as if they have two commissioners instead of one for at least the next year and a half.

To us, all the parks and the arts is also part of infrastructure, and it adds to the tax base and quality of life, Keller said.

Keller said this community center is one of the many projects that is being handed to the precinct since the redistricting was approved last month at the Harris County Commissioners Court, and that its been a test for the precinct.

Luckily, you couldnt have two finer men and more competent people with their constituents and servants hearts to handle the transition, Keller said. This really is, and at least for the next year and a half or so, going to be like having two commissioners and two commissioners staffs and parks departments.

Keller said there are currently people with the precinct studying every square foot of every facility and getting grounded to better serve their constituents.

Ramsey said in a written statement it was an honor to inherit the facility named after George H.W. Bush.

I am confident this facility was designed with the utmost consideration for the residents needs, and itll be a great addition to the community, Ramsey said. Im looking forward to the completion of the building and all the memories that will be made within it.

Cagle said he and Pct. 3 are committed to making sure no one in either precinct loses service, and that they will ensure roads will continue to be fixed, community centers will be built, and needs will be met.

The people will be served, Cagle said.

The building is expected to be completed in about a year.

paul.wedding@hcnonline.com
First-generation immigrant Arthur Veress discharged from the U.S. Army in 2017 after roughly 21 years of service. His military experience has helped him find a career at Amazon.

Veress joined Amazon in June as an operations manager, working at the new Amazon HOU6 fulfillment center that opened in Richmond on Oct. 31. The 850,000-square-foot facility is built to employ more than 1,000 full-time associates.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Fort Bend ISD board to vote on outdoor learning space, effort to commemorate Sugar Land 95

Veress grew up in Romania and finished high school there. Given the opportunity to come to the U.S. in 1996 at age 20, he took it but was unsure of how things would work out. He arrived in New York City in May 1996 with only $1,000 in cash and a suitcase of clothes.

He lacked a plan until he enlisted in the Army in August 1996 as a light infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division with the goal of serving four years and then transitioning into another career.

But I did fairly well in those first four years. I got promoted a few times, and I was doing things that I was enjoying very much, Veress said. So I decided to stay around for another four. And then eventually, you know, four years became 21.

Veress became a rifleman and then long range reconnaissance team leader. In 2003, he was commissioned through Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga., as an infantry officer. He went on to serve in infantry and special forces units, completing multiple combat and operational deployments to Iraq and Africa.

After serving in the military for so long, Veress found some difficulty adjusting to working in the private sector. Later, he researched employers and decided Amazon might be the best fit because he said like the military, it has a sense of mission to get the job done and provide great service while maintaining safety.

Years of serving in the military taught him to remain calm and look for answers to the problems or tasks that were in front of him. Those skills have proved helpful at Amazon.

Director of Operations Evan Luscher said Amazons 16 leadership principles tend to resonate with military leaders, attracting them to the e-commerce company that employs more than 45,000 veterans and military spouses in the U.S., including more than 4,500 in Texas. He said veterans at Amazon have leadership skills and are driven, which helps the company succeed.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Lamar Consolidated ISD leaders mull districts rapid growth, staffing shortages and more

I think that Amazon really values a lot of the same things that the military does, Luscher said. And it creates a lot of pride within people when they work with the company, and so thats been a real positive piece that the two seem to merge together really well.

The Warriors@Amazon affinity group is for veterans and their family members and provides positive energy and outreach around military activity. Some other affinity groups include Women@Amazon, Asians@Amazon, the Black Employee Network, and Glamazon, which supports Amazons LGBTQ+ community. Other employees can also join to support a group or learn more about others.

Amazon also has launched a new tool that assists military spouses when their partners are relocated. Its goal is to make it easier for them to find jobs at other Amazon facilities where they are being stationed.

The company announced in July that it plans to hire more than 100,000 veterans and military spouses by 2024.

It certainly is a bold goal, said Regional Public Relations Manager Daniel Martin, And, you know, were confident that we can achieve it. We look forward to continuing to hire our military and veterans and their spouses.

Amazon is currently hiring a lot of people for the holiday season. To learn more, visit www.hiring.amazon.com.

tracy.maness@hcnonline.com
As residents from across Montgomery County gathered to celebrate Veterans Day Thursday, Judge Jimmie C. Edwards III told them they have not seen anything yet at the Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Park.

The park  which is operated by the Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Commission with Edwards as its Chairman  had its grand opening on Memorial Day and Edwards said theyre just getting started with developing the park that is aimed at honoring veterans.

Next time you come, bring a hammer, a saw and some nails, he said as he announced the commissions plans to build a Veterans Education Center at the park. Earlier in the year, state Rep. Will Metcalf, R-Conroe, announced that $7 million would be awarded to the park to further its mission. Edwards said the commission has engineering and architectural plans for the center under review currently.

On YourConroeNews.com: Metcalf secures $7M for veterans park

He also announced a Jeffersonian-style dome building would be built along Freedom Row in tribute to the Gold Star Mothers and a Park in the Sky would be built in the grove of trees behind The Lone Star Monument and Historical Flag Park. Decking would be built 14-foot off the ground in the trees for residents to enjoy.

The commission celebrated the first Veterans Day ceremony since its dedication Thursday morning with prayer, music, speakers, history and remembrance.

This ceremony was themed around the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. The recognition started at 11 a.m. on Wednesday with the Walk the Walk project.

Volunteers from the community signed up to walk a stretch of 21 paces in 30-minute time slots carrying an American flag or a military flag. All slots were filled from 11 a.m. Wednesday through 11 a.m. Thursday  even the overnight hours when a line of thunderstorms blew through Conroe. According to commission member Howard Wood, the flags never lowered and they never stopped walking even as the rain poured down around 4:30 a.m. Thursday.

In partnership with the Montgomery County Chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a plaque commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was dedicated at the entrance to the park. State Vice Chair of Commemorative Events for the TXDAR, Kim Cantwell, gave a history of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as the plaque was being dedicated.

To cap off the Walk the Walk project, 100-year-old World War II veteran George Truman Waters and Congressman Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, walked the final 21 steps of the project together while carrying an American flag.

Waters was a B-17 gunner during World War II. After flying 14 missions in less than three years, his plane was shot down in February 1944. He spent the next 15 months as a POW. Soon hell celebrate his 80th anniversary with his wife, Mavis. They married a week before the Pearl Harbor attack.

On YourConroeNews.com: George Waters has flyover for 100th birthday

Brady called this project remarkable.

What a wonderful way to remind Americans that the tomb is an American symbol of remembrance for every unnamed hero who served in wars across the world for our nation and our freedom, Brady said.

Brady then presented a Congressional Commendation for Heroic Service by the U.S. House of Representatives to Edwards who lead the effort to relocate and revitalize the Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Park.

Edwards, a U.S. Marine veteran, lost his legs in an ambush attack in Vietnam in August 1969. As he recovered, he became determined that these injuries would not deter him on his mission to walk off the plane as he returned home to Conroe  and he did walk off the plane to a crowd of well wishers those many years ago.

Hes since used his good humor and dogged determination to represent Montgomery County in the state legislature, as County Judge and most recently to lead the way for the new Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Park at Interstate 45 and Texas 105 in Conroe.

Edwards was also honored with the National Daughters of the American Revolution Community Service Award for his contributions to the park.

As a part of the service, more than 200 names were added to The Line monument where individuals can have their veteran loved ones name recognized. A dedication also took place for a propeller piece that features the 38 names of Women Air Service Pilots who died during their missions in World War II.

A group of newly enlisted U.S. Army soldiers were sworn in for their military service as well during the ceremony.

Other community groups participating in Thursdays ceremony included the Eastex Detachment 779 Marine Corps League, the Conroe Fire and Conroe Police Honor Guard, The Lone Star Volunteers and their cannon Rolling Thunder, VFW Post 4709 in Conroe, Caney Creek Boys Choir, Conroes U.S. Army recruitment office, Stephen Kloesel with a trumpet salute and singers Meredith Fisk and Kenzie Soape with vocal tributes.

For more information about the park or to place a name on The Line, visit honoredmission.org or see https://www.facebook.com/honoredmission.

shernandez@hcnonline.com
One concertgoer described the growing sense of claustrophobia in the moments before Travis Scott took to the Astroworld Festival stage. Another recounted her struggle to escape.

Four of the witnesses in last weeks deadly concert recalled their experiences on the steps of the Harris County Civil Courthouse on Friday amid the filing of another lawsuit accusing the festival of being rife with negligence. Benjamin Crump is among the lawyers representing the four and several more concertgoers who were among the nine people killed as the crowd crammed together.

Dishon Isaac, 31, believes he saw Danish Baig  among the nine casualties  and his fiancee near him in the crowd, to the left of the stage. As the concert was expected to begin, fights broke out, he said. People got closer and some fell over.

He lifted his arms at one point and was unable to put them back down. He was tall enough to get a breath of fresh air, but some were not so lucky, Isaac continued.

It got worse and worse as Travis Scott was coming out, Isaac said, describing how stressful the concert became. Youre at the mercy of the crowd. We were packed in so tight, we were like sardines in a can.

Another concertgoer described a similar situation from where she was in the crowd. Uniqua Smith, 34, went to the concert by herself and did her best to stay standing toward the left of the stage.

With them jumping up and down  there was no way possible for you to retain your footing, Smith said. I was unable to stand on my own.

During her escape, she stepped over a woman suffering from a seizure on the ground. Someone called for a medic, but Smith never saw anyone come to the womans aid.

All I could think about was me not falling on top of this woman and crushing her to death, she continued.

Crump said he believes concert organizers had several opportunities to bring the show to a halt and that the worst of the night started around 9:05 p.m., about a minute or so before Scott started his set.

Police radio traffic shows that officers at the concert were aware of several barricade breaches near the stage around that time and that groups of people were spotted leaving the throngs of concertgoers. The earliest indication that authorities grasped the scope of the growing chaos was around 9:30 p.m. when a female officer told other law enforcement that several people had been trampled and were passed out near the front of the stage.

Gertrude Daughtery, a 59-year-old concertgoer, said she thought she was going to die. What she experienced has left her unable to sleep at night.

Every time I close my eyes I see it, she said.

Another plaintiff, Reyna Iraheta, 25, joined the lawyer at the courthouse. She attended the concert and lost track of her friends in the commotion.

Crump said his lawsuit takes aim at Live Nation Worldwide  the worlds largest concert organizer  for its role in the disaster. Other groups share a portion of the responsibility, and more lawsuits are expected, he said.

We think that there was failure of responsibility on every level. And we want all those questions answered, Crump said.

Crump also represents the family of 9-year-old Ezra Blount, who remains clinging to life after he was injured at the concert. Crump declined to elaborate on the childs condition.

Since the festival, lawsuits have been filed on behalf of more than 600 people who attended Astroworld, including several minors and concertgoers from 19 states. More than 80 suits have named Scott as a defendant.

Attorneys for the Houston native rapper said Wednesday that he did not have the authority to stop the show. Only the festival director and executive producers could do that, they said.

Investigations should start proceeding over finger-pointing so that together we can identify exactly what transpired and how we can prevent anything like this from happening again, Los Angeles attorney Edwin F. McPherson said in a statement.

Drivers on Montrose Boulevard on Friday were greeted by two sign-holding women holding Scott to task by staking out a Museum District property linked to the musician. They declined to be identified.

One sign read, You destroyed lives. You deserve bankruptcy.

As one of the deadliest concerts in U.S. history came to an end and authorities started their mass casualty response, Smith struggled to leave the NRG grounds.

Smiths vehicle was in a parking lot that then became the site of a family reunification area. She was unable to call anyone in order to go home to her 14-year-old twins.

Iraheta made it to her car, but her phone was also useless.

Isaac, soaked with sweat, chose to walk home instead  to the Montrose area.

Gabrielle Banks, Samantha Ketterer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

nicole.hensley@chron.com

leah.brennan@chron.com
The firefighters arrived at NRG Park just before 7 a.m. Friday, hours before the chaos would begin.

They met with police at 7 a.m. They checked their radios with Harris County dispatch 45 minutes later. Entries in a Houston Fire Activity log show a routine early morning in advance of Astroworld.

But by 9:15 a.m., entries in the 11-page document show a volatile situation unfolding.

HPD preparing to open gates to participants, firefighters wrote.

Minutes later, they added another entry: Participants breached secondary checkpoint.

Three minutes later, they added an update: Would-be concertgoers had breached the main entryway, rushing past a COVID testing area.

A deadly crush: 'It was like watching a Jenga tower topple' at Astroworld Festival

It was an early indication of the energy of the concertgoers at Astroworld, the festival that had drawn spectators from across the country to watch Travis Scott and other performers last weekend. That energy turned deadly in the evening, when eight people died and dozens were injured. Another, Bharti Shahani, 22, a Texas A&M computer science student, suffered serious brain trauma. She was pronounced dead Wednesday. Ezra Blount, 9, remains in a coma and gravely injured.

The Astroworld Festival  meant to evoke memories of the now defunct amusement park of the same name  was in the Yellow Lot at NRG Park. It held two stages, food and drink stands, and carnival rides. The focal point of the festival was the main stage, where a dramatic volcano exuded flames and a large clock counted down the seconds to Scotts performance.

This years festival would have marked the third concert since 2018  it was canceled last year because of COVID. In the run-up to the festival, Houston native Scott appeared all over the city, visiting with school children, opening a basketball pavilion at Sunnyside Park, and unveiling the Cactus Design Center. He was to perform with Drake, SZA, Roddy Rich and others.

Houston firefighters arrived at a small command post parked on the far-flung Orange Lot, about a mile from the festival grounds. They spent the day listening to radio dispatches from some of the hundreds of Houston police officers inside and outside the park, or using cellphones to call the concert organizers privately hired medical providers. They added notable updates to the 11-page log.

After the early breach of the entry, firefighters wrote just after 10 a.m.: Venue fences damaged. No control of participants.

In the initial rush on the gates, four concertgoers were injured, the logs show. Revved-up concertgoers would rush gates at least nine other times Friday, fire officials wrote.

At about 11 a.m. Friday, firefighters noted that a crowd of about 100 people were headed toward the Fiesta. Eighteen minutes later, they noted another 200 people approaching the parks Gate 10.

Participants are now dismantling barricades, firefighters wrote.

A lengthy delay: For 37 minutes, Travis Scott kept playing as mass casualty unfolded

11:33 a.m. A request for help for a woman having a seizure. Over the course of the day, the venues private medical provider, ParaDocs Worldwide medics and physicians  would treat hundreds of people.

Minutes later, the log notes other participants were storming the venue entrance. Just a few minutes before noon, police shut down the merchandise tent, the logs show.

Security began moving people without wrist bands to a separate area, transporting adults to one area, and juveniles to the reunification area.

12:17 p.m. Firefighters note that more participants had broken through Gate 13, into another lot.

All day, in fact, firefighters detailed attendees trying to break through, under and around gates. Just before 1:30 p.m., they wrote that people were using bolt cutters to enter the Green lot. Police detained five people just after 2 p.m., while Apex Security guards released several others a few minutes later.

Over the course of the afternoon, several people were taken to the hospital. Another needed treatment for facial trauma, according to the logs.

Victims: 8 young lives were cut short in chaos at Astroworld Festival

Authorities found a girl whose hands were covered with lacerations from scaling a security fence.

3:21 p.m. Police ask for help after seeing a large group trying to scale fencing by the Yellow Lot at Main and Murworth. About 40 minutes later, they report that 11 people were being detained in the parks purple lot.

Another group of would-be concert goers charged the main gate, but were unsuccessful, the logs show.

4:51 p.m. HPD officers dealing with other concertgoers pushing down fences around stage two.

HPD reports dangerous crowd conditions, the logs show. They also noted that police had received reports of people with guns. 15-20 people witnessed.

Now Playing: Dishon Isaac, 31, describes his experience getting out of the crowd at Astroworld and how he realized people he had been around had died. (Mark Mulligan/Staff Photographer) Video: Mark Mulligan/Staff Photographer

Shortly after 5 p.m., the place was already about two-thirds full, according to the logs. The number of concert crashers appears to have grown significantly as well, with one entry showing that officials estimated as many as 5,000 people had not been scanned entering the park.

Police continued to respond to calls of people pushing down fencing at 5:50 p.m. and an hour later. They reported a mob at Main Street at 7:15 p.m., and a crowd of some 250 people rushing a pedestrian bridge nine minutes later.

Half an hour later, police had another 13 people in custody.

8 p.m. Report of a Houston police officer suffering from a hand injury;

9 p.m. (about the time that Travis Scott began performing) The crowd has grown to 55,000, according to the logs.

As the concert progressed, hundreds of festivalgoers continued to pour over fencing.

A troubled past: Astroworld promoters oversaw other events where attendees were trampled

Signs of danger began to appear.

9:18 p.m. Individual with crush injury, breathing difficulty, firefighters note. (ParaDocs) en route.

9:28 p.m. This is when it all got real.

ParaDocs medics were quickly overwhelmed, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena would later say. They werent equipped to handle the sheer number and complexity of the patients that presented themselves.

But ParaDocs officials argue that had ample resources at the festival, spokeswoman Juda Engelmayer said.

Billy Nasser, a 24-year-old DJ, was in the crowd that night. The first few songs went off without a hitch, he said. Then people started surging  and falling.

Everyone in the front was getting crushed, Nasser said. The crowd was moving so hard, people were falling over and then tripping over the people on the ground.

9:30 p.m. The log notes multiple people trampled and passed out at the front of the stage.

Security removing to rear of stage, the entry says.

Two minutes later, firefighters wrote that there was an unconscious female in the middle of the crowd.

Sixty seconds later, they added another entry: We have at least five 9-1-1 calls related to unconscious persons in the crowd.

Report of possible CPR.

Radio silence: Houston firefighters struggled to communicate with medics during Astroworld chaos, union head says

With the situation spiraling out of control, firefighters called for an EMS task force of several ambulances to scramble to NRG.

9:52 p.m. Mass Casualty Incident declared.

10:01 p.m. A cardiac arrest patient.

Ambulances began rushing patients to Ben Taub Hospital and elsewhere.

10:24 p.m. Mass Casualty Incident - Level 2 is declared.

11:16 p.m. Another note: two patients in cardiac arrest had been taken to Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center. Paramedics had taken two to Ben Taub, one to Houston Methodist, and one to Park Plaza. Five were sent to unknown locations.

11:38 p.m. Final entry: 17 total transports.

st.john.smith@chron.com
Amid a frightening, tightening crowd, Bharti Shahani asked her younger sister at Astroworld Festival, Are you OK?

They were gutting last words for a sibling who was known for acting more like a parent. The sisters lost each others grip Friday night before Shahani disappeared into a throng of concertgoers, her family only locating her hours later at Houston Methodist  where she was on a ventilator after suffering two heart attacks.

Shahani, 22, died at 6:50 p.m. Wednesday and remains intubated awaiting organ donation, her familys attorneys said Thursday. The Texas A&M University senior is now the ninth person to be killed from a catastrophic crowd surge that stole air from many of the 50,000 fans attending rapper Travis Scotts concert last weekend in Houston.

It was Shahanis first music festival.

Courtesy Shahani family

Never once had we thought that we both wouldnt make it back home, said her sister, Namrata.

Attorney James Lassiter announced Shahanis death at a news conference at his Greenway office. Namrata, her cousin, her mother and her father sat behind the lawyer and clutched their hands together to form a familial chain.

Shahanis mother openly grieved. She spoke through tears, sharing fond memories of her first-born daughter as well as her confusion surrounding the festivals fatal outcome. Eight other people died and dozens were injured when the crowd compressed during an energetic set at Astroworld, where concertgoers also saw unconscious fans be trampled as others struggled to flag down adequate medical attention.

Shahani was the woman seen in a viral video, falling from a stretcher as authorities took her from still-raging concert grounds at NRG Park, Lassiter said.

FESTIVAL CHAOS: Travis Scott's culture of devotion and chaos leads to tragedy

Cousin Mohit Bellani said he at first contemplated telling reporters that there were no words to describe the festival, which he attended with the sisters. But there are words, he said: It was an atrocity.

They suffocated us," he said. "They did this to Bharti.

Bharti was love

Speaking Thursday about the young womans death brought her family to tears. Speaking about her life brought sad smiles.

Bharti Shahani was a first generation American, born in New York and residing there until her family packed up for Charlotte in 2006 and Houston in 2009. She was one of three sisters but played the role of a mother figure, her family recalled.

She helped her parents with their clothing business and sometimes guided them through tragedy and hardship, including the loss of her grandparents and a period of her fathers unemployment, he said. Shahani was the superglue of her family, her cousin added.

Education was also important to her: She graduated from Clear Lake High School, attended San Jacinto Community College for two years and then arrived at Texas A&M University. She studied hard and was completing a computer science degree this school year, her family said. She was also beginning to search for jobs.

Shahani enjoyed simple pleasures. She had recently gotten into badminton, her sister said. She liked painting, and made frequent use of coupons to Dunkin Donuts.

A loving owner to her 2-year-old Husky named Blue, she was the only person who could get the energetic dog to calm down. Already, Blue appears to be lost, Bellani said.

Selflessness embodied Shahanis lifestyle, according to her mother, Karishma Shahani. She listened to her parents, always responding, Yes, mama. Going to Astroworld Festival was one of the first things she asked to do for herself, the mother said.

The college student was excited for the weekend event, planning outfits that she hoped would look cute on Instagram posts, Namrata Shahani said. And she was most looking forward to the headliner  a name her sister declined to say out loud.

Why didnt I say no to her? Karishma Shahani said. This was not a concert this was not a concert at all.

Recipe for disaster

Days after the Astroworld festival turned deadly, numerous questions about all facets of the case remain unanswered. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said Wednesday that he did not believe an independent investigation was necessary into the Friday concert.

But in the aftermath of the scandal, some officials such as Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo have called for one.

Houston police and firefighters responded to the festival, eventually declaring a mass casualty event while attendees were crushed against the stage. Scott played on for 37 more minutes. Scores were injured, including a 9-year-old boy who is now in a coma.

The melee also spurred 70-plus lawsuits against concert promoter Live Nation and other parties, including Scott. The Shahani family plans to file litigation imminently, a spokesman said.

Astroworld Festival was a recipe for disaster, Lassiter said. He and Shahanis family members added they are committed to holding concert organizers accountable.

I dont want somebody elses daughter to go like this, father Bhagu Shahani said.

Bharti Shahani was able to remain in contact with her family just up until the 9 p.m. show, her father said. The parents then got a call from her sister at 10:56 p.m. Friday, saying she lost her phone and her sibling.

The worried mother and father arrived at NRG  Shahani not picking up her phone  and eventually set off for Ben Taub Hospital and Memorial Hermann. Still not finding her, they came after 2 a.m. to Houston Methodist, where Bellani assumed his cousin might be recovering from dehydration. He was shocked to see her in critical condition with tubes down her throat, he said.

Bhagu and Karishma Shahani barely slept for six days, spending every moment they could with their daughter, the father said.

As Shahani relied on a ventilator to survive, her mother said she retained hope that she would get better. But now, her heart is empty.

I want my baby back, she cried, her family moving to comfort her. Give me my baby back.
A representative for Travis Scott spoke out Friday, defending the Houston rapper against criticism that he could have done more to prevent the Astroworld tragedy on Nov. 5 that claimed the lives of nine attendees and injured dozens.

Former Mayor of Baltimore Stephanie Rawlings-Blake spoke to CBS News' Gayle King to address what Rawlings-Blake called "a lot of confusion" around the concert and the extent of the rapper's knowledge of the severity of the chaos.

"Just like the police officers who were standing in front of the stage with Travis nearly 30 minutes after it was declared a public safety emergency, Travis had no idea what was going on until well later, hours and hours later," she said.

Rawlings-Blake said the rapper was notified by his team after he had already left the event.

Travis Scott continued performing for 37 minutes after Houston police and firefighters declared the event a mass casualty." Police officials said the promoter, Live Nation, agreed to cut the show shortly after multiple people collapsed at 9:38 p.m. But concert attendees said Scott appeared to play his whole set and finished at 10:15 p.m. Concert staff ignored pleas from fans to halt the show, including some who climbed onto camera platforms to point out others who had collapsed and needed medical attention.

My daughter has gone to one of these big concerts and I can tell you Ive spent three sleepless nights every day watching my phone, watching her location because when you have crowds of 50,000 people, anything can happen," Rawlings-Blake said to King.

"And while a lot of people are trying to place the blame, Travis is taking responsibility for moving forward and trying to make sure that this never happens again to anyones child.

But Scott has continued to face backlash, especially after reports that he attended a party at a local Dave & Buster's after his performance, according to a NBC News report. Unidentified sources close to Scott say he was unaware that at the time eight people had died and dozens of others had been injured, but once he found out about the tragedy, "he immediately left the party.

The party was hosted by Drake, who had made a surprise appearance during the concert, reports say. But Rawlings-Blake said Scott was there trying to regroup with his team.

"They were trying to figure out what was going on," she said. "It was hours and hours after the concert when they actually found out how the tragedy unfolded. And he has not stopped grieving for these families. He knows that he is who he is because of his fans. His love for his fans is so deep I was struck when I was speaking to him how deeply he was hurting because of what happened to the people he loves and in the city that he loves.

She did not speak on the many current and accruing lawsuits mounting against Scott, including one from the family of a 9-year-old who is in a coma, but did say that he has reached out the families of the victims.

Now Playing: Dishon Isaac, 31, describes his experience getting out of the crowd at Astroworld and how he realized people he had been around had died. (Mark Mulligan/Staff Photographer) Video: Mark Mulligan/Staff Photographer

"Were respectful, hes very respectful of their need for privacy and space as they grieve," Rawlings-Blake said. "But hes reached out to all of the families. Ive reached out to the latest unfortunate victim, to let them know that in their time, hes there, hes here to help if they want it.

The former politician also responded to critics' claims that Scott could have stopped the show.

"This notion that Travis had the ability to stop the concert is ludicrous," Rawlings-Blake said. "They have a 59-page operations plan and it clearly says the only two people that have the authority to stop the concert were the executive producer and the concert producer. He was not responsible for this, but he wants to be responsible for the solution.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has said a review of the plan  and whether it was properly followed  should be part of an objective, third-party investigation of the tragedy.

What I know so far is that Live Nation and Astroworld put together plans for this event, Hidalgo said on Nov. 6. A security plan, a site plan. That they were at the table with the city of Houston and Harris County. And so perhaps the plans were inadequate. Perhaps the plans were good, but they werent followed. Perhaps it was something else entirely.

Rawlings-Blake said Scott and his team are "always concerned about safety" and added that the rapper acknowledged he has learned from his past mistakes in reference to two previous misdemeanor convictions for reckless conduct and disorderly conduct.

"He does not hide from the fact that in the past he has made mistakes, but one thing he said to me he looked me in my eye and said hes learned from that and thats why he takes safety so seriously," she said.

He stopped when he saw that something was amiss, he couldnt tell what it was but he was so concerned about his fans, the video shows he stopped multiple times to try to get a sense of what was going on, and just like those police officers that were standing in front of the stage, he could not tell what was going on.
OnScene TV

A man believed to be homeless was shot in the back of the head Thursday night and died at a hospital, according to Houston Police.

Officers got called around 10:13 p.m. to the 15100 block of Fondren Road, where they found a person who had been shot in the back of the head but was still alive, according to Lt. Pavel of Houston Police. The man was brought to the hospital, where he died, Pavel said.
Jay R. Jordan / Jay Jordan, Staff

A MS-13 gang member accepted a plea deal and was sentenced Tuesday for his role in a 2016 fatal shooting of a 16-year-old state's witness, according to a Thursday press release from the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

Authorities said that Darwin Josue Lopez-Ramos, 22, was facing Capital Murder charges when he admitted his guilt in the June 2016 shooting death of informant Estuar Quinonez, 16, at Buffalo Run Park in Missouri City.
Twenty years after the Carnival Jubilee became Galveston's second Carnival cruise ship in 2002, another Jubilee will sail into Galveston.

Four times the size of its namesake, Carnival's newest cruise ship weighs 182,800 tons, takes 5,400 passengers, and will call Galveston home when delivered in 2023, the cruise line revealed at a travel conference on Thursday.

The new ship will join Carnival's Vista, Breeze, and Dream based in Galveston, sailing weeklong Caribbean cruises that will go on sale in 2022, according to a company release. The company on Thursday also confirmed it will bring its entire fleet of 22 ships back into service by March 2022.

Carnival Jubilee is the third of the company's Excel class of large cruise ships. Its sibling Mardi Gras began sailing out of Port Canaveral earlier this year and a second ship, Carnival Celebration, will be delivered to Ft. Lauderdale in 2022.

INSIGHT: Can liquefied natural gas clean up the cruise industry?

The Jubilee is Carnival's latest investment in Galveston, which it considers one of its top four American ports, said Chris Chiames, Carnival's chief communications officer. The city ranks with cruise capitals Miami, Port Canaveral, and Long Beach, California among the 14 U.S. home ports the company sails from, Chiames said.

"Its a testament of our commitment to Galveston and we intend to continue to grow there," said Chiames. "This ship is one of those attractions that will get people to fly to Galveston and Houston."

Galveston is a hotspot for the cruise industry, which forms a growing part of the island's tourism economy. Cruise lines sailing from Galveston generated $125 million in onshore passenger spending in 2019. The city hosts seven cruise ships, including three each from Carnival and its rival, Royal Caribbean International. Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas made its first voyage from Galveston on Monday, and the company is building a $125 million cruise ship terminal to accommodate larger ships in 2023.

Renovations will also be coming for Carnival's facilities, Chiames said. Carnival is discussing with port authorities about upgrades needed to support the Excel class, the first in North America to run on liquefied natural gas rather than the cheap but polluting bunker fuels that have powered most cruises.

The expansions signal the cruise lines' confidence in post-pandemic growth. After the CDC shut down a COVID-stricken cruise industry in March 2020, the agency this year offered cruise lines two options to resume sailing. Cruise ships must either impose public health measures such as mask requirements and run simulated voyages to prove they can operate without an outbreak, or ensure 95 percent of crew and passengers are vaccinated.

RELATED: Galveston's vaccinated cruises sidestep Florida-style standoff over vaccine passport ban

The restrictions, due to expire Nov. 1, were extended in late October to January 2022 with the agency citing concerns about the delta variant. Despite new laws passed in Texas this year to prohibit businesses from demanding proof of vaccination, Carnival and Royal Caribbean, Galveston's two year-round cruise lines, still require vaccines for most guests 12 years and older.

Carnival also tightened its vaccine policy and negative COVID test requirement after a Vista passenger hospitalized for COVID-19 died in late August. None of Carnival's Galveston-based ships are currently reporting any COVID-19 cases, according to the CDC.

The cruise line plans to keep its vaccine requirements in place until its entire fleet returns to service in March 2022, Chiames said. The roll-out of vaccines for children aged 5-11 has been a welcome development for the cruise line, which seeks to attract families, he said.

charlie.zong@chron.com
Joe Burbank, MBR / TNS

The Crew-3 astronauts docked with the International Space Station at 5:32 p.m. CST on Thursday, arriving more than 30 minutes ahead of schedule.

NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer will spend six months on the orbiting platform. Theyll conduct research, welcome two private astronaut missions and perform a series of spacewalks to outfit the stations power system in preparation for new solar arrays.
Authorities have finally identified the girl who was found dead in 1980 on the side of an interstate in East Texas

The girl, who was known as "Walker County Jane Doe," was identified as 14-year-old Sherri Ann Jarvis of Stillwater, Minnesota, the Walker County Sheriff's Office said in a news release earlier this week.

Law enforcement officials found her body on the shoulder of Interstate 45, just north of Huntsville, on the morning of Nov. 1, 1980. Her cause of death was ruled as asphyxia due to strangulation, according to the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office.

Authorities searched missing persons lists for years but never developed leads. In 2020, forensic DNA testing allowed investigators to build a family tree. Investigators were able to confirm Jarvis' identity after taking DNA sample from some of the six relatives they believed were related to the girl.

NEWS IN YOUR INBOX: Sign up for breaking news email alerts from HoustonChronicle.com here

According to the news release, Jarvis ran away from home earlier that year at the age of 13.

The family said in statement that she ran away after she was removed from her home by the state of Minnesota for habitual truancy. Her family hired a private investigator, who did not find any information on Jarvis' whereabouts.

"Our parents passed away never knowing what happened to her or having any form of closure, but we are grateful that they never had to endure the pain of knowing her death was so brutal," the statement read.

No suspects have been identified in Jarvis' death.

Malak.Silmi@express-news.net
Allen West, a conservative primary challenger to Gov. Greg Abbott, could face a misdemeanor assault charge after he swiped at a fellow traveler at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport last week and tore off the mans mask.

Lawrence Eric Stern had confronted West at the airport, telling him to Put your mask on, idiot, according to an airport police report. Stern told the Dallas Morning News that he wants to see West charged in the incident.

Theres no mask law, nothing has ever passed in the US House and Senate making wearing a mask law, West wrote on Twitter afterward. West has made opposition to mask mandates part of his policy platform in his gubernatorial bid, describing such mandates as draconian law.

A local prosecutor will decide whether to bring charges in the coming weeks, said a spokeswoman for the Grapevine Municipal Court.

A security camera at the airport captured the incident, but it didnt capture the mens faces. The police report said instead that they could see both gentlemens arms moving towards each other.

TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

Stern said in the police report that he recognized West as a public figure and was standing in line at the airport Dunkin Donuts as West passed. The two men gave similar accounts of the scuffle.

West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, approached Stern and asked him, What did you say?

Stern repeated himself, this time without using the word idiot.

Both men agree that West grabbed the mask from Sterns face, although West said he flicked the mask off.

Stern, who was not injured, says West struck him in the face as he tore the mask. Stern then shoved West away from him.

There, now isnt that better? West said.

After the incident, Stern said, West called him a stupid white man, while West said Stern put his fists up in a fighting position before West walked away.

The police report outlines the grounds for a misdemeanor assault charge, defined as when a person intentionally or knowingly causes physical contact with another when the person knows or should reasonably believe that the other will regard the contact as offensive or provocative.

Such a charge carries a maximum punishment of a $4,000 fine and one year in jail.

edward.mckinley@chron.com
At least two of the states largest school districts wont comply with a Republican general investigating committee chairs request to divulge information about books kept in school and classroom libraries  and even more say they wont meet his Friday deadline.

Austin and Dallas Independent School Districts say they wont respond to state Rep. Matt Krauses request for them to go through a list of more than 800 books and tell him how many copies are in their possession and how much they cost. Houston ISD, the largest public school system in the state, declined to say whether it would do the lawmakers bidding.

In a letter making the request, Krause, a founding member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, described the impetus for the inquiry as a series of controversies at Texas school districts  Carroll, Spring Branch, Lake Travis, Leander and Katy  involving books that parents wanted pulled from shelves.

The Fort Worth Republican has repeatedly declined to comment, saying its the committees longstanding policy not to comment on pending investigations. Krause has said in a radio interview that the purpose of the inquiry is to determine whether recent laws governing what can be taught in schools about race and sexuality are being followed.

A Hearst Newspapers analysis found that the majority of the books on the lawmakers watchlist are about LGBT topics, not race or sex education.

IN-DEPTH: Texas GOPs book hunt mostly targets LGBTQ issues, not critical race theory

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has also made books about LGBT people the subject of his own letters to the Texas Education Agency, asking it to work with other state agencies to set new standards to prevent children from being exposed to pornography or other inappropriate content and investigate any possible related crimes.

Democrats and some lawyers have told districts that the request lacks the legal force of a subpoena and encouraged them not to respond. Thats exactly what some are doing.

The letter is an unofficial request, and as such we are not going to respond to it, said Robyn L. Harris, Dallas ISD spokeswoman.

Austin ISD spokesman Jason Stanford came up with an alternative solution for Krause.

After doing more legal research, weve decided that a response is not necessary, especially since anyone can search our library catalogs on this website, he said.

Several districts contacted by Hearst Newspapers said they were still reviewing the request late this week, and some said they were unsure whether they would make the deadline, including Fort Bend and Spring Branch in the Houston area and Northside in the San Antonio area.

Multiple districts said they were unclear on whether the letter applied to them or necessitated a response, as it was addressed to the Texas Education Agency but sent blind carbon copy to districts.

Officials at Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD in the Fort Worth area are asking for a time extension.

We have pulled 10-12 educators from our curriculum and instruction department, as well as our district director of libraries, to work full time on compiling the requested information, spokeswoman Megan Overman said. As of (Friday), we estimate more than 250 hours of staff time have been spent solely on this request. We are working to do our due diligence in researching and responding to Rep. Krauses inquiry.

North East ISD in the San Antonio area also had timing concerns. A district spokesman said it will produce the information when its ready.

Round Rock ISD Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez in a letter to Krause on Friday passed along the website for the districts library catalog and explained the districts process for parental objections to instructional resources. The letter did not include information on the cost of the books on Krauses list owned by the district.

In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Lewisville ISD said it planned to treat Krauses inquiry like a public information request and sent a cost estimate this week.

Others were postponing action. In a statement, Katy ISD spokeswoman Laura Davis noted that state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, chair of the House Public Education Committee, has asked Krause for clarification on the purpose of the inquiry.

Given that, Katy ISD alongside several other districts are waiting to receive further guidance from the state, Davis said.

The districts reached by Hearst Newspapers that have said they are still reviewing or working on the request are: Aldine, Fort Bend, North East, Northside, Spring Branch and Eagle Mountain-Saginaw.

taylor.goldenstein@chron.com
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. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS!

OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK

The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those.
Pittsfield Street Improvement Project Schedule: Nov. 15-19

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The following work is scheduled for Nov. 15-19, as part of the City of Pittsfield's 2021 Street Improvement Project.

The schedule is as follows:

Monday, Nov. 15: Pave driveway aprons on Buel, High, and Deming streets.

Tuesday, Nov. 16: Pave driveway aprons on Deming Street.

Wednesday, Nov. 17: Pave driveway aprons on Plumb Street.

Thursday, Nov. 18: Pave driveway aprons on Anita Drive.

Friday, Nov. 19: Pave driveway aprons on Anita Drive.

The schedule may potentially shift a day to accommodate work not completed on Oxford Street and Brenton Terrace slated to occur the week of Nov. 8.

On-street parking is prohibited during this work between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. each day.

Residents whose driveway aprons will be replaced are advised to find alternate parking on nearby streets to ensure they have access to their vehicle during this work.

The schedule is subject to change based on weather conditions.
Physician Joins CHP Berkshire Pediatrics

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Dr. Laura Need has joined CHP Berkshire Pediatrics.

A graduate of Harvard Medical School and Wellesley College, Dr. Need practiced at Yogman Pediatric Associates P.C./Mount Auburn Pediatrics in Cambridge before moving to the Berkshires to join CHP Berkshire Pediatrics.

She has been on staff at Mount Auburn Hospital and has also held hospital appointments at Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Children's Hospital in Boston. Her previous work history includes working at Emerson Hospital in Concord, MIT Medical Services and St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston.

In addition to general pediatric primary care, Dr. Need has focused on newborn medicine and pediatric cardiology during her medical career.

She completed her pediatric medicine internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a clinical fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Children's Hospital.
Clark Art: A Conversation With Erin Shirreff

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Clark Art Institute presents a live conversation between Montreal-based artist Erin Shirreff and Robert Wiesenberger, the Clark's associate curator of contemporary projects, about the many connections between her photography, video, and sculpture.

This free event will be held in the Clark's auditorium on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 6 pm.

Shirreff will discuss her latest body of work "Sculptures and their Shadows," now on view in a solo show at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in New York, as well as her current exhibition at the Clark, "Remainders." This program is in conjunction with a screening of Shirreff's video "Son" (2018), running throughout the day in the Clark's auditorium, on Nov. 16 from 10am6pm.

This program is free and open to the public. Proof of COVID vaccination is required. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events.

Erin Shirreff was born in 1975 in Kelowna, British Columbia and currently lives and works in Montreal. She holds a BFA in visual arts from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and an MFA in sculpture from Yale University. She has recently been the subject of solo exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Kunsthalle Basel; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and Albright-Knox Gallery.

According to a press release, Erin Shirreff: "Remainders" is on view in public spaces around the Clark through Jan. 2, 2022. The exhibition examines Erin Shirreff's practicebetween analog and digital media, two and three dimensions, and still and moving imagesand its fascination with the mythmaking behind art history. Through photographic manipulations of sculptures found in books, and ones of her own making, Shirreff asks what is left of the original experience of an artwork once it has entered the historical record, and what traces of an artist's labor might still be legible after the fact. The exhibition includes photographs on paper and aluminum that have been creased and cut, to take on sculptural dimensions, as well as the artist's video work. Shirreff's painstaking process encourages slow looking, forensic attention to detail, and an appreciation that things may not be quite as they appear.

The exhibition is organized by the Clark Art Institute and curated by Robert Wiesenberger, associate curator of contemporary projects. Shirreff's work is courtesy of the artist; Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York; and Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal.
Joshua Lang, a former Pennsylvania county commissioner, interviews Wednesday with the Selectmen for the vacant town administrator position. He was offered the post after the interview.

Lanesborough Selectmen Offer Pennsylvania Man Town Administrator Job

LANESBOROUGH, Mass.  The Board of Selectmen has offered a former Pennsylvania county commissioner the vacant town administrator position.

The board conducted its second interview with Joshua Lang at its meeting on Wednesday and unanimously voted at the end to offer him the job, pending finalization of the specifics of his contract. Lang, who conducted his first interview with the board via Zoom on Nov. 3, previously served as a county commissioner in Bedford County, Pennsylvania.

"There is a tremendous amount of potential that he will grow into," said board member Gordon Hubbard. "Obviously, he will need to learn, as we all do. But I think he's got the gumption, the energy and the drive to do it."

At the end of Wednesday's interview, Lang said he was grateful that the board invited him to visit the town in person. He said being considered as one of the finalists for the position meant a lot to him.

"I appreciate the opportunity," he said. "I'm very thankful. It's been a very good process. I have definitely enjoyed my myself here. And definitely will be somebody that I think you can invest in, and I want to be here for the long term. So I very much appreciate that opportunity.

Lanesborough's interim Town Administrator Robert Markel thought this second interview with Lang was reassuring. He said Lang should have a mentor for his first few months as administrator to help him to adjust to the job and the area.

"Coming into a new state. A lot of things happen at once, come at you at once," he said. "We can do a lot of reading, but I think having a mentor that you can call up and say, 'What do I do now with this particular problem,' get a quick answer and be able to address the issue immediately is important. I think that's something that would probably be useful."

Lang said he recognized there is a lot that he will need to learn as the town administrator. He said learning on the fly is something he has been successful at in the past.

"When I started at [Bedford] County, there was no magic handbook or no job description per se. So I read a lot," he said. "But I don't think the expectation is that you're going to have a full understanding of every single thing every single time, just like the board here, right? You probably learn all the time, new things. And I think you lay your foundation, and you expand on that. It's a constant, evolving process. When you're in elected roles, especially municipal or local government, it's going to be building that foundation and growing from there."

When asked why the board should hire him for the position, Lang said his passion and willingness to listen and learn from others would be an asset and allow him to succeed.

"I'm somebody that will be passionate, that will be dedicated. I've dedicated my life to public service," he said. "I will go above and beyond the call of duty to help each and every one of the residents here in Lanesborough. I'll be innovative and adaptable. I believe in being an adaptable leader in order to change in the very challenging environment that we live in. And I'm going to be somebody that you will see that we will collectively as a community, through coordination collaboration, move Lanesborough for the forward."

The other finalits were Judy Frazier, director of risk management and operations for Rutland, Vt., and Jeffrey Roucoulet, director of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program of Pittsfield and Berkshire County. Lang and Frazier had both been invited back for a second interview but Frazier withdrew.

Lang will replace Kelli Robbins, who left in June after three years with the town.

Lanesborough's town administrator search was conducted by Paradigm Associates, led by consultant Bernard Lynch. Lynch will soon consult for the town of Adams as it plans to review the town charter and governance.
The investigation on the use of NSO Groups software to spy on journalists and human rights defenders took a big step forward after identifying Juan Carlos G, a man allegedly linked to a Mexican company that was operating as an intermediate to sell the software to state agencies. The suspect is accused of using Pegasus for illegally monitoring the private communications of several victims.

Almost six months after the revelations of The Pegasus Project, the General Prosecutors Office (FGR) announced the detention of the first accused in the investigation that is trying to prove the illegal use of Pegasus by the Pena Nieto government. This case initiated in 2017 when journalists, human rights defenders and activists filed a complaint against the Mexican State for the illegal espionage network revealed by an article published in the New York Times.

Juan Carlos G is accused of illegally monitoring the private communications of at least one journalist with the purpose of affect, limit and undermine her freedom of speech. The suspect will remain in jail waiting for the trial because the FGR thinks there is real flight risk. The official recognition of the link between the espionage on the journalist and her investigative work is of outmost importance not only for this case but for all the communicators in Mexico who were affected by attacks, threats and extortions motivated by their work.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists due to the high numbers of murders and disappearances but also because of the alarming rate of impunity, that reaches 95%. The acquisition of the Pegasus software by the former president Enrique Pena Nieto deepened that situation: almost 15000 people were spied only in Mexico and 26 of them were journalists. These numbers might be even higher given that the investigations only cover a limited period of time.

The Sindicato Nacional de Redactores de la Prensa (SNRP), the national journalists union, referred to this issue: the SNRP values positively the action taken by the Government of investigating and prosecuting a man in the case of the illegal espionage of journalists, activists and human rights defenders. The SNRP hopes that the current inquiries will find all those responsible, both State and private ones, in Mexico and in all of the countries where this spyware was used.

The International Federation of Journalists celebrates this first step taken by the FGR and the Special Prosecutors Office for the Crimes Committed Against the Freedom of Speech (FEADLE) in the investigation to determine the reach of the state espionage against journalists, activists and human rights defenders. Also demands that this is only the starting point to find all those responsible who used the power of the State to monitor and silence critical voices.
On November 1, Myanmars military junta introduced a series of amendments to broaden the remit of the nation's Broadcasting Law to potentially include social and digital media, increasing the severity of penalties for offenders. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) expresses deep concern at the juntas efforts to further stifle press freedom, both offline and online, and calls on the administration to immediately repeal the amendments.

Originally enacted in 2015, offences under the Broadcasting Law include broadcasting without a licence or after a licences suspension, and securing multiple licenses. Made without any public consultation, the amendments expand the scope of the law and significantly increase penalties for these offences.

The law originally applied only to television and radio, however, the new amendments vaguely define broadcasting as including any other technology that people use to access audio-visual media. This definition effectively extends the law to include social media and digital news agencies and means the general public could potentially fall under the amended law when distributing audio-visual media online.

While violations previously only attracted fines, those convicted could now face prison sentences ranging from six months to five years, bringing penalties in line with those of criminal offences.

In addition, a new section named '105-a' grants police the authority to make arrests for offences under the law without a judicial warrant. In its analysis of the amendments, the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) raised concerns that the changes permit authorities to bypass criminal due process.

In a statement, CLD said that each amendment to the formerly progressive Broadcasting Law contravened various human rights standards. When one considers the amendments as a package, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the real aim is to criminalise online behaviour which is critical of the military regime, said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. If so, these amendments represent yet one more measure by the regime to control freedom of expression in the country.

Myanmars media workers have suffered relentless persecution since the military coup on February 1, 2021. The crackdown saw over 100 journalists arrested and the licences of at least nine independent media outlets revoked.

The IFJ said: The extreme changes to the Broadcasting Law jeopardise media freedoms and human rights in Myanmar. The amendment of definitions like broadcasting to include any number of online activities is a thinly veiled attempt to control dissent. The IFJ calls on Myanmars administration to revoke its regressive amendments, uphold international human rights standards, and commit to developing a free and democratic mediascape.
As the countrys trusted brand and authority in payments, Bayad continues to extend its ever-growing network to bring financial services closer to Filipinos. One of the latest additions to the Bayad ecosystem is TayoCash  a BSP-licensed electronic money issuer (EMI) that aims to push innovative digital technologies and meaningful partnerships to help spur recovery and economic growth for the country.

TayoCash is one of the newest players in the fintech industry that offers all-encompassing digital financial services such as bills payment, fund transfers, telco and gaming load top-ups, and soon-to-launch QR Ph payments and remittance services.

Sharing the same vision of making financial technology accessible for everyone, Bayad and TayoCash take pride in building an innovative and sustainable user experience for the financially underserved Filipinos everywhere. As TayoCash aims to serve a larger segment of society, its partnership with Bayad is an advantage, allowing them to draw digitally closer every Filipino together and to take part in community-building.

Were glad to see that more fintech players, such as TayoCash, are stepping up in support of the nations bid to become a cash-lite society. I believe that fintech players share the vision of leveraging the power of technology to make financial services within reach of the average Filipino. The coming together of like-minded companies strategically accelerate the delivery of basic financial services where they are most needed. On our end, we support our industry peers to emphasize that strong partnerships create and sustain transformative progress. said Bayad President and CEO, Mr. Lawrence Y. Ferrer.

Meanwhile, TayoCash CEO, Mr. Kenneth Chang highlighted that TayoCash is created to Bring value to all. Our future depends on our capabilities to deliver on that promise. Through the ever-expanding network of billers and merchants that Bayad is aggregating today and through the easy-to-use and reliable digital platform of TayoCash, we will enable millions of Filipinos to make payments from the comfort of their homes. TayoCash is fast, secure and, most importantly, in the context of the pandemic that we are experiencing, safe. I am sure all the users will appreciate the value of the services we bring to them.

With over 70,000 on-site payment touchpoints nationwide and the digital partners it supports, Bayad continues to carry out its mission of providing innovative, efficient, and accessible payment solutions for everyone.

To be part of Bayads extensive channel network, contact partnerships@bayad.com. Meanwhile, businesses interested in leveraging Bayad's network and seamless bills payment solutions may reach out to billeronboarding@bayad.com, call +63 998 963 7880 or fill out Bayads biller onboarding form to get started: link.bayad.com/BeABayadBiller
Grab, a leading superapp in Southeast Asia, today announced an expansion of its grocery delivery service across Southeast Asia, welcoming major supermarket and convenience store chains onto GrabMart, its everyday goods delivery service. The company also unveiled a new Shopper solution to support its growing retail partnerships in the region.

Online grocery shopping is taking off in Southeast Asia. According to research by Facebook and Bain, it is the fastest-growing segment in 2021 with a majority of consumers planning to either maintain or increase their at-home online spending on groceries. This segment is also projected by Euromonitor International to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 24% over the next five years, reaching US$11.9 billion in size by 2025.

Eighty-five percent of our GrabMart users in Q22021 came from GrabFood. This goes to show that our superapp offering is particularly attractive to Southeast Asias mobile-first consumers who value the ease of accessing multiple everyday services, from on-demand mobility, to food delivery and grocery shopping, in one app. We are excited to welcome some of the largest grocery retailers in Southeast Asia onto our platform. Together, we can ride on the rising instant delivery trend and provide consumers greater variety and convenience through GrabMart, said Demi Yu, Regional Head of Deliveries, Grab.

Major retail chains now on GrabMart

New partners joining GrabMart include Indomaret in Indonesia, a convenience store chain with over 15,000 stores; Big C in Thailand, a hypermarket chain with over 1,000 outlets; Lotuss Malaysia (formerly known as Tesco Malaysia) with over 62 locations; S&R supermarket in the Philippines best known for their attractive members-only discounts; and Mega Market in Vietnam, a leading wholesaler and distributor of grocery products. Consumers will be able to shop from these stores, have their orders delivered instantly to their doors or at their preferred time, and earn Ovo Rewards and GrabRewards points for their purchases.

With a growing number of supermarket partnerships across the region, Grab plans to trial Shopper, a shopping assistant solution, in selected supermarkets this year. Built into the Grab Driver superapp, Shopper is a digital shopping list that enables retail staff to easily pick and pack consumers grocery orders as they move through shopping aisles. Retail staff can notify consumers in real-time if items are sold out, suggest potential replacement options, and send photos of the items through the in-app GrabChat feature. Any changes to consumers original orders will be clearly reflected in the Grab user app for transparency.

An illustration of the shopping assistant solution

As online grocery shopping gains popularity, we are seeing consumers placing larger grocery orders on GrabMart. Our new shopping assistant solution will meaningfully improve the experience for both our retail partners and consumers. This is one of the many enhancements we are working on to support this rapidly-growing business, added Yu.

GrabMart is currently available across all of Grabs eight operating markets. GrabMart is a one-stop marketplace for grocery and essentials shopping, with instant, next-day and scheduled delivery options to meet consumers varying needs and budget preferences. GrabMart also operates its own online supermarket brand, GrabSupermarket in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Recognizing the need to be an intelligent enterprise in todays never normal, leading infrastructure investment company Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) is the first organization in the Philippines to adopt RISE with SAP on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is part of its broader business transformation strategy while cementing its commitment to deliver inclusive and sustainable development for the Philippines and its economy.

Edler Panlilio, SAPs Managing Director for SAP Philippines and Chaye Cabal-Revilla, Metro Pacific Investments Corp, Chief Finance & Sustainability Officer

With its diverse set of assets held through its operating companies, MPIC has been helping rehabilitate, maintain, strengthen, and improve vital services in the Philippines through the years. It has several subsidiaries covering toll roads infrastructure, power and water utilities, healthcare institutions, among others.

With such an extensive portfolio of companies, MPIC faced disparate financial reporting systems among its subsidiaries, inconsistent data sets, complex closing cycles, and high-volume manual processes to meet regulatory requirements and financial reporting standards.

READ: What is RISE with SAP?

Embracing Digital Transformation

To address this challenge, MPIC partnered with SAP to consolidate, modernize, and standardize its enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems on a single platform through RISE with SAP, a Business Transformation as a Service (BTaaS) offering. Powered by SAP S/4 HANA digital core in the cloud, MPIC can streamline operations across its subsidiaries, gain insights into end-to-end performance with process analytics and simplify its accounting, financial close, treasury, and risk management processes.

According to IDC, organizations are enabling their business through digital transformation initiatives. The results from its COVID-19 Impact on IT Spending Survey (conducted October 1530, 2020) saw respondents rate their top organizational goals for this year, with 55 percent wanting to digitally enhance their products and services and 38 percent of respondents wanting to accelerate the pace of digital transformation/innovation. The report highlighted that organizations were focused on two initiatives for their IT spending, such as adopting new business models to create new digital products and businesses and digitizing their operations. In addition, the study also pointed out that large enterprises are more likely to change or adapt existing business models into digital businesses, as well as digitalize operations.

Our commitment to contribute to national progress and improve the quality of lives in the communities we serve is anchored on the strength of our various operating companies. Dealing with several business models has resulted in a disconnect across our ERP applications and non-standardized operational processes in our organization, thereby leading to a lack of visibility into real-time data and insights. This also made our decision-making reactive amidst a dynamic market situation. By partnering with a trusted technology advisor like SAP, we hope to realize our business transformation strategy, standardize core processes, facilitate data-driven decision-making with analytics and look at developing new digital business models in the new normal, said Chaye Cabal-Revilla, MPICs Chief Finance, Risk, and Sustainability Officer.

A Great Equalizer

For MPIC, business transformation would enable them to achieve their business objectives and facilitate the attainment of their business imperatives, solidifying its planned transition from risk management to an operational efficient and sustainable financial organization, which are all enabled by analytics and technology.

Transformation is dynamic and not static. Businesses must be able to change since the quest and journey to transform never ends. As long as there is an opportunity for improvement, there will always be a case for business transformation. We need to accept transformation as something necessary for businesses and sustainability, Cabal-Revilla said.

She also noted that RISE with SAP is a great equalizer for businesses of all sizes as it enables organizations to become intelligent enterprises. RISE with SAP fortifies our quest for digital resilience and is a true embodiment of SAPs tagline that the best-run businesses make the world run better. It is affordable from the licensing and implementation standpoint. It is also streamlined and simplified which makes way for improved employee and customer experience.

As a leading enterprise, MPIC continues to redefine long term value creation for its shareholders, while keeping its focus on its commitment to help Filipinos by embracing technology as a critical enabler. By leveraging RISE with SAP, which seamlessly combines business process redesign, technical migration to modern and modular architecture, and the needed data to deliver predictable business outcomes, MPIC has a distinct first mover advantage as an intelligent sustainable future-ready enterprise to achieve true business transformation and faster time to value, flexibility and agility, said Edler Panlilio, SAP Philippines Managing Director.

Powered by SAP S/4 HANA digital core and connected to SAP Business Network, MPIC will also gain access to suppliers, asset intelligence, and logistics trading partners for business collaboration while building resiliency against disruptions and optimizing operations, predicting needs, and enabling proactive responses as they accelerate growth and scale for the digital future, added Panlilio.

Upholding Sustainability Goals

As a leading infrastructure investment company, MPIC is committed to contributing to the achievement of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), with UN SDG 9, which seeks to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation as its anchor.

Cabal-Revilla revealed that this initiative is part of the groups sustainability philosophy of integrating business and environmental stewardship in their investment strategies.

MPIC has always been committed to elevating its sustainability initiatives across the group. We have put sustainability at the heart of MPIC, and it is evident in how we design, build, and operate our business with minimal social and ecological disruption. In this aspect, MPIC and SAP share the same vision to create a more sustainable future for all. We believe that RISE with SAP will help us improve our operations and augment our sustainability initiatives, said Cabal-Revilla.

Panlilio noted that companies today cannot manage what they cannot measure. It is critical for organizations to be able to accurately capture, monitor, and then optimize the sustainability drivers in key business processes enabled by a strong digital core. Businesses need to focus on being purpose driven and impact more than just the top and bottom line but also the green line, said Panlilio.

To help MPIC achieve its goals, SAP aims to embed sustainability into its core business processes to deliver visibility and velocity required to inform and drive better business decisions through embedded, validated, real-time data in a holistic, integrated manner.

Today, SAP is both an enabler and an exemplar of our own sustainability practices with a clear Chasing Zero vision, and we hope to work collectively with businesses and executives to prioritize Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) activities that support the interests of the broader group of stakeholders. For organizations to create a future that looks greener, cleaner, and more equal than the world we live in today, they need to look at technology solutions to capture, manage, analyze, and use sustainability data more efficiently for better sustainability stewardship, explained Panlilio.

With SAP Sustainability Control Tower solution, companies are able to gain a greater degree of granularity in reporting and a higher level of transparency around ESG performance, and can identify levers and options for driving corrective and enhanced action that take financial, social, and environmental valuation into account, Panlilio added.

SAP has also most recently introduced its SAP Product Footprint Management solution that lets companies calculate carbon footprints for their products and across the value chain.
With labor shortages amid the Great Resignation, good help can be hard to find. So don't overlook an entire pool of would-be employees: veterans.

Each year, nearly 200,000 service members transition out of the U.S. military. The trick is attracting them--and doing so while meeting their unique needs. For instance, providing personal and professional development training may be just as important as helping them adjust to an unfamiliar environment. Yet if you get this right, you may be able to tap a massive pool of new employees. What's more, major corporations including Starbucks, Walmart, and Hilton have launched initiatives focused on hiring veterans in recent years, in part because it opens the door to a more diverse workforce.

"Military veterans also bring a unique set of skills from their experience in the military, like strong leadership [skills], integrity, determination, adaptability, and the ability to perform under pressure," says Mandy Price, CEO and co-founder of Kanarys, a Dallas-based diversity, equity and inclusion data and analytics company.

Getting them in the door and helping them stay engaged can be a challenge, however. Here are seven tips.

Focus on skills versus degrees.

Tailor job ads to detail the skills needed to succeed in a position, versus the education or tenure requirements. "Some veterans may not meet your specific expectations but the soft skills they've learned in the military can make them excellent candidates, so keep an open mind during interviews," Price says.

Study up on military culture.

Veterans shouldn't have to adapt to your company--not if you're serious about making a workplace that works for them. Instead, consider learning about military culture. It's a modest step but it could go far in helping make those connections between you and your prospective employee, says Price. "Find common ground and discuss the best ways to work together."

A number of resources are available if you wish to bone up. Check out the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website, the Veteran Employment Toolkit, the U.S. Department of Labor's resources on employment and veteran training, and Military OneSource.

Offer a helping hand.

Adjusting to the workplace may take time, particularly for newly released service members. To aid the transition, pair new veteran employees with a mentor, typically a more seasoned staffer, who can serve as their go-to person for advice or questions. "Encourage those mentors to schedule coffee, lunches, and regular check-ins to share feedback and openly communicate," says Price.

Be clear and direct.

People who've served in the military are likely familiar with clear communication and receiving instructions. So aim for clarity and directness--from the onboarding process to the job requirements to your company's policies and procedures. Avoid unwritten or amorphous rules. When you write things down and codify them, you not only set your veteran employees up for success, you also benefit from that clarity, adds Price.

Support veteran-focused groups.

Employee resource groups, or ERGs, can play a crucial role in supporting veterans in the workplace, while helping them build connections with other veterans within the company. One way to ensure that veterans feel supported is by allotting a portion of your company's budget towards ERGs, while also emphasizing the importance of the group within your company.

"Most importantly, employees who take on extra work to support ERGs should be compensated," says Price, noting that their effort should not be viewed as volunteer work.

Check in with new employees.

While connecting veteran employees together can help them gain comfort at the workplace, getting them acclimated within the larger organization should also be a goal. Employees who feel a sense of belonging and inclusion are 3.5 times more likely to contribute to their company more, a Harvard study found.

To create those warmer vibes, check in with your recent hires to see how they're adjusting, Price explains. This is likely a good practice for any new employee, but veterans who may feel even more isolated might benefit even more from the outreach. Ask how they're doing, as well as feedback about the job so far. That input can help you build a more holistic work environment that can ultimately benefit everyone.

Get help.

As you strive for a more inclusive workplace, it can be helpful for your company to engage with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consultants and industry experts who can identify hidden or systematic barriers by conducting equity audits. Such an audit can help your company diagnose gaps before jumping into training new veteran hires.
Joint venture company is the preferred form of corporate structure for foreign investors who are interested in doing business in India.

Through joint ventures, foreign investors have access to distribution channels, financial resources, and contacts of the Indian partners.

Corporate joint ventures are regulated by the Companies Act, 2013 and the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008.

A joint venture (JV) is a tactical partnership where two or more people or companies agree to put in goods, services and/or capital to a uniform commercial project.

For any successful joint venture in India, compatibility between the contracting parties is key.

To maintain a successful joint venture in India, the associated parties should have a clear goal and conditions should be written out in the clauses of the JV agreement.

Establishing a joint venture company is the preferred form of corporate structure for foreign investors doing business in India.

In this article, we briefly cover the advantages of choosing to enter the Indian market through a JV, the types of business structures available to JVs, regulatory and tax considerations, and key risk mitigation factors to ensure a successful JV operation.

Why choose a joint venture in India?

In sectors where 100 percent FDI is not allowed in India, a joint venture is the best medium, offering a low risk option for companies wanting to enter into the vibrant Indian market.

All companies registered in India, even those with up to 100 percent overseas equity, are considered the same as local companies.

Corporate joint ventures are regulated by the Companies Act, 2013 and the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008.

Corporate JVs will also be subject to the countrys tax laws, The Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999, labor laws (such as Code on Wages Act, 2019, Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and state-specific shops and establishment legislation), The Competition Act of 2002, and various industry-specific laws.

A JV may be formed with any of the business entities existing in India.

Entering into a JV in India

Choosing a good home partner is the most important tool to the success of any joint venture.

Once an associate is selected, normally a memorandum of understanding (MoU) or a letter of intent is signed by the parties  stressing the foundation of the future joint venture agreement.

An MoU and a joint venture agreement must be marked after consulting a chartered accountant firm well versed in the Foreign Exchange Management Act; Indian Income-tax Act, 1961; the Companies Act, 2013; international laws and applicable Indian rules, regulations, and procedures.

Terms and conditions should be properly assessed before signing the contract. Negotiations need an understanding of the cultural and legal background of all the involved parties. The JV union should obtain all the required governmental approvals and licenses within a specified period.

Foreign companies no longer require a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Indian associate for investing in the sector where the joint venture operates.

Overseas firms in existing joint ventures can function independently in the same business segment. Previously, they needed prior approval from their Indian partners.

Companies in India are grouped into two categories  companies owned or controlled by foreign investors, and companies owned and controlled by Indian residents.

Before signing a joint venture contract, the below points must be properly assessed:

Applicable law;

Shareholding pattern;

Composition of board of directors;

Management committee;

Frequency of board meetings and its venue;

General meeting and its venue;

Composition of quorum for important decision at board meeting;

Transfer of shares;

Dividend policy;

Employment of funds in cash or kind;

Change of control;

Restriction/prohibition on assignment;

Non-compete parameters;

Confidentiality;

Indemnity;

Break of deadlock;

Jurisdiction for resolution of dispute; and,

Termination criteria and notice.

Types of joint ventures in India

Equity joint venture

This is an understanding whereby an independent legal entity is created in accordance with the agreement of two or more parties.

The associated parties undertake to provide money or other resources as their contribution to the capital or assets of the corporate entity.

This structure is ideal for long-term, broad-based joint ventures, and include joint venture companies and joint venture limited liability partnerships (LLPs).

Contractual joint venture

This type of joint venture might be used where the organization of a detached legal entity is not needed or the creation of such a separate legal entity is not feasible.

This type of agreement is preferred in situations that involve a temporary task or a limited activity, or the JV needs to be established for a limited term.

Choosing a business structure for your JV in India

Though a joint venture in the form of an incorporated company is the most popular recourse among foreign investors in India, other types of JVs are also available:

Incorporated

Company; or,

Limited Liability Partnership.

Unincorporated

Partnership; or,

Cooperation agreement/strategic alliances.

In case of a company JV, the parties to the arrangement may either incorporate a new company or collaborate with the promoters of an existing company. Setting up a new company provides the most flexibility as the entity can be structured according to the specifications, intentions, and obligations of the associated parties. A private limited company must have at least two shareholders, while a public company should have at least seven shareholders. Under the Companies Act, 2013, it is mandatory that at least one director of every company is a resident of India.

In the case of an LLP, the parties to the JV incorporate a legal entity under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008. This may be secured by setting up a new LLP by the JV parties or by transferring one partners stake in an existing LLP to the JV partner. An LLP firm requires minimum two designated partners out of which at least one needs to be a resident of India.

A partnership JV is created under the Partnership Act, 1932. This type of JV includes aspects of a corporate JV and a contractual JV. The business structure of a partnership JV is typically defined by the relationship between the persons who agree to share the profits of their business, which is either managed by all of them or any of them acting for all. Partnership firms are not permitted for JV by foreign resident in India, however exceptions are made in case of non-resident Indians or persons of Indian origin.

Where a JV is a strategic alliance, the parties involved will mutually agree to collaborate as independent contractors rather than be shareholders in a company or enter into a legal partnership. The JV contract in this scenario will state the rights, duties, and obligations expected of the partners to the JV and between the JV parties and third parties. The JV contract will also state the duration of their legal relationship. As the contract is binding on the parties, any breach will entitle the aggrieved party to seek legal action against the defaulting party.

Advantages of joint ventures

The following are the main advantages for a foreign investor choosing a JV structure when entering India:

Access to the established distribution and marketing channels of the Indian partner;

Access to the available financial resources of the Indian partners; and,

Access to the established contacts of the Indian partners, which will help ease the process of setting up operations in India.

A JV also offers the associated parties an opportunity to jointly manage the risks associated with new ventures. Through a JV, they can limit their individual exposure by sharing the liabilities.

JVs offer many flexible business diversification opportunities to the partners. A JV may be set up as a prelude to a full merger or only for part of the business.

Certain market sectors remain restricted for foreign investment and a local partner with a certain shareholding in the company is a regulatory necessity for commencing business and making investments.

Management of JV companies

It is important to have the same opinion over the proposed management structure and to categorize which party has to organize early in the joint venture procedure.

The management constitution, control, and safeguards should be agreed upon when preparing the memorandum of understanding (MoU).

In the case of JV companies, the Companies Act, 2013 requires the entity to have a Memorandum of Association (MoA) and Articles of Association (AoA), which serve as the charter documents of the company.

Foreign investors should note that in India, the JV agreement between the partners will not bind the JV company unless its terms are included in the AoA of the JV company.

Further, to avoid future conflicts, the JV parties should include a provision in the JV agreement stating that if the AoA is inconsistent with the provisions of the JV agreement, then the parties will amend the MoA and AoA accordingly.

Royalty payments

Earlier there were monetary caps on remittances (both lump sum fees and royalties) made for technology collaborations and license or use of trademark or brand name.

Now, these restrictions and caps have been removed.

Profit repatriation

India allows free of charge repatriation of profits once the entire domestic and federal (tax) liabilities are met.

Historically, there has never been an occurrence that India has failed to provide foreign exchange for repatriation.

Investment exit processes are also fairly simple, and profits can be repatriated once all the tax debt and other compulsions are fulfilled.

Troubles only arise when people escape or dodge these liabilities, or do so out of ignorance.

Exit strategy

Joint ventures in India are normally planned for a particular period, and overseas companies should take the length of such a lifespan seriously.

Indian joint ventures often fall short because the domestic associates are not capable to fund enough resources to expand the business as rapidly as the foreign company had hoped for or because the local partners have a data advantage in terms of the local conditions of doing business and have different interests from the foreign firms.

It is therefore advisable to have a clear exit plan in place from the beginning. The general exit options available are: buy-sell agreements, unilateral sale rights, and, put/call rights.

On the other hand, the Indian joint venture agreement may also provide for the termination of operations and the liquidation and closure of the venture. Any of those options can be used independently or in combination with each other.

The exit strategy depends on the type of entity that was constituted.

Pre-incorporation due diligence

Overseas firms should conduct a formal due diligence check to evaluate the expectations and limitations of the Indian associate, to check the validity of the partners business operations, to review the validity of the documents produced by the prospective partners, and to evaluate any risk factors associated with the potential partners.

Tax consideration

Foreign firms should reach out for tax advice at the beginning of an Indian investment. India has a very low entry threshold for creating a taxable presence.

The sale of shares in an Indian company is usually taxed in India as capital gains, even if the seller is not a resident of India. India taxes such capital gains as well as interest payments at variable rates.

Therefore, overseas entities and foreign investors are generally advised to invest through an intermediate jurisdiction. India has entered into double tax avoidance agreements (DTAAs) with countries across the world.

Some of these DTAAs contain beneficial provisions with regard to capital gains tax and withholding taxes on interest payments. Favorable jurisdictions include Mauritius, Cyprus, the UAE, Singapore, and the Netherlands.

Intellectual property rights

India recognizes different types of intellectual property (IP), which are protected under separate laws. As a result, registering intellectual property involves navigating complex legalities and submitting numerous documents.

This requires expertise and familiarity with procedural norms to ensure fast and effective registration. Overseas investors entering into JVs in India can protect their IP through registration and detailing provisions in the joint venture agreement.

Additionally, independent documentation may also be executed, such as a name and logo license agreement (also known as a registered user agreement) with Indian organizations.

Typically, the licensing agreement, know-how agreement, technical services or technical assistance agreement, royalty payment, franchise agreement, and agreement including all other profit-making matters, including the use of intellectual property rights form annexes or attachments to the main joint venture agreement.

They can be signed simultaneously or after the joint venture company is recognized.

HR due diligence

Indian labor laws mainly protect the interests of employees, particularly blue-collar workers (unskilled and semi-skilled category).

However, the applicability of these laws depend on the type of industry, number of employees in the organization, and the designation and area of operation of the employee.

No specific law governs the process of hiring employees and India does not mandate the need for a written employment contract.

Nevertheless, foreign employers are advised to have a detailed employment contract in place, particularly if they operate in the information technology (IT) or knowledge industry sectors where employees are likely to generate forms of intellectual property.

An employment contract in India typically includes provisions on on duties and responsibilities, non-disclosure of confidential information, assignment of intellectual property, non-compete, non-solicitation and

termination, as well as the companys leave taking policy (casual leaves/sick leaves/privileged leaves).

In a joint venture undertaking, it becomes very important to legally establish whether the employees are recruited as rehires or transferred from one of the existing partner entities; each will have its own set of legal implications.

(This article was first published in May, 2011 and was last updated on February 11, 2020 to include the latest developments)
'Jai Bhim' is winning the hearts of the audience. Ever since the movie started streaming on Amazon Prime Video, people began showing praises on its subject, the way the protagonists deal with situations and the absolute truth of police brutality in India.

Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Bar Council have also expressed their fondness for the movie

Amazon Prime Video

According to the Bar Council, 'Jai Bhim' throws light to represent the real struggle that an ordinary person has to go through to get justice. (Also read: Loved 'Jai Bhim'? Here Are 10 Multilingual Films On Real-Life Incidents That Deserve Your Time)

They also praised the movie as it rightly highlights the strength of the legal profession and how courts can change lives by standing by justice.

A letter from the council has been addressed to Jai Bhim's director, Gnanavel and a copy of which was also sent to actor Suriya and retired Justice Chandru.

amazon prime

According to a report in Livelaw, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Bar Council Chairman P.S. Amalraj said,

I have watched the movie Jai Bhim, produced by 2D productions. Hats off to the producers and actor Surya for boldly bringing out the truth without deviating from the original incident.

He also made a few observations about the movie. He added that the film royally squashes all myths about lawyers arguments in actual court proceedings.

Twitter

Lauding the accurate representation of court hearings and legal procedures, the Chairman said,

The director needs to be appreciated for the boldness to bring out the disturbing truth without diluting it. The picture shows the sincere hard work done by the lawyer and explains to society the real value of the noble profession.

He added,

amazon prime

This movie has brought to light not only the struggle for justice by a poor victim but also highlighted the strength of the legal profession and the greatness of the Courts of Justice to come to the aid of victims whose rights get trampled due to abuse of power.

Congratulating the whole crew of Jai Bhim, he said,

As the Chairman of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, I wholeheartedly congratulate the makers, the artistes of the movie, especially Mr Suriya, and the real hero, Justice Chandru, for his selfless efforts and bringing accolades to the legal profession."
Is it necessary or not, and if it is, who should get it and when -- these are the questions scientists and policymakers not just in India, but around the world have been debating for months now.

While the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that a booster dose should not be the priority right now as a large section of the world's population is yet to receive even a single shot, many countries have gone ahead and opened up optional third jabs for its people.

BCCL

In India too, with the fear of a third wave still persistent, there have been a lot of talks about booster shots.

Dr NK Arora, co-chair of INSACOG, a 28-lab consortium set up to monitor genomic variations in SARS-CoV-2, India has been working on the policy document for the past three weeks and firming it up. It will be made public soon, Arora said.

No booster shot decision yet

He also urged people not to take a booster dose right now as it wont be considered for any certification.

We are manufacturing 30-35 crore doses every month. We dont have any shortage of vaccines, but that doesnt mean you administer them without reason. There is a lot of scientific thought going into the document, Arora told The Times of India.

AP

Earlier, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had also expressed similar views and said that adequate vaccine stocks are available and the aim is to complete the vaccination of the target population with two doses. After that, a decision on booster dose would be taken based on expert recommendation, Mandaviya said.

"The government cannot take a direct decision in such a matter. When the Indian Council of Medical Research and expert team will say that a booster dose should be given, we will consider it then," he said, adding Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always depended on expert opinion, be it vaccine research, manufacturing or approval.

On Thursday, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech, Dr Krishna Ella had said that people will need booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine if the COVID-19 virus gets mutated.

BCCL

"If there is a mutated COVID-19 virus and a booster is required. What type of booster would be needed and how do we deliver it on a fast track basis. On that, we are working on various strategies that can be contained. Even if something comes up; we know how to handle situations," he told ANI.

Experts divided

Experts are still divided on when and who should be given the booster shot in India.

Some are of the opinion that vulnerable people including those with comorbidities and healthcare workers who are at a high risk of reinfection should be given the booster shot.

AFP

Others, however, feel that it is unethical for India to roll out booster doses right now as only 35 per cent of the country's population is fully vaccinated and there are millions who have not even received a single jab.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
The highly anticipated 5G rollout in India has been delayed again as the spectrum auction that was originally said to take place in February-March of 2022 has been pushed further by a couple of months.

Union minister Ashwani Vaishnaw said that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is undertaking consultations with regards to the upcoming auctions, including for 5G airwaves. I think they will submit their report by February-mid, is what we are thinking, may be February-end, maximum to maximum March. Immediately after that, we will have the auctions.

Reuters

On final timelines of the auctions, he said, Today, our estimate is by April-May. I was earlier estimating March. But, I think it will take time because consultations are complex, diverse opinions are coming.

Earlier, a report by The Economic Times had said that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has given Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea a six-month extension to conduct 5G trials till May 2022.

Lack of readiness

Telcos, whose 5G trial permits draw to an end on November 26, had cited lack of readiness of the 5G ecosystem partners as one of the reasons for seeking extension of the trial time period.

DPA

In May this year, the government had allotted spectrum to telecom companies in the 700 MHz band, 3.3-3.6 GHz (GHz) band, and 24.25-28.5 GHz band for testing at various locations for six months.

According to the last reserve price fixed by the telecom regulator, 100 Mhz of 5G spectrum in the 3.3-3.6 GHz band, which would be the average size required to deploy the 5G technology, would be priced at Rs 50,000 crore. Telcos say the price is too expensive for them to buy and hope that the regulator.

Recently, Vodafone Idea had successfully conducted the 5G trial at Gujarats Gandhinagar, using a 3.5GHz spectrum band to offer rural broadband connectivity.

AFP

The telecom operator successfully conducted the trial, offering 5G connectivity across an area of 17.1 kilometres while offering speeds of over 100Mbps. Offering seamless connectivity to rural areas has been possible thanks to Nokias high gain FWA CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) that allows operators to spread ultra-high-speed as well as low-latency 5G connectivity in rural areas.

Though the rollout in India is still months away, 5G smartphones in the country continue to gain traction and such devices accounted for 22 per cent market share in the third quarter of 2021, according to CMR.

As per CMR's India Mobile Handset Market Review Report for Q3 2021, more than 20 5G-capable smartphones were launched over the course of the quarter.

Across price tiers, 5G smartphone shipments are gaining in strength, and contributing to increased affordability, availability and accessibility.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
Initial reports said that at least three people have been killed and 15 others have been injured in a suspected suicide bombing at a mosque during Friday prayers in Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan.

Qari Hanif, the government spokesman for Nangarhar Province, said the bomb appeared to have been planted inside the mosque in the town of Traili, located in the mountainous Spin Ghar area outside the provincial capital Jalalabad.

#UPDATE A blast at a mosque in Afghanistan's restive Nangarhar province on Friday caused fatalities and injuries, a Taliban official told AFP. pic.twitter.com/WwJyIrjfdl  AFP News Agency (@AFP) November 12, 2021

While there is no confirmation on the death toll, photos posted on social media showed three dead bodies, and the mosque's interior strewn with rubble and broken glass.

                           . #Afghanistan #Nangarhar https://t.co/Jk34FiepET pic.twitter.com/EzAYnEMaVC  Alisher Shahir|   (@ashershahir) November 12, 2021

No groups have so far claimed the responsibility for the attack, but the suspicion is on the involvement of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province, which has carried out similar bombings targetting Shia mosques in Afghanistan in recent weeks.

But unlike in the past incidents, this blast was carried out targeting worshippers in a Sunni Mosque.

Previous attacks

The earlier attacks came on successive Fridays last month, when IS suicide bombers and gunmen blasted worshippers from Afghanistan's Shiite Muslim minority, first in a mosque in the city of Kunduz, then one in the southern city of Kandahar.

Nangarhar has been a battleground for the Taliban and the IS-K as the two extremists groups have been fighting to control the province.

The IS-K which is an official affiliate of the IS was formed by some decedent Taliban leaders following the setbacks the group suffered after they were ousted from power.

Ever since the IS-K was formed it went on the offensive and at one point controlled more areas of Afghanistan than the Taliban.

However, a series of drones and airstrikes by the US-led NATO forces in 2018 had nearly wiped them out.

In recent months, as the Taliban marched towards Kabul, the IS-K also managed to regroup and is now posing the biggest threat to their rule.

Earlier this month, 19 people including Hamdullah Mokhlis, a member of the Haqqani network and an officer in the Badri Corps special forces were killed in an IS-K attack on Kabul's main military hospital.

He was the highest-ranking Talibani to be killed by the IS-K

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Taliban intelligence service told reporters in Kabul that the agency has arrested close to 600 IS members, including key figures and financial supporters. The spokesman, Khalil Hamraz, said at least 33 IS members have been killed in gun battles with Taliban security forces.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
Heavy rainfall and waterlogging due to the same has gripped the state of Tamil Nadu currently. But the state's capital Chennai has been the worst affected by the heavy rains.

The city is not only reeling with knee-deep water but survival has also become quite difficult there. Amid this chaos, a woman police inspector has set an example by leading rescue work from the front.

Tamil Nadu | Streets severely waterlogged in Kodambakkam and Ashok Nagar areas of Chennai due to heavy rainfall pic.twitter.com/WGxyC45T1B  ANI (@ANI) November 11, 2021

A video has surfaced of this woman cop named Rajeswari who is carrying an unconscious man on her shoulders and then ensuring his quick evacuation.

The video was posted by news agency ANI which shows Ms Rajeswari overseeing rescue work hands-on in a waterlogged area. As the rescue crew cut branches of a tree felled by strong winds, Ms Rajeswari, trousers rolled up, is seen pulling at the felled branches to get them out of the way. She then spots the unconscious man and takes her towards the auto.

Twitter

She puts the unconscious man on the rear seat of the three-wheeler and as the vehicle drives away, the policewoman turns back to her job of clearing the area in the rough weather.

#WATCH | Chennai, Tamil Nadu: TP Chatram Police Station's Inspector Rajeshwari carries an unconscious man, on her shoulders, to an autorickshaw in a bid to rush him to a nearby hospital.



Chennai is facing waterlogging due to incessant rainfall here.



(Video Source: Police staff) pic.twitter.com/zrMInTqH9f  ANI (@ANI) November 11, 2021

Speaking to the ANI later, the woman officer said, "I gave first aid after which I carried him. An auto came there, we sent him to hospital. I visited the hospital, his mother was there. I assured them not to worry and that the police department will support them. The doctor said that treatment is on and there's nothing to worry."

I gave first aid after which I carried him. An auto came there, we sent him to hospital. I visited the hospital, his mother was there. I assured them to not worry&that Police dept will support them. Doctor said that treatment is on & there's nothing to worry: Inspector Rajeshwari pic.twitter.com/0SsTuWeMCG  ANI (@ANI) November 11, 2021

People on the internet loved this cop's dedication and lauded her.

Superb Madam! If I say I'm proud, that would be an understatement.  Fitoori (@UrbanFitoor) November 11, 2021

Saluting the lady officer for her actions...  T N Gudi (@GudiTN) November 11, 2021

Good Samaritan !  G P Selvam (@GPSelva60980828) November 11, 2021

Hats off ma'am  povil (@pov_pr) November 11, 2021



Chennai Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal too lauded the woman cop for her excellent work and mentioned that the unconscious man is fine thanks to Rajeshwari and her dedication.



Rajeshwari who is a police inspector with Chennai's TP Chatram Police Station has actively been involved in rescue and relief activities ever since the onset of monsoon and has been feeding the shelterless every day with her team.

Heavy rain destroyed several Tamil Nadu districts last night and this morning, particularly the northern districts. At least 14 people have died in rain-related incidents, a senior official told ANI this morning.



For more such inspiring stories, click here.
U.S. Government officials have authorized the use of R-1 visas for stone artisans for 20 years, and federal, state, and local government agencies have regularly visited and inspected all of the construction projects on which those artisans volunteered, Paul Fishman, an attorney representing BAPS, said in an email Nov. 10. Above: A view of the BAPS temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey. Many Indian Americans attend festivities at BAPS temples. (baps.org photo)
 Battery-grade lithium carbonate prices in East Asias seaborne market catching up with prices in China; lithium hydroxide prices stable.

 Chinas lithium prices steady ahead of next round of month-end restocking.

 Europe, United States spot markets strengthen on tight availability, increasingly high offers.

Battery-grade lithium carbonate prices edged up in East Asia in the past week amid tight availability of spot units, tracking the previous rally in China.

Fastmarkets assessment of the lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, spot price, cif China, Japan & Korea was $27.50-29.00 per kg on Thursday November 11, up by $1.50 per kg from $26.00-27.50 per kg a week earlier.

Fastmarkets weekly assessment of the lithium hydroxide monohydrate 56.5% LiOH.H2O min, battery grade, spot price, cif China, Japan & Korea was $28-30 per kg on Thursday, unchanged from a week earlier.

Seller sources in China raised their price indications for battery-grade lithium carbonate in the East Asian region during the week, taking them closer to those in the Chinese market.

"Chinese prices still hold a large premium over regional prices, and it's more profitable to sell units to the Chinese market. Plus, freight rates are also very high, so prices across the two markets should be at the same level," a producer source in China said.

The recent rally in Chinas lithium market added pressure to the seaborne market and raised concern among some East Asian market participants.

"The prices in China are now influencing all over East Asia. One concern we have is over when this rally [in Chinese lithium prices] will stop and how much [lithium prices in China] will be," a Japanese trader said. "We sincerely hope the prices would become stable at certain points, even for a little while."

Meanwhile, participants across the seaborne East Asian market noted that the supply of lithium units was tight, while added further strength to the rally in prices for battery-grade lithium carbonate.

"There are no spot battery-grade lithium carbonate units on the market. I think prices in China and the seaborne market should be at parity," a Chinese trader said.

Prices for technical-grade lithium carbonate in East Asias seaborne market mirrored the rally in the battery-grade segment amid tight supply.

"Prices for technical-grade lithium carbonate will continue to creep up toward $28-29 per kg over the coming weeks. There is nothing left for the spot market. Every producer is sold out," a source at a producer active in both the European and Asian markets said.

Fastmarkets assessment of the lithium carbonate 99% Li2CO3 min, technical and industrial grades, spot price cif China, Japan & Korea was at $26-28 per kg on Thursday, up by $1 per kg from $25-27 per kg a week earlier.

Prices for battery-grade lithium hydroxide have stabilized, according to most market participants. Current prices are already close to those in the Chinese market.

Stable Chinese market

Prices for both battery-grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide in China were unchanged in the past week with consumers making purchases on an as-needed basis before the next round of month-end restocking, when they typically raise buying rates.

Furthermore, lithium prices in China are already high, which limits their upside potential.

Fastmarkets assessment of the lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, spot price range, ex-works domestic China was at 195,000-200,000 yuan ($30,477-31,259) per tonne on Thursday, unchanged for a second week.

Fastmarkets assessment of the lithium hydroxide monohydrate, 56.5% LiOH.H2O min, battery grade, spot price range, exw domestic China was 185,000-205,000 yuan per tonne on Thursday, also unchanged for a second week.

"Overall prices and demand were stable this week. Current prices are already high and have limited space to rise further. If they rise further, downstream consumers may start to show resistance, " a second Chinese producer source said.

While the salt lakes in Chinas Qinghai province experiences a seasonal drop in production during winter, its impact on the supply of feedstock for brine-fed technical-grade lithium carbonate production and lithium prices in China is rather limited.

"There is limited impact from production reduction at salt lakes in Qinghai, which is around 30%. The producers there have stock of brine, and traders have stocked up as well. They are releasing older units to the market, which offsets the impact from lower production," a second Chinese trader said.

In addition, multiple market participants noted that spot supply of battery-grade lithium hydroxide in China seemed sufficient, while that of lithium carbonate of the same grade was tighter.

Market participants are not expecting aggressive restocking toward the end of the year. Two consumer sources said they would keep purchasing at a stable pace until the end of 2021.

A third trader said with many major lithium producers having already secured their supply through long-term agreements, they might only turn to the spot market to purchase small volumes, if necessary.

Europe, US catching up with China

Prices for battery- and technical-grade lithium in Europe and the US strengthened over the past week, tracking the previous rally in China, with tight spot supply providing additional support to the markets.

Sources continued to report very tight availability of technical-grade compounds and buyers struggled to secure spot units.

Fastmarkets assessed the lithium carbonate 99% Li2CO3 min, technical and industrial grades, spot price ddp Europe and US at $25.25-27.00 per kg on Thursday, up by $0.75-1.00 per kg from $24.50-26.00 per kg a week earlier.

The lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, spot price ddp Europe and US similarly posted a hefty gain this week, with

Fastmarkets assessing it at $26.50-29.00 per kg on Thursday, up by $1.00-1.50 per kg from $25.50-27.50 per kg a week earlier.

This is the highest that the price has been since Fastmarkets started assessing it in 2017.

An upstream source active in Europe and Asia who usually procures technical-grade lithium carbonate in South America said that he was getting more interested in the regular tenders that a Bolivian lithium producer holds for its limited technical-grade lithium carbonate compounds due to the tightness of the market.

Short supply and elevated prices for technical-grade carbonate are filtering though the hydroxide market since lithium hydroxide producers in Europe typically use lithium carbonate as their feedstock.

Fastmarkets assessed the lithium hydroxide monohydrate min 56.5% LiOH.H2O technical and industrial grades, spot prices ddp Europe and US at $27.00-29.00 per kg on Thursday, widening upward by $0.50 per kg from $27.00-28.50 per kg a week earlier.
Two New Jersey men and a Florida man pleaded guilty to running a health care fraud scheme involving orthotic braces.

Nicholas Defonte, 73, and Christopher Cirri, 63, both of Toms River, New Jersey, and Pat Truglia, 53, of Parkland, Florida, pleaded guilty to commit health care fraud, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

The U.S. attorneys office alleged that the three and other defendants had hidden financial interests in companies that made the devices, and also owned and operated call centers that processed orders.

Prosecutors alleged that the call centers bribed telemedicine companies, which in turn bribed doctors to prescribe the devices for patients who didnt need them. Companies owned by the defendants that made the devices fraudulently billed Medicare and other federal health care programs, prosecutors alleged in a criminal complaint.

Truglia, Defonte and Cirri, accused of causing losses of approximately $50 million to the health care programs, are scheduled to be sentenced in March. Two other New Jersey residents pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme in April.

Messages seeking comment were left Tuesday with attorneys representing Truglia, Defonte and Cirri.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Numbers
NFP, the New York City-based insurance broker and consultant, announced the acquisition of Canadas Foster Park Brokers Inc.

Details of the transaction, which closed on Nov. 1, 2021, were not disclosed.

Foster Park is one of Western Canadas largest independent insurance brokerages, employing 135 people in four offices  Edmonton, Calgary and Grande Prairie, Alberta, and Langley, British Columbia. They provide expertise and solutions in commercial and individual P/C insurance, life and group benefits, private client services, and bonding and surety to clients across Western Canada.

Foster Parks highly respected and strong leadership team will play an active role in the integration and growth of the business, collaborating with NFP leaders across Canada to cultivate new client relationships and identify additional growth opportunities.

Mark Wiens will serve as managing director of commercial lines for NFP in Canadas Western region, reporting to John Haas, president, NFP in Canada. Executive Partners Andre Charrois, Steven Whitehouse, Roger Roebuck, Denise Theberge, Hugh Watt, along with all other shareholders and employees of Foster Park will join NFP.

Were excited to welcome Mark and the entire Foster Park team to NFP, said Haas. Weve been working to identify the right partner to expand into Western Canada, and weve found that partner in Foster Park. Their excellent reputation, relationships and results across the region will accelerate our growth across Canada. In addition, Foster Parks significant investments in industry-leading proprietary technology platforms that support long-term customer relationships will bring additional value to NFPs clients in Canada.

We are elated to join NFP and work with such a talented team of industry leaders, commented Wiens. This transaction will bring immense value to our existing clients and future opportunities. Accessing new resources  products, services, expertise  will allow our staff to continue to be in a position of providing industry leading solutions and service.

Sequeira Partners served as exclusive financial adviser, and DLA Piper (Canada) LLP and Bryan & Company LLP acted as legal counsel, to Foster Park and its affiliates.

Dentons served as legal counsel to NFP.

With more than 800 employees in Canada and more than 6,000 employees globally, NFP provides specialized business and personal insurance, group benefits, retirement and individual solutions through its licensed subsidiaries and affiliates.

Source: NFP

Topics Mergers Agencies Canada
This edition of International People Moves details promotions at the insurers Chubb and Fidelis Insurance.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Chubb Promotes Walker to Head of Aerospace

Chubb announced the promotion of Emma Walker as head of Aerospace for Chubb Global Markets, Chubbs London Market wholesale and specialty business, including the companys Lloyds platform.

In this role, Walker will be responsible for managing and developing the growth of Chubbs global aerospace portfolio of aircraft manufacturers, airports and service providers.

Walker, who was previously senior underwriter, Aviation, EMEA, will report to Robert Wilson, chief underwriting officer for Chubb Global Markets and active underwriter of Chubbs Lloyds Syndicate 2488. She will be based in London and the appointment is effective immediately.

Since she joined Chubb in 2006 as an assistant underwriter, Walker has held a variety of underwriting and management roles across the business. Prior to that she spent six years broking aviation risks in the London Market.

***

Fidelis Names Stewart, Davern as Co-Deputy CUOs, Bellamy as Head of Property Reinsurance

Fidelis Insurance has announced three promotions: Kayley Stewart to co-deputy chief underwriting officer for Fidelis Underwriting Ltd. (FUL) and head of Crisis Management and Michael Davern to co-deputy FUL CUO and head of direct & facultative (D&F) and Energy. In addition, Matthew Bellamy has also been promoted to the role of head of Property Reinsurance.

I am delighted to confirm Kayley and Michaels appointment to co-deputy FUL CUO, which reflects their outstanding contribution to profitably growing their areas of the business in what continues to be a transformational period for Fidelis, and will help Fidelis to continue to respond to our clients needs and to out-perform expectations, commented Richard Coulson, chief executive officer of Insurance and chief underwriting officer of FUL.

Matt has been instrumental in constructing our London reinsurance portfolio, which initially focused on North American property cat but has more recently expanded into other reinsurance lines and territories. Matts promotion is a reflection of his role in the Fidelis global reinsurance team as we look to continue to provide solutions to our clients and brokers in an evolving marketplace, said Richard Holden, CEO of Reinsurance and chief underwriting officer of Bermuda.

Topics Reinsurance Property Chubb Aerospace
Aston Lark Group, the London-based insurance broker backed by Goldman Sachs that is soon to become part of Howden, announced it has acquired Innovation Broking.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Established in 2015, Innovation Broking is an independent corporate insurance broker and employee benefits adviser. Founded by Paul Dickson and Howard Pearson, and based in London and Watford, the company employs 30 staff and specializes in larger risks, global programs, and private equity-backed businesses. Innovation has particular expertise in the technology, health, film and TV, and charities and care sectors.

MGAs Can Build Broker Relationships  Even in a Hard Market: Aston Larks CEO Howden to Acquire UK Broker Aston Lark From Goldman Sachs

Ive known Paul Dickson for many years and his reputation in the market is outstanding, both as an expert Insurance Broker but also as a leader. He and Howard have built Innovation Broking into a renowned business in just six years, employing fantastic talent from top to bottom, commented Peter Blanc, Aston Lark Group CEO. Im delighted to welcome the whole team into the Aston Lark fold and look forward to working with Paul and his colleagues as they continue to build a unique corporate proposition.

Innovation has grown into a great business in the last five years, and this is thanks in part to our backing from Albion Capital who have supported us since our formation. Im also very excited that Innovation will be heading up a corporate practice unit as part of Aston Larks retail division, and we will continue to build on our specialisms in the tech, emerging risks and the charity and care sectors, said Paul Dickson, Innovation Broking CEO.

Dickson said that Blanc has asked him to chair Aston Larks broking and benefits companies from early 2022.

We identified a compelling investment case for Innovation Broking and its corporate broking model, focused as it is on high-end board level engagement with clients that had more complex insurance needs, said Will Fraser-Allen, managing partner, Albion Capital Group LLP, the London-based investment manager.

About Aston Lark

Currently backed by Goldman Sachs but soon to be acquired by Howden (as announced on Oct. 13, 2021), Aston Lark has more than 1,600 employees across 55-plus offices in the UK and Ireland, with 200,000 customers and more than 900 million of GWP.

Source: Aston Lark

Topics Mergers InsurTech
A judge approved a $626 million deal to settle lawsuits filed by Flint residents who found their tap water contaminated by lead following disastrous decisions to switch the citys water source and a failure to swiftly acknowledge the problem.

Most of the money _ $600 million _ is coming from the state of Michigan, which was accused of repeatedly overlooking the risks of using the Flint River without properly treating the water.

The settlement reached here is a remarkable achievement for many reasons, not the least of which is that it sets forth a comprehensive compensation program and timeline that is consistent for every qualifying participant, U.S. District Judge Judith Levy said in a 178-page opinion.

Attorneys are seeking as much as $200 million in legal fees from the overall settlement. Levy left that issue for another day.

The deal makes money available to Flint children who were exposed to the water, adults who can show an injury, certain business owners and anyone who paid water bills. About 80% of whats left after legal fees is earmarked for children.

This is a historic and momentous day for the residents of Flint, who will finally begin to see justice served, said Ted Leopold, one of the lead attorneys in the litigation.

Corey Stern, another key lawyer in the case, said he represented many brave kids who did not deserve the tragedy put on them.

In a money-saving move, Flint managers appointed by then-Gov. Rick Snyder and regulators in his administration allowed the city to use the Flint River in 2014-15 while another pipeline was being built from Lake Huron. But the river water wasnt treated to reduce corrosion. Lead in old pipes broke off and flowed to homes as a result.

There is no safe level of lead. It can harm a childs brain development and cause attention and behavior problems.

Flint switched back to a Detroit regional water agency in fall 2015 after Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha publicly reported elevated lead levels in children.

Some critics said the disaster in the predominantly Black city was an example of environmental racism.

Flint is paying $20 million toward the settlement, while McLaren Health is paying $5 million and an engineering firm, Rowe Professional Services, is paying $1.25 million. Lawsuits still are pending against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, McLaren and other engineering firms.

The deal was announced in August 2020 by Attorney General Dana Nessel and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, both Democrats, who were elected in 2018 while the litigation was in state and federal courts.

The judge said it was remarkable that more than half of Flints 81,000 residents have signed up for a share of the settlement. Its not clear just how much each child will receive. A claims process is next with families required to show records, such as blood tests or neurological results, and other evidence of injury.

Flint resident Melissa Mays, a 43-year-old social worker, said her three sons have had medical problems and learning challenges due to lead.

Hopefully itll be enough to help kids with tutors and getting the medical care they need to help them recover from this, Mays said. A lot of this isnt covered by insurance. These additional needs, they cost money.

She considers the settlement a win.

Weve made history, Mays said, and hopefully it sets a precedent to maybe dont poison people. It costs more in the long run.

The Flint saga isnt over. Nine people, including Snyder, have been charged with crimes. Theyve pleaded not guilty and their cases are pending.

The state last week agreed to pay $300,000 to the former head of the drinking water division. An arbitrator said Liane Shekter Smith was wrongly fired for what happened in Flint.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Legislation Michigan
This is part of a series of articles from Insurance Journals annual Insuring Cannabis Summit on Oct. 14. You can find more articles from the summit at the bottom of this one.

One big reason carriers arent offering a broad array of coverage to cannabis companies maybe because it isnt being demanded enough.

I mean I think at least from my perspective, unfortunately, the typical cannabis policyholder is still too often viewing coverage as a box to check off for compliance purposes, said Jason Horst, managing partner for Horst Legal Counsel PC, a boutique law firm serving the litigation and risk management/insurance coverage needs of cannabis businesses. So, theres not a great deal of pressure being placed on carriers to really push the envelope and broaden coverage from your average insurance consumer in the cannabis industry.

Horst added that broadening coverage will soon be necessary to eliminate some of the more problematic exclusionary language that still exists in a number of policies that are written in this industry.

Horst was speaking during Insurance Journals annual Insuring Cannabis Summit on Oct. 14 on a panel titled Legal Spotlight.

He was answering a question from moderator Ian Stewart, founder and co-chair of the cannabis law practice at Wilson Elser.

The other panelists were Jodi Green, an attorney at Miller Nash LLP, who focuses on cannabis, insurance, and general business advice, including risk management, and Katie Podein, an attorney with Clark Howell LL, who has been with the industry from the start of regulation when she began providing general counsel services to cannabis companies throughout the supply chain in 2015.

Stewart and Green discussed product liability lawsuits, something they agreed hasnt happened so far in the numbers they thought they would  yet.

Weve been wondering when the metaphorical dams going to break, and the product liabilities are going to come out of the woodwork, Green said. I feel like were starting to see the cracks in the foundation happening now, in respect of the product recalls.

Podein called cannabis an industry thats going through growing pains, and offered some good advice for brokers in the business of insuring cannabis.

And so from previously under regulated, unlicensed, underground, however you want to describe it, these were business owners who did not necessarily know the standard business practices or get the insurance because they werent allowed to, she said. So, there is going to be a lot of fact finding that needs to happen and a lot of questions that should be asked to the businesses.

For example, relying on these businesses to come to you with pertinent information is ill-advised, because they may not even know what to disclose, she advised.

Lack of access to banking has also made these businesses a target of theft and crime.

So for all different types of operators, I would really try to look at the security measures that theyre implementing, she said.

Understanding what security measures a state requires, and checking to see if an operator goes above and beyond that, is another step she advises taking.

So when were talking about security measures, its seeing what type of lighting they have around the perimeter. The fencing. Patrol. Is it on 24 hours? she said. Do they have limited access areas where only certain managers or employees can access? Key coded areas? Do they keep cash on hand? How much do they keep on hand? What is the vault like, or the safe room? Are they bolted to the floor and they fireproof?

They attorneys also discussed the numerous cases ongoing related to cannabis businesses, Prop 65 issues, exclusions, errors & emissions exposures, rulings from certain courts and precedents, and efforts to legalize cannabis at the federal level.

Topics Cannabis
Tony and Jhan Dunn never thought they would leave California, where they grew up, built a life together and planned to retire.

But after a wildfire swept through their Northern California town of Paradise three years ago, burning their home to the ground, they could not get insurance to buy another.

We basically got priced out of California, Dunn, a retired planning specialist, told Reuters from the couples new home in North Carolina.

There are thousands of homeowners and businesses from California to Australia in a similar position because the insurance industry, known for its readiness to cover anything from Bruce Springsteens vocal chords to alien abductions, has trouble factoring in climate change.

The tried and tested approach, where decades worth of historical data serve to estimate future claims, falls short when weather patterns change and hurricanes, floods, heat waves or snowstorms become more extreme and unpredictable, industry experts say. And the British hosts of the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow acknowledged on Wednesday that current pledges to cut greenhouse gases were not enough to avert climate catastrophe.

Insurance broker Aon said in a report last week that highly anomalous floods in Germany and China this year caused record insured losses in those regions.

Insurers are pulling out because nobody wants to be in the business of losing money, says Attila Toth, chief executive at specialist risk analytics firm Zesty.ai. And if they dont trust their traditional models, then they are concerned that they will be losing money.

Zesty.ai, whose customers include Farmers Insurance, reinsurer Berkshire Hathaway and Aon, uses artificial intelligence trained on more than 1,400 wildfire events to produce climate change risk scores for any individual property.

In the same vein, reinsurance broker Willis Re is using data from AI firm Cloud to Street to help clients price flood reinsurance.

Insurance statistics show an urgent need for such innovation.

For example, the average number of large U.S. wildfires has risen by 30% over the past 15 years and by nearly a fifth in just the last five, according to Lloyds of London insurer Chaucer.

In all, insured losses for so-called secondary perils such as floods and wildfires  rather than more closely modeled perils such as hurricanes  nearly doubled over the past decade, data compiled by Swiss Re shows.

The reinsurer expects no let-up, forecasting a 30-63% rise in insured losses for all types of natural catastrophes in advanced markets by 2040. China, Britain, France and Germany, could even see those soaring between 90% and 120%.

Given the momentum, it is no surprise that traditional models cannot keep up, Bruce Carnegie-Brown, chairman of insurance market Lloyds of London told Reuters.

If youve reached an exponential part of the curve where suddenly, somethings accelerating, its almost certain that we are underpricing the risk that were taking.

FEELING THE HEAT

Policyholders are already feeling the heat, with coverage getting costlier or harder to come by.

Broker Marsh estimates U.S. property insurance rates have risen by 10% in the third quarter.

In California, non-renewals of homeowners insurance policies rose 31% from a year earlier in 2019 to more than 235,000, the states Insurance Departments most recent data showed. The data for 2020 could be similar, according to Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog LA.

Across the northern border, the Insurance Bureau of Canada warned on its website homeowners might not be able to buy a new insurance policy if they have suffered a fire.

Among those pulling back from home insurance in California are some household names such as Liberty Mutual, Nationwide and State Farm. Liberty Mutual said it was a difficult but necessary step to reduce overall exposure to wildfires, a sentiment echoed by other insurers.

Some insurers aim to reduce their exposure by helping clients become more resilient. Commercial insurer AXA, for example, offers a consulting service for clients such as manufacturers, identifying their vulnerabilities and suggesting remedies, such as erecting flood barriers, its chief risk officer Renaud Guidee told Reuters.

This is really an alignment of interest.

U.S. insurer Chubb is also working with clients to help them make their infrastructure sturdier, said Paul J Krump, Vice Chairman, Chubb Group, Global Underwriting and Claims.

Reinsurers, with their global scope and long history of underwriting catastrophe risks, also have a role to play in helping the industry adapt to climate change, analysts say.

Ernst Rauch, chief climate and geo scientist at Munich Re, said the group had the expertise and willingness to take on climate risk.

The 141-year-old company set up a team to work on natural catastrophes and climate change in the 1970s after noticing loss patterns starting to change for weather related events, Rauch said.

We observed a continuation of years with losses significantly higher compared to the last 35 years or so. And thats reflected in our models, he said.

Yet there was a gap between what the reinsurer considered a fair premium and what insurers were prepared to pay.

We can only transfer this risk on our balance sheet if we get the premium which we need to cover these risks, based on our own assessment, Rauch said.

Ratings agency S&P Global warned even reinsurers could be underestimating their exposure to climate risk by as much as 50%, describing their efforts to account for climate change as nascent in a recent report.

Industry experts also say disasters such as hurricanes in Florida with a long history of causing severe damage, are more closely modeled than floods or wildfires, which have only in recent years begun to cause major losses.

That calls for reinsurers and independent risk modeling firms such as RMS and KCC to try new ways of approaching natural catastrophes.

One such approach is scenario modeling, where insurers are provided with a number of possible climate impacts on their portfolios over years, to take account of the whole range of uncertainty, said Laurent Marescot, senior director, EMEA and CIS, at RMS, which sells its risk models to insurers.

Another involves machine learning, which can be used to take existing models of floods in a particular region, for example, and map them to other parts of the world, Marescot said.

But any developments in making insurance more available and affordable will come too late for the Dunns.

It was sad because we both spent our whole lives in California, we both grew up in San Diego, Tony Dunn said. I never had any intentions ever of leaving California.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Carolyn Cohn in London Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Elaine Hardcastle

Top Photo: A neighborhood destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif., in 2018. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Topics Carriers Climate Change
A Georgia appeals court has upheld a $43 million premises liability verdict against the CVS Pharmacy chain, ruling that the company failed to take security measures to prevent the shooting of a patron in 2012.

The case is the latest of three premises liability suits that have resulted in eight-figure verdicts in Georgia in the last two years, and attorneys said it could have nationwide importance for businesses that operate in high-crime areas  and for their insurance carriers.

In Georgia CVS Pharmacy vs. James Carmichael, the Court of Appeals 2nd Division affirmed a trial court and found that evidence showed that corporate leaders knew that the Atlanta pharmacy and its parking lot were the scene of numerous robberies and assaults. Yet, the company did not install extra lighting and did not hire a security guard, despite repeated requests from employees.

CVS had removed security guards two years before the shooting, the court noted. Witnesses at trial testified that, after the security was removed, at least three violent crimes occurred at the Moreland Avenue store. A CVS corporate representative acknowledged in a deposition that guards were effective deterrents to crime and that sufficient lighting also could be a deterrent to violent crime.

We conclude that there was ample evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that the robbery of Carmichael was reasonably foreseeable to CVS, because previous crimes were substantially similar and there was evidence that another robbery was a salient possibility, appeals court Presiding Judge Yvette Miller wrote in the Nov. 1 opinion.

The shooting happened like this: Shortly before Christmas in 2012, Carmichael was driving through Atlanta on his way home to Alabama when he stopped at the CVS to buy some toiletries. He called an acquaintance to meet him at the store to complete the sale of an iPad computer tablet. After the transaction, the seller left and an unknown man jumped into Carmichaels car, brandished a gun and demanded money. Carmichael said he gave the man the money he had, but then pulled his own gun, which jammed. The assailant then shot Carmichael in the gut, back and shoulder.

Carmichael was in a coma for a month and has undergone multiple surgeries since then. He continues to suffer from nerve damage, hearing loss, speech problems and chronic pain, the court said. His medical bills have topped $725,000, the court explained.

Carmichaels Atlanta attorneys filed the premises liability suit. A Fulton County jury apportioned 95% of the blame to CVS and 5% to Carmichael.

CVS appealed, arguing that the company could not have foreseen the danger, that Carmichael was the one who had superior knowledge of the danger, and that the safety impact of lighting and guards was too speculative.

We reject each of these arguments because there was sufficient evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that CVS proximately caused Carmichaels injuries and that CVS had superior knowledge of the danger, the appeals court said.

CVS initially raised the argument that Carmichael was a licensee, not an invitee, of the store. But that argument was later withdrawn, and the appeals court opinion did not explain what CVS intended with that notion.

As in most states, Georgia premises liability law provides that accident victims can hold the owner or occupier of property liable for negligently causing or negligently failing to correct or warn about unsafe conditions, the Ragland Law Firm, based in Atlanta, explained on its website.

The multimillion Carmichael verdict could now put a new emphasis on premises liability around the country, some said. Businesses operating in high-crime areas will undoubtedly have to determine whether they can afford enhanced security measures or risk facing an eight-figure verdict, wrote Vincent Gunter, a lawyer with RDM Law, in Kansas City.

In addition, insurance companies that insure them will certainly conduct their own reviews to determine whether to increase policy premiums and perhaps whether to cancel coverage altogether, lest they be hit with an excessive eight-figure verdict, Gunter noted.

The CVS verdict was not the largest amount of damages awarded in a premises liability claim against a store in a crime-plagued neighborhood in Georgia in recent years, but it is substantial. In a very similar case in 2019, a jury awarded almost $70 million to a Navy veteran who was robbed and shot in the Kroger grocery store parking lot in Atlanta, not far from the CVS.

Kroger knew the store was unsafe yet failed to place security guards in the parking lot, said lead plaintiffs attorney Peter Law, according to news reports at the time. Law, whose firm is based in Atlanta, also represented Carmichael in the CVS case. Law could not be reached for comment.

Another Georgia jury in 2019 awarded $52 million to the estate of a man who was killed outside a Quick Stop convenience store, according to TopVerdict.com.

Carrie Moss, one of the attorneys for CVS in the Carmichael case, said the company had no comment on the appeals court ruling. The CVS insurance carrier was not named in the suit.

Topics Carriers Fraud Georgia
Girard to Head Markels Southeast Region

Markel Corp. has named Steve Girard regional president for the Southeast for Markel Specialty, the company announced.

Girard replaces Nick Abraham, who left Markel for another opportunity, according to a news release. Prior to Markel, Girard served in management roles with CNA Re, W.R. Berkley, and Willis Re. He began his career in 1985 with General Reinsurance as a casualty facultative underwriter.

Girard will continue reporting to Sarah Gavlick, chief territory officer, East region for Markel Specialty, and will be based in Markels Alpharetta, Georgia, office.

Epic Elevates McInnis

Epic Insurance Brokers, a property and casualty insurance brokerage and employee benefits consultant, has named Alabama-based Crawford McInnis as chief sales officer.

McInnis, of Birmingham, joined Epic in 2014 and led the companys expansion into the Alabama market, Epic said in a news release. Brian Tanner, who has worked with McInnis in Alabama, will lead Epics specialty construction practice.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Epic has more than 2,600 associates in 80 offices around the country.

Somers Brings on SC DOI Analyst

Somers Risk Consulting has named a South Carolina Department of Insurance analyst as senior manager of captive consulting services.

Eva Conley was a supervisor and senior financial analyst for captive insurance at the South Carolina DOI, according to Somers, a boutique captive insurance firm.

Security First Names Marketing Director

Florida-based Security First, a homeowners insurance provider, has appointed Monique Miskimon-Aikens as marketing and communications director.

She previously worked with Booz Allen Hamilton in Maryland, was marketing director for Florida Wealth Planning Group, part of Ameriprise Financial, and was a college professor.
The head of lighting on the film Rust filed a lawsuit Wednesday over Alec Baldwins fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the Western, alleging negligence that caused him severe emotional distress that will haunt him forever.

Serge Svetnoy said in the suit that the bullet that killed his close friend Hutchins, narrowly missed him, and he held her head as she died.

They should never, ever, have had live rounds on this set, Svetnoys attorney Gary A. Dordick said at a news conference Wednesday.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court names nearly two dozen defendants associated with the film including Baldwin, who was both star and a producer; David Halls, the assistant director who handed Baldwin the gun; and Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who was in charge of weapons on the set.

It is the first known lawsuit of what could be many stemming from the Oct. 21 shooting, which also injured Rust director Joel Souza.

It was the ninth film that Svetnoy and Hutchins had worked on together, and he had taken the job at low pay because she asked him to.

She was my friend, Svetnoy said at the news conference.

He said he had seen guns sitting unattended in the dirt a few days earlier in the shoot, and had warned the people responsible about them.

On the day of the shooting, he was setting up lighting within 6 or 7 feet of Baldwin, the suit says.

What happened next will haunt Plaintiff forever, the suit says. He felt a strange and terrifying whoosh of what felt like pressurized air from his right. He felt what he believed was gunpowder and other residual materials directly strike the right side of his face.

Then, with his glasses scratched and his hearing muffled, he knelt to help Hutchins, the suit said.

The lawsuit seeks both compensatory and punitive damages to be determined later. It was filed in Los Angeles County because the plaintiff and most of the defendants are based there.

Attorneys and representatives for the defendants did not immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment on the suit.

Gutierrez Reeds lawyer Jason Bowles said in a statement Wednesday that we are convinced this was sabotage and Hannah is being framed. We believe that the scene was tampered with as well before the police arrived.

Bowles said his client has provided authorities with a full interview and continues to assist them. The statement did not address the lawsuit.

We are asking for a full and complete investigation of all of the facts, including the live rounds themselves, how they ended up in the dummies box, and who put them in there, the statement said.

Gutierrez Reed said last week that she had inspected the gun Baldwin shot but doesnt know how a live bullet ended up inside.

Santa Fe-area District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said investigators have encountered no proof of sabotage. Her comments, first made on Good Morning America, were confirmed Wednesday by agency spokeswoman Sascha Guinn Anderson.

Carmack-Altwies says that investigators know who loaded the gun, though it remains unclear how the deadly round of ammunition got on the movie set. The district attorney said she is concerned that there were so many levels of safety failures.

Dordick said at the news conference that it was far-fetched to suggest there was sabotage, but that Gutierrez Reed still had the same responsibility to know what was in the gun and who had handled it.

Authorities have said that Halls, the assistant director, handed the weapon to Baldwin and announced cold gun, indicating that the weapon was safe to use.

Halls said last week that he hoped the tragedy prompted the film industry to reevaluate its values and practices to ensure no one is harmed again, but did not provide details.

Baldwin said on video on Oct. 30 that the shooting was a one-in-a-trillion event saying, We were a very, very well-oiled crew shooting a film together and then this horrible event happened.

The director Souza told detectives that Baldwin was rehearsing a scene in which he drew a revolver from his holster and pointed it toward the camera, which Hutchins and Souza were behind, according to court records in New Mexico.

Souza said the scene did not call for the use of live rounds, and Gutierrez Reed said real ammo should never have been present, according to the court records.

The Los Angeles lawsuit alleges that the scene did not call for Baldwin to fire the gun at all, only to point it.

Hollywood professionals have been baffled by the circumstances of the movie-set shooting. It already has led to other production crews stepping up safety measures.

Associated Press Writers Morgan Lee and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and AP Film Writer Jake Coyle in Los Angeles contributed.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits California
Idles: Crawler



Few things are quite so dreary as a preachy punk band and with last years message-heavy Ultra Mono it seemed Idles had painted themselves into a placard-waving corner. The British-Irish rock quintet have, however, rebooted in agreeably clamorous fashion on fourth album, Crawler.

The switch-up is most discernible in the lyrics of frontman Joe Talbot. Rather than banging about British politics, he instead delves into the dark clay of his own tragedy-struck life. He talks about his days of flagrant drug use (The Wheel, Car Crash) and about coming to terms with the death of his mother (Crawl!).

The changes extend to the bands sound, too. Previously, Idles have tended towards a one-note punk assault. Now theyve embraced something vaguely adjacent to subtlety, with opener MTT 420 RR referencing industrial music and synth pop and When The Lights Come On and the New Sensation deploying indie guitars and clattering krautrock percussion. Its a refreshing reinvention from a group previously in danger of careening into self parody.

Damon Albarn: The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows



Received wisdom tells us there are two Damon Albarns. The cheeky chappy hit-whisperer of Parklike and Gorillaz. And the thoughtful piano-tinkler best known for Blur weepies such as This Is A Low and his 2014 stand-alone LP, Everyday Robots. And yet Albarn (53) has a third incarnation of zany jazz experimentalist, and theres lots of that persona on his new solo record.

He leads his band into a funk reverie on Combustion while on Darkness To Light and Giraffe Trumpet Sea soulful brass is combined with blitzing pianos.Its quite surprising  especially on a record framed as a tribute to Albarns sometime home of Iceland.

Far more on-message is the title track  a huge, glittering iceberg of a power ballad that drifts moodily through the mist. On Esja, meanwhile, Albarn ascends to a meditative plateau, with a slab of thoughtful electronica that suggests Aphex Twin wandering through the permafrost. Its stark and beautiful  and about as far from Blur or Gorillaz as is imaginable.
The last high-profile person to be shot by the British in the War of Independence, his funeral brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of Cork and Dublin... so why has the name of Tadhg Barry faded from memory?

That's one of the questions a new book on the native of Blarney Street in Cork seeks to answer. Written by UCC historian Donal O Drisceoil and published by Mercier Press, Utter Disloyalist: Tadhg Barry and the Irish Revolution traces the incredible life of a figure who was shot dead 100 years ago by a teenage soldier at Ballykinlar internment camp in Co Down.

Crowds watch the body of Tadhg Barry being carried from Lower Glanmire Road in Cork in November 1921. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive

The centenary of Barry's death is being marked in Cork on Monday, November 15, with several events, including a graveside oration at St Finbarrs cemetery by city Lord Mayor Colm Kelleher, and a tree-planting ceremony at the North Monastery school, his alma mater.

As well as his left-leaning republicanism, Barry was a well-known figure in numerous other aspects of Cork life in the early part of the century, including trade union activism, and as an alderman on the city's corporation. He also had a big hand in organising the local GAA, trained the first camogie team in the city, and wrote the first ever rulebook for hurling.

Dr Donal O Drisceoil of UCC.

The circumstances of the 41-year-old's death were put together by O Drisceoil through a combination of eyewitness accounts, and trawls through British military archives. It seems that Barry  in his third period of internment without trial  had been waving goodbye to some comrades who were being paroled, and had been slow to obey an order to move away from the perimeter fence.

A jittery 18-year-old private fired one shot that pierced Barry's heart. It was a killing made all the more tragic as it occurred during a truce, and came just a few weeks before the treaty and the release of remaining IRA prisoners.

On its journey south, Barry's funeral cortege brought an estimated 250,000 people to the streets of Dublin, while Cork came to a similar standstill as his body was carried through his native city. Among the mourners in the capital was Michael Collins, home during a break at the treaty negotiations.

Young women and girls pay their respects at the graveside of Tadhg Barry, in St Finbarrs Cemetery, Cork, in 1921. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive

So why has Barry had such a low profile in comparison to some of his contemporaries? Basically it was a matter of timing, explains O Drisceoil. A few weeks after his death, the Anglo-Irish treaty was signed, and all the focus was on that. Soon after, the Civil War erupted and his name just got somewhat lost in the smoke.
Ireland and Britain have huge potential to work together in fields such as renewable energy and agricultural technology as the nations tackle climate change obligations post-Cop26.

That is according to British ambassador to Ireland, Paul Johnston, who was visiting University College Cork (UCC) to meet its delegation, whose members have returned from the UN two-week climate change summit in Glasgow.

Mr Johnston acknowledged tensions between London and Dublin over Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol agreed between Britain and the EU regarding Brexit, and the North's position regarding the single market.

I think the two governments want to have a really strong relationship. The societies, economies, and their people are so intertwined, that I think we see very common agendas.

"If you look at the emphasis on the Irish Government's national development plan, so much of it overlaps with what our government is trying to do in its levelling-up agenda" he told the Irish Examiner.

It is vitally important that Ireland and Britain work closely together in the fight to combat climate change, and preserving democracies across the world, he said.

Renewable energy, digital health, and other areas of cooperation have "tremendous potential", Mr Johnston added.

The ambassador said he followed closely UCC's engagement at Cop26, and was shown its Sustainable Communities mural, at the College Rd entrance, by Cork-based artist Kevin OBrien.

"The conference is a crucial moment to the future of our planet, to make critical changes and keep 1.5C alive.

"Cop26 offers an opportunity for communities to engage with each other on an issue that confronts us all and it was wonderful to see the UCC delegation taking part," he said.

I can see first-hand the universitys strong climate action agenda and its commitment to tackling the climate crisis.

"I look forward to exploring further how UCC and the British embassy can work together beyond Cop26 to support the achievement of our climate targets.

UCC was the only Irish university with official observer status at Cop26, sending a delegation of nine researchers and students to Glasgow, making their way to the Scottish Event Campus venue by rail and boat, instead of using planes and cars.

The UCC delegation consisted of experts in carbon emissions and budgets, transport, societal change, sustainable cities, air and water pollution, and energy efficiency.

More than 400 researchers work on climate change at UCCs Environmental Research Institute.

Prof John O'Halloran, UCC's president, said: "We share the same objective in securing our future and we can only secure our future by winning hearts and minds though research and collaboration.

"As a research intensive university, we commit to use the knowledge emanating from research to address the welfare of humankind and the global environment, taking into account our responsibility not only to present but also to future generations."
Four men lay in wait for a victim walking past a garage late at night and one of the attackers who struck him with a hiking stick has been jailed for his part in the violent robbery.

Colin Costello had sentencing adjourned a number of times and came to court with a total of 4,000 compensation for the victim.

He was sentenced to two years with the last six months suspended by Judge James McCourt at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Defence barrister Dermot Sheehan suggested the accused might have anticipated a non-custodial outcome when the case was previously adjourned by another judge.

Judge McCourt said if anyone had any query about a prison sentence being imposed they need only look at the victim impact statement.

Victim impact statement

The victim said he was affected mentally, physically and financially, and that the violent crime had caused emotional distress for his family too. The attack also put him under financial pressure, particularly for ongoing dental treatment.

The victim said, No one should go through such a violent attack thinking, I could die here. Will I survive this?

Judge James McCourt said it happened in the dead of night.

The judge said to the accused, Colin Costello: You have taken steps and shown a lot of insight.

To encourage rehabilitation and acknowledge steps you have already taken I will suspended six months of the two-year sentence.

Colin Costello pleaded guilty to his part in the robbery and the related charge of carrying a weapon at the time.

Mr Sheehan said Costello was intoxicated on the night and had substance abuse issues. He had no previous convictions.

The victim said he was left to wonder why he was targeted for this attack and robbery.

Victim not targeted in particular

Detective Garda Lorna Healy said the victim was not targeted in particular but the accused and his accomplices were in effect waiting for the next person who would pass by.

The detective said it happened on December 7, 2019, when the injured party was walking past Maxol in Ballyphehane.

The injured party had to pay 10,000 for dental treatment and could further outlay for this treatment in the future. The judge said the replacement of the iPhone would have cost in the region of 1,000.

Colin Costello, 24, with an address at 83 Fr Dominic Road, Ballyphehane, Cork, replied, I am sorry, on the day he was charged.

Det Garda Healy said the crime was unprovoked and there was some element of pre-planning.

Judge James McCourt said he cooperated fully with the gardai when he was shown CCTV, had shown remorse, shown insight, addressed underlying causes that led him to crime and down a slippery slope.

On the aggravating side, he acted with accomplices and there was a considerable degree of violence.
A humanitarian aid worker from Kerry is due to stand trial in Greece next week charged with offences including people smuggling.

Sean Binder, who grew up in Cork, was arrested in Lesbos in 2018 while working with Emergency Response Centre International.

The 27-year-old will travel to Greece to stand trial on November 18 and maintains that he has not done anything wrong and says he is confident his legal team will be able to prove that.

He faces a number of serious charges - people smuggling, membership of a criminal organisation and espionage - and faces a possible prison sentence of 25 years.

The Trinity graduate was moved by the images of refugees caught in the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean and felt as though he could help.

Having completed a Masters in International Relations at the London School of Economics and has a background as a rescue diver, Sean said he decided to travel to Greece because he felt he had a policy understanding and the relevant skills to be of assistance.

Mr Binder has no regrets about his decision or the time he spent working with Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI) in 2018.

Even when he was just handing out blankets or water to the refugees, he felt as though he was doing some good adding that the people were grateful for the support.

Despite working closely with authorities in Lesbos, things took a turn around four months after he arrived.

"Ironically, I decided to go with the most transparent organisation I could find. A Greek search and rescue NGO that had a good relationship with the authorities," said German-born Mr Binder who moved to Ireland at five years old.

But despite having worked transparently with the coast guard and standing shoulder to shoulder with the police officers, we were eventually arrested by them."

Mr Binder and one of his colleagues were arrested and spent two nights in jail before being released. They were arrested again and formally charged.

"This time we were charged formally with really heinous crimes including smuggling, being part of a criminal organisation, fraud, money laundering and even espionage or spying.

"We spent three-and-a-half months in pre-trial detention waiting for a trial," he told RTE Radio One's Morning Ireland.

Due to the serious nature of the charges, Mr Binder said they were housed in a centre alongside violent criminals including some convicted of murder.

He received bail in Greece in December 2018 and returned home to Ireland to await trial.

While it can be difficult to understand how a person providing humanitarian aid can be charged with such serious crimes, Mr Binder explains that the Greek authorities view the issue of migrants as one of smuggling rather than one of loss of life.

"Therefore, they view anyone that tries to provide assistance as being part of smuggling - not as search and rescue. That is the logic through which they view this issue.

"So, we are naturally cast as being complicit in this problem."

Speaking previously, Mr Binder said he was very confident that he and his colleagues would not be found guilty.

"I think the important thing is that there is nothing special about we did. It wasnt criminal. It wasnt heroic. It was just providing the basic medical care to people.

"We are allowing the criminalisation of humanitarian action on a chronic level."
HSE officials who knew the intellectually disabled woman known as 'Grace' was sexually abused and did nothing about it are criminals and should be prosecuted, the Dail has heard.

During a debate into two interim Commission of Investigation reports, TDs heard from Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte that two new investigations into serious failures in disability services have been launched by the HSE in the Southeast, the same area where Grace was abused.

In a powerful contribution, Kilkenny TD and Oireachtas Finance Committee chairman John McGuinness said despite clear evidence of abuse, nobody charged with Grace's care spoke out.

Politicians will be blamed for the wrongdoing, but there are individuals in the HSE that know what went on. They are criminals. They should be brought to court and prosecuted. We should not be afraid to chase them down, Mr McGuinness told the Dail.

Grace turned up, stripped off her clothes and presented lying on the floor in a sexual position. She was non-verbal and intellectually and physically challenged. Nobody reported the abuse, Mr McGuinness said.

Another young woman was sexually abused and that sexual abuse was reported by a HSE worker because he was concerned that she had objects put into her that would cause her a bowel problem in her future, as it did.

"It was reported to the Garda but nothing happened. There were people found locked under the stairs. There were children in outhouses. Nothing was done, he said.

Sinn Feins David Cullinane and Kathleen Funchion said Grace was being systematically abused and systematically failed over a prolonged period of time.

There is little doubt that key personnel within the South Eastern Health Board at the time were outrageously inept in their roles and had little understanding of their duty of care towards Grace, she said.

Independent TD Catherine Connolly said she felt like applauding Mr McGuinness contribution but it was not appropriate given the sensitive nature of the debate.

Waterford Green TD Marc O Cathasaigh asked Minister Rabbitte if any other investigations, like the Brandon report in Donegal are underway.

Ms Rabbitte confirmed there are two National Independent Review Panels (NIRP) underway by the HSE in the Southeast region.

Further debate

In an unusual intervention, Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail intervened in the debate and said the call for further debates on the Grace case are merited.

As Chairman of the Business Committee, the call for further debate on this matter is completely warranted and the call for regular debate, if that is required, to see this matter to a conclusion, is something that we would also need to pursue, he said.

I do not think that I have ever heard contributions similar to the ones that I have heard today, certainly contributions from Deputy McGuinness, and indeed from Deputy O Cathasaigh and others, are contributions that would have left anyone with a heart deeply moved, he added.

The Dail also heard that the HSE targeted whistleblowers who raised Graces case who lost her job for speaking out.

The really disgusting thing about this case is that it continues today through the Department of Health. The whistleblower lost her job as a result of contacting TDs about the case, Mr McGuinness said.
Every time Una Butler hears about murder-suicides, she freezes.

In the past two years, four separate tragedies have stopped her in her tracks. She copes by switching off.

Unas husband John killed their daughters, Ella, two, and Zoe, six, at their home in Ballycotton, Co. Cork, in November 2010, before taking his own life. He had struggled with mental ill-health and had only been released from the mental health services six weeks earlier.

Una has been campaigning ever since to make it mandatory for partners to be involved in the mental health treatment their partner receives in a relationship where there are children.

She says she cant speak for others who are faced with the sort of scenario that happened near Kanturk almost one year ago, in the early hours of Monday, October 26.

The OSullivan family farm at Assolas, Kanturk, Co. Cork, where Tadg, Mark and Diarmuid OSullivan all died. Photo: Dan Linehan

Three men from the same family  Tadg, Mark and Diarmuid OSullivan  all died in and around a farmhouse at Raheen, in Assolas, near Kanturk in North Cork.

The inquest jury would later find that Tadgh, 60, and Diarmuid, 23, took their own lives and they would also find that 26-year-old Mark, who was shot seven times, was unlawfully killed by his brother and father.

Una only speaks about her own enduring and wretched heartache in circumstances where it might help raise awareness for her campaign. I actually go numb, she said, of how she reacts when she hears about a murder-suicide in the news.

It's like a protection. I'm actually protecting myself. She said her reaction is always the same because of the devastation that she knows is ahead for the family, friends and community of those involved.

Its not just the immediate family, but it's like peeling an onion. There are so many other people that have been exposed to, you know, the devastation that it creates amongst the community.

It lasts a long time, it's always there. It's always there for the community, it's just devastation. The horror that visited her family that day will never leave her.

For me, it will be with me till the day I die.

It's very, very difficult living with how this happened, to be living without your children. There are so many unanswered questions.

You know, I still ask questions. How can something like this (happen) . . . it's surreal. How could something like this happen, you know? Did this really happen?

It's like, you know it's like something that you read about or watch in a film. Its there but it's just... devastating. And that the most unfortunate thing is my husband. It's sad for him.

Even though I won't ever forgive him, he was a nice person, believe it or not. It was mental health and that's a very sad thing about it.

She is convinced her husband could have been stopped and her children could still be alive today, which is why she is devoted to doing what she can to stop another family from going through what she is going through.

Sadly, in just two years, more families have been left wrestling with similar tragedies.

Four more tragedies in less than two years

Deirdre Morley killed her children - nine-year-old Conor McGinley, seven-year-old Darragh McGinley and three-year-old Carla McGinley - at their home in Parsons Court, Newcastle, on January 24 before attempting suicide last year.

Their memory is constantly kept alive on the heartbreaking Twitter account @conorsclips where their father Andrew posts photos of them growing up.

Deirdre, who survived her suicide bid, was found not guilty of their murder by reason of insanity earlier this year.

The deaths of her children were followed by those of Mark, Diarmuid and Tadg OSullivan.

And then, just a few months later, in February this year, brothers Willie, Paddy and Johnny Hennessy from Curraghgorm, near Kildorrery, Mitchelstown, died.

Willie, 66, and Patrick, 60, were found dead at their family farm, while the body of 59-year-old Johnny - who had killed them - was later found in the River Funshion 5km away.

The brothers were known locally as The Saints, and surviving friends and family remain baffled as to why Johnny did what he did. One theory is that a row had broken out among the brothers over both the sale of cattle and the distribution of wood cut on the family farm.

And just last month, Maurice Mossie OSullivan took his own life after the 63-year-old former school bus driver killed his partner Eileen OSullivan, 56, and the couples 24-year-old son Jamie at their home near Lixnaw, Co. Kerry.

Locals and Gardai remain baffled as to the motivations behind Maurices terrible actions. After the tragedy in Kanturk, there were calls for more to be done in helping resolve land disputes.

"We need to learn lessons"

And after the most recent murder-suicide, in Lixnaw, Co. Kerry, there were calls for a wider debate about the issue of murder-suicides as a whole. Taoiseach Micheal Martin called for lessons to be learned and hinted that further control on gun ownership might need to be considered.

He said he would like to hear a full analysis from all authorities from different disciplines and the gardai and try and get a sense of what happened.

And he added: It has happened elsewhere as well in the country in recent times, and it is a very significant worry.

I think we need to reflect on that and learn lessons from it and then apply it in a number of areas and I don't want to pre-empt what happened here, but I think we can't ignore events of this kind. But if Una Butlers experience is anything to go by, anybody expecting something to change any time soon from Kanturk or other such tragedies - they really shouldnt hold their breath.

I feel completely frustrated, she says of her efforts to change the law since her family died on November 16, 2010.

I got up to the Dail, I met with Jim Daly when he was Minister for Mental Health. I met Kathleen Lynch when she was Minister for Mental Health. I met with Helen McEntee when she was Minister of Mental Health, and to be honest with you, it got me nowhere.

"There wasn't any changes made. There haven't been any changes.

She has warned Andrew McGinley to, in effect, manage his own expectations of how his own campaign for change will progress.

I said to Andrew, like, just mind yourself because every time you go to a meeting you're very positive, and its very encouraging and (you are told) we're going to do something' but that never came to anything, she said.

The husband of Deirdre Morley (pictured), Andrew McGinley, has started his own campaign since his wife killed their three children - nine-year-old Conor McGinley, seven-year-old Darragh McGinley and three-year-old Carla McGinley. Photo: Family Handout/PA

Every time you go to a Minister, it's all in writing and you think you're going to get somewhere and you don't get anywhere, and nothing has been changed.

After the events in Lixnaw, farming representatives appeared to suggest gardai could do more to prevent these incidents occurring.

A garda spokesperson said at the time that the force does recognize the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on society and individuals and that, as a result, it had significantly increased the focus on community policing and community support right across the country.

However, they added that societal-wide issues such as the mental health of individuals are not the responsibility of An Garda Siochana alone.

Familicide review

In the next few weeks, there will be recommendations from the delayed Familicide and Domestic Homicide Research Report, which Charlie Flanagan commissioned in 2019. The report Mr Flanagan commissioned was as a result of the deaths of the Hawe family in Co. Cavan in August of 2016.

Clodagh Hawe, 39, and her children Liam, 13, Niall, 11, and Ryan, 6, were all killed by her husband, and their father, Alan at their Ballyjamesduff home on August 28, 2016.

The report is expected to recommend changes to the way the State supports the families of those who die in familicides. It is also expected to recommend that a tailored version of the sort of domestic homicide reviews that happen abroad be brought into Ireland.

As well as testing the effectiveness of the States response to domestic homicides, such reviews would also - ideally - help change relevant government policy.

A spokesperson for the department told the Irish Examiner this week that when she gets the report, Minister of Justice Heather Humphreys will examine it in detail and is committed to considering any recommendations made as a priority.

Quite what changes will come about after the publication of this report and how fast this change takes place remains to be seen. In the meantime, the gardai themselves are involved in at least two reviews related to the recent spate of murder-suicides.

Brothers Willie and Paddy Hennessy from Curraghgorm, near Kildorrery pictured in 2009. The brothers were known locally as The Saints, and surviving friends and family remain baffled as to why Johnny did what he did. Photo: Sean Burke/Provision

The Garda Ombudsman is currently involved in the Mitchelstown case because it is understood gardai spoke to Johnny Hennessy after they received a call from a member of his family on the day of the murders.

Also, the jury in the inquest into the deaths of Tadg, Mark and Diarmuid OSullivan last October said a review of protocols should be undertaken where third-party concerns are raised, especially where firearms are involved.

A relative of the family had told gardai she was extremely concerned about the safety of Mark and his mother Anne just days before he was killed by Diarmuid and Tadg.

Gardai began that review of protocols in August as soon as they received the exact wording of the jury's recommendation, which came at the end of the inquest at Mallow Coroners Court in front of Coroner Dr Michael Kennedy on August 4.

If anything comes of either review, it will ensure at least something positive came of the awful tragedy. Such a hope, however, has yet to be fulfilled for the likes of Una Butler and Andrew McGinley.

According to Una's own research, since 2000, at least 53 children (under 18) have been murdered by one of their parents in 37 incidents. They involved 20 fathers and 17 mothers, with 60% of them having previous contact with the psychiatric services.

Like Una, Andrew wants changes to the Mental Health Act 2001 so families can be more involved in the care of their loved ones. He referenced Unas case in a recent interview with the Irish Examiner.

After the most recent murder-suicide, in Lixnaw, Co. Kerry, involving the O'Sullivan Family - (left to right) Mossie, Eileen and Jamie - there were calls for a wider debate about the issue of murder-suicides as a whole.

Of her, he said: She campaigned and nothing has changed and here I am 10 years later with the loss of Conor, Darragh and Carla.

The lessons which should have been learned from the sad loss of Ella and Zoe should have led to improvements in the Mental Health Act. This, in turn, would have prevented the deaths of Conor, Darragh and Carla in our opinion.

And I (wouldnt) be the last grieving parent who has to talk about being excluded from the care and treatment of their loved ones. Sadly, only time will tell if - 11 years from now - Andrew is still trying to get the Mental Health Act changed.
They knew and did nothing about it.

Worse still, rather than own up and seek to make amends, they went after the whistleblower and took away her job.

Described as the greatest scandal of our times, the case of Grace  the intellectually disabled child who was abused and neglected for 20 years  took centre stage in Dail Eireann today.

Focusing on two interim reports by the Commission of Investigation into the scandal of a foster home in the Southeast in which 47 young, vulnerable, disabled people stayed, TDs gathered to air their views.

The debate began inauspiciously with a scant speech from Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte.

Quoting a legal-ese script, she said she was precluded from commenting in detail.

She later accepted her speech was inadequate.

The opposition however, was not having it.

Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall was the first to take issue with the minister.

Galway Independent TD Catherine Connolly criticised Ms Rabbitte.

But it was the speech of Kilkenny TD John McGuinness which raised the temperature of proceedings significantly.

Mr McGuinness chaired the Public Accounts Committee which first exposed the Grace scandal in 2015 and 2016.

Someone sexually abused Grace and others in that house. Nobody thought fit to report the bruises on her thighs, legs, and breasts, that were all inflicted by the hands of people, and not, as it was said, by a fall on the bus, he said.

In a powerhouse speech of 12 minutes duration, Mr McGuinness said HSE officials lied to his committee about what happened to Grace.

Officials told blatant lies, Mr McGuinness said under absolute privilege in the Dail.

They should be called back before the Oireachtas and put through the wringer, he said saying it made him "sick to the pit of my stomach".

Worse still, the Dail also heard that the HSE using taxpayers' money targeted a whistleblower who raised Graces case, who subsequently lost her job for speaking out.

There was considerable criticism that the commission, which has so far taken 7m and four-and-a-half years and is yet to conclude its work, has until next July to produce a final report.

But Ms Rabbitte, speaking frankly, said she has little confidence as the line minister that the deadline will be met.

She also revealed that there are two new investigations into serious failures into disability care in the Southeast, the same area where Grace stayed.

Again and again, politicians, from Sinn Feins David Cullinane, Kathleen Funchion, and Mark Ward to Ms Connolly and the Greens Marc O Caithasaigh called for people who knew what happened and did nothing to be held to account.

Not in an Irish way of being held to account  like a promotion or retirement on enhanced terms

 but actual accountability.

There are individuals in the HSE that know what went on. They are criminals. They should be brought to court and prosecuted, Mr McGuinness told the Dail.

So strong were the contributions from Mr McGuinness, Ms Connolly, and Mr O Caithasaigh, Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail intervened and said further debates on Grace and the other 46 victims are not only warranted but required.

Good speeches are one thing, but action in terms of delivering justice for Grace is long overdue.
Belgooly, South Cork 685,000 Size 257 sq m (2,765 sq ft) Bedrooms 5 Bathrooms 4 BER B1 A LIFE-long love of dogs helped the vendors lend an unusual name to this almost-new, and just bedded down one-off luxury home, a few miles inland of the sea in south county Cork.

Called Long Dogs, the detached domer home is only a few years old, is in mint order and very well finished with a luxe presentation. It stands on two acres close to Belgooly, off the main Cork-Kinsale R600 road at a spot called Ballingarry West, by Oatlands Cross, with easy routes to Kinsale, Carrigaline, Minane Bridge, and with the sea at Oysterhaven and Nohoval, among other dipping spots.

With a glasshouse, two paddocks, a store/garage plus a lofted small apartment/guest suite over a detached garage close-by, in a sort of courtyard cluster, Long Dogs is fresh to the open market in the past week, with a B1 BER indicative of its build quality, and energy efficiency.

Love of dogs up the walls at garage and overhead apartment at Long Dogs

The owners love of dogs referred to by the auctioneer is given solid, visual underscoring in the presence of a large relief sculpture, looking like old carved stone, mounted on the wall of the lofted garage, facing the house, with external steps up to the side, to the circa 325 sq ft one-bed guest apartment.

Selling agent for Long Dogs is Ron Krueger of Engel & Voelkers estate agents in Kinsale and, having listed early this month, he says this is the property hes getting most calls on.

Sunroom off the kitchen

The early inquiries are dialling in, both from home and overseas, with native Irish thinking of swapping city life for country living, and others from Australia and the United States liking the proximity to the sea, Cork city and international airport: handily, it has Kinsale a 15 minutes spin in the one direction and the city about 20 minutes in the opposite direction.

As it stands, its the complete walk-in and hang up your gear sort of property proposition, in mint order, simply furnished and decorated, and with its capacious storage on easy display as the vendors have moved out, so the pantrys bare, the shelves and cupboards are all cleared out, yet it shows extremely well.

Landscaped grounds

Its a decent, block-sized dormer, tall with four low-slung dormer windows to the front and three more to the back, with simple slopes or pitches on them, and it looks to have lofty attic spaces further above too.

Its timber framed in its core construction, with underfloor heating, zoned, coming in under masses of flagstone flooring in the hall and kitchen, with wool carpets elsewhere and upstairs, and the design integrates old salvaged natural materials, such as old flagstone in the fireplace hearth by a big, wood-burning stove in the main living room; theres an immense old timber beam lintel between the kitchen/dining and the triple-aspect sunroom, with lofted ceilings.

Symmetry in the facade, with a very thoughtful layout inside

The external design is modest, an unshouty sort of symmetrical take on a solid old farmhouse, with lots of windows, tall/vertical rather than wide and landscape: even the triple-aspect sunroom has its glazing on the vertical, and the wide, centrally-placed front door has slender side glazing, opening to a stone-floored hall and stairwell.

Rooms are generous sized, with quality the goal rather than quantity, so the kitchen/dining room is almost 25 by 18, with sunroom to one side, plus theres a useful shelved pantry, in addition to the large utility room which has a double Belfast sink, locker-style storage and bench for taking off outdoor gear, while two Sheila Maid clothes airers hang from the ceiling.

Large utility

Off to the right on entry into the hall is the main living room, about 16 by 16, with a large wood-burning stove and a hefty old stone flag hearth for log storage.

Then, behind this room is a home office/study/playroom, or optional ground floor guest bedroom, next to the guest WC, and theres a second access back to the kitchen via the large utility: its a very ergonomic floor plan indeed, with no surfeit of rooms.

Above, Long Dogs has five bedrooms, with an en suite main one with a Jacuzzi bath, plus a separate large shower.

Spacious hall

Most have built-ins/shelving/storage, whilst a main bathroom with shower serves three of the four other bedrooms, with a fifth also en suite. Three of the bedrooms are double aspect, again indicative of the owners thoughtful and considered design.

The propertys in as-new condition, unsurprisingly as it was only built in the last five years or so, though the grounds are so well landscaped they bed it down a lot more and give it a far more rooted feel to its two acres of grounds than might be expected. Or maybe not entirely unexpected as one of the occupants is a landscaper.

The two acres perimeter is well planted and screened, especially from the quiet road outside, with a simple, splayed entrance, and the south-aspected front of the house is planted with box hedging, young palms, agapanthus and more.

Lovely glasshouse

Theres a very useful, almost farmhouse-style covered long shed at a back corner; a very pretty glasshouse built from salvaged timbers with what appear to be old window frames; there are raised beds for fruit/ veg, plus a recently planted selection of fruit trees.

The circa 800 sq ft lofted garage, with solid old timbers integrated as lintel beams over windows, has exterior timber step access to a gable door leading to the 380 sq ft one-bed guest apartment, ideal for a range of users and/or possible handy extra income.

Kinsale-based E&V auctioneer Ron Krueger says the entire property has been finished to an exceptional standard by its present owners, and the investment also went into electric heat pump heating with heat recovery ventilation, triple glazing and ceiling-mounted speakers in some of the ground floor rooms.

The area has numerous amenities close to hand, from watersports at Oysterhaven to estuary and woodland walks, bike trails at Tracton, coves and beaches, as well as reasonable proximity to Carrigaline, Kinsale and Cork city.

VERDICT: Long Dogs is a

shoo-in.
Burma Former Yangon Chief Ministers Wife Testifies Preparing Bribes for Suu Kyi

U Phyo Min Thein and his wife Daw Khin Mi Mi Kywe.

The wife of the former Yangon Region Chief Minister testified on Friday that she prepared and packed gold and US dollars at the request of her husband to give to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, The Irrawaddy has learned.

Daw Khin Mi Mi Kywe, the wife of former Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein, appeared at a Naypyitaw court on Friday as a witness for the prosecution against ousted State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is on trial for alleged corruption.

U Phyo Min Thein testified in October that he gave seven viss (around 11.4kg) of gold and US$600,000 to the State Counselor in 2017 and 2018 while she was in office. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has dismissed his claims as all absurd.

On Friday, Daw Khin Mi Mi Kywe told the court that she took gold from her gold shop and bought US dollars from money changers and prepared them for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, after her husband said that he wanted to give them to her in exchange for her protection and support.

However, she could not present receipts for the gold or the US dollars to the court. Daw Khin Mi Mi Kywe said also that she did not remember the dates the gold and cash were handed over. She also said that she did not accompany her husband when he allegedly gave the bribes to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The cross-examination results turned out to be good. It is fair to say that Daw Khin Mi Mi Kywe could not prove that [the gold and dollars] were given, a source close to the court told The Irrawaddy.

The junta has brought 11 charges against the State Counselor, accusing her of incitement, breaking the Official Secrets Act, the Import and Export Law, the Telecommunication Law and the Natural Disaster Management Law, in addition to corruption charges.

Four of the corruption charges are being heard every Friday in a special court in Naypyitaw. But only two charges were heard at this Fridays hearing, as witnesses did not appear in the other cases.



You may also like these stories:

Tanintharyi Chief Minister Jailed for 11 Years by Myanmar Junta

Japans Kirin to End Beer Joint Venture With Myanmar Military by December

Myanmar Junta Sentences Detained US Journalist to 11 Years in Prison
Burma Japans Kirin to End Beer Joint Venture With Myanmar Military by December

Cans of Kirin beer are displayed at a liquor shop in Tokyo, Japan on Feb. 5, 2021. / FPA

Japanese beverage giant Kirin plans to dissolve by next month its joint venture with the Myanmar military, Myanmar Brewery, whose profits plunged by almost 50 percent on-year in the third quarter, its financial results for the period show.

The collapse in sales at the brewer follows a boycott by anti-junta protesters of military-linked products, which is part of a campaign to sever the coup leaders financial lifelines. Products like Myanmar Brewerys Myanmar Beer can no longer be found on store shelves due to the boycott.

Kirin said in its presentation of the third quarter report on Tuesday that we are aware that we must dissolve the joint ventures as soon as possible. We are preparing to take action by the end of this year, including legal action, and we are considering all possible measures to dissolve the JV.

Kirin owns 51 percent of Myanmar Brewery, with military-owned conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings Public Co. Ltd. (MEHL) holding the rest.

In its Q3 2021 financial report, Kirin said Myanmars beer market had shrunk, with sales volumes hit by the spread of COVID-19, the political upheaval and supply chain disruptions.

Compared to the same period last year, Myanmar Brewerys sales volume was down over 30 percent.

Normalized operating profit was down 49.4 percent year-on-year due to lower sales volume and increased raw material cost, among others.

Kirin downplayed quarter-on-quarter improvements at Myanmar Brewery this fiscal year, saying that given the risks facing the firms operations, it was better to have a flat view.

Improvements in most of its overseas markets could not offset the decline in its domestic and Myanmar operations, the Japanese firm said.

Following the Feb. 1 coup, Kirin announced that it was ending its joint-venture partnership with MEHL, citing its deep concerns over the actions of the military, which it said run counter to the companys standards and human rights policy.

But 10 months later, Kirin said discussions on dissolving the partnership with MEHL are still underway.

Human rights group Justice for Myanmar (JFM) said the financial results in the report provide clear evidence that the mass boycott of military-linked products by Myanmar consumers is working, by directly impacting the flow of money into the pockets of the coup leaders.

JFM demanded that Kirin immediately stop the Myanmar Brewery operation and its JV with MEHL and provide transparency on how it intends to end the business operation.

Kirin earlier faced international condemnation for its partnership with Myanmars military amid accusations of genocide against the Rohingya in western Myanmar. Last year, Kirin hired Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory to conduct an independent review of the financial and governance structures of MEHL. However, its probe into MEHLs military connections ended inconclusively because access to information was denied.

Nonetheless, Kirin stopped making dividend payments to the military-owned company last November.

The dividends from Myanmar Brewery continue to be suspended, it said on Tuesday.

Kirins Myanmar business recorded operating profit of US$115 million (161.84 billion kyats) in 2019, according to the company.



You may also like these stories:

Myanmar Junta Sentences Detained US Journalist to 11 Years in Prison

Myanmar Junta Loses 1,300 Soldiers Killed Over Last Month: NUG

Myanmars Civilian Government Blacklists Junta Conglomerates
Burma Myanmar Junta Sentences Detained US Journalist to 11 Years in Prison

Danny Fenster. / AFP

Detained US journalist Danny Fenster was sentenced on Friday to 11 years in prison, the maximum possible sentence for the three charges brought against him by Myanmars junta.

The court inside Yangons Insein Prison handed down convictions for incitement, contacting an illegal organization and breaching visa regulations.

Fenster, managing editor of the online news site Frontier Myanmar, was arrested on May 24 at Yangons airport shortly before he was due to board a flight to Malaysia. He has been held in Insein Prison since then.

In an announcement following the courts ruling, his employer stated that the organization was deeply disappointed and frustrated at the decision.

The charges were all based on the allegation that he was working for banned media outlet Myanmar Now in the aftermath of the February 1 coup, Frontier said.

In fact, Fenster resigned from Myanmar Now in July 2020 and joined Frontier the following month, his employer added. After his arrest, Myanmar Now confirmed that his work with the outlet ended seven months before it was banned by the military regime.

There is absolutely no basis to convict Danny of these charges, said the news site.

The State Department in Washington has called for Fensters release. But the juntas spokesperson recently rejected the appeal, saying that he needed to be held.

International rights organization Human Rights Watch criticised the jailing of Fenster.

This long prison sentence against a journalist is a travesty of justice by a kangaroo court operating at the beck and call of the Myanmar military junta. Danny Fenster has done nothing that should be considered a crime. This bogus conviction should be quashed, and Fenster should be immediately released and permitted to leave the country if that is what he wants, said Phil Robertson, the Deputy Asia Director for Human Rights Watch.

Earlier this week, two new charges of terrorism and sedition were brought against Fenster. Those charges carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Fenster is the third foreign journalist to be detained by the junta. Two freelancers, Robert Bociaga from Poland and Yuki Kitazumi from Japan, were detained before Fensters arrest. Both were later freed and deported.

Since the military takeover, the regime has targeted journalists with arrests, lawsuits, raids on newsrooms and violence in an attempt to suppress coverage of the juntas lethal crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters.

Around 100 journalists have been detained by the regime since the coup. Around 50 of them remain in prison.



You may also like these stories:

Myanmar Junta Loses 1,300 Soldiers Killed Over Last Month: NUG

Myanmars Civilian Government Blacklists Junta Conglomerates

Myanmar Junta Clashes With Arakan Army After Years Peace
Burma Resistance Groups Claim to Have Killed 90 Myanmar Junta Troops in Two Days

A People's Defense Force in Magwe Region armed with traditional hunting guns. / Yaw Defense Force

Almost 90 junta soldiers and at least three civilian resistance fighters were reportedly killed in fighting in Sagaing, Mandalay and Yangon regions and Chin and Kayah states over the past two days.

However, The Irrawaddy was unable to independently confirm the casualties and the regime does not comment.

Junta forces are facing increasingly intense attacks from the Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs) and some ethnic armed groups across the country.

On Thursday afternoon, a fierce firefight between regime forces and the combined Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) and Karenni Army, the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party, broke out near a village in Demoso Township, Kayah State.

During four hours of fighting, large numbers of junta troops deployed on hills attacked civilian resistance fighters with artillery, according to the KNDF.

It said there were around 20 military casualties and a civilian resistance fighter was killed during the intense fighting.

Large numbers of military casualties have been reported in ambushes and firefights with PDFs in several Sagaing Region townships.

Pale PDF claimed to have killed or injured around 25 regime troops during landmine ambushes in Pale Township, Sagaing Region, on Wednesday evening.

Pale PDF ambushed around 70 junta troops moving on foot on the Pale-Gangaw highway using 10 landmines.

The resistance fighters escaped without any casualties, said Pale PDF.

Kawlin Revolution (KR), the media wing of Kawlin PDF, said around 15 junta troops were killed in a PDF ambush on around 200 troops near Oakkan village in the west of Kawlin Township, Sagaing Region, on Thursday.

In the shootout, several junta troops were hit by an artillery round fired by their comrades, the KR said.

On Friday, seven bodies of civilians, who are believed to have been tortured, were found near the site of the fighting, according to the KR.

Five junta soldiers were reportedly killed during a firefight with the combined Katha PDF and Kachin Independence Army near Moetar village in Katha Township, Sagaing Region, on Wednesday, said Katha Revolution, which distributes reports about the township and the Katha PDF.

In the firefight, a 21-year-old civilian resistance fighter from Katha PDF was killed. Clashes have occurred near Moetar since Monday when reinforcements arrived on two military ships.

Tigyaing Revolution (TR), the media wing of Tigyaing PDF, said a soldier was killed when the PDF mined a plainclothes regime officers vehicle in Tigyaing Township, Sagaing Region, on Friday.

On Thursday, the Tigyaing PDF raided regime forces stationed at a village in the township using explosives and firearms, said TR. The military casualties are unknown.

On Thursday, a junta soldier was reportedly killed when a combined force of PDFs attacked the entrance of a police academy in Monywa, the capital of Sagaing Region.

Video shows the gate being shot at from a moving vehicle.

Myanmars junta has suffered the heaviest losses in sprawling Sagaing Region, where it faces the highest numbers of resistance attacks.

It is where protesters first took up arms against the military in late March after large numbers of peaceful demonstrators were killed.

After cutting off the internet and phone connections in several Sagaing townships, the regime is escalating its operations against the PDFs, using thousands of reinforcements and heavy weapons.

The regime is using its air force and gunboats against PDFs in Sagaing, where civilian fighters are mostly armed with traditional hunting rifles and homemade mines.

On Thursday afternoon, three junta troops were reportedly killed when a civilian resistance group attacked junta troops inspecting a blast using three remote-controlled mines in Mogoke, a ruby town in Mandalay Region, according to news sites.

The Yaw Defense Force claimed to have killed 12 junta soldiers during an ambush on a 32-vehicle convoy on the Gangaw- Kyaukhtu highway in Gangaw Township, Magwe Region, on Wednesday afternoon.

The Chinland Defense Force in Matupi said six junta soldiers were killed and a civilian resistance fighter suffered minor injuries when the group attacked regime forces in the west of Matupi Township, Chin State, on Wednesday morning.

The Arakan Army resumed fighting in Rakhine State this week, meaning Myanmars junta now faces attacks from ethnic armed groups and PDFs across the country, including guerrilla-style strikes in Yangon, Mandalay, Naypyitaw and other cities.

The regime has continued its atrocities, including arbitrary killings of non-combatants, using civilians as human shields, bombarding residential areas and looting and burning houses, especially in Magwe and Sagaing regions and Chin, Shan and Kayah states.

By Thursday, at least 1,253 people have been killed and more than 10,000 have been detained by the junta since the February coup, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors rights violations.



You may also like these stories:

Tens of thousands Flee Myanmar Junta Raids in Upper Myanmar

Former Yangon Chief Ministers Wife Testifies Preparing Bribes for Suu Kyi

Tanintharyi Chief Minister Jailed for 11 Years by Myanmar Junta
Burma Tanintharyi Chief Minister Jailed for 11 Years by Myanmar Junta

Tanintharyi Region chief minister U Myint Maung at a cabinet meeting.

Ousted Tanintharyi Region chief minister U Myint Maung was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Thursday by a junta special court in Dawei Prison, a regional parliamentarian told The Irrawaddy.

The National League for Democracy member was given two years each for alleged violation of COVID-19 regulations and incitement, and seven years for violation of financial regulations regarding the use of regional development funds.

U Myint Maung, a lawmaker representing Kawthaung Township in the regional parliament, was appointed acting chief minister in March 2019, after former region chief minister Daw Lei Lei Maw was arrested on corruption charges.

He was placed under house arrest following the military coup on Feb. 1. He was detained again on Feb. 9 and prosecuted.

Earlier this week, ousted Karen State chief minister Daw Nan Khin Htwe Myint was sentenced to 75 years in prison on five corruption charges. She was also separately sentenced to two years in prison for incitement.



You may also like these stories:

Japans Kirin to End Beer Joint Venture With Myanmar Military by December

Myanmar Junta Sentences Detained US Journalist to 11 Years in Prison

Myanmar Junta Loses 1,300 Soldiers Killed Over Last Month: NUG
Burma Tens of thousands Flee Myanmar Junta Raids in Upper Myanmar

Smoke seen after a junta raid on Kone Yoe Village in Tabayin on November 9.

Tens of thousands of people in upcountry Sagaing Region have been forced to flee their homes after junta raids and are in urgent need of food and medical supplies.

Four helicopters landed junta troops in Tabayin Township in Sagaing on Monday. The soldiers started raiding villages the following day, displacing some 30,000 residents from around 20 villages in the township, according to local sources.

There might be even be 35,000 people including Ye-U Township residents. They [junta forces] entered the villages on foot. From where the helicopters landed, they raided some ten villages before going into the forest in the west of Tabayin. They raided villages in the forest, as well as villages on the border of Tabayin and Ye-U townships, a resident told The Irrawaddy.

As well as looting homes, junta soldiers torched houses in three villages in Tabayin on Tuesday. Two groups of regime troops, one consisting of 100 soldiers and the other of 50 soldiers, are raiding Tabayin and Ye-U.

There have been no clashes so far. They are searching village by village. They took gold and money and torched houses, said another resident.

The displaced civilians are in desperate need of food and medicines.

In June, regime soldiers and local Peoples Defense Forces clashed in Tabayin, forcing residents of around 20 villages to flee.

Over 30 people, including displaced residents and civilian resistance fighters, were killed in Tabayin in July when regime forces carried out raids and launched artillery strikes.

The military regime has been forced to use helicopters to bring in reinforcements to Sagaing Region, after mine attacks by civilian resistance fighters inflicted heavy casualties on junta troops travelling by road.



You may also like these stories:

Former Yangon Chief Ministers Wife Testifies Preparing Bribes for Suu Kyi

Tanintharyi Chief Minister Jailed for 11 Years by Myanmar Junta

Japans Kirin to End Beer Joint Venture With Myanmar Military by December
COMPANY NEWS: Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise launches the Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise Purple, a communications platform that integrates real-time communications into business processes and applications, reduces latency with intelligent objects, improves business efficiency, and increases customer satisfaction.

With SIP at its core, OmniPCX Enterprise Purple delivers enterprise-grade communication features with the highest level of security. It is designed to connect to the cloud, thus enabling organisations to embrace new models such as hybrid cloud while leveraging their past investments.

The OmniPCX Enterprise Purple comes with a new range of professional desk phones for the digital workplace including home and remote working. It offers voice communications with cloud-based collaboration platforms such as Rainbow by Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise.

For customer service teams and contact centre businesses, OmniPCX Enterprise Purple enables an omnichannel experience based on the upcoming hybrid cloud CCaaS solution that will help companies better connect with their customers.

OmniPCX Enterprise Purple is delivering on what is essential for enterprises and public organisations to fully embrace the digital age, comments Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise executive vice president communication business division Nicolas Brunel. By providing an open platform designed for the new workplace and integration of real-time communications into their core business processes, they can fully leverage the power of cloud.

The launch is an addition to Alcatel-Lucent Enterprises communications solutions portfolio and is part of its Digital Age Communications (DAC) strategy which centres on three pillars:

The digital workplace: Enabling employees to work from anywhere (at the office, at home or remotely), with efficiency, collaboration, and customer service, cloud-based solutions available at any time, from any device.

Communications as the catalyst for enterprise agility: Connecting everything (people, applications, and objects) to enrich traditional business interactions, accelerate decision-making, automate business processes and detect potential incidents before they occur.

Flexible cloud-model solutions and architecture: From enterprise premises to a full cloud solution (private, public or hybrid), organisations can decide on the best approach to support their transformation in terms of budget, timeframe, and objectives.

OmniPCX Enterprise Purple is available through Alcatel-Lucent Enterprises worldwide network of resellers.
ERP software provider Syspro unveils its Syspro R2 2021, which includes industry-built capabilities aimed at assisting manufacturers and distributors to improve control of internal operations, increase self-service and flexibility across supply chain, and provide insights for intelligence.

There is no doubt that the pandemic impacted the way that manufacturing and distribution businesses operate. It altered the way that the industry interacts with suppliers and customers, consumer preferences shifted and the workplace as we knew it forever changed. As a result, businesses have needed to re-align with the new normal, comments Syspro chief product officer Paulo De Matos.

We looked at incorporating solutions into our roadmap that would allow our customers to not only focus on improving efficiencies across internal operations, but also to help the industry to connect our customers to their suppliers and customers. There is also an appreciation that businesses are expanding into new geographies as well as into new territories, and many are looking for consolidated systems, and central information and intelligence, De Matos points out.

A few highlights of the latest release are as follows:

The improved control of internal operations

Customers face the growing demand for next-day deliveries. The industry needed efficient processes and logistical solutions to ship orders quickly to compete in the market, especially during the pandemic.

To address this, Syspro has introduced new inventory control capabilities for businesses to have control over the stocking process. Warehouse operators will be able to leverage the functionality using a mobile device to save time.

Improving flexibility and connectivity across the supply chain

Manufacturers and distributors have started to see the importance of continuous engagement with an ecosystem of suppliers and customers to ensure business continuity.

Suppliers require visibility into inbound logistics and procurement and customers needed improved business touchpoints across marketing and sales.

As a response, Syspro has introduced self-service capabilities through its web platform to extend account management capabilities to customers and suppliers, providing them the ability to review their account status, obtain copy invoices, and statements and reduce the administration burden on accounts and sales teams in servicing their supply chain.

According to Syspro, the end result is increased collaboration and transparency as well as improved governance as manufacturers explore new channels to engage with their suppliers and customers. This also paves new routes to market with new ways that manufacturers can sell to their customers.

Better insights and decision-making

Data is redundant if it cannot be accessed, interpreted or analysed. New business insight capabilities enable the efficient creation of visual insights using conditional logic capabilities. Visual tools, like customised tiles, can provide a summary and detailed information. Syspro has introduced additional low code and customisation capabilities as businesses continue to reduce the reliance on specialist skills.

Syspro offers industry-built ERP software to midmarket manufacturers and distributors. In other words, we provide all of the solutions, processes, and tools as well as the inherent core functionality that a manufacturer requires to manage all of their financial, manufacturing and distribution activities, De Matos says.

Beyond our software capabilities, I believe its our approach that really differentiates us as a business. As industry specialists, we understand the core needs of our customers and we design products that address those needs. Our solutions empower customers to take the next step: whether it is expanding into new territories, adding new product lines, transforming business processes, or driving innovation, concludes De Matos.

To view the full capabilities and enhancements within Syspro R2 2021, click here.
Australia has the highest uptake of payment service Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) of any country, with 24% of Australian consumers utilising the service, compared with just 11% globally, according to a new report.

The financial tribes you need to know report from SaaS banking systems provider Mambu also reveals that nearly two thirds (61%) of consumers globally have made greater use of digital banking services over the last 18 months, and 22% of Australian consumers started using digital banking services for the very first time during the pandemic.

The report, which is the latest in Mambus Disruption Diaries series, surveyed more than 4,500 consumers globally - including 501 Australians - and identified five emerging financial tribes that banks need to know about in a post-pandemic world.

The stats around Buy Now Pay Later are no surprise really, as Australia has been a leader in this space for many years thanks to the incredible success of homegrown global industry leader Afterpay, said Paul Apolony, General Manager Australia & New Zealand at Mambu.

What is surprising, though, is how much Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to the adoption of cryptocurrency and other digital assets. The research shows that just 14 percent of Australians hold some form of crypto, compared to the global average of 31%.

Were seeing an enormous appetite for digital currencies in emerging economies like Vietnam (where 57 percent hold crypto) and Thailand (53%) thats just not being replicated here yet, particularly among the older generations.

However, we know that digital financial technologies are important to Australian consumers, with 84 percent saying digital banking is an important service for their bank to provide. Australia also ranks highest of all countries surveyed  at 76%, alongside the UAE and Thailand  as the most likely to choose a bank that puts purpose over profit.

Each tribe tells us something significant about the way consumer behaviour is adapting and what banks must do to stay ahead of the curve. Traditional audience segmentation in financial services is outdated., said Eugene Danilkis, CEO at Mambu.

The one-size-fits-all model, in which customers are divided based on how much they earn, or simple demographics, is redundant in a world of open finance and rich data.

According to Danilkis if banks want to thrive in the future, they must think about how to affiliate themselves with the dynamically changing groups within society and appeal to them with products and experiences that meet their shared values and financial needs.

Globally we have over 50 million end users on our Mambu platform which demonstrates the growing demand for new and digitally-enabled financial products.

Tom Cheesewright, Applied Futurist, added: The banking and finance industry, which is as legacy as industries come, has been shaken to its very core by the sudden and overwhelming demand for digital.

The impact of global lockdowns propelled the world forward into its own digital future, suddenly achieving a shift in attitudes towards online banking, which had previously been predicted to take years.

Banks whose plans for transformation were based on pre-COVID assumptions have been left behind by customers who have found new ways to manage their money during the pandemic, as illustrated by the tribes identified in the report. The pressure is now on for financial institutions to demonstrate they can deliver on ethics, efficiency, and innovation.

The key consumer groups identified in the survey include:



Techcelerators

Recent converts to the world of digital banking who have adopted digital services amid physical branch closures. This group is the largest tribe globally, accounting for a third (33 percent) of total respondents, and 36 percent of Australian respondents. This group is predominantly aged over 35 years.

Ethical bankers

Young, purpose-driven savers that want to make a positive impact in the world. This tribe is second largest globally, making up 31% of respondents, and 36 percent of Australian respondents. 76 percent of Australian consumers also say they would choose a bank that puts purpose above profit, and more than half (53 percent) say that considering social impact is important when making investments. Globally, this group is primarily aged between 18 and 34 (49 percent).

Convenience cravers

One-stop shoppers who want all-in-one services at their fingertips, at no extra cost. This group makes up 24% of Australian respondents (23% globally) and are predominantly middle-aged or older individuals  with more than half (55%) aged over 35. This group is least likely to pay a premium for services that save time or offer flexibility, expecting a best-in-class customer experience as standard.

Covidpreneurs

Entrepreneurs who have set up their own business during the pandemic, in need of easy-to-use and reliable business banking services. Covidpreneurs are the youngest tribe globally, with almost two thirds (64 percent) aged under 35 years and a quarter (25%) under 25 years.

Neo asset hoarders

New asset owners who want to use financial services to buy, trade and hold assets. This group is the smallest, but rapidly growing tribe globally. Two thirds (66%) are male and over half are under the age of 35. This group is most likely to own neo assets, including cryptocurrency and NFTs and most likely to agree the ability to buy, sell or manage neo assets is important in a bank.



The report notes that one third (33%) of Australian respondents considered the ability to buy, sell or manage digital assets an important service in a bank  a figure which, along with one of the big four Australian banks recent announcement that it will become Australias first bank to offer its customers crypto services via its digital app, is further evidence of the growing credibility of cryptocurrency as an asset class in Australia.

For a full breakdown of the five tribes and regional analysis by country, you can download The financial tribes you need to know report here.

Key Australian Survey Results

84% of Australian consumers say digital or online banking is an important service for their bank to provide

76% say the best customer experience on the market is important in a bank

76% more likely to use a bank that puts purpose over profit

55% are more likely to use digital or online banking now than prior to the pandemic

14% of Australian respondents hold some type of cryptocurrency

33% of Australian respondents say the ability to buy, sell and manage cryptocurrency via their bank is important

24% of Australian consumers use BNPL when purchasing online, the highest of all countries surveyed - global average 11%

21% of respondents said they are more likely to switch banks post-pandemic.

Broader APAC Survey Results
The world's biggest hotel booking site Booking.com was breached by an American acting on behalf of US intelligence in 2016, who stole details of thousands of reservations in the Middle East, but the site kept it quiet, a new book authored by three Dutch journalists claims.

The book, De Machine [The Machine], which came out on Thursday, looked at the fortunes of Booking.com which is 25 years old this year.

OPM: compromised US gov employees (and applicants?), major criminal event, charges filed against Chinese gov hackers

Booking[.]com: potentially compromises anyone who uses the site, attributed to US, must be "legitimate target," victims not notified. https://t.co/IF48GitrfT  Jake Williams (@MalwareJake) November 11, 2021

Former NSA hacker Jake Williams contrasted the breach with that at the Office of Personnel Management [OPM] in the US in 2015 which compromised American Government employees.

"OPM: compromised US gov employees (and applicants?), major criminal event, charges filed against Chinese gov hackers," he said in a tweet.

"Booking[.]com: potentially compromises anyone who uses the site, attributed to US, must be 'legitimate target', victims not notified."

The breach was discovered by accident, with an unauthorised individual gaining access to a server that was not properly secured.

Let's not assume malicious intent on the US part. They were probably only trying to promote their new destination: Guantanamo Bay Spa & Torture Resort.

I heard their facial treatments are to die for, they have killer music, and the boarding by the water is not too bad either.  Sebastian (@sebastian_paul) November 11, 2021

The information stolen included the names of Middle Eastern customers and their travel itineraries, including people from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.

The Dutch national newspaper NRC, which employs the three scribes, said the Dutch intelligence service AIVD was informed about the break-in but neither the people affected nor the Netherlands' data protection authority were told about it.

The website told NRC it was not legally required to report the breach. Booking.com's own technology employees were not happy about keeping quiet about the break-in, the report said. Dutch law at the time specified that individuals who would be adversely affected should be notified.

In 2013, Americans were reported to be spying on hotel websites to find out the movements of foreign diplomats in order to wiretap them. Documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden showed that Britain's GCHQ had a special program for this activity called Royal Concierge.

NRC cited a former Booking.com employee as saying that it would have been unthinkable for Booking not to be included in that program.

With the aid of investigators from the US, the person who carried out the hack was identified, and named as one Andrew who worked for one the US intelligence services.
In 2020, the Morrison Government legislated an ongoing broadband tax of $7.10 per month per service, specifically for the purpose of recovering the costs of the regional fixed-wireless and satellite rollout, and funding all future fixed-wireless upgrades to 2040, says Michelle Rowland MP, Shadow Minister for Communications.

Rowland continues, yet, barely a year after the tax was legislated, NBNCo is now signalling that despite planning to spend $57 billion, the regional fixed-wireless network also needs overbuilding.

According to reports, NBNCo is now seeking $1 billion for upgrades, only sufficient to overbuild a modest segment of the fixed-wireless network with fibre-to-the-premises, Rowland states.

So what exactly was the purpose of Scott Morrisons $7 per month broadband tax, Rowland postulates?

This is the latest timely reminder that the sweeping technological incoherence of the Liberal-National Government is not costless  it always carries a price, Rowland says.

Rowland continues, the Coalition originally promised to deliver an inferior copper NBN for $29.5 billion.

The rollout cost then increased to $41 billion. Due to endless technology mistakes, the cost then went to $49 billion and then $51 billion, Rowland said.

Rowland states, then, in a piece entitled No More Handouts, Minister Fletcher told the Australian Financial Review:

Commonwealth funding to the NBN is capped at $49 billion. That is our position, its been our position, and it will be our position. That has not changed.

The cost of the rollout is now $57 billion, Rowland concludes.

The wholesale broadband tax formalised the cross-subsidy model established by Labor to support the principle of universal wholesale pricing, where the wholesale price was equivalent regardless of the access technology, or location. With the advent of NBN competitors focused on cherry-picking profitable areas, such as the TPG's FTTB, the wholesale broadband tax ensured that the opportunists also paid their relatively small share of funding telecommunications in regional Australia. The majority of the tax comes from NBN itself.

The nature of telecommunications is that the investment can be lumpy. Every ten years, or so, mobile carriers will have to fork out large amounts of capital to renew and buy additional spectrum and to deploy the next generation of mobile infrastructure.

For NBN this is likely for their fixed wireless network, where they will have to add next generation 5G access infrastructure at all sites. NBN will also need to replace the fixed wireless outdoor component at each premise, a cost that mobile carriers avoid. For NBN the decision will be to invest in new wireless technology periodically, or invest in fixed optical infrastructure which will have a somewhat longer investment lifecycle.

As the cost of fixed infrastructure drops so will the decision with regard to the population density needed to support the investment move, relative to other alternatives.

The MTM NBN has cost far more than forecasted. Our need for speed and capacity is far greater than what the Coalition's analysts said at the time, hence the need to now over build FTTN with FTTP.

As i've stated before politicians should leave technology decisions with technologists.

Leading up to the next years federal election we can expect to see more of these political posturing announcements around the NBN. Labor with releases similar to the above and the current Government latching on to any NBN success stories.

It would be really good to see what plans Labor has for the NBN should they be successful next year.

When is a politician lying? When their lips are moving and words are coming out.

This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 9 November 2021.
Paul Budde: "In other words, the costs of the NBN are rising and rising. So, lets not squabble over specific data or words used in the past or recalculations and other financial adjustments."

The final cost of the NBN is likely to end up being in the $90-billion range, a figure that was once claimed in 2013 by Malcolm Turnbull as what it would cost if Labor continued with its plan, a well-known independent telecommunications analyst says.

Paul Budde, who was reacting to a story this week that initial estimates about the cost of multi-technology mix connections were about three times lower than what they had turned out to be, also said in a blog post that the construction of the NBN was likely to finish closer to 2030.

The story, published by Guardian Australia, revealed the figures for FttN (between $600 and $650) and hybrid fibre coaxial (between $800 and $850 per premise), which have been kept hidden until now.

Before the 2013 election, Turnbull, who had been given the communications portfolio, claimed that the Coalition would build the NBN for $29.5 billion while Labor would spend as much as $90 billion.

After the Coalition was elected, Turnbull commissioned Deloitte and KordaMentha to carry out a review. This claimed Labor's plan would eat up $74 billion and be completed only in 2024, while the Coalition's cut-down plan would only cost $41 billion and be over and done with by 2020.

Budde pointed out that international Internet firms were set to meet the government this month and would seek investment in a full-fibre backbone in regional Australia.

He cited what the US was doing. "The Biden Administration, in its recently approved Infrastructure Plan has put aside US$42.45bn in federal grants to states for the construction of broadband projects delivering speeds of 100Mbps/20Mbps for broadband in underserved areas," he said.

"This development will also be used to put further pressure on the Morrison Government, especially in the wake of the upcoming elections in 2022."

"In other words, the costs of the NBN are rising and rising. So, lets not squabble over specific data or words used in the past or recalculations and other financial adjustments.

"The reality is that the so-called Multi-Technology Mix, with upgrades to Fibre to the Premise and Fibre to Home networks, will by the time it is finished have crept up towards the earlier taunted $90 billion, with full completion more likely sometime in the second half of this decade."
Today

A few passing clouds. Low 52F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

A few passing clouds. Low 52F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Intervals of clouds and sunshine in the morning with more clouds for later in the day. High around 80F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
FILE - A logo adorns a wall on a branch of the Israeli NSO Group company, near the southern Israeli town of Sapir, Aug. 24, 2021. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021, said it has detected spyware developed by the Israeli hacker-for-hire company NSO Group on the phones of three senior officials and accused Israel of using the military-grade Pegasus software to eavesdrop on them.
States that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act may benefit from the proposed funding Bridging the coverage gapAccording to the researchers, although there are other plans to cut public insurance plans.

President Joe Bidens current draft Rebuild better actions Including provisions to increase Medicaid and expand coverage, especially for the 12 states in the gap in Medicaid expansion and residents whose income is below the federal poverty line.

If the bill is passed, hospitals in these non-expansion states will receive more than $6.8 billion in new funding in 2022, which is 15 times the $444 million planned for the domestic policy bill. Reducing disproportionate hospital funding for Medicaid, according to An analysis By the Urban Research Institute.

Hospitals can certainly survive the DSH cuts, said John Holahan, a senior researcher at the Urban Research Institute. Although they lost some DSH payments due to the benefits to the entire state economy and the state hospital system, it would be much better to pass this legislation.

From 2022 to 2025, when the Build Better Act plans to grant subsidies and new market eligibility to people in the Medicaid gap, Holahan said that even if the disproportionate hospital funding is cut by 12.5%, states will still receive A lot of expenditure.

He said that due to population differences, net gains and losses vary from state to state.

In Florida, the hospital is expected to receive $1.7 billion in funding from the increased coverage and lose $33 million in funding, resulting in a net income of $1.6 billion in 2022. Texas hospitals may receive 1.6 billion U.S. dollars and lose 157 million U.S. dollars, for a total of nearly 1.5 billion U.S. dollars.

The substantial increase in expenditure will cause hospitals in Georgia and North Carolina to exceed the reduced Medicaid allocations of $750 million and nearly $900 million, respectively.

Since adults below the federal poverty line already receive Medicaid in Wisconsin, the state will receive less federal medical subsidies, resulting in a slight net loss in the cost of Medicaid disparities paid to hospitals, but overall it is a net benefit.

Although non-expanded states will benefit in general, Holahan said that with the proposed changes in the domestic policy bill, the situation in a small number of individual hospitals may get worse.

Specifically, hospitals that provide services for large numbers of undocumented personnel may face larger funding cuts, and federal subsidies may not necessarily flow to hospitals that receive disproportionate reductions in hospital funding.

Holahan said that the City Institutes analysis did not take into account the bills proposal to partially abolish the ACA rule, which requires people to be eligible for market insurance without affordable insurance. The bill will also increase cost-sharing subsidies for the lowest-income market participants.

Both provisions will increase the number of people covered by the market plan, the total amount of subsidies paid, and the hospital expenditures of those in the Medicaid gap.

Unless extended, the Rebuild Better Act will only provide higher subsidies and eligibility for people in the Medicaid gap for a few years, but the funding cuts proposed under the Actand the nationwide cuts that have been repeatedly postponed under the ACA -Will be permanent.

Nonetheless, Kathleen Hempstead, senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said that for at least a few years, the financial benefits most hospitals will receive by closing the coverage gap and reducing the cost of health care for families below the federal poverty line should be substantial. It is easy to offset any reduction. , Which funded the analysis of the Urban Research Institute.

Traditionally, hospitals have been vigorously advocating for expanded coverage because it reduces unpaid care, Hempstead said at a press conference.
AirSwap DAO, the builder of peer-to-peer technology for digital asset exchange, today announced the launch of its first complete web application: a brand new P2P DEX, fully open source and coordinated on the AirSwap community Discord with GitHub Repository.

As of now, users can go to airswap.io Try new DEXs through swaps between WETH, USDT, USDC, DAI, and WBTC, but keep in mind that there may be a minimum size requirement. The DEX agreement fee is used to support DAO contributors.

Launch its first 2017 P2P DEXAfter that, AirSwap transformed into a completely open source community while retaining this focus.

From a startup to an open source community is a fundamental change: starting from the first principles, adjusting incentives, establishing clear processes, generating ideas, turning ideas into actions, and promoting product development. We believe that decentralized transactions are not only Its just technology-it starts with who is building it and how to build it. As an open developer community with the mission of standardizing peer-to-peer transactions, AirSwap DAO is geared towards end-to-end delivery.

 AirSwap DAO team

DAO design

After re-emphasizing its DAO design, the AirSwap community established a product development process from idea to delivery by focusing on quality, transparency, inclusiveness and automation, including:

20+ community proposals implemented by 20+ community contributors

8 developers, 253 commits, 94 combined pull requests in the past 30 days

More than $1 million in fees are automatically allocated to active community participants

Track the volume of transactions exceeding 1B USD (a 20-fold increase from 2019)

A new group of contributors has completed more than 20 AIPs (AirSwap improvement proposals), more of which are being carried out around L2, community building and product development.

Some key newly completed proposals include:

AST staking and decentralized governance system

Community bounty and contributor reward system

High-performance trading and counterparty discovery protocol

Build an open source new DEX web application from the ground up

Features of the new AirSwap P2P DEX

The web application is completely decentralized: the users web browser directly communicates with multiple servers run by the manufacturer (professional trading company). In some cases, traders will encounter no gas swaps: manufacturers pay for gas swaps.

Zero slip and MEV resistance

The new AirSwap DEX is built on the basis of atomic swaps, providing natural protection against counterparty risks and MEV (miner extractable value), while remaining completely non-custodial. You can see the price you get without the risk of falling prices or being overtaken by robots.

High-performance transaction protocol

AirSwap technology provides support for peer-to-peer networks through the de facto standard RFQ and Last Look protocol, making it a Preferred It is suitable for professional trading companies entering the decentralized financial system. Those who are already trading on DEX just need to insert their strategy.

Gas-free swaps for end users

With the new AirSwap DEX, the Last Look protocol means that in some cases users no longer need to pay for gas: it is handled by the manufacturer in the most efficient way. No need to connect to the wallet to view real-time quotes and view smaller spreads (better pricing) because the manufacturer has not locked the expiration date.
The Bank of Botswana (BOB) stated that the country does not have a specific legal or regulatory framework related to crypto assets. However, the bank does warn residents who invest in cryptocurrency that if they suffer financial losses, they will have no legal recourse.

Central Bank responds to public enquiries

In its statement The central bank announced on November 10 that it first admitted that local residents, like residents all over the world, are engaged in cryptocurrency transactions. In addition, BOB also admitted that it has been receiving and responding to inquiries from the public and the media on this issue.

Next, the statement shared some observations made by the central bank when monitoring the growth of crypto asset trading.

There is no specific legal or regulatory framework that involves or prohibits investment in crypto assets, such as Bitcoin in Botswana. Therefore, transactions in Bitcoin or similar decentralized technologies (also known as cryptocurrencies) are similar to any other intangible assets Investment, these assets have inherent risks of this type of investment, such as investors who completely lose value or may abuse technology to cause damage, the BOB press statement explained.

Although BOB insists that it has no legal recourse against cryptocurrency investors who have suffered losses due to fraudulent schemes, the bank does urge investors to do due diligence on the registration and legality of the business and the nature of business activities, including the method of production and Source of return.

Cryptocurrency is not real currency

The central banks statement also indicated that the potential activities of some companies engaged in crypto trading may be related to pyramid schemes and fraud. Therefore, BOB once again warned investors engaged in cryptocurrency trading that they may participate in criminal activities. From the BOBs perspective, this means that these cryptocurrency investors may be liable to be sued and/or face significant financial and asset loss risks.

At the same time, the statement also announced BOBs views on cryptocurrency as a currency classification. According to the Central Bank, this reference to cryptocurrencies is wrong because they do not exhibit the key fundamental and complementary characteristics of currencies or currencies, such as being a stable store of value.

According to BOB, cryptocurrency cannot be a widely accepted unit of account or medium of exchange. More importantly, from the perspective of BOB, cryptocurrency does not have the support of the state or central bank in terms of legal tender status, transferability, exchange or value.

What is your opinion on this statement made by BOB? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Image Source: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons
A new study shows that health complications caused by childbirth have lost at least $32.3 million from the U.S. economy.

New data shows that maternal mental health disorders account for the largest share of medical and social costs. For example, economic output losses amounted to 18.1 billion U.S. dollars in six years. Research From Mathematica and Federal Funds. According to the analysis of nine maternal diseases in the first five years from conception to the child, the children of mothers with mental health problems, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal diabetes, blood loss and other diseases are more likely to have chronic health problems or behavioral health disorders More than 6.3 million newborns.

These costs and negative health care outcomes fall disproportionately on People of color and deprived of rights, Said So ONeil, the lead author of the study and a senior researcher at Mathematica.

This may underestimate the actual cost, she said, noting that they only studied 9 of the 31 maternal morbidity cases with both cost and outcome data. Even if the cost of mental health for pregnant and lying-in women alone is as high as 18 billion U.S. dollars. This does illustrate many aspects of post-natal insurance. It is important to expand post-natal insurance because mental health conditions may last for more than three months, and Medicaid insurance will cost you at this time. Do it all.

The maternal mortality rate in the United States is twice that of most other developed countries, with 17.4 deaths per 100,000 births. At the same time, as financially difficult hospitals cut obstetric services and coverage gaps widened, medical care for expectant mothers continued to deteriorate.

Katy Kozhimannil, a professor of health policy at the University of Minnesota, said that about 45% of births are paid by taxpayers through Medicaid. Have learned Maternal morbidity and mortality.

We are all paying for the terrible results we got, she said. This can be avoided by better upfront investment in peoples health-not just prenatal care, but broader preventive care, which takes into account broader social and political health determinants. We see Rural communities lose hospital-based obstetric services every year. These will not come to the back.

Obstetrics is one of the most risky and costly service lines, which is why Rural hospitals tend to cancel these services first In financial distress. This created a huge nursing desert, forcing people to drive farther to seek care.

According to data from the Chattis Rural Health Center, from 2011 to 2018, more than 165 rural hospitals cancelled obstetric care. Chartis national leader Michael Topchik said that more than half of the 2,200 rural hospitals across the country no longer provide obstetric services.

He said: One of our biggest concerns is the erosion of the comprehensive services of the entire rural hospital. Many times, when the hospital loses the obstetrics department, the general surgery and anesthesiology departments follow, which means they cannot perform routine care. One of the basic services of the hospital is safe delivery, but this has been eroded so much that it is unbelievable.

This is part of the reason why the United States is still one of the most dangerous and expensive places to give birth in other developed countries.

According to the study, nearly three-quarters of maternal morbidity costs stem from health problems related to the child rather than the mother. The most costly child outcomes include premature births of US$13.7 billion, developmental disabilities of US$6.5 billion, and respiratory distress US$2.1 billion.
An unknown investor proposed to acquire a 51% stake in the collapsed cryptocurrency investment company Africrypt for $5 million. However, in exchange for the offer, the investor hopes to withdraw all criminal proceedings against the directors of Africrypt.

The offer must be supported by 75% of creditors

According to a report According to Moneyweb, Africrypt creditors will vote on the compromise proposal on November 12, 2021. However, the proposal can only become a court order after it has the support of 75% of creditors.

As before Report According to Bitcoin.com News, Africrypt crashed when the companys two young directors, Raees and Amir Cajee, reported that the companys system was compromised. Soon after claiming that Africrypt was the victim of a hacker attack, Cajees disappeared with investor funds. This in turn prompted Africrypt investors to initiate legal proceedings against the two directors.

However, as part of the compromise proposal that has been submitted to creditors, investors will pay US$4 million (R61.6 million) to pay creditors claims against Africrypt. The remaining US$1 million will be used to increase the companys working capital.

In addition to trying to rescue Africrypt and protect the two directors from possible criminal prosecution, the investor, who asked not to be named, also proposed to hire the Cajee brothers  and appoint liquidator Eugene Januarie  to join Africrypts board of directors.

Offer allows Cajee Brothers to avoid criminal prosecution

Although some creditors are considered to be in favor of accepting the proposal, the report shows that some creditors are dissatisfied with allowing the Kaji brothers to trade unscathed. For example, the report cited an unnamed creditor who opposed the transaction. The creditor said:

For Cajees, this is a jailbreak card. In addition to people who are very close to the Cajee family, who else would invest in such a company as if it had any credibility or chance of success.

However, another creditor said that the proposal might get the support it needs, because this is the only situation where the creditor has a real chance of getting something. Similarly, the report quoted Darren Hanekom, a lawyer representing some creditors, who also expressed support for the transaction.

Considering the current prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum, this proposed compromise must be made at a convenient time. We believe that when the proposal is submitted for voting, all creditors will make the right decision, Hanekom explained.

What is your opinion on the proposal of an unknown investor to acquire Africrypt shares? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Image Source: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons
Press release

Press release. Sydney, Australia- Cardingo It is a NFT series and Cardano NFT market, which has been in secret for several months. While the world is waiting for the Cardano smart contract, the Cardingo team is busy developing a series of NFTs and a unique market to meet the tastes of Cardano fans around the world.

CFT started selling long before smart contracts. Platforms such as cnft.io and easycnft.io have provided CFT for several months. They are so successful, in fact, the platform is flooded with overwhelming continuous traffic. Cardingo aims to stand out by providing a well-curated market where only selected artists cast NFTs. This brings a unique and unique touch, and Cardingo will always look for more high-quality art and well-known artists to join the platform. Efforts are being redoubled to find indigenous art and artists to expand their income potential and help share their culture and history with the world.

Cardano Mascot-Inland Style

In addition to the solid CNFT market, Cardingo also aims to be a loyal defender dedicated to defeating Cardano Fud. With the advent of the new era of Cardano, this interesting and serious performance will provide Cardano fans with a new mascot for them to cheer and cheer for.

CARDINO NFT series

The Cardingo NFT platform will launch a series of carefully developed NFTs:

HoskeyChains It is the first series to provide computer-generated keychains with a variety of Cardano-inspired characters.

HoskeySmokeys Provide pixel animation generated by the artist, depicting the beloved hero Charles Hoskinson (Charles Hoskinson) in the animated pixels.

HoskeyMates It is an NFT generated by another artist, which depicts Charles Hoskinson (Charles Hoskinson) in pixel form, wearing various costumes or depicting different characters.

HoskeyMation It is an NFT generated by another artist. It depicts Charles Hoskinson in a pixel animation and shows different levels of Hoskey, such as noob, pro, etc.

HoskeyPunks It is a computer-generated NFT that depicts Charles Hoskinson (Charles Hoskinson) in pixel form, wearing various costumes or depicting different characters.

theres still one Special Hoskey Edition The rare Charles Hoskinson series including illustrations and animations. The details of this rare NFT will be released later.

Australian dingo

Cardingo intends to spread the knowledge and love of Dingo. Cardingo has contacted Wild Dog Foundation It will also help publicize and raise awareness of Dingo, and donate it to the Dingo Foundation charity.

Lyn Watson, the head of the foundation, said: Due to the lockdown and lack of tourists, it is really difficult for us to obtain funds, but she is very happy to work with Cardingo and believes that the increased global attention and donations will help her achieve her goals. The goal of protection.

Dingoes are an important part of the Australian ecosystem and an important part of the Australian ecosystem. As a top predator, they are vital to maintaining environmental balance. Over the years, they have been hunted, trapped, poisoned, and are generally regarded as pests. Lin is worried that if protection measures are not taken as soon as possible, the species will eventually become extinct. The wild dog population in the wild dog reserve is a species insurance population, which is a big responsibility.

Recently, their most famous wild dog, Wandi, gave birth to a litter of cubs in Dingo Sanctuary. The story of Wandi quickly became popular all over the world after learning that a dingo puppy fell from the paws of an eagle and landed in a suburban backyard. Wandi even has his own book, which will soon be included in schools across Australia. Lyn hopes that Wandi can help the next generation learn to love and appreciate Australias most valuable predator instead of trying to push it to extinction.

By working with Cardingo, Lyn aims to help her continue to seek to change Dingos reputation and protect it for future generations. She hopes to build a visitor center and art gallery in the future, featuring wild dogs and aboriginal art for tourists to appreciate and appreciate.

Australian Aboriginal Art

Cardingo will also incorporate Australian Aboriginal art. The first evidence of aboriginal philosophy is evident in rock art that can still be seen dating back more than 20,000 years.

Aboriginal Australians do not have a written language, so they use symbols or icons to depict important cultural stories that have been passed down from generation to generation through their artistic works.

Cardingo aims to provide indigenous artists with a way to spread information and protect their culture. Aboriginal art centers on storytelling and is used to convey knowledge about the lands, events, and beliefs of the indigenous people.

Cardingo of the future

first Cardingo The NFT series decline will occur around the first week of November 2021. Cardingo will publicly release utility tokens on the market, which will provide Cardingo token holders with future staking options and additional rewards.

This is a press release. Readers should conduct their own due diligence before taking any action related to the advertised company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or claimed to be caused by the use or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.

Image Source: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons
Darnell Powell was shot five times in the Jersey Coast town in front of his son, who was a victim of a love triangle. He didnt even know the man who left a bullet on his thigh.

Nile Clark left a boyfriend who abused him and almost escaped. Ten bullets penetrated her body, leaving scars on her abdomen, groin, arms and legs. Her injured hand will never make a fist again.

They are the faces of the gun violence epidemic in our country, a public health crisis that affects all of us and requires comprehensive action.

The health network is now joining the front lines to help end the cycle of violence, providing a range of support from the bedside of the emergency room. The goal is to help victims choose a healthier path. As the CEO of New Jerseys largest health network and chairman of the Brady Movements board of directors, we support efforts to fundamentally resolve this public health crisis.

This method of reducing violence is the core content of President Joe Bidens proposal to provide $5 billion to the nations anti-violence program, which is currently included in the House version of the Better Rebuild Act. This funding is supported by our network and 17 other leading health systems across the country, as detailed in a letter sent to Congress earlier this summer.

A radical change is urgently needed.Last year, gun violence almost claimed 44,000 Americans, The national record. We lost nearly 120 people More than 200 people are shot and killed every day. They must endure the life-long consequences of these injuries. This is a terrible epidemic, especially in communities of color.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, young black men and teenagers account for more than one-third of gun homicide victims.Their mortality rate is 20 times higher More than white men of the same age.

New Jersey has a promising strategy to stop the cycle of violence. Two years ago, the State Attorney Generals Office used $20 million in Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds to establish or support nine hospital-based violence intervention programs. This innovative approach to the root causes of gun violence was and remains the countrys largest investment in such programs. Nationwide, hospital-based violence intervention programs have reduced the number of homicides in the implementation area by 60%.

Hackensack Meridian Health received one of these grants and created a program called Project HEAL (Help, Authorization, and Leadership) at the University of Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune. In the last three years, more than 400 patients in the hospital have been treated for stabbings, shootings and other violent injuries. The clinical team is eager to provide more services than the typical treatment and release for victims of violence.

So far, Project HEAL has helped nearly 50 people since its launch in March, including Darnell and Nile. Counselors who are survivors of violence work closely with clients themselves to develop detailed plans that include counseling options, assistance in obtaining support from medical insurance and the National Victim Compensation Fund, job training and education opportunities, transportation and legal counsel. This kind of intervention is essential: 40% of victims of violence Injuries again within five years, and one-fifth will die within these five years.

We know that social and structural determinants and easy access to guns are often at the root of the cycle of violence. This is why the program relies on leading non-profit organizations to support our community members after they are discharged from the hospital. Our partners include a community college to provide a seamless connection with higher education and vocational training. Cooperation with the non-profit legal center connects our patients with legal support and assistance. We also have a partner who provides mobile phones to our patients.

Every community will experience some form of violence, and we have all paid a heavy price for this public health crisis.In addition to the long-term injuries and trauma suffered by the victim after being discharged from the hospital, the cost of treatment for the first visit for the gunshot victim exceeds $25 billion According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, annual treatment costs and lost productivity. This does not include the significant ongoing costs and social/emotional issues that almost every victim of gun violence suffers. The ratio of non-fatal violent injuries to fatal injuries is more than 100 to 1, and the average annual care cost per patient is close to 30,000 US dollars. These costs are borne by all of us.

Darnell was helped in obtaining health insurance and connecting to a program to obtain his professional drivers license. Darnell continues his consulting and hopes to have his own freight company one day.

Nile received consultations related to the State Victim Compensation Fund, and regularly talked to victims of domestic violence, shared her story and provided support. Ultimately, she hopes to run a non-profit organization for women in abusive relationships.

Medical care is increasingly transcending the boundaries of hospitals to meet the needs of the community. We understand that reducing gun violence is not just the mission of law enforcement agencies or legislators-it requires a multidisciplinary approach. We know that violence is cyclical. If we can break this cycle, we can prevent future injuries and future hospital admissions  and help make our communities healthier. This is not only of clinical significance, but also of common sense.
President Biden and President Xi Jinping will hold a virtual meeting on Monday to worry about Chinas military activities near Taiwan and its Growing nuclear arsenal.

The White House said that Biden and Xi Jinping will speak on Monday night Washington time, after the leaders of the United States and China held two conference calls earlier this year. Biden had hoped to hold a face-to-face summit, but due to the pandemic, Xi Jinping has not left China in the past two years.

The two leaders will discuss how to manage the competition between the United States and the Peoples Republic of China responsibly, and how to work together where our interests are aligned, said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

At the time of the virtual summit, US-China relations were still in their worst state since the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1979. Biden has undertaken China for everything from the hardline activities around Taiwan to the persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. At the same time, China criticized the United States for interfering in its national interests.

The meeting was held after the Pentagon warned that China is rapidly expanding its nuclear power and plans to more than four times the number of its nuclear warheads to at least 1,000 in the next ten years.

This summer, China also tested Two hypersonic weapons, Including one flying around the earth.The latter terrified the Pentagon because it showed that China had found Another way to target U.S. nuclear capabilities.

A senior US official said that Biden has made it clear that although he welcomes stiff competition with China, he does not want conflicts. This meeting is a way for him to ensure that there is no misunderstanding, the official said.

This is not about seeking specific deliverables or results. This is about setting conditions for effective competition, and we have the ability to defend our values ??and interests as well as our allies and partners, the official added. When such a clause-or guardrail-is established, we can maintain fierce competition.

In his speech to Asia-Pacific leaders this week, Xi Jinping warned other countries not to join the U.S. Trying to fight ChinaSaid that the region cannot and should not fall back into the confrontation and division of the Cold War era.

When he made the above remarks, the Chinese Communist Party passed a historical resolution for the first time in four years, calling Xi Jinping the key to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.This move strongly suggests that the party will break the precedent and Give Xi the third general secretary term Next year, pave the way for the third re-election of President from 2023.

follow Dmitry Sevastopoulo On twitter
Although Nigerians seem to have accepted the digital currency of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), skeptical analysts believe that a lack of trust in the government will ultimately limit the prospects for the success of the electronic naira.

The threat of fintech startups

In addition, some analysts insist that the already fragile position of digital currencies has become worse due to the need to compete with fintech startups.As before Report Author: Bitcoin.com News, Nigeria is home to some of the largest fintech startups and a country that has received a relatively large share of fintech investment from the African continent.

According to the Financial Times reportIt is this threat from well-funded fintech start-ups that raises questions about the opportunities of electronic naira to achieve certain CBN goals, such as bringing more people into the financial system or allowing a more targeted society And welfare expenditures.

Songhai Advisory analyst Adedayo Ademuwagun is one of the analysts cited in the report who expressed doubts about the prospects of e-nairas success. According to Ademuwagun, most of the goals that CBN hopes to achieve through the digital version of Naira have already been achieved by private fintech startups. He explained:

The problem is that the use of existing financial payment systems can already fully solve all these problems. Nigeria is the fintech capital of Africa, so there are many options, many ways to pay someone, and the payment is already fast.

Trust issues

However, another analyst, Ronak Gadhia of EFG Hermes, believes that the governments belief that all electronic naira transactions will be monitored may be sufficient to prevent some people from using electronic nairas.

The government actually knows every transaction you make [with a digital currency] In places like Nigeria, there is some mistrust between ordinary Nigerians and the government and may be skeptical about adoption, Gadhia was quoted in the report as explaining.

In addition, in support of his argument, Gadhia pointed out how the Nigerian government can simply stifle the End Sars protests freezing The bank account of the individual who organized the protest.

Although skeptical about the prospects of electronic naira, Gadhia insists that it is too early to judge or deny the potential of digital currencies.

What are your thoughts on this story? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Image Source: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons
From a macroeconomic and financial stability perspective, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the central bank of India, still has serious concerns about cryptocurrencies. In addition, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das stated that he doubts the authenticity of the number of Indian cryptocurrency investors reported in the media.

RBI is seriously concerned about cryptocurrencies, and the governor doubts the authenticity of media reports on the crypto industry

Shaktikanta Das, President of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), reiterated at this weeks Business Standard BFSI summit that the central bank still has serious concerns about cryptocurrencies. The local media quoted him as saying:

From the perspective of macroeconomic and financial stability, cryptocurrency is a serious problem for RBI.

He added that the central bank has provided the government with detailed advice on cryptocurrency and the government is now actively studying this issue and will make a decision on this. However, the governor of the central bank pointed out, but as governors of the central bank, we are seriously concerned about this and have issued warnings many times.

The Reserve Bank of India expresses concerns about cryptocurrencies several times. September, that Say the same: We are seriously concerned about the financial stability of cryptocurrencies, [and] The same message has been conveyed to the Indian government. 

The Indian government is currently working on encryption regulation. According to reports, a Treasury official recently stated that the government is trying to ExpresswayThe cryptocurrency bill to be proposed at the winter meeting of Parliament.

Governor Das also expressed doubts about the number of Indian cryptocurrency investors reported by the media and the size of the Indian crypto industry.

I am not sure about the authenticity of these figures. Of course, my view may not be completely correct because we cannot obtain complete information about these currencies because they are not regulated by us or any other central bank, he described. And explain in detail:

But I still think that the number of investors is obviously exaggerated, because most of them, such as more than 70%, each only invested about 1,000 rupees in cryptocurrencies.

Das said that since many people only invest 1,000 rupees ($13.43), this suggests that cryptocurrency exchanges may try to recruit as many people as possible.

According to research firm Crebaco, approximately 105 million Indians have invested in crypto assets. In addition, the company stated that the total investment of Indians in cryptocurrency is about 10 billion U.S. dollars, and 20% of cryptocurrency investors are between 18 and 20 years old.

What do you think of the comments made by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Source: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons
The last three school districts in Florida that require at least some students to wear masks are abandoning the requirement for students to wear masks.

Starting from Friday, primary school students at Miami-Dade School can choose not to wear masks if they get permission from their parents. For high school students and some middle school students, masks are already optional.

In neighbouring Broward County, starting next week, all students will not be able to wear masks. According to the Miami Herald, although the school district strongly encourages students to wear masks, they do not need a parents withdrawal form. Masks have become an optional item for high school and technical college students.

According to the Gainesville Sun report, in Alachua County, where the University of Florida is located, parents can choose to wear masks if they obtain their consent when students return from winter vacation in early January.

These three school districts are one of eight school districts in Florida, and they have implemented masks regulations in ignorance of the government of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis (Ron DeSantis). The state health department implemented a rule that ordered districts to allow parents to choose whether to let their children wear masks.

The struggle between the school district and the state resulted in stagnant school board wages, withholding of regional funds, and attracted the attention of federal education officials. A judge ruled last week that DeSantis has the right to allow his parents to choose not to wear a mask.

In addition, the Archdiocese of Miami said on Thursday that it would relax the mask regulations for elementary schools in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties. Starting from Monday, if students are fully vaccinated, they will be able to choose not to wear a mask. Since the beginning of the school year, high school students and teachers who have been vaccinated can choose to wear masks.
The global head of BlackRock financial management company iShares and Index Investment said that the financial company may not soon launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) related to crypto assets.

According to a report by the Financial News on Friday, BlackRock executive Salim Ramji Said The company, which manages $9.5 trillion in assets, has no current plan to launch a cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund until U.S. regulation becomes clearer. He added that BlackRock is unlikely to be the first cryptocurrency investment in this emerging market, but the company needs to conduct due diligence.

Before we pack or paste our brand [crypto], We want to make sure that our customers will be satisfied with us in five or ten years, Ramji said. The regulatory domain of cryptocurrency is still very opaque and unclear at all. 

Bitcoin (Bitcoin) Strategic ETF from Valkyrie, a digital asset management company, and ProShares is listed on the American Stock Exchange In October.Both funds allow U.S. investors to have direct access to cryptocurrency futures. Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), may imply that the agency may Be open to approving exchange-traded products Exposure to regulated BTC futures contracts.

ProShares funds reached more than $1 billion in assets under management in the first week of trading.In addition, the BTC strategy ETF since then Rise to the top 2% In terms of total trading volume, the share of all ETFs-the value of stocks traded on November 10 was approximately $400 million.

related: Why now? The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission spent eight years authorizing Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S.

Although both Valkyrie and ProShares BTC strategy ETFs were launched within a few days, the products of asset management company VanEck have not yet been approved to be listed on any exchange, despite the fact that media reports have set a definite launch date.Van Eyck Submitted a prospectus for its Bitcoin strategy ETF Contacted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on August 9, but was also waiting for regulatory approval or rejection of its spot Bitcoin ETF. Expected to make a decision Until November 14.

Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF Analyst, Bloomberg Said In view of the record that the VanEck Fund refused to provide cryptocurrency from investment companies, he gave less than 1% chance that the SEC would approve the VanEck Fund.

The Eagles have a better chance of winning the Super Bowl, Barcunas said.
On Friday, November 12, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected Vanecks Bitcoin Spot Market Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). US regulators pointed out that the refusal was due to a lack of prevention of fraud and manipulative behaviors and practices.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejects spot market ETFs-U.S. regulators believe that investors should be provided with more protection from manipulation

After some bitcoin ETFs that used the futures market were approved, the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected Vanecks bitcoin spot market ETF on Friday. So far, US regulators have not approved any Bitcoin ETF linked to spot market prices.

exist Its verdict, The US Securities and Exchange Commission explained that spot market ETF products are involved in [protecting] Investor and public interest. The Vaneck ETF was rejected for requiring the national stock exchanges rules to be designed to prevent fraud and manipulative behaviors and practices.

On the one hand, standards need to include surveillance sharing agreements because they provide the necessary deterrence against manipulation because they promote the availability of information required for a full investigation when manipulation occurs, the SEC ruling details.

The SEC also cited the refusal of the Winklevoss ETF, which two investors tried to obtain approval a few years ago. The U.S. regulatory agencys ruling explained that for most commodity trust ETPs, the fund must sign some type of market-related regulatory sharing agreement or inter-market regulatory group (ISG) membership.

Fund BZX believes that such manipulation concerns have been adequately alleviated, and growing and quantifiable investor protection concerns should be [be] It is sufficient to justify the exemption from the necessary surveillance sharing agreement. 

The SECs ruling concluded that the current core consideration for regulators is potential manipulation of Bitcoin.

What do you think of the US Securities and Exchange Commissions denial of Vanecks Bitcoin spot market ETF? Please tell us your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below.

Image Source: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Vaneck logo,
"Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" star and timeless beauty Shin Min Ah joins "Squid Game" actor Lee Jung Jae as a global ambassador for the Italian luxury brand Gucci.

The two world renowned actors have been selected as global ambassadors for Gucci on November 11.

'Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha' Star Shin Min Ah Becomes the Newest Gucci Global Ambassador

On November 11, "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" star Shin Min Ah was selected as the new global ambassador for the Italian luxury brand Gucci.

Shin Min Ah, who has been in the spotlight for many years now, possesses classic and timeless beauty that is coupled with sophistication. Apart from that, she exudes a powerful aura as an empowered woman and a top notch actress.

The highly loved luxury brand, Gucci, revealed the reason for choosing Shin Min Ah as their new ambassador, "Shin Min Ah's sophisticated style and unmatched beauty, as well as her belief in the pursuit of diversity and strong respect for expressing one's self is similar to Gucci's philosophy."

The brand also expressed their excitement about their partnership with Shin Min Ah in communicating the beauty of creative director Alessandro Michele's designs and pieces.

Shin Min Ah as a Brilliant Actress, 'Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha' and New Drama 'Our Blues'

The stunning and elegant actress proved herself to be one of the most brilliant and sought-after actresses in the industry after showcasing her acting abilities in her recently concluded tvN romance comedy drama "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha," alongside "Good Boy" Kim Seon Ho.

"Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" effortlessly topped the global Netflix charts in many different countries including South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Philippines, and received many great responses in every part of the world.

On the other hand, Shin Min Ah is set to return to the small screen to solidify even more her name as a "Queen of Romantic Comedy" with her upcoming romance series, which is written by No Hee Kyung, "Our Blues."

Shin Min Ah will lead the forthcoming drama together with her real-life partner Kim Woo Bin, and seasoned actors Lee Hyung Hun, Han Ji Min, Lee Jung Eun, Cha Seung Won and Uhm Jung Hwa.

What do you think of Gucci's newest beautiful Global Ambassador? Are you excited to see Shin Min Ah's new drama? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Follow KDramaStars for more KMovie, KDrama, and celebrity updates!





KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
Jung Hae In and BLACKPINK's Jisoo are making waves after their first photos together and new "Snowdrop" teaser circulated online. Check them out in this article!

HAESOO Selfie, Finally!: Jung Hae In and BLACKPINK Jisoo's First Photos Together Set Internet Frenzy

Amid "Snowdrop's" promotion, lead stars Kim Jisoo (BLACKPINK) and Jung Hae In set the internet afire after a picture of them together circulated on various social platforms in the morning of November 12.

The visual couple of #Snowdrop, #JungHaeIn and #Jisoo, shows off their chemistry in Harper's Bazaar. Jung says his trust to the writer & director made him took the project, while Jisoo says she got a lot of support from #BLACKPINK https://t.co/EMIewnT2n5 #KoreanUpdates RZ pic.twitter.com/TIKZaHFLmf  KoreanUpdates! (@KoreanUpdates) November 12, 2021

As it's part of their Harper's Bazaar's fashion pictorial, the two celebrities exhibited chemistry in their selfies.

HD photos of #HAESOO for Harper's Bazaar, yes this is too much for my weak heart.



They're so adorable & the visuals!! the chemistry is undeniable! #JISOO # #JungHaeIn pic.twitter.com/VU91W9ZIg9  japchae on ROSE lockdown (@staywithchae) November 12, 2021

The "Snowdrop" actors projected their synergy in the pictures. Immediately, fans rejoiced and showed their support to the onscreen couple.

Jung Hae In and BLACKPINK Jisoo's 'Snowdrop' Promotion Timeline

First Teaser

Looking at the rundown of "Snowdrop" teasers released bit by bit, the JTBC romantic series consistently gained popularity from potential viewers in and out of South Korea.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: These are the Best and Worst K-Dramas in 2020 and 2021, According to Experts

JTBC first unveiled video and photo teasers where Im Su Ho (Jung Hae In) and Eun Young Ro (BLACKPINK's Jisoo) were seen dancing in the "Open House" under a romantic, lilac setting.

Second Teaser

Then, the network released the second "Snowdrop" teaser. Here, their faces were not seen much, making fans crave more of their characters.

Third Teaser

It was announced in October that JTBC collaborated with Disney Plus to produce "Snowdrop" in the international market. The Korean broadcasting company also revealed the reason why Disney Plus is the perfect partner.

Jung Hae In and BLACKPINK's Jisoo, through Disney Plus, made their solo appearances where they shared some of their childhood memories with Disney.

Fourth Teaser

JTBC surprised fans when they dropped Jung Hae In and Jisoo's photo teaser, including the official release date of the romantic series, which is on December 18.

The drama will occupy the Friday and Saturday primetime slots at 10:30 p.m (KST).

Fifth Teaser

After the release of Haesoo's adorable candid photos for Harper's Bazaar, JTBC unveiled another teaser on November 12, showing a closer look at Im Su Ho and Eun Young Ro's romance.

Can't wait for "Snowdrop"? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars.

Kdramastars owns this article.

Written by Shai Collins.
EAGLE POINT, Ore.  The historic Butte Creek Mill in Eagle Point now has a new lease on life after getting approval to begin producing flour this week.

The original Butte Creek Mill, built in 1872, burned down in a fire on Christmas Day of 2015. Ever since, there's been a concreted effort in the local community to rebuild the venerable structure and restore it to operation.

While construction on the mill is still not entirely complete, the Butte Creek Mill Foundation announced Thursday that they now have the go ahead to begin using the mill itself to grind wheat into flour. This week, the project received a city code permit for conditional occupancy and certification from the Oregon Department of Agriculture for food production, the Foundation said.

"This is a major milestone for the Mill as it allows the mill to officially resume flour production," said Jay O'Neil, BCMF board chair. "The Mill remains a construction project and is therefore not fully open to the public, but flour production, product mixing and packaging in the three completed rooms can take place and product sales can be effected online and via front porch pickup."

The mill will be grinding wheat starting this weekend, then mixing and packaging 11 classic products throughout next week. There will be a soft opening on the front porch of the structure, and O'Neil said that there will be a sale event on Saturday, November 20.

"Please come out and pick up your holiday gifts and needs and support the community mill," O'Neil said.

Butte Creek Mill cleared a major hurdle in May after securing an agreement to protect its water rights, which were necessary to power the mill and protect its historic status. However, the Foundation still needed to raise $91,000 to purchase those rights.
MEDFORD, Ore.  In April, the City of Medford passed an ordinance cracking down on homeless campsites along the Bear Creek Greenway and other public areas. Seven months later, has enforcement of the prohibited camping ordinance resulted in positive change for the city?

According to the Medford Police Department, the answer is yes.

"I see nothing but positive that has come from this," said Sergeant Geoff Kirkpatrick of the Medford Police Department.

In the six months that the revised ordinance was in effect, Sgt. Kirkpatrick says that along the Greenway, and communities and parks that surrounded those area, crime significantly decreased compared to 2020 from May 1st to September 30th.

Police department records show that total incidents that resulting in a charge being issued along the Greenway decreased by 42% compared to 2020. Total charges also decreased from 252 in 2020 to 152 in 2021, a 40% decrease.

"It absolutely helped the community but its also helped out the homeless community," said Sgt. Kirkpatrick. Because they were not out there being the victims of crimes and struggling to survive."

When the ordinance initally passed, City officials who supported the change billed it as a necessity for health and safety reasons, after several murders and a long history of fires started along the Greenway. At the beginning of May, Medford Police began the process of issuing 72-hour notices before clearing out campsites.

But seven months later, the impacts of that ordinance are becoming more clear, especially at Rogue Retreat's urban campground in Medford.

After speaking with Alexandria Spray, a Certified Recovery Mentor at Rogue Retreat, NewsWatch 12 learned that the from May to September the campground experienced a significant growth of people wanting to live in it.

To be exact, around 500 people were helped during that time period. With most of those people start their track to get their lives back on course, Rogue Retreats says they've noticed there has been less tents and camps along the Greenway.

"It's much harder to find camps these days as where six months ago or a year ago there were an abundance of them," said Spray.

Although there are now far less camps and tents along the Greenway, residents say there are still plenty of areas that have not been taken care of.

"Nothing has changed," said Jenny Reyez, who works on Lawnsdale Rd. near the Greenway. "We've called the cops and made police reports, but nothing has changed."
EAGLE POINT, Ore. -- Thursday is Veterans Day, a national holiday meant to honor all of those who have dedicated their lives to protecting us here at home. In Eagle Point, home to the National Cemetery and an annual Veterans Day Parade, the day has a particular reverence.

"Today has a very significant meaning. We celebrate Memorial Day for remembrance of those who lost their lives. We celebrate Veterans Day, thanking the veterans who have served," said Bob Huff.

Huff served 8.5 years in the Army, starting at the DMZ in Korea before two tours in Vietnam. Today, he's a veterans' advocate. He's one of many veterans who showed up to attend the parade.

My name is Richard Chavez and I've served our country for 31 years, Chavez said. "And I'm still in the fight."

Chavez spoke to NewsWatch 12 at the Eagle Point Veterans Day Parade. Alongside being a veteran, Chavez is Native American, part of the Navajo Tribe.

I joined when I was 17 years old, back in 1974 during the Vietnam crisis, Chavez added. He says that now he's going through classes to work at the VA.

I've been through five wars ... they don't call them wars, they call them some type of deployment operation," Chavez said. "Once you take an oath to defend this country, that oath stands for the rest of your life. We come from a special spirit of defending this country. There may be thousands of us military personnel, but we all come from different walks of life and different mental attitudes.

"It's been an honor for me  the honor is mine to serve, to defend the people in our country: you, those folks behind you. It's so tremendous to have the honor, and to still be on this side of the dirt."

NewsWatch 12 also spoke to Rhonda Haney. Haney is the public affairs officer at the VA Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center & Clinics in White City.

This is an opportunity to thank them for their service. And even though we've written a check that they cannot cash, it's a life serving event that hopefully will go on forever, Haney said. "It's very important to recognize what veterans have done today and every day."

Haney has been working at the VA SORCC for more than 20 years. Over that time, she has seen more appreciation for women veterans.

Before I started working at VA SORCC, I didn't feel that I was a veteran  I thought veterans were all men. Yes, that's naive, especially for someone that's served, but you just didn't see that appreciation for women as you do today, Haney said.

Now the VA SORCC has programs specifically tailored to women vets, which is a big change from how things were in decades past.

Gloria Butler is one of those veterans. She served for three years in the US Army, most of it overseas. While she says that she never saw combat or participated in a deployment, she feels the gravity of the occasion as her name graces a banner atop a lightpole in Eagle Point  one of many put up for the Veterans Days observance.

"That is a huge honor. Very touching  a friend of ours put that up for me. The one behind you has my husband's name on it, and he is no longer with us," Butler said. "But we served in Korea, both of us were serving during peacetime. I got out before he did, and he missed Desert Storm by like, a month."

For Butler, Veterans Day is especially about honoring her family members who have served. She says she's honored to be part of that "elite team."

Most of all, Butler says, people should love one another and let go of the hatred that increasingly divides the nation.
ST. HELENS, Ore.  An Oregon State Police trooper was taken to the hospital in critical condition after the agency says his a fleeing suspect rammed his patrol car on Thursday.

OSP troopers were involved in a chase along Highway 30 near St. Helens just after 3:30 p.m. when the suspect hit Trooper John Jeffries, according to the agency. Jeffries was taken via ambulance to Emanuel Hospital in critical condition.

The investigation into the case is being handled by the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, and OSP said that it would not release further information about the chase and crash.

Jeffries joined the Oregon State Police in March of 2021 after retiring from his 20-year career with the FBI, the agency said. He was duty stationed at the St. Helens worksite. He and his wife have lived in Portland for 25 years, where they raised their two sons.

"Trooper Jeffries has spent his life in service to the public. The Oregon State Police asks that you respect the familys privacy at this time," the agency said. "We also ask for your prayers for Trooper Jeffries, his family, his friends as well as the entire OSP family."
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  The U.S. Coast Guard has used two helicopters to rescue about 50 people from rising waters at an RV park on the Oregon Coast Friday as heavy rains in the Pacific Northwest prompted warnings of floods and landslides.

The Coast Guard said on Twitter that evacuation efforts were ongoing from the RV Park off Highway 101 in Neskowin, Oregon. A rescue swimmer was also on the scene.

Neskowin is about 90 miles southwest of Portland. Flood warnings were in place Friday for several rivers in western Washington as well as parts of Oregon as heavy rains continued in the Pacific Northwest.
1 Shares Share

After a minor bike accident, you go to the emergency room with a broken wrist. While youre being triaged, you tell the nurse you take blood thinners because you had deep vein thrombosis a few years ago. The doctor treating you says hes read your medical records, so you assume he knows what medications you take.

When you tell the doctor about the blood thinner, however, your doctor says thats not in your record. In fact, theres no medical information in the record at all from the doctor who prescribed it. You wonder what could have happened if your accident was more serious and you werent able to speak for yourself. You could have faced a dangerous medication interaction or a complication during surgery because your doctor didnt have the complete picture.

This is just one example of the potential risks of fragmented medical care. When you see more than one doctor and your medical records arent updated and shared with all the providers who treat you, it can result in fragmented care. This fragmentation can lead to several serious problems:

Misdiagnosis. When physicians dont have access to your complete medical record and family history, the risk of misdiagnosis increases. Every physician who treats you, including your primary care provider, specialists, urgent care providers, and emergency room physicians, need complete, up-to-date information about all your current and past health issues, medications, surgeries and other treatments, drug allergies and past medication side effects, and screening and diagnostic test results.

Drug interactions and overprescribing. All your treating physicians need to know what prescription and over-the-counter medications and supplements you take to reduce the risk of drug interactions. Without this information, you also could be prescribed medications for the same condition by two different doctors, increasing the risk for overdose and dangerous side effects. Another potential issue is being prescribed medications to treat symptoms that are actually side effects of another medication you take. For example, if one of your medications causes dizziness, a physician whos not aware you take that medication may prescribe an unnecessary medication to treat the dizziness.

Missed follow-up care. Without a consolidated medical record, you run the risk of missing recommended follow-up care or testing, which can delay an accurate diagnosis and treatment.

Unnecessary medical expenses. Fragmented care increases your risk of undergoing duplicate tests and other services. The cost of that unneeded care can be high. By some estimates, around $200 billion a year is spent on duplicate medical services. While some of the cost may be covered by your health insurance, if you have a high deductible or if your insurer denies your claim, you could end up with a sizeable bill.

Be proactive and prevent fragmented care

These three proactive strategies can help lower your risk of fragmented care and the problems it can cause.

Choose a medical home. A medical home is a health care provider who serves as your point person. Many people choose their primary care physician to fill this role. This provider makes sure the care you receive from all the providers is coordinated and all your medical records are consolidated and updated. Youll need to tell your medical home provider which doctors you see and have those providers share your records with your medical home. And if youre hospitalized, let the hospital know to share your records with the provider who coordinates your care.

Be an informed patient. You should be familiar with your medical history and family history so you can provide this information to every health care provider you see. Keep a list, either on your phone or a hard copy, of all the medications you take. The list should include names and dosages of the medications and any medication allergies or significant side effects youve experienced. Review the records from all the doctors you see regularly and check them for errors. If there are errors, contact the provider to get the information corrected. Its also wise to have a medical power of attorney who can provide your medical information to physicians if you cant speak for yourself.

Create an electronic medical record. Another strategy to lower the risks associated with fragmented care is to create a secure electronic medical record. This puts all your medical information into a format that can be easily and quickly shared with any health care provider who treats you. There are apps you can use to gather and manage this information. Some providers and health systems also offer online tools like MyChart and Epic. No matter what tool you choose, remember to review your records regularly to make sure theyre accurate and up to date.

Miles J. Varn is chief executive officer, PinnacleCare, and can be reached on LinkedIn.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
A Kilkenny garda has been honoured with a National Bravery Award for her role in saving a man from the River Nore.

Garda Caroline OBrien has been awarded a Bronze Medal and a Certificate of Bravery for her actions in Kilkenny City in the summer of 2019.

On the morning of 7 July, 2019, Garda Aoife Doyle, Garda James McGuill and Garda Caroline OBrien were on patrol near St Johns Quay, Kilkenny when they saw a young man enter the water. Garda Caroline OBrien entered the water, swam to the man and brought him to the surface. Garda James McGuill threw a lifebuoy to Garda OBrien and both then pulled the young man 50 metres to the nearest ladder point on the river wall and the young man was taken from the water by the garda.

Ceann Comhairle, Sean O Fearghail TD, has presented National Bravery Awards to 25 people from Counties Cavan, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Offaly, Sligo, Tipperary and Waterford, and from the United States of America, for 17 acts of bravery.

The Bravery awards were set up in 1947 to recognise those who risked their lives to save others and are administered by Comhairle na Mire Gaile  the Deeds of Bravery Council  which is chaired by the Ceann Comhairle.

The Ceann Comhairle said: The deeds we honour here are exceptional acts of bravery. They mark the moments where people saved the lives of others through their actions, risking their own lives doing so. What these awards celebrate is the noblest impulse within a human being, to risk their life in order to save another. We honour people who leaped into stormy seas, who braved swollen rivers, climbed down cliffs, assisted at road traffic collisions and performed other remarkable deeds. Through their actions there are people alive today, who would undoubtedly have died.

I am of course conscious that we mark these deeds at a time when the world is still under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. This virus has brought great pain to many families throughout the country and our hearts are heavy for the loss suffered over the last 20 months. But the exemplary service given by our doctors, nurses and frontline workers across the health service, the fire and rescue services and An Garda Siochana has brought great hope and also pride, to us all.

Today we rightly acknowledge the brave acts of heroism that our honoured guests have performed. But it also a day for remembering and acknowledging the very many acts of bravery carried out day in and day out throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. However small or big those acts were and continue to be, collectively they contribute to keeping us all safe during an unprecedented time in our lives.

The collective sense of good and indeed bravery displayed nationwide from many walks of life throughout the pandemic rightly allows us to be both proud of our communities and grateful for their existence. An Irish language expression whose literal meaning is 'It is in each others shadow that people live' but which, more broadly, invokes a sense of community and interdependence is most apt for the times we live in  Ar scath a cheile a mhaireann na daoine.

The Deeds of Bravery Council includes the Cathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann, the Lord Mayors of Dublin and Cork, the Garda Commissioner, the President of the Association of City & County Councils and the Chair of the Irish Red Cross.

The Council may award Gold, Silver or Bronze medals as well as Certificates of Bravery.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  An appellate court ruling has upheld a drug seizure in a case that raised questions about when police can seize drugs in pat-downs.

The Des Moines Register reports that the Iowa Court of Appeals found that a district court judge had erred in ruling that the evidence uncovered during a search of Earnest Hunt Jr. was inadmissible.

At issue was the plain-feel exception, which allows officers to seize anything found during a weapon pat-down that is immediately apparent to the touch to be contraband without a warrant.

The district court ruled it didn't apply. But the appellate court found that the officer didnt need to pinpoint the specific type of drug to rely on the exception.
CLARION, Iowa  A man accused of trying to kill a Wright County sheriffs deputy is sentenced after a plea deal.

Sean McMillan, 32 of Fort Dodge, was arrested in September 2020 and charged with attempted murder of a peace officer and first-degree robbery.

The Sheriffs Office said McMillan was pulled over on Highway 17 near 10th Street NW because a deputy thought he may have been connected to a disturbance in Goldfield. The deputy says McMillan was found to be driving while barred and a felon in possession of a handgun. McMillan was handcuffed and placed in the front seat of the deputys squad car.

While the deputy dealt with a passenger in McMillans vehicle, court documents state McMillan jumped into the front seat, drove the squad car at and hit the deputy. The deputy then fired a shot at McMillan.

The Sheriffs Office says McMillan abandoned the squad car after a short distance and ran away. McMillan was later caught in the 300 block of S. Cadwell Avenue in Eagle Grove. The deputy was treated and released from a local hospital.

McMillan pleaded guilty to the reduced charges of assault on a peace officer and second-degree robbery. He was sentenced Friday in Wright County District Court to a total of 15 years in prison.
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - A north Iowa man has been arrested for felony theft in connection to a storage unit burglary.

James Sporleder, of Fertile, is accused of stealing items from a storage facility in the 1600 block of Highway 18 W on Aug. 16.

A search warrant was executed at his residence in Fertile that helped lead to the arrest, court documents state. Several items taken during the burglary were found when the warrant was executed.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - The pandemic may have created a nationwide shortage in nurses, but that isn't holding back tomorrow's caregivers from pursuing one of the most trusted professions.

It seems the pandemic is also the inspiration for many to help in the healthcare industry.

KIMT News 3 talks with those behind the stethoscope, to find out what keeps them going and why the future looks bright for those pursuing a nursing career.

Elizabeth Stulac is a bedside nurse in the medical ICU at Mayo Clinic.

"You are in a profession where you really can change someone's life, says Stulac.

When she was 3 years old, her father was diagnosed with a terminal heart condition.

In 2009 her dad underwent a heart transplant. Suffering strokes throughout, nurses were at his bedside 24/7 during his recovery.

Because her father was of Vietnamese background, a Vietnamese nurse was sent to care for him. When he spoke to her dad in his native language, her father started regaining his memory that very day.

"This is so powerful to be able to be at the bedside, and be able to make those little decisions that change someone's life, completely, she says.

This fall Minnesota State College Southeast opened its first program in Associate of Science and Nursing.

Janine Mason is the Associate Dean of Nursing at the college.

With more applicants than space available for fall 2021 and spring 2022, Mason hopes to fulfill the demand for nurses.

She says, Becoming a nurse takes integrity, professionalism, and teamwork. And right now a lot of flexibility and resiliency. And some grit. Being a nurse is not easy but certainly rewarding."

Mickala Morinville's first exposure to the nursing profession was from a patient's perspective.

Now she is a Cardiac Surgery and Transplant ICU R.N. at Mayo.

At 16 years old, she was diagnosed with severe pneumonia which later progressed to acute respiratory distress syndrome.

After spending more than half a year inpatient at St Mary's hospital, she tells me her caregivers left such an impact on her, they became her family and closest friends.

"Time and time again, nurses have proven to be the most trusted profession, and they're the frontline emotional support of these patients, the face of healthcare, she explains.

Stulac adds, "and I will always remember the nurses that took care of my dad."

Both Stulac and Morinville share the significant impact nurses have had in their own lives allowing them to view the caregivers from a whole new perspective.

If you're interested in the nursing career field, Mayo Clinic hosts a program for high school students called Discover Mayo Clinic that investigates healthcare careers. A spring session highlighting the nursing profession will begin in February/March 2022.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - A reporting shooting Wednesday resulted in a shelter-in-place that led to the arrest of a 39-year-old man.

It began Wednesday morning at 10:07 a.m. when a male subject called dispatch and claimed he shot a man in the face at Rogan's Shoes.

The person said he was armed with a handgun and was sitting in a gold Chrysler 300 parked by the business.

Officers arrived on the scene and didn't find anyone in the car. A shelter-in-place was put into effect for the store, which included six employees and several customers. Three males were seen inside the business and told to put their hands up.

A person inside eventually said he was James Nelson, 39, of Mazeppa. He claimed he didn't call 911 but then officers called the numbers and his phone rang.

That's when the man said it was a joke.

He's facing charges of threats of violence and improper use of 911.
HANCOCK COUNTY, Iowa - Two people have died, including a child, as the result of a house fire this week in Hancock County.

Ron Humphrey, with the State Fire Marshal's Office, said Friday that two people, believed to be a father and son, died in the blaze.

Authorities are waiting on autopsy results for positive identification. The results of the autopsy could take a week or months, authorities said.

The fire in Crystal Lake was reported around 12:15 a.m. Thursday and the Crystal Lake Fire Department, West Hancock Ambulance Service, and Hancock County Sheriffs Office went to the 100 block of East 2nd Street.

The Sheriffs Office says more help was needed for the residential structure fire and the Britt Fire Department, Woden Fire Department, and the Forest City Fire Department responded to a call for mutual assistance.

The cause of the fire is currently unknown.
WASIOJA TOWNSHIP, Minn.  Two people are injured after a single-vehicle rollover in Dodge County.

The Minnesota State Patrol says it happened just after 1 pm Friday near the intersection of Highway 14 and 160th Avenue. James Anthony Sanders, 19 of White Bear Lake, was westbound when he lost control and rolled his vehicle into the ditch.

Sanders and a passenger, Evelyn Hero Terpstra, 20 of Claremont, suffered non-life threatening injuries and were taken to St. Marys Hospital for treatment.

The Dodge County Sheriffs Office and Dodge Center Fire and Ambulance assisted at the scene.
"I think we need to come to an end of this [the pain] now. This is the right time," Dawei Li said.
For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Kansas City Star.




North Korea urged its people Friday to make utmost efforts to accomplish the country's five-year economic plan under the spirit of "unconditionality, thoroughness and accuracy."







The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the North's ruling Workers' Party, emphasized only 50 days are left until the end of the first year in its five-year plan and called for an "aggressive spirit" to achieve the goals set out by the party.







At the country's eighth party congress in January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un admitted to a failure in his previous development plan and unveiled a new scheme focusing on self-reliance amid a protracted border closure due to COVID-19 and global sanctions.







"The party's demand is for every sector and unit, not a particular one, to make progress," the newspaper said. "Let's finish this year's battle with victory under the spirit of unconditionality, thoroughness and accuracy."







In another article, the newspaper said many tasks set forth in the science research field have been completed, adding those still underway are also mostly in their final stages.







Last month, the North held a Cabinet meeting to review the country's economic performance in the third quarter, during which Vice Premier Pak Jong-gun criticized deficiencies and the "irresponsible attitude" of some workers. (Yonhap)


This combination of file pictures shows U.S. President Joe Biden, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping. AFP-Yonhap

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to hold a hotly awaited virtual summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday, US media reported, as tensions mount over Taiwan, human rights and trade.



Both CNN and Politico, citing unnamed sources, said the meeting was tentatively scheduled for Monday.



Relations between the world's two largest economies have deteriorated in recent weeks, in particular over Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy claimed by China, which last month made a record number of air incursions near the island.



Washington has repeatedly signaled its support for Taiwan in the face of Chinese aggression, but the United States and China reached a surprise agreement on climate at a summit in Glasgow.



US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week that the two presidents, who have not met in person since Biden took office in January, will hold virtual talks "soon."



Biden and Xi have talked by phone twice since the veteran Democrat moved into the White House. The pair also met extensively when Biden was serving as vice president to Barack Obama, and Xi was vice president to Hu Jintao.






Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. A few flurries or snow showers possible. High around 35F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low 23F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. High around 35F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 23F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
Bengali actor Srabanti Chatterjee on Thursday quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and cited "lack of initiative and sincerity to further the cause of West Bengal" as the reasons for leaving the party. "Severing all ties with the BJP, the party for which I fought the last state elections. The reason being their lack of initiative and sincerity to further the cause of Bengal," tweeted Chatterjee. West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021: BJP Fields Actor Srabanti Chatterjee Against TMC Heavyweight Partha Chatterjee in Behala West.

She had joined the party just before the Assembly polls and was fielded as a candidate by the BJP. On March 2, Chatterjee joined the BJP. Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress won 213 seats in the West Bengal assembly elections. Bengali Actor Srabanti Chatterjee Joins BJP in Kolkata.

Check Out Srabanti Chatterjee's Tweet Below:

Severing all ties with the BJP, the party for which I fought the last state elections.Reason being their lack of initiative and sincerity to further the cause of Bengal...  Srabanti (@srabantismile) November 11, 2021

The Bharatiya Janata Party garnered 77 seats in the 294-seat state assembly. However, elections for two seats in Murshidabad are postponed due to the demise of candidates due to COVID.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 11 (ANI/NewsVoir): SVKM's NMIMS' School of Business Management (SBM), recognised as one of India's top management schools, invites applications for its MBA in Human Resource (HR), considered among the best in its category in the nation.

The carefully-designed curriculum is reviewed annually with inputs from industry, alumni and academia to equip students with competencies needed for the VUCA world.

Also Read | Life Insurance Plans That Provide Highly Competitive Premium Rates For Their Customers.

The program structure:

Courses with end term: Focus on knowledge (primary) and skill building

Also Read | Lee Min-ho Aka Kim Tan Revisits His Meet-Cute Site With Park Shin-hye From The Heirs (View Pics).

Courses with internal continuous assessment: Equal focus on knowledge and skill building

Workshops: Primary focus on skill building

The industry-oriented pedagogy combines rigorous academic coursework with workshops, guest sessions and field assignments. The program has achieved full placements during campus recruitments. For the MBA HR program, the highest package offered was INR 21 LPA. The institution proved its pedagogical credentials with approximately 25% of the students securing PPOs for their brilliant performances in the summer internship and competitions.

The course covers Design Thinking, Business Anthropology, Ethical dilemmas in business Talent Management, Employee rewards and recognitions, Negotiations, leadership and team effectiveness, Compensation Management and Emotional Intelligence which give students right exposure to tackle complex business scenarios.

The curriculum also includes courses and workshops on People Analytics, Competency Mapping, Negotiation skills, Business research etc. The curriculum includes 38 courses and 15 workshops spread over six trimesters. It focuses on building business acuity, harnessing technology for high impact organizations, developing research driven business solutions, and creating sociological, anthropological, psychological, economics and global outlook while keeping the changing nature of workforce and emergence of gig economy in mind.

To meet the demand for analytics and technology-proficient HR professionals, the course work lays an enhanced focus on data and analytics. The program includes 8-10 weeks of summer internship, Business Research Workshops and Dissertation to enhance skills of opportunity recognition, problem identification and solving, critical thinking and ability to work independently as well as in teams.

Students get complete acquaintance about the industry focused curriculum through courses and guest lectures from distinguished professionals from the industry.

HR professionals are now playing a vital role in the post-pandemic era. With a blended work culture, remote working and globalisation HR professionals are in demand.

With the economy expected to recover in the coming months, recruiters are looking for HR professionals with proficiency in cognitive skills like command over digital tools, critical thinking, adaptability, flexibility, with the emotional intelligence required for collaborations and team management. The current placement trends indicate a high demand for HR professionals who can blend digital tools with a strategic approach while nurturing a collaborative approach.

Elaborating on the role of HR leaders, Dr. Prashant Mishra, Dean, School of Business Management, SVKM's NMIMS, said, "The role of HR leaders has become all the more critical for enterprises. From hybrid working models, rapid scaling up of work forces, to compensation models in an era of Unicorns. Our HR-MBA program has gained its reputation as the best in the country because of our dedication to guiding future leaders who can read the pulse of the people. Thanks to our comprehensive program, we are proud of our graduates who have gone on to become HR leaders in top companies across India and abroad."

Launched in 2011, the aim of the program is to develop professionals with a strong grounding in the HR domain which is aligned with the overall business strategy. One of the distinguishing features of the MBA-HR is the multi-phased collaboration between academicians and the industry which extends from curriculum development, partnering for case writing to collaborations on capstone projects. The faculty is a mix of academicians with a strong background in research as well as HR professionals, industry experts, CHROs (Chief Human Resources Officers) and CEOs (Chief Executive Officers).

Speaking on the program Dr. Hema Bajaj - Program Chair MBA HR and Behavioural sciences. The program has now completed 10 years and we have done complete review of the program. This has been done over a period of 7 months with extensive consultation with industry, faculty, students and alumni. The program has been benchmarked amongst the best from Indian and foreign institutes. The focus has been on skills and knowledge building through courses and workshops in areas like competency mapping, design thinking, emerging technology, people analytics and negotiation skills.

Eligibility: To apply students must have a Bachelor's Degree in any discipline from a recognized University with minimum 50% marks in the aggregate.

Admission Procedure:

Step 1: Register for NMAT by GMAC

Step 2: Register and apply for NMIMS MBA at nmat.nmims.edu Last day to apply is either before the NMAT by GMAC first exam attempt date.

Note - Important changes introduced by NMIMS for MBA Admissions 2022

NMIMS accepts score of the first NMAT examination attempted by the candidate

Apply for NMIMS before your scheduled NMATbyGMAC examination.

Accreditation: SBM has the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation, which is known as the longest-standing and most prestigious professional accreditation in business education. It has NAAC accreditation with Grade A+ (3.59 CGPA), Mumbai Campus and is recognized as Category-I University by MHRD/UGC Grant of Graded Autonomy Regulation, 2018.

SBM of SVKM's NMIMS, Deemed-to-be-University, is one of India's leading business schools with a legacy of world-renowned faculty and an excellent placement program. NMIMS which began as a business school 40 years ago, is known for its trailblazing curriculum. The school has consistently ranked among the top 10 B-Schools in the country since 1998, in various such published surveys.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) owns and administers the NMAT by GMAC exam. The NMAT by GMAC is accepted by 38 leading institutions in India for securing admissions to their flagship MBA and other management programs in India. Besides India, the NMAT by GMAC exam today is delivered across 12 countries namely, South Africa, Philippines, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Botswana, Nepal, Sri Lanka, UAE, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia.

GMAC has two types of testing modes for the exam. One is online proctored exam that can be taken from home and the second is the centre-based online exam. Candidates have the option to take the test either at test centre that follows all the social distancing protocols or take the online proctored exam from the comfort of their homes.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India]/ Lilongwe [Malawi], November 12 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, met H.E. Mrs. MONICA CHAWERA, The First Lady of Malawi and Ambassador of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother.

Senator, Dr. RashaKelej, CEO of Merck Foundation and President of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother expressed, "I am honoured to receive my dear sister, H.E. MONICA CHAWERA, The First Lady of Malawi and Ambassador of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother, to discuss our long-term partnership and programs to build healthcare capacity, support girl education, and empower infertile women in Malawi. I was glad to award Her Excellency to acknowledge her efforts as the Ambassador of Merck Foundation More than a Mother campaign.

Also Read | Special Ops 1.5 Review: Kay Kay Menons Himmat Singh Gets a Thrilling Origin Story (LatestLY Exclusive).

We have been working very closely with her and the Government of Malawi to provide scholarships of specialty training for the First Specialists in many fields such as - Fertility, Sexual and Reproductive Medicines, Oncology, Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Respiratory and Acute Medicines with the aim to transfer patient care in the country. I feel proud that we have already enrolled 20 young Malawian doctors for these specialty trainings. Many of them will be the first specialists in Malawi. We are making history together."

H.E. Mrs. MONICA CHAKWERA, The First Lady of Malawi and Ambassador of Merck Foundation More than a Mother said, "It has been an absolute pleasure to meet Senator, Dr. RashaKelej, CEO of Merck Foundation in person for the first time. I am proud of our partnership with Merck Foundation, the programs we work on are very close to my heart as a woman. Our work with Merck Foundation has brought about a significant positive change in the healthcare landscape of Malawi. I will continue to work closely with Merck Foundation in order to empower infertile women and support girl education as we work towards empowering our girls in education through Merck Foundation's 'Educating Linda' program."

Also Read | Childrens Day 2021: Rajasthan Assembly To Hold Childrens Session on November 14 With Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla as Chief Guest.

Merck Foundation through their 'Empowering Berna' initiative has empowered infertile and childless women by helping them to establish their own small businesses so that they can be independent and re-build their own lives.

Moreover, Merck Foundation through their 'Educating Linda' program has sponsored the education of 40 best performing girls in their secondary schools till they graduate.

"I truly believe that Education has the power to enable young girls to make their own decisions, stand up for their rights, and help them to access economic opportunities. An educated girl not only contributes for the better future of her own family, but can also contribute to the social and economic development of a country," added Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, One of the 100 Most Influential African women (2019, 2020 & 2021).

Merck Foundation in partnership with The First Lady of Malawi together with Ministry of Education has also launched three children storybooks titled: "ChosadziwaPhiris' story" to emphasize on the strong family values of love and respect from a young age which will reflect on eliminating the stigma of infertility and resulted domestic violence in the future, "Educating Alinafe Story" to emphasize on the importance of empowering girls through education and "Make the Right Choice Story" to raise awareness about coronavirus prevention amongst children and youth as it provides facts about the pandemic and how to stay safe and healthy during the outbreak. 30,000 copies of the three storybooks have been distributed to young readers, school students of Malawi.

Moreover, together with The Malawi First Lady, Merck Foundation has introduced 6 important Awards for Media, Fashion, Film, and Music fraternity.

Speaking about the Awards, Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej explained, "We have announced the 2021 edition of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother Awards for our Media, Fashion, Film making, and Music fraternity to raise awareness on the important topics of breaking the stigma around infertility, underscoring the importance of girls' education and women empowerment at all levels. Together, we have also announced "Mask Up With Care" Media Recognition Awards and "Make Your Own Mask" Fashion Awards, Coronavirus theme-based awards for Media and Fashion fraternity, as this will help in raising awareness about continuing the best practices and also show support to our frontline workers in the country and the rest of Africa".

About 'Merck Foundation More Than a Mother' campaign

"Merck Foundation More Than a Mother" is a strong movement that aims to empower infertile women through access to information, education and change of mind-sets. This powerful campaign supports governments in defining policies to enhance access to regulated, safe, effective and equitable fertility care solutions. It defines interventions to break the stigma around infertile women and raises awareness about infertility prevention, management and male infertility. In partnership with African First Ladies, Ministries of Health, Information, Education & Gender, academia, policymakers, International fertility societies, media and art, the initiative also provides training for fertility specialists and embryologists to build and advance fertility care capacity in Africa and developing countries.

With "Merck Foundation More Than a Mother", we have initiated a cultural shift to de-stigmatize infertility at all levels: By improving awareness, training local experts in the fields of fertility care and media, building advocacy in cooperation with African First Ladies and women leaders and by supporting childless women in starting their own small businesses. It's all about giving every woman the respect and the help she deserves to live a fulfilling life, with or without a child.

Merck Foundation launched new innovative initiatives to sensitize local communities about infertility prevention, male infertility with the aim to break the stigma of infertility and empowering infertile women as part of Merck Foundation More than a Mother COMMUNITY AWARENESS CAMPAIGN, such as;

'Merck Foundation More than a Mother' Africa Media Recognition Awards and Health Media Training

'Merck Foundation More than a Mother' Fashion Awards

'Merck Foundation More than a Mother' Film Awards

'Merck Foundation More than a Mother' Song Awards

Local songs with local artists to address the cultural perception of infertility and how to change it

Children storybook, localized for each country

Click on the link below to Download Merck Foundation App

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.merck.foundation&hl=en

Join the conversation on our social media platforms below and let your voice be heard

Facebook: Merck Foundation

Twitter: @Merckfoundation

YouTube: MerckFoundation

Instagram: Merck Foundation

Flickr: Merck Foundation

Website: www.merck-foundation.com

This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], November 12 (ANI): Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Friday met All India Congress Committee (AICC) Uttar Pradesh Incharge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the national capital and discussed strategy for the upcoming Assembly elections.

Baghel has been given the responsibility of the party's senior observer for the Uttar Pradesh elections.

Also Read | Childrens Day 2021: Rajasthan Assembly To Hold Childrens Session on November 14 With Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla as Chief Guest.

He has been given the task of coordinating with the organization and the election machinery of the party.

Baghel visited Uttar Pradesh four times in the last month and has addressed rallies in Gorakhpur and Varanasi along with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Also Read | Jammu And Kashmir: Hizbul Mujahideen Commander Among 2 Terrorists Killed In Kulgam Encounter.

The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister also visited Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight persons, including four farmers, were killed during a farmers' protest. Lakhimpur Kheri has witnessed a political slugfest after the violence.

In the past, Congress has tried to make the initial election announcements among the people through the 'Pratigya Yatras' from different areas.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is campaigning aggressively in the state against the BJP-led state government.

She has made several announcements including a 40 per cent ticket for women in UP Assembly polls.

The Congress general secretary has also kept possibilities open for alliance with small parties.

Many leaders feel that if the voters who are annoyed with BJP are divided into many political parties, then the party will suffer.

In such a situation, it would be appropriate to contest elections in alliance with some local political parties, they feel.

At the same time, some leaders are in favour of going in the elections on their own. The Congress had last contested the elections in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, in which they had to face defeat.

Bhupesh Baghel will also meet Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi later in the evening.

Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to go for Assembly polls in 2022.

Previously, in the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party bagged 312 seats out of the 403-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly while Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 47 seats, Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) won 19 and Congress could manage to win only seven seats. The rest of the seats were bagged by other candidates.

Notably, the Congress party has been out of power in the state since 1989, that is, for more than 30 years. The last Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh representing the Congress party was Narayan Dutt Tiwari from June 1988 to December 1989. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], November 12 (ANI): Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech on Friday announced that the Lancet peer-review confirmed the efficacy analysis of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.

As per phase-three clinical trials data, Covaxin demonstrates 77.8 per cent efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19.

Also Read | Gujarat Horror: Minor Girl Raped, Strangled to Death in Bharuch District.

"COVAXIN is the only COVID-19 vaccine to have demonstrated efficacy data from phase III clinical trials against the delta variant at 65.2 per cent," the official statement issued by Bharat Biotech said citing the study by the Lancet.

"Efficacy analysis demonstrates Covaxin to be 77.8 per cent effective against symptomatic COVID-19, through evaluation of 130 confirmed cases, with 24 observed in the vaccine group versus 106 in the placebo group," said the company's statement.

Also Read | ISI Supporting Infiltration Bids In India, Pakistani Terrorist Reveals to NIA.

Further, it said that Covaxin will be 93.4 per cent effective against severe symptomatic COVID-19.

"Safety analysis demonstrates adverse events reported were similar to placebo, with 12 per cent of subjects experiencing commonly known side effects and less than 0.5 per cent of subjects experiencing serious adverse events," it said.

"Efficacy data demonstrates 63.6 per cent protection against asymptomatic COVID-19, 65.2 per cent protection against the SARS-CoV-2, B.1.617.2 Delta and 70.8 per cent protection against all variants of SARS-CoV-2 virus," Bharat Biotech added.

Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Bharat Biotech said, "The data from our product development and clinical trials have been published in 10 peer-reviewed journals, making Covaxin one of the most highly published COVID-19 vaccines in the world," he said.

"I am delighted to see that the phase III efficacy data has also been published in the Lancet. This itself speaks high about the strong position of Covaxin amongst other global front-runners COVID-19 vaccines," Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

"The bench to bedside journey of Covaxin in less than 10 months showcases the immense strength of "Atmanirbhar Bharat" along with the Indian academia and industry in fighting against the odds and carving a niche in the global community," Bhargava added.

Recently, the World Health Organization granted emergency use listing to Covaxin enabling countries to expedite their regulatory approval to import and administer doses. It has also received emergency use authorizations in several countries with applications in process in more than 50 countries worldwide, the statement added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mumbai, Nov 12 (PTI) The Bombay High Court on Friday reserved its order on interim relief sought in a defamation suit filed by NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede's father against Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik.

Dnyandev, Sameer Wankhede's father, has sought damages of Rs 1.25 crore from the NCP leader. He has also sought an order restraining Malik from making any false or incorrect statements against the Wankhede family during the pendency of the suit.

Also Read | .

Justice Madhav Jamdar had in the previous hearing given the petitioner time till Friday to file additional affidavit to point out how Malik's tweets and the documents published by him were false and baseless.

Also Read | SSC MTS 2020 Tier 1 Tentative Answer Keys Released At ssc.nic.in; Here Are Steps To Downlaod.

The Bench had also directed Malik to file an affidavit averring that he had verified the documents before posting them on social media.

Wankhede's father filed an affidavit listing out 28 documents to establish that his name was 'Dnyandev' and not 'Dawood' as alleged by the NCP leader.

The minister, on the other hand, stated in an affidavit that he had "reasonably verified" the documents before posting.

The judge noted that a purported birth certificate of Sameer Wankhede which Malik had produced apparently has "interpolation", which would mean that the minister had not taken due care while relying on it.

Advocate Arshad Shaikh, appearing for Wankhede, argued that Malik was targeting Sameer Wankhede because the minister's son-in-law had been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau and could not get bail for eight months.

Malik had alleged that Dnyandev Wankhede had converted to Islam.

Sameer, his son, however, got government job in the quota for the Scheduled Castes, a benefit which a Muslim person can not get, the minister had claimed.

Sameer Wankhede had refuted the allegation and stated that he and his family were Hindu.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Nov 12 (PTI) The 29th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council, comprising Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, and Union Territories of Puducherry, Lakshadweep, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, will be held in Tirupati on Sunday.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the meeting that will discuss a broad range of issues, including boundary disputes, security, and infrastructure-related matters like road, transport, industries, water and power, a Home Ministry statement said.

Also Read | West Bengal: Three Suspected Cattle Smugglers Killed in BSF Firing in Cooch Behar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed the need to leverage cooperative and competitive federalism to achieve all-round growth.

The home minister has given impetus to this vision of cooperative federalism to empower states and promote a better understanding between the Centre and states in policy framework, the statement said.

Also Read | Maharashtra Shocker: 32-Year-Old Man Murders Daughter In Aurangabad, Tries To Pass It Off As Suicide, Arrested.

The zonal councils provide a platform to foster such collaboration through a structured mechanism for dialogue and discussion continuously on the issues affecting two or more states or the Centre and states, in the spirit that strong states make a strong nation, it said.

Shah has emphasised on using the platform of zonal council for dispute resolving and promoting cooperative federalism.

Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is the vice-chairman and the host. Other chief ministers from the states in the zone along with two ministers each are the members.

Chief Secretaries and senior officers from the state governments and the central government will also attend the meeting.

The zonal councils take up issues involving the Centre and states and one or many states falling in the zone. The zonal councils, thus, provide a forum for resolving disputes and irritants between the Centre and the states and among many states in the zone.

They discuss a broad range of issues which include boundary-related disputes, security, infrastructure-related matters like road, transport, industries, water, and power, matters on forests and environment, housing, education, food security, tourism and transport among others.

Five zonal councils were set up in 1957 under Section 15-22 of the States Re-organization Act, 1956.

Union home minister is the chairman of each of these zonal councils and chief ministers of the host state (to be chosen by rotation every year) is the vice-chairman. Two more ministers from each state are nominated as members by the governor.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) [India], November 12 (ANI): Ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a review meeting with Vidhan Sabha in-charges of Bharatiya Janata Party in Varanasi on Friday.

Shah is on a two-day visit to Purvanchal and reached Varanasi on Friday.

Also Read | .

Amit Shah offered prayers at Kaal Bhairav temple in Varanasi. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Uttar Pradesh election in-charge and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan were also present with Shah.

Earlier today, Shah paid tribute to Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya at Banaras Hindu University on his death anniversary.

Also Read | SSC MTS 2020 Tier 1 Tentative Answer Keys Released At ssc.nic.in; Here Are Steps To Downlaod.

"Considering education as an infallible weapon for the progress of the nation, the thoughts of Malaviya ji, who fought for equality and social justice throughout his life, will continue to inspire the nation for a long time," tweeted Shah.

Shah's visit is significant in view of the upcoming high-stake Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh as he is considered as the architect of the BJP's turnaround in the state after the party had been reduced to the fourth major electoral group in the 2012 polls.

Soon after taking over as the BJP's national president, the party in 2014 had registered a historic win in 71 out of the state's 80 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP, under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, is seeking another round of victory in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections slated from 2022, where it had stormed to power five years ago with a decisive mandate.

The party had, in the 2017 polls, won 312 seats with a vote share of 39.67 per cent. This was followed by a strong electoral performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the BJP won 62 of the state's 80 parliamentary constituencies.

The next elections are scheduled to be held early next year to elect 403 members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Nov 12 (PTI) Passenger vehicle wholesales in India declined by 27 per cent year-on year in October with semiconductor shortage hitting production of automobile manufacturers, auto industry body SIAM said on Friday.

Passenger vehicle sales last month stood at 2,26,353 units, as compared to 3,10,694 units in the year-ago period.

Also Read | Alibaba Group Generates $84.5 Billion Worth Sale During 11.11 Global Shopping Fest.

As per the latest data by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), two-wheeler dispatches to dealers also witnessed a 25 per cent decline at 15,41,621 units, compared to 20,53,814 units in October 2020.

Motorcycle dispatches were also down 26 per cent last month to 10,17,874 units, as against 13,82,749 units in the year-ago period.

Also Read | Samsung Galaxy S22 Series Likely To Come With Snapdragon 898 & Exynos 2200 Processor Options: Report.

Scooter sales fell 21 per cent to 4,67,161 units, from 5,90,507 units in the year-ago month, SIAM said.

Vehicle sales across passenger vehicles, three-wheelers, two-wheelers and quadricycles categories last month, declined by 25 per cent to 17,99,750 units, from 23,91,192 units in October 2020.

"Manufacturers were banking on the festive season to recover from the severe drop in sales they have faced in the early part of the financial year 2021-22. However, shortage of semiconductors and steep hike in raw material cost have been a major spoilsport for the industry," SIAM Director General Rajesh Menon said.

Last month, the total production of passenger vehicles, three-wheelers, two-wheelers and quadricycles stood at 22,14,745 units, down 22 per cent from 28,30,844 units in October 2020.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Denver, Nov 11 (AP) Navy veteran Jordon Daniel was busy when the United States pulled its last troops out of Afghanistan at the end of August.

More than 7,000 miles (11,265 kilometers) and a world away, he and a group of fellow veterans were moving furniture, folding towels and sorting silverware in drawers during a hot, dry summer day in the Denver area.

Also Read | Thomas West, US Special Representative to Afghanistan, to Meet Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Motaqi in Pakistan.

Their mission: To furnish homes for Afghan refugees seeking safety in the United States.

Daniel had just finished furnishing the last of three or four homes for refugees that day when he received an alert on his cellphone that the final U.S. military aircraft had departed Kabul after two decades of war.

Also Read | Yemens Houthi Militia Claim Responsibility for Ballistic Missile Attack on Saudi Military Base.

I got in my truck and just sat there and was just kind of reflecting," said Daniel, who signed up for the Navy after 9/11 and spent time in Afghanistan on a security detail. You know, 20 years of war, America's longest war coming to an end. And you know, for me it was kind of coming full circle.

On Wednesday, Daniel and volunteers with the veteran-focused disaster relief organisation Team Rubicon were continuing their mission, dubbed Operation Eagle Landing, by furnishing two suburban Denver apartments that will soon house Afghan families that left their home country behind to escape Taliban rule.

The team assembled furniture, washed dishes, lugged heavy couches and dressers up stairs and carefully placed donated backpacks and stuffed animals on children's beds. A family of eight will live in one apartment, and a family of five will live in the other.

Since August, Team Rubicon has helped settle more than 110 Afghan families in Colorado, said Daniel, the Denver city administrator for the group.

Tens of thousands of Afghans have been flown to the U.S. since the war wound down, and most are still living in temporary housing at military bases across the country. Between 1,000 and 2,000 Afghan refugees are expected to arrive in Colorado by the end of the year.

That means Daniel and his team could have their work cut out for them  a task they seem to relish.

For us veterans, service is kind of in our blood. ... The veteran component, it adds that special piece of camaraderie to it, that sense of service, that sense of purpose, Daniel said. He said it's also a rewarding experience to help those who aided coalition forces in Afghanistan during the war.

It's just a chance for us to kind of express our gratitude as well. And just thanking them and welcoming them to the neighbourhood.

Team Rubicon was formed in the days following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that caused widespread destruction in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in January 2010, according to the group's website. Haiti's government put the death toll at more than 300,000, although an exact accounting was impossible given the widespread devastation.

Two U.S. Marines, Jake Wood and William McNulty, gathered supplies and volunteers before travelling to Haiti in the following days, and Team Rubicon was born. It has since grown into an international nonprofit organization that boasts more than 130,000 volunteers. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Maha Vikas Aghadi allies and a Gandhi kin on Friday slammed Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut for her real freedom remark and demanded that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government arrest her and take back all state honours/awards given to her. Leaders of the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress lashed out at Ranaut -- who was recently conferred the Padma Shri by President Ram Nath Kovind -- "for her apparent ignorance of history and facts". Anand Sharma Lashes Out at Kangana Ranaut Over Outrageous Remarks Made by Her, Says President Should Take Back Padma Award Given to Her.

Great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Tushar A. Gandhi said that Kangana is "an agent of hate, intolerance and rabidity", so it is not surprising she feels that India got her 'real freedom' in 2014 (when the BJP government came to power). "Hatred, bigotry, sham patriotism and oppression were liberated in India in 2014 and a very poisonous and vicious ideology gained dominance, personified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Tushar Gandhi said without mincing words. Kangana Ranaut Says She Tried to Spot Karan Johar During Padma Shri Awards.

Sena MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, "Kangana has insulted the nation which is celebrating the 75th jubilee of Indian Independence this year and must apologise to the whole country". "She says that India's freedom in 1947 was a 'bheekh' (dole). So does she mean that all the freedom fighters who have been honoured with the 'Tamra Patra' and other awards are beggars? She has defamed and maligned the whole country," Raut said.

NCP's National Spokesperson and Minorities Affairs Minister Nawab Malik said the actress may have been under the influence of narcotics when she made the comments -- referring to Kangana's past 'confession' that she used to be a drug addict. "It seems that Kangana Ranaut took a heavy dose of Malana Cream before she spoke.. She should be immediately arrested," Malik said sarcastically, hinting at the actress' home-state Himachal Pradesh where the drug (Malana Cream) is produced.

Condemning Kangana's comments, Congress General Secretary Sachin Sawant said: "This is the BJP's version of 'Jhansi Ki Rani' who dares to slander the freedom struggle and sacrifices of the martyrs by her 'Azaadi bheek me mili hai' statement now." "It's a pity that such puppets are being nurtured by the BJP deliberately. These puppets are not the real culprits but their master is," Sawant said.

Other leaders like Kishore Tiwari, Atul Londhe-Patil, Krishna Hegde and more have also attacked the actress for her remarks on a public forum and demanded a clarification from the BJP on her stand. Tushar Gandhi added that since 2014, the purveyors of hate got official sanction to freely propagate their toxic ideology. "It is not surprising that such statements were made in a function attended by the PM. After all, today, the PMO has become the 'fountain of hate' that flows abundantly in India," he said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 12, 2021 07:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Bollywood stars Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal are all set to tie the knot at the Six Senses Fort Hotel in Rajasthan's Sawai Madhopur district. The wedding celebrations will be held from December 7-12 and the booking has been done in the hotel for the wedding. However, its formal announcement is yet to be made. Katrina Kaif And Vicky Kaushal Spotted Together At Their Managers Office Amid Rumours Of December Wedding (View Pics).

Many event companies will work together to organise the VIP wedding. Different companies are being hired for different events, confirmed officials. Representatives of these event companies are searching rooms in different hotels in Sawai Madhopur. On the other hand, the team of Katrina and Vicky Kaushal has also started preparing for the wedding. Throwback! When Katrina Kaif Expressed This Desire About Vicky Kaushal That Made Him Go Bonkers on Koffee With Karan Couch (Watch Viral Video).

A 10-member team reached Six Senses Barwara Fort on Tuesday to take stock of the situation. According to the information received from the hotel management, the team monitored all arrangements related to the wedding. They did a recce from which place the groom will come sitting on the horse, where will the mehendi be organised and so on. However, the wedding programs have not been announced yet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 12, 2021 10:13 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Bengaluru, Nov 12: In a major twist to the Karnataka Bitcoin scandal, Priyank Kharge, a former minister and Congress MLA on Friday accused the police of administering mind-altering drugs to kingpin Shrikrishna Ramesh a.k.a Sriki in police custody and demanded a probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge.

"Accused Sriki's father in his application before the court had stated on January 11, 2021 that the police officers are administering mind altering drugs to his son who is in police custody. The drug is only available with prescription and not available over the counter," he said.

When the judge questioned accused Sriki on this, he replied that he has been administered drugs by the police while in custody. Taking that into consideration, the court ordered the medical investigation of his blood and urine samples. Bitcoin Scandal: Karnataka BJP Govt Rattled As Allegations Reach PMO

"The police who were supposed to get his blood and urine samples tested at the Victoria hospital, they took him to the Bengaluru Medical College and hospital. Importantly, the police have requested for the accused Sriki's stomach wash. Can anyone tell us why this was being requested," he questioned.

The medical institute says, since the hospital is being turned into a Covid centre, testing samples of blood and urine was not possible and referred it to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL). The authorities wasted one full day in the process. Instead of getting his blood, urine sample tests, the police booked him under another case (crime number 9/2019) and handed him over to the custody of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Priyank Kharge said.

"In every stage, the police have worked in favour of the main accused Sriki. By not getting him tested for drugs, the police have destroyed evidence. They have called linemen for conducting the mahajar process who do not know anything about what Bitcoins are. CID investigation into the Bitcoin scandal is a comedy," he maintained.

The police have stated that they have recovered 31 Bitcoins worth Rs 9 crore. "However, the seized Bitcoins have gone to the police wallets. The information is 187 Bitcoins that were found during conducting mahajars have gone missing and it has to be investigated," he said.

"This is not digital India. No doubt, it is an international scandal. Doesn't Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai who was then Home Minister know this? All are involved in the scandal, police involvement is also found. There is no judicious inquiry being conducted into the scandal. I demand a probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge," he demanded.

Priyank Kharge earlier had stated that if the Bitcoin scandal is investigated properly, Karnataka will see a third Chief Minister indirectly pointing towards Bommai's exit.

Bommai who was in New Delhi stated that though he wanted to discuss, Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn't show any interest and asked him not to bother about all this.

Priyank Kharge stated that the statements by Chief Minister Bommai are like invitations of settlement. "They are like, both Congress and BJP leaders are involved and let's sit for settlement," he chided.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 12, 2021 05:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has called an investigation in Texas public schools regarding the availability of sexually explicit materials on the premises.

Abbott expressed his intentions in a letter to Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath, directing a probe into books and materials containing pornography being passed out or made available for students at public schools, The Daily Wire reported. Abbott said that pornography's presence in schools is not only inappropriate but also against the law.

He continued that the agency should refer any instance of pornography being provided to minors for the prosecution to the fullest extent of the law, adding that they have the responsibility to ensure that no child is exposed to obscene content while in a Texas public school.

TEA said in a statement that it has received the governor's letter dated November 10 and is currently reviewing in accordance with their longstanding practice to investigations, according to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram report.

READ NEXT: Unvaccinated Texans Found to Be 20 Times More Likely to Have Fatal COVID Cases As Compared to Those Vaccinated: Texas Health Department

Sexually Explicit Materials in Schools

The instructions to the agency included a mention of the "Gender Queer: A Memoir" as containing "pornographic drawings." The book was described as what it means and how to think about gender identity. It was removed from the shelves of a Keller school district library.

Meanwhile, some educators were shaking their heads on the idea that there's pornography available in Texas schools.

Clay Robison, a Texas State Teachers Association spokesman, said in an email that Abbott is trying to create "a crisis that doesn't exist."

Shannon Holmes, the Association of Texas Professional Educators' executive director, said that no one in the right mind and moral character thinks Texas students should have access to pornography in public schools. Holmes added that the people who think there's a porn problem in public schools are running for public office. She added that accusations of criminal behavior by school officials call for a statewide investigation.

The Keller school district said in a statement that it will cooperate with any and all investigations prompted by the TEA.

Abbott also raised concerns with "In the Dream House," a book about the author's experience in an abusive, same-sex relationship. It was removed from shelves in the Leander school district.

Abbott earlier asked the Texas Association of School Boards to assess library materials before they are used.

Texas is not the only state making a move against the alleged presence of pornographic materials among the students. A Virginia mother has been prohibited from entering her son's public high school library weeks due to the issue of sexually explicit materials, according to a Washington Examiner report.

Stacy Langton was informed by acting Principal Maureen Keck that no parents were allowed inside the library, to which Langton replied if she could see the specific policy for herself.

Langton noted earlier that week that she had gone into the school library with her son to check out a book and that the school librarian had made no mention of such a rule.

Langton said that the librarian even aided them in searching for the book. Keck called the next day to tell her that she was not permitted to do that.

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: Gov. Abbott orders TEA criminal investigation into 'pornographic' materials in schools - FOX 4 Dallas- Fort Worth






The U.S. Appeals granted the request of former President Donald Trump on Thursday to halt the release of White House documents to the January 6 panel, as they temporarily blocked the National Archives the same day from doing so.

On Thursday, Trump requested a "brief" administrative injunction, marking their latest step to stop the National Archives from handing the documents over to the House Select Committee investing that January 6 Capitol riot, CNBC reported. It can be recalled that the National Archives was set to hand over the said documents, which includes telephone records and visitor logs, on Friday, Fox News reported.

The said documents were related to the "wide range of records" from Trump's reign in the White House, such as communications about strategies to reverse Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.

READ NEXT: Trump Allies John Eastman and Jason Miller Face Subpoena From January 6 Capitol Riot Panel

U.S. Appeals Court Blocks Release of Trump Documents

The order issued by the Appeals Court revealed that the Records Administration was also affected by the said mandate.

"The National Archives and Records Administration and the Archivist be enjoined from releasing the records requested by the House Select Committee over which appellant asserts the executive privilege, pending further of this court," the Appeals Court said in their order.

Reports reveal that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Court of Columbia Circuit granted the said order. Judges Patricia Millet, Robert Wilkins, and Ketanji Brown Jackson issued the said order, as they set arguments in the case on November 30.

Trump's lawyer, Jesse Binnall, said that the motion they submitted, which was favored by the Appeals Court, will not affect the arguments in their appeal, as it only seeks a "brief pause in the production."

Trump's attorneys also noted in their recent appeal that the "Court will consider novel and important constitutional impressions" such as separation of powers, executive privilege, and presidential records.

Meanwhile, the judges said on Thursday that the purpose of the administrative injunction they ordered is to safeguard the court's jurisdiction in addressing the "appellant's claims of executive privilege." They added that the order should not be "construed in any way as a ruling of merits."

Republican on House Select Committee Says Halting of Trump Documents 'Not a Setback'

As the U.S. Appeals Court issued an order to temporarily halt the release of the said documents, a Republican on the House Select Committee said that the recent ruling is not a "setback."

"I don't think it's a huge setback... I think we expected, frankly, that there would be a stay issued by the appeals court," Congressman Adam Kinzinger said.

Kinzinger also called Trump's effort to pause the turnover of the documents a "stall tactic."

Meanwhile, The Select Committee, which includes seven Democrats and two Republicans, pledged to proceed as quickly as possible with their investigation of the facts and causes of the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

READ NEXT: VP Kamala Harris Criticized After Allegedly Using "French Accent" While Speaking at a Paris Laboratory

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Trump Gets Delay in Release of Jan. 6 Docs - From CNBC Television
The United States government has called on Houthi rebels to release the hostages who worked for the U.S. embassy in Yemen after the group stormed inside the building.

The spokesperson said that most of the detainees had been released. However, the rebels continue to hold Yemeni employees of the embassy, according to an Aljazeera report.

The official said that they are concerned that the Yemeni staff of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa continue to be detained without explanation, urging the Houthis to leave the compound immediately and return all seized property.

Houthi rebels reportedly took the building on Wednesday. They were demanding "large quantities of equipment and materials," according to a National Review report.

U.S. President Joe Biden removed the foreign-terrorist organization designation within a month of taking office that was placed on the Houthis by the Trump administration.

The terrorist designation had cut the Houthis off from financial support and other material resources from U.S. banks or other American institutions.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the decision an acknowledgment of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen.

Biden also announced the cessation of all American support for offensive operations in the Yemeni war, including arms sales.

The United States had earlier supported the Yemeni government.

READ NEXT: Pentagon Official Says ISIS-K Can Launch Attack Outside Afghanistan in Just Six Months; U.S. Included in Possible Targets

Crisis and War in Yemen

The crisis had occurred in late 2014 when the Houthis had seized large portions of the country, including its capital Sanaa. It then escalated when the group had tried to control the entire country, which forced the country's president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee the country in March 2015, according to a BBC News report.

The eight other mostly Sunni Arab states started an air campaign targeted at defeating the Houthi's reign.

The conflict was rooted in a failure of a political process to bring stability to Yemen. Its authoritarian president Ali Abdullah Saleh had handed over power to his deputy, Hadi.

Hadi had faced several problems, such as unemployment and food insecurity, which were taken advantage of by the Houthi movement.

The Houthis went on the offensive in Marib this year, which is the government's last stronghold in the north.

Marib is also the capital of an oil-rich province.

The United Nations called for a ceasefire, issuing a warning that an all-out battle for the provincial capital could put two million civilians at risk and cause huge displacement.

The Houthis went on with their missile and drone attacks in Saudi Arabia, which often affect civilian infrastructure.

Saudi and U.S. officials have accused Iran of smuggling parts for the weapons, including arms like rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

However, Iran has denied the allegations against them.

The United Nations noted that the U.S. closed its Yemen embassy in 2015 amid a violent civil war that has since caused the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world, according to a Fox News report.

However, some Yemeni staff continued to work from home or as security guards at the embassy.

READ MORE: 2 Afghan Refugees Staying in Wisconsin Arrested for Trying to Rape Child, Strangle Woman

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Houthi rebels claim Saudi Arabia missile attack, warn of more | Riyadh | Latest English News - from WION






A Northern California dad was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole after he confessed to killing his wife and three children due to financial problems.

According to Forth Worth Star-Telegram, Shankar Hangud confessed to investigators in Placer County about killing his family members over several days across two Northern California counties in October 2019.

California Dad Kills Family After Struggling Financially

The 55-year-old California dad admitted during his confession that he could not provide for them financially. That's why he orchestrated the killings, KCRA reported. Hangud's children were aged 13, 16, and 20.

Based on the report, the prosecutors said police had arrested the California dad shortly after the killings. Prosecutors noted that the suspect drove to a police station in Mount Shasta, which is more than 200 miles from his home, with the body of his oldest son in his car and confessed to all four murders.

After his confession, police said they visited the family's apartment in Roseville, northeast of Sacramento, where they found the bodies of the three other victims.

READ NEXT: California House of Horrors: Rescued Turpin Sisters to Speak of Survival in First Public Interview

California Dad Sentenced to Life in Prison Without Parole After Killing Family Members

According to Roseville Police Captain Josh Simon, he was not expecting that this kind of incident would happen in their area. Simon said after the killings that it did not even cross his mind that an incident of this magnitude could happen in Roseville.

As he sentenced Shankar Hangud to three life prison terms, Jeffrey Penney, a Placer County Superior Court judge, called the killings a "horrific crime."

The district attorney's office said that because the California dad had killed more than one person, there's no possibility for him to get parole.

Prosecutors said Hangud claimed to be in despair after losing his IT-related job. The suspect further noted that he was also struggling in dealing with a marriage that was falling apart.

In September, the California dad pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder for his children. Hangud also pleaded guilty to one count of deliberately aiding his wife to die by suicide.

Placer County prosecutor David Tellman said it was hard to reconcile with the facts that this tragedy could happen because an individual could not get employed.

The prosecutor added that it was sad that Hangud was living in an "old-world, patriarchal thought pattern" where if he could not be a provider, he kills his family because "he doesn't want his family to have nothing" and to suffer.

Before the killings, the California dad was reportedly an unemployed data specialist. His LinkedIn profile showed that he had worked for several Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Area companies.

Based on his tax records, Shankar Hangud faced an IRS tax lien of $178,000. But his only interaction with law enforcement was only for speeding in 2016.

READ MORE: Man Dealing Fentanyl Pills That Killed Rapper Mac Miller to Plead Guilty to Drug Distribution

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: Roseville Man Who Confessed to Killing Family Faces Sentencing - From KCRA News
Dog The Bounty Hunter has speculated that the skeletal remains found in a Florida park might not belong to Brian Laundrie.

Dog the Bounty Hunter, whose real name is Duane Chapman, offered his theory during a recent interview with YouTube channel "Popcorned Planet," where he said there was "absolutely wrong" about the case of Gabby Petito's fiance.

READ NEXT: Brian Laundrie Case: FBI Has All the Information It Needs to Complete the Investigation, Family Lawyer Says

Dog the Bounty Hunter on The Reactions of Brian Laundrie's Parents Upon Discovery of Remains

Dog the Bounty Hunter said one indication for him that the remains do not likely belong to Brian Laundrie was the lack of reaction from his parents when the remains were found,

According to Daily Soap Dish, Duane Chapman noted that Laundrie's mom, Roberta Laundrie, seemed to wipe away just a single tear after being informed that her son's remains were only a few feet away from her.

Being a mom who gave birth to him, Chapman said one would expect her to scream, collapse, or at the very least sob openly. However, he noted that both parents showed almost no emotion, which was not a normal reaction of a parent who lost a child.

"If that were my child, I would be screaming, demanding to know if that were my baby," Dog the Bounty Hunter noted.

Dog The Bounty Hunter earlier said that Laundrie's parents were partially to blame for what happened to their son. The 68-year-old reality star told InTouch that Laundrie "might still be alive" if his parents had fully cooperated with authorities sooner.

"I believe if the Laundrie parents had fully cooperated from the beginning, Brian Laundrie might still be alive," Chapman noted.

Dog The Bounty Hunter Says 'Dentist' is a Relative of Brian Laundrie

Another "oddness" raised by Dog the Bounty Hunter was that the dentist involved in Brian Laundrie's case was a relative of Gabby Petito's fiance.

The FBI earlier announced that the skeletal remains discovered at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on October 20 belonged to Laundrie after a "comparison to known dental records."

According to Duane Chapman, the dentist that identified the dental records of Laundrie was his very own uncle.

Chapman also said he believes that there was a "deal" made between the Laundries and authorities in finding Laundrie's body, adding that he does not think the family was "criminal-minded enough" to do it on their own.

The reality star thinks the Laundrie family has pulled it all off with some help from the authorities. Because of this "craziness" surrounding the case, Dog the Bounty Hunter noted that for him, "there's a 50-50 chance it's (remains) not Brian."

A long-time friend of Laundrie also believed that the elder Laundries likely informed the police about the location of their son's remains in exchange for immunity.

Laundrie's friend earlier told The Sun that the agreement would likely require the Laundrie's parents to "provide the necessary evidence to close the case" and help authorities locate their son in exchange for "immunity" for possible charges like harboring or assisting.

It can be recalled that after a month-long manhunt for their son, Christopher and Roberta Laundries directed the North Port police and FBI agents to a swampy area of the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park where Laundrie's remains, backpack, and notebook were found.

But the attorney for the family of Laundrie, Steven Bertolino, has disputed the claims about the "deal" struck by the elder Laundries.

Bertolino earlier told NBC that there were no deals made between Laundrie's parents and the FBI. Bertolino said there were "charges" discussed, but there was no threat, "no coercion, and no deal was cut."

He further noted that he had "no reason to believe" that Laundrie's parents would be charged with any crimes. Brian Laundrie has been the subject of a manhunt as investigators searched for clues in Gabby Petito's disappearance and death.

Laundrie 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.

Petito disappeared on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie. The couple was traveling to Oregon when the YouTuber stopped communicating with her family in Wyoming in late August.

Gabby Petito's body was found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19.

A Teton County, Wyoming coroner said she was strangled to death by a "human being," and the manner of death was homicide.

Meanwhile, the initial autopsy of Laundrie's remains did not uncover a cause or manner of his death. Bertolino said the remains of Gabby Petito's fiance were already sent to a forensic anthropologist for further examination.

He noted that the results of the forensic anthropologist's examination are expected this month.

READ MORE: Brian Laundrie Parents Informed Police Where to Find Their Son in Exchange for 'Immunity, His Friend Claims

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: 50/50 Brian Laundrie Is Still Alive?! - Dog the Bounty Hunter EXCLUSIVE Interview - From Popcorned Planet
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.
Upwards of 400,000 is set to be spent to improve safety at two busy Laois junctions in Mountrath and Borris-In-Ossory on the former Dublin to Limerick N7, according to the Cathaoirleach of Laois County Council Cllr Conor Bergin.

The Fine Gael councillor says works are due to commence on the R445 road next week.

He said the Council secured 200,000 in early 2021 for work at Derrin Cross on the R445 at Borris-in-Ossory. He added that a further 200,000 was also secured for improvement works also on the R445 at Redcastle Junction (junction where the roads meet for Trumera and Ballyfin) outside of Mountrath.

"I have spoken to the Senior Engineers in Laois County Council today and I can confirm that works at Redcastle Junction outside Mountrath are due to begin next Tuesday, November 16. This has been long-awaited, and I can also confirm that works at Derrin Cross in Borris-In-Ossory will commence shortly afterwards," he said.

He outlined the work at Derrin Cross.

"I am advised by Laois County Council that 18 new public lights will be erected at Derrin Cross, along with new chevron signage, road markings and a concrete traffic island. Sadly, there have been a number of fatal accidents at Derrin Cross in years past, and currently there is only one light at this junction which is arguably one of the busiest in County Laois.

"Derrin Cross is the convergence of the R445 (old N7 Dublin to Limerick road) and R434 road which goes to Ballacolla, Durrow and Kilkenny. I am pleased to confirm that more public lighting will finally be erected at this junction, after many years of waiting," he said.

Cllr Bergin also explained what would be done at Mountrath.

"At Redcastle Junction outside Mountrath, I understand that 24 new public lights will be erected, along with pavement (road) surfacing, road widening and a reinforced barrier. Living in Borris-in-Ossory, I travel this road myself twice on almost a daily basis and I am aware of both how busy and dangerous this junction currently is for local residents in Mountrath, Trumera and Ballyfin and I am hopeful that these works will make our roads safer for everyone.

'Maintaining our regional and local road network in Co Laois is not only important for connectivity, but crucial to ensuring safety on our roads, reducing road collisions and protecting lives," An Cathaoirleach concluded.
A man has received a fine in Naas District Court for attending a house party during the middle of lockdown.

Marcel Coscuig, with an address given at 318 Sunday's Well in Naas, attended the party, which was held in the Ashgrove Park area, on February 20 this year.

Gardai, who arrested the 29-year-old at around 10:40pm, noted that he was intoxicated and brought him to a nearby garda station to be detained in the cells for a number of hours.

Mr Coscuig was accompanied in court by his uncle, who also translated for him.

The defence team told Judge Desmond Zaidan that his uncle was very angry and disappointed in his nephew after he found out what he had done.

They also pointed out that their client has no previous convictions.

Later on during the case, the defendant admitted that their own father has since passed away after he contracted Covid-19.

Following this, the judge remarked to the defendant: "Nobody liked going into lockdown... but the rules were there for a reason; to protect people.

The judge added: So many people lost loved ones... some couldn't even attend funerals, and those that could, had to have a closed casket ceremony... it was horrible.

And here the defendant was, going to a house party, in the middle of all this...if it all wasn't so serious, this case would be embarrassing, he concluded.

He ordered Mr Concuig to pay a 500 lump sum fine within three months.
A Deputy Minister and TD has confirmed that a number of Kildare Groups will receive 296,027 in funding.

Deputy Martin Heydon, a Fine Gael TD for Kildare South and Minister for the Department of Food, Agriculture and the Marine, has confirmed that these funds will go towards local community groups impacted by COVID-19 through the Community Activities Fund.

He explained: "The purpose of the fund is to support groups, particularly in disadvantaged areas, by providing small grants for facilities such as community centres, mens and womens sheds, parish halls and youth centres."

"Groups will also be able to use the funding to carry out necessary repairs, utility or insurance bills and to purchase equipment such as tables and chairs, tools and signage, laptops, printers, lawnmowers, canopies and training equipment."

Deputy Heydon continued: "This once-off fund is about giving a helping hand to our local groups and clubs, which have continued to serve their community during COVID-19 and while these grants may be small in nature, they will help many groups.

"In order to allow flexibility, the Dept is not setting a national closing date, but will allow each LCDC to set its own, to best suit its area."

"Supporting Community Groups is a key focus of Our Rural Future and I would encourage all interested groups to get in touch with Kildare Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) at Aras Cill Dara for more information," he concluded.

In related news, Deputy Martin Heydon TD recently welcomed the announcement of the Irish government's recent 70 million agrifood investment along with Fianna Fail Senator Fiona O' Loughlin.
A Senator from Kildare has called on the Irish government to exhume the Tuam Mother and Baby home site.

Fianna Fail Senator Fiona O' Loughlin made the comments about the scandal, which first came to light in 2012, in a recent sitting of the Seanad.

She said: "It really was just shocking. It was horrific to watch and it just really just showed us how the state has failed so many times to protect these vulnerable souls."

"The story of Catherine Corless and her incredible and tireless work is well known, and she deserves so much credit for bringing this home to the publics attention- and unfortunately the 796 babies that perished at that site and were disposed of in such a heartless and callous way are very, very well known."

Senator O' Loughlin continued: "The site needs to be exhumed, these lost souls deserve a proper and dignified burial.

"Their families deserve some closure, and to treat their family members with the respect and dignity they were not shown during their short lives and indeed in their death," she concluded.

Senator Fiona O' Loughlin's comments follow shortly after Dr Rene Gapert of the Human Remains Services Ireland said that the identification of remains at the Tuam mother and baby home 'could take years' to produce results.
A young man who rescued a nine-year-old child from the River Barrow in Athy has been rewarded for his bravery.

Local Scott McQuaid, aged 23, was awarded a Silver Medal and a Certificate of Bravery by the Ceann Comhairle, Sean O Fearghail at the National Bravery Awards.

On 28 February 2021 Declan Reid and son Aaron got into difficulty when out kayaking on the River Barrow at Ardreigh Lock, Athy.

The kayak overturned in a very cold rapid flowing river which had burst its banks.

The father managed to scream for help and keep his nine-year-old son afloat.

Scott heard the screams and entered the water.

With his lifesaving skills he managed to get to the man and his son.

He succeeded in getting the nine-year-old to the riverbank after some 10 minutes of fighting a strong current.

At this stage the current had taken the man, and tragically his body was found several days later after a massive search.

The awards also honoured people from Counties Cavan, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Offaly, Sligo, Tipperary and Waterford, and from the United States of America.

The annual honours are awarded by Comhairle na Mire Gaile  the Deeds of Bravery Council  which was founded in 1947 to enable State recognition of exceptional Acts of Bravery. The Council is chaired by the Ceann Comhairle and includes the Cathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann, the Lord Mayors of Dublin and Cork, the Garda Commissioner, the President of the Association of City & County Councils, and the Chairman of the Irish Red Cross.

The Ceann Comhairle said: The deeds we honour here are exceptional acts of bravery. They mark the moments where people saved the lives of others through their actions, risking their own lives doing so. What these awards celebrate is the noblest impulse within a human being, to risk their life in order to save another. We honour people who leaped into stormy seas, who braved swollen rivers, climbed down cliffs, assisted at road traffic collisions and performed other remarkable deeds. Through their actions there are people alive today, who would undoubtedly have died.

I am of course conscious that we mark these deeds at a time when the world is still under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. This virus has brought great pain to many families throughout the country and our hearts are heavy for the loss suffered over the last 20 months. But the exemplary service given by our doctors, nurses and frontline workers across the health service, the fire and rescue services and An Garda Siochana has brought great hope and also pride, to us all.

Today we rightly acknowledge the brave acts of heroism that our honoured guests have performed. But it also a day for remembering and acknowledging the very many acts of bravery carried out day in and day out throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. However small or big those acts were and continue to be, collectively they contribute to keeping us all safe during an unprecedented time in our lives.

The collective sense of good and indeed bravery displayed nationwide from many walks of life throughout the pandemic rightly allows us to be both proud of our communities and grateful for their existence. An Irish language expression whose literal meaning is 'It is in each others shadow that people live' but which, more broadly, invokes a sense of community and interdependence is most apt for the times we live in  Ar scath a cheile a mhaireann na daoine.
An author from Kildare who writes books that are accessible to young people with dyslexia is set to have her works feature on supermarket shelves nationwide.

Having announced the six winners of Grow with Aldi 2021 back in September, Aldi has selected 21 Irish producers and given them the opportunity to sell their wares in Aldi stores nationwide.

Among these is The Johnny Magory Company Ltd. from County Kildare, with their latest release, Johnny Magory and the Oiche Nollag Adventure, as well as Johnny Magory and the Farmyard Feasta.

Commenting on this recent announcement, the Johnny Magory Company Ltd. team said: "To have been chosen by the Aldi team as one of this years Grow with Aldi Festive programme is something that we never could have imagined this time last year!

"We are so excited to be able to reach more shoppers than ever and add to the festive cheer."

It added: "We cant wait to head to our local Aldi on November 7 and see our product on shelves!"

The Johnny Magory series was created by Emma-Jane Leeson, who was recently awarded Network Ireland's Business Woman of the Year National Award for the Creative Professional, and educates children on Irish heritage, language and wildlife in adventures featuring the title character.

Ms Leeson is currently in the process of writing an animated series about Johnny Magory.

Further details about the Johnny Magory series of books can be found at its official website: www.johnnymagory.com.
The jury in the trial of Stephen Penrose, who is accused of murdering a friend whose decapitated body was found in a Kildare woods, has ceased their deliberations and will return to the Central Criminal Court on Monday.

The panel of eight men and four women spent three hours and 36 minutes considering their verdict today. At 4pm this afternoon, Mr Justice Alexander Owens asked them to suspend their deliberations for the weekend and return to court on Monday morning, when they will decide if the accused should be found guilty of murdering Philip Finnegan or not.

When asked by the judge if they needed any exhibits, the forewoman of the jury replied: "I think we are ok for the moment".

The judge then sent the 12 jurors home and wished them a good weekend.

Mr Penrose (38), of Newtown Court, Malahide Road, Coolock, Dublin 17, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Finnegan (24) at Rahin Woods, Rahin, Edenderry, Co Kildare on August 10, 2016.

The trial has heard that Mr Finnegan was missing for just over three weeks before a dog walker and his two pets found his "skeletonised" remains buried in a shallow grave in the Kildare woods on September 2, 2016.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster has testified that the decapitated remains of Mr Finnegan were found in the grave and attempts had been made to burn his body. In the expert witness's view, Mr Finnegan's death was caused by multiple stab wounds to the body, including two fatal ones to his liver and aorta.

A forensic scientist told the jury that a DNA profile generated from a bloodied glove discovered near the remains of Mr Finnegan matched the DNA of Mr Penrose.

In his charge to the jury yesterday, Thursday, Mr Justice Owens said that when considering their verdict, they must ignore the fact that Mr Penrose chose to be unrepresented and declined to attend his trial and that he had "an outburst" in the courtroom.

The judge also said they must not let their views of Mr Penrose's general character "impinge" on their decision in the case and that his "repeated hiring and firing of solicitors and barristers" was irrelevant.

In the first week of the case, the judge warned Mr Penrose that he would be taken to the cells and banned from participating in his own trial, where he is representing himself, if he continued to "abuse" and "ballyrag" witnesses.

Mr Justice Owens said at the time that he would not allow his courtroom to become "a circus" after the defendant Mr Penrose accused a garda Inspector, who he was cross-examining, of lying under oath. "He is telling bullshit about me," Mr Penrose shouted in the courtroom, before demanding that the witness be "dismissed" from his trial as his "word" could not be accepted.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Penrose dispensed with what was his second legal team "once again" and declined to continue attending his trial. The case proceeded in his absence.

The judge also told the jurors in his charge that the accused had no obligation to cross-examine witnesses or give evidence in his own defence.

Furthermore, he said the accused had elected not to give a closing speech and the prosecution did not have a right to give a closing speech as Mr Penrose was unrepresented for most of the trial and had not called any witnesses.

The jury can return two verdicts in relation to the murder charge against Mr Penrose, namely; guilty of murder or not guilty.

Mr Justice Owens told the jurors that they must be unanimous in their verdict before sending them away to begin deliberations at 11.30am this morning.
A TD from Kildare has called for the Irish government to take action in order to avert the energy costs crisis.

Speaking on a motion to address the causes of the crisis, Patricia Ryan TD said: "This is the second month in a row in which we have debated a motion that seeks action to address an energy crisis: the Government does not care that workers and families are struggling to pay the increase cost of bills."

"Last month, the Government and its supporters, including both of my constituency colleagues, voted against a motion that would have made a real difference."

She continued: "That motion would have set a maximum unit price on electricity, gas, and home heating oil under section 62 of the Consumer Protection Act 2007.

"The choice is in the Government's hands, but time after time it chooses vested interests over the needs of people."

Ms Ryan emphasised that the crisis needs "to be recognised", saying: "We are facing our second winter of this pandemic and families have been through enough following a tough year."

"Many have been laid off work and have been ill or have lost loved ones... they have experienced difficult financial circumstances and they need help, but instead of throwing them a lifeline, the Government is offering them a rock."

"There is a cost-of-living crisis and it needs to be addressed.

"While there is also a climate crisis, loading carbon taxes on the working poor who cannot afford to change heating systems or install renewable technology is not the answer."

"As other Members have stated, there have been at least 35 energy price increases by suppliers this year; household bill costs have skyrocketed by more than 800, and electricity prices in Ireland are the highest in the EU."

"The Money Advice & Budgeting Service (MABS) has warned that households face a potential emergency this winter in trying to heat their homes, which Deputy O'Reilly has just explained to the Minister of State."

She concluded: "As energy prices soar higher, voters will remember who stood up for them when it comes to the next election. I urge all Deputies to support this motion."

Speaking after the motion, the South-Kildare politician said: "I am inundated with people who are really struggling."

"The local St Vincent de Paul are doing the best they can, but they have limited resources; it shouldnt be up to them, there is a lot of hardship out there."

"This government have no idea how difficult it is for some families: they need to act soon before the real winter weather arrives," she added.

Ms Ryan's calls echo the sentiments expressed by Labour Senator Mark Wall earlier this week, who urged the govt to cut VAT on energy bills and fuel cut for winter.
Cllr Paddy Farrell has urged the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly to reverse a HSE decision he says has resulted in the closure and downgrading of day services in Co Leitrim.

Highlighting the issue at the November Council meeting, Cllr Farrell said that Leitrim has put up with a lot of closures and downgrading over the last few years and accused the HSE of deliberately sending inspectors in (to day service centres) to close them down.

He said he wanted to see a strong message going forward from (the November Council meeting) to the Minister for Health to reverse the decision to close services in Mohill in particular.

Cllr Sean McGowan backed the motion noting that day services in Mohill were withdrawn over something very small.

Cllr Thomas Mulligan said that service users are now being brought from Mohill into Ballinamore despite the fact that he believed the facilities in Mohill are just as good as those in Ballinamore.

Cllr Des Guckian strongly supported the motion stating local elderly should be accommodated in their own area. He stated this was especially important here in Leitrim where there is a large elderly population.

Fine Gael councillor, Ita Reynolds Flynn also backed the motion noting that Ballinamore hospital is not being used for what it was intended to be used for as a result. She said that the HSE has to answer questions about where (these service changes) will end.

Cllr Felim Gurn and Cathaoirleach, Cllr Paddy O'Rourke also added their support with Cllr O'Rourke stating he could see no solution to this problem until the issues in Mohill (day service) are resolved.

This would allow Ballinamore Hospital to open for the reason it was intended and allow it to reach its full potential.

It was noted that the HSE had been invited to attend a meeting of Carrick-on-Shannon Municipal District with Cllr Enda Stenson suggesting this be extended to a meeting of the whole council.

However he was told that the HSE had contacted the local authority and informed them they would not be a position to attend the Carrick-on-Shannon MD meeting and from the correspondence, they seemed to indicate they would be more open to an online meeting.

Cllr Mulligan pointed out that whether the meeting was in person or online, the media should also be invited to cover it.

Cathaoirleach, Cllr Paddy O'Rourke concluded matters noting that the call for a meeting with the HSE cannot be left to the January meeting of Leitrim County Council to resolve.

If everyone is agreed we will ask for a meeting and we will circulate details on it as soon as we receive confirmation, he said.
THERE are 19 unoccupied social houses in Abbeyfeale alone but the majority of them, 15, could be categorised as derelict and will not be available for tenants until the end of 2022 at the earliest.

Meanwhile, 101 people on the councils housing waiting list put Abbeyfeale down as their first preference.

The figures were released to Abbeyfeale councillor Liam Galvin this month at the same time as he was told the council itself only had plans to build four infill houses in the town.

Of the 15 houses in bad condition, i.e. category three and four, he was also informed, 11 are to be transferred to housing association Cluid. It is expected that four houses will be let by next February

Meanwhile, the figures also revealed that 12 applicants had put Athea as their first choice, where permission for four houses has been granted and there is potential for five further units.

Mountcollins was the number one choice for six applicants and plans are underway for four or possibly five new houses there.

The council has enough land for ten new units in Templeglantine, Cllr Galvin was told. At this stage, five applicants have given Templeglantine as their first choice but 23 have put it as their second choice.

Cllr Galvin, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the slowness of the system.

There are houses vacant in Abbeyfeale for nearly five years, he said. Yet you have 101 people putting Abbeyfeale down as their first preference.

He believes the process of turning around council owned houses for new tenants must be speeded up. But he also argued that the process of building new social housing must be shortened. It is taking up to four and five years to get through the four-stage process, he pointed out.

The council must start building small developments in the small towns and villages in the district, he said. Towns and villages where no development is taking place are feeling the knock-on effects in their schools and clubs, he added. And he has called on the council to prepare Part 8 plans for the small towns and villages all over Limerick, as a matter of urgency and then demand the government funding.

This, Cllr Galvin continued, might require hard decisions, such as the acquisition of land where the council doesnt own any at the moment.

Unfortunately, he said, Affordable Housing is not an option for those living in Co Limerick. It is only for those living in Limerick and other cities and in towns with a population over 10,000 he claimed. And he argued for a simpler scheme, that would be available to people willing to build their own home in rural Ireland.

Give them back a percentage of their VAT, he said.
A LIMERICK boy has been listed as a finalist in a social enterprise leadership competition that looks for individuals that influence Ireland for the better.

Eleven-year-old Knockainey native, Padraig OCallaghan, is a finalist in the prestigious LIFT leadership awards - details of which were announced this week.

Padraig, who was presented with a Limerick Person of the Month award in May, has been nominated in the Positive Attitude category.

LIFT Ireland is a social enterprise that works to build positive leadership skills in communities in Limerick and across Ireland.

Its annual awards celebrate everyday leaders at all levels of Irish society across the country.

Over 150 people were nominated for LIFT awards this year.



See the shortlist here for those inspiring leaders we have amongst us: https://t.co/W3VbvKG5qN



Dont forget the LIFT Awards ceremony takes place November 17th at 7pm  book your spot here: https://t.co/Y3GubPUADT pic.twitter.com/BVBmFRh5cI November 10, 2021

Those shortlisted are people from across Ireland who have demonstrated great personal leadership, making a difference to the people around them and influencing Ireland for the better.

The County Limerick boy, who has Down Syndrome, has been lauded for his weekly motivational Paudcast video series with his father Brian throughout the pandemic.

His kindness, positivity and confident communication skills shine brightly, and have now landed him with the opportunity to take home another award marked for exceptional leadership.

The winner of each category will be announced at an online awards event on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.
At least three people were killed and 15 wounded on Friday after a bomb blast at a mosque in Afghanistan's restive Nangarhar Province, said a Taliban spokesperson.

The blast  for which no group has yet claimed responsibility  underscores one of the many challenges facing the new Taliban regime in Afghanistan, with the UN warning the country is also on the brink of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

It happened during Friday prayers in the Spin Ghar district of the eastern province, a hotbed of Islamic State group activity since the Taliban seized power in the country in August.

"I can confirm a blast during Friday prayers inside a mosque in Spin Ghar district. There are casualties and fatalities," a Taliban official was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.

Walli Mohammed, a local elder and activist, said that the bomb appeared to have been hidden in a loudspeaker near the imam's rostrum.

When the speaker was switched on to sound the azaan  the call to begin the prayer ritual  the device detonated, he said.

The Afghan branch of the Islamic State group has been waging a campaign of violence in the Nangarhar Province, since the Taliban's return to power.

Although both IS and the Taliban are hardline Sunni Islamist militant groups, they differ on the issues of religion and strategy, which has led to fierce fighting between the two.

The IS, which first emerged in Nangarhar in 2015, has claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks in Afghanistan, including one at Kabul airport as the US and other countries rushed to evacuate their citizens and Afghan allies from the country.

Among the scores killed were 13 US soldiers, the worst single-day loss for the Pentagon in Afghanistan since 2011.

One of the latest, in early November, saw IS fighters' raid the Kabul National Military Hospital, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 50.

More than 120 people were killed in IS attacks earlier this year on two mosques popular with the ethnic minority Hazara community.

The Taliban said it has started a counterinsurgency campaign, vowing to put down the threat from IS.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Taliban intelligence service told reporters in Kabul that the agency has arrested close to 600 IS members, including key figures and financial supporters. The spokesman, Khalil Hamraz, said at least 33 IS members have been killed in gun battles with Taliban security forces.

Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.
Click here to read the full article.

The Day N Vegas festival, which starts on Friday, offers a formidable collection of talent  Pulitzer Prize winners (Kendrick Lamar) and vocal virtuosos (Jazmine Sullivan), radio hitmakers (Doja Cat) next to underground stalwarts (Freddie Gibbs). With around 40 performances each day, its an almost overwhelming display of the best and brightest in hip-hop and R&B.

But one major star is no longer on the lineup: Travis Scott. The rapper was set to headline Saturdays festivities during the three-day event, but he pulled out after last weekend, when his Astroworld festival in Houston devolved into a trampling crush of bodies, leaving at least nine people dead and hundreds injured. Post Malone will sub in for Scott on Saturday.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officials said this week that they had been speaking with their counterparts in Houston about last weeks tragedy in an attempt to make sure nothing similar takes place this weekend. Our department has been in touch with officials over in Houston with regards to the incident that took place there, says Officer Misael Parra. Obviously we dont want a repeat of that in our city. Weve been in communication about the things that were in place there and the things that went wrong. Weve made some adjustments over here to try to mitigate any potential problems that might arise. (A representative for AEG, which owns the Day N Vegas promoter Goldenvoice, declined to comment.)

Officials mostly avoided providing specific details about those adjustments, frequently citing operational security. Officer Parra declined to comment when asked about the number of police and security personnel that would be on site for Day N Vegas. (For comparisons sake, there were more than 1,000 private security employees and police officers at Astroworld.) The chief of the Clark County fire department also declined to answer questions, directing queries back to the police department.

Las Vegas police and government officials were quick to note that they are used to hosting festivals far bigger than Astroworld without a hitch. Electric Daisy Carnival is their largest event, according to Larry Hadfield, an LVMPD public information officer, with more than 150,000 attendees a day for three straight days. The Life Is Beautiful festival also reportedly brings in 60,000 people a day, making it even more robust than Day N Vegas, according to Dina Dalessio, deputy chief of operations for Las Vegas.

We definitely approach these types of mass gatherings quite different than most people do around the country, Dalessio continues. We have so many of them, weve learned from other big incidents, and weve had some experiences that would warrant developing policies, procedures, and best practices that weve implemented.

Dalessio says that Las Vegas and neighboring Clark County, where Day N Vegas takes place, now rely on a real standard approach when it comes to festivals. She ticks off a series of examples: The way we create a perimeter with fencing, with egress and access points, hundreds of police, 50-plus private ambulance personnel, a lot of internal teams on ground management, multiple cameras that law enforcement has set up everywhere, and one big command post where you can hone in on anything in two seconds.

A key part of the citys advance preparation, Dalessio says, is a series of tabletops  the rest of us just call these meetings  with festival staff and law-enforcement agencies, where attendees game out every conceivable disaster ahead of time. The latest tabletop occurred on Tuesday, according to Officer Hadfield.

You name the scenario, we work through it, Dalessio explains. A hostile MCI  mass casualty incident  could be anything from a vehicle ramming to an active shooter, or it could be that some sort of mass amount of people took a bad batch of a drug. In each potential disaster scenario, Officer Hadfield says that festival organizers, law enforcement, the fire department, and medical personnel determine what their responsibility would be.

Of course, Astroworld planners had also prepared for  or at least imagined the possibility of  a wide variety of disaster scenarios. According to an Event Operations Plan that runs close to 60 pages, these potential incidents included assaults (detain the perpetrator if SAFE to do so), active shooters (determine the most reasonable way to protect your own life), riots (the key  is proper management of the crowd from the minute the doors open), earthquakes (move away from buildings), and tornadoes (seek shelter).

However, that operations plan did not provide any instructions about how to respond to a deadly crowd surge or a mosh pit turned dangerous  even though Scott concerts are known for their ferocious energy. The star has been accused of inciting riots at performances in the past. Hes also facing a civil suit from a concertgoer claiming he was partially paralyzed at one of the rappers shows.

Officer Hadfield declined to say whether one of the scenarios discussed during the Las Vegas tabletops included the type of surge and panic that took place at Astroworld. We assess events by looking to see if there have been any historical problems with it, he explains. To my knowledge, [a crowd surge] isnt something that would regularly happen at an event like this. And as we know, that artist that encouraged that type of behavior is not going to be here in Las Vegas.

Officer Parra did point to one adjustment festival planners made after the Houston catastrophe. The way the barriers are set up in front of the stages is going to allow for quick egress should the need arise, he explains. If anyone from the crowd needs to quickly evacuate the area, theyll be able to do so without any issues. He declined to share details about any other last-minute changes to Day N Vegas security plans, again pointing to operational security.

Another problem at Astroworld was communication breakdown. The fire department said it was unable to reach medical personnel over the radio, meaning officers were forced to rely on cellphones, which were spotty during the middle of a disaster. The chief of the fire department also said his crew did not have direction communication with festival organizers as the mass casualty incident unfolded.

Dalessio was not worried about this sort of failure. For festivals in the Las Vegas area, we have a very collaborative, coordinated effort across all the agencies here, all the emergency response, law enforcement, fire, private, down to the organization thats handling the event, she says. We do it really well.
Click here to read the full article.

CODA may be the most radical Oscar contender this year.

Writer-director Sian Heder tells Variety, We told a simple story about family dynamics. I was trying to portray a complicated family that felt real.

Shes right: The structure is straightforward and the story is indeed simple, about a hearing daughter from a deaf family who wants to pursue her own career.

But the film is revolutionary because it centers on a deaf family. Has any other film in Hollywood history offered such insights into the daily lives of deaf people? Most films ignore them; if a film does depict a deaf person, theyre usually alone  and usually played by a hearing actor. Deafness is a problem to be overcome, usually with the help of the hearing characters.

Marlee Matlin, who plays the matriarch in CODA, says: Sian put these characters front and center, thats part of the films appeal; audiences havent seen this before; this movie fulfills the thirst of audiences for something new.

Heder adds: The story is about a family struggling with all sorts of things. Being deaf is part of their identity, but its not what defines them as characters. The Rossis deafness is not what theyre struggling with.

Emilia Jones plays Ruby Rossi, a CODA (child of deaf adults), the only hearing person in her family. Her mother, dad and brother are played respectively by Matlin, Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant, who are deaf/hard of hearing in real life.

Authentic casting seems like a no-brainer, but CODA is based on a 2014 French film La Famille Belier, in which most deaf characters were played by hearing actors.

When doing research, Heder spent a lot of time with the deaf community, which cemented her instincts for an authentic remake. The studio wanted hearing actors to play the family, and a pop star to play Ruby.

That wasnt the film I wanted to make, says Heder.

So when exec Patrick Wachsberger left the studio, he took CODA and found financing via Europes Vendome and Pathe. Heder says, It was amazing to find financiers who believed in the movie. Philippe Rousselet, one of the CODA producers, was a producer of La Famille. He was so excited by the change  to take story and do it in a way that felt more authentic.

CODA is airing on Apple TV Plus and works like gangbusters in home viewing; in a theater, theres the bonus of hearing audiences laugh throughout the film until they start weeping.

CODA was voted audience favorite at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as winning three other awards  for directing, special jury and grand jury prizes.

I think one of the reasons people react so strongly is because its so funny; its not pushing for emotions, Heder says.

Matlin says the CODA dynamics are similar to two very different films: Parasite and Minari, which were about families that were unique but somehow universal.

The films insights into deaf culture are a welcome antidote to such past Oscar honorees as Johnny Belinda (best actress winner Jane Wyman), The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Alan Arkin), Babel (Rinko Kikuchi) and comedies including Murder by Death and See No Evil, Hear No Evil.

Its nice to think CODA will be a turning point in authentic casting  or is that too optimistic?

You cant be too optimistic, Matlin says. You have a right to be optimistic. People give speeches about how great it is to see authentic casting, but Ive yet to see it happen in a huge way, for all under-represented groups. We cannot sit back any longer. This has ignited a fire you cant put out.

Heder adds: The way studio movies have been financed is problematic for authentic casting and under-represented groups. Theres a scramble to get movie stars and were missing out on incredible, authentic actors.

Matlin concludes, We need to put responsibility on these stars: They can make things happen. It should be on their shoulders too.

Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Click here to read the full article.

A man arrives at an airport. Situated in a remote place, surrounded by vast desolate landscapes, this modern building feels like a mirage, not so much out of place as out of time. The airport, he knows, is empty though not abandoned. There may be no planes but there are employees ambling about, traffic controllers busying themselves up in the tower and cleaning ladies complaining about their Sisyphean tasks. The man is expected, after all. It is he who will assess whether this cathedral of an airport, as its described to him, with its showy architectural flourishes that stand in stark contrast to its dusty surroundings, will finally be vetted and approved for operation.

The premise for Nora Martirosyans Should the Wind Drop reads like a short story. Theres a minimalism to its plot and characters  not to mention its setting  that makes it feel like a distilled proposition, one meant to capture in miniature the state of the Republic of Artsakh, a breakaway state in the South Caucasus. In case youre not familiar with Republic of Artsakh, (also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic NKR), the violence that it suffered during the 90s or the current cease-fire that has kept the Stepanakert Airport a shell of its own self since it was first shuttered during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1990, Should the Wind Drop opens with a breezy expository-heavy conversation between Alain Delange (Gregoire Colin) and his local driver.

A French man tasked with investigating the airport and making sure its up to international standards, Delange makes for a perfect audience surrogate. Hes as clueless as we are about the Republic of Artsakh and the early-90s violence that led to the ceasefire. (Of course you didnt know, his driver ribs him. You were looking at Yugoslavia back then.) Thankfully, Martirosyan  in a script she co-wrote with Olivier Torres, Guillaume Andre and novelist Emmanuelle Pagano  never gets bogged down in details. Hazily sketched, the main issue at hand for Delange is one of a contested border, which may or may not allow the airport enough air space for safe passage for planes who may need to, in case of emergency, circle back around.

To Delange this may well be a regular assignment. But to his hosts, the chance to get the airport back up and running is a matter of national urgency. After all, an airport is a border in itself, one which would have to be acknowledged by the international community if suddenly planes could fly in and out of Stepanakert, further connecting the region with the outside world. As it is, the region is only recognized by bordering Armenia (the country, in fact, whos submitted Martinosyans film to the Academy as their shot at an international feature Oscar). Theres a neediness to those around Delange but he seems mostly unmoved. Colin plays Delange as an aloof numbers guy, focused on coordinates and maps, not quite eager to delve into geopolitical diplomacy.

Against the absurdity of watching rigid bureaucracy run up against a reality thats as fallible as the humans who inhabit it, first-time filmmaker Martirosyan often leaves Delange and turns her camera toward Edgar (a wearied, wide-eyed Hayk Bakhryan). The small child, who runs around with two plastic jugs in tow, selling cups of water to anyone he meets, is as curious as he is indifferent to the world Delange represents.

Edgar sees no trouble in cutting across the airport fields to save himself some travel time, nor does he ever pay attention to the ramshackle gates that are erected precisely to keep the area clear of interlopers (an obvious requirement for a functional airport). Initially, Edgar is proof positive for Delange that the Stepanakert Airport is sure to fall short, more a lofty promise than a working piece of infrastructure. Its almost comic how obvious it is that his report is going to be negative  no matter how much schmoozing and cajoling hes subject to. Except, perhaps predictably, Delange begins to thaw and see this isolated country and the folks around it for who they are and who they wish to become, for the country they know the airport will make of them.

As a portrait of the Republic of Artsakh, Should the Wind Drop is remarkable, sparse but probing with just enough visual poetry to cut through what may, on the page, sound like a simple and utterly implausible premise. With the aid of DP Simon Roca, who turns this arid landscape into a character unto itself; composer Pierre Yves Cruauds piercingly jagged score; and co-editor (and recent Oscar nominee) Yorgos Lamprinos (The Father), Martirosyan has created a languidly paced Kafkaesque fable of sorts. Thus, when the film jolts into its third act climax forcing Delange to grapple with the reality of a contested border, the Armenian filmmaker artfully captures the near-farce of this scenario where men with guns and bombs end up rendering Delanges final report all but inconsequential, its final moments punctuating the films many meditations with the punch of a great kicker.

The literariness of Should the Wind Drop is what makes it so entrancing, even as the film can often feel intentionally obfuscating, both too slight and too vast. Its themes, its setting and its characters coil around one another tightly, echoing each other with the deft precision of a writer who doesnt waste a single word, punctuation mark, or vivid image. They all serve the same purpose; to stress the alienating existence of a country with borders but no international legitimacy; the melancholy of an airport with no planes; the crushing cruelty of feeling displaced in a place you call home.

Reviewed at Asian World Festival (online), Nov. 4, 2021. (In Cannes, Toronto, AFI Fest film festivals.) Running time: 100 MIN. (Original title: Si le vent tombe)

Running Time: Running time: 100 MIN.

Production

(France-Armenia-Belgium) A Sister Prods., Aneva Prod., Kwassa Films production, with the participation of Centre National de la Cinematographie et de lImage Animee, NCCA, CCA de la Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles, BNP Paribas Fortis Film Finance, Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Federal Belge, TV5 Monde, La Procirep, Hubert Bals Fund, in association with Cineventure 4. Producers: Julie Paratian, Ani Vorskanyan, Annabella Nezri.

Crew

Director: Nora Martirosyan. Screenplay: Nora Martirosyan, Emmanuelle Pagano, Olivier Torres, Guillaume Andre. Camera: Simon Roca. Editor: Nora Martirosyan & Yorgos Lamprimos. Music: Pierre-Yves Cruad.

With

Gregoire Colin, Hayk Bakhryan, Arman Navasardyan, David Hakobyan, Vartan Petrossian, Narine Grigoryan. (Karabakh dialect, Armenian, French, Russian dialogue)

Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Click here to read the full article.

Nearly two decades ago, Megan Mylan co-directed Lost Boys of Sudan, a memorable documentary chronicling hope and upheaval among seven young men who landed in the U.S. after surviving village massacres during that nations second civil war. (There has since been a third.) Enough has happened in the interval that Mylans new Simple as Water arrives in a very different climate, where such conflicts and their refugees are sociopolitical issues the world over.

Here, the subjects are four families pried apart by Syrias ongoing civil war, their optimism if not their determination ebbing in the face of bureaucratic and other hurdles to reunion. Portraying exiles stuck in a holding pattern over which they have little control, Water is perhaps inevitably not as engrossing as Lost Boys, which had the advantage of witnessing real change in its protagonists lives. But its still . HBO is giving the feature limited theatrical play before its broadcast and streaming launch on Nov. 16.

In a film sans explanatory text or narration, we seldom get much detail on how exactly the principals came to be where they are, or the circumstances of their initial flight. Nor is there general background on the overall Syrian situation, which has been one of violent struggle between different internal factions (fueled by various foreign powers support of government and rebel forces) for just over a decade now.

Instead, the focus here is on the everyday plight of persons whose forced, emergency solutions have turned into long-term ruts from which there are no clear or reliable escape routes. Yasmin is in a tent camp for refugees with her four young children, in an Athens port area under an overpass. Theyre relatively new arrivals, if already eager to move on. When that will happen is anyones guess, as her husband does not yet have the papers to initiate a family-reunification process in Germany, where hes landed.

Still more desperate is Samra, whose husband was arrested for his regime affiliations some time ago and hasnt been heard from since. Now she toils as a fieldworker in Turkey, forced to leave 12-year-old eldest Fayez in charge of the other four kids each day. Its a strait so dire shes considering putting them all into the institutional care of an orphanage, an option premature man of the house Fayez derides as a life of humiliation.

Omar and his younger brother Abdulrahman are in Pennsylvania while they await judgment on their separate applications for asylum. Omar works in a warehouse; the teen, who lost part of a leg when their home was bombed, is doing well in ninth grade. But though theyre everything to each other, the siblings future together is uncertain: Because he once served in the Free Syrian Army, Omar is viewed as having engaged in terrorist activity by the U.S. government. Their chances might be better in Canada.

A different case is that of middle-aged Diaa, who remains with her husband and disabled youngest child in northwest Syrian city Masyaf. But she seems to spend nearly all her time on digital devices, trying to dig up any word about elder son Mohammad. They sent him to Egypt to escape the death and destruction, but he sneaked back without telling them. Now, five years later, they can only hope he is among detainees liberated from ISIS, eligible for a prisoner exchange program. That is, if he is still alive.

Though purportedly shot over five years course, Simple as Water offers more a series of individual snapshots than anything resembling narrative arcs. However, the film breaks from that in its final segment, as we see Yasmins husband, Safwan, in quaint German hamlet Butzbach, sharing accommodations with other Syrian men anxious to be reunited with their families. For him, that day actually comes to pass, and after witnessing so much stressful frustration, this clans joy at being together again is very poignant. Whatever adversities they continue to face, one senses, nothing will be so daunting as their separation has already been.

With three credited DPs, Mylans visual presentation nonetheless maintains a certain consistency of elegant widescreen composition, and the complementary editorial pace here is concise yet unhurried. An ethereal original score by Hanan Townshend underlines the protagonists state of limbo, as they tread water hoping for a more stable future their children can plant new roots in.

Reviewed online, Nov. 11, 2021. (In Tribeca, AFI Fest film festivals.) Running time: 99 MIN.

Running Time: Running time: 99 MIN.

Production

(Doc) An HBO Documentary Films release of a Principe Prods. presentation, in association with Inmaat Prods., JustFilms/Ford Foundation. Producers: Robin Hessman, Megan Mylan. Co-producers: Hazem Obid, Alaa Hassan, Yara Hassan.

Crew

Director: Megan Mylan. Camera: Lars Skree, Michael Chin, Rafia Salmeh. Editors: Purcell Carson, Megan Mylan. Music: Hanan Townshend.

With

Yasmin Al Kadad, Samra Abo Ghanooj, Omar Sabha, Diaa Al Bahry, Safwan Al Kadad. (Arabic, English, German dialogue)

Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Click here to read the full article.

The Swifties have spoken. If they had their way, All Too Well: The Short Film would sweep the Oscars and Grammys too.

Before the 10-minute film hit the Internet on Friday night, Swift attended a premiere of the project  which she wrote and directed  at the AMC Lincoln Square 13 (a multiplex with the same number of screens as her favorite number) in New York City. The theater was packed with her fans, who wore red, naturally, and cheered and sang along at Swifts own encouragement.

Swift has never commented on the exact origins of All Too Well, which came out nearly 10 years ago. But according to clues put together by her followers, the song details Swifts painful breakup from Jake Gyllenhaal, who dated the singer in 2010.

Before the short film started, Swift thanked her fans for helping her create a cinematic universe around the song.

For me personally, this song is 100 percent about us and you, Swift told the group, as she explained how All Too Well didnt even have its own music video when she released her album Red.

Thats all changed now. All Too Well: The Short Film is like a music video on steroids meets a Noah Baumbach movie. Its set to Swifts 10-minute, extended version of All Too Well, a bonus track part of Swifts Red (Taylors Version), which was released on Friday. In the new lyrics to the song, Swift sings: You kept me like a secret and I kept you like an oath/You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine, and that made me want to die.

The movie features dialogue  mostly fighting  between the lead actors: Sadie Sink (Stranger Things) as a younger Swift, and Dylan OBrien (as presumably Gyllenhaal). In real life, Gyllenhaal is nine years older than Swift.

For those who have loved and wondered about the basis of All Too Well over the years, the video offers new glimpses (we think). In one scene, the male character complains that his girlfriend is too quiet around his friends, and she  in tears  blames him for not holding her hand at the dinner table.

He also doesnt attend her 21st birthday, and theres an appearance of the infamous scarf thats a lyric in the song, left at her boyfriends sisters house (and also featured in a real-life paparazzi shot of Swift walking with Gyllenhaal).

Swift appears in a cameo as herself at the end, in a sequence where shes written a novel called All Too Well based on the doomed relationship.

As the crowd entered the theater on Friday afternoon, they were handed a packet of tissues with the name of the song.

The screening ended with Swift performing the 10-minute version of All Too Well live with a red guitar. She then played the movie again, as she left the theater.

"Wind in my hair, I was there, I remember it all too well. Taylor Swift performs #AllTooWell (10 Minute Version) at the premiere of her short film. https://t.co/amWcDJTHSy pic.twitter.com/EEQD2Arp5d  Variety (@Variety) November 12, 2021

Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The defense lawyer for a man accused of filming the murder of Ahmaud Arbery  a Black man who was jogging through a Georgia neighborhood when two residents shot and killed him in 2020  said that he didnt want any more black pastors in the courtroom during trial.

Reverend Al Sharpton sat with Arberys family on Wednesday to observe the court proceedings. Gregory and Travis McMichael, a father and son, stand accused of murder and aggravated assault. Also on trial is William Roddie Bryan, who filmed the incident. Bryan is represented by Kevin Gough, the attorney who made the remarks about black pastors. All three men are white. They have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In court on Thursday, Gough objected to having any more leaders like Sharpton in the room because their mere presence would intimidate the jury (which is made up of almost exclusively white people). If were going to start a precedent starting yesterday where were going to bring high-profile members of the African-American community into the courtroom to sit with the family during the trial in the presence of the jury I believe intimidating, thats an attempt to pressure or influence the jury, Gough told the judge.

Clip for second reference, which begins seconds after the clip above (the Colonel Sanders reference comes at the end): pic.twitter.com/f0ecXOdeUv  Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) November 11, 2021

He continued: The idea that were going to be serially bringing these people in to sit with the victims family, one after another  obviously, theres only so many pastors they can have. And if their pastors Al Sharpton right now, thats fine. But then thats it. We dont want any more Black pastors coming in here  Jesse Jackson, or whoever was in here earlier this week  sitting with the victims family, trying to influence the jury in this case.

Gough then started to dig himself into an even deeper hole, saying, If a bunch of folks came in here dressed like Colonel Sanders with white masks sitting in the back

But Judge Timothy Walmsley interrupted the lawyer, stopping him mid-sentence. The fact that nobody even noticed that [Sharpton] was in here means that everybody compiled with this courts rulings, Walmsley said, adding that he wasnt going to blanketly exclude members of the public. Gough admitted during his rant that he hadnt realized Sharpton was in the room until later that evening.

This isnt Goughs only strange statement in this case. During jury selection, Gough claimed that older, white Southern men were significantly underrepresented in the jury pool, from which the eventual jury was to be selected.

Those eventual selections, however, have drawn criticism. Eleven white people and one Black person now sit on the jury, with only white people serving as alternates. Thats because the defense struck 11 of 12 potential Black jurors.

In addition to charges they face from the state of Georgia, a federal grand jury indicted all three men on hate crime charges this past April.
Veterans were honored in a ceremony Thursday at 11 a.m. at The American Legion Post 59 in downtown Laredo, led by Lt. Cmdr. and Navy Reserve Douglas M. Alford along with other local figures.

Among the guests present were Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz, Rep. Henry Cuellar, County Commissioner Cindy Liendo and County Clerk Margie R. Ibarra.

Honored in the ceremony were World War II veteran Antonio Carranco, the mother of Lance Cpl. David Lee Espinoza in Elizabeth Holguin and Carroll E. Summers Jr. Carranco was gifted a vest and both Holguin and Summers were presented with a plaque for their services.

Carranco, born in Laredo in 1922, was sworn into the United States Army in 1942. Because of his love for mechanics, he was assigned to the 25th Bomb Squadron as an engine mechanic on the B-24 Heavy Bomber. Carranco, then a private, culminated his duty after the dropping of the two atom bombs on Japan, being discharged on Feb. 21, 1946. For his service, he received The American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.

Holguin received a plaque honoring Espinozas dedicated service. Born in Laredo in 2001, David graduated from Lyndon B. Johnson High School. He was sworn into the Marine Corps in 2019 and was sent to California. Espinoza was killed during a humanitarian mission in the final days of the Afghanistan War earlier this year.

Cuellar reminded guests that Espinoza has been honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, and he invited everyone to attend the ceremony in Washington D.C.

Well have them flown up there, with their family, he said. As soon as we have a date for that, I certainly want to invite you all to be there.  Youre all welcome to be there.

Cuellar motivated guests to honor veterans  not only on this day but every day.

Were here to pay tribute in a solemn way, with pride, and to remember, honor and salute all of our national and local heroes who have fought for our freedoms Saenz said. We ought to recognize these great individuals, resilient men and women  weve got to protect these values, weve got to protect these principles that we all know that stand for goodness, stand for righteousness, stand for justice.

Veterans Day is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on Nov. 11, for honoring military veterans who served in the United States Armed Forces. A Congressional Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) was approved May 13, 1938, making the date in each year a legal holiday: "A day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day.'"

Liendo also shared one of the things that gives her the most pride in her life, as she is the daughter of a Vietnam veteran. And she said that with Espinozas recent death, the community was reminded of the service and heroism that still lives in the younger generations and their pride in serving the country.

Thank you for everything that you have done, putting your life on the line for the rest of the country and your community, Liendo said. A lot of our children are wanting to do that now .... they want to be that hero as well, and I think its there. The pride is there, the service and commitment are there, and were going to continue to fuel that and make sure we continue to have many of our younger generations serve our country and protect our freedom. Thats whats more important.

In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who died in World War I. Now every year, individuals across the nation gather to honor those who have served the United States in the armed forces.

On behalf of the City of Laredo, thank you for your service, Saenz said. Thank you for being models so that others, our younger people, may see themselves in you, in your commitment and in your service.

cecilia.trevino@lmtonline.com
Veterans Day is always a big celebration in Webb County. However, the day seemed even bigger in 2021 considering that in 2020, many of the activities and events scheduled for the day traditionally were postponed or canceled.

It is due to this that numerous organizations, individuals and veterans celebrated the day differently. Some events were scheduled in the early morning hours by organizations while others hosted events later in the evening. But all had the same intention of demonstrating the importance of the day and also making sure the community knew about these individuals.

For those celebrating in the morning, it was important to showcase how the community honors those who have served.

The importance of Veterans Day is to honor all the veterans in our country that showed patriotism to the country they love so much, said Ricardo Quijano, the post adjutant for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9194. So those that showed the willingness to leave the comfort of their homes and families for a period of time according to their contract to protect the freedoms of our country.

In the evening, another event was held at the RNC Hispanic Community Center of Webb County, in which a local veteran provided a speech about why the day is important to commemorate yearly. Attendees were also able to watch a the film American Sniper to commemorate the day as they had beverages and some snacks and mingled with one another.

Celebrating Veterans Day is most important because we cannot forget to honor all our U.S. military veterans for their patriotism, for their love and sacrifice to our country, said Webb County Republican Chair Luis De La Garza. Today, we celebrate Veterans Day at the RNC Center with Mr. Gabriel Lopez, president of the South Texas Veterans Association, who spoke to us about the importance of Veterans Day and the meaning of this day. In addition, we also had a movie about an American veteran to finish out the evening.

Lopez  the president of the South Texas Afghanistan Iraq Veterans Association  is also pointed out that celebrating the day is vital to honor all the sacrifices made by those who served willingly or in times of the military draft.

Veterans Day is important because we celebrate the sacrifices that our service members and their families endure during their time in the service, Lopez said.

With the passing of Lance Cpl. David Lee Espinoza earlier this year in the final days of the Afghanistan conflict, Lopez said this does not mean the significance of Veterans Day will change as it puts into perspective how many military service members never get to be called veterans as they die in conflict. He also said Memorial Day, which is celebrated in May, now has a much more profound significance in the Gateway City.

According to De La Garza, the idea of celebrating Veterans Day through the RNC Hispanic Outreach Center was done, in part, because numerous citizens and supporters of De La Garzas political party wanted the event as he notes that they truly care about our country and who will not forget the importance of this day.

As a community, we need to continue to acknowledge the service veterans gave to our country, De La Garza said. Because of their service, we have the freedom and liberty we enjoy each and every day.

De La Garza said that watching a film about a real story on veterans was a good way to honor what these heroes do while serving in active duty. Lopez also said movies serve as a good way to educate the masses about what veterans do and what they encounter when serving and also when coming back from war.

Quijano also said movies are a very popular way of showcasing what military members and veterans go through, and that most of the veterans he knows do like films whether they are about war or not.

As for movies, every veteran is different and movies portray different wars and different branches in the military, Quijano said. Most, if not all vets, like watching movies.

Happy Veterans Day to all my brothers and sisters.

Quijano said that on Saturday, there will be a Ruck March in the morning as L&F will have an event for veterans at 410 Crossroads. And another future event that will happen on Sunday consisting of inviting the public and bikers to the Arena Gun Club from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. where proceeds will go to help other veterans in the community.

Finally, Quijano said that different organizations are going to give turkeys to veterans on Nov. 22. However, he advises that veterans wanting one of these turkeys should call to put their order in. He hopes that through this way, all veterans get registered with the local Veterans Administration Clinic and at the Webb County Veterans Office in efforts to have immediate access to these resources.

jorge.vela@lmtonline.com
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  Santa won't be getting his traditional welcome in the Dutch city of Utrecht this year. The ceremonial head of Carnival celebrations in Germany's Cologne had to bow out because he tested positive for COVID-19. And Austria is planning a lockdown on unvaccinated people in two hard-hit regions.

Nearly two years into a global health crisis that has killed more than 5 million people, infections are again sweeping across parts of Western Europe, a region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures are largely a thing of the past.

The World Health Organization said coronavirus deaths rose by 10% in Europe in the past week, and an agency official declared last week that the continent was back at the epicenter of the pandemic. Much of that is being driven by spiraling outbreaks in Russia and Eastern Europe  where vaccination rates tend to be low  but countries in the west such as Germany and Britain recorded some of the highest new case tolls in the world.

While nations in Western Europe all have vaccination rates over 60%  and some like Portugal and Spain are much higher  that still leaves a significant portion of their populations without protection.

Dr. Bharat Pankhania, senior clinical lecturer at Exeter University College of Medicine and Health, says that the large number of unvaccinated people combined with a widespread post-lockdown resumption of socializing and a slight decline in immunity for people who got their shots months ago is driving up the pace of infections.

Thanks largely to vaccination, hospitals in Western Europe are not under the same pressure they were earlier in the pandemic, but many are still straining to handle rising numbers of COVID patients while also attempting to clear backlogs of tests and surgeries with exhausted or sick staff. Even the countries experiencing the most serious outbreaks in the region recorded far fewer deaths per person over the past four weeks than the United States did, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The question now is if countries can tamp down this latest upswing without resorting to stringent shutdowns that devastated economies, disrupted education and weighed on mental health. Experts say probably  but authorities can't avoid all restrictions and must boost vaccination rates.

I think the era of locking people up in their homes is over because we now have tools to control COVID  the testing, vaccines and therapeutics, said Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh. So I hope people will do the things they have to do, like put on a mask.

Many European countries now use COVID passes  proof of full vaccination, recovery from the virus or a negative test result  to access venues like bars and restaurants. Pankhania warned that the passes can give a false sense of security since fully vaccinated people can still get infected, though their chances of dying or getting seriously sick are dramatically lower.

But restrictions don't go much further these days, although the Dutch government on Friday announced a three-week partial lockdown.

Tonight we have a very unpleasant message with very unpleasant and far-reaching decisions, caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

German lawmakers are mulling legislation that would pave the way for new measures. Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced Friday that unvaccinated people in two regions will only be able to leave home for specified reasons starting Monday, and he is considering implementing similar measures nationwide. But he has said he doesn't want to impose the restrictions on those who got the shot.

Austria is seeing one of the most serious outbreaks in Western Europe, along with Germany, which has reported a string of record-high infections in recent days.

We have a real emergency situation right now, said Christian Drosten, the head of virology at Berlins Charite Hospital, which has started canceling scheduled surgeries.

Duesseldorfs university hospital said earlier this week that its ICU is full, though many facilities are struggling more with staff shortages than bed space.

Drosten said Germany must increase its vaccination rate of 67% further  and fast. But officials have balked at ordering vaccine mandates and want to avoid any blanket lockdowns.

Health Minister Jens Spahn indicated that Germany could improve its often lax enforcement of COVID pass requirements.

If my vaccination certificate is checked more often in one day in Rome than it sometimes is in four weeks in Germany, then I think more can be done, Spahn said recently.

The Netherlands is in a similar bind: The country announced the highest daily tally of new cases since the pandemic began Thursday, hospitals are warning the situation could get worse, but officials are reluctant to clamp down too hard. Amid these concerns, organizers in Utrecht said they couldn't in good conscience bring tens of thousands of people together to greet Santa at the annual Sinterklaas party beloved of children.

Cities in Germany, by contrast, went ahead with outdoor Carnival celebrations this week  but the head of Cologne's party, Carnival Prince Sven I., canceled public appearances after testing positive.

In the United Kingdom, which lifted remaining restrictions in July and has seen big spikes as well as dips in cases since, Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists the country can live with the virus. The government will only reimpose restrictions if the health service comes under unsustainable pressure, he says.

Spain, once one of Europes hardest hit nations, perhaps offers an example of how the risks can be managed.

It has vaccinated 80% of its population, and while face masks are no longer mandatory outdoors, many people still wear them. While infections have ticked up slightly recently, Rafael Bengoa, one of Spains leading public health experts, said that given the high vaccination rate, the virus wont be able to dominate us again.

Several countries are hoping that pushing harder on immunizations will get them there. Germany plans to re-open vaccination centers across the country to speed booster shots. France is also pinning its hopes on booster doses while urging holdouts to get their first shots. Italy is also expanding its booster program as numbers edge higher.

Pankhania says that no single measure will control the pandemic.

To really control it, it has to be multi-layered ... avoid crowds, avoid poorly ventilated places, be immunized, wear your mask, he said.

___

Associated Press reporters across Europe contributed.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
PARIS (AP)  Libyan leaders reaffirmed Friday in Paris their commitment to ensure the success of the countrys political process through long-awaited elections next month, a vote that world powers hope will pull the oil-rich North African nation out of its decade-old chaos.

France hosted an international conference on Libya in the presence of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and other international and regional high-level officials.

In a statement, participants expressed their support to holding free, fair, inclusive and credible presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 24.

We reiterate our commitment to the success of the Libyan political process, they said and added they reject all foreign interferences in Libyan affairs.

The participants also called for the withdrawal of mercenaries and foreign forces from Libya, a s stipulated in last years U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended fighting between the country's rival factions.

The Paris declaration comes a day after the forces headed by powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter pledged to initiate the withdrawal of the first batch of foreign fighters from areas they control. The group is expected to include 300 fighters who will return to their home countries under the supervision of the U.N. mission in Libya, the statement said.

This is only a start, Turkey and Russia must withdraw without delay their mercenaries, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

Libya's interim leaders, Mohammad Younes Menfi, head of the presidential council and Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, co-presided over the conference with France Italy and Germany.

Dbeibah stressed the importance of putting in place "real guarantees of the acceptance of the results of these elections, and for there to be penalties for those who obstruct or refuse these results.

Libya has been engulfed in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The country was for years split between rival governments  one based in the capital, Tripoli, and the other in the eastern part of the country. Each side is backed by different foreign powers and militias.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a video message said that Libya today is closer than it has been for many years to solving its internal crisis."

We cannot miss this opportunity," he added, warning that any party that deliberately undermines or sabotages peace must be held accountable.

Italys Draghi called for an electoral law to be passed urgently to ensure that the election process is fair. There needs to be an electoral law that ... must be passed in the next few days because its urgent if you are going to hold elections on Dec. 24th, he said at a news conference.

The long-awaited vote still faces challenges, including unresolved issues over election laws and occasional infighting among armed groups. Other obstacles include the deep rift that remains between the countrys east and west and the presence of thousands of foreign fighters and troops. The U.N. has estimated that there have been at least 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya over the past few years, including Russians, Syrians, Turkish, Sudanese, and Chadians.

A leading rights group questioned Thursday whether Libyan authorities can hold free and fair elections. Human Rights Watch criticized what it said were Libyas restrictive laws that undermine freedom of speech and association, as well as the presence of armed groups accused of intimidating, attacking and detaining journalists and political activists.

The main questions leaders at the summit should ask are: can Libyan authorities ensure an environment free of coercion, discrimination, and intimidation of voters, candidates, and political parties? it said in a statement.

In July, the U.N. special envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, accused spoilers of trying to obstruct the vote to unify the divided nation. The Security Council has warned that any individual or group undermining the electoral process could face U.N. sanctions.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week that the U.N. mission wants to see an election which the Libyan people can believe in, that is credible, and that is in line with the past agreements.

Politicians and warlords in western Libya issued statements this week opposing holding the vote according to the laws ratified by the countrys east-based parliament. Khaled al-Meshri, head of Tripoli-based Supreme Council of State, went further and threatened in televised comments to resort to violence to prevent Hifter, a potential frontrunner in the presidential race, from taking office if he is elected.

Libyas civil war escalated in 2019, as Hifter, who commands the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces, launched an offensive to take Tripoli from armed militias loosely allied with the then U.N.-supported but weak government in the countrys capital.

Hifter, allied with an east-based administration, was backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and France. However, his 14-month campaign and march on Tripoli ultimately failed in June 2020, after Qatar and Turkey intensified their military support for the government in Tripoli, with the latter sending mercenaries and troops to help shore up western Libya militias.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Maggie Hyde in Cairo and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
In October, Ryan Faircloth was arrested and charged after allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail into the Travis County Democratic Headquarters in East Austin. Last week, after he was named as the defendant in a lawsuit, court documents revealed that Faircloth is actually a San Antonio resident.

In the early morning hours of September 29, Faircloth was caught on tape allegedly tossing a crude Molotov cocktail into the TCDP headquarters. The crude device sparked a small fire that was put out by employees at a neighboring bar.

Accompanying the incendiary device was a threatening note, the contents of which actually led to Faircloth's arrest. According to the Daily Beast, a Facebook user who read the note saw similarities between it and the suspect's own Facebook posts, leading to a tip to authorities. Faircloth was arrested on October 2 and charged with arson and attempted arson.

Following Faircloth's arrest, Brandon Jennings, captain of the Austin Fire Department's arson and fire investigations, told reporters that "it was one of those things."

"This person was not happy with the current political climate," Jennings continued. "[Faircloth] blamed this office and who they represent for a lot of the issues that he saw as problems with the country. And for that reason, it was an intentional act."

On November 4, Faircloth was named as the defendant in a lawsuit brought by Lorenzco INC, the landlord of the building. In it, they identify the 30-year-old as a Bexar County resident living on the far Westside. The landlord is seeking up $1 million in damages to the building. (As of November 10, the glass door that was shattered by the explosion remained boarded up.)

Faircloth was named as defendant in yet another lawsuit on November 10, this time in a civil suit brought by TCDP. In a statement to Austin-based KVUE, TCDP chair Katie Naranjo, said the suit was an attempt to "hold Ryan accountable" for his actions.

Through his actions, Ryan Faircloth intimidated my staff and voters in Travis County," Naranjo told KVUE. "While we continue to take precautions with our personal safety, and the safety of the office, the threat of radical extremism and violent behavior from the far right persists. We are filing this lawsuit to hold Ryan accountable for his violent acts, and to prevent future domestic terror attacks on our voting institutions."
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
The fifth annual Still Voices Short Film Festival was a huge success last weekend as filmmakers and film enthusiasts alike flocked to venues across three counties to enjoy a wide range of screenings, panel discussions and other events, with something for all ages.

This year, Still Voices stretched its wings a bit and, instead of hosting the entire festival in Ballymahon, it spread out to Roscommon and Westmeath, thanks to support from Creative Ireland.

The festival kicked off on Thursday with a range of events, including a screening of Cinema Paradiso, a number of student shorts, as well as the always popular Made in the Midlands segment.

Over the days that followed, patrons could drift between venues to take in the fantastic standard of shorts on offer this year, with some excellent features screened throughout the weekend.

One of the best-attended events of the festival was a screening of Distant Voices, Still Lives by renowned filmmaker Terence Davies at the Dean Crowe Theatre in Athlone on Friday night.

This screening was followed by an insightful Q&A with Terence himself, who has since become the festivals first cultural patron.

Festival Director, Ronan OToole explained that this years festival was a tremendous success.

We couldnt have hoped for a better way to celebrate our fifth anniversary, he enthused.

Even with Covid still an issue and the need for bigger venues, our collaborations with our neighbours in Westmeath and Roscommon were just wonderful.

Of course for us having the legendary Terence Davies at the festival was the highlight. The masterclass with Pat Collins was truly special.

Our panel discussions were a great success, including pursuing a career in the arts panel with Longford artists John Connell, Karen McGann and Michael Keegan-Dolan.

It was great to have live events back and getting to meet artists in person again. Having the local artists and film lovers coming in to chat with us and watch some really terrific short films is always our favourite part.

Ballymahon has really become a home for cinema and we hope to be back in full for next years festival.

He also gave a shout out to other Longford artists such as Dani Gillfor the incredible creative work they do for the county.

For more information on Still Voices Short Film Festival, or for updates on next years festival, see stillvoicesfilmfestival.com or follow Still Voices on social media.
Irish Times columnist Kathy Sheridan will be the guest speaker at the launch of a new guidebook from See Her Elected to assist female candidates running in the 2024 Local Elections.

SHE: A Guidebook to Running in the 2024 Local Elections will be launched via a live zoom webinar event in Longford Womens Link on Friday, November 12 at 12.30pm.

The book will be officially launched by well- known author and Irish Times Journalist Kathy Sheridan while Minister of State at the Department of Local Government and Planning, Peter Burke will also be a guest speaker.

See Her Elected is a grassroots organisation built on the ethos of women learning and supporting each other with a specific focus on the Midlands and North West.

SHE is a collaboration between Longford Womens Link and 5050North West and the programme is funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

The new publication aims to be a practical, user friendly guide for women who are considering running in the 2024 Local Elections.

The guidebook offers a wealth of information with everything from organising your finances to selecting your kitchen table team and campaign manager, how to deal with the media, raising your profile, canvassing and so much more.

To accompany the SHE Guidebook to Running in the 2024 Local Elections a series of free, online, interactive, one-hour workshops from See Her Elected will work through this guidebook chapter by chapter with groups of women in each county in the region. The first series of workshops is starting this November and running until May 2022.

The co-authors of the Guidebook are Dr Michelle Maher, Programme Manager with See Her Elected, Mairead O Shea, Communications Consultant with See Her Elected and Public Affairs Consultant, Kathleen O Meara.

Due to Covid restrictions the book will be launched via a live zoom webinar broadcast from Longford Womens Link by Irish Times columnist Kathy Sheridan.

A well-known author and co-host of the Irish Times Womens Podcast, Kathy Sheridan is also no stranger to the world of politics as her late father Joe was an Independent TD for Longford/Westmeath for over two decades.

Westmeath native Peter Burke, Minister at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage will also be a guest speaker along with the co-authors of the book and Tara Farrell, CEO of Longford Womens Link.

Programme Manager with See Her Elected Dr Michelle Maher explained,

Our vision at See Her Elected (SHE) is to empower women to become County Councillors. Increases in female representation in councils has mainly been in the urban areas of Dublin and adjoining counties. SHE wants to increase the number of women in local government so that there are equal numbers of women and men. We are starting with the rural North West-Midlands region. Increasing the number of women bringing the rich diversity of their lives into councils will bring about better-informed decisions and strengthen democracy.

You can register for the free live zoom webinar for the launch of SHE: A Guidebook to Running in the 2024 Local Elections which takes place this Friday, November 12 at 12.30pm by logging onto https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84885274189

Copies of the new publication will be available to participants of the SHE online workshops designed to accompany the book while an e-book version of the publication will also be available to download free of charge from the SHE website www.seeherelected.ie
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Friday and not separately reported by Alliance News:







Princess Private Equity Holding Ltd - Guernsey-domiciled investment holding company aiming for long-term capital growth and dividend income - Sells stake in Pacific Bells, the fifth-largest franchisee of the Taco Bell brand in the US, to Orangewood Partners. Deal values company's stake in Pacific Bells at about USD18.6 million, up slightly from carrying value of USD18.4 million at September 30.







Civitas Social Housing PLC - social housing investor - Notes, alongside, Triple Point Social Housing REIT PLC, that Falcon Housing Association CIC gets notice from Regulator of Social Housing. Falcon has not received a grading as it leases fewer than 1,000 homes. "Falcon has committed to continue to engage with the RSH and in turn CSH will continue its supportive relationship with Falcon and all other counterparties with the shared objective of further enhancing standards across the sector and encouraging APs to demonstrate their independence and self-reliance," company says. Falcon represents 19.9% of Civitas's rent roll, while it is 10% of Triple Point's current portfolio.







Northern Bear PLC - Newcastle Upon Tyne-based specialist building and support services company - Says it has traded well in the first half of its current financial year, ended September 30, and expects to report operating profit in the range of GBP1.4 million to GBP1.5 million, up from GBP500,000 a year prior. Operating profit for the six months to September 30 would also represent an increase on the pre-Covid comparative of GBP1.4 million. Looking ahead, the company says its forward order book remains strong and should support its trading performance in the coming months. Chair Jeff Baryshnik says: "We are pleased to announce strong expected operating results for H1 FY22, despite ongoing industry-wide challenges."







Nuformix PLC - London-based pharmaceutical development firm focused on fibrosis and oncology via drug repurposing - Files a new patent application in relation to NXP004. This filing covers a new family of co-crystalline forms of an undisclosed marketed drug that is approved globally for the treatment of several cancers. This is the second patent application related to NXP004 that Nuformix has filed and it complements the previous patent application on NXP004 co-crystals.







Creo Medical Group PLC - medical device company focused on surgical endoscopy - Acquires UK-based manufacturer and designer of power amplifiers and radio frequency products Aber Electronics Ltd for an unidentified sum of fixed cash consideration, plus a contingent consideration over three years. "Creo is an existing customer of Aber, using its products within the CROMA Advanced Energy Platform. This acquisition will complement Creo's research, design and manufacturing processes, provide additional specialist microwave and radio frequency capability and expertise within the business and enhance a key element of the group's supply chain," company says.







Microsaic Systems PLC - Surrey, England-based mass spectrometry instruments for pharmaceutical industry - Launches new compact screening platform technology capability to its platform, as company continues to make strategic transition from equipment only sales to remote detection and analysis of human diagnostics and environmental health monitoring. New platform expected to launch in first half of 2022. Company adds: "The latest addition to Microsaic's platform is the integration of the Company's compact MS technology with Gas Chromatography and extends Microsaic's existing applications in Liquid Chromatography. This combination will provide an extensive range of analysis required by end-users for chemical detection, for use in a combined market estimated to be worth over USD1 billion."







600 Group PLC - West Yorkshire, England-based manufacturer and distributor of machine tools, precision engineered components and industrial laser systems - Says its three US operations have been granted forgiveness of their second round loans under the US government paycheck protection program which in total amounts to USD2.2 million. Turning to trading, the company says it performs in line with expectations and order intake has continued to improve during the current financial year. The forward order book stands at USD23 million as at November 9, as increase when compared to the same date one year earlier, when order book was USD11 million.







Powerhouse Energy Group PLC- technology company commercialising hydrogen production from waste plastic - Says its development partner Hydrogen Utopia International PLC has signed a framework agreement with Linde PLC's Engineering unit. The framework agreement provides Linde Engineering with a five year exclusivity to supply Hydrogen Utopia in its development of Powerhouse DMG technology particularly in Poland, Hungary and Greece. The Powerhouse DMG process can generate up to 2 tonnes of road-fuel hydrogen and more than 58 megawatt hours of exportable electricity per day. The project, if completed, is expected to contain ten DMG units in one geographical area.







Blencowe Resources PLC - miner focused on developing the Orom-Cross graphite project in Uganda - Completes an over-subscribed capital raise for GBP2 million at 5p each through the issue of 40.0 million new shares. This includes a subscription of GBP75,000 from the directors and chief executive. These funds will be used for the further development of the mineral exploration and development company's flagship Orom-Cross graphite project in Uganda.







PetroNeft Resources PLC - oil & gas exploration and production company - Says it is extending the campaign in the Tomsk Oblast, Russia, for upcoming winter with the goal of increasing production and also improving the sustained flow rate of existing wells over two producing fields in licence 61. During the first quarter of 2021, a two well fracking program was successfully completed on wells S-373 and L-115. Both were highly successful and exceeded expectations . As a result, PetroNeft signs a contract with NewTech Well Services LLC, an oilfield services company, for the provision of a larger fracking program covering an additional five wells.







By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Member Benefits

Manage your personalised Watchlist.

Set up an online Virtual Portfolio.

Participate in Share Chat.

See more trades and director dealings.

Play the Fantasy Share Trading Game.

Register for FREE Now
(Adds IMF statement)

By Karin Strohecker and Andrea Shalal

LONDON/WASHINGTON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Glencore has

offered assurances over the restructuring of Chad's more than $1

billion commercial debt, paving the way for the International

Monetary Fund to move forward on a lending program, sources

familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The African country in January became the first country to

request a restructuring of its external debt of $3 billion under

a common framework agreed last year by China and other Group of

20 members and the Paris Club of major creditor countries.

Chad's state creditors and the IMF have agreed on a

restructuring, but had insisted that Chad also reach comparable

terms with other bilateral and private creditors.

The IMF said late on Thursday it was working with Chadian

authorities to bring a new lending program to the IMF's board

for approval after the country's main private sector creditor

committed to engaging in "good faith discussions" about

restructuring the country's debt.

It did not name Glencore specifically, but Chad has said the

company accounts for more than 98% of its commercial debt, most

of it in oil-for-cash deals dating back to 2013 and 2014.

Abebe Aemro Selassie, director of the IMF's African

department, said IMF staff aimed to submit a new Extended Credit

Facility for Chad to the board for its consideration "as soon as

possible," but gave no specific timetable or additional details.

One of the sources said the goal was to complete work on the

new arrangement by the end of the year.

Chad, Zambia and Ethiopia are the only countries that have

sought debt treatment under the G20 Common Framework.

Progress on Chad's case could help encourage other countries

in debt distress to seek help under the G20 program, IMF and

World Bank officials have said.

Glencore and a consortium of banks in October started talks

with Chad over the restructuring of its commercial debt.

The restructuring of Chad's total debt, which the IMF has

described as unsustainable, is a prerequisite for the Central

African country to benefit from further financial support.

Chad was thrown into political turmoil in April following

the battlefield death of former President Idriss Deby, and its

economic outlook has worsened due to the coronavirus pandemic,

attacks by rebels in the north, and delays in financial support.

Its debt has already been restructured twice, in 2015 and

2018.

(Reporting by Karin Strohecker and Julia Payne in London and

Andrea Shalal in Washington

Editing by Chris Reese and Richard Chang)
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.
Don Turner is a former state representative from Milton, former House minority leader, current Milton town manager and longtime member of the Milton Fire and Rescue departments. He was a candidate for lieutenant governor in 2018. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media.
MANISTEE  A dedication ceremony to the life of Duane Dewey, a Korean war veteran and native of Grand Rapids who died on Oct. 11, was held Thursday alongside a service to honor all veterans.

Dewey received both the Medal of Honor and Purple Heart for his service.

Several of Dewey's friends spoke about him, and his years of service, and some spoke about him more personally during a short service.

Manistee City Council Member Mick Szymanski read a short dedication to Dewey, which was approved by city council.

Part of the resolution that Szymanski read noted that Dewey had supported Manistee veterans, as well as helped with the creation of Veterans Memorial Park.

The beginning of the resolution reads in part,"WhereasDuane Edgar Dewey was an inspiration, friend and advocate for veterans in Michigan and supported veterans in Manistee with numerous fundraising events to include this Veterans Memorial Park."

Dewey's friend, John Stocki also spoke at the ceremony.

Stocki said, "Words don't come easy. How do you find the words to talk about a hero  the man of steel ... when I received the news that Duane had passed, I was heartbroken, to say the least. On Oct. 11, we lost Duane."

Stocki spoke about how Dewey was born in Grand Rapids and grew up on a farm outside Kalkaska. He said Dewey lived in Irons and Lake County, and Stocki talked about the plaque at Veterans Memorial Park that was dedicated to Dewey in 2016.

Related Content Showing respect, appreciation

An obituary for Dewey spoke about his character.

"I didn't pray for myself," he told the Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle in 2006. "I prayed to God that she'd (Bertha) find a nice husband. ... that she'd find a good father for our baby.

Dewey was a native of western Michigan.

"Duane Edgar Dewey was born in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Nov. 16, 1931, and grew up on a farm outside Kalkaska, Mich. His father struggled to find work before getting a job at a foundry in Muskegon, where Dewey went to high school. He dropped out at age 16 to live with relatives in South Haven, 60 miles to the south, where he worked at a farm and foundry before joining the Marines in March 1951," his obituary reads.

The obituary also notes, after returning to his home in South Haven after receiving his medal of honor, "he received a new, fully furnished three-bedroom home, built and donated by the community. He later worked at a piano factory, drove a school bus, and ran his own office-machine repair shop before retiring in 1973, splitting his time between Michigan and Florida."

Dewey died in St. Augustine, Florida and was 89 years old.

Dewey is sometimes called the "Body of Steel" for smothering a grenade with his hip during the Korean War after he had already been injured. It was later found out he had also been shot in the stomach. In a video interview in 2011, Dewey spoke more in-depth talked about the incident where he smothered a grenade with his hip. Dewey said already been injured by a grenade and was being treated by a corpsman when the second grenade landed beside him.

"I scooped it under me, under my right hip, and grabbed him and pulled him on top of me, and said 'hit the dirt doc, I've got it in my hip pocket ... and then my next words were 'get me out of here, I can't take much more of this," he said in the video interview.

While Veterans Day is held on Nov. 11 every year, the holiday was originally named Armistice Day to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Versailles between the Allied Powers and Germany at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1919, signaling the end to World War I. It was changed to Veterans Day in 1954.
Following the announcement of his retirement, outgoing chief executive Richard Fain discusses how he helped lead Royal Caribbean through rough waters during the pandemic.
Avid traveller Alia couldnt wait to kick off her long-awaited trip with her GFFs to a pristine mountain getaway in Himachal. As far as she was concerned, the trip was (mostly) on track. The calendar had been cleared, her gang had her leaves approved, and the bunch had even done their respective pre-holiday shopping. But as it so often happens, things dont always go according to plan. A potentially important meeting of Alia with her business partner meant that the gang had to cancel all plans (well the trip was meant for all and everyone had to be there). Result? Flight tickets were un-booked and unfortunately, Alia couldnt commit to a new date either. The uncertainty got Alia and the gang worried whether the homestay they had booked would refund their money or not.

Well, weve all been in Alias shoes to an extent. But surely it need not be this way?



Your travel should be as amazing and stress-free as you imagined it would be. Thats why MakeMyTrips super flexible and smart booking options ensure things remain smooth despite any pesky disruptions or unconfirmed plans. When you book your trip with MakeMyTrips special features and exciting offers, you can be rest assured that whatever comes your way, MakeMyTrip will make sure #JoHogaWowHoga. So, without further ado, here are the tailor-made, fantabulous travel products and offers for you to take advantage of!







Lock Kiya Jaaye?

Admit it. Flight price hikes can literally throw your budgeted travel plans off track. But why cut down on our planned travel due to high travel fares or packed calendars?



With MakeMyTrips Flight Price Lock feature, travellers can now find their flight booking experience easy and stress-free. Price Lock gives you the power to stay clear of commitments, helping you reserve a seat that you may end up needing! Essentially, it allows you to lock fares for one, two or even seven days in advance at a minimal fee that gets adjusted to the ticket price. You can now freely schedule your flights without the fear of subsequent rise in fares. This feature provides leeway to travellers who need time to weigh in varied parameters before confirming their flights.



Its MakeMyTrips Guarantee



No one likes being on a waitlist. That too when your crucial travel plans depend on seat confirmations that dont materialize at the last moment! But with MakeMyTrips Trip Guarantee feature, your waitlisted booking will not vanish in thin air even if it remains unconfirmed. Amid evolving travel guidelines and uncertain times, this feature stabilises your journey and protects you from any unplanned inconveniences. Heres what Trip Guarantee does for you. The feature allows travellers to discover and book last-minute alternate travel and financing options for flight, cab or bus tickets in case the train ticket remains unconfirmed after chart preparation. By opting for the feature, train bookers can seek a guaranteed 3X value back against the unconfirmed ticket, and upgrade and substitute to a fresh booking through flight, cab, bus or an alternate train journey for a future date. A classic example of when one door closes, several others open up!



Manage Trips Like A Boss



Say youre done and dusted with your trip and are back home after having a refreshing time. What if you need the hotel invoices to get a company reimbursement? Also, if youve asked for last-minute cancellations, where do you check for refunds or confirmations?



The My Trips section on the MakeMyTrip app and website is the perfect gateway to check out all the info you need on your past or upcoming trips. From check-in, check-out details to refund requests and invoices, this neat, easy-to-use section gives you a centralized view and control of all your travel-related data.



Just log in to our app or website, click on the My Trips tab and there you go! Its that simple!



To Brighter Days



The festive season embodies happiness, togetherness, and prosperity. With leisure travel on the rise, customers are looking to make the most of their family or me time. And with MakeMyTrips assured travel offerings, travellers can get so much more than they ask for! Not just more options, we know you also need the flexibility in case of a change of agenda. Our 100% refund plans remain active even if you cancel your plan at the last minute.



So, when are you planning your dream escape? With 50,000+ options to choose from, MakeMyTrip is ready to truly WOW you!


Two people who dont believe in mincing their words or filtering their thoughts include the likes of actors and producers KRK and Kangana Ranaut. They also often find themselves at loggerheads and in the middle of a controversy time and again, courtesy their words.



After Kanganas remark about India getting freedom in 2014 and bheek in 1947 fuelled major outrage amongst Indians on social media, many politicians and countrymen urged the president to take away her Padma Shri award as well.

#KanganaRanaut may think India got Independence in 2014 but this cannot be endorsed by any true Indian. This is an insult to millions of freedom fighters who gave up their lives so that present generations can live a life of self-respect & dignity as free citizens of a democracy. pic.twitter.com/o0EtH0hukU  TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) November 12, 2021

As if this ongoing fire was not enough, KRK decided to give his own inputs and had some personal views pertaining to Kangana. He tweeted that when she meant the country got azadi in 2014, she probably meant her own azadi from the likes of Hrithik Roshan and Aditya Pancholi.



A lot of people soon started commenting on this tweet of his.

nahi bhai azadi to un dono ko mili is psychopath se  Mr. Cob (@Loneranger84) November 12, 2021

Hrithik Roshan got Azaadi actually  Crispy (@Sugaryy__Saltyy) November 12, 2021

Strange thing is that all her movies flopped after 2014  Intekhab (@INatalwala) November 12, 2021

Kangana Ranaut ka mansik santulan bigar chuka hai osse nuro surgeon ki jaroorat hai na ki bjp ki  shakir hussain (@mubarkhusain) November 12, 2021

Yesterday, a formal complaint was registered against the actress at a Police Station in Mumbai for the comments made by her. People have blamed her for belittling the efforts of freedom fighters who fought for the freedom she dubs as bheek. While her words are hurtful for national sentiment, KRKs personal dig at her is also kind of derogatory.
Ambassador of Belarus A.Molchan meets Special Envoy of the President of Venezuela

On November 11, 2021, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Andrei Molchan met with Special Envoy of the President of Venezuela Adan Chavez.

During the meeting, the parties exchanged views on the results of A.Chavez's working visit to Belarus in October this year, discussed the agenda of bilateral cooperation, outlined the preliminary dates for the next meeting of the high-level joint Belarusian-Venezuelan Commission.

print version
AG Nessel Urges Congress To Reform Military Justice For Sexual Assault Survivors

AG Nessel Urges Congress To Reform Military Justice For Sexual Assault Survivors

Attorney General

Media contact: Lynsey Mukomel 517-599-2746

Public inquiries: 517-335-7622

November 11, 2021

LANSING - Attorney General Dana Nessel today joined a bipartisan coalition of 29 attorneys general led by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, calling on Congress to pass the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act of 2021. The legislation, which has strong bipartisan support, would reshape the way the United States military investigates and prosecutes sexual assault.

"As we honor our brave service members this Veterans Day, I am proud to stand with my colleagues in urging Congress to pass this Act - one that is long overdue," Nessel said. "While I recognize it will not completely erase the risks of retaliation for reporting an assault, nor can it guarantee that every assault is prosecuted, this legislation properly addresses contributing factors to underreporting and under-prosecuting. Those who risk everything to protect this nation should not also suffer silently in instances of sexual violence. We owe survivors proper channels to report and must strengthen accountability against perpetrators."

In today's letter, the coalition highlights the need to address serious, longstanding problems in underreporting and prosecuting sexual assaults in the military. The Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act would professionalize the military's prosecution of serious crimes like sexual assault. The Act addresses widespread reluctance to report sexual assault due to bias in the military chain of command's power to decide whether cases move forward to a trial. The Act would instead ensure that decisions about whether to prosecute sexual assault or domestic violence crimes are made by independent, trained, professional military prosecutors while leaving uniquely military crimes within the chain of command.

Additionally, the Act requires increased sexual assault prevention training for military personnel, as well as added instruction for prosecutors on the proper conduct, presentation, and handling of sexual assault and domestic violence cases. If passed, the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act would constitute the largest change to the military justice system in the last 70 years.

Each year, thousands of service members experience sexual assault. Of those, only a small percentage ever report their assault - often because they suffer retaliation. In many cases, the assailant is someone in the service member's own chain of command, creating an additional risk of retaliation. Even when sexual assaults are reported, only a handful of perpetrators are held accountable; in fact, only approximately 9% of assaults result in a conviction.

Joining Attorneys General Nessel, Raoul and Peterson in calling on Congress to pass the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act are the attorneys general of Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

###
MDHHS provides $4.8 million in federal Disaster Food Assistance Program benefits to 8,600 households in Macomb, Oakland; Gov. Whitmer presidential disaster declaration request paved way for support

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 12, 2021

CONTACT: Bob Wheaton, 517-241-2112

LANSING, Mich. - More than 8,600 households in Macomb and Oakland counties received over $4.8 million in federal Disaster Food Assistance Program benefits during a special application opportunity Nov. 3-9.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) accepted in-person applications to eligible households affected by severe flooding and power outages at the end of June.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sought a presidential disaster declaration for the two counties due to the flooding and power outages. Whitmer and MDHHS received Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) approval from President Biden's administration through the Food and Nutrition Services within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"My administration, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and our federal partners have worked together to help families who suffered damages to their homes and lost possessions during this summer's historic flooding," Gov. Whitmer said. "Together, we will help families put food on the table right now, and we will keep looking into long-term investments in infrastructure to minimize the impact of future storms."

The total number of residents to receive disaster assistance is 38,132.

"This is the second time that MDHHS staff have stepped up in recent weeks to process applications for disaster food assistance from residents impacted by flooding," said MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel. "Through their efforts, our employees have once again demonstrated our commitment to providing residents easy access to the public assistance benefits that they need."

MDHHS employees from 74 of its offices across the state - including staff who relocated from other county offices to support the application process - assisted residents with their applications at three Kensington Church locations in Macomb and Oakland counties with support from partners from the church.

Households determined to be eligible received a one-time-only benefit to spend on food. Households approved for Disaster Food Assistance Program benefits were issued a Bridge Card, an electronic benefits card similar to a debit card that can be used to redeem their food assistance benefits at eligible retail stores and farmers markets.

In August, MDHHS provided $11.5 million in federal disaster food assistance benefits to residents of Wayne and Washtenaw counties.

The federal Disaster Food Assistance Program application period is over, however, Michiganders in need of food assistance should visit Michigan.gov/FoodAssistance to learn more or they can apply for food assistance or other public benefits at www.Michigan.Gov/MIBridges.

# # #
Governor Whitmer Successfully Appeals for Additional Funding for Wayne and Ionia Counties to Assist with Storm Recovery Efforts

Governor Whitmer Successfully Appeals for Additional Funding for Wayne and Ionia Counties to Assist with Storm Recovery Efforts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 12, 2021

Contact: press@michigan.gov

Governor Whitmer Successfully Appeals for Additional Funding for Wayne and Ionia Counties to Assist with Storm Recovery Efforts

LANSING, Mich. - Governor Gretchen Whitmer today announced that Wayne and Ionia counties would receive additional funding in the form of grants to help with storm cleanup efforts after President Biden approved the activation of the Public Assistance Program for the areas. The successful request for additional funding comes after the governor appealed an initial denial from the federal government for assistance for these municipalities following heavy rainfall and flooding across Michigan in late June.

"Michiganders have already been through enough with the unprecedented storms this summer, and the last thing they need is to be stuck with the bill for the cleanup costs," said Governor Whitmer. "That's why I've fought for every available dollar to lower the cost for communities and ensure that they get the much-needed assistance to get back to normal. With the new bipartisan infrastructure plan, we are going to get to work upgrading and shoring up our infrastructure to mitigate damages from future storms and create countless good-paying construction jobs in the process."

"These much-needed grants will help Wayne County residents continue to rebuild and recover after this year's severe weather," said Wayne County Commissioner Chair Alisha Bell. "We thank Governor Whitmer for appealing the initial denial from the federal government and for fighting tirelessly for Wayne County residents."

"This past summer's storms had an unprecedented impact on Ionia County," said David Hodges, Ionia County Commission Chair. "These grants will support storm cleanup efforts, helping local residents. We applaud Governor Whitmer for securing these grants for Ionia County."

With the activation of the Public Assistance Program, local governments in Wayne and Ionia counties affected by the storms are now eligible for grants to supplement response and recovery costs. Those costs include debris removal, repairing roads, bridges, and public buildings, and damages to public utilities.

On June 25 and 26, heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding in southeast Michigan, damaging infrastructure and private property. On June 26, Governor Whitmer declared a state of emergency for Wayne County, later adding Huron, Ionia and Washtenaw Counties. By declaring a state of emergency, the governor made available all state resources in cooperation with local response and recovery efforts in the designated area.

On July 13, Governor Whitmer sent a letter to President Biden requesting that he declare an emergency disaster for the state of Michigan. On July 15, President Biden issued a disaster declaration allowing individual assistance for Wayne and Washtenaw counties.

On August 27, Governor Whitmer requested the Public Assistance Program be activated for Ionia, Wayne and Washtenaw counties. On October 8, FEMA denied that request. On November 2, following an additional joint Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA), Governor Whitmer appealed the decision.

###
Touted as the worlds first Pizzeria Napoletana housed in a Civil War era building, Beer Church Brewing in New Buffalo brings a unique combination of food and history to the Michigan brewing scene. The name alone draws in visitors because who doesnt want to drink beer in church?

We came up with the name first, explained owner John Lustina. He owns the brewery with his life partner Jane Simon.

We were at Lagunitas in Chicago, at their Beer Circus, which we thought was a simplistic, yet wonderful name," Lustina said. "So we started asking ourselves, beer plus what would make a good name? And we came up with Beer Church.

Simon, a former law professor at Notre Dame, who specialized in trademarks, quickly checked the availability, and to the couples surprise, it was still on the market.

We found out the next day that it hadnt been taken, Lustina said.

The name necessitated the need for a church, Lustina continued. This was such an incredible brand name, we just had to go find a Beer Church.

Amy Sherman/For Hearst Midwest

The search commenced, and the couple actually found a suitable church in Florida. But after much discussion, they decided to stick closer to home, which is Valpraiso. After a trip to New Buffalo, they knew they had found their perfect spot right in Southwest Michigan.

Its like its straight out of central casting, Lustina said of the former Methodist church, which held its last service in the building in 2014.

Waters Edge Methodist Church now has a home just a mile down the road.

The building was originally built in 1861, but there has been a church community on this site dating back to 1836. Located prominently on the main street into town, you can see the tall white steeple a mile away. Its still topped by the original cross, which now is slightly crooked, due to its use over the years as both a weathervane and a lightning rod.

Its faithful to the original structure, Lustina said. It should last easily for another hundred years or so.

The couple underwent several years of renovations to the old building and had their own original vision for the place right from the start. While they wanted that original feel on the outside, they were going for something much more modern inside. Instead of dark and moody like many churches are, when you walk into Beer Church, youll be pleasantly surprised at how light, white, and bright it is, with lovely pops of color from the art that scatters across the walls.

Amy Sherman/For Hearst Midwest

Its exactly what we had thought it would like in our heads, Lustina said proudly. Im not bragging, but it turned out exactly how we thought it would. Its really one of those amazing times in life when it turned out just how you thought it would.

White, smooth, modern, kind of in the Bauhaus style, Lustina said.

Enter through the doors that have panels of colorful stained glass, and youll be greeted by a wide-open space, that while reminiscent of a church, is now anything but. A long white bar glides along one side of the space, while a beautifully tiled wood fired oven anchors the back. And while it may feel very modern here, the couple made sure to keep several historical elements that add a note of warmth and familiarity to the space. The original lanterns cast a soft yellow glow over diners as they hang from the original ceiling, and the altar from 1945 is still in place. When they first opened, they even used some of the church pews for seating, but Lustina said they were just too uncomfortable."

Good call on that one, Beer Church.

Unseen by most guests but helping to support the entire structure are the original logs in the basement.

Downstairs, youll see full trees that have just been laid across, with the bark on, Lustina said. Theyve been reinforced, but why bother taking the bark off? Its a little bit of the history.

The modern feel extends to not just the art on the walls, but also to their merchandise.

Amy Sherman/For Hearst Midwest

Anytime there is art in the brewery, it feels like its always skeletons, or like the dead rising, Lustina said. Not everything has to be heavy metal art, although there is nothing wrong with that. I like heavy metal sometimes. But not many breweries had that modern art pop of prime colors, which I think sets us apart.

Visit the brewery: Beer Church Brewing 24 S Whittaker St New Buffalo, MI 269-586-3864 See More Collapse

T-shirts feature a Warhol-esque print of the church in a grid of bright screened colors and have proven to be incredibly popular. I mean, who doesnt want to brag about drinking in church?

In addition to the aesthetics of the space, Beer Church wanted to set themselves apart in the food department as well. As you know, it seems like every brewery offers pizza, because beer and pizza just go together. So when I asked about their pizza at Beer Church, Lustina was quick to explain that this isnt just any kind of pizza, this is the real, authentic deal, straight out of Naples.

Simon and Lustina traveled quite a bit together, usually on work trips, prior to opening their brewery.

We didnt realize that we were doing research and development, Lustina said. We amassed a first-hand knowledge of breweries. Interiors, menus, what we liked, what we didnt like. And we really like pizza.

Courtesy Photo

The couple made friends with a chef in Italy, and built up some trust with him, explained Lustina.

He agreed to give us his recipe for his dough that he brought over from Italy," he said. "Wed gone to his place enough, asked enough questions, name dropped places. He knew that we were legitimate to want to authentically do this.

But pizza is still just pizza, right? Not at Beer Church. This is authentic Napoletana style pizza, cooked in a wood burning oven brought over from Naples that reaches temps of 1000 degrees, and cooks the pizza in 90 seconds. And that crust?

It's such a unique crust, Lustina explained. Its got a slight crunch, inside is pillowy, almost like an injera bread, from Ethiopia. Its kind of spongey at the core of it. Its difficult to make. You have to have the right ingredients, the right oven. And its really not done the right way in very many places at all. The moment you take a bite, you can tell this is it. You can just tell."

Its a labor of love for sure, Lustina said. Its a longer ferment than normal, all fresh dough, all the time. You have to use the dough that day or get rid of it.

Courtesy Photo

According to Lustina, this true authentic style of pizza had not been done in a brewery in Michigan before, and hes pretty proud to be the first.

Head brewer Nate Peck, came to the brewery with experience from Tapestry Brewing in Bridgeman, and a stint at Michigan Mobile Canning.

Hes been absolutely phenomenal , Lustina said. He does a really good job of going through all the different genres of beer. He really cares about unique ingredients and using fresh ingredients. There is definitely a Nate Taste to our beer. You get used to that freshness, and now it's hard for us to have a beer in a bar. Were really spoiled here.

If you need a gateway beer, try Crooked Cross Cream Ale, which was named after the cross on the top of the church.

People love it, Lustina said. Its such an easy drinker.

Ill be quaffing their most popular brew, Pontius Pilate IPA.

Amy Sherman/For Hearst Midwest

Its our number one seller, it comes in at 7.4% ABV, Lustina said. Its our signature beer.

The couple couldnt believe that this name was still available for a beer.

We always make sure to get the trademark on everything, since Jane specializes in that part of the law, Lustina said. And the second most famous person in history? We were able to get his name trademarked.

The brewery makes at least two to three batches of this beer a week, assuring that it is always fresh, and always on tap.

Up next for Beer Church is a large expansion to their outdoor dining, which already seats about 60 people. Theyll be adding a second level deck, with about 60 more seats, and a specially designed outdoor wood fired pizza oven, which will be able to handle about 10 pies at a time. They also just added a new 20 BBL fermenter, and 8 bright tanks, so they can keep up with the demand for their beer. Last year, they produced close to 1000 barrels, and only serve on site in New Buffalo. They have no plans for distribution.

And that church they originally looked at in Key West, Florida? Its still there and will become the southern outpost of Beer Church sometime in the near future.

If you are in Southwest Michigan, do join the congregation at Beer Church, as long as you believe in great beer and some pretty incredible pizzas. Its a religion we all can get behind.
Photo provided

The history of vaccination mandates in the U.S., and the public response to them, will be the topic of an event at Delta College.



The colleges Political Forum Committee will host a distinguished panel on Thursday, Nov. 18 for the free event, Mandatory Vaccination and the Workplace: Legality, Labor and Liberty, from 7-8:30 p.m. on Zoom. Registration is required at delta.edu/workplacevaccine.



Lisa Lawrason, chair of the Political Forum Committee and professor of political science, said the purpose of the forum is to give the Delta community diverse perspectives on pressing issues that affect everyday lives.



With the Biden administration's vaccine requirements going into effect soon, people have a lot of questions about such mandates and how its implementation will impact area businesses, Lawrason said. Having perspective and depth on these issues will help us make decisions and contribute to our democracy in the most productive way possible.



Panelists include Lance Gable, professor of law for Wayne State University; James Hitt, professor of philosophy for Saginaw Valley State University; Beth Roszatycki, regional director of the Michigan Small Business Development Center; and Andrew Werhman, professor of history for Central Michigan University. Audra Swarthout, professor of biology for Delta, will moderate the discussion.



The forum will explore the constitutionality of vaccine mandates, including the use of executive power to enact them and the practical impact of mandates on employers and the workforce. The panel will not address or debate the safety of vaccines.



Since 2007, Delta has hosted an annual political forum to engage the community in a dialogue about current events and issues.



To register or learn more, visit delta.edu/workplacevaccine.
CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP)  A prosthetic-tailed dolphin named Winter that starred in the Dolphin Tale movies died Thursday evening at a Florida aquarium despite life-saving efforts to treat a gastrointestinal abnormality, aquarium officials said.

The 16-year-old female bottlenose dolphin died while being held by animal care experts who were preparing Winter for a procedure at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium where the famous marine mammal has long resided.

While we are heartbroken by Winters death, we are comforted knowing that our team did everything possible to give her the best chance at survival, said veterinarian Dr. Shelly Marquardt, in a statement released by the aquarium.

Marquardt said the aquarium worked with specialists and marine mammal experts from around the country but the dolphin, which was in critical condition and declining, died while being held by caregivers.

The statement said the aquarium would remain closed on Friday to provide staff time to grieve. It had earlier said a Friday closure would allow workers to focus on the dolphin's medical care with plans to reopen Saturday.

James Buddy Powell, president of the aquarium, told reporters Thursday that the facility's staff and outside experts were doing everything possible seeking to restore the dolphin to health.

Winter previously experienced intestinal issues  not uncommon among dolphins  but such problems have never affected her like this, Powell had said Thursday. But at the time, he said Winter was not responding to treatment as in the past, adding there was no evidence Winter had the coronavirus.

Winter was two months old when her tail became entangled in a crab trap near Cape Canaveral, which forced its amputation. Dolphin Tale, which was released in 2011, chronicled Winters recovery and the unprecedented, lengthy effort to fit her with a prosthetic tail.

The film, starring Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson, Morgan Freeman and Nathan Gamble, was largely shot at the Clearwater aquarium and surrounding Tampa Bay locations. It put the non-profit aquarium, first opened in 1972 on the site of a former water treatment plant, on the map internationally.

This place wouldnt be here if it wasnt for Winter, Powell said.

Winter's story of rehabilitation has become an inspiration for disabled people around the world and the aquarium has received thousands of messages of support since Winter's illness became known.

Many are inspired by her resiliency and this amazing response reminds us of how deeply she has affected millions, including so many on their own health journey, the aquarium statement said.

A sequel, Dolphin Tale 2, was released three years later starring Winter and Hope, another rescued dolphin cared for by the Clearwater aquarium.

Bottlenose dolphins can live up to 60 years and are considered one of the most intelligent of all animal species.

Winter and Hope became the most famous residents of the Clearwater aquarium, which also operates sea turtle and manatee rescue programs.

An $80 million expansion of the facility was recently completed, including a 1.5 million-gallon (5.6 million-liter) new dolphin complex, to handle the crowds that have descended on the aquarium since Dolphin Tale was released a decade ago.
BEIRUT (AP)  Lebanon is a failing state that has also failed its people, leaving them struggling with converging crises that have impoverished the population and eroded trust in authorities, a U.N. expert said Friday.

Olivier De Schutter, the U.N. special rapporteur on poverty, sounded the alarm at the end of a 12-day visit to Lebanon. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said it is critical that Lebanese politicians realize they cannot rely indefinitely on foreign aid and humanitarian assistance.

Still, De Schutter said it was not too late for the government to take measures to help protect the impoverished in this nation of 6 million, including 1 million Syrian refugees.

The economic crisis in Lebanon has been described as one of the worst in the world in 150 years. It has plunged more than half the population into poverty in just months, left the national currency in freefall and sent inflation and unemployment soaring.

Doctors, nurses and teachers have left the country in droves; schools have struggled to reopen amid a crippling fuel crisis and the poorest families are forced to marry off their daughters early or send their children to work to cope with the meltdown. De Schutter warned of a wasted generation.

After more than a year without a fully-functioning government because of political bickering, Prime Minister Najib Mikati's Cabinet was formed in September.

But disagreements have once again spawned a paralysis  the Cabinet has not been able to meet for weeks.

De Schutter's mission was to assess the governments plans to confront the formerly middle-income countrys quick descent into poverty. The government, he said, has no time to waste.

Very often the answers I got were a reference to the Lebanese population's need to be supported by humanitarian assistance, by international donors. That however is not a long term strategy, De Schutter said.

He described Lebanon as one of the most unequal countries in the world," with 10% of the population in control of 70% of the assets. Critical tax reforms are essential and shareholders in large commercial banks must bear the largest part of the sectors financial losses  and not the small depositors as has been happening for months.

We know this government has a limited time to start and implement reforms, De Schutter warned. Lebanons next general elections are due in the spring.

De Schutter also said social safety dependent on funding from international financial institutions such as the World Bank currently only cover one tenth of the population. A national plan, not dependent on foreign aid, must be in place to protect the country's destitute, he said.

He said he would advise the United Nations to condition aid on reforms, expand social protection and use public finances better. Lebanon's donors have also made reforms a condition for assistance.

It makes no sense to pour money into humanitarian support if these reforms are not implemented, De Schutter said. This is the government of the last chance."

However, the government, which has said that talks with the International Monetary Fund for a recovery plan are a priority, has been beset once again by internal fighting.

One problem has been the course of Lebanon's probe into the Aug. 4, 2020 explosion at Beiruts port, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate ignited after a massive fire. At least 216 people were killed and some 6,000 were injured. Entire neighborhoods of Beirut were badly damaged.

Lebanons powerful Hezbollah demands the judge leading the probe be removed, claiming he is unfairly targeting the group. Ministers allied with Hezbollah have refused to show up for Cabinet meetings for the last few weeks until the issue is resolved.

Then, a diplomatic spat over comments made by George Kordahi, the information minister, criticizing the war in Yemen where Saudi Arabia is fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels, describing it as absurd and an aggression by the kingdom, have also deadlocked the government since late last month.

Kordahi, a Hezbollah-backed minister, made the comments before he was named to the post and has refused to apologize or resign despite calls for him to do so, including from Mikati himself.

Saudi Arabia has withdrawn its ambassador from Beirut and asked the Lebanese envoy to leave the kingdom. It has also banned Lebanese imports, undermining the small nations foreign trade and depriving it of millions of dollars as it struggles amid the economic meltdown. Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have also pulled their top diplomats from Lebanon, deepening the discord.

Kordahi on Friday appeared to be clinging to his position, saying there are no guarantees his resignation would resolve the spat.
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP)  A 47-year-old old man who admitted to fatally shooting an Illinois State Police trooper in 2019 has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.

With time served, Christopher Grant will serve about 37 years. He pleaded guilty to crimes related to the shooting of Nicholas Hopkins in East St. Louis.

Hopkins had a search warrant and was near the home when he was shot. Grant told investigators the activity on the porch woke him up. He suspected someone was about to rob him and he fired his gun.

His attorney said in court this week that hes profoundly sorry and didnt know it was a police officer on his porch.

Prosecutors sought a life sentence, calling Grant a street-level drug dealer who had numerous firearms at the house.

In handing down the sentence, Chief District Judge Nancy Rosenstengal noted Grant's upbringing surrounded by drugs and violence. He was a young child when his own father was sent to prison. Grant has eight children.

Hopkins, 33, lived in Waterloo. He was married with three children.

His mother, Verna Hopkins told Grant in court that his actions destroyed the Hopkins family.

Nick was a hard worker. His day started before the sun. He served with his hand and his heart. Nick was a policeman, a carpenter and a family man," she said. His empty seat will forever be in our heart.
The Michigan House this week unanimously approved Rep. Annette Glenns plan to support sexual assault survivors and bring their abusers to justice.

Glenns legislation is part of a package continuing efforts to improve the system after shortcomings were discovered during the Larry Nassar investigation in 2018.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced Friday she will run for reelection in 2022, setting up a race against a primary challenger endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Playing up her centrist bona fides, Murkowski said in a campaign video that she would work across party lines to help Alaska and "stand up to any politician or special interest that threatens our way of life. Trump has vowed revenge against Murkowski and other Republican lawmakers who supported his impeachment over the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Murkowski told reporters in Anchorage on Friday there will be plenty of people on the outside who will be gunning for me, who will suggest that I am not right for Alaskans. I would put that directly to the people of this state.

It's very easy to get distracted by people on the outside. It's very easy to get distracted by those who would say theyre going to do something," she said later. "My focus needs to be on the people of Alaska, serving them and asking for their permission for continued service.

Murkowski is the only Republican senator who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial to face reelection next year. The race will be closely watched nationally as an indicator of Trump's lasting influence with GOP voters after his 2020 election defeat and will show whether Republicans remain willing to punish lawmakers who they believe have been disloyal to the former president.

In addition to her impeachment vote, Murkowski called for Trump's resignation after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, in which hundreds of his supporters stormed the building in an attempt to stop the certification of President Joe Biden's election victory. Trump has since said people charged in the attack were being persecuted so unfairly."

Murkowski, 64, had been coy about her reelection plans to this point even as she had been raising money. So far, she has outraised her Trump-backed opponent Kelly Tshibaka, according to fundraising reports.

Murkowski filed paperwork with the state Division of Elections on Friday. She said campaigns are too darn long" and she figured announcing about a year out from the general election was plenty of time.

Tshibaka has not yet filed with the office but has filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission.

Murkowski's announcement came days after she touted the passage of a massive federal infrastructure package that she called consequential for growing the economy and jobs. She was among 19 Republican senators who joined all the Democrats in backing the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Those who are pushing back and saying that a Republican cannot support this measure have not looked at what this legislation is going to do for this country, she said Wednesday.

Murkowski has been in the Senate since 2002, when her father, Frank, selected her to finish his unexpired term after he was elected governor. A Murkowski has represented Alaska in the Senate since 1981.

Tshibaka, who has sought to cast Murkowski as an enabler of Bidens administration, said Friday that it was now official that Lisa Murkowski wont relinquish the Senate seat her father appointed her to 20 years ago, but its just as clear that Alaskans are fed up with her.

Its time for new conservative leaders with courage and common sense to lead our nation forward, and I stand ready to step into that responsibility, Tshibaka said.

Murkowski has bucked the Republican Party before. She lost her 2010 primary to a conservative candidate but went on to win the general election with a write-in campaign.

After the Jan. 6 riot, Murkowski called on Trump to resign the presidency, telling the Anchorage Daily News, I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage.

Trump, during his impeachment trial earlier this year, was acquitted of the sole charge of incitement of insurrection.

Murkowski was censured by the Alaska Republican Party in March for her vote to convict, but the National Republican Senatorial Committee endorsed her. In July, the Alaska Republican State Central Committee endorsed Tshibaka, a former commissioner of Alaskas Department of Administration.

Alaska Republican Party Chair Ann Brown said in a statement Friday that Tshibaka has captured the support of conservatives around the state and is working hard to win.

Murkowski said she has been a Republican since she was old enough to vote and has support from Republican colleagues. But she said it's not about seeking endorsement from a party as much as seeking endorsement from all Alaskans.

Murkowski was the lone Republican to oppose advancing Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in a procedural vote, expressing unease with the sexual misconduct allegations made against him, which he denied. She voted present in the final 50-48 vote that elevated Kavanaugh to the high court.

Trump won Alaska with 52.8% of the vote last year, while Biden got about 42.8% of the vote. Tshibaka has gotten support from Trump allies and announced recently plans for a fundraiser with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida for February.

Alaska voters last year passed an initiative to end party primaries and institute ranked-choice voting for general elections. Under the system, the top four vote-getters in a primary race, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the general election. A state court judge earlier this year upheld the new voting process. That decision has been appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court.

A number of candidates have already filed with the state Division of Elections for the race. The list of candidates on the division's website does not yet include a Democrat.

Lindsay Kavanaugh, executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, said Alaskans deserve better than to choose one side of a proxy war between Mitch McConnells candidate and Donald Trumps candidate. Democrats reject both of those Republican brands.

Democrats will have a candidate in the race "who will be a clear choice for Alaskans, she said in a statement.
PARIS (AP)  The Paris Mosque is marking the sixth anniversary Friday of the attack at the Bataclan concert hall in the French capital that killed 90 people.

Muslim leaders laid a wreath at the venue in Paris 11th arrondissement, one day before a broader commemoration is due to take place. The mosque is holding its commemoration a day early to fall on a Friday, a special weekly prayer day, in a sign of respect.

It is to show our solidarity with the victims that we have offered to meet here this Friday, which is for Muslims an important day, Paris Mosque rector Chems-Eddine Hafiz said. We wanted the imams to come to meet the relatives of the victims, share a moment of solidarity and hand over a wreath of flowers in memory of all the victims of the Bataclan, all without exception.

The anniversary comes with renewed focus as 14 men are on trial in France in connection with a series of coordinated terror attacks in Paris on Nov. 13, 2015.

In the bloody events, jihadists detonated suicide vests and opened fire on cafes in the French capital before massacring spectators of a concert at the Bataclan, killing a total of 130 people.

Family members of some of the people who died said they appreciated the Paris Mosque's gesture.

(It) is a testimony of real brotherhood that crosses religions and crosses the whole of humanity, said Philippe Duperron, president of 13onze15, an association of survivors and victims' relatives.

Duperron lost his son Thomas in the attack at the concert venue, and he has since fought for awareness and justice. He also visited the site of the concert attack on Friday.

Thomas died in the Bataclan. He was 30 years old. He died (here) in front of the Bataclan. He came out alive, but he died in the night, Duperron said with emotion in his voice.

All nine attackers died during the 2015 attacks, but a would-be attacker whose explosives vest malfunctioned and others accused of helping them are currently on trial in Paris.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  A Taliban provincial spokesman says a bomb exploded in a mosque during Friday prayers, wounding at least 15 people in eastern Afghanistan, where Islamic State group militants have been waging a campaign of violence.

Qari Hanif, the government spokesman for Nangarhar Province, said the bomb appeared to have been planted inside the mosque in the town of Traili, located in the mountainous Spin Ghar area outside the provincial capital Jalalabad.

Photos taken by a resident and circulating in social media showed three dead bodies, and the mosque's interior strewn with rubble and broken glass. Hanif did not immediately confirm any deaths.

It was the third major mosque bombing in five weeks in Afghanistan. The earlier attacks came on successive Fridays last month, when IS suicide bombers and gunmen blasted worshippers from Afghanistan's Shiite Muslim minority, first in a mosque in the city of Kunduz, then one in the southern city of Kandahar.

This Friday's bombing targeted Sunni Muslims in a province that has been a front line in the battle between the Islamic State group and the Taliban. IS militants have been carrying out nearly daily shootings and bombings against Taliban fighters in Nangarhar Province.

Since coming to power in Afghanistan three months ago, the Taliban have been waging a counterinsurgency campaign, vowing to put down the threat from IS.

IS is an enemy of the Taliban. The two groups share a hardline interpretation of Islam and over the years engaged in some of the same violent tactics, such as suicide bombings. However, the Taliban have focused on seizing control of Afghanistan, while IS adheres to global jihad.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Taliban intelligence service told reporters in Kabul that the agency has arrested close to 600 IS members, including key figures and financial supporters. The spokesman, Khalil Hamraz, said at least 33 IS members have been killed in gun battles with Taliban security forces.
MIDDLETOWN  The favorite Puccini opera, La Boheme will be staged at the Santo Fragilio Performing Arts Center Nov. 20, courtesy of The Greater Middletown Concert Association.

This is the Connecticut Lyric Opera and Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestras production in its 2021-22 four-concert series, and will be held at the high school, 200 LaRosa Lane, according to a press release.

This is the 11th year GMCA has brought operas to the Middletown area as part of its annual concert series format, which has a history of over 50 years, the news release said.

The Italian operas story takes place in Paris around 1830. It shows the Bohemian lifestyle of four struggling artist friends, a writer, painter, musician and philosopher, according to GMCA.

Rodolfo, the writer, finds himself deeply in love with Mimi, a poor neighbor seamstress. His love is reciprocated, according to GMCA. Their life together is portrayed by Puccinis emotionally attuned music to the couples tragic love story, the news release said.

Jan Mason, associate artistic director for Lyric Opera, will direct. Adrian Sylveen, artistic director for the Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, will conduct.

The cast includes Jurate Svedaite, soprano, as Mimi; Daniel Juarez, tenor, as Rodolfo; and Steven Fredericks, bass, as Colline. Also featured are Samuel Bowen, baritone, as Schaunard; Levi Hernandez, baritone, as Marcello; Maria Margiolakou, soprano, as Musetta; Stefa Skafarowsky, bass, as Benoit; and Alcindoro.

The creative team includes Joey Taylor, associative director; Lynn Porter, scenic designer; and Orianna Cruz, costume designer.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $35 ahead and $40 at the door. To attend, call 860-343-7555 or 860-346-3369. Send checks or credit card info to: Greater Middletown Concert Association, P.O. Box 2622, Middletown, CT 06457.

Attendees are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and wear masks. Social distancing seating in the auditorium will be available at the performance.

This performance is partially supported by the Middletown Commission on the Arts, Community Foundation of Middlesex County, The Connecticut Office of the Arts, and local sponsors.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)  A Cambodian court on Friday released 18 activists, including a prominent labor leader who has been a longtime critic of the government.

The Phnom Penh Court of Appeals said it ordered the release of Rong Chhun and four others, but gave no immediate details about its decision. Am Sam Ath of the human rights group Licadho, which monitors prisons, said 13 additional people were freed later in the day.

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, had been in custody since July 2020 after the government said he spread false information.

He was convicted in August and sentenced to two years in prison on charges of inciting social unrest.

His attorney, Sam Sokong, said the appeals court cut that sentence to 15 months and 11 days, including time served.

Rong Chhun told cheering supporters outside the prison that he would continue his activities and urged all Cambodians to fight for freedom and human rights.

He said he was convicted unjustly and that the court should drop all charges against him and restore his rights in addition to releasing him early.

Also ordered released were two co-defendants, Ton Nimol and Sar Kanika, who were found guilty of incitement to commit a felony. They were arrested in August 2020 while demonstrating for the release of Rong Chhun, and each was sentenced to 20 months in prison in the same trial.

Two other activists in an unrelated case were also ordered to be released.

Labor leaders such as Rong Chhun hold significant political influence in Cambodia because they represent the vast number of workers in the textile industry, which is a major export earner. The major unions have historically aligned themselves with the political opposition to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Rong Chhun served on the national election committee of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party before it was dissolved by court order in 2017, ahead of the 2018 general election.

The party's dissolution was generally seen as intended to ensure victory for Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party. Hun Sen has been in power for 36 years and has often been accused of heading an authoritarian regime.

In a separate case, rights groups called for the immediate release of two other opposition CNRP activists who were deported back to Cambodia from Thailand earlier in the week.

Voeun Veasna and Voeung Samnang were both wanted in Cambodia for charges related to online postings critical of the government.

The regional advocacy group ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights called for their immediate release and criticized Thailand, saying it was unacceptable to return a refugee to a country where they are likely to face persecution.

Human Rights Watch said Thailand's return of the two men shows a blatant disregard for fundamental refugee protection principles.

The Thai governments actions make it complicit in the Cambodian governments persecution of its political opponents, which appears to extend beyond Cambodias borders," said Bill Frelick, the organization's refugee and migrants director.

Thai immigration authorities could not immediately be reached for comment.

___

Rising reported from Bangkok.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Jabari Evans, University of South Carolina

(THE CONVERSATION) Before he was arrested in December 2011, Chief Keef was a 16-year-old budding rap star. Hed released a song, Bang, which had more than 400,000 views on YouTube, along with a mixtape that hed recorded in a friends bedroom. He also had a dedicated Twitter following among Chicago high school students.

The track displayed a rawness unlike anything else that was released at the time, and you couldnt stroll down the streets of Chicagos South Side without hearing Bangs lyrics pulsing from the stereos of cars rolling by:

Yet he was almost completely unknown outside of Chicago. His Facebook profile had less than 2,000 followers, he claimed his occupation was smokin dope and he still lived with his grandmother.

Nevertheless, the verses written and hastily disseminated on social media by Chief Keef and his peers were fast becoming a unique sort of news ticker for low-income communities of color in Chicago, detailing the turf wars, rivalries and hassles of everyday life as a Black kid growing up in the city.

The songs became known as drill music, a genre characterized by its dark synths, booming 808 drums, seemingly off-beat, mumbled verses and war-cry choral chants. Its vanguards  artists like Chief Keef, King Louie, G Herbo and Lil Durk  emerged as local heroes by staying tethered to the blocks and neighborhoods they rapped about on SoundCloud and YouTube. Eventually, the national press caught on. The coverage was often less than flattering.

At the time, I was entrenched in my own hip-hop music career, rapping under the moniker Naledge in the duo Kidz in the Hall. As I was touring the country, I noticed that everyone from back home in Chicago was asking me if Id heard of this kid Keef who was from Washington Park.

I knew that if a 16-year-old kid had the city buzzing, it would only be a matter of time before he was famous. What I didnt know is that five years later, the drill subculture would be the subject of my field work as a doctoral student at Northwestern and that it would inspire me to write about the ways in which the citys Black youth dealt with cultural, racial, economic and political oppression through inventive media production.

I started to argue, to anyone that would listen, that drill music was more than shock value or a new spin on gangsta rap. The scene planted the seeds for hip-hops ascendancy in musics digital economy.

Drill goes viral

When Chief Keefs house arrest ended, on Jan. 2, 2012, WorldStarHipHop posted a video of a young child in a hysterical fit of excitement, bounding around a room and rapping along to Bang.

The video of the boy went viral in the hip-hop community, and curious viewers furiously searched YouTube for more Chief Keef content.

Later that year, Chief Keef cemented his national reputation with the commercial success of his song I Dont Like. As the lead single for Chief Keefs debut album, Finally Rich, I Dont Like charted on the Billboard Hot 100, accumulated tens of millions of listens online and helped drill break into the nations musical mainstream.

Within months of the songs release, drill was seemingly everywhere. Hip-hop icons like Kanye West and Drake began co-signing drill rappers, while record labels instigated bidding wars over the South Side of Chicagos budding rap talent.

At the time, drill music was still one of the only music scenes to exist almost exclusively on YouTube and free streaming sites like SoundCloud and DatPiff.com  a form of DIY distribution that circumvented the traditional gatekeepers of the rap music industry. Songs were churned out via singles, curated playlists, snippets and low-budget music videos that could be edited and released instantly by artists direct to their audiences via social media.

The most popular YouTube videos for drill songs were often shot in low-income apartments or on street corners, with the local crews standing behind the artist performing, pointing weapons at the camera and rapping about the recent events of ongoing street wars.

Initially, many journalists and researchers focused almost exclusively on how youth in the drill scene used their songs to perform internet banging, or threatening rival gang members and planning crimes over social media.

Media outlets like the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times, Noisey, Pitchfork, Spin, The New York Times and WorldStar Hip Hop extensively covered the rise of Chief Keef and the drill scene, pointing to the violence inspired by the lyrics and the gang affiliations of the artists as the source of their viral appeal.

Police not only started monitoring the social media accounts of drill rappers, but also effectively banned Chief Keef from performing in his hometown by encouraging venues not to book drill rappers and telling promoters that theyd shut down drill shows.

The drill scene did incite violence. For example, in August 2020, drill rapper FBG Duck was murdered in the upscale Gold Coast neighborhood a year-and-a-half after threatening the O-Block street gang in a music video. In October 2021, the U.S. Attorneys office for Northern Illinois indicted five members of the O-Block street gang for the murder, pointing out that the gang has publicly claimed responsibility for acts of violence in Chicago and used social media and music to increase their criminal enterprise.

[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]

Rethinking the legacy of the drill scene

Though deaths like FBG Ducks make headlines, my interviews with those affiliated with artists like Chief Keef have shown me that the gang violence associated with drill is hardly the reason these artists found success.

Instead, they wrote a blueprint for artists in hip-hops streaming era.

In the decade since Chief Keef became an internet famous rapper with the song Bang, a lot has changed in the music industry. Theres now no real demarcation between being a famous musician online and one whos been elevated by the industrys power brokers. Tekashi 69, Lil Yachty, 21 Savage, Juice WRLD and Lil Uzi Vert are just a few of the artists that built on the swagger, style, aesthetic and internet distribution model pioneered by Chief Keef.

Chief Keef was among the first to broadcast everyday life in Chicagos gang territories to the world. His stream of consciousness style  saturating his YouTube channel videos of himself hanging out with his friends, meeting up with female fans, smoking marijuana and recording songs in his home studio  was a window into everyday life thats been emulated by pretty much every pop star since.

Moreover, his willingness to give away music for free also paved the way for the SoundCloud era, in which artists like Chance the Rapper, Lil Pump and Doja Cat gained huge followings not through record deals, but through releasing tracks on SoundCloud.

Chief Keefs unique slang and mumbled, melodic rapping style have also sparked drill youth movements in places as far away as Australia, London and Ghana.

Yes, Chief Keefs story is out-of-the-ordinary: Getting in a shootout with police at the age of 15 and filming videos while on house arrest arent exactly common adolescent experiences. But his ability to present that story to the world and brand his style within a larger movement speaks to his genius.

In my forthcoming book project, I nod to the drill subculture that he spearheaded as reflecting the potential of Chicagos Black youth. Denied full access to resources that might have helped them overcome their trauma and avoid gang lifestyles, Chief Keef and his peers used social media to persevere and make careers for themselves in music.

A lot that could be gained by not overlooking the creativity and ingenuity of teens and young adults like Chief Keef. Hes a perfect example of the ways in which young Black kids are unintentionally innovating within social media while simply navigating violence and poverty.

What if the violence that accompanied his work were seen as a bug, not a feature? How might his creative output been harnessed to bolster  rather than vilify  the impoverished communities he rapped about?

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/chief-keef-changed-the-music-industry-and-its-time-he-gets-the-credit-he-deserves-170172.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was indicted Friday on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The Justice Department said Bannon, 67, was indicted on one count for refusing to appear for a deposition last month and the other for refusing to provide documents in response to the committees subpoena. He is expected to surrender to authorities on Monday and will appear in court that afternoon, a law enforcement official told the AP. The person was granted anonymity to discuss the case.

The indictment comes after a parade of Trump administration officials  including Bannon  have defied requests and demands from Congress over the past five years with little consequence, including during Democrats' impeachment inquiry. President Barack Obama's administration also declined to charge two of its officials who defied congressional demands.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Bannons indictment reflects the Justice Departments steadfast commitment to the rule of law. Each count carries a minimum of 30 days of jail and as long as a year behind bars.

The indictment came as a second expected witness, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, defied his own subpoena from the committee on Friday and as Trump has escalated his legal battles to withhold documents and testimony about the insurrection.

If the House votes to hold Meadows in contempt, that recommendation would also be sent to the Justice Department for a possible indictment.

Officials in both Democratic and Republican administrations have been held in contempt by Congress, but criminal indictments for contempt are exceedingly rare. The most recent notable examples of criminal penalties for not testifying before Congress date to the 1970s, including when President Richard Nixons aide G. Gordon Liddy was convicted of misdemeanor charges for refusing to answer questions about his role in the Watergate scandal.

Democrats who voted to hold Bannon in contempt praised the Justice Department's decision, saying the charges reinforce the authority of Congress to investigate the executive branch and signal potential consequences for those who refuse to cooperate.

The days of defying subpoenas with impunity are over, tweeted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who sits on the Jan. 6 panel and also led Trump's first impeachment inquiry. We will expose those responsible for Jan 6. No one is above the law.

The chairman of the Jan. 6 panel, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, told reporters at an event in his home state of Mississippi on Friday that he will recommend contempt charges against Meadows next week.

Thompson and the vice chairwoman of the panel, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, said in a statement: Mr. Meadows, Mr. Bannon, and others who go down this path wont prevail in stopping the Select Committees effort getting answers for the American people about January 6th, making legislative recommendations to help protect our democracy, and helping ensure nothing like that day ever happens again."

Meadows and Bannon are key witnesses for the panel, as they both were in close touch with Trump around the time of the insurrection.

Meadows was Trumps top aide at the end of his presidency and was one of several people who pressured state officials to try and overturn the results. Bannon promoted the Jan. 6 protests on his podcast and predicted there would be unrest. On Jan. 5, he predicted that all hell is going to break loose.

The indictment says Bannon didnt communicate with the committee in any way from the time he received the subpoena on Sept. 24 until Oct. 7 when his lawyer sent a letter, seven hours after the documents were due.

Bannon, who worked at the White House at the beginning of the Trump administration and currently serves as host of the conspiracy-minded War Room podcast, is a private citizen who refused to appear to give testimony as required by a subpoena, the indictment says.

When Bannon declined to appear for his deposition in October, his attorney said the former Trump adviser had been directed by a lawyer for Trump citing executive privilege not to answer questions. The attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment on Friday.

This is not the first time the longtime Trump ally has faced legal peril. In August of last year, Bannon was pulled from a luxury yacht and arrested on allegations that he and three associates ripped off donors trying to fund a southern border wall. Trump later pardoned Bannon in the final hours of his presidency.

Meadows, a former congressman from North Carolina, defied his subpoena on Friday after weeks of discussions with the committee. His lawyer said that Meadows has a sharp legal dispute with the panel as Trump has claimed executive privilege over the former chief of staff's testimony, as he had with Bannon's.

The White House said in a letter Thursday that President Joe Biden would waive any privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee, prompting Meadows' lawyer to say he wouldn't comply.

Legal disputes are appropriately resolved by courts, said the lawyer, George Terwilliger. It would be irresponsible for Mr. Meadows to prematurely resolve that dispute by voluntarily waiving privileges that are at the heart of those legal issues.

As the sitting president, Biden has so far waived most of Trump's assertions of privilege over documents and interviews, citing the interest of the public in knowing what happened on Jan. 6. Trump sued the committee and the National Archives to stop the release of documents, and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has repeatedly backed Biden's position, noting in one ruling this week that Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

The panel's proceedings and attempts to gather information have been delayed as Trump has appealed Chutkan's rulings. On Thursday, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the release of some of the White House records the panel is seeking, giving that court time to consider Trump's arguments.

Still, the House panel is continuing its work, and members have already interviewed more than 150 witnesses in an attempt to build a comprehensive record of how a violent mob of Trump's supporters broke into the Capitol and temporarily halted the certification of Biden's victory.

The committee has subpoenaed almost three dozen people, including former White House staffers, Trump allies who strategized about how to overturn his defeat and people who organized a giant rally near the White House on the morning of Jan. 6. While some, like Meadows and Bannon, have balked, others have spoken to the panel and provided documents.

___

Emily Wagster Pettus reported from Mississippi. AP writers Eric Tucker, Nomaan Merchant, Zeke Miller, Farnoush Amiri and Jill Colvin contributed.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Arnold R. Eiser, Drexel University

(THE CONVERSATION) In the summer of 2021, a toxic, smoky haze stemming from Western wildfires wafted across large parts of the United States, while hurricanes wrought extensive flooding in the southern and eastern U.S. Air quality websites such as AirNow warned of hazardous conditions on the U.S. East Coast from Western forest fires 3,000 miles away, with recommendations to stay indoors.

Journalists reported the immediate impact of lives lost and homes and property destroyed, but more insidious dangers escaped notice. Few people realize that these climate change-fueleddisasters  both fires and floods  could adversely affect human health in longer-term ways.

Im a scientist-author who studies the links between environmental factors and the development of neurological disorders, which is the subject of my recent book. My research on this topic adds to a growing body of evidence that more frequent environmental disasters may be raising human exposure to neurotoxins.

Neurotoxic smoke

Many scientists have identified links between air pollution in various forms, including from forest fire smoke, and an increased risk and prevalence of adverse health effects, including brain disorders.

Wildfire smoke is a mixture of countless noxious chemical compounds. Fires burning across the warming planet  from California to Greece and Australia  are adding dangerous particulate matter to the atmosphere that includes neurotoxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium and manganese nanoparticles. These toxins are an added environmental burden on top of the pollutants emitted by factories, power plants, trucks, automobiles and other sources.

The greatest potential for health problems comes from minuscule particles, smaller than 2.5 microns  or PM 2.5 (for context, the width of a human hair is typically 50 to 70 microns). This is, in part, because tiny particles are easily inhaled; from the lungs, they enter the bloodstream and circulate widely throughout the body. In the brain they may inflame the microglial cells, the brains defensive cells, causing harm to neurons instead of protecting them. Studies show that these extremely tiny particles may damage neurons or brain cells by promoting inflammation. Brain inflammation can lead to conditions like dementia and Parkinsons disease, a movement disorder in adults.

In addition, prenatal and early-life exposure to air pollution has been linked to an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder in children. Research suggests that air pollution exposure during these critical periods, particularly in the third trimester of pregnancy and the first few months of life, may impair normal neural development.

Waterborne neurotoxins

As part of my book research, I investigated potential links between environmental neurotoxins and related health effects in Finland. Seeking unique environmental factors that might underlie the disproportionately high rates of fatal dementia that occurred in Finland in the past decade, I found that water pollution  exacerbated by flooding, use of fertilizer and higher water temperatures  may be affecting brain health.

As I reviewed the environmental concerns in Finland, the widespread presence of blue-green algae in waterways stood out to me. Though its commonly called algae, blue-green algae is actually a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria. These toxic microorganisms thrive and proliferate in warm waterways when excessive nutrients, particularly phosphorus from fertilizer runoff, pour into fresh and brackish water. It produces cyanotoxins.

One of these cyanotoxins, -methylamino-L-alanine, or BMAA, is linked to neurodegenerative disorders including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, Parkinsons disease and Alzheimers disease. In particular I was struck by scientists finding high levels of BMAA in mollusks and fish found in the Baltic Sea, which could potentially play a role in Finlands high incidence of dementia, as fish is heavily consumed there.

Blue-green algae is found in rivers, lakes and seas. Its presence is a widespread problem for humans, dogs and wildlife in the U.S. and Canada, as well as around the globe. In 2020, more than 300 elephants in Botswana died after drinking from water sources contaminated by the cyanobacteria that cause these algal blooms. Blue-green algae is so widely present in Finland that scientists there have developed a quick test to determine whether it is present or not.

Mold neurotoxins

In Finland, warm, humid air creates the perfect conditions for mold to grow, and water-damaged buildings are particularly susceptible. Some species emit mycotoxins, or mold toxins. Long-term exposure to mycotoxins, even at low levels, can present serious health hazards for both people and animals.

Mold spores are tiny, making them easy to inhale or ingest. Inside the body they can trigger an immune response, leading to chronic inflammation. Ultimately, exposure to these spores may cause cognitive impairment, including memory loss, irritability, numbness, tremors and other symptoms. Such a situation is likely to develop after a region has experienced the flooding of residences or workplaces in the weeks after they have been damaged.

Mold toxins, particularly ochratoxin A, can trigger inflammation that may harm neurons and brain function. It has been specifically implicated in Parkinsons disease.

Reducing risk and a way forward

Education, greater awareness of environmental health concerns and public action are the best ways to minimize risks from environmental neurotoxins.

By learning to recognize blue-green algae, people may avoid swimming or boating near it and avoid letting their pets near it too. Consumers can advocate for greater environmental monitoring of food and water sources. Exercise that involves sweating can help eliminate neurotoxic substances. But before you exercise outdoors, it is prudent to check air quality on an app or website like AirNow, a partnership of federal, state, local and tribal agencies.

If environmental policies arent put into place to mitigate the health risks posed by environmental neurotoxins, research suggests that we may continue to experience increases in a variety of neurodegenerative disorders as the toxins rise. Many of these conditions are labeled idiopathic, or lacking a known cause. The neurotoxic connection is rarely considered, and environmental health hazards are often overlooked in American health care. This is in large part because environmental health is rarely taught in medical education, which can lead to a lack of awareness about potential diagnoses related to an environmental illness.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently reevaluating air quality standards for particulate matter. A new EPA inspector general report calls for a strategic plan to control harmful algal blooms. Ohio, a leading state for public policy initiatives aimed at neurotoxic algal blooms, now regulates cyanotoxins in drinking water and advises farmers against adding fertilizer when the ground is saturated or when rain is in the forecast.

Since climate change may be a driver for rising neurotoxins, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring better environmental stewardship are essential to human health. Achieving this will require strong international and domestic efforts and a wide range of interventions by governments around the world. But all of these efforts must begin with a deeper and more widespread understanding of the profound nature of this problem  which should be a universal, nonpartisan concern.

[Over 115,000 readers rely on The Conversations newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.]

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/neurotoxins-in-the-environment-are-damaging-human-brain-health-and-more-frequent-fires-and-floods-may-make-the-problem-worse-165866.
Meriden Police / Contributed

MERIDEN  A man who authorities say fled Connecticut and was on the run after an August homicide has been apprehended in Florida.

Jyineez Cruz, 20, of Meriden, was fatally shot behind 55 W. Main St. on Aug. 22.
BRIDGEPORT  A city police officer was arrested Thursday night when he was caught stealing cash during a large drug bust, officials said.

Bridgeport patrol officer Christopher Martin was arrested and charged with second-degree larceny and tampering with evidence. He was released on $10,000 bond, pending arraignment in Superior Court.

Martin, a 21-year member of the Bridgeport Police Department, immediately resigned as suspension paperwork was being prepared, States Attorney Joseph T. Corradino said.

My office is also committed to maintaining the integrity of law enforcement in this district, Corradino said. We will move swiftly and resolutely in the face of any alleged misconduct.

Martin was arrested after an inspector from the States Attorneys Office observed that $500 previously documented in a suspects vehicle had been removed, Corradino said.

Operations were immediately halted and a search for the money commenced. An inspector observed Martin move a quantity of cash from his sock to his pants pocket, officials said. Martin was found to be in possession of $500 in cash and was arrested by Bridgeport police, officials said.

Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

The Bridgeport Police Department took immediate action by arresting him upon becoming aware of his actions, Acting Chief Rebeca Garcia said in a statement Friday morning. Former Officer Martin immediately submitted his resignation prior to being suspended without pay and participating in an immediate due process hearing. The Bridgeport Police Department will not and does not condone officers who violate their oath of office by engaging in criminal activity.

The bust also resulted in the arrests of David Pacheco, of Bridgeport, and Luis Alberto Pacheco, of Waterbury. Both are charged with possession of narcotics with intent to distribute.

The arrests were the culmination of a three-month investigation into narcotics distribution in Bridgeport. The investigation was led by a special task force of police inspectors from the Office of the States Attorney for the Judicial District of Fairfield, along with officers from Bridgeport, Stratford, Stamford and Newtown police departments, the Bridgeport Tactical Narcotics Team, the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, the Connecticut State Police Gang Unit, the Regional Auto Theft Task Force and the Statewide Narcotics Task Force.

This successful operation has proven again the value of inter-agency cooperation in removing the scourge of narcotics from our community and protecting our residents, especially youth, from the ravages of drugs, Corradino said.
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany -- Parents spent hours calling and waiting Friday to grab the first COVID-19 vaccination appointments for children ages 5 to 11 at the largest U.S. military hospital in Europe, while other commands on the Continent made preparations to receive the doses.

The rollout of coronavirus shot appointments, available next week for younger children at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, was bumpy in some instances, leading some parents to voice frustrations on social media.

A Facebook message Wednesday afternoon announcing availability didn't mention the shutdown of the appointment line for Veterans Day, though a hospital patient registration office remained open.

The appointment line typically closes on federal holidays, LRMC spokesman Marcy Sanchez said.

The crush of calls Friday "all at once" took the hospital by surprise, he added.

LRMC officials have said they would update the community when the pediatric vaccine was received, and it came in sooner than expected, Sanchez said.

The appointment line for scheduling routine medical visits was overwhelmed by callers when it opened Friday at 7 a.m.

Appointments for Nov. 18 and 19, the first days of the three-day event, were gone within the first two hours of availability Friday morning, parents said.

The hospital moved all vaccine appointment scheduling from the Defense Health Agency's online app to the local phone line after experiencing issues with the online system, Sanchez said.

Although some parents "may have waited on hold, patient safety was a top priority, so our representatives handled each appointment request and questions as they usually do," Sanchez said.

He added that the hospital had 600 appointments available initially. The hospital hasn't yet announced more vaccination dates.

"I can't confirm if they are full, but if they are, we will schedule additional opportunities for this patient population to get vaccinated with at least the first dose before the end of December," Sanchez said.

Most Army installations in Europe have received the pediatric doses or expect to do so in the coming week, said Gino Mattorano, spokesman for Regional Health Command Europe.

LRMC and other facilities that have the cold-storage capability required for the vaccine are receiving direct shipments from the United States, which speeds up delivery time, Mattorano said.

The hospital is offering the vaccine to children of Army, Air Force and Defense Department civilians in the Kaiserslautern area, including patients typically seen at Ramstein Air Base.

Other Army bases in Germany are still using the online appointment system at https://informatics-stage.health.mil/COVAX/.

There are some exceptions. Vilseck has a walk-in vaccination clinic Thursday from 1:30-4:30 p.m. at the multipurpose center. Children must have a valid ID to receive the vaccination.

Stuttgart is planning a vaccine drive for pediatric patients on Nov. 20 at Stuttgart High School, the base's health clinic posted Thursday on Facebook, noting that more details would follow.

During a virtual town hall meeting earlier this week, Stuttgart medical officials said vaccination times would be alphabetical, based on last names, "to prevent bottlenecking." Those who show up outside of their designated window will be seen on a space-available basis, officials said.

Other vaccination events announced include:

Ansbach: Nov. 24 from 1-4 p.m. at the base health clinic, second floor conference room; second dose Dec. 15, from 1-4 p.m. Appointments via the DHA app.

Hohenfels: Nov. 22-23 from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Nov. 24 from 9-11:30 a.m.; Nov. 30 from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. at the base health clinic, Building 51, at Hohenfels Training Area. Appointments via the DHA app.

Grafenwoehr: Nov. 23 at Netzaberg Middle School. More details will be posted on base social media channels soon.

Garmisch: Dec. 8-9. The time and location are to be determined.

Wiesbaden: Thursday from 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m. and Nov. 22 from 3-4:30 p.m.; second shots, Dec. 9 from 1-6:30 p.m. and Dec. 16 from 1-2:30 p.m. Location is the Bookmart on base. Appointments via the DHA app.

The Navy and other Air Force bases in Europe had not yet publicly announced vaccination clinics for the pediatric coronavirus shot.

Stars and Stripes reporter Immanuel Johnson contributed to this report.
STUTTGART, Germany -- The U.S. military's stepped-up activities around Ukraine have turned into a new "red line" for Moscow that could increase the risk of a large-scale Russian invasion of the country, some military analysts are cautioning as Russian troops mass on Ukraine's border.

But Pentagon brass could be missing the signal Moscow is sending on what it's willing to fight over, as the movement of Russian forces sparks concerns in Washington and European capitals of a possible military offensive in the months ahead.

"There are very, very dark clouds on the horizon," said Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at the Center for Naval Analyses.

The problem the U.S. military needs to solve is how to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine and show a willingness to stand up to possible Russian aggression without provoking the escalation it seeks to avoid in the first place, Kofman said.

"We may be pushing too far, too fast," he said of U.S. military efforts around Ukraine, saying U.S. European Command will need to avoid "running on autopilot" as the security landscape shifts.

In recent weeks, Russian units have been moving into the border region around eastern Ukraine, much like they did in the spring, when fears rose of a new Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Some of the Russian troops deployed there never left, and now more are arriving.

The deployments have been more covert this time, analysts say, and appear unconnected to any training exercises.

That has added to concerns that a larger threat looms in Ukraine's east, where a separatist war has raged for the past seven years.

Retired Marine Corps officer and Russia expert Rob Lee, in an analysis of Russia's spring buildup, said the most likely explanation for that movement was an attempt to signal to the U.S. and NATO that it should avoid accelerating Ukraine's path into NATO, selling arms to the country or imposing new sanctions on Russia.

"This was a demonstration that Russia could respond asymmetrically to anti-Russian policies adopted by the US and NATO by employing military force against Ukraine," Lee wrote in an analysis for the nonpartisan Foreign Policy Research Institute.

The motives this time are much the same, Kofman said, adding that angst in Russia over what it regards as persistent U.S. and NATO activity in Ukraine has shifted Moscow's red lines over the past year.

For Moscow, a possible attempt by Ukraine to join NATO has been long regarded as provocative.

"That position has changed to  it's now about (Western) defense cooperation in Ukraine, which can amount to the same de facto outcome," of NATO membership in Russia's view," Kofman said. "This is the red line. It is not just formal membership."

In western Ukraine, the U.S. Army has been training Ukrainian troops since 2015, the year after Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula and backed separatist fighters in the east.

The U.S. also has increased military sales and aid to Ukraine and expanded its naval presence in the Black Sea along with other NATO allies.

Retired U.S. Navy Adm. James Foggo III, who led U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and Allied Joint Forces Command, Naples, says a clearer allied military strategy in the Black Sea region would help deter Russia.

"There needs to be a strategy that addresses the key areas where you want to operate where there is a potential for heightened tensions as we are seeing in the Black Sea and in the Ukraine," said Foggo, who doesn't regard U.S. military actions in the Black Sea as escalatory.

Allies also need to find a way to keep lines of communication open with Moscow to reduce the risks of miscalculation, said Foggo, now serving as dean of the newly established Center for Maritime Strategy in Arlington, Va.

Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that it is stoking tensions in the region with its belligerent actions around Ukraine and in the Black Sea region.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday complained about air surveillance in the Black Sea region in what the agency termed increasing "aggressive U.S. military" action. U.S. 6th Fleet acknowledged Navy aircraft were engaged by Russian planes over international waters, calling the interactions "safe and professional."

Also on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Western media reports that Moscow has intentions to invade Ukraine as a "hollow and unfounded attempt to incite tensions."

"Russia doesn't threaten anyone," Peskov said, as cited by The Associated Press. "The movement of troops on our territory shouldn't be a cause for anyone's concern."

Still, some security experts and former U.S. military officials say Russian President Vladimir Putin's military buildup near Ukraine and more vocal complaints in recent weeks about NATO navies operating in the Black Sea are attempts to intimidate allies from bringing Ukraine into the fold.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who led U.S. Army Europe until 2017, said he believes Russia's actions over the last year, including the troop buildup along the Ukrainian border in March and alleged involvement in fostering a migrant crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border, are strategic in nature.

"This is part of an ongoing process to undermine Ukrainian government, to present Ukraine to the West as a failed state so that there is no further effort to integrate Ukraine into the West, into the EU ... or NATO," Hodges said.

Russia is being further emboldened by the European Union's failure to apply more political pressure on Moscow, he said.

"If Putin is confident that the West would not actually do anything if they pushed their forces further into Ukraine to take over more actual territory, I think they would do it," said Hodges, adding that allies are in position to create a deterrent.

One factor that complicates security matters is Europe's dependence on Russian gas pipelines to heat homes in the winter, giving Moscow significant leverage on issues such as sanctions.

In the event of a winter offensive, allied resolve would be tested by the reality that Russia "has it over a barrel" on energy, Kofman said.

"They have full control over how they deliver gas supplies to Europe," he said. "Winter is perfect time for a military operation."

Russian movements near the Ukrainian border since March have raised concerns among the U.S. and its NATO allies of a possible invasion. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a claim the international community generally does not recognize. On Nov. 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Crimea forever a part of Russia.

March 31  U.S. European Command raises awareness level about a buildup of 100,000 Russian troops along the Ukrainian border and in Crimea along with naval forces in the Sea of Azov.

April 22  Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announces that Russian troops will withdraw from positions along the Ukrainian border.

Oct. 6  NATO orders eight Russian diplomats to leave Belgium by Nov. 1, saying they were undeclared intelligence officers.

Oct. 18  Russia announces its plan to end diplomatic engagement with NATO by Nov. 1 and terminates the activities of the NATO office in Moscow.

Oct. 30  The destroyer USS Porter enters the Black Sea on routine patrol and is joined by USS Mount Whitney on Nov. 4. The day before, U.S. 6th Fleet announced that the replenishment oiler USNS John Lenthall was en route to the Black Sea. Moscow calls NATO and U.S. activity in the Black Sea a provocation.

Nov. 1  Commercial satellite images suggest a buildup of Russian troops near the eastern border of Ukraine. Russia denounces the images as "low quality" fakes. Ukraine initially denies the buildup but two days later complains that Russia has sent 90,000 troops near its border.

Nov. 2  CIA Director William Burns meets with Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, warning Moscow of consequences if it steps up military action against Ukraine.

Nov. 8  Belarusian TV images show border guards escorting an estimated 1,000 people to the Polish border, further escalating tensions in a brewing migrant crisis. U.S. analysts suggest that the situation is being manipulated by Russia to divert attention from its actions near Ukraine. The Kremlin denies involvement.

Nov. 10  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Russia would be making a "serious mistake" in committing any new aggressions against Ukraine.
An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that U.S. companies should be recruiting military veterans. That's one of the key findings of a new survey from JUST Capital and the Harris Poll.

JUST Capital is an independent nonprofit that tracks, analyzes and engages with large corporations and their investors on how they perform on public priorities, using that data to drive investment decisions for what the company calls a more just economy.

The result of this investment mission is a series of annual polls and analyses. Its most recent findings, released on Veterans Day 2021, analyzes how companies are currently performing when it comes to supporting the American veteran workforce.

It asked 3,058 Americans how their beliefs regarding corporate responsibility. Results show most American believe corporations can best support the veteran population while helping the overall economy.

Underemployment is a more pervasive issue for veterans than unemployment. Underemployment is defined as being employed in a lower-paying or part-time job despite having more advanced experience, skills or credentials. While the unemployment rate among veterans is consistently lower than non-veteran unemployment, vets are 34% more likely to be underemployed.

Meanwhile, less than a third of veterans believe military experience will have a positive impact on getting the job they want. Most think employers would rather hire a civilian than someone with military experience and ignore veterans' applications. Thats what a University of Phoenix poll that asked vets and active-duty service members about their transition outlook found.

The University of Phoenix poll also revealed that veterans believe that potential employers believe most veterans come with mental health concerns and don't have skills relevant to the jobs for which they apply.

Veterans polled by the university also acknowledge their shortcomings when it comes to skills. Most believe that the military has properly prepared them for civilian life, but that they require more education to be successful. Some say they are also lacking in the computer software skills needed by civilians looking for work today, but they know education and computer skills are things they need to seek out.

When it comes to corporate responsibility for providing an opportunity to learn these skills, the JUST Capital poll reveals Americans also believe corporate CEOs should be addressing issues of importance to American society. When it comes to veteran employment, 87% of respondents believe corporate leaders have a responsibility to recruit veteran talent actively.

Hiring veterans is just the start, however. A third of survey responses say that hiring vets is the primary way companies can support them, but almost the same number believe companies should develop training, skills and mentorship programs for their veteran employees. Around 22% say creating a more inclusive culture is the best way forward.

U.S. companies providing vets with the skills to succeed in the civilian sector could be a boost for those companies, because Americans are willing to put their pocketbooks behind their words. Fifty-one percent of respondents say they would favor companies with such recruiting programs when making a buying decision, yet only 37% of the Russell 1000 Index, America's top 1,000 companies (by market share), have disclosed veteran hiring policies.

In fact, companies that do actively recruit veterans and develop programs for veterans to gain the skills needed for success in the civilian workforce are more profitable and have stock prices that perform better than those who don't have such programs. They also perform better, with a higher return on equity than companies who don't foster veteran talent.

Between the two November 2021 surveys, the results are clear. Veterans need more skills to be successful when leaving the military, while Americans believe corporations have a responsibility to recruit vets and develop those skills. In return, the public is willing to reward those companies for their efforts.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

Want to Know More About Veteran Jobs?

Be sure to get the latest news about post-military careers as well as critical info about veteran jobs and all the benefits of service. Subscribe to Military.com and receive customized updates delivered straight to your inbox.
Left-handed pitcher Adam Conley, who was recently designated for assignment by the Rays, has cleared waivers and elected free agency per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

The 31-year-old Conley pitched effectively for a dominant Rays team after signing a surprise minor league deal in May. The jarring nature of Conleys contract with the Rays came after he backed out of a deal with NPBs Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, citing pandemic-related concerns.

For all the tumult of the relievers offseason though, the effects werent particular pronounced on his bottom-line results. Conley pitched to a 2.29 ERA across 19+ innings for Tampa Bay, albeit with less shiny peripherals and minor league numbers (4.35 ERA in 31 Triple-A innings). Some good BABIP fortune largely explains the hurlers pristine ERA, but even when factoring that in his ability to limit walks and avoid hard contact were definite pluses. Another team will likely sign Conley to a low-risk deal to serve as depth in the coming months, perhaps eyeing a bit of upside if his effectiveness in this years small sample size proves sustainable.
US President Joe Biden has signed the law to ban Chinese tech companies like Huawei and ZTE from getting approval for network equipment licences in the country.

The 'Secure Equipment Act of 2021' had received bipartisan support prior to it being signed by the President, ZDNet reported on Friday.

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designated Huawei and ZTE as national security threats to communications networks -- making it harder for US firms to buy equipment from them.

Under the new law, the FCC is required to no longer review or approve any authorisation application for equipment posing a clear risk to national security.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr had made repeated calls for the legislation to be passed since March this year.

"Once we have determined that Huawei or other gear poses an unacceptable national security risk, it makes no sense to allow that exact same equipment to be purchased and inserted into our communications networks as long as federal dollars are not involved. The presence of these insecure devices in our networks is the threat, not the source of funding used to purchase them," Carr had said.

Besides Huawei and ZTE, other Chinese firms touted as national security threats are Hytera Communications Corporation, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company, and Dahua Technology Company.

In June this year, Biden signed an executive order that increases the number of restricted Chinese firms from 48 to 59, expanding a Donald Trump-era ban on Chinese surveillance companies with alleged ties to the military.

The executive order bans Americans from investing in additional Chinese firms starting from August 2.

In October, the FCC Commissioner had warned that Chinese drone maker DJI "is collecting vast troves of sensitive data on Americans and US critical infrastructure, potentially operating as Huawei on wings".

Shenzhen-based DJI accounts for more than 50 per cent of the US drone market.

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.
We had mentioned in previous weeks closing report that Nifty, Sensex may be range bound.

The major indices opened higher this week and closed with gain.

On Monday, the indices opened higher and ended with major gain. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,101 stocks advanced, 910 declined and 90 remained unchanged with advance decline ratio of 1.21.

Cadila Healthcare will supply 1 crore doses ZyCov-D Vaccine to government at Rs 265 per dose and needle-free applicator at Rs 93/dose.

JBM Auto has been awarded order to supply 200 electric buses to Delhi Transport Corporation under FAME II EV policy.

Bank Of New York Mellon Corp has severed ties with Adanis Carmichael coal mine in Australia as it is not aligned with its ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles.

On Tuesday, the indices opened higher and ended flat. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,185 stocks advanced, 785 declined, and 82 remained unchanged with advance decline ratio of 1.51.

Domestic air passenger traffic grew by 67% on a year-on-year basis in October as per ICRA report.

Praj Industries has signed memorandum of understanding MoU with Indian Oil Corporation to explore production of alcohol to Jet fuels.

Iran has lifted seasonal ban on rice imports.

On Wednesday, the indices opened lower and ended with a loss. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 969 stocks advanced, 1,003 declined, and 65 remained unchanged with advance decline ratio of 0.97.

Cadila has received final approval from USFDA for its Glycopyrrolate injection, used before surgery to decrease volume of secretions from mouth, lungs and stomach.

PayTMs IPO was subscribed fully on the last day. The overall subscription was around 1.89 times.

Cabinet has approved Rs 17,408.85 crore to the cotton commission of India for price support. It has increased price of ethanol made from sugarcane juice to Rs 63.45 per liter.

On Thursday, the indices opened lower and ended with loss. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 787 stocks advanced, 1,207 declined, and 77 remained unchanged.

5G spectrum auction likely to be held in April- May 2022, said Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Maruti Suzuki has revised its sales forecast downwards by 6% on depreciation of Yen and cost reduction efforts. It has kept operation profit forecast unchanged.

The Supreme Court will conduct final hearing on Amazon and Future Retail case on Nov 23.

On Friday, the indices opened higher and ended with major gain. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 943 stocks advanced, 1,030 declined, and 81 remained unchanged.

Egyptian government has banned the import of 3 wheelers and proposed existing 3 wheelers to scrapped. Bajaj Autos 2% overall volumes come from this segment. This may impact Bajaj Autos profit by 7-10%.

Automobile marketplace Droom Technology has filed draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for Rs 3,000 crore IPO.

TVS Motors has joined UN Global Compact, the worlds largest sustainability initiative is a voluntary initiative based on CEO commitments to implement universal sustainability principles.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched two innovative customer-centric initiatives of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The retail direct scheme allows investors to invest in government securities through a free account directly opened with RBI.

The new initiatives from RBI are retail direct scheme and integrated ombudsman scheme. The integrated ombudsman scheme is based on One Nation-One Ombudsman with one portal, one email, and one address to lodge customer complaints.

In his address during the launch, the PM said, Retail direct scheme has given small investors in the country a simple and safe medium of investment in government securities. Similarly, one nation, one ombudsman system has taken shape in the banking sector with the integrated ombudsman scheme today.

The Prime Minister emphasised the citizen-centric nature of these schemes. He said one of the most significant touchstones of any democracy is the strength of its grievance redressal system.

The integrated ombudsman scheme will go a long way in that direction. Similarly, the retail direct scheme will give strength to the inclusion of everyone in the economy as it will bring in the middle class, employees, small businessmen and senior citizens with their small savings directly and securely in government securities. As government securities have the provision of guaranteed settlement, this gives assurance of safety to the small investor," he added.

According to Mr Modi, till six to seven years ago, banking, pension and insurance used to be like an exclusive club in India.

He stated, All these facilities were not accessible to the common citizens in the country, poor families, farmers, small traders-businessmen, women, and dalits-deprived-backwards.

Criticising the earlier system, the PM said those responsible for taking these facilities to the poor never paid any attention to it. Instead, he lamented, various excuses were made for not changing, and it was said that there is no bank branch, no staff, no internet, no awareness, no idea what the arguments were.

According to the PM, over the last few years, the banking sector in the country has undergone various reforms like inclusion and technological integration, which helped people during the pandemic. He says, The initiatives by RBI have supported important decisions taken by the government.

The prime minister said, Over the past seven years, non-performing assets (NPAs) were identified with transparency, the focus was on resolution and recovery, public sector banks (PSBs) were recapitalised, one after the other reforms were carried out in the financial system and public sector banks.

To further strengthen the banking sector, cooperative banks were also brought under the purview of RBI, he stated. Mr Modi said, Due to this the governance of these banks is also improving and the trust in this system is getting stronger among the depositors.

PM Modi said the unified payment interface (UPI) has made India the worlds leading country in terms of digital transactions in a very short period.

With the help of a UPI, India has become a leading nation in digital transactions quickly. In just seven years, digital transactions have increased 19 times. Today our banking system is operational 24 hours, seven days and 12 months anytime, anywhere in the country, he added.

Prime Minister @narendramodi launches two innovative customer centric initiatives of the @RBI.



These initiatives are RBI Retail Direct Scheme and Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme. pic.twitter.com/CTRUcKPgHz  PIB India (@PIB_India) November 12, 2021

Shaktikanta Das, governor of RBI says, The integrated ombudsman scheme will reinforce trust and confidence in the financial system. The launching of these two citizen-centric initiatives today will provide further impetus to our journey towards a more inclusive and responsive financial system.

The RBI retail direct scheme is aimed at enhancing access to the government securities market for retail investors.

It offers them a new avenue for directly investing in securities issued by the government of India and the state governments. Investors will be able to open and maintain their government securities account online with the RBI, free of cost.

The Reserve Bank-integrated ombudsman scheme aims to improve further the grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against RBI-regulated entities.

There will be a single point of reference for customers to file their complaints, submit the documents, track status and provide feedback. A multi-lingual toll-free number will provide all relevant information on grievance redress and assistance for filing complaints.

RBI -Retail Direct Scheme

Under the retail direct scheme, individual retail investors can open a retail direct gilt (RDG) account with the RBI through https://rbiretaildirect.org.in.



Investments under the scheme can be made using the following routes:

Primary issuance of government securities: Investors can place a bid as per the non-competitive scheme for participation in the primary auction of government securities and procedural guidelines for sovereign gold bond (SGB) issuance.



Investors can place a bid as per the non-competitive scheme for participation in the primary auction of government securities and procedural guidelines for sovereign gold bond (SGB) issuance. Secondary market: Investors can buy and sell government securities on the negotiated dealing system (NDS)-order matching (OM) (odd lot and request for quotes segments).



RBI says, "Payments for transactions can be made conveniently using a saving bank account through internet banking or UPI. Investors can obtain help and other support facilities on the portal itself and through a toll-free telephone number 1800-267-7955 (10am to 7pm) and email. Investor services include provisions for transaction and balance statements, nomination facility, pledge or lien of securities and gift transactions. No fees will be charged for facilities provided under the scheme."



The Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme 2021

The scheme integrates the existing three ombudsman schemes of RBI, namely, the banking ombudsman scheme, 2006, the ombudsman scheme for non-banking financial companies, 2018 and the ombudsman scheme for digital transactions, 2019. In addition to integrating the three existing schemes, the scheme also includes under its ambit non-scheduled primary co-operative banks with deposit size of Rs50 crore and above.



Here are the salient features of the scheme...

1. It will no longer be necessary for a complainant to identify under which scheme he/she should file a complaint with the ombudsman.



2. The scheme defines 'deficiency in service' as the ground for filing a complaint, with a specified list of exclusions. Therefore, the complaints would no longer be rejected simply because "not covered under the grounds listed in the scheme".



3. The scheme has done away with the jurisdiction of each ombudsman office.



4. A centralised receipt and processing centre has been set up at RBI in Chandigarh for receipt and initial processing of physical and email complaints in any language.



5. The responsibility of representing the regulated entity and furnishing information regarding complaints filed by customers against the regulated entity would be that of the principal nodal officer in the rank of a general manager in a public sector bank (PSB) or equivalent.



6. The regulated entity will not have the right to appeal in cases where the ombudsman issues an award against it for not furnishing satisfactory and timely information/ documents.



RBI's executive director in charge of the consumer education and protection department (CEPD) is the appellate authority under the scheme.



Complaints can continue to be filed online on https://cms.rbi.org.in. Complaints can also be filed through the dedicated email or sent physically to the 'Centralised Receipt and Processing Centre' set up at Reserve Bank of India, 4th Floor, Sector 17, Chandigarh - 160017 in the format.



Additionally, a Contact Centre with a toll-free number - 14448 (9:30am to 5:15pm) - is also being operationalised in Hindi, English and in eight regional languages to begin with and will be expanded to cover other Indian languages in due course. The contact centre will provide information and clarifications regarding the alternate grievance redress mechanism of RBI and guide complainants in filing a complaint.
November 12, 2021

In Ukraine The U.S. Is Risking War

There is fear in Russia that the U.S. is egging the Ukraine into a renewed active conflict with its renegade eastern Donbass region and thereby into a war with Russia.

In his latest RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP Patrick Armstrong recollects the most recent developments:

Earlier this year the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky closed TV and media that favored the opposition. Last week the 26 years old English language KyivPost outlet was shut down after its owner was threatened.

Zelensky has recently lost the majority in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. The leader of Zelensky's party 'Servant of the People' Dmytro Razumkov, was removed from his position as speaker of the Rada after some conflict with Zelensky. Razumkov has now founded a new party and 21 parliament members from the 'Servant of the People' joined him in a new faction. 226 seats are needed for a majority in the Rada. 'Servant of the People' had 244 seats but is now down to 224.

Ukraine is in an energy crisis. It did not use the summer months to fill its gas storage. It lacks thermal coal to generate electricity and to heat its cities. It will now import coal from Poland, the United States and South Africa. That is not only expensive but also likely too late to avoid blackouts:

Considering these factors, the [Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko] stressed the need to develop domestic coal mining. "It is important that we look at the possibilities of rapidly increasing domestic production. And if there are such opportunities and there is an opportunity to invest in domestic coal, this is the key priority," he stressed.

The Donbass region has large coal reserves and mines. Rapidly increasing domestic coal production by occupying it might be some peoples' idea to avoid rolling blackouts.

This week the Foreign Minister of the Ukraine was in Washington DC for U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Dialogue talks. There was a lot of war mongering about a 'Russian escalation' that is not happening. Russia is not interested in one but had earlier said that it would protect the Russian people in the renegade Donbass provinces.

In July 2020 the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence wrote a Summary Assessment of Intentions of the Political Leadership of the Russian Federation. It concluded that Russia does not a war with NATO but would not back away from an immediate threat. It also says:

We assess that Moscow is increasingly concerned about U.S. military activity, especially in Europe, and that this increases the potential for unintended Russian escalation.

This month the U.S. Navy has send the guided missile destroyer Porter and the command ship Mount Whitney into the Black Sea. The later is of special interest:

"The region can already be viewed as a potential theater of war. The USS Mount Whitney command ship is known for its visits to trouble spots. It was seen near the coasts of Iraq and Libya, and visited the Black Sea in 2008, when a war broke out in South Ossetia. It sailed to our shores in 2014, too, after Crimea reunited with Russia," [military expert Vladislav Shurygin] added.

At the same time the U.S. is intensifying its aerial reconnaissance activity around the Black Sea:

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. NATO reconnaissance aircraft increased the number of flights near the Russian borders in the Black Sea region over the past 24 hours, Russias Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday. "Over the past 24 hours, reconnaissance aircraft of NATO countries increased the intensity of flights near the borders of the Russian Federation in the Black Sea region," the ministry said. On November 9, the radars of the Russian Aerospace Forces air defense troops tracked a US Air Force E-8C airborne ground surveillance, command and control aircraft over the Black Sea, it said. "Also, Russian anti-aircraft missile troops tracked three reconnaissance aircraft of NATO member states over the Black Sea in the past 24 hours," the statement says.

Meanwhile U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets as well as aerial tankers have been deployed to Bulgaria and Romania.

The fear in Moscow is not that the U.S. will attack Russia. But the high activity of U.S. forces in the area and the incitement Kiev gets from Washington might make the Ukrainian leadership believe that Washington has its back and will come to its help when it attacks the Donbass region and Russia hits back.

That believe would be false. Alastair Crooke notes a typical U.S. behavior towards Taiwan, Israel and the Ukraine. It incites them towards conflict but when the backlash will inevitably come is will be unable or unwilling to help them:

The West contrives to use Ukraine as the peg to threaten Russia with NATO action, even to the extent of NATO recently lowering the threshold for using its nuclear weapons  and yet  there is no way that Donbass can be seized back by Kiev. Moscow will never allow it, and NATO knows it cannot prevail over Russia in Ukraine, short of an unthinkable nuclear exchange. Either way, the U.S.  apparently  courts failure: Either Ukraine remains territorially status quo, and disintegrates from the weight its own dysfunctionality, economic collapse and endemic corruption. Or, in a futile gesture, it goes for broke versus the Donbass forces and ends dismembered, as Russia  very reluctantly  is forced to intervene.

After the Afghanistan debacle the Biden administration needs a foreign policy victory:

In Ukraine, provoking even a limited Russian military intervention into eastern Ukraine would be hailed [in Washington] as a political achievement. Never mind the damage, the deaths; Europe would fall under full Washington control, and NATO would re-discover its raison detre. But Europe and America would be weaker  and yet more of Americas traditional clients will assert themselves, through diversifying their relations, and projecting power through broader alliances. And the more they look eastward, the more deeply they engage with China.

Crooke compares this to the Clinton administration's ..

.. desire to rack up a string of miscellaneous, shallow achievements that would be boasted as successes to the electorate, so that the latter would conclude that foreign policy was in reasonably good shape. Yet they would be in error: The quest for racking-up these hollow achievements ignored the alarming void, in precisely the area of greatest importance: the question of whether policy was making it more or less likely that America would have to fight a major war in the near future. The U.S. is addicted to ephemeral success, whilst ignoring its strategic erosion ..

I also see analogies to Hong Kong where the Trump administration incited a student revolt but did nothing when China finally intervened. That was seen as a success by Trump and Pompeo but the opposition in Hong Kong lost out and Hong Kong is no longer the U.S.' easy entry point into China.

The Biden administrations war mongering towards Russia may be seen to be free of cost. But it takes only one miscalculation in Kiev or some unforeseen incident in the Black Sea region and the situation could seriously escalate.

Posted by b on November 12, 2021 at 18:28 UTC | Permalink

Comments

next page 
MOSCOW (AP)  The Kremlin on Friday rebuffed allegations that a buildup of its troops near Ukraine reflects Moscow's aggressive intentions, saying Russia needs to ensure its security in response to alleged NATO threats.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Western media reports that Moscow has intentions to invade Ukraine as a hollow and unfounded attempt to incite tensions.

Russia doesn't threaten anyone, Peskov said during a conference call with reporters. The movement of troops on our territory shouldn't be a cause for anyone's concern.

Ukraine complained last week that Russia has kept tens of thousands of troops not far from the two countries' borders after conducting war games in an attempt to exert further pressure on its ex-Soviet neighbor. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and has supported a separatist insurgency that broke out that year in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry claimed that about 90,000 Russian troops are stationed not far from the border and in rebel-controlled areas in Ukraines east. It said units of the Russian 41st army have remained in Yelnya, a town about 260 kilometers (about 160 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Lt. Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Friday that Russia has about 2,100 military personnel in the rebel-controlled areas, noting that Russian military officers hold all commanding positions in the separatist forces.

Russia has cast its weight behind the separatist insurgency in Ukraines east that has left more than 14,000 dead. But Moscow has repeatedly denied any presence of its troops in eastern Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in Washington this week that the U.S. commitment to Ukraines security and territorial integrity is ironclad.

On Friday, Blinken pointed at Russias previous aggressive actions against Ukraine. From what theyve done the past, we have real concerns about what were seeing in the present, he said.

We dont know Russias intentions, Blinken told reporters in Washington. But we do know that weve seen in the past: Russia mass forces on Ukraines borders, claim some kind of provocation by Ukraine, and then invade. Thats what they did in 2014.

Blinken said the U.S. was in very close consultation with European allies and partners on this.

Asked Thursday if Russia planned to invade Ukraine, Russias deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, replied that it never planned, never did, and (is) never going to do it unless were provoked by Ukraine, or by somebody else. He cited what he called many threats from Ukraine and allegedly provocative actions by U.S. warships in the Black Sea.

Peskov similarly emphasized Friday that Russia needs to protect its security amid what he described as increasing provocations near its borders. He pointed at the U.S. naval deployment to the Black Sea and increasingly frequent U.S. and NATO intelligence flights.

We take measures to ensure our security when our opponents take defiant action near our borders, Peskov said. "We can't stay indifferent to that; we must be on our guard.

The Russian Defense Ministry described the deployment of the U.S. warships USS Mount Whitney and USS Porter, which sailed into the Black Sea last week, as a threat to regional security and strategic stability.

The real goal behind the U.S. activities in the Black Sea region is exploring the theater of operations in case of Kyiv's attempts to settle the conflict in the southeast by force, the ministry said in a statement.

The reported Russian military buildup near Ukraine also raised concern in the European Union.

After discussing the issue with U.S. President Joe Biden earlier this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said EU officials fully support the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

European Commission spokesman Peter Stano told reporters Friday that the bloc is discussing the situation with partners, including the U.S. and United Kingdom, adding that the information we gathered so far is rather worrying.

French foreign and defense ministers expressed their concerns about the situation in Ukraine during Friday talks with their Russian counterparts in Paris.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defense Minister Florence Parly clearly warned of the serious consequences of any further possible damage to the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the meeting.

French President Emmanuel Macron said later Friday he will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days about the situation in Ukraine and Belarus.

___

AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington, Angela Charlton and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv, Ukraine and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
MOSCOW (AP)  Russia sent paratroopers to Belarus on Friday, in a show of support for its ally amid tensions over migrants and refugees amassing on the Belarus-Poland border, but two of the Russian soldiers were killed in a parachute accident.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that as part of joint war games, about 250 Russian paratroopers jumped from heavylift Il-76 transport planes into the Grodno region of Belarus, which borders Poland.

The ministry said in a statement later that the two paratroopers parachutes collided in a gust of wind and deflated. It noted that one of the soldiers tried to use a reserve chute but the altitude was too low for it to deploy. Both died of their injuries in a hospital.

The ministry said that the paratroopers who took part in the drills re-boarded the transport planes and flew back to Russia after the exercise.

The Belarusian military said the exercise involving a battalion of Russian paratroopers was intended to test the readiness of the allies' rapid response forces due to an increase of military activities near the Belarusian border."

It said the drills that involved Belarusian air defense assets, helicopter gunships and other forces envisaged targeting enemy scouts and illegal armed formations, along with other tasks.

Earlier this week, Russia sent nuclear-capable strategic bombers on patrol missions over Belarus for two straight days. Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that the flights came in response to a massive buildup on the Polish-Belarusian border.

Russia has strongly supported Belarus amid a tense standoff this week as thousands of migrants and refugees, most of them from the Middle East, gathered on the Belarusian side of the border with Poland in hopes of crossing into the European Union.

The EU has accused Belarus authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, of encouraging illegal border crossings as a hybrid attack to retaliate against EU sanctions on his government for its crackdown on domestic protests after Lukashenkos disputed 2020 reelection.

Belarus denies the allegations but has said it will no longer stop refugees and migrants from trying to enter the EU.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry has accused Poland of an unprecedented military buildup on the border, saying that migration control did not warrant the concentration of 15,000 troops backed by tanks, air defense assets and other weapons.

Id like to warn hotheads not to overestimate their capabilities," Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said Friday. "Language of ultimatums, threats and blackmail is not acceptable. Belarus armed forces are ready to respond harshly to any attacks.

Russia and Belarus have a union agreement envisaging close political and military ties. Lukashenko has stressed the need to boost military cooperation in the face of what he has described as aggressive actions by NATO allies.
Ehns Saint Plays Tells Stories of Saints Through Hallucinogenic Dreamscape

Muhlenberg College presents an evening of short plays with subjects ranging from Judas to Joan of Arc, Dec. 2-5

By: Clarissa Shirley 22 Friday, November 12, 2021 02:12 PM

Allentown, Pa. (Nov. 12, 2021) As one might conclude from its title, playwright Erik Ehns The Saint Plays tells the stories of the Catholic saints and other biblical figures. However, The Saint Plays is no simple hagiography.

Were hoping that it winds up feeling like you just found yourself in someone else's dream, says Muhlenberg theater professor James Peck. It doesnt make rational sense but instead a spiritual and emotional sense.

Ehn's growing collection of plays includes more than 100 entries, loosely based on the lives of saints and biblical characters ranging from St. George to Joan of Arc. Muhlenberg Theatre & Dance will present six of them, Dec. 2-5 in the colleges Studio Theatre. Peck leads a group of four student directors for the evening.

Placing the protagonists and their suffering in a modern context, Ehn produces what he calls "contemporary fairy tales for the stage." His richly allusive, ecstatic, hallucinogenic performance poems cleave to hope and beauty in the aftermath of loss.

The material is written by a very devout Catholic who also has some real critiques and suspicions about the ways that the institutional church embodied its mission, Peck says. The church has done a lot of harm in the world as well as good. That's very powerfully embedded in the plays.

In addition to serving as artistic director, Peck directs Incide, which follows Judas Iscariot, the disciple of Jesus who betrayed him.

Ehn has us looking at his story from different perspectives, Peck says. When it starts, Judas is someone who is carrying massive shame and guilt, from the incredible burden of knowing that he did something terrible.

Peck hopes the piece will help the audience reevaluate their own humanity, and how they view people who have caused them harm.

All humans have done things that we are remorseful about, Peck says. Judas is held up as an example of a really terrible man, which is an unfair way to think about him. Perhaps Judas could be approached as a saint  someone who knows the shame of having done something awful, and yet persists in trying to set his life back on a redemptive path.

Ashley Hilary is directing Wholly Joans, a play about Joan of Arc, the 19-year-old French woman who led an army of men to victory in battle in the 15th-century.

Since I was eight years old I have been obsessed with her story, Hilary says. She did all of these incredible things no one expected her to do, and she was just following what she thought was right.



Hilary says that Joan heard voices  some people say from saints, some people say from God. This surreal internal world is represented in the play by an original soundscape.

Katie Keller is directing The Freak, the story of an imagined exchange between St. George, the dragon slayer, and Gunna, a girl who was born with wings in 1957 Stockholm.

This play is about the courage that it takes to be authentic and the freedom that comes from that, Keller says.

Keller says she is happy to start seeing the production elements of her piece come to life. She is particularly looking forward to working with a massive puppet, representing a younger version of Gunna.

We have two puppeteers operating it, she says. I'm so excited to work with them and just explore and experiment with puppets and movement and how you can use them to tell a story.

Savannah Hastings is directing 16670, a play about Maximillian Kolbe, a man who was canonized after the Holocaust.

16670 highlights our complications with the past, Hastings says. Reliving the past can be hard when its dealing with the dark reality of our history. But it is those moments that are most important to acknowledge as they help us to move forward.

Hastings was drawn to this piece because of Ehns intricate storytelling.

He handles the subject so carefully and realistically, she says. He exposes the pain of the person who has to tell Kolbes story. Ehn does a great job of taking us on that journey right alongside him.

Maddi Whiting is directing Tree of Hope, Keep Firm, a play that puts The Virgin Mary into conversation with her younger self.

The figure of Mary is well known in institutional religion, Whiting says. So I want to give new life and new agency to this female biblical character who has typically been viewed through the lens of men and God.

Whiting says that Ehn writes about painfully beautiful humans who have been cast aside by society.

This production showcases the beauty of trash, Whiting says, the things that have been discarded, and the people who are no longer seen as valuable.

The Saint Plays will feature original music composed by Muhlenberg student Zach Montenegro. Muhlenberg alum Emilie Leasure serves as lighting designer, and seniors Sarah Levine and Hannah Michelson designed the costumes.

Hilary highlights that this play is not just for the devout.

I want to make the distinction that I am not a super-religious person, but I am super interested in religion  in the way that we tell stories, how we construct our beliefs from myths or legends or stories, Hilary says. Thats what the play is about: an investigation of what it means to function in a world that has a higher power.

The Saint Plays runs Dec. 2-5 in the Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance, Muhlenberg College. Showtimes are Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $15, with a campus price of $8 for students, faculty and staff of LVAIC institutions. Tickets and information at 484-664-3333 or muhlenberg.edu/seeashow.

About the Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance Department

Muhlenberg offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in theater and dance. The Princeton Review ranked Muhlenbergs theater program in the top twelve in the nation for eight years in a row, and Fiske Guide to Colleges lists both the theater and dance programs among the top small college programs in the United States. Muhlenberg is one of only eight colleges to be listed in Fiske for both theater and dance.

About Muhlenberg College

Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg is a highly selective, private, four-year residential, liberal arts college offering baccalaureate and graduate programs. With an enrollment of approximately 2,200 students, Muhlenberg College is dedicated to shaping creative, compassionate, collaborative leaders through rigorous academic programs in the arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences; selected preprofessional programs, including accounting, business, education and public health; and progressive workforce-focused post-baccalaureate certificates and masters degrees. Located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, approximately 90 miles west of New York City, Muhlenberg is a member of the Centennial Conference, competing in 22 varsity sports. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Recent weeks have witnessed a series of medium-to-large-sized asteroids cross paths with Earths orbit. The largest of the pack  asteroid 2004 UE  is on track to make its closest approach to the planet Nov. 13.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign astronomy professor and chair Leslie Looney spoke with writer Lois Yoksoulian about what researchers refer to as near-Earth objects and how much of a threat they are to the planet.

What are near Earth objects, what are they composed of and how do we know?

Near-Earth objects are meteoroids, asteroids or comets with orbits that bring them close to Earths orbit. They are the leftovers of our solar system formation process, which means they are the nearly pristine bits and pieces of ice and rocks from which the planets formed. We know their orbits from tracking them, and we know of their composition from examining their reflected and infrared light and by comparisons to objects that we have visited with space missions.

There seem to be a lot of large NEOs in Earths neighborhood in recent weeks. Is this unusual?

Over the last 20 years, NASA has dramatically increased the number of known NEOs  from knowing of less than a thousand to nearly 28,000. The precise dimensions of NEOs can be difficult to resolve due to their small size and great distances. However, those estimated by NASA to be 140 meters or more along their longest axis  most asteroids are potato-shaped, so their dimensions can be described as roughly spherical  have been mandated by Congress to be classified as NEOs. The increase in the number of objects classified as NEOs was in part due to this mandate. Anything of this size could have a catastrophic impact on Earth, destroying cities with large losses of life. This awareness leads to more reporting of objects.

How do scientists spot and track NEOs?

We discover NEOs by taking pictures of the night sky over a night or over multiple nights, looking for something that moves compared with the stars or galaxies. The closer the NEO is to Earth, the faster it will move. With enough time, we can use these images to determine the objects orbit. Many new and exciting upcoming astronomical surveys will also map the night sky over many years to look for supernovae or other time-varying objects, so we expect to find even more objects over the next few decades.

At what size does a NEO become a concern?

Anything over 140 meters in diameter could cause major damage to cities or coasts, so any NEO with orbits that cross Earths orbit is classified as a potentially hazardous object. There are about 2,000 PHOs known today. None of them are likely to impact the planet in the next 100 years, but we still watch their orbits for any shifts.

The orbital paths of NEOs that will be near Earth in more than 100 years cannot be predicted very well. However, it is important to note that large impacts have hit Earth in the past  ask any dinosaur you meet  and the planet will be hit by large impacts in the future. It is not a matter of if, but a matter of when.

But dont panic. It is not likely to happen anytime soon.

Are there any ways we can deflect NEOs that come too close?

If we have an advanced warning of five to 10 years or so, deflecting a NEO should be easy. I am not talking about nuclear blasts or anything like that. Blowing up a NEO is probably the worst thing to do, since now you have many smaller rocks in the same orbit. That said, NASA will launch this month the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, which will test a kinetic impact with an asteroid.

There are many other methods, including a gravity tractor  a spacecraft that nudges the asteroid using the spacecrafts mass  or attached rockets. If our civilization wants to survive for the next 1,000 years, we have to figure this out.

Asteroid 2004 UE will reach its closest approach to Earth on Nov. 13. How do this objects size and trajectory compare to other identified NEOs throughout history?

Asteroid 2004 UE is pretty typical of a NEO. It is around 160 meters in diameter  most are smaller, but many are bigger. Asteroid 2004 UE is not considered a safety concern, since the closest approach to Earths orbit on Nov. 13 will be more than 30 times the Earth-moon distance.

This happens frequently.
A veteran can be anyone.

That was one of the messages Army Staff Sgt. Riley Noon wanted Jacksonville High School juniors to get Thursday during the school's Veterans Day program.

"It doesn't take into account if you are rich or poor," Noon said. "Whether you are African American, Asian, Hispanic, Latino or white. Whether you're Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or Muslim. When these men and women took that oath they all pledged themselves, together, to protect the institutions that we the people hold dear."

Noon said he hopes the students really take the time to learn about those who serve their country and where they come from.

"They made a personal choice to be part of something bigger than themselves," Noon said. "Despite the reason they joined, whether it be to reap the benefits the military has to offer or to strictly serve our nation, each man and woman raised their right hand."

During his speech to the students, Noon gave examples of veterans who served their country and overcame challenges while at war. He even include one the students would know, Pvt. Jay Ater, a vocational teacher at Jacksonville High School who served in the Army as a mechanic and deployed three times.

"Throughout the generations our veterans have done amazing things in the face of adversity in support of our nation," Noon said.

A number of area veterans were among those attending the program.

Counselor Sherri McLaughlin said she was grateful for all those who were able to attend because it gave the students a chance to see a range of veterans.

"Seeing these men and women, and hearing them tell their stories, it resonates with (the students)  makes it a reality," McLaughlin said. "I saw a number of students say thank you as they passed by and I know it was appreciated by the veterans. This helps show the students what it means to be a humanitarian."

Talking with the veterans gives students an chance to learn about the military and learn about the benefits it has, as well as what it means to them, Noon said.

Though Noon said he joined the military because he wanted the opportunity to further his skills in carpentry or welding, he discovered he really enjoyed serving.

"Not everyone joins because of a sense of duty," Noon said. "It is an option to progress in life. If you need to learn a skill, it's a way to do it. The best thing is for those kids to see all those men and women that are successful."

Regardless of why people join, each of them deserves to be honored, Noon said.

"I really wanted to outline the spirit of what it is to be a veteran," he said.
Thirteen Morgan County youths were recognized Tuesday by the Rev. James Caldwell chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution for their hard work and community service.

From their commitment to school activities to their work with volunteer organizations, students from 11 area schools were nominated by their teachers and fellow classmates to receive the DAR awards.

Chapter Regent Pat Boldt said she was happy to be able to honor the students for their hard work.

"The DAR Good Citizens program is a wonderful way to recognize outstanding young people who exhibit the qualities of good citizenship and say say 'hey, you're all right,'" Boldt said.

Because of the pandemic, the DAR wasn't able to present the awards last year, though students did receive them. Boldt said she is happy they were able to have the traditional ceremony this year.

"We need to honor our students for the good things they do in our community," Boldt said.

Treasurer Sandy Heaton gave the students some advice prior to the ceremony  to dance.

"You have to dance ... don't let the size of the school you come from hold you back," Heaton said. "Even though you were raised in a small town, you can do anything. Your parents have dreams for you, go out and see the world."

The award is given to seniors selected by members of their schools.

This year, Good Citizen awards were given to Elizabeth Soltermann of Jacksonville High School, Addie Dobson of Routt Catholic High School, Chloe Leonard of Franklin High School, Colton Bunch of Westfair Christian Academy, Peri Andras of Winchester High School, Kyle Roeschley of Waverly High School, Lance Bogner of Triopia High School, Hannah Flynn of Meredosia-Chambersburg High School, Denise Rivera of the Illinois School for the Deaf, Joshua Bailey of Bluffs High School and Anthony L.T. Douglas Spears of the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired.

It has been a few years since the chapter has awarded its Youth Citizen award, which is open to any community youth, not only high school seniors, Heaton said. Recipients can only receive the award once in their life, Boldt said.

Jacksonville High School sophomore Tessa Runkle and junior Kaylee Boldt received that award.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Russias deputy U.N. ambassador said Thursday that Moscow will never invade Ukraine unless it is first provoked by its neighbor or someone else, then cited what he called many threats from Ukraine and provocative actions by U.S. warships in the Black Sea.

Dmitry Polyansky was responding to a question about the buildup of troops along Russias frontier with Ukraine, which has led to stepped up U.S. pressure and an assurance Wednesday from Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Ukrainian foreign minister that the American commitment to Ukraines security and territorial integrity is ironclad and will not change.

Polyansky was asked if Russia planned to invade Ukraine.

Never planned, never did, and never going to do it unless were provoked by Ukraine, or by somebody else and Russias national sovereignty is threatened, he replied.

There are a lot of threats coming from Ukraine, Polyansky quickly added. And dont forget that the American warships around the Black Sea acting very close.

So, every day is a very difficult day to avoid direct clash in the Black Sea. We warned our American colleagues that this is a real provocation, he told reporters at U.N. headquarters.

Blinken said the U.S. did not know Russias intentions but said Moscows playbook has been in the past to invent provocations along its border to justify military intervention.

We dont have clarity into Moscows intentions, but we do know its playbook, he said. If there are any provocations that were seeing, theyre coming from Russia, and any Russian escalation along the border would be viewed with grave concern.

Russia has cast its weight behind a separatist insurgency in Ukraines east that erupted shortly after Moscows 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and has caused more than 14,000 deaths. Russia has repeatedly denied any presence of its troops in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraines Defense Ministry said last week that about 90,000 Russian troops are stationed not far from the border and in rebel-controlled areas in Ukraines east. It said specifically that units of the Russian 41st Army have remained in Yelnya, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) north of the Ukrainian border.

We have the right to concentrate our troops wherever we want, Polyansky said. This is not Ukrainian territory. This is Russian territory

But if you read the threats that are being pronounced in Ukraine against Russia, against Russian territorial integrity, then you will understand that a certain precaution is a logical step in such a situation, he said.
Journal-Courier

The driver of a car jumped out and ran  leaving the still-moving vehicle continuing on  when Jacksonville police tried to pull him over about 11:15 p.m. Thursday.

The car, which later was determined stolen, hit a mailbox and a house in the 1000 block of Doolin Avenue before stopping.
Canada withdrawing nonessential embassy staff from Haiti View Photo

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP)  Canada said it is temporarily withdrawing nonessential staff from its embassy in Haiti.

The move comes in response to a spike in gang-related violence in Haiti and a severe lack of fuel that has affected hospitals, schools and banks.

Global Affairs Canada said Friday the embassy in Port-au-Prince remains open, but all Canadians should avoid nonessential travel to the country.

The fuel shortage has threatened basic services across much of Haiti, which is still recovering from a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in July.

The country has also been beset by widespread gang violence, with U.S. and Haitian authorities trying to secure the release of 17 members of a missionary group kidnapped last month.

That group includes one Canadian.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Russias deputy U.N. ambassador said Thursday that Moscow will never invade Ukraine unless it is first provoked by its neighbor or someone else, then cited what he called many threats from Ukraine and provocative actions by U.S. warships in the Black Sea.

Dmitry Polyansky was responding to a question about the buildup of troops along Russias frontier with Ukraine, which has led to stepped up U.S. pressure and an assurance Wednesday from Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Ukrainian foreign minister that the American commitment to Ukraines security and territorial integrity is ironclad and will not change.

Polyansky was asked if Russia planned to invade Ukraine.

Never planned, never did, and never going to do it unless were provoked by Ukraine, or by somebody else and Russias national sovereignty is threatened, he replied.

There are a lot of threats coming from Ukraine, Polyansky quickly added. And dont forget that the American warships around the Black Sea acting very close.

So, every day is a very difficult day to avoid direct clash in the Black Sea. We warned our American colleagues that this is a real provocation, he told reporters at U.N. headquarters.

Blinken said the U.S. did not know Russias intentions but said Moscows playbook has been in the past to invent provocations along its border to justify military intervention.

We dont have clarity into Moscows intentions, but we do know its playbook, he said. If there are any provocations that were seeing, theyre coming from Russia, and any Russian escalation along the border would be viewed with grave concern.

Russia has cast its weight behind a separatist insurgency in Ukraines east that erupted shortly after Moscows 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and has caused more than 14,000 deaths. Russia has repeatedly denied any presence of its troops in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraines Defense Ministry said last week that about 90,000 Russian troops are stationed not far from the border and in rebel-controlled areas in Ukraines east. It said specifically that units of the Russian 41st Army have remained in Yelnya, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) north of the Ukrainian border.

We have the right to concentrate our troops wherever we want, Polyansky said. This is not Ukrainian territory. This is Russian territory

But if you read the threats that are being pronounced in Ukraine against Russia, against Russian territorial integrity, then you will understand that a certain precaution is a logical step in such a situation, he said.

By EDITH M. LEDERER

Associated Press
Deforestation up in Brazil Amazon amid COP26 climate debate View Photo

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  Detected deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose for the second straight month compared to last year, ending a streak of encouraging data at a moment when the government has promised to curb illegal logging.

Satellite alerts of deforestation in October corresponded to 877 square kilometers (339 square miles), the highest indicator for the month in five years and 4.9% more than for the same month in 2020, according to data from the Brazilian space agencys Deter monitoring system that were released on Friday. September registered 2.3% more deforestation than the same month last year.

That data is considered a leading indicator for complete calculations released near yearend from the more accurate system, Prodes, which is based on clearer images, but which generally tracks with the Deter data.

The increases follow two months of sharp decreases that had prompted enthusiasm from officials in the government of President Jair Bolsonaro. Environmental groups warned at the time it was too early to consider that data a trend.

The new data comes at a moment Brazils government has been trying to improve its reputation on environmental issues. At the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, Environment Minister Joaquim Leite announced on Wednesday a target of zero illegal logging by 2028  pushing up the goal of 2030 that Bolsonaro presented at the White House-led climate summit in April.

I havent seen these numbers, I heard they came out today, but my concentration is here in (COP26) negotiations,  Leite told reporters during a press conference in Glasgow on Friday. Deforestation is a Brazilian challenge and we are not running away from that, he said .

At the United Nations in September, Bolsonaro credited his administrations redoubled efforts for the plunge of alerts the prior month. But the accumulated deforestation in 2021 has been essentially flat compared to last year, according to the preliminary data.

Before Bolsonaro took office in 2019, the Brazilian Amazon hadnt recorded a single year with more than 10,000 square kilometers of deforestation in over a decade. Between 2009 and 2018, the average per year was 6,500 square kilometers. It averaged 10,500 square kilometers in the first two full years of Bolsonaros term.

Bolsonaro has raised concerns among environmentalists by calling for development within the Amazon region and dismissing global complaints about its destruction as a plot to hold back the nations agribusiness. His administration also has defanged environmental authorities and backed legislative measures to loosen land protections, emboldening land grabbers.

The data from Deter is a reminder that the same Brazil that circulates in the corridors and halls of COP26, in Glasgow, is the same where land grabbers, illegal loggers and miners have a government license to destroy the forest, the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental groups, said in a statement.

By MARCELO SILVA DE SOUSA

Associated Press
Proposed Congressional Map 11-10-21 View Photo

Sacramento, CA  Some members of Congress are left without a political home and others would face off against colleagues in their own party in the 2022 midterm elections if the newly released political maps from Californias redistricting commission were adopted.

The maps released late Wednesday are drafts that could change significantly before they are finalized in December. They offer a first look at how Californias loss of a congressional seat, from 53 to 52, will reshape its political landscape. The drop in seats was because its population grew more slowly than other states over the past decade. Yet it remains the largest House delegation by far, as each of its congressional districts represents about 760,000 people.

Regarding the Mother Lode, an early map put Tuolumne County in Congressman Kevin McCarthys district. A quick re-draft several days later and one of these new maps puts the county back in Congressman Tom McClintocks region that now covers parts of 15 Sierra Nevada counties, as earlier reported here. Click here for the latest Calaveras redistricting map.

Overall, the draft maps appear to create four highly competitive congressional races, one being that of Republican Devin Nunes, and could even pit incumbents against each other. Eleven seats in California are held by Republicans with hopes to win more as the party seeks control of Congress. The current draft maps appear to make that a possibility with an opportunity to pick up the Central Valley seat now held by Democratic Rep. Josh Harder. He is one of the incumbents who appears to fare the worst in the draft maps. Harder flipped the Republican-held seat in 2018 and won reelection in 2020. But his district would cut Democratic territory and pick up Republican areas in the redrawing draft.

One key in drawing the maps is that the redistricting commission is not allowed to consider the party identification of voters. The California Citizens Redistricting Commission approved by voters in 2008 was created in an effort to remove partisanship from the once-a-decade process of redrawing political maps. The criteria the commission must follow include creating districts with equal population, compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act designed to protect the political power of racial minorities, and geographic continuity.

The commission will take public comment over the next two weeks then begin making changes with the final maps due Dec. 23.
World leaders bolster troubled Libya ahead of key election View Photo

PARIS (AP)  Libyan leaders reaffirmed Friday in Paris their commitment to ensure the success of the countrys political process through long-awaited elections next month, a vote that world powers hope will pull the oil-rich North African nation out of its decade-old chaos.

France hosted an international conference on Libya in the presence of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and other international and regional high-level officials.

In a statement, participants expressed their support to holding free, fair, inclusive and credible presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 24.

We reiterate our commitment to the success of the Libyan political process, they said and added they reject all foreign interferences in Libyan affairs.

The participants also called for the withdrawal of mercenaries and foreign forces from Libya, a s stipulated in last years U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended fighting between the countrys rival factions.

The Paris declaration comes a day after the forces headed by powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter pledged to initiate the withdrawal of the first batch of foreign fighters from areas they control. The group is expected to include 300 fighters who will return to their home countries under the supervision of the U.N. mission in Libya, the statement said.

This is only a start, Turkey and Russia must withdraw without delay their mercenaries, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

Libyas interim leaders, Mohammad Younes Menfi, head of the presidential council and Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, co-presided over the conference with France Italy and Germany.

Dbeibah stressed the importance of putting in place real guarantees of the acceptance of the results of these elections, and for there to be penalties for those who obstruct or refuse these results.

Libya has been engulfed in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The country was for years split between rival governments  one based in the capital, Tripoli, and the other in the eastern part of the country. Each side is backed by different foreign powers and militias.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a video message said that Libya today is closer than it has been for many years to solving its internal crisis.

We cannot miss this opportunity, he added, warning that any party that deliberately undermines or sabotages peace must be held accountable.

Italys Draghi called for an electoral law to be passed urgently to ensure that the election process is fair. There needs to be an electoral law that  must be passed in the next few days because its urgent if you are going to hold elections on Dec. 24th, he said at a news conference.

The long-awaited vote still faces challenges, including unresolved issues over election laws and occasional infighting among armed groups. Other obstacles include the deep rift that remains between the countrys east and west and the presence of thousands of foreign fighters and troops. The U.N. has estimated that there have been at least 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya over the past few years, including Russians, Syrians, Turkish, Sudanese, and Chadians.

A leading rights group questioned Thursday whether Libyan authorities can hold free and fair elections. Human Rights Watch criticized what it said were Libyas restrictive laws that undermine freedom of speech and association, as well as the presence of armed groups accused of intimidating, attacking and detaining journalists and political activists.

The main questions leaders at the summit should ask are: can Libyan authorities ensure an environment free of coercion, discrimination, and intimidation of voters, candidates, and political parties? it said in a statement.

In July, the U.N. special envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, accused spoilers of trying to obstruct the vote to unify the divided nation. The Security Council has warned that any individual or group undermining the electoral process could face U.N. sanctions.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week that the U.N. mission wants to see an election which the Libyan people can believe in, that is credible, and that is in line with the past agreements.

Politicians and warlords in western Libya issued statements this week opposing holding the vote according to the laws ratified by the countrys east-based parliament. Khaled al-Meshri, head of Tripoli-based Supreme Council of State, went further and threatened in televised comments to resort to violence to prevent Hifter, a potential frontrunner in the presidential race, from taking office if he is elected.

Libyas civil war escalated in 2019, as Hifter, who commands the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces, launched an offensive to take Tripoli from armed militias loosely allied with the then U.N.-supported but weak government in the countrys capital.

Hifter, allied with an east-based administration, was backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and France. However, his 14-month campaign and march on Tripoli ultimately failed in June 2020, after Qatar and Turkey intensified their military support for the government in Tripoli, with the latter sending mercenaries and troops to help shore up western Libya militias.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Maggie Hyde in Cairo and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

By SAM MAGDY and SYLVIE CORBET

Associated Press
What sub spat? Harris didnt discuss it with French leader View Photo

PARIS (AP)  Talk about ignoring the elephant in the room: When she met this week with French President Emmanuel Macron, Vice President Kamala Harris says she didnt even discuss the secret submarine deal that plunged U.S.-French relations to a historic low.

On a four-day trip to France seen as a charm offensive, Harris said that instead she focused her visit on our mutual interest in European security and Africa, fighting the pandemic and cooperating to make cyberspace safer.

Both sides stressed that relations are moving into a new era  and the fact that they didnt even talk about the submarine problem drove that point home.

The crux of the issue: A secretly negotiated U.S.-British submarine deal with Australia announced in September that scuttled a prior, $66 billion French-Australian submarine contract. The U.S. agreement was framed around concern in Washington about Chinas military aggressiveness in the region.

But France was livid, saying it was kept in the dark about the deal and its interests were ignored despite having territories in the Indo-Pacific with 2 million people and 7,000 troops. The French accused the Biden administration of actions reminiscent of the Trump era.

The dispute was not the purpose of the trip and we didnt discuss it, Harris told reporters Friday. At her meeting Wednesday with Macron, she said, What we did discuss is the issues that are challenging us.

She said her presence itself in France shows the importance of alliances, and that the dispute was a reminder of both the strength and fragility of diplomatic relationships.

We cant take relationships for granted, she added.

After recalling Frances ambassador for the first time in 250 years of diplomatic relations at the height of the crisis, Macron this week seemed ready to move forward  and happy to have Harris at his side as he hosted three days of international summits that put him and France center stage.

She and Macron agreed Wednesday that their countries are ready to work together again, though few firm U.S. promises have emerged from her trip, Harris first to Europe as vice president. It comes after President Joe Biden told Macron the U.S. had been clumsy in handling the submarine issue.

Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff made a concerted effort to make up for that faux-pas while in Paris.

They visited a cemetery holding the graves of more than 1,500 Americans who died fighting for France in the two world wars, and she stood alongside Macron at a solemn Armistice Day ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe. Emhoff met with French groups fighting against inequality, and attended a no-cost cooking class for young people.

Stressing the theme of America is back on the global diplomatic stage, Harris reiterated U.S. hopes to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran, and took part in an international conference aimed at supporting Libyas upcoming elections after a decade of chaos and violence.

She and Macron also discussed tensions on the Belarus-Poland border, where thousands of migrants have amassed trying to enter the EU, encouraged by Belarusian authorities. The eyes of the world and its leaders are watching what is happening there, she said, without elaborating on what steps the U.S. might take.

With virus cases picking up across France and Europe, Harris shied away from a suggestion that the U.S. require virus vaccination passes similar to those used in several European countries to enter restaurants and other public venues.

___

Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.

By ANGELA CHARLTON

Associated Press
Homer Plessy, key to separate but equal, on road to pardon

Homer Plessy, key to separate but equal, on road to pardon View Photo

NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A Louisiana board on Friday voted to pardon Homer Plessy, whose decision to sit in a whites-only railroad car to protest discrimination led to the U.S. Supreme Courts 1896 separate but equal ruling affirming state segregation laws.

The state Board of Pardons unanimous decision to clear the Creole mans record of a conviction now goes to Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has final say over the pardon.

Gov. Edwards is traveling today but looks forward to receiving and reviewing the recommendation of the Board upon his return Tuesday evening, spokeswoman Christina Stephens said.

The Plessy v. Ferguson decision cemented racial segregation for another half-century, justifying whites-only spaces in trains and buses, hotels, theaters, schools and other public accommodations until the Supreme Court unanimously overruled it with their Brown v. the Board of Education decision in 1954. That decision led to the widespread desegregation of schools and the eventual stripping away of vestiges of the Jim Crow laws that discriminated against Black citizens.

The pardon recommendation came as New Orleans began a weekend marking the tumultuous integration of its public schools on Nov. 14, 1960, six years after the Brown decision.

I think it will be a very good thing to pardon Mr. Homer Plessy after all these years, Leona Tate, 67, said at a City Hall news conference, where she stood between Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost. The three, as 6 year olds, were escorted by U.S. marshals past angry white mobs and into McDonogh #19 elementary school building, the same day Ruby Bridges, the subject of an iconic Norman Rockwell painting, entered the all-white William Franz Elementary School in another part of town.

Keith Plessy, 64, who is descended from a cousin of Homer Plessy, attended the news conference. Later, he told the pardon board that he remembers meeting civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who refused in 1955 to leave a whites-only seat on a bus in Birmingham, Alabama, and kneeling to honor her.

She said to me, Get up boy, your name is Plessy  youve got work to do,' Keith Plessy said.

Homer Plessy, described in the Supreme Court opinion as of one-eighth African blood, was arrested in 1892 after boarding the train car as part of an effort by civil rights activists to challenge a state law that mandated segregated seating. The 18-member Citizens Committee was trying to overcome laws that rolled back post-Civil War advances in equality.

Plessy, a 30-year-old shoemaker, lacked the business, political and educational accomplishments of most of the other members, Keith Weldon Medley wrote in the book We As Freemen: Plessy v. Ferguson.

His one attribute was being white enough to gain access to the train and black enough to be arrested for doing so, Medley wrote.

More than six decades before Parks was arrested in Alabama, police forcibly removed Plessy from the car, and he was imprisoned in the parish jail.

The Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that state racial segregation laws didnt violate the Constitution as long as the facilities for the races were of equal quality.

Plessy pleaded guilty to violating the Separate Car Act a year later and was fined $25. He died in 1925 with the conviction still on his record.

Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, the great-great-granddaughter of John Howard Ferguson, the judge who oversaw his case in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, now lead a nonprofit that advocates for civil rights education.

We cannot undo the wrongs of the past but we can and should acknowledge them, Phoebe Ferguson told the pardon board.

The New Orleans City Council honored Plessys role in history in 2018 by giving his name to a section of the street where he tried to board the train.

Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson both credited New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams Civil Rights Office with seeking the pardon. Williams, who took office in January, ran for the open district attorneys post on a reform platform, with a stress on reviewing and reversing wrongful past convictions.

In an interview Friday, Williams noted that Plessy pleaded guilty to the Separate Car Act violation on Jan. 11, 1897  exactly 124 years before Williams took office. I think it just means that this was absolutely meant to be, Williams said.

The move to pardon Plessy comes amid a wider discussion about whether convictions or arrest records of civil rights activists should be overturned or removed.

Claudette Colvin, a Black woman who was 15 when she refused to move to the back of a bus months before Parks did so, has sued to wipe out her conviction. Civil rights attorney Fred Gray, who represented Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., has said he might file a suit to do the same for them.

But some civil rights advocates have said they dont want their arrest records expunged.

King biographer Clayborne Carson called his own civil rights arrest record a badge of honor. Expunging the record doesnt change the historical reality that you were arrested, he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

After the Supreme Court ruling in 1896, Homer Plessy returned to obscurity, Medley wrote.

He worked as a laborer, warehouseman, clerk and, starting in 1910, a collector for a Black-owned insurance company.

His obituary noted only the date and time of death and that he was the beloved husband of Louise Bordenave.

__

Associated Press reporters Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Kevin McGill in New Orleans and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta contributed to this report.

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY

Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP)  The late stages of Kyle Rittenhouses murder trial in the shooting of three men highlighted the U.S. legal systems constant debate over forensic technologies, even fundamental ideas taken for granted outside the courtroom.

Rittenhouses defense team challenged Kenosha County prosecutors attempt to introduce enlarged images taken from drone video footage. Prosecutors said the images were a clear contradiction of Rittenhouses earlier testimony that he had not pointed his weapon at protesters prior to killing Joseph Rosenbaum.

Rittenhouses defense, though, argued that the method used by a state investigator to enlarge the photos couldnt be trusted to accurately show Rittenhouses actions.

James Armstrong, a senior forensic imaging specialist with the Wisconsin State Crime Lab, acknowledged on the stand Thursday that enlarging an image requires the addition of pixels. But prosecutors said the software Armstrong used is widely accepted  as is the method he used to enlarge the photos.

Software programs used to analyze video evidence provide several ways to enlarge photo or videos, based on algorithms. The attorneys debate over which is more accurate created a technical slog as testimony wound down this week.

In one instance, Judge Bruce Schroeder opted to let jurors see the evidence and make their own decision. In another, he told prosecutors they would need to bring someone in to address the issue.

The sparring experts in the Rittenhouse case used different software and methods in those programs to enlarge images supporting their testimony. Each method has drawbacks but any means of enlarging an image requires adding pixels, said David Forsyth, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois.

But there is no way that any means of enlarging a photograph will create structures, objects, people, handguns, said Forsyth, who isn't involved in the case.

Still, Forsyth said he understands judges who scrutinize the details before allowing similarly technical evidence to go before a jury.

If someone is going to spend a long time in prison based on evidence, its probably a good idea that the jury does it based on evidence they understand rather than what they think they understand, Forsyth said.

Assistant District Attorney James Kraus accused defense attorneys of making a dishonest argument because the enlarged footage shows their client is lying. The defense team's hired video analyst used similar software to enlarge video footage during his testimony earlier Thursday, Kraus noted.

All due respect to Your Honor, I think the defense is trying to take advantage of your lack of knowledge about technology which youve expressed, Kraus said.

Schroeders confusion with the technical details was obvious in court. Earlier in the week, he questioned whether using the pinch-and-zoom feature on an iPad would alter an image and barred prosecutors from using that while presenting video evidence to jurors.

I totally agree with your comment about my lack of familiarity with these concepts, although logic, I have some logical skills, he said on Thursday. This is a difficult concept for me, yes.

At one point, Schroeder, attorneys for both sides and Rittenhouse clustered around a television as a detective played the video footage repeatedly.

At least one forensic video expert uninvolved in the case said Rittenhouses attorneys were right to challenge the states approach to enlarging the video evidence. Grant Fredericks of Forensic Video Solutions said the states first proposal  the pinch and zoom method  is impossible to exactly replicate, which is essential when creating a record of a criminal case for potential appeal.

Fredericks said hes testified on video evidence hundreds of times, both for defendants and prosecutors in criminal and civil cases, and instructs law enforcement on video analysis. He said the witness called by Rittenhouses team used video analysis software in a way that could be exactly replicated and stayed in his lane, while the state crime lab expert struggled to justify the method he had used.

If a video is not reproduced accurately, one juror might interpret it incorrectly or might see something that they consider to be really clear, Fredericks said. My duty as an expert is to make sure everything Im showing is reliable.

The legal system also tends to be years behind technology advancements, said Stan Goldman, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Unless this kind of scientific or picture evidence is really dramatically prejudicial or doesnt really have a good scientific basis, (judges) usually let it in, Goldman said. And then you let the lawyers explain what the problems might be.

___

Find APs full coverage on the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
TOKYO (AP)  Embattled Japanese technology conglomerate Toshiba said Friday it is restructuring to improve its competitiveness, spinning off its energy infrastructure and computer devices businesses.

The energy infrastructure spinoff will include Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp.'s nuclear power operations, including the decommissioning efforts at the nuclear plant in Fukushima that suffered meltdowns after an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

The energy business will also include the company's sustainable energy and battery businesses. Its annual sales total about 2 trillion yen ($18 billion).

The other spinoff and stand-alone company encompasses Toshiba's computer devices and storage operations, with annual sales of 870 billion yen ($7.6 billion).

Toshiba will remain a third independent company, holding whats left, such as its flash memory company Kioxia Holdings Corp. and Toshiba Tec Corp., which makes office equipment.

Such a major restructuring is unusual for a big Japanese company. But Toshiba is not alone in deciding that a sprawling conglomerate may not be the best fit for the times.

Earlier this week, General Electric announced it was dividing itself into three public companies, focused on aviation, health care and energy. Like Toshiba, GE struggled under its own weight and decided to streamline its main business after a long review.

Toshiba said its restructuring would be completed by March 2024. Separating the financial results of the companies will start from this fiscal year, it said.

Chief Executive Satoshi Tsunakawa said the two kinds of businesses being spun off were very different, with the business cycle for devices much faster than that for infrastructure, and the device business requiring heavy investments.

It will unlock immense value by removing complexity, it enables the businesses to have much more focused management, facilitating agile decision making, and the separation naturally enhances choices for shareholders, Tsunakawa said of the new structure.

The move still needs shareholders approval. A shareholders meeting will be held early next year, Tsunakawa said.

In a statement to shareholders, Toshiba said its bold and ambitious plan followed a five-month review by the boards strategy committee.

The management line-ups and names for the spinoffs will be announced later, according to Toshiba. It said adjustments to its operations and workforce were still undecided.

Earlier Friday, Toshiba issued a statement promising to beef up its corporate governance. An investigation by a governance group found no illegalities, but some managers engaged in dubious practices related to blocking the views of some shareholders.

Toshiba has periodically run into governance problems, including a scandal in 2015 over accounting books that were doctored for years to inflate earnings.

Since then, the company has eliminated thousands of jobs and sold off chunks of its sprawling business.

Also Friday, Toshiba reported a 41.8 billion yen ($367 million) profit for July-September, more than double the 14.8 billion yen profit a year earlier.

Officials said the better results reflected restructuring efforts and improved sales. Quarterly sales rose 6% on year to 818.5 billion yen ($7.2 billion).

Toshiba forecast a 130 billion yen ($1.1 billion) profit for the fiscal year through March 2022, raising its earlier projection by 20 billion yen ($175 million), and up from 114 billion yen in profit posted a year earlier.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
A career as an educator meant he wouldnt have to wear a tie every day.

Ash Program Principal Rodney Wallace laughs as he recalls his motivation for becoming a teacher.

He took the leap to teach kids and chose to study education when he attended Wayland Baptist University from 1991-1996.

The day after he graduated, his future was set. He got married to Sarah and started his new teaching job and began shaping young minds that fall. That was also around the time the couple started ministering.

His dedication to his chosen career and to his faith led him to be named a recipient of a 2021 Baptist Educators Serving Texans (B.E.S.T.) Award from the Texas Baptists, a convention of more than 5,300 churches across the state.

Nine individuals, including Wallace, were chosen for the recognition. Each person represent one of the nine Texas Baptist universities, according to a news release from Texas Baptists. The accolade is meant to recognize educators who, like Wallace, have shown dedication to education and to their faith.

Reflecting on that idea, Wallace cant help but to look back in wonder at the path that led him to choose this life.

He landed at Wayland as a track athlete after a childhood full of questionable decisions. It was a God thing that led him to his present.

Through the course of his education, Wallace found he had a gift for explaining math in understandable terms. That was ultimately another deciding factor in his teaching career path. The faith part just kind of fell into place.

Hes been an educator for 26 years now and has spent all of them at Plainview ISD. His first education job out of college was teaching 7th grade math. He moved on in 2009 to teach a couple of courses at Plainview High School and moved back to middle school as assistant principal of Estacado Middle School in 2014. He became principal of the Ash Program in 2015. So hes taught a variety of ages and personalities and seen kids of all backgrounds.

Hes also been a devoted minister which has opened up his perspective even more.

Rodney Wallace has been an excellent member of this congregation for over 20 years, notes Pastor Richard Miller of Happy Union Baptist Church the news release. His youth pastor ministry was second to none. He continues to lead the community, with different mission trips and youth community endeavors.

Throughout his education and as he continues walking in faith, Wallace said hes learned his experiences in his youth are key to helping him better connect with the young minds hes helping to shape today.

I truly believe that to reach students, you must be willing to get into their world and understand it  not agree with it  but understand, he said.

Thats what he does. He uses examples of his past paired with his experiences in the present to connect and be a beacon of light.

Overall, I mean, when I look at being named to the group, its an honor, Wallace said. At the same time, you just want to be a light.

My philosophy is you dont have to carry a bible in order to minister. You dont have to quote scriptures in order to minister. Its how you walk, how you talk, are you willing to be real. Yes, people see the good, but are you willing to share some of the bad that helped you get through this? Thats why I love this job.
It's a tale as old as modern medicine: kids hate getting shots. As a result, parents and medical professionals must sweeten the deal for the sake of the health and wellbeing of the youth. Doctors offices will stockpile glittering stickers, parents will make promises of candy or cherished fast food. Now that children ages 5-11 have been approved to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination, University Health is taking the "sting out of the shot" with pet therapy at their Wonderland of America's vaccination site.

Meet Laddie, a rough collie and therapy dog and the obvious star of the pop-up clinic. Born on June 2015, he is a Gemini, though by the look of his mane you'd think he's a Leo. Laddie has been a certified Therapy Dog since turning one. Now, he is one in a fleet of nine animals (eight dogs and one "gorgeous" cat) that make getting the shot a little less intimidating (and a little more furry) for kids. His younger brother, Prince, is also a beloved member of the program.

"The five to 11 year olds are a different group. Some of them are a little scared of the shot. We do have medical professionals here to talk to them and answer their parent's questions if they have concerns. But we wanted to do something to make it a little more kid-friendly," says Shelley Kofler, Senior Public Relations Manager with University Health System.

Abigail Im/MySA

For the past two weeks, Laddie and his friends have been stationed in the center, ready to greet kids after their shot. "It's like their reward," says Kofler as a group of children huddle around the Lassie look-alike.

While the vaccination site pet team has only been in operation for two weeks, many of the pets have years of experience with comforting those in need. Previously, Laddie has visited classrooms, hospitals, convents and nursing homes. Since 2005, University Health's Volunteer Services Department has been working with pet therapy programs to offer patients a more comforting experience.

"The kids love it. I think the response has been great," shares Hortencia Castano-Urbanowiez, Director of Volunteer Services at University Health System.

Castano-Urbanowiez explains that while your own pet could become a University Health System Therapy Dog, the volunteer application process is competitive, just like the human job market.

Abigail Im/MySA

Pets must receive certifications through a pet therapy program, either Paws for Service and Pet Partners. Then comes the interview and trial run. If the department feels that both the owner and the pet are a good fit, they'll welcome them onto the volunteer team.

Laddie's owner, Mark Oholendt a retired salesmen, has been involved in pet therapy since 2014, when a trainer suggested that his old dog, Shiloh, had what it takes to be a therapy dog. Shiloh was very trainable, well behaved and friendly. As children gather around Laddie in the carpeted corner of the vaccination site, Oholendt shows off his best tricks. Laddie, a jack of all trades, can not only play dead, but shake paws and dispense high fives.

"It's a blast. Doing pet therapy is very rewarding," says Laddie's "parent" and the University Health volunteer. " You know, I'm like a little kid because I get to be with my dog. It's also rewarding for me,"says Oholendt.

On a display table decorated with cardboard cutouts of pups, is a collection of dazzling trading cards for the kids, commemorating each therapy pet. Laddie's shares that his favorite food is a Whataburger "Justaburger" patty. A Helotes resident, Laddie is a Texas boy through and through.

Abigail Im/MySA

The Wonderland clinic has been in operation since January 4, 2021, after the FDA officially approved the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for people 65 and older. During the first five days of vaccinating children, the Wonderland clinic was able to vaccinate 3,438 kids. Currently, there is no set schedule for the therapy dogs visits, but they try to drop in as much as their schedules permit.

To sign your child up, to schedule your booster shot or receive your first vaccine, register online.
Richard Foreman Jr./AMC

One of Central Texas' biggest TV productions is DOA. Fear the Walking Dead is reportedly moving production from Texas to Savannah, Georgia, according to the Austin Chronicle. The smash-hit The Walking Dead spin-off has filmed in the Austin area since 2017, bringing with it hundreds of jobs.

As the Chronicle points out, Fear the Walking Dead isn't just a blow to Austin's creative economy, but to the small Central Texas towns where it filmed, including New Braunfels, La Grange, and Manor. Potential filming locations for its current season have also included Corpus Christi and Galveston.
Fans are getting a first look at the cast for How I Met Your Father, the Hulu sequel series for the beloved How I Met Your Mother show. The picture starring Hilary Duff and her cast mates is riling up the fan base who has been waiting on the show since it was announced in April, but there's another reason to love the release, especially if you're a Selena fan.

The photo features Chris Lowell as Jesse, Francia Raisa as Valentina, Tom Ainsley as Charlie, Duff as Sophie, Tien Tran as Ellen and Suraj Sharma as Sid.

The actors are dressed in cold weather outfits, mostly bundled up, but Raisa lets her Selena shine. The actress, who donated her kidney to Selena Gomez, is shown wearing a long denim jacket with thigh-high boots and a Selena T-shirt underneath.

On September 3, Raisa, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, shared a mirror selfie to Instagram taken in what appears to be an on-set trailer wearing the same shirt featuring the Mexican American icon.

"Valentina buscando el chico del apartamento 512," her caption says, alluding to the 1994 song.

In January, Raisa spoke to Complex about what it means to represent Latinos in Hollywood. She was also on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, starred in the Life-Size sequel and was most recently on grown-ish. She said auditioning and not seeing Latino roles is "tough."

"But it's definitely changing. It's getting better, but it's not there yet. I can't wait until we get the opportunity to be leads in any type of project, and not just specifically Latinx films or television," she told Complex. "There are still roles that are far and few between, but I am so honored that I have had such a great career and aspire to just keep going, and I have my hopes and dreams, too."

Much like the original show, How I Met Your Father will be narrated by Duff telling her son the story of how she met his dad. The series will follow the lives of Sophie and her friends throughout New York City. Valentina is Sophie's roommate described as an aspiring stylist with an "impulsive side" by PopSugar.

A release date has not been set for the spinoff, but early 2022 has been widely reported as the expected debut.
Presley Ann/Getty Images for Mattel

The Barbie Truck Malibu Tour is bringing the sunny palm tree scenes and 70s vibes to San Antonio this weekend when the merch shop on wheels returns to the Shops at La Cantera with an exclusive chance to stock up on official Mattel accessories and apparel.

Each year, the Barbie merch truck tours the U.S., stopping in San Antonio, much like the Hello Kitty Cafe. This year, Barbie's themes is the 1970s. Photos of the items online show denim jackets, T-shirts, bucket hats, coffee mugs and hoodies washed in a retro aesthetic are part of the truck's inventory. It's unclear what the price range for the items will be like.
CONVENT, La. (AP)  A unique holiday tradition is returning to St. James Parish in Louisiana.

The Lighting of the Bonfires will be held this Christmas Eve after skipping the last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, news outlets reported.

I am overjoyed to have this special event return to our community this year," said Parish President Pete Dufresne. "I look forward to sharing in the holiday season with our residents and I know this Christmas will be one to remember.

The centuries-old holiday tradition is attended by thousands from around the world. A unique tradition for St. James Parish, lighting the bonfires on Christmas Eve signals a lighted path for Papa Noel to travel, bringing Christmas joy to the children of the River Parishes.

Permits are required for families planning to construct a bonfire  usually around 15 feet in height  on the Mississippi River levee. Beginning Nov. 20, permits will be available at the St. James Parish Welcome Center in Gramercy between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Permits can be paid for by check or money order only. No cash will be accepted.

The 2021 bonfire season is from Nov. 21 through Dec. 27. Permitted bonfire construction may not begin until Nov. 21.
H-E-B Newsroom

On Friday, November 12, H-E-B announced a new line that strives for a more environmentally minded focus, with products ranging from soap to household cleaners.

The official launch of Field & Future coincides with America Recycles Day on Monday, November 15. To honor the holiday, the grocery company is also partnering with Keep Texas Recycling (an offshoot of Keep Texas Beautiful) to make recycling more accessible across the state of Texas.
Conde Nast Traveler recently praised a San Antonio hotel for being one of the most romantic getaways in Texas.

On Thursday, November 11, the magazine released its list, naming Hotel Emma in its article. The listing featured gem spots like the Hotel Drover in Fort Worth, The Bloomhouse Airbnb in Austin, The Carr Mansion in Galveston, and more.

All listings featured on Conde Nast Traveler were independently selected by its editors.

In the article, the magazine stated the local hotel is set inside the former Pearl Brewery along the "less-touristy part of the River Walk." The listing says Hotel Emma is all about the details.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

"Look closely and you'll see remnants of old machinery, repurposed as light fixtures and works of art. Macarons at turndown service and seersucker Dos Carolinas robes are a nice touch, too," the article reads. "At the on-site Sternewirth Bar, ask for the Three Emmas cocktail, along with the juicy backstory involving a lovers' quarrel. When hunger strikes, some of the best restaurants in the city can be found just steps from the hotels front door, but for dinner and a show, make reservations in advance at Jazz, TX."

This isn't the first recognition Hotel Emma has received from publications. The hotel has also been listed as a top hotel from Travel & Leisure and U.S. News and World Report.

In 2019, pop icon Cher stayed at the hotel and called it "one of the most unique, beautiful hotels ever." She was in San Antonio for her tour when she learned about the hotel's fascinating backstory.

Jerry Lara /Staff photographer

According to the hotel's website, Emma Koehler, wife of Pearl Brewery president Otto Koehler, was injured in a car accident in 1910. Her husband hired a live-in nurse and her friend, both named Emma, to take care of her. Otto was soon having affairs with both women.

On Nov. 12, 1914, Otto visited the Southside house he had set up the pair in. An argument occurred, and the taller, blonder Emma shot him dead. She was charged with murder, fled to Europe as a WWI nurse, then returned to San Antonio four years later.

She was found not guilty by an all-male jury, according to the hotel's website. She later married one of the jurors.

The other nurse Emma got married, while Emma Koehler took over Pearl Brewery after her husband was killed. She led employees through Prohibition before passing away in 1947.
Noam Galai / FilmMagic

All the neighbors on Sesame Street are coming together to support Big Bird in his run for Texas office. Were not actually talking about the real gang, but a parody that has now evolved on social media and continues to gain traction. It all stems from Sen. Ted Cruz criticizing the real Big Bird for getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Cruz accused the beloved childrens character of spreading government propaganda in a Twitter post on Saturday, November 6.

"Government propaganda...for your 5 year old," Cruz wrote in a quote retweet of Big Bird's tweet.
This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 796 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser, what weve accomplished in the last year, and our current goal, bonuses for our guest writers.

A loyal donor has made a challenge: to double the donations of the next 50 people who give $100.

Make this generous offer a speedy success by going to our donation page now! Take this opportunity to turbo-charge your gift. If you want to donate, say, $300, you dont need to give 3 $100 donations. One will do. We can handle the math :-).

Other readers have been telling them how important Naked Capitalism is to them. From korual:

Ive learnt more from NC than I ever would during a university degree, which means I probably owe you about $20,000. Hopefully one day I will catch up a bit but please accept my modest koha for now.

And BeliTsari:

Wake up, and as coffee is brewing; see what Yvves posted. Its simplified dealing with Orwellian, hive-minded, echo-chamber, cage-rattling Murika. SEO, PropRNot, Correct The Record one blog-aggregator after another, abruptly goes all Kos, MoJo, Alternet, HuffPo, Guardian as journalists are all blacklisted, whistleblowers arrested, dissidents silenced. But weve helped amalgamate a compendium of surviving worthwhile blogs, by linking to some extraordinary sources, in the comments. And just as it feels cozy & comfortable and complacency dulls our cantankerous outrage; damn, if somebody up and posts something original, astute, prescient or pertinent to annoy us out of our drooling stupor. Thank yunz nudniks, one and all!

And Chuck H:

It is a pleasure to once again support your work. Naked Capitalism is the one source of news where I feel at home. Appreciate all the writers and commenters.

You can make your contribution here, via check (we like checks!), debit or credit card, or PayPal. If you give by check, be sure to let us know by e-mailing us with your donation amount at yves@nakedcapitalism.com with Double Your Donation Challenge in the subject line so we can include it in our running tally.

Thanks to our anonymous supporter for his generosity. I hope readers will respond in kind. And if $100 is a stretch for you, dont let that stop you from making a donation if youve been planning to but havent had time yet. Every contribution helps us meet our goals. So I hope youll take up this fundraiser challenge in whatever way you can!
This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 917 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser, what weve accomplished in the last year, and our current goal, bonuses for our guest writers.

Yves here. The saying, at least as far as consumer trends goes, is As goes California, so goes the nation. So its early to call New York City as a harbinger of the US as far as the Chinese vote is concerned. However, its not hard to think that Chinese parents who have invested heavily in their childrens eduction, both in money terms and their own time, are upset at the way elite and likely not so elite universities find ways to downrank academically excellent Chinese applicants, often resorting to stereotypes about nerdiness, to keep Chinese students from being markedly over-represented. Elite school have long had quotas, against private schools being overrepresented, against Jews who as a group, like the Chinese, also overachieve.

However, the repudiation in New York City didnt come from affluent districts where voters might also have wallet reasons to decide the Republicans might not be so terrible. The reversals happened in middle and working class hoods. And while education does not appear to be the main issue (hate crimes and Manhattan NIMBY-ism leading Chinese districts to be favored spots for housing the homeless), it did rate. The city under de Blasio has been pulling funds out of programs for gifted students.

By Rong Xiaoqing, Clifford Michel, Suhail Bhat and Will Welch. Originally published at THE CITY on November 11, 2021

Curtis Sliwa mayoral posters adorned businesses along Eighth Avenue in Sunset Parks Chinatown, Nov. 9, 2021. Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

After casting his ballot in the early morning on Election Day, Ray Huang made more than a dozen trips to poll sites in Brooklyns Sunset Park neighborhood.

Each time, he brought with him one or two Chinese residents who came to vote for Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, just as he did.

They werent alone: While Sliwa notched 29% of ballots cast citywide and 24% in Brooklyn, in central Sunset Park he got 46% against Democrat Eric Adams, city Board of Election data shows. In this hub of the neighborhood, known as Brooklyns Chinatown, 70% of residents categorized themselves as Asian in the 2020 census.

Across the five boroughs, Sliwa scored 44% of the vote in precincts where more than half of residents are Asian  surpassing his 40% of votes in white enclaves, 20% in majority-Hispanic districts and 6% in majority-Black districts.

It was not difficult for Huang, a Sunset Park resident since the 1980s and an emerging community leader, to persuade people he bumped into in the neighborhood to choose the Republican candidate, he said. Many of them had just participated in a demonstration Huang had organized six days before.

The Oct. 27 protest, targeting a homeless shelter the city plans to build on Eighth Avenue and 65th Street, attracted more than 1,000 New Yorkers not only from Sunset Park but from all over the city.

Sliwa marched with the protesters and addressed the crowd  vowing to stop building homeless shelters if elected.

Adams, during his own campaign, chose Sunset Park as the place to unveil a proposal to turn vacant hotel rooms in the boroughs outside of Manhattan into supportive housing units for homeless people.

Voters like Huang noticed the contrast.

Where is Adams when we need him? Huang asked.

Note: Totals do not include absentee ballots

Source: NYC Board of Elections

Will Welch / THE CITY

A Visible Dent

Chinese New Yorkers make up the largest share of the citys rapidly growing Asian population, which reached nearly 1.4 million in the 2020 census, accounting for more than half the citys overall growth since 2010. Asians now represent nearly 16% of the citys population, a record.

In 2019, the Mayors Office of Immigrant Affairs tallied nearly 418,000 New Yorkers it identified as being from China, accounting for nearly half of all Asian immigrants in the city. About 56% of Asian immigrants are naturalized citizens, according to MOIA  making them eligible to vote.

Homeless shelters are just one in a series of issues that galvanized many Chinese voters to align themselves with GOP candidates for mayor and City Council this year.

Other catalysts, according to activist leaders, include proposed reforms to specialized high school admissions and gifted and talented programs, plans to build new jails in areas that include Manhattans Chinatown, and bail reform reducing pretrial incarceration.

A wave of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans during the pandemic has heightened a sense of urgency about public safety and law enforcement. Asian anger and frustration have, for the first time, left a visible dent in a city election.

In the City Council, Republicans have flipped one formerly Democratic Brooklyn seat in a district where Asian New Yorkers make up 18% of the population. The GOP is also favored to win a Queens district that is 36% Asian.

In Asian-concentrated communities from Flushing to Bayside in Queens, to Sunset Park and Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, Sliwa led Adams from a few dozen to a few thousand votes  winning outright in 137 out of the citys 317 majority-Asian election districts.

GOP Takes Note

Rising Republican party leaders have noticed the trend. They include Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-L.I.), whos running for governor with the backing of the New York State Republican and Conservative parties.

Zeldin has already been meeting regularly and holding fundraisers with Asian-American activists and community leaders, according to his campaign, and will be adding additional events in the coming months, according to his campaign.

Like so many New Yorkers, theyre concerned about public safety, the quality of their kids education, the rising cost of living and how the politicians controlling Albany arent fighting for the priorities most important to them, said Katie Vincentz, a spokesperson for Zeldins campaign.

They are incredibly upset that the Democratic Party dismantled a lot of laws that kept the community safe, like the bail reform, she told THE CITY.

There has been a war against the gifted and talented program by the de Blasio administration, she added. The gifted and talented program and specialized high schools are tools that give many Asian Americans, mostly immigrant families, opportunity. Especially with the Chinese community, education is so incredibly important.

We Are Also Minorities

Candidates like Zeldin could get a boost from Asian New Yorkers like Ling Fei, a popular conservative WeChat blogger who owns a computer repair shop.

On Nov. 6, Fei hosted a Zoom meeting with more than 30 Chinese activists  many of whom had campaigned for Sliwa  to discuss the strategy to mobilize voters for next years midterm and gubernatorial elections.

After the protest against the homeless shelter, many protesters who were eager to vote found they hadnt registered as voters, said Fei, who came to the U.S. for graduate school in 2000 and cast his first ballot 18 years later.

He told the activists his goal is to help register 4,000 new Chinese voters in Sunset Park, preferably for the Republican Party, in the next one or two years. We have a big untapped pool of voters, and many of these unregistered voters are new immigrants who are conservatives, Fei said.

Huang was also on the Zoom meeting. A registered Democrat who says he is not considering switching parties anytime soon, Huang said he cast his ballot based on candidates values, not parties.

After a pause, he added: But the values of the Republican Party resonate more with Chinese voters.

Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) tweeted her alarm after seeing the Nov. 2 election results in her area of northeast Queens  and warned her fellow Democrats to wake up and start connecting with Asian voters.

Pending paper ballot counts, the assembly districts of @nily @edbraunstein @Barnwell30 @rontkim @Stacey23AD all went Republican. Our party better start giving more of a shit about #aapi voters and communities. No other community turned out at a faster pace than AAPIs in 2020. https://t.co/wGJvp19CeB  Grace Meng (@Grace4NY) November 4, 2021

Until this year, Meng had served as vice chair of the national Democratic Party and had worked hard to reach out to Asian voters in red states from Georgia to Texas.

In an interview with THE CITY, Meng lamented that complacency had set in when it came to blue turf like New York, where Democrats feel safe and therefore havent invested resources.

She also described a kind of invisibility for Asian-Americans within her own partys public voice.

When our Democratic leaders talk about issues facing minority communities, oftentimes they are only talking about Black and Spanish communities, said Meng. But our community is the fastest growing community. And we are also minorities.

Well Be Invincible

A major turning point arrived in the summer of 2018, when thousands of previously non-political Asian New Yorkers protested de Blasios call to abandon the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) because of racial disparities in the citys elite classrooms.

The exams are the sole basis of entry to top high schools, including the majority-Asian Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech.

I had never participated in any protests until the SHSAT, said Phil Wong, a freelance translator and a father of three who came to the U.S. from Hong Kong in 1974 when he was 6.

Wong became a member and then the chair of the Community Education Council 24 in Elmhurst, a position he held until June. He was one of the parents who sued the city over the specialized high school reform in 2019, a case that is still pending.

He is now the president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York, leading campaigns to keep the SHSAT and gifted-and-talented programs. More recently, his group has taken on race-focused education, using critical race theory as a term of derision.

The Democrats race-based so-called education equality reminds me of the Cultural Revolution in China, said Wong, a registered Democrat who said he is considering switching to the GOP.

Wong campaigned for Sliwa along with two other Republican candidates, Queens Councilmember-elect Joann Ariola and Manhattan district attorney candidate Thomas Kenniff, who lost to Democrat Alvin Bragg.

On Election Day, Wong worked from dawn to dusk, distributing fliers.

I was so tired that I slept until 11 a.m. the next day and still got up with shaking legs. But I had no choice. To get their children a better education was the reason that many Chinese came to this country, he said.

Pedestrians in Flushing, Queens Hiram Alejandro Duran/THE CITY

While education may have been the tinder, it was not the only issue that stoked the fire.

Robert Jin, a Queens insurer, said he got involved in politics in recent years because he believed the city and the country were going in a wrong direction.

He threw a fundraiser in Flushing last month for Sliwa that attracted 140 people and generated $110,000, after public matching funds.

Jin said he cant believe Sliwa lost. But he told his WeChat followers there was no need to shed tears.

We Chinese are awakening for the first time. And well be invincible in next years governor election, Jin said.

This story was originally published by THE CITY, an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.
This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 895 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser, what weve accomplished in the last year, and our current goal, bonuses for our guest writers.

Gary Gensler, the former Goldman partner who is widely credited as being a reformer in his stint as head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, despite a secondary regulator being a disadvantaged position for getting much of anything done, looks to be taking a slow and careful aim on private equity abuses. Well turn shortly to a deceptively-friendly speech Gensler just gave at the Institutional Limited Partners Association.

Gensler stated that hes already tasked SEC staff to look into what we have described for years as a central abuse in private equity: that investors have no clue as to the total fees they are paying because private equity fund managers hoover all sorts of charges directly out of the portfolio companies in the funds. And they dont even pretend these fees are for services rendered. A favorite example is monitoring fees. We first featured this video, Money for Nothing by Oxford professor Ludovic Phalippou in a 2016 post. Phalippou had reviewed the so-called monitoring agreements that portfolio companies had to sign with their new private equity overlords. The entire video is worth watching, and the critical section starts at 8:00:

Here is Phalippous translation of the services agreement:

I may do some work from time to time

I do some work, only if I feel like it. Subjective translation: I wont do anything.

Ill get [in this case] at least $30 million a year irrespective of how much I decide to work. Subjective translation: I wont do anything and get $30 million a year for it.

If I do decide to do something, Ill charge you extra

I can stop charging when I get out (or not), but if I do I get all the money I was supposed to receive from that point up until 2018.

Mind you, even as of 2016, it was not news that private equity firms were engaged in embezzlement and all sorts of other misbehavior. What was and remains stunning is that the money, as in the investors, havent put a stop to it.

In May of 2014, SEC enforcement chief Andrew Bowden made a speech which seemed to signal that the SEC intended to make real use of its new powers under Dodd Frank to oversee private equity firms as investment advisers. Bowden explained that the SECs initial exams has found serious abuses in over half the firms examined, including what in other walks of life would be called stealing. Privately, the agency was saying that unlike in other areas, the abuses were if anything more frequent at the biggest players.

This salvo has a wave of press disclosures driving it: in-depth exposes by Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times and Mark Maremont of the Wall Street Journal. Your humble blogger got some digs in too.

As we reported at the time, this show of resolve was followed quickly by a retreat. Yes, the SEC did fine big firms, typically one prototypical abuse at one big name firm you heard of. But the agency was clearly in one and done mode. Bowden acted like he really believed that the reason these alpha predators got caught out was theyd made honest mistakes, and now that they knew better, theyd fly right and investors would also police them.

Less than a year after Bowdens famous speech, he was on a panel at a private equity conference at Stanford. Not only did he fawn over the industry, but he even said hed told his son he should work in the industry, leading an audience member to offer him a job. As reader JohnnyGL said,  Its like were watching the revolving door actually spin right in front of us. Three weeks after we publicized that video, Bowden had resigned.

More and more work by experts, such as Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt and benchmarking expert CEM, continued to confirm there were substantial abuses and investors still had no idea what private equity cost them in fees and expenses. Since nearly all investors in private equity are fiduciaries, that should have preventing them from committing funds to private equity. One of the duties of a fiduciary is to evaluate the reasonableness of fees and their impact on returns. You cant evaluate a black box. Even so, Professor Phalippou came up with a ballpark estimate that private equity, all in, cost 7% per annum in fees and expenses. CalPERS confirmed that level in a 2015 private equity conference it sponsored.

For reason it would take too long to unpack here, investors have continued to exhibit an advanced case of Stockholm Syndrome. Stunningly, for instance, in 2015, a group of 13 major government trustees asked the SEC to step in, effectively asking the agency to protect them the way it protects retail investors. As we wrote then:

Nothing like elected officials using letter-writing to a weak agency and asking it to exceed its powers to hide the fact that they arent willing to do their jobs The only good news in this pathetic case of responsibility three-cared monte by state and city officials is that it shows that they feel the need to be perceived to be Doing Something about private equity abuses.

Trust me, I am sparing you many many chapters of this sorry history.

So why is this speech by Gensler an unexpected and genuinely hopeful sign?

The first is that Gensler has a solid record as a no-show-pony reformer. Hes already wealthy as a former Goldman partner, and critically, unlike many whove done well in finance, Gensler also has have enough. He appears to be cut from the cloth that the Goldman of its partnership days (back in the stone ages when Wall Street was criminal only at the margin) particularly prized: someone who was emotionally matures, smart and hard-working, and not into display in their private lives. In my day, the guys who got divorced and drove flashy cars were less likely to make partner quickly than the stolid, nose-to-the-grindstone types who made lots of money for the firm and were content to be well respected at the firm and bring up kids who did well, or at least werent messed up.

I feel compelled to say that because too many go into Manichean mode and act as if anyone who worked for (fill in the blank big financial firm) has to be tainted. In fact, its awfully hard to know how the secret sauce is made if you havent been in or at least near the kitchen.

Some members of the public may underestimate Gensler because he still has something of a baby face and plays the naif well. While it may be more gratifying to see Elizabeth Warren and Katie Porter go out guns-a-blazing, as single legislators, their best weapon is their bully pulpit. By contrast, Gensler as a regulator with staff and the ability to levy fines and refer cases for prosecution has far more power. But deploying it, particularly at the SEC, is tricky, since aggrieved targets of SEC enforcement can go whining to their Congresscritters seeking to have the SECs budget cut.

Ill admit that I have seen Gensler give innocuous-seeming speeches where it seemed he didnt have the plot. But this speech takes an exceedingly clever approach. It anchors SEC demands of private equity on unassailable principles. The industry can hardly disagree with the motherhood and apple pie positions Gensler takes, and some pretty obvious and unwelcome consequences come from them.

I strongly urge you to read Genslers highly accessible speech in full. Notice that he made it an Institutional Limited Partners Association meeting. ILPA, as it is called in the trade, is another symptom of private equity capture. It nominally represents the investors, the limited partners, but the overwhelming majority of its budget comes from private equity firms.

Gensler almost cutely asks whether fund managers know enough about their private equity fees, as if this question is even remotely in doubt. He then drives the knife in:

Together, those fees might add up to 3-4 percent in private equity and 2-3 percent per year in hedge funds That may not even be counting other fees that private funds collect from limited partners and portfolio companies. These can include consulting fees, advisory fees, monitoring fees, servicing fees, transaction fees, directors fees, and others . Hundreds of billions of dollars in fees and expenses are standing between investors and businesses. More competition and transparency could potentially bring greater efficiencies to this important part of the capital markets. This could help lower the cost of capital for businesses raising money. This could raise the returns for the pensions and endowments behind the limited partner investors. This ultimately could help workers preparing for retirement and families paying for their college educations. Thats why I have asked the staff to consider what recommendations they could make to bring greater transparency to fee arrangements.

Then Gensler reveals that hes much more plugged in than his aw shucks setup reveled. He next goes after side letters. As we discussed based on an important new paper by law professor William Clayton, private equity investors devote far more effort to try to get a better deal via side letters than the base contract, the limited partners agreement. Investors weirdly act as if its OK to have all the other investor tying to cut better arrangements because many also have most favored nation agreements, that they get to have all the special terms any lesser-dollar investor got.

But the big flaw is only the very biggest investor can get the full benefit of all these side deals. In addition, as Clayton points out, the general partner can play cute and not be fully forthcoming about what all the side letters provide.

Without going into sordid details in his talk, Gensler makes clear he is not keen about side letters that lead to some investors getting a better financial deal than others:

Each limited partner may be negotiating its own deal.. Some of these side letters are benignOther side letters, however, can create preferred liquidity terms or disclosures Thus, I have asked staff to consider recommendations regarding how we can level the playing field and strengthen transparency, or whether certain side letter provisions should not be permitted.

Thats benign compared to what comes next. Gensler doesnt like that investors have to rely on performance figures prepared by the general partners, who arent held to any standard as to how they run the numbers. Recall that not just this humble site but even highly respected investors like Howard Marks have pointed out that one increasingly used gimmick, fund level leverage via so-called subscription lines of credit, make financial performance comparisons meaningless.

Again from Gensler:

Theres a debate about whether private equity outperforms the public markets net of fees, or taking into account leverage and liquiditybasic facts about private funds are not as readily available  not only to the public, but even to the investors themselves. Regardless of that overall economic debate there may be benefits to fund investors to increasing transparency of the performance metrics. I have asked staff to consider what we can do to enhance such transparency.

Gensler is also unhappy about private equity funds asking investors to give a fiduciary duty waivers. The SEC chief makes clear thats an absolute no-no as far as Federal fiduciary duties are concerned. The wee problem historically has been that only the SEC has the right to enforce those fiduciary duties.

General partners have gotten too used to the SEC being asleep on this front. The SEC could easily crack down on a broad basis.

Gensler also does not like that the general partners often seek and obtain waivers of fiduciary duty at the state level. Unless a state has particularly fiduciary law provisions that are stronger than those at the Federal level, its hard to see how a state law waiver would not encroach on Federal law fiduciary duties too. I hope the SEC has some very bright minds considering this question.

Gensler implies that hes only just ask his staff to look into these matters. I doubt hed go public before he were far enough along to be pretty sure the agency was going to Do Something. Lets hope he continues with his speak softly but carry a big stick school of oversight.
(Natural News) In a live interview with PBS NewsHour, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky mistakenly said people dying from this VACCINE instead of people dying from Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).

The gaffe suggests that something is amiss, be it with the efficacy of the vaccine or the link between vaccinations and deaths.

During the live interview, host Judy Woodruff and Walensky were talking about new COVID-19 cases in the United States. Walenskys alarming Freudian slip was caught on camera.

As Woodruff was closing the interview, she talked about how the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country are still too high. She then asked Walensky when the number of COVID deaths is going to be about what it is for the regular flu or if the scenario is even possible given how the pandemic has devastated countries across the globe.

Walensky mentioned that the decline in case rates was encouraging, at the same time acknowledging that COVID-19 death rates are high. We know that the people who are dying from this vacc-, said Walensky before pausing to correct herself.

She continued to say that theres a higher chance people will die from the coronavirus if they remain unvaccinated. Walensky added that people can stop infections by getting vaccinated, even if data suggests that the disease can still spread even among those who are inoculated.

Walensky added that the CDC is doing its best to provide information to convince people to get vaccinated because most COVID-19 deaths are preventable deaths.

Other countries have acknowledged vaccine deaths

While the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Biden administration and the mainstream media all choose to ignore vaccine deaths, other countries like the U.K. and Australia have acknowledged some deaths that were directly caused by coronavirus vaccines (Related: CDC is HIDING data showing that covid vaccines are failing miserably in dealing with the Delta variant.)

In May, Lisa Shaw, an award-winning BBC radio presenter, died while hospitalized after she suffered blood clots. Before she got sick she received AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine.

According to a statement from her family, 44-year-old Shaw developed severe headaches one week after inoculation. She then became seriously ill a few days later.

Shaw died at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle on May 21 after she was treated in intensive care for blood clots and bleeding.

The risk of a clot linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine is allegedly one in 100,000 for people who are 40 or older. The risk of death at any age due to a blood clot is said to be at about one in a million.

Back in August, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) reported that a 34-year-old woman from New South Wales, Australia, developed a blood clotting syndrome linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine. The woman died on Aug. 4 after developing thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS).

In a statement, the TGA said that TTS is a rare event involving serious blood clots with a low blood platelet count. But unlike other clotting conditions, TTS is triggered by the immune systems response to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Walensky may not be wrong after all. People are really dying from COVID-19 vaccines.

Be vigilant and visit Pandemic.news to learn more about vaccine deaths and injuries not reported by mainstream media.

Sources include:

InfoWars.com

PBS.org

Standard.co.uk

SkyNews.com.au
(Natural News) President Joe Bidens chief medical advisor and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic will only end once global vaccination is enforced.

However, people remain hesitant to get vaccinated despite the insistence of governments, Big Pharma and mainstream media due to the adverse effects of the vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that common side effects of a COVID-19 vaccine can include chills, body aches, fatigue, fever, headaches and nausea.

A vaccinated person might also experience redness, swelling, pain, an itchy rash and other mild forms of irritation around the injection site, plus allergic reaction due to the presence of one or more ingredients in the vaccine. These allergic reactions may include hives or another type of skin rash, swelling and respiratory symptoms. Severe allergic reactions to vaccines may cause anaphylaxis, which involves symptoms like low blood pressure, nausea and difficulty breathing.

Worse, there have been some reports of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the lining outside the heart) after receiving coronavirus vaccines. In both cases, the bodys immune system causes inflammation in response to an infection or some other trigger.

Fauci blames unvaccinated people for pandemic

Fauci and other health officials are pushing hard for vaccines. According to Fauci, the more people in America and around the world get vaccinated, the more the level of viral dynamics will decrease.

Even Fauci himself couldnt confirm a date when that will happen, but he insisted that citizens should continue to get vaccinated because cases go down with high vaccination rates. He also blamed people who chose not to get vaccinated for new cases, despite the fact that the vaccines arent 100 percent effective at stopping the spread or transmission of the coronavirus.

According to Fauci, pandemics have several phases: the pandemic phase, the deceleration phase, a control phase, an elimination phase and an eradication phase. He admitted that eradication is out because science has only managed to do that once  with smallpox.

While vaccination programs in the country eliminated certain infections like polio in the U.S. and measles, except for some pockets of unvaccinated group[s], the country is focusing on control, which has a wide bracket, said Fauci. (Related: Medical police state: Fauci wants a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for air travel.)

This suggests that Americas response to the COVID-19 pandemic is based on control of people through vaccine mandates since Fauci and other public health officials have admitted that the virus is uncontrollable.

You can have [the virus] under control, where you have enough infections in the community where it isnt a pandemic phase, but it still is interfering with what we would like to get back to what we used to know as normal, what we hope to get it as its such a low level, that even though it isnt completely eliminated, it doesnt have a major impact on public health or on the way we run our lives, added Fauci.

Fauci hints that tyranny must become the norm to eradicate COVID-19.

Visit Vaccines.news for more news and information about the adverse effects of coronavirus vaccines.

Sources include:

SHTFPlan.com

MedicalNewsToday.com

Naturalpedia.com

Yahoo.com
(Natural News) Facebook, Twitter and other big tech companies actually want standardized Internet speech regulations. In fact, Facebook has been spending millions of dollars on ads that openly call for more government regulation of speech on the Internet. You can view an example of what I am talking about right here. At first glance, it may seem odd that Facebook wants more government regulation of the tech industry, but it actually makes perfect sense. If the federal government is the one making the rules, Facebook and the other big tech companies can legally censor you into oblivion without ever having to worry about any legal consequences. And then because all other social media platforms in existence will have to follow the exact same rules, there will be nowhere else for you to turn. There wont be any free speech alternatives to Facebook and Twitter, because all of those alternatives will be forced to apply the same speech standards that Facebook and Twitter and applying.

(Article by Michael Snyder republished from EndOfTheAmericanDream.com)

Right now, Facebook and Twitter are losing millions of users to other platforms, and they want this to stop.

And so they are going to continue to push for national Internet speech regulations that apply equally to everyone.

In the end, Facebook basically envisions that everyone else in the industry will be forced to engage in the sort of extreme censorship that Facebook is already engaged in. The following are three quotes that come directly from Facebook

-Today, we work with more than 80 partners covering over 60 languages around the world to review potentially false content.

-We include warnings on posts that are rated false so that you can decide what to read or share.

-When third-party fact-checkers label content false, we significantly reduce its distribution so fewer people see it.

That sounds so noble, doesnt it?

But of course all of the third-party fact-checkers have an agenda, and all of them see the world the same way that Facebook sees the world.

If you are an independent thinker, it is just a matter of time before you are hit really hard by the censor hammer. The censorship has gotten stricter and stricter with each passing year, and the number of people that Facebook has working in this realm has quadrupled

Facebook is not waiting for regulation. Were continuing to make progress on key issues. Weve quadrupled our security and safety teams to 40,000 people and built new privacy tools. Were also working with tech peers to make it easier for people to move their data between platforms securely. While we at Facebook are working to make progress, we know that we cant  and shouldnt  do it alone. Thats why we support regulations to set clear and fair rules for everyone, and support a safe and secure open internet where creativity and competition can thrive.

They claim that they are relentlessly working to weed out hate speech, but their definition of hate speech is essentially any opinion that they disagree with.

They also claim that they are fighting health misinformation head on, but their definition of health misinformation is essentially anything that contradicts the narratives that are being pushed by the big pharmaceutical companies.

Anything having to do with COVID, vaccines or COVID treatments has become such a sensitive area. The big tech companies have been extremely diligent to censor users when it comes to these topics, but that still isnt good enough for some Democrats. A few months ago, two Democrats in the Senate introduced a bill called the Health Misinformation Act

The nicest thing you can say about the Health Misinformation Act, proposed in July by the Democratic senators Amy Klobuchar and Ben Ray Lujan, is that it means well. The internet has been a key accelerant of widespread myths, misunderstandings and lies related to Covid-19; Klobuchar and Lujans bill would force online companies like Facebook to crack down on false information during public health emergencies, or lose immunity from lawsuits if they dont.

The good news is that this bill probably doesnt have much of a chance to get through Congress right now, but Democrats will inevitably keep trying.

Meanwhile, over in the EU there are plans to start systematically monitoring text messaging and video chat platforms for suspicious content

A German member of the European Parliament is warning against EU plans to adopt new, wide-ranging mass surveillance rules that he says would seriously jeopardize citizens right to privacy by forcing tech companies to give access to encrypted messages to the authorities. And that is what the laws now in the works in Brussels  that are supposed to replace temporary rules adopted in July  are designed to do, by ordering messaging and video chat providers like WhatsApp and Skype to put tech in place that would provide access to peoples private communications and, thanks to an automated system, monitor chats in real time and report suspicious content.

Of course anything that deviates from the official narratives about the pandemic would be considered to be suspicious content.

So what should be done to those that are guilty of spreading health misinformation?

Well, the CEO of Pfizer says that they should be treated like criminals

People who spread misinformation on Covid-19 vaccines are criminals and have cost millions of lives, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday. Speaking with Washington D.C.-based think tank Atlantic Council, Bourla said there is a very small group of people that purposefully circulate misinformation on the shots, misleading those who are already hesitant about getting vaccinated.

They dont want us to criticize what they are doing, and meanwhile they are making billions upon billions of dollars and laughing all the way to the bank.

It truly is sickening.

And now we are being told that booster shots will be needed every 6 to 12 months

Australians will need to get COVID booster shots annually for the foreseeable future to combat CCP Virus, according to the countrys Pharmacy Guild. Trent Twomey, the president of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia (PGA), warned that people may need to get booster shots every 6 to 12 months to keep more deadly variants at bay.

So Pfizer and Moderna will continue to rake in billions upon billions of dollars in perpetuity, and any criticism of their misdeeds will be systematically suppressed by their friends in the big tech industry.

In a lot of ways, large corporations now have more power over our lives than national governments do, and many of the largest corporations are becoming increasingly authoritarian.

Big tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter have decided that they want to use their power to shape what you think, what you believe and how you view the world.

Personally, I will never submit to such manipulation, and I will continue to do all that I can to share the truth with a lost and dying world.

Many of you feel the exact same way.

Unfortunately, we are in the minority, and the big tech companies are entirely convinced that the world will be a much better place if they can permanently relegate people like us to the outer fringes of the Internet.

What they really want are masses of fully obedient sheeple that will simply go along with whatever narratives they are currently pushing, and they dont want wolves such as us messing with their flocks.

Read more at: EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
(Natural News) A private clinical research company involved in the Pfizer Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine trial in the fall of 2020 falsified phase-three trial data and neglected participants who experienced adverse events.

This is according to the testimony of whistleblower Brook Jackson, a clinical trial auditor with more than 15 years of experience in clinical research coordination and management. Jackson worked for Ventavia Research Group, a clinical research company based in Texas, for two weeks in Sept. 2020.

During her stint at Ventavia, Jackson repeatedly alerted her employer to the overwhelming number of problems in quality control of the trial. She even emailed her complaints to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But all of her concerns were ignored and her employer fired her on the same day she reported her concerns to the FDA.

Paul. D. Thacker, who handled the BMJs report on Jacksons testimony, wrote that the medical journal is in possession of dozens of internal company documents, photos, audio recordings and emails  thanks to Jackson.

One of the photos in the BMJs possession reportedly shows vaccine packaging materials with trial participants identification numbers written on them left out in the open, potentially unblinding participants.

Keeping trials double-blind is an important aspect that maintains the integrity of randomized control trials. It protects data from being influenced by bias, and researchers dedicated to science and facts should at all times maintain the blinding of research facilitators and participants.

But when Jackson took the photo of the packaging materials, Ventavia executives questioned her and reprimanded her.

Patrick Delaney, writing for Life Site News, pointed out that some clinical research companies may have financial incentives to break research protocols and unblind participants to produce outcomes favorable to their clients. In this case, Pfizer, and their knowledge of trial participants status may bias them in how they collect data, he wrote.

According to Jacksons email to the FDA, she had many other issues regarding Ventavias Pfizer trial, including:

Post-injection participants were ignored by clinical staff.

Patients who experienced adverse reactions to the vaccinations were not followed-up with on time.

Protocol deviations were not being reported.

Vaccines were not stored at proper temperatures.

Laboratory specimens were routinely mislabeled.

Ventavia executives harassed staff who reported concerns about the way the trial was conducted.

Corruption in clinical trials is an old issue due to Big Pharma

Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist and author, called the BMJs investigation devastating to Pfizer. Where is the FBI? Why is there not a criminal investigation looking into this? he asked.

Malhotra pointed out that, as a doctor who has long campaigned against Big Pharma, the fact that the BMJs investigation is being swept under the rug is not surprising.

Its not really that surprising, even though its shocking, because if you look at the history of drug companies generally, there has been a problem for a very long time with corruption of data, hiding data on harms, not sharing data, he said. Which then means that doctors and patients are basically having to make decisions on biased information.

And when I say that this hasnt been rectified, thats the other issue, continued Malhotra. Between 2009 and 2014, for example, most of the top 10 [largest] pharmaceutical companies paid a total $13 billion in fines for criminal activity, which involves hiding data on harms and illegal marketing of drugs, for example. Theres nothing being done to rectify this situation.

During a different interview, Malhotra called the BMJs report absolutely shocking.

This should be major international news, he said. That Pfizer trial, that pivotal trial because of that data, millions and millions of people have taken the vaccine.

Malhotra himself said that Pfizers phase-three clinical trial data convinced him to receive both doses of the vaccine very early on despite the fact he was not high risk, to protect his parents from getting COVID-19.

Whats now very clear is that theres no significant reduction in transmission from taking the vaccine, he said.

Malhotra pointed out that until effective intervention or sanctions are placed upon the largest players in the pharmaceutical industry, the publication of corrupted trial data by Big Pharma will most likely continue.

He cited the example of GlaxoSmithKline, a British Big Pharma company that was fined $3 billion in 2012. They made $25 billion in profit during the period covered by the settlement, he said. Nobody was fired, nobody was jailed. So this is business as usual for many of these companies.

Learn more about how Pfizer and other Big Pharma companies falsify vaccine trial data by reading the latest articles at Vaccines.news.

Sources include:

GlobalResearch.ca

LifeSiteNews.com

BMJ.com

NZHerald.co.nz
(Natural News) A Pfizer subcontractor is being accused of falsifying data, unblinding patients, hiring inadequately trained vaccinators and failing to follow up on adverse events during the companys Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine clinical trials.

A paper published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reveals that the company, called Ventavia Research Group, heavily manipulated the phase III study for Pfizers Chinese Virus injection during the fall of 2020, just months before it was rushed into production and distribution at warp speed by the Trump administration.

A company whistleblower came forward with the revelations, which prompted a group of 16 Swedish doctors and researchers to circulate a petition calling on the Pfizer jab to no longer be administered in the Nordic country.

The staff who performed quality checks were reportedly overwhelmed by the amount of problems they discovered, reported Sputnik News. The BMJ (study) concluded that the trial raised questions about data integrity and regulatory oversight.

The 16 signatories of the petition called the revelations extremely serious, adding that the side effects associated with Pfizers injections are gigantic.

For instance, in Sweden alone during the ten months that vaccination has taken place wholly 83,744 suspected side effects have been reported  which is more than ten times more than all side effects reported for all drugs and vaccines per year in the immediately preceding years, for a total of about 25,000 substances, the authors emphasized, Sputnik explained.

Pfizer does whatever it wants because the FDA lets it

Not only do the Pfizer injections pose serious risks to the general public, but the revelations also undermine public confidence in the companys drug offerings. How many trials for other drug and vaccine products were manipulated in a similar manner?

The 16 signatories say that it is now clear that Pfizers phase III clinical trial was not performed in a scientifically acceptable manner. This also means that its results cannot be considered reliable:

 combined with the large extent of reported suspected adverse reactions after vaccination, including many of serious nature, makes us, doctors, researchers and immunologists deeply concerned, not least for children who are at extremely low risk of serious COVID-19 disease, but who are at risk of serious side effects, the signatories added.

Until a proper risk-benefit analysis can be conducted on the Pfizer jab, the signatories are calling for an immediate moratorium on the drug for all age groups.

The whistleblower, Brook Jackson, has since been fired from her position as regional director at Ventavia, which is based in Texas. Jacksons firing reportedly occurred almost immediately after she filed a complaint with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about the situation.

Jackson provided BMJ with dozens of internal company documents, photos, audio recordings and emails that substantiate her claims. The FDA did not want to hear about any of it, however.

Pfizer is also ignoring Jacksons concerns as it pushes to expand the number of injection doses it produces in 2021 from 2.5 billion to three billion. Next year, Pfizer also plans to manufacture four billion doses of its injection, up from a projected three billion doses.

These jabs are just another weapon of mass destruction, wrote one Sputnik commenter.

It is well past time to end these death-in-a-bottle jabs of experimental gene therapy that have been proven not to work, wrote another.

Ventavia is typical of American corporate corruption, wrote yet another. The Swedes should look into using the safe vaccines, such as Sputnik, and scrap their three side effect-producing, ineffective Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca injections.

Another noted that it is well past time for a second round of Nuremberg Trials to deal with this persistent problem of corporate corruption.

More related news about the dangers and ineffectiveness of Chinese Virus jabs can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

SputnikNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) An old clip from Dr. Fauci has resurfaced and its coming back to haunt him.

(Article by Paul Goldberg republished from NewsThud.com)

The clip is from a news interview discussing the AIDS crisis that occurred during the 1980s.

In the video below, Fauci was speaking with ABC News and he started fear mongering that children were highly susceptible to get the AIDS virus if in close contact with an infected person.

He said kids might get AIDS in the household https://t.co/J5qUYqR0Zp  Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) November 9, 2021

Some things never change.

What Dr. Anthony Fauci said in the clip above is very similar to comments he made this past summer wanting schools to mandate vaccinations for children.

I believe that mandating vaccines for children to appear in school is a good idea, the chief medical adviser for the White House said Sunday in an interview on CNNs State of the Union. Weve done this for decades and decades, requiring polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis. So this would not be something new requiring vaccinations for children to come to school.

I believe that mandating vaccines for children to appear in school is a good idea, Dr. Anthony Fauci says about Covid-19 vaccines. Weve done this for decades and decades, requiring polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis. So this would not be something new #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/5zWmCpaPoh  State of the Union (@CNNSotu) August 29, 2021

During a separate interview on ABCs This Week, Fauci said that the FDA hopefully will be acting quickly to the mRNA vaccine for children under 12.

The data has been collected and we should have enough data by, I would say, the end of September, middle to end of September, early October, so that those data can then be presented to the FDA to examine for the risk benefit ratio of safety and effectiveness, Fauci added.

Fauci also hinted that health officials may change how often a person will need a booster shot of the mRNA vaccine.

Were still sticking with the eight months, Fauci said. However, as weve said, even in the original statement that came out, were gonna have to go through the standard way of the (Food and Drug Administration) looking at the data and then the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. So although were sticking with eight, were remaining flexible, that if the data tells us differently, well make adjustments accordingly. But for now, were sticking with the eight.

NEW: Public health officials are sticking with the recommendation that people get booster shots eight months after getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but that could change based on reviewing the data, Dr. Anthony Fauci tells @MarthaRaddatz. https://t.co/XsaKBKJdTW pic.twitter.com/2QZ0dlwYSy  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 29, 2021

Read more at: NewsThud.com
(Natural News) A Washington metallurgist pleaded guilty to fraud after 30 years of falsifying results of strength tests on steel used to make Navy submarine hulls.

Prosecutors said 67-year-old Elaine Marie Thomas, who previously served as director of metallurgy at a foundry in Tacoma that supplied steel castings to Navy contractors, faked the test results of at least 240 productions of steel from 1985 through 2017. The Department of Justice said the tests were intended to show that the steel would not fail in a collision or in certain wartime scenarios.

Manufacturer Bradken acquired the foundry in 2008, according to the indictment, but there was no evidence that the companys management was aware of the fraud until May 2017. At that time, prosecutors say, a lab employee discovered that test cards had been altered and that other discrepancies existed in the records.

Prosecutors said the falsified test results represented a substantial percentage of the castings Bradken produced for the Navy. In 2020, Bradken agreed to pay $10.9 million as part of a settlement.

While no hull failures are alleged, authorities said the Navy faced increased costs to make certain that the vessels stay seaworthy. The government did not reveal which submarines were impacted. (Related: Maintenance and supply chain issues hobble the Navys deadliest new submarine)

It is never intended to compromise the integrity of any material and is gratified that the governments testing does not suggest that the structural integrity of any submarine was in fact compromised, attorney John Carpenter noted in a statement filed in U.S. District Court on Thomas behalf.

This offense is unique in that it was neither motivated by greed nor any desire for personal enrichment. She regrets that she failed to follow her moral compass  admitting to false statements is hardly how she envisioned living out her retirement years, he noted. When approached about the fake test results, Thomas told investigators: Yeah, that looks bad.

Thomas indicated that in some instances she gave false positive results because she believed it was stupid that the Navy required the tests to be executed at -100 F. She is facing up to 10 years in prison.

Spare parts problem hobble submarines

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy has swapped more than 1,600 parts among its new Virginia-class submarines since 2013 to ease maintenance bottlenecks as components that are supposed to last 33 years wear out decades sooner.

This move is needed so that vessels in the $166 billion class built by General Dynamics Corp. and Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. can return to operations, according to data from the Naval Sea Systems Command and the Congressional Budget Office.

The 48-ship Virginia class is the pillar of the Navys undersea strategy into the second half of the 21st century to counter Chinas growing surface fleet with increasing firepower. The submarines can stalk adversaries under seas with torpedoes and strike surface vessels or attack land targets with Tomahawk cruise missiles while staying on patrol for months.

Bryan Clark, a former special assistant to the chief of naval operations, said that the parts problem is a readiness issue that goes with the overall concern that the Navy is not investing enough in maintenance, supply chains and shipyard infrastructure. The Navy may have been too slow to act on indications that some components were wearing out faster, said Clark, now a naval analyst with the Hudson Institute.

Congress has continually pushed the Navy to increase construction rates for the Virginia class from two vessels a year to three.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Harker acknowledged Tuesday, November 9, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that parts are failing more quickly than originally envisioned. We have to go back and find alternate sources for those parts, he said.

Follow MilitaryTechnology.news for more news related to military technology.

Sources include:

BBC.com

MSN.com
(Natural News) Trent Twomey, president of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia (PGA), says that Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) booster shots will more than likely become an annual or even semi-annual ritual for the foreseeable future  which means forever.

Aussies are already being required to take both of the first two mRNA (messenger RNA) injections, as well as a third booster, in order to remain fully vaccinated. That will likely soon morph into fourth and fifth injections, followed by infinity injections.

The question is what booster and what interval we need to get that booster, whether its every six, nine, or 12 months, Twomey stated nonchalantly to a local media outlet about the next phase of the plandemic.

Those decisions need to be based on evidence and facts and at the moment that is an evolving space.

It will more than likely take until 2023 for Australia to reach some sort of steady-state vaccination program, Twomey warns, similar to the annual flu shot ritual with which many are already familiar.

In time, we will treat covid like many other viruses that have been around for decades, and a covid-19 shot will just be another element of the Australian vaccination program, he insists.

Youd better fight back, America, or the same thing is eventually coming here

Beginning on November 8, all Australian adults qualify for a booster shot as long as it has been six months since their last injection. By the time 2022 arrives, roughly 1.7 million Aussies of all ages will qualify.

This makes Australia the second country in the world after Israel to offer booster injections to people of all ages.

Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison offered a celebratory speech about Australia reaching an 80 percent full vaccination rate, calling it another magnificent milestone in the plandemic.

At the state level, however, only New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory reached this number.

The Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA), which regulates medicine and therapeutics in Australia, recently approved the Pfizer-BioNTech injection as the authorized booster dose. This means that everyone, regardless of which jabs they took initially, will only be allowed to take Pfizer moving forward.

While booster shots are not required for international travel, individual states and territories in Australia will be allowed to decide whether or not to mandate them in order to travel.

A month before your six months is up  you will get a message and your vaccination certificate, the thing that gets you the green tick, announced Victorian Premier Dan Andrews, a prominent Branch Covidian from down under.

Youll be prompted to go and book a time to go and have your booster shot. There may be state clinics in that or it might be all done through GPs and pharmacies. That hasnt been worked through yet. Were happy to play our part, though. So, itll be about the maintenance of your vaccination status.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall echoed Andrews statements, indicating that all eligible residents will now be able to get covid booster shots at government vaccination hubs starting in December.

Access to a booster dose of the lifesaving covid-19 vaccine is yet another layer of protection available to South Australians, he said.

A small percentage will get very sick and become permanently injured, one Natural News commenter speculated. A few will die.

However, these are collateral damage and not their intentions. The vaccines contain advanced biotech intended to control us, manipulating our behaviors. Perhaps even modify us in subtle but important ways. I suspect 5G may play into all this.

The latest news about the Chinese Virus injection push can be found at Vaccines.news.

Sources for this article include:

SGTreport.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The U.S. Department of Justice is on the prowl for companies that are developing treatments for covid-19. Instead of finding out what works in the fight against respiratory illness, the federal government is busy trying to target and eliminate basic treatments that could help people recover. The latest company in their cross-hairs is Xlear, a Utah company that makes xylitol-based products. Xlear developed a saline-based nasal spray and marketed it as a preventative treatment for covid-19. Their claim is based on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study that showed how saline nasal sprays reduce viral load and mitigate symptoms in covid-19 patients.

DOJ targets simple, effective solutions and refuses to go after vaccine fraud

The Department of Justice is NOT interested in this kind of beneficial research. Instead, the nations top law enforcement agency would rather target, charge and prosecute Xlear for violating the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Consumer Protection Act. The Justice Department alleges that Xlear is making false claims about the benefits of their product.

The Justice Department has conscripted a federal court to permanently ban Xlear from making any claims or promotions for the treatment of covid-19. The Department is also asking the court to levy fines against the company.

Companies cant make unsupported health claims, no matter what form a product takes, or what it supposedly prevents or treats, said Samuel Levine, director of the trade commissions Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a press release on the lawsuit.

That same Justice Department has yet to comment on the blatant fraud of covid-19 vaccines and the surge of vaccine injuries and deaths that have resulted from this experimental program. Instead, the Justice Department would rather target a benign, saline nasal spray that hasnt harmed a single person  a spray that could help people slow the spread and help people recover with natural immunity.

Xlears attorney Robert Housman told Epoch Times, When Xlear tells people about scientific studies, even ones republished by the NIH, we are somehow misleading people and making false claims. Its nonsensical. Rather than embrace nasal interventions, the government is trying to eliminate their use because they dont fit the governments highly flawed, vaccine-only agenda.

Company bases their claims on NIH studies

Inexpensive and safe treatments are important because they help non-hospitalized patients recover quickly, without harboring high volumes of virus in their nasal passageways. An estimated 81 percent of covid patients only experience mild to moderate symptoms and can use basic over-the-counter supplements and low-risk interventions to prevent severe illness.

Xlear asserts their nasal spray is scientifically proven to be effective in the treatment and prevention of covid-19. The product contains saline, grapefruit seed extract and xylitol. Saline is used to clear out the sinus passageways. Xylitol is a plant-derived sweetener commonly used in oral care products. Grapefruit seed extract is a potent antimicrobial that combats various pathogens, including but not limited to: avian influenza virus, Newcastle disease virus, infectious bursal disease virus, salmonella and escherichia coli.

The companys claims for covid-19 are based on an NIH study showing how saline nasal irrigation reduces viral load for covid patients. The open-label, randomized, controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of nasal irrigation with hypertonic saline (HTS) and saline with surfactant against upper respiratory symptoms and viral load. Because viral shedding primarily occurs in the nasal cavity and the nasopharynx, saline irrigation can be an effective method to slow the progression of infection and prevent worse symptoms. The researchers for this study wrote that the effect of nasal irrigation on symptom resolution was substantial. The study authors concluded that nasal congestion and headaches in COVID patients resolved an average seven to nine days earlier in the study group.

Our analysis suggests that nasal irrigations may shorten symptom duration and may have potential as a widely available and inexpensive intervention to reduce disease burden among those affected, the researchers wrote. We would advocate the use of hypertonic nasal saline irrigations in non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients as a safe and inexpensive intervention to reduce symptom burden.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

OnlineLibrary.Wiley.com

Science.NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) EcoHealth Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit that used funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), counted high-ranking American government officials as partners.

This comes out after the NIH admitted that EcoHealth carried out gain-of-function research with the Chinese military-linked Wuhan lab and failed to report its findings to the federal agency. Gain-of-function research, espoused by EcoHealth President Peter Daszak, increases the virulence, lethality and transmissibility of viruses.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci appears to retain close relationship with Daszak even after the government stopped funding EcoHealth last year. NIAID is the sub-agency of the NIH that awarded the grant to EcoHealths research on bat coronavirus at WIV.

Three officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and one from the NIH are listed as active partners of EcoHealth on the groups website.

Dr. Rima Khabbaz, the director of the CDCs National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, has been listed as one of the groups official partners since September 2012  two years before the NIH funded the bat coronavirus research at WIV.

CDC Bio-surveillance Coordinator Captain Jason Thomas and Molecular Biology Section of the Special Pathogens Branch Chief Dr. Stuart Nichol have also been listed as partners since April 2015.

Dr. Heinz Feldmann, a senior investigator at the NIH, has also been listed as a partner of EcoHealth since April 2015. His NIH biography describes him as a laboratory expert on high containment viruses.

All of these federal officials are classified as Science and Policy Advisors at EcoHealth. Other advisors include the deputy director for surveillance and epidemiology at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and World Health Organization (WHO) officials.

NIH officials aware of gain-of-function research at Wuhan lab

Detailed notes taken by congressional staff on NIH communications showed that agency staff had unusual exchanges with Daszak since May 2016, discussing experiments that his group was planning to conduct under an NIH grant titled Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.

EcoHealth Alliance was entering the third year of its five-year $3.1 million grant, which included research with the WIV and other partners. A 2016 progress report also described to the NIH its plans to carry out two-planned experiments infecting humanized mice with hybrid viruses, or chimeric viruses.

However, the plans triggered concerns at the NIH and two staff members wrote to EcoHealth Alliance to say that the experiments appear to involve research covered under the pause, referring to a temporary moratorium on the funding for the gain-of-function research that would be reasonably anticipated to make MERS and SARS viruses more pathogenic or transmissible in mammals. (Related: Faucis NIAID awarded the grant that funded Wuhan lab to genetically modify bat-based coronaviruses.)

One of the experiments that EcoHealth Alliance proposed involved making chimeras from the MERS virus. The other used chimeras developed from bat viruses related to SARS. The researchers then went on to infect the genetically engineered mice with the altered viruses.

The NIH staff was initially intent on enforcing the funding pause, but the two administrators requested additional information from EcoHealth Alliance within 15 days and noted that the next round of funding would be withheld until the information was received. They also asked for detailed descriptions of changes that would allow the researchers to pursue their aims without the need to conduct dangerous experiments.

While it is not unusual for grantees to communicate with their federal program officers, the communications of this matter did not appropriately reflect the gravity of the situation.

The discussions reveal that neither party is taking the risks sufficiently seriously, said Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. MERS-CoV has killed hundreds of people and is thought to pose a pandemic risk, so its difficult to see how chimeras of MERS-CoV with other high-risk bat coronaviruses shouldnt also be considered a pandemic risk.

Get more news and updates about the COVID-19 virus at Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

TheNationalPulse.com

TheIntercept.com
(Natural News) Government employees who have recovered from a Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) infection and now have natural immunity are suing Tony Fauci and other public employee parasites for imposing vaccine mandates.

The class-action lawsuit takes aim at Fauci and the White House for failing to carve out an exemption for naturally immune workers, as well as those who had the virus and now possess antibodies against future infection.

In his executive order, Pedo Joe Biden did not explain why naturally acquired immunity is not an acceptable alternative to getting injected. This is unacceptable, the suit states.

Because they already have natural immunity, there is no coherent purpose for the federal government to require them to undertake a medical procedure to be vaccinated if they choose not to, or be terminated from their employment, their careers, says Robert Henneke, general counsel at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and one of the lawyers representing the government workers.

The lawsuit further alleges that the Biden mandate violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which allows for courts to overturn government actions that are deemed arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion.

Bidens jab mandates violate the law

Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Scott Gottlieb, of all people, who now sits on the board of Pfizer, even came out in praise of natural immunity.

Gottlieb called natural immunity durable and robust, and said that government officials should start assimilating it into policy discussions as opposed to just talking about the injections.

Dr. Hooman Noorchashm, an immunologist, agrees. He came out to say that it is medically unnecessary for people who recovered from the Chinese Virus to get injected with vaccines.

There are also dozens of published studies to show that people who recover from Chinese Germs now possess strong immunity against reinfection. In general, they actually have greater immunity than they would have if they had gotten jabbed.

All of this is being ignored by the Branch Covidians, though. Workers who have attempted to explain the latest science to their employers have found that it has completely fallen on deaf ears, which is why weve turned to litigation, Henneke says.

I think its clear that the Biden administration, the federal government, is entrenched in their position on this. And so further negotiation would be pointless and instead were going to seek assistance from the courts, he further added.

November 8 was the deadline for all federal workers, including contract workers, to get injected because they are not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after they have received their final jab.

Starting on November 9, agencies were allowed to start disciplining unvaccinated workers, according to Kiran Ahuja, an official from the Biden regime.

The lawsuit asks the federal court in Galveston, Tex., to declare the Biden mandate a violation of plaintiffs rights and arbitrary and capricious, and to relieve all workers from having to comply with it.

Others named as defendants in the case include U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) head Rochelle Walensky, as well as Jeffrey Zients, who coordinates the White Houses Fauci Flu response team.

While federal officials did recently acknowledge that natural immunity does, in fact, exist, they insist that it is inferior to the alleged protection conferred by getting injected with a Big Pharma needle.

The federal government also insists that people who already recovered from Chinese Germs can still benefit from taking the jabs, which means those jabs should thus be forced upon government employees against their will.

The latest news about the breakdown of American society due to Pedo Joes jab mandates can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheEpochTimes.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) For orthopedic surgeon Dr. Lee Merritt, there is no way to justify experimenting on children by forcing them to take deadly Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines. Merritt voiced her opinion when she was interviewed Tuesday, Nov. 9, by Connecting The Dots host and conservative political commentator Dan Happel for Brighteon.TV.

There is no way you can justify vaccinating children based on risk versus benefit, said Merritt. And I think if anybody needs a kick to wake up, it should have done last week, when the FDA ruled on the basis of 17 advisors, none of whom voted to protect your children from being experimented on.

The doctor pointed out that what the countrys leading public health agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should be doing when considering giving segments of the population certain medications is looking at the risks and benefits of doing so.

Even if the COVID-19 vaccines proved to be effective, Merritt said theres still no reason to give them to children because kids have an extremely low risk of contracting, let alone dying from, the coronavirus.

Merritt pointed out how unethical it is to subject children to COVID-19 vaccines, the development of which was rushed for the benefit of Big Pharma companies who stand to profit from selling the vaccines.

This now is coming after your children, and if people dont stand up for this, I dont know what to do. I mean, this is the 11th hour, if you will, she said. Children have more of a risk of dying from lightning strikes than being killed by COVID.

Merritt noted that children in Europe were not dying from COVID-19. A few got sick, but they had no deaths. And their teachers did not get sick and die at any greater rate than the background population. So, not only are they not dying from this, theyre not spreading it to adults, she said.

If you started vaccinating that group with what we know [about] the risks  blood clotting, strokes, myocarditis, these are fatal things. Theres just no way to justify any risk to children. (Related: Study: COVID-19 vaccine poses significant risks to childrens health.)

Nearly a million kids aged 5 to 11 have already been vaccinated

According to the White House, more than 900,000 kids between the ages of five and 11 have already received one dose of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine as of Wednesday, Nov. 10.

The White House made it sound like it was an achievement to give nearly a million children the experimental and deadly vaccines just one week after the FDA and other vaccine regulators gave their approval.

Families across the country are breathing giant sighs of relief, claimed coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients during a briefing with reporters at the White House. He added that President Joe Biden and his administration are continuing to work with states and healthcare providers to make the vaccines available for more children.

Previous statements from the administration make it clear that it has already procured enough vaccine doses to fully vaccinate approximately 28 million five- to 11-year-olds in the United States.

According to Zients, parents of roughly 700,000 children have also booked appointments for their kids at local pharmacies to get the vaccine.

As Merritt has pointed out, unless parents and other people are willing to resist giving children experimental and deadly vaccines, more children may begin experiencing the many adverse effects related to the COVID-19 vaccines.

Happel and Merritt have a lot more to talk about regarding COVID-19 vaccines and the way the pandemic has been handled in the United States. Watch the entire Nov. 9 episode of Connecting The Dots with Dan Happel featuring Dr. Lee Merritt here:

Connecting The Dots with Dan Happel airs every Tuesday from 5-6 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Learn more about how children in the U.S. are being forced to take the experimental and deadly COVID-19 vaccines by reading the latest articles at Vaccines.news.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

CNBC.com
(Natural News) Dr. Gal Ehrlich and Maier Fenster of Ehrlich & Fenster have uncovered evidence showing that a U.S. technology patent was approved to track and surveil peoples digital activity in order to issue them a social credit score based on their compliance with Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) fascism.

The patent proposes collecting peoples personal information from their mobile devices, app usage and social media browsing habits. There is also language that suggests peoples payment and medical records will also be included in the surveillance sweep.

What they specifically want is peoples location data, which is gathered through mobile GPS technology, as well as how much time people spend at various locations they visit. Other data points of interest include:

 The ventilation rate of the places people visit

 Images of people looking down at their screens on their mobile phones

 Sounds from the microphones of personal devices

 Facial recognition data

Basically, anything that seems private to the uninquisitive mind will be laid bare for whomever to analyze and exploit for the purpose of creating a new society in which only the compliant are awarded fake rights in the form of government-issued privileges.

The patent proposes numerous potential surveillance applications for this data which include detecting when people are using public transport by using geolocation and / or regular start-stop movement that matches a public transportation profile, monitoring when people are washing their hands by analyzing sounds of water running or movement by a smartwatch, and checking whether people are wearing a mask by analyzing images taken during calls or other looking at screen of cellphone,' reported Blacklisted News.

Once the data has been gathered, the technology outlined in the patent analyzes the data and assigns a score to their electronic device. It suggests using this score to predict the the potential level of super-spreading activity of each individual and recommends vaccinating according to score.'

People could soon be required to download and install a dedicated mandatory app for 24/7 government tracking

The British government proposed a similar but much smaller in scope system designed to track peoples eating habits in order to reward the healthy for obeying the governments health edicts.

In the case of the United States with this new patent, everything would be tracked, likely through a dedicated mandatory app designed to help the government with the logistics of the vaccination procedures.

Another proposed component of the app is a user tracking module that keeps constant track of a persons whereabouts. This module would communicate with other nearby devices programmed to do the same thing in order to assess whether or not people are social distancing properly, or moving about in a government-approved way.

When it comes to factors that determine an individuals score, the patent suggests that a persons profession, medical data, the nature and type of locations they visit, their frequently visited locations, and the length of time they spend at locations should be used as part of the calculation, Blacklisted News further explained.

All of this only helps to solidify the fact that Chinese Virus injections are part of the Mark of the Beast system that is now being unveiled at warp speed, just as the previous administration promised it would.

Notice that it is all the same Bolsheviks that conquered Russia in 1917, noted one commenter at Blacklisted News. See a pattern here? Look at the leadership of the CDC  almost all Bolsheviks.

Another joked that this latest patent is just the coronavirus mutating into the next variant of global tyranny.

More of the latest news about Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) tyranny can be found at Fascism.news.

Sources for this article include:

BlacklistedNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Pfizer recently reformulated its Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine for children to include a chemical drug that is sometimes used for stabilizing heart attacks.

The United States government recently gave the full go-ahead for the Pfizer vaccine shot for children aged five to 11 years old. The public was told that the vaccine is specially formulated for children and contains lower doses of active ingredients found in vaccines administered to people ages 12 and up.

However, the COVID shots for under-12 contain ingredients that have nothing to do with preventing COVID. One such ingredient is a substance frequently used to stabilize people who have had heart attacks, leading some to question whether or not this is a move by pharmaceutical companies to prophylactically mitigate vaccine-related cardiac arrests in younger children.

Pfizer added a chemical called tromethamine (Tris) to its vaccine formulation for kids. The Cleveland Clinic explained that it is typically used to make blood and urine less acidic. This makes the chemical important in the treatment of a condition called metabolic acidosis, an electrolyte imbalance that leaves too much acid in the body and a common complication of heart attacks.

Side effects of tromethamine include darker-colored urine, malaise and fatigue, rapid heartbeat, lighter-colored stools, pain at the injection sight, jaundice, increased hunger, nausea and anxiousness.

According to Pfizer, clinical trials involving 4,600 children did not identify any serious safety concerns with the kids vaccine. In contrast, Pfizers adult mRNA vaccine has been found to cause inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) or the surrounding lining (pericarditis), especially in young men.

The biggest difference between Pfizers adult and pediatric vaccines is the amount of messenger RNA (mRNA) they contain. The mRNA provides genetic instructions to cells to make the spike protein used by the COVID virus for infection, thus triggering the body to mount a protective immune response. Pfizer decided on a smaller mRNA dose for the kids vaccine after monitoring trial participants for side effects and evaluating their immune responses.

The lowest dose was chosen to be tested in the second phase of the clinical trial because it has fewer side effects but similar immune response when compared to a larger dose.

Another difference in the formulations is the buffer used  that is, the solution that helps the vaccine maintain proper pH. The adult vaccine uses phosphate-buffered saline or PBS, but Pfizer switched to Tris in the kids version because, according to the pharmaceutical giant, tris increases the stability of the vaccine and allows vials to be stored at warmer temperatures for longer periods.

Both PBS and tris are commonly used buffers, but the change caused a ruckus as it could be indicative of a problem with the vaccines. Pfizer said that the modification will not change the manufacturing and that the adult formulation of the vaccine will also soon use Tris for the same stability improvement.

FDA approves first oral blood thinners for kids

In another unusual timing, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first oral blood thinners for kids last June. The drug, produced by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, can be used to treat kids with venous thromboembolism, or blood clots in the veins, which is a common cause of heart attack.

There is a need to monitor children in the coming months and years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 13.4 deaths per 100,000 occur in kids aged five to 14 in the country. Additionally, the estimated prevalence of heart conditions among children up to 17 years is 1.3 percent, according to the 2016 National Survey of Childrens Health (NSCH).

Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine is currently the only one authorized for children below 18 years and is likely to remain as the sole choice for the next few months as Moderna recently announced that it would take until January 2022 to conduct its own review and evaluate recent international analyses of the risk of myocarditis. (Related: Study: 397 Children diagnosed with heart inflammation after receiving Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine.)

Several Nordic countries also said that they have observed an elevated risk of myocarditis in recipients of the Moderna vaccine and have restricted its use in younger people. While Moderna said that the FDA has not seen such a pattern, it will wait to file an emergency use authorization request for its pediatric vaccine while its vaccine for teens is being reviewed.

Get more news and updates about COVID-19 vaccines at Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

NaturalHealth365.com

FactCheck.org
(Natural News) On a recent episode of The Jimmy Dore Show, comedian and political commentator Jimmy Dore accused Dr. John Torres, medical correspondent for NBC News, for overplaying COVIDs risk to children and reporting incorrect statistics.

(Article by Jeremy Loffredo republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org)

This is a story about how money influences corporate news, Dore said, before playing a compilation video of Pfizer sponsoring newscasts on CNN, NBC, CBS, Good Morning America, ABC News, MSNBC and 60 Minutes.

So whats the result of all that Pfizer money going to newsrooms? Dore asked. Heres how theyre going to report on the Pfizer vaccine being authorized for children who are at almost zero risk, according to the science.

Dore played a clip of Torres on NBCs Today show explaining why parents should vaccinate their children with Pfizers vaccine.

Torres recited statistics  including the statement that there have been 146,000 COVID deaths [among children]  that arent corroborated by any government health agency.

I dont know where this guy is getting his information but its certainly wrong, Dore explained.

Dore pointed to an Oct. 8 article in USA TODAY which cited data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showing fewer than 700 children have died of COVID-19 during the course of the pandemic.

John Torres of NBC just told us 146,000, Dore said. Whenever they make an error it always happens to be in the pro-Pfizer direction.

Dore suggested they want to scare you to death so you get your kid the Pfizer shot. Despite the risk being almost immeasurable, they are trying to tell you that the risk is urgent, Dore said.

According to the CDC, Dore said, citing an article in New York Magazines Intelligencer, the child mortality risk from COVID is actually lower than the flu.

But would you know that from watching NBCs coverage? asked Dore.

Watch the segment here:

Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org
(Natural News) Food banks are being affected greatly by the ongoing supply chain crisis as they see an increasing number of clients while getting smaller amount of foods.

When theres a shortage in supply chain, it makes it much more difficult for us to be able to provide our clients with food, said Linda Hansen, the food bank director at Wellspring Interfaith Social Services in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Adding to the problem is the increasing number of clients. While the amount of food the bank has to give out has gone down, it needs to service a lot of new clients, Hansen said. She said they typically serve about 1,600 clients per month.

Hansen said Wellspring Interfaith Social Services has seen a decline in the amount donations from both retailers and the public, noting that their shelves would normally be a lot fuller right now. (Related: Food banks struggle amid supply chain crisis in the US.)

We usually get several people donating a week and its not necessarily a huge amount of food, but its just a little bit extra that helps us serve the clients, and those have whittled down to sometimes we get no donations during the week, Hansen said.

Darlene Walker, warehouse supervisor for Community Harvest Food Bank, said stocking the shelves has become more challenging despite getting a steady amount of donations.

A lot of places that we order food from are saying that its three to four months out before we can even get it, said Walker. We then have to depend on volunteers and donations to come in to help fill in that gap. If we will continue the process that were in, its going to be a detriment to to everyone, not having enough truck drivers to get the product.

Since Wellspring Interfaith Social Services shops for some of its food at Community Harvest, it is starting to see the trickle down effect of this issue. Were seeing a decline in the availability of product, said Hansen. The cost is so high at the grocery store that theyre not able to keep things on the shelf because people buy it while they [the stores] have it.

Food bank representatives said that while waiting for the supply chain to get back to normal, the biggest way the public can help is to donate food. This is especially important during the holidays.

Not everyone can go out and just get a turkey and all the trimmings and we want to ensure that we can provide that for our community, said Walker. Everyone deserves to have a respectable holiday. I couldnt imagine not being able to get up and have children and not be able to offer that dinner for them.

Holiday menu staples expected to be hit hardest by supply chain issues

Meanwhile, holiday menu staples are expected to be hit the hardest by supply chain issues and price hikes, plus staffing shortages, scarcity and higher cost of production.

Due to issues on packaging, the side dishes will be affected. Oklahoma State University food economist Rodney Holcomb said there is no problem with ingredients, but materials for packaging like aluminum cans, glass jars and bottles are tied up in shipping bottlenecks on their way from China.

Those could be stuck on a ship somewhere off the West Coast and just not making it into port, Holcomb said, noting that there may be plenty of cranberries to make cranberry sauce but theres no easy way to package it. Others are having trouble getting labels for their products. As food makers get creative on how to cope with packaging changes and shortages, those costs can be passed on to consumers. (Related: Shipping rates continue to rise as holiday season nears.)

On top of the packaging problems, the California drought is also impacting the production of grapes, nuts, different fruits and vegetables. Hurricane Ida shut down sugar refineries in the southeast, said Holcomb. Any one of those might have an impact. You throw them all together, and they become quite the challenge.

Raw vegetables might be more expensive because the cost of fertilizer imported from China has skyrocketed. The increased cost of fertilizer means its more expensive to grow corn, which means its more expensive to raise chickens, turkey and other livestock. Its one big expensive circle, said Holcomb.

Desserts arent spared from the problem. Holcomb advised consumers to buy foods which are shelf stable like a can of pumpkin or a pre-made frozen pie crust.

Even some of the sturdier vegetables, like sweet potatoes, will last long enough if you store them properly. Start planning ahead and it gives you time to look around. If one store doesnt have that one product you want, it gives you time to look around for the thing you want, Holcomb said.

Derrell Pierce, an Oklahoma State University agricultural economics professor specializing in livestock, said the prices of meat  which is the main course for many families  have risen especially high compared to the five percent price increase in all food from a year ago.

Be flexible in dealing with uncertainty

The protein markets have been through a lot in the last year, with demand spiking during Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdowns and meat processing plants being hit hard by virus outbreaks. Pierce doesnt expect well be seeing cleaned out, empty meat cases at grocery stores this year, but there are still some quirks you may notice. (Related: Supply chain execs predict chaotic holiday peak as crisis continue.)

For example, you might have trouble finding a small turkey. Thats because turkeys grow pretty quickly, so if there are any slowdown at a processing plant (because of a COVID-19 outbreak or a broken piece of equipment that needs a part shipped from overseas), then those turkeys keep getting bigger and bigger.

Whenever a turkey reaches that 10 to 13 lb. window, if they cant get them slaughtered on time  now youve got an 18 to 20 lb. turkey, said Pierce.

His tip for dealing with the uncertainty this year is to stay flexible. You may not get exactly the product youve always gotten, said Pierce. There will be a turkey of some size. There will be hams. They may not be the boneless, spiral cut you normally get, but there will be some other form of ham.

If there was ever a time where you have said, maybe I should mix things up and drop one of the traditional items and try something new, this would be the year to consider it, said Holcomb.

Follow FoodCollapse.com for more news related to supply chain issues and surge in food prices.

Sources include:

Wane.com

Fastmarkets.com
(Natural News) Disney World employee Nick Caturano talked about his opposition to the Florida theme parks vaccine mandates during his Nov. 9 guesting on Brighteon.TV s Lawfare with Tom Renz.

The Walt Disney Company, which owns Disney World and Disneyland in California, mandated on-site employees to get vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) back in July. It also ordered newly hired employees to complete their COVID-19 vaccination schedules before starting work.

Employees who arent already vaccinated and are working on-site will have 60 days from today to complete their protocols. Any employees still working from home will need to provide verification of vaccination prior to their return, with certain limited exceptions, the company said.

Caturano, a Disney World cast member for 16 years, said the theme park has mellowed down a bit since the July announcement.

Theyre granting a lot of [vaccine] exemptions all of a sudden, but unfortunately, the exemptions are really discriminatory. Theyre trying to put N95 masks on people  [and] you got to have these masks super tight, when weve been wearing cloth masks that allow us to breathe, Caturano said.

At the same time, theyre loosening the restrictions on the vaccinated so they can take their mask off when they go away from the guests. [The N95 masks are] just impossible to breathe in. You just cant survive a 10-hour shift with those things. (Related: Disney goes full authoritarian, demands mask obedience even while youre walking and eating.)

He continued: Im looking at the actual framework of what Im seeing, [and] the wording is private employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates are prohibited. But right under that, it says if employers do have a vaccine policy, then they must afford the following exemptions  and [personal protective equipment], constant testing and religious exemptions are part of that. Its not going to change anything. It just means that nobody will lose their job, but everybody will be forced into that discrimination, to wear that [Star of David.]

Renz agreed with him, saying that the theme park has become a place of nightmares.

Cast members oppose vaccine mandates

Many cast members have stood up against Disneys vaccine mandates  holding protests inside the park. Red Voice Media (RVM) reported that cast members in the Florida theme park protested against the vaccine mandate on Sept. 17. (Related: Vaccinated employees test POSITIVE: Disneys first test cruise delayed because of inconsistent coronavirus tests.)

So many cast members felt alone and felt like they were the only ones who thought this was wrong. I think we were made to feel that way on purpose. But we have connected now, and we are pushing back, Caturano said at the time of the protest.

The Disney World cast member espoused the same sentiment when Renz asked him about how employees are fighting back. Its gone good, [but] not as expected or hoped because the media has really given me limited access. I cant get to Facebook groups; its been really hard to reach [other] cast members, Caturano said.

People still seem to be scared [and] isolated. They thought they were all alone, [but they become] glad [when] Im in the fight. Theyre supporting me but yet theyre not coming out, theyre not becoming plaintiffs. I think as the movement grows and more of us are out in the open, we have a better chance of encouraging the weakest among us to feel the the courage to join.

Caturano also mentioned the contributions of Florida attorney Jeff Childers and Childrens Health Defense (CHD) in their fight against the vaccine mandates. Theyre also supporting us, so I think we have a little bit more leverage, he said. The Disney employee cited Mo van Hoek, the president of CHDs Florida chapter, for her help in explaining the vaccine legislation.

Politicians not doing enough to defend health freedom

[We] control all parts of government in Florida, and yet were having a challenge getting robust legislation to really come to the forefront. Theyre giving us all these watered-down versions  because theyre all bought. Theyre all self-protecting [and] self-preserving, Caturano said.

Renz agreed with what Caturano said. Even in states where were standing up, [politicians are] getting bought off. This isnt a Democrat [or a] Republican thing. Both sides are corrupt. Even when you got a good guy like [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis, [hes] getting so much political pressure.

The Disney World cast member ultimately said: We need to let them know what theyre pushing is garbage. I think if we could kink the armor of Goliath  [and] put a rock in his head, were going to encourage everybody all over the country. Im seeing a lot of good happen, but we need a lot more.

Watch the full Nov. 9 episode of Lawfare with Tom Renz below. Tune in to Lawfare with Tom Renz every Tuesday at 11:30-12 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

MedicalTyranny.com has more articles about vaccine mandates across America.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

Reuters.com

RedVoiceMedia.com
(Natural News) A recent report from USNI News citing commercial satellite images noted some startling military developments regarding China that should be a lot more concerning to Pentagon leaders than politically correct names for new American warships.

The Chinese military has built targets in the shape of an American aircraft carrier and other U.S. warships in the Taklamakan desert as part of a new target range complex, according to photos provided to USNI News by satellite imagery company Maxar, the report noted on Sunday.

The full-scale outline of a U.S. carrier and at least two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are part of the target range that has been built in the Ruoqiang region in central China. The site is near a former target range China used to test early versions of its so-called carrier killer DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles, the site continued, citing reports circa 2013 indicating China was dramatically advancing its ballistic missile programs.

This new range shows that China continues to focus on anti-carrier capabilities, with an emphasis on U.S. Navy warships. Unlike the Iranian Navys aircraft carrier-shaped target in the Persian Gulf, the new facility shows signs of a sophisticated instrumented target range, the report continued.

Meanwhile, Politicos National Security Daily newsletter reported that satellite images available on Google Earth revealed that the Chinese have constructed a brand-new road-mobile ballistic missile storage and servicing facility for the countrys Rocket Forces:

A Janes analysis of commercially available satellite imagery taken on Oct. 25, which we were told we couldnt publish to protect sources and methods, shows a new missile garrison built between 2019 and 2021 about four miles south of Xiangyang. Janes event analysis of the finding notes the garrison possesses numerous features representative of PLARF missile garrisons, including a secure perimeter, various equipment garages, and drive-through high-bay garages for storing and servicing transporter-erector-launchers (TELs). Various barracks and support facilities are also present. 

This revelation adds to the spate of commercial imagery exposing Chinas most recent military moves.

Finally, China has been building warships at an alarming pace, officially now fielding the largest navy in the world at 355 ships, with a projected total of 460 vessels by the end of this decade.

While all of this has been occurring and speaking of naval warships, our Pentagon has been much more focused on giving new fleet vessels the right names.

Like the USNS Harvey Milk.

Who is he, you ask? Milk was the first openly gay elected official in the history of California, who also happens to have been convicted of statutory rape.

Bull Halsey, the fighting four-star admiral who commanded the U.S. 3rd Fleet during the Battle of Leyte Gulf [during World War II] and said he doesnt trust a fighting man who doesnt drink and smoke, turned over in his grave on Saturday, begins a piece at The New American.

The U.S. Navy, which used to give lavender sailors the boot, launched a replenishment oiler named for sexual deviant and statutory rapist Harvey Milk, the homosexual political activist shot to death in San Francisco in 1978, the piece continued, adding: Even better, the Navy permitted a transgender woman veteran  a mentally-ill man who masquerades as the opposite sex  to christen the ship.

My, how far our proud, capable military has fallen at the hands of political Marxists and countercultural freaks who are well on their way to destroying the last functional institution in America after having infiltrated all of the federal bureaucracy and turned the Justice Department and FBI into a political politburo for the left.

Milks long history of sexual predation has never stopped the Left from lionizing him. His visage has appeared on a postage stamp, and President Barack Hussein Obama posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, The New Americans R. Cort Kirkwood noted.

Today we christened the USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO 206)! This great ship honors #NavyDiver & #CivilRights activist Harvey Milk who was forced out of the service due to unfair policies. Because of him, today our #LGBTQ #Sailors & #Marines serve honorably as their genuine selves. pic.twitter.com/HvOgpmQAVL  Office of the Secretary of the Navy (@SECNAV) November 6, 2021

While our Pentagon becomes rife with social justice warriors, China is building a military full of real warriors focused on victory. Some day soon we will learn this lesson the hard way.

Sources include:

TheNewAmerican.com

USNINews.org
A two degree celsius rise in global temperatures may lead to a 15-fold increase in the number of individuals in places all over the world suffering from extreme heat stress.

Individuals Facing Heat Stress Risk

About one billion people would be impacted by extreme heat stress if the new temperature is maintained, according to new estimates from the Met Office's latest heat map. Nearly half of the world's population inhabiting places potentially affected might be impacted by a 4-degree Celsius rise in temperature.

The wet-bulb globe temperature exceeding 32 degrees Celsius was assessed using an indicator that is part of the international standard for assessing heat stress in work places. In order to prevent heat exhaustion, more rest time is required every hour above these temperatures.

At this threshold, individuals are considered to be in high danger, Dr. Andy Hartley, Climate Impacts Lead at the Met Office, stated. The vulnerable people in the society and those who work in physically demanding outdoor vocations are most in danger.

Maps demonstrating the consequences of climate change at 2 degrees Celsius and 4 degrees Celsius are used to demonstrate the results. River floods, the possibility of wildfire, drought, and food shortages are among the main issues.

Also Read: Millions of Poor Household in US Suffer More From Effects of Extreme Heat

Maps of Drought, Flood and Heat-stress Risks

The EU-funded project HELIX (High End cLimate Impacts and eXtremes) www.helixclimate.eu, directed by the University of Exeter, produced the maps of drought, flood, and heat-stress threats.

This new integrated research underscores the urgency of controlling global warming to far below 2 degrees Celsius, said HELIX project leader Prof Richard Betts MBE of the University of Exeter and Met Office. If the world doesn't take action now, the ecosystem will face greater and more widespread hazards to people's lives as the temperature rises.

Head of Earth System and Mitigation Science Dr. Andy Wiltshire added: Any one of the climate consequences gives a frightening image of the future. The heat maps, on the other hand, show that some regions will be affected by multiple factors due to severe climate change.

Perhaps as expected, countries like Brazil and Ethiopia, which are located in the tropics, are most at risk from four of the hazards. In order to avert the worst impacts of unchecked climate change, there is a need to reduce emissions quickly.

How Human Heat Stress Risk is Indicated

The Met Office Hadley Centre is led by Prof Albert Klein Tank. He made a conclusion that heat maps show where global warming is expected to have the greatest effect on the planet.

He said climate change is predicted to have long-term effects on all parts of the planet, including the United Kingdom and Europe.

It is projected that the IPCC's Working Group II report on the impacts of climate change, adaptation and vulnerability would be released soon. Working Group II examines the susceptibility of socio-economic and environmental systems to climate change, the negative and positive impacts of climate change, and the possibilities for coping with it.

Wet bulb globe temperature(WBGT) provides an indication of human heat stress risk based on temperature and humidity. WBGT is defined as "Extreme risk" when over 32 degrees Celsius. At this level, the most vulnerable people of the population, as well as those who work in physically demanding occupations, are most at danger.

Related Article: UN, CDC: Workers Suffer "Heat Stress" Due to Climate Change

For more news, updates about extreme heat stress and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Denmark spends $150K to clean up beach seaweed and plastic before throwing it back into the sea. However, experts have branded the technique as 'absolutely foolish' and damaging to the local environment.

A Controversial Effort

According to accounts, a municipality in Denmark spends more than $150,000 per year on a bulldozer that collects seaweed and rubbish from the beach just to dump it back into the sea.

During the summer months, the bulldozer can be seen traveling up and down the Stillinge beach in the Slagelse municipality twice a week, according to Danish national radio Danmarks Radio (DR). According to a video posted by DR, the bulldozer appeared to have driven a few yards into the ocean before dumping its cargo into the sea.

Related Article: 26,000 Tons of Covid Plastic Wastes Now Pollute the World's Oceans



Criticized by Environmentalists

Environmentalists have slammed the effort, with professor Torkel Gissel Nielsen of the Danish Technical Institute calling it "absolutely foolish" in an interview with DR.

Professor Katherine Richardson of the University of Copenhagen's Department of Biological Oceanography concurred with Gissel Nielsen's judgment. She claims that not only would throwing the seaweed and trash into the water cause it to wash ashore again but that repeatedly digging up the sand is also hazardous to the species in the surrounding ecology.

Richardson stated to Motherboard in an email, "This is by no means a helpful hand to nature." "On the contrary, it is harmful to the little creatures that reside in the spaces between the minute grains of sand ripped through or crushed by the tractor. But, of course, the collection of seaweed is only a small part of it. It all comes down to one thing: beach visitors' convenience."

Slagelse's Defense

Slagelse municipality did not react to Motherboard's email. However, Deputy Mayor Villum Christensen defended the practice in an interview with Danmarks Radio, claiming that beachgoers want the beach to be "neat and tidy" like vacation spots in Southern Europe. While Christensen claims that huge pieces of plastic do not wind up in the water, he also claims that cigarette buds and other small particles of plastic will "get up there, for the most part, either way."

"We've all gone down south to the beautiful beaches of Mallorca and Gran Canaria," Christensen explained. "It was from there that I got the idea that when you come to Stillinge beach, it should be clean and tidy."

Not the First Time

This isn't the first time that academics have questioned the Danish government's garbage disposal policy. After the country's Environmental Ministry warned that the decaying carcasses might contaminate local groundwater, Danish officials had to rush to clean up the mass graves of millions of possibly infected mink slaughtered during the epidemic.

Also Read: #TeamSeas: YouTuber MrBeast Launches 30 Million-Dollar Effort to Lessen Ocean Trash

For more environmental news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
As record dry conditions compound a statewide catastrophe, over half of all California citizens are affected by a regional drought emergency.

California Drought

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies water to 26 local agencies serving 19 million people, declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, calling for enhanced conservation efforts.

Last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide drought emergency, allowing the state water board to prohibit wasteful water practices like washing sidewalks and roadways with drinkable water.

Newsom's proclamation is supported by Tuesday's declaration, which activates extra conservation initiatives and increases water efficiency programs.

In Dire Need of Action

In a statement, board Chairwoman Gloria D. Gray stated, "We need quick action to safeguard and stretch our limited State Water Project resources." "On average, Southern California receives one-third of its water from Northern California through the state project. We'll be lucky to get a quarter of that next year."

Related Article: Megadrought 2021: The Worst Drought Suffered by the US West in 1,200 Years



Historic Drought

The pronouncements come as California grapples with historic drought and an increasing strain on the state's water supply. The last two water years in California were the driest two-year period on record in terms of precipitation. As a result, Lake Oroville, the State Water Project's primary reservoir, reached its lowest position since the 1970s in August.

Newsom called on households across the state to reduce their water use by 15% in July, but official data revealed that residents had only lowered their use by roughly 5% by August.

According to the water district, the California Department of Water Resources has stated that its initial State Water Project allocation will be zero next month. According to the water district, if the drought persists, the state may only release "as much water as is judged necessary to protect Californians' health and safety," according to the water district. This might involve lowering water delivery, which would eventually eliminate the need for outside watering.

Limiting Water Consumption

In a statement, Metropolitan General Manager Adel Hagekhalil stated, "We're entering unknown terrain here, and we need all Southern Californians to be part of the answer." "Everyone must take immediate measures to limit their water consumption. This designation of a drought emergency aids us all in moving in the same direction."

Monitoring California Waters

California has gotten so dry that even an October downpour in the state's northern regions failed to help the drought. During typical years, the Sierra Nevada's winter snowpack supplies around 30% of the state's water when the spring melt arrives and water rushes off to be trapped in the state's reservoir system.

The state Department of Water Resources' computerized monitoring discovered that the snowpack was just 59 percent of average on April 1, when it is generally at its deepest and holds the most water.

Then, in a startling turn of events, almost 80% of the expected runoff never materialized. Instead, because the soils were so dry and the temperatures were so hot, the water was absorbed or evaporated, and reservoir water storage levels plummeted.

Also Read: NASA Reports Earth Has Been Trapping "Unprecedented" Amount of Heat in Energy Imbalance

For more climate and weather updates, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
If you happen to come across a tree that bears a sweet-scented, apple-like fruit, you better hold on for dear life and watch out for poison apples.

More notably, the fruit in question does not only poison when eaten, but its tree itself is so toxic it was known as the 'tree of death'. Behold, the worlds most dangerous tree - the manchineel (Hippomane mancinella), also referred to as 'beach apple' or 'poison guava' of the Florida Everglades and the Caribbean coast.

The Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences explained that all parts of manchineel are extremely poisonous - the smoke from its burning wood can irritate the eyes, its leaves and bark can inflame your skin, and you can't even shelter on it when it rains - as any "interaction with and ingestion of any part of this tree may be lethal."

Warning: 'Death Apples'

Manchineel of the spurge family belongs to the large and diverse Euphorbia genus and can look attractive, but it produces sap in its trunk that is so poisonous and acidic that one can be temporarily blinded just by its burning smoke.

This is due to the range of toxin it contains. They say that the most severe reactions come from phorbol, an organic compound of the tigliane family of diterpenes.

The tree's oozing thick, milky sap contains properties so horrifying that people put warning signs around them, like a red ring of paint or red sign to prevent other people from meeting its burning wrath.

Manchineel is native to the tropical parts of southern North America, as well as Central America, the Caribbean, and parts of northern South America, that grows up to 12 m (40 feet) in height with a 60-centimetre- (2-foot-) thick trunk.

In 2011, Hippomane mancinella was featured in the Guinness World Records as the most dangerous tree in the world.

Also read: Samoan Plant With Amazing Anti-Inflammatory Properties Can Compete With Modern-Day Painkillers!

Significant role in their local ecosystems

The reason why the toxic tree is not removed from the ecosystem is because they play a valuable part in it.

The manchineel grows into large shrubs that provide excellent windbreaking and protection against coastal erosion on Central American beaches. In addition, Caribbean carpenters have been using manchineel wood in furniture for centuries after carefully cutting and drying it in the sun to neutralize its poison.

"The real death threat comes from eating its small round fruit," Ella Davies writes for the BBC. "Ingesting the fruit can prove fatal when severe vomiting and diarrhea dehydrate the body to the point of no return."

A radiologist, Nicola Strickland, had taken a tiny bite of the death apple way back 1999, and she attested in detail its pain and symptoms that took over eight hours to subside through a published letter in The British Medical Journal.

"Recounting our experience to the locals elicited frank horror and incredulity, such was the fruit's poisonous reputation," Strickland wrote. "We found our experience frightening."

Also read: Continuous Drought Results to One of The Worst Year for Cattle Farmers in California
A retired GP who spent months going through bins of old bones has discovered a new species of dinosaur with a vey big nose.

Discovery of a Big-nosed Dinosaur

Jeremy Lockwood, a PhD candidate at the University of Portsmouth, who decided to record every iguanodon bone found on the Isle of Wight eventually uncovered a specimen with a peculiar "bulbous" nasal bone while examining bones from the Natural History Museum in London and the Dinosaur Isle museum on the Isle of Wight.

Scientists have only seen two kinds of dinosaurs on the Isle of Wight for over a century - the plant-eating Iguanodon bernissartensis and the Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis, Jeremy Lockwood added. He continued " I was convinced that subtle differences between bones would reveal a new species, so I set out to measure, photograph and study the anatomy of each bone."

Lockwood started by rebuilding the skull of a specimen that had been in storage since 1978 after four years of unpacking and researching boxes of bones. He discovered many distinguishing traits that marked it unique.

The quantity of teeth was an indication. Mantellisaurus only has 23 or 24 teeth, but this one has 28. It also possessed a bulbous nose, as opposed to the straight one which other species have. These and other minor changes combined to make it clear that it was a new species.

"This discovery made it one of the happiest days of lockdown," he added. The herbivorous dinosaur was around eight metres long and weighed 900 kg.

Also Read: Meet Spinosaurus: The First Swimming Dinosaur

Naming the Newly-Discovered Species of Dinosaur

For a research paper published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Lockwood named the new species Brighstoneus simmondsi in collaboration with Prof David Martill of the University of Portsmouth and Dr Susannah Maidment of the Natural History Museum.

Brighstoneus is named after the settlement of Brighstone on the Isle of Wight, which is near to the excavation site, and for Keith Simmonds, an amateur collector who assisted in the discovery and excavation of the species.

Finding this new species propose that there were a lot of iguanodontian dinosaurs in the UK's Early Cretaceous than scientists believed and that a long-established agreement of assigning fossils that were discovered on the Isle of Wight to the Mantellisaurus or Iguanodon species should be considered again.

It seems improbable that two creatures could stay the same for millions of years without changing, Lockwood remarked.

Describing New Species of Dinosaurs

The recent finds, according to Lockwood, who was involved in the discovery of another new species known as the "hell heron," prove that British dinosaurs aren't "done and dusted." He believes humans are on the verge of a renaissance.

Lockwood wants to know whether the variety of dinosaurs changed over the span of a million years, or if it remained constant.

Dinosaur bones may also tell us a lot about the Earth's history, according to Matthew McCurry, a paleontology custodian at Sydney's Australian Museum. The first step in putting together what these ancient ecosystems were like and in learning about how they evolved over time is to describe new species of dinosaurs, he added.

Journal of Systematic Palaeontology released the study named Brighstoneus simmondsi on Wednesday.

Related Article: Scientists Finally Unlock Dinosaur DNA

For more news, updates about dinosaurs and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!


Make friends and re-fuel at Fakenham SA centre

Salvation Army leaders in Fakenham are inviting people in the town to come and attend two new community groups which started this autumn.

Parent Pitstop is held from 9.30am to 11am every Wednesday in term time, and is billed as providing a time for rest and refuelling for busy parents, who can drop in after taking young children to school.



Fakenham Friendship Group runs from 1pm to 3pm, also on Wednesdays, and offers an opportunity for folk to meet new people and build connections. It is open to anyone and everyone and currently has members whose ages range from under 30 to over 80. Anyone coming to the group will be able to relax with puzzles, board games, or a crossword but the event is not designed to be too structured.



Both groups are held at the Salvation Army church and community centre in the town, pictured above, and are free of charge to attend.



Captain Adrian Allen, corps officer, pictured right with his wife Captain Gemma Allen, explained why the groups were set up: Earlier this year, we were thinking about what the community needs to move forward through the pandemic. We thought people should spend time being rather doing, people should come together rather than isolate and be given the opportunity to communicate if they wanted to. Whatever we started needed to have these three elements. We wanted to open our doors so people could come in for a coffee and a chat.



Adrian said he is pleased with the initial reaction to the groups and stressed that anyone is welcome to give them a try. He said: If you want to meet other people and spend time in a different environment, you are welcome to come along. The only restriction is the time were open.



As we move forward through the pandemic, we can come out and meet one another again. Were made to be in a community and not be isolated. The reaction is very positive. One person said it was perfect timing while another said it was lovely just to be able to get out of their house.



We want to be a welcoming place and for people to feel at home at The Salvation Army; were here and available. I also appreciate that some people still find it difficult to venture out  they are welcome to spend as little or as long as they want with us.



The Salvation Army church and community centre is at 16 Oak Street, Fakenham, NR21 9DY,

Phone: 01328 864526.



For more information about the Salvation Army, visit their website , of find them on Facebook , Twitter or Instagram .



The pictures above are courtesy of Fakenham Salvation Army.

Do you have a news story or forthcoming event relating to Christians or a church in North Norfolk?

If so, e-mail tony.rothe@networknorwich.co.uk with details and, if possible a suitable picture.

Tony Rothe, 12/11/2021
IBM spin-off Kyndryl has made the first of what likely will be many strategic cloud partnerships with a pact with business software giant Microsoft.

Under the agreement the companies will develop new products built on Microsoft Cloud and aimed at facilitating digital transformation, Kyndryl stated. Microsoft has also become Kyndryls only Premier Global Alliance Partner.

Microsoft will sell products developed by the two companies through its global enterprise sales force and will develop a Microsoft Cloud training ground for employees called Kyndryl University for Microsof. The companies said they will focus on data modernization and governance, AI-driven innovations for industries, cyber security and resiliency, and transformation of mission critical workloads to the cloud. Kyndryl will lead with advisory, implementation, and managed services for hybrid environments, Kyndryl stated.

As an independent company, were investing in our partner ecosystem to support the success of our customers, and were focused on expanding our market opportunity across cloud, data, security, and intelligent automation, said Martin Schroeter, Chairman and CEO of Kyndryl in a statement.

When IBM spun Kyndryl out earlier this month company executives said Kyndryl will have more freedom to partner with other major tech companies and cloud hyperscalers such as Google, AWS, Microsoft, and others.

In addition they said the company will invest in its workforce as well as focus on developing services for hot markets such as 5G, edge computing, cloud, and security.

At the time Schroeter set aggressive goals. As an independent company, we will be flatter, faster, more focused and organized around high-priority customer needs and opportunities, Schroeter wrote in the companys Form 10 Registration Statement with the SEC. We will also have more freedom to invest in and build on our capabilities to serve an addressable market that we expect to expand to over $500 billion by 2024, which is being driven by an explosion in data, migration to the cloud to manage all the data and analytics, and an urgent and obvious need to make information and technology systems more secure.

Kyndryl more than 90,000 employees, $19 billion in annual revenue, operations in over 60 countries, and a customer base that includes 75% of the Fortune 100.
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP)  A police officer testified Friday he planned to give Ahmaud Arbery a trespass warning for repeatedly entering a home under construction before the 25-year-old Black man was chased and shot dead by neighbors who spotted him running from the property.

Glynn County police Officer Robert Rash said he spoke several times to the house's owner, who sent him videos showing Arbery visiting the site several times between Oct. 25, 2019, and Feb. 23, 2020  the day Arbery was killed at the end of a five-minute chase by white men in pickup trucks.

Rash said he had been looking for Arbery, whose identity was unknown at the time, to tell him to keep away from the unfinished home. He said police had a standard protocol for handling people caught trespassing  a misdemeanor under Georgia law.

Once we make contact with the person on the property, we explain to them the homeowner does not want them there, they have no legal reason to be there, Rash said. He added: "I explain to that person, if you ever come back onto this property for any reason, you will be arrested.

Arbery was killed before the officer could find him.

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and pursued Arbery in a truck after he ran past their home five doors down from the construction site on a Sunday afternoon. A neighbor, William Roddie Bryan, 52, joined the chase in his own truck and took cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery three times with a shotgun.

More than two months passed before the three men were arrested on murder and other charges, after the graphic video leaked online and deepened a national reckoning over racial injustice.

All three men are standing trial at the Glynn County courthouse in coastal Brunswick. Defense attorneys say the men reasonably suspected Arbery was a burglar and were trying to hold him for police. They say Travis McMichael, 35, fired his gun in self-defense when Arbery attacked with his fists.

Larry English, who owns the unfinished home, has said there was no evidence Arbery stole anything from the site. Still, he said he was concerned that the same person kept coming in the house after dark.

A patrol officer assigned to the neighborhood, Rash said he was trying to track down the young man with tattoos and short twists in his hair who had been recorded inside English's house. He shared the clips with neighbors, including Greg McMichael, 65.

Rash said he shared Greg McMichael's phone number with English in a text message that noted Greg McMichael was a former police officer and retired investigator for the local district attorney. He said it was Greg McMichael's idea to let English know he could help watch the property.

Did you deputize Greg McMichael? Did you give him any authority as a police officer? prosecutor Linda Dunikoski asked Rash.

No ma'am, the officer replied, saying he never intended for Greg McMichael to do anything other than call police if the man was spotted inside the house again.

Greg has training and experience," Rash said. He in my opinion would be an expert witness to be on the phone with 911."

On Feb. 11, 2020, less than two weeks before Arbery was killed, Rash was again dispatched to the neighborhood after Travis McMichael called 911 and reported seeing the same man outside the unfinished home  and telling dispatchers the man reached for his pocket as if he had a gun.

The jury saw Rash's body camera video, which shows him entering the home with a flashlight and his gun drawn. Rash said Travis McMichael's report that the man could be armed made him more of a potential threat.

So this was a different situation," said Robert Rubin, one of Travis McMichael's attorneys. "You're going into a house with a man who might have a gun.

Defense attorneys contend the McMichaels were justified in arming themselves before chasing Arbery because they feared he might have a gun. Police determined after the shooting that Arbery was unarmed.

When the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case involving Arbery's death in May, Bryan gave interviews to GBI Agent Jason Seacrist and rode in the agent's car to retrace the route of the deadly chase.

Seacrist testified Friday that Bryan backed away from statements he'd made to local police that he used his truck to run Arbery off the road. He said Bryan told him that he wanted to take a cellphone photo of the running man to show police.

I figured if I slowed down and got a picture, maybe something would happen in the end rather than him just getting away and the cops not knowing who he was, Bryan said, according to an interview transcript Seacrist read in court.

Seacrist said he asked Bryan why police would need a photo of Arbery, and Bryan replied: I figured he had done something wrong. I didnt know for sure.

Bryan's attorney, Kevin Gough, noted that Seacrist had told Bryan at the time of their interviews that he was a witness in the case. The agent testified that Bryan wasn't under arrest at the time and had been told he was free to leave and stop talking at any time.
On November 12, 2021, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark took part in The University of Copenhagen's annual commemoration at the University of Copenhagen. The University of Copenhagen (UCPH) was founded in 1479. Since then, the University has celebrated its foundation with an annual commemoration. The commemoration is always held on the third Friday in November with participation from the Royal Family.

During the event, the Teacher of the Year Award, the Innovation Award and the Study Environment Award were handed out, and this year's honorary doctorates and doctorates were announced. For the best prize theses, gold and silver medals were also awarded to the students. Crown Princess Mary wore a new crystal-embroidered pleated crepe midi dress by Red Valentino.

RED VALENTINO Crystal-embroidered Pleated Crepe Midi Dress
One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
Studies into astrobiology in conjunction with continuous efforts dedicated to planetary exploration have led to a significant interest in searching for extraterrestrial microbes.

Scientists have developed convincing reasons that support the possibility of extraterrestrial microbes, including the theory of evolution, the presence of extremophiles on Earth, and the rapidly increasing number of Earth-like planets discovered in the last decade.

Due to these reasons, Astrobiologists suggest that life elsewhere in the solar system is most likely to be in the form of microbes and that any other complex extraterrestrial species were likely to have arisen from microbes. Over the years methods including identifying biosignature gases, TCD spectroscopy, microscopy techniques, and thermodynamic approaches have been developed to help with the search for extraterrestrial microbes. Recently, the search has expanded to extraterrestrial locations with harsher environmental conditions.

Image Credit: GoodStudio/Shutterstock.com

Identifying biosignature gases

One method extensively researched to identify extraterrestrial microbes on habitable planets is through biosignature gases. These are gases that are produced by life and accumulate in the atmosphere, and therefore can be used to detect life on various planets through space telescopes.

Recently, an exhaustive list of biosignature gases, totaling approximately 14,000 molecules, has been devised through a combinatorial approach and an intense database and literature search. With this knowledge, the atmosphere of planets and their moons can be analyzed to search for extraterrestrial microbes. However future work is still required to identify biosignature gases composed of larger molecules to extend the list further.

Terahertz circular dichroism (TCD) spectroscopy

Terahertz Circular Dichroism (TCD) spectroscopy is another potential approach recently developed to help discover extraterrestrial microbes and other forms of life in space. This method is based on the understanding that all life forms contain well-structured, chiral, stereochemically pure macromolecules that act as machinery to perform both replicative and metabolic functions. These macromolecules absorb strongly at terahertz frequencies of the spectrum and exhibit circular dichroism.

Such unique properties can allow scientists to distinguish these biological macromolecules from abiological materials through spectroscopy-based methods, and therefore functions as a life-detection technique. TCD spectrometers are currently being designed and built to help with the search for extraterrestrial microbes.

Microscopy techniques

High-resolution scanning and transmission electron microscopy techniques have also been used to identify highly organized and specifically shaped structures representing microbes.

For instance, analysis of a fragment of the Martian meteorite ALH84001 confirmed the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and carbonate globules. These structures provided insights into the possibility of extraterrestrial biota, thus highlighting the importance of using microscopic observations to continue the search for microbes in extraterrestrial environments.

Thermodynamic approaches

A complex thermodynamic approach to detecting extraterrestrial microbes has also been developed. This technique is based on the understanding that living entities require a continual source of usable energy accessed through an electron transport chain.

As a result, extraterrestrial microbes can be found in soils through the extraction and detection of electron transport chain components such as porphyrins, quinones, and flavins. The instrument developed extracts these components from the soil through supercritical carbon dioxide, separates these components by chromatography, and finally detects the components through voltammetry and tandem mass spectrometry.

Another related but simpler thermodynamic approach that could detect extraterrestrial microbes involves measuring the actual existence of a functional and active electron transport chain rather than just its components. This method is based on the use of artificial electron acceptors such as DCIP and respiratory dyes such as XXT that can measure the activity of an electron transport chain. This technique has been used commercially for several years to both identify microbes and characterize their oxidation capabilities.

New studies suggest that the application of this method could be expanded to help search for extraterrestrial microbes in the soils of other planets or their moons.

How the search for extraterrestrial microbes has expanded

To approach the search for extraterrestrial microbes, scientists initially decided to identify bodies of the solar system that had suitable environments habitable for extraterrestrial life. Although this was a reasonable approach, the matter was further complicated as knowledge of extremophiles on Earth increased over the years. Extremophiles are microorganisms that survive and thrive under harsh conditions.

Increasing knowledge of these extremophiles and the conditions in which they can survive has led to an expansion in the number of extraterrestrial locations targeted for the exploration of microbes. Due to this evidence, Scientists are now considering locations with much harsher conditions to search for extraterrestrial microbes.

For instance, it has now been speculated that extraterrestrial microbes may exist on Jupiters Moon known as Europa. This is supported by studies of approximately 70 lakes located in Antarctica. These lakes have temperatures ranging from 20 C to 10 C and oxygen availability ranging from aerobic to strictly anaerobic. Despite the harsh conditions, microbial life can proliferate in this ecosystem such as cold-adapted Archaea known as Methanococcoides burtoni.

Furthermore, studies of ice cores drilled from the Antarctic surface have revealed an array of microbes including 3000-year-old viable yeasts and 200,000-year-old spore-forming bacteria. This demonstrated the ability of microbes to survive and recover after significant periods in ice. This evidence led to high levels of consideration of extraterrestrial microbes present on Europa, which is thought to have sub-surface lakes and an ice surface similar to Antarctica.

Moreover, other extremophiles have been identified that survive in extremely low concentrations of effective water molecules, also known as low water activity. For example, both culture-based and culture-independent studies confirm that cell division and metabolic activity of halophilic archaea and bacteria can occur in water activities as low as 0.611 a w .

Prior to this discovery, searches for extraterrestrial microbes targeted environments known to contain significant amounts of water as it is one of the principal ingredients of cellular life. However, this new evidence has expanded the search for microbes in extraterrestrial locations with low water activity such as Jupiter.

As more extremophiles and the conditions in which they thrive are discovered, a greater number of extraterrestrial environments will be considered to search for microbes.

References:

Cavicchioli, R. (2002). Extremophiles and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life. Astrobiology. 2(3): 281-292.

Crawford, R., Paszczynski, A., Lang, Q., Erwin, D., Allenbach, L., Corti, G., Anderson, T., Cheng, F., Wai, C., Barnes, B., Wells, R., Assefi, T., Mojarradi, M. (2002). Measurement of microbial activity in soil by colorimetric observation of in situ dye reduction: an approach to detection of extraterrestrial life. BMC Microbiology. 2: 1-8.

Seager, S., Bains, W., Petowski, J. (2016). Toward a List of Molecules as Potential Biosignature Gases for the Search for Life on Exoplanets and Applications to Terrestrial Biochemistry. Astrobiology. 16(6): 465-485.

Stevenson, A., Burkhardt, J., Cockell, C., Cray, J., Dijksterhuis, J., Fox-Powell, M., Kee, T., Kminek, G., McGenity, T., Timmis, K., Timson, D., Voytek, M., Westall, F., Yakimov, M., Hallsworth, J. (2015). Multiplication of microbes below 0.690 water activity: implications for terrestrial and extraterrestrial life. Environmental Microbiology. 17(2): 257-277.

Xu, J., Ramian, G., Galan, J., Savvidis, P., Micheal, A., Birge, R., Allen, J., Plaxco, K. (2003). Terahertz Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy: A Potential Approach to the in situ Detection of Lifes Metabolic and Genetic Machinery. Astrobiology. 3(3): 489-504.

Further Reading
Bioinorganic chemistry is a field that focuses on the biochemistry of inorganic elements and compounds. This includes the dynamics of metal ions in living systems, the function of metalloproteins, and the application of inorganic medicines.

Organic molecules are those that possess carbon-hydrogen bonds, which thus make up the majority of the biomolecules in living creatures. The majority of carbon and nitrogen in living animals is bound in organic protein, lipid, and carbohydrate compounds, with most oxygen and hydrogen in water. The next most common elements in living creatures include the inorganic elements calcium, sodium, chlorine, potassium, phosphorus, and sulfur, which play various roles in the fulfillment of cellular functions and homeostasis.

Calcium, for example, acts as an electrolyte that is essential in muscle contraction and nerve signaling, besides also composing the bones and teeth, while phosphorous provides the phosphate ion (PO 4 3-), a key component of DNA, RNA, phospholipids, and the energy transfer molecule adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP).

Image Credit: Sadovnikova Olga/Shutterstock.com

Metal homeostasis

Many metal ions are essential to life, while others are highly toxic even in minimal concentrations, in some cases depending on species. Transition metals such as copper and iron participate in the generation of reactive oxygen species by electron transfer, which can go on to damage local biomolecules and induce cell death. However, copper and iron are essential to many cellular processes, and thus various cellular mechanisms have evolved to maintain homeostasis.

In yeast, the superoxide dismutase enzyme provides a defense against oxidative stress by catalyzing the generation of hydrogen peroxide from superoxide radicals. Copper is transported across the cell membrane by high or low-affinity transporters, with their activity modulated by extracellular copper concentrations, being enhanced in low-copper conditions.

Similarly, iron is transported into yeast as ions or in compounds via specific and non-specific membrane transporter proteins. Interestingly, copper is required for iron homeostasis in yeast, as these iron-chelating transporters are copper-containing metalloproteins.

Metalloproteins

The totality of metal and metal-containing biomolecules in a cell is termed the metallome, traditionally referring to the dynamics of metal ions and their homeostasis, but also including metalloproteins. As much as half of all proteins in nature contain a metal, with a large proportion requiring metals to fulfill their function. The most common metals in proteins are magnesium, zinc, iron, and manganese, where they are utilized for their chelating properties and participation in redox reactions.

Likely the earliest recognized metalloprotein was hemoglobin, where iron was first identified in the blood in the early 18th century by Lemery and Geoffroy, who burned blood to ash and observed magnetic particles within. During the 1950s and 60s, x-ray structures of proteins were being widely published, including the first clear image of the positioning of iron in hemoglobin.

The hemoglobin biomolecule bears four subunits in a circular arrangement, each containing a single heme group that contributes towards bonding with a central Fe2+ ion. Prior to bonding with molecular oxygen, the ion rests below the plane of the relaxed porphyrin ring, while upon bonding with oxygen the now Fe3+ ion is pulled up into the plane of the now tense ring.

Zinc has been known to be essential to eukaryotes since the mid-19th century, being recognized as a constituent of some enzymes since the 1940s and 50s. Zinc plays several structural and functional roles in proteins, acting to stabilize folded protein structures, often in the form of a structural protein motif known as a zinc finger. Zinc finger motifs fine-tune the binding specificity of proteins and are heavily employed during transcription, translation, and mRNA trafficking, among many other applications.

Inorganic medicines

Inorganic medicines have been utilized by humans for thousands of years, with ancient Egyptian medical texts describing the use of copper to sterilize water and wounds. One of the earliest modern inorganic medicines were organoarsenic compounds, developed by German physician Paul Ehrlich in 1909 for the treatment of syphilis.

Arguably the most successful inorganic medicine developed may be the common chemotherapeutic drug cisplatin and its derivatives, described in 1845 and is known as Peyrones salt at the time. The structure of cisplatin was later elucidated by Alfred Werner in 1893, and the cytotoxic properties of the drug were explored by Barnett Rosenberg in 1965. It was noted that only the cis isomer demonstrated cytotoxic activity, with the square planar Pt2+ form of the complex being more cytotoxic than the octahedral complex.

Cisplatin was later applied to rats bearing sarcomas where it was shown to be highly effective in preferentially targeting quickly dividing cells as seen in cancer, and was quickly approved by the FDA in 1978 for use against ovarian and testicular cancers, the latter seeing survival rates increase from prior levels of only 10% to 85%.

Nanomaterials sit in an interesting size regime with regards to interactions with biomolecules, bearing a comparable diameter to proteins they are thus able to enter cells and engage with cellular machinery. The behavior of nanomaterials constructed from metals in vivo and in vitro is, therefore, the concern of bioinorganic chemists, with applications ranging from antimicrobial coatings on high-contact surfaces, medical devices, and wound dressings, to the use and nanoparticles as therapeutic and diagnostic tools in the clinic.

References:

de Freitas et al. (2003) Yeast, a model organism for iron and copper metabolism studies. Biometals.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1020771000746

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1020771000746 Marengo-Rowe (2006) Structure-function relations of human hemoglobins. BUMCP.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1484532/#:~:text=Hemoglobin%20comprises%20four%20subunits%2C%20each,group%20(Figure%20%E2%80%8B1).&text=Model%20of%20the%20hemoglobin%20molecule.,hemes%20are%20shown%20as%20discs.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1484532/#:~:text=Hemoglobin%20comprises%20four%20subunits%2C%20each,group%20(Figure%20%E2%80%8B1).&text=Model%20of%20the%20hemoglobin%20molecule.,hemes%20are%20shown%20as%20discs. Coleman (1992) Zinc proteins: enzymes, storage proteins, transcription factors, and replication proteins. Annual review of biochemistry. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1497326/#:~:text=Not%20only%20is%20zinc%20required,the%20folding%20of%20protein%20subdomains.&text=If%20one%20subtracts%20the%20amount,found%20in%20the%20human%20body.

Ghosh (2019) Cisplatin: The first metal based anticancer drug. Bioorganic chemistry.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045206818311969?casa_token=ILB_6Hs1n2kAAAAA:g1G5l6sNgDmrqUyTAaBvA0lI8NfCwtdWYfqbZgUhSqwe4ngftQLSHuRjk1eV9avwsJoKVv5kFDM

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045206818311969?casa_token=ILB_6Hs1n2kAAAAA:g1G5l6sNgDmrqUyTAaBvA0lI8NfCwtdWYfqbZgUhSqwe4ngftQLSHuRjk1eV9avwsJoKVv5kFDM Alessio (2011)Bioinorganic Medicinal Chemistry. John Wiley & Sons.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=M8a5H69z_k4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=nano+bioinorganic&ots=9bLX0ZmOed&sig=mUz8RVERWigJknFz0lfj0gsYYY8&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=nano%20bioinorganic&f=false

Further Reading
A clinical trial has found that the combination of all-trans retinoic acid, which is a metabolite of vitamin A, and arsenic trioxide is highly effective in children with standard- and high-risk acute promyelocytic leukemia, or APL. Nearly all patients in the trial survived for two years without experiencing a relapse. None of the children with standard-risk APL required conventional chemotherapy, and those with high-risk APL received just four doses of the chemotherapy drug idarubicin (Idamycin PFS). The results of the trial, conducted by the Children's Oncology Group and funded by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, were published Nov. 11, 2021, in JAMA Oncology.

"This is a remarkable achievement and will be the new standard of care," said Malcolm A. Smith, M.D., Ph.D., of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program at the National Cancer Institute, which funded the multi-institutional, nonrandomized phase 3 cooperative group trial. "Twenty years ago, these patients would have been treated with intensive chemotherapy, including drugs that lead to heart problems later in life. By comparison, all-trans retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide have fewer acute or long-term side effects."

As a pediatrician and an oncologist, I've had to have really difficult talks with families about what their child is facing and what type of therapy they're going to have to go through to be cured. So being able to offer a therapy that is less intense and has fewer side effects, but at the same time has amazingly high survival rates, is a really good feeling." Matthew Kutny, M.D., of Children's of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the study's lead investigator

APL accounts for 5% to 10% of acute myeloid leukemia diagnoses in children and adolescents. Symptoms of this blood and bone marrow cancer include excessive bleeding, easy bruising, low red blood cell count, fever, and fatigue. Previously, treatment for children with APL involved anthracyclines, which can damage the heart.

An earlier Children's Oncology Group trial showed that children with APL who were treated with arsenic trioxide and all-trans retinoic acid, along with chemotherapy drugs that included anthracyclines, had high rates of two-year event-free survival and low risk of relapse. Event-free survival is the length of time after primary treatment that the patient remains free of worsening disease, relapse, or death.

The combination of all-trans retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide is currently the preferred initial treatment for adults with standard-risk APL. Adult patients with high-risk APL also receive some chemotherapy, as well as maintenance therapy (further treatment to prevent the leukemia from coming back).

In the Children's Oncology Group trial (AAML1331; NCT02339740), 154 children between the ages of 1 and 22 who were newly diagnosed with standard- or high-risk APL were given oral all-trans retinoic acid, along with intravenous arsenic trioxide, daily for at least 28 days. Children with high-risk APL also received four doses of the anthracycline idarubicin during the initial phase of treatment. High-risk patients are defined as those with a white blood cell count of more than 10,000/L. Higher white blood cell counts have historically predicted poorer outcomes in children with APL.

However, in this trial, children with standard- and high-risk APL had two-year overall survival rates of 99% and 100%, respectively. The two-year event-free survival rates were 98% and 96%, respectively. One child with standard-risk APL died early in treatment, and three children (one with standard-risk APL and two with high-risk APL) experienced a relapse.

Fewer than 10% of the children experienced severe side effects, which occurred only in the initial phase of treatment. Side effects included increased blood sugar, liver irritation, and bleeding. Some of the patients with high-risk APL developed mouth sores from the idarubicin treatment. A severe complication of APL is differentiation syndrome, which can cause life-threatening inflammation. Physicians were offered supportive care strategies to help participants manage this and other side effects.

Dr. Kutny pointed out that because there was no need for maintenance therapy, the length of time the children were undergoing treatment was reduced from more than two years to approximately nine months. More follow-up will be needed, he said, to determine the long-term effects of treating children with all-trans retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide.

"Arsenic is often associated with being a poison, but it can also be a powerful medicine," Dr. Kutny noted. "Arsenic trioxide has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for millennia. The difference between a medication and a poison is really the dose. Over time, we have figured out the exact dosing that would be effective in killing these types of leukemia cells without damaging other healthy tissues."

Arsenic trioxide works cooperatively with all-trans retinoic acid to block the action of proteins needed by leukemia cells to survive and grow. Dr. Kutny noted that the Children's Oncology Group is currently investigating ways to deliver arsenic trioxide in an oral form, which would make it easier for children to take.

St. Baldrick's Foundation of Monrovia, California, a large funder of childhood cancer research grants, also provided support to the Children's Oncology Group member sites for the conduct of the AAML1331 study.
The student-led Ophthalmology Interest Group recently held a suturing workshop, offering Feinberg students the opportunity to practice surgical techniques on mock organs. Faculty and residents were on hand to answer questions and guide students through the workshop, which was the first time many students had held a scalpel.

Opportunities to learn hands-on skills such as suturing don't often present themselves until our third year, so this workshop was a welcome introduction to skills many of us are eager to develop." Gina Johnson, second-year student and treasurer, Ophthalmology Interest Group (OIG)

Kelly Laurenti, MD, assistant professor of Ophthalmology in the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology; Hawke Yoon, MD, assistant professor of Ophthalmology in the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology; Gina Johnson, second-year student; Jennifer Rossen, MD, assistant professor of Ophthalmology in the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology; David Younessi, second-year student; and Liza Cohen, MD, a Northwestern Medicine oculoplastic surgeon.

Hawke Yoon, MD, and Jennifer Rossen, MD, both assistant professors of Ophthalmology in the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology, led the workshop and instructed students in pediatric ophthalmologic surgical techniques. Students moved between three stations; practicing scleral passes on food items including hot dogs and grapes; practicing basic suturing on chicken breasts; and applying what they'd learned during the workshop to simulate ocular surgery on sheep eyes.

"It was a chance to share something we are all passionate about with the student body at large, and allowed students to develop a skill that can be applied across many fields," said David Younessi, a second-year student and president of the OIG.

Younessi and Johnson were both drawn to ophthalmology because of its diverse care settings, the challenge of microsurgery and the continuity of care.

"The prospect of helping an individual keep the very sense of sight that many of us take for granted invokes a sense of privilege in me, and I believe it would allow for an incredibly rewarding career," Younessi said.

The OIG, one of dozens of specialty interest groups, connects students to ophthalmology resources and provides a platform for interaction and communication between medical students and faculty in Ophthalmology.
Several studies have shown the effectiveness of the BioNTech/Pfizer messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) BNT162b2 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine. Two doses of the vaccine have been shown to provide a short-term effect.

In a new study published in Nature Communications, a group of scientists from Israel sought to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of the BioNTech/Pfizer mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine. To this end, they assessed the correlation between time-from-vaccination and incidence of breakthrough infection within the specified study period.

Study: Correlation of SARS-CoV-2-breakthrough infections to time-from-vaccine. Image Credit: Marco Lazzarini / Shutterstock.com

Duration of protection by vaccination

The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 was first identified in India; however, it is now to dominant circulating strain globally. Recently, several vaccinated individuals have reported SARS-CoV-2 infection, which has increased concerns about reduced vaccine efficacy against the Delta variant. Some studies report moderate differences in vaccine effectiveness and considerable antibody response against the Delta variant.

Taken together, it is important to evaluate the duration of protection provided by vaccines. This will help in effective resource allocation and vaccine administration. Furthermore, this information will also help in deciding the need for a third dose for longer protection.

A retrospective study

Israel had a rapid rollout of its mass vaccination campaign. The Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS), which is Israels second-largest Health Maintenance Organization, has a centralized computerized database that covers 2.5 million members, which is about 26.5% of the population and provides a representative sample of the Israeli population. This data provided a window of opportunity to investigate the correlation between time-from-vaccination and vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant.

The study population included all MHS members aged 16 and above who received the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine between January and April 2021. Individuals were considered fully vaccinated if they received two doses of the BNT162b2, with the second one administered within the 21-to-28-day interval set by national guidelines.

Individuals were excluded from the study if they had a positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay test result before the start of the study period or disengaged from MHS for some reason between January and April. Dates of the first and second dose of the vaccine and results of any PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 were included in the analysis.

Statistical models were employed to assess the correlation between time-from-vaccination and protection against breakthrough infection. In the analysis, the outcome was defined as a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test recorded between June 1, 2021 and July 27, 2021, which was the date of analysis.

Depending on the time-from-vaccination, the individuals were grouped into two separate groups including Early Vaccinees and Late Vaccinees. Early Vaccinees were individuals who received the second dose of the vaccine between January and February 2021, whereas Late Vaccinees were individuals who received the second dose between March and April 2021.

Vaccine waning with time

MHS has 1,395,134 members over the age of 16 and 1,352,444 who were eligible for the study. The incidence rates of breakthrough infections per 10,000 individuals who received their second dose according to the months were as follows: January - 36.5, February - 33.65, March - 23.06, and April - 16.98.

Between June 1 and July 27, 2021, a total of 1,911 cases of breakthrough infection were recorded. Of them, 1,151 were in the Early Vaccinees group and 760 were in the Late Vaccinees group.

The crude incidence rates per 10,000 individuals above the age of 16 are shown by the month of administration of the second dose of the vaccine; bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

In the analysis, the scientists controlled for potential confounders like age and comorbidities. The analysis showed that the Early Vaccinees had a 1.51-fold increased risk of infection when compared to the Late Vaccinees.

The results were similar across all ages groups. This increased risk reached 2.26-fold when comparing the individuals vaccinated in January to those vaccinated in April.

KaplanMeier curves are used for the accumulative probability of breakthrough infection (a) and hospitalization (b) between June and July 2021 among individuals who were vaccinated Early (January to February 2021) compared with individuals who were vaccinated late (March to April 2021). X axis in curves a, b represents days from the start of the follow-up period (June 1, 2021). Shading illustrates 95% CIs (a, b).

Conclusions

The current study showed a significant correlation between time-from-vaccination and protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. The risk of a breakthrough infection was significantly higher for Early Vaccinees compared to the Late Vaccinees, with an additional trend of a higher risk for hospitalization among the Early Vaccinees group.

These results corroborate findings from recent studies that demonstrate a significant decline in antibody levels and immune levels over time following the second dose of vaccination.

This study presents a preliminary finding which should be evaluated further. Future studies should examine the long-term protection of current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines against different SARS-CoV-2 strains. Further, there should be prospective clinical trials to examine the effect of a booster dose against breakthrough infection.

Limitations

The inference drawn from this study may not correlate to the protection afforded by the vaccine against other strains. The results may not be generalizable to settings where an extended dosing interval was applied.

Health behaviors like social distancing and mask-wearing may confound the results obtained in this study.
Which genes control the defining features that make us look as we do? And how do they make it happen?

In 1990, University of California San Diego biologist William McGinnis conducted a seminal experiment that helped scientists unravel how high-level control genes called Hox genes shape our appearance features. The "McGinnis experiment" helped pave the way for understanding the role of Hox genes in determining the uniform appearances of species, from humans to chimpanzees to flies.

McGinnis, a professor emeritus of Cell and Developmental Biology and former dean of the Division of Biological Sciences, helped discover a defining DNA region that he termed the "homeobox," a sequence within genes that directs anatomical development. Since the now-famous McGinnis experiment, evolutionary and developmental biologists have pondered how these highly influential Hox genes determine the identities of different body regions.

More than three decades later, a study published Nov. 10 in Science Advances and led by Ankush Auradkar, a UC San Diego postdoctoral scholar mentored by coauthor McGinnis and study senior author Ethan Bier, helps answer questions about how Hox genes function.

The now-textbook McGinnis experiment tested whether the proteins produced by a human or mouse Hox gene could function in flies. Following in these footsteps, the new study leveraged modern CRISPR gene editing to investigate whether all aspects of Hox gene function, which consists of both protein coding and control regions, could be replaced in a common laboratory fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) with its counterpart from a rarer Hawaiian cousin (Drosophila mimica), which has a very different face.

The gene in question, proboscipedia, would plainly reveal itself since it directs the formation of strikingly different mouth parts-;smooth and spongy in D. mel but more grill-like (resembling the face of the alien in Predator science fiction films) in D. mim.

Study coauthor Emily Bulger first collected the notoriously difficult-to-breed D. mim samples from Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, along with the only native fruit (Sapindus saponaria - Hawaiian soapberry) that the insects are known to eat, in order to establish a temporary colony in Bier's laboratory. Auradkar then collaborated with coauthor Sushil Devkota to decipher the genome sequence of the D. mim proboscipedia gene, which was nearly 44,000 bases long. The researchers then deleted the D. mel proboscipedia gene and replaced it with the D. mim version of the same.

As McGinnis had predicted, the new results revealed that the graceful facial structure of D. mel emerged as the "winner" over the rough features of D. mim. One trait of D. mim, however, did surface during the experiment: Sensory organs called maxillary palps that stick out from the face in D. mel instead ran parallel to feeding mouthparts as they do in D. mim. Auradkar used sophisticated genetic tools to determine the basis for this difference and tracked it down to a change in the pattern by which the proboscipedia gene is activated (control region changes).

The experiment's results help answer longstanding questions about whether Hox genes function as "master" regulatory genes that dictate different body parts in organisms. Or, as McGinnis proposed, whether Hox genes instead provide abstract positional codes and serve as scaffolds for downstream genes that best benefit the organism. Other than the maxillary palps, the new results demonstrated that McGinnis' scaffolding idea proved to be the case.

McGinnis says that beyond the implications for evolutionary biology, the results could help explain developmental issues rooted in fundamental human genetic processes.

These fly studies provide a window into deep evolutionary time and inform us about the mechanisms by which body plans change during evolution. These insights may lead to a better of understanding of processes tied to congenital birth defects in humans. With the advent of powerful new CRISPR-based genome editing systems for human therapy on the horizon, new strategies might be formulated to mitigate some of the effects of these often debilitating conditions." Ethan Bier, Study Senior Author

According to Bier, these investigations also provide an example of the intimate connection between the support of basic science and human welfare. The paper was authored by Ankush Auradkar, Emily Bulger, Sushil Devkota, William McGinnis and Ethan Bier.
Babies who were given nutritionally modified formula milk had the same maths and English exam results as children who were given standard formula milk by age 16, finds a major new study led by UCL researchers that links seven randomized controlled trials to school performance results.

Scientists from the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (GOS ICH) and the UCL Institute of Education, who published their findings in the BMJ today, used a novel approach to link school performance and health data to see whether nutritionally modified formula milk made any difference to later cognitive ability.

The research team analyzed data from 1763 children who were participating in trials between 1993 and 2001 and were randomly given either enriched or standard formula milk. Randomization ensured that the groups were equal in all ways apart from the type of formula milk they received.

The researchers then gathered anonymized data for 91% (1607) of the children from their school records at age 11 and 16 to see if the type of milk they had been given as babies had a noticeable effect on their school performance.

Two of the trials tested formula milks which had been enriched with a long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA), one of the many breast milk constituents with a role in brain development. Another trial tested follow-on formula with high-iron content and two tested nutrient enriched formula milks. A further two tested formulations with added sn-2 palmitate or nucleotides, but these were not thought to relate to cognition.

Data from the trials was linked to school records and showed that there was no benefit on scores for national exams in maths at age 16 years (GCSEs). At age 11, children who had been given the LCPUFA supplemented formula scored lower in both English and maths, but this could not be confirmed at age 16 years. None of the other modified formulas led to improved performance in English at age 16 and in maths and English at age 11 years (Key Stage 2) or affected eligibility for special educational needs support and achieving five or more GCSE grades of C or higher.

Our findings suggest there are no long-term benefits of these modified formula milks on brain development. Regulators should use these findings to reconsider licensing which modifications of formula milks are approved and to ensure that labeling of products excludes unproven claims." Ruth Gilbert, Co-Author, Professor, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health

The researchers note that although the trials were carried out several decades ago but are relevant to formula milks used today. However, new types of formula are being developed. This study shows how linkage to education data could make long-term follow up of cognition much easier for future and past formula trials.

Lead author Dr Maximiliane Verfurden, who carried out the research at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, added: "No previous research has shown conclusive benefits for cognitive ability of these nutritionally modified formulas, but the evidence was uncertain due to short follow-up periods and high drop-out rates over time

"By linking data from historic randomized trials to data routinely collected from school tests, the current study provides the best available evidence on whether these formula modifications affect children's cognitive ability.

"This study sets a precedent for other trials and cohorts to use linkage of historic trials to administrative data to address high participant drop-out over time and answer important questions about long term outcomes in children and young people."

The study was supported with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, UCL Bloomsbury and East London Doctoral Training Partnership, Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity Research Starter Grant, NIHR Children and Families Policy Research Unit and Health Data Research UK.
Researchers at the University of Kentucky's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging recently received a five-year grant renewal of their MarkVCID program from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award total is more than $6 million.

The MarkVCID consortium was established to discover and cross-site validate biomarkers of vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) with an ultimate goal of developing a toolbox of biomarkers that will be useful for future clinical trials. The University of Kentucky was selected as one of the seven MarkVCID sites in its initial funding period in 2016. Greg Jicha, M.D., Ph.D., and Donna Wilcock, Ph.D., are co-leads of the program at UK.

Most folks that come to see me in my clinic are worried about the big "A", Alzheimer's disease, but here in the stroke belt of Kentucky it is just as likely that they are experiencing hardening of the arteries, or as we call it in medical terms, small vessel ischemic disease. Finding new ways to understand and treat this vascular problem in the brain is critical for the health of our aging population in the Commonwealth." Greg Jicha, M.D., Ph.D., University of Kentucky

UK is uniquely situated to be an excellent location for research of this as a Center of Excellence for Stroke and Dementia, along with being a designated Comprehensive Stroke Center, and a National Institute on Aging Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC).

"The combination is great. We have a strong clinical program in stroke, as well as the ADRC, and then also just geographically our location in the heart of the stroke belt -; means that a very large proportion of our population here in Kentucky is at very high risk for VCID because of their cardiovascular risk factors like heart disease and hypertension," Wilcock said.

As part of the initial period, UK has been following 126 participants who have varying levels of cardiovascular risk factors and a large proportion of whom have defined subjective memory complaints (SMCs), with some defined as mild cognitive impairment (MCI). All participants underwent the MarkVCID MRI battery, blood collection, and neuropsychological and clinical assessment. One quarter of participants also contributed cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Additionally, researchers say all participants consented to autopsy; a requirement initiated at the beginning of their MarkVCID recruitment.

With this recent renewal, the program will increase to 200 participants. "A big part of the prior five years was getting standard operating procedures all set up, getting sequences harmonized, techniques harmonized, and some initial validation was done. Now, this is really going to be robust clinical validation of a suite of biomarkers basically for small vessel disease," explained Wilcock.

Jicha added, "Expanding our program to 200 participants will help us to make sure everyone is represented, whether they are from rural Appalachia or of Black/African-American descent or from other underserved populations. Inclusivity and diversity strengthens our science and ensures that our discoveries are going to do their very best to help all those we serve."

The goal at the end of this next five-year period is to have a suite of biomarkers, that researchers feel is robust enough and validated across their consortium, that can then be used for clinical trials. "The reason this is so important is that we currently do not have any biomarkers for vascular cognitive impairment and dementia, and yet we know that a large proportion of our aging population have some of these brain changes. So being able to detect that in a sensitive fashion during life is going to be very important for treatment as we develop those," said Wilcock.
The center, located at 2 Gilmore Park (EH3 9FN), is part of the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities created in British history. In Scotland, this comprises of eight drive through sites, 56 walk-through sites, 42 mobile units, plus the Glasgow Lighthouse Lab which is working round the clock to process samples.

In Scotland, the UK Government is providing all COVID testing and test processing outside of the NHS.

PCR tests must be booked in advance at: www.nhsinform.scot/test-and-protect or by calling 119. People should only book at test if they have coronavirus symptoms (a high temperature, a new and continuous cough, or a loss or change to their sense of smell or taste) or have been instructed to do so by a clinician or NHS contact tracer.

Lateral flow test kits are also now available for pick up without an appointment at local walk-in or drive-through test sites from 8am - 8pm each day. Tests can also be ordered online or by phone by calling 119. For more information and to order a test kit online, go to: Coronavirus (COVID-19): getting tested in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Jenny Harries, CEO of UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said:

This new walk-through site is part of our ongoing work to make it even easier for people who need a PCR test to get one. If you have developed a new continuous cough, a high temperature or a loss or change in sense of smell or taste, or you are asked or advised to get a test, please book one and follow any advice you're given. As we return to a more familiar way of life, testing, and isolating when necessary, remain a vital way of controlling the spread of the virus and protecting one another."

UK Government Minister for Scotland, Iain Stewart said:

The UK Government continues to provide the bulk of testing in Scotland, a programme which is vital to our recovery from this pandemic. Alongside the roll-out of UK Government-funded vaccines, testing is helping us to manage the virus, slow down the rate of transmission and protect communities. This new walk-through facility in Edinburgh is the latest in our extensive network of testing centres supporting people in all parts of the UK."

Simon Venn, Mitie Chief Government & Strategy Officer, said:
Researchers have shown for the first time that it is possible to detect signs of urothelial cancer using a simple, postal, urine test in Lynch Syndrome (LS) patients who are at high risk of developing tumors.

The findings, presented at the NCRI Festival, offer the potential to develop a cheap, easy and non-invasive way of screening LS patients for cancers of the bladder, kidney and ureter (the tube connecting the bladder with the kidneys).

LS is an inherited genetic disorder that carries a high risk of cancer. More than one in 300 people have LS but most don't know it  that's more than 2,300 new cases every year in the UK. LS patients are at high risk of bowel and endometrial cancers. The risk of urothelial cancer is less well recognized, with a lifetime risk of up to 28.5%, depending on which gene is involved. This means that those LS patients who have an underlying defect in the MSH2 gene are more than ten times as likely to get a potentially curable cancer in their urinary tract than the general population. Failure to screen for these cancers means that even after being diagnosed with the condition, one in 20 LS patients will die of urothelial cancer, often at a young age.

Sir John Burn, Professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University, UK, and Chair of Newcastle Hospitals, told the NCRI Festival: "People with Lynch Syndrome can benefit from screening programmes that enable cancers to be found at an early stage when they can be cured. LS carriers are at high risk of cancers of the bowel and womb, and screening is available for these using colonoscopy for the large bowel and ultrasound for the womb. Unfortunately, the urinary tract has been ignored because there are currently no cheap, non-invasive screening methods that can reliably detect tumours here. Cancer of the upper urinary tract is the third most common cancer associated with LS."

Sir John and his colleagues, including Ms Rachel Phelps, a research PhD student in the Cancer Research UK-funded Cancer Prevention Group at Newcastle University, redesigned the Newcastle MSI-Plus Assay. This has recently become the standard test in North East England to find people with LS among those diagnosed with bowel cancer. MSI, which stands for microsatellite instability, shows that an important DNA repair system isn't working. Most LS patients are in this group. The test is being evaluated for national rollout.

Dying cells within the human body shed small fragments of DNA into the surrounding tissues and circulation. These fragments are known as cell-free DNA and can be extracted from urine. LS is caused by inherited changes that affect the cells' ability to repair DNA damage. As a result, almost all cancers that develop within individuals with LS have a characteristic pattern of errors called microsatellite instability. Microsatellites are regions of repetitive DNA that often change their length if not repaired correctly. Our test uses this 'signature' to identify DNA from tumour cells that are shedding into the urine." Sir John Burn, Professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University, UK, and Chair of Newcastle Hospitals

To see if the test could be used for urothelial cancers as well as bowel cancer, the researchers tested blood and urine samples in a LS patient who had been diagnosed with urothelial cancer in the upper urinary tract. They tested the urine before and after surgery to remove the tumour.

"Before surgery, the test detected a clear signal for microsatellite instability in the patient's urine. After removing the tumour, we tested the patient's urine again and the signal had disappeared. Nor was it present in blood samples," said Sir John.

"A big question we need to answer now is how sensitive is our test? What proportion of urothelial cancers in LS patients shed DNA into urine, and how early in the course of the disease can this be detected? The earlier the cancer can be detected, the more likely it is to be treated successfully."

The researchers are setting up a regional pilot study in which they will collect urine samples from LS patients between the ages of 40 and 75 who have a confirmed diagnosis of LS based on DNA testing their blood, either after they present with cancer or because they have an affected relative. Initially, the researchers will target patients with LS that is caused by a mutation in the MSH2 gene, as this is the group of patients with the greatest risk of cancer.

Next year funding will be requested to roll out the urine screening test nationwide. To help establish the test's sensitivity, international researchers will be invited to send in urine samples from LS patients before they are treated for urothelial cancers.

LS is caused by mutations affecting MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 or PMS2 genes. "Men with the MSH2 variant are at the greatest risk of developing cancer, with a higher than one in four risk of developing cancer of the kidney, ureter or bladder between the ages of 45 and 75. As we improve management of the high risk of bowel cancer, the importance of urothelial cancers rises as it accounts for 5% of all deaths in Lynch syndrome patients," said Sir John.

In a review of 10,243 urothelial cancers in England in 2018, the researchers found that only 43 patients (0.4%) had undergone testing for genetic variants that could identify whether or not they carried the variants for LS.

"We estimate that around 2% of urothelial cancers are in people with the LS genetic mutations and at least 5% should be tested to identify LS cases, so there is an urgent need to improve screening for this disease," he concluded.

Rob Jones, Chair of the NCRI Bladder & Renal Group and Professor of Clinical Cancer Research at the University of Glasgow, UK, who was not involved in the research, said: "Early detection is key to reducing cancer deaths. This is a particular challenge in cancers of the bladder and kidney because there are no simple screening tests. However, if we know a patient has Lynch Syndrome, we know they are at high risk, so should be targeted for screening. This important discovery means that these high-risk individuals could undergo a simple, regular urine test to check if they are developing one of these cancers, in the hope that it might be caught early with a better chance of cure."
As rural hospitals struggle to stay financially stable, their leaders watch other small facilities close obstetrics units to cut costs. They face a no-win dilemma: Can we continue operating delivery units safely if there are few births? But if we close, do we risk the health and lives of babies and mothers?

The other question this debate hangs on: How few is too few births?

Consider the 11-bed Providence Valdez Medical Center, which brings 40 to 60 newborns into the world each year, according to Dr. John Cullen, one of several family physicians who deliver babies at the Valdez, Alaska, hospital. The next nearest obstetrics unit is a six- to seven-hour drive away, if ice and snow don't make the roads treacherous, he said.

The hospital cross-trains its nurses so they can care for trauma and general medicine patients along with women in labor, and it invests in simulation training to keep their skills up, Cullen said. He typically stays on-site, checking regularly as labor progresses, just a few steps away if concerns arise.

If the measure is the number of deliveries, "I do think that obviously there's too small and we're probably at that limit of low volume," Cullen said. "I don't think that we really have a choice. So, we just have to be really good at what we do."

Some researchers have raised concerns based on their findings that hospitals with few deliveries are more likely to experience problems with those births. Meanwhile, "maternity deserts" are becoming more common. From 2004 to 2014, 9% of rural U.S. counties lost all hospital obstetric services, leaving slightly more than half of rural counties without any, according to a study published in 2017 in the journal Health Affairs. Yet shutting down the obstetrics unit doesn't stop babies from arriving, either in the emergency room or en route to the next closest hospital. In addition, women may have to travel farther for prenatal care if there's no local maternity unit.

Clinician skills and confidence suffer without sufficient practice, said Dr. Nancy Dickey, a family physician and executive director of the Texas A&M [University] Rural and Community Health Institute in College Station. So, what is that minimum threshold for baby deliveries? "I don't have a number for you," she said.

Dickey and Cullen are not alone in their reluctance to set a metric. For instance, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has published a position statement about steps that rural and other low-volume facilities can take to maintain clinician skills and patient safety, including conducting frequent drills and periodically rotating health providers to higher-volume facilities to gain experience. But when asked to define "low volume," a spokesperson wrote in an email: "We intentionally don't define a specific number for low-volume because we do not want to create an inaccurate misperception that less volume equals less quality."

Neither does the American Academy of Family Physicians provide guidance on what constitutes too few deliveries for safe operation. The academy "has not specified a minimum of deliveries required to maintain high quality obstetrical care in rural and underserved communities due to the unique and multifaceted nature of each case in each community," according to a written comment from the group's president, Dr. Sterling Ransone Jr.

One challenge in sorting out any connection between the number of deliveries and safety is that the researchers use differing cutoffs for what qualifies as a hospital with a low number of births, said Katy Kozhimannil, a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health who studies rural maternal health. Plus, such data-driven analyses don't reflect local circumstances, she said. The income level of local women, their health risk factors, the distance to the closest hospital with an obstetrics unit, hospitals' ability to keep trained doctors and nurses  hospital leaders must consider these and other factors as they watch their birth numbers fall due to declining local population or pregnant women opting to deliver at more urban high-tech hospitals, she said.

Research on birth volumes and outcomes has been mixed, but the "more consistent" finding is that hospitals with fewer deliveries are more likely to have complications, largely because of a lack of dedicated obstetric doctors and nurses, as well as potentially fewer resources for emergencies, such as blood banks, according to the authors of a 2019 federal report on improving rural maternity care. A study cited in the report, published in 2015 in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, found that women are three times as likely to hemorrhage after delivery in rural hospitals with the lowest number of deliveries  defined as between 50 and 599 annually  as in those with 1,700 or more.

Just 7.4% of U.S. babies are born at hospitals that handle 10 to 500 births annually, according to a geographic analysis published last month in JAMA Network Open. But those hospitals, which researchers described as low volume, are 37% of all U.S. hospitals that deliver babies.

Finances also influence these decisions, given that half of all rural births are paid for by Medicaid, which generally reimburses providers less than private insurance. Obstetrics is "referred to as a loss leader by hospital administrators," Kozhimannil said. As births dwindle, it can become daunting to pay for clinicians and other resources to support a service that must be available 24/7, she said. "Most hospitals will operate in the red in their obstetrics for a very long time, but at some point it can become really difficult."

If a hospital closes its unit, most likely fewer local women will get prenatal care, and conditions like a mother's severe anemia or a baby's breech position will be missed, Dickey said. "Not getting prenatal care increases the risks, wherever this patient delivers."

One Texas A&M initiative will enable its family medicine residency program to use telemedicine and periodic in-person visits to get more prenatal care to pregnant women in rural Texas, Dickey said. "What we really want are healthy mamas and healthy babies," she said.

The rural institute Dickey leads also plans to use a mobile unit to provide maternal simulation training to emergency room clinicians at 11 rural Texas hospitals, only three of which provide obstetrics. "But all of them catch babies now and then in their ER," said Dickey.

In Valdez, Alaska, keeping the hospital's unit open has paid off for residents in other ways, Cullen said. Since the hospital delivers babies, including by cesarean section, there's work to support a nurse anesthetist in the community of slightly more than 4,000 people. That enables the hospital to handle trauma calls and, more recently, the complexities of treating covid-19 patients, he said.

In her ongoing research, Kozhimannil remains committed to nailing down a range at which deliveries have dropped low enough to signal that a hospital needs "either more resources or more training because safety could be at risk." Not to shutter the obstetrics unit, she stressed. But rather to automatically qualify that hospital for more support, including extra financing through state and federal programs given that it's taxpayers that foot the bill for delivery complications, she said.

Because women will keep getting pregnant, Kozhimannil said, even if a hospital or a doctor decides to stop providing obstetric services. "That risk does not go away," she said. "It stays in the community. It stays with the people, especially those that are too poor to go other places."
INTEGRAs VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipette is supporting crucial experimental work in longitudinal HIV studies. There have recently been tremendous breakthroughs in treatment of HIV infections, but challenges still remain.

Image Credit: INTEGRA Biosciences

Scarlette Abbou, an engineer at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), explained her labs work in this field: CD4 T-cells  among others  act as reservoirs for HIV, and are established during the earliest stage of infection. These latent reservoirs are able to survive antiretroviral therapy (ART), which allows infected cells to become reactivated and produce HIV after treatment is halted, or if resistance develops.

Our team is looking at all the factors that contribute to the survival of the virus in these circumstances, which is really important for the advancement of new treatments. Our cohort consists of around a dozen patients, and screening multiple samples for each individual is a lot of work. We receive blood samples and extract both the CD4 T-cells and genomic DNA from the host, followed by analysis via PCR, gel electrophoresis and sequencing. Scarlette Abbou, Engineer, French National Centre for Scientific Research

We often prepare up to 20 PCR plates per patient at a time, and found that pipetting between the various labware formats was incredibly time consuming using a manual pipette. To deal with this issue, we bought two 8 channel VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipettes, and were immediately happy with how they improved the workflow! added Abbou
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is on track to spread in European countries such as Romania that have an older population and low vaccination rates, according to new research published in the medRxiv* preprint server.

Study: Unexposed populations and potential COVID-19 burden in European countries. Image Credit: Aleksandr Grechanyuk/ Shutterstock

Many European countries have had a high number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, but not all countries experienced the same infection rate, meaning less naturally acquired immunity. In addition, vaccination has slowed down in some countries, especially among younger people. With the emergence of Delta and other variants of concern, the researchers note that COVID-19 will be a recurring problem for many countries.

Our results suggest that the potential remaining burden of COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths across the 19 European countries considered is substantial, amounting to over 900,000 hospitalisations and 300,000 deaths, and that it varies considerably between countries, with countries that have experienced less transmission so far, have lower vaccine coverage and/or have older populations having much higher potential outstanding burdens," concluded the research team.

The researchers suggest governments should implement public health policies and non-pharmaceutical efforts to encourage vaccine-induced immunity.

The study

Each country presents its unique challenges with the coronavirus pandemic. However, common factors shared amongst European countries include the percentage of people in each age group with naturally-acquired immunity, the percentage of people with immunity via vaccination, and the population's makeup (older versus younger).

Understanding each factor can help in forecasting the population-level risk of developing severe COVID-19 illness. The current study categorized COVID-19 deaths by age and their vaccination status to calculate how effective vaccines were in preventing hospitalization and death. As more people got vaccinated, fewer people died from COVID-19 infections.

The lowered risk of death was similar in most European countries except for England and Romania. The researchers explain that this is likely because they had earlier and slower vaccine rollouts. Also, a more profound impact from vaccination was probably observed because countries such as Italy and Portugal have older populations making the fatality rate much higher, to begin with.

Natural immunity after recovering from a COVID-19 infection also helped with protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants. However, the rates of naturally acquired immunity differed across countries. For example, Norway's population had 3% naturally-acquired immunity while Romania had 70%.

The researchers also calculated the level of protection provided from vaccine-induced immunity and naturally acquired immunity from breakthrough infections.

The study assumed both types of immunity wane slowly and that the number of vaccinated individuals was larger than people who gained immunity after infection.

The above assumptions suggest very few individuals over the age of 40 were either unvaccinated or never exposed to COVID-19 infection. Consequently, it suggests many unexposed unvaccinated individuals were people younger than 40.

Results showed that hospitalization rates varied across countries. For every 100,000 individuals, about 62 people in England would require hospitalization, and 840 people would require hospitalization. The stark contrast may be due to England's high vaccination rates and high level of naturally-acquired immunity. Meanwhile, Romania has low vaccination coverage and an older population at high risk for COVID-19 complications.

For Denmark, an estimated 6,300 people would require hospitalization from severe COVID-19 infection. Germany is predicted to have about 280,000 future hospitalizations for COVID-19.

The number of COVID-19 deaths is similar across countries. For every 100,000 people infected with COVID-19, about 19 are estimated to die in England compared to 360 people in Romania. Slovenia is estimated to have about 1,200 deaths per every 100,000 infected. Germany is predicted to see 115,000 deaths.

Aside from Romania, where vaccine coverage is low, countries with a combination of lower vaccine coverage among older age groups, relatively low prior exposure and older populations (Austria, Finland, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Slovenia) have the highest maximum remaining burdens, as they have the potential to experience much higher numbers of hospitalisations and deaths among the elderly than countries with younger populations and high coverage in older age groups," concluded the team.

*Important notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Researchers led by the Marien Hospital Herne, a Ruhr-Universitat Bochum clinic, have investigated the extent to which mRNA vaccines protect dialysis patients from infection with variants of concerns of Sars-Cov-2. They showed that people who regularly have to undergo dialysis form protective antibodies against Sars-Cov-2 less frequently. Nevertheless, many produce reactive T cells after vaccination, which can protect against severe Covid-19 after infection with the alpha or beta variant. The team headed by Professor Nina Babel from the Centre for Translational Medicine at Medical Clinic I of Marien Hospital Herne describes the results in the Journal of American Society of Nephrology, published online on 29 October 2021.

The immune system can be trained to remember a pathogen on repeated contact with it and neutralize it before a severe clinical manifestation can occur. This immunological memory can be formed not only through contact with the naturally occurring pathogen, but also through vaccination.

Analyzing different components of the immune system

The researchers examined different components of the immune system in 34 dialysis patients: antibodies and Sars-Cov2-reactive T cells. Antibodies recognize pathogens after they have entered the body and can neutralize them before an infection occurs. T cells recognize infected cells and can initiate measures against the infection - thus, they protect against serious diseases as well.

Patients who suffer from chronic kidney failure and require dialysis belong to an outstanding risk group of severe Covid-19.

The immune system of patients suffering from end-stage renal disease is in a permanently hyperactivated state. As a result, they may build up poorer immune protection after a Sars-Cov-2 vaccination, which we have already observed with other vaccinations against viral infections." Professor Timm Westhoff, Director at Medical Clinic I

In cooperation with physicians from Dresden, the team from Marien Hospital Herne recently showed that dialysis patients also benefit from a vaccination against Sars-Cov-2.

T cells rather than antibodies

In the current study, the researchers examined the degree of vaccination protection in dialysis patients against the alpha and beta variants, which were first described in Great Britain and South Africa, respectively. The result was that only about one third of the patients produced protective antibodies against the alpha and beta variants. More than 80 per cent of them, however, formed specific T cells that can also effectively fight Sars-Cov-2.

"Even though the majority of the patients we studied didn't form antibodies against the new viral variants, our results suggest that a large proportion have sufficient reactive T cells to protect against severe Covid-19," as Nina Babel summarizes her findings.

Cooperation partners

For the study, Nina Babel's team cooperated with a dialysis center in Schwerte and the renal centres KfH-Nierenzentrum Hagen and Bismarckstrae in Berlin.
(Newser)  Update: The first Black cop in a small Ohio town has filed a discrimination complaint against its police force. The charge with the state's Civil Rights Commission was filed by Keith Pool, who says officials in Sheffield Lake did nothing to keep ex-Chief Anthony Campo's racist behavior in checkculminating in June with Campo placing a piece of paper that said "Ku Klux Klan" on Pool's raincoat and crafting a makeshift Klan hat in Pool's presence, reports the New York Times. "It was not a funny joke," Pool said Thursday, speaking publicly for the first time about the incident, per the AP. "It was offensive and humiliating. Even when we watch it now I'm in disbelief that this happened to me." The complaint sets the stage for Pool to file a civil rights lawsuit. Our original story from July follows:

story continues below

A former police chief in Ohio says a note left on a jacket on a Black officer's desk was just a jokebut nobody else found it funny. Anthony Campo resigned as police chief in Sheffield Lake, a community west of Cleveland, days after he was seen on surveillance footage printing off the "Ku Klux Klan" note and placing it on the jacket, USA Today reports. Sheffield Lake Mayor Dennis Bring describes the former chief's behavior as the "most egregious and offensive thing you could possibly do." The mayor said he was notified of the "embarrassing and disgusting" June 25 incident after the police union filed a complaint on behalf of the officer. Bring says Campo offered to submit his retirement papers after he was told he would be placed on administrative leave.

The mayor says that when he went to Campo's office, the chief made a joke about getting fired and was shocked when he was told there would be negative repercussions. "He said, 'After 30 years this is what I get?' And I said, 'You have 10 minutes to get out of your office,'" Bring said, per WKRC. Campo tells the Morning Journal that note was a joke and he isn't a racist. "Thats all it was," Campo says. "I had a joking back and forth banter with that officer, since I hired him." The mayor, however, says he had an emotional conversation with the "very upset" officer. He says the officer expressed a wish to stay with the department and he promised the officer the city would do all it could to support him.

(Read more Ohio stories.)
(Newser)  It sounds innocuous enough: traveling to a tributary of India's Ganges to bathe as part of a Hindu ritual. But as CNN reports, some sections of the Yamuna River were far from ripe for bathing in this week. What's being described as white toxic foam currently cover portions of the sacred river, but that didn't keep people from entering the water Wednesday as part of Chhath Puja, a four-day festival tied to the sun god Surya. The AP reports hundreds of people as going knee-deep, with others dunking themselves under. "It's a sewer," one devotee tells the New York Times. "But the sun deity says: 'Even if you stand in a gutter and make an offering, I will protect you for the rest of the year.'"

story continues below

The foam is thought to be a mix of sewage and industrial waste dumped in the Yamuna from New Delhi-area industries and is believed to contain problematic levels of ammonia and phosphates. Exposure to them can cause respiratory and skin problems. The AP reports the Yamuna is one of the world's most polluted rivers; the city's air is no better, ranking as among the most polluted on the planet. Authorities did try to employ boats and bamboo-stick barricades to deal with the foam, and even tasked workers with spraying fresh water on the river via hose. Still, "the foul odors were inescapable," per the Times. (Read more India stories.)
(Newser)  Alexander Lukashenko stepped up tensions with Western nations on Thursday by saying he'd reach for the gas shutoff in the event more sanctions are imposed on Belarus. "We are heating Europe," Lukashenko said, the Washington Post reports. "They still threaten us that they will close the border. And if we shut off natural gas there?" The president directed the nation's prime minister to warn all of Europe, state media reported, that new sanctions would be "unacceptable for us. We must answer." The EU and US are considering steps starting next week.

story continues below

It's part of the worsening migrant crisis at the Belarus-Poland border, where thousands of people are trying to enter Poland or Lithuania. According to reports Thursday in Polish media, a 14-year-old boy froze to death on the Belarus side, per the New York Times. Russia has backed Belarus throughout the crisis, though President Vladimir Putin's government has said it's staying out of the latest escalation. "It's clearly a very serious threat, and the next step is to watch what Russia says or does about this," one analyst said. The pipeline invoked by Lukashenko carries natural gas from Russia, through Belarus, to Western Europe.

The dispute reached the UN Security Council on Thursday, where a group of nations accused Lukashenko of trying to destabilize the region to deflect attention from Belarus' human rights violations. A statement decried "the orchestrated instrumentalization of human beings whose lives and well-being have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus." It was issued by the US, Britain, Estonia, France, Norway, and Albania. The statement was not accompanied by any action, which would be subject to veto by Russia. (Read more Belarus stories.)
(Newser)  The defense wrapped up its case Thursday in the Wisconsin homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, clearing the way for closing arguments to be made Monday. Each side will have 2 hours for its presentation, CNN reports. The prosecution had rested on Tuesday. If he's found guilty of the most serious charge in the deaths of two men and the wounding of a third in Kenosha last year, Rittenhouse will face a mandatory sentence of life in prison, per the AP. With the testimony over, here's where the 18-year-old's trial stands:

Witnesses : The jury heard the testimony of 31 people, 10 called by the defense, over eight days. Prosecutors called a single rebuttal witness on Thursday.

: The jury heard the testimony of 31 people, 10 called by the defense, over eight days. Prosecutors called a single rebuttal witness on Thursday. Expert testimony : On Thursday, jurors heard from John Black, described as a use-of-force expert and former police official, per the Washington Post. Black said he learned from studying video that Rittenhouse fired all of his shots in 1 minute, 20 seconds. Rittenhouse's lawyers contend he fired in self-defense, and in a pretrial hearing, Black had said the defendant's actions were within the state's self-defense law.

: On Thursday, jurors heard from John Black, described as a use-of-force expert and former police official, per the Washington Post. Black said he learned from studying video that Rittenhouse fired all of his shots in 1 minute, 20 seconds. Rittenhouse's lawyers contend he fired in self-defense, and in a pretrial hearing, Black had said the defendant's actions were within the state's self-defense law. Change in strategy : Prosecutors now say they want the jury to be allowed to consider lesser charges in two instances, per NPR. Possibilities include reckless homicide instead of intentional homicide and second-degree homicide in place of first-degree. A lawyer not involved in the case said prosecutors' shift could be "an acknowledgement that their case might not be as strong with regard to the original charges, and that at this point, they're willing to give up the prospect of life imprisonment for the defendant in exchange for obtaining convictions on something."

: Prosecutors now say they want the jury to be allowed to consider lesser charges in two instances, per NPR. Possibilities include reckless homicide instead of intentional homicide and second-degree homicide in place of first-degree. A lawyer not involved in the case said prosecutors' shift could be "an acknowledgement that their case might not be as strong with regard to the original charges, and that at this point, they're willing to give up the prospect of life imprisonment for the defendant in exchange for obtaining convictions on something." Deliberations: When closing arguments conclude, the names of the 18 jurors who have heard the trial will be placed in an old lottery tumbler. Twelve will be drawn, and those jurors will begin deliberating the case.

(Read more Kyle Rittenhouse stories.)
(Newser)  Update: The defense attorney in the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial who told the judge he didn't want to see any more "Black pastors" in the courtroom is now offering a mea culpa. "My apologies to anyone who might have inadvertently been offended," Kevin Gough said, per CNN. "I will let the court know that if my statements ... were overly broad, I will follow up with a more specific motion on Monday putting those concerns in the proper context," he said, per NPR. Our original story from Thursday follows:

story continues below

The Rev. Al Sharpton attended the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial Wednesday, prompting one of the defense attorneys to say the following day in court, "We don't want any more Black pastors coming in here." Kevin Gough, who represents William "Roddie" Bryan, a neighbor of fellow defendants Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael, said that having "high-profile members of the African American community" in the courtroom is "intimidating, and it's an attempt to pressurecould be consciously or unconsciouslyan attempt to pressure the jury," the Hill reports. He also made a reference to "Jesse Jackson, whoever was in here earlier this week sitting with the victim's family trying to influence the jury in this case," but Rev. Jackson has not attended the trial. TMZ suspects he may have meant attorney Ben Crump, who did attend this week.

Gough went on to say that "There's only so many pastors they can have. If their pastor is Al Sharpton right now, that's fine. But then that's it. We don't want any more Black pastors coming in here." USA Today notes the situation in the courtroom got "tense." Gough went on to say, "If a bunch of folks came in here dressed like Colonel Sanders with white masks, sitting in the back, I mean that would be" but at that point the judge cut him off. Gough did not formally request anyone be barred from the courtroom, and the judge indicated he would not have granted such a request. Sharpton, who was sitting with Arbery's family in the courtroom, tells TMZ, "The arrogant insensitivity of attorney Kevin Gough ... underscores the disregard for the value of the human life lost and the grieving of a family in need spiritual and community support." (Read more Ahmaud Arbery stories.)
(Newser)  Termination from the force may be in the future of the Chicago police sergeant who approved a search warrant for the home of Anjanette Young and then oversaw an operation in which officers used a battering ram to enter without abiding by the department's "Knock and Announce" policy and handcuffed a naked Young for 40 minutes, even after realizing they were at the wrong home. Officers also ignored her requests to see the search warrant for 15 minutes. This week, Police Superintendent David Brown called for Sgt. Alex Wolinski to be fired over the 2019 incident, NBC News reports.

story continues below

Brown also called for seven other officers involved in the raid to be suspended or fired, ABC 7 reports. Also this week, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability released its final report on the incident, which called for multiple officers to be disciplined. Wolinski will appear before the Chicago Police Board, which will ultimately decide his fate, Dec. 3. Other officers have already been served with administrative charges and will likely also appear before the board soon. The Fraternal Order of Police in Chicago called Brown's recommendation "disgusting" and called for his ouster.

Young has sued the city and several officers involved; that suit is still pending. Ella French, who was shot and killed during a traffic stop in August, was the only officer involved in the raid on Young's home who was said to show Young any "dignity or respect," per COPA. French was the one who ultimately took Young to get dressed and turned off her bodycam for privacy, Fox 32 reports. However, the report still called for the deceased officer to be suspended for three days. (Read more Chicago stories.)
(Newser)  The judge at Kyle Rittenhouse's intentional homicide trial made an ill-advised joke before the court's lunch break Thursday. "I hope the Asian food isn't coming... isn't on one of those boats from Long Beach Harbor," said Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder. CNN reports observers in the courtroom were "confused" by the "strange" joke, and since it started making headlines, many outside observers have expressed not just confusion but anger. Some interpreted the odd joke as placing blame on Asian people for the supply-chain backlogs currently plaguing the country. The defense wrapped up its case Thursday, with closing arguments expected to begin Monday.

story continues below

Criticism has poured in about the comment, which "harms our community and puts us in the crosshairs of micro aggressions as well as actual physical violence," says John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Tweeted a Stanford law professor, "The biased judge in the Rittenhouse trial just made a thinly-veiled anti-Asian comment. Because all Asian food comes from China like the boats haha what a bigot."

That wasn't Schroeder's only eyebrow-raising behavior of the day; in honor of Veterans' Day, he also asked the courtroom to applaud the single veteran in the rooman expert witness for the defense. The move could have boosted the witness's credibility with the jury, USA Today reports. The New York Times takes a look at Schroeder, who has been making waves since before the trial even began, here. (Read more Kyle Rittenhouse stories.)
(Newser)  An Israeli appeals court has said a 6-year-old boy who survived a cable car crash in Italy must be returned to his relatives there within 15 days, upholding an earlier ruling in a bitter custody battle with family members in Israel, the AP reports. Eitan Birans parents and younger sibling were among 14 people killed in May when a cable car slammed into a mountainside in northern Italy. His maternal grandparents in Israel and his paternal relatives in Italy are both seeking custody. Israeli media reported the latest ruling, which was issued late Thursday, and say the relatives in Israel can appeal to the Supreme Court. Lawyers for the families could not immediately be reached for comment.

story continues below

This week, an Italian judge issued an international arrest warrant for the boys grandfather, who whisked Eitan to Israel on a private jet in September. Last month, an Israeli court ordered the boy to be returned to his relatives in Italy, where he was living before the crash, saying that was the place of his normal residence. It also ordered his grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, who had brought him to Israel against the wishes of his family members in Italy, to pay around $20,000 in expenses and attorney fees. The grandfather has defended his decision to spirit the boy away, saying it was in the childs best interest. He drove Eitan from Italy to Switzerland without the other relatives knowledge before flying him to Israel.

Eitans paternal relatives say he was taken without their knowledge and they had filed a legal complaint in Italy seeking his return. After his release from a Turin hospital following weeks of treatment, Italian juvenile court officials ruled the child would live with a paternal aunt, Aya Biran, near Pavia, in northern Italy. In the earlier ruling, the Tel Aviv family court said Eitans residence was in Italy, where his family moved when he was only a month old. The judge concluded that his relocation to Israel was unlawful and violated the guardianship rights of his aunt. The judge also called on the family to reconcile, saying it was in the boys interests.

(Read more Israel stories.)
(Newser)  Harry Singh thought he'd discovered a child's toy on a beach on New Zealand's South Island. Then it moved its head. What he'd actually found was a tired Adelie penguin, which had the BBC reports apparently traveled some 1,800 miles from its home on the Antarctic peninsula. It's just the third recorded instance of a live Adelie penguin turning up in New Zealand, following two others in 1993 and 1962. Singh and his wife were walking along the beach at Birdlings Flat, south of Christchurch on the island's east coast, when Singh spotted the penguin, which looked like a "soft toy." "It did not move for one hour... and [looked] exhausted," he tells the BBC.

story continues below

Singh called Thomas Stracke of Christchurch Penguin Rehabilitation, who quickly rescued the penguin along with a veterinarian. "Apart from being a bit starving and severely dehydrated, he was actually not too bad, so we gave him some fluids and some fish smoothie," Stracke tells the Guardian. He says he requested that the Department of Conservation get the penguinwhich locals affectionately named Pinguon a flight back to Antarctica, but "they had a meeting with the other big penguin guns and they said no." Officials instead released Pingu into a safe bay in the hope that it will make the return trip home.

For now, Otago University zoology professor Philip Seddon isn't overly concerned by the "super rare" encounter. However, any uptick in arrivals might suggest "something's changed in the ocean that we need to understand," he tells the Guardian. Stracke notes New Zealand's own penguins are struggling as warming waters impact their food supply. (Read more penguin stories.)
(Newser)  Update: American journalist Danny Fenster, sentenced only days ago to 11 years hard labor in Myanmar, has been freed and is on his way home, per the AP. Former US Ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson said Fenster had been handed over to him in Myanmar and would return to the US via Qatar over the next day and a half. Richardson said he negotiated Fensters release during a recent visit to Myanmar when he held face-to-face meetings with Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's military ruler. Our original story from Nov. 12 follows:

story continues below

A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Friday sentenced detained US journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison with hard labor after finding him guilty on several charges, including incitement for allegedly spreading false or inflammatory information. Fenster, the 37-year-old managing editor of the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, was also found guilty of contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations, lawyer Than Zaw Aung said. The lawyer said Fenster, who was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he was about to board a flight to go to Michigan to see his family, wept in court after hearing the sentence, reports the AP.

He is the only foreign journalist to be convicted of a serious offense since the army seized power in February, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. He still faces two additional serious charges in a different court for allegedly violating the counterterrorism law and a statute covering treason and sedition. The charges are punishable by 10 years to life in prison, and seven to 20 years imprisonment, respectively. Despite testimony from more than a dozen prosecution witnesses, it was never clear exactly what Fenster was alleged to have done.

Much of the prosecutions case appeared to hinge on his being employed by Myanmar Now, another online news site, that had been ordered closed this year. But Fenster had left his job at Myanmar Now in July 2020, joining Frontier Myanmar the following month. However, the Information Ministry's records showed that Fenster continued to be employed this year by Myanmar Now. Both Myanmar Now and Frontier Myanmar issued public statements confirming Fenster left the former publication last year, and income tax receipts established that he works for Frontier Myanmar. The lawyer said the editor-in-chief at Myanmar Now apparently forgot to inform the Information Ministry of his resignation last year. (Read more journalist stories.)
(Newser)  The Danish sculptor behind one of the last pro-democracy symbols in Hong Kong is asking authorities for legal protection so he can remove it at the request of the University of Hong Kong. The Pillar of Shame, a 26-foot-tall copper sculpture depicting torn and twisted bodiescreated in honor of the pro-democracy protesters massacred during China's Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989has stood in the entryway of the university since 1997. The university requested its removal in September, however, after nine people who organized vigils at the statue were sentenced to prison under a wide-ranging national security law adopted in July 2020, per France 24.

story continues below

With its leadership arrested and property frozen, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, to which sculptor Jens Galschiot had loaned his sculpture in perpetuity, disbanded. The university then requested the Pillarpainted orange in 2008 to raise awareness about human rights abuses in mainland Chinabe removed. Galschiot says he's willing to oversee the removal before bringing the sculpture back to Denmark, per Reuters. But he first wants assurances that he and his helpers won't be prosecuted under a law that provides "legal basis for arresting foreign nationals who engage in activities that criticize China." The removal "will lead to activities and media coverage that could be perceived as criticism of China," he adds.

The university, which initially asked that the statue be moved by October, has not responded publicly, nor have Hong Kong authorities. Amid the uncertainty, a 3D model of the statue, valued at $1.4 million, has been created using photos and videos of it taken over the years. Sophie Mak, an HKU graduate living in Australia who was part of the 3D project, says "removing it is a way to whitewash history and suppress our collective memory, as the authorities are doing all across Hong Kong," per France 24. The outlet reports that once the Pillar is gone, a statue of the goddess of democracy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong will be the last monument honoring Tiananmen in the city. (Read more Hong Kong stories.)
(Newser)  In three minutes, 265 people lost their lives: the 260 people aboard Flight 587, which had taken off from New York City's JFK Airport, and five people on the ground in the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens' Rockaway peninsula, where the plane crashed in an eruption of fire and smoke. It was Nov. 12, 2001, two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the nation was not in a place to accept what NBC News describes as the second-deadliest plane crash in its history. It "evoked terrible memories of the earlier horror of jets slamming into the Manhattan skyline," Newsday reported in the aftermath. "It was the cruelest of ironies that the Queens neighborhood, which lost scores of residents in the World Trade Center attacks, was hit again."

story continues below

Any sense of normalcy that had returned to the city's Dominican American community evaporated in a flash. About 90% of the passengers aboard Flight 587, headed to the Dominican Republic, were of Dominican descent, per NBC. "With 9/11, all New Yorkers and Americans went through grief and trauma together," Ramona Hernandez, director of the Dominican Studies Institute at the City College of New York, told NBC last year. "Then the Dominican community experienced an additional, large-scale catastrophe." The National Transportation Safety Board eventually found a pilot had put too much pressure on a rudder pedal after the plane encountered wake turbulence. That, combined with a fault in the plane, meant the vertical stabilizer detached along with the tail and both engines.

"No matter how many anniversaries pass us by, we must never forget the magnitude of this loss and the impact it will forever have on the lives of countless families across the country," Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-NY, the first Dominican American elected to Congress, said in a Friday statement. "For them, the crash is still a visceral wound and closure remains elusive." He added he would introduce a congressional resolution "to ensure the memories of every single victim and their surviving family members are not forgotten." Several memorial services took place Friday, including at the Belle Harbor memorial wall which carries the names of each victim. Despite heavy rain and high winds, "you are here to show that love," NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio told the crowd, per WABC. "And I honor you for that." (Read more New York City stories.)
(Newser)  China's Xi Jinping and President Biden will have a virtual meeting on Monday, reports the Wall Street Journal. Though the two have spoken by phone twice since Biden took office, this will be their most formal discussion. However, US officials are keeping expectations modest and don't plan any major announcements afterward, according to the Journal. The meeting comes after Biden described Xi's decision to skip this week's climate talks in Glasgow as a "big mistake," notes the Washington Post. Despite the no-show by Xi, however, China and the US announced a plan to cooperate on reducing greenhouse gases.

story continues below

The announcement of Monday's discussion follows a meeting of China's Communist Party that may have paved the way for the 68-year-old Xi to lead China for the rest of his life, reports Bloomberg. The party approved what's known as a "historical resolution" that was delivered by Xi, and only Mao Zedong (in 1945) and Deng Xioping (in 1981) have delivered previous resolutions of this nature. The full text hasn't been released, but the BBC sees the document as "cementing" Xi's role in China's future. (Read more Xi Jinping stories.)
(Newser)  A Louisiana board on Friday posthumously pardoned Homer Plessy, the namesake of the US Supreme Courts 1896 "separate but equal" ruling affirming state segregation laws. The state Board of Pardons' unanimous decision to clear the Creole man's record of a conviction for refusing to leave a whites-only train car in New Orleans now goes to Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has final say over the pardon, reports the AP.

story continues below

Plessy was arrested in 1892 after boarding the train car as part of a civil rights group's efforts to challenge a state law that mandated segregated seating. The Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that state racial segregation laws didn't violate the Constitution as long as the facilities for the races were of equal quality. Plessy pleaded guilty to violating the Separate Car Act a year later and was fined $25. He died in 1925 with the conviction still on his record.

Descendants of Plessy and John Howard Ferguson, the judge who oversaw his case in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, became friends decades later and formed a nonprofit that advocates for civil rights education. Other recent efforts have acknowledged Plessy's role in history, including a 2018 vote by the New Orleans City Council to, in his honor, rename a section of the street where he tried to board the train.

(Read more civil disobedience stories.)
(Newser)  Travis Scott was busy onstage last weekend and had no idea he was performing at a mass casualty event, his lawyer said Friday. "He's up there trying to perform," Ed McPherson said. "He does not have any ability to know what's going on down below." Nine people who attended the Astroworld Music Festival in Houston have died of their injuries, and more than 90 lawsuits had been filed in Harris County District Court as of Friday. Appearing on ABC's Good Morning America, McPherson said the rapper was unaware of the declaration during his set. "That never got to Travis, that never got to Travis' crew," he said.

story continues below

Another spokesperson for Scott said he couldn't have put a halt to the show even if he'd known what was happening in the crowd of 50,000, per Yahoo. According to the operations plan, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said on CBS Mornings, the only people with the authority to stop the show were the concert's executive producer and the producer. Scott not only didn't know about the disaster while onstage, he didn't know until much later, Rawlings-Blake said. "It was hours and hours after the concert when they actually found out the tragedy, how the tragedy unfolded," she said.

Houston's fire chief had said earlier in the week that if a performer sees a problem, "he can certainly pause that performance, turn on the lights and say, 'Hey, we're not going to continue until this thing is resolved.'" The police chief said, "We don't hold the plug." Victims and their lawyers held a press conference Friday, at which the injured discussed the experience. Uniqua Smith, 34, said it took her from 9:45pm until 2:45am to get out of the crowd. A woman near her appeared to be having a seizure, Smith said. "I'm looking around for the paramedics," she said. "I don't see anyone responding." When Smith finally got clear of the crush, she said, she fainted. (Read more Travis Scott stories.)
(Newser)  Steve Bannon may have company soon in the eyes of Congress. Mark Meadows, who served as chief of staff under former President Trump, failed to show up on Friday for a hearing before the House panel investigating the events of Jan. 6, reports NBC News. When Bannon defied his own subpoena from the panel, the full House held him in contempt of Congress, and he was indicted on Friday. Meadows now faces the same possible fate, which could mean jail time. As Axios notes, House investigators want to talk to Meadows because they think he can provide details about Trump's actions on the day of the Capitol riot.

story continues below

The no-show wasn't a huge surprise given the statement put out earlier this week by Meadows' attorney. Mr. Meadows remains under the instructions of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege," said George Terwilliger. "It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict. In response, panel chair Rep. Bennie Thompson warned in a letter that ignoring the subpoena would force the panel to consider pursuing contempt charges. (Meanwhile, Trump is fighting in court to block the transfer of White House records from that day to the panel.)
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Education Minister, Dr Majid bin Ali Al-Nuaimi, affirmed Bahrains full support to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation yesterday to achieve its humanitarian goals and noble values. The minister said this as he spoke at the 41st session of the General Conference of UNESCO at the UNESCO headquarters.

He affirmed Kingdoms support to strengthen the pillars of peace, promote sustainable development and overcome the effects of the outbreak, especially on education.

He indicated that the Kingdom had taken all measures to ensure that education continues a priority.

Bahrain has turned the challenges created by the pandemic into real success opportunities, be it through the King Hamad Schools of the Future Project, which provides great opportunities for electronic and digital learning, the centralised lesson and the educational portal (eduNET), the minister said.

The minister told the meeting that the number of visits to eduNET had crossed 68 million during the previous academic year, or other means, such as televised lessons and 14 YouTube channels.

He also highlighted the role played by the Bahrain-based UNESCOs Regional Centre for Information and Communication Technology (RCICT) in providing the necessary supportive programmes.

He stressed that efforts to provide quality education are continuing during the current academic year.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain extended condolences to the governments and peoples of India and Sri Lanka over the victims of the torrential rains, which killed dozens of people and injured others.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the sympathy of Bahrain with the two friendly countries, affirming its full solidarity and support for all efforts made to limit further losses in lives and property.

Heavy rains on Sri Lankas coast and in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu have killed at least 41 people, destroyed thousands of homes and snarled traffic.

According to a report, 25 people have died in recent days, most from drowning, while five were hurt in landslides in Sri Lanka.

In the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, at least 16 people died after heavy rains caused severe flooding over the weekend, the states disaster management department said Thursday.

Officials previously said five people had died in the floods. More heavy rain is expected in Tamil Nadu and the southern coast of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state, as a depression over the Bay of Bengal moves toward the region, according to Indias Meteorological Department.

Tamil Nadu state officials evacuated hundreds of people from low-lying areas and distributed rations and food to those already affected by the rains.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Aleastur, a leading European metal producer, announced launching the Gulf Cooperation Councils (GCCs) first state-of-the-art aluminium grain refiners and master alloys production hub at its new Middle East based in Bahrain.

The hub will be the Spanish firms first overseas facility and will produce high-quality aluminium alloys for different purposes across various industries.

The new $15 million facilities will supply speciality alloys to global markets, including Asia, North America and the GCC.

The Bahrain facility will be exporting approximately 85% of its annual production to regional players in the industry, including aluminium smelters and cast-houses.

Aleastur is one of Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat) portfolio companies and is considered one of the top aluminium grain refiner players.

It is expected to hit revenues in the new facility of nearly $53 million by 2025 as it ramps up foreign exports.

The facility in Bahrain, designed to be an ideal aluminium downstream hub, will reduce lead times and strengthen supply chains for the aluminium industry in the region and neighbouring markets as global economies begin to reboot and construction projects resume.

The launch of this facility is an example of Bahrains economic recovery plan in action.

This supports the mandate to continue attracting investment to the Kingdom, ultimately creating jobs for Bahrainis.

We hope to establish a solid regional base and establish an access point from Spain not only to cater the GCC but other several regions.

The geographical location of Bahrain and easy access to some of the fastest-growing markets here will provide the platform we need to achieve our international growth ambitions, said Sergio Martinez, the CEO of Aleastur Group.

Were thrilled to be joining our industry peers in Bahrain, and we look forward to tapping into a growing aluminium hub right next door to Alba.

With our Spanish facilities, the new site will be particularly well-positioned to export to the South East Asian and Indian markets.

In addition to Bahrains well placed geographical location, we will benefit from the highly skilled local workforce, strong logistics infrastructure and best-value operating costs, said Sergio Martinez. Aleasturs new hub is part of a broader plan, in partnership with Mumtalakat, who acquired a significant stake in the company in 2016, to develop the Kingdoms downstream aluminium sector and strengthen synergies between local manufacturers, and key international players.

Commenting on the announcement, Khalid Al Rumaihi, the CEO of Mumtalakat, said, As one of our key investments, Aleasturs presence in Bahrain will add significant value to the growing downstream aluminium cluster which will enable them to cater to the growing demand in the region and beyond.

We look forward to seeing their operations expand and are excited by the prospects this next phase for Aleastur brings.

Bahrain is already known in the Gulf region for its booming aluminium trade.

The Kingdoms national aluminium manufacturer, Alba, is the largest single-site smelter in the world outside of China, producing at full capacity more than 2% of global output.

Mid and downstream clusters are fast developing around Alba, feeding off the metal it produces. Aluminium exports made up about 34.2% of Bahrains non-oil exports in 2020, and the sector already contributes 11.1% to GDP.

Khalid Humaidan, the Chief Executive of Bahrains Economic Development Board, said, The decision by Aleastur to build its first international base in Bahrain, is a prime example of the Kingdoms attractiveness in the manufacturing and logistics sectors which we believe can be summarized by three main attributes.

Firstly, our competitive operating costs are likely to be more profitable, secondly, our free trade agreements support businesses.

Last but not least, a key decisive element is a highly-skilled workforce we have to man those business and keep them successful.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP)  Voters in Bulgaria go to the polls on Sunday for the third time in seven months amid a virus surge, after no party secured enough support in the previous two elections in April and July to form a stable government.

Their task this time will be not only to break the political deadlock that has badly hurt the economy of the European Unions poorest country, but also to elect a new president.

More than 6.7 million Bulgarians are eligible to vote, but pollsters expect many of them to stay home because of growing concern over a new deadly COVID-19 wave and rocketing numbers of infections and deaths.

On Thursday, Bulgaria reported its highest ever total of daily fatalities. Its seven-day rolling average of deaths per million inhabitants reached 24.13, compared with an EU average of 3.1, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

Although hospitals are struggling with a rising patient influx, the current caretaker government has been hesitant to impose unpopular lockdown restrictions before the election.

Latest opinion polls indicate that despite a further erosion in support for the former ruling GERB party it is likeliest to finish first in Sundays elections, which analysts attribute to voters tendency to stick to the status quo during a crisis.

Recent investigations into alleged corruption during ex-Prime Minister Boyko Borissovs tenure in office, however, are limiting his chances to find coalition partners for a new term  which would be the fourth in the last 12 years.

We Continue the Change, a new party led by two Harvard-educated ex-ministers in the interim government  Kiril Petkov and Asen Vasilev  is seeing its support grow because of their resolute anti-graft actions.

Opinion polls suggest that up to seven parties could pass the 4% threshold to enter parliament in Sunday's vote.

A recent Gallup International survey ranked GERB first with 23.5%, followed by its two main rivals  We Continue the Change with 15.5% and the Socialist party with 15.2%.

The anti-elite There is Such a People party led by TV entertainer Slavi Trifonov, which narrowly won the July elections, is projected to finish fourth due to its failure to set up a government with other anti-graft groups.

The winner in Sundays election will be the GERB party, but after last years protests it has become clear that it is in political isolation, Parvan Simeonov, a Sofia-based political analyst for Gallup International, told The Associated Press.

Simeonov predicted tough coalition talks in a fragmented legislature, but voiced hope that there will be stronger public pressure on politicians.

The people will force politicians to form a government, so this time around the chances for it are better, he said.

In Sundays presidential election, incumbent Rumen Radev is seeking a second five-year term in the largely ceremonial post.

Radev, a vocal critic of Borissov and firm supporter of last years anti-corruption protests, is tipped to win slightly under the 50% needed for an outright victory in the first round. If so, there will be a runoff vote on Nov. 21.

His main contestant among 23 running for the post is Anastas Gerdzhikov, a university professor.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Republican lawmakers succeeded Thursday in forcing a Thanksgiving-week special session of the Kansas Legislature to consider financially protecting workers who refuse to comply with federal vaccine mandates.

GOP legislative leaders announced that all Republicans in both the House and the Senate have signed a petition demanding a special session starting Nov. 22. Governors call special sessions, but the Kansas Constitution requires them to do it if two-thirds of both chambers demand it  the GOP holds more than enough seats.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  The Kellogg Co. has filed a lawsuit against its local union in Omaha complaining that striking workers are blocking entrances to its cereal plant and intimidating replacement workers as they enter the plant.

The company based in Battle Creek, Michigan, asked a judge to order the Omaha chapter of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union to stop interfering with its business while workers picket outside the plant. The workers in Omaha and at Kellogg's three other U.S. cereal plants have been on strike since Oct. 5.

We respect the right of employees to lawfully communicate their position in this matter. We sought a temporary restraining order to help ensure the safety of all individuals in the vicinity of the plant, including the picketers themselves, company spokeswoman Kris Bahner said Thursday.

The president of the Omaha union declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday.

Kellogg's lawsuit comes after a vehicle struck and killed a United Auto Workers member last as he was walking to a picket line to join striking workers outside a John Deere distribution plant in northwest Illinois. An Iowa judge issued a temporary restraining order against Deere workers in Davenport limiting their demonstrations to four picketers at a time.

Kellogg's said in its lawsuit that union members have been physically blocking the entrance to the plant as semitrucks and buses try to enter and leave.

The company also said in the lawsuit that people picketing outside the plant have threatened the lives of people working at the plant including threatening that an individuals wife and young children will be assaulted (including sexually) while he is away from home working with Kellogg.

Two days of contract talks earlier this month failed to produce an agreement. Earlier this week, Kellogg's launched a PR campaign trying to sell workers on its latest offer because the union declined to put the deal up to a vote. But the company said Thursday that its offer to the union had now expired, and no additional talks have been scheduled.

Ken Hurley, the head of labor relations at Kellogg's, said in a video the company posted on its website that Kellogg's has tried to address the union's main concerns about its two-tiered pay system, wages and benefits in its offer.

We have made every attempt to build a bridge toward a new agreement, but those efforts are met with rejections and more unrealistic demands, Hurley said in the video. We urge the union to reconsider its approach and agree to engage in real bargaining for a contract to get our employees back to work and back to their lives.

Union officials told workers after those contract talks that they couldn't recommend Kellogg's offer because it was full of concessions.

The Kelloggs strike includes roughly 1,400 workers four plants in Battle Creek; Omaha; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee, that make all of Kelloggs brands of cereal, including Frosted Flakes and Apple Jacks.

The company has said that it has restarted production at all of the plants with salaried employees and outside workers, and it is now hiring new employees at the plants. CEO Steven Cahillane also told investors earlier this month when the company reported a $307 million quarterly profit that Kelloggs stockpiled cereal beforehand to help weather the strike.

Workers at Kellogg's and other companies feel emboldened this year to strike in the hope of obtaining a better offer because of the ongoing worker shortages.

Besides the Kellogg's strike, more than 10,000 Deere workers remain on strike after rejecting two different offers from the tractor maker.

Employees are also less willing to compromise this year after working long hours during the coronavirus pandemic to keep up with demand over the past 18 months.

Earlier this year, about 600 food workers also went on strike at a Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas and 1,000 others walked off the job at five Nabisco plants across the U.S. At meatpacking plants across the country labor unions have been successfully negotiating significant raises for employees.
Today, Sonia Sidhu, Member of Parliament for Brampton South, on behalf of the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, participated in a ceremony to unveil a plaque recognizing the importance of the discovery of insulin as an event of national historic significance. The ceremony was held in collaboration with the University of Toronto at their Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin, an extraordinary development in medical science, saving millions of lives worldwide. Up until the early 20th century, diabetes was a fatal disease. Thanks to a Canadian team of researchers  Frederick Banting, Charles Herbert Best, John J.R. Macleod, and James Bertram Collip  a treatment was discovered in 1921, when they succeeded in isolating and purifying insulin. Following this discovery, they successfully treated diabetic patients at the Toronto General Hospital, making headlines around the world.

In 1923, Banting and Macleod received a Nobel Prize in medicine for their work on the discovery of insulin, stimulating further medical research in Canada. Today, we recognize all four Canadian researchers  Banting, Macleod, Best and Collip  for contributing to one of Canada's greatest accomplishments in medical research.

Under the National Program of Historical Commemoration, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada advises the Government of Canada on significant persons, places, and events that have shaped our country. National historic designations are one way of helping Canadians connect with their past. By sharing these stories with Canadians, we hope to foster understanding and reflection on the diverse histories, cultures, legacies, and realities of Canada's past and present.

Quote

"Today, we recognize and honour one of Canada's most ground-breaking medical discoveries, and the role of Canadian researchers who helped save millions of lives around the world over the last 100 years. The plaque commemorating the discovery of insulin as a national historic event reflects the rich and varied history of Canada and provides an opportunity for Canadians to discover and connect with our diverse heritage."

Sonia Sidhu

Member of Parliament for Brampton-South



Quick Facts

In 1921-1922, at a University of Toronto laboratory, Frederick Banting, Charles Best , John J.R. Macleod , and James Collip succeeded in producing extracts of pancreas that contained an effective anti-diabetic agent. They named it insulin, and presided over its development, saving lives around the world and revolutionizing the treatment for the once fatal disease of diabetes.

laboratory, Frederick Banting, , , and James Collip succeeded in producing extracts of pancreas that contained an effective anti-diabetic agent. They named it insulin, and presided over its development, saving lives around the world and revolutionizing the treatment for the once fatal disease of diabetes. The discovery of insulin is the most celebrated Canadian medical discovery of the 20th century, winning a Nobel Prize in 1923, and stimulating further medical research in Canada .

. Created in 1919, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada advises the Minister of Environment and Climate Change regarding the national significance of persons, places, and events that have marked history in Canada for recognition under the National Program of Historical Commemoration. Parks Canada supports the Board's work with professional and administrative services, including the conduct of historical and archaeological research needed for evaluating nominations. Together, Parks Canada and the Board ensure that subjects of national historic significance are recognized and these important stories are shared with Canadians.

advises the Minister of Environment and Climate Change regarding the national significance of persons, places, and events that have marked history in for recognition under the National Program of Historical Commemoration. Parks supports the Board's work with professional and administrative services, including the conduct of historical and archaeological research needed for evaluating nominations. Together, Parks Canada and the Board ensure that subjects of national historic significance are recognized and these important stories are shared with Canadians. The vast majority of nominations brought forward for the consideration of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada originate from members of the public. For more information on the Board and how to submit a nomination, please visit Parks Canada's website: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/culture/clmhc-hsmbc.

Related Product

Backgrounder: The Discovery of Insulin

Related Links

Parks Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada

SOURCE Parks Canada

For further information: Julia Grcevic, Public Relations and Communications Officer, Parks Canada Agency, Southwestern Ontario Field Unit, 905-357-8331; [email protected]; Media Relations, Parks Canada Agency, 855-862-1812, [email protected]

Related Links

www.pc.gc.ca


Today, the Honourable Daniel Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs, Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada and Minister Responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, announced funding of $1.5 million to support GAAP in its efforts to assist agri-food companies advancing their technologies to market adoption. GAAP provides promising firms with access to facilities, training, mentorship, concierge services and investment. This funding is being delivered through PrairiesCan in Saskatchewan under the Regional Innovation Ecosystem (RIE) program.

Early-stage funding is critical to allow ground-breaking ideas to become innovative technologies with real market impact. This strengthens Canada's position in the global economy as an innovation leader addressing the reality of finite resources in global food production. Today's investment in GAAP supports agri-food innovation in the Prairie provinces and increases Canada's competitive position in international markets by bringing together new and existing innovation resources, increasing access to capital, and assisting agri-food start-ups.

GAAP will provide early-stage agri-food technology companies with support, including:

Multi-year access to greenhouses, laboratories and offices at Innovation Place, as well as sector expertise and mentorship. Facilities will include the GIFS' Omics and Precision Agriculture (OPAL) platform to support plant breeding, post-harvest technologies, and drone, imaging and sensor technologies, as well as the Food Centre's expertise and incubation suites.

Scale-up and commercial acceleration opportunities as well as access to large-scale early adopters and industry users  connecting firms directly to stakeholders and potential customers, especially for technologies that require field-testing.

Equity investment directed to companies that are translating new knowledge and innovation to the marketplace, and therefore require large investments.

A soft-landing program for domestic and international clients looking to establish a presence in Western Canada . In addition to GAAP's financial support, international clients may also have access to financial support through the Voyage Program, jointly funded by GAAP and Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Association (SREDA).

Quotes

"The Government of Canada recognizes the immense potential for Saskatchewan to become an even stronger global leader in the agri-food industry and to benefit from the economic advantages of a growing global demand for food products. By helping early stage Saskatchewan agri-food companies to innovate and address the challenges that start-ups can face, we're ensuring that they can capitalize on growth opportunities, increase their competitiveness, and create high-quality jobs that people in Saskatchewan can rely on."

- The Honourable Daniel Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs, Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada and Minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency

"When the partners set out to create the Global Agri-Food Advancement Partnership (GAAP), we saw a void in capital in Western Canada's agri-food space. Combining the fund with our extensive network of business experts and world-class infrastructure is what makes GAAP truly unique. We are proud to be supporting cutting-edge technology companies through to adoption, and in turn help the sector be more competitive on the global stage."

- Jay Robinson, interim Chief Executive Officer, Global Agri-Food Advancement Partnership and Chief Operating Officer, Ag-West Bio Inc.

Quick Facts

PrairiesCan is investing $1.5 million to assist the Global Agri-Food Advancement Partnership (GAAP) in launching its GAAP Incubator.

to assist the Global Agri-Food Advancement Partnership (GAAP) in launching its GAAP Incubator. The project will establish an agri-food technology incubator program to foster innovation and sector growth by providing early stage companies with access to facilities, training, mentorship, concierge services, and investment over a three-year project period.

Saskatchewan is well positioned to be a leader in agri-food and biotech innovation due to its wealth of agricultural expertise and reputation as a world-renowned consistent supplier of high-quality food ingredients.

is well positioned to be a leader in agri-food and biotech innovation due to its wealth of agricultural expertise and reputation as a world-renowned consistent supplier of high-quality food ingredients. The Regional Innovation Ecosystem (RIE) program, delivered on the Prairies by PrairiesCan, supports business needs to create, grow and nurture inclusive regional innovation ecosystems.

Associated links

Stay connected

Follow PrairiesCan on Twitter and LinkedIn

Toll-Free Number: 1-888-338-9378

TTY (telecommunications device for the hearing impaired): 1-877-303-3388

SOURCE Prairies Economic Development Canada

For further information: Ryan Cotter, Director of Communications, Office of the Minister of Northern Affairs, Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, and Minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, [email protected]; Jennifer Stelzer, Acting Director of Policy, Planning and External Relations, Saskatchewan Region, Prairies Economic Development Canada, [email protected]
Natural Resources Canada is challenging small businesses to propose new processes and technologies for tree seedling activities

OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

The Government of Canada is supporting Canadian small businesses through the Innovative Solutions Canada program by inviting them to come up with a new innovative product, service or solution in response to a specific challenge.

Today, Innovative Solutions Canada launched a new challenge led by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) to modernize tree seedling production and make tree planting more cost-efficient and sustainable. With billions of tree seedlings produced each year in Canada, NRCan is looking for new processes and technologies that will modernize the forest sector by reducing not only the cost of tree seedling production, packaging and transportation but also the amount of waste those activities currently generate. The solution will also help Canada become a world leader in innovative tree planting solutions.

Winning businesses may receive up to $150,000 to refine their research and development and, if accepted into Phase 2 of the program, up to $1 million to develop a working prototype. The government can then act as a first customer, helping these businesses commercialize their innovations, scale up their business and create good middle-class jobs across Canada.

This challenge will support the Government of Canada's commitment to plant 2 billion trees over the next 10 years, which is projected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 12 megatonnes annually by 2050 and create up to 4,300 green jobs. The 2 Billion Trees program continues the government's efforts to advance tree planting as an important part of the solution to climate change.

Quotes

"We are proud to support the growth of small businesses by funding their innovative ideas. This Innovative Solutions Canada challenge will mobilize entrepreneurs, help foster innovation and ensure tree planting and tree seedling activities are both efficient and sustainable."

 The Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

"Canada's forests have a critical role to play in getting us to our climate targets and protecting biodiversity. That's why we're helping businesses develop innovative tree planting techniques with challenges like this one, while growing Canada's forests with investments like the 2 Billion Trees program."

 The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources

Quick facts

Small businesses will have until December 21, 2021 , to apply to the challenge.

, to apply to the challenge. Innovative Solutions Canada is a key component of the government's Innovation and Skills Plan, a multi-year plan to make Canada a global innovation leader and prepare Canadians to succeed in tomorrow's economy.

a global innovation leader and prepare Canadians to succeed in tomorrow's economy. There are hundreds of programs and services that offer everything from funding to expert advice to help businesses innovate, create jobs and grow Canada's economy. Using a simple, story-based user interface, the Business Benefits Finder can match businesses with the most fitting programs and services in about two minutes.

Associated links

Stay connected

Find more services and information at Canada.ca/ISED.

Follow Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on social media.Twitter: @ISED_CA, Facebook: Canadian Innovation, Instagram: @cdninnovation and LinkedIn

SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

For further information: John Power, Senior Manager, Communications and Media Relations, Office of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, [email protected]; Media Relations: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, 343-291-1777, [email protected],

Related Links

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/icgc.nsf/eng/home


"We as a company want to be judged on our accomplishments not our projections." Grant F. Sanders -Chairman Tweet this

A supply agreement governing the Southern Africa Cannabis was entered into between IDP Macedonia and its licensed contracted grower of Southern Africa Cannabis on July 21, 2021 (the "Southern Africa Supply Agreement"). The Southern Africa Supply Agreement governs the supply of Southern Africa Cannabis bearing THC-content levels as high as 17.98%.

The Import Permit was issued by MALMED in accordance with article 49 paragraph 1, article 50 and article 51 of the Control of Narcotics and Psychotropic substances (Official Gazette of RM, No 103/08, 124/10, 164/13 and 149/15) and the International Conventions on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

Delivery of the Southern Africa Cannabis to IDP Macedonia is scheduled to be completed before December 31, 2021.

About Instadose Pharma Canada

Instadose Pharma Canada is establishing a large commercial outdoor growing, cultivation, production and global distribution platform for medicinal cannabis and cannabinoid oil (the "Global Distribution Platform"). Instadose Pharma Canada endeavors to utilize the Global Distribution Platform to open the commercial gateway to a new wholesale marketplace capable of providing pharmaceutical industry companies with large, sustainable, consistent, diverse, and low-cost supplies of high-quality medicinal cannabis and cannabinoid oil for use in bulk as an active pharmaceutical ingredient. Instadose Pharma Canada's Global Distribution Platform spans five (5) world continents to date, including Africa, Europe, Asia, South America, and North America. Within each continent, Instadose Pharma Canada is establishing operational subsidiaries and joint venture partnerships to secure access to government-issued licenses and permits in countries including The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of North Macedonia, the Portuguese Republic, the Republic of India, Colombia, Mexico, and Canada, each seeking to increase their level of participation within the global medicinal cannabis industry.

Instadose Pharma's relationships with international partners are based on sustainable, long-term agreements that were initially designed to give back to people and protect the natural environment. Instadose Pharma's projects aim to increase the quality of life, provide jobs, fresh water, education, food security and capital.

Instadose Pharma U.S.A. anticipates closing its plan of arrangement transaction with Instadose Pharma Canada on or about November 15, 2021 (the "Arrangement"). The Arrangement is being completed under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia), pursuant to which Instadose Pharma U.S.A. will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares (the "Shares") of Instadose Pharma Canada. The consideration to be paid for each Share shall be 1.34 common shares of Instadose Pharma U.S.A.

For more information visit us at:

www.instadosepharma.com

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to the Company's plans and other aspects of our anticipated future opportunities. Forward-looking information typically uses words such as "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "trend", "sustain", "project", "expect", "forecast", "budget", "goal", "guidance", "plan", "objective", "strategy", "target", "intend", "estimate", "potential", or similar words suggesting future outcomes, statements that actions, events or conditions "may", "would", "could" or "will" be taken or occur in the future, including statements about our plans, focus, objectives, priorities and position. In particular, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, this press release contains forward-looking information with respect to our upcoming shipments of Medical Cannabis. The forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by our Board and Management. Although we believe that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking information addresses future events and conditions, by its very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Our actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking information and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking information will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that we will derive therefrom. Management has included the above summary of assumptions and risks related to forward-looking information provided in this press release in order to provide security holders with a more complete perspective on our future operations and such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing lists of factors are not exhaustive. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and we disclaim any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Instadose Pharma Corporation

For further information: Contact for Information: [email protected]; Media: [email protected]

Related Links

https://www.instadosepharma.com/


The event raised over $980,000, which will support local community programs across Canada that help address the challenges related to military service. This includes funding summer camps with a focus on the unique needs and requirements of military children, including focused sessions for children who have lost a parent through their service in the military.

The Tribute Gala included personal stories of the Foundation's impact, a conversation about the impact and ongoing developments in Afghanistan, and a special performance from the National Arts Centre, accompanied by members from the Canadian Armed Forces. The event featured a silent auction with soldier helmets that were transformed into works of art by Canadian artists such as Izzy Camilleri and Al Hattie. Members of the military community also contributed pieces.

Central to this year's event was the awarding of the Patriot Award to founder and chairman of The Printing House Charitable Office Janice O'Born. The Patriot Award is presented annually by True Patriot Love to an individual or an organization that has made an outstanding philanthropic contribution to the resilience and wellbeing of the military community.

O'Born previously served as the Gala's Chair, helping to raise over $3.1 million during her leadership. Under her direction, the Gala previously supported the continuum of military service of Canada's Indigenous Peoples and showcased and recognized the strength and dedication of the women of the Canadian Armed Forces and their families. In addition to her ongoing support of our mandate, Janice was the first to step forward to provide a significant donation in support of the inaugural Invictus Games in 2014, as Canada sent our first team of warriors to those games.

About True Patriot Love Foundation

Founded in 2009, True Patriot Love Foundation has become Canada's leading organization supporting the military community. The foundation raises awareness around the challenges related to military service and funds programs for serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces, Veterans and their families that support their well-being, enable rehabilitation and recovery from injury, assist the children and spouses of those who serve, and promote re-integration into communities following service. Since inception, True Patriot Love has committed over $35 million in funding to 945 community-based programs across the country, which has helped change the lives of more than 37,600 military members, Veterans and families. For more information, visit www.truepatriotlove.com.

SOURCE True Patriot Love Foundation

For further information: Media inquiries please contact: Sarah Barker, Senior Director, Brand Strategy and Communications, True Patriot Love Foundation, [email protected]

Related Links

http://truepatriotlove.com/


Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Thursday moved a resolution in Vidhan Sabha's special session, demanding the withdrawal of the Union Home Ministry's directive that increases the Border Security Force's (BSF) jurisdiction from 15km to 50km in the state.

Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday said that Border Security Forces (BSF) operational jurisdiction concerns national security and it should not be politicised. In a series of tweets, he said that extending the operational jurisdiction of BSF does not infringe upon the federal authority of Punjab.

Extending operational jurisdiction of BSF neither infringes upon the federal authority of Punjab nor questions competence of state police in maintaining law and order, as some vested political interests are trying to make out. It concerns national security; must not be politicised, Singh said.

Unfortunately people playing up the issue are unable to make out the difference between law and order and national security. BSF like Punjab Police is our own force and not an external or foreign army coming to occupy our land, he added.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Thursday moved a resolution in Vidhan Sabhas special session, demanding the withdrawal of the Union Home Ministrys directive that increases the Border Security Forces (BSF) jurisdiction from 15km to 50km in the state.

Randhawa said that the decision of extending the jurisdiction of BSF is an expression of distrust towards the State Police and the People of Punjab.

The Centre had earlier in October empowered the Border Security Force (BSF) to conduct searches, arrest suspects and make seizures up to an area of 50 km inside Indian territory from the International Border (IB) along India-Pakistan and India-Bangladesh borders.

The BSF, which was only empowered to take action up to fifteen kilometers in the states of Punjab, West Bengal, and Assam, has now been authorised to extend its jurisdiction up to 50 km without any hurdle or permission either from central or state governments.

However, its jurisdiction has been cut short by 20 km in the five northeastern states Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, and Meghalaya where it had jurisdiction up to 80 km. Similarly in Gujarat, the BSFs jurisdiction has been curtailed from 80 to 50 km. In Rajasthan, the BSFs area of jurisdiction will remain the same at 50 km.
Referring to former Union Minister Salman Khurshid's new book on the Ayodhya verdict, Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday said comparing Hindutva with ISIS and Jihadist Islam is factually wrong and an exaggeration.

Former Union Minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid is facing legal issues with the release of his book, Sunrise over AyodhyaNationhood in our times. Two Delhi lawyers have filed complaints with Delhi Police against Khurshid, for allegedly defaming and comparing Hinduism with terrorism in his book. Advocate Vivek Garg in his complaint is seeking to file a case against Khurshid.

The complaint alleges that in his new book titled Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times, which is primarily based on Ayodhya verdict and was released last week, Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid has compared Hindutva to radical Terrorist groups like ISIS and Boko Haram.

Khurshid stated in his new book  Sanatan Dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints were being pushed aside by a robust version of Hindutva, by all standards a political version similar to the jihadist Islam of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram of recent years, the complaint said.

This reflects the true mindset of Congress as they try to legitimize the radical elements of ISIS by creating an artificial equivalence with Hindus. His statement printed in his book is itself self-explanatory and clearly discloses his commission of the cognizable offence. The language, intention of the said book authored by the alleged accused, is an open case of sedition, conspiracy to wage the war against India, promoting enmity between Hindus-Muslims, etc, Gargs complaint said.

Meanwhile, Advocate Vineet Jindal in his complaint said that the statement published in the said book is not only instigating and provoking but also stirring emotions among followers of the Hindu religion. Our constitution provides every citizen with the freedom of speech and expression but the misuse of this right is inexplicable when it threatens the honour and harmony of the country and provokes its citizens based on community and religion and threatens the security of the nation then it is considered as a grave offence. The contents of the statement made by the accused claim Hinduism to be equivalent to ISIS and Boko haram, which are terrorist groups. It is a quite aggravating and defamatory statement for the whole Hindu community and also questions their values and virtues about society. The equivalence of Hinduism to ISIS and Boko haram is perceived as a negative ideology Hindus have been following and Hinduism is violent, inhuman and oppressive, Jindals complaint read.

The accused by making the above-cited statement in his book has committed offences under Sections153,153A, 298 and 505 (2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which are cognizable offences and very serious, the lawyers complaint stated.

Referring to former Union Minister Salman Khurshids new book on the Ayodhya verdict, Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday said comparing Hindutva with ISIS and Jihadist Islam is factually wrong and an exaggeration. Taking to Twitter, Azad said, In Salman Khurshids new book, we may not agree with Hindutva as a political ideology distinct from the composite culture of Hinduism, but comparing Hindutva with ISIS and Jihadist Islam is factually wrong and an exaggeration.
Huagen, who worked at Facebook for two years before leaving in May, said that the company is very well aware of how the platform spreads hate, violence and misinformation and earns a lot of profit from it.

Facebook Whistleblower Frances Huagen expressed concerns over Facebooks plan of redirecting its focus and efforts towards Metaverse due to privacy concerns. Huagen, who worked at Facebook for two years before leaving in May, had earlier claimed that Facebook is very well aware of how the platform spreads hate, violence and misinformation and earns a lot of profit from it.

She also accused facebook of harming children and weakening democracy in her testimony before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday. This revelation come at a time whether several ex-employees of have come out to accuse Facebook of spreading misinformation and hatred on the platform.

In an interview, Huagen said that Facebook disbanded the team in which she was working. She lost her interest in the company soon after that. She also accused the company for the capital riot of January 6, when the company chose to turn off the safety system that followed the US presidential election.

She filed almost eight complaints with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. She alleged that Facebook was not disclosing enough data about its shortcomings from investors and the public. Various internal documents of the company were leaked by her to the news outlets which say that Facebook was aware of the harm and negative effects on children.

Amid the concerns over Facebook and data privacy, it is time that India must lead AR and embrace the change with Indian firms taking a lead. It is time that Indian players step forward, own the platforms and lead a tech revolution and take the control away from companies like Samsung and Apple.
The four participants of the meeting condemned in the strongest terms the recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and called on the Taliban to cut ties with all international terrorist groups.

The representative of the Troika Plus format has urged the Taliban to cut ties with all terrorist groups and deprive them of the opportunity to act on Afghan territory. The statement was issued after the Troika Plus meeting, comprising Russia, Pakistan, China, and the United States, was held in Islamabad on Thursday.

The four participants of the meeting condemned in the strongest terms the recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and called on the Taliban to cut ties with all international terrorist groups, dismantle and eliminate them in a decisive manner, and to deny space to any terrorist organization operating inside the country, the document read, as quoted by TASS news agency.

The envoys also reaffirmed their expectation that the Taliban will fulfil their commitment to prevent the use of Afghan territory by terrorists against its neighbours, other countries in the region and the rest of the world. The joint statement called on the Taliban to work with fellow Afghans to take steps to form an inclusive government that respects the rights of all Afghans and provides for the equal rights of women and girls.

They called upon the international community to take concrete actions to provide Afghanistan with help against the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pakistan Foreign Ministry, in a statement, said that Troika Plus envoys/Special Representative for Afghanistan also met the Acting Foreign Minister of the interim government of Afghanistan Amir Khan Muttaqi on the sidelines.

Views were exchanged on humanitarian assistance and other issues of mutual interest between Troika Plus and Afghanistan.
ORANGE  For the 15th year, Congregation Or Shalom will honor a hero of the Holocaust at its Greater New Haven Kristallnacht commemoration, this years featuring the late Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens, whose acts of humanity during the Holocaust included convincing a police chief to issue a false identification card to any Jew who asked for one.

Rabbi Alvin Wainhaus said this is the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germanys occupation of Greece. After Greece fell to the Nazis, Damaskinos, spiritual leader of Greece, worked hard to protect Greek citizens from the German authorities, and comforted those awaiting execution for resisting Nazism, Wainhaus said in a statement.

When the Nazi regime began deporting and killing Greek Jews in 1943, Damaskinos openly protested. He published public letters denouncing the Nazis actions, writing, the Greek people must be willing to vouch for their Jewish brothers and sisters without hesitation, the statement said.

When Nazi authorities threatened him with execution by firing squad, Damaskinos responded defiantly, According to the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, our leaders are hanged, not shot; respect our traditions! Wainhaus said.

The churches under Damaskinos authority were ordered to issue Christian baptismal certificates to Jews, and he advised priests to do their best to hide those to whom they could not issue certificates, Wainhaus said. The archbishop also convinced Athens chief of police to issue a false identification card to any Jew who asked for one.

Kristallnacht, considered the prelude to the Holocaust, occurred Nov. 9-10, 1938, when, in the course of 48 hours, mobs rampaged across Germany, Austria and German-occupied Czechoslovakia, murdering and maiming Jews, Wainhaus said.

Tragically, in the face of all this, the world was largely silent; almost no countries reached out to the Jews living under Nazism, Wainhaus said. That widespread inaction in the face of evil is all the more reason to highlight the moral courage shown by a few. At our communitys Kristallnacht Commemoration, we focus on the unsung heroes whose life-saving acts were beacons that defied the darkness of the Holocaust.

Wainhaus said the selfless life-saving acts of conscience and courage performed by a few individuals will never be forgotten.

The news these days seems to be dominated by acts of senseless, hateful violence. And so especially at this time of widespread cynicism about the future of humanity, we feel its so important to condemn hate by celebrating those who defied evil and risked their lives to save lives, Wainhaus said.

As part of the program, comments will be made by the Rev. Peter Orfanakos of St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, and a Senate citation will be presented by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to the family of Damaskinos.

It promises to be a wonderful event, Orfanakos said. I will be introducing and reading a letter sent by Archbishop Elpidophoros.

Orfanakos said Archbishop Elpidophoros, whose name literally means hope-bearer, wrote to the congregation commending them for undertaking this crucial initiative that exemplifies the harmonious synergy between our Communities and reminds us of the power of faith as a source of justice and courage.

The program Sunday will be held virtually again this year because it typically draws upward of 500 people and we just didnt feel it was wise to put that many people in a room during the pandemic, said Wainhaus.

All are invited to the communitywide Kristallnacht Commemoration, to be held from 9 to 11 a.m. via Zoom. This years commemoration is being presented by the synagogue in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, and with support by the American Society for Yad Vashem. To register for the event, visit www.jewishnewhaven.org/kristallnacht.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Anger, tears and a summoning of security marked Friday's public hearing on what Ohio's next map of U.S. House districts will look like.

Witnesses  some of whom evoked the values of their military veteran forefathers and hopes for future generations  told the Republican-dominated Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting that a pair of proposed maps heavily favoring the GOP are undemocratic. They asked for lines that will more fairly represent their communities and the state's political divide, which is 54% Republican to 46% Democratic, over the next decade.

Lynn Buffington of Beaver Creek said supermajority Republicans should use their might for right.

What is right is not just what is legal, she said.

Many volunteers with a Democrat-backed redistricting advocacy group are despondent about how the process is being handled, said Katy Shanahan, state director for All On The Line.

The general feeling of Ohioans is exasperation, Shanahan said, fighting back tears. She noted that about 170 pieces of testimony had been submitted by opponents of the maps, compared to hardly any by supporters.

Four separate map proposals from both Republicans and Democrats are before the committee. Lawmakers face a Nov. 30 deadline to approve one of those, or a compromise map that can garner enough Democratic votes. A three-fifths majority of each chamber, including at least half of Democrats, is required to pass a map that will be in effect for 10 years. Passage by a simple majority will yield a map good for only four years.

Due to lagging census figures, Ohio has lost one House seat  taking it from 16 to 15.

When applause broke out for Shanahan among the roughly 60 attendees, Republican state Rep. Shane Wilkin, the committee's co-chair, called in the sergeant-at-arms. He said anyone who violated agreed-upon rules against disruptions would be kicked out. Wilkin said boos and cheers interfere with online viewers' ability to hear the proceedings.

Wilkin and his co-chair, Republican state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, had not yet determined what would happen after Friday's hearing, he said.

At the panel's first hearing, they both described the process  created under a 2018 constitutional amendment and in use for the first time  as fluid and the next steps as murky.

Shanahan said her reading of the constitution is that the joint panel should have been created in September to serve as a sort of conference committee to hammer out differences in the various map proposals sent to it by House and Senate standing committees.

Instead, the joint committee was only pulled together on Monday, after those committees had already met. Meanwhile, a website created by the new Ohio Redistricting Commission  which has completed its work and is ostensibly defunct  is where dozens of proposed maps from lawmakers and citizens are being stored.

The four-year maps of Ohio House and Ohio Senate districts approved by the commission along party lines are awaiting oral arguments in the Ohio Supreme Court.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Prosecutors in Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial could ask the jury to consider lesser charges when it gets the case, a move that could secure a conviction for some crime but take a possible life sentence off the table.

Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger has struggled to counter Rittenhouse's self-defense arguments during the Illinois man's trial, raising questions about whether his office overcharged Rittenhouse. Daniel Adams, a former Milwaukee County assistant district attorney who isn't involved in the trial, described Binger's case as incredibly underwhelming.

He's got nothing, Adams said. I just don't understand it. What are we doing here? We're all kind of scratching our heads.

Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz during an August 2020 protest against police brutality in Kenosha, a city in southeastern Wisconsin that's not far from Rittenhouse's hometown of Antioch, Illinois. Rittenhouse was 17 years old at the time.

Binger's office, led by Democratic District Attorney Michael Graveley, charged Rittenhouse with multiple counts less than 48 hours after the shootings.

Rittenhouse faces one count of first-degree intentional homicide in Huber's death, which carries a mandatory life sentence. He also faces one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide for wounding Grosskreutz and one count of first-degree reckless homicide in Rosenbaum's death. Both charges are punishable by up to 60 years in prison.

He's also charged with two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment for firing at an unknown man who tried to kick him in the face and allegedly disregarding that a reporter was standing behind Rosenbaum when he shot him. A reckless endangerment charge requires prosecutors to show Rittenhouse put someone in harm's way with an utter disregard for life. It carries a maximum 12-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors also charged Rittenhouse with a misdemeanor count of being a minor in possession of a firearm. That's punishable by up to nine months behind bars.

Prosecutors or defense attorneys can ask Judge Bruce Schroeder to inform jurors as they begin deliberations to consider finding Rittenhouse guilty of lesser charges in lieu of the original counts. The judge would then have to weigh whether the evidence the jury had seen supports those lesser charges before instructing the jury to consider them.

Assistant District Attorney James Kraus told Judge Bruce Schroeder on Thursday that prosecutors were still finalizing their request for lesser included charges. But he said they planned to ask the judge to tell the jury to consider lesser counts in Huber's death and the Grosskreutz shooting.

He said prosecutors were leaning against seeking lesser charges on the reckless endangerment counts and in Rosenbaum's death but might ask Schroeder to include a so-called provocation instruction. Such an instruction would ask the jury to consider whether Rittenhouse provoked the men into attacking him. If the jury finds he did, that would negate self-defense.

But multiple witnesses have described Rosenbaum as angry and out of control that night, saying they heard him threaten to kill Rittenhouse if he got him alone and challenging other armed people at the protest to shoot him. Video shows Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse across a parking lot before Rittenhouse shoots him.

Bystander video of Huber running up to Rittenhouse and hitting him in the head with a skateboard as he apparently reaches for Rittenhouse's gun has also hurt Binger's case.

Binger called Grosskreutz to the stand on Monday. Grosskreutz testified he thought Rittenhouse was going to kill him, but on cross-examination he acknowledged that he ran up to Rittenhouse and pointed a pistol at him a split-second after Rittenhouse shot Huber.

That's a pretty clear case of self-defense, said Paul Bucher, a former Waukesha County district attorney who isn't involved in the case. When he has a handgun (and) was in the process of pointing it, that would give me great pause as to whether I'd even charge that.

Rittenhouse testified Wednesday that Rosenbaum threatened to kill him twice, that Huber hit him with the skateboard twice before he shot him, and that Grosskreutz pointed his pistol at him after first raising his hands in a surrender gesture.

Rittenhouse said he did what he had to do to protect himself. He cried as he began to describe how Rosenbaum chased him down.

Adams said prosecutors most likely will seek second-degree versions of the intentional homicide charges. Such charges could apply if jurors determined that Rittenhouse sincerely believed his life was in danger but used an unreasonable amount of force, University of Wisconsin-Madison criminal law professor Cecelia Klingele said. Second-degree reckless endangerment could apply if jurors found that he put someone in harm's way but did so without showing utter disregard for human life, she said.

Second-degree intentional homicide carries a maximum 60 years in prison. The maximum sentence for second-degree attempted intentional homicide is 30 years. Second-degree reckless endangerment, meanwhile, carries a maximum prison term of 10 years.

A life sentence wouldn't be an option if prosecutors sought convictions on lesser charges, but they would give jurors the flexibility to convict him of something, said Adams.

It gives the jury negotiation room, he said. They think something bad happened but they're not convinced the level of force was necessary. And that gives prosecutors two kicks at the cat.

Bucher said Rittenhouse's team also could ask jurors to consider second-degree versions of the charges in hopes of avoiding a life sentence.

But Binger has already muddled the case with multiple charges and asking jurors to consider even more counts risks confusing jurors further, Bucher said.

As a prosecutor, you charge more counts than necessary because you don't have a strong case, he said. You know the old saying, throw as much as you can against the wall and see what sticks. It's confusing for me. Imagine what it's like for the jury. You almost need a statute book to go through all this.

___

Associated Press writer Amy Forliti in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

___

Find APs full coverage of the Rittenhouse trial at https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse and follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1.
HAMDEN  Authorities are investigating a former Booker T. Washington Academy teacher who was fired this week amid allegations of misconduct, according to police and a statement from the Narrative Project, the public relations firm representing the school.

The complaint, submitted by the school, pertains to alleged inappropriate messages between a teacher and a group of students, Hamden police Detective Sean Dolan said in a written statement.

Booker T. Washington Academy is a charter school serving elementary and middle school students, according to its website. Elementary school students attend a location in New Haven while older students attend the academys facility on Circular Avenue in Hamden.

Police received the complaint Thursday, according to Dolan, who said the state Department of Children & Families and the school also are investigating the matter.

Booker T. Washington School announced the teachers termination Friday in a release.

In response to allegations of misconduct, the Executive Director and Board of Directors have finalized the termination of a teacher... , the release says. The teacher was terminated within 36 hours.

The school notified families Wednesday about the matter, according to the release.

Our number one priority is and remains to be the well-being of every scholar enrolled in our academy, John A. Taylor, executive director of Booker T. Washington Academy, said in the release.

Our actions have reflected that commitment and we will continue to work diligently to reinforce safety within our schools, support students who may have been affected by this incident, and work with parents to identify and meet the needs of families during this time, he said.

.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  Outgoing Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez started a three-day surprise visit to Taiwan on Friday as the self-ruled island, which is also claimed by China, worries that the next president of the Central American nation may break off relations and switch to diplomatic ties with Beijing.

Hernandez and his wife will meet President Tsai Ing-wen as part of a celebration of 80 years of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Honduras. He will also visit the Central American Bank for Economic Integration office in Taipei, a Honduran development bank.

Hernandez's trip comes just weeks ahead of the presidential election in Honduras. He is due to leave office in January and has become increasingly isolated him as he is facing allegations of ties to drug traffickers from U.S. federal prosecutors in New York. His brother had been arrested in Miami in 2018 by U.S. authorities on suspicion of drug trafficking.

Politically, there's little to gain in his trip. Hernandez will not be able to run for office again, said Antonio C. Hsiang, a professor at La Academia Nacional de Estudios Y Estrategicos, who studies Latin America studies. Instead, Hernandez is likely in Taiwan to seek support, financial or otherwise, he said.

Taiwan, meanwhile, is concerned about the election as one of the leading candidates has openly said she is in favor of establishing ties with China, which means Honduras will cease recognizing Taiwan as a country.

Xiomara Castro, the presidential candidate, said in a June 28 post on her Facebook page: I believe in multipolarity and because of that I propose opening international relations with continental China, which would help the country incorporate into the market with the market of the worlds greatest growth."

China has been on a campaign to poach Taiwan's allies, of which only 15 remain. China has been using diplomatic and economic methods to persuade countries to switch their diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.

China says Taiwan is not a country and is merely another province, to be reunified by force if necessary. Taiwan says it has essentially been functioning independently as a country since the two sides split after a civil war in 1949.

___

Associated Press writer Marlon Gonzalez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras contributed to this report.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP)  A woman who moved to Missouri from China to further her education before she was killed by her husband should be remembered as a kind woman whose death was a huge waste, a prosecutor said Friday after her husband was convicted.

A jury recommended early Friday that Joseph Elledge be sentenced to up to 28 years in prison for killing Mengqi Ji, 28. The sentence came hours after the Boone County jury convicted Elledge of second-degree murder.

Sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 17. Circuit Judge J. Hasbrouck Jacobs cannot sentence him to more years than the jury recommendation.

After the sentencing phase concluded, Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Knight said his investigation into the case led him to understand that Ji was kind, giving and selfless, unlike her husband.

Its such a huge waste, that a life like Mengqi would be snuffed out by such a selfish psychopath like the defendant, Knight said.

Knight had urged the jury to find Elledge guilty of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence, but he said he was satisfied with the second-degree verdict. A second-degree murder conviction requires Elledge to serve at least 85% of his sentence before being eligible for parole.

Elledge's attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said Elledge and his family were aware during the trial that he was not going to be acquitted but had hoped the jury would convict him of manslaughter, KOMU-TV and KMIZ-TV reported.

He knew that at the end of the day I wasnt going be asking the jury to return a verdict of not guilty. He certainly wanted to avoid a conviction of murder in the first degree, said Rosenblum, who added Elledge was grateful he will be eligible for parole.

Rosenblum said he and the family will meet in the next week to discuss whether to appeal the verdict.

Elledge had admitted during the trial to burying his wifes body and misleading authorities for more than a year about Ji's whereabouts. He reported her missing in October 2019, prompting months of extensive searches. Her remains were found in a park near Columbia, Missouri, in March.

An attorney for Ji's family told the Columbia Daily Tribune before the trial started that they didn't plan to provide a statement, but said on Wednesday they were pleased with the prosecutor's efforts.

During closing arguments on Thursday, Knight told the jury that Elledge was a stone cold killer who was guilty of first-degree murder because he intentionally killed his wife.

Rosenblum argued that his client was awkward and made unbelievably dumb decisions after she died. But he said Elledge never intended to kill his wife and should never have been charged with murder.

During his trial, Elledge said Jis death was accidental. He said she fell and hit her head on Oct. 8, 2019, after he pushed her during an argument and he found her dead in bed the next morning. He said he panicked, put her body in the trunk of her car and did not report what happened while he tried to decide what to do.

He did not tell anyone, including Jis mother, about her disappearance.

On Oct. 10, with the couples young daughter in the car, Elledge drove to Rock Bridge State Park about 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of Columbia, where they lived. There, he dug a grave and buried Ji at a site a half-mile from where he proposed to her. He then returned home and reported her missing.

Prosecutors used social media posts, audio tapes and a journal Elledge kept to document the couples volatile relationship. The evidence showed them frequently yelling at each other and arguing, with Elledge often criticizing his wife for her appearance and for how she treated him.

Elledge said that in the days before her death, he discovered Ji had been exchanging sexually suggestive messages with a man from China via social media. He also testified that the couples relationship suffered because of tension caused by her parents who moved from China to live with them after their daughter was born on Oct. 3, 2018.

The couple met in 2015 at Nanova, a company that makes dental products, where Ji was Elledges supervisor. They began dating the following year and eventually traveled to China, where he asked Jis parents for permission to marry her. The couple married in 2017.

Ji earned a masters degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Missouri in December 2014. Elledge was a student at the university when his wife died.
BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (AP)  Michigan and local officials have been targeted in a lawsuit over high levels of lead in Benton Harbor's drinking water.

The lawsuit, filed this week in federal court, accuses the state and city of deliberate indifference in their response to the problem, which began to emerge in 2018. Doretha Braziel, one of many Benton Harbor residents listed in the lawsuit, said she only recently became aware that she should avoid drinking the water.
RIDGEFIELD  The grounds of Lounsbury House teemed with a knowing silence Thursday morning as residents gathered to salute the nations veterans.

American Legion Post 78 presented the Veterans Day program alongside the Marine Veterans of Fairfield County and the Veterans of Foreign Wars organizations. Ridgefielders young and old came to pay tribute to the towns service members, as well as Americas millions of veterans.

We need to always promote Americanism and have everybody appreciate what the veterans (have) done, and not let them forget about all the freedoms they enjoy and how they got em, Post Commander George Besse said. It wasnt just by Congress  it was by ... everybody in the service.

Veterans are the ones who are lucky enough to come home, he continued, and we gotta remember those and thank them for their service.

Among those is Ridgefield Fire Chief Jerry Myers, who was the ceremonys featured speaker. Though Myers always knew he wanted to be a firefighter, the department wasnt hiring at the time he graduated from Ridgefield High School. The service, he said, was the next best thing.

Myers enlisted in the army and received basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey. He then went to Fort Sam in Houston, Texas, for combat medical specialist training. From there he was deployed to Illesheim, Germany, with the 1st Armored Division. After completing his three-year enlistment in July 1980, Myers returned home and joined the Ridgefield Fire Department.

In the military they teach you some really valuable lessons about teamwork and responsibility that translate really well into public service, said Myers, who in his speech referenced the palpable kinship between veterans and first responders. To come back and be asked to speak to other veterans, its a big deal for me.

The program featured remarks and readings from members of the veterans organizations, vocalist Alyssa Marushak, of Redding, and reflections from First Selectman Rudy Marconi and Ms. President US of Ridgefield Maggie Fleuette.

In his welcoming remarks, Besse reminded the crowd of the origins of Veterans Day. It was originally known as Armistice Day, which marked the end of World War I and consecrated a cause for world peace. President Dwight D. Eisenhower officially changed the name of the holiday from Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954 to apply to all of Americas service members.

We went where we were told to go, did what we were told to do, and we are proud of that service, Legion Chaplain John Gillaugh said.

In his reflection, Marconi said it is Americas soldiers who assure our freedoms are protected. But he questioned why the nations discourse has devolved (into) questionable respect, noting that antisemitism and verbal attacks are common occurrences.

We need to take responsibility for our actions and words, respect one another, listen  with a curious and open mind  and embody good citizenship, he said. These are the rights, values and freedoms we thank our veterans for today.

Myers agreed. (Weve lost) track of the ideals we were formed with, he said, so for the veterans who have written a blank check to the United States  its important that we give a little tip of the hat to them every year.

alyssa.seidman@hearstmediact.com
BRIDGEPORT  For a group of seventh and eighth graders who met at the Barnum School this week to discuss gun violence, the topic was personal.

Can you all raise your hands if you have lost someone to gun violence? asked Jocelyn Kaoutzanis from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Connecticut. How about if you know someone whos been shot or shot at? And how about if you have heard gun shots?

Most, if not all, hands were raised by the last question.

Thats not normal, its not right, its not the case if you go down the street to Fairfield or Westport or Trumbull, said Kaoutzanis.

Barnum is the sixth Bridgeport school the U.S. Attorneys Office and its partners have visited to present FED-UP: Working Together For A Safer Community, a school-based anti-gun violence program.

More than 550 students have sat for the presentations so far, according to Tom Carson, a spokesperson for the office.

The group met in the school library, where signs read: Its a great day to learn something new, and Books keep you on track.

But the lesson plan on Thursday morning was an altogether different kind from those on other school days.

Kaoutzanis and her colleagues presented local statistics on gun violence in Bridgeport, including the disproportionate impact on young Black men and increased incidents over the past year.

Approximately 56 percent of the states gun homicide victims are Black, while only 10 percent of the population is Black, said Kaoutzanis.

Also present was a registered nurse from the Bridgeport Hospital trauma department, who described the impact on the victims, the trauma room, and statistics on death and survival. The hospital encounters gun shot wounds on average every three days, she said, compared to every seven days about a year and a half ago.

Two local moms who founded anti-gun violence nonprofits  Nicole Matthews of Tears of Triumph, and Thayer Ebron-Barkley, of Sisters at the Shore  spoke about the loss and fear that inspires their work.

You know how you guys are all looking forward to Christmas and Thanksgiving with your families? said Matthews, whose son Shaahyid was 18 years old when he was shot and killed in Wentfield Park.

I dont have that, she said. Its very hard for me. I have two other sons, and its very hard for them as well.

Ebron-Barkleys group meets at Seaside Park on Sunday mornings to silently pray for an end to the violence.

Harold Dimbo, the director of the anti-gun violence group Project Longevity and a former Bridgeport police officer for 26 years, offered local resources.

He also invited a formerly incarcerated person to talk about how his actions as an 18-year-old and being influenced by his peers impact his adult life today.

Theres a reason why we go to this age group  this is the age group where you can make the changes, said Dimbo.

We can make a change right here today, but we cant make it without your help, he said.

The program ended with anonymous questions by students:

Why dont all guns in Bridgeport get shipped somewhere else? asked one student.

How come some young people are able to own a gun, and I feel they shouldnt own them? posed another.

Why are there so many gun shots at night? another asked.

Students also have the opportunity to continue contributing to the conversation on gun violence through an essay contest with a $100 prize.

Presentations are scheduled in other Bridgeport schools through the spring.

FED-UP will also be made available to schools in Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, in the near future.
MILFORD  A local woman used a hidden camera to catch her live-in boyfriend sexually assaulting her 8-year-old autistic son, according to police.

The man, 53-year-old Charles Ayers, has been charged with risk of injury to a minor and illegal sexual contact with a minor.

Judge Maureen Dennis ordered him held on $350,000 bond at his arraignment in Superior Court Tuesday.

According to an arrest warrant, the boys mother told police Ayers had sexually assaulted her son Oct. 30.

She said Ayers had moved in with her at the beginning of the month after the two met in February on a dating app and would sometimes care for the boy when she worked late.

About two weeks prior, she told police, Ayers tickled the victim near his crotch in a way which made her feel weird, so she ordered a hidden camera from Amazon, which she hid in the boys bedroom. She told police she saw Ayers hugging her son strangely.

Because the cameras view was slightly obscured, she ordered a live feed camera for her living room.

On Oct. 30, according to the warrant, Ayers texted her that the victim was tired, so she checked the live feed, which showed Ayers sexually assaulting the boy.

The woman immediately left work and confronted Ayers, telling him to get out of the house, then called police.

According to the warrant, the woman gave police video of the abuse, which also shows Ayers taking drags from an electronic smoking device and blowing it in the boys face. The mother later told police Ayers used the device to vape marijuana.

In court Tuesday, the judge ordered Ayers to stay away from the alleged victim and his mother, and ordered GPS monitoring if he does post bond.

A public defender said Ayers is on disability benefits from the V.A. and wouldnt be getting out of jail anytime soon.

Hed be unable to meet any bond, the lawyer, Emily Claffey, said.

A bail commissioner said Ayers has substance abuse and mental health issues and has lived in Connecticut for three years, with prior convictions from North Carolina, including assault with a deadly weapon.

He was due in court Friday to appear in a case where he was arrested in June for allegedly stabbing the tire of a delivery vehicle and yelling at the driver, police said in a press release at the time.

He has pleaded not guilty to breach of peace and third-degree criminal mischief in that case.

The judge continued both cases against Ayers to Dec. 9.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP)  Lucia Gimenez still suffers pain in her knees from the years she spent scrubbing floors in the mens bathroom at the Opus Dei residence in Argentinas capital for hours without pay.

Gimenez, now 56, joined the conservative Catholic group in her native Paraguay at the age of 14 with the promise she would get an education. But instead of math or history, she was trained in cooking, cleaning and other household chores to serve in Opus Dei residences and retirement homes.

For 18 years she washed clothes, scrubbed bathrooms and attended to the groups needs for 12 hours a day, with breaks only for meals and praying. Despite her hard labor, she says: I never saw money in my hands.

Gimenez and 41 other women have filed a complaint against Opus Dei to the Vatican for alleged labor exploitation, as well as abuse of power and of conscience. The Argentine and Paraguayan citizens worked for the movement in Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, Italy and Kazakhstan between 1974 and 2015.

Opus Dei  Work of God in Latin  was founded by the Spanish priest Josemaria Escriva in 1928, and has 90,000 members in 70 countries. The lay group, which was greatly favored by St. John Paul II, who canonized Escriva in 2002, has a unique status in the church and reports directly to the pope. Most members are laymen and women with secular jobs and families who strive to sanctify ordinary life. Other members are priests or celibate lay people.

The complaint alleges the women, often minors at the time, labored under manifestly illegal conditions" that included working without pay for 12 hours-plus without breaks except for food or prayer, no registration in the Social Security system and other violations of basic rights.

The women are demanding financial reparations from Opus Dei and that it acknowledges the abuses and apologizes to them, as well as the punishment of those responsible.

I was sick of the pain in my knees, of getting down on my knees to do the showers, Gimenez told The Associated Press. They dont give you time to think, to criticize and say that you dont like it. You have to endure because you have to surrender totally to God.

In a statement to the AP, Opus Dei said it had not been notified of the complaint to the Vatican but has been in contact with the women's legal representatives to listen to the problems and find a solution.

The women in the complaint have one thing in common: humble origins. They were recruited and separated from their families between the ages of 12 and 16. In some cases, like Gimenez's, they were taken to Opus Dei centers in another country, circumventing immigration controls.

They claim that Opus Dei priests and other members exercised coercion of conscience on the women to pressure them to serve and to frighten them with spiritual evils if they didn't comply with the supposed will of God. They also controlled their relations with the outside world.

Most of the women asked to leave as the physical and psychological demands became intolerable. But when they finally did, they were left without money. Many also said they needed psychological treatment after leaving Opus Dei.

The hierarchy (of Opus Dei) is aware of these practices, said Sebastian Sal, the women's lawyer. It is an internal policy of Opus Dei. The search for these women is conducted the same way throughout the world. ... It is something institutional.

The women's complaint, filed in September with the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, also points to dozens of priests affiliated with Opus Dei for their alleged intervention, participation and knowledge in the denounced events.

The allegations in the complaint are similar to those made by members of another conservative Catholic organization also favored by St. John Paul II, the Legion of Christ. The Legion recruited young women to become consecrated members of its lay branch, Regnum Christi, to work in Legion-run schools and other projects.

Those women alleged spiritual and psychological abuse, of being separated from family and being told their discomfort was Gods will and that abandoning their vocation would be tantamount to abandoning God.

Pope Francis has been cracking down on 20th-century religious movements after several religious orders and lay groups were accused of sexual and other abuses by their leaders. Opus Dei has so far avoided much of the recent controversy, though there have been cases of individual priests accused of misconduct.

We do not have any official notification from the Vatican about the existence of a complaint of this type, Josefina Madariaga, director of Opus Deis press office in Argentina, told the AP. She said the women's lawyer informed the group last year of their complaints about the lack of contributions to Argentina's social security system.

If there is a traumatic experience or one that has left them with a wound, we want to honestly listen to them, understand what happened and from there correct what has to be corrected, she said.

She added that all the people currently working on site are paid, adding that some 80 women currently work for Opus Dei in Argentina.

However, she said, in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, society as a whole dealt with these issues in a more informal or family way. ... Opus Dei has made the necessary changes and modifications to accompany the law in force today.

Beatriz Delgado, who worked for Opus Dei for 23 years in Argentina and Uruguay, said she was told that I had to give my salary to the director and that everyone gave it. ... It was part of giving to God.

They convince you with the vocation, with God calls you, God asks this of you, you cannot fail God. ... They hooked me with that, she said.

So far, the Vatican has not ruled on the complaint and its not clear if it will. A Vatican spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for information.

If there is no response, the women's legal representatives say they will initiate criminal proceedings for human trafficking, reduction to servitude, awareness control and illegitimate deprivation of liberty against Opus Dei in Argentina and other countries the women worked in.

Argentine law sanctions human trafficking with prison sentences of four to 15 years. The statute of limitations is 12 years after the alleged crime ceases.

They say, we are going to help poor people, but its a lie; they dont help, they keep (the money) for themselves, Gimenez said. It is very important to achieve some justice.
Nov. 11 was Veterans Day and it is high up on my list of American secular holidays that have spiritual undertones. We just brought to mind Halloween, and we can add Valentines Day, Thanksgiving and New Years Day, but this week it was time to pause and thank the men and women who have chosen to serve our country in our armed forces. There are many ways to serve America, but this choice is supreme because it also entails the willingness to lay down ones life for our nation. To choose to do that is a sacred choice.

The spiritual issue that undergirds Veterans Day is the choice to believe that there are things beyond and above our own career pursuits and personal needs and something bigger than ourselves to which we owe a debt of gratitude and service. This is the primary claim of all religions. Patriotism is not faith. A nation is not God. Read Isaiah chapter 40:

All nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity. It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. It is he that bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is he weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40: 17, 22-23, 28-31)

God always deserves our sacrifice. Nations can deserve it if they are nations that seek freedom and the common good. President Woodrow Wilson, in an address one year after the end of World War I, aptly described this sacrificial impulse we honor on this and on all Veterans Days as a splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns. Veterans Day (Yes, there is no apostrophe!) used to be called Armistice Day because the end of World War I occurred at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

I am thinking now about how that generation of WWI veterans are all gone now, but I am also thinking about how the clock is ticking down for the veterans of World War II now. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, only 240,329 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are alive in 2021. That is less than 2 percent. Soon, very soon, there will be none of them left to tell their stories. We will have to tell their stories, but to tell them we must know them. It is stories that hold us together. It is stories that frame their courage and sacrifice. It is stories that remind us that America is not just a postal address but an idea  a soaring transformative idea.

So let me tell you the story of how a rabbi won WWII. He was my rabbi  my teacher  and his name was Nelson Glueck. Nelson was a biblical archeologist and a spy. He was the head of the OSS (the precursor of the CIA) in the Middle East during the war (and he was the model for Indiana Jones!). Under the guise of looking for King Solomons mines, Nelson set up a network of Bedouins that tracked German troupe movements. At the battle of El Alamein he provided the British army with detailed maps of the water holes in the area so they had water while the German army led by Rommel did not. Because of this intelligence, the weakened Germany Panzer Afrika Corps under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was defeated by General Montgomery and the British Eighth army at El Alamein on November 11, 1942. Had the Germans won, they would have been able to push their way along the Mediterranean coast up into the Balkans and into Russia thus forcing Stalin to fight them on two fronts instead of just at Stalingrad. This would most certainly have led to a German victory in the war. As Churchill wrote in his memoirs, It may almost be said, before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.

And so, the tide of the war was turned, and it all happened because a rabbi helped the allies win the war. Thank you, Nelson Glueck!

Happy Veterans Day.

Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including Religion for Dummies, co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman.
Amazon

No plans this Friday? Get your weekend all booked up  literally. Today only, this selection of popular eBooks are on sale for $4.99 or less from Amazon so you can rekindle a relationship with your Kindle.

Whether stuck at an airport, killing time at a coffee shop or simply cozying up on a cold night, eBooks provide welcomed entertainment. The Kindle launched in 2007 to make reading easier and more accessible, and nowadays anyone can walk around with five thousand titles in their bag.
Jon Shapley / Hearst Connecticut Media

MIDDLETOWN  Following the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions clearance of the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine for children, Stop & Shop pharmacies in select stores across the state have begun administering the vaccine to children ages 5 to 11.

In an effort to expand access and raise awareness of availability of such inoculations, Stop & Shop will be hosting vaccine clinics at a handful of locations across the state, including the store at 416 E. Main St. in Middletown, according to a press release.
Anambra State Governor-elect, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo has thanked the people of the state for their overwhelming support at the ju...





Anambra State Governor-elect, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo has thanked the people of the state for their overwhelming support at the just concluded gubernatorial election in the state.





In a statement he posted on his official Facebook page on Friday after he was presented with the Certificate of Return as Anambra Governor-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Soludo promised that the mandate given to him will be deployed for the good of the state and humanity at large.





He wrote: I have just received my certificate of return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).





Thank you Ndi Anambra for the overwhelming support. This divine mandate shall be deployed for the good of the Anambra public and humanity at large.





Who can battle with the Lord?





CC. Soludo.





It was reported that Soludo, the candidate of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), was presented the certificate in Awka, the state capital on Friday.
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has assured the woman, Mrs. Augustina Ifebuchechukwu Eze, whose 7-year-old son was allegedly killed...





Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has assured the woman, Mrs. Augustina Ifebuchechukwu Eze, whose 7-year-old son was allegedly killed by her husband, Chidi Onyishi, for money ritual that the state government will do everything within its power to ensure that she and her children do not suffer.





Speaking when he led a delegation from Gov. Ugwuanyi to commiserate with the mourning woman and her children, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Information, Steve Oruruo stated that the state government will stand vigorously behind them to overcome the shock and mitigate their suffering.





Oruruo who disclosed that the governor was saddened by the news of the unfortunate incident, condoled with the woman and her children and prayed for the repose of the slain childs soul, stressing that the act perpetrated by the father of six (her husband) was unimaginable and unthinkable by all standards.





Consoling Mrs. Eze and her children, Oruruo who presented Gov. Ugwuanyis initial cash donation to them for interim upkeep said: We want to reassure you that the state government will stand vigorously behind you and mitigate the suffering of your kids and contribute immensely to your recovery from this shock.





And it is the wish of the government to use all legal means to ensure that there is diligent investigation and that the course of justice cannot be subverted. The government is poised not to allow it to be truncated.





Everything that needs to be done will be done by Enugu State government to ensure that you find justice and overcome this challenge.





Our governor is a good-minded person who is interested in your wellbeing and that of your children. So he has sent us to come and commiserate with you and reassure you that you will not stand alone. Government will be with you and will give you support as we pray that God will give you stronger reason to find comfort.





The governor has delivered the sum of five hundred thousand naira (N500,000.00) to you and your kids in the interim and every other thing that should be done will be done and this interface will continue between you and the state government to ensure that you and your children are comfortable.





Responding, Mrs. Eze, who said she was speechless at Gov. Ugwuanyis gesture, thanked the governor for his compassion and benevolence, explaining that she is still in shock over her sons sudden death.
The Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting the moments and people that connect and inspire us. Today, the series continues with the events leading to the landmark Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson.

THEN: On June 7, 1892, at Royal and Press streets, Homer Plessy bought a ticket in New Orleans for a Covington-bound train. As he climbed into a car reserved for white people, he braced for trouble. In fact, he was counting on it. Plessy -- a Creole shoemaker of color -- was arrested and, with the backing of the New Orleans-based Comite des Citoyens (Citizens Committee), ignited a case that would lead to the landmark Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld racial segregation for 62 years.

NOW: The Plessy v. Ferguson case was one of the first uses of the equal protection provision of the 14th Amendment to challenge segregation. As such, it is recognized as a key moment in the civil rights struggles to come in the 20th century. In addition to having a New Orleans school named after him, a plaque at Royal and Press streets marks the spot of the train station at which Plessy was arrested. Another marks the Plessy tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

Plessy was charged with violating the state's controversial Separate Car Act, which mandated separate rail cars for black and white travelers. His court-ordered punishment? A $25 fine or 20 days in jail.

Plessy lost his Supreme Court case, with the court's 7-1 ruling upholding "separate but equal" statutes and giving legal cover to the Jim Crow laws that would govern the majority of the 20th century. But the strategy displayed by Plessy and the Comite des Citoyens in their highly orchestrated act of civil disobedience laid the foundation for future civil rights battles to come. Sixty-two years later, Brown vs. the Board of Education would finally overturn "separate but equal," thanks in no small part to the fight started at Royal and Press streets by Homer Plessy.

By: Mike Scott, staff writer

Sources: The Times-Picayune archive; staff research; Plessy and Ferguson Foundation

NEXT:

More on 300 for 300:
Come next Veterans Day, the National WWII Museum plans to surround visitors with a state-of-the-art, sound-and-light extravaganza involving music, light displays, videos and pictures of G.I.s letters home that will bounce off the facades of the Warehouse District campus.

Expressions of America, which has been in the works for four years, will place the museum at the forefront of immersive viewer experiences, Stephen J. Watson, the museums president and CEO, said Thursday during the museums Veterans Day ceremony. It will immerse our audiences in the influence of ordinary men and women on the course of the war.

The Bob and Dolores Hope Foundation, a longtime partner with the museum, will pay for the multimedia display, which, Watson said, is expected to cost about $5 million and will draw on the museums extensive collection of oral histories, videos and correspondence.

It will show not only my fathers legacy but also the gifts of men and women who helped us overcome enormous odds during World War II, said Linda Hope, the foundations chair and CEO.

Admission will be by ticket for audiences who will view the nighttime spectacle outside, in the Barksdale Parade Ground beneath the Bollinger Canopy of Peace. Actor Gary Sinise, another museum ally, will be the host, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band will provide music.

Developing the display will be Mousetrappe, a media-design and production firm from Burbank, California, that worked on the museums multimedia program Beyond All Boundaries, and the Solomon Group, a New Orleans company that specializes in making exhibits and producing events that has also worked on museum projects.

"Expressions of America had been envisioned as one of the final components of the 21-year-old museums expansion, spokesperson Keith Darcey said, and the museum started exploring the concept of a sound-and-light show with those two companies.

Details such as audience size and frequency of performances have not been worked out yet, he said.

The announcement of the museums latest addition capped an hourlong event that drew a capacity crowd, mostly veterans and their families, to the museums U.S. Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who showed up at the end of the program, waved but did not speak.

The emphasis was on veterans and their service. Out of about 15 million people who served in WWII, 240,329 are still alive, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and 234 are dying every day.

In a speech, Brig. Gen. Michael McWilliams, deputy commander of the Marine Forces Reserve/Marine Forces South, praised veterans, saying they put the greater good before their individual needs.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell also lauded veterans, saying, We would be nowhere without those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

+5 Journalist Cokie Roberts remembered by husband in tales of humor, grit, and compassion When Cokie Roberts went to work at NPR, she squared off against the usual obstacles facing women getting ready to smash the glass ceiling and 
Congo Square had never seen an evening quite like this one. Hissing winds  blew fitfully from the north, northeast, and northwest, laden with the icy breath from Siberian snows, reported one New Orleans paper. Mourners, bound up in coats and scarves, packed into three stands surrounding the square, which was brilliantly illuminated by a thousand lamps that threw a ghostly glare over the squads of moving spectators.

Louisiana's Lt. Gov. Oscar James Dunn had been dead almost two weeks and, despite the cold December weather, a fire still burned in the hearts of his friends and supporters who had gathered at this commemoration ceremony. One person arrived with a white-hot zeal to reveal shocking details about his friends final days.

More than a month earlier, on All Saints Day, Oscar Dunn still walked among the living, was still the first Black lieutenant governor in America, and was still mired in an intractable power struggle with Louisianas young white governor, Henry Clay Warmoth. On that hallowed day, Dunn received disturbing news from a friend about a new threat, coming from a fellow Black politician named P.B.S. Pinchback.

That friend, Thomas Morris Chester, told Dunn that Pinchback planned to allege corruption against the famously upstanding lieutenant governor and had already attempted to tarnish his name during a meeting with President Ulysses S. Grant. Worse, Dunn learned that Pinchback intended to attack him in his domestic relations. Though the specifics are unknown, its possible Pinchback had discovered a potentially scandalous detail about Dunn: that he had boarded at the home of his wife, Ellen, and her first husband, years before they married. In the wrong hands, that information could be used to suggest impropriety on their part prior to her first husbands death  or even call into question the legitimacy of Ellens children, whom Dunn adopted when they married.

The hostility ended abruptly on Nov. 22, 1871, when Dunn died at age 49 following a brief and violent illness. From the crowds that soon gathered outside his New Orleans home, the rumor that he had been poisoned spread quickly. A family spokesperson declined an autopsy. Newspapers tried to quell the uproar by publishing a statement signed by four doctors who attended to him, stating, officially, that he had died of congestion of the brain and lungs.

Soon, with some wrangling by Warmoth, the legislature would install Pinchback in Dunns place as lieutenant governor.

That wintry night in Congo Square, Chester, an esteemed Black lawyer and former Civil War correspondent, made public the details of his All Saints Day conversation with Dunn:

"His great frame quivered when he received the dastardly message, and though he hurled back a defiance, it was easy to be perceived that the envenomed arrow had reached his heart, where its poison was doing the deadly work.  When he meditated over the impending blow that was to include his estimable and accomplished consort, and the orphaned children to whom he had been a father, his great heart burst with grief."

Dunns conflict with Warmoth began not long after they were elected together in 1868, starting with the governors veto of a civil rights bill. Dunn, meanwhile, had carved out a reputation for being an honest, fair leader, even as corruption scandals enmeshed Warmoth and the state legislature. The party split in the summer of 1871, with Dunn leading one convention at the U.S. Customhouse that had the backing of the president, while Warmoth and Pinchback led a bolter convention of their own. Afterward, Warmoth sent Pinchback and nineteen other men to Grants summer home in Long Branch, New Jersey, to air their grievances about Dunn and his allies. They received a cold reception. Dunn then wrote a widely publicized letter that labeled Warmoth the first Ku-Klux governor of the party he has disgraced.

Pinchback had been the very man who recommended that Dunn join Warmoths ticket, but a career of pragmatic political calculations set the stage for his betrayal. The son of a white planter and a formerly enslaved woman, Pinchback spent his formative years in Ohio, before coming to New Orleans just before war broke out. He quickly landed in trouble, stabbing another free Black man in the street and being described by a court as intemperate.

For unknown reasons, he served only a month in jail. After spending time in the Union army, Pinchback transitioned to politics, where he proved to be a talented and loquacious operative. Once, during a particularly bad stretch of violence against Black citizens, he said the following on the floor of the state senate: The next outrage  will be the signal for the dawn of retribution.  For patience will then have ceased to be a virtue, and this city will be reduced to ashes.

Pinchbacks history of violent language  and actual violence  surely made many of his peers wary of crossing him. To the Congo Square crowd, Chester called out the wandering Machiavellians who recently pilgrimaged to Long Branch, and noted that to my certain knowledge, there was one colored man who undertook this infamous work of slandering Dunn to the president. Later, Chesters indignation turned to an article critiquing Dunn published just four days after his death in Pinchbacks own newspaper, the Louisianian:

"Hardly had the tomb been closed over his mortal remains  (did) the Louisianian, under the immediate and responsible control of a well-known colored man  attempt to rob him of the esteem which was so universally accorded while living, and to blur his memory. Such manifestations, over the body of a worthy and lamented citizen, indicates a malignancy of heart which would not scruple at any means, if the courage were present, and interest required it, to compass death."

Less than a month later, Chester was walking home from a New Years Day party at a friends house. Night had fallen, and he didnt see the drunken men in the bushes who sprang out and then dragged him onto the front lawn of a womans house. According to the Weekly National Republican of New Orleans, the men called out to Pinchback, who stepped forward and offered protection to Chester. When Chester refused it, the men beat him with sticks and knives, and after he tried to run away, he was shot just above his left eye.

Chester survived the attack, and witnesses relayed details to the press and police. The Weekly National Republican reported that Pinchback slapped (the woman, Emma Stackhouse) violently on the face and pushed her down on the gallery steps. Pinchback denied the accusation but admitted to being at the scene. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but he was also president of the police board, and was never taken into custody.

Its unknown whether the attack on Chester was retaliation for his speech. The embers of doubt he lit regarding Dunns demise, however, couldnt be so easily stamped out. Historians A. E. Perkins and Marcus B. Christian revived the inquiry in the 1930s and 40s. Christians The Theory of the Poisoning of Oscar J. Dunn, published in Phylon in 1945, concluded that even though each clue must be examined with a great degree of caution, a careful weighing of evidence does not negate the Dunn poisoning theory. Perkins interviewed a number of Dunns contemporaries. The conspirators were known, said one, a man named Edmund Burke, but nobody dared speak out. It would have been unsafe.

Perkins even sat down with Warmoth himself, not long before his death in 1931, and asked him directly about the rumors. Yes, Warmoth told him, such a rumor was current, but the physicians attending him pronounced his death as due to natural causes. Warmoth, Perkins wrote, did not seem disposed to continue the conversation.

Editor's note: This story originally appeared as a post on The Historic New Orleans Collections First Draft blog. Visit hnoc.org/firstdraft to read more and view additional photos. For Oscar Dunns full story, check out "Monumental: Oscar Dunn and His Radical Fight in Reconstruction Louisiana," by Brian K. Mitchell, Barrington S. Edwards and Nick Weldon.
At the French Quarter restaurant Cane & Table, an infusion of pandemic relief funding last spring has kept the kitchen cooking, the staff working and the doors open.

The lack of such aid for the restaurants crosstown sibling Cure on Freret Street is one of the things that keeps owner Neal Bodenheimer up at night.

Cane & Table received federal aid through the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, while Cure is among the two-thirds of restaurants that applied but were shut out when that fund ran dry. Bodenheimers other businesses also missed out.

There are just so many haves and have-nots at this moment, said Bodenheimer. I cant tell you why one business was funded and why three others werent. Theyre not fundamentally different; its just that one was lucky enough to get through and the others werent.

+19 Close, move, change? New Orleans restaurants face hard choices as Ida worsens crisis With the sun shining through the windows at Wakin Bakin and the aromas of griddled bread and hot coffee commingling, a recent morning at thi

With coronavirus numbers improving and safety protocols loosening, there are hopeful times ahead. But now more restaurants that have been drained by the long slog of the crisis are wondering if theyll be around for the revival.

Debt has piled up, they are struggling with restaffing and supply-chain issues and steep price increases for their raw ingredients are playing havoc.

Around New Orleans and southeast Louisiana, the wallop of Hurricane Ida is showing just how susceptible these businesses can be to any additional hit.

Thats why Bodenheimer gathered with other New Orleans restaurant operators recently at a news conference calling for renewed attention to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. Robert LeBlanc, founder of the LeBlanc + Smith hospitality group, and John Stubbs, a partner in the French Quarter restaurant Jewel of the South, each joined Bodenheimer in a stark assessment of the stakes ahead with renewed support.

With the funds we expected, we would be able to continue. Without them, I dont know if we will, Stubbs said.

Its part of a push by the Independent Restaurant Coalition to show the impact for businesses left out of the governments short-lived restaurant rescue plan.

The Restaurant Revitalization Fund, administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, pumped some $28.6 billion into restaurants and other hospitality businesses around the country. But those funds only covered about a third of the businesses that applied. Close to 3,000 in Louisiana that applied were left out.

Theres a bill in Congress that would replenish the fund to the tune of $60 billion. Its drawn support from 224 members of the House and 43 senators, but its future remains unclear.

The Independent Restaurant Coalition has been pleading its case and targeting its campaign in areas represented by lawmakers considered key to moving the replenishment bill ahead.

Food and restaurant news in your inbox Every Thursday we give you the scoop on NOLA dining. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

One of those is Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who sits on the Senates Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which oversees the SBA. While Kennedy supported the first round of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, he has not signed on for the replenishment bill.

We have done everything our elected officials have asked of us during the pandemic to keep our diners and workers safe to stop the spread. Now were looking for our representatives to have our back, said LeBlanc, who has closed three restaurants in the pandemic  Meauxbar, Cavan and Longway Tavern (this last one eventually returning as a new concept, The Will & The Way).

For Sen. Kennedy to not step up to the plate, it feels like having someone you really believed in forget about you and leave you behind, he said.

+5 New Orleans restaurants helped neighbors post-Ida. Could solar extend that help next time? Immediately after Hurricane Ida, some of the first grassroots disaster response in New Orleans came through small independent restaurants.

Louisianas other senator, fellow Republican Bill Cassidy, is a co-sponsor of the replenishment bill.

The new bill would help restaurants nationwide. In New Orleans, the local operators believe it should be a priority issue for their lawmakers. Louisiana thrives on tourism and hospitality, they point out, and the restaurant sector is a key piece of that.

These are funds that are coming back, theyre coming back to Louisiana. Theres a program in place  it seems like something we should be trying to get across the line. It would really help the state, Stubbs said.

Meanwhile, local restaurant closures keep stacking up, particularly for the smallest players.

Among the latest: Gert Town restaurant Kin, which pivoted once again after Ida with a new business model, and Pelican Delicatessen on Magazine Street.

Every time there seemed to be an end in sight, the finish line would move again. Once Hurricane Ida hit, which wiped out what might have been a busy fall for us, I saw no reason to continue, said Pelican founder Joshua Kahn.

The Biden administrations $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which passed last week, has been the focus on Capitol Hill lately. (Cassidy and Kennedy also went separate ways on that bill that passed Congress last week, with Cassidy supporting it and Kennedy opposing it.)

The New Orleans restaurateurs argued that a replenished Restaurant Revitalization Fund would help bolster the economy broadly, since restaurants support so many other suppliers, vendors and staff.

Without aid, LeBlanc predicted more restaurants battered through the pandemic would struggle and shutter, especially in Louisiana, with the added losses and costs from Ida.

The Restaurant Revitalization Fund worked for those restaurants that got it, he said. The problem is that it was underfunded given the demands of a stricken industry.

We dont begrudge anyone who got the funding; we hope everyone gets the funding. But it does create unfair advantages, said LeBlanc.
After considering three potential new names for Lusher Charter School during a four-hour meeting Thursday night, the Uptown charter schools governing board voted to dismiss one that would have preserved the "Lusher" name but ultimately delayed choosing a new name until it can get more community input.

The board had three potential new names for consideration: Lusher Charter School in honor of Dr. Jeanne Lusher, Willow Charter School and New Orleans Charter School of Arts and Sciences.

On Sept. 30, the board voted to choose a new new moniker because the original namesake  Robert Mills Lusher  was a Confederate official and segregationist.

The decision followed an action by the Orleans Parish School Board to rename dozens of school buildings under a policy passed last year to rename buildings named for Confederate sympathizers, segregationists and slave-owners. That process included the two campuses occupied by Lusher, which have both been renamed. However, that did not change the names of the independent charter schools operating on those campuses.

A renaming study group appointed by Lusher board President George Wilson following the Sept. 30 vote has been meeting to filter through community suggestions to recommend finalists to the board. The group whittled a list to 11, and then took community input to pare it to three.

The board's 4-2 vote to dismiss the Dr. Jeanne Marie Lusher suggestion came after a long discussion peppered with public comments. A handful of the roughly 30 commenters wanted to preserve the Lusher name through the doctor, who specialized in childhood cancer and blood diseases and died in Michigan in 2016.

But many commenters also pushed for the Lusher name to be dropped altogether.

I spoke with a colleague of Dr. Jeanne Marie Lushers. She was incredibly upset that her mentors name had been appropriated in this situation. She was offended, parent and alumna Ann Kaufman said. The name Lusher in our community is toxic  its time to move on.

Loyola University professor Michael Cowan, who is married to Lusher CEO Kathy Riedlinger, urged attendees to consider the arguments from the pro-Lusher camp.

They have argued renaming will cost money, could diminish the schools status and could cause confusion among college admissions departments. They have also said they believe the Lusher school legacy belongs to its community and its generations of alumni, not Robert Mills Lusher. (The school dropped Robert Mills from its name in the 1970s.)

A sure sign of a deeply polarized community is the inability to listen to the different points of view within it. Theyre both rational  but they are not being treated that way, Cowan said. The tone of this debate has taken on a poisonous quality.

Board members Gary Solomon and Brenda Bourne, who formerly served as the schools middle school principal, wanted to preserve the name.

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

As a Lusher administrator and a person who loves Lusher school, I was there for almost 25 years and never once did we celebrate Robert Mills  it was Lusher, Bourne said.

But other board members said it was time to move on from the name.

I think the name Lusher at this point has to go," Kiki Huston said. "Its in no way a reflection of the program or people at the school, but were hearing from too many people that it causes pain.

Some members of the public, meanwhile, thought Willow Charter School was a smart, safe choice, in that it was not named for an individual person. But others thought more time should be taken to consider additional names and allow for more community involvement.

Theres been so much kerfuffle over Lusher that theres been very little thought as to what the next step is," parent Erin Greenwald said. "If you need to pick Willow  fine. Its the cowardly choice, but it will be better than Lusher.

Several members of the public asked that Esther Alexis, a former teacher at the school who died in 2017, be considered as a namesake. Students attested to her passion for teaching and helping them learn.

But there was a resounding call to slow the process down, with attendees wanting more community input.

Then board president George Wilson suggested the board form a second study group and hire a consultant to help with the process.

He appointed board members Rachel Wisdom, Alysia Loshbaugh and Lusher administrators Charlene Hebert, Charmaine Davis and Sheila Nelson. All but Loshbaugh served on the previous study group.

The Lens inquired why the study group's meetings would not be open to the public. The first group also did not meet in public.

Lusher attorney James Brown insisted because it's not a committee and does not have direct decision-making authority, the sessions do not have to be open.

But Scott Sternberg, a First Amendment attorney, disagreed.

I am aware of no case or law which defines a study group. I am, however, aware of the actual law on this subject, which is that committees are committees, he said. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, its probably a duck. Its a committee, thats the deal. Theres no way around that  thats what the Open Meetings Law is for.

Sternberg represents The Lens, as well as The Times-Picayune.
Homer Plessy, who challenged a segregationist law in Louisiana in the late 19th century, will have five blocks of Press Street named in his honor.

The New Orleans City Council voted 6-0 Thursday to rename the section of Press Street between Chartres Street and St. Claude Avenue as Homer Plessy Way.

That stretch contains the site of Plessy's 1892 attempt to overturn a law that required black and white passengers to sit in separate train cars. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful but is seen as a key moment in the early civil rights movement.

Councilwoman Nadine Ramsey, who represents the area and sponsored the ordinance, said Plessy and his fellow activists were "courageous and righteous men who fought to make this nation live up to its creed, that all men are created equal."

Plessy was a member of the Comite des Citoyens, a local multiracial civil rights group that was active in the late 19th century, as segregation laws were being hardened throughout the South.

On behalf of the group, he boarded a whites-only rail car at a station near Press Street with the intention of challenging a recently passed law designating separate cars for white and black residents.

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

Plessy was arrested and took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ironically, the case would end up with the court's infamous 1896 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, which enshrined the doctrine of "separate but equal."

That doctrine would be used to entrench segregation throughout the South and beyond until the school desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education in the 1950s, in which a later court said separate public facilities were inherently unequal.

"History ultimately sifts the heroes from the villains, though the process takes longer than one man or one womans lifetime," said Keith Plessy, president of the Plessy & Ferguson Foundation. That group includes members, like Keith Plessy, who are descended from the civil rights activist and also members descended from Judge John Howard Ferguson, the white New Orleans judge who initially ruled against him in the case.

While a historical marker now stands on Press Street, many advocates have argued that renaming the street for Plessy would be a more visible and appropriate tribute.

That section of Press Street has few buildings. It is primarily a railroad corridor.
Propeller, New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce, ThriveNOLA, New Orleans Business Alliance, and The Collaborative have joined to compile a list of local BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) contractors in response to recovery needs post-Hurricane Ida.

The comprehensive list is created to lead recovery efforts while combating inequity

by promoting BIPOC small business contractors in the Greater New Orleans area and connecting them with those aiming to prioritize BIPOC-owned businesses.

"As residents and businesses are looking to rebuild or even build back better many have been looking for BIPOC contractors because New Orleanians are increasingly aware of the importance of everyone's participation if we hope to see equitable

recovery," Adele London, Director of Community Economic Development at Propeller, said.

Check out The Roux A weekly newsletter showcasing minority businesses in New Orleans. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Among those listed is Chester Williams of Chester Electric, who is eager to provide services. Im glad to be on the list and glad to be able to help people recover from damages from Hurricane Ida, Williams said. Im happy to have such a special relationship with Propeller that has helped me to further grow my business and to support people.

This collaborative effort elevates the profiles of local BIPOC contractors not only in storm recovery, but for all local construction, electrical, equipment, and plumbing needs.

The New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce is proud to collaborate and create a collateral piece to feature BIPOC Contractors for Hurricane Recovery, LaVerne Toombs, Executive Director of NORBCC, said. Our mission is to educate, support, and promote Black businesses in the New Orleans Metropolitan area.

For those seeking repairs for damages caused by Hurricane Ida, view the complete list at www.gopropeller.org. BIPOC-owned businesses who would like to be added to the list may also receive details on the website.
When children in St. Tammany find themselves in foster care with only the shirts on their backs, a local nonprofit tries to help them with essential clothing or bedding.

And to help those same youths later transition out of the foster system and into adulthood, the nonprofit James Samaritan group says it then has a table of community volunteers ready to assist them.

James Samaritans plan is called "Open Table," and it's an ongoing program that trains six to eight mentors to meet with a transitioning youth each week for a year, a concerted effort to strengthen the youths chances of successfully bridging out of the foster world and into adulthood.

Not only is this affecting transitioning youth, but their children (as well), says Open Table coordinator Glenn Rountree. Weve completed nine tables in the Covington region, and six of those youth already had children of their own.

He says the program tries to imbue the youth with hope and the confidence to believe they can be self-supporting, and he offers the example of a young mother who was helped through a tough time by her table members.

A young lady had three children and was on the brink of being homeless. She didnt have transportation and was working at a bad job and not able to manage on the money she was making.

Then she lost her brother and almost took a wrong turn, Rountree said. And at that point, her three kids  just like their mother before them  went into foster care. But through the support of members of her Open Table, he says the young mother today has a better job, a car, a nice apartment and her children.

He also offers this sobering fact: The majority of foster children in the state are from the north shore, where they are served by the Louisiana Department of Child and Family Services Covington Region of St. Tammany, Washington and Tangipahoa parishes.

People put a tag on these kids because they think their problems are a character issue, but (they're) not. Its their circumstances, Rountree says.

There are four active tables in the Covington region now, with two tables trained and waiting for referrals. Additionally, other volunteers are already undergoing the required 10-week training program. But still more are needed.

St. Tammany top stories in your inbox A weekly guide to the biggest news in St. Tammany. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

It takes a special kind of person, someone who is there unconditionally, he said. Table members should be nonjudgmental in order to create a safe place for the youth to form their own good habits for adulthood.

Youth who may have been in the foster system most of their lives not only experience trauma  often repeated incidents of trauma  they do so without positive role models or anyone showing them how to overcome and become successful adults.

People dont realize that when there is a raid or drug bust involving 30 people, 60 to 90 (youths can) end up in foster care. We hope to get more people on board, because there are young people out there with a need," Rountree says. Like in the story of the good Samaritan, good people have walked past the children of our community. Its time we stop and do something for them.

Lisa Murphy became the first executive director of James Samaritan in February, after working with the 22nd Judicial District Attorneys Office as the Diversion Department supervisor.

Were changing the trajectory of peoples lives, Murphy says. Were not only helping individuals aging out of foster care but giving them tools and resources for life. Theyre getting the relationships they might not have had.

James Samaritan invites the community to learn more at a presentation on the State of Our Children, a breakfast to be held from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., Friday, July 16 at St. Pauls School in the Briggs Center, 917 S. Jahnke St., Covington.

It is an informational event about a very invisible and underserved population, Murphy said.

Kim Bigler, founder of James Samaritan, said youth transitioning out of foster care are more likely to experience human trafficking, homelessness, unemployment, substance abuse and mental illness.

She calls the organization the emergency responders to the foster care system. In addition to helping provided items needed to place a child in a foster home, they built James Samaritan Center to provide a place for caseworkers and youth to meet and to conduct the court ordered visits with their parents. Its also a place for foster families to host parties for the youth, and for families to hold adoption day celebrations. Other new programs include Give a Lift, to provide transitioning youth with transportation, and the Belonging Campaign.

For more information, visit jamessamaritan.org or call (985) 888-6100. To learn more about Open Table and upcoming training opportunities, email glynn@jamessamaritan.org.
Jack Strain, once a powerful figure in St. Tammany Parish politics whose legacy is now tainted by political scandal and accusations of sex crimes, has been charged in a corruption case stemming from his tenure as sheriff, federal authorities announced Thursday.

Strain, 56, already faces aggravated rape and other charges in state court. The federal case involves a prison work-release program in Slidell that was privatized under Strain from 2013 to 2016.

The federal indictment, which runs 25 pages, accuses Strain of 16 counts ranging from bribery to wire fraud. If convicted, he could face jail sentences of 5 to 20 years per count, as well as fines of up to $250,000 per count.

U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser, in announcing the charges during a news conference with the FBI and Internal Revenue Service, said Strain had "a sacred duty to uphold and honor the public trust."

"Instead," Strasser said, "he took undue advantage of his official position to unjustly enrich himself, his friends and his family, at the expense of the taxpayer."

Strasser said investigators launched their probe after receiving word from the watchdog Metropolitan Crime Commission, which had received a tip about Strain's alleged misdeeds.

Strain's attorney, Billy Gibbens, was not immediately available for comment.

Federal authorities have probed Strains awarding of a work-release contract to the children of two ranking deputies. The former deputies have pleaded guilty, await sentencing and are lined up to serve as witnesses against Strain.

Clifford Skip Keen and David Hanson Sr., both former Sheriffs Office captains, pleaded guilty in February to profiting from an agency contract while maintaining their public employment in a scheme the federal government says involved Strain.

Hanson and Keen admitted devising a kickback scheme with Strain that involved his privatizing the work-release program in Slidell. Strain didnt solicit competitive bids, simply giving the contract to St. Tammany Workforce Solutions, a firm started in 2013 by a construction contractor named Allen Tingle and two adult children of Hanson and Keen: Brandy Hanson and Jarret Keen.

Louisiana inmates reaching the end of their sentences can participate in a work-release program which allows them to work for private companies away from prison. The inmates live in a secure facility resembling a dorm, and most of their wages go to the programs operator.

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

In Strains case, court records say the program generated $1.2 million over three years for Brandy Hanson and Jarret Keen, who then turned much of that amount over to their fathers. The plea deals the fathers struck ensured their children will not be charged.

David Hanson and Skip Keen have said in court documents that they regularly paid cash  often in installments exceeding $1,000  to Strain, though prosecutors have not said how much the payments totaled. Once, as a kickback to Strain, his son received a $4,000 check, the indictment said.

Strain also received $2,500 for his campaign fund from St. Tammany Workforce Solutions, which also reimbursed Hanson and Keen for their personal expenses during trips and vacations, some of which they took with Strain.

Furthermore, Strain allegedly arranged a no-show, $30,000-a-year job for a relative of his who had also worked at the Sheriff's Office.

Strain earlier this month pleaded not guilty in state court to four counts of aggravated rape, two counts of aggravated incest and a count each of sexual battery and indecent behavior with a juvenile. Strain is accused of sex crimes with four victims in all, two of them identified in the indictment as being under 12 at the time of the alleged acts and two others  both relatives  identified as being under 18.

The allegations range from 1978, when Strain would have been 16, to 2004, when he was one of the most powerful officials in the parish. He would face life imprisonment if he is convicted of rape.

The state charges stemmed from information investigators gathered as they probed the former sheriff's financial dealings.

Strain is out of jail on a $400,000 bond in the state case. His arraignment date on the federal case had not been set as of early Thursday afternoon.

The Abita Springs resident was in office as sheriff for 20 years. His tenure ended in 2016, when he was replaced by Randy Smith.

For more than two decades, first as police chief in Abita Springs and then as sheriff, Strain preached tough law and order in St. Tammany. But voters denied his bid for a sixth term in office as Smith successfully tapped into a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment.

During the runoff campaign in late 2015, Smith hammered Strain over the work-release program, which even then was mired in controversy, and suggested that the incumbent was a key part of a St. Tammany political establishment that had embarrassed the people it pledged to serve.
Facing more than a dozen lawsuits claiming poor treatment of patients from his seven nursing homes during an ill-fated evacuation for Hurricane Ida, the embattled owner of those facilities has fired back in court, asking for the cases to be thrown out.

Bob Dean Jr. filed a motion in federal court Friday to dismiss the lawsuits, which are under consideration as a class action. The lawsuits claim the patients suffered from neglect after being brought to a former industrial warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish that was leaky, over-crowded and poorly equipped.

As conditions grew dire inside the Dean-owned warehouse four days after Ida hit, state Department of Health workers raided the building and evacuated the 843 patients in a caravan of ambulances. At least 38 of the evacuees have since died. The LDH has said the deaths of at least five of them were directly linked to the evacuation and conditions at the warehouse.

The LDH has revoked the licenses of all seven of Deans nursing homes, a move that Dean is appealing.

+5 New Orleans woman loses second leg after botched evacuation of Bob Dean's nursing homes Lisa Renard worked with kids most of her adult life, first as a New Orleans school teacher, then as the director of a day-care center in the 7

In an interesting twist in his motion to kill the lawsuits, Deans attorneys cite a law used by the plaintiffs in most of the suits  the Nursing Home Residents Bill of Rights  claiming it blocks them from collecting damages.

In his 17-page motion, Dean claims he is protected by a provision that in the law that only allows patients to seek an injunction  immediate court-ordered relief  but not damages.

Deans Metairie-based attorneys, Andrew Weinstock and Philip Watson of Metairie, wrote that the law allowed damage claims until 2003 when the Legislature amended the Act to eliminate the provision in the statute that provided for the recovery of actual damages. 

Because the shelter was emptied before the suit was filed, there is no justiciable issue for the Court to decide, Deans attorneys wrote.

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

Dean also claims the lawsuits involve complaints about medical treatment, which must first go before a review panel as an initial step in a medical malpractice claim.

All malpractice claims against health care providers shall be reviewed by a medical review panel, Deans attorneys wrote.

Several attorneys representing patients in the pending lawsuits said Deans motion to throw out the suits are the equivalent of a Hail Mary.

This is standard defense practice: consolidate the cases and ask for them to be dismissed, said attorney Madro Bandaries, who is representing a woman whose leg was amputated after the ordeal. What is also standard is that very few of those motions get granted.

+5 After state shut down nursing homes, owner Bob Dean files appeal arguing to reopen them The owner of seven nursing homes that evacuated 843 residents to a squalid warehouse for Hurricane Ida has filed appeal documents to get his n

Attorney Donald Massey, who is suing on behalf of several patients, said there are a number of problems with Deans motion, especially the medical malpractice issue.

Food, water and oxygen are what any decent human being would provide, Massey said. These are not complex medical claims. Deans motion is baseless and exactly the type of obfuscation weve been seeing from Dean and his companies.

Bandaries agreed.

I cant believe a lawyer would sign his name to such an allegation, he said. Its more than a stretch, its actually disingenuous, to claim that basic needs like food and water are specialized medical needs.

In addition to the lawsuits, Dean is also facing criminal and administrative investigations by the state Attorney Generals Office.
Jack Strain, convicted Monday of sex crimes with underage boys, should see the outside of a cell again soon  but it will be in the form of another courtroom, when the former St. Tammany Parish Sheriff stands trial Dec. 6 on federal corruption charges.

Strain, sheriff for two decades, faces 16 counts ranging from wire fraud and bribery related to a work release program that he privatized in 2013, a couple years before voters denied him a sixth term in office.

+6 Former St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain guilty on all sex crime charges Jack Strain, one of St. Tammany Parishs most powerful elected officials during two decades as sheriff, will spend the rest of his life in pri

But his conviction on state sex crime charges, including four aggravated rape counts that carry mandatory sentences of life in prison, has prompted speculation among some experts and curious court watchers. Will Strain, who was indicted on the federal corruption counts in August of 2019, enter a plea agreement? Would the feds offer one? And will the federal trial even happen as scheduled next month?

"The question of the day is whether the federal government is going to go forward with a trial," said Harry Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney in New Orleans, where Strain is scheduled to be tried.

The two cases  state and federal  are inextricably linked, although one has to do with sordid sex crimes and the other with graft.

As sheriff, Strain turned over the Slidell work-release facility to the adult son and daughter of two high-ranking members of his administration  shell owners in what federal prosecutors say was a kickback scheme that raked in $1.2 million over three years.

Most of the money went to their fathers, David "Doc" Hanson and Clifford "Skip" Keen, and some of that, converted to cash, went to Strain, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which says the sheriff received regular payoffs of $1,000.

+2 Two former St. Tammany deputies, part of Jack Strain's inner circle, sentenced in kickback scheme Two members of former St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strains inner circle were each sentenced to more than four years behind bars Wednesday 

Hanson and Keen each pleaded guilty in federal court to a single count of charges of conspiracy to commit "honest services" wire fraud and soliciting a bribe, and were each sentenced to 50 months in prison. Both are expected to testify against Strain in U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo's courtroom next month.

Keen has already testified against Strain in state court, as one of Strain's sex abuse victims.

"It would be a real long shot for him to be found not guilty in the federal system," defense attorney Arthur "Buddy" Lemann said of Strain. "Hes got the same witnesses who are going to testify against him. Its going to be an uphill battle."

+5 Former St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain pleads not guilty to 16 federal corruption counts For the second time in less than a month, former St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain found himself in a courtroom Tuesday pleading not guil

Besides Keen, dual witnesses include FBI agent DeWayne Horner and IRS agent Timothy Moore, who were investigating potential corruption at the work release. When they approached their targets, including Keen, in May of 2017, he hit them with an astonishing claim: that Strain had molested him as as a child. A little over two years later, Strain was arrested at his home in Abita Springs.

"A bit of irony is that the state's prosecution developed from the federal prosecution," Rosenberg said. "But the state indicted him first."

The links go beyond the fact that Keen is a key witness in both cases. He's expected to testify that the work release scheme was concocted in part to keep him and others silent. Another Strain victim was given a no-show job at the work-release program.

The severe punishment Strain faces for sexually abusing boys makes the sentencing range possible for the federal charges seem almost meaningless. Even if he were to get a sentence of 10 years or more, the time would be served concurrently, Rosenberg said.

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

The testimony is likely to be somewhat anticlimatic as well, after sobbing victims took the stand in the Covington courtroom with stories of shattered innocence and years of being under Strain's control.

But federal prosecutors showed a keen interest in Strain's trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Ginsberg and others were present in the St. Tammany Parish courtroom several times during Strain's trial.

While it's not unheard of for two different cases to be somewhat entwined, Rosenberg said, it is unusual to see back-to-back prosecutions that have a common nexus, aside from having the same defendant.

Rosenberg questioned whether the federal trial might be delayed until the state case plays out on appeal, which he expects Strain's attorney, Billy Gibbens, to file. "I know that he thinks there may be a shot at getting a couple (counts) vacated," he said.

While Lemann also expects an appeal, he points out that it will take at least a year for that to play out.

But, Rosenberg said, "even if successful, if one of the aggravated rape charges withstands judicial scrutiny, that's still life in prison."

The most pressing question for Strain may be where will he serve his sentence -- in a state prison like Angola or in a federal prison, always a preferred landing spot. Rosenberg and others say that since the state convicted him first, he'll have to go to state prison.

"Even if he entered a plea agreement tomorrow and waived the preliminaries, I don't think a court will sentence him so he can go to a nicer institution than a state prison," Rosenberg said.

"He's going to one of the state penal institutions to serve his time, if there is a plea agreement or a conviction."

But Lemann disagrees, saying that the question hinges on the time of sentencing, not the conviction. Strain will be sentenced for the sex crimes on Jan. 18. His federal trial is more than a month before that date.

"If in December he goes in right away, pleads guilty and says, 'sentence me,' he could get the sentence in federal court first," Lemann said, calling that an easy choice. "Federal time is much, much better."

Sentences in federal court are based on the amount of money involved, Lemann said, which might mean that Strain won't get a very long prison term, perhaps as little as five years, if he's found guilty.

Even so, "it might make sense for him to plead guilty, get the five years and hope to try to manage things so he does at least the first five years in the federal system and (can) work on the state court appeal," he said.

The state is already having to figure out where to put the ex-lawman.

Following the guilty verdicts Monday night, Strain was taken to the St. Tammany Parish Jail, which he controlled during his years in office. But he was transferred that same night to the Plaquemines Parish jail, with current St. Tammany Sheriff Randy Smith citing the need for security and the desire to avoid any question of Strain getting special treatment.

Former police officers and convicted child molesters face a difficult time in prison, Rosenberg and others said. Strain is both, and inside a prison, "word gets out quickly," Rosenberg said.

If he ends up in Angola, "that's solitary confinement," Lemann said.
One mother accused of stabbing her infant boy on a 7th Ward street and another accused of beating her infant girl to death in the Milan neighborhood were among three people indicted in New Orleans last week.

Detroit woman Angelyc Seely was charged with second-degree murder on Nov. 4, two weeks after a magistrate judge said she was mentally competent for court proceedings.

Authorities accused Seely, a 35-year-old with no fixed address, of stabbing to death her 9-month old son at Columbus and N. Broad Streets on July 18. A passerby spotted the motionless baby boy in a bicycle trailer.

Seely was found nearby with small cuts to her neck, according to an arrest warrant. Paramedics took her to the hospital, where she reportedly said she cut herself with scissors because she was supposed to go with her son but "it went wrong and she failed."

+5 Woman with fatally stabbed baby, blood-covered railroad spike booked with murder: NOPD A 35-year-old homeless woman from Detroit is facing murder charges after New Orleans police found her with a baby who had been stabbed to deat

The boys name was Baba Haru Consue PrrRa, according to the Orleans Parish Coroners Office.

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

Separately, Loretta Norman, 32, was charged with second-degree murder and obstruction of justice in the May 30 death of her daughter. Authorities accused her of beating four-month-old Jewels Norman. The child died from blunt-force head injuries, according to the coroner.

Norman was wanted on a warrant for domestic abuse of the girls father at the time of her death, according to District Attorney Jason Williams office. She has also been charged with domestic abuse battery first offense.

+2 Mom arrested in connection with infant daughter's apparent beating death, New Orleans police say The apparent beating death of an infant girl in New Orleans Milan neighborhood over the Memorial Day weekend has led to the arrest of the bab

The Orleans Public Defenders, who represented Norman and Seely after their arrests, didn't comment Thursday.

The grand jury also handed up charges against Gregory Matthews, 37. He was indicted on four counts of first degree rape, four counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile and felon in possession of a firearm. His attorney didn't immediately comment on the charges.

All three defendants face life imprisonment if convicted as charged.
In 1892, a young shoemaker from Treme boarded a train hoping to challenge White supremacy, but wound up lending his name to the infamous U.S. Supreme Court decision that made separate but equal the law of the land.

Nearly a century after his death, Homer Plessy is set to have his conviction for crossing the color line wiped clean.

At an emotional hearing on Friday, the Louisiana Pardon Board unanimously voted in favor of a posthumous pardon for Plessy, the Creole of color whose name graced half the 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson.

Portion of Press Street to be renamed after early civil rights activist Homer Plessy Homer Plessy, who challenged a segregationist law in Louisiana in the late 19th century, will have five blocks of Press Street named in his honor.

Gov. John Bel Edwards must give the boards recommendation final approval. A spokeswoman said he looks forward to reviewing it.

When the governor does pardon Plessy, he will be correcting a huge historic error, said Brian Mitchell, a University of Arkansas-Little Rock associate professor who studies the era.

It is considered one of the worst decisions ever made by the U.S. Supreme Court, Mitchell said. Whenever we have the ability, even symbolically, to correct the historic record or a historic injustice, we should take that opportunity.

The pardon springs from an unlikely alliance. Earlier this month, Plessys first cousins thrice-removed wrote a letter requesting it, along with the District Attorneys Office that prosecuted him and descendants of the 19th century judge who oversaw his conviction.

They cited a little-known Louisiana law from 2006, which allows pardons for people convicted of violating laws that enforced racial segregation. That laws sponsor, state Sen. Edwin Murray, said it was meant to honor veterans of the 20th century civil rights movement.

But the law has never been used. Instead of 20th century movement members, its first application will be for a 19th century pioneer.

Plessy, born in 1862, was a member of the Citizens' Committee, a cross-racial civil rights group that challenged the segregation laws that the Louisiana Legislature rapidly passed after Reconstructions collapse.

The group chose Plessy for an important reason, Mitchell said. He was only of one-eighth African descent, and easily could have passed as White, which the committee hoped would help demonstrate the absurdity of segregation laws.

+2 Before Rosa Parks, a New Orleans shoemaker took his own historic stand The Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting 300

Plessy was arrested in Orleans Parish for violating a law that forbade Whites and Blacks from sharing railroad cars and charged by the New Orleans district attorney. John Howard Ferguson, a state district court judge, upheld the Separate Car Act. Four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court made it official  Louisiana could discriminate against its citizens on the basis of race.

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

The high court decision sealed the case against Plessy. On. Jan 11, 1897, he pleaded guilty to violating the law. He was ordered to pay a $25 fine.

He died in 1925 with the conviction still on his record. For decades, Plessy v. Ferguson was the law of the land. Segregation was legal under the absurd pretext that Black people were offered separate but equal accommodations.

At the pardon hearing, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said he had grown up under the long shadow of Plessy v. Ferguson. His comment was echoed by pardon board member Alvin Roche, who is also Black. Roche said he was a 7th grader in New Orleans when the citys schools were integrated.

In 1954, the Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson with the landmark ruling Brown v. Board of Education.

It wasnt until 1954 that the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that wrong, said Madeleine Landrieu, dean of Loyola Universitys law school. That began what continues to be a long road to recovery from the laws that oppressed people of color.

The next year, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus for a White man. Keith Plessy, whose great-grandfather was Homer Plessys first cousin, told the board Friday hed once knelt before Parks to honor her.

Get up boy, your name is Plessy, Parks told him. You've got work to do.

Louisiana civil rights museum would be a place to honor its past: Jarvis DeBerry On a Saturday morning a month after Hurricane Katrina, I was seated in a Baton Rouge IHOP when the elderly woman at the adjacent table turned 

In recent years, Keith Plessy's work has consisted of a non-profit educational organization he runs with Phoebe Ferguson, a descendant of the judge on the other side of the case.

Other supporters of the pardon application included Kenneth E. Martinet, the great, great nephew of Louis A. Martinet, an attorney who played a leading role on the Citizens Committee; and Kate Gillingham and Maude Grater, the great, great granddaughters of John Marshall Harlan, the sole Supreme Court justice to side with Plessy.

Williams civil rights division crafted the pardon application. The district attorney said with the 125th anniversary of Plessys conviction coming up in January, now is the perfect time.

The pardon reminded Mitchell, the historian, of another attempt to correct the historical record  the removal of Confederate monuments under former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

There are small things we can all do, every day, to atone for the sins of the past we had nothing to do with, Williams said. This may seem small, but it is deeply symbolic.

CORRECTION: Earlier versions of this story misidentified the senator who sponsored the 2006 Louisiana law allowing pardons for people convicted of violating segregation laws.
For the second time in less than a month, former St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain found himself in a courtroom Tuesday pleading not guilty to criminal charges.

Strain entered the not guilty plea during his arraignment in federal court in New Orleans on 16 counts of corruption, including fraud and bribery. It came less than a month after he pleaded not guilty to sex crimes in state court in St. Tammany on Aug. 15.

The arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice van Meerveld was the first time that Strain, 56, appeared in court to answer to the federal government's case against him, which centers on an alleged kickback scheme at a work-release program in Slidell that he turned over to a private company while he was sheriff.

Strain will remain free on an unsecured bond of $1 million on the federal charges. He cannot leave Louisiana and had to surrender his passport.

Neither Strain nor his attorney, Billy Gibbens, would comment following the arraignment.

Strain, wearing a dark blue suit and red tie, sat quietly in the courtroom next to Gibbens and occasionally pulled at his collar.

He then stood before the magistrate judge, who asked him if he understood the charges against him. "I do, your honor," he said in a clear, strong voice. He then entered a not guilty plea to all counts.

His case will be tried before U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo, van Meerden said, setting a Nov. 12 trial date and an Oct. 23 pretrial conference.

If convicted, Strain could be sentenced to up to five years for the first count, 20 years each for counts 2 through 13, and 10 years each for counts 14-16. He could also be fined up to $250,000 per count.

Federal prosecutors allege that Strain gave a no-bid contract to run the privatized work-release program to the adult children of two of his top deputies, Clifford "Skip" Keen and David Hanson Sr. The children funneled money to their fathers, who in turn gave it to Strain, the government says. The indictment does not indicate the total amount Strain allegedly received.

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

Keen and Hanson have pleaded guilty to those charges and are expected to testify against their former boss. Keen has also been identified in federal court documents as a former sex crime victim of Strain when Keen was a child.

In federal court, a defendant may enter a guilty plea to a felony only before a judge, and Strain was arraigned before a magistrate judge, which meant he could only plead not guilty.

The arraignment follows a grand jury indictment that came down late last month, but Strain's dealings with privatized work-release programs have long been the subject of intense media coverage and figured in his reelection defeat in 2015.

But it was not until March 2018, when a federal grand jury subpoena was served on the St. Tammany Sheriff's Office seeking records concerning the program, that it was confirmed that Strain was under federal scrutiny.

Meanwhile, the case against him in state court involves eight counts of sex crimes involving four underage boys. He's been charged with four counts of aggravated rape, which carry a potential life sentence.

Three of those counts involve Keen as the alleged victim, court records show. Another longtime family friend, Mark Finn, has said he is the other aggravated rape victim. One of those counts involves a victim identified in the indictment as MF.

Strain is also accused of two counts of aggravated incest involving victims under 18 and one count each of indecent behavior with a juvenile and sexual battery. He remains free on $400,000 bail on the state charges.
The connection between dueling investigations into former St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain has never been clear: One probe centered on the sheriffs awarding of an inmate work-release contract to the children of two of his ranking deputies; the other has focused on sordid allegations that the longtime lawman sexually abused at least four children.

The link lies within court documents that one of Strains former ranking deputies signed when he pleaded guilty in a public corruption scheme, allegedly spearheaded by Strain, that involved the work-release program.

That deputy, former Sheriffs Office Capt. Clifford Skip Keen, signed a summary of the case against him in which he said he had been molested as a child by Strain. In turn, Keen said, Strain kept him in his inner circle and was generous to him as he grew up to deter him from ever talking about the abuse.

Keen said that generosity included cutting him into a scheme to skim more than $1 million from the sheriffs work-release program  a scheme that led a federal grand jury to hand up a 16-count indictment against Strain on Thursday.

Strain, 56, was already facing aggravated rape and other charges in state court when U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser held a news conference to announce the federal case against the ex-sheriff. He now faces bribery and wire fraud counts in federal court.

Before charging Strain, the feds had secured guilty pleas from Keen and a fellow former captain at the Sheriffs Office, David Hanson Sr.

They both admitted in February that they had devised a kickback scheme with Strain that involved his privatizing a work-release program in Slidell that had been run in-house for years. Rather than soliciting competitive bids, Strain simply gave the contract to run the program to St. Tammany Workforce Solutions, a firm launched in 2013 by a construction contractor named Allen Tingle and two adult children of Hanson and Keen: Brandy Hanson and Jarret Keen.

Work-release programs in Louisiana allow inmates nearing the end of their sentences to work at jobs for private companies away from prison. The inmates live in a secure facility resembling a dorm, and the lions share of their wages goes to the programs operator.

The idea is to allow inmates to earn a little money and readjust to civilian life before leaving prison.

In Strains case, court records say the program generated $1.2 million over three years for Brandy Hanson and Jarret Keen, who sent much of that amount to their fathers. David Hanson and Skip Keen said they then regularly paid cash  often in installments exceeding $1,000  to Strain until his 20-year run as sheriff ended in 2016. The government has not said how much the payments totaled.

Strasser on Thursday said someone who caught wind of the plot alerted the watchdog Metropolitan Crime Commission, which in turn passed on the tip to law enforcement officials.

+2 Federal corruption charges filed against ex-St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain Jack Strain, once a powerful figure in St. Tammany Parish politics whose legacy is now tainted by political scandal and accusations of sex cri

A 13-page document accompanying Keens guilty plea largely centers on activities related to St. Tammany Workforce Solutions. But in one paragraph, Keen says that as a child he was sexually molested by Strain, who is nearly six years older.

Then in 1997, when Strain had been sheriff for a year, Strain hired Keen for the Sheriffs Office. Keen rose through the agencys ranks and ultimately took charge of the maintenance department.

Keen understood that, because of the sexual misconduct, (Strain) was generous to him in subsequent years, including hiring him at (the Sheriffs Office) and providing him with the benefits (through the work-release program) to keep Keen in his inner circle and deter Keen from talking about (Strains) sexual misconduct toward him, the document says.

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

Keens attorney, Keith Couture, said that neither he nor his client wanted to comment beyond what was in the document.

Keen is not the only link between the state molestation charges and the federal case.

Thursdays indictment accuses Strain of arranging a no-show, $30,000-a-year job at St. Tammany Workforce Solutions for a relative of his who had also worked at the Sheriffs Office. That person, whose name isnt in any public documents, is also one of the victims accusing Strain of sex abuse.

A state grand jury in St. Tammany has charged Strain with eight counts of sex crimes with underage victims, including four counts of aggravated rape, involving a total of four victims. Strain, who has pleaded not guilty and is out of jail on $400,000 bail in that case, would face mandatory life imprisonment if convicted of aggravated rape. The allegations range from 1978, when Strain would have been 16, to 2004.

Strains arraignment in the federal case is set for Sept. 10 in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Janis van Meerveld.

The plea deals Hanson and Keen struck with prosecutors require them to testify against Strain but provide that their children will not be charged.

Another allegation in the federal indictment involves a kickback that took the form of a $4,000 check to Strains son. Prosecutors said Strain also received $2,500 for his campaign fund from St. Tammany Workforce Solutions, which reimbursed Hanson and Keen for their personal expenses during trips and vacations, some of which Strain accompanied them on.

Strains attorney, Billy Gibbens, didnt respond to a request for comment on Thursdays charges.

Strains 20-year tenure as sheriff ended after he was defeated at the polls in 2015 by Randy Smith.

+2 40-plus years later, how could prosecutors prove if 12-year-old Jack Strain committed sexual abuse? Mark Finn recounts in harrowing detail the sexual abuse he says he endured as a child at the hands of Jack Strain, a family friend who later b

For more than two decades, first as police chief in Abita Springs and then as sheriff, Strain was a political force preaching tough law and order in St. Tammany Parish. But Smith, Slidells former police chief, was able to tap into a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment among the parishs voters.

Smith fired Hanson and Keen from the Sheriffs Office after he took the agencys reins.

During the runoff campaign in late 2015, Smith hammered Strain over the work-release program, which by then was mired in controversy, and suggested the incumbent was a key part of a parish political establishment that had embarrassed the people it pledged to serve.

Strasser on Thursday said Strain had a sacred duty to uphold and honor the public trust but instead took undue advantage of his official position to unjustly enrich himself, his friends and his family, at the expense of the taxpayer.
A former New Orleans Police Department child abuse investigator must stay imprisoned indefinitely after apparently breaking sex-offender registration laws and possessing a stash of child pornography while out on parole two years ago, a federal judge ruled Friday.

The ruling comes after increased media and law enforcement scrutiny of Stanley Burkhardt, 70, who years ago had been ordered locked up indefinitely as a sexually dangerous person but was given another chance to return to society following treatment.

Burkhardt made a name for himself at NOPD in the 1970s and 1980s by building cases against child abusers. But he left the force in disgrace and was imprisoned in 1987 after being convicted of mailing sexually explicit images of underage boys to undercover agents.

He later also acknowledged sexually abusing a 9-year-old relative in New Orleans and receiving child pornography. In hopes of keeping him imprisoned as long as possible, federal prosecutors turned to a law providing for lifelong commitments for people whom judges deem to be sexually dangerous.

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman in North Carolina in 2011 ruled that Burkhardt met those conditions and imposed a lifetime commitment. However, after four years of treatment, U.S. District Judge James Dever III ordered the disgraced ex-cop released as long as he complied with certain conditions, one of which was keeping his sex-offender registration information current.

In 2019, Louisiana State Police alleged that Burkhardt had failed to notify them of an email address and username that he used to leave suggestive comments under pictures of young men on a photo-sharing website.

Also, when he applied for a job with a New Orleans casino, he allegedly removed a stamp from his drivers license that identified him as a convicted sex offender.

+3 Ex-NOPD child abuse investigator admits molesting victim of infamous Boy Scout pedophile ring A former New Orleans Police Department detective who led the NOPDs pedophile investigations unit for years before he was unmasked as a child 

State Police re-arrested Burkhardt and searched his home on July 24, 2019. They allegedly found a phone with 67 images of teen-aged minors engaged in sex acts, according to court records filed last week. There were also allegedly images on the phone which showed partially dressed preteen boys that the records said violated conditions of his supervised release.

He had made $10,000 bail by the following day. But then federal parole authorities took him back into custody for allegedly violating the terms of his conditional release, and he was ordered held without bond until a February 2020 hearing over whether he should ever be released.

After the hearing took place, Dever didn't rule for nearly two years because of delays from the coronavirus pandemic. Dever ultimately decided Friday that Burkhardt had indeed violated his conditional releases terms and should stay in custody, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, North Carolina, said.

Burkhardt can reapply to be conditionally released again in six months.

Dever reviewed forensic psychiatrists' reports on Burkhardt before ruling. He issued his decision weeks after Burkhardt requested that the judge weigh in after the lengthy delays.

Burkhardt remained under the radar for years following his 2015 release. But in the fall of 2018, a man publicly accused Burkhardt of bragging about killing a teenage boy who frequented the French Quarter and was found dead in the Mississippi River in New Orleans nearly four decades ago.

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

That man, Richard Windmann, testified in 2011 to being sexually abused as a teenager by Burkhardt. Windmanns claims about Burkhardts boast led the NOPDs cold case squad to give a fresh look at the 1982 drowning death of Edward Wells.

Meanwhile, State Police, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriffs Office and investigators in Mississippi began re-examining the unsolved strangulation deaths of three other teenagers: Dennis Turcotte, Raymond Richardson and Daniel Dewey. The three, like Wells, also frequented the French Quarter, were all killed in a 21-month span in the late 1970s, and were dumped around the region.

At the February 2020 hearing, a State Police investigator said that Burkhardt was not being considered as a suspect in the death of Wells. Burkhardt testified that he did not kill Wells.

Nonetheless, Burkhardt was under law enforcement's microscope. The same state trooper from the February 2020 hearing obtained the arrest warrant charging Burkhardt with running afoul of sex-offender registration laws the previous year. That investigator was also involved in probing the slayings of Turcotte, Richardson and Dewey.

Thanh Truong leaving WWL-TV; he and wife to launch podcast examining mysterious 1982 death Anchor and reporter Thanh Truongs last day on air at WWL-TV will be Friday, but audiences wont have to go long without hearing his baritone 

Wells death was the subject of a podcast named "New Orleans Unsolved" that debuted last year around the time of the February 2020 hearing.

Windmann met Burkhardt after testifying decades ago that he had been sexually abused by leaders of his Boy Scout troop in a case that led to numerous criminal convictions. Authorities working on that case have described introducing Windmann to Burkhardt.

Windmann in September 2019 filed a lawsuit seeking damages from Burkhardt and New Orleans city government. City attorneys claim the lawsuit should be tossed out, citing statutes of limitation prohibiting plaintiffs from recovering damages for long-ago conduct.

The lawsuit, prepared by attorney Richard Trahant, alleges that those statutes shouldnt apply in this case because Windmann tried to report Burkhardt to other police officers but was turned away.

At the February 2020 hearing, Burkhardt seemingly admitted to molesting Windmann, reversing years of denials. But in a follow-up hearing in September 2020, Burkhardt's attorney sought to establish through expert witness testimony that Burkhardt had once described having sex with Windmann when Windmann turned 17 and reached the age of consent  but that Burkhardt had not abused Windmann when Windmann was a child.

Windmann's suit against the city of New Orleans remains unresolved.

"I've spent a lifetime trying to get Burkhardt away from our children, and it was worth every single year," Windmann said Friday. "No longer will the children of Louisiana be subject to this monster."
An Algiers family that had been struggling to cope with the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy earlier this year now finds itself homeless after a fire spread from a vacant building and destroyed their residence overnight.

Between fire and water damage, Daranika Nicholas, 32, said most of her family's property was destroyed in the blaze that started next door to their home in the 1400 block of Hendee Street.

+3 In Harvey shooting death of 14-year-old boy, 3 juveniles charged as adults with murder Four months after 14-year-old LaQuinn Nicholas was fatally shot in Harvey, a Jefferson Parish grand jury has charged three juveniles with seco

"I've just been..." Nicholas said before taking a long pause Friday afternoon, as if she were still trying to grasp the scope of her family's losses over the past year. "It's been a fight for me."

Nicholas's son, LaQuinn, an eighth-grader at Paul Habans Charter School, died after he was shot April 10 in Harvey. Three teenagers have been indicted with second-degree murder in his death.

About 1 a.m. Friday, Daranika Nicholas was asleep at home with her 9-year-old son, her 18-year-old daughter, her 2-week-old granddaughter and two other people when the fire started.

Her granddaughter's father was making a bottle for the infant when he noticed flames coming from the building next door, according to Nicholas said.

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

"Thank God he was up," she said.

The family hustled out of the house and watched over the next few hours as New Orleans Fire Department crews extinguished the blaze.

It was a jarring experience for a family already contending with grief and sudden loss.

"We've been outside since 1 a.m. with nothing, no clothing," Nicholas said. "We lost everything for the baby."

On Friday afternoon, Nicholas and her family were still going through the sodden ruins of their home, trying to salvage what they could while working to secure place to stay, clothing and other necessities.

"Nobody was hurt, Thank God," Nicholas said.

Carlie Wells contribute to this story.
Former LSU Health Sciences Center executive Keith Schroth in the late 2000s racked up thousands in expenses on an LSU foundation credit card for routine outings at bars, Ruths Chris Steak House and Harrahs casino, newly obtained records show.

The total amount improperly charged to LSU Health Foundation New Orleans over a two-year period was as much as $18,100  far more than the maybe three, four, $5,000 in spending Schroth has previously acknowledged.

An outside law firms investigation tallied more than 130 charges to bars and restaurants, including 26 charges at Harrahs and 28 charges at Ruths Chris. Many of those appear to be purchases of alcohol only, which was prohibited, the New Orleans-based Liskow & Lewis firm wrote in its 2009 report.

But, according to Schroth, that spending was not deemed problematic by the chancellor at the time, Larry Hollier, and Schroths then-direct supervisor, Steve Nelson. Nelson was dean of the School of Medicine in 2009 and now serves as interim chancellor after Hollier stepped down last month.

In 2009, Schroth was Nelsons chief finance officer. Schroth said his supervisors signed off on his expenses, which he said stemmed from meetings he had with healthcare system representatives.

They got approved by the chancellor and the dean, Schroth said Thursday. They were all for business.

Nelson and Hollier didnt return messages seeking comment Thursday. Hollier previously told The Times-Picayune | The Advocate that he had seen no problems with the spending by Schroth, whom he elevated last year to the centers top financial position, vice chancellor for administration and finance. We didnt feel there was any issue, Hollier said.

Hollier also defended Schroth after questions around his credit-card spending were raised internally last year, a compliance officer wrote in a memo.

Schroth also stepped down last month after Chad Leingang, the LSU Health Foundation New Orleans former president, told the newspaper that Schroths credit card spending in the late 2000s was abusive," though not all the details were initially available. A university audit in September also raised concerns around Schroth.

Schroth said in September the amount of his flagged purchases wasnt that significant.

If I had to guess, maybe three, four, $5,000, he said. He said Thursday that those comments referred to the amounts he spent each month.

In the period from 2007-9 reviewed by Liskow & Lewis, Schroth charged more than $18,100 on his card. Its not clear what portion of that total spending was flagged as abusive.

Hollier and Nelson also possessed cards billed to the foundation, and spent $57,000 and $13,800 over the same two-year period, respectively, the report said. The report drew no conclusions about whether any of that spending was inappropriate, but recommended eliminating the credit cards because they give the impression of an unlimited, unmonitored expense account.

The foundation no longer uses credit cards. Leingang revoked Schroths card in August 2009. Liskow & Lewis issued its findings a month later.

Schroth vaguely referred to other financial concerns around the foundation in the late 2000s, and claimed the review of his spending was retaliation from Leingang. There were financial findings about the foundation, Schroth said, without adding specifics. There were issues.

Asked about this, Leingang said, Keith Schroth is making stuff up.

The foundations finances under my leadership had 13 years of clean audit reports, with no material weaknesses, no reportable conditions and no audit adjustments, said Leingang, who left the foundation in 2016.

The foundation  with 16 full-time staffers, a 25-member board and more than $7.6 million in donor contributions last year  has a mission to raise money and help foster business relationships for LSU Health in New Orleans.

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

Its leadership in September declined a request to turn over a copy of the Liskow & Lewis report.

The reports contents had raised alarms within the organization as recently as December, when Schroth held the chief financial post at LSU Health in New Orleans, according to an internal LSU memo.

The foundations chief finance officer, Tim Hemphill, alerted LSU compliance officer Frank Wasser and then-chief of staff Louis Colletta to Schroths previous spending, Wasser wrote in a five-page memo.

In a meeting with Wasser, Colletta and Lori Ferro, another compliance official, Hollier defended Schroth. He insisted that Schroth had actually approached him with concerns that the P-card system, as it existed at the time, was not sufficiently monitored and could have led employees to mismanage funds, Wasser wrote.

Wasser shared his memo with LSUs Office of Internal Audit in January. In a scathing 67-page report in September, auditors criticized Hollier for improperly pushing for raises for Schroth and Schroths son, actions that violated university policies and prompted strong pushback from human resources.

The audit did not mention Schroths credit card spending. In September, an LSU spokesman said the university didnt have a copy of the Liskow & Lewis report. The Times-Picayune | The Advocate obtained a portion of the report this week.

The lawyer who drafted the report, Leon J. Reymond Jr., told the newspaper he is not authorized to discuss it. A spokeswoman for the foundation said neither Hemphill nor the organization has anything to add on the subject.

Either way, the law firms conclusions in the 2009 report are clear: Schroths use of the card violated policy and often was personal, inappropriate or excessive.

Schroth submitted summary receipts, rather than itemized receipts, for his spending at Harrahs and near-weekly outings at Ruths Chris, the report said. Many of the purchases were for alcohol only, and almost half of these charges were incurred after 8 p.m.

Schroth said his receipts may have been labeled Harrahs because he frequently visited the Ruth's Chris there. He never spent foundation money at the casino, he said.

Schroth said he followed all foundation requirements while submitting receipts. They had all the receipts as approved by Dr. Hollier and Dr. Nelson, he said.

Leingang, in a 2009 email, wrote that Schroth also bought drinks at the Windsor Court hotel and Lucys bar. Schroth didnt always submit receipts or cite a business purpose, including vague descriptions like LSU opportunities and LSUHSC processes and regulations, the Liskow & Lewis report said.

Schroth said he rang up the expenses at gatherings with healthcare representatives, with whom he was trying to develop business ties for LSU Health in New Orleans. It was all professional, he said. I did business that way.

In one three-month period, Schroth used the card at Ruths Chris a dozen times, evidencing a weekly routine of dinner and/or drinks, the report said.

The report said two LSU officials  Hollier and Ben Lousteau, then a fiscal analyst  also joined outings that Schroth expensed to the foundation. The report does not say how often this occurred, but stated it violated LSU policies to expense meetings that only involved school officials.

That would have been a rare occasion, Schroth said.

Lousteau is now interim chief finance officer for LSU Health in New Orleans. He acknowledged attending gatherings with Schroth in the late 2000s, but said he couldnt recall specifics and didnt know how Schroth paid for the outings.

Whether that was something that Keith did or didnt expense, its not something I can speak to, he said.
Thirty-six teenagers housed in the New Orleans juvenile detention center were evacuated to a state adult prison in Iberville Parish ahead of Hurricane Ida, a move that children advocates described as inappropriate and possibly illegal.

The New Orleans Juvenile Justice Intervention Centers director, Kyshun Webster, said Monday that his facility has a longstanding agreement with the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections, which runs the states adult prison system, to help with evacuations. The agreement has been in place since before Webster took over the New Orleans juvenile justice facility three years ago, he said.

The teenagers and 26 staff members from the juvenile center were moved to Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel Aug. 27, two days before Hurricane Ida made landfall. They were kept in a building separate from the adult prison population for five days and left the facility Sept. 1, said Ken Pastorick, spokesman for the adult prison system.

Hunt houses a little over 1,600 adult male prisoners as well as a few hundred adult women prisoners on its campus, according to statistics made public on the prison systems website. The incarcerated women moved to Hunt after the states womens prison flooded in 2016. Opened in 1979, Hunt is a multi-level security institution, meaning the people housed there committed both nonviolent and violent crimes.

At no time were these populations ever co-mingled, and [the juvenile justice centers] 26 staff members supervised the 36 [teenagers], Pastorick said in a written statement Tuesday.

But advocates questioned why an adult prison was ever considered an adequate evacuation site for minors who are the same age as middle and high school students.

Teens sent to Hunt ranged from 14 to 18 years old, their attorneys said, and havent been convicted of a crime. The juvenile justice center is primarily for minors who are awaiting criminal proceedings  not those who have already been found guilty.

Its appalling to think that in this day and age  weve been working on reform for 20 years  that we would evacuate children to an adult facility. Thats ludicrous, said Gina Womack, the executive director of Families and Friends of Louisianas Incarcerated Children, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Teens transferred to Hunt told their parents and attorneys that the conditions at the prison were scary and upsetting for them.

Jacky Matute said her 14-year-old son described his stay at Hunt as the worst days of his life, when he called her at the end of last week. The teen was back in the New Orleans juvenile justice center by the time she talked to him on the phone. She had not been able to reach him for several days and she said he wasnt allowed to call her while at Hunt.

He didnt tell where he had been because he didnt know where he had been. He just said it was a grown-people jail, Matute said in an interview Monday. He said, Mom, they put me in a grown mans prison.

Matute said she feels guilty because while she was evacuated to a hotel and eating decent food, her son was being held in a prison and hungry. The boy told his mother the prison food was so horrible that he refused to eat most of it.

The juvenile justice center had called Matute ahead of the hurricane to tell her that the child would be evacuated, but they didnt say where he was going. She never imagined he was going to an adult facility.

They said, Dont worry. He will be in a safe place, she said. My son, hes only 14. He was not enough of an age to be in that place.

Matute said her son realized he was in an adult prison because during his stay he saw an adult who was incarcerated.

Rachel Gassert, policy director for the Louisiana Center for Childrens Rights, said the boys experience is indicative of what other teens have said about the adult prison. Her organization provides attorneys to teens held in the detention center, including several who were sent to Hunt.

Other teenagers told attorneys at Gasserts nonprofit that the prison food was inedible and the prison building was unbearably hot. In spite of the heat, the teens said they were only allowed to take one shower over several days. The teenagers were also werent allowed to call their families during the evacuation and worried about what had happened to their loved ones in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, Gassert said.

Gassert and other children advocates believe the evacuation was illegal. Federal and state laws prohibit children who havent been convicted of a crime from being held in adult correctional facilities, they said. No child subject to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court shall be held in adult jail or lockup, reads one Louisiana law that has been on the books since the early 1990s.

If they did what everyone is saying that they did, put them in an adult facility, its hard to find a more direct violation of [the law], said Hector Linares, a Loyola University law professor who specializes in juvenile justice. You dont have to be a lawyer to know thats illegal, thats a violation.

Linares said the recent evacuation reminded him of the treatment of incarcerated teenagers who were trapped in floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He said he was disappointed that the city didnt have a better plan in place to evacuate the juvenile detainees 16 years after that devastating storm.

Get hurricane updates in your inbox Sign up for updates on storm forecasts, tracks and more. e-mail address * Sign Up

State officials said that the juvenile centers evacuation to Hunt was in keeping with regulations for juvenile detention centers. Louisianas juvenile detention center rules allow for juvenile lockups to be on the same grounds as an adult facility as long as it is a separate, self-contained unit, according to documents provided by the Department of Children and Family Services.

The state prison system also said that it has broad authority to house detainees and other people who arent normally in its custody once a governor declares a state of emergency. Several adult detainees in South Louisiana jails were also evacuated to state prisons ahead of Hurricane Ida, Pastorick said.

But children advocates said making room for adult evacuees in prisons is not the same as housing children in a prison meant for grown men. The juvenile detention center regulations cited by the Department of Children and Family Services dont apply to Hunt because it has never been licensed as a juvenile facility, according to Linares.

They had time to plan this, and the best they could come up with was a blatantly illegal evacuation plan, he said.

The City of New Orleans spent several days keeping the teenagers evacuation location a secret.

+2 New Orleans launches in-home supervision program for kids accused of crimes Since a troubled electronic ankle bracelet program ended two years ago, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court judges have lacked options for keeping w

The state public defenders office and Louisiana Center for Childrens Rights attorneys were unable to locate their clients for more than a week after the hurricane. The City of New Orleans also refused to answer questions from a reporter about where the detainees in the juvenile center had gone.

Even after the teenagers returned to New Orleans, officials initially said they could not share the evacuation location with the teens attorneys or the media over security concerns. They only confirmed the teenagers had been moved to Hunt, after advocates and parents shared stories from the minors who were evacuated.

When we are transporting detainees on an open highway, we do not disclose location because it presents a security risk in transit, said Webster, about why the city has refused to share the location previously.

In a short interview Monday, Webster tried to distance himself and the city of New Orleans from the decision to send the teenage detainees to an adult prison ahead of the storm.

Webster said it was the states decision  not the citys  to put the teenagers at Hunt. He said the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections decided where the teenagers would go based on the availability of space and resources.

This was coordinated by the state, Webster said.

The Department of Public Safety and Corrections runs the adult prisons and other adult programs. A separate state entity, the Office of Juvenile Justice, oversees facilities for incarcerated youth. Had the city intended to transfer its juvenile detainees to a state-run facility for youth, the city would have wanted to partner with the Office of Juvenile Justice and not the Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

When pressed for details about the evacuation plan, Webster refused to answer additional questions and hung up the phone.

Its not clear to what extent state officials outside of the prison system vetted the New Orleans juvenile justice centers plan. An evacuation plan for the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center was submitted to the Department of Children and Family Services earlier this year, but it didnt include an evacuation destination. It only referred to an alternate location where the detention center would be able to resume operations, according to documents provided by the agency.

New Orleans was an outlier in how it handled the evacuation of juvenile detainees last month. The five other juvenile detention centers who evacuated for Hurricane Ida moved their detainees to other juvenile facilities, not adult prisons.

The Terrebonne Parish Juvenile Justice Complex partnered with the Green Oaks Juvenile Detention Center in Monroe.

The Terrebonne centers director Joseph Harris Jr. said his facility goes to Monroe whenever there is a disaster in the area, and notifies the courts and law enforcement before any evacuation. He also allows the juvenile detainees to call their parents once relocated.

Once we get to our destination, we make sure to call and let them know they are safe and healthy and that theyre at a good place, Harris said.

The Louisiana Illuminator is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization based in Baton Rouge.
More than a century after he lent his name to the infamous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that enshrined the separate but equal doctrine in law, Homer Plessy could finally have his name cleared.

The Creole man of color, who was arrested in New Orleans for refusing to sit in the colored car section of a train in 1892, is on the Louisiana Pardon Boards docket Friday for consideration of a posthumous pardon. During the 9 a.m. hearing, the board will have an opportunity to begin correcting a notorious historical wrong, subject to Gov. John Bel Edwards' approval.

+2 Before Rosa Parks, a New Orleans shoemaker took his own historic stand The Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting 300

Plessy boarded the train to Covington, from what is now known as the Bywater area, as part of a civil rights groups challenge to the racist state law that forced segregated seating. His effort to become the Rosa Parks of his day did not succeed. In the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling in 1896, the Supreme Court declared it was legal for a state to force segregation on the basis of race.

A year later, Plessy pleaded guilty to violating the Separate Car Act. He was fined $25, and he died in 1925 with the conviction still on his record, according to a letter supporting his pardon from a group including several of his descendants.

Plessy v. Ferguson was one of several Supreme Court rulings that made Jim Crow the law of the land. Those rulings began to fall with the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education at the start of the civil rights movement.

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

Plessy and Ferguson unveil plaque marking their ancestors' actions Today, Plessy versus Ferguson becomes Plessy and Ferguson, when descendants of opposing parties in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court segregation

Decades after Plessys death, his descendants and those of John Howard Ferguson, the judge who oversaw his case in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, formed a friendship and a nonprofit foundation to advocate for civil rights education.

Several of those descendants appended their names to a Nov. 5 letter to the Pardon Board. Also signing were Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams and the great, great nephew of Louis Martinet, a lawyer who played a leading role in the 19th century challenge to segregation laws.

The pardon would be just one of several efforts in recent years to acknowledge Plessy's role in history. In 2018, the New Orleans City Council voted to rename the section of Press Street where he attempted to board the train to Homer Plessy Way.
To some toy industry experts, the prevalence of llamas signals a possible death knell for the unicorn, the mythical and stubbornly immortal toy that pillaged the industry and beyond circa 2017. On Etsy, searches for unicorn items are down 37 percent over the last 12 months, while inquiries for llama nursery products are up 36 percent, according to data provided by the site.

Not everyone is convinced, though, that the llama has fully unseated the unicorn. Unicorns are evergreen, and we sell just about one unicorn item every day, said Rick Derr, the owner of the toy store Learning Express, in Lake Zurich, Ill. Regardless, the toy industry seems to be enjoying the opportunity to profit off of the new rivalry  for example, the Unicorns Vs. Llamas Monopoly board game, which came out in December.

Its hard to pinpoint what, exactly, caused the llama to prance onto the toy scene some 20 months ago. Popular references like the best-selling 2005 kids book Llama Llama Red Pajama and Disneys 2000 film The Emperors New Groove had been around for quite some time.

Stephen Berman, the co-founder and chief executive of the toy company JAKKS Pacific, which hopped on the trend in 2019 with the creation of the Whos Your Llama collectible toy line, said his companys trend experts identified that the animal was a best seller in Japan.
Few countries exemplify the tragedy of the Arab Spring like Libya. The fall of the 42-year dictatorship of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi brought a decade of anarchy as competing governments, militias and foreign powers struggled to seize control of the oil-rich country. The United States and NATO allies that had backed the anti-Qaddafi uprising with a bombing campaign largely turned their backs after he fell, and past United Nations efforts to forge a government foundered in the chaos.

Today, however, against all odds, Libyans have a chance to clamber out of the mess. A cease-fire of sorts has been holding since October, and a broad-based political forum convened by the United Nations in November managed to appoint a prime minister and a three-member presidential council charged with leading the country to elections this coming December.

The process is fragile, to say the least. The interim prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, a billionaire who was a close associate of Colonel el-Qaddafi, stands accused of buying the votes that gave him the job. The interim team and the cabinet it proposes need to survive a vote of confidence in a House of Representatives that is also split in two, one side based in Tobruk and the other in Tripoli. The vote is expected to be held on Tuesday, at the earliest.

But if theres to be any chance for peace, the foreign powers that have flooded Libya with weapons, drones and mercenaries  primarily Russia, Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates  must be persuaded to let the political process play out. In theory, a U.N. arms embargo is in force, but according to a still secret U.N. report that has been viewed by The New York Times and other news outlets, weapons are nonetheless arriving by the planeload.
BOGOTA, Colombia  A special court in Colombia has charged a general and other top military leaders with crimes against humanity, accusing them of assassinating 120 civilians and presenting the victims as combat casualties in a bid to show the country was winning its long civil war.

The indictments are the first in which Colombias special peace court, created by a 2016 agreement between the countrys government and its largest rebel group, has held anyone accountable for the killings, which erupted into public view in 2008 and became known as the false positives scandal.

The scandal has emerged as emblematic of the countrys decades-long internal conflict, a painful symbol of the way civilians were not just accidental casualties in a war between left-wing guerrillas, paramilitaries and the military  but sometimes targets of all three groups.

Hundreds of members of the military were convicted in the scandal by the countrys regular court system but were later released under the 2016 peace accord, which transferred jurisdiction of their cases to the special peace court.
Much of that money has paid for educating Afghan women, training them for jobs and making sure they have better access to maternal, pediatric and other health care. One U.S.-funded program, known as Promote, prepared nearly 24,000 women who were once housebound to join the countrys work force and sharpened the negotiation skills of 5,000 so that they could press for gender equity  including in the peace process with the Taliban that is now defunct.

A U.S. aid program that trained midwives proved so successful that it became a flagship project for the World Bank and secured funding from the European Union.

But while some schools across Afghanistan remain open, others are closing. In some parts of the country, the Taliban have assured women who are doctors and health workers that their clinics will remain open. In other areas, women are unsure if they should even venture outside their homes without their husbands.

I want to go out, I want to drive  I like driving, Fahima Saman said in an interview from Kabul on Tuesday, speaking only on the condition that she not be identified by her full name for fear of a Taliban reprisal. But because of this situation, I cannot  I am afraid.

A high school teacher and mother of two, Fahima, 29, said she and her husband never applied to immigrate to the United States, given that they both had jobs and believed Afghanistans future would be more stable than its past. More recently, as the threat of the Taliban rose, Fahima said she did not approach the U.S. Embassy or international diplomats for help for fear that other Afghans would think she was doing something improper or immoral.

Fahima said she did not believe the Taliban would respect her rights. Its a very bad situation; its very dangerous, she said.

Ms. Amiri, a native of Kabul who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, demanded that the Biden administration back up its words of support for the rights of Afghan women by evacuating at least those who were at high risk.
Can choreographers  or anyone, really  ever make something entirely new? Entirely their own? With her series I Am Also, the dancer and choreographer Molly Poerstel reminds us that every artist is a constellation of influences, a messy composite of other people and past experiences. In dance, that entanglement is especially intimate, deeply rooted in the body. As Poerstel writes of her latest work, I Am Also  Monte, referring to the many choreographers with whom she has danced: Their work exists within my body, therefore, this work is an extension of their minds and bodies.

The series considers how a dancers past seeps into the present and, inevitably, into the work of collaborators. When a choreographer, say, makes a solo for a dancer, what they create together could be seen as their respective histories, multiplied. Through this lens, what might seem like a simple form  the solo  grows exponentially more complex.

Whose work is it? Where does the choreographer end and the dancer begin? How do their identities and interpersonal connection  in the case of Monte, as a white woman and a Black man (Monte Jones) who have been friends for 25 years  further complicate this relationship?
GLASGOW  Vanessa Nakate, a climate activist from Uganda, told the United Nations climate summit on Thursday that she and her peers did not believe the pledges that ministers, corporations and banks made this week to move aggressively on climate change.

But they want to.

Im actually here to beg you to prove us wrong, Ms. Nakate said. God help us all if you fail to prove us wrong.

In one of the most powerful speeches to date before the U.N. climate summit, Ms. Nakate, 24, told diplomats that leaders already are trying to brand the conference, known as COP26, a success, but that she and her peers werent buying it.

Let us be honest, she said. We have been here before.

After a quarter of a century of climate conferences and new annual commitments, planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. This year will be no different, Ms. Nakate said.
RARITAN, N.J.  Jack Ciattarelli, a Republican who ran a spirited campaign to unseat New Jerseys Democratic governor, conceded defeat on Friday, acknowledging 10 days after polls closed that he had no path to victory.

Mr. Ciattarelli trailed Gov. Philip D. Murphy on Friday by roughly 74,000 votes, or about three percentage points, after a nearly two-year campaign that energized rank-and-file suburban and rural voters, who turned out in numbers that caught Democrats largely off guard.

Mr. Ciattarellis strong showing and a hard-fought win by Republicans in Virginia sent tremors through the Democratic Party as it looked ahead to next years midterm elections and the partys ability to hold on to its slim majority in Congress.

In New Jersey, Republicans also flipped about a half-dozen legislative seats, including one held by Stephen M. Sweeney, a labor leader who for more than a decade was considered the second most powerful lawmaker in the state.
Four astronauts boarded the International Space Station on Thursday after a daylong trip inside a spacecraft built by Elon Musks space company, SpaceX. The quartet pushed to more than 600 the number of people to have flown to space, a further milestone in 2021, the busiest year for human spaceflight in over a decade.

SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule, nicknamed Endurance, docked with the orbital lab at 6:32 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, about 40 minutes ahead of a schedule announced earlier.

Docking complete, happy to be at the I.S.S., Raja Chari, the Crew-3 commander, said from the capsule as he and his fellow astronauts, buckled side-by-side in their seats, joined hands in celebration.

Almost two hours later, the hatch opened and the smiling crew members entered the space station one at a time, each wearing blue jumpsuits. They are to remain in orbit until April 2022.
PARIS  On a recent Sunday evening, Paris played host to a theater troupe that had come a long way. The Grand Theatre Itinerant de Guyane traveled from French Guiana, nestled north of Brazil on the Atlantic coast of South America, with its latest production: Bernarda Alba From Yana, staged by the companys director, Odile Pedro Leal.

Yana, here, means Guiana. In this shrewd adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorcas The House of Bernarda Alba, the repressed sisters at the heart of the Spanish play speak Creole and dream of men who farm sugar cane. And for the first time I can recall in over a decade of theatergoing in Paris, the audience around me was predominantly Black  a situation that shouldnt be so rare in such a racially diverse city.

Yet Bernarda Alba From Yana was performed only once, and not in a major Paris playhouse. Instead, it was presented at the Maurice Ravel Conservatory, a training institution, as part of Le Mois Kreyol (Creole Month), a festival dedicated to promoting artists from Frances numerous overseas territories, which include once colonized islands and regions dotted around the world, from the Pacific to the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean.

Since these territories are home to many people of color, Le Mois Kreyol, which was created in 2017 by the Caribbean-born choreographer Chantal Loial, also celebrates French Blackness  and is a reminder of what the countrys mainstream theater is missing. Broadways power players signed a sweeping diversity pact in August; in France, overseas theatermakers and their peers of African origin remain shut out of leadership positions.
Producing more than 1,000 movies a year each, Bollywood, Indias Hindi film industry, and Nollywood, the Nigerian version, have long outpaced the California dream-makers who think they rule the world in Hollywood.

It is against this shift in the shaping of global culture that Nollywood Dreams, a giddy if wobbly comedy by Jocelyn Bioh, plays out.

But the template is pure MGM: Our sweet heroine, Ayamma Okafor (Sandra Okuboyejo), works, along with her tart sister Dede (Nana Mensah), in their parents travel agency in Lagos. When the rising film director Gbenga Ezie (Charlie Hudson III) announces open auditions for the title role in his latest project, The Comfort Zone  yes, theres a title role  Ayamma sees a chance to be like the women in all of those Hollywood films I spent my life watching and become a star herself.

There are complications, of course, but this being a 90-minute comedy, not many. Gbenga has all but promised the role of Comfort to his former lover, Fayola Ogunleye (Emana Rachelle), a somewhat tarnished star known as the Nigerian Halle Berry with Tina Turner Legs. And what of Wale Owusu (Ade Otukoya), Nigerias Sexiest Man Born, slated to play the hero in the movie and perhaps in Ayammas life as well? What, indeed!
Notably, Mr. English said he never directly shared with the three defendants his concerns that Mr. Arbery had been on his property. In fact, he said he barely knew two of the defendants, Travis McMichael, the man who shot Mr. Arbery, and his father, Gregory McMichael, whom he said he had met only briefly. He said he had never met the third defendant, William Bryan.

Linda Dunikoski, the lead prosecutor in the case, may use such details to buttress her argument, laid out in her opening statement last Friday, that the three defendants rushed into action based on flawed assumptions and driveway decisions, but without immediate knowledge that a crime had occurred.

Ms. Dunikoskis language echoes that found in what was Georgia citizens arrest law at the time, which stated that a private person could arrest someone if an offense was committed in their presence, or within their immediate knowledge.

However, in opening statements for the defense, Robert Rubin, a lawyer for Travis McMichael, brought attention to another aspect of the law, which stated that if someone believed that another person had committed a felony  and if that person was escaping or trying to escape  it was legal to try to arrest the fleeing person if the pursuer harbored reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion.

Mr. Rubin contends that Mr. English allowed suspicion to spread in the neighborhood by sharing the videos of Mr. Arberys unauthorized entries with Mr. Perez and the police, and by letting it be known that some property had been stolen from his boat.

Were not contending there was a crime committed in their presence, Mr. Rubin said of the defendants. But there was probable cause to believe a felony had been committed by Mr. Arbery, he said, and that this man was attempting to escape or flee.
A Black police officer in Ohio whose chief left a sheet of paper with the words Ku Klux Klan on his raincoat this summer, a jarring discovery captured in a surveillance video obtained by the officers lawyers, filed a discrimination complaint on Thursday with the states Civil Rights Commission.

The officer, Keith Pool, said during a video news conference on Thursday announcing the complaint against the citys police force that officials in Sheffield Lake, Ohio, a small city about 25 miles west of Cleveland, had failed to stem a tide of racist misconduct by Anthony Campo, the police chief at the time.

Mr. Campo, who acknowledged his actions in interviews with local news media outlets, saying they were meant as a joke, resigned shortly after the episode.

Officer Pool, 57, who became Sheffield Lakes first Black police officer last year and remains employed by the city, said during the news conference that Mr. Campo had previously called him a racial slur and regularly posted racist fliers on a bulletin board targeting him and another officer who is Hispanic.
Mr. OKeefe and his lawyer, Paul Calli, revealed new details about the diary investigation and F.B.I. search to Sean Hannity on Fox News on Monday. During the interview, Mr. Calli said that Project Veritas had paid for the right to publish the diary but was unable to confirm it belonged to Ms. Biden and ultimately decided not to go ahead with a story about its contents. Excerpts from the diary were later published by another conservative website.

One of the crimes listed on Mr. OKeefes search warrant was transporting material across state lines, his lawyer said. There is a criminal statute against taking stolen goods from one state to another.

Mr. OKeefe said the F.B.I. took his phones, which had confidential donor and source information. He said that neither he nor his group had done anything wrong, and that the F.B.I. searches were an assault on the First Amendment.

The legal documents obtained by The Times were written several years ago, at a time when Project Veritas was remaking itself from a small operation running on a shoestring budget to a group more closely modeled on a small intelligence-gathering organization.

During the Trump administration, the group saw a flood of new donations from both private donors and conservative foundations, and hired former American and British intelligence and military operatives to train Project Veritas agents in spycraft.

In a statement issued by one of its lawyers, Project Veritas said it stands behind these legal memos and is proud of the exhaustive work it does to ensure each of its journalism investigations complies with all applicable laws.

The statement said the work reflects Project Veritass dedication to the First Amendment, which protects the right to gather information, including about those in power.
I think it really came from this idea that dogs should be segregated from the best parts of the house  they shouldnt be in the kitchen, the dining room, on the couch or on the bed, Dr. Horowitz said. For some reason, there is this sense that we have to maintain our dominance over them by having full possession of these things. It sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous.

Dr. Horowitz said that when her dogs, Finnegan, a lab mix, and Upton, a Great Dane-bloodhound mix, started crowding the bed, the solution in her house was not to kick them out, but to expand the size of our bed.

Theyre getting older, so they cant leap up onto the bed anymore, she said. We actually have to lift them onto the bed. But its the best place. Its a comfy place. Its where we are.

Dr. Horowitz recently got a new puppy, a Schnauzer-cattle dog mix named Quiddity, who sleeps with her son. She said that if someone was having trouble sleeping because of a dog, they should try to find another cozy spot for the pet to enjoy. They dont have to sleep in the bed, she said. Find some other place as spectacularly good  or maybe they want to sleep with your son.

One question the Mayo Clinic study didnt address was how sleep changes for dog owners if the dog leaves the bed. On a few occasions, my dog Maddie has chosen to sleep elsewhere, and I find myself waking up even more wondering where she is. When that happens, I go find her and bring her back to bed.

When Jamie Contreras and her husband, who live near Portland, Ore., got their bulldog mix puppy, Cooper, they planned for him to sleep in a crate next to the bed. But soon, the dog made it clear he wanted to be on the bed. As the dog got bigger, it became apparent there wasnt enough room for everybody  so the couple bought a king-size bed.

Now, nearly 12 years later, the 83-pound dogs nightly routine includes sleeping under the covers in between Ms. Contreras and her husband. Often, the dog moves on top of the covers during the night, pinning the couple under the sheets. Sometimes, Cooper runs and kicks in his dreams.
NEW DELHI  As the worshipers descended the slope to the riverbank, dressed in their festival best and carrying offerings, a voice on the loudspeaker repeated: The water is deep, dont let go of your childs hand, dont let them in the water.

It was a much needed warning for the thousands of families in attendance for the four-day Hindu festival of Chhath that ended on Thursday, a celebration of the sun deity Surya that involves fasting and making offerings while standing in water.

They needed the warning because the rivers water was, in fact, barely visible, blanketed with a toxic foam of industrial waste and sewage. If you didnt know better, you could mistake it for the morning after a night of heavy snowfall.

Many worshipers in northern India celebrate the festival at the Yamuna River, a religiously significant tributary of the Ganges that runs through the capital city of New Delhi.
WARSAW  Thousands of migrants, unwilling weapons in a geopolitical struggle, in peril in a freezing border zone. Far-right nationalists marching on the streets of Warsaw, calling for harsh action against asylum seekers. Belligerent national leaders facing off across a razor-wire border.

A standoff over migrants along the European Unions eastern flank, one that E.U. leaders say has been manufactured by the authoritarian government of Belarus, is growing more volatile, highlighting the raw emotions driving a crisis on that countrys border with Poland.

So far the only casualties have been the migrants, stuck in the struggle between Belarus and countries on the frontline of the European Union, like Poland and Lithuania. Amid growing fears of a humanitarian disaster in the thick forests that straddle the border, a 14-year-old Kurdish boy from Iraq was reported by Polish news media to have frozen to death overnight on the Belarus side of the frontier.

Eight others, according to the official count, died earlier from exposure.

Aid workers, who are barred along with journalists and independent doctors from entering the border zone, believe the real death toll is higher and will rise sharply as winter sets in and pushes already freezing temperatures even lower.
BRESCIA, Italy  With a week to go before his first solo exhibition, the Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao was in head-down work mode: installing the show during the day, and sharpening hundreds of pencils with a knife at night.

Set closely together, the pencils  3,724 in all  were part of an installation in the show China Is (Not) Near, which opens Saturday in the municipal museum of Brescia, an industrial city in the northern Italian region of Lombardy.

After a decade building an online following as a political cartoonist by lambasting China, whether for its censorship (and Western complicity in it), its treatment of the Uyghur minority, or the crackdown in Hong Kong, Badiucao said he was keen to show work in a traditional institutional setting.

He wasnt always so forthcoming. Until not so long ago, Badiucao had been so concerned about reprisals from the Chinese government that he had kept his identity a secret, eliciting comparisons to the British street artist Banksy. He revealed his face in a 2019 documentary, and now says that hes found safety in exposure, though he still prefers to use his artist name.
Anger, pain, disappointment and confusion, in other words, are given room to breathe (though Todd steers clear of Simones later struggles with mental health), but these are not the only forces that shape her artistry. Simones precocity, which shines through in the image of a diapered toddler reaching up to touch a single key on the piano, is nurtured in intimate moments sitting on her fathers lap at the keyboard, letting him guide her as they play good-time jazz together, and on Sundays when she provides the rhythmic and rolling accompaniment to her minister mothers sermons. Todd brings nuance to Simones musicianship in ways that should prove instructive to curious young readers  from the details of Miss Mazzys classical pedagogy (she taught Eunice to curl her fingers, straighten her back, and play concertos and fugues) to Simones hit cover of I Loves You, Porgy, a dark and deep rendition of the Gershwin classic that was markedly distinct from Billie Holidays version.

The journey to merge her astonishing virtuosity and professional achievements with her bold activism is summed up by the arresting portrait of the artist seated at her baby grand and flanked by four little Black girls. A replica of a burning church peeks out from underneath the instruments lid. (Four young Black girls were killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.)

Song for Jimi also leans into the triumph of its subjects ability to cultivate a diversity of sounds reflecting a multifaceted personal history. Its lyrical title page epigram  a sonic tactician, / a Picasso with a pick, / painting in the blues tradition  highlights Smiths focus on the intricacies and ambition of Hendrixs musicmaking as well as the roots of his artistry. Structured as a song, the book is divided into five verses plus an outro and a provocatively titled interlude that closes the story of Hendrixs life on a Monterey Pop Festival high note rather than with the tragedy of his early death (the narrative makes no mention of the artists substance abuse). Each of these rhyming verse poems is infused, as the authors note indicates, with a musical style central to Hendrixs repertoire  from blues and early R&B to the psychedelic rock he would revolutionize. As in Nina, theres an abiding sense of outsiderism and individualism.

The child who went by the name of James (Jimmy) Marshall found relief from poverty and his parents domestic conflicts in drawing, in the spirit of his Indigenous grandmother, in the rock n roll sounds on the radio and in the limitlessness of his own imagination. Rodriguez translates this energy into a rich array of blues, purples, yellows and reds that saturate the page and allow Hendrix to appear across the arc of his life in multiple shades and colors. The whimsical bends and sensual curves in some of Rodriguezs figures suggest a combination of the work of the Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias (a figure of the Harlem Renaissance) and that of the theatrical caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.

Though steeped in Black musical traditions nurtured, in part, while performing on the Chitlin Circuit, Hendrix is likened to a musical sponge who drew from everything around him in order to create a new sound  an odd sound  a rock-folk rhythm-and-blues sound. From his tour of duty in the U.S. military, to his time playing down south in Nashville and up north in the Village, to his explosive arrival in Britain, Song for Jimi emphasizes Hendrixs commitment to self-invention, his eccentricity and his penchant for fantastical tropes and proto-Afrofuturist sounds that screeched past the stars, / echoed off the moon, / and earthquaked planet Mars.

Smiths book includes a timeline of pivotal events in the musicians life, a playlist of songs that inspired the author, a discography and references. But absent from the bibilography are works that reflect newer conversations about Hendrix that focus in greater detail on his return to performing with fellow Black musicians, like Billy Cox and Buddy Miles on the Band of Gypsys live album, shortly before his death  a circling back to community not unlike Simones. That story is one that deserves its own picture book treatment.
What worries me the most is being the frog in the pot, he said. Thats why we did this. Worst case, it doesnt work out. Im OK with that. Well fix it.

Ms. Fraser of Kate Spade is also trying to embrace a future where key employees might live thousands of miles away.

I dont even necessarily care where you live, as long as you have the flexibility to come to New York as needed, she said. You can live wherever.

Ms. Fraser, who has worked relentlessly for years now and has an 18-year-old daughter, said she wished shed had more opportunities to work remotely earlier in her career.

It would have been a game changer for me to have had a little bit more flexibility so that I could take my meetings from home in the afternoon, she said. I definitely traveled a lot and I worked really hard, and I wanted to. I dont regret it. But theres no such thing as quality time. Theres just time.

Whether the future is all remote, back in the office or somewhere in between, what is clear is that office work for many is unlikely to resemble what it was in the past. Employees may be in the office only a few days a week, if at all. Their manager may live in another state. It might be months or even years before colleagues who speak every day ever meet in person. And to hear many C.E.O.s tell it, thats all OK.

So many executives are holding on to remnants of the past and assuming that was normal, said Ms. Owen of MillerKnoll. The world is evolving. We changed as a society, and we changed what we know we can do.
Were seeing lots of public radio stations doing amazing local work to spread good health information, Mr. Loviglio, the media professor, said. On the other side, youre seeing mostly the AM radio dial and their podcast counterparts being the Wild West of the airwaves.

iHeart  which owns more than 860 radio stations, publishes more than 600 podcasts and operates a vast online archive of audio programs  has rules for the podcasters on its platform prohibiting them from making statements that incite hate, promote Nazi propaganda or are defamatory. It would not say whether it has a policy concerning false statements on Covid-19 or vaccination efforts.

Apples content guidelines for podcasts prohibit content that may lead to harmful or dangerous outcomes, or content that is obscene or gratuitous. Apple did not reply to requests for comment for this article.

Spotify, which says its podcast platform has 299 million monthly listeners, prohibits hate speech in its guidelines. In a response to inquiries, the company said in a written statement that it also prohibits content that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive content about Covid-19, which may cause offline harm and/or pose a direct threat to public health. The company added that it had removed content that violated its policies. But the episode with Mr. DeYoungs conversation with Mr. Rohrer was still available via Spotify.

Dawn Ostroff, Spotifys content and advertising business officer, said at a conference last month that the company was making very aggressive moves to invest more in content moderation. Theres a difference between the content that we make and the content that we license and the content thats on the platform, she said, but our policies are the same no matter what type of content is on our platform. We will not allow any content that infringes or that in any way is inaccurate.

The audio industry has not drawn the same scrutiny as large social media companies, whose executives have been questioned in congressional hearings about the platforms role in spreading false or misleading information.

The social media giants have made efforts over the last year to stop the flow of false reports related to the pandemic. In September, YouTube said it was banning the accounts of several prominent anti-vaccine activists. It also removes or de-emphasizes content it deems to be misinformation or close to it. Late last year, Twitter announced that it would remove posts and ads with false claims about coronavirus vaccines. Facebook followed suit in February, saying it would remove false claims about vaccines generally.
Fadi Khayyat, a Palestinian American who immigrated to the United States from the city of Ramallah, in the West Bank, as an 8-year-old in 2003, remembers the first Thanksgiving his family celebrated. My mom thought she could stuff turkey the way we do chicken, said Mr. Khayyat, who lives in New York City. Then she heard its not safe because of temperature issues, so now she just makes hashweh on the side.

Over the years, Mr. Khayyats family has started to include more American dishes, but hashweh is always the real star, he said. Eating any large cut of meat without rice is baffling to him.

The turkey always has to be next to hashweh topped with pine nuts and yogurt, he said. If anybody ends up with dry turkey, just serve it with hashweh and yogurt, then nobody will complain about it.

In the same way, Ms. AlMahroos, 39, cannot fathom having an azoomah  a feast or gathering of people over food  without rice. Taking a cue from her native Bahrain, Ms. AlMahrooss hashweh rice is flavored with cinnamon, cumin and turmeric, and has raisins alongside the nuts. A large cut of meat has to come with rice to be presentable to guests, she said.

Hospitality is the bedrock of Arab culture, most often manifested through food. Rice-based dishes happen to be the ones that extend the most to feed a large crowd, making them the perfect choice for an Arab Thanksgiving table. Just as Arabs blend these traditions with American ones, local and seasonal ingredients are also making their ways into classic Arab hashweh.
This lesson is a part of our new Accessible Activities feature, which aims to welcome a wider variety of learners to our site and to The Times. Learn more and tell us what you think here.

Lesson Overview

Featured Article: 2021 Has Been a Bad Year for Manatees by Johnny Diaz

What do you know about the gentle and cute, but odd-looking, manatee, sometimes known as the sea cow? Have you ever seen one?

Sadly, in Florida, manatees are dying at an alarming rate. In the past year, the state has lost about 10 percent of its population.
Are you a person who is able to read anywhere: loud and busy places as well as quiet libraries or parks? Or are you more particular about where you snuggle up with a book?

In Reading Around New York, Anika Burgess explores the places New Yorkers can be found with books in their hands. The article combines text with photographs from The Timess archive:

On Thursday, May 3, 1979, the New York Times staff photographer Fred Conrad visited the main branch of the New York Public Library. A crowd had gathered on the steps outside  in groups, in pairs, talking, eating. But among this gathering, a few sat slightly apart, heads bent. They appeared oblivious to those around them, unaware of the photographers lens. They were reading. Even in the busiest of places, if you have a good book, you can retreat into solitude. And when you live in a city like New York, a book can be even more than a story at your fingertips. It can also be a respite, an escape, a sanctuary, a diversion and a travel companion.

The article continues:

These photos  all drawn from The Timess vast photo archive  show that, in New York, theres no place too busy for a book. To see someone reading in New York is to witness an act of determination. The reader has to ignore a barrage of potential disturbances, ranging from fine art to flight announcements. For those who are interested in literary trends, public spaces like subways can also be a useful, if informal, barometer of whats popular. A glance around the train car  particularly in the days before smartphones  could sometimes tell you as much about which books were in the zeitgeist as The Timess best-seller list. For some, the book they chose to read was as much a part of the image they presented to the world as their outfit  a way to show off how intellectual or hip they were, and maybe to catch someones eye in the process. In 1906, The Times published a quartet of sonnets about a train guard who was smitten with a passenger who took the local, not the express, just to have more time to read her novel. More than 100 years later, The Times published a selection of subway-related Missed Connections poems taken from Craigslist. I bought the book/but I never got your name  , one lovelorn commuter wrote. If youve read while standing and swaying on a packed subway, youll know that a good book defies any posture or location. Just ask the New Yorker who risked the perils of walking and reading while crossing the Lexington Avenue skywalk, indifferent to the canyon views below, or the reader who turned the city into her own waterside living room, stretching out on a pier as if it were a couch, with a makeshift pillow under her head.

Students, read the entire article and then tell us:

What is your favorite reading spot? Describe it. What makes it special? How does it feel to read there?

Where is the most unusual place youve ever read a book? What was it like?

Is it common to see people reading in public where you live, as it is in New York? Where are some of the places you often see others reading? Why do you think people like to read there?

Do you find that reading in public can be a statement? Do you choose to read different books in public than in the privacy of your home? Do you ever make assumptions about what kind of person a stranger is based on the book that person is reading?

Look back at the images in the article. Of all the reading spots featured, which one would be your preferred place to enjoy a book? Why?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
The developments in Texas and New York come as the federal government is poised to consider whether to redistribute rent relief from states that do not need it or did not use it to states with greater need. Some housing groups have urged the United States Treasury Department, which distributed the aid, to redirect unused assistance from smaller states.

On Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she had asked the federal government for almost $1 billion in additional funding for rent relief.

While New York accelerated getting rent relief out the door and moved from the back of the pack to the front amongst other states, there are still many individuals in need of assistance, she said.

Several members of New Yorks congressional delegation also sent a letter on Friday to the Treasury Department emphasizing the need for additional help. They cited how the state continued to receive roughly 10,000 new applications per week.

A state moratorium on evictions that is set to expire early next year has kept thousands of people in their homes even as their arrears continue to pile up. Many tenants who were laid off during the pandemic have counted on the rent relief program to help them chip away at their debt, while smaller landlords rely on rent to pay their own bills.

Generally, households making up to 80 percent of an areas median income  meaning about $95,400 for a family of four in New York City  are eligible for the program. Tenants must show that they experienced financial difficulties because of the pandemic and fell behind on their rent or are at risk of homelessness.

In most cases, the program will cover up to a years worth of rent and utilities, as well as three months of future rent. The payments are sent to landlords, who in return for receiving the aid generally cannot evict tenants for at least a year.
Now Dr. Bedard is the director of Geriatrics and Complex Care Services for New York Citys jail system and is perhaps the only dedicated jail-based geriatrician in the country. She and her colleagues, who work with patients lawyers to coordinate their care with the courts, have secured the compassionate release of more than 150 gravely ill detainees.

Last month, Dr. Bedard spoke with The New York Times. The following interview has been edited and condensed.

Q. What is a typical workday for you?

A. There are eight functioning jails on Rikers Island, and each has a clinical space. Like a primary care office, we have scheduled appointments. And we see people with urgent care issues. There is also an infirmary where we have the 110 sickest folks. Its much closer to a nursing home, where nurses and doctors can walk around to somebodys bed. I will go there and talk to the primary care providers and say, Who are you worried about? And then I can see those folks.

How closely do you work with detainees family members?

Quite a bit. Its critical that people are in touch with their loved ones when theyre seriously ill, but jail makes that very hard; just the fact that family members cant call their incarcerated loved ones directly is a huge barrier. Well advocate for families to have expanded access to people who are hospitalized and very ill. And we are in touch with families a lot when making re-entry plans.

Are your patients stays in jail generally brief?

They should be, but theyre not. Remember that its not prison: The vast majority of our folks are in pretrial detention, which means that their arrest was relatively recent. The idea is that theyre going to have their speedy trial and theyre either going to be sentenced or released.
A woman who appeared as a contestant on The Apprentice, the reality television show Donald J. Trump hosted before he ran for president, has agreed to end her defamation lawsuit against him, her lawyers said on Friday.

The woman, Summer Zervos, filed the suit in 2017 after Mr. Trump accused her of lying when she said he had kissed and groped her without her consent. The lawsuit stalled for a time as Mr. Trump sought to have it dismissed, but a court allowed it to continue after he left office.

On Friday, with little warning, Ms. Zervoss lawyers announced that their client had decided not to pursue the case any further.

After five years, Ms. Zervos no longer wishes to litigate against the defendant and has secured the right to speak freely about her experience, the lawyers, Beth Wilkinson and Moira Penza, said in a statement.
Hakim Sulaimani remembers exactly where he was when he first heard that his homeland, the poorest country in the Middle East, had invented one of the most popular drinks in the world.

He was sitting in the living room (which was also his bedroom) in his familys apartment in Brooklyn, watching a childrens show on public television. When someone on the show said that coffee came from Yemen, Hakim was stunned. He had never heard anyone outside his community say anything about Yemen before, let alone something that made him proud. I was super-hyped, he recently recalled. Super-giddy.

Hakim was 7. He did not drink coffee, but he knew what it was. His father sold cup after cup of it at his bodega, and Hakim had noticed that it seemed to have a magical effect on people.

Two decades later, he went into the coffee business himself. Today, Hakim Sulaimani is the owner of Yafa Cafe in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Along with zaatar-sprinkled avocado toast and vegan blueberry muffins, he sells coffee made from beans grown on the terraced flanks of Yemens rugged Yafaa mountains.
Seven years ago, she emerged from relative obscurity as a legal academic with an expertise in corruption to help successfully shift state politics leftward when she challenged Mr. Cuomos re-election, receiving an astonishing third of the primary vote. Threatened by her showing and what it said about the magnitude of progressive sentiment, the governor eventually began supporting measures like a $15 an hour minimum wage and paid family leave. After years of pressure, he broke up a faction of independent Democrats in the State Senate who caucused with Republicans and stymied liberal lawmakers.

Ms. Teachout is re-entering politics now in a much different position, with a national profile. At the same time the pendulum isnt necessarily in the same place that it was in 2014 or even 2018. The latest election cycle, in which Democrats in New York found themselves stunned by losses to Republicans both upstate and down, suggests a challenging moment for progressives. Beyond that, Ms. Teachout has lost all three of the elections in which she participated.

As the country has fallen deeper into the throes of polarization, both Democrats and Republicans have directed more hope and faith at state prosecutors to address grievances the federal government now seems impotent to resolve, creating increasingly ambitious agendas. On a recent morning, after her son was dropped off at day care and before her property law class was set to begin at Fordham, where she has taught for 12 years, Ms. Teachout conveyed her plans. She explained, for example, how she would expand the attorney generals focus on worker safety, wage theft and issues of climate and environmental justice, making fossil-fuel companies liable for the damage they cause.

I think it can be helpful to think of the A.G. as the largest public interest law firm in the country, she wrote me later. We all know that big pharma, polluters and fossil fuel companies cause enormous harm, and big landlords dont provide healthy housing  people spend 90 percent of their time indoors; mold is a climate issue  but I dont think people realize the awesome power of the office to make it too costly for these big companies to keep harming us.

Around the country, state prosecutors have been experimenting with ways in which oil and gas companies might be held accountable for climate change. The litigation relies, in part, on a successful model deployed by states in the 1990s which argued that the chronic and deadly illnesses caused by cigarettes significantly drove up public health costs. These types of suits are still uncharted territory when it comes to the fossil-fuel industry. New York State lost a related case two years ago when a judge determined that Ms. Jamess office had failed to prove that Exxon had committed shareholder fraud in its statements around its accounting for the cost of climate-change regulation.
The frameworks, paradigms and doctrines of that era, of any kind, are simply insufficient to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Bolder thinking is required, thinking that shifts away from states, whether great powers or lesser powers, democracies or autocracies. It is time to put people first, to see the world first as a planet of eight billion people rather than as an artificially constructed system of 195 countries and to measure all state actions in terms of their impact on people. Instead of competing with China today on one issue and cooperating tomorrow on another, Mr. Biden must prioritize cooperation on global issues and challenge other nations, regardless of whether they are democracies, autocracies or something in between, to join in.

This approach is known as globalism, which has a bad name because of its association with globalization. But globalism is actually closer to localism, to beginning with people, where they live and what they need, regardless of what colored square on the map they happen to be born in. It is a people-centered rather than a state-centered approach to problem-solving on a global scale. It does not pretend that governments dont exist or dont matter, but rejects the idea that interstate rivalry matters as an end in itself  the essence of geopolitics.

Globalism also sees government officials as a set of actors who can contribute to either global problems or global solutions. To succeed as problem solvers, however, they must work side by side with global corporations and networks of cities, civic groups, faith groups, universities, scientists and others. These actors are not just helpers or catalysts or constituents. They are players in global politics.

Mr. Biden sometimes seems to be moving in this direction. His speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September laid out a long list of global problems, from health and climate change to inequality and corruption. In my view, his greatest foreign policy achievement to date was to secure a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15 percent, ensuring that corporations worldwide pay at least a portion of their fair share for the public goods  from roads to intellectual property laws  that they rely on and that benefit all citizens. The Biden administration also embraces an all of society approach to fighting climate change.

Time and again, however, Mr. Bidens other goal  of beating China, or more broadly of lining up the democracies to beat the autocracies  gets in the way. This week, thanks to the work of John Kerry, the climate envoy, the United States and China reached an important agreement to cooperate on deeper cuts to both carbon dioxide and methane emissions. Its not enough, however, and misses a larger opportunity to mobilize the United States, China, the European Union and India as co-leaders on a global climate challenge.

The lure of competition  often on the edge of conflict  with a rival superpower is just too strong, both for Mr. Biden and for the tight-knit band of brothers who form the core of his foreign policy team. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, are veterans of the Obama administrations pivot to Asia, a concept designed and advanced in large part by Kurt Campbell, now the White House Asia czar.

From the perspective of 20th-century geopolitics, it makes sense for the Biden administration to approach its relationship with China as one in which the United States has many different goals: economic, military and diplomatic. On some issues, like climate or health, we seek Chinas cooperation. On many more, like military primacy, freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, fair trade, intellectual property rights, cybersecurity and human rights, our relationship requires competition and coercion. Hence we have the frequent trade-off debate, in which China hawks have demanded that Mr. Kerry not give an inch to get concessions on Chinese emissions or to encourage other actions that are necessary to stop the globe from warming another degree.
This fall, Exxon Mobil started targeting New Yorkers with Facebook advertisements that warned about a proposed law that would require electric-only appliances in some buildings. If your household was required to go full electric, it could cost you more than $25,600 to replace major appliances, one ad reads.

But the ad doesnt tell the whole story: The law would apply only to new buildings, making Exxons cost claims specious at best. Other advertisements, among roughly 1,200 placed by the fossil fuel giant found by the artificial intelligence outfit Eco-Bot.Net this year, claimed oil pipelines are necessary to keep energy affordable and accessible and that natural gas helps customers meet their environmental goals.

These are examples of so-called greenwashing, or corporate attempts to underplay companies true impact on the environment. Along with other climate misinformation on social media, such ads have become a potent threat to efforts to combat global warming. Researchers for the environmental group Stop Funding Heat found that climate misinformation is viewed as often as 1.36 million times daily on Facebook.

Social media companies simply arent rising to the challenge of rising sea levels. Climate change is an urgent threat, but the companies are treating misinformation around it with far less urgency than other issues like political conspiracy theories, hate speech and lies about Covid vaccines. Climate content can be considered opinion and is therefore exempt from standard fact-checking procedures, which climate change deniers have seized on to push misleading information onto the sites.
Thousands of people killed, more than two million internally displaced and nearly a million facing famine. The conflict in Ethiopia, begun a year ago when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military assault on the Tigray region, is spiraling out of control.

The crisis has been building since June, when Tigrayan fighters took back control of much of the Tigray region and, emboldened, crossed into neighboring regions. After an uneasy hiatus, government forces last month tried to push them back. But the Tigrayan fighters repulsed the offensive and, in a stunning reversal of fortune, captured strategically important towns on the way to the capital, Addis Ababa.

In response, the government declared a nationwide state of emergency and Mr. Abiy, using bellicose and jingoistic rhetoric, urged civilians to take up arms. There has since been a sweeping crackdown against ethnic Tigrayans in the capital and other parts of the country, and 16 local United Nations employees were detained. An atmosphere of chaos has gripped the city.

For good reason. Ethiopia, the continents second-most-populous country and bulwark of the strategically important Horn of Africa region, is tearing itself apart. The countrys ethnic-based federal system, which has held for close to three decades, could be shattered. But a negotiated settlement  even peace  is still just about possible. With the help of the African Union and the United States, the two warring sides can pull the country back from catastrophe.
To the Editor:

Re A Woke-Up Call for Democrats, by Maureen Dowd (column, Nov. 7):

Ms. Dowd is ignoring what the president and the Democratic Party are up against in trying to save America from disaster.

On the one hand, we have a truly inclusive, diverse and truth-telling Democratic Party that struggles to achieve a policy consensus on extraordinarily complex issues. On the other, we have a monolithic, largely wealthy, white-male-dominated, authoritarian Republican Party that has coalesced around the Big Lie, white supremacy and voter suppression (among other things).

On the one hand, we have Democrats trying to arrive at rational policies (based on actual analyses of facts) to invest in the countrys people and infrastructure, and climate change mitigation, and pay for it with modest tax increases on corporations and wealthy people. On the other, we have Republicans doing everything possible to undermine President Biden with propaganda claiming that Democrats are socialists who want to increase the deficit (forgetting what Donald Trumps tax plan accomplished), and control what we think and teach.

On the one hand, we have a president who is struggling to get a deadly pandemic under control with sensible vaccine and mask mandates. On the other, we have Republicans using disinformation, lawsuits and other maneuvers to stop these efforts and prolong the pandemic  and then having the audacity to criticize the president as incompetent and feckless.
Elisabeth Rohm and Peter Glatzer met in 2015 at the Los Angeles home of their mutual friend, the producer Robbie Brenner. If it wasnt an immediate love connection, there was certainly a strong like.

Ms. Rohm, 48, had been talking about Yaddo, the artists retreat in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Mr. Glatzer, 57, a film producer and hotel developer, went to neighboring Skidmore College and had visited the retreat several times.

I couldnt get in, even with Sam Waterston being on the board, said Ms. Rohm, an actress known for her performance in the TV series Law & Order, and in movies like American Hustle and Bombshell. She is also the director of the recently released Lifetime movie, Switched at Birth.

Mr. Glatzer was beguiled by both Ms. Rohm and her interest in the East Coast art community. I just was like, Who is this gorgeous woman talking about Yaddo? he said. I was stunned by her.
Four years ago, Barbara Delgado received a text message from Giovanni Rivera asking who she was.

I was partying like a crazy person and had so many numbers I didnt know who she was, said Mr. Rivera, 40, who at the time was separated from his first wife and enjoying the bachelor life. I met a lot of people because I didnt want to be alone.

I didnt remember meeting him either, Ms. Delgado, 33, added.

In the days after, the two talked on the phone several times before agreeing to meet the following week. I told her my philosophy of life and discovered she was a great listener, Mr. Rivera said.

Months before they began talking, Mr. Rivera in February 2017 was suspended without pay from his position as a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police officer, leaving him with more time on his hands. (He is appealing the decision.)

Mr. Rivera, who is Italian and Puerto Rican, grew up in the Bronx and received an associate degree in labor studies from SUNY Empire State College. He has an 8-year-old daughter, Bella; he and his ex-wife share custody.
To create one of her best-known works, Kurant supplied termite colonies with unusual building materials: crystals, gold and neon sand. Over the course of several months, the insects produced a glittering suite of knobby spires in electric shades of blue, violet, yellow, orange and green. Kurant titled the 2014 piece A.A.I. (Artificial Artificial Intelligence), borrowing Jeff Bezos dubious term for the humans who perform microtasks, often for pennies and given little context regarding the projects they are helping to realize, on his online labor platform, Amazon Mechanical Turk. At its most basic level, the piece spotlighted the condition of workers more alienated from their product than Marx could have imagined, but it also spoke to the extent to which we have all become workers in a global digital factory, inadvertently generating profit for private corporations. The termites had no idea they were producing art for Kurant  they were just doing what termites do. Humans may be slightly less oblivious, but we continue cranking out intangible capital simply by logging on and going about our everyday lives.

What distinguishes the piece, and the Polish-born artists practice in general, is the lack of dystopian hand-wringing in the face of technological change. Although she is disturbed by digital surveillance, dehumanizing forms of labor, environmental ruin and what she calls the assorted horrors of late capitalism, Kurant is equally excited by some of the developments she senses are underway  along with an indictment of free enterprise, A.A.I. was also something of a celebration of collective creativity, a model of how the art of the future might be created by entire societies, not individuals.

KURANTS DRIVING PASSION is collective intelligence: phenomena in which vast numbers of independent agents cooperate to produce unpredictable, novel and complex behaviors. Collective intelligence is present in bacterial colonies, slime molds, human cities, online communities and artificial intelligence systems  picture flocks of starlings wheeling through the air, thousands of male fireflies flashing in perfect unison to attract mates or social movements that coalesce on Twitter and erupt onto the streets. But could collective intelligence also become a form of artistic production? Culture, Kurant points out, was created collectively for thousands of years in the form of authorless myths and epics. The concept of the lone creative genius is a comparatively recent development  and a tenuous one at that.
YOU CAN LEARN a lot about artists from what they are unwilling to part with. After Andy Warhol died in 1987, some 10,000 items, from 175 cookie jars to a 1974 Rolls-Royce, were auctioned off. Following the modernist painter Florine Stettheimers death in 1944, her paintings, which were never sold during her lifetime, were donated to museums across the United States.

When the key land art figure Nancy Holt died at 75 of leukemia in 2014, her will called for the creation of an organization to guide twin legacies  hers and that of her artist husband, Robert Smithson, who died in a 1973 plane crash at age 35. Holts estate included her magnum opus, a quartet of cosmically aligned concrete cylinders in Utahs Great Basin Desert known as Sun Tunnels (1973-76), which was acquired by the New York-based Dia Art Foundation, as well as a surprise. We discovered that we owned an island, says the writer and curator Lisa Le Feuvre, who was hired as the Holt/Smithson Foundations director.

Little Fort Island  or Guard Island, as it is also known  is a thin sliver of rock off the craggy coast of Maine, near the small town of Harrington (population 950), between Bangor and the Canadian border. Its a few hundred feet long, with a small grouping of trees at its center. Holt and Smithson had bought it, sight unseen, for $3,000 in 1971, the year after he completed Spiral Jetty, his swirl of basalt stones that extends some 1,600 feet into Utahs Great Salt Lake. Smithson made drawings for an earthwork there that would include a curving canal and land bridge, but after he actually visited the island, he changed his mind.
After Southwest Airlines canceled his familys flight on Oct. 9, Tyler Reece Maness realized that his best option was to drive 18 hours from Oklahoma City to Orlando, Fla. Thats the only way his 7-year-old daughter would make it to Boo Bash, Disney Worlds $159-a-person Halloween event, the following night.

Mr. Manesss flight was one of around 2,000 the airline canceled that weekend. What made him angry, he said, was not the cancellation per se. It was that he only learned about it from another passenger after an agent checked their bags, and that his wife had wasted a total of 90 minutes on two calls trying to rebook their flights. (Both calls were dropped.) His wife, Carissa, said she was also infuriated by losing hours trying to reach someone on the phone to explain why, a month later, they have yet to get their $1,600 refund.

A massive airline like Southwest is making money hand over fist, said Ms. Maness. Indeed, Southwest reported a $446 million profit in the third quarter, thanks in part to $763 million in government support. They should have more customer service representatives on standby to handle the influx of calls, she said.

Similarly, Paulina Morales, whose flight was among the more than 2,000 flights that American Airlines canceled between Oct. 30 and Nov. 1, was less annoyed about the cancellation than about the length of time she spent on the phone trying to rebook a flight from Chihuahua, Mexico, to the Los Angeles area: 4 hours and 54 minutes.
California will allow all adults to get a Covid-19 vaccine booster shot.

The Netherlands will begin a partial lockdown on Saturday to quell a fourth wave of Covid infections.

A study found the Covaxin vaccine developed in India to be nearly 78 percent effective, Bloomberg reports.

Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and a vaccine tracker.

Our future work lives

As the pandemic drags on, so does the profound reordering of work and office life.

After a year without commutes, many white-collar workers have grown accustomed to the flexibility of working from home. Companies are reassessing whether they need to rent large office spaces with so few employees coming in. A record number of U.S. workers quit their jobs in September as the Great Resignation continues, while thousands more are protesting pay or working conditions.

For insight into how the shifting tides of the pandemic will shape our work lives, I turned to my colleague Emma Goldberg. (Shes already making waves on her new beat with a look at conflicts in the office between Gen Z and millennials.)

Youre the new future of work reporter at The Times. What does that mean?

Its an exciting beat because its very broad  it encompasses everything from the social dynamics of the workplace and the design of the office to whether the office itself has a future. It covers everything from what productivity means and how its assessed, to the public health implications of our return to offices.

Where do things stand with return to office?

A lot of companies were supposed to be back in their offices in July or September, but with the Delta variants surge, there were a lot of postponements. Now, there are companies that are saying theyre going to be back in offices in January or in early 2022. Theres a lot of uncertainty right now.
A two-year international undercover operation resulted last week in the arrest of two Congolese men accused of trafficking illegal wildlife into the United States, as well as the seizure of $3.5 million worth of elephant ivory, rhinoceros horn and pangolin scales in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Justice Department and court documents.

Starting in the summer of 2020, the two men, Herdade Lokua, 23, and Jospin Mujangi, 31, sent multiple packages by commercial airmail to Seattle containing 54 pounds of ivory and rhino horn priced at more than $30,000, prosecutors said in a statement on Monday.

Mr. Lokua and Mr. Mujangi, both of Kinshasa, later proposed an ambitious deal to smuggle three tons of wildlife contraband from Africa to Seattle in a shipping container, the statement said. After flying to Washington State to negotiate the potential sale, they were captured by law enforcement and arrested on Nov. 3 in Edmonds, Wash.

The joint operation was conducted by the Office of Homeland Security Investigations in Seattle, the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Twenty people were rescued from a recreational vehicle park near the Oregon coast after rising creek waters flooded the area on Friday, officials said.

The only bridge in and out of the Neskowin Creek R.V. park along Highway 101, the main north-south route along the Pacific Northwest, was flooded after the creek overflowed following record-breaking rain, Gordon McCraw, the emergency manager for Tillamook County, said.

U.S. Coast Guard crews airlifted 12 people and three dogs from the R.V. park and local agencies evacuated eight other people. About 30 people decided to remain in the park, the Coast Guard said.

All of those rescued were adults and no medical help was needed, according to the Coast Guard, which deployed two helicopters and a rescue swimmer to help the Tillamook County Sheriffs Office.
On June 7, 1892, a racially mixed shoemaker from New Orleans named Homer Plessy bought a first-class ticket for a train bound for Covington, La., and took a seat in the whites-only car. He was asked to leave, and after he refused, he was dragged from the train and charged with violating the Louisiana Separate Car Act. He pleaded guilty and was fined $25.

On Friday, nearly 130 years after the arrest, the Louisiana Board of Pardons voted to clear his record.

There is no doubt that he was guilty of that act on that date, Jason Williams, the Orleans Parish district attorney, told the board during a brief hearing on Friday. But there is equally no doubt that such an act should have never been a crime in this country.

The arrest elevated Plessy into the central figure in a legal battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The landmark ruling that resulted in the case, Plessy v. Ferguson, came to be regarded as one of most shameful decisions in the courts history as well as one of the most consequential. It endorsed the separate but equal doctrine and gave legal backing to the Jim Crow laws that segregated and disenfranchised African Americans in the South for decades.
The presidents party faces additional burdens at the ballot box. A sliver of voters prefers gridlock and divided government and votes for a check and balance against the president. And the party out of power tends to enjoy a turnout advantage, whether because the presidents opponents are resolved to stop his agenda or because of complacency by the presidents supporters.

While Democrats can still hope to avoid losing control of Congress in 2022, Mr. Bidens sagging approval ratings make it seem increasingly unlikely that they will. Historically, only presidents with strong approval ratings have managed to avoid the midterm curse. And with Democrats holding only the most tenuous majorities in the House and the Senate, any losses at all would be enough to break the trifecta.

If the Democrats are going to get a trifecta again, 2024 would seem to be their best chance. The presidents party usually bounces back when the president seeks re-election, perhaps because presidential elections offer a clear choice between two sides, not merely a referendum on the party in power. And in the House, a Democratic rebound in 2024 is very easy to imagine, even if far from assured.

The Senate, however, may be a different and ultimately bleaker story for Democrats.

In the short term, the presidents party is relatively insulated from midterm losses in the Senate, since only one-third of the seats are up for grabs. And the presidents party usually doesnt have to defend much in its first midterm, as it has often already lost many of the contested seats six years earlier  when the party out of power fared well en route to last winning the White House. The same thing insulates some Democratic losses in 2022.

But if 2024 represents an opening for a Democratic bounce-back in the House, it may not offer as favorable an opportunity in the Senate. Democrats will have no opportunity to reclaim any Senate seats they might lose in 2022. And they will need to defend the seats they won six years earlier, in their 2018 midterm rout, including some in otherwise reliably Republican states such as West Virginia, Ohio and Montana. To hold or regain the Senate  and a trifecta  they might need all of those seats.

The Democratic grip on the Senate is dependent on holding Republican-leaning states because the Democrats are at a significant disadvantage in the chamber. The party tends to excel in a relatively small number of populous states, but every state receives two senators, regardless of population.
PARIS  Vice President Kamala Harris spent hours talking with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, managing to skirt a recent diplomatic rift between the two allies over an Australian submarine deal. She attended a conference on promoting democratic elections in Libya. And she secured a commitment for the United States to join a nonbinding international declaration to protect civilians against cyberattacks.

During a tightly choreographed trip to France this week, Ms. Harris appeared determined to assert herself as a diplomatic asset for a president who believes he knows more about the process  and the vice presidency  than most.

The trip, coming amid declining approval ratings for President Biden and Ms. Harris within the United States, also provided a chance to cement the global profile of the vice president, who has demonstrated aspirations for higher office.

I think there is no question that Im here as a representative for my country, Ms. Harris said. And my presence here is reflective of the priorities that the United States has as it relates to France.
Im running for re-election to continue the important work of growing our economy, strengthening our Alaska-based military and protecting our people and the natural beauty of our state, Ms. Murkowski, a third-generation Alaskan, said. I will work with anyone from either party to advance Alaskas priorities.

Ms. Murkowski, first appointed to the Senate in 2002 by her father after he became governor and resigned from the seat, is the second-most-senior Republican woman, after Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who won her own costly re-election bid last year. Ms. Murkowski has established herself as a crucial swing vote with strong relationships in both political parties, most recently helping negotiate the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that Mr. Biden is expected to sign into law next week.

It is unclear, however, whether Ms. Murkowskis record of directing aid and support to her state will be enough to overcome the grip of the former president on her party. Alaskas Republican Party censured her in March for voting to convict Mr. Trump. The former president endorsed a primary challenger, Kelly Tshibaka, the former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration, who has promoted false theories of voter fraud in the 2020 election and hired a number of former Trump campaign staffers.

Lisa Murkowski is bad for Alaska, Mr. Trump said in a June statement, after Ms. Murkowski voted to confirm Deb Haaland as Interior secretary. Murkowski has got to go!

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm for Senate Republicans, has backed Ms. Murkowski, who also has support of her party leadership. Ms. Murkowski has a long record of bucking her party, having helped to shut down the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, opposed the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and voted for a number of Mr. Bidens nominees during the first year of his administration.
[Follow our live coverage of Secretary of State Antony Blinkens trip to Africa.]

WASHINGTON  The tiny Middle Eastern nation of Qatar will serve as a diplomatic proxy for the United States in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Friday, representing American interests and helping to process visas for thousands of people who are looking to flee Taliban control.

Qatar for years has been a key go-between in the delicate relationship between the Taliban and the American invaders who unsuccessfully waged a 20-year war to eliminate it. The Persian Gulf nation has hosted diplomatic negotiations between the two sides to end the war and has received more than 60,000 people from Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power in August.

The United States does not consider the Talibans government as legitimate and closed the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistans capital, during the frantic evacuation. Under the new agreement, Qatar will assume some American diplomatic duties in Afghanistan, including what Mr. Blinken described as consular services and keeping watch over the conditions and security of abandoned U.S. facilities.

The arrangement was announced on Friday as part of an annual strategic summit between the United States and Qatar, and the events in Afghanistan over the past several months have reinforced that partnership, including on the most sensitive and urgent issues, Mr. Blinken said.
Looking back, James Olmstead still thinks it might have been a chance meeting: He was in the checkout line at an Office Depot store in Texas when the woman ahead of him backed up and bumped into him.

She turned around and said, Pardon me, and I said, No problem, he recalled on Thursday.

In the parking lot, Mr. Olmstead found that the womans car was parked right next to his, and they started talking. She told him she was 32 and single, he recalled. She said her husband had died of cancer.

Mr. Olmstead, a retired Navy officer who was 75 at the time, asked her out on a date. It was the fall of 2012. Over the next two years, Mr. Olmstead began what he believed was a romantic relationship with the woman, Desiree Boltos. They went to restaurants together. He took her shopping at the mall. He met her children. He proposed marriage. She said yes.

All the while, she kept asking him for money, he said: for her brothers business, for a court battle involving her grandmothers inheritance, to remove a cyst from her birth canal, court records show.
The video was a last-minute revision of history and Mr. de Klerks self-conscious attempt to preserve his legacy as the hero who released Mr. Mandela from jail, said Sithembile Mbete, a senior lecturer at the University of Pretoria.

The more tragic part of F.W. de Klerks death is that he dies with so many secrets, said Ms. Mbete.

Among those secrets is any knowledge of the planning that led to the murder of the Cradock Four, four activists killed in 1985 by state security forces as violence roiled in the last years of apartheid, analysts and relatives of the victims said.

He takes all of that knowledge with him, and it deprives us of the truth and closure of the deaths of the Cradock Four, said Lukhanyo Calata, the son of one of those activists. While their families refused to engage with Mr. de Klerk directly, they pushed for him to reveal any information that could have led to a trial, and demanded in vain that prosecutors compel him to do so.

If hed said, I apologize and this is what I am now going to do with my assets, with my foundation, this is how I am going to speak up for the people who were the victims on my watch, I will account for my part  but there was nothing of that at all, said Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest and anti-apartheid activist who lost both of his hands when he opened a letter bomb sent by the apartheid regimes security forces in 1990.

No matter how much he acknowledged that apartheid was a mistake, he refused to come to terms with it as a gross human rights violation, as an atrocity, said Mac Maharaj, an anti-apartheid activist who participated in the negotiations to dismantle the system.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the current president of South Africa, who led those negotiations on behalf of the African National Congress, was more gracious, lauding Mr. de Klerks key role in ushering in democracy in South Africa.
Still, a dozen current and former staffers, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were astonished by the speed and boldness of the changes  not least because of the broadcasters history of fending off incursions on its independence.

In the past, there were a lot of checks and balances, said Tsang Chi-Ho, who co-hosted a long-running satire show and radio program before his firing this summer. Now, if they cut a program, what can you do? Theres no legislator to oppose it, no newspaper to say thats wrong. No one can protest on the streets.

Their goal is to tell everyone: Just forget the RTHK of the past.

RTHK declined to make Mr. Li available for an interview. In a statement, the broadcaster said it would not comment on internal matters, but that changes had been made in RTHKs programming because it had become a cause of public concern.

RTHK is a public service broadcaster but not a spokesman of the government, the statement said. RTHK aspires to be the most credible source of news and public information for the Hong Kong community.

For proof of RTHKs past willingness to flout the government, viewers needed look no further than Mr. Tsangs satirical television show, Headliner. One recurring sketch featured the character of a domineering empress, who stood in for leaders ranging from Mr. Xi to Mrs. Lam. Though the show received complaints from government supporters, top editors insulated the staff, Mr. Tsang said.
In one sense, the border crisis between Poland and Belarus is a tit-for-tat geopolitical conflict in which refugees and migrants just happen to be the weapons.

Belarus, in May, forced down a civilian airliner to arrest a dissident on board. The European Union, as punishment, imposed economic sanctions on Belarus. Now, in apparent retaliation, Belarus is granting visas to thousands of Middle Easterners and driving them to the borders of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, all E.U. member states. Those countries must then either process them  or allow them to freeze at the border, which has so far been their preference.

Geopolitical conflict is the framing that many E.U. officials are going with.

This is a war in which civilians and media messages are the ammunition, Polands prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said in a statement.

But in another sense, this is just the latest iteration of a yearslong cycle that is more about migration than geopolitics or war. The European Union has made it clear for years that it will go to incredible lengths to prevent migrants and refugees from reaching its external borders. This gives countries on the European periphery the leverage, and incentive, to use those refugees as pawns.
AstraZeneca plans to start making a profit on its vaccine. The White House press secretary returned to the podium for the first time since having Covid.

AstraZeneca says it will start profiting from its vaccine. Image Receiving a booster shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine last month at a shopping mall in Phuket, Thailand. Credit... Adam Dean for The New York Times The drug maker AstraZeneca has been selling its coronavirus vaccine at not-for-profit prices during the pandemic, as part of a promise to rollout the vaccine at cost through the crisis. But on Friday, the Anglo-Swiss company said in reporting its third-quarter earnings that it would begin pricing its vaccine to make a modest profit as new orders are received. Countries have been paying around $3 or $4 for each shot of AstraZenecas two-dose vaccine under the companys current pricing model. To a far greater extent than the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, AstraZenecas vaccine has been the workhorse of the effort to vaccinate poorer countries, many of which are facing severe vaccine shortages. About 1.1 billion AstraZeneca doses had reached low- and lower-middle income countries as of around the end of October. The companys chief executive, Pascal Soriot, told analysts on Friday that AstraZeneca would progressively transition to a for-profit approach but he added the company will ensure the vaccine is affordable for low- and middle-income countries. He gave few details on the new pricing. Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker A look at all the vaccines that have reached trials in humans. Last year, AstraZeneca pledged not to profit on its vaccine during the pandemic period, but the company retained discretion about when to declare the crisis was over. Researchers at the University of Oxford, who led the early development of the vaccine, have said they partnered with AstraZeneca in the spring of last year in part because the company had agreed to their vision of low-cost pricing for their shot. British health officials provided early funding to the Oxford team. Nick Dearden, director of the British advocacy group Global Justice Now, said in a statement that the companys decision to start profiting on the vaccine shows the utter folly of giving away publicly funded science to big pharma. AstraZeneca and its production partners around the globe had released more than 1.7 billion doses of the vaccine by the end of October, supplying more than 170 countries, an AstraZeneca spokesman said. The vaccine is not authorized or available in the United States. The company said its vaccine brought in $2.1 billion in revenue through the end of September. It projected that its revenue from the vaccine in the final three of months of this year would come mostly from existing not-for-profit orders, with a small contribution from new, more profitable orders. Johnson & Johnson  which, like AstraZeneca, had vowed to sell its vaccine at a not-for-profit price  expects $2.5 billion in revenue from its vaccine this year. Moderna, which has not made such a pledge, expects up to $18 billion from its vaccine. Pfizer, which also has for-profit pricing, expects $36 billion from its vaccine; it is splitting revenue with its development partner, the German company BioNTech.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

A federal appeals court in New Orleans upholds the block on Bidens vaccine mandate for big employers. Image Protesters last week outside a NASA laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., rallying against a federal government vaccine mandate. Credit... Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse  Getty Images WASHINGTON  A federal appeals court has kept its block in place against a federal mandate that all large employers require their workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus or submit to weekly testing starting in January, declaring that the rule grossly exceeds the authority of the occupational safety agency that issued it. In a 22-page ruling, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, held that a group of challengers to the mandate issued by the Biden administration was likely to succeed in its claim that it was an unlawful overreach and barred the government from moving forward with it. From economic uncertainty to workplace strife, the mere specter of the mandate has contributed to untold economic upheaval in recent months, wrote Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt. He added: Of course, the principles at stake when it comes to the mandate are not reducible to dollars and cents. The public interest is also served by maintaining our constitutional structure and maintaining the liberty of individuals to make intensely personal decisions according to their own convictions  even, or perhaps particularly, when those decisions frustrate government officials. He was joined by Judges Edith H. Jones and Kyle Duncan. All three are Republican appointees. The Biden administration is likely to appeal, but a Justice Department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Regardless, the ruling by the panel of the Fifth Circuit is unlikely to be the final word. Some challenges to the mandate are in other circuits, and the cases will be consolidated before a randomly chosen one of those jurisdictions. The Supreme Court is expected to eventually decide the matter. President Biden announced in September that his administration would issue a vaccine mandate as one of several steps to try to increase immunization rates and end the pandemic, which so far has killed about 750,000 Americans. Other mandates applied to federal employees and federal contractors. Some large employers have already decided on their own to impose vaccine mandates on their workforces, including 3M, Procter & Gamble, IBM, Tyson Foods and the airlines American, Alaska, JetBlue and United. Most workers have complied, though a small number have quit.

Psaki returns to the White House press room for the first time since getting Covid. Video transcript Back bars 0:00 / 0:52 - 0:00 transcript Psaki Returns to White House After Recovering From Covid-19 Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said that she experienced mild symptoms and quarantined for 10 days. First, let me say its great to be back with all of you, although as a longtime hater of heels, I do miss my slippers which Im sure some of the women in this room can agree with. I had mild symptoms, primarily fatigue, and I remain incredibly grateful for the vaccine and the impact of the vaccine in keeping me safe and other people in my house safe as well. Our vaccination program for kids ages 5 to 11 hit full strength this week. Vaccines for kids are now available at 20,000 trusted and convenient locations. Our rollout is helping parents turn months of anxiety into action. On Wednesday, we estimated that nearly a million kids have already received their first shot and 700,000 additional appointments are already scheduled through pharmacies alone. That doesnt obviously track everybody, but thats still a significant progress, and we anticipate many more will be getting vaccinated in the weeks to come. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said that she experienced mild symptoms and quarantined for 10 days. Credit Credit... Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times In her first appearance back in the White House briefing room after a 10-day quarantine for a coronavirus infection that she described as mild, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, outlined the precautions she had taken and expressed gratitude for Covid vaccines. Appearing to be at her usual level of vigor, she began on a light note. First let me say its great to be back with all of you, although as a longtime hater of heels, I do miss my slippers, she said, which Im sure some of the women in this room can agree with. Her main symptom, she said, had been fatigue. Ms. Psaki covered a range of topics in the briefing, including the bipartisan infrastructure bill that the House passed last week and an upcoming tribal nations summit for National Native American Heritage Month. And she offered new details on coronavirus vaccinations among 5- to 11-year-olds, which were authorized at the end of October. She said that 700,000 newly eligible children had appointments on the books at pharmacies to receive their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The total number of children with appointments is higher, because pharmacies are not the only places providing shots. On Wednesday, the White House estimated that nearly a million young children had already received their first dose. Ms. Psaki also told reporters that 99 percent of U.S. schools were open for in-person learning, and that the Biden administration had directed $650 million this week from the American Rescue Plan  the stimulus package passed earlier this year  to help manufacturers increase production of coronavirus tests.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

Johnson & Johnson plans to split into two companies. Image Johnson & Johnsons consumer products division, known for brands like Band-Aid, will be spun off. Credit... Lucas Jackson/Reuters For generations, Johnson & Johnson has been synonymous with American health care  and, at times, with American health care scandals. Now the 135-year-old company is joining a growing roster of iconic American businesses that are splitting up as they seek to please restive shareholders and move past recent controversies. On Friday, Johnson & Johnson announced plans to spin off its consumer-products division  known for famous but not-very-lucrative brands like Tylenol, Band-Aid and Neutrogena  into a separate company. Johnson & Johnson will keep its more profitable, faster-growing businesses in pharmaceuticals and medical devices. The planned breakup comes after years of tribulations for Johnson & Johnson. The company is juggling lawsuits over its role in the opioid epidemic and over accusations that the talc once used in its baby powder had caused cancer in some customers. Even the companys single-shot Covid-19 vaccine, once expected to be widely used around the world, has fallen far short because of production problems and fears about rare side effects. In recent years, pharmaceutical companies including Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have also shed or reorganized their consumer-products operations to focus on businesses, in particular drugs, that enjoy fatter profit margins. We are at the point in the cycle where conglomerates are less popular, said Erik Gordon, a professor who studies business strategy at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. The pharma companies in particular are trying to focus on pharma. Johnson & Johnsons Covid vaccine is a minor part of its overall business  it is expected to bring in just $2.5 billion in revenue this year  but it presented a high-profile opportunity for the company to salve some of its recent reputational wounds. The company had hoped to produce a billion shots this year but now expects only about half of that. Its output has been slowed by production problems, most notably those stemming from contamination at a Baltimore plant run by a contract manufacturer, Emergent BioSolutions. Fewer than 16 million people in the United States have been fully vaccinated with Johnson & Johnsons shot, compared to 108 million for Pfizer and 71 million for Moderna.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

New York State will soon stop taking applications for pandemic rent relief. Image Jordana Gonzalez, left, of the social services organization BronxWorks, helping Miguel Moran of the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx apply for emergency rental assistance in July. Credit... Desiree Rios for The New York Times New York State said on Friday that it would stop taking most requests from struggling tenants for its pandemic rent relief because an overwhelming number of applicants had left the program nearly out of money. The huge demand for aid underscores the severe economic pain inflicted by the coronavirus outbreak. Since the $2.4 billion program started this summer, the state has received nearly 280,000 applications for help paying overdue rent and utility bills. As of this week, New York had paid out $1 billion  nearly 85 percent going to New York City renters  and had committed to distribute another $1.1 billion in cases in which more paperwork was needed from landlords. There were an estimated 100,000 additional applications pending. State officials said that without more money from the federal government, 70,000 to 80,000 of those applicants could remain in limbo. Officials said the application window would close at 10 p.m. on Sunday across the state except in a few smaller counties, like Dutchess and Oneida, which had not yet exhausted their pool of funds. The development was a striking reversal from the summer, when the state had been among the slowest in the nation to get its program off the ground and the application process was rife with glitches. Congress approved $46.5 billion in federal pandemic aid for rental assistance, an enormous infusion of money to help struggling renters, but it has not been enough to cover the needs of the most populous states, especially California, New Jersey and New York. On Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she had asked the federal government for almost $1 billion in additional funding for rent relief. While New York accelerated getting rent relief out the door and moved from the back of the pack to the front amongst other states, there are still many individuals in need of assistance, she said.

Oklahomas governor puts an opponent of vaccine mandates in charge of the National Guard. Image Members of the Oklahoma National Guard were deployed to the U.S. Capitol in Washington in January. Credit... Erin Schaff/The New York Times OKLAHOMA CITY  The governor of Oklahoma this week dismissed the states highest ranking military official, a vocal backer of Covid vaccinations, replacing him with a general who immediately issued orders that contravene federal vaccine requirements for military personnel. The governor, Kevin Stitt, is one of a number of Republican state officials across the country who have been fighting against President Bidens vaccine mandates, which cover federal employees, federal contractors and the military. The states newly appointed adjutant general, Brig. Gen. Thomas H. Mancino, released a memo on Thursday that read, in part, I hereby order that no Oklahoma Guardsmen be required to take the Covid-19 vaccine, notwithstanding any other federal requirement. The memo also noted that the state would continue to consider applications for vaccine exemptions, though so far federal military authorities have granted very few. It also said, no negative administrative or legal action will be taken against Guardsmen who refuse the Covid-19 vaccine. It remained unclear if General Mancinos policy would run afoul of the Pentagons vaccine mandate. In August, the secretary of defense, Lloyd J. Austin III, said all active-duty military members must immediately get a Covid-19 vaccine. The directive covered members of the armed forces on active duty or in the Ready Reserve, including the National Guard. Oklahoma Covid-19 Hospitalizations All time Last 90 days 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 hospitalized Apr. 2020 May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. 2021 Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. 7day average 511 Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The seven-day average is the average of a day and the previous six days of data. Currently hospitalized is the most recent number of patients with Covid-19 reported by hospitals in the state for the four days prior. Dips and spikes could be due to inconsistent reporting by hospitals. Hospitalization numbers early in the pandemic are undercounts due to incomplete reporting by hospitals to the federal government. General Mancino issued the memo a day after Mr. Stitt unexpectedly dismissed Maj. Gen. Michael C. Thompson as adjutant general. General Thompson, a 38-year military veteran and the Army state guards first Black general, said that Mr. Stitt had been pressuring the states military officials to counter the federal vaccine requirements and said that his own stance was to instead warn state troops that there are consequences for refusing the vaccination order. He said the governor offered no explanation when he called Wednesday to relieve him of command. Its political, General Thompson said. Theres not another reason for it. The governors office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. General Thompson said the lack of vaccinations would negatively affect the National Guards troop readiness. I hate to see us not meet the mark when we need to, he added. Lt. Col. Geoff Legler, the public affairs officer for the Oklahoma National Guard, said that Mr. Stitt was operating on the principle that he had complete control of the force within the state. However, the officer noted, National Guard members who attend federally funded schools in Oklahoma were still subject to the federal vaccinate mandate.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

A Wisconsin doctor laments a missed opportunity for Aaron Rodgers Image Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, last month. He has shared falsehoods about the coronavirus and its treatments. Credit... Christian Petersen/Getty Images It is perhaps all too easy to bash Aaron Rodgers, the latest star athlete to show hes suffering from a God complex, hovering above the fray, more than willing to spew medical quackery and virus all over us mere mortals. Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers quarterback, is one of the greats when it comes to controlling football games and throwing arcing spirals for highlights-reel touchdowns. But that gridiron genius was undercut when it came out last week that he had not only tested positive for the coronavirus but had also warped the truth about whether he was vaccinated. If the vaccine is so great, Rodgers said in an interview with a radio host who is a friend of his, how come people are still getting Covid and spreading Covid and unfortunately dying from Covid? Apparently, Rodgers missed the memo that while they are not foolproof, the vaccines are close to 90 percent effective and by far the best tools we have to beat back this plague. Rodgers has been spewing other falsehoods about the virus and its treatments. So maybe he should spend time with Dr. Kyle Martin. Hes the medical director of emergency services at St. Marys Hospital in Madison, Wis., and he also works at two hospitals in rural parts of the state. Were still very much in a crisis, Dr. Martin, a self-described N.F.L. superfan, said when we spoke this week. People are still dying in large numbers. And our health system, its stressed to the max.

Biden chooses a former F.D.A. commissioner and drug industry insider to lead the agency. Image Dr. Robert M. Califf at a news conference in Washington in 2016, when he was serving an 11-month term as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Credit... Andrew Harnik/Associated Press President Biden announced on Friday that he would nominate Dr. Robert M. Califf, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, to lead the agency again. His decision ends nearly a year of political wrangling as the White House vetted then dropped several candidates after complaints that some were too close to the pharmaceutical industry. In the end, White House officials might have concluded that they could not find a suitable candidate with no industry ties. Dr. Califf, 70, a respected academic and clinical trial researcher who ran the agency during the last year of the Obama administration, has long been a consultant to drug companies and ran a research center at Duke University that received some funding from the drug industry. If Dr. Califf is confirmed by the Senate, he will again take the reins of an agency that is responsible for more than $2.8 trillion worth of food, medical products and tobacco. The F.D.A. regulates products accounting for about 20 cents of every dollar spent by consumers in the United States. The agency has been front and center in the federal governments response to the coronavirus pandemic. It has the authority to approve Covid vaccines, tests and treatments, as well as certain types of protective equipment. It was also widely criticized for allowing manufacturers to flood the market with inaccurate coronavirus tests early in the pandemic and for failing to stand up to President Donald J. Trump, who at times promoted unproven and unsafe treatments. But the agency is also sorely in need of permanent leadership. Since Margaret Hamburg left in 2015, the F.D.A. has had seven different commissioners  some acting  including Dr. Califf, who served for just 11 months after Dr. Hamburgs departure. And recently, its reputation for independence has come under attack. During his previous stint as commissioner, Dr. Califf sought to permit pharmaceutical companies to advertise off-label uses for F.D.A.-approved products, a practice that is not permitted under the strict regulations governing drug advertising. But the proposal, which many public health experts considered dangerous, was blocked by others in the Obama administration, according to a person familiar with it. A cardiologist who has seen the harmful effects of smoking on the heart, Dr. Califf has been a forceful advocate for tobacco control. For the past two years, after stepping down as the vice chancellor for clinical and translational health at Duke University, Dr. Califf has worked as the head of clinical policy and strategy for Verily Life Sciences, a health technology firm, and its sister company Google Health. Dr. Califf, who remains an adjunct professor of medicine at both Duke and Stanford University, is on the corporate board of Cytokinetics, a biopharmaceutical company, according to its website. He has received personal fees for consulting from Merck, Amgen, Biogen, Genentech, Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim, according to his Duke University biography.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

The number of U.S. workers quitting their jobs in September was the highest on record. Number of People Who Left Their Jobs Voluntarily by Month Employers are still struggling to fill millions of open jobs  and to hold on to the workers they already have. More than 4.4 million workers quit their jobs voluntarily in September, the Labor Department said Friday. That was up from 4.3 million in August and was the most in the two decades the government has been keeping track. Nearly a million quit their jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry alone, reflecting the steep competition for workers there as businesses recover from last years pandemic-induced shutdowns. There were 10.4 million job openings in the United States at the end of September. That is down a bit from the record 11.1 million posted in July, before the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus led to a slump in sales in some businesses. But demand for labor remains extraordinarily high by historical standards  before the pandemic, the record for job openings in a month was 7.6 million in November 2018. The Labor Department revised its estimate of job openings in August to 10.6 million. There were roughly 75 unemployed workers for every 100 job openings in September, the lowest ratio on record. Separate data released last week by the Labor Department showed that job growth rebounded in October but that the labor force barely grew. Youre essentially seeing demand continuing to increase without an offsetting increase in talent, said Ryan Sutton, a district director for Robert Half International, a staffing firm. Until some new talent comes in, until we get employees who are on the sidelines back into the market, its very likely this is going to continue. Image A hiring sign at a store in Manhattan. There were 10.4 million job openings in the United States at the end of September. Credit... Jeenah Moon for The New York Times Economists cite a number of reasons for the slow return. The pandemic is still disrupting child care, making it hard for some parents to work; other workers are worried about contracting the virus or spreading it to high-risk family members. Many Americans have also built up their savings during the pandemic, allowing them to be choosier about jobs. Those factors are likely to ease as the pandemic ebbs and savings dwindle. But other shifts could prove more lasting. In a research note published Friday, economists at Goldman Sachs observed that roughly two-thirds of the people who had left the labor force during the pandemic were over 55; many of them have retired and are unlikely to go back to work. The labor crunch is giving workers the upper hand in negotiations. Wages have risen sharply in recent months, particularly in service jobs, although in other industries pay is lagging behind the pace of inflation. The recent rise in the number of workers quitting suggests that many are taking advantage of their leverage to accept better-paying jobs, or to look for them. At the same time, understaffing in many businesses may be putting stress on remaining workers, leading even more people to leave their jobs. Industries that require most employees to work in person, such as manufacturing, retail and health care  as well as leisure and hospitality  report the biggest increases in the rate of workers leaving their jobs. We are seeing big pickups in quits in the industries that are having the hardest time hiring right now, said Nick Bunker, director of economic research for the job site Indeed. Kaylie Sweeting worked as a bartender in Millburn, N.J., through most of the pandemic, despite concerns about interacting with unmasked customers and frustration about low wages. But when the restaurant pressured a colleague to come to work sick this summer, Ms. Sweeting quit. The job was absolutely no longer worth it, she said. I was hurt that a company that I gave my time to did not seem to prioritize me or my safety. So Ms. Sweeting, 23, and her partner, a cook, decided to take the money they had saved to buy a house and open their own vegan restaurant instead. They recently signed a lease and are beginning renovations, with plans to open early next year. They are trying to apply the lessons they have learned as employees, promising good wages, paid time off and other basic benefits that restaurant jobs have often failed to provide. I genuinely love the industry, Ms. Sweeting said. I just dont love the way its managed. I feel like the only way to change it is to implement the change yourself.

Podcasts and radio are a major source of misleading Covid information in the U.S. Image iHeart Media, like Spotify and Apple, has provided audio platforms for hosts who have spread misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic or Covid vaccines, or who have had guests who do. Credit... Matt York/Associated Press On a recent episode of his podcast, Rick Wiles, a pastor and self-described citizen reporter, endorsed a conspiracy theory: that Covid vaccines were the product of a global coup detat by the most evil cabal of people in the history of mankind. Its an egg that hatches into a synthetic parasite and grows inside your body, Mr. Wiles said on his Oct. 13 episode. This is like a sci-fi nightmare, and its happening in front of us. Mr. Wiles belongs to a group of hosts who have made false or misleading statements about Covid-19 and effective treatments for it. Like many of them, he has access to much of his listening audience because his show appears on a platform provided by a large media corporation. Mr. Wiless podcast is available through iHeart Media, an audio company based in San Antonio that says it reaches nine out of 10 Americans each month. Spotify and Apple are other major companies that provide significant audio platforms for hosts who have shared similar views with their listeners about Covid-19 and vaccination efforts, or have had guests on their shows who promoted such notions. Scientific studies have shown that vaccines will protect people against the coronavirus for long periods and have significantly reduced the spread of Covid-19. As the global death toll related to Covid-19 exceeds five million  and at a time when more than 40 percent of Americans are not fully vaccinated  iHeart, Spotify, Apple and many smaller audio companies have done little to rein in what radio hosts and podcasters say about the virus and vaccination efforts.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

After a lockdown for factory employees, Vietnam grapples with a labor shortage. Image Employees at a private factory in Hanoi, Vietnam, last month. The country is experiencing a worker shortage as the holidays near. Credit... Reuters Just last year, Vietnams coronavirus controls were lauded by health officials around the world. The country was so successful that it achieved the highest economic growth in Asia in 2020, at 2.9 percent. But that outlook has dimmed: Workers have fled their factories, managers are struggling to get them back, and economists are forecasting that a full recovery in output wont come until next year. And for consumers, the worker shortage is likely to worsen the delays for global manufactured goods caused by a worldwide shipping crisis and monthslong factory shutdowns in Vietnam. Vietnam Coronavirus Deaths All time Last 90 days 100 200 300 400 deaths Feb. 2020 Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. 2021 Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. 7day average 97 Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The daily average is calculated with data that was reported in the last seven days. In 2020, Vietnam relied on strict quarantine measures, contact tracing and lockdowns. It assumed that it had time to order vaccines, until infections and deaths surged in the summer with the arrival of the Delta variant. Officials in Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong told factories that workers had to comply with the three on site model, which meant they needed to eat, live and work within the factorys premises. Factory managers scrambled to provide tents and toilets for their workers, who were crammed into warehouse buildings or parking lots. Local media reported that hundreds of workers in several factories became infected with the coronavirus. Many businesses felt they could not bear the costs of housing their workers, so they shut down production. Suddenly, thousands of workers found themselves with no income. Managers have made calls promising higher wages to get the workers to return. On Oct. 22, the Ho Chi Minh City government said it would provide free transportation and accommodations for the first month to workers who were willing to come back. The measures have had some success. Ninety percent of the work force of Pouyuen Vietnam has returned to Ho Chi Minh City, according to Cu Phat Nghiep, the chairman of the companys trade union. Separately, American businesses have pushed the Vietnamese government to speed up its vaccine program, which they say is essential for workers to feel safe. Only 29 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, one of the lowest rates in Southeast Asia. Vietnam says it hopes to increase that to 70 percent by the end of the year.

Thanks to the pandemic, rebooking a flight can mean hours on hold. Image Credit... Sam Island Customers around the world are lamenting airlines customer service wait times and the process of rebooking canceled flights. Virtually every airlines social media account is overflowing with stories of hourslong waits to speak to someone  even on relatively normal days. Its a joke all over, said Gilles Alexandre Bussutil, a consultant who specializes in helping airlines improve customer experience. The issues have to do with staffing, according to many airlines, reservation agents and industry analysts, but exactly who or what is to blame depends on whom you ask. Some airlines, including Southwest, have acknowledged that theyve recently let customers down and need to hire more agents. But others have suggested the exorbitant wait times of early summer are ancient history, something that does not seem to be reflected by customers stories. Oh sure, its been taken care of; its under control, said Omar Martinez, a longtime JetBlue loyalist, who was feeling tempted to give up on the airline. In August, Mr. Martinez spent 275 minutes on a call for a matter that a gate agent told him could only be resolved over the phone. But in talking to friends and looking to social media, he has yet to find an airline without similar issues. Most airlines plan to hire, but passengers may not see lower wait times any time soon, several industry analysts said, citing a variety of factors, including overall labor shortages, the difficulty of hiring qualified workers at relatively low pay and the airlines lack of efficiency in the deployment of staff.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

The Daily: An interview with Dr. Fauci. Image Credit... Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the United States top infectious disease expert, has described the current status of the pandemic in the country as a mixed bag that is leaning more toward the positive than the negative. But there is still work to do, he said, including dealing with complicated factors such as vaccination rates, contagious variants of the virus and waning immunity to infection. In a conversation with The Daily, Dr. Fauci weighed in on vaccine mandates, booster shots and the end of the pandemic. Listen to The Daily: An Interview With Dr. Anthony Fauci Americas top infectious disease official discusses the state of the virus, booster shots, mandates and the end of the pandemic. transcript Back to The Daily bars 0:00 / 35:30 - 35:30 transcript Listen to The Daily: An Interview With Dr. Anthony Fauci Americas top infectious disease official discusses the state of the virus, booster shots, mandates and the end of the pandemic. michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. [music] On yesterdays show, we explored the profound challenges facing local public health officials as they try to fight Covid-19. Today: We speak with the nations leading public health official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, about how he sees this moment, both for the pandemic and his profession. Its Friday, November 12. Dr. Fauci, hey, its Michael Barbaro. How are you? interposing voices Oh, its a lot. [LAUGHTER] dr. anthony s. fauci Im good, Michael. Hold on, you just blew me out of my seat. michael barbaro Oh, Im sorry. dr. anthony s. fauci No, thats not your fault. speaker All right, I turned it down. dr. anthony s. fauci All right. speaker Were good. dr. anthony s. fauci Michael, say a few more words to see if its good. michael barbaro OK, a few more words, Dr. Fauci. Hows the volume? dr. anthony s. fauci The volume is good now. michael barbaro OK. Yeah, well, youve said youre not being thrown back in your seat, so thats a good sign. dr. anthony s. fauci Right, OK, good. Thanks. michael barbaro Well, thank you for making time for us. dr. anthony s. fauci My pleasure. michael barbaro Dr. Fauci, its very useful, when we talk about Covid-19, to orient ourselves in where we are. So just to start things, in the simplest terms, where are we right now in this pandemic, in the U.S.? What words would you use to describe that? dr. anthony s. fauci Well, probably, it would be a mixed bag leaning towards the positive, as opposed to the negative. michael barbaro Why towards the positive? dr. anthony s. fauci Well, because we have had a major surge that we have peaked and are starting to come down positive. Positive is that we have a vaccine implementation program that has done generally quite well, though Id be happy to get into more details about why it is not exactly where I would like to see it. Number three, we have now approval for vaccines for children, which are an important component of all of this. Weve shown that boosters are safe and effective in dramatically increasing the response, not only immunologically, but also, when you look at the clinical data from Israel. Its very clear that it reverses some of the waning effect that you see in people who have been vaccinated six months or more. Now, the thing thats a bit sobering is that when you look at the deflection of the curve, its starting to plateau. michael barbaro And what do you mean by deflection of the curve, just so I understand? dr. anthony s. fauci Yeah. When you get to a peak and you get at top, it starts to come down. And the sharpness and the steepness with which it comes down, the steeper the better. The lower it goes, the better. michael barbaro Right dr. anthony s. fauci When it starts to not get so steep and then plateau, then you might find yourself in the uncomfortable situation where you plateau where we are right now, which is at about 70,000 to 73,000 cases a day, which is, obviously, not optimal, but also is a setup to have a resurgence upon that very high baseline. michael barbaro Well, can we talk about where the data and the curve is? Because youre calling it sobering, and the reason it does feel sobering is because when you check these charts, and we do it on The Times website  Im sure you do it every day on your own system  the infection rates, the hospitalization rates, even the death rates for this moment are more or less the same as they were last November, despite the widespread availability of vaccines and despite the fact that 2/3 of Americans have been vaccinated. So, youre calling it sobering. I think, for many looking at those numbers, its a little bit baffling. Why is the situation at 75,000 infections a day or a seven day running average, when were in these conditions that should be much better a year later. dr. anthony s. fauci Well, Michael, its a complicated issue, and there are other factors in play that were not in play back in the previous spikes and surges. michael barbaro Like what? dr. anthony s. fauci Let me go through a couple of them. First of all, what you have right now is the Delta variant. What is really, really a different species here. This variant has an extraordinary capability of spreading from person to person. You have that as a factor, a formidable enemy that youre dealing with, if you want to get metaphorical about it. Number two, you have about 60 plus million people in the country who are unvaccinated, although they are eligible to be vaccinated. Point number three, we are seeing something that is really interesting, and Id like to get a little bit more unpacking of it with you in a bit. Ans that is were starting to see waning immunity against infection and waning immunity in the beginning aspect against hospitalization. And if you look at Israel, which has always been a month to a month-and-a-half ahead of us in the dynamics of the outbreak, in their vaccine response and in every other element of the outbreak. They are seeing a waning of immunity, not only against infection, but against hospitalizations and to some extent, death, which is starting to now involve all age groups. It isnt just the elderly. So if one looks back at this, one can say, do you know, it isnt as if a booster is a bonus. But a booster might actually be an essential part of the primary regimen that people should have. michael barbaro Thats interesting. Is that what youre saying? It shouldnt be seen as a bonus. It should be seen based on this waning immunity  dr. anthony s. fauci Right. michael barbaro  as part of how we think of basic vaccinations? dr. anthony s. fauci I think when all is said and done, as we get through boosting the overwhelming majority of the people whove been primarily vaccinated, were going to say, just like other vaccines that require multiple doses  like hepatitis B, like some of the childhood vaccinations  that it is likely. And Im making my own personal projection as an immunologist and infectious disease person, we dont have the proof yet. The proof of the pudding will be after you get people vaccinated and boosted, and we have a greater durability of protection that doesnt wane as easily, we may realize that, you know, we did a prime and a boost because we were in a medical emergency, a public health emergency. We didnt have the time to do an extensive phase 2a, phase 2b study to see whether two doses were better than three, whether six months was better than eight months. We just did with what we had, and quite frankly, it was life saving for millions of people. So thats why, I think, if we continue to get as many people vaccinated who are not yet vaccinated at all, and aggressively boost the people who have been vaccinated, I think youre going to see a different pattern than what we saw with the other surges over the past multiple months. michael barbaro So what youre describing is a two-pronged strategy here. Of course, getting more and more people vaccinated, and boosting as many people who have been vaccinated as possible. dr. anthony s. fauci I think, Michael, that the boosting is going to be an absolutely essential component of our response. Not a bonus, not a luxury, but an absolute essential part of the program. michael barbaro But you know that many people you work with, especially at the F.D.A., have said that they are skeptical of boosting. Ive listened to some of this audio of the panels and the battling over this. Its not a consensus in that world at all, that boosting is going to become essential. Do you want it to be or are you making that case to people? dr. anthony s. fauci It isnt what I want and what I dont want. Its what it is. So it has nothing to do with my desires. Its just looking at what I think are going to turn out to be the facts. In that, if you look at what has happened in countries that have been more ahead of us, temporally, you see that it wanes. And its waning to the point where youre seeing more and more people getting breakthrough infections, and more and more of those people who are getting breakthrough infections are winding up in the hospital. So I think it would be a misrepresentation, Michael, to say that the vaccines dont work. I dont think weve given that the full rein to prove what it is that you need to make them work. And thats the reason why I say, again, its my scientific opinion and projection that boosters will be an essential part of the protection. michael barbaro Where does this conversation about boosting fit in with the conversation that weve all been having for a long time about the unvaccinated? dr. anthony s. fauci Well, it makes the unvaccinated situation even more problematic. michael barbaro Why? dr. anthony s. fauci Well, because if you have a population of individuals who are vulnerable to infection, with no protection from a vaccine, you give the virus ample opportunity to circulate, to infect even through breakthrough infections vaccinated people. And you give it the opportunity to mutate to possibly develop into a new problematic variant. michael barbaro Got it. dr. anthony s. fauci Now, if you just think a moment about the dynamics of virus in the community, when you have people who are protected by a vaccine, you know that no vaccine is 100 percent protective. So the least amount of virus you have in the community, the less likely even vaccinated people are going to get a breakthrough infection. But when you flood the community with 73,000 new infections every day, that puts even the vaccinated people at risk. michael barbaro Right. Let me just summarize this. Unvaccinated people threaten infection to those with waning immunity from full vaccination, which is why youre suggesting they need boosters. But what are the tools you have at this point, as the nations leading infectious disease expert, to lower the number of the unvaccinated? It feels, and please correct me if Im wrong, that the most effective tools so far, for that group, are mandates. Is that right? dr. anthony s. fauci Well, I want to make sure I say this, because unless youre not following what goes on with things that I say, that often, people will take it out of context. michael barbaro Not us. dr. anthony s. fauci I you dont, but people who read and hear what you say take it out of context. So Im not saying you do. I would absolutely prefer that we do not have to do mandates, because I think we should get people to do things on their own accord. However, one thing we do know, that mandates work. Theyve worked for United Airlines. michael barbaro Right. dr. anthony s. fauci Theyve worked for Houston Methodist Hospital system. Theyve worked for any of a number of organizations that have mandates. They do work. Number two, in accordance with my preference to have people do things voluntarily, when you think about the emergency nature of a pandemic, you, as an individual, are more than somebody thats just in a vacuum. You are part of a community. And sometimes, when youre dealing with a situation, in which you have a very unusual situation, you have to go to unusual measures. And sometimes, unusual measures mean you have to sacrifice your own feeling that you have absolute control over what happens to you with what the good of society is. I think mandates fall under that category. michael barbaro But right now, as you know, theres a patchwork of mandates. Its complicated. So if youre a police officer in New York, youre mandated to be vaccinated. If youre a police officer in Dallas, you dont. If youre a public school kid of a certain age in L.A., you have to be vaccinated, but not if youre in Chicago. On and on. So given the success of mandates so far  you started to hint at them  ideally, shouldnt the goal be to have mandates in as many places and jobs and walks of life as possible right now? So, why isnt it the case that there are more mandates? dr. anthony s. fauci Well, because of the sensitive nature of mandates, there has been a reluctance to centrally, from the federal government, do mandates, so it had always been left at the local level. As you know, the federal government, what the president has said, he can mandate that federal employees need to be vaccinated. michael barbaro Right. dr. anthony s. fauci He can mandate that those who are getting money from Medicare and Medicaid can be mandated to be vaccinated. He can say, according to OSHA rules  which have the capability of making certain actions when there is clear and present danger to the workforce  to tell organizations that have 100 or more employees that they either get mandated or they get tested regularly. But the one thing that is clear is that the mandates, I believe, would have less push-back on a broad sense if they are done at the local level. Because a lot of that, for example, among universities and colleges, which are saying, you want to come to class in person, youve got to get vaccinated. There are some employment organizations that are doing the same things. Again, I want to make sure people understand thats not the preferable route to go. michael barbaro But I guess I want to make sure I understand why its not your preference to use mandates. In the case studies that have been done so far  Tyson Foods, United, municipal police departments, they go from rates that are pretty paltry to rates that are in the mid-80s, 90 percent. So why is it your personal preference that there not be mandates? I guess I dont quite understand. dr. anthony s. fauci No, Im an idealist. I would like to see people do things for the common good on their own accord. michael barbaro But Dr. Fauci, I mean, the pragmatist case would be that  dr. anthony s. fauci Right. Im an idealist, but Im also quite a realist. And thats the reason why I support mandates. So make sure you get me right, Michael. Get me correct if you want to not distort what Im saying. michael barbaro Of course. dr. anthony s. fauci I would prefer that people do this on their own accord because of their realization of their responsibility to themselves, their families and society. If that doesnt work, I am all in favor of mandates. michael barbaro Well be right back. OK, so just to lay out the next step in the mandate story, what ends up happening if the mandates dont work? For example, the presidents large company mandate thats now been paused by courts. And there are governors around the country, particularly Republican, who are battling these mandates or have passed laws against mandates so that local level mandate youre talking about is not happening in those places. So if the mandates dont do the job in reaching the unvaccinated population in the country, what tools do you have left then? dr. anthony s. fauci There arent very many. There really arent very many tools left. And thats really very, very difficult and painful as a public health official to see that if we dont do what is clearly and unambiguously the right thing to do  is to use a tool that is highly effective to prevent the suffering and the death that goes on  then that would be very bad for us as a nation. Weve lost 750,000 Americans thus far. We have 46 million infections, likely more since many go undetected. And we know what we can do. Ive been involved in public health for over 40 years, and there have been diseases that Ive had to deal with in which you dont have any intervention. Thats very frustrating because you say, if only I had an intervention, I could do something about this disease. Now we have a historic pandemic, the likes of which we have not seen in over 100 years, and we have highly effective, safe tools to end it. It would be really, I think, a terrible tragedy if we let more Americans and more people throughout the world  because I believe that we need to pay attention to what goes on in the rest of the world  if we let more people die and more people get very, very ill by not using the tools that we are lucky enough to have. michael barbaro So lets spin out this scenario of the mandates not working and something like a third of Americans not getting vaccinated. What does that lead to, in your experience? I mean, it seems like it starts to lead to things like more variants and more  dr. anthony s. fauci Yeah. michael barbaro  ups and downs of that curve. And how does that end? dr. anthony s. fauci Well, I mean, ultimately all pandemics burn themselves out. In the modern age of biomedical research and public health interventions, you can mitigate the ultimate negative impact of outbreaks. In 1918, we had the pandemic flu. It burned itself out ultimately. So you have a choice. Do you want it to burn itself out and kill a lot more people and make a lot more people sick, or do you want to do something about it to prevent further deaths and further illness? At the end of the day, Michael, this is going to end one way or another. The preferable way, if you just think about it for a moment, is to do whatever we can to minimize the suffering and the death. And we have within our power to do it. If we dont utilize it, then bad things are going to happen. michael barbaro I dont pretend that you have a secret chart that tells you this, but maybe you do. I mean, if this is just going to burn itself out, how long does that take, and what does it look like? dr. anthony s. fauci I dont know, but we can use experience from the past. It likely would go through another season or so and then itll peter out and go down. michael barbaro But a season or so, do you mean a year or so or? dr. anthony s. fauci No, Michael, my computer in my cerebrum is clicking away. Here comes an out-of-context quote michael barbaro No, no, no. dr. anthony s. fauci  from Fauci. michael barbaro Boy, you have had a heck of a pandemic. I can sense your anxiety around everything being taken out of context. But I appreciate what youre saying. dr. anthony s. fauci No, no, I mean, if you got attacked by the crazy press, far-right press the way I have, you would feel as sensitive as I do. michael barbaro Sure. dr. anthony s. fauci They will take it out of context. michael barbaro OK. dr. anthony s. fauci I do not know how long this would go on. It likely will burn itself out. We can help it burn itself out greatly by getting more people vaccinated. And I cant tell you whether its going to be next spring, next summer, or what have you. I cant tell you that because I dont know. michael barbaro Got it. Well, you have perhaps unintentionally teed up my next question here, which is about trust and mistrust. And yesterday on The Daily, we talked about just how much of a trust problem there is in the entire world of public health. And in particular, we focused on the idea that local public health officials, because of their experience in this pandemic, because of the anger and the threats coming their way  and youre familiar with this  many of them dont feel like they can do their job anymore. And now theres a new set of laws that have come into play that have literally restricted their ability to function in their roles. And their argument is that that has perversely left them and you all in the position of being less prepared to do the work of public health now than before the pandemic, even though weve learned all these lessons about public health from the pandemic. So as somebody who has devoted your entire life to public health, I wonder how you think about that. dr. anthony s. fauci Well, I think its a sad state of affairs, where you have public health officials who are clearly doing things that have no other objective but to preserve and protect the health of the American public, who get attacked for that, whose lives get threatened, whose families get harassed. I mean, Im experiencing it on steroids here for the last well over a year. Where else and what other historical situation have you seen where a public health official, who is merely trying to get people vaccinated to mitigate against the outbreak by wearing a mask, by following very clear and standard public health measures, who continually gets his life threatened, gets his family harassed, his children harassed  michael barbaro This is you youre talking about. dr. anthony s. fauci This is me. michael barbaro Yes. dr. anthony s. fauci Im talking about me. So tell me whats wrong with society when a public health official, whos a civil servant and not a politician, gets that kind of threat. I think we have a real problem in society. michael barbaro It sounds painful. It sounds like this has been a pretty wounding and bruising experience. dr. anthony s. fauci Well, I focus on what my job is. And my job is to do what I can do to end the outbreak. My job as a scientist is to do what I think weve done very well. We have played a major role in the development of the vaccines that have now saved millions of lives, weve played a major role in the development of better diagnostics, and weve played a major role in the development of antivirals that are now going to have a significant effect. So when I focus on my job and what my mission is, all that other stuff, as painful as it is, is nothing but noise. michael barbaro But you know what, Dr. Fauci? All that other stuff affects whether people will use those drugs that youre talking about and will have faith in everything that you just talked about. And so I guess I have to wonder, do you feel like youre less trusted now than when this pandemic began? dr. anthony s. fauci Well, it depends on what you mean. Trusted by whom? I mean, if you talk about the people who look at this in a rational way and dont live by what I would call a lack of facts, who dont live by conspiracy theories, who dont live by disinformation and misinformation, those are the people who clearly dont trust us. Not only me, but us in the public health sector. The people who look at this realistically and try to get correct information, I believe do trust us very, very much. michael barbaro Is there any part of you that gets why people dont trust public health officials or is it just impossible for you to identify with? dr. anthony s. fauci I think its just too complicated, Michael, to unpack that psychologically in the few minutes that we have. michael barbaro Sure, sure, sure. So lets talk about what the next couple of weeks look like in this pandemic, because we are, of course, headed for a period of a lot of travel for many people  the holidays and colder weather, which has traditionally led to spikes in this pandemic. And were already starting to see some pretty significant spikes in Europe in places like Germany. And I wonder if you think that is in store for us here in the United States, as the holiday season begins. And how bad you think that spike might be. dr. anthony s. fauci Well, again, if you look at the comparison between unvaccinated people and vaccinated people, it is very, very clear that the overwhelming burden of infection, hospitalization and death is weighted towards the unvaccinated. Even though, and Ill say, we clearly have hospitalizations among vaccinated people, particularly in the era of waning immunity, which gets me back to the time we spent in discussing how I feel about boosters. So if you are a vaccinated person, your family is vaccinated, and you are in a situation where the people that you interact with are vaccinated, you can have a very good holiday. You can enjoy the warmth and the companionship of your family in Thanksgiving. You could do the same thing over Christmas. However, if you are among the unvaccinated and you get into winter, then youre going to have a tough time. And I think there is a possibility that you will see an uptick in cases that will be disproportionately born as a burden among the unvaccinated. However, as weve said before, as that uptick occurs and you get more infections and more dynamics of infection spread in the community, that would put even the vaccinated at more risk. michael barbaro Right. dr. anthony s. fauci Because the more dynamic of infection, the greater likelihood that a vaccinated person, whose immunity might be waning, the greater likelihood that that person will come into contact with someone whos spreading the infection. michael barbaro Right. So final question. Should anyone be traveling this year, even with unvaccinated children, to see other members of their family? I know last year you didnt get to see your daughters because you didnt feel that that kind of travel made sense, was safe. You guys were being cautious. Are you going to be able to do it this year and should anybody else? dr. anthony s. fauci Yeah, of course, its a different situation this year. First of all, Im vaccinated. One of the reasons my children did not want to come and visit, because Im of an age thats of a higher likelihood of getting a severe outcome if I get infected. It seems like everybody knows my age now. Im 80 years old. So Im in that age group. And number two, theyre all vaccinated right now. And getting on a plane is not really that much of a risk. Its the whole process of the traveling and interacting and mingling with people. But on a plane, its not necessarily a high risk at all. So I believe that people who are vaccinated, who when they go into the airport in a congregate indoor setting, they follow the C.D.C. recommendations and wear a mask, I believe that people can and should travel during the holidays. michael barbaro Even if they have unvaccinated grandchildren in their midst? dr. anthony s. fauci Well, again, when you have unvaccinated grandchildren, the best way to protect unvaccinated grandchildren is to surround them with vaccinated people. michael barbaro Who are unlikely to spread it to them. dr. anthony s. fauci Who are very unlikely to spread it to them. michael barbaro OK, so just so Im clear, are you getting your family together here for Thanksgiving? dr. anthony s. fauci Well, Thanksgiving, theyre not getting together because they live all over the country and its not worth to come in for a day or two. But all of my daughters, all three, are going to be coming and joining us on Christmas. michael barbaro Well, Im glad to hear that. I wish you all the best for both holidays. And as always, Dr. Fauci, thank you very much for making time for us. We really appreciate it. dr. anthony s. fauci Thank you. Its good to be with you. Thank you for having me. michael barbaro Be well. You dont look 80. You still dont look 80. dr. anthony s. fauci Yeah, they keep bouncing all these things off me, Im going to start looking 80. michael barbaro All right. Have a great day. dr. anthony s. fauci Yeah, you too. Thanks a lot. michael barbaro Take care. Bye. dr. anthony s. fauci Bye. michael barbaro Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today. archived recording Attention! Attention! Crossing the Poland border is legal only at border crossing. michael barbaro A crisis over migrants at the border of Poland and Belarus deepened on Thursday after a 14-year-old migrant reportedly froze to death. And the leaders of the two countries traded threats. archived recording [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]. michael barbaro The standoff began after the leader of Belarus, the dictator Alexander Lukashenko, allowed thousands of migrants, many of them from Iraq, to approach the Polish border. In response, Polands prime minister has dispatched soldiers to keep the migrants out. Poland and the rest of the European Union have accused Lukashenko of engineering the crisis out of anger at the E.U.s decision to impose economic sanctions against Belarus over Lukashenkos conduct, including violence against his own people. And during a closed door meeting, Chinas Communist Party secured the political future of the countrys current leader, Xi Jinping, by elevating his place within Chinese history. The party approved a plan to enshrine Xi as an era-defining leader, putting him on the same level as Mao Zedong, the founder of Chinas communist rule, and Deng Xiaoping, the architect of its modern economy. That move makes it increasingly likely that Xi will remain Chinas leader for a third term. Todays episode was produced by Robert Jimison and Diana Nguyen. It was edited by Paige Cowett and Lisa Chow with help from Dave Shaw. Contains original music by Dan Powell, and engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Thats it for The Daily. Im Michael Barbaro. See you on Monday.

The future of the office? It depends which boss you talk to. Image An empty office building in Manhattan last June. Credit... Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times Across the United States, employers are struggling with how, when and even whether to bring employees back to the office. In conversations with leaders at companies in a broad variety of industries  the people charged with making the ultimate call  the consensus was that there was no consensus. Chief executives are struggling to balance rapidly shifting expectations with their own impulse to have the final word on how their companies run. They are eager to appear responsive to employees who relish their newfound autonomy, but reluctant to give up too much control. And they are constantly changing policies in response to worker demands, re-examining aspects of their business that they might not have tinkered with otherwise. Preferences are changing during this pandemic, said Tim Ryan, the U.S. chairman of PwC, the accounting and consulting firm, which said that it would let its U.S. workers work remotely forever. C.E.O.s are now just beginning to realize that if youre employing thousands and thousands and thousands of people, you need to have multiple options, he said. I believe what we announced will be commonplace for the mass employers in a matter of months. Its just catching up with how fast the world is moving. But for Chris Merrill, a co-founder and the chief executive of Harrison Street, a private real estate investment firm, the romanticization of remote work is balderdash. Its very important to get the younger employees in the office, collaborating and working hard, he said. Personal interactions are what this is all about.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

Austrians rush to get vaccinated in response to new restrictions. Image People waiting outside the Vienna Imperial Palace to receive coronavirus vaccinations last month. Credit... Lisa Leutner/Associated Press A week ago, Austria announced restrictions on people who are not vaccinated or protected because of prior infections, barring them from cafes, restaurants, pubs, theaters, gyms and hairdressers. And the lines at vaccination centers have grown. Last Saturday, the day after Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced the changes, nearly 40,000 people received a shot. The week before that, when only a negative rapid test was required to partake in all aspects of society, less than half as many stood in line. On Thursday, more than 78,000 Austrians got a shot, a number not seen since July. With just 65 percent of its population fully vaccinated, Austria has one of the weakest vaccination rates in Western Europe. But it is finally seeing a willingness that the authorities could not coax through advertising or positive reinforcement. Austria Coronavirus Cases All time Last 90 days 5,000 10,000 cases Mar. 2020 Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. 2021 Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. 7day average 13,852 Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The daily average is calculated with data that was reported in the last seven days. Besides the new rules, a spike in infections is contributing to the growing interest in a vaccine that has been available for free for months. On Thursday, the country reported 3,143 new infections, just below a record set the day before. Two states, Salzburg and Upper Austria, announced partial lockdown measures on unvaccinated adults on Friday, and a nationwide order may be announced on Sunday after a special meeting of Parliament. On Friday, the German foreign ministry put most of Austria back on a list of high-risk countries, meaning unvaccinated travelers from Austria have to quarantine for 10 days on arrival in Germany.

Germany will again offer free virus tests to all adults. Image Costumed revelers celebrating at carnival festivities in Cologne, Germany, on Thursday. Credit... Friedemann Vogel/EPA, via Shutterstock Germany will once again offer free coronavirus tests to all adults in the country, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Friday, a move intended to help catch infections earlier as case numbers continue to reach record highs. The country had spent billions of dollars offering at least one free antigen test per resident each week since March, but then ended the policy last month in the hope that making people pay for tests would lead them to get vaccinated. Now, German leaders are scrambling to act as case numbers spiral upward. On Thursday  after a week in which new case numbers had set records four times  health officials recorded 48,640 new infections, a slight drop from Wednesdays number. The health ministers hourlong news conference appeared to be an attempt to show national leadership in what is increasingly seen as a countrywide crisis. Mr. Spahn even suggested that tests could ultimately be required, even for vaccinated people, for entry to certain venues and events. But not everyone seems concerned about the spike in numbers. On Thursday, tens of thousands of revelers gathered in Cologne for the start of carnival season. Although the designated party spots were restricted to attendees able to prove that they had been vaccinated or had recovered from Covid, controls were lax and impromptu parties sprung up outside those zones. A musician playing at the festivities warned partygoers not to kiss strangers this year, a reference to a custom of carnival celebrations. Maybe this year just snog your partner! Otherwise we wont get through the season, said the musician, Peter Brings. And next year we can all make out with each other again. On Friday morning, the Robert Koch Institute, the German authority that tracks the pandemic, released a new set of guidelines suggesting, among other things, that large gatherings be canceled.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story
The Netherlands government introduced a three-week partial lockdown to quell a fourth wave of coronavirus infections amid a spike in case numbers, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

It is the first recent lockdown affecting all people  whether vaccinated or not  in Western Europe, and it comes as the Netherlands registered 16,364 new cases on Thursday. That figure, a level not seen since early in the pandemic, was a 33 percent rise over the new cases registered a week earlier.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Hugo de Jonge, the health minister, announced the measures on Friday evening. They will go into effect on Saturday.
Under the Marriage Act 1983, prisoners in England are entitled to apply to be married while in custody. If the application is granted, the prisoners family is responsible for paying for the service.

Mr. Assange and Ms. Moris are no strangers to seizing life in confined spaces.

In 2012, Mr. Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London as he was fighting extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning in a rape inquiry, which was later dropped. Ms. Moris was hired as part of the legal team fighting those extradition efforts, and during the seven years he was holed up in the embassy, she and Mr. Assange developed a relationship and had two children.

While for many people it would seem insane to start a family in that context, for us, it was the sane thing to do, she said in a video posted last year to the WikiLeaks YouTube channel. To break down those walls around him and see life, imagine a life, beyond that prison.

Ms. Moris, who is originally from South Africa, says that her husband watched their sons, Gabriel and Max, being born on a video call. The boys are British citizens and have grown up visiting their father in prison, according to Ms. Moris.
The confrontation over migrants trying to reach the European Union has a long and growing list of players: Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Germany, the European Union, the United Nations, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

Belarus has granted visas to thousands of people, many of them from Iraq and Syria, to fly to its capital, Minsk, and then escorted them to its borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, E.U. countries that refuse to admit them. Visas in hand, migrants have been boarding flights in Istanbul, Moscow and elsewhere to reach Belarus.

On Friday some of those routes were closing after the European Union put pressure on some of the airlines involved. Turkish Civil Aviation and the Belarusian airline, Belavia, both announced Friday morning that Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni citizens would no longer be allowed to board flights to Belarus.

Due to the problem of illegal border crossings between the European Union and Belarus, it has been decided that the citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen who want to travel to Belarus from Turkish airports will not be allowed to buy tickets and boarding until further notice, the Turkish statement, released on Twitter, said.
It has all the makings of a Cold War thriller.

A mercurial dictator and sometime proxy of Russia using people as political weapons against the West. A war of words between the strongman and his Western rivals. Moscow, shadowy in its intentions, deploying nuclear-capable bombers and staging paratroop drills in the area.

In a region where memories of East-West divisions run deep, the standoff between Belaruss leader, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, and Poland, a European Union and NATO member, is fueling concerns about possible military conflict, however unlikely.

Belarusian leaders have repeatedly raised that prospect.

We know that if we make some mistake, God forbid, if we slip up, this will instantly involve Russia in this whirlpool, Mr. Lukashenko told state television. This is the largest nuclear power, he added. Im not a madman, I understand where this can go.

Belaruss state news agency quoted its defense minister on Friday as saying: We are getting the impression that our western neighbors, Poland in particular, are ready to start a conflict.
JERUSALEM  Surafel Alamo immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia in 2006 at the age of 12 with his father and a sister. The Israeli authorities said two older sisters, who were over 18 at the time, would follow in a month or two. They have been waiting in a camp for would-be emigrants in Ethiopia ever since.

Now, with Tigrayan rebel forces pressing southward toward the capital, Addis Ababa, where the Ethiopian government has declared a state of emergency, Ethiopian-Israelis like Mr. Alamo are growing nervous about the safety of their relatives. They are pressuring the Israeli government to extricate thousands of them from the dangers of the civil war and to end the yearslong trauma of split families once and for all.

But the fate of the remnants of the community has become bogged down in rancorous disagreements over the urgency of the situation in Ethiopia, the legitimacy of their claims, the numbers of those eligible for Israeli citizenship and accusations of racism.
On the Menu at the Climate Talks Jenny Gross  Reporting from Glasgow

Its also not uncommon for customers to ask where meat and fish has been sourced, something that would not have happened years ago, Lindsay said.

The shift in Glasgow comes as chefs everywhere are talking more about ethical sourcing, serving food that is local and cutting down on waste.

The U.S. National Restaurant Association found that around half of diners say they are considering restaurants efforts to recycle and reduce food waste when choosing where to eat.
Perched on the ridge of the Don Sheldon Amphitheater of Denalis breathtaking Ruth Glacier, in Alaska, and reachable only by air, Sheldon Chalet is famous as the worlds most remote hotel.

Alaskas Denali National Park stretches six million acres and is a shelter for grizzly bears, caribou, moose, wolves and other wildlife. Its one of the most beautiful places you can visit in the United States, but also one of the most inaccessible. For example, the Don Sheldon Amphitheater, a glacial valley situated at an elevation of 6,000 feet (1,829 meters), was once only accessible by ski-equipped plane, but after the completion of the luxurious Sheldon Chalet, private helicopter rides also became an option.

Photo: Sheldon Chalet/Facebook

The Sheldon Chalet, named after the father of two of the chalets owners, Robert and Kate Sheldon, was built in 2018, and immediately made news headlines both for its inaccessible location and the spicy price of a 3-night stay. Offering complete privacy away from the stress of urban life, Sheldon Chalet is the perfect retreat for those who can afford to visit.

The minimum 3-night stay at Sheldon Chalet costs $35,000 per couple and includes helicopter shuttle service, a private concierge, gourmet dining, and activities such as sledding, glacier trekking, and mountaineering. Its not the sort of experience everyone can afford, thats for sure, but if moneys not a problem, staying at the worlds most remote chalet is definitely something worth your bucket list.

Sheldon Chalet can accommodate up to 10 people at any given time, offers breathtaking views of its snow-covered surroundings during the day, and of the aurora borealis at night. Daytime activities include rappelling, glacier trekking, visiting a mastodon boneyard, and fishing, while during the night, you can use the rooftop sauna, stargaze, or sample the dishes prepared by Alaskan chef Dave Thorne.

My mom and dad were people worth remembering, but their desire for this property had nothing to do with their own legacy. They just wanted other people to experience this place thats majestic beyond anything else on the planet, Robert Sheldon told the Chicago Tribune.

Getting the permits to build Sheldon Chalet took over a decade, and I cant imagine how tough flying the necessary materials to this isolated place must have been, so I guess that $35,000 price stage is somewhat justified. Still, its not for everyone.
Finsbury Glover Hering is representing Land OLakes food cooperative on agricultural sustainability and rural broadband issues.

The Arden Hills, MN, based company has been working with Microsoft and Watch Communications to address the rural broadband gap, which affects more than 18M Americans, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Sixty percent of farmers say they lack the necessary connectivity to run their business.

Land OLakes, which generated $14B in 2019 revenues, also is working to bridge the digital divide with awareness and advocacy through its American Connection Project.

FGH has Grant Leslie, head of its food practice; Karla Thieman, ex-chief of staff to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during the Obama administration; and Kevin Bailey, a policy advisor to Vilsack, working the Land OLakes account.

WPP is majority owner of FGH.

Land OLakes in October broke a consumer campaign tagged Eat It Like You Own It that was timed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the company.

Battery, a creative shop of Havas Media, developed the advertising.
AN intoxicated man who was abusive to staff at Tullamore Hospital did not appear before the local District Court last week when he was prosecuted for a public order offence.

Judge Catherine Staines imposed a fine in his absence on Gerry Bagnall, aged 58 and with an address at Rathcoffey, Donadea, Naas, Co Kildare.

Garda Darren Gallagher gave evidence of receiving a call from the accident and emergency department at the Midlands Regional Hospital at 6.45pm on April 30 last year in relation to a male.

Garda Gallagher said the man was seen lying across three benches in the waiting area.

He was intoxicated, his speech was slurred and he wasn't making any sense. The garda added that the accused was barely able to stand up and he was abusive to nursing staff who tried to deal with him.

Garda Gallagher said he did not co-operate with the staff and they were unable to handle him.

He was arrested for public drunkenness and brought to Tullamore Garda Station. A fixed charge penalty notice was issued but it was unpaid.
IN what must be a first for the council in Offaly, a councillor 'attended' his monthly Municipal District meeting from a ship.

Cllr Mark Hackett was on a ferry crossing from Scotland during Wednesday's meeting of the Edenderry Municipal District.

In line with Covid-19 guidelines, the meeting was held by Zoom and the six councillors made their contributions remotely.

After contributing to the meeting for a short period earlier, Cllr Hackett rejoined later and stated that he wished to say a couple of things now because I'm on a boat.

The connection with the Green Party councillor was then briefly lost, prompting Cllr Noel Cribbin to joke: You're gone under!

District chair, Cllr Liam Quinn, laughed and said: Have we a man overboard?

The connection with Cllr Hackett was then immediately restored and the Geashill organic farmer explained that he was on his way back from the COP26 summit in Glasgow, having been there since Sunday.

It was very interesting, said the councillor. It was very relatable to what is going on in Offaly because the big issues were all about renewable energy, peat restoration, carbon storage, all those things which are very topical in Offaly at the moment.

So hopefully action will be taken on climate change going forward by all the countries involved.

Cllr Quinn responded: I hope you made the point in Scotland that bogs don't particularly help councils build roads.

Cllr Hackett was accompanied at COP26 by his wife, Senator Pippa Hackett, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture.

Earlier this week Senator Hackett revealed that she was travelling to the climate summit by electric car and ferry.

She drove to the port of Larne and took the boat across to Scotland for the international conference.

Speaking in a video message recorded while walking along a Glasgow street, the Geashill-based representative said she had made a low emissions journey to the event.

The trip went really well and it's really great to see so many charge points here in Scotland, she said.

She reported that she had met the New Zealand climate minster James Shaw.

There are many similarities between our countries, particularly in relation to agriculture and land use, and we'll continue to work closely together as we address our emissions challenges, said Senator Hackett.

She also met a number of green parliamentarians from across the world, from Kenya to Venezuela, and closer to home from the UK and Europe.

She also held talks with Karen Ross, the secretary of agriculture in California, remarking that she had been really looking forward to meeting another female politician in agriculture.

In a further meeting the minister, who has responsibility for land use and biodiversity, spoke to Lorna Slater, the Scottish minister for green skills, circular economy and biodiversity.

The junior minister also visited an organic farm in Scotland which has been operating a 'calf at foot' model for five years where top notch cheese, ice cream rose veal are produced.

At 'The Ethical Dairy' farm, calves remain with their cows to suckle, unlike traditional farms where the new-borns are removed within a couple of hours.

On her way to Scotland, she tweeted a message while her car was plugged into a charging point: Just getting the final bit of charge in before we head to the ferry port here in Larne. Looking forward to a good few days at COP26 in Glasgow. We're here to make a difference, let's do that.

About 200 countries are represented at COP26, an annual summit which seeks international agreement on ways of fighting climate change and global warming.
Two Offaly men have been honoured for their incredible actions with National Bravery Awards.

The Ceann Comhairle, Sean O Fearghail TD, today presented National Bravery Awards to 25 people from Counties Cavan, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Offaly, Sligo, Tipperary and Waterford, and from the United States of America.

Among the recipients were lorry driver James Melia and Garda Jeremiah Sheehy who both risked serious injury and possible death to save the lives of others. Read the details of their incredibly brave acts below.

James Melia (Offaly)

On the morning of November 23, 2018, at Ardnamullen, Clonard, Co Meath, James Melias lorry was hit head on by an oncoming car in treacherous road conditions. The driver of the car was seriously injured and was trapped in the car.

James exited his lorry, acted swiftly and immediately took actions to try and stop the spread of fire by using his own fire extinguisher. This failed to control the fire as the fire was too strong. As a passer-by went to get help, James remained calm and began getting fistfuls of clay and mud from a ditch and stuffing it onto the flames to keep the fire at bay and prevent it from spreading. James selfless actions resulted in extensive injuries to his hands including damage to his fingertips.

For his actions James Melia is awarded a Bronze Medal and a Certificate of Bravery.

Garda Jeremiah Sheehy (Offaly)

At approximately 3am on 27 of April 2020, Garda Jeremiah Sheehy and Garda Virgina Doona met a man walking along Main Street in Banagher, Co Offaly. The man would not engage with them as he walked in the direction of the bridge at the Westend.

The gardai turned back a few minutes later to see where the man had gone. Unable to locate him they started to search the Marina carpark beside the bridge and found the man had scaled a disused loading crane and was now dangling unconscious from a crossbeam 18-20 feet off the ground. Both gardai went to the mans assistance. Garda Sheehy scaled the crane and pulled the unconscious man back towards the crane. This was extremely difficult as the mans weight was close to 18 stone and he was now dangling over the waters edge.

Garda Doona immediately sought assistance from other Garda members and the fire and ambulance services. Garda Doona managed to get a knife and Garda Sheehy succeeded in cutting the ligature. This caused the full weight of the man to fall onto Garda Sheehys foot which was now trapped against the steel structure. The man was held in place for approximately 10 minutes until Garda Ken McDonald and Garda Michael Rosey arrived and were able to scale the crane and take the weight of the man. Garda Sheehy was in pain and discomfort, but the Gardai present were unable to free Garda Sheehys trapped foot. Fire and ambulance services arrived 10 minutes later and were able to take the man to safety and free Garda Sheehys trapped foot.

For his actions Garda Jeremiah Sheehy was awarded a Bronze Medal and a Certificate of Bravery.

----------

The Bravery awards were set up in 1947 to recognise those who risked their lives to save others and are administered by Comhairle na Mire Gaile  the Deeds of Bravery Council  which is chaired by the Ceann Comhairle.

The Ceann Comhairle said: The deeds we honour here are exceptional acts of bravery. They mark the moments where people saved the lives of others through their actions, risking their own lives doing so. What these awards celebrate is the noblest impulse within a human being, to risk their life in order to save another. We honour people who leaped into stormy seas, who braved swollen rivers, climbed down cliffs, assisted at road traffic collisions and performed other remarkable deeds. Through their actions there are people alive today, who would undoubtedly have died.

I am of course conscious that we mark these deeds at a time when the world is still under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. This virus has brought great pain to many families throughout the country and our hearts are heavy for the loss suffered over the last 20 months. But the exemplary service given by our doctors, nurses and frontline workers across the health service, the fire and rescue services and An Garda Siochana has brought great hope and also pride, to us all.

Today we rightly acknowledge the brave acts of heroism that our honoured guests have performed. But it also a day for remembering and acknowledging the very many acts of bravery carried out day in and day out throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. However small or big those acts were and continue to be, collectively they contribute to keeping us all safe during an unprecedented time in our lives.

The collective sense of good and indeed bravery displayed nationwide from many walks of life throughout the pandemic rightly allows us to be both proud of our communities and grateful for their existence. An Irish language expression whose literal meaning is 'It is in each others shadow that people live' but which, more broadly, invokes a sense of community and interdependence is most apt for the times we live in  Ar scath a cheile a mhaireann na daoine.

The Deeds of Bravery Council includes the Cathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann, the Lord Mayors of Dublin and Cork, the Garda Commissioner, the President of the Association of City & County Councils and the Chair of the Irish Red Cross.

The Council may award Gold, Silver or Bronze medals as well as Certificates of Bravery.
BORD na Mona is considering the construction of a 600 MW gas-fired power station in Offaly, it was claimed this week.

The proposed project is being lined up for a 25-hectare site at Derrygreenagh near Rhode in the north of the county, according to Cllr Noel Cribbin.

The power plant was first granted planning permission in 2010 but did not proceed.

However, an extension to that consent was granted in 2019 and sources have indicated the electricity generation station, which would be by far the biggest in the Bord na Mona portfolio, is under active consideration.

In a statement released to the Tullamore Tribune on Friday afternoon, a company spokesperson said the project granted consent 11 years ago comprised two units, a distillate/natural gas-fired open cycle gas turbine unit of about 170 MW, and a natural gas-fired combined cycle gas turbine unit of about 430 MW.

The company is reviewing options to develop new generation capacity on this site in light of the current pressure on the electricity system, the spokesperson said.

In September Bord na Mona announced a plan for an energy park across 3,000 hectares of its land in Offaly, Westmeath and Meath.

The company said the park would be a sustainable development with direct access to Irelands main motorway and fibre networks.

The company aims to co-locate what it calls industrial-scale high demand energy users such as data centres with low to zero carbon energy generators in the park.

The company said the energy park aims to reduce costs and emissions while ensuring energy resilience and security.

The energy park's brochure says: The Bord na Mona Energy Park will generate 200 MW+ of low to zero carbon electricity from sources which may include wind, solar and gas, and will house energy storage facilities which may include battery and hydrogen.

The existing 116 MW distillate oil fuelled Cushaling plant at Ballykilleen is also mentioned.

As part of its 'brown to green' shift away from peat, Bord na Mona already generates electricity from wind and biogas and has plans for solar.

On Wednesday Cllr Cribbin indicated he believed Bord na Mona intends to proceed with a new 600 MW gas station next year.

That's absolutely massive for north Offaly and for the whole Midlands, said Cllr Cribbin.

Speaking at a meeting of the Edenderry Municipal District, the Fine Gael councillor also said international interests were linking up with Bord na Mona for the project.

This plant is between Ireland, Germany and I think Poland, and that's going to be announced in the next few weeks, he said.

This isn't just big for the Midlands, it's big for Ireland. You can imagine what that would be worth to the Irish economy.

Certainly we wouldn't have worries with rates from now on if we could get something like that.

Offaly County Council is currently relying on a Government grant, valued at 1.7m for next year, to make up for a shortfall in commercial rates resulting from the closure of the ESB peat-fired station at Shannonbridge and associated Bord na Mona bogs.

Cllr Cribbin said large electricity consumers such as Intel should consider Offaly as a location for plant expansion instead of other parts of the country such as the outskirts of Galway city, which he believes is already congested.

With all this talk about electricity being in short supply, this would transform the whole scene and would transform north Offaly and the whole Midlands.

He said Offaly County Council should seek a meeting with Bord na Mona for clarification of the energy company's plans for electricity generation.

The councillor also said he was seeking a meeting with the junior business minister, Damien English TD, so that details of the Derrygreenagh proposal could be confirmed.

Cllr Cribbin said he understood Intel has plans for a chip manufacturing facility which would create 10,000 jobs on a site in Galway.

He said he happened to be in Ballybrit the previous Saturday morning and you can't get in or out of it whereas a Midlands site would be just 40 minutes away from Intel's headquarters.

I know this [Bord na Mona power plant] is 600 MW. If that Intel plant came to the Midlands, that would take up 100 MW.

The development of a new gas-fired power station would be controversial given the Government's plans for emissions cuts but Cllr Cribbin has been told Bord na Mona will consider providing the plant to assist with the avoidance of blackouts during the country's continued transition towards a greater proportion of renewable energy generation.

Wednesday's meeting of the Municipal District also heard that Rhode, the former home of an ESB peat-fuelled power station, remains a possible location for new data centres.

Data centres have come under fire in recent months because of the vast amounts of electricity required to run them but their proponents argue they are essential for the maintenance of efficient, modern communications systems.

Mark Mahon, senior engineer with Offaly County Council, said a tender had gone out for a 75,000 research project on the feasibility of locating data centres at the Rhode site.

Entitled 'Exploring Data Centre Integration With Renewable Energy and Green Energy in the Midlands', the project was described by Mr Mahon as a cutting edge study which will seek to tie a number of threads together, including energy and hydrogen and the potential for locating data centres.

Mr Mahon noted that Eirgrid's 'Shaping Our Electricity Future' roadmap released earlier that day had made reference to what he said was the regionalisation of data centres.

Separately, research is also being jointly undertaken by Bord na Mona and others on the development of a demonstration in hydrogen technology in Rhode. That's quite technical but I think it's going to be very interesting when it moves on a little further, said Mr Mahon.

Bord na Mona's power station near Clonbullogue, which is co-fired with peat and biomass, is a 128 MW facility and the company also has a 116 MW gas-powered peaking plant at Ballykilleen.

It has Offaly's largest wind farm at Mount Lucas, a 28-turbine facility with a maximum output of 84 MW. A 21-turbine wind farm is being constructed in the east of the county at Cloncreen and is expected to begin supplying the grid in the last quarter of next year.

It got the go-ahead from planners earlier this year for a 21-turbine wind farm at Derrinlough in west Offaly and has proposals for a 17-turbine facility at Lemanaghan, a project which has run into opposition because of its proximity to an early Christian monastic site.

Bord na Mona has ended peat harvesting and has embarked on a bog restoration programme which aims to reconstruct peatlands as carbon sinks.

Meanwhile, two other wind farm projects in north Offaly, Moanvane and Yellow River, could finally be moving towards construction, Cllr Cribbin told the Tribune on Thursday.

The 12-turbine Statkraft Moanvane wind farm is proposed for private land near Walsh Island while SSE's Yellow River wind farm, which will have 29 turbines, will be on private land between Croghan and Rhode.

Both received planning permission a number of years ago.
Poetry Ireland has announced the 24 awardees of the Poetry Town Bursary scheme, which marks the legacy of the all-island poetry initiative, and carries forward the enthusiasm generated during the nine-day festival in September.

Anthony Sullivan, a poet from Lusmagh and Tullamore, is one of those awarded a bursary. Anthony is also a member of poetry and spoken word collective The Tullamore Rhymers Club.

Poetry Ireland put a call out during October for submissions from poets all over the island of Ireland, with three categories (New Poets, Experienced and Spoken Word). Each bursary was worth 300-500, depending on the level of support requested by the applicant.

The bursaries are designed to be used by the awardees for opportunities to develop their poetry  some examples given during the submission process were: taking a writing course, attending a writing residency, paying for mentoring or critical assessment, paying a filmmaker to create a film of poetry work, or simply taking time off work to devote to writing.

Niamh ODonnell, Director of Poetry Ireland, said: We were overwhelmed with the number of applications for bursaries and also delighted to be able to finish our Poetry Town activities by offering and awarding additional supports for 24 individual poets. We thank everyone who entered, and we are greatly looking forward to seeing what our awardees develop over the next few months.

Poetry Town took place from 10-18 September 2021, with a mission of creating communal experiences for and by the people living in each town, bringing together communities both online and in person, and inviting everyone to encounter poetry in their everyday lives.

From guerrilla poetry in the supermarket, on street corners, stilts, and cycles, to pharmacists prescribing Poem Prescriptions to customers, to workshops and events that energised participants to write and read their first lines of poetry, Poetry Town showed that poetry belongs to everybody, wherever they live. See www.poetrytown.ie for more info.

Poetry Town is an initiative of Poetry Ireland in partnership with Local Authority Arts Offices. It is made possible with funding from the Arts Council of Irelands Open Call funding, and is also supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Midlands Science was delighted to partner with Bord na Mona for this years annual Midlands Science Festival in providing a guided walk and talk at Lough Boora Discovery Park in Co. Offaly.

At this event, Bord na Mona safely hosted a number of young pupils from Kilcormac and provided an overview of the ecological, environmental and cultural value of raised bogs while also focusing on the biodiversity features of interest available at the Lough Bora Discovery Park. This event was part of national Science Week, supported by Science Foundation Ireland and was a great opportunity to host an in-person event due to the fact that it could be held outside in nature.

Nature is all around us and it is packed with possibilities for children to investigate and explore. Children need time to discover the outdoors and our outdoor spaces have become more important than ever over the past eighteen months as our hunger for solace and a connection with nature has dramatically increased.

Pat Sammon, External Affairs Manager, Bord na Mona said,

It was wonderful to play a part in this years Science Week in the Midlands and to see young people out enjoying the fantastic amenities and breathtaking landscapes of Lough Boora. Bord na Mona is committed to promoting awareness and education on biodiversity in schools and in communities and to protecting and preserving our heritage and environment for future generations to enjoy. We are really happy to support events which help to promote the importance of science education to our local young people and we hope that it has inspired some of them to think about science in a different way when it comes to making future subject choices at secondary level.

Jackie Gorman, Director of the Midlands Science Festival said,

The Midlands Science Festival is all about taking science out of the lab and into places like libraries, theatres and outdoors in order to provide diverse ways for people of all ages to explore the world around them and to learn something new. Most of our festival has been run online this year due to the ongoing pandemic, so we were delighted to team up with Bord na Mona in order to provide this fun, learning event in the great outdoors for the students of Kilcormac National School.

There is a wide a variety of things to see and do at Lough Boora Discovery Park and it is such a family friendly environment with a host of free activities for all ages. If you havent already visited, it is definitely a place to add to your list for any time of the year.
IT has been five years since Offaly County Council granted planning approval for a solar farm at Lehinch in Clara, however, since that time nothing has happened on the 14.99HA site, which according to the land owner David Connor is shovel ready.

At a time when there is such a strong emphasis on green energy and with daily reports coming from COP26 on strategies to tackle climate change, the delays are causing confusion and dismay. OBTON, the Danish company behind the proposed development, has expressed its total frustration with the hoops it has had to jump through, says David Connor.

According to Mr Connor, OBTON has received permission in principle to make a grid connection and has already put down a sizable deposit. He said the company believed it would be onsite during the summer months and the solar farm would be ready to go by now.

One of its directors has even gone so far as to contact the Danish Ambassador in Ireland in the hopes that he will make representations to the Irish government in order to speed things up, says Mr Connor. He said OBTON has 4m worth of solar panels in storage in Cavan which is costing them even more money and he fears they might pull out of the venture altogether.

A statement from the ESB will give little comfort to either Mr Connor or OBTON it reads:

ESB Networks has informed the customer that this solar project is in the detailed design phase with an estimated energisation date of Q4 2022. Connecting solar infrastructure of this type requires associated works to the network, so the timeframe (from receipt of second stage payment) would be in line with connection of similar projects in other areas.

Minister Pippa Hackett said ''I am aware of the difficulties faced by the particular farm in question and I have made representation to DECC in relation to the matter.

It must be noted, however, that this is an operational matter for Eirgrid and the ESB and certain issues, for example; reinforcing the grid, which requires planning consents, and increasing connection costs tied to a projects complexity, scale and location, can delay projects progressing.

We need clean, green energy, and Offaly has been a leader in the creation of that green energy. I want to see that continue here as we make our transition away from burning fossil fuels for energy

The Irish Solar Energy Association, which is located in Edenderry, claims that delays of 12-27 months in connecting new projects to the national electricity grid provided by State company Eirgrid and ESB Networks are shutting out potential extra supplies.

Conall Bolger, the lobby groups chief executive, maintains that practically every renewable project struggles to connect to the grid.

The costs are highly unpredictable, completely out of line with the rest of Europe and, worst of all, it takes far too long to deliver, he said.

Mr Bolger said it should take six months from the point at which construction begins for a solar plant to begin generating power, but delays mean it takes more than twice that time.

.But despite consistent cajoling from the industry nothing seems to speed up the two state agencies to play their part, he claimed

In January 2020 OBTON announced details of its 300m investment in the Irish solar energy sector. Along with its Irish partner Shannon Energy, the company said it would develop up to 500 MW of solar PV projects in Ireland over the next five years. This represents an investment in the Irish economy of over 300m at todays energy prices and will create over 1,000 jobs particularly during its construction phase, a statement from the company said.
Opalesque Industry Update - The hedge fund industry shook off September's swoon in October, posting a 1.68% return for the month, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge, a division of Backstop Solutions. By comparison, the S&P 500 Total Return Index gained 7.01% in October. For the year to date, the hedge fund industry was up 10.60% through October. The S&P 500 Total Return Index was up 24.04% over the same period. Undaunted by the previous month's far-flung red ink, nearly all Hedge Fund subsectors did an about-face in October. The industry's return to gains was led by the Technology Index which was up +4.39%, followed closely by the Distressed Securities Index, up +4.14% and the Emerging Markets Asian Equities Index which advanced +3.84%. Other sub-sectors gaining ground in October included the Equity Long Bias Index, returning +3.02%, the Emerging Markets Sub Saharan Africa Index, up +2.99%, and Option Strategies Index, at +2.16%. As for the sectors unable to shake off the September slump, they were led by Latin American indices including the Emerging Markets Latin American Equities Index -5.51% and the Emerging Markets Latin America Index -3.96%. Elsewhere the Fixed Income Arbitrage Index retreated -2.07%, the Emerging Markets Global Fixed Income Index lost -1.05%, and the Emerging Markets MENA Index fell -0.51%. For the year-to-date interval, nearly all sub-sectors are in the black through October. The Emerging Markets Eastern European Equities Index has had a banner year and leads all Hedge Fund subsectors, up +25.91%. The Distressed Securities Index is nevertheless nipping at its heels, posting compound returns of +24.09% year-to-date. Following at a decent distance in third position is the Equity Long Bias Index which is up +17.61% through October. Other notable year-to-date gainers included the Technology Index, up +16.27%, the European Equities Index, advancing +15.42%, and the Emerging Markets MENA Index, gaining +14.28%. Only a handful of subsectors have seen year-to-date losses. Woes continued unabated for the Emerging Markets Latin American Equities Index, which has lost -12.21% so far this year, as well as for the Emerging Markets Latin America Index, which has shed -7.05%. The Emerging Markets Global Fixed Income Index and the Fixed Income Arbitrage Index are on the bubble - down -0.48% and -0.18% respectively. "U.S. equity markets enjoyed their best month of the year in October, and hedge funds benefited," said Ben Crawford, Head of Research at BarclayHedge. "While labor and supply chain issues dragged economies in the U.S. and elsewhere, most hedge fund sectors appeared unaffected, notching October as another victory in a year already full of them."
In an interview with Vatican News, Father Federico Lombardi sj , former director of Vatican Radio, Vatican TV, and of the Holy See Press Office, speaks about his new book, Popes, Vatican and Communications and reflects on his wish to write and give witness in a spirit of service through decades of experience under three Popes. You have had a long career in the field of communications and there are many things you could have written about. With what criteria have you chosen the writings gathered in this book entitled Popes, Vatican and Communications? I tried to give a witness of a spirit of service in communications. This is the criterion because I tried to be at the service of the Pope as a servant of the Church and of the People of God and of humankind. I have also tried to adapt myself to the different styles of communication ...

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.
The Holy Father will embark on a 5-day Apostolic Journey to Cyprus and Greece in early December.

The visit will see him spend 2-4 December in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus.

He will then head to Greece on 4 December, visiting Athens and Lesvos until 6 December, when he will return to Rome.

The Pope is undertaking the Apostolic Journey to Cyprus and Greece upon the invitation of the countries civil authorities and Bishops Conferences.

The full schedule of the visit will be released in due course.
This coming November 14 sees the fifth celebration of the World Day of the Poor. An initiative strongly desired by Pope Francis in order to urge the Church and the faithful to go out to encounter poverty in the various ways it manifests itself in the modern world and in order to reach out to those most in need. This year the motto chosen to promote the Day comes from Saint Marks Gospel: The poor you will always have with you (Mk 14:7), made known as usual through the Holy Fathers Message released on the day of Saint Anthony of Padua, last June 13. As it does every year, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, the Vatican Dicastery charged by the Holy Father with promoting the event, organized several initiatives that were carried out in the week leading up to this day.

Pope Francis Meeting with the Poor at Assisi

On Friday, November 12, the Holy Father made a private visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Saint Mary of the Angels) in Assisi where he met with a group of 500 poor people from different parts of Europe and spent time listening to and praying with them.

The Pope was welcomed by the embrace of the poor who bestowed on him the pilgrims cloak and staff before accompanying him in procession to the Basilica. First Pope Francis, following in the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi, paused to pray at the Portiuncula, one of the most important places in the life of the Saint, where he loved to welcome his friars and many poor people, and where Saint Clare decided to consecrate herself to the Lord. There, at the end of the celebration, the Holy Father made the significant gesture of blessing a stone previously taken from the Portiuncula by the Franciscan Friars (the Order of Friars Minor  ofm) of Umbria, destined for homeless shelter Roses of Saint Francis of Trsat, founded in 2007 by the local fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order of Trsat, in the city of Rijeka, Croatia, whose representatives were also present.

The 500 poor people present came from the Dioceses of Umbria led by Caritas, from the French association Fratello, and from Rome in a delegation organized by the Papal Almoner and the following associations: Caritas of the Diocese of Rome, the Circle of Saint Peter (Circolo San Pietro), the Community of Saint Egidio (Comunita di SantEgidio), the Regional Coordination of the Vincentian Family (Coordinamento Regionale Famiglia Vincenziana), the Astalli Center (Centro Astalli), the Roman branch of the Christian Association of Italian Workers ( Associazioni Cristiane Lavoratori Italiani,  Acli di Roma) and the French association Brother (Fratello). At the end of the day, 500 backpacks, produced within the project +Three, which promotes products made in respect of environmental and economic sustainability within an ethical and socially useful supply chain, were donated to the participants. These backpacks contain winter clothing, donated by Tombolini, a well-known Italian brand name, comprising sweaters, scarves, hats, jackets, and fabric anti Covid-19 masks.

Celebration of Holy Mass in Saint Peters Basilica

On Sunday, November 14 at 10:00 a.m., the Holy Father will preside over the celebration of the Holy Eucharist in Saint Peters Basilica, with the participation of 2,000 poor people, in compliance with current health regulations, assisted by various voluntary associations present in the Rome area.

The biblical readings, the prayers of the faithful will be proclaimed by some of the poor. At the end of the Eucharistic celebration, hot meals will be distributed to all participants.

Distribution of food and other products

This year, Pope Francis has wished to reserve special attention to group homes (CaseFamiglia) present in the territory of the Diocese of Rome. Often offering a place to live, these structures welcome people, mainly adolescents or children together with their mothers, who are deeply in need of a protected space where they can grow up, receive an education or have an opportunity to start a new life through a gradual integration into society. In the territory, there is a very large number of group homes of all kinds, offering different services and opportunities. The material needs for managing these structures are often considerable, making it not always possible to organize an adequate response. For this reason, it has been decided, through the generosity of the Elite Supermarket chain and of pasta producer La Molisana (Antico Molino e Pastificio), which has donated pasta and tomato puree, to help 40 group homes by delivering directly to their premises, a supply of food and personal care products, especially baby food, sufficient for almost two months.

Similar food packs will also be delivered to local parishes and charitable organizations. In total, about 5 tonnes of pasta, 1 tonne of rice, 2 tonnes of tomato puree, 1,000 liters of oil and 3,000 liters of milk will be distributed, just to name a few of the many items that were most requested and that will make up the various food packs to be delivered by a team of volunteers.

Distribution to families of health and personal hygiene items

Another initiative will consist in the distribution of five thousand medical kits, containing some of the main over-the-counter medicines (or OTC), to about sixty parishes in Rome who will deliver them to the needy families on their territory.

Due to the restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it has not been possible over the last two years to set up the Medical Unit in Saint Peters Square. The structure, a real field hospital, provided numerous free medical services to the poor, referred by various voluntary associations, and for whom it would normally be impossible to access these services. This year, therefore, wishing to offer a sign of closeness to people requiring specific medical assistance, and with the scope of continuing the screening activities and visits in Saint Peters Square, the initiative Looking for the Virus will be carried out, as it has already been done in the past. Therefore, a mobile medical unit equipped to carry out tests to evaluate the presence of the HCV virus (Hepatitis C) and the HIV virus, will be present in Saint Peters Square during the World Day of the Poor on Sunday, 14 November. The service will be available to the poor who visit the camper  which will open immediately after the Holy Father finishes the recitation of the Angelus, shortly after 12:00 noon and remain open until 6:00 p.m. The project is realized with the help of the company Regia Congressi S.r.l., the S.I.M.G. (Italian Society of General and Primary Care Medicine), the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Tor Vergata University Hospital in Rome and the Italian Red Cross Volunteer Nursing Corps.

Electricity and gas bills

It is now, and every day more and more, dramatically evident how the Covid-19 pandemic has generated new forms of poverty and significantly worsened those which were already in existence. In addition to support given through the distribution of food and medicines, this celebration of the World Day of the Poor will also be characterized by another initiative made possible by the generosity of UnipolSai. About 500 families, who are experiencing economic difficulties and are often forced to turn to charitable centers, will receive assistance in paying their gas and electricity bills.

These are families who would otherwise be forced to privilege paying these bills over food or medical expenses. As Pope Francis made clear in his Message for the World Day of the Poor: Some countries are suffering extremely severe consequences from the pandemic, so that the most vulnerable of their people lack basic necessities. The long lines in front of soup kitchens are a tangible sign of this deterioration (n. 5).

This World Day of the Poor, with all the initiatives that will take place in dioceses around the world, is a small but significant response to Pope Francis call to help the poor.
On Tuesday, 9 November, the Holy Father sent a message of solidarity to Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, in the wake of an attack on his residence in Baghdad.

Following the attack on your residence in Baghdad, His Holiness, Pope Francis wishes me to convey his prayerful closeness to you and your family, and to those injured, read the telegram signed by Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

According to Iraqi law enforcement sources, three explosive-laden drones were launched at the Prime Ministers residence in Baghdads high-security Green Zone  a heavily protected area of the capital where the U.S. Embassy and government buildings are also located.

Two drones were intercepted and shot down by the premiers security, while the third one managed to detonate its charge. Al-Kadhimi was unharmed, while some bodyguards sustained injuries.

Condemning this vile act of terrorism, Pope Francis expressed his confidence that with Gods blessing, the Iraqi people will be confirmed in wisdom and strength in pursuing the path of peace through dialogue and fraternal solidarity.
Saint Joseph: Protector of the family and of the universal Church is the title of the first book published in Bengali on the putative father of Jesus in the special year dedicated to him. The 140 pages, edited by the Protibeshi Prokashani cultural section of the Christian Communications Centre, comprise seven chapters that illustrate the values, teachings and miracles of Marys bridegroom. The author is a young priest from Bangladesh, Fr Johon Minto Ray, principal of Saint Louis High School in the parish of Mariabad and the Diocese of Rajshahi, whose initiative has been greatly appreciated by nuns, priests and faithful given the total absence of in-depth texts and publications on Saint Joseph in this language. Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi also welcomed Fr Minto Rays work with words of praise, describing the timely and ...

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.
MANISTEE COUNTY  The following includes reports made to the Manistee County Sheriffs Office from Oct. 15-20.

All calls may not be reported. This is part of a lengthy report and is compiled by assistant editor Arielle Breen.

Oct. 15

 Deputies conducted a well-being check and a warrant arrest at 1:02 a.m. in Cleon Township.

 A neighbor dispute was reported at 9:50 a.m. in Filer Township.

 Deputies assisted child protective services at 10:34 a.m. in the county.

 Deputies assisted EMS at 1:35 p.m. in Manistee Township.

 Harassment was reported at 1:57 p.m. in Kaleva.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 3:30 p.m. in Bear Lake Township.

 A person required a mental health transport at 3:30 p.m. in Manistee Township.

 Fraud was reported in Kaleva at 4:17 p.m.

 Larceny of a catalytic converter was reported at 4:19 p.m. in the county.

 A person was reported to have been suicidal at 10:29 p.m. in Manistee Township.

Oct. 16

 A breaking and entering was reported at 2:19 a.m. in Norman Township.

 A suspicious letter was reported at 8:49 a.m. in Manistee Township

Oct. 17

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 8:11 a.m. in Maple Grove Township.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 9:51 a.m. in Cleon Township.

 A felonious assault, unlawful driving away of a vehicle and resisting and obstructing an officer incident was reported at 4:11 p.m. in Bear Lake Township.

 Retail fraud was reported at 6:24 p.m. in Filer Township.

Oct. 18

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 12:58 a.m. in Filer Township.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 7:42 a.m. in Manistee Township.

 A breaking and entering was reported at 9:12 a.m. in Manistee Township.

 Deputies conducted a well-being check at 9:22 a.m. in Norman Township.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 11:16 a.m. in Springdale Township.

 Larceny from a vehicle was reported at 12:16 p.m. in Marilla Township.

 Deputies conducted a well-being check at 2:52 p.m. in Filer Township.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 5:39 p.m. in Filer Township.

 Harassment was reported at 6:26 p.m. in Dickson Township.

 A person was reported to have been driving without insurance, registration or a drivers license at 8:20 p.m. in Marilla Township.

 A person was reported to have been driving while their license was suspended, second offense at 9:08 p.m. in Springdale Township.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 11:55 p.m. in Pleasanton Township.

Oct. 19

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 5:37 a.m. in Filer Township.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 7:21 a.m. in Springdale Township.

 A person was reported as missing at 10:17 a.m. in Pleasanton Township.

 A property dispute was reported at 4:04 p.m. in Filer Township.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 6:14 p.m. in Manistee Township.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 9:45 p.m. in Stronach Township.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 11:24 p.m. in Stronach Township.

Oct. 20

 Deputies assisted the Little Band of Ottawa Indians Public Safety Department at 12:16 a.m. in Manistee Township.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 6:59 a.m. in Bear Lake Township.

 A verbal domestic incident was reported at 8:25 a.m. in Dickson Township.

 Larceny of medicine was reported at 9:53 a.m. in Manistee Township.

 A vehicle was reported as abandoned at 11:10 p.m. in Norman Township.

 Deputies conducted a well-being check at 12:47 p.m. in Dickson Township.
MANISTEE  Manistee City Council is expected to have two public hearings Tuesday.

One hearing is for a proposed Commercial Rehabilitation District for a 3-acre site that includes the Lakeshore Motel and a retention area to the south, according to the Manistee City Council agenda document. That area is the site of the proposed Hampton Inn project.

The second hearing is for the new five-year countywide master plan. The last countywide master plan plan was adopted in 2016 and will expire at the end of this year.

According to the agenda document, on the section with the public hearing for the county master plan, Networks Northwest has been working with entities in Manistee County to update the recreational master plans.

"This cohesive planning effort helps to ensure that the county continues to be a quality place for people to live, visit, work and play," reads part of the document.

It also states that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources requires municipalities to have a current plan to be eligible for certain funding opportunities.

The document also gives more detail about the process of the public hearing.

"A 30-day public review, which concluded at the end of October, followed by this public hearing to gather community input, are requirements of the process to approve a new 5-year parks and recreation master plan. No action is anticipated at the conclusion of the public hearing, however this matter is on the agenda for consideration later in this meeting," reads part of the document.

Later on the meeting council has listed the topics of both public hearings as actionable items that can be voted on.

The council will also consider the authorization of the purchase of 14 self-breathing apparatuses for the Manistee Fire Department.

The agenda document notes the following: "The City of Manistee Fire Department pursued a FEMA grant for the purchase of 14 self-contained breathing apparatus to replace the current outdated air packs to the current standard. The department was successful in its application and was awarded the FEMA grant in the amount of $93,330.00. Phoenix Safety Outfitters provided the low bid for the updated 14 self-contained breathing apparatus."

Council could take action to authorize the Manistee Fire Department to purchase the apparatuses.

Council will also consider an ordinance to amend part of the city code to allow for food trucks in the downtown district.

"The Downtown Development Authority requested an amendment to the Chapter 863 Food Vendor Ordinance to allow for short-term food truck opportunities in the downtown district. As an ordinance two separate readings are required. If this ordinance is introduced

at this time it could be adopted at the next regular meeting," reads part of the agenda.

Also, council will listen to presentations. One will be for the Public, Education and Government Commission director Barry Lind. The PEG commission oversees the operation of the TV2 public access television station.

The council will also hear from Marc Miller, director of economic development for the Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce.

The meeting will be on Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall. A copy of the agenda can be found online at manisteemi.gov.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  The U.S. Coast Guard used two helicopters to rescue campers from rising waters at an RV park on the Oregon Coast Friday, mudslides shut down roads and a woman was plucked from a swollen river as a second day of heavy rains and flooding pummeled the Pacific Northwest.

Authorities issued flood watches along Oregon's coast and warned of the possibility of dangerous mudslides in areas that burned in last summer's devastating wildfires. At the RV park about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Portland, Coast Guard teams said they rescued a total of 20 people and three dogs with the help of local authorities. Thirty campers decided to stay and declined rescue, the agency said.

Aerial photos showed the entire RV park flooded with deep brown water and campers sitting amid the mess. In some areas of the park, water had risen to 4 feet (1.2 meters). In nearby Otis, another RV park was also flooded and a private fire engine that sits permanently at the town limits to welcome visitors had water halfway up its doors.

Russ Hiner, who was camping at the park, posted on Facebook that he awoke to someone driving around the park and honking a warning shortly after 6 a.m.

Looking out the fogged up windows and see someone with a flashlight running around. They come and bang on the door, The park is FLOODING! Everyone out,' he wrote on Facebook. Looks like theres six or 7 inches of standing water underneath us.

The Neskowin campground is tucked between two forks of Neskowin Creek and is about 7 miles (11 kilometers) north of Otis, a tiny coastal community that was devastated by a wind-driven wildfire just over a year ago.

We are okay for now ... but the rain in still coming, said Melynda Small, who lost her home to the fire in September 2020 and is worried about mudslides in the burn area.

Forecasters said the storms are being caused by an atmospheric river, known as the Pineapple Express. Rain was expected to remain heavy in Oregon and Washington through Friday night. Precipitation may ease some Saturday but more rain is expected Saturday night through next week.

In Oregon, the National Weather Service issued flood watches in several coastal counties and warned that heavy rains raised the risk of mudslides and debris flows in areas recently burned by wildfires.

More than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain fell in some areas in the western part of the state in a 24-hour period Thursday and heavy rains were expected to continue through Friday evening, the National Weather Service in Portland said. Astoria, in the states far northwest corner, set a new record for rainfall Thursday with just over 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain, the most since the previous record for the date set 70 years ago.

Standing water in the roadways made driving treacherous across the Portland metropolitan area and a woman was rescued from the swollen Santiam River on Thursday after her encampment along the river banks was flooded.

In Washington, advisories were issued for at least a half-dozen rivers in the western part of the state.

Landslides were reported on the coast, in southwest Oregon near the town of Elkton and along the Columbia River Highway east of Portland.

The storm also caused a power outage that closed several schools and district offices in a Portland suburb.

_____

Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus
PARIS (AP)  French authorities are investigating an alleged rape that occurred earlier this year in the presidential Elysee Palace, the Paris prosecutors office said Friday.

A woman soldier working at the palace accused a fellow serviceman of rape, according to French President Emmanuel Macron's office. Both were stationed at the Elysee, but the accused serviceman has since been moved away from his post, it said.

The prosecutors office told The Associated Press that the investigation was opened July 12 and that the accused serviceman has been questioned as an assisted witness, a status meaning he was not interviewed as a suspect facing potential charges at this stage. The prosecutor's office did not provide further details.

The Elysee said it would not comment on a judicial investigation that is underway. But it said that as soon as the palace heard about the case, measures were immediately taken: listening, supporting and accompanying the victim.

The Elysee said officials are awaiting the findings of the judicial investigation before deciding whether other actions are needed.

Defense Minister Florence Parly launched an internal administrative investigation, said a French official, who was not authorized to be publicly named.

The newspaper Liberation reported Friday that the attack took place after a farewell party for Elysee staff members July 1. The newspaper said that Macron had attended the party but then left, and that the alleged rape occurred later in a high-security building that is part of the presidential complex. Macron resides at the Elysee.

The revelation about the investigation comes amid growing efforts in France to fight and speak out about sexual violence.

It shows that rape can happen anywhere, in any socioeconomic environment, to anyone. Even in the most secure places, said Suzy Rotman, spokesperson for the Womens Rights Collective and founder of a French group for rape victims. Sexual violence is everywhere.

The global #MeToo movement has encouraged more victims to report sexual violence in France, according to activist groups, but they remain in the minority.

Seeking justice for rape -- especially if the alleged perpetrator is a police or military officer  is a real battle because of the legal, political and emotional obstacles involved, Rotman said.

Tens of thousands of women have shared testimonies online in recent weeks of being harassed or mistreated when filing sexual abuse complaints in France. The country has also seen a surge in recent online accusations of sexual misconduct in the media and theater industries, following similar outpourings around alleged sexual wrongdoing by sports coaches and cultural figures.

Rotman called for special courts for sexual violence cases and more training for police in handling them.

___

Associated Press writer Angela Charlton contributed to this report.
Photo provided

Dave Skolnik, lieutenant governor of Division 19 of the Michigan District of Kiwanis, recently presided over the induction ceremony for the new Kiwassee Kiwanis slate of officers for the 2021-2022 program year.

The new officers are president Crystalee Keahey, president-elect Kathy Allen, and vice president Beth Laming.
Midland County had 66 new COVID-19 cases and one death reported from Nov. 9-10.

COVID-19 numbers reported from Nov. 9-10

Due to technical difficulties, the state's COVID-19 tracking website was unable to update the individual county numbers by press deadline on Friday. The numbers below were recorded between Tuesday and Wednesday. The overall state numbers were updated.

Midland County: 66 cases and one death were added; pandemic total is 10,036 cases, 941 probable cases, 137deaths and nine probable deaths.

Bay County: 40 cases and one death were added; pandemic total stands at 14,469 cases, 1,187 probable cases, 385 deaths and 19 probable deaths.

Gladwin County: 14 cases and one death were added; pandemic total stands at 2,906 cases, 573 probable cases, 74 deaths and four probable deaths.

Isabella County: 50 cases and two deaths were added; pandemic total stands at 8,073 cases, 1,506 probable cases, 130 deaths and seven probable deaths.

Saginaw County: 218 cases and two deaths were added; pandemic total stands at 26,692 cases, 2,177 probable cases, 659 deaths and 24 probable deaths.

The state added 22,161 cases and 246 deaths from Tuesday through Friday. Overall, Michigan is at 1,188,678 cases and 22,767 deaths.

Recovered

According to the Midland County Health Department website, which was updated Oct. 25, 9,146 Midland County individuals have recovered from COVID. The state reported that as of Nov. 5, a total of 1,026,195 persons statewide have recovered.

Testing

Midland Countys seven-day rolling positivity rate on Nov. 9 was listed at 15.7% and Gladwin Countys was listed at 14.5%. Our 12-county region was listed at 19.4% and Michigan was at 14.9%.

MidMichigan Health statistics

As of Nov. 8, MidMichigan Medical Center in Midland was listed as having an 81% bed occupancy, with 41 COVID patients and nine in the ICU. MidMichigan Medical Center in Gladwin was listed as having a 33% bed occupancy with four COVID patients and none in the ICU.

Both medical centers reported having at least 15-30 days worth of personal protection equipment (N95, surgical masks, gowns, gloves and eye protection) on hand.

Schools

As of Friday, Midland Public Schools reported 336 staff/students were close contacts to an individual who was confirmed COVID-19 positive, and 84 staff/students tested positive for the virus.

Schools with one or more staff/students confirmed positive for COVID-19 as of Friday included Dow High (1), Midland High (10), Jefferson Middle (12), Northeast Middle (22), Adams Elementary (6), Central Park Elementary (3), Chestnut Hill Elementary (12), Plymouth Elementary (7), Siebert Elementary (1), Woodcrest Elementary (7) and Carpenter Pre-Primary (3).

Bullock Creek School District reported on Friday that three staff members and 14 students were current positive cases. There are also 125 students (but no staff members) in quarantine.

Bullock Creek schools with one or more confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Friday include Bullock Creek Elementary (2), Floyd Elementary (2) and Bullock Creek High School (13).

Midland County vaccinations

Midland County Health Department is hosting a weekly walk-in COVID vaccination clinic from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every Tuesday in November and December. Clinics by appointment will be available 10 a.m.-2 p.m. every Friday on the second floor of the Midland County Services Building, 220 W. Ellsworth St., Midland. Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are available at the clinics. The health department will vaccinate anyone ages 12 and up who needs a first or second dose; those who need their second dose must bring their vaccination card.

The health department will soon be going to all Midland County school districts to offer first and second COVID vaccine doses for children ages 5-11. It will also host a community vaccine clinic for kids prior to Thanksgiving.

Future COVID-19 vaccine clinics in Midland County are listed at www.co.midland.mi.us/HealthDepartment/COVIDVaccineInformation.aspx. Those with questions may call 989-832-6380 or email MCDPH@co.midland.mi.us.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Andrew Mullin.

Wednesday, Nov. 10:

11:38 p.m.  A deputy spoke with a Homer Township business owner at the Law Enforcement Center about a vehicle that had turned around at his business, causing damage to the yard. The business owner was advised that it was a civil matter and that he could contact the business that owned the vehicle or take them to small claims court.

10:59 p.m.  Officers responded to a disorderly conduct report on Wellness Drive.

10:10 p.m.  A deputy responded to a Warren Township location for a 67-year-old Warren Township male who reported that approximately $2,165 worth of various tools was stolen from his pole barn. The incident is under investigation.

9:59 p.m.  Officers responded to a driver with a suspended license in the area of Bay City Road and Lemke Street.

9:20 p.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a Warren Township location about a 46-year-old male who was arguing with his 44-year-old wife. The male then stated that he was feeling suicidal. Deputies transported the male to the MidMichigan Medical Center where deputies completed a mental health petition. No physical assault occurred.

8:37 p.m.  A deputy located a 13-year-old runaway who was suicidal. The deputy assisted the mother with taking the 13-year-old to the hospital for a mental health evaluation.

8:17 p.m.  Officers responded to a driver with a suspended license in the area of North Saginaw Road and Dublin Avenue.

7:13 p.m.  Deputies spoke with a 59-year-old Jerome Township male regarding a threat complaint. The male stated he was receiving threats from a 57-year-old Jerome Township male regarding a storage unit. The 59-year-old was advised of the personal protection order process and was advised to block the other male's phone number.

4:12 p.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a Lee Township residence to check the wellbeing of a 16-year-old male. The request came from Breckenridge schools, but the male did not reside at the home. Prior to the deputies' arrival, the male's 51-year-old grandmother had contacted the school and resolved the matter.

12:32 p.m.  Officers responded to a case of fraud on Norwood Drive.

12:30 p.m.  A deputy was dispatched to a Jerome Township apartment complex regarding an assault. A 69-year-old male had called to report that his 36-year-old male neighbor had assaulted him. The 36-year-old male was later arrested and lodged at the Midland County Jail.

10:16 a.m.  A 49-year-old had general questions about threats she was receiving from her husband. The female was advised to contact the courts regarding a personal protection order.

9:28 a.m.  Midland Sheriffs Office Detective Bureau received a referral from the Department of Health & Human Services regarding possible physical discipline that injured a 6-year-old girl. Child Protective Services made contact with the child, who denied there was any physical punishment and showed no evidence of injury.

9:00 a.m.  A 53-year-old male reported his camper was stolen from his property. The approximate value of the camper and contents within the camper is $5,500. The complainant also had approximately $200 in scrap metal stolen.

8:13 a.m.  Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the area of Dublin Avenue and Tailridge Drive.

4:45 a.m.  Deputies responded to a Lee Township location for a 64-year-old Lee Township male who reported that his 31-year-old Lee Township son was being disorderly and had pushed him. The son denied pushing his father and both parties were separated. A report was completed and forwarded to the prosecutors office for review.

2:13 a.m.  Deputies conducted a traffic stop at a Jerome Township location for an equipment violation. The deputies contacted the 30-year-old male driver. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the male didn't have a valid driver's license. The male was cited for driving with a suspended license and a report is being sent to the Midland County Prosecutors Office.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has declared November 2021 as Homeless Awareness month.

This proclamation comes after Gov. Whitmer announced a goal of providing 75,000 new or rehabilitated housing units in the next five years, according to her MI New Economy plan.

Housing is about so much more than a roof over your head. Its also about the dignity, stability and opportunity that a home provides, Whitmer said in a statement. In Michigan, we made great progress in reducing homelessness by 19% last year, but there is still work to be done, and I have a plan to make critical investments in affordable housing to increase access and opportunity.

2020 saw a significant decline in Michiganders experiencing homelessness from the year previous. A statewide total of 30,805 people were without homes last year as opposed to 38,247 the year before, according to the 2020 Michigan Campaign to End Homelessness Annual Report.

Gov. Whitmer announced earlier this year a proposal to invest in affordable housing that would help 6,000 Michigan residents by producing 2,000 rental housing units and creating 1,600 jobs. The proposal would also leverage $380 million in private funding to assist with the campaign.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  Critics of New Mexico's proposed overhaul of the social studies curriculum decried the standards as racist and Marxist Friday in an online hearing and on the street outside the offices of the state education department.

Holding signs like My children identify as American, a few dozen protesters including Republican gubernatorial candidates took turns criticizing standards, which include adding ethnic studies and introducing children to social group identity starting in kindergarten.

One protester outside the education department offices said he would homeschool his 7-year-old if the race and ethnicity portion of the curriculum is implemented.

My daughter wont be part of it, said activist Phillip Munson, of Rio Rancho, adding that identifying group identity starting in kindergarten, as the standards propose, take away from the common values were trying to instill.

The education departments proposed social studies curriculum updates topics in history for the first time in 20 years, and is based on recommendations from educators it convened this summer. It plans to publish final standards this spring to implement a new curriculum in fall of 2023.

Friday marks the final day of the public comment period, culminating with oral feedback in an online forum. Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus said Thursday that the department wont extend the public comment period, which at least a dozen school districts have asked for.

Many letters express concern over resemblances between new standards that require students to learn about racial identity groups and so-called critical race theory.

An Albuquerque grandmother read her letter out loud at the protest Friday.

This is blatant, ugly racism, said Ruth Ann Peterson, arguing that the proposed standards teach critical race theory by using words like inequity and racism and phrases like unequal power relations.

Public Education Department officials insist that they have no intention of having K-12 teachers teaching critical race theory, dismissing it as a college-level legal concept.

State Republican leaders have planned a protest outside education department offices, in opposition to the focus on race in objection to the education officials' decision to hold the oral comment forum online instead of in person.

Others support the expanded focus on Native American history, as well elements of the plan they see as anti-racist.

Sylvia Miller-Mutia, an Albuquerque reverend and parent of three, wrote in support of the proposal to expand ethnic studies in the curriculum and other elements aimed at "humanizing oppressed people to avoid perpetuating racism and stereotypes. Thank you for working to make history education in New Mexico more just and anti-racist.

In over 1,000 pages of public comment received by the education department in the past 45 days, theres an issue that has received more mention than race: personal finance.

The letters stem from a lobbying effort by Think New Mexico, a nonpartisan education policy group that wants money matters updated in the social studies standards, which include economics. They want students to learn more about debt, savings and investment.

New Mexico's conservatives are finding new energy in the critical race theory debate after it was credited for tipping the scales toward a Republican winner in the recent governor's race in Virginia.

Virginia should be a wakeup call, said Elisa Sanchez, speaking against the proposed standards in the Zoom meeting.

Outside the education department offices, one Republican candidate handed out flyers billing herself as the only candidate who can beat Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in a heavily blue state.

Candidate and businesswoman Karen Bedonie, who is Navajo, decried parts of the social studies standards that ask students to discuss privilege based on social group identity.

We are said to be victims consistently, Bedonie told the crowd of around two dozen, adding that educated many-paper-degrees people are telling us how we need to think.

Native American intellectuals across the state disagree and say the proposed standards are crucial to providing education to Indigenous children that allow them to see themselves.

___

This story has been corrected to show the proposed social studies curriculum updates would be the first in 20 years, not 30 years.

___

Attanasio is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Some 65 Egyptian illegal migrants, whose dinghy was sinking while they were trying to reach the European coast, were rescued on Thursday by a Libyan coast guard patrol boat
Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - As more people flee violence, insecurity and the effects of climate change, the number forcibly displaced now exceeds 84 million globally, according to new data released on Thursday by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR
Photo: (Photo : Gracini Studios/Pixabay)

A mom who shares videos on TiktTok has claimed that she has received death threats after sharing an unpopular parenting opinion about sleepovers that has rubbed her followers the wrong way.

Tara Huck posted a clip where she explained that she does not give her children permission to join sleepovers. She also has two other very strict parenting rules where her kids could have screen time after completing their homework. Her children should only eat what she makes in the kitchen, or else they don't eat at all.

The mother's video has garnered over 5,000 comments, which she followed up with another video after two weeks. In it, Huck told her followers that there has been "absolute hate" from the internet after she shared her unpopular parenting opinion. Some of her critics apparently wished her death for not letting her children go to sleepovers.

Read Also: Girl Dad Receives High Praises for How He Handles His Daughter in Public Restrooms

TIKTOK LINK - https://www.tiktok.com/@t.c.huck/video/7025994805188644101?

Do Kids Need Sleepovers?

One follower told Huck that children deserve sleepovers because this is an activity that provides them with the best memories of childhood. Another follower said that her children will be doing bad things behind her back because of her strict parenting. Another person asked the mother if her decision was triggered by a bad incident.

"It has been implied by other people that I must have had something terrible happen to me which is why I made the decision that I did - no," Huck explained and said that she experienced sleepovers when she was younger but did not have any bad memories. However, she believes that a bad incident doesn't have to happen for her to make a parenting decision.

Huck explained that it makes the most sense for her not to allow her children to sleep at a friend's house based on what she heard from other parents, professionals, police officers, social workers and psychologists. Her only reason for banning this is to keep her children safe.

Her children are also not bothered about missing out on the experience since they still can visit friends or have playdates -- just never sleepovers. Once they are teenagers, Huck said she will pick her kids up at a friend's house, no matter how late it is, to sleep in their own beds.

She said it would be an entirely different matter if her children have tried sleepovers at least once and then she took that privilege away. Sleepovers are also just a very small factor of their childhood experiences.

TIKTOK LINK - https://www.tiktok.com/@t.c.huck/video/7026096423653412101?

Many Parents Shunning Sleepovers

According to USA Today, TikTok parents have had the "Great Sleepover Debate" since the summer and many moms and dads are on the same side as Huck. Most of them said that the safety of their kids is more important than fun, especially when things could happen beyond their control.

School counselor Phyllis Fagell said that in some cultures, sleepovers are unfamiliar, unnecessary and uncustomary. There are also parents who feel that sleepovers cause family disruptions that may not be worth it. However, Fagell believes that parents should have the right motivation to ban this activity. It won't be healthy parenting if their decisions are coming from a place of fear or anxiety.

Meanwhile, parents who allow sleepovers see this as a rite of passage that teaches their kids independence. While it is the parent's job to minimize the risks for their kids, some parents also feel that sleepovers can help them move on from separation anxieties and other social phobias.

Related Article: Iron Maiden Principal Keeps Her Job Despite 'Satanism' Allegations from Angry Parents
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
It pays to be the leader. Since launching as the worlds first language learning app in 2007, Babbel has held its front-runner status in the field. Almost 15 years later, more than 10 million students worldwide have tackled a new language through the companys trusty interface.

With more than 10,000 hours worth of study material covering 14 languages, it would probably be easy for Babbel to rest on its laurels and continue to position itself as an expert-driven gold standard in online language learning.

However, Babbel is taking its award-winning methodology in a new direction. Or more precisely, into an old new direction. Because after succeeding with its app-based approach, Babbel has now launched Babbel Live, which offers live, interactive online language classes to teach language the way many of us have learned it for decades: face to face with a knowledgeable teacher in a classroom setting.

Babbel Live goes back to basics

However, this isnt like your old high school language lab. Babbel Lives approach mixes the best of its new school ways featuring lessons built by a team of more than 150 language experts with old school live classes led by a qualified language teacher (4.8/5 satisfaction score) in a small group format.

Babbel Live personnel are all certified language instructors, each bringing years of experience to their classrooms. After passing Babbels rigorous interviewing and training process, students can join their virtual class with confidence that their learning is in the hands of someone who knows what theyre doing.

But unlike adult learning or other distance learning options, Babbels live courses in Spanish, French, German, and Italian are almost as available as the 24/7/365 app lessons. After choosing a monthly course plan, new members can take as many classes as they want for just one monthly price. Along with times to accommodate even the craziest of schedules, each Babbel Live course is also centered around a specific topic to help guide the learning.

If youre interested in learning how to talk about food and dining or travel basics or how to speak to business associates in your new language, theres a class to help build out your knowledge.

Small class sizes, big opportunity

Of course, you may be surprised when you walk into your virtual classroom to find what looks less like a full class of students and more like a study group. Thats because Babbel Live classes will include a maximum of only six students. With that tiny student-to-teacher ratio, every learner will receive the best possible opportunity to practice out loud, improve their skills, and receive immediate in-depth feedback from their teacher.

And with the luxury of plenty of talk time for each student, that instructor can really dig into each learners performance and offer up truly impactful guidance to help them improve in their new language.

While learners can fill up their free hours with live courses, a Babbel Live subscription also comes with a secret weapon: complete access to the hundreds of hours of training in that particular language found in the renowned Babbel app. To augment the live sessions, those students can also work their way through scores of podcasts, games, short stories, and more, all geared toward rounding out a learners knowledge.

Learn in the 21st century with Babbel Live! To get started with all that language study, the Babbel Live website is available now with a 60% off promo so learners can settle on which learning plan fits their schedule best as they work toward full comprehension and fluency in their new language.
Telecommunications giant, Vodafone Ghana, picked up two prestigious awards at the 32nd edition of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) National Marketing Performance Awards held at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra.



For its sterling performance in Ghana's telecom industry, Vodafone Ghana bagged the enviable title of Telecommunications Company of the Year 2021, and its mobile money service, Vodafone Cash, received the Product of the Year award.



The citation reads, "You were assessed per the mission you set for yourself in the year under review, where you resolved to enrich the lives of your customers through the unique power of mobile communications in all its forms, and you were scored highly by your evaluators.



Your clients endorsed your ingenuity in being a dynamic telecommunications company known for your non-stop, result-orientation that guides them through every stage of their lives, even as you connect them to live better today and build a better tomorrow. "



Vodafones penchant for industry-first initiatives has led to innovations like zero money transfer charges on Vodafone Cash, which created a significant shift in financial inclusion. Vodafone Ghana is leading the way in digital customer experience, an approach that essentially blends digital and human interaction into a personal, instantaneous, and convenient experience for customers. Its customer-engaging digital channels include My Vodafone App and TOBi, the artificial intelligence chatbot.



These platforms are helping reduce customers risk of exposure to the virus during this pandemic.



Vodafone has always been passionate about contributing to sustainable social change, focusing strongly on digital empowerment, diversity and gender, and the environment. The telecommunications giant has also contributed significantly to helping address critical social issues in the country such as health and education

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
Lemonade Finance, the trusted cross-border app that allows Africans abroad to send and receive money from their home country, is now available in the U.K. Starting today, Ghanaians in the U.K will be able to send money to their family or friends at home at the best rates on the market. The best part is that, unlike the existing money transfer services, Lemonades transfers are instant.



Before now, the Lemonade app was only available to Africans in North America. Despite the app being in beta, it has gained the trust of thousands of users and is now regarded as one of the most reliable ways to send and receive money from home. The Lemonade app also offers much more like letting users convert from one currency to another very quickly. This means Ghanaian users in the U.K can convert Pounds to Cedis at the click of a button.



Lemonades U.K launch caps a busy year for the startup, which recently announced its pre-seed funding raise of $725k. That came on the heels of its acceptance into the summer batch of Y Combinators startup accelerator program,.



The startups co-founder and CEO, Ridwan Olalere, told us, Were excited to open up the Lemonade app to Africans in the U.K. We know that the U.K is a popular destination for Ghanaians and that these new settlers have a hard time when they want to send and receive money from home. Our mission is to take this pain point away with the Lemonade app. We know that the money people send back home represents critical support for friends and family.



Rian Cochran, the startups co-founder and CFO, added, Sometimes, those monies are staff salaries for businesses they still have in Ghana. Knowing this detail about how Ghanaians abroad have businesses back home is crucial to making the Lemonade app stand out. We know that businesses rise and fall on cash flow, and it is why the Lemonade app delivers on the promise of instant transfers.



You can now download the Lemonade app on Google Playstore and App store.



About Lemonade Finance:





Although the number of Africans living or travelling abroad increases each year, sending and receiving money to and from their home country remains expensive, inefficient and slow.



Were changing that experience with Lemonade Finance, an app that makes it easy for you to support your family and business back at home within minutes. The Lemonade Finance app is the first digital bank for Africans abroad that allows you to hold securely, send and receive foreign and local currency.



Now you can send and receive money from your home country conveniently. You can also manage the complexity of running a business on two continents, moving money around for staff salaries or unexpected business expenses without having to wait for days. Sending money home should be faster than making lemonade.

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
Breanna Fosua Addai, an eight-year old cancer survivor has commended the First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo for the role she and her Foundation are playing to combat childhood cancer.



Addai who had the opportunity to represent children with cancer in Ghana expressed gratitude to the First Lady and GHAPACC for the love and care demonstrated to them during the commissioning of an ultra-modern 54-bed hostel for children with cancer at Korle-Bu in Accra on Wednesday.



She said Indeed, you are a mother to all children of Ghana. But we claim you as our very own special mother. Mother to all children with cancer. You always look out for us stepping in to help in whichever way you can.



A few years ago, you saw a need .The need for a place to care for very ill children. You built us the Rebecca Akufo-Addo PICU. I am a beneficiary myself. Having been admitted twice at PICU. Thank you for many lives saved.



Little Addai, whose dream is to become a lawyer and an ambassador for children with cancer, pleaded to the First Lady to incorporate the treatment of cancer in children onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to reduce the financial burden for treatment on their parents.



We are forever grateful. The children and parents of the Paediatric Oncology Unit say Thank you. We are pleading that very soon our dream for our treatment to be on the NHIS will come true, she added.



Addai is a student of Dison International School grade 4, and was one of the beneficiary of the Rebecca Akufo-Addo Paediatric Intensive Unit (PICU) built at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in 2017.



Studies indicate that, cancers occur in children, however many can be cured if detected early and the appropriate treatment given.



In Ghana, one in every 500 children by the age of 15 years may develop cancer.

This means that about 1000 children in a year may develop cancer in Ghana.



Currently, less than half of this number present to the two treatment centers in Accra and Kumasi annually.



This is because of many factors including lack of awareness and poor access to care.



Those that finally come to the treatment centers in Ghana mostly present with advanced disease making treatment outcomes poor.









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 leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko has expressed his opposition to the Proper Human Sexuality and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 popularly known as the anti-gay bill.

Mr Otchere-Darko in a tweet said he was not shy to express his opposition to the bill, adding that as a proud Ghanaian he would defend the right of minorities everywhere.



"I am against the anti-gay bill & not shy to say so. I am a proud Ghanaian who cherishes all that is good about our value systems, including tolerance. And, I will defend the right of minorities everywhere. I have the courage and a sense of justice to disagree with the majority," he tweeted.



Hearings



Parliaments Committee on Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs, is currently holding its first public hearing on the Proper Human Sexuality and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021.



So far, the Committee has received over 150 memoranda from individuals, groups, and faith-based organizations and has programmed to hear 10 petitions each week.



Bill



The Bill, since its introduction last July by eight Members of Parliament (MPs) from both sides, has generated numerous comments and reactions from both proponents and opponents, including legal luminaries and academics.



However, both sides of the House have indicated their readiness to outlaw the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI ) practices in the country based on its culture, morality and values.



The Speaker of the House, Mr Alban Bagbin, while sticking to the position of outlawing the practice, has, however, indicated that the House would not engage in filibustering the proposed piece of legislation.



He further indicated that the House would conduct an open hearing into the Bill and a vote on the Bill would be done publicly.





















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
Sam Nartey George, Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram has revealed that he recently decided to apply for a visa for his family.



According to him, the move was to test whether or not he will be subjected to threats of visa denial from the specific embassy. He refused to state the specific country but confirmed that it wasnt the Dutch embassy.



The mention of the Dutch embassy was allied to a recent incident where his fellow Member of Parliament, Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini was denied a visa for among other reasons having little social ties in Ghana. He was later granted the visa in time for his scheduled trip.



I made it clear especially after the Suhuyinis issue, so I made it clear to them that I was putting in a request. It is not the Dutch Embassy, I made it clear to them that I am putting in a request to see what happens and they (my family) went through the normal process and it went smoothly, he said on November 11, 2021, edition of Metro TVs Good Evening Ghana programme.



I think that the message had been sent loud and clear enough with the responses from the Suhuyini incident where the Ambassador himself had to reach out to Suhuyini and say bring your passport to us, h added.



He also revealed why he tackled the Dutch Ambassador on Twitter for suggesting that Suhuyini had rather approached the Embassy instead of resorting to media and social media.



When the Ambassador went on Twitter and tried to say that Suhyini should not have gone out and should have rather spoken to them I took him on and said dude, no. You had the responsibility when I make an application, you have the responsibility to do due diligence on me, the MP said.



Parliament recently confirmed that a number of Embassies had issued threats to some MPs especially those championing anti-LGBTQI+ legislation which is currently before a Parliamentary Committee.



Promoters of Ghana's anti-LGBTQ+ Bill



The LGBTQ+ Bill before Parliament is titled: "The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021." It is a Private Members' Bill sponsored by a bipartisan group of lawmakers.



The eight MPs who sponsored the Bill are Sam Nartey George (MP, Ningo Prampram), Emmanuel Bedzrah (MP, Ho West) Della Adjoa Sowah (MP, Kpando), John Ntim Fordjour (MP, Assin South)  the sole NPP MP sponsoring the Bill.



The remaining sponsors are Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini (MP, Tamale North), Helen Adjoa Ntoso (MP, Krachi West), Rita Naa Odoley Sowah (MP, La Dadekotopon) and Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor (MP, South Dayi).



Ghanas pro-gay collective



A group of 18 academicians and human rights defenders have voiced strong opposition to the bill before Parliament, which is seeking to extensively criminalize the activities of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, LGBTQ+.



The group submitted a memorandum to Parliament seeking that the bill is rejected because it was largely unconstitutional and infringed on basic human rights.



Members of Parliament behind the bill, led by Ningo Prampram MP Sam Nartey George, have rubbished the memorandum and asserted that the bill will be passed into law because it has the support of the wider Ghanaian populace.













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 founder of the defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien, who has been accused of collapsing the bank, shed tears at the Accra High Court Thursday afternoon as he described the formation and successes of the defunct bank.



Essien who was continuing with his defence, broke into tears when he told the court that Capital Bank would had been a household name if it was still in operation.



There was absolutely no doubt that all that it required was just a matter of time and Capital Bank would have become a household name , he said.



As he spoke the words, Essien's voice became hoarse, and he started wiping his tears.



The presiding judge, Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as a High Court judge, asked his court clerk to offer Essien a tissue and water.



A lawyer in the courtroom stood up and offered a tissue as the court clerk went out to get water for Essien.





Essien described the formation, shareholder structure of Capital Bank as well as some of the innovations initiated by the defunct bank.



He will continue the defence on November 18.



Not guilty



Essien is standing trial with the Managing Director (MD) of the defunct bank, Fitzgerald Odonkor, and the MD of MC Management Services, Tettey Nettey.

MC Management Services is said to be owned by Essien.



The accused persons have pleaded not guilty to all the charges of stealing, abetment to stealing, conspiracy to steal and money laundering.



The prosecution has accused the three people of engaging in various illegal acts that led to the dissipation of the GH620-million liquidity support given to Capital Bank by the BoG between June 2015 and November 2016.



It is the case of the A-G that Essien, with Odonkors aid, transferred the liquidity support to certain companies either controlled by him or in which he had interest.







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 Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, has advised the General Legal Council (GLC), to admit all the 499 students who passed the entrance exams but were denied admission into the Ghana School of Law (GSL).



In a letter dated November 1, 2021 and addressed to the Chairman of the GLC, Mr Dame said the admission process into the GSL was done in a manner which created doubts about transparency.



He therefore outlined three ways in which the admission of the 499 students into the GSL could be done.



Deferred admission



First, he said the students could be offered deferred admission in May 2022.



A special provision can be made for the first year professional course by candidates already admitted to run from October 2021 to April 2022.



The 499 students may undertake their programme from May 2022 and ending in November 2022.



Arrangement will have to be put in place for the two sets of candidates to undertake their pupilage and be called to the Bar at a common date in the next two years, the letter said.



Read also: 499 School of Law admissions: Parliament has no locus - Attorney-General contends



Admission now





The second advise from the A-G is for the GLC to admit all the 499 students now with effect from November 2021 with provision made for the organisation of classes in a way as to be able to cater for the needs of the entire candidates of the Part course of the Professional Law Programme.



Special admission



The third option from the AG is for the GLC to organise special admission examination for the students.



This is to accord the 499 candidates an opportunity to justify admission into the Law School for the 2021/2022 academic year. Such examination may be on essay questions which properly asses the ability of the candidates to reason legally and resolve practical problems, the letter added.





Petition



Mr Dames letter followed two separate petitions to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo by the students.





The President directed the A-G to take action on the petitions.



The move by the A-G also comes on the back of the heels of a suit by the 499 students and a process by the Minority in Parliament to have the A-G removed through censure for allegedly failing to implement a motion by Parliament directing the GLC to admit the students.



In a response to the motion by Parliament, Mr Dame averred that the GLC was under the Executive and therefore Parliament had no locus to direct it as such.



Also, he said he was already working on the petition by the students as directed by President Akufo-Addo.

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 Labour Division of the High Court in Accra has set November 25 this year to give its ruling on whether it will allow Lighthouse Chapel International to amend its statement of defence in a suit filed by six former pastors against the Church.



The court presided over by Justice Ananda Juliana Aikins, fixed the date after counsel for LCI, Mr Vincent Kizito Beyuo who was recently appointed as counsel for the Church, and counsel for the former pastors, Mr Kofi Bentil had closed their arguments regarding the application filed by the Church.



The six pastors, Bishop Larry Odonkor, Bishop Oko Mensah, Rev. Edward Laryea, Pastor Seth Duncan, Pastor Edem Amankwah and Pastor Faith Makafui Fiakojo, filed their separate suits on April 19 this year at the court presided over by Frank Aboadwe Rockson.



The pastors, among other things, have sued the church over Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions salary arrears and damages for breach of contract



Justice Rockson is currently on leave and as a result, Justice Aikins has taken over the case as the interim judge.



Application



Moving the motion for amendment before the interim judge, Justice Aikins, Mr Beyuo argued that it had become necessary for the Church to amend its statement of Defence and counterclaims in order to aid the court to effectively determine all the issues in dispute between them in the case.



The application, if granted, Mr Beyuo said, will neither delay the determination of the case nor prejudice the plaintiff.



He further notified that the court that annexed to the application was a proposed statement of Defence and counterclaim which set out the amendment being sought by the Church.



Proposed Amendments



The Proposed Amended Statements of Defence which among other things contain the following;



The SSNIT report on the complaints, which was released on 20th August 2021. The Report exonerated the church of allegations made by the plaintiffs on non-payment of SSNIT contributions.

The SSNIT Report also stated that there was no employer-employee relationship between Lighthouse Chapel International and the plaintiffs for the periods in contention for non-payment of SSNIT contributions.



Again, the church contends that the pastors did not have the capacity to sue the church for the alleged non-payment of SSNIT contributions.



It is the case of the church that according to the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766), such proceedings can only be instituted by the Attorney-General or an officer of SSNIT appointed by the Attorney-General



The LCI also denied any liability to the plaintiffs and argued that the church will be vindicated by the court like it was exonerated by SSNIT. The church said the plaintiffs claims were based on alleged breach of contract and therefore any claims concerning matters that allegedly occurred before 2015 were barred by the Limitations Act 1972 ( N.R.C.D. 54 ) which provides that in cases of an alleged breach of contract the action must be brought within six years after the alleged breach occurred. Their claims of the pastors date back to 2001.



Police report



Another issue that has been featured in the Churchs proposed statement of defence is a Police Report on a criminal case against Oko Mensah for allegedly stealing a car belonging to the LCI. Oko Mensah alleged in his Statement of Claim that while he was in the employment of the church, LCI denied him basic logistics such as a car and he had consequently spent the equivalent of GHC 93,000 of his own money to rent cars over a 15 month period.



He also claimed that sum from the church. The church, in its proposed statement of Defence, denied this and stated that Oko Mensah had rather refused to return the official car assigned to him when he resigned and that the matter had been reported to the police. The police investigated the matter and impounded the vehicle and have charged Oko Mensah for stealing in the Circuit Court.



Opposition



Counsel for the Pastors, Mr Bentil, who opposed the application for amendment urged the court to dismiss the application.



He grounded his argument on Order 21 rule 14 of the High Court Civil Procedure Rules, Constitutional Instrument (C.I 47) which states that, Any document to be used in conjunction with an affidavit shall be exhibited and not merely annexed or attached to the affidavit.



Counsel said the Church failed to exhibit its documents and hence, its application was in breach of the courts rules.



Counsel further argued that they had not been properly notified and that the application did not constitute proper notice.



Being properly noticed, according to counsel, would afford his clients the opportunity to know exactly what to respond to in respect to the Churchs application.



Response



In his response, Counsel for LCI said the defendant had specified in the notice of motion what needed to be done and the Church incorporated by reference the Proposed Amended Statement of Defence and that the rules permit for Proposed Amended Statement of Defence to be attached to the application.



Counsel further argued that counsel for plaintiffs had not demonstrated any prejudice the plaintiffs will suffer by the defendant not exhibiting the Proposed Amended Statement of Defence.









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
Ghana is ready to invite bids towards the negotiation of a contract to set up the first nuclear power plant, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The countrys current position falls within Milestone 2, the penultimate milestone to commissioning and operating a nuclear plant in Ghana. This places her behind only Egypt and South Africa, and ahead of Nigeria, in the latest Africa Nuclear Development Race rankings.



The Ghana Nuclear Power Programme formed in 2012, seeks to ensure the smooth implementation of the Ghana Nuclear Power Road Map towards the commissioning of the first Nuclear Power Plant in Ghana by 2030 to support baseload power demand and provide cheap power for industrialization.



The decision to revive interest in nuclear energy  and its associated technologies was on the back of a report of a Presidential Committee in 2007, which recommended the incorporation of nuclear power into the energy mix for Ghana. Ghana Nuclear Power Planning Organisation was subsequently established to steer the implementation of a nuclear energy programme to address all the issues associated with nuclear planning and this is under coordination by the Nuclear Power Unit of the Ministry of Energy



At the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow Scotland, Energy Minister, Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh in a panel discussion said in response to a question on nuclear energy that Ghanas energy mix has significant contributions from renewable energy sources, particularly hydro, which forms the baseload energy in the country.



According to Dr. Prempeh, due to the growth in demand and the incidence of climate change, the large hydro dams have become unreliable and cannot meet baseload demand in the near future.



He said nuclear energy is the only clean baseload power that will meet the energy source criteria for the country, given that Ghana is mindful of her commitment to the Paris Agreement, not to contribute to the increase in carbon footprint and her determination to provide baseload power.



The Manhyia South Member of Parliament also intimated that a nuclear power plant built in any part of the continent should be considered as a replacement for a possible fossil fuel power plant, as this is a step towards global decarbonization.



He called for a comprehensive program with funding to be initiated for nascent countries to enable them build capacity to address all the 19 infrastructure issues required by the IAEA for such countries.

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 Accra High Court hearing the case of the 10 persons accused of plotting to overthrow the government has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the only female, Warrant Officer II (WOII) Esther Saan Dekuwine for failing to appear in court.



This was after counsel for the accused person, Lamtiig Apanga failed to substantiate claims that his client had been admitted to a hospital.



The three-member panel of the court, presided over by Justices Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, issued the bench warrant because the accused person was unable to provide an excuse duty to buttress her absence.



The court which has Justices Hafisata Amaleboba and Stephen Oppong held that the absence of the accused person was without a justifiable excuse and, therefore, issued a bench warrant for her arrest, to appear before the Court.



Again, the court said, if the accused person is arrested on a day it is not available for sitting, the registrar of the Court should be notified of the development.



Subpoena



Meanwhile, the medical doctor of the Ogbojo Polyclinic, who issued an excused duty to Bright Alan Debrah Ofosu also appeared in court following a subpoena issued by the court on November 9, 2021, to explain if indeed Ofosu was unwell.



Appearing before the court on November 10, 2021, the medical doctor, Dr Joel Tetteh Padi, presented evidence in Court, to show that the accused person was indeed unwell and needed some time off to recuperate.



The proof included the patients medical folder, detailing the diagnosis and treatment.



According to Mr. Tetteh Padi, the accused person reported sick to the clinic on Monday, November 8, complaining of dizziness, nausea and imbalance.



He continued that, the accused, who visited the hospital under the name Bright Allan Yeboah, was diagnosed with Vertigo and was attended to and was given two days off to rest.



The Court after listening to the medical directed the accused person to be available for hearing on the next adjourned date.



The hearing continues on November 15, 2021.



Not guilty



The two accused persons and eight others are in court for allegedly taking part in the activities of Take Action Ghana (TAG), a non-governmental organisation, accused by the prosecution of planning to destabilise the country and take over the government.



The accused persons include Dr Frederick Mac-Palm, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dr Benjamin Agordzo, Colonel Samuel Kodzo Gameli, Johannes Zikpi (a civilian employee of the Ghana Armed Forces) and Donya Kafui, aka Ezor (a blacksmith).



The rest are Corporal Seidu Abubakar, Lance Corporal Ali Solomon and Corporal Sylvester Akanpewon, who are all soldiers.



ACP Dr Agordzo and Col Gameli have pleaded not guilty to abetment of high treason, while the rest have pleaded not guilty to high treason and conspiracy to commit high treason.



Per Section 180 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), the punishment for high treason is death.



The two senior security officers are on bail in the sum of GH1 million each, with two sureties, one to be justified, with the rest on bail in the sum of GH2 million each, with two sureties per accused, both to be justified.









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
At least 2,380 lives have been lost to road crashes alone between January and October 2021, the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has said.



Speaking at the launch of the National Stay Alive campaign by the NSRA in Accra, the director general of the NRSA, May Obiri-Yeboah, urged all Ghanaians to collaborate with the authority to fight against the menace. Just between January and October this year, over 2300 and 12,800 people have been killed and injured respectively on our roads.



The crashes we register everyday are not only reckoned in losses of lives, behind the staggering figures lies a family that has descended into abject poverty, a community burdened by dependents and a nation deprive of its valuable human resource, Obiri-Yeboah said.



The campaign is an initiative that seeks to educate the public on the need to adhere to road traffic regulations.



Statistics



The crashes recorded are a 9.54% increment from last years record. The four regions with the highest record of crashes are Accra, Ashanti, Eastern, and Tema regions in descending order.



Total number of people who lost their lives due to road crashes is 2,380 with 81.9% being males and the remaining 18.1% being females.

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
The chairman and founder of KABAKA foundation, Nana Owiredu Wadie known in private life as Mr. Richard Nana Kwasi Wadie, has simultaneously commissioned a series of projects undertaken by his social intervention foundation at Kwahu Nkwatia.



At the durbar which took place on October 29, 2021 at their chiefs palace, Nana Owiredu intimated that it is his utmost priority that the developmental needs of the people of Nkwatia are well addressed, thereby extending developments to other parts of Kwahu.



The foundations Chairman blessed God and the people for the honour bestowed on him saying, We thank God very much for everything going on here. Its our deepest and heartfelt prayer that everything desirable on your hearts shall come to pass. In that light, we shall see light, we thank God.



The Deputy Chief Coordinating Director who represented the Chief Executive of the Kwahu East District Assembly at the commissioning of the projects, admonished and recognized KABAKA foundations developmental efforts.



He noted that education is the fore focus of development and that with the donations of educational materials provided by the foundation, students ability to read would be sharpened.





Meanwhile, the District Director of Education for the Kwahu East also applauded Nana Owiredu Wadie for embarking on developmental spree to renovate the Nkwatia D/A school.



According to him, when the KABAKA foundation reached out to him to reconstruct the school, he doubted its ability to begin within one week as promised, but with the timely intervention they have completed the project for commissioning.



He admonished the other related stakeholders to emulate the posture of KABAKA foundation to help governments agenda of giving the best of education in the country.



The Director also charged the teachers to be admission-driven to enrol more children into schools.



However, the event was climaxed and highly publicized by the Republic Media Group, notably the Republic 97.5 FM at Nkawkaw and the Republic Press in Accra.



It was regarded as one of the most visited events in the Kwahu enclave and this was evidenced when family, friends, loved ones and business associates of the newly crowned Nkosuohene [Development Chief], Nana Owiredu Wadie, besieged the town to witness the coronation of a true son of the Kwahu land.











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 police has provisionally accused the husband of Rhodaline Amoah-Darko, a staffer of the Lands Commission in Kumasi of being behind her disappearance.



The husband, Dr Wilberforce Aggrey, has therefore been put before the Asokwa District Court in Kumasi and accused of kidnapping.



He has provisionally been charged with kidnapping and has been remanded in police custody.



He is expected to re-appear in court on November 25, 2021.



Investigations by the police are still ongoing to determine the whereabouts of Rhodaline, who went missing on August 30, 2021.



According to the police, their investigations have so far revealed a linkage of mobile phone communications to implicate the husband, who is a lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.



Rhodaline Amoah-Darko was reported missing after she reportedly left home at Gyenyase in Kumasi on August 30, 2021 and did not return.



After Rhodaline reportedly went missing, the husband reported the incident to the police on September 2, 2021.



Communication from her mobile phone allegedly from suspected kidnappers demanding a ransom emanated from a location (cell tower) close to her residence.



A communication from the husbands phone reporting the incident to some relatives also emanated from a similar location (cell tower), according to the police per their investigations.



According to the police, the husband has provided incoherent statements on the matter.



The Asokwa District Court has since granted an order for the police to submit Dr Aggrey for a psychiatric examination due to the incoherent statements from him on the matter.



A police prosecutor on Friday told the court that the husband in reporting the case said the Rhodaline had been kidnapped from their home and he can't find her.



From the police, per their investigations, the messages from Rhodaline's phone to the husband's phone, and later from the husband's phone to other relatives all emanated from a location (cell tower) near their residence.



Based on that, the husband was invited for interrogation.



According to the prosecutor, Aggrey admitted that he sent those messages from Rhodaline's phone because he was threatened that if he did not do that, his family will be harmed.



He indicated to the police, according to the prosecutor that he had to send his wife to a place closer to the Volta Lake to ensure that she was safe.



The police said he has since not been able to tell them the location of Rhodaline and that investigations are still ongoing.



He has also not been able to tell where Rhodaline's phone is as of now.



It will be recalled that on October 27, 2021, the police in a press statement indicated that there was no evidence to link the husband to the disappearance of Rhodaline.



"It must be placed on record, that as of today, Wednesday, October 27, 2021, the Police have no evidence linking Dr. Aggrey to the disappearance of Rhodaline," the police statement indicated.



"Investigations are still ongoing and at this point, we are unable to disclose any information to the public on the matter".



The Police statement further urged persons to desist from creating and circulating unconfirmed reports on the case since their actions can impede Police investigations.



"The public shall be fully updated on this issue once investigations are completed. Let us endeavour to respect the privacy of the families involved.

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
Huawei Ghana in collaboration with Rebecca Foundation has begun a digital technologies training in Coding and Financial Technology (Fintech) for Junior High School (JHS) students and women respectively, at rural areas in Ghana.



The training comes as part of efforts to improve the digital literacy skills of children by exposing them to the basic coding skills and programming languages like HTML, Scratch and C++ as well as economically empowering women at the Northern, Western and Eastern regions of Ghana to enable them take advantage of digital technologies to improve their livelihoods.



The pilot of the training which begun on 8th November 2021 at Damongo, in the Northern region, has benefitted 50 traders and 150 Junior High School students from Kurabaso JHS, Jafo JHS, Cathedral JHS, Yabum JHS, Presby JHS, ST. Anne's JHS, Jakpa JHS, Damongo Girls Model JHS and Canteen JHS.



In a short kickoff meeting, Ghanas First Lady and founder of Rebecca Foundation, H.E. Mrs. Rebecca Akuffo-Addo, commended Huawei for positively partnering the Rebecca Foundation to train more girls and women especially in digital technologies to bridge the gender gap in ICTs.



She mentioned that the Foundation is keen on embarking on activities and initiatives aimed at the socio-economic development of children and women across the country and the partnership with Huawei is in line with this objective.

The Director of Public Relations for Huawei Ghana, Mrs. Jenny Zhou indicated during the meeting that Huawei is passionate about grooming more women in technology and as a result will continue to undertake such programs to positively impact societies.



According to her, the initiative is in line with the 10th-anniversary celebration of International Girls in ICT Day and Huaweis Seeds for the Future- Women in Tech program aimed at stimulating the interest of girls and young women in tech through training, workshops, career guidance and mentorship.



In his remarks, the Municipal Chief Executive, Hon. Karimu Kusubari of the West Gonja Municipality commended Huawei Ghana and the Rebecca Foundation for bringing the digital technologies training to their doorstep and for including the district.



He entreated the students to take the training seriously and impact other children with the knowledge earned. He also called on Huawei to expand the training to cover more students in the municipality next year.



In addressing the students, Mr. Katribe Dramani, the Director of Education for the West Gonja Municipality also tasked the students to become ambassadors of ICT and ensure that what they have been taught, is put to good use.



The training is expected to benefit cumulatively, 400 more women and children from Mpohor in the Western Region and Asamankese in the Eastern region of Ghana and empower students to become the future creators of technology by exploring programming to start building upon their computational thinking skills in their early childhood.



This training comes as part of Huawei's promise to the President of Ghana, H.E. Nana Akuffo Addo to train 10,000 Ghanaians in ICT by 2024.

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 Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria His Excellency Prof Yemi Osinbajo has urged the international community to take more steps through its multinational institutions such as the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ) to help reduce economic challenges imposed on African countries by the Covid-19 pandemic.



The Vice President made the appeal today in a speech on behalf of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari at the official opening of the 51st Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Africa Region in Abuja, Nigeria .



His Excellency Prof Yemi Osinbajo said though the IMF has injected US$ 650 billion into the global economy following the economic devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide, just a little over US $30 billion of the amount came to Africa and described Africa's share of the total amount as woefully inadequate in view of the magnitude of the economic challenge brought upon the continent by the Covid-19 Pandemic.



Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo therefore appealed to the international community to come out with a wholistic solution to deal with Africa's debt servicing problem .



He also called for more support by the international community to increase the pace and scale of vaccination against Covid-19 in Africa.



Touching on Climate change, His Excellency Prof Yemi Osinbajo said whilst African countries contribute the least to global greenhouse emission, the continent suffers most from the impact of climate change.



He charged African Parliamentarians and governments to come out with measures to improve the socio-economic conditions of the people.



The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria also emphasised the need for African countries to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement to make their agricultural, industrial and service sectors robust and more competitive in order to create jobs for the people.



Hon Dr Zainab Gimba Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (Africa Region) expressed concern about gender inequalities against women in terms of laws affecting men and women as well as access to employment opportunities in the formal sector, though women constitute about 56% of the global population.



According to Hon Dr Zainab Gimba, available statistics show that women in the informal sector such as agriculture exceed that of men by 4.6%.



The Secretary General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Hon Stephen Twigg said the impact of Covid-19 on the world has underscored the importance of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.



He reminded the Parliamentarians of the UN Sustainable Development Goal Four which enjoins countries to ensure universal prime quality education for all . Hon Stephen Twigg commended Kenya for its leadership on education and also praised Nigeria for its leadership in promoting safe schools in the country.



Later in the evening, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Prof Yemi Osinbajo hosted the delegates, observers, spouses, Delegation Secretaries and other participants for a dinner at the State House, Aso Rock Presidential Villa.







Source: Emmanuel Akorli - Abuja









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 current Attorney General, Godfred Dame is extremely political, Member of Parliament for Asawase Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka has observed.



In the view of Mr Muntaka, Godfred Dame is likely to become the worst Attorney General in the history of the country if he is not measured in his work.



Speaking in an exclusive interview with TV3s Evelyn Tengmaa on Wednesday, November 10, he accused Dame of suppressing the weak rather than fighting for them



As an Attorney General, his responsibility is to protect the weakest. You hear him make such statements as, it is not a right, it is a privilege. Well, a privilege for the few? For people like him? So, we are putting a motion that, in that same year admission, this 2021, there were people who didnt even write the exams but have been given concessional admission because they are the privileged few.



That cannot be right, we cant create a society like that. His posture is giving me an impression that in his view, he thinks seeking justice may not be a right, it will be a privilege that is seen in the Opuni matter even at the Supreme Court, re-empanelling, going for a review, meeting a judge who is supposed to sit on a panel. The Attorney General often is supposed to be the one that protects the weakest in our society, not to intimidate the innocent ones.



I think that the way he is carrying himself if we are not careful to put a brake on him he may end up being one of the worst Attorney Generals we have because he seems to be too political and he forgets the mandate of government.



His comments come at a time his side in Parliament has presented a memorandum to the Speaker of Parliament that is seeking to pass a vote of censure against Godfred Yeboah Dame for failing to implement a resolution of Parliament to admit 499 law school students.



The memorandum reads That This Honorable House passes a vote of censure on the Honourable Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, in respect of the following conduct: Refusal, without justifiable basis, to implement the resolution of this Honorable House unanimously passed on October 29, that the General Legal Council admits into the Ghana School of Law 499 students who sat for and passed the entrance examination of the Ghana School of Law for the 2021/22 legal year In accordance with its own published grounds rules, Impugning the image and integrity of this Honorable House through statements unbecoming of the holder of the office of Attorney General and Minister of Justice of this Republic.



The move was occasioned by what they call the failure of Mr Dame to comply with the resolution they passed to get the law students who obtained the 50 per cent pass mark in the entrance examinations admitted into the law school.



Mr Dame had told to Parliament that the resolution they passed was not binding.



The AG indicated that Parliament is devoid of the power through the use of Parliamentary resolutions, to control the process of admission into the Ghana School of Law.



The House on Friday October 29 resolved that all LLB students who obtained the 50 per cent pass mark in the law school entrance examinations should be admitted. The unanimous decision was arrived at by voice votes in Parliament.



But in a response, the AG said Respectfully, I am aware of a resolution passed by Parliament at its sitting on Friday, 29th October, 2021 in these terms:  The General Legal Council is hereby directed to proceed and admit all the students who passed in accordance with the advertised rules of the examinations.. The Attorney-General is the leader of the bar in Ghana and he must see to it that the directive that 499 students who scored 50 marks are admitted is complied with.



We do not want to get to contempt of Parliament issues. Whilst recognising the general legislative powers of Parliament in Ghana, except as have been circumscribed by the Constitution, I am constrained to advise that Parliament is devoid of power through the use of Parliamentary resolutions, to control the process of admission into the Ghana School of Law.



The mode of exercising legislative power enshrined in article 106 of the Constitution does not admit of resolutions.



In accordance with section 13(1)(e) and (f) of the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32), the power to regulate the admission of students to pursue courses of instruction leading to qualification as lawyers and to hold examinations which may include preliminary, intermediate and final examinations has been vested in the General Legal Council.



It is correct that section 1(5) of Act 32 stipulates thus: The Council shall in the performance of their functions comply with any general directions given by the Minister.



In my respectful opinion, this provision underscores the capacity of the Executive not the Legislature, through the Minister responsible for the General Legal Council, i.e. the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, to direct and advise the Council on major matters of national importance.



In this regard, it is pertinent to indicate that by a letter dated 18th October, 2021 received at my office on 21* October, 2021, His Excellency the President forwarded the contents of a petition by the 499 candidates to me for my comments in order to enable him to respond. Another petition dated 20th October, 2021 by the National Association of Law Students was also delivered



To the President.



Upon delivery of my comments on the matters raised in both petitions and following further consultations with my good self, by a letter dated 26th October, 2021 (three clear days before the resolution of Parliament), received at my office on 27th October, 2021, the President directed me to, pursuant to section 1(5) of Act 32,  make the necessary intervention to the General Legal Council, on behalf of the 499 students, to address the issue 



Within the constraints of the law, I am following up on the directive of the President to make the necessary interventions on behalf of the 499 students Be that as it may, it is imperative to correct a few erroneous impressions contained in the impugned Parliamentary resolution of 29th October, 2021. The notice in the Daily Graphic of 14th May, 2021 inviting applications from suitably qualified Ghanaians for admission into the Ghana School of Law did not state a pass mark of fifty per cent (50%) or any at all as a basis for admission. The notice stated that applicants may be granted admission if they have passed the entrance examination conducted by the GLC.



The notice also did not state the manner in which a pass mark set by the GLC would be determined. It is clear, therefore, that, a contention that the originally announced or advertised pass mark was 50%, is erroneous and insupportable.



In so far as any matter bordering on a pass mark is concerned, the notice in the Daily Graphic stated as follows:



E. ADMISSION PROCEDURE



The admission process is as follows:



(i) The General Legal Council determines the number of candidates to be admitted to the Professional Law Course for the academic year.



(ii) Applicants may be granted admission if they have passed the written examinations organized by the General Legal Council for the



2021/2022 Academic Year, on payment of the required fee and submission of the application form and all supporting documents required online.



On this same issue, the Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh also said the resolution was not binding.



Prof Prempeh who is also a Ghanaian lawyer explained on the Key Points on TV3/3FM Saturday, October 30, with host Dzifa Bampoh that Parliament makes a number of resolutions, of which some are binding and others are not.



The one directed to the GLC and the law school, he said, fell in the latter category.



Prof Prempeh said I am delighted to see Parliament really weigh in on this matter. This is a long-running battle and I think that it is good to have the political class weigh-in this way.



Parliament makes decisions in a number of ways. They can pass a bill, if signed it becomes an Act of Parliament. It also operates by passing resolutions. Some of the resolutions are binding, some are not binding.



This is one of the resolutions in the latter category, it is not binding. But, it does register Parliaments collective disapproval of the way and manner in which a statutory body like the GLC has been handling this matter of access to legal education.



During the debate on the floor of the Huse on Friday, October 29, Member of Parliament for Asawase, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak told the GLS and the Law school that the study of law in Ghana is not limited to a select few.



He said all Ghanaians are allowed to pursue legal education and education in general.



He said I know that there are a lot of institutions in this country that are very conservatives but with the kind of problem we have as a country you cannot give a conservative position and expert to make progress. This idea, with the greatest respect to the former Chief Justice, is that we wont open up for anybody to become a lawyer. Who is anybody? Every Ghanaian matters just as your son and daughters.



It is not the sons of lawyers and doctors or politicians or the influential that have the only right to be able to have access to any profession in this country. If they dont know we must tell them that they should go and admit everybody who has passed before the next academic year starts.



Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin said the GLC and the Ghana School of Law would be acting in bad faith if they fail to heed the resolution passed by Parliament for all the LLB students who obtained the 50 per cent pass mark to be admitted into the law school.



We are telling the Ghana law school that they continuously frustrating students, they are making the study of law unattractive. I know that the post-call students they had started lectures, they started last week but for the Professional law they are starting next week, he said on the floor of the House.



It is not too late to admit them because they have passed, he added.



In a subsequent interview with TV3s Komla Klutse, Mr Afenyo-Markin said For anybody who may think that they may exercise a discretion not to respect our directive, I will say, that will be in bad faith for them to fail to respect this directive of Parliament.



We have a responsibility and we are simply re-echoing what they themselves have said publicly. That is why we added that yes, the Learned Attorney General with oversight responsibility should ensure that they comply with the resolution passed by Parliament.



If a body, recognized by law will refuse a resolution of parliament then I think that body does not believe in the rule of law and I dont think that is what the General Legal Council and Ghana School of Law will do. It has the Chief Justice as its head and we believe that he as Chair will take this in good faith and quickly take steps to address this.



I will not want to go into the issue of contempt, whether if they fail we would have to take another step. We know that the constitution is clear on failing to comply with parliamentary orders but I dont think we will get there.



This development emerged at a time the Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court adjourned the case brought before it by some failed LLB students against the General Legal Council (GLC) and the Attorney General (AG).



On Friday October 29, the court presided over by Justice Nicholas Mensah Abodakpi adjourned the case to November 9 after the Attorney General requested for a short adjournment to file certain processes.



With the consent of the parties and their lawyers this case would be adjourned to Nov 9, 2021, the judge is reported to have said.



The students are demanding that the court further retrains the respondents from treating the applicants as students who failed the said examinations pending the final examination of this matter on grounds set forth and such further orders the court may deem fit.



They also want a declaration that the failure of the 2nd respondent (the Attorney General) to reign in the 1st respondent for the conduct of the 1st Respondent as stated constitute a dereliction of the 2nd respondents duties under Act 32.













Source: 3 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
Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party, Mame Yaa Aboagye has blasted former President John Dramani Mahama for calling NPP response to the Catholic Bishops as arrogance of power.



She explained that, prior to election 2016, NDC and Mr. MAHAMA fought the clergy who spoke against them and called them all sorts of names, therefore Mr. Mahama has no credibility to talk about arrogance of power.



Former President John Dramani Mahama has described the NPPs response to the recent comments by the Catholic Bishops Conference as due to the arrogance of power.



He also accused the NPP of being unreceptive to criticisms.



But that is what we call the arrogance of power. They said when the gods want to destroy you, they first make you mad. Because this is madness. The Catholic Bishops have spoken; what is your business holding a press conference against them? Accept criticism in good faith, the former President said.



Mame Yaa Aboagye, reacting to the former President's statement, described his pronouncements as hypocritical as his Ministers and party members, under his regime, did worse to Pastors and the Catholic Bishops.



You (Mr. Mahama) and NDC called these men of God so many names under your regime including Criminals in Cassocks. Could that also be described as arrogance of power?.



Mame Yaa Aboagye further said; Arrogance of power is when you were dancing sarcastically to the tune Yentie Obiaa when Ghanaians were complaining about hardship during your time. Arrogance of power is when you told nursing and teacher trainees that you will never restore their allowances even if it will cost you the elections. This is cheap propaganda!

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
The Minority in Parliament has slammed the Roads and Highways Minister Kwasi Amoako-Atta over his comments slighting Ghanaians who demonstrate in demand for better roads.



The Minister called the bluff of such protesters arguing demonstrations do not fix or build roads. According to the minister, he is appalled by educated people who embark on such exercises.



It is unreasonable for anybody to say that all roads everywhere should be fixed simultaneously. So these demonstrations should stop. Sometimes you get people who are supposed to know better, well-educated people who should advise their colleagues joining demonstrations. Demonstrations dont build roads, he told the media when inspecting the 31.7km Kwafokrom to Apedwa road in the Eastern Region which forms part of the Accra-Kumasi dualization project.



But speaking to Starr News, the minority spokesperson on Roads and Transport Governs Kwame Agbodza accused the minister of exhibiting arrogance.



The Adaklu MP argued protests are the only language the government understands and so such protests will continue until all the poor roads are fixed.



The Roads Minister understands thatone of the ways citizens are allowed to express their displeasure at what is happening is to protest peacefully. He is a minister because his party used numerous platforms to protest over everything.



So when he says it doesnt tickle him, I dont know what he meansI think the Roads Minister should applaud people for choosing a method that is allowed in the constitutionhis job is not to be tickled, his job is to fix the roads in this countryWe shall protest, in fact he will see more protests, we are not perturbed by the insults but Ghanaians should notice this is the arrogance of power by the NPP.

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 Presidency has taken a jibe at the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference for criticising the Akufo-Addo government of mismanaging the public purse.



At a press briefing, the Communications Director at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, outrightly expressed misgivings about the observation of the clergy.



According to him, although the government is tolerant of divergent views on matters, criticisms of the Conference should be factual and constructive.



We believe that these criticisms should be well-founded and well-grounded in facts as this is the only way an honest conversation devoid of malice and propaganda can be held, he said on Thursday.



The Catholic Bishops Conference, at a plenary assembly of the association in Wa on Monday, alleged that the government had lost touch with Ghanaians and had defaulted on its promise of protecting the public purse.



The President of the Bishops Conference, Most Reverend Philip Naameh, said, The express commitment of the President to the public to protect the public purse, a promise that citizens welcomed seems to be an illusion now.



But in a sharp rebuttal, Mr Arhin said President Akufo-Addo is resolved to protect the public purse and resuscitate the economy.



The Communications Director, amidst touting the governments achievements, noted that the successes could not have been realised if the President was not concerned about the public.



Indeed, the transformation that has taken place in all aspects of our national life points to a well-managed economy and a public purse that is being protected.



If President Akufo-Addo had not superintended over the funds well, the Ghanaian people wouldnt have reposed their confidence in him barely 10 months ago by returning a decisive margin for him in the 2020 election, he opined.



Mr Arhins retort will not be the first hit back at the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference after they raised concern about how the Akufo-Addo administration is handling the public purse.



On Tuesday, the Director of Communications for the governing New Patriotic Party, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, also took on the cleric body.



In his view, the comments of the Conference lacks clarity.



In an interview, he said the Conferences observations would have been considered by the government if it hadnt lacked focus.



Where are the specifics on that? Some level of clarity at that level is important. It is not about enabling the NDC to come in and spout, he said.



Reacting to these remarks former President, John Mahama described it as arrogance of power.



Mr Mahama accused the NPP of being unreceptive to criticisms. If they are saying Ghana is hard, do the things that will make things more affordable for the people of Ghana. But that is what we call the arrogance of power. They said when the gods want to destroy you; they first make you mad.



Because this is madness. The Catholic Bishops have spoken; what is your business holding a press conference against them? Accept criticism in good faith, the former President said.



However, the Catholic Bishops Conference is yet to comment on any of the responses by the governing NPP and the Presidency.

Source: Ama Cromwell/Joy 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
The President, Nana Akufo-Addo, will proceed on a seven-day leave beginning November 13, 2021. Director of Communications at the presidency, Eugene Arhin, who announced this, said he is expected to resume on November 20.



He disclosed that during his leave, President Akufo-Addo will travel to France to preside over a debate in the French Parliament on November 19.



He is expected to come back to Ghana on November 20, he said. During his absence, the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, will act as the President.



Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo will later Thursday lead a Ghanaian delegation to attend UNESCOs 75th-anniversary ceremony in France.



The President will on Friday deliver a statement on the impact UNESCO has had in Ghana and what Ghana expects from UNESCO in the coming years, Mr Arhin said.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The Member of Parliament for the Buem Constituency, Kofi Adams, is collaborating with the Ghana Health Service to distribute 17,400 dewormers to the people in his constituency.



The exercise will commence on November 12  14, 2021. The Jasikan District Health Directorate will be providing technical support and education on the drug administration.



Mr Adams is undertaking the exercise as part of his social intervention programme in his constituency.



During the exercise, there will be free distribution of tablets for soil-transmitted helminthlasis (worms infestation).



It is reported that more than two billion people around the world live with unrelenting illness due to intestinal parasites. Parasitic infections deprive the poor of health and well-being, slow their economic progress, and contribute to social marginalisation.







Source: Daily Graphic









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
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has not reneged on his pledge to protect the public purse, the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Mr Eugene Arhin, has asserted.



He said the transformation that had taken place in all aspects of national life in nearly five years, as epitomised in the success story of the free senior high school (SHS) policy, the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) and the One-District, One Factory (1D1F) initiatives, infrastructure development, among other policies and programmes, was enough testimony to a public purse that was being well protected and an economy that had been well-managed.



Mr Arhin made the assertion at a media briefing at the Jubilee House yesterday to update the Presidential Press Corps on developments that had taken place at the Presidency in the last six months.



The assertion by the Presidential Spokesperson was in reaction to questions from journalists regarding recent concerns raised by the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference (GCBC) and former President John Dramani Mahama on how public funds were being spent.



Speaking at this years Plenary Assembly of the GCBC in Wa last Monday, the President of the conference, the Most Rev. Philip Naameh, said: Though poverty stares us in the face, it appears lost to those with power. The expressed commitment of the President of the Republic to protect the public purse, a promise that citizens welcomed, seems to be an illusion now.



Mr Mahama, delivering his #thankGhana address to end the nationwide thank you tour last Wednesday, made reference to the sentiments expressed by the GCBC, saying: Until we are bold to reflect what we are all experiencing under this government, the situation will continue to worsen, and we are all going to be worse off from suffering.



Honest discourse



In his reaction, Mr Arhin said much as the administration of President Akufo-Addo was extremely tolerant of divergent views and welcomed criticism of its work, well-founded and well-grounded criticism was the only way to ensure an honest discourse devoid of malice and propaganda.



He, therefore, urged the GCBC to vary its criticism to ensure that it was well-founded and well-grounded in facts.



President Akufo-Addo took office in January 2017, and again in January 2021, and pledged to protect the public purse, and that is exactly what he has done, and continues to do, he added.



Giving further details, Mr Arhin said if, indeed, President Akufo-Addo had superintended over the wanton dissipation of public funds, Ghanaians would not have reposed their confidence in him by returning a decisive margin of victory for him in the 2020 elections.



Specifics



Taking a look at the free SHS policy, the communications director said the policy had already granted access to over 400,000 more children to SHS and indicated that the progress chalked up would not have been possible if the public purse was not being protected.



In addition, he said, the PFJ, which had brought 1.5 million farmers into its orbit and who enjoyed subsidised inputs, including fertiliser, seeds and insecticides, had ensured that the country no longer imported food items such as tomatoes and plantain from neighbouring countries but rather exported foodstuffs within the ECOWAS community.



That positive story too, he explained, would not have been possible if the public purse was not being protected.



Further on the prudent use of the public purse by the President, the director of communications said 104 factories, through the 1D1F initiative of the government, were operating and providing jobs for thousands of unemployed youth, while 150 more factories were under construction, with the remaining 24 at the mobilisation stage.



If, indeed, the protection of the public purse was a mirage, the Akufo-Addo government would not have found the means to employ hundreds of thousands of teachers and medical professionals who, before the coming into office of this administration, were sitting at home twiddling their thumbs.



NABCO, which has brought relief to some 100,000 graduates, would not have been feasible if the public purse was not being protected. This government has found the resources to undertake the largest construction of road infrastructure in Ghanas history, Mr Arhin said.



He added that Ghana, under President Akufo-Addo, had recently been adjudged the best place to do business in West Africa.



He said the extensive measures taken by the government in the COVID-19 crisis had gone a long way to protect the people, a feat that was widely acknowledged across the world.



All of those, he said, could not have been achieved by a government that had lost touch with the problems of Ghanaians and was presiding over the reckless dissipation of the public purse.



Mr Arhin said the government was highly focused on delivering on its mandate.



COP 26



Responding to controversies surrounding the countrys delegation to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Mr Arhin said: Let me state for the record that the government of Ghana did not send nor fund 337 Ghanaians to attend the COP 26.



He explained that three categories of people were permitted to attend the conference  the UN and related organisations and agencies, media and non-profit organisations with observer status and representatives of parties to the convention and observer states.



From what we have seen so far, it has been shown that not all the 337 people who registered as participants attended the summit. There were media personalities, as well as representatives of civil society organisations (CSOs) who were captured on the list of 337 people and who confirmed that their trip to Glasgow was not funded by the government, he added.



For the avoidance of doubt, let me place on record that the official presidential delegation comprised 24 people, including President Akufo-Addo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey; the Minister of Energy, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh; the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor; the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation; Dr Kwaku Afriyie, and officials of the Presidency and the Foreign Ministry.



Presidents tour



Mr Arhin also highlighted events that took place during the six-month tour of President Akufo-Addo to the 16 regions, saying the President had commissioned 12 factories in different districts in the country in furtherance of the 1D1F policy.



He said although 104 of the factories had been completed, the commissioning of the 12 by the President during his tour brought 278 industrial enterprises into being.



The President inspected and inaugurated 10 hospital infrastructure, inaugurated the new Regional Co-ordinating Council building in the Western North Region and also inspected ongoing work on the five remaining regional structures, he said.



Again, Mr Arhin said, President Akufo-Addo inaugurated seven newly constructed district and municipal assembly buildings, inspected ongoing work on eight educational infrastructure and inaugurated a number of key infrastructural projects for the Ghana National Fire Service and the Ghana Armed Forces.



He said the President also inspected ongoing work at the Kumasi International Airport and inaugurated a number of water projects, as well as waste management projects, across the country.



In a related development, the Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Yaw Buaben Asamoa, has urged the GCBC to clarify its criticism of the governments management of the public purse.



According to him, the Bishops criticism would have been considered, but it lacked focus.



Where are the specifics on that? Some level of clarity at that level is important. It is not about enabling the National Democratic Congress(NDC) to come in and spout, he said.



Mr Asamoa said it was unfair to link economic difficulties with the protection of the public purse.



He said the government was widening the social net, and we believe we are sending the economy in the right direction.



He also attributed the recent struggles to the COVID-19 outbreak.



Mr Asamoa pointed out that in the midst of the challenges, the government had shown compassion at its highest with its social interventions to cushion Ghanaians.



Keen interest



At the opening of the GCBC plenary, the Upper West Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, noted that the government had over the years followed with keen interest the activities of the GCBC and admitted that the contribution of the Conference in shaping national discourse was phenomenal.



He said the communique issued on topical national issues at the end of deliberations at the Conference was of paramount concern to government and there was no doubt it helped government to address some of the issues.



I want to encourage you to register your views on national issues that border on development as they have the potential in helping government to take an informed decision on them, the Minister said.









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
Former President John Dramani Mahama has no better records when it comes to the fight against corruption, the Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoa, has said.



He described Mr Mahama as a walking embodiment of corruption.



He was reacting to criticisms against President Akufo-Addo by the Presidential candidate of the NDC in last years elections. Mr Mahama had said the current President has failed in almost every aspect of the local economy and also in providing good governance.



He also noted that the Presidents fight against corruption is not the best.



But addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday November 11, Mr Buaben Asamoa who is also a former Lawmaker for Adentan said former President Mahama talks about corruption. He is asking Ghana to give him-the walking embodiment of corruption-the mandate to come and fight corruption. His solution to corruption fighting in his critical actions paper of 2012 was that he would lead by example.



This example had to be investigated by his own President for doubtful Aircraft procurements, is implicated as Government Official One in the Airbus bribery Scandal and signed off on $1.2 billion to deliver a project eventually done for $4.6 million, a difference of 26,000% savings. This example was swallowed by alleged organised judgement debt shenanigans. He can talk about corruption, but he has not the faintest inkling of integrity to combat it.



His attempt at dealing with employment is totally laughable. Researchers assert that since the NDC collapsed what was left of Dr Nkrumahs state industries and public service expansion in the 1980s, it was the NPP under President Kufuor which started active state support of employment creation through the Presidential Special Initiatives and the National Youth Employment Programme. Former President Mahama bastardised these programmes with ghost names and dubious modules leading to flying Guinea Fowls. Graduates were organised under an unemployment umbrella and the IMF stopped him from recruiting.



In spite of his long stay in power, aspirant Mahama is yet to learn any lessons about public sector finances for job creation. In his speech, he complains about a gap in financing of the public wage bill.



Then he states the creation of one million jobs in the public sector. How is he going to fund those jobs? Has he so soon forgotten that public sector jobs do not turn a profit but rather facilitate other sectors of the economy? Without clear revenue, how is he to generate and pay three shifts of public sector workers?



In some ways, the near impossible promises show an unprepared John Mahama selfishly seeking your mandate by exploiting your current difficulties. The issues are real but John Mahama and the NDC are not the solution. The CDD post-election 2020 survey is clear. All told, only 35% of the people surveyed voted for the NDC because of performance. The voter reduction against the NPP was for the NPP to react positively. Therefore, from 60% to 70% of voters expect changes in the NPP style of governance in order to continue to break the eight rather than change to NDC and set us back.



The NPP Government will continue to respect our democracy. We will continue to respect the will of the people. We will continue to respect the peoples rights and support the discharge of their obligations.



We will continue to respect the dignity of the people. We will continue to push for substantial changes to the world financial architecture so we can also help our people out of distress. We will continue to champion programmes that support the delivery of crucial infrastructure, and create jobs and incomes. We will continue to offer clear visionary leadership that not only diagnoses problems, but seeks to resolve them. We will continue to offer hope and belief in the Ghanaian and Ghana.





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 Director-General in charge of Legal and Prosecution for the Ghana Police Service, COP Kofi Boakye, has chided Ghanaian celebrities for their sense of entitlement.



At a meeting between creative industry players and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), George Akuffo Dampare as well as some senior police officers at the Police Headquarters in Accra on Wednesday, November 10, some celebrities raised concerns about how they are sometimes treated by police personnel.



In their view, per their status, they should enjoy some privileges but COP Kofi Boakye was having none of it, saying their sense of entitlement was becoming overwhelming.



I want to say that the sense of entitlement of celebrities is becoming overwhelming and I just dont get it. Some of the things that you do are disgusting, truth be told. If we cannot arrest pickpockets, we cannot arrest armed robbers. No one is above the law. When you fault it and the law has to deal with you, we will, so that it will deter others.



If you want privileges, what privileges do you want? That you can pull a weapon anytime and nothing would be done to you? No, that is not possible, we cannot do that, he stated.



COP Kofi Boakye also raised concerns about the celebrity tag and who deserves to be given that title.



Who is a celebrity? What is the operational definition of the word celebrity? I think we should get that because I am confused, we are confused. Is it that when you appear in one film or you do one song you qualify to be called a celebrity or what? And you see because we are confused, we do not know what you want, he explained.



COP Kofi Boakye also indicated that there will be another gathering where cyber law and corporate law would be discussed so that certain things would be avoided. We will have to talk about these things so that we will all be on the same page because if you lie to damage the reputation of someone, the law has to take its course," he added.



The IGP called for a meeting with the creative players for discussions on how to enhance collaboration and cooperation.



Quite a number of industry players including Shatta Wale, Kuami Eugene, KiDi, Stonebwoy, A Plus, Bulldog, Samini, Socrate Safo, Afia Schwarzenegger, Rex Omar and more were in attendance.

Source: Daily Graphic









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 former KVR rail bed along the west side of Vaseux Lake in the South Okanagan. The route is being considered for conversion to a multi-use path.
People take part in a Remembrance Day service at the cenotaph on the grounds of the legislature in Victoria, B.C., on Thursday, November 11, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
Supre Drive Details

 High Pivot Idler Suspension Design

 Uses standard hub, cranks, cassette, shifter, and chain

 12-speed, 10-51T gear range

 Custom derailleur with large, single jockey wheel

 Generous ground clearance

 Frame offers derailleur protection

 Spring loaded chain tensioner connected to spring and damper in downtube

 Approximate constant chain tension across all gears

 More info:

 Instagram:

 High Pivot Idler Suspension Design Uses standard hub, cranks, cassette, shifter, and chain 12-speed, 10-51T gear range Custom derailleur with large, single jockey wheel Generous ground clearance Frame offers derailleur protection Spring loaded chain tensioner connected to spring and damper in downtube Approximate constant chain tension across all gears More info: lalbikes.com  Instagram: @lal_bikes

It would be fair to say that mountain bikers everywhere have had a bad experience with a derailleur at one time or another, which is what drove Cedric Eveleigh of Lal Bikes to create the Supre Drive, a drivetrain system that separates the two functions of the standard derailleur (shifting and tensioning the chain), while also placing the purpose-built derailleur out of harm's way. The Supre Drive's four key elements are durability, efficiency, chain damping, and a lower unsprung mass, all on a high pivot suspension platform.The idea popped into the Canadian mechanical engineer's head one day while he was catching his breath on a ride in the spring of 2019, and he immediately set to work building a stationary prototype drivetrain. Cedric has patented the Supre Drive in Canada, and while the patent is pending internationally, he is already working with a major mountain bike company to create a frame that will use the system. The prototype in the launch video is limited in range, but the current version can accommodate a 10-51-tooth range cassette and only has two specific requirements; a 52 mm chainline and a T47 bottom bracket.A derailleurs first job is to push the chain across the cassette cogs to change the gear ratio. Secondly, the pulley cage tensions the chain when slack is created by shifting to smaller cogs, keeping it from jumping off of the front chainring and cassette as the bike bounces down the trail. Cedric has placed the cage-less derailleur inboard on the swingarm and moved the chain tensioner to the middle of the bike, above the chainring. Although it uses a conventional hub and drivetrain parts, the frame must be designed around the entire system.The tensioner pivots around the bottom bracket axis and extends counter clockwise to provide more slack in the chain when the derailleur shifts to the larger cassette cogs. Conversely, when an upshift is made to a smaller cog, the tensioner is pulled by a cable towards the front of the bike by a cartridge in the downtube, controlled by a spring and damper. Most intriguing is the system keeps the chain tension nearly identical across all gears. Conventional drivetrains increase tension in the lower gears, causing an increase in drag.Add in a shorter section of free chain and as Cedric claims, "Speed-sensitive tensioner damping that outperforms any derailleur clutch on the market", and you get an extremely quiet and damped drivetrain. The Supre Drive also uses the same number of jockey wheels as a conventional high pivot idler bike, but reduces the friction since those wheels have a larger number of teeth than the typical derailleur.As for the unsprung mass debate, the system saves roughly 130-grams of unsprung mass, but adds 100-200 grams of total mass. Like Pinkbike's Seb Stott discussed in his recent article about why you shouldn't worry about weight much , there are potential benefits to increasing that sprung to unsprung ratio by adding more weight to the front triangle and less to the rear.After meeting Cedric back in August on his venture through B.C. from Chelsea, Quebec, I was presented with the opportunity to parking lot-test the second Supre Drive prototype. In a blindfolded test, I would not be able to tell the difference in the shifting system versus a traditional layout. If anything, the Supre Drive should shift even better on the trail, because the derailleur is mounted at two points and therefore does not rotate around on the B-knuckle pivot.The fact that there is no B-tension adjustment needed and no special tools are required to assemble the system helps simplify setup. The positioning of the derailleur also gives more chain wrap around the cassette because the jockey wheel is clocked much higher. Almost hidden in plain sight, the derailleur also has abundant ground clearance and is further protected by being nestled between the chain and seatstay. Adding to the benefits of the system, the chain is kept further away from the elements and won't contact the ground under oscillations.Production for the drivetrain components will be headed up in Canada by Lal Bikes and incorporated by Cedric. The brand name comes from Pierre Lallement who was credited by some as the inventor of the bicycle. Where does the Supre Drive get its name? Cedric explains, "Supre means above in the Esperanto language. This refers to the Supre Drive being above other drivetrains, both physically and performance-wise." He genuinely wants to make the mountain biking experience better and more reliable.As you can imagine, the creation of this idea didn't happen overnight, but Cedric is extremely savvy and highly educated. The mechanical engineer by trade has a masters in Engineering Physics and taught himself how to TIG weld by watching YouTube videos and built on his machining practices learned in school. This is not the first time he's put his passion to improve bikes to the test. Back in 2012, he participated in Pinkbike's Reality Redesigned innovation contest and submitted a Pinion gearbox-equipped downhill bike design.There have been a lot of wild and wacky drivetrain iterations throughout the years; Honda's RN01 "derailleur in a box" with a continuous drive chain, Zerode's high pivot design centered on an internally geared hub, Cavalerie's belt-driven gearbox DH bike, Lahr's CVT project, Allan Millyard's single-sided swingarm DH bike that enclosed the chain in an oil bath. The industry has never seen anything like the Supre Drive before, tackling multiple problems at once, like exposed derailleurs, chain kickback, but still using readily available drivetrain and hub components. All eyes will be on Lal Bikes to see what brand has licensed the Supre Drive, how it will be applied, and who else might in the future.

How and when did you get into mountain biking?

Im fortunate to have grown up with XC mountain bike trails out the back door, so Ive been mountain biking since I was about 7 years old.

What was your first bike?

My first proper bike was a Norco Bushpilot hardtail.

What did you study in university?

My undergrad was mechanical engineering, and my masters was engineering physics (both in Canada). A highlight of my undergrad was a couple of internships in Berkeley, California. My masters was especially fun; my research project was on corrosion-resistant coatings for use in molten salt nuclear reactors, and I got to do a research internship in Shanghai.

When did you realize the flaws in the mountain bike drivetrains?

Ive been aware that derailleurs suck for a long time. I remember upvoting all the pro-gearbox comments on Pinkbike around 2010, so it goes back at least as far as that.

What does the sales model of the Supre Drive look like and how do you see manufacturers incorporating this into their product line?

Lal Bikes will manufacture the derailleur, chain tensioner, and idler pulley in Canada (probably coastal BC, and maybe also in Europe later on). The sales model is the same as other drivetrain companies: sell to bike companies that spec the Supre Drive, and also sell directly to mountain bikers, etc. I'm currently collaborating with a major mountain bike company for them to develop a bike with the Supre Drive, and I plan to collaborate with many more.

What sparked you to tackle such a project?

After my masters, I decided to switch my focus back to mountain bike engineering, which is what got me to sign up for mechanical engineering in the first place. The most glaring issue with mountain bikes is derailleurs, so I focused on that. While brainstorming possible solutions, I got some motivation from seeing the outside-the-box thinking of Ceramicspeed Driven. The eureka moment for the Supre Drive happened while I was out on a ride, and the idea was promising enough for me to switch from brainstorming to building prototypes.

How did you learn the manufacturing skills to build your own working prototype and what was that process like?

Ive had to learn a variety of fabrication skills for this project, both for frames and the drivetrain. Most of this was learned on the fly during the project but some of it was learned beforehand in student machine shops at university. Some skills like 3D printing are quite accessible, but others like CNC machining and TIG welding have a much more difficult learning curve. Ive learned a lot, but I still have a lot to learn, especially for switching from prototyping to manufacturing. Im looking forward to having others join the team who are knowledgeable about manufacturing.To answer your question about what the learning process was like, it has been friggin' great. With 3D printing, the accessibility of information online, local makerspaces, and other things, theres never been a better time to invent.

What are some of the downsides or constraints of the system?

The Supre Drive requires the idler pulley to be farther forward than on most other high pivot bikes. This is because the front section of the chain needs to be forward enough to allow for the range of motion of the tensioner arm. The forward position of the idler pulley constrains frame design. Its still possible to design frames that perform as well as the best frames out there, but some previous suspension systems might not work well with the Supre Drive.

I was lucky enough to pedal the proto around the parking lot. Can you explain how the derailleur is able to shift across the cassette if the tension is at the front of the drivetrain?

For shifting gears, the basic function of derailleurs is to guide the chain from side to side from one sprocket to another. Theres no need for the derailleur to also tension the chain. The upper pulley (guide pulley) of conventional derailleurs guides the chain from side to side just like the single pulley on the Supre derailleur. If the lower pulley (tension pulley) of conventional derailleurs doesnt play a role in shifting, why not move the tensioner arm to somewhere safe?

Why not go with a gearbox, since this is not a traditional drivetrain anyways?

Im not aware of a way to make gearboxes as efficient and lightweight as derailleur drivetrains. However, the Supre Drive is efficient and lightweight like a derailleur drivetrainwell, it is a derailleur drivetrainjust a tough one.

What were some of the reactions when you presented the Supre Drive to industry directors?

The reactions have been very positive but also amusingly vulgar. These two are verbatim:This is f****** fascinating and terrifyingly ambitious.Im not easily impressed, and this is f****** impressive.

When do you think we will see the first production version of the Supre Drive?

For a first production version, I'm aiming for 2023. I have a lot of testing to do to make sure that I put out top quality parts. Also, frames need to be developed to go with the Supre Drive. It'll be some time before the Supre Drive becomes commercially available, but I'm working hard to make things happen fast.

What does the future hold for Cedric Eveleigh?

Plan A is to build a big manufacturing operation in Canada, and to make the Supre Drive as affordable, durable, and high performing as possible. Im stoked about the task of getting a team of people together to build the Lal Bikes company, and Im also looking forward to collaborating with more frame companies. And of course, the future includes a lot of mountain biking!Photo and video credit: Chris Snow unless otherwise noted.
Vecnum's 30mm Travel Suspension Stem

Deer Takes out Rider in NJ Charity Ride

Zwift for toddlers

Brazen Bike Thieves

Carbon Fibre Explained

In this tutorial we take a look at different types of carbon fibre reinforcement and discuss their various properties such as weight, weave and format, and tow size (k-count). By the end of the tutorial you should have a better understanding of how these properties impact the behaviour of the reinforcement and therefore how to choose the right carbon fibre fabric for your project.

Vecnum has released a suspension stem for gravel bikers that it claims is the most advanced on the market. It uses a parallelogram design to offer 30mm of travel (10mm negative + 20mm positive) making it the longest travel currently on offer and capable of reducing vibration by a claimed 75%. The German brand opted for the parallelogram so that the angle of the bar and the geometry of the bike are kept constant as it moves through its travel.The stem is driven by elastomers but can be externally adjusted to suit riders from 50kg to 120kg. Vecnum says the main benefit of the stem is that it negates the need for a gravel fork that would add weight and reduce aerodynamics. The stem is available in three lengths - 90 mm (287 grams), 105 mm (299 grams), 120 mm (317 grams) - from 299. For more information, click here This footage shows the moment a cyclist was struck by a deer three miles into a 26-mile charity cycle ride in Lumberton, New Jersey, on September 12.Newark resident Keith Bratcher Jr was taking part in the Wise Choice Cycling Clubs Auto Immune Disease Awareness Ride when his camera captured video showing an unfortunate incident involving a deer. Bratcher Jr said the rider was uninjured during the incident and was able to complete the cycle.Cycling ' esports ' are already 'a thing' so if you want to raise the next Zwift World Champion, you'll have to start them young. One way to do that might be with the Little Tikes Pelican Explore and Fit Cycle - basically a peloton for young kids. Rated for ages 3-6, the bike offers adjustable seating and handlebars and has various resistance levels for building up fitness. The bike also tilts forwards and backwards that Little Tikes says adds excitement and helps them to work on their balance and co-ordination.A phone or tablet can be attached to the bike and Little Tikes have uploaded some videos that children can cycle along to, such as the one of Gully crushing some slabs below:The toy costs 157.99 ($211) and can be ordered now in time for Christmas. More info, here We know that bike theft has been on the rise due to the pandemic but this really is taking the biscuit. Police were called to a busy shopping in south east London on Saturday after a pair of bike thieves were seen using an angle grinder to steal an e-bike in broad daylight. The theft was filmed but it looks like no attempt was made to stop the two men.A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: On Saturday, 6 November at 13:32hrs police were called to a report of a bike theft at Surrey Quays Shopping Centre. Officers attended and conducted initial enquiries. No arrests; enquiries continue.
Isaac Hernandez, a gifted pianist from Mexico, was looking for a place to earn a masters degree in piano performance. His checklist included finding a solid academic program with a skilled professor, and finding a safe, welcoming community for not just him, but his wife and young son.

They found what they were looking for in Pittsburg State University and the community of Pittsburg.

Its kind of hard to go to another place, Isaac said, who moved here this semester with his wife, Frida Herrera, and their son Emiliano, or Emi. Especially another country with another language and maybe different cultures or traditions. Being here, we really feel like we are not too far from our home. We are having a really great experience with all people.

Isaacs decision to choose Pittsburg State came after reading about Professor of Music Reena Natenburg, while exploring various university options.

I was really enchanted about her way to teach and the way that she had played in different places around the world, not just here, Hernandez said. I also read about her and watched some videos. That was probably the main reason that I chose Pitt State.

After hearing about university's renowned music program, the family focused on other aspects of Pittsburg that would be suitable for raising a son.

We were talking as a family about the city, Hernandez said. We are from Mexico City, that is a really huge city. So, we really wanted to be in a more calm and secure place, because in Mexico City its a little dangerous to go outside so thats why we really like Pittsburg.

Throughout the process of preparing to move to Pittsburg, Hernandez said the family printed out pictures of and Pittsburg State and Pittsburg in various seasons and pined them to a board to look at.

This added to the excitement of the move and the opportunities that lay ahead.

We really wanted to come here, all of us, Hernandez said. For Emi, its a really good experience to learn another language since hes a little kid, and for us its also a good experience.

Once the family arrived, they quickly found a sense of community and felt that Pittsburg and Pitt State was the right place for the family as a whole. Herrera began taking classes in PSUs Intensive English Program (IEP) and Emi began the third grade at a local elementary school.

Isaac jumped in with both feet, starting a small international choir  perhaps Pittsburg States first  that meets for rehearsals twice a week and is comprised of non-music students from Brazil, France, Paraguay, and Peru.

He also has already competed in a collegiate state piano competition, winning first place at the masters/doctorate level for his performances of Danza Argentina No. 3 by Alberto Ginastera and Chapelle of Guillaume Tell by Liszt.

Now I feel part of the university and the city for us is like feeling really part of the community, Herrera said. When we first came, we thought it was mainly for Isaac, but now we feel part of here. Emi and I can come here for all events. Its awesome to meet people from other countries or from other states in the U.S.A.

Herrera said she feels grateful for their entire experience in Pittsburg so far.

Im so happy and grateful for this opportunity and for the people, she said. Im really grateful for the IEP program, because I didnt speak English, and the teachers are very friendly and compassionate with me and teach very good because I understand all of them. At Emis school, too, they are very kind.

Learn more:

International Programs & Services

Music Department

Intensive English Program
  ,  Cookies        .          cookies.




The familiar sound of ringing bells will soon be back in Aiken.

The Salvation Army of Aiken held its annual Red Kettle Kickoff on Thursday at the Boys and Girls Club, as the organization prepares to send its volunteers and red kettles out into the community during the holiday season to stand and collect donations.

The theme for this year's campaign is "Hope Marches On," which Colen Lindell, board chairman, spoke about. Lindell said the needs of the Salvation Army have gone up during the past year, as many in the community struggled and continue to struggle during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The local Salvation Army, which serves Aiken, Allendale, Barnwell and Edgefield counties, served 3,383 people last year, providing 28,456 meals, 4,778 clothing items and 6,688 nights of shelter.

"Last year, the Salvation Army was able to raise $87,000 surpassing our goal," Lindell said. "This money that we raise for the kettle kickoff stays in our local community."

This year's goal is to raise $93,000.

Lt. Randy Tiller, with the Salvation Army, talked about the history of the kettle campaign, saying it started in 1891 in San Francisco when a young officer needed to raise money.

"He went to his kitchen, got a pot (and) painted it red," Tiller said. "He went out into his community and he said, We cannot serve this community without your help. That day, a Christmas campaign was born."

Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus were in attendance, and the big man was the first to donate to this year's campaign, dropping his money into the red kettle.

"All of the volunteers and the workers you see in the community do it for someone else," Tiller said. "The money that we raise here will go to the Boys and Girls Club and keep these doors open. It goes to the shelter, it goes to social services, it goes to all of the events that we do here at the Salvation Army."
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.
Moncks Corner, SC (29461)

Today

Rain showers early with overcast skies later in the day. High 62F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low near 35F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
A Middle East defense firm from Qatar said it plans to open a manufacturing plant on Johns Island to build spy drones for the U.S. and foreign governments.

Barzan Aeronautical wants to build three structures and a 200-space parking area on about 10 acres at 2744 Fort Trenholm Road, near an abandoned runway beside Charleston Executive Airport.

Site plans show a 54,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, an 18,400-square-foot office building and another structure near the parking area with offices, a conference room and a classroom.

Barzan plans to invest $14.7 million into the manufacturing facility, which will create 34 jobs. Operations are expected to begin in late 2022.

"The talented workforce, strategic location and welcoming pro-growth business climate make Charleston County the ideal place to grow our company," Barzan CEO John Hardwick said in a written statement.

Elliott Summey, CEO and executive director of the Charleston County Aviation Authority, called the facility "a giant step in our mission to attract high-end aeronautical businesses and jobs," adding the Charleston region  home to Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner program  is "one of the largest hubs in aviation, engineering and advanced manufacturing in the United States."

Steve Dykes, the county's economic development director, said the Barzan announcement  which had gone under the code name Project Rose  follows years of trying "to find the right industrial project that would spur economic development" at the general aviation airport near Kiawah and Seabrook islands.

Barzan was formed about a month after Qatari leaders met in early 2018 with South Carolina politicians, business leaders and Boeing Co. executives at the Dreamliner campus in North Charleston. At the time, leaders with the Qatar Investment Authority said they were looking for opportunities in the Palmetto State.

A white paper distributed to members of Congress by Qatars ambassador said Barzan established its Charleston base "to build out a large military aircraft initiative that is expected to support numerous jobs."

Barzan has developed the Nightwarden drone, an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft that can be armed. It is based on the Aerosonde drone built by Providence, R.I.-based Textron Systems. Qatar is seeking to market its drone to NATO countries, in particular for border control in places facing significant immigration, according to the Online Intelligence website.

The website reported that Barzan sought help from Boeing to improve the drone's payload, its autonomy and its ability to be armed. Hardwick and Christopher Ott, the company's legal counsel, toured Europe earlier this year to promote the drone. Among the countries they approached were Greece, which has shown interest in beefing up its border surveillance, and Scandinavian countries near Russia, Online Intelligence stated.

Barzan Aeronautical is a division of Barzan Holdings, which is owned by the Qatari Ministry of Defense. According to the Barzan Holdings website, the entity aims "to revolutionize Qatar's defense and security sector" through partnerships with international companies.
MONCKS CORNER  A Santee Cooper board member with knowledge of a candidate for the state-owned utility's CEO job has recused himself from the group in charge of finding the next top executive.

Stephen Mudge of Clemson told fellow members of the search committee this week that he would no longer participate on the panel.

"As you and the other board members are aware, I have an indirect connection to one of the candidates," Mudge told David Singleton, who chairs the utility's human resource committee.

"Out of an abundance of caution, I recuse myself from a portion of the interviews in recognition of that connection," Mudge said Nov. 9 after a closed-door session of the search committee.

After thinking further about the process, he added that it would be better for him to excuse himself entirely from the panel "to avoid the appearance of conflict or the appearance of impropriety."

Singleton named Dan Ray, a board member from Georgetown County, to replace Mudge on the committee.

Santee Cooper has been actively seeking out candidates to replace chief executive officer Mark Bonsall since August, when it hired the organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry to help with the recruitment process.

The board first met with the company in September. The committee has since met six times and had vetted 15 candidates as of Nov. 11.

The cost of Korn Ferry's services will depend on the extent of the Los Angeles-based firm's participation in finding the next CEO, said Mollie Gore, Santee Cooper's director of corporate communications.

"It will depend on the services we may or may not need," Gore said.

Based on the process to date, the cost will likely be $200,000 or less.

Santee Cooper would not say when it hopes to announce its next chief executive, saying in statement that its search committee "is focused, diligent and moving through the process at a pace appropriate with the magnitude of the decision."

Bonsall was hired more than two years ago, on an 18-month, $1.1 million annual contract, to overhaul and stabilize Santee Cooper after construction was halted on two reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station after years of delays and cost overruns. By that point, the Moncks Corner-based utility and South Carolina Electric & Gas had spent more than $9 billion on the failed project.

Santee Cooper's board voted in June to retain Bonsall and deputy CEO Charles Duckworth until early 2022.

The utility hired the duo after the V.C. Summer debacle set off a political firestorm in Columbia that included a failed attempt to sell the business and the abrupt retirement of CEO Lonnie Carter. In June, Gov. Henry McMaster signed a reform bill into law that gives the state more say over Santee Cooper's business operations.
COLUMBIA  In some of the final public statements before a runoff election, candidates for mayor made clear that they believe voters choice is at least in part Black and White.

Longtime City Council members Daniel Rickenmann and Tameika Isaac Devine will meet in a runoff Nov. 16 to decide who will succeed Steve Benjamin, who is stepping aside more than 10 years after being elected the citys first Black mayor.

During one of the final debates, Rickenmann, a White businessman, and Devine, a Black attorney, directly addressed the role race plays in the voters' final choice for Columbias next leader.

In response to a question about what equity looks like to the candidates during a forum hosted by WLTX-TV and Post and Courier Columbia on Nov. 10, Rickenmann said the citys majority Black council had the chance for years to fix some of the issues being discussed with nothing to show for it.

I mean, we've had a majority of African American leadership on council for a decade, we're still talking about these issues, Rickenmann said. So now we got an opportunity to take a different direction, a different chance and really move forward and address these issues in the neighborhoods like 29203 and 29204 (predominately Black areas of north Columbia), who have been left out.

Devine shot back with a reference to systemic racism: I think it's really disingenuous to say that you have a majority African American council for 10 years and everything should be fine for the Black community.

Rickenmann said Nov. 12 that Devine and Post and Courier Columbia were making the election about race. He noted in his answer to the debate question about equity that he discussed how everyone should receive the same opportunity for good streets and sidewalks, neighborhood parks and clean water. That remark came just before he cited the lack of progress under a Black-majority city council.

The suggestion that my response to a question by your newspaper about race is me bringing race into this election is absurd," Rickenmann said Nov. 12. "Weve made this campaign about issues."

Devine also said she believes voters will choose a mayor on issues, not race.

"I've never made race an issue, I've never asked anybody to vote for me because I'm a Black woman," she said Nov. 12.

Still, the exchange during the Nov. 10 debate underscored some of the undertones of race and partisan politics that have defined the final days campaigning in the nonpartisan race.

The capital city is 51 percent White, according to the 2020 census with the Black population the bulk of the 49 percent of minorities.

Rickenmann, being backed by S.C. Republican Party, picked up 43.5 percent of the vote during a general election between four candidates Nov. 2, with Devine, who has the support of state Democrats, earning 30.2 percent.

While both have expressed publicly their intention to represent the whole city, events leading up to the final vote have sought to draw more clear distinctions about which city residents the candidates will favor if elected.

Devine said during the WLTX debate that Rickenmann has been endorsed by bar owners, Republicans and people who don't necessarily look like every person in this city. She said during the same debate that her experience as a Black woman could be beneficial in the mayor's office.

The S.C. Republican Party mailed a flyer tying Devine to the liberal establishment of Democrats in the nations capital and that her tenure would mean a progressive agenda for Columbia. Good people cant win if you dont go vote, the mailer read.

A state Democratic Party flyer in the days leading up to the runoff labeled Rickenmann a Republican who represents their values, not ours.

On Nov. 12, Brandon Upson, chair of the S.C. Democratic Party Black Caucus, wrote in an email to caucus members: "Please allow me to be blunt. If the Republicans steal the Columbia mayoral election from us, it'll set Black residents back 25 years."

A S.C. GOP email the same day told supporters that Democrats were going all out to get Devine elected, even bringing national groups to assist her, and that the party was to blame for high crime, declining business and underperforming schools in the city.

Rickenmanns campaign blasted an effort by Columbia Housings board chairman to direct housing employees to call, text and offer rides to public housing residents in the days leading up to the election. Rickenmann said the issues is about misuse of the public housing agencys resources and not that voting was being encouraged in Black communities. A majority of Columbia Housings board has contributed to Devine's campaign.

Devine, in a debate hosted by WIS-TV, pointed to efforts by Rickenmanns supporters to court University of South Carolina students and offer party buses to the polls from the school's Greek Village.

I think students should be voting, but why didnt he do that same drive at Allen (University) and Benedict (College)? Devine said referring to Columbia's two historically Black colleges.

During the same debate, Rickenmann called comments attributed to a Cayce museum commissioner that Columbia doesnt need another colored person as mayor as deplorable.

Benjamin, who will step down by the end of the year after three terms as mayor, called the commissioner's comment unfortunate and that Rickenmanns debate comment that some of the citys Black communities had been left out by a majority Black council was untrue.

He pointed to upgrades to numerous city parks in North Columbia during the past decade, road work on North Main Street and the BullStreet redevelopment.

To suggest that age-old issues of equity or achievement as everyone pursues the American dream are going to be solved by one, two, three or four people on City Council is naive, Benjamin told Post and Courier Columbia. It requires the intentional leadership of all of our elected officials to work to bring people together. So to boil it down to how many people are on city council may be a color is silly.

Moe Baddourah, a former city councilman who finished fourth in his bid for mayor on Election Day, said some of the attacks during the elections final days were unfortunate and bemoaned political parties becoming involved.

Baddourah, a Lebanese immigrant first elected to council in 2012, said he doesnt believe Columbia voters will ultimately decide the next mayor based on race.

I really believe that our city is beyond that, Baddourah said. And it should be, and it needs to be.
One of the ways Charleston residents gave back to the community in 2020 and 2021 was by dining at or ordering takeout from nearby restaurants.

Thats become increasingly difficult, and it's not because the support has waned.

In October 2021, covers at restaurants using the Resy reservation platform were up 43 percent compared with October 2019 data, according to a Resy representative. One cover equals one person seated at a table.

Resy, which has notable restaurants like FIG, Melfis, Jackrabbit Filly and Chasing Sage on its roster, counted Charleston as one of its top 10 markets by volume in 2021.

As reservations continue to fill up fast, Charleston area restaurants are looking for ways to serve the customers that supported them throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

One local restaurant group seems to have found a solution.

The Indigo Road Hospitality Group has a foothold in Charleston with six area restaurants and another on the way this month. The groups King Street eateries are on the hit list for many out-of-town visitors, but on a stretch of Broad Street that gets quiet in the evening, Bar Vaute and Oak Steakhouse rely on business from locals.

In 2008, 2009 when the whole Upper King thing was happening, Oak had a season where we werent really busy, said Indigo Road President Steve Palmer. The neighborhood just really supported us.

According to Palmer, the 17-year-old restaurant is still filled with local couples and families today, especially on Sundays. When he announced plans to open a dual concept bar and restaurant a few blocks away from Oak at 1 Broad St., Palmer wanted to make both spaces accessible for peninsula residents. Thats where the locals card" comes in.

Forthcoming Brasserie la Banque will offer a dedicated phone line for longtime Oak regulars to reserve a seat at the 60-seat Parisian bistro once it opens later this month. Indigo Road is already testing the locals card at its upscale basement Bar Vaute that opened in July.

I said to our team, The worst thing that could happen is our neighborhood who has supported us through all these years could not get in the doors, Palmer said. That would be heartbreaking. I was really thinking, How could we create a moment for them?

It's not meant to be elitist. The intention is we want to make sure that our most loyal supporters can get it, Palmer said.

The Post and Courier surveyed representatives of more than 20 Charleston area restaurants, and Indigo Road was the only group with an official locals card, although multiple chefs and restaurateurs said they were open to adopting something similar at their restaurants.

Other area restaurants are leaning into a different approach to reach local diners: memberships and subscriptions. Dashi recently unveiled taco, wine and beer subscriptions, and King Street roastery Springbok Coffee debuted its own subscription service this fall.

Spring Street restaurant Xiao Bao Biscuit joined the team at Table 22, a platform that helps restaurants reach more customers through monthly subscriptions, meal kits, content, events and more. Xiao Bao Biscuit is one of 59 restaurants using the platform nationwide.

For $120, members receive a monthly take-home meal for two delivered to their doorstep featuring off-menu items that are not available at the restaurant. Delivery is included, and members, who must be local, will also receive "educational content, recipes and first access to special events" at Xiao Bao Biscuit.

Membership sold out in two days, but interested locals can join the waitlist.

We did monthly dinners at home with Tu and that helped us survive the pandemic and was a fun way to connect to our customers, said Xiao Bao Biscuit owner Josh Walker, referring to his Meeting Street restaurant that closed in March 2021. Now being parents, we realize how hard it can be to go out and support your favorite restaurants sometimes in life.

Recognizing that planning ahead can be challenging, Palmer said he is open to the idea of adding locals cards at some of Indigo Roads other restaurants. First on his agenda, however, is opening the doors at Brasserie la Banque, which was initially supposed to open in July. The restaurant is waiting on a kitchen hood that was ordered in July to arrive.

Our favorite term these days, supply chain and logistics, he said.

Palmer hopes to open the doors to Brasserie la Banque Nov. 17.
GREENVILLE  A Greenville attorney faces discipline after failing to disclose a previous suspension of his license to practice law 16 years ago.

Darren Haley, who practices law with his own firm in downtown Greenville, was publicly reprimanded by the South Carolina Supreme Court this week.

The reprimand stems from a disciplinary action in May 2019 in North Carolina, according to an order filed Nov. 10 by the South Carolina Supreme Court that replicates the North Carolina punishment.

In North Carolina, Haley filed a request to represent a client in a criminal case, but he didn't reveal that he had been temporarily suspended from practice in 2006.

The Grievance Committee of the North Carolina State Bar reprimanded Haley after he requested to be admitted "pro hac vice"  a mechanism to legally allow attorneys to represent a case in a jurisdiction in which they don't have a license to practice  but withheld his previous discipline in Virginia.

In 2005, while licensed to practice in Virginia, Haley was cited for multiple violations mostly involving a lack of diligence in representing clients, according to the Virginia order. Haley was suspended from practice for 30 days.

In those cases, Haley failed to communicate with clients, file necessary motions and safely maintain records, causing cases to be ruled against them.

In two cases, Haley was ordered to return retainer fees for work he never performed. In another two instances, Haley admitted to unsuccessfully trying to establish personal relationships with a woman who was a client and another woman who hired him to represent a third party, which code of conduct bars to avoid conflicts of interest.
Fountain Inn has allocated roughly $1.7 million of the more than $5.1 million it is set to receive from the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package aimed at reversing the economic impact of the pandemic.

About $770,000 of the $1.7 million will go to premium pay for city employees.

Ahead of the unanimous vote approving the initial allocation at a Nov. 11 meeting, Mayor GP McLeer said Fountain Inn's staff is receiving bonuses in recognition for their performance as the city navigated the health crisis.

"Every city employee will be receiving premium pay as a part of this package for their work and dedication to the city during COVID," he said. "All of them, at various times, were exposed through the nature of their jobs."

Another $400,000 will go to fill a budget shortfall in the proposed Woodside streetscape project aimed at beautifying Diamond Tip Boulevard, Woodside Avenue, and Jones Street around the Woodside Mill Village by adding features like improved medians, signage, trees and other greenspace. Fountain Inn is partnering with the South Carolina Department of Transportation on the project, which required the city to allocate $1.1 million before putting it out to bid.

The city had already designated $728,000 and the ARP funding will cover the remainder, allowing Fountain Inn accept bids as early as February.

City Council also budgeted:

$300,000 to fund a survey of the city's sewer system;

$200,000 to relaunch grants, half for nonprofits in the city and half for tourism, travel and hospitality;

$50,000 to cover the cost of a financial software upgrade.

The $1.7 million is coming from Fountain Inn's first phase of ARP funding of about $2.5 million it should receive within the next month or so. That leaves roughly $878,000 of the initial dispersal unallocated, in addition to the second $2.5 million the city will receive at some point in 2022.
Four North Carolina residents were sentenced to federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a scheme to defraud South Carolina Medicaid of more than $3.6 million.

Tony Lee Covington, 50, his wife Priscilla Covington, 51, and his sisters Vanessa McPhaul, 56, and Mary Moses Covington, 51, all of Raeford, created two companies  Preferred Care Inc. and Saving Grace Outreach. The two companies claimed to provide rehabilitative behavioral health services to disabled, low-income individuals in South Carolina through the Medicaid program.

According to evidence presented during their guilty plea and sentencing hearings, between 2014 and 2016 the companies billed South Carolina Medicaid millions of dollars for "crisis intervention," a service offered to individuals experiencing extreme emotional distress such as suicidal thoughts or mental breakdowns.

But the government found that, despite the companies having fewer than 20 clients, they billed more in total for crisis intervention services than the entire South Carolina Department of Mental Health during the same time period.

Clients contacted by investigators indicated that while they had received some services from the companies, they never received any crisis intervention. Evidence in the case indicated that the services provided by the companies should have been billed at approximately $9.00 an hour, but by billing the services as crisis intervention, the companies were instead paid $67.88 per hour.

According to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office on Nov. 9, Medicaid instituted an audit of Preferred Care once irregular billing was discovered. The family members immediately started the other company, Saving Grace Outreach, to continue the fraudulent billing practices.

Stealing from agencies that serve those in distress is shameful and illegal, said Acting U.S. Attorney M. Rhett DeHart, in a prepared statement. This office worked with our partners in the South Carolina Attorney Generals Office to not only prosecute these defendants, but to put a stop to their illegal practices.

U.S. District Judge Mary Lewis sentenced Tony Covington to 51 months in federal prison, Priscilla Covington to 39 months in federal prison, Mary Covington Moses to 33 months in federal prison, and Vanessa Covington McPhaul to 33 months in federal prison.

There is no parole in the federal system. All defendants were given a three-year term of court-ordered supervision and ordered to repay $3,647,094.83 in restitution to South Carolina Medicaid.
Summerville, SC (29483)

Today

Rain showers early with overcast skies later in the day. High 64F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low 36F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Cloudy with rain ending in the afternoon. High near 60F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 31F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
SUMMERVILLE  Ashley Ridge High School went under a precautionary lockdown on Veterans Day as law enforcement and school administrators tracked down a missing student.

According to Dorchester School District 2 officials, a student ran off campus on Nov. 11 after he was told by school staff that his belongings would be searched. The district did not disclose what warranted the search.

The school was under lockdown while the investigation took place with the help of local law enforcement. Once the student was discovered in a nearby neighborhood, the lockdown was lifted.

District officials reported that the school continued with its normal dismissal schedule and that no students or staff members were threatened.
HAMPTON  Palmetto State Bank has reached a settlement with the family of Alex Murdaughs deceased housekeeper in connection with an alleged scheme the disgraced attorney ran to pocket millions from a wrongful-death claim stemming from her 2018 passing.

The Hampton-based bank and the law firm representing the family of the late Gloria Satterfield released a joint statement Nov. 11 indicating that a settlement had been reached in the case, ending a pending legal claim against the bank. Palmetto Bank admitted no wrongdoing, describing the resolution as a business decision. Terms of the settlement were not released.

"Although Palmetto State Bank never handled the settlement funds nor was it responsible for the alleged actions of Alex Murdaugh, Palmetto State Bank and its board of directors made the business decision to prioritize ending this matter for the mutual benefit of Ms. Satterfields sons, its customers and shareholders, and the Hampton community at large," read the statement, released by the bank and Satterfield attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter.

The statement went on to say that the Satterfields agree that the bank has acted responsibly and remains "a good corporate citizen."

With the bank released from the lawsuit, Murdaugh is now the sole defendant in the case moving forward. Cory Fleming, a longtime friend who represented the Satterfields in the wrongful death proceeding, was dropped from the family's suit last month after also reaching a settlement with the family.

In an Oct. 15 legal filing, Palmetto State Bank had argued that it had nothing to do with the 2018 wrongful death claim brought by Satterfield's sons, even though one of the banks vice presidents served as the personal representative of the Satterfield estate in that case.

The bank said at the time that Chad Westendorf represented the Satterfields estate only in a personal capacity, not as part of his official duties. The bank insisted no money from the $4.3 million Satterfield settlement was ever deposited in any of its accounts. It said it knew nothing of a conspiracy to hijack money that was owed to Satterfields family and misdirect it instead to Murdaugh.

Bland and Richter said Murdaugh had encouraged the sons to sue him  and hire Fleming to do it  after their 57-year-old mother died following a February 2018 trip and fall accident at a Murdaugh property. Bland and Richter said Fleming encouraged the Satterfields to appoint Westendorf to represent and manage her estate.

After that, the Satterfield sons were never told of the settlement negotiated on their behalf, the attorneys alleged. State prosecutors say Murdaugh pocketed $3.4 million of that money after directing Fleming to send settlement proceeds to a fraudulent bank account.

In his settlement with the family, Fleming agreed to pay the Satterfields all the legal fees he was awarded from the case. He admitted making mistakes in the case and said he was misled by Murdaugh, his friend and former law school classmate, to believe the money was going to the Satterfields.

Murdaugh remains in the Richland County jail, where he is being held without bail on charges related to the Satterfield theft and allegations that he tried to stage his own murder in a botched insurance fraud scheme over Labor Day weekend. His attorneys have blamed his actions on a 20-year opioid addiction that grew worse after the unsolved killing of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at the family's hunting lodge in June.

A judge has frozen Murdaughs assets amid concerns he or his remaining son Buster might try to hide millions of dollars that could be recovered in civil suits against him.
SUMMMERVILLE  A local nonprofit has filed a lawsuit against Dorchester County after the council voted to allow the building of a gas station in an environmentally sensitive area near the Ashley River.

The area, an intersection called Cooks Crossroads, is located at the intersection of Ashley River and Bacons Bridge Road. It falls into the conservation zoning district.

The purpose of the district is to protect sensitive lands from development through tools like wetland buffers and conservation easements.

Cooks Crossroads was given the special zoning due to its connection to the Ashley River. On Sept. 7, the Dorchester County Council voted and amended its conditional uses in Cooks Crossroads to allow for the building of gasoline stations and "quick stop" services.

In response, the Dorchester Trust Foundation filed the lawsuit in Dorchester County on Nov. 5, calling for the zoning amendment to be declared null and void. The foundation owns the nearby Rosebrock Park off Beech Hill Road.

The Summerville-based nonprofit is being represented by the South Carolina Environmental Law Project. Attorneys with the group said the county's decision to approve the amendment goes against previous plans for the area's future.

To do it so quickly we felt was shortsighted," said SCELP attorney Michael Martinez.

In the complaint, Dorchester Trust Foundation and its legal team argue the amendment decision made by the council was made "solely for the benefit of Parkers Kitchen as potential owners of a property within Cooks Crossroads."

The company has previously expressed interest in opening a gas station at Cooks Crossroads and has worked with the county in presenting some of its plans for the area.

In order to build a gas station, it would have to meet specific guidelines like properly designed fuel storage that protects sensitive areas and their natural physical features.

Representatives with Parker's Kitchen declined to comment on the pending litigation.

In 2018, the county, Dorchester Trust Foundation and S.C. National Heritage Corridor created a plan mapping out design and use standards in Cooks Crossroads.

At the time, the plan did not include gas stations under its conditional uses. It included projects like grocery stores, hotels and utility plants.

The plan emphasized making the area more walkable and bike-friendly, rather than orienting it toward vehicles. It also focused on amplifying Cooks Crossroads' function as a gateway to tourism in Summerville and the Ashley River Region.

It completely changes with the inclusion of a gas station," Martinez said.

A spokesman with Dorchester County declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the county doesn't comment on pending litigation.

George McDaniel, chairman of the Dorchester Trust Foundation, has worked to raise awareness around protecting the Ashley River.

He also questions why the area needs a gas station when others are located on the nearby Dorchester Road.

"Why assume the risks from flooding, litter, and pollution of the scenic Ashley River, which both the county and town are now investing in," McDaniel said in a press release.

One of the complaints around the inclusion of a gas station is the environmental risk. Martinez and his team with SCELP said potential spills from vehicle fluids such as fuel and oil run the risk of degrading and contaminating the water quality of the Ashley River.
Hugh Leatherman started his Statehouse career as a flamethrower. Five years in, he took what critics termed his pugnacious style to the 1986 race for governor, attacking his opponents as soft on crime and hard on taxpayers while promising a business-friendly approach that he said his fellow Democrats were incapable of delivering. Leatherman, his slogan touted, means business.

The Florence concrete magnate lost the primary  decisively  and over the years he lost the pugnaciousness; you dont need to throw punches, or flames, when you have the sort of power he amassed over 40 years in the S.C. Senate. But he never lost his focus on building a better South Carolina through business-friendly policies.

In a state where senior senators joke that they wouldnt be willing to give up their power to become governor, that focus had significant ramifications. By the time he died Friday at age 90, it wasnt just Hugh Leatherman who meant business; in no small part because of his efforts, South Carolina means business, too.

Two business deals in particular define his legacy  both centered in Charleston County and both of vital importance to our entire state.

In 2009, he stepped up when South Carolina had a governor who opposed any sort of economic development incentives and also had one of the biggest fish ever within our grasp. He personally negotiated the deal that showered Boeing with tax breaks and other giveaways that the aerospace giant demanded to build its second American production center. It was a pivotal deal in South Carolina's transformation into, as former Gov. Nikki Haley liked to say, the state that builds things.

Two years later, he turbocharged the long-sought deepening of the Charleston Harbor by engineering and executing the plan to allocate the entire $300 million cost, saving our ports from being pushed aside as the world shifted to ever-larger Post-Panamax ships that require deeper harbors.

Mr. Leatherman switched to the Republican Party in 1995 as the Pee Dee started to turn red, then worked doggedly to turn the Senate Republican, orchestrating the party takeover after the 2000 election left the upper chamber split 50-50. His negotiations with senior Democrats and Republicans gave him the job of chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and with it membership on several powerful panels that in a more logically organized state government would have been controlled by the governor.

Just two years later, a new kind of Republican came to the Statehouse to challenge Mr. Leathermans unapologetically transactional approach to government. Whereas Mr. Leatherman saw a well-educated workforce, strong physical infrastructure, targeted tax breaks and a decent social safety net as key to allowing businesses to flourish in South Carolina, Gov. Mark Sanford saw low taxes and small government as the necessary good soil conditions. That debate continues today, but having outlasted Mr. Sanford and his successor Gov. Haley, the Leatherman approach remains very much in play.

Frankly, we weren't particularly comfortable with that transactional approach: delivering pork funding to senators home districts in return for their support for budgetary, economic development and an array of other legislative priorities. But we can't deny that he used it frequently to promote the governmental principles that were important to him, and to our state. Chief among them were providing a decent public education for all children and investing in infrastructure in order to promote economic development and improve lives. He squashed tax cuts when the government needed every penny to keep essential programs running; when money wasn't as tight, he insisted that the cuts benefit all, for instance flipping Mr. Sanfords elimination of the top income tax bracket into the elimination of the bottom bracket, which meant all taxpayers got a break.

Mr. Leatherman was hounded throughout his Senate career by critics  from the left when he was a Democrat and from the right as a Republican  who said he was more interested in what was good for his Florence Concrete Co. than the state of South Carolina. Clearly he profited from the work his company did with state government; as with so many other legislators whose own businesses profited, well never know precisely how much, or whether he would have gotten those contracts without the position. But given the amount of work he put into policies that were of no benefit to his personal bottom line and of great benefit to our state, its clearly inaccurate to say that his own bottom line was his priority.

Hugh Leatherman didnt just mean business. He meant South Carolina. And by and large, he was good for South Carolina.
Over at Healthy Skeptic Kevin Roche has responded to comments on his Star Tribune column that I posted in Time to get on. Having posted his column, I wanted to add his response:

I must have really struck a nerve with this one. I dont read the comments, a complete waste of time, but a number of you have passed on the gist of them. I am obviously heartless, which people must conclude because I care about we are doing to children and to minorities and low-income people. I am a diehard anti-vaxer, which you all know isnt true, I am fully vaxed and boosted, and I have taken a lot of crap from readers in regard to my support of vaccines.

I am somehow getting rich off the epidemic. This blog costs me a lot of money to operate and you can all tell I havent monetized it in any way. I do own Pfizer stock, but that would make me a vaccine bobo and I would really be downplaying any lack of effectiveness if I was trying to help Pfizer.

I am making up the data. Not only does Dave Dixon do a tremendous job with the data, but we double check each other and Dave writes tremendous notes explaining exactly how he gets the data and what he does with it. We dont use any data that isnt directly from the state, CDC or other official source. We understand the data better than the Minnesota Department of Health does.

And apparently the comments continue in a similar vein. Which is why I never read the op-ed comments.

What really strikes me is how wedded many people are to having the epidemic and its restrictions last forever. What kind of mental illness is this? But I have made the point many times before that I have no intention of trying to change these peoples minds. This is belief and religion on their part, not data or science or logical analysis. I dont even want to engage with these people. And they are a serious impediment to trying to get our society back to some kind of rational policy on the epidemic. Because they apparently have lots of time to spend writing idiotic and inane comments.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski has announced that she will run for the reelection in 2022. I hope she is unsuccessful.

My objection to Murkowski isnt her vote to impeach Donald Trump, an ex-president at the time. I didnt agree with that vote, but thought it was within realm of reasonableness given Trumps behavior, in the absence of which the Capitol would not have been stormed.

My main objection to Murkowski is her voting record on judicial nominees. Murkowski will vote for virtually any Democratic nominee, no matter how far left. She has tried to justify this practice by arguing that presidents, having been elected by the American public, should be able to have their nominees confirmed.

Yet, Murkowski voted against confirming Brett Kavanaugh. She based that vote on last-minute, unsubstantiated allegations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh that supposedly occurred many decades earlier and had never been aired before.

Susan Collins, the only Republican Senator to the left of Murkowski (but Collins represents a Blue state, not a Red one like Alaska) voted to confirm Kavanaugh. She delivered a compelling argument in support of that vote. Murkowski, her fellow moderate, was unmoved.

Lisa Murkowski is the Arlen Specter of the Klondike, but even worse on judicial nominees (Spector defended Clarence Thomas and backed Samuel Alito). Alaska can do considerably better.

Donald Trump has, of course, endorsed a Republican challenger, Kelly Tshibaka. Does this give Tshibaka the upper hand?

I think so. Indeed, Tshibaka may have had it even before Trump got involved. In 2010, pre-Trump and pre-Kavanaugh vote, Murkowski lost the Alaska primary to hardcore conservative Joe Miller. Murkowski kept the seat by launching a successful write-in campaign with which Miller struggled to cope.

Its likely that Tshibaka will outdistance Murkowski in the primary by a considerable margin. But this time, Murkowski wont have to run as a write-in candidate in the general election.

Under Alaskas new voting system, there are no party primaries. Instead, theres a jungle-style primary after which the four top vote-getters, regardless of party, face off in the general election.

My guess, for what its worth as an outsider, is that, barring a scandal (Tshibaka recently was fined $270 for commercial fishing without a commercial fishing crew license, but that falls well short of a scandal) or meltdown, Tshibaka will outdistance Murkowski in the general election, too.

But might not this system open things up for a Democrat? It didnt in the three-way race back in 2010. The Democrat ran a distant third that year. If 2022 is a good year for the GOP, as its shaping up to be, history will likely repeat itself in that respect.

It seems less likely that history will repeat itself by producing another Murkowski victory. However, the Murkowski family is an Alaska dynasty, and Lisa can fairly be viewed as the familys brightest star. Thus, it would be rash to count her out, even with Trump as her adversary.
The Justice Departments Civil Rights Division has announced that it opened an environmental justice investigation into the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department. The DOJs press release states that the Civil Rights Division

will examine whether the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department operate their onsite wastewater disposal program and infectious diseases and outbreaks program in a manner that discriminates against Black residents of Lowndes County in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In addition:

The investigation will also examine whether the health departments policies and practices have caused Black residents of Lowndes County to have diminished access to adequate sanitation systems and to disproportionately and unjustifiably bear the risk of adverse health effects associated with inadequate wastewater treatment, such as hookworm infections.

Is there is a factual basis for conducting this noble-sounding investigation? I dont know. But I doubt that there is a legal basis for conducting it.

It seems from the press release that DOJ is relying on a theory of disparate impact discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964  i.e., that, while not intended to, the water system at issue disproportionately harms Blacks. But this assumes that Title VI authorizes disparate impact claims. I doubt that a majority of the Supreme Courts current justices would agree with that assumption.

In Alexander v. Sandoval, a 2001 case, the Supreme Court noted that interpreting Title VI to cover unintentional discrimination is in considerable tension with the fact that the Title VI statute itself prohibits only intentional discrimination. The Justice Department will rely on a regulation proclaiming that Title VI does authorize disparate impact claims. But the Court called strange the argument that executive agencies would have the authority to adopt regulations that purport to prohibit disparate impact on members of a specific racial group absent any evidence of intentional discrimination.

According to this discussion, ever since the Alexander v. Sandoval decision, the federal government has been very wary of proceeding with a Title VI [disparate impact] claim that could find its way through the courts and to the Supreme Court. And that analysis was written at a time when the Court was more liberal than it is now.

I suspect the Biden DOJ understands the considerable legal difficulty associated with bringing a disparate impact case under Title VI. But I also think the DOJ expects the targets of the Alabama investigation to roll over and settle, rather than incur the very substantial costs of litigating against the federal government. If so, the DOJ can accomplish its goal without having to litigate.

If/when this happens, Kristen Clarke and the rest of the leftist Biden DOJ gang will be able to crow about their victory in what the press release calls the Department of Justices first Title VI environmental justice investigation for one of the departments funding recipients. The public may (or may not) benefit from the victory. But the interests of real justice wont be served by the assertion of a lawless claim against targets that probably cant afford to defend against it.
Apparently the UN climate summit in Glasgow is still going on, long past the scene where Ferris Bueller comes out of the shower after the credits have finished asking Youre still here? Go home!

Most of the heads of state, and even some old codger named Obama, have long ago left and gone home, but fortunately Nancy Pelosi is on the spot to fill the void, though I did have to check to make sure this wasnt the Babylon Bee:

Pelosi Says Women Face Particular Dangers From Climate Change House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stated that climate change poses a greater risk to women than men across the world. [Climate change] is the existential threat of our time, Pelosi remarked Tuesday at COP26, the ongoing United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, according to The New York Times. Its a threat multiplier that amplifies and accelerates existing inequities. Eighty percent of people displaced by climate change globally are women.

Apparently Tuesday was gender day at COP 26, so it makes sense. Though this paragraph is fun:

The information cited by Pelosi appeared to originate from a 2018 U.N. report that referenced the 80% figure, but it is unclear which study the statistic came from. The report further concluded that women tend to be harmed more than men during cataclysmic climate events because they remain in the home while men are out in the open and cultural gender roles sometimes limit womens abilities to make quick decisions.

WaitIm still thinking this whole conference is one giant writers room meeting for the Babylon Bee. Its the only explanation that makes sense. How else to account for headlines like this:

How come climate justice is not being achieved? Looks like it is Saudi sabotage:

But as predicted here last week, once all the brave talk about how the time for words is over, there would be a tussle over the non-binding words COP 26 would actually put forth. Hence, no surprise here:

Expect the whole thing to take the same cycle as the previous 25, as explained here by our friends at the Global W arming Policy Foundation over in the UK:
James OKeefe et al. were raided under a federal search warrant procured by the FBI. Although OKeefe was instructed to remain mum, the authorities promptly leaked news of the raid to the New York Times. All this in the matter of Ashley Bidens diary.

Among the items seized in the raid were OKeefes cell phones. Fox News reports that a court order has enjoined the Department of Justice from extracting material without judicial oversight.

BREAKING! The federal court has just ordered the DOJ to STOP extracting data from our client, journalist James OKeefes phone, and ordered a hearing. Counsel for Project Veritas asked the court to do this yesterday! pic.twitter.com/nBrmf4myuj  Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 11, 2021

However, the FBI had already begun its excavation and followed up with its friends at the Times. Adam Goldman and Mark Mazzettis have the story based on leaked documents in todays paper.

Consider that the underlying case involved a lost or stolen diary. Compare it with the government misconduct involved in the leaks to the Times and the Timess exploitation of the leaks. As Will Chamberlain suggests, what we have here is a deeply disgusting Biden administration scandal in which the Times is an instrument and OKeefe/Project Veritas are the intended roadkill.

The FBI raided Project Veritas on a pretext and is now leaking their privileged communications to the New York Times This is a scandal pic.twitter.com/gll5PG4ShW  Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) November 12, 2021

UPDATE: What I write above needs to be supplemented by my follow-up here.
Ammo Grrrll waves BYE BYE, BONNETS. She writes:

You can only imagine the vast experiential knowledge a short, elderly woman raised in the 50s in a small Minnesota town has of street gangs. I do know from West Side Story that when youre a Jet, youre a Jet all the way, from your first cigarette to your last dying day. Those lyrics alone should suggest just how vicious the gangs were in 1957 when I was a pre-teen and that modern Romeo and Juliet story debuted. These were tough guys that SMOKED! Cigarettes! Im not even kidding. Very very bad boys.

In the Broadway hit and movie, the Puerto Rican gangstas wore purple shirts and tight black pants and danced in the streets. My teenage girlfriends and I used to sing and act out the whole West Side Story soundtrack. Hey, nobody had a television or video games, we had to make our own fun! We particularly enjoyed Officer Krupke: Officer Krupke, Im down on my knees. Cuz no one likes a fella with a social disease. Comedy Gold!

Judging by the current crop of brain-dead losers shooting up funerals, baby showers and freeways in Chicago, I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that there is considerably less dancing by the gangs of today. I certainly hope that on page 5,328 of the shovel-ready infrastructure bill there is a provision for more accurate target training for Crips and such so that these criminals only take out each other and not some little girls doing homework in their houses or jumping on a trampoline.

Many decades after West Side Story, my husband and I took in a black foster kid from Honduras. Since I worked at night, he and I went to a lot of gangsta movie matinees in the 90s. I was often one of very few white persons and even fewer adult women in the theater. Many of those gangsta movies were about dealing heroin or crack cocaine, sporting jewelry the size of hubcaps, having a lot of random, irresponsible sex and murdering rivals, always with the gun held horizontally like an idiot. No wonder they never hit their targets.

One common theme was of the trajectory of the lives of the gangstas. If they managed to survive long enough, they could kind of retire to a life of yuge respect as an O.G. or Original Gangsta. No matter how much cooler the young studs thought they were, they OWED respect and admiration to the ones who came before, the O.G.s. And it was enforced.

Not so much the current crop of mentally unbalanced feminists, some of whom are now men in dresses. The Revolution, it is said, always eats its young. You can never keep up with the latest zig or zag in orthodoxy.

First they came for the real pioneers of the feminist movement  Betty Friedan, Simone de Beauvoir, Germaine Greer, Kate Millett, Gloria Steinem. The O.G.s (Original Grifters) who are still alive were viciously turned on for not being radical ENOUGH and especially for being too white and too little woke. I mean, if you have a book called The Feminine Mystique, that might imply that there was a masculine mystique. Or The Second Sex, which would be an admission that there were only two sexes, which our current asylum-worthy ruling class has decided is about 55 sexes  and counting  too few.

Then they came for any woman who said aloud that testosterone gave men the advantage of being faster and stronger than women (Martina Navratilova). They quickly moved on to cancel any woman who was slightly concerned that even the WORD woman was being erased in order to cater to the Tampax in the Mens Room Crowd. Sakes alive, J. K. Rowling got swept up in that particular Stalinist purge because she dared to dream that there was still such a thing as a woman. Silly wabbit.

Luckily, J.K. is a billionaire who can tell the Twitter Mob to pound sand. The Mob has the attention span of a gnat, anyway, and so the moving finger Tweets, and, in the prescient quatrain of Omar Khayyamm (1048-1131), having Twit, moves on.

And so they did. Looking, looking, always looking for their next victim. Twitter is a humorless succubus, populated by legions of sad professional victims with no moral center, no lives of their own. Jack Dorsey would appear to be its perfect creator.

If I had had to bet which O.G. they would have attacked next, I would have lost the proverbial ranch. Because  wait for it  their target was 81-year old Canadian dowager MARGARET ATWOOD herself! Whom these brave Twitter warrior trans activists insulted, threatened and doxxed, publishing her home address for the crime of sharing an article that was slightly critical of them.

Poor Margaret is pure as the driven snow on her Climate bona fides. She is a vegetarian who admits to once in a while eating a fish or crustacean. And yet she is under the illusion that she is a WOMAN and can just toss that word around willy-nilly without the slightest nod to the mutilated men who will show her whats what.

London writer Erin Perse, in a PostMillenial article defending Ms. Atwood, showed an example of the kind of Twitter attack to which she has been subjected. Included in the article is a cartoon Twitter meme that goes like this: There are: Girls with penises; Boys with vulvas; and Transphobes without Kidneys. And shows a girl-like creature with a knife. Cute. How is that not a terroristic threat?

For those who never read the book (including me), Ms. Atwood wrote a wildly successful dystopian novel, The Handmaids Tale, about a time in the future (in America, but of course), when population has dropped drastically and the few fertile women left are forced to be breeders for important men. The Evil Male Theocrats In Charge would dress us the way ALL men like to see women  in ugly shapeless red dresses and throwback bonnets. Yikes.

Evidently, poor Margaret never saw an episode of Star Trek in which all future women, no matter what reptilian planet they hailed from, had enormous bazooms and clingy or revealing little outfits. At least one of them always fell madly, if inappropriately, in love with Captain Kirk.

So it looks like it may be Bye, bye to the bonnets as an adorable protest costume. Boy, if the women in bonnets could terrify legislators by scratching on the door of the Supreme Court, imagine how scary a lunatic like The Giant Hardware Store Freak in Eye Makeup who lost his mind over being called Sir would be?

Who will be next? Maybe start a Twitter war with Texan Ray Wylie Hubbard, who wrote Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother when he should have written Up Against the Wall, Neck of Color Birthing Person with a Cervix. Just FYI, Ray Wylies 75th birthday is tomorrow! You gotta love a guy whose autobiography is called A LifeWell, Lived.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59214544 > US women are being jailed for having miscarriages > ; 2021-11-12T00:40:00.000Z > When a 21-year-old Native American woman from Oklahoma was convicted > of manslaughter after having a miscarriage, people were outraged. But > she was not alone. > Brittney Poolaw was just about four months pregnant when she lost her > baby in the hospital in January 2020. [...] > When she arrived at hospital seeking treatment, Poolaw admitted to > using illicit drugs while pregnant. > Later, the medical examiner's report, obtained by the BBC, found > traces of methamphetamine in her unborn son's liver and brain. > The examiner did not determine a cause of death for the foetus, noting > genetic anomaly, placenta abruption or maternal methamphetamine use > could have been contributing factors. > Poolaw's lawyers say they will appeal her conviction. [...] > From 1973-2020, NAPW has recorded 1,600 such cases, with about 1,200 > occurring in the last 15 years alone. > Although some involved women who were arrested for things such as > falling down, or giving birth at home, the vast majority involved > drugs, [...] Dla mnie *proste* dopuszczenie jako dowodu tego co sie powiedziao lekarzowi to gwarancja ze pacjenci beda "mijac sie z prawda" jeszcze bardziej. -- A. Filip | Prawda jest jak wielka droga, dostepna dla kazdego. | (Przysowie chinskie)

2021-11-12 06:41:51

Re: A w USA kobiety za poronienia skazuja

Marcin Debowski <a...@I...zoho.com>

On 2021-11-12, A. Filip <a...@p...pl> wrote:

> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59214544

>> US women are being jailed for having miscarriages

>> ; 2021-11-12T00:40:00.000Z

>> When a 21-year-old Native American woman from Oklahoma was convicted

>> of manslaughter after having a miscarriage, people were outraged. But

>> she was not alone.

>> Brittney Poolaw was just about four months pregnant when she lost her

>> baby in the hospital in January 2020. [...]

>> When she arrived at hospital seeking treatment, Poolaw admitted to

>> using illicit drugs while pregnant.

>> Later, the medical examiner's report, obtained by the BBC, found

>> traces of methamphetamine in her unborn son's liver and brain.

>> The examiner did not determine a cause of death for the foetus, noting

>> genetic anomaly, placenta abruption or maternal methamphetamine use

>> could have been contributing factors.

>> Poolaw's lawyers say they will appeal her conviction. [...]

>> From 1973-2020, NAPW has recorded 1,600 such cases, with about 1,200

>> occurring in the last 15 years alone.

>> Although some involved women who were arrested for things such as

>> falling down, or giving birth at home, the vast majority involved

>> drugs, [...]

>

> Dla mnie *proste* dopuszczenie jako dowodu tego co sie powiedziao

> lekarzowi to gwarancja ze pacjenci beda "mijac sie z prawda" jeszcze

> bardziej.



W sensie, ze jakby nie powiedziaa, to nie zrobili by jej badan na

dragi?



--

Marcin


The ongoing alleged rape case of Yoruba actor, Olanrewaju Imiyinka, popularly known as Baba Ijesha, has been adjourned for the fifth time in three months.

The hearing of the case was originally billed for Friday at the Ikeja special offences court in Lagos.

Shortly after the case was adjourned, Baba Ijeshas lawyer, Babatunde Ogala, told PREMIUM TIMES that the case was adjourned because the prosecution counsel had failed to produce their last set of witnesses in court.

Mr Ogala said the prosecution witness, a police officer, was recently transferred to Badagry and was therefore unable to make it down to Ikeja for the hearing on Friday.

He said: The Counsel to the Directorate of Public Prosecution, Olayinka Adeyemi, said that the witnesses who were supposed to be the last witnesses for the prosecution counsel were absent in court. This is because one of the witnesses, a police officer, was recently transferred to Badagry from Yaba. Efforts to bring her to court were abortive because she is yet to document her transfer.

The name of the witnesses was not revealed since they did not appear in court.

This informed the judge, Oluwatoyin Taiwos, decision to adjourn the hearing to November 19, 2021 and December 2, 2021, respectively to enable the prosecution counsel to present their last two witnesses.

Baba Ijesha and his accuser, Princess, were both present in court.

Baba Ijesha seems to have a long way to justice as he has been facing trial since July for allegedly molesting a minor seven years ago.

The survivor is the foster daughter of his female colleague, Adekola Adekanya, also known as Princess.

Background

The trial has been trailed with several shocking revelations from forensic reports and medical reports conducted on the survivor and police reports.

The court is yet to hear from Baba Ijeshas witnesses.

Baba Ijesha was arrested on April 22 and later released on May 17.

He was charged on six counts of sexual assault by penetration, indecent treatment of a child, and sexual assault, which contravene sections 259, 135, and 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011, as well as 135, 263, and 262 Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.
Pensioners in Ogun State have again stormed the Governors office in Oke Mosan to disrupt government activities by locking the main gate into the State Secretariat in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The pensioners, under the umbrella of the Local Government Pensioners Association of Nigeria (LOGPAN), have been protesting for months, the non-payment of their 10 years outstanding N68 billion gratuities.

It would be recalled that the pensioners have protested over their unpaid gratuity three times in about four months.

In September, they blocked the two main gates of the secretariat leading to the seat of power in the state.

Also in June, the pensioners clashed with some security agents who shut them out of the state secretariat when they were advancing towards the Governors office, as part of their protests against delayed gratuities.

Another protest

The retirees staged another protest on Thursday and this time, they demanded an audience with Governor Dapo Abiodun.

After overwhelming the security agents at the gate, the protesters took over the entrance, preventing the entrance and exit of anyone.

The new State Head of Service, Nafiu Aigoro, led the state officials to appeal to the aggrieved protesting senior civil servants.

Speaking with them, Mr Aigoro promised that they (government) will ensure a good life for them, despite numerous challenges currently being faced by the government.

The Head of Service also told them that the current administration was not ignorant of their plight.

This government will always prioritise the welfare of the pensioners and ensure regular payment of their pensions despite the dwindling financial situation being witnessed in the state and the country at large, he said.

Mr Aigoro, who is just about three days in office, also promised to organise a meeting between the governor and the local government retirees within a few weeks.

Within the next couple of weeks, we would get an audience with the governor to resolve all outstanding issues, he said, adding that as a promise-keeping administration, no stone will be left unturned to ensure workers and pensioners wellbeing and welfare.

Responding, the State Chairman of the Local Government Pensioners Association of Nigeria (LOGPAN) Sikiru Ayilara, appealed to the state government to find a lasting solution to the payment of monthly pensions, gratuities, review of monthly pensions, and the resuscitation of Board of Bureau of Local Government Pensions, amongst others.

He also noted that although the government had made efforts by releasing N500 million quarterly, that wont be enough until the governor meets pensioners to discuss some issues including the increase in the monthly pension.
Nigeria had an estimated population of 206 million as of 2020, according to the National Population Commission (NPC), and is projected to become the third most populous nation after China and India by 2050. The 2014 World Urbanisation Prospects also predicts that by 2050, 77 per cent of the countrys population will be urban.

But the population growth is not matched by economic growth, especially in infrastructure and job opportunities. This has been identified as a major factor in the security, poverty and other crises that have befallen Africas most populous country.

However, despite the existential threat, the Nigerian government does not seem to see an urgent need for family planning. For instance, President Muhammadu Buharis 2022 budget proposal has no provision for family planning.

The proposal allocates less than five per cent of the total budget to health, sustaining the countrys refusal to meet the commitment made by African leaders under the Abuja Declaration to allocate at least 15 per cent of annual spendings to the sector.

The budget proposes a total of N816 billion for public expenditure in the health sector, representing about 4.93 per cent of the N16.39 trillion budget, but there is no single line item for family planning.

Nigeria has failed to achieve the Family Planning (FP) target of enabling more women and girls of reproductive age to have access to contraceptives by the year 2020 partly because the government has repeatedly failed to meet its counterpart funding commitment for the goal, thereby hindering progress.

The Nigerian governments refusal to include funding for family planning in the 2022 budget also occurs despite the country losing a key international funder for its family planning needs. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the UK government ended its annual three million pounds to fund family planning in Nigeria.

Between 2012 and 2020, the UK government pledged and paid into the Nigeria FP commodities basket fund a total of 21million pounds for the procurement of FP commodities. UK government support contributed to saving the lives of millions of Nigerian women who would otherwise be unable to delay pregnancies and be at risk of maternal death, Minnie Oseji, the National President of the Medical Women Association of Nigeria under the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health At Scale, said.

The governments failure to include FP funding in the 2022 budget also occurs despite the country launching a new Family Planning Blueprint (2020-2024) on October 12, 2020. The blueprint is Nigerias roadmap for safe motherhood through the healthy timing offered by modern FP commodities.

But efforts to get the reaction of the health ministry on why family planning received no funding in the 2022 proposal yielded no positive result.

On Thursday, PREMIUM TIMES attempted to speak to the minister but the ministrys spokesperson, Olusegun Adesola, said the director of family health unit in the ministry, Salma Ibrahim, was in the position to respond to questions on family planning.

Though Mr Adesola provided the telephone number of the director, Ms Ibrahim could not be reached at the time of filing this report. All calls put across to her phone did not go through and neither did she respond to our reporters text messages many hours after they were sent.

The budget proposal

The 2022 budget proposal of N16.39 trillion represents a 12.9 per cent increase over the N14.57 trillion appropriated for 2021. However, the capital budget falls by 9.04 per cent. And out of the three key development sectors, including security and education, health has the lowest allocation in the 2022 proposal.

The N816 billion proposed for health amounts to just 4.93 per cent of the total budget proposal. The allocation comprises N462.63 billion (57 per cent) for recurrent expenditure and N194.60 billion (24 per cent) for capital projects. There is also N104.87 (13 per cent) for Service Wide Votes for health care, such as grants from the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation (GAVI) to support immunization and N54 billion (six per cent) for Basic Health Provision Fund (BHCPF).

While the proposed 2022 health budget is higher in actual amount than the N547 billion for the outgoing year, it is lower as a percentage of the total budget. The 2021 health budget is about seven per cent of the national budget of N13.08 trillion, but the 2022 proposed allocation is less than five per cent of the total estimates.

Despite alternative funding from service-wide vote (contingency budget) and Nigerias Basic Health Care Provision Fund, federal allocation to the health sector in Nigeria has never surpassed seven per cent of annual budgets. The peak of 6.2 per cent recorded in the 2012 budget is still far below the 15 per cent commitment of the Abuja Declaration.

Family planning advocates kick

Recently, the Partnership for Advocacy on Child and Family Health (PACFaH@Scale), a coalition of 23 civil society organisations, gathered in Abuja to review the budget proposal.

The health advocates noted that the budget seems not to have any specific information or plan to address family planning and the threat of population explosion in Nigeria, warning that lack of funding would adversely affect ongoing family planning targets and services deemed the silver bullet for Nigerias burgeoning population.

In a joint release signed by Okai Haruna Aku, the executive director, Parenthood Federation of Nigeria, the coalition said the omission of specific funding for family planning in the proposed budget may scuttle future targets if not addressed.

With a rapidly growing population rate confronted by pandemic, epidemic, climate change, food insecurity and social uprisings, the entire budget has no mention of specific budget line item for family planning, child spacing, provision of contraceptives or public awareness campaign on child spacing, the statement said.

According to an analysis by PACFaH@Scale, a coalition anchored under the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC), the total estimated healthcare investment on a Nigerian in the proposed 2022 budget is as low as N11 per day.

The group said despite the increase over the 2021 budgets monetary figures, the 2022 proposal, when measured as a percentage of the total spending plan, is still a far cry from the 15 per cent Nigeria agreed with other African nations in 2001 to set aside in their annual budgets for the sector.

The bulk of the proposed budget will be consumed by recurrent expenditure  that is, payment of workers salaries, training of staff, cost of running offices and other related matters, leaving a lesser amount for the much needed critical intervention to revamp the countrys ailing health sector.

Health experts described the spending proposal as inadequate, considering the enormous health challenges Nigeria is facing, warning that poor funding undermines the countrys coronavirus response and will severely impact already strained services.

Abuja Declaration

In April 2001 in Abuja, African heads of states and governments under the African Union (AU) made a commitment to a benchmark of 15 per cent allocation of annual budgets to the health sector.

While countries like Rwanda and South Africa have met the commitment by allocating at least 15 per cent of their total budgets to health, Nigeria has not found the way or the will to do so.

A review of the budgetary allocation to the health sector in the last 20 years revealed that Nigeria has never met the 15 per cent target agreed in the Abuja Declaration.

Allocation to the sector in the 2022 proposed budget is just 4.93 per cent of the entire budget. This is even in spite of the biting consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 pandemic

The 2022 budget proposal came at a time when the world is still battling the COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected 212,359 persons in Nigeria, killing about 2,900 people. A sum of N45.81 billion was budgeted for various COVID-19 interventions in the 2022 proposal.

The amount, mainly from the health capital budget, constitutes about 23.54 per cent of the total capital budget for health and 5.6 per cent of the overall 816.15 billion health budget.

Meanwhile, there is no specific budget line for the procurement of vaccines. Nigeria, like many other African countries, leaned heavily on COVAX, the WHO vaccine distribution programme, for donated vaccine doses. The African Union also buys vaccines for its members under the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT).

But both COVAX and AVATT have been struggling to get vaccines with manufacturers such as Moderna, which have been accused of prioritising bilateral deals with richer countries, leaving African nations at the end of the queue.

Health experts speak

A public health expert with the Department of Family Medicine, Federal Medical Centre, Nguru, Yobe State, Adamu Alhassan, said the budget cannot cover everything in the health sector. He said the compounding factor of the COVID-19 pandemic is enough for the health sector to get a higher allocation.

This is the time for the government to be committed to improving the budgetary allocation to health. I hope that the government will do the needful in the supplementary budget, he said.

Mr Alhassan said although there is an increment from the 2021 budget, The reality is that we are still not anywhere considering the fact that in the 2021 budget, only about 4.18 per cent was allocated to health.

Unfortunately, this is where we are in Nigeria and this is a major reason why we are still struggling to develop in terms of health infrastructure and development, in terms of human resources and development and in terms of welfare for the health workers.

This is also the reason health workers are becoming frustrated and going to other countries where they have better conditions of service, he said.

The National Coordinator of Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN), Aminu Magashi, said it will be very difficult to achieve the 15 per cent budgetary allocation pledged by African leaders. He noted that though the percentage is still around five per cent, the health budget for 2022 has increased compared to 2021.

Reacting to a question on whether the proposed allocation will go far in the fight against COVID-19 and meeting other health sector needs, he said; The allocated fund will not be adequate to address the COVID-19 pandemic and address the emergency nature of the health sector. But if it is efficiently utilised, the funds will go a long way to tackle issues in the health sector.

Mr Magashi pointed out the need to ensure that provision of family planning commodities is adequately catered for in the 2022 approved budget.

Downward trend

In the past few years, budgetary allocation to the health sector has indicated a downward trend.

In 2016, the Federal Government had a budget of N6.06 trillion, out of which it earmarked N550 billion to the health sector. The amount represented 4.1 per cent of the budget.

In 2017, the total national budget was N7.4 trillion. The health sector got N304.1 billion, representing 4.0 per cent. In 2018, the National budget was N8.6 trillion of which the health sector got N340 billion, representing 3.9 per cent. The budget remained low in 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively even as the country struggles to contain the pandemic.
Boko Haram insurgents have released two men, including a Yobe State government official, who they kidnapped four months ago.

Ali Shehu, aka Mai Lalle, a protocol officer with the state government, and his friend, identified only as Mustapha, were abducted alongside two Nigerian soldiers along the Maiduguri-Damaturu road on July 24.

The insurgents later executed the two soldiers.

The two men were released on Thursday evening amidst speculations that ransom was paid for their release.

A family source who asked not to be named confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that the two men were reunited with their families on Thursday evening.

Mai Lalle and Mustapha were freed this evening and are now with their family members. They have to undergo a medical check-up but that will be handled at a confidential level, the source informed.

Asked to confirm the speculation that a huge ransom was paid to the abductors, the source was evasive.

The most important thing is the fact that they are out of the hands of Boko Haram. My brother, lets pray that this kind of thing does not happen to anyone close to you, the source said.

Friends, family members and colleagues of the government official have been celebrating his release on social media since the news broke Thursday evening.

The state government and the police are yet to make official statements on the development.
Barely a month after collecting N11 million as ransom for the release of 20 people they kidnapped in Gatawa, bandits on Wednesday returned to the town and abducted five people.

They are now demanding N500,000 as ransom for the release of the victims, multiple sources in the town have said.

Gatawa, in Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State, was until recently one of the communities in the state spared by the bandits.

But the town has now come into the focus of attacks by the outlaws.

In Wednesdays attack, a resident who asked not to be named over security concerns, told PREMIUM TIMES that the bandits did not kill anyone but were only interested in raising funds.

They came in the early morning around 8 a.m. when most people were just coming out of their houses. They shot severally into the air before they started taking people hostage. When they gathered a number of people, they decided to let all the women go but went away with five men. After they left, they sent a message that we should gather N500,000 as ransom, the source said.

He said Gatawa is among the communities asked by the bandits last month to contribute N20 million as ransom for those kidnapped from the communities. He said Gatawa town contributed N11 million at the time.

A university lecturer and journalist, Mansur Isa, confirmed the situation to this newspaper.

The bandits have directed the people of Gatawa between today (Thursday) and Monday to bring the ransom. Every household has been taxed N2,500 but the money may not be enough so they are now reaching out to people from the town who reside elsewhere so they can realise the money on time, Mr Isa said.

Residents said the bandits also directed another community in the area, Tarah, to pay N7 million as its own levy.

Usman Tarah, a resident of the town, said the bandits sent a message on Tuesday and people started gathering the cash.

Bandits that we believe to be loyal to Bello Turji have asked us for seven million naira. The neglect of the worsening insecurity in some parts of Sokoto by governments is not only giving the bandits unhindered opportunity to kill and steal, but guaranteeing easy recruits into banditry. What we are witnessing now is only the tip of an iceberg of a devastating sequel, Mr Tarah said.

Mohammed Shehu, another indigene of Tarah, said they were surprised when they got the message from the bandits directing them to raise the ransom, because none of their people was kidnapped.

We dont know why we were asked to pay seven million naira by the bandits and they too did not say anything as to why we are being taxed. But you know we cant ask questions, he said.

The police spokesperson in Sokoto, Sanusi Abubakar, did not pick calls to his phone or respond to SMS seeking his comment for this report.
A former acting Director-General of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research (FIIRO), Chima Igwe, on Friday pleaded not guilty to three count charges including certificate forgery.

Mr Igwe was arraigned at the Ikeja Special Offences Court by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).

He was appointed the acting DG of the institute on May 13, 2019, and sacked in February 2020 after failing to present his PhD certificate more than 17 years after claiming to have bagged the degree, according to Punch newspaper.

He received several promotions based on the purported certificate. His alleged offence came into the limelight when his colleagues petitioned the ICPC.

According to information on the institutes website, the 57-year-old joined as a Research Officer 1 and rose through the ranks to become the Director of Chemical Fibre and Environmental Technology Department in June 2010.

Count 1

He was charged for knowingly giving a document with false information with the intent to deceive the principle contrary to and punishable under Section 17(1)(c) of the Corrupt Practices and Oth Related Offences Act, 2000.

According to the charge sheet, the suspect while being a public officer with the institute intentionally submitted an attestation letter signifying the completion of PhD Degree programme from the University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC), Republic of Benin.

Count 2

He was also accused of using his office to confer an undue advantage to himself which got him many promotions thereby upgrading him to the directorate level. An offence contrary to and punishable under Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

Count 3

The suspect was charged for making a false statement to one Andrew Osove, a detective with the ICPC.

The offence is punishable under section 25(1) (a) and punishable under section 25 (1) (b) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000,

He pleaded not guilty to all three count charges.

Bail

The judge, Sherifat Solebo in her ruling, granted his bail application of N500,000 and two sureties with verifiable residential addresses in Lagos.

He has been remanded until he fulfils his bail conditions.

The case was adjourned until February 21 to 24, 2022.
Four members from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday joined eight of their colleagues from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in boycotting the plenary session of the Plateau State House of Assembly presided over by new Speaker Yakubu Sanda.

The lawmakers action was a protest against the removal of Nuhu Abok as Speaker in controversial circumstances last month.

Mr Sanda, who called the first plenary since his election two weeks ago, arrived at the assembly complex alongside 11 APC members at 11: 40 a.m. and entered the chamber at 12:12 p.m.

Prominent among the APC absentees is the house deputy majority leader, Philip Dasun.

The 23-member Assembly has been polarised by the controversial impeachment of Mr Abok, with four of the 16 APC members breaking ranks with their party caucus in the Assembly.

Mr Abok was removed on Thursday, October 28, when six APC lawmakers sneaked into the Assembly chambers at dawn amidst tight security.

They declared that they had impeached the Speaker and elected Mr Sanda, the member representing Pengana state constituency of Bassa Local Government Area, in his place.

They accused Mr Abok of financial mismanagement and despotic leadership, claiming that the change had the endorsement of 16 lawmakers.

However, a PDP lawmaker representing Jos south constituency, Fom Gwotson, debunked the claims, saying all the PDP members and four others from the APC were standing behind Mr Abok.

The stalemate has since continued with the security agents offering protection to the new speaker and the lawmakers supporting him.
The police have confirmed that suspected bandits abducted two children from a shop on Wednesday night at the business centre of the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna in Niger State.

The police spokesperson in the state, Wasiu Abiodun, said the police and a vigilante group have launched an aggressive manhunt of the criminals.

Mr Abiodun said one suspect was intercepted and arrested in a stop and search operation at Bakota village, in connection with the incident.

A witness said the gunmen raided the business centre located outside the university campus on Wednesday night and stole foodstuff and other valuables.

A student of FUT Minna, identified simply as Barber, was reportedly killed in the raid but the police did not confirm the incident.

A resident, who declined to be named for security reasons, said the deceased student came out at night to urinate when he was attacked with a cutlass and died Wednesday morning from the injuries.

Other witnesses said the gunmen arrived at the area and escaped through the bush surrounding the university.

Though the incident has created fear in the university community, the authorities of the institution are yet to comment on the incident.
The Kano High Court in Kano has awarded N50 million damages to the family of a detainee who was tortured to death in the cell of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

Mustapha Muhammad, then 28 years old, died in SARS custody in Kano on September 14, 2019, his brother, Abdulkarim Muhammad, said in the affidavit filed along with the suit.

Delivering judgement on Tuesday, the judge, Y.M. Ubale, granted nine out of the 10 prayers sought by the deceased persons family.

Although the family sought N100 million damages, the judge awarded N50million compensation in their favour.

The judge also ruled that the act of concealing Mustaphas death from his family amounted to a deprivation of the deceaseds religious rights, which as a Muslim, required that he be quickly buried.

How my brother died

Mr Muhammad, in whose name the family of the deceased instituted the rights enforcement suit, had in his affidavit evidence told the court that his brother was tortured to death by SARS operatives in Kano.

He, however, said the SARS officers, in a bid to conceal the circumstances of the death, said that Mustapha died of stomachache and went further to procure a fake medical certificate to cover their tracks.

Mr Muhammad added that they falsely claimed that his brother died on September 27, 2019, contrary to the entry in the mortuarys records showing that he died earlier on September 14, 2019.

According to him, days after the deceased person died, the police refused to inform any member and continued to receive money and food for the days till when the family got to know Muhammad had passed on.

Suit

The familys lawyer, Abba Hikima, in October 2019, sued the Kano Police Command demanding N100 million damages over the killing of Muhammad.

Mr Hikima noted that SARS tortured Mr Muhammad to death and refused to inform the family.

The lawyer sought a declaration that the torture and killing of Muhammad by the police without recourse to the law amount to unlawful, arbitrary and unconstitutional contravention of the fundamental rights of the deceased guaranteed under sections 33 and 34 of the Nigerian constitution.

He also sought an order of the court to award the sum of N100,000,000 as damages payable by the police to the deceased through his family.

The federal government and the 36 state governors had, through the platform of the National Executive Council (NEC) chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, agreed to set up panels of enquiry in the various states in the wake of the nationwide #EndSARS protests against police brutality in October 2020.

But Kano is among the five states in the North-west region, that did not inaugurate the #EndSARS panel probing rights violations perpetrated by SARS and other police units.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) presented the certificate of return to the Anambra State governor-elect, Charles Soludo and his deputy, Gilbert Ibezim, on Friday.

INEC on Wednesday declared Mr Soludo, the candidate of the Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), as the winner of the governorship election held on 6 November as well as the 9 November supplementary election in Ihiala Local Government Area of the state.

He led the poll with 112,229 votes while his closest rival, Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came a distant second with 53,807 votes.

Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress (APC) came third with 43,285 votes while Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) was fourth with 21,261 votes.

Messrs Soludo and Ibezim received their certificates at the INEC state office in Awka, the capital of Anambra, in company of key supporters.

At the event, the supervising national commissioner for the state election, Festus Okoye, said the presentation was in compliance with Section 75 of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) although the tenure of the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, will not expire until March 17, 2022.

There is no doubt that the Commission conducted the 6th and 9th November 2021 Governorship election in difficult circumstances. Indeed, the election was conducted in a challenging environment accentuated by fear, anxiety and uncertainty occasioned by political agitation in the south-east geopolitical zone.

As we all know, agitations of this kind occur often in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural political settings where identities are politically mobilised in the struggle for power and resources and sometimes in the desire for a just and equitable society, he noted.

Mr Okoye reiterated the commissions confidence in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) despite the fears expressed by some Nigerians owing to the glitches recorded during the 6 November poll.

With specific reference to genuine concerns expressed by citizens on the performance of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the February 6, 2021 Anambra governorship election, the Commission wishes to state categorically that it stands to benefit from such criticisms and promises that these challenges will be addressed as was evident in the improved functionality of the BVAS in the supplementary election in Ihiala Local Government Area.

We are confident in our judgment that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System will remain a fundamental feature of our accreditation process as it will consign into the dustbin of history worrisome incidents of multiple voting and identity theft that in the past denied the countrys electoral process the desired public trust and confidence. On this note, the Commission will continue to improve on and perfect the technology for subsequent and future elections, he said.
The European Union has announced that it will continue to rely on natural gas as it transitions from coal and fossil fuel as a source of energy.

The EUs stance is similar to the position held by Nigerias Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, who has argued that international funding for natural gas should not be stopped for developing countries like Nigeria as the world transitions from fossil fuels.

The EUs position was made public Thursday in a press conference at the ongoing COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

According to Bloomberg, European Union climate chief, Frans Timmermans, gave the signal that the bloc is considering a role for natural gas under its green rulebook for investments, setting up a clash with some national governments and climate activists.

Mr Timmermans was quoted as saying that an exit from coal for some member states, like Poland, would require an intermediary stage using natural gas. It would be subject to strict conditions, including pre-fitting pipelines so that they can carry hydrogen and de-carbonized gases after the transition from natural gas ends.

According to a report by Friends of the earth, EUs support to controversial gas projects rather than stopping subsidies for fossil fuels will see renewed support and taxpayers money given to unnecessary and climate-damaging fossil fuels for the next two years and potentially much longer.

According to Bloomberg, Environmental groups have criticized the potential inclusion of natural gas in the EUs so-called taxonomy, the set of rules determining whether certain investments can be classified as green.

They say that it would result in the bloc avoiding its responsibility to keep global warming below 1.5-degrees Celsius, and that it may open the door to also include nuclear energy.

Portugals Environment Minister Joao Pedro Matos Fernandes said the EUs gas policy is not safe Its not safe, its not sustainable and it costs a lot of money. There are many other options, especially wind and solar.

Osibajo has been saying the same

The EUs position is similar to what Nigerias vice president has been echoing for a few weeks before COP26.

Mr Osinbajo argued that developed countries decision to stop funding fossil fuel investment abroad is an unfair position, especially because these wealthy nations have profited from oil and gas for many decades.

According to Mr Osinbajo, a global transition away from carbon-based fuels must account for the economic differences between countries and allow for multiple pathways to net-zero emissions.

For countries such as my own, Nigeria, which is rich in natural resources but still energy poor, the transition must not come at the expense of affordable and reliable energy for people, cities, and industry. To the contrary, it must be inclusive, equitable, and justwhich means preserving the right to sustainable development and poverty eradication, as enshrined in global treaties such as the 2015 Paris climate accord, he said.

Mr Osinbajos position was later supported by the African Development Bank and some American scientists.

Also, in his presidential speech at the climate conference, President Muhamadu Buhari reiterated Nigerias government plan to leverage gas in its transition process away from fossil fuel.

Mr Buhari said even though parties to the Paris agreement are expected to transition from fossil fuel to clean energy and reach a net-zero ambition for greenhouse gas emission, Nigeria is actually more of a gas than oil producing country and requires financing of projects using transition fuel such as gas.

Nigeria has developed a detailed energy transition plan and roadmap based on data and evidence, our transition plan also highlights the key role that gas will play in transitioning our economy across sectors and the data and evidence show Nigeria can continue to use gas until 2040 without detracting from the goals of the Paris agreement, Mr Buhari said.

Many countries do not state their true emission figures

According to a recent investigation by Washington Post, many countries of the world are underreporting their greenhouse gas emissions in their reports to the United Nations.

An examination of 196 country reports reveals a giant gap between what nations declare their emissions to be and the greenhouse gases they are sending into the atmosphere. The gap ranges from at least 8.5 billion to as high as 13.3 billion tons a year of underreported emissions  big enough to move the needle on how much the Earth will warm, the report stated.

The plan to save the world from the worst of climate change is built on data. But the data the world is relying on is inaccurate, the report revealed.
The police have said the Vanguard newspaper journalist, Tordue Salem, who went missing a month ago, was knocked by a hit and run driver.

Spokesperson of the police, Frank Mba, disclosed this on Friday while parading the driver, Itoro Clement.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported that Mr Salem, a reporter covering the House of Representatives for the Vanguard newspaper, was last seen on 13 October in the Garki district of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Mr Salems body was found on Thursday more than a month after he went missing.

The police said the 29-year-old Mr Clement was arrested following an investigation carried out by the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB).

He said the suspect who was driving a 2004 Model Camry with number plate BWR 243 BK confessed to have hit Mr Salem about 10:00 p.m. on the night of 13 October around Mabushi area in Abuja, but ran away.

I thought it was an armed robber that I knocked down until the following day when I saw a smashed phone on my windscreen. The phone was not working again so I threw it away, Mr Clement said.

Explaining why he did not wait after the accident; Mr Clement claimed that the area where the incident occurred is notorious for criminal activities.

The place I knocked this person down is a criminal place; everybody knows that place, he said.

The police had earlier on October 25 promised it would find the journalist when the FCT chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) staged a peaceful demonstration in front of the police headquarters in Abuja.

We are as concerned as journalists and members of the family. We have commenced investigation and we have done everything humanly and technologically possible to ensure he is found.

We have interrogated at least six persons and we have traced the places he visited after he left the National Assembly.

We have spoken with the last person he had encountered. We are imploring members of the family, public and journalists that this is an active investigation. We have a choice not to speak so as not to jeopardise our investigation. This has explained our silence over the time, Mr Mba said at the time.

Upon resumption of plenary session on Tuesday, the Senate, in a resolution, asked the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali, to investigate the circumstances leading to the disappearance of the journalist.

This followed the adoption of a point of order by Emmanuel Orker-Jev (PDP, Benue- North).

Citing order 42 and 52 of the Senate Rules, Mr Jev said On October 13 between 8-9pm, Salem went missing and all phone contact with him ceased.

He said efforts by his family, friends and colleagues to trace his whereabouts proved abortive.

The House also passed a resolution urging the security agencies to intensify efforts to locate Mr Salem.

The resolution was a sequel to a unanimous adoption of an Urgent Motion of Public Importance raised by Ndudi Elumelu (PDP-Delta) at the plenary on Tuesday.

Mr Elumelu said Mr Salem reported for work on the fateful day and was last seen in Garki District before his sudden disappearance.

The lawmaker said his disappearance was immediately reported to the security agencies after all efforts by family and friends to find him proved abortive.

In spite of official efforts by the leadership of the House to galvanise the security agencies to resolve his disappearance, there has been no headway.

This sudden disappearance is an extension of the deteriorating insecurity in the nations capital and again questions the efficiency of the security operatives.

If necessary measures are not put in place to curtail the indiscriminate disappearances of innocent Nigerians living in Abuja, the FCT would soon become a breeding ground for kidnapers and bandits, hence the need for urgent investigation, he said.

The lawmaker said he was moved by emotions to sponsor the motion when the daughter of the missing journalist cried out on his birthday when she could not call her dad as usual.
On Wednesday, PREMIUM TIMES, alongside its partner, Strictly Speaking- a media and English Language training organisation, held the first episode of its intervention roundtable on Nigerias education sector.

The weekly forum, which is tagged, The Dialogue, and anchored by a veteran broadcaster and team lead for Strictly Speaking, Bimbo Oloyede, featured various journalists who have recently published investigative reports on different challenges facing basic education in Nigeria.

The first six episodes of the programme, which focuses on basic education, are sponsored by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism. It is targeted at advancing conversations around investigative reports sponsored by the centre and aimed at mobilising for meaningful impacts.

During the first session, which held between 11a.m and 12noon, journalists gave vivid descriptions of the rotten state of the basic education subsector, dwelling on the issues of insecurity, poor infrastructure, poor funding, teacher quality and welfare, and misplacement of priorities and wrong implementation plans on the part of policymakers and implementers.

Infrastructural decay

Nura Fago, a reporter with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) based in the North-eastern state of Bauchi, said the state of infrastructure in both primary and secondary schools in the state could simply be described as pathetic.

He said in some of the schools he visited about 250 pupils sit in a classroom, and that registers are no longer marked by the teachers due to the pupil-ratio rate.

Mr Fago said in a particular school that shares a fence with the Bauch States house of assembly quarters, pupils sit on bare floors to learn.

This shows that there has not been commitment in the education sector to accommodate the exponential growth in population of this country.

I went round 12 LGAs in Bauchi State and the situation is the same, not only in primary school but in junior secondary schools. Kids are forced to go to school with their prayer mats so they sit on them, he said.

Insecurity

Mojeed Alabi, the development desk editor at PREMIUM TIMES, said the problem of poor infrastructure in schools has been compounded by insecurity.

Mr Alabi said the frequent violent attack on schools in the Northern part of Nigeria continues to pose a great threat to the education institutions.

He, however, said these attacks are no longer restricted to only the North with southern states also reporting attacks on schools in recent times.

He said: During a recent visit to Maiduguri, I met teachers who last visited their schools in 2014. About 20 primary schools, three secondary schools were burnt down in Abadam LGA in Borno State. This has given rise to displacement.

Unfortunately, the issue of insecurity is no longer restricted to the North. States across Nigeria are reporting one clash or the other and this has prevented children from going to school. It is either about sit-at-home-order in the southeast or herder-farmers clashes that are forcing schools to shut down in the southern parts.

In the same development, Juliana Francis, a crime editor with New Telegraph newspaper, said while mass abduction is taking place in the North, kidnapping is ravaging the south.

And apart from abductions and kidnappings, there are also cases of violent cultism among school pupils which is also forcing pupils out of school. Yet, insecurity is a violation of the right to education, Mrs Francis said.

Focus on special schools

Eniola Adenitan, a journalist with the FRCN in South-west, said the special schools meant for people with disabilities are also in a terrible state.

Mr Adenitan said a visit to Osun, Ekiti, and Ondo States shows that these schools are not in good conditions suitable for able bodied children not to talk of those who are physically challenged.

He said: Osun state has nine special schools where an integrated special school system is practiced. The blind, deaf, mentally unstable persons are put together in an environment. Yet, the infrastructure is in bad shape across the schools.

Whether in Ondo, Osun or Ekiti, the infrastructure in these schools can be said to be appalling. Erosion has destroyed the environment and in my presence visually impaired students were falling down due to bad topographies.

The organisers of the programme said the next two episodes will focus on the challenges of insecurity in schools and that relevant stakeholders including government officials, representatives of development partners, parents and reporters will feature to make achievable commitments.
There is a thick fog of grief at the family residence of Tordue Salem, a Nigerian journalist who vanished a month ago, and only declared dead on Thursday night.

Elizabeth Kuraun, the deceased journalists elder sister, was overwhelmed by grief when PREMIUM TIMES reporter visited Godab Estate at the Life Camp area of Abuja, where Mr Salem lived until his disappearance on October 13, 2021.

As family friends and neighbours thronged the house, grief-stricken Mrs Kuraun expressed disbelief over the tragic fate that has befallen her brother.

Mr Salem, until his death, was the Vanguard newspaper journalist covering the House of Representatives.

I only got to know about my brothers killing through media reports last night (Thursday), Mrs Kuraun said.

There was neither any formal communication from the Nigerian police nor from Tordues employer (Vanguard Newspaper) that my brother has died, the distraught sister of the deceased journalist told this reporter as her eyes reddened in anger on Friday afternoon in Abuja.

Vanguard Newspaper had, on Thursday, broken the tragic news of Mr Salems passing, saying details about his death remained sketchy.

But by Friday afternoon, the Nigeria Police Force announced that Mr Salem was allegedly killed by a hit-and-run driver.

Police spokesperson, Frank Mba, while parading the suspect, Itoro Clement, a 29-year-old driver, on Friday, said investigation by the Force Intelligence Bureau, led to his arrest.

Mr Clement admittedly confessed during the media parade that he knocked a pedestrian down arround Mabushi, Abuja about 10 p.m on October 13, the day Mr Salem went missing in Abuja.

He said he never bothered to wait to attend to the victim because he presumed he was an armed robber, since, in his reckoning, the area was known to be a hive of criminal activities.

The police spokesperson explained that Mr Clement was driving a 2004 Toyota Camry with number plate BWR 243 BK.

He said Mr Clement confessed to have hit the deceased journalist around Mabushi area in Abuja but fled for fear of being robbed.

The suspect also claimed to have reported the incident at a police check, where he was advised to report himself at the Wuse Police Station in Abuja, but ignored the advice and went home.

The deceased

Mr Salem hailed from Benue State, North-Central Nigeria.

His remains were found on Thursday, November 11, nearly a month after he was declared missing.

Sources in Abuja, who pleaded anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the issue, told this reporter that they received phone calls from the police on Thursday, requesting to know what clothes Mr Salem was wearing on the day he vanished.

I received a phone call from the police asking me what clothes Tordue (Mr Salem) was wearing on the day he went missing, a source said.

A family friend, who visited the Wuse General Hospital morgue in Abuja to ascertain the veracity of Mr Salems death, said the remains depicted someone who was physically tortured to death.

The source, who did not want his name mentioned, disclosed that upon enquiries, morgue attendants informed us that Mr Salems corpse was brought to the Wuse General Hospital on the day without providing details of the said date.

On the issue of the deceased journalists identity, he was registered as an unknown body despite Mr Salem bearing his Keystone bank debit card, a Union Bank debit card, an ID Card issued by Vanguard Newspaper, an NUJ ID Card, and a temporary ID Card from the National Assembly Media Corp, the source explained.

Mr Mba confirmed sources claims that there were items found on Mr Salem which disclosed deceaseds identity.

He added that the journalists remains were found at about 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, 11 November 2021 at the Wuse General Hospital Morgue in Abuja.

This has fuelled speculations amongst Nigerians that Mr Salem might have been murdered, while authorities blame the gruesome killing on an unconnected incident as a cover-up.

When this reporter visited the Wuse General Hospital, Abuja, on Friday, its Medical Director, Saad Idris, was not available for comments.

The unanswered questions

Journalists, who attended the parade, picked holes in the police spokespersons explanation concerning the circumstances that led to Mr Salems death.

Channels Television reported that journalists asked why the management of Wuse General Hospital (where Mr Salems body was found) did not report the incident for long since documents belonging to the late reporter were on him.

This is despite widespread condemnation that greeted the journalists disappearance last Month.

The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Abuja chapter, had led a protest march to the police force headquarters in Abuja, demanding the journalists whereabouts.

Similarly, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the National Assembly, where he worked until he went missing, called attention to his plight.

Also, journalists asked if the police were going to include the Wuse hospital management in the prosecution.

The identity of the person who deposited the late journalists corpse remains unknown.

Responding, Mr Mba said the police would address issues of negligence on the part of the hospital management,while assuring that the policemen at the Wuse checkpoint on the night of the accident would be held to account after all the facts of the matter have been gathered.

Benue govt kicks

The Benue Sate government has expressed shock over Mr Salems death.

Samuel Ortom, the state governor, said he was pained how the former Vanguard reporter suddenly disappeared but was found dead by unidentified persons in an undisclosed location in Abuja.

According to a statement issued on Friday by Mr Ortoms chief press secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, the mysterious recovery of the body of the deceased reporter was suspicious and deserves to be thoroughly investigated.

Mr Ortom appealed to the heads of the police and State Security Service (SSS)

to unravel the mystery surrounding the gruesome murder of the Benue-born journalist.

NUJ demands independent inquiry, autopsy

The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) FCT Council has tasked the gederal government to empanel an independent probe into circumstances surrounding Mr Salems death.

In a statement, on Friday, Emmanuel Ogbeche and Ochiaka Ugwu, chairman and secretary of Council respectively, said they were disturbed by the death of Mr Salem and the account of the police was not in sync with credible investigation.

The death of Mr. Tordue Salem opens another dark chapter for journalism and journalists in Nigeria and we are grievously saddened by it, the statement reads.

While the NUJ appreciates the effort of the police in finding the corpse of Mr. Salem, as a union we are not persuaded by the account of the police as it poses more questions than answers.

It is in this regard that we urge President Muhammadu Buhari to order for an independent inquiry into the tragic end of Mr. Salem.

The NUJ also demands for an independent autopsy so as to allay the fears of thousands of journalists and citizens across the country that indeed the late Mr. Tordue was a victim of a hit and run driver.

According to the union, the very fact that the family of the deceased as well as the leadership of the union were not contacted prior to the public announcement of the finding of his corpse remains suspicious as well as the identity of whoever deposited it at the morgue.

The statement expressed the fear that without concrete action and bringing to book those responsible for the dastardly act, more journalists will be in grave danger and further weaken democratic ethos and the ability to hold government accountable.

The NUJ is deeply concerned that the space for press freedom is fast shrinking, with the authority and political officeholders using draconian laws as well as new measures to silence critical voices and independent media.

It cited rising threats to press freedom to include authority and political officeholders to harass journalists by smearing critical coverage as fake news and new laws related to digital communication, which would effectively silence journalists from holding government accountable to the people.

The union called on the international community to focus on Nigeria and help to bring to account all those responsible for media abuse, intimidation, harassment and even murder.

Backstory

Amid growing concerns over the safety of Nigerian journalists, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, and Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, lauded the President Muhammadu Buhari-led regime for providing an enabling environment for journalism to thrive.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the officials spoke at an event marking the 2021 International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists in Abuja.

The duo spoke three weeks after Mr Salem was declared missing in Abuja, Nigerias capital city.

Recently, journalists were manhandled and barred from covering proceedings in the ongoing trial of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) by government security operatives.

Last month during the one year anniversary of the nationwide #EndSARS protests against police brutality and human rights violations, armed police personnel teargassed and arrested journalists in Lagos and Abuja.

Some of them were arrested at Lekki Tollgate in Lagos during the memorial procession to mark the one year anniversary of the shooting of peaceful #EndSARS protesters by soldiers at the location in October 2020.

Despite a plethora of instances of clampdowns on journalists, Mr Malami said the Buhari-led government had helped Nigeria exit the ignoble class of countries with the worst records of crimes against journalists.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabimila, has said he pushed for the direct primary clause in the Electoral Amendment Bill because the Not-Too-Young Act is not addressing the exclusion of youth in politics.

He said the youth have not been able to capitalise on the Act because the needed environment has not been provided.

Mr Gbajabiamila said this when the Minister of Youths and Sport, Sunday Dare, led some youth to pay him a courtesy visit in Abuja on Friday.

The Speaker moved the amendment to introduce direct primaries during the clause by clause consideration of the Electoral Bill in July.

The Not-Too-Young-To-Run is an act of parliament which sought to reduce the age limit for contesting elective offices in the country.

The bill was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 31, 2018.

Mr Gbajabiamila said the Act appears to be a paper tiger and does not address the aspiration of youths.

Since the Not-Too-Young-To-Run became law, you have not taken advantage of that. The Act appears to be a paper tiger. The enabling environment to work for that Act isnt capitalized on, he said.

Explaining the reasons for the direct primary clause, the Speaker said it would lead to the recruitment of the youth for leadership positions.

If I know that my return will depend on some few men, I may not care about you. But if I know that my return will depend on my accountability and representation to the people, I will do the right thing.

It is important for this generation to open the door of leadership to the next generation. We must allow every Nigerian to participate fully in the process of leadership. I, therefore, stand with direct primaries.

Thats why I said at different fora that Im for direct primaries. We have to do this for the sake of the institution, Mr Gbajabiamila said.

Direct primary election is the mode of election where registered members of a party vote for who they want to be the candidate of their party.

Indirect primary election is the mode where party members elect delegates who in turn elect the partys candidates on their behalf.

The Senate also adopted the position of the House on the direct primaries.

The adoption of direct primaries by the two chambers of the National Assembly is generating reaction from some quarters, including governors.

On Monday, the APC governors under the aegis of Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), opposed the clause.

The Chairman of the forum, Governor Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State, after the meeting of the governors, said the political parties should be allowed to decide on the mode of selecting candidates.

The Electoral Bill will be transmitted to Mr Buhari within the next seven days according to the spokesperson of the House, Ben Kalu (APC, Abia).

Earlier, Mr Dare said delegation visited the speaker to commend him for the amendment.

He said, Between 65 per cent and 70 per cent of our population are less than 25 years. So, we cant ignore the youth.
Nigerians can now apply for houses built under the current Federal Governments National Housing Programme (NHP) in 34 states of the country following the launch, Friday, of the portal by the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, through which interested members of the public could apply for allocation.

The formal launch of the portal, https://nhp.worksandhousing.gov.ng, which took place at the Conference Room of the ministry in Mabushi, Abuja, throws open the door for Nigerians to apply online to buy the available 5,000 plus housing units, ranging from 1, 2 to 3 bedroom bungalows and blocks of flats.

In his remarks at the ceremony, which was attended by media executives including the president, Nigeria Guild of Editors, Mustapha Isah, Mr Fashola said the decision by the ministry to sell the available houses online was to bring credibility to the exercise and reduce human intervention as well as give all categories of buyers a level playing field.

The minister told his audience, We converge here just to introduce a portal on which the National Housing Programme pilot will be offered for sale to the public. What that means is that we will not be selling printed forms, the forms are online and this allows for more openness, limits human intervention and any disposition to any underhand practice.

Clarifying that the decision to adopt online sale of forms and limit human intervention was not an indictment of the staff, he added, It is just to make the system more accountable and people seeing credibility if they win and if they are not successful they will equally know that the system has at least given them a fair chance.

Mr Fashola, who described the launch of the portal as the end game of our economic objective, explained that the government did not just set out to build houses, adding that the project has served many purposes, the first of which was to test what sort of houses Nigerians would like to live in so as to make policies to guide its agencies and parastatals, as well as other stakeholders, to build what could be acceptable in the markets.

We are the policy head of those parastatals like the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and so on. We are saying that the National Housing Programme had not succeeded in the past and some of the houses built then still remain empty. So we conducted a national survey across the zones just to find out what is acceptable, the minister said.

The findings, he said, were that while in the Northern part of the country there was preference for bungalow and large expanse of land which encouraged building horizontally, in the Southern part, there seemed to be acceptance for blocks of flats and lack of space which made building vertically necessary.

Emphasising that the current National Housing Programme is a pilot or demonstration scheme meant, among others, to galvanize private sector participation, Mr Fashola explained further, We applied for land from the states and we set out to do a demonstration or a pilot programme because we then wanted to validate what we saw and build a pilot scheme.

So as at today we have built 5,000 plus units in different stages of completion. We have done in Phase 1 and we have done in Phase 2 and some have started in Phase 3, the Minister reiterated adding that the other purpose the scheme has served was to fulfill part of the objectives of the administrations Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

He added, It was also a way to implement our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) because as at the time we conceived this programme, the country was in recession, expressing delight that it has fulfilled that objective because over 1,000 contractors were engaged on the building sites; businesses owned by Nigerians and Nigerian contractors.

Pointing out that no foreign contractor was engaged in the project, Mr Fashola added that it was not only an opportunity for nation building but an opportunity for the contractors to sustain their staff.

In his goodwill message after the launch, President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mr Isah, commended the Federal Government for its commitment to housing delivery. He also commended the Minister for the innovations he has brought to bear at the national level, which, according to him, was a replication of his development initiatives as Governor in Lagos State.

Also in his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Babangida Hussaini, commended President Buhari and the Minister for their commitment to programmes and projects that promote prosperity for the citizens and grow the nations economy.

Aside the NGE President, other media personalities present were the Special Assistant, Digital/New Media to President Muhammadu Buhari, Tolu Ogunlesi, the Secretary General of the NGE and Editor, Nations Capital, THISDAY Newspaper Group, Iyobosa Uwugiaren, and the Deputy-Editor, BusinessDay Newspaper, Abuja Bureau Office, while from the Ministry, were Directors, Special Advisers and other top officials as well as media correspondents.

Boade Akinola

Director Press and Public Relations

Friday, November 12th, 2021
The stage is set. It is a positional issue, not one of social scientific research and we are all dragged to take our position  pro or anti Fulani. This is because, as the authors claim, quoting sources: There appears to be a lack of political will by the government to contain the spate of violence and rebuild the lost trust. in part, some have argued that state forces are often slow to respond to call for distress whenever a community is facing an attack

The Root Cause of Farmers-Herders Crisis

in North Central Nigeria: A Research Report

By Plangshak Suchi, Lead researcher, and

Salek Yaks Musa, Associate researcher

Introduction

I find the title of this project rather surprising. Can there be a root cause for a crisis that has developed and transformed over hundreds of years and within the life spans of at least three jurisdictions  the precolonial, colonial and post-colonial? Such deep and complex processes, it must be assumed, have multiple causes that cannot be reduced to a main one, except the plan is to trap the authors. But then, maybe that was the plan. Secondly, the data for the study is based on key informant interviews of community stakeholders in a period within 2020, as perceptions of the informants are bound to differ significantly. The research topic itself should have been thought through more carefully. Nonetheless, I think the authors put in a lot of efforts to review the literature and adopt a method that would lead them to the multiple perceptions that exist on the matter and they should be assessed from that perspective.

The authors draw our attention to the basic historical and sociological reality of the farmers-herders crisis. That there is a tradition of pastoralism in the area of study that goes back a long time, and for much of that history, the relations between farmers and herders have been symbiotic and based on the exchange of grazing land for manure, with only occasional violence. Over the past few decades, however, the relationship has become very conflictual and violent. They point out that since 2001, about 60,000 people have been killed in the conflicts, surpassing the death toll from the Boko Haram conflict in a neighbouring zone of the country.

The Politics of the Farmers-Herders Crisis

The politics of this research is deep, as there are significant narratives of prejudice that underpin the theme. From page one, the authors set the scene of the herders, being Fulani, from the semi-arid Sahel in Futa Jalon. As such, they are the other, non-indigenes from another country, coming with their troubles as it were. Methinks they are simply typical West Africans, who like the Tiv, who migrated from Southern Africa, have also migrated from multiple locations. The Futa Jalon appellation suggests that they are like other violent extremists from the Sahel. No, my friends, Futa Jalon is not in the Sahel, it is a watershed grassland plateau, similar to the Jos plateau that produces many of the major water bodies in West Africa, including the River Niger.

In setting the political scene for the analysis, the authors draw attention to the narrative around President Muhammadu Buhari, who is, of course, of Fulani origin and whose government has promoted the implementation and institutionalisation of the: Ruga grazing system across the federation. However, the attempts using nomenclatures such as grazing reserves, ranching reserves, cattle colony, etc. has generated heated debate, controversy, and public disapproval as an attempt to forcefully takeover and give their land to the Fulani herders.

The stage is set. It is a positional issue, not one of social scientific research and we are all dragged to take our position  pro or anti Fulani. This is because, as the authors claim, quoting sources: There appears to be a lack of political will by the government to contain the spate of violence and rebuild the lost trust. in part, some have argued that state forces are often slow to respond to call for distress whenever a community is facing an attack, an act that has encouraged further bloodshed (for example, see Musa, 2018). Numerous instances of such security failings are replete in the literature. In the 2004 inter-communal violence in Yelwa-Shendam of Plateau state, state forces were widely accused of negligence, complicity and failing to respond to distress calls in a violence that resulted to the death of about 700 persons (Human Rights Watch, 2005: 47). 

The researchers also argue that the Fulani herders, according to the securitisation theory, constitute a compelling threat, given the fact that they use guns and their conflict with farmers often turn out fatal, causing harm to individuals and ethnic communities in southern and central Nigeria. This has led to the Fulanisation discourses tendency to link pastoralism with Islamisation and terrorism in a discursive chain

President Buhari may be guilty as charged for allowing the Fulani engage in atrocities against people in North-Central Nigeria. How then do we explain the fact that he is allowing the same atrocities run riot in his own Katsina State and surrounding Hausa and Muslim states, where the Fulani are very much part of the ruling establishment? It might just be the case, for example, of the incompetence and cluelessness of his government.

The researchers also argue that the Fulani herders, according to the securitisation theory, constitute a compelling threat, given the fact that they use guns and their conflict with farmers often turn out fatal, causing harm to individuals and ethnic communities in southern and central Nigeria. This has led to the Fulanisation discourses tendency to link pastoralism with Islamisation and terrorism in a discursive chain, to produce a compelling regime of truth about insecurity. The idea here is to emphasise the linkages  Fulani, Pastoralism and Islam. The linkage produces the conspiracy theory that leads to the objective of Jihad, closing the circle on the Sahel and violent extremism. This is ideology and not social science, so I will leave it at that level.

Methodology

Data is derived from key informant interviews based on a total of 12 participants, who were recruited from each community/Local Government Area, making a total of 24 participants in each of the three states studied  Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa. The researchers point out that due to difficulty in reaching a representative of herders in Benue State, the Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MaCban) in Nasarawa State and the Nasarawa State Fulani Ardo were added to the participants to fill the gap in representation of the Fulani herders in Benue. Overall, a total of 72 participants were covered by the entire study. How representative is this sample? My view is that it is not a scientific sample because it works from the answer to the question. The general narrative is that there are two groups fighting  Fulanis and indigenes. The composition of the sample is as follows:

Traditional rulers  one

Local government officials  one

Farmers association  one

Herders association  one

Communities  three

Security  one

Vigilante  one

Civil society  one

Religious leaders  two

Total = 12

Research is significant, if it can be replicated with the same results. A more balanced sample frame would produce a different result. What then is the value of this research? There is a wider question of whether the interview of stakeholders is the best way to conduct such research, on which people are so deeply divided along bipartisan political and identity lines.

Out of the 12, one is from the federal government; two from Fulani/Islamic representatives and nine from the indigenous communities. Given the political divide referred to above, the answer was clear before the interviews were conducted. The major findings therefore are about land grabbing by the Fulani for the purpose of alienating the heritage of indigenes, within the context of a wider Jihadist plan that has been initiated with the on-going mass killings and atrocities in the zone. Research is significant, if it can be replicated with the same results. A more balanced sample frame would produce a different result. What then is the value of this research? There is a wider question of whether the interview of stakeholders is the best way to conduct such research, on which people are so deeply divided along bipartisan political and identity lines.

The authors however become rather generous in summarising their findings in a more nuanced manner, referring to what they call: The overwhelming evidence suggesting that the root cause of the farmers-herders crisis in North-Central Nigeria is located in the social structure of the Nigerian society and the inherent contradictions within the Nigerian state. Issues relating to blocking of cattle routes and encroachment on grazing lands by crop farmers; rampant destruction of food crops by Fulani herders; cattle rustling by bandits; and violent attacks on farming communities.

The defective social structure, they argue, has its roots in the colonial legacy of injustice, which elevated the Fulani politically over and above other ethnic minorities in the North-Central region, thereby planting the seed of discord, greed, competition, dominance, aggressiveness, ethnicity, regionalism, etc., between farming communities and the Fulani herders.

The conclusion is: In the light of the findings of this study, it is obvious that the root cause of the farmers-herders crisis in north-central Nigeria is deeply-seated within the social structure of the Nigerian society and the character of the Nigerian state. In other words, the crisis is rooted in the historical legacies of injustice against the people of the region including the failure of the British colonialists to adequately protect the middle-belters from Fulani domination; systemic exclusion of ethnic minorities from the socio-political affairs of the country; and the post-colonial development strategies adopted by the political elites that heavily relied on foreign interests for direction on which policies to implement.

We have known this from the presentations at the Willinks Commission of Inquiry from the 1950s, so I guess it is reassuring to conduct a research to confirm the known political conclusion.

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.
As the refugees caught in the European chess board game in Poland are left to their fate, I recall the gladiators in Rome who shouted: Hail Emperor, those who are about to die salute you!

The world, this week, is witnessing about 4,000 human beings, mainly Iraqis, Syrians and Afghans, caught in the freezing forests between Belarus and Poland. They have no warm clothing, food or water and are under siege by opposing European armies.

Flowing from Belarus, which closed the borders behind them, and facing Poland, which has shut its borders in their faces, many of these refugees can only await death under a climate which on Thursday, November 11, was three degrees celsius and is getting colder. These victims include lots of children.

The situation escalated when, using social media, some of the refugees, rather than simply lay down and freeze to death or be despatched by hunger, decided to march this Monday on the Polish border, which promises to be their Heaven Gate pass to bigger Europe. Poland immediately massed 15,000 troops to stop the migrants, while also mobilising its citizens to rise up against the hapless migrants.

In response, some far-right groups decided to move to the borders, looking for migrants to take out. Poland, under the ruling anti-migrant, Law and Justice Party, had in September, declared a state of emergency on its borders with Belarus. This was in anticipation of desperate moves by the starving refugees to breach these borders.

Belarus, a landlocked country of 9.399 million people and ranked as a state with high development, appeared to have been sympathetic to refugees, especially those escaping conflicts. Following disputed elections, the European Union (EU) imposed punishing sanctions on it in June.

This appeared to have biting effects on the country, and it pushed for the migrants to start leaving. This, in August, led to the march by many refugees towards Polands 418-kilometre border with Belarus. The following month, Polish President, Andrzej Duda, declared a state of emergency over 183 towns and villages in a long term plan to ensure the refugees do not set foot on Polish soil.

This resulted in the refugees being caught in a sort of no-mans-land between the two countries. Since then, a number of the refugees have succumbed to cold and hunger. Virtually abandoned by all, with Poland refusing to allow humanitarian groups to provide food or warm clothing, the refugees, using social media, decided to gather at the Polish border demanding passage to the rest of Europe, particularly Germany, which in the past had displayed kindness towards victims of conflicts from Asia and the Middle East.

Rather than properly examine the issues, European leaders put the blame on the doorstep of Belarusian President, Aleksander Lukashenko. They accused him of being behind the refugees decision, as his way of getting back at the EU for imposing sanctions.

In all these, the warring Europeans are not putting the lives of the hapless refugees into consideration. It is incredible that Europeans, who can deploy helicopters and troops to rescue a freezing dog, would consciously force some four thousand human beings to remain in starving, freezing conditions.

Adalbert Jahnz, the European Commissions spokesman for migration, argued that: This is a continuation of the desperate attempt by the Lukashenko regime to use people as pawns to destabilise the European Union and of course the values that we stand for.

Poland threatened to use maximum force against the refugees. Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, bellowed on Monday that: This border is sacred The border of the Polish state is not just a line on the map. Generations of Poles shed their blood for this border.

But the refugees, who face possible death in the cold forests, were past caring. That Monday, they made 309 attempts to breach the Polish border fences. Seventeen of them, almost all Iraqis, were detained. The next day, they made nearly 600 attempts to enter Poland.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki that day went before parliament and alleged that the security of our eastern border is brutally violated today by a ruthless dictator who wants revenge on Poland and Europe for opposing human rights violations in Belarus. But we know that his revenge is controlled from MoscowThis attack which Lukashenko is conducting has its mastermind in Moscow, the mastermind is President Putin.

EU President Ursula von der Leyen after meeting American President Joe Biden said both agreed that: This is a hybrid attack. Not a migration crisis. She claimed that there is the need to protect democracies. On their part, Belarus and its Russian ally accused the EU of orchestrating a crisis. Russia sent two fighter jets to protect the Belarusian airspace.

In all these, the warring Europeans are not putting the lives of the hapless refugees into consideration. It is incredible that Europeans, who can deploy helicopters and troops to rescue a freezing dog, would consciously force some four thousand human beings to remain in starving, freezing conditions.

The European nations, having deployed special forces at their borders and helmed in the refugees, are employing arms and brute force to keep the refugees in the forests and using them as puns in this chess game.

In Poland and Belarus, the armies are mobilised, the guns are cocked, but not at themselves; in-between them are the helpless and hapless refugees, this is the buffer zone. So, if bullets fly, they would either be skywards or hit the refugees.

The crisis in Syria was orchestrated by external forces, which trained Islamic fundamentalists, including the Islamic State, and unleashed them on that country. Today, Syrian refugees number over 5.6 million and are constantly knocking on the gates of Europe, especially at the Greek and Polish borders.

For those who may blame the refugees for not staying in their countries, it is necessary to remind them that the fires burning in those countries were essentially set by the EU and its allies.

The crisis in Syria was orchestrated by external forces, which trained Islamic fundamentalists, including the Islamic State, and unleashed them on that country. Today, Syrian refugees number over 5.6 million and are constantly knocking on the gates of Europe, especially at the Greek and Polish borders.

Most of the refugees camping at the Polish borders are Iraqis. Iraq was a prosperous and safe country until March 2003, when countries like the United Kingdom, America, Australia and Poland invaded it under the false premise that it had weapons of mass destruction.

There are today 9.2 million Iraqi refugees or internally displaced persons. The Afghan refugees roaming around the world were minted by Europe and America, which invaded Afghanistan for two decades. That is why today, some of them are at the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Despite European countries being the largest group in contemporary times, which through invasions have created armies of refugees, only one European country, Germany, with a million refugees, is amongst the top ten countries hosting refugees.

Turkey, which is being paid by the EU to take in refugees expelled by Europe, has 3.7 million; Jordan is next with 2.9 million; while Lebanon and Pakistan have 1.4 million refugees each. In Africa, Uganda has 1.1 million and Ethiopia, 921.000 refugees. Iran, with 979,400 refugees, is also in this league.

As the refugees caught in the European chess board game in Poland are left to their fate, I recall the gladiators in Rome who shouted: Hail Emperor, those who are about to die salute you!

Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.
The soldiers of fortune we have today as Igbo political leaders are so lucky to have come from South-East Nigeria, where traitors suffer zero consequence. These mercenaries will continue to play the treacherous game of betrayal, hoping to be rewarded by their masters. They fail to learn the rich lessons of history. But one day, just one day, monkey go enter market e no go see road return.

Agosu if you go tell them,

Tell Nyidevu, Kpeti, and Kove

That they have done us evil;

Tell them their house is falling

And the trees in the fence

Have been eaten by termites;

That the martels curse them.

Ask them why they idle there

While we suffer, and eat sand.

And the crow and the vulture

Hover always above our broken fences

And strangers walk over our portion.

 Kofi Awoonor, Songs of Sorrow

There is no other way to describe the appalling situation in the South-East today other than to call it what it is  a hostage crisis. We are a point at which one Finland based clod that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had already renounced, could just wake up from the comfort of his apartment and declare a total lockdown. The land once inhabited by great warriors has been vanquished by rag-tag groups of non-state actors and one could only imagine our ancestors turning in their graves, horrified and in utter disbelief.

Criminals are holding sway and dictating when an Igbo man can go out to source for his daily bread or forcing him to sit-at-home like a petulant child on a time-out. In the ensuring chaos, shambolic schmucks baptised as governors continue in their drunken brawl on who becomes the most subservient thrall. Tufiakwa.

In the viperish world of spycraft, a mole pretends to serve one government, while actually working for another. In the book, The Psychology of Espionage, David Charney and John Irvin, both former CIA agents, sought to explain that which will make a citizen turn against his country or an individual work against his people. They identified one or a combination of money, ideology, compromise/coercion, and ego as the most common reasons. But this piece is hardly about spies and their bags of dirty intrigues. It is about the actions of elected officals, who have no qualms auctioning off their people for morsels of bread.

Governor Umahi has been the chairman of the South East Governors Forum since 2015, but its hard to point out one particular instance where his leadership has positively impacted the generality of Ndigbo or southern Nigeria. Under his leadership of SEGF, IPOB, a group of chest-thumping and bombastic but largely non-violent agitators at the time, was proscribed in 2017 and branded a terrorist organisation.

Reacting to a resolution of the Southern Governors Forum for states to start collecting value added tax (VAT), during their meeting in Enugu on Thursday, September 16, Governor Umahi of Ebonyi State cautioned that he would not support the consensus. When they (Southern governors) say that this VAT collection is part of true restructuring, I said I never believe in total restructuring; I believe in administrative restructuring, he was quoted to have said. Whatever that means, this is not the first time the governor will take a position that is at cross purpose with the people he is meant to serve. But he would rather have us believe that his decision was based on what is best for our people and has nothing to do with staying in the good books of the man he calls his father, nor the rest of the Aso Rock cabals that he reckons hold a key to his political future.

With the formation of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in mid-2013 to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East, followed by the launch of Operation Amotekun in the South-West on January 9, 2020, there was a huge clamour to establish a similar security outfit in the South-East to tackle the menace of killer herdsmen in the region. Rising from a meeting held on August 31, 2019, the Governor Umahi-led South East Governors Forum (SEGF) appointed the governors brother, General Obi Umahi, to lead a proposed South-East security committee as its chairman. The committee was charged with drafting a framework for the establishment of an effective outfit to cater to the security needs of the zone. But that never happened.

In his resignation letter dated June 4, about ten months after his committee was set up, General Umahi disclosed that not only was his committee not funded, even a single room office space was not allocated to them. The governors failed to reach an agreement on the nature of the outfit. It was later alleged, however, that Governor Umahi, leveraging the weight of his position as the group chairman, used every trick in the book to frustrate the idea of a joint regional security outfit in the South-East. Instead, he lobbied for President Buharis amorphous community policing model. This failure of leadership was what set the stage for IPOB to come up with the Eastern Security Network (ESN) in order to fill the void. The ensuing chaos, with a harvest of deaths, wanton destruction of property, the scourge of the unknown gunmen and the rest of the lawlessness that is now synonymous with the South-East, is an indirect consequence of such a monumental betrayal of the people.

Governor Umahi has been the chairman of the South East Governors Forum since 2015, but its hard to point out one particular instance where his leadership has positively impacted the generality of Ndigbo or southern Nigeria. Under his leadership of SEGF, IPOB, a group of chest-thumping and bombastic but largely non-violent agitators at the time, was proscribed in 2017 and branded a terrorist organisation. Today, we now have monstrous criminals brandishing AK-47 and holding the entire South-East hostage.

Even as we have focused thus far on the retrogressive politics of Governor Umahi as the chairman of the SEGF, the other four of the five fingers of a leprous hand are no better. Their infractions are no less egregious. Or how else to explain that in a consequential summit such as the one just held in Enugu, only the host, Governor Ugwuanyi was present. The rest found a reason to go AWOL and instead, sent their deputies.

With all his egocentric politics, however, Governor Umahi has done well in terms of infrastructural investment in his home state of Ebonyi, especially in Abakaliki, the state capital. The man is reputed to have transformed the place, complete with all the trappings of a modern city to the admiration of all and is seen by some as a hero. As laudable as his efforts are in that regard, his politics continues to work against Ndigbo and broader southern Nigerian interests.

Even as we have focused thus far on the retrogressive politics of Governor Umahi as the chairman of the SEGF, the other four of the five fingers of a leprous hand are no better. Their infractions are no less egregious. Or how else to explain that in a consequential summit such as the one just held in Enugu, only the host, Governor Ugwuanyi was present. The rest found a reason to go AWOL and instead, sent their deputies. Truth is, they are all worried about what would become of their political future should they be seen to go against the wishes of Mr President. The famed Professor Moses Ochonu captured it well when he stated that, Southeast governors treat Buharis regime as a sacred entity which must not be criticised or offended as if stipulated in an eleventh commandment. How sad!

The soldiers of fortune we have today as Igbo political leaders are so lucky to have come from South-East Nigeria, where traitors suffer zero consequence. These mercenaries will continue to play the treacherous game of betrayal, hoping to be rewarded by their masters. They fail to learn the rich lessons of history. But one day, just one day, monkey go enter market e no go see road return.

Osmund Agbo, a public affairs analyst is the coordinator of African Center for Transparency and Convener of Save Nigeria Project. Email: Eagleosmund@yahoo.com
On October 28, a friend who is an intelligence veteran and an erudite scholar and I exchanged a series of messages on the need for the participation of the well-informed in the political process in whatever form deemed necessary for the realization of Nigeria of our dreams, so long as it is legal and legitimate. The participation can be in the form of protest, demonstration, expression of opinion, involvement in a group activity, membership of a political party, enlightenment of the populace on the policies and programmes of the government both at the state and national level and so on. The genesis of the exchanges is the interesting quote Two people can damage a society: the one who knows and doesnt talk and the one who doesnt know that talks.

In most societies, the voices of those that know or well informed are rarely heard and even where they are loud enough, nothing comes out it. Oftentimes, these individuals include radicals and a few progressives, who more often than not call for innovative change in governance as they see it. The situation now facing us as a country calls for such people. Those that know must come out, state the facts and enlighten the populace on why the country cannot afford to continue in the present direction. This is against the backdrop of the fact that the count down for the present administration has begun in earnest and very little can be done realistically to change the trajectory of the policies and programmes of the government and the outcome that would enhance the quality of life of the generations to come.

The Nigeria of 2027 or 2031 is not likely going to be different from that of today in terms of the wellbeing of the people, it could be worse. The environment is just not conducive for the realization of the society of our dreams. Any 60 years old Nigerian who thinks that there will be an uninterrupted power supply in his life time is day dreaming. Even if the present administration is able to kick start the construction of the Mambilla hydro power project tomorrow, it is not going to come on stream in the next five years, so how are we going to get the quantum leap in power generation to ensure uninterrupted power supply? Any 60 years old Nigerian that thinks there would be an end to medical tourism or there would be affordable world class hospitals and universities for his grandchildren in his lifetime is living in another planet. In a recent study, only one Nigerian university is among the worlds 500, while only 3 are in the worlds best 1000. How about youth unemployment, will it go down to 5 per cent in the next ten years? This is wishful thinking. And the list of the impossible goes on and on.

However, the good news is that it is possible to achieve all these things under a government not encumbered by the distractions of the requirements of the westernstyle democracy. Moreover, history is in support of this hypothesis, especially in a developing country like ours. I have checked, but I havent seen any democratic country since the end of the second world war that has moved from the third world to first while practicing our kind of democracy, except India. This exception is unique in all circumstances, due to the quality of leadership and the uninterrupted reign of the Indian National Congress beginning from the independence period. Mention it, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil, Vietnam, The Philippines, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, all these countries have one form of guided democracy or dictatorship in the march towards economic development.

Besides, in most of these countries, the leadership selection process is at a premium, in view of the realization that deficiency in the quality of political leadership will spell doom for a country, especially in a competitive global environment. While there have been flashes of excellence in a few areas, the rest is more ruin than hope. There are some people in leadership positions in the country today that in a competitive environment, will not aspire or be given the opportunity to be legislators in a local council, and yet they are governors. It is evident what to expect from such states. Twenty years from now, such states will still continue to rely on Abuja for sustenance and achieve nothing if no action is taken now. In fact, it will retrogress.

But how did we get to this stage that almost everyone is dissatisfied with the current state of affairs? The reasons are many but the one that is germane to this discussion is the wholesale adoption of the western-style democracy by the departing military dictatorship. It is pertinent to note that there is nothing strange in what our politicians are doing that is different from what is happening in other climes. The difference is that those advanced democracies do not provide their politicians with feeding bottle and milk at the expense of the citizens.

The bottom line is that you cannot wish for Dubai and think like a villager. The country cannot continue to allocate funds for unviable and unsustainable constituency projects for the next 20 years and beyond and hope to build the infrastructure that will take Nigeria to the next level. It is not going to happen. That is the painful aspect of the administration of President Muhamadu Buhari. He would have been Nigerias Lee Kuan Yew, General Park Chung-hee and Mahathir Mohamad, but unfortunately we seem to have lost the opportunity due to the demands and distractions of the western-style democracy and as the saying goes, once opportunity lost, it cannot be regained.

It is important to say that Nigeria is at the crossroads and the type of government the country needs now and in the foreseeable future is not the western-style of democracy. In simple language, more than anything else, there is the need for a guided democracy or a benevolent dictatorship. Nigerias democracy is just evolving and must be guided. There must be qualifications to such participation. Not every Nigerian above 18 years of age must have direct participation. It is on record that citizenship was not automatic in some of the developed democracies in the past. Ability to vote was equally qualified. There were conditions to be met including acceptable level of education, payment of taxes and ownership of property. At a point in history, women were not allowed to vote in some countries. The question that naturally comes to mind is that how do we have this large number of voters yet not enough tax payers? If the requirements to contest an election include the proof of payment of tax and minimum educational qualification, voting should also be so qualified. That way, we would have an informed electorate and contributory stakeholders.

The idea of the right of all to vote is not ideal for a developing society. Some economists have criticised the efficiency of democracy, citing the premise of the irrational voter, or a voter who makes decisions without all of the facts or the necessary information needed to make informed choices and decisions. The great Socrates himself believed that democracy without educated masses would only lead to populism being the only criterion to become an elected leader and not competence, a situation he said could ultimately lead to the demise of the republic. Socrates was of the opinion that the right to vote must be given to people who can make informed choices on the basis of education.

It is a sham to say that a president or a governor has one vote and his driver too has one vote. There are people in both rural and urban areas whose votes can be purchased for a piece of cloth or a bag of rice. Fraudulent elections are not foreign to the land. Do we now sit back and allow the leadership that will emerge from such a contest to determine the direction of the country? No. The bottom line is that this 4th Republic has not met the expectation of the populace and the coming elections of 2023 will not change the course of events in the country, so long as indiscipline, impunity and disregard for law and order reign supreme. Per capital income has reduced, life expectancy has declined and insecurity has worsened. The first remedy is to jettison our current democratic practise which has become a burden on the populace. There is also the urgent need to tackle and improve upon the quality of leadership and followership through a set of rigorous standards, including the level of education.

No one person or administration since 1999 can be accused of being responsible for where we are today. We are all guilty one way or the other and therefore must be willing to give up part of our freedom for the next ten (10) years to ensure that the youths of today have the future they deserve, otherwise we all perish. If that means abolishing the parliament, or abridging the participation of the general populace in the setting up of a government, so be it. The defenders of the present democracy are the enemies of Nigeria and they must be seen in that light. If nothing drastic is done now, Nigeria will be left behind and those who are alive by 2031 will still be complaining of infrastructural deficit and the myriad of problems that we are presently battling with, unless a miracle happens.

Wale Oloko writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
An Ikeja Magistrates Court on Friday remanded eight men for allegedly setting Makoko Police Station on fire.

The court ordered that they should be kept at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre pending advice from the state Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The defendants are Ebenezer Ayah, 27; Biola Rawa, 20; Jacob Safaru, 21; Yusuf Olowookere, 21; Gideon Agbe, 18; Benua Ado, 24; Joseph Onyebuchi, 28; and Sunday Philip, 31.

The Magistrate, K.A. Ariyo, who did not take their pleas, ordered that the case file should be duplicated and sent to the DPP for advice.

Mrs Ariyo adjourned the case until December 30 for mention.

The defendants, whose addresses were not given, are facing a four-count charge of conspiracy, unlawful assembly, breach of peace, and arson.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Christopher John, told the court that the defendants committed the offences with others at large, on August 29 at 10.00 a.m. at Makoko, Lagos State.

Mr John said the defendants armed themselves with petrol, knives, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons, and unlawfully set Makoko Police Station on fire.

He also said the defendants conducted themselves in a manner likely to cause a breach of public peace.

Mr John added that the defendants belonged to a secret society called Eiye confraternity.

The prosecutor said that the offences contravened Sections 2(3)(a)(b)(c)(d), 51, 341(a) and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

(NAN)
Commencing in January 2022, the project will run for two years and support Arabesque in developing capabilities in cutting-edge areas of AI. The work undertaken by the AI research unit is expected to enhance Arabesque's existing business activities such as developing data engineering capabilities, improving the accuracy at which alpha opportunities are identified for its investment strategies, and utilising new unstructured sources of data as inputs into its financial models.

The project is supported under the Financial Sector Technology & Innovation  Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics (FSTI  AIDA) scheme, which aims to strengthen the AIDA ecosystem in the Singapore financial sector. The FSTI  AIDA scheme is funded by the Financial Sector Development Fund, administered by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The project will involve the establishment of an AI engineering and research unit based in Singapore, which will be dedicated to the advancement of AI and automation in asset management. Arabesque will be hiring a team of AI engineers and researchers in Singapore as part of the new unit.

The team will be led by Arabesque's Dr Qasim Nasar-Ullah, a co-founder of Arabesque's AI business, who will take on a new role at the firm's Singapore office. All work undertaken by the AI unit will be used to enhance Arabesque's existing AI capabilities, and will be utilised to help establish Singapore as a world-leading centre for AI in asset management.

Dr Yasin Rosowsky, CEO of Arabesque AI, said:

"Artificial intelligence will play a vital role in financial services over the next decade and will help accelerate the shift towards more sustainable capital markets. We are honoured to have been awarded the FSTI  AIDA grant and look forward to working on developments that will advance the innovative application of AI in asset management.

We are excited at the prospect of building an AI engineering and research team in Singapore to deliver cutting-edge AI solutions for the fintech ecosystem of Singapore and beyond."

Headquartered in London, Arabesque Asset Management is part of the Arabesque Group, which aims to advance sustainable finance through investment solutions, market-leading data assets, AI, and financial technology expertise.

About the Arabesque Group

The Arabesque Group is comprised of three businesses, Arabesque Asset Management, Arabesque S-Ray, and Arabesque AI, that work together to advance sustainable finance through investment solutions, AI and financial technology expertise. Established independently in 2013, Arabesque's mission is to enable clients and other stakeholders to implement sustainability in their investments and financial decision-making. Arabesque counts many of the world's leading banks, asset managers, asset owners and custodians as clients. arabesque.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1686388/Arabesque.jpg

Related Links

www.



SOURCE Arabesque
CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliance Creative Group, Inc., ( http://www.AllianceCreativeGroup.com) (Stock Symbol OTC: ACGX) is pleased to announce the results of Operations for the Three Months Ending September 30, 2021.

Revenues for the quarter ending September 30, 2021 ("Q3 2021") were $2,714,395

Gross Profits for the quarter ending September 30, 2021 ("Q3 2021") were $622,602

Net Income for the quarter ending September 30, 2021 ("Q3 2021") were $76,755

The total assets on the Balance Sheet for the Alliance Creative Group as of 9/30/21 were $3,740,935.

The total outstanding common shares as of September 30, 2021 ("Q3 2021") were 1,839,611 with 1,248,975 of those shares in the float.

The Company ended the quarter and year with $52,592 Cash on hand.

Total Stockholder Equity as of 09/30/21 was $1,576,118

The full financial statement, balance sheet, statement of operations, cash flow statement, and disclosure statements are posted on the OTC Market Company website at www.OTCmarkets.com under the stock symbol ACGX in the section for filings and disclosure and on www.ACGX.us in the investor relations section.

Steve St. Louis, CEO of the Alliance Creative Group, Inc., said, "The third quarter of 2021 was another continuation of maintaining and growing revenues while paying down more liabilities to get us in a better position for the future. We are navigating through some supply chain adjustments and discussing some future plans. We are continuing to look at all opportunities and will update the public if and when anything changes."

About Alliance Creative Group, Inc.

Alliance Creative Group, Inc. (Stock Symbol: ACGX) is a Packaging Solutions Company focused on Retail Packaging and Packaging Management. ACG helps its clients from initial concept and packaging development through final production and managed inventory solutions. The core business has been around since 1997. ACG currently focuses mostly on providing solutions for flexible and clear packaging, folding cartons, vendor managed inventory supply chain services and fulfillment. Additional services include but are not limited to corrugated boxes, commercial printing, labels, and other products and services related to the printing or packaging of consumer products. ACG's team includes experts to provide high-quality packaging and printed products. The ACG experience includes very hands-on operational support out of 6 different warehouse locations and several national and international manufacturing partners. ACG provides customer support during the entire product process or cycle including but not limited to creating, warehousing, delivering, and replenishing their packaging products For more information, visit www.AllianceCreativeGroup.com or www.ACGX.us.

About PeopleVine

PeopleVine is a consolidated platform that allows businesses to build more personal relationships with their customers at scale. PeopleVine solves the problem businesses have creating and managing holistic relationships with their customers without using multiple products that only support a portion of the relationship building activities. PeopleVine seamlessly brings together the tools needed to market, sell, and operate a business with streamline efficiencies in a customer engagement suite and enables businesses to make data informed decisions to help generate revenue growth.

We are committed to being the most essential and adaptive SaaS engagement platform for companies that take a customer centric approach to business.

For more information www.PeopleVine.com

This news release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the bespeaks-caution doctrine. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, product and service demand and acceptance, changes in technology, economic conditions, the impact of competition and pricing, government regulation, and other risks described in statements filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All such forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, and whether made by or on behalf of the Company, are expressly qualified by the cautionary statements that may accompany the forward-looking statements. In addition, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

Investor Relations and Media Contact



1-847-885-1800

[email protected]

SOURCE Alliance Creative Group, Inc.
View Sample: to know additional highlights and key points on various market segments and how they will impact in coming years.

Vendor Insights

The global blockchain technology market is fragmented with the presence of several global and regional players. Accenture Plc, Amazon.com Inc., Huawei Investment & Holding Co. Ltd., Infosys Ltd., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., SAP SE, and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. are some of the dominant vendors featured in the report.

Some of the leading players in the market are acquiring startups and partnering with FinTech companies and IT firms to develop blockchain solutions.

For instance, in April 2020, Accenture Plc completed its acquisition of Symantec Cyber Security Services from Broadcom Inc. Again, in May 2020, the company acquired Callisto Integration, a Canada-based provider of consulting and technology services.

Find additional highlights on the growth strategies adopted by vendors and their product offerings. Read Sample Market Research Report .

Geographical Market Analysis

North America will provide maximum growth opportunities in the blockchain technology market during the forecast period. According to our research report, the region currently holds 43% of the global market share and is expected to dominate the market through 2025.

The report also offers a detailed analysis of the growth of the market across Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA. In addition, countries such as the US, China, UK, Canada, and Germany are expected to emerge as prominent markets for blockchain technology during the forecast period.

Know more about this market's geographical distribution along with the detailed analysis of the top regions. www.technavio.com/report/blockchain-technology-market-industry-analysis

Key Market Trends & Challenges:

The report identifies the advent of AI as the major trend influencing the blockchain technology market. The integration of AI with blockchain is one of the most advanced IT developments taking place currently. The use of AI helps decentralize monetary systems and predict the value of bitcoins. This can help traders to efficiently manage bitcoin transactions. This trend is expected to further gain prominence with the growing focus on enhancing security and customer experience by FinTech firms worldwide.

Despite the integration of AI, network privacy and security concerns might inhibit the growth of the market. Service providers gather a lot of personal information from customers through cookies to create custom advertisements and target the right audience. This collected data could be misused and hacked, which can lead to financial losses for customers. This is discouraging users from adopting FinTech solutions, which is reducing the growth opportunities for vendors.

View free sample for highlights on market Trends & Challenges affecting the blockchain technology market.

Customize Your Report

Don't miss out on the opportunity to speak to our analyst and know more insights about this market report. Our analysts can also help you customize this report according to your needs. Our analysts and industry experts will work directly with you to understand your requirements and provide you with customized data in a short amount of time.

We offer USD 1,000 worth of FREE customization at the time of purchase. Speak to our Analyst now!

Related Reports:

Global Fintech Blockchain Market  Global fintech blockchain market is segmented by component (platform and services) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Blockchain Identity Management Market  Global blockchain identity management market is segmented by end-user (BFSI, government, healthcare, and others), application (end-point, network, and infrastructure), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Blockchain Technology Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of over 32% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 6.25 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 19.00 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution North America at 43% Key consumer countries US, China, UK, Canada, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Accenture Plc, Amazon.com Inc., Huawei Investment & Holding Co. Ltd., Infosys Ltd., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., SAP SE, and Tata Consultancy Services 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, 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 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

Related Links

http://www.technavio.com


DUBLIN, Nov. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "The Construction Industry in Botswana 2021" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Botswana's construction industry contributed 6.8% of GDP in 2020 and employs over 50,000 people.

This report focuses on Botswana's construction industry, with an emphasis on building construction, civil engineering, and specialised construction activities. It includes information on the state of the sector, key trends and developments and regulations and corporate actions.

There are profiles of 24 companies including Khato Civils Botswana, which partnered with a local company to construct a 100km water pipeline project from Masama to Gaborone and Chinese contractors such as China Civil Engineering Construction Botswana and China State Construction Engineering Corporation.

Profiled local subsidiaries of South African companies include Stefanutti Stocks Botswana and Concor Botswana while locally-owned companies profiled include EH Construction, which is involved in civil construction, major building construction and bulk earthworks.

The sector has over the years experienced numerous challenges including skills, capacity development and lack of competitiveness of local companies and it continues to be dominated by foreign companies, particularly when it comes to major projects. There are signs of recovery in the sector from the effects of the pandemic, and it is expected to play a role in reviving the economy through the creation of jobs.

Trends

The government continues to be the industry's major client, financier, regulator and operator, and public expenditure drives the construction industry.

The primary focus of infrastructure development is the provision of clean water and sanitation, power generation infrastructure, road infrastructure and hospitals and schools. Current projects include three hospitals, two senior secondary schools and a police station. Most of the high-value civil engineering and construction projects in the country are undertaken by foreign-owned construction companies.

Demand for housing and public amenities is high in Gaborone and Francistown, and property developers are increasingly focused on gated communities and estate development. There is a shortage of accommodation for public servants and a shortage of student accommodation.

Key Topics Covered:



1. INTRODUCTION



2. COUNTRY INFORMATION



3. DESCRIPTION OF THE INDUSTRY

1.1. Industry Value Chain

1.2. Geographic Position



2. SIZE OF THE INDUSTRY



3. STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

3.1. Local

3.1.1. Corporate Actions

3.1.2. Regulations

3.1.3. Enterprise Development and Social Economic Development

3.2. Continental

3.3. International



4. INFLUENCING FACTORS

4.1. Coronavirus

4.2. Economic Environment

4.3. Rising Input Costs

4.4. Technology, Research and Development (R&D) and Innovation

4.5. Government Incentives and Support

4.6. Environmental Concerns

4.7. Labour



5. COMPETITION

5.1. Barriers to Entry



6. SWOT ANALYSIS



7. OUTLOOK



8. INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS



9. REFERENCES

9.1. Publications

9.2. Websites

COMPANY PROFILES

Bango Trading (Pty) Ltd

China Civil Engineering Construction ( Botswana ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd

Concor Botswana (Pty) Ltd

Consolidated Contractors Company

Cpp ( Botswana ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd Cul De Sac (Pty) Ltd

Eh Construction (Pty) Ltd

Estate Construction (Pty) Ltd

Fluor Daniel Holdings ( Botswana ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd Image Civil Engineering (Pty) Ltd

Kalcon (Pty) Ltd

Khato Civils Botswana (Pty) Ltd

Otlaadisa Projects (Pty) Ltd

Red East Construction (Pty) Ltd

Stefanutti Stocks Botswana (Pty) Ltd

Team Engineers (Pty) Ltd

Three Boses ( Botswana ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd Unik Construction Engineering (Pty) Ltd

Universal Builders ( Botswana ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd Wbho Construction (Pty) Ltd

Wharic Construction (Pty) Ltd

Zac Construction (Pty) Ltd

Zutari Botswana (Pty) Ltd

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/n7hpyn

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


- 0815 Lt Barrow request riot equipment

- 0915 HPD preparing to open gates to participants

- 0920 Participants breached secondary checkpoint

- 0923 Participants have breached main gate and bypassed COVID testing checkpoint

- 0925 HPD requests medical for 4 individuals.

- 1000 Venue gates opened.

- 1002 Venue fences damaged, no control of participants.

- 1005 Breached Merchandising lines

- 1019 Crowd trying to push down final barrier

The Buzbee Law Firm is based in Houston. Since its inception, it has recovered more than $10 billion dollars for clients. Tony Buzbee was named "Attorney of the Year" in 2015.

Questions: Contact [email protected]; The Buzbee Law Firm (713) 223-5393

SOURCE THE BUZBEE LAW FIRM

Related Links

txattorneys.com


PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Carisma Therapeutics Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative immunotherapies, presented today for the first time preliminary findings from the landmark Phase 1 multi-center clinical trial of CT-0508, a human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) targeted chimeric antigen receptor macrophage (CAR-M) .

The early data were presented by Dr. Kim A. Reiss, MD, Principial Investigator for Carisma's clinical trial of CT-0508 at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 36th Anniversary Annual Meeting. The preliminary findings represent the first clinical data with genetically engineered macrophages in humans and demonstrated that CT-0508 was well tolerated after infusion and there were no dose limiting toxicities. CT-0508 was also successfully manufactured using macrophages obtained from heavily pre-treated, advanced solid tumor patients and showed high CAR expression, viability, and purity. The data also demonstrated that CT-0508 remodeled the solid tumor microenvironment (TME) and mediated expansion/activation of T cells within the tumors. The Food and Drug Administration recently granted Fast Track designation to CT-0508 for the treatment of patients with solid tumors.

"This is the first time that genetically engineered macrophages are being studied in humans and we are encouraged by the safety profile and activity observed thus far," said Debora Barton, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Carisma Therapeutics. "We will continue to enroll patients in the landmark clinical trial of CT-0508 and look forward to making additional observations about how CAR-M therapy can potentially address the unmet needs of patients."

Carisma data also accepted for presentation at the SITC 36th Anniversary Annual Meeting:

" Chimeric Antigen Receptor Macrophages (CAR-M) Elicit a Systemic Anti-Tumor Immune Response and Synergize with PD1 Blockade in Immunocompetent Mouse Models of HER2+ Solid Tumors ," Friday, November 12 at 7:00 am ET

," " Development and Characterization of CAR-Mono, a Novel Cell Therapy Platform for Solid Tumor Immunotherapy ," Saturday, November 13 at 7:00 am ET

," "SIRP Deficient CAR-Macrophages Exhibit Enhanced Anti-Tumor Function and Bypass the CD47 Immune Checkpoint," Saturday, November 13 at 7:00 am ET

"We are excited by the early Phase I clinical data demonstrating safety, feasibility, and TME remodeling with CT-0508," shared Michael Klichinsky, PharmD, PhD, co-inventor of the CAR-M technology and scientific co-founder and Senior Vice President of Research at Carisma Therapeutics. "Our research team is committed to innovation in the field of genetically modified myeloid cells, and we are excited to also share novel pre-clinical data with CRISPR editing, combination therapy, and manufacturing advances at the upcoming SITC meeting."

Presentation and posters will be available on the SITC 36th Anniversary Annual Meeting portal for registered attendees.

Editor's Note: Dr. Saar Gill and Penn are both co-founders of Carisma and hold equity in the company. Carisma has licensed certain Penn-owned intellectual property from the University, and Penn's Perelman School of Medicine receives sponsored research funding from the company in support of Dr. Gill's laboratory and clinical trials at Penn, including the trial led by Dr. Reiss. Penn and Dr. Gill may be entitled to receive future financial benefits from development and commercialization of technologies licensed and optioned to Carisma.

About Carisma Therapeutics Inc.

Carisma Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing a differentiated and proprietary cell therapy platform focused on engineered macrophages, cells that play a crucial role in both the innate and adaptive immune response. The first applications of the platform, developed in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, are autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-macrophages for the treatment of solid tumors. Carisma Therapeutics is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA.

For more information, please visit www.carismatx.com

Media Contact:

Christina Khoury-Folkens

(929) 299-5962

[email protected]

SOURCE Carisma Therapeutics Inc.

Related Links

http://www.carismatx.com


DENVER, Nov. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - (TSX: CWEB) (OTCQX: CWBHF) Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. ("Charlotte's Web," or the "Company"), the market leader in full-spectrum hemp extract products has completed the harvest of its first ever international hemp crop, in Canada. In April of 2021 Charlotte's Web proprietary hemp cultivars were approved for registration on Health Canada's List of Approved Cultivars for outdoor cultivation in Canada. The early flowering and maturing hemp cultivars were uniquely developed to produce high naturally occurring cannabidiol ("CBD") in shorter northern climate growing seasons.

The Canadian harvest included the Company's flagship "CW1AS1" U.S. patented cultivar used for its leading full-spectrum hemp extract "Original Formula". Charlotte's Web will prioritize this first CW1AS1 harvest for Original Formula available exclusively for medical cannabis patients in Canada.

The 2021 Canadian harvest exceeded initial estimates by approximately 20%. The hemp biomass will be processed into whole plant hemp extract for Charlotte's Web CBD wellness products in Canada for sale in 2022. The robust harvest is a testament to the Company's horticultural leadership in hemp farming.

"We have an internal plant science and genetics department that has made substantial progress in creating healthier, more robust plants that maximize yields by region and provide scalability," said Jared Stanley, Company Co-Founder and Chief Cultivation Officer. "Excellent hemp plant genetics are the first step in the quality control process and will ensure consistency in our Canadian product portfolio."

The high-quality 100% Canadian-grown hemp will be extracted and manufactured into final product through strategic third-party relationships.

"We are employing an asset light model in Canada benefitting from well-established infrastructure and co-production," said Deanie Elsner, Charlotte's Web president and CEO. "We are finalizing agreements with our Canadian manufacturing and distribution partners for product availability in the first half of 2022. The hemp CBD wellness category is underdeveloped in Canada, with limited offerings of quality full-spectrum hemp extract products. Interest in Charlotte's Web products in Canada is high. We are positioning to participate in both hemp CBD and cannabis wellness in Canada, leveraging our brand strength and proprietary genetics."

Canada is part of Charlotte's Web international cultivation expansion, and provides further access to other international geographies through export from the Canadian market for biomass, extract and finished goods.

Subscribe to Charlotte's Web news

About Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc.

Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc., a Certified B Corporation headquartered in Denver, Colorado, is the market leader in innovative hemp extract wellness products under a family of brands which includes Charlotte's Web, CBD Medic, CBD Clinic, and Harmony Hemp. Charlotte's Web branded premium quality products start with proprietary hemp genetics that are 100-percent American farm grown and manufactured into hemp extracts containing naturally occurring phytocannabinoids including cannabidiol ("CBD"), CBC, CBG, terpenes, flavonoids, and other beneficial hemp compounds. The Company's CW Labs R&D science division is located at the University at Buffalo in New York which is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system of 64 universities. Charlotte's Web product categories include full spectrum hemp extract oil tinctures (liquid products), gummies (sleep, stress, immunity, exercise recovery), capsules, CBD topical creams and lotions, as well as products for dogs. Charlotte's Web products are distributed to more than 14,000 retail doors and 8,000 health care practitioners, and online through the Company's website at www.CharlottesWeb.com.

Charlotte's Web's mission is "To unleash the healing powers of botanicals with compassion and science, benefitting the planet and all who live upon it."

SOURCE Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.charlottesweb.com/


DUBLIN, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) - Market Insights, Epidemiology and Market Forecast - 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report delivers an in-depth understanding of the Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G), historical and forecasted epidemiology as well as the C3G market trends in the United States, EU5 (Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and United Kingdom) and Japan.



The market report provides current treatment practices, emerging drugs, and market share of the individual therapies, current and forecasted 7MM C3G market size from 2018 to 2030. The report also covers current C3G treatment practice/algorithm, market drivers, market barriers and unmet medical needs to curate the best of the opportunities and assesses the underlying potential of the market.

Epidemiology

The disease epidemiology covered in the report provides historical as well as forecasted epidemiology segmented by Total Diagnosed Prevalent Population of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G), Type-specific Diagnosed Prevalent Population of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) and Age-specific Diagnosed Prevalent Population of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) in the 7MM market covering the United States, EU5 countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and United Kingdom) and Japan from 2018 to 2030.

Epidemiology: Key Findings

The total diagnosed prevalent population of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) in the seven major markets was found to be 8,456 in 2020.

The diagnosed prevalent cases of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G), in the United States , were found to be 4,112 in 2020.

, were found to be 4,112 in 2020. It was found that in the United States , the number of cases of DDD and C3GN was 1,398 and 2,714, respectively, in 2020.

, the number of cases of DDD and C3GN was 1,398 and 2,714, respectively, in 2020. Age-specific data for C3G suggests that in the United States the highest and the lowest number of cases of DDD were found in the age group of 18-50 with 860 cases and age-group >50 with 252 cases, respectively, in 2020, while the highest and the lowest number of cases of C3GN were found in the age group of 18-50 with 1,767 cases and age-group <_8 with="with" _56="_56" cases_="cases_" respectively_="respectively_" in="in" />

the highest and the lowest number of cases of DDD were found in the age group of 18-50 with 860 cases and age-group >50 with 252 cases, respectively, in 2020, while the highest and the lowest number of cases of C3GN were found in the age group of 18-50 with 1,767 cases and age-group <_8 with="with" _56="_56" cases_="cases_" respectively_="respectively_" in="in" /> In the EU5 countries, the diagnosed prevalence of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) was found to be maximum in Germany with 848 cases, followed by the France with 708 cases in 2020. While, the least number of cases were found in Spain , with 511 cases in 2020.

with 848 cases, followed by the with 708 cases in 2020. While, the least number of cases were found in , with 511 cases in 2020. In Japan , the diagnosed prevalence of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) was found to be 942 in 2020.

Drug Chapters



The drug chapter segment of the Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) report encloses the detailed analysis of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) marketed drugs and mid and late stage pipeline drugs. It also helps to understand the Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) clinical trial details, expressive pharmacological action, agreements and collaborations, approval and patent details of each included drug and the latest news and press releases.



Emerging Drugs

Danicopan (ACH-4471/ALXN2040): Alexion Pharmaceuticals

Narsoplimab (OMS721): Omeros Corporation

Pegcetacoplan (APL-2): Apellis Pharmaceuticals

LNP023 (TBD): Novartis Pharmaceuticals

Market Outlook



Since there are no approved therapies for C3G, the market is mainly dominated by the use of off-label prescription drugs. Treatments for C3G include Immunosuppressant, Steroids, Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system Inhibitors (RAAS), and other Supportive therapies (also including Antibody regimens: Eculizumab and Rituximab).



However, the current emerging market of C3G possesses an intermediate pipeline. There are no emerging therapies in their phase III developmental stage; however, a few potential emerging players are investigating their product candidates in phase II clinical developmental stage, namely, Alexion Pharmaceuticals (Danicopan), Omeros Corporation (Narsoplimab), Apellis Pharmaceuticals (Pegcetacoplan), and Novartis Pharmaceuticals (LNP023 (TBD)). Other actively developing early stage players are Amyndas Pharma and Visterra Inc.



Market Outlook: Key Findings

The market size of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) in the seven major markets was estimated to be worth USD 40.6 Million in 2017.

in 2017. The United States accounts for the largest market size of C3G, in comparison to EU5 (the United Kingdom , Germany , Italy , France , and Spain ) and Japan .

accounts for the largest market size of C3G, in comparison to EU5 (the , , , , and ) and . Among the EU5 countries, Germany had the highest market size with USD 3.6 Million in 2017, while Spain had the lowest market size of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) with USD 2.2 Million in 2017.

had the highest market size with in 2017, while had the lowest market size of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) with in 2017. The Japanese C3G market accounted for USD 3 Million in 2017, which is expected to increase during the forecast period of 2020-2030.

Report Highlights

In the coming years, the Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) market is set to change due to the rising awareness of the disease, and incremental healthcare spending across the world; which would expand the size of the market to enable the drug manufacturers to penetrate more into the market.



The companies and academics are working to assess challenges and seek opportunities that could influence Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) R&D. The therapies under development are focused on novel approaches to treat/improve the disease condition.



As per the analysis, Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) can be divided into two types, namely, Dense Deposit Disease (DDD) and C3 glomerulonephritis (C3GN).



The report also encompasses another major segment, i.e., Age-specific Diagnosed Prevalent Population of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G), wherein various age groups have been considered, such as <_8_ _8-50="_8-50">50. It has been found that the diagnosed prevalence of both DDD and C3GN has been found maximum in the 18-50 age group.



Expected Launch of potential therapies, ChemoCentryx (Avacopan), Omeros Corporation (Narsoplimab), Apellis Pharmaceuticals (Pegcetacoplan), and Novartis Pharmaceuticals (Iptacopan (LNP023)), may increase the market size in the coming years, assisted by an increase in diagnosed prevalent population of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G).



The current treatment of Complement 3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) is mainly dominated by the use of off-label therapies, which includes Immunosuppressants in combination with corticosteroids, Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system Inhibitors (RAAS) and Other Supportive Therapies (calcineurin inhibitors, anticomplement therapies with eculizumab).

Companies Mentioned

Novartis Pharmaceuticals

Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Omeros Corporation

ChemoCentryx

Amyndas Pharmaceuticals

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/b9d0wa

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a research report "eVTOL Aircraft Market by Lift Technology (Vectored Thrust, Multirotor, Lift plus Cruise), Propulsion Type (Fully Electric, Hybrid Electric, Hydrogen Electric), System, Range, MTOW, Mode of Operation, Application, and Region-Forecast to 2030", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global market for eVTOL aircraft is estimated to be USD 8.5 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 30.8 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 15.3% during the forecast period. The growth of this market is mainly driven by the growing need for green energy and noise-free aircraft and the increasing use of eVTOL aircraft for cargo applications and increasing demand for an alternative mode of transport.

Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=28054110

The major players in the eVTOL aircraft market include Airbus SE (Netherlands), Bell Textron Inc. (US), Embraer SA (Brazil), EHang Holdings Ltd (China), and Elbit Systems Ltd. (Israel), These players have spread their business across various countries includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. COVID-19 has impacted their businesses as well.

The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 has taken a toll on various industrial sectors, with aviation being one of the worst affected. However, the eVTOL aircraft market did not seem to have been impacted by the pandemic as much as the aviation industry as a whole. Electric UAVs were widely used by militaries for a variety of missions like border security, while governments and law enforcement agencies used them on an experimental basis.

Civil & commercial applications of eVTOL aircraft include transportation of medical supplies by companies like Zipline and mostly for aerial photography. Retail and other logistics companies are increasingly looking towards the usage of electric UAVs to distribute essential items due to intermittent lockdowns and the imposition of social distancing protocols worldwide. In the US, companies like Amazon and USP have already scaled up their usage of electric drones for their deliveries. Electric drones are also witnessing an increased application in Africa, as they are being used as the art of EMS services to supply medicines and amenities as well as transport organs and blood across cities. These factors have helped the eVTOL aircraft market to sustain the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy.

Short range operations is expected to fuel the growth of the multirotor eVTOL aircraft market during the forecast period.

The multirotor segment is estimated to lead the market during the forecast period, with a share of 79% in 2021. Multirotors are increasingly used in an array of applications, from passenger transport, emergency services to recreational activities like aerial photography. The lift plus cruise segment is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period as leading manufacturers in the eVTOL market are adopting the lift plus cruise technology as it is less complex and enables long-range travel with stability.

Browse in-depth TOC on "eVTOL Aircraft Market"

201  Tables

46  Figures

233  Pages

Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=28054110

The hydrogen-electric segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on propulsion type, the hydrogen-electric segment is projected to be the highest CAGR rate for the eVTOL aircraft market during the forecast period. Hydrogen fuel cells are an alternative power source for eVTOL. Generating electricity from hydrogen and oxygen fuel cells is vibration-free and is low on maintenance. Fuel cells can offer energy storage and faster refueling, giving them the potential to substitute electric batteries.

The software segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on the system, the software segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the eVTOL aircraft market during the forecast period. Aviation software produces insights that enable users to enhance operator safety and efficiency, reduce operational disruptions, improve passenger experience, and make decisions better regarding real-time fleet health. Advanced software systems are required to run complicated systems of urban air mobility aircraft.

The piloted segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period

Based on the mode of operation, the piloted segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the eVTOL aircraft market during the forecast period. Large deployment in civil applications, including air taxi and ems services, will drive this segment. Most of the civil eVTOL aircraft are designed for urban air mobility, air taxis, medical assistance, and personnel passenger transportation.

The last-mile delivery segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on application, the last mile delivery segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the eVTOL aircraft market during the forecast period. The demand for autonomous last-mile delivery is skyrocketing with the rising adoption of autonomous vehicles for the delivery of products without any human intervention.

The 100-1,000 kg segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period

Based on MTOW, the 100-1,000 kg segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the eVTOL aircraft market during the forecast period. eVTOL aircraft with an MTOW of 100 -1,000 kg are used for intercity travel of passengers and cargo transportation. The payload that these eVTOL aircraft carry is less than 200 kg. Thus, these aircraft are preferably used for cargo transportation.

The >200 km segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period

Based on range, the >200 km segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the eVTOL aircraft market during the forecast period. eVTOL aircraft with a range of >200 km have higher battery capacity. Some of the applications of this aircraft include last mile delivery, air taxis, and private transport.

The North American market is projected to contribute the largest share from 2021 to 2026

eVTOL aircraft market in North America is projected to hold the highest market share during the forecast period. North America accounted for the largest share of 34.5% of the eVTOL aircraft market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.0% during the forecast period. The US has the largest UAV fleet used in military and civil applications. Early adoption of eVTOL aircraft for urban air mobility is also being witnessed in the US. These factors are expected to drive the market in North America.

The eVTOL aircraft market is dominated by a few globally established players such as Airbus SE (Netherlands), Bell Textron Inc. (US), Embraer SA (Brazil), EHang Holdings Ltd. (China), and Elbit Systems Ltd. (Israel).

Related Reports:

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Market by Point of Sale, Systems, Platform (Civil & Commercial, and Defense & Governement), Function, End Use, Application, Type, Mode of Operation, MTOW, Range, and Region - Global Forecast to 2026

Electric Aircraft Market by PLatform (Regional Transport Aircraft, Business Jets, Light & Ultralight Aircraft), Type, System (Batteries, Electric Motors, Aerostructures, Avionics, Software), Technology, Application, and Region - Forecast to 2030

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/evtol-aircraft-market.asp

Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com

Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/evtol-aircraft.asp

SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
DUBLIN, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Trodelvy Patent, Sales & Clinical Trials Insight 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Global Trodelvy market is expected to surpass US$ 3 Billion by 2028

Recently, Trodelvy, a novel targeted therapy developed by Gilead Sciences and has been approved for the management of triple negative breast cancer. The drug is antibody drug conjugate directed to Trop-2 receptor, a protein highly expressed on the surface of cancer cell and has crucial role in the development and progression of cancer.

Several factors including increase in geriatric population and subsequent rise in prevalence of cancer, favorable reimbursement policies offered by manufacturers and insurance providers, and rising awareness among population will drive the growth of market.

Geographically, US is expected to maintain dominant position during the forecast period which is mainly attributed to the robust sales of drug, increase in target population, and large number of ongoing clinical trials in the region.

The FDA approval of the drug is supported by clinical studies which have demonstrated statistically significant reduction in the risk of disease worsening or death. In addition, the drug have also shown to extend overall survival rates in patients and enhanced clinical outcomes.

As of now, the drug has been approved in US, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and Switzerland. Apart from this, the drug is present in regulatory view in other regions including Europe, China and Singapore. Recently, European Medicines Agency has recommended the marketing of Trodelvy, indicating that the drug will enter the market in coming months. The rapid approval of drug in different regions will fuel the growth of market in coming years.

The global Trodely market is expected to witness high growth rates owing to its high adoption rates among TNBC patients which is due to lack of other effective therapies, and enhanced efficiency of novel drug in targeting the disease.

In addition to triple negative breast cancer, researchers are also evaluating the role of drug in targeting other cancers including hormone receptor positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2-) metastatic breast cancer, metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, endometrial carcinoma, urothelial cancer, glioblastoma and hepatocellular carcinoma.

In addition, several clinical trials are evaluating Trodelvy in combination with talazoparib, nivolumab, carboplatin, and other cancer therapeutics. The next few years will witness rapid approval of drug as monotherapy or combinational therapy in wide range of cancer which will further boos the growth of market.

Currently, Trodelvy is the only approved Trop-2 targeting drug in market. However, the pipeline of novel drug class is highly crowded and consists of several potential candidates including DS-1062a, RN927C, BAT8003, SKB264, JS108, and others. These are majorly present in phase-I/II clinical trials and are expected to enter market during forecast period.

The major players in Trop-2 targeting drugs market are Daiichi Sankyo, Immunomedics, Gilead Sciences, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and BioThera Solution. The emergence of these drugs will increase the competition to Trodelvy, thus restraining its growth of market. However, increased awareness and favorable reimbursement policies are expected to drive the market.

Trodelvy Patent, Sales & Clinical Trials Insight 2028 Report Analysis & Data Highlights:

Trodelvy Patent Insight: 29 Patents

Trodelvy Dosage & Price

Trodelvy Sales Forecast 2028: > USD 3 Billion

Trodelvy Role in Cancer Therapy

Trodelvy Structure & Pharmacokinetics Properties

Trodelvy Ongoing Clinical Trials: > 30 Clinical Studies

Trodelvy Reimbursement Scenario

Key Topics Covered:

1. Trodelvy (Sacituzumab Govitecan) - First Approved TROP2 Targeting Antibody Drug Conjugate

1.1 Overview

1.2 Approval & Exclusivity

2. Trodelvy Patent Insight

2.1 US Patents

2.2 Other Regions

2.2.1 Japan

2.2.2 Australia

2.2.3 Russia

3. Trodelvy Commercial Information

3.1 Dosage & Price Analysis

3.2 Sales Analysis

4. Trodelvy Description, Chemistry & Pharmacokinetics

5. Trodelvy Mechanism of Action

6. Trodelvy Role in TNBC

7. Role of Trodelvy in Urothelial Carcinoma

8. Role of Trodelvy in Other Cancers

9. Trodelvy Supplementary Information

9.1 Adverse Events

9.2 Immunogenecity & Drug Interaction

9.3 Application in Specific Population

10. Global Trodelvy Market Analysis

10.1 Current Market Scenario

10.2 Future Market Opportunity

11. Trodelvy Sales Forecast 2028

12. Trodelvy Reimbursement Policy

13. Trodelvy Clinical Trial Insight

13.1 By Phase

13.2 By Development Status

13.3 By Region

14. Trodelvy Ongoing Research & Development

15. Competitive Landscape

15.1 Amunix

15.2 ARIUS Research

15.3 AstraZeneca

15.4 Biothera

15.5 Daiichi Sankyo Company

15.6 Gilead

15.7 Immunomedics

15.8 Janux Therapy

15.9 Klus Pharma

15.10 Myeloid therapeutics

15.11 Pfizer

15.12 Shanghai Junshi Bioscience

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/53hyew

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


"I am exceptionally proud of the continued dedication of our teams around the world that have gone above and beyond to meet the essential packaging needs of our customers and consumers during a unique time in history. That is why this recognition, based on input from employees, is so meaningful to Graphic Packaging. We have taken very seriously the measures needed to keep our front-line employees safe during the pandemic and have instituted significant safety protocols from our learnings of the past two years." Doss added, "Meaningful progress and positive developments continue across all facets of our operations and with our people. Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy is driving robust conversations, and newly implemented programs are designed to ensure ongoing advancements. New learning and development opportunities have been and continue to be rolled out with a focus on personal enrichment and providing the means to obtain career growth goals. Graphic Packaging is focused on engaging employees and ensuring their voices are heard as we grow as a global team of exceptional people."

Forbes partnered with Statista Inc., a leading provider of market and consumer data, to compile its annual list. More than 150,000 employees were surveyed. The survey considered all aspects of employment and asked respondents to rate their willingness to recommend their employers to friends and family. Respondents were also asked to evaluate other employers in their respective industries. The awards list was announced in October and can currently be viewed on the Forbes website.

Commitment to United Nations Global Compact Initiatives

Reflective of its long-standing commitment to sustainable business practices, on November 2, 2021, Graphic Packaging became a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact. This step formalizes the Company's engagement to honor and act in accordance with the ten principles of the compact, covering human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of the broader United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Initiative is a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation, and disclosure of responsible business practices. Graphic Packaging has always upheld the values of the United Nations Global Compact and formalizing its commitment carries symbolic weight for the Company and for its industry partners.

ESG Program

To learn more about Graphic Packaging's ESG program and milestones, please visit the ESG website available here. Graphic Packaging is focused on providing best-in-class reporting transparency. On its ESG website and in its annual ESG reports, the Company discloses progress updates on Vision 2025 goals, as well as other news, and details on product innovation and sustainability advancements. Graphic Packaging reports in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative and Sustainable Accounting Standards Board ESG reporting standards and align with the frameworks developed by the Taskforce for Climate Related Financial Disclosures and the United Nations Global Compact.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may relate to, among other things, our business plans, strategies, initiatives and objectives and their expected execution and impact; and our assumptions and expectations regarding any of the foregoing. Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and our current assumptions, expectations and projections about future events. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to future events, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, and in our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

About Graphic Packaging Holding Company

Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE: GPK), headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is committed to providing consumer packaging that makes a world of difference. The Company is a leading provider of sustainable fiber-based consumer packaging solutions for a wide variety of products to food, beverage, foodservice, and other consumer products companies. The Company operates on a global basis, is one of the largest producers of folding cartons and paper-based foodservice products in the United States, and holds leading market positions in coated recycled paperboard, coated unbleached kraft paperboard and solid bleached sulfate paperboard. The Company's customers include many of the world's most widely recognized companies and brands. Additional information about Graphic Packaging, its business and its products are available on the Company's web site at www.graphicpkg.com.

SOURCE Graphic Packaging Holding Company

Related Links

http://www.graphicpkg.com


SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The venue for this IEEE CASS Forum on Interdisciplinary Research is located in Shanghai Hongqiao Greenland Primus Hotel, adjacent to the Shanghai National Convention and Exhibition Center. The forum covers from industry internet of things, to implantable/wearable brain-machine interface, to point-of-care diagnostics for fast virus screening. Shanghai being the epicentre of microelectronics industry and research, is one of the best locations to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration in-between academic and industry.

Remote attendees worldwide can join virtually. Event details are posted at IEEE CASS Shanghai (ieee-cass-shanghai.com)

Watch out for our live telecast through the following media platform at Nov 14th.

YouTube

Bilibili

Official website

IEEE CAS Standardization Seminar is scheduled as part of this forum and features

Prof. Arindam Basu (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)

Associate Prof. Shoushun Chen (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Assistant Prof. Deng Lei (Tsinghua University, China)

Dr. Alex Serb (University of Southampton, UK)

How to follow IEEE CASS SASD: Professionals interested in participating in IEEE CASS SASD activities can join this mailing list .

About IEEE CASS SASD: The IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) recently approved establishing the Standards Activities Sub Division (SASD) under its Technical Activities (TA) Division. IEEE CASS SASD will be starting efforts to provide core standards for the benefit of industry including integrated circuit design and test systems, arithmetic, microprocessors, domain specific accelerators such as error correction coding, video and AI.

Interim SASD which comprises of the following members

Dr. Yen-Kuang Chen, VP, IEEE CASS Technical Activities

Dr. Kiran Gunnam, IEEE CASS BoG & Chair of Interim SASD

Dr. Victor Grimblatt, IEEE CASS BoG

Prof. Lu Yu, IEEE CASS BoG

Prof. Wen-Hsiao Peng, IEEE CASS BoG

Prof. Touradj Ebrahimi, IEEE CASS BoG

The nomination form for members for new SASD must be submitted by 21 November 2021 through the CASS website.



SOURCE: IEEE CASS SASD

SOURCE IEEE CASS SASD
MEMPHIS, Tenn., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- International Paper Company (NYSE: IP) (the "Company") announced today the early tender results as of 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on November 10, 2021 (the "Early Tender Deadline") for its previously announced cash tender offer (the "Offer") for up to $500 million combined aggregate principal amount (the "Aggregate Maximum Amount") of its outstanding 5.000% Notes due 2035 (the "5.000% Notes"), 5.150% Notes due 2046 (the "5.150% Notes"), 4.80% Notes due 2044 (the "4.80% Notes"), 6.00% Notes due 2041 (the "6.00% Notes"), 4.400% Notes due 2047 (the "4.400% Notes") and the 4.350% Notes due 2048 (the "4.350% Notes," and, together with the 5.000% Notes, the 5.150% Notes, the 4.80% Notes, the 6.00% Notes and the 4.400% Notes, the "Notes").

The aggregate principal amount of each series of Notes that were validly tendered and not validly withdrawn as of the Early Tender Deadline is set forth in the table below.

Title of Security

CUSIP

Principal

Amount

Outstanding

Principal Amount

Tendered as of the

Early Tender

Deadline(1)

Acceptance

Priority

Level 5.000% Notes due 2035

460146 CM3

$600,000,000

$193,297,000

1 5.150% Notes due 2046

460146 CN1

$694,500,000

$245,236,000

2 4.80% Notes due 2044

460146 CK7

$747,945,000

$238,079,000

3 6.00% Notes due 2041

460146 CH4

$585,000,000

$167,909,000

4 4.400% Notes due 2047

460146 CQ4

$648,174,000

$29,470,000

5 4.350% Notes due 2048

460146 CS0

$744,052,000

$86,802,000

6

__________________________________ (1) As reported by Global Bondholder Services Corporation, the depositary and information agent for the Offer.

Notes that have been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or before the Early Tender Deadline and are accepted in the Offer will be purchased, retired and cancelled by the Company on the early settlement date, which is expected to occur on November 15, 2021 (the "Early Settlement Date"). The amounts of each series of Notes that are purchased on the Early Settlement Date will be determined in accordance with the acceptance priority levels and the proration procedures described in the Company's Offer to Purchase, dated October 28, 2021 (the "Offer to Purchase").

Holders who validly tendered and did not withdraw their Notes on or before the Early Tender Deadline, and whose Notes are accepted for purchase pursuant to the Offer, will be entitled to receive the Total Consideration. The "Total Consideration" for each $1,000 principal amount of Notes so tendered and accepted for purchase will be determined in the manner described in the Offer to Purchase by reference to the applicable fixed spread specified in the Offer to Purchase for Notes of the applicable series over the yield based on the bid-side price of the applicable Reference U.S. Treasury Security for such series of Notes specified Offer to Purchase, as calculated by BBVA Securities Inc. and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. at 10:00 a.m., New York City time, on November 12, 2021, unless extended. The Total Consideration includes an early tender premium of $50.00 per $1,000 principal amount of Notes. Holders whose Notes are accepted for purchase pursuant to the Offer will also receive accrued and unpaid interest on their purchased Notes from the last interest payment date for such Notes to, but excluding, the Early Settlement Date.

The withdrawal rights for the Offer expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on November 10, 2021; therefore, previously tendered Notes may no longer be withdrawn.

The Offer will expire at 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on November 26, 2021. However, because the aggregate purchase price of Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn will exceed the Aggregate Maximum Amount, no more Notes will be accepted, regardless of Acceptance Priority Level.

The Offer is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase.

The Company has retained BBVA Securities Inc. and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. to serve as Lead Dealer Managers for the Offer. The Company has also retained Global Bondholder Services Corporation to serve as depositary and information agent for the Offer.

Requests for documents relating to the Offer may be directed to Global Bondholder Services Corporation by telephone at (866) 807-2200 or (212) 430-3774, in writing at 65 Broadway, Suite 404, New York, New York 10006 or online at https://www.gbsc-usa.com/ip/. Questions regarding the Offer may be directed to BBVA Securities Inc. at 1345 Avenue of the Americas, 44th Floor, New York, New York 10105, Attn: Liability Management, Toll-free: (800) 422-8692, email: [email protected] or Citigroup Global Markets Inc. at 388 Greenwich Street, Trading 4th Floor, New York, New York 10013, Attn: Liability Mgt. Group, Toll-free: (800) 558-3745, Collect: (212) 723-6106.

This press release is not a tender offer to purchase or a solicitation of acceptance of a tender offer, which may be made only pursuant to the terms of the Offer to Purchase. In any jurisdiction where the laws require the Offer to be made by a licensed broker or dealer, the Offer will be deemed made on behalf of the Company by one of the dealer managers or one or more registered brokers or dealers under the laws of such jurisdiction.

None of the Company, its board of directors, the depositary, the information agent, any of the dealer managers or the trustee for the Notes is making any recommendation as to whether holders should tender Notes in response to the Offer. Holders must make their own decisions as to whether to tender Notes, and, if so, the principal amount of Notes to tender.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements describing the Company's acceptance of Notes for purchase, payment of the Total Consideration and other matters relating to completion of the Offer, and similar statements concerning anticipated future events and expectations that are not historical facts. Such forward- looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "could," "should" and "would," and variations of these words or comparable words. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, and inherently involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. You should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to make any revision to the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release.

About International Paper

International Paper (NYSE: IP) is a leading global producer of renewable fiber-based packaging and pulp products with manufacturing operations in North America, Latin America, North Africa and Europe. We produce packaging products that protect and promote goods, and enable worldwide commerce, and pulp for diapers, tissue and other personal hygiene products that promote health and wellness. We are headquartered in Memphis, Tenn. and employ approximately 38,000 colleagues. Net sales for 2020 were $21 billion*. In Russia, the Company has a 50/50 joint venture, Ilim Group, the country's largest integrated manufacturer of pulp and paper and its largest foreign-domestic alliance in the forestry products sector. For more information about International Paper, our products and global citizenship efforts, please visit internationalpaper.com.

*Inclusive of our former pulp and paper mill in Kwidzyn, Poland, which was sold on August 6, 2021, and our former global papers business, which became a standalone, publicly traded company on October 1, 2021.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20020701/IPLOGO

SOURCE International Paper

Related Links

http://www.internationalpaper.com


MEMPHIS, Tenn., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- International Paper Company (NYSE: IP) (the "Company") announced today the pricing terms for its previously announced cash tender offer (the "Offer") for up to $500 million combined aggregate principal amount (the "Aggregate Maximum Amount") of its outstanding 5.000% Notes due 2035 (the "5.000% Notes"), 5.150% Notes due 2046 (the "5.150% Notes"), 4.80% Notes due 2044 (the "4.80% Notes"), 6.00% Notes due 2041 (the "6.00% Notes"), 4.400% Notes due 2047 (the "4.400% Notes) and the 4.350% Notes due 2048 (the "4.350% Notes," and, together with the 5.000% Notes, the 5.150% Notes, the 4.80% Notes, the 6.00% Notes and the 4.400% Notes, the "Notes").

Holders of Notes that were validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or before 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on November 10, 2021 (the "Early Tender Deadline") and whose Notes are accepted for purchase by the Company will receive the applicable Total Consideration.

The "Total Consideration" for each $1,000 principal amount of Notes so tendered and accepted for purchase was determined by the Lead Dealer Managers in the manner described in the Company's Offer to Purchase, dated October 28, 2021 (the "Offer to Purchase"), by reference to the applicable fixed spread specified in the table below for Notes of the applicable series over the yield (the "Reference Yield") based on the bid-side price of the applicable Reference U.S. Treasury Security for such series of Notes specified in the table below at 10:00 a.m., New York City time, on November 12, 2021. The applicable Reference Yield and Total Consideration for each series of Notes are set forth in the table below. Holders whose Notes are accepted for purchase pursuant to the Offer will also receive accrued and unpaid interest on such Notes from the last interest payment date for such Notes to, but excluding, the applicable settlement date for the Offer.

Title of Security

CUSIP

Acceptance Priority Level

Principal Amount Expected to be Accepted(1)

Reference U.S. Treasury

Security

Reference Yield

Fixed

Spread

(basis points)

Early

Tender

Premium

Total

Consideration (2) 5.000% Notes due 2035

460146 CM3

1

$193,297,000

1.250% due August 15, 2031

1.551%

120 bps

$50

$1,249.57 5.150% Notes due 2046

460146 CN1

2

$245,236,000

2.375% due May 15, 2051

1.928%

105 bps

$50

$1,370.57 4.80% Notes due 2044

460146 CK7

3

$61,467,000

1.750% due August 15, 2041

1.969%

105 bps

$50

$1,285.52 6.00% Notes due 2041

460146 CH4

4

$0

1.750% due August 15, 2041

1.969%

110 bps

$50

$1,427.70 4.400% Notes due 2047

460146 CQ4

5

$0

2.375% due May 15, 2051

1.928%

100 bps

$50

$1,261.38 4.350% Notes due 2048

460146 CS0

6

$0

2.375% due May 15, 2051

1.928%

100 bps

$50

$1,259.18

(1) Expected to be accepted for purchase, and paid for, on November 15, 2021. (2) Payable for each $1,000 principal amount of applicable Notes validly tendered at or prior to the Early Tender Deadline and accepted for purchase by us and includes the Early Tender Premium. Holders that tender after the Early Tender Deadline, but at or prior to the Expiration Time will not receive the Early Tender Premium. For each series of Notes, the applicable Total Consideration will be calculated taking into account the par call date (rather than the maturity date) for such series. In addition, holders whose Notes are accepted will also receive interest on such Notes accrued to the applicable settlement date.

Notes that have been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or before the Early Tender Deadline and are accepted in the Offer will be purchased, retired and cancelled by the Company on the early settlement date, which is expected to occur on November 15, 2021 (the "Early Settlement Date")

The amounts of each series of Notes that are purchased on the Early Settlement Date will be determined in accordance with the acceptance priority levels and the proration procedures described in the Offer to Purchase. In accordance with the terms of the Offer, all of the 5.000% Notes and 5.150% Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn will be accepted for purchase and settled on the Early Settlement Date. Because the aggregate purchase price of Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn exceeded the Aggregate Maximum Amount, (i) using a proration factor of 0.25891713, $61,467,000 aggregate principal amount of the 4.80% Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn will be accepted for purchase and settled on the Early Settlement Date and (ii) none of the 6.00% Notes, 4.400% Notes or 4.350% Notes will be accepted in the Offer. In addition, because the aggregate principal amounts of Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or before the Early Tender Deadline and accepted for purchase exceeded the Aggregate Maximum Amount, no more Notes will be accepted in the Offer, regardless of Acceptance Priority Level.

The withdrawal rights for the Offer expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on November 10, 2021; therefore, previously tendered Notes may no longer be withdrawn.

The Offer is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase.

The Company has retained Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and BBVA Securities Inc. to serve as Lead Dealer Managers for the Offer. The Company has also retained Global Bondholder Services Corporation to serve as depositary and information agent for the Offer.

Requests for documents relating to the Offer may be directed to Global Bondholder Services Corporation by telephone at (866) 807-2200 or (212) 430-3774, in writing at 65 Broadway, Suite 404, New York, New York 10006 or online at https://www.gbsc-usa.com/ip/. Questions regarding the Offer may be directed to BBVA Securities Inc. at 1345 Avenue of the Americas, 44th Floor, New York, New York 10105, Attn: Liability Management, Toll-free: (800) 422-8692, email: [email protected] or Citigroup Global Markets Inc. at 388 Greenwich Street, Trading 4th Floor, New York, New York 10013, Attn: Liability Mgt. Group, Toll-free: (800) 558-3745, Collect: (212) 723-6106.

This press release is not a tender offer to purchase or a solicitation of acceptance of a tender offer, which may be made only pursuant to the terms of the Offer to Purchase. In any jurisdiction where the laws require the Offer to be made by a licensed broker or dealer, the Offer will be deemed made on behalf of the Company by one of the Dealer Managers or one or more registered brokers or dealers under the laws of such jurisdiction.

None of the Company, its board of directors, the depositary, the information agent, any of the dealer managers or the trustee for the Notes is making any recommendation as to whether holders should tender Notes in response to the Offer. Holders must make their own decisions as to whether to tender Notes, and, if so, the principal amount of Notes to tender.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements describing the Company's acceptance of Notes for purchase, payment of the Total Consideration and other matters relating to completion of the Offer, and similar statements concerning anticipated future events and expectations that are not historical facts. Such forward- looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "could," "should" and "would," and variations of these words or comparable words. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, and inherently involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. You should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to make any revision to the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release.

About International Paper

International Paper (NYSE: IP) is a leading global producer of renewable fiber-based packaging and pulp products with manufacturing operations in North America, Latin America, North Africa and Europe. We produce packaging products that protect and promote goods, and enable worldwide commerce, and pulp for diapers, tissue and other personal hygiene products that promote health and wellness. We are headquartered in Memphis, Tenn. and employ approximately 38,000 colleagues. Net sales for 2020 were $21 billion*. In Russia, the Company has a 50/50 joint venture, Ilim Group, the country's largest integrated manufacturer of pulp and paper and its largest foreign-domestic alliance in the forestry products sector. For more information about International Paper, our products and global citizenship efforts, please visit internationalpaper.com.

*Inclusive of our former pulp and paper mill in Kwidzyn, Poland, which was sold on August 6, 2021, and our former global papers business, which became a standalone, publicly traded company on October 1, 2021.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20020701/IPLOGO

SOURCE International Paper

Related Links

http://www.internationalpaper.com


WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), an advertising industry initiative to fight criminal activity and strengthen brand safety in the digital advertising supply chain, issued the following statement on the sentencing this week of Aleksandr Zhukov by United States District Judge Eric R. Komitee to 10 years' imprisonment for his role in creating and leading the "Methbot" ad fraud operation.

"Justice has been served," said TAG CEO Mike Zaneis. "This lengthy sentence sends a powerful message to ad fraud criminals worldwide that the US government is making it a priority to find them, prosecute them, and send them to jail. We are deeply grateful for the leadership and collaboration of the US Department of Justice, US Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of New York, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and New York Police Department in bringing Mr. Zhukov to justice. We also are also indebted to the TAG member companies who helped expose this fraud operation, shared their threat intelligence with their industry peers, and provided that critical information to law enforcement to assist with their investigations."

TAG also released a letter that it sent to the US Attorney's Office prior to sentencing that provided background on the impact of Zhukov's crimes and encourage the Court to "treat this case with the same gravity as past fraud cases and to issue a sentence that matches the severity of the crime."

TAG's full pre-sentencing letter to the US Attorney's Office can be found here.

As the advertising industry's only Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (ISAO), TAG established the TAG Threat Exchange to facilitate the sharing of intelligence about new and emerging threats with hundreds of companies across the industry. Through that forum, TAG has helped its members disseminate information and partner with peers to dismantle several major fraud operations, including ICEBUCKET, Hydra/Terracota, and Streamscan.

TAG has also worked behind the scenes with law enforcement agencies to educate their teams about threats facing the digital ad supply chain, assist with ongoing investigations and lead industry education. As part of that effort, TAG and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released a joint white paper earlier this year, "Best Practices for Working with Law Enforcement," offering information and advice to the ad industry based on the organizations' close and effective work together.

About the Trustworthy Accountability Group



The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) is the global certification program designed to fight against criminal activity and protect brand safety in the digital advertising industry. TAG advances its mission of eliminating fraudulent traffic, facilitating the sharing of threat intelligence, and promoting brand safety by connecting industry leaders, analyzing threats, and sharing best practices worldwide. The 700+ member TAG community includes the world's largest and most influential brands, agencies, publishers, and ad tech providers. For more information on TAG, please visit tagtoday.net.

Media Contact:

Andrew Weinstein

[email protected]

202-667-4967

SOURCE Trustworthy Accountability Group

Related Links

http://tagtoday.net


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Locality Bank IO's application for FDIC insurance has been approved subject to standard conditions. The bank has met the requirement to have $23 million in capital and currently has over $27 million in subscriptions for stock. The bank will close the capital raise no later than November 15, 2021, with its first shareholder meeting to follow shortly after. Local business owners and leaders are encouraged to invest and can learn more about the opportunity at https://invest.localitybank.com/investlocality.

Bank organizers and co-founders Keith Costello, Drew Saito, and Corey LeBlanc expect to open Locality Bank IO in Fort Lauderdale in December of this year, with an official grand opening taking place in 2022.

"We will be the first community bank in 10 years to open in South Florida and with the capital to lend, we welcome the South Florida business community to use us as a resource," said Keith Costello, Locality Bank's CEO. "By combining cutting-edge digital solutions with relationship banking, Locality Bank will provide local businesses with a frictionless and efficient way to bank.

Locality Bank IO will operate out of a temporary location at General Provision's Downtown Fort Lauderdale location until its main office at 1400 South Andrews Avenue has been fully renovated. The bank's mission is to empower local businesses to maximize their potential.

Serving Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties, the bank's digital services will all be available through a mobile app. Services will include commercial banking, commercial real estate lending (for owner occupied and investment), SBA lending, and deposit and business treasury services.

Locality Bank IO will operate on a secure cloud-native core banking system with an open API architecture. This modernized system will allow fast iteration and new technological additions to provide a robust and engaging customer experience.

To stay up to date on the launch of Locality Bank IO in Fort Lauderdale, Florida visit https://www.localitybank.com.

About Locality Bank IO

Locality Bank IO is a digital-first community bank in organization that will be based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The bank will serve local businesses by offering the traditional services of a community bank as well as user-friendly, cutting-edge technology. To learn more, contact Locality Bank IO at https://www.localitybank.com or via email at [email protected].



CONTACT:

Aimee Adler,

561-302-6902 or [email protected]



SOURCE Locality Bank IO

Related Links

http://www.localitybank.com


During his tenure as chief executive officer, Mr. Craig oversaw the advancement of Meritor's innovation and product portfolio, strengthened the company's financial foundation and created a collaborative and diverse organization. Mr. Craig led the execution of the company's M2016, M2019 and now, M2022 plans and has played a significant role in fostering a culture that distinguishes itself through its ability to consistently deliver on commitments while also maximizing value for its shareholders, customers and employees.

"It has been a privilege to contribute to Meritor's significant growth alongside our talented employees," said Mr. Craig. "Meritor's balanced portfolio of commercial truck, industrial and aftermarket businesses is well-positioned to continue meeting the changing needs of customers around the world. With this in mind, I believe now is the right time to begin the process of handing over the reins as chairman to Bill Newlin. Meritor's prospects are extremely bright, and I could not be more thankful to all of our employees, customers, partners and communities that have helped create the Meritor of today."

Mr. Newlin said, "We are grateful for all of Jay's contributions to our operational and strategic goals. Meritor has market-leading positions in our core geographies and a clear focus on driving performance and delivering profitable growth. As the demand for energy efficiency continues to accelerate, the Board and management will remain focused on transforming the value we deliver to customers through innovation and next-generation technologies. I look forward to resuming my role as non-executive chairman and continuing to work with the board and management team to enhance value for all Meritor stakeholders."

"On behalf of Meritor employees, I want to thank Jay for his exemplary leadership and his contributions to our company as CEO and as chairman," said CEO and president Chris Villavarayan. "Jay was responsible for developing and mentoring many of the leaders who are running the business today and helped lay the foundation for Meritor's continued success. We wish him all the best in his next chapter, and I look forward to continuing to work with Bill as he resumes the role of chairman."

About William Newlin

Mr. Newlin, a director since July 2003, was elected lead independent director in March 2021. Prior to that he was non-executive chairman effective April 2016. Previously, he was the lead director of Meritor's board and is currently a member of the Compensation and Management Development Committee and the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. He has been chairman and a director of Newlin Investment Company, LLC since April 2007.

He served as executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. from October 2003 until his retirement in March 2007. Newlin served as chairman and CEO of Buchanan Ingersoll Professional Corp. from 1980 to October 2003. He is a former chairman of Kennametal Inc. and director of Calgon Carbon Corp. He is also a director of several private companies, primarily specializing in technology solutions, including Liquid X Printed Metals, Sharp Edge Labs and SpIntellx.

About Meritor

Meritor, Inc. is a leading global supplier of drivetrain, mobility, braking, aftermarket and electric powertrain solutions for commercial vehicle and industrial markets. With more than a 110-year legacy of providing innovative products that offer superior performance, efficiency and reliability, the company serves commercial truck, trailer, off-highway, defense, specialty and aftermarket customers around the world. Meritor is based in Troy, Michigan, United States, and is made up of more than 8,600 diverse employees who apply their knowledge and skills in manufacturing facilities, engineering centers, joint ventures, distribution centers and global offices in 19 countries. Meritor common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MTOR. For important information, visit the company's website at www.meritor.com.

SOURCE Meritor, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.meritor.com


WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Two NASA astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, Nov. 30, for a spacewalk to replace a faulty antenna system. NASA officials will describe the upcoming spacewalk during a news conference on Wednesday, Nov. 17.

NASA will provide live coverage of the news conference and spacewalk on NASA Television, the agency's website, and the NASA app.

NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron will exit the Quest airlock around 7:10 a.m. EST to replace an S-band Antenna Subassembly (SASA) with a spare already available on the station's truss structure. The space station transmits low-rate voice and data with flight controllers on the ground over the S-band of radio frequencies. Live coverage will begin at 5:30 a.m.

NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will host a news conference to preview the spacewalk at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17. Participants are:

Dana Weigel , NASA deputy manager of the International Space Station Program

, NASA deputy manager of the International Space Station Program Vincent LaCourt , NASA spacewalk flight director

, NASA spacewalk flight director Art Thomason , NASA spacewalk officer

Reporters who wish to participate in the news conference by telephone must call the Johnson newsroom at: 281-483-5111 no later than 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17. The briefing is virtual only due to safety restrictions related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Anyone following the briefing on social media may ask questions using #AskNASA.

The spacewalk is expected to take about six hours and 30 minutes to complete. Marshburn and Barron will work at the Port 1 (P1) truss structure, where the antenna is mounted. The antenna recently lost its ability to send signals to Earth via NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. Although its degradation has had limited impact on station operations, mission managers decided to install a new antenna to ensure communications redundancy. The space station has additional low-rate S-band systems, as well as the high-rate KU-band communications system that relays video.

Throughout the spacewalk, Marshburn will position himself at the end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm, working in tandem with Barron. Astronaut Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) will control the robotic arm from inside the space station.

Marshburn will serve as extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1), with red stripes on his spacesuit, while Barron will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2), with an unmarked suit. This will be the fifth spacewalk for Marshburn, the first spacewalk for Barron, and the station's 245th spacewalk in support of assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

Earlier this month, the International Space Station surpassed its 21-year milestone of continuous human presence, providing opportunities for unique research and technological demonstrations that help prepare for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars and also improve life on Earth. During that time, 249 people from 19 countries have visited the orbiting laboratory, which has hosted nearly 3,000 research investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas.

Learn more about the International Space Station, its research, and its crew, at:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov


WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NicoKick today endorsed a coalition of over 100 global health organizations urging social media companies to ban the paid promotion of nicotine and tobacco pouch products on their platforms, including ads by paid influencers. The targeted tech companies include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, among others.

"While we sell nicotine pouches ourselves, we agree that social media platforms should take steps to ensure kids are not targeted with ads for nicotine products," said Markus Lindblad, Head of External Affairs at NicoKick's parent company, the Haypp Group. "It makes sense for social media companies to ban advertising for nicotine pouches, just like they ban advertising for other nicotine products. In addition to banning these ads on social media, we believe it's important that Internet search engines like Google also remove paid advertising for all nicotine products."

About NicoKick:

NicoKick is the world's leading e-commerce company in the smokeless industry, with customers in 34 countries. As users move away from traditional tobacco products toward healthier smokeless options, NicoKick's sales have continued to surge over the past two years throughout the country. The site is quickly becoming a one-stop shop for consumers interested in learning more about and purchasing smokeless tobacco products. To learn more about NicoKick, visit the website at: https://nicokick.com/learn-more.

SOURCE NicoKick

Related Links

https://nicokick.com


JACKSON HOLE, Wyo., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacaso , the leading real estate platform that helps people buy and co-own a luxury second home, today announced that it has expanded its service to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The company listed its first property in Jackson alongside plans to support the Community Housing Fund and Teton Habitat for Humanity.

"Jackson Hole's majestic beauty coupled with its wide array of year-round outdoor recreational activities has made it a highly desirable location for second home buyers, many of whom are looking to enjoy their newfound remote work flexibility from the mountains," said Pacaso Co-founder and CEO Austin Allison. "As in many mountain towns, this demand has increased the strain on housing inventory needed by the workforce. Pacaso offers a better way; co-ownership empowers buyers to uplevel their focus toward luxury properties, and away from lower price points."

For 2022, Pacaso will be supporting the local Community Housing Fund with an upfront donation of $10K and an ongoing donation of $5K for each home Pacaso purchases. The company will also appeal directly to the sellers' agent to match its giving for each home and partner with Fund leaders to encourage others in the real estate community to give. Pacaso will also donate lightly used furniture and home goods from the acquisition of new homes to Teton Habitat for Humanity .

"I am delighted Pacaso has chosen to proactively participate in the Community Housing Fund," said Devon Viehman, Associate Broker of the Viehman Group. "Broad-based, sustained participation from the real estate community is critically needed to support our community members facing housing insecurity. I look forward to partnering with Pacaso to grow this fund's impact."

Pacaso partners with all interested real estate agents and brokerages in markets where it operates. Real estate agents representing buyers who purchase a share of a Pacaso home receive a 3% referral commission in addition to 500 RSUs of Pacaso stock as a referral equity bonus . Agents in Jackson Hole who are interested in working with Pacaso can learn more on the company's website .

Pacaso's first listing in the area is a contemporary five-bedroom home situated atop the ridge of Spring Creek with sweeping views of Sleeping Indian Mountain and the Grand Tetons. The home was designed by Ward Blake architects.

To learn more about homes available throughout Jackson Hole, please visit the Pacaso website .

About Pacaso

Pacaso (pronounced like "Picasso") modernizes the decades-old practice of co-ownership by creating a marketplace that makes buying, owning, and selling a luxury second home easy. From curating the best listings in top second home markets to offering integrated financing and sales from as little as  to as much as  ownership; upscale interior design; and professional property management, Pacaso provides owners with all the benefits of owning a second home with less hassle. After purchase, Pacaso manages the home on an ongoing basis and supports a frictionless resale process in partnership with a licensed real estate professional.

Pacaso was co-founded by former Zillow executives Austin Allison and Spencer Rascoff.

SOURCE Pacaso

Related Links

www.pacaso.com


WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. press leaders expressed indignation Friday over news that Danny Fenster, an American journalist working in Myanmar, had been sentenced to 11 years in prison on unfounded charges.

Fenster, who is from Michigan, is the managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, an online magazine. He was sentenced to jail by a court in Myanmar on Friday purportedly for spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations, and violating visa regulations.

He also faces separate charges in another court of violating a counterterrorism law and a statute covering treason and sedition.

"Journalists and people of conscience everywhere are shocked and outraged at this miscarriage of justice," said Lisa Nicole Matthews, president of the National Press Club, and Angela Greiling Keane, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute. "Danny Fenster has committed no crime and was only doing his job of informing the world about events in Myanmar. Today's sentencing is a stain on that country and the only way to remove it is for Mr. Fenster to be promptly set free and all charges dropped."

Fenster has been detained in Myanmar since May. The National Press Club honored him this year with a John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award, which recognizes journalists who persevere in the face of extreme adversity.

The charges against Fenster have no basis in fact. They were focused on work he did for the Myanmar Now news agency, which had its license revoked by a Myanmar government intent on silencing news outlets. But Fenster had resigned from Myanmar Now 10 months prior to his arrest.

He told his lawyer earlier this year that he had become infected with the coronavirus while in detainment and was denied medicine.

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 news 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 an engaged global citizenry through an independent and free press and equips journalists with skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire civic engagement.

Contact: John Donnelly, chairman, NPC Press Freedom Team: 202 650 6738; [email protected]

SOURCE National Press Club

Related Links

http://press.org


PHOENIX, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- RAADR, Inc. (OTC PINK: RDAR), a technology and software development company that monitors cyber-bullying and social media platforms with artificial intelligence announced today that it has purchased TheBullyApp.com.

RAADR's Parental Monitoring App 2.0 will be launched in Q4 2021. The app will target and serve 2 vertical markets that the company believes makes up a large percentage of all young children, teens, and young adults who use social media. Parents of young children in the country who want to track potentially inappropriate behavior on social media represents the first vertical market. The other vertical market and perhaps the larger market is bullying which has become one of the most discussed subjects in the world.

The RAADR Parental Monitoring App 2.0 is expected to be released in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store during the 4th quarter. The Apple App Store and Google Play store are perfectly designed to serve the parental monitoring vertical market where parents of young children could monitor 24/7 their children's images as well as social media posts that contain their children's names and social media addresses. Recently, RAADR announced that the app's capabilities were expanded to Snapchat and TikTok. As a result of the app's expanded abilities, the company has received a growing number of inquiries regarding collaborations, partnerships, investment and more. Much of these inquiries has been about the bullying behavior on social media and how we may be the solution.

The void in the company's overall positioning on the App Store and the Google Play store was for parents and children that simply wanted to use an app to track bullying behavior on social media. As a result of the company's purchase which it is announcing for the first time today, the company will optimize the site to connect with consumers that are simply looking for apps that can detect bullying behavior on social media. This simple but astute move will allow the company to potentially connect with millions of customers that will find the app by Boolean searches on Google and other leading search engines. The company expects to be able to launch the website TheBullyApp.com simultaneously with the app during the 4th quarter.

Jacob Dimartino, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of RAADR, Inc. explained, "From the beginning, our app's architecture and scalability was planned to allow us to open additional vertical markets as our company grows. Yesterday, I was talking to a California-based tech company CEO who said that RAADR's app can potentially reach tens of millions of users. Our ability to separate inappropriate behavior from bullying behavior may exponentially expand our target user base. We are happy to announce the close of this purchase."

About RAADR, Inc.

RAADR, Inc., publishes software and apps that protect children who use social media and the internet. Known as the "internet anti-bullying company", RAADR produces products that allow children, parents, and school districts to monitor bullying and other threatening behavior on the Internet in real time. Armed with many features including keyword tracking, real time alerts, facial recognition and site filtering, RAADR's apps determine in real time whether children or young adults are the victim of stalkers, bullies and other threatening behavior. Parents love the facial recognition feature because in seconds, the app allows parents to upload the child's image and parents can be armed with one of the most powerful tools available to receive alerts each time their child's image appears on a social media site. RAADR Parental 2.0, which is the parenting app that helps parents and adults protect children by using real time monitoring on social media will be released sometime in late 2021. Bully RAADR which arms the kids with RAADR's powerful suite of products allows children to protect themselves and other kids from threatening and dangerous behavior on the internet and social media will be released by the Spring of 2022. RAADR Inc. is committed to making our world and social media a safer and better place for kids and young adults."

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section EVE of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements in this press release, which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future.

Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with new projects and development stage companies. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our annual report and for the most recent fiscal year, our quarterly reports, and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with OTCMarkets.com

Video :

Link : youtu.be/1juAWI14jgA

Media Contact:

Jacob Dimartino

[email protected]

SOURCE RAADR, Inc.

Related Links

raadr.com


NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The revolutionary skincare brand from California, Skin Laundry, has just opened the doors to their second Arizona clinic in Phoenix. The opening comes after seven years of huge success at the neighboring clinic location in Scottsdale.

Founded on a belief that the technology and science reshaping skincare today should be available to all people looking to improve or maintain their skin, Skin Laundry has been bridging the gap between medical cosmetics and beauty therapy since their inception in 2013.

Gregg Throgmartin, CEO at Skin Laundry says: "Building upon the incredible success of Skin Laundry locations across the globe, Skin Laundry has embarked on a journey to expand our footprint. Due to overwhelming demand at our Scottsdale Quarter location in Arizona, it was clear that the next location we open should be in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. The opening of our clinic at Biltmore Fashion Park provides our clients more appointment availability and convenience. We are looking forward to welcoming existing and new clients to our newest clinic."

The new Phoenix location will boast a total of 2 treatment rooms, with plans to build out a 3rd as well as stock a vast collection of products available for retail. The brand offers three different types of treatments which range from $150 to $700 in cost which are all performed by a medical team of Registered Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, and Physician Assistants trained and guided by board certified Dermatologists, Physicians, and medical professionals. Skin Laundry's Laser facials treat a variety of skin concerns including, acne, acne scars, melasma, hyperpigmentation, fine lines & wrinkles, rosacea, texture and dullness.

The Signature Laser Facial utilizes an Nd:YAG laser that bypasses the surface and penetrates deep into the skin where most of one's skin concerns live. It blends skin discoloration such as sunspots and melasma, minimizes redness, and stimulates collagen to make one's skin healthier and more resilient.

The Fractional Laser Facial utilizes a resurfacing laser that gently removes damaged skin and minimizes the appearance of unwanted discoloration, fine lines and wrinkles, helping improve overall skin tone and texture. Different from other resurfacing lasers, this treatment produces microchannels on the top layer of the skin allowing 90% of our customized medical-grade serums to be absorbed.

The Ultra Duo Laser Facial utilizes both powerhouse lasers + the newly launched Skin Laundry medical-grade serums. The duo allows one to target all layers of the skin and effectively target multiple skin concerns. It will blend discoloration, reduce redness and inflammation, and stimulate collagen while also creating microchannels on the top layer of the skin allowing 90% of our customized medical-grade serums to be absorbed.

Enhancements for the neck, chest and hand will also be available and start at $30.

Skin Laundry facials are customized to best suit one's personal skincare needs and are safe for all skin types and tones, providing real results with little to no downtime. The brand believes consistency is key so allows customers to opt in to their Laundry Club membership to help one achieve the best results possible. Memberships start at $150 per month and offer a discount across all treatments, products, and enhancements. The top tier membership, Rejuvenate, is also able to be shared with a partner or a friend.

In addition to treatments, Skin Laundry offers a skincare line featuring carefully formulated, highly effective daily skincare essentials to help achieve radiant, smooth, glowing "just laundered" skin at home. The collection is both high in efficiency and low in maintenance. Top selling products include the newly launched serums, Hyaluronic Acid Serum, Tranexamic Acid Serum, Vitamin A Serum and Brightening Serum as well as the iconic range of Sheet Masks and the Balancing Toner.

Skin Laundry locations can be found by visiting skinlaundry.com . First time customers can receive their first treatment for $50. The new Phoenix clinic can be located at: Biltmore Fashion Park 2502 E Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85016.

About Skin Laundry

Skin Laundry is changing the way people treat and transform their skin through safe, effective, and affordable laser facials. The brand has coined the term "we made laser facials a thing", called "revolutionary" by Forbes and named one of Fast Company's "Beauty Startups to Watch", the company taps into technology and utilizes medical-grade lasers to rejuvenate skin cells, boost collagen production and improve clarity for transformative results in less than 30 minutesand with zero downtime. Skin Laundry also offers a simplified skincare line featuring highly effective daily essentials to help achieve radiant, smooth, glowing "just laundered" skin at home. Skin Laundry opened its flagship location in Santa Monica in 2013 and currently has over 20 clinics across the globe, with sites in the US, Hong Kong, Dubai, and London.

For more information, reach out to The Lede Company at [email protected]

SOURCE Skin Laundry

Related Links

http://skinlaundry.com


Vendor Landscape

The market structure is fragmented due to the presence of several global and regional vendors. Adobe Inc., Cengage Learning Holdings II Inc., City & Guilds Group, Cornerstone OnDemand Inc., D2L Corp., John Wiley and Sons Inc., Learning Technologies Group Plc, McGraw-Hill Education Inc., SAP SE, and Skillsoft Ltd. are some of the few key vendors of this market. Vendors are competing to maintain their market position in the market. To succeed in this market, vendors must focus on providing e-learning at competitive prices.

Vendors are adopting various organic and inorganic growth strategies such as new product launches and mergers and acquisitions to remain competitive and expand their reach in the market.

For instance, in April 2021, D2L Corp. partnered with Zoom Video Communications, Inc. to offer a comprehensive education experience

View more about the market's vendor landscape highlights with a comprehensive list of vendors and their offerings.

Key Market Segmentation

Segmentation by Product:

Packaged content:



The segment contributed greatly to the overall market growth in 2020.





Packaged content was the largest segment of the market in 2020 and will continue to remain as the largest segment of the market in 2025. The increasing need for high-quality e-learning content to improve brand value and gain a competitive advantage for vendors are driving the growth of the segment.



Solutions

Segmentation by End-users:

K-12 :

:

In terms of end-user, the K-12 segment generated maximum revenue in the market in 2020.





The K-12 segment is expected to account for the maximum number of sales in the market over the forecast period.



Higher education



Corporate

Request a FREE Sample of this report for more highlights into the market segments

Latest Trends Driving the E-learning Market in UK

E-learning Market Driver:

Learning process enhancements in the academic sector:

Schools in the UK are increasingly adopting personalized learning and job-embedded professional learning to meet the growing demands of students. This has resulted in the wider recognition and adoption of student-centric learning models and adaptive learning methods. The introduction of such learning models is allowing students to learn beyond the traditional curriculum as they offer flexibility in learning numerous subjects. Such advancements are expected to foster market growth over the forecast period.

E-learning Market Trend:

Increase in adoption of microlearning:

The growing emphasis on personalized and adaptive learning models has increased the popularity of the concept of microlearning. This is encouraging academic e-learning vendors to introduce microlearning course content that helps students learn concepts within a short span of time. This growing trend is positively influencing the e-learning market in UK.

Find additional information about various other market drivers & Trends mentioned in our FREE sample report .

Need More? Are You Looking for Information Not Covered in This Report?

Want to understand more about the various research methodology?

Evaluate a specific segment or region in detail

Identify key suppliers, customers, or other market players

Analyze market regulations

Tailor this report according to your needs. Get it done with our $1000 worth of free customization. Speak to Our Analyst Now!

Related Reports:

Global Edtech Market  Global Edtech market is segmented by sector (K-12, higher education, and others) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Global Learning Management System Market  Global learning management system market is segmented by end-user (academic sector and corporate sector), deployment (on-premise and on-cloud), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

E-learning Market In UK Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of over 15% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 9.94 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 13.69 Regional analysis UK Performing market contribution UK at 100% Key consumer countries UK Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Adobe Inc., Cengage Learning Holdings II Inc., City & Guilds Group, Cornerstone OnDemand Inc., D2L Corp., John Wiley and Sons Inc., Learning Technologies Group Plc, McGraw-Hill Education Inc., SAP SE, and Skillsoft 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, 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 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
LONDON, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Commonwealth of Dominica is taking its mission for climate resilience one step further after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with a local green energy company to develop the island's geothermal potential. This latest move endorses the island's commitment to championing sustainability  one of the many objectives outlined in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

The signing, which took place between the Climate Resilience Executive Agency of Dominica (CREAD) and Kenesjay Green LTD, was announced during the ongoing COP26 conference happening in Glasgow, Scotland. The partnership will aim to identify investment opportunities particularly in areas such as renewable energy and carbon neutral hydrogen as well as harnessing the island's significant geothermal energy.

"This signing complements the work that Dominica is doing with the support of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in developing green industrial projects as a major diversification effort and sustainable economic development for Dominica," said Francine Baron, the CEO of CREAD.

"CREAD will work with Kenesjay Green Limited to expeditiously position Dominica to take advantage of its vast geo-thermal resources and growing global market interest for new eco-friendly products such as green hydrogen."

As world leaders and activists continue to encourage discourse on climate action in the context of COP26, countries like Dominica are already proving that they are doing their part to tackle the crisis. Despite contributing very little to global emissions, the island has unfortunately already faced the consequences associated with global warming and climate change with little to no international support.

Minister Cozier Frederick represented the island at COP26, where he bought attention to the lack of climate finance offered to small island developing states (SIDS) like Dominica.

"SIDS have high level of debt distress. Primarily linked to responding to climate impacts and currently there is no viable long-term debt reduction strategy. Yet still, SIDS are receiving less than 2% of all climate finance. Almost all the energy biodiversity targets for the last decade were missed."

"Hurricanes are becoming more frequent and more intense. Dominica and other small islands are seeking new opportunities. This lies in decarbonisation and renewable energy technologies and more sustainable forms of tourism and digitisation of the economy."

Following Hurricane Maria in 2017, Dominica pledged to become the world's first climate resilient nation. This mission has seen Dominica already explore its geothermal potential with the construction of a plant anticipated to begin soon. Furthermore, the island has ensured that infrastructural developments are rooted in sustainability and resilience. This means buildings, from homes to hospitals, are built to withstand weather disasters. The same can also be said for Dominica's tourism sector which has witnessed a green revitalisation, bolstering the island's offering with boutique environmentally sensitive villas and resorts.

Much of this has been made possible due to Dominica's own resources  notably, its Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme. The programme has been pivotal to generating foreign direct investment which has been channelled into the country's national development. In exchange, investors gain the nation's citizenship including its many benefits from increased travel freedom particularly to global business hubs, a second home in a stable democracy with ties to economic giants like the United States and the ability to pass citizenship down for generations to come.

+44(0)7824029952, [email protected], www.csglobalpartners.com

SOURCE CS Global Partners
WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, today announced it will build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Mebane, N.C. The site is part of a recently announced co-investment with the U.S. government  a $192.5 million contract in coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ensure domestic supply of critically needed laboratory pipette tips.

"The new manufacturing facility will help the U.S. meet future demand surges for vital laboratory products while bringing more high-quality jobs to North Carolina," said Mark Stevenson, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Thermo Fisher Scientific. "With its strategic geographic location and proximity to a diverse talent base, Mebane is an ideal location for this new facility."

Thermo Fisher currently employs approximately 4,000 colleagues across seven sites in N.C., including a center of excellence for laboratory equipment in Asheville, three life sciences and chemical manufacturing sites in Durham, pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in Greenville and High Point, and a Raleigh distribution center. The Mebane site is expected to create 150-200 new jobs in manufacturing, engineering and business operations jobs.

"Thermo Fisher continues to expand its footprint in North Carolina, reinforcing our state's global reputation as a prime location for life sciences companies," said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. "This new investment in Mebane and Orange County proves once again that North Carolina's biotechnology sector is thriving in every corner of our state."

"North Carolina offers companies like Thermo Fisher a diverse life science workforce and world-class universities and community colleges that keep building that workforce day after day," said North Carolina Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders. "In North Carolina, we understand that to attract and help companies compete in today's global economy, our state must be first in talent, and we're strongly committed to meeting that goal."

"This is a tremendous announcement, and we welcome this expansion into our city and North Carolina," said Mebane Mayor Ed Hooks. "The presence of a company of this magnitude is greatly appreciated and adds another world-class organization to a significant industrial lineup in our area. The investment in our economy and the job opportunities for highly skilled employees will undoubtedly have a major impact and provide great opportunities for our citizens. We welcome Thermo Fisher Scientific to the City of Mebane."

"Orange County strives to encourage and support economic development in our county, and we particularly welcome businesses that offer 21st-century jobs with good salaries and career opportunities for our residents," said Renee Price, Chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners. "We are pleased to welcome Thermo Fisher Scientific to the community and look forward to seeing their project come to fruition."

Thermo Fisher's investment in Mebane is part of a larger strategy to build flexible and redundant production capacity in the U.S. and across key regions globally. Increased output from recent site expansions is helping meet ongoing demand for COVID-19-related consumables, including plastics used to collect samples and transport them to labs, as well as for vital equipment, such as single-use technologies (SUT), used to accelerate production and allow flexibility for both COVID and non-COVID vaccines and therapies.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue of approximately $35 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 90,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

Media Contact Information:

Ron O'Brien

Phone: 781-622-1242

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific

Related Links

http://www.thermofisher.com


VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Vejii Holdings Ltd. ("Vejii" or the "Company") a North American online plant-based and sustainable products marketplace, is pleased to announce it is now trading on the CSE under the symbol "VEJI", and the Company is pleased to share the following updates:

Closing Vegan Essentials:

This follows on the heels of Vejii's successful acquisition of a leading online retailer of vegan grocery products, Veg Essentials LLC ("Vegan Essentials" or "VeganEssentials.com"). The acquisition provides Vejii with access to a second strategically located warehouse in the US, as well as over 20 years of consumer insight, data, and buying power. The companies have a combined subscriber list of over 130,000 across North America and Europe. The Company plans to consolidate its logistics, marketing and buying with Vegan Essentials to increase efficiencies and margins between the two companies. As previously disclosed on April 15 2021, Vegan Essentials brings over 3.5M CAD of revenue to Vejii Holdings Ltd based on its 2020 unaudited financials

As a staple of the plant-based community, Vegan Essentials was established in 1997. Vegan Essentials has been awarded best online vegan store by VegNews from 2005-2018, as well as best online vegan grocer from 2018-2021 by VegNews Magazine.

ShopVejii Marketplace

Vejii Holdings' marketplace "ShopVejii.com" consolidates plant-based and sustainable brands through its digital marketplace offering thousands of products from hundreds of vendors in a centralized, online shopping experience. The Company is aiming to build a community of ethically aligned consumers, with the intention of bettering our planet by supporting sustainable living. In the Company's view, consumers are becoming more aware of their environmental impact, and there is a movement towards supporting sustainable companies and consumers have a choice to purchase from companies that best align with their own core values. The Company believes it has strategically positioned itself to capitalize on this growing sector.

Helping Brands Get Access to Consumers

Vejii Holdings' marketplace continues to gain traction as witnessed by press releases from our brand partners, with companies like Boosh Foods, NEXE, Sol Cuisine, Nabati, Plant Veda, and Blender Bites all having recently announced agreements with Vejii for sales and distribution in Canada, the US, or both. In the US Vejii has signed on well-known brands such as NotCo, Daring Foods, and Future Farms. "These brands listing with Vejii, signify the power of our marketplace model, where brands leverage Vejii's customer reach, distribution network, last mile service and social presence to gain access to consumers across Canada and the US. Our customers benefit by getting access to thousands of products in one place, rather than having to shop at multiple brick and mortar stores, or eCommerce sites. at Vejii we enable our customer to get everything they want in one place, weather you're looking for grocery, wine, personal care, or more" said Kory Zelickson, CEO of Vejii Holdings Ltd.

Message from the CEO

CEO of Vejii, Kory Zelickson stated: "We are thrilled to have investors welcome Vejii to the public markets. After an extensive period preparing to be publicly traded, we have successfully completed the first major step as a newly public company. We look forward to executing on the vision of the Company and to continue to make plant-based and sustainable living products widely accessible and convenient. Not only have our shareholders recognized that consumers' demands and expectations for how products are made is changing, but they acknowledge our unique and competitive position in the industry as we leverage our technology and extraordinary customer service. We are thankful for their enthusiasm and support and look forward to providing value to our new and old investors as Vejii continues to grow."

Plant-based & Sustainable Living Market

In the Company's opinion, plant-based and sustainable living products have become a leading consumer trend with both well established and new, innovative companies hitting the market with products regularly. These companies continue to launch products across new and growing consumer categories with an ever-expanding range of products. Companies like Beyond Meat, Oatly, and Impossible Foods have led a movement towards making plant-based mainstream from a food perspective, but today other global brands have also introduced plant-based products like mushroom leather fashion, furniture, accessories, and vegan running shoes, showing consumer sentiment towards sustainable products. The Company views these products as appealing not only to the plant-based consumer but also to a traditional mainstream consumer as the Company believes shoppers are continually becoming more environmentally conscious with their purchasing. New York-based Nielsen forecasts the sustainable product market to reach somewhere between $142.4 billion and $150.1 billion by 2021.

About Vejii Holdings Ltd.

The Company is headquartered in Kelowna B.C. and is operating its online marketplace ShopVejii.com in both Canada and the US, along with online vegan grocer VeganEssentials.com. Vejii Holdings Ltd. is focused on providing its customers with easy access to thousands of plant-based and sustainable living products in one place. Vejii leverages its logistics infrastructure, distribution networks technology integrations like smart lists, reorders features, subscription programs and AI to support its vendors and improve our overall customer experience.

Information on the Company and its many products can be accessed through the link below.

VejiiHoldings.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Kory Zelickson

Director and CEO

Find Vejii on Social Media: on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws with respect to the Company. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by words such as "believe," "project," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements in this press release relate to the Company's future performance, use of additional capital, plans to consolidate the logistics, marketing and buying of the Company and Vegan Essentials and the increased efficiencies that may result from the acquisition of Vegan Essentials, market trends and Company expectations on the growth of the plant-based and sustainable consumer market. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements and information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release including, without limitation, risk factors described in the Company's final long form prospectus dated October 25, 2021. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable laws.

SOURCE Vejii Holdings Ltd.
LAS VEGAS, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WebSafety, Inc. ( www.websafety.com ) (OTCMarkets: WBSI) today announced that it had signed a Letter of Intent to acquire Prosperous Abundance Medical and Diagnostic Clinic, Inc. ("PAMD").

PAMD operates over 20 medical clinics and has developed a medical healthcare delivery system that since its inception in 2020 has served over 300,000 patients in the Philippines.

According to Rowland Day, CEO of WebSafety, "We are excited to announce this proposed combination of our companies. John Paul Aclan, the CEO and founder of PAMD has created a fast growing, profitable company that has redefined medical care for the Philippine population."

John Paul Aclan, stated, "All of us at PAMD are ready to take this next step to become a public company. Our company is growing very rapidly and we have tremendous growth opportunities before us."

Mr. Day and Mr. Aclan will release additional information during the next few weeks as they complete the combination of their companies.

About WebSafety

WebSafety is a software company that has created mobile apps for the Android and iOS mobile operating systems. The WebSafety app allows parents to monitor questionable and potentially harmful content or a direct predatory exchange that occurs on their child's mobile device. The WebSafety app monitors downloaded apps, websites visited, social media, GPS tracking, allows curfew blocking, and provides real time notifications to the parent. The parent uses a real time dashboard on their desktop, laptop or mobile device to stay informed of their child's activities.

Please visit www.WebSafety.com

About Prosperous Abundance Medical and Diagnostic Clinic, Inc. ("PAMD")

PAMD operates over 20 medical clinics and has pioneered home medical service in the Philippines. Since its beginning in 2020 over 300,000 patients have received medical services.

Please visit www.homelab.ph

For more information, please contact:

WebSafety, Inc.

Rowland W. Day II

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE WebSafety, Inc.
NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to The Insight Partners study on "Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) Swab Test Market Forecast to 2027  COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis  by Type and Application," the market was valued at US$ 198.21 million in 2019 and is projected to reach US$ 369.71 million by 2027; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.2% during 20202027. The market growth is attributed to the rising prevalence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and increasing emphasis on food safety. However, limitations of ATP swab tests are hindering the market growth.

Get Exclusive Sample Pages of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) Swab Test Market - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis with Strategic Insights at https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00014433/

Rising Prevalence of HAIs Fuels Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) Swab Test Market Growth

HAIs might be acquired by people during their visit to healthcare facilities. These infections are mainly spread through surgical procedures and medical instruments used during procedures. HAIs may lead to morbidity among significant number of patients as well as high number of mortalities across the world. According to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2019, 1 in 31 hospital patients is estimated to suffer from some kind of HAI. In addition, according to estimates by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in 2019, ~4.1 million patients in Europe suffer from HAIs every year. Furthermore, according to a study published in the journal of Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control in 2019, the incidence rate of HAIs in China was 3.62 per 1,000 patient days. The respiratory tract infections accounted for 43.80% of these HAI cases, while bloodstream and urinary tract infections accounted for 15.74% and 12.69%, respectively. Further, the increasing prevalence of chronic conditions and infectious disease outbreaks is projected to accelerate the hospital visits and patient pool in years to come, which would also lead to the rise in number of HAIs cases. As per estimates published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019, 421 million hospitalizations are conducted worldwide each year. Out of these hospitalizations, 42.7 million patients suffer due to adverse reactions or infections at healthcare settings. Thus, the increase in incidence of HAIs due to various factors is fueling the ATP swab testing market growth.

Download Sample PDF Brochure of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) Swab Test Market Growth Research Report at https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00014433/

Report Coverage Details Market Size Value in US$ 198.21 million in 2019 Market Size Value by US$ 369.71 Million by 2027 Growth rate CAGR of 8.2% from 2020 to 2027 Forecast Period 2020 - 2027 Base Year 2020 No. of Pages 153 No. Tables 55 No. of Charts & Figures 67 Historical data available Yes Segments covered Type, Application, End User Regional scope North America; Europe; Asia Pacific; Latin America; MEA Country scope US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina Report coverage Revenue forecast, company ranking, competitive landscape, growth factors, and trends

Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) Swab Test Market: Segmental Overview

On the basis of type, the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) swab test market is segmented into free ATP test and microbial ATP test. The microbial ATP test segment held a larger market share in 2019; and it is anticipated to register the highest CAGR in the market during the forecast period. Microbial ATP test for hygiene monitoring provides a measurement of the direct risks related to the presence of high microbial levels; it is also a measure of unintended risks resulting from organic scums that can serve as a source of nutrients for microorganisms.

On the basis of application, the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) swab test market is segmented into pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, food and beverages industry, hospitals and diagnostics laboratories, and academic and research institutions. The pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies segment held the largest market share in 2019 and is anticipated to register the highest CAGR in the market during the forecast period. These companies prefer using the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) swab test for a quick assessment of the cleanliness of surfaces or liquid samples obtained from places such as Clean-in-Place (CIP) systems. Thus, these tests allow the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to cut down resource allocation for conventional microbiological testing methods that are slow, labor intensive, and costly.

Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) Swab Test Market: Competition Landscape & Key Developments

Hygiena, Llc; 3M; Charm Sciences, Inc.; Kikkoman Biochemifa; Neogen; Ecolab; Ruhof Healthcare Corporation; Luminultra Technologies Ltd.; and Merck KGaA are key companies operating in the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) swab test market. The market leaders are continuously looking forward to expanding and diversifying their market presence and reaching out to new customers, thus tapping prevailing business opportunities.

Buy Copy of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) Swab Test Market Research Study at https://www.theinsightpartners.com/buy/TIPRE00014433/

In November 2020, Ecolab Food & Beverage North America partnered with Hygiena to help advance our customers' hygiene monitoring and food safety programs. This partnership is likely to bring together Hygiena's game-changing EnSURE Touch ATP system.

In December 2018, AOAC-RI provided Hygiena's product for its Performance Tested MethodSM certificate to the UltraSnap Surface ATP Test that assist in identifying the possible presence of microbial contamination.

In 2019, North America dominated the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) swab test market with more than one-third revenue share. The growth of the market in this region is attributed to the growing burden of COVID-19 diagnosis across various countries, which is boosting the ATP swab test demands. Similarly, the increasing prevalence of HAIs and rising demand for sanitation are also boosting the market growth.

Browse Related Reports and get Sample copy

Drive Through COVID-19 Testing Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Type (Throat Swab Testing, Nose Swab Testing); End User (Personal, Group), and Geography - https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00012614/

Medical Sterile Swabs Market Forecast to 2027 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Product (Cotton Tipped Swabs, Foam Tipped Swabs, Non- woven Swabs, and Others); End-User (Hospital, Clinics, Diagnostic Laboratories, and Others), and Geography - https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00013466/

Sterile Alcohol Swabs Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Product Type (Foam Tipped Swabs, Cotton Tipped Swabs.Non-woven, Others); End User (Hospitals and Clinics, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, Homecare Settings, Others), and Geography - https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00013484/

Disposable Flocking Swab Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type (Standard Type, Mini Type, Separable Type, Others); Application (Hospital, Clinic, Laboratory, Others) - https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00021163/

About Us:

The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We specialize in industries such as Semiconductor and Electronics, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Biotechnology, Healthcare IT, Manufacturing and Construction, Medical Device, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Chemicals and Materials.

Contact Us:

Contact Person: Sameer Joshi

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: +1-646-491-9876

Press Release - https://www.theinsightpartners.com/pr/malaria-treatment-market

More Research: https://www.openpr.com/news/archive/139407/The-Insight-Partners.html

SOURCE The Insight Partners
"The Best-of-the-Best designation honors corporations for their commitment to America's diverse employees and business owners, which includes LGBT people, people of color, women, and people with disabilities," said NGLCC Co-Founder and President Justin Nelson. "This designation is highly competitive and is bestowed only to corporations that we see constantly striving to strengthen and celebrate diversity. These corporations being honored are true leaders in ongoing global commitments to create a better future for all diverse communities in business-- especially as we work to help all our communities recover equitably from the pandemic."

NGLCC formed the National Business Inclusion Consortium in 2011, and its members represent a total of over $9 trillion in annual economic strength along with significant contributions to the marketplace and workplace. Only companies achieving industry-leading results across all diverse segments are eligible to receive the prestigious Best-of-the-Best designation from the NBIC, whose members include the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), Disability:IN, the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), the National Veteran-Owned Business Association (NaVOBA), the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc (USBC), the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC), WEConnect International, Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), and the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

The 2021 Best-of-the-Best Corporations for Inclusion are:

Accenture

Altria Group

American Family Insurance

Anthem Inc.

AT&T

Bank of America

Bayer U.S. LLC

Bristol Myers Squibb

Capital One

Chevron

Corning Incorporated

Corteva Agriscience

Cox Enterprises

CVS Health

Eaton

EY

Fannie Mae

FedEx

Food Lion LLC

GSK

HILTON

Humana Inc.

IBM

Intel Corporation

John Hancock

Johnson & Johnson

JPMorgan Chase

Kellogg Company

Lowe's Companies, Inc.

Macy's Inc

Merck & Co.

Nationwide

New York Life Insurance Company

Northrop Grumman

PepsiCo

PNC Financial Services

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Sodexo

T-Mobile

Target Corporation

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank

The Walt Disney Company

TIAA

Toyota

Travel + Leisure Co.

Truist Financial Corporation

U.S. Bank

UPS

Walgreens

Wells Fargo Bank

Also being recognized during the Best-of-the-Best Gala celebration will be:

NBIC Program or Initiative of the Year:

Lowe's

NBIC Courage in Government Award:

Mark Madrid, Associate Administrator, US Small Business Administration

"Demonstrating commitment to diversity is not only the right thing to do, but it's also the smartest thing to do for businesses large and small," says NGLCC Co-Founder and CEO Chance Mitchell. "The select group of Fortune 500 companies honored with a Best-of-the-Best designation are innovators and trailblazers for inclusion and are constantly raising the bar forward for themselves, their peers, and their competitors. While we pause to honor some extraordinary leaders at the Best-of-the-Best gala, the great work of ensuring opportunity for all us is a year-round commitment. We look forward to working with all of these great companies for decades to come in shaping a more inclusive economy for all."

ABOUT NGLCC:

The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce is the business voice of the LGBT community and is the largest global organization specifically dedicated to expanding economic opportunities and advancements for LGBT people. NGLCC is the exclusive certification body for LGBT-owned businesses. www.nglcc.org

MEDIA CONTACT:

[email protected]

SOURCE National LGBT Chamber of Commerce

Related Links

https://nglcc.org/


COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- White Castle has a collection of one-of-a-kind gifts that will surely make the holidays merry and bright for anyone who is a fan of the brand. To make gift shopping easier, White Castle is releasing its new Holiday Gift Guide, an annual list featuring the top 10 most craveworthy items, including several that are brand-new for the 2021 season.

White Castle's 2021 Holiday Gift Guide is out, and it offers great ideas for the White Castle Craver on your gift list. Tweet this White Castle's holiday sweater lights up. White Castle's coffee mug makes a great holiday gift. White Castle teamed up with DGK to offer this White Castle branded skateboard.

"Whether the Craver in your life picks up their Sliders at the drive-thru or the grocery aisle, their love of the Castle deserves a little holiday recognition," said Jamie Richardson, a vice president at the 100-year-old family-owned business. "On this year's gift guide, you'll find a few familiar looks alongside some brand-new, never-before-seen items!"

Check out White Castle's 2021 Holiday Gift Guide for the perfect presents, with the first seven available on White Castle's House of Crave website and the remaining three through exclusive retail partners.

White Castle's holiday ugly sweater tops this year's gift guide. Sporting the headline "Slider Season," the royal blue sweater features the White Castle logo encompassed in a light-up snow globe, making it particularly striking when worn at night. Available in sizes XS to 5XL, it's perfect for outdoor holiday fun and festive indoor gatherings. White Castle has a new holiday mug, and it's the perfect collectible for fans of the brand's coffee. White Castle's etched pint glass holds 16 ounces of your favorite beverage. The 20-ounce double wall White Castle tumbler keeps contents cold for 24 hours or hot for 12 hours. White Castle's 100th birthday keychain includes five charms depicting a Cheese Slider, a box of fries, a Crave Case, a blue heart and White Castle's special 100th birthday logo. Stay warm and cozy wearing the 100th birthday edition of White Castle's popular quarter-zip sweatshirt. Serve warm gravy this holiday season using White Castle's 100th birthday edition "cravey boat," a stylish addition to any dinner table. PSD, the maker of comfortable, affordable, on-trend boxer briefs, offers two White Castle-branded boxers, one sporting the White Castle logo and the other featuring a pattern of Sliders. DGK has a line of White Castle apparel and skateboard decks including the DGK X White Castle Pass The Crave Complete. As the description says, "This Is for Those Who Crave." Dumbgood, maker of pop culture streetwear, has an extensive line of White Castle pieces, including navy slides, checkered sweatpants, a tote bag and a button-down shirt adorned with a photo of a White Castle restaurant.

"Our White Castle merch is going to make a holly, jolly Christmas for those lucky enough to find some of it under their tree this year," Richardson said.

Free shipping from House of Crave, White Castle's online gift shop, is available for all orders placed on Cyber Monday, November 30.

If serving convenient, craveable food is the holiday goal, then White Castle has customers covered there, too. White Castle is giving away $5 holiday promo cards for every $25 worth of gift cards purchased at participating Castles, now through the end of the year. That's $30 worth of food for just $25! Gift cards can be used to purchase any menu item.

About White Castle

White Castle, America's first fast-food hamburger chain, has been making hot and tasty Sliders as a family-owned business for 100 years. Based in Columbus, Ohio, White Castle started serving The Original Slider in 1921. Today, White Castle owns and operates more than 350 restaurants dedicated to satisfying customers' cravings morning, noon and night and sells its famous fare in retail stores nationwide. The Original Slider, named in 2014 as Time magazine's "Most Influential Burger of All Time," is served alongside a menu of creatively crafted Sliders and other mouthwatering food options, including White Castle's Impossible Slider, named by Thrillist in 2019 as the "Best Plant-Based Fast-Food Burger." White Castle's commitment to maintaining the highest quality products extends to the company owning and operating its own meat processing plants, bakeries and frozen-food processing plants. In 2021, 100 years after the first Slider was sold, Fast Company named the fast-food pioneer one of the "10 Most Innovative Dining Companies." White Castle is known for the legendary loyalty of its team members, more than 1 in 4 of whom have worked for White Castle for at least 10 years, and also for its faithful fans ("Cravers"), many of whom compete each year for entry into the Cravers Hall of Fame. The official White Castle app, available at iTunes App Store or Google Play, makes it easy for Cravers to access sweet deals and place pickup orders at any time. They can also have their orders delivered using one of White Castle's delivery partners. For more information on White Castle, visit whitecastle.com.

Link to DGK

Link to PSD

Link to Dumbgood

SOURCE White Castle

Related Links

http://www.whitecastle.com


The six-part series will be broadcast daily on KUAM-TV between November 14 -19, 2021, as well as be featured on a new Guam Diabetes Resource web page www.aihealth.ai/diabetes-resources , where the community can easily access relevant resources and information on diabetes and updates on the validation study.

One in six residents on Guam are currently affected by diabetes. The chronic illness is so prevalent on the island that most residents just assume that they will be diagnosed, and that there is nothing they can do to prevent it or treat it over time.

As Governor Leon Guerrero stated in her state of the island address earlier this year, "85 percent of those we lost to COVID-19 and over 70 percent of those hospitalized at GMH had pre-existing conditions that made them especially vulnerable to the effects of this virus. Many also lacked access to basic health care."

She also further reinforced the impact of diabetes on Guam in her recent proclamation of November as Diabetes Month:

Diabetes is a primary contributor to two of the three leading causes of death in Guam , which are heart disease and stroke;

, which are heart disease and stroke; Adults diagnosed with diabetes are two to four times more likely than people without diabetes to die of heart disease or experience a stroke;

Approximately half of the individuals who have died from COVID-19 in Guam had diabetes as a comorbidity;

had diabetes as a comorbidity; The prevalence rate of diabetes in Guam grew from 13.7% in 2018 to 14.7% in 2020

Dr. Erika Alford, Guam's leading endocrinologist at American Medical Center says, "Overall, there is a very fatalistic view of diabetes on Guam. Most families have multiple members with diabetes, and unfortunately it has now become a normal part of life."

"As we recognize, not only Diabetes Awareness Month, but also the 100th anniversary of the lifesaving diabetes drug Insulin, we have the opportunity to collaborate with the Guam community in understanding that today we have more ways to prevent and care for those with diabetes than ever before," said Dr. Juan Espinoza, AI Health Chief Medical Officer. "There may not be a cure for diabetes yet, but there are new ways to treat the chronic illness, and with advances in technologies, like Artificial Intelligence, the future of diabetes care is changing more rapidly than ever."

AI Health in conjunction with their partners Calvo's SelectCare, Guam Regional Medical City, and American Medical Center are looking to not only raise awareness within the Guam Community of diabetes prevention and treatment this month, but also invite the community to engage with new tools and approaches using technology during their validation study.

AI Health Medical Advisory Board Member and diabetes technology pioneer Dr. David Klonoff said, "Our partnership on Guam looks to create diabetes history by showing what can happen when you enlist AI technology, data from all areas of the health eco-system and a community ready to make diabetes history."

The AI Health public awareness campaign will kick-off on World Diabetes Day, Sunday, November 14, 2021 on KUAM News Weekend Edition and continue throughout the week on KUAM News Primetime and on the KUAM News Multimedia morning show "The Link" (broadcast on KUAM TV11 and 93.9FM and streamed on Facebook Live) daily at 9:00 a.m. ChST (Chamorro Standard Time).

KUAM-TV Daily Viewing Schedule and Permanent Links to Stories on www.aihealth.ai/healthier-you:

Sunday, November 14, 2021

World Diabetes Day

The current state of diabetes prevention and care on Guam with Governor Lou Leon Guerrero.

Monday, November 15, 2021

The Impact of Diabetes on Guam

Calvo's SelectCare's Frank Campillo and Dr. Delores Lee look at the impact of diabetes on Guam and discuss the resources available for prevention and care.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Diabetes: Prevention + Care

Everyday simple actions make a difference in the prevention and care of diabetes. A panel of local experts discuss the importance of healthier food choices and physical activity, as well as offer simple tips on how to work them into your daily routine.

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Diabetes + Technology Today

Dr. Erika Alford and Dr. Juan Espinoza discuss understanding the importance of medication and diabetes monitoring, and what solutions are available today on Guam

Thursday, November 18, 2021

Diabetes + Technology + Guam = The Future

100 years after the discovery of Insulin, leading diabetes researchers Dr. Francisco Pasquel and Dr. David Klonoff discuss "Precision Medicine," AI and how technology will reshape diabetes care and prevention in the next century.

Friday, November 19, 2021

The week-long series will culminate in a special Diabetes + Technology Guam Town Hall Meeting with an expert panel of local and global medical experts breaking down the basics of diabetes on Guam, the AI Health Validation study and answering the community's questions about the resources available to them today and in the near future.

AI Health specializes in using AI and Internet of Things to provide simple healthcare solutions that work in real world today, in a cost effective, privacy compliant manner, and provide a foundation for the future of Predictive Analytics in Healthcare and Remote Patient Monitoring. The company is based in San Francisco with an AI Lab in Barcelona, Spain.

SOURCE AI Health

Related Links

www.aihealth.ai


HONOLULU, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. (NYSE:ALEX) ("A&B" or "Company") today announced it has sold its Kukui`ula residential development on the island of Kaua`i (the "Project"). A&B and its development partner, DMB Development, LLC of Scottsdale, AZ ("DMB"), completed the sale to Denver-based Brue Baukol Capital Partners ("BBCP") today. BBCP now assumes the role of master developer of the community.

A&B and DMB (collectively the "Partners") formed a partnership in 2002 for purposes of planning and developing the 1,000-acre resort community on Kaua`i's south shore. Construction began in 2006 and the community today is thriving, with more than 280 lots sold and more than 125 homes completed. The Partners pursued a sale of the Project largely because of A&B's strategic decision to focus its business model on commercial real estate. A comprehensive marketing process began earlier this year and led to the selection of BBCP as the buyer and new developer.

"A&B and DMB have partnered for nearly 20 years in pursuit of our shared vision for Kukui`ula. We are proud of the vibrant community we have created and thankful to our more than 200 Kukui`ula employees for their help in creating such a special place," said A&B CEO Chris Benjamin. "A&B has significant continuing interests on Kaua`i, including ownership of the adjacent Shops at Kukui`ula retail center, and will remain committed to the well-being of Kaua`i's communities. The sale of Kukui`ula is an important step forward in the simplification of A&B's business model and positions us to expand our Hawai`i commercial real estate portfolio."

"From our first visit to Kukui`ula in 2002, we understood what a unique place it is. Through our partnership with A&B and the dedication of our employees and members, we are proud to have created a community that properly reflects the warm spirit and natural beauty of Kaua`i," said DMB Chairman Drew Brown. "We are pleased to have found a respected developer in Brue Baukol Capital Partners to steward the Project from this point forward."

About Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.

Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. (NYSE: ALEX) (A&B) is the only publicly-traded real estate investment trust to focus exclusively on Hawai`i commercial real estate and is the state's largest owner of grocery-anchored, neighborhood shopping centers. A&B owns, operates and manages approximately 3.9 million square feet of commercial space in Hawai`i, including 22 retail centers, 11 industrial assets and 4 office properties, as well as 147 acres of ground leases. A&B is expanding and strengthening its Hawai`i CRE portfolio and achieving its strategic focus on commercial real estate by monetizing its remaining non-core assets. Over its 150-year history, A&B has evolved with the state's economy and played a leadership role in the development of the agricultural, transportation, tourism, construction, residential and commercial real estate industries. Learn more about A&B at www.alexanderbaldwin.com.

About DMB Development

DMB Development is a nationally recognized developer of large-scale planned communities, with operations throughout the United States. DMB's track record of developing world-class communities is predicated on building lasting relationships with municipalities, surrounding residents, local businesses, community groups, and other community stakeholders. DMB selects truly exceptional properties in the most desirable locations and creates new communities that have a positive impact on the community at large. DMB communities have won countless awards for design, planning, innovation, and environmental sensitivity. Learn more about DMB at www.dmbdevelopment.com.

Media Contacts:

Andrea Galvin, A&B (Hawai`i)

[email protected], 808.525.8404

Alexandra Ostridge, C&R PR (National)

[email protected], 310.926.3253

SOURCE Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.alexanderbaldwin.com


MEXICO CITY, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Grupo Aeromexico, S.A.B. de C.V. ("Aeromexico" or the "Company") (BMV: AEROMEX) informs that today it received a joint proposal (the "Alliance Proposal") from its lenders under Tranche 2 of our DIP financing facility and from certain existing creditors and new money investors with whom the Company was prepared to enter into commitment papers upon court approval thereof. The Alliance Proposal has the support of our strategic partner Delta Air Lines and provides an implementable solution, through a solid group of long-term Mexican investors, to comply with foreign ownership requirements. The Board of Directors of the Company has approved, among other matters, instructing the Company's restructuring advisors to prepare, in coordination with advisors for the key stakeholders, a revised version of the Chapter 11 Joint Plan of Reorganization (the "Plan") and the disclosure statement with respect to the Plan (the "Disclosure Statement"), including any supplements and exhibits related thereto, reflecting the terms of the Alliance Proposal.

The hearing to approve the Disclosure Statement and the hearing to confirm the Plan have been adjourned to a new date to be set in due course by the Bankruptcy Court.

The foregoing represents a key milestone under the Company's restructuring process. Aeromexico will continue working with all of its key stakeholders to finalize and file the Plan Documents, obtain Court approval of the Plan, solicit votes in favor of the Plan once the Disclosure Statement is approved and emerge from the Chapter 11 process as expeditiously as possible.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of the Company and its management with respect to its performance, business and future events. We use words such as "believe," "anticipate," "plan," "expect,", "intend," "target," "estimate," "project," "predict," "forecast," "guideline," "should" and other similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements, but they are not the only way we identify such statements. Such statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in this release. The Company is under no obligation and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Grupo Aeromexico: Grupo Aeromexico, S.A.B. de C.V. is a holding company whose subsidiaries are engaged in commercial aviation in Mexico and the promotion of passenger loyalty programs. Aeromexico, Mexico's global airline, has its main operations center in Terminal 2 of the Mexico City International Airport. Its destination network has reach in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Central America, South America, Asia and Europe. The Group's current operating fleet includes Boeing 787 and 737 aircraft, as well as the latest generation Embraer 190. Aeromexico is a founding partner of SkyTeam, an alliance that celebrates 20 years and offers connectivity in more than 170 countries, through the 19 partner airlines. Aeromexico created and implemented a Health and Hygiene Management System (SGSH) to protect its clients and collaborators at all stages of its operation.

www.aeromexico.com www.skyteam.com

SOURCE Grupo Aeromexico S.A.B. de C.V.

Related Links

https://www.aeromexico.com/


HOUSTON, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- American Gilsonite Company (the "Company" or "AGC"), the world's principal commercial miner and processor of uintaite, the unique natural resource marketed under its trademark name Gilsonite, today announced that it will post financial and operating results for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 to the Company's Intralinks site on November 15, 2021.

Holders of the Company's Subordinated Notes and holders of the Company's common stock who have executed the Stockholders Agreement can request access to the Company's Intralinks site by contacting Michael Herley by email at [email protected] or by phone at 203-308-1409.

About American Gilsonite Company (www.americangilsonite.com)

AGC operates as an industrial minerals company and is the world's primary miner and processor of uintaite, a variety of asphaltite, a specialty hydrocarbon which AGC markets to industrial customers under its registered trademark name "Gilsonite". Gilsonite is a glossy, black, solid naturally occurring hydrocarbon similar in appearance to hard asphalt and is believed to be found in commercial quantities only in the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah. Because of its unique chemical and physical properties, Gilsonite has been used in more than 160 products. The Company sells its products to customers in four primary markets: (i) oil and gas, (ii) inks and paints, (iii) foundry and (iv) asphalt. AGC is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Contact:

Michael Herley 203-308-1409

[email protected]

SOURCE American Gilsonite Company

Related Links

http://www.americangilsonite.com


TROY, Mich., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Anna Luisa Di Lorenzo, MD, FASC, is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Trusted Doctor in the field of Medicine as a President and Ophthalmologist at Somerset Ophthalmology.

Anna Luisa Di Lorenzo

As President of Somerset Ophthalmology, Dr. Di Lorenzo is a top Ophthalmologist in Oakland County. Board-certified in Ophthalmology and Internal Medicine, she specializes in cataracts, refractive laser, and muscle imbalances. In addition to her work at Somerset Ophthalmology, she has offered her services during mission work in Kenya and at free clinics Focus Hope and St. Christine.

Somerset Ophthalmology offers adult and pediatric ophthalmology services to the greater Detroit area at 2877 Crooks Rd, Suite B. Some of their services include comprehensive eye exams, front-line cataract surgery, and multifocal lenses. Dr. Di Lorenzo and her staff treat patients who need new glasses or contact prescriptions or fittings, OCT and Visual Field testing, cataract surgery including multifocal and toric intraocular lenses, laser surgery, LASIK eye surgery, glaucoma, eyelid surgery, strabismus surgery, punctal plugs, and Botox injections.

Dr. Di Lorenzo prepared for her career by earning an undergraduate degree in Microbiology and French with honors from the University of Toronto in 1983. Eager to continue her education, she pursued a Medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1988. She went on to work as an Internal Medicine resident at Detroit Medical Center in 1991 and an Ophthalmology and Internal Medicine residencies at the Kresge Eye Institute- Wayne State in 1994.

In her current capacity, Dr. Di Lorenzo is a Professor at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine and a Clinical Assistant Professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine. She has been teaching for over 25 years.

A respected voice in her areas of expertise, Dr. Di Lorenzo is affiliated with the Michigan State Medical Society, American Academy of Ophthalmology, and Michigan Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, where she served as president in 2010. Awards for Dr. Di Lorenzo's work include profile features on CastleConnolly.com and AAO.org. She has been nominated as Trustee-at-large for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Trilingual, Dr. Di Lorenzo is fluent in English, French, and Italian. She has a passion for acting, working out, and music. When she is not busy, she enjoys traveling the globe and entertaining family and friends.

Dr. Di Lorenzo dedicates this recognition to Dr. William McCoy, Dr. Jack Baker, and her father Nick Di Lorenzo.

For more information, please visit https://somersetophthalmology.com

Contact: Katherine Green , 516-825-5634, [email protected]



SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Apogee Engineering LLC (Apogee), with headquarters in Colorado Springs, CO announced today that the company had continued growth in the Colorado region the past 12 months securing $21.5M in new local contracts for 2021. Apogee's plan is to invest this money locally and expand its talent pool of Space and Digital Transformation professionals.

In the past year, Apogee has won three contracts with the Army and US Space Force along with several supporting contracts for United State Geological Survey (USGS). These contracts provide expert personnel at Peterson Space Force Base, Schriever Space Force Base, Buckley Space Force Base, and Fort Carson. The USGS contracts support locations in Lakewood and Golden, CO. Apogee delivers space operations, cybersecurity analysis, software development, web services, engineering, satellite communication support, exercise planning, and special study services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Apogee hired 25 new employees to support these contracts and expanded the local corporate team by 12 employees to support growth across the country. With this new growth, Apogee is also looking beyond their current office space to find local space with at least 20,000+ sq ft to support corporate, contract, and classified operations. Apogee is evaluating all available options in the local market to meet the infrastructure needs as rapidly as possible while deepening its existing roots within the local community.

As a successful prime contractor and Best Workplace winner in Colorado Springs Gazette for 2019, 2020, and 2021, Apogee is postured for growth in the Colorado market. They are focused on recruiting top professionals with Space and Digital Transformation experience including analysts, satellite operators, software developers, network engineers, and cloud engineers. Apogee's Senior Director of Operations, Mr. Tim Smith, unveiled that the company has started an external referral bonus program awarding up to $10,000 to anyone that refers quality candidates for positions assigned to the program. Mr. Smith stated, "We are constantly on the lookout for amazing talent that will continue the passion for excellence that this employee-centric company was founded on right here in Colorado."

About Apogee Engineering

Apogee leads the advancement of national security and defense solutions with premier teams of empowered professionals. They value visionary leadership, family-oriented engagement, and a passion for excellence. Apogee specializes in identifying, mitigating, and resolving customers' most complex challenges. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, with management offices in Dayton, OH, Suffolk, VA, and Tampa, FL, Apogee provides expertise in the following functional areas: Engineering & Science, Research, Training, Tech & Management Services, Cyber, and Analysis with Domains across Air, Cyber, Intel, Space, Science & Technology, and Land & Sea. Learn more at www.apogeeengineering.net

CONTACT: Rhea Phaneuf, [email protected], 719-229-7815

SOURCE Apogee Engineering LLC

Related Links

https://apogeeengineering.net


CHARLES TOWN, W.Va., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- (OTC:PTBS)  BCT-Bank of Charles Town, also known as The Community's Bank, announced today that it has committed to be an early investor in BankTech Ventures, LP ("BTV" or the "Fund"), a newly launched venture capital fund with the mission to support community banks through investment and education around banking technology. With general partners from The Venture Center, the Independent Community Bankers of America ("ICBA"), Hovde Group and two leading community banks, Coastal Community Bank and Sunwest Bank, BankTech Ventures looks to partner with premier community banks to identify emerging technologies for investment and use by them.

Supported and endorsed by the ICBA and The Venture Center, which was named Finovate's 2020 Best Accelerator of the Year, BankTech Ventures is building an ecosystem that pairs community banks with emerging technology companies that can serve banks' immediate needs whether it be regulatory, customer acquisition, process improvement, or other areas of focus. The Fund ultimately aims to provide its bank investors with the opportunity to obtain significant research & development "spend" at a much lower cost than if undertaken in-house, as well as strong returns from the underlying company investments. With a limited partner base expected to reach over 150 community banks across the US, the strategic value of the fund's ecosystem for both bank-focused startups and community banks is unprecedented.

"When presented the opportunity to invest in and join the BankTech Ventures partnership, we jumped in right away," said Alice Frazier, President & CEO of BCT. "BankTech Ventures has assembled the ideal team to identify, evaluate, invest in and align our bank's success through emerging technologies. We can move forward as an innovative bank in our community, learn about market changes and our customers' needs at a more rapid rate, and participate in the value created by leading technology companies. It's a great partnership."

"Community banks like Bank of Charles Town are so important to the communities they serve, and as they continue to evolve, emerging technologies will play a key role for them and their customers," said Carey Ransom, Managing Director of BankTech Ventures. "I'm excited to welcome Alice and team from Bank of Charles Town to our partnership in BankTech Ventures. Together and as part of our ecosystem, we will help ensure community banks remain competitive amid a rapidly changing environment."

BankTech Ventures, LP ( www.banktechventures.com ) is targeting $150-200MM for its first fund and has reached a first close of $55MM with 60 initial limited partners, including Bank of Charles Town. The fund is already evaluating several investment opportunities. In addition to Ransom, the fund's other general partners are Eric Sprink, CEO of Coastal Community Bank; Carson Lappetito, President of Sunwest Bank; Steve Hovde, Chairman & CEO of Hovde Group; Charles Potts, Chief Innovation Officer, ICBA; and Wayne Miller, Executive Director, The Venture Center.

About BCT-Bank of Charles Town

Founded in 1871 and celebrating their 150th year of service, BCT - Bank of Charles Town, also known as The Community's Bank, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Potomac Bancshares, Inc. (OTC:PTBS). With approximately $701 million in assets as of September 30, 2021, the Company conducts operations through its main office, an additional eight branch offices, and two loan production offices. BCT's offices are located in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties (WV), Washington County (MD), and Loudoun and Stafford Counties (VA). The Bank provides various banking products and services including free access to over 55,000 ATMs through the Allpoint network plus online and mobile banking for individuals, businesses, and local governments. The Bank also offers commercial lines and term loans, residential and commercial construction, commercial real estate loans and agricultural loans. The Residential Lending division offers secondary market and portfolio mortgage loans, one-time close construction to perm loans, as well as home equity loans and lines of credit. For over 60 years, BCT Wealth Advisors has provided financial management, investment, trust, and estate services to its clients. In 2019 and 2020, the Bank was named a "Best Bank To Work For" by American Banker. In 2018, Forbes named BCT a "Best In State Bank" for Maryland. The Company's shares are quoted on the OTC Pink Sheet marketplace under the symbol "PTBS." For more information about Potomac Bancshares, Inc., and the Bank, please visit our website at www.mybct.bank.

About BankTech Ventures, LP.

Established in 2021, BankTech Ventures, LP is the first venture fund created for and by key leaders in community banking, bank technology and fintech. BTV serves the community banking ecosystem through strategic investments, education and collaboration with its limited partners and ICBA members by delivering a de-risked and/or fully vetted network of leading and emerging bank technology companies to enhance a community bank's value, as well as aim for strong returns from the underlying investments in these companies. Learn more at www.banktechventures.com.

SOURCE BCT - Bank of Charles Town
LONDON, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Business Worldwide Magazine (BWM) has just announced the list of companies which clinched its 20 Most Innovative Companies to Watch in 2021.

Now in its third year, the Award recognises companies which have produced a product or service which has gone on to revolutionise their industry. A disrupter, in other words. But the Awards didn't just stop there. The magazine's panel also wanted to pay credit to those who have innovative practices in terms of how their company is run or structured.

Companies from all sectors were invited to apply for the Awards  or be nominated. Energy, Healthcare and Construction was particularly well-represented but so too were Manufacturing, Banking and Pharmaceuticals. And it wasn't just in the sectors that there was large variation. Because the Awards were global, entries came from around the globe, from as far afield as Canada, New Zealand and even the Balkans.

Spokesman for BWM Robert Weinberg, congratulated the 20 winners and thanked the panel for what certainly wasn't an easy task  such was the calibre of the entries.

"For obvious reasons it hasn't been an easy year," he said. "So, it was heartening to see both how many entries we received, and how impressive those were. It would have been possible to expand the Awards to the 40 Most Innovative Companies  and we did think about it  but in the end, for the sake of fairness, we decided to keep it to the original 20 winners.

"It's just great to see that even a global pandemic can't keep amazing business ideas and innovation at bay."

To be entered for the 20 Most Innovative Companies to Watch in 2021 Award companies had to be nominated by clients, employees or other businesses within the same sector.

More information on the winners and the Awards themselves can be found here: https://www.bwmonline.com/awards/20-most-innovative-companies-to-watch-awards-2021/

About Business Worldwide Magazine

Business Worldwide Magazine is the leading source of business and dealmaker intelligence throughout the world. Our quarterly magazine and online news portal enables an established audience of corporate dealmakers to track the latest news, stories and developments affecting the international markets, corporate finance, business strategy and changes in legislation. This readership includes of CEO/CFO - Banks, Corporate Lawyers and Venture Capital/Private Equity Companies to name a few.

Contact:

David Jones

Awards Department

E: [email protected]

SOURCE Business Worldwide Magazine
DALLAS and STAMFORD, Conn., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CBRE Acquisition Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CBAH) ("CBAH"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, and Altus Power, Inc. ("Altus Power"), a market-leading clean electrification company, announced that the companies will participate in a fireside chat with IPO Edge and the Palm Beach Hedge Fund Association on Monday, November 15 at 2pm ET, to discuss their pending business combination. The live event will feature Lars Norell and Gregg Felton, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of Altus Power, and Bill Concannon, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of CBAH. They will be interviewed by IPO Edge Editor-in-Chief John Jannarone and Multimedia Editor Alexandra Lane in a moderated video session lasting approximately 60 minutes and including a Q&A with the audience.

To register, CLICK HERE

To read IPO Edge's analysis of Altus Power and its business combination with CBAH titled, "Join Blackstone and CBRE in the 'Roof to Socket' Revolution with Altus Power," CLICK HERE

"We are excited to approach the closing of our business combination and to share our story with the investment community during Monday's fireside chat, in this important time for CBAH and Altus," said Norell. "We look forward to discussing Altus Power's market leadership and growth opportunity, our strategic partnerships with CBRE and Blackstone, the voting process, and to answering questions from investors about the transaction."

Concannon, Norell and Felton will discuss:

Overview of Altus/CBAH transaction and strategic partnerships with CBRE and Blackstone

Market demand and opportunity for commercial & industrial solar, energy storage and EV charging infrastructure

Altus Power's scalable business model - standardizing and streamlining each step in the value chain from customer acquisition through financing

scalable business model - standardizing and streamlining each step in the value chain from customer acquisition through financing Altus Power's national footprint

national footprint Altus Power's key differentiators

The Special Meeting to approve the pending business combination is scheduled to be held on December 6, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The Special Meeting will be conducted completely virtually, and can be accessed via live webcast at https://www.cstproxy.com/cbreacquisitionholdings/2021. If the proposals at the Special Meeting are approved, the parties anticipate that the business combination will close shortly thereafter, subject to the satisfaction or waiver, as applicable, of all other closing conditions.

Every stockholder's vote is important, regardless of the number of shares held. Accordingly, CBAH requests that each stockholder complete, sign, date and return a proxy card (online or by mail) as soon as possible so that it is received no later than 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on December 6, 2021, to ensure that the stockholder's shares will be represented at the Special Meeting. Stockholders which hold shares in "street name" (i.e., those stockholders whose shares are held of record by a broker, bank or other nominee) should contact their broker, bank or other nominee to ensure that their shares are voted.

If any individual CBAH stockholder who held shares as of the October 27, 2021 record date for voting does not receive the Proxy Statement/Prospectus within the next few days, such stockholder should (i) confirm his or her Proxy Statement/Prospectus's status with his or her broker, bank or other nominee, (ii) contact Morrow Sodali LLC, CBAH's proxy solicitor, for assistance via e-mail at [email protected] or toll-free call at (800) 662-5200 and brokers, bank and other nominees can place a collect call to Morrow Sodali at (203) 658-9400, or (iii) contact CBAH by mail at CBRE Acquisition Holdings, Inc., 2100 McKinney Avenue, Suite 1250, Dallas, TX 75201.

CBAH expects to provide stockholders with additional information on how stockholders may vote their shares held in "street name" on its website in the coming days, and CBAH expects to publish a subsequent press release once the website is live.

About Altus Power

Altus Power, based in Stamford, Connecticut, is creating a clean electrification ecosystem, serving its commercial, public sector and community solar customers with locally-sited solar generation, energy storage, and EV-charging stations across the U.S. Since its founding in 2009, Altus Power has developed or acquired over 350 megawatts from Vermont to Hawaii. Visit altuspower.com to learn more.

About CBRE Acquisition Holdings, Inc.

CBRE Acquisition Holdings, Inc. ("CBAH") is a blank-check company formed solely for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. CBAH is sponsored by CBRE Acquisition Sponsor, LLC, which is a subsidiary of CBRE Group, Inc.

Important Information About the Business Combination and Where to Find It

CBAH has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") a Registration Statement on Form S-4 (the "Registration Statement"), which includes a proxy statement/prospectus in connection with the proposed business combination between Altus Power and CBAH (the "business combination") and the other transactions contemplated by the business combination agreement entered into by Altus Power and CBAH. The Registration Statement was declared effective by the SEC on November 5, 2021 and CBAH also filed the definitive proxy statement/prospectus with respect to the business combination on that date. CBAH has mailed a definitive proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant documents to its stockholders as of October 27, 2021, the record date for the Special Meeting. CBAH's stockholders and other interested persons are advised to read the definitive proxy statement/prospectus in connection with CBAH's solicitation of proxies for its stockholders' Special Meeting to be held to approve the business combination because the proxy statement/prospectus contains important information about CBAH, Altus Power and the business combination. Stockholders will also be able to obtain copies of the Registration Statement and the proxy statement/prospectus, without charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or by directing a request to CBRE Acquisition Holdings, Inc., 2100 McKinney Avenue, Suite 1250, Dallas, TX 75201.

Participants in the Solicitation

CBAH, Altus Power and certain of their respective directors and officers may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies of CBAH's stockholders with respect to the approval of the business combination. CBAH and Altus Power urge investors, stockholders and other interested persons to read the Registration Statement and the definitive proxy statement/prospectus and exhibits thereto, as well as other documents filed with the SEC in connection with the business combination, as these materials contain important information about Altus Power, CBAH and the business combination. Information regarding CBAH's directors and officers and a description of their interests in CBAH is contained in the Registration Statement and the definitive proxy statement/prospectus.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "believe", "could", "continue", "expect", "estimate", "may", "plan", "outlook", "future" and "project" and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results and estimates of amounts not yet determinable and may also relate to CBAH's and Altus Power's future prospects, developments and business strategies. In particular, such forward-looking statements include statements concerning the timing of the business combination, the business plans, objectives, expectations and intentions of CBAH once the business combination and the other transactions contemplated thereby (the "Transactions") and change of name are complete ("New Altus"), and New Altus's estimated and future results of operations, business strategies, competitive position, industry environment and potential growth opportunities. These statements are based on CBAH's or Altus Power's management's current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events.

Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside CBAH's or Altus Power's control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors include, but are not limited to: (1) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the business combination agreement; (2) the inability to complete the Transactions due to the failure to obtain approval of the stockholders of CBAH or Altus Power or other conditions to closing in the business combination agreement; (3) the ability of New Altus to meet NYSE's listing standards (or the standards of any other securities exchange on which securities of the public entity are listed) following the business combination; (4) the inability to complete the private placement of common stock of CBAH to certain institutional accredited investors; (5) the risk that the announcement and consummation of the Transactions disrupts Altus Power's current plans and operations; (6) the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits of the Transactions, which may be affected by, among other things, competition, the ability of New Altus to grow and manage growth profitably, maintain relationships with customers, business partners, suppliers and agents and retain its management and key employees; (7) costs related to the Transactions; (8) changes in applicable laws or regulations and delays in obtaining, adverse conditions contained in, or the inability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals required to complete the Transactions; (9) the possibility that Altus Power and New Altus may be adversely affected by other economic, business, regulatory and/or competitive factors; (10) the impact of COVID-19 on Altus Power's and New Altus's business and/or the ability of the parties to complete the Transactions; (11) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against CBAH, Altus Power, New Altus or any of their respective directors or officers, following the announcement of the Transactions; and (12) the failure to realize anticipated pro forma results and underlying assumptions, including with respect to estimated stockholder redemptions and purchase price and other adjustments.

Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements can be found in CBAH's most recent annual report on Form 10-K, subsequently filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, which are available, free of charge, at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov, and are provided in the Registration Statement and CBAH's definitive proxy statement/prospectus. New risks and uncertainties arise from time to time, and it is impossible for us to predict these events or how they may affect us. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made, and CBAH and Altus Power undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, changes in expectations, future events or otherwise.

This communication is not intended to be all-inclusive or to contain all the information that a person may desire in considering an investment in CBAH and is not intended to form the basis of an investment decision in CBAH. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning CBAH and Altus Power, the Transactions or other matters and attributable to CBAH and Altus Power or any person acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements above.

Contacts

CBRE Acquisition Holdings Contacts

Cash Smith

CBRE Acquisition Holdings, Inc.

[email protected]

Steven Iaco

CBRE Corporate Communications

[email protected]

Altus Power Contacts

For Media:

Cory Ziskind

ICR, Inc.

[email protected]

For Investors:

Caldwell Bailey

ICR, Inc.

[email protected]

SOURCE Altus Power, Inc.
BEIJING, Nov. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded its sixth plenary session in Beijing on Thursday, adopting a resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC's 100 years of endeavors and deciding to convene the 20th National Congress of the CPC in the second half of 2022.


BEIJING, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Since its founding 100 years ago, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has led China to enormous achievements at home and significant contributions to global peace and development.

Why was the Party successful in the past? How can it continue to succeed in the future? The CPC held a high-profile meeting from November 8 to 11 and answered those questions through a landmark resolution.

The resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC's 100 years of endeavors was adopted at the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee on Thursday, according to the session's communique. On behalf of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping, also Chinese president, explained the draft of the resolution during the session.

Why now is time for CPC to review its history

When visiting an exhibition on CPC history in June, Xi stressed that "the Party's history is the most vivid and convincing textbook."

He said it is necessary to study and review the Party's history, carry forward its valuable experience, bear in mind the course of its struggles, shoulder the historic mission, and draw strength from its history to forge ahead.

Thursday's resolution is the third on historical issues of the Party, after the Resolution on Certain Issues in the History of the CPC released in 1945 and the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of the CPC since the Founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) adopted in 1981.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday morning on introducing the guiding principles of the plenum, Wang Xiaohui, executive deputy director of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, said the Party and the country have greatly developed especially over the past 40 years and the Party's theory and practice have also greatly developed, requiring the review.

He also pointed that as the major issues of right and wrong in the Party's history were basically solved by the first two historical resolutions, the new resolution with its focus on summarizing the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC's 100 years of endeavors is in line with reality, is conducive to promoting the growth of wisdom, unity, confidence and motivation of the Party and is necessary before embarking on a new journey to fully build a great modern socialist country.

What is highlighted?

Seeing from the communique of the session, apart from words and phrases like "China" and "Communist Party of China," "socialism with Chinese characteristics" stood out with 28 mentions.

The Chinese president has called "socialism with Chinese characteristics" the only correct path to realize national rejuvenation.

"As we have upheld and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics and driven coordinated progress in material, political, cultural-ethical, social, and ecological terms, we have pioneered a new and uniquely Chinese path to modernization, and created a new model for human civilization," Xi said at a ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC on July 1.

"Development" appeared 55 times, remaining a core of the communique. China's economic development has become much more balanced, coordinated, and sustainable, and the Party has consistently promoted broader and deeper reform across the board, as the communique summarized.

Xi has reiterated that China will not change its resolve to open wider at a high standard, will not change the determination to share development opportunities with the rest of the world and will not change its commitment to economic globalization that is more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all.

According to the communique, the resolution also noted the Party has also actively developed whole-process people's democracy and made comprehensive efforts to improve the institutions, standards, and procedures of China's socialist democracy.

The concept of developing "whole-process people's democracy" was first used by President Xi when he visited a civic center in Shanghai in 2019. The idea called for enabling the Chinese people to broadly and continuously participate in the day-to-day political activities at all levels, including democratic elections, political consultation, decision-making and oversight.

What's next for CPC?

The session also reviewed and passed a resolution on convening the 20th National Congress of the CPC in the second half of 2022 in Beijing.

Wang explained on Friday that this congress, which is to be held at an important time when the Party has embarked on a new journey to build a modern socialist country in all respects and to realize the Second Centenary Goal, will be a highly important meeting and an event of great political significance for both the Party and the country.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-11-12/How-does-CPC-draw-strength-from-history-to-embark-on-a-new-journey--157T3o5W3Oo/index.html

SOURCE CGTN

Related Links

www.cgtn.com


Sino-Swiss (Changzhou) Innovation Park was established in 2018 and sponsored jointly by Torch High Technology Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the International Economic and Technical Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the municipal government of Changzhou as a provincial-level international cooperation park. The park is committed to serving as the industry cluster and center of innovation for the production of intelligent equipment, carbon fiber composite materials as well as biomedical and medical devices. To date, working factories and production lines already occupy some 270,000 square meters of the approximately 670,000 square meters allocated to the park. Since its opening in 2019, the companies operating in the park have made innovation, intelligence and environmental sustainability part of the mission, as these are all areas strongly supported by the governments of China and Switzerland and are of growing importance to leading Swiss and German companies. A large number of industry leaders from the two countries have chosen the park for their Chinese operations, including Medela, SID, COTESA, Lanz Manufaktur and Leoni. The park has been approved as a provincial-level international cooperation park, putting it on the path to becoming a high-end platform for the furthering of China's opening up policies as well as for extended cooperation with the city of Changzhou and even the whole of Jiangsu province.

An Lei, director of the International Department of Torch High Technology Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, succinctly summed up what had taken place at the event when he said that the China-Switzerland Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cooperation is proving to be a beneficial move for cross-border cooperation between science parks and reflects the general trend of global opening up and innovation. He continued: "I hope that after the meeting, the executives from Chinese and Swiss science parks who joined the meeting can earnestly summarize the information and situation exchanged today so that we can further explore next steps, establish working links with each other, and extensively carry out regular, multi-level and comprehensive exchanges and collaborations. We also look forward to a collaborative effort between China's and Switzerland's science parks that can take a deeper look at an effective model for international cooperation, setting a benchmark and example for future exchanges and collaborations among the world's science parks.

SOURCE Changzhou National Hi-Tech District

Related Links

www.cznd.gov.cn


JACKSON, Mich., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Consumers Energy, the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy, has declared a quarterly dividend on the utility's preferred stock.

The following dividend is payable Jan. 1, 2022, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 6, 2021: $1.125 per share on the $4.50 preferred stock (NYSE: CMS_pb).

CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS) is a Michigan-based energy provider 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.

SOURCE CMS Energy

Related Links

http://www.cmsenergy.com


NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Keyway , a commercial real estate technology platform for small and medium-sized business owners, today announced a $15 million seed financing round led by Canvas Ventures with participation from Montage Ventures, FJ Labs, and Crosscut. Canvas Ventures General Partner, Rebecca Lynn, also joined Keyway's board.

This capital injection allows Keyway to triple its team, primarily in engineering and product, which already includes alumni from Goldman Sachs, Capital One, Jamestown, Google, and Brookfield, among others.

Keyway's initial product is a sale-leaseback solution for business owners looking for liquidity, an area where transaction pains are most acute. Additional products will follow in the coming months, including an expansion solution for operators looking to lease a new location, and a rent-to-own solution. The company is primarily focused on the medical sector, covering medical office buildings along with dental and veterinarian businesses.

"Over the last decade, the majority of PropTech innovation has centered on residential real estate. We're excited to be at the forefront of changing the $16 trillion U.S. commercial real estate industry," said CEO and co-founder Matias Recchia. "Since real estate plays such a critical role in the success and viability of small and medium businesses, we founded Keyway to provide access to resources and opportunities that larger companies already enjoy, thereby leveling the playing field."

"Keyway is uniquely positioned to modernize the commercial sale-leaseback process as well as reinvent the market for SMB commercial real estate overall. By evolving the way real estate is transacted using data science and machine learning, Keyway will help property owners benefit from greater transparency and improved returns," said Rebecca Lynn, co-founder and general partner at Canvas Ventures and Keyway board member. "We have no doubt that Matias, Sebastian, and the impressive Keyway team have what it takes to build the next-gen digital platform for commercial real estate transactions."

Keyway's sale-leaseback allows business owners to sell their property for the full value while remaining in the same location with a long term lease. The company provides a data-backed offer, standard contract and an online deal process to ensure a fair and fast closing.

"We want to simplify the experience of transacting real estate for business owners and their brokers. Today, expensive and opaque transactions averaging 13 months to close mean businesses pass up investment and expansion opportunities because they cannot access capital tied up in their physical asset," said COO and co-founder Sebastian Wilner. "Our solution cuts closing time by 90% and fees by 50% for business owners."

"Our investment in Keyway stems not only from how they will transform commercial real estate transactions but how that change will positively impact small and medium businesses' ability to engage in those deals," said Matthew Murphy, Montage Ventures Partner.

"Working with Keyway was incredibly easy," said Keyway customer and founder of QLTC Pharmacy, John Sheehan. "I received the full value of my commercial real estate without a complicated, disruptive, or lengthy transaction. The process was simple and fair, and I look forward to being a tenant in the space my business already occupies for many years to come."

Keyway's focus on under $10M net-lease contracts fills a key access gap for investors since most institutional funds target larger assets. The company has already completed deals across multiple states including Texas, Georgia and Illinois and has over $250 million in its pipeline for nationwide transactions.

To learn more about Keyway, visit whykeyway.com

About Keyway

Keyway is the commercial real estate platform that makes it easy for small and medium businesses to quickly and predictably achieve their goals. The company is starting with a sale-leaseback solution to provide business owners capital to invest in their growth. The company was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in New York.

SOURCE Keyway

Related Links

unlock.realestate


"Mexico has always held a special part of our heart, and it has been amazing to watch our audience grow here. We're incredibly excited to now have a cozy home at El Palacio de Hierro and for our products to become even more accessible in Mexico. We can't wait to continue to build our brand in Mexico with love," says Nicola Kilner, CEO and Co-Founder of DECIEM.

With plans to expand into more doors in the future; four of Palacio's key doors; Palacio, Durango, Acoxpa and Satelite will retail the full NIOD assortment with retail exclusivity to the multi-awarding winning Copper Amino Isolate innovations; CAIL 1% and CAIS3 1:1.

"At DECIEM, we see NIOD as our crown jewel because it thrives on next-generation ingredients and state-of-the-art technology to optimise skin health. NIOD embodies our commitment to be at the forefront of science, and has been created to provide an at-home laboratory experience to our customers," says Prudvi Kaka, Chief Scientific Officer at DECIEM.

DECIEM has made strategic efforts to develop the brand's supply chain to ensure demand can be met and to continue the company's vision for honestly priced formulations accessible to all. For Mexician customers, DECIEM and El Palacio de Hierro's partnership showcases the rapidly growing demand for the evolutionary product formulations and transparency within the beauty industry. Whilst DECIEM does not yet have a bricks-and-mortar presence in Mexico, this expansion partnership aids the growth initiatives and adds a reliable supply chain for the Mexican audience.

Additional information about DECIEM may be found www.deciem.com | Instagram: @ deciem | Tik Tok: @deciem | YouTube: youtube.com/deciem |

About DECIEM

DECIEM is a Canadian-based, vertically integrated, multi-brand company, known as "DECIEM" or "The Abnormal Beauty Company." DECIEM is an industry disruptor with a consumer-focused approach. DECIEM's portfolio includes The Ordinary, an internationally recognised skincare brand renowned for its honestly priced formulations, alongside other skin and body care ranges. DECIEM's range of "functional beauty" brands and products are sold primarily through DECIEM-owned stores and retailer e-commerce partners, as well as its own freestanding stores.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1686068/DECIEM.jpg

SOURCE DECIEM

Related Links

deciem.com/en-gb


The Addison educational institution celebrated receipt of the HIRE Vets Medallion Award with a Veterans' Day celebration today in honor of their many veteran students, graduates, business partners and instructors. Held on Divergence Academy's campus, the event was attended by Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne and Addison's Mayor Pro Tempore Guillermo Quintanilla.

"Many veterans returning to civilian life express a desire to upskill to build a better life for themselves, and our courses take them to that next level," said Divergence Academy CEO and Founder, Sravan Ankaraju. "Especially at the inflection point we're experiencing today, with ransomware attacks rampant on companies of all sizes, Divergence is in a unique positiongraduating talented veterans prepared to meet the growing demand."

Divergence Academy joins 848 other companies from 49 states, plus the District of Columbia, who have shown a commitment to hiring veterans, but also ensuring that veterans have a long-term career and growth plan that uses the diverse skills they acquired through their military service.

Recipients of the 2021 HIRE Vets Medallion Award meet rigorous employment and veteran integration assistance criteria, including veteran hiring and retention percentages; availability of veteran-specific resources; leadership programming for veterans; dedicated human resource efforts; pay compensation and tuition assistance programs for veterans.

About Divergence Academy

Established in 2014, Divergence Academy was the first data science-focused institution in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas. Since its founding, it has catered to hundreds of diverse learners in the area looking to upskill and reskill themselves for a new or better career. The vocational school stays on top of emerging technologies by designing its programs with a strong focus on Cloud, Cybersecurity and AI. More information can be found at www.Divergence.one.

About the HIRE Vets Medallion Program:

For more information about the program and the application process, visit HIREVets.gov.

SOURCE Divergence Academy
MONTREAL, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Dollarama Inc. (TSX: DOL) will issue its financial results for the third quarter of Fiscal 2022, covering the period from August 2, 2021 to October 31, 2021, on Wednesday, December 8, 2021 at 7:00 a.m. (ET).

Management will hold a conference call on the same day to discuss the results. Financial analysts are invited to ask questions by using the dial-in number provided below. Other interested parties may participate in the call on a listen-only basis via live audio webcast which will be available on Dollarama's website.

Call Details Wednesday, December 8, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. (ET) Webcast link: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/tujy95wx Dial-in number (for financial analysts only): 514-392-1587 or 1-800-806-5484 Participants will need to provide the operator with the Service Confirmation Number: 4615675 Webcast replay will be available until December 7, 2022 in the "Investor Relations - Events - Archives" section of Dollarama's website.

About Dollarama

Dollarama is a recognized Canadian value retailer offering a broad assortment of consumable products, general merchandise and seasonal items both in-store and online. Our 1,381 locations across Canada provide customers with compelling value in convenient locations, including metropolitan areas, mid-sized cities and small towns. Select products are also available, by the full case only, through our online store at www.dollarama.com. Our quality merchandise is sold at select fixed price points up to $4.00.

Dollarama also owns a 50.1% interest in Dollarcity, a growing Latin American value retailer. Dollarcity offers a broad assortment of consumable products, general merchandise and seasonal items at select fixed price points up to US$3.00 (or the equivalent in local currency) in El Salvador and Guatemala and up to the equivalent of US$4.00 in local currency in Colombia and Peru through its 294 conveniently located stores.

www.dollarama.com

SOURCE Dollarama Inc.

Related Links

www.dollarama.com


NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Empresa de Energia del Cono Sur S.A. ("Edelcos") announced today that, along with its affiliate South American Energy LLP. ("SAE" and together with Edelcos, the "Bidders"), it has commenced a previously announced all-cash tender offer in the U.S. (the "U.S. Offer") for all outstanding Class B Shares, including outstanding Class B Shares represented by American Depositary Shares (each representing 20 Class B Shares (the "ADS") held by U.S. holders of Empresa Distribuidora y Comercializadora Norte S.A. ("Edenor") for Ps. 29.34 per Class B Share, without interest and less any applicable withholding taxes, fees and paid distributions.

The terms and conditions of the U.S. Offer are described in the U.S. Offer to Purchase and related documents to be filed by Edelcos and its affiliate with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") today, November 12, 2021.

Simultaneously with the U.S. Offer, Edelcos is making an offer (the "Argentine Offer," and together with the U.S. Offer, the "Offers"), in accordance with the tender offer rules of the Republic of Argentina, to purchase all outstanding Class B Shares of Edenor not owned by Edelcos or its affiliates, for the same price and on substantially the same terms as the U.S. Offer (including that it will be paid in Argentine pesos in Argentina). The Offer Price of Ps.29.34 per Class B Share is below Ps.66.7, the closing trading price per Class B Share on the BYMA, and the aggregate Offer Price of Ps.586.80 for the twenty (20) Class B Shares underlying each ADS is below the aggregate closing trading price of Ps.1,334.00 for twenty (20) Class B Shares on the BYMA, in each case, as of November 11, 2021 (the last trading day prior to the Commencement Date).

The U.S. Offer will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time on December 13, 2021, unless the offer period is extended by the Bidders.

Additional Information

This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities of Edenor. Complete terms and conditions of the U.S. Offer are set forth in the U.S. Offer to Purchase and other related materials to be filed by the Bidders with the SEC today. In addition, Edenor is required to file a Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 and 13E-3 with the SEC relating to the U.S. Offer. Copies of the U.S. Offer to Purchase and other related materials are available free of charge from D.F. King & Co., Inc., the U.S. information agent for the U.S. Offer, toll free at (866) 356-7813, or for bankers and brokers, at (212) 269-5550 or via email at [email protected]. The receiving agent in the U.S. for purposes of the U.S. Offer is Computershare, Inc.

For further information please contact:

Nicolas Mallo Huergo

c/o Maipu 1252, 12th floor,

City of Buenos Aires, (CP1006),

Argentina

SOURCE Empresa de Energia del Cono Sur S.A.
DALLAS, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Elah Holdings, Inc. (OTC:ELLH) has released its interim unaudited financial statements and disclosure report for the third quarter of 2021. This report and additional company information can be found at www.elahholdings.com under the Financial Releases section of the website.

About Elah Holdings

Elah Holdings, Inc. (formerly known as Real Industry, Inc.) is a reorganized holding company led by experienced business leaders that is seeking to acquire profitable businesses in the commercial and industrial markets to generate sustainable profitability and cash flows, unlock the value of our considerable tax assets, and use creative deal structures that reduce risk and ultimately create long-term value for our shareholders. For more information, visit www.elahholdings.com. Elah Holdings' stock trades on the OTC Pink Market, which is operated by OTC Markets Group, a centralized electronic quotation service for over-the-counter securities under the symbol "ELLH."

Contact:

Michael Hobey

Elah Holdings, Inc.

+1 (805) 435-1255

@elah_inc

www.linkedin.com/company/elah-holdings-inc/

SOURCE Elah Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.elahholdings.com


NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Essen Health Care, a leading healthcare network and group practice for underserved communities in New York State, announced today a partnership with Verustat, a Nashville-based remote patient monitoring solution provider that facilitates the tracking of critical patient biometric data on a HIPAA-secure platform. Best-in-class monitoring devices alert Verustat care coordinators of any readings that call for outreach to the patient or their physician for further assessment.

"Being able to accurately track vital patient measurements on a regular basis without requiring an office visit is a game-changer for us," said Dr. Sumir Sahgal Founder & Chief Medical Officer, Essen Health Care. "For our patients with conditions such as hypertension, obesity, stroke, coronary artery disease, COPD, and diabetes, Verustat facilitates the real-time monitoring of important vitals and lets our teams jump into action when any of the numbers is outside an acceptable range. This saves our medical teams time and resources, and lets the patient remain in the comfort of their own home."

The patient monitoring solution is an innovative new approach for identifying deteriorating health conditions and hospitalization risk  allowing for improved delivery of care and potential cost savings. It captures important data related to hypertension, obesity, stroke, coronary artery disease, COPD, diabetes, and many other afflictions that require regular monitoring.

Verustat works by allowing patients to simply take their vital sign readings at home on a regular schedule using their blood pressure cuffs, weight scales, pulse oximeters, and glucose meters, etc. Verustat's care coordinators call patients when they miss readings which increases compliance and connects the clinical staff with the patient when their readings are out of Essen set thresholds. Concurrently, the data is instantly uploaded for healthcare coordinators and providers at Essen to monitor as well. Verustat's integrated HIPAA-compliant online portal and app allow staff and physicians to access the most current data so they can monitor trends, respond quickly to any warning signs, and help prevent costly utilization.

"Verustat enables practitioners to close the circle of care with their patients, by letting them be proactive  rather than reactive  when monitoring their healthcare," said Verustat CEO Rich Roberts. "We're very excited that our hi-tech solution and dedicated care coordinators will help Essen deepen patient engagement and provide their patients with state-of-the-art quality care."

To find out more about Essen Health Care visit: https://www.essenhealthcare.com

About Verustat:

VeruStat is a health tech company that aids physicians in tracking vital patient measurements at home to reduce patient visits to the physician's office. Unlike most RPM providers who only provide software and hardware, Verustat has a highly trained team of care coordinators who provide tens of thousands of live phone calls to patients nationally each month on behalf of health systems, accountable care organizations, and independent physician groups. As a result, the Company has one of the highest compliance rates among its patient populations in the RPM industry. The leadership team is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and has managed hundreds of team members calling senior patients in different capacities for the past decade.

About Essen Health Care

Founded in 1999, Essen Health Care is a growing community healthcare network and group practice with over 150 primary and specialty care physicians and 100+ advanced clinicians providing high quality, compassionate, and accessible medical care to over 100,0000 of the most vulnerable and under-served residents of New York State. Guided by a population health model of care, Essen has five integrated clinical divisions offering primary care, urgent care and specialty services, as well as nursing home staffing and care management. All clinical services are offered via telehealth or in-person at 32 medical practices and at home through our house calls program for homebound patients.

Essen is dedicated to ensuring the quality of care for all patients and has been designated a 'Level 3 Patient Centered Medical Home' by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

Press Contact

Lynn Munroe

845-548-1211

SOURCE Essen Health Care
NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BizVibe has made available 1,000+ company profiles for the ambulance services category on its B2B platform. Companies listed in this category are primarily engaged in providing various types of ambulance-related services (such as air ambulance services, horse ambulance services, etc.). Companies which manufacture various ambulance-related products are also included in the category.

Get Free Access to These 1,000+ Profiles

Snapshot of BizVibe's ambulance services company profiles and categories.

Each profile is free to view and packed with high-quality insights, providing businesses with detailed company information. Users can take advantage of these insights to identify, target, and connect with the right companies who provide ambulance services. This company information includes employee insights, company competitors, the impact of emerging trends and challenges, the latest news, and more.

Free Insights Included for all Ambulance Services Company Profiles:

List of product and service category offerings and primary operating industries

Risk of doing business score across four different metrics

List of key executives and their roles within the company

Company financials and general organizational information

Global, national, and regional competitors

List of key clients

Top trends and challenges within operating industry and expected influence on business impact

Latest company news with the ability to sign up for timely news alerts

Get Started to View Free Company Insights

Ambulance Services Companies on BizVibe

BizVibe's platform contains 30M+ company profiles, spanning across 200+ countries, categorized into 40,000+ products and services. There are 1,000+ company profiles related to ambulance services on BizVibe, covering 5+ related categories. Each company profile contains detailed insights dedicated to helping procurement and sales teams find trusted suppliers and target sales prospects.

Examples of ambulance company profiles that can be discovered on BizVibe include companies that specialize in:

Air ambulance services

Air ambulance medical equipment manufacturers

Ambulance stretcher manufacturers

Horse ambulance services

Get Free Company Profile Access for all Categories

Company Profiles for Buyers and Sellers

BizVibe's modern B2B platform is designed to help both global buyers and sellers. Powered by the latest best-in-class solutions, BizVibe provides outstanding product features for both category managers and sales professionals.

Features for Buyers:

Quickly discover the right suppliers

Create short lists and custom alerts

Mitigate supplier risk and evaluate suppliers

Send RFIs/RFPs

Learn how BizVibe helps buyers: https://www.bizvibe.com/find-suppliers

Features for Sellers:

Target the right sales prospects

Qualify leads

Analyze buyer potential

API integration and data enrichment

Learn how BizVibe helps sellers: 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 help 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

http://www.bizvibe.com


PROSSER, Wash., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The finalists for the prestigious Good Food Awards have been released, and Chukar Cherries' chocolate Organic Tart Cherries made the list for best confection.

According to Chukar's Founder, Pam Montgomery, "The qualifications for the Good Food Awards are stringentmaking it to the finals is big deal! We know our dried organic cherries covered in ultra dark chocolate are something special, so it's an honor to have them recognized."

The Good Food Awards' high standards set apart companies that produce exceptional food in socially and environmentally sustainable ways. To qualify, foods must meet a long list of criteria including being made in the USA and being free of artificial ingredients, GMOs, or high fructose corn syrup. However, the list does not stop thereamong other qualifications, companies must also be upstanding members of the community, honor the regional heritage of their foods, and commit themselves to equality in their workforce.

Chukar's ultra dark chocolate Organic Tart Cherries fit the bill. Chukar sources their cherries from Certified Organic family farms in central Washington and Oregon. They dry their cherries naturally before coating them in sustainably-sourced, organic ultra dark chocolate and a dusting of organic cocoa powder.

The Good Food Awards are sponsored by the Good Food Foundationan organization committed to supporting "growers, ranchers, makers and merchants stubbornly swimming upstream to create and share the kind of food we all want to eat: tasty, authentic and responsible." Unlike other awards programsthe Good Food Awards judges products both on their flavor and on the methods used to produce them. Growers and producers can enter in 18 categories. All finalists have been chosen and winners will be announced in mid-November.

Chukar's ultra dark chocolate Organic Tart Cherries can be purchased on CHUKAR.COM: https://www.chukar.com/organic-chocolate-tart-cherries

PACIFIC NORTHWEST GROWN

In 1988 Chukar Cherries was launched on the family farm with one goalto be your go-to source for extraordinary Pacific Northwest foods & gifts crafted from locally grown cherries and berries. Made fresh, shipped fresh from Prosser, Washington. The Best of Nature, Best of Chocolate.

Media contact:

Name: Tim Oten

Phone:+15097862055

Email address: [email protected]



SOURCE Chukar Cherry Company

Related Links

http://www.chukar.com


SAN ANTONIO, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Car Journal named Ford's all-new Maverick its 2022 Green Truck of the Year today during a Green Car Awards press conference at the San Antonio Auto & Truck Show. The magazine also honored the Toyota Sienna minivan as the 2022 Family Green Car of the Year for the second year in a row.

2022 Ford Maverick 2022 Toyota Sienna

"Ford's Maverick is a milestone vehicle offering pickup enthusiasts an affordable choice that's highly fuel efficient, functional, and right-sized for everyday use," said Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of Green Car Journal and GreenCarJournal.com . "The Toyota Sienna hits a sweet spot for families by blending sophisticated design, hybrid efficiency, and an array of thoughtful family-friendly features in an appealing minivan form."

Featuring a compact design offering easier maneuverability in crowded areas, the all-new Maverick pickup aims at work and play with its ability to seat five, handle a 1500 pound payload, and tow up to 4,000 pounds. It comes with a standard hybrid powerplant delivering up to 42 mpg in the city and an approachable price starting under $20,000.

Toyota reimagined the minivan with its innovative Sienna, distinguished for the second time as Green Car Journal's Family Green Car of the Year. Sienna sets the standard for those seeking a highly-efficient, roomy, and tech-rich family vehicle offering premium style and three-row seating for up to eight.

Finalists for this year's prestigious Green Car Awards featured powertrains ranging from plug-in hybrid and battery electric to hybrid and efficient internal combustion, highlighting the diversity of today's automotive landscape. Along with the Ford Maverick, vying for Green Truck of the Year were the Ford F-150, GMC HUMMER EV, Rivian R1T, and Toyota Tundra. In addition to the Toyota Sienna, candidates for Family Green Car of the Year included Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, Honda Civic, Kia Sorento, and Volkswagen ID.4. Their selection as the top 5 'green' cars in their award category earns each model Green Car Journal's 2022 Green Car Product of Excellence honor.

"The San Antonio Auto & Truck Show is filled with truck aficionados and families who are vested in energy efficient vehicles," said San Antonio Auto Dealers President Pam Crail. "We love to host the Green Car Awards, because it gives our Show guests the first look at the winners."

The San Antonio Auto & Truck Show will be held from Friday, November 12, through Sunday, November 14, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

About Green Car Journal

The Green Car Awards are an important part of Green Car Journal's mission to showcase environmental progress in the auto industry. The award-winning magazine and GreenCarJournal.com are premier sources of information on electric, advanced technology, and low carbon vehicles. Green Truck of the Year, Family Green Car of the Year, and the Green Car Awards are trademarks of Green Car Journal and RJ Cogan Specialty Publications Group, Inc .

About San Antonio Auto & Truck Show

The San Antonio Auto and Truck Show, produced by the San Antonio Dealers Association, is a preeminent automotive event, bringing all things automotive to South Texas each November. Dubbed "the largest showroom in South Texas," show visitors may shop and compare all makes and models of cars and light trucks, under one roof. The show is also the Truck Capital of the South, the Show offers up exciting automotive manufacturer displays of the newest model vehicles and the latest, cutting-edge technologies every year. Visitors can also experience the most current and innovative ways to personalize their vehicles. For more information or to buy tickets, visit www.saautoshow.com .

SOURCE San Antonio Auto & Truck Show
Bill Snyder, former South Dakota Medicaid director, joins Leavitt Partners, an HMA Company, third director this year Tweet this

He worked to advance the use of health information to improve outcomes, including work as an advisory board member to develop a five-year strategic plan for South Dakota HealthLink, the state's health information exchange. Under Snyder's leadership, the Medicaid program enhanced care coordination for patients dually eligible for South Dakota Medicaid and Indian Health Services care, partnered with other government agencies to enhance outreach efforts, and expanded value-based purchasing.

As a principal at Leavitt Partners, an HMA Company, Snyder will advise clients on matters related to health reform, compliance, and program integrity.

Former Idaho Medicaid Director Matt Wimmer joined HMA as a principal in September. Matt was responsible for services to 413,000 beneficiaries and oversight of a $3.7 billion budget. Over his five years as Medicaid director, he led the development and implementation of Medicaid expansion in Idaho and established value-based payment for the Medicaid program, leveraging existing clinically integrated networks and the state primary care case management system.

During Wimmer's tenure he directed a significant expansion of managed care for people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. He also led reform efforts related to hospital and nursing facility payments and children's mental health services. Additionally, he guided the development of a new system of care for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities.



An expert in value-based payment, home and community-based services, and Medicare-Medicaid integration, Wimmer is helping clients navigate the changing healthcare landscape.

Beth Kidder, former Florida deputy secretary for Medicaid, joined HMA in August as a managing principal in its Tallahassee office. She led the Medicaid program for Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration from October of 2016 to May 27 of this year. She was instrumental in transforming the state's Medicaid program to a managed care model and focusing the program on improving the health of people insured by Medicaid. Kidder was also elected president of the National Association of Medicaid Directors and served in this role from April 2020 through March 2021.

With the addition of Snyder, Wimmer, and Kidder, HMA is now home to 11 former Medicaid directors.

Founded in 1985, HMA is an independent, national research and consulting firm specializing in publicly funded healthcare and human services policy, programs, financing, and evaluation. Clients include government, public and private providers, health systems, health plans, community-based organizations, institutional investors, foundations, and associations. HMA has more than 20 offices and over 400 multidisciplinary consultants coast to coast.

For more information about HMA, visit https://www.healthmanagement.com/.

SOURCE Health Management Associates

Related Links

http://www.healthmanagement.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 Auto Insurance market. The report also aids buyers with relevant Auto 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/auto-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. During the forecast period, the market expects a change of 5%-7%.

Identify favorable opportunities in Auto 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.

SpendEdge presents a detailed picture of this procurement market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our Auto Insurance market procurement report covers the following areas:

Some of the top Auto Insurance suppliers listed in this report:

This Auto Insurance procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies.

AXA SA

Assicurazioni Generali SPA

Allstate Corp.

To get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment.

Subscribe Now for Free

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

Get instant access to download 5 reports every month and view 1200 full reports. With every purchase, we also offer complimentary research add-ons and Covid-19 impact assessments  Purchase Now!

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
DUBLIN, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Industry 4.0 - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Global Industry 4.0 Market to Reach $219.8 Billion by 2026

The global market for Industry 4.0 estimated at US$90.6 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$219.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 16.5% over the analysis period.

Internet of Things, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 17.3% CAGR and reach US$68.2 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 Industrial Robotics segment is readjusted to a revised 18.7% CAGR for the next 7-year period.

i4.0 is a concept in which manufacturing facilities are fitted with state-of-the-art sensors and wireless technologies which visualize and display the entire manufacturing process. These sensors and wireless technologies are integrated with various technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), the IoT, machine learning and cloud computing.

The integrated use of these technologies by an i4.0-enabled manufacturing environment enables the manufacturers to make well informed business decisions and improve their production efficiency. By optimizing technology and material usage, as well as asset performance, an i4.0-enabled manufacturing environment enhances the profitability of businesses.



The growth of the market is being propelled by the increasing awareness among businesses of the several advantages that these technologies offer.

Other factors spurring the projected growth within the worldwide market for i4.0 technologies include the increasing implementation of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT); the increasing demand for efficient and cost effective manufacturing processes from a wide range of industries; and the significant increase in the demand for automation systems for enhancing the quality of finished goods. Additional factors powering the market`s growth include innovations and technological advancements in additive printing technology; and advancements in smart sensing technologies and controls.

Additionally, the increasing trend of automating manufacturing facilities, together with the increasing demand for energy-efficient machinery and processes, together with the IoT-enabled sensors` integrated computing capabilities, are also projected to fuel the growth of the worldwide market for i4.0 technologies.

Furthermore, IoT sensors, smart devices, and data collection are leveraged by i4.0-based systems for improving operational efficiency, a factor that is also expected to provide significant opportunities for growth of the worldwide i4.0 market. In the coming 10 years, businesses would set-up global networks incorporating their production facilities, machinery and warehousing systems as cyber-physical systems.

Such systems, in the production environment, consist of storage systems, production facilities, and smart machines that could exchange information autonomously, and exercise independent control over each other. These changes provide huge opportunities for optimization of manufacturing and production processes. On the flip side, such changes put manufacturers under conventional business pressure



The U.S. Market is Estimated at $25.5 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $40.9 Billion by 2026

The Industry 4.0 market in the U.S. is estimated at US$25.5 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$40.9 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 20.7% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 13.7% and 14.9% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 15.3% CAGR.

Key Topics Covered:



I. METHODOLOGY



II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY



1. MARKET OVERVIEW

COVID-19 Impact on Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 Concepts

Vital Lessons for Manufacturing Industry during Pandemic Crisis

Industry 4.0 in Pre-COVID-19 Period

Industry 4.0 in Post COVID-19 Period

Impact of Technology on Transformation of Industries

An Introduction to Industry 4.0

History of Industry 4.0

Key Industry 4.0 Technologies

Horizontal and Vertical Integration in Industry 4.0

Current Stage of Industry 4.0 Adoption

Benefits and Advantages of Industry 4.0

Key Risks and Challenges of Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0: Prospects & Outlook

Analysis by Technology

Vertical-based Analysis

Competitive Landscape

Recent Market Activity

2. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS(Total 310 Featured)

3D Systems, Inc.

ABB Group

Alphabet, Inc.

Arcadia Data, Inc.

Cisco Systems, Inc.

Denso Corporation

General Electric Company

General Vision

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (HPE)

IBM Corporation

Intel Corporation

MAXST Co., Ltd.

Microsoft Corporation

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

NGRAIN Corporation

Qualcomm, Inc.

Rethink Robotics, Inc.

Rockwell Automation, Inc.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Siemens AG

Stratasys Ltd.

Texas Instruments, Inc.

XJet Ltd.

3. MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS

The Ever Growing IoT Ecosystem, A Cornerstone for Growth

Increasing Number of Connected Devices and Growth of IoT Adoption in Industrial Control Systems Enhance Need for Effective Cybersecurity Solutions

HMI Technologies Take Center Stage in Industrial Automation Ecosystem

Evolution of IoT Drives Robust Innovation in HMI Technology

Industrial Robotics Market Recording Strong Growth

Growing Automation Rapidly Changing Manufacturing Sector Landscape

3D Printing: A High Growth Market

Industry 4.0 Trends Impacting the Manufacturing Processes

IT/OT Convergence Brings Forth Cybersecurity Gaps in Manufacturing Industry

Chemical Processing Industry at High Risk of Cyber Crimes, Driving Need for Security Solutions

With Transportation Systems Worldwide Facing High Risk of Cyberattacks, the Need for Effective Cybersecurity Solutions Grows

Rising Risk of Cyber Threats in Auto Industry: An Opportunity for IoT Solutions

Amidst Rapidly Changing and Evolving Cyber Threats, Energy Sector Adopts Advanced Solutions to Enhance Security

As a Prime Target for Cyber Criminals, Power Sector Witnesses High Demand for Cybersecurity Solutions

Threat of Cyberattacks on the US Electric Power Sector: Assessing the Impact of Attacks by Various Actors for Power Utilities

Evolution of Cyberattacks on Industrial Control Systems in Power Sector: A Historical Timeline

Shift towards Smart Factories and the Potential Risk of Cyberattacks Fuels Importance of Cybersecurity for Intelligent Factories

Challenges Facing the Industry 4.0 Market

Challenges Commonly Confronted by Manufacturers and Measures to Develop More Cyber Resilient Networks

Challenges Confronting Implementation of Industry 4.0

Challenges Posed by Continuously Evolving Technology Environment

4. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE

III. REGIONAL MARKET ANALYSIS

IV. COMPETITION

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/v1zo19

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, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Pin Insertion Machines - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Global Pin Insertion Machines Market to Reach $244.1 Million by 2026

Global market for Pin Insertion Machines estimated at US$182.9 Million in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$244.1 Million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.1% over the analysis period.

Fully Automatic, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 6.3% CAGR to reach US$93.2 Million by the end of the analysis period.

After an early analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Semi-Automatic segment is readjusted to a revised 4.8% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 42.4% share of the global Pin Insertion Machines market.

Pin insertion machines are extensively used in a broad range of industries for electrical components like connectors, printed circuit boards, lead frames and transformers. Depending on pins, equipment feeds and configurations, these systems are capable of performing pin insertion or bending along with other tasks in an efficient manner.

In addition, these machines can be easily adapted for specific pin-press shapes or combinations as per requirements of end-use applications. Pin insertion machines hold numerous benefits like enhanced labor power, installation density, anti-vibration capability, and frequency properties. Moreover, these machines play an important role in increasing labor productivity while lowering product costs.



The market will continue to benefit from the strong outlook for the PCB market. The global PCB market exhibits strong potential for growth, given the increased demand from the consumer electronics industry, particularly for making computers, peripherals and other electronics devices. At the same time, demand for PCBs is also expected to grow at a robust pace from sectors including medical devices, automotive electronics, aerospace, education and industries.

Additional drivers that would benefit the PCB market growth include the Internet of Things, increased connectivity and demand for surveillance technology. The non-standard board deployment is likely to witness increases, as demand escalates for small form-factor, rigid-flex, high speed and green (such as no lead soldering) boards.

The shrinking components size is enabling use in small-form, compact devices ranging from laptops, wearable gadgets, handheld cameras to flexible displays and minimally-invasive medical devices. The availability of flexible PCB technology is particularly encouraging the use of flex-rigid and flexible PCBs.



The increasing transition of numerous markets towards thinner and smaller electronic devices is paving way for miniaturized PCBs along with enabling solutions such as pin insertion machines. While mobile devices are coming in the format of smart watches, the automotive and aerospace industries are looking forward to lightweight and smaller devices for reducing emissions and pushing fuel economy.

On the other hand, the medical industry requires smaller implantable devices, wearable sensors and handheld instruments. The production of these devices is creating the necessity for miniaturized PCBs that can be achieved by reducing board materials and size of copper features. Solutions such as ultra-thin substrates and pin insertion machines are enabling designers to achieve miniaturization without compromising over performance and reliability.

New solutions available on the market are anticipated to increase density for integrated features associated with printed circuit boards in a cost-efficient and high throughput manner. Advanced solutions are enabling manufacturers to achieve PCB miniaturization for numerous benefits. These solutions and the resulting miniaturized PCBs are allowing companies to develop small pacemakers, catheters, cochlear implants, neuro-stimulators and smart prosthesis with potential to improve patient outcomes and quality of life.



Key Topics Covered:



I. METHODOLOGY



II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY



1. MARKET OVERVIEW

Continuous Acceleration in the Pace of Electronics Manufacturing & Vital Role of PCBs Provide the Foundation for the Growth of Pin Insertion Machines

Electronic Contract Manufacturers: Key Consumer Segment of Pin Insertion Machines

These are Times When Questions Abound & Answers Are Few

So How Fast Or Slow Are We Moving?

Split Scenarios Unfold: The Great Vaccine Divide Emerges

Progress on Vaccinations, Why Should Businesses Care?

With IMF's Upward Revision of Global GDP Forecasts for 2021, Most Companies Are Bullish About an Economic Comeback Despite a Continuing Pandemic

An Overview of Pin Insertion Machines

Recent Market Activity

2. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS (Total 51 Featured)

Assembly & Automation Technology, Inc.

Autosplice, Inc.

Cms Electronics Gmbh

Finecs Co., Ltd.

Fohrenbach Application Tooling N.V.

SPIROL International Corporation

TE Connectivity Ltd.

Visumatic Industrial Products

Zierick Manufacturing Corporation

3. MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS

COVID-19 Temporarily Disrupts Electronics/Semiconductor Demand & Value Chain in 2020, Before Making a Quick & Massive Rebound

The Pandemic Hits the Gas Pedal Accelerating the Pace of Digitalization: A Emerging Reality That The Industry Failed to Anticipate in Time to be Prepared

Beyond the Blind Side, the World Now Faces Semiconductor Chip Shortages Overrun by Demand for Digital Technologies

A Review of the Myriad Ways in Which the Pandemic is Catalyzing Demand for All Things Electronic & Digital

Digitalization Favors a Strong PCB Demand Outlook Which Will Provide the Foundation for the Growth of Pin Insertion Machines

Trend Towards PCB Board Miniaturization Bodes Well for Market Growth

A Digitalizing Healthcare Industry to Step Up Investments in Electronic Component Value Chain Including Pin Insertion Machines

The Coming Era of Electronification of Medical Devices to Bring Attractive Opportunities for Medical PCBs & PCB Assembly Line Equipment

As a Contactless Economy Emerges, PCBs for Drones Will Take Center Stage Driving Manufacturers to Invest in Assembly Equipment Like Pin Insertion Machines

Surface Mount Technology (SMT) Rises in Popularity

PCB Automatic Pin Insertion Machine Gains Demand Momentum

4. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE



III. REGIONAL MARKET ANALYSIS



IV. COMPETITION

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/o4fp60

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


LUND, Sweden, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hansa Biopharma today announced that the Nomination Committee has been formed in accordance with the principles adopted by the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on May 12, 2021 and has the following composition:

Natalie Berner representing Redmile Group

representing Redmile Group Lotta Sjoberg representing Handelsbanken Fonder

Jannis Kitsakis representing AP4

As the conveyer of the Nomination Committee, Ulf Wiinberg, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Hansa Biopharma will be asked to summon the first meeting in the Nomination Committee.

The function of the Nomination Committee is to prepare and submit proposals for the AGM regarding the number of board members to be elected by the general meeting, election of chairman and other board members, board fees and any remuneration for committee work, election of the chairman of the AGM, election of auditors (if applicable) and fee for the auditors, and proposals for rules for appointing the Nomination Committee.

The proposals of the Nomination Committee will be presented in the notice of the Annual General Meeting 2022 and will be published on Hansa Biopharma's website.

Shareholders wishing to submit comments or proposals to the Nomination Committee may do so via e-mail to [email protected] or by letter to Hansa Biopharma, Nomination Committee, Box 785, 220 07 Lund, Sweden.

CONTACT:

For further information, please contact:

Klaus Sindahl, Head of Investor Relations

Hansa Biopharma

Mobile: +46 (0) 709-298 269

E-mail: [email protected]

Katja Margell

Head of Corporate Communications

Hansa Biopharma

Mobile: +46 (0) 768-198 326

E-mail: [email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/hansa-biopharma-ab/r/hansa-biopharma-nomination-committee-formed,c3451497

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/1219/3451497/1494578.pdf 20211111 HNSA - PR Nomination Committee FINAL ENG

SOURCE Hansa Biopharma AB
As an experienced real estate professional, Sherrod is uniquely positioned to help educate consumers about the benefits of Carrier's Healthy Homes real estate access solutions, including products from Supra and BrokerBay . Supra's market-leading key mobile credentialing technology combined with BrokerBay's highly differentiated showing management platform provide a one-stop shop to optimize scheduling for sellers, buyers and agents  providing real-time communication, delivering actionable insights, improving agent productivity and enhancing home access solutions.

Sherrod will also help Carrier raise awareness of the impact of home safety and indoor environments on overall health and well-being. A safe home is foundational to having a healthy home and Carrier's Kidde business is committed to fire, carbon monoxide and other solutions designed to help create healthy homes and protect the people inside.

"I am excited to collaborate with Carrier Fire & Security to inspire and empower real estate agents, homeowners and others to take control of their happiness, productivity and health. There is positively no better place to start prioritizing safety and health than at home," Sherrod said. "We have the ability to create a healthy and safe home for ourselves, our loved ones and those we serve in the industry. It's a message I look forward to sharing more broadly."

Sherrod's professional experience as a real estate broker as well as her increasing influence as a home remodeler are an ideal match for Carrier's Healthy Homes initiative, according to Isis Wu, Vice President & General Manager, Residential Fire and Healthy Homes, Carrier Fire & Security.

"We couldn't be more excited to welcome Egypt to Carrier's Healthy Homes movement," said Wu. "Not only does she possess relevant experience in the real estate market, but also brings valuable expertise in the enhancement of home environments. Egypt is a powerhouse working mom authentically focused on the health, safety and well-being of her family. Her energy and determination are a perfect fit with our campaign. Through this partnership, we can bring more awareness, education and best practices to consumers to improve the health and safety of their homes."

To learn more about creating a safer, healthier home, visit corporate.carrier.com/healthyhomes.

About Carrier

As the leading global provider of healthy, safe, sustainable and intelligent building and cold chain solutions, Carrier Global Corporation is committed to making the world safer, sustainable and more comfortable for generations to come. From the beginning, we've led in inventing new technologies and entirely new industries. Today, we continue to lead because we have a world-class, diverse workforce that puts the customer at the center of everything we do. For more information, visit www.Corporate.Carrier.com or follow us on social media at @Carrier.

SOURCE Carrier Global Corporation
VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Deep-South Resources Inc. ("Deep-South" or "the Company") (TSXV: DSM) reports that at the Court hearing on November, 11, 2021, the legal counsel of the Ministry of Mines and Energy of Namibia ("Ministry") requested an additional week to complete its filing of the documents supporting the decision of the Minister to refuse the Haib Copper licence renewal. The High Court of Namibia granted the Ministry the requested time to complete the filing. Deep-South's legal counsel will have ten court days to review the documents of the Ministry and decide if the Applicant Haib Minerals (Deep-South's fully owned subsidiary) will supplement its affidavit and supporting documents. Furthermore, Haib Minerals legal counsel in a status report also requested the court to issue an Order to facilitate a fair and expeditious determination of the Haib Minerals original application to review the decision of the Minister.

The Court will hold another hearing on November 25, 2021, to define the further procedures with regards to the review of the decision of the Minister.

The Company will provide regular updates in this regard and any other matter concerning this situation.

Corporate update

While recuperating Haib Copper mineral rights remains a top priority, Management continues to seek another copper project. Some projects have been identified and discussions with their owners are taking place. The Company will provide an update on the matter in due course. The Management is determined to develop Deep-South as a developer of important copper projects.

Notes on the Court application to review the decision of the Minister to not renew the Haib Copper licence

As disclosed in our press release dated June 16, 2021, the Company had received notice from the Ministry informing the Company that its application for the renewal of its EPL had been denied citing the Company's inability to advance the EPL to Pre-Feasibility and complete the proposed drilling program as planned. The Company maintains that the Ministry was kept well apprised, with no objection on their part, of a proposed change from the Pre-Feasibility study to an upgraded Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) and commencement of a full feasibility study. The latter was already started at the time of the refusal. Moreover, the Ministry issued all permits required for the drilling program and are well aware that Deep-South has completed the drilling program.

As a result of the Minister's refusal to renew the Licence, the Company terminated all work on site and proceeded with the retrenchment of its employees on site.

The Company is vigorously contesting the decision by all means necessary and available under the Minerals (Prospecting and Mining) Act (the "Act") and other applicable laws of Namibia. In its application for renewal and subsequent representations made to the Ministry, the Company maintains that it clearly demonstrated having met all criteria under the Act to justify the renewal of its Licence.

About Deep-South Resources Inc

Deep-South Resources is a mineral exploration and development company Deep-South growth strategy is to focus on the exploration and development of quality assets in significant mineralized trends and in proximity to infrastructure in stable countries. In using and assessing environmentally friendly technologies in the development of its copper project, Deep-South embraces the green revolution.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Information contained in this news release which are not statements of historical facts may be "forward-looking information" for the purposes of Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking information. The words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "contemplate", "plan", "intends", "continue", "budget", "estimate", "may", "will", "schedule", "understand" and similar expressions identify forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things: the Minister's refusal to renew the Company's Licence, the Company's intention to contest the Minister's decision before the Courts of Namibia and the outcome of such proceedings.

Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Deep-South, are inherently subject to significant technical, political, business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. Factors and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: political risks associated with the Company's operations in Namibia; the failure of the Namibian Government to comply with its continuing obligations under the Act to allow for the renewal of the Licence; the impact of changes in, or to the more aggressive enforcement of, laws, regulations and government practices; the inability of the Company and its subsidiaries to enforce their legal rights in certain circumstances. For additional risk factors, please see the Company's most recently filed Management Discussions & Analysis for its quarter ended ended February 28, 2021 available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

There can be no assurances that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as many factors and future events, both known and unknown could cause actual results, performance or achievements to vary or differ materially from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained herein or incorporated by reference. Accordingly, all such factors should be considered carefully when making decisions with respect to Deep-South, and prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release is made as at the date hereof. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect changes in assumptions, changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE Deep-South Resources Inc.
Anyone can be behind the next Shiba Inu token (recently overtaking Deutsche Bank with a $30 billion market cap), Safemoon, or NFT collection  their very own competitor to Cryptopunks or Bored Apes.

How Unity Project Works

NFTs and Cryptos are here to stay  there's no doubt about that, with Bitcoin making a new all-time high this week approaching $70,000  but today only a few technically skilled developers can launch projects on the Blockchain, which is unfair. Unity solves this.

Unity Project has been launched by serial entrepreneurs in order to bring non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) to the masses.

Unity is a cross-chain platform that connects individual artists with their community and aims to tokenize online communities and creators' work, bringing their ecosystem into the digital age.

'Social tokens will grow into a trillion-dollar industry. It's the biggest thing I've ever seen'  Reveal Vision's Raoul Pal, former hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs

Millions of online entrepreneurs are expected to move to the Blockchain for investment and networking opportunities in the coming years and decades.

They're not going to want to learn to code  Unity's aim is to act as a 'Blockchain as a service' platform, the same way software as a service (SAAS) startups revolutionized Web 2.0, and form a bridge between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, so anyone can launch their project with advanced coding skills or knowledge.

Unity will connect and work with the most popular social media platforms, online businesses and big tech companies in the crypto space.

Much of the tech needed to launch the Unity platform is already in place, and a private sale of Unity NFTs for early investors will take place on Nov 15th.

Buy Unity Project NFTs

To get involved with Unity and be an early adopter of the project, interested individuals can now get their hands on one of their NFTs.

Owning a Unity NFT will give individuals access to the private presale of the Unity token and more lucrative benefits, including voting rights and rewards on the project.

The private mint sale is planned for November 15th, followed shortly by the public mint sale on the 19th. Read the full roadmap, meet the development team and join the official Telegram and Discord communities at the Unity website.

 Website: https://www.unityproject.co/

 NFT site: https://www.unityproject.co/nft

SOURCE Unity Project
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Integrated Ventures Inc. (OTCQB: INTV), ("Company") is pleased to confirm the filing of its quarterly report on Form 10Q for the Q1/2022, ended September 31, 2021, after the today's market close.

The key financial highlights listed below are provided to compare financial results for Q1/2022 vs a full calendar year of 2021:

INTV had reported Record Total Revenues: For the Q1/2022, the Company generated its highest ever revenues of $2,662,161 vs $1,851,390 for full 2021 year and vs $454,170 for a full 2020 year.

vs for full 2021 year and vs for a full 2020 year. Revenue Mix: The revenues for Q1/2022 consisted of (1) other income of $717,073 due to realized gains on sales of digital currencies, (2) $1,040,071 of mining revenues and (3) $875,017 of mining equipment sales.

due to realized gains on sales of digital currencies, (2) of mining revenues and (3) of mining equipment sales. The Company had delivered Best Ever Gross Profit: The Company reported, a total gross profit from mining operations and sales of mining equipment, in the amount of $842,145 vs a loss of $542,239 .

vs a loss of . Company's ending cash balance for Q1/2022 was $687,338 vs $6,675 .

vs . INTV's Total Digital Currencies Holdings: As of September 31, 2021 , the Company's had $3,249,454 of digital currencies on its Balance Sheet vs $0.00 .

, the Company's had of digital currencies on its Balance Sheet vs . The Company Reported The Highest Shareholders' Equity To Date: As of September 31, 2021 , the Company reported total Shareholder's Equity of $14,719,763 vs $546,822 .

Steve Rubakh, CEO of Integrated Ventures, adds the following commentary:

> INTV has delivered a record breaking results in terms of core revenues, of $83,227 for Q1/2021 vs $1,915,088 for Q1/2022.

> Based on current cryptocurrency market pricing, INTV's mining revenues for Q2/2022 projected to exceed $2.7 million.

> Quarter to quarter, INTV's mining revenues are projected to grow on 25%-30% pace, fueled by (1) access to additional power capacity and (2) in-coming inventory of Bitmain miners."

About: Integrated Ventures,Inc.is a Technology Portfolio Holdings Company with focus on Cryptocurrency Mining.

For more details, please visit the Company's website: www.integratedventuresinc.com .

Safe Harbor Statement: The information posted in this release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of1995. You can identify these statements by use of the words "may," "will," "should," "plans," "explores," "expects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "project," "intend," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic and business conditions, effects of continued geopolitical unrest and regional conflicts, competition, changes in technology and methods of marketing, and various other factors beyond the company's control.

CONTACT: +1-215-613-1111 [email protected]

SOURCE Integrated Ventures Inc.
Biru was diagnosed with multiple myeloma at the age of 25 while a student at the University of North Texas. Driven to learn more about the disease, a cancer of the plasma cells, Biru joined his local myeloma patient support groups, which he eventually led in Texas, then Arkansas.

"Living with myeloma is not easy," Biru said. "But having an organization like the IMF beside me during my cancer journey has helped me live withand not formyeloma."

Founded in 1990 by Susie Durie and her late husband, Brian Novis, who died of myeloma in 1992, and Dr. Brian G.M. Durie, Chairman of the Board of Directors, the IMF provides patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals with innovative myeloma education and supports extensive collaborative research around the world through its International Myeloma Working Group to find a cure for the as-yet incurable cancer.

"I am confident Yelak will put his talent and experience as a patient advocate to good use in leading the organization," said Susie Durie, who has led the organization for 31 years and will assume the title of Founder and Director of Global Patient Initiatives.

Biru, a member of the IMF Board of Directors since 2015, said he looks forward to leading an organization he once turned to for guidance. His fellow board member, Dr. S. Vincent Rajkumar, a myeloma specialist at Mayo Clinic, looks forward to Biru joining the foundation. "Yelak will provide inspirational leadership in the pursuit of our vision to cure myeloma," he said.

Biography

Yelak Biru, 51, was born in Ethiopia. After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science from the University of North Texas, he worked in advanced business analytics at PepsiCo. In 2017, he joined Walmart, where he worked in global technology. He has participated in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Council of Research Advocates and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Myeloma Steering Committee. He also coauthored articles published in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and Blood Cancer Discovery and appears frequently at international medical conferences. Biru and his wife, Loul Haugs, live in Los Angeles.

About the International Myeloma Foundation

The International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) is the first and largest international foundation focusing specifically on multiple myeloma. The IMF is dedicated to improving the quality of life of myeloma patients while working toward prevention and a cure by focusing on four key areas: research, education, support, and advocacy. The IMF maintains a world-renowned InfoLine, and in 2001, established the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG), a collaborative research initiative focused on improving myeloma treatment options for patients. The IMF can be reached at (800) 452-CURE (2873). The global website is www.myeloma.org. Follow the IMF on Twitter @IMFmyeloma.

SOURCE International Myeloma Foundation

Related Links

http://www.myeloma.org


VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. (the "Company") - (TSX: ITH) (NYSE: THM) today announced that it has filed its unaudited third quarter Financial Statements and associated Management Discussion and Analysis and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three and nine-month period ended September, 30, 2021.

As of September 30, 2021, the Company had working capital of US$8.3 million.

Shareholders can obtain copies of the Company's unaudited third quarter Financial Statements and associated Management Discussion and Analysis and Form 10-Q on SEDAR at: www.sedar.com, EDGAR at www.sec.gov and on the Company's website at: www.ithmines.com. The Company will also provide hard copies of these documents, free of charge, to shareholders who request a copy directly from the Company.

About International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.

International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. has a 100% interest in its Livengood Gold Project located along the paved Elliott Highway, 70 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska.

(signed) Karl L. Hanneman

Chief Executive Officer

This news release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States.

SOURCE International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.towerhillmines.com


LOS ANGELES, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vanity Planet, the beauty industry's leader in technology, is honored to collaborate with The Honest Company to launch theLimited-Edition Aira Ionic Facial Steamer, just in time for the holiday season. Handpicked by Jessica Alba as a must-have skincare essential, Vanity Planet's Aira Ionic Facial Steamer perfectly aligns with the Clean Conscious Culture of The Honest Company.

The first step to prepping skin for a more effective skincare routine, this steamer clarifies and hydrates skin as it helps steam away impurities. The Honest x Vanity Planet Aira Ionic Facial Steamer is offered in an exclusive, super-modern, gender-neutral colorway and will be available for a limited time at both www.vanityplanet.com and www.honest.com .

United in the effort to highlight the power of self-care and accessible, effective skincare, the two brands want fans to unveil their inner glow with personal care products they can trust and make a part of their everyday lives. Committed to serving as a multi-category beauty tech leader, Vanity Planet has caught the eye of many Hollywood names like Jennifer Lopez, Kelly Rowland, Hailey Bieber and The Honest Company Founder, Jessica Alba.

"It's like my own personal sauna at home, perfect for a nice me-time moment," says Jessica Alba, Founder of The Honest Company. "After a long day, I like to treat myself to this calming, steamy therapeutic experience. A weekly at-home facial is my go-to for keeping my skin feeling soft and hydrated."

"We are honored to be partnering with The Honest Company as their core values are similar to our own," says Alex Dastmalchi, Founder and CEO of Vanity Planet. "We are dedicated to our customer's experience and put them at the center of everything we do. The Honest Company is on a mission to inspire everyone to love living consciously and is dedicated to creating thoughtfully formulated, safe and effective products. We share that mission and are proud to be working with the Honest team to bring this limited edition steamer to the market."

About Vanity Planet:

Vanity Planet is a Southern California-based beauty-tech company specializing in high-performing, skin-inclusive self care essentials at one of the most competitive values on the market. We rely on the power of technology to create bespoke beauty that addresses multiple skin care needs in an effort to be inclusive while offering the highest level of consumer personalization. Serving as a cutting-edge destination for attainable whole-body wellness, VP offers top-rated tech from results-driven skin care devices for the face and body; to smart fitness essentials and high-tech oral health. Vanity Planet is your go-to source for quality products designed for the vanity and beyond. For more information, please visit www.vanityplanet.com .

About The Honest Company

The Honest Company is a mission-driven, digitally-native brand focused on leading the clean lifestyle movement, creating a community for conscious consumers and seeking to disrupt multiple consumer product categories. Since its launch in 2012, Honest has been dedicated to creating thoughtfully formulated, safe and effective personal care, beauty, baby and household products, which are available via honest.com, third-party ecommerce partners and approximately 40,000 retail locations across the United States, Canada and Europe. Based in Los Angeles, CA, the Company's mission, to inspire everyone to love living consciously, is driven by its values of transparency, trust, sustainability and a deep sense of purpose around what matters most to its consumers: their health, their families and their homes. For more information about the Honest Standard and the company, please visit www.honest.com.

SOURCE Vanity Planet

Related Links

https://www.vanityplanet.com/


CAU announced that John Hope Bryant has been appointed first Entrepreneur Scholar-in-Residence at CAU School of Business Tweet this

"John Hope Bryant is a global leader in the areas of financial literacy, financial inclusion, and a champion for providing economic empowerment tools and services for youth and adults alike," said President French. "He has been a consistent partner to the University, most recently through Operation HOPE's One Million Black Business (1MBB) entrepreneur initiative, where our students are being provided with tools to support their aspirations of building successful careers and businesses."

"Mr. Bryant brings a wealth of knowledge and experience as a founder and serial entrepreneur who will bridge innovation and entrepreneurship within our university," said Dr. Silvanus Udoka, Dean of the School of Business Administration. "I believe his presence on our campus will help our scholars bring their work, disruptive ideas and creativity to a wider audience."

CAU's Entrepreneur Scholar-in-Residence program brings experienced private sector leaders to the School of Business Administration to advise and assist students and faculty as they launch startups or explore the commercialization of research. During his tenure, Mr. Bryant will provide mentorship and guidance to the CAU community on business strategy and design, and social impact. In addition, Bryant will help connect investors with inventors, developers, and

researchers, with assistance from Clark's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development (CIED) staff, to support students as they accelerate their ideas.

"Entrepreneurship is the bedrock of American culture and its economic success for generations," said Mr. Bryant. "It is an honor to join Clark Atlanta University's School of Business to enhance opportunity for tomorrow's business leaders as a means of positively impacting economic equality. And, I consider my mission is to help educate and inspire this generation of future leaders in the spirit of W.E.B. Du Bois, to preserve the legacy of HBCUs as an incubator for innovative ideas that will ultimately change the world."

Celebrating its 75th Anniversary this year, the CAU School of Business Administration has produced and continues to graduate a large number of African American MBAs. Its undergraduate program is one of the top ten producers of African American business professionals in the nation. CAUSBA graduates enjoy leadership and management careers in public and private sector organizations throughout the world. The School of Business has produced a substantial class of entrepreneurs who are providing jobs and services for the nation. CAU was the first HBCU chartered to provide advanced degrees to African Americans following the civil war and was the first institution for Blacks in the south. It was also the first instruction to accept Black women for degrees.

About Clark Atlanta University

Established in 1988 by the historic consolidation of Atlanta University (1865) and Clark College (1869). CAU continues a 150-year legacy rooted in African-American tradition and focused on the future. Through global innovation, transformative educational experiences, and high-value engagement. CAU cultivates lifted lives that transforms the world.

SOURCE Clark Atlanta University

Related Links

www.cau.edu


BEIJING, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leju Holdings Limited ("Leju" or the "Company") (NYSE: LEJU), a leading e-commerce and online media platform for real estate and home furnishing industries in China, today announced that it will hold its annual general meeting of shareholders (the "AGM") at Room 1120, 11/F, Yinli Building, No. 383 Guangyan Road, Shanghai, the People's Republic of China on December 7, 2021 at 10:00AM (local time). No proposal will be submitted to shareholders for approval at the AGM. Instead, the AGM will serve as an open forum for shareholders and holders of the Company's ADSs to discuss Company affairs with management.

Holders of record of the Company's ordinary shares at the close of business on November 19, 2021 (Eastern Daylight Time) are entitled to receive notice of and attend the annual general meeting or any adjournment or postponement thereof. Holders of the Company's ADSs are welcome to attend the AGM in person.

The notice of the annual general meeting is available on the Company's website at http://ir.leju.com.

About Leju

Leju Holdings Limited ("Leju") (NYSE: LEJU) is a leading e-commerce and online media platform for real estate and home furnishing industries in China, offering real estate e-commerce, online advertising and online listing services. Leju's integrated online platform comprises various mobile applications along with local websites covering more than 380 cities, enhanced by complementary offline services to facilitate residential property transactions. In addition to the Company's own websites, Leju operates the real estate and home furnishing websites of SINA Corporation, and maintains a strategic partnership with Tencent Holdings Limited. For more information about Leju, please visit http://ir.leju.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under 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. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Leju'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 All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Leju does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

For more information, please contact:

Ms. Christina Wu

Leju Holdings Limited

Phone: +86 (10) 5895-1062

E-mail: [email protected]

Philip Lisio

Foote Group

Phone: +86 135-0116-6560

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Leju Holdings Limited
DUBLIN, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mallinckrodt plc , (OTCMKTS: MNKKQ) a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced findings from two retrospective medical chart review studies on real world outcomes of patients hospitalized with hepatorenal syndrome type-1 (HRS-1) treated with terlipressin and other vasopressors. HRS-1, also known as HRS-acute kidney injury (HRS-AKI), is a life-threatening complication in patients with advanced liver disease.1 The data were highlighted in poster presentations at the Liver Meeting Digital Experience, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), being held virtually from November 12-15. The posters can be accessed here on the company's website.

Terlipressin is an investigational product and its safety and effectiveness have not yet been established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"The work of Dr. Sanyal, Dr. Allegretti and their teams around HRS-1 helps us better understand this complex disease, including more effective diagnosis, and underscores the need for additional treatment options to help clinicians improve care for their patients," said Steven Romano, M.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Mallinckrodt.

The first poster presentation titled " Hepatorenal Syndrome Patient Characteristics, Treatment, and Clinical Response by Disease Severity: Real-world Practice Patterns from 11 U.S. Hospitals ," is a retrospective, observational study based on medical chart data from 132 hospitalized adult patients across 11 hospitals in the U.S. between January 1, 2016, and June 30, 2019. The objective of the study was to describe characteristics of HRS-1 patients in the United States and assess real-world treatment patterns and clinical outcomes based on disease severity. Patients were classified as standard presentation (i.e., baseline serum creatinine [SCr] <5 mg/dL, acute on chronic liver failure [ACLF] grade 0-2, and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease [MELD] score <35) or severe presentation (i.e., baseline SCr 5 mg/dL or ACLF >2 or MELD score 35). Data were collected from hospital admission up to 90 days post-discharge or until death using an electronic case report form.

A total of 65 patients (49.2 percent) had standard disease severity and 67 (50.8 percent) had severe disease. The analysis showed that initial use of vasopressor therapies was similar between the two groups with midodrine/octreotide monotherapy being the most widely used (89.2 percent in standard cases versus 82.1 percent in severe cases). Overall response to therapy (N=132) was low in patients initiating existing treatment regimens irrespective of disease severity (Complete Response: 13.8 percent versus 17.9 percent and Partial Response: 9.2 percent versus 16.4 percent in the standard and severe groups, respectively, p=0.324).2

The limitations of this post hoc analysis of a retrospective chart review may include a more heterogeneous HRS population than those in randomized clinical trials, sampling bias from conveniently selected centers, potential selection bias towards patients with known outcomes to the providers and under reporting of less severe adverse events.

"Hepatorenal syndrome is very difficult to diagnose and typically met with high mortality rates if left untreated.3,4 Our analysis showed that overall response rate was low in patients initiating existing treatment regimens irrespective of disease severity, indicating a high unmet medical need in people with HRS-1, and need for alternate therapies," said Arun Sanyal, M.D., lead study investigator and Reno Vlahcevic Professor of Medicine, Physiology and Molecular Pathology at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The second poster presentation, titled " Serum Creatinine 5 mg/dL is Associated with Decreased Safety and Efficacy in Patients Treated with Terlipressin for Hepatorenal Syndrome-Acute Kidney Injury (HRS-AKI) in the United Kingdom ," is a post hoc analysis of a medical chart review study with data from 203 hospitalized adult patients treated with terlipressin collected across 26 hospitals in the UK (where terlipressin is approved and available) between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2017. The objective of the analysis was to describe efficacy and safety outcomes in patients with a SCr 5 mg/dL at the time of vasopressor initiation. Data were collected from hospital admission up to 90 days post-discharge or until death using an electronic case report form.

The results showed that among 203 patients who received terlipressin, 181 (89 percent) had a SCr <5 mg/dL at presentation and 22 (11 percent) had a SCr 5 mg/dL. The overall response rate was 74.0 percent in patients with presenting SCr <5 mg/dL and 63.6 percent in patients with presenting SCr 5 mg/dL. Patients with a presenting SCr <5 mg/dL were more likely to achieve complete response compared with those with presenting SCr 5 mg/dL (54.7 versus 13.6 percent, respectively; P<.001). The overall survival was longer in patients with presenting SCr <5 mg/dL than in patients with presenting SCr 5 mg/dL (P =.041). Additionally, patients with presenting SCr 5 mg/dL were more likely to develop fluid overload or pulmonary edema (27.3 percent) and multi-organ failure (31.8 percent) compared to patients with a SCr <5 mg/dL (14.4 and 6.1 percent, respectively).5

The limitations of this post hoc analysis of a retrospective chart review may include a more heterogeneous HRS population than those in randomized clinical trials, sampling bias from conveniently selected centers, potential selection bias towards patients with known outcomes to the providers and under reporting of less severe adverse events.

"Our analysis supports previous studies linking higher presenting SCr to poorer outcomes in patients with HRS-1.6,7 Importantly, these findings highlight significant unmet need for effective medical therapy for HRS-AKI and suggest that earlier initiation of vasoconstrictors may optimize patient outcomes," said Andrew Allegretti, M.D. MSc, lead study investigator and Director of Critical Care Nephrology, Massachusetts General Hospital.

The studies were sponsored by Mallinckrodt.

About Hepatorenal Syndrome

HRS is classified into two distinct types  hepatorenal syndrome type-1 and type-2.1 HRS-1 is a rapidly progressive condition that leads to renal failure.1 It is often a challenge to effectively diagnose in a timely manner due to its diagnosis of exclusion.2 At present, there are no drug therapies approved for the treatment of HRS-1 in the U.S. or Canada.8 HRS-1 is estimated to affect between 30,000 and 40,000 patients in the U.S. annually.9,10

About Terlipressin

Terlipressin is a potent vasopressin analogue selective for V1 receptors being investigated for the treatment of HRS-1 in the U.S. and Canada. It is an investigational product in these countries as the safety and efficacy have not been established with, nor has approval been granted by, regulatory authorities in either country. Terlipressin is approved for use outside the U.S. and Canada.

ABOUT MALLINCKRODT

Mallinckrodt is a global business consisting of multiple wholly owned subsidiaries that develop, manufacture, market and distribute specialty pharmaceutical products and therapies. The company's Specialty Brands reportable segment's areas of focus include autoimmune and rare diseases in specialty areas like neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology and ophthalmology; immunotherapy and neonatal respiratory critical care therapies; analgesics and gastrointestinal products. Its Specialty Generics reportable segment includes specialty generic drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients. To learn more about Mallinckrodt, visit www.mallinckrodt.com .

Mallinckrodt uses its website as a channel of distribution of important company information, such as press releases, investor presentations and other financial information. It also uses its website to expedite public access to time-critical information regarding the company in advance of or in lieu of distributing a press release or a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosing the same information. Therefore, investors should look to the Investor Relations page of the website for important and time-critical information. Visitors to the website can also register to receive automatic e-mail and other notifications alerting them when new information is made available on the Investor Relations page of the website.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS RELATED TO FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release includes forward-looking statements with regard to terlipressin, including its potential impact on patients. The statements are based on assumptions about many important factors, including the following, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements: satisfaction of regulatory and other requirements; actions of regulatory bodies and other governmental authorities; changes in laws and regulations; issues with product quality, manufacturing or supply, or patient safety issues; and other risks identified and described in more detail in the "Risk Factors" section of Mallinckrodt's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC, all of which are available on its website. The forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date hereof and Mallinckrodt does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events and developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

Media Inquiries

Tara DiFlumeri

Senior Vice President, Green Room Communications

908-577-4531

[email protected]

Investor Relations

Daniel J. Speciale

Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations Officer

314-654-3638

[email protected]

Government Affairs

Derek Naten

Vice President, Government Affairs & Patient Advocacy

[email protected]

Mallinckrodt, the "M" brand mark and the Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals logo are trademarks of a Mallinckrodt company. Other brands are trademarks of a Mallinckrodt company or their respective owners.  2021 Mallinckrodt. US-2100809 10/21

References

1 National Organization for Rare Disorders. Hepatorenal Syndrome. Available at: https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/hepatorenal-syndrome/. Accessed November 9, 2021.

2 Sanyal AJ, Reddy, KR, Brown KA, et al. Hepatorenal syndrome patient characteristics, treatment, and clinical response by disease severity: Real-world practice patterns from 11 US hospitals. Poster presented at: The Liver Meeting Digital Experience; November 12-15, 2021.

3 Gines P, Sola E, Angeli P, et al. Hepatorenal syndrome. Nature Reviews. 2018; 4:23.

4 Colle I and Laterre PF. Hepatorenal syndrome: the clinical impact of vasoactive therapy. Expert Review of Gastroenterology & Hepatology. (2018) 12:2, 173-188, DOI: 10.1080/17474124.2018.1417034.

5 Allegretti AS, Jamil K, Verleger K, et al. Serum Creatinine 5 mg/dL is Associated with Decreased Safety and Efficacy in Patients Treated with Terlipressin for Hepatorenal Syndrome-Acute Kidney Injury (HRS-AKI) in the United Kingdom. Poster presented at: The Liver Meeting Digital Experience; November 12-15, 2021.

6 Boyer TD, Sanyal AJ, Garcia-Tsao G, et al. Predictors of response to terlipressin plus albumin in hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) type 1: Relationship of serum creatinine to hemodynamics. J Hepatol. 2011;55:315-321.

7 Piano S, Schmidt HH, Ariza X, et al. Association between grade of acute on chronic liver failure and response to terlipressin and albumin in patients with hepatorenal syndrome. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2018;16:1792-1800.e1793.

8 Boyer TD, Medicis JJ, Pappas SC, et al. A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study to confirm the reversal of hepatorenal syndrome type 1 with terlipressin: the REVERSE trial design. Open Access Journal of Clinical Trials 2012:4. https://www.dovepress.com/a-randomized-placebo-controlled-double-blind-study-to-confirm-the-reve-peer-reviewed-article-OAJCT.

9 C Pant, B S Jani, M Desai, A Deshpande, Prashant Pandya, Ryan Taylor, R Gilroy, M Olyaee. Hepatorenal syndrome in hospitalized patients with chronic liver disease: results from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample 20022012. Journal of Investigative Medicine. 2016;64:3338.

10 United States Census Bureau: Quick Facts. Available at: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045218. Accessed November 9, 2021.

SOURCE Mallinckrodt plc

Related Links

https://www.mallinckrodt.com/


TOLEDO, Ohio, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Martin Skie, MD, is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Distinguished Name in Orthopedic Surgery for his outstanding work in the field and in acknowledgment of his work at the University of Toledo Medical Center's Orthopaedic Center.

With over 25 years of experience, Martin Skie, MD, is a respected Orthopedic Surgeon specializing in hand and wrist surgery. He treats traumatic wrist injuries, deformity following forearm and distal radius fractures and elbow instability, and other hand and wrist issues. Dr. Skie is additionally the Chief of the Division of Hand and Microsurgery, and a Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Toledo.



Highly educated in his field, Dr. Skie first pursued his medical career at Miami University, FL, earning his Bachelor of Science degree. He then earned his Medical degree from the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences, OH. Dr. Skie then completed a residency in Orthopedic Surgery and a Fellowship in Hand Surgery at Loma Linda University Medical Center, CA, and affiliated hospitals.



Remaining abreast of developments in the Orthopedic Surgery field, Dr. Skie is a member of the ABOS, ASSH, and AMA. To give back to his community, Dr. Skie donates to and volunteers with the Cherry Street Mission. He enjoys spending his spare time with his family and going for walks.



He would like to dedicate this honorable recognition to his parents Diane and Chuck; his children Jordan, Zach, and Ryan; and his mentors, Dr. Nabil Ebraheim and Dr. Virchel Wood.

Contact: Katherine Green , 516-825-5634 [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com


METRA is the Chicago area transit system and its workers have been deemed essential and required to risk their life to ensure that the transit system functions during the pandemic. However, despite being essential workers, they have not had a raise since 2018 due to CEO Jim Derwinski's reckless behavior in union contract negotiations. Rail Labor calls on CEO Derwinski and the METRA Board of Directors to bargain in good faith with union workers and reach a fair settlement in contract negotiations.

"Frontline railroad workers at METRA have not had a raise in 3 years," said METRA Conductors leader Chip Waugh. "With the cost of living skyrocketing in recent months, METRA management needs to come to the table and provide relief for struggling families."

METRA workers and their union representatives will demonstrate in front of the METRA Board of Directors meeting on November 12 at 547 W. Jackson Blvd., Suite 1400, Chicago, Illinois 60661. Nine Unions representing 2500 Metra workers have joined together in a bargaining coalition to demand a fair contract from METRA management.

"Frontline railroad workers at METRA have not had a raise in 3 years," said METRA Conductors leader Chip Waugh. "With the cost of living skyrocketing in recent months, METRA management needs to come to the table and provide relief for struggling families."

The nine railroad unions representing at METRA have been negotiating with management since January 2019. During this time, METRA has received massive financial support from the Federal Government which the METRA Board of Directors has spent on 4% and 17% increases in executive compensation while frontline workers have received nothing. CEO Derwinski's pay recently went from $285,000 to $305,000 effective January 1, 2021 and another bump to 340,000 effective January 1, 2022.

"While we would prefer that METRA management bargained in good faith, we can't go on like this forever," said Matthew Hollis, Vice President for the Rail Clerks (TCU). "The riding public should know that if management does not reach a settlement with us soon, we will strike at our earliest opportunity."

SOURCE Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division of the Teamsters
TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Metro Supply Chain plans to further invest more than $100 million to highly automate several of its fulfillment facilities to provide some of the world's fastest growing and most reputable brands with ecommerce solutions that deliver a rapid, reliable and seamless experience for their customers. In addition, the company continues to invest significantly in business intelligence capabilities that integrate fully into the automated solutions to offer customers the insights they need to make better operational, financial and business decisions.

The first facility being outfitted is a 285,000-square-foot state-of-the-art building in Bolton, Ontario, dedicated to the apparel and footwear sector.

"As real estate and labour costs continue to rise, and consumer demand wildly fluctuates in today's complex, ecommerce-driven environment, businesses require an innovative strategy that boosts their time to market, delivers cost certainty and predictability, and builds capacity for future growth," explains Martin Graham, Group President of Metro Supply Chain.

Following an extensive review, Metro Supply Chain selected for its first facility AutoStore, a leading, global cube storage and order fulfillment system powered by warehouse robots that quadruples storage capacity, offers fast access to inventory, and significantly reduces energy consumption.

Bastian Solutions will implement AutoStore into this facility and integrate it with automated conveyors, high-capacity packing stations, and high-density, very narrow aisle (VNA) racking to create a forward-looking ecommerce and unit pick solution that solves for both the seasonal and the unexpected peaks businesses face as customers continue to shop where, when, and how they wish.

"To deliver on their customer promise, companies need to become even more strategic in creating a transparent, demand-response model fueled by the right capabilities and technologies. We're pleased to provide businesses with an automated, scalable ecommerce solution that gets them quicker to market and supports their long-term growth," says Chiko Nanji, CEO and Group Chairman of Metro Supply Chain.

About Metro Supply Chain

Based in Canada, Metro Supply Chain shapes and delivers innovative supply chain solutions that help some of the world's fastest growing and most reputable brands advance their businesses. Over the past 40+ years, it has grown into a significant operation of more than 80 sites and 6,000 associates across North America and Europe. Metro Supply Chain's scale, capabilities, and entrepreneurial structure enable it to solve its customers' most challenging supply chain needs, including the creation of complex e-commerce fulfillment and last mile delivery networks.

SOURCE Metro Supply Chain

Related Links

https://www.metroscg.com/


NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- National CARES Mentoring Movement ("NCMM") is providing notice of a recent data privacy event that may have affected personal information relating to certain individual consultants and employees. Although NCMM is unaware of any misuse of this information, they are providing information about the incident, steps taken since discovering the incident, and steps an individual can take to better protect against potential misuse of their information.

What Happened? On February 18, 2021, NCMM became aware of suspicious activity in certain employee email accounts. They immediately launched an investigation, with the assistance of third-party forensic specialists, to determine the nature and scope of the activity. The investigation determined that there was unauthorized access to the affected accounts between January 16, 2021 and February 3, 2021. However, they were unable to determine which, if any, emails and attachments in the email accounts may have been opened or viewed as a result. NCMM conducted a thorough review of the relevant accounts to identify the types of information stored there and to whom it related. On or about August 26, 2021, NCMM's review determined that the affected accounts contained information related to certain individuals. NCMM has worked since this time to confirm the identities of the impacted individuals and prepare an accurate notification. While NCMM has no reason to believe that any identity theft or unauthorized use of the affected information has occurred, NCMM is providing notice of this incident in an abundance of caution.

What Information Was Involved? The information impacted by this event varied by individual but may include certain individuals' names, Social Security number, driver's license number, financial account information, medical information, passport number, date of birth, and electronic signature.

How will individuals know if they are affected by this incident? NCMM is mailing notice letters to the individuals whose protected information was affected by this event, and for whom we have a valid mailing address. If you do not receive a letter but would like to know if you are affected, you may call the assistance line listed below.

What is NCMM doing in response? NCMM has taken precautionary measures to protect the information in their possession, and has worked to add further technical safeguards to their environment. Following this incident, NCMM took immediate steps to improve the security of their environment and increase their security posture. NCMM is also implementing additional training and education to employees to prevent similar future incidents. They are also offering the impacted individuals access to complimentary credit monitoring services as an added precaution. Because NCMM has insufficient contact information for some of the individuals whose information may be contained in the impacted email accounts, they are providing notice to those potentially impacted individuals by way of a notification published to media outlets in New York.

What You Can Do. NCMM advises all potentially impacted individuals to remain vigilant by reviewing account statements and monitoring free credit reports for suspicious activity and to detect errors. NCMM encourages individuals to review the information below related to "Steps Individuals Can Take to Help Protect Against Identity Theft and Fraud," which provides details on how to better protect against possible misuse of information.

For More Information. Individuals who may have questions about the incident may contact NCMM's dedicated assistance line at (833) 796-8642, Monday through Friday from 6am to 8pm PST and 8am to 5pm PST on Saturday and Sunday (excluding major U.S. holiday).

STEPS INDIVIDUALS CAN TAKE TO HELP PROTECT AGAINST IDENTITY THEFT AND FRAUD

Monitor Your Accounts

Under U.S. law, a consumer is entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. To order your free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call, toll-free, 1-877-322-8228. You may also directly contact the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below to request a free copy of your credit report.

Consumers 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, military identification, 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 fraud alert or 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 1-888-298-0045 1-888-397-3742 1-833-395-6938 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

Additional Information

You may further educate yourself 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. You can obtain further information on how to file such a complaint by way of the contact information listed above. You have the right to file a police report if you ever experience identity theft or fraud. Please note that in order to file a report with law enforcement for identity theft, you will likely need to provide some proof that you have been a victim. Instances of known or suspected identity theft should also be reported to law enforcement and your state Attorney General. This notice has not been delayed by law enforcement.

California Residents: Visit the California Office of Privacy Protection (www.oag.ca.gov/privacy) for additional information on protection against identity theft.

Kentucky Residents: Office of the Attorney General of Kentucky, 700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 118 Frankfort, Kentucky 40601, www.ag.ky.gov, Telephone: 1-502-696-5300.

Maryland Residents: Office of the Attorney General of Maryland, Consumer Protection Division 200 St. Paul Place Baltimore, MD 21202, www.oag.state.md.us/Consumer, Telephone: 1-888-743-0023.

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 agencies 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 a 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. You can 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.

New York Residents: The Attorney General may be contacted at: Office of the Attorney General, The Capitol, Albany, NY 12224-0341; 1-800-771-7755; https://ag.ny.gov/.

North Carolina Residents: Office of the Attorney General of North Carolina, Consumer Protection Division, 9001 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-9001, www.ncdoj.gov, Telephone: 1-919-716-6400, 877-566-7226 (toll free within NC).

Washington D.C. Residents: The Office of Attorney General for the District of Columbia can be reached at: 400 6th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001, Washington, D.C. 20001; 1-202-442-9828; https://oag.dc.gov.

SOURCE National CARES Mentoring Movement
CRANBURY, N.J., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NeurologyLive, a multimedia platform dedicated to providing health care professionals with direct access to expert-driven, practice-changing news and insights in neurology, is pleased to announce the addition of The ALS Association to its Strategic Alliance Partnership (SAP) program.

"MJH Life Sciences and NeurologyLive are honored to partner with The ALS Association, an organization that works tirelessly to push research forward for patients with ALS. We look forward to finding ways to collaborate with The ALS Association to help educate the neurology community," said Bob McLovich, Executive Director of Neurology, MJH Life Sciences Ambassador Team

The ALS Association is the only national nonprofit organization fighting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on all fronts. Since 1985, it has led the way in global research, assistance for people with the disease through numerous local chapters, care coordination, and partnering with government agencies. The Association fosters hope and enhances quality of life as it tirelessly searches for a cure.

"Our vision  a world without ALS  will take all of us working together to generate research, to expedite the delivery of effective treatments and a cure, and to ensure improved outcomes for people living with ALS until we have cures in hand," said Morgan Roth, Senior Vice President, Communication & Marketing at The ALS Association. "We are grateful to have the partnership of NeurologyLive and the greater neurology community to present curated, informative and inspiring content about our individual and collective work to end ALS."

The partnership between The ALS Association and NeurologyLive will help both organizations expand their reach within the ALS space. The SAP program builds a community of advocacy groups, medical associations, and medical institutions to foster collaboration and an open exchange of information among trusted peers, for the ultimate benefit of patients and their families. As part of this joint effort, NeurologyLive, will work with the partners to share exclusive information and improve patient outcomes.

For more information on The ALS Association, click here.

For the full list of NeurologyLive SAP partners, click here.

About NeurologyLive

NeurologyLive delivers direct access to practice-changing news and expert insights directly from top medical conferences and researchers to improve the lives of patients with neurological diseases such as dementia, epilepsy, headache and migraine, movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, neuromuscular diseases, stroke and more. The NeurologyLive platform offers an in-depth look at the hundreds of new treatments in development with ever-expanding mechanisms of action, all during an unprecedented time of growing demand for neurology expertise. The NeurologyLive platform also connects visitors with the most up-to-date clinical trial results, Food and Drug Administration approvals, practice-changing research, and expert insights. NeurologyLive is a brand of MJH Life Sciences , the largest privately held, independent, full-service medical media company in North America, dedicated to delivering trusted health care news across multiple channels.

Media Contact

Alyssa Scarpaci, 609-716-7777

[email protected]



SOURCE NeurologyLive
JUNO BEACH, Fla., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NextEra Energy Transmission New York, Inc, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE), today announced that it has submitted multiple proposals, collectively the New York Renewable Connect, in response to the New York Independent System Operator's (NYISO) Long Island Offshore Wind Public Policy Transmission Need. The proposals help New York meet its offshore wind energy goals by reinforcing the transmission grid on Long Island and into Southeastern New York.

"For nearly 20 years, NextEra Energy companies have been supporting New York's energy needs," said Eric Gleason, president of NextEra Energy Transmission. "As the largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and the sun in the world, and the leader in competitive electric transmission, we support and applaud New York's clean energy goals."

The transmission proposals submitted accommodate varying levels of Long Island offshore wind injections. Each proposal has been designed to ensure reliable and cost-effective delivery of offshore wind energy for New York electric customers. The proposals include cost containment provisions which minimize New York customer financial exposure; and reflect NextEra Energy Transmission's confidence in its ability to deliver, given its strong track record of delivering significant infrastructure projects on time and on budget. NYISO will be looking at a variety of factors to evaluate the strength of each proponent's submission and could select a proposal in the second half of 2022 to move forward with development and construction.

NextEra Energy is no stranger to transmission projects in New York. NextEra Energy Transmission New York was awarded the Empire State Line project in 2017. The Empire State line project will enable 2,700 megawatts of renewable energy and 1,000 megawatts of import from Ontario. The Empire State Line is an important factor in helping New York achieve its renewable energy goals.

No company is better positioned to support the development, construction and operation of a large transmission network than NextEra Energy Transmission. NextEra Energy companies provide a unique combination of technical, financial and operational capabilities that are unmatched in the industry. NextEra Energy Transmission has been awarded and is developing more competitive transmission projects in North America than any other company. In addition, the company has valuable experience operating subsea transmission lines through its Trans Bay Cable subsidiary.

NextEra Energy Transmission

NextEra Energy Transmission develops, finances, constructs, and maintains transmission assets across the continent. NextEra Energy Transmission operates through its regional subsidiaries to integrate renewable energy and strengthen the electric grid. The company's subsidiaries were among the first non-incumbents to be awarded projects by system operators and utility commissions in California, New York, Texas, and Ontario. NextEra Energy Transmission's portfolio includes operating assets in 10 states and six regional transmission organizations, numerous projects under development and construction in the United States, and a project under construction in Ontario, Canada. To learn more, visit www.NextEraEnergyTransmission.com .

SOURCE NextEra Energy Transmission, LLC

Related Links

http://www.NextEraEnergyTransmission.com


MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Niftify Limited LLC, the all-inclusive NFT platform, announced the beta launch of their innovative offering today, which allows people to mint, buy, sell and swap NFTs. The beta launch allows creators, collectors, traders, gamers, enterprises, and NFT enthusiasts to test and explore the new marketplace.

Tied to the launch, Niftify also sold out of the first batch of their exclusive NFT collection with legendary rapper, songwriter, actor and producer Ice-T, as part of The Syndicate collection. Dropped today and created in collaboration with artist Tommy the Animator, this drop includes 300 rare NFTs. By buying The Syndicate NFTs, users gain access to the S Lounge, a virtual metaverse, with exclusive experiences.

"When I think about my career, three pivotal moments stand out to me - the O.G. Original Gangster album, when I joined Law & Order: SVU 22 years ago, and when we released New Jack City in 1991," said Ice-T. "When we created the New Jack City NFT collection with Niftify, we wanted to recognize the movie's standing impact on culture."

Niftify is a user-friendly platform aiming to facilitate users to automate digital and physical redemptions. Unlike other platforms, creators are incentivized to mint and sell their own NFTs to benefit from the functionality of smart contracts, and also offering them the ability to receive royalties of all future sales of their minted NFTs through the Ethereum blockchain royalty protocol. NFTs on Niftify are also used as proof of ownership and history tracking for even physical items, as well as proof of authenticity for valuable digital and physical assets.

"The concept of digital collectives is evolving into a mainstream movement, yet many NFT marketplaces are complex, require in-depth trading knowledge and programming skills, and users can only buy with cryptocurrencies. This alienates new customers and is time-consuming even for experienced traders," says Bruno Ver, co-founder and CEO of Niftify. "We're proud to provide an innovative and viable alternative for existing platforms that eliminates these complexities and makes the NFT market more accessible for all."

With a creator-first, community-led approach, Niftify also allows creators to select and invite other creators to join and mint NFTs. Additionally, the platform blends the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains at the core of its operations, providing transparency, immutability, low transaction costs and maximum security.

Within the Niftify ecosystem, NIFT tokens are native utility tokens for the protocol and are used to incentivize actions across the system. NIFT allows users to receive discounts when paying fees. Specifically, users only pay 2.5% in fees instead of 5% when paying with other cryptocurrencies or fiat. Additionally, NIFT token balances are used to determine the level of access to special features, such as early access to new and exclusive drops, premium custom profiles, and access to "members-only" areas.

To learn more about Niftify, interested parties may visit niftify.io; media inquiries may be addressed to [email protected].

About Niftify

Niftify is on a mission to create a strong community of NFT enthusiasts: creators, collectors, traders, gamers, and enterprises wanting to buy, sell or trade NFTs. With an all-inclusive platform that allows people to create, buy, sell and swap NFTs, Niftify offers all the benefits of the blockchain, without the complexity of owning a wallet or transacting in crypto. Niftify aims to take NFTs out of their infancy and bring them to the real world by unlocking their true potential.

Media Contact: [email protected]

W: https://www.niftify.io

T: https://twitter.com/Niftify_io

L: https://www.linkedin.com/company/niftify

Disclosure: This announcement does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. Any public offering of securities to be made in the United States will be made by means of a prospectus that may be obtained from the issuer or the selling security holder and that will contain detailed information about the company and management, as well as financial statements.

SOURCE Niftify

Related Links

https://www.niftify.io


HOLLYWOOD, Fla., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With Conventional rates on the rise again, now is a perfect time to reconsider Non-QM mortgages if you have been waiting or reluctant. The fact is that Non-QM loans from A&D Mortgage are good-performing loans that help the mortgage industry by allowing borrowers who miss traditional financing to qualify for potential homeownership at competitive rates. Non-QM borrowers are no different than conventional borrowers  and in most cases are identical in their ability to repay and put down 20%  but are looking for a loan higher than conforming loan limits.

However, the pandemic has affected many borrowers' ability to qualify for conventional loans. and our Non-QM programs help to alleviate that, especially for small businesses and self-employed or gig economy workers. We offer a wide range of programs  DSCR, 12- and 24-month bank statements, 1- and 2-year P&Ls  designed to help you save money by refinancing or buying a home to live in or invest in.

Why is now a suitable time to reconsider Non-QM? A recent article on MPA.com shows that:

Up to 65 million workers have filed for unemployment since the start of COVID-19

About half of those who lost their jobs are employed again

More than 2,000,000 homeowners are in forbearance and another 1,000,000 were already in some stage of default prior to the pandemic

About 30 million self-employed borrowers comprise the "gig" economy

For people with income disruptions that happened between 13-24 months, a 12-month bank statement loan could benefit them because they need to only show a consistent and steady income for the past year. In addition, with this type of loan, any pre-pandemic employment or income gaps 2 years ago become irrelevant. If your borrower has saved money during the pandemic, they could acquire an investment property with a DSCR loan, which requires no income documentation whatsoever. Lastly, if your borrower is coming out of a forbearance plan, they only need to show 3 consecutive payments to qualify for a Non-QM loan. These are just a few examples where A&D could close your loan with a Non-QM mortgage.

The bottom line is that you will need to work with a trusted lender accustomed to handling these unconventional situations  credit issues, irregular income streams with extra documentation requirements -- with speed, flexibility, and a solid understanding of available Non-QM options. You need A&D.

Call A&D Mortgage at 1-855-235-6267 or visit www.admortgage.com to learn more about why Non-QM mortgages are a viable option in a rising conventional rate environment.

About A&D Mortgage

As a premier direct lender, A&D Mortgage offers a full spectrum of conventional, government, and Non-QM loan products with 24-hour turnaround times and some of the most competitive rates in the industry. In addition to their Prime Jumbo loan product, A&D Mortgage offers programs for Prime borrowers, Foreign National borrowers, as well as borrowers with imperfect credit history. Programs with no income verification are also offered for investment property loans. The company offers free concierge services, bank statement reviews, marketing tools and resources, and more to support the brokers they serve.

A&D Mortgage LLC is an Equal Housing Lender. NMLS ID #958660. 1040 South Federal Highway, Hollywood, FL 33020. For important disclosures and state licensing information: https://admortgage.com/important-disclosures/

SOURCE A&D Mortgage

Related Links

https://admortgage.com/


Market Dynamics

Factors such as the growing advantages of online learning and rapid penetration of internet-enabled devices will drive the growth of the Online Education Market.

Company Profiles

The online education market report includes information on the product launches, sustainability, and prospects of leading vendors including 2U Inc., Ambow Education Holding Ltd., Coursera Inc., edX Inc., iTutorGroup, LinkedIn Corp., McGraw-Hill Education Inc., Pearson Plc, Udacity Inc., and Udemy Inc.

Some Companies with Key Offerings

2U Inc., - The company offers a line of low-cost tools to help students better engage in online learning.

The company offers a line of low-cost tools to help students better engage in online learning. Ambow Education Holding Ltd. - The company offers a line of courses related to school education, tutoring services, international education programs, and online educational offerings through its business segment K-12 Education.

The company offers a line of courses related to school education, tutoring services, international education programs, and online educational offerings through its business segment K-12 Education. Coursera Inc. - The company offers online courses including free courses and university degrees at a breakthrough price.

Competitive Analysis

The report includes the competitive analysis, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their industry position score and market performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.

Market Segmentation

By Type, the market is classified into Higher education, Test preparation, Language and casual learning, Prim & sec supplemental edu., and Reskilling & online certifications.

By Geography, the market is classified as North America , APAC, Europe , South America , and MEA. APAC will have the largest share of the market.

Related Reports

Edtech Market -The Edtech market has the potential to grow by USD 112.39 billion during 2021-2025, and the market's growth momentum will decelerate at a CAGR of 17.85%. Download a free sample now!

Virtual Schools Market in North America -The virtual schools market in North America has the potential to grow by USD 294.17 million during 2021-2025, and the market's growth momentum will decelerate at a CAGR of 4.78%. Download a free sample now!

Online Education Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2019 Forecast period 2020-2024 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 18% Market growth 2020-2024 USD 247.46 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 17.59 Regional analysis North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution APAC at 34% Key consumer countries US, China, Germany, UK, France, and Canada Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled 2U Inc., Ambow Education Holding Ltd., Coursera Inc., edX Inc., iTutorGroup, LinkedIn Corp., McGraw-Hill Education Inc., Pearson Plc, Udacity Inc., and Udemy Inc. 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.

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

Related Links

http://www.technavio.com


TYSONS, Va., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PenFed Credit Union, the nation's second-largest federal credit union, today announced it received a designation as the Number One 2022 Military Friendly Spouse Employer and Military Friendly Brand in the non-profit category by VIQTORY Media. PenFed also received recognition as a Top Ten Military Friendly Employer and for having a Top Ten Military Friendly Supplier Diversity Program.

The rankings were determined by analyzing public data and a proprietary survey from over a thousand companies. Final ratings were determined by combining an organization's survey score with an assessment of the organization's ability to meet thresholds for Applicant, New Hire Retention, Employee Turnover, and Promotion and Advancement of veterans and military employees.

"PenFed is honored to be recognized as a champion for the military community," said PenFed President/CEO and PenFed Foundation CEO James Schenck. "Since 1935, we have served the national defense community and we will continue to recruit and hire veterans and military spouses as our firm grows."

As part of an ongoing commitment to hiring and supporting the military community, PenFed operates a Military Employment Program focused on every phase of the employment lifecycle for all members of the military community  including veterans, military and surviving spouses, wounded warriors and their caregivers, Reservists and National Guardsmen.

In addition to spending 10% of its recruiting budget on hiring and retaining veterans and military spouses, PenFed collaborates with dozens of military employment organizations, as well as dozens of installation Transition Assistance Program offices, to enhance our military employment efforts. Members of the military community interested in a career with a military-friendly company are encouraged to visit PenFed's Military Recruiting Webpage. This webpage allows members of the military community to join our military talent community and search for jobs based on their skillsets and experience using a Military Occupational Specialty code.

PenFed has a strong legacy of being a military-friendly company and donates up to 2% of its annual net income to charitable organizations, with the majority going to military charities. The PenFed Foundation, a national 501(c)3 founded by PenFed Credit Union, was created in 2001 and, since then, has provided more than $40 million in financial support to veterans, active-duty service members, families, and caregivers.

PenFed will be showcased along with other 2022 Military Friendly  Employers in the December issue of G.I. Jobs  magazine and on MilitaryFriendly.com.

About PenFed Credit Union

Established in 1935, Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) is America's second-largest federal credit union, serving 2.5 million members worldwide with $31 billion in assets. PenFed Credit Union offers market-leading certificates, checking, credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, auto loans, student loans, and a wide range of other financial services with members' interests always in mind. PenFed Credit Union is federally insured by the NCUA and is an Equal Housing Lender. To learn more about PenFed Credit Union, visit PenFed.org , like us on Facebook and follow us @PenFed on Twitter . Interested in working for PenFed? Check us out on LinkedIn . We are proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.

SOURCE PenFed Credit Union

Related Links

http://www.PenFed.org


Protiviti will be adding 450 new local jobs to Cincinnati metro area. Tweet this

"Leasing this new office space in Blue Ash solidifies Protiviti's commitment to our Americas Delivery Center in the Cincinnati region," said Cory Gunderson, an executive vice president and leader of global solutions for Protiviti. "We'll provide a broad range of standardized, technology-enabled, innovative and highly cost-effective services that support our consulting engagements across our offerings. We're excited to be an employer of choice and hire local folks to help serve our global client base."

"We've already hired nearly 70 people for the ADC and are running ahead of our projections," said Bart Bradley, ADC site leader, Protiviti. "Our goal is to get up to approximately 450 employees within four to five years. That significant growth will bring tremendous professional opportunities for our people, including developing leadership, management, technical and operational skills. We're interested in attracting talent from a wide variety of backgrounds including those with or without a university degree. We also look for people who have attention to detail and like being challenged to find ways to work better, smarter and more efficiently, including using technology to automate routine tasks."

Commitment to Diversity

Protiviti is also looking to hire a diverse team, including but not limited to those who have followed non-traditional career paths, people who are re-entering the workforce or who are approaching the end of their careers.

"We believe building a diverse workforce and inclusive work culture will be a competitive advantage for us. We encourage our team members to bring their whole, authentic selves to work," added Bradley. "We're pleased to be able to offer candidates in the Cincinnati region positions in a top-notch professional working and collaborative environment that also happens to be near the beautiful Summit Park."

"We're thrilled to partner with Protiviti to help bring its high-tech Americas Delivery Center to Blue Ash," said Blue Ash Economic Development Director Neil Hensley. "The move is a testament to the City's ongoing commitment to nurture and build its already strong business base."

Locating the ADC in Ohio was supported by JobsOhio, REDI Cincinnati and the Ohio Department of Development. Protiviti has had offices in Cleveland and Cincinnati providing consulting services since the firm's founding in 2002 and recently added an office location in Columbus. Protiviti was recognized as one of the 'Best Employers in Ohio' in 2020 and 2021 (Crain's Cleveland Business).

About Protiviti

Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that delivers deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach and unparalleled collaboration to help leaders confidently face the future. Protiviti and our independent and locally owned Member Firms provide clients with consulting and managed solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, analytics, governance, risk and internal audit through our network of more than 85 offices in over 25 countries.

Named to the 2021 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, Protiviti has served more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 and 35 percent of Fortune Global 500 companies. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index.

Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services.

Editor's note: Protiviti photos are available upon request.

SOURCE Protiviti

Related Links

http://www.protiviti.com


Redbreast Irish Whiskey is inviting everyone to join the flock and support this initiative by simply watching the video on social media. For every view the video receives*, 25 cents (EUR) will be donated to BirdLife International to help continue its commitment of keeping the Robin and other common birds safe for future generations. The quick-witted video sees the Irish actor and the Irish whiskey's iconic mascot, Robin Redbreast, in a cocktail bar with Redbreast 12 Year Old discussing Chris' fear of heights as he contemplates living his life as a common bird. Robin quickly gets things back on track to announce how the pair have come together to raise awareness of BirdLife International, inspiring consumers to spread the important message and inspire others to "pass it on" to participate in the global donation drive.

"'I am really excited to be supporting Robin Redbreast Day," said Chris O'Dowd. "Common birds all over the world are facing serious issues that we need to come together and solve, so I'm encouraging everyone to watch and share the video across social media to get as many eyes on it as possible. BirdLife International does amazing work supporting common birds, so the more donations we're able to raise the better!"

"We are thrilled to be partnering with BirdLife International and Chris O'Dowd to put our mission into action by raising funds to support the conservation and welfare of birds," said Kelly Suhr, Redbreast Brand Director. "Chris O'Dowd's Irish wit and creativity is the perfect match to share center stage with our beloved spokesbird, Robin Redbreast, in order to help spread this timely message and inspire others to 'Pass It On' to give back. So, let's raise a glass to raise their numbers together!"

This November 12th is the inaugural launch of Robin Redbreast Day and will continue to take place every November - the month that sees robins start to prepare for winter - encouraging whiskey-lovers to annually raise a glass to their feathered companions. "With so many birds across the globe needing vital support, the launch of Robin Redbreast Day couldn't have come at a better time," added Patricia Zurita, BirdLife International CEO. "We hope the day spreads awareness of the simple, yet important, things we must all do to help protect birds whilst also raising vital funds."

To further celebrate this momentous occasion, Redbreast is launching a digitally-led sweepstakes on social media in the US, giving consumers a chance to win a limited edition Redbreast Bird Feeder, designed in partnership with BirdLife International. Consumers can enter on the brand's Facebook (fb.com/RedbreastUS), Instagram (@RedbreastWhiskeyUS), or Twitter (@Redbreast_US) starting November 12th until November 21st 2021.

For more information, please visit www.redbreastwhiskey.com/en-US/redbreastsweeps.

About Redbreast Irish Whiskey

Redbreast is the World's Most Awarded Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey.** Featuring a comprehensive range of expressions from 12 Year Old through to 15, 21 and 27 Year Old  as well as Redbreast Lustau Edition & Cask Strength, Redbreast has built a global reputation for excellence by marrying a combination of the world's finest aged pot still whiskeys created at the famous Midleton Distillery in Cork and finishing them in a combination of the best bourbon, sherry and port casks.

Please Taste Responsibly. REDBREAST  Irish Whiskey. 40% Alc./Vol. (80 Proof). Product of Ireland. Imported by Pernod Ricard USA, New York, NY.

Redbreast Bird Feeder Sweepstakes

No purchase necessary to enter or win. Purchasing a product will not improve your chances of winning. Must be legal resident of 50 U.S. or D.C., age 21 or older. Registration begins on 11/12/2021 and ends on 11/21/2021. To enter, from your own Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account that is set to public, post a comment, tag Redbreast Irish Whiskey, and include the hashtags "#RobinRedbreastDay" and "#Sweepstakes". You may also enter by finding a Redbreast Irish Whiskey post related to the Sweepstakes on Facebook (@RedbreastUS), Instagram (@RedbreastwhiskeyUS) or Twitter (@Redbreast_US), and comment on the post from your own Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account. OR to enter online, and for complete official rules, including eligibility, prize details and ARV, visit www.redbreastwhiskey.com/en-US/redbreastsweeps and follow the on-screen entry instructions. Standard carrier messaging and data rates may apply. Odds of winning based upon total number of eligible entries received. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are not a sponsor of, affiliated with, or party to, or have any responsibility for, this Sweepstakes. No alcoholic beverage is part of any prize award. Void wherever prohibited or restricted by law. Sponsor: Pernod Ricard, 250 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10177.

About Pernod Ricard USA

Pernod Ricard USA is the premium spirits and wine company in the U.S., and the largest subsidiary of Paris, France-based Pernod Ricard SA., the world's second-largest spirits and wine company. Pernod Ricard employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide, is listed on Euronext (Ticker: RI) and is part of the CAC 40 index. Pernod Ricard USA is headquartered in New York, New York, and has more than 800 employees across the country. The company's leading spirits include such prestigious brands as Absolut Vodka, Avion Tequila, Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky, The Glenlivet Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Kahlua Liqueur, Malibu, Martell Cognac, Olmeca Altos Tequila , Beefeater Gin, Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal, Monkey 47 Gin, Plymouth Gin, Seagram's Extra Dry Gin, Malfy Gin, Hiram Walker Liqueurs, Midleton Irish Whiskey, Powers Irish Whiskey, Redbreast Irish Whiskey, Aberlour Single Malt Scotch Whisky; Lillet; Smithworks Vodka, Jefferson's Bourbon, Smooth Ambler Whiskey, Rabbit Hole Whiskey, Pernod and Ricard; such superior wines as Jacob's Creek, Kenwood Vineyards, Campo Viejo and Brancott Estate; and such exquisite champagnes and sparkling wines as Perrier-Jouet Champagne, G.H. Mumm Champagne and Mumm Napa sparkling wines.

About BirdLife International

BirdLife International is the world's largest nature conservation Partnership. Together we are 116 BirdLife Partners worldwide and growing, with almost 11 million supporters, 7,000 local conservation groups and 7,400 staff. BirdLife is widely recognized as the world leader in bird conservation, a United Nations-recognized civil society observer, and our unique local-to-global approach delivers high impact and long-term conservation for the benefit of nature and people. Find out more at www.birdlife.org

*Maximum donation of 30,000. Based on global views November 12 through December 12. To learn more, go to www.redbreastwhiskey.com/en-us/robinredbreastday.

**Based on international awards received by the brand in major spirits competitions from 2011-2021.

Contact

Matthew Hirsch

908-230-0925

[email protected]

SOURCE Pernod Ricard USA

Related Links

http://www.redbreastwhiskey.com


DALLAS, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As COVID-19 continues across North Texas, Resilient Healthcare, a leader in the at-home acute care space, has partnered with Medical City Healthcare, one of the most comprehensive healthcare providers in North Texas, to deliver high-acuity care in the home.

The partnership is significant as Medical City Healthcare is the first network of hospitals in Texas to receive approval from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to participate in the Acute Hospital at Home Program, which allows qualifying patients with certain conditions to receive high-acuity care in their homes. At-home care is supported by 24/7 remote monitoring, daily provider visits and other necessary support. Resilient Healthcare will deliver at-home care on behalf of Medical City Healthcare hospitals in North Texas. Patients can only be admitted to the program from emergency departments or inpatient hospital beds and admission requires an in-person physician evaluation prior to starting services at home.

"As we have done throughout the pandemic, Medical City Healthcare's preparedness response has been to balance our readiness to care for COVID-19 patients while continuing to make sure the many other patients who depend on our hospitals receive needed and timely care," says Medical City Healthcare Chief Medical Officer Joseph Parra, MD. "The partnership with Resilient allows us to continue to provide excellent and compassionate care outside the hospital walls for patients who qualify."

Hospital-Grade Care in the Home at a Glance

Once at home, qualifying patients will receive all the necessary diagnostic and medical treatments they would receive during a typical hospital stay including imaging, labs, IV and oral medications, home nursing and therapy, virtual doctor visits and continuous telemetry and monitoring.

"Our patient-centered model opens up inpatient beds to allow for higher-acuity care while providing high-quality care in the comfort of the patient's home," says Resilient's Vice President of Operations Brian Chace, PT, DPT. "That is a benefit for patients, families, hospitals and insurers."

The partnership was recently highlighted in the Dallas Morning News.

About Resilient Healthcare

Resilient Healthcare has become the leader in the at-home acute care space. Its [email protected] Program is the first of its kind, in which seriously ill patients have access to an array of hospital-grade healthcare services from the comfort of their homes, both virtually and in-person. Resilient Healthcare began as a vision for a better healthcare delivery system in 2018. Its technology subsidiary, Artic was established in 2020 with the overarching goal of developing software to convert homes into clinical spaces, coordinate care efficiently and optimize health risk stratification.

About Medical City Healthcare

Committed to the care and improvement of human life, Medical City Healthcare strives to deliver excellence always, providing high-quality healthcare in the communities it serves. With the resources and strength of HCA Healthcare, the nation's leading provider of quality healthcare services with 185 hospitals in the United States and England, Medical City Healthcare is one of the North Texas region's largest and most comprehensive healthcare providers. It includes 16 hospitals with 3,662 licensed beds, nearly 5,000 active physicians, 6,000 nurses, 17,000 employees, 11 ambulatory surgery centers, 4 off-campus emergency rooms and CareNow Urgent Care clinics. Three Medical City Healthcare hospitals are accredited comprehensive stroke centers, 10 hospitals "A" safety rated by the Leapfrog Group and eight hospitals hold the prestigious Magnet Recognized status from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

SOURCE Resilient Healthcare
- Official cultural visit by Saudi Arabia to France features a series of successful strategic engagements, including meetings with the French Minister of Culture and the Director-General of UNESCO

- His Highness Prince Badr addressed the UNESCO General Conference

- A new agreement signed with UNESCO further recognizes the cultural significance of ancient AlUla, building on existing cooperation between France and Saudi Arabia to enhance the destination.

PARIS, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- During a week-long visit to France, His Highness Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al-Saud, Saudi Minister of Culture, met with his counterpart Roselyne Bachelot, French Minister of Culture, Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, and several other French cultural leaders and institutions.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- There are many factors that go into creating your holiday plans. Do you stay home or go visiting? Do you send gifts or deliver them Santa-style to friends and loved ones?

If you're like many of us, no matter what happens, you will likely send at least one or two special gifts to people for the holidays. Regardless of how many packages and greetings you drop in the mail, it's always important to mail your gifts and cards early.

The 2020 holiday season was a record-setting year for the Postal Service. Specifically, 13 billion letters, cards and packages were processed and delivered under some of the most difficult circumstances we've faced in the past century.

For the 2021 peak season  the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day  the Postal Service will deliver more mail and packages to homes than any other shipper. It's anticipated that between 850 million and 950 million packages will be delivered for the holidays. The total number of letters, cards and packages processed and delivered is estimated to be more than 12 billion.

The Postal Service will expand Sunday delivery, beginning Nov. 28, to locations with high package volumes. USPS already delivers packages on Sundays in most major cities and expects to deliver more than 9.7 million packages each Sunday throughout the holiday season. Mail carriers will also deliver packages for an additional fee on Christmas Day in select locations.

The Postal Service plans all year for the peak holiday season. This year's preparations include leasing 7.5 million square feet of additional space across more than 40 annexes to handle the increase in the number of packages being mailed. The Postal Service is also currently hiring for more than 40,000 seasonal positions to help process and deliver the mail.

Since April, the Postal Service has installed 92 of 112 new package sorting machines, reflecting the "Delivering for America" plan's $40 billion of planned investment over 10 years. Additionally, more than 50 machines that can sort large packages are expected to be up and running prior to December. The new machinery gives the Postal Service the capacity to process an additional 4.5 million packages each day.

New for This Year

As of Aug. 29, the cost of a Forever stamp increased to 58 cents from 55 cents. There are also temporary price increases in place through 12:01 a.m., Central Time, Dec. 26, on all retail and commercial domestic competitive parcels for some of our more-popular shipping products, which also includes military shipping  Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, First-Class Package Service, Parcel Select, USPS Retail Ground and Parcel Return Service. International products are unaffected. These temporary rates will keep the Postal Service competitive while providing the agency with the revenue to cover extra costs in anticipation of peak-season volume surges similar to levels experienced in 2020.

Here are the temporary pricing increases for Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, Parcel Select Ground and USPS Retail Ground and First-Class Package Service:

Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express Flat Rate Boxes and Envelopes: 75 cents

Zones 1-4, 0-10 pounds: 25 cents

Zones 5-9, 0-10 pounds: 75 cents

Zones 1-4, 11-20 pounds: $1.50

Zones 5-9, 11-20 pounds: $3

Zones 1-4, 21-70 pounds: $2.50

Zones 5-9, 21-70 pounds: $5

First-Class Package Service: 30 cents

A zone-pricing calculator can be found online. A complete list of business products and prices is also available online.

The temporary price adjustment is one part of "Delivering for America," the Postal Service's 10-year plan for achieving financial sustainability and service excellence, which calls for appropriate pricing initiatives. Even with the temporary increase, the Postal Service has some of the lowest mail postage rates in the industrialized world and continues to offer great values in shipping.

Busiest Mailing and Delivery Days



The busiest time of the year begins two weeks before Christmas. It's expected that customer traffic at all Post Office locations will steadily increase beginning the week of Dec. 6. The week of Dec. 13-18 is anticipated to be the busiest mailing, shipping and delivery week. Additionally, the Postal Service predicts that nearly 2.3 billion pieces of First-Class Mail, including greeting cards and packages, will be processed and delivered the week of Dec. 13.

Skip the Trip and Ship Online

Consumers don't have to leave home to ship their packages. They can visit usps.com for available at-home shipping options. It's estimated nearly 500,000 consumers will use the Click-N-Ship feature and other online services on Dec. 14 to order free Priority Mail boxes*, print shipping labels, purchase postage and request free next-day Package Pickup.

Dec. 19 is predicted to be the Postal Service's busiest day online with more than 12.5 million consumers expected to visit usps.com for help shipping that special holiday gift. And usps.com is always open.

*Boxes are delivered within the U.S. with your regular mail, usually within 7 to 10 business days. Exclusions apply, for details and to order, visit https://store.usps.com/store.

2021 Holiday Shipping Deadlines

The Postal Service recommends the following mailing and shipping deadlines for expected delivery by Dec. 25 to Air/Army Post Office/Fleet Post Office/Diplomatic Post Office (APO/FPO/DPO) and domestic addresses*:



Dec. 9  APO/FPO/DPO (all ZIP Codes) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail

 APO/FPO/DPO (all ZIP Codes) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail Dec. 15  USPS Retail Ground service

 USPS Retail Ground service Dec. 16  APO/FPO/DPO ( except ZIP Code 093 ) USPS Priority Mail Express Military

 APO/FPO/DPO ( ) USPS Priority Mail Express Military service

Dec. 17  First-Class Mail service (including greeting cards)

 First-Class Mail service (including greeting cards) Dec. 17  First-Class packages (up to 15.99 ounces)

 First-Class packages (up to 15.99 ounces) Dec. 18  Priority Mail service

 Priority Mail service Dec. 23  Priority Mail Express* service

Alaska to/from Continental U.S.

Dec. 18  First-Class Mail

 First-Class Mail Dec. 18  Priority Mail

 Priority Mail Dec. 21  Priority Mail Express

Hawaii to/from mainland

Dec. 17  Priority Mail and First-Class Mail

 Priority Mail and First-Class Mail Dec. 21  Priority Mail Express

*Not a guarantee, unless otherwise noted. Dates are for estimated delivery before Dec. 25. Actual delivery date may vary depending on origin, destination, Post Office acceptance date and time, and other conditions. Some restrictions apply. For Priority Mail Express shipments mailed Dec. 22 through Dec. 25, the money-back guarantee applies only if the shipment was not delivered, or delivery was not attempted, within two business days.

Delivering for the Military and Overseas



The Postal Service also processes mail for overseas Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of State (DoS) recipients. The DoD measures mail volumes in pounds not pieces, and USPS expects to process more than 12.6 million pounds of mail for APO/FPO/DPO destinations this holiday season.

More tips for a successful holiday mailing and shipping season:

Use free Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes. They are available at Post Office locations or online at usps.com/freeboxes .

. Make it easy with the Click-N-Ship feature. You can create shipping labels and pay for postage online at usps.com/ship .

feature. You can create shipping labels and pay for postage online at . Schedule a free Package Pickup when the carrier delivers your mail. It's free regardless of the number of packages. Pickups can be scheduled at usps.com/pickup .

. Mail and packages that weigh more than 10 ounces or are more than a half-inch thick and using stamps as postage cannot be dropped into a collection box or left for a carrier to pick up. Instead, take them to a local Post Office.



Additional news and information, including all domestic, international and military mailing and shipping deadlines, can be found on the Postal Service Holiday Newsroom at usps.com/holidaynews.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

Please Note: For U.S. Postal Service media resources, including broadcast quality video and audio and photo stills, visit the USPS Newsroom. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the USPS YouTube Channel and like us on Facebook. For more information about the Postal Service, visit usps.com and facts.usps.com

More USPS holiday news, including shipping deadlines and Santa mail, can be found at usps.com/holidaynews .

For reporters interested in speaking with a regional Postal Service public relations professional, please go to about.usps.com/news/media-contacts/usps-local-media-contacts.pdf.

Contact: Kim Frum

[email protected]

usps.com/news

SOURCE U.S. Postal Service

Related Links

http://www.usps.com


Citigroup served as the exclusive financial advisor to StorageMart. Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to StorageMart. Eastdil Secured served as the exclusive financial advisor to Manhattan Mini Storage.

Following the acquisition, StorageMart will exceed 20 million net rentable square feet of storage and more than 200,000 storage units worldwide.

ABOUT STORAGEMART

Founded by the Burnam Family in 1999 and headquartered in Columbia, MO, StorageMart is the world's largest privately-owned self-storage provider with locations across the US, UK, and Canada. The company is committed to giving back to the many communities it calls "home" and has donated more than one million dollars in sponsorships and storage space to non-profits through its Store-It-Forward charitable giving program.

Contact: Sarah Little, [email protected]

SOURCE StorageMart

Related Links

http://www.storage-mart.com


BEIJING, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), a leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education, today announced that it will report its third quarter 2021 unaudited financial results on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, before the open of U.S. markets.

Sunlands' management team will host a conference call at 7:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, (8:00 p.m. Beijing/Hong Kong time) on November 23, 2021, following the quarterly results announcement.

Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:

International: +1-412-902-4272 US toll free: +1-888-346-8982 Mainland China toll free: 400-120-1203 Hong Kong local-toll: +852-3018-4992 Hong Kong toll free: 800-905-945

Please dial in 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin. When prompted, ask to be connected to the call for "Sunlands Technology Group". Participants will be required to state their name and company upon entering the call.

A live webcast and archive of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of Sunlands' website at http://www.sunlands.investorroom.com/.

A replay of the conference call will be accessible approximately one hour after the conclusion of the live call until November 30, 2021, by dialing the following telephone numbers:

International: +1-412-317-0088 US Toll Free: +1-877-344-7529 Replay Access Code: 10162001

About Sunlands

Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), formerly known as Sunlands Online Education Group, is the leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education. With a one to many, live streaming platform, Sunlands offers various degree and diploma-oriented post-secondary courses as well as online professional courses and educational content, to help students prepare for professional certification exams and attain professional skills. Students can access its services either through PC or mobile applications. The Company's online platform cultivates a personalized, interactive learning environment by featuring a virtual learning community and a vast library of educational content offerings that adapt to the learning habits of its students. Sunlands offers a unique approach to education research and development that organizes subject content into Learning Outcome Trees, the Company's proprietary knowledge management system. Sunlands has a deep understanding of the educational needs of its prospective students and offers solutions that help them achieve their goals.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Sunlands Technology Group

Investor Relations

Email: [email protected]

The Piacente Group, Inc.

Brandi Piacente

Phone: +1 (212) 481-2050

Email: [email protected]

Yang Song

Phone: +86-10-6508-0677

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Sunlands Technology Group

Related Links

www.sunlands.com


PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new era in 5G, transportation infrastructure and innovation from vehicle connectivity is the focus of the V2X Live 2022 conference & exhibition, March 16 and 17, 2022 in Peachtree Corners  one of the nation's first smart city environments powered by real-world connected infrastructure and 5G. The event, presented by T-Mobile and sponsored by Intel, is produced in partnership with Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners, a premier incubator and real-world technology proving ground in the Southeast of the United States.

"V2X Live is focused on the infrastructure to support a new era in transportation and vehicle connectivity. Attendees will look beyond connected cars and self-driving vehicles to important considerations such as 5G connectivity, infrastructure and investment to deliver high-bandwidth, low latency communications and computing to the cloud; to street infrastructure; and to other vehicles."  V2X Live Executive Producer, Tim Downs

Event organizers will showcase thought-leaders from a wide range of technology ecosystems, including 5G mobility, cloud computing, software innovation, autonomous vehicles, smart city infrastructure and more.

Live tours of Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners are included in the conference experience for attendees, sponsors, speakers and partnering organizations.

"Systems Integrators, technology innovators, automotive industry executives and government transportation leaders will convene in the heart of what's being called 'Silicon Orchard' to focus on investment, design and deployment of the next generation of connected vehicle infrastructure. This conference is a truly unique opportunity for solutions providers and experts to help forge a new digital architecture for communities and regions. At Peachtree Corners, connected smart city infrastructure isn't just a concept: it's a living reality that's experienced every day by our residents and some of the brightest technology developers in the world who are proving out emerging solutions in a real-world environment that can't be replicated in a closed setting."  Peachtree Corners CTO and Assistant City Manager, Brandon Branham

Interested individuals can respond to the Call for Speakers and register for more information online at www.v2x.live. For more information on Peachtree Corners and the Curiosity Lab, or to schedule a briefing with city government officials, contact [email protected].

About the 2030 Project

V2X Live is produced by the 2030 Project LLC  a business media publisher founded by wireless and broadband industry veterans to meet the information needs of suppliers, integrators and enterprises in a period of unprecedented change from virtualization, open source and software enabled networks. Visit us on the web at www.2030project.co

About the City of Peachtree Corners, Georgia

As the heart of what is being called #SiliconOrchard in the metro-Atlanta region, Peachtree Corners is a vibrant municipality that's home to more than 45,000 residents and an innovation hub that houses some of the world's most disruptive technology companies. As the United States' premier smart city powered by real-world connected infrastructure and 5G, Peachtree Corners serves as the model for how government and private industry can better collaborate to create a better future for society and business. From the world's first deployment of teleoperated e-scooters to fully autonomous shuttles being utilized by actual residents, and from a solar roadway to the largest electric vehicle charging hub in the region, Peachtree Corners is where the most future-forward Internet of Things (IoT) and sustainable technologies come to life for the benefit of its people, and the world.

For more information, visit http://www.peachtreecornersga.gov.

About Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners

Curiosity Lab is a 5G-enabled autonomous vehicle and smart city living laboratory located in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta. The centerpiece of the lab is a three-mile test and demo track which provides a real-world environment to explore emerging technologies. Additional infrastructure includes a network operations center, smart poles, DSRC units, dedicated fiber and a 25,000 square foot tech incubator. Additional information can be found at www.curiositylabptc.com

Timothy Downs

[email protected]

949-235-8985

SOURCE V2X Live

Related Links

http://www.peachtreecornersga.gov


Vendor Landscape

The market structure is fragmented due to the presence of several global and regional vendors. Amphenol Corp., ANTONICS-ICP GmbH, Continental AG, HARADA INDUSTRY Co. Ltd., Kymeta Corp., Laird Plc, Lorom Industrial Co. Ltd., Schaffner Holding AG, Taoglas Group Holdings Ltd., and TE Connectivity Ltd. are some of the few key vendors of this market. Vendors are competing to maintain their market position in the market. To succeed in this market, vendors must focus on providing automotive antenna modules at competitive prices.

Vendors operating in the market are adopting various organic and inorganic growth strategies such as launching technologically advanced products and M&As to remain competitive in the market.

For instance, in January 2019, Continental AG collaborated with a German-based start-up company, Automotive Artificial Intelligence to enhance its approach for virtual development of its automated driving technology.

View more about the market's vendor landscape highlights with a comprehensive list of vendors and their offerings.

Key Market Segmentation

Segmentation by Vehicle Type:

Passenger cars:



The segment contributed greatly to the overall market growth in 2020.





Passenger cars was the largest segment of the market in 2020 and will continue to remain as the largest segment of the market in 2025. The rising demand for luxury vehicles and improvements in wireless technologies are driving the growth of the segment.



Commercial vehicles

Segmentation by Frequency Range:

Medium-range:



The medium-range segment generated maximum revenue in the market in 2020.





Medium-range automotive antenna modules are expected to account for maximum sales in the market during the forecast period.



High-range



Low range

Request a FREE Sample of this report for more highlights into the market segments

Regional Market Outlook

North America is leading the market with a contribution of 40% to the overall market in 2020 and would increase its contribution to a notable number of the global automotive antenna module market by 2025.

North America will generate maximum growth across all the years of the forecast period between 2020 and 2025. The market growth in North America is driven by the higher adoption of EVs, pick-up trucks, and other light commercial vehicles (LCVs), especially in the US.

APAC would be the fastest-growing region within the overall market between 2020 and 2025.

Apart from regions, if we look at the country-wise market growth, the US, Germany, France, China, Japan, and the UK will contribute to the highest market growth.

Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries.

Latest Trends Driving the Global Automotive antenna module Market

Automotive antenna module Market Driver:

Growing penetration of connectivity in cars:

Most of the modern vehicles sold in developed regions like the US and some developing markets such as China now come with factory-fitted remote diagnostics systems. This has significantly increased the adoption of automotive antennas in mid-segment cars. Besides, the increasing demand for luxury vehicles and mid-segment vehicles in emerging economies has increased the number of connected vehicles, which is driving the market growth.

Automotive antenna module Market Trend:

Growing popularity of cellular V2X technologies:

The vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology is one of the recent developments that is gaining prominence in the automotive industry. Developments in 4G LTE and 5G wireless technologies are currently supporting the testing and adoption of cellular V2X communication technology in the automobile industry. With the increased deployment of 4G and 5G technologies worldwide, the adoption of cellular V2X technologies is expected to pace up and have a positive impact on the market's growth.

Find additional information about various other market drivers & Trends mentioned in our FREE sample report .

Need More? Are You Looking for Information Not Covered in This Report?

Want to understand more about the various research methodology?

Evaluate a specific segment or region in detail

Identify key suppliers, customers, or other market players

Analyze market regulations

Tailor this report according to your needs. Get it done with our $1000 worth of free customization. Speak to Our Analyst Now!

Related Reports:

Global Automotive V2X Antenna Market  Global automotive V2x antenna market is segmented by type (V2V, V2I, and others) and geography (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Global Automotive Technologies Market  Global automotive technologies market is segmented by component (hardware, software, and services) and geography (APAC, Europe, North America, MEA, and South America).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Automotive Antenna Module Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of almost 8% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 525.67 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 6.32 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution North America at 40% Key consumer countries US, Germany, France, China, Japan, and the UK Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Amphenol Corp., ANTONICS-ICP GmbH, Continental AG, HARADA INDUSTRY Co. Ltd., Kymeta Corp., Laird Plc, Lorom Industrial Co. Ltd., Schaffner Holding AG, Taoglas Group Holdings Ltd., and TE Connectivity 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, 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 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
Vendor Landscape

The market structure is fragmented due to the presence of several global and regional vendors. Acronis International GmbH, Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., Microsoft Corp., NetApp Inc., Quantum Corp., and International Business Machines Corp. are some of the few key vendors of this market. Vendors are competing to maintain their market position in the market. To succeed in this market, vendors must focus on providing backup-as-a-service solutions at competitive prices.

Vendors operating in the market are adopting various organic and inorganic growth strategies such as new product launches and mergers and acquisitions to stay competitive and expand their reach in the market.

For instance, in May 2021, Alphabet Inc.'s subsidiary Google Cloud and CrowdStrike extended their partnership to deliver defense-in-depth security, complete visibility and workload protection at scale across hybrid cloud environments. Also, in October 2020, Google launched Google TV, which will show content from various streaming services, including Netflix Inc and Walt Disney Cos Disney+.

View more about the market's vendor landscape highlights with a comprehensive list of vendors and their offerings.

Key Market Segmentation

Segmentation by Application:

Online backup:



The segment contributed greatly to the overall market growth in 2020.





Online backup was the largest segment of the market in 2020 and will continue to remain as the largest segment of the market in 2025. The low cost of online-backup services is driving the growth of the segment.



Cloud backup

Request a FREE Sample of this report for more highlights into the market segments

Regional Market Outlook

North America is leading the market with a contribution of 37% to the overall market in 2020 and would increase its contribution to a notable number of the global backup-as-a-service market by 2025.

North America will generate maximum growth across all the years of the forecast period between 2020 and 2025. The market growth in North America is driven by the increasing adoption of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), virtualization, and cloud computing in the region.

APAC would be the fastest-growing region within the overall market between 2020 and 2025.

Apart from regions, if we look at the country-wise market growth, the US, China, the UK, Germany, and Canada will contribute to the highest market growth.

Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries.

Latest Trends Driving the Global Backup-As-A-Service Market

Backup-As-A-Service Market Driver:

Shift from CAPEX to OPEX model:

BaaS solutions are highly flexible in terms of deployments models, which allows end-users to build their BaaS infrastructure as per their business requirements. End-users can choose from a wide range of services depending on their IT budgets and business requirements. Also, there are no fixed upfront costs associated with BaaS solutions, which makes them highly affordable. All these factors are driving the growth of the global backup-as-a-service market.

Backup-as-a-service Market Trend:

Exponential growth in the volume of data:

The rising use of smartphones, internet, and the increasing adoption of digital solutions among businesses has led to an exponential growth in the volume of data generated. This is creating the need for efficient backup solutions to store such critical information securely, which can be later used by enterprises to prevent losses caused by natural disasters, power outages, human errors, and malfunctions. Hence, businesses are exhibiting high demand for BaaS solutions to easily manage high amounts of data generated, which is fueling the market growth.

Find additional information about various other market drivers & Trends mentioned in our FREE sample report .

Need More? Are You Looking for Information Not Covered in This Report?

Want to understand more about the various research methodology?

Evaluate a specific segment or region in detail

Identify key suppliers, customers, or other market players

Analyze market regulations

Tailor this report according to your needs. Get it done with our $1000 worth of free customization. Speak to Our Analyst Now!

Related Reports:

Global Cloud Backup and Recovery Market  Global cloud backup and recovery market is segmented by end-user (ICT, manufacturing, BFSI, healthcare, and others) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Global Data Center Backup and Recovery Software Market  Global data center backup and recovery software market is segmented by operator type (data center operators, communication services providers, internet content providers, government, and others) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Backup-as-a-service Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of over 32% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 14.29 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 29.52 Regional analysis North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution North America at 37% Key consumer countries US, China, UK, Germany, and Canada Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Acronis International GmbH, Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., Microsoft Corp., NetApp Inc., Quantum Corp., and International Business Machines Corp. 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.

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
Vendor Landscape

The market structure is expected to remain fragmented during the forecast period. Vendors operating in the market are adopting various marketing and growth strategies such as competitive pricing to compete in the market.

BMS Enterprises, Dame Products LLC, FUN FACTORY GmbH, J Sainsbury Plc, JIMMYJANE, LELOi AB, Minna Life Inc., Mr. Wills House of Thrills, Tantus Inc., and TENGA Co. are some of the few key vendors of this market. Vendors are competing to maintain their market position in the market. To succeed in this market, vendors must focus on providing female sex toys at competitive prices.

Vendors are also trying to expand their market presence and strengthen their product portfolio by entering partnerships and launching new and innovative products.

For instance, In May 2021, J Sainsbury Plc partnered with the Black British Network to drive change and address racial injustice and inequality within society.

View more about the market's vendor landscape highlights with a comprehensive list of vendors and their offerings.

Key Market Segmentation

Segmentation by Geography:

APAC:



43% of the market's growth will originate from APAC during the forecast period





China and Japan are the key markets for female sex toys in APAC.

Segmentation by Distribution Channel:

Retail outlets and specialty stores:



The female sex toys market share growth by the retail outlets and specialty stores segment will be significant during the forecast period.





Retail outlets and specialty stores are expected to account for the maximum number of female sex toys sales in the market over the forecast period.

Request a FREE Sample of this report for more highlights into the market segments.

Regional Market Outlook

APAC is leading the market with a contribution of 43% to the overall market in 2020 and would increase its contribution to a notable number of the global female sex toys market by 2025.

APAC would be the fastest-growing region within the overall market between 2020 and 2025.

Apart from regions, if we look at the country-wise market growth, the US, China, Japan, Germany, and the UK will contribute to the highest market growth.

Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries.

Latest Trends, Driving the Global Female Sex Toys Market

Female sex toys Market Driver:

An increasing number of product launches:

The key factor driving growth in the global female sex toys market is the increasing number of product launches. Vendors that operate in the market are trying to attract customers by introducing new variants of female sex toys. Vendors are also trying to increase the sales of female sex toys by expanding their product portfolio to gain market share by increasing sales. The availability of new variants of female sex toys will encourage customers to purchase them and help vendors increase sales, which, in turn, will drive the growth of the global female sex toys market.

Female Sex Toys Market Trend:

Preference for customized female sex toys:

The growing preference for customized female sex toys is another major factor supporting the female sex toys market share growth. Vendors that operate in the global female sex toys market have started offering customized and custom-made products to end-users due to their expectations related to the performance and durability of female sex toys and their need for various functions.

Find additional information about various other market drivers & Trends mentioned in our FREE sample report.

Need More? Are You Looking for Information Not Covered in This Report?

Want to understand more about the various research methodology?

Evaluate a specific segment or region in detail

Identify key suppliers, customers, or other market players

Analyze market regulations

Tailor this report according to your needs. Get it done with our $1000 worth of free customization. Speak to Our Analyst Now!

Related Reports:

Sex Toys Market -The sex toys market share is expected to increase by USD 17.58 billion from 2020 to 2025, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 12.63%. Download a free sample now!

Online Sex Toys Market -The online sex toys market size is expected to grow by USD 5.74 billion and record a CAGR of 8.03% during 2020-2024. Download a free sample now!

Female Sex Toys Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of almost 13% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 15.71 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 13.57 Regional analysis APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution APAC at 43% Key consumer countries US, China, Japan, Germany, and UK Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled BMS Enterprises, Dame Products LLC, FUN FACTORY GmbH, J Sainsbury Plc, JIMMYJANE, LELOi AB, Minna Life Inc., Mr. Wills House of Thrills, Tantus Inc., and TENGA Co. 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, market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization preview 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 focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio

Related Links

http://www.technavio.com


Vendor Landscape

The market structure is fragmented due to the presence of several global and regional vendors. 8 Hours LLC, AISleep.com, Casper Sleep Inc., Comfy Quilts Ltd., Czech Feather and Down Co., H.I.G. Capital LLC, Headleveler, Hollander Sleep Products LLC, SpaceFoam.com, and Throwboy are some of the few key vendors of this market. Vendors are competing to maintain their market position in the market. To succeed in this market, vendors must focus on providing pillows at competitive prices.

Vendors operating in the market are adopting various organic and inorganic growth strategies such as mergers and acquisitions to remain competitive and expand their reach in the market.

For instance, in August 2020, Casper Sleep Inc. announced partnerships with four furniture and mattress retailers in North AmericaSam's Club, Ashley HomeStore, Denver Mattress, and Mathis Brothers.

View more about the market's vendor landscape highlights with a comprehensive list of vendors and their offerings.

Key Market Segmentation

Segmentation by Application:

Cotton pillows:



The segment contributed greatly to the overall market growth in 2020.





Cotton pillows was the largest segment of the market in 2020 and will continue to remain as the largest segment of the market in 2025. The rising adoption of cotton pillows, especially from the decorative pillows segment, among millennials is driving the growth of the segment.



Memory foam pillows



Down and feather pillows



Other pillows

Request a FREE Sample of this report for more highlights into the market segments

Regional Market Outlook

North America is leading the market with a contribution of 36% to the overall market in 2020 and would increase its contribution to a notable number of the global pillows market by 2025.

North America will generate maximum growth across all the years of the forecast period between 2020 and 2025. The market growth in North America is driven by the increasing number of vendors and their diversified range of innovative product offerings.

APAC would be the fastest-growing region within the overall market between 2020 and 2025.

Apart from regions, if we look at the country-wise market growth, the US, China, Germany, UK, and France will contribute to the highest market growth.

Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries.

Latest Trends Driving the Global Pillows Market

Pillows Market Driver:

Rising demand for cervical pillows:

Cervical pillows are specially designed for people suffering from cervical injuries related to head, neck, shoulder, and spine. They help relax muscles and relieve pain by maintaining the cervical curve. Such benefits are increasing their adoption among consumers, which is encouraging vendors to introduce a wide range of innovative cervical pillows, which is driving the market growth.

Pillows Market Trend:

Increasing online sales of pillows:

The rising adoption of smartphones and the high penetration of the internet have increased consumer inclination toward online shopping. Also, the wide availability of products, discounts, and the convenience offered on online platforms are further increasing the online sales of pillows. This trend is gaining prominence in the market and is expected to have a positive impact on the growth of vendors.

Find additional information about various other market drivers & Trends mentioned in our FREE sample report .

Need More? Are You Looking for Information Not Covered in This Report?

Want to understand more about the various research methodology?

Evaluate a specific segment or region in detail

Identify key suppliers, customers, or other market players

Analyze market regulations

Tailor this report according to your needs. Get it done with our $1000 worth of free customization. Speak to Our Analyst Now!

Related Reports:

Outdoor Cushions Market in the US  Outdoor cushions market in the US is segmented by distribution channel (offline and online), end-users (residential and commercial), and type (foam cushions, inflatable cushions, and others).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Global Bed and Bath Linen Market  Global bed and bath linen market is segmented by product (bed linen and bath linen) and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, MEA, and South America).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Pillows Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of about 6% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 11.58 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 5.44 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, MEA, and South America Performing market contribution North America at 36% Key consumer countries US, China, Germany, UK, and France Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled 8 Hours LLC, AISleep.com, Casper Sleep Inc., Comfy Quilts Ltd., Czech Feather and Down Co., H.I.G. Capital LLC, Headleveler, Hollander Sleep Products LLC, SpaceFoam.com, and Throwboy 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.

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

Related Links

http://www.technavio.com


Ma Biao, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, sent a video message. Lin Songtian, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Wen Guohui, mayor of Guangzhou and president of the World Metropolis Association, Emilia Saiz, secretary general of the UCLG, and Zhong Nanshan, recipient of the Medal of the Republic and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, delivered speeches at the conference. Zhang Shuofu, secretary of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee, and Zhang Xin, vice governor of Guangdong Province, also attended the event.

Ma Biao stated in his speech that the United Cities and Local Governments and the World Metropolis Association are international organizations for local governments and cities with global influence to develop more effectively. The Chinese government encourages and supports its local governments to join it and actively expand the global network of city partnerships. Presently, changes unseen in the last one hundred years and one of the most serious pandemics in a century have been superimposed over each other. China is willing to support cities around the world to more effectively play their roles as the forefront and main force in the global fight against Covid-19, engine and benchmark of global development, partner and carrier of global cooperation, and participant and promoter of global governance. China supports platforms such as the Global Mayors' Forum and Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (presenter of the Guangzhou Award) in playing a greater role and hopes they will continue to make new and greater contributions to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and building of a community of a shared future for mankind.

Lin Songtian pointed out that cities are gathering places in their country where people live and work, and they are important carriers for friendly national relations that translate into benefits for the well-being of all people. He hopes that cities of all countries will focus on poverty reduction and promote global sustainable green development, build smart cities and promote the modernization of urban governance, strengthen exchange and mutual understanding to achieve common prosperity, practice true multilateralism, and uphold justice and equity in the world. The CPAFFC is willing to guide, coordinate, and encourage Chinese local governments, as always, to partner with local governments of all countries and pursue shared development.

Wen Guohui shared with the session's guests valuable experience from Guangzhou's urban development and governance acquired through prioritizing ecological preservation, pursuing green development, inheriting cultural traditions, opening up, and cooperative activities. He proposed that cities around the world should always partner with each other for a more prosperous economy. He feels that they should enhance exchange and mutual learning for a more equitable society, promote solidarity and cooperation for more resilient governance, always place people in a place of central focus, and build cities that people will be satisfied with. He called on everyone to join hands and together turn cities and the planet into a better home.

Emelia congratulated everyone for their participation in a successful conference. She hoped that, through the platform of the Global Mayors' Forum and Guangzhou Award, cities around the world will increase dialogues and cooperation, share their experiences in urban governance, continue to explore innovative issues, and build a better home in unison.

Zhong Nanshan introduced Guangzhou's experience and practices in fighting Covid-19. He noted that the global pandemic situation is still severe and hoped that the global community will unite and work together through broader and more thorough cooperation in scientific research, pandemic prevention, and treatment.

Also at the conference, Qu Dongyu, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, sent a video message. Li Yong, director-general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Francisco Carvalho, mayor of Praia, Cape Verde, Li Mingyuan, mayor of Xi'an, Eckart Wurzner, mayor of Heidelberg, Germany, Uwe Schneidewind, mayor of Wuppertal, Germany, Antonio Di Carlo, mayor of Bari, Italy, and Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul, Turkey, delivered their keynote speeches via video.

The 2021 Global Mayors' Forum, co-organized by the CPAFFC, UCLG, Metropolis, and Guangzhou Municipal Government, is held from November 8 to 13 in an online-offline hybrid format. Additionally, the 13th World Congress of the World Metropolis Association and the 5th Guangzhou Award are held concurrently. A total of 6 sub-forums, including Biodiversity and Urban Climate and Technology and New Infrastructure, will be held. The Alliance of Guangzhou International Sister-City Universities 2021 Annual Conference and the 2021 exchange meeting of the Guangzhou-Auckland-Los Angeles Tripartite Economic Alliance are the two thematic side events. Supplimental serial events of the Guangzhou Award and the Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Exhibition will also be held.

With Carlos Giralt, consul general of Mexico in Guangzhou as the head of the Consular Corps, 33 consular officials from 24 consulates general in Guangzhou attended the plenary session. Chen Qiuyan, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and leaders of the Guangzhou city government, Pan Jianguo, Wang Huanqing, and Zhang Yajie, participated in the event.

SOURCE Guangzhou Foreign Affairs Office
DUBLIN, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) Market by Type (Fixed CMM, Portable CMM), Industry (Automotive, Aerospace, Heavy Machinery, Energy & Power, Electronics, Medical), and Region (North America, APAC, Europe, and RoW) - Forecast to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The coordinate measuring machine (CMM) market size is expected to grow from USD 2.8 billion in 2021 to USD 4.3 billion by 2026; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.8% from 2021 to 2026.

The key factors driving the growth of the CMM market are growing use of 3D data in modelling and analytical applications, increasing R&D spending on developing metrology products, and thriving automotive sector.

Market for fixed CMM to account for larger market share during the forecast period

The fixed CMM segment is expected to continue to hold a larger market size during the forecast period. The rising need for validating the dimensional and geometric accuracy in the manufacturing, automotive, and aerospace industries is the factor responsible for the largest share of the fixed CMM segment. The market for portable CMMs is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. Portable CMMs are easy to handle and give maximum flexibility to perform metrology activities, thereby are increasingly adopted in the automotive, heavy machinery, and energy & power industries.

Automotive industry to hold the largest size during the forecast period

The automotive industry is expected to hold the largest market size during the forecast period. The growing demand for vehicles, especially from developing countries, such as India and China, has encouraged automotive manufacturers and OEMs to opt for automation to increase production volume and meet the market demand. The shift in preference from off-line quality inspection to near-line or in-line measurement techniques, enabling higher sampling rates and shorter inspection times in the automotive industry, is also expected to drive the CMM market.

APAC is expected to capture largest market size during the forecast period

The APAC region is expected to hold the largest share of the CMM market during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is the most rapidly growing market and offers a huge opportunity for the automotive industry, whose growth is driven by the growing population. The heavy machinery industry is booming rapidly, which, in turn, has driven the market for CMMs in India and China. The rising awareness related to automation, increasing emphasis of leading economies such as China and Japan on heavy machinery industries are some primary factors contributing to the largest market share of APAC. The rapid growth of the automotive, heavy machinery, and aerospace industries in emerging economies, such as China and India, has contributed to the growth of the CMM market in APAC. Funding for R&D of heavy machinery and an extensive industrial base are the major factors that make APAC a dynamic region for CMMs, with China and Japan being the major contributors.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

3.1 Realistic Scenario

3.2 Pessimistic Scenario

3.3 Optimistic Scenario

4 Premium Insights

4.1 Attractive Opportunities in Cmm Market

4.2 Cmm Market, by Type

4.3 Cmm Market, by Industry and Region

4.4 Cmm Market, by Geography

5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.1.1 Growing Use of 3D Data in Modeling and Analytical Applications

5.2.1.2 Increasing R&D Spending on Developing Metrology Products

5.2.1.3 Thriving Automotive Sector

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.2.1 High Cost of Ownership

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.3.1 Surging Adoption of Cloud Computing and Industry 4.0

5.2.3.2 Escalating Need for Coordinate Measuring Machine Services

5.2.4 Challenges

5.2.4.1 Bringing Speed and Accuracy Improvement in Cmm Scanning

5.2.4.2 Lack of Simplified Software Solutions

5.3 Value Chain Analysis

5.4 Ecosystem

5.5 Trends/Disruptions Impacting Customer's Business

5.5.1 Revenue Shift and New Revenue Pockets for Cmm Manufacturers

5.6 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.6.1 Threat of New Entrants

5.6.2 Threat of Substitutes

5.6.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

5.6.4 Bargaining Power of Buyers

5.6.5 Rivalry Among Existing Competitors

5.7 Case Study

5.7.1 Heavy Machinery

5.7.1.1 Zeus Engineering Chooses Faro Cam2 Software and Faroarm to Support Business Growth Plans

5.7.1.2 Cmm is Installed at Express Engineering

5.7.2 Automotive

5.7.2.1 Itm Engineering Opts for Flexible and High-Precision 3D Measurement Services

5.8 Technology Trends

5.8.1 Cloud Computing

5.8.2 Portable Metrology

5.8.3 Robotic Laser Metrology

5.9 Pricing Analysis

5.10 Trade Analysis

5.10.1 Export Scenario

5.10.2 Import Scenario

5.11 Patent Analysis

5.12 Regulatory Landscape

6 Components of Coordinate Measuring Machines

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Bridge

6.3 Trigger Probe

6.3.1 Contact Probe

6.3.1.1 3D Touch Probe

6.3.1.2 2D Spindle Probe

6.3.1.3 Tool-Length Measuring Probe

6.3.2 Non-Contact Probe

6.3.2.1 Optical Probe

6.3.2.2 Laser-Line Probe

6.4 Stage

6.5 Controller

7 Offerings Related to Coordinate Measuring Machines

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Hardware Components

7.3 Switches

7.4 Services

7.4.1 After-Sales Services

7.4.2 Software-As-A-Service

7.4.3 Measurement Services

8 Coordinate Measuring Machine (Cmm) Market, by Type

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Fixed Cmm

8.2.1 Bridge

8.2.1.1 Bridge Design Enables Cmm to Provide Better Rigidity and High Accuracy

8.2.2 Cantilever

8.2.2.1 Fixed Cantilever-Type Cmm Captures Significant Market Share Owing to Its Ability to Measure Objects with High Accuracy

8.2.3 Gantry

8.2.3.1 Gantry-Type Cmm Differentiates Itself from Bridge-Type Cmm with Its Ability to Measure Large Objects Such as Cars and Other Vehicles

8.3 Portable Cmm

8.3.1 Articulated Arm

8.3.1.1 Articulated Arm Cmms Held Larger Market Share of Portable Cmms Owing to Their Ability to Allow Probes to be Placed in Different Directions During Measurement Process

8.3.2 Handheld

8.3.2.1 Automotive and Medical Industries Boost Demand for Handheld Cmms

9 Applications of Coordinate Measuring Machines

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Quality Control and Inspection

9.3 Reverse Engineering

9.4 Virtual Simulation

9.5 Profiling and Assessment

10 Coordinate Measuring Machine (Cmm) Market, by Industry

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Automotive

10.2.1 Automotive Industry to Hold Largest Market Share During Forecast Period

10.3 Aerospace

10.3.1 Use of Cmm to Manufacture Precision Parts in Aerospace to Fuel Its Demand

10.4 Heavy Machinery

10.4.1 Adoption of Cmm to Achieve Onsite Dimensional Measurement by Manufacturers of Heavy Equipment to Accelerate Market Growth

10.5 Energy & Power

10.5.1 Growing Clean Energy Portfolios in APAC to Drive Demand for Cmm in Energy & Power Industry

10.6 Electronics

10.6.1 Ability of Cmm to Monitor High-Paced Production of Various Electronic Products to Drive Market for Electronics Industry

10.7 Medical

10.7.1 Cmm Plays Important Role in Designing and Manufacturing of Medical Equipment for Custom Requirements

10.8 Others

11 Geographic Analysis

12 Competitive Landscape

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Top 5 Company Revenue Analysis

12.3 Market Share Analysis of Players, 2020

12.4 Competitive Evaluation Quadrant

12.4.1 Star

12.4.2 Emerging Leader

12.4.3 Pervasive

12.4.4 Participant

12.5 Startup/Sme Evaluation Quadrant

12.5.1 Progressive Company

12.5.2 Responsive Company

12.5.3 Dynamic Company

12.5.4 Starting Block

12.6 Competitive Situations and Trends

12.6.1 Product Launches

12.6.2 Deals

12.6.3 Others

13 Company Profiles

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Key Players

13.2.1 Zeiss Group

13.2.2 Faro Technologies

13.2.3 Hexagon

13.2.4 Nikon Corporation

13.2.5 Mitutoyo

13.2.6 Tokyo Seimitsu

13.2.7 Keyence Corporation

13.2.8 Creaform

13.2.9 Perceptron

13.2.10 Wenzel Group

13.3 Other Players

13.3.1 Lk Metrology

13.3.2 Micro-Vu

13.3.3 Adcole

13.3.4 Applied Automation Tech (Aat)

13.3.5 Metronor

13.3.6 Trimek

13.3.7 Eley Metrology

13.3.8 Aberlink

13.3.9 Chien Wei Precise Technology

13.3.10 Helmel Engineering

13.3.11 Redlux

13.3.12 Impact Metrology Systems

13.3.13 Sipcon Instrument Industries

13.3.14 Fowler High Precision

13.3.15 Dukin

13.3.16 Alicona Imaging

14 Adjacent & Related Market

15 Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/oom4gh

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


Market Dynamics

Factors such as the growth of the automotive industry, and rising industrial automation in India will be crucial in driving the growth of the market. But the availability of used machine tools will restrict the market growth.

Company Profiles

The machine tool market in India report includes information on the product launches, sustainability, and prospects of leading vendors including Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd., DMG MORI Co. Ltd., HMT Ltd., ITL Industries Ltd., Jyoti CNC Automation Ltd., Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd., Machine Tools India Ltd., Micromatic Machine Tools Pvt. Ltd., Okuma India Pvt. Ltd., and Tussor Machine Tools India Pvt. Ltd.

Some Companies Mentioned with Key offerings

Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd. - The company offers different types of machine tools such as Five-Axis Machining Solutions, special purpose machines, vertical lathes, vertical machine centers, and others

The company offers different types of machine tools such as Five-Axis Machining Solutions, special purpose machines, vertical lathes, vertical machine centers, and others DMG MORI Co. Ltd. - The company offers machine tools under the CLX brand in India .

The company offers machine tools under the CLX brand in . HMT Ltd.- The company offers CNC flatbed lathes, CNC sant bed lathes, CNC bar turning center, CNC trainer lathe, and other products

Competitive Analysis

The report includes the competitive analysis, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their industry position score and market performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.

Market Segmentation

By Type, the market is classified as metal cutting machines and metal forming machines.

By Technology, the market is classified as CNC machine tools and conventional machine tools.

Related Reports

Punching Machine Market -The punching machine market share should rise by USD 154.60 million from 2021 to 2025 at a CAGR of 2.12%. Download a free sample now!

Laser Cutting Machine Market -The laser cutting machine market size is expected to reach a value of USD 851.39 million, at a CAGR of 3.47%, during 2021-2025. Download a free sample now!

Machine Tool Market In India Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2019 Forecast period 2020-2024 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 13% Market growth 2020-2024 USD 1.9 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 12.54 Regional analysis India Performing market contribution CNC Machine Tools at 89% Key consumer countries India Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd., DMG MORI Co. Ltd., HMT Ltd., ITL Industries Ltd., Jyoti CNC Automation Ltd., Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd., Machine Tools India Ltd., Micromatic Machine Tools Pvt. Ltd., Okuma India Pvt. Ltd., and Tussor Machine Tools India Pvt. 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, 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 focus on emerging market trends and provide 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
DENVER, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TriEye, an early-stage, Israeli company recently announced raising $74 million in a round co-led by Varana Capital, which was joined by Intel, Samsung, and Porsche, among others. The funding will help the start-up commercialize its sensing technology that will assist autonomous and driver assistance systems to see better in poor conditions.

The TriEye technology makes use of short-wave infrared or SWIR, a range of wavelength lying outside the visible spectrum. Although SWIR sensing is not new, it is expensive and typically has been reserved for the aerospace and defense sectors. Recognizing a remarkable opportunity, TriEye has succeeded in dramatically reducing the cost of this tech to commercially competitive levels, while offering price-to-performance the Company expects will exceed all sensors currently available on the market. With this latest round, TriEye is now set to bring its innovative SWIR tech to the mass market

CEO, Avi Bakal believes that SWIR will allow people to see "beyond the visible" and add another layer of information to current vision systems. Bakal said, "Sensing is everywhere. In any industry, it is a vital part of the gathering and analysis process. As of today, the vision system market lacks necessary and vital data that can impact performance and decision-making all over. We anticipate our TriEye technology will soon offer a significant upgrade to this status quo at a very competitive price."

To meet the challenge, TriEye has developed a sensor called SEDAR (Spectrum Enhanced Detection And Ranging), which provides the required imaging and depth information for autonomous systems and advanced driver assistance. SEDAR uses SWIR and proprietary illumination source tech, also pioneered by the start-up. The new sensor could potentially replace the conventional sensing stack currently deployed in advanced driver assistance and autonomous systems, which use a blend of cameras, radar, light detection, and ranging radar (lidar).

Added Varana Capital co-founder, Ezra Gardner, "With this most recent fundraise at TriEye, Varana Capital is very pleased and even more excited to be an integral part of the future growth at TriEye, as it moves towards mass-market adoption. By dramatically reducing the cost of its sensors, particularly compared to cameras and lidar, while still offering superior performance, TriEye represents an opportunity to bring more information; more value; and; most importantly, improved safety to every range of vehicle, from entry-level to the most luxurious."

While the automotive industry is a core target market, TriEye has an even broader vision. The early-stage company expects its SWIR technology to be integrated into biometrics and surveillance, as well as industrial applications, such as food sorting and material identification, with much, much more on the way.

The current fundraising was co-led by Varana Capital and M&G Investments. Samsung Ventures, Tawazun SDF, Deep Insight, Allied Group, and Discount Capital contributed to the funding round, along with existing investors.

About Varana Capital, LLC

Based in Denver, CO, Varana Capital is an asset management platform, offering client access to venture capital, private equity, public markets, and biotech. The firm, however, is not simply a sum total of assets under management. Seeking to create value by bringing much more than just capital to the table, Varana Capital offers prospective investments extensive operational, financial, and strategic guidance and expertise. To learn more, go to varanacapital.com or email [email protected].

Contacts

Ankur Ahuja, COO

(212) 993-1560

SOURCE Varana Capital, LLC

Related Links

http://www.varanacapital.com


The report finds that humanities majors are similar to graduates from almost every other field with respect to perceived well-being, even though they tend to earn less and have slightly higher levels of unemployment than business majors and graduates from some STEM fields. Among the key findings:
"ABOTA is one of the nation's most effective organizations in championing the ethics, professionalism, and principles of the legal profession, and I'm honored to be part of this select group," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez represents clients in all types of personal injury cases, including car and truck wrecks. He is licensed to practice law in Texas and New Mexico state courts as well as in U.S. federal district courts (Northern District of Texas, Eastern District of Texas, and Western District of Texas). He has been admitted to the State Bars of Texas and New Mexico.

A graduate of Texas Tech University School of Law, he received his undergraduate from Stephen F. Austin State University in political science.

Rodriguez is a graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College. In 2014, he received the Bob Black Bar Leaders Award from the Texas Tech University School of Law Alumni Association.

About Witherite Law Group

Witherite Law Group is a personal injury law firm founded in 2001 with offices in Atlanta (also serving Columbus and Macon), Dallas, and Fort Worth. The firm's attorneys specialize in helping those injured in a car or truck wreck and can be reached by calling 1-800-TruckWreck or 1-800-CarWreck, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

SOURCE Witherite Law Group

Related Links

http://www.witheritelaw.com/


Through the end of 2021, for every American Heroes Cup purchased at any of the restaurant's 110 locations, $2 will be donated to WAA. In 2020, MISSION BBQ customers raised $362,320 for WAA through its American Heroes Cup campaign, sponsoring the placement of more than 36,000 veterans' wreaths in memory of our nation's veterans  these wreaths will be placed by volunteers at more than 90 participating cemeteries this year on National Wreaths Across America Day  Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021.

"We owe everything to our nation's veterans, who have risked all that a person can to defend and protect this country," said Bill Kraus, co-founder of MISSION BBQ. "It's an honor to provide support to Wreaths Across America in remembering the fallen and thanking military families for their sacrifices."

Bill Kraus and Steve Newton opened the first MISSION BBQ restaurant in a Baltimore suburb in 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. In opening the restaurant, they sought to Serve, Honor and Thank American heroes for their sacrifices and service by donating a significant portion of the restaurant's profits to the community's military non-profit groups and charity organizations that support police officers and firefighters. Since its founding in 2011, MISSION BBQ has opened 109 additional locations in 17 states.

WAA began in 1992 in Harrington, Maine, when the Worcester Wreath Company sought to turn a surplus of 5,000 holiday wreaths into an opportunity to pay tribute to our country's veterans. With the help of then Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, the company's owner, Morrill Worcester, arranged for the surplus wreaths to be placed at Arlington National Cemetery as a tribute to our country's veterans. The tradition has continued and over the last 30 years, the event has grown in scope, touching the lives of thousands of veterans' families and volunteers. In 2020 alone, Wreaths Across America and its national network of volunteers laid over 1.7 million veterans' wreaths at more than 2,500 participating locations in all 50 U.S. states, at sea, and abroad.

"Remember the fallen, Honor those who serve and Teach our children about the cost and value of freedom  that is our yearlong mission," said Karen Worcester, executive director of Wreaths Across America. "MISSION BBQ demonstrates this mission in how they conduct business in the communities they serve. Sharing stories of American heroes, treating our nation's veterans with the dignity and respect they deserve, while teaching the next generation, every day. We are honored to be a program worthy of their support and grateful for their customers who also support this mission."

American Heroes Cups are available year-round, currently retailing at $3.99 with $2 of every cup purchased donated to a charity supporting veterans and first-responders. Now through December 31, 2021, proceeds from the American Heroes Cups will be donated to WAA. Customers are encouraged to bring back their American Heroes Cup on return visits to the restaurant to receive $.99 refills. To find a MISSION BBQ location near you visit: https://mission-bbq.com/locations.

National Wreaths Across America Day is a free event and open to all people. For more information, visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.

About Wreaths Across America

Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organization's mission  Remember, Honor, Teach  is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at hundreds of veterans' cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond.

For more information or to sponsor a wreath, please visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.

About MISSION BBQ:

MISSION BBQ opened its doors for business on September 11, 2011. We believe there is nothing more American than BBQ. And nobody more American than the brave men and women who have sworn to protect and serve Our Communities and Our Country. We do what we do for the love of our soldiers, firefighters, police officers, and first respondersall our loved ones in service. We set across this great land from Texas to Kansas City, the Carolinas to St. Louis...to discover the secrets of great BBQ. Every day we strive to serve you authentic BBQ made from the freshest, most delectable ingredients, and serve it to you in a patriotic dining room filled with tributes to those who've made Our Country great, given to us by the people who earned them. Stop by at lunchtime, and you might catch us during our daily salute to the Stars and Stripes.

For more information about MISSION BBQ: http://mission-bbq.com/

Press contacts:

Sean Sullivan

Wreaths Across America

(207) 230-4599

[email protected]

SOURCE Wreaths Across America

Related Links

http://www.WreathsAcrossAmerica.org


Yili's net profit in the first three quarters has exceeded that of last year, signaling a new outlook for the company's growth prospects. The performance also indicated that Yili is now expected to become the first dairy company in Asia to exceed RMB 100 billion in revenue.

As Pan Gang, the Chairman of Yili Group, said, "We will invest more in the tracks focused on new consumption trends and aspire to do our best in each of them. We will also accelerate our digital transformation to boost the overall operational efficiency of the Group, in a bid to achieve our strategic objectives."

Core products maintain stable growth, while new growth drivers emerge

Yili has continued to stand out as the pacesetter of the market in liquid milk, ice cream, and other products. Yili Satine Organic Milk, AMBPOMIAL, and Changqing have clinched first place in their respective market segments.

New product sales have risen strongly, with brand potential beginning to emerge as the new force underpinning Yili's performance growth. High-growth categories, including cheese, mineral water, low-temperature milk, and milk formula, have all sustained rapid growth.

Yili's Xinhuo adult milk powder has led the market segment in sales volume, while Jinlingguan has been the infant formula brand which has seen the most rapid growth in China's market. During the first three quarters of 2021, Yili's infant formula category has reached a growth rate of more than 30% year-on-year.

Yili has now covered major consumption scenarios of cheese. The first three quarters saw a year-on-year increase of 180% in the total retail sales of Yili's cheese business.

Strengthening infant formula leadership and entering the nutrition product market

Yili has proactively enriched categories and its strategic cooperation since the beginning of 2021.

On October 27, 2021, Yili joined hands with goat milk leader Ausnutria Dairy and became the latter's largest shareholder. Ausnutria also features a comprehensive layout in nutrition products and has been licensed with China's quality mark for healthcare products. This will significantly facilitate Yili's future expansion in the health food market.

Digitalization empowers the industry to improve operational efficiency

Yili has established a dedicated team working in digitalization since 2019 and has developed its digitalization-oriented transformation strategy for the next decade, laying out a roadmap for marketing, products and supply chains.

"Digital transformation should be accelerated to ensure our consumer-oriented practice in terms of brand-building and product innovation. That is the major task for Yili in 2021," according to Pan Gang.

Image Attachments Links:

Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=407321

Caption: Yili Group reports operating revenue of RMB 85 billion in the first three quarters of 2021, with a net profit growth of over 30%.

SOURCE Yili Group
About Us

Market Leader is the most popular illustrated internet portal for traders and investors. It provides the visitors with exclusive information every day. The info comes from 55 press centers situated all around the world (associations of traders) and from over 20 departments of Masterforex-V Academy.

The new Technical Analysis by MF-V in connection with press centers in 55 countries of the world, which provide us with objective and independent information every day, gives us an opportunity to see the world not the way other mass media do it, quoting us and being surprised and admiring our forecasts, which are extremely accurate. For example:

- Mass media about the Belarusian Association of Traders

- Mass media about the Ukrainian Association of Traders

- Mass media about the Association of Traders from the USA and Canada etc.

We write about what other mass media will write in a week or even a month as trading helps to uncover the tendencies and algorithms hidden from the rest of the world.

Do you want to get the news earlier than the rest of the world? If so, then you can sign up for the RSS of the portal simply by clicking the RSS button.

The portal will provide you with brand new, uniquetools of technical and fundamental analysis created by the Academy and banned by more than 40 brokers and dealing centers for their clients. These are:

- Global discoveries in the field of TA (correcting the mistakes made by Charles Dow, Demark, Bollinger, Murphy, Hartley, Sperandeo, Alexander Elder, Shwager, Larry Williams, Eric Naiman etc.)

- Revealing the UNcovered mysteries and solving the UNsolved problems of Elliots wave analysis (in the works by Prechter, Nili, Fisher, Balan, Di Napoli, Bill Williams and other classics of trading)

- Brand new, exclusive patterns of technical analysis for getting profit without fail (correcting Hartleys mistakes)

- Alternative fundamental analysis for traders and investors ( from short-term pip hunting to long-term investment in currencies, shares, bonds and options)

- The unknown history of global economic crises through the eyes of forex traders

- Brand new free and trusted forex indicators created at Masterforex-V Trading Academy

- The secrets of money management unknown to the rest of the world

- Trading strategies, not taken into account by Forex, which allow to gain profit from flat and trend movements, a new type of support and resistance levels

- Free and unique techniques of teaching Forex to beginners as an alternative to losing money after successfully finishing special courses under various dealing centers

- Free consultations given by lawyers concerning the protection of traders rights

- Professional consultation of psychiatrists and psychologists concerning the psychological problems of trading, as well as traders family problems

- New criteria of evaluating a broker/bank/dealing center and revealing the tricks of their trading terminals. The secrets they try to hide from their clients and many other things, reviewed from traders standpoint, not from forex brokers one.




Islamabad, Nov 12 : Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that peace in Afghanistan would help strengthen regional stability, spur economic activity and connectivity.

Pakistan is committed to peace, stability and progress in Afghanistan, Qureshi said on Thursday in a meeting with visiting Afghan acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Pakistani Foreign Minister highlighted Pakistan's continuing efforts for facilitating humanitarian assistance and economic support to Afghanistan given the challenges being faced by the Afghan people, according to the statement.

Qureshi reaffirmed Pakistan's resolve to strengthen bilateral relations with Afghanistan in all areas, saying that the meeting had provided an opportunity to build upon the earlier exchanges held during his visit to Kabul in October, Xinhua news agency reported.

During the meeting, outcomes of the meetings of working groups on strengthening bilateral and transit trade regime and facilitating movement of people by land and air were shared, the statement added.
Berlin, Nov 12 : As Germany's baby boomer generation retires, the country will be threatened with losses amounting to billions of euros, according to a study published by the German Economic Institute (IW).

Baby boomer is a term used to describe a person who was born between 1946 and 1964. The baby boomer generation makes up a substantial portion of the world's population, especially in developed nations.

In the next 15 years, Germany's economy will "change drastically" with baby boomers no longer working, and the labour market will lose more than 5 million workers, Xinhua news agency reported citing the study as saying.

Assuming that policies continue largely unchanged, real income per capita in Germany will only increase by an average of around one percent per year until 2035, according to the study.

"Policymakers must act now," IW stressed in the report.

Day care for children in schools and other facilities in Germany must be improved so that more parents can work full-time instead of part-time, and immigration could also help address a shortage of skilled labour.

Better conditions for private investment, improving public infrastructure, and good market access opportunities for innovative companies would also be required to counter the generational effect, the study found.

"The future federal government is called upon to react to the shrinking population, only then can companies also do their homework," said IW Director Michael Huether.

"Business as usual destroys prosperity for all and cannot be in the interest of politics."
Hyderabad, Nov 12 : Actor Venkatesh Daggubati's Telugu crime thriller 'Drushyam 2' is all set to premiere on November 25.

Prime Video on Friday, announced the global premiere of the film, which is an official remake of the Malayalam movie 'Drishyam 2' Along with the release announcement, the makers of 'Drushyam 2' unveiled an intense trailer, which creates much anticipation. The trailer opens with people in the town questioning the proceedings of the criminal case related to 'Ram Babu'.

The police are seen discussing how a murder case has been haunting them for six years, with no proof or whatsoever. As the trailer goes on, the makers have compiled some powerful scenes increasing the anticipation.

Being a sequel to the much-hyped 'Drushyam', the movie stars Venkatesh, who reprises Mohan Lal from the Malayalam original.

Actress Meena plays Venkatesh's wife in the movie, while Kruthika, Esther Anil, Sampath Raj, and Poorna are to appear in important roles.

Directed by Jeethu Joseph, 'Drushyam 2' is produced by D. Suresh Babu, Rajkumar Sethupathy, and Antony Perumbavoor of Suresh Productions, Rajkumar Theatres, and Max Movies. After a lot of ambiguity, the makers announced the OTT release of this movie, which was supposed to get a theatrical release.
Dharamsala, Nov 12 : Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Friday mourned the death of former President of South Africa, F.W. de Klerk.

In a letter to his widow, Elita de Klerk, the spiritual leader said: "He was a man of principle who worked relentlessly for the rights of every individual in order to achieve peace and harmony in society, whether in South Africa or elsewhere.

"I also appreciate that he oversaw the dismantling of South Africa's nuclear weapons program.

"Over the years, we had the opportunity to meet at various forums in our collective efforts, as Nobel Peace Laureates, to promote better understanding among nations and peoples with the intention of building a safer, more peaceful world." In conclusion His Holiness wrote: "Although he is no more, we can take comfort from the fact that your husband lived a meaningful life." De Klerk, who died on Thursday at the age of 85, was recognised for his role in dismantling the apartheid regime in South Africa and bringing universal suffrage.

He was South Africa's President from 1989 to 1994. After the election of Nelson Mandela as the country's first black President in 1994, de Klerk became Mandela's Deputy till 1996.

De Klerk and Mandela were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their achievements in ending apartheid.
Seoul, Nov 12 : South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun will visit Washington next week for talks with his US and Japanese counterparts, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

During his visit, Choi plans to meet US.Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on November 16, Yonhap News Agency quoted the Ministry as saying.

The two are expected to discuss ways to bring North Korea to nuclear negotiations that have been stalled since 2019, and Seoul's proposal to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

The next day, Choi will also attend trilateral talks with Sherman and Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Mori Takeo.

Seoul, Washington and Tokyo have held eight rounds of three-way vice-ministerial talks since April 2015.

The last session took place in Japan in July.

The trilateral meeting comes amid a US push to reinforce cooperation with the Asian allies amid an intensifying rivalry between Washington and Beijing.
London, Nov 12 : Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa and Zahra Joya, an Afghan reporter who fled the Taliban, will join a distinguished line-up of speakers that also includes world-renowned Professor of Economics Jeffrey Sachs, Executive Director of Aspen Digital Vivian Schiller and founder of craigslist, philanthropist Craig Newmark at the Thomson Reuters Foundation's flagship annual forum Trust Conference on November 17-18.

They will join human rights defenders, innovators, media experts, policymakers and business leaders at the online forum, which brings together thousands of delegates from around the world.

The event comes at a critical juncture of the Covid-19 crisis and the UN climate summit, and will address how the pandemic has deepened longstanding social and economic inequalities, has revitalised the drive for a sustainable future and has triggered an alarming spike in media freedom and human rights violations.

With 18 hours of live-streamed talks, plenaries and insight sessions, leading experts from a variety of disciplines will share new insights on shifting the post-pandemic economy onto a more inclusive and sustainable path, one built on the principles of human rights, media freedom and climate justice.

They will weigh in on cutting-edge solutions to tackle the world's most consequential challenges, including the business case for economic inclusion, the path to zero emissions, the human cost of internet shutdowns and a legal network for journalists at risk.

This year's diverse speakers are at the forefront of their respective fields, and also include Dr Hilda C. Heine, Senator and former President of the Marshall Islands; Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE, Mayor of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown; Zahra Joya, Journalist and founder of Rukhshana Media in Afghanistan; Javier Pallero, Policy Director at Access Now; Shamina Singh, Executive VP for Sustainability at Mastercard; Jorge Rubio Nava, Global Head of Social Finance at Citi; Danielle Belton, Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post; Lina Attalah, Co-founder of independent Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr; Alessandra Galloni, Editor-in-Chief of Reuters; Kanbar Hossein Bor, UK Coordinator Media Freedom Campaign & Deputy Director Democratic Governance, FCDO; Ma Jun, Founding Director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs and Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, specialising in human rights and civil liberties.

"The converging economic, health and climate crises are putting our democracies, people and planet under an existential threat," said Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Antonio Zappulla.

"But there is also a great opportunity for a coordinated global response -- the success of which depends on how well we work with and learn from each other.

In response to the ongoing, drastic deterioration of media freedoms, the Foundation will also be launching a new Legal Network for Journalists at Risk (LNJAR) at Trust Conference, an initiative in partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Media Defence.

The LNJAR comprises 15 organisations, and strategically coordinates different types of legal support to enable journalists and independent media outlets to continue to cover public interest stories and hold power to account without fear of retribution.

Additionally, the Foundation will unveil its partnership with UNESCO, the International Women's Media Foundation and the International News Safety Institute (INSI) through which it has developed practical and legal tools for journalists, media managers and newsrooms to counter harassment.

Now in its ninth year, Trust Conference reflects the Thomson Reuters FoundationaAs work in tackling the world's most complex societal issues, with a focus on socio-economic inclusion, sustainability, media freedom and human rights.
Mumbai, Nov 12 : Maha Vikas Aghadi allies and a Gandhi kin on Friday slammed Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut for her 'real freedom' remark and demanded that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government arrest her and take back all state honours/awards given to her.

Leaders of the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress lashed out at Ranaut -- who was recently conferred the Padma Shri by President Ram Nath Kovind -- "for her apparent ignorance of history and facts".

Great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Tushar A. Gandhi said that Kangana is "an agent of hate, intolerance and rabidity", so it is not surprising she feels that India got her 'real freedom' in 2014 (when the BJP government came to power).

"Hatred, bigotry, sham patriotism and oppression were liberated in India in 2014 and a very poisonous and vicious ideology gained dominance, personified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Tushar Gandhi said without mincing words.

Sena MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, "Kangana has insulted the nation which is celebrating the 75th jubilee of Indian Independence this year and must apologise to the whole country".

"She says that India's freedom in 1947 was a 'bheekh' (dole). So does she mean that all the freedom fighters who have been honoured with the 'Tamra Patra' and other awards are beggars? She has defamed and maligned the whole country," Raut said.

NCP's National Spokesperson and Minorities Affairs Minister Nawab Malik said the actress may have been under the influence of narcotics when she made the comments -- referring to Kangana's past 'confession' that she used to be a drug addict.

"It seems that Kangana Ranaut took a heavy dose of Malana Cream before she spoke.. She should be immediately arrested," Malik said sarcastically, hinting at the actress' home-state Himachal Pradesh where the drug (Malana Cream) is produced.

Condemning Kangana's comments, Congress General Secretary Sachin Sawant said: "This is the BJP's version of 'Jhansi Ki Rani' who dares to slander the freedom struggle and sacrifices of the martyrs by her 'Azaadi bheek me mili hai' statement now." "It's a pity that such puppets are being nurtured by the BJP deliberately. These puppets are not the real culprits but their master is," Sawant said.

Other leaders like Kishore Tiwari, Atul Londhe-Patil, Krishna Hegde and more have also attacked the actress for her remarks on a public forum and demanded a clarification from the BJP on her stand.

Tushar Gandhi added that since 2014, the purveyors of hate got official sanction to freely propagate their toxic ideology.

"It is not surprising that such statements were made in a function attended by the PM. After all, today, the PMO has become the 'fountain of hate' that flows abundantly in India," he said.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Nov 12 : Vishakha Fulsunge aka Rider-Girl Vishakha has created milestones in the past like riding from Mumbai to Visakhapatnam (1800 km) at a single stretch or being the first and fastest female biker to complete Narmada Parikrama.

Apart from her marvellous skills in sports, she is also famous for filming scenic yet impactful videos clearly justified by her over 10 lakh plus followers on Social Media.

Acknowledging that the glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at an alarming rate and that we need immediate action, project WVC or World Vlog Challenge united Vloggers from across the world to be the voice of Himalayas. The show is hosted by the Nikhil Chinappa. The awareness ride takes off from Lukla Village and will culminate at Khumbu Glaciers at the Everest Base Camp in Nepal.

India's Most Popular Rider Girl Vishakha Rides From Lukla To Everest Base Camp In Nepal To Spread Awareness On Melting Glaciers In The Himalayas Himalayan glaciers are spread across 8 countries and are the source of all the major rivers across the region; these glaciers are melting at an alarming rate putting the future of billions of lives and the entire ecosystem in danger. Provided that Vloggers are great storytellers, influencers and sources of information to the new generation, WVC has been launched with the purpose of letting the youths know about the Himalayas and its glaciers.

Speaking about her new adventure Vishakha said, "As a rider, it is an honour to be a part of a show that is dedicated to saving Himalayan glaciers. I have put all my strength into it and tried to accomplish this ride at a lightning speed. I am equally excited to be with all my fellow riders who have come from all walks of life, and who have a common dream of saving the Himalayas. WVC has helped us come together and express solidarity towards a global cause. I am super excited to do this project after my association with Qyuki has begun as they are doing their best to support me in this cause." Qyuki COO, Juhi Mehta commented on the same saying, "Vishakha is a supremely talented and adventurous girl and we're super ecstatic to have her on board. We'd love to support her in this noble cause in every way possible." (IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 12 : A social media expert, who recently launched a blockchain technology powered, decentralised social networking platform - Freebits.app, said there is a social media censorship crisis across the world.

Speaking at an international seminar here on Friday, Shiva Kintali, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, said social media platforms controlled by technology companies are becoming spaces of censorship and control.

"There is a social media censorship crisis across the world. Journalists, politicians, global leaders, creators and even satire accounts are getting de-platformed. A couple of technology companies are controlling the global social media communications and censoring, shadow banning and de-platforming opinions without any transparency," said Kintali.

He said that democracy is impossible without freedom of speech, cross-pollination of ideas and a common understanding of what is true and what is false.

"Freebits is a new social networking platform built on blockchain technologies and is a radically new kind of social media, which has built-in support for decentralised identity, Metaverse integration, AI-powered news aggregation, tamper proof photos, videos, credentials and many more," added Kintali, who before launching his own business, was a faculty in the Computer Science department, Princeton University.

The event titled 'International Conference on Social Media and Developing Societies' was organised by the Media Studies Department of Christ Nagar College, in association with two other organisations based outside India.

Manju Rose Mathews, the head of media studies and organiser of the conference, said the social media in the pandemic and post-pandemic age has diverse issues to be studied by researchers.
Bhubaneswar, Nov 12 : Eight more officials including three OAS (Odisha Administrative Service) officers of the Odisha government have been given compulsory retirement on corruption charges, officials said on Friday.

In a statement, the Chief Minister's Office said that "with careful consideration of the policy of zero tolerance towards any act of immorality, inefficiency or lack of integrity, eight officers have been given compulsory retirement with immediate effect due to inefficiency and lack of integrity".

The three OAS officers are Rama Chandra Jena, Gouranga Charan Mohanty and Alphonce Bilung.

As per the statement, Rama Chandra Jena, former Tehsildar and in-charge sub-registrar of Nimapara, is facing three corruption cases. Vigilance has recently seized several PAN cards and around 5 lakh rupees from his possession. He had been placed under suspension since then.

Gouranga Charan Mohanty, former deputy collector of Jagatsinghpur, is facing seven vigilance cases relating to misappropriation of government funds and irregularities in the allotment in government schemes, it said.

Similarly, Alphonce Bilung, the ex-Tehsildar of Lathikata in Sundargarh district and present BDO of Ambabhona in Bargarh district, is accused of showing undue favour in terms of conversion of land and revenue collection. There are three vigilance cases pending against him.

Moreover, the Odisha government has also given compulsory retirement to Bidhan Chandra Sahu, ex-superintending engineer, Meena Patra & Puspanjali Ratha, ex-Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs), Ajit Kumar Mohapatra, in-charge superintendent of excise and Prabhakar Pradhan, ex-cashier. These officials are facing vigilance cases, the CMO stated.

Till now, 130 government officials of Odisha have been dismissed from service/sent on compulsory retirement on corruption charges and lack of efficiency.
New Delhi, Nov 12 : Pneumonia, an acute respiratory infection, is a recognized public health emergency in India. It is associated with an annual mortality rate of roughly 2.5 million adults and children globally.

India alone accounts for 23 per cent of the global pneumonia burden.

(i) In 2018, 9,28,485 people were affected by pneumonia nationwide. At 16.9 per cent, it also forms the second highest cause of infant mortality in India.

(ii) Caused by virus, bacteria or fungi, pneumonia inflames the air sacs in one or both lungs, making breathing painful by limiting oxygen intake. The most common cause of bacterial pneumonia is streptococcus pneumonia.

The Need for Early Diagnosis Despite being an identifiable and treatable condition, pneumonia diagnosis is often delayed, leading to disease progression and preventable deaths. Typical sputum culture to identify the cause of pneumonia or other respiratory tract infections can take between 24 and 48 hours. This hinders effective care delivery and targeted treatment interventions. Point-of-care tests, such as urinary rapid antigen tests, can overcome the barrier of waiting time for an accurate diagnosis with laboratory tests.

A rapid test is a powerful tool in the hands of doctors to enable quick testing and swift identification of the causative pathogen, often in as little as 15 minutes. As a result, care providers in clinical settings can easily recommend appropriate, targeted therapeutic approaches.

This improves patient outcomes, reduces the length of hospital stays, and decreases mortality. Such diagnostic solutions can be especially suitable in populations with a high prevalence of infection.

Dr Rajesh Swarnakar, Senior Pulmonologist in Nagpur and Secretary of Indian Chest Society said, "Pneumonia imposes a significant burden on the Indian population. Care must be taken to follow the Indian Chest Society-National College of Chest Physicians (ICS-NCCP) established India-specific pneumonia guidelines, ensuring accurate diagnosis is received to guide proper disease management and treatment that addresses and alleviates the patient's condition. Given the waiting time associated with laboratory-based culture tests, rapid diagnostics can be adopted to streamline this process." Commenting on Abbott's role in the pneumonia diagnostics ecosystem, Sunil Mehra, General Manager for Abbott's Rapid Diagnostics business in India said, "At Abbott, we are committed to streamlining care for pneumonia patients through reliable and rapid diagnostics, such as with our urinary antigen card, which provides results in 15 minutes. With this easy-to-use technology, patient wait times are reduced as well as the burden on laboratories. As part of our broader Test-Target-Treat initiative, we are focusing on empowering care providers to make targeted treatment decisions sooner with rapid diagnostics. This helps facilitate prompt and effective treatment, so patients benefit from improved outcomes." A Public Health priority

With the intent to accelerate action and reduce mortality due to childhood pneumonia, the MoHFW launched the 'Social Awareness and Actions to Neutralize Pneumonia Successfully' (SAANS) initiative. SAANS focuses on awareness generation and early intervention, enabling caregivers with the knowledge to identify critical signs and symptoms of pneumonia early, spurring care by healthcare practitioners.

While the established joint ICS-NCCP (Indian Chest Society-National College of Chest Physicians) guidelines (2012) for the treatment of pneumonia clearly outline the need for and current problems with pneumonia diagnostics, these must be streamlined for better patient care. Moreover, the guidelines should be updated in accordance with the latest trends such as incorporating novel technologies that support an accurate and timely diagnosis. This will also help ensure responsible use of medicines for better healthcare outcomes.

This World Pneumonia Day, 12th November, awareness and action centre around the theme, 'Stop Pneumonia/Every Breath Counts' to reduce the burden in India. This occasion marks an opportunity to highlight the need for early diagnosis, so individuals affected by the disease can seek timely and effective care, which is necessary, even amidst the pandemic.

[i] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7371062/ [ii] Sample Registration System Report (2010-13) of Registrar General of India, as referenced in https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1739459.

(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)
Mumbai, Nov 12 : Contestant Afsana Khan, who has been reportedly asked to move out of the house by 'Bigg Boss' as punishment for trying to harm herself and also misbehaving with other contestants, has denied leaving the show.

In the upcoming episode, Afsana will be seen blaming wild card contestant Rajiv Adatia for following her and touching her in an inappropriate way. She used some bad words and blamed him. The reason behind her entire frustration lies in the fact that she is out of the task for the entry in the 'VIP Zone'.

Any contestant looking for a finale must become a 'VIP member' of the house.

This task has now created a number of arguments among the housemates.

While Afsana blames Rajiv, Jay Bhanushali and Pratik Sehajpal make her understand the situation and ask her not to use explicit language. But she goes on even blaming Shamita Shetty for using Rajiv against her.

Later she asks 'Bigg Boss' to call her in the confession room to convey that either she or Shamita can stay inside the house.

Shamita also says that she is not used to such words and wants to leave the house.

Later, Afsana is called by 'Bigg Boss' to give explanations regarding her behaviour and was asked to move out of the house.

But she denies and thus other housemates were called to take her out.

She is determined to move out only with Rajiv and says that she will not leave because of Rajiv and Shamita.

Latest updates on Bigg Boss Season 15
New Delhi, Nov 12 : The Supreme Court on Friday set aside a Bombay High Court order which directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to hold re-examination for two National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) candidates, saying "we sympathise, but cannot order re-examination".

It was claimed that the students' test booklets and OMR sheets had gotten mixed up due to the carelessness of invigilators.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for NTA, submitted that answers of the students will be matched with the correct question booklets and added that if the direction to conduct NEET UG re-exam is provided, it will become a pattern.

The Centre told the top court that every year students will come forward and seek a re-exam for one mistake or the other.

The counsel appearing for students contended that they lost precious time during the exam due to the mix up and could not answer all questions.

However, a bench of justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai said the court sympathises with the students and completely understands their plight, but cannot order re-examination for them.

The Centre had moved the top court against the high court. In the previous hearing, the apex court had stayed the Bombay High Court order, which held up declaration of results.

The high court had directed the NTA to conduct re-exam for two candidates by conducting a separate NEET examination before declaration of results.

The top court said: "Though we sympathise with the cause of the two students. We find it difficult to order the re-examination of the two students. Thus, we set aside the direction of the high court to conduct a fresh exam." The students had claimed that their test booklets and OMR sheets got mixed up during the NEET exam.

The top court noted, "We feel sorry for the students... but cannot hold a re-examination." On October 28, the Supreme Court stayed the Bombay High Court order on NEET re-exam for two candidates, paving the way for declaration of results of over 16 lakh students who took the exam.

The NTA had moved the top court stating the result was being delayed due to the high court order.

The top court had said "we cannot hold up the results of 16 lakh students..." The bench told the petitioner's counsel "stay and notice... we will decide what happens to the two students upon re-opening (after Diwali vacation)..." The bench noted that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Central government, has said that whatever confusion is there, it will be rectified.

"You are talking about your clients but not considering the lakhs of students who are waiting for the results", the bench told the petitioner's counsel.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Bengaluru, Nov 12 : Karnataka Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah on Friday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for advising Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai not to worry about the Bitcoin allegations.

Taking objections to Bommai's statements made after his meeting with Modi on Thursday that he was asked to ignore the charges, Siddaramaiah said that instead of asking the Chief Minister to get the matter investigated, is it tenable for the Prime Minister to ask Bommai to neglect charges against him? Is there no necessity for the police department and courts to investigate allegations? Is the unilateral decision by the Prime Minister final? Siddaramaiah questioned.

He further stated that Bitcoin scandal investigation is being conducted by the central as well as state government investigating agencies. Bommai, the present Chief Minister, also headed the home ministry earlier. At this stage, if Prime Minister Modi asks to ignore the Bitcoin scandal allegations, does it not tantamount to dropping probe into the scandal itself, he questioned.

"We don't know whether Bommai has a role in the Bitcoin scandal. No one is calling him guilty. We are demanding a fair probe and punishment to those involved in the scam. Why is there so much hesitation for the probe?" Siddaramaiah asked.

Reacting to BJP's charges on involvement of Congress leaders, he challenged Bommai to conduct a probe by the state as well as central agencies.

On Thursday, Bommai had stated that Prime Minister Modi has asked him not to bother about the Bitcoin scandal, after meeting him at the Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi.

The discussion on the Bitcoin scandal did not figure in the meeting. "I wanted to tell him about the scandal. The Prime Minister cut me short and asked me not to bother about all this," he had said.
Patna, Nov 12 : A SHO and a chowkidar were suspended for failing to prevent a liquor tragedy in Bihar's Vaishali district that claimed one life and rendered five people visionless.

Vaishali SSP Manish Kumar said that the suspension was initiated after a detailed inquiry by a DSP rank officer.

On October 12, a group of six people consumed liquor in Baikunthpur village in Rajapakar block, post which one person died while five lost their eyesight.

"During investigation, it was found that SHO Naushad Alam and the chowkidar (watchman) failed to check wrongdoings in their respective jurisdictions. Moreover, the SHO was unable to arrest the accused responsible for selling poisonous liquor," said the SSP.

Meanwhile, LJP (Ram Vilas) President Chirag Paswan met the victims of the Gopalganj liquor tragedy in Mohammadpur village on Friday.

Paswan said that the liquor ban has completely failed in Bihar.

He said that a series of liquor tragedies occurred in Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur, Bettiah and Samastipur due to the failure of the Nitish Kumar government.

"The state government should compensate each of the family members with Rs 25 lakh and government jobs," Paswan demanded.

The RJD also sent a delegation to Gopalganj and other districts to meet the affected.
New Delhi, Nov 12 : The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a plea seeking direction to the Central government to analyse various international laws and take "effective and stringent" steps against the menace of hate speech and rumour-mongering in the country.

A bench of justices A.M. Khanwilkar and C.T. Ravikumar scheduled the matter for hearing on November 22, along with a separate plea, which also came up for hearing during the day, in connection with the hate speech issue.

The bench has asked senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, to serve the copy of the plea on the respondents -- Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice, and the Law Commission.

The plea sought a direction that courts, while awarding punishment for the offences against "public tranquillity, offences relating to elections etc", should give sentences running consecutively and not concurrently.

Upadhyay also sought a direction to the Centre to take legislative steps to implement recommendations of the law commission to deal with hate speech and rumour-mongering.

The plea said: "The petitioner is filing this writ petition as a PIL... seeking writ/order/direction to the Centre to examine the international laws relating to 'hate speech' and 'rumour mongering' and take apposite effective stringent steps to control 'hate speech' and 'rumour-mongering' in order to secure rule of law, freedom of speech and expression and Right to Life, Liberty and Dignity of citizens."
New Delhi, Nov 12 : Seven states -- Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Punjab, Rajasthan and Telangana -- have achieved the target set by the Ministry of Finance for the capital expenditure upto 2nd Quarter of 2021-22.

As an incentive, these states have been granted permission by the Department of Expenditure on Friday to borrow an additional amount of Rs 16,691 crore.

The additional open market borrowing permission issued is equivalent to 0.5 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

Additional financial resources thus made available will help the states in pushing their capital expenditure further.

Capital expenditure has a high multiplier effect, enhances the future productive capacity of the economy, and results in a higher rate of economic growth. Accordingly, out of the net borrowing ceiling (NBC) of 4 per cent of GSDP for the states for 2021-22, borrowings upto 0.50 per cent of GSDP were earmarked for incremental capital expenditure to be incurred by the states during 2021-22.

The target for incremental capital expenditure for each state to qualify for this incremental borrowing was fixed by the Department of Expenditure.

To become eligible for incremental borrowing, states were required to achieve at least 15 per cent of the target set for 2021-22 by the end of 1st quarter of 2021-22, 45 per cent by the end of 2nd quarter, 70 per cent by the end of 3rd quarter and 100 per cent by March 31, 2022.

Earlier, after the first round of review undertaken in September 2021, additional borrowing permission of Rs 15,721 crore were issued to 11 states for meeting the target for capital expenditure set for the 1st quarter of 2021-22. Thus, after two rounds of review of capital expenditure, total additional borrowing permission of Rs 32,412 crore has been issued to states.

In this round of review of Capital expenditure of states, capital expenditure achieved by the states till September 30, 2021 has been assessed in respect of 22 states, for which data of actual capital expenditure is available. Eligibility of remaining 6 states will be assessed on availability of data from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

A third round of review will be undertaken in the month of March, 2022 on the basis of capital expenditure incurred by the state during the first three quarters of the year 2021-22. The capital expenditure-linked borrowing ceiling of 0.50 per cent of GSDP will be allowed to those states who will achieve actual capital expenditure of at least 70 per cent of the target by December 31.

There would be a final review of actual capital expenditure by the states in the month of June, 2022. Any shortfall/deficiency in actual capital expenditure for the year 2021-22 by the state in comparison with the targeted capital expenditure for the year 2021-22, will be adjusted from the borrowing ceiling of the state for the year 2022-23.
Jaipur, Nov 12 : Lt. General J.S. Nain, GOC-in-C, Southern Command on Friday visited Jaisalmer Military Station. He reviewed the operational preparedness of the formations defending the western borders in the desert sector.

He was briefed by senior formation commanders on various military aspects, officials said.

The Army Commander, who is on a two-day (November 11-12) visit, also witnessed Manoeuvre Battle Actions of Mechanised Formations in a fluid battlefield environment, operationalisation of future technologies in the conduct of military operations at tactical and operational level.

This was effected by exploiting versatile and indigenous airborne platforms such as Advanced Light Helicopter (Weapon System Integrated), Dhruv, manned/unmanned teaming using Swarm Drones and enmeshing Artificial Intelligence to provide a cohesive operational and intelligence picture amalgamated within the Intelligence, Surveillance and Recce Architecture and exploitation of indigenously produced new generation equipments.

He exhorted all ranks to be constantly prepared for any challenges, remain professionally sound and competent and constantly evolve tactics, technics and procedure to fight the "Future Wars", said Lt. Col. Amitabh Sharma, PRO Defence.

The army officer also visited the units located in Jaisalmer Military Station, interacted with the troops and appreciated the efforts put in by all ranks in maintaining a high state of morale and operational readiness at all times.

He also inaugurated a newly built Sainik Institute in Jaisalmer Military Station as part of welfare of all ranks & their families.
Mumbai, Nov 12 : As her debut film 'Toofaan Mail' has been selected in the Indian Panorama section of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) Goa, filmmaker Akriti Singh says such appreciation gives one confidence to look forward in one's career.

Before arriving in India, the film did the festival rounds abroad in Germany and the UK, and it was even adjudged the Best Film (youth choice) at the UK Asian Film Festival.

Talking about the selection, Akriti said: "A selection in such a festival definitely boosts my confidence as a first-time filmmaker. The film has been chosen from amongst 221 films from all over the country so it is a big deal for all of us in the team of 'Toofaan Mail'." "I am looking forward to attending the festival in person, as due to Covid restrictions I could not attend the UK and German festivals that the film was a part of. I would be watching the film with an audience for the first time and this also marks our film's premiere in India." 'Toofaan Mail' is based on a true incident from the 1970s, where a woman arrived at the New Delhi railway station, claiming to be the Queen of Awadh and sought to meet the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi.

The film will be shown on November 21 in Panjim.
Mumbai : Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has produced ED officer in 100 crore money laundering cad in court in Mumbai on Friday November 12, 2021.(Photo:Sandeep Mahankal/IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, Nov 12 : A Special PMLA Court on Friday sent former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh to three days' extended custody of the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case.

Arguing for extended custody, the ED Special Public Prosecutor Shriram Shirsat said it was needed since new facts have emerged in the case which need to be probed.

Further, he submitted before Special Judge H. S. Satbhai that dismissed cop Sachin Vaze, an accused in the same case, is currently in Mumbai Police custody till tomorrow.

The ED would move a fresh plea seeking Vaze's custody so that he could be confronted with Deshmukh, as the latter has been giving evasive replies.

Deshmukh was arrested in the wee hours of November 2 and has been in custody since then.
New Delhi, Nov 12 : In an endeavour towards sustainable development, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTPC Ltd, has signed an agreement with Varanasi Nagar Nigam for setting up a Waste to Energy (WTE) Plant worth Rs 180 crore.

The plant shall help in mitigating environmental hazards caused by solid waste and bring clean surroundings contributing towards the Prime Minister's vision of Swachh Bharat. NVVN has placed the order for EPC contract work of the plant today for fast execution of the project, a company statement said.

Setting up the plant shall be a milestone for the holy city of Varanasi towards Atmanirbhar Bharat using the latest indigenous Make in India technology for solid waste management in the country. Varanasi Nagar Nigam has allocated about 20 acres of land at Ramana for setting up the plant.

The agreement was signed between NVVN and Dushyant Kumar Maurya, Additional Municipal Commissioner of Varanasi.

The plant with a waste segregation facility of 600- 800 tons per day of Municipal Solid Waste will be installed under the project. Further, this waste will be processed and fed into the reactor to produce torrefied charcoal.

The torrefied charcoal which is similar to natural coal can be successfully blended with fuel in thermal power plants to produce electricity. The process is environmentally-friendly as the temperature is lower than other technologies, due to which there are no toxic emissions.

Recently, NVVN signed a similar agreement with Bhopal Municipal Corporation.
Mumbai, Nov 12 : Every contestant inside the house is fighting with each other to enter the 'VIP club. In addition to this, one more argument broke out between Pratik Sehajpal and Umar Riaz.

While Umar is the captain of the house, he assigns different kitchen duties to the contestants that involve cooking, chopping, cleaning dishes among other duties.

As he denies any task to Pratik, the two end up getting into a fight.

Pratik raises questions on the captaincy of Umar and in turn Umar calls him 'bawarchi' (cook) and tells him to go and cook food. Though both of them have friendly relations, this fight seems to make them bitter.

Umar tells Pratik not to poke his nose in every matter and even asks him to clean the washroom.

Umar starts abusing Pratik and the fight turns physical as both are not ready to calm down. Later housemates come to stop them from fighting with each other.

Latest updates on Bigg Boss Season 15
New Delhi, Nov 12 : After sorting out the issues in Rajasthan between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is scheduled to hold meetings in Uttar Pradesh. She is the in-charge of the party affairs in the northern state.

Priyanka Gandhi is scheduled to address a women workers' convention in Lucknow, and workers' conventions in Bulandshahar and Moradabad.

According to Congress sources, the tentative dates are November 14 and November 15.

Priyanka Gandhi has announced 40 per cent reservation in tickets for women and will launch a separate manifesto for them during the elections.

She has also promised to give smartphones and tablets.

Priyanka Gandhi has been trying to attract half the population and on Thursday, she met ASHA workers here and discussed their problems.

The ASHA workers were recently beaten up by the police when they attempted to meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during his visit to Shahjahanpur.

They wanted to meet the Chief Minister regarding their demands but the meeting could not take place.

The Congress has announced that if it forms the government in Uttar Pradesh after the Assembly polls scheduled for next year, the honorarium of Anganwadi and ASHA workers will be increased to Rs 10,000 per month.
November 12 : Juhi Chawla, who stood by Shah Rukh Khan and his family throughout when Aryan Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau, wished him on Friday ahead of his birthday on November 13. Aryan Khan will turn 24 on Saturday.

Taking to her Instagram handle, Juhi shared a throwback picture that featured a very young Aryan along with his sister Suhana Khan, cousin Arjun Chibba and Juhi's children Arjun Mehta and Jahnavi Mehta. In the picture, Aryan can be seen wearing a blue T-shirt teamed with a black jacket and denim pants. He stood next to Jahnavi holding her hand. Suhana can be seen next to Jahnavi. Sharing the picture, Juhi wrote, Heres another one from our personal album for todays special occasion Happy Birthday Aryan ! Our wishes in all these years remain the same for you, may you be eternally blessed , protected and guided by the Almighty. Love you. 500 trees pledged in your name!

Aryan was recently in the news after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had detained him on October 2 after a raid was conducted on a cruises off the Mumbai coast. Aryan was sent to jail on October 8, and was finally released on bail after 20 days. Shah Rukh Khan has reportedly taken off from shootings and it has been reported that after spending time with Aryan on his birthday tomorrow, the actor will resume his shootings.

Juhi Chawla, who is a close friend of Shah Rukh Khan and knew Aryan Khan from his childhood, had signed the 1 lakh bond for him after Bombay High Court had granted him bail on several conditions. Juhi also co-owns the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders with Shah Rukh.

Meanwhile, in the day, Aryan visited the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) office for his weekly appearance as per the order of the Bombay High Court. It was one of the conditions for his bail. The High Court had ordered that Aryan will have to appear at the NCB office in Mumbai every Friday.
Chennai, Nov 12 : The coir industry at Pollachi in Tamil Nadu will be affected after the Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) reclassified it from white to orange which places it in the category of polluting industries.

Environmentalists had earlier moved the Madras High Court and the National Green Tribunal, South Indian Bench stating that coir was a polluting industry and a license should be made mandatory for the industry.

The Madras High Court and the NGT directed the TNPCB to reclassify the coir industry under polluting industries, which was done.

Earlier, the coir industry was categorised under the White segment which means that no inspection was required for operating a coir factory in Tamil Nadu.

TNPCB officials told IANS: "The reclassification was done on November 10 and was based on the directive from the Madras High Court and the NGT. All coir industries functioning in the state would be periodically monitored hereafter and stringent action would be taken against the industries if any violations are found." Parambikkulam Aliyar Irrigation project planning chairman K. Paramsivam, while speaking to media persons, said, "Coir industries in the Parambikkulam Aliyar basin are drawing water illegally to clean the coconut husk and are discharging effluents." He said that the order of the TNPCB would regulate the use of water from the project.

The coir sector is worried over the TNPCB directive and said that the High Court order will sound the death knell for the coir industry in the state.

Mathew John of Standard Coir exporters, Pollachi told IANS: "We shifted base from Kerala where the government put us in the red category. In Tamil Nadu, the sector was under White category but after the directive from the Madras High Court it is now classified under Orange sector which means a license from TNPCB is required for the coir industry to operate in Tamil Nadu."
Mumbai, Nov 12 : A Special PMLA Court here on Friday extended by 3 days the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, nabbed 10 days ago in an alleged money-laundering case.

Strongly contesting the ED plea, Deshmukh's lawyers Vikram Chaudhri and Aniket Nikam said that the former minister appeared before the ED voluntarily and even agreed to be in ED's extended custody though he had been granted judicial custody last week.

Arguing before Special Judge H.S. Satbhai, they questioned why the chargesheet was filed without arresting dismissed cop Sachin Vaze, the prime accused, who played a key role but remains 'accused' only on paper.

Chaudhri and Nikam also asked why the former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh -- currently untraceable -- has not been summoned for probe to record his statement.

"The country is passing through a phase where chaos and anarchy prevail, and the judiciary is the only saviour... The idea is to tire out Deshmukh... The ED seeking further custody is proof that all is not fair and they are acting with malice," Chaudhri said.

Making a plea for extending Deshmukh's custody, ED Special Public Prosecutor Shriram Shirsat submitted it was needed since new facts have emerged in the case which need to be probed.

Further, he contended that Vaze, the accused in the same case, is currently in Mumbai Police custody till Saturday.

The ED would move a fresh plea seeking Vaze's custody so that he could be confronted with Deshmukh, as the latter has been giving evasive replies.

Deshmukh who went for the ED probe on November 1, was arrested in the early hours of November 2 and has been in custody since then.

Last Sunday, the Bombay High Court had set aside the Special Court order granting Deshmukh judicial custody for 14 days and sent him back to the ED custody till November 12, and now extended till November 15.

The ED lodged the case against the senior Nationalist Congress Party leader based on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR arising out of Singh's letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray last March alleging that Deshmukh had ordered Vaze and others to 'collect' Rs 100 crore per month from Mumbai hoteliers.

It further alleged that Deshmukh had received Rs 4.70 crore bribe in cash between December 2020-February 2021 through Vaze, which he had launched through paper companies and his trust.
Hyderabad, Nov 12 : A police officer in Telangana's Suryapet district was transferred on Friday after he allegedly tortured a tribal in custody.

Suryapet district superintendent of police S. Rajendra Pasad sent sub-inspector M. Lingaiah of Atmakur (S) police station to Vacancy Reserve (VR).

The SP also directed the Suryapet DSP Mohan Kumar to conduct an inquiry into the incident and submit a report at the earliest.

The action came after allegations that Lingaiah tortured a 23-year-old tribal farmer who was arrested on suspicion of theft.

G. Veerashekar's relatives had on Thursday staged a protest in front of the police station demanding justice.

They alleged that Veershekhar lost consciousness after he was mercilessly beaten up by the SI.

He was picked by police on Wednesday from his field in connection with a theft reported at Eluru village a few days ago.

Veerashekar's family members said three policemen took him to the police station.

Though Veerashekar's elder brother and another relative also reached the police station demanding papers relating to the case, the police asked them to leave, saying the same will be provided later.

Late on Wednesday night, one of Veerashekar's neighbours received a call from the police station asking them to take him home. When his family members went to the police station was found unconscious.

Police said he was sick but when he regained consciousness he told the family members that he was beaten up. He alleged that the policemen stretched his hands and legs after pinning against a wall and beat him with belts and sticks.

The next day, the tribal farmer's relatives and other residents brought him to the police station and staged 'dharna' demanding action against policemen who tortured him. The police later shifted him to the government hospital at Suryapet.

Police, however, denied the use of third-degree methods. They said Veerashekar was picked up for questioning after an accused in a theft case revealed his name. Police said since he was weak and not well, he was sent back home.

A man had complained to police last Friday that a theft of Rs 10,000 cash and 40 liquor bottles took place at his liquor shop on November 4. Based on the CCTV footage, police had arrested one Naveen, who had revealed the role of Veershekar and two others in the crime.
Film: 'Squad' (Streaming on Zee5). Duration: 125 minutes.

Director: Nilesh Sahay. Cast: Rinzing Denzongpa, Malvika Raaj Khurana, Dishita Jain, Pooja Batra, Mohan Kapoor, Amit Gaur, Tanisha Dillon, Abdulla Osman, Ashish Tyagi, Rushad Rana and Mrinmai Kolwalkar.

IANS Rating: **There is not much in 'Squad' and what is there, is awfully messy. Loaded with cinematic liberties, 'Squad' is a hackneyed action drama with a superficial story that lacks energy and spirit right from its lead actor to the direction in which the narrative rolls.

'Squad' is the story of six Special Task Force commandos who are teamed together by Nandini Rajput (Pooja Batra) for an ambiguous, 'High-Risk Mission', which is to rescue the kidnapped Mimi (Dishita Jain), the six-year-old granddaughter of Dr Banerjee, who is a renowned Indian scientist.

After creating robots to fight insurgents, Dr Banerjee has developed a lethal cyborg and thus is now the most sought after by "governments of several countries". Also, we are told, the blueprint of the lethal cyborg programme, if it falls into the wrong hands, would mean the end of humanity.

The team, comprising of Amit Dixit (Amit Gaur), Romeo (Abdulla Osman), Arya ((Malvika Raaj Khurana), Addy (Tanisha Dillon) and Girish (Ashish Tyagi) is helmed by Bhim (Rinzing Denzongpa).

"Hindustan ki beti hai aur isse badi wajah nahin hai," is how Nandini motivates the team, and they take their job seriously. But the spoke in the wheel is Abhay Bhatnagar (Mohan Kapur), a bureaucrat who tries his best to jeopardise the squad's efforts.

On the face of it, the film is a thriller, the takeaway, especially for Bhim. is a redemption assignment, because years ago, he had failed to save a young girl during a mission in Kashmir.

The film is designed as a patriotic action thriller, and the director takes his patriotic fervour rather seriously. He has incorporated patriotic rap numbers in the background of serious action sequences. This not only offsets the seriousness of the situation, but also borders on farce.

The best emotional moments surface when Mimi interacts with Bhim. Or when Bhim interacts with the young Kashmiri girl, who invariably haunts him. There is something sweet and sincere about Rinzing and his connection with the kids can be seen on screen.

On the performance front, debutant Rinzing Denzonpa takes his redemption role seriously. He earnestly delivers his lines with a blank visage. Also, since his romance plot is half-baked, the on-screen kiss seemed unwarranted. What stares you in the face is Rinzing's lack of energy and charisma as an action hero, but that is not his fault, but the director's.

The members of the team, along with Malvika Raaj Khurana, who is Bhim's love interest, have very little to offer in terms of histrionics. Mohan Kapur and Pooja Batra, too, sleepwalk through their roles. Overall, 'Squad' fails to impress.
Lucknow, Nov 12 : Former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapati from the previous Akhilesh Yadav-led government, and his two accomplices have been sentenced to life on charges of gang-rape.

Prajapati, Ashok Tiwari and Ashish Shukla, have also been fined Rs 2 lakh each.

The special MP/MLA court in Lucknow had, two days ago, pronounced Prajapati guilty in the gang-rape case, and had also convicted his two associates.

Judge Pawan Kumar Rai of the special MP/MLA court pronounced the judgement under Sections 482/378/407 of the Indian Penal Code.

Seven persons, including Prajapati, were charged in the case.

The case pertains to a complaint filed by a woman from Chitrakoot accusing the former Samajwadi Party minister and his accomplices of gang-rape.

The woman had alleged that the accused forcefully had raped her minor daughter as well.

Following directions of the Supreme Court, an FIR was lodged against Prajapati and six others on February 18, 2017.

All seven were charged with gang-rape, threat to life, and violation of the POCSO Act.

Prajapati was arrested on March 18, 2017 following the complaint.

Vikas Verma, Amrendra Singh, Chandrapal and Rupeshwar were the others who were charged in the case.

However, the court acquitted these four during its previous hearing.
Washington, Nov 12 : Running more than 30 minutes ahead of schedule, the SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts have safely docked to the International Space Station (ISS), less than 24 hours after launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday.

NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer opened the hatch of their Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance and participated in a welcome ceremony with their new Expedition 66 crewmates, the US space agency said in a statement.

The newest crew to the microgravity laboratory is the agency's third crew rotation mission with SpaceX, and will remain on board until April 2022 as part of Expedition 66.

Aboard Dragon with the crew will be more than 400 pounds of supplies and hardware, including over 150 pounds of which they will use to conduct experiments aboard the space station. Here is some of the research riding with them into low-Earth orbit.

In addition to the experiments flying with them aboard Dragon, the Crew-3 astronauts are also scheduled to conduct many additional experiments and technology demonstrations during their mission.

Crew-3 is crucial for the testing of new upgrades to the space station's Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), including the newly installed toilet, the Brine Processing Assembly, carbon dioxide scrubbers, and two new hydrogen sensors slated to arrive aboard a SpaceX Cargo Dragon in late December.
New Delhi, Nov 12 : The US Agency for International Development (USAID) under its Momentum Country and Global Leadership mechanism on Friday announced a new initiative for India, 'MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership: India-Yash', to engage adolescents and youth in decisions about their reproductive health and wellbeing.

Through this four-year project, 'MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership: India-Yash' will focus on family planning (FP) and reproductive health (RH) for young people and contribute to the achievement of India's national FP goals. The project will support the FP/RH needs of India's marginalised youth in urban and rural areas of Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

Young people, aged 15-29 years, make up more than 27.5 per cent of India's population and contribute about 34 per cent of India's gross national income.

Speaking at the event, Dr S.K. Sikdar, Advisor, FP and MINH, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, said, "I would like to congratulate USAID for partnering the government in undertaking yet another program to achieve the goals of family planning. Over the years, USAID has been instrumental in effecting changes and addressing family planning issues.

"As per a RBI report, India is growing rapidly annually. Therefore, a lot needs to be done still and we are confident that the Yash program will play a crucial role in the achievement of socioeconomic and environment development goals for sustainable development. At the same time, it is also pertinent to strengthen the strategic partnerships, foster multi- sectoral stakeholder involvement, encourage innovation, mobilise community, and engage actively with the private sector for widespread reach/success of the programme." Ms Sangita Patel, Director, Health Office, USAID/India, said, "The United States remains committed to the long-term success of US-India cooperation in the health sector. USAID has decades of experience working with partners and stakeholders, including the public sector, private sector and young people to advance health and wellbeing.

"Many of our efforts include a specific focus on promoting improved reproductive health and reducing gender-based violence. MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership India-Yash is designed to build upon existing evidence and best practices, as well as to catalyze new ideas and partnerships, using a targeted, contextualized approach.

"The programme also includes a greater focus on building the capacity, sustainability, and resilience of local partner institutions, recognizing that building the technical and organizational capacity of local organizations is necessary to deliver sustainable, evidence-based and quality reproductive health care and voluntary family planning. MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership:India-Yash seeks to foster recognition for the shared interests and mutually reinforcing goals of all stakeholders in the reproductive health space." Ms Patel reiterated USAID's strong ties and partnership with the Government of India and their joint priority to focus on the health and welfare of India's young people.

The MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership project is led by Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins University affiliate and partners and will promote adaptation of evidence-based, high-impact interventions and best practices proven in previous USAID investments and will demonstrate innovative models to accelerate improvement in young people's FP/ RH outcomes.

The private sector will be a key player in this initiative.

Speaking about these partnerships, Dr Somesh Kumar, Country Director, Jhpiego India, said, "The project recognises the importance of strong, multi-sector collaboration to respond to unmet family planning and reproductive health and rights needs of young people, particularly vulnerable youth populations. This project will shift the power dynamics from health market players to clients (young people) and support an enabling environment for adolescent and youth friendly health services." To increase demand, 'MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership: India-Yash' will work to improve young people's knowledge, attitude, practices and service utilization by increasing their agency to demand and access solutions that enable them to make positive FP/RH choices and also improve the accessibility and affordability of quality FP/RH care and products.

To address supply, the project will strengthen systems through evidence generation and policy advocacy, strengthen youth-friendly ecosystems by increasing community/policy support for young people's well-being and strengthen health systems to maintain essential FP/RH services for young people, particularly within the context of COVID-19 and other health emergencies.

By the end of the project, MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership: India-Yash envisions transformed public-private partnerships and investments in the development sector that are more inclusive of adolescents' and young people's priorities and an enhanced youth ecosystem in which young people make informed decisions about their health and well-being.
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 12 : Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal on Friday expressed displeasure at the findings in the Comptroller and Auditor General of India's latest report on the state's finances, that was tabled in the Assembly on Thursday.

Balagopal was upset at the remarks of the CAG pertaining to the off-budget borrowings of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and Kerala Social Security Pension Ltd (KSSPL).

"Really do not know why they have done it, as all will remember that the Kerala Assembly in January this year passed a resolution against the CAG report (which termed the off-budget borrowings through KIIFB as unconstitutional)," said Balagopal.

"Let it be, the state government, organisations or any responsible agency as all have to function according to a set of prescribed rules and laws. It's really surprising, why they (CAG) have done it yet again," said Balagopal. In reply to a question if the assembly will again pass a resolution, he said it is not required.

The CAG report placed before the assembly on Thursday stated that off-budget borrowings, if unchecked could lead the state into a debt trap without the knowledge of the assembly.

Off-budget borrowings refer to the use of those financial resources by the government for meeting expenditure requirements in a particular year or years which are not reflected in the budget for that year, or those years, for seeking grant/appropriation.

The CAG report points out that KIIFB borrowed/raised Rs 5,036.61 crores from financial institutions till 2019-20 and paid interest amounting to Rs 353.21 crores till 2019-20.

The state BJP was quick to latch on to it whose president K. Surendran said it's high time that the Pinarayi Vijayan government apologises to the people of Kerala.

"Despite the CAG and the opposition in Kerala time and again pointing out that KIIFB will play spoilsport in the state, no action is forthcoming from the Vijayan government. The stage is such that even the babies who are going to be born in the state are going to carry the burden of the debts of the state. KIIFB is just a vehicle for the Vijayan government to engage in corruption as nothing of it needs to be accounted. It's time that the Vijayan government acts according to the directives of the CAG," said Surendran.

The KIIFB was established as the principal funding arm of the government of Kerala in 1999. Its objective is to channelize funds for critical and large public infrastructure projects in Kerala. It was during the first term of the Pinarayi Vijayan government that the then economist turned Finance Minister Thomas Isaac gave it a new face and began off-budget borrowings.
Patna, Nov 12 : The "Jinn of Jinnah" made an appearance in the politics of Bihar on Friday when a Janata Dal-United (JD-U) MLC Khalid Anwar termed the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, as "a great freedom fighter of the country".

Following his statement, the JD-U's alliance partner in Bihar, the BJP reacted sharply to the remarks.

Samrat Chaudhary, the Panchayati Raj Minister under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quota in the Nitish Kumar-led government said: "Those who are followers of Jinnah should go to Pakistan and do his 'puja' there." Anwar, while targeting the Congress party, said that the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was responsible for the division of the country.

"He (Nehru) was instrumental in divisive politics leading to division of the country and obtaining the post of prime minister. The Congress regime, its home minister had used saffron terrorism in the parliament of the country. Due to his divisive ideology, our country was divided," Anwar said.

Following Anwar's statement, Samrat Chaudhary said: "Our countrymen worship Mahatma Gandhi and not Jinnah. If anyone has sympathy with him or they want to follow the ideology of Jinnah, they have places in Pakistan. They should go to Pakistan, stay there and follow the ideology of Jinnah," Chaudhary said.
New Delhi, Nov 12 : The Supreme Court on Friday directed the transfer of trial in the death of a Kanpur-based businessman, in a police raid at a Gorakhpur hotel, from Uttar Pradesh to a CBI court in Delhi.

A bench comprising justices D.Y. Chandrachud and A.S. Bopanna after hearing arguments from an advocate, representing the wife of the deceased, ordered the trial to be moved out of Uttar Pradesh to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court.

The plea, filed through advocate Anand Shankar, said: "It is of significance that shockingly the immediate reaction of the local police was to shield the perpetrators and to try and pass-off the murder as an accident and the same is apparent from the fact that police deliberately did not secure the crime scene and did not make any attempt to protect the evidence at the crime scene." The plea also cited the delay in the registration of the FIR - almost 48 hours after the incident occurred on September 27.

The plea contended that the petitioner was even pressured to not mention any name of police officers and further dissuaded by high officials of the local administration and the police from taking legal recourse.

According to news reports, Manish Gupta -- the businessman, allegedly died after being assaulted by six police officers at Krishna Palace hotel in Gorakhpur where he was staying along with his two friends.

The plea said: "On September 27, certain police officials from the Police Station, namely the Station Officer Jagat Narayan Singh, sub-inspectors Akshay Mishra, Vijay Yadav and Rahul Dubey, head constable Kamlesh Yadav and constable Prashant Kumar arrived at the hotel in the late hours of the night. In a shocking display of high-handedness and police brutality, they proceeded to viciously assault the petitioner's husband, leading to his death."
Kolkata, Nov 12 : The West Bengal government is planning to bring a resolution in the Assembly against the extension of jurisdiction of the BSF in the state.

After Punjab, West Bengal will be the second state to bring such a resolution.

Earlier on Friday, the Union Home Secretary held a meeting with the state officials over infiltration and fencing of border.

The Central government had last month amended the BSF Act to authorise the border guarding force to undertake search, seizure and arrest within a 50 km stretch, up from the existing 15 km, from the international border in Punjab, West Bengal and Assam.

Both Punjab and West Bengal have opposed the move.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing the move and asked him to revoke the decision immediately because, according to her, it will have an effect on the federal structure of the country.

"See what took place at the border... 'Law and order' is a state subject. It's not there in the BSF Act. There will be miscommunication between the police and BSF. We will discuss in the Assembly under Rule 185 and will place the demand to revoke extension of BSF jurisdiction," Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Partha Chatterjee said.

Chatterjee was referring to the incident at Sitai in Coochbehar where three persons including one Indian and two Bangladeshis have been killed in the BSF firing.

"There is no need for this kind of decision. There is no need for this kind of extension. This is an effort to put a hand on the state's jurisdiction," MLA of Dinhata in Coochbehar, Udayan Guha told the assembly on Friday.

Alleging that BSF is hand in glove with the smugglers and infiltrators, Guha said: "They have a fencing in Coochbehar which is secure and hard to cross. They only open the gates three times for an hour each time. Now in this condition how can infiltrators enter without their help? The Central government should try to control its forces first without trying to overstep into the jurisdiction of the state." Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Adhir Choudhury also said that the state government should make it clear to the Centre that they are unwilling to accept the move of the MHA and for which an assembly resolution is much needed. He said that the people of the bordering districts will not feel safe with the enhanced power of BSF.
Hyderabad, Nov 12 : Tollywood actor and producer Surya Tej has offered to adopt a Great Indian Horned Owl at the Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad. The owl is an endangered predator bird found mostly in hilly and rocky scrub forests.

Surya Tej visited the zoo on Friday and showed keen interest in wildlife conservation. He offered to adopt the owl for a period of one year after presenting a cheque of Rs 20,000 towards the adoption charges to the zoo's curator, Rajashekar.

The actor said his visit to the zoo was a memorable experience. He noted that the zoo housed majestic animals and was all praise for the Nocturnal Animal House, which he said was very well-maintained.

The curator thanked Surya Tej for showing keen interest in the animal adoption scheme. He observed the actor's commitment to the cause of conservation of wild animals should be an inspiration for the film industry and urged more citizens to come forward to adopt animals in the zoo.
Glasgow, Nov 12 : As 197 nations on Friday approached the end of the 26th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), it also marks the beginning of the hard work that is needed to prevent climate chaos and build a positive brighter future with bold commitments to end the use of coal and other fossil fuels.

"Pledges and far-off commitments simply won't do -- the world needs action", climate activists shouted outside the COP26 venue.

COP observers told IANS that the latest draft appears significantly more balanced with stronger elements on adaptation, finance and loss and damage.

The elements of the text aimed at speeding up action to close the gap towards emissions goals are there -- with no radical changes from the previous version and dates still intact.

However, the language on coal and other fossil fuels has been softened, and the inclusion of the commitment in a final deal would be seen as a landmark moment.

The latest draft urges countries which have not landed new plans to do so by 2022, requests all countries to raise climate targets in line with 1.5-2C by and of 2022, commissions annual UN assessment of climate plans from 2022, urges countries to deliver net zero mid-century plans by 2022 and signal to countries to accelerate shift off fossil fuels, coal to renewable energy.

It notes 'deep regret' of developed countries for missing $100 billion target and urges countries to fully deliver on the $100 billion goal 'urgently' through 2025.

It welcomes further operationalisation of the Santiago Network on loss and damage and strongly decides that the Santiago Network will have a technical assistance facility to provide financial support for technical assistance on loss and damage.

The draft outcome text of COP26 released in the morning failed the acid test of whether Glasgow will be a success by containing woefully insufficient commitments on fossil fuels, say civil society groups. This clearly shows that the fossil fuel industry has had a hand in weakening the draft text overnight, they add.

All 197 parties will need to agree on each and every word of the final agreement.

As they negotiate the final text, countries must ensure there is additional language. This should include a commitment to an equitable phase-out of oil and gas, not just coal, and to redirect all sources of financial flows, not just subsidies, towards a clean, renewable energy transition.

Leaders must talk about the real causes of climate change if they are going to arrive at real solutions. Governments cannot afford to leave Glasgow with anything less in the final decision text if the world is to have a realistic chance of keeping global temperature rises within 1.5C, say the civil society groups.

Responding to the draft, First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, tweeted, "This underlines the vital importance of the latest draft text being negotiated upwards not downwards in the final hours of #COP26 -- it's time for a demonstration of real political leadership from the PM (given UK holds COP presidency) and all countries." Indian Union Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav said the world must start acting together on four issues -- temperature, mitigation, finance and responsibility to fight climate change.

"It is time the world unites to honour the commitments made under the Paris Agreement, which set a goal to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels," Yadav said in a blog titled 'Time to unite against climate change'.

Consultations between the UK Presidency and countries appear to have been intense -- and lasted well into last night.

UN chieg Antonio Guterres set the bar in a punchy Thursday address: "We cannot settle for the lowest common denominator. We know what must be done. Keeping the 1.5 goal within reach means reducing emissions globally by 45 per cent by 2030." In the final hours, what's at stake: A pathway for accelerated mitigation ambition and implementation in the critical decade: a clear date (COP27/2022) and process to revise and enhance 2030 numbers until the 1.5C gap is closed; trigger for revisions of long-term strategies and support for developing countries to enable it; support for developing countries struggling with climate impacts: at least a doubling of global adaptation finance by 2024 (2019 baselines) to move toward balanced adaptation and mitigation shares of the $100bn; and full operationalisation and staffing of the Santiago Network on loss and damage.

On environmental integrity there should be no double-counting and no carry-over of Kyoto credits to further widen the 2030 emissions gap; ensuring overall emissions reductions, high integrity, universal transparency rules, along with a reference to human rights and independent grievance provisions (European and Latin American ministers behind the San Jose Principles will need to hold the line on integrity or risk rules that fundamentally undermine the credibility of the Paris system).

A pivotal moment for the world came at COP21 in Paris in 2015 when each country agreed to work together to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees and aim for 1.5 degrees, to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate and to make money available to deliver on these aims. That COP gave birth to the landmark Paris Agreement.

The science is clear in a stark warning ahead of the COP26 in a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations organisation, that warns human activity is damaging the planet at an alarming rate.

The report says climate change is already affecting every region across the globe and that without urgent action to limit warming, heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and loss of Arctic Sea ice, snow cover and permafrost, will all increase while carbon sinks will become less effective at slowing the growth of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

So the Glasgow summit is a key moment for countries, cities, businesses and more to keep the Paris Agreement on climate change on track and put forward ambitious, equitable solutions for a zero-carbon future. And this is what the UK Presidency is aiming to achieve.

The UK is scheduled to conclude the talks on Friday officially, but going by the track record, the negotiations may spill over to the next days. The last COP ran on for two extra days.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in) --IANS

vg/arm

A

A
Chamarajanagar : , Nov 12 (IANS) The Kannada Kranthi Dal has demanded a public apology from actress Rachita Ram for her recent statement on the "first night" during a press conference for her yet-to-be-released film 'Love You Rachchu'. The organization has also sought a ban on the actress by the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce.

Talking to reporters, the president of the organisation, Tejasvi Nagalingaswamy, maintained that Rachita's statements were against the "culture of the land" and had "damaged the image of the state".

Faced by an intimidating question from a reporter, the popular Kannada actress, who's known as the 'dimple queen', responded by asking him what he had done on his wedding night recently.

The reporter had questioned her on acting in sensual scenes, although she had said she wouldn't do them. Clarifying on the 'bold' scenes in the upcoming movie 'Love You Rachchu', Rachita said she had done what the script demanded.

"There are so many people here who are married. I do not have any intention to embarrass anyone. Generally, I am asking you guys to tell me what people do after marriage? What do they do?" Rachita asked the journalists.

Even as the mediapersons were recovering from her banter, she answered her own rhetorical questions with: "They will romance, right? That's what is being shown in the film." And she added: "There is some reason why I have done these scenes. You will get to know it when you watch the movie. You just had a kid, you should tell me," she said smilingly at the reporter who had posed the question.

Her bold statements were appreciated by her fans, but Tejasvi Nagalingaswamy said these were against the rich traditions of the Kannada film industry established by legends such as Dr Rajkumar.

"All leading and veteran actresses have never issued such statements," he said. "Rachita Ram, who doesn't know about the history of the industry, who has come to it recently, has spoken indecently and caused damage to its reputation," he added.

Nagalingaswamy also attacked Rachita for acting in 'bold' scenes in her earlier movie 'I Love You' and the yet-to-be-released 'Love You Rachchu'.

"The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce should consider the statements of Rachita Ram seriously and impose a ban on her. Otherwise, we will not allow her movie 'Love You Rachchu' to be released anywhere in Karnataka. We will approach the courts," he said.
Kathmandu, Nov 12 : Nepal's judiciary is facing an unprecedented historic crisis after 19 out of 20 Supreme Court judges demanded the resignation of Chief Justice Cholendra Sumsher Rana.

The umbrella organisation of Nepali lawyers -- Nepal Bar Association, also demanded the "graceful exit" of Rana for "nurturing corruption in the court and promoting anomalies" in the judicial system.

On Friday, hundreds of protesting lawyers stopped Rana from entering the Supreme Court.

Issuing a statement on Friday, three international human rights organisations have called for an end to the crisis in Nepal's Supreme Court, saying it has jeopardised the independence and integrity of the judiciary.

In a joint statement on Friday, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International said that it is essential to resolve the ongoing crisis in a way that maintains and enhances the court's credibility and independence.

Concerns from the international human rights organisations come amid Supreme Court justices and the legal fraternity's ongoing protest against Rana.

They have been demanding Rana's resignation, saying he is the source of all the ills in the judiciary.

For the last three weeks, the justices have not heard any cases, except for habeas corpus petitions.

Since Friday, lawyers have refused to participate in even the habeas corpus hearings.

With Rana refusing to step down, the confrontation in the Supreme Court has escalated further.

At least six lawyers, including office bearers of the Nepal Bar Association, sustained minor injuries in the scuffle on Friday.

The Bar Association reacted with some stern protest programmes.

It has decided to stop Rana from entering the Supreme Court on Sunday too.

Meanwhile, Nepal's political fraternity is divided over the fresh row over the judiciary that has been hampering the delivery of justice.

The ruling alliance and the government have been saying that it is up to the judiciary to resolve the ongoing crisis.

The main opposition, Nepal Communist Party-UML has stood in favour of Rana.

Some political party leaders and legal experts have called on the political parties to impeach Rana.

Rana also refused to resign and asked the agitating justices and lawyers to impeach him.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is also said to be in consultation with ministers and leaders on defusing the tension inside the court as the pressure is mounting on his government to seek an early remedy of the crisis in the judiciary.
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 12 : An alert Kerala police officer, sensing something was amiss when he received a call on Friday from a person who identified himself as a Special Branch (Intelligence) SP, landed the 'conman' in the custody of the police.

Pradeep Kumar, who was staying in the guest house of the Kerala State Electricity Board at the popular hill station Munnar in Idukki district, after identifying himself as a senior police officer landed in trouble when he called up K.R. Manoj, deputy superintendent of police - Munnar.

Kumar introduced himself as an SP of Police and said he was in Munnar to probe a POCSO case and that he wanted the services of two police constables to assist him.

Manoj said that he has received no such request and feeling suspicious took the conversation forward and realised that things were not all hunky dory.

Speaking to IANS, Manoj said he dispatched a team of police officials to the guest house and after they spoke to Kumar they found that he was a conman.

"He has been taken into custody. From his certificate he has a date of birth of 1981, but he does look older. He has said he hails from the state capital district," said Manoj.

The conman got himself a room at the guest house saying he was an SP of Police.
Aizawl, Nov 12 : The ambitious Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP), which will facilitate a gateway for the northeastern states to Southeast Asian countries, is almost nearing completion on the Mizoram side, state Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati said.

The Governor said that the multi-crore KMMTTP aims to connect northeast India with Kolkata through the Sittwe Port of Myanmar via the Bay of Bengal.

"The much-expected project is almost nearing completion on the Mizoram side," Kambhampati said during the 51st conference of Governors, Lt Governors and Administrators at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday.

President Ram Nath Kovind presided over the annual conference, which was also attended by Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

Kambhampati said: "When completed, the KMMTTP will provide a valuable alternate route and considerably cut down the distance between the northeast region and mainland India." The region is currently connected only via the narrow Siliguri corridor in West Bengal, also known as the 'Chicken's Neck', and therefore, it is in the best interest of the nation if special attention is given to the KMMTTP, he said.

India's northeastern region, comprising eight states and home to 45.58 million people (2011 census), shares 5,687 km borders with China, Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

The mountainous region is connected to the rest of the country via land route through the thin Siliguri corridor along western Assam and northern West Bengal.

To make an alternate land route, the External Affairs Ministry had in 2008 initiated the Rs 536 crore KMMTTP to ease India's access to Southeast Asia.

According to the officials in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), due to the delay in completion of the vital project owing to numerous reasons, its cost has increased eight to nine times.

The DoNER ministry officials expect that the project, which missed several deadlines, is likely to be completed by the end of 2023.
New Delhi, Nov 12 : Top Maoist leader Prashant Bose, 75, who was carrying a reward of Rs 1 crore, has been arrested in Jharkhand along with his wife, officials said on Friday, terming the arrest a "big achievement" for the security forces.

"He was the number two in the politburo of CPI (Maoist) and was heading the eastern regional division of the extremist outfit, also in-charge of the Naxal activities in Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal. Following his arrest, the backbone of the Maoist has been broken," a senior official in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) said.

He also said that this was a joint operation of CRPF, Jharkhand Police and Intelligence Bureau officials, and a huge success for all stakeholders.

Bose, alias 'Krishan Da', 75, was caught along with his wife Sheela Marandi, another senior Maoist leader, in Jharkhand on November 11 (Thursday).

The officials also said that he used to change his locations frequently and never used any mobile phone to avoid detection.

"He was spotted by the intelligence officials but he never stayed in an area for a long time. Recently, he was operating from the Saranda forest in Jharkhand," an official said, adding that the police of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh were tracking his movements for a long time.

A number two in the extremist outfit, he also used to head the Maoist Communist Centre of India which he merged with CPI-ML (People's War) to form the CPI (Maoist) in 2004.

His wife Sheela Marandi was reportedly the only woman member of the decision-making body central committee of the CPI (Maoist).

Bose was known as the intellectual guru of the cadre belonging to Jadavpur in Kolkata and he was caught because the forces had his details... his arrest was made possible because of the hard work of the state intelligence units of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, a CRPF official said.

Sharing the details of the arrests of Naxals made by the this year, the force said that 13 ultras were neutralised in encounters while 603 others were arrested, while 486 surrendered before the security forces or state police.

A senior Naxal leader Dubasi Shankar who went by the name of Ramesh in the Maoist party was arrested along with his associate by Odisha police near Biparguda village in September this year.

Dubasi Shankar, a native of Medak district, was carrying a cash reward of Rs 20 lakh, and was the member of the Andhra Orissa Special Zonal Committee who was associated with Maoist party for nearly three decades.
New Delhi, Nov 12 : The BJP is still the favourite to win the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh next year but it is now losing 108 seats as the Samajwadi Party rises rapidly, while in Uttarakhand and Punjab, Congress is making a strong comeback, as per the ABP-CVoter-IANS 5-State Snap Poll.

While the BJP led by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is still the favourite to win the Assembly polls in 2022, Samajwadi Party (SP) is gathering steam and the difference between the two parties is narrowing, as per the snap poll.

The five-state snap poll was conducted with a sample size of 1,07,193 across 690 seats with a margin of error of +/- 3% to +/- 5%.

In the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the BJP and its alliance partners are projected to get 217 seats, 108 seats down from 325 it won in the 2017 elections.

The SP led by former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is rising rapidly in popularity and is now expected to get 156 seats. The battle in UP is now clearly between the BJP and the SP and the gap between the two is only around 60 seats.

In Uttarakhand, the BJP is still leading the race with 38 seats down from 57 it won in the previous elections, losing 19 seats. It is the Congress that is giving a strong fight to the BJP with a gain of 21 seats, touching a tally of 32 seats in the 70-member Assembly.

In Punjab also, the gap is narrowing between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress. AAP is still ahead with 51 seats in the 117-member Assembly, but the Congress has narrowed the gap with a tally of 46 seats, still down 31 seats from its tally of 77 in the previous elections, but new Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi is making a difference. Akali Dal is third with 20 seats.

In Goa, the BJP is leading with 21 seats in the 40-member Assembly, followed by others at 10, AAP at 5 and Congress with only 4 seats.

In Manipur, the BJP is leading with 27 seats in the 60-member Assembly, followed by Congress with 22 seats.

In Uttar Pradesh, while the BJP is holding on to its vote share, with just a minor drop of 0.7 per cent at 40.7 per cent, it is losing 108 seats as the SP is gaining vote share by 7.1 per cent to 31.1 per cent.
New York, Nov 12 : An Indian American student has died after being trampled at a rap music concert in Houston, Texas, when the crowd estimated at 50,000 jostled.

Bharti Shahani, 22, died on Wednesday from injuries she suffered in the incident on Saturday, her family said at a news conference on Thursday.

She was the ninth person to die from injuries at the concert. A nine-year-old boy was fighting for his life on a ventilator on Friday.

"Nightmare, horror, barbarity and catastrophe. And that's what happened that night," said her cousin Mohit Bellani, who had been to the concert with her and her sister.

She was the ninth victim in the incident that took place during a performance by rapper Travis Scott at the Astroworld Festival at a stadium.

Doctors had placed her on a ventilator after a chaotic evacuation from the stadium in a bid to save her, but she died on the fifth day.

Her family said that they were donating her organs.

"Bharti is love," her mother Karishma Shahani said.

Breaking down at the news conference she said amid tears, "What happened to my blessing now? I want my baby back." This was the first time that Bharti Shahani, who is a final year electronics engineering undergraduate student, had gone to a concert.

ABC network's KHOU TV station in Houston said that according to the Shahani family's lawyer, she had been dropped from a gurney while being evacuated.

The lawyer, James Lassiter, has filed a $20 million case against the organisers and various people involved.

The Houston Chronicle reported delays in reacting to that the tragedy.

It was reported at 9:11 and police declared it a mass casualty event at 9:38 p.m., but Travis Scott continued playing for at least 25 more minutes, the Chronicle said.
Hyderabad, Nov 12 : Eminent physician Dr. D. Nageshwar Reddy on Friday hoped that by next year, life will come back to normal and while Covid-19 may remain, it will become like a common cold.

The chairman and Founder of AIG Hospitals said that while doctors see death every day, what they saw during the pandemic was different as in some cases, and entire families were wiped out.

The leading gastroenterologist recalled doctors themselves did not know how to deal with it. "We were frightened. It was like a soldier going to war without weapons. To add to it, WHO predictions were like our weather predictions," he said.

Dr. Reddy, whose hospital treated 30,000 Covid patients in the last two years, said they found from the experience that mask and social distance were more important than hand hygiene. He called for making public health accessible and economical.

He was speaking at Public Health Innovations Conclave Expo 2021, an exclusive expo on public health which began on Friday.

The expo features innovation, technology and best practices in public health to deal with 'Life after pandemic'.

Organized by Hitext in association with the Infection Control Academy of India (IFCAI), the expo has 75 stalls.

World Health Organisation (WHO) technical officer Dr. Anuj Sharma said life after the pandemic was still unpredictable.

"Initially, our recommendations went wrong. But WHO doesn't make any recommendations on its own. We do so based on the recommendations by the experts. When something is new and evolving chances of errors are there," he said.

Dr. Ranga Reddy Burri, President of Infection Control Academy of India said that every crisis provides significant learning and an opportunity.

He said Covid-19 also provided us with the opportunity to discover new innovative approaches for healthcare delivery to promote accessibility, availability, and affordability of quality care.

Dr. K. Shankar, Director of Preventive Medicine, Government of Telangana, said all government hospitals in Telangana are equipped with oxygen pipelines.

Vaccines will not protect from the virus but protect from death. By 2022 January, we will have a normal life, he said.

Dr. GVS Murthy, Director of the Indian Institute of Public Health revealed that when he was asked to remove mask and speak at the 1st PHIC Conclave last year he was hesitant. "Today, I can remove my mask and speak. That is the change from last year to this year. Public health needs incubation time. Smallpox and Polio took some time to disappear. Covid also needs such time," he said.
New Delhi, Nov 12 : Facebook (now called Meta) is stifling an independent report it commissioned to probe hate speech on its platforms in India, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday citing human rights groups.

The human rights team at Facebook, which is facing intense scrutiny worldwide, including in India, has reportedly "narrowed the draft report's scope and are delaying a process that has already taken more than a year, the groups say".

According to independent human rights groups, they have provided extensive input to a US law firm that Facebook commissioned in mid-2020 to undertake the report.

"The groups say they supplied hundreds of examples of inflammatory content and suggested ways Facebook could better police its services in India," the report mentioned.

"They are trying to kill it," said Ratik Asokan of India Civil Watch International.

Facebook has faced criticism from rights groups for failing to sanitise its platform in India.

The social network has more than 300 users, along with over 400 million on WhatsApp in India.

According to a Facebook spokesperson, with a complex project like this, the goal is to be thorough, not to meet an arbitrary deadline.

"We look forward to our independent assessor, Foley Hoag, completing their India assessment," the spokesperson told the WSJ.

The WSJ reported last month that Facebook researchers have found that its products in India are full of "inflammatory content that one report linked to deadly religious riots, according to internal documents".

After whistleblower Frances Haugen accused Facebook of not taking action on fear-mongering and hate content related to India because of "the lack of Hindi and Bengali classifiers," experts have said Facebook has no mechanism to deal with hate content in local or regional languages.

Arvind Gupta, social media expert and head of Digital India Foundation, told IANS, "Whether Facebook accepts it or not, it is a fact that it has no mechanism to deal with content in regional languages and that is why this kind of problem keeps arising." In the past, Facebook has faced several allegations of inaction against hate content in India.

In January this year, a Parliament Standing Committee on Information Technology (I&T) had issued summons to officials of Facebook and Twitter to question them over misuse of the social media or online news platforms. The committee has also questioned Facebook's India head Ajit Mohan over the issue of political bias on the social media platform.

The allegations of a Facebook bias towards the BJP were reported in The Wall Street Journal in August 2020 and had claimed that Ankhi Das, the platform's then India Policy Head had opposed the idea of removing hate posts by BJP leaders, warning that this could hamper their "commercial interests".

Das later quit Facebook.
Chandigarh, Nov 12 : International winners Shiv Kapur and Rashid Khan were sharing the lead at the halfway stage of the Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational 2021 here on Friday.

While Dubai-based Kapur (64-68) went bogey-free for the second day in succession with a four-under 68, Delhi-based Rashid (65-67) brought in a card of five-under 67 featuring seven birdies and two bogeys as both players enjoyed the joint second-round lead at 12-under 132.

Chandigarh's Aadil Bedi (68-65) shot the day's best score of seven-under 65 to move up five spots to third place at 11-under 133.

The cut was applied at even-par 144 and 60 professionals and two amateurs made the cut.

Tournament host Jeev Milkha Singh (75-72) missed the cut despite a steady even-par 72 in round two. He totaled three over 147 for the week.

Kapur, who admitted to being rusty at the start of the week having not played a tournament for about a month, seemed to have shaken off the rust as he maintained his position as the joint leader for the second straight day.

The six-time international winner Kapur, who began his round from the 10th, had a scrappy start as he made pars on the first six holes. He then found the hole from a range of seven to eight feet for his three consecutive birdies from the 16th through the 18th.

On the front-nine, Kapur was steady with eight pars and a lone birdie on the sixth where he sank his longest putt of the day, a 15-footer.

Two-time Asian Tour winner Rashid Khan jumped from overnight third to tied first. Khan was one-under through the front-nine and then pushed ahead with a four-under on the back-nine. Khan attributed his low score to his good course management.

Aadil Bedi's 65 brought him into contention. Bedi, who has just recovered from a wrist injury that kept him out of action from three PGTI events in September, sank a 40-footer for birdie on the 15th and converted four more birdies from a range of 10 to 15 feet.

Delhi's Kshitij Naveed Kaul produced a second consecutive 67 to occupy a fourth place at 10-under 134. Chandigarh's Abhijit Singh Chadha slipped from the overnight joint lead to tied fifth at nine-under 135 following his second round of 71.

Three-time Asian Tour winner Gaurav Ghei of Delhi was also tied for fifth as a result of his 68 on Friday. Olympian Udayan Mane (68) is tied ninth at seven-under 137.

Among the other marquee names in the field, former champion Ajeetesh Sandhu of Chandigarh was tied 11th at five-under 139 while another former champion Chikkarangappa of Bengaluru was a further shot back in tied 15th. SSP Chawrasia lies tied 18th at three-under 141.

Chandigarh's Karandeep Kochhar (70), the defending champion and PGTI Order of Merit leader, is placed tied 21st at two-under 142 along with Jyoti Randhawa.

Gaganjeet Bhullar was in tied 34th place at one-under 143.
Panaji, Nov 12 : Former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said that the Congress party will not allow regional cultures to be subsumed into the philosophy of 'One Nation, One Culture' promoted by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Speaking at a Congress party meeting in Candolim village in South Goa, Chidambaram also said that the party would work towards preserving 'the Goan way of life', which he said was a top draw for the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit the coastal state every year.

"Why do people come to Goa? Because it is green, the blue ocean, white sands, they come to Goa because of the people of Goa, culture of Goa and the song and dance of Goa. That culture must be preserved at all costs. it cannot be subsumed in what the BJP says 'One India, One Culture, One Language'. That is nonsense," the senior Congress leader0 said.

Chidambaram, who has been appointed as the senior observer for the upcoming 2022 Goa polls is in the state to carry out electoral preparations.

"India is a multicultural country. I am proud of the Tamil culture. You are proud of the Goan culture. Your culture must be preserved. The Congress party is completely committed to preserving the culture of every state. We will not allow anything to be done which will affect the culture of Goa," the Congress leader said.

Chidambaram also said that in order to preserve the environment in the state, the Congress government would not allow the setting up of a steel manufacturing plant in Goa and would continue to oppose moves by the state and central governments ruled by the BJP to turn the tourist state into a coal hub.

"Goa's development must be in accordance with our larger goals. I can't put up a steel mill in Goa. I can't make Goa become a coal hub. I can't ask people of Goa to breathe coal dust every day," Chidambaram said.

"Goa cannot become a transit state to transport coal which is imported through Goa to another plant in Karnataka or Maharashtra. Goa's development must be consistent with your aspirations, your needs, your environment," he added.

Chidambaram was referring to three central government development projects, which have been recently cleared by the state and the central government's Ministry for Environment and Forests involving road and rail track expansion and a power line transmission project.

Activists as well as opposition politicians in Goa have been demanding a review of the three projects, claiming that they were hurriedly granted permission during the pandemic, without due diligence.

Opponents of the projects have also alleged that the doubling tracking of railway tracks and expansion of the National Highway 4 would lead to increased transportation of coal imported to the Mormugao Port Trust in South Goa to steel mills in Karnataka's Bellary region.
Glasgow, Nov 12 : India on Friday asked the world leaders assembled at the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 to deliver a strong message regarding their collective resolve for accelerated mitigation and adaptation actions to combat climate change in this decade.

"This message will have credibility only if accompanied by an equally strong resolve of developed country parties to mobilise and provide enhanced climate finance to developing country parties," noted a statement read by Union Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav hours ahead of the end of the 26th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) The outcomes of COP26 must reflect the urgency in scaling up finance and other means of implementation support to developing countries, he stressed at the stocktake plenary.

"We express our disappointment at the lack of significant progress in climate finance related agenda items. We add our voice in support of other parties and groups like the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) that have called for continuation of the long-term finance agenda under the convention, for a mandate to the standing committee of finance to deliver a multilaterally agreed definition of climate finance and for a structured process that will deliver the new quantified goal for climate finance well before 2025." The minister said the overwhelming role of historical cumulative emissions in bringing the world to 1.1 degrees rise in temperature must be noted and urgency in ambition must begin with actions of developed country parties.

He was categorically clear in saying that in reaching net zero the developed world must stay within their fair share of the global carbon budget, enabling access to carbon space for developing countries.

The developed countries must enhance their NDCs and reach net zero much before 2050. The meagre carbon budget is first and foremost the right and entitlement of developing countries.

Hence rapid mitigation actions by developed countries in this decade, is vital to keep 1.5 degrees within reach.

Yadav said adaptation is an agenda of critical importance for developing countries.

"We must not leave Glasgow without strong equitable and just decisions on adaption," he added.

The science is clear in a stark warning ahead of the COP26 in a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations organisation, that warns human activity is damaging the planet at an alarming rate.

The report says climate change is already affecting every region across the globe and that without urgent action to limit warming, heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and loss of Arctic Sea ice, snow cover and permafrost, will all increase while carbon sinks will become less effective at slowing the growth of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

So the Glasgow summit is a key moment for countries, cities, businesses and more to keep the Paris Agreement on climate change on track and put forward ambitious, equitable solutions for a zero-carbon future. And this is what the UK Presidency is aiming to achieve.

The UK is scheduled to conclude the talks on Friday officially, but going by the track record, the negotiations may spill over to the next days. The last COP ran on for two extra days.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Bengaluru, Nov 12 : The Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) launched by the Karnataka government, as a platform to set up technological multilateral relations with foreign countries, is expanding every year, and for the first time South Africa, Vietnam and UAE will be participating in the BTS-2021 which will be held from November 17-19.

C.N. Ashwath Narayan, the Minister for IT, BT and S&T addressing a press conference regarding 'Growing GIA Partnerships @ BTS 2021' on Friday, said that new countries are keen on joining GIA to explore areas of collaboration.

BTS stands for Bengaluru Tech Summit.

"For the first time, mutual participation of Karnataka and Australia through BTS and Sydney Dialogue is being arranged. As part of this, The Sydney Dialogue sessions which also will be on the same days (November 17-19) will be streamed on the BTS platform and likewise streaming of BTS on The Sydney Dialogue will provide an opportunity to show content from our participants. These will cover Quad space collaboration and Foreign Ministers of both countries will address the impact of tech on democracy," Narayan explained.

'Beyond Bengaluru' will be focused to encourage setting up sister city collaborations with emerging cities of Karnataka and GIA partner countries in the event which is likely to see large participation also from the European Union and Commonwealth countries.

A Minister-level delegation from key GIA partner countries participating in the summit includes Stuart Ayers, New South Wales Minister, Prof. Andreas Pinkwart, North Rhine-Westphalia, TimoHarakka, Government of Finland, Nguyen Quan, Former Minister of Vietnam among others.

International technology experts who will address as keynote speakers include Martin Schroeter, CEO, Kyndryl; Prof. Klaus Schwab, Founder and Chairman, World Economic Forum; Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, Indian-American Physician; Priya Balasubramaniam, Vice President, Operations Apple Inc.; Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India; Gaven Standon, Executive Partner Ecosystem, Telstra; Gil Shwed, Founder and CEO, Checkpoint among others.

Australian Consul-General for South India, Sarah Kirlew who attended virtually announced that Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison will lead Australia's delegation to the BTS-2021.

Highlighting sessions include "Deepening India - Australia ties in 'tech and innovation" by Australia, "Healthcare and Medical Technology" by Germany, "Digital Health in Finland: Developing AI and VR tools to support the growth of health technology businesses" by Finlandamong others, Narayan said.

The GIA sessions will throw light on key issues of Cyber Security and Related Research Applications, Digital trust in a post-pandemic world, Driving Next with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Developing Artificial Intelligence and Visual Reality Tools for developing health care technology.

Other notable sessions include "Healthcare & Medical Technology" by Germany, "Digital Health in Finland: Developing AI and VR tools to support the growth of health technology businesses" by Finland among others.
Hyderabad, Nov 12 : Hitting back at Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat for criticising Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the state's Finance and Health minister T. Harish Rao on Friday said there has been a delay of seven years by the Centre in constituting a tribunal to resolve dispute between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Harish Rao said during the last seven years, the Central government has done nothing to resolve the dispute over sharing of Krishna river water.

Stating that Telangana is seeking fair share of waters, he demanded that the Centre constitute the tribunal without any further delay.

Shekhawat on Thursday took strong exception to the chief minister's remarks accusing the Centre of delaying the resolution on water dispute.

The Union minister held KCR responsible for the delay stating that due to a case filed by the Telangana state government in the Supreme Court on Krishna waters dispute in 2015, the Centre could not initiate any steps as the matter was sub judice.

Harish Rao, however, argued that the court case was never an impediment in constituting a new tribunal to resolve the dispute.

The state minister dismissed Shekhawat's contention that there was a delay of only four months. He claimed that the state's request was pending with the Centre for seven years.

He recalled in July 2014, the state had written to the Centre seeking tribunal under Interstate River Water Disputes Act. Harish Rao, who was then the irrigation minister, said the Centre took no decision for one year.

"It is only after 13 months that in August 2015 that the state knocked the door of the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre to constitute the tribunal," he said.

Harish Rao said the matter was delayed in the Supreme Court but there was no hurdle for the Centre to constitute the tribunal.

Earlier, the Minister for Industry, and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao also slammed the Central minister saying he spoke out of ignorance.

Addressing a news conference, Chandrasekhar Rao had said that the Centre took seven years' time just to refer Krishna water sharing issue to a new tribunal.

KCR said that he withdrew the case from the Supreme Court as promised but the Centre failed to resolve water disputes between Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh even after seven years.
New Delhi, Nov 12 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday interacted with the officials of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on the occasion of 'Diwali Milan' and extended Diwali greetings to everyone.

Highlighting the significance of this decade towards laying a strong foundation for the nation for 2047 and beyond, the Prime Minister -- at the Diwali Milan function organised at his residence on the Lok Kalyan Marg, said: "All of us in the PMO must work together to our fullest potential and help the nation attain greater heights." The Prime Minister also discussed the country's battle against the pandemic.

He also underlined how the country has displayed unity and brotherhood in fighting the common faceless enemy, a release from the PMO said.

Talking about the positive changes that have come about in society and governance as a result of the pandemic, he said, these changes have made societies more resilient.

Modi also highlighted how difficult times often lead to realisation of inherent potential among people, processes, and institutions and then exhorted the PMO officials to draw inspiration from this spirit, the release added.
Bengaluru, Nov 12 : Amid an all-out attack launched by the Opposition Congress against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka, former chief minister and senior party leader Jagadish Shettar has left for Delhi, raising speculations in the state's political circles.

BJP sources have confirmed that Shettar would meet the top party leadership to discuss the developments in the state.

His visit also assumes importance as he is seen as the main "competitor" for Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.

Shettar left Hubballi in Star Airlines Hubballi-Ghaziabad flight on Friday noon.

His office, however, remained tight-lipped on the reason for the trip.

Bommai returned to the state on Thursday from a two-day Delhi trip.

He had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J.P. Nadda.

Terming the visit to the national capital "successful", he described his meeting with Prime Minister Modi "fruitful and harmonious".

Shettar has chosen to remain out of Bommai's cabinet stating he cannot work under his juniors.

He had also expressed his displeasure over choosing Bommai for the top post over him in close circles.

Congress president D.K. Shivakumar has stated that the party will not sit quiet on the Bitcoin scandal. "What if the Prime Minister asked Bommai to neglect allegations, we will not leave it. We will come back," he said.

Priyank Kharge, Congress MLA, had convened a press conference to attack the BJP.

He had raised five issues regarding the Bitcoin scandal and demanded answers from the BJP.

Kharge further said that, main accused Shrikrishna Ramesh a.k.a Sriki had stated before the Police Inspector of Cyber Crime station in Bengaluru that he had hacked 5,000 Bitcoins.

"These are worth Rs 2,500 crore approximately, how much of them he has used and how many of them has he distributed?" Kharge questioned.

"Why did the BJP not take the help of Interpol or Enforcement Directorate to deal with the case then, he asked. Why was there an intentional delay of five months for informing ED and Interpol?" he sought to know.

He underlined that a chargesheet has been submitted in the case without investigations.

Kharge has also stated that Bitcoin scandal was the first technical scam of the country, and the BJP is trying to hush up the case.
New Delhi, Nov 12 : Nearly 32.8 per cent of the people feel that rising prices and economic issues are the biggest problems the country is facing at the moment, while just 6.1 per cent of them are worried about corruption, as per the ABP-CVoter-IANS 5-State Snap Poll conducted in the poll-bound states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur.

The people from the five poll-bound states gave mixed response to the question on their views on the issues that the county is facing at present.

The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have less effect as 11.3 per cent of the respondents see it as an issue that the country facing at the moment.

Among the states, the respondents from Goa seemed to be a little more concerned about the pandemic, as 20.3 per cent of them voted it as the main issue.

In contradiction, only 19.2 per cent people from the state are worried about unemployment. Nearly 8.0 per cent people did not record their opinion.

Notably, only 4.7 per cent of the respondents feel that issues related to agriculture and farmers are the biggest in the country, which is also a global agricultural powerhouse.

In Uttarakhand, none of the respondents voted agricultural issues as the main problem.

As many as 39.5 per cent of the people from Uttarakhand are worried about the whopping number of unemployed people in the country.

The five-state snap poll was conducted with a sample size of 1,07,193 across 690 seats with a margin of error of +/- 3 per cent to +/- 5 per cent.
Chennai, Nov 12 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday launched 200 special medical camps in association with the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), which will examine and treat people in the Chennai limits.

The camps involving private hospitals are linked to the Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme. These are in addition to the camps being run by the Chennai Corporation.

The GCC said in a statement on Friday that the camps are being organised under the directive of the Chief Minister to prevent rain-related illnesses among people, including common cold, influenza and other diseases.

Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian, who was present during the launch, told IANS, "The Chief Minister has directed the health department to associate with the Greater Chennai Corporation and conduct 200 medical camps during the Northeast monsoon season."
New Delhi/Wardha, Nov 13 : Virtually addressing the inaugural session of the National Orientation Camp at the Sevagram Ashram in Wardha, Maharashtra, on Friday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked the RSS-BJP, stating that Hinduism is something different from Hindutva.

He also said that it has to be accepted that Congress' ideology has been overshadowed.

"Today, whether we like it or not, the divisive and hateful ideology of the RSS and BJP has overshadowed the loving, affectionate and nationalistic ideology of the Congress, and this is what we have to accept," he said.

"But our ideology is alive, it is vibrant. We have to propagate our ideology by training our own people and by involving them in a conversation about what it means to be a Congress person and how is that different from being a RSS person," Rahul Gandhi said.

He also said that Hinduism and Hindutva are two different things.

"You can start with Shiva, Kabir, Guru Nanak... these are the ideas that represent what we stand for and they have been coming along, (Mahatma) Gandhi Ji being a very good example. So, these are the people who stood for what we stand for and we have to study what they were saying deeply. Is there something common between what Guru Nanak said or Kabir said and the Hindutva ideology? Is there something in common between what Gandhi Ji said or King Ashoka said and the Hindutva ideology?" "What is the difference between Hinduism, as we know it, and Hindutva? Are they the same thing? If they are the same thing, why don't they have the same description? Why do they have different names? Why do you use the word Hinduism, why not just use Hindutva, if they are the same thing? They are obviously different things." "Is Hinduism about beating a Sikh or a Muslim? Is Hinduism about killing Akhlaq? In which book is it written? I have not seen it. I have read the Upanishads, I have not seen it there. Where is it written that you should kill an innocent man? I am unable to find this in any Hindu scripture or even in Islamic or Sikh scriptures." "But I can see it in Hindutva," he said.

Rahul Gandhi also said that every single person should go through a training workshop, which shall develop people who have real understanding of what it means to be a Congress person.
New York, Nov 13 : US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a virtual summit Monday evening, the White House said.

The high-stakes meet is set amid increasing hostility among the world's two largest economies.

"The two leaders will discuss ways to responsibly manage the competition between the US and the PRC, as well as ways to work together where our interests align. Throughout, President Biden will make clear US intentions and priorities and be clear and candid about our concerns with the PRC," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

PRC is the acronym used by Psaki for the People's Republic of China.

There has been no summit-level meeting between the two countries since June 2019, when Xi and then President Donald Trump sat together on the sidelines of a G-20 summit in Japan.

Biden and Xi have had two phone calls so far.

Xi has not travelled outside China since the start of the pandemic. He missed the climate summit in Glasgow.

"We expect him (Xi) to play by the rules of the road," Biden said earlier this month. "I want to make sure there's no misunderstanding. It's competition, not conflict." Biden's approval numbers Friday bounced back from late-October bruises after the House approved his $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan.

A Navigator Research survey of approximately 1,000 registered voters conducted from November 4 to November 8, said 47 per cent of Americans now approve of the way Biden is handling his job as president.

Fifty per cent still disapproved and three per cent were unsure.

That's a seven-point jump from the poll conducted in late October.

Xi, on his part, is on a historic high: The Chinese Communist Party approved a resolution Thursday setting the foundation for him to continue his rule through 2027.

The resolution said Xi's ideals represented "the essence of Chinese culture", and establishing Xi's position as the central part of the party was "of decisive significance" in achieving "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation".

While the list of disagreements -- trade to technology to Taiwan -- is long, in a surprise move this week, China and the US agreed to boost climate co-operation over the next decade.

The world's two biggest CO2 emitters pledged to act in a joint declaration and recall their "firm commitment to work together" to achieve the 1.5C temperature goal set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Both called for stepped-up efforts to close the "significant gap" that remains to achieve that target.

(Nikhila Natarajan tweets @byniknat)
New Delhi, Nov 13 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the 29th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council, comprising the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, and Union Territories of Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, scheduled to be held at Tirupati on November 14.

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh is the Vice Chairman and host of the meeting.

Other Chief Ministers from the states in the Zone along with two ministers each are the members. Chief Secretaries and senior officers from the state governments and the Central government will also attend the meeting.

The meeting assumes significance in view of the increasing dispute over sharing of river waters between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The Karnataka government has made complaint about the plans of Telangana to construct the Palamuru Rangareddy and Nakkalagandi Lift Irrigation Scheme to draw large quantity of remaining and surplus water from the foreshore of Srisailam reservoir.

The Zonal Councils take up issues involving Centre and states and one or many states falling in the Zone and provide a forum for resolving disputes and irritants between Centre and states and among many states in the Zone.

The Zonal Councils discuss broad range of issues which include boundary related disputes, security, infrastructure related matters like road, transport, industries, water, and power, matters pertaining to forests & environment, housing, education, food security, tourism and transport etc.

Five Zonal Councils were set up in the year 1957 under Section 15-22 of the States Re-organization Act, 1956. Union Home Minister is the Chairman of each of these five Zonal Councils and Chief Ministers of the host State (to be chosen by rotation every year) is the Vice-Chairman, while two more Ministers from each state are nominated as members by the Governor.
The opportunity to interact with Plug and Play Topekas corporate partners has been extremely valuable to our company, says Keith Miao, CEO and co-founder of Birdstop. Photo courtesy of GO Topeka. The intellectual capital and technology generated from our Plug and Play Topeka program amplifies the future of the animal-health industry here. Its exciting to see these startups move forward with their products," says Lindsay Lebahn, program manager for Plug and Play Topeka.

GO Topeka, the economic development group for Kansas Capital City, today announced that 10 new startups have graduated from Plug and Play Topeka, an animal health and ag-tech incubator. The early- and mid-stage startups, selected after a pitch competition in late September, have successfully completed the three-month accelerator program.

During the event, each startup had the opportunity to facilitate and foster mentorships and connections through a product pitch to Plug and Play Topekas corporate partners. The startups represent a broad range of new innovations including a biometric platform monitored through a wearable patch, a mobile veterinary telemedicine platform, new micro foods to nourish an animals gut bacteria and drones to inspect remote infrastructure.

Here is the full list of participating companies:



Aegis Packaging, headquartered in Singapore  More than a packaging-film manufacturer, Aegis will become a global leader in manufacturing regenerative high-barrier coating for flexible packaging.

Birdstop, headquartered in San Francisco  Using drones and ground nodes, Birdstop inspects remote infrastructure with zero humans in the field.

ISO Thrive, headquartered in Virginia  Through micro food that nourishes gut bacteria, ISO Thrive curates the microbiome supportive to human and animal health.

Kenzen, headquartered in Kansas City  Kenzen is a biometric platform monitored through a smart wearable patch that keeps workforces safe from heat, fatigue and overexertion on the job.

Lumin, headquartered in Virginia  Lumin has changed the fundamental element of a buildings electrical distribution system, the circuit breaker panel, by making ordinary circuits smart, responsive and efficient.

Maven Maven provides off-grid communication technology that doesn't require data service costs from telecom providers.

Nanox, headquartered in Massachusetts  Nanox is a natural antimicrobial product line derived from nanotechnology that contains silver as an active ingredient.

Pepperi, headquartered in New York  A B2B commerce platform, Pepperi serves the sales force and customers of manufacturers and wholesale distributors.

Sniffypet, headquartered in Canada  A mobile-first veterinary telemedicine platform enabling visits via text chat and video consultations to pet owners.

Tarot Analytics, headquartered in France  Tarot Analytics provides last-kilometer route optimization and a delivery management SaaS platform for enterprise.

The opportunity to interact with Plug and Play Topekas corporate partners has been extremely valuable to our company, says Keith Miao, chief executive officer and co-founder of Birdstop. Were now well on our way to establishing collaborative partnerships with these organizations and our hope is to expand significantly in 2022 and be able to deploy out further in Kansas.

The Plug and Play Topeka accelerator facilitates and fosters partnerships, mentorships and connections provided by GO Topeka, while capitalizing on Topekas robust animal-health and agricultural economic ecosystem. Topeka is centrally located within the KC Animal-Health Corridor, the worlds largest concentration of the animal-health related industries.

Its been an exciting year of innovation for the capital city, said Katrin Bridges, senior vice president of innovation at GO Topeka. The successful completion of the second accelerator program comes shortly after our announcement of the ASTRA Innovation Center, a 60,000-square-foot project that will be utilized for future Plug and Play startup accelerator programs. We cant wait to watch the success that these investments bring to the community.

More than 300 animal-health companies located between Manhattan, Kansas and Columbia, Missouriincluding four of the top 10 animal-health companies in the worldgenerate 67% of the total animal-health, diagnostics and pet food sold globally, totaling $21.5 billion in annual sales.

The intellectual capital and technology generated from our Plug and Play Topeka program amplifies the future of the animal-health industry here, says Lindsay Lebahn, program manager for Plug and Play Topeka. Its exciting to see these startups move forward with their products after utilizing the regions resources.

Since the start of the program in spring of 2021, 20 startups have graduated from the Plug and Play Topeka accelerator program. Each year, the program will develop two accelerator groups, each of which are made up of 10 animal health and ag-tech startups.

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform, connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we're present in 35+ locations across five continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house venture capital to drive innovation across multiple industries where we've invested in hundreds of successful companies including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal and Rappi. For more information visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/

About GO Topeka

GO Topeka creates opportunities for economic growth that provide a thriving business climate and fulfilling lifestyle for Topeka and Shawnee County. The Greater Topeka area in Shawnee County represents a community of 178,915 people, located in the Greater Kansas City region. As the state capital of Kansas, Topeka is home to a dynamic employer base with headquartered companies, including Hills Pet Nutrition, Advisors Excel, Security Benefit, Capitol Federal and Evergy. Topeka is located less than 40 minutes from suburban Kansas Citys shops and restaurant districts, less than one hour to downtown Kansas City, including the KC Crossroads District, the River Market and the Country Club Plaza, and an hour from Kansas City International Airport. Topeka is proud to be a part of the #KCHeartland. For more information, visit http://www.gotopeka.com
We are positive about the future of the taxi industry, and according to the numbers, the B2B taxi market should be back on track somewhere around Q2 2022, if all goes well, Co-founder of Taxi Butler, Steven Blom

Taxi Butler today unveiled their Global Industry Trends Report, a comprehensive paper that highlights dynamic trends in the taxi industry across the globe. This first edition of the report, A 3-year impact analysis on the taxi market: before, during and after COVID-19, presents data on how the taxi industry was impacted throughout the pandemic. The Global Industry Trends Report can be viewed and downloaded for free on their website.

With the easing of travel bans in most areas of the world from December 2020 and throughout 2021, the paper highlights that the overall increasing trend of taxi bookings is encouraging for the industry and will likely continue. The findings put forward that global B2B taxi bookings will almost double (+72.69%) by Q2 2022, as compared to January 2021, signifying that the industry will be back on track and almost fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, (providing that there are no new COVID-19 restrictions in the future).

Speaking about the report, the Co-founder of Taxi Butler, Steven Blom, mentions Having partnered through this pandemic as ONE, we wanted to understand how it impacted the Taxi Industry, how to get out of this situation together and what we can expect in the near future. We are positive about the future of the industry, and according to the numbers, the B2B taxi market should be back on track somewhere around Q2 2022, if all goes well.

The present findings also look at the toughest period for the industry, notably from February 2020, the last normal month before COVID-19 restrictions, to April 2020, when restrictions were in full effect, where the industry saw a 91.35% collapse in bookings.

The report also analyses taxi booking trends in four major regions: the UK & Ireland, North America, Australia & New Zealand, and Europe. The UK and Ireland saw the most significant decline, from February to April 2020, losing 96.48% of their B2B taxi bookings, followed by Europe at 94.83%, Australia and New Zealand at 85.30%, and North America at 81.21%.

Laurence Docherty, Head of Sales at Taxi Butler, adds, "By offering our one-click taxi booking devices to venues around the world, and by supporting local taxi companies, were able to identify trends and shifts in passenger preferences towards travel. Since the pandemic, the industry has been able to bounce back and adapt and will continue to thrive in the future. The resilience and the strong urge for business stability has seemed to become a reality. 2022 holds a very positive outlook for the industry as a whole, and were hoping that this report can help businesses understand the global taxi industry even better.

About Taxi Butler

The Taxi Butler is a unique one-click taxi booking device that makes booking taxis easier for venues like hotels, bars, restaurants. Built for taxi companies and designed with venues in mind, the taxi booking device helps to reduce taxi company call centre costs, generate more automated bookings, and gain and sustain business with local venues. Taxi Butlers vision is to facilitate the connection between taxi fleets, local businesses and passengers and to connect them as ONE.

Media Contact

Mahima Tamang Shrestha

PurpleTree PR

pr@taxibutler.com
If you are paying 1% or more in fees, and many people are, we believe you are paying too much.

Burlington financial firm, One Day In July, reached a new milestone when it broke $500 million in assets under management. The local startup has seen more than 600% growth in assets under management since 2017 due in part to stock market performance and a growing client base.

One Day In Julys founder, Dan Cunningham, also credits much of the firms growth and success to its emphasis on low, transparent fees.

What you save in fees compounds over time. If you are paying 1% or more in fees, and many people are, we believe you are paying too much, Cunningham explains. A difference of 1% in fees over an investment lifetime can add 10 years of work to retirement.

One Day In July believes the best way to invest capital is in low-cost, diversified index funds. This approach to investing is supported by decades of academic studies and Nobel Prize-winning research.

The firms eight dedicated fiduciary financial advisors work to optimize investment returns and represent each investors best interest. They help investors to recognize how their behaviors can impact their investment returns.

About One Day In July:

One Day In July was created to help change the future of the financial industry. Based out of Burlington, Vermont, there are now eight advisors and seven support staff persons working to introduce investors to effective and low-cost investment strategies. Learn more at http://www.onedayinjuly.com.

One Day In July LLC is an SEC-registered investment advisor. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. One Day In July LLC does not guarantee actual returns or losses. This content is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice or an offer to buy or sell any security. Individual circumstances may vary.
Since the construction of the dam started, buyer confidence is back. They have the confidence to move forward with a purchase knowing that right around the corner they will have the lake back."

Two years after a spillway collapse led to the dewatering of Lake Dunlap, the Lake Dunlap Water Control and Improvement District (WCID), in partnership with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA), is thrilled to announce that construction has finally begun on the new hydraulic crest dam. If all goes according to plan, this new dam will replace the damaged one by December of 2022 to Spring of 2023.



The major obstacle interfering with the construction of the new dam was cost. In December of 2020, the WCID and the GBRA solved this problem with a historic agreement. The GBRA agreed to put up the bulk of the original costs. Once it was up and running, the revenues brought in by the hydraulic dam would be used to repay these construction costs. The bulk of the maintenance and upkeep of the dam would also be financed in this way.



The WCID and the residents of the area agreed to finance the remainder of the construction and maintenance costs through two new taxes. They believe the extra taxes will pay off once the new dam is up and running. They also believe that a full and safe Lake Dunlap will increase property values and provide income for the residents through job opportunities and tourism.



This grassroots effort to improve the economy of the area has already had a positive effect. The dam is not scheduled to open for more than a year, but already, consumer confidence and increased interest in the area have brought jobs and businesses back to the area.



The GBRA will continue to own and operate the new dam, and its construction and continued maintenance will also bring stable, high-paying jobs to the area. Once construction costs have been paid off, allowing for the expense of upkeep, the GBRA agrees to return all profits made from the sale of hydroelectric power to the WCID.



The WCID, in turn, agrees to use that income to continue to improve the areas surrounding Lake Dunlap. This includes money put into the local government and civic organizations, improving schools and social services, and, hopefully, lowering the tax burden for the residents down the line.



The restoration of the lake promises to bring a myriad of benefits to the area. It will recreate many acres of waterfront property to be used for recreation or sold for private ownership. The increased value of waterfront homes for sale in Lake Austin and Lake Travis will rekindle interest in the area. Tourists will return and bring their disposable income with them, supporting the numerous job opportunities in the service industries that cater to them.

Hunter Croan, the owner of The Lake Front Group, has been quoted as saying, Since the construction of the dam started, buyer confidence is back. They have the confidence to move forward with a purchase knowing that right around the corner they will have the lake back. Once the dam is completed, I would not be shocked to see another jump in property values As an exclusive seller of waterfront homes and properties in Central Texas, he has the experience to know what hes talking about.
Stormseal-protected home Im so thrilled we could assist Operation Blue Roof and those affected by Hurricane Ida.

An innovative U.S. Army program is helping residents to recover from Hurricane Ida. Under the current program, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) cant nail the temporary roofing onto many surfaces because it might damage them. The tarps simply dont work on tiled, slate or metal roofs.

Three companies were approached for a solution, including Matthew Lennox from West Palm Beach, Florida-based Stormseal. Ive been talking with USACE for the past 5 years outlining the benefits of Stormseal, Mr. Lennox said. Im so thrilled we could assist Operation Blue Roof and those affected by Hurricane Ida.

The shrink wrap pilot program involves installing Stormseals product over a damaged roof, secured at the perimeter with furring strips. A contractor then uses heat to shrink the material and create a water-tight seal.

The selection process was done using the Center for Disease Controls Social Vulnerability Index, to determine areas that needed the most support.

Homeowner Diane Gros, in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, said she had exhausted all of her options to make the necessary repairs to her home and didnt have insurance. Thank you all for what you are doing, she said. Until you called, nobody was willing to help me. What you are doing is pretty amazing.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Memphis District and Hurricane Ida Recovery Field Office commander, Col. Zachary Miller, said hes optimistic about the potential uses for the new program. If this pilot program works as intended, it could really be a game changer for survivors needing a temporary roof following a major storm event, he said. Disasters can devastate a region but being able to stay in your home while you recover is a win-win for the survivor and the community.

USACE and FEMA will evaluate the program to decide whether it can be used to help people affected by future natural disasters.

View video footage on YouTube.

About Stormseal

Stormseal is a strong polyethylene film that heat-shrinks to cover a damaged structure and stays put until permanent repairs are made. When Stormseal is installed on a damaged roof or wall, the application of heat shrinks the film, enhancing its strength and ensuring a perfect fit to the structure, without damaging any underlying materials. For more information visit http://www.stormseal.com.
"Helping skilled trades, from electricians to general maintenance staff and HVAC technicians to low voltage integrators, figure out how to solve field problems in as little amount of time as possible, and without needing additional truck rolls, is critical."

Today, Griot Technologies Inc. is announcing that veteran technology executive Sean Miller has joined the Griot team as CEO and Co-Founder. Sean is a proven leader with 20 years of experience working with HVAC, general construction, plumbing, electrical, property maintenance, low voltage and security tradesman across companies such as Alarm.com, Generac, Voltec Industries and Belkin WeMo. Sean also brings 10 years of experience leading early-stage technology companies, across remote monitoring, residential smart home and commercial property automation.

Griot is Union Labs first incubated portfolio company, and is built on the thesis that skilled trades are the next frontier for the connected workforce said Chris Kim, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Union Labs. We are extremely excited to have Seans combination of technology expertise and experience working with skilled trades at the helm leading Griot.

Prior to joining Griot, Sean was the President of PointCentral, an Alarm.com subsidiary focused on bringing IoT-powered smart property hardware and services to residential rental properties. During Seans time at PointCentral, the firm was regarded as a smart property pioneer and leader in the overall PropTech space. Before PointCentral, Sean led Global Sales and Business Development for WeMo, Belkins smart home business unit, and launched Mobile Link, an in-house remote monitoring service, while at Generac. Both of these businesses were pioneers in their space, and helped solve problems using novel technologies.

Sean brings an incredible passion, trusted relationships with numerous industry executives, and senior executive leadership experience that uniquely positions him to understand and address the challenges facing small and large skilled trade organizations today. We're excited to welcome Sean to the team! said Nate Williams, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Union Labs.

There are over 11 million skilled trades workers in the United States today. Unfortunately, the need for replacement workers exceeds the need to fill new jobs. Specifically, among the 1.3 million annual skilled trade openings, for each new job in the trades created annually there are 15 openings due to replacements. At this rate, by 2022, the number of U.S. skilled trades jobs is projected to exceed the number of adequately trained workers by 3.4 million. On top of this shortage of new personnel coming into the skilled trades, 70% of service organizations believe theyll be burdened by the knowledge loss of a retiring workforce in the next 5 to 10 years. Because most of these jobs require specialized, often intensive, training, it will take time to address this shortfall. Griot is on a mission to augment their in-field communication and knowledge sharing with modern AI and AR tools, so that skilled trades can be better equipped to get their work done on time and in one trip.

No matter how good the upfront training is, or how far in advance a predictive maintenance model tells a technician of a problem, when a technician goes into the field to service a piece of equipment, there are always some unknowns. said Sean. When those unknowns present a skilled tradesman with a challenge that they dont know how to immediately solve, helping that field technician figure out how to solve their problem in as little amount of time as possible, and without needing additional truck rolls, is critical.

About Griot

Griot (griot.co) is the leading unified communication and knowledge capture tool for skilled trades, helping electricians, plumbers, security system, HVAC, maintenance, access control and low voltage technicians get the knowledge they need to complete a job on time and in one trip.

About Union Labs

UNION Labs is an applied DeepTech Venture seed fund focused on building and backing leading seed-stage startups in Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Autonomy. Founded in 2018 by former August Home executives and serial entrepreneurs Nate Williams and Chris Kim, they unite critical elements of DeepTech via connectivity, insights, and automation to solve real problems in the physical world.

Media contact: info@griot.co
We are very proud to offer our support to Will Aid for another year and it was a very easy decision for us. The scheme provides people with a perfect opportunity to get a professionally written Will, therefore ensuring their wishes are protected after their demise.

London and Essex based law firm, Rainer Hughes, continue to extend their support for Will Aid as they decided to extend their November deadline until the 2nd week of December. During this period, Rainer Hughes and Free Will Aid encourages everyone to have a professionally written Will and make donations to the partner charities.

The firm offers to donate their Will writing fee to these charities, while also providing free Wills for the needy. The clients are encouraged to make these donations directly to Will Aid during this period.

This will be running every week until December 10th. The initiative was first started in the year 1996 and firm has raised well over 41,000 and counting as the proceedings for this year continue.

The money raised is shared between 9 of UKs biggest and best-known charities, namely: ActionAid, British Red Cross, Christian Aid, NSPCC, Save the Children, Sightsavers and Age UK. Will Aid has also recognised Rainer Hughes as one of the highest donating firms in the UK.

Michael Casson, head of Private Client department at Rainer Hughes, mentioned, Its a privilege to continue to be a part of Will Aid as the scheme puts a lot of people as ease. Most people have been putting it off for years and were glad they finally did it.

Theres a misconception that discussing Wills can be a form of tempting fate and that it might raise complications. Everyone should make a Will for those who love them and care for them, so they ensure they leave their affairs in order.

We are very proud to offer our support to Will Aid for another year and it was a very easy decision for us. The scheme provides people with a perfect opportunity to get a professionally written Will, therefore ensuring their wishes are protected after their demise.

Additionally, it allows us to support nine important causes, whose finances have been impacted greatly as a result of Coronavirus. Official statement made by Rainer Hughes.
CGMagazine took the year to bring new initiatives to the magazine, combining CGM Backlot into the main site, along with building out CGM Tech and CGM Family as part of the CGMagazine brand. With this, the editors at CGMagazine have expanded the columns, editorials and interviews the site normally offers. After implementing the new popular column, Parental No-Scope by editor Dayna Eileen, they have seen a large increase in parents reading the site, along with expanding our demographic to see an almost 50/50 split between men and women readers.

2021 was also when CGMagazine held the first annual Brand of the Year awards, bringing the best brands in the gaming, tech and media space and allowing the editors and the public to vote on what brands are doing the most for their respective markets, but also as a whole. In a tight race, CGMagazine awarded the Danish company SteelSeries the award for 2021. CGMagazine plans to expand the awards moving into 2022, giving new companies the opportunity to participate, and expanding how the public can let their voice be heard.

I am thrilled with the direction CGMagazine has taken in 2021, Explained Brendan Frye, EIC of CGMagazine. We have done a lot of exciting things this year, including the new Brand of the Year Awards, expanding our reach and the new columns that only bring more value to our readers. We have big plans for 2022, and I cant wait to reveal them all as the year comes to a close.

With the expanding demographics in 2021, CGMagazine has also looked to increase review coverage, looking at a wider range of movies, technology and games to fit an ever-growing market. With close to over 40,000 readers daily across all media, the team at CGMagazine are confident it will only grow as we move into the holiday season.

Moving from Toronto, CGM is excited to now be a part of the Niagara region. With the schools, talent and industries in the area, it will bring a new perspective to the gaming and tech landscape. With the region home to many indie developers, CGMagazine is ready to tell stories not normally detailed in other gaming and tech magazines.

With the end of the year Best of Buyers Guide soon to be released, and new reviews, features and awards already in the pipeline, including coverage of the latest brands, mobile devices, and the newest AAA gaming experiences, CGMagazine has big plans for the rest of 2021, and 2022.

About Comics and Gaming Magazine

Originating as a monthly Canadian print publication in 2010, Comics & Gaming Magazine has since expanded to include a globally-distributed digital magazine, as well as a thriving website; all of which seek to explore the culture and news of comics, gaming, tech and film as they relate to a mature audience. With comics and gaming now at the forefront of media popularity, CGMagazine endeavours to better connect our readers with their hobbies, be that through topical news, reviews, interviews with industry veterans and newcomers alike; providing insight into these mediums influences on and impact on our culture.
The work submitted this year represented an abundance of ingenuity, empathy and innovation, demonstrating how brands have reimagined how to best engage todays consumers according to Greg Stuart, CEO of MMA Global

Ally Financial and Mediacoms Animal Crossing wins Best in Show for SMARTIES X and Ad Council, Brady, and McKinneys End Family Fire - No Extra Life Campaign wins North America Best in Show

The work submitted this year represented an abundance of ingenuity, empathy, and innovation, demonstrating how brands have reimagined how to best engage todays consumers according to Greg Stuart, CEO of MMA Global

Celebrating the most imaginative and innovative work that marketing talent and agency teams have created over the past 2 years to drive business impact, MMA GLOBAL announced the winners for the 2021 SMARTIES X and SMARTIES North America Awards during the Smarties Unplugged Virtual event, November 9-10.

SMARTIES X is the worlds first marketing award recognizing innovation. It is the highest achievement across the globe honoring and awarding outstanding innovation resulting in significant business impact for brands, agencies, media companies and technology providers. NORTH AMERICA SMARTIES honors the most effective modern marketing in the United States and Canada.

The winners were selected from among hundreds of submissions across more than 20 countries and were initially evaluated by the SMARTIES Screening Council of over 100 marketing professionals representing leading brands, agencies, and technology enablers across the globe to determine the shortlist. These shortlisted campaigns were then reviewed in virtual jury sessions by the MMAs independent jury, which is comprised by some of the best marketing minds in the industry led by jury co-chairs, Danielle Koffer, Chief Client Officer, Mindshare and Amy Martin Ziegenfuss, SVP, Global Enterprise, and Brand Marketing, Hilton Worldwide.

Mindshare was a top SMARTIES winner overall, with 28 SMARTIES X Awards representing Unilever, Pepsi, Kotex, Dove, Castrol, KFC, Nautilus and more.

Two remarkable campaigns earned the biggest accolade of the Award Program receiving Best in Show honors.

SMARTIES X Best in Show winner Ally Financial tackled a way to reach their COVID-Quarantined customers in a never been done before way. Animal Crossing, a gaming app, made learning financial literacy fun and found an interactive and effective solution to motivate people to adopt smarter financial behaviors.

SMARTIES North America Best in Show winner, Ad Council, Brady, and McKinney focused on the increase of U.S. sales of guns and ammunition, and COVID-19 regulations leading to loneliness, isolation, and despair. They created End Family Fire campaign, a video PSA, print, and OOH gun awareness campaign promoting gun safety to improve gun storage practices, thereby helping to prevent gun suicides.

Categories for this years awards span across technology, media and marketing which distinguishes work that really stood out, made an impact for their brands, and are amongst the most innovative and forward-thinking leaders in the marketing industry today. With an expanded eligibility window - SMARTIES X, honors were given to work that first appeared in public between January 2020  July 2021, and SMARTIES North America for work between June 2020  July 2021. To see the full list of Gold, Silver and Bronze SMARTIES Award recipients visit the 2021 SMARTIES Winners Gallery.

The MMA is pleased that in the ten years since we first established The SMARTIES Award in North America, its become a global platform that is increasingly recognized for its emphasis on the future of marketing, consistent with the mission of the MMA to help to shape the future of marketing. Increasingly, we are recognizing that the use of data, technology, and analytics have become more essential to winning entries in addition to delivering superior experiences, meaningful utility, and attention-grabbing creativity. Louis Paskalis, President and Chief Operating Officer of MMA Global

About the MMA:

Comprised of over 800-member companies globally and 15 regional offices, the MMA is the only marketing trade association that, brings together the full ecosystem of marketers, martech, and media companies working collaboratively to architect the future of marketing, while relentlessly delivering growth today. Led by CMOs, the MMA helps marketers lead the imperative for marketing change  in ways that enable future breakthroughs while optimizing current activities. The MMA is committed to science and questioning and believes that creating marketing impact is steeped in constructively challenging the status quo encouraging business leaders to aggressively adopt proven, peer-driven, and scientific best practices, without compromise. The MMA invests millions of dollars in rigorous research to enable marketers with unassailable truth and actionable tools. By enlightening, empowering, and enabling marketers, the MMA shapes future success, while also propelling business growth.

Members include 1-800-Flowers.com, Adobe, Activision Blizzard, Ally Financial, AppsFlyer, AT&T, Bank of America, Campbells, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chobani, Choice Hotels, Clear Channel Outdoor, Colgate Palmolive, CVS Health, Diageo, Dunkin Brands, eBay, E*TRADE, Ford, General Motors Company, Google, GSK, Hilton Worldwide, IBM Watson Advertising, Kargo, Kroger, LOreal, Marriott International, Match Group, Mastercard, McDonalds, Merkle, Meta, MillerCoors, NBCU, Neustar, Peloton, Pinterest, Roku, Salesforce, Samsung, Snap Inc., Target Inc., The Coca-Cola Company, The Walt Disney Company, T- Mobile, Twitch, Twitter, Uber, Unilever, Universal McCann, Vibes, Visa, Walmart, Waze, Yahoo! and many more. The MMAs global headquarters are located in New York with regional operations Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA), and Latin America (LATAM). For more information see http://www.mmaglobal.com.
"BLR is known for our regulatory expertise within the US market. As we evaluated international content providers, it was important that we found a partner with the same high standards for quality and accuracy."

BLR, a division of Simplify Compliance, is excited to announce a partnership with Enhesa, a global environment, health, and safety (EHS) compliance content provider. This new partnership will expand available content coverage for BLRs customer base and support organizations in their journey to globalize regulatory compliance and harmonize their operations to make the world a safer, more sustainable place.

Enhesas Global Head of Alliances, Shannon Summers says, Our new partnership with BLR is exciting for the entire Enhesa team. Together with BLR and Simplify Compliance, we are very much looking forward to helping even more global organizations comply with confidence.

Enhesas global regulatory content will be directly accessible via BLRs EHS platform, EHS Hero. This adds value to the already powerful EHS software providing regulatory compliance and expertise, tools built-for-action, intuitive training, reporting and more in a comprehensive EHS management solution.

BLR is known for our regulatory expertise within the US market. As we evaluated international content providers, it was important that we found a partner with the same high standards for quality and accuracy. Enhesa exceeded expectations in both of those categories, and we are thrilled to be partnering with them to deliver additional value to our customers, says Chief Product Officer, Dave Cella.

To learn more about BLR, visit https://www.blr.com/.

To learn more about Enhesa, visit https://www.enhesa.com/.

About Simplify Compliance

Simplify Compliance, a Leeds Equity Partners-backed portfolio company, helps its customers learn, comply, and succeed by providing mission-critical regulatory and business information, analysis, and tools. Serving a range of industries, including health care, human capital management, and communications, Simplify Compliance provides timesaving products and solutions that help businesses and their employees monitor compliance, optimize financial performance, and create and implement best practices. Visit https://simplifycompliance.com.

About Business and Learning Resources (BLR)

As a division of Simplify Compliance, BLR is an industry-leading knowledge provider with more than 40 years of experience in the human capital management; environment, health, and safety; leadership development; and legal markets. BLR provides innovative education solutions designed to help businesses deliver consistent training, achieve compliance, and maximize efficiencies in employee workflows, resulting in measurable performance and financial improvements. Visit https://www.blr.com.

About Enhesa

Enhesa is a partner to multinational corporations that want to help make the world a safer, more sustainable place. We help our clients be true and trustworthy contributing members of society with comprehensive EHS and product compliance intelligence. Equipping them with essential regulatory knowledge on emerging and evolving EHS trends, we empower businesses to be relevant and resolute in taking care of the environment, health, and safety of their collectiveglobally and locally. Our mission is to enable collaboration across the global regulatory ecosystem, empowering businesses. Visit https://www.enhesa.com/.
Crimson Cup Coffee Shop West Chester Opens November 15 inside Telhio's new Beckett Ridge Branch We are excited to bring our award-winning coffee and terrific espresso drinks to a new Ohio market. Were also thrilled to work with Telhio, which shares our commitment to consumers and community.  Greg Ubert, Founder and President, Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea

Columbus-based Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea is expanding into Southwest Ohio through a unique partnership with Telhio Credit Union.

Crimson Cup Coffee Shop West Chester opens Monday, November 15 inside Telhios new Beckett Ridge Branch, 8249 Market Place Drive in West Chester, Ohio.

We are excited to bring our award-winning coffee and terrific espresso drinks to a new Ohio market, said Founder and President Greg Ubert. Were also thrilled to work with Telhio, which shares our commitment to consumers and community.

Partnering with Crimson Cup is a natural fit for Telhio, said Karen Daniels, Chief Retail Officer, Telhio Credit Union. A coffee shop was a perfect way to provide spaces for our members to connect, to bring our community together and to allow us to provide convenient banking services.

We believe this new banking environment will enable us to spend more time with our members and the community as a whole.

Although merging a coffee shop into a credit union might seem unusual, Ubert thinks it will be a winning combination for both organizations.

We believe the convenience of picking up your favorite coffee drink and a snack while taking care of banking needs will appeal to time-pressed consumers, he said.

For those who have more time, ample patio seating and meeting areas offer space to connect with colleagues, friends and neighbors.

Both the credit union and coffee shop offer drive-thru windows, allowing customers to complete touch-free transactions.

The new shop serves Crimson Cups full menu of award-winning hot, iced and frozen espresso drinks, including mochas, lattes and cappuccinos. Customers can also choose hot and iced tea, cold-brewed coffee, hot chocolate, fruit smoothies and other custom drinks.

Inside, a brew bar with a Modbar pour over module speeds preparation of hand-brewed craft coffees. The bar also has a tap for dispensing Crimson Cup Nitro, a frothy cold-brewed coffee infused with nitrogen bubbles.

Sweet treats, light snacks and lunch options round out the menu.

Located in Hutzelman Square, Telhios 6,281-square-foot Beckett Ridge Branch was designed by Design Collective and built by Shaffer Construction.

Crimson Cups Steve Bayless designed the coffee space. A Trainer and Project Manager for the roasters 7 Steps to Success coffee shop startup program, he has helped open over 140 independent coffee shops.

The West Chester location joins four other company-owned Crimson Cup Coffee Shops in Columbus and Tallmadge, Ohio. In 2020, the company also opened a flagship store, Crimson, in Easton Town Center, Columbus.

At opening, the West Chester coffee shop will employ 12 under supervision of Coffee Shop Manager Hayley Forney.

Initially, the coffee shop will be open 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Our hours may change as local coffee drinkers let us know when they want us to be here for them, Forney said.

Telhio and Crimson Cup plan ribbon cutting ceremonies November 29.

About Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea

Columbus, Ohio, coffee roaster Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea is a 2020 Good Food Award winner, 2019 Golden Bean Champion for Small Franchise/Chain Roaster and Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year. Since 1991, Crimson Cup has roasted sustainably sourced craft coffee for consumers and wholesale coffee customers.

Through its 7 Steps to Success coffee shop startup program, the company teaches entrepreneurs to run independent coffeehouses in their local communities. By developing a coffee shop business plan, entrepreneurs gain insight into how much it costs to open a coffee shop.

Crimson Cup also supports life-enriching projects through its Friend2Farmer initiatives, which promote the education, health, sustainability and economic growth of small-plot coffee farmers and their communities.

Crimson Cup coffee is available through over 350 independent coffeehouses, grocers, college and universities, restaurants and food service operations across 30 states, Guam and Bangladesh. The company also operates several Crimson Cup Coffee Shops and a new Crimson retail flagship store. To learn more, visit crimsoncup.com, or follow the company on Facebook and Instagram.


Cybereason, the leader in operation-centric attack protection and Nuspire, a leading Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) that is revolutionizing the cybersecurity experience, today announced a partnership to deliver businesses a joint solution combining the award-winning Cybereason Defense Platform and Nuspires advanced managed security operations and threat hunting services.

Remote workforces and endpoints distributed across multiple locations create a fertile environment for todays highly skilled adversaries said JP Gonzalez, Vice President of Product at Nuspire. Adding Cybereason to our managed EDR portfolio gives joint customers an edge in the fight against ransomware attacks, zero-day threats and other risks, by combining robust endpoint monitoring capabilities with resilient, around the clock threat hunting and remediation

As part of the partnership, Cybereason and Nuspire will offer joint customers a fully-managed Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution powered by the Cybereason Defense Platform. With this service integrated into myNuspire, Nuspires security experts automatically respond to incidents, help clients understand what technology best suits their organizations needs, and receive full visibility of their security program through one tool.

Partnering with Nuspire will allow their defenders to rapidly identify Malicious Operations (Malop) in their networks, giving Nuspire security professionals visibility into full cyberattacks across organizations, said Stephan Tallent, Vice President, MSSP Services, North America, Cybereason. Combining Cybereasons operations-centric EDR with Nuspires top-notch security operations team enables defenders to combat sophisticated and persistent threats to our mutual customers organizations, including the ransomware scourge.

ABOUT NUSPIRE

Nuspire is a managed security services provider (MSSP), offering managed security services (MSS), managed detection and response (MDR), endpoint detection and response (EDR) that supports best in breed EDR solutions, and cybersecurity consulting services (CSC) that includes incident readiness and response, threat modeling, digital forensics, technology optimization, posture assessments and more. Our self-service, technology-agnostic platform, myNuspire, allows greater visibility into your entire security program. Powered by the self-healing always on Nuspire Cyber X Platform (CXP), myNuspire will help CISOs alleviate the pain associated with tech sprawl, provide intelligence driven recommendations, solve for alert fatigue and help their clients become more secure over time. Our deep bench of cybersecurity experts, award-winning threat intelligence and three 247 security operations centers (SOCs) detect, respond, and remediate advanced cyber threats. Our client base spans thousands of enterprises from midsize to large enterprises that span across multiple industries and geographic footprints. For more information, visit http://www.nuspire.com and follow us on LinkedIn @Nuspire.

About Cybereason

Cybereason is the champion for todays cyber defenders, providing operation-centric attack protection that unifies security from the endpoint, to the enterprise, to everywhere the battle moves. The Cybereason Defense Platform combines the industrys top-rated AI-powered detection and response (EDR and XDR), next-gen antivirus (NGAV), Anti-Ransomware Protection and Proactive Threat Hunting to deliver context-rich analysis of every stage of a MalOp (malicious operation). Cybereason is a privately held, international company headquartered in Boston with customers in more than 40 countries.

Learn more: https://www.cybereason.com/

Follow us: Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Media Contacts:

Bill Keeler

Senior Director, Global Public Relations

Cybereason

bill.keeler@cybereason.com

(929) 259-3261
Wolfpack Publishing has acquired the rights to David Boops "The Drowned Horse Chronicle - Volume One: The Forrest Years.", a collection of Weird Westerns tales as part of his ongoing Drowned Horse Chronicle series. Jake Bray closed the deal on behalf of Wolfpack.

These stories will have an episodic narrative that unfolds as part of the Drowned Horse Chronicle saga, which will be set between 1864 and 1871 in the fictional town of Drowned Horse, AZ. It will be published in mid-2022 with two additional collections to follow in the future.

David Boop is a Denver-based award-winning author and bestselling editor of several weird western anthologies starting with Straight Outta Tombstone. Previously, Boop has been an editor-in-chief, film critic, and journalist. Currently, Boop teaches creative writing and English part-time. He has been writing the Drowned Horse Chronicle since 2007.

Mike Bray, President and CEO of Wolfpack Publishing, said, Signing an author of David Boops talent demonstrates Wolfpacks commitment to bringing our readers the best fiction on the market. I know his unique style will appeal to our customers.

David Boop said, I'm blessed to be part of the Wolfpack family. I look forward to getting 'weird' with them. The Drowned Horse Chronicle has been waiting for the right home, and I feel Wolfpack is the perfect place to bring these stories together."

About Wolfpack Publishing

Founded in 2013, Wolfpack Publishing is an award-winning independent publishing company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company was named as one of the fastest-growing independent publishers of 2020 by Publishers Weekly and one of Inc. Magazines fastest-growing private companies in 2021. Wolfpack Publishing embraces the opportunities created by online bookstores and their limitless virtual bookshelves. The company is also expanding its presence in the paperback market through a distribution deal with Impact, a subsidiary of Ingram Publisher Service.

The Wolfpack Publishing family of imprints include CKN Christian Publishing, Wise Wolf Books (teen/young-adult) and Rough Edges Press (mystery/crime/thrillers). Please visit http://www.wolfpackpublishing.com for more information.
Daily Hope for Todays Christian Woman Devotional: a potent arrangement of motivating devotions. Daily Hope for Todays Christian Woman Devotional is the creation of published author Dr. Bukky Ojuola, a board-certified pediatrician who is passionate about nurturing children and encouraging women to discover and live out Gods plan and purpose for their lives.

Dr. Ojuola shares, The King had spoken, Kill all the Hebrew baby boys. Pharaoh was clear in his instructions to all the midwives in Egypt, and no one would dare to go against him. When Puah and Shiphrah received the orders, they were afraid for themselves and their clients. They had a decision to makefollow Pharaohs orders or follow their God-given conscience. As licensed professional midwives, they refused to go with the governments directives. These brave women took their stand against an unrighteous decree and prevailed because they chose the fear of God over the fear of man.

As a twenty-first century woman, I wondered if my experiences today are similar to what Puah and Shiphrah encountered in their time. Do I share any traits with other women in the Bible, like Jochebed, Bathsheba, Sarah, Mary, and Martha? Would any of them have advice for what were going through right now? I want to share with you what these women have taught me as I met them through the pages of scripture.

It is my deepest desire and prayer that as you use this devotional you will be encouraged, challenged, and inspired to overcome every obstacle and become the unique and victorious woman God called you to be.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Dr. Bukky Ojuolas new book will challenge and encourage women of any background to rise up in faith.

Dr. Ojuola presents a compelling and articulate opportunity for spiritual realignment and growth.

Consumers can purchase Daily Hope for Todays Christian Woman Devotional at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Daily Hope for Todays Christian Woman Devotional, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Dr. Baker supplies us with that deep industry knowledge and an almost staggering wealth of experience in caregiving, furthering our reach in the essential industries of Academia and Medicine.

SafetyStratus, the most user-friendly provider of Environmental, Health, Safety (EHS) software, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Donald Baker as a member of the SafetyStratus Advisory Board. In this role, Baker, who will be based out of Colorado, brings his many years of medical expertise and teaching aptitude to further solidify SafetyStratus as the enterprise EHS software leading the field in shaping relevant solutions by learning from industry experts.

Prior to joining SafetyStratus, Baker was Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, and was associated with the emergency medicine residency at Osceola Regional Medical Center. After graduating with distinction from medical school at the University of Alberta, he spent his internship in internal medicine before accepting a residency in diagnostic radiology. He then transitioned to family medicine followed by emergency medicine, experiencing global opportunities to advance in both fields, including holding the various positions of practicing physician, hospitalist, and medical director. Bringing with him over 45 years of experience in the medical profession, Baker is remaining cognizant of various modalities of care by lending his expertise as a telemedicine provider.

In his new role with SafetyStratus, Baker will advise on the needs of healthcare and medical research initiatives with an emphasis on assisting developers in building out SafetyStratus unified SaaS platform to be continually responsive to the changing requirements in medicine and academia.

Ive seen SafetyStratus grow in the EHS market and evolve to address challenges for so many individual organizations needs in research. Baker said, SafetyStratus has the drive to keep progressing. The commitment to evidence-based strategies and customer-centric mindset that underlie SafetyStratus development strongly resonate with me and I am proud to have the opportunity to contribute knowledge from my own journey.

Cary Usrey, Vice President of Operations at SafetyStratus, said, An essential piece of our plans for SafetyStratus future has been establishing partnerships with industry experts. The invested effort we have put into these key relationships over the last several years solidifies SafetyStratus position as leading the enterprise EHS SaaS market for usability. Dr. Baker supplies us with that deep industry knowledge and an almost staggering wealth of experience in caregiving, furthering our reach in the essential industries of Academia and Medicine. We are so glad to have him on our team.

About SafetyStratus

==================

SafetyStratus is designed by EHS professionals for EHS professionals. Our multi-level technology platform brings user-friendly, practical innovation to Environmental, Health, and Safety management in Academia, Healthcare, Construction, and Manufacturing. Voted best-in-class, our aim is to always be learning. We save lives and the environment by successfully integrating knowledgeable people, sustainable processes, and transformative technology. SafetyStratus has headquarters located in Plano, TX with an employee base of industry experts and leaders, spanning the globe. We offer 24/7 coverage from our ROI-focused services team equipped with digitally transformative technology applications for clientele support.

For more information visit http://www.safetystratus.com.
Chantal Patton, host of Growing Up Without Borders, shown here with husband Tyler and their three daughters. It's a scary statistic that less than half of parents are going to follow through with vaccinations. We really have to work with parents to understand the importance of the vaccines, review and reassure them how safe these drugs are -- Dr. Cornelius Ferreira, Nuvance Health

As the holidays quickly approach, consumers continue to anguish over their decision to travel this holiday season or spend yet another year grounded in place. As kid-sized vaccine doses become readily available for children ages 5-12 and the U.S. has re-opened its borders to millions of vaccinated international travelers, questions still weigh on the minds of families across the country. Will parents actually vaccinate their kids? How likely are unvaccinated kids to potentially infect others, especially in close quarters such as airplanes? And, in light of recent events involving Southwest and American Airlines, how prepared is the airline industry to handle the anticipated increase in passenger traffic this holiday season?

ExpertFlyer recently went One-on-One with Dr. Cornelius Ferreira, Senior Vice President and System Chair for Primary Care at Nuvance Health, and Chantal Patton, host of the Growing Up Without Borders travel vlog, to get some medical insight and consumer perspectives on the general safety (and potential dangers) of traveling with family, including young children, this holiday season.

On November 2nd, the CDC gave the final sign-off to Pfizer's kid-size COVID-19 shot. A milestone that the travel industry no doubt hopes will encourage more parents to travel with their young children this holiday season. While optimism is justified, it's not necessarily assured -- at least according to a study from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Released in October, the study found that less than half of the 1,700 participating parents would actually vaccinate their kids.

"It's a somewhat scary statistic that less than half of parents are going to follow through with vaccinations," said Dr. Ferreira who, in addition to his position as SVP and System Chair for Primary Care, is also in charge of Nuvance Healths Covid-19 Vaccine Taskforce. "We know today that vaccines, whether it's COVID-19, polio, or influenza, save lives. When we look at the millions of doses administered across the United States and over seven billion doses given worldwide, we know that these vaccines are safe and highly effective. So, we really have to work with parents to understand the importance of the vaccines, review and reassure them how safe these drugs are, Dr. Ferreira added during his video podcast with ExpertFlyer.

Chantal Patton certainly understands the reservations many families are having about getting their children vaccinated with the Covid vaccine, but she and her family really wanted to begin traveling again and the only safe and relatively convenient way to do it was to get everyone vaccinated. We had reservations at first, but since we are eager to start traveling again, we wanted to give ourselves the best protection against Covid, said Patton who believes she and her family contracted Covid during a cruise in Dubai in December 2019. Covid Toes and daily headaches were some of the extended effects of having Covid but they seemed to dissipate following vaccination. What is crazy is that after my first vaccine, my headaches disappeared, and I havent had COVID toes since, nor have the girls.

According to Dr. Ferreira, debunking some of the myths that have flourished on the internet and social media over the last several months is crucial. "We really have to look at the science to understand that these vaccines are safe. And the reason we've made so much headway against the COVID-19 pandemic is because we were able to administer vaccinations so quickly and effectively over the last 12 months."

As a family living a global nomadic lifestyle, Patton recommends checking travel and local rules and regulations for every country you plan on visiting individually. Many countries grant entrance to fully vaccinated passengers regardless of their age. Also, keep in mind that children rarely show any Covid symptoms, so to keep everyone safe, especially elderly and immunocompromised individuals, its best to have children take a PCR test.

"What we have learned through the pandemic is the importance of the things that we've known in healthcare for many decades," says Dr. Ferreira. "We know that masks are extremely beneficial to help with droplet spread prevention and I tell parents to make sure their kids are masked when they go out. The second piece is we have to make sure we follow hand hygiene. And finally, keeping a safe distance still remains one of the most crucial factors as we try to avoid coming into contact with ill people." But how does that work on a plane when youre separated by inches, not feet?

"Most viruses or germs don't spread easily on airplanes because of the way that air is circulated and the way that air is filtered on airplanes, Dr. Ferreira explained. "On a recent trip I was so happy to see there were actually big signs on the plane that said, 'HEPA filtration in place, air being circulated every two minutes.' So I think the airline industry has done a really good job of trying to secure and keep us as safe as possible on those flights. In addition, the air volume in the airline cabins are refreshed every two to four minutes because of the HEPA filtration system that they have in place.

To read the full story and listen to the entire One-on-One interview with Dr. Cornelius Ferreira, visit ExpertFlyers blog.

About Nuvance Health

Nuvance Health is a family of award-winning nonprofit hospitals and healthcare professionals in the Hudson Valley and western Connecticut. Nuvance Health combines highly skilled physicians, advanced facilities and technology and compassionate caregivers dedicated to providing quality care across a variety of services including the Cancer Institute, Heart and Vascular Institute, Neuroscience Institute and orthopedics, primary care and surgery.

Nuvance Health has convenient hospitals and outpatient locations including Danbury Hospital and its New Milford campus, Norwalk Hospital and Sharon Hospital in Connecticut; Northern Dutchess Hospital, Putnam Hospital and Vassar Brothers Medical Center in New York; and many primary and specialty care practices including The Heart Center  a leading provider of cardiology care  and three urgent care offices. Nuvance Health affiliates offer non-acute care including Home Care and the Thompson House for rehabilitation and skilled nursing services. Visit nuvancehealth.org for more information. TTY: 1-800-421-1220.

About Growing Up Without Borders

To watch the adventures of the Patton family, visit Growing Up Without Borders.

About ExpertFlyer.com

Each month, ExpertFlyer's One-on-One blog goes face-to-face with the travel industry's leading decision makers to discuss and address topics relevant to many of today's business and frequent travelers.

ExpertFlyer.com was conceived and created by an eclectic team consisting of a veteran elite tier frequent flyer, an airline captain and corporate travel manager, and information technology professionals to deliver a 24/7 real time powerful air travel information service. The company provides its subscribers and corporate travel managers alike with a complete, concise, and efficient way to access the ever-changing details of worldwide air travel information. For more information, please visit expertflyer.com.

Stuck in the middle seat again? Download the free Seat Alerts app from ExpertFlyer and get the window or aisle seat without hassle or frustration.
Attorney Allan Parker To the best of our knowledge, Amicus Hannah is the first former frozen embryo who is now an adult to file an Amicus Curiae Brief at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court on December 1, 2021, is scheduled to hear a landmark case by a Formerly Frozen Embryo, Hannah S., now age 22. Hannah argues Roe v. Wade Should be Overturned, according to her attorney Allan Parker

Allan Parker said, "One of the issues in Dobbs concerns viability. To the best of our knowledge, Amicus Hannah is the first former frozen embryo who is now an adult to file an Amicus Curiae Brief at the U.S. Supreme Court." Click here to see the brief: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-1392/185061/20210727165822368_41029%20pdf%20Parker%20II.pdf

Parker stated, "Hannah S., who began her life through in vitro fertilization is asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. She supports the Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks. She was formed outside her genetic mother's womb and sustained in a frozen state outside her genetic mothers womb, albeit with artificial aid in Roes language of viability, for over two years.

Hannah's adoptive parents are John and Marlene S. They were the first couple to go through an agency adoption process to voluntarily "adopt" another couples human frozen embryo as their child. Marlene had Hannah (as a frozen embryo) thawed and placed in her womb, carried the baby to term, and gave birth."

Marlene is both the birth mother and the adoptive mother. She and her husband raised their daughter, Hannah, into the woman she is today. Previously, the Adoption Best Practices used to adopt a child such as background checks, home study, financial review, etc., had not been applied to obtaining a frozen embryo. Hannah is now an adult. She is a graduate student pursuing a Master's Degree in Social Work. With her degree, Hannah plans to help others, especially orphans, adopted children, and families seeking options regarding adoption.

Their Amicus Curiae Brief reveals to the Court that the concept of viability has been extended all the way back to fertilization by the modern scientific advance called in vitro fertilization. Even Roe said that states like Mississippi could protect human life once it is viable. Roe defined "viable" as "potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid."

Hannah S. and her parents are conducting a national media tour about the historic U.S. Supreme Court hearing set for December 1, 2021.

About Allan Parker:

Allan Parker, President of The Justice Foundation, was lead counsel for Norma McCorvey, formerly "Roe" of Roe v. Wade, from 2000 to 2012, and Sandra Cano, the "Doe" of Doe v. Bolton, until 2014 in their efforts to overturn the two landmark cases that brought legalized abortion to America.
We announced a tender for the development of a Flutter application, then we studied the portfolio of companies, relevant experience, and cost. What I liked most about Surf was that it was not too lazy to make a demo from layouts and offered us a reasonable price."

Rosbank Business is a banking app created by Rosbank for their corporate clients. The Smart Bank concept that lies at the heart of the app, presents a center for solving any banking-related issues and needs of the banks clients.

The first version of a universal application for legal entities was released by the bank early in 2019 and covered the basic functionality. Then, as the app grew in popularity with clients, the bank decided to speed up releasing new features and chose Flutter as a technology capable of accelerating and facilitating further growth of their app.

Flutter is a cross-platform software development kit (SDK) used for crafting apps. The major Flutter advantage lies in using a single code base for Android and iOS and, consequently, saving up to 50% of the cost and time. This results in decreasing time to market and expanding market reach for each platform. Flutter also delivers excellent performance and high quality animations due to the possibilities of Dart, a relatively simple and highly efficient Google-developed language.

We announced a tender for the development of a Flutter application, then we studied the portfolio of companies, relevant experience, and cost. What I liked most about Surf was that it was not too lazy to make a demo from layouts and offered us a reasonable price. We did a really great job as a single product team, Andrey Davydov, Head of Mobile, Rosbank Corporate Digital.

The design of a new app was created by Rosbank. Surf task was to study it from the point of view of business logic and adjust it for the format and structure of the server data.

The tight deadlines did not allow developing the backend for a new app from scratch so the existing backend was used to run some services. To make the interaction correct and smooth, Surf integrated a middleware server which is a layer to connect the new mobile app with both the old and the new backend.

The Surf team finished the development of the new app first version in 2020. The Rosbank team took the project into their own hands and continued developing the app in-house.

The transfer of the project from one team to another took about two months. At the first stage, the banks developers closely interacted with the Surf team taking part in reviews and feature releases based on the adjusted processes and flow practiced by Surf. In parallel, the bank was setting up CI/CD to facilitate the development process.

In 2021, the Rosbank Business app was awarded Gold as Best App for Financial/Insurance Company by Tagline Awards which is the largest digital-competition in Europe for the most innovative and high-quality projects. Rosbank Business case study (https://surf.dev/cases/rosbank/) gives a more detailed story of the app development told by Surf including key challenges and their solution.

About Surf

For over 10 years Surf has been developing flagship mobile applications - native and with Flutter - for market leaders and startups. Among their clients: KFC, Mars, Yandex, Magnit, SAP, Zenit bank. Surf is the right team when a business has already tested MVP and plans to create a large-scale product, or wants to be the first in the industry to use the successful experience of other industries, or prepares to create a large-scale product that changes people's lives for the better. Learn more details about Surf projects at https://surf.dev/cases/.

About Rosbank

Rosbank is a universal bank, part of Societe Generale Group. Strategy of Societe Generale is focused on further improvement of client service and maintenance of leadership in innovation, capturing growth through business development, increased synergies, and delivery of sustainable profitability.

Rosbank serves more than 5 mln individual customers in more than 60 regions of Russia. The banks regional network numbers around 250 outlets and more than 37 thousand ATMs of partner network, including 1500 of Rosbanks own ATMs. The Bank of Russia included Rosbank in the list of 13 systemically important banks (SIBs).

Rosbank has been assigned highest credit ratings by National rating agencies ACRA AAA(RU) and RAEX (Expert RA) ruAAA. The Bank also has country ceiling ratings by international rating agencies Fitch Ratings (BBB) and Moodys Investors Service (Baa3). Rosbank is in TOP-3 in the most reliable banks ranking according to Forbes magazine in 2021. Rosbank is one of the top 10 largest Russian banks according to The Banker magazine. Rosbank L'Hermitage Private Banking won the SPEAR's Russia Wealth Management Awards 2020 in the category "Best Foreign Bank in the Russian Federation". Rosbank Depository (SGSS Russia) is recognized as the best in the categories "Client Service Quality" and "Market Leader" among all European countries with emerging economies (Emerging Markets) according to Global Custodian.

For more information visit http://www.rosbank.ru
IT World Awards by GLOBEE The IT World Awards are open to all Information Technology and Cyber Security organizations from all over the world and their end-users of products and services

The Globee Awards organizer of the worlds premier business awards programs and business ranking lists is now accepting nominations and entries for the 2022 IT World Awards honoring achievements and recognitions in the information technology and cyber security industries worldwide.

IT industrys premier excellence awards program, IT World Awards honors achievements in every facet of the information technology and cyber security industries. This annual industry and peers program now has several major sections making this one of the most and only complete IT recognitions and achievements award programs in the world. There are many categories for which your organization and the people behind its success can be nominated. Categories are classified under the following groups:



Company-Organization Awards categories

Corporate Communications and Public Relations Awards categories

Creative, Social and Traditional Media Awards categories

Customer Service & Support Awards categories

Best Deployments and Customer Success of the Year Awards categories

Executive & Professional Awards categories

Chief Technology Officers Awards categories

Human Resources Awards categories

Information Technology Users Awards categories

Marketing Information Technology Awards categories

New Product & Service Awards categories

Product Development and Engineering Awards categories

Sales and Business Development Awards categories

COVID-19 Business Response Awards categories

Learn more about the 2022 IT World Awards and how to nominate here: https://globeeawards.com/it-world-awards/

A worldwide judging panel of executives and professionals representing a wide spectrum of industries will determine the winners. Winners will be presented and honored in a virtual ceremony attended by the finalists, winners, judges, and industry peers from all over the world. Industry experts and end-users of information technology products and services can participate in the judging process.

Apply here to participate as a judge and an industry expert to help decide the winners: https://globeeawards.com/it-world-awards/judges/

Stay posted and read success stories of organizations by subscribing to the Globee Newsletter: https://globeeawards.com/subscribe/

IT World Awards will also recognize Chief Technology Officers from all over the world for their achievements in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, IT Cloud/SaaS, IT Hardware, IT Hybrid, IT Services, IT Software, Security Cloud/SaaS, Security Hardware, Security Hybrid, Security Services, Security Software, and Telecommunications.

A special category group for startups of the year will include the achievements of new startups formed since 2018 in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, IT Cloud/SaaS, IT Hardware, IT Hybrid, IT Services, IT Software, Security Cloud/SaaS, Security Hardware, Security Hybrid, Security Services, Security Software, and Telecommunications.

About the Globee Awards

Globee Awards are conferred in eleven programs and competition: the American Best in Business Awards, Business Excellence Awards (Best Employers), CEO World Awards, Communications Excellence Awards, Customer Sales & Service World Awards, Cyber Security Global Excellence Awards, Disruptor Company Awards, Golden Bridge Awards, International Best in Business Awards, IT World Awards, and Women World Awards. Learn more about the Globee Awards at https://globeeawards.com

Follow Globee Awards on twitter https://twitter.com/globeeawards

All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Blue Zone Realty International Blue Zone Realty International, a member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, is a full service, boutique real estate agency, located in Costa Rica.

Blue Zone Realty International, a member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, is a full service, boutique real estate agency, located in Costa Rica. Our award-winning firm offers professional real estate services, custom tailored to each of our discerning clients. Our concierge-style service ensures that each of our property seekers are presented with the options that best fit their needs, and their lifestyle.

At Blue Zone Realty International, our team of dedicated representatives believe that each client deserves personal, confidential service. Once we have been able to determine what our buyer is looking for, we make it our top priority to search through all of the available listings, and to present our valued client with only the options that best meet their unique criteria. Using our vast network of brokers across Costa Rica, our team will secure the picture-perfect home for you, all the while protecting your privacy.

Whether it is a sprawling mountain top mansion overlooking the vast pacific, a modern jungle retreat, or a surf-side luxury condominium, you can be assured that your ideal property will be perfectly suited to exceed your expectations. Blue Zone Realty International offers exceptional local expertise, with a global reach.

Visit Tim Fenton's Haute Residence Profile:

https://www.hauteresidence.com/member/blue-zone-realty-international/

ABOUT HAUTE RESIDENCE

Designed as a partnership-driven luxury real estate portal, Haute Residence connects its affluent readers with top real estate professionals, while offering the latest in real estate news, showcasing the worlds most extraordinary residences on the market and sharing expert advice from its knowledgeable and experienced real estate partners. The invitation-only luxury real estate network, which partners with just one agent in every market, unites a distinguished collective of leading real estate agents and brokers and highlights the most extravagant properties in leading markets around the globe for affluent buyers, sellers, and real estate enthusiasts. HauteResidence.com has grown to be the number one news source for million-dollar listings, high-end residential developments, celebrity real estate, and more.

Access all of this information and more by visiting http://www.hauteresidence.com
Photo Credit: Ed Wonsek

Classes begin this month at the new Annie E. Fales Elementary School, the first net-positive-energy public school built in Massachusetts. Designed by HMFH Architects and built by the construction management firm Gilbane Building Company, the 400-student elementary school in Westborough, MA will perform beyond the net-zero energy standard, producing more energy annually than required to power the all-electric school.

The Fales School achieves this ambitious target by consuming far less energy  less than two-thirds the consumption of a code compliant building  while also harnessing renewable energy sources on-site including geothermal heating and cooling and a rooftop solar array system. Combined, these sustainability initiatives are expected to generate a 10% annual surplus that the Town of Westborough will return to the grid. The project is the first completed towards achieving the Towns goal to be carbon-emissions free by 2035.

The Town of Westborough is known for its longstanding leadership in sustainability and energy innovation, said Julia Nugent, AIA, a principal and project leader with HMFH Architects. Their stewardship encouraged the design and construction management team to aim high and go beyond a net-zero energy goal and create a school that will inspire other communities to do the same.

The collaboration and dedication to shared success among the entire team, including the Town of Westborough and the MSBA, are what made this amazing new school possible, said Mike OBrien, senior vice president and Massachusetts business unit leader for Gilbane. We are proud to be the construction manager for the first facility to support the Towns goal of carbon-emissions free by 2035.

The new Fales School features triple-glazed windows, roof, and wall insulation materials that are 40% above code requirements paired with forty geothermal wells, high efficiency mechanical systems designed to improve air quality, LED lighting with daylight and occupancy sensors, a 25,000 square foot solar photovoltaic array, and a building management system that monitors and controls mechanical and lighting systems for maximum efficiency. The project is tracking to earn a LEED Gold and LEED Zero Certification.

The facility will accommodate 400 students in kindergarten through third grade. A sculptural, sawtooth roofscape of photovoltaics integrate as part of the exterior architecture. Inside, lofty, light-filled spaces welcome students and visitors. The daylit interiors, warm natural materials, and thoughtful integration into the schools natural surroundings create a vibrant learning environment year-round. The building itself is a learning tool, with exhibits and visuals to educate students about the natural environment and sustainable practices.

About HMFH: HMFH Architects is an education design firm known for its community-based approach, user-centric design, and healthy, sustainable buildings. A certified Women-Owned Business, HMFH works with public school districts, independent schools, universities, and community and public-realm clients. For more information, visit http://www.hmfh.com.

About Gilbane Building Company: Gilbane provides a full slate of construction and facilities-related services  from pre-construction planning and integrated consulting capabilities to comprehensive construction management, general contracting, design-build and facility management services  for clients across various markets. Founded in 1870 and still a privately held, family-owned company, Gilbane has more than 45 office locations worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.gilbaneco.com.


Three shareholders from global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP will present at the 18th Annual Stanford Digital Economy Best Practices virtual conference on Nov. 12, 2021. Speaking will be Ian C. Ballon, co-chair of the firms global Intellectual Property & Technology Practice, and practice shareholders Darren Abernethy and Jonathan Beckham.

Hosted by the Stanford Law Schools Center for the Digital Economy and the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), the one-day conference is an educational event for in-house counsel and practitioners who work in or for internet, e-commerce, mobile, social networking, and cloud companies. According to the Stanford Law Schools agenda, Industry experts will address current issues facing the industry and offer practical solutions for dealing with the many legal uncertainties that arise when doing business online.

Ballon, the executive director of the Stanford Center for the Digital Economy and co-chair of the conference, will moderate the General Counsel Panel from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. PT and the Managing Digital Economy Litigation In-house panel from 3:00  4:00 p.m. PT. Abernethy will speak in a session titled Advanced AdTech Issues  Best Practices from 11:30 a.m.  12:30 p.m. PT. Topics will include the California Consumer Privacy Act and the General Data Protection Regulation, AdTech enforcement in the UK, and business opportunities and risks when using new technologies. Beckham will speak in a session titled, Best Practices in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from 11:30 a.m.  12:30 p.m. PT.

Ballon, a shareholder in the Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. offices, has been included in The Daily Journals annual list of Top IP Litigators in California every single year that the list has been published, from 2009 to 2021, and was named the Lawyer of the Year for Information Technology Law in the 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2016, and 2013 editions of Best Lawyers in America. In 2019, he was named one of the top 20 Cybersecurity lawyers in California and, in 2018, one of the Top Cybersecurity/Artificial Intelligence lawyers in California by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal. He received the 2017 Trailblazer Award, Intellectual Property from The National Law Journal and he has been recognized as a Groundbreaker in The Recorders 2017 Litigation Departments of the Year Awards. He was also the recipient of the California State Bar Intellectual Property Law section's Vanguard Award for significant contributions to the development of intellectual property law. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and served as an advisor to its international intellectual property jurisdiction project and a member of the consultative group for the American Law Institutes Data Privacy Principles of Law project. He is also the author of Wests best-selling 5-volume legal treatise, E-Commerce and Internet Law 2d ed. (http://www.IanBallon.net).

Abernethy, a shareholder in the law firms San Francisco office, is an ad tech, data privacy and cybersecurity attorney with more than a decade of experience, including private practice in a Washington, D.C. Am Law firm and as in-house counsel at startups and at a leading privacy technology vendor. He advises clients on matters related to digital advertising, privacy law compliance, data breach management, mergers and acquisitions, and Federal Trade Commission best practices.

Beckham, a shareholder in the Corporate and Technology practices in the law firms Northern Virginia office, focuses his practice on technology and corporate transactions. He has negotiated countless Cloud and telecommunications infrastructure transactions (e.g. data center and colocation leases, subsea cable systems, and network capacity and services transactions), along with Cloud enterprise license transactions. Beckman also negotiates community impact investment transactions. He currently serves as a board member of the Alliance of Historically Black College and University Museums and Galleries.

About Greenberg Traurigs Intellectual Property & Technology Practice: Greenberg Traurig's Intellectual Property & Technology Practice has more than 200 full-time intellectual property attorneys and professionals serving clients across the United States and in key business centers around the world. We handle all aspects of intellectual property, including patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and right of publicity litigation; trademark prosecution and brand management; copyright and DMCA agent registration; patent prosecution and portfolio management; licensing; inter partes review; third-party monitoring; domain name management; and interferences. We also counsel on the full range of data privacy and security breach issues, provide licensing and cross-border services and defend data privacy, security breach, and Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action suits

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: 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 25 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
Wheaton law firm welcomes KCBA President, Emily Rapp.

The law firm of McSwain Nagle & Giese, P.C. is excited to announce their merger with Kane County Bar Association President Attorney Emily Rapp of MagnusonRapp, LLC. The merged firm, McSwain Nagle Giese & Rapp, P.C., will consist of four experienced partners and six associate attorneys with distinct and varying legal backgrounds. The firm dedicates its legal efforts to family law matters, criminal proceedings, real estate closings, estate planning, and bankruptcy cases.

Attorney Emily Rapp is an established and trusted attorney in Kane and DuPage Counties and the surrounding areas. Her position as the President of the Kane County Bar Association exemplifies her commitment to the legal profession and families of Illinois. She has been recognized by her peers for her outstanding dedication to family law matters on numerous occasions, and she has been named an Emerging Lawyer by Leading Lawyers and a Rising Star by Super Lawyers. Emily is an active member of the legal community serving as vice-chair of the DuPage County Bar Associations Family Law Committee and as a member of the Family Law Section Council of the Illinois State Bar Association.

Attorney Emily Rapp is an exceptional attorney, and we are incredibly excited and proud to have her join us. Her wisdom, skill, and compassion regarding family law matters make her an invaluable asset to our team and our clients. We look forward to growing our firm with Attorney Rapp on our team, commented Lisa Giese.

Attorney Mary McSwain, a founding partner of McSwain Nagle & Giese, P.C., focuses her efforts on matters involving family law and residential real estate. Throughout her career, Attorney McSwain has demonstrated her passion for the legal community, having served on several committees and assemblies for both the Illinois State Bar Association and DuPage County Bar Association. Mary McSwain was awarded the DuPage County Bar Association Pro Bono Service Award in 2005 and 2006. Additionally, she received the DuPage County Bar Association Board of Directors Award in 1999 and 2000. In 2015, Attorney McSwain earned admittance to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Attorney and founding partner, Lisa Giese, has dedicated her legal knowledge and experience to Illinois residents facing family law issues. Attorney Giese is incredibly active within the legal community, previously serving on the Child Law Section Council of the Illinois State Bar Association and as the Chair of the Childrens Advocacy Committee and Wellness Committee of the DuPage County Bar Association. Additionally, she also serves on the board of directors for the DuPage Legal Aid Foundation and the Pie Project. A trained guardian ad litem, Attorney Giese has also earned her Certificate in Child and Family Law.

Attorney and founding partner, Jane E. Nagle, is a strategic and passionate attorney who provides legal guidance and representation in cases involving family law and bankruptcy. An active member of both the Illinois State Bar Association and DuPage County Bar Association, she is currently the Secretary of the Illinois Bar Journal Editorial Boards Standing Committee and serves on the DuPage County Bar Associations DCBA Brief editorial board. Attorney Nagle is dedicated to the legal profession and helping families in Illinois and she was awarded the DuPage County Bar Association Pro Bono Service Award in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

About McSwain, Nagle, Giese, and Rapp P.C.

Serving Illinois clients from offices in Geneva and Wheaton, this merged team is equipped to handle a wide range of legal matters, including family law, divorce, real estate, bankruptcy, estate planning, criminal defense, and appeals. In addition to DuPage and Kane Counties, the firms services extend to Will, Kendall, Cook, and other collar counties. The firms team is capable of handling legal issues through mediation, but they are well prepared to aggressively advocate for their clients rights in a court of law.

Joining Attorney Rapp from MagnusonRapp Law is family law Attorney Alexandra Rothenberg. Attorneys Rapp and Rothenberg will be joining Attorneys McSwain, Nagle, and Giese, along with their staff of attorneys Jessica Defino, Melissa Fernandez, Kevin McSwain, Maria Antoniolli, and Naseem Hosseini.

To learn more about McSwain Nagle Giese & Rapp, P.C. visit: https://www.dupagedivorcelawyers.com/.
There are many salon horror stories about what happens when cosmetologists are not properly educated on working with textured hair. We want to ensure that licensed cosmetologists in Louisiana are able to do all types of hair.

The Louisiana Board of Cosmetology (BOC) moved to revise its testing requirements to promote textured hair education throughout the state of Louisiana. Textured hair includes wavy, curly and coily hair. This resolution was passed on Monday, November 1st, 2021 and goes into effect in June of 2022. In doing so, the Louisiana Board of Cosmetology set a standard to ensure that the new generation of hair stylists in Louisiana will be able to care for all clients, no matter what their hair type.

Approximately 65% of people in the US have textured hair, and many cosmetology schools have been enhancing their curriculum for texture education. This led Edwin Neill, Chairman of the State Board of Cosmetology and president of Aveda Arts & Sciences Institute to question why the state had not yet required textured hair competency for cosmetologists to receive their license. Working with board member and cosmetology instructor Kevin Martin and BOC staff, Edwin Neill, proposed a change in the cosmetology exam to ensure competence with textured hair. The revised test will include a section on cutting textured hair.

There are many salon horror stories about what happens when cosmetologists are not properly educated on working with textured hair. Today there are still sometimes disparities in the salon experience between people with textured-hair and those with naturally straight hair. We want to ensure that licensed cosmetologists in Louisiana are able to do all types of hair, says Edwin Neill.

This is not the first reform undertaken by the current BOC. Last year, the board removed the ban on cosmetology licensing for the formerly incarcerated.

The Louisiana Board of Cosmetology regulates and monitors the cosmetology industry in Louisiana to maintain public health and welfare standards for the consumer public, ensures that individuals receiving licenses meet the education requirements established by the State of Louisiana and that licensed professionals maintain the highest standards while providing services to the public.
Lilibet and Her Llama: a delightfully imaginative narrative for young readers. Lilibet and Her Llama is the creation of published author Michelle Hill, a loving wife, mother, and grandmother and a dedicated nurse who works full-time for a local community hospital.

Hill shares, Lilibet is an adventurous little girl with an endless imagination. Along with her fluffy, multicolored friend Llama, they embark on exciting, fun-filled adventures. From the park to the zoo, who knows what they will do! From playing in the sun to sliding down a snow-covered hill, Lilibet and her Llama never sit still! Oh, the places they will go, the things they will see, the stories they will tell for all children to read! Will they ride in a train today or play on the beach in the sun? Will they hike in the woods today and watch the animals play and run? Will they travel to Paris or fly to Italy in a plane? Oh, the wonderful things they will seethe adventures are never the same! So come along with Lilibet and her fluffy friend Llama too! For when you travel with them, there are endless things to do!

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Michelle Hills new book will capture the attention of any young reader from the start.

Hill presents a colorful and imaginative story that is certain to entertain and delight.

Consumers can purchase Lilibet and Her Llama at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Lilibet and Her Llama, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Nanotech Energy, the world's leading manufacturer of graphene and the only producer of non-flammable, graphene-based batteries on the market Nanotech Energys proprietary, graphene-based, nanotechnology overcomes the safety, limited storage capacity and recharge speed challenges of traditional lithium-ion batteries, and our new Northern Nevada facility will manufacture energy storage that will help power the world.

The Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN), today announced that Nanotech Energy, the world's leading manufacturer of graphene and the only producer of non-flammable, graphene-based batteries on the market, is expanding its operations to Storey County, Nevada, east of Reno, with a new 517-acre, multiple building manufacturing facility in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. The high-volume facility will significantly increase Nanotech Energys manufacturing capacity to produce and scale its patented, non-flammable Graphene-Organolyte batteries and other graphene-powered products, including EMI (electromagnetic interference) shielding, transparent conducting electrodes, conductive inks, conductive adhesives and silver nanowires. View a short video about Nanotech Energy here.

Nanotech Energy plans to develop the 517-acre campus in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center to include multiple buildings and a combined footprint in excess of one million square feet, in support of the companys exponential U.S. and international expansion. The new campus is anticipated to bring more than 1000 jobs to the region over the next five years, including a significant number of engineering and research positions. The first building is slated to open in Q4 2022.

Nanotech Energys proprietary, graphene-based, nanotechnology overcomes the safety, limited storage capacity and recharge speed challenges of traditional lithium-ion batteries, and our new Northern Nevada facility will manufacture energy storage that will help power the world, said Nanotech Energy Chairman, CEO and co-founder, Dr. Jack Kavanaugh. Nanotech Energy is the first and only producer to break the 50% content barrier by reaching 98% monolayer graphene, the wonder material that powers our products. Weve already developed groundbreaking energy storage using technology that has the high capacity of a battery and the power performance of supercapacitors in a single solution.

Nanotech Energy recently announced $64 million Series D funding at a $550 million post-Series D valuation. The Series D funding led by Taiwans largest financial services company, Fubon Financial Holding Co, and brought the total amount of funding raised to date by Nanotech Energy to $94.9 million.

The expansion of Nanotech Energy to Northern Nevada is a potential game-changer that aligns closely with our energy and economic development initiatives, bringing a significant number of high paying, engineering jobs to our community, said Mike Kazmierski, President and CEO of EDAWN. The future of generations to come depends on technological advances that harness renewable energy and implementation in products that have the potential to impact and benefit countless aspects of our lives. Nanotech Energy is leading this charge and I couldnt be more excited to welcome them to Nevada. A special thanks to the Governors Office of Economic Development for supporting this project.

About Nanotech Energy

Nanotech Energy is on a mission to bring transformative, graphene-based, energy storage products from the research lab to the mass market. Our very high surface area, single layer graphene material is already being used in multiple applications, including non-flammable batteries, transparent conducting electrodes, conductive inks, printed electronics, conductive epoxy, antistatic coatings and EMI (electromagnetic interference) shielding.

Founded in 2014 by Dr. Jack Kavanaugh and noted UCLA scientists Dr. Richard Kaner and Dr. Maher El-Kady, Nanotech Energy is headquartered in Los Angeles and is a privately held company backed by Multiverse Investment Fund, Fubon Financial Group and other strategic investors. Learn more at https://nanotechenergy.com.

About EDAWN

The Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada is a private/public partnership established in 1983 committed to adding quality jobs to the region by recruiting new companies, supporting the success of existing companies, and assisting newly forming companies, to diversify the economy and have a positive impact on the quality of life in Greater Reno-Sparks-Tahoe. For more information, visit http://www.edawn.org.

All trademarks contained herein are the respective property of their owners.

###
Attorney Monique Centeno joins Patterson Legal Group Monique's natural abilities to think on her feet and provide thoughtful insight will greatly benefit us, as well as our clients.

Patterson Legal Group is pleased to announce the addition of attorney Monique Centeno to its growing law firm, which represents all areas of injury law, including auto accidents, work-related accidents, catastrophic injuries, wrongful death cases, and more. Monique Centeno graduated from Washburn University School of Law in 2005 and is licensed to practice in the state of Kansas.

Prior to joining Patterson Legal Group, Ms. Centeno was a District Court Judge in the 18th Judicial District of Kansas where she presided over trials, issued thoughtful rulings, and was known for having a compassionate ear for all litigants. Before that, she was a trial attorney at Wall Huntington Trial Law.

Outside of office hours, Monique Centeno is a Commissioner on the State of Kansas Commission on Racial Equity and Justice. She also mentors high school, college, and law school students. She can also be found regularly distributing free food to people in need through Common Ground (a mobile farmers market) and Salvation Army.

Monique brings with her a wealth of knowledge, experience, and genuineness that makes her a great fit for our team. As we continue to grow, we know that her natural abilities to think on her feet and provide thoughtful insight will greatly benefit us, as well as our clients, stated Managing Partner Gary Patterson.

For media inquiries about Monique Centeno joining Patterson Legal Group, please contact Ella Reusser at (888) 687-2400 or via email at Ella@pattersonlegalgroup.com.

More About Patterson Legal Group, L.C.

Patterson Legal Group is a personal injury law firm with offices located throughout Kansas and Missouri. Legal assistance is also provided to those injured in Wyoming and Nebraska. Founded on the principle of helping injury victims pursue their legal rights, they are not afraid to take on large insurance companies or to hold negligent persons accountable for injuring a client. Their lawyers are champions of consumer rights with a strong track record for helping people suffering from personal injury or disability. Learn more about the specific legal services and community outreach activities of Patterson Legal Group at PattersonLegalGroup.com. You can also connect and socialize with their legal team through the law firms Facebook page.
SGF physician, Howard McClamrock, M.D., will be honored with the Dr. Frank Chang Physician Leadership Family Building Champion award at the Cade Foundation Family Building Gala on November 13, 2021. Im honored to be recognized at the Cade Foundation Family Building Gala and send congratulations and appreciation to all honorees who are dedicated to helping those struggling with infertility grow their families.

Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) supports the Tinina Q. Cade Foundation as Platinum Sponsor of its hybrid Family Building Gala on November 13, 59 p.m. EST, where SGF physician, Howard McClamrock, M.D., will be honored with the Dr. Frank Chang Physician Leadership Family Building Champion award. Through this award, the Cade Foundation celebrates physician leaders who have contributed to the field of reproductive medicine in meaningful and significant ways.

More than 250 guests will attend this years themed event Le Diner Bleu to recognize new family grant recipients in addition to honoring physicians and charities that support an improved quality of life for people struggling with infertility. The Cade Foundation strives to raise $100,000 to continue its mission of serving families battling infertility by providing necessary information and financial support.

Every fertility journey is unique and I feel privileged to serve as a physician and partner for my patients, shares Dr. McClamrock, who sees patients at SGFs Baltimore  Harbor East office. Im honored to be recognized at the Cade Foundation Family Building Gala and send congratulations and appreciation to all honorees who are dedicated to helping those struggling with infertility grow their families.

As a long-term supporter of the Cade Foundation, Dr. McClamrock has served in many areas, from speaking about fertility treatments at conferences to serving as a distinguished member of the Medical Advisory Committee that reviews Family Building grant applications.

On behalf of the Tinina Q Cade Foundations Board of Trustees, it is my pleasure to celebrate Dr. McClamrock and the decades of service and care he has provided the community, shares Camille Hammond, M.D., MPH, CEO of the Cade Foundation. We applaud his significant contributions to the field of reproductive medicine as a 2021 Family Building Champion.

Dr. McClamrocks research with the University of Maryland School of Medicine  where he co-founded the in vitro fertilization program along with now-retired SGF physician, Eugene Katz, M.D.  as well as with the Jones Institute has helped improve the quality of care and outcomes provided to families with infertility. Additionally, Dr. McClamrock was the first reproductive endocrinologist in the state of Maryland to perform a frozen embryo transfer that resulted in a live birth.

For more information regarding the Gala, visit the Cade Foundations website event page.

About Shady Grove Fertility (SGF)

SGF is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence with more than 100,000 babies born. With 43 locations, including new locations in Colorado and Norfolk, VA, as well as throughout CO, FL, GA, MD, NY, PA, VA, D.C., and Santiago, Chile, SGF offers patients virtual physician consults, delivers individualized care, accepts most insurance plans, and makes treatment more affordable through innovative financial options, including 100% refund guarantees. More physicians refer their patients to SGF than any other center. SGF is among the founding partner practices of US Fertility, the largest physician-owned, physician-led partnership of top-tier fertility practices in the U.S. Call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com.

About Tinina Q. Cade Foundation

The Tinina Q. Cade Foundation is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to serving the needs of families battling infertility through education, outreach, and grants that help couples pay for infertility treatment or domestic adoption. In the past decade, through events like the Race for the Family, Corks with Cade, and others, SGF and the Cade Foundation have raised more than $750,000 that is used to fund grants for fertility treatment and adoption for families with infertility and to build awareness about the 1 in 8 couples struggling with infertility. For more information about the Cade Foundation please visit http://www.cadefoundation.org.
The paper discuses significant components that contribute to systemic setbacks, including specifics around variation in payment models, insurance coverages, health care settings and provider types.

In a new white paper, published by the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC), experts discuss incentives in the existing Medicare program that could motivate health systems and providers to offer more robust support to family caregivers. The paper specifically identifies barriers that prevent health systems and providers from providing new resources and offers innovative yet realistic solutions to help foster change. Constructed on extensive research and expert insight, NACs white paper informs providers, payers, and regulators, like The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), of the opportunities to reduce barriers and increase formal caregiver supports in the Medicare program.

Providing clarification into how specific barriers are currently hindering the expansion of caregiver services nationally, the paper covers both organizational and the systemic level obstacles. The paper discuses significant components that contribute to systemic setbacks, including specifics around variation in payment models, insurance coverages, health care settings and provider types. Additionally, on the organizational level, the paper discusses lack of standards of care, limited awareness of revenue opportunities, and poor accessibility of billing code information. Taken collectively, these qualitative factors present a unique cluster of challenges to caregivers and to those hoping to support them.

In healthcare settings across the country, caregivers are left out of consistent and crucial roles on their care-recipients health care team. The September 2021 RAISE Report to Congress supports a formal recognition of caregivers as members of the care team. Although the RAISE report has been widely accepted by Congress, the lack of incentives for supporting family caregivers in their role and in managing their own health continuously delay and hurt innovation initiatives. Navigating these complexities, emerging models of caregiver support already show promise for improving caregiver wellness, improving patient outcomes, and saving healthcare costs.

Although not widely publicized, exemplary models of care do exist. NAC takes time to highlight in the paper the importance of taking a closer look at models like the 4M Program at RUSH which demonstrates what caregiver support could look like and shows early promise of how patients, caregivers and health systems can benefit from caregiver services. The Rush Caregiver Health and Well-Being Initiative (Caregiver Initiative), funded by the RRF Foundation for Aging, compiles evidence-based practices into a unified framework to advance care needs for older adults and caregivers. Building on this research, the white paper specifies solution models incorporating patient-targeted and caregiver-targeted services

Made possible with support from Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and The Allergan Foundation, this analysis supports NACs work to identify cross-cutting solutions that will make life better for family caregivers.

For more information on how NAC supports innovation in family caregiving, visit https://www.caregiving.org/innovation/

###

About the National Alliance for Caregiving: NACs mission is to build partnerships in research, advocacy, and innovation to make life better for family caregivers. Our work aims to support a society which values, supports, and empowers family caregivers to thrive at home, work, and life. As a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., we represent a coalition of more than 60 non-profit, corporate, and academic organizations; nearly 40 family support researchers with expertise in pediatric to adult care to geriatric care; and more than 50 advocates who work on national, state and local platforms to support caregivers across the United States. In addition to our national work, NAC leads and participates in a number of global meetings on caregiving and long-term care, working closely with peer organizations in countries such as Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, India and Nepal, Ireland, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. Learn more at http://www.caregiving.org.
We have always been committed to exceeding expectations, and this past year tested our resilience amid the COVID crisis. We continued to move forward and succeed in a challenging environment and are extremely proud that VanTrust has emerged at the forefront of our industry in Central Ohio.

The Central Ohio chapter of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, has named the Columbus office of VanTrust Real Estate, LLC as the 2021 Developer of the Year. The associations highest honor recognizes the developer that best exemplifies leadership and innovation in the commercial real estate industry. The award was presented to Andy Weeks, executive vice president of VanTrust, at the NAIOP Annual Awards Gala held at the Marriott Columbus University Area on November 11.

On behalf of the entire team at VanTrust, we are thrilled to be recognized by NAIOP as the 2021 Developer of the Year, Weeks said. We have always been committed to exceeding expectations, and this past year tested our resilience amid the COVID crisis. We continued to move forward and succeed in a challenging environment and are extremely proud that VanTrust has emerged at the forefront of our industry in Central Ohio. We are gratified that we have become known for delivering exceptional quality to our Central Ohio clients, and very much appreciate the associations recognition of that excellence.

While leadership is the cornerstone for selection as NAIOP Developer of the Year, innovation is also a primary consideration. During the past year, VanTrust has demonstrated its originality through the development of notable projects in Central Ohio. The Pointe at Polaris is a mixed-use use development that includes luxury apartment units, street-level retail space, and class-A office space. State-of-the-art office buildings have been developed on Blazer Parkway in Dublin, as well as in New Albany. And a one-million-square-foot industrial building near Rickenbacker Airport  known as Rickenbacker Exchange at Commercial Point  is one of the largest warehouses in the region.

VanTrust is also dedicated to serving the community. In addition to its ongoing support of Nationwide Childrens Hospital, the company also supports and contributes to several other organizations throughout Central Ohio such as the Columbus Foundation (including the Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund), and the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. In addition, VanTrust is an active and committed member of NAIOPs Central Ohio chapter, having joined 11 years ago upon opening its Columbus office.

It is our pleasure to honor and recognize VanTrusts ongoing commitment to advancing the commercial real estate industry in Central Ohio, said Tre' Giller, President of Central Ohios NAIOP Chapter. We recognize the companys dedication to cutting-edge innovation and exemplary leadership and understand the tremendous effort it took to adapt to the unique environment that the pandemic created. VanTrust continues to put its clients first and has been instrumental in developing meaningful and impressive projects throughout the region.

About NAIOP

NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, is the leading organization for developers, owners, investors and related professionals in office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate. NAIOP provides unparalleled industry networking and education and advocates for effective legislation on behalf of our members. NAIOP advances responsible, sustainable development that creates jobs and benefits the communities in which our members work and live. For more information, visit naiop.org.

About VanTrust Real Estate

VanTrust Real Estate, LLC is a full-service real estate development company. The company acquires and develops real estate assets for the Van Tuyl family portfolio and offers a broad range of real estate services including acquisition, disposition, development, development services, and asset management. Product types include office, industrial, multifamily, retail, institutional, governmental, hospitality, and recreational. VanTrust works nationally with regional offices in Columbus, Dallas, Phoenix, and Jacksonville with its headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. For more information, visit http://www.vantrustrealestate.com
Woodcraft is excited to become part of the vibrant and exciting Las Vegas community.

Woodcraft Supply will bring its quality line of tools, accessories, supplies and how-to resources to Nevada when the Las Vegas Woodcraft retail store opens on Monday, November 15, at 9 a.m..

Woodcraft is excited to become part of the vibrant and exciting Las Vegas community, President and CEO Jack Bigger said. We know this market includes a solid base of traditional woodworkers, as well as a growing segment of makers and do-it-yourselfers that Woodcraft can serve. We are anxious to welcome you to our newest Woodcraft store.

Owner Cheryl Wagner invites Las Vegas and Clark County residents to check out the new Woodcraft Store that is centrally located within the Las Vegas city limits at 5220 West Charleston Boulevard, an easily accessible site.

With a larger than average showroom, the Las Vegas Woodcraft will offer an expanded selection of tools, supplies and project materials, Wagner said. And we have ample parking. Manager Steve Bace and I, along with the staff, are eager to introduce you to the Woodcraft product line.

Store hours are: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Details for the demonstration schedule and woodworking classes will be available later.

For more information about the Las Vegas Woodcraft store, call (702) 550-6100.

Follow the Las Vegas Woodcraft at woodcraft.com, on Facebook and other social media sites.
This month, tuck yourself in with a warm blanket and catch up with some of your favorite continuing stories. Find out what happens next when a well-meaning zookeeper sleeps through his alarm; the daughter of a prolific winged hero takes up the mantel of saving the world; a betrayal of trust leaves two lovers-turned-enemies with the bitter taste of revenge; and much more.

Picture Books and Graphic Novels

Aaron Slater, Illustrator by Andrea Beaty, illus. by David Roberts (Abrams, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-4197-5396-1)

From the creators of Ada Twist, Scientist comes Aaron Slater who loves listening to stories and dreams of one day writing them himself. But when it comes to reading, the letters just look like squiggles to him. When his teacher asks the class to write a story, Aaron cant write a single word, and is sure his dream of being a storyteller is out of reach, until inspiration strikes. Read more about The Questioneers series here.

Amos McGee Misses the Bus by Philip C. Stead, illus. by Erin E. Stead (Roaring Brook, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-250-21322-8)

In this sequel to A Sick Day for Amos McGee, the friendly zookeeper is very considerate and always on time. But after a late night planning a surprise for all his animal friends, Amos falls asleep and misses his bus to the zoo. Now he wont be on time for the surprise he plannedunless his friends help him out.

The Big Book of Belonging by Yuval Zommer (Thames & Hudson, Nov. 16 $19.95; ISBN 978-0-500-65264-0)

Part of The Big Book series, The Big Book of Belonging is a celebration of all the ways that humans are connected to life on planet Earth. With children at the heart of every illustrated spread, this book draws parallels between the way humans, plants, and animals live and behave.

The Great Rat Rally by Geronimo Stilton, illus. by Tom Angleberger (Graphix, $12.99; ISBN 978-1-338-72938-2)

In the third installment in the Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novel series, Geronimo and Trap enter the Rat Rally, a high-speed car race.

Parker Shines On by Parker Curry and Jessica Curry, illus. by Brittany Jackson (Aladdin, Nov. 2 $17.99; ISBN 978-1-534-45474-3)

The star of the Parker Curry series loves being a big sister as much as she loves to dance. But when a dancer joins her class and needs her help, Parker wonders if she has what it takes to be not only a real dancer, but a real friend.

The Smart Cookie by Jory John, illus. by Pete Oswald (HarperCollins, Nov. 2 $18.99; ISBN 978-0-06-304540-8)

In the fifth installment in the Food Group series, Cookie has never felt like a smart cookie. So when Ms. Biscotti assigns the class to create something original overnight, Cookie is forced to try something totally new. Could a dash of creativity and a sprinkle of confidence be all she needs?

Novels

Courageous Creatures by Lauren Tarshis (Scholastic, $7.99 paper; ISBN 978-1-3383-1794-7)

Continuing the I Survived True Stories series, Tarshis tells the tale of four animals who have faced disaster, including a pigeon hero of WWI, two captured dolphins and their return to sea, 20,000 penguins saved from an oil spill, and two orphaned cheetahs with their unlikely new dad.

Auroras End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Knopf, Nov. 9 $18.99; ISBN 978-1-5247-2088-9)

In the third and final arc of the Aurora Cycle series, Squad 312 has one last chance to rewrite their endings: making friends, making enemies, and making history while trying to save the galaxy.

City of the Dead by James Patterson and Mindy McGinnis (Little, Brown/Patterson, Nov. 29 $18.99; ISBN 978-0-316-50015-9)

Maximum Rides daughter, Hawk, returns and so does the burden of being a hero. In the City of the Dead, life happens in the shadows. Thats why a war is brewing against an enemy no one can see. But as the dead begin to outnumber the living, a mothers experience and a daughters instinct can make one powerful arsenal.

Escape from Falaise by John Flanagan (Philomel, Nov. 2 $18.99; ISBN 978-0-593-11348-6)

After their plan to rescue the prince of Gallica has gone horribly wrong, Will Treaty and his apprentice, Maddie, are being held captive at the Chateau des Falaises in Gallica in this fifth installment of the Royal Ranger series. But the dangerous baron Lassigny is intent on keeping themand the princeno matter what.

Faith: Greater Heights by Julie Murphy (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, Nov. 2 $18.99; ISBN 978-0-06-289968-2)

From the author of Dumplin comes the conclusion in the two-book origin story of fan-favorite comic character Faitha fierce plus-size superhero. After the chaos of her first semester, Faith just wants to end her senior year in a normal way. But a cryptic warning about psiots going missing and a rash of inexplicable fires means things are off to a strange start.

Genius Camp by Chris Grabenstein (Random House, Nov. 30 $16.99; ISBN 978-0-593-30177-7)

Jake McQuade is the smartest kid in the universeand hes back to defend his title. This time, he is heading off to a camp for geniuses. But it isnt all fun and brain games at camp, especially when Jake goes up against the artificially intelligent Virtuoso quantum computer.

Girls of Fate and Fury by Natasha Ngan (Little, Brown/Patterson, Nov. 30 $18.99; ISBN 978-0-316-52878-8)

In the last installment in the Girls of Paper and Fire series, the fates of Lei and Wren are hanging in uncertainty. But one thing is certain: the Hidden Palace is the last place that Lei would ever consider home. See our q&a with Ngan on wrapping up her trilogy.

Im Trying to Love Garbage by Bethany Barton (Viking, Nov. 30 $17.99; ISBN 978-0-593-20703-1)

In this companion to Im Trying to Love Spiders, Barton speaks to young readers who may wonder where we put all of our garbage, who gets rid of it, and how our planet isnt a big pile of mess. From scavengers to detritivore to decomposers, natures garbage collectors are everywhere.

The Big Race Home by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illus. by Alex Willan (Bloomsbury, Nov. 9 $15.99; ISBN 978-1-5476-0367-1)

Revver is a little squirrel with big plans to be part of a race team. Now that he has secured his place as part of the crew, there are so many new things to see and exploreand so many lessons to learn in this second book of the Revver the Speedway Squirrel series. See our q&a with Rinker.

Newtons Flaw by Valerie Tripp (National Geographic Kids, Nov. 23 $12.99; ISBN 978-1-4263-7154-7)

In book two in Izzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T. Squad, with their first mystery solved and first-day jitters behind them, Izzy and her pals start to settle into the normal day-to-day at Atom Middle School. Things are going well until a mysterious illness threatens to shut down the media centerand maybe the entire school.

The Noblemans Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee (HarperCollins/Tegen, Nov. 16, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-06-291601-3)

Years after the events of Gentlemans Guide and Ladys Guide, Monty and Felicitys younger brother, Adrian Montaguewho stands to inherit his familys estatesets out on his own adventure to find his disowned siblings after discovering hes not an only child. See our interview with Lee about saying farewell to the Montagues.

Out of My Heart by Sharon M. Draper (Atheneum, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-665-90216-8)

In the long-awaited sequel to Out of My Mind, Melody is a year older, and a year braver. And now with her Medi-talker, she feels nothings out of her reach, not even summer camp. By the light of flickering campfires and the power of thunderstorms, through the terror of unexpected creatures in cabins and the first sparkle of a crush, Melodys about to discover how brave and strong she really is. See our cover reveal for the new book.

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong (S&S/McElderry, Nov. 16 $19.99; ISBN 978-1-534-45772-0)

In the sequel to These Violent Delights, after sacrificing her relationship with Roma to protect him from the blood feud, Juliette has been a girl on a mission. The only way to save the boy she loves from the wrath of the Scarlets is to have him want her dead for murdering his best friend in cold blood. Roma is still reeling from Marshalls death and hes determined to set things righteven if that means killing the girl he hates and loves with equal measure. Read our Flying Starts interview with Gong.

A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, Nov. 2 $18.99; ISBN 978-0-06-289152-5)

Months have passed since the violent coup that upended Princess Karinas life. She is now a fugitive, in this duology closer of A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. Meanwhile, Maliks illusion magic is flourishing under Farids tutelage, but the bonds keeping the Faceless King trapped in his mind are weakening. When the fate of the world hangs on a single, horrifying choice, they each must decide what they value most.

A New Sheriff in Town by Brett Bean (Penguin Workshop, $12.99; ISBN 978-0-593-22660-5)

Book three in the Zoo Patrol Squad series follows Fennlock Fox and Penny the Pig as they head to the Wild, Wild West. When a chatty chicken named Nugget makes it to the zoo to beg for help, the team is on the case.

Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix (HarperCollins/Tegen, Nov. 2 $19.99; ISBN 978-0-06-304932-1)

A quarter of a century after the Old Kingdom began, Nix tells the love story of Sabriels parents, Terciel and Elinor, and the Charter and Free Magic that define their world in this prequel.

WednesdayThe Forest of Secrets by Ralph Lazar (Scholastic, Nov. 2 $6.99 paper; ISBN 978-1-338-77046-9)

In the third book in the Total Mayhem series, Dash Candoo is used to really strange, mysterious things happening at his school. But really, really strange things have been happening, including mysterious tire marks coming from the forest to their school. When he and his friend Rob investigate, they cant work out whats going on. All they know is theyre being watched.
The Library of Congress this week confirmed that it will replace the cataloging subject headings Aliens and Illegal aliens with the more accurateand non-offensiveterms Noncitizens and Illegal immigration.

The decision was announced on November 12 at the regularly scheduled meeting of the LC's Policy and Standards Division, which maintains Library of Congress Subject Headings, and comes after a long-running advocacy campaign by a number of groups, including the library communityand a conservative political backlash against the effort.

According to the ALA, the revisions are scheduled to appear soon on Special List 21-11B, and librarians say that subject headings on existing LC bibliographic records will then be updated as expeditiously as possible.

After being petitioned by a range of advocacy groups, the Library of Congress first agreed to replace the subject headings back in 2016. But in an unprecedented action, a group of conservative members of Congress objected to the change, and went so far as to add a provision to an appropriations bill that would require the library to retain the terminologythe first time in LC's history, LC officials told reporters, that lawmakers had intervened in a routine cataloguing matter.

In a statement, the American Library Association (ALA), which has been advocating for the change for years, praised the Library of Congresss long awaited action.

We are pleased that the Library of Congress is replacing these subject headings, which are both outdated and dehumanizing, said ALA president Patty Wong. This update better reflects common terminology and respects library users and library workers from all backgrounds. It also reflects the core value of social justice for ALA members, who have been at the vanguard of this change for years.

Library of Congress Subject Headings are widely used in library catalogs, and are routinely updated by the Policy and Standards Division of the Library of Congress.

This is a breaking story and at press time LC officials have yet to issue a formal comment. We will continue to update this story.
The Reflex product suite from brightlamp, a Purdue University-affiliated company, allows a broad spectrum of medical professionals to securely capture critical diagnostic pupillary light reflex data. Reflex was used to perform a retrospective clinical review of patients cared for in neurological clinics. Results were published in the peer-reviewed journal Life. (Image provided)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Evaluating concussion patients for recovery and measuring compounding injuries can be done as simply as recording a video with a smartphone.

Reflex, a smartphone application developed by Purdue Foundry-affiliated startup brightlamp, works like a pupillometer. It takes a digital video recording of an individual's eye to measure a response called pupillary light reflex. The user holds the camera up to an eye and taps the smartphone screen. A light flashes to initiate a response from the pupil. Reflex is a Class I 510(k) exempt regulated medical device, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Doctors across North America used Reflex to perform a retrospective clinical review of patients cared for in neurological clinics. The results of the study were published in Life, an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal of life sciences scientific studies.

Dr. Frederick Carrick, professor of neurology at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, said Reflex identifies biomarkers that might be used in clinical diagnosis, treatment and decision-making for concussions.

"Physicians have measured pupillary light reflex since the earliest time of recorded history," Carrick said. "It is only recently that advances in technology have allowed us to quantify it accurately. This is the largest study of concussion and PLR to date."

Kurtis Sluss, CEO and founder of brightlamp, said the published study in Life proves Reflex is entirely suitable as a concussion clinical decision support tool.

"We are rapidly integrating this knowledge into a new concussion-based clinical decision support metric that current and future users can use to monitor their patients more rigorously," Sluss said.

"Clinicians and trainers now have the evidence they need to confidently integrate Reflex into their concussion workflow. Our goal as a company is to optimize the recovery trajectory for concussion patients and prevent compounding injury so they can lead healthier lives."

Sluss has received commercialization guidance from the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub housed in the Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration in Discovery Park District at Purdue, adjacent to the Purdue campus. His company is now part of the Purdue Foundry's Double Down Experiment, which includes high-growth businesses.

About brightlamp

Brightlamp is an Indiana-based health care technology company that specializes in frontier computer vision methods. As recognized by experts such as Donald Kuratko of Indiana University, the company develops innovative breakthrough methods and applies them to mobile solutions to assist in the advancement of health care.

Brightlamp's premier patented technology monitors the eye's reaction to light so medical professionals can obtain more accurate and consistent neurological information in seconds through a mobile device. The name iPhone and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. For more information, visit https://reflexapp.io/.

About Purdue Foundry

The Purdue Foundry is an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub whose professionals help Purdue innovators create startups. The Purdue Foundry is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2019 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Place from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. Contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.

Writer: Steve Martin, sgmartin@prf.org

Source: Kurtis Sluss, ksluss@brightlamp.org
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750), left, moves in formation with the Philippine Coast Guard vessels Batangas, center, and Kalanggaman during an exercise May 14, 2019. Bertholf is in the midst of a Western Pacific patrol under the tactical control of the U.S. Navys 7th Fleet. (U.S. Coast Guard)

In the spring of 2019, the Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf deployed to the Western Pacific in support of the U.S. Navys 7th fleet. During the landmark patrol the cutter conducted Freedom of Navigation Exercises in the Strait of Taiwan.[16] While the Coast Guard regularly deploys major cutters to the Western Pacific to execute deep-sea fisheries enforcement operations, Bertholfs deployment signaled a shift in the usual business model. The Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Karl Schultz, confirmed this pivot, outlining significant plans for the region in several speeches and strategic documents.[17] The priorities center around working with partner nations in and around the Western Pacific to make the United States the partner nation of choice.[18]

These goals, when considered in conjunction with an understanding of the Chinese position, yield a way forward in the Indo-Pacific region where the U.S. Coast Guard may serve as a diplomatic linchpin  but not in the way the Coast Guard and most scholarship on it currently imagines. The Coast Guards dutiful participation in freedom of navigation operations and related Department of Defense missions, along with ambitions to be the partner nation of choice are both contradictory and escalatory.[19] Further, while proposals surrounding fisheries governance seem more innocuous than a U.S. warship transiting through the Taiwan strait, these proposals are actually more of an existential threat to China due to its burgeoning protein demands. Proposals through frameworks such as Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), where the Coast Guard is incorporated in an advisory capacity, are likely to be viewed as profoundly duplicitous and controlling by the Chinese, justifying further escalatory actions by their maritime forces.[20] How can the Coast Guard hope to establish a maritime partnership with China, or at least begin to stabilize the regional balance of power, while engaging in operations that are perceived as direct threats to Chinese sovereignty and food security?

When the U.S. Coast Guards unique capabilities, authorities, and less threatening white hulls are considered in totality, novel solutions that mesh with the services strengths emerge.

Clearly, the U.S. needs to support operations that protect historic territorial boundaries and to prevent further revanchism, a role best suited to the U.S. Navy and international counterparts, but a truly holistic response cannot obligate the Coast Guard to juggle contradictory missions and messages. This is a recipe for failure.

The USCG & The Indo-Pacific: What Could Be Working

When the U.S. Coast Guards unique capabilities, authorities, and less threatening white hulls are considered in totality, novel solutions that mesh with the services strengths emerge. Cooperation on mutually beneficial Coast Guard missions serves as an opportunity to develop confidence-building measures and knit a resilient architecture that will inoculate two superpowers from conflict. These unique approaches enjoy the benefit of being more likely to succeed than their escalatory and existentially threatening counterparts. Realms such as port security, counter-terrorism, search and rescue, and disaster relief are ideal avenues through which to nurture a partnership.

The Coast Guards advanced infrastructure and capabilities in spheres ranging from port security to Deployable Specialized Forces can facilitate advanced partnerships to combat this growing regional threat. No single initiative proposed will alter the regional landscape. However, many, interwoven efforts can develop the sort of cohesion that can insulate maritime cooperation from capricious political retaliation and increase reciprocity.[21]

Port Security and Anti-Piracy
These are heady days for bashing U.S. and European multinational oil corporations while also begging OPEC to increase oil production. Talk about mixed and bizarre messages.

A better course is to embrace Big Oil in the push for lower emissions and challenge it to keep its word on bold public pledges. BP, for example, has promised to become a net-zero emissions company by 2050 and is using large-scale data analytics to get there. This includes more quickly identifying problem oil wells where immediate shutdowns should occur.

At an October 28 hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee Congressional Democrats excoriated the Chief Executive Officers of ExxonMobil, BP America, and Chevron. They were branded as akin to tobacco executives. The companies have subsequently received subpoenas to produce information about lobbying efforts and climate change going back decades.

Yet each company has long supported the Paris Climate Accord and pledged to reduce its own emissions, committing billions of dollars to do so. In fact, each of the companies has a decades-long record of cutting pollutants. Congress should focus on probing these efforts and challenging Big Oil to keep its word.

This would also save face for the Biden Administration.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said during a November 5 CNBC interview, The message (to OPEC) is we need to increase supply at this moment so that people will not be hurt during the winter months.

On October 31, President Biden made a similar plea saying, The idea that Russia and Saudi Arabia and other major producers are not going to pump more oil so people can have gasoline to get to and from work, for example, is not right.

Given oil companies climate pledges, their immense scientific expertise, and the potential of data analytics to reduce emissions, there is much to be gained by working with them.

Simply put, without assistance from the oil and natural gas industries, the world will find it will be harder and it will take longer to cut emissions. In the United States, transportation, and electricity account for 54 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

Those bashing the oil companies are betting that the world will be able to replace and grow its energy supplies with clean sources entirely. The data show that is a reckless bet.

Growth in worldwide energy demand. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the world is projected to need 50 percent more energy by 2050. Climate change concerns are secondary to the desires for industrial growth and modern conveniences in China, India, and many other countries throughout the world.

The world has many other huge oil companies. While U.S. and European multinational oil companies provide much of Americas oil, there are plenty more mega-producers. The state-owned oil companies for China, India, and Middle Eastern countries will be producing a lot of oil regardless of the pleas of U.S. activists. The technology and data innovations that will spur cleaner oil industry operations and cleaner burning fuels are far more likely to be initiated by western oil companies and to spread worldwide.

Gasoline powered cars will be with us for a long time. The average car in America today is 12 years old. Given that vehicle manufacturing has improved over the past decade and that nearly all cars made during that time are gasoline powered, half of Americas cars will still be gasoline powered by the late 2030s.

Strident climate activists are betting on unprecedented technological breakthroughs to reverse this trend. And some may be planning to outlaw and confiscate Americans gasoline powered cars. A better approach is to hedge such long-shot bets with an immediate push for cleaner fossil fuels.

It is time to unleash the scientific and engineering expertise at Big Oil and merge it with the far-ranging applications of data analytics and cloud technology. The results will be significantly lower methane emissions, more successful drilling operations, and improved refining processes, all with dramatically lower emissions.

And perhaps best of all, we will not have to beg foreign countries to hike their fossil fuel production so that Americans, especially the poor, are not hurt.

Paul Steidler is a Senior Fellow with the Lexington Institute, a public policy think tank based in Arlington, Virginia.
A fox sold to a Peruvian family by a vendor who told them the animal was a dog was captured by wildlife rescuers about six months after escaping from the home.

ADVERTISEMENT

Maribel Sotelo said her family purchased their pet, named Run Run, from a street vendor who told them the animal was a Siberian husky puppy.

"He ate dog food, and when he was little he barked like a little dog," Sotelo told EFE.

Sotelo said Run Run was only about 2 months old when he escaped from the family's home in May, and neighbors soon complained they had spotted the pet attacking their chickens and other small animals.

The family realized Run Run was likely a fox and they alerted wildlife authorities that the animal was on the loose.

Peru's Serfor wildlife service said Run Run was successfully tranquilized Monday night and taken to the Parque de las Leyendas zoo to be examined by veterinarians.

Wildlife officials said Run Run will be cared for at the zoo until he is ready to be released into a suitable habitat.
Google is celebrating Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, a Baroque artist, who is considered to be one of the greatest Dutch painters of all time.

ADVERTISEMENT

Google noted that on this day in 1995, an exhibition featuring 21of Vermeer's 35 existing works opened at Washington D.C.'s National Gallery of Art.

Vermeer was born in Delft, Netherlands, in 1632. Not much is known about Vermeer's early life.

Google's homepage features references to his work including The Allegory of Painting on the left, Woman Writing a Letter with her Maid in the middle and Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window on the right.

An X-ray in 1979 found a hidden cupid in Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. Researchers determined that the cupid was covered by another painter in 2017 and a German initiative in 2021 restored the painting.

Vermeer's artistic techniques have caused debate with some historians suggesting that he traced images that were projected from a camera obscura. Vermeer specialists disagree as there is no physical evidence.

Google also explores Vermeer's artwork in the company's Arts and Culture section.
A North Carolina man who won a $50 prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket reinvested some of his winnings in another ticket and scored a $100,000 jackpot.

ADVERTISEMENT

Frederick Allen Jr., of Raleigh, told North Carolina Education Lottery officials he bought a scratch-off lottery ticket from a convenience store in Durham after leaving work on Friday.

The ticket earned Allen a $50 prize, and the player said he decided to try his luck again once he arrived back in Raleigh. Allen used $20 of his winnings to buy a Grand Money scratch-off ticket from the Public Mini Mart.

Allen said he was shocked to scratch off a $100,000 prize.

"It felt good," the winner recalled. "I thought I was dreaming."

Allen said he has plans for his windfall.

"Giving my kids some of it so they can be all right," he said, "and then keep the rest in the bank so I can live comfortably and not be stressed."
Porterville, CA (93257)

Today

Cloudy early, becoming mostly clear after midnight. Low 41F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy early, becoming mostly clear after midnight. Low 41F. Winds light and variable.
Athens, GA (30605)

Today

Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. Slight chance of a rain shower. High near 65F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low 31F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
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.
Sage City Symphony, seen here at Bennington College, is parting ways with composer and professional oboe player Robert "Zeke" Hecker, 74, because of allegations of sexual abuse of students while he taught English at Brattleboro Union High School in the 1970s and 80s.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 48F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 26F. Winds light and variable.
Google Streetview / Contributed

STAMFORD  The Stamford YMCA has reached an agreement with the government to resolve allegations that the facilitys child care programs and other services were not accessible to a child with autism, according to federal officials.

Leonard C. Boyle, acting U.S. attorney for Connecticut, announced Wednesday that Stamford YMCA reached the settlement after being accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Stamford YMCA is a private entity that runs child care facilities, which are considered places of public accommodation within the ADA.
Amid reports of nationwide supply chain issues and price increases on Christmas trees, Connecticut tree farms that grow their own trees aren't feeling the squeeze. However, wholesale suppliers who import their trees may be affected, according to Kathy Kogut, the executive director of the Connecticut Christmas Tree Growers Association.

Its going to be the people that do fundraisers, Boy Scouts, churches, civic organizations and people that sell trees out of a tree lot because they dont have a tree farm, Kogut said. They cant get them.

Kogut, who also operates Koguts Hemlock Hill Tree Farm in Meriden with her husband Bill, said that while most of Connecticuts tree farms are ready for the upcoming Christmas tree season, some will find difficulty in stocking up on supplemental wholesale trees that they bring in to round out their inventory. She estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the farms in the Connecticut Christmas Tree Growers Association will bring in the wholesale trees.

The volume of wholesale trees varies between farms. However, Kogut said she saw one farm bring in as many as 1,000 wholesale trees last year in order to meet the demand.

If they oversold last year, theyll be short this year, Kogut added.

In terms of the supply chain issues occurring across the country, Kogut said that the only major thing that tree farms with their own trees are having a hard time getting are accoutrements and other decorations for their shops.

But whether buyers go to a cut-your-own tree farm or a wholesale lot, Kogut advises buying early this year.

Youre going to find a Christmas tree in Connecticut somewhere because there are farms that have plenty of trees...but you may not find that the Christmas tree farm that you usually go to has an abundance of trees, she said. [They] may have to close early because theyre at capacity or they might not have the variety that youre always used to getting.

In some cases, Kogut sees some of the smaller tree farms closing sales after only a week of business due to the demand and limited supply. She reports that some of the farms in the association have already started to sell trees.

"Today, holiday shoppers arent seeing the surpluses of the 1990s and 2000s, as many farmers scaled back their operations and started planting fewer trees amid the Great Recession," the Huffington post reported, adding that it takes about 10 years to grow a tree.

Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

Trees mainly affected by the shortage are wholesale balsam trees from the northern United States and Canada, and fraser firs from the south  mostly from North Carolina. In the south, freight transportation cost increases have made moving trees difficult. According to Kogut, 500 trees could be sent via freight transportation for $3,000 a few years ago. This year, that figure has climbed to $9,000.

In Canada, Kogut said that some tree farms are being bought up for their land. Additionally, many balsams were hurt by frost, further diminishing the supply coming from the north. A bad wet season has also caused some farms to lose some of their inventory due to tree diseases like Phytophthora ramorum, which is a root rot disease.

Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

As for the cost of live trees, Kogut said that trees from tree farms have stayed relatively at the same price, only increasing 3 percent yearly due to cost of living. Other nominal price increases are due to increases in the prices of items used for tree growth such as chemical fertilizer.

Artificial Christmas trees

If youre looking for an artificial tree instead, there is also a shortage of those.

The American Christmas Tree Association stated that this year will see fewer artificial trees available for consumer purchase this season, and those that are available will come with a higher price tag. This is due to ongoing supply chain issues as well as the increase in shipping costs for holiday goods.

Alex von Kleydorff/Hearst Connecticut Media

Companies such as the National Tree Company have been forced to increase their prices on artificial trees and holiday decorations sold at Walmart and Target up to 25 percent more than last year, Chris Butler, CEO of the National Tree Company, told Fox News.

Home Depot, as of now, shows plenty of artificial trees in stock with prices online range from $150 to $6,809.

"The peak week for buying Christmas trees is around Thanksgiving time, and we think by that point the shelves might be quite empty, Butler told Fox News. "We're suddenly scrambling to get containers along with every other importer of goods from China. Not only were we unable to get all of the containers that we wanted to get, but also the prices have gone up tenfold."

Kogut said approximately 25 to 30 million trees are sold in the United States yearly while 150,000 trees are sold solely in Connecticut every year.
TORRINGTON  Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut is coming to Torrington, according to an announcement from the agency.

With the aid of the Torrington Savings Foundation and Webster Bank, as well as a former Torrington resident, Habitat now has an opportunity to give back to a community that has supported its mission financially and through volunteerism, members said.

We will be applying for permits and breaking ground soon, weather permitting, on a new project on Hemlock Road. This will mark a significant milestone in this 30 year old organization, and we all look forward to working with the local community to help turn a familys dream of home ownership into reality, members said.

Habitats ability to work with volunteers and raise funds for projects was deeply affected by the pandemic. While we did have a new Partner family move into their home in May of 2021, starting any new projects was a challenge. Prices of materials rose and construction activity in general picked up, causing shortages and delays. We are hopeful that the worst has passed, and we can begin our work again, members said.

Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut will hold a kick-off event at Bad Dog Brewing Company at 117 Water St., Torrington, from 5-7 p.m. Dec. 9. Beverages and food will be provided. The community is welcome; and the event will be held on the brewerys second floor.

The mission of Habitats Northwest Connecticut affiliate is to facilitate ownership of simple, but decent and affordable homes for local workforce families who find themselves priced out of the market by the spiral of escalating prices and/or limited income that denies them access to traditional mortgage sources. Family composition is irrelevant, and never factors into Habitats qualification process. However, to be eligible for a Habitat home, applicants must meet three distinct criteria.

First, they must be facing a pressing need to improve their living conditions. For example, squeezing too many family members in a one-bedroom apartment, enduring serious mold conditions, a failing or inadequate heating system, poor insulation, or any other issues that significantly impair quality of life will deem a family eligible.

Then, the applicant must also demonstrate a reasonable sense of responsibility for meeting current financial obligations, like rent, as well as verify adequate income to keep up with Habitats comfortably affordable monthly payments.

Finally, Habitat households must commit to partner with Habitat by investing 400 hours of their labor in the construction of the home; 200 hours is the amount of hours a partner family must invest for a rehabilitated home. 100 hours must be donated by the actual partner family, but friends and others can help.

That often means working on the construction of their own, or even someone elses, Habitat home. But they can also earn such sweat equity in other ways, like volunteering to work in Habitats fund-raising events and other activities. Any family member can contribute time to be credited as sweat equity, and friends and more distant relatives are welcome to pitch in.

Habitats proven formula for home affordability is based on three key factors: first, by keeping land acquisition and construction costs low; second, by the use of wonderful volunteers who help to build the home and third, by providing interest-free mortgages, said Bob Whelan, Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut.

Habitat members explained that building lots are acquired either by donation or at a significantly discounted price. Dedicated volunteers, including the partner/owner family, provide construction labor, under the skilled supervision of qualified professionals. Local vendors, artisans and craftspeople donate or offer sharply discounted prices for high quality supplies, materials, and specialized labor. Other local corporate and individual donors also subsidize the process.

According to members, once the construction or rehabilitation is complete, Habitat assumes the role of a lender, making a zero-interest mortgage for a reasonable term that best suits the financial strength of the eligible applicant. Consequently, mortgage payments for a Habitat owner/partner family can be as low as half what they would normally be for a conventional mortgage, lower even than prevailing market rents for equivalent housing.

This one-story structure will feature three bedrooms and two baths, with an open kitchen, dining and living area. Many sustainable building practices and features will be incorporated into the home, such as LED lighting, insulation that exceeds code, a high efficiency heating and hot water system as well as a possible rooftop Photovoltaic array. These features help to keep long term costs to a minimum, according to Habitat.

Were not just about bricks or mortar, hammer and nails, said Tracy Atwood, President of Habitats Northwest Connecticut affiliate. Were really all about making peoples dreams come true. This home is an exceptionally special opportunity for a family who never thought they could afford to own a home in any of the communities we serve.

Serving housing needs in Sharon, Salisbury, North Canaan, Norfolk, Canaan/Falls Village, Torrington and Cornwall, Habitat - acting both as a builder and a lender has already enabled 13 families to realize their dream of home ownership.

Visit www.habitatnwct.org to learn more.
KENT  Young children may receive the pediatric COVID-19 vaccination at the High Watch Recovery Center on North Main Street .

The first two pediatric doses of the vaccine were given to children ages 5 to 11 at the clinic Thursday morning, with more children expected later in the day.

The clinic has received 1,200 pediatric doses.

We just received the pediatric doses this week, and they are available, said Jason Perillo, High Watch chief marketing officer. Parents can, if they so choose, book appointments for their children on the VAMS (Vaccine Administration Management System) portal on the CDC website.

No walk ins are being accepted.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11 on Oct. 29. Children require a smaller dose.

The clinics hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday to Friday could be extended if demand for the vaccine increases, Perillo said.

Were going to see how it goes, and if appointments fill up, we are more than happy to add additional hours and additional days, said Perillo, adding this will be evaluated within the next two weeks.

Perillo said he expects a high demand at the clinic for a brief period of time, and then, as with adult COVID-19 vaccines, the demand should taper off.

In the early stages, especially when senior citizens were very eager to be vaccinated, we were vaccinating 300 people a day, Perillo said.

We dont expect our volume at this point to be that high, he said, adding until he gets a better handle on demand, he cant predict how long the supply will last.

According to the CDC, possible side effects children can receive from the COVID-19 vaccine include pain, redness and swelling on the arm where the shot was administered. Additionally, general overall symptoms can include tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever and nausea.

Vaccine demand for adults

High Watch is still administering Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for first and second dozes.

Additionally, Pfizer vaccines are being administered for booster vaccines for adults.

Perillo added the clinic had cut its hours due to decreased demand.

Folks who really wanted the vaccine already got the vaccine, he said.

The highest age group that has been coming into the clinic for a COVID-19 vaccine is younger adults, he said.

He added, however, every time a new age group opens up, High Watch gets a slight uptick in volume, which then levels off pretty quickly.

The fact that the CDC has opened it up to kids as young as 5 will lead to another uptick in volume. Were just not exactly sure what that uptick is going to look like, Perillo said.

He added he expects the pediatric population to be somewhat less eager than the senior citizen population to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Senior citizens were different, he said. Every senior was very eager to get vaccinated. We are seeing some vaccine hesitancy for kids. Not every parent is interested in getting a vaccine for their child, so we dont know what impact thats going to have on demand for the pediatric doses. We are going to watch this very very closely in the first week to two weeks just to see exactly what demand looks like.

High vaccination rates in town

According to CT.gov, about 2,180 or 78.47 percent of Kent residents are fully vaccinated  which is sixth in the state.

Perillo credits the clinic with the towns high rates.

We opened this clinic in January simply to meet the needs of the community in Kent, and from the start the town of Kents vaccination rates have been among the highest in the state, Perillo said. Wed like to think that maybe we had a little something to do with that.

He said High Watch has the resources and location, and has made a commitment to continue vaccinating individuals for as long as they want to be vaccinated. We have an ability and an obligation to meet the communitys needs.

The Kent Station Pharmacy, at 38 North Main St., is not offering pediatric vaccines. They are, however, administering the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine only  for both initial doses and boosters, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Adults who have received Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines can receive the Moderna vaccine as well. Those interested may register at healthmartcovidvaccine.com. For information, visit kentstationpharmacy.com.

sfox@milfordmirror.com.
LITCHFIELD  A local military mom is disputing a decision made by the boroughs Board of Warden and Burgesses to remove yellow ribbons honoring the military from the town green.

Leslie Caron, whose son serves in the U.S. Air Force, said about three dozen ribbons were initially affixed to the trees soon after the start of the Iraq War in 2003.

All was fine, she said, until 2009 when they started disappearing.

The board of the borough of Litchfield decided they didnt want them up there anymore, Caron said. They said its been long enough. The fight began. We went back and forth for quite a while.

A compromise was reached in 2010, Caron said, that allowed them to keep five ribbons up so long as they maintained them.

That compromise has seemingly ended now, with the borough board voting in September to have the ribbons removed by Jan. 2.

This was 11 years ago, Caron said. Everything quieted down. This summer we were on vacation and we came back to no ribbons. We put them back up. And they came back down. And nobody is admitting to who is taking them down.

Gayle Carr, the new senior burgess, said the vote to remove the ribbons was in line with the boroughs ordinance that no signage can be posted on the green. In their interpretation of the ordinance, the ribbons are signage because they represent speech and have symbolism.

The borough board is charged with the enforcement of the ordinances that govern the borough, Carr said. One of the central pieces of that is the care and maintenance of the National Historic Landmark known as the green. Theres a concern that by allowing those ribbons in the first place ... a prior configuration of the board had allowed something that is essentially prohibited by the borough ordinances ... and thats not a good thing.

Caron believes the decision is anti-military in nature.

Carr said thats not the case, explaining the board would have reached the same decision if someone wanted to place pink ribbons on the trees for breast cancer awareness.

The decision to take down the yellow ribbons in no way means that we do not like or support our military or our veterans, Carr said. It is not about that. The statement of the Carons is really disturbing. They seem to not have the capacity to recognize that you can support our military without having the yellow ribbons. For some of us, flying the flag is enough to respect and reflect.

In 2016, a monument was placed on the town green by American Legion Post 27, listing the names of 33 Litchfield residents who have served in the military since Aug. 2, 1990  the day the Iraqi Army invaded Kuwait.

Carons sons name is on that monument.

But for Caron, seeing the bright yellow ribbons represents something more.

This is very important to us, Caron said. Its in support of our military and our military families. This is our military and they keep us safe. They give these people the right to do what theyre doing to us. We just have an awful lot of support in town.

Carr believes the monument and the American flag flying on the green should be enough for Litchfield to honor its local military members and veterans. There are also monuments on the green honoring those who served in the Vietnam, Korean and Civil wars as well as World War I and World War II.

I understand it is an emotional issue for them, Carr said. We are just trying to make sure that the green is maintained as an appropriate National Historical Landmark. The flag flies higher than it all. We should remember that. Thats what its there for. Its not about the yellow ribbons bringing us together. Its the flag that brings us together.

After attending the boards meetings in October and November, to voice her support for the ribbons, Caron said she plans to attend the December meeting to do the same. It will be her last chance to convince the board to reverse its decision before the ribbons are supposed to be removed.

If people support the ribbons, they have to let the borough know, Caron said. We dont know where they are coming from. They say its the borough rules. They can be changed and modified. In 2010, we have it in writing where there was a vote allowing the five ribbons. They dont care about that [compromise].
Several agencies are offering applications for their annual scholarships and new funds.

Greenwoods Scholarship Foundation

Applications are now available for Greenwoods scholarships. The Greenwoods Scholarship Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit corporation that manages funds from individual and corporate donors in northwest Connecticut and makes awards to recipients in the names of individual scholarship accounts.

Students who are residents of Barkhamsted, Colebrook, Hartland, New Hartford, Norfolk and Winchester, as well as students at Northwestern Connecticut Community College are eligible. High school graduates and those already matriculated in a college or university may apply. Application forms and instructions may be obtained online at www.gsfct.org or from The Gilbert School, Northwestern Regional #7, Explorations, Oliver Wolcott Technical School, the Hartland Town Hall, and the Financial Aid Office at NCCC.

Last year the Greenwoods Scholarship Foundation distributed scholarships valued at $131,850 to 93 recipients. In addition, the foundation also gave grants totaling $19,500 to the Allied Health Programt, the Workforce Development Program and the Certified Nurses Program of Northwestern Connecticut Community College. All applications must be returned to the high school counseling office, mailed to Greenwoods Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 834, Winsted, CT 06098 or faxed to Barbara Domack at 860-738-0646, by Feb. 11, 2022.

Salisbury VNA

Salisbury Visiting Nurse Association is now offering EMT/EMR scholarships. The program, managed by the Northwest CT Community Foundation, to provide scholarships for Emergency Medical Technician, Advanced Emergency Medical Technician, Emergency Medical Response certifications, as well as other employment related healthcare certifications up to $1,000 each. This program is designed to support adult learners beginning or elevating their careers in health care.

Eligibility is restricted to anyone who resides in (or who is a dependent of someone who resides in) the towns of: Canaan/Falls Village, Cornwall, Goshen, Kent, Norfolk, North Canaan, Salisbury, Sharon, and Warren.

This is a rolling open invitation; there is no close date. For more information, and to apply, visit: www.northwestcf.org/scholarship-applications

Established in 1969, the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation serves 20 towns in Northwest Connecticut. Its total endowment, comprised of more than 280 funds, has grown from initial assets of $15,000 to more than $125 million. Last year, combined grants and scholarships totaled in excess of $5 million.
When I first heard of Soylent  a nutrition drink billed as a ready to drink meal I didnt feel like I was part of its target audience. Id only heard of it being drunk by workaholic businessmen who woke up at 5 a.m. to play squash and steam before heading to a long day in their corner office. Since they were too busy to take full lunches, they would drink Soylent throughout the day to still get all the nutrients one needs.

At the time, I was a part-time library specialist and part-time remote freelance writer, so I didnt exactly relate to that. Most of all, I didnt see the point:my days had plenty of flexibility to make myself real meals. But a friend convinced me we should give it a try, and I looked forward to seeing if Soylent would help my productivity and turn me into a person who has those so-called miracle mornings.

Long story short, I ended up loving Soylent as a midday pick-me-up  though full disclosure, I always got the pre-made drinks, rather than the powders. To my surprise, I even missed it after I turned full-time freelance writer and into a digital nomad (Im well aware of the best items for air travel and not trying to bring liquids past TSA is Travel 101).

However, the combination of a pandemic and greatly missing my niece and nephew means Ive been a lot more stationary the last couple of years  and it also means Ive been back on Soylent. And I can successfully say that Im living proof Soylent isnt just for tech bro types: It can fit many aspects of my personality  and its great for many different types of lifestyles.

Soylent for the Business Professional

Soylent Complete Nutrition Gluten-Free Vegan Protein Meal Replacement Shake, Cafe Mocha - $41.10 for 12

Soylent Complete Nutrition Cafe Mocha, 14 Oz, 12 Pack Soylent amazon.com $26.17 Shop Now

I still dont wake up at 5 a.m., but being self-employed means I do need to have some business sense and represent myself well. While I dont go into an office, I do sometimes still have video calls with clients. These meetings are much easier to get through with Soylent because it keeps me full and, depending on which kind I choose, caffeinated (Lets be honest: its almost always a caffeinated one).

While my schedule is usually pretty flexible, I still like to save time. I use Soylents subscriptions service to have it delivered automatically to me every month, which cuts down on the time I spend grocery shopping. It also takes away my excuse to cook myself an elaborate lunch on busy days to procrastinate  I can just grab a Soylent and sip as I type.

Soylent for the Vegetarian

Soylent Complete Protein Gluten-Free Vegan Protein Meal Replacement Shake, Chocolate, 11 Oz, 12 Pack - $35

Soylent Complete Protein Chocolate, 11 Oz, 12 Pack Soylent amazon.com $35.00 Shop Now



Not only is Soylent vegetarian, but its 100% vegan, meaning it includes no animal products at all. According to WebMD, adult women need about 46 grams of protein per day, and on days when I give up my Greek yogurt and eat vegan, Soylent makes it simple to get almost a complete daily serving of plant-based protein.



The Complete Protein Chocolate Soylent has 30 grams of plant protein, which means just one bottle has two-thirds of what I need. In addition to being great for people already living a vegetarian lifestyle, it can be really useful for people who want to dip their toe in that world  Meatless Mondays are way less hassle with these in the fridge.

Soylent for the Environmentalist

Ive always cared about the environment and try to do my part in keeping our planet healthy. Not only is the soybean protein in soylent healthy, but its sustainable. Plant proteins use significantly less resources to produce than animal proteins. Within the plant protein category, soy shines: Not only is it endlessly adaptable, but it contributes less CO2 than other popular protein sources, such as whey. Plus, all of Soylents soybean protein is sourced from within the United States.



Of course, disposable bottles are never the most eco-friendly choice. According to the companys blog, they are also always looking into ways to make their packaging more sustainable. And to be honest, I feel like the packing has plenty of room for improvement: I have to open a box within a box, which is both wasteful and annoying.

Soylent for the Coffee Enthusiast

Soylent Complete Nutrition Gluten-Free Vegan Protein Meal Replacement Shake, Vanilla, 14 Oz, 12 Pack - $35.76

Soylent Complete Vanilla, 14 Oz, 12 Pack Soylent amazon.com $35.76 Shop Now

Im a big coffee fan, something that started with sugary Starbucks drinks and then turned into trying different coffees as I traveled. But dont worry, I'm no coffee snob: Im also content with a cup of Folgers, taken black. Unfortunately, sometimes the coffee thats meant to be a prelude to breakfast fills me up instead.

As Ive often heard coffee on an empty stomach isnt the greatest for your body, I wanted an experts opinion. According to gastroenterologist Dr. Lauren Bleich, who I consulted about drinking coffee on an empty stomach, doing so is generally OK, but its also important that people listen to their bodies and avoid it if they notice side effects.

Listening to my body, the personal side effect I sometimes notice is that making coffee my breakfast often means Im extra-hungry by lunchtime and then overeat. The sluggishness from overeating negatively impacts my productivity, which the morning coffee is supposed to help. Enter  you guessed it  Soylent.

The caffeinated Soylents have helped with this dilemma. On weekdays, I usually have my first cup of coffee on an empty stomach and my second mixed with Soylent. The Creamy Chocolate and Vanilla flavors mix in well, kind of like a healthy creamer. Soylent used to have a Cafe Vanilla flavor, which was one of my favorites, but now they only have non-caffeinated vanilla (If anybody who works at Soylent is reading this: Bring back Cafe Vanilla!).

Soylent Complete Energy Gluten-Free Vegan Protein Nootropics Shake, Chocolate, 11 Oz, 12 Pack - $35

Soylent Complete Energy Chocolate, 11 Oz, 12 Pack Soylent amazon.com $35.00 Shop Now

Sometimes Ill mix my coffee with the Soylent Complete Energy Chocolate, which is already caffeinated. That way, I feel like Im adding coffee to my coffee...did I mention I like coffee? Plus, I love the fact that I can drink something that tastes like thick chocolate milk and get a bunch of nutrients at the same time.

On the weekends when I sleep in a little more, I go straight to Soylent to get both some caffeine and nutrients in me all at once.

Soylent for the Chocoholic

Soylent Complete Nutrition Gluten-Free Vegan Protein Meal Replacement Shake, Mint Chocolate - $35.76 for 12

Soylent Complete Nutrition Mint Chocolate, 14 Oz, 12 Pack Soylent amazon.com $35.76 Shop Now

I like to tell people I dont have a sweet tooth  I have a sweet mouth. Specifically, I love chocolate. Fortunately for me, Soylent has several flavors that feed into my need for chocolate. Theres Creamy Chocolate, Cafe Mocha, and Mint Chocolate in the Complete Meal category. Complete Protein Chocolate provides those 30 easy grams of plant protein.

Soylent Complete Nutrition Gluten-Free Vegan Protein Meal Replacement Shake, Banana - $42 for 12

Soylent Complete Nutrition Banana, 14 Oz, 12 Pack Soylent amazon.com $42.00 Shop Now

Dont worry if you like sweet drinks but dont love chocolate: They have other flavors, such as Strawberry, Chai, and Banana as well.

Soylent in My Future

Soylent Complete Nutrition Gluten-Free Vegan Protein Meal Replacement Powder, Cacao, 36.8 Oz - $34

Soylent Complete Nutrition Powder, Cacao, 36.8 Oz Soylent amazon.com $34.00 Shop Now

I definitely plan to continue drinking Soylent to stay healthy and productive. When the world opens up and I start traveling again, Im going to buy some of the powdered Soylent so I can take it through security and see how it tastes mixed with water as I wait for flights. If Soylent can fit with the travel aspect of my personality, then its really perfect for every version of me  and it might be something for others to reconsider too. Now we just need to convince the company to bring back the Cafe Vanilla flavor.
NEW LONDON  Six months since he was named a person of interest in a Rosemary Street arson that happened hours after his infant son was fatally attacked by a family dog, city police say Timothy Settles has been taken into custody.

Settles, 33, of Merchant Street in Norwich, was charged Monday with first-degree arson, first-degree reckless endangerment and first-degree criminal mischief, police said. He appeared in state Superior Court in New London on Tuesday and was ordered held on $500,000 bond, records show.

New London police did not explain how Settles was apprehended, but said officers, assisted by Norwich police, took him into custody without incident.

Settles was identified as a person of interest in a fire that was intentionally set at a home on Rosemary Street in May, authorities said. Investigators were looking to question Settles, but could not immediately locate him.

Seven hours before the fire was reported, a dog mauled Settles 1-year-old son in his apartment in Norwich, according to authorities. The boy, identified by police as Carter Settles, died from his injuries.

Firefighters were called to the fire around 4 a.m. on May 11, according to officials. The fire started on the homes porch before spreading to the first floor.

Police and the citys fire marshals office determined the fire was an arson. Those inside were able to get out safely and no one was injured in the fire.

At the time of the fire, police said Settles was the last person seen at home aside from those living there.

In the months that investigators searched for Settles, they obtained a warrant charging him with setting the fire, police said.

Authorities have still not said how Settles was connected to the New London home.

About 8:40 p.m. on May 10, Norwich police officers were called to a home on McKinley Avenue on reports that an infant had been attacked by a dog, officials said.

Investigators learned that a family member had been holding the child when the dog, described as a male pit bull mix, started to jump up and bite the child, according to police.

The Norwich Police Department quarantined the dog and then followed the state Department of Agricultures guidelines on handling a dog involved in an attack.

It was unclear what happened to the dog. A Norwich police spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
A New London man has been arrested in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot, according to federal prosecutors.

Jeremy K. Baouche, 24, of New London, was charged Wednesday with numerous offenses connected with the Jan. 6 riot.

Baouche is the fifth Connecticut resident to be charged in connection with entering the Capitol building, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Patrick Edward McCaughey III, of Ridgefield, was arrested June 2 in White Plains, N.Y., Richard T. Crosby Jr., of Harwinton, was arrested June 3. A mother and daughter from Canterbury, Jean Lavin and Carly Krzywicki, were arrested mid-September.

Two other Connecticut residents, Victoria Bergeson and Mauricio Mendez of Groton, were also charged with curfew violation and unlawful entry in connection with the protest, but are not included in the FBIs official list of Capitol breach cases.

There have been more than 600 people charged in federal court related to the Capitol riot, according to the FBIs list.

Baouche was an engineer at General Dynamics Electric Boat at the time of the attack and took off on Jan. 5 and 6, according to FBI officials. The FBI also noted Baouche has a secret security clearance as part of his employment.

The FBI said it received an online tip on Jan. 13, identifying Baouche as entering the Capitol building.

Officials examined Baouches online search history at work, and found searches for the inauguration, the U.S. Capitol building layout, guns, rifle scopes, lasers, Trump protests, FBI Capitol and searches for jobs in the western part of the country. Officials also determined, through Google location data, that Baouche was inside the Capitol building at the time of the riot, the FBI said.

In a video, Baouche can be seen in the Capitol calling into a megaphone Whos house? while people in the area responded Our house, according to the FBIs statement of facts.

Staff writer Peter Yankowski contributed to this report.

Anyone with information related to individuals who unlawfully entered the U.S. Capitol building Jan. 6 can submit a tip online at Tips.FBI.gov. Tipsters can also call 800-225-5324.

liz.hardaway@hearst.com
Nora Fatehi's song, Kusu Kusu from John Abraham and Divya Khosla Kumar's upcoming film, Satyameva Jayate 2 released on November 10 and saw the actor stun the audience with her stunning belly-dancing moves. The video begins with a clipboard that reads, "Nora Fatehi in and as Dilruba". She dons a silver outfit in the song and performs the number to perfection.

Nora Fatehi's Satyameva Jayate 2 song Kusu Kusu out now

Nora Fatehi has been active on social media lately and has been promoting the foot-tapping number. The song was released on the T-Series YouTube channel on November 10 and saw the actor ace all her moves. She won a silver outfit with tassels and belly danced on the beats of the number. A few sequences of the song also saw the dance in the middle of a small water body. The music video also included John Abraham in a mysterious avatar, as he donned a black hoodie. It also gave viewers a sneak-peek into some clips from the film, that will revolve around fighting against injustice and the misuse of power. The film is slated to release on November 25.

Watch Nora Fatehi's in Satyameva Jayate 2's Kusu Kusu music here

Nora Fatehi also appeared in the first film, Satyameva Jayate, which was released on the big screen in 2018. In the film, she danced to 'Dilbar Dilbar' and stole fans' hearts with her performance. 'Kusu Kusu' also garnered heaps of love hours after its release and trended at number 15 in YouTube's music category. The actor announced the release of the song on her YouTube account and fans rushed to the comments section of the video to hail her for her performance. Several followers posted hearts and fire emoticons after her performance.

This is not the first song that has been released from the film. Meri Zindagi Hai Tu was released a few weeks ago and showcased the chemistry between Divya Khosla Kumar and John Abraham's characters. The music video saw the two lead actors celebrate the festival of Karva Chauth. Crooned by Jubin Nautiyal and Neeti Mohan, the lyrics have been penned down by Manoj Muntashir.

(Image: Instagram/@norafatehi)
In a major development from Jammu and Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested two more accused from Sopore, who were involved in the recent attacks in the Union Territory where multiple civilians and police personnel were killed. The arrested conspirators are Rashid Muzaffar Ganaie and Nasir Mir. NIA has arrested 27 persons in the case so far.

NIA arrests 02 more accused persons in J&K Terrorism Conspiracy Case (RC-29/2021/NIA/DLI) pic.twitter.com/Wx5UoDRvK6  NIA India (@NIA_India) November 12, 2021

The NIA informed that the accused are terror associates of various organisations and have been offering logistical and material support to terrorists.

In an official statement, the investigative agency said, "The case relates to conspiracy both physically and in cyberspace for undertaking violent terrorist acts in J&K and other major cities including New Delhi, by cadres of proscribed terrorist organisations Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al Badr and similar other outfits and their affiliates such as the Resistance Front (TRF), People Against Fascist Forces (PAFF) etc."

The NIA informed that the accused were involved in several terrorist acts including the killing of innocent civilians and security personnel, unleashing a reign of terror in the valley of Kashmir, thereby challenging the writ of the state.

Accordingly, NIA had registered the case and initiated the investigation. Preliminary investigation has revealed that arrested accused persons are terror associates/OGWs of various proscribed terrorist organisations and have been providing logistical and material support to terrorists.



Civilians Killed In J&K

Following the targeted attacks on civilians in the valley, the security forces launched a massive anti-terrorist operation. More than 10 terrorists have been neutralised so far in operations carried out by the forces in the region. The government has also sent additional troops to J&K.

"Considering recent civilian killings in Jammu and Kashmir, five additional CRPF teams are being sent to the Union Territory. These companies will be deployed there within a week. The force earlier had sent 25 companies in Jammu and Kashmir," an official told ANI. Last month, terrorists attacked several non-locals, civilians and Kashmiri Pandits.
Union Minister of State for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan on Thursday met President of Uganda Yoweri K Museveni and interacted with Ugandan Business Community and the Indian community in Uganda. The Union Minister informed that the Ugandan President praised the Indian community in the country for their significant contributions. At present Muraleedharan is on a five-day visit to Uganda and Rwanda.

Taking to Twitter, Minister wrote, "Delighted to have called-on Hon'ble President of Uganda Kaguta Museveni. Conveyed greetings of PM Narendra Modi Ji. The President praised the Indian community in Uganda for their significant contributions".

Delighted to have called-on Hon'ble President of Uganda @KagutaMuseveni.



Conveyed greetings of PM Shri @narendramodi ji.



The President praised Indian community in Uganda for their significant contributions. pic.twitter.com/EPXZjXUwjN  V. Muraleedharan (@MOS_MEA) November 11, 2021

The Union Minister further informed that he had a fruitful and engaging discussion with his Ugandan counterpart Okello Oryem. He also met Minister of States Finance Henry Musaafi and agreed to work together in diversified areas and take the relationship further ahead between the two nations.

Had fruitful & engaging discussion with H.E.Henry Okello Oryem, MoS Foreign Affairs of Uganda. Glad MoS Finance H.E.Henry Musaafi also joined.



Reviewed entire gamut of bilateral relationship.



Agreed to work together in diversified areas & take the relationship further ahead. pic.twitter.com/ZBSTPdKJWe  V. Muraleedharan (@MOS_MEA) November 11, 2021

India-Rwanda Joint Commission Meeting on Nov 14

Union Minister Muraleedharan will visit Rwanda on 14th and 15th November and Co-Chair the first Joint Commission Meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Dr. Vincent Biruta. He will also call on President of Rwanda Paul Kagame. During the visit, the Minister will inaugurate the India-Rwanda Entrepreneurship Development Centre, set up under the Government of Indias grant assistance, and will pay a courtesy visit to Kigali Genocide Memorial. He will also interact with the Indian Community in Rwanda.

MoS Muraleedharan Meets Gambian Foreign Minister

On November 1, V. Muraleedharan stated met with Gambia Foreign Minister, Dr Mamadou Tangara and addressed a wide range of issues, which comprise development partnerships, commerce, people-to-people connections and many more. Muraleedharan took to Twitter to say that he had comprehensive and productive conversations with Tangara.

Had extensive & fruitful discussions with Foreign Minister, H.E. Dr Mamadou Tangara of The Gambia.



Discussed wide ranging matters including development partnership, capacity building, trade, investment & people-to-people ties.



The relationship is poised to strengthen further. pic.twitter.com/DxbstwRTY5  V. Muraleedharan (@MOS_MEA) November 1, 2021

India-Gambia ties

Further, during the meeting, V. Muraleedharan stated that the relationship between India and the Gambia is based on shared principles and four fundamental pillars of engagement such as political, trade and economic, development, and people-to-people ties.

Minister Muraleedharan even informed that during his two-day visit to The Gambia, two accords have been signed, one of which is a visa waiver agreement for the bearers of official and diplomatic passports, while the other is the General Framework Agreement for the Joint Commission's establishment. He also said that he believes that such steps will further foster the relationship.

(With ANI Inputs)
In the Malik-Wankhede defamation case, the Bombay High Court on Friday pulled up Nawab Malik, stating that 'verification doesn't mean blind application', referring to his tweets made against Sameer Wankhede and his family. The court, during the hearing of the case filed by Sameer Wankhede's father, noted that the verification level varies from person to person, and added that it must have been the highest for Nawab Malik considering that he was a minister in the Maharashtra government. The court noted interpolation in Sameer Wankhede's birth certificate produced by Nawab Malik.

The defamation suit was filed after Malik's allegations on Sameer Wankhede and his family. Dnyandev Wankhede has also sought 1.25 crore compensation from Malik for the 'irreplaceable loss, damage, harm, prejudice to the name, character, reputation and social image of him and his family'.

'Interploation in Birth Certificate'

After looking at the birth certificate of Sameer Wankhede produced by Nawab Malik's lawyer, the court alleged that the handwriting of the word 'Sameer' was different from that of the word 'Muslim'. Accepting interpolation in the certificate, Nawab Malik's lawyer, in a bid to turn tables, asked Dnyandev Wankhede's lawyer why not even a photocopy of Sameer Wankhede's birth certificate was attached in the affidavit.

Court said, "If there is a public document, then alright. But this is the only document you are having. There is an interpolation here." The court added, "You are a member of the assembly and the spokesperson of a political party. You should be more careful." Thereafter, Nawab Malik's lawyer said, "But we have got this from BMC. The records can be called for. It's all there." Interrupting him, Sameer Wankhede's lawyer said, "It was not a public document and only available to the minister."

After hearing both sides, the Bombay High Court has reserved its order in the said case.

Nawab Malik's slew of accusations against Nawab Malik and his family

Nawab Malik called the Mumbai cruise drug bust case 'a plot', and has since raised a number of issues. He has specifically targeted NCB Mumbai's Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede and even questioned his appointment. He has alleged that Sameer Wankhede's father Dnyandev Wankhede was actually 'Dnyandev Dawood Wankhede' and that the name was changed to create a fake caste certificate, using which Sameer Wankhede become an Indian Revenue Service officer via the reserved category. The Maharashtra Minister has also claimed that Sameer Wankhede has not followed the protocols in more than 26 cases.

Further, Nawab Malik has released purported photos of Yasmeen Wankhede, who is Sameer Wankhede's sister. Hinting at a deeper link between Sameer Wankhede and Bollywood, Malik had said, "During the pandemic, the entire film industry was in the Maldives. Sameer Wankhede must clarify what he and his family members were doing there at that time. He should clarify whether he was in Dubai," Malik said.

Also, Nawab Malik alleged that Sameer Wankhede's sister-in-law Harshada Dinanath Redkar was involved in an old case of immoral trafficking and/or for the alleged possession of drugs in 2018.
In a remarkable development, scientists from the University of Lille in France have created the intense pressurised conditions, found in the Earths outer core, within a laboratory. It has been known that the outer core of our planet is composed of liquid iron and nickel and this outer core surrounds an inner core that consists of a hardball of the same elements. Experts working on this project believe that this advancement will help us understand conditions resulting from collisions of iron in space and also what goes on inside our own planet.

Arianna Gleason, a physicist at the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory said as per Science Alert, We didn't quite make inner core conditions, but we achieved the conditions of the outer core of the planet, which is really remarkable. The experiment was led by physicist Sebastien Merkel, who along with his team have finally witnessed the structural deformation of iron.

Scientists created lab conditions with 3,796 degrees celsius temp.

In order to deform the iron, the lattice of the element first needs to be broken. To understand this, imagine a cube with four beads (technically atoms) in each corner and one in the center. When intense pressure and temperature are applied to this element, the said structure (lattice) starts deforming and the atoms dislocate and create a hexagonal structure, making room for more atoms. Were talking about the dislocation in normal conditions as what happens in extreme conditions like that in the core was unknown, until now.

In order to determine what happens deep inside our planets surface, scientists used two lasers- optical and Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser to create extreme heat and measure the irons atomic structure respectively. Using the lasers, the experimenters subjected a microscopic iron sample to a temperature up to 3,796 degrees celsius and 187 Gigapascals of pressure. For scaling, the outer cores temperature and pressure ranges from 3,727 to 4,727 degrees Celsius and 135 to 330 pascals respectively.

According to the experts, this achievement can play a major role in understanding space collisions as there are many metallic asteroids out there in the universe that once were the core of planets but underwent a disruption in their formation. They explained that these asteroids might end up colliding one day and the iron in their structure might undergo deformation.

Science Alert reported Gleason saying, Now we can give a thumbs up, thumbs down on some of the physics models for really fundamental deformation mechanisms. That helps to build up some of the predictive capability we're lacking for modeling how materials respond at extreme conditions.

Image: Twitter/@TWIScience
Environmental activists and World Food Programme officials in Northern Kenya say extreme droughts caused by climate change have turned what used to be a "land of plenty" into one where people are struggling for food.

The river in Nakaria, near Kalokol, is a seasonal river, meaning it flows when it rains and dries up when it doesn't.

But frequent and longer dry spells have meant the river rarely ever flows anymore, and locals digging boreholes for water have to dig deeper, and through harder ground.

The region near Lake Turkana, the world's largest saltwater lake, relies on this river.

But the increase in droughts has meant that the wells are struggling to serve the growing population of nearly 100,000 people.

Speaking in Kalokol Town, local environmental activist Billy Kepu told U.K. broadcaster Sky News that the lack of water had led to "food crises".

World Food Programme Policy officer Gabriel Ekaale echoed Kepu's sentiments.

He said that where once cattle grazed on grass, now "you can see bare and empty ground, almost like those sheep are feeding on the soil."

"We believe that climate change is the driver of the many issues that we experience here," he said, adding "We are increasingly seeing the drought episodes escalating and increasing, and therefore households do not have enough of the supplies of milk and meat."

The droughts mean mothers like Alice Moni, who was visiting a regional health centre, cannot feed her child.

She says her baby is always hungry.

It's thought around 600,000 people in the county are in need of food or money, while around 60 percent do not eat properly.

The World Food Programme has warned of high levels of malnutrition.

Reporters say forecasts in the region have predicted further droughts, which could lead to a water crisis in the area.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
As a result of unseasonably early winter storms, parts of China's northeast region are experiencing the worst snowfall in 116 years, causing significant disruption to daily life. This week's heavy snowfall has resulted in flight cancellations, road closures, public transportation disruptions, and a dramatic drop in temperatures. Concerns have been raised about keeping homes warm in Shenyang, which experienced power outages earlier this year as a result of the record snowfall. The average snowfall in Shenyang, the capital city of Liaoning province, was 51cm (20 inches).

The heavy onslaught has severely impacted traffic in Liaoning, with most expressway toll stations closed as of Tuesday. Except for those in Dalian and Dandong, train and bus stations have also remained close, according to local media outlets. Authorities stated that they were stepping up efforts to keep homes warm by increasing coal imports and increasing energy production capacity. It also urged markets and grocery stores to stock up on food and lower prices. According to local media reports, China's northeast region was one of the areas most affected by rolling power outages in September this year, with rising costs contributing to a shortage of coal.

One person died and over 5,600 affected in Mongolia

After a heavy snowstorm in neighbouring Inner Mongolia, one person died and over 5,600 were affected. According to meteorological researchers in the Mongolian city of Tongliao, the snowstorm was an extremely random and sudden extreme weather event. In Inner Mongolia and north-eastern China, a total of 27 red alerts were issued, the highest warning level for snowstorms. Temperatures in some parts of north-eastern China dropped by at least 14 degrees Celsius as a result of the cold wave that began on Sunday. According to state media outlet Xinhua, this is perhaps the highest snowfall recorded since 1905.

Despite the fact that the power crisis has subsided, China's State Grid Corp has previously warned of an overall tight balance with partial gaps between power supply and demand during the winter. China is heavily reliant on coal for energy, despite Chinese President Xi Jinping's pledge that his country will reach peak carbon emissions in nine years, according to Xinhua.

(With inputs from agencies)

Image: AP
On Friday, the altar in Saint Michael's Church in Belgium's Ghent city was cleansed by sprinkling holy water and offering prayers after a couple filmed themselves in explicit positions on it, reported news agency Sputnik citing local media outlets. This was reportedly done at the request of local parishioners and the bishop, who also requested that a prayer service be held to restore the building's true purpose. Dean Jaak Janssen stated that the tape of the intimacy was made public and put up for grabs in the media. "The symbolism of the church architecture and the altar were thus polluted and place of God's honour had been ruined," he was quoted as saying by The Brussels Times. He further stated that the situation was intolerable to the church employees, who were "overwhelmed" by the news.

The footage which was also shared on different social media platforms showed the couple behind the church altar. According to reports, the video first began circulating on WhatsApp before making rounds on other social media platforms. Meanwhile, the perpetrators have already been apprehended and pleaded guilty to public indecency and the sharing of pornographic material. They were ordered by the magistrate to attend a training course to help them understand the consequences of their acts, reported Sputnik citing local media.

Two pranksters detained near a cathedral in Moscow

Meanwhile, in another bizarre incident, two pranksters were arrested near a cathedral in Moscow for faking a compromising position. Prankster Ruslani Murodzhonzoda and his model companion Anastasia Chistova were also sentenced to ten months in prison for their act near St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square for "likes and popularity," according to The Moscow Times. The photograph that surfaced online showed Chistova wearing a police jacket when she knelt in front of Murodzhonzoda with the world-famous cathedral in the background.

As the photo went viral, the pair was arrested on charges of carrying out actions that were likely to harm the sensibilities of the country's citizens. Meanwhile, experts accused the pair of carrying out such an act "in order to offend believers' religious sensibilities." It is worth noting that the duo were the first ones to be sent to prison under the country's law. Before this incident, whoever was charged with insulting the feelings of believers were either fined or had a suspended sentence, reported the outlet.

Image: Pixabay/Representative
The Eighth Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) began on an island southeast of Istanbul on Friday, November 12 with the theme "Green Technologies and Smart Cities in the Digital Age." Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart K. Tokayev, Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, an observer state, attended the summit, according to a statement.

The leaders are expected to discuss ways to expand cooperation in all fields and to adopt a vision document for the next two decades, according to the statement. Prior to the meeting, the leaders of the participating organisations attended the official opening ceremony of the council's general secretariat building in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet neighbourhood, ANI reported. In addition, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held bilateral talks with his counterparts on the sidelines of the summit, according to the statement.

Turkic Council's name has been changed to Organization of Turkic States

The Turkic Council was established in 2009 to foster cooperation among Turkic-speaking countries. Its members are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan, with Hungary serving as an observer. The name of the Turkic Council has been changed to the Organization of Turkic States, according to Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, as part of efforts to strengthen ties between Turkic countries and transform for the future, Daily Sabah reported. Cavusoglu said that the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States is undergoing a transformation project, while speaking at a foreign ministers' meeting a day before the 8th Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States in Istanbul.

Stronger foreign policy coordination, security cooperation, signing free trade agreements, transportation border opening, and strong cooperation between member countries are all goals of the 2040 vision. According to Daily Sabah, Cavusoglu urged the council's foreign ministers to increase consultation on global issues, saying they must all be active in order to maintain control in the face of ongoing crises. Reportedly, President Erdogan said earlier this month that the establishment of new grounds for dialogue by Turkic Council members' judicial organs is of great importance to Turkey at a time when threats directly affecting countries and their citizens, such as terrorism, irregular migration, and transnational crimes, are on the rise.

(With inputs from Agencies)

Image: AP
For the annual India-Russia bilateral summit, sources have informed Republic that Russia's President Vladimir Putin will be visiting the country in December and meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The date of his visit, sources further informed, could be on December 6, though it remains to be confirmed. Confirmation of Putin's visit to India could also hinge on the COVID situation in Russia, though there are clearly a number of key matters to discuss, especially given the changed security scenario since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and China's expansionism.

It was in 2018 that Vladimir Putin last visited India for the annual summit, and the Russian President was again to visit in 2020 but because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, his visit was cancelled. It is pertinent to mention here that this will be Putin's second foreign visit post-pandemic if it happens, reflecting the significance of the strategic partnership between the two nations. Before this, Putin has travelled only to Geneva for the landmark Summit with US President Biden.

Russia's President's visit to India

It is learnt that the two sides are going to firm up a number of agreements in the areas of defence, trade and investment, and science and technology at the summit. A framework for military-technical cooperation will be renewed for the next decade at the summit. India and Russia have also reached the final phase of negotiation for a logistics support agreement and it is likely to be signed either during the two-plus-two foreign and defence ministerial dialogue in Moscow or at the summit. The pact will allow militaries of the two countries to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies, besides facilitating scaling up of overall defence cooperation. Also, a joint commission on technology and science will be announced.

Afghanistan issue also to be discussed

The topic of Afghanistan is also going to come up during the summit. Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev visited India in September as part of a follow-up to the telephonic conversation between Modi and Putin on the developments in AfghanistanPatrushev again visited India this week to attend the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan. Apart from Russia and India, the dialogue was attended by top security officials of Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

At the dialogue, the eight participating nations vowed to work towards ensuring that Afghanistan does not become a safe haven for global terrorism and called for the formation of an "open and truly inclusive" government in Kabul.


In a key development, Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha revealed that their country has adopted the "Bio-Circular Green or BCG Economy Model as part of the post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery. Speaking at the APEC CEO Summit, Prayut Chan-o-cha stated that their country is committed to APEC in ensuring all opportunities that connect every dimension and balance in all aspects. Thailand PM further said that they will pursue three priorities based on a sustainable and balanced approach to achieve social, economic, and environmental goals.

Speaking at the APEC CEO summit, Prayut Chan-o-cha underscored that going forward towards 2022, Thailand will continue APECs work to keep markets open through a multilateral trading system that is based on rules. Furthermore, he noted that the country will also work to take forward APECs work which includes APEC Putrajaya vision 2040. He informed that they will work for APEC Putrajaya vision 2040 through facilitating trade and investment, restoring connectivity and promoting inclusive and sustainable growth. He noted the implementation of Putrajaya which he underlined will be an important achievement for New Zealand that has worked tirelessly for a year. He further highlighted that Thailand will work to strengthen the ongoing discussion on the realisation of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific(FTAAP) in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.

Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of Thailand, spoke at the #APECCEOSummit. In his remarks, he shared Thailands plans and priorities for APEC 2022. Click on to watch the highlights of his speech.https://t.co/MrKCl8mbyy  APEC Secretariat (@APEC) November 12, 2021

Thailand PM commits to reconnecting post-COVID pandemic

Chan-o-cha mentioned that they would work to advance regional economic integration and embracing digitalisation and other contemporary and emerging trade issues, including climate change, public health and inclusive development. Thailand PM asserted that their country is committed to reconnecting, starting with reopening their borders. He highlighted that since 1 November, the country has reopened its borders for all international travellers arriving from 63 countries. He mentioned that reconnecting was important in the APECs path to recovery.

New Zealand PM calls for strong, sustainable post-COVID recovery

Earlier on Thursday, 11 November, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged the political and business leaders to work together to create a strong, equitable and sustainable recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. Ardern made the remarks in her address at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit, as per the APEC news release. Ardern stated that there is now little doubt that staying on top of the virus provides options when it comes to responding to the economic challenges before us. As per the APEC press release, Ardern mentioned that as they start to work after the COVID-19 pandemic, they need to continue working together to enhance the partnership between government and business.

Image: AP
In a key development, Bahrain on Thursday, 11 November, approved the emergency use of the India-made COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin produced by Bharat Biotech. In a tweet, the Indian embassy in Bahrain said that the Kingdom of Bahrains National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) on Thursday approved Indias indigenously produced vaccine against Coronavirus. Covaxin is an inactivated vaccine that was recently got approval by World Health Organization (WHO). Covaxin will also be available in Bahrain for 18-year-olds and above.

As per Bahrain News Agency, the approval in the kingdom follows a careful evaluation of data provided by the manufacturer, Bharat Biotech carried out by the NHRAs Clinical trials Committee as well as the Ministry of Healths Immunization Committee. More than 26,000 people participated in the vaccine trials which revealed the India-made vaccine is 77.8% effective against COVID-19 and 93.4% effective against the severe cases of Coronavirus injection.

Bahrains National Health Regulatory Authority @NHRABahrain approves the emergency use of the Indias indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccination, COVAXIN by Bharat Biotech. #Covaxin https://t.co/7F3h2NYwjc pic.twitter.com/Fi0xtqbI0a  India in Bahrain (@IndiaInBahrain) November 12, 2021

Bharat Biotechs Covaxin Approved By Hong Kong

Apart from Bahrain, Hong Kong also joined the growing list of nations that have approved Bharat Biotech's Covaxin. Earlier on 10 November, ANI stated that Covaxin was added to the list of COVID-19 vaccines recognised in the former British colony. On 3 November, the World Health Organization (WHO) also issued an emergency use listing (EUL) for Covaxin. In a statement, the United Nations (UN) health agency said that its EUL procedure assesses the quality, safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and is a prerequisite for COVAX vaccine supply. It also allows countries to expedite their own regulatory approval to import and administer COVID-19 vaccines.

COVAXIN was assessed under the WHO EUL procedure based on the review of data on quality, safety, efficacy, a risk management plan and programmatic suitability. The Technical Advisory Group (TAG), convened by WHO and made up of regulatory experts from around the world, has determined that the vaccine meets WHO standards for protection against COVID-19, that the benefit of the vaccine far outweighs risks and the vaccine can be used globally, WHO said.

(IMAGE: PTI)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, 11 November accused Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of lying about the refugee crisis. According to Xinhua report, during a joint press conference with the visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Erdogan said, It is truly ingratitude to say that the refugee crisis is caused by Turkey. The Turkish President also added that it is Greece that pushes the refugees to their deaths in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.

Erdogans remarks came after Greek PM said on Tuesday that Athens intercepted boats coming from Turkey but refused the claims that his government pushed back the refugees. Mitsotakis said, So rather than blaming Greece, you should put it on those who have been instrumentalising migration systematically. The war of words between both the nations come in the backdrop of thousands of refugees are gathering on the Belarusian side of the border in an attempt to enter Poland and then Germany to seek asylum.

On Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reportedly discussed the issue of migrants with his Polish counterpart, Zbigniew Rau, on the phone. On Thursday, Erdogan, as per Hurriyet Daily News, said that It is Greece that is condemning refugees to death by skewering their boats and added, We have all the documents. Turkish President even said that in its entirety, Greece had turned into a US military base referring to United States military deployments in the northern region of Greece.

Hungarian PM called for a defensive perimeter

Additionally, in the same press conference, Orban underscored the need for a defensive perimeter across Europe and noted that the continent was under migration pressures from the Mediterranean, Western Balkans and Belarus. Hungarian PM said that Europe was in need of allies and added that if such a perimeter is not established, the continent would be in a difficult situation. He reportedly said, We should help our Turkish friends on migration. The EU should support Turkey as much as possible.

As per Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey is already housing four million refugees which is the most number of migrants in the world, amid signs that a new wave of Afghan refugees might head towards Turkey and the EU. Erdogan also said that he discussed bilateral relations with the Hungarian counterpart.

(IMAGE: AP)


The commander of Irans Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, on Thursday, 11 November, said that Israel is doomed to termination and that any move by Jerusalem against Tehran will expedite that demise. According to Sputnik, Hajizadehs remarks come in response to Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavis warning that the military was boosting its preparations for a possible attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. It also comes after Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said that Israel would carry out operations that havent been seen in the past if regional war breaks out.

According to Sputnik, Hajizadehs remarks come in response to Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavis warning that the military was boosting its preparations for a possible attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. It also comes after Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said that Israel would carry out operations that havent been seen in the past if regional war breaks out.

On Thursday, while speaking at a ceremony in Tehran, Hajizadeh mocked Israel for being the only regime in the world arguing about how to survive. He said Israels government that discusses its existence is dommed to termination and cannot talk about destroying other countries. The top Iranian military brass acknowledged that Israel is able to carry out strikes against Iran, however, he also noted that Tehran would win in an armed conflict.

Hajizadeh further also noted that the constant demands from Israeli allies for Tehran to limit its missile programme are vivid proof that Iran possesses the power to fulfil its threat of eliminating Israel if the latter strikes first. If the Zionist regime gives the Islamic Republic an excuse, it will only expedite its termination, he warned.

It is to mention that the Israeli Air Force is expected to resume practising for a strike on Irans nuclear programme, Times of Israel reported. Earlier this year, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi had announced that he had instructed the military to begin drawing up fresh attack plans for a strike on Irans nuclear facilities. Last month, the Israeli government also reportedly allocated billions of shekels toward making those plans visible.

Iran 2015 nuclear deal

Iran is ready to reach a good agreement on the nuclear issue at negotiations due to get underway in Vienna later this month. Due to the signing of the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran drastically reduced the enrichment of uranium in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. However, the deal signed during former US President Barack Obama administration did not last for too long as his successor Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal and reimposed the crippling sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Trumps 2018 move resulted in an increase in tensions in the Middle East with Tehran breaching its limits on uranium enrichment set under the deal.

(Image: AP)
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday, 11 November, met with Nepals Chief of Army Staff General Prabhu Ram Sharma, a day after the latter was conferred the honorary rank of General of the Indian Army by President Ram Nath Kovind. While taking to Twitter, the Office of Raksha Mantri informed about the meet and also stated that the two discussed matters related to bilateral defence and security cooperation.

Chief of the Army Staff, Nepali Army General Prabhu Ram Sharma met with Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh in New Delhi today. pic.twitter.com/s3HsKv72UN    / RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) November 11, 2021

It is to mention that General Sharma is currently on a four-day visit to India in a bid to explore ways to further deepen defence cooperation between the two nations. According to PTI, Defence Ministry officials said that matters relating to bilateral defence and security cooperation were figured in the meeting between Rajnath Singh and General Sharma.

Earlier on Thursday, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishakar also met General Sharma. The EAM said that Nepals Chief of Army Staffs visit underlines the closeness of the relationship between New Delhi and Kathmandu.

Pleased to receive General Prabhu Ram Sharma, Chief of Army Staff, Nepali Army.

His visit underlines the closeness of our relationship. pic.twitter.com/QQn046nFPZ  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) November 11, 2021

Nepals Army Chiefs visit to India

Nepals Army Chief has already held talks with Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, General Naravane and Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari in the last couple of days. In continuation of a tradition that started in 1950, General Sharma was conferred with the honorary rank of 'General of the Indian Army' by President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday. Last year, Nepal too had conferred the honorary rank of General of Nepal Army to India Army Chief General MM Navarane during his visit to Kathmandu.

General Sharma arrived on a four-day visit to India at the official invitation of Chief of Army Staff, General Naravane. During his visit to India, General Sharma met his Indian counterpart in New Delhi on Tuesday, 9 November. The chief of Army staff of both the nations discussed bolstering "defence cooperation" between Nepal and India. On his arrival at South Block, General Prabhu Ram Sharma was given a warm welcome by General MM Naravane.

General Prabhu Ram Sharma, Chief of the Army Staff, #NepaliArmy called on General MM Naravane #COAS and exchanged views on further strengthening defence cooperation between the two countries.#DefenceCooperation#IndiaNepalFriendship pic.twitter.com/32HLECPG7A  ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) November 9, 2021

(With inputs from PTI)
Taiwan on Thursday announced that it has lifted the COVID-related entry ban on migrant workers from Indonesia. The removal of international border restrictions will allow at least 1,700 labourers and caregivers to Taiwan from Indonesia. The statement came after Indonesia agreed to comply with a series of COVID-19 prevention measures based on the "points system", including a 21-days quarantine on arrival. However, the ban could be reimposed for a two months period beginning from mid-December leading up to next year's Lunar New Year holidays, the Ministry of Labour (MOL) said in a statement.

The decision of new COVID-related border relaxations was announced by MOL official Tsai Meng-Liang, Taiwan News reported. On Wednesday, the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower announced that the removal of the ban will allow the first wave of migrant workers to enter Taiwan from 11-23 November. As per Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) Taiwan, quarantine facilities have been arranged for at least 1,700 people in anticipation of their arrival. While 850 of these workers will be employed in factories and nursing homes, another 850 will work as caregivers, as per the Taiwan Ministry of Manpower.

Taiwan and Indonesia hold online meet on preparations

Taiwanese and Indonesian authorities had held an online meeting on the preparations for opening the borders, MOL Workforce Development Agency head Meng-Liang said during a press briefing on Wednesday. The formal implementation plan will be reported to the CECC and the migrant workers from Indonesia can begin travel as early as this week, Meng-Liang had said.

As per head of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian migrant workers (BP2MI), Benny Rhamdani, 12,730 workers have registered to work in Taiwan. The group comprised around 6,204 caregivers, 4,755 factory labourers, and 988 fishery workers.

Meanwhile, the MOL is also in discussions with the governments of Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand to open worker entry, MOL's head of Workforce Development Agency, Tsai said. If the talks are successful, workers from these countries will also be allowed into Taiwan, Meng-Liang said. Moreover, Thailand has expressed willingness to comply with Taiwan's COVID-19 protocols.

Taiwan banned entry for Indonesian migrant workers in December last year after COVID-19 cases took a steep surge in the island nation. Earlier in May, Taipei closed the international border for all migrant workers and foreign nationals. As per Taiwan News, one of the main reasons for the ban were the Indonesian workers were providing fake COVID-19 negative documents on arrival. Since then Taipei has requested Indonesia to consolidate prevention measures against COVID-19, to which the latter pressed for implementation of a "zero placement fee policy," which as per MOL will be revisited after the pandemic is over.

(Image: AP/ Unsplash)
Taliban Intelligence Department in Afghanistan has claimed that at least 600 ISIS terrorists were arrested in the past three months across the nation. It is to mention that the Taliban had gained control of Kabul in the month of August. Since then the Daesh or ISIS has waged a deadly spate of suicide attacks and targeted bombings across multiple provinces and claimed dozens of lives.

Spokesman for the intelligence department Khalil Hamraz, while speaking at a press conference, said: In several parts of the country, nearly 600 members of Daesh who were involved in subversive acts and killings were detained. The detainees include some top members. They are in the prisons.

ISIS or Daesh have carried out several assaults in recent weeks, including a twin bombing of a military hospital in Kabul last week, which left around 19 people dead. The Nangarhar province has also seen an increase in fighting, with the Taliban undertaking counter-offensives targeting "Daesh hideouts," as the regime termed them. Moreover, the terror group has also claimed a massive suicide bombing in Kandahar and another in a Shia community mosque in the northern Kunduz province, killing more than 100 people.

Afghanistans security situation satisfactory

However, Hamraz said that the security situation in the country was satisfactory. Separately, speaking at the same conference, the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, also denied ISIS as being a major threat in the war-ravaged nation. Mujahid said that 21 ISIS sanctuaries were eliminated in several provinces.

"Our efforts are continuing to root out (Daesh) but the threats have been reduced to a great extent," Mujahid said.

It is to mention that Daesh had first emerged in Afghanistans Nangarhar region in late 2014. Its goal remains to implement Sharia law. They had previously warned that whoever in the world went against Islam and the Quran will have to face the terror groups wrath. Experts believe that most of the recruits of the Daesh have defected from the Taliban branches in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan, seeking an even more extreme interpretation of Islam with more international-centred goals of Caliphate control.

(With inputs from ANI)
The United States, Bahrain, Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have begun a joint naval training in the Red Sea, the US Navys Fifth fleet announced. This marks the first time that the four states have publically acknowledged collaborating in maritime operations, especially as tensions over a nuclear deal with Iran continue to jeopardise stability in the middle east. The exercise is set to continue for five days before

"It is exciting to see U.S. forces training with regional partners to enhance our collective maritime security capabilities," said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of NAVCENT, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces. "Maritime collaboration helps safeguard freedom of navigation and the free flow of trade, which are essential to regional security and stability."

As per a media release, the drills that began on 10 November will feature Americas at-sea training aboard the amphibious dock ship USS Portland (LPD 27). The military exercise focuses on visit, board, search and seizure tactics. It is expected to bolster interoperability between the participant states. Interestingly, it is the first time, after last year's Abraham Accords that Israel and UAE Aad Bahrain have collaborated.



Forces assigned to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Israel and U.S. Naval Forces Central Command began conducting a multilateral maritime security operations exercise in the Red Sea, Nov. 10.https://t.co/Quph73qc8d  U.S. 5th Fleet (@US5thFleet) November 11, 2021

Last month, Israel's newly retired navy commander Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit had stated that the zionist navy has stepped up its activities in the Red Sea exponentially in the face of growing Iranian threats to Israeli shipping, according to a report by the Associated Press. The state of Israel will protect its freedom of navigation across the globe, Sharvit told AP, days after completing his five-year term. Thats not related to distance from the country.

US targets Black Sea

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has also increased its military presence in the Black sea, alongside the Red Sea. Earlier this month, US Navy deployed US guided-missile destroyer Porter, the US naval tanker John Lenthall, and the US command and control ship Mount Whitney in the Black Sea, as per US Navy's fifth fleet. To put it into perspective, the Black sea is located between Asia and Europe and has Russia and Georgia to its west, Turkey to its south and Ukraine to its north. The Red Sea, on the other hand, lies between Africa and Asia and has Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Egypt in its vicinity.

(Image: US Navy/ Navcent)
The Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom, Tzipi Hotovely, faced a massive backlash at the London School of Economics (LSE) on Tuesday night, where Hotovely was invited to speak on 'A New Era in the Middle East' organised by the student debating society. The footage of the incident is widely circulating on social media platforms where the Israeli envoy is seen running out of the campus carrying flowers while the protesters in large numbers are heard chanting slogans like "Aren't you ashamed", "Go Back" and "Shame on you". The diplomat, who was part of the debate, remained unhurt amid the huge gathering of demonstrators as she was guarded by her bodyguards and the British police.

Meanwhile, a student wing named LSE for Palestine, who took the responsibility for organising the chaos released a statement saying, 'The protest was a tremendous demonstration of solidarity with Palestine.'

Official LSE for Palestine Statement on the Protest 09/11/21



There has been a lot of misinformation and misreporting. We hope this clears it up. pic.twitter.com/pdPmVusubg  LSE for Palestine (@LSEforPalestine) November 10, 2021

A proxy account by LSE for Palestine named LSE Class War on Instagram called for students to smash Hotovely's car window and even "storm the building," reported Albawaba. Meanwhile, many ministers in the British government criticised the incident and called for a strict investigation into the matter.

Taking to Twitter, the Home Secretary of the UK, Priti Patel, wrote, 'Disgusted by the treatment of the Israeli Ambassador at the LSE last night. Antisemitism has no place in our universities or in our country.' Patel further added that she had been in touch with Hotovely since the incident happened. 'I will continue to do everything possible to keep the Jewish community safe from intimidation, harassment, and abuse,' she added.

Good morning!



LSE students force out Israeli regime ambassador Tzipi Hotovely from their campus. There should be no platform for representatives of apartheid regimes. #boycottapartheidisrael https://t.co/N9GjilqJrp  Dr. Yara Hawari .   (@yarahawari) November 10, 2021

COPS OFF CAMPUS



STUDENTS PROTESTING AGAINST WAR CRIMINAL NAKBA DENIER TZIPI HOTOVELY ASSAULTED BY POLICE pic.twitter.com/NyOybREozJ  LSE for Palestine (@LSEforPalestine) November 9, 2021

A large number of security officials gathered to escort the Israeli diplomat and prevent the protestors from advancing any further, but there are no arrests reported so far. The event was organised on the occasion of the 83rd anniversary of Kristallnacht, when Sturmabteilung paramilitary forces, along with civilians, killed more than 90 Jews in Nazi Germany. During the event, Hotovely spoke for nearly 90 minutes, and her speech attracted some protests outside the campus, reported the BBC, citing the LSE.

It is pertinent to mention here that the 42-year-old Israeli diplomat has been a controversial figure. She succeeded Mark Regev as ambassador to the UK last year. Earlier, she described herself as a "religious right-winger" and had also rejected Palestinian claims to any part of the West Bank, Gaza, or East Jerusalem, claiming all of it as part of Israel.

Image: AP
Climate activist from Uganda Vanessa Nakate has channeled fears of many climate campaigners and vulnerable countries while addressing a session at the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow on Thursday. Warning world leaders and businessmen of the severe repercussions of climate change as the major economies bounce back by year-end, Nakate challenged them to "prove us (activists) wrong." Talking about the fears of millions of activists, she asserted, "so, I hope you understand why (they) do not see the success that is being applauded within these halls."

She was referring to the questions raised by climate activists about the appropriate actions awaited to be undertaken to curb the lethal-level global warming. In her impassioned speech, Nakate also highlighted snippets from the last IPCC report, The latest available science tells us that, in order to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, we must reduce global Co2 emissions by somewhere between 7% and 11% this year and next year, and every year until we get to zero," 24-year-old Venessa said, as per AP.

Nakate further argued that "only immediate and drastic action" and not the high-end promises made by world leaders and industrial sectors, "will pull us back from the abyss." Highlighting the ineffective array of new pledges undertaken every year, Nakate continued, "And as it comes and goes, emissions continue to rise." She also recalled her own personal experiences as she stated that in places like Uganda "a two-degree world means that a billion people will be affected by extreme heat stress."

Im actually here to beg you to prove us wrong. We desperately need you to prove us wrong. Please prove us wrong. God, help us all, if you fail to prove us wrong. God help us," Nakate said.

Nakate's words echoed warning coming from Tuvalu, Oceania, where the foreign minister delivered the UN climate speech standing in knee-deep ocean waters. "It threatens the survival of our people," he had said.

'Race to zero'

At the UN high-level Event on Global Action held on 11 November, climate champions -- Gonzalo Munoz and Nigel Topping formally reported to the parties on the progress made by non-state actors and set out the five-year plan. The visions are aimed at deepening engagement for expanding the global campaigns of Race to Zero, Race to Resilience and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net-Zero. Upholding the highest standards of transparency and accountability for non-party stakeholder commitments and establishing a process to deal with public inquiries on any member of the Race to Zero campaign.

(With inputs from AP)

(Image: AP/ Unsplash)
In an impassioned speech Thursday to the UN climate talks in Glasgow, Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate summed up the fears of young people and vulnerable countries that those in charge won't take the action needed to prevent deadly levels of global warming.

"I hope you can understand why many of the activists who are here in Glasgow and millions of activists who could not be here do not see the success that is being applauded within these halls," Nakate told business and political leaders gathered at the two-week COP26 conference.

Experts say that all of the latest pledges made by governments around the world could, if fully realized, bend the curve of global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) - the upper threshold set in the 2015 Paris accord.

But scenarios that look at what countries have committed to in the short term put warming at 2.7C (4.9F), far beyond levels science considers safe for human civilization.

"The truth is that the atmosphere doesn't care about commitments. It only cares about what we put into it or stop putting into it. Humanity will not be saved by promises," Nakate said.

"I'm actually here to beg you to prove us wrong," said Nakate. "We desperately need you to prove us wrong. Please prove us wrong. God, help us all. If you fail to prove us wrong, God help us."

Meanwhile UN chief Antonio Guterres announced on Thursday he will establish a "high-level expert group" to monitor net zero commitments from non-state actors.

Guterres said carbon cutting pledges "require rapid sustained emissions cuts this decade" before he welcomed the US-China agreement on climate cooperation announced Wednesday.

"But promises ring hollow when the fossil fuels industry still receives trillions (of US dollars) in subsidies," he said.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
A court in Hong Kong has jailed a political activist nicknamed "Captain America 2.0" for chanting slogans deemed secessionist under a draconian national security law imposed on the city by Beijing.



Ma Chun-man was handed a five years-and-nine-months sentence on by the District Court, which found him guilty of of "inciting secession" after he chanted slogans including "Free Hong Kong, revolution now!" from the 2019 protest movement, and "Hong Kong independence is the only solution," as well as calling for independence in public speeches.



Ma, 31, was handed a harsher sentence due to the "serious" nature of the offense, with judge Stanley Chan dismissing his lawyer's mitigation plea that his actions were all peaceful in nature.



The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imposed the law on Hong Kong from , 2020, banning words and deeds deemed subversive or secessionist, or any activities linked to overseas groups as "collusion with foreign powers," as well as public criticism of the Hong Kong government or the CCP.



The law has ushered in an ongoing and citywide crackdown on all forms of public dissent and political opposition, with dozens of opposition activists charged with "subversion" for taking part in a democratic primary, and election rules changed to ensure only pro-CCP candidates can run.



"National security education" -- which is being tailored to all age-groups from kindergarten to university -- is also mandatory under the law, while student unions and other civil society groups have disbanded, with some of their leaders arrested in recent months.



Hong Kong's City University announced on that its president Way Kuo will step down in 2023, without explaining the move.



University presidents step down

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced a day earlier that its president Wei Shyy, who called for an inquiry into the death of HKUST student Chow Tsz-lok during the 2019 protest movement, will step down next year.



Shyy had called for an independent inquiry into Chow's death and its rumored links to police activity, and later told reporters he had "no need" to support the national security, as it was already law, and would have to be obeyed.



City University vice president Matthew Lee said the university will conduct a "global" recruitment exercise to find Kuo's successor.



"He has decided to step down as president after his third term expires in ," Lee told reporters. "The university has set up a selection committee to conduct an international recruitment process."



Benson Wong, former assistant politics professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said it is clear that Hong Kong's universities, many of which have already derecognized their student unions, are planning to comply fully with the CCP's wishes under the national security law.



"They may claim that there is global recruitment [for Shyy and Kuo's replacements], but this is just for show ... because a lot of the time they will already have a list of their preferred candidates," Wong said.



"They may randomly add in some well-known scholars to go through the motions of 'selection,' but they won't win in the end," he said.



"I think Hong Kong's academic reputation is going to dwindle over time due to this sort of politicization," he said. "We won't get well-known or experienced academics wanting to come and do research or management jobs in Hong Kong any more."



Scant room for free thinking

Like Shyy, Kuo and City didn't take part in any CCP-backed activities in support of the national security law, snubbing the "Reboot Hong Kong" initiative headed by two former chief executives close to Beijing.



The university and Kuo had both repeatedly called for a "separation" between politics and education, running counter to the current "national security" patriotic education campaign in Hong Kong.



Chung Kim-wah, deputy head of the Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI), said there is scant room left for free thinking or debate in Hong Kong's education system.



"Was it Kuo who didn't want to renew his contract, or the board?" Chung said. "I don't know ... but it immediately makes me recall that he didn't sign up to support the national security law."



"If you don't do what the government wants, then you won't get what you want next time around," he said. "We have seen that the person they chose to lead the University of Hong Kong is unqualified to do so, so we can expect that the people who replace Shyy and Kuo won't be either."



"They'll probably both be Chinese nationals who have studied overseas," he said.



Chung said the growing curbs on freedom of speech in Hong Kong's universities will mean that the best students and faculty won't hang around for long.



"Even students are quitting now -- a lot of students suddenly stopped attending last year," he said. "I worry that neither the students nor the faculty will want to stay; certainly the best ones won't."



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
In a file photo, a man brushes snow off the top of a monument at Mansudae in Pyongyang, North Korea

North Korea has ordered all military units to submit daily reports on their preparations for winter, frustrating military officials who feel like they are being pitted against each other in competition for firewood and other resources after the government reduced their allotments of coal and gas, military sources told RFA.

This year winter weather has come earlier than usual. Snowfall hindered the efforts of military units to go out into the forests to collect firewood. Even if the weather had been better, military units may not have had enough gasoline to haul the wood back to base given the supply issues.

In the mountainous area of Ryanggang province, a lot of snow has already accumulated, making it difficult for the soldiers who cut firewood, and it is also difficult to transport the firewood to the unit, a military source in the central northern province of Ryanggang told RFAs Korean Service Monday.

Additionally, the military authorities are supplying the units with much less gasoline this year, and the market price of gas is way too high, so the units cannot afford to operate any of the vehicles that transport firewood, said the source.

The General Staff Department, the General Political Bureau, and the Ministry of Defense dispatched agents on Nov. 1 to encourage the winter preparation performance of units, the source said.

Units are required to write detailed plans on how they will prepare for the winter and report daily on their progress, said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons. But unit leaders are worried that a lack of resources will hinder their efforts, said the source.

As each units capabilities have been mobilized to collect firewood, the most important winter preparation task, sealing windows in buildings and performing maintenance on ondol systems have fallen on the backburner, the source said, referring to the traditional Korean underfloor heating systems.

In addition, soldiers have to make enough kimchi to last the winter. They are complaining about having to work day and night. But the authorities do not take their situation into consideration. They feel like the daily reports are a way of driving each unit to compete with each other to see who can prepare the best, the source said.

In the plains of North Pyongan province, two provinces to the west of Ryanggang, coal is the heating source of choice, as there are few areas to collect firewood, a military source there told RFA.

This year, the amount of coal allocated to each unit is insufficient, so it is necessary for us to gather firewood instead. But since trees are so hard to find, the soldiers dig for peat as a substitute. Wet peat must be dried before it can be burned, and it cannot be used in all applications, said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused prices for firewood and other materials to rise sharply, according to the second source.

Military officials are also expressing dissatisfaction with their superiors who are forcing them to compete with other military units on how well they are preparing, all while ignoring the situation of front-line units and failing to provide adequate supplies needed to prepare, this source said.

Supply issues extend to more than just fuel and food. The Seoul-based Korea Times newspaper reported North Korea cannot supply even special forces units in its million-man army with proper winter uniforms.

Army regulations state that the uniforms should be replaced every year, but the government has supplied new winter uniforms only once in the last four years, the report said.

A lack of raw materials due to the shutdown of the border with China at the start of the coronavirus pandemic almost two years ago, combined with clothing manufacturers closing their operations during the resulting economic catastrophe were contributing factors.

Special forces units have even resorted to robbing civilians, former soldiers who escaped North Korea told RFA in a previous report.

Translated by Leejin Jun for RFAs Korean Service. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
The harsh punishment is seen as a ploy to pressure Washington over sanctions.

This undated file photo released on June 4, 2021 courtesy of the Fenster Family shows US journalist Danny Fenster.

A court in Myanmar on Friday sentenced U.S. journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years for encouraging resistance to the countrys military rulers and other alleged crimes, drawing a rebuke from the U.S. State Department, which called the conviction unjust.

Fenster was a managing editor for the online Frontier Myanmar magazine when he was arrested as he attempted to leave the country in May. He was also charged with unlawful association and violating immigration laws.

The court found him guilty on all three charges Friday, his lawyer told RFA. Fensters sentence, which includes a period of hard labor, is the harshest given to any of the seven known journalists convicted by the military junta that seized power from the countrys democratically elected government in a Feb. 1 coup.

Fenster could also face life imprisonment if convicted on two more charges of terrorism and treason, which were added to his case on Thursday.

The sentences were imposed by the Special Court at Insein Prison. When asked by his lawyer if he would appeal his case, Fenster replied that he would not, because these orders came from above."

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that the ruling represents an unjust conviction of an innocent person."

"We are closely monitoring Danny's situation and will continue to work for his immediate release," the department said.

Fensters charges were in part based on his former work at Myanmar Now News, which continued to broadcast after the junta ordered it and other outlets to close. But the journalist had stopped working for Frontier Myanmar in July 2020, months before the coup, Myint Kyaw, a Yangon-based journalist who has been following the case, told RFA.

I think this sentence is very ugly, he said.

The charges had no legal basis, Frontier Myanmars Editor-in-Chief Thomas Kean told RFA.

"Danny's legal team made it clear to the court last year that he had already resigned from Myanmar Now and was working for Frontier," Kean said.

A statement by the magazine said the court had ignored Frontier Myanmar's tax and social security records and statements by Frontier employees presented to the court as evidence.

Myanmar Nows Editor-in-Chief Swe Win also confirmed to RFA that Fenster had left the company before the coup.

Fenster was also accused of supporting illegal organizations like the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, a group of ousted lawmakers that eventually formed Myanmars shadow National Unity Government.

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman for the junta, said that journalists were also charged with crimes when the NLD was in power. The court reached the proper verdict, he said.

"It was because of what he had written and the crimes he had committed, Zaw Min Tun told RFA.

International reaction

The harsh sentencing was emblematic of the struggles of journalists in Myanmar since the coup, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

Journalists have been under attack since 1 February, with the military leadership clearly attempting to suppress their attempts to report on the serious human rights violations being perpetrated across Myanmar as well as the extent of opposition to the regime, Bachelet said.

Thirty-four journalists who were arrested in Myanmar following the Feb. 1 military coup remain in custody following prisoner amnesties that many had hoped would see them freed, sources in the country say.

Many of the reporters who remain jailed have been charged with defaming Myanmars military or for suspected ties with the opposition National Unity Government or the local Peoples Defense Force militias set up to resist military rule, sources say.

Advocacy groups joined the U.N. and U.S. in calling for Fensters immediate release.

This long prison sentence against a journalist is a travesty of justice by a kangaroo court operating at the beck and call of the Myanmar military junta. Danny Fenster has done nothing that should be considered a crime, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The juntas rationale for this outrageous, rights abusing sentence is first to shock and intimidate all remaining Burmese journalists inside Myanmar by punishing a foreign journalist this way. The message is that if we can do this to a foreigner, imagine what we will do to you, he said.

Robertson said the junta also wanted to send a message to the U.S. that they would be willing to take hostages in response to economic sanctions.

Daniel Bastard, Asia-Pacific director at Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told RFAs Myanmar Service that Fensters was the longest sentence for a journalist in Myanmar in decades.

He called the conviction extremely shocking but said that it was probably part of a larger strategy that has nothing to do with any crimes Fenster allegedly committed.

They like the fact that they can have someone who is [still at risk for] life imprisonment, which can put them in a good position to negotiate with the West in general and with the U.S., he said.

Paris-based RSF ranked Myanmar 140th out of 180 countries in the 2021 edition of its annual World Press Freedom Index and singled out junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing as among the worlds 37 worst leaders in terms of media restrictions.

The country has fallen in position every year since it was ranked 131st in 2017.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFAs Myanmar Service. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
The junta has confiscated at least 70 homes of loyalists to the ousted government.

These photos provided by citizen journalists show homes owned by supporters of Myanmar's ousted government seized by the military junta. The junta has seized 70 such homes over the past three months.

Myanmars military junta searched, sealed and posted a warrant notice on a house owned by the parents of the countrys ambassador to the United Nations as part of a wider crackdown on former government officials loyal to the ousted democratically elected government, sources in the country told RFA.

Ambassador Kyaw Moe Htun said he opposed military rule during a U.N. special meeting on Feb. 26, several weeks after the military led by Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing toppled the government run by Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party on unfounded claims of fraud in the 2020 election, which the NLD had won in a landslide.

The junta over the past three months has seized about 70 properties of NLD lawmakers and other members of the party, many of whom have joined the National Unity Government (NUG) or local armed militias that collectively call themselves the Peoples Defense Forces (PDF).

Junta security forces searched the ambassadors parents empty home on Innwa Street in the countrys largest city Yangon on Wednesday and posted a warrant summoning Kyaw Moe Htun to trial under the Illegal Association Act. The warrant also said his assets had been confiscated.

As far as I know, this home has very few visitors. Not many people live there, a neighbor who saw the security team at the house told RFAs Myanmar Service.

No one was in the house when they came to seal it. They searched and then posted the warrant notice, said the neighbor, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

The junta has called Kyaw Moe Htun and other NLD supporters terrorists.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an announcement that all assets related to the terrorists shall be confiscated, that is why they sealed off that house, military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told RFA.

The junta began seizing properties three months ago, using the countrys anti-terrorism laws as a justification. Among the 70 homes seized were those belonging to the NUGs interim president, its ministers of health and education, and federal affairs, and a deputy health minister. Homes of former local government officials, student union leaders and NLD supporters were also seized.

The junta in August seized five homes belonging to NLD supporters in Myingyan township in the centrally located Mandalay region.

Everything in my house was taken away. Same with the other NLD members houses here, an NLD member who lost his house in the August seizure told RFA.

They made an announcement over the loudspeakers and the houses were sealed off. The announcement said the houses are now state owned, administered by the military, and no one is allowed to go near them, the NLD member said on condition of anonymity.

Residents told RFA that the military confiscated two barrels of fuel oil and a tractor from the house of the NLD chief in Myingyans Lae Thit village.

Police in Myanmar's Chin State lock a home they seized belonging to a supporter of the local People's Defense Force (PDF) an armed militia opposed to military rule. They applied a wax seal to the lock to prevent tampering. Credit: Citizen Journalist

Win Aung, a key NLD supporter and protest leader who is currently on the run, told RFA that the military raided his house in the nearby Magway regions Saetottara township, seizing a family car and a commercial vehicle.

They came at round 9:30 a.m., I was told. I was not there. My children were not there either, Win Aung said.

Only a few things in the house were left. Since they couldnt find me, they took my two vehicles,  broke open the locked suitcases and all the boxes in the house, and took everything, including money I had stashed inside. The whole house is a terrible mess, he said.

According to neighbors, the military came accompanied by local government officials and were trying to arrest Win Aung for allegedly sending money to PDFs to buy arms.

The military is breaking the law by seizing houses owned by National Unity Government members because the junta came to power illegally, Sali Lian Hmung Sakhong, the NUGs Minister for Federal Union Affairs who lost his house in Hakha, Chin State, told RFA.

Everything they do is illegal.  Min Aung Hlaing himself will be prosecuted one day for committing these illegal acts. He will face retribution.  He will be to blame for these wrongdoings, he said.

Sali Lian Hmung Sakhong said he plans to file a complaint with the International Court of Justice.

Authorities summoned the family of former Ayeyawaddy Region Prime Minister Mahn Johnny and informed them they would seize his home in the town of Kyonbyaw, his son Saw Min Htike Kyaw wrote on social media this week.

Though the junta claims that seizing homes and assets of those who support terrorism is standard practice, amending laws to justify their actions is illegal, legal expert Kyee Myint told RFA.

"The military has no right to do that. The military has amended many, many laws. New laws have been enacted since Min Aung Hlaing took power. He seems to be trying to prove he is the king, the ruler, and that he doesnt care about international law, Kyee Myint said.

He doesnt seem to be bothered by anyone, the U.S. or China. Well, he cares a bit about China because he cannot ignore them. But America? He cant be bothered. What will the U.S. do when diplomatic channels run dry? Will the U.S. invade? No, absolutely not. He knows that. They all know that. And thats why they are doing all these things," he said.

Political analyst Than Soe Naing said all the laws and declarations issued by the military council are part of a campaign to annihilate the NLD.

"Destroying homes, businesses and property is destroying basic human rights. The laws they are referring to are the laws they created to suit their actions said Than Soe Naing.

The aim is to prevent those who support the NLD from recovering politically, to arrest and take legal action against all those who support the NLD and to ruin their businesses. If they think it is necessary, they will kill," Than Soe Naing said.

RFA has learned the junta has also seized dozens of businesses owned by former NLD members and political activists.

According to statistics from the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the junta has killed 1,253 people since the Feb. 1 coup and arrested 7,144.

Translated for RFAs Myanmar Service by Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Ukraine says it is sending some of its border guards and national guard officers to its border with Poland to share intelligence on the handling of the Belarus migrant crisis.

Thousands of migrants are sheltering in freezing conditions in the woods of Belarus near its borders with the European Union states of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

France on November 12 urged Russia's visiting Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to use Moscow's links with the authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, to end the migrant crisis.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also condemned what he called "the irresponsible and unacceptable behavior of the Belarusian authorities in using migratory flows to target several countries of the European Union."

U.S. President Joe Biden has expressed "great concern" over the migrant crisis.

"We communicated our concern to Russia, we communicated our concern to Belarus," Biden told reporters as he prepared to depart the White House for a weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat. "We think it's a problem."

EU leaders have previously accused Minsk of "hybrid warfare" tactics, saying it has lured migrants from war-torn and impoverished countries in the Middle East and Africa.

EU officials say Minsk's policies are a form of retaliation for sanctions that Brussels has imposed on Lukashenka's regime over its violent crackdown on dissent after he claimed victory in an August 2020 election widely seen as rigged.

Belarus denies that it is doing so.

Ukraine, which is on Belarus's southern border, is wary about becoming a new flashpoint in the crisis. It has already said it is sending thousands of additional troops to reinforce its own borders.

"Ukraine supports Poland in this difficult time and hopes that it will be able to resolve the artificially inspired crisis in a peaceful and civilized way," Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyskiy told his Polish counterpart on November 12, according to a statement.

"We are ready to promptly consider any request from the Polish side to provide assistance in resolving the current situation."

Meanwhile, Belarus's Defense Ministry said on November 12 that it was holding joint paratrooper exercises with Russia near the Belarus-Polish border. Moscow called the drills part of a "surprise combat-readiness check."

Russia's Defense Ministry said two of the Russian paratroopers were killed in a parachute accident during the drills.

Facing growing accusations of encouraging the migrants to cross into Poland and Lithuania, Belarus said on November 12 that it had sent some 2,000 migrants back to their countries as part of its efforts to stop illegal migration.

Foreign Minister Uladzimer Makey said Belarus had revoked the right of 30 tourist firms to invite migrants "just about a month ago," according to transcript of a news conference published by his ministry.

"We have detained around 700 violators at the border. We have turned back around 2,000 people who came from other countries and did not have proper documents," Makey said, without elaborating.

Several airlines said earlier on November 12 that they'll limit access to flights between Turkey and Minsk to stem the flow of migrants from the Middle East to the European Union's border with Belarus.

Belarus's state-owned airline Belavia, Turkish Airlines, and Iraqi Airlines all vowed on November 12 to try to stop migrants from heading to Belarus and onward to the European Union.

Iraq's Foreign Ministry said on November 12 that it had halted direct flights to Belarus from Iraq, in a bid to protect Iraqis against human-trafficking gangs.

"The Iraqi Embassy in Moscow and Warsaw coordinate Iraq's efforts for the voluntary return of those who are stranded at the Belarus border," the Iraqi state News Agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.

"Iraq has stopped direct flights between Iraq and Belarus," he added.

At the United Nations, Western governments have condemned Minsk over Belarusian policies that have trapped the migrants along Belarus's border.

A spokesman for the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said contacts with airlines were "already showing fruit."

The moves by the three airlines include the suspension of some flights to Minsk and the prohibition of one-way ticket sales to Minsk.

In a Twitter statement, the Turkish Civil Aviation Authority said that "citizens of Iraq, Syria, and Yemen who want to travel to Belarus from Turkish airports will not be allowed to buy tickets" or board flights until further notice.

Belavia said on its website that, "in line with a decision by Turkish authorities, citizens of Iraq, Syria, Yemen will not be accepted for transportation on flights from Turkey to Belarus," beginning on November 12.

Belavia is prohibited from overflying EU airspace after Belarusian authorities ordered the grounding of an international Ryanair flight earlier this year in an apparent move to detain a Belarusian regime critic and his Russian girlfriend.

Belarusian authorities said on November 12 that about 100 more migrants were traveling toward a makeshift camp near the border with Poland.

Meanwhile, a Belarusian NGO says three migrants from Iraq and Syria were attacked and robbed near the border.

The nonprofit Grupa Granica (Border Group) said one of the migrants, an Iraqi, was hospitalized after being struck in the head with a metal pole. It said the robbers stole thousands of dollars after the migrants asked them for water.

The United States, Britain, Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway, and Albania on November 11 condemned "the orchestrated instrumentalization of human beings whose lives and well-being have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus."

They also accused Lukashenka's regime of becoming a threat to regional stability.

The joint statement makes no mention of Belarus's ally Russia, which has rejected Western allegations that it was working in conjunction with Minsk to send the migrants over the EU's eastern border.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had his second phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in as many days and "spoke in favor of restoring contacts between EU states and Belarus in order to resolve this problem," the Kremlin said in a statement.

The EU has refused. The bloc severed ties and imposed sanctions after a heavy crackdown on the opposition that followed last year's presidential election, which Lukashenka claimed to have won, but which no Western countries have recognized.

Moscow has put on a show of support for Belarus by dispatching nuclear-capable strategic bombers to fly over Belarus two days in a row in patrols that Minsk said will continue.

Lukashenka has said that Minsk "must respond" if the EU takes new measures, raising the possibility of cutting off transit through a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas through Belarus to Poland and farther into Europe.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa
At the beginning of the month, new government-sponsored amendments to the Belarusian Law on the Bar and Legal Advocacy came into effect that have been widely criticized as intended to impose government control over the legal profession and undermine its independence.

The new legislation comes in the wake of a massive crackdown on lawyers individually in which about three dozen defense attorneys -- many defending prominent opposition figures and anti-government activists -- have been deprived of their law licenses.

"Lawyers are people who defend citizens from the authorities," Dzmitry Layeuski, a prominent defense attorney who was stripped of his license in July, told RFE/RL's Belarus Service. "Now lawyers themselves need defense. But what we see is indifference from the public."

On October 25, lawyer Natallya Matskevich, whose clients included jailed would-be presidential candidates Viktar Babaryka and Syarhey Tsikhanouski, was expelled from the Belarusian Collegium of Lawyers, the country's bar association, for unspecified alleged wrongdoing. She was at least the fifth attorney working to defend Babaryka to lose her license.

The government's targeting of lawyers is part of a massive crackdown on dissent following the disputed August 2020 presidential election that handed a sixth term to strongman leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Thousands of people have been arrested, and most top opposition figures have either been jailed or pushed out of the country.

The European Union, the United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as Belarus's legitimate leader and have imposed sanctions on him and several senior Belarusian officials in response to the "falsification" of the vote and the postelection crackdown.

However, Minsk's latest moves include changing the rules of legal accreditation to undermine the already-compromised independence of the Belarusian bar association, with potential long-term effects for the entire country.

Attacking The Defenders?

"The crackdown on lawyers who dare to do their job and assist all those who are arbitrarily detained or otherwise harassed by the Belarusian government is a sign of a severe deterioration of the human rights situation in Belarus, a deterioration that will shape [Lukashenka's] sixth term in office and beyond," wrote international rights activist Ewelina Ochab in a column for Forbes in August.

The new amendments to the Law on the Bar and Legal Advocacy were passed in May and took effect on November 1. They restrict which lawyers and law firms are able to take on the defense of clients facing criminal or administrative charges.

All lawyers applying for licenses must be approved in advance by the Justice Ministry and the amended law empowers the ministry to develop and enforce a code of professional ethics for lawyers. It creates a Qualification Commission, under the control of the Justice Ministry. The Justice Ministry now controls the "election" of heads of regional bar associations and has the power to dismiss them. The ministry also has the power to demand any documents from bar associations or individual lawyers.

'Behind Every Tyrant'

"The amendments...further undermine the independence of the legal profession in Belarus and further expose Belarusian lawyers to harassment, intimidation, and improper interference as they try to perform their professional functions," concludes a report by the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute, the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, and the NGO Lawyers for Lawyers.

"The Justice Ministry now has unlimited power over lawyers," attorney Layeuski said. "A mechanism has been created through which, if the need arises to pressure a lawyer who is involved in criminal defense or the defense of political prisoners, that can be done."

"These are politically motivated changes," he added. "In accordance with them, we have seen the liquidation of legal firms and private legal practice. My law firm has made the decision to liquidate itself."

In October, Belarusian lawyers Lyudmila Kazak and Maksim Znak won the 2021 International Bar Association Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights for their work representing dissidents, journalists, and activists in Belarus.

"Behind every tyrant in history have stood lawyers, prosecutors, and judges who justified his rule and punished his opponents for their supposed crimes," Znak said in his acceptance speech, which was presented by his wife, lawyer Nadzeya Znak. "By forgetting about the spirit of the law, these lawyers open Pandora's box that, in time, will swallow them up."

Written byRobert Coalson based on reporting by Anna Sous of RFE/RL's Belarus Service
A video livestream posted from Minsk by a Kurdish-speaking man called on migrants to head to Belarus's border with EU countries, promising "food and milk" when they got there and announcing the launch of a "second wave." Meanwhile, a UN refugee agency official at the Belarusian-Polish border described the humanitarian situation there as "catastrophic" and getting worse.
TBILISI -- Hundreds of supporters of jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili have gathered in the capital to hold rallies demanding the politician's transfer to a civilian medical clinic as his health fails due to a hunger strike.

Two groups of protesters organized by Saakashvili's United National Movement (ENM) party marched on November 12 in Tbilisi from two different subway stations toward the Health Ministry and the Justice Ministry holding posters saying "Free Misha!" and chanting "Misha! Georgia!"

A significant number of police were deployed at the sites, while the demonstrators demanded the health and justice ministers meet with them.

The day before, Saakashvili agreed to follow a call by the European Court of Human Rights to end his hunger strike if he is transferred to a civilian clinic.

Saakashvili began the strike immediately after he was arrested on October 1 upon his return to Georgian after an eight-year absence.

Health Minister Rati Bregadze has said he will not transfer Saakashvili to a civilian clinic. Instead, he has said the 53-year-old will be transferred back to the Rustavi detention center from which he was transferred to a prison hospital on November 8.

The ENM has held several rallies and protest actions in recent days demanding Saakashvili's transfer to a civilian facility.

Saakashvili, who was president from 2004 to 2013, left the country shortly after the presidential election of 2013 and was convicted in absentia in 2018 for abuse of power and seeking to cover up evidence about the beating of an opposition member of parliament.

He is also accused of ordering the violent dispersal of opposition activists in 2007 while he was in office. The trial in that case started on November 10 without Saakashvili's presence in the courtroom.

Saakashvili has said all the charges against him are politically motivated.

Georgia has been mired in a political standoff since a disputed election last year, which prompted the ENM to boycott parliament for months.

The ENM was outpolled decisively by the ruling Georgian Dream party in October 3 nationwide municipal and mayoral votes.

Georgian Dream, founded by billionaire and Saakashvili rival Bidzina Ivanishvili, won the mayoral races in the country's five biggest cities as a result of the vote, which some opposition parties have alleged was rigged.
Life is slowly returning to normal in Penzhim, two weeks after the remote village near Kazakhstan's southeastern border with China became the scene of an ugly brawl between local Kazakhs and Uyghurs.



Residents of the farm town of 5,000 are back to their daily routines, with many these days working to bring in the corn harvest, a major source of income.

But there are visible reminders of the violence and subsequent rampaging that took place, highlighted by a steady stream of police patrols.



"Police are monitoring the situation day and night," says Penzhim resident Akhmet, who provided only his first name. "It's good that they're here, because we don't want that kind of conflict to happen again."

Villagers are reluctant to talk about the October 27 incident that left at least two people injured, according to police, but which had the potential to be much worse.



Initial reports said that a massive fight between teenagers in a local school degenerated into a riot in the ethnically mixed village some 25 kilometers from the Chinese border in the southeastern province of Almaty.

Several private houses, businesses, and vehicles were damaged in the process. The Interior Ministry and local media were initially up front about the clashes, describing them as interethnic violence. However, the authorities soon changed their tone and denied that ethnic tensions had anything to do with the violence.



Instead, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev accused unspecified "provocateurs" of seeking to "undermine [Kazakhstan's] national security."



"There were no ethnic clashes! Rather, certain groups of provocateurs and ill-wishers for our country prompted the events," Toqaev said on November 5.



Penzhim is home to some 5,300 inhabitants, with 2,783 Uyghurs and 2,519 Kazakhs, according to local government statistics.



Long-Standing Divisions



Some Penzhim residents say that divisions between ethnic Kazakhs and Uyghurs in the village have existed for many years, although they didn't lead to clashes before.



Kazakhs and Uyghurs sit separately even during Islamic prayers in the village's only mosque, they say. And some villagers claim that the locals won't even take a taxi if the driver doesn't belong to the same ethnic group.

Local taxi driver Pakhirdin Sadriev, an ethnic Kazakh, says he has never personally experienced a situation in which an Uyghur client refused to enter his vehicle because of his ethnicity.



"But I have heard it has happened to some other taxi drivers here," Sadriev says.



"Such division always existed and probably it cannot be avoided in the future. It won't change," says Raushangul Gaitova, who works at the Karavan Saray cafe in the village center.



The 62-year-old ethnic Uyghur woman recalls that that these kinds of "divisions" in the past never resulted in such an "escalation of the situation."



"We used to invite each other to our homes, we visited each other, but it's not like that anymore," Gaitova says. She mentions that parents in Penzhim now tell their children not to visit their friends' homes if they belong to the other ethnic community.



"There is nothing good in it," says Gaitova as she prepares traditional rice dish plov in a large iron-cast pot over a fire.

Some of the windows of the cafe that were shattered during the brawl have yet to be replaced. The woman explains that the workers were fixing damaged private homes first.



In the village center, broken shop windows have already been replaced with new ones. The only ATM in town has also been repaired.
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- The purported leader of a criminal group who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for stealing an unprecedented amount of oil in 2018 has been released "due to his state of health."

Relatives of Erkin Izbasar, the head of a group known as Four Brothers, told RFE/RL on November 12 that the 54-year-old was taken home in the northeastern city of Aqtobe three days earlier.

According to Izbasar's mother, her son was released from a penitentiary in the northeastern city of Oskemen in late October and rushed to the Central Asian country's largest city, Almaty, for surgery for unspecified reasons before he was transferred to Aqtobe.

Izbasar had been wheelchair-bound for many years following a traffic accident.

He and 25 others were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 2018 after a court found them guilty of stealing hundreds of tons of oil in the Aqtobe region.

Izbasar rejected all the charges at the time and claimed he was tortured into confessing while in custody.

A court in Oskemen said on November 12 that Izbasar was released from the OV-156/20 correctional colony on October 21 due to his poor health, adding that parole-like restrictions were imposed on him for the remaining 11 years of his term.
A court in Lithuania has sentenced two of its citizens to prison terms on charges of spying for Russia.

A court in the Baltic Sea port city of Klaipeda on November 12 sentenced Aleksejus Greicius to four years in prison and Mindaugas Tunikaitis to 18 months in prison after finding them guilty of collecting data for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

Greicius, a public figure and managing director of the Baltic Youth Association who is known for his pro-Russian views, pleaded not guilty, while Tunikaitis pleaded guilty.

The trial was held behind closed doors because of national security concerns in the former Soviet republic.

Investigators said the two defendants did not know each other, but were in contact with same FSB agent in recent years.

Greicius is a grandson of Jonas and Marijona Greicius, who the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" for saving a Jew during the Nazi occupation in the 1940s.

Since 2014, when Russia's seizure of Crimea and its backing of separatists in a war in eastern Ukraine raised concerns among some other former Soviet republics, Lithuanian courts have convicted several people of spying for Russia or its close ally, Belarus.

With reporting by LRT
The fate of Montenegro's government hangs in the balance as a senior ruling group's deadline nears for the current coalition to jettison Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic.

The mostly pro-Serbian coalition has ruled the Balkan nation of 620,000 or so with a razor-thin parliamentary majority for nearly a year.

Instead of steady progress on reforms to further its EU aspirations, the government has mostly been hobbled by infighting over the fight against corruption, statements on war guilt from conflicts in the 1990s, relations with neighboring Serbia, and the timing of local elections in key cities.

Krivokapic was picked to lead a disparate coalition government that was mostly united by a desire to oust the longtime ruling allies of President Milo Djukanovic.

The ruling coalition's strongest bloc, the strongly pro-Serbian Democratic Front (DF), set a November 12 deadline for Krvokapic's exit and a government reshuffle or it would force a no-confidence vote.

The crisis within the nearly dozen ruling parties has intensified over individual ministerial appointments and calls by the two largest blocs for party loyalists to replace Krivokapic's "cabinet of experts" appointed after the August 2020 elections.
The Kremlin has vowed to safeguard its borders in the face of actions by countries it accused of trying to "contain" Russia and sought to walk back a Belarusian threat of a cutoff of Russian natural gas to Western markets amid a Belarusian-EU border crisis.

The statements come amid increased Russian involvement in the intensifying standoff between Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka and the European Union, with surprise joint military drills by Russian and Belarusian paratroopers likely to further ratchet up tensions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in a conference call with journalists on November 12 that "Russia is not a threat to anyone" and that "the movement of our armed forces on our territory should not be a cause for concern."

He was responding in part to U.S. media reports suggesting Washington had raised concerns with its European allies about an attack by Russian forces.

Kremlin-backed separatists continue to control wide swaths of eastern Ukraine in a seven-year conflict that followed Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, and periodic buildups of Russian troops in the area have set off alarms in Kyiv and Western capitals.

Moscow is also working closely with its ally Belarus amid a border crisis as thousands of third-country migrants the EU accuses Minsk of "weaponizing" are camped out at Belarus's border with EU member Poland.

Peskov lashed out at adversaries he accused of provocations and of efforts at "containment" near Russia's borders, including in the Black Sea region.

He alleged increased actions by NATO in the region and more airborne spying, saying, "If necessary, we take measures to ensure our security if our opponents take action along our borders."

Moscow this week launched a military show of support for the embattled Lukashenka by flying Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers over Belarus in an operation that Minsk says will continue on a regular basis.

Then on November 12, Belarusian and Russian officials announced suddenly that they were conducting joint military drills near Belarus's border with Poland.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry said via Telegram that a "joint battalion tactical group" of paratroopers at the Gozhsky range in western Belarus were a response to the "buildup of military activity" near its border.

They reportedly include Russian Il-76 aircraft and Belarusian helicopters.

Russia's Defense Ministry described the drills as a "surprise combat readiness check."

EU leaders have accused Lukashenka of "hybrid warfare" tactics by luring migrants from war-torn and impoverished countries in the Middle East and Africa and then purposely pushing them to its borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia to retaliate for EU sanctions.

Lukashenka said this week that Minsk "must respond" if the EU takes new punitive measures and raised the possibility of cutting off transit through a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas through Belarus to Poland and farther into Europe.

But Kremlin spokesman Peskov sought to reassure Russia's gas customers on November 12 by citing a previous presidential statement saying Russia, a major supplier of gas to the region, has always met its contractual commitments to European customers.

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled amid a crackdown after a disputed presidential election in 2020, said Lukashenka was "bluffing" about cutting off gas and urged the EU to stand firm.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone twice this week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and "spoke in favor of restoring contacts between EU states and Belarus in order to resolve this problem," the Kremlin said in a statement.

The EU has refused. The bloc severed ties and imposed sanctions after a heavy crackdown on the opposition that followed last year's presidential election, which Lukashenka claimed to win, but no Western countries have recognized.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa
Russia's move to close down the rights group Memorial has sparked widespread condemnation, even from within the country, amid concerns over the government's widening crackdown on civil society.

The request by the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office asking for the Supreme Court to shut down part of one of the country's most prominent human rights groups was called "regrettable" by the head of the Council of Europe (CoE) on November 12, while German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he was shocked by the news.

Even the Kremlin's own rights council questioned the wisdom of the move of shutting down a respected organization founded by rights activists including renowned scientist and Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, calling it "unjust."

The office said it made the request because International Memorial, a part of the rights group, had failed to comply with requirements of the controversial law on "foreign agents," legislation that Marija Pejcinovic Buric, the secretary-general of the CoE, a pan-European rights body, said "stigmatizes" NGOs, media, and individuals and "has had a repressive impact on civil society in Russia over recent years."

Memorial is among several investigative news outlets, journalists and rights organizations to have been labelled foreign agents in what is seen as a historic crackdown on independent organizations that oppose the government or uncover corruption by authorities.

The group said on November 12 that it had received the official 11-page claim and 180-page annex filed by the Prosecutor-General's Office.

It said the text included the claim that Memorial's materials contain "signs of justifying extremism and terrorism" including the activities of Islamic groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tablighi Jamaat, and At-Takfir Wal Hijra -- all of which are labeled as terrorist groups and banned in Russia. It also cited the Jehovah's Witnesses and Artpodgotovka (Artillery Bombardment), which are also designated as extremist by Russian authorities.

Memorial says it recognized some of the members of the named groups as political prisoners, noting that Russian authorities have used terrorism and extremism charges to clamp down on dissent for years.

"The liquidation of International Memorial would deal a further devastating blow to civil society, which is an essential pillar of any democracy," Pejcinovic Buric said in the statement.

Russia's so-called "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly.

It requires nongovernmental organizations 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.

International Memorial, which said a hearing on the case will be held on November 25, was added to the "foreign agents" registry in October 2016.

The group -- along with many officials from countries in the West -- says the "foreign agents" legislation was meant to suppress independent organizations and that it saw no legal basis for it to be dismantled.

"We have repeatedly emphasized that the Russian foreign agent legislation is unlawful and consciously designed to suppress civil society. We have insisted that this law must be repealed. Yet, as long as it is in force, we are obliged to fulfill its requirements," the group said in a statement on November 11 when it announced it faced liquidation proceedings.

"The decision to abolish International Memorial is politically motivated. It aims to destroy the organization, which deals with the political repressions of the past and fights for human rights today," the statement added.

"Russian authorities' lawsuits, aiming to close Memorial International and Human Rights Center Memorial, is their latest attack on freedom of expression," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter. "Russia must end the lawsuits and stop misusing its law on 'foreign agents' to harass, stigmatize, and silence civil society."

"The politically motivated persecution of critical civil society must end," Germany's Maas said.

The Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, which is usually aligned with the policies of the Kremlin, also expressed concerns over the move on November 12, calling it an "extreme measure."

"The proposed sanction is unjust and disproportionate to the cumulative violations, as over the past 14 months the surveillance bodies have not revealed a single violation by International Memorial of its legal obligations, while only two minor violations have been found at the Memorial human rights center," the statement said.

The Memorial human rights center -- another branch of the highly respected Moscow-based organization -- was placed on the government's "foreign agent" register in November 2015.

A movement rather than a centralized structure, Memorial was established in the late 1980s during the "glasnost" and "perestroika" reforms initiated by the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.

By 2018, Memorial had more than 60 branches and affiliated organizations scattered across Russia, with a quarter of them established in 2014 or later.

The branches share the same interest in respectiong human rights, documenting the past, and marking Days of Remembrance for the victims of political repression.

The foreign agents laws also require those designated to label their content with an intrusive disclaimer, with criminal fines for not doing so.

The label has forced several NGOs, media organizations, and other groups to shut down as they lose revenues from spooked advertisers.

With reporting by TASS, dpa, and Interfax
Shortly after it received a notice from Russia's Supreme Court saying prosecutors were seeking its closure, Russia's oldest and perhaps most revered human rights group, Memorial, shared the news in a tweet that summed up the reaction of its staff: "We can't believe it."

And yet, many observers of Russia's increasingly authoritarian turn under President Vladimir Putin were not surprised by this development.

Memorial, which for more than 30 years has painstakingly documented Soviet-era crimes and defended Russians' right to due process even as it faced an increasing hailstorm of court cases and convictions, was already under immense pressure after it was tagged with a "foreign agent" label that forced it to operate under strict rules.

Memorial soon started racking up large fines for alleged violations of its duty to advertise its "foreign agent" status. Its nationwide network of activists --who have worked to shed light on dark pages of the Russian and Soviet past, in particular the Soviet state's crimes under Josef Stalin, and to counter official statements that muddy the waters -- have been fined and even jailed in what critics said was retaliation for their work.

"The state criminalizes the activity of civil organizations. And now it criminalizes the memory of victims of the state," Andrei Kolesnikov, who chairs the Russian domestic politics program at the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote on Twitter. "Without de-Stalinization, Russia is doomed to backwardness."

The Prosecutor-General's Office appealed to the Supreme Court to order the closure of International Memorial, which acts as an umbrella group for other parts of the movement, including its regional branches and the Memorial Human Rights Center. The court has scheduled a hearing on the request for November 25.

The signs, analysts say, had been there for a while. Events held by Memorial had occasionally been disrupted by unwanted guests, and on October 15 police locked 20 people inside the group's Moscow offices after a film screening was gate-crashed by a state TV film crew and several dozen masked men shouting obscenities.

The NGO was showing Mr. Jones, a movie focused on the Holodomor famine in Ukraine, which historians say was a result of Stalin's policies. The dictator's legacy has been gradually rehabilitated under Putin, observers say, even as Memorial has fought against that rehabilitation and for transparency about Stalin's crimes.

"The case has been in the making for quite [some] time," Jens Siegert, a Russia-based German political analyst, wrote on Twitter in reference to the latest move against Memorial.

Cases against some of Memorial's activists have gone on for even longer. In one of most prominent, in Karelia near Finland, amateur historian Yury Dmitriyev is still seeking to appeal the ruling of a court that sentenced him to 13 years in prison in September 2020 after convicting him of sexually abusing his foster daughter, a charge he contends is a politically motivated fabrication.

As he was being tried, a government body oversaw excavations at a gulag gravesite that Dmitriyev had helped uncover -- and whose significance the state has sought to undermine.

But the move to shut down Memorial, which was founded in the "glasnost" era of the late 1980s and has remained Russia's most prominent human rights organization, also comes at a time when much of Russia's civil society and political opposition is being targeted by a persistent crackdown that is unprecedented in the post-Soviet era.

Much of that crackdown has focused on Russian individuals and organizations declared "foreign agents" by the state, which requires them to declare any foreign funding they receive to submit regular burdensome audits. International Memorial was added to the "foreign agents" registry in October 2016.

In a statement on November 11, it made no bones about what it alleges is the real motivation behind the legal campaign. "The decision to abolish International Memorial is politically motivated," the NGO said. "It aims to destroy the organization, which deals with the political repressions of the past and fights for human rights today."

In an interview with Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America, Aleksandr Cherkasov, chairman of the Memorial Human Rights Center, said the NGO had long been under pressure but had tried to continue working despite the state waging a war of attrition against it.

"People always ask, why precisely now?" he said of this latest attempt to shut down Memorial.

The authorities have tried various tactics to force the group to wind up operations, he said, "and they've now made a decision, and the sledgehammer has come down."

Anton Benediktov of Current Time and the North.Realities desk of RFE/RL's Russian Service contributed to this report
A Russian court has sentenced four people to lengthy prison terms after finding them guilty of embezzling 400 million rubles ($5.6 million) during the construction of the countrys new Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Far East.

The Investigative Committee said on November 12 that the four former executives and experts from construction companies -- Yevgeny Yermolayev, Andrei Zakharov, Olga Zugayeva, and Sergei Polivanov -- were handed prison terms of between four and 5 1/2 years.

All of the defendants had pleaded not guilty.

A fifth person charged in the case, Vyacheslav Fatkullin, remains at large, the Investigative Committee's statement said.

The Vostochny project in the Amur region near the Chinese border was intended to reduce Russia's dependence on the Soviet-era Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for manned rocket launches. But the project has been dogged by reports of corruption, with dozens of people involved in the planning and construction of the facility arrested on embezzlement and fraud charges in recent years.

The construction of the new cosmodrome started in 2012. In 2019, a Kremlin spokesman said that 11 billion rubles ($154.2 million) had been embezzled during the building process.

Prosecutors said in late 2019 that 163 probes had been launched against individuals involved in the construction, adding that about 60 persons involved in the project had been convicted.

The first launch at Vostochny occurred in April 2016, but only a few other attempts have taken place since. Construction at the site continues.
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has sent a letter to Tajik President Emomali Rahmon urging him to help end what they say are pressure and threats to RFE/RL's Tajik Service journalists and their families.

"We are writing to express concern about the reported ongoing harassment and intimidation of employees of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) Tajik Service (known locally as Radio Ozodi) and their families, as well as numerous obstacles that your government have used to prevent Radio Ozodi from operating freely," the eight members of U.S. Congress wrote in their letter dated October 29.

The letter was signed by Representatives Adam Schiff (Democrat-California), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Steve Chabot (Republican-Ohio), Carolyn B. Maloney (Democrat-New York), Chris Smith (Republican-New Jersey), David N. Cicilline (Democrat-Rhode Island), Jamie Raskin (Democrat-Maryland), Brian Fitzpatrick (Republican-Pennsylvania), and Ron Kind (Democrat-Wisconsin).

The letter is a follow-up to similar appeals made in 2019 and last year, when Schiff and Chabot also called on the Tajik authorities to stop interfering in the activities of Radio Ozodi, cited unduly short extensions of press credentials for some RFE/RL correspondents, and the outright refusal by authorities to renew the press accreditation of others.

In the new letter, the U.S. lawmakers warn that "despite the statements of your government on the recognition of democratic values and freedom of speech, the journalists of Radio Ozodi and their family members in the country and abroad are subjected to serious pressure from the authorities, and even receive threats of physical harm."

The lawmakers go on to list examples of the harassment that RFE/RL journalists face in Tajikistan, including frequent raids on the reporters' workplace and homes, direct pressure on reporters and indirect pressure through their relatives to stop working for Ozodi, denial of accreditation and limiting its duration to only three months instead of the customary one year, and the interdiction of internships at the Dushanbe bureau since 2019.

"For example, denials of accreditation are currently impacting the ability of at least eight journalists to work with Radio Ozodi," the letter says.

"The ability of the press to operate accurately and independently is a vital component of a free society, and we hope to be partners in improving and preserving media freedom in your country," the U.S. lawmakers said, urging Rahmon to take all necessary steps to ensure the smooth operation of Radio Ozodi in the country.

"As members of the U.S. Congress, which funds RFE/RL, we express our continued concern about these reports of ongoing harassment and undermining of Radio Ozodi and its staff.

"We remain worried that these continuing actions, which we first raised two years ago, could pose challenges for the U.S.-Tajik relationship."
Military movements raise questions over Russia's intentions toward Ukraine, once again, and the Kremlins attitude toward the border crisis seething in Belarus adds to tension between Moscow and the West. At home, the state targets the revered human rights group Memorial, diminishing the chances of a reckoning with the past.

Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.

Looking Back

Thirty years ago next month, the Soviet Union fell apart. Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus -- the three republics whose leaders sealed the countrys fate by creating a smaller, looser union during a meeting at a resort in the woods not far from the Polish border -- parted ways amicably.

There was not too much tension between them or, for that matter, with their neighbors to the west, themselves freed from Moscows yoke two years earlier, when the Berlin Wall fell and communism collapsed across Central Europe.

Today, there is plenty of tension on some of those same borders.

In Ukraine, a seven-year war that has killed more than 13,000 people simmers on in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists hold parts of two provinces that border Russia. The frontier has been a funnel for Russian troops and weapons headed into Ukraine -- including the Buk missile complex that shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in July 2014, killing all 298 people aboard, before being hustled back across into Russia.

Fighting was fiercest in the first year of the war, and the front lines have remained roughly the same since Minsk 2, the February 2015 agreement that produced a very, very frequently violated cease-fire and a step-by-step plan -- still largely unimplemented -- to resolve the conflict.

But the hostilities continue. And in recent weeks, Russian troop movements -- both on its own territory and in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia occupied and seized from Ukraine in March 2014 -- have raised fresh questions and concerns about Moscows intentions.

Sound familiar? Similar concerns surged last spring, only to subside as no major offensive by the Russia-backed fighters materialized.

This time, its different, some experts say -- or at least evidence suggests it might be.

The buildup was at least one reason for a rare visit to Moscow by CIA Director William Burns earlier this month, which included a phone call with President Vladimir Putin. And U.S. officials have briefed EU counterparts on their concerns over a possible military operation, Bloomberg reported on November 11.

Moreover, military analysts who are not alarmist and take pains to avoid stoking fears of war have said, in short, that there is cause for concern.

It does appear that the Russian military has been ordered to position itself for a possible operation in the coming months, Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at the U.S.-based think tank CAN, wrote on Twitter on November 9.

"I don't see indicators that a Russian military offensive is imminent. Hence this is not a situation likely to unfold in the coming days or weeks, Kofman tweeted. I would look to the winter, maybe after the holidays.

Either way, I doubt a political decision has yet been made, he wrote, adding that only [the] Russian leadership knows if they intend to use force, on what scale, and when.

That could be the point, of course: Russian President Vladimir Putin may trying to keep his options open -- as he does in domestic politics as well -- and keep Kyiv, NATO, and the West guessing about whether Russia will try to shift the status quo in Ukraine.

'Possibly Torture'

Northwest of the Donbas, meanwhile, a crisis is unfolding along the borders between Belarus -- the closest thing Russia has to an ally -- and the countries that joined the European Union and NATO in the years that followed the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union.

In recent months, thousands of migrants from the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa have attempted to illegally enter Poland and fellow EU members Latvia and Lithuania from Belarus, many of them after arriving in Minsk on the proliferating flights from those regions to the Belarusian capital.

Some have been physically forced across the frontier by Belarusian border guards, and Human Rights Watch says the conduct of the Belarusian authorities toward the migrants amounts to ill treatment, and in some cases possibly torture.

Among other spots along the border, the crisis is playing out in forests near Belavezhskaya Pushcha, the woodland resort where Boris Yeltsin of Russia, Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine, and Stanislau Shushkevich of Belarus signed the December 8, 1991, deal that declared the U.S.S.R. to be in its death throes and hastened its demise by creating the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Angela Merkel has accused the authoritarian Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka of practicing state-backed human trafficking. On November 10, she urged Putin to use his influence with Belarus to halt its "inhumane and unacceptable" use of migrants as a geopolitical instrument.

Putins response: Talk to Lukashenka.

Predictable, perhaps, given the Kremlins tendency -- on display to varying degrees as regards the forces it backs in the Donbas and in Syria, where it has given crucial military and diplomatic support to President Bashar al-Assads government -- to insist that it holds no sway.

In Ukraine, Moscow denies even being a party to the war, despite the overwhelming evidence. Its a claim almost nobody believes -- and one that is periodically undermined by remarks from the Russia-backed separatists themselves and from Russians who have led them.

Meanwhile, accusations that Russia is behind the Belarus border crisis have sparked lively debate, with some analysts who closely watch both countries saying its more likely that Moscow is out to capitalize on the confrontation.

Cue the bombers.

Putins ability to control Lukashenka is certainly not limitless. If it were, Belarus might be something closer to a Russian province than to an independent state.

But it seems certain that Lukashenka's dependence on Moscow has increased as his isolation from the West has deepened in the past two years -- first over the brutal crackdown that followed his claim of victory in a deeply disputed August 2020 election, and now over the mayhem on the EU border.

The enormity of the postelection clampdown in Belarus, which Lukashenka has ruled since 1994, has sometimes overshadowed the clampdown in Russia, which has gathered force since the return of Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny to the country in January, following treatment in Germany for a nerve-agent poisoning he blames on Putin.

But the clampdown in Russia continues -- and this week it took two substantial turns for the worse.

Following his arrest and imprisonment last winter, Navalnys organizations -- including his Anti-Corruption Foundation and his nationwide network of political offices -- were targeted by the state, deemed extremist, and outlawed.

Now the authorities have set a new precedent, using the extremism designation retroactively -- to go after people who were part of Navalnys network before it was branded with the extremist label.

On November 9 in Ufa, the capital of the Bashkortostan region, police arrested Lilia Chanysheva, who supporters said is newly pregnant, after they searched her home. The next day, a court ordered her jailed in pretrial detention for at least a month.

Chanysheva headed Navalny's regional office in Ufa until his team disbanded the nationwide network after a Moscow prosecutor went to court to have it branded extremist -- but before that designation was approved by a court and applied.

Forget Stalin

On November 11, something even more momentous happened: The Prosecutor-Generals Office asked the Supreme Court to shut down part of Memorial, Russias most prominent human rights group, accusing it of failure to comply with the controversial "foreign agent legislation that has been one of the main instruments of the clampdown.

In addition to rights advocacy, Memorial has doggedly pursued a related effort: seeking to uncover and document the crimes of the state committed against its citizens in the Soviet era, particularly during dictator Josef Stalins Great Terror of 1937-38.

Its a goal some Russians consider absolutely crucial to the future of their country, which they say cannot thrive without a comprehensive reckoning with the past.

Increasingly, though, this mission has run up against hurdles and hostility under Putin -- a former KGB officer who has brought many people with similar backgrounds into high positions. It will now have an even smaller chance of being fulfilled.

In a tweet on the move to shut down International Memorial, Sam Greene, director of the Russia Institute at Kings College London, added a grim remark on the Russian states persistent clampdown on the political opposition, independent media, civil society groups, and more.

If youre wondering where this will stop, it wont, he wrote.

That's it from me this week. If you want to know more, catch up on my podcast The Week Ahead In Russia, out every Monday, here on our site or wherever you get your podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts).
France has added its voice to concerns expressed by the United States and the European Union over Russia's reported military movements in the vicinity of Ukraine and warned Moscow that any aggressive actions would have "serious consequences."

The warning came during talks which French Defense Minister Florence Parly and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held talks in Paris on November 12 with Russian counterparts Sergei Shoigu and Sergei Lavrov.



According to a French Foreign Ministry statement, Le Drian and Parly told Lavrov and Shoigu that they were worried about the deterioration of security in border regions.

The statement said the French ministers reminded the visiting Russians of Moscow's obligations regarding "the transparency of military activities" on the border with Ukraine.

They also urged Russia to use its links with the authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, to bring an end to a migrant crisis on Belarus's border with European Union members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

They accused Lukashenka of "irresponsible and unacceptable behavior" in using "migratory flows to target several countries of the European Union."

The Kremlin has vowed to safeguard its borders in the face of actions by countries that it says are trying to "contain" Russia.

Lavrov said after the Paris talks that he had raised the issue of increased numbers of NATO forces in the Black Sea region, charging that NATO had recently been aggressive toward Russia.

Lavrov also said his delegation had told the French ministers they should start looking for ways out of a "dead end" in Russia-EU relations.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier on November 12 reiterated Washington's concern about Russia's actions and warned Moscow against an invasion.

"We're very concerned about some of the irregular movements of forces that we see on Ukraine's borders," Blinken told reporters.

"It would be a serious mistake for Russia to engage in a repeat of what it did in 2014," Blinken said, reiterating a warning made earlier in the week during a meeting in Washington with the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, when he also said the U.S. commitment to Ukraine's security and territorial integrity was "ironclad."

On November 12, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Lieutenant General Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Russia had massed some 2,100 military personnel in the separatist-controlled areas, adding that Russian military officers hold all commanding positions in the separatist forces.

Relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated sharply since Russian military forces seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and Moscow illegally annexed the territory through a hastily organized referendum that has been widely condemned as bogus.

Moscow-backed separatists continue to control wide swaths of eastern Ukraine in a seven-year conflict that followed Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea. Periodic buildups of Russian troops in the area have set off alarms in Kyiv and Western capitals.

More recently, there has been increased Russian involvement in the standoff between Lukashenka and the European Union, with surprise joint military drills by Russian and Belarusian paratroopers likely to further ratchet up tensions.

In Brussels, EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano told journalists that the bloc was alarmed by Russia's military activities close to Ukraine's border.

"We continue to watch the situation and the information we gathered so far is rather worrying," Stano said.

He said the 27-member bloc was monitoring the situation with partners including the United States and Britain and "we are open to look at further steps as necessary."

Brussels also accuses Minsk of "weaponizing" thousands of migrants who are camped out at Belarus's borders with the EU.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen also discussed the situation around Ukraine with U.S. President Joe Biden during a visit to Washington this week.

Russia has insistently denied having any aggressive intentions, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying Moscow "does not pose a threat to anyone," but it needs to ensure its security in response to alleged increasing "provocative actions" by NATO.

"We mind our own affairs and take measures to ensure our security if necessary, if there are provocative actions of our opponents near our borders," Peskov said.

Moscow this week launched a military show of support for the embattled Lukashenka by flying Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers over Belarus in an operation that Minsk says will continue on a regular basis.

Lukashenka said this week that Minsk "must respond" if the EU takes new punitive measures and raised the possibility of cutting off transit through a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas through Belarus to Poland and farther into Europe.

But Peskov sought to reassure Russia's gas customers on November 12 by citing a previous presidential statement saying Russia, a major supplier of gas to the region, has always met its contractual commitments to European customers.

With reporting by AFP, AP, RIA Novosti, dpa, and Reuters
On a Monday evening this month, restaurants in HCMCs District 8 were filled with customers. Above the loud music and noise, in some eateries the sounds of people cheering could be heard as they sat and drank alcohol.

There were signs hanging on the walls saying "no alcoholic beverages served", but right beneath, all over the ground, were cans and bottles of beer.

"The first thing I wanted to do after lockdown was eat out and drink with friends and colleagues," Le Hoang of District 3, one of the revelers that evening, said.

He was fully vaccinated and wanted some fun after being cooped up for over four months, he said, adding drinking at home "doesnt have the same feeling".

At a barbecue restaurant in District 1, a group of eight customers was drinking beers to belatedly celebrate the birthday of two coworkers and welcome a new team member.

"This is time for bonding, and some beer does not hurt anyone or help spread the virus," one of them said.

Eating and drinking with colleagues after work has always been a part of Vietnamese office culture. With many localities allowing businesses to reopen after the months-long lockdown, restaurants have started selling alcohol again, attracting many people.

A restaurant on HCMC's Cao Thang Street is packed, Nov. 10, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Dang Khoa

A restaurant owner in Saigons Thu Duc City said there had been an "unexpected increase" in the number of bookings until the next weekend.

"When the city allowed us to sell alcohol, a flood of new bookings came right away".

HCMC has mandated that eateries should have only 50 percent of their normal covers, close at 9 p.m. and not serve alcoholic beverages (except in District 7 and Thu Duc City), but many restaurants ignore these conditions.

"Now people are allowed to sit in restaurants after work, and people do not come here to have coke or mineral water with BBQ," the owner of a restaurant on District 1s Nguyen Van Thu Street said.

Statistics show that Vietnamese are big consumers of alcohol.

Though incomes fell because of the pandemic, a survey found Vietnamese consumed more beer and alcohol in 2020.
Some experts shared different ideas and opinions on this issue at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City held last week, which was co-organized by the Faculty of Finance at the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City and Saigon Investment.

New approach

It is estimated that the total value of real estate in the world is greater than the total value of all the bonds and stocks together, and four times the global GDP. Since Real Estate Property (REP) is of high value, it generally draws the attention of a large number of people, but only financially strong people are able to make investments in it.

Therefore, splitting the value of real estate properties into smaller pieces with the aid of digital technology, to give smaller investors a chance, has recently caught the interest of a large number of people. The involvement of a bigger number of people in a market can help increase transparency, with more people monitoring the investment process. By also working from home remotely, they contribute to containing the pandemic and stopping it from spreading.

Experts have analyzed that this is a way to make capital contribution by using digital technology as a medium. After that, the investors are given the profits. They do not own a square meter or half a square meter of a REP, nor do they have their names listed in a REP ownership book, but they are entitled to supervise the process of investment or transfer of such a REP.

Nevertheless, this approach may be troublesome in some ways. For instance, it is easy for young people who are adept at using the required technologies, as the knowledge about the platforms for the activities is not commonly known to the public.

Dr. Dinh Thi Thu Hong, Dean of Faculty of Finance of UEH, stressed that the approach to raise money for real estate projects by using digital technology is a new innovation. At present, Vietnam does not have any legal regulation on activities for raising funds for real estate properties by using technology like blockchain or crowdfunding. However, there has been a growing need for investment in fintech, and especially proptech, by using the blockchain technology.

Having monitored this activity for quite a while, Dr. Phan Phuong Nam, Deputy Dean of the Trade Law Faculty of UEH, said that some institutions have begun raising funds by using the token platform, with three main activities, namely, business cooperation contracts, joint ownership and real estate investment trusts.

Mr. Nguyen Trieu Dong, MA, lecturer at UEH, said that tokenization is the natural evolution of securitization, creating an opportunity for transparency of information and transactions based on the blockchain technology. Investors just need a small capital for their investment in REP. This smart-contract-based investment approach is very flexible, quick and does not require intermediaries, which minimizes the costs and administrative formalities necessary in order to get REP ownership transferred.

No legal path

Mr. Nguyen Trieu Dong, MA, believes the real challenge to this business activity includes a legal framework and a technical platform for using the technology, coping with disputes between token holders and possible conflicts, plus tax on transactions. Therefore, in order to promote this business activity in Vietnam, the State needs to provide necessary tryout rules, incentives, procedures and a tax policy as a drive for its development in the market and complete a revised legal framework for digital property so that people can feel secure about their business activities.

According to Mr. Nguyen Trieu Dong, MA, for development of this business activity in the future, it will be essential to have a digital currency system that can grow and harmonize with this area of digital property.

Additionally, it will facilitate links and connection with the global markets and increase liquidity of investment products as well as the effectiveness of product competence exploitation, contributing to the significant growth of the entire economy. He also believes that what is important is ensuring transparency of the information about REP planning and information about disputes or limited transactions.

From a macroeconomic perspective, Prof. Tran Ngoc Tho, a member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, said that it is very important to manage risks of international payment activities at banks to ensure safety of proptech activities. How to control such activities satisfactorily is based on how business activities are conducted and how this kind of investment can be beneficial for the whole society and the entire economy, rather than for investors only. When it finally comes into existence, it will be absolutely imperative that we have regulations on how to manage risks and cope with problems, especially tax evasion and money laundering.

Prof. Tho believes that when a new form of investment or technology product comes into existence, competent agencies are required to take it into consideration so as to optimize the technology advantages while striving to minimize risks. As far as international payments are concerned, the authorized agencies will also need to take into account the criteria for financial leverage, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism, internet safety and other concerns in an effort to successfully protect the interests of the concerned parties. It is vital to ensure that activities with extraordinary values will not be irrationally blocked.

Several participants at the conference questioned the legal aspects of this technology concerning business activity, as this type of business is new in Vietnam. As a result, there is no specific legal corridor, nor a legal framework for digital REP business activities. Therefore, it is not clear how risks can be managed or how disputes will be tackled either, and what can be settled in accordance with legal regulations.

A legal framework for using digital technology to raise finance for real estate projects needs to be introduced soon in order to manage risks in REP business activities and optimize its benefits.

Tra Giang
The University of Michigan experts recently looked at the gigantic cranium of an extinct Loxodonta adaurora that existed 4.5 million years back in now-called Kenya.

A Mail Online report said researchers have reassessed the gigantic cranium of an African elephant's ancient relative and discovered that it used substantially less energy than other prehistoric elephants, allowing it to become the leading or prevailing species of the era.

The animal's molars are higher-crowned, not to mention, they had thicker coatings of cementum compared to other ancient elephants, making the teeth more resistant to wear from chewing typically discovered in grass-eating creatures.

As a result, the said elephant species used less energy to feed, which enabled it to live longer, defeating out of six or seven other elephant species living at the same time and in a shared region.

ALSO READ: Big John, South Dakota's Biggest Triceratops Fossil Goes on Display, Set To Fetch Big Bucks in Paris Auction





Loxodonta Adaurora

The modern-day African elephant, on the other hand, is the prevailing species in eastern Africa. The fossilized cranium, which the National Museum of Kenya labeled as KNM-ER 63642, was discovered in 2013 in the northeastern side of Lake Turkana, specifically in Ileret Region. The species has a heavy two-ton weight. More so, it belonged to a male Loxodonta adaurora.

In general, the male L. adaurora weighed roughly nine tons and possibly stood approximately 12 feet at the shoulder, substantially bigger than modern-day elephants.

The modern-day elephant weighs approximately seven tons and measures approximately nine to 10 feet tall. Upon further investigation, the University of Michigan researchers discovered that the cranium is "raised and compressed from front to back.

Eastern Africa, Home to Many Elephant Species

The study suggested a novel alignment of chewing muscles, well-fit for the effective shearing of grasses that did not need too much energy when feeding.

William Sanders, a paleontologist from the University of Michigan, said in a statement, the evident synchronization of morphological adaptations, as well as feeding behavior of the L. adaurora, as revealed in the research, may explain the reason it became the dominant species of an elephant during the early Pliocene.

Furthermore, Eastern Africa was home to seven or eight identified species of elephants at the time, along with other animals like hippos, pigs, antelope, horses, and rhinos.

The researchers explained, lot of these animals were turning out to be grazers, not to mention competing for the available grasses.

Australopithecine Species with Human-Like and Primate-Like Traits

Sanders, an associate research scientist at the U-M Museum of Paleontology and in the Department of Anthropology said, the adaptations of L. adaurora put it at a remarkable advantage over more primitive elephants, in that, it could perhaps, use less energy to chew more food, and live longer "to have more offspring."

Essentially, L. adaurora and other prehistoric elephants lived side-by-side with a pair of well-known australopithecine species in eastern Africa, which had both primate-like and human-like traits.

The prehistoric elephants kept grasses low to the ground, enabling australopithecine to see over the vegetation and watch for predators.

The prehistoric elephants uprooted shrubs and knocked over threes, resulting in spreading seeds across the area and gowning more nutrients for both the australopithecines and animals.

A Threat to Extinction of Mammal Lineage

Sanders explained the origins and early successes of this present generation's biological family are associated with elephants.

Their existence on the landscape developed more open conditions that favored the first bipedal hominin ancestors' activities and adaptations.

From this perspective, the researchers noted in their study published in Palaeovertebrata, ironically, it is tragic that the present human activities of encroaching land use, poaching, and human-driven climate change are now a threat to the mammal lineage's extinction that helped humans to begin their evolutionary development.

Related information about the discovery is shown on Viral Seal's YouTube video below:

RELATED ARTICLE: New Whale Species Discovered in Egypt: 10-foot P. Anubis Semi-Aquatic Walking Whale Lived as Top Predator 43 Million Years Ago

Check out more news and information on Paleontology in Science Times.
Many Alabamians have been waiting to get the COVID vaccine until one is approved by U.S. regulators. Pfizer won approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday. Does that change your mind on getting the vaccine?

You voted:
In 42 years on the bench, J. Anthony Kline, Californias senior appellate justice, has issued a ruling overhauling the states cash bail system, a change he now fears may be too intimidating for many of his fellow judges to implement.

He wrote another historic opinion to legalize same-sex marriage, but it was a dissent from a contrary opinion by two of his colleagues. Klines view of the law took statewide effect six years later after a state Supreme Court ruling, a reversal by the voters and a turnabout by the U.S. Supreme Court.

His ruling allowing gunmakers to be sued for mass shootings was nullified by the states high court, then briefly resurrected for future cases by state lawmakers.

Still, as Kline prepares to step down next month, hes grateful for the perch he has occupied for more than half his life.

The value of being a judge as long as I have is that it gives you a terrific window on the human condition. Very few white, middle-class guys like me have had that opportunity, Kline, 83, said in an interview after announcing his retirement from the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco.

The sights from that window have sometimes been shocking: Mental illness that afflicts at least one-third of the inmate population, with little care available, Kline said. State prisoners in their 70s and 80s still incarcerated when studies show they pose virtually no risk of re-offending. And, he noted, county jails still populated 85% by inmates who have been only charged, not convicted, but cant afford bail while awaiting trial.

It was the bail situation that led to the ruling that Kline said will probably be his legacy, a January 2018 decision in the case of Kenneth Humphrey, a retired shipyard worker charged with breaking into a mans San Francisco apartment, threatening the tenant and stealing $5 and a bottle of cologne. Because of felony convictions a quarter-century earlier, a judge set Humphreys bail at $600,000, then lowered it to $350,000, an amount that Humphrey still couldnt afford.

Saying a defendant may not be imprisoned solely due to poverty, Kline wrote a 3-0 decision requiring judges to set bail at a level the defendant could afford, unless evidence shows the person is too dangerous to release.

A whirlwind of events followed  the Legislature repealed the cash-bail system in 2019, a repeal that was blocked and then overridden by the voters in a 2020 referendum financed by bail-bond companies  but Klines reasoning became state law this March when the California Supreme Court unanimously reached the same conclusion in the case of Humphrey, who had been freed without bail.

But Kline said the prospects for a more equitable system are still uncertain because the new rules will be enforced by judges who must face the voters every six years.

I think many of them feel that if they release a person who (later) commits a sensational crime, they could be recalled, he said. Part of the problem is that state judges are elected. Trial court judges are elected to six-year terms, while appellate justices must seek voter retention every 12 years.

Kline got an inside look at judicial selection as Gov. Jerry Browns legal affairs secretary from 1975 to 1980 and played a role in Browns campaign to diversify Californias judiciary, which included appointments of the state Supreme Courts first female, Black and Latino justices and the nations first openly gay and lesbian judges.

Brown, his fellow Yale Law alumnus, appointed him to the San Francisco Superior Court in 1980 and as a presiding justice on the appeals court two years later.

One of his most notable opinions was a dissent from his courts 2-1 ruling in 2006 upholding Californias voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. While the courts majority said the state had followed the historic definition of marriage while enacting other gay rights legislation, Kline wrote that excluding people based on their sexual orientation demeans the institution of marriage and diminishes the humanity of the gay men and lesbians who wish to marry a loved one of their choice.

The states high court followed Klines path in May 2008 in a 4-3 ruling striking down the marriage ban. Chief Justice Ronald George relied on Californias constitutional guarantees of privacy and personal autonomy in a 121-page majority opinion, but said in a recent interview that Kline certainly took the lead with his earlier dissent.

The voters re-enacted the same-sex marriage ban by passing Proposition 8 in November 2008. But a federal judge declared Prop. 8 unconstitutional in 2010, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then-Attorney General Brown refused to defend it, and the U.S. Supreme Court effectively repealed the California ban in 2013 by ruling that the measures sponsors had no right to appeal on behalf of the voters  two years before the court declared a constitutional right to marry ones chosen partner regardless of sexual orientation.

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.

Another Kline opinion that took an equally bumpy path to the law books was his 1999 decision allowing lawsuits against the manufacturer of rapid-fire semiautomatic pistols by families of eight people killed in a 1993 attack at a downtown San Francisco law office.

The ruling, the first of its kind in the nation, was overturned by the state Supreme Court in 2001, then reinstated for future cases by the Legislature in 2002. But three years later, Congress passed a law protecting gunmakers from most suits over use of their weapons, although New York state is seeking to sidestep that shield with a new law allowing suits for harm caused by firearms that were illegally or negligently marketed.

As he prepares to leave the bench, Kline sees a legal system still grappling with decades-old problems: prisons packed with mentally ill and aging inmates, largely the result of hard-to-change criminal justice and parole procedures and sentencing laws.

Despite qualms about judicial elections, he praises the states judiciary and its leaders  you cant buy a judge in this state but says the systems public accountability is being undercut by private arbitration proceedings mandated by federal laws and courts in many labor and contract cases.

The deciding of disputes behind closed doors ... undermines the integrity of the public justice system, Kline said.

His retirement is effective Dec. 15, but he expects to spend another month or two wrapping up cases as a temporary judge. After that, he plans to join his sons, who are planting an orchard on land they bought near Tomales Bay.

I think Im a very intense person, focus on what Im doing, and I have blinders on whats going on in the rest of the world, Kline said. I want to be part of that (orchard project). Read. Meet people who are not judges and lawyers. Do something that has social utility.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@BobEgelko
A decision by the Biden administration to withhold $12 billion in federal transit funds from California could immediately affect services provided by the Bay Areas 27 transit operators as they attempt to recover deep financial losses sustained during the pandemic, local officials say.

The denial of the transit funding is the latest twist in a long dispute over whether Californias 2013 Public Employees Pension Reform Act, which capped pension benefits for new employees, infringes on the collective bargaining rights of public transit workers in the eyes of the federal government.

Under federal law, state and local transit agencies applying to receive transit funding from Washington must receive certification from the U.S. Department of Labor that theyre not infringing on the collective bargaining rights of their workers. In an Oct. 28 decision, the Labor Department reversed a determination it made in 2019 and essentially deemed Californias law improper because the pension rules changes were implemented via legislation and not bargained with public unions.

The state sharply disputes the Labor Departments interpretation and vows to fight the decision.

In a Nov. 10 letter to U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, Gov. Gavin Newsom questioned the legal reasoning behind the ruling and said it has created tremendous confusion and uncertainty for numerous infrastructure projects.

Newsom specifically referenced BARTs Transbay Corridor Core Capacity Program, which aims to expand the Transbay Tubes capacity to 30 trains per hour in each direction, as a transit project that cannot be completed as planned without continued federal funding.

In a statement to The Chronicle, U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson Michael Trupo said the department in the past has worked cooperatively with other states that passed legislation similar to Californias to address and resolve the items that would cause non-compliance.

It is inaccurate to describe this as anything but the appropriate application of federal worker protection law, Trupo said of the Labor Departments determination.

Of the federal transit funds California stands to lose, about $9.5 billion would come from the money earmarked for the state in the infrastructure bill approved by Congress last week. Also at stake in the decision is $2.5 billion in federal COVID relief funds allocated to sustain transit services during the pandemic, which had not yet gained Labor Department certification at the time of the ruling.

Its the loss of the latter bucket of money that could be felt most immediately by Bay Area transit agencies and their riders.

Transit agencies large and small across the region have leaned on federal aid to sustain operations during the pandemic as ridership plummeted along with fare revenues. The regions two largest transit systems, BART and San Franciscos Muni, project it will take years for them to climb back to their pre-pandemic ridership levels.

Its not just some grant a year from now to buy a bus thats going to be affected, said Randy Rentschler, director of legislation and communications at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the planning agency responsible for allocating federal funds to local agencies. Monies to keep the system running right now are potentially on the table.

The federal aid propping up transit services is finite, and some agencies, such as the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, have said they require permanent new sources of income to restore and expand services beyond pre-pandemic levels.

But the assistance from the feds so far has already helped plug sizable budget holes for agencies. For example, nearly half of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation Districts operating expenses in fiscal 2021 were covered by federal aid.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The Golden Gate district, which runs buses and ferries in San Francisco and Marin counties, is relying upon federal American Rescue Plan money to pay a significant portion of operating costs this fiscal year, General Manager Denis J. Mulligan said. The district could lose the roughly $44 million in federal aid allocated by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in late October because of the timing of the Labor Departments ruling.

In addition to affecting funding for upcoming bus and ferry capital projects, due to the ongoing pandemic, this (determination) will affect funding for ongoing bus and ferry service, Mulligan said in a report to the districts Board of Directors.

The Bay Areas transit agencies have no shortage of ambitious capital projects aimed at transforming the regions public transit systems. Some of those projects, such as BARTs extension to downtown San Jose, managed by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, hinge on federal assistance.

In a separate letter to Walsh, U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla said they have grave concerns that the Labor Departments ruling disadvantages California and its transit agencies from competing for federal dollars in the infrastructure bill. They urged the Labor Department to restore the states access to the federal grants.

We have the highest level of confidence this issue will be worked out at the federal level without an impact to BART projects and our efforts to seek grant funding, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said in a statement. We continue to be grateful for the leadership of our Congressional delegation and the Biden-Harris Administration for their strong support to fund public transit.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Tal Kopan contributed to this report.

Ricardo Cano is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ricardo.cano@sfchronicle.com
REDWOOD VALLEY, Mendocino County  Lake Mendocino, once a plentiful reservoir nourishing the vines and villas of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, today is little more than a large pond, cowering beneath the coastal hills.

The exposed and cracked mud on the reservoirs floor, as much as the wildfire that burned the grassy lake bed last summer, is the very portrait of drought. Few places in California have been hit as hard by the two-year dry spell as this sprawling stretch of Wine Country.

Tens of thousands of people who rely on the reservoir, between Healdsburg and the Ukiah Valley, in the upper Russian River watershed, have endured months of painful water restrictions. Households have been forced to cut back as much as 50%, while grape growers have sometimes gotten no water at all. The hardship may soon get worse.

State officials warn that Lake Mendocino could be the first major reservoir in modern times to go dry. While rain over the past few weeks has lifted the lake above its October low, the reservoir, a few miles northeast of Ukiah, remains at less than 20% capacity. Officials worry that the looming wet winter season wont bring enough inflow to meet next years water demands.

This is a real concern, and one that we need to start looking at, said Erik Ekdahl, a deputy director at the State Water Resources Control Board. We really cant have a scenario where a whole gigantic population runs out of water.

Gov. Gavin Newsom visited Lake Mendocino in April to declare Californias first drought emergency. The water situation, the product not only of little rain but also of warm, dehydrating temperatures in the face of climate change, has just deteriorated since.

The regions water managers recently learned that a nearby Pacific Gas and Electric hydroelectric plant that supplies about 30% of the reservoirs water is offline for at least 18 months because of a faulty electric transformer. The out-of-service Potter Valley Project, which gets water from a neighboring watershed, will send only minimal flows to the lake in the meantime.

Should the reservoir dry up  once unthinkable  many of the basins cities and towns served by the lake or the upper Russian River, where the reservoir collects and releases its flows, have no significant backup.

Its not if well be doing conservation measures next summer, its to what extent, said Terry Crowley, utilities director for Healdsburg, which is already mandating that residents and businesses cut their water use 40% compared with a year ago.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

Up a gravel driveway lined with Zinfandel vines in the community of Redwood Valley, the pinch of the water shortage is as tight as it gets.

Kevin Klotter, who retired from the Bay Area to the rural town north of Lake Mendocino, had been using rainwater collected on the roof of his workshop to shower in his yard  until it got too cold outside.

I built a little surround for it, just rigged it up with excess lumber, he explained, as he stood in his front lawn. The water wasnt heated, but in the middle of the summer, it was warm enough.

Kevin and his wife, Bree, are among about 5,500 people in Redwood Valley who are limited to using 55 gallons of municipal water a day, among the strictest restrictions in Northern California. Its about enough for two long indoor showers, without laundry, dishwashing or yard watering.

It hasnt been too difficult for us, Bree Klotter said. We got married in 1977, which is the year of a drought, and that informed our life together.

The local water district enacted the caps after it lost its water supply from Lake Mendocino because there wasnt enough to go around. The community, a mix of modest homes, horse ranches, cannabis grows and vineyards, is buying whatever water it can from the neighboring district. That district, like Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Hopland and so many others in the basin, is also getting less water from the lake and the river downstream, and having to ration as a result.

I dont think were going to have any water at all next year, said Bree, who sits on the Redwood Valley County Water District board. Its scary.

To prepare for an outage, Bree and Kevin are weighing whether to run a water line to their home from their irrigation well, which now serves their small plot of grapes.

Lake Mendocino, which can hold 122,400 acre-feet of water, had about 19,500 acre-feet of water in it last week. An acre-foot is enough for about two California households annually.

With the region needing at least 25,000 to 40,000 acre-feet of water to get through the dry summer and fall, another winter with little rain could leave reservoir storage short of whats needed. This year, the lake emerged from winter with less than 10,000 acre-feet of new storage.

You run the math out and see the concern, said Ekdahl of the State Water Board. The prospect of what a dry winter means  I dont think people have wrapped their heads around that.

Over the past two years, the watershed has received less than half its average annual rainfall, 14.8 inches and 13.5 inches in Ukiah between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30, respectively. The past summer also was one of the hottest.

Officials with the Sonoma County Water Agency, which manages the reservoir in concert with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, say the likelihood of another similarly dry year is low, based on whats happened historically.

The problem, though, isnt just the weather. PG&Es disabled Potter Valley Project means less water coming into Lake Mendocino regardless of how much falls from the sky. Roughly 9,000 acre-feet is expected from the project this winter, about half of whats typically sent, according to PG&E.

The hydroelectric facility normally operates by drawing water from the Eel River watershed to the north, to drive the turbines, and dispensing it in the east fork of the Russian River, where it flows to the lake. Until the powerhouse is fixed, which could be two years, PG&E doesnt need the water, which leaves the company obliged to move only minimum amounts to the Russian River for fish and wildlife.

This is going to make us incredibly dependent on seeing five or six more big (storm) events like we saw (last month), said Don Seymour, principal engineer for Sonoma Water, referring to the 7 inches of rain that fell in Ukiah over a few days in October. It puts a lot more pressure on Mother Nature.

Sonoma Water and others vested in Lake Mendocino have requested that PG&E increase its water transfers. PG&E, though, may face legal and logistical constraints to doing so. It also could face opposition from some who want to keep more water in the Eel River.

We are evaluating whether we have the ability to make discretionary diversions for non-generational purposes, PG&E spokesperson Paul Moreno told The Chronicle in an email.

The water levels at the lake and in the river downstream are also affected by increased groundwater pumping. With the river and reservoir providing less water, people have been more reliant on wells, sometimes pumping water so close to the surface that theyre undercutting the creeks that feed the basin and the Russian River itself. Reservoir managers recognize the loss but dont have an exact accounting of it.

Also, officials say current storage in the lake may be overstated. Since the reservoirs construction in 1958, it has been slowly accumulating sediment on its floor. The volume of water that the reservoir holds today could be thousands of acre-feet less than what the gauges say it is.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

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.

Not far off Highway 101 amid the vineyard-covered hills, Redwood Valley Cellars, with its grand tasting room, custom crush facility and countless organic vines, has already been cut off entirely from the Redwood Valley County Water Districts diminished supply.

Since April, about 200 growers in Redwood Valley have been without district water. Hundreds of others in the basin who draw water directly from a waterway have been ordered by state regulators to stop pumping, fallout of the governors emergency drought declaration.

Martha Barra, whose family owns Redwood Valley Cellars and the labels Barra of Mendocino and Girasole Vineyards, has turned to pond water as well as some trucked-in supplies to irrigate. But between what little runoff has filled her ponds and the dry weather, she produced only about half the typical yield of her nine varietals this year.

Nearby grape growers have reported similar losses, generally between 20% and 60%, according to the Mendocino County Farm Bureau. Crop value in the watershed, which includes such prized wine spots as Alexander Valley and part of Dry Creek Valley, is estimated to be as much as a few hundred million dollars.

The water just hasnt gotten to the deep roots. Its just not there to get the vines the vigor they need, Barra said. This is the worst weve ever seen it.

To pay the bills, Barra hopes to collect crop insurance for the first time since her family took over Redwood Valley Cellars more than two decades ago.

Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

The regions water agencies, local communities and state officials have been meeting to figure out how to get by with little  or perhaps no  water in Lake Mendocino next year.

Foremost, they expect to put more restrictions in place, and restrictions starting earlier in the year, to reduce demand and preserve whatever water winter brings.

This year, the State Water Board began curbing water use in August, with the orders for growers, homeowners and even water agencies to stop directly drawing from waterways in the upper Russian River basin. Agencies providing for municipal use could still take a very small amount.

Its been a big crunch, but were lucky our community has really come together and supported what were doing, said Jared Walker, who manages the Redwood Valley County Water District and a handful of other small public water agencies in the Ukiah area that have passed their restrictions along to residents. I dont anticipate myself lifting the 50% conservation notices for my customers at this point.

Administrators of Lake Mendocino are also pushing ahead with a groundbreaking water management program to prop up reservoir levels. While most reservoirs face strict federal rules on when to make water releases for flood control, Sonoma Water and the Army Corps have been working with state, federal and university water experts to make such decisions based on new, more precise forecasting tools. They expect to be able to hold at least a little more water in the reservoir as a result.

Lake Mendocinos fate has repercussions beyond the upper Russian River watershed  to more than 600,000 additional people in Sonoma and Marin counties.

While these communities have other sources of water, including Sonoma Waters slightly larger and fuller Lake Sonoma, they have historically received some of their supply from Lake Mendocino. The nine retail suppliers that Sonoma Water serves also have put water restrictions in place. These include the cities of Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Rohnert Park, as well as the Marin County Municipal Water District.

Im worried, said Seymour, with Sonoma Water. Maybe if youre a gambling man, youd bet against it (Lake Mendocino running dry). But, unfortunately, were caring for the water supply for hundreds of thousands of people. That represents a risk were simply uncomfortable with.

Until we see big (storm) events start to occur and the system start to recover, he said, Ill remain concerned.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
NASA officially landed in Oakland on Friday, where a new exhibition and partnership with the Chabot Space & Science Center aims to not only entertain and educate, but inspire and nurture a new and diverse crop of astronauts and aerospace engineers.

With two astronauts in attendance  one real, one a 20-foot-tall inflatable  NASA representatives and local politicians on Friday dedicated the new NASA Ames Visitor Center and welcomed visitors, including about 30 enthusiastic Oakland schoolkids.

Once the speeches and traditional ribbon cutting were complete, the kids were let loose to play in a big sand-table filled with simulated moon soil, build mini versions of rovers and robots, and test paper airplanes in a small wind tunnel situated next to a huge wooden blade from the NASA Ames wind tunnel.

The NASA visitor center and the rest of the museum was set to open Friday afternoon.

Chabot Space & Science Center had been closed since the start of the pandemic, but its staff spent those 20 months working with NASA Ames to transform two older display rooms into one big new exhibit area with several learning stations and more than 100 artifacts from NASA Ames Mountain View campus. They include space suits worn by astronauts, scale models of various spacecraft that were tested in wind tunnels and a space station wrench.

Adam Tobin, Chabots executive director, told The Chronicle the NASA center is the only silver lining of the pandemic. It allowed the science museum to turbocharge an existing relationship with NASA, to open the center and to develop a plan to work together with NASA making presentations, conducting classes, participating in programs and making a connection with students interested in aerospace or other science, math and technology careers.

We are going to make our people available as well, said Eugene Tu, NASA Ames director. There are multiple things we want to do here besides providing artifacts.

Tu said NASA plans to work with Chabots existing connections with schools and said its possible that some students could be recruited for NASA Ames high school internship programs.

Weve never had the opportunity to share what do as we will with this visitor center, he said.

Sheila Matias, 12, a sixth-grader from Oaklands United for Success Academy, said she appreciated the opportunity and might consider a career in aeronautics.

This is a really great opportunity for every kid to learn about astronauts and how they do their work, she said. Its an opportunity to explore a new world.

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.

Matias said shed love to travel into space, an experience she said would be both scary and good.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, said NASAs new visitor center and its relationship with Chabot is about to close the diversity gap in STEM education  finally by encouraging children from underrepresented communities, particularly Latinas and Black women, to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

From the beginning, we wanted Chabot to be for the entire community, she said, recounting the decision to establish the center in the hills off Skyline Drive in 2000.

Especially the parts that have been underserved and excluded. You cant imagine how proud I am to see this day.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan
Capturing and tagging a 1,419-pound leatherback sea turtle, it turns out, is a delicate operation.

In mid-October, after an airplane crew first spotted the green-black form in a patch of sea nettles 5 miles off Half Moon Bay, the chartered research vessel Sheila B. approached the giant marine reptile slowly from behind. Standing at the bow was veteran sea turtle tagger Scott Benson, holding a large hoop with an equally large net attached to it.

We try to be really sneaky about this, said Benson, marine scientist for the National Marine Fisheries Service. We have to have it lined up perfectly so that the boat and the turtle are all going in exactly the same direction.

With the boat and turtle aligned, Benson managed to encircle him with the hoop and enclose him in the net. Once he was secure, Benson and other researchers looped a rope around the turtles shoulders to gently guide him onboard, through specially designed hydraulic doors at the bow.

Benson has spent two decades studying endangered Western Pacific leatherbacks, which migrate 6,000 miles from Asia to devour up to a third of their weight in jellyfish along the California coast in summer and fall. More recently, hes had the extra job of reporting their presence in Dungeness crab fishing zones to the state because of new rules that protect the animals from risk of entanglement in fishing gear.

The commercial crab season, due to start Monday, was delayed indefinitely after Benson and others observed leatherbacks and whales between Point Arena in Mendocino County and Monterey Bay last month.

Provided by National Marine Fisheries Service

Leatherbacks were around when dinosaurs walked the Earth, yet most Californians were perhaps unaware of their presence until they impacted the crab fishery. Only 55 now return to state waters to forage, according to Benson. Unlike whales, the prehistoric-looking creatures with a soft carapace and leathery skin are extremely difficult to spot from a boat.

The turtle Benson captured last month was the heaviest hed ever encountered, weighed on a scale designed for cattle they installed in the boat. He had eaten so well that his shoulders and neck bulged with fat, and the ridges in his carapace had filled out. Even more surprising: Benson recognized him as Bumpy, an animal he and researchers had caught in 2016 and nicknamed for marks on his carapace that indicated a ship injury.

The population is declining and fairly quickly. So how many times are we going to get to see some animal after it goes back and forth across the ocean a few times? he said. Its very encouraging to see just the survivorship that this animal has.

Leatherback sea turtles are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, and the distinct population that forages off California, called the Western Pacific leatherback sea turtle, was added to the states endangered species list last month. That population has declined by 80% in 30 years, according to a report Benson coauthored in Global Ecology and Conservation, and faces a number of threats, including ship strikes, illegal poaching and loss of nesting habitat in Indonesia, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. The other population, called the Eastern Pacific leatherback sea turtle, nests from Baja Mexico to Costa Rica.

There is an urgent need to increase protections, or were going to lose both populations in the Pacific, said George Shillinger, executive director of the Monterey conservation group Upwell, which focuses on the protection of sea turtles and conducts research in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Were facing a situation where the Pacific could be absent of turtles after 100 million years. And its completely due to human impacts.

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.

Bumpy is likely more than 20 or 25 years old and could live to an estimated 50 years. His experiences on research ships were likely the only times he has felt his full weight since he had left his nesting beach, when he was the size of a sand dollar, Benson said. While females return to the beaches to lay eggs, males spend their lives in the ocean, including mating underwater.

On board, Upwell veterinarian Heather Harris examined Bumpy, noting that his old injury from a ship propeller had healed completely. The crew took biological samples for research purposes and fitted him with new acoustic and satellite tags.

After they put him back in the ocean, they followed his progress as he swam south toward Monterey, did a few loops around the Monterey Trench and then headed offshore. As of Friday he was about 125 miles west of Big Sur.

An entanglement of sea turtles in Dungeness crab fishing gear hasnt been observed since 2016 in California. In addition to limits on the crab season, the state is also phasing out the use of what are called drift gill net fishing gear used for swordfish fishery that can kill turtles.

While leatherback sea turtles are relatively well protected once they are in California, during migration theyre more at risk from trawlers, drift gillnets or long lines, especially those used for tuna and swordfish, Benson said. One way to protect them is to buy those fish from U.S. fishing boats, which are much better regulated, he said.

Once they get over here, people are looking out for them, said Benson. But, he said, as soon as they move outside U.S. waters, All those protections go away.

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan
Advocates are urging the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to appoint an Asian American woman to replace Wilma Chan, the longtime supervisor who was killed by a motorist this month while walking her dog.

But theyre running up against the wishes of Chans family, who want her chief of staff Dave Brown  a white man  to finish the remaining year of her term, saying he would be best suited to finish out her remaining projects. The board must appoint someone within 60 days or the duty falls to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The family is firm in that they want Dave to complete her term, Jeanette Dong, Chans former chief of staff and a longtime personal friend, told The Chronicle on behalf of Chans family. She pointed out that Brown does not want to run for the open seat next year.

If someone were appointed to the position now, Dong said they would have to spend much of their time campaigning and not finishing up Chans remaining work.

Im an activist, too. I want to see an (Asian Pacific Islander) in the seat, said Dong, director of recreation and human services in San Leandro. That election (to fill Chans seat) is around the corner. Let us finish Wilmas work and then elect someone else next year.

Some community advocates, however, dont want to wait that long, especially since the other members of the board are men and none is Asian American. Chans seat on the board has been held by an Asian American for the past three decades, ever since she became the first when she was initially elected in 1994. Her district includes Alameda, San Leandro, and Oaklands Chinatown, Jack London, Fruitvale and San Antonio neighborhoods.

Chan served six years before being elected to the state Assembly, where she became the first woman and first Asian American to serve as majority leader. She was again elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2010 and was re-elected twice, most recently in 2018.

Representation matters, especially in light of recent incidents of anti-Asian attacks and the impact of COVID on the community, said Serena Chen, president of the Asian Pacific American Democratic Caucus of Alameda County, in a letter to the board noting that one in three Alameda County residents is Asian American or Pacific Islander.

She urged the all-male board to prioritize your search by identifying an Asian American woman currently living in the district to the seat.

Chen suggested a replacement: Alice Lai-Bitker, who served 10 years on the Board of Supervisors between Chans two terms after working for her as an aide.

Lai-Bitker, 63, told The Chronicle Thursday that she is not lobbying for the position out of respect for the family. She said, however, she would accept the position if the board nominated her.

Out of duty I would do it, she said, emphasizing that she would only serve the rest of Chans term, which expires next November and would not seek re-election to a full term.

Lai-Bitker said that she is in an awkward position after learning that Chans family has requested that Brown serve the remainder of her term.

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.

Wilmas family wants Dave Brown. I respect that. And I honor that, Lai-Bitker said. Dave is a great guy and would do a great job.

But she also understands the need for the board to reflect the population we serve.

If appointed, Brown would only serve as a caretaker for the position. Brown has lived in Walnut Creek for 15 years, recently signed a lease for an apartment in Oakland. He is keeping his Walnut Creek home. He would be ineligible to run for the seat, according to county rules, because supervisors must be a voter in their districts for one year before their election.

I'm still mourning the loss of a friend and a mentor, Brown told The Chronicle. This is about Wilma, Wilmas legacy and the people she served. If Im appointed, our staff and I will do everything in our power to carry out her legacy in the time we have remaining.

Board members either did not respond to requests for comment or representatives said they were unavailable Thursday.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
The Oakland Chinese Chamber of Commerce has offered a $10,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest of the shooter responsible for killing a toddler on Interstate 880 in Oakland.

Jasper Wu, 23 months old, was sitting in his familys car when he was struck by what officials believe was a stray bullet from a shooting that happened on the opposite side of the highway last Saturday.

The reward comes from the the Crimes Against Asians Reward Fund, which was created through a partnership among the OCCC, the Burma Love and Superstar restaurants, and the San Francisco Police Officers Association. The chamber of commerce has also set up a GoFundMe for the victims family.

We launched CAARF to fight racial injustice and crimes committed against the Asian Americans & Pacific Islander community in the Bay Area, Nghia Tran, chief operating officer at Burma Love and Burma Superstar restaurants, wrote in a press release. The lawlessness affects all communities and must stop now  we put forward a $10,000 reward and call on the community to provide authorities with any information that can bring justice for this family.

Stephanie Tran, a board member with the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, read a letter on behalf of the Wu family stating, We are completely heartbroken and devastated over the loss of Jasper. We thank everyone for their donations and the outpouring of love and support during this difficult time. We are pleading for the shooters, or anyone with information, to come forward so a tragedy like this will never happen again to anyone.

Amid a spike in gun violence in Oakland this year, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce is also calling for greater law enforcement presence, both in Oakland and on freeways generally. There have been 76 freeway shootings in Alameda County in the past 12 months  most of those happening on I-880 or I-580, according to CHP officials.

Protecting its citizens serves as the governments fundamental responsibility, and if the death of this toddler, on his way home with his family, doesnt wake us up to the out-of-control crime in Oakland, I dont know what will, said Carl Chan, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. We can all be victims, and I call on the California Highway Patrol to increase its presence on our roadways so tragedies like this can be prevented.

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.

But how to prevent the violence is the subject of intense debate in Oakland.

Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong pleaded with the public to offer any information regarding the killing of not only Jasper, but the many other homicides that have occurred in the city, during a news conference Friday.

We stand as one community as we grieve the tragic loss of this child, as well as the other 118 homicide victims killed this year in Oakland, Armstrong said.

Danielle Echeverria and Ryce Stoughtenborough are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com, ryce.stoughtenborough@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DanielleEchev, @rstoughts
When Belcampo came on the scene in 2012, many Bay Area butchers were excited about the promise of an ambitious, well-funded company that would champion environmentally sustainable meat.

They hoped it could pull off its founding promise: to build a company that had total control over every step of production, from raising and butchering animals to selling the meat at their own restaurants. Doing so would, in theory, create a new model for the meat industry.

So when Belcampo admitted earlier this year to mislabeling meat and then suddenly closed all of its butcher shops and restaurants last month, it stunned the sustainable meat world. Local butchers were disappointed but not surprised that the companys model and rapid growth proved challenging to sustain in an industry with famously lean margins.

Now, they worry that Belcampos story will erode hard-won trust with customers. The companys closure isnt just an isolated issue, butchers say: It could be a setback for an industry thats still working to persuade the American public to pay more for higher-quality, well-sourced meat rather than cheaper options from factory farms.

At Local Butcher Shop in Berkeley, staff started fielding inquiries about Belcampo in May, when co-founder Anya Fernald acknowledged the company had improperly sold outside meat products at its Santa Monica location in an isolated incident. In October, after Belcampo shut down, customers started asking more pointed questions, including about Local Butchers own sourcing practices, said owner Aaron Rocchino.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Belcampo CEO Garry Embleton said the company has no plans to close its farm or processing facility but declined to answer further questions. Last month, he said the team is exploring other ways to sell non-branded products.

The company, though, has already done some damage, butchers said.

Its like a black eye on the butchers in the public eye, said David Budworth, who runs Victorian Farmstead Meat Co. in Sebastopol. This puts a dent in our public trust, and thats the hard part.

Part of the slow food movement, the sustainable meat industry is devoted to raising animals humanely on open pastures and feeding them on grass for their entire lives instead of corn or artificial hormones. Advocates say this results in better-tasting meat thats also better for the environment, but with steeper costs. Raising cattle this way takes as long as two years, whereas factory farms send cows to feedlots for speedy weight gain after about a year.

Even at Stemple Creek Ranch in Tomales, which supplies meat to stores throughout California, this happens at a slow, small scale. Only 10% to 15% of a single cow, for example, yields the most in-demand prime cuts.

You cant just have unlimited filet mignons or unlimited rib eyes, said Loren Poncia, Stemple Creeks owner. The whole slow food thing is really real.

Like other high-end food industries, consumer trust is a critical part of the equation, and its not an infallible relationship. Just this year, Sacramento producer Passmore came under fire for saying that its caviar was local when, in fact, it was imported.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle 2010

Belcampo and its charismatic leader, Fernald, told the feel-good story well. She talked of raising animals at the companys 30,000-acre Mount Shasta farm and of slaughtering them in a facility designed by humane-animal expert Temple Grandin. Fernald was featured in the New Yorker, Food and Wine and Gwyneth Paltrows Goop, and was a guest judge on the show Iron Chef. Her Instagram following grew to over 36,000; her draw was partly because she was one of the few high-profile women working in the masculine meat industry. Fans paid $2,500 to attend a glamorous, originally women-only meat camp at Belcampos farm.

Fernald gained a reputation for being a force of nature, Budworth said, a person who gets things done. It was like a cult of personality, Rocchino said. She was very much the face of the company. What is Belcampo? Anya Fernald is Belcampo.

Her mainstream popularity brought a new level of attention to sustainable meat. She promoted terms like regenerative agriculture with ease, translating the complex farming practices that made the meat they sold different from companies like Perdue or Tyson.

They did a lot of good work bringing people to ask questions about where their food is raised and how its raised, Poncia said of Belcampo. They brought a lot of awareness to the industry.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

The business grew quickly. After one butcher shop in Larkspur, Belcampo eventually opened more than eight locations across California and New York City, plus a luxury hotel and rum distillery on a farm in Belize. It started offering national shipping and meat subscription boxes, all drawing from the Mount Shasta farm. (Belcampo did at some point start selling meat from select small farms, listed on the companys website as partners.)

When asked about how Belcampo balanced slow food with mass market, Fernald said in previous interviews that her goal wasnt to make Belcampo a ubiquitous chain, but rather stop at 10 locations and help certify other farmers. My point is that to change our food system, small isnt sustainable, she told Food and Wine in 2015. Im not interested in doing small, perfect things. Im more interested in bigger, more aggressive, more noticeable things.

The growth came at a cost for employees, according to sources. Norman Nesby, who worked at the San Francisco Belcampo from 2014 to 2015, said the shop received little support. He left after feeling disillusioned with the companys ethos, which he felt was more exclusionary than based on quality. When Nesby asked about accepting federal food assistance programs as payment, he was told, thats not the clientele they want here, he said.

I felt like it was built on this platform of separatism and elitism, Nesby said. I work here, but I cant afford to buy it.

Jessica Olthof/The Chronicle 2013

The problems became public last spring, when a former employees videos showing nonorganic, corn-fed meat being repackaged as Belcampo products went viral. (The company later said an internal investigation found that less than 6% of its meats from the beginning of 2020 to May 2021 didnt meet quality standards.) By October, Belcampo shut down all locations and its e-commerce operation. At Belcampos butchery in Siskiyou County, at least 40 workers lost their jobs.

Fernald, despite giving public statements and apologizing for the mislabeling issues in May, told people that she had quietly stepped away from the company in 2020. Buried in the comments of an October Instagram post about grilling kebabs, she wrote in response to a follower that she resigned from my operational role at Belcampo in 2020 and have had limited involvement since then. There was no public announcement of this major leadership change.

Belcampo, meanwhile, said that Fernald has not been involved in company operations since June 2021. Embleton, who was named co-CEO with Fernald in August 2020, became the sole CEO in January, according to a spokesperson. Belcampo declined to state whether Fernald still serves on the Belcampo board or has ownership in the company. Fernald did not respond to interview requests for this story.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Despite high hopes for Belcampo, many in the sustainable meat industry had watched the companys growth warily. Butchers with a similar sustainability ethos wondered how a company could scale at that rate when most shops struggle to turn a profit.

Meat is an expensive and sensitive commodity, said Angela Wilson of Avedanos Meats in San Francisco, which sells meat from small California farms. If a shop doesnt sell a tray of rib eyes in a day or two, for example, they then need to be marinated. If that doesnt sell, theyre turned into sandwiches. If those dont sell, the shop might end up gifting them to the bartender next door, making it a total wash. Labor costs are also high, she said, but hiring and retaining skilled butchers is essential to a successful business.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle 2019

Wilsons shop is barely profitable and almost closed in 2019; Avedanos only remains open today because of a wealthy, anonymous investor.

We have lines around the block, but we dont make money, she said. I feel like Im on the losing end of a really important battle.

Belcampos expansion reminded Clifford Pollard, CEO of Cream Co. Meats in Oakland, of a tech companys grow quickly and break things type mentality  an approach that was perhaps incompatible with the slow-moving, complex agriculture industry.

There are a lot of things that came out of the Belcampo universe that skewed the perception of what is or what isnt possible in our industry, he said. Its going to take some time to rebuild those norms.

Butchers said it often feels like theyre fighting an uphill battle in an industry still dominated by commodity meat. Though the exact number is unclear, reports say grass-fed beef makes up as little as 4% to 5% of overall beef production in the country. Belcampo got caught misleading customers about the source of its meat, but its far from the only one, Pollard said. In 2018, two national advocacy groups pressed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to address policies that allow for mislabeling of meat. Theres no government regulation of meat industry terms such as grass-fed and sustainable.

The bait and switch of the meat industry is infamous, Pollard said of conventional meat companies. Its part of the culture of (that part of) the meat industry to say that youre selling this brand, but right now, youre out of that brand. Youre not calling up your customer and saying, Were out of it. Youre sending it out and crossing your fingers that no ones paying attention.

The appeal of smaller, independent butcher shops is that customers can trust  and ask questions  about where their meat is coming from. At Berkeleys Local Butcher Shop, customers can watch butchers break down whole animals behind the counter, and Rocchino takes his staff on regular trips to the farms they source from so they can share that with customers.

Rocchino is in the meat business also trying to sell honesty, he said.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Belcampos fall from grace has reverberated throughout the industry. After the closure, there were so many customer questions about sourcing that Rocchino had to address it with employees at a staff meeting. In Utah, a small butcher decided to film a video highlighting the farms he sources meat from and share it on social media. Binghams Custom Meats owner Nathan Bingham, who is also the president of the Butchers Guild, a national fraternity of butchers, worried that the mislabeling scandal would plant seeds of doubt: If this is happening there, whos to say its not happening everywhere?

Butchers and farmers hope that Belcampos closure could engender more support for the small operations. But the companys mission and drive linger, particularly for the people who worked there. Pollard said he hired people who left Belcampo burnt out by the intense focus on growth. Others he knew left and started looking for new careers outside of the meat industry.

Food isnt something that you can just scale in this unlimited fashion, Pollard said. That will be one of the major legacies of Belcampo: They set unrealistic expectations as far as what a job in the meat industry looks like.

Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany
Livermore Valley  one of the oldest wine growing regions in California, but long in the shadows of more popular Bay Area regions such as Napa  is making a move to improve its visibility and attract more visitors.

The AVA, or American Viticultural Area, is in the process of establishing a Wine Heritage District, which operates similarly to a Business Improvement District, where businesses give a small percentage of sales to help the local industry as a whole.

Once passed, the Wine Heritage District will collect 2% of Livermore Valley wineries gross California sales in a year. The five-year initiative has the potential to generate roughly $700,000 in its first year with a majority of funds used for marketing, education and improving wine quality.

Steven Mirassou, president of the board of the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association, which works to promote local wines and the region, estimates the district will provide more than a 20% increase in Livermore Valleys annual marketing budget alone  not to mention a significant increase in other areas. The regions funding has previously been mostly reliant on voluntary winery memberships.

Located roughly 50 miles east of San Francisco, the Livermore Valley AVA includes just over 50 wineries within Contra Costa and Alameda counties and the Tri-Valley cities of Livermore, Dublin and Danville. Best known for pioneering wineries Wente Vineyards and Concannon Vineyard, the first commercial vines in the region were planted in the 1840s. Livermores biggest claim to fame is the Wente Chardonnay clone, which Wente Vineyards founder C.H. Wente brought over from France and is used today with more than 80 percent of American Chardonnay plantings.

Yet despite its history and convenient location, Livermore Valley is still relatively unknown to wine enthusiasts compared to regions like Napa Valley, Sonoma and Paso Robles (San Luis Obispo County). Mirassou said that the location is actually one of Livermore Valleys greatest challenges.

Were not right off the road. You have to get off the freeway a few miles to get into wine country, he said. The visuals that surround the wine business, the wineries, the vineyards, they arent as immediately apparent as other places.

He also cited competition from more established regions as another roadblock for Livermore wines. The grape varieties that work best for our region are similar to those that Napa Valley and parts of Sonoma have already gained a reputation for, Mirassou said. Theres a level of competition there and youre always going to be compared to those other regions.

Temecula Valley in Southern California was the first wine region in the country to officially pass a similar district, after three years of effort, last March. Under the Temecula Valley Wine & Agricultural Heritage District, local wineries contribute 1% of sales in California, compared to the 2% proposed in Livermore Valley. Krista Chaich, executive director of the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association, said the AVAs shoestring budget is expected to more than double the first year due to the heritage district.

The Santa Barbara Vintners tried to establish a similar district in recent years, which would have doubled their budget. However, the effort failed due to division among the local wine community. Still, Alison Laslett, the CEO of the association, said these districts will be the wave of the future in how wine associations and vintner associations fund themselves.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Even if the Wine Heritage District proves to be successful at raising the profile of Livermore Valley, there are additional hurdles before it can truly begin to compete with regions like Napa and Sonoma. For instance, the region needs more lodging options near the wineries, according to Adam Van de Water, the director of Livermores Office of Innovation and Economic Development, which develops and implements programs based on the goals of the city council. Currently, the Purple Orchid is one of the sole boutique hotels serving the wineries. Sanitary sewer connections are also lacking, the presence of which would enable more wineries to host large-scale events like weddings.

Its not just about the wine. They want to eat something. They need a place to stay, said Mirassou. Theres a lack of infrastructure that would allow for intelligent growth in the hospitality industry in Livermore and it affects the investment that were able to attract in the valley. Still, local wineries feel this would be a major step forward toward achieving that goal.

The final vote for the Wine Heritage District was initially set for Nov. 8 but was delayed due to unexpected opposition from a single winery. According to Mirassou, that winery is a small producer located very close to the wine growing regions border and does not print Livermore Valley on its labels. Mirassou said the district is expected to be approved at the next council meeting on Nov. 22 regardless due to majority support, and the heritage district will begin collecting fees in the new year.

Jess Lander is a freelance wine, food, and travel writer based in Napa Valley and the author of The Essential Napa Valley Cookbook. Instagram: @willwrite4wine
A playful, one-of-a-kind food business has opened in downtown Oakland: a restaurant that doubles as a snack shop, art gallery and entertainment venue.

Babas House, at 410 15th St., is like an adult playland. A small restaurant section downstairs serves gyoza, salted egg Caesar salads and other Asian-inspired food crafted by A.C Boral, a Filipino chef from Southern California. On the second floor, black and blue UV lights create a club-like vibe. Shelves are stocked with a curated selection of Asian snacks, from crab chips and White Rabbit candy to chili crisp. In addition, theres a mini art gallery, mah-jongg, a DJ booth and a live-streaming room. Customers can grab a drink and snack to eat downstairs or take it to go.

Jenn Lui opened Babas House this month with partner Alan Chen and Boral. Boral previously ran a popular Filipino American brunch pop-up in Long Beach and lost his first restaurant, Bebot Filipino Soul Food, to a fire last year.

The chef is channeling Asian American nostalgia with Bay Area touches at Babas House (named in honor of Luis late father). Take giniling, a Filipino beef stew; here, its made vegan with plant-based Impossible meat and local vegetables. The gyoza are served with a house-made XO sauce and a chimichurri made from carrot tops. A chilled tofu salad is dressed with Borals spin on Thousand Island dressing, punched up with Korean gochujang and strawberries. The menu echoes local Asian American bakeries love affair with White Rabbit candy and Oakland bar Viridians nostalgic food, drinks and vibe.

We all have these analogs to somebody elses nostalgia in our lives, Boral said. The dishes are made with the intention of being a touchstone to somebodys nostalgia.

Provided by Ginny Leung and Jeremiah Wood

Some of the dishes feature items from the upstairs snack shop, like crispy, tom yum-flavored shrimp heads repurposed as croutons for the Caesar salad. The upstairs shelves also feature local products like Mama Teavs garlic-laced chili oil from Fruitvales Nyum Bai and vegan Taiwanese pineapple cakes from Annies T in Oakland. Grab a can of Ox & Palm chili-garlic canned beef and the kitchen will turn it into Filipino sisig on the spot.

The owners plan to host music (Lui moonlights as a DJ and Chen is a musician) and community events in the upstairs space. Or, tune into the Babas House live stream on Twitch.tv for snack reviews, a live count of how many gyoza theyve sold to date and other content. The mah-jongg room will be available soon for private events. The art on display is curated by Oaklands Strangeways Magazine and will rotate quarterly.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Babas House offers indoor seating and takeout, with a parklet on the way.

Babas House. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday. 410 15th St., Oakland. thisisbabashouse.square.site

Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com
Angel Island State Park is much bigger, less expensive and often 10 degrees warmer than its penitentiary brother to the south. But its still an underrated Bay Area gem.

John Martini, a historian and retired U.S. park ranger who is working on his fourth book about Alcatraz, has a hard time explaining why Angel Island is often overlooked. The park has history, places to explore, bike and hiking paths, and enough stunning viewpoints (including the ferry ride over) for everyone to have one to themselves.

Maybe because access is limited  it doesnt get the number of visitors that it really should have, Martini says. And thats a terrible thing to say, because you can overlove a park. Like Muir Woods, so many people want to go see it. But this one  could easily attract much larger crowds. And you can learn so much here.

Access to Angel Island requires planning and travel. Right now theres no direct ferry from San Francisco. The only route is by the charming Angel Island Tiburon Ferry and private boats.

Angel Island may require planning, but its worth the effort, as Martini and my co-host Chronicle columnist Heather Knight confirmed on the latest Total SF podcast. Subscribe or listen using the player on top of this article.

Below are five wonders of the island chosen by Martini.

Courtesy John Martini

Camp Reynolds

Start at the Ayala Cove ferry landing and head up to the Perimeter Road going counter-clockwise around the island. After the first curve youll see buildings that have survived from the 1800s.

The first part youre just sort of looking over Raccoon Strait towards Tiburon. But you come around the corner and all of a sudden theres this village thats spread out below with these  vaguely Victorian-looking buildings, Martini says. Thats old Camp Reynolds. It was built during the Civil War  and beyond that, the Bay and then Sausalito. Thats one of my magical views  especially when the fog comes in the afternoon and it pours over Wolfback Ridge in Sausalito.

Courtesy John Martini

Battery Wallace

After traveling past Camp Reynolds theres an outlook above Battery Ledyard that offers a wonderful view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Keep traveling and the San Francisco skyline comes into view at Battery Wallace. This may be the ultimate Bay Area panorama shot, from the Oakland Hills to Marin Headlands.

There the view is straight south across toward the San Francisco skyline, Martini says. And youve got Alcatraz in the middle foreground. And theres really nothing around you. One bunker, but otherwise its the underdeveloped part of the island.

Peter Hartlaub/The Chronicle

Point Blunt

The closest thing to a disappointment on Angel Island is the SALT missile site, where Cold War-era missiles used to rest underground, ready to be raised by elevator to thwart a Soviet plane attack. Theres nothing to see now except a few history placards, but look to your right and youll see the most Pirates of the Carribean-looking beach in the Bay Area.

Point Blunt is the southernmost part of Angel Island, Martini says. Its a lovely beach that apparently has cannonballs mixed in with the boulders, fired from cannons on Alcatraz more than a century ago. But youll have to wait for a documentary about it to get a closer look. The beach is a memorable site, but closed to the public.

Peter Hartlaub / The Chronicle

Fort McDowell Hospital

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.

Mighty Fort McDowell and all its outbuildings are fun to view from afar. What was once a mess hall, barracks, a movie theater and other amenities for World War II soldiers going back and forth from the Pacific is now in slow decomposition. But the biggest draw is the hospital just off Perimeter Road to the left.

Its this big old hospital building, which would have done justice to a small town, and the ground floor is totally open, Martini says. You can wander around down there. They knocked out the staircases so you cant get upstairs. But it allows you to get in and explore these empty buildings.

Angel Island Immigration Station

Connor Radnovich/The Chronicle

The most important historical destination on the island is the Immigration Station at Winslow Cove, which served as a port between 1910 and 1940, processing more than 500,000 immigrants, including hundreds of thousands from China.

Its called the Ellis Island of the West, Martini says, raving about recent improvements to the detention barracks museum and the ability for families to trace ancestors who came through Angel Island.

The Immigration Station is currently open for self-guided tours. For more information, COVID updates and special events check the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation site.

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicles culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  The federal government says California is ineligible for about $12 billion in public transit funding because of a long-running dispute over changes to the state's public pension law that the Biden administration recently determined are improper.

Federal law says state and local agencies must protect the interests of their employees to be eligible for federal public transit grants. A state law that took effect in 2013 made changes to California's public pension system, including making pensions less generous for new employees.

The Sacramento Bee reports the U.S. Department of Labor recently determined those changes were improper because they were imposed by law instead of collectively bargained with public employee unions.

The federal government's latest decision means the state would be ineligible for about $9.5 billion in money set aside for California public transit agencies in the infrastructure bill Congress approved last week. California would also forfeit about $2.5 billion in grants for public transit that were part of the most recent federal coronavirus relief legislation.

This relief funding has served as a lifeline for them, and in the absence of these federal dollars flowing to California transit agencies, we will absolutely see a reduction in service and losses in our workforce, making it more difficult for agencies to rebound, said Michael Pimentel, executive director of the California Transit Association, a nonprofit representing public transit agencies in the state.

State and federal officials have been arguing over this funding since the pension law was passed nearly a decade ago. After former President Barack Obama's administration blocked grant funding for two California transit agencies, the state sued and won. But that decision only applied to the Sacramento Regional Transit District and Monterey-Salinas Transit.

In 2019, former Republican President Donald Trump's administration ruled the state's pension law did not make it ineligible for public transit grants. But Democratic President Joe Biden's administration reversed that decision on Oct. 28.

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.

California U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, both Democrats, have urged the Biden administration to overturn the decision, saying it was at odds with multiple state and federal court decisions and past Labor Department precedent.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, called the Labor Department's decision extremely concerning. In a letter to U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh on Wednesday, Newsom argued the pension changes did not impede labor unions' collective bargaining rights, noting unions have negotiated new contracts since the 2013 state law took effect.

A letter from the U.S. Department of labor says the state pension law continues to interfere with the collective bargaining process regardless of the specific terms of workers' collective bargaining agreements now in existence.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP)  Florida took its first step in drawing new political maps on Wednesday, and other than adding a new congressional district in a Republican area of the state, Senate staff proposed maps aren't overtly gerrymandered.

The Senate released four staff produced maps that carve out Florida's new congressional district in an area between Tampa and Orlando, but otherwise left most districts intact beyond necessary changes to add what will be the state's 28th congressional district. Florida's population growth of 2.7 million new residents between 2010 and 2020 led to the new seat in the once-every-decade redistricting process.
DAWSONVILLE, Ga. (AP)  A Georgia man faces life in prison after his conviction on malice murder and other charges in the 2019 shooting and stabbing of a 21-year-old woman.

The Times of Gainesville reports that a jury convicted Austin Stryker after nearly six hours of deliberation Wednesday. Prosecutors said Stryker was among members of a a small criminal gang in Georgia and that Hannah Bender was killed to keep her from informing authorities about a robbery.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was indicted Friday on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The Justice Department said Bannon, 67, was indicted on one count for refusing to appear for a deposition last month and the other for refusing to provide documents in response to the committees subpoena. He is expected to surrender to authorities on Monday and will appear in court that afternoon, a law enforcement official told the AP. The person was granted anonymity to discuss the case.

The indictment comes after a parade of Trump administration officials  including Bannon  have defied requests and demands from Congress over the past five years with little consequence, including during Democrats' impeachment inquiry. President Barack Obama's administration also declined to charge two of its officials who defied congressional demands.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Bannons indictment reflects the Justice Departments steadfast commitment to the rule of law. Each count carries a minimum of 30 days of jail and as long as a year behind bars.

The indictment came as a second expected witness, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, defied his own subpoena from the committee on Friday and as Trump has escalated his legal battles to withhold documents and testimony about the insurrection.

If the House votes to hold Meadows in contempt, that recommendation would also be sent to the Justice Department for a possible indictment.

Officials in both Democratic and Republican administrations have been held in contempt by Congress, but criminal indictments for contempt are exceedingly rare. The most recent notable examples of criminal penalties for not testifying before Congress date to the 1970s, including when President Richard Nixons aide G. Gordon Liddy was convicted of misdemeanor charges for refusing to answer questions about his role in the Watergate scandal.

Democrats who voted to hold Bannon in contempt praised the Justice Department's decision, saying the charges reinforce the authority of Congress to investigate the executive branch and signal potential consequences for those who refuse to cooperate.

The days of defying subpoenas with impunity are over, tweeted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who sits on the Jan. 6 panel and also led Trump's first impeachment inquiry. We will expose those responsible for Jan 6. No one is above the law.

The chairman of the Jan. 6 panel, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, told reporters at an event in his home state of Mississippi on Friday that he will recommend contempt charges against Meadows next week.

Thompson and the vice chairwoman of the panel, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, said in a statement: Mr. Meadows, Mr. Bannon, and others who go down this path wont prevail in stopping the Select Committees effort getting answers for the American people about January 6th, making legislative recommendations to help protect our democracy, and helping ensure nothing like that day ever happens again."

Meadows and Bannon are key witnesses for the panel, as they both were in close touch with Trump around the time of the insurrection.

Meadows was Trumps top aide at the end of his presidency and was one of several people who pressured state officials to try and overturn the results. Bannon promoted the Jan. 6 protests on his podcast and predicted there would be unrest. On Jan. 5, he predicted that all hell is going to break loose.

The indictment says Bannon didnt communicate with the committee in any way from the time he received the subpoena on Sept. 24 until Oct. 7 when his lawyer sent a letter, seven hours after the documents were due.

Bannon, who worked at the White House at the beginning of the Trump administration and currently serves as host of the conspiracy-minded War Room podcast, is a private citizen who refused to appear to give testimony as required by a subpoena, the indictment says.

When Bannon declined to appear for his deposition in October, his attorney said the former Trump adviser had been directed by a lawyer for Trump citing executive privilege not to answer questions. The attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment on Friday.

This is not the first time the longtime Trump ally has faced legal peril. In August of last year, Bannon was pulled from a luxury yacht and arrested on allegations that he and three associates ripped off donors trying to fund a southern border wall. Trump later pardoned Bannon in the final hours of his presidency.

Meadows, a former congressman from North Carolina, defied his subpoena on Friday after weeks of discussions with the committee. His lawyer said that Meadows has a sharp legal dispute with the panel as Trump has claimed executive privilege over the former chief of staff's testimony, as he had with Bannon's.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The White House said in a letter Thursday that President Joe Biden would waive any privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee, prompting Meadows' lawyer to say he wouldn't comply.

Legal disputes are appropriately resolved by courts, said the lawyer, George Terwilliger. It would be irresponsible for Mr. Meadows to prematurely resolve that dispute by voluntarily waiving privileges that are at the heart of those legal issues.

As the sitting president, Biden has so far waived most of Trump's assertions of privilege over documents and interviews, citing the interest of the public in knowing what happened on Jan. 6. Trump sued the committee and the National Archives to stop the release of documents, and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has repeatedly backed Biden's position, noting in one ruling this week that Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

The panel's proceedings and attempts to gather information have been delayed as Trump has appealed Chutkan's rulings. On Thursday, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the release of some of the White House records the panel is seeking, giving that court time to consider Trump's arguments.

Still, the House panel is continuing its work, and members have already interviewed more than 150 witnesses in an attempt to build a comprehensive record of how a violent mob of Trump's supporters broke into the Capitol and temporarily halted the certification of Biden's victory.

The committee has subpoenaed almost three dozen people, including former White House staffers, Trump allies who strategized about how to overturn his defeat and people who organized a giant rally near the White House on the morning of Jan. 6. While some, like Meadows and Bannon, have balked, others have spoken to the panel and provided documents.

___

Emily Wagster Pettus reported from Mississippi. AP writers Eric Tucker, Nomaan Merchant, Zeke Miller, Farnoush Amiri and Jill Colvin contributed.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A defense attorney raised questions in court Friday about the mental health of his 29-year-old client, who was shot and wounded by law enforcement officers in a confrontation at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

Erik Keith Legried remained jailed after treatment for gunshot wounds and refused to attend an initial court appearance where a judge set bail at $100,000 with strict electronic monitoring if hes released.

Legried is due again in court Tuesday on charges including battery with a deadly weapon against a first responder and resisting arrest.

Prosecutor Shanon Clowers told court Hearing Officer Daniel Westmeyer that four law enforcement officers were involved in Legrieds shooting Thursday morning near the Red Rock Canyon visitor center.

Details of the shooting and Legried's injuries were not disclosed, and there was no reference to Legried having had a gun.

Authorities have said Nevada Highway Patrol, U.S. Bureau of Land Management officers and Las Vegas police responded a little after sunrise Thursday to calls about a man in distress and armed with a weapon at Red Rock Canyon. Las Vegas police have said no Metro officers fired a weapon.

Legried was shot, arrested and hospitalized after he was accused of ramming patrol vehicles with a pickup truck near the visitor center of the popular scenic destination about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of the Las Vegas Strip.

Clowers said there were about 20 people at the center at the time and described the shooting as gunfire to stop the threat. No other injuries were reported.

Defense attorney Christopher Mishler told Westmeyer that Legried had serious mental health issues and may have abused drugs or alcohol, but that his parents in Colorado were trying to get him into treatment.

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.

Mishler asked for Legrieds release to the custody of his father, who was in court. He did not say where Legried's parents live. Mishler also said his client had a job working remotely as a high school debate coach.

Outside court, the attorney and Mishlers father declined to speak with reporters.

Clowers told Westmeyer that Thursdays incident began when Legried allegedly rammed his rented Toyota pickup truck into a fence at a campground, drove into Las Vegas followed by police, and returned to Red Rock Canyon.

Clowers said Legried lives in another state and had rented the pickup in Colorado before driving to Las Vegas. She said he made statements to police about suicide and wanting to kill himself in jail.
Regarding Cop who missed vaccine deadline dies of COVID-19 (Front Page, Nov. 9): As if the death of San Francisco police Officer Jack Nyce was not tragic enough, the Officers Down Memorial website states that thousands of officers have contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic and lists about 500 who have died from it.

According to the FBI, nearly four times as many police officers have died from COVID-19 as guns in 2021. And yet at least 70 officers serving in San Francisco refuse to be vaccinated and thousands of other officers around the country seem to prefer the loss of their jobs and a much stronger chance of a horrible death. What are they thinking?

Sarah Taber, San Francisco

VA offers good care

Regarding Serving in two wars didnt kill me, but the VA might (Insight, Nov. 7): My experiences at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Hospital and its clinic in San Bruno are significantly different from those recounted by Joseph Holsworth.

I have received excellent care from the VA. The pharmacy at the San Francisco VA hospital is very supportive. They answer the telephone immediately, without the lengthy hold time at most medical facilities, and are competent, caring and helpful. I get much better service from it than from the pharmacies I have used for non-VA prescriptions.

Mr. Holsworths experiences are certainly cause for concern and corrective action, but they are not representative of what I have observed and experienced as a VA patient over the past decade or longer.

Jack Hug, Pacifica

Military recruits beware

Regarding Serving in two wars didnt kill me, but the VA might (Insight, Nov. 7): Joseph Holsworths essay was chilling and powerful. It should be required reading for any teenager thinking of enlisting in any branch of our armed services. Indeed, what is the Veterans Affairs Department for if it is not for our veterans. Thank you very much for printing it.

Tony Press, Brisbane

Keep fighting racism

Regarding Political firsts cant erase the hate (Open Forum, Nov. 9): The article by Assistant Opinion Editor Harry Mok is encouraging and timely. Unfortunately, America has had a long history of racial intolerance. There is no lacking in American history of horrible treatments of nonwhites, from lynching to riots to the imprisonment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.

There has been progress, though painfully slow. Indeed, a political first cant erase the hate but it is important for inclusion and the power to enact laws to fight injustice.

It will also take a village to combat racial hate. Social media, schools, family training and political precipitations need to work together. From childhood, children need to be taught to look beyond the color of the skin.

Chinese Americans are labeled a model minority because of their silence and willingness to suffer without resistance. It is time for us Asians Americans to speak out and shine a spotlight on hate. All minorities want to be treated equally by humanity and not just because of laws.

Roland Duhn, San Francisco

China is a threat

Regarding Racism repeats itself (Letters, Nov. 10) and Political firsts cant erase the hate (Open Forum, Nov. 9): Letter writer Lillian Sing and your editor Harry Mok characterize the government scrutiny of the work of Chinese and Chinese American scientists as racism. Are they really unaware of the scope of Chinas espionage?

Its a well-known fact that China is stealing military, industrial and scientific secrets vital to the interests and safety of this country through their spies in our institutions, and unfortunately, its necessary to root them out.
In the wake of Glenn Youngkins surprise victory in Virginia, pundits were quick to claim that the Republican governor-elects rabid anti-critical race theory strategy won him the election. But while schools were a deciding factor in the election, it wasnt anti-CRT racism that drove most unhappy parents to the polls.

In fact, it was the prolonged school closures.

If they opened up the schools in the fall of 2020, McAuliffe wins, Republican strategist Rory Cooper told Politico.

As a liberal California parent of two public school kids, the Virginia results were no surprise to me. Ive watched as GOP talking points on schools that have nothing to do with critical race theory resonate with Democrats across California. And I understand that keeping schools open is what is motivating most parents political decision-making.

Too few California Democrats have gotten the message.

Most California parents are not the anti-vax, anti-mask, anti-critical race theory fanatics portrayed on Saturday Night Live, but instead are families still suffering from the financial, academic and social-emotional costs of having schools closed to in-person learning for almost a year and a half.

A whopping 73% of parents believe the quality of public education in the Bay Area is a very or extremely serious problem (compared to 59% of nonparents), according to an Oct. 29 survey by Embold Research.

While California voters rejected the Republican recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom, polls showed a gap of up to 15 points between parents and nonparents, with 52% of parents calling the recall appropriate. The same poll showed that just 34% of parents approve of Sacramento lawmakers.

If only parents voted in the recall, Democratic Newsom would have barely won in a state where registered Democrats vastly outnumber registered Republicans. Most parents voted against Larry Elder, not for Newsom.

While other Democratic governors across the country were willing to use their political power to bring kids back into the classroom, Newsom has refused. This doomed Californias 6 million public school students to fewer hours of live, in-person instruction than any other state. For far too many parents, this meant watching their children fall behind academically, slip into depression or drop out of school.

More recently, parents have begun to call out Newsoms continued hypocrisy of pushing vaccine mandates for students but not teachers and taking a similar anti-science stance with respect to politically powerful prison guards.

California is forcing children to bear the burden of protecting unvaccinated adults, with no clear metrics for ending indoor masking in schools and no intervention to stop school districts from enforcing useless outdoor mask mandates and quarantines that exceed public health guidance.

Some Democrats get it. San Francisco Mayor London Breed became a folk hero to many parents with her decision to sue the city school district in February to get kids back into classrooms.

Ironically, it was the uprising of Bay Area progressive parents that set up Youngkins claim to represent a national parent movement.

The right-wing media gleefully and relentlessly nationalized the Bay Areas public education dysfunction all year, with House Republicans reaching out to California parents offering support.

Our kids must come first, Mayor Breed said in endorsing the recall of three members of the San Francisco Board of Education this week, which has also has the support of the citys state senator, Scott Wiener. The mayors words prompted my phone to erupt with Breed for Governor texts.

COVID-19 has changed the politics of public schools across the United States, including California. Democrats need to follow Mayor Breeds lead: Listen to parents.

Pat Reilly is an impact entrepreneur and communications adviser who most recently co-founded California Parent Power and Change Research.

Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this piece stated former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe closed the states schools in response to the pandemic. It was Ralph Northam.
Santa Clara Countys jail system is seeing the largest surge in COVID-19 cases since January. And it is far from alone. From Alameda and Tulare counties in the north to Santa Barbara and Orange counties in the south, many jails across California have reported extreme COVID outbreaks since the start of the pandemic.

A notable exception, however, would appear to be San Francisco. On any given day since March 2020, less than 2% of its jail population has had an active case of COVID-19, and there have been no active cases since Oct. 25.

The San Francisco Sheriffs Office and city Department of Public Healths effort to maintain an incredibly low infection rate is commendable. Unfortunately, policymakers and the public are in the dark about how they have achieved such success  because the city is not sharing the data necessary to make that assessment. That needs to change.

Data transparency from county jails and state and federal prisons is not only a public right but key to preventing future outbreaks in all correctional facilities and the communities they are located in.

The lack of COVID data tracking and reporting in jails and prisons is an issue across the country. The COVID Behind Bars Project at UCLA reported in its June 2021 scorecard that of the 53 state and federal carceral agencies they assessed for transparency and quality of data reporting, more than 80% received an F. Data transparency from the local county jail systems is even worse. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin found that the vast majority of states are completely failing to track and publish information on the impact of COVID in jails statewide.

In most states, including California, county jails are operated and funded locally, typically under the control of an independently elected sheriff. These jails have a great deal of autonomy. As the University of Texas at Austin report noted, only about half the states regulate jails with required minimum jail standards. When it comes to tracking and reporting COVID data, without a state mandate requiring it, the decision to track and what to track is at the discretion of each individual sheriff.

According to the most recently updated figures from the Board of State and Community Corrections, there are nearly 60,000 people incarcerated in local jails on any given day across California. That number, and the specific individuals it refers to, fluctuates. Thats because unlike state or federal prisons, a large percentage of county jail populations are in detention awaiting trial, making them far more transitory places. As the University of Texas report further explains, many people cycle through these facilities after spending only a matter of hours or days behind bars, and this high level of churn means that it is especially difficult to prevent viruses from entering the jails or from affecting the communities where they are located. Given this, the Santa Clara County outbreak as well as the announcement last week of rising COVID cases in Sacramento County is not surprising.

This reality makes the success of San Francisco jail all the more impressive. It also makes it all the more critical to understand what it is doing right.

San Francisco does provide some data but not all of it is helpful to gaining clarity on what the jail is doing. For example, the Sheriffs Office website has data on the number of COVID cases staff-wide since March 2020. But without disaggregating that data to distinguish between jail and non-jail employees, the overall risk of jail staff introducing the virus to the incarcerated population cannot be quantified.

A similar issue comes up when looking at the vaccination rate of the staff. The Sheriffs Office has provided one data point for custody sworn staff, stating that 52% were self-reported as fully vaccinated as of July 2. But this does not account for the 32 custody civilian staff, or other non-custody Sheriffs Office members who also work at the jail. Again, without accurate data on all the staff interacting with the jail population, few if any insights can be garnered.

Data regarding vaccinations among the incarcerated population is also sparse. Upon request, San Francisco stated that 59% of its jail population was fully vaccinated in June 2021, but given the transient nature of the jail, that number alone is not helpful. Subsequent public records requests for information for July and August were ignored.

By comparison, Alameda Countys Santa Rita Jail provides all of the aforementioned data upon request. In fact, each week, the Alameda County Sheriffs Office posts the number of fully and partially vaccinated individuals in custody on its website. Although the populations vaccination rate is much lower than San Franciscos, just 26%, the transparency allows advocates or public health experts to intervene and help improve the situation.

One might argue that putting limited resources into collecting and distributing data takes away from resources that could be put to use controlling the spread of the virus. But just because San Francisco has avoided major outbreaks within its jail walls, it does not stop the virus from spreading in other jails and high-risk settings.

The best shot we have at bringing down infection rates at correctional facilities across the state is by sharing best practices from those that are doing a good job at preventing outbreaks. Data transparency is the first step.

Aparna Komarla is the founder of the COVID In-Custody Project.
SACRAMENTO  Dozens of California lobbying firms received millions of dollars in emergency federal assistance meant for small businesses to ride out the coronavirus pandemic, though some were ineligible for the program.

Backed by the Small Business Administration, the low-interest Paycheck Protection Program loans were subject to long-standing eligibility requirements that included a prohibition on lending to firms primarily engaged in political or lobbying activities, meaning they derived more than half of their revenue from that business.

But as many as two dozen firms significantly engaged in lobbying Californias state government, including several of the highest-grossing firms last year, received PPP loans for which they may not have been eligible, worth about $3.7 million total, according to a review of public records and interviews.

The California lobbying firms are part of a pattern of flawed or improper lending in the Paycheck Protection Program, a lifeline for millions of American small businesses hurt by a series of lockdowns and business closures that swept the country beginning in spring 2020. In its hectic rollout, the program benefited some publicly traded corporations and other companies for which it was not intended.

Most of the loans to California lobbying firms were forgiven and converted into grants by this summer, suggesting a failure by the federal government at multiple stages to adequately communicate requirements and vet the eligibility of applicants. Representatives for several firms said they were confused by unclear guidance from the SBA during the application process or were entirely unaware of the restriction on lobbying firms until reached by The Chronicle.

No, I didnt know that, said Mike Belote, president of California Advocates, who confirmed that a majority of his firms revenue comes from lobbying for clients such as Apple, Delta Air Lines and the American Beverage Association. I couldnt have imagined why I wouldnt have been eligible. Were just a small business like everyone else.

The loans provided to California lobbying firms that appear to have been ineligible represent a sliver of the hundreds of billions of dollars the federal government disbursed through the Paycheck Protection Program.

However, these payouts suggest there could also be problematic loans that were issued to political consultants, who are not subject to the same public financial disclosures as lobbyists; firms in other states; and businesses in other industries prohibited by law from receiving SBA loans, such as real estate developers, life insurance providers and strip clubs.

A lawsuit over PPP eligibility restrictions, led by a group of Wisconsin strip clubs, is ongoing.

Liz Hempowicz, director of public policy for the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group focused on waste, corruption and abuse, said the SBA initially brushed over gray areas in the regulations to ensure a speedy launch, contributing to the confusion.

They are supposed to ensure the right checks are in place. They are supposed to ensure that the law is followed, she said. And I think they really dropped the ball early on.

Shannon Giles, a spokesperson for the Small Business Administration, said in a statement that the agency distributed materials explaining who was eligible for PPP loans and was in constant contact with lending and financial institutions throughout the execution of the program.

She said all applicants were required to certify their own eligibility, but did not respond to questions about whether they would be required to repay their loans if they did not actually qualify.

Misrepresentation of eligibility is unlawful, and, when appropriate, these cases are referred to the Office of the Inspector General, she said. The Office of Inspector General and the agencys federal partners are working diligently to resolve the fraud incidents.

The Chronicle conducted its analysis by comparing state lobbying disclosure reports against a database of businesses that were approved for PPP loans, maintained by the nonprofit journalism organization ProPublica.

Out of 109 firms that reported more than $500,000 in revenue for lobbying state government last year, 35 received at least one loan. That includes four of the 10 highest-earning firms in 2020.

Not all of those companies were necessarily barred from the Paycheck Protection Program, though it is difficult to determine precisely how many were eligible without more comprehensive financial information.

While California firms are required to report lobbying payments to the state, they do not disclose their total revenue, providing no way to independently determine whether lobbying composes a majority of their business. Most of the firms did not respond to inquiries from The Chronicle.

A half dozen of the loan recipients are law firms, several of which said lobbying is only a fraction of their work, even if it brings in millions of dollars annually. Others told The Chronicle they generate a majority of their revenue from non-lobbying services such as association management and that they had determined their eligibility before applying for the program.

Strategies 360, the 10th-highest-grossing lobbying firm in California last year, with $4.6 million in payments, received a $2.7 million PPP loan to protect 142 jobs, which was forgiven as of June.

Spokesperson Taylor Bickford said in an email that the Seattle-based strategic communications firm received far more revenue from its advertising, marketing, social media, public relations and other services: We followed the process diligently and our eligibility was never in question.

But some loan recipients acknowledged that lobbying is their primary business and said they mistakenly believed they were eligible to apply for a PPP loan. One pointed to informational documents provided by their SBA-approved lender, which used language like all small businesses eligible.

Interim regulations issued by the federal government on April 2, 2020, and finalized about two weeks later, include a section called How do I determine if I am ineligible? which stated, Businesses that are not eligible for PPP loans are identified in 13 CFR 120.110. That government code lists the types of companies that cannot receive SBA loans, including those primarily engaged in political or lobbying activities.

Jennifer Fearing, president of the firm Fearless Advocacy, said PPP eligibility was a point of discussion among Sacramento lobbyists last year. She looked into the program, but did not apply, she said, because it seemed clear that she did not qualify.

For me, it was a combination of it not looking like a program that lobbyists were eligible for and my own discomfort at pursuing funds that more vulnerable businesses needed, Fearing said.

Jordan Halle, an associate at Whiteford, Taylor & Preston who co-chaired the law firms committee on the pandemic relief bill that created PPP, said many small businesses  and the banks that were supposed to check their eligibility  did not fully review the regulations in their rush to apply.

It was a situation that, when youre trying to move quickly through bureaucracy, it seems inevitable that things like this will fall through the cracks, he said. If you had a perfect world and more time, you would have made it more evident. The PPP application would have made it more evident.

California Advocates  which reported $3.97 million in lobbying payments last year, 14th among firms lobbying the state  received a $212,500 loan to protect 16 jobs, which was forgiven as of May. Belote, the president, said his firm applied for the loan primarily to help with a downturn in a division that manages trade associations and it was a help to that side of the business especially.

He said he received no communication from the government about lobbying activity being disqualifying, though California Advocates did not apply for a second-round loan this year because it did not meet certain revenue loss thresholds.

Ive got 27 employees to worry about and I didnt lay anybody off at all, nor furlough them, Belote said. It doesnt make sense to me. Do we have to be lawyers?

Jonathan Clay, president of JGC Government Relations, said he sought a PPP loan because he wasnt sure what his business model, which relies primarily on lobbying, would look like with the Capitol shut down. Revenue had dropped by a fifth during the Great Recession more than a decade ago, he said, and he was concerned the pandemic could have a similar affect.

He initially saw no specific guidance related to lobbying firms, but after beginning the loan application process, he read an article that said they were not eligible.

That raised red flags for me, he said, and he sought clarity from his accountant, his bank and the SBA. We asked a bunch of questions about it, because we werent getting a straight answer.

Amid the confusion, Clay said he ultimately believed that he had followed all of the correct regulations. His firm  which reported $721,618 in lobbying payments last year, from clients including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and San Diego County  received a $95,358 loan to protect three jobs, which was forgiven as of March.

He looked into getting another loan when Congress added more funding for a second round and did not continue once he found out that the federal government had issued additional guidance preventing the use of PPP money for lobbying.

Several PPP lenders, including Mechanics Bank, which administered the loan for California Advocates, and First Northern Bank, which worked with JGC Government Relations, declined to comment or did not respond to questions about their experiences with the program.

In the second round of PPP funding, a section was added to the form requiring the applicant to certify that they were not a business concern or entity primarily engaged in political or lobbying activities.

Only three of the lobbying firms reviewed by The Chronicle received another PPP loan in the second round: K Street Consulting, which said it derives more than half of its revenue from other public affairs and association management services; and Churchwell White LLP and J. Blonien, which said they are primarily law firms.

The broad flaws with PPP  one recent study concluded that as many as 15% of the loans could be fraudulent  demonstrate the need for government agencies to better balance speed and vetting in future programs, said Hempowicz of the Project on Government Oversight.

By opening the application process without clear guidance and checks in place, she said, large corporations and other ineligible companies received money that could have instead gone to the underserved small businesses the program was supposed to benefit. With fewer resources at their disposal, she added, some of them may have been discouraged by the confusion from applying at all.

They need to put more of an emphasis on creating guidelines and making sure they are getting these explanatory materials to small businesses in a way that is clear, Hempowicz said. At the end of the day, the Small Business Administration has the obligation to the American people.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Susie Neilson contributed to this report.

Alexei Koseff is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff
A San Francisco public school educator was fatally struck by a vehicle Wednesday while walking in Cow Hollow, steps from the school where he taught, officials said.

Andrew Zieman, 30, was a paraeducator at Sherman Elementary School and the community is mourning the tragic loss.

Andrew was a long-time staff member at our school and attended Sherman himself as an elementary student," the schools principal, Helen Parker, wrote in a letter sent to families and posted by KRON. "We are struggling to understand this tragic loss of life, especially since he meant so much to so many students, families, and staff. Andrew taught from the heart. He was patient and kind, and always a positive role model. I am sure you will join me in offering our deepest condolences to his family and friends."

"Death never really hit me as hard," Zieman's cousin, Kevin Cabacungan, shared in a social media post. "He was a good, kind soul and I cannot believe it. We talked about nostalgia and movies almost all the time. We had dreams & ideas. He went for his and was in a great place last I talked to him.

Zieman attended Sherman Elemtary School as a child, KTVU reported.

The collision, which involved a pedestrian and two vehicles, was reported at around 7:55 a.m., minutes after school started, near the corner of Franklin and Union streets, the San Francisco Police Department said.

Despite live-saving measures by paramedics, Zieman was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. Police are investigating what caused the collision.

The incident marks the city's 12th pedestrian death in a traffic collision this year, Walk SF, an organization dedicating to making SF's streets safer, said

"Our hearts go out to the victim's family and friends," Walk SF Executive Director Jodie Medeiros said in a statement on Wednesday. "Too many people are paying the ultimate price for unsafe streets."

Although Franklin Street is not considered to be part of the city's "high-injury network"  13% of city streets where 75% of its crashes occur  the three-lane one-way street is a major thoroughfare and drivers tend to speed as they head north and down a steep hill, Walk SF said.

Bay City News contributed to this story.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) _ Boston Omaha Corp. (BOMN) on Friday reported a third-quarter loss of $26.3 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based company said it had a loss of 89 cents per share.
The new version of the federal U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday shows some improvement in drought conditions across California after two atmospheric river events delivered much-needed soakings of rain.

The map classifies the level of dry conditions on a color-coded scale from "abnormally dry" (yellow) to "exceptional drought" (maroon). Exceptional drought conditions covered 45.66% of the state on Oct. 19, three days before the first big storm brought historic amounts of rain. In the new Nov. 11 map, 37.62% of the state was under the most severe drought conditions.

Extreme drought conditions went from 87.18% to to 80.28%. Despite the improvements, the new map showed there is no part of California not in some level of drought.

U.S. Drought Monitor

"The reservoirs in northern California are still low (as of 11/11/2021)," Richard Heim, a meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that assists with the map, wrote in an email. "After all of the rain that has fallen in the last 4 weeks, Shasta is still only 24% of capacity, Lake Oroville is only 29% of capacity, Trinity Lake 29%, Folsom 34%. Reservoirs are such a crucial part of the drought equation in California, and it will take a lot of atmospheric rivers, and springtime melting of a heavy winter mountain snowpack, to refill them. The hydrological drought situation is still really bad."

The federal government releases a new Drought Monitor map depicting drought conditions across the country every Thursday, and news organizations and Twitter users often share the latest release.

With the dire drought situation in California, the map has become a poster child for a looming drought as the amount of red indicating extreme drought increases every week.

While the map is a part of the story, it's important to understand the graphic that fits onto one page doesn't provide a complete picture.

"Its the tool to serve all purposes until you look at the nuances of where your water supply comes from and it becomes more complex," Jeanine Jones, California's drought manager with the state's Department of Water Resources, told SFGATE in a previous interview. "While the map is probably most representative of conditions when its very wet or very dry, its everything in between thats more difficult to depict."

The Drought Monitor is a joint effort of the NOAA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The weekly map isn't a forecast but rather is a reflection of the precipitation from the past week.

The map takes into account precipitation totals, and also indexes a wide array of indicators, including groundwater storage, river levels, soil moisture, satellite-based assessments of vegetation health and more.

The map is a mechanism to measure drought that's mainly applied to agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture uses it for the basis of decisions about agricultural financial assistance.

The last drought in California ran from 2012 to 2016, and at its height in 2014, all of the state  100%  was covered by severe to exceptional drought from May 13, 2014, to July 29, 2014, and 81.92% was covered by exceptional to extreme drought from Aug. 5, 2014, to Oct. 28, 2014, Heim noted.
Growing up in 1980s and '90s in San Francisco, Rae Wynn-Grant spent almost no time outdoors. When her family traveled, they only visited urban spaces. No hiking. No camping. No admiring forests or going fishing or purchasing gear for the outdoors.

I didn't necessarily feel like I had a place in it, says Wynn-Grant, now a large carnivore ecologist of more than 15 years, in her new PBS Nature podcast on her experiences in the wild. I didn't see people like me  Black, Black women, or even women  represented as being stewards of the environment or being independent and confident and down and dirty with nature.

But from an early age, Wynn-Grant became obsessed with nature, she tells SFGATE. If you put her 10-year-old self in front of a television show featuring something like the Amazon rainforest or a tiger habitat in India, she was mesmerized, and that passion propelled Wynn-Grant into a rewarding and decorated career.

Courtesy of Tsalani Lassiter

In her new podcast, Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, she discusses the obstacles she faced in entering the field and conquering her fears of being in the wild. Her stories of living with lions in Tanzania, studying the worlds most endangered lemurs in Madagascar and tracking black bears in Nevada are as entertaining as they are inspiring.

After listening to the first several episodes, which began airing in late August, SFGATE caught up with Wynn-Grant to find out more about her connections to California and its wild places. After a long stint on the East Coast, she moved to Santa Barbara a year ago and embarked on her latest adventure  a brand new research project in her home state.

Its the first time shes worked as a scientist in California, and also the first time shes started a project from scratch. But as anyone who listens to Wynn-Grants podcast will learn, she has a tendency to rise to the occasion.

Back in 2005, Wynn-Grant was a student at Emory University with a history of being hospitalized for asthma. Nervous about needing medical care in the event of an asthma attack in the wilderness, she was on the fence about joining a study abroad program involving wildlife management in Kenya. But ultimately, she decided to go for it.

It was like, asthma be damned, I need to figure out who I am and if this is right for me, she says in the podcast. Turns out, asthma was going to be the least of my problems.

Three days after Wynn-Grant arrived in Kenya, she came down with a case of E. coli. It was the sickest she had ever been, and she temporarily lost her memory. This wasnt what I saw in the nature shows, she says.

Courtesy of Rae Wynn-Grant

After recovering, a new challenge came up  Wynn-Grant hadnt really ever exercised before, and the group was going on a hike. Her legs burned after about 10 minutes, she says, and she began to doubt whether she could physically keep up. I wanted to just hitchhike to Nairobi and hop on the next flight home, she says.

The program was already paid for, however, and in Wynn-Grants family, a person did not break commitments, particularly those involving financial transactions. She stuck with it, and eventually the hiking got easier. Then she was required to camp.

On a side trip to Masai Mara National Reserve, staff members gave Wynn-Grant a tent because she didnt have her own. She remembers struggling to set it up and having to accept help. Later that night, as a lioness circled the tent, Wynn-Grant realized she was in trouble. She cant get through a night without peeing, and we wont spoil it, but that story doesnt end well.

Wynn-Grant learned something about lions and other big cats, though: They really are not trying to expend energy, she says. If they can't see something that looks exactly like prey, then they're just not going to mess with it.

Wynn-Grant left Kenya with new skills and knowledge, and more passion than ever for the outdoors. I learned that nature was for me and it was a place that I belonged, she says.

Courtesy of Peter Houlihan

After completing a masters in environmental studies at Yale and a Ph.D. in ecology and evolution at Columbia, Wynn-Grant did a research fellowship with the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. She found opportunities to travel and work on wildlife projects on six continents. The fascinating stories shes accumulated on those adventures are the meat of the podcast, but really, its about the rewards of doing hard things.

Her latest challenge as a research faculty member at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara is to lead carnivore research  mostly on black bears and mountain lions  at the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve in Santa Barbara County.

I'm going to be asking basically every question about their ecology, she says. Where do they live and which habitats do they prefer? Which pathways do they take to move around? But also I'm really focused on their feeding behavior and whether they are choosing to prey on marine species.

Mountain lions are known for eating deer and nuts and berries, but Wynn-Grant suspects they are also going to the beach for crabs and possibly elephant seal pups. There's some anecdotal evidence that suggests that they are, she says. If so, this might be one of the only places in the world where that's happening.

Courtesy of Craig Chesek

In recent years, Wynn-Grant has also become a research fellow with National Geographic Society focusing on carnivore conservation, and a visiting scientist at the American Museum of Natural History. She serves on the board of directors for NatureBridge, advising organizations on equity, inclusion and diversity strategies.

All of this is thrilling for Wynn-Grant, who now feels shes right where she belongs, with an ever-evolving skill set for navigating the wild. These days she can hike for hours and owns her own tent, which she can set up with ease. She can shoot a lemur with a tranquilizer gun. She can give CPR to a bear.

Wynn-Grant has become the person she used to admire hosting her favorite nature shows.

She also encourages others who are passionate about wildlife but lack experience outdoors to step out of that comfort zone and try something new. And even if you dont like fieldwork, there may still be a place for you, she says.

You can study [animals] from your computer, you can study them from the lab, you can study them from a space station in outer space, she says. There's a lot of different ways that you can be a scientist who works with wildlife.
On Wednesday, California's bipartisan redistricting commission released its first set of draft maps for new congressional and state legislative districts following the result of the 2020 census.

Many people had takes.

"Our online feedback form is flooded with messages," said Sara Sadhwani, a professor of politics at Pomona College and one of the commission's 14 members. "Some people love some of the things we've done, some people hate other things we've done."

Sadhwani is a registered Democrat and serves on the commission with four other Democrats, five Republicans and four independents. California is one of a handful of states with independent commissions in charge of redistricting, as opposed to state legislatures, which are often controlled by partisans hoping to maintain their party's grip on power at the state and federal levels.

Census data was first provided to the state in August, and California's commission has been at work for months drawing new maps. Wednesday marked the release of the first official draft maps, and the committee will now wait 14 days to collect public feedback before releasing additional draft maps.

Sadhwani said the public feedback they've received to this point leads her to believe there will be many revisions.

"A while ago we had to take a chain saw to the congressional maps, but we're past the chain saw stage now," she said. "From here on out, we're talking about refinement. We've locked in the basic architecture of our maps and we're really thinking through refinements, although as you make change in one area, it will have a ripple effect to others."

Take Los Angeles County for example. The county is home to 10 million people and 18 of the state's 53 congressional districts (though California will have to lose a district in 2023 after the census showed a stall in population growth). Sadhwani noted that the commission has received feedback from a number of individuals in the Los Angeles area who feel that certain towns and communities have been separated in the draft map.

California Citizens Redistricting Commission

"We need to make changes in Los Angeles County, and even though most members believe the basic architecture in LA is looking good, as soon as we make a refinement, it impacts everything," she said."If you add one city in, you have to take another out, which has an impact on all of the districts surrounding the one you modified, and also has an impact on the area and entire state. Because we have a lot of refinements to do in LA, it will definitely impact things in San Diego and Orange County as well. We have our work cut out for us."

Congressional districts should include approximately 760,000 people, so finding a way to satisfy those requirements while keeping everyone happy can feel like a Herculean task for the commission.

Sadhwani said that the two regions that have been the most vocal about the draft maps are the Central Valley and greater Sacramento area. She attributed the Sacramento gripes to heavy migration into the Sacramento suburbs over the past 10 years, and the fact that the commission must now draw new districts to reflect the changes. The Central Valley situation is stickier.

"The Central Valley is an interesting area because it's between areas that are quite different from one another," she said. "To the west are coastal regions, and to the east is the southern portion of the Sierra, so you have those who live in the area near the mountains who dont want to be considered part of the Central Valley, and neither do the coastal areas. The Central Valley also has unique interests in agriculture, and there's a large and growing Latino population protected by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act."

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act protects voters from race-based discrimination, meaning the commission has to be careful not to "pack" Latino voters into a single district where they have limited political power, or "crack" them to dilute their votes across several districts.

California Citizens Redistricting Commission

Furthermore, the current draft map has Kern and Fresno counties in the same congressional district, a move that has incensed many, Sadhwani said. The two counties are home to scores of Republicans who feel their voices are being diluted, not to mention other concerns related to competing water interests.

In the Bay Area, Sadhwani said that Contra Costa County has been the biggest source of complaints. She said that some Vallejo and Antioch residents have complained about African American neighborhoods being split up, while residents south of them in the Tri-Valley area are annoyed that San Ramon and Dublin were kept in separate congressional districts.

She did highlight one area of positive feedback: LGBT groups are happy that the Castro was held together in a San Francisco district.

"We had good feedback on the San Francisco area," she said. "We had a lot of testimony from the LGBT community wanting to keep areas in the Castro together, and we had a lot of testimony from people in Daly City wanting to keep together there. I'd say we're on fairly solid footing in that region."

California Citizens Redistricting Commission

Other spots of interest include Truckee residents wanting to be in the same congressional district as individuals living closer to Lake Tahoe, and Asian Americans in the San Gabriel Valley not wanting to be split up across multiple districts.

Sadhwani expects an eventful 14 days of public comment.

"People are definitely engaged now that they have something to react to," she said. "We're doing our best to weigh everyone's interests."
(Ad) The best home security systems offer a variety of features that are meant to help keep your home and family safe from burglaries and intruders. Some of the best home security systems include smart home integration, security cameras, DIY installation, 24/7 professional monitoring, and mobile app control.

However, choosing the best home alarm system for your needs can be stressful, considering how many options there are available.

Weve tested the best security systems to see which ones offer the most features and the best value. We evaluated each home monitoring system on factors such as smart home integration, contract length, monthly monitoring cost, ease of installation, and reviews.

Here are our top picks for the best home security systems of 2021.

The 8 Best Home Security Systems of 2021

SimpliSafe: Best home security system overall

Vivint: Best smart home automation features

ADT: Best for professional installation

Frontpoint: Best DIY home security system

Cove: Fastest emergency response times

Ring Alarm: Best video doorbells

Link Interactive: Best for easy installation

Scout Alarm: Best for self-monitoring

Best Home Security System Reviews

#1 SimpliSafe: Best Home Security System Overall

Our top choice for the best home security system is SimpliSafe, a wireless DIY security system that provides whole-home protection against intruders, water damage, medical emergencies, fires, and more. Professionals monitor these systems 24/7 and provide quick police dispatch in the case of an emergency.

Some of the things we like most about SimpliSafe include no contracts, professional monitoring, easy installation, great equipment range, long battery life, text alerts, customizable packages, and mobile app control.

One advantage of SimpliSafe is that you can use voice commands through Google Assistant or Alexa to arm the system in home or away mode, which also arms the Smart Lock. However, you cannot use voice commands to unlock your door or system for security reasons. Unlocking requires an app, PIN pad, keypad, or manual action.

Equipment

SimpliSafe's complete selection of monitoring equipment includes:

Base stations

Motion sensors

Entry sensors

A glass break sensor

HD security cameras

Keypads

Panic buttons

Key fobs

Water sensors

Temperature sensors

Smart locks

You can choose any combination of these devices to help protect your home as thoroughly as you would like to. However, SimpliSafe recommends ordering a base station and motion sensors, at the very least, to cover all of the entrances in your home.

You can install sensors on every door and window throughout your living space. Once you arm your system, an alarm will sound any time the system detects windows or doors opening. The alarm will also alert the dispatch center to call you and make sure that everything is okay.

Installation

SimpliSafe offers a quick and easy installation process that requires no tools. Simply plug your base station into the wall, attach sensors to doors and windows, and secure your keypad to the wall using the built-in adhesive strips. You can also let one of the companys professionals install your system for you for an additional fee.

Monitoring

SimpliSafe monitors your home through your sensors and base station. When your sensors detect suspicious activitysuch as a door or window opening after you have armed your systemthey will immediately alert the companys professional monitoring center. A dispatcher will then call you to assess the situation and dispatch emergency services if necessary.

SimpliSafe offers several monitoring plans, allowing you to choose the level of monitoring that makes you feel safest. We recommend 24/7 professional monitoring to receive the most comprehensive protection through your system.

Key Features

SimpliSafe uses several smart features to optimize your convenience and to help optimize your safety when using your SimpliSafe security system. For example, you can arm or disarm your system from anywhere using the companys mobile app or by asking your Google Assistant to arm it for you.

SimpliSafe systems also boast an impressive battery life. The companys entry sensors use batteries that last for almost a decade, meaning that you rarely need to change the batteries. You can rely on these battery-operated sensors to continue working during a power outage.

The company also offers a few cool features that we havent seen from other companies. For example, you can set up a Duress PIN to use if someone ever forces you to disarm your system. Entering this PIN will secretly alert the authorities that you are in trouble.

Overall, SimpliSafe has all of the features you need to feel safe in your home, along with additional features that go above and beyond to help promote your protection. We have the highest regard for and recommend this home security system for homeowners across the United States.

24/7 professional monitoring

Optional outdoor and indoor cameras with full color HD

No landline required

Arm or disarm your system from anywhere via mobile app

Compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant

Customize your own equipment packages to fit your home

Custom security alerts for friends and family

Smash-safe technology protects against intruders

Pet-friendly motion sensors

No contracts

Easy DIY installation

Professional installation available foradditional fee

Click Here to Learn More About Simplisafe

#2 Vivint: Best Smart Home Automation Features

Vivint is one of the best home security systems for smart home features and state-of-the-art security technology. The Vivint control hub integrates with your smart devices to give you remote control over your alarm system, lights, door locks, thermostats, and more.

Equipment

Vivint offers numerous security devices and smart home integrations to help you create the perfect home security system.

First, the company offers the following home security devices:

Security sensors

Safety alarms

Doorbell cameras

Indoor and outdoor cameras

Additionally, Vivint offers these smart home devices:

Smart lock

Garage door controls

Smart thermostats

Smart lighting

Car guards

Each of these devices connects to your Vivint base station and is operable through the convenient Vivint app. All Vivint products work together to create the best monitoring experience for your home.

Determining what equipment you need from this list can be overwhelming. Thankfully, Vivint is ready to walk you through the process of creating the ideal custom system for your specific home needs.

Installation

Vivint strives to customize the best home security system for each of its customers. In order to create an optimal design and experience, the company will send its Smart Home Pros to install, activate, and show you how to use your systems. Leaving installation to the professionals ensures that your system creates the best coverage for your home.

Monitoring

Vivint provides 24/7 monitoring from state-of-the-art central monitoring centers in Utah and Minnesota. Emergency response professionals answer calls through these monitoring centers at all hours of the day, providing fast protection and response times for customers.

When your sensors detect suspicious activity, they will instantly send an alert to Vivint's specialists, who will reach out to you for more information. If they cannot reach you, they will send first responders to your home.

The Monitoring Association (TMA) named Vivint's monitoring center the Monitoring Center of the Year in 2021.

Key Features

Vivint's smart home security systems go above and beyond to help you feel safe in your home. You can add numerous features to your system to improve your security and convenience when operating locks, opening and shutting the garage door, and performing various other actions.

One of Vivint's most unique features is the Vivint Car Guard, a device that you place in your car to improve vehicle security. This device can track your car's location, diagnose issues, and send disturbance alerts to your phone. The Car Guard allows you to extend security and protection from your home to your vehicle.

Additionally, Vivint's Doorbell Camera Pro is the only doorbell camera that protects packages on your porch.

All in all, Vivint is an impressive home security system with the innovative features and high-tech protection you need to feel as safe as possible in your home (and beyond).

Professional installation + $0 activation

Customize your system to fit your homes needs

Best home security system for home automation features

24/7 professional monitoring

Doorbell automatically detects and protects packages

Professional installation available

Integrated lighting, locks, thermostats, and security sensors

Vehicle protection with disturbance notifications

Click Here to Learn More About Vivint

#3 ADT: Best Burglar Alarm With Professional Installation

DIY home security systems aren't for everyone. If you're looking for a professionally installed and monitored system from one of the most trusted brands in the industry, we highly recommend ADT.

ADT has earned the #1 ranking in smart home security for four years in a row. This company offers a variety of security and home protection services with 24/7 professional monitoring. They are also compatible with Google Assistant for voice commands.

Equipment

ADT allows you to customize your system and include only the devices you need to feel safe and protected in your home. The company's home security equipment selection includes:

A digital panel

Entryway sensors

A wireless keychain remote

Yard signs

Window decals

Motion detectors

If you're unsure what equipment you need to feel safe in your home, you can take the free quiz on the ADT website. This quiz will ask you questions about your habits and safety needs, then present you with a list of equipment that will serve you well.

ADT also offers home security system packages that make it quick and easy to purchase the equipment you need. Its packages include:

Secure Home: Essential monitoring through its monitoring equipment, 24/7 monitoring, and professional installation.

Smart Home: Essential monitoring plus remote access and smart home automation.

Video & Smart Home: Essential monitoring, smart home features, and live-stream video camera integration.

Installation

ADT offers both professional and DIY installation.

If you opt for a professionally installed system, an expert will customize your system for your home's needs and install it for you. This plan comes with flexible monthly payments and a six-month money-back guarantee.

Meanwhile, the DIY system can utilize self-monitoring or 24/7 professional monitoring based on your specific needs. This ADT home security system is customizable, easy to set up, and features a month-to-month contract.

Monitoring

If you opt for ADT home security professional monitoring, you will gain access to 24/7 monitoring through the companys home security professionals. ADT works with nine monitoring centers nationwide, giving you the quickest access possible to the help you need.

If your system detects suspicious activity, ranging from an intruder to an environmental hazard, your monitoring professional knows to dispatch emergency responders to your home.

Key Features

ADT makes managing your home security system easy, whether you operate a DIY system or a professional one. The ADT mobile app allows you to arm and disarm your system, manage your smart devices, and view security camera footage from anywhere.

The company also partners with the SoSecure app to improve customer safety further. This app allows you to create a list of family members and friends, known as Guardians, that you would like to keep in the know about your monitoring situation.

Overall, we believe ADT home security is a reliable, reputable security and monitoring service that has benefited thousands of customers nationwide.

Click Here to Learn More About ADT Security

#4 Frontpoint: Best Wireless Home Security System With Cameras

One of the best aspects of modern home security devices is their customizability. DIY systems allow you to include only the devices you need and alter their controls to create the perfect fit within your home.

Frontpoint Security is our top DIY home security system of 2021. This company offers an assortment of advanced technology devices featuring easy setup and operation, making installing your own security system simpler than ever. The company offers two monitoring plans: Interactive and Ultimate. Frontpoint Ultimate integrates with Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant (Google Home), and Z-Wave.

Equipment

Frontpoint offers five categories of home security equipment:

Security cameras: Doorbell, indoor, and outdoor security cameras

Intrusion sensors: Door and window sensors, including glass break sensors

Hazard sensors: Smoke, heat, carbon monoxide, and flood sensors

Home automation equipment: Smart door locks, thermostats, and wireless light controls

Accessories: Touchscreen, keychain remote, extra keypad, and more

You can add any of these devices to your Frontpoint security system to create the most comprehensive coverage for your home. To get started with Frontpoint, you will need to purchase the Frontpoint Hub & Keypad package. The hub will connect to the rest of your security equipment to create seamless integration and monitoring.

Installation

When you order equipment from Frontpoint, the company will pre-program your devices to create the most effortless home installation possible. Once your hub and keypad arrive, you can connect them to your network and other security devices and begin monitoring almost instantly.

The physical installation of this equipment is also quick and easy. Simply plug the hub into a wall outlet and turn it on. Then stick the keypad to any wall or surface using the attached adhesive strips.

Monitoring

Frontpoint offers fast emergency response times through 24/7/365 professional monitoring. Each monitoring plan includes fire, environmental, and life safety features, ensuring that you have access to the help you need no matter your emergency situation.

Frontpoint also uses industry-leading communication tools to contact you as soon as it detects an emergency. The company prides itself with not wasting any time in sending help your way to ensure the fastest response possible.

Key Features

Frontpoint allows you to remotely control your security system through the Frontpoint mobile app. You can arm and disarm your security system, watch live camera footage, and review security alerts through this mobile app.

Similarly, you can also use voice control to perform security actions without pressing any buttons or opening the app. Simply connect your smart home security system to Alexa, Siri, or your Google Assistant to begin operating your system with voice control.

The Frontpoint monitoring center also provides hourly sensor checks to ensure that your smart security system is working correctly at all times. Additionally, your system will include a 24-hour backup battery that you can rely on in the case of a power outage. These features allow you to feel even safer when using your Frontpoint DIY security system.

Overall, Frontpoint is one of the most user-friendly DIY systems on the market today.

Click Here to Learn More About Frontpoint Security

#5 Cove: Easy-to-Install DIY System With Professional Monitoring

Home security systems are created to provide you with the fast assistance you need during a home break-in or other emergency. However, if a system does not offer a quick response time, it may be a waste of your money during an actual crisis. Even worse, your system could lead you to miss out on the help you need.

We believe Cove is a trustworthy monitoring service that offers the fastest emergency response times of any system we have reviewed. Many independent review sites have named Cove the Best Home Security System of 2021 for its reliable, affordable technology and effective overall design.

You can use Google Assistant to control your Cove home system via voice commands. You can check the current alarm status, arm or disarm your security panel, and call up a history of events.

Equipment

Cove offers the following home security equipment:

Touch alarm panel: This device comes with every system.

Burglary and intrusion sensors: These include door and window sensors along with general motion detectors.

Environmental detectors: Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and a flood sensor that is meant to alert you to natural disasters that could be expensive and unsafe.

Remote and medical alert: These include a security key remote and a panic/medical button.

Security cameras: Cove's security cameras includeindoor and outdoor security cameras

All orders come with a Cove yard sign and three window stickers. These signs can act as deterrents when intruders attempt to enter your property.

Installation

Cove offers both DIY and professional installation. The system is easy to set up and takes only a few minutes of installation from start to finish. However, if you need assistance, you can opt for professional installation instead and receive assistance from one of Cove's security professionals.

Monitoring

Cove uses a lightning-fast response process to get you the help you need as quickly as possible. When your alarm triggers, you will receive an InstaText that allows you to confirm your emergency right away. At the same time, Cove's LiveAssist will call you through your control panel to assess the situation.

If a Cove operator cannot reach you through either of these two means, it will call your phone directly. Finally, if the response center does not hear from you at all, it will automatically send responders your way. This entire process has been recorded to dispatch help within 30 seconds of your alarm trigger.

We feel Coves three-part response process ensures faster response times than other popular home security systems.

Key Features

If you're unsure whether Cove is right for you, you can take advantage of its 60-day money-back guarantee. This offer allows you to try your security system for 60 days and return it for a full refund if you are dissatisfied.

Many systems require you to have WiFi for them to operate within your home. However, Cove runs on a cellular connection, allowing the system to continue working even if your WiFi goes out.

Cove is also relatively affordable compared to other smart security systems. The company features low upfront and monthly costs and no contracts, allowing you to cancel your service whenever you need to.

Overall, Cove is known to be a fast and responsive home security system offering numerous bonus features to help improve your customer experience.

Click Here to Learn More About Cove

#6 Ring Alarm: Best Video Doorbell Cameras

Many home security systems include video doorbells that you can use to see who is at your door without having to be in your home. If you're looking for a reliable company with the best video doorbell integration, we recommend Ring.

Ring Alarm is a popular home alarm company offering DIY systems, high-tech accessories, and innovative security features at a low monthly price. Ring now works with Google Assistant and Google Home.

Equipment

Ring offers several different types of basic to advanced security equipment. Its products include:

Video doorbells

Security cameras

Base stations

Accessories

Smart lighting

You can build your own security system using as many of the above devices as you need. Alternatively, you can purchase a Ring security kit, which includes a base station, a keypad, alarm sensors, and a range extender. You can then add any additional accessories to this kit.

Ring offers several different kits that include anywhere from five to 14 pieces, allowing you to choose one that suits your needs. You can also call the Ring customer service team for assistance in selecting the proper devices for your security system package.

Installation

Ring Alarm security systems are easy to install and require minimal tools or equipment. Once your home alarm system arrives at your door, an instruction booklet will prompt you to download the Ring mobile app. This app will walk you through the entire installation process, which includes plugging in your base station, registering and placing your wireless devices, and mounting your doorbell camera.

Monitoring

Ring Alarm offers both self-monitoring and 24/7 professional monitoring. If you choose to self-monitor your system, it will alert you when it detects movement but will not reach out to Rings response center. Self-monitoring is free.

If you opt for Rings affordable professional monitoring service, your system will connect you to a trustworthy monitoring team that is available at all hours of the day to assist you. When your system detects activity, it will send you a notification and trigger a call from the response center if needed.

The response center will send help your way if you do not answer the call or if you confirm an emergency.

Key Features

Ring Alarm offers several accessories that improve its security systems features and efficiency. The Schlage Connect Smart Deadbolt, for example, allows you to lock and unlock your door using your Ring app. You can also see whether your door is locked, eliminating any worry that you forgot to lock the door behind you on your way out.

Ring Alarm also offers a solar panel device that you can use to provide continuous charge to your security camera batteries. This device provides an environmentally friendly way to ensure that your Ring Alarm security cameras always stay charged.

The Ring app also gives you access to Neighbors by Ring, a program that allows you and your neighbors to keep each other updated about security alerts. For example, if someone in your community experiences a break-in or security threat, they can post about it on the neighborhood forum to alert you.

Overall, Ring Alarm is one of our top security companies for its impressive doorbell cameras and wide selection of innovative accessories.

#7 Link Interactive: Best for Smoke, Fire, and CO2 Detection

Being able to install your DIY security system yourself is an essential step in getting the protection you need. Link Interactive is our top choice for offering easy, straightforward system installation.

Link Interactive offers both home security and home automation elements, giving you a comprehensive way to protect and modernize your home. The company also sells business security solutions with customized services for specific business needs.

Link Interactives Alarm.com is compatible with Alexa and Google Home Assistant for self-monitoring services.

Equipment

Link Interactive offers a wide range of home security, innovative technology, and home automation equipment. Its complete list of home security products includes:

Smart home panels.

Touchpads.

Motion sensors.

Panic buttons.

>Smoke/heat/freeze sensors.

Indoor and outdoor security cameras.

Doorbell cameras.

Additionally, Link Interactives home automation products include a:

Premium thermostat.

Touchpad deadbolt.

Touchscreen deadbolt.

>Garage door controller.

Smart plug.

You can either purchase a pre-packaged Link Interactive system or customize your system to include the control panel and wireless components that best suit your home.

Installation

Link Interactive utilizes one of the easiest installation methods we have seen across smart home security systems. The process requires no wiring or drilling and takes only a few minutes from start to finish.

When you purchase a Link Interactive home security system, the company will pre-program all of your sensors and fit them with adhesive tape before sending them to you. Once you receive your system, you just need to plug your panel into a wall outlet and adhere the sensors to your windows and doors.

The company can provide assistance through phone, email, or instant chat if you have any questions about your DIY installation.

Monitoring

Link Interactive works with a team of monitoring professionals to give you access to assistance 24 hours a day. This highly rated monitoring service is known to provide a fast response whenever your system detects an emergency scenario.

When your security system triggers an alarm, an operator will reach out to you as soon as possible to assess the situation. You can also contact the response center through two-way voice communication on all base panels. This feature cuts response times in half, giving you the fast assistance you may need in an emergency.

Key Features

One unique feature of Link Interactive is its takeover program. If you already use a different security system, Link can help you integrate its devices into your current system, preventing you from needing to buy completely new equipment.

The Link Interactive mobile app gives you an easy way to control your Link Interactive security system from your phone. You can use this app to monitor your security camera footage, arm and disarm your system, and operate your smart home devices.

Link Interactive also offers excellent value for your purchase. The company charges no installation, activation, or other hidden fees and provides a 30-day money-back guarantee on your security system purchase. If you are not satisfied, you can return your system within 30 days for a full refund.

Overall, Link Interactive is a straightforward home security company featuring easy DIY installation and impressive home automation elements.

#8 Scout Alarm: Best Self-Monitored Alarm

Having a home security system can act as a deterrent to discourage intruders from attempting to enter your home. Additionally, the top home security systems are meant to alert you to any suspicious activity as soon as it happens, allowing you to address the situation as you see fit.

With these two significant benefits of smart home security systems, using professional monitoring with your system may not always necessary. Some companies allow you to self-monitor your system instead, meaning that they do not require you to connect to professional monitoring. Scout Alarm is our top choice for self-monitoring services.

Scout Alarm is a security company that strives to simplify home security. Offering contract-free monitoring with no hardwiring necessary, Scout gives you complete control of your home from anywhere. Scout offers Google Home security integration.

Equipment

Scout Alarm offers a versatile selection of home security products, including:

Hubs.

Door panels.

Motion and access sensors.

Video doorbells.

Indoor and outdoor cameras.

Water and glass break sensors.

Smoke alarms.

Door locks.

Keypads.

Accessories.

If youre not sure where to start, you can purchase one of the Scout Packs, which includes a hub, a door panel, and a combination of motion sensors, access sensors, key fobs, and yard signs. Some packs also include additional accessories, such as smart locks and smoke alarms.

Installation

Scout Alarm smart security systems are easy to install with real-time guidance from your Scout Alarm app. The DIY installation process requires four easy steps:

Register your Scout Alarm system.

Install and test your devices.

Choose between self- and professional monitoring.

Customize your modes and permissions.

Should you need assistance during installation, you can reach out to the Scout Alarm customer service team.

Monitoring

Scout Alarm works with a UL-certified (Underwriters Laboratories-certified) monitoring provider to offer reliable, professional monitoring services. The companys affordable professional monitoring plan includes access to police and fire dispatch and 24/7 monitoring.

However, the company also offers a self-monitoring plan in which your system would not connect to a response center in the case of an emergency. This plan allows you to receive push notifications on your mobile device, SMS and phone call alerts, and email notifications about suspicious activity.

Key Features

Scouts systems are incredibly customizable. You can choose all of the components you want, the color and finish to match your decor, the actions that Scout will perform in specific scenarios, and the level of support you prefer.

You can utilize mobile app control to monitor your Scout Alarm system on any smart device. The app allows you to arm and disarm your system from anywhere, see what triggered an alarm, and receive custom alerts.

Scout Alarm also offers smart home integration with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and several other devices. You can use these integrations to vocalize a request for help and control your smart home features, such as locks, with your voice.

Overall, Scout Alarm is a dependable home security system company with customizable plans and devices.

How We Ranked the Top Home Alarm Systems

Numerous home security systems exist across the market, each boasting different benefits and features that contribute to user experience. Sorting through all of these options can be overwhelming, leading many people to put off purchasing a security system longer than they need to.

When we developed our list of the best home security systems, we reviewed several parameters that contribute to high-quality, effective systems. The following factors played a significant role in our rankings of the top home security systems of 2021.

Security Features and Smart Home Integrations

All security systems include slightly different features that contribute to their overall user experiences. For example, some include smart home integrations. Others allow for remote control access. Some even support two-way voice control through Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.

When we reviewed systems to add to our list, we selected ones that included a wide range of helpful security features and smart home automation options. Each of the best smart home security systems that made our list includes impressive features that create better security and improved convenience for your home.

Security Equipment Included

Most smart security systems include some sort of control panel that connects to window and door sensors. When these sensors detect motion while the system is armed, they sound the alarm to alert you to this suspicious activity.

However, the best home security companies offer additional security equipment to create optimal protection and safety within your home. The companies on our list offer devices such as smart locks, smoke and water alarms, window break sensors, and other security devices that may be able to help you identify emergency situations as soon as they occur.

Ease-of-Use and Installation

If a home security system is difficult to set up or use, you probably will not want to spend time learning how to operate it. Additionally, if a system is prone to false alarms, it may be more hassle than it is worth.

The best security systems are easy to set up and use, minimizing false alarms. These systems require no power tools to install and take an hour or less of setup from start to finish. They also use simple interfaces and navigation that make it as easy as possible to arm and disarm your system, monitor specific areas, and view security camera footage.

Each of the systems on our list meets all of these descriptors. These systems seem easy to use, simple to install, and utilize straightforward navigation. Additionally, many of the home security companies on our list offer professionally installed systems if youd prefer not to install your smart security system yourself.

Monitoring and Response Times

Most security systems utilize professional monitoring to connect customers to a response center when their alarms detect an emergency. For example, if someone were to break into your home and trigger the alarm, you would probably want emergency services to respond as quickly as possible to eliminate the threat to your property.

As a result, wed want the best home alarm systems use reliable monitoring processes and demonstrate fast response times, making them highly effective during an emergency situation. We rely on each of the systems on our list to respond to your alarm trigger quickly and dispatch responders to your home within minutes.

Pricing Plans

Most home security companies require you to purchase your security devices and equipment outright and pay a monthly fee to utilize professional monitoring. Some security companies offer several pricing plans for customers to choose from, while others provide only one professional monitoring and one self-monitoring plan.

The home security companies on our list charge fair pricing through several different pricing plans, allowing you to choose the plan that works best for your security needs and budget. These systems will not break your budget, yet their prices still reflect the high-quality equipment and services they provide to homeowners.

Customer Reviews

Customer reviews provide valuable information about a security system's real-life functionality and benefits. When reviewing which smart home security systems to add to our list, we paid close attention to each company's customer reviews. We searched reviews for information such as:

Whether the system was easy to set up

How the system responded during a real crisis

Whether customers were satisfied or dissatisfied with the system overall

Whether the system's quality reflects the price

The companies with the most positive reviews overall made our top rankings.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Good Home Security System

If you've never used a home security system before, you may be unsure which features you need in a system and which could potentially be a waste of your money. You may also not be sure how to distinguish a high-quality system from a low-quality one.

Here are a few factors to consider as you determine which home security system is suitable for your needs.

Contract Terms

Some companies, such as ADT, require you to sign a contract to use their professional monitoring services. Other companies, such as Ring, provide services on a monthly basis with no contract.

Before you purchase a home alarm system, consider the length of contract you would like to sign or whether you would prefer not to sign a contract at all. Then search for a company that offers the right contract options for your needs.

Connectivity Options

In order to provide the most modern, updated security services, many systems utilize modern connectivity processes. All of the systems on our list use cellular connections rather than outdated landline connectivity. A few of these systems can also stay connected through your home's WiFi.

We recommend looking for a security system that connects to a cellular network, as this connection provides the most secure access to professional monitoring.

Monitoring

Before you purchase a home security system, be sure to consider whether you would like to utilize professional monitoring or self-monitoring. A professionally monitored security system connects you to the company's response center any time your system detects an emergency. The response center can then dispatch police or fire teams to your home to respond to the crisis.

If you decide to self-monitor your system, the alarm will alert you to suspicious activity, and you can determine the best course of action from there. Your system will not automatically call for help.

Self-monitoring plans tend to be more affordable than professional ones, but they offer less protection during emergencies.

Size of Home

A security system's control panel or base station provides coverage throughout a specific range in your home. If your home is relatively large, you may need to purchase a system that includes a range extender to increase the system's coverage. You may also need to buy additional security sensors to have enough for every external door and window.

Smart Home Integrations

Smart home integrations with Amazon's Alexa, Google Home, Google Assistant, and others can increase convenience and ease when controlling processes throughout your home, such as locking the door, turning on lights, setting the thermostat, or closing the garage door. If you are looking to integrate smart home features into your home, adding these features to your security system can kill two birds with one stone.

Homeowner vs. Renter

If you rent your house or apartment, you may want to look for a home security system that does not require any hardwiring or drilling to install. You may also need to check with your landlord before using a doorbell camera or other outside security camera.

Guarantee

Some security companies provide a money-back guarantee to help you feel more confident purchasing their alarm systems. You can use this guarantee to try your system for a specific time.

Tips for Choosing the Right Security System for Your Needs

With so many security alarm systems available, you may have trouble determining which one is the perfect fit for your home and your specific situation. Here are a few tips to help families, renters, pet owners, the elderly, and travelers to choose the ideal system for their needs.

For Families

If you have a family, we recommend looking for a system with flexible equipment packages to fit your family's needs. Systems that include various security cameras and sensors can provide the most comprehensive coverage for your family.

For Renters

If you currently rent your living space, you may want to opt for a DIY system that you can customize to suit your precise living arrangement. We also recommend looking for a system that is easy to move, such as one with adhesive backing, if you plan to move to a different house or apartment in the near future.

Frontpoint and SimpliSafe both offer renter-friendly systems that may suit your needs.

For Pet Owners

Pets can sometimes trigger motion detectors and set off the alarm when a security system is armed. If you have pets who roam around freely during the night or while you are away, we recommend using a system with pet-friendly adjustable sensors. These sensors can detect whether a pet or a human is creating the movement in the room and will sound the alarm only when they detect human movement.

ADT and Vivint both offer pet-friendly smart security solutions.

For the Elderly

If you are elderly or live with someone who is, you may benefit the most from a smart home security system with professional monitoring, such as one from ADT. You may also want to look for a system that includes panic buttons, as these buttons provide immediate access to emergency responders during emergencies.

For Travelers

If you travel frequently, you probably want a smart home security system that you can access from anywhere and that includes home automation features. Vivint, for example, offers smart devices, such as a smart lock and a thermostat controller, that you can use to monitor and protect your house from anywhere.

What Type of Equipment Do Home Security Systems Include?

The best smart home security systems typically feature a few essential pieces of equipment, such as a control panel, window and door sensors, and a keypad. However, many smart security systems also allow you to add accessories to enhance your system further. These accessories may include:

A smart lock

Doorbell cameras

Outdoor cameras

Indoor cameras

Smoke, heat, and flood sensors

Glass break sensors

Tilt sensors

Some companies allow you to build your own system and include any devices you want, while others offer pre-packaged deals that include the basic devices you need to protect your home.

DIY Home Security vs. Professional Installation

Modern security systems are relatively easy to install on your own. Most of these systems simply require you to plug your control panel into the wall, stick your sensors in appropriate locations throughout your home, and use mobile app control to register your devices.

However, many companies also offer professional installation of their systems. If you opt for professional installation, a service member from the company will come to your home and install all of the pieces of the smart home security system for you. Professional installation typically costs an additional fee.

Whats the Difference Between a Wired and a Wireless Alarm System?

Wired systems require you to plug the control panel and sensors into a wall outlet to power the security system. Wireless systems may require you to plug in the base station but feature wireless devices, such as sensors, cameras, and alarms.

Wireless systems tend to be slightly more convenient and easier to operate than wired ones. However, if you have easy access to outlets throughout your home, you may opt for a wired system as a more affordable solution.

Does a Home Security System Save You Money on Homeowners Insurance?

Depending on your insurance provider and policy specifications, you may be able to receive a discount on your homeowner's insurance for installing a security system. Simply request an insurance certificate from your home security provider and send the certificate to your insurer. Your insurer will determine if you can receive a discount.

How Much Do Home Security Systems Cost?

Security systems come in a variety of price ranges. The features you add, the coverage you require, the monitoring level you request, and the devices you use all play a role in your total cost. Generally, these systems can range in price from $50 to $400 for your initial purchase and then $10 to $50 for your monthly fee.

We found that Ring offers the least expensive security system of any options on our list. The company provides free self-monitoring and low initial costs, making it more affordable than ever to protect your home.

Should I Choose Professional Monitoring or a Self-Monitored System?

One aspect to consider before purchasing a security plan is whether you would like professional monitoring or self-monitoring. Professional monitoring connects your system to emergency dispatchers, providing a fast response when your alarm sounds. Self-monitoring requires you to reach out for help yourself when your system detects an emergency.

We recommend taking advantage of professional monitoring to create the most comprehensive, reliable coverage. If you are going to spend money on the best smart home security system, you may as well pay a little extra for reliable monitoring.

Can I Install a Home Security Alarm if Im a Renter?

Most of the security system options on our list are renter-friendly. These systems require you only to attach them to the wall or door using sticky adhesive strips. These strips are easy to remove and do not leave any damage or residue on your walls.

If your landlord has rules about how the outside of your property must look, you can opt to utilize security devices only inside your house or apartment. You can still have complete, trustworthy coverage without needing any external sensors or cameras. Simply place cameras and sensors inside your home that will alert you to any attempted unauthorized entries.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy fatally shot a woman after she stabbed him in the face at a gas station early Friday morning, authorities said.

The deputy, who also shot and wounded a man during the confrontation in the city of Commerce, was treated at a hospital for the stab wounds and has been released, the sheriff's department said.

In a separate incident hours later, a man was shot by at least one deputy in the city of Santa Clarita. The shooting occurred shortly before 7:30 p.m. The mans condition, and what prompted the shooting, was not immediately available. No deputies were injured.

In the Commerce shooting, authorities were called to a gas station southeast of Los Angeles, on a report of a person trying to light a gasoline pump on fire around 3:45 a.m.

The deputy saw a man standing behind an SUV parked in front of the gas station's convenience store, the sheriff's department said. The deputy told the man to walk toward him. Once the man was close to the deputy, he allegedly attacked him and both fell to the ground.

When the man was on top of the deputy, a woman got out of the SUV and stabbed the deputy with a 10-inch (25.40-centimeter) folding knife, the sheriff's department said.

She reached over the male who was on top of the deputy and stabbed the deputy once, possibly twice, in his face, Lt. Derrick Alfred told KTLA-TV.

The deputy then opened fire, striking both people with bullets. The woman was hit once in the head and pronounced dead at the scene, with the knife found under her body.

The man was hospitalized for treatment of his injuries, the sheriff's department said.

The name of the deputy, as well as the man and woman, were not immediately released on Friday.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  Two southeast Iowa teenagers were formally charged Friday with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of a high school Spanish teacher, and a judge said there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial.

Prosecutors in Fairfield filed documents containing the charges against Willard Noble Chaiden Miller and Jeremy Everett Goodale, both 16. They are accused of killing Nohema Graber, a 66-year-old teacher at Fairfield High School, which both teens attended. Authorities have not said whether she taught either of the suspects nor have they revealed a possible motive.

She was reported missing Nov. 2 and her remains were found later that day at a Fairfield park were she was known to take daily walks. Earlier court filings stated that Graber suffered inflicted trauma to the head.

In Iowa, prosecutors may file trial information and other documents detailing the allegations, negating the need for defendants to be in court for an initial appearance to face formal charges. Previously set appearances for both teens were canceled for Friday.

Records show minutes of testimony also were filed but kept sealed as allowed under Iowa law. The minutes typically outline a crime in detail significant enough for a judge to approve them and hold the defendants over for trial.

Judge Joel Yates said he reviewed the information and the minutes of testimony and found "they contain evidence which, if unexplained, is sufficient to warrant a conviction by a trial jury.

"Being satisfied from the showing made that the case should be prosecuted, I approve the trial information, he wrote.

Yates set an arraignment date for Miller and Goodale for Nov. 29. He ordered both teens to be held on the previously set $1 million bond. Attorneys for both have requested a hearing for bond reduction, which Yates has set for Nov. 23.

An attorney for Goodale declined to comment on the charges, and an attorney for Miller did not immediately respond to messages.

Graber's body was found concealed under a tarp, wheelbarrow and railroad ties at the Chautauqua Park in Fairfield, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southeast of Des Moines.

Police received a tip that Goodale posted details about planning the killing on social media, according to court documents. The documents indicated police investigators found clothing that appeared to contain blood at the homes of the teens.

Documents also said Miller admitted to being at the park when Graber was killed, and to providing materials used to kill her and conceal her death.
HAMPTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP)  Two people were killed Thursday in a small plane crash in New Jersey, authorities said.

NJ.com reported that emergency crews found the single-engine airplane in the afternoon in a wooded area in Sussex County, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
SEATTLE (AP)  Two Seattle residents are charged with allegedly stealing over $1 million in jobless benefits and small business loans during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Seattle Times reports Bryan Sparks and Autumn Luna were charged Wednesday with stealing at least $500,000 in jobless benefits from the state Employment Security Department and $520,000 in Small Business Administration loans, according to a 16-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court.

The jobless benefits charge appears to be the largest in dollar terms so far stemming from Washington state paying out over $647 million in pandemic-related fraudulent claims. Some $370 million has been recovered, state officials have said.

The U.S. Attorneys Office in Seattle said Luna and Sparks were arrested June 22 in Washington, D.C.

From March 2020 through at least January 2021, prosecutors allege the pair used stolen Social Security numbers and other personal information to file fraudulent jobless claims and apply for federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans.

Sparks and Luna used more than a dozen cellphones and addresses in Seattle, Des Moines, Federal Way, Auburn, and Lynnwood, among other places, in the fraud, prosecutors said.

Sparks and Luna had proceeds mailed to those addresses or deposited in bank accounts opened using stolen personal information, prosecutors say. Other individuals also may have been involved, according to the indictment.

Sparks and Luna are charged with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. It wasnt clear whether Sparks and Luna had an attorney to speak on their behalf.

Other people charged in connection to the state fraud include former state Employment Security Department employee Reyes De La Cruz III, who is accused of stealing at least $360,000 in jobless benefits.

Federal investigators charged Abidemi Rufai, of Lekki, Nigeria, with stealing more than $350,000 in benefits. A lawyer for Rufai has said he denies any involvement.

Federal prosecutors have also charged Chukwuemeka Onyegbula, a Nigerian IT engineer, with stealing roughly $290,000 in benefits from Washington and from other states.

Attempts to locate an attorney for De La Cruz and Onyegbula havent been successful.
Currently Reading

Alert: A Taliban spokesman says a bomb exploded in a mosque near Jalalabad, Afghanistan during prayers, wounding 15 people.
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP)  An attorney for one of the white men standing trial in the death of Ahmaud Arbery told the judge Thursday he doesn't want any more Black pastors in the courtroom after the Rev. Al Sharpton sat with the slain man's family.

Kevin Gough represents William Roddie Bryan, who along with father and son Greg and Travis McMichael is charged with murder and other crimes in Arbery's Feb. 23, 2020, killing. The 25-year-old Black man was chased and fatally shot after the defendants spotted him running in their neighborhood outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick.

Gough told Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley that he was concerned Sharpton's presence in court Wednesday was an attempt to intimidate the disproportionately white jury hearing the case. The jury was not in the courtroom when he made the remarks.

"Obviously theres only so many pastors they can have," Gough said. And if their pastors Al Sharpton right now that's fine, but then thats it. We dont want any more Black pastors coming in here ... sitting with the victims family, trying to influence the jurors in this case.

Jason Sheffield, one of Travis McMichael's lawyers, told the judge he didn't notice any distractions caused by Sharpton, who sat in the back row of the courtroom gallery wearing a mask.

Gough said he didn't realize Sharpton had been there until after court had adjourned for the day.

You werent even aware of it until later?" the judge said. "Im not sure what were doing.

Sharpton held a prayer vigil and news conference outside the Glynn County courthouse Wednesday afternoon to show support for Arbery's family. Afterward he joined Arbery's parents and their lawyers to listen to portions of the trial testimony.

Sharpton said in a statement that Gough's remarks showed arrogant insensitivity."

I respect the defense attorney doing his job, Sharpton said, "but this is beyond defending your client, it is insulting the family of the victim.

Jury selection ended last week with prosecutors objecting to the final jury of 11 whites and one Black juror. The judge agreed there appeared to be intentional discrimination in the exclusion of Black potential jurors, but said Georgia law limited his authority to intervene.

One juror, a white woman, was dismissed before the trial began for medical reasons. Fifteen total panelists are hearing the trial  12 jurors plus three alternates. The judge has not given the races of the alternate jurors, and they were not asked to state their race in open court.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP)  The attorney for a Black teenager from Texas says several other teens attacked his client with a stun gun on Halloween while wearing costumes resembling Ku Klux Klan robes.

At a news conference Wednesday, Matt Manning of Corpus Christi said the attack involved high school students in Woodsboro, a small town 30 miles north of Corpus Christi. He said his client was not seriously injured, and he declined to identify all involved because they were juveniles.
BOSTON (AP)  Massachusetts residents would be eligible for annual mental health wellness exams  akin to annual physical exams  at no cost under a sweeping mental health bill set to be debated by the state Senate next week.

The bill would also create an online portal to help smooth the transition from emergency to longer-tern care; dedicate $122 million to recruit and retain nearly 2,000 behavioral professionals; and establish a panel to help resolve barriers to care for children with complex behavioral health needs who find themselves in an emergency room.

The goal of the bill is to create a more robust mental health care system on par with the states existing health care system, according to advocates such as Democratic Senate President Karen Spilka.

For Spilka, the question of expanding access to mental health care is personal as well as political. She has spoken about the undiagnosed and untreated post-traumatic stress disorder and mental health problems her father, a WWII veteran, suffered for much of his life.

I know first-hand how mental health conditions can affect the entire family, not only the person that might be experiencing mental health issues, but the entire family, Spilka said when she unveiled the bill earlier this week.

The bill would rely in part on $400 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The proposal would also enforce existing mental health parity laws intended to ensure that insurance coverage for mental health care should be equal to insurance coverage for other medical conditions.

Although the concept of mental health parity has been codified in federal and state law for decades, enforcement has been spotty as patients are often denied coverage for mental health treatment, advocates said.

The bill would address the enforcement issue in part by allowing the Division of Insurance to more swiftly receive and investigate parity complaints.

Another problem the bill would address is whats known as emergency department boarding or ED boarding." Thats what happens when adults or children in the throes of a mental health crisis seek help in a hospital emergency department.

If they ultimately need to be admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit, the wait can last days, weeks or even months. Often in the interim, the individual seeking help must wait in the emergency department receiving little or no psychiatric care.

The bill seeks to address the issue by creating an online portal with real-time data to help health care providers more easily search for open beds, requiring all hospital emergency departments to have a qualified behavioral health clinician to evaluate patients in need of mental health care during all operating hours, and directing the state Office of the Child Advocate to produce an annual report on child ED boarding.

The legislation would also reimburse mental health providers more equitably, create a standard release form, eliminate requirements for prior authorization from insurance providers for acute mental health treatment, encourage health care facilities to develop more emergency psychiatric services, and increase access to mental health care in more geographically isolated areas.

While Massachusetts has made strides in expanding health coverage, many residents still face barriers to accessing the care they need, particularly behavioral health care, according to Amy Rosenthal, executive director of the advocacy group Health Care for All.

Rosenthal said the Senate bill seeks to address these barriers through several levers, including enhancing health insurance coverage and parity provisions, building and diversifying the workforce, addressing the emergency department boarding crisis, and increasing access for especially underserved populations.

The bill is an updated version of legislation approved by the Senate last year.

If again approved by the Senate next week, the bill would go to the Massachusetts House for consideration.
WHEELING, Ill. (AP)  A 26-year-old man was charged with first-degree murder in the strangulation death of a suburban Chicago woman whose 1-year-old daughter was found dead in a northwest Indiana retention pond, police said Friday.

Wheeling Deputy Police Chief Al Steffen identified the suspect as Ahmeel Fowler, of the Illinois community of Pinegree Grove. Steffan said Fowler and Ja'nya Murphy, 21, of Wheeling, had at one point been in a troubled relationship.
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP)  Border Patrol officials say a supervisory agent from the agency's Tucson sector has died in what is being described as a line of duty death.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said this week that Anibal Tony A. Perez died Nov. 5. The exact cause of death was withheld for privacy reasons.
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP)  A Southern California man says he killed two women with a meat cleaver after a New Year's Eve party while his wife and son waited in a car outside.

Christopher Ireland, 42, of Huntington Beach took the stand Wednesday, the Orange County Register reported.

Ireland is charged with the Jan. 1, 2017, murders of Yolanda Holtrey, 59, and Michelle Luke, 49, and with setting fire to Holtrey's Westminster home to destroy evidence. He could face life in prison if convicted.

Irelands wife worked with Holtrey and Luke at a department store.

Ireland said the killings occurred after Holtrey caught him having sex with Luke while Ireland's wife and 11-year-old son were in a car parked outside, waiting for Ireland to leave.

Ireland testified that he killed the women after they attacked him, Holtrey with the cleaver and later Luke with a kettlebell.

Ireland said he returned to his car, drove his family home, then hours later drove back to Holtrey's home and set it on fire.

Surveillance cameras outside the home captured Ireland, who wore a mask, trying to clean up the scene and dragging the women's bodies to his car trunk before setting fire to the home. Ireland said he dumped the bodies in a wooded area in Newport Beach.

A man who was renting a room in the home woke up to smoke and called 911.

Ireland denied that he moved the bodies and set fire to the home to destroy evidence.

The whole scene had to go away, it was horrific, he said. The only way I could describe it is a nightmare, and I just wanted it to not exist anymore.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP)  India faces a difficult choice that will have consequences for the world.

No countrys energy needs are expected to grow faster in coming decades than India's. Even under the most optimistic projections, a part of the demand must be met by dirty coal power -- a key source of heat trapping carbon emissions.

India can either compromise on development needed to lift millions from poverty, or it can continue burning coal from the country's vast domestic reserves, said Indias top environmental official Rameshwar Prasad Gupta in New Delhi, the week before the United Nations climate summit at Glasgow, known as COP26.

With just days remaining for the crucial talks, a fundamental question remains: Will there be enough carbon space in the atmosphere for Indias developmental needs to coexist with the global ambition of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

Last week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the country would aim to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by 2070 -- two decades after the U.S., and at least 10 years later than China. But this will only shave off a tenth of a degree of the worlds warming, said climate scientist Niklas Hohne, of the NewClimate Institute and the Climate Action Tracker.

And India's short-term targets for 2030 -- increasing its current capacity of non-fossil fuel electricity to 500 gigawatts and using green energy to meet half of its needs, cutting carbon emissions by a billion tons compared with previous targets, and reducing the carbon intensity of its economy by 45% -- wouldnt have any impact, said Hohne.

But experts said these goals are ambitious for India, considering its developmental status and will be far from easy.

For instance, India will have to triple its non-fossil fuel capacity in less than a decade. And for that, its power sector will have to completely reimagine itself. States, whose entire economies have centered around coal for centuries, will have to diversify. Land, which is in short supply in the crowded subcontinent, will be required for sprawling solar parks.

Its a humongous task for a country like India, said Sandeep Pai, who studies energy security and climate change at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D,C.

Even then, it may not be enough for the world.

Despite their net zero" emissions targets, China, the United States and the European Union will take up 90% of the remaining carbon space to limit warming to 1.5 degrees by 2050, according to an analysis by the India think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) released Sunday. But if they were to advance their targets by a decade, more than 110 billion tons of carbon dioxide for developing nations  or a third of the remaining carbon budget  would be available for developing nations.

You cant develop, if you dont have the carbon space, said Arunabha Ghosh, CEEW's chief executive.

And because of its vast population, Indias energy choices have an oversized impact for the world. There are 27 million people without access to electricity. It has roads and homes to build, while extreme heat is driving up the demand for air conditioning. To fulfil these needs, India will need to build a power system the size of the entire European Union's.

Although India accounts for the most annual emissions after China and the U.S., its negotiators in Glasgow have, time and again, pointed out that they have historically contributed a fraction of the worlds emissions. Moreover, they say, the typical American uses 12 times more electricity than the average Indian.

Indian environment and climate change minister Bhupender Yadav told the Associated Press in an interview Wednesday it's a matter of conscience" and said those countries historically responsible for emissions need to keep their unfulfilled promise of providing climate finance.

Modi said earlier at the summit that India expected the worlds developed nations to make $1 trillion available as climate finance. As things stand right now, the climate finance from rich nations to align with the 1.5 degrees Celsius target is nowhere to be seen, said Chirag Gajjar, a climate expert at the World Resources Institute.

It's possible for the goal of 1.5 degrees and Indias development needs to coexist, said climate scientist Hohne. What is key, he said, is not building any new coal-fired power plants anywhere in the world, including India, and shutting some coal-fired power plants before their time.

A transition away from coal, especially for coal-dependent regions of the world, would require the assistance of the international community, Hohne added.

Asked about coal, India environment minister Yadav said the country had no immediate plans to phase it out. All the issues come and get stuck in climate finance.

___

For more AP climate coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/climate

___

Follow Aniruddha Ghosal on Twitter: @aniruddhg1

___

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Matias Delacroix/AP

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP)  Canada said it is temporarily withdrawing nonessential staff from its embassy in Haiti.

The move comes in response to a spike in gang-related violence in Haiti and a severe lack of fuel that has affected hospitals, schools and banks.
DOHUK, Iraq (AP)  Sarkawt Ismat was cold, hungry and terrified, trapped between Polish and Belarusian troops facing off on opposite sides of the European Unions eastern border.

The 19-year-old Iraqi taxi driver is among thousands from the Middle East who have been trying to cross into the EU in recent months through a backdoor opened by non-EU member Belarus.

Ismat left his home in Dohuk, a town in Iraqs autonomous Kurdistan region, two weeks ago, after selling his taxi. He paid $2,600 to a local travel agency for a bus to Turkey, a hotel stay in Istanbul, a plane ticket to Minsk, and three nights in a hotel in the Belarusian capital.

He hoped to enter Poland and eventually reach Germany to join his older brother, Sarwar, who had successfully completed the journey.

Somewhere near the Polish border, his dreams were crushed. He and others in his group were stopped by Belarusian troops who he said beat them and took their possessions, including his money and cellphone. For days, the group was trapped in a forest, not allowed to enter Poland or return to Minsk.

Im scared and want to come back but dont have a penny, he said in a phone interview, using a borrowed mobile. It is an absolute humiliation here, he said.

When I traveled, they told me it is very easy. It takes only three days to get to Europe.

That turned out to be wrong.

___

For many in the Middle East, beaten down by conflict and hopelessness, the lure of jobs and stability in Europe has always been powerful. Legal entry has been near-impossible, with the EU tightening its borders in recent years. Every year, tens of thousands try to get in, embarking on treacherous and, at times, deadly journeys by sea and land.

Others were deterred by such risks until an opportunity for seemingly easy entry to Europe appeared to open up earlier this year.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, angered after the EU imposed sanctions on his authoritarian regime following a harsh internal crackdown on dissent, responded by saying he was loosening border controls against Western-bound migrants. EU officials accused him of using the migrants as pawns, while Lukashenko denies that and says Europe is violating their rights by denying them safe passage.

Belarus began offering easy tourist visas to Iraqis, Syrians and others from the Middle East and Africa. This meant they could now reach the edge of Europe on comfortable flights to Belarus, then try to sneak into Poland, Lithuania or Latvia, all EU members.

Thousands have attempted the journey since summer. That has led in recent weeks to increasingly tense standoffs on the border Belarus and scenes of desperate migrants huddled in forests amid freezing temperatures. Poland sent riot police and troops to bolster its border guards. At least eight deaths have been reported.

___

A 44-year-old car mechanic from Syria says he doesnt care about Lukashenkos motives or the reports of suffering at the Belarus border.

He is determined to reach Belarus with his older sons, ages 16 and 17, and eventually get to Germany. There he hopes to find work and arrange for his wife and two younger children to join him.

There is no future here for young people, whether in education, culture or social life, he said, asking that his name not be used because he feared publicity could disrupt his plans.

Both Syria and Iraq have been devastated by years of conflict. Syria is a broken country after a decade of civil war that killed more than 400,000 people and displaced half its population. President Bashar Assad prevailed with the help of Russia and Iran, confining those trying to topple him to a small corner of Syria. But the country is in an economic free fall set off by Western sanctions and the cumulative costs of war.

The mechanic said there is absolutely no hope the situation will improve, and its better to take a risk now than to see his children condemned to despair in Syria. Things are so bad that his oldest son cant even get a required textbook for 10th grade English, he said.

When he heard of what was happening in Belarus through social media, he went to a travel agency in Damascus that offered package deals for $4,000 per person. He applied for the visa and borrowed money to cover the cost for himself and his sons.

Hell leave for Belarus once he gets the visa, he said.

At this stage, nothing will deter him. He said hes prepared to try four or five times.

There are people who make it the first time, others the second time and others the third time, but eventually they arrive, he said. I have to guarantee the future of my children.

___

A Damascus travel agent said demand has driven up prices for packages to Belarus, from $2,600 for a flight and five nights in a Minsk hotel, to about $4,000.

Most Syrians make the trip on private Syrian carrier Cham Wings, said the agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of possible harm to his business.

The EU is looking at the role some airlines have played, reportedly considering sanctions against them.

Flight options are shrinking. Turkey said Friday it is halting airline tickets to Iraqis, Syrians and Yemenis wanting to travel to Belarus. Citing that decision, the Belarusian airline Belavia said it also would not ticket citizens of those countries on its Istanbul-Minsk flight.

Iraqi Airways, which suspended flights between Baghdad and Minsk on Aug. 5, has flown home about 1,000 stranded Iraqis from Belarus, and more rescue flights are planned, said spokesman Hussein Jalil.

Kameran Hassan, an Iraqi, said he and his family of four were forced onto a return flight. They made it into Poland but were caught. After three weeks in a holding center, they were put on a bus with other Iraqis. They were told they would be taken to another camp in Warsaw, but instead were driven to the airport.

They started to put us by force on the plane, said Hassan, speaking from Sulaymaniyah in Iraq's Kurdish region.

One man fainted when he saw they were being deported because he had sold everything for the attempt, Hassan said. Polish escorts carried him on a stretcher onto the flight back to Iraq.

___

For Sarkawt Ismat's mother, his predicament in Belarus seemed to confirm her fears. Adla Salim had pleaded with him not to go.

Her older son, 22-year-old Sarwar, had left for Belarus three months ago and reached Germany in early October, after spending 10 days hiding in a forest. He suffers from chronic heart problems, and is hospitalized in Germany, she said. The family only let him go because he was ill and they couldnt do anything for him in Dohuk.

We tried to convince Sarkawt not to go, but he was very insistent, she said.

Sarkawt still owed $10,000 on the taxi that he sold to pay for the trip  money that his father, a peshmerga fighter, now has to pay back from his monthly income of about $1,000.

All that money now seems to have gone for nothing. Sarkawt was allowed Thursday to leave the forest for Minsk, in preparation for returning to Iraq.

His mother, a 45-year-old housewife, says all she wants is her boy home.

He calls weeping, saying I want to go back to Iraq. I want nothing. I just want to go back. I am hungry and cold, she said.

___

Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Salar Salim and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Albert Aji in Damascus contributed.
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP)  Officials in Jackson County in southwest Oregon plan to ask the state for more than $7.2 million to help crack down on the billions of dollars worth of illegal pot grows across the Rogue Valley.

The money would pay for 37 new employees, including Sheriffs Office detectives, code enforcement officers and more staff for the Jackson County District Attorneys Office, The Mail Tribune reported.

Jackson County Commissioner Rick Dyer said the request is what the county needs over a year to make growing illegal marijuana uncomfortable and risky for people.

Regulated recreational marijuana was legalized in Oregon in 2015, but that hasn't stopped illegal, untaxed grows from proliferating.

Southern Oregon is at the tip of the so-called Emerald Triangle, a pot growing region that includes Northern California.

Oregons Jackson, Josephine, Klamath and Douglas County sheriffs offices regularly find grows and processing and storage sites with millions of dollars worth of illegal marijuana. A potato shed with marijuana worth more than $100 million was found this year in Klamath County and a grow with an estimated $200 million worth of marijuana plants was discovered in Josephine County.

But without enough money from the state and blocked from enacting local taxes on grows to fund marijuana enforcement, Jackson County officials say law enforcement in the region has fallen behind on busting illegal pot operations.

State agencies that regulate the hemp and marijuana industries and agricultural water use are also struggling to keep up with the volume of illegal operators, county officials said.

Jackson County Administrator Danny Jordan said the Jackson County Sheriffs Office can currently tackle about 40 illegal grows per year. Jackson County officials estimate there are 2,000 legal and illegal hemp and marijuana sites locally.

Law enforcement agencies in southern Oregon say foreign cartels are behind many of the illegal grows. They say cartels know some grows will be discovered and destroyed, but the rest will generate vast sums of money once the pot is trafficked to states where marijuana is illegal.

Jackson County's request for funding will go to the Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office Emergency Board, which allocates emergency funds when the Oregon Legislature isnt in session.

Jordan noted the nearly $7.3 million request doesnt include money to address environmental damage from dismantled greenhouses, human feces, pesticides and dangerous electrical wiring left behind by illegal growers.

The state Emergency Board has a larger pile of money this year, in part because Oregons budget was buttressed by federal pandemic aid.

From a budget standpoint, this should be a no-brainer, Jackson County Commissioner Dave Dotterrer said.
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP)  Cyprus police have suspended one officer and 11 constables after launching an investigation into how a boat loaded with migrants gave them the slip and continued its journey to Italy after docking at a local harbor.

Police said in a statement Friday that the boat carrying 61 people was intercepted early Wednesday off the Mediterranean islands southern coast and escorted to port in the resort town of Paphos.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)  Authorities say the owner of an unlicensed California elder care facility has been sentenced to four years in prison for her role in the neglect and death of an 83-year-old veteran.

Ayette Loo, owner of Regency Care in Seal Beach, was sentenced Friday in Orange County after previously pleading guilty to felony elder abuse, the state attorney general's office said in a statement.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP)  A Connecticut man has been charged with disorderly conduct and other crimes for allegedly entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, federal authorities said Friday.

Jeremy Baouche, 24, of New London, was arrested Wednesday and released on $100,000 bail later the same day after appearing before a federal judge in New Haven, the U.S. attorney's office in Connecticut said.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP)  Hungary could face fines from the European Union for failing to comply with a ruling by the bloc's top court on its treatment of refugees and handling of asylum claims.

The European Commission, the 27-member bloc's executive arm, said in a statement Friday that it would refer Hungary to the EU Court of Justice for failing to amend its asylum procedures in line with the court's ruling, and recommended sustained financial penalties until Budapest complies.

In its statement, the commission said that as of today, Hungary has not addressed several aspects of the judgment.

In particular, Hungary has not taken the measures necessary to ensure effective access to the asylum procedure, it said. Hungary has also not clarified the conditions pertaining to the right to remain on the territory in case of an appeal in an asylum procedure.

The referral came after the EU court issued a ruling in December that found Hungary had failed to respect EU law by denying people entering the country without authorization the right to apply for asylum, and by unlawfully detaining them in transit zones on its border with Serbia.

Hungary's right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban is a steadfast opponent of immigration, and has portrayed his country as a bulwark against migrants from the Middle East and Africa and a defender of Christianity in Europe.

Orban is also a fierce critic of the EU, and Hungary faces financial penalties over what the bloc sees as violations of its fundamental values and the rule of law.

Around $8 billion in EU coronavirus recovery funds earmarked for Hungary have been withheld over insufficient anti-corruption safeguards in its spending plan.

On Friday, the Commission asked the EU court to impose fines against Hungary in the form of a lump sum and a daily penalty payment. Such a fine would be similar to EU sanctions recently imposed on Poland, a key ally of Hungary's, which in October was ordered to pay 1 million euros ($1.2 million) a day over what the EU sees as breaches of its values concerning the judiciary.

___

Follow APs global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
DALLAS (AP)  In the years after Leah Corken's death, one detail after another haunted her daughter.

Though M.J. Jennings came to accept that her mother likely died of a stroke, just the night before they had gone shopping and to a movie and the 83-year-old had seemed her usual sassy self.

When Corken's body was found in 2016 on the living room floor of her apartment at The Tradition-Prestonwood, an upscale independent living community in Dallas, her freshly styled hair was a mess. There were makeup smudges on her bedroom pillow.

And her wedding ring was missing.

I knew something was wrong, but I didnt know, Jennings said. I didnt know it was murder.

Across Dallas and its suburbs over a two-year span, family after family had similar misgivings, troubled over missing jewelry and puzzling on the suddenness of their older but otherwise healthy and active loved ones death.

Then, in March 2018, 91-year-old Mary Annis Bartel survived after a man forced his way into her apartment, telling her dont fight me as he tried to smother her with a pillow and left with jewelry. The next day, police arrested Billy Chemirmir. Authorities announced they would review hundreds of deaths, signaling the possibility that a serial killer had been stalking older people.

Over the following years, the number of people Chemirmir was accused of killing grew. He goes on trial Monday in the death of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris  one of 18 women he is charged with killing. Chemirmir, 48, faces life in prison without parole if convicted, as prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty.

Most of the victims were killed at independent living communities for older people, where Chemirmir allegedly forced his way into apartments or posed as a handyman. He's also accused of killing women in private homes, including the widow of a man he had cared for in his job as an at-home caregiver.

At a news conference days after Chemirmirs arrest, then-Plano Police Chief Greg Rushin acknowledged a tendency to assume the death of an older person is natural.

There is not a deep investigation. ... It would be very easy to disguise a crime, Rushin said.

When police tracked Chemirmir to his nearby apartment following the attack on Bartel, he was holding jewelry and cash. A jewelry box police say he had just thrown away led them to a Dallas home, where Harris was dead in her bedroom, lipstick smeared on her pillow.

Chemirmir's attorney didnt respond to a request to comment for this story, but has previously called the evidence against Chemirmir circumstantial. Chemirmir, who immigrated to the U.S. from Kenya, became a legal permanent resident in 2007.

Eight of the people he's charged with killing lived at The Tradition-Prestonwood, and he's been linked to a ninth resident's death in a lawsuit.

Just days before Glenna Day, 87, was found dead there in October 2016, she told friends something seemed off.

They asked how things were going. She said, Well, Im thinking I should move because my friends are dying, said her daughter, Sherril Kerr, who added that the deaths prompted her mother to go to her doctor for a checkup.

When Day was killed, the accomplished artist had been working to restore a friends painting, and had just been out dancing at a senior center.

Chemirmir has been indicted in two deaths earlier that year at another Dallas retirement community  The Edgemere  and linked via an autopsy report to a third.

In April 2016, police issued a criminal trespass warning at Edgemere to Benjamin Koitaba, an alias Chemirmir used. When he was spotted there again in June, police found that he had two IDs  one for Chemirmir, one for Koitaba. He was charged with criminal trespass and giving officers a false name.

The deaths at The Tradition began after his release from jail that July. According to lawsuits against The Tradition, Chemirmir was escorted off the premises in late 2016 and asked not to return. A November 2016 police report says the suspect -- who isnt named but whose description matches Chemirmir -- was seen there numerous times, saying he was checking for pipe leaks.

In the two weeks before the attack on Bartel, Chemirmir is accused of killing three of her fellow residents at Preston Place in Plano.

As the victims children began finding each other, they formed Secure Our Seniors Safety. The group championed new Texas laws requiring medical examiners to notify families when a relatives death certificate is amended and requiring spot checks by officials at cash-for-gold shops.

They say more work needs to be done, including more transparency at independent living communities. In lawsuits, the families accused the facilities of failing to have the security they advertised.

We didnt know evil was roaming the hallways, said Shannon Dion, whose mother was killed at The Tradition and who is the groups president.

The Tradition said in a statement that it relied on investigations by police and medical examiners. Preston Place said it resolved the litigation but would not comment on specifics. Edgemere didnt respond to requests for comment.

As Scott MacPhee read an article about Chemirmirs arrest, his 82-year-old mothers death at her Plano home began to make sense. Carolyn MacPhee was found in her bedroom on New Years Eve in 2017, just over eight months after her husbands death. There was blood on her glasses, a door and tissues in the bathroom. Two diamond rings she always wore were missing.

Im reading the story going, Well, holy crap, that connects all of the dots, he said.

Robert MacPhee said police surmised that their mother had a nosebleed and died of an aneurysm, so the family did not pursue an autopsy. It turned out that Chemirmir, using the Koitaba alias, had been an at-home caregiver for their father, who had Parkinsons.

About nine months after Chemirmirs arrest, Jennings found out that authorities believed her mother had been murdered.

Suddenly, all of the things that I saw in that room on that day ... everything made sense, she said.

Jennings said Corken had lived all over the world and moved from Florida to The Tradition to be close to her.

She was my best friend, she really was, Jennings said.
ATLANTA (AP)  James Burchett, loyal Republican, walked the plank for his party on Wednesday.

Burchett came forward as the Georgia House debated a map to redraw districts for its 180 members and asked members to vote for a plan that draws the Waycross resident into the same district as another Republican, Rep Dominic LaRiccia of Douglas.

I may not come back, Burchett said. I do not relish the opportunity to have to run against one of my colleagues. But Im able to set it aside because I feel confidently that this is whats best for us.

Burchett and LaRiccia are among four sets of House members who were drawn into the same districts under a House map that got final approval in the Senate on Friday on a 32-21 vote. The House map is projected to create districts likely to elect 98 Republicans, or 54% of the Houses 180 members. Thats down from 103 Republicans now.

The measure now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature or veto.

Other lawmakers paired in the House map are Democrat Winfred Dukes of Albany and Republican Gerald Greene of Cuthbert, Snellville Democrats Shelly Hutchinson and Rebecca Mitchell, and Republicans Danny Mathis of Cochran and Robert Pruitt of Eastman.

The number of paired House incumbents is much lower than 10 years ago, when six sets of Democrats and four sets of Republicans were pitted against each other.

No incumbents who plan to seek reelection to their seats were paired in a Senate map that passed that chamber and awaits approval in the House. It's projected to elect Republicans in 59%, or 33, of the Senates 56 seats. Thats down from 34 right now.

Being paired presents difficult choices. Georgia law requires legislators to live in their districts for a year before election, and because the 2022 general election is now less that year away, lawmakers cant move to another district where a seat might be open to try to seek an easier race. That means a lawmaker can run against another incumbent or find something else to do. At least two Republicans, Reps. Matt Dollar of Marietta and Wes Cantrell of Woodstock are also drawn into districts with other incumbents but don't plan to seek reelection.

The General Assembly must redraw electoral districts at least once every decade to equalize populations following the U.S. Census. Georgia added more than a million people from 2010 to 2020, with populations in urban districts generally growing and rural districts shrinking. Slow-growing or declining populations in south Georgia directly influenced three of the four pairings.

Weve been hit with a sharp decrease in population, Pruitt said of his current district, which includes some of the state's fastest shrinking areas. I understand the situation. Were down 12,000 and were surrounded by others who need 6,000.

Pruitt said he hopes he and Mathis can hold down the venom in a Republican primary.

We just agreed that if were going to run against each other, were going to be very respectful of each other.

LaRiccia, though, is more emphatic about his campaign plans.

Im running to win and whoever they draw me in with is going to get beat, LaRiccia said.

Dukes might appear to be the favorite against Greene in their combined southwest Georgia district, but Dukes raised concerns during Wednesdays floor debate that there may not be as many Democratic-leaning African American voters in the district as it initially appears because of a large state prison that is counted in the population. Prisoners in Georgia are disproportionately Black, but people convicted of felonies can't vote while in prison.

Declining population wasn't an influence in the pairing of Mitchell and Hutchinson in Gwinnett County, despite the creation of an open Democrat-leaning district next door. Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, a Stone Mountain Democrat, cited that pairing as one reason to reject the House map.

Their map pairs two Democratic representatives in Gwinnett County, of all places, a majority-minority county that also saw the largest population growth in Georgia since the last Census, and despite the fact that theres an open seat nearby that either one of them could have been drawn into," Butler said.

This will be the first time in decades that Georgia lawmakers wont be required to get federal approval of their maps after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act.

___

Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.
OPELIKA, Ala. (AP)  A former Alabama prosecutor convicted of violating the state ethics law and perjury surrendered at the jail in his home county to begin a 10-month sentence.

Former Lee County District Attorney Brandon Hughes turned himself in at the Lee County jail on Thursday, when he had been ordered by a judge to report, WSFA-TV reported.
Gay men and bisexual women may have higher rates of high blood pressure than their heterosexual counterparts, according to new research.

The study analyzed self-reported data from 424,255 participants, including 1.8% who were gay or lesbian and 2.3% who were bisexual. After adjusting for demographics, insurance, body mass index and smoking status, researchers found that gay men were 24% more likely and bisexual women were 17% more likely to have high blood pressure compared to their heterosexual peers.

The findings will be presented Saturday at the American Heart Association's virtual Scientific Sessions conference. They are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is called a "silent killer" because it often has no obvious symptoms. When left untreated, it can contribute to heart attacks and strokes. According to AHA statistics, about half of all U.S. adults have high blood pressure, and more than 1 in 3 of those people might not even be aware they have it.

Lead researcher Yashika Sharma said she wasn't surprised by the research findings.

"There is ample evidence showing that sexual minority adults have a higher prevalence of several risk factors for hypertension, such as tobacco use, short sleep duration and obesity, than heterosexual adults," said Sharma, a PhD student at Columbia University School of Nursing in New York City.

In recent years, scientists have gathered evidence suggesting why the disparities exist. Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults "experience significant psychosocial stressors that compromise their cardiovascular health across the life span," according to an AHA scientific statement last year on heart health in LGBTQ adults.

However, Sharma was surprised to find that gay men diagnosed with hypertension were 32% more likely to take medication for their condition, compared to heterosexual men. At the same time, the research found bisexual women were 30% less likely than heterosexual women to use blood pressure medicine. That figure aligns with previous research showing "certain groups of sexual minority adults tend to delay health care," Sharma said.

Sharma said medical professionals need to be more proactive in screening LGB adults for high blood pressure, and schools for health professions such as doctors, nurses and physician assistants need to be better at teaching students about LGB health disparities. She called for future research to examine which factors contribute most to high blood pressure and which interventions work best among gay, lesbian and bisexual adults.

Dr. Carl Streed, who was not involved in the study, said the research was limited because the data was self-reported and there was no information on alcohol intake, a hypertension risk factor with higher rates in the gay, lesbian and bisexual community.

Still, the study "fits into our larger understanding of minority stress theory, which attempts to explain how marginalized identities, such as sexual identity, are associated with worse health outcomes. How society treats marginalized populations, such as lesbian, gay and bisexual persons, has measurable negative effects on health, such as hypertension," said Streed, a co-author of the AHA statement on heart health in the LGBTQ community.

Streed, an assistant professor at Boston University School of Medicine, called on public health professionals to "look upstream for causes of these disparities" and urged people to feel empowered to advocate for their own health, including their blood pressure.

"While society bears the burden of having to do better by individuals and communities, patients must advocate for their well-being and seek appropriate treatment, including but not limited to medication," Streed said.

Find more news from Scientific Sessions.

If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. Permission is granted, at no cost and without need for further request, for individuals, media outlets, and non-commercial education and awareness efforts to link to, quote, excerpt or reprint from these stories in any medium as long as no text is altered and proper attribution is made to American Heart Association News.

Other uses, including educational products or services sold for profit, must comply with the American Heart Associations Copyright Permission Guidelines. See full terms of use. These stories may not be used to promote or endorse a commercial product or service.

HEALTH CARE DISCLAIMER: This site and its services do not constitute the practice of medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always talk to your health care provider for diagnosis and treatment, including your specific medical needs. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem or condition, please contact a qualified health care professional immediately. If you are in the United States and experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or call for emergency medical help immediately.
DELTONA, Fla. (AP)  A civil rights group in a Florida county is starting a petition to recall a city commissioner who used to be a member of a group labeled as extremist by some hate-watchdog organizations.

The West Volusia branch of the NAACP says it was mobilizing a petition drive to recall Deltona Commissioner Loren King, who says he left the Oath Keepers in 2017 after being a member for two years. He was elected to office in 2018.
Andrew DeMillo

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin and the state's four U.S. House members on Friday endorsed Sarah Sanders' bid for governor, days after the former White House press secretary's path to the Republican nomination was cleared.

Hutchinson, who is barred by term limits from running for reelection, praised Sanders and said he's known her most of her life. Sanders became the only Republican left running for governor on Tuesday after Attorney General Leslie Rutledge dropped her bid. Several Democrats are also running for governor.
(RNS)  It is early morning in the Great Smoky Mountains. Kevin Burrell is half asleep and wrapped tightly in his sleeping bag. Before surrendering his warm cocoon to the chilly morning air, he hears the call of a hermit thrush just above his tent, coaxing him to stay in bed for just a few seconds longer. The flutelike tune stops but is promptly followed by the quick chirps of a northern cardinal and the cheerful song of a tufted titmouse.

Burrell, with the skill of an avid birdwatcher, realized these sounds were coming from the same spot above his tent and that, while the calls sounded like they came from many birds, they were really just from one: a northern mockingbird. While some campers might have pulled their sleeping bags higher over their heads, trying to drown out the bird noises so early in the morning, Burrell listened closely and sought a deeper, Christian meaning in the small birds mimicry.

For him, the mockingbird is the picture of Christian discipleship, which entails learning about and imitating Jesus. The bird is also a lifelong learner, which is what Burrell said he is called to be as a follower of Christ.

___

This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.

___

Not every Christian may find deeper meaning in Gods avian creations. A select number of birds appear in the Bible  including hawks, sparrows and swallows  but for many, the relationship between birds and Christianity does not stray farther than seeing a dove carrying an olive branch on a banner at church. However, for Christian birdwatchers, this link is alive. When they hear a songbird, it reminds them of singing during church service, and watching chickadees splash around in a birdbath is its own kind of prayer.

On his blog, ornitheology.com, Burrell, a pastor at StoneBridge Church Community in Charlotte, North Carolina, recounts past birdwatching trips through biological detail and biblical devotion. The made-up word, ornitheology, is not Burrells, however. It was coined by theologian and birder John Stott in his book The Birds, Our Teachers, and refers to the unique blend of scientific study and religious appreciation of birds.

I think that everybody who takes seriously the fact that God is a creative God should pay attention to some creative aspects of what hes made, said Burrell. And I choose birds.

Over the years, birdwatching has taken him on trips around the world and in his own backyard. Now 52 years old, Burrell has become most attentive to the birds that are local to his area. He said that as a pastor, he is always looking for metaphors, which he finds plenty of in the bird world.

His post on the northern mockingbird explains the link between the mockingbird and discipleship. He also likens the unrelenting song of the small Carolina wren of his home state to singing in the Christian faith. The birds persistence reminds him of what he is called to as a believer  singing, praying and worshipping. His most recent post, about an encounter with homing pigeons, details the importance of home and the place on earth where God has put you.

Theres so much illustrative material in the bird world that teaches us about worship, creativity, development and care, said Burrell.

These lessons can also be found in the Bible. Debbie Blue, a founding pastor at House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, writes about the significance of different birds of the Bible in her book Consider the Birds: A Provocative Guide to Birds of the Bible.

God hovers over the face of the water in Genesis  the ancient rabbis suggest  like a bird, writes Blue. Birds gorge on the flesh of the defeated beast in Revelation. They are a currency of mercy  the birds of sacrifice. They bring bread to the prophets. They are food for the wanderers.

Blue, whose fascination with birds stemmed from her own birdwatching experiences, examines the significance and role of birds in Judeo-Christian narratives while musing on the metaphors and analogies birds provide for Christian faith.

In the chapter on doves, Blue explained the symbol of a dove at Jesus baptism. She realized the specific type of dove present would have likely been a rock dove, found in Palestine, and more commonly known as a pigeon.

The pigeon, often considered a pest and hard to get rid of, reminds Blue of the spirit of God. It seems like a pigeon could be with us in both our worst and most beautiful places  a dirty alley or a Roman piazza, said Blue.

God can also be found in vultures. Before writing her book, Blue said, she saw this bird as violent, dark and dreadful. But, after learning about vultures ability to cleanse and rid the earth of disease  they have uniquely strong digestive juices that kill bacteria and pathogens  she sees them as purifying.

A vulture is a symbol for a God that can take everything in and make it clean  a God that can make even death nontoxic, said Blue.

Kevin Kummer, a campus pastor with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, is drawn to the distinct personalities and intelligence of birds. He sees this specifically in the black-capped chickadees that frequent his backyard. They land on the edge of a dish of water that he has above his hummingbird feeder. Every time the little birds find the dish, meant to keep ants out of the sweet sugar mixture in the feeder, he hears them sing a brief song before drinking  as if they are thankful.

I try not to read human personality into them, said Kummer. But it seems to me that theres certainly a character to birds thats really different.

Kummer, who lives in Iowa City, likes to carve out time in his day to watch the birds in his area  whether in his backyard or on a walking trail through the woods. It is a pastime, he said, that deepens his relationship with God.

It is a spiritual discipline, a facet of a life of prayer, an extension of my seeking, seeing, and hearing from the Spirit of Jesus, writes Kummer in a blog post titled  Birdwatching & Prayer.

Kummer sees parallels between the tools needed for both birdwatching and praying. Seeing and hearing are important, as you must be attentive to the birds around you just as you must be attentive to Jesus. Keeping notes, of both birds and prayers, has helped him retain what he has learned.

The act of recording, describing, reflecting and savoring what I see deepens the impression made on me by a bird or the Spirit, writes Kummer.

When birding, Kummer said, he feels an external nearness to God and his creation as well as an internal appreciation for Gods artistry.

I have a sense that God must really love us a lot to create such an amazing, fascinating, beautiful world, he said.

For Burrell, being a Christian birder means being able to thank someone for the beauty he encounters, whether that beauty is a ruby-throated hummingbird he saw at home in North Carolina or a rainbow lorikeet spotted on a bird walk through Warrumbungle National Park in Australia. Nature is a window that brings him closer to God.

To me, the beauty is a window that points to a creator of it all. Its a means to a greater end, said Burrell.
NEW YORK (AP)  A teenager who authorities say terrorized outdoor diners at a Manhattan eatery pleaded guilty Friday to carrying out a hoax bomb threat.

Malik Sanchez, 19, entered the plea in Manhattan federal court. Sentencing was scheduled for Feb. 8.

In the plea, he admitted to making the threat at a restaurant in Manhattans Flatiron neighborhood.

He posted to the internet a video on Feb. 13 that showed him loudly stating that a bomb was about to go off near a table where two women sat, authorities said in a release.

Prosecutors said Sanchez loudly said: Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Bomb detonation in two, in two minutes. I take you with me and I kill all you."

Sanchez self-identifies as an involuntary celibate or incel, a mostly online group of individuals, primarily men, who believe society unjustly denies them sexual or romantic attention, prosecutors say.

At a court hearing in May, Judge Colleen McMahon released him to home confinement three weeks after his arrest, saying she had watched the video.

The first thing I thought was, this is a kid who needs to be seeing a psychiatrist, this is somebody who needs mental health counseling, McMahon said.

The charge he pleaded guilty to can result in a prison sentence of up to five years, but his lawyer said at the May hearing that it was more likely any prison sentence would be measured in months rather than years.
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP)  An Indiana prison inmate has been charged in the 2017 shooting death of another man at a Fort Wayne strip club, authorities announced.

The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette reported that 27-year-old James E. Starks III was charged this week with murder, criminal recklessness where defendant shoots a firearm into a building, carrying a handgun without a license and using a firearm in the commission of an offense.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)  An Iowa judge accused of trying to rig a judicial nomination to get a favored candidate appointed to the bench will not lead any future selection processes, the Iowa Judicial Branch said Friday.

District Judge Kurt Stoebe could also face an investigation by the Iowa Judicial Qualifications Commission, an independent body that investigates allegations of misconduct, the Judicial Branch said in a statement. The Iowa Supreme Court could discipline Stoebe, who was appointed by then-Gov. Chet Culver in 2011, only after receiving a report from the commission.

Gov. Kim Reynolds on Thursday said an investigation by her staff found that Stoebe's misconduct tainted the process of interviewing candidates and recommending finalists for an open district court judgeship in District 2b in central Iowa.

Reynolds rejected the two nominees submitted by the 11-member district nominating commission for which Stoebe served as chairman, and she ordered the commission to start from scratch.

The Judicial Branch statement said Stoebe has agreed to step down as chairman of the commission in light of the concerns raised by other members.

His resignation comes even though the Iowa Constitution states that the judge with the most seniority in the district shall chair such commissions. The Judicial Branch said Judge James Ellefson, the second most senior judge in the district behind Stoebe, will now lead the commission, which is expected to meet next week.

After interviewing several candidates on Oct. 12, the commission unanimously signed a report recommending Humboldt County Attorney Jonathan Beaty and district associate judge Derek Johnson. Under Iowas law for merit-based judicial nominations, the governor would normally have 30 days to select one of them.

But commissioners told the governor's office that Stoebe favored one candidate throughout the process, made unprofessional comments criticizing others, and unfairly excluded an applicant by falsely claiming he had withdrawn after his interview.

Reynolds said Stoebe's conduct justified her extraordinary move to reject the nominees, which she noted had only happened one other time in Iowa history.

Stoebe did not respond to a message seeking comment, and a court spokesman said the Judicial Branch statement was his reply.
As the court in the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse was set to adjourn for lunch Thursday, Judge Bruce Schroeder thought it was a good time to joke about whether their food would get there on time.

"I hope the Asian food isn't coming . . . isn't on one of those boats from Long Beach Harbor," he said.

The comments, which appeared to refer to the supply-chain backlog at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., were met with backlash from critics who said the judge made "a thinly-veiled anti-Asian comment," questioning how Schroeder could oversee a trial with racial implications and make a joke at the expense of Asians and Asian Americans.

"Maybe I'm supposed to applaud him for not saying 'Oriental food,'" tweeted John Yang, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an advocacy group defending the human and civil rights of Asian Americans. "During a trial that clearly has race implications, no less. Definitely not okay."

The judge's joke comes as closing arguments in Rittenhouse's divisive trial are expected on Monday. Rittenhouse, 18, is charged with killing two people and wounding a third during unrest in Kenosha, Wis., that unfolded last year after a White police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back. Rittenhouse emotionally broke down on the stand in testimony this week, later saying he was attacked and in danger that night.

"I defended myself," he said.

Schroeder, 75, has gained national attention, and generated anger and confusion, through his rulings and comments during the course of the trial.

When the trial began earlier this month, Schroeder forbade the prosecution from calling the three men Rittenhouse shot "victims," which the judge has long called a "loaded term." Schroeder, the longest-serving active judge in Wisconsin's trial courts, prefers "decedents" or "complaining witnesses." While Wisconsin lawyers say the ruling on "victims" has been long-standing in Schroeder's courtroom, others pointed out the judge allowed the defense to call the men Rittenhouse shot "looters" and "rioters," if the attorneys could prove they were involved in those acts.

Several other incidents put Schroeder in the spotlight. He dismissed a White juror after the man made a joke to a police deputy about the 2020 shooting of Blake. When Schroeder's phone went off in court this week, many noted the ringtone sounded like the opening to the 1984 Lee Greenwood song "God Bless the U.S.A.," which became a music staple at rallies for President Donald Trump. The judge's attempt to honor veterans on Veterans Day resulted in the courtroom applauding for a witness for the defense, who appeared to be the only veteran in the room.

His "Asian food" comments were perceived by some as anti-Asian for linking Asian people to the deepening freight logjam that's hampering the economic recovery and threatening consumers' holiday shopping plans. This week, a near-record 77 container ships were anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach while waiting for dockside space to become available.

Eric Feigl-Ding, an Asian American immigrant and epidemiologist and health economist with the Federation of American Scientists, denounced Schroeder's remarks as racist.

"The boats in the harbor are majority boats from Asia. And he said Asian food - which further connects the Asian boats," he tweeted. "He could have just said the lunch was late."

The sentiment was echoed by others, including Stanford Law professor Michele Dauber, who accused Schroeder as being "biased."

"All I can say is, Ugh," Mae Ngai, the Lung Family professor of Asian American studies and professor of history at Columbia University, told CNN. "Old racist stereotypes die hard."

Some Democrats and activists argued that Schroeder's joke was an example why the selection system for judges in Wisconsin was flawed.

"Schroeder has provided an example of how not to be a good judge," tweeted former Vermont governor Howard Dean, a Democrat.

Schroeder did, however, earn praise from Wendy Rittenhouse, Kyle's mother. After Fox News host Sean Hannity said that Schroeder has "been harsh against the prosecution" during the trial, Rittenhouse's mother said she thought the judge was "very fair."

"People that I talk to that lives in Kenosha all their lives told me Judge Schroeder is a very fair judge and doesn't allow no nonsense in his courtroom!" she said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Kim Bellware, Mark Berman and Mark Guarino contributed to this report.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  A Pennsylvania judge heard conflicting descriptions of the state's education funding as a trial began Friday in a lawsuit designed to compel lawmakers to funnel more money to schools in lower income areas.

A lawyer for the districts, parents and organizations that sued argued current state subsidies are insufficient in areas with lower property values and income, running afoul of the state constitution's mandate of a thorough system of public education.

This isnt a case about numbers, attorney Katrina Robson told Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer. Its a case about people. Its about children struggling to overcome circumstances that they cant control, children who see the resources available at other schools and not available at theirs.

Robson warned the judge that legislative Republican leaders will argue the state's funding of public education compares favorably to other states.

That ranking is based on an average," Robson told the judge. "And that average hides what the Pennsylvania Department of Education itself described as one of the largest gaps of any state in the country in per-child spending between the commonwealth's poorest and wealthiest districts.

The case's central issue is a pattern of wide disparities in spending among the state's 500 districts and the comparatively low percentage of K-12 education that is paid for by the state government.

The plaintiffs are six districts, several parents, the state conference of the NAACP and the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools. They sued the governor, state education secretary, the Department of Education, the state Board of Education and the top-ranking Republican leaders in the state House and Senate.

The lawsuit does not request a specific amount of money to be spent on K-12 education, but rather a declaration that the existing system violates a state constitutional requirement that Pennsylvania provide a thorough and efficient system of public education and that the system discriminates against children in lower-income areas.

Patrick Northen, a lawyer for House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, a defendant in the case, argued the Legislature has been funding education in good faith, noting state support has grown by $2 billion annually over the seven years since the lawsuit was filed in 2014.

Pennsylvania ranks near the top nationally in spending per pupil on elementary and secondary education, Northen said, with education spending now at about $13.9 billion this year.

Even the lowest-spending districts in Pennsylvania spend significant funds to educate their children, he argued, adding that the narrative that Pennsylvania drastically underfunds education is simply not accurate.

He called much of the petitioners' case a public policy dispute cloaked in a constitutional argument.

Not only is Pennsylvania's public school system not constitutionally deficient, it's actually quite a good system  there's quite a bit to be proud of, Northen said.

The trial is being streamed online and is expected to last into January. No matter which side rules, an appeal to the state Supreme Court is likely.
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP)  A court in Lithuania on Friday convicted two Lithuanian men of spying for Russia by passing information to a Russian handler, and jailed them for 4 years and 1.5 years, respectively.

The Klaipeda Regional Court said Mindaugas Tunikaitis and Aleksejus Greicius did not know each other, but were in contact with the same FSB agent from Russias Kaliningrad region, an exclave located between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea.

The trial was held behind closed doors in the port of Klaipeda, Lithuania's third largest city.

Tunikaitis, who did not dispute the charges, told the court he regularly visited Kaliningrad and was recruited there by an officer of the FSB, a successor to the KGB.

For almost six years, the Lithuanian citizen observed, photographed and filmed objects, and collected information online or through other people and gave the information to the FSB officer, the court found.

According to the court, Greicius organized events for almost four years that were partially financed by the unnamed Russian intelligence officer, and photographed or filmed the events and people attending them.

He gathered information relating to these events and had it published in Lithuanian media. The information also was given to the Russian officer.

Although Greicius denied the espionage charges, the court concluded that there was sufficient evidence to prove his guilt.

Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union for five decades and declared independence prior to its 1991 collapse. Lithuania is now part of the European Union and NATO.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  Maine's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care providers will not include dental workers or emergency medical service personnel.

The state released the final version of the rules this week. Lots of EMS workers remain covered by another mandate from the Maine Board of Emergency Medical Services.

Health care workers in the state had until Oct. 29 to comply with the mandate under the emergency version of the rules. The final version of the rules is a permanent part of the rules health workers in the state must comply with.

The mandate applies to workers at hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient surgery centers and other health facilities, the Portland Press Herald reported.

About 98% of the workers covered by the mandate had gotten their shots by the end of October, state officials said earlier this week.
LENNON, Mich. (AP)  A man who was a teenager in 1997 was arrested in the death of an 88-year-old woman, a slaying that was unsolved for nearly 25 years.

Mary Prieur emigrated from Czechoslovakia when she was a child and had a candy business in Flint. The discovery of her body in a swampy, wooded area stunned Lennon, a village in Genesee County, where she was regularly seen walking her dog Pookie.
OTTUMWA, Iowa (AP)  A man found hiding in a closet has been charged in a deadly Iowa stabbing, authorities say.

The Wappello County prosecutors office said Friday that 42-year-old Douglas Raymond Spurgeon is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 55-year-old Gerald William Sapp. No attorney has been assigned to Spurgeon yet.

Police said in a news release that officers responded to a 911 call Thursday and found Sapp in an alley behind a home suffering from multiple stab wounds. Sapp had been working on a vehicle.

Police obtained a search warrant at a nearby home, where Spurgeon lived, and found him in a closet there several hours later. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation and arrested early Friday. He is jailed without bond.

Ottumwa Chief of Police Chad Farrington said the motive is under investigation.
CHICAGO (AP)  The CEO of McDonalds faced increasing criticism and calls for resignation Thursday following text messages he sent to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot where he seemed to blame the deaths of two Black and Latino children killed in gun violence on their parents.

McDonald's President and CEO Chris Kempczinski sent texts to Lightfoot in April after meeting with her and referred to shootings that killed two children earlier this year: 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams, a Black girl who was shot in a McDonald's drive-thru lane, and 13-year-old Adam Toledo, a Latino boy who was shot by Chicago police.

With both, the parents failed those kids which I know is something you cant say. Even harder to fix, Kempczinski wrote.

The exchange was made public on social media late last month following a Freedom of Information Act request from Michael Kessler, an American activist living in Canada, who said he was looking into an Oregon police matter and working with Chicago-based transparency group Lucy Parsons Lab.

Chicago organizations have been protesting for days, saying the messages were racist, ignorant and out-of-touch. Jaslyn Adams' mother has demanded an apology from the CEO, who is white. And U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois called this week for Kempczinski to be removed.

This is a deplorable message, and one that is completely unacceptable for the CEO of a powerful multinational corporation  let alone a corporation that markets aggressively to communities of color and publicly proclaims that Black lives matter  to espouse, the Chicago Democrat said in a statement Wednesday.

A coalition of community groups amplified their demand for Kempczinski to resign Thursday by protesting outside the McDonald's where Jaslyn Adams was killed. The coalition, which called attention to other racial discrimination complaints the company has faced, called on the fast-food giant to create a $200 million fund over four years to improve life in Chicago, among other things. The group included immigrant rights activists, labor groups and churches.

Earlier this month, Kempczinski sent a note to McDonald's corporate employees in the U.S., saying he was thinking through his lens as a parent and reacted viscerally, according to The Chicago Tribune.

"But I have not walked in the shoes of Adams or Jaslyns family and so many others who are facing a very different reality, he said. Not taking the time to think about this from their viewpoint was wrong, and lacked the empathy and compassion I feel for these families. This is a lesson that I will carry with me.

McDonalds declined to comment Thursday.

___

Follow Sophia Tareen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiatareen.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Weeks after narrowly rejecting a proposal to give essential employees a pandemic pay bonus, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors has changed its course and approved the move.

About $3 million will be distributed to about 900 full-time and part-time Hinds County employees who worked during the pandemic, including those in law enforcement, public works, the circuit clerk's office and other areas, Supervisor David Archie said.

The premium pay employees will receive depends on their salary. Archie said employees who make less than $25,000 per year will get $4,000 in premium pay, The Clarion Ledger reported. Those making between $25,000 and $54,000 will receive $3,000 and those with salaries more than $55,000 will receive $2,000, Archie said.

All employees will receive the pay in three installments from the end of November through the end of January, he said.

We want to thank you for going through a tough and difficult time, Archie said. You deserve this premium pay.

The boards vote comes about three weeks after it narrowly rejected a similar proposal by Archie to give one-time payments of $2,500 to full-time workers.

I appreciated all of you all for allowing the administration to go ahead, said County Administrator Kenneth Wayne Jones, who helped work on the plan the board approved. The American Rescue (Plan) fund did allow us to give premium pay and once you deemed everyone essential, everyone gets what they get.

Hinds County is the state's most populous and the third-largest county in Mississippi by land area.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  Missouri school officials are boosting teacher recruitment efforts as schools struggle to fill jobs.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that $700,000 will be spent on a new program, known as TeachMO.org, which will act as a centralized hub for prospective teachers to explore the profession, access free resources and receive support in applying to educator preparation programs.

Education officials also are planning to invest $50 million over the next three years on teacher recruitment and retention grants and other programs designed to get more teachers into the states public schools.

Pay raise efforts remain stalled, though. Although the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has outlined a plan to boost the states base pay for teachers above its current level of $25,000, lawmakers and Gov. Mike Parson have not earmarked the funding needed to bring the figure more in line with surrounding states.

The average teacher attrition rates for the past six years are more than 11%.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry has asked a federal judge to move his trial to February to give his attorney more time to review more than 11,600 pages of documents and more than 50 audio/visual recordings.

Attorneys for the nine-term Nebraska Republican filed the motion earlier this week. Prosecutors did not object to postponing the trial, which is currently scheduled for Dec. 14 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Defense attorneys said they also need time to conduct an independent investigation.
LAKE RONKONKOMA, N.Y. (AP)  A Long Island man has been arrested for making a death threat against a Republican congressman who voted for the $1 trillion infrastructure package, police said.

Kenneth Gasper, 64, was arrested Wednesday for a telephoned death threat against Rep. Andrew Garbarino, Nassau County police said in a news release.

Police said Gasper made the phone call Monday over a vote by Garbarino that Gasper did not agree with.

Gasper called Garbarino's district office, cursed at the staff member who answered and called Garbarino a RINO, an insult that stands for Republican in name only," according to the criminal complaint. Gasper warned that if he saw Garbarino on the street he would kill him, the complaint says.

Gasper, of Lake Ronkonkoma, was arrested on a charge of aggravated second-degree harassment. It wasnt clear whether he had an attorney who could comment on the charge. There was no answer at a phone listing for Gasper.

Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said his department has zero tolerance for this type of behavior.

In the world that were living in today, the climate that is out there, these threats we take very seriously, Ryder said at a news conference Friday.

Garbarino, who was elected in 2020 after longtime U.S. Rep. Peter King announced his retirement, was one of 13 Republicans who voted for the infrastructure package Nov. 5.

The 13 defectors have been attacked by fellow Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, over their vote. Republican leaders have been largely silent on the attacks.

Garbarino told the New York Post that misinformation spread by his House colleagues, as well as conservative pundits, has put the members safety at risk.

There are members of Congress that are fundraising off of their misinformation and attacking us, and its causing us to get death threats on the other side," he said.

While the infrastructure vote appears to have led some opponents of the legislation to threaten lawmakers, death threats against elected officials were already on the rise.

The chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, J. Thomas Manger, told The Associated Press in September that his department was seeing thousands more threats against lawmakers than just a few years ago.

Manger predicted that authorities would respond to close to 9,000 threats against members of Congress in 2021.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday pardoned a man who spent 24 years behind bars for a murder he has long said he did not commit.

Coopers pardon of innocence allows Dontae Sharpe to apply for compensation up to $750,000 for his wrongful conviction.

Mr. Sharpe and others who have been wrongly convicted deserve to have that injustice fully and publicly acknowledged," the governor said in a statement announcing he had pardoned the man after a careful review of the case.

In 1995, Sharpe was given a life sentence at age 19 for the first-degree murder of 33-year-old George Radcliffe, whom he was accused of killing a year earlier during a drug deal. Sharpe had maintained his innocence throughout and said in a 2019 interview that his faith and knowledge he was innocent guided his refusal to accept offers of a lighter sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.

At a virtual news conference Friday just an hour after Coopers announcement, Sharpe said he was in disbelief when his lawyer called him with the news. He said he was still processing it and also was thinking of those who had taken to the streets and held vigils on his behalf.

Im still in a haze kind of, Sharpe said. When youre dealing with us human beings, it can go any way, yes and no. I didnt know what to expect. I was believing for a pardon.

The governments case against Sharpe relied in part on testimony from a 15-year-old girl at the time who claimed she saw Sharpe kill Radcliffe but later recanted and said she wasn't present at the time of the shooting. She later said her claims were made up, based on what investigators told her.

Sharpe was unsuccessful in his repeated efforts for a new trial until a former state medical examiner testified that the state's theory of the shooting was not medically or scientifically possible. A judge subsequently ordered more evidence to be heard. Sharpe was released from prison in August 2019 after the prosecutor said the state wouldn't pursue a retrial.

The NAACP had long pushed for Sharpe's release over the years and urged Cooper to issue a pardon of innocence. In recent months, racial justice groups have demanded the governor grant Sharpe the clemency needed in order to apply for compensation for his wrongful conviction. They held vigils in front of Cooper's state residence in downtown Raleigh for several weeks.

The Rev. Anthony Spearman, a longtime North Carolina NAACP leader who was among those who participated in a vigil outside the Governors Mansion pushing for a pardon, said, This should have happened a long time ago."

Sharpe thanked Cooper but called out a criminal justice system he considers corrupt." He said he planned to celebrate Friday evening with his family and will continue to press for other inmates to receive justice.

My freedom is still incomplete as long as there's still people going to prison wrongfully, if there's still people in prison wrongfully and there's still people that are waiting on pardons, he said.

___

Follow Anderson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BryanRAnderson.

___

Anderson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  North Dakota House representatives have passed a bill that bans government entities, below the federal level, from ordering coronavirus vaccine mandates.

The bill passed late Thursday and headed for the Senate Friday also expands exceptions for employees to opt-out of a COVID-19 vaccine, including allowing employees to regularly test for COVID-19, prove they have antibodies built up or claim medical, religious or philosophical exemptions.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  Everyone over the age of 18 in Norway will be offered a booster shot of coronavirus vaccine, the country's prime minister said Friday, adding that unvaccinated health care personnel should be tested twice a week and must wear face masks.

Vaccination is the most important protection we have against coronavirus. The infection will be among us for several years to come, and there is a lot we can do together to prevent the virus from spreading, Jonas Gahr Stoere said.
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:

___

Altered video twists Kamala Harris statements on COVID vaccines

CLAIM: A video from a speech shows Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly saying that most people who were hospitalized or recently died from COVID-19 were vaccinated.

THE FACTS: The video was falsified to change what Harris said. The manipulated videos show Harris appearing to say that vaccinated people are being hospitalized and are dying from COVID-19, when the unedited version distributed by the White House shows she actually said this was happening among unvaccinated people. In the doctored clip, Harris appears to state, Virtually every person who is in the hospital, sick with COVID-19 right now, is vaccinated, before repeating the sentence again and appearing to add: Virtually everyone who has recently died from COVID-19 was vaccinated. But the clip had been edited to make it sound like she used the word vaccinated. In the edited version, Harris mouth doesnt match all the words and there is a short, unnatural pause where it appears the word vaccinated was inserted into the video in some instances. The real video of Harris captures her remarks at a vaccine mobilization event in Detroit. It was posted July 12 by the White House YouTube account. During the address, she states: Virtually every person who is in the hospital, sick with COVID-19 right now, is unvaccinated. Im going to repeat that. Its a fact. Virtually every person who is in the hospital right now, sick with COVID-19, is unvaccinated. And even more regrettably, virtually everyone who has recently died from COVID-19 was unvaccinated. The loss. The tragedy of that loss. Literally every person who has died from COVID-19 that we have recently been seeing was unvaccinated. Medical experts have continued to maintain that data shows the vaccines are safe and effective against COVID-19.

 Associated Press writer Sophia Tulp in Atlanta contributed this report.

___

Pfizer CEO was not arrested by the FBI, nor charged with fraud

CLAIM: The CEO of Pfizer was arrested on Nov. 5 by FBI agents, charged with fraud and was being held in federal custody while awaiting a bail hearing.

THE FACTS: A conservative blog published an inaccurate article alleging that Albert Bourla, the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, had been arrested at his home in a suburb of New York City and charged with fraud in connection with the companys COVID-19 vaccine. But Bourla has not been arrested, nor has he been charged with any federal crimes. Pfizer spokesperson Pamela Eisele wrote in an email to the AP that the article was false news. Bourla made appearances on CNBC and CNN on Nov. 5  the same day the article falsely claimed he was arrested  to discuss the companys oral COVID-19 antiviral drug, and he has continued to post on social media. The Federal Bureau of Prisons database does not list Bourla as an inmate and he is not listed on the inmate roster for Westchester County, where the article claimed Bourla was arrested. There are also no results for Bourla involving fraud in a database of federal court records and criminal complaints. The incorrect article, published by the Conservative Beaver, erroneously stated that Bourla faced fraud charges for his role in deceiving customers on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. It also claimed Pfizer was accused of falsifying data, and paying out large bribes. The site did not provide any evidence for its claims and attributed some information to an unnamed FBI agent. The FBI told the AP that it did not have any information on the allegations. The Conservative Beaver did not respond to a request seeking evidence for its claims or any comment on the matter.

 Sophia Tulp

___

COVID vaccines did not kill giraffes at Dallas Zoo

CLAIM: Three recent giraffe deaths at the Dallas Zoo may have been related to the COVID-19 vaccine.

THE FACTS: COVID-19 vaccines didnt contribute to the deaths of three giraffes at the Dallas Zoo in recent months, despite widespread social media posts suggesting otherwise. Several Facebook and Instagram posts incorporated screenshots of two news stories  one about Dallas and Fort Worth zoos planning to vaccinate animals for COVID-19, and the other about the recent giraffe deaths  to insinuate that the two were somehow related. But the giraffes at the Dallas Zoo have not received COVID-19 vaccines, nor have any other animals living onsite, the zoos media team told the AP in an emailed statement on Tuesday. The team said the zoo was still waiting for shipments of animal vaccines, which it will initially administer to species that face the highest risk of getting the virus, including big cats and great apes. Its true that three giraffes at the Dallas Zoo died in October. A 3-month-old calf named Marekani was euthanized Oct. 3 after suffering a catastrophic knee injury that would have resulted in lifelong pain and arthritis, according to the zoos Facebook page. Later in October, a 19-year-old giraffe named Auggie died after dealing with age-related health issues that led to liver failure, the zoo said in a Facebook post. The following week, the death of a 14-year-old giraffe named Jesse, whose blood test results showed abnormal liver enzymes, led the zoo to begin questioning whether the two older giraffes deaths were related. The deaths are still being investigated. We have been able to eliminate encephalomyocarditis (EMC) as a cause of death but are still awaiting results on other zoonotic diseases," the zoo posted on Facebook on Nov. 9. We still believe exposure to a toxin is a potential connection given the abnormal liver enzymes, but we are exploring every possible cause  from bacteria, to parasite, to diseases. The zoo added that it had trimmed back some vegetation in the giraffes' habitat as a precaution. It also said it had been closely monitoring its hoofstock for symptoms and had seen no sign of any ongoing issues.

 Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.

___

Italy did not revise its COVID-19 death toll

CLAIM: Italy has revised its COVID-19 death toll numbers, showing 97% fewer COVID-19 deaths than initially recorded. This represented a change from over 130,000 deaths to under 4,000 deaths.

THE FACTS: Posts circulating on Instagram and Facebook falsely claim that Italy has revised its COVID-19 death toll due to reporting errors or changes to reporting methodology. The Italian Ministry of Health has not revised the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 numbers, official data shows. Health officials say statistics in an Italian National Health Service report on the number of people who died of the virus with no comorbidities are being misrepresented. As of Monday, the Italian Health Ministry dashboard shows Italy has had 4,812,594 COVID-19 cases and 132,423 deaths, proving the death toll has not been revised downward. The false claims misrepresent figures from an October study by the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, the research arm of the Italian National Health Service, which said 2.9% of individuals who died of COVID-19 in the country had no pre-existing conditions. In an email to The Associated Press, ISS spokesperson Pier David Malloni said the false posts stemmed from a misleading article in the Italian press that erroneously reported that only 2.9% of the people deceased with a positive test for COVID-19 were really killed by the virus. This is completely wrong, Malloni said. He added that the report stated that 2.9% of the people who died did not have other comorbidities. Having multiple chronic health conditions puts individuals at greater risk for complications and death from COVID-19, Malloni said, adding that COVID-19 is listed as the cause of death in cases where there are complicating risk factors. According to Malloni, Italy follows the European Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organization rules in classifying COVID-19 deaths.

 Associated Press writer Terrence Fraser in New York contributed this report.

___

Overcrowding in Australian hospitals not caused by vaccine injuries

CLAIM: Australian hospitals are overwhelmed by vaccine-injured patients.

THE FACTS: A number of recent social media posts are incorrectly asserting that Australian hospitals are inundated with patients who have suffered side effects from COVID-19 vaccines, and are sharing a video clip of an Australian premier that is taken out of context to support the false claim. However, hospitals across Australia have experienced diminished capacity, longer wait times and increased demand for years. These issues are being exacerbated by the pandemic, but are not related to COVID-19 vaccine injuries, according to government and health officials. The false claims began circulating following an Oct. 31 news conference in which Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan encouraged vaccination. In response to a question about canceled elective surgeries, McGowan replied that hospitals were under enormous pressure. He added, Why? It is hard to know except that there is some evidence that it is some sort of delayed reaction to COVID." Many social media users shared a clip of McGowans response with the caption: Hospitals all over Australia are overwhelmed by vaccine-injured patients. A spokesperson for McGowan said his comments were misconstrued and that he was referring to the impacts of the pandemic on the health care system generally, not referencing the vaccine. While Australian hospitals are under stress that has intensified during the pandemic, the official attributed the strain to increased demand in attendances to hospital for other ailments," a backlog of elective surgeries and other issues. The Premier was not suggesting it is related to adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, the spokesperson wrote in an email. Two reports released by the Australian Medical Association in the past month have highlighted the pressure facing the health care system, but pointed to a long period of decline in hospital capacity and issues with funding as some of the reasons why facilities have been overwhelmed. In an Oct. 15 analysis, the AMA said public hospitals were in a cycle of crisis due to a funding formula that failed to address the sustained decline of hospital performance over the course of a decade. The organizations 2021 Public Hospital Report Card found that even during pandemic lockdowns when patient volumes were reduced, health care facilities still demonstrated backsliding or barely improved performance. Neither the report card nor the analysis provided any evidence that vaccine injuries were to blame for crowded hospitals. In fact, the reports showed that hospital resources were strained before coronavirus vaccines became widely available. Australias health department maintains that data shows the benefits of the vaccines continue to outweigh the risks, and that the vast majority of COVID-19 vaccine adverse events are not serious.

 Sophia Tulp

___

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck

___

Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck
PETERSBURG, Va. (AP)  After Richmond voters rejected the One Casino and Resort, new plans for casino development could be coming to Petersburg.

State Sen. Joe Morrissey, whose district includes the city, said he will begin drafting legislation to allow Petersburg to hold its own referendum on a casino, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Petersburg officials say theyve met with representatives of the rejected casino project to pitch alternate development sites about 20 minutes south of the original proposal.
Olympic gold medalist Sunisa Lee said unknown assailants yelled anti-Asian slurs and pepper-sprayed her in the latest high-profile case of hate-driven violence against Asian Americans.

Lee said she was waiting for an Uber in Los Angeles with friends, who were also of Asian descent, when a car pulled up to the group and its occupants screamed slurs and go back to where they came from, the gymnast told Pop Sugar in an interview published Thursday. Someone pepper-sprayed on Lee's arm and the car sped off. Lee, 18, recalled feeling helpless, struggling to comprehend the recent surge of hate aimed at Asian Americans since the coronavirus pandemic.

"I was so mad, but there was nothing I could do or control because they skirted off," she said in the interview. "I didn't do anything to them, and having the reputation, it's so hard because I didn't want to do anything that could get me into trouble. I just let it happen."

Lee is in Los Angeles for the filming of the new season of Dancing With The Stars.

Lee, who grew up in a Hmong immigrant community in St. Paul, told the outlet she feared the repercussions of her reaction to the violence, such as reporting the incident to police.

Through a spokeswoman, Lee declined an interview with The Washington Post.

Concerns about reporting hate offenses are not uncommon. Slightly more than half of hate crime victims reported the attacks to police, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

"When you have someone who is as prominent and beloved as an Olympic medalist feeling hesitancy with reporting, can you imagine what someone who does not have her prominence may feel?" said Brian Levin, who runs the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University.

Lee's star has risen since the Tokyo Games where she clinched the all-around gold medal, the fifth consecutive American woman to win the coveted title.

The news of her attack comes after U.S. karate Olympian Sakura Kokumai said on Instagram that she faced verbal abuse in April. A man approached Koumaki, who is Japanese American, while she was on the phone at a Southern California park and yelled at her. No one came to her aid.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, thousands of Asian Americans have reported being harassed or assaulted - the hate disproportionately directed at women. As of June, advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate has tallied more than 9,000 self-reported hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders since March 2020 - with more than 63% of those reports made by women.

Asian Americans have expressed fears of their safety since early 2020, especially after a gunman stalked three Atlanta-area spas in March, killing eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent.

Attacks targeting Asian people jumped 73% in 2020, according to the FBI.

Those numbers are likely even higher since some agencies don't report this data to the FBI or report no hate crimes. In addition, there can be other barriers to reporting hate crimes, such as the concerns Lee voiced.

In communities where English is not the main language used, people may feel like they cannot report incidents or crimes, Levin said. He pointed to resources available to victims such as advocacy organizations like Stop AAPI Hate that collect reports, but acknowledged more needed to be done to meet people where they are.

Levin said anti-Asian crimes has risen over the years, only to surge since March. Last year, former president Donald Trump repeatedly blamed China for the coronavirus, which civil rights advocates said stirred xenophobic sentiments.

"Last year was a perfect storm of terrible in regards to hate crimes," Levin said.

That underlying prejudice has not gone away. Levin warned that as public attention turns to the election and other polarizing stories, backlash could follow, particularly against Asian people.

"Anytime we have a controversy, where there's anger or fear, and it's in some way stereotyped," Levin said, "that kind of air quality affects all the surrounding regions, that toxic smoke of prejudice."
BOSTON (AP)  Transit police are looking for help in identifying a man suspected of stealing a Boston high school student's $3,000 saxophone last month.

The 16-year-old student was at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Fields Corner station in the early afternoon of Oct. 29 when she placed the musical instrument on a bench located on the outbound platform, transit police said in a statement posted on their website Friday.
ASSISI, Italy (AP) 

Pope Francis traveled to the hilltop town of his namesake for the fifth time in his pontificate on Friday to honor the poorest and most marginal and urge that they be welcomed and cared for by the church.

In one of his first outings in Italy since the coronavirus pandemic, Francis took his time greeting schoolchildren and some of the 500 people brought by Catholic charity groups to Assisi to join Francis in marking the Catholic Church's world day of the poor.

A refugee gave Francis a pilgrims walking stick and cloak outside the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, which hosts the famed Porziuncola chapel, birthplace of the Franciscan order of the popes namesake, St. Francis of Assisi.

Francis greeted disabled children in the basilica and prayed in the chapel before hearing testimony from a handful of people who offered heartwrenching testimony about their lives on the margins.

One former Spanish drug dealer recounted how he turned his life around after a priest smiled on him and offered him shelter. A Romanian woman wept as she told Francis that she suffers such chronic pain that she cannot work. Two Afghans recounted how they recently fled to Italy after the Taliban takeover of their country, only to feel their souls are still there.

Those offering their testimony choked up and wept openly as they spoke to the pope, who thanked them for their courage in telling their stories and opening their hearts to give us their richness and heal our wounded hearts.

The presence of the poor is often seen as an annoyance and is put up with," Francis said from the altar. Sometimes we hear it said that those responsible for poverty are the poor! So as not to carry out a serious examination of conscience on ones own actions, on the injustice of certain laws and economic measures, on the hypocrisy of those who want to enrich themselves excessively, blame is laid at the feet of those who are weakest."

He said the faithful could learn from the example of Francis and those who offer shelter to the poor and marginalized. Hospitality means opening the door, the door of our house and the door of our heart, and to allow the person who knocks to come in," Francis said. And that they might feel welcome, not ashamed."

During an off-the-cuff remark, Francis also gave a shout-out to the retired archbishop of Lyon, France, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who attended the service. Barbarin stepped down after a French court convicted him of covering up for a pedophile priest, only to have his sentence overturned on appeal.

Francis said Barbarin knew well what it was like to suffer with dignity the experience of poverty  of abandonment, distrust."

He defended himself with silence and prayer," Francis said, as a clearly moved Barbarin listened from the pews. Thank you Cardinal Barbarin for your witness that edifies the church."

The poor were being hosted for a luncheon offered by the archbishop of Assisi, while the pope was due to return home to the Vatican by midday.

The Argentine Jesuit is the first-ever pope to have named himself after the 13th century friar, who renounced a wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to embrace a life of poverty and simplicity. The pope said in the first days of his pontificate that he chose to name himself after St. Francis because he wanted a poor church, and for the poor."

Francis was last in Assisi in October 2020, when he signed his latest encyclical Brothers All" on the tomb of St Francis on the anniversary of the saint's death.

___

Winfield reported from Rome.
LISBON, Portugal (AP)  The Catholic Church in Portugal is setting up a national committee to coordinate the work of local church groups looking into possible cases of child sex abuse by members of the clergy.

The committee will strengthen and broaden the churchs response to any current and historic abuse allegations, Portuguese bishops said Thursday after a four-day meeting at the Fatima shrine in central Portugal.
Operators of the Millstone nuclear power complex in Connecticut were too late in activating storm protection protocols when the remnants of Hurricane Ida hit the East Coast in September, resulting in minor flooding at the plant, federal regulators said Friday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission report said Dominion Energy, which runs the Millstone plant in Waterford along Long Island Sound, violated federal requirements, but deemed the violations of very low safety significance and did not issue penalties. The flooding did not affect any nuclear or safety equipment, the report said.

The commission, however, said Dominion's performance deficiency was more than minor and that required steps to protect risk significant structures, systems, and components from external flooding were not taken until after the consequential rainfall event was in progress.

Ken Holt, a spokesperson for Dominion, said the company was not contesting the findings of violations. He said operators at the plant initially relied on a forecast from the National Weather Service that predicted rainfall amounts below the level that requires activation of flood control measures at the plant. That level is 3 inches over a six-hour period.

But the operators received a different forecast with a higher rainfall prediction later in the day from state emergency management officials that prompted the closure of flood gates and other safety protocols, Holt said. In the future, operators will have access to multiple forecasts to prevent similar problems, he said.

The operators at Unit 2 were obviously monitoring the incoming inclement weather, Holt said. They were using the National Weather Service data, and that forecast was not predicting a local intense precipitation event.' And so the operators were following the procedures.

The remnants of Hurricane Ida blew through the mid-Atlantic states on Sept. 1. At least 50 people were killed in six Eastern states, including a state trooper in Connecticut, as record rainfall overwhelmed rivers and sewer systems, flooded roads and damaged homes.

About 3.6 inches of rain fell at Groton-New London Airport, not far from Millstone, according to the National Weather Service. Holt said 3 inches of rain did not fall within six hours in Waterford during the storm, so it ended up being below the level that requires flood safety measures.

Millstone has two operating nuclear reactors that provide electricity to New England, enough to power 2 million homes.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission report said the plants operators should have activated flood prevention measures before the storm hit, including closing flood gates, based on forecasts made earlier in the day. But they did not do so until after 8 p.m., when heavy rains already were falling. Two flood gates were not closed at all during the storm, resulting in minor flooding in an area near the Unit 2 reactor, the report said.

The commission said Dominion did not take timely actions to place the plant in a safe condition prior to the arrival of a major storm.

In another finding of violations deemed of very low safety significance," the commission said in the same report that two Millstone workers were exposed to higher radiation levels than expected while performing maintenance at the Unit 3 reactor in June. Regulators said the workers both set off contamination alarms when leaving the work area and required skin decontamination.

According to the report and data from the commission, the workers were exposed to levels of radiation that were below exposure levels typically seen during certain medical scans, including CT scans. Holt said Dominion is taking steps to prevent similar incidents in the future.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The U.N. Security Council extended the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic at a meeting Friday that saw Russia and the West clash over Russias military presence in the conflict-wracked nation.

The vote on the French-drafted resolution was 13-0, with Russia and China abstaining. It maintains a ceiling of 14,400 military personnel and 3,020 international police in the U.N. mission known as MINUSCA until Nov. 15, 2022.

The mineral-rich but impoverished Central African Republic has faced deadly intercommunal fighting since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and forced then-President Francois Bozize from office. Mostly Christian anti-Balaka militias later fought back, also targeting civilians in the streets. Untold thousands were killed, and most of the capitals Muslims fled in fear.

A peace deal between the government and 14 rebel groups was signed in February 2019, but violence erupted after the constitutional court rejected Bozizes candidacy to run for president last December. Touadera won a second term with 53% of the vote, but he continues to face opposition from a rebel coalition linked to Bozize.

The Security Council welcomed Touaderas announcement of a cease-fire on Oct. 15 and urged all parties to the conflict to respect it. Council members encouraged the president and his government to pursue lasting peace and stability through a comprehensive and reinvigorated political and peace process including a national dialogue and implementation of the cease-fire agreement.

But Touaderas strong defense of his decision to ask Russian instructors and Rwandan forces to help counter rebels threatening the government at a Security Council meeting last month, sparked strong Western opposition -- and that opposition and clash with Russia was repeated on Friday.

U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Mills strongly backed MINUSCAs extension and its work, including in protecting civilians and supporting the governments Special Commission of Inquiry to investigate human rights abuses and violations.

But he expressed disappointment that the resolution was silent about individuals supported by the Russian Federation and invited into the country by CARs government (who) stand accused of committing egregious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including those involving sexual violence, summary executions, torture, and armed robbery.

He pointed to numerous reports by the U.N., investigative journalists and the CAR government itself that concluded that Russian-supported actors committed crimes during combat operations.

Mills said the use of the phrase all parties to the conflict in the resolution, in the U.S. view, includes these Russian contractors.

Frances U.N. Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere told reporters after the council vote that the resolution will enable MINUSCA to support the cease-fire and places greater importance on humanitarian access and respect for human rights, as violations have increased alarmingly since the crisis last winter, including by mercenaries.

He reiterated that the presence of the Wagner Group, a private Russian military company that reportedly has close ties to the Kremlin, is deeply destabilizing. Its presence is a factor of war, not a factor of peace, he said, and evidence is mounting of abuses committed by Wagner including extrajudicial arrests and executions, sexual and gender-based violence, threats against human rights defenders and obstruction of humanitarian access.

Touadera never mentioned mercenaries or Wagner when he addressed the Security Council last month and neither did Russias deputy U.N. ambassador, Anna Evstigneeva -- and she didnt mention mercenaries or Wagner either on Friday.

She said Russia abstained because the resolution didn't include points sought by the CAR government . But she welcomed MINUSCAs renewal and Touaderas cease-fire announcement and his desire to push forward with peace and reconciliation.

Evstigneeva rejected the egregious accusations of some council members against Russian specialists working in CAR, saying they are successfully increasing the training of the countrys soldiers at the invitation of the government.

The situation in the country has to a broad extent stabilized, she said, adding that CAR authorities should investigate any violations.

Evstigneeva also sharply criticized U.N. peacekeepers who have been accused of sexual abuse, including against children, and trafficking in the CARs resources, most recently allegedly smuggling diamonds to Europe.

Portuguese police searched military installations and homes across the country on Monday following a tip that Portuguese troops serving with MINUSCA smuggled diamonds, drugs and gold into Europe on military cargo planes.

Mills, the American envoy, said the U.S. was disappointed that the resolution made no mention of a Nov. 1 incident in which 10 recently arrived unarmed U.N. peacekeepers from Egypt were injured when the presidential guard reportedly opened fire. A woman was struck and killed by a U.N. vehicle fleeing the scene.

We urge the CAR authorities to carry out a transparent and credible investigation, to hold those responsible accountable, and to counter disinformation regarding this incident, Mill said. We emphasize that this incident highlights the urgent need to build trust, and to improve operational and tactical coordination. Disinformation must stop.

Russias Evstigneeva said there are many questions regarding the Egyptian troops and called for an investigation of mistakes" she claimed MINUSCA leadership allowed in transferring people.

We note that the constant negative background surrounding MINUSCA is hampering the Security Council and undermines the trust in the U.N. itself, she said. Although the adoption of this resolution is a token of trust in the mission, unfortunately to date we cant call its work competent, and we are going to carefully monitor the situation.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP)  A judge sentenced a South Carolina man Friday to 50 years in prison for the 2020 stabbing death of his mother in Sioux City, Iowa.

District Judge Jeffrey Neary sentenced Paul Belk, 32, of Beaufort, South Carolina, after finding him guilty on Oct. 1 of second-degree murder and possession of marijuana, according to the Sioux City Journal. Belk must serve as least 35 years before he's eligible for parole.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A state court judge in Las Vegas postponed for 60 days a hearing about condemned killer Zane Floyds legal challenges of the method, the personnel and the drugs that would be used to kill him.

Judge Tierra Jones on Friday reset a status report for Jan. 7 after Chief Deputy Clark County District Attorney Alexander Chen told her there are appeals pending before the Nevada Supreme Court and hearings are set next week in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
AUBURN, Calif. (AP)  A stolen car with a baby inside crashed into a power pole Thursday morning in Northern California but the infant wasn't seriously hurt and two women were arrested, authorities said.

The car with the 7-month-old inside was stolen in Auburn as the baby's parents were dropping off another child at a daycare center, the Placer County Sheriff's Office said.
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP)  The United States, Britain and the European Union on Friday slammed the Sudan coup leaders latest move to tighten the militarys grip on power as a unilateral decision that undermines efforts to restore the process of democratic transition.

In a joint statement, the Western nations criticized Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan who on Thursday appointed a new Sovereign Council  just over two weeks after leading the coup  without consulting Sudans pro-democracy protest movement.

That violates a power-sharing agreement signed by pro-democracy leaders and the top Sudanese generals in 2019, following the ouster of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir.

This unilateral action by the military undermines its commitment to uphold the agreed transitional framework, said the joint statement, which was also signed by Norway and Switzerland.

Burhan reappointed himself as the head of the 13-member Sovereign Council. A number of other members of the body sat on the previous council that Burhan headed before he dissolved it in the coup. Also reappointed to the body was the powerful paramilitary leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, as vice-president. And Burhan reappointed as council members another three generals who had served in the previous council.

On Friday, Burhan, Dagalo, and other generals were sworn in as members of the new council in ceremonies broadcast on state-run media.

Three others on the council are leaders of rebel groups who fought al-Bashirs government for years, but who have moved towards peace with the transitional government. They all also served on the previous council.

However, the new make-up excluded four civilian members of the old council who belonged to the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, the main group that spearheaded the uprising that culminated in the overthrow of al-Bashir.

The country's pro-democracy forces have dismissed Burhan's move as illegitimate and renewed their call for nationwide protests on Saturday.

The joint statement also warned against any further escalatory steps by Sudan's military and stressed that international support for the country is contingent on its commitment to the path of democratic transition.

We urge an immediate and full return to this path to ensure that the hard won political and economic gains of the last two years are not lost, it said.

In the Oct 25 coup, the military also removed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok who has since been under house arrest in the capital, Khartoum, and detained other government officials and political leaders. At least 14 anti-coup protesters have been killed due to excessive force used by the countrys security forces, according to Sudanese doctors and the United Nations.

Since then, international mediation efforts have been underway to ensure the restoration of Hamdok's government and the release of all political detainees.

___

ElHennawy reported from Cairo.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

CHICAGO (AP)  U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois had surgery Thursday in Chicago to remove uterine fibroids and will spend the coming weeks recovering in Illinois, her office said.

Surgery for the 35-year-old Democrat went as planned at the University of Chicago Medical Center, according to her office.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  North Dakotas Republican-controlled Legislature on Friday approved bills to prevent COVID-19 vaccine mandates and the teaching of certain concepts of race and racism, as lawmakers completed their five-day special session.

The Senate voted 38-9 to give final approval to a measure banning the teaching of critical race theory, which is defined as a way of thinking about Americas history through the lens of racism. GOP Gov. Doug Burgum signed the critical race theory bill later Friday, and also signed the vaccination bill.

Though there is no evidence that critical race theory is being taught in North Dakotas schools, backers said the bill aims to ensure it won't be.

Mott GOP Sen. Donald Schaible, who carried the bill on the Senate floor, said the measure is preemptive to try to make sure that it doesnt come to our schools.

Senators also approved a House bill 33-14 Friday to restrict COVID-19 vaccination mandates. The measure provides exemptions for medical, philosophical or religious reasons, and would allow workers to avoid vaccinations if they agree to frequent testing for the coronavirus.

Representatives on Friday gave final approval to a bill that excludes Social Security benefits from income tax. Legislative budget writers estimate the measure will reduce state revenues by $14.6 million in the current two-year budget cycle.

Senators gave final approval to a bill that would provide a $350 income tax credit for each North Dakota resident filing a return for 2021 and 2022. The income tax relief was pushed by Burgum, who recommended using part of the states hefty and better-than-forecast ending fund balance of $1.1 billion in the last two-year budget cycle.

Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature. Burgum last month called the special session to deal with a limited agenda that included legislative redistricting and the approval of a spending plan for federal coronavirus relief aid.

Also Friday, the Senate gave final approval on a measure that spends nearly the entire amount of the $1.1 billion in federal coronavirus aid available to the state. The spending includes funding initiatives ranging from infrastructure improvements to workforce development programs. The appropriation incudes $150 million to build a pipeline to carry natural gas from the states oil-producing region in the western part of the state to eastern North Dakota.

Only $63 million of the federal funding was not appropriated by state lawmakers.

Redistricting was among the main issues before the Legislature. Burgum on Thursday signed the redistricting legislation, that reflects a continued loss of political clout in rural areas due to population shifts in the past decade.

Though the map maintains 47 legislative districts, it creates three new districts in the states fastest-growing areas but erases an equal amount in population-lean rural regions. The new map also separates House districts on two American Indian reservations, a move tribal leaders believe will increase the odds for electing their own members to the Legislature.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP)  West Virginia's first medical cannabis dispensary opened Friday, more than four years after state lawmakers allowed a regulatory system for those products to be established.

Trulieve Cannabis Corp. debuted a retail location in Morgantown with a second shop opening in Weston next Monday.

Were thrilled to be first to market in West Virginia and to continue building the foundation for the West Virginias emerging medical cannabis market, Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers said in a statement.

She said the companys goal is to bolster local economies by creating sustainable jobs and investing in marginalized communities.

The 2017 state law allows for medical cannabis use in pills, oils, topical gels, liquids, dermal patches and a form that can be vaporized.

In order to access and buy products from a dispensary, residents must have a West Virginia medical marijuana card. Residents with serious medical conditions can register for the card at www.medcanwv.org.

Rivers said the company plans to open nine dispensaries across the state, The Dominion Post reported.

More than 200 people were lined up outside of the Morgantown location on Friday morning.

Sabrina Howland of Hurricane said she developed severe nerve pain about six years ago and signed up to receive her medical cannabis card in February. She said she sometimes has trouble walking and had to quit her job and stop driving.

I decided to come up here because its legal now," she said. "It will help me. I need it.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature on Thursday gave final approval to the GOP's redistricting plans, after the maps proposed by a nonpartisan commission were lambasted by several Democrats.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who promoted the maps drawn up by the People's Maps Commission, has promised to veto the GOP-drawn maps, thereby sending the issue to the courts. The Assembly passed their plans Thursday on a 60-38 vote, along strict party lines.

The GOP legislative and congressional maps are largely based on the current districts. Democrats and other opponents to the GOP maps want Republicans to consider alternate proposals, including ones drawn by the commission.

However, 17 of the Assemblys 38 Democratic lawmakers snubbed the commission plan during a vote on a Republican amendment asking if lawmakers were for or against the plan. Many dissenting Democrats argued it would diminish African American and Latino representation in the Legislature.

They hoodwinked us, gaslighted us and they tricked us, Democratic Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez of Milwaukee said of those backing Evers maps. She said that while the Evers plan could result in more Democrats in the Legislature, the candidates wouldnt be the preferred choices of Black and Hispanic voters.

Redistricting is the once-a-decade process of redrawing the states political boundaries based on the latest census showing how populations have changed in neighborhoods, cities and counties since 2010. Mapmakers can create an advantage for their political party by packing opponents voters into a few districts or spreading them among multiple districts  a process known as gerrymandering.

Republicans hold a 61-38 majority in the Assembly and a 21-12 advantage in the Senate. Republicans also hold five of the states eight congressional districts. The proposed maps would largely keep those legislative districts in safe Republican control and make a western Wisconsin congressional district more favorable for the GOP.

There are two pending lawsuits over redistricting, one in the Wisconsin Supreme Court and another in federal court. Democrats want federal courts to draw the maps, as was done the past three times Wisconsin was under divided control. Republicans want the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court to draw the maps.
BOSTON (AP)  Members of the union that represents about 200 workers at Bostons Museum of Fine Arts have voted to hold a one-day strike next week over stalled contract negotiations with management.

More than 96% of the union, which represents public-facing staff, library workers, educators, curators, conservators, and administrative and professional workers, voted to picket outside the museum next Wednesday, union officials told The Boston Globe for a story Thursday.

Workers are concerned about pay, safety, workplace diversity, requiring union membership and job growth, according to Eve Mayberger, a member of the unions bargaining team.

Management has not really engaged with most of these issues and are coming back with very mild adjustments, said Mayberger, an assistant objects conservator.

Managers said in a statement Friday that despite the financial challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the museum remains committed to properly paying its employees.

But the museum also said that after seven months of progress and productive dialogue, the unions bargaining committee has gone more than seven weeks without responding to the latest proposal.

We remain committed to staying at the bargaining table to create an equitable and sustainable outcome," museum management said.

The museum plans to remain open and will provide the best possible experience we can to our visitors during the one-day strike."

Museum employees voted overwhelmingly last November to join the United Auto Workers Local 2110.
In a financial call this week, Disneyland reported hundreds of millions in profit for the most recent quarter amid more price increases and cutbacks.

But the CFOs justification for making portion sizes smaller as a cost-cutting measure did not sit well with fans.

Heres what she said, and how people are reacting.

More:

I tried Disneyland's new, truly bizarre Thanksgiving ice cream. The Turkey Day treat is made with literal turkey  but its a different experience than you might expect. Read more.

Meet the Bigfoot experts who took Jeff Goldblum Sasquatch hunting on Mt. Shasta. In a new episode of The World According to Jeff Goldblum, which drops today on Disney Plus, the actor heads to Humboldt County to look for mythical creatures in the woods. Read more.

Disney Plus Day: See everything announced from Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and more. Many of the highly anticipated upcoming shows scheduled to arrive in 2022 hail from the Marvel and Star Wars universes. Read more.

Last week's top story:

Judge rules Disneyland isnt required to pay a living wage. In a ruling for a class action lawsuit representing 25,000 Disneyland cast members, the park is officially not legally required to pay a living wage to its cast members. But it might not be the end of the story.

Dispatches from Disneyland is curated by Disneyland editor Julie Tremaine. Contact Tremaine at Julie.Tremaine@sfgate.com.
In small towns, some public meetings are held in empty conference rooms. Others are standing room only. This particular meeting of the Placer County Board of Supervisors was the latter.

At a public meeting about 15 years ago, a long line of local residents filed down the aisle and, one after the other, each person walked up to the podium and introduced themselves by their name followed by the number of years theyve lived in Tahoe, which is a sort of qualifier in small towns of how much weight your opinion should carry.

Then came the grievances. There were many, but all the speakers repeated the same laundry list: too much noise, too much traffic, too many people for such a small mountain town. Our infrastructure cant handle that much development, they said. The criticism levied by a contingent of Tahoe locals was directed at an affordable housing project proposed for Tahoe Vista. [Im] not against workforce housing, said one Tahoe Vista resident, but you cant put all of it in one little town.

The proposed Vista Village development would have built more than 70 affordable housing units on 12 acres near the regional park on Tahoes North Shore. This proposal was already trimmed down from the original 150-plus units envisioned, but the property owner, Alex Mourelatos, was determined to solve a problem that had long been plaguing Lake Tahoe, and he went back to the proverbial drawing board multiple times in an attempt to come back with a project that could be embraced by his neighbors.

In the early aughts, real estate in Tahoe had already eclipsed local wages, and the workforce was leaving town, increasing pressure on small businesses who needed local employees.

What you will see is a declining level of service for the community and its visitors as full-time residents leave and second homeowners move in, Mourelatos told the Sierra Sun in 2006. He was foreshadowing a future without affordable housing in Lake Tahoe.

But as the Sierra Sun framed it in that 2006 article, Placer County lacked the political will to make it happen.

Shortly after that story was published, I opened the door to the Sierra Suns Tahoe City office and applied for a job, unaware of the extent of the politics Id soon be writing about. The demise of this affordable housing project is the story I remember most vividly from that year. At a meeting when Mourelatos presented the environmental impact report for his project  a document that marked the end of an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars to see this affordable housing project come to life  I sat in the back of the room and took notes while the community shot down his proposal, one by one. That evening, the county Board of Supervisors, with only one person out of five that represented Tahoe, rejected his project.

Mourelatos was sitting in the front row. I remember walking up to him after the meeting to speak with him, but he had no words. His neighbors and fellow community members had just attacked the merits of his project, and his hopes of building affordable housing would ultimately go nowhere.

Fifteen years later and Im still writing about the housing crisis in Tahoe. I often feel like Im writing the very same story  all that foreshadowing has come true, and then some. In the pandemic, Tahoes real estate market shot up and the vast majority of buyers have been second homeowners.

Meanwhile, an exodus of local workers is underway because people simply cant afford to live in Tahoe on local wages. Some move to Reno and commute an hour to the Tahoe Basin. Others turn away from Tahoe entirely.

Some things have changed; for example, the days of a 3 p.m. deadline to publish another edition of the Sierra Sun, which was then a daily newspaper, are long behind us. There is one affordable housing project that made it through the gauntlet and was built in Kings Beach. Theres another on the horizon, but at the moment, its just a concept for an empty parcel at the top of Dollar Hill.

And some things are still the same. When housing is on the agenda, public meetings are just as contentious as they have ever been.

Over the past few months, Placer County and the town of Truckee have been mulling the housing crisis, but the item on the agenda is slightly different than it was 15 years ago. Now, its all about the proliferation of vacation rentals in Lake Tahoe. Short-term rentals, as theyre called in government-speak, have grown so numerous, so quickly that local governments lost control. Over the past two years or so, Tahoe has been trying to rein back some of that control, because the impact of short-term rentals on the economy up here is undeniable.

I have an affinity for small towns, especially Tahoe, because it is my hometown. And to fully disclose my relationship to housing up here, Im among the members of Tahoes workforce who no longer can afford to live in the basin. So I commute from Reno. If Im honest, its a long drive that wears on me, but its worth it because I can afford where I live.

My friends who remain in Tahoe have all experienced rents that have doubled or even tripled in the past 10 years. The lucky ones bought houses around 2010, when you could afford a mortgage on a bartenders salary (and probably some of them got a little help from family on the down payment).

Still, even though Ive made peace with my place in Tahoes housing crisis, I still find myself pulled to the public meetings of the Placer County Board of Supervisors and the town of Truckee when housing is on the agenda. This fall, Placer County and Truckee both extended moratoriums on their short-term rental permits, pausing the program and withholding any new permits until 2022. Local officials say theyre using this time to take stock of short-term rentals in Lake Tahoe  the eastern side of Placer County has more than 4,000 short term rentals in Tahoe at the moment, and Truckee has 1,100. The moratorium is also a chance for officials to study the nexus between short-term rentals and the housing crisis, because while Airbnb is an easy target for all the same nuisances that were levied against affordable housing projects 15 years ago, its impact on workforce housing is more complicated. The stakes have gotten higher and more complex, and the pandemic only exacerbated the situation.

First, Tahoe has second homeowners who are dominating the real estate market and justifying the inflated prices because they can list their place on Airbnb when theyre not using it. Some of the second homeowners who speak up at the public hearings say theyve been coming up to Tahoe with their family for generations, but the basin has become so expensive they cant afford to visit anymore. So theyre making a stretch to buy a second home that will empower them to still visit Tahoe, while also renting out to their friends and family, as well as on Airbnb.

At the same time, local workers are getting kicked out of the homes theyve long been renting because landlords are taking advantage of the real estate markets rise. Looking for another place to rent is a challenge because costs of living are also soaring. And so, many local employees are moving away, either commuting from Reno or turning away from Tahoe entirely.

Meanwhile, local homeowners who live in Tahoe full-time are growing weary because their neighborhoods have morphed into pop-up hotels and fraternity houses, thanks to all of the Airbnbs on their block.

The last group of stakeholders may be the linchpin. These are the locals who have been saving up and trying really hard to make it work to stay here. But theyre finding that the only way they can afford to live in Tahoe and buy a home is if they rent out one of the rooms in their house on Airbnb.

The regulatory landscape of Tahoe is fractured, which makes reining in short-term rentals  and mustering the political will, as the Sierra Sun put it all those years ago, to solving the housing crisis  all the more difficult. To recap: The Tahoe region encompasses two states, five different counties, plus the city government of South Lake Tahoe and the town council in Truckee. With the exception of the city of South Lake and the town of Truckee, the county boards that wield so much influence on Tahoe outnumber the sole representative from the basin by four to one.

In South Lake Tahoe, the city council banned short-term rentals in all of their residential neighborhoods except for the citys tourist core. But El Dorado County, which surrounds the city limits, still allows permitted short-term rentals in neighborhoods.

Placer County and the town of Truckee are both in the middle of studying the connection between short-term rentals and workforce housing, with the hope that theyll unfold a better program to regulate the market at the end of this pause.

And on the East Shore, Nevadas counties require a permit to operate a short-term rental.

A few months ago, I spoke to Mourelatos on the phone. He hasnt given up on Tahoe: Hes part of the group thats working with the Mountain Housing Council of Tahoe Truckee to figure out answers that could alleviate some of the pressure local employees are dealing with for housing. Mourelatos also built his own workforce housing for the employees he hires to work at his familys lakefront lodge.

He still feels the scars from 15 years ago, though. He told me in July that hes not willing to go down the path of proposing an affordable housing project on his 12-acre parcel again, even though the land is still undeveloped.

The small town public meetings still continue. So if theres something you have to say about it all, I suggest you attend one of them. Your voice is needed.
This is not real, Greg Newkirk said. This cannot possibly be real.

Not Bigfoot. He and his wife Dana, professional paranormal investigators, have spent countless hours in the woods searching for the mythic Sasquatch in their careers. What he couldnt believe was that Jeff Goldblum, the multi-hyphenate renaissance man whos experiencing a late-career renaissance of his own, was asking for the Newkirks to take him Bigfoot hunting for his Disney Plus show.

On The World According to Jeff Goldblum, the actor takes a deep dive into one seemingly familiar topic for each episode. On the first season, which aired in late 2019 and early 2020 and earned an Emmy nomination for outstanding hosted nonfiction series, the actor explored things like tattoos, sneakers and ice cream. For season two, the first five episodes of which drop today on Disney Plus, hes exploring topics like fireworks, magic and  this is where the Newkirks come in  monsters.

At first glance, no matter what, most people always think the existence of Bigfoot is weird and strange, Greg Newkirk said, but the more you actually dig into Bigfoot and the legends and experiences that people had, you realize that Bigfoot is much weirder than you initially thought.

The thing is, the Newkirks arent traditional Bigfoot hunters like the cryptozoologists (those who study legendary animals like the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti) who appear on shows like Expedition Bigfoot, traversing the woods looking for physical evidence of cryptids.

We cant track animals, Greg Newkirk said. Im not going to pick up scat and tell you what it belongs to.

Courtesy of Disney

We cant put our finger in the air and tell which direction the wind is going, Dana Newkirk added. There are a lot of weirder directions we take when it comes to Bigfoot.

But as you might expect from Jeff Goldblum, weirder is better, even when it comes to very weird subjects. It turns out he asked for them specifically, as a producer told the Newkirks, because he wants to hang out with people he thinks are fun.

In a (what some might call pseudoscientific) field saturated with ghost hunters, UFOlogists and cryptozoologists, the Newkirks have carved a niche for themselves by taking a multidisciplinary approach and looking at the areas where these strange phenomena overlap.

We've tried very hard over the last decade to not just stick to one genre of weird stuff, Greg said. So we hang out with alien abductees. We hang out with ghost hunters. We hang out with Bigfoot hunters. We've noticed there's a lot of similarity between all of them.

In ghost encounters, people often report lost time, seeing strange lights, getting tingling sensations  which are all things that some people who claim to have encountered Bigfoot also say theyve experienced.

The famous joke about Bigfoot is that hes blurry in every photo, Greg said. Well, so are ghosts. They'll find large swaths of Bigfoot tracks that can go for hundreds of yards and then suddenly disappear in the middle of a field. They can't find a body. They can't find any hair or scat. They can't find anything conclusive.

Courtesy of Disney

That doesnt mean, though, that theyll stop looking. So Greg and Dana packed up their car with some artifacts from their Traveling Museum of the Paranormal and Occult, like casts of Bigfoot footprints and Bigfoot pheromones, and headed to the woods to teach Dr. Ian Malcom himself how to search for a being that, if its real at all, is particularly adept at avoiding being found.

Where they went, of course, was Mount Shasta.

Originally they were looking for a place with Bigfoot sightings in Southern California. And we were like, Sorry to say, there's not a whole lot of those down south, Greg Newkirk said. We actually had to convince them to go up to Northern California, in Humboldt County, because thats the birthplace of most of the modern Bigfoot legends.

Bigfoot legends are so pervasive in Humboldt County that theres even an Intro to Bigfoot Studies class at Humboldt State University, and the fabled creature has been accused of murdering people there.

But it turns out, that area of Northern California isnt just famous for Bigfoot  its also where parts of The Lost World: Jurassic Park was filmed.

They had us sitting in the woods on this fallen redwood tree, Greg said. We see some rustling in the distance and there's a camera crew. And then we see this just tall tan creature, literally this mythical creature comes out of the woods.

Courtesy of Disney

[Jeff] walks up impeccably dressed, and he puts his fingers to his temples and he goes, You, youre Greg Newkirk and you, youre Dana Newkirk, Greg continued. I could barely talk because I was so entranced. And I even said to him, You have to understand, this is about as incredible as us actually finding Bigfoot. He's equally legendary.

The Newkirks spent two days exploring the woods with Goldblum looking for Bigfoot, using techniques like knocking on trees  knocks in the woods are commonly reported with Bigfoot encounters  and using those pheromones, which the Newkirks say smell worse than you can possibly imagine.

We gave him a real strong whiff, Greg said, and he almost fell over.

According to the Newkirks, Goldblum maintained an open mind about Sasquatch, and all the other weirdness, as they call it, they threw his way.

[Goldblum] had so many questions and he just was incredible, Greg said. We sat and shared ghost stories with him around a campfire. He held our haunted objects from the museum. He asked questions about them. He told us all of these stories about his life. He was unbelievable.

He has the best sense of humor, Dana added, and also weirdly humble and curious. Its infectious. He has a very fun, ready-to-embrace-all-things attitude.

Courtesy of Disney

While the Newkirks wont reveal what happened in the episode, they did give some insight into how the actor reacted to their strange passion.

I think what we found was why Bigfoot is important, Greg said. Things like Bigfoot teach us to maintain a curiosity about a world that is becoming increasingly more mundane. When we can get creative about it, when we can imagine monsters and we can chase monsters, it gets us out into the world that we feel like we know back and forth already.

And so I think he saw some of that in us and was like, Oh, OK, I get this. This is, this is fun. This is valuable. We're learning about ourselves, Dana said.

I think Jeff felt the same way we did after the adventure, Greg added. He asked if he could be an honorary Newkirk. So we'll take it. We'll see if hell come for Thanksgiving.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Here may be something to consider if you have not booked your holiday travel itinerary yet: According to the travel site The Family Vacation Guide, which aggregated two years worth of data from the Department of Transportations Bureau of Transportation Statistics, San Francisco International Airport is the Bay Area airport where flights are frequently delayed, with nearly 19% of flight arrivals late or canceled.

SFO boasts the dubious distinction of being not only the most-delayed in the bay, but in the whole state. Its also tied for 10th in the entire country for delays with New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to the bureaus data.
Sharon, PA (16146)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun early, then becoming cloudy later in the day. A few flurries or snow showers possible. High near 35F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 24F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
photo: Gabriel Goldberg

Steven Reigns, Los Angeles poet and educator, was appointed the first Poet Laureate of West Hollywood. He is the author of two collections, Inheritance and Your Dead Body Is My Welcome Mat, and more than a dozen chapbooks. Reigns edited My Life Is Poetry, showcasing his students' work from the first autobiographical poetry workshop for LGBTQ seniors. Reigns has lectured and taught writing workshops around the country to LGBTQ youth and people living with HIV. He is touring The Gay Rub, an exhibition of rubbings from LGBTQ landmarks around the world, and has a private practice as a psychotherapist. His latest book is A Quilt for David (City Lights, September 14, 2021), the hidden history of a gay doctor whose life and death were turned into tabloid fodder in the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.

On your nightstand now:

Firebrat by Mike Diana. I know, I know, it's not the book one might expect a poet to have on their nightstand. Diana's work is wonderfully outrageous and unexpected and bizarre. It's also fascinating that he's the only artist in America to receive a criminal conviction for artistic obscenity. The book I'm reading after is Amy Gerstler's Index of Women.

Favorite book when you were a child:

I dearly loved The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. I now owe so many personal therapy hours to deprogramming the terrible codependent messaging it implanted.

Your top five authors:

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore--I can always count on Mattilda's writing to spark new thoughts, ideas and recalibrate my emotions.

Natalie Goldberg--we were all introduced to her through her breakout book, Writing Down the Bones. While that has continually been in print and still selling wildly, she's been writing these incredible memoirs and other books about writing and painting. Check out Long Quiet Highway, Wild Mind and her brand new book, Three Simple Lines

David Trinidad--David's poetry is loaded with pop culture but well-crafted and with heart. He's also a great champion of writers, editing and publishing poets who have passed too early or gone out of print. The poetry community is better because of him.

Collin Kelley--I feel like we share so many sensibilities and interests; his poems are a joy to read. He's been threatening a new and selected collection, which I'd love to happen.

Anais Nin--the world opened to me when I first discovered her writing.

Book you've faked reading:

Moby-Dick. I never finished it. At page 90 they hadn't even left port. I didn't have the patience for it 25 years ago and haven't picked it up since. In Pam Houston's debut, Cowboys Are My Weakness, there's a character who falsely tells men at bars about how she once rode a mechanical bull and won. She's told the story so many times she almost believes it to be true. I feel that way about Moby-Dick. It's easy to forget I haven't read the entire thing.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The most recent book I've preached is Julie E. Bloemeke's Slide to Unlock. It's a collection about love and longing without being overly sentimental or sappy. During the pandemic I kept giving it out as gifts.

Book you've bought for the cover:

The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson, published by the Peter Pauper Press in the late '50s. On the cover and throughout are these beautiful red/orange inked woodcuts by Jeff Hill. They have such a midcentury modern feel to them and could easily be framed artwork on the wall.

Book you hid from your parents:

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (but Were Afraid to Ask) by Dr. David Reuben. I bought it at a used book sale at age 15. The title was appealing, but more than sex itself, I really wanted to know about being gay and gay sex. Homosexuals had over 40 entries in the index. At home, in my bedroom, I went directly to page 129, the section on homosexuals. The book had lines like "The homosexual who prefers to use his penis must find an anus. Many look in the refrigerator. The most common masturbatory object for this purpose is a melon. Cantaloupes are usual, but where it is available, papaya is popular." Gay men regularly have sex with fruit?!?! This book is where I got the biggest miseducation on gay life that I could have ever received.

Book that changed your life:

Sapphire's American Dreams really rocked my world. Her honesty, daringness and ability to hold complexities was refreshing. She used different forms and told hard truths. That book still holds up, and so do her subsequent books.

Favorite line from a book:

"The truth is simple, you do not die from love. You only wish you did." --Erica Jong from Becoming Light

Five books you'll never part with:

The Diary of Anais Nin by Anais Nin

Love Poems by Anne Sexton

Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O'Hara

How to Love a Country by Richard Blanco

Truth Serum by Bernard Cooper

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

I would love to again feel the awe and exhilaration I felt when first reading the anthology High Risk: An Anthology of Forbidden Writings, edited by Amy Scholder and Ira Silverberg. What's thrilling is that Amy Scholder is my editor for A Quilt for David. The publishing of this book feels very full circle for me. I remember picking up High Risk from the St. Louis Public Library and devouring it in the living room on a papasan chair (didn't everyone have one of those chairs in the '90s?). I wanted to be a writer like those in the book I was holding.
ANSONIA  The first person a police officer encountered Tuesday at the door of a Root Avenue home where a husband allegedly killed his wife was the couples 3-year-old son.

Come in, come in, the boy told Officer Peter Lovermi, who had approached the home after being dispatched there for a domestic incident and heard crying and sobbing coming from inside.

The boy pointed the officer toward the homes kitchen, according to a police report.

Inside Lovermi found a horrific scene: 28-year-old Kamil Zielinski standing in front of his wife, 34-year-old Grace Zielinska, who was sitting on the ground covered in blood from a brutal assault, the report states.

Blood covered Zielinskis face, hands, and clothes as well, according to the report.

What have I done? Zielinski said spontaneously, according to police. Shoot me. Just shoot me. I did it.

As Lovermi tried to handcuff him, Zielinski allegedly dropped to his knees. Kill me, just kill me, he said.

After detaining Zielinski, cops found a knife near Zielinska. There also was a bloody ax nearby, according to the report.

The couple are married but have different last names due to Polish naming conventions, police said.

After Lovermi radioed a dispatcher to advise that Zielinska had suffered trauma to her head, Zielinski allegedly said I stabbed her in the chest too.

Zielinska was rushed to the Emergency Room at Yale-New Haven Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 3:06 p.m., about an hour and a half after police were sent to the home following a 911 call.

Police said a dispatcher could hear yelling and commotion in the background of the call, but the caller was not speaking.

In addition to the 3-year-old boy, police found an infant sleeping in the homes living room. The couples third child, a 5-year-old, was at school.

The children were in the custody of the Department of Children and Families Wednesday.

Zielinski was arraigned at Derby Superior Court on charges of murder and risk of injury to a minor, where Judge Peter Brown ordered him held in lieu of $1 million bond and continued the case to Nov. 24.

The judge also put Zielinski on suicide watch.

Police said they were still investigating what led to the killing and hadnt been called to any prior disputes between the couple.

Lt. Patrick Lynch said that both Zielinska and Zielinskis family members have been interviewed by detectives with a goal of getting a clear picture of what was going on in the background.

Something happened inside the home and were trying to figure out that right now, Lynch said at a press conference Wednesday.

Candles were set up on the stoop outside the Root Avenue residence on Wednesday morning. There was no answer at the door. There were mailboxes for three units at the property.

Zielinskas death is the third homicide in Ansonia since December 2019. All three were cases of domestic violence.

Lynch said there have been an uptick in domestic violence calls, especially during the pandemic, but didnt have specific numbers Wednesday.

Police Chief Wayne Williams said that these incidents do not happen in a vacuum. There are often warning signs.

This message is for the community, Williams said. If you see something, say something. If you or a family member or a friend is suffering from domestic violence, call us. You are not alone. We are here to help you. We can get you to the resources that you need.

In a prepared statement, Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence President and CEO Meghan Scanlon said Zielinskas death is the ninth known intimate partner homicide in Connecticut this year.

While we do not know any specifics related to this tragic event, what we do know is that nationally an intimate partner homicide or attempted homicide is the first act of violence for between 28 and 33 percent of victims, Scanlon said. Often the behaviors that precede homicide are jealousy, control, and stalking. We urge individuals to consider speaking with an advocate when they begin to experience these coercive behaviors, even before they turn physical.

Esperina Stubblefield, director of domestic violence services for BHcare, which serves the New Haven and Valley areas, including Ansonia, said those who may be experiencing abuse in their relationships are not alone.

Abusive, controlling behaviors can be subtle but escalate over time, becoming more physically violent, she said. Whether you have questions, need resources, or just want someone who will listen without judgement, our advocates are available 24/7.

In the Valley, The Umbrella Center for Domestic Violence Services can be reached by phone at 203-736-9944, 203-789-8104 or 888-774-2900 or online.

Statewide domestic violence resources can be reached by calling or texting 888-774-2900 or online at www.CTSafeConnect.org.
 Convenient home delivery

 Unlimited website access 24/7

 Unlimited e-Edition access 24/7

 The best local, regional and national news in sports, politics, business and more!

Get the Ludington Daily News delivered straight to your door and receive unlimited access to our website and e-Edition when you purchase a Print + Digital Subscription.
Recognised as the Earth Day Network Rising Star 2021 (US) for her idea of 'Solar Ironing Cart', 15-year-old Indian student, Vinisha Umashankar has exhorted the world to move towards clean energy during the ongoing COP 26 at Glasgow.

"I am not here to speak about the future, I am the future," Vinisha, a class 10 student from Tamil Nadu's Tiruvannamalai district, said, encouraging the world to move towards renewable energy and accelerating the journey which started with her innovation in 2019.

She had received the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards instituted by National Innovation Foundation (NIF) - India, an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology for her mobile ironing cart, which uses solar panels to power a steam iron box. The prototype of Vinisha's mobile ironing cart, which uses solar panels to power a steam iron box has been developed by NIF-India in 2019.

A key benefit of the solar ironing cart is that it eliminates the need for coal for ironing, bringing about a welcome shift towards clean energy.

"End users can move around and offer services at doorstep for increasing their daily earning. The ironing cart can also be fitted with a coin-operated GSM PCO, USB charging points and mobile recharging which can fetch extra income," a release from the Ministry of Science and Technology said.

It is an ingenious solar-powered alternative for the millions of char coal burning ironing carts for pressing clothes and can also benefit the workers and their families. The device can also be powered by pre-charged batteries, electricity or diesel-powered generator in the absence of sunlight, the release added.
As a part of the world tour, the ASEAN edition of World CX Summit - FSI gathered pre-qualified CX leaders, Marketers & FSI experts virtually on 21 October 2021; to discuss how the latest technologies and customer insights can be combined to change CX as we know it.

The fifth global edition featured keynotes, panel discussions, tech talks, private consultation rooms, private networking rooms, and more on Vmeets  a virtual events platform. CX leaders and enthusiasts had engaging sessions with speakers in Q&A sessions and emphasized the changing dynamics of customer experience across the globe.

The summit presented an impressive line-up of speakers including:

Anthony Rogalski , Solutions Consultant, UserTesting

, Solutions Consultant, UserTesting Landon Barnes , Principal Solutions Consultant, UserTesting

, Principal Solutions Consultant, UserTesting Gavin Neil Olsen , Regional Manager, FSI, Sitecore

, Regional Manager, FSI, Sitecore Mike Plimsoll , Snr. Director, Industry Strategy & Marketing, Sitecore

, Snr. Director, Industry Strategy & Marketing, Sitecore Allan Tumbaga , Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Marketing Officer, Pru Life UK

, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Marketing Officer, Pru Life UK Sourabh Chitrachar , Regional VP- IT Strategy & Transformation, Liberty Mutual Insurance

, Regional VP- IT Strategy & Transformation, Liberty Mutual Insurance Rachel Chen , Chief Digital Officer, Aviva Singlife

, Chief Digital Officer, Aviva Singlife Mohd Afdhal Bin Mohd Nayan , Chief Transformation Officer, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)

, Chief Transformation Officer, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) Chatrudee Ngamvalairatt , EVP, Customer Experience Management, Bank Of Ayudhya (Krungsri Bank)

, EVP, Customer Experience Management, Bank Of Ayudhya (Krungsri Bank) Tomasz Kurczyk , Chief Digital and Transformation Officer, AXA Insurance

, Chief Digital and Transformation Officer, AXA Insurance Mohamed Keraine , Head of Retail, Philippines & Head of Retail Development Asia, ING

, Head of Retail, Philippines & Head of Retail Development Asia, ING Mujtanibul Ahmed Sakib , Division Customer Experience Director, Wing Bank

, Division Customer Experience Director, Wing Bank Jennifer Villalobos, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Prudential Life Assurance Public Company Ltd

Highlights of World CX Summit-FSI - ASEAN:

The summit started with an opening keynote by Mohd Afdhal Bin Mohd Nayan, Chief Transformation Officer at Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, where he shared his insights on, How the Financial Service industry is driving Superior Digital Experience. He was found quoting, Delivering customer service is an integral part of banks in society, by addressing the new customer needs and concerns and improving own efficiency and effectiveness."

Sonny Supriyadi, VP - Head, Pricing and Data Analytics at Maybank; Gavin Neil Olsen, FSI DX lead, Southeast Asia at Sitecore and Mike Plimsoll, Snr. Director, Industry Strategy & Marketing at Sitecore discussed at length on topic Know your customer, know your data. Gavin stated, The FSI sector is in the early stages of becoming digitally agile and meeting the needs of customers in an always-on platform economy. The first step is to streamline the content lifecycle and data capture to enable new services for existing customers. This is where FSI providers need to be focusing their efforts now  especially as they suddenly have a lot of customers who are online for the first time. This means implementing content anywhere processes to allow agility across all channels, owned, earned, and bought, from desktop, mobile, and physical channels, for all aspects of the content lifecycle. Our experience is that fully merging physical and digital channels is a huge culture shift for everyone  customers, employees, and management. The challenge is to build a seamless CX (customer experience) that reaches across all touchpoints and makes a difference to your bottom line, and brand loyalty.

Landon Barnes, Principal Solutions Consultant at UserTesting spoke at length on 3 Reasons Companies Miss the Mark on Customer Centricity and How to Fix it. He was quoted saying, Businesses have to think from the customer perspective and how they want to do business and how quickly they want those experiences."

While speaking about Digital Transformation for Banking In 2021: Leveraging low code technology to accelerate customer-facing and operational processes, Andrew Fenton, Chief Sales Officer EMEA & APAC at Creatio, mentioned that, There is a huge amount of disruption and challenges within the world of banking and this forces the technology trends towards omnichannel communication."

Riva Uy, Solution Architect Manager at OutSystems and Marouen Zelleg, Senior Director at OutSystems shed light on the topic Reimagining Customer Experience, Empowered with Fast and Agile technology. Riva stated, The demand and the supply for fintech are rising as many companies are massively evolving their business strategy.

"Virtual events are an excellent opportunity for everyone in the industry to come together during these difficult times. Affordable and intelligent CX & FSI solutions & strategies are the need of the hour", says Mithun Shetty, CEO of Trescon.
The latest version of the Windows Operating System is here! Windows 11 is now being rolled out for all compatible devices. If you are thinking about upgrading your PC to the latest version or if it is being prompted, you have until 2025 to make your final decision.

Before you make your decision, it is really important for you to know all the changes which Microsoft has made in Windows 11 OSand how is it different from the Windows 10 OS. Upgrading windows 11 download ISO file is quite an easy process. You do not need to be a tech savvy to be the one.

Features Windows 11 OS include:

1. Design and Interface.

With the latest Windows version comes the all-new, simplified Start Menu. The Start button, which was traditionally placed at the corner is now placed at the center. However, those who do not wish to apply this change can shift it back to its traditional location.

The interface of Windows 11 resembles that of MacOS. Windows 11 has removed the Cortana functions. If you want Cortana, you need to download the application.

2. Android App Integration.

This is one feature which has been on the wishlist of numerous Windows users. Windows 11 can now access Android applications in Microsoft Store, via the Amazon Appstore.

3. Gaming Features.

Windows 11 is equipped with HDR (High Dynamic Range). Along with this Auto HDR, which automatically adds HDR to SDR content.

Another feature borrowed from Xbox Series X is Direct Storage. With this feature, PCs that have an NVMe SSD will be able to load games faster by loading data directly onto systems GPU rather than its CPU.

4. Performance.

According to Microsoft, Windows 11 uses memory management to favor applications which are running in the foreground. Even under 90% CPU load, the Excel app in Windows 11 opens up smoothly, despite the CPU being busy. Microsoft states that the same applies to the 'shell' in Windows 11, which powers the Start Menu and other visual effects.

5. Better virtual desktop support.

Creating a virtual desktop has become easier on the all-new Windows 11. Using this feature, you can toggle between different desktops at once.

This feature was originally introduced in Windows 10. However, it was a difficult task to set it up and toggle between desktops.

6. Microsoft Teams added to the Taskbar.

Looking at the current need, Windows 11 has done a phenomenal job by integrating Microsoft Teams directly into the Windows 11 Taskbar.

7. Bugs.

Windows 10 has been in the market for more than 5 years now! Well, you can find all the tech tutorial here for free. Whereas, the Windows 11 has been released only a couple of months ago. Windows 10 was not a bug-free operating system. Thus, Windows 11 is expected to have some bugs.

The biggest bug impacting Windows 11 involves AMD CPUs. The AMD CPUs drop performance by up to 15% in games.

Another bug in Windows 11 is that, it takes up extra RAM when you open multiple instances of the File Explorer. However, it never releases the RAM when you close the File Explorer.

Conclusion:

The latest Windows 11 OS provides with several newly added features, better performance and visual upgrades. However, it has some improvements which will be rolled out with the software updates.

Thus, we would recommend you to upgrade your PC to Windows 11 so that you can make use of all the newly added features to enhance your user experience.

If we have missed out on any such useful information about Windows 11 OS, then do let us know about it in the comments section below.
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!
Anthony Wilsons Terraplex is selling a shop at 358 Clarendon Street, in the heart of the South Melbourne village, with an office at the rear. Dixon Kestles agent Simon Regan is auctioning the property on December 9 and expecting about $2 million. Joint venture Franze Developments and the Sampieri Group have also turned to a fund-through sales process for their 430-438 Chapel Street site. They are selling a seven-level, 3148 square metre building through Gross Waddell ICR agents Danny Clark, Michael Gross and Alex Ham. The joint venture paid $11 million for the site in 2018. Its close to the Jam Factory redevelopment and is expected to fetch more than $40 million.

Developers are counting on companies looking for smaller buildings after the latest pandemic outbreak with the ability to occupy and control whole floors. Chow sells United Asia Groups Nicole Chow has sold almost all her commercial holdings at 33 Flemington Road, where she developed the 20-level North apartment project. The 102-bay, two-level car park is the latest part of the building to hit the market, and is expected to fetch about $5 million. Opposite the Parkville bio-medical precinct, the car park is leased to Melbourne Health and services local healthcare workers. It returns $203,237 a year in rent.

Colliers agents Alexander Leggo, Anthony Kirwan and Leon Ma are handling expressions of interest for Ms Chow, who has already sold several shops and offices. The offering comes fresh from the sale of a UAG development site in Kensington. A joint venture between Macquarie Bank and the Partner Group is understood to be planning a build-to-rent project at 346-350 Macaulay Road. UAG paid a hefty $35 million for the 8803-square metre site  formerly home to Vision Australia  and is believed to have sold it for about $50 million. Records show a caveat has been lodged by Intertrust Australia, the local arm of Amsterdam-based Intertrust, which is understood to be the source of some of the capital funding the project.

That deal was handled by JLLs Josh Rutman, Noral Wild and David Hill with Colliers Internationals Trent Hobart, Hamish Burgess and Jozef Dickinson. Catholic college The Catholic Churchs school arm has snapped up Southern Cross Education Institutes West Melbourne campus. The Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools will expand the campus of Simons Catholic College  located across the road  into 52-58 Chetwynd Street. The 1455-square metre building is on a 1000-square metre parcel of city-fringe land. SCIE bought the office building in 2017, paying $6.5 million. West Melbourne properties are trading around $10,000 a square metre, which gives the deal a value of about $10 million.

The Catholic Churchs school arm has snapped up Southern Cross Education Institutes West Melbourne campus. Credit: NSL Property Groups Guy Naselli handled the transaction but declined to comment on the price. Five bidders competed for the property, with its education rating proving highly attractive, Mr Naselli said. SCIE has other campuses in North Melbourne. Simons Colleges West Melbourne campus houses its year 7 to 9 students. Regional shops

A row of four adjoining shops in the heart of Healesville have been snapped up by a local investor offering a very short 14-day settlement. The shops at 260-262 Maroondah Highway fetched $3.97 million, reflecting a yield of 4.5 per cent. Stonebridge Property Group agents Nic Hage, who did the deal with Rorey James and Kevin Tong, said the return had set a new benchmark for the Healesville strip. Seven bidders had missed out on the property, Mr Hage said. Meanwhile, a portfolio of 12 shops, offloaded by a single vendor with interests in the south-east of the state, has fetched a total of $9.32 million.

The eight strata-titled and four freehold properties were amassed over a 25-year period and sold to 10 separate investors. The deal reflected an average yield of 5.36 per cent which is very strong given their locations around Gippsland. The portfolio was sold by the Stonebridge team, including Sarah Xi. Buddies centre An international investor has paid $9.51 million for a childcare centre in Glen Huntly, reflecting a sharp yield of 4.5 per cent.

The Buddies Early Learning centre at 81 Grange Road opened in 2017 and has a 15-year lease. CBRE agents Sandro Peluso, Jimmy Tat and Marcello Caspani-Muto acted for the vendor. Its the latest in a string of strong childcare centre deals. An international investor paid $9.51 million for a childcare centre in Glen Huntly. Credit: Coolest street Eager investors are clearly undermining Smith Street, Collingwoods coolest street in the world award with hot levels of enthusiasm.
Radio company Here, There & Everywhere (HT&E) will expand into regional markets after the broadcaster of the Kyle and Jackie O show acquired family-owned group Grant Broadcasters in a $307.5 million deal that will further consolidate the media industry.

HT&E chief executive Ciaran Davis has said he does not expect any synergies from the transaction, which will see the billboard and radio company that also broadcasts UK radio star Christian OConnell take control of a further 46 stations.

Mr Davis said he had given no thought to any future transactions, such as a merger with Kerry Stokes-controlled Seven West Media.

HT&E Chairman Hamish McLennan and CEO Ciaran Davis have announced a $300 million bid for regional radio company, Grant Broadcasters. Credit:Peter Braig

This opens up a footprint for our content creation and for the growth of audiences, which is good for advertisers and...this helps us expand iHeartRadio into the regions. We believe theres still growth to come in that market, he said.
As Australia begins to emerge from lockdowns and border closures, Australian business is faced with the challenge of operating in a pandemic-affected world.

During the early shock in 2020, business, unions and government seemed to come together to strategise a way through the crisis. Several challenges brought the parties together  how to support businesses to keep their staff employed, how to operate in COVIDSafe mode (through more flexible rostering and work from home arrangements). The governments JobKeeper program had broad support from all three constituents and was conceived and lobbied for by unions.

During the early stages of roundtable discussions, including on the IR Omnibus Bill, hosted by the then industrial relations minister Christian Porter, it looked like co-operation on a number of issues might be possible and even a grand bargain on industrial relations reform. Prime Minister Scott Morrison dropped the controversial Ensuring Integrity Bill as a show of good faith to unions, agreement was reached on combatting wage theft, and the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) agreed on fast-tracking union-negotiated agreements in the workplace relations system.

Wages growth is stagnating as is industrial relations reform. Credit:TANYA LAKE

This opening for co-operation was historic as, in recent years, Australia has moved away from such high-level co-ordination of labour and economic affairs, even though this approach is the norm under international labour standards. In many European countries, unions and business manage the labour market together as a social partnership, in a bipartite model, or in a three-way model with the more active involvement of the state. Such arrangements tend to support more universal labour standards and help solve social and economic problems. In Australia, the National Workplace Relations Consultative Council, which provides a formal forum for senior representatives of the Australian government, employers and employees to consult in the public interest on industrial relations and work health and safety matters of national concern has been underutilised in recent years.
The Orchard Murders, Robert Gott, Scribe, $29.99 Credit: Robert Gotts latest crime novel takes us to Melbourne during WWII, where a stretched police force has a shocking triple murder to investigate. The unremarkable suburb of Nunawading leaps into the headlines when a bizarre Messianic cult surfaces, promising its followers immortality. Death arrives instead, and the brutality of the crimes has the homicide squad tapping Helen Lord and Joe Sable (both former colleagues and now private inquiry agents) to assist. Together with newcomer Dr Clara Dawson, the steely detective duo must play a perilous game. To solve the murders, theyll need to get closer to sinister cult leader Anthony Prescott and infiltrate his deluded and dangerous cabal. Gotts dark wit, smooth storytelling and high body count make for entertaining homegrown period crime.

Always, Morris Gleitzman, Viking, $19.99 Credit: Morris Gleitzmans acclaimed Once series for 10-14 year olds began in 2005 and has since proved a rare achievement  a fiction rooted in the Holocaust that refuses to look away from inhumanity and horror, while succeeding as a taut adventure story charged by the grit of its young protagonists. The seventh and final volume, Always, sees Felix Salinger  once a Jewish boy during WWII  now a retired doctor living in Australia. The old man thinks his lifes work is done, but wartime memories resurface when a boy, Wassim, travels halfway across the globe to enlist his aid. With his own family under threat from neo-Nazis, Wassim has read of Felixs exploits during the war, and uses a note from his grandfather to seek him out. Gleitzman has written a fitting coda to the series, balancing a desolating legacy of hatred with the heroism and hope that might challenge and defeat it.

NON-FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK

Lies and Falsehoods, Bernard Keane, Hardie Grant, $22.99 Credit: While all politicians are prone to fudge the truth, Scott Morrison is an outliar among Australian prime ministers, says Bernard Keane, because he lies so routinely to evade accountability. Keane documents 30 instances of Morrisons brazen mendacity where the PM flatly denies saying things he actually said. In this forthright and unflinching analysis, Keane traces the rise of shameless lying in politics worldwide to the big lie about Saddam Husseins supposed weapons of mass destruction that formed the justification for the Iraq war. Growing partisanship and polarisation among voters have further emboldened politicians to feel that they can lie with impunity, seriously eroding the shared sense of reality essential to a democratic society. We need to recognise where our common interests lie, says Keane, and rebuild politics from the grassroots up.

No. 91/92: A Parisian Bus Diary, Lauren Elkin, Tablo Tales, $22.99 Credit: The epigraphs to this diary suggest that Lauren Elkin will be documenting the streets of Paris from the bus she takes to and from work. But it is actually a much more interior affair, a pithy stream of consciousness pondering the immense mystery of the other passengers, her own thoughts and how the bus community interacts. At first, her observations seem random. The smells, the crush of bodies, the girl in the blue tutu who looks amazing, the classes Elkin has to teach, children wailing. Details, like the list of hospitals the bus line connects, only later take on narrative significance when Elkin is diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy and becomes a patient at one of them. The terrorist attacks of 2015 overshadow her commutes, reinforcing how unforeseen events can derail and haunt the ordinary. What consoles her is the sense of community inherent in going places together.

Explain That, Ed., Felicity Lewis, Penguin, $32.99 Credit: If news is the tip of the iceberg, these collected explainers from The Age and Sydney Morning Herald chart the hidden bulk below the surface. As well as adding depth and nuance to our understanding of current events, concepts and issues, they challenge us to consider how complex this terra incognita can be. Each explainer is posed as a question, but there are no simple trivial pursuit-style answers. The assumptions underlying the question are as much in question as the question itself. For instance, What is love at first sight? starts with the brain chemistry behind instant sexual attraction but concludes with assertions that love at first sight doesnt exist. An even thornier example concerns whether Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires, which ends with the question of what agency the Afghan people will now have under the Taliban. The explainer to that is yet to be written.

My Unapologetic Diaries, Joan Collins, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, $49.99 Credit: A summary of Joan Collins life in these diaries goes something like this: shopping, schmoozing and schlepping around the world doing PR for her latest book or show, while bemoaning the lack of appreciation for her work. Melbourne, 1996, she does a signing at Myer for her autobiography but is eclipsed by Priscilla Presley: The news took great delight in saying that I had a very low turnout as compared to Presley! One senses that there is truth in Collins complaint that she is haunted by her bitchy character from Dynasty. Its hard not to admire the chutzpah required to admit to having a reputation that I can neither act nor write. And for all her obsession with her appearance, she is able to laugh at herself. When she meets President Clinton, he remarks on a half-a-billion-year-old rock from the moon, to which Collins replies, Almost as old as me.
And the books title is no feint: this is very much a rant and a ramble. Politicians have to make a stab at being certain, but beneath their shining brows lie doubts they do not begin to utter. Yes, and much else besides! As Authors Note and thematic introduction, by the end of this opening salvo, Keneally has clued us in to the style of his book, which deploys the sort of urbane yet blokey chattiness of another great appraiser, Clive James: Maybe unlike a bottled-in-bond ranter, I am fairly careful in these pages to offend no one, of course, other than believers in neoliberal economists and corporatists. But they have so many favours and bouquets from governments worldwide they do not need mine.

So although Im not convinced about demons, of Keneallys passions, Im happily on board: all eloquently argued and marshalled. A Bloody Good Rant charms and beguiles in equal measure. Ranting Keneally is a marvellous creation.

The cover surprises you before the prose has a chance to: A Bloody Good Rant  lipstick-smear font  and the subtitle: My passions, memories, and demons. Demons? This bloke? Jaunty smile, arms akimbo, hands nestled into his Kathmandu jumper ... youve never seen a less haunted looking person in your life.

Rambling, certainly: Bernard ODowds federationist doggerel is connected to Hitler is connected to Patrick Whites Voss is connected to the Seven Sisters Dreaming is connected to Oliver Cromwell. And thats only the first three pages. Keneally has a tendency to take on such broad swathes of sociopolitical history  neoliberalism, Australias colonialism  that things threaten to devolve into ersatz textbook primer or explainer-journalese before youve had a chance to really savour them.

Credit:

Yet Keneally can be incisive in areas we might not ordinarily imagine him attuned to. Two sides of Australia: living in Chinese exile/being a Hajiji is a testament to his ability to wear sophistication and nuance lightly, as in this description of Chinese migration to Australia in the 1980s: The chief distress of such newcomers was not only that many pre-Hansonites disliked them, although general anti-Asian bigotry made [them] uneasy; what they were more aware of was the open neutrality of Australias welcome. They felt, as others had and as Patrick White had explored, the great undefined vacancy, the negligent fluidity with which Australia greeted souls formed in more defined places.

Open neutrality: was there ever a more diplomatically scapular assignation fitted to Australias laissez-faire attitude towards migrants and non-Anglo cultures? Perhaps its the research aiding him  Sang Ye, Liu Guande (whom Keneally refers to, incongruously, as Fang Liu), author of the 1991 autobiographical novel of struggle in Sydneys Chinatown in the late 1980s, My Fortune in Australia  but the gift of analysis is apparent.

A Bloody Good Rant seems to have emerged from a book Keneally was working on about neoliberal economics and social policy. Little wonder he chose the ranting mode: a more considered reflection on neoliberalism, perhaps the defining story of the past 50 years, would likely require another few decades to complete, even for someone of Keneallys prolificity.
Armchair travellers have always loved books that take them to new destinations. In lockdown, with closed borders, they were a consolation: there was no other way to travel except in your head. But now we are beginning a very cautious opening up to the world, travel books can whet our appetite for new experiences far from home.

By travel books, I mean more than travel guides, useful as these are. If youre looking for something comprehensive, you cant go past Lonely Planets The Travel Book, which showcases the best of 230 nations  every United Nations-approved country in the world.

Geoff Dyers novel Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is sexy, horrifying and hilarious. Credit:

If youre nervous about going overseas and would prefer to travel within Australia, youll appreciate your journey more with some understanding of the oldest culture in the world. Marcia Langtons Welcome to Country is a guide book with a difference: it explores Indigenous languages and customs, history, native title, art and dance, storytelling and cultural awareness and etiquette for visitors.

But sometimes the most enjoyable way to choose or prepare for a possible trip is to read about what writers got up to in those places, allowing for fictional licence. My best preparation for the unlikely combination of Venice and Varanasi, for example, was Geoff Dyers sexy, horrifying and hilarious novel Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. Just dont do what his narrator did, or youll end up deranged and starving.
The number 11 tram rattled past Melbournes St Patricks Cathedral where mourners, caught in the November rain, gathered to farewell a man who as a boy had dreamed of driving passengers along that same route.

At Bert Newtons state funeral on Friday, singers, dancers, radio stars, a prime minister, a premier, comedians and football greats honoured one of Australias first and most enduring television stars, who died last month at 83.

Bert Newtons widow Patti and daughter Lauren look on as the TV icons casket leaves St Patricks Cathedral. Credit:Eddie Jim

The man known as Moonface had endured a torrid past year. He, like so many, had been separated from his family and dear ones as his health declined.

In the Gothic splendour of the Catholic cathedral the golden light fell on a coffin topped with yellow roses and an Australian flag. Premier Daniel Andrews told 500 mourners that Bert had always been there, omnipresent on our screens and in our homes. Someone we all felt we knew.
It was March 20, 2020, when the documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness arrived on Netflix. On that day, Australia shut its borders to non-residents and the world started to comprehend just how much of a problem the COVID-19 virus would be.

Tiger King and the pandemic would go hand-in-hand or perhaps paw-in-paw. As the pandemic confined us to our couches, Netflix found a captive audience for its series about captive animals, led by an even more captivating subject: Joe Exotic.

Within four weeks of premiering, 64 million households knew all about Exotic (real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage), the mullet-rocking, walk stick-wielding owner of GW Zoo, a big cat park based in Oklahoma. If Exotic was the Tiger King, then animals rights activist Carole Baskin was the Tiger Queen, complete with a floral crown.

The series focused on the pairs escalating feud  fuelled by Baskins attempts to shut down the GW Zoo and culminating in Exotics arrest in 2019 for hiring a hitman to kill her.
Goodbye period shame and secrecy, farewell clunky sanitary products. Menstruation is out and proud in 2021, thanks to women in their 20s and 30s who will no longer hide this most basic of female bodily functions.

In this episode of Good Weekend Talks, we look at a feature story by The Sydney Morning Herald senior writer Jacqueline Maley: Let it Bleed.

Loading

Maley is joined on the podcast by Elizabeth Hill, an associate professor in political economy at the University of Sydney, who has studied the intersection of menstruation and labour laws. Moderating the chat is Good Weekend editor Katrina Strickland, who steers the discussion through everything from when and why the period got politicised to the pros and cons of menstrual leave, period poverty in the developing world and the broader global revolution in attitudes towards reproductive health.
A friend recently gave me a stack of 1970s and 80s National Geographics. These stylish magazines, instantly recognisable with their bookish spines and their yellow borders, gave me flashbacks of the sexually transmissible infections I suffered when I was young. See, my doctor was a cheapskate who had a stack of heavily thumbed and probably highly infectious National Geographics in her waiting room. The more embarrassing your illness the more transfixed you will become by a story on The Incredible Potato, or Bahrain: Midas Of Oil. No one can climb as deeply into a National Geographic as a syphilitic in a waiting room.

A man screening his face, apparently engrossed in a story about Alaskan Moose On The Comeback, is usually summoning courage to confess a whole mess of sin to a medico. Leafing through the magazines the other day I found Id already read the 1979 story on the Oshkosh Air Show after kissing a Greek girl at Monash Uni that year, resulting in a shot of penicillin. The story on Canadas Fur-Trading Empire I had read in 1980 after an evening with an Arts student that turned into an appointment with Dr X. Licentiousness was broadening my mind back then, but it would have been cheaper to subscribe.

Credit:

One day, consultation over, script in hand, emboldened by having my jeans back on, I told Dr X she should get some new magazines. She replied most of her patients hadnt read them as many times as I had and maybe I should get some new behaviour. She was right. But it seems to me a profound comment on humanity that the pretty pictures of translucent blue glaciers photographers risked their lives to take were being used to mask the shame of the promiscuous.

This week I browsed my new old magazines and found full-page ads selling futuristic cameras that require film, and explorers wearing Rolex watches grimacing from igloos, frostbitten but on time. The Chinese were undergoing a miracle and freedom to smoke Marlboros and celebrate Catholic Mass was coming to them. Plummeting oil prices were ravaging Anchorage while oil-rich Arabs tooled around in dune buggies. The world was panicky about running out of oil. Cities were cloaked in smog. Remember smog? The only computer I encountered while flipping the pages was drunkenly trying to shear a sheep. Kampuchea was waking from a nightmare in 1982 and probably didnt know Brittany Henderson had been crowned Maine Potato Queen in June. Brittany looked like she could eat Pol Pot and his politburo at a sitting.
Call me naive, but Im still shocked that we live in an age, and a culture, where you can lose your liberty, your sanity, your citizens rights and perhaps your life, for speaking truth. Sure, Julian Assange was determined to speak truth to power. Sure, the truth in question was ugly  a revelation of US war crimes  and the power in question the worlds greatest. And sure, such immense power bestows the ability, if not the right, to supervene the law. But none of that makes it OK.

Ithaka is a new film currently premiering at the Sydney Film Festival. Because Assange has been held incommunicado for almost two years, his father John Shipton and his brother Gabriel Shipton are compelled to speak for him. John talks, rather shyly, to camera while Gabriel produces. The film is their story; their Julian story, a very personal tale of a very public figure.

Julian Assange, pictured in 2017 at the Ecuadorian embassy. Credit:AP

Its name, Ithaka, is taken from John Shiptons favourite poem, a tale of journeying by early 20th century Greek poet C.P. Cavafy. But it also suggests the Homeric quality of Assanges epic quest for truth, and his fathers for justice.

The film, directed by Ben Lawrence, fills out the Assange of international intrigue, court action and assassination plots  Assange as public enemy No. 1  by focusing on Assange the human. With his partner Stella Morris and their two small children we suffer through grim prison visits and emotional court hearings, small wins and devastating losses. But whats at stake is far bigger. For Julian, muses his father, its his life. But for you guys  if he goes down, journalism goes down.
Illegal fishing activity off the north-west coast of Australia has skyrocketed to unprecedented levels, as a joint federal operation seized 16 vessels and burnt three at sea during a three-day blitz last month.

National figures have revealed the scope of the increase in illegal vessels since the COVID-19 pandemic began, with more boats intercepted over three months this year than an entire seven-year span preceding the pandemic.

The influx could precede more serious national security concerns such as drug importation, piracy, people smuggling and terrorism operations.



Just five boats were intercepted in 2018-19 and only four the next year, but that figure surged to 85 vessels in 2020-21 and a whopping 103 from July to September this year, as the pandemic continued.
Having lived through the grief of eight miscarriages, Leah Betts was naturally focused on maintaining the best possible health when she was trying to conceive her third child.

As she underwent IVF this year, the idea of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 was making her really nervous that it could cause something to go wrong with the pregnancy.

Pregnant mother Leah Betts is helping spread the message that COVID-19 vaccination is safe for pregnant women and could spare them extreme illness, to themselves or their baby. Credit:Justin McManus

Happily, she is now 15 weeks pregnant. She is also double vaccinated after learning about the grave risks to mothers and unborn babies of COVID-19, and the large amount of global research showing vaccination is safe.

Unvaccinated pregnant women are being treated in every Melbourne ICU, say fertility specialists who are concerned about the number of pregnant women or those intending to become pregnant who are asking for vaccine exemptions.
The popularity of the inner west section also provided the Coalition government  including Gladys Berejiklian as transport minister, treasurer and ultimately premier  confidence to pursue the CBD light rail, a 2011 election commitment, despite clear political risks. Berejiklians view was that the CBD light rail was a worthwhile project and could transform Sydney and George Street, despite the NSW governments own infrastructure advisory body having argued against it. Were now starting to inherit some of the consequences of the decisions we made early in government. Senior NSW minister For all the inner west lines success, the CBD light rail project dogged the government for years, with a messy legal battle and multiple cost blowouts during construction. By the time it opened in late 2019 with poor patronage and slow speeds, scores of businesses along its route had either closed or were suffering after years of construction on their doorstep. Many in government believe it also contributed to the loss of the seat of Coogee earlier that year at the March election as locals pushed back against proposed cuts to the local bus network.

This project was built in spite of politics, not because of it, a government source says of the CBD light rail. Everyone knew how hard it was. There was nothing to be gained politically out of building it. Just as the CBD project hurt the government at the 2019 election, a long suspension of the inner west service could also prove problematic when voters return to the polls in 2023. Not only does a protracted closure to the route pose an obvious problem for Sydneys transport network and businesses like Sahows that rely on its patronage, it is also a thorn in the side for the Perrottet government, which is now racing to find a solution before the next election. Overlaying the light rail system on a NSW electoral map would not initially set off alarm bells for a coalition government, with the tracks passing through independent, Greens and Labor seats.

But the cracked trams, built by Spanish company CAF, have already been identified by the Labor opposition as a symbol of the state governments penchant for purchasing transport stock overseas. An undated image shows the extent of the cracking on one of Sydneys 12 inner west trams. New Indonesian-built ferries dont fit under bridges on the Parramatta River if passengers are seated on top, and were also found to have asbestos in them once they arrived. More than half of the Intercity Fleet trains, built in South Korea, will be 18 months late. Now, every single tram on the inner west line is cracked, with the opposition campaigning for more local manufacturing of transport assets  having already seized on comments by then-premier Berejiklian that her state was not good at building trains. A senior NSW minister says while the inner west seats didnt pose a major headache for the government, being seen by the rest of the state as unable to fix a simple transport problem could have wider electoral consequences.

Its the inner west so its not a part of the electoral map that matters to the government but as a general point of confidence, the government needs to be seen to fix this as quickly as it can, the minister says. Were now starting to inherit some of the consequences of the decisions we made early in government. With the inner west system paralysed while the much-maligned CBD light rail continues to operate, questions have been raised by commuters and politicians alike as to why the two lines, which even cross near Central Station, were never linked. And they could have been, according to Chris Lock, the former director-general of the transport projects division of Transport for NSW. Lock was responsible for the conversion of the inner west system from an old freight line to light rail before its opening, and was later intrinsically involved in the planning of the CBD system.

He says thought was given to linking the two systems when the CBD light rail planning was in its infancy. Money proved one determining factor. There was a long conversation over a long period of time as to whether they should have been linked, Lock says. The decision was made that there was no imperative to link them up for what would have been quite a large extra cost. A government source says Sydneys train system, which bottlenecks through Central and Town Hall stations, also informed the decision to keep the two systems separate. [We wanted] a less complex, more linear system. More reliability, less flexibility, they said, pointing out that relatively minor delays on the train system can prove diabolical for the entire network given close to a dozen different train paths converge through one bottleneck.

Greg Sutherland, former adviser to Labor transport minister Brian Langton, says the decision to not connect the lines is inexcusable. You dont separate tram lines. You want the flexibility of being able to use all of your trams on all of your systems, and they havent got that, he says. The long, French-built CBD trams have a different wheel profile to their inner west cousins, meaning the fleets are not interchangeable. It was never a major issue until all 12 broke. The cracks on the CAF-built trams are not unique to Sydney  theyve been found in fleets across the world, including in Englands West Midlands Metro. The British discovery prompted the NSW government in June this year to write to CAF seeking assurance the same problem would not develop on its own trams.

They were assured that the major cracking would not be an issue for the Sydney operation, but were told smaller cracks could form in another section of the trams, which could be easily fixed. Some of the inner west trams requiring repair work after cracks were discovered. Credit:Steven Siewert It was the discovery of those smaller cracks in the bump stop of the trams during regular monthly maintenance that led engineers to begin forensically checking the undercarriage which eventually exposed the major problem. The sizeable cracks being discovered in every single vehicle has now raised questions as to how the damage was able to become so extensive before being found. It would be like finding a crack in every 747 aeroplane fleet. Thats not how it works. You do preventative maintenance to find these things the first time they occur and prevent them from happening in the future, a transport source says.

While Transport Minister Rob Stokes on Wednesday reiterated it was his states expectation that CAF pay for the repairs, the Spanish company has already suggested to the government that operating speeds of the trams and track maintenance could be to blame. Loading However, political implications of another overseas procurement bungle and arguments between the state government and contractor as to who bears the responsibility for the cracked fleet are inconsequential to businesses like Sahows dotted along the line. Sahow, who relied on rent relief to keep his cafe and restaurant open during the pandemic, says hes had large table bookings cancelled for evening service this week. He will have to ask his landlord for help again. Im right at the doorstep of it, and that was my biggest opportunity, Sahow says of the light rail. Im trying every way I can to stay in business basically.
About 57,000 people in NSW did not come back for a second COVID-19 vaccine, prompting health authorities to stress it is not too late to complete the course.

The statistics show the vaccine status of 57,300 people last week was considered overdue  meaning they had received a first dose but not returned within the recommended time for a second.

A COVID-19 vaccination hub at a public housing estate in Waterloo, Sydney. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

More than 40,600 people in the state received their first Pfizer vaccine more than six weeks ago but have not had a second, according to the Australian Immunisation Register. An additional 16,100 are past 12 weeks since their first AstraZeneca shot. About 500 people have waited longer than six weeks without getting a second Moderna vaccine.

If these people do not return, NSWs double-dose goal of 95 per cent may be slightly further off than initially thought.
There be monsters on the only surviving map showing Dutch explorer Abel Tasmans 1642 and 1644 trips around Tasmania, New Zealand, the South Pacific and north coast of Australia, but they are far from the stuff of nightmares.

A year-long project by State Library of NSWs conservator Dana Kahabka revealed hidden details including a drawing of a sea monster that was more like a frazzled pussycat than a demon from the deep in the seafarers dream.

The State Library of NSWs new exhibition, Maps of the Pacific, 1500-1860, opens on Saturday. Curator Maggie Patton examines a celestial pocket globe, c 1791, by John and William Cary, London. Credit:Wolter Peeters

The restored Tasman map, described as priceless and irreplaceable, is the star of a new exhibition opening on Saturday of more than 100 rare maps and globes  including 18th century miniatures designed to fit in a pocket  charting European exploration of the Pacific.

Many are on display for the first time, including a hand-coloured map by Dutch cartographer Johannes de Ram from the 1690s, a pencil sketch of Tahiti by Samuel Wallis, 1767, and a unique manuscript of the Magellan Straits by English explorer, Philip Carteret,1765.
A Sydney barrister who kidnapped, assaulted and raped his girlfriend on a drive home from Canberra has failed in his bid to overturn his conviction.

Craig Franklin and his partner, who cannot be named for legal reasons, spent the weekend in a motel in 2007 in an ill-fated attempt to mend their volatile relationship - which had previously been characterised by him embarking on an affair and her damaging his barristers wig, cutting the crotch from his underpants and throwing his possessions on his parents driveway.

Craig Franklins barristers wig was damaged by his partner. Credit: Supplied

On the drive back to Sydney, Mr Franklin punched his girlfriend so hard she was seeing stars, slapped her and broke her glasses, forced her to perform oral sex on him and threatened to kill her before she asked a woman in the toilets of Goulburn McDonalds to call police.

Mr Franklin pleaded guilty to one count of assault, and was convicted by a jury of common assault, detaining a person with the intent of obtaining an advantage (sexual gratification) and aggravated sexual intercourse without consent in 2009. He served almost five years in Long Bay prison.
Queensland remains languishing in last place in the national COVID-19 vaccine push, as the country passes 90 per cent of people with one dose.

Federal government figures released on Friday afternoon showed Australia had reached 90.1 per cent of people who have had at least one dose of the vaccine.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the state was expecting to reach a 70 per cent double-dose vaccine milestone on Sunday or Monday. Credit:Matt Dennien

Queensland, by contrast, was on 81.1 per cent, having done away with mask mandates when the state reached the 80 per cent first-dose threshold this week.

Queensland is just behind WA on 82 per cent first dose, the Northern Territory on 83.1 per cent and South Australia on 84.9 per cent.
The hackers who lived undetected for nine months inside one of Queenslands biggest water entities were not mining personal information or plotting to take down infrastructure.

Rather, the mission of the unknown threat actors who covertly invaded Sunwater between August 2020 and May this year was to boost the views on a YouTube video.

Hackers were trying to boost clicks on a YouTube video. Credit:Peter Braig

The breach was mentioned in limited detail this week in a Queensland Audit Office report into the workings of state and local government owned water entities.

While not naming Sunwater in this context, the report said the vehicle for the hackers peculiar underhandedness was an older and more vulnerable version of an entitys system.
Vaccine mandates for construction industry workers have come into effect in Victoria as the state recorded 1221 COVID-19 cases and four deaths.

Staff at building sites will now need to be fully immunised against coronavirus to attend work, with residential aged care workers to follow suit on Monday.

Vaccination is now mandatory for construction workers in Victoria. Credit:Getty

The mandate has been deeply unpopular with some sectors of the industry and was at the heart of violent protests in September, that saw thousands of people march through Melbourne and vandalise the headquarters of the CFMEU.

It comes as a Sydney lawyer who unsuccessfully challenged the NSW mandate had his practising certificate suspended following posts on his firms social media accounts claiming the decision said it is OK to kill anyone you like.
Weve never seen that in terms of policing in Australia, says Nixon. This is such a phenomenal change for us.

It was yet another new frontier in policing after an extraordinary 19 months in which, as former police chief commissioner Christine Nixon puts it, we locked down a citizenry like wed never done before.

For the first time in Victoria, hundreds of riot control officers and special paramilitary police, normally used against armed offenders and terrorists and in violent sieges, confronted demonstrators using, also for the first time , foam-tipped bullets, teargas and an armoured vehicle known as a Bearcat.

For some it was a portent of civil collapse, with the protest uniting political opponents in alarm. Perhaps this is why so many of us overlooked another historic shift on those same steps, that same September day.

Blood was spilled; protesters urinated on the monument. For many Victorians, the violation of the memorial to their fallen soldiers and peacekeepers would be a defining image of the citys lockdown.

Historians could recall nothing like it: a ragtag group of conspiracy theorists, lockdown opponents and right-wing extremists confronting police on the steps of the citys Shrine of Remembrance.

Jeff Kennett was the last Victorian premier to cut police numbers. It didnt end well for him. As the Liberal premier slashed his way through public service budgets in the 1990s, Victoria Police was just another agency forced to rein in spending.

It seems a good time to ask: have we scared ourselves into being over-policed and over-incarcerated - and if so, at what cost?

Two decades of tough-on-crime policies from the major political parties has given police record staff levels, booming budgets and ever greater power on the streets and in politics. Victorians are now imprisoned at a rate not seen since the colonial days of the late 19th century.

Yet even before COVID, Victoria Police had become the largest force in the country.

Melbournes worst public health crisis called for sacrifices unthinkable in 2019: a curfew unparalleled internationally, the so-called ring of steel around the city and the unnerving experience of police stopping people on the street to check IDs and quiz us about our business.

Victoria has abolished remission (release for good behaviour), scrapped suspended sentences and toughened parole, especially after Adrian Bayley murdered Jill Meagher in 2012 , and introduced restrictive bail laws after James Gargasoulas Bourke Street killings.

In the 20th century Victoria boasted one of the lowest imprisonment rates in Australia and internationally. Now, after two decades of legislation by Labor and Coalition governments, the state locks up people at a rate inconceivable 40 or 50 years ago.

We have more police than NSW and substantially more per 100,000 people. We actually spend about the same on policing even though the northern state is three times our geographical size, with 1.4 million more people.

Twenty-two years and five election cycles later, and with government funding that has tripled to $4 billion, we now field the largest law enforcement agency in the country.

But Kennett miscalculated. The hot favourite to win a third term in 1999, he was turfed out of government in an election in which police made themselves an issue. Here was a lesson for all subsequent political leaders.

Back then, Victoria was one of the safest and most lightly policed jurisdictions in the country. NSW was the state of convicts, crime and corruption. Victoria was the respectable free settler state.

A potent mix of politics, media and vested interests has made us a more frightened and punitive state.

Something has happened to us and our relationship with crime.

However, this increasing spending on police and prisons has not stopped a long-term increase in the violent crime rate. Despite there being many more police on our streets and more people locked away, Victorians also report feeling generally less safe in their homes and on the streets, according to an annual survey by the Productivity Commission.

Police relied on a show of force to dissuade protesters during a series of demonstrations in September. Credit:Wayne Taylor

Temporary respite came when COVID put a brake on population growth, slowed court processes and the accompanying lockdowns quelled street crime. Yet the government expects the annual cost of running prisons to double to more than $4 billion by 2030.

The states prison population almost doubled in the decade to 2019 and the annual cost of housing and supervising inmates more than tripled. Were spending billions of dollars on sprawling prison precincts the size of small towns on the citys outskirts.

Then premier Ted Baillieu celebrates the graduation of 20 protective services officers with Commissioner Ken Lay in 2012. Credit:Angela Wylie

At the 1999 state election, and the crucial Frankston East by-election shortly afterwards, union members campaigned against the Coalition, including handing out how-to-vote cards. Nixon recalls that some from the union even claimed responsibility for tipping Kennett out.

While in the wider workforce union membership (now at 14 per cent) and power is declining, the police union boasts 98 per cent coverage, giving it formidable leverage with government.

Its a race that police actively encourage. More police means more members and more clout for the Police Association of Victoria, a union founded as a harmless social club but which has morphed into an industrial and political powerhouse.

Neither of the major parties think that, politically, they can now get out of that race, says Patten, the Reason Party leader currently chairing a parliamentary inquiry into the states justice system.

Where a tough-on-crime mantra was traditionally the preserve of political conservatives, both major parties are now locked in what Victorian upper house cross-bencher Fiona Patten calls a law-and-order arms race.

Since then, most of the big increases in police resources have come from campaign promises, sometimes without police even asking for them. Police numbers, says Nixon, are political.

Kennetts successor Steve Bracks increased police by 800 in his first term and promised another 600 before the 2002 election.

The union under controversial secretary Paul Mullett backed the Bracks-led Labor at its 2002 campaign and then again in 2006 after it famously struck a secret side deal with Labor to boost police numbers again and commit the state to paying the legal costs of officers investigated for corruption.

Then, after Mulletts time at the helm ended in 2009, the union worked closely with the Ted Baillieu-led Coalition as it campaigned hard on law and order, promising to scrap home detention and suspended sentences and tighten bail laws.

They [the association] were an exceptionally powerful voice when we were writing policy, acknowledges former Baillieu government minister Kim Wells, now an opposition backbencher. I have nothing but respect for the police association. Wayne Gatt [the unions leader] fights for his members until the end. I respect him for that.

Its rare praise indeed from a Coalition MP about a union and its leader.

Then premier Denis Napthine at a photo opportunity with police in 2014 to announce the arrival of 1700 new recruits on the beat. Credit:Justin McManus

Baillieu rode the law and order wave to unexpected victory in 2010, and the lock-em-up lesson was reinforced.

Daniel Andrews is a keen student of politics. Even though he is a left-winger, as Premier he is renowned for his hard-line position on policing and justice.

In late 2016, amid controversies around African gang violence, a breakout from the Parkville detention centre and a spike in the crime rate, Andrews announced a massive $2 billion spend on more than 3100 new police officers  the largest recruitment in the states history.

Then after the Bourke Street killings in 2017, he introduced bail laws spruiked by Labor as Australias most onerous  laws that have left hundreds, perhaps thousands more Victorians in jail on remand, and human rights advocates aghast.

The Andrews government has been excellent on many human rights issues, but its record is being undermined by its harsh, punitive approach to law and order, says Human Rights Law Centre executive director Hugh de Kretser, who accuses the government of having a law and order habit it needs to feed.

Premier Daniel Andrews in 2016 with then-Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton. Credit:Justin McManus

The duality of Andrews policies makes sense electorally and is consistent with trends elsewhere.

Victoria University lecturer Chris McConville is one of a few historians who specialise in Melbourne politics and street culture, including crime and policing. He says a rethink about public order has been going on in left-leaning parties in the United States and Britain for some time. Hanging on to traditional working-class voters cannot be done without a harder line on crime, he says.

Clearly there is more to the law and order story than the power of the local police lobby.

Ned Kelly to Nixon

Colonial records show how heavy-handed the legal authorities were in the days of Ned Kelly. In the year he was hanged, 1880, the imprisonment rate was about 186 per 100,000 people.

For the next century, the rate declined steadily, hitting a low of 39 per 100,000 in 1977 before an upturn coinciding with the end of the postwar economic boom, whittling away of the welfare state and a growing aversion to risk.

Nixon, who joined the NSW Police in the 1970s, says crime became a significant public issue about 40 years ago, not because we were actually less safe but because we were made to feel that way.

She points to an increasingly shrill media fuelling community fear. Your paper occasionally, she tells The Age, but more so The Herald Sun. Have a look at what they publish: If it bleeds, it leads. Thats it.

The former police chief is especially critical of the constant chorus by media commentators that everything needs to be tougher. Its a very easy space to use. Thats what drives up community fear.

Police commissioner Christine Nixon and her deputy Simon Overland at a press conference in 2007. Credit:Mario Borg

Andre Haermeyer was the Bracks Labor governments police minister from 1999 to 2005, during Nixons time as chief commissioner. Their relationship was an uneasy one. Still, on the role of the media and fear, theyre in agreement.

By international standards Australia, and in particular Victoria, are very safe, says Haermeyer. While you have media that exaggerates the problem, governments will be under pressure to pour more money into response, rather than prevention.

Almost always overlooked by politicians, shock jocks and newspapers is the cost of tough-on-crime measures.

Too much of a good thing?

Twenty years ago, the Victorian auditor-general was concerned that police numbers had fallen below the national average and that we may have been short of police. That situation is now reversed and Victoria is well above the national average, with more police than NSW or Queensland.

Is it possible we now have too many police?

Its a sensitive question at a time when bitter, partisan politics around the pandemic in Victoria has made a measured assessment of police policy and action difficult.

Still, Patten is clear. Yes, she says, we have too many police. She supports the good work police do, but explains: We always say that we cant arrest ourselves out of the drug problem or any number of other social problems. Yet still we keep trying. Our answer is always the same: hire more police.

But police are essentially reactive. We need to be looking at the causes of crime and to prevent people from going to prison.

Curiously, the Staff Allocation Model, a system introduced by the Andrews government to end boom-bust police hiring in Victoria, is not a public document.

The more police there are, the more we rely on them. From cats up trees to you name it, says Nixon. So many more people call the police than ever before. They will call the police because its so easy.

Reason Party MP Fiona Patten says Victoria is caught in a law-and-order arms race. Credit:Justin McManus

Haermeyer points out that police are expected to deal with situations and people they are neither properly trained nor paid for: family counselling, dealing with domestic violence, social work, mental health.

Even Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt acknowledges that police are not the best people to deal with mental health crises and should be the last people called to such incidents.

Then there is the question of street tactics and equipment. Almost certainly, the extraordinary COVID protests have set a new benchmark for militarised handling of protests  more guns and gas and on our streets. So successful were the Special Operations Group and other specialist anti-riot forces at containing the September protests that the Police Association has called for their use to become standard at demonstrations.

Criminologist and Monash University emeritus professor Jude McCulloch cautions of the risk of this new level of police militarisation being normalised.

In a different political environment we may now see a very different approach to a Black Lives Matter rally, for instance, says McCulloch. Whats going to happen next time we have African youth in groups?

The wider tough-on-crime contest between the major parties has also left us with a jaw-dropping taxpayer bill and a big question mark over value for money and fairness.

Most caught in the crime crackdown are not hardened criminals or sexual and violent attackers. Theyre lower-level offenders on remand, ineligible for bail, unable to get a timely hearing or incapable of meeting conditions for their release, such as stable housing; most have alcohol and/or drug problems.

The growth in prisoner numbers is greater for women than men, for First Nations people its greater still, and for Indigenous women its greater again.

But despite the huge investment, nearly half of all prisoners ultimately reoffend and return to prison, which is a key performance indicator for the corrections system.

In countries with more preventative approaches to crime and corrections, such as Norway, the recidivism rate is less than half that of Victoria.

No apology

Behind the scenes, with the political heat turned down, senior players from both major parties acknowledge they have created a big headache for whoever is in government. As yet, however, there is no clear path out of the law-and-order conundrum.

Five years after Andrews announced his record 3100-plus extra police and introduced a new model for hiring, pressure is mounting again ahead of the 2022 election.

In September, Gatt told the parliamentary justice inquiry that police were now barely able to staff and man their police stations. The unions 2021 annual report includes the objective of being politically prominent and influential and lobbying both sides of politics for an increase in police numbers.

Haermeyer says ideally other specialist government agencies would pick up some social and mental health work left to police so the police can go back to doing what most joined the force to do.

But Police Minister Lisa Neville shows no inclination to rein in police numbers or resources. She tells The Age the government makes no apology for the thousands of new officers recruited since 2016 and will continue to provide Victoria Police with the resources, technology and infrastructure it needs to better protect the community.

A police spokeswoman said the recent bushfires and pandemic had demonstrated how agile and responsive the organisation needs to be.

There is no doubt police are working harder than ever, locking up offenders in record numbers, partly due to the additional resources.

On the law and order front, including issues such as bail reform and prison spending, there is growing consensus that the current policies are financially unsustainable and unjust.

Police Minister Lisa Neville. Credit:Penny Stephens

The solutions have been well canvassed, including by the Productivity Commission, which has studied Australian prison spending to conclude that taxpayers are losing out in the new penal culture.

Commissioner Stephen King says there are cheaper and more effective alternatives to prisons, especially for low-level offenders, including home detention, diversion, community service, drug, alcohol and mental health programs, and restorative justice programs where offenders and victims of crime come together.

These things tend to work. They tend to lower recidivism, theyre significantly cheaper. We just have to grab them.

King tells The Age that even a small cut in prison spending will leave more funds for schools and hospitals and other crucial services likely to prevent crime and imprisonment.

As The Age revealed in May, the government acknowledges in private that reform is needed, especially on bail laws, for both financial and justice reasons. But one year out from an election, neither side of politics appears willing to take the first step out of a race that both sides agree is costing us far too much.

Loading

Pattens parliamentary inquiry has heard the same issues raised time and time again: the need to wind back our harsh bail and parole laws, raising the age for criminal responsibility, and a dire need for affordable and secure housing and better mental health and drug treatment.

She calls on the major parties to stop feeding or responding to media scare campaigns and to look at the evidence.

I think you can sell to the public the idea that were better off building houses than prisons, to be looking after families rather than putting children in jail. The community gets that, especially if were not scaring them half to death.
Heathmont Colleges Indonesian language program was dying when teacher Prema Devathas arrived at the school 10 years ago.

Students at the eastern suburban government school had few opportunities to speak the language outside of class and felt little sense of connection with Indonesian culture. Enrolments had tanked.

Year 11 Heathmont College student Sophie Rees with her Indonesian teacher Prema Devathas. Credit:Justin McManus

To revive the program, Ms Devathas built a sister-school partnership with a leading school in Yogyakarta, giving students a forum to speak Bahasa with Indonesian peers via Skype and even visit, where they sit in an Indonesian classroom for a week.

We have to make it authentic and make it meaningful and tie it to their lives, thats why the Indonesian tour and the sister-school partnership matters, Ms Devathas said.
Then I saw my firearm was glistening bright red in the street light, and I saw my right thumb shredded, pieces hanging over the hammer and blood spraying like a spray gun. The bullet had hit his right thumb, smashed the torch he was carrying, entered his left wrist and travelled along his arm, lodging just under the skin near his elbow. When his partner, who had been searching nearby factories, found him, the laconic McDonald said: Thats stuffed my piano playing. The gun was a 9mm Browning pistol - not the sort of weapon usually carried by a factory burglar. But this was no average burglar, although it would take police nearly three years and several casualties to grasp the dangers. An informer gave one of the investigators the name of a possible suspect: local factory worker Pavel Mad Max Marinof.

When police searched his house they found a shooting range in the basement, but Marinof had disappeared. He was a Bulgarian army deserter, a dangerous gun nut and, in all probability, an underworld firearms dealer. And he would return with a bloody vengeance. The burglars kit, dropped at the scene. After McDonald was shot the burglaries stopped for 18 months and then began again. The fit burglar would hit up to 12 factories a night, beginning around 10pm, to pilfer petty cash and small items. His patch was an industrial triangle including Oakleigh, Clayton and Moorabbin, and although McDonald was shot in that zone, police seemed reluctant to link these burglaries with the earlier ones. Which is why, when Cheltenham police decided to stake out likely targets, they didnt know the offender would almost certainly shoot to avoid capture. They were setting themselves up to be ambushed.

McDonald was told his best option for recovery was to have his thumb replaced with the big toe from his right foot. He had his doubts and even as he was about to be wheeled into surgery thought about getting up and walking out. But it was too late. Presented with the prestigious Victoria Police Valour Award, he returned to work around the time the burglar returned to his line of business. I was never the same. I fought the nerves and the fear that crept into certain situations and eventually succumbed to it, he says. He took medical retirement, then after physical and psychiatric treatment returned to policing for a further 12 years, although the dark cloud of the shooting refused to lift. In late May 1985 local police started their operation to trap the burglar. Rather than patrol his beat, giving him the chance to hide, they would wait in likely spots for him to show his head.

On June 18, Sergeant Brian Stooke and Senior Constable Peter Steele decided to pull over a yellow Ford Cortina. It was in the factory area of Keys Road, Cheltenham, just before midnight - the right time and the right place for their man. The Age, June 1985: four policemen shot in the hunt for Mad Max Marinof. Credit:Age archive While they searched the car the driver bolted, and when the police gave chase he turned and started firing, hitting Stooke and then Steele in the shoulder. He returned to Stooke, lying on the wet road, and shot him three more times, leaving him a paraplegic. In the immediate search for the gunman two more police, Sergeant Ray Kirkwood and Constable Graham Sayce, were shot. Sayce was lucky to survive after a bullet grazed his head and shattered his cars headrest. Soon after, Senior Constable Gary Morrell, a dog handler, was shot in the hand. The bullet would have entered his chest if not for his ballistic vest. Again Marinof disappeared, this time for eight months, until the search centred on a property at Wallan.

Two Major Crime Squad detectives, John Kapetanovski and a different Rod MacDonald, followed a panel van that left the property and headed along the Hume Highway. They were not certain the driver (who was wearing a wig) was Mad Max. As he was heading into Melbourne, where they might lose him, they decided to pull him over. Armed with shotguns, they approached cautiously, keeping their guns pointed down as they could not be certain he was their target. They ordered him to place his hands outside the door and just as he seemed to be complying he started firing, hitting Kapetanovski in the shoulder and hand and MacDonald in the chest. In a replay of the shooting of our first Rod, Kapetanovski threw up his arms to shield himself. The first bullet passed through his chest into the bone of the right upper arm, while the second was aimed directly between his eyes.

That shot hit the left hand and travelled from the top of the palm through the inside of the middle finger, smashing three bones and destroying the top joint. It was enough to deflect the bullet, which only creased his right eyebrow. February 25, 1986: Rod MacDonald is stretchered from a Victoria Police helicopter after the shootout wth Marinof. Credit:Jim McEwan Its hard to believe, but it was almost slow motion, Kapetanovski told me. I could see the bullet heading towards me. Badly wounded, second Rod fired his shotgun through the rear windscreen as Marinof drove to escape. The car slowed, veered into a paddock and stopped. The gunman was dead. The investigation into the 1982 shooting of Rod McDonald stopped with the death of Marinof because everyone knew he was the gunman. The trouble was that no one actually finished the file.

McDonald remains angry that his case remains unresolved. They have failed me. Every time the victims of Mad Max are listed without him, he feels like the forgotten footnote in a terrible chapter of policing history. Now 75, he wanted to leave his dark memories behind and is living a simple life in Siam Reap, Cambodia. Former colleague Wayne Rotherham took up the cause and lobbied for a review. One of the key pieces of evidence was the 9mm bullet that hit Rod (One). If it could be matched with the gun used to shoot Rod (Two) and Kapetanovski, it would prove the case. But the Rod (One) bullet had been turned into a charm necklace for McDonalds daughter and the years had worn away the ballistic marks needed for comparison. Rod McDonald (right) with Rod MacDonald. Both believed to have been shot by Marinof.

After the review, Detective Superintendent Peter Brigham wrote to McDonald: It is not possible to prove beyond doubt that Marinof was the offender ... Considering the nature of the crime that you were attending, and Marinofs MO and firearms proficiency, I believe it is highly likely that he was the offender. Rod (Two) believes Rod (One) was shot by Marinof: The stance and accuracy [of the offender] is identical. He shot in the same way. It would mean so much to him [Rod One] for it to be formally acknowledged. Earlier this year, undercover operative Rob Robertson was presented with a Valour Award for an operation 43 years earlier where he persuaded a gunman not to shoot three police forced into a dumpster at the Victoria Market. The award identifies the gunman as the notorious armed robber and escapee Russell Mad Dog Cox, although Cox was never arrested, questioned or charged with the offence. McDonalds citation ends with the words: Despite an intensive search, the offender was never located.
Perhaps he had his larrikin tongue in his cheek, but there was truth in there too. Behind a thousand doors at the Australian National University are world-leading researchers in just about any discipline you might wish to mention. For years I was fortunate enough to take lunch and considerable wine every month with a small group that included one of Australias great cartoonists, a celebrated historian and several fellows who ran major national institutions. Every week there was another lunch - yes, and wine - with a regularly rambunctious bunch of journalists whose decades of reports, documentaries and photographs covered the sweep of modern history, both nationally and across the world. You could, at times like those, forget the vain and sometimes venal expulsions of air in the big house up on the hill. Canberra, in short, gets a bad and unfair rap for the unavoidable fact that it is the setting for the national parliament, which means it is regularly infested with politicians.

It has long been a national sport to sling off at politicians, for the essence of democracy is that people take sides, meaning no political representative is without detractors, though many of them are reasonable people. In turn, politicians regularly try to ensure you take their side by making noise and, often enough, exaggerating whatever they are trying to make a noise about, For the next few months, however, you wont be able to blame Canberra for the onslaught of overheated air. It will be in our backyards, everywhere, as election season blows across the nation. The early forecast isnt looking good. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a man you suspect would willingly stand on his head in a public bar and yodel a cowgirl song if he thought it would win votes, clicked into desperation mode this week, indicating, if you hadnt already discerned it, that the election campaign is well underway.

Loading Desperation? How else might you explain the approach of a Prime Minister who, without even being asked anything to do with the subject, rips out an accusation that his political opponent is a traitor? There he was, fielding a TV question about French President Emmanuel Macrons famous claim that he was a liar, when he spun on a sixpence and out of nowhere accused opposition leader Anthony Albanese of siding with China against him. I see Anthony Albanese backed in the Chinese government and a number of others in having a crack at me as well, said Morrison, bamboozling and flat footing everyone, including Albanese, for there appeared to be no evidence the Labor leader had done any such thing. Perhaps the PM had become temporarily unhinged after the US and China suddenly joined hands to fight climate change, leaving Morrison looking even more isolated after the Glasgow climate summit.

Then again, no one should have been surprised at the PMs evidence-free attack. Its the way he does things. Meanwhile, Labor is giving no indication it knows how to handle this level of behaviour. The day before, Morrison, having spun on another sixpence, was busily extolling the future of electric vehicles, which less than three years ago he had been damning as frightful things that would steal everyones weekends. Asked about this amazing U-turn, he flatly denied hed ever been opposed to electric vehicles. Hed merely been decrying then Labor leader Bill Shortens policy of mandating electric vehicles by 2030, he protested.
Item No. 1 was the demand that Australia stop blocking Chinese investment on national security grounds. No. 2 was that Australia reverse its ban on Huawei. Three was that Australia dump its foreign interference and espionage laws. And so on, including the demands that Australian members of parliament and media cease making any comments critical of China. Recall that Beijing had banned all political contact with Australia and imposed punitive trade sanctions on at least $20 billion worth of Australian exports. Loading Both Australias government and opposition had flatly rejected the demands and refused any suggestion of negotiating over them. Now Kearsley asked Keating the pivotal question: Which of these 14 items would you be prepared to negotiate on? Keating began by replying: Look, the key point is, is the rise of China legitimate? ... The key is to recognise, if we give China the recognition I believe it is due, in terms of its legitimacy, in turning 20 per cent of the Earths population back into something approaching even $10,000 a head [in national income], then I think a lot of these issues, the so-called 14 points, sort of fall off the table. Two points here. First, he didnt answer the question. Second, even taking Keatings point on its merits, no Australian minister ever has challenged the legitimacy of Chinas rise. Or the scale of its achievement. In fact, just about every Australian political speech of recent years lauded Chinas enormous success in reducing poverty.

Kearsleys question remained. Pressed again, Keating evaded again. The implication, however, from his injunction that Australia give China the recognition I believe it is due, is that Australia should capitulate. If so, he should say so. If he has a better idea, he should say so. If he has nothing to say about the great impasse, why ask to appear before the National Press Club to talk about Australia and China in the first place? Loading By Friday afternoon, there was no indication that any of these governments  the US, Japan, India or Australia  was acting on Keatings instructions. As King Canute found in trying to turn back the tide, he was kidding himself. In the case of the 11th century King of England, scholars think that  if the tale is true, and its probably apocryphal  he was likely trying to demonstrate the limits of his powers, his humility before God. In the case of Keating, there is no such hint of self-awareness. Instead, the four countries, rather than yield to Beijing as Keating instructed, have come together to balance against it. The leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the US held the first in-person summit of the Quad  the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue  in Washington in September. The only reason the Quad has come together is its shared concern about Chinas new aggression. Bidens Indo-Pacific Co-ordinator, Kurt Campbell, put it this way: The subtext of all of this, of course, is the challenge that China presents and each of the countries in the last year in their own way has faced profound and unnerving challenges from Beijing. Keating had predicted the Quad would never advance beyond meetings at officials level. Asked about the Quad this week, Keating had nothing coherent to say about it and brushed it aside.

Here is a great disjunction in Keatings position. One of his longstanding themes is that Australia should find its security in Asia, not from Asia. But the Quad is centred on Asia, with Japan at the north of the four-pointed diamond, India to the west, Australia to the South and the US to the East. Why wont Keating accept it? Its committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific and explicitly acknowledges the centrality of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It seems that he wont acknowledge anything that doesnt have China in charge. Loading And that illustrates the central problem with Keatings appearance this week. He simply cannot accept anything or anyone that fails to conform to his preconception of the world order. Any inconvenient fact is attacked, mocked or ignored. So the US, Japan, India and Australia are wrong. Britain, because it has joined the AUKUS group and expressed concern about China, is to be ridiculed: Britain is like an old theme park sliding into the Atlantic compared to modern China. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is old coconut head. Australias national security agencies, which hed previously said were run by nutters who should be sacked, are wrong, too, in Keatings view. And The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age he dismissed this week as ning-nongs. Im happy to admit to being one of the leading ning-nongs of Keatings characterisation. The definition of ning-nong seems to include anyone who has recognised the reality that China has changed under the rule of Xi Jinping. Under Xi, China has transformed from being a status quo power to a revisionist one.

As Lavina Lee, senior lecturer in international relations at Macquarie University, put it on the ABCs Q+A: When you listen to Paul Keating, hes got a very benign view of China thats based on a 1970s assessment of its foreign policy objectives. I think thats a kind of wrong basis from which to act. China is the only dissatisfied power in Asia, in the region. It is revisionist and it has expanded its ideas of what its territorial borders are. It used to be satisfied with consolidating control over its land borders in Xinjiang and Tibet. Now it sees the South China Sea and the East China Sea as part of its natural territory and seeks a permanent presence there. Illustration: Jim Pavlidis Credit:The Age The more its power grows, the more territory and rights it demands from its neighbours. Yet in Keatings view, Beijing is correct; everyone else should fall back in awe. After 26 years, did Keatings return to the press club have any value? It did. Whether you agree with him or not, he revived debate about Australia, China and the world. And he drew attention to the growing tensions over Taiwan, which loom as a potential flash point between Beijing and Washington. If so, Australia will face a grave choice. Its one we discuss rarely, yet its consequences would be profound. Keating, naturally, wants Australia to stay out of any war over Taiwan. But could Australia remain indifferent if Beijing invaded an island democracy of 25 million people? If the US intervened to protect Taiwan, what would Australia do?
Its billed as modelling, but the analysis provided to back the governments plan to slash greenhouse emissions can only be described as modelling adjacent.

The 100 pages of supporting evidence for Coalitions Australian Way has numbers and uses plenty of economic jargon to give it the appearance of modelling. But it is clearly written to support the governments policy rather than a full, unvarnished appraisal of the costs and benefits of reaching net zero based on the governments chosen path.

Scott Morrison sells his Australian way on climate change to the world. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

For instance, the report talks up the job opportunities on offer from transitioning the Australian economy to a net zero future.

Mining and exporting minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, uranium and rare earths could support up to 52,000 new jobs in regions including southern WA, the Pilbara and South Australia.
Planning for population growth between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast is five years behind and has reignited a debate over state government funding priorities.

Moreton Bay Regional Council - which covers an area including Redcliffe, Caboolture, Samford and the urban fringe north of Brisbane - receives half as much road funding as allocated to the Gold Coast, and $300 per person less than the Sunshine Coast.

Moreton Bay mayor Peter Flannery urges a reshaping of funds from the Gold Coast to Brisbanes northern fringe with the Sunshine Coast. Credit:Tony Moore

Moreton Bay mayor Peter Flannery says if his region is to continue carrying the burden of population growth and urban sprawl, it must receive a larger share of funds.

Cr Flannery met a fortnight ago with State Development Minister Steven Miles and Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey and plans to meet with 10 targeted state MPs.
Even in the face of this evidence, Mr Somyurek denied he was a feared warlord. He preferred the term influence over power and said he was merely building a coalition of Labors Right faction, not controlling it. Mr Somyurek consistently insisted during the week that employing factional operatives in taxpayer-funded jobs was not a misappropriation of funds. It was simply part of the political patronage system, he said, and was practised by all MPs. The concern he had now, he told Commissioner Robert Redlich, was that IBAC was too constrained to look at this broader Labor practice. Mr Somyurek, who confirmed he will not be contesting the next election, said that means you dont know whether this is common practice or not. Youre restrained from looking at other parties and other parts of the Labor Party, so this is a bit of a problem.

Each time the former Andrews government minister was faced with evidence that Mr Carr alleged demonstrated he had not acted ethically, reasonably and in good faith, Mr Somyurek rejected it, deflecting attention to the actions of others. Loading If youre going to say there are good guys and bad guys in the Labor Party based on this stuff then there are no good guys in the Labor Party, Mr Carr, there are no good guys, and I can tell you that, Mr Somyurek said. As he had done for days, Mr Somyurek on Friday attempted to say what another person in another faction had been involved in. This was his modus operandi: justify and rationalise wrongdoing because it has been so widespread. This was the culture, he said, that he had been inducted into. Its no doubt that this aspect of Mr Somyureks evidence is true. But even by his own admission, he lost all perspective in the fierce battle against a rival faction, the Socialist Left. In a statement to IBAC, party elders Jenny Macklin and Steve Bracks, who conducted a review of the Victorian branch of the ALP following an investigation last year by The Age and 60 Minutes, said while branch stacking was not limited to one grouping, his faction, Moderate Labor, represented the most egregious conduct.

Loading A constant theme of Mr Somyureks time in the witness box was a debate about the legality of taxpayer-funded staff doing work to boost the interests of their faction during work hours. After the so-called red shirts rort where staffers were used to campaign for Labor in the 2014 election, the Andrews government strengthened the law to ensure political staff could not work on election campaigns. However, it did not explicitly ban staff from doing factional work unrelated to elections. Mr Somyurek argued the law was specifically worded in this way to allow parties to keep using MPs staff for internal party-political work. A key question arising from the inquiry is what reforms Commissioner Redlich will propose to clean up the system. One option could be to expressly ban staffers from doing party work during work hours. This would disrupt the operations of both major parties, where MPs often hire staff who are factional operatives and loyal to their interests and the party. Mr Somyurek suggested on Friday the government might use this opportunity to clarify the laws and make it legal for staffers to do factional work, creating a clear delineation between political staff and public servants. But this would be politically untenable for the government. It is more likely the government will be pressured to move in opposite direction.

This has got to be addressed, Commissioner Redlich said of the incentive for politicians to use public resources to boost their factional power to maintain their position in parliament. When Mr Somyurek appeared before IBAC for the first time on Monday, he was beaming. He cracked jokes and gave lengthy, convoluted explanations that repeatedly drew criticism from the commissioner and counsel assisting. Is it not true to say that for a long of period of time after the 60 Minutes and Age expose that you were considering presenting a false of picture of what really went on in your office  ? Commissioner Robert Redlich By Friday, he seemed worn down by the week, at one point breaking down while talking about his parents. Commissioner Redlich told the former minister he had come a long way since the start of his evidence. Is it not true to say that for a long of period of time after the 60 Minutes and Age expose that you were considering presenting a false of picture of what really went on in your office  and its only been in more recent times that you have been willing to acknowledge things that previously you were not prepared to do? Mr Redlich asked.

Mr Somyurek said: Yes, and its liberating. He acknowledged he had stacked branches, paid for peoples ALP memberships, hired people as part of a factional patronage system and not explicitly told his staff they should not be involved in factional work during taxpayer-funded working hours. Former Supreme Court judge and current IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich. He was also forced to listen to uncomfortable conversations he had had with factional allies, including Robin Scott, Marlene Kairouz and influential insider Andrew Landeryou, in the lead up to and after the media expose in an initial attempt to discover what the media had uncovered, and then to justify the allegations. In a three-way conversation between Mr Somyurek, Ms Kairouz and Mr Scott  all government ministers at the time  in the days leading up to the expose, Mr Somyurek said he was worried the investigation would trigger an IBAC investigation.

Ms Kairouz responded: Well, let it be before IBAC. F---. No, its pretty bad, Mr Somyurek replied. Mr Somyurek spent $1 million on his wages bill in the four years to June 2020. The overwhelming evidence made public by IBAC, and acknowledged by Mr Somyurek, is that all that money bought very little electorate work. When Commissioner Redlich told him on Friday afternoon he would be released from his summons, Mr Somyurek responded: Yay.
Former prime minister Paul Keating is well known for his colourful turn of phrase. He once called John Howard a desiccated coconut and said debating John Hewson was like being flogged with a warm lettuce.

In a speech at the National Press Club this week about the rise of China, he turned his acid wit on the journalists at the Herald and The Age, describing us as ning-nongs. Weve been called worse.

Having contributed constructively to the national debate for so many decades, often in the opinion pages of this masthead, Mr Keating finds himself on the extreme end of a debate about how to respond to the rise of China as a global power.

He has accused the Coalition government and the Labor opposition of taking too hostile an attitude to China to curry favour with Washington. He says this has needlessly provoked Beijing into targeting Australia with billions of dollars of trade sanctions and putting diplomatic relations into a deep freeze.

Furthermore, he says the recent decision to build nuclear submarines with the US and Britain risks dragging Australia into a war with China over Taiwan.
Did she then bump up the release from November 19 to Friday midnight to avoid the likely Adele stampede next week?

Did she make the announcement about its arrival exactly 22 weeks in advance in reference to one of the albums hits, 22?

Red (Taylors Version) initially landed in 2012 but did she release it at this time in 2021 because of the numerical inverse?

Taylor Swift doesnt do anything without purpose including the rerelease of Red, her fourth album, on November 12, US time.

No doubt devoted Swifties will analyse every considered move  its a sport both Swift and her fans delight in  just as they will parse every nuance and dissect the lyrical content in the additions to Red.

But lets never forget the reason for Taylors Version of Red, which follows the April release of of Fearless (Taylors Version): shes reclaiming her artistic ownership and holding to her promise of rerecording her first six albums following the acrimonious sale of her original master recordings.

And she proves again that shes won.

The original 16 tracks from Red  and a few more from the albums Deluxe Version  are meticulously reproduced. The drums might be sharper in I Knew You Were Trouble and the guitars brush with more prominence and clarity in 22, but these technical improvements dont diminish the spirit of the 2012 edition. As well, Swifts voice has, naturally, gained muscularity and confidence with age, but its evolution is never a distraction.

She still hits the higher range at the end of Everything Has Changed, her soft duet with Ed Sheeran, and nails the giggle and its so fun! proclamation that wraps Stay Stay Stay. Those who may have forgotten one of the albums prettiest songs, The Last Time, with Snow Patrol singer Gary Lightbody, are also reminded of its hushed beauty.
SABA:--- Farmers on Saba will soon be able to plant a new batch of Dutch potatoes thanks to a donation from Agrico in the Netherlands, arranged through Sandra Cryns-Hop.

On Wednesday, November 10, a total of 42 bags of 25kg each arrived on Saba from the Netherlands. In total 22 farmers have registered to receive the red potatoes. The farmers will pay a symbolic low amount of US $1 per pound. The crops that these potatoes will produce will also be sold at local shops for the general population.

This is the second batch of Dutch potatoes that came to Saba. Last year, when the first batch came in, six different kinds of potatoes were sent from the Netherlands as a try-out. An evaluation with the farmers and Cryns-Hop, showed that one particular kind of red potato, named Alouette, did very well on Saba and could withstand the high winds on the hillsides. As such, it was decided to only send Alouette potatoes to Saba this time.

Last year too, the potatoes were donated by Agrico and arranged via Cryns-Hop, a farmer in the Netherlands who spent part of her youth on Saba when her father was engaged in agricultural development on Saba from 1976 to 1980 and set up the local Agricultural Department. Cryns-Hop said that her heart is on Saba and that she loves to help. Agrico is a Dutch cooperative that specializes in potatoes, innovates in the potato branch, and develops, produces and delivers strong potato varieties worldwide.

Ambitions

Commissioner in charge of Agriculture Rolando Wilson said that the farming and distribution of potatoes fitted in Sabas ambitions to increase and improve agriculture, to become more self-reliant and more sustainable, and to have a healthy population by growing more local produce. He thanked Agrico and Cryns-Hop for their kind cooperation and their willingness to assist Saba. It is very much appreciated, also by the farmers, he said.

Saba has a longtime tradition of farming potatoes. Many years ago, Saba exported large amounts of potatoes throughout the Caribbean. The Saba white potato was quite famous at the time. The white potato is even part of Sabas coat of arms representing the islands rich tradition of agriculture and fisheries. The climate and rich soil make Saba a good place for growing potatoes.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Police recently conducted a scan/overview of the traffic congestion in St. Peters and South Reward. This helped police officers to identify several points that impede the free flow of traffic in those areas.

The first impediment point is this area is home to most schools in the country.

The second point is the driving behavior of motorists during rush hours.

On the first point, police have little or no influence.

As for the second point, police will attempt to persuade some drivers to modify their driving habits in the best interest of the free flow of traffic. The majority of motorists abide by the road rules, especially during peak hours.

In a previous press release, police pointed out that several bus drivers and parents are simply stopping in the middle of the road blocking the free flow of traffic to allow children to step out or cross the street in these busy areas.

Police find it remarkable that motorists caught up in traffic congestion use the opportunity to engage in other distractions such as texting and other distracting activities.

Such activities also impact traffic fluidity at peak hours.

Drivers' double-parking close to the school areas adds to the traffic impediments.

Police urge all motorists to refrain from these activities while in traffic.

KPSM Press Release.
SABA:--- The Island Council on Wednesday, November 10, adopted an island ordinance granting the Island Governor special powers to protect public safety on Saba. The law regulates four special powers: camera surveillance, administrative detention, security risk area, and an area ban.

The power to implement camera surveillance in a public place is the most important one for Saba. Cameras, fixed or movable, can be installed in case of a public safety problem, such as crime, nuisance, or vandalism. The Island Governor consults with the Public Prosecutor before placing a camera. The camera images are recorded or watched in real-time and are deleted after four weeks unless authorities suspect that a crime is involved. The police use the footage in their criminal investigations.

The public will be notified of the location of the cameras through signs. The most likely areas where cameras can be installed are the harbor, airport, waste processing facility, but other locations are also possible such as nature trails, the public road and parking lots, the Hells Gate Gut landfill, the government building(s), state-owned companies and other buildings of which management requests camera surveillance.

High-risk events

Under the special power of administrative detention, the Island Governor can order police to detain a group of people for up to 12 hours. This power can be used during high-risk events such as a demonstration or an illegal event when a group does not adhere to the local regulations, disturbing the peace and turning aggressive.

The security risk area power can be used if there is a serious fear that weapons will be used in a certain area. Police can search the clothing, car, and other belongings in such a case. The Public Prosecutor, Chief of Police will evaluate the risk area before it is designated.

The area ban power, already used as a warning that rowdy behavior, fighting, and excessive consumption is not tolerated during large events such as Carnival and Saba Day, order a person not to go into a certain part or parts for 24 hours. In case of a second violation within six months, an area ban can be imposed for up to eight weeks.

The powers will be enforced by the police and will not be used in light cases, but in more extreme situations, Island Governor Jonathan Johnson explained during a meeting of the Island Council earlier this week. The powers are only used if there is no other reasonable, civilized way to solve the problem and if they are proportionate to their goal.

Prevention

It is better to act through prevention before the situation escalates, said Johnson, in response to questions of Island Council Member Vito Charles. Charles said that aside from preventing an escalation, it was also important that police handle people with respect and not act with a heavy hand right away. Police need to tell people with the respect that their behavior is not tolerated, he said.

The special powers are deemed necessary since the Island Governor is responsible for public order and the safety of the people on Saba. The powers in the new ordinance give him more possibilities to ensure that safety. The special powers are not for punishment, but to protect public order and safety in emergency situations and/or to prevent problems.

The new island ordinance is based on the Act Public Entities of Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba WolBES which defines the special powers to the Island Governor in different articles. In the Netherlands, mayors have a number of special powers as well to use in urgent situations when public safety is at stake.
Enterprise, AL (36331)

Today

Rain showers early with some sunshine later in the day. High near 65F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low near 35F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
News

spotlight

Schools, Allina take on elementary schoolers' mental health with new tools

Faribaults elementary schools now have a place to find calm.

Courtesy of $5,200 in grants to Faribault Public Schools from Allina Health, pre-made kits called Calming Corners are in every elementary school classroom, and principal and nurses office in the district.

The project was presented at the Faribault School Board meeting Monday, less than a month after the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Childrens Hospital Association declared a national emergency in childrens mental health, resulting in part from disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to an Oct. 20 release, the crisis in child and adolescent mental health is worsening and is inextricably tied to the stress brought on by COVID-19 and the ongoing struggle for racial justice, and represents an acceleration of trends observed prior to 2020. Rates of childhood mental health concerns and suicide rose steadily between 2010 and 2020 and by 2018 suicide was the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10-24.

This outreach is just one way weve connected with Faribault Public Schools, Natalie Ginter, Allina Healths manager of community engagement said in a release. Through our Change to Chill program weve also worked with Faribault High School to teach students stress management and coping skills as well as how to practice mindfulness. At Allina Health, we strongly believe we must put human relationships at the center of care and look at the whole person to truly address health care needs in our community.

Joining Ginter at Mondays Board meeting to discuss the implementation of Calming Corners and how its being used were Michelle Kaune and Kim Barry, social workers at Lincoln and Roosevelt Elementary schools, respectively.

Natalie Ginter, of Allina Health, left, and Faribault Public School social workers Kim Barry and Michelle Kaune presented the Calming Corners project, meant to help with elementary school students mental health, to the School Board on Monday. (Julian Hast/southernminn.com)

Kaune began the groups presentation by explaining how Calming Corners works. Rather than operating as toys for students recreational enjoyment alone, Kaune said, the pre-made kits are tools that can help students get back to work.

Sitting down and thinking about the problem can sometimes make it worse, so this helps them get their mind off of the problem so they can get back in control and back to work, she said.

The kits are also useful for regulating young students emotions when teachers do not have time to sit down individually with an agitated student or students during school hours.

Calming Corners includes a number of different items, including helpful reminders that can calm and guide young students, fidget toys that use repetitive motions to alleviate anxiety and exercises that help users calm themselves by focusing on their breathing.

More than just toys, the items in the pre-made Calming Corners kits, provided to elementary schools in the Faribault district with a grant from Allina Health, are tools used by students to help them to reduce anxiety and regain control their emotions. (Photo courtesy of Allina Health)

Calming Corners is one of several projects being implemented through the collaboration between Faribault Public Schools and Allina Health, including the Change to Chill program which was created to teach students at Faribault High School stress management and coping skills in addition to practicing mindfulness.

The hiring of Janet Lewis Muth for the new position of mental health coordinator at Faribault Public Schools was also part of that collaboration.

After the presentation, School Board Chiar Chad Wolff asked presenters if they had received any early feedback on the Calming Corners efficacy from teachers or staff. Barry said the students seem to enjoy using the kits and teachers appreciate having some tools at their fingertips.

School Board member Richard Olson asked if the Calming Corners could only be used for elementary school students or if there had been any discussion on their use in middle schools as well. Presenters responded that the grant was for elementary school students and that the program is not being considered for use in middle schools at the moment.

School Board member Carolyn Treadway expressed her gratitude to Allina Health and Ginter on behalf of the board for supporting the mental health and social-emotional learning of Faribaults elementary school students. Wolff echoed her sentiments.

Its just really, really cool to see the partnerships that are there and community partners step forward, so thank you, Natalie, for doing what you do for our students and our school and our community.
The first ever feature length Christmas special of BBC Ones Death In Paradise, bringing a close to its series ten celebrations, will air this festive season. The episode not only promises a ray of Caribbean sunshine this Christmas time, but also boasts a wealth of guest stars alongside the familiar faces of Saint Marie.Returning to join the regular cast (Ralf Little, Josephine Jobert, Tahj Miles, Don Warrington and Elizabeth Bourgine) for the celebratory episode is Danny John-Jules as charismatic Office Dwayne Myers. Completing this gift of a guest line-up is Mathew Baynton (Ghosts), Juliet Stevenson (Riviera), Stanley Townsend (Informer), Jocelyn Jee Esien (Jack & The Beanstalk: After Ever After), Anthony Calf (Poldark), Tessa Bonham Jones (The Trial Of Christine Keeler), Elizabeth Tan (Emily in Paris) and Tariq Jordan (Law and Order: UK).Its Christmas time on Saint Marie and Neville is preparing to head to Manchester to spend the holiday with his family. But his plans are abruptly changed when a billionaire shipping magnate dies in mysterious circumstances.Things only get stranger when a minicab driver in London receives a Christmas card with an ominous message inside that turns the entire case on its head. For Neville and the team, will this be a case they can crack together?Following the series ten cliff-hanger that left everybody swinging in suspense, Florence is jetting off for Christmas, leaving the team a member down. So, the Commissioner decides to enlist the help of retired officer, Dwayne Myers (Danny John-Jules). Alongside Marlon, Dwayne employs his unique style of policing to help investigate the case. Left to their own devices, the pair struggle on the best plan of action for apprehending a suspect. As rain falls, tensions rise - but as Christmas Day approaches, will they realise theyre more like one another than they originally thought?Death In Paradise is a Red Planet Pictures production for BBC One made with the support of the region of Guadeloupe and internationally distributed by BBC Studios. Tim Key executive produces for Red Planet Pictures and Tommy Bulfin for the BBC. The feature length episode is written by James Hall, produced by Candida Julian-Jones, directed by Ben Kellett and will air on BBC One this December. Death In Paradise series eleven will air in January 2022 and series twelve has previously been announced.All series of Death In Paradise are currently available on BBC iPlayer.
NEW CANAAN  Future conflict may blur the lines of battle compared to years past, Colonel Stephen Hamilton explained in his keynote address at New Canaans Veterans Day ceremony Thursday.

The chief of staff and technical director of the Army Cyber Institute urged attendees of the ceremony to be vigilant when you go on the internet, as he spoke at Gods Acre, adding that the work he does focuses on gaining intel on those who attempt to aim directly at our country through our own phones and computers.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  Rep. Madison Cawthorn says hell run in a new congressional district under North Carolinas newly approved map.

His move to compete for a seat friendlier to Republicans could bolster his national profile and serve as a springboard to higher political office in a state slowly becoming more hospitable to Democrats.

The 26-year-old ally of former President Donald Trump announced his switch on Twitter Thursday night, casting it as an effort to thwart the bid pundits have expected from state House Speaker Tim Moore.

Knowing the political realities of the 13th district, Im afraid that another establishment, go-along-to-get-along Republican would prevail there. I will not let that happen, Cawthorn said in the video. I will be running for Congress in the 13th congressional district.

If the congressional map holds up in court, the district is likely to be one of the safest wins for Republicans next year.

Shortly after Cawthorns announcement, Moore said he would not run for the congressional seat that had been drawn near his home and instead plans to seek another term as state House leader.

I look forward to serving with my colleagues as Speaker of the House of Representatives and securing a supermajority for the Republicans next year, Moore said in a statement, adding that much of the speculation about my potential congressional candidacy has been driven by the media and political pundits.

Moore told The Associated Press in a text message that Cawthorn's announcement had zero role in his decision and that he had already determined to seek reelection to his current seat.

But one of his colleagues, Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, said Moore told him earlier that day that he had not yet made a final decision, though he was strongly leaning against a congressional run.

North Carolina is among a number of states that allow congressional candidates to run in whichever district they choose, so long as they reside in the state by the date of the general election.

Cawthorn doesnt live in the newly formed 13th district stretching across the southwestern part of the state outside the city of Charlotte. He presently represents voters in the 11th, North Carolinas westernmost district, where his Henderson County home would be in the 14th, one of three areas considered somewhat competitive for Democrats in 2022.

This move is not an abandonment, Cawthorn said to voters he will no longer represent. In fact, quite the opposite. It is a move to take more ground for constitutional conservatism. In my heart, I represent North Carolina as a whole, not some arbitrary line that some politician drew this cycle.

Looming over the March 2022 primary is a pair of lawsuits from voting rights groups accusing Republicans of partisan and racial gerrymandering in North Carolina. In a state where Trump narrowly defeated President Joe Biden with less than 50 percent of the votes, the GOP would likely hold 10 or 11 of the 14 districts up for grabs next year if the maps pass legal muster.

If Cawthorn wins the 13th, he would still represent about a third of the voters in his current district, since the new map moves all of McDowell and Polk and half of Rutherford County out of the 11th, said Chris Cooper, a Western Carolina University political science professor. Moving down from the mountains into the Charlotte media market also could elevate his political ambitions, he said.

There is no way to separate the goal from the attention, Cooper said. The goal is the attention in so many ways for Madison Cawthorn. Weve seen that from Day 1, and this is just another example.

Cawthorn, who uses a wheelchair after he was partially paralyzed in 2014, has amassed several hundred thousand followers on social media by appealing to Trump's most loyal base of supporters, making him one of the states most nationally visible lawmakers.

Since his political breakthrough in 2020, Cawthorn has faced criticism from Democrats and moderate Republicans for speaking at Trumps rally shortly before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Since then, he's encouraged North Carolinians to take up arms in advance of potential bloodshed over future elections he claims could continue to be stolen, falsely suggesting Biden's 2020 win was illegitimate.

Hes bolstered his reputation by traversing the state to criticize how racial issues are taught in K-12 public schools, often making false or exaggerated claims of mass indoctrination.

During a Henderson County School Board meeting in September, Cawthorn allegedly brought a knife onto educational property. The county sheriff's office called the incident unacceptable, but declined to prosecute the congressman and instead issued a warning.

North Carolinians don't settle for the status quo. We defy it, Cawthorn said in his video.

___

Follow Anderson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BryanRAnderson and Robertson at https://twitter.com/garydrobertson.

___

Anderson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
DALLAS (AP)  A man police say posed as a maintenance worker or health care provider at senior apartment complexes has been charged with capital murder in the death of an 81-year-old Dallas woman, and authorities are reviewing hundreds of other cases.

Billy K. Chemirmir, 45, also has been charged with attempted capital murder and robbery in two other attacks on senior women, police officials said Friday. Hes in the Dallas County jail on $1 million bond.

Police in the Dallas suburb of Plano were investigating Chemirmir regarding suspicious death and suspicious person calls at a senior apartment complex and found evidence linking him to 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris death in Dallas, Plano Police Chief Gregory Rushin said.

Chemirmir uses health care experience to his advantage in targeting and exploiting seniors, some of the most vulnerable people in our community. This is terribly disturbing, Rushin said.

Dallas police are now reviewing about 750 unattended deaths of elderly women for possible links, said David Pughes, the Dallas Police Department executive first assistant chief.

Were not going to leave any stone unturned. Right now, we have one confirmed Dallas offense. We're worried we could have more, he said.

Messages left with two lawyers listed in court records as having represented Chemirmir were not returned Friday.

An arrest affidavit says Chemirmir forced his way into the Plano apartment of a 91-year-old woman on Monday, telling her to go to bed. Dont fight me.

The woman was smothered with a pillow into unconsciousness and robbed. However, Plano paramedics revived her and she told investigators that her attacker had stolen her jewelry. Police identified Chemirmir from a license plate number and were able to find and tail him on Tuesday, when they watched him throw a jewelry box into a trash bin. They traced the box to Harris, according to the affidavit.

Harris was found dead in her North Dallas home Tuesday, Pughes said. According to the Dallas police affidavit, her body had what appeared to be lipstick smeared on her mouth, and a pillow on her bed also had lipsick smears, indicating she may have been suffocated.

Keys were found in Chemirmirs vehicle that fit Harris front-door locks, police said.

Chemirmir already had been wanted in an attempted capital murder case in nearby Frisco, where he was accused of forcing his way into the home of a 93-year-old woman, using a pillow to smother her and stealing her jewelry, according to the warrant. The woman survived.

We believe that the way that these crimes were committed, that when youre a senior and you have health are issues, and youre living by yourself and then you do become deceased, that many people would think right away thats natural causes, Rushin said. There is not a deep investigation into those matters, so it would be very easy to disguise a crime in that type of activity.

Frisco Police Chief said hed stop short of calling Chemirmir a suspected serial killer because this is early on in the investigation. Were still trying to piece it all together.

___

This story was first published on March 23, 2018, and updated on Nov. 11, 2021, to correct the spelling of Billy Chemirmirs name in the last paragraph. It is Chemirmir, not Shemirmir. It also deletes a reference to a jewelry box being stolen from the 91-year-old woman who survived.
3 1 of 3 Sandra Diamond Fox / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Contributed photo / Show More Show Less 3 of 3





WASHINGTON  H.O.R.S.E. of Connecticut is holding a three-day tack sale, Nov. 19-21, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the horse farm, 43 Wilbur Road off Route 202. Proceeds benefit the farms many rescued horses and to help with feed, veterinary and farrier costs.

Thanks to donors and supporters, the tack sale has many items for sale. Any saddle over $200 is $25 off, over $300 is $50 off. Buy two winter blankets, save $5; find new and lightly used saddles, English and Western, bridles, various weight blankets, saddle pads, chaps, boots and helmets, all sold at a portion of their original cost.
OXFORD  The video opens with what appears to be a normal scene outside a grocery store: Two people loading up the trunk of an SUV with items from their shopping cart.

The footage continued as the pair quickly threw item after item into the car, parked in the fire lane at the stores entrance. One of the carts and the back of the SUV was nearly filled with large bottles of Tide laundry detergent. The person shooting the video then turned to reveal a minivan also parked in the fire lane with two other people filling its trunk with what appears to be paper towels and even more bottles of Tide.

The video was capturing what police have described as a brazen daytime shoplifting incident.

I honestly thought it was a joke, Wayne Pesch, president of the Connecticut Food Association, a group that represents grocers in the state, said about the video.

State police have since said the group is believed to be connected with other similar incidents throughout Connecticut. Investigators believe they have identified two of the suspects involved, whose identities were not immediately released on Friday. The minivan seen in the video was recovered in New Haven, police said.

While Pesch said other thefts are not necessarily as brazen as the incident caught on video in Oxford on Tuesday, grocers face the prospect of theft 365 days a year.

Tide, he noted, is often targeted by thieves along with baby formula and energy drinks because those more expensive items can be readily resold on the black market.

While several Connecticut police departments said they havent seen large-scale thefts of laundry detergent, Tide-brand detergent, in particular, has emerged as a favorite among thieves in recent years, according to the Associated Press .

Thats for a number of reasons  its a commodity everyone needs, its a popular well-known brand, it doesnt spoil and the big bottles retail for around $20.

Pesch noted thieves could probably offload the stolen detergent for around $10 a bottle.

The theft in Oxford points to a larger issue of theft for food retailers, Pesch said, who he said operate on thin margins. Some retailers have announced store closures, citing shoplifting and organized retail crime.

Some of the associations members have installed facial-recognition software to combat theft, which can cost store owners thousands of dollars.

Youve got to sell a lot of peanut butter to make up for that, Pesch said.

Pesch said workers shouldnt intervene directly, but take a note or photo and alert their supervisor or law enforcement. He likened it to concerns he previously raised about asking retail workers to enforce masking at stores.

Were not going to put people in harms way, he said, saying asking people to confront or stopping someone from stealing who could potentially be armed is a no-win situation.

Well do our job, he said, well let law enforcement do their job.
Ashtabula, OH (44004)

Today

Overcast. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. Low around 30F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
Blog Archive Apr 2010 (22) May 2010 (25) Jun 2010 (8) Jul 2010 (12) Aug 2010 (18) Sep 2010 (19) Oct 2010 (29) Nov 2010 (30) Dec 2010 (18) Jan 2011 (13) Feb 2011 (21) Mar 2011 (23) Apr 2011 (19) May 2011 (31) Jun 2011 (36) Jul 2011 (46) Aug 2011 (26) Sep 2011 (12) Oct 2011 (15) Nov 2011 (17) Dec 2011 (7) Jan 2012 (18) Feb 2012 (4) Mar 2012 (12) Apr 2012 (18) May 2012 (10) Jun 2012 (21) Jul 2012 (8) Aug 2012 (15) Sep 2012 (7) Oct 2012 (17) Nov 2012 (20) Dec 2012 (10) Jan 2013 (58) Feb 2013 (59) Mar 2013 (60) Apr 2013 (98) May 2013 (135) Jun 2013 (204) Jul 2013 (293) Aug 2013 (351) Sep 2013 (363) Oct 2013 (348) Nov 2013 (374) Dec 2013 (442) Jan 2014 (547) Feb 2014 (476) Mar 2014 (526) Apr 2014 (527) May 2014 (469) Jun 2014 (408) Jul 2014 (472) Aug 2014 (522) Sep 2014 (443) Oct 2014 (472) Nov 2014 (497) Dec 2014 (536) Jan 2015 (539) Feb 2015 (520) Mar 2015 (582) Apr 2015 (658) May 2015 (679) Jun 2015 (673) Jul 2015 (728) Aug 2015 (803) Sep 2015 (923) Oct 2015 (924) Nov 2015 (802) Dec 2015 (791) Jan 2016 (782) Feb 2016 (835) Mar 2016 (929) Apr 2016 (866) May 2016 (947) Jun 2016 (1044) Jul 2016 (882) Aug 2016 (1035) Sep 2016 (967) Oct 2016 (918) Nov 2016 (854) Dec 2016 (885) Jan 2017 (879) Feb 2017 (777) Mar 2017 (896) Apr 2017 (872) May 2017 (850) Jun 2017 (851) Jul 2017 (971) Aug 2017 (1040) Sep 2017 (998) Oct 2017 (1144) Nov 2017 (1046) Dec 2017 (838) Jan 2018 (873) Feb 2018 (769) Mar 2018 (885) Apr 2018 (809) May 2018 (827) Jun 2018 (820) Jul 2018 (840) Aug 2018 (854) Sep 2018 (844) Oct 2018 (851) Nov 2018 (870) Dec 2018 (912) Jan 2019 (919) Feb 2019 (827) Mar 2019 (957) Apr 2019 (913) May 2019 (1007) Jun 2019 (935) Jul 2019 (950) Aug 2019 (936) Sep 2019 (910) Oct 2019 (920) Nov 2019 (874) Dec 2019 (908) Jan 2020 (941) Feb 2020 (849) Mar 2020 (898) Apr 2020 (848) May 2020 (822) Jun 2020 (789) Jul 2020 (819) Aug 2020 (858) Sep 2020 (841) Oct 2020 (873) Nov 2020 (812) Dec 2020 (780) Jan 2021 (765) Feb 2021 (716) Mar 2021 (819) Apr 2021 (805) May 2021 (815) Jun 2021 (824) Jul 2021 (830) Aug 2021 (832) Sep 2021 (791) Oct 2021 (754) Nov 2021 (477)
The Acting Minister of Environment, Water and Forests, Tanczos Barna, deems "a harsh, but not at all unexpected lesson" the decision of the European Commission (EC) to send Romania to the Court of Justice of the European Union for not closing the landfills of non-compliant waste.

"It is a harsh lesson that we receive today from the European Commission, but not an unexpected one. Looking back at this procedure, which began in 2012, I can even say that the European authorities have been excessively indulgent and have given us every possible chance to fulfill our obligations, assumed by our country in the Accession Treaty. The citizens of Romania must know that the Government and the Ministry of Environment will not allow these possible financial sanctions to be paid from the State Budget, i.e. from their pockets. Applying the "polluter pays" principle is the only solution, so we will turn against the owners of these waste deposits and hold them accountable. We will do this because, out of the 48 non-compliant landfills that remain unclosed and which are the subject of the case, the owners of these waste deposits managed to close, in 10 years, only six, of which 3 were closed only this year. These are historic municipal and industrial landfills, on which there has not been deposited anything for decades, but which, instead of being closed accordingly and greened, have been simply abandoned by their owners," the minister wrote, according to the institution's Facebook page.

The dignitary added that for the remaining 42 non-compliant landfills yet to be closed, Romania is in different phases. Thus, for eight municipal waste deposits, financing from the Environmental Fund was ensured and they are in different closing stages, and for other nine industrial landfills, owned by various economic agents, certain steps were made.

The European Commission decided on Friday to refer Romania back to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to fully comply with the Court's decision of 18 October 2018, which found that its obligations under the Waste Deposits Directive (Directive 1999/31/EC) had been fully disregarded, a press release from the Community executive said.

According to this decision, Romania had the obligation to close and rehabilitate all waste deposits that did not obtain an operating authorization by 16 July 2009. The Court found that Romania had not complied with this obligation with regard to 68 waste deposits. This is the second referral to the Court and may lead to the application of sanctions corresponding to the time elapsed from the first decision to the assurance of compliance.

Three years after the decision was handed down, Romania closed and rehabilitated 24 landfills. Therefore, 44 landfills have not been closed, and for many of them, the necessary works for their rehabilitation have not been foreseen. In order to comply with the Court's decision, Romania must take all necessary measures to ensure that these waste deposits are closed, sealed and rehabilitated as soon as possible because of the risks they present to health and the environment.
National chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL) Florin Citu said on Friday, regarding the possible exclusion from the party of Ludovic Orban, that it will be an internal decision, adding that any member of the PNL who violates the party statutes has to bear the consequences.

He was asked if Ludovic Orban would be expelled from PNL.

"It is the party's decision. There will be a discussion. I will speak within the party. (...) It is not about the person of Mr Ludovic Orban; any member of PNL who violates the statutes has to bear the consequences," Citu said at the Parliament House before a meeting of the PNL Executive Bureau (BEx).

According to him, Orban having left the PNL parliamentary group is not the violation of the statutes.

Asked about the article in the PNL statutes violated by Orban, the PNL national leader said: "The same ones that Catarama violated when he was expelled from the PNL by Ludovic Orban and Daniel Zamfir.
The chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Florin Citu, said, on Friday, that he does not agree with the proposal regarding the free testing of those did not get vaccinated against COVID-19.

"Those who have not been vaccinated need to get tested, but not using the money from the budget. (...) I don't agree with such a thing. The PNL does not agree, as a principle, that those who don't get vaccinated be tested at the expense of other citizens in Romania who are vaccinated, and the vaccine is free in Romania today. So, we're speaking as a matter of principle. Let's find another formula. (...) I repeat, it's not normal for those who have been vaccinated to pay for those who won't get vaccinated. This seems inadmissible," said Citu at the PNL headquarters.

He stated that such a proposal could increase budget costs.

According to political sources, Florin Citu announced in the meeting of the PNL's Executive Bureau that the debates in the committees of the Chamber of Deputies regarding the draft law for the green certificate will stop momentarily, as the provision by which the state pays the testing of state employees is discriminatory to private company employees, who need to pay for testing.
Hundreds of people flocked to Radu Voda Monastery in Bucharest despite the cold weather, the wind and the rain, to prayerfully honour Saint Nectarios of Aegina the Wonderworker on Tuesday.

The Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the outer altar of the monastery by His Grace Assistant Bishop Timotei of Prahova.

Like this storm and the wind was the life of Saint Nectarios, the assistant bishop said during his sermon.

Saint Nectarios dedicated the 74 years of his life, of which over 40 years served the holy altar and 31 as a bishop  to the Lord, the Chief Shepherd.

He served God and loved Him from his childhood and sought communion with Him from the time, when, being poor, he wrote a letter to God. Only this subject in his life could be the theme of a novel on the life of a saint. A novel that begins with a letter sent to God.

 Basilica.ro / Raluca Ene

His Grace evoked the patience of St. Nectarios in the injustices done to him. Following slander, he was unjustly expelled from the dignity of metropolitan and then even asked to leave Egypt on May 3, 1890.

Assistant Bishop Timotei of Prahova recalled that this year we mark 60 years since the canonization of Saint Nectarios, whom he called the wronged hierarch, the wandering hierarch.

Saint Nectarios manifested many gifts, being a prayerful, patient person, tolerant of others and, becoming in the last years of his life, a founder. He sacrificed his peace obtained after a long time, founding on the Island of Aegina, next to old churches built since the first Christian millennium, a monastery dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Here he gathered some of his female disciples, who became nuns.

The assistant bishop to the Bucharest Archdiocese noted that Saint Nectarios blessed Aegina by his presence. His prayer brought rain after a long time of drought and drove away the locusts that invaded the fruitful trees of the island. That is why, in any difficult situation, the believers asked the Hierarch for help and intercession before God.

Bishop Timotei pointed out that the Holy Hierarch Nectarios was also a model of patience in suffering, in illness: In the last period of his life, a heavy suffering, present even now in the world, crushed his body, which had suffered so much. Interned in a hospital in Athens, St. Nectarios lived there for about 40 days, during which time he prepared for the meeting with his Lord, added the bishop.

After many years of injustice, St. Nectarios received rich gifts from God, especially the gift of healing, and now, in the 21st century, he is considered one of the great holy wonderworkers. This is how God decided to remove from mankind the injustices endured during life. A reward like this is received by a person who has endured without desiring for the enemies to face the justice of God, bishop Timotei said.

His Grace recalled that the first wonderful healing attributed to St. Nectarios took place immediately after he fell asleep on November 8, 1920, when his body had not yet been removed from the hospital.

At the end of the service on Tuesday, Bp Timotei of Prahova congratulated the abbot of Radu Voda Monastery, Archimandrite Nectarie Sofelea, on his name day.
Four foreign citizens were caught by the border police at the Bors border crossing point, as they tried to illegally cross the border into Hungary, informs a press release of the Oradea Territorial Inspectorate of the Border Police, agerpres reports.

The investigation established that two of them are citizens of Tunisia, one is from Algeria and another from Afghanistan, aged between 21 and 46 years old.

"In this case, the border policemen are conducting an investigation to establish the entire criminal activity of the four citizens, after which they will take all the necessary legal measures," the same press release reads.
Great Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevskys work decisively marked the literature, philosophy, psychology and theology of the 20th century. He was born in Moscow two centuries ago, on November 11, 1821.

Dostoevsky was born in a Lithuanian family. His grandfather was a priest, his father was a military doctor and his mother came from a merchants family. Fyodor had seven brothers and sisters.

The writer graduated from a military engineering institute and worked as a designing engineer. He published Poor Folk, his first novel in 1846, when he was 25.

He was arrested and imprisoned in 1849 for anti-state activities against Tsar Nikolai I. On November 16 of the same year, he was sentenced to four years of forced labour in Siberia for his connections with a group of progressive revolutionary intellectuals from the Circle of Petrashevsky.

A rediscovered Orthodoxy in prison

The detention had important consequences on the writers health, but it also favoured his rediscovery of the spiritual path of Orthodoxy, which would mark his whole subsequent work.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was formed in an Orthodox atmosphere, with deep study of the Holy Scriptures, expecially during his stay in the Siberian labour camp. His spiritual seed, planted in a frail body, raised and transfigured his sickly constitution in one of the greatest treasures produced by the Russian and even by the European land, remarked Father Gheorghe Holbea, former dean of the Bucharest Theology Faculty.

His devoted mother awakened his spiritual background, the prison nurtured and accomplished this spiritual growth and the immoral society of his time, conquered by atheistic socialism and by indifference strengthened him in the fight against all that was incompatible with his soul, with the mystical thrill felt in the presence of God, Whom he felt an irresistible need to serve, said Stefan Dobra, as quoted by Father Holbea.

The writers parents, Mikhail and Maria. Photo: Public domain

His work was born and nurtured by the spiritual atmosphere of the 17th and 18th centuries Philokalic movement, when the first Slavic editions of the Philokalia series were published, mentioned Father Holbea in one of his recent conferences entitled The Philokalic dimension of Dostoevskys Work. See video.

When he was released from prison, Dostoevsky joined the Army, then he worked as a writer and journalist.

He married Maria Dmitryevna Isayeva in 1859. After 1864, the year when his wife died, the writer suffered from acute depression and started to gamble, which got him into huge debt. There followed a period of travel in Western Europe de calatorii in Occident. In 1867 he married Anna Snitkina, a 20-year-old stenographer with whom he had four children.

Between 1846 and 1866, he published more novels and short stories such as The House of the Dead (1862) and Notes from the Underground (1864).

In 1866 he published his famous novel Crime and Punishment, which focused on a moral and psychological conflict generated by the atheistic presupposition.

Three years later, in 1869, he published another one of his famous novels, The Idiot, whose main character is Christ-like Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin: a completely sincere and kind man who suffered from epilepsy, just like the author.

The Karamazov Brothers (1880), considered by Sigmund Freud the most magnificent novel ever written, has a powerful religious vein and paints a complex picture of his epoch, with its philosophical, moral and religious issues revolving around affirming or denying Gods existence.

The novel illustrates themes such as atonement through suffering, the need for Logos in a seemingly irrational universe, the fight between good and evil, the supreme value of personal freedom.

Dostoevsky spent his last years of life at Staraia Russa, near Sankt Petersburg. He passed away on February 9, 1881, and reposes in the Tihvin Cemetery, near Sankt Petersburgs Alexandr Nevski Monastery.

On November 12, 1971, the Dostoevsky Museum was inaugurated in Sankt Petersburg, located in the apartment where he wrote his last novels.

On December 30, 1991, Sankt Petersburg also inaugurated a subway station named after him: Dostoyevskaya metro station. On June 19, 2010, a station with the same name was inaugurated in Moscow.

The 200th anniversary of the writers birth was marked in Romania by Doxologia, the publishing house of the Metropolis of Moldavia and Bukovina, which published a new edition of the volume Marele Inchizitor. Dostoievski in lecturi teologico-filosofice (The Great Inquisitor. Theological and philosophical readings of Dostoevsky).
Romania has the right to purchase 600,000 capsules of the antiviral Molnupiravir and 15,000 doses of COVID-19 protease inhibitors, Secretary of State in the Health Ministry, Dr. Andrei Baciu said on Friday.

"The Health Ministry received today the European Commission's communication authorizing Romania to buy 600,000 capsules of Molnupiravir and 15,000 doses of protease inhibitors. Also, Romania will be able to purchase another 200,000 capsules of Molnupiravir plus an additional 5,000 doses of inhibitors. The 600,000 capsules are enough to treat about 15,000 patients, and the 15,000 doses of protease inhibitors allow us to treat 7,500 patients," Andrei Baciu told a news conference.

As regards the supply of the anti-inflammatory drug Tocilizumab, he said that 1,500 vials arrived in Romania and were distributed to hospitals. "We have received a communication from the manufacturer stating that we can purchase an additional amount of 1,470 vials of 400 mg Tocilizumab, with delivery on November 18 at the earliest. We will make every effort to make sure that Romania receives this supply of Tocilizumab too," said Andrei Baciu.

He also mentioned that there are currently 35,000 vials of Remdesivir in stock. "30,000 vials arrived in Romania on November 8. So far, 100,000 vials were distributed to patients and hospitals, and we expect another shipment of 39,000 vials," said Baciu.

The Health Ministry's budget was supplemented with 332.5 million lei from the reserve fund, and 120 million lei of this amount will be allocated for the purchase of an additional amount of 70,000 vials of Remdesivir.

Andrei Baciu also said that the distribution of 48,500 boxes of Favipiravir donated by drugmaker Terapia to 279 Romanian Covid hospitals was completed today.
The High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) rejected the action filed by former head of National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi against the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) regarding the recognition of the professional rank corresponding to the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

In November 2018, Kovesi asked the CSM to recognize her professional degree corresponding to the ICCJ, but the request was rejected, after which the former head of DNA sued the CSM.

In the first lawsuit, Kovesi won the case at the Bucharest Court of Appeal, but the CSM appealed, an action admitted by the Supreme Court.

Kovesi was removed from the position of Chief Prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate by a decree issued on July 9, 2018, by President Klaus Iohannis, who implemented a decision of the Constitutional Court.

After the revocation, the Section for Prosecutors of the CSM decided that Laura Codruta Kovesi should return to DIICOT Sibiu, where she worked before being appointed, in 2006, to the position of General Prosecutor of Romania.

Subsequently, the Prosecutor General at the time, Augustin Lazar, decided that Laura Codruta Kovesi should be delegated to the General Prosecutor's Office - Guidance and Control Service.

On October 15, 2018, the former Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader, declared that Laura Codruta Kovesi must leave the General Prosecutor's Office if she does not have an appropriate professional degree, according to the new regulations introduced by the emergency ordinance amending the laws of Justice, Agerpres informs.
Acting Defense Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca and Chief of Defense Staff, Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu participated, on Friday, in the military ceremony dedicated to the General Staff Day, at the Ministry of National Defence (MApN) headquarters, informs the institution in a press release.

According to the cited source, the activity is part of the series of events planned between November 11-13 to mark the 162nd anniversary of the establishment, by High Order of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, on November 12, 1859, of the General Staff of the United Principalities, an army design and planning strategic structure, which, since 2017, has borne the title of General Staff of Defense (SMAp).

During the ceremony, Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu congratulated the entire Defense staff for their firm commitment to intensify the process of structural and qualitative transformation of the Romanian Army, in order to adapt the institution to the evolution of the security environment and achieve inter-operability with allied and partner forces.

"Marking the 162 years of existence of the central design and planning echelon of the Romanian Army finds the defense institution in full defensive capability consolidation process, in a regional and global security environment marked by challenges. Due to the expertise of those who make up the General Defense Staff, as well as the remarkable involvement of the force structure, not only the essential conditions for fulfilling the constitutional missions were reached in 2021, but there was also an increase in both the population's confidence in the Romanian Army and the relevance of the national military instrument in maintaining the current strategic balance," said the head of SMAp.

The program of events dedicated to the anniversary of General Staff Day included the carrying out, under the auspices of the "Gandirea Militara Romaneasca" (Romanian Military Thinking) publication, of the international scientific conference titled "Strengthening Romania's profile as a proactive actor for ensuring security in the Black Sea region", the organization of a book exhibition and award of prizes from the 13th edition of the "Gandirea Militara Romaneasca" magazine.

Moreover, wreaths were laid at the bust of General Gheorghe Slaniceanu, inaugurated last year inside the Ministry of National Defense headquarters, Agerpres informs.
Seven military ships belonging to the naval forces in Romania, USA, Turkey and Ukraine participated, on Friday, in a naval exercise that took place in the international waters of the Black Sea, off the Romanian coast, informs the Ministry of National Defense (MApN).

According to the Ministry of National Defense, the Marasesti frigate (F-111), destroyer USS Porter (DDG-78), amphibious command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) and fleet replenishment oiler USNS John Lenthall (T-AO-189) of U.S. 6th Fleet, the Turkish frigate Yavuz (F-240), the Ukrainian UKR landing ship Olefirenko (LSM-401) and the patrol vessel Sloviansk (PC-190) have jointly trained to strengthen NATO's response capacity in the Black Sea, by enforcing the Alliance's standard operating procedures for various crisis situations and by developing the level of inter-operability among the participating naval forces.

Upon the conclusion of training activities at sea, US military ships are making a call in Constanta Port until Sunday, during which time there are meetings scheduled between Commander of U.S. 6th Fleet, Vice Admiral Eugene H. Black III, and Romanian military officials.
The chairman of the People's Movement Party (PMP), Cristian Diaconescu, declared that the "topic of merger" between PNL (National Liberal Party) and PMP was not debated within the political debate which he leads, but there will be a "discussion" on Saturday regarding cooperation with the liberals.

"I saw that the news regarding the merger was already finished, that there was a decision made regarding this. Out of the question. Statutory, for any political party, such a decision is only made in the party's leadership structures. PMP did not have such a meeting where any organizational formula was to be decided. There will be a discussion tomorrow, not about the merger, but about the cooperation. (...) I talked with everyone, including with Mr. Florin Citu. I also discussed about PNRR (Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan) during the last meeting and I am pointing out that PNRR cannot be renegotiated. Do not step into this stupidity of invoking something like this in the European area, because they will automatically place us along with Poland and Hungary. (...) There is no topic (of merger, ed. n). I am not saying that it would happen or not as long as this subject does not exist. A merger is proposed and voted by those in the National Council of PMP," Cristian Diaconescu said for private TV broadcaster Digi24.

He thanked the party leaders in Romania that "came towards PMP to hold talks, yet talks must not be confused with organizational discussions".

"(...) PMP, in any sort of deep cooperation, if and when it would happen, will propose a discussion in Parliament about the Health Law, 300 members of Parliament, two rounds of votes for local elected representatives. The proposals were tabled in Parliament and are totally neglected, today, when we are speaking. Regarding these topics, in my opinion, we need to priority discuss at the negotiation table, regardless of object of negotiation," Diaconescu added.

Asked where "the spark of collaboration" came from, Diaconescu replied: "From both sides".

Cristian Diaconescu mentioned that during these days PMP wishes to have a "operational Government of professionals".
HE Ioan Casian, the Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Canada, had an inter-Christian meeting of proximity with Claude Hamelin, Roman-Catholic Bishop of Saint-Jean-Longueuil.

The meeting took place at the headquarters of the nearby Roman Catholic diocese. The Canadian hierarch expressed his joy for the participation of HG Bishop Ioan Casian in his enthronement service on January 10, 2020.

Each of the two hierarchs shared details and impressions about their journey in the Church over time.

The current societal and church situation and contemporary missionary priorities were also discussed.

At the beginning of the synodal consultation period in the Roman Catholic Church, Bishop Hamelin expressed his desire to create an inter-Christian consultative commission with several representatives of the two sides that could share the concerns of each party and the ways proposed to address the various contemporary challenges.

Bishop Ioan Casian offered the Roman Catholic hierarch two volumes  one about the moment of his enthronement and another about Romania and its monasteries. Bishop Hamelin offered the Romanian hierarch of Canada several books on theology and spirituality.
Bucharests Dr Al. Trestioreanu Oncology Institute inaugurated on Tuesday its Medical Oncology Ward No. 2, renovated by Romanias National Cathedral Volunteers. In record time  only 60 days  they provided over 200,000-Euros refurbishing works.

His Eminence Varlaam of Ploiesti, Patriarchal Auxiliary Bishop, was Patriarch Daniels delegate to the event.

Among the participants were Archimandrite Ciprian Gradinaru from the National Cathedral Chapel, Dr Bogdan Cosmin Tanase, Manager of the Bucharest Oncology Institute and Dr Alexandru Blidaru, Chief of Oncological Surgery II at the institute.

The Patriarchal Auxiliary Bishop transmitted a blessing and congratulations on behalf of the Patriarch of Romania. His Eminence said His Beatitude prayed that God may offer strength and inspiration to the medical staff and to all who served the oncology patients.

Patriarch Daniel sent a word of blessing and encouragement to the patients as well, wishing them to successfully overcome their sickness.

We especially congratulate all the involved volunteers. This volunteer team has a prolific activity in the medical field, added the hierarch.

His Eminence also spoke of the spiritual support the Church offers to patients. The permanent presence of the priest who activates in the institute is very much appreciated and very useful to the people who come here with a lot of anxiety and fear, said His Eminence Varlaam of Ploiesti.

Archimandrite Ciprian Gradinaru, the spiritual guide of the National Cathedral Volunteers, said that the renovation of the ward is a spiritual work of healing by St. Nectarios.

Before the pandemic, I would come here with the volunteers once in a month and speak to every patient, starting on the seventh floor and ending on the ground floor, where the children were. I would stay by each bed and speak to the patients, he added.

Each of them had something on their mind because every man has a story and a destiny. That was the day we dedicated to the cancer patients. This is how we understood their needs and the needs of the institute. This is how we have got involved, recounted the archimandrite.

In addition to the oncology treatment, the accommodation conditions are very important for the patients moral support. It is our moral duty as Christians and as a Church to be where the suffering and sickness are, to be where we are needed, added Archimandrite Ciprian Gradinaru.

This helping hand from the Romanian Patriarchate, through its volunteers, is very important to us, declared Dr Bogdan Cosmin Tanase, the institutes manager.

The medical institution is relatively new, he said, but 1989 standards no longer meet todays requirements. Patients come here to get treatment and they need to be in a friendly environment. The manager appreciated the renovation has been made at very high standards.

It looks wonderful. I know what it means for an oncology patient to be accommodated in such luminous conditions. The help from the Church is fantastic, added Dr Alexandru Blidaru, Chief of Oncological Surgery II.

He spoke of the complex needs of these patients: in addition to a multidisciplinary team, a nutritionist, a psychologist and a priest are just as important.

Spiritual support plays a major role, and when it is accompanied by substantial material support, it is even more wonderful, concluded the surgeon.

The Medical Oncology Ward treats 25,000 patients annually. It has 62 beds, including for palliative care and it receives the most difficult cases in the country.

The inauguration date was chosen to coincide with the feast of St. Nectarios of Aegina, the protector of cancer patients.

Romanias National Cathedral Volunteers activate under the auspices of the National Cathedral Chapel.

They get spiritual advice from Archimandrite Ciprian Gradinaru and are coordinated by Dan Pruna. The volunteers get involved in numerous charity acts, especially in the Archdiocese of Bucharest. Many of the support interventions consist of medical care or support for medical institutions.
Senior official for defence policy, planning and international affairs with Romania's Defence Ministry (MApN) Simona Cojocaru had an official meeting in New York with UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean Piere Lacroix and General Birame Diop, a military adviser to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, to discuss UN's peacekeeping and stability efforts, according to a MApN press statement, agerpres reports.

In their conversations, the two sides focused on the implementation of the UN Secretary-General's Initiative on Action for Peacekeeping, meeting of operational needs, and the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

Cojocaru mentioned Romania's determination to continue to support the efficiency of the operations carried out under the auspices of the United Nations and thanked for support during the participation in the integrated MINUSMA mission in Mali, where Romania deployed a detachment of four helicopters and 120 troops, October 2019-October 2020.In his turn, Lacroix commended Romania for its contribution to the UN's peacekeeping efforts.MApN says that on her visit to New York, Cojocaru participated, at the headquarters of the Romanian Cultural Institute, in the opening for a preview of a photographic exhibition dedicated to the 30th anniversary of uninterrupted participation of Romania in UN peacekeeping missions.The Romanian official also visited for an assessment the Military Representation with the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations.
The border police at the "Henri Coanda" Airport in Bucharest found two Spaniards who showed fake vaccination certificates for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that did not correspond to their identification data, to the control authorities.

"Yesterday, at the "Henri Coanda" border crossing point" Airport in Bucharest, two Spanish citizens, aged 25 and 26, respectively, showed up to the control authorities to enter Romania, coming from Turkey - Istanbul. The two passengers showed digital vaccination certificates with QR codes, issued by the Spanish authorities, attesting that they are vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Spain," informed a press release of the General Inspectorate of the Border Police (IGPF) on Friday.

However, the border police found that the identification data corresponding to the QR code were different from the identity data in the travel documents presented at the border control by the two men, the certificates presented not being authentic.

The two Spaniard citizens gave up the continuation of the trip, as they are being investigated for committing the crime of computer forgery, which is an offence punished by art. 325 of the Criminal Code, with the necessary legal measures to be then taken, Agerpres informs.
"Camry" is a 38-year-old nameplate now in its eighth generation -- a solid, sensible family sedan. So its racy TRD edition had us puzzling: Is Camry suffering a midlife crisis?

After all, this is the best-selling sedan in America, and has been for as long as anyone can remember. Heck, through the first three quarters of calendar-year 2021, Camry outsold its closest competitor, the Honda Accord, by nearly 100,000 units. So why, one might ask, would it feel the need for a hot-rod version?

A young guy we encountered on the grocery-store parking lot answered that question: "Cool car, mister," he called.

Hey, you won't hear that while loading a 40-pound bag of dog food into the trunk of a Camry LE.

In addition to TRD, Camry for 2022 is offered in trims of LE, SE, Nightshade, XLE and XSE. In all trims, Camry enjoys -- or, depending on your point of view, is saddled with -- a reputation as a prim and proper kid shuttle that's high on practicality, dependability and value but low on excitement, passion and driving fun.

TRD -- "Toyota Racing Development," that is -- addresses those shortcomings.
This content was produced by Brand Ave. Studios. The news and editorial departments of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had no role in its creation or display. Brand Ave. Studios connects advertisers with a targeted audience through compelling content programs, from concept to production and distribution. For more information contact sales@brandavestudios.com
The letter, which referred to the EDF as a New York-based environmentalist group that challenged the pipelines approval, led area customers to send angry missives to the organization, the EDF said.

We have received multiple attacks as a result of Spires email, said Natalie Karas, lead counsel for EDFs energy and utility work. Those attacks have been hostile and threatening, and I think we have to set the record straight and make clear that there is a process that is currently unfolding to address this issue, and allow (the pipeline) to operate through the winter.

Spire maintained that it never sought to rile up its customers, nor pressure FERC to let the pipeline keep running.

The idea never was to raise concern more than inform, Carter said.

Spire supporters, at the companys press conference on Thursday, noted that the STL Pipeline kept gas coming to area homes last winter, when extreme cold interrupted supply across much of the central U.S., and sent prices soaring.

Its critical, said Ray McCarty, the president and CEO of Associated Industries of Missouri, a statewide business association. We got a little test drive down a really bad road, last February.
Blue, whose fascination with birds stemmed from her own birdwatching experiences, examines the significance and role of birds in Judeo-Christian narratives while musing on the metaphors and analogies birds provide for Christian faith.

In the chapter on doves, Blue explained the symbol of a dove at Jesus baptism. She realized the specific type of dove present would have likely been a rock dove, found in Palestine, and more commonly known as a pigeon.

The pigeon, often considered a pest and hard to get rid of, reminds Blue of the spirit of God. It seems like a pigeon could be with us in both our worst and most beautiful places  a dirty alley or a Roman piazza, said Blue.

God can also be found in vultures. Before writing her book, Blue said, she saw this bird as violent, dark and dreadful. But, after learning about vultures ability to cleanse and rid the earth of disease  they have uniquely strong digestive juices that kill bacteria and pathogens  she sees them as purifying.

A vulture is a symbol for a God that can take everything in and make it clean  a God that can make even death nontoxic, said Blue.
From the time artist Alex Johnmeyer was in elementary and middle school, all he wanted to do was make art. I have aunts on both sides of my family who are artists, so maybe its in my bones. I was around 12 when I went to my Aunt Janie Ashcrafts art studio for the first time. Something in my brain clicked, and I realized Oh my gosh, I could make money doing art, Johnmeyer says.

She died a few years ago, but she saw me get my first solo show and knew I was doing well with my art. Her husband, my godfather, is always telling me how proud she was, and he is, of me.

Memento mori  Johnmeyer memorialized Aunt Janie the way he knew best. He painted a stunning still life of a manual typewriter in the deepest blue of a brilliant night sky, its black keys mounted in gleaming brass, the machine rendered in meticulous detail.

I lost three important people in my life in 2015 when I painted it; one of them my Aunt Janie. For me, that painting means no matter what happens in our lives, the story continues and the page turns. Its just an image of a typewriter to a lot of people but not for me. I wanted the peripherals of that painting to feel like outer space. He painted three bright stars in that deepest blue to represent the three people he lost.
ST. LOUIS  A Florissant mother and her son have been accused of fraudulently obtaining over $700,000 in pandemic relief and small business loans, federal prosecutors in St. Louis said Friday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Dionneshae Forland and Dwayne Times submitted fraudulent loan applications to the Paycheck Protection Program, intended to help employers keep workers during the coronavirus pandemic, and to the Missouri Small Business Grant Program, designed to help small businesses and farms. Forland and Times falsely inflated the number of employees at six businesses, the indictment says.

In one example in the indictment, Forland submitted a PPP loan application claiming that one of her companies, All About Family I LLC had 20 employees, but Forland was the only real employee. She falsified a bank statement, payroll records and IRS forms to back up her false claim and win a $146,100 loan, the indictment says.

Dionneshae Forland was indicted by a federal grand jury with four counts of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, one count of theft of government property and five counts of aggravated identity theft, prosecutors said. Dwayne Times was indicted on one count of wire fraud and one count of theft of government property, prosecutors said.
CLAYTON  Police said they are seeking charges against an inmate who attacked a corrections officer on Wednesday morning at the St. Louis County jail.

Cpl. Jenny Schwartz, a Clayton police spokeswoman, said a female corrections officer was taken to a hospital after a male inmate attacked her in a pod at the jail about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

St. Louis County spokesman Doug Moore said the guard was monitoring the jails 4b pod and told an inmate that he had reached his time limit on a phone call before the attack.

The inmate refused to return to his cell and began beating her, Moore said.

Another inmate then ran down the jail steps to intercede in the fight and stopped the beating, Moore said.

The guard was left with serious injuries to her face and hands but was conscious and speaking Thursday. The county is not publicly releasing her name.

The attacker was restrained and is now in a segregated unit in the jail, Moore said.

Schwartz said the inmate did not use any instruments to attack the officer. The assault was recorded by surveillance video, she said.
Gateway Studios CEO Trey Kerr, who spent nearly 20 years working for major touring band Phish and remains their video director, said the facility is modeled after Rock Lititz in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

With nothing but time after the pandemic sidelined the concert industry, Kerr said he and others in the industry began brainstorming their own production campus. Kerr said he considered Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee, for the facility but wanted to build in his hometown of St. Louis.

Gateway Studios, slated for a 2023 opening, will be larger than Rock Lititz, Kerr said, cashing in on pent-up demand from fans for live experiences and among artists who make most of their money from shows rather than record sales these days. Before the pandemic, Rock Lititz was booked for two years, he said.

Theres a very large need for our industry in terms of this, Kerr said. Artists spend a great deal of time and money and energy putting these shows on.
The auditor, a political appointee of the council, is one of the few countywide positions that reports to the countys legislative body, with the authority to review the countys accounts and suggest reforms for the councils consideration. And if directed by the council, the auditor can investigate alleged discrepancies in the use of public funds.

The 2020 state audit of the county had noted Tucker only produced a total of just six audits after three years on the job. And it criticized the council for failing to ensure Tucker, a former health care lobbyist, was qualified or used his office to investigate financial concerns. Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway recommended the council require the auditor be a certified public accountant, a certified internal auditor or a certified local government finance officer.

Tucker had no auditing experience when he was appointed in February 2017 by the council, led by then-Council Chairman Sam Page. His annual salary was $85,000. Page succeeded Stenger as county executive in 2019. At the time, dissenters raised concerns Tucker didnt meet a charter requirement that he have five years of accounting experience.
But some are still worried.

Robert Allensworth, a resident of Wood River, Illinois, and former Olin Corp. machinist, in 2018 was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury after a surgery, and from then on has required constant care. Over the next few years he moved around to a handful of different long-term care facilities.

This spring, he had a three-day trial stay at Normandy Nursing Center, starting on April 12, according to police records and interviews with two of his family members. But late that evening, Normandy Police were called to the nursing home because Allensworth was causing a disturbance, and had barricaded himself in a room with two other people, according to a police report.

Allensworth was taken in an ambulance to South City Hospital, where he was given a psychiatric evaluation. He was taken back to the nursing home on April 14, and then brought back to the hospital once more, on April 15, to pick up a prescription.

His mother, Sharon Allensworth, said when she went to Normandy Nursing Center to pick up her son on April 15, his face and nose were swollen, and he had bruises on his chest. She took him to Alton Memorial Hospital the following day, and learned that he had a fractured nose. She didnt know when or where he was injured during the three-day period.
Winter previously experienced intestinal issues  not uncommon among dolphins  but such problems have never affected her like this, Powell had said Thursday. But at the time, he said Winter was not responding to treatment as in the past, adding there was no evidence Winter had the coronavirus.

Winter was two months old when her tail became entangled in a crab trap near Cape Canaveral, which forced its amputation. Dolphin Tale, which was released in 2011, chronicled Winters recovery and the unprecedented, lengthy effort to fit her with a prosthetic tail.

The film, starring Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson, Morgan Freeman and Nathan Gamble, was largely shot at the Clearwater aquarium and surrounding Tampa Bay locations. It put the non-profit aquarium, first opened in 1972 on the site of a former water treatment plant, on the map internationally.

This place wouldnt be here if it wasnt for Winter, Powell said.

Winter's story of rehabilitation has become an inspiration for disabled people around the world and the aquarium has received thousands of messages of support since Winter's illness became known.
Stealing tax dollars from school children is a good reason to question any development that seeks such incentives, particularly in a suburb that has a strong economic base. But developing in a flood plain  particularly with tax incentives  turns a bad idea into a really awful one.

In fact, its such a bad idea that the Missouri Legislature banned the practice through most of the state, including St. Louis and St. Louis County, earlier this year. In a bill sponsored by Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, that received only three no votes in the Senate and four no votes in the House, lawmakers made it the policy of the state of Missouri that tax incentives should not be used to develop land in flood plains. The law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2022, and thats why Webster Groves is pushing to get approval of the development now.

Bad move, says David Stokes. Hes the director of municipal policy for the conservative think tank Show Me Institute, and the former executive director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance. For the past few years, Stokes has been one of the loudest voices in St. Louis advocating against development in flood plains.
Online retailer JD.com also did not publicly stream a running tally of sales this year. But it did hold a media event Thursday, where a counter showed that as of 2 p.m. local time shoppers had spent over $48 billion.

Although it was a common to see consumers take advantage of deep discounts in past Singles Day festivals to stock up on daily necessities, consumption habits have changed.

Demand is weaker amid the uncertainties brought on by the pandemic, and Singles Day is now competing with other e-commerce festivals throughout the year.

2021 is a year of troubled times. There is the pandemic and various disasters, economic growth is slow and the stock market is not performing well, said Hua Wei, a Beijing resident.

These make people a little bit panicked. After all, you have a stronger sense of security if you hold onto your money, she said. I think people are also more rational now when it comes to consumption.

Another shopper, Jiang Chen, said that he held back on impulse shopping this year, buying only what he needed.

I dont think its necessary to waste time and energy in order to save a little money, so the things I buy are what I need, he said, such as snacks and fruit.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supports Bachelet's views, and reiterated that journalists everywhere, including those in Myanmar, must be allowed to work without harassment and that reporting facts is not and must not be seen as a crime, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Its clear that Danny is being made an example of, and what it shows is that the junta do not care what the international community thinks," said Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. They would do as they want, and this is one example of how they are basically showing the international community that they cannot be held accountable.

The army's takeover was opposed by widespread peaceful protests that were put down with lethal force. Security forces killed more than 1,200 civilians and arrested about 10,000 others, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Armed resistance has since spread, and U.N. experts and other observers fear the incipient insurgency could slide into civil war.

Fenster was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he was about to board a flight to go to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family.
Three others on the council are leaders of rebel groups who fought al-Bashirs government for years, but who have moved towards peace with the transitional government. They all also served on the previous council.

However, the new make-up excluded four civilian members of the old council who belonged to the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, the main group that spearheaded the uprising that culminated in the overthrow of al-Bashir.

The country's pro-democracy forces have dismissed Burhan's move as illegitimate and renewed their call for nationwide protests on Saturday.

The joint statement also warned against any further escalatory steps by Sudan's military and stressed that international support for the country is contingent on its commitment to the path of democratic transition.

We urge an immediate and full return to this path to ensure that the hard won political and economic gains of the last two years are not lost, it said.
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.
Siauliu Bankas AB, company code 112025254, domicile address: Tilzes str.149, Siauliai, Lithuania.

At the beginning of the year, Siauliu bankas decided to appeal the decision of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court, which rejected the appeal of Siauliu bankas against the legitimacy of the decision of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania of 20 December 2019 and the imposition of a sanction (a fine of EUR 880 thousand).

Today, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania issued a decision partially upholding the appeal of Siauliu Bankas - annulling the decision of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court of 12 January 2021 and transferring the case to the court of first instance for re-investigation.

Please be reminded that the resolution of the Bank of Lithuania was adopted after the scheduled inspection of Siauliu Bankas in 2019 for the identified violations and deficiencies in the implementation of the requirements for the anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing. Siauliu Bankas eliminated most of the violations and deficiencies identified by the Bank of Lithuania before the results of the inspection were considered by the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, and the remaining deficiencies were eliminated according to the plan agreed with the Bank of Lithuania. Siauliu Bankas has not identified any cases where the violations and deficiencies specified in the inspection report would have been used for money laundering and terrorist financing purposes. The Bank of Lithuania also had not stated in the resolution that Siauliu Bankas and /or other persons would have benefited or caused damage to third parties due to the violations.

We remind you that the fine imposed by the Bank of Lithuania was accounted for in the performance of Siauliu Bankas in 2019, therefore, regardless of the outcome of the legal proceedings, the fine will not have a negative impact on the sustainable continuity of the Bank's operations.

Additional information shall be provided by

Communication specialist

Monika Rozyte, +370 686 79234

monika.rozyte@sb.lt






Herzliya, Israel and Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - November 10, 2021) - Innocan Pharma Corporation (CSE: INNO) (FSE: IP4) (OTCQB: INNPF) (the "Company" or "Innocan"), is pleased to report further progress in the Cannabinoids loaded Exosome Delivery Platform (CLX) research. The researchers at Prof. Offen's laboratory at the Tel Aviv University, have succeeded to characterize the profile of the micro-RNA content in exosomes. The new analysis will allow more accurate characterization of the exosomes intended for treatment combined with CBD. Characterization of the exosomes is another step in the FDA regulatory process.

The research, led by Prof. Offen, was performed pursuant to a sponsored research agreement signed by the Company and Ramot, the technology transfer company of Tel Aviv University.





Figure 1. Iris Bincovich Innocan Pharma's CEO, Prof. Daniel Offen and Ron Mayron Innocan Pharma's Executive Chairman

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6922/102819_05bb95b7944a6b1f_002full.jpg.

Micro-RNAs are small single-stranded, non-coding RNA molecules, that reduce efficient translation of specific messenger RNA into proteins and have therapeutic potential. The micro-RNA content is relatively small compared to the protein concentration, but it is critical in the therapeutic properties of the exosome particles. Different profile of micro-RNA can create different properties of the whole exosome and may make it more potent for different indications.





Figure 2. Exosomes seen under the microscope at Prof. Offen's Lab at the Tel - Aviv University

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6922/102819_05bb95b7944a6b1f_003full.jpg.

Exosomes have emerged as promising nanocarriers for drug delivery and targeted therapy. Exosomes can act as "guided missile" targeting specific damaged organs and have an important role in cell-to-cell communication and can be loaded with therapeutic ingredients to enhance their potential.

The CLX (Cannabinoids Loaded Exosome) may hold the potential to provide a highly synergistic effect on tissue, such as regeneration and anti-inflammation. They can target damaged tissues in infected lungs, including COVID-19 or in brain diseases.

"We are manufacturing and characterizing the exosomes to meet the criteria demanded by the FDA, in order to make sure that our product will be ready in the future for clinical use," says CEO Iris Bincovich. "This is why we consider this step another reassuring step in our way to commercialization."

Prof. Offen of Tel Aviv University stated that "we are continuing to make progress in the cannabinoids loaded exosome (CLX) development, in order to provide highly synergistic effects, such as regeneration or anti-inflammation."

"Ramot is excited about the fruitful collaboration with Innocan and believes that the new drug delivery platforms containing CBD will lead to new breakthroughs in the field of drug delivery platforms," said Keren Primor Cohen, Ramot's CEO.

Innocan's relationship with Tel Aviv University

Innocan Pharma Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, notified Ramot at Tel Aviv University, the technology transfer company of Tel Aviv University, of its election to exercise its option to enter into a worldwide exclusive license and research agreement with respect to CBD (or other cannabinoids) loaded exosomes, pursuant to the licensing terms already agreed on and set forth in the option agreement which was signed on April 17th 2020. The research and development initiative is led by Professor Daniel Offen, head of the Neuroscience Laboratory at Tel Aviv University in the Department of Human Genetics and Biochemistry. Professor Daniel Offen published over 200 original scientific papers on neurodegenerative diseases and is a co-inventor on over a dozen patents. He is a co-founder of several biotechnology companies developing gene and cell therapies for neurological disorders.

About Innocan

Innocan Pharma is a pharmaceutical tech company that focuses on the development of several drug delivery platforms containing CBD. Innocan Pharma and Ramot at Tel Aviv University are collaborating on a new, revolutionary exosome-based technology that targets both central nervous system (CNS) indications and the COVID-19 using CBD. CBD-loaded exosomes hold the potential to help in the recovery of infected or damaged cells. This product, which is expected to be administered by inhalation for a variety of lung infections and intranasally for brain diseases.

Innocan Pharma signed a worldwide exclusive license agreement with Yissum, the commercial arm of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to develop a CBD drug delivery platform based on a unique-controlled release liposome to be administered by injection. Innocan Israel plans, together with Professor Berenholz, to test the liposome platform on several potential conditions. Innocan Israel is also working on a dermal product that integrates CBD with other pharmaceutical ingredients as well as the development and sale of CBD-integrated pharmaceuticals, including, but not limited to, topical treatments for the relief of psoriasis symptoms as well as the treatment of muscle pain and rheumatic pain. The founders and officers of Innocan Israel each have commercially successful track records in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors in Israel and globally.

For further information, please contact:

For Innocan Pharma Corporation:

Iris Bincovich, CEO

+972-54-3012842

info@innocanpharma.com

Lytham Partners, LLC

Ben Shamsian CPA | Vice President

Direct: 646-829-9701; Cell: 516-652-9004

shamsian@lythampartners.com

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Caution regarding forward-looking information

Certain information set forth in this news release, including, without limitation, information regarding research and development, collaborations, the potential for treatment of conditions and other therapeutic effects resulting from research activities and/or the Company's products, requisite regulatory approvals and the timing for market entry, is forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. By its nature, forward-looking information is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond Innocan's control. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Innocan, including expectations and assumptions concerning the anticipated benefits of the products, satisfaction of regulatory requirements in various jurisdictions and satisfactory completion of requisite production and distribution arrangements.

Forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed in this news release. The key risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: general global and local (national) economic, market and business conditions; governmental and regulatory requirements and actions by governmental authorities; and relationships with suppliers, manufacturers, customers, business partners and competitors. There are also risks that are inherent in the nature of product distribution, including import / export matters and the failure to obtain any required regulatory and other approvals (or to do so in a timely manner) and availability in each market of product inputs and finished products. The anticipated timeline for entry to markets may change for a number of reasons, including the inability to secure necessary regulatory requirements, or the need for additional time to conclude and/or satisfy the manufacturing and distribution arrangements. As a result of the foregoing, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking information contained in this news release concerning the timing of launch of product distribution. A comprehensive discussion of other risks that impact Innocan can also be found in Innocan's public reports and filings which are available under Innocan's profile at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned that undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information as actual results may vary materially from the forward-looking information. Innocan does not undertake to update, correct or revise any forward-looking information as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/102819
TICKERS: KLD; 3WQO

Source: The Critical Investor (11/12/21)

It seems drilling at Regnault is going well for Kenorland Minerals, as JV Partner Sumitomo recently completed a C$5.2M strategic investment, something you don't see very often. As the summer program is now several months underway, the first results are expected in a few weeks. The Critical Investor discusses this and exploration at other projects with CEO Zach Flood.



It seems Kenorland Minerals Ltd. (KLD:TSX.V; 3WQO:FSE) is doing very well at the summer drill program currently underway at their flagship Regnault project, as JV partner Sumitomo Metal Mining Canada was happy to do a strategic investment of no less than C$5.2M in Kenorland equity. This is not something you see very often, and I will discuss with CEO Zach Flood the potential meaning behind this move.

After a generally successful winter program, with most holes hitting mineralization at Regnault, Kenorland is looking to follow up on the already found R1 and R2 structures at Regnault with the aforementioned 18,000m summer drill program, which commenced in July of this year. The company is also busy with other exploration programs at many more projects, either fully owned, optioned or JV-ed, making this one of the busiest exploration juniors I know.

Drilling at Regnault target, Frotet project, Quebec

Notwithstanding all activities, the share price action doesnt exactly reflect the myriad of opportunities for good exploration results, as can be seen here:

Share price 1 year period; Source: tmxmoney.com

As the June results at Regnault werent as stellar as the batch before (which included the impressive 5.72m @ 90.56 g/t Au (incl. 3.89m at 132.57 g/t Au) intercept), gold corrected and general sentiment dropped off, the Kenorland share price dropped off like most precious metals juniors, and started side ranging in the C$0.70-0.80 range. Most of the pre-IPO financing has been done at C$0.70, before lots of drilling and other exploration was completed, so Sumitomo acknowledged the increased value proposition, and was happy to fork out the substantial cash a nice premium of 33%.

All pictures are company material, unless stated otherwise.

All currencies are in US Dollars, unless stated otherwise.

Sumitomo acquired 5,2M shares at a price of C$1.00 per share for gross proceeds of $5,2M, resulting in a position of 10.1% of the companys outstanding shares. The proceeds from the financing will be used 80% ($4,2M) for exploration expenditures on the companys properties and 20% ($1M) for general and administrative expenses of the company. As is common with 10% positions, Sumitomo will have the right to appoint a director, subject to certain conditions described by an investor rights agreement. They have already chosen Eiichi Fukuda, who is a trained geologist and President of Sumitomo since 2016, and also a director of Teck Resources, so not a lightweight in my view. Several other terms are included as well, as for a period of two years, Sumitomo has also agreed not to:

commence a take-over bid;

acquire the companys shares, or direct or indirect rights to acquire any of the companys shares;

make, or in any way participate in any solicitation of proxies to vote the companys shares;

make any public announcement with respect to, or submit a proposal for, or offer of (with or without conditions) any business combination, amalgamation or merger or similar transaction involving the company.

I like the fact there were no warrants attached, and as mentioned the investment was done at a substantial premium, but I wondered why Sumitomo had to be excluded from any type of take over attempt or further expanding their position for the next two years. CEO Flood stated that this actually is a fairly common provision in this type of transaction. I wasnt aware of this, usually I see provisions like lock-up periods, pro rata participation in future financings, backstop rights, right to first offer on other types of financings, etcetc, but Im never too old to learn, and there certainly is a lot to learn in this industry.

With this fresh cash, Kenorland has C$9M in the treasury, which will be sufficient to fund the upcoming drill program at Regnault/Frotet. As a reminder, Kenorland only has to fund 20% of exploration at this project, as JV partner Sumitomo pays for the other 80% of expenditures. This leaves Kenorland management with options to spend more cash on exploration at other flagship projects Healy (earning in for a 70% interest from Newmont) and Tanacross (100% owned), but also pipeline projects like Chebistuan (optioned to Newmont) and Chicobi (optioned to Sumitomo). Kenorland also optioned out their South Uchi Project to Barrick Gold on September 20, 2021, the third major it is doing business with.

Looking in hindsight, this could be seen as the first foray of Barrick into acquiring exploration assets in the Red Lake District of Nortwestern Ontario. More recently, Barrick also signed agreements with Red Lake Gold and Dixie Gold, two juniors which hold prospective land positions around potentially one of the largest gold discoveries of the last decade, the Dixie project owned by Great Bear Resources. Many analysts view these actions as an attempt by Barrick to buy Dixie, and consolidate all prospective land around it. We will have to see how this pans out, for now investors dont see this as a mere coincidence, and caused the Great Bear share price to rise to levels not seen since the summer of last year.

In order to earn the first 70%, Barrick would have to spend C$3M on exploration in the first three years, and another C$3M in the three years after, and produce a NI43-101 compliant resource of at least 1Moz Au, after which a 70/30 JV will be formed. Barrick can earn an additional 10% in the project by funding a FS within 4 years, but Kenorland could also elect to go for a 2-3% NSR instead so they dont have to contribute anything anymore. I found it interesting to read about the lithium pegmatite potential, and I wondered, as Barrick usually has no focus on lithium, who would be exploring this. CEO Flood answered that this indeed is not in the interest of Barrick.

As Kenorland put out a nice news release in September of this year, summarizing their exploration activities, it provided a useful overview of their busy year so far:

Frotet Project, Quebec (Joint Venture with Sumitomo Metal Mining): 18,000m diamond drill program

Healy Project, Alaska (Optioned from Newmont Corporation): 5,000m maiden diamond drill program

Tanacross Project, Alaska (100% owned): soil geochemistry, UAV magnetic, and IP surveys

Chicobi Project, Quebec (Optioned to Sumitomo Metal Mining): Geophysics (UAV magnetics, IP, EM)

Hunter Project, Quebec (100% owned): Property-wide airborne VTEM geophysical survey

Chebistuan Project, Quebec (Optioned to Newmont Corporation): Phase 2 soil geochemistry survey

South Uchi Project, Ontario (100% owned): LIDAR survey and regional till sampling (planned for fall)

As VP Exploration Francis McDonald describes, no less than C$17M will be spent on exploration this year, with C$11M funded through partners, generating over C$2M in operator management fees and cash payments. CEO Flood has stated a clear vision on how he wants Kenorland to operate:

Our mission at Kenorland has always been to maximize shareholder return through exploration success. We take a long-term approach with multiple grassroots projects being advanced through the pipeline at all times. Some of our projects are sole funded, some are farmed out, while other assets are sold entirely for equity and royalty interests, depending on how a project fits within our risk profile. We believe that scale, creativity and flexibility are fundamental to building value and optionality within an exploration portfolio. Any of these projects may result in a significant discovery, as we have already witnessed at Frotet through the grassroots discovery of Regnault last year. With interest in over 1 million acres of ground, all which has seen various stages of systematic exploration and being actively explored, we are confident that our efforts will return significant gains to our shareholders.

I like it how Flood treats exploration as a business in an extremely professional fashion. Everything, from projects to partners to financial backers to staff to exploration strategy, oozes the highest quality, and can easily serve as a blueprint for many other explorers. As the saying goes, only 1 in a 1,000 exploration projects turns into a mine, but one thing that Flood seems to be very good at is the methodological and concise narrowing down of this huge number, vastly increasing his odds for success.

In the meantime, Kenorland also sold their Fox River property to Superior Nickel (private) for shares and a 2% NSR, and optioned out their Rupert lithium project to Li-FT Power (private), for C$200k in cash, 2% NSR, and 10% shares in Li-FT Power. For this last transaction, Kenorland will be the operator for the first 2 years.

The Rupert project is actually pretty interesting, as it is on strike with the world class Whabouchi lithium-pegmatite deposit (53.6Mt @ 1.45%Li2O), owned by one of my former sponsoring companies, Nemaska Lithium, which had to seek creditor protection in 2019, on a toxic combination of unexpected capex overruns in updated economic studies during construction, and lower lithium product prices because of temporary oversupplies just lasting long enough, preventing last resort financings from succeeding. In case you wondered what happened to them, in the end Nemaska was taken privately by a syndicate of Investissement Quebec, Pallinghurst Group and Orion Mine Finance, wiping out all existing shareholders unfortunately. Nowadays it is looking to start construction again, as it secured a plot of land at an industrial park in Becancour, Quebec earlier this year, in order to build a new chemical conversion facility. So far for the rocky story of one of the once best lithium juniors around, proving that investing in junior miners can be risky at every stage with every metal.

Kenorland Minerals is far from such scenarios fortunately. When the company can expose the same type and size of pegmatite dykes, the 2% royalty could be worth some serious money, as lithium product prices are at all time highs with no end in sight, as shortages seem to increase without lots of new production coming online soon. The company has completed a regional till sampling program, and CEO Flood had this to say about the results, and potential follow up exploration plans for Rupert: We have not received the complete results of Rupert yet, so any follow up plans will be contemplated after this."

Regarding asset deals, the company also disclosed on July 8, 2021 that it had sold the Fox River nickel property to Superior Nickel, a private company, for 2.66M shares of Superior, and a 2% net smelter return royalty. Kenorland also vended out the Napoleon project to another private company, J2, for equity and a 2% NSR.

The September 8, 2021 news release also contained an extensive update on all exploration projects. I discussed this with CEO Flood to get some additional color on proceedings.

Frotet Project, Quebec (80/20 Joint Venture with Sumitomo Metal Mining Canada Ltd.): The Company has completed 9,889 meters of diamond drilling from the recently announced program consisting of up to 18,000 meters (see press release date July 14, 2021) allocated for infill and step-out drilling along the R1 and R2 gold-bearing structures as well as follow-up on additional zones of mineralization within the Regnault trend. In addition to drilling at Regnault, till and soil geochemical surveys as well as prospecting campaigns were completed on several regional areas of interest within the Frotet Project. This work has yielded a number of robust geochemical anomalies which warrant follow-up exploration including detailed geophysics in preparation for drill targeting. Drill testing of these regional target areas is tentatively planned for Q1 2022.

As over half the drilling has been completed, it can only be a matter of time before a large batch of drill results can be expected, in line with earlier announcements. According to Flood, the drill program wrapped up two weeks ago, and results for  of the drilling have been recieved now that the SMM transaction has been completed (we asked lab to hold off on sending us any results during the negotiations for financing). The assays are being QAQCd and if any QAQC issues we will need to re-run, if not, we may see assays in the next 2 to 3 weeks.

I also wondered if the company will publish geophysical/geochemical maps, indicating targets. Flood stated: Geophysics was good at guiding us initally however now that we have more control on the vein structures we are using more geology than geophysics to guide our exploration. Furthermore, I wondered what the distribution of drilling was regarding infill and step-out drilling: around half of the program was infill and 25% step-outs, and another 25% targeting discovery of new veins.

I also asked Flood if he already had sufficient data to create a geological model for Regnault, and if the Troilus-like disseminated bulk-tonnage lower grade mineralization still is a concept they are investigating, besides the high-grade veins. He answered that they have now began modelling the system, including the various vein structures, and this work should be completed over the winter. There is broadly disseminated lower grade mineralization in the system and this will also be taken into account during geologic modelling.

After Regnault we move over to the second flagship project, the Healy project in Alaska, optioned from Newmont. A total of 4,821m has been drilled out of over 5,000m planned, and according to Flood they should be recieving all of the results toward the end of November or early December. Then they will need to QAQC the data. If there are no QAQC issues (re-runs), it is possible to see results toward the end of December, however more likely they will see results in January. The labs have been longer waits than expected.

Kenorland also completed IP and magnetotellurics (MT) surveys, and results will be announced along with the drilling, as they are an important guide for Kenorlands interpretation of structure, mineralization, and alteration.

Healy Project; proposed drilling/sampling results

Tanacross is the third most important project, located in Alaska and fully owned. Extensive soil sampling program has been done, a 5km IP and MT survey was completed, and an airborne magnetics survey was flown over several targets. The assays are expected back toward the end of this month. Analysis, interpretation and targeting will likely take Tanacross to the new year for reporting.

As several of the surveys were delayed, previously announced drilling has been put on hold, and the assigned budget was reallocated for additional drilling at Healy. According to Flood, Tanacross will potentially see drilling next year.

Kenorland also completed a VTEM survey at their Hunter project in Quebec (fully owned), a LiDAR survey and mapping at South Uchi (optioned to Barrick), completed a soil sampling program at Chebistuan in Quebec (optioned to Newmont), and completed a sonic drill-for-till geochemical program at their Chicobi project, also in Quebec. A map with the sampling results for Chebistuan looks like this:

The company systematically screened over 170,000h of ground in just over a year, which is impressive, and collected no less than 2,121 soil samples and 225 till samples. As a result, the focus will be on the Deux Orignaux AOI target zone, where most anomalies were found. The company just wrapped up prospecting and a magnetic survey, and radiometrics and induced polarization (IP) will take place in January, in preparation for drill targeting. After asking Flood if he wouldnt contemplate using a sonic drill for till program here like he did at Chicobi, as there is likely also glacial till, he answered that there is exposed till at surface here so there's no need for sonic: Although, he conceded, it would be a better method, albeit 10x more expensive, especially with no road network like they have at Chicobi.

The exploration at the Chicobi project generated the following results, visualized on this map:

CEO Flood was happy with these results, as it isnt easy to sample under a cover of overburden:

Were very excited to announce the results from our extraordinary efforts to effectively explore in what we consider the frontier of the Abitibi. The clay belt presents a unique challenge to exploration which can only be overcome by applying methods such as drill-for-till sampling, which has been effective at detecting mineral systems in other deep glacial cover environments.

This type of exploration doesnt only look very advanced and interesting to a non-geologist like me, but also extremely difficult to find the mineralized source of the samples, as the company is dealing with several layers of overburden/glacial till, all capable of moving gold particles from the underlying bedrock source over quite a distance by for example ancient glaciers or other erosion events, maybe each even moving gold particles in different directions. On top of this, the sampling grades looked extremely low to me (35 ppb Au is 0.035g/t Au), so it looked like a needle in a haystack to me. I asked CEO Flood if he could explain the significance of these results to me, and if it was less far fetched than I thought. He answered that the results might look uninteresting at first sight, but 35ppb+ was a similar anomaly to what we initially found at Frotet/Regnault. Glacial till is much more diluted than a typical soil sample which is residual from weathering of bedrock.

Very interesting indeed, and it shows why it is important to keep asking the uninformed questions, there could be so many layers of information to a subject.

The company is still working diligently at Chicobi, as detailed geophysical surveys are being planned now for November, including drone magnetics, IP and electromagnetics (EM). Diamond drilling for Chicobi is scheduled for Q1, 2022.

Finally, the company holds a significant equity position in Kingfisher Metals (KFR:TSXV) to the tune of 4%, and a 2% NSR on their Goldrange and Thibert projects. Kingfisher has completed a 5,000m drill program at Goldrange, which tested a large gold-in-soil anomaly. Results from the labs are expected back within the next few weeks.

Sampling at Goldrange (Source: Kingfisher Metals)

Conclusion

Of course, you never know, but since Sumitomo showed strong confidence in Kenorland by completing a C$5.2M strategic investment, it seems the ongoing follow up drill program at Regnault might prove to be successful, as such investments arent made lightly by a JV partner. Drill results are expected in the next 2 to 3 weeks, and Im curious if Kenorland can deliver the same type of results again as they did in May of this year, confirming a spectacular discovery. In the meantime, the company is conducting exploration programs at several other projects, and some are providing results soon as well, so I expect multiple chances for Kenorland to re-rate to more appropriate share price levels instead of pre-IPO levels, since the amount of successful exploration only increased the value of their asset base, metal prices including gold are rising, and general mining sentiment seems to be turning for the better.

I hope you will find this article interesting and useful, and will have further interest in my upcoming articles on mining. To never miss a thing, please subscribe to my free newsletter at www.criticalinvestor.eu, in order to get an email notice of my new articles soon after they are published.

The Critical Investor is a newsletter and comprehensive junior mining platform, providing analysis, blog and newsfeed and all sorts of information about junior mining. The editor is an avid and critical junior mining stock investor from The Netherlands, with an MSc background in construction/project management. Number cruncher at project economics, looking for high-quality companies, mostly growth/turnaround/catalyst-driven to avoid too much dependence/influence of long-term commodity pricing/market sentiments, and often looking for long-term deep value. Getting burned in the past himself at junior mining investments by following overly positive sources that more often than not avoided to mention (hidden) risks or critical flaws, The Critical Investor learned his lesson well, and goes a few steps further ever since, providing a fresh, more in-depth, and critical vision on things, hence the name.

[NLINSERT]

The author is not a registered investment advisor, and currently has a long position in this stock. Kenorland Minerals is a sponsoring company. All facts are to be checked by the reader. For more information go to www.kenorlandminerals.com and read the companys profile and official documents on www.sedar.com, also for important risk disclosures. This article is provided for information purposes only, and is not intended to be investment advice of any kind, and all readers are encouraged to do their own due diligence, and talk to their own licensed investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions.

Streetwise Reports Disclosure:

1) The Critical Investor's disclosures are listed above.

2) The following companies mentioned in the article are sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Kenorland Minerals. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.

4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the decision to publish an article until three business days after the publication of the article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases.

Charts and graphics provided by the author.
Purple Heart medals are awarded to service members who have been wounded or killed as a result of enemy action while serving in the military. (Will Cox/U.S. Army)

The Army is evaluating whether dozens of additional U.S. troops merit recognition for brain injuries suffered in an Iranian ballistic missile strike in Iraq nearly two years ago, defense officials said Thursday, a move underscoring that one of the most significant foreign policy crises of Donald Trump's presidency was more severe than he and other U.S. officials acknowledged at the time.

At least 33 service members involved in the Jan. 8, 2020, attack on Ain al-Asad air base are under consideration for Purple Hearts, a distinction reserved for those wounded in combat, a defense official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. If approved, the personnel will join at least 30 other troops who already received the award for sustaining injuries in the incident.

Geoffrey Hansen, a retired Army captain who survived the attack, said that many of the soldiers he supervised have residual ailments and that one person had died by suicide.

"I've got lots of soldiers that have really bad PTSD issues, memory issues, bad headaches," Hansen said, referring in part to post-traumatic stress. "All kinds of lingering effects."

The attack in western Iraq brought Washington and Tehran to the brink of war. It followed weeks of escalation that included the death of an American in a separate rocket attack in Iraq, an Iranian-backed siege on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and the U.S. drone strike there that killed Qasem Soleimani, a longtime U.S. nemesis and the powerful head of Iran's Quds Force.

Iran responded to Soleimani's killing by launching 15 ballistic missiles, 11 of which struck Ain al-Asad. The missiles, each about 40 feet long and carrying a 1,600-pound warhead that left craters up to 30 feet, were the most powerful weapons launched at U.S. troops in a generation.

Trump responded to the lack of American fatalities by declaring on Twitter that "All is well!" A few days later, he said that some of the troops involved had "headaches" but that the situation was "not very serious," prompting a rebuke from veterans groups.

Initially, the Defense Department reported that eight service members had suffered traumatic brain injuries, but that number increased multiple times in following days. Eventually, at least 110 survivors were diagnosed with a TBI. The Pentagon attributed the rising numbers to symptoms surfacing over time.

The Army decided to evaluate whether additional Purple Heart awards were warranted after a commander overseeing troops on the base, Col. Gregory Fix of the Minnesota National Guard, requested "reconsideration" for 33 nominations that had not been approved.

Fix wrote in a letter, first reported by CBS News, that he had been instructed "not to inquire about the remaining awards or resubmit those awards" but did so anyway. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The Purple Heart, in addition to its cultural significance in recognizing those wounded in combat, comes with several benefits from federal and state governments. They include hiring preference for government jobs, upgrades in medical benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs, tuition waivers and free Purple Heart license plates in many states.

An Army spokeswoman, Col. Cathy Wilkinson, said in a statement Thursday that the service "will evaluate each award nomination, to include posthumous submissions, expeditiously and on their individual merit in accordance with Army regulations."

Wilkinson did not address Fix's assertion that he'd been told not to ask about or resubmit the nominations that were denied.

Survivors of the attack said in interviews with The Washington Post last year that they expected "total devastation" at the base when warned of the kind of missiles that were heading their way. Some prayed before the missiles arrived, and others recorded messages for their families in case they died.

Maj. Alan Johnson, a National Guard officer who already received a Purple Heart, said that while some troops who endured the attack were in fortified bunkers, others took cover in aboveground shelters with open-air sides that were designed to provide protection from much smaller mortars and rockets.

One of the blasts landed just 60 feet away from him and other soldiers, Johnson recalled. Towering fires erupted after the explosions, forcing soldiers to relocate in between missile volleys.

"I still have anxiety," Johnson said last year. "I still have recurring nightmares of incoming  just that sound of those things coming in."

The Washington Post's Alice Crites contributed to this report.
Fort Hood soldier Cpl. Nakealon Keunte Mosley, 24, was indicted Wednesday by a grand jury in Bell County, Texas, on a charge of murder in the death of a fellow soldier who was the mother of his child, according to online court records. (Bell County Jail)

A Fort Hood soldier was indicted Wednesday on a charge of murder in the death of a fellow soldier who was the mother of his child.

Cpl. Nakealon Keunte Mosley, 24, was indicted by a grand jury in Bell County, Texas, which is located just outside the Army base in central Texas, according to online court records. He is charged with shooting Sgt. Francine Martinez, 24, on Sept. 4 following an argument outside of a nightclub in Killeen, Texas. After two weeks in the hospital, Martinez died Sept. 16.

Mosely was initially charged with aggravated assault of a family member and he has been in Bell County Jail since Sept. 5 with his bond set at $505,000, according to online jail records. His arraignment for the enhanced charge is scheduled for Dec. 16.

In the days before the shooting, Martinez had filed a petition to establish paternity for the couples child, according to Bell County court records. The case was closed Sept. 22.

Both soldiers had previously served at Fort Carson, Colo., before arriving to Fort Hood, according to their service records.

There is no record of a military protective order being filed between the two and neither Mosley nor Martinez have ever been charged with any wrongdoing based on an investigation from Army Criminal Investigation Division, said Jeffrey Castro, a spokesman for the division.

Army special agents from the division are assisting the Killeen Police Department with their investigation, he said.

Witnesses of the shooting told Killeen police officers that Mosely and Martinez had been romantically involved in the past and had a child together, according to an arrest affidavit for Mosely.

The two soldiers ran into each other at a Killeen nightclub on Sept. 4, which led to an argument in the parking lot, according to the affidavit. As Martinez left in one vehicle, Mosely followed in a separate vehicle and fired gunshots at Martinezs vehicle, police said.

Crime and courts

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.
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea  Jamaica Eblacas, 30, a Pyeongtaek bartender who admitted killing a U.S. soldiers 3-year-old son, is refusing a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation or to cooperate with her defense attorney, the attorney told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday.

Were frustrated, attorney Jung Wang Jae told Stars and Stripes in an interview Thursday. We feel a bit bad for our client. This is a big case, and she has a baby as well.

At her arraignment Nov. 5, Eblacas admitted killing Noa Calhoun, the son of Army Pvt. James and Kourtney Calhoun, after his father left the child and his 7-year-old brother in her care two months earlier.

James Calhoun is assigned to the 61st Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Company at Camp Humphreys.

Eblacas appeared again Wednesday at the Pyeongtaek branch of Suwon District Court for a trial on an unrelated matter. Prosecutors seek $848 compensation for a South Korean man, 72, who said Eblacas injured him during an argument over a cellphone repair bill.

According to police statements provided the court, Eblacas alleged the man beat her during the dispute April 5. The man, however, said he grabbed her hair in self-defense after she threw three flowerpots at his head. In court the man told prosecutors he needed several stiches on his face following the altercation.

Eblacas failed to respond to questions Wednesday from the prosecutor and Chief Judge Kim Seyong. She nodded her head on occasion but would not speak. She did not reply, for example, when asked to confirm her signature and handwriting on her police report.

Jung, the defense attorney, told the three-judge panel that Eblacas former husband, a South Korean, said she exhibited schizophrenic dispositions during their marriage.

Jung told Stars and Stripes that Eblacas is uncooperative during their consultations, even when speaking through an English translator. An interpreter translates their conversations and court proceedings in Korean into English for Eblacas, who is fluent in that language, Jung said.

Eblacas admitted killing Noa Calhoun during her arraignment last week by the same three-judge panel. Police said they discovered Noas bruised body the morning after the two children were dropped off by their father. Prosecutors alleged the boy was stabbed by a kitchen knife and hit in the head by a wardrobe.

Eblacas is charged with murder in conjunction with child abuse, a crime that carries a minimum sentence of three years in prison and a maximum penalty of death. She is in police custody and scheduled to appear in court again in early December on the murder charge.

Buy Photo Jamaica Eblacas, who admitted killing a U.S. soldiers 3-year-old son, is refusing a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation or to cooperate with her defense attorney, the attorney said. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)

Crime and courts

David Choi
This story has been corrected

Buy Photo The USS Ronald Reagan arrives at Naval Base Yokosuka, Japan, on Oct. 16, 2021. Satellite images suggest the Chinese military has built mock-ups of U.S. carriers for military target pratice. (Daniel Betancourt/Stars and Stripes)

Chinese-built mock-ups of U.S. warships and aircraft meant for target practice send a clear message to the United States military, a maritime security expert with a Washington D.C.-based think tank said recently.

Satellite imagery released Nov. 7 by the U.S. Naval Institute through Maxar Technologies shows targets built in the shape of a U.S. aircraft carrier and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers at a complex of target ranges in the Taklamakan Desert in Chinas Xinjiang province.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby at a Nov. 8 news conference said China is obviously developing capabilities meant to prevent the U.S. from reaching certain areas in the Indo-Pacific region.

Also speaking at a news conference Nov. 8, Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said he was not aware of those target mock-ups.

Subsequent satellite imagery shows what appear to be more targets in the shape of U.S. assets. A second, smaller carrier target was built approximately 300 miles away from the first, according to a Nov. 9 report from the U.S. Naval Institute.

Likewise, images of four mock F-35 Lightning II fighter jets in Xinjiang were released by Canada-based military magazine Kanwa International Journal in its latest monthly issue, according to the South China Morning Post on Thursday.

Building targets to simulate real-world combat is routine but the scale and effort demonstrated by Chinas target ranges reflects Beijings determination to outclass American naval power, according to Lyle Goldstein, director of Asia engagement for Defense Priorities. Goldstein previously served as a research professor at the U.S. Naval War Colleges China Maritime Studies Institute, according to his online biography.

The Chinese know very well that U.S. satellites are monitoring and would eventually see these efforts, Goldstein said in a Tuesday email to Stars and Stripes. The Chinese leadership has made it clear in a variety of ways that they are developing the military capabilities to severely damage the U.S. Navy if it came to a military conflict.

Goldstein said the satellite images could be interpreted as political-military messaging, or it may be that Beijing doesnt intend to convey such a message and the Chinese military is merely training as a matter of course.

However, he said, its clear that China is preparing for potential engagement with U.S. warships.

The satellite imagery comes after months of escalating tension in the Indo-Pacific between the U.S., its allies and China. But Goldstein said the imagery probably will not exacerbate the situation, mostly because the U.S. is already aware of Chinas military developments.

Goldstein said the U.S. and China should tone down their saber-rattling and instead prioritize cooperation and dialogue between the two superpowers.

The region appears more and more to resemble a powder keg that is primed to explode. Both China and the U.S. have taken provocative steps that have escalated the situation over a period that goes back more than a decade now, he said. China must recognize that it cannot push the US out of the region. However, the U.S. also must realize that it has to adjust to Chinas growing power.

Correction This article has been corrected to indicate that Lyle Goldstein has moved from the Naval War College to work as director of Asia engagement for a Washington, D.C., think tank, Defense Priorities.

Alex Wilson
Americans in England on Thanksgiving might want to indulge in a hearty serving of shepherds pie (with lamb) or cottage pie (with beef) to celebrate the holiday. (iStock)

As Thanksgiving approaches, the question as to whether to stay home and cook a bang-up traditional meal or to patch together a four-day weekend and use it to travel afar has vexed many an American making his or her home in Europe. Its a win either way, but what about all those tastes so indelibly associated with the holiday table? Its likely that the place youre visiting offers a dish or two that can stand in nicely for the old classics.

Germany: While whole turkeys do make an appearance in larger German supermarkets at this time of year, Novembers fowl of choice locally is the goose. According to legend, the Gans appears as the centerpiece on the day of St. Martin on Nov. 11 due to its betrayal of the saint as he hid in a coop amidst a flock, attempting in vain to evade an appointment to the position of bishop. A typical Martinstag menu might include a roast goose with crispy skin, red cabbage and dumplings, followed by a dessert such as bread pudding with apples. St. Martins Day is also celebrated in France, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

Italy: A specialty of Lombardy, but not unheard of elsewhere in the country, is gnocchi di zucca, or pumpkin gnocchi. These mild and slightly sweet, oval-shaped pillows are seasoned with the familiar autumn spices of nutmeg and cinnamon and served with grated parmesan cheese. The addition of sage butter adds yet another familiar Thanksgiving flavor to the dish.

Sweden: While whole cranberries are easy to find in European supermarkets, cranberry sauce is virtually unheard of. But cranberry isnt the only berry used to create a contrast to a savory main. Lingonberries, a tart red berry native to the high-latitude boreal forests of Scandinavia, find their way into jams and other condiments that accompany meat perfectly. Should a trip to Stockholm, Sweden be in the cards, look for lingonberry jam to be served as the side to Swedish meatballs. The restaurant named Meatballs for the People, located at Nytorgsgatan 30, is the obvious place to sample them, and with their preference to organic ingredients and responsibly sourced meats, its a feel-good choice. (Online: meatball.se) Should travel plans collapse at the last minute, many branches of the furniture giant IKEA sell Sylt Lingon, an organic lingonberry jam.

Poland: Although putting stuffing in the cavity of an animal thats heading for the oven is a tradition that goes at least as far back as Roman times, something one is perhaps even more likely to run into in Europe is a stuffed cabbage leaf. The dish so popular from the Baltics to the Balkans has countless regional variations. The Polish iteration, known as goabki, are rolled up cabbage leaves stuffed with minced pork or beef that's mixed with rice or buckwheat groats, along with onion and spices. These are served in a tangy tomato or savory mushroom sauce or with a dollop of sour cream.

England: A firm part of the cuisine known as pub grub, a shepherds pie should be easy to find. While the lamb typically used as the meat in this classic dish isnt a Thanksgiving craving, its creamy mashed potato topping is, as is the gravy from its bottom layer. Those who find lambs gamey taste too off-putting will be better off ordering cottage pie, which is made with ground beef instead.

Greece: In the dish known as fasolakia giaxni, or steamy green beans, beans in tomato sauce are combined with sauteed onions and allowed to simmer until the flavors meld and is garnished with fresh parsley and crumbled feta cheese. Green beans are just one of several vegetables that are cooked by the so-called lathera method, in which vegetables are cooked in olive oil and tomato sauce. As lathera are made with seasonal vegetables, it may be easier to find such a dish made with cauliflower at this time of the year.

France: A clafouti or clafoutis is a baked dessert of flour, milk, eggs and sugar, topped with fruit. Although cherries are the most common add-in, variations with apples are popular as well. This sweet treat with a consistency somewhere between that of custard and cake is a specialty of the Limousin region; there, youll hear the word flognarde used in reference to this dessert when its made from a fruit other than cherries.

Switzerland: You wont miss pecan pie when theres an Engadiner Nusstorte  a tart stuffed with nuts on your plate. This pie-like dessert, also known as Budner Nusstorte, has a shortbread crust filled with walnuts surrounded by silky-smooth caramel. Try a piece in Graubunden, the canton of its origin.
This season is a bountiful one for new books for and about military kids, with picture books and chapter books for children to read independently or enjoy with parents and siblings. Books about military kids often focus  understandably  on deployment or moving, both important topics. But its refreshing to find stories about military kids that depict their experiences with more nuance, recognizing their lives are deep and wide as others their age. The lives of military kids  new friends, new schools, getting through deployment, and other adventures  are well represented in this list.

Make Your Bed with Skipper the Seal by William H. McRaven, illustrations by Howard McWilliam. This title, which hits bookshelves Nov. 16, is based on a familiar phrase from the author, a retired four-star admiral whose make your bed advice in a commencement speech went viral in 2014. In this picture-book version, Skipper the Seal embarks on Navy SEAL training, where he and his fellow recruits learn perseverance, dealing with failure, and of course, to make their beds. McRaven, a former SEAL and commander of the United States Special Operations Command, said he intended this book to encourage young readers to become their best selves.

I Move a Lot and Thats Okay by Shermaine Perry-Knights. Drawing on memories of her military childhood, Perry-Knights tells her story to reassure military kids who might not describe moving a lot as okay. The book is about a young girl experiencing a new environment, language, and culture when her family moves to Naples, Italy. The author said she wanted to share a message of resilience to help military children overcome the obstacles of moving and readjustment.

The Islanders by Mary Alice Monroe and Angela May. This is a chapter book for middle-grade readers interested in nature, conservation, and adventure. The main character, Jake, is a regular kid who happens to be from a dual-military family  Army dad, Air Force mom. After his dad is injured in Afghanistan, Jake goes to spend the summer with his eccentric grandmother, where he meets a group of kids very different from him and learns about caring for nature and the nature of friendship. The Islanders came out this summer. It is the first in a series about Jake and friends, with the second installment, The Islanders: Search for Treasure expected in 2022.

Atrapa la estrella! by Brenda Ehrmantraut, translated by Ana Stevenson, and illustrated by Vicki Wehrman. This Spanish picture book, which debuted in October, is a contextual translation of Ehrmantrauts Night Catch, a favorite for kids going through deployment since its first publication in 2005. Ehrmantraut wrote the book for her Army brothers family during a year-long deployment, to help them connect while they were apart. In the story, a soldier and his son play an imaginary game of catch with the North Star. Not ball as usual in the park, but something special after dark, becomes, in Stevensons lyrical translation, No sera el mismo juego que soliamos hacer, sino algo muy especial cada atardecer.

Good Morning San Diego (Good Morning Military Books series) by Sarah Murphy and Amy Dobbins. Other titles in the series: Good Morning Guam, Good Morning Okinawa, and Good Morning Yokosuka. Plenty of new ideas were hatched during the pandemic lockdown, and this new series is one of them. Murphy and Dobbins, both military spouses, created the books to introduce kids to various military duty stations. The authors say the Yokosuka book is about the Navy base there, but their other titles are appropriate for kids in any military branch about to move to one of these locations. The books also provide a way for military kids living in those places to start conversations with extended family and faraway friends about where they live. The authors plan to add more books to the series.

Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mulally Hunt. This middle-grade story came out in 2015 but is worth reading because it includes something that is often overlookedhow successive school changes affect learning for military kids. Fifth-grader Ally has a secret: She cant read. Because of frequent military moves and her clever use of classroom disruptions, Ally has been able to keep her secret from one school to the next. Until a new teacher, Mr. Daniels, discovers Ally is not a troublemaker but a bright girl who happens to have dyslexia. Mr. Daniels helps Ally find effective ways to learn and make friends. She realizes other kids in her class need help and friendship too, and she doesnt need to keep her secret anymore.

Terri Barnes is a book editor and the author of Spouse Calls: Messages from a Military Life, based on her long-running column in Stars and Stripes. A collector and lover of childrens literature, she has been known to give picture books to everyone on her Christmas gift list. Contact her online at terribarnesauthor.com.
(Tribune News Service)  The Cuban government rejected a U.S. donation of 1 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine because the offer came too late and had too many requirements attached, the islands foreign minister said in a gathering with accredited diplomats in Havana.

Bruno Rodriguez said the U.S. State Department reached out to the Cuban embassy in Washington last Friday to make the offer he referred to as last minute and opportunistic. The minister made the exchange public during an unusual meeting in which he complained about alleged U.S. plans to destabilize the communist government and the lack of humanitarian assistance during the pandemic.

They are offering vaccines to an already vaccinated population, even when the booster dose program is advancing, but they also pose strict and interventionist requirements, such as the obligation to carry out clinical studies in Cuba with these vaccines, the minister said.

Cuban authorities replied respectfully, Rodriguez said, explaining why the donation would not contribute to improving the health of Cubans. He did not mention which specific vaccine the U.S. government intended to provide.

The American officials, Rodriguez continued, mentioned international mechanisms that so far have been inefficient and discriminatory, a remark that seems to refer to Covax, a program managed by the World Health Organization to provide donated vaccines or at lower prices to developing nations.

Cuba is the only country in the region that chose not to participate in the program. Instead, it decided to develop its own vaccines. The government is currently in talks with the WHO to get the emergency authorization so it can sell its vaccines through that organization.

According to official data, 70% of the islands population that can be vaccinated is already fully immunized. That figure also includes children as young as 2.

But while the country was still developing and testing its products, the Delta variant caused a deadly wave of cases during the summer that pushed the health system near collapse. Some patients died without care amid widespread shortages of medicines and oxygen due to a broken part in the islands main medical-oxygen plant in late May. Cuban authorities did not disclose the production problem for more than two months, until reports by the independent media and Cubans on social media set off the alarms. Shortly after, the government mobilized the military to produce oxygen and delivery it to remote parts.

The U.S. embargo allows the sale of medicines to Cuba, but the foreign minister complained that American authorities did not issue specific licenses to export oxygen to the island during the crisis. He did not say if there were any efforts by the Cuban government to procure medical oxygen in the U.S.

Several pro-engagement organizations asked the Trump and Biden administrations to lift some sanctions to Cuba during the pandemic. The Biden administration has said it was expediting authorizations to provide humanitarian aid to the island.

President Biden said on July 15 that he would be prepared to give significant amounts of vaccines [to Cuba], if he was assured an international organization would administer those vaccines.

But Cuba has elected not to join COVAX, a State Department spokesperson told the Herald.

The State Department did not provide specifics on the donation offer to Cuba nor addressed why it followed up on Bidens offer several months later.

Shortly after Bidens statement, Cuban officials and scientists made public statements declining the offer, saying that Cuba did not need the donation because it was developing its own vaccines. But it is unclear if there was any official exchange on the issue at the time.

Cuba later accepted vaccines donated by China, a close political ally.

The timing of the U.S. donation proposal coincides with the enactment of new travel rules by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that ban foreign travelers who are unvaccinated or got shots that do not have emergency authorization from the WHO. Most Cubans, who received the local vaccines Soberana and Abdala, cannot enter the U.S. under such requirements.

The State Departments spokesperson said the proposal made to Cuba was part of the Biden administrations commitment to providing 1.1 billion doses to international partners, with no political strings attached.

We share the Cuban peoples concern about the pandemics devastating effects in Cuba, the official said. Cuba has made a sovereign decision on how it will address the pandemic, which includes the development and use of its own vaccines.

2021 Miami Herald.

Visit miamiherald.com .

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC .
Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks during the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, Monday Nov. 1, 2021. The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow gathers leaders from around the world, in Scotlands biggest city, to lay out their vision for addressing the common challenge of global warming. (Andy Buchanan/AP)

TAIPEI, Taiwan  Outgoing Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez started a three-day surprise visit to Taiwan on Friday as the self-ruled island, which is also claimed by China, worries that the next president of the Central American nation may break off relations and switch to diplomatic ties with Beijing.

Hernandez and his wife will meet President Tsai Ing-wen as part of a celebration of 80 years of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Honduras. He will also visit the Central American Bank for Economic Integration office in Taipei, a Honduran development bank.

Hernandez's trip comes just weeks ahead of the presidential election in Honduras. He is due to leave office in January and has become increasingly isolated him as he is facing allegations of ties to drug traffickers from U.S. federal prosecutors in New York. His brother had been arrested in Miami in 2018 by U.S. authorities on suspicion of drug trafficking.

Politically, there's little to gain in his trip. Hernandez will not be able to run for office again, said Antonio C. Hsiang, a professor at La Academia Nacional de Estudios Y Estrategicos, who studies Latin America studies. Instead, Hernandez is likely in Taiwan to seek support, financial or otherwise, he said.

Taiwan, meanwhile, is concerned about the election as one of the leading candidates has openly said she is in favor of establishing ties with China, which means Honduras will cease recognizing Taiwan as a country.

Xiomara Castro, the presidential candidate, said in a June 28 post on her Facebook page: "I believe in multipolarity and because of that I propose opening international relations with continental China, which would help the country incorporate into the market with the market of the world's greatest growth."

China has been on a campaign to poach Taiwan's allies, of which only 15 remain. China has been using diplomatic and economic methods to persuade countries to switch their diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.

China says Taiwan is not a country and is merely another province, to be reunified by force if necessary. Taiwan says it has essentially been functioning independently as a country since the two sides split after a civil war in 1949.

Associated Press writer Marlon Gonzalez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras contributed to this report.
This photo provided by the family courtesy shows Danny Fenster posing for a photo in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2020. A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Friday, Nov. 12, 2021, sentenced detained U.S. journalist Fenster to 11 years in prison after finding him guilty on several charges, including incitement for allegedly spreading false or inflammatory information. (family courtesy photo via AP)

BANGKOK  A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Friday sentenced U.S. journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison with hard labor, the maximum penalty under three charges, despite calls by the United States and rights groups for his release.

It was the harshest punishment yet among the seven journalists known to have been convicted since the military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February.

Fenster, the managing editor of the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, is still facing additional terrorism and treason charges under which he could receive up to life in prison.

The court found him guilty on Friday of spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations, lawyer Than Zaw Aung said.

Fenster wept after hearing the sentence and has not yet decided whether to appeal, the lawyer said.

The harsh penalty is the ruling military's latest rebuff of calls from around the world for a peaceful end to Myanmar's political crisis. The government is refusing to cooperate with an envoy appointed by Southeast Asian governments to mediate a solution, and has not bowed to sanctions imposed by the United States and several other Western countries.

"It's clear that Danny is being made an example of, and what it shows is that the junta do not care what the international community thinks. They would do as they want, and this is one example of how they are basically showing the international community that they cannot be held accountable," said Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch.

The army's takeover was opposed by widespread peaceful protests that were put down with lethal force. Security forces killed more than 1,200 civilians and arrested about 10,000 others, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Armed resistance has since spread, and U.N. experts and other observers fear the incipient insurgency could slide into civil war.

Fenster was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he was about to board a flight to go to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family.

The military-installed government has cracked down hard on press freedom, shutting down virtually all critical outlets and arresting about 100 journalists, roughly 30 of whom remain in jail. Of the seven known to have been convicted, six are Myanmar nationals and four were released in a mass amnesty on Oct. 21.

Some of the closed media have continued operating without a license, publishing online as their staff members dodge arrest.

At least three other foreign journalists, from Japan, the United States and Poland, have been detained. The American, Nathan Maung, said he was tortured while in custody.

The hearings on the original three charges against Fenster were held at a court in Yangon's infamous Insein Prison, where he is jailed. They were closed to the media and the public, and accounts of the proceedings have come from Fenster's lawyer.

Despite testimony from more than a dozen prosecution witnesses, it was never clear exactly what Fenster was alleged to have done, and it appeared that he was judged guilty by association.

Much of the prosecution's case appeared to hinge on his being employed by Myanmar Now, another online news site, that was ordered closed this year. But Fenster left his job at Myanmar Now in July last year, joining Frontier Myanmar the following month.

Prosecution witnesses testified that they were informed by a letter from the Information Ministry that its records showed that Fenster continued to be employed this year by Myanmar Now.

Both Myanmar Now and Frontier Myanmar issued public statements that Fenster had left the former publication last year, and his lawyer said defense testimony, as well as income tax receipts, established that he works for Frontier Myanmar.

Than Zaw Aung said he was unable to produce a government official to testify, and the judge took into account only the Information Ministry letter.

"Therefore, according to this letter, Danny is responsible for Myanmar Now and the judge said that's why Danny was sentenced," the lawyer said.

He said Fenster told him that the editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now allegedly forgot to inform the Information Ministry of his resignation last year.

The U.S. government, human rights groups, press freedom associations and Fenster's family had pressed strongly for the 37-year-old journalist's release.

"Myanmar must stop jailing journalists for merely doing their job of reporting the news," said Shawn Crispin, Southeast Asia representative of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Russian Black Sea fleet ships go to sea during the winter training period. The Pentagon says Russias military presence around Ukraine is now larger than the force used during Moscows 2014 invasion of that country. (Igor Rudenko)

UNITED NATIONS  Russias deputy U.N. ambassador said Thursday that Moscow will never invade Ukraine unless it is first provoked by its neighbor or someone else, then cited what he called many threats from Ukraine and provocative actions by U.S. warships in the Black Sea.

Dmitry Polyansky was responding to a question about the buildup of troops along Russias frontier with Ukraine, which has led to stepped up U.S. pressure and an assurance Wednesday from Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Ukrainian foreign minister that the American commitment to Ukraines security and territorial integrity is ironclad and will not change.

Polyansky was asked if Russia planned to invade Ukraine.

Never planned, never did, and never going to do it unless were provoked by Ukraine, or by somebody else and Russias national sovereignty is threatened, he replied.

There are a lot of threats coming from Ukraine, Polyansky quickly added. And dont forget that the American warships around the Black Sea acting very close.

So, every day is a very difficult day to avoid direct clash in the Black Sea. We warned our American colleagues that this is a real provocation, he told reporters at U.N. headquarters.

Blinken said the U.S. did not know Russias intentions but said Moscows playbook has been in the past to invent provocations along its border to justify military intervention.

We dont have clarity into Moscows intentions, but we do know its playbook, he said. If there are any provocations that were seeing, theyre coming from Russia, and any Russian escalation along the border would be viewed with grave concern.

Russia has cast its weight behind a separatist insurgency in Ukraines east that erupted shortly after Moscows 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and has caused more than 14,000 deaths. Russia has repeatedly denied any presence of its troops in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraines Defense Ministry said last week that about 90,000 Russian troops are stationed not far from the border and in rebel-controlled areas in Ukraines east. It said specifically that units of the Russian 41st Army have remained in Yelnya, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) north of the Ukrainian border.

We have the right to concentrate our troops wherever we want, Polyansky said. This is not Ukrainian territory. This is Russian territory

But if you read the threats that are being pronounced in Ukraine against Russia, against Russian territorial integrity, then you will understand that a certain precaution is a logical step in such a situation, he said.
Lauren Tierney, 16, receives the COVID-19 vaccine at Patch Barracks near Stuttgart, Germany, on May 22, 2021. U.S. military bases in Europe will soon offer coronavirus shots to children ages 5 to 11. (Marcus Fichtl/U.S. Army)

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany  Parents spent hours calling and waiting Friday to grab the first COVID-19 vaccination appointments for children ages 5 to 11 at the largest U.S. military hospital in Europe, while other commands on the Continent made preparations to receive the doses.

The rollout of coronavirus shot appointments, available next week for younger children at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, was bumpy in some instances, leading some parents to voice frustrations on social media.

A Facebook message Wednesday afternoon announcing availability didnt mention the shutdown of the appointment line for Veterans Day, though a hospital patient registration office remained open.

The appointment line typically closes on federal holidays, LRMC spokesman Marcy Sanchez said.

The crush of calls Friday all at once took the hospital by surprise, he added.

LRMC officials have said they would update the community when the pediatric vaccine was received, and it came in sooner than expected, Sanchez said.

The appointment line for scheduling routine medical visits was overwhelmed by callers when it opened Friday at 7 a.m.

Appointments for Nov. 18 and 19, the first days of the three-day event, were gone within the first two hours of availability Friday morning, parents said.

The hospital moved all vaccine appointment scheduling from the Defense Health Agencys online app to the local phone line after experiencing issues with the online system, Sanchez said.

Although some parents may have waited on hold, patient safety was a top priority, so our representatives handled each appointment request and questions as they usually do, Sanchez said.

He added that the hospital had 600 appointments available initially. The hospital hasnt yet announced more vaccination dates.

I cant confirm if they are full, but if they are, we will schedule additional opportunities for this patient population to get vaccinated with at least the first dose before the end of December, Sanchez said.

Most Army installations in Europe have received the pediatric doses or expect to do so in the coming week, said Gino Mattorano, spokesman for Regional Health Command Europe.

LRMC and other facilities that have the cold-storage capability required for the vaccine are receiving direct shipments from the United States, which speeds up delivery time, Mattorano said.

The hospital is offering the vaccine to children of Army, Air Force and Defense Department civilians in the Kaiserslautern area, including patients typically seen at Ramstein Air Base.

Other Army bases in Germany are still using the online appointment system at https://informatics-stage.health.mil/COVAX/.

There are some exceptions. Vilseck has a walk-in vaccination clinic Thursday from 1:30-4:30 p.m. at the multipurpose center. Children must have a valid ID to receive the vaccination.

Stuttgart is planning a vaccine drive for pediatric patients on Nov. 20 at Stuttgart High School, the bases health clinic posted Thursday on Facebook, noting that more details would follow.

During a virtual town hall meeting earlier this week, Stuttgart medical officials said vaccination times would be alphabetical, based on last names, to prevent bottlenecking. Those who show up outside of their designated window will be seen on a space-available basis, officials said.

Other vaccination events announced include:

Ansbach: Nov. 24 from 1-4 p.m. at the base health clinic, second floor conference room; second dose Dec. 15, from 1-4 p.m. Appointments via the DHA app.

Hohenfels: Nov. 22-23 from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Nov. 24 from 9-11:30 a.m.; Nov. 30 from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. at the base health clinic, Building 51, at Hohenfels Training Area. Appointments via the DHA app.

Grafenwoehr: Nov. 23 at Netzaberg Middle School. More details will be posted on base social media channels soon.

Garmisch: Dec. 8-9. The time and location are to be determined.

Wiesbaden: Thursday from 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m. and Nov. 22 from 3-4:30 p.m.; second shots, Dec. 9 from 1-6:30 p.m. and Dec. 16 from 1-2:30 p.m. Location is the Bookmart on base. Appointments via the DHA app.

The Navy and other Air Force bases in Europe had not yet publicly announced vaccination clinics for the pediatric coronavirus shot Friday.

But on Monday, U.S. Naval Hospital Sigonella in Sicily said vaccinations for children ages 5-11 will be available from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 18 and 8 a.m. to noon Nov. 19. Parents may call the hospitals main appointment line at DSN: 624-2273 or its commercial line at 095-56-2273. Other vaccination dates also are available, a post on the base Facebook page said.

U.S. Naval Hospital Naples was tracking the imminent arrival of its vaccine and soon would publish vaccination availability and scheduling information on the command website and social media, spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Megan Potter said Monday.

Stars and Stripes reporter Immanuel Johnson contributed to this report.
Russian President Vladimir Putin leads a meeting with officials via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo/AP)

Kremlin denies plans to invade Ukraine, alleges NATO threats

MOSCOW  The Kremlin on Friday rebuffed allegations that a buildup of its troops near Ukraine reflects Moscow's aggressive intentions, saying that Russia needs to ensure its security in response to alleged NATO threats.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Western media reports that Moscow has intentions to invade Ukraine as a "hollow and unfounded attempt to incite tensions."

"Russia doesn't threaten anyone," Peskov said during a conference call with reporters. "The movement of troops on our territory shouldn't be a cause for anyone's concern."

Ukraine complained last week that Russia has kept tens of thousands of troops not far from the two countries' borders after conducting war games in an attempt to exert further pressure on its ex-Soviet neighbor. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and has supported a separatist insurgency that broke out that year in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry claimed that about 90,000 Russian troops are stationed not far from the border and in rebel-controlled areas in Ukraine's east. It said units of the Russian 41st army have remained in Yelnya, a town about 260 kilometers (about 160 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in Washington this week that the U.S. commitment to Ukraine's security and territorial integrity is "ironclad."

Blinken said the United States did not know Russia's intentions but that Moscow's "playbook" in the past has included inventing alleged provocations along its border to justify military intervention.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Lt. Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Friday that Russia has about 2,100 military personnel in the rebel-controlled areas, noting that Russian military officers hold all commanding positions in the separatist forces.

Russia has cast its weight behind the separatist insurgency in Ukraine's east that has left more than 14,000 dead. But Moscow has repeatedly denied any presence of its troops in eastern Ukraine.

Asked Thursday if Russia planned to invade Ukraine, Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, replied that it "never planned, never did, and (is) never going to do it unless we're provoked by Ukraine, or by somebody else." He cited what he called many threats from Ukraine and allegedly provocative actions by U.S. warships in the Black Sea.

Peskov similarly emphasized Friday that Russia needs to protect its security amid what he described as "increasing provocations" near its borders. He pointed at the U.S. naval deployment to the Black Sea and increasingly frequent U.S. and NATO intelligence flights.

"We take measures to ensure our security when our opponents take defiant action near our borders," Peskov said. "We can't stay indifferent to that; we must be on our guard."

The Russian Defense Ministry described the deployment of the U.S. warships USS Mount Whitney and USS Porter, which sailed into the Black Sea last week, as a "threat to regional security and strategic stability."

"The real goal behind the U.S. activities in the Black Sea region is exploring the theater of operations in case of Kyiv's attempts to settle the conflict in the southeast by force," the ministry said in a statement.

The reported Russian military buildup near Ukraine also raised concern in the European Union.

Earlier this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after discussing the issue with U.S. President Joe Biden that "we fully support the territorial integrity of Ukraine."

European Commission spokesman Peter Stano told reporters Friday that the bloc is discussing the situation with partners, including the U.S. and United Kingdom, adding that "the information we gathered so far is rather worrying."

Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv, Ukraine and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
Ukrainian soldiers pull security during an anti-sabotage exercise during exercise Rapid Trident 2021 at Combat Training Center-Yavoriv near Yavoriv, Ukraine, Sept. 27, 2021. The U.S. Army has been training Ukrainian troops since 2015, the year Russia first intervened in eastern Ukraine. (Preston Hammon/U.S. Army)

STUTTGART, Germany  The U.S. militarys stepped-up activities around Ukraine have turned into a new red line for Moscow that could increase the risk of a large-scale Russian invasion of the country, some military analysts are cautioning as Russian troops mass on Ukraines border.

But Pentagon brass could be missing the signal Moscow is sending on what its willing to fight over, as the movement of Russian forces sparks concerns in Washington and European capitals of a possible military offensive in the months ahead.

There are very, very dark clouds on the horizon, said Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at the Center for Naval Analyses.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III is welcomed by Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Taran in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 19, 2021. Austin visited allies in Georgia, Ukraine and Romania recently to reaffirm U.S. support. Russia has massed troops near Ukraine's border on multiple occasions this year, U.S. and NATO officials have said. (Chad J. McNeeley/Defense Department)

The problem the U.S. military needs to solve is how to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine and show a willingness to stand up to possible Russian aggression without provoking the escalation it seeks to avoid in the first place, Kofman said.

We may be pushing too far, too fast, he said of U.S. military efforts around Ukraine, saying U.S. European Command will need to avoid running on autopilot as the security landscape shifts.

In recent weeks, Russian units have been moving into the border region around eastern Ukraine, much like they did in the spring, when fears rose of a new Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III takes questions at a joint press conference with Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Taran in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 19, 2021. Russia has massed troops near Ukraine's border on multiple occasions this year, U.S. and NATO officials have said. (Chad McNeeley/Defense Department)

Some of the Russian troops deployed there never left, and now more are arriving.

The deployments have been more covert this time, analysts say, and appear unconnected to any training exercises.

That has added to concerns that a larger threat looms in Ukraines east, where a separatist war has raged for the past seven years.

The USS Mount Whitney transits the Bosporus, entering the Black Sea near Istanbul, Nov. 4, 2021. The arrival of U.S. warships has again drawn attention from Russian senior leaders. (Yoruk Isik/Twitter)

Retired Marine Corps officer and Russia expert Rob Lee, in an analysis of Russias spring buildup, said the most likely explanation for that movement was an attempt to signal to the U.S. and NATO that it should avoid accelerating Ukraines path into NATO, selling arms to the country or imposing new sanctions on Russia.

This was a demonstration that Russia could respond asymmetrically to anti-Russian policies adopted by the US and NATO by employing military force against Ukraine, Lee wrote in an analysis for the nonpartisan Foreign Policy Research Institute.

The motives this time are much the same, Kofman said, adding that angst in Russia over what it regards as persistent U.S. and NATO activity in Ukraine has shifted Moscows red lines over the past year.

For Moscow, a possible attempt by Ukraine to join NATO has been long regarded as provocative.

That position has changed to  its now about (Western) defense cooperation in Ukraine, which can amount to the same de facto outcome, of NATO membership in Russias view, Kofman said. This is the red line. It is not just formal membership.

In western Ukraine, the U.S. Army has been training Ukrainian troops since 2015, the year after Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula and backed separatist fighters in the east.

The U.S. also has increased military sales and aid to Ukraine and expanded its naval presence in the Black Sea along with other NATO allies.

Retired U.S. Navy Adm. James Foggo III, who led U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and Allied Joint Forces Command, Naples, says a clearer allied military strategy in the Black Sea region would help deter Russia.

There needs to be a strategy that addresses the key areas where you want to operate where there is a potential for heightened tensions as we are seeing in the Black Sea and in the Ukraine, said Foggo, who doesnt regard U.S. military actions in the Black Sea as escalatory.

Allies also need to find a way to keep lines of communication open with Moscow to reduce the risks of miscalculation, said Foggo, now serving as dean of the newly established Center for Maritime Strategy in Arlington, Va.

Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that it is stoking tensions in the region with its belligerent actions around Ukraine and in the Black Sea region.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday complained about air surveillance in the Black Sea region in what the agency termed increasing aggressive U.S. military action. U.S. 6th Fleet acknowledged Navy aircraft were engaged by Russian planes over international waters, calling the interactions safe and professional.

Also on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Western media reports that Moscow has intentions to invade Ukraine as a hollow and unfounded attempt to incite tensions.

Russia doesnt threaten anyone, Peskov said, as cited by The Associated Press. The movement of troops on our territory shouldnt be a cause for anyones concern.

Still, some security experts and former U.S. military officials say Russian President Vladimir Putins military buildup near Ukraine and more vocal complaints in recent weeks about NATO navies operating in the Black Sea are attempts to intimidate allies from bringing Ukraine into the fold.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who led U.S. Army Europe until 2017, said he believes Russias actions over the last year, including the troop buildup along the Ukrainian border in March and alleged involvement in fostering a migrant crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border, are strategic in nature.

This is part of an ongoing process to undermine Ukrainian government, to present Ukraine to the West as a failed state so that there is no further effort to integrate Ukraine into the West, into the EU ... or NATO, Hodges said.

Russia is being further emboldened by the European Unions failure to apply more political pressure on Moscow, he said.

If Putin is confident that the West would not actually do anything if they pushed their forces further into Ukraine to take over more actual territory, I think they would do it, said Hodges, adding that allies are in position to create a deterrent.

One factor that complicates security matters is Europes dependence on Russian gas pipelines to heat homes in the winter, giving Moscow significant leverage on issues such as sanctions.

In the event of a winter offensive, allied resolve would be tested by the reality that Russia has it over a barrel on energy, Kofman said.

They have full control over how they deliver gas supplies to Europe, he said. Winter is perfect time for a military operation.

Russian movements near the Ukrainian border since March have raised concerns among the U.S. and its NATO allies of a possible invasion. Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a claim the international community generally does not recognize. On Nov. 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Crimea forever a part of Russia.

March 31  U.S. European Command raises awareness level about a buildup of 100,000 Russian troops along the Ukrainian border and in Crimea along with naval forces in the Sea of Azov.

April 22  Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announces that Russian troops will withdraw from positions along the Ukrainian border.

Oct. 6  NATO orders eight Russian diplomats to leave Belgium by Nov. 1, saying they were undeclared intelligence officers.

Oct. 18  Russia announces its plan to end diplomatic engagement with NATO by Nov. 1 and terminates the activities of the NATO office in Moscow.

Oct. 30  The destroyer USS Porter enters the Black Sea on routine patrol and is joined by USS Mount Whitney on Nov. 4. The day before, U.S. 6th Fleet announced that the replenishment oiler USNS John Lenthall was en route to the Black Sea. Moscow calls NATO and U.S. activity in the Black Sea a provocation.

Nov. 1  Commercial satellite images suggest a buildup of Russian troops near the eastern border of Ukraine. Russia denounces the images as low quality fakes. Ukraine initially denies the buildup but two days later complains that Russia has sent 90,000 troops near its border.

Nov. 2  CIA Director William Burns meets with Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, warning Moscow of consequences if it steps up military action against Ukraine.

Nov. 8  Belarusian TV images show border guards escorting an estimated 1,000 people to the Polish border, further escalating tensions in a brewing migrant crisis. U.S. analysts suggest that the situation is being manipulated by Russia to divert attention from its actions near Ukraine. The Kremlin denies involvement.

Nov. 10  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Russia would be making a serious mistake in committing any new aggressions against Ukraine.

 Alison Bath
A young Taliban member inspects vehicles at a checkpoint in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Oct. 5. (Lorenzo Tugnoli/for The Washington Post)

BAGRAM, Afghanistan  Born a year after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Esmatullah Omari grew up to hate America. At 12, he was trained by the Taliban to plant roadside bombs. At 16, he was attacking military convoys near Bagram airfield, the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan and the epicenter of Americas longest war.

Now, Omari triumphantly stands guard at one of Bagrams entrances. The Americans are gone, but the 19-year-old still doesnt understand why they came in the first place. Once, he saw a video of planes hitting two tall buildings on a date he cant recall, he said.

But no one told me the story about what happened.

Thousands of Americans born after 9/11 joined the U.S. military to serve their nation, combat terrorism and foster democracy in Afghanistan. They included some of the 13 U.S. service members killed in a bombing by an Islamic State affiliate at Kabuls airport in August during the last days of Americas two-decade-long conflict.

In Afghanistan, a parallel generation of Taliban fighters battled the Americans, their lives also distinctly shaped by the 9/11 attacks. Many were children when they first tasted war, trading their childhoods for what they were told was their duty as Muslims.

But they grew up in a world where the 9/11 attacks were either obscured or misrepresented in their lives. It was an alternate universe where a lost generation of rural Afghan youths had few opportunities and never benefited from billions of dollars in Western aid money that elevated the lives of countless Afghans. Filling the void were Islamic schools known as madrassas that shaped the minds of future young Taliban fighters, their learning and their childhoods inevitably cut short by the lure of jihad, or holy war.

The Washington Post interviewed 14 young Taliban fighters from seven parts of the country  all born between 2000 and 2003  to see what motivated a generation to take up arms against U.S. forces when it had no memory of the 1990s Taliban movement, or its ouster in 2001 after the attacks of Sept. 11. What does their future look like in the new Afghanistan?

Many joined the Taliban after U.S. forces attacked their villages or killed their relatives. Some despised the corruption of the U.S.-backed Afghan government. Others were urged, even trained, to fight by relatives inside the Taliban. Preachers at their madrassas portrayed Americans as invaders seeking to kill Muslims and encouraged students to wage a religious jihad against the foreigners.

Esmatullah Omari, left, at a checkpoint near Bagram air base. (Lorenzo Tugnoli/for The Washington Post)

The young fighters were also fed a steady stream of revisionist history about 9/11 and positive imagery of al-Qaida, especially its founder  the architect of the U.S. attacks, who was given safe harbor in Afghanistan by the Taliban during its previous rule.

Osama bin Laden was a hero and a mujahid, said Sharafuddin Shakir, 19, using the Arabic word for those engaged in a holy war. The lean fighter was surrounded by militants inside a former U.S. military outpost in Ghazni province that they now controlled.

His comrades nodded in agreement.

Back in Bagram, Omaris adolescent life seemed on a normal trajectory. He attended school, played every day with his cousins and friends in Nasru, a village close to the American base and about an hour-and-a-half drive from the capital, Kabul. His destiny, though, was already preordained.

His brother, five years older, was a Taliban member and so were his uncles and older cousins. From a young age, they instilled a sense that one day he would join them.

This is the duty of everyone to fight against the invaders and infidels who occupied our land, said his uncle Muhammed Karim, 48, in response to a question about why the Taliban recruited children. Jihad is mandatory everywhere.

Many of the previous generation in the Taliban were also child fighters, and in rural Afghanistan, boys are often considered adults when they are capable of wielding a gun or helping the family.

I was 14 when I fought against the Soviets, said Sahijan, a middleage fighter with a thick salt-and-pepper beard, referring to the U.S.-funded campaign by Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s to drive out the occupying Soviet forces. Like many Afghans, he uses one name.

One day, Karim and other family members decided to educate Omari in war. They taught him to make an improvised explosive device, or IED. Then, they took him out for some real-life experience. Boys were less suspected of being bombers.

He was 12 then, recalled Gul Zaman, 42, another uncle, smiling. He was given explosives to plant on the side of the road. We took him with us whenever we were carrying out any operations.

When Omari was 16, U.S. and Afghan troops learned about a suicide-bombing mission that his brother was planning. The troops raided Nasru and fatally shot his brother.

I was in grade eight, but when my brother was martyred, I left school, said Omari.

He formally joined the Taliban, replacing his brother. His next assault, he said, was an ambush of a military convoy approaching Bagram. He traveled to other provinces, he said, staging roadside bombings. In every mine blast on an armored vehicle or Humvee, five to six people were killed, Omari said with no emotion. I felt happy when I successfully attacked a vehicle.

Omari was motivated by what he and many others in his village viewed as the brutal conduct of American forces and their Afghan allies, who conducted airstrikes and counterterrorism raids. Stories of torture and other abuses inside the U.S.-run jail in Bagram reverberated through the village and surrounding areas.

The foreign troops killed many innocent people in our area on misleading information by their spies, said Omari, who is tall and wiry and wore a camouflage jacket, black Nike sneakers and a cap with white Islamic markings. In his left hand, he clutched an American M-4 rifle that he found inside Bagram.

A few months after his formal recruitment, Omaris younger brother joined the Taliban, as did several teenage cousins.

They included Qari Mutawakil, who also had dropped out of school at 14 and joined the insurgency after witnessing abuses by U.S. and local forces, he said.

In Kabul, his peers were listening to Western and Bollywood music, signs of the new freedoms ushered in by the U.S.-backed government and Western funding. The only tunes Mutawakil and his comrades heard were Islamic verses, as ordered by the Taliban.

Esmatullah Omari, 19, center, guards a checkpoint Oct. 9 near Bagram air base outside Kabul with men from his unit, including an uncle, left. (Lorenzo Tugnoli/for The Washington Post)

I never listened to music, only the jihadi anthems, said Mutawakil, a hefty fighter with a boyish voice who is now 18. Music is not good. It is a sin.

He began fighting in other provinces after he was trained to use a gun and make roadside bombs. His first operation targeted an Afghan national army base, he said.

When asked whether he had heard of 9/11 or of planes hitting the twin towers, Mutawakil said he had not, adding, I was not in this world 20 years ago.

His reasons for battling the Americans were more nuanced than those of the other fighters.

They came here to root out Islam, said Mutawakil. They came to establish democratic rule here and wanted to use us for their own interests. They wanted to make us as they are. They wanted to kill our clerics and eliminate our religion.

Those clerics played an important role in recruiting Gul Muhammed Heymat. In the eastern province of Paktika, he learned about the American forces in his madrassa.

Then, his teachers dictated what was required of him as a good Muslim.

They told us about the Americans, that they have invaded our country and committed atrocities against the people, said Heymat, now 18, whose wavy black hair peeked out from his skull cap. We were told to fight jihad against the invaders.

The clerics never mentioned the 9/11 attacks in their conversations or the presence of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, said Heymat. All the students were told, he said, was that the Americans came to protect their interests and to carry war here.

They were also told that bin Laden was a good Muslim and a mujahid.

- - -

Two years ago, Heymat and his childhood friend Assadullah Tassal, 21, joined the Taliban, fighting mostly against the government in Paktika.

In other madrassas, the goal was to graduate teenage suicide bombers.

Muhammad Sajid, 21, knows. His brother, Shamsur, detonated his explosive vest as a convoy of American vehicles passed a decade ago, he said. And Sajid was ordered to continue the tradition in his family five years ago. He was sent to a madrassa in northwest Pakistan, operated by the Haqqani network, an al-Qaida-linked group aligned with the Taliban.

I was myself a would-be suicide bomber, said Sajid, who looks younger than his years. I got the training at the Haqqani madrassa.

He was taught to make explosives, wrap them in a vest and hook them to a detonator. Three years ago, he was ordered to go to Nangarhar province and await orders for his operation. But he was captured by government security forces and jailed, he said. Sajid was released this year from prison after Taliban fighters seized the area. He still regrets that he failed in his mission.

I was ready to become a martyr, Sajid said.

In Ghazni, Shakir, too, was ready to die for his beliefs. Like many of the young Taliban fighters, was ignorant of 9/11. I dont know about these 9/11 attacks, and I did not watch the videos of that attack, he said.

He not only refused to believe that al-Qaida and bin Laden orchestrated them, but he questioned whether the attacks even happened. It was not true, said Shakir. The Americans invaded Afghanistan on the pretext of 9/11, but the real motive was that they were against the true Islamic rule in Afghanistan.

Even senior Taliban officials try to whitewash the terrorist act. In August, Zabihullah Mujahid, the top Taliban spokesman and acting information minister, declared there was no proof that bin Laden was involved in the attacks.

As he stood sentry at Bagram, Omari finally learned about the 9/11 attacks  the version his older relatives and comrades wanted him to hear, that is.

I watched the planes crash into the buildings in America in the TV, explained Sahijan. That was preplanned by the Americans in order to attack Afghanistan.

Esmatullah Omari, left, at a checkpoint near Bagram air base. (Lorenzo Tugnoli/for The Washington Post)

No, al-Qaida was here, said Karim, Omaris uncle. Where was Osama bin Laden killed? He was killed in Pakistan. What happened on 9/11 was just an excuse to fight al-Qaida. But, in reality, they had planned to attack Afghanistan.

As they spoke, Omari nodded, taking in their words.

Let the Americans show us proof that a single al-Qaida member was either killed or captured in Afghanistan, Karim continued.

We dont know who did the 9/11 attacks, Omari said finally.

The U.S. government only announced it under the name of al-Qaida, he added.

On a recent sunny Friday afternoon, scores of fighters of all ages gathered at an amusement park near Kabul, following the all-important Juma prayers. Some put down their guns and hopped on to a swinging pirate-boat ride. They screamed with delight, seemingly regaining their childhood, if only briefly.

Heymat and Tassal were at the park together. It was their first time in Kabul, and they were enjoying the sights and activities that had eluded them after a lifetime of war. But thats all they have ever known. Despite the widening of their world, they cling to a sense of importance and belonging that the Taliban provides.

Even now, when there is no fighting, to keep security and serving the country is also a form of jihad, said Tassal. We want to be mujahid.

- - -

Young Taliban fighters inside a mosque last month at a former U.S. military outpost in Ghazni province. (Lorenzo Tugnoli/for The Washington Post)

Other young Taliban fighters still see enemies everywhere and refuse to put down their weapons. They have no choice. Most have grown up with no education and no skills.

Now Daesh has come here, said Mutawakil, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. They carried out a bomb attack in Kunduz the other day. I took up arms to fight for the will of God and embrace martyrdom, which is a respectable way to die.

I will not find a job, he added. We will remain with our guns.

That raises concerns about whether this generation of young Taliban members, trained in warfare and explosives, will turn to crime or violence, especially at a time when Afghanistans economy is in free-fall and the Taliban interim government is unable to pay salaries.

Omari, too, has no plans to leave his perch at Bagram.

I will not go back to school, he said. I want to serve my country with my weapon.

When asked whether his parents would object, he replied, The Taliban is my family.

Fatullah Khaiber, 20, was the only Taliban fighter interviewed who wanted an education. But even this decision is colored by the war: He wants to one day teach at a madrassa.

I will share with my students the jihad we fought against 20 years of occupation, said Khaiber, standing near a broken-down U.S. armored personnel carrier at the former U.S. military outpost in Ghazni. I will tell them about the Americans and their acts, how they carried out night raids and bombings.

He, too, said that Osama bin Laden was a hero.

The Washington Posts Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar and Mohammadullah Aryen in Kabul contributed to this report.
CAIRO  Yemeni security employees of the U.S. government have been detained in Sanaa, Yemen, after the compound that once housed the American Embassy was breached by Iran-backed Houthi forces, the State Department said.

For years, the Houthis have controlled Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, and much of the countrys north. The U.S. diplomatic mission suspended operations there in 2015, near the start of the countrys protracted bloody civil war between the Saudi-backed government and the Houthis, who receive support from Iran. The American ambassador and key staff were relocated to Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally in the region.

A spokesperson for the State Department said Thursday that a majority of the U.S. Embassy staff who were detained have been released and that Washington was engaging in unceasing diplomatic efforts to free the security guards still in custody. It is not clear why the Yemeni employees were detained.

The State Department also called on Houthi forces to immediately vacate the embassy compound and to return all seized property. The detained Yemeni employees are security personnel who had been guarding the outside of the facility, according to a State Department official.

Saudi Arabia is staunchly opposed to the Houthi forces and launched a military intervention in Yemen in 2015, ostensibly seeking to restore Yemens internationally recognized government to power. The conflict is also a regional one, in which the Saudis and their allies are seeking to prevent Iran from expanding its influence.

Houthi forces have also directly attacked Saudi Arabia, targeting the kingdoms airports and oil production facilities. The Saudi government had imposed a near-total blockade on Yemen, exacerbating a severe humanitarian crisis.

The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions this week on three Houthi rebel leaders that it said helped orchestrate attacks on Saudi Arabia and Yemens remote Marib province, a stronghold of the internationally backed government. At least 1,700 government troops were killed in Marib in the first nine months of this year. The Houthis are also believed to have suffered serious casualties but do not release official tolls.

In recent weeks, the Houthis have made some significant territorial gains in Marib. If they were to seize control of the resource rich province, they would gain near-total control of the countrys north. The Saudi-led coalition is supporting government troops and allied local forces in Marib with airstrikes, but regular shelling, drone and missile attacks have led to high numbers of casualties among government troops. Recent attacks have also killed civilians, including children, in Marib.

The international community is pushing for talks to put an end to the conflict. The Houthis have said they are unwilling to negotiate until port restrictions are lifted and the airport in Sanaa is reopened.

In February, the Biden administration removed the Houthis from a foreign terrorist watch list and announced the end of U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalitions offensive operations, pledging instead to ramp up diplomatic efforts by naming diplomat Timothy Lenderking as special envoy to Yemen.

Lenderking traveled to the region in recent days, in part to try to convince the Houthis to stop their offensive on Marib and repeated attacks against civilian areas, which are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis, the State Department said in a statement.

He also planned to press the parties to implement critical economic reforms, secure regular imports and distribution of fuel, and resume commercial flights to Sanaa airport, the statement said.

Lenderking previously called Marib the stumbling block in negotiations between the sides.

In conservative circles, the detentions and compound breach spurred criticism of President Joe Bidens foreign policies. U.S. enemies sense weakness when certain people hold office, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, said in a tweet that compared the events in Sanaa to events such as the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the deadly 2012 attack on American facilities in Benghazi, Libya, despite the lack of involvement of American personnel in the current case.

Cheng reported from Seoul. The Washington Posts Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.
Robert Vivar waves a U.S. flag as he enters the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021 in San Diego, CA. Vivar who runs a support organization for deported veterans and a deportee himself, was allowed back into the US on Veterans Day. (Eduardo Contreras, The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS)

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Tribune News Service)  Veterans Day took on a new meaning this year for the Vivar family.

It had been a day to celebrate the service of a brother, a son and a grandson in the military family. Now it is also the day that Robert Vivar  an activist who worked to support deported veterans after his own deportation to Tijuana  was allowed to come home.

I feel like I just woke up from a nightmare, he said before crossing into the United States. This battle took almost 20 years.

Vivar moved to Riverside County from Mexico when he was 6 on a green card in 1962. But that green card was taken away decades later after he accepted a plea bargain for attempting to steal Sudafed  an over-the-counter cold medication that can be used to make methamphetamine  from a grocery store in 2002.

Hed been offered several options for plea deals during the case. He chose one that he thought would allow him to stay in the United States and go to a rehabilitation center for the addiction that he was struggling with at the time.

But it turned out that his attorney hadnt given him the right information about those plea options. He had chosen a charge that meant automatic deportation because it had to do with drug use, making it an aggravated felony in immigration law.

This was a huge shock to him, said Dane Shikman, an attorney with Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP who represented Vivar pro bono in recent years.  California had been his home. This was a major trauma.

If he had chosen another option offered to him, it wouldnt have meant mandatory deportation.

Vivar tried on his own to get the charge changed, but it didnt work. He was deported in early 2003. He sneaked back into the United States and kept fighting to get his case changed but was again deported in 2013.

Thanks to a law passed in recent years that allows immigrants to challenge old convictions if they werent warned about potential immigration consequences before accepting plea deals, he was finally able to get the conviction undone. His case went to the California Supreme Court earlier this year with help from Shikman and colleague Joseph Lee. It was the first time the court weighed in on the new law.

Then Raj Maline, a defense attorney in Riverside County, convinced prosecutors not to bring new charges in the decades-old case. And Shikman and Lee convinced the Board of Immigration Appeals to undo Vivars deportation order and restore his status as a legal permanent resident.

While living in Tijuana, Vivar learned about the struggles of deported veterans  most had served in the U.S. military but later lost their green cards and had been deported because of criminal convictions. Relating to their struggles as deportees and feeling called to help them because of his brother, a Vietnam war veteran, and his son, who served in the Air Force, Vivar began advocating for deported veterans in Tijuana.

Through his office at Unified U.S. Deported Veterans Resource Center near the San Ysidro Port of Entry, he tried to help them get the monetary aid and healthcare benefits due to them as veterans. Sometimes one of the veterans he served would be allowed back into the U.S., and he would accompany them as far as the border allowed.

He also supported asylum seekers. His office became a meeting place for many who were given appointments to cross into the United States this summer, when the Biden administration had a program for migrants to file for exemptions to the pandemic policy that expels most without allowing them to request refuge.

He escorted hundreds from his office, past street vendors and through the car lanes of traffic heading north, to the eastern entrance at the port of entry.

On Thursday, it was his turn.

Its finally hitting me, he said as he, surrounded by press and supporters, made the familiar journey to the waiting U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers a little before 9:30 a.m.

He paused to join a virtual meeting of the San Diego League of Women Voters.

Ill see you on the other side, he told them. I definitely will see you.

He promised deported veterans and deported parents of U.S.-citizen children that he would be back to help them.

This continues. We continue, he said. Our slogan is, Leave no one behind.

He waved at the crowd as he walked inside.

Robert, we love you! one person yelled.

Leave no one behind! called another.

Cheeseburgers! cried a third, referring to an old joke among deported veterans about what theyll eat first if they ever get to go home.

About an hour later, amid cheers, he walked out of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, waving an American flag. His son, who served in the Air Force at the time of Vivars deportation and has since served in the National Guard for more than 15 years, quickly went to hug him.

The moment was surreal for the younger Vivar, who is also named Robert. Since his 45th birthday is also approaching, he considered his fathers return both a Veterans Day and a birthday present.

Friends, Vivars attorneys and journalists surrounded the two with cameras and phones documenting the moment. Even a CBP officer took a photo as father and son embraced.

It feels great, man, the older Vivar said when asked what it was like to reunite with his son. Its Veterans Day. Its all about them.

He planned to spend time with his sons in Riverside County and visit Corona to lay flowers on his parents graves before settling down in San Diego so that he can continue his work at the border.

But first, he went to lunch at Del Mars Beeside Balcony with his family and attorneys to celebrate. There, he ordered a cheeseburger.



2021 The San Diego Union-Tribune

Visit sandiegouniontribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
SAN DIEGO  A U.S. Marine veteran has pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court to orchestrating a drug-trafficking operation that moved tons of cocaine from South America through Mexico and into the United States.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports Angel Dominguez Ramirez Jr., a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a drug-trafficking conspiracy and a money-laundering conspiracy.

In his plea agreement, Dominguez admitted to being the leader of an organization that used boats, airplanes and commercial vehicles to move the drugs into Mexico and then bring them over the California and Texas borders for distribution.

He also admitted to coordinating the flow of cash from drug-sales profits in the U.S. back to Mexico, the newspaper reported.

An indictment said Dominguezs military training was an asset while working with powerful drug cartels.

Dominguez was arrested in Mexico in 2016 and extradited to San Diego in 2019.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham speaks at a Veterans Day ceremony at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial in Albuquerque, N.M., Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. Lujan Grisham proposed legislation at the event that would fund an overhaul of New Mexico Veterans Home in the town of Truth or Consequences. (Cedar Attanasio/AP)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has vowed to request $59 million in capital funding during the upcoming legislative session to finance major improvements at the troubled New Mexico State Veterans Home.

She announced the plan in a ceremony Thursday at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial in Albuquerque, where she said veterans deserve respect and support, including in their later years.

Pending legislative approval, Lujan Grisham said work on what she called state-of-the-art improvements at the Veterans' Home could begin as soon as next summer.

A recent report by legislative analysts turned up numerous concerns about the facility in the city of Truth or Consequences. Among other things, it cited a lack of oversight as a likely factor in high COVID-19 infection and death rates among residents at the home.

Aside from cramped conditions and maintenance issues, the governors office also noted Thursday that the main building  originally constructed in 1936  has inadequate ventilation and restrooms that do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The new facilities will include six small, homelike settings that will provide safer and more comfortable living spaces for residents. State officials said the model has been shown to result in a better quality of life for residents, their families and staff.

After her stop in Albuquerque, Lujan Grisham traveled to the Veterans Home to commemorate Veterans Day with residents there.
In March 2021, the U.S. Army began delivering the first prototype hypersonic equipment to soldiers with the arrival of two training canisters. Hypersonic weapons, capable of flying at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5+), are a new capability that provide a unique combination of speed, maneuverability and altitude to defeat time-critical, heavily-defended and high value targets. (Elliot Valdez)

Hypersonic weapons that can fly five times the speed of sound will add $21.5 billion to the Navys budget and $7 billion to the Armys in coming years, according to an estimate compiled by the Pentagons independent cost assessment office.

Its the first authoritative evaluation of how much the services may spend to develop and build the agile and speedy new missiles that can fly low and evade radar and missile defenses. Based on internal Defense Department estimates on the number of weapons planned, that amounts to about $106 million per missile for the Army and $89.6 million for the Navy.

Global competition to develop hypersonics was underscored by Chinas reported test of two such weapons over the summer, including the launch into space of an orbiting weapon capable of carrying a nuclear payload. Last year, China deployed its first hypersonic weapon, the DF-17, leaving the U.S. lagging in producing a class of weapons that Pentagon officials have seen since 2017 as giving China a perceived advantage.

The U.S.s hypersonic weapons, which it says will be nonnuclear, are in the early product development phase, which is typically top-heavy with one-time costs before production processes are refined.

The Pentagon cost office estimates the Navys Conventional Prompt Strike program consists of $10.1 billion in development, $11 billion in production and $400 million for related military construction. The Armys Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon program is estimated at $4.4 billion for development and $2.5 billion for production. The offices internal assessment, made available to Bloomberg News, shows an expected total of 66 missiles for the Army, which includes 48 development models, and 240 missiles for the Navy.

The Navy is overseeing development of the booster rocket and separate glide body for its use and the Armys. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are the top program contractors. Dynetics, a subsidiary of Leidos Holdings, is developing the glide body.

Bow wave

The cost per missile  which includes ancillary equipment such as storage canisters  may produce sticker shock inside the Defense Department and in Congress. The Pentagon already faces whats been called a bow wave of burgeoning costs for projects, from expanding the Navy to maintaining the F-35 jet to modernizing the land-air-sea triad of nuclear weapons.

The concern over the potential price tag was reflected by the Pentagons top official overseeing hypersonic development, Undersecretary for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, who said in October that we need to figure out how to drive towards more affordable hypersonics.

Asked to elaborate on her comment, Shyu invoked one-time costs in the early stages of building and developing prototypes for the new weapons as a consideration. In a statement, she cited the need to build out our production environment, such as Lockheeds newly opened hypersonic system factory in Courtland, Ala.

Our goal is to make hypersonic weapons at costs comparable to todays traditional weapons when we compare weapons of similar size, weight and complexity, she said.

Among the challenges, Shyu said, is developing new materials and processing to reduce the cost of thermal protection needed to shield hypersonic glide systems from excessive heat within Earths atmosphere.

The new cost projection, ordered up by Congress, is in close alignment with the Army and Navy cost estimates for their respective programs, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.

Gorman provided the cost offices estimated totals for the Army and Navy programs but said that the Defense Departments in-house estimates of the costs per missile wont be released, because they are considered premature.

Projected timeline

The Navy plans to buy 40 development-model hypersonic systems through 2025, including four already funded plus seven this fiscal year, 11 in fiscal 2023, 10 in 2024 and eight in 2025. It would then acquire production models for deployment, starting with four in 2025, 14 in fiscal 2026 and 16 each in 2027 and 2028, with purchases continuing through 2040 toward the eventual total of 240, according to the internal Pentagon estimates.

The service intends to field its initial weapons on the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer by 2025 and on the Virginia-class submarine by 2028, according to fiscal 2022 budget documents cited by the Congressional Research Service.

The Army plans to buy 48 development models and 18 production versions. The development models would include 12 in fiscal 2023 and 14 in fiscal 2024, according to the internal figures. The production models would be bought in fiscal 2025 and 2026.

The Army intends to field its first prototypes for testing in fiscal 2023 to I Corps 5th Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Brigade.
Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino, a 35-year veteran of the National Guard, has been named the new adjutant general of the Oklahoma National Guard. (Kendall James/Oklahoma National Guard)

(Tribune News Service)  Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday replaced the leader of the Oklahoma Army and Air National Guard.

Stitt named Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino, a 35-year veteran of the National Guard, as the new adjutant general.

Maj. Gen. Michael Thompson, who had served in that position since 2017, said at a Veterans Day event Thursday he found out via social media that Stitt had appointed Mancino as his replacement.

Stitt spokesman Charlie Hannema said the governor called Thompson on Wednesday to inform him that he was being relieved of his command. That call occurred before the governors office put out a news release naming Mancino as the National Guards new leader, he said.

Replacing Thompson had been in the works for months, Hannema said. When the governors office announced the change in command Wednesday, there was no reason given for the shake-up

In October, Thompson submitted his resignation, saying he planned to step down in mid-January, Hannema said. After the governor decided he wanted to promote Mancino, it didnt seem necessary to keep Thompson on until the new year, he said.

Its not clear if Thompson submitted a formal resignation letter at that time. If so, the governors office did not provide a copy Thursday. Thompson did not return a call seeking comment.

Thompson told the Tulsa World Stitt asked him to submit his resignation in October, but that they agreed the top military leader would stay on into January.

As for how Stitt handled the situation, Thompson told the World: He is the boss. That is his style. At the end of the day, nobody can tell him differently.

Stitts office also said the governors replacement of Thompson had nothing to do with the issue of mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for members of the military.

Last week, Stitt asked the federal government to suspend a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for members of the Oklahoma National Guard, saying about 800 soldiers, or 10% of the force, had not yet been vaccinated or dont intend to get the shots.

In August, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said all military members must immediately begin to get COVID-19 vaccines. Most branches of the military already require troops to receive a host of other vaccinations to be eligible for service.

Thompson has been a vocal proponent of COVID-19 vaccines.

At the Veterans Day event, Thompson deflected a question about whether he was replaced due to vaccine issues, saying youll probably have to ask the governor that.

Thompson has served with the National Guard for 38 years. He also previously served as the states commissioner of public safety under former Gov. Mary Fallin. He was a 1990 graduate of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol Academy.

Mancino has served as assistant adjutant general since 2019. In a news release, Stitt called him a steady leader, strategic thinker and effective communicator.

He was commissioned in 1992 through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Oklahoma State University. Prior to that, he served for six years as a soldier with the Oklahoma Army National Guard.

I am incredibly humbled to be selected by Gov. Stitt to continue serving the State of Oklahoma in this new role, Mancino said in a statement. The men and women of the Oklahoma National Guard provide critical support for their fellow citizens wherever needed and being named Adjutant General is the honor of a lifetime.

Mancino served on the Governors Solution Task Force that Stitt formed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to help him address the health crisis.

This was not the first time Stitt replaced a gubernatorial appointee without providing much of an explanation. He removed two members of the Health Care Authority Board this year after they voted against his interests. At the time, Stitts office did not respond to questions about why he had ousted his own appointees.

(c)2021 The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City

Visit The Oklahoman at www.newsok.com
Changes to the SunCommercial's back end processing means the e-edition is getting a facelift. The biggest change is the e-edition, by default, is now presented in Text view.
The Acorn Foundation, in partnership with the FAME Trust, has just announced its selection for the Emerging Practitioner Award at the University of Otago.

This award is part of a nationwide programme of awards, including six Emerging Practitioner Awards this year through the team at Creative Bay of Plenty.

Due to the high calibre of the applicants at the University of Otago this year, the trustees selected two winners for the 2021 Emerging Practitioner Award: Abhinath Berry and Jordan Wichman.

Outstanding performing arts institutions, including University of Auckland, University of Waikato, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Otago, Toi Whakaari and NZ School of Dance each have a $10,000 award to offer to students who have completed at least their first year of study.

These talented students will have a focus in the performing arts.

Founded in 2007, the FAME (Fund for Acting and Musical Endeavours) Trust has long provided support for young and mid-career artists, plus funded national organisations like the NZSO, Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School, and the NZ School of Dance and local groups such as Opus Orchestra, Youth Philharmonic and BOP Symphonia.

The successful FAME Emerging Practicioner candidates must demonstrate a high level of skill in their field and show the ability to have a successful career that will have a positive impact on the cultural life of New Zealand.

Jordan Wichman.

Award winners are eligible to apply again in subsequent years while they are still studying.

There is one funding round per year, with an announcement of the winners from each institution in November.

Creative Bay of Plenty funding and projects advisor Annie Hill says the awards are a step change for recipients in the performing arts sector.

The FAME Awards will provide a major boost to the studies of some of our most talented emerging artists, enabling them to spend more time perfecting their craft so they can reach the highest levels of their disciplines.

Acorn Foundation CEO Lori Luke says that the founders of the FAME Trust are passionate patrons of the arts who have long supported the development of artistic talent in New Zealand.

We are so pleased that the Acorn team can use our expertise to assist the FAME Trust in supporting talented individuals across the country to achieve their dreams. We cant thank the trustees enough for this commitment to creative excellence!

Abhinath Berry.

About Acorn Foundation

The Acorn Foundation enables generous people to make a bigger impact in their communities, by investing the funds and distributing the returns to causes that matter  forever.

From Acorns inception in 2003 through 2020, we collectively distributed over $8.3M to the Western Bay of Plenty community, supporting the work of more than 260 local charities.

Last year, the Acorn Foundation gave away over $1.85M to 157 local charitable organisations and scholarship and award winners.

Scholarships and awards exceeded $400,000 in total and include the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, given annually at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Distributions for 2021 will be announced shortly.

Find out more at: www.acornfoundation.org.nz
Heading to the New World in Brookfield this weekend might feel like a step back in time for some.

The supermarket on Bellevue Road is celebrating their 40th birthday on Sunday by rolling back the years and putting some of their products up for sale at 1980s prices.

We found some old mailers with the product and price from the 80s, Brendon explains.

So those products that we still sell we are going to go and start selling them at the same price as the 80s.

Brendon is not sure of the exact amount of products that will be included in the promotion. However, products like Weet-Bix, PG Tips and Watties baked beans will cost as much as they did when Trevor Chappell bowled his infamous underarm at the MCG.

Those are just some of the better deals we have got going, says Brendon.

Some of the prices have not changed that much but some of them have changed a lot. So that is quite interesting.

The time capsule feel is not only reserved for the pricing at the supermarket, New Zealands only remaining store with instore dining.

Even some of the staff will be harking back to a time when Indiana Jones first made his way onto our screens.

We have got a few New World uniforms from the 80s as well and some of our checkout girls are willing to get dressed up in the old uniforms from the 80s, says Brendon, although Princess Dianas iconic hairstyle of the time will no doubt be optional.

We have even got some old newspaper clippings of when the store was being built and stuff like that for people to have a read as well.

The store is also giving away 40 gift cards and a $1000 shopping spree so Brendon feels it will be an occasion for all.

They will enjoy the nostalgia, they will certainly enjoy some of the prices, he admits.

Brookfield has been part of so many local lives for so long. So many locals have worked here and shopped here for years.

Sharing the milestone with the community seemed the right thing to do.
UPDATE: There are 201 new cases of Covid-19 being reported in the community today.

Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay says 181 of these are in Auckland, 15 are in the Waikato and four are in Northland.

"There is one in the Taranaki area.

"Last night's five cases will be included in tomorrow's numbers."

There is one case being reported in MIQ today.

Dr McElnay says there are 85 people in hospital and three people are still being assessed.

She says 11 people are in ICU or HDU.

"We are very aware of the grief that whanau are experiecing following the loss of a loved one to Covid-19. This is a serious virus and none of us can afford to underestimate it.

"If you or your loved ones are being cared for in the community and you feel yours or their condition is deteriorating, don't leave it to chance that you will improve.

"This is the advice given to everyone who is being cared for in the community.

"Hospital care is free and ambulance services are free for those with Covid-19. Our hospitals are ready to help and have robust Infection, Prevention and Control measures in place to keep people safe.

"People have died this week and that is tragic for their friends and family. This is a very real reminder that the more people who get Covid-19, the more deaths we are likely to see. It is also a sad reminder that Covid-19 is potentially fatal, and this is particularly true if youre unvaccinated."

COVID-19 vaccine update Total first and second vaccines administered to date (percentage of eligible people) 7,146,396: 3,779,577 first doses (90%); 3,366,819 second doses (80%) Total first and second vaccines administered yesterday 22,794: 6,285 first doses; 16,509 second doses Maori (percentage of eligible people) 432,062 first doses (76%); 338,442 second doses (59%) Pacific Peoples (percentage of eligible people) 250,660 first doses (87%); 213,175 second doses (74%) Total first and second vaccines administered to Auckland residents yesterday 5,512: 1,511 first doses; 4,001 second doses Vaccination rates by DHB (with active cases) Northland DHB (percentage of eligible people 132,038 first doses (82%); 113,280 second doses (70%) Auckland metro DHBs (percentage of eligible people 1,325,139 first doses (92%); 1,212,985 second doses (85%) Waikato DHB (percentage of eligible people 316,077 first doses (88%); 276,942 second doses (78%) Taranaki DHB (percentage of eligible people) 88,103 first doses (86%); 74,783 second doses (73%) Canterbury DHB (percentage of eligible people 449,487 first doses (93%); 389,458 second doses (81%) Hospitalisations Cases in hospital 85 (including 3 still being assessed): North Shore (19); Middlemore (28); Auckland (35); Waitakere (2); Taranaki Base Hospital (1) Average age of current hospitalisations 53 Cases in ICU or HDU Eleven Cases Number of new community cases 201 Number of new cases identified at the border One Location of new community cases Auckland (181), Waikato (15), Northland (4) *Taranaki (1) Location of community cases (total) Auckland 4,916 (1,837 of whom have recovered); Waikato 218 (81 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (all of whom have recovered); Northland 39 (9 of whom have recovered); Nelson/Marlborough 1 (recovered); Canterbury 4 (1 of whom has recovered); Taranaki 1 Number of community cases (total) 5,196 (in current community outbreak) Confirmed cases (total) 7,945 Historical cases 191 out of 6,132 cases since 1 January Cases infectious in the community** 44 of 176 cases reported yesterday have exposure events Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious** 132 of 176 cases reported yesterday have no exposure events Cases epidemiologically linked 92 of todays 201 cases Cases to be epidemiologically linked 109 of todays 201 cases Cases epidemiologically linked (total) 4,089 (in the current cluster) (755 unlinked from the past 14 days) Contacts Number of active contacts being managed (total): 4,832 Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) 76% Percentage who have returned at least one result 71% Locations of interest Locations of interest (total) 122 (as at 10am 12 November) Tests Number of tests (total) 4,400,869 Number of tests total (last 24 hours) 30,653 Tests processed in Auckland (last 24 hours) 11,683 Tests rolling average (last 7 days) 25,323 Testing centres in Auckland 18 Wastewater Wastewater detections See below NZ COVID Tracer Registered users (total) 3,359,029 Poster scans (total) 496,984,661 Manual diary entries (total) 19,971,987 Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday 2,664,440

New cases identified at the border

Arrival date From Via Positive test day/reason Managed isolation/quarantine location 6 November United Kingdom Singapore Day 1 / routine Auckland











EARLIER:

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson and Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay will update the media today about the current Covid-19 outbreak in New Zealand.

Overnight, the Ministry of Health said six cases of Covid-19 had been identified in the Taranaki town of Stratford, including one in hospital.

"All six cases are clearly linked and the is also a link to the Auckland outbreak which is being further investigated," says a spokesperson in a statement by the ministry.

"All were tested on Thursday and returned positive results in the evening."

One person was admitted to Taranaki Base Hospital yesterday evening for Covid-19 related reasons.

Tune into the livestream above to see hear the government's latest announcement on the current outbreak.
Good morning and welcome to Saturday. Ko te ra tenei i hanga e te Ariki. Ka koa tatou, ka koa hoki ki reira.

MetService are forecasting rain and northwesterlies.

Its a one-clothing-layer day with an expected high of 22 degrees, and an overnight low of 20 degrees. High tide is at 3.19pm and low tide is at 9.27pm. Sunset is at 8.03pm.

Whats on today?

Pepi Toot Beach Express.

Pepi Toot is out and about today at Mount Maunganui. Leaving from outside Spongedrop Cafe in Salisbury Ave, the train takes in local views of both beaches as well as Mount Mainstreet. Pepi Toot operates from 10am - 2pm.

There is an exhibition by Christie Crammer titled 'In the Balance' from November 5 - 28 at Imprint Gallery at Tauranga Historic Village. Gallery is open from 10am - 2pm.

For more events visit My Tauranga.

Ulemj Glamuzina. Photo: Supplied.

The Incubator Gallery at the Tauranga Historic Village in 17th Ave is showing an exhibition by Ulemj Glamuzina who is sharing a love of Japanese culture through themes of belonging, acceptance and communication. The exhibition is open from November 6 - 24, and open from 9am - 4pm on week days and 10am - 2pm on weekends.

The Elms | Te Papa Tauranga in Mission St is open from 10am - 4pm. Come and view the Mission House and gardens. For more information click here

The Mission House at The Elms | Te Papa Tauranga. Photo: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

.

Tauranga Art Gallery in Willow St. Photo: Supplied.

Take a walk through Tauranga Art Gallery and view the many exhibitions on display there this week. The gallery, in Willow St, is open from 10am - 4pm.

Love public art? CITY ART WALK TAURANGA app is a free to download walking tour of 20 public artworks in Tauranga's city centre. For more information click here

Diana Bomford, Tony Fraser and Hugh Bomford at the Lion and Tusk Museum at Mount Maunganui. Photo: Daniel Hines.

Have you been to the Lion and Tusk Museum yet? It's open today from 10am - 3pm at Unit 4, 14 Portside Dr, Mount Maunganui. Come and see a massive display of Rhodesian military history records and exhibits of uniforms, medals and equipment. Opening hours are 10am  3pm Thursday to Sunday. For more information click here

The Incubator. Photo: Supplied.

At The Incubator Creative Hub at Tauranga Historic Village, there are many exhibitions, workshops and events happening daily. For more information click here. Exhibition hours are 10am  2.30pm.

What else is on today?

Art in the Park

Original art for sale. Weather permitting. 9am-4pm. Coronation Park, Mt Maunganui. Tauranga Society of Artists

Association Croquet

Sat, Mon & Wed at Club Mt Maunganui, 45 Kawaka St. 9:15 for 9:30am start. New players & visitors welcome. Ph Jacqui 574 9232

Bay Singles Social Club

Join a bunch of over 50s young singles. Weekend dinners, pot-lucks, occasional outings. Have a go! Ph Delia 027 284 8762 Andrea 021 133 0313

Bromeliad Spring Sales Day

8am-12pm midday at the Yacht Club, Sulphur Point. Growers selling bromeliads direct to the public. Instead of usual Matua Hall. Bring cash

Free Water Safety Sessions

Water Safety Month - Free Water Safety Community Sessions NZ - 12-2pm Mount College Pool. Fun, sausage sizzle, bring togs and towel. All welcome

Greerton Hall Market

2nd and last Saturday each month. 8am-12pm. Stalls inside/outside. Discounts for charities. Kitchen open level 1. Ph/txt for site. Tricia 07 543 1487 or 027 908 2952 www facebook.com/greertonhallmarket

Jigsaw Library

Every Saturday 10am-12noon. Everyone must wear a mask. Hire: 500p 50c, 1000p $1. Choose from 500 jigsaw puzzles, landscape, wasgij, childrens. Brookfield, off Highmore Terrace

KABUKU Exhibition -Ulemj Glamuzina

The Incubator Gallery (Historic Village, Tauranga) welcomes Ulemj Glamuzina. Inspired by Kabuki & Nihon Buyo. Sharing love of Japanese culture through themes of belonging, acceptance & communication. 6th-24th Nov 9am-4pm(Weekdays), 10am-2pm(Weekends). info@theincubator.co.nz

Katikati Crop Swap

Every 1st Saturday of the month, 14 Jocelyn Street. Swap home garden produce, plants, flowers, seeds, herbs, eggs, preserves etc. 07 549 4522

Katikati Tramping Club

Easy guided research walk around Tanners Point visiting an orchard and Tanners Point walkway, 10am start. Ph Derek 021 064 3942

LOL Laughter Wellness

Laughter sessions on hold until further notice. Please check the website lollaughterwellness.weebly.com or Ph Trish 022 036 6768 or email lollaughterwellness@gmail.com for info

Otumoetai College Art Exhibition

The Peoples Gallery (Historic Village, Tauranga) welcomes the Otumoetai College Juniors. Showcasing a collection of works, in various media, by year 9 and 10 students. 6th-20th Nov, 10am-3pm (weekdays), 10am-2pm (weekends). info@theincubator.co.nz

Otumoetai Tennis Club

Adult tennis. Start 1:30 pm. Bellevue Park Windsor Road (adjacent to swimming pool). New players and visitors welcome. Ph Victor 027 577 1818 a/hrs

Petanque

BOP Petanque Club, Tawa St, Mt Maunganui. Everyone welcome. Club days Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Info Ph Bruce 022 309 9143

Petanque Tauranga BOP Association

Club days Sat, Tues & Thurs at Tawa Street, Mt Maunganui. French game played with Kiwi flair, boules available. Ph John 022 075 4251 for playing times.

Tauranga Floral Art

Meet, morning tea, competition, and workshop. Tauranga Baptist Church, 9:30am. New members welcome. Ph Sue 552 6681

Tauranga Fuchsia Group

Last Saturday of the month. 1pm. Elizabeth Street Arts & Craft Centre Learn how to care for fuchsias. Pat 579 1655 Noeleen 578 4643

Tauranga Open Woodworking Group

2nd & 4th Wednesdays from 6:30pm. 2nd & 4th Saturdays from 10am at Workshop 3 Cherokee Place, Mt Maunganui.

TOF Scholarship Concert

Tauranga Opera Forum Scholarships Concert 2pm at Otumoetai Baptist Church. Tickets $15 from House of Travel or at the door. Info: 027 284 9738

Western Bay Museum Tour

Make your museum experience come alive with a fascinating guided tour. 12pm. WBOP residents/ratepayers FREE. 32 Main Rd, Katikati. Ph 07 549 0651
The 201 new Covid community cases reported on Friday took the number of cases in the current outbreak over the 5000 mark - to 5196.

The Ministry of Health reported in the Friday update that a wastewater sample from Taupo has tested positive for Covid. On Saturday morning the ministry reported that a person has tested positive for Covid-19 in Taupo.

From Monday, most of the health and education workforce will need to be vaccinated or face losing their jobs.

Small groups of health professionals and teachers, along with four midwives lost a bid in the High Court to stop the mandate requiring them to be vaccinated by Monday.

St George's Maternity Hospital in Christchurch will not be accepting women who have birthed elsewhere for postnatal care, because of a midwife shortage resulting from the Covid vaccine mandate.

The Education Ministry does not know how many teachers will be lost when the vaccine mandate comes in on Monday, but rural schools are worried they will be unable to staff classrooms.

It took a tip-off from a member of the public for health authorities to find a group who eventually tested positive for Covid in Taranaki. Once they were identified, it took days to convince them to be tested, Taranaki DHB medical officer of Health Dr Jonathan Jarman says.

Royal NZ College of General Practitioners medical director Bryan Betty is advising people to plan for Covid in their homes, as it's likely the virus will spread quickly once the Auckland border opens. People needed to have enough basics to last the 14-day self-isolation period, he said.

University of Otago epidemiologist Dr Amanda Kvalsvig has cautioned against setting a hard date for dissolving the boundary around Auckland. Covid should not be allowed to spread around the country until everyone who wanted to be vaccinated had been, she said.

The nurses' union has warned there could be more deaths as the home isolation system grows quickly, but Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said the system was not overwhelmed with patients.

The NZ Nurses Organisation said staffing levels at hospitals across Auckland were putting patient care at risk, and is also concerned at the pressure on community nurses to care for the increasing number of Covid patients in home isolation.

Ministry of Health data shows 90 per cent of New Zealanders over the age of 12 have had their first dose of the Covid vaccine. Eight per cent have had their second dose, while 83 per cent have either had the second jab , or are booked to have it.

Among Maori, nearly 76 per cent of those eligible have had their first dose, and 59 per cent their second dose. For Pacific peoples, the figures are 87 per cent and 74 per cent.

Data from Johns Hopkins University shows more than 252 million confirmed Covid cases worldwide, and more than 5.08 million deaths.

In the past 28 days, the US has recorded more than 2m cases and 36,371 Covid deaths. The UK has nearly 1.14m cases and 4324 deaths, while Russia has 1.03m cases and 30,597 deaths.

What should I do?

Anyone who wants to get tested can find their local testing centres by visiting the Ministry of Health website.

Quarantine-free travel from Australia has been suspended. More information can be found here.

Auckland and parts of Waikato are in is in step 2 of a three-part roadmap out of lockdown. Heres what people in these regions can and cant do.

Upper Northland has returned to alert level 2 after a period in level 3.

The rest of the country remains at alert level 2, with masks mandatory for people over the age of 12 when accessing essential services such as supermarkets.

A list of exemptions around mask use can be found here.

People should use the Covid-19 tracer app. Some helpful tips on using the Covid tracer app can be found here.

If you are sick, call your GP before you visit, or Healthline on 0800 358 5453.

To avoid contracting and spreading the virus, wash your hands properly, cough and sneeze into the crook of your elbow and throw tissues away immediately.

Reach out, find support from people who care, connect with your community or help a neighbour in need.
A message from our Chief Operating Officer and proud military Veteran, Nick Stengle.

Dear Sunrise Residents and Families,

On behalf of the Sunrise leadership team, it is my honor and privilege to recognize and give thanks to all team members, residents, and family members who have ever or are currently serving in the military ahead of Veterans Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in Canada this week. Today, veterans represent a smaller and smaller percentage of the total population, yet we all acknowledge the sacrifices veterans have made, both big and small, in service to their nation and a mission far greater than themselves. This service should be a point of pride for all veterans.

While you may know me as the new Chief Operating Officer who joined the Sunrise team this summer, I, like hundreds of other team members and residents, am also a proud military veteran. I earned a commission into the U.S. Air Force after graduating from the Air Force Academy in 1998 and then spent the first 11 years of my career as an Air Force officer. During that time, I served as an F-15E instructor pilot, mission commander, Top Gun graduate, and Top Gun instructor pilot, and was assigned to many different duty stations and went on multiple combat and training deployments in the U.S. and around the world. The military was more than just a job for me, it was a passion. As I progressed in rank and responsibility, the mission-driven nature of the work and the concept of selfless service began to resonate with me more and more and eventually became part of my DNA. That is something I carry with me still today as an honored member of the Sunrise team.

I was ultimately drawn to Sunrise because, much like the military, its an organization that has a clear mission that is carried out by a group of hardworking, dedicated, highly skilled team members. Our Sunrise team shows up every day poised to provide personalized, top-notch care and make a real difference in the lives of all who call Sunrise home. The values of integrity, service, and excellence, which were central to my years in the Air Force, are all also foundational Sunrise tenets that are embraced by and reflected in the work of this amazing team.

I am also proud to be a part of an organization the prioritizes and celebrates diversity, equality, inclusion, and belonging among team members and residents. This includes welcoming and paying homage to the hundreds of veterans who live and work in our communities. Among our residents are veterans from all branches of the military who served in WWII, The Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War. Many of our team members veterans joined the military in the post-9/11 era, and some still some serve in the National Guard and Reserves when not in their Sunrise uniforms.

Many of our communities will hold special Veterans Day and Remembrance Day events and activities this week to honor those who have served. I encourage you to share your own inspiring stories of service and sacrifice and to talk to your community leaders about how you can celebrate the Sunrise veterans in your life. Please also visit our Sunrise Salutes Our Veterans page to see how else Sunrise honors those who have served and for information on unique benefits and savings veteran residents may qualify for.

To all our veterans, I again offer my sincerest thanks and hope you have a great Veterans Day or Remembrance Day! Thank you also to Sunrise team members for serving in a different yet profoundly important way and bringing joy, care, and meaningful moments into our communities every single day.

Warm Regards,

Nick Stengle

Sunrise Chief Operating Officer

With my family, after being hosed down for my fini flight (last flight in the Strike Eagle). This was at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas.



Standing with my younger daughter in front of a picture of a Strike Eagle that I was piloting.
Junta proposes third Covid jabs for over-60s and health workers The 'booster' dose of a coronavirus vaccine is currently only administered to those over 70 years of age

The Junta de Andalucia wants to give an additional third dose of a coronavirus vaccine to healthcare workers and social health professionals and people over 60 years of age to protect them from the disease. But it would mean expanding the age range since currently the booster dose is only administered to those who are over 70 years old.

This was proposed by the regional governments Minister of Health, Jesus Aguirre, at the meeting of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System held last Wednesday after verifying the increase in the cumulative incidence rate of the disease in the age group from 60 to 69 years.

Cumulative incidence rate increasing

At the meeting of Spains Ministry of Health and the regions I proposed to extend the third vaccination dose to all healthcare workers and social health professionals and to all people over sixty years of age, seeing that the cumulative incidence in the 60 to 69 age group is increasing, although the one that increases the most is the range from 30 to 50, which is where there has been a lower volume of people who have voluntarily been vaccinated", explained Aguirre in a video published on his Twitter account.

The third dose of the Covid-9 vaccine is currently available for those over 70 years of age in Andalucia, as long as six months have passed since the second dose was administered. This group can book appointments for a vaccination for the booster dose of either the Pfizer and Moderna formula.
Boy born without a penis completes first phase of genital reconstruction The operation was handled by Miami Children's Hospital's head of paediatric urology, Rafael Gosalbez, at Clinica Santa Elena, in Torremolinos

A two-year-old boy from Valencia, born with testicles but not a penis, underwent a complex, urological surgery last Wednesday in an attempt to reconstruct his genitals. This will allow him to urinate with normality.

The operation was handled by Miami Children's Hospital's head of paediatric urology, Rafael Gosalbez, at Clinica Santa Elena, in Torremolinos.

The young boy suffers from congenital aphallia, which is an extremely rare anomaly with alterations of the genital tubercle and is also linked to genitourinary and systemic deformities.

This malformation exists in one in every 30 million newborns, and only 100 cases have been officially recorded.

Doctor Gosalbez explained to SUR about the operation. "It consists of creating a phallic structure that will allow the young boy to urinate from the base of this structure," he said. This operation was the first phase of the penis reconstruction, which will be followed by another intervention next year.

The doctor also added that children suffering from aphallia have their urethra opened to the rectum and it has to be extended to the phallic structure, which will be built on the operating table. This allows, from a cosmetic point of view, for children to have a more normal appearance.

The operation was completed at the 18th International Practical Course for Urethra and Genital Hypospadias, which doctor Gosalbez is directing.

Not a genetic problem

Congenital aphallia is rare, but does happen in all continents, said the doctor. He insisted it isn't linked to any genetic defects, nor is it related to any hormonal problems.

The operation serves a triple purpose: to prevent infections, to allow for normal urinating and to spare the youngster the psychological trauma of growing up without a penis.
Do you have a relative with hearing loss? Check out these tips In addition to facing them while speaking and avoiding background noise, it is essential for these people to go to specialised hearing centres such as SONTEC at the first sign of symptoms

Thursday, 11 November 2021, 16:13

When someone starts to have hearing problems, it is a hard and often frustrating process as they lose part of their ability to communicate, which is fundamental for human beings.

In the case of older people, whose hearing loss is often the result of ageing, it can often make them feel isolated and they may withdraw from social situations, which affects their overall quality of life.

That's why experts give family members and friends of people with hearing loss a series of tips for accompanying them through this process and helping them to make the right decisions for their health.

- One of the basic points is to talk 'face to face'. You need to face the person you are talking to and not try to converse from a different room or with your back turned. Don't forget that communication is not only verbal, so accompanying words with visual cues such as gestures, expressions or lip movements helps to understand the dialogue.

- Related to the above point, try not to speak while eating or chewing as that makes it more difficult to understand what is being said.

- It is also important to speak at a moderate speed and to pay attention to the pronunciation of words. That doesn't mean speaking extremely slowly, which doesn't help comprehension, but in a natural way but with an awareness of the other person's difficulties.

- When talking in a group, try to take turns, without interrupting or overlapping. It is also advisable to seek the participation of the person with hearing problems if you sense that he or she may have lost the thread.

- For those with hearing aids, it is important to remember that shouting is not necessary. It is perfectly fine to speak at a normal conversational volume when conversing with someone who wears hearing aids as the devices are adapted to transmit sound properly and it is the person who must receive the information and understand it.

- With regards to the surroundings, the ideal thing is to look for places without excessive background noise. It is therefore recommended to turn off the television or radio and close windows overlooking busy streets to improve the flow of communication.

In addition to all this, at the first signs of hearing loss, it is essential to accompany the friend or family member to a specialised hearing centre that can assist them and provide the appropriate solution to their problem. As Alfonso Sanchez, head audiologist at SONTEC, explains, early detection and intervention is key to improving the quality of life of people with hearing loss.

SONTEC are specialists in hearing health. This independent company with centres on the Costa del Sol provides solutions to all problems related to hearing ability thanks to professional, personalised attention and the most advanced technology.

In addition to working with different leading brands in the manufacture of hearing aids from all over the world, the centre has highly qualified audiologists and audiology professionals who are registered in Spain and the United Kingdom, in charge of attending to and caring for all the hearing health needs of their clients. They also offer an excellent after-sales service in the revision and maintenance of hearing aids.

"We know how stressful life can be for people with hearing loss, and how it can affect all their family and friends. That's why we take a personalised approach to each case in order to offer them the latest in hearing technology, helping them to hear more clearly and accurately, even in noisy environments," stresses Alfonso Sanchez, the company's chief audiologist.

As part of their working methodology, the centre offers a free in-depth hearing evaluation, based on which they will recommend the best solution to the problem according to your personal needs.

More information

SONTEC

Calle Hermanos Pinzon 4, Edificio Florida II, Local 9A, Fuengirola.

Telephone 952 667 402.

https://www.sontec.es
Soroptimists celebrate 15th anniversary in Mijas Club president Laura Dominguez reflects on the club's work so far and what its future holds

Soroptimist International Costa del Sol, based in Mijas, celebrated its 15th anniversary earlier this month.

Laura Dominguez, who joined in 2018 and became president in 2020, reflected on the club's achievement. "I believe that since its inception, SI Costa del Sol has worked for women to labour together and to support each other. We've also collaborated with other women associations from Mijas and on environmental projects," she said.

Laura was the recipient of the Soroptimist International of Europe (SIE) scholarship. "SI Costa del Sol works with those affected by gender-based violence and women in education, so in a way it promotes female empowerment," she said. "Through education, we want to improve women's learning so they can have a better incorporation into the labour market and to be economically independent."

As for the next 15 years, Laura's ambitions for the club won't differ too drastically. "It's been a complicated year because of Covid-19 and we've had to adapt to this new situation," she explained. "Our work will be very important during these first years after the brunt of the pandemic. We want to be able to maintain the support network that SI Costa del Sol has been managing since 2006, and we want to make it stronger," she said.

Laura mentioned that they've started working on the Feed Your Optimism project, which she claims is "very important" to keep up the support network between women, girls, people and, in the end, social assistance. "All that social capital, created 15 years ago here and on a global scale in 1921, should go towards the upkeep of that network."

What is Soroptimist International?

Soroptimist International is a global club with the goal of creating an ample network of women, founded in California in 1921. Their 75,000 members represent different and diverse sectors of society, encouraging a spirit of service and to spur on high ethical standards in businesses and professions.

In southern Spain, members Jytte Dam and Bente Lerche Christensen wanted to create their own club after failing to find one on the Costa del Sol.

Together with fellow Soroptimists Ellen de la Reguera and Agnes Schelde, the quartet organised several meetings to talk to local women about their proposal, but no one was willing to join them.

Jytte, Bente, Ellen and Agnes- dubbed "Our Grand Old Ladies"- tried to start their own club as an English-speaking one, but saw strong opposition from the SIE, who did not like their proposal.

After a year of hard work and constant effort, an exception was finally made and the Grand Old Ladies got their wish. Recruiting began in February 2004 and by November 2006, the Soroptimist International Costa del Sol was born in Mijas town hall.

The club is unique for the variety of its members. Most are at least bilingual, useful when travelling or when receiving international guests. Many live on the Costa del Sol, having been there for an average of 25 years.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Samsung sure upped the ante with the HW-Q950A, a soundbar that arrives with a room-enveloping 11.1.4-channel configuration powered by a whopping 22 drivers. Not quite as big and hulking as you might expect, the HW-Q950A does Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and it boasts built-in Alexa, AirPlay 2, and a pair of room-correction technologies. Naturally, it also comes with an eye-popping $1,800 list price, although its frequently much cheaper on Amazon.

So, does the 11.1.4-channel Samsung HW-Q950A live up to the hype? Lets take a listen.

This review is part of TechHives coverage of the best soundbars. Click that link to read reviews of competing products, along with a buyers guide to the features you should consider when shopping.

Configuration

The HW-Q950A is a full-on 11.1.4-channel soundbar, but what does that mean exactly?

Ill start off with the typical left, right, and center channels, which are powered by a tweeter and two oval-shaped drivers for each of those front three channels. You also get a total of eight rear and surround channels, which are powered by four drivers in the main housing (two angled and two side-firing) plus four more drivers in the satellite speakers (one angled and one forward-firing for each speaker). All told, thats 11 channels, representing the 11 in the Q950As 11.1.4 configuration. Next comes the subwoofer and its single driver, giving us the .1 for low-frequency effects. Last but not least are the four height channels, supplied by two front up-firing drivers in the main soundbar unit and two rear up-firing drivers in the satellite speakers, giving us the final 4.

Ben Patterson/IDG Angled and side-firing drivers supply just some of the HW-Q950As many surround channels.

So yes, thats a lot of drivers22 total, for those of you keeping track, which should leave your living room swirling in sound. Of course, the effectiveness of all those side- and up-firing drivers will depend in large part on the configuration of the room. The up-firing drivers supplying height effects for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks require a flatnot angled or vaultedceiling thats ideally between 7.5 and 12 feet high, while the distance between your side walls will affect the performance of all those side-firing surround drivers. The HW-Q950A does boast a pair of room-correction featuresSpaceFit and Auto EQthat tweak the audio depending on the acoustics of the room, but SpaceFit (as Ill describe later) requires a supported Q-series Samsung TV.

The HW-Q950A also offers another feature thats exclusive to Samsung TVs: Q-Symphony, which syncs up with the built-in speakers on select Samsung 2020 and 2021 TVs to deliver perfectly synchronized audio for a harmonious, cinematic experience. Sounds cool, but as with SpaceFit, youll need a Samsung TV to use Q-Symphony, and since I dont own one, I wasnt able to test the feature.

Impressively, Samsung manages to cram the 15 drivers in the main soundbar unit into a 48.5 x 2.7 x 5.4-inch shell (WxHxD). Thats roughly as wide as my 55-inch LG C9 OLED TV, but crucially, the soundbars relatively low profile blocked only a sliver of the bottom edge of the LGs screen. In contrast, Samsungs previous high-end soundbars were considerably taller; for example, the 7.1.4-channel HW-Q90R from 2019 was 3.26 inches high, which is simply too tall for placing in front of a low-slug set like the LG C9.

Of course, another placement option for the HW-Q950A is mounting it on the wall under your TV, and Samsung helpfully supplies mounting brackets for that very purpose.

Inputs and outputs

The HW-Q950A has a total of three HDMI connectors: one HDMI-ARC interface, and two HDMI inputs. The soundbars HDMI-eARC connector lets you connect a single cable to your TVs own HDMI-ARC port, assuming it has one (almost all newer TVs do). Once thats done, you can connect your video sources to the HDMI inputs on your TV, which in turn sends the audio down to the soundbar.

Besides HDMI-ARC, the HW-Q950A also supports eARC, an enhanced version of ARC that allows for lossless audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio (which are typically found on Blu-ray discs). But the Q950As eARC support is moot unless your TV also supports eARC, and your TV might not unless it was made in the past two or three years.

Ben Patterson/IDG The HW-Q950A comes with an HDMI-eARC port plus a couple of HDMI inputs. Theres also an optical (Toslink) input for TVs without HDMI connectors.

If you dont want to go the HDMI-ARC way, you could connect your video sources directly to the soundbar via the two HDMI inputs, thus bypassing the whole HDMI-eARC issue, and then connect the soundbar to one of the TVs HDMI inputs. There are two downsides to such a setup, however; one, youre restricted to just two HDMI inputs (which may be enough for most users), and two, while the HW-Q950A supports 4K HDR passthrough, it supports only HDR10 and HDR10+, not Dolby Vision. Again, if your TV doesnt support Dolby Vision (Samsungs TVs only support HDR10 and HDR10+), you might not care, but there it is.

For those with legacy TV sets, the HW-A950A has an optical (Toslink) input. A USB-A port is intended for firmware updates but isnt selectable as an input source, which means you wont be able to use it for external media playback.

Dont want to use wires at all? You can also connect the HW-Q950A to your TV via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, but only if you have a supported Samsung TV.

Installation and setup

As I mentioned earlier, the HW-Q950A can sit in front of your TV, or you can mount it on the wall below your TV. Once you have the main soundbar unit situated, you can then place the wireless subwoofer and the two satellite speakers.

Now, I have a bone to pick with Samsung about the satellites. Each of the two satellite speakers (as well as the sub) comes with power cords (so no, the speakers arent entirely wireless), and while the subwoofers power cord is the usual five feet in length, the satellite speaker cords are also only five feet long. That doesnt give you a lot of freedom in terms of placement for the satellites, which (ideally) should sit behind your sofa at roughly ear height. In contrast, the satellite speakers that come with Vizios soundbars are about 30 feet long, which should be more than enough. Of course, you could always use extension cords to add more length to the existing power cables, but thats a rather ungainly solution.

Complaints about the power cords aside, the pre-paired subwoofer and the satellite speakers connected to the main soundbar unit without any trouble; if there are any issues, the speakers can also be paired manually.

Connecting the HW-A950A to Wi-Fi was as seamless as the speaker pairing process. Using the Samsung SmartThings app, you make an initial connection to the soundbar via Bluetooth, allowing the app to send your Wi-Fi credentials to the unit. Once thats done and the soundbar is connected to wireless, you can name the unit and place it in a room in your SmartThings home.

Following the initial setup process, you can also run Samsungs SpaceFit feature to automatically adjust the HW-Q950As according to the acoustics in your room, but only if you have a supported Samsung Q-series TV. That said, there is another room calibration feature on the soundbar that anyone can use, regardless of the make of your TV.

Auto EQ uses a microphone built into the subwoofer to detect your rooms acoustics and iron out any low-frequency response peaks. The whole process only takes a couple of minutes, and you can re-run it if you subsequently move the subwoofer (or any of the soundbar components) to a new location.

Controls, indicators, and remote

On top of the HW-Q950A are four buttons: a multi-function button that toggles the soundbars power and also switches input sources; volume up and down buttons, and a mic mute button.

Flanked by the buttons is a small display that shows you the current input as well as the soundbars mode, but because the display sits on the top of the soundbar, you cant see it from the sofa. That means if you want to navigate the HW-Q950As settings menus using the included remote, youll have to get off the couch to see what youre doing. At least there are some LED lights on the front of the soundbar that light up when you adjust the volume, or when you summon Alexa (more on Alexa coming up).

Speaking of remotes, the remote thats bundled with the HW-Q950A is the same one that comes with Samsungs other recent soundbars. Ergonomic and easy to use, the remote has a simple layout, including a central four-way navigational keypad, easy-to-reach volume rockers (one for the main volume and another for the subwoofer), along with mute, setting, Bluetooth, input select, and power buttons. Of course, you could also opt to use your TVs remote to control the soundbars volume, provided your set supports HDMI-CEC.

Ben Patterson/IDG The HW-Q950As ergonomic remote boasts a simple, intuitive layout.

Digging into the soundbar settings with the remote, you can adjust the treble and bass, as well as trim the center, side, front top, rear, rear top, and rear side levels, as well as toggle a virtual surround mode if (for some reason) you decide not to use the HW-Q950As physical satellite speakers.

From the Samsung SmartThings app, you can change sound modes (well delve into those in a moment), as well as fiddle with the soundbars EQ settings and enable voice enhancement, bass enhancement, and night modes. To trim the speaker levels, however, youll need to use the remote.

Alexa, AirPlay 2, Tap Sound, and Spotify Connect

The HW-Q950A comes with built-in Alexa, although you dont need to activate Alexa if you dont want to. If you do, all you need to do is sign in to your Amazon account using the SmartThings app. Once thats done, youll be able to chat with Alexa just as you would with any of Amazons Echo speakers.

For example, you can ask about the weather, get a news summary, set a reminder, start a timer, play music (supported services include Amazon Music, Spotify, Deezer, and Tidal), or control supported smart home devices. You can also ask Alexa to control the soundbar itself, although its typically easier to use the voice remote rather than deal with the clunky voice commands (e.g., Alexa, set volume to 3 on Samsung soundbar).

One ongoing gripe I have about Alexa on soundbars (Samsung isnt alone in this) is that her volume is tied to the main volume, which means if youve been watching a video at even a moderately loud volume, Alexa will shout at you. Id much prefer that Alexa had her own discrete volume, and Samsung has told me that theyre working on a solution around these lines.

Besides Alexa, the HW-Q950A supports AirPlay 2, which allows you to cast audio to the soundbar via an iPhone, iPad, a Mac, or any other supported Apple device. Not only can you cast audio from streaming music apps (such as Amazon Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Music, or Apple Music), you can also add the HW-Q950A to AirPlay speaker groups, as well as include the soundbar in AirPlay 2 multi-room audio setups.

The HW-Q950A doesnt support Chromecast, but it does have a Tap Sound feature that lets you mirror the audio on a Samsung phone simply by tapping the handset on the soundbar. (I dont have a Samsung phone, so I was unable to test this feature.)

Finally, the HW-Q950A is a Spotify Connect device, which means you can stream Spotify tunes to the soundbar from the desktop and mobile versions of the Spotify app.

Sound modes

The HW-Q950A has four main sound modes: Standard, Surround, Game Pro, and Adaptive Sound. The latter three modes upmix all sound sources to 11.1.4-channel audio, including 5.1 and stereo sources. Standard, on the other hand, doesnt perform any upmixing, so thats the choice youll want to make if you want to hear stereo music streams as they were intended to be heard (save for the enhancement of bass via the subwoofer).

While Surround mode is designed to boost the soundstage of movies and Game Pro helps gamers pinpoint the footsteps of opponents, Adaptive Sound aims to tailor the HW-Q950As audio automatically depending on whatever youre listening to. Ive found Adaptive Sound to be effective on other Samsung soundbars Ive tested, and I ended up using it for the majority of my listening tests (music aside).

Performance

Cutting to the chase, the Samsung HW-Q950A is simply the best-sounding soundbar Ive ever tested. It delivers crisp high-end detail, terrific low-frequency response that never gets too boomy, and audio cues that feel like theyre coming from everywhere. Even without the benefit of Samsungs Q-Symphony feature that leverages the power of a Samsung TVs built-in speakers, the HW-Q950A still manages to dazzle.

Starting out with the 4K Blu-ray of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and its remastered Dolby Atmos soundtrack, the HW-Q950As 22-driver array made the Rebel snowspeeders during the frantic Battle of Hoth sound like they were whizzing all around my living room, while the Imperial Walkers stomped with big, ground-shaking booms that never sounded distorted. As one of the Walkers lifted its foot above Lukes head, the HW-Q950A delivered clear and precise height cues, and it did so again as Luke watched one of the towering machines implode and collapse. And when part of the ceiling collapsed on top of Han and Leia in the embattled Rebel base, the clattering rubble truly seemed to be coming from everywhere. Very well done.

Switching over to the UHD of Apollo 13 and its DTS:X audio, the gurgle of the fuel pumps just prior to launch sounded seemed like it was coming from behind my sofa, while the rumbling engines of the Saturn V sounded deep and powerful without any sense that the HW-Q950As subwoofer was overdoing it. James Horners soaring score sounded clear and crisp, and the separation of the Saturn Vs various stages were all accompanied by nice, precise booms. I also liked that the dialog (Houston, whats the story on engine five?) was never overpowered by the controlled cacophony.

Heading over to the famous opening sequence of 1978s Superman on iTunes, the swooshing main titlesnow in Dolby Atmossoared above and around my head in a manner unlike what Ive heard on any competing soundbar; were not just talking the vague sense of height effects, but palpable whooshes flying above and behind me. John Williamss rousing theme sounded sharp but never shrill, and the clang that punctuates Richard Donners directed by credit was just right, both big and controlled. (Lets watch it again!)

For music, I started by casting willow from Taylor Swifts evermore from Tidal via AirPlay 2. Using the Standard music mode (which, remember, doesnt upmix stereo sources), willow sounded crisp, simple, unfussy, and refreshingly musical on the HW-Q950A. Switching to Adaptive mode for a full 11.1.4 experience, the song opened up with a wider, expansive soundstage without sounding artificial or phony.

I also sampled Billie Elishs Oxytocin, which serves up some big and rather tricky beats in its opening moments that the HW-Q950A deftly handled, dishing out the bass without sounding boomy or overloaded. Meanwhile, Vlado Perlemuters performance of Ravels solo piano works (streamed from my Plex media library) sounded atmospheric and pleasingly, well, present, while the whispering cymbals, thunking bass, and (of course) bright trumpet in Chet Bakers Solar sounded thrillingly alive.

Bottom line

With its $1,800 list price, the Samsung HW-Q950A is one of the most expensive soundbars currently on the market, although at press time, Samsung was offering a pre-Black Friday $200 discount, and its been spotted for as low as $1,150 on Amazon (its hovering around $1,600 now). So while the HW-Q950 is certainly pricey, you may be able to find some pretty good deals, particularly around the holidays.

But as far as sound goes, the Samsung HW-Q950As sonics are the best Ive heard yet from a soundbar: immersive, detailed, balanced, deep, and controlled. The main soundbar unit is also slim enough to plop down in front of most TVs (although you can always mount it), and its Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support, subwoofer room-correction functionality, built-in Alexa, and AirPlay 2 casting support check most of the boxes were looking for. And if youre a Samsung TV owner (provided you have a supported model), youll get the added benefit of full-on SpaceFit room correction and Q-Symphony TV speaker syncing.

If you can afford it, the HW-Q950A is the soundbar to get.
News Editor

I am a third-year studying English with a minor in biology. I joined Technician in the fall of 2020 as a correspondent and am now working as the News Editor. I plan to graduate in the spring of 2022.
The recent power-assisted bicycle fire accident in Singapore affected almost 100 residents in a building located in Pipit Road, Singapore.

Right now, various electric cars and other vehicles are being linked in different fire accidents across the globe. The latest one, which happened in Singapore forced the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) to evacuate 90 individuals living in the affected residence area, which includes elderly people.

SCDF explained in its recent Facebook announcement that they received a fire alert on Wednesday, Nov. 10, at around 8:00 p.m. local time. However, the one who used the PAB said that the semi-electric bike had not been charged for two days.

Power-Assisted Bike Accident in Singapore Update

According to The Strait Times, the preliminary investigation stated that the accident was caused by an electrical issue in the building. When the source's team visited the flat, they discovered that the power supply was actually disrupted.

Also Read: BMW to Remove its Touchscreen Feature on New Cars Because of Chip Shortage

But, it seems like the power-assisted bicycle is not the main reason for the fire scenario.

"The bike had not been charged for two days. The charger was inside the flat," said Faizal Md Razali, the individual who borrowed the PAB for his son's use since the kid needs it for his delivery job.

He added that he was confused why the fire happened since the bike did not have power and was not being charged during that time. But, they discovered that it was Faizal's water pipe, which burst during the night and caused the accident.

As of the moment, fire accidents are getting common when it comes to electric-based vehicles, such as the PAB. There are also other electric vehicles that are causing the same scenario in other parts of the globe.

Recently, we reported that Gruber Motors faced its second fire accident, which affected around 30 Tesla EVs. Meanwhile, Tesla Autopilot is also facing some issues, which involved several fire trucks and police cars.

Fire Safety Measures

American Red Cross provided some steps you can follow when there is a sudden fire in your area. These include the following:

Always get low when there is a massive amount of smoke inside your house or building.

Avoid touching doorknobs since they could burn your hand because of extreme heat.

Try yelling "Fire" to inform other people near your place. This would alert them to call the authorities for help.

For more news updates about similar electric vehicle accidents, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Police Warn That Tesla Owners Could Be Targeted by Professional Thieves

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/ Paul Hanaoka) Internet archive library

Internet Archive, the San Francisco-based digital library is celebrating its 25th year of preserving the history of the internet, radio, and TV broadcasts.

The digital library is currently storing 475 billion web pages, 28 million scans of books and texts, and 14 million audio recordings. This adds up to 30 petabytes of data and more.

Internet Archive Celebrates 25 Years

The Internet Archive has collected writings from one hundreds million people. The Internet Archive's founder, Brewster Kale, says that the organization's goal is to reach more than a billion people, according to PCMag.

Kale stated that now more than ever, they need the help of the public so they can continue to collect, preserve, and share their digital culture artifacts.

They want to have platforms and systems that are driven by altruism and not advertising models. They wish to have a world with a lot of winners, where the public can learn, participate, and find communities that they can fit in.

Also Read: Internet Archive Tribute To Retro Gaming: 10000 Free Amiga Games And Apps To Feed Your Nostalgia

Currently, there is a two-to-one matching offer for donations to the nonprofit organization. For example, a $10 donation will raise $30 with matching funds.

The Internet Archive is fighting a legal battle from four massive publishers over its ability to lend out more digital copies of a book than it has physical copies. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is helping Internet Archive with their legal defense.

There is currently a two-to-one matching offer for donations to the nonprofit organization. A $10 donation, for example, will raise a total of $30 with matching funds.

Internet Archive's History

As the Internet Archive turns 25, the digital library is preparing to create a backup. Years ago, it got a function that a lot of computers today still does not have, a backup service.

That is the time when the Internet Archive was released in bits and began in San Francisco, staging its first comprehensive indexing of the web in 1996, according to USA Today.

Since then, it became a key resource for researchers and readers who rely on its collection of more than 622 billion pages to review a site that suddenly went offline or see how a part of the internet looked years ago.

Most of that use happens at an Archive tool launched in 2001 called the Wayback Machine, which gives a versioned backup of the web like what Apple's Time Machine software does for files on a Mac.

You can type in a page address or words describing a home page, then choose a year from the timeline atop of the page to wander through the history of the home page.

You can also click on the link counting how many times the Internet Archive has done a capture of the page to select a specific date from an onscreen calendar, according to ZDNet.

The Internet Archive's copies of these pages may take some time to display and it sometimes lack media widgets or images. But mostly, they will look antique.

The oldest available content on the Internet Archive is the 1996 edition of USA Today. It speaks to a simpler school of web design and a smaller range of screen sizes.

It is less obvious that you can add to the Internet Archive, which gets funding from numerous foundations and individual donations, by saving a page into it.

In the unlikely event of a page not appearing in the results, you can paste its address into the "Save Page Now" form on the Wayback Machine's home page.

In 2016, Internet Archive's malware museum presented what a malware looked like in the 80s and 90s.

In 2019, the archive team of Internet Archive adds posts from Google+ in its library.

Related Article: Internet Archive Adds Thousands Of MS-DOS Games

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images) SEOUL, REPUBLIC OF KOREA: A South Korean pedestrian walks by a logo of Samsung group in Seoul, 09 October 2005, as domestic woes are mounting for Samsung, South Korea's biggest and most profitable business group. Criticism intensified last week when a court convicted two Samsung executives for illegally handling the father-to-son transfer of ownership at Samsung Everland, the group's holding company.

A popular tech leaker said that Samsung Exynos 2200 AMD GPU poses smoother performance compared to the Snapdragon 888.

Samsung has not yet disclosed any details about this rumored graphic card, but the early benchmark suggests that it has impressive improvements to see.

Samsung Exynos 2200 AMD GPU Fares Better in Recent Benchmark

(Photo : JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images)

SEOUL, REPUBLIC OF KOREA: A South Korean pedestrian walks by a logo of Samsung group in Seoul, 09 October 2005, as domestic woes are mounting for Samsung, South Korea's biggest and most profitable business group. Criticism intensified last week when a court convicted two Samsung executives for illegally handling the father-to-son transfer of ownership at Samsung Everland, the group's holding company.

According to a report by Gizchina, the conclusion about the AMD-powered GPU came from a famous tipster Tron who shared the details on Twitter. The source said that the upcoming GPU posted a peak performance improvement of 31 to 34% compared to the Exynos 2100.

Usually, the common percentage for such criteria only scales from 20 to 25% for the similar AMD banding. Considering how well it performs over the old-gen GPUs, it looks more appealing to the market at first glance.

The prominent leaker also noted that since the results were solely based during its pre-launch, there are still a lot to improve for the Exynos 2200 AMD GPU. For instance, its sustained performance hit a difference of +17 to 20%. Tron considered this as "less satisfying."

Besides the predecessor Exynos chip, Tron compared the Exynos 2200 chip to the Snapdragon 888 SoC. Apparently, what the insider saw was a big gap in 3D Mark Performance.

With that, the 2020 Snapdragon flagship lagged behind this rumored AMD card. This is considered as a small milestone for the chip maker especially with this kind of early benchmark experiment.

Moreover, the leak added that the alleged chip would rely on the ARMv9 architecture, the same infrastructure used by Alibaba's first server processor Yitian 710. This means that we could see significant integrations of machine learning and AI soon.

Read Also: Next-Gen Samsung Exynos AI-Based Chip Could Arrive: Expect Faster, Easier SoC Production; Can It Solve Chipset Shortage?

Samsung Denies Rumors For Exynos 2200 AMD Chipset

The South Korean company said that it would unveil interesting products on Nov.19. There will be an event that will be launched on the said date, according to GSM Arena.

Amid speculations about the arrival of the Exynos 2200 AMD GPU, the firm only said that it would bring "some changes" to its official social media accounts. There's no mention of the new SoC that will come this month.

Whether a new Exynos card is coming next week or not, we could not deny the fact that this chip is promising on its first look. If the rumors are true, many users could jump right away in testing this card to their devices.

In line with this, Tech Times reported in July that this AMD-powered GPU will not come to Samsung Galaxy Tab S8. The news drew ire among fans who expected it to arrive on the gadget.

Exynos 2200 GPU Better Than Xbox One?

In the same month, we reported an interesting leak about this rumored GPU. According to the report, the Exynos chip could potentially surpass Xbox One's GPU despite having a few cores.

The biggest challenge that remains now for Samsung is how it can beat Steam Deck's GPU which has an 8-core RDNA2.

Related Article: Samsung Exynos Chip with AMD RDNA 2 to Power Vivo Smartphones As Well, Leak Says

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
COVID-19 vaccination is a major requirement for any traveler hoping to get into the United States now that the 20-month travel ban has been lifted. However, not all COVID-19 vaccines have been approved by the U.S. government.

This means that those inoculated with vaccines that are not on the approved list may not be allowed to enter the United States for now.

Among the available COVID jabs, only eight have made it to the list of the U.S. of approved vaccines for travelers entering the country. These include Pfizer-BionTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca.

Vaccines like Russia's Sputnik V and Cuba's Abdala have not received approval from the U.S.

COVID-19 Vaccines: Which are Approved or Not?

Travelers hoping to get into the U.S. after the 20-month entry ban was lifted on Monday are required to show proof that they have received their full dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. There is, however, a catch.

According to a report by A.P. News, "non-immigrant adults need to have received vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration or which received an emergency use listing from the World Health Organization."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have listed eight COVID-19 vaccines as part of the approved list for non-US citizen travelers hoping to enter the country.

These include the COVID-19 vaccines with approval or authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These vaccines are Janssen, otherwise known as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Moderna.

Included in the list as well are vaccines that received an emergency use listing from the World Health Organization (WHO) but have yet to be approved or authorized by the FDA. These COVID-19 vaccines are:

AstraZeneca

Covaxin

Covishield

BIBP/Sinopharm

Sinovac

According to a report by BGR, absent from the list of approved COVID-19 vaccines are Russia's Sputnik V, China's CanSino, and Cuba's Abdala, Soberana 02, and Soberana Plus vaccines.

As more and more tests are conducted on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, the list of approved vaccines is not final and will still go through changes in the future.

Related Article: U.S. Rejects Russia's Vaccine Sputnik V; These Two Countries Say Otherwise

U.S. Lifts 20-Month Entry Ban

Travelers around the world rejoiced on Monday when the U.S. finally lifted its 20-month entry ban. Then-President Donald Trump imposed the entry ban to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Non-US citizen travelers must be fully vaccinated with the approved vaccines and must show proof of vaccination. Those seeking to enter the country must also present a negative COVID-19 result days before departure.

According to the report by BGR, travelers from Mexico and Canada only need to show proof of vaccination.

Travelers will no longer be required to quarantine upon their arrival in the country.

Read Also: Digital Vaccine Passports: How Do They Work, And How Can Counterfeits Be Stopped?

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Isabella James

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images) The Foxconn logo is displayed on a Foxconn building in Taipei on January 31, 2019.

Foxconn, Apple's supplier, says that the ongoing global shortage for all electronic components will continue until 2022.

Together with the other massive tech companies, Foxconn has announced that it is starting to feel the impact of the chip shortage, as it is now visible in its revenue.

Foxconn's Chip Shortage Prediction

According to Foxconn's CEO, Young Liu, the company won't complete some of its orders due to the chip shortage, which they expect to last until mid-2022, Nikkei reports.

During its earnings call, Liu told the company's investors that the supply in the first two months of 2021 was still normal, as their clients are all massive tech companies that were able to secure backups of the chips.

However, they are now starting to see the changes towards the end of the year.

Also Read: The Pandemic Caused a Global Chip Shortage: Is Open-Source Software the Solution?

The impact of the chip shortage is not expected to be that large for now. Liu expects that Foxconn will only miss 10% of its orders this year because of it, and the company cited the large order volumes of its clients.

However, it is still a miss for the company and its clients like Apple, who may be forced to delay the release of some of its products.

Despite the shortage, Foxconn acquired its first-ever electric vehicle company in the United States.

The company has struck a deal with the EV startup Lordstown Motors, and it will now have the authority over its electric vehicle manufacturing factory in North America.

Foxconn announced that it purchased Lordstown's Motors' manufacturing plant in Ohio, Illinois, for $230 million and that it would take 4% of the automaker's sales, according to Apple Insider.

As part of the deal, the Apple supplier will produce the Endurance electric pickup truck. The automaker's Ohio plant is 6.2 million square feet that it purchased from General Motors.

COVID-19's Impact on Semiconductors

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Foxconn saw slowdowns in manufacturing after the mandatory government shutdowns and when its factory workers were forced to go under quarantine, according to The Verge.

The delays affected the supply chain. It ultimately led to a November launch for Apple's iPhone 12 lineup, which is unusual for the tech giant since it traditionally launches its new iPhone model every September.

By comparison, this year's slowdown is less drastic, but if some parts continue to be difficult to get, there could still be delays by the end of 2021.

Foxconn is the latest tech company to point out the effects of the ongoing chip shortage and has predicted that it will slow down the production of electronics and vehicles.

Earlier this year, Samsung warned its investors that there is a serious imbalance in the chip industry as it prepares to work on the global chip shortage to continue to release its smartphone models.

Automakers such as Volkswagen, Nissan, Ford, and Toyota have all slowed their vehicle produce because of silicon.

As for consoles, Sony and Microsoft have cited that part and chip shortages are the main reason why they could not drop PS5 consoles and Xbox Series X consoles as often as they like.

Related Article: Global Chip Shortage to Be Answered by Sony and TSMC's New Plant in Japan? Would This Affect Relationship with Apple?

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/ Paul Hanaoka) MIT robots

Companies in America are adding a high number of robots to their workforce in the first nine months of 2021 as they try to speed up their production because they are struggling to find human workers.

American Companies Gets More Robots This Year

Factories and other industrial companies ordered more than 29,000 robots, 27% more than in 2020. According to the industry group, the Association for Advancing Automation, tech companies' investment shelled out for robots reached $1.48 billion.

The data surpassed the previous record that was set in the same time period in 2017, before the COVID-19 pandemic affected businesses and upended economies, according to CNN.

The push for investing in robots is just a part of a larger upswing in investment as companies try to keep up with the strong demand for electronics and vehicles.

The sudden rise in demand for products is due to the shortage of certain goods like smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

Also Read: Boston Dynamics vs. BTS: Robot Challenges Kpop Boy Group to a Dance-Off in Viral Video

At the same time, a lot of companies have struggled to entice workers to go back to work after the pandemic displaced them. According to The Wall Street Journal, companies now view robots as an alternative to humans on their assembly lines.

President of the Association for Advancing Automation, Jeff Burnstein, said that companies consider robots part of the workforce because businesses could not find the right people to do the work.

Robots continue to spread throughout the economy. Including robots and other machines to do the jobs is not new as many automakers had been invested industrial robots in replacing humans.

However, in 2020, the combined sales to other businesses surpassed the auto industry for the first time, which continued this year, according to MSN.

In the first few months of 2021, auto-related orders for robots increased 20%, equivalent to 12,544 units. Meanwhile, the orders by other tech companies for robots increased 53%, equivalent to 16,355.

Burnstein said that automotive is going up and that other sectors, like food and metal manufacturers, are growing even faster.

Athena Manufacturing, owned by John Newman, does metal fabrication for other companies in Austin, Texas. The company now has seven robots in total, including the four robots that were installed earlier this year.

Athena Manufacturing repurchased its first robot in 2016. Newman said that robots have helped his company respond to the increase in demand, including a 50% increase in orders for parts that semiconductor equipment manufacturers use.

The machines also allowed the company to move to a 24/7 operation for the first time in 2020. The company plans to employ 250 workers, but they know they will struggle to do so, especially since it is difficult to fill the overnight shifts.

Since robots are slowly becoming a part of the workforce, researchers are improving their response to commands and interaction with humans and other robots.

Last week, MIT researchers revealed that it is working on a project that will teach robots to be social. This can help human employees work in harmony with the robots, which are known not to have any social skills.

Related Article: Medieval Robots Created as Early as the 12th-Century! Here's What The Earliest Machines Could Do

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
iPhone thieves found a new hacking technique that would allow them to acquire your Apple ID easily. This new method relies on disabling the popular "Find My" application of the tech giant manufacturer.

Related Article: PS5 Hack: Attackers Exploit PlayStation 5's Kernel and Steal Root Keys

As of the moment, malicious actors are trying to develop new methods to acquire the expensive handsets of many consumers, especially iPhone models. Authorities and security experts are doing their best to prevent these criminals from victimizing unsuspecting individuals.

Now, a new victim named Vedant Khanduja shared his experience after his iPhone 12 was snatched. He even posted how the criminals were able to acquire his Apple ID so that other people would be cautious when it comes to clicking links.

iPhone Thieves' New Method of Stealing Apple ID

According to The Sun's latest report, the Find My app of Khanduja stopped working after the thieves stole his beloved iPhone 12. Because of this, the victim said that he thought his smartphone was no longer retrievable.

Also Read: Gmail Users Warns About New Phishing Scam 'Bait Attack'-Here's What You Need to Know

However, Vedant said that he received a text message telling him that his gadget had been found. It was also stated in the SMS that it wanted to locate his smartphone and needed to click the provided link and type in the required information, which is his Apple ID.

Since he really wanted to have his iPhone 12 back, he provided his credential without hesitation. However, he received another text message that his Apple ID was used on an unknown computer, as reported by India Today, the source that reported the new malicious method.

Little did he know that this was a part of the thieves' plan to disable the Lock Mode so that they could open the device.

How Can You Avoid This New iPhone Scheme?

Experts urge the public not to click the links sent by unknown contacts, especially if they are connected to their lost devices.

Right now, this is the best thing you can do to prevent thieves and other criminals from having full control over your gadget.

iPhone is just one of the products usually targeted by malicious actors.

In other news, big companies, such as the Toronto Transit Commission, are suffering from massive leaks.

On the other hand, the Robinhood platform was also attacked by a large data breach.

For more news updates about other security threats, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Changes to The Messenger's back end processing means the e-edition is getting a facelift. The biggest change is the e-edition by default is now presented in Text view.
STONEWALL [ndash] Funeral services for Maple Hamilton, 78, of Stonewall, OK will be 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021, at the Stonewall First Baptist Church with the Apostle Gary Bruner officiating. Interment will be in Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Stonewall, OK. Mrs. Hamilton passed away in a Deni
BANGKOK  A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Friday sentenced detained U.S. journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison with hard labor after finding him guilty on several charges, including incitement for allegedly spreading false or inflammatory information.

Fenster, the managing editor of the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, was also found guilty of contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations, lawyer Than Zaw Aung said. He was sentenced to the maximum term on each charge and ordered to pay a 100,000 kyat ($56) fine.

Fenster, 37, is from Detroit and worked in south Louisiana from 2017 to 2018, when he wrote for the Daily Iberian and The Current.

Than Zaw Aung said Fenster wept in court after hearing the sentence and had not yet decided whether to appeal. He is the only foreign journalist to be convicted of a serious offense since the army seized power in February, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

+14 American journalist who reported in Louisiana remains jailed in Myanmar Danny Fenster has given a voice to the voiceless through his work as a journalist. Now, his loved ones are doing the same for him.

Fenster has been detained since May. He still faces two additional serious charges in a different court for allegedly violating the counterterrorism law and a statute covering treason and sedition.

Everyone at Frontier is disappointed and frustrated at this decision. We just want to see Danny released as soon as possible so he can go home to his family, Editor-in-Chief Thomas Kean said in a statement after the sentencing. There is absolutely no basis to convict Danny of these charges."

Detained during army takeover

Fenster was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he was about to board a flight to go to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family.

The military-installed government has cracked down hard on press freedom, shutting virtually all critical outlets and arresting about 100 journalists, roughly 30 of whom remain in jail. Some of the closed outlets have continued operating without a license, publishing online as their staff members dodge arrest.

The army takeover was met by widespread peaceful protests that were put down with lethal force. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has detailed the deaths of more than 1,200 civilians, in addition to about 10,000 arrests. Armed resistance has since spread, and U.N. experts and others observers fear the incipient insurgency can slide into civil war.

Fensters next challenge is the two additional charges that his lawyer said Monday had been filed in a different court in Yangon.

Than Zaw Aung said that one of the new charges comes under a section of the Counterterrorism Act that is punishable by from 10 years to life in prison. The military-installed government has said it would apply the law harshly in cases involving opposition organizations it has officially deemed terrorist groups. Involvement can include contacting such groups, or reporting their statements.

The other charge is under the penal code and is usually referred to as treason or sedition. It carries a penalty of seven to 20 years imprisonment.

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

The hearings on the original three charges were held at the court in Yangons Insein Prison, where Fenster is jailed. They were closed to the press and the public. Accounts of the proceedings have come from Fensters lawyer.

Despite testimony from more than a dozen prosecution witnesses, it was never clear exactly what Fenster was alleged to have done, and it appeared that he was judged guilty by association.

Much of the prosecutions case appeared to hinge on his being employed by one of the media outlets, Myanmar Now, another online news site, that had been ordered closed this year. But Fenster had left his job at Myanmar Now in July last year, joining Frontier Myanmar the following month.

Prosecution witnesses testified that they were informed by a letter from the Information Ministry that its records showed that Fenster continued to be employed this year by Myanmar Now.

Both Myanmar Now and Frontier Myanmar had issued public statements that Fenster had left the former publication last year, and his lawyer said defense testimony, as well as income tax receipts, established that he works for Frontier Myanmar.

Than Zaw Aung also said he was unable to produce a government official to testify, which would be difficult to do under any circumstances, and the judge took into account only the Information Ministry letter.

Therefore, according to this letter, Danny is responsible for Myanmar Now and the judge said thats why Danny was sentenced, said the lawyer.

He said Fenster told him he despises both the Myanmar police and Swe Win, his boss and editor-in-chief at Myanmar Now, whom he blames for his situation because he apparently forgot to inform the Information Ministry of his resignation last year.

The U.S. government, human rights groups, press freedom associations and Fensters family had pressed strongly for the 37-year-old journalists release.

This long prison sentence against a journalist is a travesty of justice by a kangaroo court operating at the beck and call of the Myanmar military junta, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. Danny Fenster has done nothing that should be considered a crime. This bogus conviction should be quashed, and Fenster should be immediately released and permitted to leave the country if that is what he wants.

Shawn Crispin, Southeast Asia representative of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, also called for Fenster's immediate and unconditional release.

Myanmar must stop jailing journalists for merely doing their job of reporting the news, he said.
About a dozen men carefully wheeled a 500-pound alligator head down a ramp before attaching it to the more than 60-foot-long body made up of dozens of trees pulled out out of the swamp behind the levee near Garyville.

Josh Weidert, 33, of Sorrento is the mastermind behind the project, which was crafted for the annual Christmas bonfires.

+9 Mississippi River levee bonfires symbolize tradition, togetherness as Christmas nears To talk with folks building bonfires along the levee the week before Christmas is to understand what outlasts the gifts under the tree. The building of the teepee-like structures along the Mississippi River in St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes celebrates an old tale in which the fires would help light the way for Papa Noel. But in reality it's an act steeped in family, togetherness and tradition.

In the past decade, he has built a pelican, a snapping turtle with a moving head, a guitar and several other works of art for the century-long bonfire festival on the river levees in St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes.
Santa Claus will be able to easily find his way into south Louisiana this year.

St. James Parish's annual tradition of lighting bonfires along the Mississippi River levee on Christmas Eve will return this year after a one-year hiatus due to the novel coronavirus.

Parish government officials announced the plans Friday; vaccines have helped quell the latest surge of the virus and dropped hospitalization rates close to their lowest levels since the pandemic began in Louisiana in the spring of 2020.

"I am overjoyed to have this special event return to our community this year. I want to thank our Parish Council, Festival of the Bonfires officials, and our local leaders for working together to ensure this event was made possible again this year," Parish President Pete Dufresne said in a statement. "I look forward to sharing in the holiday season with our residents and I know this Christmas will be one to remember."

+10 A 72-foot gator and towering Santa will light up the skies for a holiday Louisiana bonfire festival About a dozen men carefully wheel a 500-pound alligator head from a trailer as classic rock blares out of the open door of a nearby pickup tru

The traditional tepee-shaped fires are said the light the way for Papa Noel on his nighttime ride to deliver gifts to girls and boys. In their more modern incarnations, the bonfires are built into elaborate and sometimes animated structures, often based on holiday or Louisiana themes.

With ancient roots in Europe and especially France, Christmas Eve bonfires in St. James and neighboring river parishes may have begun in the late 1800s. Today, the levee bonfires are packed with fireworks and have become a tourist attraction and the center of a holiday block party along River Road.

+3 A 500-pound alligator head? Watch crews assemble a 72-foot gator for a holiday bonfire in Louisiana About a dozen men carefully wheeled a 500-pound alligator head down a ramp before attaching it to the more than 60-foot-long body made up of d

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

Much anticipated each year, their cancellation in 2020 had marked yet another way COVID-19 had turned normal life upside down. Mardi Gras, also canceled this year, appears to be on the path to returning in 2022, New Orleans city officials have said.

Parish officials said bonfire permits will begin to be available Nov. 20 and construction can't start until the next day.

No household construction or demolition debris from Hurricane Ida or any other storm-related event will be allowed within any portion of the levee right of way, including the bonfire area or on top of the levee, officials said.

Due to strict insurance requirements, the 2021 bonfire season lasts from Nov. 21 to Dec. 27 only. No one may access the levee before Nov. 21 for any bonfire-related activities.

Permits will be available at the St. James Parish Welcome Center, 1094 Airline Hwy., Gramercy. Permits can be obtained between the hours of 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 pm Monday to Friday and 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Permits can be paid for by check or money order only. No cash will be accepted.

More information, including downloadable permit applications, can be found online at http://www.stjamesla.com
St. James Parish government canceled Wednesday the annual Christmas Eve bonfire celebration due to rising coronavirus rates, even as some participants had already started setting up their wooden structures on the Mississippi River levee.

The viral pandemic, which has killed nearly 6,400 people, has upended life in Louisiana in big ways and small. Now it has claimed yet another of the public celebrations, from Mardi Gras parades to an array of festivals, that are essential threads in the cultural fabric of the state.

With ancient roots in Europe and especially France, Christmas Eve bonfires in St. James and neighboring river parishes may have begun in the late 1800s.

The traditional tepee-shaped fires are said the light the way for Papa Noel on his nighttime ride to deliver gifts to girls and boys. In the modern incarnation, the levee bonfires, often stuffed with fireworks, have become a tourist attraction and the center of a sprawling holiday block party.

+4 Christmas Eve levee bonfires in St. James expected to go on, but not Lutcher festival The community festival that happens about a week before annual Christmas Eve levee bonfires in St. James Parish has been canceled due to diffi

Parish officials, who have been in discussions for days with the State Fire Marshal's Office on a possible plan to continue the annual event, said their unified command group "tried to find all possible alternatives for safely continuing with this tradition." But they could not.

The final straw was new state health data Wednesday showing St. James Parish's test positivity rate had nearly doubled and hit 16.9% for the week ending Dec. 2, parish officials said in a statement.

"This was by no means an easy decision to make as this tradition is long standing and special to our community in particular," parish officials said Wednesday. "We understand this has been an extremely difficult year for many of us and we have hoped for a sense of normalcy in the Christmas season especially, however, we must first and foremost protect the health, safety and well-being of our residents."

The concern centered around the crowds the event could be expected to draw and how social distancing could be maintained in an event the runs for miles along the levee, parish officials have said.

+15 Forget the chimney: Levee bonfires spark childhood Christmas memories for river parish residents The generator was running and the air compressor humming as Joshua Weidert took a pneumatic nail gun in hand and plunged a nail into a finishi

Many riverside homes are open for guests during the fires, while people gather on the levee next to sometimes elaborate bonfire creations. River Road often is packed with traffic cruising the levee's length to see the wooden structures on its crest.

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

The bonfires are built on both sides of the river, but the greatest concentration is usually between Gramercy and Paulina on the east bank. A smaller number of bonfires are built in St. John the Baptist Parish, but the status of those fires wasn't immediately clear Wednesday evening.

The nonprofit organization behind the bonfire event had previously canceled its annual festival that precedes the Christmas Eve celebration by about a week but had held out hope the bonfires could continue.

+9 Mississippi River levee bonfires symbolize tradition, togetherness as Christmas nears To talk with folks building bonfires along the levee the week before Christmas is to understand what outlasts the gifts under the tree. The building of the teepee-like structures along the Mississippi River in St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes celebrates an old tale in which the fires would help light the way for Papa Noel. But in reality it's an act steeped in family, togetherness and tradition.

Positivity rates continue to rise across the region and the state. Ten of the 12 parishes in the Baton Rouge region were at 10% or greater with an 11th, Assumption Parish, close the mark also. Statewide, more than three-quarters of the parishes in Louisiana  49 of 64  had weekly positivity rates of 10% or greater.

Positivity rate is a ratio that shows the share of positive cases for a given batch of tests. Rising rates, especially at double-digit levels, can be a critical signal that spread of the virus is headed toward concerning levels, but rising rates can also mean the penetration of testing is slipping when test numbers are on the decline.

Some of the rate increase in the region could be due to a dip in testing during the Thanksgiving break. The latest data are for the seven-day period ended Dec. 2 and include the holiday break.

+10 A 72-foot gator and towering Santa will light up the skies for a holiday Louisiana bonfire festival About a dozen men carefully wheel a 500-pound alligator head from a trailer as classic rock blares out of the open door of a nearby pickup tru

On Thursday at noon, Parish President Pete Dufresne plans to host a Facebook Live discussion "to address in more detail how this decision was made as well as permit refunds and deconstructing of previously built bonfires."

"If you have not yet built your bonfire, we ask that you do not continue with construction," the statement says.

Parish officials had said previously residents were permitted to start building the bonfires earlier this fall but no decision had been made then on whether they could be lighted for Christmas Eve.

Typically, bonfire construction starts in force during and after the Thanksgiving holiday.
About a dozen men carefully wheel a 500-pound alligator head from a trailer as classic rock blares out of the open door of a nearby pickup truck on recent, chilly afternoon.

Ho! one shouts as they position the head into the body, completing the more than 70-foot spectacle thats made up of dozens of trees pulled out of the nearby swamp.

And on Christmas Eve, the gator will be lighting the night sky as part of the century-old bonfire festival along the levees in St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes.

Were lighting the way for Papa Noel, said Josh Weidert, the mastermind behind the mammoth sculpture that sits atop of the levee along La. 44, right next to the Garyville water tower.

Its a tradition that draws thousands to the area to bask in the glow of 120 to 130 blazing bonfires in the two south Louisiana parishes, with roots dating back about a hundred years.

The levee bonfires were originally built to light the way for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, or Papa Noel as he's named in the old tale. Or they serve to light the way for river ships and the route to Midnight Mass.

Either way, the tradition has grown into a huge community event that draws thousands to the river parishes where elaborate wooden structures are soaked in diesel and put to the torch at 7 p.m. Christmas Eve.

The River Parishes Tourist Commission is offering a shuttle service for the first time this year.

The fleet of buses will run from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. with drop-offs off in Gramercy and Lutcher and pick-ups every five to 10 minutes. The shuttle will pick up visitors at Lutcher High School at 1910 W. Main St.

Traditionally, people build large pyramid sculptures for the annual event, but others, like Weidert, have used their creative energy to create sculpturesque bonfires.

Weidert, 33, of Sorrento, said his group, Blood, Sweat and Bonfires, has spent the past two months working on their latest creation. The creatures scales are fashioned from tree bark and the knots from the willow tree add to the texture of its spikes. The gators mouth is also controlled by a mechanism inside the beast, allowing its mouth to open and close.

Weidert has been building bonfires since he was a boy and has fond memories of sliding down the levee on cardboard and helping his father build the fires.

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

Over the years, since he took up building fires as a teenager, his work has evolved. Last year, he built a giant pelican, and in the past, a snapping turtle, a guitar and several others.

Though the fate of Weiderts creation will be inevitably reduced to ash, he said the experience of building the bonfire with friends and family, as well as the final photo of his work, gives him gratification.

"We're up here making memories," Weidert said. "If we didn't burn 'em down, it'd eventually rot away."

Recently, his work drew the attention of a national cable network, the DIY Network, which has been filming in the River Parishes for an upcoming segment on quirky traditions. The show is set to air next year.

+3 A 500-pound alligator head? Watch crews assemble a 72-foot gator for a holiday bonfire in Louisiana About a dozen men carefully wheeled a 500-pound alligator head down a ramp before attaching it to the more than 60-foot-long body made up of d

About 6 miles down La. 44, Corey Zeringue has been putting the final touches on a towering Santa Claus bonfire along the levee.

I look forward to it every year, said Zeringue, 31. It brings all the family and friends around.

The festival began to take off in popularity around the 1970s and eventually saw people create more elaborate bonfires, St. James Parish Council member Jason Amato said.

It's a Christmas tradition and another good bonfire is upon us," Amato said.

Though the parish doesn't keep track of how many trees are used each year, he said, they recommend builders use young willow trees because they grow back quickly.

Zeringue estimates it took 160 trees to make the 16-foot tall Santa.

As for the gator, Weidert said with a laugh: We didn't keep track, but we know it's a lot.
Louisiana's top school board Thursday asked Legislative Auditor Michael Waguespack to investigate emergency contracts issued by the state Department of Education amid controversy over two no-bid agreements that went to a former top official of the East Baton Rouge Parish School District.

The request covers contracts for 2021 and 2022, said Sandy Holloway, president of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which hires the state education superintendent. It says the 11-member board "has reasonable cause that warrants an investigation" without spelling out details.

"BESE is required by law to report any possible concern we have," Holloway said in an interview. "And that is the reason we are requesting the legislative auditor."

She added in a statement, "We have no actual evidence of any specific wrongdoing, which is why BESE has called up the legislative auditor as a precautionary measure."

After $342K contracts go to past school official, critics say it wasn't normal procedure State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley's push to award $342,000 in two "no-bid" contracts to a former top official of the East Baton R

Later in the day state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley, who pushed both contracts, took the unusual step of demanding that Holloway produce any evidence of wrongdoing by 5 p.m. on Friday.

"Let me be clear, I have no knowledge of any improper behavior or wrongdoing by LDOE staff," Brumley said in his message, a reference to the state Department of Education. "If something unethical has occurred within my agency, I need to know immediately so appropriate measures can be taken."

BESE hired Brumley 16 months ago, and a public spat between a superintendent and board president is highly unusual.

BESE spent part of Wednesday and Thursday discussing how broad the request should be, and Holloway said she signed the request on behalf of the full board.

The board did so after The Advocate | The Times-Picayune reported Brumley had pushed two no-bid contracts totaling $342,000 that went to Sharmayne Rutledge, who recently resigned as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

One of the contracts she received, an emergency agreement, is for $120,000 to review academic improvement plans submitted by Louisiana's 69 school districts and others. However, it has not been reviewed by BESE and caught Holloway by surprise even though she is supposed to sign it and the first $60,000 payment has already been approved for Invicta Consulting LLC, where Rutledge serves as chief executive officer.

Department officials said it was a no-bid agreement because it was covered by Gov. John Bel Edwards' emergency procurement rules sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

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

BESE last month approved another, $222,000 no-bid contract for Invicta that also has sparked scrutiny. It was not an emergency contract but was a no-bid agreement because the annual payments, $74,000 per year for three years, barely fell below the threshold that would have required bids, officials said.

That contract has raised ethics questions on how and when the agreement was made.

Rutledge did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

A statement issued Thursday by her attorney Gray Sexton says, "The contracts were properly administered by the Department of Education and as Dr. Rutledge has never been employed with the Department of Education, there is no concern that those contracts run afoul of any state ethics provision or other law."

Michael Melerine, a BESE member and Shreveport attorney, said Thursday he is not accusing anyone and the request stems from an abundance of caution. "Hopefully, it is something that will be worked out quickly and we can get the focus back on education and improving education and our kids," he said.

Preston Castille, a BESE member who lives in Baton Rouge, was described as unenthusiastic about the request.

"My caution was that we limit it (the request) to making sure we truly have a good understanding about whether both BESE and the Department of Education have a good process and are following it," Castille said.

Asked if he has any concerns about the contracts that went to Rutledge's consulting firm he said, "I know Dr. Rutledge. I think she is incredibly qualified to perform the services I understand she has been asked to provide."

"Based on the information I have received in the last couple of days there is no reason she should not have been awarded the contracts," Castille said.

Before Brumley was notified of BESE's request the department asked the legislative auditor to expand the scope of its current, routine audit to include a review of how emergency contracts are being handled.

The flap has gotten the attention of some legislative leaders, including House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales.

"Every state agency should be responsible and accountable with the tax dollars they spend," Schexnayder said in a statement. "Additional oversight in this regard is not a bad thing."
The president of the state school board Friday rebuffed a demand by state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley to provide him with evidence of possible wrongdoing in the issuance of emergency contracts by his agency.

Sandy Holloway, president of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, said any contracts involved in BESE's request for a state investigation are already in the possession of the state Department of Education.

"There is reason to believe that some of these emergency contracts may have been issued and/or paid (at least in part) without the necessary approval of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) or the BESE president," she wrote.

Brumley, in a written message Thursday to Holloway, demanded that Holloway provide him with information by 5 p.m. Friday behind BESE's request to Legislative Auditor Michael Waguespack for an investigation of how contracts have been handled by Brumley's agency.

State education leaders request probe of education contracts; Brumley demands evidence Louisiana's top school board Thursday asked Legislative Auditor Michael Waguespack to investigate emergency contracts issued by the state Depa

Whether and when Brumley will comment on the latest developments was unclear.

Holloway, on behalf of the full board, told Waguespack on Thursday the panel has "reasonable cause" to trigger an investigation.

The request is focused on contracts issued under Gov. John Bel Edwards' emergency rules, including no-bid arrangements justified by the coronavirus pandemic.

It is limited to a specific order issued by Edwards, possibly agreements approved since March 2020, in the early stages of the pandemic.

Two no-bid contracts totaling $342,000 issued by the department to a consulting firm operated by a former top official of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system are among those sparking scrutiny.

After $342K contracts go to past school official, critics say it wasn't normal procedure State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley's push to award $342,000 in two "no-bid" contracts to a former top official of the East Baton R

On Thursday Holloway issued a statement that said BESE's request stemmed from an abundance of caution and that board members have "no actual evidence of any wrongdoing."

On Friday she said, "Given the facts and out of an abundance of caution, we did what we are required to do. This has now been turned over for review."

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

The state law cited in BESE's request says, "An agency head of an auditee who has actual knowledge of or reasonable cause to believe that there has been a misappropriation of the public funds or assets of his agency shall immediately notify, in writing, the legislative auditor and the district attorney of the parish in which the agency is domiciled of such misappropriation."

"Reasonable cause shall include information obtained as a result of the filing of a police report, an internal audit or other source indicating such a misappropriation of agency funds or assets has occurred."

"The district attorney or other prosecutorial agency, notified of such misappropriation may request audit assistance from the legislative auditor with respect to the misappropriation," according to the law.

The notification to East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III is routine.

Waguespack said Friday he does not know how long the review will take.

He said he plans to meet with his staff about balancing resources between BESE's request and other, ongoing reviews due by Dec. 31.

The state Department of Education on Thursday asked Waguespack to expand an ongoing, routine audit of the agency's financial matters to include a review of how emergency contracts are handled.

Brumley also told BESE he plans to add "multiple agenda items" to the board's December meeting on the department's emergency procurement procedures and any findings submitted by Waguespack.

Holloway said despite the public flap she can work with Brumley.

"There is a working relationship," she said.
Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size It would be wrong to say Valerie Marshall Strong Olsen waited a long time for her retrospective. Any suggestion of waiting disappeared with the artists death 10 years ago. What makes this show at the National Art Schools Rayner Hoff Project Space so special is that it is also Olsens first-ever solo exhibition. Today, when artists are showing work and publishing catalogues before they graduate from art school, its an almost unimaginable career profile. Could it actually be called a career? Olsens story stands in dramatic contrast with that of her ex-husband, John Olsen, whose work may be seen in the NASs main gallery, in the survey, Goyas Dog (until November 27). John, still full of vigour at the age of 93, is this countrys best-known living artist. Brash and egocentric, he has had countless exhibitions and been included in every major Australian collection. Valerie (1933-2011) was all but invisible, but just as dedicated. Unsung life: An early 1970s portrait of Valerie Marshall Strong Olsen. The difference has been that John has lived his life in public and lapped up the applause, while Valerie seems to have approached art as an essentially private passion. She was notoriously unwilling to part with works and almost wilfully retiring. Almost everything in this exhibition, put together by her children, Louise and Tim Olsen, is still in family hands. In this #Metoo moment it would be easy to see Valerie as one of those stereotypically oppressed wives who sacrificed her own ambitions to those of husband, home and family. Theres an element of truth in this because John cast an almighty shadow and displayed the full set of masculine traits we now love to hate, but its not the whole story. If Valerie had wanted to have a career as an exhibiting artist she could have had one. Her work was good enough and if John were an obstacle  practical or psychological  that problem was removed when he left in the early 1980s. Deftly catching the wave of abstraction that was sweeping the planet: Olsens Afternoon Yarramalong (1963).

Advertisement

The decision not to show has its pros and cons for any artist. No deadline pressure or commercial imperatives allows for a good deal of freedom, but the trade-off means missing the inestimable stimulus of seeing your work on a gallery wall, where faults and weaknesses become immediately apparent. The title a rare sensibility comes from a remark by British artist, Alan Davie, who visited the Olsens in Australia and admired one of Valeries pictures. Theres an undoubted sensibility here but also a frustrating lack of development. Valerie had talent to burn but she acted as a lifelong student, constantly sampling and experimenting. I lost count of the number of other artists whose influence may be seen in these pictures  from Miro to the CoBrA school; from John Passmore and Godfrey Miller to the Surrealists, the French Tachistes and the American Abstract Expressionists. She cited Arshile Gorky as a particular inspiration. Small pictures from every period show Olsens quality as a painter. Its sad she never had the urge to push herself into the limelight. John McDonald on Valerie Marshall Strong Olsen Everything Olsen attempted was skilfully executed and embraced on a deep level. She didnt settle for superficial resemblances but entered fully into the spirit of each venture. Its the originality that goes missing  not because this is something innate to each person, but because she never seemed to persevere with a style of painting long enough to reach this plateau. Like her husband, she found excitement in Spanish painting: Encuentro Espanol, (c.1966). John Olsen was no less derivative, no less obvious in his influences, but ambition and determination drove him to break through to another level. His greatest works transcend comparisons with his peers. With Valerie, the avant-garde aspirations of paintings such as Undergrowth and Afternoon Yarramalong (both 1963), are rarely equalled in the later works. In these pictures, still ostensibly landscapes, she deftly catches the wave of abstraction that was sweeping the planet. In Encuentro Espanol (c.1966), Olsen shows that she could match it with her husband in reflecting the excitement they found in Spanish painting.

Advertisement

Valerie Marshall Strong Oksen, Banksias (1989). Later works such as Red Gums, Angophora Valley (1980) and Summer Pond (c.1985) show Olsen being prepared to continue working on a large scale, but she has grown much less assertive. These paintings are impressionistic studies that respond sensitively to the landscape, putting clusters of small brushstrokes against thinly painted fields of colour. Theres an overall feel to these interiorised paintings, which capture a mood rather than any specific scene. Shes more interested in tone than in composition. Capturing a mood rather than any specific scene: Valerie Marshall Strong Olsen, Red Gum, 1969. Loading There are small pictures from every period  mainly landscapes and still lifes  that show Olsens quality as a painter. Its a little sad she never had the urge to push herself into the limelight. Fortune in the visual arts tends to favour the aggressive, self-confident types, but for Olsen this would have gone completely against the grain. Then again, perhaps its unfair to expect all artists to be shouting, Look at me! We might be more appreciative of those who can temper their creative obsessions with demonstrably human qualities. William Kentridge, showing at Annandale Galleries, is an artist who confounds all the artistic attitudes Ive been discussing. Its a mark of Kentridges priorities that he still lives in Johannesburg when his international success would allow him to relocate to anywhere in the world. Hes genuinely self-effacing but possessed of a boundless ambition for his work. The key ingredient may be his interest in so many different areas: drawing, printmaking, animation, sculpture, puppetry, video, opera and other forms of large-scale performance. He comes to these disciplines with impressive knowledge of art, history, literature and politics. Hes willing to take risks and make unusual connections. Hes genuinely self-effacing but possessed of a boundless ambition for his work. The key ingredient may be his interest in so many areas. John McDonald on William Kentridge

Advertisement

Kentridges cerebral, multi-layered approach may not be to everyones taste but his achievements command universal respect. William Kentridge: Tapestries presents a series of large-scale pieces produced together with Marguerite Stephens, with whom the artist has been working since 2001. The tapestries in this show, which line the walls of the upstairs gallery, form a compact survey of his recent efforts in this medium. The earliest examples date from 2009, and there are two brand new pieces: Colleoni and Mechanic. Johannesburg-based William Kentridge in 2015. The tapestries incorporate ideas and motifs from a range of previous projects, including Kentridges production of Shostakovichs opera, The Nose, and the processional figures that have appeared in sculptures, performances and graphic work. Loading In most instances, images appear to be collaged over antique maps, although the relationships are not straightforward. In Colleoni, a spindly black silhouette of a horse and rider are overlaid on a map of a Chinese province. The title refers to Andrea del Verrocchios famous Equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni in Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Verrocchios statue is the epitome of the noble rider and a landmark in the history of sculpture, but Kentridge has transformed Colleoni into a toy soldier  a Don Quixote for an age when there is nothing noble about waging war. When death is dispensed by missiles and drones, a warrior on a horse is a laughable anachronism. William Kentridges Colleoni Credit:Annandale Galleries

Advertisement
My family never judged me  not to my face anyway. After I was published my brother, Jamie, said Ive got to apologise, weve been bitching about you for years and years, saying whens he going to get a real job! If you want to be a writer, you have to block out voices like that, anyway, but the fact that I didnt have those voices  Im really relieved about it. White, 40, has wanted to be a writer since he was a teenager, having an iron-clad plan to be a best-selling author by 25. That shifted because 25 came and went, so I changed it to 30, which also came and went, he says. When I went past 30 and there was still no career in sight, I made the decision to just focus on writing for the love it  I really do just love the craft. The Nowhere Child was the first manuscript (of five hed attempted) he thought was anywhere near good enough to show anyone. Before that, he says much of what he wrote was embarrassing. You can tell which author I was into because I was just copying their style  first it was Chuck Palahniuk; I was obsessed with him. Then came his Kurt Vonnegut obsession. I wrote a Kurt Vonnegut book, but a shit version. As well as years of practice, Stephen Kings On Writing, a memoir in which the horror legend offers advice to aspiring writers, was hugely inspiring. A lot of the lessons I knew instinctively, but I had to be told  like holding yourself accountable. I never had an issue with output; I never had writers block, he says. My issue was getting my stuff out there. I never showed anyone anything.

He also realised hed be better off writing the kinds of books hed like to read. Early on I was going to write deep, thoughtful novels  it wasnt until I started writing thrillers I went oh! Because I love reading thrillers, he says. Starters of green olives, celeriac and pickles from Transformers picnic hamper. Credit:Jason South I think Im a good writer in the sense that I know plot and character. Ill never be a beautiful writer, but I can write in a way thats compelling and entertaining, which is great. If you know Whites work, youll be familiar with his bombshell narrative twists. Clickbait, which evolved from a screenplay he wrote when he was studying screenwriting at RMIT in 2013 (White won a competition to have meet with production company Matchbox, and the work evolved from there) perhaps being the most infuriating example. Excellent, he says, delighted with my annoyance. There were some real red herrings in there. His latest book, Wild Place, is another pacy thriller, set in Australian bayside suburbia in 1989. When a teenager goes missing, one of the girls schoolteachers, Tom Witter, thinks he might hold the key to her disappearance, as rumours of Satanic rituals ripple through the neighbourhood.

White grew up on the Mornington Peninsula, and has since returned to live there, and the fictional Camp Hill in the book is loosely based on the area. Once I moved back there, I started to feel a little nostalgic, and ... I knew I wanted to write something set there and in my childhood era. Satanic panic, the widespread moral outrage that arose from conspiracy theories about Satanic cults committing abuse that originated in the US in the early 80s, is something White had been keen to use in one of his novels. But it wasnt until things like QAnon and the new conspiracy theories that I suddenly thought, oh, I am living through it now! Even though its different now because of social media, its about fear and outrage and  when youre scared, you have lower standards of evidence. It feels like QAnon is just an evolution of Satanic panic. Making that connection, White says, was a revelation. It was fun as I realised I could use this to inform the main character, Tom. A lot of people sharing this stuff are like, your aunt or uncle, just normal people who have got caught up. Tom is a nice guy whos just worried who then starts jumping at shadows, caught up in the pre-internet urban mythology of Satanic panic, his suspicions bolstered by teenage pastimes from the era like ouija boards and heavy metal bands preaching Satanism.

Loading Wild Place is another White book that you cant go into much detail about without giving something away. There are, of course, several about-faces. These narrative curveballs are usually in Whites mind before he shapes his stories, along with a rough plan of what I think are cool ideas. But ultimately, whats happened with all my books, I get halfway through and realise the twist isnt going to work. I have a rule where I always follow the characters  theyre allowed to do something stupid. Everyone does stupid things, but they cant do something thats completely out of character, completely plot-serving. His wife, Summer, reads his manuscripts first and, White says, often comes up with the best twists. So really, my process is, come up with a good plan, realise its not as good as I thought and get my wife to come up with the answers!

Receipt for Transformers picnic hamper Working our way through our banquet, weve talked authors (Ive just got into Don Winslow and also just discovered Harlan Coban, after a reader told me I was like him  so, lots of crime), the fact that most of Whites protagonists are women  something hes yet to cop flak for (but Im sure I will; I get the question a lot and my answer is not very satisfying  its just whoevers best to tell that story); fan emails (Most are lovely, like a woman reading The Wife And The Widow to her husband who had gone blind, but then Ill get mean, troll ones, as well. Or things like someone telling me that the lemon tree I mentioned in The Nowhere Child wouldnt have grown in that climate!) and of course, the porn-editing job. It wasnt, he says, proper editing, but removing scenes from international porn films so that they met Australian classification standards. Wed get the film that a screener had watched and theyd marked up things to change on a spreadsheet that wed cut out and cross-fade, he says. It was sort of traumatic in a strange way because theres a reason these things are censored in Australia, and it felt like you were supporting a darkness. I think theres a lot of positives in that industry, but theres a lot of darkness as well. That job was where he met Summer, and White concedes its a great where-did-you-meet story at parties. Already into his next novel (he has a four-book deal with Affirm), White is also working on another screenplay, Apartment 7A, with Natalie James, his Relic co-writer.

I love to flip between screenwriting and books, he says. It never feels like additional work, just different. After The Nowhere Child, White says everything turned around overnight, our lives did a complete 180, and he still cant believe it; even with looming deadlines, he couldnt be happier. I think a lot of people who want to be a writer dont actually enjoy it. Some people I studied with at RMIT seemed to find it a struggle, and I wanted to say, when you become a full-time writer, thats what you have to do all day! You have to enjoy it, and I really do, he says. Honestly, if Nowhere Child hadnt been published, I would still be doing this, just putting things in a drawer and going to my day job. Wild Place by Christian White (Affirm Press) is out now.
HOME SWEET HOME ALONE 

PG, 94 minutes, Disney+

Ive always been a little squeamish about the blend of gooey sentiment and brutal slapstick that defines the Home Alone film series  which is not to discount the appeal of seeing the young Macaulay Culkin inflict damage on his grown-up foes.

Max Mercer plays the abandoned Archie Yates in the Home Alone reboot, Home Sweet Home Alone.

Now 41 years old, Culkin wisely does not return for a cameo in the atrocious Home Sweet Home Alone, a sequel-cum-reboot that takes cynicism to a whole other level. Director Dan Mazer (Dirty Grandpa) can usually be counted on for crass provocation, but here you might be searching a long time for any kind of personal statement.

Rather, my guess is the bean-counters at Disney ran the numbers and determined that a brand new straight-to-streaming Home Alone would draw a sufficient number of eyeballs around Christmas, especially with a supporting cast loaded with beloved (or at least recognisable) TV comedy stars.
The standout Australian performer at COP26 has been the very popular coffee machine in the official pavilion. Its attracted an appreciative queue at all hours. Australia has shown very high ambition with its coffee game here in Glasgow, meeting and beating its targets and receiving net zero complaints from the hundreds of caffeine-hungry delegates.

Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor at the Australia pavillion during COP26 at Glasgow. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

But all the free coffee in the world is not going to cover for Australias utter failure to rise to the challenge at this global climate summit.

Were proud Australians. Our plucky country has been the source of many world-changing innovations. Australian ingenuity has helped beat cancers and restore hearing. Its helped drive down the cost of solar power. At our best, there is no challenge we cannot overcome. But in Glasgow at the UN climate talks, over these past two weeks, weve felt embarrassed.

Australias intransigence on climate makes us the outlier on the world stage, heckling from the wings. Almost every comparable developed economy brought a credible commitment to slash emissions at least 50 per cent by 2030 and a clear policy vision to back it up. We brought the Australian Way: a grab bag of slogans delivered by the Prime Minister to a near-empty hall and the Santos pop-up stall in our national pavilion  a state-sponsored promotional opportunity for a fossil fuel giant spruiking the fraudulent climate solution that is carbon capture and storage.
Last year I separated, turned 50 and bought a ute. All are unrelated, yet came as a sort of job lot of midlife crises that in some cosmic way has reshaped masculinity. Life upended, Im getting old, I have a ute. Previously, Id only ever owned one car. Im that bloke, on the bike. Ive dinked our little boy to and from school through the first years of his education  he rides side-saddle on the crossbar in all weathers, between my arms, bell-ringing when required, and I wish for it never to end. Its our happy place. Free-spirited, talk loosened by the shared movement.

Years ago, I bought a bicycle at a garage sale in Point Piper, a Sydney harbourside knob for the outrageously wealthy. It was a good bike  sold by the scion of a construction magnate to help fund a ski jaunt  barely used, though a size too small (as, unfortunately, were all his shoes). But with the seat post fully extended, his two wheels got me everywhere. Since about then Ive avoided car ownership, despite its place in the Australian way of life and how it might confer a type of manhood. Whats under the hood and all that.

I expect no second looks, and even less sex in the back seat (its too cramped, anyway, with the child booster seat). Credit:Stocksy

Only the US, among comparable nations, has higher vehicle ownership rates than Australias 717 per 1000 licensed drivers. Were a country of petrol heads. Our car-building industry has closed yet we buy more vehicles per capita than the great car-producing nations of Italy (679 per 1000), Japan (591), France (578), Germany (572), Sweden (520) and the UK (519). When Darryl Kerrigan in The Castle asks Steve to move the Camira  I need to get the Torana out so I can get to the Commodore  the humour is in part for a very real side-drive juggle.

I appreciate the romance of the road, of cars, their meaning and metaphor, but their secret language is largely lost on me. Unlike my closest friend and my former father-in-law  a random survey of two  both of whom own vintage Jaguars. Theirs is a sort of private mens club; the knowing, the automotive heritage, the sinuous body, the British racing green, pistons and valves, all that chrome trim and cowhide interior, rubbed and polished with a tenderness some men might find only in a garage. But an anchor point for the child seat?
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Earlier this year, Jenny Leong was facing life on the breadline. She was staring into the room of a house infested with cockroaches and mould. But the Greens MP for Newtown had the choice to walk away from the squalor  unlike the real tenant. She was supposed to bunk down with the family that night as part of the SBS program Could You Survive on the Breadline?, screening later this month. But it was a line she could not cross, and she stayed in cleaner digs. It was uninhabitable, she says. At the point where you have holes in your cereal boxes that are relatively new because the cockroaches have eaten through them. When you put a pizza box down and if you dont literally keep actively flicking the cockroaches away, they will eat the food in front of you. And when your child has cockroach bites on them, that is uninhabitable. Jenny Leong at Khamsa Cafe in Newtown. Credit:Rhett Wyman After a nine-day experiment trying to live on as little money as someone on welfare, Leong came to the conclusion that she could not survive on the breadline. No, and I dont think anyone should have to, she says. The Khamsa Cafe Jerusalem Bowl with hummus, baba ghanoush, quinoa, fattoush, falafel and cauliflower. Credit:Rhett Wyman Leong, 44, represents a constituency of great contrasts  one that reflects the depth of Australias housing crisis.

Advertisement

Newtown is an increasingly affluent electorate, populated by white-collar professionals who love its cosmopolitan cafe culture. It is a magnet for musicians, actors, media workers and middle-aged professionals who remember their days at Sydney University. The median house price is about $1.7 million and private rentals cost about $750 per week. But 90 per cent of the constituent problems Leong deals with are related to public housing. We meet for lunch on cafe-lined King Street at a Palestinian vegan cafe called Khamsa. We both order the Jerusalem Bowl  a rich mix of hummus, babaghanoush, quinoa, fattoush, cauliflower and falafels. While Leong has always felt at home on King Street, her experience on the SBS program showed her how unwelcome she would feel without enough money to buy a coffee or to shout someone a beer. The thing that I felt like was really a massive eye-opener for me was the sense of exclusion and isolation, she says. It was the first time Id had any taste of this nice street doesnt feel welcoming because I know I cant buy anything at the shops. For people I met in the show and people I interact with daily here in the electorate, there is no escape from that. Apart from her brief stint on the show, Leong has never lived in public housing. As a woman, she has experienced exclusion and racism. But other than the occasional racial comment in the playground which made her want blonde hair and blue eyes, her life growing up in Adelaide had felt safe and secure. She and her sister lived in a middle-class home with their parents, who had a family business. Their Malaysian Chinese father, Chris, had come to Australia as an international student and is still working. Their mother, Jan, an Anglo-Australian from Collingwood, is retired. Year 12 school photo of Jenny Leong

Advertisement

When Leong skipped a grade at her Catholic primary school, a teacher said it was because there werent enough chairs in her old classroom instead of telling her the real reason for the jump (she was very bright). After finishing high school at the age of 16, she enrolled in theatre studies at Flinders University, with dreams of becoming an actor. But after two years, her interest waned, and she deferred her third year. A visit to Sydney to see a friend turned into a permanent move after the bright lights and buzz seduced her. Ive always been a big-city person, she says. My parents were very disturbed that I had left university. I came over to Sydney to visit a friend and thought, why wasnt I born in this city? Leong started a full-time job waiting on tables at Sailors Thai restaurant in The Rocks where she met her partner of more than 20 years, Kristian Bolwell. They shared smokos together out the back. Apart from some grumpy suits who were rude to her while she served them, she loved the job and life in Sydney. Leong kept working at the restaurant after enrolling at Sydney University. She did an honours degree in performance studies and started a PhD after winning a scholarship. But by then, her interest in politics was taking over. I got more involved in refugee activism and less involved in my PhD, she says. And over a period of time, I realised I didnt want to be sitting in a room studying things and writing. I wanted to be interacting with people. Everything shifted from there. Former Prime Minister John Howards refugee policies had provoked her and Greens leader Bob Browns words inspired her move from refugee activism to party politics. But it wasnt what Brown had to say about the environment.

Advertisement

In the months leading up to the 2001 federal election, Brown had spoken out against John Howards decision to refuse a Norwegian freighter, the MV Tampa, permission to enter Australian waters. The vessel was carrying more than 400 mainly Afghan refugees who had been rescued from a distressed fishing boat. I was part of the Tampa generation, she says. There is a whole generation of people that joined the Greens because of that. For Leong, there wasnt enough to distinguish Labor from the Liberals on refugee policy, the invasion of Iraq or global warming. Bob Brown was saying the stuff that I wanted people to say. Thats why I got involved, she says. A younger Jenny Leong with Bob Brown and Adam Bandt. Within a few years of joining the Greens in 2001, Leong ran against Labors Tanya Plibersek in the 2004 federal election for the seat of Sydney and was unsuccessful. She worked for Amnesty International as a community campaigner from 2008 and took on a national role the following year. That led to a job as a crisis coordinator and campaign manager at Amnestys London office in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprising. Loading After a year in London, she took another job with Amnesty in Hong Kong, where she was eating noodles, trying to learn Mandarin and enjoying not being the only Asian in the room. But after three months living in a city where the high cost of housing rivals Sydneys, she returned to Australia to be with Bolwell, who was working for the pilots union as an employment lawyer.

Advertisement

I have been with him more of my life than I havent, she says. They have a five-year-old daughter, Scarlett, who starts school next year. The couple have had an unofficial wedding but are not legally married. They decided to wait until same-sex couples were given that right. But so far, theyve been too busy to make plans. After Leong returned from Hong Kong in late 2012, she managed the Greens federal election campaign in 2013. Two years later, when an electoral redistribution created the new state seat of Newtown, she felt her name was written all over it. She remembers looking at the draft map thinking that every place she had rented apart from one and every job in Sydney had been in the electorate, which includes Redfern, Erskineville and Newtown. Leong won the seat with a 4.6 per cent swing. Now more than six years later, she concedes the Greens are prone to the same kind of infighting that has divided the major parties. In the early 1990s, when the party was priming itself to be a significant third force in Australian politics, Brown predicted its support would grow because people were so disenchanted with the major parties. But it was Brown who later became disenchanted. He has criticised his old party in NSW as a long-term disappointment and accused former Greens senator Lee Rhiannon of introducing factionalism. Jenny Leong in Newtown. Credit:Rhett Wyman While she wishes it was different, Leong admits that internal clashes are a sad reality within the party. The left or the progressive side of politics is kidding themselves if they think they are immune to that, she says.

Advertisement
A man has suffered a gunshot wound to his leg and four people have been arrested after an incident on the Gold Coast.

Police said a 27-year-old man from Holland Park in Brisbanes south was driving a hired black 2020 Mercedes-Benz on Thursday night when it was allegedly stolen by two men he had met up with.

About midday on Friday, two other men, one of whom was known to the 27-year-old, lured him to a high-rise unit on Lawson Street in Southport on the Gold Coast to negotiate payment for the return of the vehicle.

Police said an altercation occurred inside the unit and the 27-year-old suffered a gunshot wound to his upper right leg.
A man has faced court charged with culpable driving causing death and hit-run offences over a crash this week in Melbournes south-east that killed a traffic controller and seriously injured another, and failed in a bid to have his name suppressed.

Police on Thursday arrested two men, aged 30 and 25, over the crash in Carrum Downs on Tuesday morning that killed Timmy Rakei, 44, who was working as a traffic controller when he was hit by a Holden Commodore about 7.15am. He died at the scene.

The scene of the crash at Carrum Downs. Credit:Nine News

Mr Rakeis colleague, a 38-year-old man, was also hit and suffered serious injuries that required surgery. Police said he was released from the Royal Melbourne Hospital on Thursday.

Detectives on Friday charged Jason Mark Ruscoe, 30, with 14 offences including culpable driving causing death, negligently causing serious injury, reckless conduct endangering life, failing to stop after an accident and failing to render assistance.
The public hearings running this week are part of an inquiry called Operation Watts into allegations of corrupt conduct involving Victorian public officers, including members of parliament.

Fridays hearing will be the final one after five weeks of grillings.

The investigation is run jointly by the Victorian Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Victorian Ombudsman and its remit includes allegations of branch stacking in the Victorian Labor Party, as first revealed in an investigation by The Age and 60 Minutes last year.

Branch stacking is an organised method of accumulating internal power in a party by recruiting, and usually paying the fees for, new members.

But its much more pointed than just that. The real question is whether public officers, including Victorian members of parliament, are engaging in corrupt conduct by directing ministerial or electorate office staff to perform partypolitical work when they should instead be doing ministerial or electorate work.

It will also look at whether public money given by the Victorian government as grants to community associations, has been redirected and misused to fund partypolitical activities, or for any other improper purposes. It will ask if ministers or others involved in granting the funds have dishonestly performed their functions or knowingly or recklessly breached public trust.

The inquiry will look into whether any public officer, their families or their associates, received a personal benefit from these things, and looks at what systems and controls are in place to monitor these money flows.

The hearing is expected to go for at least four weeks. Its overseen by IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich, QC, and run by counsel assisting Chris Carr, SC.
There are concerns Western Australia will fall short of its 90 per cent double-dose vaccination target with data revealing one in eight people remain hesitant to get the jab and a drop in uptake since sweeping vaccine mandates were announced.

WA requires about 184,000 of its 405,000 unvaccinated people to get immunised to reach its reopening target, which the state government anticipates will happen in late January or early February.

However, a survey undertaken by the Melbourne Institute showed nearly 288,000 West Australians  or 13 per cent of those eligible  remained hesitant to get the vaccine.

The data also revealed an up-tick in hesitancy the day after WA Premier Mark McGowan announced mandatory vaccines for 75 per cent of the states 1.4 million-strong workforce on October 20.
The federal government is preparing to shake up how Australians visit the GP, with a plan to get patients to register with a single medical practice.

Under the voluntary patient registration scheme to launch in July, doctors could get incentive payments to improve patients health, in addition to Medicare rebates, with telehealth restricted to those who sign up.

RACGP President Karen Price says patient registration could improve access to GPs. Credit:Simon Schluter

Walking groups and cooking classes in doctors surgeries for overweight patients are some of the initiatives being explored under a mixed funding model for registered patients, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners President Karen Price said.

Particularly for people with chronic health conditions it makes sense because we can then coordinate their care plans, Dr Price said.
The Liberal Party will call for candidates to contest the key Sydney seat of Bennelong amid fears it could lose the seat after former tennis champion John Alexander announced he would leave politics at the federal election.

Mr Alexander ended months of speculation about his future by telling constituents on Friday afternoon he would not contest the election.

Liberal MP John Alexander will not contest the next election. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Potential contenders for Liberal Party selection to contest the seat include tech executive and former political adviser Gisele Kapterian and City of Sydney councillor Craig Chung.

I make this announcement now in fairness to those who may be interested in nominating for party preselection, Mr Alexander said in an email to supporters and constituents in Bennelong on Friday.
He didnt say apartheid was bad or immoral but that he had decided it wasnt going to work, said Herman J. Cohen, who held talks with de Klerk during that tumultuous time as the US State Departments top Africa adviser in the administration of president George H.W. Bush. Former president and leader of the National Party F. W. de Klerk, discusses his resignation below a mural of the new South African flag in 1997. Credit:AP With its web of insidious laws doling out rights, privileges and even meal sizes in prisons based on skin colour, apartheid was not easy to undo; ending it required years of legislative action and significant national angst. But when de Klerk in 1990 announced the lifting of the 30-year ban on the African National Congress and the release from prison of its most prominent leader, Mandela, he set in motion a transformation so powerful that it quickly pushed him to the margins. Mandela would trample de Klerk in presidential elections just four years after winning his freedom. Even as Mandela invited de Klerk into his transitional government as second deputy president, de Klerk struggled with his diminished role and eventually quit. He then sought to transform the National Party, which his grandfather had helped create, from a white-dominated organisation into a multiracial one with the clout of the ANC, but those efforts fizzled. Frustrated by internal party tensions and criticism from the countrys Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated the countrys past, de Klerk announced his retirement from politics in 1997.

De Klerk and Mandela shared the peace prize in 1993, cited for their joint efforts at remaking the country, although their relationship was less harmonious than it seemed. De Klerk complained in his autobiography, The Last Trek  A New Beginning, that he felt underappreciated and at times was openly attacked by Mandela during celebrations surrounding the award. FW de Klerk, right, and Nelson Mandela pose with their Nobel Peace Prize Gold Medal and Diplomas, in Oslo, in 1993. Credit:AP I was seething, he wrote of a frank speech Mandela made in Sweden after the prize ceremony. It was only with the greatest self-control that I once again managed to bite my tongue and not shatter once and for all the illusion that there was a cordial relationship between me and Mandela. He added: It was ironic that we had both travelled so far to be granted the worlds highest accolade for peace and reconciliation  while the relationship between us was characterised by so much vitriol and suspicion. In his own autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela characterised his relationship with de Klerk as one born of necessity. To make peace with an enemy, he wrote, one must work with that enemy, and that enemy becomes ones partner.

Although the two men would become symbols of racial harmony, their likenesses sold in South African shops on T-shirts and as salt and pepper shakers, Mandela was circumspect in his praise of de Klerks role in ending apartheid. A hearse leaves the home of former South African president F.W. de Klerk in Cape Town on Thursday. Credit:AP Despite his seemingly progressive actions, Mandela wrote, Mr. de Klerk was by no means the great emancipator. He was a gradualist, a careful pragmatist. He did not make any of his reforms with the intention of putting himself out of power. He made them for precisely the opposite reason: to ensure power for the Afrikaner in a new dispensation. Loading Frederik Willem de Klerk was born in Johannesburg on March 18, 1936, to a family steeped in the politics of the Afrikaners, descendants of the Dutch and Huguenot settlers who arrived in southern Africa in the 17th century. His father, Jan de Klerk, a headmaster, became a Cabinet member under three prime ministers and president of the senate. His uncle, Hans Strijdom, a fervent advocate of apartheid, was prime minister in the 1950s.

His grandfather, also named Willem, was a proud Afrikaner, having been arrested on treason charges by the British before becoming a minister and a founding member of the National Party. Politics, de Klerk wrote in his autobiography, was in my blood. Loading Trained as a lawyer at Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, de Klerk became a member of Bothas cabinet and of B.J. Vorsters administration before that. He sometimes sided with racial hardliners within his party, and he was one of the cabinet ministers who went to Botha in 1986 and demanded that foreign minister Roelof F. Botha be ordered to recant a prediction that South Africa might one day have a black president. In his book Move Your Shadow, Joseph Lelyveld, a former executive editor of The New York Times who had reported from South Africa as a correspondent for the paper, recalled asking de Klerk, then a young cabinet member, about the death in police custody of a white man accused of sympathising with the ANC. De Klerk told of being angry upon learning of the death. Why? I knew how it would be used against us, he said.
Washington: The US is raising the alarm with European Union allies that Russia may be weighing a potential invasion of Ukraine as tensions flare between Moscow and the bloc over migrants and energy supplies.

With Washington closely monitoring a build-up of Russian forces near the Ukrainian border, US officials have briefed EU counterparts on their concerns over a possible military operation, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

The US is worried Russia is planning another military intervention. Credit:Bloomberg

The assessments are believed to be based on information the US hasnt yet shared with European governments, which would have to happen before any decision is made on a collective response, the people said. Theyre backed up by publicly available evidence, according to officials familiar with the administrations thinking.

Russia says military deployments on its territory are an internal matter and it denies any aggressive intentions, while accusing the US of provocation by sailing warships in the Black Sea close to its territory this week.
Much ink has been spilled about the chasm between social media and reality: That "influencer" who seems to wake up every morning on the beach is actually putting old photos on timer while occupying a basement apartment in Queens. But such dishonest self-promotion isn't a new invention. In fact, it might have been easier to mask the truth in the time before everyone carried around a movie studio in their phone. That's certainly the case for the characters populating Jocelyn Bioh's comedy, Nollywood Dreams, now reopening MCC Theater with gales of laughter.

It is set in Lagos in the early '90s, when direct-to-video movies were all the rage in Nigerian cinema. Gbenga Ezie (Charlie Hudson III) is a big-shot director who allegedly turned down several American offers in order to produce his new movie, The Comfort Zone, in his native Nigeria. But who will play the lead role of Comfort Aleshinloye, long-suffering wife to a no-good cheater who has gone to study film in New York? The obvious choice would be established Nollywood actress Fayola Ogunleye (Emana Rachelle), but her star has been on the wane for years. What if Gbenga takes a risk on Ayamma Okafor (Sandra Okuboyejo), a fresh face presently languishing at her parents' travel agency? It only sweetens the deal that whoever gets this role will star opposite heartthrob Wale Owusu (Ade Otukoya). Let the backstage backstabbing begin.

Emana Rachelle plays Fayola in Jocelyn Bioh's Nollywood Dreams.

( Daniel J. Vasquez)

If that description has led you to expect Nigeria's answer to All About Eve or Showgirls, I apologize. Nollywood Dreams never climbs to the summit camp of those classics, although Bioh allows us to glimpse down several pathways by which it could: Who exactly did Gbenga meet in America, and how autobiographical is his screenplay? What role does publicity play in his decision? And why would Fayola bring up the specter of the "Nigerian Prince" e-mail scam in relation to Gbenga's work, suggesting that his films are just a front for a more lucrative business? Unfortunately, Bioh leaves these as open questions, never allowing the comic stakes to mount before the central conflict is settled by a deus ex machina. It's hard not to feel a little disappointed by the squandered potential.

And yet what Bioh does well, she does really well, which is to dramatize the interplay between West African lives and the cultural hegemony of the United States. In her 2017 play, School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play that meant reversing the formula of the Tina Fey movie to comment on the Western notions of beauty exported to Africa. Here, it is about the fibs immigrants tell the folks back home to justify their decision to move, and the suspicion of the diaspora this engenders.

Charlie Hudson III plays Gbenga, and Abena plays Adenikeh in Nollywood Dreams at MCC Theater.

( Daniel J. Vasquez)

Nowhere is that story clearer than during frequent interviews with Adenikeh, Nigeria's queen of daytime talk. As deliciously portrayed by Abena, she's a cross between Oprah Winfrey and Robin Leach, a posh lilt to her voice lubricating the passage of her next impertinent question. When Gbenga mentions that he felt artistically constricted in America, she leans in with a ravenous follow-up, eager to hear a vindication of her own decision to stay a big fish in Nigeria. And yet Gbenga's mere proximity to America, several years about which he is not being very honest, gives him cachet as Nigeria's hottest young director. Bioh and director Saheem Ali capture this love-hate dynamic with clarity and precision.

Bioh also provides the actors sturdy platforms in the characters she writes. Nana Mensah makes a riotous turn as Ayamma's sister, Dede. From the opening moment of the play, when we see her squeezing great gobs of honey into her tea, we know she's going to be a trip. Okuboyejo's Ayamma is sweet, but perhaps more ambitious than she lets on. Donning an ever-changing array of wigs (by Nikiya Mathis) and outlandish outfits (by Dede Ayite), Rachelle's Fayola has long relinquished any pretense of modesty. She's not here to make friends; she's here to win. The performers keep us laughing throughout, grounding their characters' eccentricities in real objectives and insecurities.

Ade Otukoya plays Wale Owusu in Nollywood Dreams.

( Daniel J. Vasquez)

The design supports and enhances already funny performances: Arnulfo Maldonado's set delivers bougie '90s realness while transforming into a variety of locations. David Weiner and Jiyoun Chang easily facilitate those transformations through lighting. And projection designer Alex Basco Koch has spliced together a truly hilarious trailer for The Comfort Zone.

Nollywood Dreams isn't the sidesplitting comedy of the year, but it will keep you laughing throughout an amusing and zippy 90 minutes.
2021 Lincoln Nautilus Review By Larry Nutson

2021 Lincoln Nautilus

Quiet Flight

By Larry Nutson

Executive Editor and Bureau Chief

Chicago Bureau

The Auto Channel

The past year, and then some, has certainly been a tough one for automakers with the effects on business from the Covid-19 pandemic and most recently the microprocessor supply shortage. In spite of it all Lincoln sales are up 23 percent overall.

Lincolns Nautilus 5-passenger midsize utility vehicle is also seeing a sales increase with purchases up eleven percent in the first half of 2021. I last drove the Nautilus in 2019 when the updated version hit the streets with its new name as the successor to the Lincoln MKX.

The 2021 Nautilus is freshened and further refined following Lincolns Quiet Flight design philosophy. On the outside theres a new front fascia. In the cabin theres an all-new instrument panel design and a new Sync 4 infotainment system and a 13.2-inch touchscreen. A horizontal piano-key layout is used for gear selection with easily accessible audio and climate controls located just below.

Lincolns Phone As A Key smartphone capability using the Lincoln Way app is also new. You can lock, unlock and start the vehicle without the usual key fob. Opening the rear liftgate, raising or lowering windows, and locating the Nautilus in a parking lot by activating the horn and lights is also possible.

The new Nautilus comes standard with Lincoln Co-Pilot360 and available Lincoln Co-Pilot360 Plus which features a 360-degree camera with a front sensing system, Adaptive Cruise Control with stop-and-go and lane-centering technology, Distance Alert/Distance Indication and Enhanced Active Park Assist and Evasive Steering Assist.

Nautilus is offered in Standard and Reserve trims powered by a 250-hp turbo 2.0-L 4-cylinder mated to an 8-speed automatic. Both trims are available with front-wheel or all-wheel drive. A top-of-the-line Black Label trim is powered by a 335-hp twin-turbo 2.7-L V6 also with an 8-speed automatic and is offered only with all-wheel drive.

EPA fuel economy ratings range from 19 to 22 city mpg and 25 or 26 highway mpg depending on engine and drive set-up.

Pricing starts at $42,500 for the Standard trim. The Reserve is priced at $49,550 and the Black Label at $65,090. Destination charge is an additional $995.

For this 2021 Nautilus drive experience I drove a Black Label trim finished in Flight Blue on the outside with the Chalet Theme leather cabin finish. Fitted options included a Cargo Utility Package ($365), Mini spare wheel/tire ($150), Roof-rack side rails in satin finish ($195), and Ultra Comfort 22-way power front seats ($1,500). The total hit $68,295 with the $995 destination fee.

My wife and I road-tripped the Nautilus from Chicago and the shores of Lake Michigan across lower Michigan to the shores of Lake St. Clair for a family event. Immediately noticeable is the quietness of the cabin making for ease of conversation and music enjoyment. We both really enjoyed and appreciated the 22-way front seats with their power thigh extenders and air cushions with their massage function.

The new Sync 4 infotainment system with its large touchscreen is within close reach and easy to use. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capability made for some podcast listening. The 19-speaker Revel Ultima audio system delivered clear and crisp sounds as we changed music genres along our route.

The cabin is plenty roomy. Cargo capacity is 37.2 cu.ft. and increases to 68.8 cu.ft. with the rear seat folded. The rear hatch is hands-free foot-activated. Trailer tow rating is 3,500 lbs.

Overall the Nautilus is relaxing to drive. Its 190-inch length makes it nicely suitable for in-city driving. And with the 360-degree camera parking maneuvers become a breeze without any bumper dings. Ride and handling, steering, and braking are well balanced for comfort and yet with good response. The V6 delivers plenty of performance for every driving situation. On our road trip we easily achieved 26-27 mpg while driving at Michigan interstate speeds.

More information and details on the 2021 Lincoln Nautilus can be found at www.lincoln.com.

To make ownership a bit easier Lincoln provides pickup and delivery for dealer service.

The Lincoln Motor Company ranks first among luxury brands in the most recent J.D. Power Sales Satisfaction Index, which measures satisfaction with the sales experience among new vehicle buyers and rejecters.

Coincidentally, a Gen-Y son-in-law of ours drives a new Nautilus and is pleased with its overall character and driving dynamics. Hes a repeat customer, as it replaced his 3-year-old MKX.

Happy motoring!

 2021 Larry Nutson, the Chicago Car Guy
Toyota Invest In West VIrginia Contribution To Electrified Future

$240 Million Investment to Bring New, Dedicated Hybrid Line to Putnam County

BUFFALO, W.Va. (November 11, 2021)  Long known for providing the get-up-and-go for many of Toyotas most popular vehicles, Toyota West Virginia (TMMWV) announced today a new $240 million investment to add a dedicated production line of hybrid transaxles.

The new hybrid transaxle line investment will provide new equipment and operational upgrades to modernize the facility. One important result of the new line is that it will allow TMMWV team members to diversify their skillset and play a larger role in Toyotas future producing electric vehicles in North America.

Toyota West Virginia is preparing for future market needs as demand increases in the area of vehicle electrification, said Srini Matam, president of TMMWV. The investment will fund targeted improvements that will increase our flexibility and competitiveness, allowing us to be in a better position to directly respond to shifting customer demand for higher efficiency vehicles.

What is A Hybrid Transaxle?

Hybrid vehicle systems combine two separate sources of propulsion or motive power, such as an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, to take advantage of their respective benefits while also compensating for their respective limitations. While a hybrid system adds vehicle mass with the addition of components and is more complex than a conventional vehicle, the same system allows the vehicle to be more efficient and a hybrid transaxle can effectively transfer power seamlessly between the engine, electric motor and wheels in any number of combinations.

Carbon Neutral Commitment

Toyota has committed to offering an electrified option across its entire lineup of both Toyota and Lexus vehicles by 2025. Advancing its production of electrified vehicles and their components, such as these hybrid transaxles, plays a part in helping Toyota to achieve its goals for carbon neutrality.

In fact, alternative-powered vehicles (APVs)  made up of hybrids, plug-ins, fuel cells and batteries  are nothing new for Toyota, as the company has put more electrified powertrains on U.S. roads than all other automakers combined and has remained the leading manufacturer and seller of APVs for 21 consecutive years.

West Virginias Leading Role

Toyotas West Virginia team has and continues to play an active and important role in Toyotas manufacturing operations in the U.S., through a series of expansions and updates since it was established.

This project is more than just a new product. It demonstrates the need for TMMWV and our path forward as we increase our powertrain capabilities to better support Toyota Motor North Americas growing manufacturing footprint by building vehicles where we sell, adds Matam.

Todays announcement comes on the heels of another recent plant expansion. In February, TMMWV announced a $210 million investment and added 100 new jobs to expand capacity of its four-cylinder and V6 engine lines.

Toyota has long been an outstanding corporate partner and engine for economic growth in our state, said West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice. Im proud knowing that itll be West Virginians helping lead the way as Toyota continues to invest in future technologies and products thatll help get our friends and neighbors to their destinations more efficiently and safer than ever before.

Senator Joe Manchin, former governor of West Virginia, had the following thoughts on todays news.

Every year on Veterans Day, Im honored to pay tribute to our Veterans who gave so much to protect our nation and to our Gold Star families. Our brave Veterans are the glue that holds our nation, our state and our communities together. Their service and sacrifices will never be forgotten. Toyota Manufacturing West Virginia has been a strong partner for 25 years, and their commitment to employing our Veterans when they return home and investing in Veterans organizations through generous donations shows their dedication to the Mountain State and our people. Todays special commemoration shows that Americans and West Virginians love our Veterans and those who have sacrificed for our great country. May God continue to bless our great state and all those who fought to keep our nation free, Manchin said.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito said she was delighted by the announcement, and she looks forward to seeing Toyota continue to thrive in West Virginia.

Toyotas presence in West Virginia represents more than just good jobs. Its also a company that has committed to improving our economy and investing in our workforce for more than two decades. Im thrilled that the Buffalo plant is making this meaningful investment, which demonstrates the companys ability to continue incorporating additional technologies that will advance their production. West Virginia has a long and productive relationship with Toyota, and this announcement today further solidifies their commitment to investing in our state and our workers, Senator Capito said. In the meantime, I will continue doing all I can to make sure our West Virginia workers  like those at the Toyota Buffalo plant  are protected. Earlier this week, I made my intentions known to put forth an amendment that would eliminate an unfair special interest subsidy in the Democrats reckless tax-and-spend spree should the legislation move forward. We should not be prioritizing some American workers over others, and this amendment will allow our hardworking West Virginians to compete on a level playing field.

TMMWV annually produces about 1 million engines and transmissions for many North American-assembled vehicles. This year marks its 25th anniversary from groundbreaking, and it has since been expanded or received new investment 11 times.

In addition to todays investment announcement, Toyota celebrated Veterans Day by recognizing veterans employed at the plant and by making three donations to local veterans support groups. Toyota donated $75,000 each to Gold Star Mothers of West Virginia, The Fisher House at the Hershel Woody Williams VA Medical Center in Huntington and The Woody Williams Foundation.
Protestors at the Young Americans for Freedom event had a variety of signs and were representing a variety of causes.
Mark Twain is often given credit for the quote, History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme. The quote emphasizes that events do not always unfold in the same way, but they often unfold in similar ways. The tale of Chinas military ambitions as a great power, just now starting to
Up for debate:

Live legislation tracker

Check out the latest developments on bills pending before state lawmakers in four key topics.
Jenzy Guzman wears a mask to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus while loading his truck while making deliveries to restaurants in the Old Port, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020, in Portland, Maine.
This map shows how the new elementary school will pull from neighboring schools. Photo courtesy of CMS
Community mourns death of Makaili James "Mak" Evans, GoFund me over $23K

The community of Cheyenne is mourning the tragic death of Makaili James "Mak" Evans, 13, of Cheyenne, who passed away Friday, Nov 5. Public visitation is from 12-6 p.m., today (Friday, Nov 12) at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with a memory service at the church at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, November 13.

According to police reports, on Friday at about 7 a.m. Mak was struck by a vehicle while attempting to cross Western Hills Boulevard at the crosswalk near McCormick Junior High School. He died a short time later at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.

A verified Go Fund Me page has been set up to help the family, and it has raised over $23,000 as of press time. This web address is https://gofund.me/2c03e4e6.

The page says  our community lost a young bright light, Makaili James Evans. His family, those who went to school with him, and the town as a whole were all in a collective shock. As a 13-year-old boy your future thoughts are anything but what faced young Makaili, that brisk Wyoming morning. This is when we step up and live the Cowboy Strong motto. When we lend a helping hand to the family of such a beautiful soul who needs us now more than ever. If you never met Makaili you really missed out, but if you ever meet someone who knew him, you're meeting a piece of his heart. Every single time someone had an encounter with him, they were left forever changed.

I simply can't sum up what a phenomenal young man Makaili was but if you never got the chance to meet him, here's a few fun facts about him :)!

Makaili loved watching movies, listening to music, playing video games, camping, fishing, hiking, and campfires. One of his favorite hobbies was riding his bike and hanging out with his friends as often as time allowed! If you didnt catch him doing any of the above, then youd be sure to find yourself at the receiving end of a great comedic prank! Some of his best pranks (in my opinion) were talking his family into taking him out to dinner and then ordering the most expensive item on the menu. Smart kid if you ask me! His joyful personality and pursuit to make his friends and family laugh and smile was his mission. There wasnt a day that would go by where even the smallest interaction with Makaili wouldnt lead to your biggest smile.

At the age of just 13, Makaili began to find his passion in life as he watched his older brother Kaiser from afar develop his talents in film and photography. As any little brother does, Makaili strapped himself to his brothers hip and tried to learn as much as he could so that he might share in his brothers ventures. As the days have slowly drawn on since his passing, the days in Cheyenne have seemed brighter. How might you ask can days seem brighter if we lost such a young bright light. Well, thats just it. His light is so bright, and his smile shined so far that as we mourn below in our physical shells, Makailis smile and warmth shines down on us all, wrapping us in a blanket of love letting his family and us know hes okay and with us each and every day.

Makailis immediate household family, Clifton and Janelle Jones, along with his older brother Kaiser Cunningham. would like to extend their thanks and appreciation for the outpouring of love and support from the community. Every note, every hug, every single time youve extended your hand in effort to help them in this time of need has meant everything to them. Im sure as you can imagine, the stories of anyones experience with Makaili has helped tremendously over the last few days. Especially his peers and friends who started the #4Mak, and #ForMak movement, your small action to memorialize a young child has offered strength and courage to those whove needed it most. To continue honoring him, please use a red porch light in the coming days to spread awareness of what a beacon of hope he was in the all the lives of those he touched.

Heres where we come together to help, and truly LIVE the Cowboy Strong Motto. As you can imagine with any death, comes unexpected expenses, hospital bills, and funds for a memorial to be set up at a later date. Please consider donating to Makailis family in their time of need, this is a family who would give the shirts of their backs to help anyone. They need us, now.

The family wants to ensure that all donors know they are simply appreciative of any form of donation at this time. There was a wave of community involvement to help and a Go Fund Me was a smooth approach to involving as many people as possible without bombarding the family at such a stressful time.

Services for Mak are under the care of Schrader, Aragon & Jacoby funeral home in Cheyenne.
Instant unlimited access to all of our E-Editions and content on thechronicleonline.com.

The Chronicle E-Edition Newsletter emailed to you each week, the night before the paper hits the street!

This subscription is for NEW or RENEWING online subscribers.

(The charge will appear as "Country Media Inc." on your credit card statement)
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Submit Here
New Details posted at 2:15 p.m. Nov. 13.

The Oregon State Police have released the following update.

Oregon State Police (OSP) requests your continued prayers and support as we care for one of our own, Trooper John Jeffries and his family.

Jeffries has dedicated his life to public service, but even more to his community. For the last 28 years, John has volunteered in various capacities at his church, the American Red Cross, and as a board member of a non-profit out of Tualatin, Oregon.

The extent and severity of Trooper Jeffries injuries are being determined. His medical team will continue to monitor, evaluate and treat his visible injuries and the internal trauma caused as a result of the incident

All Troopers recognize the risk we face each time we don our uniforms and report for duty, but accepting that risk does not make the fight Trooper Jeffries is currently battling any easier," OSP Superintendent Terri Davi said. "As minutes, hours and days go by, our prayers and support are with Trooper Jeffries and his family.".

OSP would like to thank the Columbia County Sheriffs Office, the Washington County Sheriffs Office, the FBI of Portland, the Portland Police Bureau as well as all of the first responders who were on scene, and the many medical professionals at the hospital.

FBI Statement

Twenty-five years ago, Trooper Jeffries took an oath of office as FBI Special Agent Jeffries. As a young man, he joined the FBI with a mission to serve his country. As a case agent, pilot, firearms instructor, and SWAT team member, John served with honor. He was an agents agent  first in the door and always doing the right thing in the right way. He was a respected leader, and his retirement in 2016 was a loss for the FBI.

Johns call to service didnt end there, though. This year, John was driven by a sense of duty and purpose to join OSP as a new trooper, completing Oregons law enforcement academy alongside men and women who were as much as 30 years his junior.

There are only two things John loves more than his law enforcement service  his family and his faith. Today and every day, OSP and the FBI will care for John and his family as he has cared for us. We are extremely grateful to the OSP, their leadership, and the OSP family, as they circle around Trooper Jeffries. The FBI joins OSP in asking the public for their love and support for John and his family as he recovers from these serious injuries. Please also give this family the privacy and space it needs to nurture his recovery.

Update 2 posted at 3:30 a.m. Nov. 13

Investigators from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office have release new details concerning a pursuit and crash that sent an Oregon State Police (OSP) trooper to the hospital in critical condition.

On the afternoon of November 11, OSP troopers, Columbia County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) deputies, and Rainier Police had been engaged in a short pursuit with a suspect fleeing from a criminal incident in Longview, WA. That pursuit was later terminated.

Shortly after the pursuit was terminated, OSP Trooper John Jeffries was struck on Highway 30 milepost 31 west of St. Helens. The suspect vehicle rammed an OSP patrol car, which then struck Trooper Jeffries.

The trooper was taken by ground ambulance to Emanuel Hospital in Portland and remained in critical condition as of late Friday night, Nov. 12.

The suspect was taken into custody and transported to the hospital, where he was being treated for injuries he sustained as a result of the crash.

Details about the criminal incident that led to the pursuit and the identity of the suspect had not been released by authorities at the time of this update.

CCSO joins the FBI and OSP in asking that you keep Trooper Jeffries, his family, and his friends in your prayers as he recovers from these serious injuries.

The investigation is ongoing and being handled by the Columbia County Sheriffs Office, the Columbia County District Attorney's Office, the Washington County Major Crimes Team, and the Washington County Crash Analysis Reconstruction Team.

Update posted at 10:30 a.m. The following information has been provided by Oregon State Police.

The Oregon State Police Trooper, who was injured in the police incident on highway 30, has been identified as Trooper John Jeffries. Trooper John Jeffries started with the Oregon State Police in March of 2021, after retiring from the FBI after 20 years of service. Trooper Jeffries is currently duty stationed at the St. Helens worksite.

Trooper Jeffries and his wife have spent the last 25 years in Portland, Oregon where they raised their two sons. Trooper Jeffries has spent his life in service to the public. The Oregon State Police asks that you respect the familys privacy at this time. We also ask for your prayers for Trooper Jeffries, his family, his friends as well as the entire OSP family.

Previous coverage posted at 5:30 a.m.

An Oregon State Police (OSP) Trooper was rushed to a Portland hospital in critical condition after he was stuck by a fleeing driver during a pursuit.

OSP released limited details of the incident that unfolded along Highway 30 four miles north of St. Helens. According to OSP, at approximately 3:31 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, OSP Troopers were involved in a police incident involving a fleeing suspect on Highway 30 milepost 31 west of St. Helens. OSP said the suspect vehicle rammed an OSP patrol car and struck an OSP Trooper.

A Life Flight helicopter was requested by responding officers at the scene, but due to adverse weather conditions, the helicopter was not immediately available. The trooper was taken by ground ambulance to Portland's Emanuel Hospital in critical condition. The identity of the trooper has not been released.

Details about the fleeing driver also had not been immediately released by investigators.

The investigation is being handled by the Columbia County Sheriffs Office. The Chronicle has reached out to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office for additional information.

Multiple police and medical crews responded to the scene of the incident. Highway 30 was shut down for several hours. The highway was reopened at approximately 1:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 12.

Follow this developing story at thechronicleonline.com.
 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.
This is the temporary subscription pass for users returning from the Vision Data subscription process. Your subscription will be updated within 24 hours, after your information is verified. Please click the button below to get your pass.
Once Halloween is over, game on!

Lets sit down for a nice Thanksgiving meal first.

Ill get some decorations up just in time for Santas arrival.

Bah hum-bug!

Vote

View Results
Oneonta, NY (13820)

Today

Rain and snow showers in the morning. Then becoming partly cloudy in the afternoon. High 41F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will become overcast later during the night. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 26F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Oneonta, NY (13820)

Today

Cloudy with rain and snow diminishing in the morning. Partial clearing in the afternoon. Morning high of 40F with temps falling to near freezing. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies in the evening, then becoming cloudy overnight. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low around 25F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Melanie joined The Daily Times in the early 90s and has served as the Life section editor since 1993. A William Blount and UT alum, Melanie is generally the early arriver who turns on the lights in the newsroom.

Follow Melanie Tucker 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
Click the image to the left and log in to get your exclusive reader perks.
Meet Banjo! She's a fun and loving rescue kitten who brings smiles to everyone's face! Banjo's favorite thing to do is cuddle up to you for he
Forest City, NC (28043)

Today

Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 58F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Hard freeze expected. Low around 25F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
The U.S. Navy Reserve Lieutenant Colonel and Brea Mayor Steven Vargas handed an American flag to Bradley at his birthday celebration, Bradley held the flag dearly to his heart. (Linda Jiang/The Epoch Times)

100-Year-Old World War II Veteran Shares His Secrets to Longevity

World War II veteran James Bradley celebrated his 100th birthday on Nov. 5 at his Yorba Linda home in California. When asked about his secret to longevity, the centenarian replied with a smile that he always keeps himself young in spirit and upholds traditional valuesbelieving in God and cherishing family.

Bradley participated in the Normandy invasion, also known as D-Day, that occurred June 6, 1944. He told The Epoch Times that he went to the war because he is a patriot.

When the U.S. Navy Reserve Lieutenant Colonel and Brea Mayor Steven Vargas handed an American flag to Bradley at his birthday celebration, he held the flag dearly to his chest.

Secrets to Longevity

Having lived for a century, Bradley has witnessed many changes. But there is one thing he will never changetraditional values that emphasize God and family.

I dont know what brought me along that far, he said. I think that brought me a long way by believing what God believes, I honor all those things.

In addition, Bradley said with humor that he always felt young and never felt like he was old.

Bradley valued his parents very much. They lived through the Depression and had hard times. Bradley said he learned a lot through them and their experiences.

Bradley and his late wife Bette spent 58 years together until she passed away eight years ago.

She was a great lady. I met her during the war, Bradley recalled.

I was stationed in Kansas City. I was doing some training there, some schools they sent me to. And they put us up in a hotel, he recalled. It was Saturday night, we had been out in the town a little bit, and I looked up at the front door and three beautiful ladies walked in. She was the most beautiful of the three  Shes the mother of these three daughters I have.

At the birthday party, Bradley told friends and relatives that Bettes soul is still with him to this day.

World War II veteran James Bradley and his two daughters at his 100th birthday celebration. (Linda Jiang/The Epoch Times)

Bradleys daughter Tama said she was fortunate to have great parents.

We are just very thankful for our parents. He (dad) was a very good provider, Tama said adding that his belief in God was always taught in their home.

He always believed in marriage until death do us part, she said. He was married to my mom for almost 60 years. So thats something thats been taught to us throughout the years.

And they had their rough patches in life, but you just worked your way through it. You know, you stayed strong, stayed the course, you never veered, she added.
Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about oversight of the Department of Justice in Washington on Oct. 27, 2021. (Tasos Katopodis/Pool/Getty Images)

Americans Discomfort: Nonpolitical Offices Have Rushed to Become Left-Wing Partisans

Commentary

Writing for RealClearPolitics, professor Andrew E. Busch of Claremont McKenna College finds: One reason for Americans increasing political discomfortthe feeling that politics has become a blood sport in which traditional protections and safety nets are no longer presentis that the nonpartisan insulation protecting the rule of law and consent of the governed has frayed.

Theres a broad pattern of offices that require political neutrality being converted into offices that are genuinely partisan in their operation.

What, I wonder, was his first clue?

Understandably, Busch concentrates on the most recent examples of this creeping partisanship in places that are supposed to be nonpartisan, since the Biden administration represents a quantum leap in the politicization of everything, but especially of the law.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, he writes, has already used the Justice Department to advance his own partys version of the stolen-election story by suing to stop state legislative efforts to enhance ballot security, then threatening to sic the FBI on parents who complain to their local school boards about left-wing political indoctrination in the classroom.

By contrast, Busch praises the nonpartisan spirit of former Attorney General William Barr for resigning rather than supporting President Donald Trumps demand for a thorough investigation of election irregularities.

But then he cant help noticing the concerted legal efforts by Democratic attorneys general in swing states last year to change voting laws in order to create those irregularitiesand, with them, the opportunities for cheating.

You can see why Busch wants to be even-handed and pretend that the partisan takeover of supposedly nonpartisan institutions is coming from both sides, but he cant quite obscure the fact that the overwhelming majority of these efforts have been madeand successfully made, thanks to the compliant mediaon behalf of Democrats.

There is nothing like a Republican equivalent, for example, of the partisan takeover of the FBI under James Comey.

The course of the Russia investigation, writes Busch, complete with the obvious biases of Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page, implied that the bureau had picked sides.

Implied? Can there be any doubt about which side these and others in the bureau were on? Or which side Robert Mueller and his team were on? If there were any doubt about it, it must have been dispelled by the recent revelations, and indictments, coming out of the John Durham investigation.

Busch might also have mentioned the disparity in federal law enforcements treatment of the Capitol protesters of Jan. 6 as constituting an insurrection and its almost complete lack of interest in the hundreds of riots, the billions of dollars in property damage, and the many deaths that took place around the country last summer.

You dont have to be particularly good at spotting implied biases to tell that the difference between the two was that the first was in support of Trump, the others opposed to him. And, violently, opposed to the police. But why would we expect the federal police, ostensibly there to uphold the rule of law, to care about that?

Also, as I pointed out last summer in these pages, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the nations armed forces, traditionally our No. 1 nonpartisan institution, along with the judiciary, testified before Congress on behalf of a Democratic talking point by asserting on the basis of zero evidence that the Capitol incident was motivated by white rage.

Milley also is tasked with weeding out of the armed services those identified by the extreme left as members of the extremist right.

But the perspicacious could have picked up hints of the erosion of the nonpartisan insulation of key institutions long before 2016.

The politicization of the judiciary, I would argue, began at least as far back as 1987 when a certain Joseph R. Biden, newly appointed chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, put the kibosh on President Ronald Reagans nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court for transparently political reasons.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who once said of his fellow judges that we dont work as Democrats or Republicans, has gone to heroic lengths to keep up the pretense of nonpartisanship in the judiciary, but then, hes also the man who, apparently without irony, once called the U.S. Senate the worlds greatest deliberative body.

The politicization of the armed services began even earlier. As the late Colin Powell cheerfully put it in 2007, presumably with reference to his own military career, which started in the Vietnam era, Anybody who becomes a senior officer had better have some political instincts or youre going to get ground up. We are a political nation. It is not a dirty word.

What he meant to say, perhaps, was that its only a dirty word when applied to constitutionally nonpolitical institutions. Like the military.

I understand that he was talking about the internal politics that are inevitable in any large organization, but in the military, whose most senior officers are appointed by civilian (and political) authority, those politics are always bound up with the other kind.

Under President George W. Bush we learned, at least if we were paying attention, of the politicization of the CIA, which regularly briefed the media (anonymously, of course) against their ostensible commander-in-chief.

Under President Barack Obama we learned, even if we werent paying much attention, of the politicization of the Department of Justice and the IRS.

And, as everyone now knows, under Trump we learned of the politicization not only of the FBI and (again) the Justice Department but also of the State Department. All three, while ostensibly serving the president, were actually undermining him.

It shouldnt be necessary to point out that all of these encroachments of the political onto officially nonpolitical territory have been in one direction and one direction onlyleftward. Its as if there were some law of political inertia analogous to Robert Conquests Second Law of Politics: Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.

Maybe this is what the progressives mean by saying that theyre on the right side of history, If so, it means that the rest of us, who still treasure what we think is our right to be nonpolitical, must be on the wrong side of history.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
A group of people thought to be illegal immigrants are brought in by Coastguard officers to Dover, Kent, England, on Nov. 11, 2021. (PA)

Around 1,000 Migrants Reach UK in Small Boats, Setting New Daily Record

Around 1,000 people crossed the English Channel to reach the UK on Thursday, setting a new daily record.

Thursdays total will surpass the previous single-day record for the current crisis of 853 set on Nov. 3, the PA news agency reported.

The figure has not been confirmed by the UK government. But a Home Office spokesman said on Thursday night that the number of crossings was unacceptable.

The British public have had enough of seeing people die in the Channel while ruthless criminal gangs profit from their misery, and our New Plan for Immigration will fix the broken system which encourages migrants to make this lethal journey, he said.

The New Plan for Immigration, which was announced by Home Secretary Priti Patel in March, was intended to make it more difficult for migrants entering the UK illegally to stay in the country.

In July, the UK and France announced an agreement on tackling the problem, under which the UK would pay France 54 million ($75 million) to more than double the number of police patrolling French beaches.

Despite government promises to stem the flow of small boats, however, the numbers this year have continued to eclipse those of previous years.

More than 20,000 people have crossed the English Channel illegally into the UK aboard small boats since the start of the year, more than double the total for the whole of 2020.

Before 2018, the crossing accounted for a tiny proportion of illegal immigration with only a few known to make it each year.

The number of people attempting the crossing started to increase from the winter of 2018. That year 299 people made the crossing, according to Home Office figures.

The English Channel, which is 21 miles across at the narrowest point, is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

Over the last few weeks, several people have been reported missing during the perilous crossing, and two people have been confirmed to have died.

French authorities said on Thursday that three people were feared lost at sea after two kayaks were found adrift off the coast of Calais.

Illegal migration is a problem not just for the UK, but also for other European countries.

At least 100,907 people have arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean by land and sea so far this year, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

At least 1,313 people are estimated to be dead or missing, according to the same data.

Simon Veazey and PA contributed to this report.
The 22nd Augmented World Expo USA at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California on Nov. 10, 2021. (Ilene Eng/The Epoch Times)

Augmented and Virtual Reality Expo Returns to Silicon Valley

SANTA CLARA, Calif.The Augmented World Expo (AWE) took place in Silicon Valley from Nov. 9 to 11 this year after last years event was canceled due to the pandemic.

The expo was held at the Santa Clara Convention Center and featured artificial intelligence, bio-interfaces, haptics, 5G, streaming, and more.

A lot of customers and buyers are kind of connecting here, investors in startups, brands and creators and developers, so really bringing all of these people together is the main attraction of this year, Ori Inbar, co-founder of AWE and Super Ventures, told NTD Television.

I think the main attraction is just seeing so many of our good friends here, and really giving the entire ecosystem an opportunity to get together to share stories about what weve been doing for the last two years, Inbar said.

Companies told NTD Television how augmented and virtual reality can be applied in the fields of health, education, games, and more.

Apprentice.io created an AR headset and a tablet to help pharmaceutical manufacturers.

They can use the device and have hands-free access, two-way audio and video collaboration with teams that are at the other end of the glass, elsewhere in the facility, at home, or elsewhere around the world, said Gary Pignata, co-founder of Apprentice.io.

Users can also access procedures and information through the headset to get prompted, interact, and capture data.

Apprentice.io displays its AR headset at AWE USA at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California on Nov. 10, 2021. (Nancy Han/The Epoch Times)

At Varjo, there are advanced mixed reality headsets that are photorealistic, boasted to be the lightest and brightest professional-grade headset ever made.

Now with Varjo Aero, you can go in the immersion level where you can see the smallest details in virtual reality. You can see the meters, you can see your cockpit or your racing simulator car just like it would be in real life, said Jussi Makinen, chief brand officer at Varjo.

A Varjo booth exhibits headsets at AWE USA at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California on Nov. 10, 2021. (Ilene Eng/The Epoch Times)

Haptic gloves for virtual reality allow a person to feel the physical characteristics of an object. They also have force feedback, allowing the hand to stop and not pass through air when it wraps around a virtual object.

And by coupling those two in the same interaction, it feels very natural. And your brain makes the leap over the uncanny valley, saying, I understand what this object is, I visually recognize it, I feel the physical properties of it, and I can naturally interact with it, said Kim Oberg, director of sales at Haptx Inc. You actually have to pick up an item and manipulate it as you would in real life. So its great for training, for design, for engineering.

Gloves from Haptx Inc. that allow users to feel like they are interacting with a virtual object, at AWE USA at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California on Nov. 10, 2021. (Ilene Eng/The Epoch Times)

Luminance uses AR/VR for meditation. A heart rate monitor connects to a virtual landscape to determine the mental state of a person.

That means that the grass is growing and shrinking in relationship to their heart rate; the cloud cover and the fog and the natural landscape are changing with their heart rate as well, and their mental activity. So as they clear their mind, they clear the fog, and the environment moves through four seasons, said John Siberine, CEO of Luminance.

For others, like Niantic, its their first time participating in the expo.

What the Lightship Platform is, its all the tools and technology that we use to power our games like Pokemon Go and Ingress and our new Pikmin Bloom. Were taking pieces of that and bringing it out to developers and brands so that they too can create their own realistic AR experiences, said Meghan Hughes, head of marketing for Lightship Platform, Niantic, Inc.

Niantics Lightship exhibit allows visitors to interact with the companys product at AWE USA at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California on Nov. 10, 2021. (Ilene Eng/The Epoch Times)

In one game-like demonstration, the software is able to distinguish between objects and people and to show the appropriate interactive display.

Since 2010, more than 5,000 companies and 50,000 professionals have participated in AWE to connect, learn, and grow their businesses in the market.

Jayasai Sontineni, a software developer at Holopundits, participated as an attendee this year instead of having an exhibit.

I have been looking for a companys new hardware devices, as our platform is device agnostic, so we wanted to have our content hosted on multiple devices, said Sontineni.

Every year, the Auggie Awards are granted to the best in augmented, virtual, and mixed reality. Categories include Best Collaboration Tool, Best Headworn Device, Best Interaction Product, Best Use of AI, and others.
AUKUS Submarine Deal to Project Our Power North: Australian Ambassador to US

Australias ambassador to America, Arthur Sinodinos, has told a U.S. think tank that joining the AUKUS alliance was about projecting power towards the north and shaping the Indo-Pacific security environment.

Under the communist regime, Chinas expansion has changed the power equation in the Indo-Pacific and is challenging what is termed as the rules-based global order, Sinodinos said.

The challenge is, weve had a rules-based order, which has sort of underwritten the peace and prosperity  of the region for the last 70 years, the Australian diplomat told the Hudson Institute.

So the questions always been, as new powers rise up, how do we make sure that they are all part of a global rules-based order?

Sinodinos said Australia fought alongside America and their allies in the world wars for their shared values, which he said were reflected in the current global order.

So this is really about saying that as circumstances change in the [Indo-Pacific] region, we will do everything we can to uphold those values in a peaceful way. And if deterrence helps that cause, so be it.

The deterrents he spoke of are the nuclear-powered submarines Australia will acquire under the AUKUS pact with Britain and America.

Sinodinos said these would be built in South Australia, based on either British or American designs.

U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a virtual press conference on national security with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R) and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 15, 2021. The three leaders announced the AUKUS defence partnership between their countries. (Brendan Smialkowski/AFP via Getty Images)

We want to be able to, in these deteriorating strategic circumstances, be able to project our power further up, rather than taking an approach that all our defence has to be a defence of the mainland, Sinodinos said.

But he noted that this wasnt about seeking a regime change in China.

This is not about us seeking regime change or anything like that. We just want that respect for our sovereignty, he said.

When it comes to China, we dont want to be just frozen in the current situation. We want to move on. We want to just normalise relations again.

The AUKUS pact will increase Australias capabilities in artificial intelligence, machine learning, cyber, quantum computing, undersea warfare, Sinodinos said.

The announcement of the trilateral arrangement created controversy when Australia cancelled a $90 billion contract with Frances Naval Group for conventional submarines to opt instead for the U.S. and UK-backed nuclear submarines.
Australia Leads With 3 Million Rooftop Solar Installations

Australia is a world-leading country when it comes to rooftop solar uptake, with more than 3 million small-scale solar system installations, covering over one in four homes and non-residential buildings.

The proliferation of solar has been driven by government incentives, with Australians told they can save thousands of dollars under the Small-scale Renewable Energy Schemea scheme which is set to benefit over 400,000 residences this year.

Estimates place rooftop solar at seven percent of the nations electricity generation in 2021, slashing Australias carbon dioxide emissions down by over 17.7 million tonnes.

Read More 90 Percent of Australias Imported Solar Panels Are Made in China

Minister for Energy and Emissions Angus Taylor and Assistant Minister Tim Wilson pointed to the electricity costs saved by places like kindergartens, schools, community centres, pubs, clubs, and homes.

The Albert Park Kinder in Victoria, Australias first carbon neutral community kindergarten, is showing the difference small solar installations can make. After installing solar panels, solar batteries, and energy efficient equipment, the kindergarten has seen big cuts to its power bills, Taylor said.

Solar panels are seen on the roof of The Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, Australia on Aug. 14, 2019. (Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

Australia is the global leader in rooftop solar and were adding up to 2,000 small solar installations every business day, Wilson said. Solar empowers small businesses and local community groups to cut both their costs and emissions.

However, the proliferation of solar and other forms of renewable, intermittent power generation has raised significant concerns that Australia could lose its energy security without significant reform to existing infrastructure.

Read More UK Energy Crisis Shows Danger of Net Zero Emissions Policies: Aussie Senator

In particular, Australias Energy Security Board (ESB) warned in July that the nation could face blackouts and price shocks unless several key issues had been addressed; namely, energy storage, and maintaining grid frequency and inertia.

CEO of Solar Analytics Stefan Jarnason. (Supplied)

Furthermore, CEO of solar monitoring software and hardware provider Solar Analytics, Stefan Jarnason, said that reports by ESB and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) outlined a need for a mechanism to manage rooftop solar, also known as distributed energy resources (DERs).

Specifically, DERs currently output into the grid when available by default without any form of control or management, with no interaction with grid operators. But Jarnason suggested that such a mechanism was critical, without which there would be little to no control over the rapidly growing solar generators.

The number one issue right now is that there is near zero visibility of how DER acts on the grid, Jarnason had told The Epoch Times in an email.

This has been demonstrated during instances when thousands of solar panels had been temporarily cut from the grid by AEMO in order to avoid inertia shortfalls.

So DER will continue to grow, and we will sadly face a rocky period of higher than necessary prices due to a disorderly transition.

The ESB has attempted to remedy this through a new capacity mechanism that would pay flexible energy generatorsgenerators which are able to fire up when needed, such as gas and hydroto remain online and available during periods of low wind and solar.
President Joe Biden speaks during a press conference in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, on Nov. 6, 2021. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Biden Signs Law Tightening Restrictions on Huawei, ZTE, to Protect US Telecom Systems

President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law the Secure Equipment Act of 2021 to protect U.S. telecommunication systems by restricting companies that pose a national security threatsuch as Chinese state-backed firms Huawei and ZTEfrom receiving new equipment licenses from U.S. regulators.

The measure, H.R. 3919, was approved unanimously by the Senate on Oct. 28 and earlier in the month by the House on a 420-4 vote. It requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt rules clarifying it will no longer review or approve any authorization application for equipment to companies on its Covered Equipment or Services List.

Five Chinese companies are on the list: Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua. The FCC in March designated the five companies as posing a risk to U.S. national security under the Secure and Trusted Communications Act of 2019, a law that seeks to protect U.S. communications networks.

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), in a statement earlier this month, said the Secure Equipment Act acts to close a loophole in rules the FCC formally adopted in 2020, which required U.S. telecommunications carriers to rip and replace equipment by national security threats.

While that was an important step, those rules only apply to equipment purchased with federal funding. The very same equipment can still be used if purchased with private or non-federal government dollars, they said in a joint statement, noting that the H.R. 3919 measure will close this loophole and further prevent identified security threats from having a presence in U.S. telecommunications networks.

The FCC in June had voted unanimously to advance a rule that mirrors the now-passed law. The rule, which drew opposition from Beijing, would ban approvals for equipment in U.S. telecommunications networks, and would also revoke prior equipment authorizations issued to Chinese companies.

Separately, the FCC voted in October to bar the U.S. arm of a leading Chinese state-owned telecommunication firmChina Telecomfrom operating in the United States, citing national security concerns.

Reuters contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden speaks during an event to commemorate Veterans Day in the Memorial Amphitheater, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 11, 2021. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden to Meet With Chinas Xi in Virtual Summit on Monday

The White House says President Joe Biden will meet virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Nov. 15.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed plans for the meeting to reporters Nov. 12, saying the leaders would discuss ways to responsibly manage competition between the countries, as well working together where interests align.

But Psaki stressed the meeting is not expected to come with any big announcements.

I wouldnt set the expectation that this is meant to have major deliverables, or outcomes, she said.

Concerns continue to be raised about the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) treatment of Chinas Uyghur Muslim population in the countrys western Xinjiang region.

The Biden administration formally condemned Chinas abuse of the Uyghurs as genocide in a report released in March.

And earlier this week, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum released a report saying it has compiled evidence of increasing CCP repression against the Uyghurs.

Biden and his administration have also raised concerns about Chinas attempts to conceal information related to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as Chinas growing military capabilities and aggressive actions taken in the Indo-Pacific region.

There will be a broad range of topics that will be discussed and the president is certainly not going to hold back on areas where he is concerned, Psaki said of the forthcoming meeting.

Biden and Xi last spoke on Sept. 9.

White House Officials said that 90-minute conversation focused on economic issues, climate change and COVID-19.

Mondays meeting was initially set up by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi, who agreed the two leaders would meet before the years end.

U.S. officials had wanted Biden to meet Xi on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Rome two weeks ago, but Xi did not attend the event and has not traveled outside of China since the start of the pandemic.

Biden criticized Xis decision to skip the event calling it a big mistake and saying, the rest of the world is going to look to China and say, what value added have they provided.

But the U.S. and China, the worlds two largest emitters of carbon dioxide, did manage to come together to announce the framework of a joint agreement related to Climate Change at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.

Both Biden and Xi also took part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) virtual meeting Nov. 10, where they covered topics including efforts to end the pandemic and global economic recovery.
New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams speaks to supporters during his 2021 election victory night party at the Brooklyn Marriott in New York City on Nov. 2, 2021. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

BLM Leader Claims There Will Be Bloodshed in NYC Police Reform Argument With Eric Adams

A Black Lives Matter leader has claimed there will be bloodshed if newly elected New York City Mayor Eric Adams stands by his plan to toughen police reforms to counter the citys surge in violent crime.

New York City BLM co-founder Hawk Newsome discussed the issue with Adams during an event on Wednesday at Brooklyn Borough Hall that was livestreamed on Instagram.

Adams, a former NYPD captain, said during the event that he will reinstate the undercover anti-crime unit ended during police protests last year.

The new mayor won in November after a victory during a crowded June primary, running as a moderate who would be tough on crime, winning against several prominent progressives.

Theres one thing that we do agree on, that we need to change conditions that people are living in, historical conditions. And the conditions have not changed, Adams said during the meeting.

Newsome made his strongest comments to reporters outside of the building.

If they think they are going back to the old ways of policing then were going to take to the streets again, Newsome said to media after the meeting.

There will be riots. There will be fire, and there will be bloodshed, he added.

Adams ran in part on the campaign promise to return a revised version of the anti-crime unit that was responsible for a citywide crackdown on violent crime, illegal drugs, and firearm arrests.

The original unit was ended during the summer of 2020 when it was reported that an alleged disproportionate number of arrests involved black individuals.

The anti-crime unit was also under scrutiny due to former officer Daniel Pantaleo, who had been part of the anti-crime unit when he put Eric Garner into a chokehold leading to his death.

Garners reported last words, I cant breathe, became a popular slogan at BLM protests.

Adams has already begun plans to address other issues in his new administration as well, including the citys COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

The mayor-elect shared on Nov. 5 what he meant when he said he wanted to revisit the citys COVID-19 vaccine mandate for workers.

We need to revisit how were going to address the vaccine mandates, Adams said during a cable TV appearance on Wednesday.

Adams said he would encourage Mayor Bill de Blasio to talk with unions as the parties attempted to reach an agreement on how applications for exemptions and other details were handled.

Heres an opportunity for him to bring about a resolution and when I inherit this situation, Im going to bring about a resolution, he added.

The comments left some expressing optimism that Adams would ease the mandate, which is among the harshest in the nation.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
Councilmember Mike Bonin attends the Palisades Village grand opening private ribbon-cutting ceremony at Palisades Village in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 2018. (Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)

Bonin Recall Effort Turns in Petitions, Says It Has Enough Signatures

The organizers of the recall of Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin claim to have submitted more than enough signatures to the city clerk Nov. 10 to trigger a recall election.

The recall campaign was initiated in June by Nico Ruderman and Katrina Schmitt, both Venice Beach residents. Bonin was served with a Notice of Intent to Recall on June 15. One month later, the signature-gathering began.

Weve submitted 39,188 [signatures]. Its historic and it was the most work Ive ever done, Ruderman told The Epoch Times on Nov. 11.

Los Anglees City Hall on Nov. 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Proponents must gather signatures of 15 percent of the registered voters in a district to prompt a recall election for a city council member, according to the citys election code (pdf).

Ruderman said they only needed to gather just over 27,000 signatures from residents in Bonins district to move the recall process forward.

Bonins District 11 is one of the 15 districts of the Los Angeles City Council, representing some of the citys Westside and coastal regions including Venice, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, and Mar Vista.

Bonin has represented District 11 since 2013. He was reelected in 2017 by winning 71 percent of the vote and is seeking another term in 2022.

Since the recall campaign began, Bonin has been actively recruiting volunteers to fight the recall.

If the recall succeeds, officials across LA will be tempted to shy away from tough but necessary choices, Bonin wrote on Nov. 10 on Twitter. Those fighting for the housing and services we need will be discouraged, and the crisis will worsen. Some may decide its not worth running at all.

Recall volunteer Rick Swinger said he and other Venice residents are seeing the safety of their community jeopardized by the growing homeless encampments and drug deals.

Were getting physically attacked, Swinger told The Epoch Times. We see people with machetes all the time around our neighborhood. We see that the drug deals that go with this meth that turns these guys into crazy nuts.

A homeless encampment in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Swinger said many people who voted for Bonin have signed the recall petition. These residents signed the recall, he said, because They are stepping on needles; they are steeping on feces, and they see their beach being polluted, and their sidewalk being blocked [by tents].

Following Councilwoman Nithya Raman and Councilman Kevin de Leon, Bonin was the third member of the council facing recall in 2021.

Bonin was not immediately available for comment.
Burmese Court Sentences US Journalist to 11 Years in Jail

BANGKOKA court in military-ruled Burma (also known as Myanmar) on Friday sentenced U.S. journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison with hard labor, the maximum penalty under three charges, despite calls by the United States and rights groups for his release.

It was the harshest punishment yet among the seven journalists known to have been convicted since the military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February.

Fenster, the managing editor of the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, still faces additional terrorism and treason charges under which he could receive up to life in prison.

The court found him guilty on Friday of spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations, and violating visa regulations, lawyer Than Zaw Aung said.

Fenster wept after hearing the sentence and has not yet decided whether to appeal, the lawyer said.

The harsh penalty is the ruling militarys latest rebuff of calls from around the world for a peaceful end to Burmas political crisis. The government is refusing to cooperate with an envoy appointed by Southeast Asian governments to mediate a solution, and has not bowed to sanctions imposed by the United States and several other Western countries.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said Fensters conviction and harsh sentence is emblematic of the wider plight of journalists in Myanmar who have been facing constant repression since the Feb. 1 military coup.

According to Bachelet, at least 126 journalists, media officials, or publishers have been detained by the military since the military seized power and 47 remain in detention, including 20 charged with crimes.

Nine media outlets have had their licenses revoked, 20 others have had to suspend operations, and dozens of journalists remain in hiding due to outstanding arrest warrants, she said.

Journalists have been under attack since Feb. 1, with the military leadership clearly attempting to suppress their attempts to report on the serious human rights violations being perpetrated across Myanmar as well as the extent of opposition to the regime, Bachelet said. Myanmar has quickly reverted to an environment of information control, censorship, and propaganda seen under military regimes in the past.

I urge the military authorities to immediately release all journalists being detained in relation to their work, she said, stressing that people are being deprived of life-saving information.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supports Bachelets views, and reiterated that journalists everywhere, including those in Myanmar, must be allowed to work without harassment and that reporting facts is not and must not be seen as a crime, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Its clear that Danny is being made an example of, and what it shows is that the junta do not care what the international community thinks, said Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. They would do as they want, and this is one example of how they are basically showing the international community that they cannot be held accountable.

The armys takeover was opposed by widespread protests that were put down with lethal force. Security forces killed more than 1,200 civilians and arrested about 10,000 others, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Armed resistance has since spread, and U.N. experts and other observers fear the incipient insurgency could slide into civil war.

Fenster was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he was about to board a flight to go to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family.

The military-installed government has cracked down hard on press freedom, shutting down virtually all critical outlets. Of the seven journalists known to have been convicted, six are Burmese nationals and four were released in a mass amnesty on Oct. 21.

Some of the closed media outlets have continued operating without a license, publishing online as their staff members dodge arrest.

At least three other foreign journalists, from Japan, the United States, and Poland, have been detained. The American, Nathan Maung, said he was tortured while in custody.

The hearings on the original three charges against Fenster were held at a court in Yangons infamous Insein Prison, where he is jailed. They were closed to the media and the public, and accounts of the proceedings have come from Fensters lawyer.

Despite testimony from more than a dozen prosecution witnesses, it was never clear exactly what Fenster was alleged to have done, and it appeared that he was judged guilty by association.

Much of the prosecutions case appeared to hinge on his being employed by Myanmar Now, another online news site, that was ordered closed this year. But Fenster left his job at Myanmar Now in July last year, joining Frontier Myanmar the following month.

Prosecution witnesses testified that they were informed by a letter from the Information Ministry that its records showed that Fenster continued to be employed this year by Myanmar Now.

Both Myanmar Now and Frontier Myanmar issued public statements that Fenster had left the former publication last year, and his lawyer said defense testimony, as well as income tax receipts, established that he works for Frontier Myanmar.

Than Zaw Aung said he was unable to produce a government official to testify, and the judge took into account only the Information Ministry letter.

Therefore, according to this letter, Danny is responsible for Myanmar Now and the judge said thats why Danny was sentenced, the lawyer said.

He said Fenster told him that the editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now allegedly forgot to inform the Information Ministry of his resignation last year.

The U.S. government, human rights groups, press freedom associations, and Fensters family had pressed strongly for the 37-year-old journalists release.

Myanmar must stop jailing journalists for merely doing their job of reporting the news, said Shawn Crispin, Southeast Asia representative of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

I am devastated by the news of the sentencing of my constituent, journalist Danny Fenster, said Michigan Rep. Andy Levin, a Democrat from suburban Detroit.

Despite Dannys attorney demonstrating evidence to clear him of these charges or any wrongdoing whatsoever, this verdict comes down in a case where there has not been a scintilla of justice, he said in a statement.

By Grant Peck
A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

California Community College Overrun With Fake Students, Bots: Whistleblower

In the wake of the transition to online training due to the COVID-19 pandemic, California community colleges have become overrun with fake students, bots, and allegations of financial aid fraud.

Kim Rich is a professor of criminal justice and the department chair for Political Science, Administration of Justice, Economics, and Chicano Studies at Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California. Between 2008 and 2010, Rich worked as a professor on a part-time basis, going full time in 2010.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, Rich was tasked as a distance education specialist to help train faculty in the transition to online classes. The new role gave Rich greater access to student enrollment information than other faculty members.

I have always been very good at catching cheaters, Rich, who also has a law enforcement background, told The Epoch Times. I have a knack for it. So, after the pandemic hit and I was tasked to do different types of training, I started to teach other faculty how to promote academic integrity, how to catch students who were cheating, and how to prevent it.

Pierce College in Los Angeles, part of the Los Angeles Community College District. (Screenshot via Google Maps)

According to Rich, many colleges use Canvas, an online, web-based learning management system for institutions, educators, and students to access and manage online course learning material. In Canvas, students have the option to customize their avatar by uploading an image or simply leaving the default avatar. To remain active and participate in online college courses, students must complete a variety of tasks such as engaging in discussions with other students, completing uploaded assignments, and taking online quizzes and tests.

However, Rich soon realized that all of the work being submitted by four students was clearly being completed by an individual who wasnt a student in the class.

As I looked into it further, I realized that about one-third of my class, which had about 30 students, were actually fake students, Rich said. In my opinion, it appears there are at least two different scams at play.

One is where fake students are enrolling, then likely paying someone else to do the minimum amount of work to remain active in the class in order to qualify for financial aid. The other scam appears to involve bots, where the person behind the scam is simply trying to register as many fake students or bots into the system as possible so they can get in, get the financial aid, and get out. Little work is being completed by these bots.'

Based upon her discoveries, Rich started looking into what classes the fake students had taken prior to hers. She discovered that many had taken the same classes with the same professor in the summer. Rich also realized that 11 of her new, suspected fake students were anthropology majors.

Thats unheard of, Rich said. I dont get 11 anthropology majors in any of my classes, which lead me to believe the bots had gotten in and just picked anthropology, which is I believe one of the first majors you can enroll in going from the top of the alphabet down. That just does not happen.

Then Rich noticed that the avatars had changed from the default to an actual image that appeared to be uploaded from the internet.

Here is the photo avatar for a suspected fake student claiming to be Paul Desalvo.

Screen capture from suspected fake student profile in the online system at Pierce Community College in September 2021 (Kim Rich)

An internet search provides multiple images of DeSalvo, including one on the Linkedin profile for Business Intelligence Manager Paul Desalvo at Kipsu in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Screen capture from Paul Desalvos Linkedin profile on Nov. 8, 2021. (Paul Desalvo/Linkedin)

Heres the profile avatar of the suspected fake student claiming to be Quiannia Wilson.

A screen capture of suspected fake student Quiannia Wilson from the Pierce Community College online training bio on September 2021. (Kim Rich)

However, an internet search confirms that the photo is actually from the obituary of Quiannias sister, Latasha Wilson, who died in February 2012.

Screen capture of Latasha D. Wilsons photo from her obituary in February 2012. (Photo Credit Office Funeral Home website)

Heres the profile photo of suspected fake student Carrie Link.

A screen capture of suspected fake student Carrie Link from the Pierce Community College online training bio on September 2021. (Kim Rich)

Another internet search confirms that the real Carrie Link is an assistant professor and medical director at the University of Minnesota Medical Center Family Medicine Residency at Smileys Clinic.

Screen capture of University of Minnesota profile for Carrie Link, MD, assistant professor and medical director of the University of Minnesota Medical Center Family Medicine Residency at Smileys Clinic in November 2021. (University of Minnesota website)

A screen capture of suspected fake student Sonja Stone from the Pierce Community College online training bio on September 2021. (Kim Rich)

An internet search for Sonja Stone provides multiple images, including one attached to the writer, chef, and mothers Twitter account.

Screen capture from the Twitter page for Chef, author, and mother Sonja Stone Nov. 2021.

Next, Rich looked at the classes these students were enrolled in for fall 2021. The majority had at least one class in common. Many had several classes in common.

Each time I checked a class they had in common, I found more fake students in each of those classes, which then led to even more classes, Rich said. It was just a domino effect.

She also examined student ID numbers.

A lot of them are right on top of each other, Rich said. Lets say the last two digits were 76 and then 79 or 80 then 82. They were all sequentially close and that doesnt happen. So I started looking at more and started making numerous connections.

Not only were all of the fake students in similar classes during the summer, but theyre all currently enrolled in the same fall classes.

According to Rich, the eight-week coursesknown as late-start classeswere the catalyst to finding hundreds of fake students.

We also have the ability to increase our online enrollment load from 40 to 80 students, which I generally dont like to do, she said. But I didnt have any more faculty in my department to teach and there was a demand, a waiting list, so I was able to get one of my faculty to agree to increase his class to 80.

To accommodate the students on the waiting list, Rich said 40 additional spots were made available on a Monday. By that Wednesday, all 40 spots had been filled.

That is 100 percent unheard of, she said. That never happens. I dont know if that has historically ever happened for a class to fill with 40 students in less than 48 hours time.

Rich began investigating new enrollees. The majority of them were fake students. A colleague asked her to look into other late-start classes in other departments where enrollment had also increased. She found tons of fake students.

I started looking at all late starts and found that many of the fake students in late-start classes were currently enrolled in traditional 16-week classes, she said. So I started to develop matrixes. I would go through one class and list all the ones I thought were fake students, and I would look at what they were taking, what they had taken, and what they were currently enrolled in, and I was linking them to other classes. I found more fake students. It started with dozens and dozens. Then it progressed to hundreds and hundreds.

Then Rich started to wonder: If Pierce was this infested with fake students, how many of the other community colleges were having the same issue? She started looking at the other colleges in the district and randomly selecting classes. Her suspicions were confirmed.

Yes. Its happening at our other campuses also, she said.

Search for Help Leads to Dead Ends

On Aug. 23, Rich contacted Dean of Student Engagement Juan Carlos Astorga by email to let him know that she had discovered that fake students were enrolled in their online courses.

Thanks for letting me know, Astorga told her. Right now, were dealing with a cheating scam where students hire master-level folks from Kenya and Nigeria to do all their work for the students.

Astorga admitted that this additional issue is district-wide, but claims that only nine students have Pierce as their home campus.

I will wait for submissions and then ask IT to run an IP address to see where they originate from, he told Rich.

Rich told Astorga that she wasnt concerned about who was doing the work for the students, but rather that the students themselves are fake and that Pierce is being used in a scam where someone is reaping thousands in financial aid.

My point is there is something else going on beside paying others to do the work, Rich told Astorga.

Rich emailed Patrick Luce, chief information security officer in charge of cyber security for the Los Angeles Community College District, to see if he knew what was going on and if he was investigating the problem. He never responded.

Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs Donna-Mae Villanueva was also informed of the situation. In fact, Rich had attended the monthly meeting for department chairs wherein Villanueva mentioned how horrible enrollment was and how they needed to increase enrollment.

It was during this meeting that Rich put on a mini-presentation about the fake students, at the request of a colleague. Rich said someone in the meeting said they were told the district is looking into the fake student issue, but that its a slow process and that legal is involved to ensure that there are no Title V violations.

According to the State Student Centered Funding Formula, which uses school size to determine the amount of funding each community college receives, Pierce stands to lose a significant amount of funding if the fake students are dropped from their enrollment records. Based on her own findings, Rich is convinced that if every fake student was dropped from fall classes currently in progress at Pierce College, enrollment numbers would be cut by one-third to one-half of the current enrollment figures.

Screen capture from a presentation at a department chair meeting in October 2021. (Kim Rich)

Other Teachers Speak Out

I care about funds being available for real students who need them, A.J., a Pierce instructor using a pseudonym, told The Epoch Times under the condition of anonymity. At one point I asked myself, Why dont they have IT [information technology] look at this?

Classes are about to begin, and theyre leaving this up to us. I dont have any tools to deal with this.

Patrick, another Pierce educator using a pseudonym who spoke out under the condition of anonymity, said hes also frustrated by being told its his job to fix the problem.

Mary, also using a pseudonym, is another Pierce instructor who spoke to The Epoch Times under the condition of anonymity.

I noticed this semester that enrollments were very sluggish, Mary said. My classes werent being filled at the rate they normally do.

But then, Mary said her classes were started filling up all of a sudden. She quickly realized a lot of them werent responding during online sessions and werent completing assignments. She started sending them emails, informing them that if they didnt respond she would have to drop them from the course.

And Ive been dropping a lot of students, Mary said.

Then she saw Richs presentation.

It blew my mind, Mary said. I didnt realize at the time that we were having this whole issue with fake students, and there was some talk on campus that this isnt just happening at Pierce.

Ive dropped a boat-load of students. Im down to 20 percent of enrollment for my class.

Not the First Time

On Aug. 31, the Los Angeles Times reported that the California Community Colleges system was investigating potentially widespread fraud involving fake bot students enrolled in active courses in what officials suspect is a scam to obtain financial aid or COVID-19 relief grants. According to the report, a spokesman said the Los Angeles Community College District was unaware of any problems involving applications or financial aid.

In September, The Epoch Times reported that Californias community college system was investigating what appears to be a large-scale fraud scheme, which involved more than 65,000 fraudulent financial aid applications filed by students who were likely bots.

EdSource reported on Nov. 5 that at least six California community college districts suspect that they have given out financial aid to fake students who have enrolled at their colleges this year.

At a minimum, the breaches represent a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars to scammers seeking financial aid from Californias community colleges, EdSource reported. Its possible that much more money was delivered to fake students, given that the systems 115 traditional colleges, enrolling about 1.8 million students, are in the midst of distributing more than $1.6 billion in federal COVID relief aid.

Pierce College, one of nine colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District, is part of the largest multi-college district in the nation.

According to Rich, Anafe Robinson, the financial aid manager at Pierce, told everyone during a special meeting for late-start instructors that the district auditor is asking for evidence of substantive activity and interaction with students within Canvas who are actively engaged. However, when someone asked if the students they knew were committing financial aid fraud had been removed, Robinson said they hadnt.

Its not financial aids responsibility to remove them from the classes, Robinson said when asked why the students hadnt been removed.

The Epoch Times reached out to Los Angeles Community College District President Steve Veras, asking for a statement regarding the alleged financial aid fraud taking place at Pierce College and the allegations that the district is aware of the allegations, yet doing little to put a stop to it.

Please note that the District is fully aware of the situation, William H. Boyer, director of communications and external relations, told The Epoch Times. The other allegations in your message are false, however, since the issue is under active review by the District, there is no other information we can currently share. LACCD is not alone when it comes to this issue and we recommend you reach out to the California Community Colleges Chancellors Office in Sacramento for a more accurate statewide perspective on the situation. Please note we take very seriously all claims and allegations of fraud or misuse of monies entrusted to us and thoroughly review all such accusations for appropriate action and follow-up.

Astorga, Villanueva, and the innocent victims mentioned in this story, whose names and images have been used by others in an alleged effort to commit financial aid fraud, didnt respond to requests for comment by press time.

GQ Pan contributed to this report.
Can Immigration Relieve the Countrys Labor Shortage?

Immigration reform can help America's labor shortage

Commentary

America faces a labor shortage. Some 3 million job openings remain unfilled.

The labor forcethose working or actively seeking workremains 5.5 million short of pre-pandemic levels. The worker shortage is slowing the pace of the recovery. Though the teeming mass of asylum-seekers at the southern border might seem to offer a solution, it is doubtful in this matter that immigration can help much.

But there is also another, more fundamental labor shortage developing. It is demographic in origin. Decades of low birth rates have left a dearth of young workers to take the place of retiring baby boomers. Immigration can help in this important long-term matter, but only if Washington can do what it has failed to do for decadesreform the nations immigration system.

The immediate labor problem is a legacy of the pandemic. Many, for fear of infection, have avoided the workplace. No statistics exist on how much of the labor shortfall is due to this effect, but given the fears that grew up during the pandemic (and were actively promoted by the authorities and the media), the number is surely significant.

Meanwhile, lavish federal benefits have for many reduced the urgency of work. The extra unemployment benefits made it easy for large numbers of people to postpone the search for employment. These unemployment benefits had a special appeal to those with child care responsibilities, as they allowed them to save on child care expenses as well as gave them the added income. The special unemployment payout expired in September, which may explain the remarkable employment surge in October, but there are still other federal benefits that will slow the return to pre-pandemic levels of willing workers.

Recently, vaccine mandates have compounded the problem. Thousands, it seems, have either been fired for not complying or quit rather than comply. No direct statistics yet exist on the numbers so affected, but fragmentary anecdotal reports suggest that across the entire country, numbers easily could approach a million workers.

In this matter, immigration answers for little. The people at the southern border cannot answer, at least not in any reasonable amount of time. Even if, contrary to law, each was immediately issued a green card, many do not speak English, and it would take time for them to migrate to where workers are needed. The immediate shortfall may not lift quickly, but it will lift sooner than any arrangements with these people who can add to the active workforce. Nor do other sources of immigration promise much relief. The green card lottery may admit 1 million at most this yearsome relief, perhaps, but far from complete. The H2-B visas promise 90,000 at most this year.

Fortunately, this shortfall will dissipate relatively quickly, if not quite as fast as Washington would like or forecasts. Fears will lift gradually as rates of infection recede as they are doing. Even if the disputes on vaccine mandates persist, they will also soften as rates of infection recede. Rising wagesup 4.6 percent in the past year, faster than in a long timewill also lure people into the workforce.

If immigration cannot help with the immediate worker shortfall, it could play a vital role in addressing the nations demographically driven labor shortage. This matter has not yet become acute, but the trends are undeniable. Low birth rates since the mid-1960s have constrained the flow of young people into the workforce, and now the huge baby boom generation has begun to retire. The Census Bureau reports that the nation presently has about 2.6 people of working age for every retiree, down from about 3.5 twenty years ago. By 2030, the bureau forecasts that figure will drop to barely over 2. Such a constrained labor situation, if left unaddressed, will slow growth significantly. A flow of work-able immigrants could help ease matters, but that solution will require radical immigration reform.

Presently, the U.S. immigration system favors those with family in the country. Whatever the virtues of this approach, it cannot answer to the economys needs. A more economically responsive system might gain from the systems used in Canada and Australia. In these nations, prospective immigrants receive points for years of education, for example, special skills, and whether they speak English. If they score high enough, they gain an immediate right to work. The system could help the United States in its demographic predicament, but it would require radical reform to the nations systemif what the United States has can be described as a system.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Homes stand densely packed in the Jalouise neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Nov. 5, 2021. (The Canadian Press/AP/Matias Delacroix)

Canada Withdrawing Non Essential Staff From Haitian Embassy Amid Security Concerns

OTTAWAGlobal Affairs Canada says it is temporarily withdrawing non-essential staff from the Canadian embassy in Haiti.

The move comes in response to a spike in gang-related violence in Haiti and a severe lack of fuel that has affected hospitals, schools and banks.

The government says the embassy in Port-au-Prince does remain open, but all Canadians should avoid non-essential travel to the country.

The fuel shortage has threatened basic services across much of Haiti, which is still recovering from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in July.

The country has also been beset by widespread gang violence, with U.S. and Haitian authorities trying to secure the release of 17 members of a missionary group kidnapped last month.

The group includes one Canadian.
Canadas new foreign affairs minister meets in D.C. with U.S. counterpart Blinken

WASHINGTONMelanie Joly is meeting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in her first stateside visit as Canadas new foreign affairs minister.

The meeting comes one week before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sits down with President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at the White House.

Joly is in D.C. to discuss making progress on the shared agenda Canada and the U.S. established in February shortly after the presidential inauguration.

Since then, Bidens domestic agenda has taken a decidedly protectionist turn, alarming political and economic observers north of the border.

Jolys main goal will be to emphasize the importance of the two countries working together to strengthen supply chains and spur North Americas recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

She is also taking part in a discussion with stakeholders about how Canada and the U.S. can work together to advance democratic values and human rights around the world.
Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott addresses the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 18, 2014. (Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

Centre-Right Australians Too Polite, Time for Silent Majority to Speak Up: Former PM

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said it was time for the quiet Australians to find their voice and push back on the teaching of critical race theory and similar ideology in schools, just like the Virginians did in their election.

Abbott made the comments while speaking with the Institute of Public Affairs on a podcast about how Australians should learn from how Gov-elect Glenn Youngkin found huge support in the election by showing he was prepared to fight culture wars in Virginian classrooms.

There needs to be a warrior who is prepared to fight. And thats what the quiet Virginians discovered in Glenn Youngkin, Abbott said. Thats what the quiet Australians need to have on curriculum issues here.

The draft of the national curriculum that was released in April attracted heavy criticism for removing references to Christianity and the history of the Western world and democracy.

It also introduced teaching young children to recognise institutional racism, such as having Year 2 students assess whether statues could be considered racist.

The problem is: are our kids getting an education or an indoctrination in the classroom? Abbott said.

A majority that stays silent does not long remain a majority, he said. Its way past time for the quiet Australians to find their voice on this important topican absolutely vital topic for our countrys future.

Abbott said the countrys centre-right movement was so polite and therefore ends up deferring to intellectual and ideological opponents far too routinely and far too frequently.

Ive got to say I scratch my head often enough and think, why is it that more of us dont put our feet down and say enough is enough? Why dont we say, look, this is wrong. It shouldnt be happening, Abbott said.

I guess were conscious of the fact that no one has a monopoly on insight and wisdom. Were conscious of the fact that none of us are perfect.

People hold up signs during a rally against critical race theory (CRT) being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government center in Leesburg, Virginia, on June 12, 2021. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Abbott said the Virginian parents movement against CRT would have gone nowhere if not for someone like Youngkin, who was prepared to be the political standard-bearer for it.

Youve got to have a political standard-bearer, he said. And thats what we need now.

Like every other country, Abbott said that Australias history has chapters that dont reflect well on us, but overall, it was a great country that Australians should be proud of.

Yet educational institutions dont seem to want to celebrate their country in the appropriate way, and I just think its way past time for this to change, he said.

Education Minister Alan Tudge has previously warned that students who dont learn the history of Australian values wont defend Australia as the older generations have.

There has not been a more important time since the 1940s to teach children the origins, values, and singular greatness of liberal democracy, he said.
In late October, the CCPs mouthpiece CCTV alluded that Flightradar 24 was providing ADS-B receivers to Chinese volunteers suspected of leaking "state secrets" and the website was blocked. (Flightradar 24 website screenshot via The Epoch Times)

China Bans Flightradar24 Over Fear Military Aircrafts Movements Being Exposed

China recently banned Chinese users from accessing the Flightradar24 websitea global-sharing network of flight tracking for fear that important aviation data might be transferred to foreign countries and that some sort of espionage acts would divulge military aircrafts movements and endanger national security, according to state-owned CCTV.

On Oct. 31, CCTV aired a program about an anti-spyware law, which did not directly name Flightradar24. but the program showed its web pages when the topic shifted to aviation data security, espionage acts, marine garbage, and ship data.

The Flightradar24 website, founded in 2006 by two Swedish aviation enthusiasts, allows anyone worldwide with an ADS-B device to upload data.

ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) is a surveillance technology that tracks all aircraft equipped with the same device. It detects flight data within a 186-mile radius including flight speed, altitude, latitude, longitude, and other measurements. This data is then transmitted to the Flightradar24 website and app.

CCTV claims that ADS-B devices can monitor aircraft signals and the flight paths in all of Chinas airspace, from civil aircraft to some military aircraft.

Chinas National Security Bureau worried that the device would expose military aircrafts movements, the mouthpiece media said.

As a result, the CCPs (Chinese Communist Partys) Great Firewall has blocked completely the Flightradar24 website. Chinese users could not access the website, and the Flightradar24 app was also taken down at the end of October, according to state-owned Chinese media.

ADS-B Technology Contributes to Flight Safety

Li Jianjun, a senior media worker, told Radio Free Asia that the data received by the ADS-B device is not a state secret.

Some new models of aircraft in Europe, the United States, and some Asian countries are equipped with ADS-B devices to communicate with other aircraft in the same airspace. They can manage major aviation data like position, speed, and route to avoid colliding with other passenger or military aircraft.

In the event of an airport tower radar failure, the ADS device, through interaction with some websites such as Flightradar24, can help to assume control of aviation. Therefore, ADS-B signal-tracking devices are part of aviation safety, rather than being a state secret, Li said.

In addition, the Flightradar24 website can be helpful for analyzing civil aircraft crashes or incidents. For example, the BBC used a video from Flightradar24 to report the Malaysian Airlines 370 crash in 2014, and The Guardian reported that the Icelandic volcano eruption caused European flight chaos in 2010, using pictures from Flightradar24.

Flightradar24 provides aircraft enthusiasts worldwide with a receiving device that does not emit signals itself but is a passive way to receive GPS signals and nearby ADS-B signalsthe same principle as a radio, Li explained.

CCTVs Fabricated Story and CCPs National Security

The Flightradar24 website aggregates information from various sources, including the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and many other countries. All data is provided by volunteers with ADS-B devices and is open for public use.

Since most Chinese people know very little about Flightradar24, CCTV subliminally implied in this program that the website was created for scouting out China, and that it poses a hazard to Chinas national security.

According to this program, in 2020, Chinas security agencies discovered that several other agencies outside of China had set up websites and used social media platforms such as Weibo and QQ to provide Chinese aviation fans with equipment that could receive and share data. These agencies reportedly offered lifetime premium memberships as bait to recruit volunteers to collect relevant data and provide the world with information about Chinese aircraft, especially military aircraft.

In the program, CCTV interviewed a photography enthusiast who said that he signed up as a volunteer, because he was curious and also lured by senior membership benefits. After receiving approval from the website, he received the ADS-B equipment three months later.

The interviewee continued his story, saying that he was upset that the device could detect foreign military aircraft, so he dismantled it, thinking to himself that it was involved in the leaking of information.

The man, however, did not tell how the police found him or how he accepted the interview by CCTV.

The suggested message in the program alerted Chinese people that anyone who accessed the website and utilized the ADS-B device would be accused of involvement in espionage activities.

Chinese authorities seem to have more and more difficulty understanding with common sense, said Radio Free Asia.

The media cited Li as saying, Because the CCP is an authoritarian regime, it treats data that is easily available as if it were a state secret and prohibits the sharing of useful data to the world.

Li said that even if China has blocked the use of Flightradar24s ADS-B receivers, the device could still obtain information about the movement of Chinese aircraft through satellites.

If China does not use ADS-B technology, it may cause a blockage in Chinas aviation operations, which will be a big problem for the country, he said.
An excavator sift through dunes of low-grade coal near a coal mine in Pingdingshan, Henan province, China, on Nov. 5, 2021. (Aly Song/Reuters)

China Coals Last Hurrah Comes Too Late for Old Mining Towns

PINGDINGSHAN, ChinaOn the edges of an old and depleted mine on the rugged outskirts of Pingdingshan in central Chinas Henan province, workers sift through dunes of low-grade coal, looking to extract every last calorie of energy from the citys crumbling seams.

But despite an unexpected energy crunch that left authorities scrambling to guarantee coal supplies over the winter, it is still mostly business as usual for Henans old mining regions.

Our workload hasnt changed, said Guo Xianguo, 50, a truck driver queuing at a coal depot in eastern Pingdingshans Liangbei district.

Coal prices in China surged to record levels this year, giving the industry a new short-term lease of life, with the major coal producing region of Inner Mongolia increasing daily output by 420,000 tonnes since the beginning of October.

But the Chinese regime has been trying to restrain price rises to help struggling power plants build up stockpiles for the winter, which is expected to be one of the coldest in years.

While open-cast mines in Inner Mongolia have been given permission to temporarily expand, raising production elsewhere has proved easier said than done.

Years of depletion, together with tough environmental and safety standards and lengthening mine construction times, mean that new supplies are no longer readily available, making Chinas coal-dominated energy structure increasingly vulnerable to disruption.

Far from being the securest form of energy, coal has now become a liability, analysts say.

Coal is dominating the countrys energy system in a way that is too rigid and inflexible to respond to market change, said Yu Aiqun, a researcher with the Global Energy Monitor think tank.

The state planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Crackdowns

Two decades ago, private businessmen across China rushed to take advantage of an unprecedented boom in coal demand, building thousands of small mines. But the safety record was poor, with regular news items on state media about fatal accidents.

The Chinese regime started its big crackdown in 2004, shutting unregulated pits and squeezing private operators out of the market. The process has continued ever since, with large parts of the sector consolidated into large, self-contained state-owned coal production bases.

From 2017 to 2019 alone, Pingdingshan closed 158 minesamounting to nearly 40 million tonnes of annual production capacity and reducing its total number of working pits to 273.

Annual production stood at 27 million tonnes by 2019, down from more than 30 million tonnes five years earlier, and the market was now reliant on a small number of state suppliers.

As prices rose this year, Henans suppliers did try to raise output, but their efforts were abandoned after a series of accidents, including one that killed eight miners in June, prompted authorities to suspend production.

The provincial government didnt want the accidents to happen during the [Chinese Communist Partys hundredth] birthday party, said Yu.

Floods in July also took out a lot of supply in Pingdingshan and elsewhere. Despite higher prices, overall production in the province has actually declined year on year.

After a century of mining that has polluted water supplies and scarred the landscape with subsidence and toxic gangue, Pingdingshan barely has any more coal to give.

Right now, only the big mines are left, said Guo, the truck driver. The small mines arent producing anymore.

To Dig or Not to Dig

Though watched carefully by security guards, the piles of surplus coal stored on the depleted hillsides of Pingdingshan have limited economic value. What can be sold can only be used in backyard workshops or burned for cooking and heating.

We sell this stuff to the brick factory, said Zhang Tieliang, a 76-year old farmer poking the rocks with a home-made pickaxe. This is from the mine, which didnt want it.

Nearby, excavators were scooping up piles of rock and pouring them through sieves in order to separate the smaller, purer chunks of coal.

Many of Pingdingshans mines are depleted, and though replacement capacity is still under construction, including an expansion project at Liangbei and a newly commissioned mine in the northern district of Xiadian, neither will be ready in time to take advantage of the price surge.
Chinese Military Deliveries of the COVID-19 Vaccine: Exercising Soft Power

News Analysis

The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has been particularly active in projecting Chinas soft power during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fleet follows the flag, goes the old saying. It has its roots in the arguments of the eminent 19th-century naval strategist, Alfred Thayer Mahan, who contended that seapower depended on trade. Commerce was king, he wrote, and the navy acted in support of merchant shipping.

The view that commerce is king very much defines Chinas current approach to power projection. It is evident in Beijings push for such China-centric initiatives as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In particular, the sea-based aspect of this planthe so-called Maritime Silk Roaddepends heavily on a network of ports and other coastal infrastructure projects, stretching from China to the Mediterranean Sea.

It is also apparent in the establishment of the PLAs first overseas military base in Djibouti, a small country in the Horn of Africa strategically located near some of the worlds busiest shipping lanes.

Sometimes, however, the fleet precedes the flag. In other words, the military paves the way foror else otherwise complementscivilian and commercial efforts to reach out to other nations. This is often called military diplomacy, also known as soft power.

Military diplomacy comes in many forms. The most obvious is arms sales, which are a good way to strengthen political (as well as military) bonds between countries. Most weapons-producing countriesChina includeduse arms exports as a political tool.

Another type of military diplomacy is MOOTW, short for military assistance other than war (pronounced moot-wah). This endeavor includes peacekeeping, patrolling the global commonsthat is, conducting counter-piracy or counter-terrorism operations in the high seasand especially humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR).

The PLA has become particularly active and proficient in MOOTW over the past decade. During the 2011 Libyan civil war, for example, China conducted its first ever military operational deployment to the Mediterranean, as well as its largest noncombatant evacuation. This operation entailed the deployment of the PLA Navy (PLAN) frigate Xuzhou, along with four PLA Air Force (PLAAF) Il-76 long-range transport aircraft. Utilizing these military assets, along with chartered merchant vessels and aircraft, China removed 35,000 nationals from Libya.

In 2015, the PLAN undertook a similar evacuation of 600 Chinese citizens and over 200 foreigners from Yemen.

Non-war military operations have also provided Beijingand therefore the Chinese militarywith rationales for increasing its global presence. The PLA has greatly upped its contributions to U.N. peacekeeping operations, with over 2,600 personnel involved in missions in Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur, Lebanon, Liberia, and South Sudan. In addition, the PLA has engaged in joint security operations in Afghanistan and anti-crime riverine patrols on the Mekong River.

The PLAN has participated in international counter-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia.

After Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines in 2013, the PLAN dispatched its hospital ship Peace Arc to the islands.

The Chinese frigate Yantai, launched on Aug. 24, 2010, is one of the new Type 054A class frigates on an escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters. (Larry Downing/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)

Increasingly, MOOTW is becoming one of Chinas favorite forms of soft power, in addition to the usual tools (that is, trade, foreign investments, and cultural exchanges). Amid the pandemic, Chinas military provided a variety of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and clothing, ventilators, testing kits, and other medical supplies to several countries around the world.

The PLA also conducted a one-year-plus mission to Ethiopia, with Chinese medical personnel helping the Ethiopian army establish a COVID-19 testing and treatment center.

The PLA is now engaged in a highly publicized effort to transport Chinese-made vaccines to countries throughout the developing world. According to the Wall Street Journal, the PLA has delivered vaccines to about two dozen countries on four continents.

Interestingly, much of these shipments are going first to these nations military personnel. In Zimbabwe, for example, where less than 20 percent of the civilian population has received the COVID-19 vaccine, there is actually a surplus of Chinese vaccines among the Zimbabwean military. In the Philippines, Ethiopia, and Sudan, the PLA has helped large swaths of their defense forces get vaccinated.

In particular, priority has been given to Africa, and for good reason. In the first place, Sub-Saharan Africa is one of Chinas biggest buyers of armaments, and Beijing holds around a third of this market. This is a good reason, therefore, why key purchasers of Chinese weapons, such as Zimbabwe, have also been some of the major recipients of PLA-supplied vaccines.

Beijing also has important economic reasons for supplying vaccines to African militaries. China is a major buyer of crude oil from Africa, particularly Sudan. Earlier this year, the PLA delivered 250,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Sudanese forces operating on the border with South Sudan, where China also participates in a U.N. peacekeeping force.

In recent years, too, China has become Sub-Saharan Africas most important trading partner. It has made billions of dollars worth of investments in the region. Countries like Zimbabwe and Ethiopia are major players in the BRI.

Naturally, Beijing wants to maintain and strengthen its relations with countries in this region, and especially with their militaries that frequently exercise outsized power and influence in domestic politics (Burma, Sudan, and Zimbabwe have all experienced army coups in recent years). Selling arms and directly aiding local militaries helps China bypass civilian governments in building up its relationships with critical power brokers.

MOOTW also helps the PLA gain practical experience in long-range logistics, mobilizing military and civilian assets to serve national interests. They are also good training exercises, helping the PLA gain experience in long-range air transport, sustainable blue-water naval activities, and the like.

All of these capabilities are essential to upgrading Chinas expanding requirements for power projection, which in turn could be employed against Taiwan, in the South China Sea, or against U.S. forces.

For the PLA, then, hard power and soft power go hand in hand.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Falun Gong practitioners in Vienna, Austria, stage a demonstration of organ harvesting of imprisoned practitioners in China during a protest against the importing of human organs from China to Austria, on Oct. 1, 2018. (Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinese Regime Publicly Prices Human Organs to Whitewash Organ Transplant Abuses: Experts

Several provinces and cities in China have released official guideline prices for human vital organs, such as livers, kidneys, and hearts, following a notice issued by central authorities on fees and financial management measures for securing organs for transplant.

According to medical experts familiar with Chinas organ transplant market, the actions indicate that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is attempting to normalize the countrys less-than-transparent organ transplant system as it continues to face pressure to disclose its sourcing of transplant organs.

In a July notice, the CCP ordered provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions to set their own rates for human organs, effective Sept. 1.

In Henan Province, for example, six related departments, including the Health Commission, the Department of Finance, and the Market Supervision Administration, jointly issued standard rates for donated organs.

According to the list, organs for transplant include livers, priced at 260,000 yuan ($40,700), kidneys at 160,000 yuan ($25,000), hearts at 100,000 yuan ($15,600), lungs at 80,000 yuan ($12,500), corneas at 10,000 yuan ($1,600), pancreas at 50,000 yuan ($7,800), small intestines at 50,000 yuan, and others.

Price Tags for Human Organs

Dr. Wayne Shih-wei Huang, a surgeon and director at the IRCAD Taiwan, Asias largest training center for minimally invasive surgery, said the CCP is hoping to whitewash its transplant abuses by putting a price tag on human organs.

In the organ prices listed by province officials, a heart is much cheaper than a kidney, which makes no sense in terms of the medical cost, Huang told The Epoch Times. The cost of obtaining a heart should be higher than that of a kidney, since the heart must be extracted, appropriately stored, and transported within hours, he said.

Huang believes that the pricing of organs is instead a reflection of market value and demand.

In addition, both Hubei and Henan provinces listed different prices for organs for children and adults. The price in Henan Province is 100,000 yuan ($15,600) for a childs liver, less than half of the 260,000 yuan ($41,000) for an adult. The prices for single and double kidneys for children are also lower than those for adults by 60,000 yuan ($9,400) and 80,000 yuan ($12,500), respectively.

Dr. Alex Chih-Yu Chen, medical director of Novartis Japan, told The Epoch Times that in terms of medical costs, organ supply and transplants for children are more difficult and should be more expensive than for adults.

Questionable Donation Figures

The CCPs organ transplant system lacks transparency, Huang said.

The CCP cannot make its organ transplant system as transparent as that of Western countries, but it must have a system on the surface for others to see, he said.

The Red Cross Society of China, which is under the control of Beijing, is one of the organizations that documents organ donations and releases data to the national database. Its not associated with the International Committee of the Red Cross. It said that in China, organ donation is voluntary and free, according to its website.

Hamid Sabian independent counsel on the London-based China Tribunal, which found that forced organ harvesting had taken place on a significant scale in Chinatold a press conference in Belgium on Oct. 27 that the Chinese authorities have used testimony from Chinas Red Cross to counter pressure from Europe, the United States, and other countries to provide transparency on its organ donation program.

But the Red Cross Society of China will certify whatever the CCP authorities demand of it, Sabi said.

As for the CCPs official organ donor database, Chinas claims of being able to obtain 2.8 organs per donorwhich is 180 times higher than what is achievable by donation systems in Europe and the United Stateswould still fall far short of providing for the 10,000 transplants officially recorded per year, Sabi said.

Many experts also estimate that the actual number of transplants being conducted in China is magnitudes higher than the official figures.

A June 2016 report by David Kilgour, former Canadian secretary of state for the Asia-Pacific; David Matas, a human rights lawyer; and Ethan Guttmann, a senior American investigative journalist, estimated that China could be performing between 60,000 to 100,000 transplants per year. Many indicators point to the main source of these organs being Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience.

Falun Gong is a spiritual meditation practice with three core tenets, truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It was estimated to have 70 million to 100 million adherents by 1999, when Beijing deemed it a threat and ordered a persecution campaign against it.

Reports from the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) indicate that since the CCP began persecuting Falun Gong, imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners have become a large bank of living human organs for transplants in China.

The WOIPFG has searched for and analyzed hundreds of thousands of public media reports, papers, and databases from across 891 transplant hospitals and 9,515 transplant surgeons in China over the past 15 years, and found that, between 2000 and 2006, the number of organ transplants being conducted in China experienced exponential growth.

During the period from 2000 to 2008, Gutmann estimates that between 450,000 to 1 million Falun Gong practitioners were detained in any single year.

William Wang contributed to this report.

Jennifer Bateman Follow Jennifer Bateman is a news writer focused on China.
Chinese schoolchildren attending class at a primary School in Pingjiang County in China's Hunan Province, on Oct. 8, 2015. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinese School Triggers Outcry for Categorizing Students According to Family Background

Chinese media outlets and bloggers have criticized a primary school in northern China for categorizing students based on their family background.

The concern follows a survey form dated Oct. 27, 2021, given to students from the No. 1 Primary School of Yuanping City of Shanxi Province. According to the form, the survey was asking the schools class two, grade three a series of controversial questions.

The categories on the form divided students into 11 sections that Chinese schools and leadership consider positive and negative.

Positive categories include children of leaders, entrepreneurs, employees who work in powerful or monopolistic companies and government departments, or who have transferred from cities because of their connections.

Negative categories include children of divorced parents, parents with criminal records, or parents with religious beliefs. The negative categories also included students who had low scores, who have been dating, who were dropouts, or who are girls.

The public uproar began after details of the survey went public with images of the form going viral on the social media platformWeibo .

Wang Renping, a Chinese blogger with 2.9 million followers, blasted the school for a violation of the students privacy and for humiliating their dignity. He wrote on his blog what transpired is evidence of a bad and dirty method of education.

Pro-Beijing website Duowei, whose readership is overseas Chinese, reported Nov. 4 that local authorities imposed punitive actions against the class teacher who distributed the forms to the students and the team leader of grade three teachers. Local communist authorities reportedly gave a warning to the principal and a deputy principal of the school.

A day before the Duowei report, state-run media outlet Southcn.com posted an opinion piece about the survey, claiming that collecting information about students parents appears suspiciously to be undermining educational equality.

Another blogger named American Soap Opera Oral English said that it is wrong for the school to put the blame on the teacher. He wrote that he understood it to be a general practice at the school to have students fill out these forms because he noted that it had space on the page for teachers to fill in their class number and grade number.

The blogger added that its a common practice for Chinese schools to investigate detailed information of the parents of their students.

They [Chinese schools] ask children to bring empty make-up bottles to school to analyze the income of the mother, the blogger said on Nov. 7. He listed other things Chinese schools ask students to do, including describing their housing both in words and with pictures, writing down the brand of their family car, and jobs and levels of students parents and grandparents.

The Epoch Times Chinese edition reached out to the No. 1 Primary School of Yuanping City and the municipal education bureau on Nov. 8 but did not receive a response.

Gu Qinger and Gu Xiaohua contributed to the report.
Ciattarelli to Concede New Jersey Gubernatorial Race to Incumbent Governor

Jack Ciattarelli, a Republican who challenged New Jersey incumbent governor Phil Murphy in the 2021 gubernatorial race, is expected to concede on Friday, reported the New Jersey Herald.

As of Thursday, Murphy leads Ciattarelli by nearly 74,000 votes with all votes counted, stated NJ.com, citing The Associated Press. Murphy received 51 percent of the votes while Ciattarelli got 48 percent, according to NJ.com.

On Monday, Murphy called on his challenger to concede saying, When its mathematically impossible to win, I think its dangerous to not concede, reported the New Jersey Globe.

On Nov. 3, The Associated Press declared the Democrat governor winner, with 98 percent of precincts reporting and with more than 2.3 million votes cast.

Tallying votes in New Jersey took longer than expected as the state implemented this year new technology to support the election, including new voting machines. For example, in Paterson, election officials could not count ballots because they accidentally locked the machines, according to the New Jersey Herald.

In Newark and some other New Jersey cities, poll workers in 56 districts did not count votes due to poll worker error, reported the New Jersey Herald. A judge order was needed to reinstate their access to the machines.

Ciattarelli is a former New Jersey assemblyman, a certified public accountant, a two-time small-business owner, and a lifelong resident of New Jersey.

He campaigned under the banner Lets Fix New Jersey. He told New Jerseyans that, as a governor, he would address the states most pressing issues, such as the highest property taxes in the nation, state government overspending, insufficient support for local and state police, and reforming public school curriculum. Ciattarelli also promised to foster business growth and create more jobs in the state.

Murphy has held leadership roles at Goldman Sachss offices in Germany and Hong Kong for more than 20 years and served as an ambassador to Germany during the Obama administration. He was also a finance chair for the Democratic National Committee.

He campaigned on a range of policies implemented during his tenure as governor, such as tax fairness for middle-class families, minimum wage at $15 an hour, more affordable public education, more child care, Democrat-backed green policies, and legalizing marijuana. His campaigns slogan was: Its about how we move forward.

Murphy was endorsed by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for reelection, and former President Barack Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) stumped for Murphy at his campaign rallies.

The incumbent governor is the first Democrat to win reelection in New Jersey since Brendan Byrne in 1977.

He won his first term in 2017 with 56 percent of the vote, beating Republican then-Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno who received 42 percent of the vote.
City of Long Beach to Terminate First Responders Over Vaccine Mandate

According to documents obtained by The Epoch Times, the City of Long Beach, Calif., will terminate employees and law enforcement personnel who arent vaccinated for COVID-19 by Nov. 22 per the citys vaccine rollout plan. New employees will be required to be vaccinated as well.

On Nov. 9, more than 100 people, including local first responders, gathered at Bluff Park in Long Beach to protest the vaccine mandate.

At a press conference in Los Angeles on Nov. 10, California Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed the recent protests by government employees over the mandates, saying everyone has the right to refuse the vaccine, but there are consequences.

Everyone has the choice. I believe that local government has the right to make determinations particularly on the basis of regional conditions, criteria, to move in the direction they feel is most appropriate to keep people healthy, to keep people safe, and mitigate the spread of community spread, said Newsom. People have the right to choose not to do that, and there are consequences to that.

Long Beach city data showed the police and fire departments were 57 percent and 59 percent fully vaccinated respectively, according to an email from City Manager Tom Modica to city staff on Sept. 29. As a whole, city employees were 73 percent vaccinated.

We have an obligation as public servants to keep the public safe, which we cannot do if we as an overall organization have a lower vaccination rate than our surrounding community, said Modica in the email.

Currently, the city permits weekly testing in place of vaccination. According to Modica, it costs the city $110,000 per week, equating to $5.7 million a year, which is not a feasible model for the future, he said.

Medical and religious exemptions will be granted with the details of the level of accommodations that can be made will also be discussed and determined, and then communicated to each Long Beach employee.

Long Beach City Hall on Nov. 2, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Meanwhile, Long Beach Police Association president Rich Chambers told The Long Beach Post, The LBPOA has not, and will not, agree to a vaccination policy that uses suspension or termination as a means of bullying our members into compliance.

President of the Long Beach Fire Fighters union, Rex Pritchard, also told the local paper: We dont believe in a vaccinate or terminate model. We believe in vaccinate and accommodate.

The mandate deadline comes at a time when Los Angeles County officials are split on how best to encourage employees to become vaccinated. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to require all county employees to be vaccinated by Oct. 1, but only 77 percent of county employees are now vaccinated.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he will not be forcing his officers to be vaccinated, and police unions are leading the opposition to the vaccine mandates. However, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michel Moore has been cooperating with the countys mandate rollout and requiring his department to be fully vaccinated.

The Boards vaccination mandate is causing a mass exodus within the Department, which is an absolutely absurd result, Villanueva said in a statement on Oct. 28.

Villanueva said terminating his deputies would be an imminent threat to public safety when 20 to 30 percent of his department can no longer work, and those dangers are quickly becoming a reality, citing an increase in homicides.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva speaks during a ceremony in Monterey Park, Calif. on Dec. 3, 2018 (Jae C. Hong/AP)

He added a large portion of his department finds it easier to retire than to be forced into a decision that should be personal.

Personally, I am vaccinated and believe the vaccine works, but the choice to receive the vaccine is a personal one, and an individual who served the community tirelessly before there was a vaccine should not now be fired because they made a personal decision about their own body, he said.

Under the countys mandate, employees are to either be fully vaccinated or get a COVID-19 test each week and eventually get vaccinated, unless they are exempted for health or religious beliefs, Supervisor Sheila Kuehl told The Epoch Times in a previous interview.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported that more than 2,600 LAPD officers so far have claimed to be exempt for medical or religious reasons. Some officers have filed lawsuits challenging the mandate.

Neither Modica nor Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia immediately responded to a request for comment.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson discusses 'Populism and the Right' during the National Review Institute's Ideas Summit at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington on March 29, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Conservatives Split Over Sending Military Aid to Ukraine

Top Republican lawmakers are calling for the Biden administration to send military aid to Ukraine amid reports of Russian troops amassing at the border between the two countries, but not all conservatives are on board with being entangled in the conflict.

Recent news of Russian tank and ground troop movement along the Ukrainian border sparked widespread speculation over Russias intentions, as well as calls for the United States to intervene if Russian President Vladimir Putin were to invade.

From think tanks to Capitol Hill, theres a bipartisan consensus in Washington that the United States should assist Ukraine against Russia.

The Biden administration dispatched CIA Director William Burns to Moscow on Nov. 2 to express concern about the military buildup near Ukraine, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken followed up on Nov. 10 by warning Russia against making a serious mistake by acting aggressively against its neighbor.

The United States has committed more than $2.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

Republicans want to do more. A total of 15 conservative lawmakers wrote a letter to President Joe Biden on the matter, urging him to send military aid to Ukraine.

It is imperative that the U.S. fulfill its commitment to a key partner by increasing lethal aid to Ukraine in order to deter and repel a renewed Russian incursion, reads the Nov. 5 letter, whose signers included Reps Michael Turner (R-Ohio) and Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the ranking members of the House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces and the Committee on Armed Services, respectively.

Additionally, we urge you to immediately consider an appropriate U.S. military presence and posture in the region and to initiate appropriate intelligence sharing activities between the U.S. and Ukraine to prevent the situation from escalating further.

But not all conservatives share the sentiments expressed in the letter. Fox News host Tucker Carlson grilled Turner about the issue on his show on Nov. 10, asking the congressman why its in Americas interest to entangle itself in an Eastern European border dispute.

I wonder why the emphasis on Ukraines borders and not ours? Carlson asked.

Turner made the case that Ukraine is a NATO ally and deserves protection. Russias actions suggest that Putin wants to reassert Soviet-era influence in the region, he said.

Ukraine is a democracy. Russia is an authoritarian regime thats looking to impose its will upon validly elected democracy in Ukraine, he said.

But Carlson wasnt convinced. If anything, a friendship with Russia serves U.S. interests more than being allies with Ukraine, he suggested.

If youre looking from Americas perspective, I mean, whos got the energy reserves? Whos a major player in world affairs? Who is a potential counterbalance against China, which is the actual threat? Carlson said. Why would we take Ukraines side? Why not Russias?

Carlsons comments sparked outrage among national security commentators and pundits, who criticized him for siding with Russia over a NATO ally.

GOP definitely NOT the Party of Reagan anymore, Obama-era U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul wrote on Twitter.

But conservatives and others rode to Carlsons defense, praising him for questioning U.S. national security dogma.

We deserve a discussion about these most basic questionsexactly because they have been intentionally left unexamined for decades, Claremont Institute senior fellow David Reaboi said.

Reaboi said he thinks that the CarlsonTurner interaction illustrates the divide between the people who understand that our old foreign policy priorities are no longer operative, and those who want to live in a past that doesnt exist anymore.

Im not an ideological isolationist. I think its just as insane as the most absurd adventurism, he said. But a policy of non-intervention, right now, is the only sane one for the U.S. government. Our problems are within our own borders.
Join study partners, John & Jane as they explore the challenges to the evolutionary theory and why the Bible makes the most sense of the scientific evidence. This is an essential video for Christian students attending Junior High to College. Through the fun conversations of the actors, this program provides solid answers about creation, evolution, the fossil record, extinction, adaptation, natural selection, common ancestors, branching & homologous, and human evolution.

Cant wait for more? Watch more Awesome Science content here now: awesomescitv.com/epochtv

Want to purchase the DVD series or buy VOD? Click Here.

Get 10% OFF every purchase now, enter this coupon code at checkout: EPOCHTV

DEBUNKING EVOLUTION DVD

Note: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the producers, creators and presenters of Awesome Science do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of The Epoch Times. Debunking Evolution addresses topics related to evolution and invites conversation, thinking and analysis of current streams of thought discussed and taught in education circles today.



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



You May Also Like:





Science Foundations





Awesome Science





The Heavens Declare Series





Dino Hunter Series





Flood Geology Series
They charged the man in a court that doesnt have authority to give him cash bail So now hes in the Kaduna prison, which is a very awful place to be.

One week ago, Epoch Times reporter Luka Binniyat was arrested in Nigeria, after extensively reporting on atrocities against Nigerian Christians. His most recent story was titled In Nigeria, Police Decry Massacres as Wicked but Make No Arrests.

He has since been charged with cyberstalking under the cybercrime law, a statute that experts say is used to squelch freedom of expression.

Today, we sit down with The Epoch Times Africa desk editor, Douglas Burton, to understand Binniyats current situation and whats happening on the ground in Nigeria.

If you step back and look at the big picture there is a war against Christians, says Burton.

Jan Jekielek: Doug Burton, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.

Douglas Burton: Same here, Jan.

Mr. Jekielek: Doug, we have a pretty difficult situation right now. One of the Epoch Times reporters in Nigeria has been jailed, Luka Binniyat. I want to make sure Im saying his name right.

Mr. Burton: Correct.

Mr. Jekielek: Why dont you give us a rundown of whats going on. Well drill into all sorts of details momentarily.

Mr. Burton: Right, Jan. Well, Luka Binniyat is one of five reporters in Central Nigeria that Ive been mentoring for a few months. I started working as a reporter for Epoch Times in February of this year, and I told my editor that I work with a group of reporters on the ground who give me eyewitness testimony and connect me to witnesses.

So he was very helpful, the most helpful editor Ive ever worked with [inaudible, 00:01:43] Steven Gregory. So he said, Sure, go ahead. Since then, I have been helping these reporters, some of whom are citizen journalists, but Luka Binniyat is a professional journalist. Hes been a regular reporter for well known newspapers for more than 25 years.

I started working with Luka, I think around May or June of this year. Lukas about 52 years old. Hes got family, adult children, and hes from Southeast Kaduna where its just a battleground, Its a killing zone where theres ongoing conflicts between his tribe, a really big one called the Atyap people, and the so-called herdsman who are principally the Fulani tribesmen.

Luka has been doing cutting edge reporting, factual reporting of whats been going on in the massacres in Kaduna. Thats how I was attracted to him. Hes gotten himself into jail because hes been telling the truth, but also too much truth.

Mr. Jekielek: Lets start here, okay? What exactly is this group of reporters that youre working with as our Africa Desk Editor now. What exactly are they reporting on?

Mr. Burton: Theyre reporting on massacres of unarmed people in the middle belt of Nigeria, but principally two statesKaduna, which is the third largest state, and also the neighboring state of Plateau. Since 2015, there has been an escalation of massacres in these two states, but there have been attacks by radicalized Muslims in about 12 states in Nigeria.

Mr. Jekielek: So, lets understand the bigger picture of this particular, well call it a conflict. Youre saying massacres are occurring. What exactly is going on? What does the evidence tell us?

Mr. Burton: Yes, it seems to be a complex situation because Nigeria is a big country. I mean, its got more than 218 million people. It is the largest and richest country in Africa, and its the dominant country in West Africa. So many people have heard that theres a war there, or theres an insurgency called Boko Haram, which means Western learning is forbidden.

Boko Haram tried to affiliate itself with the Islamic state early on, I think in 2014, 2015. Since then, Boko Haram has been absorbed into an ascendant Islamic group called the Islamic State of West Africa. And that conflict has been pretty well covered.

The government has been fighting a war and has made a lot of progress in pushing the Islamic State of West Africa into a corner in Northeast Nigeria, but much less well covered is a kind of other insurgency which involves nomadic peoples or semi-nomadic peoples associated with the Fulani ethnicity.

Since 2010, but increasingly since 2015, there have been attacks on rural villages and sometimes 30, 40, 50 or 100 people will be murdered in these attacks, which involve razing the village. They are nighttime attacks by armed militia, or we may say mercenaries.

That is what my group has covered the most, these marauding attacks, which are apparently attempts to cleanse the area of farmers and to take over the land for grazing for the cattle herds that these nomadic people have.

Mr. Jekielek: Exactly. One of the stories, or one of the explanations as to why this is happening is precisely what you describedthat its a matter of picking up land. But youre saying theres this religious dimension.

Mr. Burton: Well, there is a religious dimension, but theres also an economic dimension. Now, if you go to the website of the U.S Mission in Abuja, if you go to the websites of the experts like the International Crisis Group, or if you go to Human Rights Watch, youll find detailed reports which tell about the conflict between peoplesherding peoples and farming peoples.

Their view is that the root cause of this conflict is global warming. They will tell you that the herding peoples are in a fight over scarce resources with the residential farmers. Of course, thats partly true. There is global warming all over the Sahel in Africa. However, theres also a sectarian dimension.

Its not justified over resources. Theres the fact that the people who are generally doing the attacks are radicalized jihadist and the Fulani ethnicity of which President Muhammadu Buhari is the leading member.

It happens to be very proud of its devout Islamism, and there is a subsect. We have to make it clear. There is a minority of people in this ethnicity who believe that their way to preserve their faith and to claim the land of Nigeria is through warfare and through terrorism. Thats not true of the whole ethnicity, but that is whats happening. There are thousands of bandit gangs in the middle belt of Nigeria. There are all kinds of crime going on.

There are kidnappings everywhere, but many of the bandit gangs, which are also apparently doing the razing of villages, happen to be dominated by Fulani people. So its hard for an outsider to grasp whats really going on here. Nigeria has been known to have all kinds of violence, tribal warfare.

Theres been banditry in the South of Nigeria for more than 20 years. Theres a separatist movement in the Southeast of Nigeria that seeks to claim territory for a new country called Biafra. Those folks are survivors of the Biafra genocide that goes back between 1967 and 1970.

Nigeria is kind of hard to understand. Its got hundreds of ethnicities, many different languages. But if you step back and look at the big picture, then certain things become cleareven to an outsider like myself, whos just looking at the facts and talking to the victims.

That is, there is a war against Christians. Although there are communal clashes, there are tribal conflicts, they go on in many places. But the preponderance of the attacks in the middle belt are done by these bandit gangs or these terrorists who are seeking to drive out the resident farmers.

Mr. Jekielek: Youre saying that the resident farmers are predominantly Christian.

Mr. Burton: Yes, in most cases. In the middle belt, for exampleespecially in Southern Kaduna, which is a majority Christian area or in the state of Northern Plateau, Plateau is a majority Christian state, although just barely. Its mixed. Kaduna is a Muslim state, and theres a very large majority of Muslim people in the northern part of the state.

Luka is from the south, which is mixedboth Muslims and Christiansbut the majority of the Christians are living in the south area. What were seeing is a rivalry, a competition and a kind of civil war between ethnicities. Well, not ethnicities necessarily, but its between religionsits radicalized Muslims and Christian people. The complexity is that not all the Muslims are intolerant, not all the Muslim people are turning into terrorists.

There are many Fulani people who are actually Christians. Weve done stories about them in The Epoch Times. Many Fulani people have come to the aid and saved the lives of Christians. So theyre amazing people, theyre great people. Many heads of government in West Africa are from the Fulani ethnicity.

But when you look at the testimonies of the victims in many states, and weve done stories over a wide area from the north central part of Nigeria to theso far, eastern partyou see a similarity prevail, a similarity of testimonies.

People say these people came at night, or they came after midnight. When they came into our village, they were armed, they were wearing dark clothes, they were wearing masks, and they were shouting, Allahu Akbar, which means God is great.

Mr. Jekielek: From what I understand, the government position on this is that there is sectarian or religious violence, but it kind of goes in both directions. Sometimes the Muslim extremists will attack Christians, and then the Christian extremists will attack the Muslims back.

Mr. Burton: Yes, thats true. Thats part of the complexity of it. It is a fact that there has been sectarian fighting in the north central states. For example, there were terrible sectarian riots in Jos. Its a metropolis in the capital of Plateau State. There were terrible riots, and I think about 2,000 people were killed in riots. Jos in 2001 pretty much coincided with the same time that the United States was attacked on 9-11.

There were riots and internecine fighting in Kaduna state in 2010 and 2011, which was an election year. The fighting between Muslims and Christians was probably related to the presidential campaigns of the two partiesone of which was led by a Christian man, Goodluck Jonathan, who won the presidency in 2011. His opponents were Muslims. So yes, there is that aspect of it.

There have been massacres of Muslims that theyve been well recorded by Human Rights Watch, but heres the thing. If you look at the big picture, the preponderance of attacks have not been Christians against Muslims. In general, the residential farmers, the Christians, theyre unarmed. Why?

Because Nigeria has had a very vigorous and strictly controlled gun control law. They prevent people from acquiring weapons. In fact, the police will arrest any person with a gun of any kind, unless they have a license as a hunter. They even arrest people who have self defense weapons like machetes in their houses. But on the other hand, the people who are doing these attacks, the Fulani herdsmen, carry AK-47 rifles and they are never disarmed.

All of the bandit gangs are carrying these automatic weapons. They have rocket propelled grenade launchers. They have heavy weapons, and the government never arrests them. I mean, some interdiction of the bandits, they have bombed them in the Northwestern states. There have been recent bombing raids against the bandit gangs and Niger state, which is the far Northwest.

So far as I know, they havent done any bombing raids in Kaduna where there are the most massacres, and none that I know of in Plateau. The governments approach to these bandit gangs is very odd. Its very mysterious, because clearly thats the worst terrorism in the country, and the government doesnt have an explanation as to why its not enforcing the law.

Mr. Jekielek: How many massacres are we talking about here? How many people? I mean, I dont want to just turn it into numbers, but I just want to understand the scale of this.

Mr. Burton: There is media consensus, very broad consensus, including the Council of Foreign Relations and their murder tracking report, their terrorism tracking report that since 2010, at least 60,000 people have been killed by the insurgency or the terrorism done by these bandit groups.

But if you talk to other sources, like one of our sources is an Anglican priest. His name is Hassan John in Jos. He keeps another set of records. He says that most of these attacks on villages in rural areas are not even reported. The casualties reported by the governmentlike police and Nigeria and the armytheyre underreported. The numbers are far lower than they should be. Reverend John says the real number of people whove been killed is close to 500,000.

Mr. Jekielek: Thats hard to fathom.

Mr. Burton: It really is. But I think recently there was a UN agency, the International Office for Migration reported that as many as  It was an incredible number. Hundreds of thousands of children have been killed in Nigeria since 2010, especially in the Northeast section. So many of the deaths are related to these attacks, and were talking about the total numberthe total picture of both the ISIS insurgency, and by the way, there are other insurgencies.

Theres an Al Qaeda group in the Northwest. Its not just the Islamic State West Africa. Combine that with the attacks by the kidnapped gangs and the groups that are paid to raise villages. If you combine them together, its a very large number. Iits a huge cost economically to the banditry, and especially the kidnapping industry in Nigeria is really hard to grasp because billions of dollars are going into ransoms to these bandit gangs.

The bandit gangs are rarely captured, theyre rarely stopped. There are reports that the police know where these bandit gangs are, and by the way, theres thousands of them. We know this from the reports of the Muslim mediators, like Sheikh Gumi whos based in Kaduna. He tells us himself that there are thousands of gangs in the Northern states, and they are bankrupt in the churches.

Many of the ransoms are ransoms of people who are of modest income, pastors of little churches. According to the International Committee in Nigeria, the average ransom in Nigeria is about $10,000, but that is like a so-called kings ransom for these people. Most people in Nigeria, in the middle belt, live on less than $1,000 a year.

Mr. Jekielek: This is a really large scale thing that I think a lot of the world just simply isnt aware of, right? Lets go back to Luka now. Luka is specifically looking at individual examples of these massacres and reporting on them, among other things.

Mr. Burton: Well, Luka, hes a professional. According to the reports of his fellow journalist in Kaduna, hes fearless, and hes been telling the truth about the massacres for a long time, partly because his tribe is on the front line of being genocided in Southeast Nigeria. His tribe suffers these attacks on a regular basis. And Luka is a Roman Catholic guy.

I dont know him that well. I know hes in his early 50s, hes got grown children, and Luka just tells it the way it is. So he was put in jail four years ago, that he was charged with breach of the peace and with defamation of the governor and other officials. That case was never resolved, but Luka was in jail or prison for about four months. Its very terrible. Its a hard thing to endure.

More recently, what got him into trouble is that, and Im partly to blame because I edit Lukas stories, Luka did a story that was published October 29th about a massacre of 38 people in a little village or town called Madamai in Southern Kaduna. Then Luka did a very complete story. He was there at the mass burial of the people, and he took statements from the State Security Commissioner.

A month later, we published his story a little belatedly. In the story, he points out that there had been no arrests. Well, there have been no prosecutions. 38 people were killed. If that had happened in the United States, there wouldve been wall to wall coverage, but in Nigeria, its actually not that much of a big deal.

So Luka printed that and he quoted exactly verbatim what the State Commissioner of Security said, his name is Mr. Samuel Aruwan. He said that, unfortunately, there had been clashes in the state. He was looking into everything, and he was going to catch the culprits.

Well, what wounded him is that Luka in the story pointed out that there werent any clashes. He quoted a state Senator, Mr. Laah, who said, Theres no clashes. If there was clashes, why arent there any Muslim casualties? There are no Muslim deaths. Its just Christian deaths. Thats true. So what he pointed out is that the government is using a false narrative.

What Mr. Aruwan said is not unusual. That is the conventional narrative that has been given by public officials for a decade. Is actually repeated, its promulgated by the fake news media, or I would say its the media that has been intimidated by the government to use euphemisms and Orwellian language like not identifying who the killers are.

So Luka told the truth, and I think he stung the officials who have come back to him and hes been jailed for the crime of cyber stalking. Thats why he was arrested last Thursday. He had a court appearance yesterday, and then today, second court appearance, and the judge has ordered him to be moved from a police jail into the prison in Kaduna.

Mr. Jekielek: So Luka quoted the Senator, but the Senator disputes that he said these things?

Mr. Burton: Correct, yes. Now the Senator has said in a statement from his lawyers, he didnt say it. Hes backed off completely. Now, the Senators a Christian. According to some sources, hes been intimidated to say this because he stands to lose a lot if the whole weight of the government comes down on him. You rarely see these stories in Nigerian media.

Usually government officials, they say nonsense, or they speak in a very vague, polite genteel way, and the people who object to their stories also use indirect language. But Lukas story is not indirect. My friends have told me that they think the Senator may have been intimidated. We dont know.

Hes not taking any media calls, neither is Mr. Samuel Aruwan. Oof course Ive been contacting Mr. Aruwan myself. I have a channel to him. He hasnt responded to any of the calls. So hes stonewalling me, and we dont know why. This is the problem of the so-called genocide against Christians in Nigeria. No one can really understand it in the West because the Nigerian media themselves dont fairly report it.

Mr. Jekielek: Very difficult situation. Actually you mentioned today  Were recording this on Wednesday, were going to publish this interview on Thursday, so a week after his arrest. You did get some updates, so tell us what the current situation is for Luka.

Mr. Burton: Well, the court hearing began yesterday and Luka Binniyat was charged with cyber stalking, which means that youve published something online or electronically that the target of your communication may take to be intimidating or a threat of some kind. Mr. Samuel Aruwan apparently filed a complaint, or he wrote a letter to some police agency, and that resulted in the arrest and the charge with cyber stalking, which is a controversial statute as the article in The Epoch Times points out.

Cyber stalking is apparently a medium for restraining speech. Its for punishing people for saying something thats politically incorrect. So Mr. Binniyat was charged with cyber stalking, which is a federal crime, but he was charged in a magistrates court that doesnt have authority to rule on that because its a lower ranking court.

Lukas case has to be moved to a federal court. In the meantime, he will stay in detention. He cant get cash bail from the magistrate because the magistrate doesnt have authority over that crime. Some of our sources have told us that they think that was the intention of the government to begin with.

They charged the man in a court that doesnt have authority to give him cash bail, so he has to go to another facility. So now hes in the Kaduna prison, which is a very awful place to be. And we dont know how many days or weeks it will take to get his case heard in the federal court.

Now, there are cases of other journalists Ive worked with like Mr. Steven Kefas, who was charged with cyber stalking in 2019. He had the same problem. Got charged in a lower court, couldnt get cash bail in the federal court, and actually the judge in that case wouldnt give an explanation, or they gave odd explanations that he was being considered for some of the charges or whatever.

Well, Steven Kefas was in prison for five months. And during that time, his health deteriorated. I spoke to Steven Kefas just a few days ago. He says, Well, I now have hepatitis C. When I got out of prison, I had malaria, typhoid. Its hard for the people to endure this imprisonment.

So some people believe that Lukas being just kept, hes just being stashed into a prison. But other people like his assistant, whos taken over his job at the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, shes more optimistic. She thinks that the lawyer can get cash bail, and that hell be out soon.

Mr. Jekielek: As someone whos worked on international human rights issues myself, you might be surprised that I ask this question, but I think its important. Why should Americans be concerned about these massacres happening in Nigeria?

Mr. Burton: Its a good question. The fact is that Americans have to be concerned about terrorism in other countries that will come here. Stephen Enada of the International Committee on Nigeria has said dozens of times that what happens in Nigeria, doesnt stay there. Its going to come here to this country.

You remember the shoe bomber of about 10 years ago? The shoe bomber was a Nigerian guy. He tried to blow up an airplane by putting explosives in his shoes, right? There are many terrorists whove come from the Middle East and have done attacks, or they have planned attacks in this country.

Theyve had quite a few massacres by Middle Eastern people who happen to be in the United States, right? So if we allow the Islamic State in West Africa to bloom and become a caliphate, which is possible, then it will become a state where terrorism is funded, and it will go all over the world. Thats what happened when ISIS was in Northern Syria and Iraq.

So terrorism can come here. The other reason we have to be concerned is that Nigeria is the dominant state in West Africa, and what happens there easily influences the surrounding states. So if the government of Muhammadu Buhari becomes an authoritarian Islamic state, or an Islamist kind of state, not an ally with the United States, which on paper it is an ally.

But if it becomes a country thats hostile to the United States, its government and its culture will influence the surrounding republicsRepublic of Niger, of Benin, of Mali, of Chad. Ten states could follow suit. So thats one reason to be concerned. The other reason is that Americans are basically a moral people. Their national tradition is to be concerned about human rights abuses. And this is a massive one.

Mr. Jekielek: Doug, you have a pretty fascinating perspective on how these terrorists and bandit groups originate. Tell me about that.

Mr. Burton: Heres how I got really interested in Nigeria. After I got back to the United States and I started really studying ISIS, I found out about its origins. ISIS started in 2012 in Northern Syria, and it started as a criminal group. They were radical guys. They were terrorists who had come from Al-Qaeda in Iraq. They were in shelters in Northern Syria, and they began making money.

Every terrorist group starts as a criminal group. So their money making means was kidnap for ransom, extortion, and theft. As we studied ISIS in Iraq, and ISIS in Iraq performed dozens of types of theft, including large scale theft of oil and gasoline, and all kinds of things, which you realize is that all these are radical groups.

This goes back to the Red Army. All radicalized groups begin as criminal groups. Crime of all kinds is at the center of what they do, and their radicalism justifies it. When I started looking at Boko Haram, I saw the same thingkidnap for ransom, sex slavery, for example, extortion, intimidation. Kidnapping for ransom was the main thing ISIS did in Iraq. That was their chief moneymaker, and theyre still doing it.

People dont realize that the key to understanding ISIS is its business model. Radicalism, terrorism is a kind of business. So when I looked at West Africa, I saw the same business, and that is how you can understand the connection between the herdsmen groups and the Al-Qaeda groups like Ansaru. I did the first story that explained that Ansaru had reemerged in the Northwest.

And how did it manifest itself? Its a big kidnapping gang, and it operates out of the forest just west of Kaduna City. Theres huge kidnapping there. Thats how you can understand how all the groups relate. They all have the same business model. Their radicalism gives them an ideological justification for doing any kind of crime.

Mr. Jekielek: Fascinating.

Mr. Burton: Yes. Look at it through the lens of who benefits. Now, thats how the terrorists benefit. Now, look at it the other way. How does the government benefit? Well, thats easy and your friend, Batya Ungar-Sargon, explained this very well. Theres a moral crisis. Theres a moral panic in this country. And why is it? Because there is a need to consolidate consensus about what is wrong with our country.

Why? Because once you have this consolidation or you have a consensus about whats wrong, it empowers the people in power. The government elites, the political class, empowers them to take action, which means grabbing more power. Thats exactly whats happening in Nigeria. The political class in Nigeria is comprised of people in both major parties.

Theres just two parties, PDP and the APC. They win power no matter who wins the election. And no matter who wins, the government gets bigger and stronger. For example, let me explain it this way. The government has a big budget for the military. They got the Navy, Army, Air Force. So over $20 billion, the equivalent of $20 billion is spent every year to contain the insurgency in Iraq. I mean, not in Iraq, but in Nigeria.

So the more violence there is, the more they have a case that they need more weapons. They need aircraft from the United States, and they need explosives, and they need expertise. So they spend money on all these things and theres huge corruption and graft. A lot of this money that goes into the armaments, its actually siphoned off by the officials, just like every part of their government.

Im not the only person whos saying this. You look at other sources, theyll tell you that Nigeria is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. That is how the government benefits and gains, by having insurgencies. Now, how do they benefit from the other conflict? The herdsmen gangs? Well, the herdsmen and the bandits who are doing the kidnapping, they happen to be radicalized Muslims and the government itself, centered around Muhammadu Buhari, just happens to be leaning toward Islamic fundamentalism.

Some of the Salafist are actually in his cabinet, not all of them. Some of the people are Christian, but he is a former herdsman himself, and hes very closely connected to the Cattlemens Association. The people who are doing the killing, bringing revenueand some of it undoubtedly goes to these lobbying groups and these political groups, the so-called Cattlemens Association, and they have another name for it, but thats what it is.

Theyre getting wealthy. I got insight from a London based military analyst, Mr. David Otto, who was a consultant to the army in Nigeria, and he travels to West Africa frequently. He said, The army in Nigeria never wins the war. And its not really trying to win the war. Its managing the war. You have to understand the difference. Managing means you keep the spigot going of funding for your government, right?

Now, heres the question we have. It is a fact that the government of Nigeria has made progress pushing Boko Haram back. In fact, Boko Haram is over. The new group is called Islamic State of West Africa, and they have won military victories, but the government has not made much progress in pushing back the kidnapping gangs and the mercenaries who have cleansed 380 towns in villages in the Middle Belt.

Three hundred eighty towns in villages have been wiped away of Christian settlers, and many of them have been renamed. And the Muslim people, either Fulani or Northern Hausa, have occupied those towns and villages.

Well, what has the government done to stop that? The answer is nothing. They dont arrest any of these people. They dont do any prosecutions. They keep explaining and repeating that, oh yeah, were going to get to the bottom of this, were going to make arrests, but they never do. They dont stop it because they have no incentive to stop it. They are benefiting from it.

Mr. Jekielek: So youre saying theres no prosecutions, nothing. This is what youre saying.

Mr. Burton: There are no prosecutions of the terrorists who come out of these Fulani bandit gangs. If there is one, show me it. Even the Nigerian media itself doesnt say this because its politically incorrect. My friends in the journalist community, the Nigerian Union of Journalists, the UNJ have told me, Well, we just cant say that because all of the newspapers, they depend upon government patronage, advertising, or support.

Many of them are bribed, actually. Bribery is very common in Nigeria. Even our little group run by Lawrence Zongo, they had to bribe people to come to their press conference. On October 15th, they had to bribe the military police to come. I mean, the secret police came and they expected to be paid just to come to the press conference. That shows you how weird it is.

There is corruption and the journalists in Nigeria, they dont make much money. Good jobs are hard to get. So if you get a government job, you want to keep it. If you get a job in media, people I know love to do journalism. Thats why I chose to do it in the mid 70s. So they are subject to coercion by the government and subject to inducements like payoffs.

And Luka Binniyat just decided he was not going to be one of those persons. Luka doesnt make much money. Since he got jailed four years ago, he hasnt been able to get a regular job in journalism. So he works as a media coordinator for the Christian group, the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union.

Mr. Jekielek: What youre describing here is a situation where people almost literally are taking their lives into their own hands to do the kind of work that our journalists have been doing. I dont know if that may be lost on some people.

Mr. Burton: It is hard to believe because it seems so far away. As you point out, its complex. Its hard to grasp. Thats why I feel really driven to help Luka, and Lawrence Zongo, and other reporters get the word out. Its not surprising, in a way, that Luka is getting in trouble again, because hes done a lot of good.

Hes actually exposed the governments Orwellian language, and hes exposed their, what I would say, false narrative. This raises another question, why did they do it? The government knew that Luka is a widely known dissonant journalist, and they knew that if they prosecuted him, it was going to cause international embarrassment. But why did they do it? Well, they did it, I think I would just argue, because they needed to shut him up.

Mr. Jekielek: Im going to read a quote that you gave to Lara Logan in this really excellent documentary that she made, actually based on the reporting of our journalists in significant part, at least. You said, In order to get This is right at the end, In order to get a solution, we need to listen to the victims themselves.

Mr. Burton: From the beginning, I talked to the victims and thats why Lawrence Zongo was so helpful. Lawrence Zongo, before I started working with him, he had a job taking photographs of the corpses of people whod been murdered. And he had a lot of work to do. Now, you have to take pictures quickly because in Nigeria, they have a tradition of burying people within 24 hours of death.

So Lawrence had to go to the scene where the corpses were available before they were put into the ground. He was documenting that for a nonprofit organization. So Lawrence has seen a lot of this. I think Lawrence has probably suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome, possibly because of this.

We started by getting the testimonies of the victims, and that is why Ive encouraged other journalists to get in touch with the people on the ground who are the victims, or talk to the people who are the witnesses, like the Catholic priest or the pastors who have to bury these people.

One of my first stories was in 2019. I didnt have many contacts, but a friend gave me the telephone number of a Roman Catholic priest in the Northeast of Nigeria, Father Lawrence Ikeh. He was in this parish where he said when he came there a couple of years ago, it seemed like it was a graveyard because so many people had been killed.

I was really moved to hear and talk about this because I realized this mans all alone. Hes got a little parish house there and he doesnt have any security. I mean, he cannot really escape if he gets attacked. So I prayed with him by my cell phone and he was really moved by it.

Then a week later, his fellow priest called me because Ikeh had given my number out, and this young man said, Well, Mr. Burton, were under attack right now. Im in the town of Michika, and were standing on a hill. Its about 10:30 at night, were watching the town burn down. The towns in flames. The Boko Haram boys are going through town.

I took the report down and then the next day, I sent it to the Washington Examiner and they published it. That is how I came to realize that a person whos never even been to Nigeria can get the story just with a cell phone. I came to realize that Nigeria is not really 5,000 miles away, its only a cell phone call away.

Not only can journalists call, but any concerned citizen in the United States can have a direct relationship, a bond and a friendship with a person in these conflict zones. If that would happen on a large scale, then even if the mainstream media isnt covering it, the story will get out because concerned citizens will get it out.

Mr. Jekielek: This is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about as we finish up here. Theres plenty of viewers, Im sure, who are interested in somehow helping, somehow supporting. And what youve just been describing is a really interesting way to do that.

Weve had Tony Perkins with UCIRF, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, come out and make a statement on this topic and reach out to his contacts in the area, from what I understand. But for people that are just out there thinking to themselves, what can we do, what is the next step for people?

Mr. Burton: There are many things people can do. The call to action has been made by eminent peoplewriters like Bernard-Henri Levy, who said, Theres so many things you can do. The U.S. Congress can put sanctions on the government of Nigeria and condition aid upon improvement in law enforcement. So we could work through our elected representatives, especially the senators because they control aid overseas. Thats one thing.

The other thing is that we can work through civil society groups to contact the churches that are under attack in Nigeria. Now, Mr. Levy said at a press conference recently, and the story is up just today on The Epoch Times, he said, If I were a member of one of these vibrant little churches of which there are thousands in the United States, I would say, guys, lets get together and rebuild some of these churches theyve been burnt down. I mean, thousands of them.

Theres one denomination in Nigeria you probably never heard of, but its a very popular denomination called Ecumenical Church Winning All. They have six congregations in the United States, but more than 1,100 churches belonging to the ECWA group in Nigeria have been burnt down, totally destroyed.

What if that had happened in the United States? That would be a huge story, but there, I mean, no one writes about it, right? We dont even keep records. So what is happening is that the churches are being ransacked, burnt, and people driven out, driven into internally displaced peoples camps and so forth, and no ones talking about it.

So we can help through our churches. Tony Perkins, hes an ordained minister, hes doing that. There are so many church groups that are trying to help somehow. But the other thing we can do is just as individuals.

Ive always been a proponent of citizen to citizen diplomacy. I even tried to do this when I was with the State Department in Iraq. I connected boy scout groups in the mid states area of the Washington area. I connected those boy scout troops to the boy scout troops in Kirkuk, Iraq, and the Iraqis are so grateful.

What I suggest is go around mainstream media and even go around mainstream nonprofits. If you can find a person in Nigeria in the conflict zones whos in harms way, make that person your friend, do what I did. Just make one person your friend, and talk to them, encourage them, take notes. If you want to give them money, do it. I send people money. Im not wealthy, but when I started, I started giving little packets of money to my reporters because they needed it.

If people want to help, if they want to make a donation, they can do it through a centralized group. The International Committee on Nigeria is taking funds. It is a registered nonprofit and they will accept donations. You can go to iconhelp.org and they will transfer the donations to Lawrence Zongos group, Rural Watch.News. You can do that.

But I would say theres nothing wrong with making your own friend. You dont have to go through ICON. Find a friend. Look, there are millions of concerned citizens, many people of faith of all kinds of backgroundsProtestant, Catholic, Bahai, Muslim, and all kinds of groups. Americans are great people. We have a tradition of caring about people in harms way. Thats why we rescued Korea in 1950. No country has done what we did in 1950.

So Americans can search their hearts after seeing me and seeing the evidence. Thats pretty evident. If you look on the internet, youll see lots of documentation of the Christian genocide. Just ask yourself, what does my God in heaven want me to do? And if you make that prayer, God will guide you to someone in Nigeria who can use your help.

Regardless of whether people are believers or not, this is a catastrophic situation. This is one of the worst human rights catastrophes in history. Its an embarrassment for the West that were not looking at it clearly. Bernard-Henri Levy, he has done a new book, its interesting called The Will to See. He points out that the West has seen many genocides happen and it didnt take note and get engaged, even though government officials knew in the beginning. But they didnt get engaged until after it was over, like Rwanda, for example, in 1994.

Genocides in the 20th century begin with the Armenian genocide in 1915, and more recent genocides have taken place in Rwanda, of course, in Cambodia 1975, in Sudan, 2004. He says, the West has a chance now in Nigeria to recognize a genocide thats unfolding and to stop it. So in Nigeria, there is a chance that we can turn this off and we should.

Mr. Jekielek: This highlights the bravery and the importance of the work that Luka and the other journalists that youre working with are doing. Doug Burton, its such a pleasure to have you on the show.

Mr. Burton: Really privileged to be here.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Subscribe to the American Thought Leaders newsletter so you never miss an episode.
A chip the size of a coin, used in central processing units and graphic processing units developed by the U.S.-headquartered Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), is displayed during a press conference held in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 24, 2011. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

Experts Warn About Chinese Regimes Infiltration of Taiwan Universities

After the recent media report of a Chinese communist regime organizations infiltration of Taiwan universities and research institutions, Taiwans Ministry of Education asked the group to leave immediately. The Education Minister pledged to make a comprehensive inspection of colleges and universities for similar violations.

According to a report by the Central News Agency, on Nov. 8, Taiwans Ministry of Education requested the Hsinchu Office of the Cross-Strait Tsinghua Research Institute to immediately leave Taiwans National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) premises. The institute, jointly established by the Chinese regimes Xiamen Municipal Government and Tsinghua University in Beijing, has engaged in technology research and development, talent acquisition, and investment and other businesses. Its Chinese official background has attracted much attention.

Taiwan Citizen Fronts director Hsu Guanze told The Epoch Times on Nov. 9 that the gravity of the Cross-Strait Tsinghua Research Institute incident is that the Chinese communist regime may set up offices to infiltrate the industry-university cooperative projects in various Taiwanese universities and colleges.

Hsu pointed out that Taiwan plays an important role in the semiconductor IC manufacturing industry while the United States is establishing a global supply chain security system. If Taiwans academia have been infiltrated by a foreign government, it will jeopardize Taiwans position in the global industrial supply chain.China may use this method of setting up offices to drain Taiwanese talent to achieve its political goals, he said.

National Security Bureau Deputy Director-General Chen Chin-kuang, confirmed the NTHU incident on Nov. 8, and said that China currently has a shortage of semiconductor talent. Having grasped the significance of the NTHU incident, Taiwans national security and intelligence agencies will send the information to relevant departments.

Zeng Chien-yuan, chairman of the New School for Democracy in Taiwan, told the Chinese language Epoch Times on Nov. 9, that Taiwan needs to be more vigilant about the infiltration activities of the CCP. It should prevent similar institutions from sending any Tsinghua University research results to mainland China.

Zeng said, Taiwan is an open society. Everyone welcomes different opinions or people from outside, including those from mainland China. This will also allow some people with ulterior motives to conduct high-tech and intellectual property theft in Taiwan. Taiwanese society lacks awareness about this.

Luo Ya and Zhao Fenghua contributed to the report.
Ellume's COVID-19 coronavirus home test units are seen at a digital diagnostics company in Australia, on Dec. 21. 2020. (Patrick Hamilton/AFP via Getty Images)

FDA Alert: 2 Million At-home COVID-19 Tests Recalled Over False Positives

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed Thursday it is recalling some 2 million Ellume at-home COVID-19 testing because they can produce false positives due to a manufacturing defect.

The firm first informed the federal regulatory agency about the defect in some lots in October. But on Wednesday, the FDA said it identified additional lots that were affected by the manufacturing defect, made between Feb. 24, 2021, and Aug. 11, 2021.

To date, about 35 false positives from the COVID-19 tests were reported to the FDA. No deaths have been reported related to the test, according to the agency.

A false positive indicates that an individual has contracted the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19, when they actually do not.

The FDA noted that false positives could lead to delayed diagnosis or treatment for the actual cause of the persons illness, which could be another life-threatening disease that is not COVID-19 or receiving unnecessary COVID-19 treatment from a health care provider, which may result in side effects.

Another problem, the FDA noted, is isolation, including monitoring household or close contacts for symptoms, limiting contact with family or friends, and missing school or work.

Underscoring the severity of the issue, the FDA said it identified this as a Class I recall, the most serious type of recall  use of these tests may cause serious adverse health consequences or death.

The antigen test detects proteins from the CCP virus from a nasal sample, and its available without a prescription for use by people aged 2 years and older. It also comes with an analyzer that connects with a smartphone app to show users to perform the test and understand the test results.

Ellume has recalled 2,212,335 tests in the United States to date. Earlier this year, the Australia-based firm announced it had about 200,000 of its tests.

The Biden administration had signed a $231 million deal with Ellume, which received approval to produce its tests under the Trump administration last year.

In October, Dr. Sean Parsons, Ellumes chief executive, announced that the firm had created more safeguards to stop the problem from occurring again.

Im very sorry that this has happened, he told the New York Times at the time. Were all about chasing accuracy, and to have these false positives is disappointing.

And a spokesperson said that the root cause of the issue was identified. The company is already shipping new products inside the United States, the spokesperson added to the NY Times.

The Epoch Times has contacted Ellume for comment.
Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, chant slogans during a demonstration against an arms embargo imposed by the U.N. Security Council on Houthi leaders, in Sanaa, Yemen. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

Houthi Rebels Breach Compound in Yemen, Detain US Embassy Workers: State Department

Houthi rebels hold Yemeni employees of the U.S. government hostage after breaching the former embassys compound, the State Department confirmed.

A spokesperson for the agency confirmed to multiple news outlets on Thursday that the Biden administration is seeking the immediate release of Yemeni staff who worked for the U.S. diplomatic mission in Sanaa and were detained by Houthi militants.

We call on the Houthis to immediately vacate it and return all seized property. The U.S. government will continue its diplomatic efforts to secure the release of our staff and the vacating of our compound, including through our international partners, the spokesperson reportedly said.

The spokesperson told Fox News that the majority of hostages were released but some continue to be detained without explanation.

In 2015, the United States suspended embassy operations in Yemen, about five months after the start of the countrys ongoing civil war between Houthi forces and a Saudi-led coalition that backs President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Unconfirmed reports said that a group of Houthis breached the U.S. compound and obtained large quantities of equipment and materials, according to Al-Masdar News.

Weve seen some progress and were continuing to work this critical issue. The majority of those who have been detained are no longer in custody, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Tuesday, noting that the State Department is committed to ensuring the safety of those who serve the U.S. government overseas.

In February, the Biden administration removed the Houthisa Shia group that is said to receive significant material support from Iranfrom its foreign terrorist watch list and announced ending American support for the Saudi-led coalitions operations in the region

Timothy Lenderking, who was named by the administration as the special envoy to Yemen, traveled to the region earlier this month, according to the State Department. His trip was a bid to press the Houthis to stop their offensive on Marib and repeated attacks against civilian areas, which are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

On Nov. 10, the Saudi coalition announced its troops were redeploying in line with its strategy to support Yemeni forces, but were not withdrawing.

The spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition, General Turki al-Malki, told Reuters reports circulating about a Saudi military withdrawal from south Yemen were baseless and unfounded.

Movement and redeployment of troops based on operational and tactical assessment was a standard operation in all military forces across the world, Malki said.

The State Department did not immediately return a request for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.
How Property Tax Will Affect Chinas Middle Class Families

News Analysis

Chinese authorities recently announced that they will roll out a pilot property tax plan in different parts of the country and likely implement property taxes nationwide in the future. This will undoubtedly be a major blow to Chinas urban middle class that greatly affects their spending power.

On Oct. 23, the Standing Committee of Chinas rubber-stamp legislature announced that it authorized the State Council to carry out a five-year real estate tax reform trial plan in certain regions. Based on the trial results, the legislature may formulate a nationwide real estate tax law five years later.

Pilot Cities

Shanghai and Chongqing have already been trial cities for 10 years, paying a nominal tax.

The new list of trial cities will be announced at the end of this year. Several media outlets have provided hints as to which cities will likely be on the list.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) initial plan was to conduct a test run in 30 cities, but they reduced it to 10 cities after some pushback within the Party.

An Oct. 23 report by The Economic Observer, a Chinese economic newspaper, revealed that officials from six cities attended a pilot tax plan symposium in Beijing in May. The six cities are Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Jinan, Shanghai, and Chongqing, and according to the report, they share some common features.

First, these cities are economically developed, and the pilot program is expected to have little impact on economic fundamentals. Second, home prices in these cities have risen rapidly. Third, government income from land sales in these cities has been relatively high, and if selected as trial cities, the outcome can be used to analyze to what extent the revenue from real estate taxes can replace the income from land sales.

A research report by CITIC Securities, a Chinese investment bank, predicts that only four regions will be taxedShanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen, and Hainan Province.

Hainan is a unique province because many homeowners in Hainan are migratory birds who spend most of their time in the north and come to Hainan only in the winter to enjoy the warm weather. The local government will undoubtedly make a killing if they collect property taxes from these non-local homeowners.

If the CITIC Securities report is correct, Shanghai and Chongqing will expand the scope of property tax collection by increasing the tax rate, and Shenzhen and Hainan will become the only two newly added regions for the trial.

Investment Properties

Since 2011, Shanghai has only been targeting multiple-home owners who must pay taxes for their second, third, and other homes, while Chongqing has been targeting high-end homeowners or, in other words, homes with large square footage.

If these two cities are selected once again for the new tax plan, the scope of taxation will inevitably expand. In Shanghai, luxury homes that are primary residences may be taxed. In Chongqing, the taxation is expected to reach ordinary homes.

Therefore, the new property tax will likely be calculated based on two factors: the number of properties owned, and the living space. The research report by CITIC Securities disclosed that pilot cities may set a per capita exempt living space of 430646 square feet. As a result, homeowners of small houses do not have to worry about paying property taxes, the report said.

Chinese authorities have made meticulous preparations for the upcoming property tax plan.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development spent several years trying to establish a unified nationwide real estate registration system, and completed the registration platform in June 2018. If a person lives in a city thats not a trial city, but owns a home in a trial city, that property will still be taxed. There likely wont be any loopholes.

Conversely, if a person owns a second home in a city not to be taxed, he may want to sell it in the next five years if he wants to avoid paying property taxes in the future.

Tax Rates

Homeowners in the trial cities must be anxious to know how much tax will be collected. On the one hand, it depends on taxable living space; on the other hand, it depends on the tax rate. Currently, there are two clues regarding the tax rate.

In the past 10 years, Shanghai has adopted a fixed tax rate. Taxes are levied annually at 0.6 percent of the real estate appraisal value. Total taxes collected were more than $3.12 billion every year.

Chongqing has three levels of real estate taxes: 0.5 percent, 1 percent, and 1.2 percent respectively, with multiple-home owners and high-end owners paying higher tax rates.

For the upcoming trial, Chongqings model will most likely be applied. Moreover, its unlikely that the authorities will impose too high of a tax rate, as the plan will eventually be applied to the entire country.

The CITIC Securities report posits that each pilot city will determine the local real estate tax rate on its own, and the overall tax rate is expected to be between 0.2 percent and 1 percent. If this proves to be true, homeowners who have only one house may be subjected to the lowest tax rate, such as 0.5 percent, while owners of multiple homes or luxury homes will have to pay a higher rate, such as 1 percent or more. The tax will be levied based on 70 percent of market value, considering that homeowners in China own only the dwellings but not the land, the report said.

Fleecing the Middle Class

The CCP has now entered the economic stage of fleecing the sheep in the middle class. This population group was relatively fortunate in the past, but its about to change.

To assess the impact on an individual level, lets look at a theoretical example. If a homeowner in Shanghai has a second home with a living space of 1,076 square feet, its current market price is close to $624,440, as Shanghais property values are at $6,200 per square foot. The taxable portion, at a 30 percent discount, is $437,300. At a 1 percent property tax rate, he will have to pay $4,373 a year.

The average annual salary in Shanghai last year was $18,740. After deducting personal income tax and social security contributions, the average per capita disposable income was about $12,493. The $4,373 real estate tax is equivalent to one-third of his annual after-tax income.

In the past, owners of multiple homes rented out their extra houses to pay the mortgages. They also held them as investments, hoping that their value would appreciate. Property taxes are a big additional expense for these middle class investors. The extra cost cant realistically be transferred to their tenants who are not rich to begin with. As a result, many homeowners will want to sell their second home. With more homes for sale and fewer buyers on the market, home prices will drop, and holding real estate will no longer be a good investment. Falling home prices will also translate into shrinking assets for Chinas middle class families.

The macroeconomic effects of real estate taxation is surely negative. Chinese middle class families are hit twice with the taxation: they have to pay property tax every year, and their properties are losing value. This will certainly affect their spending power.

Chinas middle class used to spend lavishly in the past when home prices kept rising. Now they can no longer afford to continue such an extravagant lifestyle.

The overall declining consumption will further hurt the service and manufacturing industries, which are already in a depression. When the nationwide property tax plan is rolled out, it will be the time when Chinas middle class takes a nosedive.
General view of a Prison in Winson Green in Birmingham, England, on Aug. 20, 2018. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Incarcerated Jihadists Study Psychology to Delude Prison Bosses: Analysis

Islamist terrorists are particularly good at faking successful rehabilitation compared to other prisoners, with some studying psychology to better manipulate the work of prison therapists, a new analysis suggests.

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and the European Policy Centre (EPC) on Nov. 9 released a joint discussion paper, which examines the disguised compliance by terrorist offenders in European prisons.

Prison expert Ian Acheson, a senior adviser to CEP and a co-author of the paper, said that many violent extremists have lived a life in the shade, evading detection and incarceration, and are adept at counter measures to conceal their true intent.

The paper cited the example of Kujtim Fejzulai, who Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said had managed to fool the de-radicalization program of the justice system and gotten early release before killing four and injuring 22 in a series of mass shootings in Vienna last year.

It also mentioned London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan, who killed two people after being released early from prison. The UK has since introduced new legislation to prevent convicted terrorists from being automatically released from prison before the end of their sentence without the parole boards permission.

But when it comes to non-Islamist terrorism, the paper said there are fewer examples of deception.

Where they do emerge, such as in the case of the Christchurch extremist Brenton Tarrant, it is often related to a simple but devastating lapse in professional curiosity, the paper reads.

Tarrant, a 28-year-old white Australian male, who self-identifies as a former communist-turned-eco-fascist, killed 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques and injured more on March 15, 2019, and live-streamed the slaughter.

The paper said police failed to properly scrutinize his firearms application and seek proper references.

Acheson argues the current approaches to manage risks of violent extremists are too reactive, generic, and mechanistic and are over-reliant on collaboration and devalue frontline professional intuition.

The papers other co-author, EPCs senior policy analyst Amanda Paul, said that while a more comprehensive approach may be more expensive or time-consuming, allowing terrorists to fall through the cracks will result in incalculable long-term political and human prices.

Acheson and Paul urged EU member states to follow the UK and end the automatic early release of terrorist offenders in one of their 13 recommendations.

The recommendations include replacing the current system in which the burden of terrorist risk management is often shared between agencies with different philosophical and organizational structures that operate at different points in the journey, with different personnel who have different resources and objectives with one executive, multidisciplinary agency that coordinates the risk management of terrorism-related prisoners.

The more coherence consistent approach would reduce handovers and other risks and will allow long-term relationship-building with assertive intervention, the authors argued.

They also recommended utilizing new techniques such as AI and other means of biodata collection to better access the authenticity of the terrorists claimswhen they are in prison or under remote surveillance after being releasedresearching the countermeasures terrorists use, as well as more assertive surveillance including covert human assets.

To deradicalize terrorists, a more individualized approach is preferable to the current generic rehabilitation programs, the authors argued, as people are radicalized through different paths and therefore need tailored help to get out of violent extremism.

Acheson and Paul said ideologically motivated prisoners involved in risk assessment programs must have minimized contact, so they cant share tips on how to game the system.

The authors also recommended carefully controlled therapeutic encounters between opposing ideological extremist groups, as it may help break echo chambers in prisons.

Although highly controversial, this approach could challenge false narratives, humanise outgroups, and police deception, the authors said, asking the method to at least be considered.

Apart from professional risk management, the paper suggested making use of broader community support.
Judge Orders DOJ to Stop Extracting Data from James OKeefes Phone

A federal court on Nov. 11 ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to stop extracting and reviewing data from phones belonging to Project Veritas founder James OKeefe.

The order from Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, obtained by The Epoch Times, says that by Nov. 12, the DOJ shall confirm via email that it has paused its extraction and review of the contents of Petitioner OKeefes phones.

It comes after OKeefe filed a motion Nov. 10 for appointment of a special mastera designation often used for people doing purely investigative work.

Torres furthermore ordered the DOJ to provide the court with a response to OKeefes motion by Nov. 16, and for OKeefe to provide the court with its reply, if any, by Nov. 19.

OKeefes home in Westchester County, New York, was raided early Nov. 6 by the FBI. He later confirmed the raid.

Banging on my door, I went to my door to answer the door and there were 10 FBI agents with a battering ram, white blinding lights. They turned me around, handcuffed me, and threw me against the hallway, OKeefe told Fox News Sean Hannity on Nov. 8. I was partially clothed in front of my neighbors. They confiscated my phone. They raided my apartment.

The Project Veritas founder had previously announced in a statement Nov. 5 that current and former Project Veritas employees homes were searched by FBI agents.

An FBI spokesman told The Associated Press on the same day that agents had conducted a court-authorized law enforcement activity at an apartment in Manhattan and an address in Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York. The spokesman did not appear to comment on whether the searches were linked to Project Veritas.

In the same statement, OKeefe said that the DOJspecifically the United States Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New Yorkappeared to be investigating the alleged theft of a diary of Ashley Biden, the daughter of President Joe Biden.

We dont know if it was, but it begs the question: in what world is the alleged theft of a diary investigated by the Presidents FBI and his Department of Justice? A diary! This federal investigation smacks of politics. Project Veritas never threatened or engaged in any illegal conduct, OKeefe said.
Julian Assange greets supporters outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London on May 19, 2017. (Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

Julian Assange Granted Permission to Marry Partner Stella Moris in High-Security Jail

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been granted permission to marry his fiancee, Stella Moris, in the high-security British jail where hes been held since 2019.

Moris, a South African-born lawyer, took to Twitter to share the news on Friday alongside a photo of her in Assange, who is currently in Belmarsh Prison in London.

Good news: UK government has backed down 24h before the deadline, Moris wrote. Julian and I now have permission to marry in Belmarsh prison. I am relieved but still angry that legal action was necessary to put a stop to the illegal interference with our basic right to marry.

Prior to Fridays announcement, Moris had claimed that the governor of the Belmarsh prison and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab were preventing the couple from marrying and threatened to take legal action against them.

Julian and I are trying to get married, but what should be a straightforward process and a sacred right is being illegally interfered with by sinister elements of the state. Blocking us from exercising our basic right to a family life is harassment. Its illegal, and its wrong, she wrote on Twitter earlier this month.

A Prison Service spokesperson told The Guardian, Mr Assanges application was received, considered and processed in the usual way by the prison governor, as for any other prisoner.

Prisoners are entitled to apply to be married in prison under the Marriages Act 1983. Inmates must submit an application to the Governor of the prison and, if their application is granted, the nuptials must take place within the prison, with the costs relating to the ceremony being paid for by the prisoner.

Assange and Moris met in 2011 when she joined his legal team and their relationship turned romantic in 2015, she said in a video posted to Wikileaks YouTube account.

They have two sons together, who she said were conceived while he was living inside Londons Ecuadorean embassy.

U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 18 criminal charges of breaking an espionage law and conspiring to hack government computers.

WikiLeaks published a U.S. military video in 2010 showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. It then released thousands of secret classified files and diplomatic cables, which included critical appraisals of world leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi royal family.

Assange sought refuge inside Ecuadors London embassy for seven years from 2012 until he was arrested in April 2019 for skipping bail during a separate legal battle.

He is now in Londons high-security Belmarsh Prison but the United States is currently seeking his extradition from the UK. If it succeeds, he could face up to 175 years in jail. Assange has argued he wont get a fair trial in the United States.
Joseph Elledge (C) sits while his lawyers look in the direction of his mother in court in Columbia, Miss., on Nov. 11, 2021. (Alessia Tagliabue/Pool/Missourian via AP)

Jury Recommends 28 Years for Missouri Man in Wifes Murder

COLUMBIA, Mo.A woman who moved to Missouri from China to further her education before she was killed by her husband should be remembered as a kind woman whose death was a huge waste, a prosecutor said Friday after her husband was convicted.

A jury recommended early Friday that Joseph Elledge be sentenced to up to 28 years in prison for killing Mengqi Ji, 28. The sentence came hours after the Boone County jury convicted Elledge of second-degree murder.

Sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 17. Circuit Judge J. Hasbrouck Jacobs cannot sentence him to more years than the jury recommendation.

After the sentencing phase concluded, Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Knight said his investigation into the case led him to understand that Ji was kind, giving, and selfless, unlike her husband.

Its such a huge waste, that a life like Mengqi would be snuffed out by such a selfish psychopath like the defendant, Knight said.

Knight had urged the jury to find Elledge guilty of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence, but he said he was satisfied with the second-degree verdict. A second-degree murder conviction requires Elledge to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole.

Elledges attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said Elledge and his family were aware during the trial that he was not going to be acquitted but had hoped the jury would convict him of manslaughter, KOMU-TV and KMIZ-TV reported.

He knew that at the end of the day I wasnt going be asking the jury to return a verdict of not guilty. He certainly wanted to avoid a conviction of murder in the first degree, said Rosenblum, who added Elledge was grateful he will be eligible for parole.

Rosenblum said he and the family will meet in the next week to discuss whether to appeal the verdict.

Elledge had admitted during the trial to burying his wifes body and misleading authorities for more than a year about Jis whereabouts. He reported her missing in October 2019, prompting months of extensive searches. Her remains were found in a park near Columbia, Missouri, in March.

An attorney for Jis family told the Columbia Daily Tribune before the trial started that they didnt plan to provide a statement, but said on Wednesday they were pleased with the prosecutors efforts.

During closing arguments on Thursday, Knight told the jury that Elledge was a stone cold killer who was guilty of first-degree murder because he intentionally killed his wife.

Rosenblum argued that his client was awkward and made unbelievably dumb decisions after she died. But he said Elledge never intended to kill his wife and should never have been charged with murder.

During his trial, Elledge said Jis death was accidental. He said she fell and hit her head on Oct. 8, 2019, after he pushed her during an argument and he found her dead in bed the next morning. He said he panicked, put her body in the trunk of her car and did not report what happened while he tried to decide what to do.

He did not tell anyone, including Jis mother, about her disappearance.

On Oct. 10, with the couples young daughter in the car, Elledge drove to Rock Bridge State Park about 5 miles south of Columbia, where they lived. There, he dug a grave and buried Ji at a site a half-mile from where he proposed to her. He then returned home and reported her missing.

Prosecutors used social media posts, audio tapes and a journal Elledge kept to document the couples volatile relationship. The evidence showed them frequently yelling at each other and arguing, with Elledge often criticizing his wife for her appearance and for how she treated him.

Elledge said that in the days before her death, he discovered Ji had been exchanging sexually suggestive messages with a man from China via social media. He also testified that the couples relationship suffered because of tension caused by her parents who moved from China to live with them after their daughter was born on Oct. 3, 2018.

The couple met in 2015 at Nanova, a company that makes dental products, where Ji was Elledges supervisor. They began dating the following year and eventually traveled to China, where he asked Jis parents for permission to marry her. The couple married in 2017.

Ji earned a masters degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Missouri in December 2014. Elledge was a student at the university when his wife died.
Kyle Rittenhouse waits for his motion hearing to begin with one of his attorneys, Natalie Wisco, at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Oct. 25, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/AP Photo)

Kyle Rittenhouse Trial Judge Allows Jury to Consider That Teen Provoked Attack

The judge presiding over the Kyle Rittenhouse trial said Friday he may allow the jury to consider several lesser charges in addition to the murder charges that prosecutors brought against him.

Judge Bruce Schroeder said he would issue his final ruling on Saturday, but he also made some findings from the bench and indicated how he was inclined to rule on others.

At one point, he told Rittenhouse that with the lesser charges, Youre raising the risk of conviction, although youre avoiding the possibility that the jury will end up compromising on the more serious crime.

Youre also decreasing the risk that youll end up with a second trial because the jury is unable to agree, Schroeder said. Rittenhouse confirmed that he understood.

Rittenhouse, 18, is charged in the killing of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and injuring Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, during riots, protests, and arsons. Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty.

On Thursday, prosecutors said in court that they plan to ask the judge to allow the jury to consider lesser versions of two of those charges, including those related to the shootings of Grosskreutz and Huber. The lesser charges could include reckless homicide or second-degree rather than first-degree murder.

Unlike the higher charges, second-degree reckless homicide does not require proof that the teen exhibited an utter disregard for life.

Judge Bruce Schroeder uses large stacks of paper to tell the jury how large the book on technical evidence he read during Kyle Rittenhouses trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 3, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP)

Rittenhouses lawyers said they would accept jury consideration of second-degree intentional homicide in the case of Huber, and first-degree reckless homicide but not second-degree reckless homicide.

According to video footage of the incident, both Huber and Grosskreutz ran after Rittenhouse as he was trying to run toward police after shooting Rosenbaum. Several videos and photos also show Huber hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard, while Grosskreutz, who himself was armed with a handgun, testified earlier this week that he thought Huber was attempting to attack Rittenhouse.

A Daily Caller cameraman, Richie McGinnis, testified that Rosenbaum was reaching to grab Rittenhouses gun when he was shot. Another journalist on the scene who recorded footage, Drew Hernandez, said Thursday that Rosenbaum charged Rittenhouse from behind before the shooting occurred.

The first thing I did identify was that Rosenbaum was charging Kyle Rittenhouse from behind. And as hes charging him into the Car Source parking lot, a firearm goes off, Hernandez said.

But the judge said he would not allow the jury to consider a lesser charge in the shooting death of Joseph Rosenbaum, the other man Rittenhouse is charged with killing last year.

Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder stated that closing arguments in the trial would start on Monday, with the prosecution and defense each having about 2 and a half hours to address the jury.

I think the request for lesser included charges reflects an acknowledgment that their case might not be as strong with regard to the original charges and that at this point, theyre willing to give up the prospect of life imprisonment for the defendant in exchange for obtaining convictions on something, Julius Kim, a Wisconsin-based defense attorney not involved in the case, told NPR.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Kyle Rittenhouse's mother, left, and sister are seen during Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis, on Nov. 2, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/Pool/The Kenosha News via AP)

Kyle Rittenhouses Mother Shocked Biden Called Her Son a White Supremacist

The mother of Kyle Rittenhouse on Thursday said that she was upset by President Joe Biden calling her son a white supremacist, saying the Democrat defamed the teenager.

When I saw that I was shocked, I was angry, Wendy Rittenhouse said during an appearance on Fox News. President Biden dont know my son whatsoever. Hes not a white supremacist. Hes not a racist.

While running for the presidency last year, Biden shared a video on social media with the caption saying that then-President Donald Trump refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night.

The video included a photograph of Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

He did that for the votes, and I was so angry for a while at him and what he did to my sonhe defamed him, Wendy Rittenhouse said in the new interview.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Theres been no evidence put forth in the public sphere that indicates Rittenhouse holds white supremacist views.

The teenager is on trial for shooting three white men in Kenosha amid rioting there in August 2020. Two died.

Kyle Rittenhouse speaks to his mother in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 3, 2021. (Mark Hertzberg/Pool/Getty Images)

Rittenhouse and his defense team say he acted in self-defense, noting the men either attacked or made to attack the teen. Prosecutors say Rittenhouse was trigger-happy and shouldnt have fired upon the men.

Rittenhouse faces up to life in prison if convicted on the most-serious charge, first-degree homicide. Rittenhouse was also charged with illegally possessing a weapon because he was 17 at the time, and reckless endangerment.

Jurors are set to weigh whether to convict him next week following closing arguments.

Wendy Rittenhouse, who has attended the trial in-person, said she thought her son was going to die when she watched footage that showed one man moving to kick the teen and another pointing a gun at him.

She said her son has nightmares from what transpired.

The mother also said she believes Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder, who is presiding over the trial, is fair.

Asked about the jury, she added, Theyve been keeping a close eye on every evidence, every testimony, and theyre paying good attention whats been said thats the truth.
LAPD Warns of Ongoing Robbery Trend Targeting People in Affluent Areas

The Los Angeles Police Department this week issued a safety bulletin warning locals of an ongoing trend in robberies targeting people in affluent areas, and urged victims to operate and comply with the criminals.

LAPD said there has been a rise in the number of victims who have been followed back to their home or business by the attackers who are predominantly targeting victims who have expensive jewelry, including watches and necklaces, as well as expensive purses.

Officials said victims have been followed home from places that include Melrose Avenue, the citys Jewelry District, nightclubs, and high-end restaurants but noted that the ongoing robbery trend has occurred throughout the City Of Los Angeles and neighboring cities. LAPD stated that many different suspects have been identified and arrested so far.

Due to an increase in violent street robberies, Robbery-Homicide Division has become aware of an ongoing crime trend of follow-home robberies. Suspects have been locating victims in Los Angeles, following them, and then committing the robberies as the victim arrives home or at their business, the alert reads.

In its alert, police shared a list of recommendations for community members to follow to stay safe amidst the spate of robberies and urged citizens to monitor their surroundings when leaving restaurants, malls, or clubs and to keep an eye out for unusual activity.

They also warned Los Angeles residents not to display high-value possessions such as watches and jewelry and to report any suspicious activity to police.

If you are being robbed, do not resist the robbery suspects, cooperate and comply with their demands. Be a good witness, police said. Do not chase or follow the robbery suspect out of your place of business or home. Leave the job of catching the suspects to the police,  LAPD added.

According to LAPD Compstat data, there were 704 robberies in the city in October alone and a total of 6,799 this year to date, although this is a 15 percent decline from 2019.

On Wednesday, TV host, actor, and reporter Terrence Jenkins, who goes by Terrence J, narrowly escaped an armed robbery attempt after being followed to his home in Sherman Oaks, KABC-TV reported.

The incident happened around 3 a.m. Four suspects in a silver Jeep Cherokee followed Jenkins to his home on Vista Street before confronting him in a robbery attempt. They demanded that he and his passenger get out of the car. At least one suspect had a gun, as per KABC-TV.

Jenkins managed to flee in his vehicle but was chased by the would-be robbers who opened fire on his car. No one was injured.
The building of the Washington Post newspaper headquarters is seen on K Street in Washington on May 16, 2019. (Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images)

Long Overdue: Washington Post Corrects Articles About Steele Dossier

The Washington Post on Friday corrected two articles and altered a dozen others in an attempt to respond to discrepancies that had emerged between its reporting and what was known about the dossier compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele.

The Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, had long insisted that Sergei Millian, a Belrusian-American businessman, was one of Steeles sources. But its stories, which relied on two sources it did not name publicly, were increasingly undermined as time went on, most recently a grand jury indictment against Igor Danchenko, who has been described as Steeles primary sub-source.

Danchenko is accused of falsely telling FBI agents on four separate occasions that he spoke with Millian over the phone. But authorities discovered he had never spoken to Millian.

The indictment and further reporting drove the Post to correct two piecesone originally published in 2017 and another in 2019, the Post said in editors notes appended to the stories.

A dozen others were altered to remove all references to Millian.

Sally Buzbee, the papers executive editor, said in a story published by the paper the indictment and other information created doubts about Millians alleged links to the dossier.

We feel we are taking the most transparent approach possible, Buzbee said.

Millian told The Epoch Times in a Twitter message that the correction was long overdue.

Truth finally prevailed, he said.

Jeffrey McCall, professor of communication at DePauw University, told The Epoch Times that its very unusual to see a news organization step forward so plainly to correct reporting that was done, in this case, a couple of years ago.

This is a remarkable development, he said.

While the corrections were a positive development, the Post should also publish the names of the sources that were relied upon and explain why they were shielded from public view in the first place, he added.

A spokeswoman for the paper declined to comment beyond the editors note.

Instead of naming the sources, the Post continued to cite them. In one note, the paper said one of the sources believes the new information, including the indictment, puts in grave doubt the claim Millian was a source for Steele. The other was said to have declined to comment.

Igor Danchenko is seen at a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va., on Nov. 10, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Rosalind Helderman and Tom Hamburger, the co-authors of both corrected stories, did not respond to requests for comment. Each shared a Post story about the corrections on their Twitter feeds.

Helderman, though, has not deleted posts on Twitter about Millian, including a Feb. 7, 2019, missive that called him a key source for the Steele dossier.

Media experts say the best practice is to update readers on every channel when corrections are issued.

Reporting on the dossier by the Post and a slew of other outlets, including The New York Times, has been increasingly undermined.

Steele was revealed to have been paid by Fusion GPS, a firm that was itself hired by Hillary Clintonthe Democratic presidential candidate facing off against then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 electionand the Democratic National Committee. His sources have been revealed as a cast of characters with links to the Clinton network, including Michael Sussman, a Clinton campaign lawyer.

Sussman was charged last month with lying to the FBI about a claim that there were secret communications between the Trump Organization and a Russia Bank. Steele has said he received the information from Sussman, and ultimately included it in his series of unsubstantiated reports. The allegation was reported by multiple news outlets, many of which later corrected their stories.

Another source was Charles Dolan, according to special counsel John Durham. Dolan is a long-time Democrat Party operative. Dolans role was not previously known before.
Los Angeles Police Officers assembled across the street as protestors gather in front of a Chase Bank building on the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Vine St., in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 16, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Los Angeles Defunds Police, Uses Money for Guaranteed Income Experiment

Commentary

When people think of the proper role of city government, they usually think police, roads, and schools. The City of Los Angeles ranks near the bottom in all three (not to mention having the worst homeless problem in the country). Perhaps this is because the city seems more intent on engaging in social experiments than fixing roads, fighting crime, and improving schools.

The latest example is its new BIG:LEAP basic income program, designed to transform the role of local government. While defunding the police and giving free money to people are considered fringe ideas in most places, in Los Angeles it is becoming a reality. Last week it began accepting applications for what amounts to a lottery for 3,000 lucky winners. The prize is $12,000 per year, at a total taxpayer cost of $36 million.

This is far more than the $2,000 per year Andrew Yang, who introduced the concept to Americans in his presidential race, recently proposed to New Yorkers in his mayoral race. New Yorkers rejected it, giving him just 12 percent of the vote.

About a third of the money comes from defunding the Los Angeles Police Department, another radical idea rejected in other areas. It was just roundly rejected by voters in Minneapolis despite it being the center of Black Lives Matters defund the police movement.

All of the money, of course, comes from Los Angeles taxpayers. While it resembles a lottery, most are not eligible to win. The city effectively takes about $20 per taxpayer and redistributes it, through what is assured to be a random draw, to others.

To be eligible to win this lottery, there is nothing you must do but meet the qualifications established by the city and fill out a lengthy questionnaire. You must have at least one child, thus making it yet another government program that has the effect of encouraging the poor to have children. You also must have income below the federal poverty line.

So, for instance, a single mother with two children making over $22,000 per year would not qualify. Thus, the program acts as yet another that discourages work, since merely by working less, a person can qualify to make a free $12,000.

Also, to qualify you must check a box indicating that you were adversely impacted by Covid-19. This allows the program to fit squarely within the never let a tragedy go waste strategy for progressives. Just like government subsidies, handouts, loan forgiveness, eviction protections, and rent forgiveness, this program disguises itself as a COVID-19 relief program when in fact it is intended to be the first step toward yet another, more radical government assistance program.

The final requirement to qualify is filling out an extensive survey replete with highly personal questions about physical and mental health, finances, and lifestyle. It asks numerous unusual questions like, In the last month how often have you been angered by things that were outside your control? It appears Los Angeles seeks to turn its residents into lab rats. Indeed, the program is being done in concert with the Center of Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania to use as a model to reform current policies, guide future programs, and aid in the expansion of our social safety net.

Naturally, it also asks for ethnicity, gender (i.e., male, female, non-binary, agender, or gender fluid), and sexual orientation. The program is clear in its objective: While no single program can reverse decades of economic and racial inequality that marginalize low-income people of color, BIG:LEAP can point the way towards a more equitable and prosperous future. Considering the application questions and the purported justification for the program, one must wonder how random the selection will be.

Since its a city program, it sits on top of the myriad of other state and federal benefit programs already in place, such as CalWORKs (aid program for adults with children), Cal Fresh (food stamps), WIC (women, infants, and children) benefits, MediCal, and the federal earned income tax credit and Medicare. The program proudly boasts however, that unlike other California programs, there are no restrictions on how the money can be spent. In other words, using other peoples money to support your alcohol, cigarette, or drug habit: totally fine.

Mayor Eric Garcetti is part of a network of Mayors for Guaranteed Income, a national network of mayors interested in determining how cashwith no strings attachedcan assist households in need. Garcetti, however, will not be around to evaluate the program. He has chosen instead to leave his post midterm as mayor of Americas second largest city in favor of an ambassadorship. So, if this defund the police and redistribution experiment causes more crime in your neighborhood, you may have to address your complaints to New Delhi, India.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Gaige Grosskreutz, who was shot by Kyle Rittenhouse, testifies during Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 8, 2021. (Mark Hertzberg/Pool/Getty Images)

Man Shot by Rittenhouse Changes Story, Says He Wasnt Pointing Gun at Teenager

A man shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year now says he was not pointing his gun at the teenager.

Gaige Grosskreutz said under oath that he was pointing a handgun he took with him into Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, at Rittenhouse when the teenager shot him.

It wasnt until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him with your gunnow your hands downpointed at him, that he fired, right? one of Rittenhouses lawyers, Corey Chirafisi, asked Grosskreutz in court this week.

Correct, Grosskreutz said.

But the Milwaukee man insisted during his first interview after taking the stand that he was actually not pointing his gun at Rittenhouse.

I do believe that in that photo, given the right narrative, one could suggest that yes, I was pointing my weapon at the defendant. But when you play it as a movie, or look at different stills, my arm was being vaporized as I was allegedly pointing my weapon at the defendant, Grosskreutz said on ABCs Good Morning America on Thursday.

Its completely inconsistent with the physiology of my wound that he would have shot me while my weapon was pointed at his head, he added.

Host Michael Strahan noted that Grosskreutz was not under oath before seeking to clarify his remarks.

So youre saying that you actually didnt, you werent pointing your gun at him? Is that what youre saying? he asked.

Thats absolutely what Im saying, Grosskreutz said.

Mark Richards, Rittenhouses lead defense lawyer, declined to comment in an email to The Epoch Times.

Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi cross examines Gaige Grosskreutz, who is shown on the video monitor being shot by Kyle Rittenhouse, during Rittenhouses trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 8, 2021. (Mark Hertzberg/Pool via AP)

Grosskreutz was pressed on his story changing during a later appearance on CNN, with host Anderson Cooper playing the clip that showed the man in court saying he was pointing his gun at Rittenhouse.

During cross [examination], if theres a skilled attorney, theyre able to present questions to help support their narrative. Thats their job, he said. And with one of the exhibits that attorney Chirafisi had introduced, theres a photo of me with my gun pointed towards the defendant, either just after or right during [sic] he had shot me in my right arm.

Grosskreutz alleged that the only way he could have sustained the injury he did is if I had been shot with my arms up.

Asked if he had ever pointed his gun at Rittenhouse, Grosskreutz said that it did appear that way in the photograph.

It certainly looks like it, but never intentionally, he said. Following that gunshot, I had no use of my arm.

Both Grosskreutz and his lawyer also repeated his claim that Rittenhouse re-racked his AR-15 just before shooting the Milwaukee man last year.

Rittenhouse said on the stand this week that the claim wasnt true, and he was backed by testimony from Kenosha police officer Brittni Bray.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) speaks to reporters outside of his office on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 06, 2021. Manchin spoke on the debt limit and the infrastructure bill. (PKevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Manchin Opposes EV Tax Credit in Democratic Budget: Report

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) reportedly opposes an effort by his party to give a $4,500 tax benefit to electric vehicles made in the United States by unionized manufacturers.

Currently, U.S. law provides some tax credits to individuals who purchase an electric vehicle, ranging from $2,500 on the low end up to $7,500 for qualifying vehicles. Democrats hope to expand that top line credit to $12,500 in their Build Back Better budget bill as part of a larger climate effort.

Of that, a $4,500 tax credit is exclusive to cars produced by unionized manufacturers. Honda, Toyota, and Tesla, who are not unionized firms, have criticized the plan, saying that it would unfairly benefit their unionized rivals: General Motors, Ford Motor, and Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler).

According to a report by Automotive News, Sen. Joe Manchin agrees with these criticisms.

On Thursday, Manchin attended an event by Toyota in his home state of West Virginia, where the Japanese firm announced a $240 million investment in an engine and transmission factory in the state. In an interview at the event, Manchin criticized the proposal by his party.

When I heard about this, what they were putting in the bill, I went right to the sponsor and I said, This is wrong. This cant happen. Its not who we are as a country. Its not how we built this country, and the product should speak for itself, Manchin said, referring to Sen. Debbie Stabenow, (D-Mich.).

We shouldnt use everyones tax dollars to pick winners and losers, he continued. If youre a capitalist economy that we are in society, then you let the product speak for itself, and hopefully, well get that, thatll be corrected.

But many more Democrats support the proposal.

In a mid-October letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) signed by more than 100 House Democrats, Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-N.Y.) applauded the $4,500 tax credit.

We strongly support leveling the playing field between non-union and unionized workforces by including the added $4,500 incentive to support union-made EVs, Suozzi wrote. The tax credits, he added, help guarantee that working men and women are an integral part of that success story.

The expanded tax credits are intended as part of a larger legislative effort by Democrats to address the alleged climate crisis.

President Joe Biden, after taking office, put forward a goal for the United States to achieve a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2030.

To meet this tall order, Democrats have emphasized the importance of encouraging and expanding alternate sources of energy. In Democrats $1.75 trillion budget bill, over $500 billionmore than a quarter of all spending in the billgoes towards meeting this goal.

The bill would give some incentives to utility companies who transition their power grid away from fossil fuel sources. To further incentivize electric vehicles, the bill authorizes the government to build more charging stations for the vehicles across the United States, in conjunction with the tax credit.

Manchin, a self-described conservative Democrat, has not shared these lofty ambitions toward climate policy.

Coming from the coal-rich state of West Virginia, where coal powers nearly the entire state, Manchin has been careful not to endorse policies that would hurt his constituents.

In the past Manchin has shot down a proposed carbon tax and has been skeptical of the plan to give grants or other incentives to utility companies who transition to non-fossil fuel power sources.

Manchins vote is a must-have for the final budget package to pass in view of Democrats thinnest-possible majority in the upper chamber. Manchin has already had a substantial impact on the bills course, causing its price to be cut in half and causing several programs to be cut from the bill.

Because the party needs his vote to get anything done, a strong show of opposition to the new program could force Democrats to remove the additional credit from the bill.

Sen. Manchins office has not immediately responded to a request for comment.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton at the daily press conference in Melbourne, Australia on October 22, 2021. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Medical Practice Raided Amid Alleged False Vaccine Exemptions

A doctors office in the state of Victoria has been raided by the Department of Health (DOH) officials over allegations the practice provided vaccine exemptions without valid reasoning.

At least four personnel from the DOH seized confidential patient records in the North Sunshine medical practice on Nov. 10.

A DOH spokesman said allegations regarding the medical practice had been reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

While the regulation of general practitioners is a matter for federal authorities, we will always protect Victorians and Victorias health system from fraudulent practice, he told The Age.

Were investigating reports of a small number of GPs issuing false vaccination certificates and exemptions, and were working together with relevant enforcement agencies to ensure swift action is taken.

The practices doctor, Dr Mark Hobart, said it was an intimidating experience as at least four DOH officers seized confidential patient records along with an appointment book on Nov. 10.

Signage posted on the windows of the clinic stated it had been forced to stop accepting new patients.

The Victorian government has banned patients from entering this surgery because Dr Hobart refused to surrender your private and confidential patient files, the sign stated.

In particular, Hobart, who has served the area for over 35 years, raised concerns he believed the state no longer respected patient confidentiality.

People thought that they had privacy and confidentiality with their medical files. This is not true. There is no privacy and confidentiality with medical files anymore; the new laws have thrown this out the window, Hobart told independent journalists.

One of these laws refers to the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 in Victoria, which in section 175 states that authorised officers may seize anything (including a document) at the premises if authorised officers believe on reasonable grounds that the seizure will determine contraventions to the act or other regulations.

Hobart has previously defied the AHPRA protocol after suggesting in a letter addressed to the Victorian chief health officer that vaccine recipients should first seek COVID-19 antibody testing before getting the jab.

He said he based his argument on published research that found recipients of vaccines had an increased chance of severe side effects if previously infected with COVID-19.

This violates requirements under AHPRA guidelines (pdf) which states that medical practitioners should not share information that contradicts the nations COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

Any promotion of anti-vaccination statements or health advice which contradicts the best available scientific evidence or seeks to actively undermine the national immunisation campaign (including via social media) is not supported by National Boards and may be in breach of the codes of conduct and subject to investigation and possible regulatory action, AHPRA states.

Additionally, Hobart had also said he supported using the anti-parasite pharmaceutical Ivermectin as a treatment against COVID-19, which has not been approved by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for use against COVID-19.

However, it has been utilised internationally.

Currently, the TGA restricts the prescription of Ivermectin in Australia to the TGA-approved conditions of scabies and certain parasitic infections.

Infectious disease physicians, dermatologists, gastroenterologists and hepatologists (liver disease specialists) are also permitted to prescribe Ivermectin for other unapproved indications if they believe it is appropriate for a patient.

These changes have been introduced after concerns over the prescribing of oral Ivermectin for the claimed prevention or treatment of COVID-19.

This comes after the medicines use by the general public for COVID-19 has been currently strongly discouraged by the National COVID Clinical Evidence Taskforce, the World Health Organisation and the US Food and Drug Administration.

Around 50,000 Australians had previously signed a petition calling on the federal government to strip AHPRA of the power to silence health practitioners from criticising the efficacy of the vaccines and vaccine mandates.

Following the seizure of documents at his practice, Hobart also raised the concern that the media coverage would include false portrayals of the doctor, who bystanders heralded for his service to the community.

If [the media] do come, I think theyll twist it and make it look like [Im] some crazy anti-vaxxer or something.
Representations of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency are seen in this illustration picture taken on June 7, 2021. (Edgar Su/Reuters)

Miami to Become First City to Give Bitcoin Yield From MiamiCoin to Its Citizens

Miami will soon become the first city in the United States to give its residents some of the gains from its new cryptocurrency, Mayor Francis Suarez said Thursday.

Speaking during an interview with CoinDesk TV, Suarez said the city is creating a way to make digital wallets for citizens to distribute the bitcoin yield.

Were going to be the first city in America to give a bitcoin yield as a dividend directly to its residents, Suarez said.

The yield will come from the citys staking in MiamiCoin, which launched in August through CityCoins, and is marketed as a way for people to support the Magic City and grow its crypto treasury while earning STX and BTC for themselves.

CityCoins are powered by Stacks, a protocol that enables smart contracts on the Bitcoin network. The protocol allocates 30 percent of the reward that miners forward in order to compete in the earning of MiamiCoin to the city. The city of Miami may decide at any time to claim the wallets funds.

The cryptocurrency has generated over $22 million for the city since its launch. Suarez said Thursday that its possible that if it continues to perform it could cover Miamis entire tax revenue.

If annualized, it would amount to roughly $80 million, which would equal one-fifth of the citys total annual tax revenue of $400 million, the mayor said.

You could theoretically at one point pay the entire tax revenue of the city and the city could be a city that runs without taxes, which I think would be revolutionary, Suarez said, adding that the city will be working with numerous cryptocurrency exchanges to allows residents to acquire a wallet.

Suarez said he envisions Miami using a Bitcoin system to make payments in the future. We need for people to understand that  yes, we want you to hold bitcoin but we also want to increase the utility of bitcoin, he said.

Last month, Suarez told The Washington Post that he plans to turn Miami into the worlds cryptocurrency innovation hub, and that the digital coin would revolutionize how the city funds multiple programs such as poverty and keep it free from raised taxes.

When you think about the possibility of being able to run a government without the citizens having to pay taxes. Thats incredible, told the Post.

Earlier this month, the Miami Mayor told Fox Business that he will be accepting his next paycheck entirely in bitcoin in a move to showcase the city as one of the most innovative cities on the planet.

According to the New York Post, Suarez gets paid around $97,000 annually as of 2018. This was his salary from the city but it wasnt clear whether the Bitcoin payments would also apply to his other positions as lawyer, and partner at private equity firm DaGrosa Capital Partners.

Cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, have remained unregulated within the U.S. financial system but multiple financial institutions are tapping into the digital coin industry.

Bank of America last month announced it has launched digital asset research to explore the implications across industries including finance, technology, supply chains, social media, and gaming, while noting that digital assets are transforming the way in which markets, businesses, and central banks operate.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. in August also started giving its wealth management clients access to six crypto funds, CNBC reported. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) earlier this month also said it will offer customers the ability to buy, sell, and hold crypto assets.

Meanwhile, Chinas central bank declared all cryptocurrency-related transactions illegal and vowed to suppress the virtual currency market.
City workers and first responders of Los Angeles gather in front of Los Angeles City Hall in protest of the city's required vaccine mandates on Nov. 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Missouri Governor Considering Unemployment for People Fired for Refusing COVID-19 Vaccines

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said his administration is considering providing unemployment benefits for individuals who are fired over federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

You see what Iowa just did, Parson told news outlet The Center Square on Thursday. I think we want to make sure civil rights or civil liberties are being exercised. If somebody has [a] religious conviction, we want to make sure thats upheld  whatever that takes. And if its for health reasons, we want to include that, too.

The Republican governor was referring to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Oct. 29 having signed a bill that guarantees state workers who are trying to obtain a medical or religious exemption to the vaccine the ability to get unemployment benefits if theyre fired for refusing the vaccine.

Parson stopped short of guaranteeing unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs only because they declined vaccinations.

If those people are going to lose their jobs, which I dont think they should  but evidently theres a little bit of a problem as to what everybodys view is on those civil rights issues, Parson said. So we want to be prepared for that if they go down that road.

Parson, whose administration has filed several lawsuits against federal vaccine mandates, said he believes its unfair that workers who made critical impacts during the early stages of the pandemic lose their jobs now due to their vaccination status.

People have been out there for 18 months on the front lines and all of a sudden youre going to say theyre not worthy do their jobs anymore is problematic, the governor said. I dont care where they work or who they are because, during the heat of the battle, we won with them.

The New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, rule targeting private businesses with 100 or more people. That rule, which was unveiled last week and goes into effect on Jan. 4, stipulates that workers at such firms either get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing and mask-wearing.

Dozens of states, so far, have filed legal challenges against the OSHA rule, which also would levy harsh penalties of thousands of dollars for each violation.

While I would have much preferred that requirements not become necessary, too many people remain unvaccinated for us to get out of this pandemic for good. So I instituted requirements  and they are working, President Joe Biden said in a statement explaining the mandate.

The Biden administration also handed down a mandate for companies with contracts with the federal government and healthcare facilities that receive any Medicare or Medicaid funding. Unlike the mandate for private businesses, those requirements do not have a weekly testing option.
The Nortel Networks office tower in Toronto, in a file photo. Canada used to have world industry leaders such as Nortel, but has lost its competitive edge due to government policies, says economist Philip Cross. (The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette)

Something Has Gone Wrong With Our Economy: Economist on Canadas Growth and Competitiveness

Canadas competitiveness and economic growth are being hampered by restrictive policies and the governments disinterest in fostering the wealth-producing business sector, an economist says.

Theres an increasing feeling in this country that something has gone wrong with our economy, and in particular our business sector, that were just not as competitive on the world stage as we used to be, Philip Cross, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada, told The Epoch Times.

In a recent paper, Cross looked at factors that have reduced Canadas competitiveness and productivity, which further lowered its share of global GDP. He found that Canadas annual real GDP growth over the past decade has been the slowest since the 1930s.

Canadas sluggish economic growth in the years before the pandemic reflects a lack of innovation and weak productivity growth that has persisted for decades, he wrote.

The prolonged slump cannot be fully addressed with the current approach of policies targeting specific sectors such as high technology or green energy, or spurring research and development in the hope of boosting one or more of these variables. Worse would be acceding to the endless requests from specific groups, industries, or firms for favours in the name of job creation or higher incomes.

A more productive approach, Cross advises, would be for Canada to undertake a root-and-branch re-examination of its public policy mix and its commitment to markets, competition, and capitalism, the goal being to create an environment more conducive to stronger business development and investment.

Back in the late 1990s, Canada still had several world class corporations, such as Nortel Networks and JDS Uniphase, which were the leading light in the technological revolution in the 2000s, says Cross. During that time, Canadian corporations were regarded as extremely attractive to investors.

But beginning with the 2007-2009 recession, Canadian corporations started to lose their global appeal, which Cross said seemed to accelerate after 2014 with the downturn in oil pricesmainly caused by global supply growthand the Liberal Party taking power the following year.

With a drop in global commodity prices, and especially oil prices, our firms simply became less attractive. But at the same time, we shot ourselves in the foot. We would not allow our largest corporations to be competitive by, for example, giving them access to pipelines, giving them access to overseas markets where they could get a better price for whether it was crude oil or whether it was liquefied natural gas, he said.

A lot of the damage weve done is self-inflicted, and has been self-inflicted by government policies that were implemented without fully understanding how negatively this was going to impact the competitiveness [of Canada].

Cross said he is quite worried about the mindset of the Trudeau government, which does not seem to attach any importance to nurturing and promoting Canadian business sector, giving the example of the Liberals small-business tax reform in 2017, which lacked consultation with the private sector.

He said Canadas political leaders tend to think that it is pro-business to help established firms maintain their place, and many companies have therefore used business models that are based on governments using a thicket of regulations, patents, tariffs, occupational licensing rules, restrictions on foreign investment, and price-fixing to shelter firms from competition.

But this approach is very anti-business, he notes.

Thats sending the message to all the other firms and all the other people who are thinking about entering into the business to compete with these established interests that no, you dont have a chance, were not going to help you at all, were going to tilt the playing field, Cross said.

If I was a senior executive, particularly if I had global interests, I would not be looking to be expanding my operations in Canada.

The lack of government support, in addition to regulatory roadblocks that make it difficult for firms to develop or expand, have stalled the long-term growth of the economy, Cross said, including in the auto and energy industries. One example is Ontarios auto sector; although manufacturers have kept their plants in the province running, they are expanding in the United States and Mexico, not in Canada.

Our share of the auto industry has declined, he said. It happened because we neglected it. We didnt cultivate it, and it needs cultivation.

The China Factor



Communist Chinas economic boom over the past 40 years took a considerable chunk out of the global GDP share. Cross says in his paper that while European countries suffered the greatest loss as a result of Chinas rise, Canada has been the second biggest loser, as its share of global GDP also shrank steadily from 2.5 percent in 1978 to 1.9 percent in 2020.

Meanwhile, the United States was able to retain most of its global GDP share through policies that supported technological innovation.

If I had a choice of economic models to pick and one was Europe and the other was the U.S., I am going to pick the U.S. every time  because the U.S. has values that support entrepreneurship, innovation, and dynamism, Cross said.

Many of the same symptoms of business malaise in European countries today are also evident in Canada, he says.

Increasingly [in Canada] were becoming like Europeanswe just sit around and we expect the government to do everything for us, and thats not going to work as a model for high economic growth rates over time. Thats a defensive policy that will produce stagnation.

Cross believes Canada should focus on working more with its democratic ally south of the border, rather than courting authoritarian states like China.

I dont know why we look to China for growth. Weve got the most innovative, dynamic economy in the world right next door. We should be concentrating on that, he said.

Instead, we seem to be putting all our eggs into cultivating China as if theyre going to be the next global superpower in economicssomething he said he is far from convinced will come to pass.

China has gone through a period of rapid growth. So did the Soviet Union in the 20s and 30s. At some point, the Soviet Union did not master innovation and their economy collapsed, Cross said.

I dont think a centralized dictatorial government like that in the long run is going to produce an economic superpower. The long-term economic growth is supported by the type of a [democratic] society that the United States has.
Most Who Object to Mandatory Vaccination Are Not Anti-Vaxxers

Forcing people to follow state dictates against their own conscience is a betrayal of societys core values

Commentary

As someone who has been taught to measure my words, I have had enough of the prime ministers attempt to brand people who object to the COVID vaccines as anti-vaxxers. He made the most of it, of course, during the recent election campaign, when he told us that he was not going to let anti-vaxxer mobs dictate his response to the COVID crisis.

Justin Trudeaus motivations were plainly political. It always helps to have an enemy in politics, and scapegoats are even better. He was not alone, however, and other political figures, like Jagmeet Singh, have followed his lead and used the term repeatedly to forestall any serious inquiry into such matters.

It is basically name-calling. Messrs. Trudeau and Singh are now using the term to demean and ostracize people who object to the idea of mandatory vaccinations.

My initial objection to the use of the term is that it is a falsification. The vast majority of people who object to mandatory vaccination favour the use of vaccines. They merely believe that they should be used in the appropriate circumstances, when the risks from the targeted infection outweighs the risks from vaccines. It is a sensible position and follows clinical practice.

The principal issue is with the risks from the new vaccines, which have been ignored by most of the media.

Trudeaus misrepresentation goes much deeper, however, because it is double-speak. The zealots are the people who have lined up behind the pharmaceutical industry and demanded that everyone must be vaccinated. Call them what you likeall-vaxxers, total-vaxxers, blanket-vaxxersit is the absolute nature of their position that stands out, which seems to be a reflection of politics these days. There is no middle ground.

The problem is that the all-vaxxers fail to respect the principle of prudence, which is primary. All vaccines come with risks. We should be careful about putting foreign elements in our bodies, particularly when they are pathogenic or undermine the ordinary operation of the immune system.

The issue that has to be determined in each case is whether the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks. This determination is based on a balancing, which is pivotal and varies from case to case. Many doctors around the world have criticized mandatory vaccination because it neglects this aspect of the process and creates a one-size-fits-all approach, which violates their obligation to care for the needs of individual patients.

The legal practice is similar. An Israeli Rabbinical court recently held that the new vaccines should not be administered to children, since they have minimal risks from COVID. Meanwhile, lawyers have raised concerns about the danger mandates pose to personal freedoms.

For many, the risks from the vaccines outweigh their benefits, and the long-term effects of these new vaccines are unknown and therefore unacceptable.

None of this is a problem for the all-vaxxers, who have no real interest in any balancing that might interfere with their demand that everyone be vaccinated. They have accordingly seized on the fact that children may infect the rest of us and arguedwhen the layers of rhetoric are removedthat the benefits to the general population outweigh the risks to particular persons. So children as young as 5, who have no real risk from COVID, should be vaccinatednot because it is good for them but because it is good for us.

The logic here is chilling. Anyone who has taken a course in ethics must have studied Immanuel Kant, who taught us that individual people must be treated as ends in themselves, and never as a means to an end. It is part of the curriculum.

Ethics also teaches that this kind of crude utilitarian analysis, which sacrifices the health and well-being of individuals to some official idea of a greater good, is indefensible. It is the same kind of thinking that led to eugenics, compulsory sterilization, and a whole host of dubious medical practices in the past.

The deeper issue raised by the mandates, however, is autonomy. The ethical consensus is that the individual is supreme in these matters, and not the state. Common law has historically reserved decisions with regard to bodily integrityand what we put in our bodiesfor individuals. Handing such decisions over to some anonymous class of officials, even in cases where we strenuously object, is not merely offensive, it is despotic.

From a constitutional perspective, the most troubling aspect of the situation is the suppression of dissent. The fact that we disagree with the decisions that individuals make is irrelevant. Freedom is meaningless in a society where everyone is required to agree.

I cannot discuss the constitutional issues here, but my message to Mr. Trudeau is that his use of a straw man, the fictional anti-vaxxer, to attack people who object to mandatory vaccinations is unconscionable. He is attacking people who are doing exactly what they should be doing, ethically, in deciding honestly and sincerely whether they should be taking the vaccine.

The suggestion that they have done so frivolously or trivially is insulting.

I am well aware of the glib response from politicians to any criticism on these issues. I should accordingly add, for their benefit, that the vaccine mandates raise a number of moral issues, and as an American bishop recently put it, people are obliged to consult their conscience in such cases and follow it. The point for slow learners like our politicians is that people do not merely have the right to make their own decisions in these mattersthey have a duty to do so.

The broader questions are momentous. The attempt by the political classes to force people to follow the dictates of the state, against their conscience, is an attack on the sanctity of the person and betrays the values on which our society is based.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Nations Largest Veterans Day Parade Returns for 102nd Year in NYC

New York City on Thursday held its annual Veterans Day Parade for the 102nd year on Fifth Ave., marking the largest celebration in the nation honoring all men and women in military service.

Last year, the parade was held without in-person spectators, involving 100 vehicles going down the avenue, to maintain the annual tradition amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. Other Veterans Day events across the nation were also scaled back or virtual.

A wreath-laying ceremony in Madison Square Park kicked off the days observance.

It is a day to remember and to honor, but it should be the first day of what then becomes 365 days of honoring veterans through real actions, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the ceremony.

If anywhere in this city, if anywhere in this country there is a homeless veteran, then we are not finished. We all have more to do, he added. If anywhere there is a veteran suffering from a mental health challenge who is not getting the help he or she needs, we are not finished.

Crowds of New Yorkers gathered to cheer and witness the parade that started around noon, featuring some 300 marching units, some 30 floats, and 25,000 marchers. Active service members sang march songs and drove along in their military vehicles.

Marines participate in a wreath-laying ceremony during the Veterans Day Parade in New York City, on Nov. 11, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Military, police, high school bands, and others march in the Veterans Day Parade in New York City, on Nov. 11, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Military, police, high school bands, and others march in the Veterans Day Parade in New York City, on Nov. 11, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps waves at the crowd during the 2021 New York City Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11, 2021. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

The 2021 New York City Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11, 2021. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

Spectators watch the Veterans Day Parade in New York City, on Nov. 11, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Spectators watch the Veterans Day Parade in New York City, on Nov. 11, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The 2021 New York City Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11, 2021. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

The 2021 New York City Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11, 2021. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

George Garcia, Master Sgt. USAF, holds his daughter while marching in the Veterans Day Parade in New York City, on Nov. 11, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The event marks 20 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 attack, as well as 30 years since Operation Desert Storm, also known as the Persian Gulf War.

The parades grand marshal this year, Kevin Carrick, is an Air Force veteran and retired Senior Master Sergeant, who served as an elite pararescueman for over 20 years, with the 106th Rescue Wing based in nearby Westhampton on Long Island.

He said its an important day to inspire young Americans.

All the camaraderie  maybe it will generate them to join in the [military] service one day, Carrick told NTD.

NTDs Arian Pasdar and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
North Carolina School Boards Association Withdraws From the National School Boards Association

The North Carolina School Boards Association (NCSBA) withdrew its membership from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) on Thursday.

NCSBAs separation follows the South Carolina, Ohio, and Missouri School Board Associations cutting ties from the NSBA after its Sept. 29 letter to the White House comparing parents to domestic terrorists.

Union County Public Schools Board Chair Melissa Merrell was on her way to an NCSBA convention when she received an alert from the NCSBA announcing its separation.

It was a pleasant surprise, Merrell told The Epoch Times. I definitely did not see this coming. Ive had a couple of board members who had been requesting and sending emails to the NCSBA asking if it were going to withdraw our membership from the NSBA, and they (the NSBA) had asked for our feedback, and then, on the way to the convention, we saw this message.

Merrell said nothing was mentioned at the convention about the NCSBAs departure from the national board.

According to Parents Defending Education (PDE), an organization that investigates indoctrination in schools, as of Nov. 9, 26 states have distanced themselves from the NSBA after the letter.

The NSBA, which represents more than 90,000 school board members and 14,000 public school districts in the United States, had written a letter to President Joe Biden asking that the parents who have protested COVID-19 restrictions and the teaching of critical race theory in public schools be regarded as domestic terrorists that should be investigated by agencies such as the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI.

This led to Attorney General Merrick Garlands Oct. 4 memorandum to the FBI directing the agency to work with U.S. attorneys to facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff, and will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment, and response.

The September 29 letter from NSBA to President Biden, in both its inflammatory language and the request for federal agencies to intervene in our communities, was just one in a series of lapses in governance, said NCSBA President Amy Churchill in a press release. NCSBA shares its members concerns about safety at school board meetings. As a proponent of local control, NCSBA believes that local law enforcement is in the best position to respond to those concerns and seek outside assistance if necessary.

On Oct. 22, the NSBA issued an apology, stating that there was no justification for some of the language included in the letter.

State Response

The PDE requested statements from 47 states affiliated with the NSBA, and reported that the Alabama Association of School Boards (AASB) said it has withheld its dues to join the NSBA for the current membership year, though AASBs bylaws require it to be an NSBA member.

According to the PDE, the AASB said it would be voting in December on changes to its bylaws that would give the AASB board of directors authority to determine its membership with the NSBA.

The PDE said it received no response from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MSCA), prompting the PDE to file a public record request for emails to get a sense of their position.

It turns out that Glenn Koocher, executive director of the MSCA, was so happy about the letter that he put it in an email to NSBA CEO Chip Slaven, the PDE said.

We in MASC are all very happy that the NSBA has reached out to the FBI and, based on local coverage, has been identified as a key agent for generating federal support, Koocher said in the email.

Thirty-six Republican state representatives asked that the South Carolina School Boards Association (SCSBA) end its NSBA membership.

NSBA has labeled parents as domestic terrorists, with no evidence to justify that term, the House Republicans wrote in a letter to the SCSBA executive director. The reality is that parents and stakeholders are beyond frustrated being ignored and left out of decisions with their child. The NSBA is detached from reality and fails to recognize that Americans are angered by what is happening in our classrooms.

SCSBA Executive Director Scott Price told The Epoch Times that the decision to separate from the NSBA was aimed at protecting our membership from fallout from NSBAs September 29 letter.

Any pressure that SCSBA was under stemmed primarily from our desire to keep this from impacting our members (local school boards), Price said.

The NSBA did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

GQ Pan and Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.
People line up for nucleic acid testing in the snow at a testing site in Dalian, Liaoning province, China, on Nov. 8, 2021. (cnsphoto via Reuters)

Northeastern Chinese Port City Battles Growing COVID-19 Cluster

Efforts to curb a growing COVID-19 cluster have reached new heights in Chinas northeastern port city after national authorities on Thursday ordered the virus be zeroed out more quickly.

Various measures should be quickened  in order to get the outbreak under control in a shorter amount of time, the National Health Commission said on Nov. 11.

Local authorities in Dalian city of Liaoning Province had responded strongly to the latest flare-up, with schools from kindergartens to universities halting offlines lessons, starting a second round of mass testing campaign, and closing off infected areas.

On Nov.12, Dalian city called on its residents not to leave their homes unless necessary and announced new punishments for people who leave sealed-off residential compounds.

[Residents who are isolated at home] should cooperate with relevant departments to install surveillance cameras, adding magnetic sensors [to doors], sealing [doors] with paper strips, and other means to ensure they stay at home, Dalian authorities said in a Friday notice.

Anyone who goes out without authorization will be punished, and other residents in the same apartment building will restart a 14-day quarantine, read the notice. Meanwhile, anyone found not complying with the regulations would have their infraction added to their social credit record. The social credit system gives each Chinese citizen a score. A low social credit score can mean that an individual cannot fly on a plane or use a train.

Despite doubling down on efforts against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the high transmissibility of the Delta variant has seen a rise in infections. Dalian reported 57 locally transmitted cases on Friday, 34 in a college town.

While the figure is likely to not reflect the true totalgiven the Chinese regime is known to grossly under-report its virus numbersthe official counts of infections in Dalian are still higher than that of any other Chinese city.

Various measures should be quickened and their quality should be improved, in order to get the outbreak under control in a shorter amount of time, the National Health Commission said on Nov.11, citing a meeting chaired by the commissions director in Dalian.

The number of people traveling out of Dalian has dropped by 96.5 percent to 918 per day on average, a local transportation official said late on Thursday. The city of 7.5 million people has imposed curbs on public transport and issued three notices in five days warning residents against leaving Dalian for unnecessary reasons.

Meanwhile, more than 20,000 students and staff from two universities in Zhuanghe college town have been sealed in dormitories since three workers of a college dining hall tested positive on Nov.4, according to notices on the schools official website.

[Ive] no idea when the lockdown will be lifted, [I] have to wait for the governments notice, said a teacher from the Art and Engineering Information College of Dalian Polytechnic University.

Online videos and photos show students living in a dormitory building were sent to centralized quarantine overnight after several tested positive for the virus on Nov. 10.

The Health Commission of Zhuanghe city and Dalian city didnt answer the call from The Epoch Times to seek comment.

Dalian, a leading port for seafood shipments as well as fruit and some meat, has also ordered all businesses handling imported chilled and frozen foods to suspend operations, according to the state-backed newspaper Global Times.

Hong Ning and Reuters contributed to this report.
The border into the Northern Territory from South Australia. Mark Kolbe/Getty Images for The World Solar Challange)

Northern Territory Vaccine Mandates Come Into Force

Northern Territory (NT) workers who interact with the public have been told to get their first COVID-19 vaccination by the end of Friday, Nov. 12 or risk a $5,000 fine.

According to Chief Health Officers (CHO) health direction No.55, the COVID-19 vaccination is now mandatory for any worker or volunteer who has contact with the public to attend a workplace. They will also need to have received their second jab by Christmas Eve.

The direction applies to workers who are likely to come into contact with a vulnerable person, workers who are at risk of infection with COVID-19 because they are likely to come into contact with a person or thing that poses a risk of infection, and workers whose workplaces put them at a high risk of infection.

It also includes workers who perform work that is necessary for the operation or maintenance of essential infrastructure or essential logistics in the Territory.

This means a wide range of workers come under the mandate, including health care workers, teachers, child care workers, disability care workers, people in retail or hospitality jobs, tradespeople, as well as police and emergency service personnel.

At a press conference on Oct. 13, Chief Minister Michael Gunner made it clear that the directive would mean the majority of the NT workforce would need to be vaccinated, reported Sky News.

So it is simple. If your job includes interacting with members of the public, then you need to get the jab, he said.

He also stated that those who havent had their first shot by Nov. 13 would not be allowed to attend their place of work in that role, and failure to comply with the direction will mean a $5,000 fine.

The direction includes an exemption for those who cant receive a vaccine because of a proven medical contraindication to all available COVID-19 vaccines.

However, it also notes that workers under the mandate are likely to require a booster shot in 2022.

Employers have the responsibility to ensure that their employees comply with the mandate, taking reasonable steps to determine the extent to which any worker who performs work for the person is vaccinated with an approved COVID-19 vaccine.

Employees likewise have a responsibility to provide evidence of their COVID-19 vaccination status upon request.

Anti-Mandatory Vaccine Darwin Business to Close as Mandate Kicks in

The deadline for the vaccinations comes as one Darwin business that had been campaigning against mandatory workplace vaccinations announced it would close its doors.

On Thursday, NT news aired a social media video of Violet Tolios, owner of Souvlaki Grill and Chill in Darwin, who conceded that the battle to prevent mandatory workplace vaccinations was lost.

Due to the COVID-19 mandate here in Darwin, we are forced to close our doors and walk away from the business, Tolios said in an emotional post.

This comes on the back of a run in with police in July, where Tolios was arrested after allegedly refusing to close her restaurant doors for not complying with directions from the CHO, NT News reported on July 8.

She had previously been fined $25,000 for alleged breaches, including the lack of a COVID-19 check-in facility, as well as not enforcing mask wearing for staff and customers.

Im here with a heavy heart to let our customers know that today and tomorrow (Friday) is going to be our last day of trading, and Saturday we will not be open, she said.
Members of the Newberg School Board during a video meeting on Nov. 9, 2021. (Scottie Barnes/The Epoch Times).

Oregon School Board Takes Fire for Banning Educators Political Imagery on Campus

As fights over ideology poison school board agendas around the country, the Newberg School Board, which recently adopted a policy prohibiting educators from displaying political or controversial symbols or imagery on school property, has been under siege since August.

The board has been threatened by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), admonished by state legislators and the Oregon State Board of Education (BOE), scrutinized by the community and national media, and taken to task by the local city council.

Now its being sued by its own teachers and, during a contentious Nov. 9 board meeting, members voted 4-3 to fire District Superintendent Joe Morelock.

When Newbergs board first adopted the policy on the same 4-3 vote in August, it directed administrators to remove signs and posters of a political nature, specifically citing Black Lives Matters and Pride images.

Under threat of a lawsuit from the ACLU, the board opted for broader language that removed reference to any specific political movements. It still banned images related to a political, quasi-political, or controversial topic on school grounds.

The toned down language did not satisfy critics of the policy. Twice, the board has rejected a motion to rescind the ban.

Our policies are based on law and this [ban]  would be, to my current understanding, illegal, said board member Brandy Penner during a Sept. 2 meeting.

Vice Chair Brian Shannon, who is now facing a recall initiative spearheaded by teachers, disagreed.

I think it can legally be enforced, and its the expressed will of the board as it has passed it, and I think it will remain that way until we replace it, he said.

Oregons board of education issued a resolution on Sept. 16 that called on the school to reverse course on its political sign ban and to encourage district staff to celebrate and stand in solidarity with students.

On Nov. 3, the Newberg Education Association filed a lawsuit against four of the board members on behalf of the teachers union.

The 18-page complaint, obtained by The Epoch Times, claims that the district policy violated the plaintiffs First Amendment rights to free speech and their 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection afforded by the U.S. Constitution, as well as Oregons constitutionally protected rights against arbitrary and unequal treatment.

According to board minutes from July 13, which are cited in the complaint, Vice Chair Shannon explained his support for removing BLM and Pride symbols saying he, feels they are inherently political symbols and posting them in a taxpayer funded facility equates to indoctrination of students into certain ideological beliefs, which is not appropriate, and we need to refocus our district on education, not indoctrination.

The policy instructs employees to keep their political opinions and activities out of the classroom.

No employee will use district facilities, equipment or supplies in connection with his/her political activities, nor will he/she use any time during the work day for such political activities, the policy says.

It does not limit, nor apply to communications, nor the free exchange of ideas during the course of approved educational events, or exploration of approved curriculum.

This policy is so innocuous, said Shannon during a Sept. 28 board meeting. It just says that teachers cant display political symbols at work while theyre on school time. That should not be controversial.

Fellow board director Penner disagreed.

Maybe it is nothing to you as a white, privileged male, responded Penner. But, its a really big deal to a lot of our community, and a lot of our staff, and a lot of our students.

She characterized those who voted for the ban as extremists and authoritarians.

Meanwhile, Superintendent Morelock publicly expressed his concern about implementing the ban on grounds that it would be too subjective.

And during its Nov. 9 meeting, the same four members of the board abruptly voted to fire Morelock, but declined to give a reason.

Newberg is the tip of the spear, said board director Dave Brown during that meeting. The BLM flag should never have been in the schools. Neither should the MAGA flag, or the Blue Lives flag.

Students are caught in the middle.

It just feels so divided, said Maddi Klink, the boards student representative. Ive never felt like this before.

Morelock is the fourth superintendent in Oregon to be terminated this year.
Peace Officer Wives Organization Fosters Healthy Homes for Healthy Policing

A grassroots organization in California is supporting law enforcement officers families in building peaceful and safe homes to foster healthy mental states in police officers.

Peace Officer Wives of California was founded in 2017. It has since helped over 700 families to build a supportive network for wives to learn and help each other navigate a law enforcement lifestyle with their peace officer heroes.

Crystal Ienni, founder of Peace Officer Wives, said she felt it was her calling to create the organization after moving from southern California to northern California with her peace officer husband.

I realized I didnt have people around me that I could trust or [who could] support me as I was going through this journey with my husband. And I just felt like the Lord called me to develop an organization that would inspire, educate us, and have us interact as law enforcement families, Ienni told The Epoch Times.

She said that she wanted to associate with others whom she can connect with.

Sometimes as a law enforcement family you become reclusive, because you become so private for the protection of your officer and your family that you dont share that part of your life with anybody, she said.

She described how, for wives of peace officers, it is common for their support networks to shrink after years of navigating a law enforcement lifestyle. The organizations goal is to help build those networks.

In recent years, police officers have been facing issues such as the defund the police movement, Californias rise in crime, and first responders being fired over vaccine mandates. She said that many of these recent developments are now impacting the children of peace officers.

With these certain movements over the last two years, the children were being harassed or beat up. Or theyve been losing friends over social media, because those friends that knew that their mom or dad were officers, they were bullying them, Ienni said. Usually, before, it was the officer taking in the negative impact from our communities, but now it was the entire family.

Throughout 2020, the organizations online workshops attracted wives from around the country. The workshops offered a safe space for people to connect and learn with others who are working through similar situations.

As a law enforcement family, youre always private in a sense, because you dont know where people lie: whether theyre for the police or not for the police, said Ienni. We dont want anybody to have to side one way or the other. We just want friendships and healthy relationships, so in protection of our families, we dont say what our husbands or wives do as first responders.

Healthy Policing Begins at Home

The organizations motto is Healthy policing begins at home, which focuses on the idea that a healthy, positive, and safe home environment can foster healthier mental states among law enforcement families.

Michelle Moon, education coordinator chair of Peace Officers Wives, told The Epoch Times that peace officers have training and debriefing sessions at work to help them process and manage stress resulting from responding to critical incidents. These types of incidents can range from domestic abuse cases to shootings.

Peace Officers Wives seeks to be the training and support for the spouses. Moon explained that after a long day on the job, law enforcement officers need a place to return to that is safe and peaceful.

Moon said that critical incidents can be psychologically draining and cause stress in law enforcement officers. One way the organization helps wives is to educate them on when to give their officer space at home and how to work through stress or emotions together.

The organization also helps families in which both spouses are peace officers. Moon and Ienni said that such couples are no different from couples with only one peace officer. They described how women naturally tend to be more nurturing and will often still think about how to care for the children and home, regardless of their occupation.

Moon and Ienni shared that the best feelings are when they see other wives share experiences and build genuine friendships, and when they see them realize that they are not alone.

After nearly two years of online workshops and activities, the organization is holding an in-person conference on Nov. 13 featuring keynote speaker Jim Hyde, co-founder of West Coast Trauma Retreat & Peer Support Central. The conference will allow wives and their heroes to learn from and connect with other peace officer families.
Penniless CIA Is Weak on the CCP

The CIAs China ops have failed since at least 2010. Double them.

Commentary

The CIA lags on China intelligence by at least a decade. Only in August did it moot the idea of a China Mission Center, which it finally announced on Oct. 7.

The center will reportedly make it easier to leverage agency resources to address the growing China threat, and intelligence failures of the last decade on all things Beijing, China, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But without significantly more resources, the new center will be yet another agency fail.

According to a Nov. 10 Bloomberg report, A lack of top-tier intelligence on Chinese President Xi Jinpings inner circle is frustrating senior Biden administration officials struggling to get ahead of Beijings next steps, according to current and former officials who have reviewed the most sensitive U.S. intelligence reports.

The officials say American intelligence finds it increasingly difficult to penetrate Xis opaque decision-making and ever-more centralized control of the CCP.

The agency or other officials were surprised, according to Bloomberg, the Telegraph, and the Financial Times, about Chinas hypersonic missile test that was reported on Oct. 16, as well as the breaking of the Hong Kong treaty with Britain, the projection of military power over the South China Sea, the limits placed on independent investigation into the COVID-19 origin, the cancellation of Chinese IPOs, and the increase in Chinese hacking.

From 2010 to 2012, Beijing found and killed at least 12 CIA sources in China, through a mole or hacking the agencys covert electronic communications. At least another half-dozen were imprisoned, according to a 2017 New York Times report.

Previously, a suspected Chinese mole escaped the United States and is now living abroad. CCP spies penetrated Taiwans National Security Agency. Chinese operators infiltrated the CIAs hiring process.

According to The New York Times, Some officers met their sources at a restaurant where Chinese agents had planted listening devices, former officials said, and even the waiters worked for Chinese intelligence.

Amateur hour at the CIA costs lives.

Also in 2017, thousands of pages detailing the CIAs most sensitive cybersecurity hacking tools were themselves hacked and released on Wikileaks. The source of the leak sought to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons, according to Wikileaks.

Prince, a member of the hacking group Red Hacker Alliance who refused to give his real name, uses his computer at the groups office in Dongguan, China, on Aug. 4, 2020. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images)

The agencys current lack of Mandarin speakers, according to Bloomberg, is icing on Beijings cake.

The CIA and FBI have failed to address the many U.S. citizens who operate in gray areas of both business in China, the profit of which can be turned up and down by the CCP, and pro-Beijing political influence in Washington, which they can use to demonstrate their friendship for China.

These BeijingNew York business interests act to paralyze American defenses against the CCP by promoting the soft-on-China approach, which is therefore pro-businessin the short run. In the long run, America is selling the CCP $2.3 trillion worth of investments and more than $600 billion in annual tradeplenty of rope with which to hang itself.

The root cause of the CIAs failure is therefore political, at both the macro and micro levels. Successive American presidents and congresses are too influenced by U.S. corporations profiting from trillions of dollars worth of business in China. Corporations would rather have Washington ignore the China threat than overturn their applecart of profits. Our top American political leadership, including the CIAs leadership over multiple administrations, is therefore at fault. China analysts who are closest to the intel have understood the threat all along.

The political problem is also personal, in that the occasional insider threats within the CIA and other powerful American institutions are insufficiently patriotic. They apparently dont understand that the CIA and other U.S. military and intelligence entities are absolutely critical in the fight against Beijings totalitarianism. They see Americas military, intelligence, and police capabilities as a threat to liberty, rather than its defense. We need better vetting and more patriotic teachersfrom primary through graduate and post-professional training.

Now Americas applecart is rolling toward the cliff of defeat at the hands of Beijing. Its unclear whether a last-minute reorientation of intelligence resources will make any difference. But we must try. At this point, along with doubling defense expenditures related to China, especially in terms of large weapons systems with strategic effect, America should be multiplying intelligence expenditures.

We need more of all kinds of intelligence about China, including human intelligence, signals intelligence, and imagery intelligence. All of it costs lots of money. Instead, were plowing $1 trillion into the Biden administrations infrastructure programs, some of which can be nabbed by Beijing, while our old China intelligence is getting bureaucratically reshuffled into the CIAs new center.

Expect more failures down the road until President Joe Biden and Congress do whats really needed: put real resources behind the CIA.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade in Flushing, New York, on April 18, 2021, to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the April 25th peaceful appeal of 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Recent Months See Nearly 2,000 Falun Gong Practitioners Harassed or Arrested in China

Chinese police harassed or arrested nearly 2,000 Falun Gong followers in the recent two months, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that documents the Chinese communist regimes persecution of Falun Gong.

Among the 1,963 individuals, 764 were arrested, and 1,199 were harassed. Some of them suffered house raids, brainwashing, financial extortion, and forced blood tests.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient Chinese spiritual practice that features three core tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, along with five slow-moving exercises. After it was made public in 1992, its following in China surged to between 70 million and 100 million people by 1999. Then, the Chinese regime, deeming the practices popularity a threat, launched a nationwide persecution campaign to eradicate it.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to intimidate, harm, and imprison Falun Gong believers for their continued faith.

On Oct. 10, police in Shanghai arrested Falun Gong practitioner Xu Yongqing, an expert in electrical engineering, at the railway station of Longquan city, eastern Chinas Zhejiang Province. Officers justified the arrest because Xu had one Falun Gong book in his bag, according to Minghui. The following day, he was transferred to a local detention center.

Before his arrest, Xu was forced to move three times in the past year due to Chinese authorities continued surveillance and harassment.

In 2017, the senior engineer was sentenced to two years in jail for his faith and served the term in Hongzehu Prison in neighboring Jiangsu Province until Nov. 28, 2019.

Another case of persecution was Zhou Ailin, a resident of Wuhan city, Hubei Province. Police detained her on Sept. 29 for her adherence to Falun Gong, her ninth arrest since the CCP began its oppression of the belief in July 1999. Six police officers from the Qiaokou District branch of the citys public security bureau transferred her to an indoctrination center in Etouwan village.

Notably, there were 196 elderly adherents, aged 65 and older, out of the total at the indoctrination center.

In Changsha city, Hunan Province, several plainclothes police raided the house of Zhou Weiqun, 85, on Sept. 24. The police showed no permits, yet made a thorough search and confiscated more than 40 of Zhous Falun Gong books. They took him to Juzizhou Police Station and forcibly gathered his personal information, including fingerprints and blood sample. However, their attempt to transfer him to a local detention center failed because the center authorities deemed his age a risk, and denied the police request.

Moreover, at least one Falun Gong practitioner in detention was persecuted to death in the past two months, according to Minghui. Su Yunxia, 67, from Daowai District in northeastern Chinas Heilongjiang Province, died in a provincial womens prison on Sept. 4, 2021, two days away from the end of her 5-year term.
Lava spewed by Cumbre Vieja volcano reaches the Atlantic Ocean at Los Guirres beach on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain, on Nov. 10, 2021. (Spanish Transport Ministry/Handout via Reuters)

Rock Rises out of the Sea as Second La Palma Lava Flow Reaches Ocean

MADRIDNew cascades of red-hot lava tumbled into the Atlantic Ocean off Spains La Palma on Wednesday morning, sending up plumes of white smoke and extending a platform of volcanic rock created by earlier flows.

The stream of molten rock from the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which began erupting in mid-September, reached the water near the popular surf spot of Los Guirres beach just before 2 a.m, according to the Transport Ministry.

A video uploaded by Spains Geology and Mining Institute showed rivers of molten rock sliding into the sea and large rocks rolling down a cliff, causing a cone of debris to emerge from the waterline.

Unlike the first time lava reached the oceanjust over a month agoauthorities said there was no need for residents to stay indoors.

New confinements are not necessary because the populations are far away from the point of contact with the sea that occurred last night, an emergency services spokesperson told Reuters.

Few people live in the affected area, which is mostly banana plantations.

Early on in the eruption authorities had feared that the reaction between the superheated lava and seawater could unleash powerful explosions and set off toxic gas clouds.

During the last major eruption on the island, some 50 years ago, a man died after inhaling such gases.

La Palmas council said on Tuesday that seismic activity around the eruption site, as well as emissions of toxic sulphur dioxide, had been decreasing and the air quality remained good across most of the island.
In this handout photo taken from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wed. Nov. 10, 2021, a long-range Tu-22M3 bomber of the Russian Aerospace Forces takes-off to patrol in the airspace of Belarus, (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Russia Sends Nuclear-Capable Bombers on Patrol Over Belarus

MOSCOWRussia sent two nuclear-capable strategic bombers on a training mission over Belarus for a second straight day on Thursday in a strong show of Moscows support for its ally amid a dispute over migration at the Polish border.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry said two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers practiced bombing runs at the Ruzany firing range, located in Belarus about 37 miles east of the border with Poland. As part of the joint training, Belarusian fighter jets simulated an intercept, the ministry said.

The missions marked the second time in two days that Russia sent its nuclear-capable bombers into the skies over Belarus.

A pair of Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bombers flew a similar patrol on Wednesday, and Belarusian air defense assets practiced intercepting them.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry said that such Russian bomber flights will be conducted on a regular basis.

The Russian military said the bombers spent over 4 1/2 hours in the air during the mission intended to buttress the countries alliance. It noted that the bomber patrol wasnt aimed against any third countries.

Russia has strongly supported Belarus amid a tense standoff this week as thousands of migrants and refugees, most of them from the Middle East, gathered on the Belarusian side of the border with Poland in the hope of crossing into Western Europe.

The European Union has accused Belarus authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging illegal border crossings as a hybrid attack to retaliate against EU sanctions on his government for its crackdown on internal dissent after Lukashenkos disputed 2020 reelection.

Belarus denies the allegations but has said it will no longer stop refugees and migrants from trying to enter the EU.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry accused Poland on Thursday of an unprecedented military buildup on the border, saying that migration control did not warrant the concentration of 15,000 troops backed by tanks, air defense assets, and other weapons.

It looks more like forming a strike group of forces, the ministry said, adding that the Polish military buildup prompted Belarus to respond with actions both independently and within the existing agreements with our strategic ally, a reference to Russia.

In this handout photo taken from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, a long-range Tu-22M3 bomber of the Russian Aerospace Forces flies to patrol in the airspace of Belarus, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Russia and Belarus have a union agreement envisaging close political and military ties. Lukashenko has stressed the need to boost military cooperation in the face of what he has described as aggressive actions by NATO allies.

Lukashenko on Thursday called the Russian bomber flights a necessary response to the tensions on the Belarus-Poland border.

Let them scream and squeak. Yes, those are nuclear-capable bombers, but we have no other choice, the president, who has been in office since 1994, said.

Col. Gen. Retired Leonid Ivashov, the former head of the Russian Defense Ministrys foreign cooperation department, said the Russian bomber flights over Belarus were intended to demonstrate Moscows support for its ally amid soaring tensions.

Military drills and bomber flights are part of training for joint action, Ivashov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying. Its needed to avert a possible military conflict that could escalate into a big war. Its necessary to demonstrate our readiness.

Amid the tensions on the Belarus-Poland border, Russia has strongly backed Belarus, charging that the West destabilized the Middle East and therefore bears responsibility for migrants and refugees seeking safety in Europe.

At the same time, Moscow angrily rejected Polands claim that Russia has helped foment a situation with humanitarian as well as political dimensions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted the thousands of troops that have been deployed on either side of the Polish-Belarusian border and said its a cause for deep concern of all sober-minded people in Europe.

Asked about German Chancellor Angela Merkels request for Russian President Vladimir Putin to exert his influence on Belarus, Peskov responded that Russia, like all other countries, is trying to help resolve the situation. He said Putin has remained in contact with Lukashenko, but didnt elaborate.

Russias national flag carrier, Aeroflot, responded to reports that the EU was mulling sanctions against the airline for its alleged involvement in bringing refugees and migrants to Belarus. Aeroflot strongly rejected the claim.

The information about Aeroflots participation or assistance to organizing mass transportation of migrants to the territory of Belarus doesnt conform to reality, the airline said in a statement.

Aeroflot noted that it wasnt conducting any regular or charter flights to Iraq or Syria and didnt have any flights between Istanbul and Minsk.

Asked about the reports of possible EU sanctions against Aeroflot, Kremlin spokesman Peskov pointed to the airlines denial of knowingly transporting Europe-bound asylum-seekers.

Let hope that such mad ideas only exist in those media hoaxes, he said in a conference call with reporters.

By Vladimir Isachenkov
Attorney General Merrick Garland gives an opening statement during a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing of the Department of Justice at Capitol Hill in Washington, on Oct. 21, 2021. (Greg Nash/Pool via Reuters)

School Board Memo Reveals Timeline of White House Domestic Terrorism Letter

Newly publicized documents revealed more details about how the National School Boards Association (NSBA) communicated with the White House before sending out a letter likening concerned parents to domestic terrorists.

In the widely criticized Sept. 29 letter to President Joe Biden, the NSBA characterized disruptions at school board meetings across the nation as a form of domestic terrorism and hate crime. It also urged the federal government to invoke counter-terrorism laws to handle angry mobs of parents seeking to hold school officials accountable for teaching the Marxist-inspired critical race theory and for imposing COVID-19 restrictions such as mask mandates on their children.

Just five days later, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing federal law enforcement to help address the alleged disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against teachers and school leaders. Garlands rather swift response has raised suspicions among some Republican members of Congress, who are looking into the role the Biden administration played in the crafting and release of the NSBA letter.

According to a timeline provided in an Oct. 12 memo (pdf) sent from NSBA President Viola Garcia to state association officers and executive directors, the organization has been interacting with White House staff regarding the alleged threats of violence since as early as mid-September.

In the September 14, 2021 meeting of the [NSBA Organization of State Association Executive Directors] liaison group, they were informed there had been a meeting with White House staff that morning and that NSBA was preparing to send a letter to the President, read the memo obtained by advocacy group Parents Defending Education via a Freedom of Information Act request.

The memo includes excerpts of a Sept. 17 email notice by NSBA Interim Executive Director and CEO Chip Slaven, which stated that NSBA is taking a number of actions regarding calling for protection and resources to assist school board members with these threats including a call for the President and federal government for more assistance.

Garcia, who was recently awarded by the Biden administration with a position on a federal board overseeing standardized tests, also appeared to take credit for the Oct. 4 memo, describing it as the U.S. Department of Justices response to the NSBA letter.

When Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked Garland during an Oct. 21 House Judiciary Committee hearing whether it was just a coincidence that the NSBA letter and the DOJ memo were released only five days apart, he admitted the letter was brought to our attention and was a relevant factor in his memo.

No one in the White House spoke to me about the memo at all, Garland told Jordan, who questioned if anyone in the White House asked the attorney general to write the memo. I am sure, at least I certainly would believe, that the White House communicated its concerns about the letter to the Justice Department, and that is perfectly appropriate.

Garland further stated that he didnt know whether anyone else in his department spoke with the White House prior to the memos release, but was sure that the communication from the [NSBA] was discussed between the White House and the Justice Department, and thats perfectly appropriate.

The DOJ and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Even after the NSBA apologized for the language it used in the letter, many state school boards chose to distance themselves from the national federation, citing disagreements with the domestic terrorism letter or the DOJ memo or both. As of Nov. 12, twelve state chaptersAlabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsinhave announced they either left or are leaving the NSBA.
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison (L) and Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews (R) depart after attending a Remembrance Day service at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne on Nov. 11, 2021. (William West / AFP via Getty Images)

Seeking to Put More Controls on People: Australian PM on States Pandemic Bill

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has weighed in on the Victoria state governments Pandemic Bill that would see Premier Dan Andrews given unprecedented power to declare pandemics and grant himself the emergency powers that have been controversially enforced in recent months.

Speaking to Neil Mitchell on 3AW Friday, Morrison refused to be drawn to criticise the move but pointed out that Victoria was going in the opposite direction than the Commonwealth.

Without naming the Victorian government, Morrison said in general terms that he understood why Victorians were frustrated that other states were reopening while governments are maybe seeking to have more involvement in their lives than the Commonwealth.

He noted the Commonwealth was about opening up and giving people back what is theirs.

The prime minister said that Australians, particularly in Victoria, had kept their side of the deal when it comes to the national plan.

That refers to the plan that each state and territory would lift COVID-19 restrictions once the 80 percent vaccination threshold was reached.

Frankly, I think we should be getting on with it, not seeking to put more controls on people, Morrison said.

However, because Australia is a federation, Morrison indicated that as prime minister he couldnt intervene because the proposed laws were entirely a matter for the Victorian parliament, and its government, politicians, and people.

Thats the thing about the federation. Were all responsible for the things were responsible for, and were accountable, he said.

Morrison conceded that he had concerns that some state government were continuing to want to be involved more and more in peoples lives.

As prime minister, I respect the federation. I work with all the premiers and chief ministers. But the clear message is this, your call, your responsibility. And dont expect the federal government to go and argue your case.

90 Percent of Australians Receive First Jab

During the interview, Morrison said that it was extraordinary that 90 percent of Australians have now had their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Were going to have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, Morrison said. That goes with having one of the best records in the world on saving lives.

He added that Australia had one of the lowest fatality rates from COVID-19 in the world, as well as one of the strongest developed economies despite the pandemic downturn.

Those three things together show an extraordinary performance by Australians throughout the pandemic, he said.
Chinese paramilitary policemen keep watch at the promenade on the Bund along the Huangpu River in Shanghai on Sept. 24, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Shanghai State Security Bureau Chief Allegedly Abuses Subordinates Daughter

Taiwanese media outlets have posted two letters that allege a chief at the Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) sexually assaulted a woman while driving her home from a party.

The letters were published under the names of the father and husband of the alleged victim. The woman, named Shen Yue, is the daughter of an intelligence officer at the SSSB, who is a subordinate of the accused chief.

A letter published online under the fathers name, Shen Genlin, first appeared online on Nov. 1. Shen Genlins detailed personal information and signature were also included in the publication, effectively putting his reputation on the line.

Shen Genlin claimed that he had to leave a gathering early and that the security chief, Huang Baokun, offered to take his daughter home. Shen Yue alleged that she was intoxicated at the time and that Huang took advantage of her.

Her father claimed to have sought assistance from Shanghai authorities over the issue, but when no help came, he turned to the public and published the letter.

Just under one week later, the SSSB published a statement on Nov. 7, declaring both the assault allegations and the original documents as false.

The following day, the womans husband, a Korean man named Hyun Duk Hwang, published a letter through Taiwans Apple Daily on Nov. 8, declaring the accusations to be true. To support his claims, he also provided extensive personal information about himself.

However, Hwang said Shen Genlin has since gone missing in Shanghai after the publication.

The Epoch Times attempted to contact both Shen Genlin and Huang on Nov. 6 through information included in the letters, but neither responded. The SSSB also did not respond to a request for comment.

Ning Haizhong, Gu Xiaohua, and Li Jing contributed to this report.
Astronauts, from left, Tom Marshburn, Matthias Maurer, of Germany, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron wave as they leave the Operations and Checkout building for a trip to Launch Pad 39-A Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The four astronauts are scheduled to fly on SpaceX's Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

SpaceX Crew Launch Marks 600 Space Travelers in 60 Years

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.A SpaceX rocket carried four astronauts into orbit Wednesday night, including the 600th person to reach space in 60 years.

The repeatedly delayed flight occurred just two days after SpaceX brought four other astronauts home from the International Space Station. They should have been up there to welcome the newcomers, but NASA and SpaceX decided to switch the order based on Mondays ideal recovery weather in the Gulf of Mexico and pulled it off.

It was a great ride, better than we imagined, mission commander Raja Chari said shortly after the spacecraft reached orbit.

The launch was just as riveting for spectators at NASAs Kennedy Space Center, as well as along the East Coast, as the Falcon rocket thundered through clouds on its way to space, turning night into day.

Germanys Matthias Maurer claimed the No. 600 position, according to NASA, based on his mission assignment. He and his three NASA crewmates should arrive at the space station in under 24 hours, well over a week late.

One of the astronautsNASA isnt saying which onewas sidelined last week by an undisclosed medical issue. The crew member is fully recovered, according to NASA. Officials wont say whether it was an illness or injury, but noted it wasnt COVID-19.

Bad weather also contributed to their flight delays. Chari said trying to launch on Halloween left them with a trick instead of a treat. It was also drizzling Wednesday night when the four astronauts said goodbye to their families for six monthswith everyone huddling under umbrellasbut it cleared up by launch time.

Photographers are silhouetted as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon attached lifts off, on Nov. 10, 2021. (Chris OMeara/AP Photo)

Enjoy your holidays among the stars. Well be waving as you fly by, SpaceX launch director Mark Soltys radioed to the crew.

The list of 600 travelers ranges from those who have barely scratched spacelike actor William Shatner last monthto U.S. and Russian astronauts who have spent a year or more in orbit. This years surge in space tourists helped push the tally over the 600 mark.

That averages out to 10 people per year since Yuri Gagarins pioneering flight in 1961, Maurer noted.

But I think in a very few years, we will see an exponential rise of that one because now were entering the era of commercial spaceflight, he said after arriving at Kennedy Space Center two weeks ago.

The crew launch marked SpaceXs fourth for NASA and the companys fifth passenger flight overallincluding a September charter flight for four that skipped the space station. The Dragon capsules toilet leaked during their three days in orbit, necessitating a quick redesign of the flushing system in the newest capsule, named Endurance by its crew.

A balky parachute during Mondays descent had SpaceX engineers poring over the data, before giving the go-ahead for Wednesdays launch. One of the four chutes opened more than a minute late, a problem seen in testing and well within safety limits, but still being examined, officials said.

As of Wednesday, Elon Musks company has launched 18 people in 18 months.

Human spaceflight was the reason we were founded, so its incredibly meaningful for the whole team, said Sarah Walker, a SpaceX manager.

The European Space Agencys Mauer is one of three newbies on the crew. The 51-year-old was a finalist when he first applied to be an astronaut. Encouraged, he left his research job at a medical company and joined the space agency as an engineer, and made the astronaut cut in 2015.

Chari, 44, is an Air Force colonel and the first space rookie in decades to lead a mission to orbit for NASA. A test pilot from Cedar Falls, Iowa, Chari accumulated more than 2,500 hours in fighter jets, including combat missions in Iraq.

By Marcia Dunn
A logo of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is seen at China International Semiconductor Expo in a file photo. (Aly Song/Reuters)

Taiwanese Top Executive Quits Chinas Largest Chipmaker

Chinas largest chipmaker said on Nov. 11 that its Taiwanese vice-chairman has resigned in a leadership reshuffle, less than a year after he took the role, leaving its board entirely Chinese.

Chinas state-supported Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) said in a Nov. 11 statement (pdf) following a board meeting that Chiang Shangyi resigned as the vice-chairman as well as from the board, effective from the day, citing the reason as to spend more time with his family.

In late 2016, Chiang, a then-retired research director at the worlds largest and most advanced contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), joined Shanghai-based SMIC as an independent board member.

Despite SMIC being considered Chinas largest and most advanced chipmaker, a previous Financial Times report found it could lag up to two generations behind industry leaders in process technology and wafer sizes.

Beijing was eager to increase domestic self-sufficiency over semiconductor manufacturing and reduce imported chips, yet Chiang once said in a previous interview with Chinese media that he would not betray the former employer.

SMIC emphasized that the resignation has no disagreement with the company or its board and did not expect the moves to have a material impact on its operations, according to its statement.

Chiang, in his seventies, is not the only senior executive that left the company in the past months.

The latest departure comes two months after SMICs chairman, Zhou Zixue, also resigned from the companys chairman citing health reasons. In July, Jingang Wu, the companys vice president of technology development, left after serving the company for 20 years, besides a major loss of R&D personal.

Some believed pressures stemming from the outside also explain Chiangs short stay, such as ongoing U.S. sanctions.

The United States has placed restrictions on exports from American firms to SMIC since September 2020. Later in December, Washington put SMIC and its affiliates on the Entity List of the US Commerce Department. The move was to prevent it from leveraging U.S. technologies to support Chinas destabilizing military activitiesan allegation denied by SMIC.

The pressure from the United States has prevented Shangyi Chiang from developing his technology blueprint, Liberty Times said in a Nov.12 report.

Three other members also resigned from the board, including co-chief executive officer Liang Mong Song, who would remain in his executive role, according to the statement.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Texas Gov. Abbott Orders Education Agency to Investigate Criminal Pornography Activity in Public Schools

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath on Wednesday to investigate criminal activity involving the availability of pornography in the states public schools, saying the agency should refer such instances for prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.

In a letter to Morath, the governor noted recent reports that Texas students have been exposed to pornographic books and content in public schools across the state.

Earlier this week, Abbott told the Texas Association of School Boards that a growing number of both students and parents across the state were becoming increasingly alarmed about some of the books and other content found in public school libraries that are being deemed inappropriate in the public education system.

The presence of pornography in schools is not only inappropriate, but it is also against the law. In Texas, it is illegal to provide pornography to anyone under the age of 18 according to Section 43.24 of the Texas Penal Code, Abbott wrote in his letter to Morath.

The fact that pornographic material that serves no educational purpose has been made available to students in Texas public schools is a clear violation of the lawWhile the Texas Association of School Boards has refused to assist their member school boards to address this issue, the State of Texas must act for the sake of Texas students and parents, the Texas governor said.

That is why I am directing the Texas Education Agency to investigate any criminal activity in our public schools involving the availability of pornography. During this investigation, I ask the agency to refer any instance of pornography being provided to minors under the age of 18 for prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.

Abbott added that the state has a responsibility to ensure that no Texas child is exposed to pornography or obscene content while in a Texas public school, and that the agencys investigation into such instances will help accomplish this mission.

Abbott previously directed the Texas Education Agency, the State Board of Education, and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission to start developing statewide standards that will help curb the presence of pornographic content and other obscene content in Texas public schools, according to the letter.

The issue first came to light at Keller school district in suburban Fort Worth, after it announced last week that it had removed a book on gender identity from its school library following complaints by parents that it contained graphic images.

The novel, called Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe, contains graphic drawings depicting oral sex. Soon after it was removed from Texas schools, it was also banned in a school district in Florida and challenged at schools in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Ohio, and Washington.
Fullerton Lions Club member Matyas "Matt" Hunyadi stands near his truck he nicknamed "The Mule" in which he helps deliver food and supplies to the needy, in Fullerton, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The Lion and The Mule: Volunteering During the Pandemic

FULLERTON, Calif.Inside Wings Cafe, an American aviation diner at the Fullerton Airport filled with vintage World War II decor, Matt Hunyadi, 81, recalls stories his parents and older siblings told him about their escape from Germany in 1945.

Before the war ended, he and his family, forced by the Nazis, rode in the Holocaust trains with other refugees and were used as shields to protect the Germans from American warplanes attacking the locomotive.

At five, Hunyadi, returned to his birthplace, Hodmezovasarhely, Hungary, a city in the southeast on the Great Hungarian Plain, approximately 30 miles from the Romanian border.

A decade later, Hunyadi protested the Stalinist government during the Hungarian Revolution until he escaped to the United States, the same country the Hungarian government told him was evil as he was growing up. He remembers frequently wearing his rifle strapped over his right shoulder.

He orders a half tuna sandwich on toasted rye bread with a cup of minestrone.

And please give me the bill, he says.

Hunyadi passes the menu back to the waitress and smiles with a charming glare in his eyes behind broad frames.

He comes here a lot, says the waitress.

Fullerton Lions Club member Matyas Matt Hunyadi dines at Wings Cafe in Fullerton, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Hunyadi frequently dines at the restaurant between delivering boxes of food to homeless communities across north Orange County.

Each week, he hauls between 1,200 to 1,800 pounds of food in the bed of his 2018 Chevy Silverado pickup truck he calls The Mule.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit California and Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered residents to stay at home, Hunyadi and fellow Lions Club members jumped into action.

The lions packed up The Mule with food donations from religious groups, from Sikhs to Lutherans.

Were in the distribution business, he says.

Hunyadi is one of 1.5 million Lionsin over 200 countriesworldwide.

Membership is exclusiveby invitation only, according to Walter Rountree, president of the Fullerton Lions Club. Lions are people of good moral character who lead by example, build relationships, and improve the world through kindness, he says.

Matt never, as far as I know, saved anybody from drowning or anything like that, Rountree says. However, he is giving a lot of himself to others, and thats what Lions do.

Fullerton Lions Club member Matyas Hunyadi stands near his truck he nicknamed The Mule, with which he helps deliver food and supplies to the needy, in Fullerton, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Not only do Hunyadi and the Fullerton club deliver food to the hungry weekly, but they also donated handmade masks to the local St. Judes Hospital. Additionally, they collected and donated approximately 700 eyeglasses.

The bottom line is we serve, says Hunyadi. We help other people who need help.

Hunyadi pauses as the waitress refills his iced tea.

Why do I do it? Because it makes me feel good, he says. When you see the people that line up for the food, you know? I helped somebody. Its good.

While the pandemic locked Californians inside their homes, Hunyadi says he never felt afraid of the virus and rose to the occasion to help those who had sheltered in place.

Remember, Im an old infantryman, he says. As a young man from Hungary, I wont put my hands up very easily, you know?

Fullerton Lions Club member Matyas Matt Hunyadi points to a Lions Club sign in Fullerton, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

An empty cup of minestrone sits on top of an empty plate in front of Hunyadi.

He pulls out a red and black canvas tote bag with the Lions Club International symbol patched in the center.

Operation Military Christmas is his next act of community service, he says, walking out to his ol trusty Mule.

He says the Lions will fill the tote bag with gifts for young military members who will experience their first Christmas overseas.

The operation started five years ago with about 100 bags delivered. This year, they will fill and distribute over 1,000.

I can relate to them, Hunyadi says. Although I was 21 at the time that I joined, many kids joined the army at 18.  and the first Christmas, especially if youre overseas, is really hard, and all of a sudden, youre over there with a bunch of guys older than you and you get very sentimental.

Fullerton Lions Club member Matyas Matt Hunyadi drives his truck he nicknamed The Mule in which he helps deliver food and supplies to the needy in Fullerton, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
The Other Epidemic: Chinese Spies and Academic Espionage

Commentary

There is a genuine fear that Chinese spies are monitoring a number of British universities online seminars.

These spies are monitoring lectures and debates, according to Mark McLaughlin, a contributor to The Times UK. Any individuals who dare to discuss censored political content find themselves the target of Beijing-approved operatives.

Many Chinese students, unable to travel to Britain because of pandemic-related travel restrictions, are left with little option but to log into lectures using virtual private networks (VPNs) run by Alibaba, wrote McLaughlin. Alibaba has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Considering China is engaged in a new cold war with the United States, Beijings desire to monitor conversations, especially those of highly sensitive, geopolitical nature, makes sense. With a genocidal campaign occurring in Xinjiang and citizens of Tibet being terrorized, one cannot discuss politics and human rights without discussing China.

But such discussions, especially for Chinese citizens, come with significant costs. The CCP monitors every one of its citizens very closely, whether they happen to be at home or abroad. Worryingly, Britain appears to be particularly vulnerable to Chinese interference. British universities, including Cambridge, one of the most prestigious educational institutes in the world, appear to be particularly vulnerable.

As Spectator UKs Ian Williams recently warned, Huawei, yet another company with close ties to the CCP, exerts a nefarious influence over the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Management. Three out of four directors of the center, were told, have ties to the telecoms giant, which means they have ties to the CCP. The centers chief representative, as Williams noted, is a former vice-president of the company who has been paid by the Chinese government. Furthermore, an honorary fellow of the center is the author of a book that praises Huaweis ability to transform the intellectual elite into a band of soldiers with the same set of values and resolve. To call Cambridge compromised is to utter an understatement of epic proportions.

The logo of Chinese company Huawei is seen at its main UK offices in London on Jan. 28, 2020. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2018, Cambridge University signed a 200 million (about $267 million) joint venture to develop a science park with TusPark, or Tsinghua University Science Park. Again, the CCP and Tsinghua are intimately linkedwhen officials at Cambridge agreed to the deal, they effectively signed a deal with the CCP.

The science park, according to its website, has transformed Cambridge from a market town with a world-class university to one of the leading technology hotspots in the world. The 152-acre site is home to more than 130 different businesses, including spin-outs from the University of Cambridge to multinational companies seeking access to the brightest graduates and entrepreneurs from Cambridges diverse talent pool. Many of the diversely talented are working on potentially life changing technologies from personalised medicines and non-invasive cancer diagnostics to artificial intelligence, IoT, defense and connectivityto name just a few.

In other words, they are working on vital technology that will serve the CCP.

Of course, British universities arent the only ones at risk. In the United States, fears of academic espionage are very much warranted.

In the first week of September, more than 170 professors at Stanford University from 40 different departments signed an open letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. In the widely-circulated letter, the academics requested Garland to terminate the Department of Justices China Initiative, initially introduced by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The objective of the initiative, launched in 2018, was simple: to combat academic espionage, intellectual property theft, and other serious threats associated with Beijing. Although the professors calls are somewhat understandable (after all, if someone is indeed innocent and finds themselves accused of spying on behalf of Beijing, their career is effectively over, even if their name is eventually cleared), the China Initiative is still necessary.

According to The Cipher Brief, Beijing still relies on scholars and researchers to act as spies. When it comes to espionage, universitiesso consumed by the idea of equity, inclusion, and race awarenessare easy prey. The authors at The Cipher Brief warned that the CCP still identifies universities and institutions of higher learning as vulnerable entry points to gaining access to sensitive data.

In the aforementioned letter, the professors argued that the China Initiative has deviated significantly from its claimed mission: it is harming the United States research and technology competitiveness and it is fueling biases that, in turn, raise concerns about racial profiling. So concerned by the idea of xenophobia, they believe that the China Initiative should be scrapped. Replace it with an appropriate response that avoids the flaws of this initiative, they suggested.

Again, although the professors concerns are understandable, the China Initiative neednt be scrapped. Investigations should still be carried out, but with far more care. CCP-backed espionage and intellectual property theft are still occurring. This is what the CCP does; it lies and steals, doing whatever is needed to gain an advantage. As Cambridge so clearly demonstrates, if you give Beijing an inch, it will take a mile.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
U.S. President Donald Trump's former Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon exits Manhattan Federal Court following his arraignment on fraud charges in New York on Aug. 20, 2020. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump Adviser Steve Bannon Indicted for Contempt of Congress: DOJ

Former Trump administration adviser Steve Bannon was indicted Friday by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress after he didnt comply with a subpoena to appear in front of the House Jan. 6 panel.

Bannon, 67, was charged (pdf) with one contempt count involving his refusal to appear for a deposition and another that involved his refusal to hand over documents to the committee. Last month, the House select committee issued a subpoena before the House of Representatives, in a partisan vote, held him in contempt.

Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law, and pursues equal justice under the law, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a news release issued by the Department of Justice. Todays charges reflect the departments steadfast commitment to these principles.

For each count of contempt of Congress, Bannon faces 30 days to one year in jail, as well as a fine of $100 to $1,000, according to the Justice Departments press release.

According to the Congressional Research Service, its rare for prosecutors to charge someone with contempt of Congress, and it noted that a settlement is generally negotiated to avoid them. The last criminal contempt case was in 1983 when the Department of Justice indicted an Environmental Protection Agency official who was ultimately found not guilty during a trial.

Bannons lawyer, Robert Costello, told the House committee last month that he wouldnt be cooperating because he had been told not to by former President Donald Trump. Arguing that the executive privileges belong to President Trump, Costello asserted that we must accept [Trumps] direction and honor his invocation of executive privilege.

The Epoch Times has contacted Costello for comment.

President Joe Bidens administration has declined to assert executive privilege relating to documents and witnesses related to the Jan. 6 incident. At one point, Biden added a complication by saying that the Department of Justice should prosecute Bannon and others, before acknowledging that he shouldnt have said it.

Later, a Department of Justice spokesperson told media outlets on Oct. 15 that in reference to Bidens comment, the agency will make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and the law. Period. Full stop.

So far, the committee has issued subpoenas to more than a dozen former Trump administration officials and associatesincluding former adviser Stephen Miller, ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnanyfor testimony or documents. Among those who were issued subpoenas, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows confirmed on Thursday that he would refuse the subpoena and would not testify in front of the House panel.

Meadows is still under the instructions of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege, George Terwilliger, Meadowss lawyer, said in a statement.

Contrary to decades of consistent bipartisan opinions from the Justice Department that senior aides cannot be compelled by Congress to give testimony, he added, this is the first president to make no effort whatsoever to protect presidential communications from being the subject of compelled testimony.
President Joe Biden speaks during an event to commemorate Veterans Day in the Memorial Amphitheater, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 11, 2021. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump-Linked Group Latest to File Lawsuit Over Bidens OSHA Vaccine Rule

The Trump-linked America First Policy Institute filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its COVID-19 vaccine-or-test mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees.

The groups Constitutional Litigation Partnership, which helped former President Donald Trump file his lawsuit against Facebook and Twitter earlier in the year, asked the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals (pdf) to temporarily block the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule that was handed down last week.

So far, dozens of states, businesses, and individuals have filed legal challenges against the mandate. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the rule on Nov. 6, although White House officials have said theyre confident the rule will be upheld.

America First Policy Institute, joined by the Alliance for Free Citizens, are representing two North Dakota businesses with 100 or more employees, DTN Staffing and Miller Insulation. They argued that with the rule, the federal government is violating the rights of Americans by infringing on individual liberty and Americans right to make personal health decisions without the risk of losing their job, according to an accompanying news release.

And the legal challenge further argued OSHAs emergency temporary standard rule creates a disproportionately adverse impact on individuals with sincere religious beliefs. Lawyers argued that the weekly testing and mask-wearing option also severely burdens their exercise of her religious faith and unfairly treats them differently from vaccinated employees because the rule requires them to wear masks at all times while at work, marking them with a virtual scarlet letter and forcing them to pay for weekly testing.

Kris Kobach, general counsel for the Alliance for Free Citizens, argued that their case is critical in the defense of the U.S. Constitution against the Biden administrations overreach.

Their legal challenge comes after a series of lawsuits filed by Republican-led states, GOP-affiliated groups, and private businesses over the rule.

White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre this week said that despite the lawsuits, businesses should move forward with attempting to adhere to the OSHA rule by setting up testing procedures and COVID-19 vaccine mandates for workers.

These are policies that are protecting workforces and avoiding disruptions related to employees getting sick with COVID, she said on Tuesday.

Days before, White House chief of staff Ron Klain told Meet the Press that hes confident the Biden administration will prevail in implementing the rule.

Im quite confident that when this finally gets fully adjudicated, not just a temporary order, the validity of this requirement will be upheld, he said on Sunday. Its common sense  if OSHA can tell people to wear a hard hat on the job, to be careful around chemicals, it can put in place these simple measures to keep our workers safe.

If the rule goes through, a number of trade associations, such as those representing truckers and manufacturers, expressed alarm that it would trigger significant supply chain bottlenecks, which would in turn, likely cause prices to spike.

The American Trucking Associations warned that it estimates about 13 percent of truckers would leave the industry entirely, and some 37 percent of drivers could possibly depart their jobs at large trucking companies and seek employment elsewhere.
Former President Donald Trump arrives for a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct. 9, 2021. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Trump Outlines GOP Strategy for 2022

News Analysis

At a meeting of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), a GOP fundraising organization, President Donald Trump outlined a strategy Wednesday for the party moving into the 2022 midterm elections.

After unexpectedly good returns in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections, Republicans are optimistic about their prospect in next years midterms. In his speech to the NRCC, Trump emphasized this optimism, expressing his belief that Republicans will win big in 2022.

Republican victories on Nov. 2, Trump said, are just the beginning.

If we do our jobs and stick together, then exactly one year from today we are going to be watching a massive red wave sweep across our entire country and we are going to be celebrating the election of the largest house republican majority in American history, Trump told the audience.

The Democratic Party, he added, is a house of cards ready to come tumbling down.

Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and the entire radical Democrat Party are headed for a political meltdown of unprecedented proportions, Trump said. If Republicans can stick together, we can beat them in deep blue cities and states, and we can beat them anywherebut we must stay unified. If we are united, we will end Nancy Pelosis political career once and for all.

After giving these predictions, Trump turned to a discussion of the Republican Party itself, touching on how the party should evolve moving into the 2022 elections and on which policies Republicans should run. Fundamentally, Trump proposed a party of populism with a focus on the economic wellbeing and cultural values of middle-class Americans.

Trump said, To save our country, the Republican Party must be the party that fights fiercely for the economic interests of American workersthe party that speaks boldly for the social interests of American familiesand the party that stands proudly for the cultural values of God-fearing American patriots.

He continued: Some call this American populism, some call it national conservatism, I call it putting America first. But whatever you call it, it is here to stayand it is not just the best way to win, it is the only way to win.

Trump compared his vision for the party moving forward to the old Republican Party.

The old GOP, Trump said, was a party of endless wars, nation-building, loose immigration policies, idiotic trade deals, and surrendering our culture to left-wing arsonists. That Republican Party, Trump said, is gone forever.

We are now the working peoples party, Trump said. We will be tough on crime, strong on borders, strong on trade, proud of our heritage, and proud of our American values. We will defend our citizens jobs and wages. We will protect our peoples homes and communities. And we will defeat the woke zealots trying to destroy our country.

Trumps comments, more akin to his 2016 campaign than to his 2020 campaign, come in the midst of an ongoing intra-party struggle within the GOP.

Some in the party, like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) have called for the party to move on from Trumps brand of populism.

Speaking in Kentucky on Monday, McConnell gave a very different take on GOP goals in the 2022 elections.

I think the key to 22 is to have a discussion with the American people about the new administration, the Democratic Congress, and what theyre doing, McConnell said.

I think the election will be about the future and not the past, McConnell added in an opaque reference to the former president.

Both McConnell and Cheney have blamed Trump for the events of Jan. 6, and have demanded that the party move past Trump.

But Trump maintains massive influence in the GOP nonetheless.

Across the country, many Republicans in tight primaries hope for Trumps weighty endorsement. According to the results of a January 2021 survey conducted by Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers, 45 percent of Republicans said they would be more likely to support a candidate endorsed by Trump (pdf).

On Tuesday, for example, Trump endorsed Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who is seeking to beat out the sitting governor in a primary.

Looking ahead to 2022, Trump has already thrown his high-value endorsement behind 45 candidates, including an endorsement of his former Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for Arkansas governor, an endorsement for 2016 primary challengers in the Senate like Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and a slew of other candidates vying for both state and federal level offices.

Despite the efforts of some in the party to move ahead without Trump, much of the GOP still looks to the former president as a leader in the party. His views on what the Republican Party should become moving forward are sure to influence the platforms of several Republicans hoping for his endorsement ahead of 2022s elections.
A child receives the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination at the Fairfax County Government Center in Annandale, Va., on Nov. 4, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Virginia Pharmacy Incorrectly Administers COVID-19 Vaccine to 112 Kids: Officials

A pharmacy in Loudoun County, Virginia, gave incorrect doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to about 112 children aged 5 to 11 last week, said the countys Department of Health.

Workers at the Ted Pharmacy in Aldie vaccinated the kids using vials that were intended for individuals aged 12 and older, instead of the special vaccine formulation that was recently authorized for emergency use by federal health officials for children between the ages of 5 and 11, according to a letter issued to parents by the Loudon County Health Department that was obtained by The Epoch Times.

This resulted in a dose of COVID-19 vaccine that is potentially lower than recommended, said the letter, written by Loudoun County Health Department director Dr. David Goodfriend, dated Nov. 10.

The Virginia Department of Health recommends that parents review the (Centers for Disease Control and Preventions) guidance and contact their health care provider to discuss options to complete the COVID-19 vaccine series, he also wrote.

The pharmacy who administered the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination to your child last week has been removed from both state and federal COVID-19 vaccination programs, Goodfriend added, saying it handed over its vaccines to local health officials.

Speaking to CNBC, Goodfriend confirmed the incident and explained that Ted Pharmacy attempted to provide a proper dose by administering about a third of the adult dose. He cautioned, however, that a lower dose is possible if not all of the 0.1 [milliliters] was administered into muscle.

Only Pfizers COVID-19 mRNA vaccine has been authorized for emergency use by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration for use in children aged 5 to 11. The CDC gave the authorization for the vaccine for younger kids on Nov. 2.

Goodfriend said the agency is not aware of any child receiving too much of the COVID-19 vaccine at the Ted Pharmacy earlier this month. Children in the 5 to 11 age group are supposed to receive a two-dose, 10 microgram vaccine, whereas adults and children aged 12 and older get 30 microgram shots.

The Virginia Department of Health said in a statement to news outlets that federal and state officials ordered the pharmacy to discontinue administering the vaccine starting Nov. 5, while authorities collected all COVID-19 vaccines at the pharmacy. It confirmed that about 112 children were affected between Nov. 3 and Nov. 4.

Officials instructed the pharmacy to notify parents about next steps, including the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding whether patients should restart the vaccine series or receive a correct second dose, the agencys statement continued. [The Virginia Department of Health] is also working to contact parents and ensure they understand the guidance on next steps.

One parent, Dasha Hermosilla, told News4 that a pharmacist at Ted Pharmacy gave her daughter, Gryffin, a diluted dose of the vaccine for older individuals. She noted that the vaccine vial for people aged 12 and older comes in a purple cap, not the orange cap for younger children.

Nothing says that you can change a purple to an orange, Hermosilla explained. I had this pit in my stomach that, like, what did they just do to my daughter?

The Epoch Times has contacted Ted Pharmacy and the Virginia Department of Health for comment.

Correction: Pfizers vaccine has not been fully approved for children aged 5 to 11. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
A maze of crude oil pipes and valves pictured during a tour by the Department of Energy at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Texas, on June 9, 2016. (Reuters/Richard Carson)

Why Is Biden Threatening an American Pipeline While Begging Russia, OPEC for Oil and Gas?

Commentary

Fresh after publicly begging Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to produce more oil and natural gas in order to ease a global supply crunch and skyrocketing energy prices, the Biden administration is nonsensically considering shutting down an American pipeline thats crucial to our energy security.

The question is why?

For more than 40 years, the United States was held hostage to the whims of OPEC and other foreign energy producers who were hostile to our national interests. For more than four decades, politicians on both sides of the aisle lamented our foreign oil dependency and dreamed of a day when the country would become energy independent.

Because of U.S. innovation revolutionizing horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the United States became the worlds leading oil producer during the Trump administration, producing more oil and natural gas than the country used. America had additionally benefited from a helping hand from Canadian oil imports, further marginalizing the impact of Russia and OPEC on U.S. energy security.

After the Biden administration halted construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, imposed an unlawful halt to new oil and gas projects on federal lands, and stifled U.S. oil and gas production through a variety of other means, U.S. energy production has plateaued despite increasing demand. As a resultand predictablyoil, natural gas, and gasoline prices have skyrocketed.

Home heating oil prices are up by more than 30 percent since Joe Biden entered the Oval Office. Crude oil prices have risen by more than 50 percent. Natural gas prices have doubled. Gasoline prices are up by about $1 per gallon. None of this was necessary. To the extent that rising energy prices are taking a heavy toll on American consumers pocketbooks, the answer is simple: Stop stifling U.S. energy production.

The Biden administration claims that curbing American oil and natural gas production is justified and necessary because of its climate change agenda. However, even Democratic political strategist Mark Penn conceded on Nov. 8 that the American people value energy independence over additional measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Biden administration Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm laughed uncontrollably when asked about rising gasoline prices and whether the administration will increase domestic energy production to counteract increasing prices at the pump. Granholm also acknowledges that Americans will have to pay significantly higher prices to heat their homes this winter. Now, adding injury to insult, the Biden administration has acknowledged that its considering halting the Line 5 pipeline, which has delivered oil and natural gas across Michigan and Wisconsin for more than 60 years. Closing the pipeline would drive U.S. energy prices significantly higher.

In what alternate universe does shutting down production of U.S. and Canadian oil and natural gas drive down carbon dioxide emissions, when the result is that we have to beg Russia and OPEC to ship oil and natural gas overseasemitting additional and unnecessary carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the process? Moreover, how does it benefit the environment to encourage Russia and OPECwith inferior environmental protection laws than the United Statesto produce and ship more oil and natural gas while suppressing U.S. energy production? How does deliberately shifting oil and natural gas production to Russia and OPEC from the United States benefit the U.S. economy or U.S. national security?

The Biden administrations energy and environmental policies are being exposed as nothing other than political greenstanding. Shutting down U.S. energy production appeases the radical climate lobby that wields significant power over the administration. However, it does nothing to benefit the environment, as it simultaneously puts the United States and its economy at the mercy of hostile foreign powers.

The Biden administration needs to put an end to any and all discussion of shutting down the Line 5 pipeline. It also needs to put an end to its Russia-and-OPEC-first energy policy. Failure to do so will impose additional woe on U.S. consumers, while doing absolutely nothing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions or benefit the environment.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
World Kindness Day SpecialAncient Tales of Wisdom: The Power of Kindness

World Kindness Day, celebrated annually on Nov. 13 by many countries around the globe since its introduction by the World Kindness Movement in 1998, is an observance day to highlight good deeds in the community and to remind us all of the positive power of the virtue of kindnessthe common thread that binds us all; kindness transcends race, religion, politics, gender, and location.

As such, for the enjoyment of our readers on World Kindness Day, The Epoch Times Inspired Staff present this article and audio The Power of Kindness, comprising two short tales from ancient China that highlight the virtue of kindness, sourced from the discontinued Ancient Tales of Wisdom program by the Sound of Hope Radio Network.

Listen to the audio, or read the tales below, and we hope you feel inspired on this World Kindness Day!

Listen to Audio Story:

Virtue is the nature of conscience bestowed on humans by heaven, and it is the most beautiful element in the essence of a human life. So, the most important thing for a man is to maintain kindness and keep improving his morality.

A true gentleman likes to read good books and do good deeds. Not only that, he will also encourage and promote kind deeds in public and teach others to do the same so that people will become enlightened and live in peace and prosperity based on heavens principles and the righteous way.

That is why an ancient saying stated, The real gentleman is one who treats others with kindness. Examples of ancients offering advice on kind deeds are countless. The following are but a few.

In the Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C.476 B.C.), when Zilu of the state of Lu went to see Confucius for the first time, he was wearing a feather on his head to show his arrogance and belligerence. But after Confucius told him about the virtue of modesty, he was moved and willingly changed into students clothes, and started to learn etiquette from Confucius.

Teaching him how to be a gentleman and an official, Confucius said, Loyalty is most important for a gentleman. For a gentleman, bravery with no loyalty is disorder; for a petty person, bravery with no loyalty is theft. A gentleman seeks the way not the food, and he worries about the way not the poverty. An official must be a good example for others; he must never be lax in working hard and caring for the people.

Zilu followed Confucius on a tour of states, promoting ethics, and his own realm of mind kept transcending. He was faithful to his teacher and devoted to his state.

Zilu is always pleased to learn about his mistakes and never hesitates to redress them, and thats called progress, Confucius praised him.

Confucius. (Blue Hsiao/The Epoch Times)

Later, Zilu became an important official in Puyi County. Three years after he started governing the county with etiquette and music, Puyi turned into a peaceful and prosperous land, and the people there were all respectful of one another. Confucius attributed it all to his students kindness.

Wu Qianjin of Shanyou in the Ming Dynasty (13681644) was a muscular and aggressive man. As a martial arts master, he tended to use his quick fists against anyone who happened to cross his path. He grabbed others property or money at will, and everyone was afraid of him.

One hot day, he went up to a terrace to cool off. People were all terrified when they saw him coming up, and disappeared. But one old man stayed, fearless.

Wu Qianjin said domineeringly, Everyone left but you, so you think I am not a good enough martial arts master, eh?

You are completely mistaken, replied the old man. Your parents raised you, hoping that you would be useful to your nation. You are an expert in martial arts, and yet you never think of how to contribute to your country; rather, you are satisfied to be scum. What a pity! What a pity!

Upon hearing the old mans words, Wu Qianjin said in remorseful tears, Everyone around me said I was a bad guy, so I regarded myself as a bad guy. Your words today were like the sounds of the morning bell and evening drum, waking me up from my sleep. But Ive been a bad person for so long now, I wonder if I can ever become a real gentleman even if I wanted to. Its like an eclipsed moonhard to become round again.

The old man said, If you were serious about amending your ways and started cultivating yourself and being a good person, I dont see why you couldnt.

From then on, Wu Qianjin changed and started working for his country. Later, he became deputy marshal of the army and was well respected and praised for his professional command and love of the people.

(Illustration  Liuling Pan/Shutterstock)

An ancient saying stated, Its human to err, but to correct that error is an act of great kindness.

To teach with virtue and to change with kindness may inspire people to reflect on the real meaning of human life and other ethics-related issues such as how to show love to others and avoid being lost in the pursuit of self-interest and pleasures.

The power of kindness is tremendous, because it is omnipresent and capable of changing ones heart from its very core. It guides people in their pursuit and practice of truth, leads them back to their conscience, encourages them to make good and right choices, and dissolves everything thats unrighteous.

This retold audio tale, The Power of Kindness, is transcribed and printed with permission from the Sound of Hope Radio Network. It was originally published by Clearwisdom.net. Audio by Sound of Hope Radio Network. Copyright  2012. All rights reserved.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Epoch Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Koreas main opposition presidential candidate said Friday he will strengthen military cooperation with the United States and Japan if elected to better cope with North Korea's nuclear threat and would strive to make the North a leading foreign policy priority for the U.S.

Yoon Suk Yeol has been leading public opinion surveys since becoming the conservative main opposition partys nominee last week for next Marchs election to choose the successor of current liberal President Moon Jae-in, whose single five-year term ends in May.

He is expected, however, to eventually face an extremely tight race against governing party candidate Lee Jae-myung.

Meeting with foreign media on Friday, Yoon stressed the need to boost cooperation with Washington and Japan to make up for South Koreas relative lack of ability to monitor North Koreas advancing nuclear program.

At a time when North Korea refuses denuclearization, bolsters its nuclear armaments and continues provocative missile tests, its accepted as an obvious fact that we have to upgrade our sharing of reconnaissance and intelligence assets and military cooperation with the U.S. and Japan, said Yoon, the People Power Party candidate.

South Korea and Japan are both key U.S. allies in East Asia and host a total of about 80,000 American troops. But their three-way cooperation has been tested in recent years over history and trade disputes between Seoul and Tokyo stemming largely from Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula. Moons government once threatened to terminate a trilateral intelligence-sharing agreement amid wrangling with Japan.

Stressing the need to improve ties with Tokyo, Yoon accused the Moon government of using tensions with Japan for domestic political gain. He said foreign policy should be implemented with pragmatism that prioritizes national interests over other matters.

Lee quickly criticized Yoon, writing on Facebook that Japans collective mood has shifted to the right considerably in recent years and that Yoon should be careful about his comments on Japan.

Policies for pursuing North Korea's denuclearization are likely be a leading issue in the March 9 election after Moons appeasement approach failed to convince the North to abandon its nuclear program, though it led to a temporary conciliatory mood between the rivals.

Lee has said he would follow an approach similar to Moons, and would seek exemptions from international sanctions on North Korea to allow a resumption of dormant joint cooperation projects. Yoon accused Moon of neglecting North Korean threats and said he would seek a stronger U.S. defense commitment to neutralize the Norths nuclear and missile threats.

Nuclear diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea has been largely deadlocked since early 2019. North Korea isnt a top priority for President Joe Biden, who faces challenges from China and Russia and mounting domestic issues.

Yoon said he would encourage the Biden administration to consider North Korea a leading priority. To do so, he said he would push strongly for North Korea's denuclearization and present a concrete roadmap to achieve that.

Yoons stance could draw an angry response from North Korea, which has called previous South Korean conservative governments U.S. puppets, and avoided serious negotiations with them over its nuclear program.

The close race between Yoon and Lee will likely deepen South Koreas already serious conservative-liberal divide. Yoon recently attacked Lee over a massive property development scandal that his supporters say involves Lee. This week, Lee used his apology for past drunken driving to take issue with Yoons lack of experience in party politics, saying, I think a beginning driver is more dangerous than a driver with a drunken driving record.

Yoon was once Moons prosecutor general but left the government amid disputes with Moons associates. Lee, a former provincial governor, has built up an image as an outspoken anti-establishment figure but faces criticism that he is a populist.

On the economy, Yoon said Friday he would ensure fair competition in markets while slamming the Moon government over soaring housing prices and its contentious income-led growth strategy. Lee has said he would fight economic inequality and introduce a universal basic income.
WASHINGTON  A new exhibit at the Institute for American Indian Studies traces how Connecticut's first settlers found their way as the glaciers melted.

It is a rare opportunity to learn about the Connecticut environment, and the way people and animals lived here more than 10,000 years ago. A highlight of this exhibit is an extensive display of the Templeton Dig Site, one of the oldest in southern New England, found in Washington, Connecticut. The exhibit, When Glaciers Melt - First Settlers of Connecticut will be on display in the Institute's special exhibition hall through mid.-November, according to a statement.

Museum officials say the exhibit illustrates how the first settlers in Connecticut lived. They are classified as hunter-gatherers and would follow migratory herds across the landscape and would forage for food such as strawberries, blueberries, and other seeds. The display on flint knapping is particularly interesting because it shows the reduction sequence of how rocks were broken down to form smaller pieces that would be used as tools such as projectiles and knives. One of the surprises of this exhibit is the number of different types of rocks used in flint knapping that came from places as far away as Pennsylvania, Eastern New York, and Rhode Island.

Another section of the exhibit details the Paleoindian environment that includes the presence of very large plants, trees, and animals. One of the most astounding animals showcased is a giant beaver that grew to the size of a black bear! This display makes an excellent photo opportunity for young and old alike! At some point both our modern-day smaller beavers and these giant beavers co-existed. Unfortunately, the giant beavers were unable to change with the environment and they went extinct around 10,000 years ago, according to the museum.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is the display regarding the Templeton Dig Site in Washington. Templeton is Connecticut's first known Paleoindian site and, until recently it was the oldest site in all of southern New England. This exhibit includes explanations of why this site is so important, how it was excavated, what was found, an example of the tools excavators used, and plans for future excavations. A second display, the Brian B. Jones dig site located in Avon, Connecticut is also examined and discussed, according to the museum. For information, go to https://www.iaismuseum.org/ or call 860-868-0518.

Winsted officials report on CARES Act spending

WINSTED  Finance Director Bruce Stratford and Treasurer Cynthia Rines recently reported to the Board of Selectmen that Winchester has spent $136,996 in CARES Act funds, from March 2020 to September 2021, to mitigate public safety risks to the Town related to the COVID-19 pandemic. These funds were provided to the Town from the Municipal Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) Program from the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management (OPM) and from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), according to a statement.

All expenditures occurred in the eligible categories of Cleaning and Disinfection of Public Buildings, Cleaning Supplies, Distancing Equipment and Technology, Office Modifications, Overtime Related to Response, Personal Protection Equipment, Public Safety Personnel Costs and Testing. These expenditures exclude separate CARES Act funding to Winchester Public Schools through the State Board of Education which has its own eligibility and reporting requirements, according to the statement.

Free bereavement program offered

LITCHFIELD  A free community program from Friends of Hospice, Inc., serving Torrington, Litchfield, Harwinton and Morris. Those who are grieving the loss of a loved ond may be worried about getting through the holidays. A holiday bereavement group will meet at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 10 at the Litchfield Congregational Church, 21 Torrington Road, and will be led by facilitator Eileen Epperson, who has more than 15 years experience leading group of this kind.

Call Eileen at 860-605-6576 to register and get directions to the session. Registration is confidential and helps to ensure social distancing can be maintained; masks are required.

Community center receives Archbishop Appeal donation

LITCHFIELD  The Litchfield Community Center recently received $650 from the Archbishops Annual Appeal through its Vicariate Outreach Program.

The funding will help The Litchfield Community Center continue its mission to provide a comfortable environment that encourages creative, intellectual and recreational pursuits to reflect the interests and needs of the community.

We are grateful for the continuing support of the Vicariate Outreach Program. Together we are able to do good deeds for the community, said Berta Mette Andrulis, Executive Director.

For more information about The Litchfield Community Center, visit www.thecommunitycenter.org or call 860-567-8302 or email litchfieldcommunitycenter@gmail.com
Hearst file photo

EDWARDSVILLE  The finance committee unanimously voted in favor of a resolution Thursday that revises the annual fees for all short-term rental licenses.



Were going to charge people [who] rent their facility out $50 as an annual license fee, said Alderman Jack Burns. In September, the city adopted an ordinance establishing and regulating short-term rentals. Thursdays resolution will set the field for Type A (owner-occupied) and Type B (non-owner-occupied) as well as bed and breakfast short-term rentals.



This encompasses Vrbo and Airbnb rentals as well as 30 rentals, or the previously capped number of rentals within city limits.

If we find that there are people doing that [renting homes] without paying this fee Alderwoman Elizabeth Grant began. I think this [the ordinance] is fine but I never would have known to ask for this if I were a resident [who wanted to open a short-term rental]."



Monitoring that is going to be difficult, Burns said.



Finance Director Jeanne Wojcieszak said the city has developed a license application and procedures for processing. Those who are not currently in compliance with the new short-term rental ordinance, planning and zoning are contacting the ones they know are non-compliant and sending them information to bring them into compliance.



Alderwoman Jennifer Warren and City Administrator Kevin Head said they knew of at least one non-compliant property owner within Dunlap Lake who was recently fined in municipal court over this issue.



In other action, the committee voted on the previous change to the hotel/motel tax ordinance by removing the word "overnight" and changed references to the city collector and city treasurer to the Department of Finance. The administration and community service (ACS) committee approved it as well.

The next ACS meeting will be Dec. 2 at 5 p.m. in city hall, 118 Hillsboro Ave.
GLEN CARBON  The village heard from the IEPA Thursday afternoon and eight out of 10 water samples taken passed, which means the village's boil order will continue until further notice.

"New tests were conducted today and we will have the results of those tests tomorrow," Mayor Bob Marcus said via email late Thursday afternoon.

Earlier Thursday, Marcus provided an explanation of the problem in the water system.

"My understanding is that there was a nitrification issue in a segment of our system," he said. "That segment has been isolated. The IEPA has collected samples from our water and is testing it. If we have the 'all clear' from the IEPA, we can lift the boil order. If not, the IEPA will have to test the water again today and we will learn about the results of that test tomorrow."

On Tuesday afternoon, officials gave notice that the entire village was under a boil order until further notice due to low chlorine levels from its water supplier, Illinois American Water (IAW). The village changed water suppliers this past summer to IAW, after using water from the City of Edwardsville for 25 years, in part to avoid a rate increase from the city. The villages finance director mentioned during his proposed budget review Tuesday that the villages water and sewer rates have not been changed since 2017 and those would need to be reviewed in 2022.

Next Tuesday, Thouvenot, Wade and Moerchen, Inc., (TWM) is slated to appear at a meeting where its consultants will be interviewed as part of the village building its own water treatment plant.

According to the village, alerts were sent Tuesday to inform residents of the boil order. However, communications issues seemingly accompanied the initial outreach.

"Although a vast majority of residents received notification via calls, emails, texts, Facebook and village signage, there were some residents that did not receive a call or electronic notification," Marcus said. "That is unacceptable because the village pays for that service for our residents. Upon learning this, we contacted our providers for the notification services and have been working with them to fix the issues so they do not happen again.



"We will overhaul the notification system to make it easier for residents to sign up for notifications," he continued. "As you may recall, we approved a new website [earlier this year] and I hope to integrate and streamline these systems in conjunction with that release this winter.



"Finally, as you may have seen from the last board meeting, we [will create] a position of communications manager and budget the position for 2022. This person will be a welcome asset to the village to improve resident communications."

Several people took to Facebook to share their thoughts on the communications issue. Social media commentators pointed out that some village residents may not have internet access or use Facebook, especially at the senior citizen homes. Others said they received a message about the boil order after consuming some water Tuesday or Wednesday. The exact time residents would have received communication from the village is unknown at this time.

Other people advocated switching back to City of Edwardsville water, which the village moved away from earlier this year, after 25 years of service.

For more information, please contact 618-288-2661 or visit the village website at www.glencarbonil.gov. After hours, contact the non-emergency number for the Glen Carbon Police Department 618-288-7226.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  A judge will determine the fate of a white Kansas City police detective charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2019 shooting death of a Black man.

Closing arguments were held Friday in the trial of Eric DeValkenaere, who is accused of killing Cameron Lamb in December 2019. Lamb, 26, was backing his pickup truck into his garage in the backyard of his home when he was shot.

DeValkenaere and another detective said during the trial that they ran into Lamb's backyard after seeing him speeding and chasing another vehicle. The defense team argued DeValkenaere fired because he believed Lamb was pointing a gun at his partner, Troy Schwalm.

Prosecutors said the officers didn't have a search warrant and had no reason to be in Lamb's backyard. Prosecutor Dion Sankar said clearing the detective of the charges would shred the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, KCTV reported.

Defense attorney Dawn Parsons said DeValkenaere was doing his job, and maintained that a vehicle going 60 to 90 mph and running red lights was as dangerous as a bullet.

This case is about (the) everyday reality of policing in this city, Parsons said.

Prosecutors have suggested during the trial this week that police might have planted a gun that was found on the ground under Lamb's hand after he was shot. They said Lamb had previously injured that hand and could not have shot a gun with it.

The defense team presented photos from social media that show Lamb using his left hand and driving with a gun in his lap.

There is no body camera evidence in this trial. The shooting took place before police began widely using body cameras in April 2021.

Presiding Jackson County Judge J. Dale Youngs took the case under advisement and indicated he likely would make a decision next week.

The case is a rare example of a white officer from the city being criminally accused of killing a Black man. In 1942, two officers were acquitted in a killing, The Kanas City Star reported.

___

This story was first published on Nov. 12. It was updated on Nov. 19 to correct that DeValkenaere was not the first white officer in the city to be charged in the death of a Black person. Such a case happened in 1942.
The 18th of November is National Rural Health Day in the United States, which celebrates rural communities and highlights the health challenges and opportunities they face as they work to improve the health and wellbeing of communities, Illinois agencies said in a press release.

More than 1.4 million Illinois residents live in rural communities and hospitals are often the only source of care. Illinois has 87 small and rural hospitals, according to the Illinois Health and Hospital Association and the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network, which includes 51 critical access hospitals.

In a statement, the two agencies stated that "the dedication of small and rural hospitals to provide access to quality healthcare has been highlighted during the last 20 months of the pandemic."

Some of the work done by rural hospitals over the past year includes Southern Illinois Healthcare conducting virtual visits for established primary care patients through SIH Medical Group, the agencies said. Telehealth helped reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19, especially for those who are more vulnerable to serious illness from the virus. Physicians were able to manage patients chronic conditions, provide mental health follow-up care and evaluate rashes and other minor conditions.

In addition, over the past few months, hospitals across southern Illinois have endured the states latest major surge of COVID-19 cases, continuing to save lives under the most trying of circumstances, the agencies said. The list of services that Illinois small and rural hospitals have provided during the pandemic is extensive, and it is filled with examples of neighbors helping neighbors.

Unfortunately, the pandemic has also intensified many persistent challenges facing rural hospitals, including workforce shortages, lack of capital improvement funding and declining reimbursement, the agencies shared. At the same time, the pandemic laid bare the impact that social and structural determinants of health have on individuals and communities.

IHA and ICAHN stated they appreciate recent actions Congress and federal policymakers have taken to support rural hospitals during the pandemic, including providing emergency funding, telehealth flexibilities, expanding coverage and directing targeted resources to support rural and underserved communities. The agencies urged Illinois' delegation to prevent any cuts to hospitals, provide capital improvement funding opportunities, and advance legislation to shore up the healthcare workforce, including passing bills introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Brad Schneider, D-District 10, Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-17 and Rodney Davis, R-13.
JOHANNESBURG (AP)  F.W. de Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela and as South Africas last apartheid president oversaw the end of the countrys white minority rule, has died aged 85.

Frederik Willem de Klerk died after a battle against cancer at his home in the Fresnaye area of Cape Town, a spokesman for his foundation confirmed Thursday.

De Klerk was a controversial figure in South Africa where many blamed him for violence against Black South Africans and anti-apartheid activists during his time in power, while some white South Africans saw his efforts to end apartheid as a betrayal.

De Klerks legacy is a big one. It is also an uneven one, something South Africans are called to reckon with in this moment, the Mandela Foundation said of his death.

Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, another towering anti-apartheid activist, issued a similarly guarded statement about de Klerk's death.

De Klerk played an important role in South Africas history ... he recognized the moment for change and demonstrated the will to act on it, said Tutu's foundation.

However, de Klerk tried to avoid responsibility for the enormity of the abuses of apartheid, including in his testimony at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was chaired by Tutu. At that time, Tutu expressed disappointment that de Klerk did not fully apologize for the evils of apartheid, the statement noted.

Even posthumously, de Klerk sought to address this criticism in a video message in which he said he was sorry for his role in apartheid. His foundation released the video after announcing his death.

Let me today, in the last message repeat: I, without qualification, apologize for the pain and the hurt, and the indignity, and the damage, to Black, brown and Indians in South Africa, said a visibly gaunt and frail de Klerk.

He said his view of apartheid had changed since the early 1980s.

It was as if I had a conversion. And in my heart of hearts, I realized that apartheid was wrong. I realized that we have arrived at a place which was morally unjustifiable.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that de Klerk played a vital role in our transition to democracy in the 1990s ... He took the courageous decision to unban political parties, release political prisoners and enter into negotiations with the liberation movement amid severe pressure to the contrary from many in his political constituency.

It was de Klerk who in a speech to South Africa's parliament on Feb. 2, 1990, announced that Mandela would be released from prison after 27 years. The announcement electrified a country that for decades had been scorned and sanctioned by much of the world for its brutal system of racial discrimination known as apartheid.

With South Africas isolation deepening and its once-solid economy deteriorating, de Klerk, who had been elected president just five months earlier, also announced in the same speech the lifting of a ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid political groups.

Amid gasps, several members of parliament left the chamber as he spoke.

Nine days later, Mandela walked free.

Four years after that, Mandela was elected the countrys first Black president as Black South Africans voted for the first time.

By then, de Klerk and Mandela had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their often-tense cooperation in moving South Africa away from institutionalized racism and toward democracy.

The country would be, de Klerk told the media after his fateful speech, a new South Africa. But Mandelas release was just the beginning of intense political negotiations on the way forward. Power would shift. A new constitution would be written. Ways of life would be upended.

There is an element of uncertainty, obviously, with regard to everything which lies in the future, de Klerk calmly told reporters on Feb. 10, 1990, after announcing that Mandela would be released the following day.

The toll of the transition was high. As de Klerk said in his Nobel lecture in December 1993, more than 3,000 died in political violence in South Africa that year alone. As he reminded his Nobel audience, he and fellow laureate Mandela remained political opponents, with strong disagreements. But they would move forward because there is no other road to peace and prosperity for the people of our country.

After Mandela became president, de Klerk served as deputy president until 1996, when his party withdrew from the Cabinet. In making history, de Klerk acknowledged that Mandelas release was the culmination of what his predecessor, former President P.W. Botha, had begun by meeting secretly with Mandela shortly before leaving office. In the late 1980s, as protests inside and outside the country continued, the ruling party had begun making some reforms, getting rid of some apartheid laws.

De Klerk also met secretly with Mandela before his release. He later said of their first meeting that Mandela was taller than expected, and he was impressed by his posture and dignity. De Klerk would say he knew he could do business with this man. But not easily. They argued bitterly. Mandela accused de Klerk of allowing the killings of Black South Africans during the political transition. De Klerk said Mandela could be extremely stubborn and unreasonable.

Later in life, after South Africas wrenching political transition, de Klerk said there was no longer any animosity between him and Mandela and that they were friends, having visited each others homes. De Klerk did not seem to fit easily into the role of a Nobel laureate. He remained a target of anger for some white South Africans who saw his actions as a betrayal. Though he publicly apologized for the pain and humiliation that apartheid caused, he was never cheered and embraced as an icon, as Mandela was.

Despite his role in South Africas transformation, de Klerk would continue to defend what his National Party decades ago had declared as the goal of apartheid, the separate development of white and Black South Africans. In practice, however, apartheid forced millions of the countrys Black majority into nominally independent homelands where poverty was widespread, while the white minority held most of South Africas land. Apartheid starved the Black South African education system of resources, criminalized interracial relations, created black slums on the edges of white cities and tore apart families.

De Klerk late in life would acknowledge that separate but equal failed.

F.W. de Klerk was born in Johannesburg in 1936. He earned a law degree and practiced law before turning to politics and being elected to parliament. In 1978, he was appointed to the first of a series of ministerial posts, including Internal Affairs. In the late 1970s and 1980s, South Africa faced violent unrest as the government tried modest reforms to cultivate a Black South African middle class and allow limited political power to the countrys other marginalized groups, mixed race people classified as coloreds and those of Asian and Indian backgrounds.

The moves only increased bitterness over apartheid, while international pressure for more fundamental changes increased. In February 1989, de Klerk was elected the National Party leader and in his first speech called for a South Africa free of domination or oppression in whatever form. He was elected president in September of that year.

After leaving office, de Klerk ran a foundation that promoted his presidential heritage, and he spoke out in concern about white Afrikaaner culture and language as English became dominant among the new South Africas 11 official languages. He also criticized South Africas current ruling party, the African National Congress, telling the Guardian newspaper in a 2010 interview that the ANC, once the champion for racial equality, has regressed into dividing South Africa again along the basis of race and class.

In a speech in Cape Town in early 2016, de Klerk warned that many white South Africans were oblivious of the plight of less advantaged communities and that the attitude of many Blacks toward white South Africans is becoming harsher and more uncompromising. South Africans once again were seeing people as racial stereotypes instead of human beings, de Klerk said, adding: We need to hear Nelson Mandelas call for reconciliation and nation-building again.

His leadership of the apartheid regime dogged de Klerk throughout his life, even though he helped negotiate its end.

Human rights activists and legal experts pointed to documents that they said showed de Klerk being present at meetings where extrajudicial killings of anti-apartheid leaders were ordered.

His assertion in 2020 that apartheid was not a crime against humanity stirred up a furor in South Africa. When de Klerk attended President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address in the South African Parliament that year, opposition members shouted at him and demanded that he leave.

We have a murderer in the House, declared Julius Malema, firebrand leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, denouncing de Klerk as an apartheid apologist  with blood on his hands.

Later de Klerk said he accepted that apartheid was a crime against humanity and apologized, but the damage had been done. He was viewed by many in South Africa as the last apartheid ruler, not the leader who helped steer the country away from violent racial oppression.

Dispute continued to swirl around de Klerk upon the news of his death. Opposition leader Malema castigated media reports that said de Klerk was a former president of South Africa. He is a former apartheid President, said Malema in a tweet. Others on social media said de Klerk should not be accorded a state burial.

De Klerk is survived by his wife, Elita, and two children.
Gary Joyner spent his early years working, hunting and fishing on his father and grandfathers farms near Equality, Ill., while also cultivating dreams of flying. My goal was to be a fighter pilot in the Air Force, he recalled during a 2021 interview with the Oral History Program at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

As high school graduation approached, Gary discovered that Air Force pilots needed to have a degree, so he enrolled in college. But then he saw an article in a local newspaper with the headline U.S. Army wants high school graduates for helicopter pilots. He dropped out of college in the spring of 1963 and took the article to his recruiter in Dixon, Ill., where his family now lived.

In January 1964 Gary began the Warrant Officer Candidate Program. He went straight from basic training to Primary Helicopter School at Fort Wolters, Texas, where 50-60 percent of his class washed out of the program. Not Gary, who thrived on the discipline and quickly mastered the basic piloting skills. On November 4, 1964, Gary became a newly minted Army warrant officer, and proudly wore a new set of Army aviator wings.

Warrant Officer Joyner had also received orders for Vietnam, but first he looked forward, along with the rest of his class, to a full month of leave. Inexplicably however, while everyone else got the full month, Gary only got two weeks. I was the only one. I have no explanation for that, he said.

Later, Gary would reflect on the strange quirk of fate that probably saved his life.

While the rest of his class enjoyed leave, Gary arrived in Vietnam at the end of November, one day before his twentieth birthday. He was initially assigned to an aviation platoon in the delta region of South Vietnam, flying UH-1 Huey gunships and slicks (troop carriers). He was then transferred to the Da Nang area farther north where he once again served as a helicopter co-pilot on Huey gunships, seeing plenty of action as the intensity of fighting in Vietnam steadily ramped up.

In one memorable mission, his gunship was flying in support of a flock of Marine helicopters inserting troops into enemy territory near Da Nang. As soon as the Marines hit the ground, they began to take heavy enemy fire. After completing the mission, Garys gunship left the area to refuel, but they were immediately called back to support the Marines, laying down heavy suppressive fire against the enemy.

Over the din of battle, with all six of the gunships machine guns firing, Gary and the pilot could not hear the helicopters engine or the impact of incoming fire.

Eight to twelve rounds came in through the windshield and hit the bulkhead between us two pilots.  It cut the wires that ran from the transmission and engine to the instruments that we had in the cockpit, Gary said.

Thinking they had lost engine power, and following the protocol for a power loss, the pilot rolled the throttle off and put the collective down in auto rotation  in other words, they prepared for a very hard landing as the aircraft fell to the ground. Only then did they notice they still had power, and the pilot once again took control of the gunship.

Months later, Gary was stunned when he received a Distinguished Flying Cross for the action.

Like everyone else in Nam, Gary maintained a short-timers calendar, relishing the chance to mark off another day closer to home, especially after receiving orders that would send him to Fort Bragg, N.C.

One day I was in the company area and I got a call that said, report to the executive officer. Well, thats like telling a student in high school to report to the assistant principal.  Oh boy, what have I done now?, Gary said.

But he wasnt in trouble. Gary recalled the conversation this way:

Gary, he said, your orders have been changed.

I said, really!

Instead of going to Fort Bragg, youve got new orders to go to Fort Wolters, Texas, and according to your reporting date here, you ought to be gone today, or tomorrow.

Two days later Gary was back home, two weeks before his tour was scheduled to officially end. But the coincidences did not end there.

While I was home on leave, a couple of weeks after I left Vietnam, they started the war in the Ia Drang valley, and the gunship that I flew routinely  my aircraft  was involved in that battle, and it had a maintenance problem and the rotor blades separated from the helicopter at 1,400 feet in the air and the whole crew was killed, flying the helicopter that I would have been flying, he said.

While grieving for his friends and struggling to understand the incident afterward, Gary concluded that I think it happened because I got that two-week leave instead of four. And why did I get two weeks leave instead of four?  I think God was protecting me.  He decided I was not to be in it.

As far as Gary is concerned, it is one of the mysteries of life. God takes care of people, says Gary, and fools like me.
You can find your client key on your subscription renewal statement or call us at the Mountain Mail at 719-539-6691.
China ruling party leaders pass historic Xi resolution

BEIJING: Top Communist Party leaders wrapped up a key meeting in Beijing by passing an important resolution on the countrys past, state media said yesterday (Nov 11), which is expected to cement President Xi Jinpings grip on power.

Chinese

By AFP

Friday 12 November 2021, 08:52AM

President Xi Jinping is widely seen as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. Photo: AFP

Xi, the uncontested leader of the worlds most populous nation, has been heading a pivotal plenary of the ruling partys top figures since Monday in the Chinese capital.

Some 400 members of the powerful Central Committee passed Chinas resolution on Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Partys Centennial Struggle - only the third ever such resolution in its 100-year history.

The previous two resolutions were issued under former leaders Mao Zedong in 1945, and Deng Xiaoping in 1981.

The lengthy declaration called for upholding the correct view of party history, said official news agency Xinhua, adding that the party has written the most magnificent epic in the history of the Chinese nation for thousands of years.

The Party Central Committee called on the entire party, the entire army and people of all ethnic groups to unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, to fully implement Xi Jinpings new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Xinhua readout read.

This years closed-door plenum paves the way for the 20th party congress next autumn, at which Xi is widely expected to be handed a third term in office, securing his position as Chinas most powerful leader since Mao.

Analysts say the resolution will help Xi shore up his grip on power by setting in stone his vision for China and diminishing the role of previous leaders.

The thought of Xi is the epitome of Chinese culture and soul, the text reads, saying that his presence at the heart of the ruling party is of decisive importance... to promote the historic process of the great renewal of the Chinese nation.

Xi Thought

Xis tenure has been marked by a sprawling anti-corruption crackdown, repressive policies in regions like Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, and an increasingly assertive approach to foreign relations.

He has also created a leadership cult that has quashed criticism, stamped out rivals and dissent and introduced his own political theory - dubbed Xi Jinping Thought - to school students.

State TVs evening news broadcast said Xis resolution was of wide-ranging historical significance, showing footage of Xi addressing rows of delegates in the Great Hall of the People in front of red flags and the Communist symbol.

The first such resolution on the partys history passed under Mao helped him cement his authority over the Communist Party four years before it seized power.

The second, adopted under Deng, saw the regime adopt economic reforms and recognise the mistakes of Maos ways.

Unlike the 1981 resolution, yesterdays communique completely glosses over the widespread turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, a devastating period of political upheaval in the 1960s and 70s.

Instead it refers to the period as one of socialist revolution and construction.

Chairman Mao is mentioned seven times in the document, while Deng only five times.

In comparison, Xi Jingping is mentioned 17 times.

Xinhua this week described Xi as undoubtedly the core figure in charting the course of history.

The Party is rewriting its past in order to shape the future around Xi Jinping, said Jean-Pierre Cabestan of the Baptist University of Hong Kong.

He predicted that there would be an even greater form of taboo on the dark days of Chinese history as a result.
More Russian flights return to Phuket

PHUKET: More Russian flights resumed services to Phuket yesterday (Nov 11) with the arrival of the first S7 Airlines flight since the tourism lockdown began last year.

tourismtransporteconomics

By The Phuket News

Friday 12 November 2021, 10:56AM

The first passengers to arrive on the resumed flights by S7 Airlines touched down in Phuket last night (Nov 11). Photo: AoT Phuket

The first passengers to arrive on the resumed flights by S7 Airlines touched down in Phuket last night (Nov 11). Photo: AoT Phuket

The first passengers to arrive on the resumed flights by S7 Airlines touched down in Phuket last night (Nov 11). Photo: AoT Phuket

The first passengers to arrive on the resumed flights by S7 Airlines touched down in Phuket last night (Nov 11). Photo: AoT Phuket

The first passengers to arrive on the resumed flights by S7 Airlines touched down in Phuket last night (Nov 11). Photo: AoT Phuket

The first passengers to arrive on the resumed flights by S7 Airlines touched down in Phuket last night (Nov 11). Photo: AoT Phuket

Flight S7 6329 from Irkutsk, located beside Lake Baikal, north of Mongolia, touched down at Phuket International Airport at 7:10pm.

The flight brought 136 foreign tourists to Phuket entering the country under the new entry requirements brought into effect on Nov 1, reported the Phuket office of Airports of Thailand (AoT Phuket).

Present to welcome the arrivals at Gate 15 were Phuket Vice Governor Piyapong Chuwong along with Phuket airport General Manager Monchai Tanode and representatives from the Tourism Authority of Thailand Phuket office (TAT Phuket).

The arrival of the flight marked a return of regular services to Phuket by S7 Airlines, sometimes still referred to by its previous name Siberia Airlines, which now operates roundtrip flights from Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Moscow and Krasnoyarsk.

The return of S7 flights follows the arrival last Saturday (Nov 6) of the first regular Aeroflot flight to Phuket in 19 months.

Russian Consul General in Phuket Vladimir Sosnov told Russian state news agency TASS that starting this week Aeroflot will operate two regular weekly flights from Moscow to Phuket.

Starting on Tuesday (Nov 9), Russia set to resume regular scheduled flights to and from Thailand, with flights from Moscow to Bangkok and Phuket operating twice a week and flights from Russian airports that have resumed international flights operating one flight a week on each route, he said.
Phuket City Municipality issues Loy Krathong rules

PHUKET: All krathong to be sold in Phuket Town must be made from natural materials only and no fireworks of any kind are to be sold for the upcoming Loy Krathong festival to be observed nationwide next Friday (Nov 19).

cultureCOVID-19pollution

By The Phuket News

Friday 12 November 2021, 11:56AM

The rules annoucned for vendors and visitors to the two official locations for celebrating loy Krathong in Phuket Town. Image: Phuket City Municipality

For the first time Suan Luang (Rama IX Park) will be opened for people to celebrate Loy Krathong, Phuket City Deputy Mayor Supachok La-ongphet announced. Photo: PR Phuket

The news came as Phuket City Deputy Mayor Supachok La-ongphet yesterday (Nov 11) announced that to alleviate crowding at Saphan Hin, the traditional site for people in Phuket Town to celebrate the festival, the municipality will open Suan Luang (Rama IX Park) for people to enjoy the festival.

Both locations will be opened under strict measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Mr Supachok said.

Every year in the past there has been only one location in Phuket Town organised for people to celebrate Loy Krathong, and that has been Saphan Hin. But this year, one more location has been added, Suan Luang Rama IX Park, to spread the density of people who will come to celebrate Loy Krathong, he said.

Phuket City Municipality asks all people and tourists who will join the Loy Krathong event to strictly observe control measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Phuket City Municipality has arranged for Department of Local Administration officers and public health officials to ensure proceedings are orderly at both locations, Mr Supachok explained.

At the same time we ask for cooperation from the people and tourists who join the good traditions of Thailand on Loy Krathong Day 2021 in a New Normal style, by wearing a mask, maintaining social distance, taking care of your health and being socially responsible.

And its also important to use krathongs made from natural materials to contribute to the conservation of the environment as well, he added.

Mr Supachoks announcement came as Phuket City Municipality announced its rules to be observed by vendors and visitors to the two locations during the upcoming festival:

All people must strictly comply with the COVID-19 prevention measures

Loy Krathong to be sold must be made from natural materials only

The sale and setting off of fireworks of any kind is not permitted

The sale and release sky lanterns is not permitted

Food health and hygiene requirements must be met

The sale and consumption of any alcoholic beverages is not permitted

The use of foam containers for food is not permitted

Garbage scraps from selling krathong must be placed in a black bag and sealed tightly, and placed in the area that Phuket Municipality has arranged for collection

All rules must be strictly adhered to

People looking to sell krathongs on the night have until 4:30pm next Thursday (Nov 18) to apply for a permit.

To alleviate the costs of operating a stall, the municipality is waiving all waste collection fees for the vendors supporting the festival, the municipality said in its announcement.

The municipality also called on people to enjoy the festival by wearing traditional Thai costumes at the celebrations.
Southern Pines, NC (28387)

Today

Cloudy with rain ending in the afternoon. High around 55F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Hard freeze expected. Low 28F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
Clearfield, PA (16830)

Today

Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. A few flurries or snow showers possible. High 38F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 26F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Cloudy with light rain in the morning...then becoming partly cloudy. High 6C. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Mainly clear skies. Low -5C. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Africa next week as the Biden administration intensifies diplomatic efforts to resolve crises in Ethiopia and Sudan and seeks to boost counterterrorism cooperation, the State Department said Thursday.

Blinken will leave Monday for visits to Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as America's top diplomat. In April, Blinken held online talks with the leaders of Nigeria and Kenya in what the State Department billed at the time as a virtual trip to Africa."

Although he doesnt plan to visit either Ethiopia or Sudan, both countries and neighboring Somalia will be at the top of his agenda on his first stop in Kenya.

Kenya, which is currently a member of the U.N. Security Council, has played a key role in regional efforts to ease the intensifying conflict in Ethiopia and has long sought to stabilize crisis-torn Somalia. It has also supported broader attempts to restore civilian-led government in Sudan after a coup there last month.

Blinken and Kenyan officials, including President Uhuru Kenyatta, will discuss our shared interests as members of the UN Security Council, including addressing regional security issues such as Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan," the State Department said.

The Biden administration's special envoy for the Horn of Africa shuttled between Kenya and Ethiopia earlier this week in a bid to boost an African Union-led initiative to end the fighting between the Ethiopian government and ethnic Tigrayans from the country's north.

In Nigeria and Senegal, the State Department said Blinken will discuss West African security, health, climate, democracy and development issues, including recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and the promotion of a fairer and more inclusive global economy. He will also press for expanded U.S. trade and commercial ties with the two countries, it said.

In Abuja, he will meet Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and give a speech on the Biden administration's Africa strategy. He'll close out his travel in Dakar, where he'll see Senegalese President Macky Sall, who will soon take over the chairmanship of the African Union.
EAST ALTON  United Ways annual Community Christmas drive is looking for businesses, organizations, schools, churches and stores to host donation boxes and collect items for those in need during the upcoming holidays.

A business can serve as a donation drop-off location by requesting one or more boxes to place within their location, accessible for customers, visitors or employees. The boxes are provided courtesy of Phillips 66 Wood River Refinery and cost nothing to place within any location. Those interested in receiving a box should call 618-258-9800.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  A group of European parliamentarians on Thursday urged the Serbian president and other government officials to stop glorifying convicted war criminals and denying genocide committed in Bosnia in the 1990s.

Their statement came two days after Serbias police prevented rights activists from painting over a large mural in downtown Belgrade of convicted Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic.

An international war crimes court has sentenced Mladic to life in prison for genocide in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in 1995, when some 8,000 Bosniaks, who are mostly Muslims, were gunned down by his troops during the war in Bosnia, the worst carnage in Europe since World War II.

Serbian officials have persistently denied that genocide was committed in Srebrenica, and the countrys nationalist authorities have tolerated the portrayal of convicted Serb war criminals, including Mladic, as heroes and freedom fighters.

The (police) defense of the mural is another example of what the Government of Serbia and President (Aleksandar) Vucic think regarding reconciliation, the rule of law, democracy and regional cooperation, the statement said.

It is utterly unacceptable for an EU candidate country to deploy its police to protect a mural of convicted war criminal, it added. We urge Serbian authorities to stop denying Srebrenica genocide and glorifying convicted war criminals."

Police in Belgrade cited the need to prevent possible clashes between the activists and right-wing nationalists in banning the gathering at the mural to mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism.

Vucic, a former ultranationalist, said on Thursday that if the police were not deployed, those guys (Mladic's supporters) would have run them down.

He rejected EU criticism, saying they literally have nothing else to do but to hate Serbs.

The Mladic mural was restored after being briefly splashed over with white paint. It's being guarded by hooded men in black clothes who activists believe are members of one of several extreme right organizations that have mushroomed in Serbia.
Since the earliest days of the pandemic, there has been one collective goal for bringing it to an end: achieving herd immunity. Thats when so many people are immune to a virus that it runs out of potential hosts to infect, causing an outbreak to sputter out.

Many Americans embraced the novel farmyard phrase, and with it, the projection that once 70% to 80% or 85% of the population was vaccinated against COVID-19, the virus would go away and the pandemic would be over.

Now the herd is restless. And experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have set aside herd immunity as a national goal.

The prospects for meeting a clear herd-immunity target are very complicated, said Dr. Jefferson Jones, a medical officer on the CDCs COVID-19 Epidemiology Task Force.

Thinking that well be able to achieve some kind of threshold where therell be no more transmission of infections may not be possible, Jones acknowledged last week to members of a panel that advises the CDC on vaccines.

Vaccines have been quite effective at preventing cases of COVID-19 that lead to severe illness and death, but none has proved reliable at blocking transmission of the virus, Jones noted. Recent evidence has also made clear that the immunity provided by vaccines can wane in a matter of months.

The result is that even if vaccination were universal, the coronavirus would probably continue to spread.We would discourage thinking in terms of a strict goal, he said.

To Dr. Oliver Brooks, a member of the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, it was a sobering new message, with potentially worrisome effects.

With just 58.5% of all Americans fully vaccinated, we do need to increase the uptake of COVID-19 shots, said Brooks, chief medical officer of Watts Healthcare in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, he said, Jones unexpected admission almost makes you less motivated to get more people vaccinated.

Brooks said he worries that as the CDC backs off a specific target for herd immunity, it will take the air out of efforts to run up vaccination levels.

And if public health officials stop talking about the herd, people may lose sight of the fact that vaccination is not just an act of personal protection but a way to protect the community.A public tack away from the promise of herd immunity may also further undermine the CDCs credibility when it comes to fighting the coronavirus.

On issues ranging from the use of masks to how the virus spreads, the agency has made some dramatic about-faces over the course of the pandemic. Those reversals were prompted by new scientific discoveries about how the novel virus behaves, but theyve also provided ample fuel for COVID-19 skeptics, especially those in conservative media.

Its a science-communications problem, said Dr. John Brooks, chief medical officer for the CDCs COVID-19 response.

We said, based on our experience with other diseases, that when you get up to 70% to 80%, you often get herd immunity, he said.

But the SARS-CoV-2 virus didnt get the memo.

It has a lot of tricks up its sleeve, and its repeatedly challenged us, he said. Its impossible to predict what herd immunity will be in a new pathogen until you reach herd immunity.

The CDCs new approach will reflect this uncertainty. Instead of specifying a vaccination target that promises an end to the pandemic, public health officials hope to redefine success in terms of new infections and deaths  and theyll surmise that herd immunity has been achieved when both remain low for a sustained period.

We want clean, easy answers, and sometimes they exist, John Brooks said. But on this one, were still learning.

Herd immunity was never as simple as many Americans made it out to be, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on the challenges of communicating science to increasingly skeptical  and often conspiracy-minded  citizens.

Its an idea that emerged about a century ago from the field of livestock medicine. Epidemiologists now calculate it with a standard equation. But like many tools that model a complex process with math, it makes some simplifying assumptions.

For instance, it assumes an unrealistic uniformity in the behavior of individuals and groups, and in the virus ability to spread from person to person.

So it doesnt reflect the diversity of population density, living arrangements, transportation patterns and social interactions that makes Los Angeles County, for instance, so different from Boise County, Idaho. Nor does it account for the fact that Boise County, where less than 35% of adults are fully vaccinated, gets no protection from L.A. Countys 73% vaccination rate among adults.

Humans are not a herd, Jamieson said.

Public health leaders would have been better served by framing their vaccination campaigns around the need for community immunity, she said. That would have gotten people to think in more local terms  the ones that really matter when it comes to a persons risk of infection, she added.

Changes in the coronavirus itself have also made herd immunity a moving target.

The calculation that produced a herd immunity estimate of 70% to 85% rests heavily on the innate transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2. But with the emergence of new viral strains like the Alpha and Delta variants, the virus ability to jump from person to person has escalated dramatically in the last year.

In addition, herd-immunity calculations presume that when people gain immunity, they remain immune for a known period of time. But its become clear that neither vaccination nor natural infection confers lasting protection. Booster shots or a breakthrough case might, but for how long is still unknown.

Thats just the way science works, said Raj Bhopal, a retired public health professor at the University of Edinburgh who has written about the maddening complexity of herd immunity.

For any agency engaged in public messaging, its very hard to convey uncertainty and remain authoritative, Bhopal said. Its a pity we cant take the public along with us on that road of uncertainty.



2021 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Jack C. Taylor, 86, formerly of Corbin, Kentucky, passed away peacefully on Sunday, November 7, 2021. Jack will always be known as a hardworking and caring family man. He was an exceptional athlete, receiving 1954, high school All-State Honors in both football and basketball by the Courier-J
Avivas army of half a million small investors could be in line for a bonus dividend payment next year as it looks to return billions to shareholders.

The FTSE 100 insurance giant is in the process of distributing 4billion to investors following the sale of its international businesses that were considered excess fat.

So far this is being done in the form of a 750million share buyback. But the Mail can reveal Aviva is planning a special dividend, which will go straight into small shareholders pockets.

Feeling flush: Aviva has accumulated 7.5bn in excess cash after selling off eight businesses under chief executive Amanda Blanc (pictured)

It is not known how much the special dividend is worth but once the buyback is complete, Aviva still has 3.25billion in the pot to redistribute.

Neil Wilson, an analyst at Markets.com, said: Share buybacks help boost the share price but dividends go straight into the small investors pockets. Every ordinary investor wants a special dividend.

Aviva has one of the largest small shareholder bases on the FTSE 100 after it merged with Norwich Union in 2000.

At the time Norwich Union had an astonishing 2.1m retail investors having previously been a mutual with members who were handed shares when it listed on the stock market three years before the tie-up with Aviva.

More than a quarter of them  over 500,000  still own shares in Aviva.

A spokesman said: We are delivering our commitment to return at least 4billion of capital to shareholders, with 450million of the 750million share buyback already successfully completed.

A number of different options are being considered, including a special dividend. Further details will be provided at the full year results in March 2022.

Aviva has accumulated 7.5billion in excess cash after selling eight businesses under chief executive Amanda Blanc.

Blanc joined in July last year and has spent the time streamlining the insurer and focusing the business on the UK, Ireland and Canada.

But she has come under pressure of late after hedge fund Cevian snapped up a 5 per cent stake in June. Cevian, whose boss Christer Gardell has been dubbed the Butcher, has called for the return of 5billion of excess cash to shareholders by next year.

Under Blanc, Aviva has been on a roll and in the first nine months this year, it attracted record inflows into its savings and retirement division of 7.3billion, a 1.3billion increase on the previous year.

The spokesman for the insurance group said: We have seen an uptick in the savings and retirement division as customers saved more cash during the pandemic. People are living longer, they need to save more for retirement.
Robert MacLeod, chief executive of Johnson Matthey (JM), has been striving for some time to convince shareholders that when its big earning catalytic converter tips over a precipice, investment in a key chemical for batteries would take up the slack.

As Cop 26 winds down in Glasgow, Johnson Matthey admits it is dumping its investment in complex compounds for EV fuel cells, as well as MacLeod.

The spin is that the two events are unconnected. But everyone who has been indoctrinated with JMs greenwash will have a contrary view.

Out of juice: As Cop-26 winds down in Glasgow, Johnson Matthey admits it is dumping its investment in complex compounds for EV fuel cells as well as MacLeod

In an update just six months ago, MacLeod was telling the world that an agreement with Russian counterpart Nornickel was an important milestone on our journey to developing a sustainable battery ecosystem. More accurately, he might have described it as a journey to nowhere.

The broader significance of JMs decision to pull the plug on Elno, created from nickel, cobalt and lithium to be deployed in the cathodes for advanced batteries, is that it is extraordinarily hard for even a market leader in current car technology to get traction in electric vehicles.

The Government can talk until it is green in the gills about the UKs carbon-free future. But when it comes to turning great new technologies into global opportunities, the UK is not even at the races.

The science may be brilliant, but if you are competing with behemoths such as Chinas 190billion Contemporary Amperex Technology, which is focusing on European markets, UK companies will struggle to compete.

The big question for Johnson Matthey is what comes next. MacLeod seems to think the fresh frontier is hydrogen.

One wonders if JM has noticed that a far larger British outfit Ineos has moved into this space, as have the UK oil majors.

Car maker Toyota has been running a fleet of experimental hydrogen cars in Tokyo for years. Why JM should think it has capacity to compete in this space defies analysis.

What JM does have is a reputation for remaking itself over a 204-year history in which it engaged in everything from banking (a disaster) to gold and other metal trading.

It still has core skills in nickel and other key rare metals. MacLeods replacement Liam Condon, transferred from rival Bayer, draws the short straw of weaning the group onto greener technologies.

It would be a tragedy if a valuable climate change experiment were to render one of Britains oldest industrial groups vulnerable to an overseas or private equity bid. But after a 19 per cent thumping for the share price anything goes.

Extra special

Amanda Blanc moved with noteworthy speed to reshape Aviva after taking the helm at Britains largest insurer 15 months ago.

It has not been an easy ride, with Swedish hedge fund Cevian snapping at her heels demanding ever faster action on disposals and cost cutting. Proceeds from the latest piece of the sales programme, the 1.7billion Polish transfer, have still to arrive.

Once it has all happened, there should be between 4billion to 5billion of excess funds of which some 750m has already been committed in share buybacks.

So what to do with the cash? Big battalion investors prefer buybacks for tax reasons. It is easily forgotten that Aviva has an unusually large base of 500,000 private investors, remnants of the merger with demutualised Norwich Union in 2000. Buybacks are fine but can take years to accrue value.

Smaller investors generally prefer cash in hand through a special dividend, and Aviva is very conscious of that.

Followers of the LV saga ought to be more than aware that if the 1.2m policyholders vanish into the jaws of Bain Capital, it will be private equity barons and their investors who will pocket most of the uplift in value rather than a broader group of stakeholders.

The savings stampede during the pandemic saw net flows into Avivas investment products soar by 21 per cent.

Blanc is earmarking some of the overflowing resources to push deeper into financial advice. Transforming acquisitions is not on the cards. But never say never.

Electric force

Aim-quoted newcomer Saietta is turning the tables on Beijing. The maker of electric engines for scooters and the like has snapped up Chinas e-Traction from the fast-dismembering Evergrande empire for a modest 1.7million.

Nice to see two-way traffic speeding down the cycle lanes.
We have a combi boiler that heats our three-bedroom home and no hot water cylinder or loft water tank - and nowhere to put one as the loft has been converted.

The boiler is coming towards the end of its life and has been problematic recently, so we were thinking of applying for the grant to get an air source heat pump.

Would this work with our existing heating system and without a hot water cylinder or water tank, or would we need to replace pipes, radiators and get tanks fitted somewhere?

Is all that work included in the costs weve seen quoted from the Energy Saving Trust?

Homes that want heat pumps will have to see if they work with their current heating system

Grace Gausden, This is Money, replies: The Government recently announced it will be releasing 5,000 grants, available from April next year, to encourage homeowners to install more efficient, low carbon heating systems.

This includes air source and ground source heat pumps that can cut the carbon emissions of heating Britain's homes.

Many will be interested in taking up the grant, and will perhaps have to be quick about it, as the 450million fund will only cover the cost of 90,000 pumps.

For those who are looking to make a change to be more environmentally friendly, they will want to know whether their existing heating systems will be compliant with a heat pump or whether they will need to make changes to their homes.

Others will also want to know the cost of having a pump fitted.

The Energy Saving Trust has said an air to water heat pump, which is the most common type, will cost around 7,000 to 13,000.

However, this will vary depending on the brand, model and size of heat pump, the size of the property, whether your home is a new-build or an existing property, as well as whether you need to change the way you distribute heat around your property.

Meanwhile, a ground to water heat pump costs between 20,000 to 30,000 depending on the size of your property.

This means despite the 5,000 grant, some households could still be splashing out thousands to get a pump fitted.

This is Money asked energy experts to find out whether a heat pump can be installed with or without a hot water cylinder or tank  and whether households would need new radiators or tanks fitted.

Experts advise that customers speak to a surveyor before they install a heat pump at home

A spokesperson for the Energy Saving Trust replies: A standard air-to-water or ground-to-water heat pump needs to be able to store hot water for when you need it.

The size of hot water cylinder required will depend on the volume of hot water that you need, but often it can be fitted inside a cupboard measuring 80x80cm.

A hot water cylinder allows the heat pump to gradually heat the water, with the cylinder storing the hot water for when you need it.

Many modern hot water cylinders are fed directly by water from the mains, which means they dont require a header tank.

Unlike a combi boiler, a standalone heat pump does not provide hot water on demand.

While you can install a heat pump without a hot water cylinder, it will only provide your heating and you would need to install another technology, or system to provide hot water. In most cases, people choose a hot water cylinder.

While their size varies, a typical hot water cylinder takes up about the space of a cupboard and could be installed in place of a combi boiler if this is being replaced.

If the householder already has a system boiler, or electric heating, they will most likely already have a hot water cylinder.

If a hot water cylinder is inappropriate, for example, if the householder doesnt have space, there are a few options.

The householder could consider a heat battery, which utilises phase-change materials to store heat. Heat batteries can store as much heat as some hot water cylinders, but take up less space.

Hybrids are another potential option, with a heat pump and combi boiler installed together, and the combi providing the hot water on demand. It is always worth talking through possible design options with an installer.

Meanwhile, it can often be a good idea to consider new radiators, although it is not necessarily a requirement.

Many households are considering removing their traditional gas boilers to be greener

Having a larger, or higher output radiator can help you run your heat pump at a lower temperature and still get the same amount of heat into the room.

This can make your heat pump more efficient, resulting in reduced running costs. Your installer will be able to discuss in which rooms this may be appropriate.

An air source heat pump would also not usually require new pipes with the exception of homes with microbore pipes  meaning the central heating pipes have a diameter of only 8 to 10mm, compared to standard 15mm or 22mm.

If this is your home, replacing pipes might be the solution suggested by the installer.

While most heat pumps can provide water at 55C, hot water in the cylinder will need to periodically reach 60C to kill harmful bacteria.

While some heat pumps can deliver water to this temperature, most systems are designed to use an immersion heater to top up the temperature to the required level.

What if you can't fit a cylinder in? A spokesperson for the Energy Saving Trust adds: If you dont have space for a hot water cylinder, you still have options. Some hybrid systems are designed so that the heat pump provides space heating, while the boiler provides hot water instead. You could also consider installing a heat battery, which takes up less space than a hot water cylinder. Instantaneous hot water heaters are also available and can be installed under your kitchen sink to provide a smaller volume of hot water. Heat batteries store either spare heat or electricity, often generated by renewable energy systems. Heat can be stored in a material when it changes phase from a solid to a liquid. These materials are called phase change materials (PCM). Spare heat or electricity is used to charge the PCM inside the heat battery. When the heat is needed, the phase change material changes back into a solid with a release of heat, which is used to provide hot water. Heat batteries are generally smaller and lighter than filled thermal stores. This means you might be able to install one in a convenient location even if you cant find space for a traditional hot water cylinder. Heat storage batteries do not degrade in the same way as electrical batteries and should have a far longer lifespan.

Conventional fossil fuel boilers are typically designed to deliver water to your radiators at 75C.

In comparison, a heat pump would ideally circulate hot water to the radiators or underfloor heating at temperatures between 35C and 45C, depending on the outside temperature. This is when the heat pump will work most efficiently with the lowest running costs.

Fitting underfloor heating after the house has already been built can be challenging.

Instead, you may opt to install a heat pump and continue using existing radiators at a higher temperature or install radiators with greater surface area to provide enough heat using lower water temperatures.

Rory Stoves, energy expert at Energy Helpline, said: A heat pump can be installed to work on an existing central heating system but there are a few things to consider before committing to the new system.

You will need a hot water cylinder, to store the heated water, as an air source heat pump doesnt heat the water quickly enough, unlike a combi boiler.

In most instances you will not need new radiators or new pipes  however before installing, it is worth checking with the installer just to be sure when getting a quote.

Heat pumps work best when you have a well-insulated home, so it may be worth speaking to a surveyor to check your property is insulated enough to benefit from the heat pump.

Additionally heat pumps work best on lower temperature heating systems, such as underfloor or in wall heating, as these system typically have a bigger surface area from which to warm your home.

You will need a hot water cylinder, as heat pumps arent able to heat water as you go, unlike a combi boiler.

The amounts quoted by the Energy Saving Trust are a rough estimate, as naturally size and age of property are significant factors.

The top end estimate, on a normal sized property, will likely include all the additional pipes/tanks required, and the lower end estimate will not.

The best first step is to get a survey or two of your property.

These are typically offered free by heat pump installation companies, and armed with the knowledge of how much it is going to cost, your read can make an educated decision about whether or not an air sourced heat pump is right for them.

Grace Gausden, This is Money, adds: Before taking advantage of the Government grants, it is worth checking with a surveyor that your home is set up for the installation of a heat pump.

After that, it is worth getting a quote to see how much the works might costs as this will vary from home to home.

Remember that it could cost thousands of pounds so may not be worth investing if you are thinking of moving home any time soon. Read more about heat pumps and how they work.
BAE Systems has struck a deal to buy a software group that uses computer and virtual reality battlefield simulations to train soldiers.

The defence giant has taken over Bohemia Interactive Simulations, which is based in Florida and has 325 employees.

The US military is its biggest customer, but it has also worked with the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

War games: BAE Systems has taken over Florida-based software group Bohemia Interactive Simulations which uses computer and virtual reality simulations to train soldiers

The group says it can create and run any imaginable military training scenario on any type of terrain.

BAE did not say how much the deal would be worth but it will need to get the sign-off from regulators.

The FTSE 100 group already works in simulation training and in September it won MoD contracts to train Typhoon fighter jet pilots.

It is the companys latest move into the US, where last year it bought two firms for 1.7billion.

The takeover announcement came as fellow UK defence firm Qinetiq took a 14.5million writedown after it ran into a number of obstacles with a complex contract.
Burberry brought back its dividend as sales returned to pre-pandemic levels despite Covid restrictions hitting demand in parts of the world.

The British luxury fashion house will return 47.3million to shareholders through an 11.6p per share dividend and will buy back 150million of shares.

The company is also rolling out a new kind of store aimed at bringing in big-spending customers. It has opened 15 of the stores  with one on Londons Sloane Street  and will have 50 of them worldwide by the end of March.

Payouts: Burberry will return 47.3m to shareholders through an 11.6p per share dividend  above pre-pandemic levels  and will buy back 150m of shares

The London store features a gallery-like ground floor acting as a backdrop for its clothing collections.

As well as targeting the higher-spending customers with its new store design it is moving away from discount sales.

The expansion plans came as Burberry reported a 38 per cent rise in half-year revenues to 1.2billion with profits of 196million.

That was in the same region as the 1.3billion of revenues and 203million of profits it made in the six months before the pandemic.

Chairman Gerry Murphy hailed strong progress in the six months to September 25, with sales accelerating in countries with fewer Covid restrictions.

Burberry said growth over the six months in America, China and South Korea was up significantly.

China saw sales for the half year 30 per cent above their pre-pandemic levels  despite a knock from travel restrictions in August. In North and South America sales were up 38 per cent and in South Korea they were up 40 per cent.

But elsewhere it was hit hard by low tourist levels amid a resurgence of Covid including in Japan, which is still under heavy travel restrictions.

In Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa sales were 31 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. Tourists usually account for half of sales in these areas. Shares fell 5.4 per cent, or 105.5p, to 1861.5p.

AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said its recovery from the pandemic had been uneven because of difficulties in China and travel.

It is heavily reliant on Asian tourists buying items while travelling at airport stores or in fashion hotspots.

Mould said: With travel still restricted and some people reluctant to jet off in the same way they used to, this part of Burberrys business is really struggling.

Murphy thanked outgoing boss Marco Gobbetti for leading the companys transformation.

He said replacement Jonathan Akeroyd, 54, who was poached from Versace and will take over in April, would accelerate growth.

Akeroyd  who ran Alexander McQueen for 12 years before taking over at Versace in 2016  could scoop 11million in his first year in charge.
The return of international travel has put WH Smith on course to return to meaningful profit.

Chief executive Carl Cowling said yesterday the retailer has seen a significant improvement in trade since the start of its financial year in September.

There was a particular boom in travel around the October half-term and its travel stores  in airports and train stations  returned to 84 per cent of pre-Covid sales for the month.

Sales up: There was a particular boom in travel around the October half-term and WH Smith's travel stores  in airports and train stations  returned to 84% of pre-Covid sales for the month

This was boosted further by this weeks reopening of trans-atlantic flights between the US and the UK, Cowling said.

The boss of the 229-year-old retailer said the business was now well positioned for the future having racked up losses over the past two years.

Cowling said: We are now in a strong position to grow our business as our markets continue to recover, returning to meaningful profitability in the current financial year.

WH Smith has taken over 30 former Dixons Travel stores closed in UK airports this year.

It will operate them under its US In Motion brand and sell everything from iPads and bluetooth speakers to headphones and phone chargers.

The company is planning to open more than 100 stores worldwide including 58 in North America over the next three years.

AJ Bell analyst Danni Hewson said it is only fair Cowling should big up the business.

She said: It has been battered and the achingly slow return of passengers, both to airports and train stations, has meant the pain has lasted longer for WH Smiths than for many of its High Street compatriots.

Its travel business has always been the retailers crowning glory and the fact its poised to fill in some of the gaps left by Dixons Travel suggests this is a business with a sound, long-term strategy.

Cowling brushed off widely reported supply chain woes ahead of Christmas. WH Smiths in-store Christmas card sales are already running around a fifth higher than 2019, he said.

The upbeat outlook came after the retailer was hammered by travel restrictions in the year to August 31.

Travel shops make up 560 of its 1,365 stores worldwide. Its travel arm racked up losses of 39million in the year, more than the 33million loss it made in the previous 12 months.

The High Street stores and online business fared better but total annual losses across WH Smith totalled 55million compared with 69million a year earlier.

Analysts expect it to report a 70million profit in the current year.
Shares in Velocys, the sustainable fuels technology company, hit the heights this week after supply deals with IAG, the owner of British Airways, and Southwest Airlines.

The former covers the purchase by IAG's constituent airlines, which also includes Aer Lingus and Iberia, of an expected 73million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel at a fixed price.

That deal covers one third of the companys Bayou Fuels facility's planned annual output while the rest will be taken up by Southwest Airlines.

Shares in Velocys more than doubled to 14.64p.

Velocys clinched supply deals with IAG, the owner of British Airways, and Southwest Airlines

Elsewhere in the world of green energy, Powerhouse Energy leapt 44 per cent to 6.05p after its development partner Hydrogen Utopia International signed a framework agreement with Linde Engineering, the German company that has been developing and optimising gas processing, separation and liquefaction technologies for 140 years.

Under the deal, Linde has been granted the exclusive right to supply HUI in HUIs development of Powerhouse DMG technology particularly in Poland, Hungary and Greece where HUI holds exclusivity for promotion and marketing of DMG technology.

Did somebody mention hydrogen?

Sabien Technology, a company focused on building a portfolio of solutions in the heating, cooling, and transportation sectors, climbed 27 per cent to 30.5p after it signed heads of terms with Proton Technologies Canada in relation to a hydrogen processing licence within UK territories.

Its been a tough year for energy suppliers with many of the smaller players going to the wall but maybe not such a bad one for the survivors.

For instance, Yu Group, the independent supplier of gas, electricity and water to the UK corporate sector, advanced 24 per cent to 260p this week after it was has been appointed by the industry watchdog Ofgem as supplier of last resort for Ampoweruk and agreed to take on Ampoweruks electricity and gas customer book with effect from the start of this week.

ProPhotonix, a designer and manufacturer of LED illumination systems and laser diode modules, has agreed to a takeover by Exaktera, a holding company founded by Union Park Capital.

The terms value each ProPhotonix shares at roughly 8.7p (the acquisition is being made in US dollars), which led to a nice little 38 per cent jump this week in the share price to 7.75p, although it is less than four years since the shares were trading at 19.5p.

Another week, another period of strong demand for shares in Bens Creek Group, the owner of a metallurgical coal mine in West Virginia.

The company floated in mid-October and by the beginning of November had doubled in share price. This week the company took advantage of that share price strength by paying off a corporate adviser in shares rather than cash.

It was only 200,000 shares out of around 350million shares in issue but even so that would normally be enough to put a dent in the share price; not so on this occasion with the shares rising 39 per cent to 27.6p, compared to a flotation price of 27.6p.

One thing almost guaranteed to put a bit of oomph into a companys share price is a director buying shares and so it proved with Mycelx Technologies this week, which rose 30 per cent to 75p after Thomas Lamb, the company chairman, bought 25,000 shares at 72p a pop.

It was Lambs first purchase of Mycelx shares and gives him a 0.13 per cent stake in the company.

Directa Plus, the producer and supplier of graphene nanoplatelets based products for use in consumer and industrial markets, got a special mention as a Rising Star in in this year's Company Excellence Awards hosted by the Italian Chamber of Commerce.

The accolade proved self-fulfilling as the shares rose this week by 26 per cent to 169.5p.

Eckoh, the global provider of secure payment products and customer contact solutions, finished the week 23 per cent heavier at 57.5p after it landed a contract worth at least $1.5million (1.1million) with a leading global food and drink company.

Eckoh will provide secure payments services from its Cloud platforms to the new client's global contact centre operations.

Full-year results from Bowleven went down about as well as an invitation to Oliver Cromwells Christmas party with the Africa focused oil and gas exploration group posting a $2million loss.

The shares shed close to a third of their value.

Volex, the provider of power products, has had a sparkling year but ran into profit taking this week after its half-year report failed to provide a fresh surge.

Underlying profit before tax shot up 22 per cent to $25.4million and the interim dividend was hiked to 1.2p from 1.1p but the market was perhaps hoping for a guidance to full-year profits, which was left unchanged.

The shares came off by 14 per cent to 405.25p.
The government is on a mission to retrofit the UK's ageing housing stock - which accounts for roughly 20 per cent of the nation's CO2 emissions.

Its current aim is to have as many homes as possible reach a C rating by 2035 in England and Wales, with an even earlier target being set for private rented homes.

This is a worry for homeowners living in Britain's Victorian housing stock, which could lose some of its value if further energy efficiency regulations come into force.

EPC is a rating scheme which bands properties between A and G, with an A rating being the most efficient and G the least efficient

At present, about three in five homes have a D rating or worse, according to Rightmove.

However, ONS data shows that those built before 1900 have an E rating on average, thanks to their poor insulation and lack of double glazing.

Upgrading homes to meet the targets could cost up to 65billion, according to Government estimates - and homeowners are expected to foot the bill.

What is an EPC rating?

EPC is a rating scheme which bands properties between A and G, with an A rating being the most efficient and G the least efficient.

The rating is based on the building's energy features such as the building materials used, the heating systems and its insulation.

EPC ratings Band A  92 plus (most efficient) Band B  81 to 91 Band C  69 to 80 Band D  55 to 68 Band E  39 to 54 Band F  21 to 38 Band G  1 to 20 (least efficient)

The survey must be carried out by an accredited energy assessor and entered into a government-approved software to generate a score for the EPC, typically ranging from 0 to 100, simplified into bands A to G for domestic property.

The score remains valid for 10 years with homeowners needing to arrange a new one whenever a property is sold or rented - anyone failing to have one under these circumstances can be fined.

Ensuring adequate loft, underfloor or cavity wall insulation, upgrading to double or triple glazed windows, draught proofing and hot water tank insulation are just some examples of improvements that can boost an EPC rating.

There are currently no legal requirements for homeowners to have a minimum EPC rating, although landlords need to achieve a minimum EPC of E to let a property.

However, there are concerns that homeowners living in energy inefficient homes will come under increasing pressure to upgrade them.

Earlier this year the UK Government consulted on how mortgage lenders can help householders improve the energy performance of their homes.

This included proposals to introduce a target-based approach for improving the energy performance of lenders' portfolios through a portfolio average target of EPC band C by 2030, for which the government is currently analysing the feedback.

Energy efficiency: About three in five homes in the UK have a D rating or worse, whilst those built before 1900 have an E rating on average, according to ONS data

This could see mortgage lenders become more reluctant to lend on properties with EPC ratings below C, because it would bring down their average.

Timothy Douglas, policy manager at Propertymark said: 'If this were to come into effect, it could cause distortion in the market.

'If less efficient properties were harder to purchase for example, then their value would be affected as they would become less attractive or attainable.

'Traditionally some older properties have actually held a premium over other property as they offer attractive settings and curb appeal but changes to borrowing could see more efficient properties start to hold a premium instead.'

What can homeowners do?

At present there appears to be a small price gap opening up between energy efficient and energy inefficient homes.

There is a 9,840 difference between an average home with an EPC C and an EPC E rating, based on Savills data, although this increases to 47,605 when comparing EPC B to EPC F.

According to a recent Rics survey, although a third of property professionals had seen an increase in demand for energy-efficient homes over the past year, more than three quarters said a home's EPC rating had little or no impact on its sale price.

There is a 9,840 difference between an average home with an EPC C and E rating, based on Savills data, although this increases to 47,605 when comparing EPC B to F.

More than half surveyed by Rics said the EPC rating had little impact, while 23 per cent believed that it had no impact whatsoever.

At the moment the government is yet to enforce any regulation or indeed a compulsory energy performance certificate rating of 'C' on UK properties.

But if they were to do so, the demand for Britain's Victorian housing stock will almost certainly be impacted, forcing homeowners to either upgrade or see the value of their home fall.

The cost of upgrading a home from an E to a C rating is more than 17,000 on average, according to analysis by Savills.

But these calculations will vary depending on the specific needs of each property, with many likely to require a new heating system on top of other improvements such as wall and loft insulation.

The average cost of a heat pump system ranges between 11,000 and 18,000, whilst for homeowners off the gas grid, replacing oil with a low-carbon heating alternative could cost more than 30,000, according to Liquid Gas UK.

Many homeowners living in Victorian homes across the country will therefore be unable to afford the renovation costs without government support.

Depending on a homeowner's circumstances, as well as the type of property, small pockets of funding are available.

This includes Local Authority Development Grants, Energy Company Obligation and Home Upgrade Grants.

Adding loft insulation is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to increase a property's EPC rating.

But for the vast majority, there is no support available, meaning people have no choice other than to do it themselves or wait for further government intervention.

'The challenge of incentivising homeowners to retrofit their properties will be made more difficult if the costs involved prove to be too much, especially in areas with low property values,' said Douglas.

'This is because the cost of the retrofitting would not be regained in the capital value of the property after works are completed.

'National and regional strategies need to be established in order to support homeowners with funding to tackle the vast retrofit challenge that lays ahead.'

One way the government's could begin incentivising homeowners to start retrofitting their homes would be to cut VAT on green home upgrades.

This might encourage more people to install low carbon technologies and improve energy efficiency.

Developers can reclaim VAT on new builds, or when converting non-residential buildings such as barns, or homes that have not been lived in for 10 years.

But homeowners looking to retrofit their Victorian properties with all the latest energy saving improvements are not entitled to do so.
Instant unlimited access to all of our content on tillamookheadlightherald.com.

The Headlight Herald E-Edition Newsletter emailed to you each week, the night before the paper hits the street!

This subscription is for NEW or RENEWING online subscribers.

(The charge will appear as "Country Media Inc." on your credit card statement)
A busy morning thanks to the heavy rain from the atmospheric river giving Lees Camp over 6 of rain in the previous 48 hrs that resulted in th
Carrollton, GA (30117)

Today

Cloudy early, becoming mostly sunny in the afternoon. High 58F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low 29F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Cresaptown, MD (21502)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. A few flurries or snow showers possible. High 42F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies with a few passing clouds. Low 27F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
Barre, VT (05641)

Today

Showers in the morning, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. Morning high of 44F with temps falling to near 35. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Clear skies with a few passing clouds. Low 23F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.


remaining of

SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM! 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.
Its been nine days since 5-year-old Summer Wells was last seen at her rural Hawkins County home, and authorities said Thursday they still dont know where she is or what happened to her.
Lee County physician Art Van Zee is shown with a photo of a Purdue Pharma marketing item given to doctors in the 1990s to promote its opioid painkiller  an OxyContin beach hat. Van Zee spoke at UVA on Wise Wednesday about the continuing impact of opioid addiction in Southwest Virginia.
Debbie Arrington lives in Kingsport and has earned degrees in history and accounting. You can email her at debarrington@hotmail.com.
Joe Pilkenton is working on his latest sculpture in front of the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce building. Once complete, in about two years time, the sculpture will go in the visitors center area of the chamber building.
BETHLEHEM  Danielle Obernesser and Ricky Talmage walked around their dream shop the day after a truck crashed into it, looking for what could be saved. They did so with brave faces but in disbelief at what was left of the store.

Obernesser, co-owner with Talmage of The Fifth Corner Goods and Gifts on Kenwood Avenue, was standing behind a wooden table recording inventory into the computer Wednesday night when a large pickup truck suddenly came flying through the storefronts window. Shards of glass and brick dust erupted into the air.

She didnt see it coming. One moment her head was in the computer, the next she was jolted by the sound and blinded by the dust. She called 911.

The place filled with smoke, it was all the dust, she said fighting back tears. I didn't know what was happening.

As the dust began to clear, she saw ita pickup truck in the middle of her cozy corner shop.

Luckily, no one was harmed. But, a blend of delayed shock and heartbreak covered the co-owners faces as they walked through their battered store Thursday afternoon.

It's sad, Talmage said. I mean, this is our dream. The two of us worked really hard.

They opened the gift shop in September. They said it was turning out to be a success.

The two had just purchased extra stock for the approaching holidays. They hired a contractor to help them expand the shop into a back room for Christmas sales.

Now, just a day past the two-month anniversary of the shops unveiling, theyre staring at a half-wrecked store, boarded up windows, lost inventory and an uncertain future. Police said an 89-year-old man from Greene County put the pickup in reverse, and his foot left the brake and hit the gas pedal. He was ticketed.

Obernesser and Talmage walked around assessing what they could save and figuring out what couldn't be sold. Most of their textiles were covered in brick dust, but some jewelry, knickknacks and other goods, stored toward the back and right side of the shop, avoided damage.

Community members streamed in and out of the store Thursday offering to do what they could. The Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and local businesses have offered to help as well.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

The support of this community has been amazing. People really mean it. Like, they really care, Talmage said.

The two women are completing their evaluation and waiting on a final word about how bad the structural damage is before they determine how to proceed. They said theyll try to work around it in the meantime as they try to get through the holidays.

We are sort of in this limbo of unknown, Obernesser said.

Whats left of their stock theyll try to sell online or at a pop-up store if they can secure a location for one nearby. Pending the structural review, theyre also considering reopening the shop and using the backdoor as an entrance.

It's a setback," Talmage said. "But it'll be alright  eventually.
ALBANY  National Grid customers swallowed hard this week when the utility announced that winter heating bills could rise by nearly 50 percent this winter. National Grid's staff gulped Friday when they realized the warning of a drastic price hike should have been sent to downtown residents.

National Grid bills in the Capital Region will still be up dramatically  and higher than the company predicted earlier this fall. But the prediction of the even higher spike was a mistake, the company acknowledged.

The utility, which serves large parts of New York state and New England, said the email mistakenly used winter heating bill forecast data intended for its metro New York City customers  not its upstate customers in the Capital Region and places like Syracuse and Buffalo.

Sent out on Tuesday, the email told upstate customers that the average monthly home heating bill was "anticipated" to rise $46 a month this winter due to a spike in wholesale natural gas prices.

With last year's winter home bills averaging around $100 a month, it appeared that customers were being told they would have to pay nearly 50 percent more this winter to keep their home as warm as last winter.

But the numbers - and the outsized increase - were wrong, a result of the inadvertent mistake.

In fact, after National Grid realized the mistake, it said the expected increase to upstate home heating bills was actually forecast to be only $36 a month, a more modest increase of about 36 percent, but still up from the 31 percent the utility predicted in early October.

"Due to a glitch, the forecast sent was incorrect and included numbers for downstate New York customers, not upstate," National Grid spokesman Patrick Stella said. "The actual change in the forecast is not significantly different than what we indicated a month or so ago."

National Grid internally updates its home heating bill forecast monthly through the five-month winter season that goes from November to March.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

And while the newly updated numbers do show an increase over what the utility was expecting back in October, the increase is not nearly as severe as the incorrect data made it appear.

In fact, instead of winter home heating bills being $15 higher a month than what was forecast back in October, the revised forecast is only $5 higher than the October numbers.

National Grid also noted that its winter heating bill forecast can change from month to month, and even go down, depending on the wholesale natural gas markets.

"These forecasts represent a 'moment in time' based on current gas supply forecasts and are subject to change," Stella said. "All increases in supply costs are passed on to National Grid customers without markup. National Grid does not profit from supply cost increases."
Regenerons COVID-19 antibody cocktail garnered a supportive nod from the European Medicine Agencys (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) Thursday, signaling it can be used under certain circumstances.

The committee recommended REGEN-COV, the drug, be used for non-hospitalized COVID patients 12 years or older who dont need oxygen supplementation but are at higher risk of falling severely ill from the virus and to aid prevention, a press release announced.

While the United States Food and Drug Administration hasnt yet approved REGEN-COVs use, it was given emergency use authorization to be administered in some post-exposure prophylaxis settings to treat non-hospitalized patients at high risk of developing serious consequences from COVID.

It is available to eligible individuals for free as part of a government-funded program. Regeneron reached a deal with the U.S. to provide an extra 1.4 million doses of the cocktail by January.

REGEN-COV is being utilized under temporary or emergency use in 40 countries. Japan already gave the cocktail its full backing and the medicine was granted conditional approval in Australia and the United Kingdom.

The European Commission is expected to declare its final decision about the antibody cocktail in the near future, the release said.

Regeneron created the cocktail in collaboration with its partner pharmaceutical company, Roche. The duo is looking to file for a type II variation with the EMA so it can be used to treat those who are hospitalized with COVID.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

CHMP based its positive review on two phase-three trials that evaluated how REGEN-COVs use worked on over 6,000 non-hospitalized cases and its prevention of symptomatic infection in asymptomatic households.

Several analyses indicated the cocktail held up against common COVID-19 variants including the lethal delta, gamma, beta and mu strains traversing the globe.

The mixture is composed of two neutralizing antibodies that bind to the virus critical receptor domain on its spike protein to weaken the variants and block infection.
CHATHAM - A Columbia County arts center and sculpture park plans to develop a new 190-acre site to host permanent installations of artists' works.

Up to 18 artists would create their own enclosed "pavilions" that would eventually serve as galleries for their works, giving them the ability to design the space for their pieces from the ground up. The structures, which can be up to 5,900 square feet, would dot the landscape in a rural area of northern Columbia County.

The Chatham Planning Board on Wednesday night approved the "Pavilions Project," which is being developed by Art Omi, a nonprofit in the nearby town of Ghent.

The project aims to allow artists to maintain a collection of their works in one place, avoiding the pieces being split up and dispersed across various collections, thereby losing their "gesamtkunstwerk"their cohesiveness as a body of workaccording to the project description.

"The premise of the Pavilions Project is that many accomplished and highly distinguished artists would welcome the opportunity to create a legacy stand-alone exhibition of their work in a setting that they control and help design, but that is also part of a larger art center which provides cultural context, museological standards, and visitor services management," according to the project description.

Francis Greenburger, a New York City real estate developer and founder of Art Omi, said the project "has been in my mind for many, many years."

The original idea was to develop the project on Art Omi's land in Ghent, but Greenburger said he decided to pursue the project in Chatham because of headaches he had experienced dealing with the Ghent Planning Board on a different project that never came to fruition.

Each pavilion could be up to 5,700 square feet and two stories tall, according to documents submitted to the Planning Board. The site would include a visitors center, which would be constructed and staffed by Art Omi. The nonprofit would maintain roads and grounds and the cost of constructing the pavilions would be split with the artists.

Though called pavilions, the structures would be enclosed and climate-controlled to protect the art, according to Art Omi Communications Director Jessica Puglisi.

The project was "very conservation-minded," Puglisi said, with the pavilions situated to avoid disturbing existing flora. Less than 10 percent of the site would be developed.

Downtime is the best time Make the most of your Hudson Valley weekend, every week with our newsletter.

The Chatham Planning Board requires the project to break ground in a timely fashion, but Puglisi said it would be developed over the course of years as different artists engage at different times. Visitors will be able to wander the galleries once they have been completed.

The Pavilions Project has already confirmed three artists and one collector, according to Greenburger.

They are Alice Aycock, a New York City-based sculptor whose works have appeared at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum and the Storm King Art Center; Tadaaki Kuwayama and Rakuko Naito, married minimalists; and the collector Ariel Aisiks, who founded the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art.

The pavilions will be situated an acre apart straddling a ridgeline on the property, according to designs submitted to the Planning Board.

Art Omi plans to break ground on the land this spring.
Gary Shteyngart wrote his latest book in bed, where he does all of his writing.

I always write in bed. A lot of writers I admire wrote in bed, he said by phone  while lying in bed in his New York City apartment. Proust wrote in bed all the time. Never got out of it as you can imagine.

Unlike the city, though, Shteyngarts bedroom in his home near Rhinebeck in Dutchess County  the region where he sets his fifth novel, Our Country Friends  offers few distractions. There are no whining ambulances outside. No temptation to go out to a bar  not to the extent that happens when Im down in the city and people are sad and need to drink a lot.

The Hudson Valley, hes learned, is where hes most prolific. Our Country Friends took him roughly six months to write, the fastest hes finished any novel, he noted. Critically, the praise has been just as swift.

A New York Times reviewer called it Shteyngarts finest novel yet, and Kirkus deemed it the Great American pandemic novel. There are some detractors: one critic found the escapades of these monied people who flee the virus and New York City insensitive. But ultimately we learn that they cant entirely escape it.

Set in spring of 2020, the books cast of characters are introduced as if we were entering a Chekhov play. There is the writer and landowner Sasha Senderovsky, his psychiatrist wife, and three friends, all children of immigrants as well, whom Senderovsky has invited to shelter in place at his crumbling country estate, where each is given their own bungalow.

Two extras join this close band of high school friends: A southern essayist named Dee Cameron, whose name is an unsubtle nod to the 19th century novel The Decameron, about wealthy Italians who flee to the countryside during the Plague; and Senderovskys nemesis, the Actor, a pompous man capable only of a syringes worth of compassion as he delivers news to Senderovsky that will further erode his dwindling finances.

Heartbreak, trysts, and betrayals ensue. But they weather the worst of COVIDs first six months together. One of the bitterly ironic features of the pandemic is that even as it took lives and destroyed livelihoods, it also provided a pregnant pause to rekindle friendships and reset life goals. The novel celebrates these gifts, but never in a saccharine way  Shteyngart is too much of a satirist for that.

His antenna is humorously tuned to the absurdities of privileged folks  in this case, Hudson Valley weekenders and their milieu  and the realities of life in the country. At a market, Senderovsky finds himself standing in a long line of second-home owners. When the lawn guy says hes too busy to come, Senderovsky threatens to pay double, while the handymen he and his wife hired stared at them for the aliens they were. And no one can manage to get a decent shower thanks to the non-existent water pressure.

These were not fleeting observations. Shteyngart, who also writes for The New Yorker, has had a home in the region for over a decade, though it took time for the Hudson Valley to surface in one of his novels.

Coming of age in the Catskills

At a reading for his last novel, Lake Success, in Tivoli a few years ago, Shteyngart told attendees he was considering writing about the region one day. And this woman got up and was like, Don't you dare write about this place until you live here full-time! But when it came to the pandemic, I was living [here] full-time for a year or more. So I thought, Okay, maybe I finally graduated to write this book.

Part of his lessons in upstate living stem from the many summers he spent as an adolescent at the Ann Mason Bungalow Colony in Ellenville, across the river, which he details in his memoir, Little Failure.

I loved it. It was the one place where everyone spoke Russian, said Shteyngart, who emigrated from the former Soviet Union to the U.S. with his parents when he was 7, and grew up in Queens.

Except for these grandmothers sort of chasing after us, he said, the kids were left to their own devices during the week until the parents returned on the weekends. They were my first friends, first love, all that kind of stuff. So I always had this very pleasant view of upstate.

Later, a writers residency at Art Omi in Ghent cemented his affection for the Hudson Valley, and he and his then-girlfriend, now wife, began looking for homes on the east side of the river, finally settling upon an Arts and Crafts colonial built as a test home to train workers during the Works Progress Administration (WPA) era of the 1930s.

Shteyngarts home is smaller than Senderovskys bungalow colony in Our Country Friends, though its resident groundhog, which theyve nicknamed Steve, does make an appearance in the novel. (Hes like the Elon Musk of groundhogs, cause he has all these properties. He has a hole everywhere.)

By now Sheyngart has made peace with all the critters in the country; coyotes no longer scare him, and he can distinguish the hoots of a barred owl. His affection runs so deep for his life near Rhinebeck, he would move here permanently were it not for the school his son attends in NYC.

Downtime is the best time Make the most of your Hudson Valley weekend, every week with our newsletter.

Random House

I was already falling in love with it before the pandemic to the point where, you know, every time I had to go to the city, Id almost feel a little panicky  After all that peace and quiet, just jostling with people, Id forgotten how to walk amongst other people  how much personal space to cede, when to be aggressive  So, that that was already changing for me, this kind of pro-country view of life.

It helps that hes maintained a circle of good friends. Luckily, so many of my friends have moved up [to Hudson Valley] or have been living there for awhile. The community of writers up there is very strong. In some ways, I get more interesting literary discussion up there than I do in the city.

Food-wise, he also misses little. We still need a great Korean restaurant, he said. But GioBatta in Tivoli, Market Street in Rhinebeck, Swoon and Back Bar in Hudson are some of his favorite places. I mean, you take something like the [restaurant at] Hotel Kinsley, how many places in the city do I know that are better than that? Not too many.

Even as he enjoys these expanding dining options, Shteyngart is keenly sensitive to gentrification, a common thread in his life and work. In his novel Super Sad True Love Story, New Yorkers priced out of Brooklyn and Queens move on to Staten Island. In Our Country Friends, Senderovsky frequently brings up the city across the river  Kingston  that had recently become fashionable, but was still studied by urban planning graduates as a cautionary tale, while its trendy, formerly Black part of town was now filled with a score of restaurants with dim interiors and urbane prices.

As an artist of sorts, said Shteyngart, speaking of his younger years in New York City, I constantly was part of the wave of gentrification that was sweeping over parts of New York, and I kind of felt bad about it even then  So yeah, I definitely feel that same thing is happening [here].

The bubbling tension between locals versus newcomers in the area became hilariously apparent during a trip Shteyngart took to the Kingston DMV in the summer of 2020 to renew his license, a story he relayed in a recent NPR interview. A fed-up employee came out with a bullhorn and announced: No people from Brooklyn! If youre from Brooklyn, please leave!

That just nailed it to me, said Shteyngart, laughing about it now. I was like, Oh my God, were doing it again.

In the book, Senderovskys global crew of friends are mostly immune to feeling like intruders, though there are plenty of opportunities for them to feel unwelcome. White supremacist symbols and phrases pop up on bumper stickers and handymens tattoos; signs that read All Lives Matter populate the lawns outside the liberal estates section of the road that Senderovsky lives on, where only Hate Has No Home Here signs are found.

But the menacing signs are just background noise. The colonists, as the narrator often refers to them, are in no hurry to leave.

Shteyngart, for his part, is hopeful the Hudson Valley can withstand the population shift. I find upstate to be more interesting than New York recently because, you know, Im in my apartment now, I look out the window, Im surrounded by Chase banks and Duane Reades. New York has become so corporatized and homogenized that upstate feels funkier, and the influx of people hopefully wont change that.

Gary Shteyngart will be in conversation with writer Paul LaFarge and signing copies of Our Country Friends at Millbrook Winery on Nov. 20 at 2 p.m.
Potato peels, onion tops and other unused or untouched foods from big businesses will need to be properly composted or donated by January 1, 2022, per a new state law intended to help cut greenhouse gas emissions generated by food waste.

The New York State Food Scraps Recycling law, passed in 2019, requires businesses and institutions that generate an annual average of two tons of unused food per week to donate excess edible food and recycle all remaining food scraps if they are within 25 miles of an organics recycler, like a composting facility or anaerobic digester.

The law will be fully implemented in the new year, and large generators of food scraps had the right to petition the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for a one-year waiver due to undue hardship.

Right now, the law impacts restaurants, grocery stores, hotels and motels, colleges and universities, malls, event centers and other large generators of food scraps. It excludes hospitals, nursing homes, adult care facilities, farms and K-12 schools.

Many Hudson Valley colleges and grocery stores say the new law should not pose an undue burden as they have already been composting for some time now.

I think the law was written as a starting point, said Josephine Papagni, co-owner operator of Ulster-based Greenway Environmental Services, who started collecting food scraps in 2000. Many of those who are generating two tons a week are really already collecting and sending their food waste to be composted. The law creates awareness for those few who dont know, and sets the stage to make sure we have adequate food waste processing resources.

Approximately 40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. goes uneaten, while an estimated 2.8 million New Yorkers are food insecure, according to the DEC. Without a law like this in effect, some businesses and institutions could continue to bring excess edible food and food scraps to a landfill, where their decomposition produces the greenhouse gas methane.

Turning waste into compost or animal feed

Bard College

In the Hudson Valley, Ulster County was one step ahead of the legislation by passing its own local law in 2019 called the Food Waste Prevention and Recovery Act, which required large food scrap generators to separate food waste from the general waste stream and arrange for its reuse as animal feed or compost.

The county will even make the requirements more stringent: the two tons per week average will become a minimum of just half a ton per week by July 1, 2023.

I see the benefit of tiering it at the higher level right now, and then beginning to change those levels and bring more and more people into the fold, said Papagni.

Locally, this law affects area colleges like Bard College, SUNY New Paltz and Vassar. Each of these three say they have already been composting with services like Greenway or something similar.

Vassar, for example, sends an average of 150 tons of food scraps annually to a composter for reuse as fertilizer. Bard, like Mohonk Mountain House, has a registered composting pile on site that diverts 1,500 pounds of food scraps a day from the landfill.

Its like a triple win  it helps lower our carbon emissions while saving in our wallets and helping people too, said Laurie Husted, Chief Sustainability Officer at Bard College. This is a great opportunity to question the systems were a part of and to think can we do things differently, and thats what a law does. Im very pleased its here.

Community Compost Company, based in Kerhonkson, said they have received more inquiries from food waste generators with the laws implementation around the corner.

Downtime is the best time Make the most of your Hudson Valley weekend, every week with our newsletter.

If businesses or organizations already had sustainability initiatives or have been aware of the benefits of composting, theyre on board with the process already, said Molly Lindsay, Director of Operations at Community Compost Company.

Now, those who may not have a full plan in place have reached out for assistance. For example, Tops Friendly Markets in New Paltz is one of their new clients who is switching from a different composting company.

When it comes to donating edible food, most institutions and businesses have systems in place for that, too. SUNY New Paltz works with FeedHV, which services a network of 28 food recovery organizations.

Anything we have in our main dining hall that is completely untouched and not used, we give to them, and they repurpose it with food kitchens or other organizations that deal with prepared food, said Steven Deutsch, Executive Director of Campus Auxiliary Services at SUNY New Paltz.

Food Bank of the Hudson Valley also accepts food donations, which they then distribute to 400 member agencies, including food pantries, homeless shelters, schools, senior centers and more. The organization itself also will have to comply to the new law when it comes to donated food that they cannot redistribute. Food Bank of the Hudson Valley Director Sara Gunn said they have been composting for a number of years and work with local pig farmers who take their organic waste to create a sustainable operation.

A spokesperson from Hannaford Supermarkets also said all 10 stores in the region are already in compliance with the new law, with each store working with local food pantries to regularly donate meat, produce and grocery items.

The DEC will publish a list of designated food scrap generators for 2023 by June 1, 2022. Every year moving forward a revised list will be published in June for the following year. Businesses and institutions that are designated food scrap generators will have to supply an annual report form accounting for the excess food they receive.

I dont know if this bill is going to make an immediate visual change, but I do know its going to create awareness, set the stage, test our market, and see can we handle all of the organic waste that is in the state, said Papagni.
Across the state, the talking points are similar. At a recent local board meeting, a parent compared the allegedly oppressive public school climate to Mao's China. In a neighboring district, a mom claimed it was like North Korea.

"I will fight until my dying breath for the freedoms of my children," she said.

The culture wars around masks, vaccine mandates, and now critical race theory continue to dominate public comment periods at school board meetings in the Capital Region and beyond.

Parents, particularly in predominantly white suburban and rural districts, are blasting the state Education Department's new educational equity framework, which they see as a ploy to implement critical race theory in K-12 schools.

The state's recommendations, rolled out in May, offer a blueprint for districts to individually review and amend their programs and policies to meet the needs of an increasingly multicultural student population.

Opponents claim schools have become excessively focused on race and that the discourse around educational equity is divisive and harmful to children's self-worth.

According to state education officials, the state's "culturally responsive and sustainable" framework, or CRS, has been wrongly conflated with critical race theory, or CRT.

"Critical race theory is a theory that started among legal scholars that appears in graduate-level studies," Board of Regents Chancellor Lester Young said in an interview. "It's just very interesting to me that it's being used as a vehicle to take us off course."

Developed in the 1980s, critical race theory is one of several ways academics try to make sense of racial inequities that permeate many aspects of American life, from the criminal justice system and housing to education and voting rights.

Despite laws that prohibit racial discrimination, racial disparities persist. The question critical race theorists try to answer is why they persist, according to Alex L. Pieterse, a University at Albany psychology professor who works with local school districts on equity and inclusion.

"I don't go into schools saying 'we are going teach critical race theory,' but it's certainly a theme that informs my work," Pieterse said. "We are trying to understand what's happening on a system level that might be influencing the differential outcomes and what's the role of the teacher within that system."

Gloria Ladson-Billings, one of the first scholars to apply the theory in education, says she's never advised teaching critical race theory at the K-12 level.

"It's not for teachers to do this work," she said in a video shared at a recent Board of Regents meeting. "I don't even introduce critical race theory to undergraduates; they have no use for it."

Until the mid-20th century, academic scholars blamed disparate outcomes between Black and white Americans on biological differences.

"We literally said 'One group of people is better than another group of people.' In fact, in universities all over the country we even had classes in eugenics," Ladson-Billings said. "There was this notion that Black people weren't as good as white people."

By the 1950s, around the time of the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision, which deemed racially segregated schools unconstitutional, there was a recognition racial disparities were directly linked to gaps in opportunity.

Critical race theory suggests that anti-Black racism is systemic in American institutions and that legal barriers were erected and sustained intentionally to maintain the dominance of whites.

The Brown ruling was followed by other laws that sought to narrow the opportunity gap for non-whites in America. There was the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and affirmative action, but many of those legal protections have since been scaled back.

Brown v. Board of Education is still on the books, but subsequent court decisions "systematically ate away at Brown ... so we are still left with this issue, how do we explain racial disparity?" Ladson-Billings said. "Critical race theory seeks to do just that."

It's unclear when the term became a catch-all for any talk of equity and inclusion. Dozens of states have enacted "anti-CRT" laws in the last year that restrict conversations about race and bias in schools.

Awareness of anti-Black institutional racism has risen nationally in the wake of high-profile murders of unarmed Black people like Trayvon Martin and George Floyd.

The national chatter around CRT seems to have escalated around 2019 when journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones published her Pulitzer Prize-winning "1619 Project" for The New York Times, which argued America was founded nearly 200 years prior to the Declaration of Independence when enslaved people first arrived at the colonies.

The report has become a resource for educators interested in teaching American history from a range of cultural perspectives. It has also attracted harsh criticism from some historians and politicians who claim it is factually inaccurate.

In New York, the debate over how to teach social studies in a multicultural classroom is an old one.

In the 1980s and 1990s, then-state education commissioner Thomas Sobol sought to revamp the states social studies standards to better reflect the contributions of non-white cultures.

The framework came under fire from historians who accused the board of "contemptuously dismiss[ing] the Western tradition" and reducing history to "ethnic cheerleading."

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Many drafts later, the state approved a framework that was widely perceived by advocates as a half measure.

In recent years, heavy-handed curriculum changes, like the Common Core standards for math and English, have also backfired.

The "culturally responsive" framework released by the Education Department in May does not set curriculum standards; it outlines expectations, state officials said.

It instructs school districts to identify inequities in areas like student placement for gifted and special education services, suspensions, attendance, teacher diversity, and resources.

"I think people will understand that we are not trying to indoctrinate children and we are not trying to make children feel bad about who they are," Young said. "If anything, what we are trying to do is say to young people that we all have something to contribute to this great state and this nation."

Some argue the framework doesn't go far enough. Without a clear mandate or oversight by the Education Department, districts have no incentive to enact meaningful curricular changes, according to David Bloomfield, an education and law professor at Manhattan's CUNY Graduate Center.

"(The framework) is spineless," he said. "It's little more than a lengthy process for districts to think about the issue."

The Board of Regents may still be wary of setting any enforceable standards for school districts due to the fallout over Common Core, he said.

Pieterse says the framework is "quite brilliant" at laying out the statistics and rationale for addressing diversity, equity and inclusion in schools.

"As a consultant going into a school district, I can say, 'Look, the Board of Regents, a powerful governing body, has said this is important, and this is needed to address disparate outcomes in educational access and opportunity and raise the level for everyone," he said. "It goes beyond the teacher's personal preference."

The framework is flexible, taking into consideration that various districts are in different stages of the equity conversation.

Urban schools with large minority populations have been talking about equity for years and teachers tend to be receptive to the data because it reflects their lived experiences, according to Pieterse.

In predominantly white schools, the conversation is more challenging because inequities tend to be less visible, though studies suggest these schools have stark racial gaps when it comes to academic tracking and discipline.

Young said the objective is to set clear expectations and inspire more schools to have frank conversations around race and opportunity.

"In this moment we are in, the wrong thing to do is to do nothing," Young said. "We will continue to work with districts in this process, and ... I think more and more districts will get on board."
Thank you for reading! Below is a sample from my latest newsetter. Sign up here, and you can get the latest edition in your inbox every Friday.

We live in a divided time, of course, and often that means that Democrats and Republicans in Washington don't agree on much  or at least pretend they don't agree for self-serving political reasons.

But there was one significant example of bipartisan agreement in recent days, in the form of a remarkable letter signed by all 24 female U.S. senators  eight Republicans and 16 Democrats  and sent to President Joe Biden. It concerned the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan after the U.S. military withdrawal from the country.

The letter noted that the American military presence in Afghanistan opened new worlds for women in the country, with women at last entering the workforce and participating in public life. Last year, 3.5 million Afghan girls were in school, the letter says, and 100,000 women were enrolled in public universities. But now, the gains are vanishing.

"Lacking a legitimate Afghan government and military forces to protect them," the letter says, "women and girls are now suffering the predations of a Taliban regime with a track record of brutalizing, isolating, and denying them life and liberty. Taliban leaders who promised that women would be treated well under the new government are not upholding those commitments. Women have been the victims of targeted beatings and killings and are banned from leaving home without a male guardian."

The letter asks Biden to do something  to develop a plan and hold the Taliban accountable. And while the letter doesn't explicitly criticize the administration's withdrawal, it does implicitly suggest more consideration should have been given to the consequences.

"Afghan women and girls need our action now," says the letter, which has received very little media attention.

Of course, improving the lives of women was not the reason we sent American troops into Afghanistan, and it is perhaps difficult to argue that's a reason we should have stayed. But we have abandoned the country's girls and women, and left them to a terrible fate. On that, Republicans and Democrats can at least agree.

Cuomo corner

Release the investigation transcripts, demanded Andrew Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin. Release the transcripts! Release the transcripts! Release the transcripts! You must release the transcripts!!

And so on Wednesday, the office of Attorney General Letitia James did indeed release transcripts from interviews conducted as part of her investigation into sexual harassment claims against the governor. And here was the response from Glavin:

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

"The AG wants to prejudice people against the governor ... The attorney general deliberately harms a pending case by broadcasting to each witness what other witnesses have testified to, and spreading false and salacious hearsay and rumors. No legitimate law enforcement officer acts like this in a pending case."

Sigh.

Quote(s) of the week

"I have no recollection of touching a woman on her butt. May it have happened accidentally? Incidentally? Yes. But I don't have any recollection of purposefully touching a woman on the butt."  Andrew Cuomo, during an interview with investigator Joon Kim.

And here's how the former governor ended the interview: "I'd like to say it was a pleasure, Mr. Kim. But I'm under oath."

OK, I'll give him some credit. That's a pretty funny line.

That's all for this week. As always, thank you for reading and have a great weekend.
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP)  The mid-Atlantic air is in the crisp 40s at 7 a.m. Dew sits on cars, and the grass, white steps and walkway to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier sparkle in the golden sunrise.

Its quiet at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Plaza. The public and press can only whisper.

One by one, eight members of the Chief Plenty Coups Honor Guard from Pryor, Montana, place a flower in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and salute the unknowns Tuesday morning. The eight members are descendants of respected warrior and negotiator Chief Plenty Coups.

Dozens more Crow Nation representatives, including students from Plenty Coups High School, follow suit. Jingling from the regalia breaks the silence as they line up to lay down a flower.

Its the first time in 96 years the public and visitors have been allowed to approach the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the plaza. Its a privilege typically reserved for the sentinels of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard, according to the Arlington Cemetery.

The flower ceremony kicked off a two-day centennial commemoration event.

The dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier took place on Nov. 11, 1921, according to the National Archives. The Tomb is the final resting place for Americas unknown soldiers of war from World War I, World War II, and Korean War.

Before the flower ceremony, a member of the Chief Plenty Coups Honor Guard opened the event with the traditional practice of smudging.

One hundred years ago today, Chief Plenty Coups stood on this very ground we are standing on at the dedication ceremony of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 1921, said Henry Lee Rock Above, a descendant of Chief Plenty Coup. We, the Apsaalooke, also known as the Crow, the Crow people are here to respect and honor the bravery of men and women who gave their life for freedom. We continue the legacy of Chief Plenty Coups commitment to the United States of America in culture, strength, and language of the Crow people.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

President Warren G. Harding and the U.S. War Department invited Crow Chief Plenty Coups to say a few words at the 1921 dedication, said Elsworth GoesAhead, Crow and post commander in the Chief Plenty Coups Honor Guard, on Indian Country Today's newscast.

Chief Plenty Coups represented all tribal nations during this time and was one of the few to speak at the dedication. After giving a prayer, he left his war bonnet and coup stick on the tomb as a gift, GoesAhead said. Those now lay in the Arlington National Cemetery artifact collection and are on exhibit in the Memorial Amphitheater Display room, according to the Arlington National Cemetery.

GoesAhead is also a descendent of Chief Plenty Coups and sees him as an influential leader.

And so being the statesman that he was, he worked really hard to have a relationship with the United States government, and tracing his footsteps and his legacy back to Arlington, its really difficult for me to wrap my head around that, the magnitude and the meaning of this event, GoesAhead said.
AMSTERDAM  U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko stood with parents of the victims of the 2018 limousine crash in Schoharie Friday morning at Amsterdam City Hall to announce that their three-year effort to write  and then pass  an overhaul of federal limo safety regulations was finally a success  with President Joe Biden prepared to sign it into law Monday as part of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

The legislation, which was also championed by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and others in New York's congressional delegation, closes loopholes in federal vehicle safety standards that have allowed stretch limousines to be manufactured and operated virtually without federal oversight for decades.

While previous attempts to pass meaningful federal limo safety regulations failed, Tonko and the families said Friday that it was their telling of the painful tragedy to members of Congress and their staffs that made it a reality.

For more than three years we have carried these wounds, Tonko, his voice cracking with emotion, said during the news conference, with several of the parents standing behind him. It has been a long journey. We kept our word to make meaningful change. They shared their stories time and time again.

The legislation will change federal law to include improvements survivors of the dead have advocated since soon after the Oct. 6, 2018, limousine crash that killed 20 people in a parking lot next the Apple Barrel Cafe and Store at Route 30 and Route 30A .

The 34-foot stretch Ford Excursion limo had been hired that morning from a Wilton limousine company by Axel Steenburg for a 30th birthday celebration for his wife, Amy, that was attended by 15 of their friends and family, many of whom lived or were from Amsterdam, which is the hometown of Tonko as well as part of his congressional district.

After departing from Steenburg's home on Pleasant Avenue in Amsterdam, the limo driver was supposed to drive them to a brewery in Cooperstown, with some stops along the way.

But the Excursion never made it to Cooperstown - for reasons that investigators were never able to determine.

Instead, the driver, Scott Lisinicchia of Lake George, after perhaps getting lost, ended up on a steep section of Route 30 that brings vehicles down toward the village of Schoharie - and the Apple Barrel.

Investigators believe the Excursion's brakes failed as Lisinicchia was descending Route 30. With no way to stop, the nearly 7-ton limo reached speeds in excess of 100 mph as it sailed through the intersection with Route 30A and into the Apple Barrel parking lot, where it hit two bystanders, killing them instantly.

The Excursion then crashed into a ditch where it came to rest. All 18 aboard, including the driver, died from their injuries. The crash is considered to be the worst U.S. highway transportation disaster in more than a decade.

What Steenburg didn't know when he hired the limo that day was that Lisinicchia was not properly licensed to drive passengers in the Excursion, which had a history of brake problems and had been ordered off the road twice by a state Department of Transportation investigator after failing two roadside inspections in the months leading up to the crash.

The Hussain family that owned the Excursion also had deceived the state Department of Motor Vehicles about the limo's size when they registered the limo after buying it from another limo company in 2016, allowing them to circumvent rigorous DOT inspection and certification requirements.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Nauman Hussain, 31, who ran the limo service for his father, pleaded guilty in September to 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide, admitting that he failed to properly maintain the vehicle and for allowing Lisinicchia to drive the vehicle despite lacking the required license and medical screening.

Not long after burying their children, the parents of the victims embarked on a mission to change limo safety regulations both in New York and at the federal level, believing that more stringent limo rules could have prevented the tragedy.

"With the passage of the infrastructure bill, we've taken a major step forward in making the limo industry a safer industry," Kevin Cushing, the father of crash victim Patrick Cushing, said after Tonko invited him to speak. "Without the support of both parties, this would not have been possible."

Under the new law, the federal government will establish a program to provide funding to states to help them impound unsafe limos, something that the families believe should have happened when Hussain kept renting out the limo in defiance of the DOT.

The new law will also require new limousines to have working lap and shoulder belts and seats that meet minimum safety requirements. Provisions also include the establishment of a federal limo inspection program and requirements that limo owners share their inspection reports with customers.

"There was no way we were going to lose our children, our spouses and siblings and let it go unnoticed," said Jill Richardson-Perez, the mother of victim Matthew Coons. "We were going to make a difference."
LAKE RONKONKOMA, N.Y. (AP)  A Long Island man has been arrested for making a death threat against a Republican congressman who voted for the $1 trillion infrastructure package, police said.

Kenneth Gasper, 64, was arrested Wednesday for a telephoned death threat against Rep. Andrew Garbarino, Nassau County police said in a news release.

Police said Gasper made the phone call Monday over a vote by Garbarino that Gasper did not agree with.

Gasper called Garbarino's district office, cursed at the staff member who answered and called Garbarino a RINO, an insult that stands for Republican in name only," according to the criminal complaint. Gasper warned that if he saw Garbarino on the street he would kill him, the complaint says.

Gasper, of Lake Ronkonkoma, was arrested on a charge of aggravated second-degree harassment. It wasnt clear whether he had an attorney who could comment on the charge. There was no answer at a phone listing for Gasper.

Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said his department has zero tolerance for this type of behavior.

In the world that were living in today, the climate that is out there, these threats we take very seriously, Ryder said at a news conference Friday.

Garbarino, who was elected in 2020 after longtime U.S. Rep. Peter King announced his retirement, was one of 13 Republicans who voted for the infrastructure package Nov. 5.

The 13 defectors have been attacked by fellow Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, over their vote. Republican leaders have been largely silent on the attacks.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Garbarino told the New York Post that misinformation spread by his House colleagues, as well as conservative pundits, has put the members safety at risk.

There are members of Congress that are fundraising off of their misinformation and attacking us, and its causing us to get death threats on the other side," he said.

While the infrastructure vote appears to have led some opponents of the legislation to threaten lawmakers, death threats against elected officials were already on the rise.

The chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, J. Thomas Manger, told The Associated Press in September that his department was seeing thousands more threats against lawmakers than just a few years ago.

Manger predicted that authorities would respond to close to 9,000 threats against members of Congress in 2021.
Lea en espanol

The number of young adults dying from stroke  particularly men  has been rising over the past decade, according to new research, which also finds Black, Native American and Alaskan Native adults are dying at higher rates than other groups.

"We need a very robust clinical trial and a change in public policy to address this and see why this is occurring," said lead researcher Dr. Ahmed Hassaan Qavi, a cardiology fellow at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He will present the findings Saturday at the American Heart Association's virtual Scientific Sessions. The findings are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Qavi said he looked into the trends after seeing a growing number of young adults dying from strokes at the eastern North Carolina hospital where he worked. The patients often had limited access to health care, could not afford needed medications and experienced high levels of stroke risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity.

While overall stroke rates have declined in recent decades, research shows they have been climbing substantially in adults under age 45, who often don't recognize the symptoms of a stroke. These include numbness in the face, arms or legs, confusion, difficulty speaking, loss of balance, trouble with vision and a severe headache.

For the new study, Qavi and his team used Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 1999-2019 to look at trends in stroke-related deaths among people 15 to 44. Stroke deaths in young adults overall initially decreased, then rose again.

However, there were differences by race and sex.

Stroke deaths among Black adults, for example, dropped by 3.9 deaths for every 100,000 people until 2013, when they leveled off for the remainder of the decade. However, stroke deaths were still highest for Black adults  nearly three times the rate for white adults. They were highest of all for Black men, with 7.07 deaths for every 100,000 people. The death rate for American Indian or Alaska Native adults was 4.36, with little change for much of the study period.

The analysis also showed that after an initial decline, stroke deaths rose overall among both men and women, as well as white and Hispanic young adults. But the trends showed young Asian and Pacific Islander adults saw a decrease.

Qavi's study did not look at why stroke deaths may have declined before rising again, but he said changes in the way CDC coded its data in 2011 may have affected the trends. Lack of awareness of stroke risk among young adults, lifestyle factors and lack of access to health care also may play a role.

"We keep seeing data come out that we are not doing well in preventing stroke in that younger age group," said Dr. Tracy Madsen, who has studied stroke in young adults but was not involved in the new research. Madsen is an associate professor of emergency medicine and epidemiology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She also is co-director of the Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital Stroke Center and director of clinical research at Brown Emergency Medicine.

"We have seen previous data that suggests stroke incidence rates are increasing in this younger age group over time," she said. "This paper goes a step further and looks at trends in stroke-related deaths. Mortality has been going up in the last decade or so in almost all the groups they looked at, which suggests this is a significant problem."

Future research should look at how risk factors differ among the groups disproportionately affected by stroke death, Madsen said. "We have to look at stroke prevention in a more targeted fashion, see if different factors are driving stroke mortality in different demographic groups. Then we can focus on specific risk factors driving stroke deaths in each group."

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Identifying people at high risk for stroke at an earlier age could help, she said. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently recommended that health care professionals lower the age to begin screening for prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes, a known stroke risk factor, from 40 to 35 in adults who are overweight or obese. And the AHA recommends blood pressure screening beginning in childhood.

Determining why some groups are dying at higher rates than others  and how to correct this  will be critical, Qavi said. "We expected to find the increase," he said. "But it does come as a surprise to see such a stark difference in mortality between Black and white young adults."

Find more news from Scientific Sessions.

If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. Permission is granted, at no cost and without need for further request, for individuals, media outlets, and non-commercial education and awareness efforts to link to, quote, excerpt or reprint from these stories in any medium as long as no text is altered and proper attribution is made to American Heart Association News.

Other uses, including educational products or services sold for profit, must comply with the American Heart Associations Copyright Permission Guidelines. See full terms of use. These stories may not be used to promote or endorse a commercial product or service.

HEALTH CARE DISCLAIMER: This site and its services do not constitute the practice of medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always talk to your health care provider for diagnosis and treatment, including your specific medical needs. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem or condition, please contact a qualified health care professional immediately. If you are in the United States and experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or call for emergency medical help immediately.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation's denial of permits for two natural gas-powered plants is definitely "A green victory," Nov. 1. The decision shows that the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act can guide environmental policy decisions in the right direction.

But why was the battle necessary in the first place? Natural gas is just about as bad a way to make electricity as coal is. It may produce 50 percent less carbon dioxide than coal, but it is essentially methane, which stays in the air longer and is in the long run more harmful.
Farmington, WV (26555)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. A few flurries or snow showers possible. High near 40F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low near 25F. Winds light and variable.
Pictured is a Titusville ballot being adjudicated. The Crawford County Commissioners finished adjudicating the Citys ballots on Wednesday, giving residents some answers as to who will serve on City Council among other races.
Federal prosecutors are announcing that three owners of Chicago area convenience stores and six store employees have been indicted on federal fraud charges
A state court advisory committee will take a closer look in January at key issues in whether to allow more video coverage of criminal trial proceedings in Minnesota
New Mexico State Universitys chief academic administrator has been placed on paid administrative leave and an acting replacement has been named
A jury has awarded $2.75 million to an Arizona legislative staffer who said she was fired from her job as a policy adviser for state Senate Democrats because of discrimination based on her race and gender
Chatbots Are Confused by Figurative Language and Metaphors

Many companies are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence-driven (AI) chatbots to help handle routine customer inquiries. These chatbots can answer common questions  Are you closed on Sundays? or Whats my balance?  and route more complex queries to the right human agents. Chatbots do have their limits however, and one of them is peoples propensity to use figurative language.

Harsh Jhamtani, a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University, and Taylor Berg-Kirkpatrick, a faculty member in the UC San Diego Department of Computer Science and Engineering, recently completed a study that examines the limits of chatbot technology to cope with idioms and metaphors. Jhamtani, a native Hindi speaker, drew on his own experience of learning English quirks.

We want to enable more natural conversations between people and dialog systems, Jhamtani, the papers first author, was quoted on Newswise.

In an example provided, a customer using a fashion-based chatbot declared that a garments pattern might be too loud, which prompted the chatbot to advise turning down the volume. The chatbot, of course, lacks the data that the phrase loud can sometimes be used to describe an overly complex or bright fabric pattern.

In the study, researchers tested five different systems designed to speak with humans, including GPT-2, which is trained to predict the next word in 40GB of Internet text and was developed by research company OpenAI.

Researchers first ran the dialog systems through a dataset of 13.1K conversations on colloquial topics such as tourism and health. They then extracted the conversations that included figurative language from the dataset and ran the systems through those only. They observed a drop in performance ranging from 10 to 20 percent.

They then wrote a script that allowed the systems to quickly check dictionaries that translate figurative speech into literal speech. This is faster and more efficient than re-training systems to learn the complete content of these dictionaries. Researchers observed that performance improved by as much as 15 percent. The researchers noted that while the results were interesting, further study will be required.

The research was presented at the at the 2021 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, which took place from November 7 to 11, 2021.

Edited by Luke Bellos
[November 12, 2021] Associated Capital Group 2021 Shareholder Designated Charitable Contribution Program

The Board of Associated Capital Group (NYSE: AC) has approved a $0.30 per share Shareholder Designated Charitable Contribution ("SDCC") for all registered Class A and Class B shareholders. To be eligible, shareholders will have until December 1, 2021 to register shares directly with Computershare, AC's transfer agent. Shareholders will then have an opportunity to designate a 501(c)(3) organization to receive the $0.30 per share SDCC. As a firm, we believe charitable giving is a cornerstone of society and an obligation for those with the means to make a difference in the world. Since its inception as a public company, through the SDCC, AC has donated approximately $32 million to over 160 different charities that address a broad range of local, national, and international concerns. Based on the approximately 22 million shares currently outstanding, AC's total contribution will be approximately $6.6 million, reduced by the shares held in nominee or street name. In early December, AC will provide forms to registered holders to designate recognized 501(c)(3) organizations. A list of eligible charities is available at Guidestar.org (https://www.guidestar.org/search).



About Associated Capital Group, Inc. Associated Capital, based in Greenwich Connecticut, is a diversified global financial services company that provides alternative investment management through Gabelli & Company Investment Advisers, Inc. ("GCIA" f/k/a Gabelli Securities, Inc.). We have also earmarked proprietary capital for our direct investment business that invests in new and existing businesses. The direct investment business is developing along three core pillars: Gabelli Private Equity Partners, LLC ("GPEP"), formed in August 2017 with $150 million of authorized capital as a "fund-less" sponsor; the SPAC business (Gabelli special purpose acquisition vehicles), launched in April 2018; and Gabelli Principal Strategies Group, LLC ("GPS"), created to pursue strategic operating initiatives.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION Our disclosure and analysis in this press release contain "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements convey our current expectations or forecasts of future events. You can identify these statements because they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They use words such as "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," and other words and terms of similar meaning. They also appear in any discussion of future operating or financial performance. In particular, these include statements relating to future actions, future performance of our products, expenses, the outcome of any legal proceedings, and financial results. Although we believe that we are basing our expectations and beliefs on reasonable assumptions within the bounds of what we currently know about our business and operations, the economy and other conditions, there can be no assurance that our actual results will not differ materially from what we expect or believe. Therefore, you should proceed with caution in relying on any of these forward-looking statements. They are neither statements of historical fact nor guarantees or assurances of future performance. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005851/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Avicanna Announces Filing of Interim Financial Statements for the Three-Month Period Ending September 30, 2021, Demonstrating Progressive Commercialization Results

Record gross revenue of $1,007,033 through steady growth and progression of global commercialization

Delivered a record number (27,041) of units of cannabis 2.0 products globally, an increase of 61% from Q2

25 listings of cannabis 2.0 products across adult use and medical channels in Canada.

Expanded into and completed exports into the 12th international market. /NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. ANY FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF UNITED STATES SECURITIES LAWS/ TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avicanna Inc. ("Avicanna" or the "Company) (TSX: AVCN) (OTCQX: AVCNF) (FSE: 0NN), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of plant-derived cannabinoid-based products, is pleased to announce the filing of the Companys third quarter financial statements and provide financial and corporate highlights. We are proud to present the meaningful progress we have made across all divisions in what is evidently our most successful quarter to date. We have evolved the organization from R&D stage to a rapidly expanding and truly global commercial-stage company with several business units now generating revenue across several markets. We have successfully established a strong footprint with our proprietary cannabis formulations in Canada across 3 channels including medical, clinical, and adult use, which is attributed to our scientific platform and evidence-based non-inhalation products. We continued to innovate, enhanced our intellectual property, and progressed our pharmaceutical pipeline. Finally, we advanced our global business model by opening our 12th market and more importantly have successfully connected our proprietary formulations with our low-cost API and manufacturing infrastructure in Colombia to deliver advanced products to the global marketplace, commented Aras Azadian, CEO, Avicanna Inc. Third quarter financial highlights Gross revenue in the third quarter increased to $1,007,033 ($987,967 net) from $810,299 in the second quarter, and $279,515 in the first quarter of 2021, representing an increase of 24% over the second quarter and 260% over the first quarter revenues. The reported revenue represents cannabis-only sales with majority being new or recurring orders from proprietary finished products in the Canadian medical and adult use channels. The Company delivered 27,041 units of its cannabis 2.0 products branded as RHO Phyto and Pura Earth, compared to 16,767 units in the second and 8,855 units in the first quarter of 2021, representing a growth of 61% over the second quarter and 205% over the first quarter of 2021. Loss per share for the nine months ended September 31, 2021, was ($0.29) per share, compared with ($0.82) per share for the nine-month period ending September 30, 2020, representing an improvement of 64% from the same period in the previous year. By the end of the third quarter, the Company had a total of 25 product listings across medical and adult use channels in Canada, compared to 17 in the second quarter and 6 in the first quarter of 2021, representing an increase of 96% over the second quarter and 316% over the first quarter of 2021. Other strategic highlights during and subsequent to the third quarter Entrance into new global markets and expansion of Aureus-branded products with exports of high CBD and THC cannabis extracts to Austria, Peru, and Brazil reaching a total of 11 countries across 4 continents. Multi-year supply agreement with a Brazilian pharmaceutical company to supply industrial volumes of high THC and high CBD full spectrum cannabis extracts. The Company is expecting revenue of up to $4.0M in fiscal 2022 from this agreement. Filing of a US Patent Application for a novel cannabinoid formulation for reducing incidence of seizures and sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Research findings originated from cannabinoid-based collaborations with leading epilepsy researcher, Dr. Peter Carlen, at University Health Network (UHN). Avicannas proprietary formulation showed promising pre-clinical results in redcing seizures and will continue to undergo preclinical and clinical development as a potential drug candidate.



Non-brokered private placement at a premium to the market price (at the time of close), issuing 4,587,022 common share units at a price of $0.85 per unit for gross proceeds of $3,898,969. The Canadian launch of Viola-branded products in partnership with Medical Cannabis by ShoppersTM. Through this partnership Canadian medical and adult use consumers will have access to products by the equity-focused brand for the first time.

Santa Marta Golden Hemp S.A.S. (SMGH), the companys majority owned subsidiary met global conformity standards of Good Agricultural and Collection Practice (GACP), an international guide set forth by the European Medicines Agency. The certification will allow for the expansion of the Companys raw materials supply business to include organic and now GACP certified dried flower and biomass globally. Conference Call Details DATE: November 12, 2021 TIME: 8:30 AM Eastern Time LINK: https://tinyurl.com/AVCNQ32021 About Avicanna Avicanna is a Canadian commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company established in cannabinoid research, development, and evidence-based products for the global consumer, as well as medical and pharmaceutical market segments. In leading global cannabinoid advancements, Avicanna conducts most of its research in Canada at its R&D headquarters in the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Centre, JLABS @ Toronto, located in the MaRS Discovery District. The Company actively collaborates with leading Canadian academic and medical institutions. Avicanna has established an industry-leading scientific platform including advanced R&D and clinical development which has led to the commercialization of over twenty products across four main market segments: Medical Cannabis & Wellness Products: Marketed under the RHO Phyto brand, or Magisterial Preparations, these medical and wellness products are an advanced line of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis products containing varying ratios of cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The product portfolio contains a full formulary of products including oral, sublingual, topical, and transdermal deliveries that have controlled dosing, enhanced absorption and stability studies supported by pre-clinical data. The advanced formulary is marketed with consumer, patient and medical community education and training. Avicannas medical and wellness product portfolio also forms the foundation of the Companys pharmaceutical pipeline with the contribution of the formulations that form the basis of the products as well as the data generated from sales and participation of the products in real world evidence studies.

Marketed under the RHO Phyto brand, or Magisterial Preparations, these medical and wellness products are an advanced line of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis products containing varying ratios of cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The product portfolio contains a full formulary of products including oral, sublingual, topical, and transdermal deliveries that have controlled dosing, enhanced absorption and stability studies supported by pre-clinical data. The advanced formulary is marketed with consumer, patient and medical community education and training. Avicannas medical and wellness product portfolio also forms the foundation of the Companys pharmaceutical pipeline with the contribution of the formulations that form the basis of the products as well as the data generated from sales and participation of the products in real world evidence studies. CBD Derma-Cosmetic Products: Marketed under the Pura H&W or Pura Earth brands, these registered, clinically tested, dermacosmetic products include a portfolio of functional CBD topical products.

Marketed under the Pura H&W or Pura Earth brands, these registered, clinically tested, dermacosmetic products include a portfolio of functional CBD topical products. Pharmaceuticals: Leveraging Avicannas scientific platform, vertical integration, and real-world evidence, Avicanna has created a pipeline of patent-pending drug candidates which are indication-specific and in various stages of clinical development and commercialization. These cannabinoid-based drug candidates provide solutions for unmet medical needs in the areas of dermatology, chronic pain, and various neurological disorders. Avicannas first pharmaceutical preparation (Trunerox TM ) is in the drug registration stage in South America.

Leveraging Avicannas scientific platform, vertical integration, and real-world evidence, Avicanna has created a pipeline of patent-pending drug candidates which are indication-specific and in various stages of clinical development and commercialization. These cannabinoid-based drug candidates provide solutions for unmet medical needs in the areas of dermatology, chronic pain, and various neurological disorders. Avicannas first pharmaceutical preparation (Trunerox ) is in the drug registration stage in South America. Cannabis Raw Materials, Seeds, and Bulk Formulations: Marketed under the Aureus brand, the Companys raw material business has successfully completed sales to 11 countries. Aureus offers cannabis dried flower, standardized seeds, full spectrum extracts, and cannabinoid distillates, isolated cannabinoids (CBD, THC, cannabigerol (CBG) and other rare cannabinoids), and bulk formulations derived from hemp and cannabis cultivars through its sustainable, economical, and industrial-scale subsidiaries based in Colombia. The majority of the Aureus products are produced at Santa Marta Golden Hemp S.A.S. (SMGH), the Companys majority-owned subsidiary, which is also Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) certified and has United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Program certification for its hemp cultivar. SOURCE Avicanna Inc. Stay Connected For more information about Avicanna, visit www.avicanna.com, or contact Ivana Maric by email at [email protected]. The Company posts updates through videos from the official company YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFXPBGdKSxOUOf_VZoSFSUA. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Statements This news release includes statements containing certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These forward-looking statements are only predictions. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forward-looking statements throughout this news release. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions, estimates and assumptions of management in light of management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected developments at the date the statements are made, such as current and future market conditions, the current and future regulatory environment and future approvals and permits. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances could cause actual events, results, level of activity, performance, prospects, opportunities or achievements to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including general business and economic conditions, changes in laws and regulations, product demand, changes in prices of required commodities, competition, the effects of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and other risks, uncertainties and factors set out under the heading Risk Factors in the Companys annual information form dated April 15, 2020 (the AIF) and filed with Canadian securities regulators available on the Companys issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The Company cautions that the list of risks, uncertainties and other factors described in the AIF is not exhaustive and other factors could also adversely affect its results. Readers are urged to consider the risks, uncertainties and assumptions carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities laws.



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Bell Canada announces approval of proposed amendments to its 1976 trust indenture

This news release contains forward-looking statements. For a description of the related risk factors and assumptions, please see the section entitled "Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements" later in this news release. MONTREAL, Nov. 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Bell Canada ("Bell") announced today it has successfully completed the previously announced consent and proxy solicitation (the "Solicitation") with respect to proposed amendments (the "Proposed Amendments") to its trust indenture dated as of July 1, 1976 (as amended or supplemented, the "1976 Indenture"), pursuant to which the debentures listed below were issued (the "Debentures"). The extraordinary resolution to approve the Proposed Amendments, described in Bell's consent and proxy solicitation statement dated September 29, 2021 (the "Solicitation Statement") was approved at the special meeting of the holders of Debentures held on November 12, 2021 by the favourable votes of holders of more than 66 2/3% of the outstanding principal amount of Debentures represented at the meeting. Bell intends to execute a supplemental indenture to the 1976 Indenture pursuant to which the Proposed Amendments will become effective. As described in the Solicitation Statement, following the effectiveness of the Proposed Amendments, Bell will pay a fee to Debentureholders as at the record date who responded to the Solicitation to consent to or withhold consent from, or to vote for or against, the Proposed Amendments of $0.50 for each $1,000 principal amount of Debentures held under the 1976 Indenture. Debentures under the 1976 Indenture







Series CUSIP 10% Debentures, Series EH, due November 15, 2041 N/A 9.7% Debentures, Series EJ, due December 15, 2032 078149DK4 9.25% Debentures, Series EO, due May 15, 2053 078149DN8 10% Debentures, Series EU, due December 1, 2054 078149DR9 7% Debentures, Series EZ, due September 24, 2027 078149DW8

BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. acted as the Solicitation Agent for the Solicitation. D.F. King Canada now part of TMX Group acted as the Information Agent for the Solicitation. Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements about certain matters, including the Proposed Amendments and implementation thereof and the fee payment, that are not historical facts. A statement we make is forward-looking when it uses what we know and expect today to make a statement about the future. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by the words assumption, goal, guidance, objective, outlook, project, strategy, target and other similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as aim, anticipate, believe, could, expect, intend, may, plan, seek, should, strive and will. All such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbour" provisions of applicable Canadian securities laws and of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Unless otherwise indicated by us, forward-looking statements contained in this news release describe Bell's expectations as at the date hereof. Except as may be required by Canadian securities laws, we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Forward-looking statements, by their very nature, are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties and are based on several assumptions, both general and specific, which give rise to the possibility that actual results or events could differ materially from our expectations expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. As a result, we cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement made in this news release will materialize and we caution you against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are provided herein for the purpose of informing Debentureholders about Bell's plans with respect to the Proposed Amendments. Readers are cautioned, however, that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements made in this news release are based on a number of assumptions that Bell believed were reasonable on the day it made the forward-looking statements, including that the Proposed Amendments would have the effects described in the Solicitation Statement. If our assumptions turn out to be inaccurate, actual results or events could be materially different from what we expect. There is a risk that the Proposed Amendments, if implemented, may not ultimately have some or all of the effects anticipated by us. Important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by Bell's forward-looking statements made in this news release are disclosed in section 9 entitled "Business risks" of BCE's annual MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2020, as such disclosure has been updated in BCE's 2021 First Quarter MD&A dated April 28, 2021, 2021 Second Quarter MD&A dated August 4, 2021, and 2021 Third Quarter MD&A dated November 3, 2021, as filed with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and available on SEDAR at sedar.com and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available on EDGAR at sec.gov. These documents are also available on BCE's website at bce.ca. Readers are cautioned that the risks referred to above are not the only ones that could affect forward-looking statements made in this news release. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial may also have a material adverse effect on forward-looking statements made in this news release. About Bell

Bell is Canada's largest communications company, providing advanced broadband wireless, TV, Internet, media and business communication services throughout the country. Founded in Montreal in 1880, Bell is wholly owned by BCE Inc. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca or BCE.ca. Through Bell for Better, we are investing to create a better today and a better tomorrow by supporting the social and economic prosperity of our communities with a commitment to the highest environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. This includes the Bell Let's Talk initiative, which promotes Canadian mental health with national awareness and anti-stigma campaigns like Bell Let's Talk Day and significant Bell funding of community care and access, research and workplace leadership initiatives throughout the country. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bell-canada-announces-approval-of-proposed-amendments-to-its-1976-trust-indenture-301423309.html SOURCE Bell Canada

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Biosight Announces Initiation of Phase 2 Clinical Trial of Aspacytarabine for MDS and AML

U.S. Based Phase 2 Trial will Evaluate Aspacytarabine in Second Line Relapsed/Refractory MDS and AML across 18 Sites

Builds Upon Ongoing Phase 2 Investigator Sponsored Study with the Groupe Francophone des Myelodysplasies AIRPORT CITY, Israel, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biosight Ltd., a pharmaceutical development company developing innovative therapeutics for hematological malignancies and disorders, today announced the initiation of a Phase 2 trial to evaluate aspacytarabine (BST-236), Biosights proprietary antimetabolite, as a second line treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The multi-center study will be conducted across 18 leading U.S. and Israeli sites including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Biosight has built a strong foundation of compelling data that suggests that aspacytarabine may serve as a more tolerable and effective standard of care treatment for patients with AML, said Dr. Ruth Ben Yakar, Chief Executive Officer of Biosight. The initiation of this multi-center, U.S. based, Phase 2 study is an important step forward in the development of aspacytarabine, seeking to address unmet needs in the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory AML and MDS. We are proud to be continuing our momentum in the clinic and look forward to collaborating with leading academic medical centers as we progress the study. Eytan Stein, M.D., Hematologic Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and lead investigator of the study said Im encouraged by the results from Biosights Phase 2b trial to be presented at the 63rd American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. The efficacy achieved in a challenging population, across key measures including complete remission and MRD (-) rates, duration of response and overall survival, are noteworthy. Furthermore, these results were particularly impressive as they were achieved with a favorable safety and tolerability profile in patients who are unfit for intensive chemotherapy. Patients with relapsed or refractory AML and MDS have limited treatment options and poor prognoses, with many patients unable to tolerate intensive chemotherapy. I look forward to leading this new Phase 2 study to evaluate the potential of aspacytarabine which may ultimately become the standard of care for relapsed or refractory MDS and AML patients for whom currently there are no effective treatments. The Phase 2 open label multi-center study will assess the safety and efficacy of BST-236 as a single agent in adult patients unfit for standard therapy with AML or higher-risk (HR)MDS who fail to respond to, or have relapsed following, first line therapy. A similar study in patients with relapsed/refractory AML and MDS is ongoing in collaboration with the European cooperative group, Groupe Francophone des Myelodysplasies (GFM). Approximately 40 adult patients with relapsed and/or refractory AML and approximately 40 adult patients with relapsed and/or refractory HR MDS will be enrolled into the two studies. Primary endpoints include complete remission (CR) rate in AML patients and Overall Response Rate (ORR) in MDS patients, with ORR defined as the proportion of patients who achieve a CR or partial response (PR) per proposal for modification of the International Working Group (IWG) criteria for MDS, 2006. About Aspacytarabine (BST-236) Aspacytarabine is a novel proprietary anti-metabolite. It is composed of cytarabine covalently bound to asparagine, acting as a pro-drug of cytarabine. Cytarabine has served as the backbone of AML therapy for over 45 years due to its superior efficacy. However, it is associated with severe bone marrow, gastrointestinal, and neurological toxicities, which significantly limit its use, especially in older and medically compromised patients. Due to its unique pharmacokinetics and metabolism, aspacytarabine enables high-dose therapy with lower systemic exposure to free cytarabine and relative sparing of normal tissues. As such, aspacytarabine may serve as a new therapy for AML and other hematological malignancies and disorders, including for older adults who are unfit for intensive therapy. Aspacytarabine was granted FDA Fast Track Designation for treatmnt of AML patients unfit for standard chemotherapy, and FDA and EMA Orphan Drug Designations, which entitle Biosight to seven and ten years of market exclusivity in the U.S. and Europe, respectively, upon aspacytarabine marketing approval for the treatment of AML in each territory.



Interim results from an ongoing Phase 2b study evaluating aspacytarabine as a single-agent first-line AML therapy demonstrate safety and single-agent activity, and additional studies are ongoing to evaluate aspacytarabine as a second line treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory MDS or AML. For more information regarding the Phase 2b clinical study of BST-236, please visit www.clinicaltrials.gov. About Biosight Ltd.

Biosight is a private Phase 2 clinical stage biotech company developing innovative therapeutics for hematological malignancies and disorders. Biosights lead product, aspacytarabine (BST-236), is an innovative proprietary anti-metabolite which addresses unmet medical needs by enabling high-dose chemotherapy with reduced systemic toxicity. Aspacytarabine is currently being investigated as a single agent in a Phase 2b clinical trial, which recently completed enrollment, for the first-line treatment of AML. Interim results demonstrate tolerability with promising efficacy in the challenging population of AML patients unfit for intensive standard-of-care chemotherapy. Additional Phase 2 studies are ongoing in patients with relapsed/refractory AML and MDS, including a study in collaboration with the European cooperative group, Groupe Francophone des Myelodysplasies (GFM). For additional information, please visit www.biosight-pharma.com. Important Additional Information and Where to Find It In connection with the proposed business combination between Biosight and Advaxis, Inc. (Advaxis) pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Merger and Reorganization, dated July 4, 2021 by and among Advaxis, Biosight and other parties referenced therein (the Merger Agreement), Advaxis filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) a definitive proxy statement/prospectus contained in a registration statement on Form S-4, as amended, and Advaxis has mailed the definitive proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant documentation to Advaxis stockholders. This press release does not contain all the information that should be considered concerning the proposed transaction. It is not intended to form the basis of any investment decision or any other decision in respect of the proposed business combination. BIOSIGHT STOCKHOLDERS, ADVAXIS STOCKHOLDERS AND OTHER INTERESTED PERSONS ARE ADVISED TO READ THE DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOLICITATION OF PROXIES FOR THE SPECIAL MEETING TO BE HELD TO APPROVE THE TRANSACTIONS CONTEMPLATED BY THE PROPOSED BUSINESS COMBINATION BECAUSE THESE MATERIALS CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BIOSIGHT, ADVAXIS AND THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. The definitive proxy statement/prospectus was mailed to Advaxis stockholders of record as of September 19, 2021. Stockholders are also able to obtain a copy of the definitive proxy statement/prospectus free of charge at Advaxis website at www.advaxis.com or by written request to Advaxis at 9 Deer Park Drive, Suite K-1, Monmouth Junction, NJ, Attention: Igor Gitelman, VP of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer. The proxy statement/prospectus and other documents relating to the proposed transaction can also be obtained free of charge from the SECs website at the SECs website at www.sec.gov or from Advaxis by contacting Advaxis external Investor Relations firm, LifeSci Advisors, LLC, at [email protected]. Completion of the proposed transactions is subject to approval by the stockholders of Advaxis and certain other conditions. The proposed transaction is expected to close shortly after the special meeting assuming all conditions are met. Participants in the Solicitation

Biosight and Advaxis and their respective directors and executive officers may be considered participants in the solicitation of proxies with respect to the proposed transaction. Information regarding such directors and executive officers, including a description of their interests, by security holdings or otherwise, in the proposed transaction are set forth in the definitive proxy statement/prospectus filed with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction. Stockholders, potential investors and other interested persons should read the definitive proxy statement/prospectus carefully before making any voting or investment decisions. These documents can be obtained free of charge as described in the preceding paragraph. Forward-Looking Statements This communication contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions 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. Forward-looking statements are any statements that express the current beliefs and expectations of management, including but not limited to statements related to the risk that the proposed transaction may not be completed in a timely manner or at all, which may adversely affect Biosights and/or Advaxis business and the price of the common stock of Advaxis; the failure of either party to satisfy any of the conditions to the consummation of the proposed transaction, including the adoption of the Merger Agreement by Advaxis stockholders and the receipt of certain governmental and regulatory approvals; uncertainties as to the timing of the consummation of the proposed transaction; the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the Merger Agreement; the effect of the announcement or pendency of the proposed transaction on Biosights and/or Advaxis business relationships, operating results and business generally; risks that the proposed transaction disrupts current plans and operations and the potential difficulties in employee retention as a result of the proposed transaction; risks related to diverting managements attention from Biosights and/or Advaxis ongoing business operations; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Biosight and/or Advaxis related to the Merger Agreement or the proposed transaction; unexpected costs, charges or expenses resulting from the proposed transaction; Biosights and Advaxis respective history of net operating losses and uncertainty regarding their ability to achieve profitability; expected clinical development of their drug product candidates, statements about their respective balance sheet positions, including the sufficiency of their cash and cash equivalents to fund obligations into the future, and statements related to the goals, plans and expectations for their ongoing clinical studies, including the study announced by this press release. These and other risks are discussed in Advaxis filings with the SEC, including, without limitation, the definitive proxy statement on Schedule 14A, filed on October 29, 2021, its Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed on January 22, 2021, and its periodic reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. Any statements contained herein that do not describe historical facts are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from those discussed in such forward-looking statements. Biosight and Advaxis caution readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they were made. Biosight and Advaxis undertake no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements, except as otherwise required by law, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contact:

Chuck Padala

646-627-8390

LifeSci Advisors, LLC



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Chat Genie Invites Merchants to Bridge the Gap Between eCommerce and Consumers at 'Hyperconvenient eCommerce' Zoom Webinar

MANILA, Philippines, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In the fast-moving world of eCommerce, being where the customer is has never been more important. As such, end-to-end store platform ChatGenie ( https://chatgenie.ph/ ) invites merchants to the "Hyperconvenient eCommerce: Using Super Apps To Sell In A Fast Moving Consumer Market" virtual Zoom webinar to help businesses grasp this unique opportunity on November 18, 5-6 PM. ChatGenie recognizes the need for hyper convenience for the user and how multi-channel commerce helps businesses launch new sales across multiple channels and super apps, such as Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Viber, GCash, with a single subscription. "My key takeaway is businesses should sell everywhere. Everywhere, where your customers are and want to be. If your customers are on social media, messaging, and live-streaming apps, then you should sell on those platforms," explained Ragde Falcis, CEO of ChatGenie. Learning From the Best In partnership with Facebook Messenger, the "Hyperconvenient eCommerce: Using Super Apps to Sell in a Fast Moving Consumer Market" webinar hosted by entrepreneur RJ Ledesma, represents a perfect chance for businesses to see just what ChatGenie has to offer. Merchants who have used theservice to expand their business will also share their insights with Tiny Buds (Lorina Tan), Marikina Bakery (Martha Comia), and Manilachon (Michael Pascual).



In addition, partner platforms like Facebook (Malte Goesche), GCash (Ton Concepcion), and PayMongo (Jolo Yulo) will be at the webinar to help users understand the seamless and effective eCommerce solutions that can transform their business online. Registration for the webinar is free, with limited slots available. Interested users can reserve their spots via https://chatgenie.ph/webinar/ now.

Leveraging the Platform for Success With digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others growing and evolving to serve more than their primary purpose, consumers now demand experiences that are more instant than ever before. ChatGenie enables merchants to open a store inside the world's biggest apps and sell online anytime and anywhere. "With ChatGenie, we can allow businesses to expand their reach by opening Mini Apps or Sales Channels within our supported platforms," Falcis said. "To complete the solution, we also built a dashboard where businesses can manage orders that are coming from Messenger, Instagram, Viber, GCash, PayMaya, and soon other Super Apps." The data shares a similar story as well. More than 2,500 businesses have utilized ChatGenie's expertise on Facebook alone, with also support for more than 20 third-party partners and integrations. The PHP150M worth of transactions via ChatGenie reflects a selection of markets ripe for businesses, and ChatGenie is on hand to help them sell everywhere. About Chat Genie ChatGenie's vision is to become the go-to platform for businesses and retailers looking to sell where their customers are, powering businesses and integrating eCommerce, chatbots, data, and the ease of online shopping into a cohesive experience. Be it Facebook Messenger, Viber, Line, WhatsApp, or short-form video sharing platforms like Tiktok and mobile wallet apps such as PayTM, Alipay, GCash, PayMaya, ChatGenie can support businesses and bring seamlessness to customers. You can find out more about the team and their commitment to accelerating this trend globally here: https://chatgenie.ph/ or on Facebook , Instagram , and LinkedIn . Media Contact: Nico Nicomedes - [email protected]

Ragde Falcis - [email protected] SOURCE ChatGenie

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Cook County partners with the Illinois Smart City & Region Association (ISCRA)

CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cook County Technology and Innovation Committee adopted Resolution (21-5745) with the Illinois Smart City & Region Association (ISCRA) to play a leading role in promoting the benefits of technology education and collaboration with Cook County's municipalities.



"ISCRA has created a unique and trusted platform where city & regional leaders can learn about the appropriate smart city and sustainability initiatives that can help their communities, without biased sales pitches," said ISCRA Co-founder and Municipal Relations Officer Randy Kowalski.



ISCRA is a non-profit member-driven organization whose mission is to provide impartial technology education, information and facilitation to more than 1,200 municipalities and corresponding regions throughout Illinois.



"This needless to say, is the future. We should embrace it as much as encourage our villages to embrace it The County should embrace it," said Cook County Commissioner John P. Daley.







ISCRA has been actively engaging Illinois communities since 2018 and is a founding member of the National Smart Coalition Partnership. ISCRA is the only entity in Illinois that has created a neutral platform where city leaders can engage and collaborate with technology vendors to learn how adopting technology can increase revenues, generate savings, and increase the health, safety and welfare of their citizens. For more on ISCRA and how your community can join, please visit:

https://www.illinoissmart.org/membership/





Twitter: #illinoissmart #connectingthedisconnected



LinkedIn: ISCRA www.illinoissmart.org View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cook-county-partners-with-the-illinois-smart-city--region-association-iscra-301423159.html SOURCE Illinois Smart City and Region Association (ISCRA)

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Dustin Capp, CEO of Digital Fund, Scales Up Digital Fundraising Start-up

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Fund announces they have hit a significant milestone. With political campaigns turning towards digital platforms, the importance of candidates' efforts can not be overstated. It will ensure both successes in raising funds and engaging supporters throughout every step of an election cycle. On November 12th, 2021, in Scottsdale, Arizona, Digital Fund, a recent start-up, today announced it broke one million in digital fundraising in just a few short months. As the next midterm election cycle is underway, the company is positioned to lead in small-dollar donation fundraising advertising. Traditionally political campaigns relied on traditional methods that resulted in costly fees and minimal accountability in proprietary data collection, Digital Fund is transcending the category by reinventing grassroots fundraising tactics boosting engagement and data analytics with small-dollar donors. Digital Fund was founded in June of 2021 by an Internet Marketing Entrepreneur and Media Distribution company Founder: Dustin Capp formally founded BrandxMedica and Capptomic. As political campaigns prepare for this upcoming election cycle, it is necessary to rethink whom you're trusting with your digital fundraising and engagement strategy. With more people donating through digital channels than ever before, Digital campaigns have become more prominent and require frequent changes to succeed across different target audiences. "After speaking with multiple prominent andidates and reviewing their advertising spend and performance, we noticed that there was an imminent need to take this industry forward. Political campaigns are paying ridiculous fees for lackluster work," say's Dustin Capp, CEO.



Since digital fundraising has exploded, political campaigns have not been able to keep up or break away from cookie-cutter offerings, ultimately producing uninspiring digital campaigns. Digital Fund has transformed the donor journey utilizing technology to build accurate data segmentation, extremely important for grassroots digital fundraising, retargeting, and A/B testing strategies.

The new era of fundraising is underway, and candidates need to modernize their grassroots strategies. Whereas previously campaigns relied on traditional methods that cost them time, money, or both - nowadays, small-dollar digital conversion rates are much higher than ever before! With this shift comes an opportunity for a political candidate's campaign who wants more engagement opportunities from donors. "When you're called to serve, you step up and answer the call. Never in a million years would I have thought I would be in the middle of multiple key races, helping fuel grassroots movements, say's Capp. "We are focused on reinventing how political advertising is handled, using core brand-building strategies that resonate with donors unlike anything seen before in this sphere." Political candidates have a big opportunity to build engagement with potential voters and build momentum through grassroots digital fundraising. Tracking small-dollar donations provide a barometer for how a candidate is performing. With political campaigns turning to digital, candidates must ensure that their fundraising efforts and engagement capitalize using this strategy. About

Digital Fund, a digital fundraising firm headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, has emerged to become one of the hottest ad production and digital fundraising firms. They have produced outstanding results for conservative candidates and non-profits. CONTACT: Dustin Capp

[email protected]

480-424-5559 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dustin-capp-ceo-of-digital-fund-scales-up-digital-fundraising-start-up-301423334.html SOURCE Digital Fund

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] iSTAR Medical present final results from STAR-II European trial for MINIject in glaucoma patients at AAO

For immediate release iSTAR Medical present final results from STAR-II European trial for MINIject in glaucoma patients at AAO Data from STAR-II trial show consistently outstanding performance and safety in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma up to two-years post implantation WAVRE, Belgium  12 November 2021: iSTAR Medical, a medtech company pioneering novel minimally-invasive implants for glaucoma surgery (MIGS), today announced final results of the STAR-II European trial for its MIGS device, MINIjectTM. These data show consistently outstanding performance and a favourable safety profile in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma up to two years of follow-up. The trial results will be presented at the 125th American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) meeting in New Orleans, LA (USA), from 12 to 15 November 2021. Two-year results from STAR-II

The two-year results from the MINIject STAR-II European trial indicated sustained, powerful efficacy and favourable safety outcomes in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma. Consistent with all MINIject trial outcomes to date, mean intraocular pressure (IOP) was remarkably reduced by 36% from 24.6mmHg at baseline to 15.5mmHg at two-year follow-up, with a 52% reduction in glaucoma medication use from 2.9 at baseline to 1.4 at trial completion. Furthermore, corneal health results in this study were outstanding, which is of pivotal importance for long-term safety.1,2,3 The remarkable outcomes observed throughout the European trial keep adding to a significant body of evidence showing how MINIject offers a powerful, bleb-free option for the treatment of patients with primary open-angle glaucoma, said Dr I. Paul Singh, The Eye Centres of Racine & Kenosha, WI (USA), who is presenting the trial results at AAO. This may enable more effective glaucoma management and better quality of life for patients that need lower IOP and who are uncontrolled or struggling to comply with multiple medications. In the STAR-II trial, 29 patients with open-angle glaucoma were implanted with MINIject across eight centres in Germany, France and Spain. These patients were followed for two years post-intervention. Three-year data from STAR-GLOBAL

In addition, interim data from the STAR-GLOBAL trial indicate that MINIjects sustained efficacy and safety results, including the limited need for reoperations, have now been maintained for up to three years, with favourable results for corneal health. These preliminary longer-term data on MINIject are particularly encouraging, as they show a very solid sustained performance and safety profile, whic are consistent throughout this trial so far and across all trials with the device to date, said Dr Steven Vold, Vold Vision, Fayetteville, AR (USA) who is presenting the STAR-GLOBAL data at AAO.



STAR-GLOBAL is a prospective, long-term follow-up trial, which enrolls patients already implanted with MINIject and followed for two years as part of previous STAR trials, to evaluate long-term efficacy and safety up to five years. MINIject leverages the advantages of the supraciliary space

Unlike MIGS devices commercially available, MINIject is implanted into the supraciliary space, a natural fluid-drainage pathway for powerful reduction of eye pressure. Unlike previous supraciliary MIGS devices, MINIject has not seen issues with scarring around the implant (fibrosis) nor substantial reductions of corneal cell health.1,2,3,4,5

The antifibrotic properties and flexible structure of the MINIject porous proprietary STAR material are enabling a safe use of the supraciliary space while unlocking unprecedented MIGS results in patients with glaucoma. These results indicate a balance of sustained efficacy and favourable safety, and may conclusively demonstrate in time that MINIject outperforms alternative MIGS options, said iSTAR Medical CEO, Michel Vanbrabant. The STAR-II and STAR-GLOBAL outcomes will be available as on-demand posters throughout the AAO meeting, starting from Friday 12 November. - Ends - For more information

Katherin Awad

Head of Marketing, iSTAR Medical

[email protected]; +32 10 77 16 54 For media

Consilium Strategic Communications

Amber Fennell, Chris Welsh, Kris Lam

[email protected] About iSTAR Medical

iSTAR Medical SA is a medtech company developing minimally invasive ophthalmic implants for the treatment of glaucoma patients. iSTAR Medical has exclusive rights for ophthalmic use of the STAR material, developed by the University of Washington, Seattle (USA). STAR has outstanding anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory properties and a unique porous structure that enhances natural fluid outflow. iSTAR Medical was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Wavre, Belgium. www.istarmed.com About MINIject

MINIject is iSTAR Medicals revolutionary MIGS device for patients with primary open-angle glaucoma. MINIject combines the unique porous structure of its proprietary STAR material with the power offered by the supraciliary space. As a result, it is designed to enhance natural fluid outflow, reducing intraocular pressure (IOP) and the need for medication, while bio-integrating with surrounding tissue, limiting inflammation, fibrosis and subsequent complications. About Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a progressive disease and the leading cause of irreversible blindness, affecting over 100 million people globally, of which primary open-angle glaucoma is the most common form.6,7 IOP reduction, through medication or surgery, helps delay disease progression.8 Medication is generally the first line treatment, but the progressive addition of multiple drops can burden patients with side effects, compliance challenges and costs.6,8 Invasive surgery can present risks with irreversible complications.6,8 MIGS is the most promising and fastest-growing glaucoma therapy due to its enhanced safety profile.8 MINIject is potentially best-in-class for its promising long-term efficacy and safety. 1 Lass, J.H., Benetz, B.A., He, J., et al. Corneal Endothelial Cell Loss and Morphometric Changes 5 Years after Phacoemulsification with or without CyPass Micro-Stent. Am J Ophthalmol, 2019; 208: 211218, doi: 10.1016/j/ajo.2019.07.016.

2 HORIZON data submitted to FDA: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf17/P170034B.pdf

3 iStent inject data submitted to FDA: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf17/P170043B.pdf

4 Grierson, I., Minckler, D., Rippy, M.K., et al. A novel suprachoroidal microinvasive glaucoma implant: in vivo biocompatibility and biointegration. BMC Biomed Eng, 2020; 2, 10, doi: 10.1186/s42490-020-00045-1.

5 Denis, P., Hirnei, C., Durr, G.M., et al. Two-year outcomes of the MINIject drainage system for uncontrolled glaucoma from the STAR-I first-in-human trial. Br J Ophthalmol. 2020; 0:16, doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2020-316888

6 Market Scope, Glaucoma Surgical Device Market Report, August 2020. https://www.market-scope.com/pages/reports/202/2020-glaucoma-surgical-device-market-report-a-global-analysis-for-2019-to-2025-august-2020

7 Jonas JB, Aung T, Bourne RR et al. "Glaucoma". Lancet 2017; 390: 208393

8 European Glaucoma Society, Terminology and Guidelines for Glaucoma, 4th Edition: B J Ophthalmol. 2017; 101:1-195, doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2016-EGSguideline.002



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Jake Removals and Storage Reveals the Moving Trends to Expect as Melbourne Emerges From Lockdown

MELBOURNE, Australia, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As Melbourne emerges from lockdown, many Melburnians are looking forward to what the city's post-lockdown future may look like. Expert removalists Melbourne-wide Jake Removals and Storage has released a report detailing the moving trends of clients in Victoria. Jake Removals and Storage reveals residents of the outer suburbs of Melbourne should brace themselves to see an influx of city dwellers. While the hustle and bustle of inner-city life was previously appealing to young city workers, many are now seeking a slower pace of life in suburbia. As homes are more spacious and typically more affordable in the suburbs, Melbourne's suburbia will likely see a rise in homeowners who once rented smaller spaces in the CBD or surrounding suburbs. According to Jake Removals and Storage, Australians are interested in buying second homes further out in more rural areas. After hundreds of days spent inside the same four alls during lockdown, Aussies are itching to have another space of their own to escape to, whether it be on the beach, tucked away in a country town, or in a different state altogether. In Victoria specifically, Melbourne residents have been utilising movers Melbourne-wide in search of wide, open spaces.





Experts are predicting a likely emigration of Australians to other parts of the world upon the opening of international borders. Whether to be closer to overseas family members or to dip their toes back into the world of international travel, Jake Removals and Storage reports that many Australians - and Melburnians especially - have felt cooped up for too long.



Whether moving a few suburbs over or to a completely new city, Melburnians can rely on the experts in removals Melbourne-wide, Jake Removals and Storage. Contact the best cheap removalists Melbourne-wide today. This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jake-removals-and-storage-reveals-the-moving-trends-to-expect-as-melbourne-emerges-from-lockdown-301422630.html SOURCE Jake Removals and Storage

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Natuzzi S.P.A. Announces Release Dates for 2021 Third Quarter Financial Results and Conference Call

Natuzzi S.p.A. (NYSE: NTZ) ("Natuzzi" or the "Company") will disclose its 2021 third quarter financial results on Friday November 26, 2021, after the market closes.

The Company will host a conference call on Monday November 29, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (4.00 p.m. Italy time, or 3.00 p.m. UK time) to discuss financial results.

To join the live conference call, interested persons will need to click on the following link:

https://www.c-meeting.com/web3/join/3PQUFXRW48XTKQ

Once the meeting is officially opened on the day o the event, participants will be given the option to join the event by video or by telephone.





Monday November 29, 2021, 1:00 p.m. ET until Wednesday December 29, 2021. To access the replay of the conference call, interested persons need to dial +1-844-512-2921 (toll-free) for calls from U.S. and Canada, and +1-412-317-6671 for calls from other countries. The access code for the replay is: 13725051. _______________________________________________________________________________

About Natuzzi S.p.A.

Founded in 1959 by Pasquale Natuzzi, Natuzzi S.p.A., Natuzzi is one of the most renowned brands in the production and distribution of design and luxury furniture. With a global retail network of 577 mono-brand stores as of June 30, 2021, in addition to galleries, Natuzzi distributes its collections worldwide. Natuzzi products embed the finest spirit of Italian design and the unique craftmanship details of the "Made in Italy", where a predominant part of its production takes place. Natuzzi has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since May 13, 1993. Always committed to social responsibility and environmental sustainability, Natuzzi S.p.A. is ISO 9001 and 14001 certified (Quality and Environment), ISO 45001 certified (Safety on the Workplace) and FSC certified (Forest Stewardship Council). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005571/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] NextGen Growth Partners Executive Honored in Crain's Chicago Business 2021 Cohort

NextGen (News - Alert) Growth Partners ("NGP"), a leading private equity firm that partners with Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and management teams to invest in sustainable, growing companies, announced today that Jim Bland has been named to the Crain's Chicago Business 2021 Notable Military Veteran Executives class. "Jim is an exceptional leader on the NGP team as well as within his community. We couldn't think of a more worthy honoree," Brian O'Connor, NGP Founder and Managing Partner, said. "In addition to his extensive investing and operating experience, Jim's background as an accomplished Field Artillery Captain and continued work with the Armed Forces positions him to be uniquely qualified in mentoring aspiring entrepreneur-veterans." Bland started his career as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army where he continues to serve as the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army (CASA), a three-star general protocol appointed position representing the Secretary of the Army in Illinois. Bland earned his B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point and his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. "I'm humbled by the Crain's award," Bland said. "Veterans aren't often thought of as being entrepreneurial, but I have found the opposite. Veterans can bring leadership, strategic and execution skills, and resiliencyto bear in the markets in which we invest."



Bland is currently working alongside Chicago-based Naval Veteran Mitch Pulver at NextGen Growth Partners, to mentor him into a CEO position within a company that we are working to acquire. Bland seeks to recruit several more veterans to lead acquired companies on behalf of our firm as first time CEOs. "Jim embodies the ethos of our military," Mitch Pulver, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, said. "As a fellow veteran working alongside Jim, I am privileged to interact with him daily in his role as an Investment Partner at the firm. He brings a unique perspective and experience to NextGen and has provided me with invaluable guidance along with access to his strong business and military network in my search to acquire and operate a small business."

NGP is always seeking to partner with veterans looking to operate small businesses, as well as connect with veteran business owners looking for a strategic partner to help shepherd their organization into its next phase of growth. For more information, or to speak with someone on our team, please visit nextgengp.com/careers. About NextGen Growth Partners Headquartered in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago, NextGen Growth Partners is a private equity firm that partners with the best and brightest entrepreneurial talent to acquire, operate and grow lower middle market businesses across a variety of industries. The team has a strong track record of creating value through growth and operational improvement in middle market businesses. For more information on NGP and its investment approach, please visit www.nextgengp.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005325/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] ProMIS Neurosciences Announces Third Quarter 2021 Results

TORONTO and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. (TSX: PMN) (OTCQB: ARFXF) (ProMIS or the Company), a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of antibody therapeutics targeting toxic oligomers implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases, today announced its operational and financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021.

We are pleased to be ramping up our efforts to advance our lead asset, PMN 310, closer toward the clinic, said Gene Williams, ProMIS Chairman and CEO. The financing we secured earlier this year is enabling us to unlock the potential of our platform, which we believe could have significant impact on the treatment of several neurological diseases, including Alzheimers Disease (AD), Parkinsons Disease and ALS. The strengthening of our management team and Board this quarter has also enabled us to leverage worldwide development and patent expertise and strengthen our overall competitive position. Corporate Highlights On July 2, 2021, the Company announced the voting results of its annual meeting of shareholders held on June 30, 2021, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. All resolutions described in the Management Proxy Circular and placed before the meeting were approved by the shareholders.

On July 8, 2021, the Company announced that it had filed and obtained a receipt for the Prospectus with the securities regulators in each of the provinces and territories of Canada, except Quebec.

On August 25, 2021, we announced the closing of a public offering for gross proceeds of US$20,125,000 (CDN$25,522,525).

On October 7, 2021, we announced that we would hold a special general meeting of shareholders (the Special Meeting) on December 1, 2021. We set October 18, 2021, as the record date for the Special Meeting. The purpose of the Special Meeting is to ask shareholders to grant the Board of Directors the authority, exercisable in the Boards discretion, to consolidate (or reverse split) the Companys issued and outstanding common shares in furtherance of a potential listing of the Companys shares on a stock exchange in the United States. People On September 1, 2021, the Company appointed Josh Mandel-Brehm to the board of directors. Mr. Mandel-Brehm has held various key business development and operations leadership roles at leading biotechnology companies.

On September 23, 2021, the Company appointed Maggie Shafmaster, JD, PhD, to the board of directors. Dr Shafmaster has approximately 30 years of experience providing intellectual property advice to biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. On October 22, 2021, the Company announced the expansion of its senior management team. The following changes were announced: Eugene Williams, formerly Executive Chairman, takes on the role of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), with immediate effect.

Dr. Elliot Goldstein resigned from his current role as CEO with immediate effect and continues to support us as President and special consultant to the CEO.

Gavin Malenfant joins our senior management team as Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Malenfant brings more than 30 years of biopharmaceutical experience to our team, with special focus on providing expert management and oversight of drug development programs. The top priority in the near term will be to support the timely development of the PMN310 program to completion of IND enabling activities, anticipated in the second half of 2022. He will be working with Mr. Williams and the leadership of the PMN310 project team, whose key members include: Michael Grundman, MD, Senior Medical Adviser. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Grundman was Associate Director of the Alzheimers Disease Cooperative Study at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Neurosciences at UCSD. Dr. Grundman previously served on the FDA Peripheral and Central Nervous System Advisory Committee. Ernest Bush, PhD, Head of Pharmacology/Toxicology. Dr. Bush has 35 years of experience working in the field of biomedical research and development, driving development of innovative therapies for treatment of human diseases. He has served as a consultant in non-clinical development providing advice and insight into Investigational New Drug (IND) enabling programs, pre-clinical data-set analysis for due diligence and evaluation and audits of Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) bioanalytical and toxicology facilities and studies. Dennis Chen, PhD, Head of Manufacturing. Dennis has more than 25 years of prior pharmaceutical experience in working with companies from virtual to global and all phases of development. Dennis provides Regulatory Affairs, Chemistry, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) and Biopharmaceutical Development support to ProMIS with expertise in peptides, proteins and oligonucleotides.

Financial Results Results of Operations  Three months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 The following table summarizes our results of operations for the three months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020: Three Months Ended September 30, 2021 2020 Change Revenues $ 5,101 $ - $ 5,101 Operating expenses Research and development $ 1,192,865 $ 1,053,769 $ 139,096 General and administrative 852,695 510,264 342,431 Total operating expenses 2,045,560 1,564,033 481,527 Loss from operations 2,040,459 1,564,033 476,426 Other income (1,078,483 ) - (1,078,483 ) Net loss $ 961,976 $ 1,564,033 $ (602,057 )

Research and Development Research and development expenses consist of the following: Three Months Ended September 30, 2021 2020 Change Direct research and development expenses by program: $ 590,940 $ 390,917 $ 200,023 Indirect research and development expenses: Personnel related (including stock-based compensation) 218,210 488,888 (270,678 ) Consulting expense 180,604 73,885 106,719 Patent expense 187,734 98,411 89,323 Amortization expense 15,377 1,668 13,709 Total research and development expenses $ 1,192,865 $ 1,053,769 $ 139,096



General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses consist of the following: Three Months Ended

September 30, 2021 2020 Change Personnel related (including stock-based compensation) $ 374,055 $ 242,571 $ 131,484 Professional and consulting fees 470,493 337,446 133,047 Facility-related and other 8,147 (69,753 ) 77,900 Total general and administrative expenses $ 852,695 $ 510,264 $ 342,431 The increase for the three months ended September 30, 2021, compared to the three same period in 2020, is primarily attributable to by an increase in share-based compensation of $212,237 due to the grant of share options, increased legal expense of $52,959, increased to other professional fees of $150,162 and foreign exchange losses of $88,451 due to the foreign exchange on U.S. denominated assets and liabilities offset by a reduction in contracted corporate salaries and associated facility costs of $91,304 due to reduction in compensation to management and attrition of contracted staff and decreased investor relations of $70,074 due to scale down of investor relations activities and consultants Other Income The increase in other income is primarily the change in the fair value of the derivative liability associated with the convertible debenture financing warrant liability arising from the August 2021 financing. Results of Operations  Nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 The following table summarizes our results of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020: Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 2020 Change Revenues $ 5,101 $ 1,578 $ 3,523 Operating expenses Research and development 2,451,985 2,926,242 (474,257 ) General and administrative 1,554,509 2,051,506 (496,997 ) Total operating expenses 4,006,494 4,977,748 (971,254 ) Loss from operations 4,001,393 4,976,170 (974,777 ) Other expense 4,857,346 - 4,857,346 Net loss $ 8,858,739 $ 4,976,170 $ 3,882,569

Research and Development Research and development expenses consist of the following: Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 2020 Change Direct research and development expenses by program: $ 1,173,873 $ 885,179 $ 288,694 Indirect research and development expenses: Personnel related (including stock-based compensation) 476,161 1,566,083 (1,089,922 ) Consulting expense 370,052 176,898 193,154 Patent expense 386,018 293,078 92,940 Other operating costs 45,881 5,004 40,877 Total research and development expenses $ 2,451,985 $ 2,926,242 $ (474,257 ) The decrease in research and development expense for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2020, reflects the conservation of cash resources and decreased contract salaries and associated costs of $921,576 due to reduction in compensation to management and attrition of contracted staff and decreased share-based compensation of $168,346 due to forfeiture of unvested/vested share options due to termination of consulting arrangement offset by increased costs associated with external contract research organizations for internal programs of $288,694 as the company ramps up key internal programs, increased patent expense of $92,940 due to increased maintenance fees, increased consulting expense of $193,154 and increase in amortization of property and equipment and intangible asset of $40,877. General and Administrative General and administrative expenses consist of the following: Nine Months Ended

September 30, 2021 2020 Change Personnel related (including stock-based compensation) $ 802,356 $ 910,769 $ (108,413 ) Professional and consulting fees 950,285 1,083,745 (133,460 ) Facility-related and other (198,132 ) 56,992 (255,124 ) Total general and administrative expenses $ 1,554,509 $ 2,051,506 $ (496,997 ) The decrease for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, compared to the same period in 2020, is primarily attributable to a reduction in contracted corporate salaries and associated facility costs of $342,084 due to reduction in compensation to management and attrition of contracted staff, decreased investor relations of $451,033 due to a reduction of investor relation activities and consultants and foreign exchange gains of $204,561 on U.S. denominated assets and liabilities offset by increased legal expense of $152,531, increased other professional fees of 165,042 and increased share-based compensation of $183,108, related to the grant of share options. Other Expense The increase in other expense is primarily the valuation of the derivative liability associated with the convertible debenture financing. Outlook Going forward we will focus on therapeutic programs in our core business area of differentiated antibodies for neurodegenerative and other mis-folded protein diseases. PMN310, ProMIS antibody therapy selective for toxic oligomers in Alzheimers disease, is our highest priority. In Q3, we made significant progress, in line with plans, on all the program elements discussed in the prospectus supplement in August 2021, including cell line development, GLP toxicology work, and CMC manufacturing. We are on track to complete all IND enabling work in H2 2022. The top priority for our scientific validation efforts, largely centered in Dr. Neil Cashmans lab at UBC, is currently our ALS portfolio. This portfolio includes antibodies targeting mis-folded forms of TDP-43, RACK1, SOD1, and ataxin2. The most advanced of these is the program targeting TDP-43. We have initiated both in vitro assays (assessing the impact of drug on motor neuron cell lines) and in vivo (mouse model) assays and expect readouts over the next several months. In addition, we are continuing to expand the application of our unique discovery platform, with which we can rationally design antibodies to be selective for only mis-folded, pathogenic proteins involved in disease. Our Chief Physics Officer, David Wishart, and his team are pursuing multiple novel targets. We have acquired access to the AlphaFold database of over 300,000 normal protein conformations, which is the starting point for our predictions of conformational epitopes on mis-folded molecular species using our proprietary computational algorithm Collective Coordinates. About ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. is a development stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing antibody therapeutics selectively targeting toxic oligomers implicated in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimers disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinsons disease (PD). The Companys proprietary target discovery engine is based on the use of two complementary techniques. The Company applies its thermodynamic, computational discovery platform - ProMIS and Collective Coordinates - to predict novel targets known as Disease Specific Epitopes on the molecular surface of misfolded proteins. Using this unique approach, the Company is developing novel antibody therapeutics for AD, ALS and PD. ProMIS is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ProMIS is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol PMN, and on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol ARFXF. Visit us at www.promisneurosciences.com, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn For Investor Relations please contact:

Alpine Equity Advisors

Nicholas Rigopulos, President

[email protected]

Tel. 617 901-0785 The TSX has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This information release contains certain forward-looking information. Such information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by statements herein, and therefore these statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. All forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to it as well as other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified by the Company in its public securities filings, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.





[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Prophecy DeFi Provides Operational Update on Layer2 Blockchain

TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Prophecy DeFi Inc. ("Prophecy DeFi", "PDFI" or the "Company") (CSE: PDFI) is pleased to provide an operational update, further to its press release dated October 19, 2021, on its wholly owned subsidiary, Layer2 Blockchain Inc. ("Layer2" or the "Subsidiary") Layer2 Blockchain Investment Update Since our press release of October 19th highlighting the first 90 days of operations, Layer2 has continued to produce significant returns from existing positions, generating yield and capital gains of $2.98M from its original $3.65M in deployed capital in under 120 days of operations. The deployed capital now stands at $6.63M and we are pleased to announce that on November 11th, Prophecy DeFi provided additional capital to Layer2 in order to take advantage of new market opportunities. This increases Layer2's total deployable capital base to $7.13M. Layer2 is uniquely positioned in the industry to identify and provide liquidity to emerging DeFi protocols. The team continues to discover compelling opportunities, deploy capital, and generate outsized returns. Layer2's ability to execute on its strategy is due to its position in the industry as true DeFi operators, who are identifying high-quality DeFi projects and working alongside the Founding Teams of these protocols to become a liquidity partner at the time of their launch. Impermax Finance Impermax is a innovate new DeFi protocol that has launched on Polygon, Arbitrum and Avalanche, all layer two blockchain protocols, in the last three months. This multichain expansion has driven rapid growth in their TVL from $8M to over $50M. Impermax provides users the ability to borrow against their existing LP tokens, by using them as collateral. This allows sophisticated investors to leverage their LP positions to maximize yield and IMX is the first permissions protocol to offer this service. Layer2 identfied this project as an emerging DeFi protocol, which has tremendous potential. Recognizing this, Layer2 worked directly with Impermax's founders to acquire a position of IMX, the protocol's governance token. Thus far, Layer2 has deployed $152,832 in the form of single sided and traditional liquidity to Impermax, which now has a market value of $473,549 and has returned an additional $44,595 in yield.



"The Layer2 team has been a great partner of Impermax's since we first deployed on the Polygon blockchain. Prophecy and Layer2's strong connections within the Decentralized Finance and layer two blockchain industry will continue to enable IMX's rapid growth to a billion-dollar DeFi protocol." commented Simone Rigolon, CEO of Impermax Finance. Additional DeFi Opportunities

Layer2's positions are currently spread across Polygon, Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. These positions are concentrated in ETH, BNB, SX, and MATIC tokens. Prophecy DeFi's conviction in the growth of Decentralized Finance is proving to be accurate, with the Total Locked Value (TVL) in Decentralized Finance protocols now standing at over US$270B, according to DeFi Llama, which represents an approx. 1,725% increase from one year ago. There are now 26 blockchains and 500+ DeFi protocols, with this number increasing every week. The Layer2 team believes it will continue to generate significant monthly yields on capital as opportunities continue to proliferate. Andrew Young, Layer2 Blockchain Chief Executive, said: "The growth in Total Locked Value in Decentralized Finance protocols has been explosive and is continuing to provide Layer2 with tremendous opportunities to deploy capital." "The Decentralized Finance sector remains at its infancy, and we fundamentally believe that growth and adoption is inevitable," commented John McMahon, CEO of Prophecy DeFi. "The Layer2 team has honed their skills in identifying the best projects, negotiating positions, and injecting capital to realize outsized returns. Their access to the top tier projects, coupled with their ability to negotiate positions at "day zero" is providing our investors with what we believe is the best way to capitalize on this emerging and explosive sector. And for that reason, we are advancing additional capital to the team." As one of the few public companies dedicated to operating directly in the layer two DeFi space, the company believes it is uniquely positioned to fulfill the emerging liquidity provisioning needs of the market. PDFI intends to continue advancing additional capital into the Layer2 business to increase exposure to DeFi related digital assets. An ever-increasing capital base has the effect of potentially increasing absolute returns. Further, Layer2 compounds 100% of its returns into additional trading positions. About Prophecy DeFi Prophecy DeFi (CSE: PDFI) officially launched on June 23rd, 2021. The company aims to bring together technology start-ups in the Blockchain and DeFi sectors to fund innovation, elevate industry research, and create new business opportunities in a coherent ecosystem. www.prophecydefi.com Forward-Looking Information Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking information that involves substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. This forward-looking information is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company, including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, and dependence upon regulatory approvals and the possibility that the completion of the transaction may not occur. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information. The parties undertake no obligation to update forward-looking information except as otherwise may be required by applicable securities law. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/prophecy-defi-provides-operational-update-on-layer2-blockchain-301423006.html SOURCE Prophecy DeFi Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Protiviti Leases State-of-the-Art Office Space in Blue Ash, Ohio for Americas Delivery Center

MENLO PARK, Calif., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global consulting firm Protiviti has leased office space in the Northmark I office building in Blue Ash, Ohio for its new Americas Delivery Center (ADC). The lease is for over 47,000 square feet of two floors of the building on Alliance Road. The firm plans to create 450 new jobs in this location over the next four to five years. Protiviti will be adding 450 new local jobs to Cincinnati metro area. Protiviti expects to move into the space in the first quarter of 2022. The firm was represented by Jones Lang LaSalle. "Leasing this new office space in Blue Ash solidifies Protiviti's commitment to our Americas Delivery Center in the Cincinnati region," said Cory Gunderson, an executive vice president and leader of global solutions for Protiviti. "We'll provide a broad range of standardized, technology-enabled, innovative and highly cost-effective services that support our consulting engagements across our offerings. We're excited to be an employer of choice and hire local folks to help serve our global client base." "We've already hired nearly 70 people for the ADC and are running ahead of our projections," said Bart Bradley, ADC site leader, Protiviti. "Our goal is to get up to approximately 450 employees within four to five years. That significat growth will bring tremendous professional opportunities for our people, including developing leadership, management, technical and operational skills. We're interested in attracting talent from a wide variety of backgrounds including those with or without a university degree. We also look for people who have attention to detail and like being challenged to find ways to work better, smarter and more efficiently, including using technology to automate routine tasks."



Commitment to Diversity

Protiviti is also looking to hire a diverse team, including but not limited to those who have followed non-traditional career paths, people who are re-entering the workforce or who are approaching the end of their careers. "We believe building a diverse workforce and inclusive work culture will be a competitive advantage for us. We encourage our team members to bring their whole, authentic selves to work," added Bradley. "We're pleased to be able to offer candidates in the Cincinnati region positions in a top-notch professional working and collaborative environment that also happens to be near the beautiful Summit Park."

"We're thrilled to partner with Protiviti to help bring its high-tech Americas Delivery Center to Blue Ash," said Blue Ash Economic Development Director Neil Hensley. "The move is a testament to the City's ongoing commitment to nurture and build its already strong business base." Locating the ADC in Ohio was supported by JobsOhio, REDI Cincinnati and the Ohio Department of Development. Protiviti has had offices in Cleveland and Cincinnati providing consulting services since the firm's founding in 2002 and recently added an office location in Columbus. Protiviti was recognized as one of the 'Best Employers in Ohio' in 2020 and 2021 (Crain's Cleveland Business). About Protiviti

Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that delivers deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach and unparalleled collaboration to help leaders confidently face the future. Protiviti and our independent and locally owned Member Firms provide clients with consulting and managed solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, analytics, governance, risk and internal audit through our network of more than 85 offices in over 25 countries. Named to the 2021 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, Protiviti has served more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 and 35 percent of Fortune Global 500 companies. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index. Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services. Editor's note: Protiviti photos are available upon request. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/protiviti-leases-state-of-the-art-office-space-in-blue-ash-ohio-for-americas-delivery-center-301423054.html SOURCE Protiviti

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Sichuan Tianfu New Area's services providing convenience for enterprises

CHENGDU, China, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sichuan Tianfu New Area, a national-level development zone in western China, has implemented a raft of innovative services such as agent services and convenient offshore company registrations to benefit enterprises and entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur surnamed Mao came to the administrative service center in the area recently to change the names of a legal representative and supervisor. Based on her previous experiences, she thought she was going to go through complicated procedures. But this time she made use of the area's newly launched agent service and a staff member helpd her finish the whole procedure in only 20 minutes.



Tianfu New Area launched the Chief Government Affairs Representative Service Center on Oct 8. It provides free guidance services for 554 issues, assistance services for 320 full-process online issues, and agency services for market entities on 143 issues. At the same time, the area is working hard to optimize its business environment to promote high-level opening-up and attract overseas enterprises.

Macao-based Yizhong Communication's legal representative Hamson Wai planned to register a new company in Tianfu New Area, however, he couldn't go to Sichuan personally due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But he later found that he could register his company online thanks to Tianfu New Area's pilot program for offshore company registrations. A package of five steps for foreign companies to start their businesses in the area is now available. As early as 2016, Tianfu New Area started its registration service for business startups, which functions as the primary guarantee for the cross-border registration of foreign-funded enterprises and enables companies without a fixed office to register. With digital measures, startups are able to complete their registration online. In February, the Sichuan Chengdu Yizhong Macao-Portugal Exhibition became the first overseas "e-resident" in Tianfu New Area, which marked the package of offshore registration of foreign-funded enterprises becoming a reality. Xu Xiaochen, chairman of Chengdu Yuanben Innovation and Technology, said the livable environment in Tianfu New Area is highly favored by entrepreneurs and talents, and the industrial clusters provide a first-class industrial environment for enterprises. He is most impressed by the area's meticulous care for startups and talents. It offers a string of services for talents, so that they can better devote themselves to their careers, Xu added. SOURCE Sichuan Tianfu New Area

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Softchoice Announces Third Quarter 2021 Results

Softchoice Corporation ("Softchoice (News - Alert)" or the "Company") (TSX: SFTC) today announced its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 ("Q3 2021"). The Company also reiterated its 2022 Outlook provided during its IPO. Unless otherwise noted, all dollar ($) amounts are in U.S. dollars. "Softchoice achieved strong third quarter organic growth including a 24% increase in our gross profit, our key top line measurement, driven by increasing customer consumption of cloud products," said Vince De Palma, Softchoice's President & CEO. "Our strategic focus in our hybrid multi-cloud, collaboration/digital workplace, and software asset management solutions, supported by significant investments we have made in our technical and sales enablement resources, cloud strategies and business transformation initiative Project Monarch, resulted in record salesforce productivity in Q3 and increased customer engagement, with net revenue retention over the last year rising to 108% and average gross profit per customer hitting record levels." "We recorded double digit growth in gross profit across all of our sales channels and greater than 20% growth in each of our Software & Cloud, Services and Hardware IT solutions, the latter despite the negative impact of ongoing hardware shortages globally on sales," added Bryan Rocco, Softchoice's Chief Financial Officer. "Our decline in Adjusted EBITDA was due to the impact of foreign exchange, as well as increased operating expenses from our ramp of sales-enablement investments to drive growth and certain non-recurring professional fees incurred to support the implementation of a new digital workflow platform for our managed services offering. Additionally, in Q3 2020, we received $3.7 million in government wage subsidies which offset reported expenses versus none in Q3 2021."1 In Q4, the Company's target remains to achieve double digit year-over-year growth in gross profit, with seasonality expected to remain consistent with historical periods with Q2 and Q4 being the Company's largest quarters. Combined with anticipated strong cash flow generation, the Company expects to enter 2022 in a strong financial position. The Company also reiterated its financial outlook for 2022 today, remaining on track to realize the anticipated net benefits of Project Monarch, driven primarily by top line gross profit enhancements. The Company's immediate focus going forward is on continued execution, investments in sales enablement resources and additional account executives, and realizing the full benefits from Project Monarch to accelerate our growth and margins. Financial Summary1







US$ M except per share amounts and

percentages Q3 2021 Q3 2020 Growth

% YTD 2021 YTD 2020 Growth

% Gross Sales 426.4 351.0 21.5% 1,365.4 1,212.0 12.7% Net sales 199.0 169.5 17.4% 644.9 605.4 6.5% Gross profit 65.2 52.7 23.8% 201.2 172.8 16.4% Adjusted EBITDA 11.3 13.1 (14.1%) 42.6 39.5 8.0% Adjusted EBITDA as a % of Gross Profit 17.3% 24.9% 21.2% 22.8% Income (loss) from operations 4.6 1.4 228.0% (7.5) 0.4 (1857.1%) Net income (loss) (2.2) (0.9) 157.7% (17.3) (17.2) 0.7% Net income (loss) per Diluted Share

(attributable to the Owners of the

Company) $(0.04) $(0.03) 40.0% $(0.37) $(0.27) 36.1% Adjusted Net Income 5.6 4.0 40.4% 20.0 15.6 27.7% Adjusted EPS (Diluted) $0.09 $0.07 24.9% $0.36 $0.28 29.5%

* Adjusted EBITDA is not adjusted to subtract funds received under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy ("CEWS") program provided by the federal government of Canada and therefore reflects the lower operating costs resulting from the CEWS payments, including $3.7 million in Q3 2020 and YTD 2020 (and $10.3 million in Q4 2020) compared to nil in Q3 2021 and $0.7 million in YTD 2021. Financial Position The Company is in strong financial condition, including a $275 million revolving credit facility, with approximately $106.1 million in loans and borrowings outstanding at September 30, 2021. Including internally generated cash flows, the Company anticipates having significant resources with which to pursue growth opportunities. Net debt, equating to loans and borrowings plus lease liabilities less cash-on-hand, was $127.8 million at September 30, 2021 compared to $190.6 million at December 31, 2020, with the decline driven by proceeds from the IPO as well as net cash flows from operating activities in the nine months ended September 30, 2021. The ratio of net debt to Adjusted EBITDA over the last twelve months was 1.9x at September 30, 2021 compared to 2.9x at December 31, 2020. Dividend Softchoice anticipates paying quarterly cash dividends of approximately C$0.07 per Common Share. The Company's next cash dividend, which will be for the period from October 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021, is expected to be paid on or about January 14, 2022 to shareholders of record on December 31, 2021. Our Outlook 1 Softchoice reiterated its 2022 financial outlook that was included in its Prospectus (as defined below). For full-year 2022, the Company is expecting: Gross Profit of over $300 million, representing a 12% CAGR from 2020 to 2022

Adjusted EBITDA of $90 million to $100 million, inclusive of ~$25 million of Project Monarch Uplift

Adjusted Free Cash Flow Conversion of approximately 90% Our outlook is based on certain assumptions and factors (including those relating to our view of the drivers of, and expectations related to, our anticipated growth), including the key assumptions and factors set out in the Prospectus under 'Our Outlook'. For important information on risk factors, refer to "Forward Looking Information Disclaimer" later in this news release. Quarterly Conference Call Softchoice's management team will hold a conference call to discuss our Q3 2021 results today, November 12, 2021, at 8:30 a.m. ET. DATE: Friday, November 12, 2021

TIME: 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time

DIAL-IN: 416-764-8659 or 1-888-664-6392, Confirmation # 20486052

WEBCAST: https://produceredition.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1503888&tp_key=c516dcf88a

TAPED REPLAY: 416-764-8677 or 1-888-390-0541, Replay Code 486052 # (available until November 19, 2021) A link to the webcast will also be available on the Events page of the Investors section of Softchoice's website at http://investors.softchoice.com. Please connect at least 15 minutes prior to the conference call to ensure adequate time for any software download that may be required to join the webcast. An archived replay of the webcast will be available for 90 days. Capitalized Terms Capitalized terms used in this release, including Project Monarch, and terms we use to describe our IT solution types including Software & Cloud, Services, and Hardware and sales channels including SMB, Commercial, and Enterprise are described in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for the three and nine-months ended September 30, 2021 (the "Q3 2021 MD&A"), and/or defined in the Company's final initial public offering prospectus dated May 26, 2021 (the "Prospectus") filed on SEDAR and available on the Company's investor relations website http://investors.softchoice.com. 1 Non-IFRS Measures This news release makes reference to certain non-IFRS measures and other measures. These measures are not recognized measures under International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board ("IASB") and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Rather, these measures are provided as additional information to complement those IFRS measures by providing further understanding of our results of operations from management's perspective. Accordingly, these measures should not be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for analysis of our financial information reported under IFRS. We use non-IFRS measures, including "Adjusted EBITDA", "Adjusted EBITDA as a Percentage of Gross Profit", "Adjusted Cash Operating Expenses", "Adjusted Net Income (Loss)", "Adjusted EPS", "Adjusted Free Cash Flow Conversion", and "Gross Sales". These non-IFRS measures and other measures are used to provide investors with supplemental measures of our operating performance and thus highlight trends in our core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS measures. Our management uses these non-IFRS measures and other measures in order to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period, to prepare annual operating budgets and forecasts and to determine components of management compensation. We also believe that securities analysts, investors and other interested parties frequently use certain of these non-IFRS measures and other measures in the evaluation of issuers. As required by Canadian securities laws, we reconcile the non-IFRS measures to the most comparable IFRS measures. For more information on non-IFRS measures and other measures, see the Q3 2021 MD&A filed on SEDAR and available on the Company's investor relations website http://investors.softchoice.com Reconciliations of Non-IFRS Financial Measures (Information in thousands of U.S. dollars, unless

otherwise stated) Three Months Ended September 30, Nine Months Ended September 30, Reconciliation of Net Sales to Gross Sales 2021 2020 2021 2020 Net sales 199,009 169,523 644,891 605,360 Net adjustment for sales transacted as agent 227,417 181,490 720,475 606,614 Gross Sales 426,426 351,013 1,365,366 1,211,974 Reconciliation of Operating Expenses to Adjusted Cash

Operating Expenses Operating expenses 60,566 51,244 208,630 172,423 Depreciation and amortization (5,424) (6,501) (16,140) (17,203) Equity-settled share-based compensation and other costs (1) (498) (1,057) (29,180) (9,310) Non-recurring compensation and other costs (2) (163) (633) (682) (1,423) Business transformation non-recurring costs (3) (334) (3,519) (1,074) (11,113) IPO related costs (4) (235) - (2,992) - Adjusted Cash Operating Expenses 53,912 39,534 158,562 133,374 Reconciliation of Income (loss) from operations to

Adjusted EBITDA Income (loss) from operations 4,618 1,408 (7,450) 424 Depreciation and amortization 5,424 6,501 16,140 17,203 Equity-settled share-based compensation and other costs (1) 498 1,057 29,180 9,310 Non-recurring compensation and other costs (2) 163 633 682 1,423 Business transformation non-recurring costs (3) 334 3,519 1,074 11,113 IPO related costs (4) 235 - 2,992 - Adjusted EBITDA 11,272 13,118 42,618 39,473 Adjusted EBITDA as a Percentage of Gross Profit(5) 17.3% 24.9% 21.2% 22.8% Reconciliation of Net Loss to Adjusted Net Income Net loss (2,214) (859) (17,323) (17,209) Amortization of intangible assets. 3,281 4,349 9,779 10,676 Equity-settled share-based compensation and other costs (1) 498 1,057 29,180 9,310 Non-recurring compensation and other costs (2) 163 633 682 1,423 Business transformation non-recurring costs (3) 334 3,519 1,074 11,113 IPO related costs (4) 235 - 2,992 - Related party debt interest (6) - 984 1,737 2,888 Subordinated debt interest (6) - 255 446 747 Interest expense (recovery) on accretion of non-interest

bearing notes (7) - 96 120 162 Extinguishment of deferred financing fees (8) - - 1,621 - Unrecoverable withholding taxes (9) - - 1,035 - Loss on lease modification (10) 1,184 - 1,184 - Foreign exchange loss (gain) (11) 4,044 (3,982) (1,680) 4,200 Tax recovery on deferred tax liability (12) - - (2,863) - Related tax effects (13) (1,911) (2,054) (8,021) (7,672) Adjusted Net Income 5,614 3,998 19,963 15,638 Weighted Average Number of Shares (Basic) 59,070,380 45,039,549 51,366,389 45,126,350 Weighted Average Number of Shares (Diluted) 63,447,117 56,452,755 55,743,126 56,539,555 Adjusted EPS (Basic) (14) 0.10 0.09 0.39 0.35 Adjusted EPS (Diluted) (14) 0.09 0.07 0.36 0.28 Notes (Refer to the Q3 2021 MD&A for description of the bolded items and sections with parentheses within these Notes) (1) These expenses represent costs recognized in connection with the Legacy Option Plan and the new Omnibus Long-Term Equity Incentive Plan (see Note 10 in the Interim Financial Statements for additional details), pursuant to which options granted are fair valued at the time of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing model and adjusted for any plan modifications. Included in YTD 2021, there was $16.9 million relating to certain payments made in connection with extinguishment of certain equity-based entitlements (the "Cash-Out Agreements") in conjunction with the IPO. Other costs relate to the employee investment plan and the long-term profit-sharing plan, which were dissolved upon the completion of the IPO, and fair value adjustments in relation to existing equity-based arrangements. As a result of the IPO, a $6.1 million fair value adjustment was triggered on an existing equity-based arrangement which was dissolved thereafter. See "Share Information Prior to the Completion of the Offering". (2) These expenses include compensation costs relating to severance and a one-time accrual recorded in Fiscal 2020 associated with the set-up of a new corporate vacation policy. Other costs are comprised of professional, legal, consulting, accounting and management fees that are non-recurring and are sporadic in nature as they primarily relate to costs incurred in connection with shareholder distributions. (3) These costs relate to the implementation of Project Monarch which were largely comprised of one-time third-party consulting expenses, personnel costs for dedicated internal resources and software related costs. All costs relating to Project Monarch were segregated for tracking purposes and are monitored on a regular basis. As at September 30, 2021, $48.7 million has been invested in operating and capital expenditures for Project Monarch. See "Summary of Factors Affecting Performance - Business Transformation (Project Monarch)". (4) In connection with the IPO, the Company incurred expenses related to professional fees, legal, consulting, accounting and compensation that would otherwise not have been incurred and therefore are non-recurring. These costs have been separately identified and adjusted for clarity. There were $253 of IPO related costs which were incurred in Q1 2021 that were previously classified under non-recurring compensation and other costs; these costs have been reclassed into IPO related costs in YTD 2021. (5) Adjusted EBITDA as a Percentage of Gross Profit is calculated as Adjusted EBITDA divided by gross profit. See "Non-IFRS Measures - Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a Percentage of Gross Profit". (6) Related party and subordinated debt interest was settled at the time of Offering. For additional details see "Related Party Transactions", "Subordinated Debt Information" and "Share Information Prior to the Completion of the Offering". (7) This represents the expense relating to the accretion of the present value of the non-interest bearing notes recognized over the term of the notes. These notes were settled at the time of Offering. See also "Related Party Transactions", "Subordinated Debt Information" and "Share Information Prior to the Completion of the Offering". (8) As a result of the refinancing, the unamortized balance of the deferred financing fees on the former revolving credit facility and term credit facility of $1,621 were extinguished in Q2 2021. (9) Non-controlling interest portion of unrecoverable withholding taxes on royalties. Non-controlling interest was eliminated upon the IPO of the Company. (10) Loss on lease modification recognized in Q3 2021 as a result the recognition of a sublease receivable for an office space that has been subleased and the corresponding derecognition of a right-of-use asset associated with this space. (11) Foreign exchange (gain) loss includes both realized and unrealized amounts. (12) Tax recovery on deferred tax liability as a result of tax rate change due to change from Canadian Controlled Private Company to public company. (13) This relates to the tax effects of the adjusting items, which was calculated by applying the statutory tax rate of 26.5% and adjusting for any permanent differences and capital losses. (14) Basic Adjusted EPS is calculated using the weighted average number of shares outstanding during the period. Diluted Adjusted EPS includes the dilutive impact of the stock options in addition to the weighted average number of shares outstanding during the period. See "Non-IFRS Measures and Other Measures - Non-IFRS Measures - Adjusted Net Income (Loss) and Adjusted EPS". 1 Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws in Canada. Forward-looking information may relate to our future business, financial outlook and anticipated events or results and may include information regarding our financial position, business strategy, growth strategies, addressable markets, budgets, operations, financial results, taxes, dividend policy, plans and objectives. Particularly, information regarding our expectations of future results, performance, achievements, prospects or opportunities or the markets in which we operate is forward-looking information. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "outlook", "financial outlook", "forecasts", "projection", "prospects", "strategy", "intends", "anticipates", "does not anticipate", "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will", "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management's expectations, estimates and projections regarding possible future events or circumstances. Forward-looking information may include, among other things: (i) the Company's expectations regarding its financial performance, including among others, net sales, gross profit, expenses, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Free Cash Flow Conversion and operations; (ii) the Company's expectations regarding industry trends, growth of our addressable market, overall market growth rates and our growth rates and growth strategies; (iii) our ability to maintain a highly predictable and visible net sales outlook; (iv) our business plans and strategies; (v) the continued success of our commercial model; (vi) our expectations regarding growth in our customer base, our ability to retain customers and increase margin per customer; (vii) acceleration in growth of and adoption of new technologies; (viii) our relationship with our technology partners; (ix) our ability to continue to attract and retain talent; (x) our competitive position in our industry; (xi) our intention to declare dividends; (xii) and the long-term impact of COVID-19 on our business, financial position, results of operations and/or cash flows. Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, estimates and assumptions that we considered appropriate and reasonable as at the date such statements are made, and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to the risk factors described in our Q2 2021 MD&A and under "Risk Factors" within the Prospectus. A copy of the Prospectus can be accessed under our profile on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval ("SEDAR") at www.sedar.com and on our website at investors.softchoice.com. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which speaks only as at the date made. About Softchoice Softchoice (TSX: SFTC) is a software-focused IT solutions provider that equips organizations to be agile and innovative, and for their people to be engaged, connected and creative at work. That means moving them to the cloud, helping them build the workplace of tomorrow, and enabling them to make smarter decisions about their technology portfolio. For more information, please visit www.softchoice.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005396/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Yieldstreet Launches New Art Equity Platform

Yieldstreet, a leading multi-asset alternative investment platform created to reduce friction and provide previously unattainable access to alternatives for millions of people, today announced expansion of its art platform into equity ownership investments of physical art, complementing the wide range of debt-backed opportunities offered. Ownership of fine art has long been in the exclusive domain of the ultra-wealthy, requiring vast amounts of capital, deep art market industry knowledge and access. With today's announcement, Yieldstreet plans to launch a series of diversified art funds over the coming months that will enable retail investors the opportunity to own a fractionalized interest in a portfolio of prominent artworks. The Art Equity Fund launches today and will provide investors an opportunity to invest in a diversified pool of blue-chip and mid-career Post War & Contemporary artworks, including pieces by George Condo, Keith Haring, and Kenny Scharf. Future fund offerings are expected to partner with prominent experts across the art market and include a range of focuses, periods, genres and artists at various stages of their careers. Investment decisions will utilize third-party appraisals and expertise, supplemented with analysis from a proprietary database managed by Athena Art Finance, a subsidiary of Yieldstreet. "Investing in valuable artwork has been a mere dream for most retail investors, who love and recognize both its intrinsic and extrinsic vaue," said Yieldstreet Co-Founder and President Michael Weisz. "This is a big moment for them and for Yieldstreet. This platform throws the doors wide open to the world of high-end art ownership while also marking Yieldstreet's foray into art equity investments."



Passion investing, specifically in non-physical art and NFTs, has seen a dramatic rise over the past few years as digital marketplaces enable millions of retail investors the opportunity to invest in assets they love. However, retail investment in physical art has not experienced the same growth due to the significant barriers inherent to the art market. True to Yieldstreet's mission, the platform will help reduce such barriers and help democratize access to fine art. In addition to providing access to high-end art investing, Yieldstreet also plans to create unique ways for investors to experience the artworks owned in each fund. Such experiential events may include private galleries displaying the fund's artworks, along with insight into the artworks' significance from art experts.

To date, Yieldstreet x Athena have funded and offered over $250M worth of debt investments backed by fine art on the Yieldstreet platform, backed by artworks created by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francis Bacon, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Kerry James Marshall, Mark Bradford and KAWS, among others. About Yieldstreet: Yieldstreet is reimagining the way wealth is created by providing access to alternative investments previously reserved only for institutions and the ultra-wealthy. Yieldstreet's mission is to help millions of people generate $3 billion of income outside the traditional public markets by 2025. Its award-winning technology platform provides access to investment products across a range of asset classes such as Real Estate, Commercial, Consumer, Art, Marine, Legal Finance and Aviation. Since its founding in 2015, Yieldstreet has funded over $2.4 billion of investments and is committed to making financial products more inclusive by creating a modern investment portfolio. The company, headquartered in New York City with offices in Brazil, Greece and Malta, is backed by leading venture capital firms. Join the movement at www.yieldstreet.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005179/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 11, 2021] project44 Named #1 on 2022 FreightTech 25 List

CHICAGO, Nov. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- project44, the leading supply chain visibility platform, today announced its first place award win in FreightWaves' FreightTech 25 list, surpassing Platform Science and Amazon. This is project44's fourth year of recognition in the FreightTech 25. project44 has ranked second as the top visibility vendor for the past three years. The FreightTech 25, a subset of the FreightTech 100, recognizes the most innovative and disruptive businesses within the freight industry. "To be leading the FreightTech 100, in which we're joined by more than three dozen project44 customers and partners, showcases project44's influence as a global leader in visibility," said Jett McCandless, CEO of project44. "The supply chain industry faced tremendous challenges throughout this year but we're eager to share our innovative ideas as we continue our focus on global growth, product expansion and strategic development. This accolade indicates we're heading in the right direction." With the pandemic accelerating supply chain challenges, choosing the right supply chain visibility solution has become more important than ever. Project44 has responded to the turbulence by delivering advanced solutions for customers and partners. Formed in 2019, the FreightTech 100 list is compiled by FreightWaves readers. More than 500 nominations for 200 companies across 31 states were submitted this year. A panel by FreightWaves narrowed down submissions to the FreightTech 100 list, which was then condensed into the FreightTech 25 by a hand-picked peer group of CEOs, industry leaders and investors actively investing in freight. "We're humbled to join 11 project44 customers on the FreightTech 25 list, demonstratng project44's collective influence in the space," said Tim Bertrand, President  Worldwide Field Operations. "And as innovations and disruptions are paramount to this industry, so is collaboration. We look forward to collaborating with other disruptors that will drive project44's growth and unparalleled success within our supply chains."



This recognition is a continuation of projects44's momentum. In April, project44 was named a Leader in the Gartner  2021 Magic Quadrant for Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platforms, placing highest for its ability to execute and recognized for its completeness of vision.

In September, the company was named a Leader in the G2 Fall 2021 Grid Report for Supply Chain Visibility Software, earning the top spot in both market presence and customer satisfaction.

This month, project44 was named a 2021 Customers' Choice in the Gartner Peer Insights "Voice of the Customer" report for Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platforms. It was the only platform appearing in the upper-right Customers' Choice quadrant based on both Overall Rating and User Interest and Adoption. To learn more about project44 and the FreightTech 100, visit this project44 blog.

About project44

project44 is the world's leading advanced visibility platform for shippers and logistics service providers as defined by number of carriers, number of customers,?ARR, net retention, shipments per day, growth rate and gross margin. project44 connects,?automates?and provides visibility into key transportation processes to accelerate insights and shorten the time it takes to turn those insights into actions. Leveraging the power of the project44 cloud-based platform, organizations increase operational efficiencies, reduce costs, improve shipping performance, and deliver an exceptional experience to their customers. Connected to thousands of carriers worldwide and having comprehensive coverage for all?ELD?and telematics devices on the market, project44 supports all transportation modes and shipping types, including Air, Parcel, Final-Mile, Less-than-Truckload, Volume Less-than-Truckload, Groupage, Truckload, Rail, Intermodal, and Ocean. In 2021, project44 was named #1 on the FreightTech 25 List and Leader among Real-Time Transportation Visibility Providers in Gartner's Magic Quadrant. To learn more, visit?www.project44.com. Media Contact: Kayla Cash

Phone: (208) 830-4379

Email: [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/project44-named-1-on-2022-freighttech-25-list-301422710.html SOURCE project44

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 11, 2021] The Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre Joins the OpenMP Effort

The Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre has joined the OpenMP ARB, a group of leading hardware vendors, software vendors, and research organizations who are creating the standard for the most popular shared-memory parallel programming model in use today. The Pawsey Centre is a world-class high-performance computing facility accelerating scientific discoveries for Australia's researchers. Named for Australian scientist Joseph Pawsey, a pioneer of Australian radio astronomy for his work in the field of interferometry, the Centre enables science and accelerates discovery by contributing to the delivery of globally important research. Pawsey is currently serving over 40 organizations and achieving unprecedented results in domains such as radio astronomy, energy and resources, engineering, bioinformatics and health sciences. Pawsey is a government-funded, unincorporated joint venture of CSIRO - Australia's national science agency, and four public universities.



"The OpenMP platform plays a critical role in developing portable code targeting heterogeneous architectures including CPUs and accelerators by offering a unified programming model. At Pawsey, we are confident that OpenMP will be instrumental in addressing future portability and scalability challenges. We are joining the OpenMP ARB intending to contribute to the development of the standard in close collaboration with vendors and other member institutions," says Ugo Varetto, Pawsey's CTO. "We are delighted to welcome a new member from the Asia-Pacific region," says Michael Klemm, OpenMP ARB CEO. "It is good to see that the OpenMP ARB membership keeps growing around the globe."

The OpenMP ARB now has 33 members. Join us at SC21 virtually or in-person at booth #919 to meet the members and learn more about OpenMP. About OpenMP The mission of the OpenMP Architecture Review Board (ARB) is to standardize directive-based multi-language high-level parallelism that is performant, productive and portable. Jointly defined by a group of major computer hardware and software vendors, and users, the OpenMP API is a portable, scalable model that gives parallel programmers a simple and flexible interface for developing parallel applications for platforms ranging from embedded systems and accelerator devices to multicore systems and shared-memory systems. The OpenMP ARB owns the OpenMP brand, oversees the OpenMP specification and produces and approves new versions of the specification. Further information can be found at https://www.openmp.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211111006059/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 11, 2021] VeriSilicon's Neural Network Processor IP Embedded in Over 100 AI Chips

VeriSilicon (News - Alert) (688521.SH), a leading Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaS) company, today announced its neural network processor (the Vivante1 NPU) IP designed for artificial intelligence (AI) applications now features in more than 100 AI chips supplied by 50 licensees. These chips with built-in VeriSilicon Vivante NPUs are in 10 major market segments, including Internet of Things (IoT), wearables, smart TVs, smart home, security monitoring, servers, automotive electronics, smartphones, tablets and smart healthcare. VeriSilicon's Vivante NPU is a high-performance computer vision and AI processor with scalable, programmable and low-power architecture. The NPU's performance with a single convolutional kernel can range from 0.5 TOPs to 20 TOPS, however 500 TOPs can be reached after the extension of multi-convolutional computing kernels. This range of performance enables a wide array of applications ranging from ultra-low power wearables to high-performance computing in data centers. Licensees can customize the Vivante NPU to fit different chip sizes and power budgets, making it a cost-effective premium neural network acceleration engine. The complete software stack and SDK supports mainstream deep learning frameworks, including TensorFlow, PyTorch, ONNX, Apache TVM, and IREE. The Vivante NPU also provides proven solutions from model conversion, quantization, image optimization, and online/offline compilation, to the final deployment of devices to help customers quickly launch products. As China's leading semiconductor IP provider and the seventh-largestglobally2, VeriSilicon has six categories of in-house processor technologies, which include the Vivante NPU, graphics processor (GPU), video processor (VPU), digital signal processor (DSP), image signal processor (ISP), and display processor. VeriSilicon's Vivante NPU can be used with VeriSilicon's other proprietary processors to enhance images, audio, and other signals in real time to improve the user experience. These combinations are now used by leading TV manufacturers in their flagship products.



"Neural network processing technology can deeply interconnect and intelligently enhance other technologies such as ISP to create disruptive applications," said Wei-Jin Dai, Executive VP and GM of IP Division at VeriSilicon. "Based on the successful Vivante NPU, we are focusing on building a comprehensive AI ecosystem (hardware and software) providing open-source standards and machine learning frameworks support. Our open-source TIM-VX (Tensor Interface Module) project has now been widely adopted enabling leading companies to build their intelligent ecosystems. About VeriSilicon

VeriSilicon Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (VeriSilicon, 688521.SH) is committed to providing customers with platform-based, all-round, one-stop custom silicon services and semiconductor IP licensing services leveraging its in-house semiconductor IP. Under the unique "Silicon Platform as a Service" (SiPaaS) business model, depending on the comprehensive IP portfolio, VeriSilicon can create silicon products from definition to test and package in a short period of time, and provides high performance and cost-efficient semiconductor alternative products for IDM, Fabless, system vendors (OEM/ODM) and large Internet companies, etc. VeriSilicon's business covers consumer electronics, automotive electronics, computer and peripheral, industry, data processing, Internet of Things and other applications. VeriSilicon presents a variety of customized silicon solutions, including high-definition video, high-definition audio and voice, In-Vehicle Infotainment, video surveillance, IoT connectivity, data center, etc. In addition, VeriSilicon has six types of in-house processor IPs, namely GPU IP, NPU IP, VPU IP, DSP IP, ISP IP and Display Processor (News - Alert) IP, and more than 1,400 analog and mixed signal IPs and RF IPs. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Shanghai, China, VeriSilicon has 6 design and R&D centers in China and the United States, as well as 11 sales and customer service offices worldwide. VeriSilicon currently has more than 1,300 employees. 1 Vivante is a brand of VeriSilicon's IP product line 2 Data source: IPnest Design IP Report, 2021 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211111005844/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 11, 2021] "Jin Yong and Zhejiang" Themed Exhibition Launched Online

WENZHOU, China, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Jin Yong is one of the greatest Chinese wuxia (martial arts and chivalry) novelists since the 1950s. He is a writer, a critic, and an activist. More importantly, he has become a globally known cultural symbol of Chinese people that Hongkongers take much pride in. Zhejiang province, as the hometown of Jin Yong, has appeared in his novels many times. Jin Yong was born in Haining, Zhejiang province. He later moved to Quzhou for study and grew up in Hangzhou. His teenage time has made him deeply attached to his hometown. Both Zhejiang and Hong Kong are the origins of inspirations for Jin Yong's works. Based on this, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism has come up with the idea to design an online exhibition to unveil the beauty of Zhejiang, the legendary martial arts novelist Jin Yong's hometown, to the Hongkongers.



On November 9, 2021, the "Jin Yong and Zhejiang" online exhibition under the theme of "Picturesque Zhejiang" was officially launched online. Based on the special connection between Jin Yong and his hometown, the online exhibition will guide the audience through the narratives in the novels that mention Zhejiang. The Hong Kong audience will be able to see a vivid "Picturesque Zhejiang" and to know why Jin Yong found this place so fascinating. "Jin Yong and Zhejiang" online exhibition introduces 11 cities of Zhejiang province one by one and shares the stories between Jin Yong and these places, about the landscape, the people, and the history. There is the magnificent view of the Yanguan Tidal Wave, the lingering scent of Shaoxing Yellow Wine, the stretching ancient Xianxia path, and the misty beauty of Nanhu Lake. From all these, the audience will understand Jin Yong's love for his homeland and how he described these places in his works. The online exhibition is presented in the traditional Chinese style. Plenty of eye-catching videos, pictures, and texts are provided to fully showcase the beauty of Zhejiang, the hometown much cherished by Jin Yong deeply in his heart.

Over the decades of his writing career, Jin Yong has thoughtfully expressed his strong feelings towards his hometown in his heroic and intriguing stories, where the readers will find an ingenious mix of reality and fiction. Stories in the novels may not be real, but the picturesque view and the folk customs are nothing but real. Enjoy the "Jin Yong and Zhejiang" online exhibition to recall what's written in the books and experience the authentic, vivid and beautiful Zhejiang. Click on the link to view the online exhibition http://bog3dcg.epub360.com.cn/v2/manage/book/3mrbx5/

SOURCE Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 11, 2021] EvoqTM Technologies Achieves Breakthrough With Its Smartphone-Based System for Early Detection and Diagnosis of Diseases

The newly released Evoq Smartphone-Based Electrophysiology System represents a revolutionary, cost-effective alternative to legacy desktop devices. The Evoq system is tailored to meet the needs of MD, OD, PhD, DVM, researchers, and technologists who are advancing the art and science of evoked response electrophysiology -- for vision, auditory, neurology, and physical therapy. Our unique technology provides the ability to stimulate the body with various impulses such as light or sound, to measure the response in a quantifiable way to detect cellular / body responses. Delayed or reduced responses are often signatures of disease. While delivering diagnostics to a broader audience via smartphone, we nonetheless meet rigorous medical standards. According to Daniel Lindgren, President of Evoq Technologies, "Our breakthrough, patented technology benefits patients, clinicians, and payers by offering a safer, cost-effective solution for detection and dagnosis while maintaining the standard-of-care on a smartphone-based platform." He noted that the company plans to license its technology to pharmaceutical, medical device, and clinical research organizations as a novel means to capture patient data in the clinic, at the bedside, or even at home.



Lindgren will be attending the AAO meeting in New Orleans on November 12-13th. Please call or email if you'd like to schedule a meeting to discuss licensing opportunities. (702) 747-4725 or [email protected] About Us

Evoq Technologies is a privately held company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is comprised of an experienced team of scientists and engineers, clinicians, and seasoned business professionals with a track record of bringing new medical devices to market. The Company has a long and distinguished lineage whose founders developed a leading line of products designed for the ophthalmic and visual science communities through their companies Xenotec, OcuScience, and now Evoq Technologies. Our mission is to meet the challenging requirements of our partners with the highest quality line of devices, accessories and support in the laboratory and clinic. Our focus is to improve the technology available to doctors and scientists to enable them to discover and develop new treatments for blindness and other neurological diseases. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211111006194/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 11, 2021] Suning Financial Services (Hong Kong) and Nium Launch E-commerce Corporate Cards for Hong Kong Businesses

HONG KONG, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Suning Financial Services (Hong Kong) has recently joined forces with Nium, a global provider of payments and card issuance services, to issue Visa corporate cards for companies in Hong Kong. The corporate cards enable global e-commerce transactions and settlement. Driven by digitalisation and globalisation, the cross-border payment industry has grown rapidly, accelerating the rise of e-commerce payment card businesses. Currently, e-commerce payment cards are widely used across various business scenarios, such as social search engine advertising, shop rent debits, and buyer shopping payments for overseas e-commerce businesses, bringing a more flexible and efficient digital experience to companies. This Visa Corporate card, jointly created by Suning Financial and Nium, will focus on cross-border e-commerce, advertising and promotion, and other trending fields. Suning Financials' General Manager for Cross-border Payments, He Zhong said, "This partnership will enable transactions to be fully safeguarded for convenience and security, thanks to high-quality merchant resources, a strong global clearing network and risk control system, as well as the advanced technical service capabilities of each party." Nium's Chief Revenue Officer, Frederick Crosby, added, "This partnership with Suning Financial is yet another example of how our payment and card issuance services can truly empower global businesses. Like Suning Financial, we believe that virtual cards with multicurrency payment capabilities are the future of e-commerce  and we're proud to make this a reality for businesses across Hong Kong."



Users can apply for the corporate cards online and enjoy global multi-currency payment services. This is a breakthrough solution, considering the limitations of traditional physical cards in terms of media and payment scenarios. The solution is also expected to bring new growth opportunities for Suning Financials' cross-border payment business. Suning Financial will leverage Nium's global ecosystem for cross-border payments. Based on its financial capacity and O2O online-to-offline omni-channel business advantages, Suning Financial will continue to improve the interaction between its supply chain and payment business, provide customers with more complete financial solutions, achieve sustainable product and brand development, accelerate the globalisation of cross-border payments, and expand China's technological and inclusive financial services to more countries and regions.

About Suning Financial Services (Hong Kong): Suning Financial Services (Hong Kong) Co., Limited was granted the Hong Kong Money Service Operator Licence (MSO Licence) in July 2021 and will soon launch offshore foreign exchange services, e-commerce card services, etc. About Suning Financial Cross-border Payment: This is the cross-border payment business of Suning Financial. It's main entity in China is Nanjing Suning Payment Technology Co., Ltd., which is qualified by the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange to provide foreign exchange and cross-border RMB settlement and sale and international card acquiring services for customers. It is the industry leader in terms of product offerings, capital compliance, and business maturity. About Nium: Nium is a leading embedded fintech company that provides banks, payment providers, travel companies, and businesses of any size with access to global payment services via one API. Its modular platform provides services for pay-outs, pay-ins, card issuance, and banking-as-a-service. Once connected to the Nium platform, businesses have the ability to pay out in more than 100 currencies to over 190 countries - 85 of which in real time. Funds can be received in 33 markets, including Southeast Asia, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, India, and the US. Nium's growing card issuance business is already available in 32 countries, including Europe (SEPA), the UK, Australia and Singapore. Core to Nium is its license infrastructure, built over time in some of the fastest growing economies. Nium owns the broadest license portfolio, covering 11 of the world's jurisdictions, enabling seamless global payments and rapid integration, regardless of geography. For more information, visit:?https://www.nium.com Media Contacts

Jie Wu

[email protected] Mira Millane

[email protected]

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 11, 2021] Vietnam's car market will welcome Chery's new energy technology soon

HO CHI MINH CITY and HANOI and HAIPHONG, Vietnam, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- At the moment, electric vehicle has become a windfall. Vietnam, as the first country in the ASEAN region to have a local company that successfully produces electric vehicles, has accelerated the layout of new energy. China's electric vehicle production and sales have ranked first in the world for six consecutive years, with a cumulative promoted more than 7 million units, accounting for more than 50% of global market. Chery, a leading Chinese auto brand plans to enter Vietnam in 2022, bringing the latest Chery electric vehicle technology to the Vietnamese market. As a leading Chinese automobile brand, Chery started the independent research and development of electric veicles as early as 1999. After more than 20 years of development, Chery has gradually built up a full range of research and development system, integrated platform, four new electric vehicle platforms, five subsystems, seven core technologies for electric vehicle passenger car. With those industrial leading advantages, Chery achieved to become the leader of Chinese automotive industry.



At the end of October, the Chery 2022 EQ5 was officially launched in China, a new product by Chery in the electric vehicle industry.

The global launch of Chery's new models of electric vehicle is also under planning. It is believed that these new products will soon be available in various countries of different regions such as Asia, Europe and South America, bringing a unique electric vehicle driving experience to consumers around the world. For more information, please follow the official Chery Vietnam social media accounts at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Chery-Vietnam-101035798805614 SOURCE Chery

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 11, 2021] Online Education Market to grow at a CAGR of 18% from 2019 to 2024 |17000+ Technavio Reports

NEW YORK, Nov. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Technavio's latest offering, the Online Education Market report provides a detailed analysis of the competitive scenario and the market growth across various regions. The online education market is estimated to grow by USD 247.46 billion from 2019 to 2024, growing at a CAGR of over 18%. For Insights on Online Education Market - Download a free sample now! Market Dynamics Factors such as the growing advantages of online learning and rapid penetration of internet-enabled devices will drive the growth of the Online Education Market. Company Profiles The online education market report includes information on the product launches, sustainability, and prospects of leading vendors including 2U Inc., Ambow Education Holding Ltd., Coursera Inc., edX Inc., iTutorGroup, LinkedIn Corp., McGraw-Hill Education Inc., Pearson Plc, Udacity Inc., and Udemy Inc. Some Companies with Key Offerings 2U Inc., - The company offers a line of low-cost tools to help students better engage in online learning.

The company offers a line of low-cost tools to help students better engage in online learning. Ambow Education Holding Ltd. - The company offers a line of courses related to school education, tutoring services, international education programs, and online educational offerings through its business segment K-12 Education.

The company offers a line of courses related to school education, tutoring services, international education programs, and online educational offerings through its business segment K-12 Education. Coursera Inc. - The company offers online courses including free courses and university degrees at a breakthrough price. Competitive Analysis The report includes the competitive analysis, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their industry position score and market performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc. Market Segmentation By Type, the market is classified into Higher education, Test preparation, Language and casual learning, Prim & sec supplemental edu., and Reskilling & online certifications.

By Geography, the market is classified as North America , APAC, Europe , South America , and MEA. APAC will have the largest share of the market. Related Reports

Edtech Market -The Edtech market has the potential to grow by USD 112.39 billion during 2021-2025, and the market's growth momentum will decelerate at a CAGR of 17.85%. Download a free sample now! Virtual Schools Market in North America -The virtual schools market in North America has the potential to grow by USD 294.17 million during 2021-2025, and the market's growth momentum will decelerate at a CAGR of 4.78%. Download a free sample now!







Online Education Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2019 Forecast period 2020-2024 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 18% Market growth 2020-2024 USD 247.46 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 17.59 Regional analysis North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution APAC at 34% Key consumer countries US, China, Germany, UK, France, and Canada Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled 2U Inc., Ambow Education Holding Ltd., Coursera Inc., edX Inc., iTutorGroup, LinkedIn Corp., McGraw-Hill Education Inc., Pearson Plc, Udacity Inc., and Udemy Inc. 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.

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/ View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/online-education-market-to-grow-at-a-cagr-of-18-from-2019-to-2024-17000-technavio-reports-301421220.html SOURCE Technavio

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] GSMA Reveals MWC Barcelona 2022 First Details

LONDON, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MWC Barcelona, the world's largest mobile technology event returns to Barcelona in 2022 under the theme Connectivity Unleashed. Building on the success of the 2021 edition, GSMA has today opened registration for the event, which will take place from 28th February  3rd March 2022. During the four-day conference, attendees will hear first-hand about the future of connectivity from leaders within the mobile industry and beyond. "This year, I was incredibly proud that we were able to bring the industry back together in Barcelona after so long apart. Building on the success of MWC21, I'm thrilled that we can do it again," said GSMA CEO Ltd. John Hoffman. "At the 2022 edition of MWC we will provide a platform for the debates that define society's relationship with technology and, ultimately, we will be the place where business gets done." Connectivity Unleashed 'Connectivity Unleashed' will be explored through topic areas, including: CloudNet - Networks continue to adapt to support service delivery and, today, cloud is considered a key enabler of large-scale transformation with the market projected to reach $75 billion by 2026.

Networks continue to adapt to support service delivery and, today, cloud is considered a key enabler of large-scale transformation with the market projected to reach by 2026. 5G Connect - This theme will explore what tomorrow's world looks like with 5G and the business models shaping its growth.

- This theme will explore what tomorrow's world looks like with 5G and the business models shaping its growth. Internet of Everything - With 24 billion IoT connections predicted by 2025, smart technology offers a new means to reimagine and transform physical spaces.

- With 24 billion IoT connections predicted by 2025, smart technology offers a new means to reimagine and transform physical spaces. FinTech - The mobile eco-system is the heartbeat of fintech as technology continues to reduce barriers and enable new disruptions and innovations.

- The mobile eco-system is the heartbeat of fintech as technology continues to reduce barriers and enable new disruptions and innovations. Tech Horizon - The Tech Horizon theme aims to explore how mobile is transforming our future with innovations that go beyond the industry and deliver purpose.

- The Tech Horizon theme aims to explore how mobile is transforming our future with innovations that go beyond the industry and deliver purpose. Advancing AI - With global investment set to top $170 billion by 2025, geo-political lines are taking shape on AI's use of data and where collaboration is needed to develop new industry innovations. The Intersection of Connectivity, Industry & Innovation An emphasis on connecte industries and digital innovation will bring an exciting line-up of thought leaders and disrupters to our conferences platforms. For example, on the heels of their acquisition announcement, Weta Digital's CEO joins a growing list of confirmed speakers;



Prem Akkaraju , CEO, Weta Digital

, CEO, Shuky Sheffer , President and CEO, Amdocs

, President and CEO, Amdocs Anne Chow , CEO, AT&T Business

, CEO, AT&T Business Cher Wang , Chairwoman and Acting CEO, HTC

, Chairwoman and Acting CEO, HTC Maurcio Ramos , CEO, Millicom

, CEO, Millicom Pekka Lundmark , President & CEO, Nokia

, President & CEO, Nokia Stephane Richard , Chairman & CEO, Orange

, Chairman & CEO, Orange Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete , Chairman & CEO, Telefonica

, Chairman & CEO, Telefonica Caroline Casey , Founder & Creator, Valuable 500

, Founder & Creator, Valuable 500 Nick Read , CEO, Vodafone Speakers will be joined by exhibitors from across the connectivity ecosystem including Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Google, Huawei, Intel, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, Telefonica, Vodafone, and ZTE among others. The GSMA extends a warm welcome to first-time exhibitors, Fisker, Fujitsu and, LG Uplus. "MWC22 will show off cutting-edge technology that pushes the boundary of possibility. Sparking conversations that fuel innovation, bringing start-ups, big business, and governments together to inspire and create a connected world that delivers for all. MWC21 was the beginning of a comeback for live-events, and I can't wait to be back in Barcelona," said Mats Granryd, Director General GSMA.

A window into the future The GSMA's start-up exhibition will once again be at the heart of MWC in the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via venue. It will bring together over 450 international start-ups and 500 investors to shape eight programmes in sectors including; Digital Health, Fintech, Frontier Tech, Sportstech, Impact, Investors, Communities and, Diversity and Inclusion. Delegations from Austria, Andorra, Chile, Egypt, Korea, Spain, Switzerland and, the UK will be showcasing their solutions on the show floor together with ground-breaking startups from the rest of the world. "This year marks the 8th edition of the GSMA's key innovation platform at MWC Barcelona, 4YFN.," said Pere Duran, 4YFN Director. "Combining MWC and 4YFN recognises the critical role startups play in fulfilling the potential of mobile technology. The innovation they deliver will enable us to unleash new potential and ensure we are contributing to society and the planet in a way we can be proud of passing to future generations." Committed Community As MWC returns for another in-person event, health and safety remain the number one priority. To ensure all delegates have a safe and enjoyable MWC Barcelona 2022 experience, GSMA has evolved its Committed Community Health & Safety plan. The plan reflects the changing global circumstances, going beyond required measures to ensure MWC remains a safe environment to conduct business. Full details of the Committed Community plan will be released shortly. The GSMA appreciates the time, effort and, resources involved in attending an event like MWC and remains committed to communicating changes or updates as the world progresses actions to manage Covid-19. Register now Registration is now open for MWC Barcelona 2022, the industry's most influential connectivity event. Click here to ensure you ensure your attendance. About GSMA The GSMA is a global organization unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change. Our vision is to unlock the full power of connectivity so that people, industry, and society thrive. Representing mobile operators and organizations across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries, the GSMA delivers for its members across three broad pillars: Connectivity for Good, Industry Services and Solutions, and Outreach. This activity includes advancing policy, tackling today's biggest societal challenges, underpinning the technology and interoperability that make mobile work, and providing the world's largest platform to convene the mobile ecosystem at the MWC and M360 series of events. We invite you to find out more at gsma.com. Media Contacts:

GSMA Press Office

[email protected] SOURCE GSMA

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] WAYZ.AI CEO Dr. Tao: Spatio-Temporal AI Energizes Digital Twin and Metaverse

SHANGHAI, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems 2021 (ACM SIGSPATIAL 2021), the 29th edition, was held November 2-5, 2021. As the first Keynote of the conference, Former Director of Microsoft Virtual Earth, Founder and CEO of WAYZ.AI, Dr. Vincent Tao, presented the WAYZ.AI innovation on Spatio-Temporal AI (ST-AI) technology and its applications to Digital Twin and Metaverse. With the emerging Metaverse, the world will be more weaved into the virtual world. Dr.Tao called the future world "Phygital", a mixed physical and digital world. The Phygital world is neither just another Sims game, like Roblox, nor the Internet world like Alibaba or Amazon. It is a mirrored world, Digital Twin, or recently Metaverse. People's life and work experiences should be seamless integrated physically or digitally. Moreover, the Phygital world would be a place where people and big or small business can be of benefit. Unlike the current Internet, people's data and small business are very much under a control by the growing monopoly Giants. WAYZ.AI has developed a new technology, ST-AI, to analyze the relation of supply-demand in any geographic region by combining data from a variety of sources both online and offline. ST-AI can help brands, retails and merchants to provide sales forecast, site selection and right goods for sale etc. This approach can help not just businesses but also city planners and managers to better manage the city, like zone planning, disaster mitigation, economic development and community services. Dr. Tao referred that Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft, introduced an idea of a '3D Web' in 2005 and later acquired GeoTango, a 3D web mapping company founded by Dr. Tao. Dr. Tao recalled, 2005 was the beginning of a battle between Google Earth and Mirosoft Virtual Earth (Dr. Tao was Director of Microsoft Virtual Earth Business Unit). Many technologies have been developed during the competition, such as computer vision for 3D urban modeling and panoramic Street-view imaging etc. It was the first time that people can walk through the 3D world via the Internet and navigate into any city block. With the limitation of mobile phones and IOT devices, the 3D world is static and its commercial value is limited.



Professor Michael Batty, Chairman of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, defines Spatio-Temporal AI is a collection of digital tools, models, and methods that can be deployed to increase people's understanding of how, where and why people locate and move in cities. It also enables people to develop new procedures for designing and managing the future city so that it can become more sustainable, equitable and efficient. Dr.Tao along with a group of leading experts has recently published a whitepaper "Spatio-Temporal AI powering the Digital Twin city". It states that it becomes possible that the city itself can be modeled, analyzed, and predictable with the big data and AI technologies. The increasing data aggregated from multiple data sources from the city government and the public allows people to deploy Al tools and methods to understand the complex social and physical activities of the city. The Phygital platform developed by WAYZ.AI was one of the first of its kind to address city related problems at scale. The Phygital platform is composed of ST big data engine, ST knowledge graph engine, and ST-Al engine as well as a set of pre-trained models built from many real-world cases. The most challenge issue to handle the city-level data is its volume, dynamics, uncertainty and scalability. WAYZ.AI is a leader in developing ST-AI methods and algorithms to make it work.

ABOUT WAYZ.AI

WAYZ.AI is a technology leader in Spatio-Temporal AI (ST-AI). The technology has been used in a wide array of applications, from market intelligence, retail operations, brand optimization, real estate planning and city management etc, WAYZ.AI's vision is to make the Phygital world understandable, manageable and predicable so we are able to adjust the supply-demand of goods, balance the online and offline life, better planning of city facilities and much less vulnerable to disasters. Spatio-Temporal AI is an unique approach to utilize AI and big data technologies for handling complex problems using huge and a variety of data sources at scale.

www.wayz.ai CONTACT: Rui Ma, [email protected], +86-13141270980 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wayzai-ceo-dr-tao-spatio-temporal-ai-energizes-digital-twin-and-metaverse-301422838.html SOURCE WAYZ.AI

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Demand for bookings of sixth-cycle designated quarantine hotels double on Trip.com

HONG KONG, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Government announced the list of sixth-cycle designated quarantine hotels on October 19 for travelers completing the quarantine period within December 1, 2021 to February 28, 2022, covering peak seasons such as Christmas and Chinese New Year. Despite the high demand for quarantine hotel rooms in Hong Kong, Trip.com has been working with the 27 designated quarantine hotels to source rooms to meet demand. Since the launch of designated quarantine hotels in early 2021, Trip.com has recorded bookings in total of over 200,000 room nights, helping more than 10,000 Hong Kong residents returning from overseas. As the year-end holidays approach, during the week of October 17, 2021, which coincided with the Government announcing the list of sixth cycle designated quarantine hotels, Trip.com saw strong and increasing demand for designated quarantine hotel bookings, with booking orders hitting a record high during the period. Compared to the week the Government announced the list of fifth cycle designated quarantine hotels, the relevant orders increased by 179%. Trip.com has been working closely with designated quarantine hotel partners since early this year and created a "designated quarantine hotel" webpage for users, aiming to assist travelers in checking quarantine requirements and booking hotel packages for returning to Hong Kong in the simplest way, offering the best user experience with its one-stop services. For further information on designated quarantine hotel (including Terms & Conditions), please visit: https://hk.trip.com/sale/w/1458/longstayhotelsoffer.html?promo_referer=11_1458_2&curr=HKD&locale=en_hk Users can compare the prices of 7/14/24 days self-quarantine hotel package for a wide range of designated quarantine hotels on the same webpage, as well as obtain the latest updates on the Government's quarantine requirement for residents arriving in Hong Kong from areas of different risk levels and other related frequently asked questions. In addition, Trip.com has created videos to share tips about quarantine hotels. It is indeed providing one-stop quarantine information for users. Trip.com is actively negotiating with more designated quarantine hotels and currently provides a choice of 27 hotels with package prices ranging from approximately HK$530 to HK$3,630 per night (including meals) for customers to choose from according to their needs:







NO. Hotel Lowest package price per

night for reference (HKD) 1 Pentahotel Hong Kong Kowloon 600 2 Metropark Hotel Kowloon 580 3 Best Western Plus Hotel Hong Kong 590 4 Best Western Hotel Causeway Bay 530 5 Ramada Hong Kong Grand (Ramada Hong Kong

Grand Tsim Sha Tsui Hotel Kowloon previously) 530 6 Ramada Hong Kong Grand View 590 7 Ramada Hong Kong Harbour View 530 8 Grand City Hotel 530 9 iclub Ma Tau Wai Hotel 630 10 Regal Oriental Hotel 830 11 Regal Airport Hotel 890 12 Hotel Indigo Hong Kong Island 1,290 13 Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong 3,630 14 Dorsett Mongkok Hong Kong 800 15 Dorsett Wanchai 880 16 Mira Moon Hong Kong 1,230 17 Silka Far East Hotel 530 18 Silka Seaview Hotel 530 19 Dorsett Tsuen Wan 600 20 Bridal Tea House Hotel (Yau Ma Tei Wing Shing Lane) 490 21 Bridal Tea House Hotel (Gillies Road) 490 22 Eco Tree Hotel Causeway Bay 590 23 Empire Prestige Causeway Bay 700 24 Empire Hotel Hong Kong - Causeway Bay 700 25 iclub Fortress Hill Hotel 650 26 O' Hotel 535 27 Lan Kwai Fong Hotel @ Kau U Fong 990

Hillman Lam, General Manager of Trip.com Hong Kong, said "Christmas and Chinese New Year mean a lot to Hong Kong people and these have always been the peak seasons for overseas Hong Kong people to return home to celebrate the festivities with family. However, journeys for many overseas Hong Kong people returning home have been affected by the pandemic, where they require more preparations than they were previously used to in the pre-pandemic time. 'Your all-in-one travel app' is Trip.com's commitment to users in Hong Kong. We hope to simplify the process of searching for designated quarantine hotels for Hong Kong people who work or study aboard, and to provide a one-stop information and options service to ensure hassle-free return trips to their hometown." SOURCE Trip.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] China-Switzerland Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cooperation Launch Conference held in Changzhou National Hi-Tech District

CHANGZHOU, China, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The China-Switzerland Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cooperation Launch Conference was held in Changzhou National Hi-Tech District on October 21 in a move to further strengthen the strategic partnership on innovation between Switzerland and China and implement the spirit of the Joint Statement on Strengthening Science and Innovation Cooperation signed by China's Ministry of Science and Technology and the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research. Sino-Swiss (Changzhou) Innovation Park Sino-Swiss (Changzhou) Innovation Park was established in 2018 and sponsored jointly by Torch High Technology Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the International Economic and Technical Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the municipal government of Changzhou as a provincial-level international cooperation park. The park is committed to serving as the industrycluster and center of innovation for the production of intelligent equipment, carbon fiber composite materials as well as biomedical and medical devices. To date, working factories and production lines already occupy some 270,000 square meters of the approximately 670,000 square meters allocated to the park. Since its opening in 2019, the companies operating in the park have made innovation, intelligence and environmental sustainability part of the mission, as these are all areas strongly supported by the governments of China and Switzerland and are of growing importance to leading Swiss and German companies. A large number of industry leaders from the two countries have chosen the park for their Chinese operations, including Medela, SID, COTESA, Lanz Manufaktur and Leoni. The park has been approved as a provincial-level international cooperation park, putting it on the path to becoming a high-end platform for the furthering of China's opening up policies as well as for extended cooperation with the city of Changzhou and even the whole of Jiangsu province.



An Lei, director of the International Department of Torch High Technology Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, succinctly summed up what had taken place at the event when he said that the China-Switzerland Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cooperation is proving to be a beneficial move for cross-border cooperation between science parks and reflects the general trend of global opening up and innovation. He continued: "I hope that after the meeting, the executives from Chinese and Swiss science parks who joined the meeting can earnestly summarize the information and situation exchanged today so that we can further explore next steps, establish working links with each other, and extensively carry out regular, multi-level and comprehensive exchanges and collaborations. We also look forward to a collaborative effort between China's and Switzerland's science parks that can take a deeper look at an effective model for international cooperation, setting a benchmark and example for future exchanges and collaborations among the world's science parks.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/china-switzerland-innovation-and-entrepreneurship-cooperation-launch-conference-held-in-changzhou-national-hi-tech-district-301422870.html SOURCE Changzhou National Hi-Tech District

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Beneffx.com Launches Brand App for Android Users

MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today's market conditions require that online traders have access to software at all times, for a healthy decision-making process. For that reason, global online indices trading brand Beneffx.com has released a new and improved version of its trading app, suitable for Android devices. This version of the app is already available on Google Play, downloadable for all registered users at no extra cost. "It was important for us, while building and designing this app, to focus on its interface," explained Blake White, spokesperson for Beneffx.com. "We know that today's reality calls for a focus on mobile trading, and it has to be fast and convenient, otherwise the full potential of the markets cannot be exploited. That's why we've put the best minds to ork on the app for the past few months, and I can truly say that we are proud of the end result, and confident that our traders will like it."



Mobility is the future

Aside from the mentioned app, Beneffx.com also grants access to all traders to its proprietary mobile WebTrader, Be-Mobile. The WebTrader is packed with useful tools and features, and does not require any download, meaning that mobile trading is enabled from any device. Additionally according to the company's representatives, an iOS version of Beneffx.com's app will be available soon as well, and an update regarding this will be published in the near future. "When we founded Beneffx.com, we had one main goal in mind - to make online trading as accessible and user-friendly as possible," added White. "This is just one step toward that goal. Our clients can rest assured that we are always working on ways to improve their trading experience. We invite traders from all over the world to give us a try."

About Beneffx.com

Established with the goal of bringing a much-needed change to the online trading world, Beneffx.com has already managed to gain the status of a reputed trading brand around the world, offering a service level which can't be matched by other providers. As of today, clients have access to social trading tools, in the form of forex, cryptocurrencies, stocks, commodities and indices. A demo account is available at no charge for beginner traders, as well as an Islamic account for religious traders, also at no extra charge.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Simple Online Wills Have Surged in the UK - But Are They Risky for Consumers? - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "Online Wills - Are They Worth the Paper They're Not Written On?" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The use of online wills in the UK has surged, fuelled by the pandemic and the rise of slick online technology offerings. This independent and unbiased research reveals concerns however, whether consumers really know what they are buying and whether a simple online meets their needs. The publisher conducted two surveys among 1,500 UK consumers in the first half of 2021 and reviewed over 25 online firms and also consulted with industry experts. The author tested online will writing propositions ranging from low or no cost to the more expensive, and tested user experience ranging from traditional longer forms to slick and transformative journeys. The publisher examined whether consumers understood their own affairs and were they 'simple' or 'complex' and whether they understood what they were signing up to. Key concerns are outlined with this sector which need to be considered and some clear consumer guidance is summarised to help tose looking to make a will - which every UK adult should do.



This report details the full findings and will be valuable for organisations thinking of offering online wills, will writers themselves, media, consumer influencers, and anyone seeking to better understand this market sector. The report provides evidence that:

Online will writers don't always ask su?cient questions to determine if a 'simple' will is suitable for an individual's circumstances or indicate to a customer that a simple will may not work for them.

Most online wills are unsuitable for people with complicated circumstances, yet 65% of consumers who believe their affairs are simple, actually have complex circumstances.

A sizeable proportion (23%) of consumers do not bother to read or even understand the terms of the will they are entering into and signing.

Online will writers offer very little liability for something going wrong. Key Topics Covered: The will writing and online will writing market size Market insight Types of will writing provider

Online will writing methods

How will writers position themselves

The customer experience

Price and features

Related products and services

Heritage and expertise

Additional analysis Consumer insight Consumers expect wills to include legal advice

Consumer awareness and confidence of own needs

Reading (and understanding) the small print

Aspects of our lives that might mean a simple will is not suitable

More complex circumstances

Events that led to changing a will or writing a new one Expert comment and consumer guidance For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6y7st5 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005463/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] [email protected] concludes with conclave on National Panchayat Parliament emphasizing on Atmanirbhar Panchayats as replicas of welfare states

Grass root leaders to ensure people's participation in creation of sustainable model villages PANAJI, India, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Goa at 60, organised by Goa Legislative Assembly and MIT School of Government, supported by Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad came to an end with a conclave on National Panchayat Parliament emphasizing on the importance of PRI for a healthy and inclusive democracy. The conclave was inaugurated in the presence of Dr. Pramod Sawant, Hon'ble Chief Minister, Goa; Shri Chandrakant Kavlekar, Hon'ble Deputy Chief Minister, Goa; Shri. Rajesh Patnekar, Hon'ble Speaker, Goa Legislative Assembly; Shri Pratapsingh Rane, MLA, Poriem Constituency; Shri Rahul V Karad, Managing Trustee & Executive President, MAEER's MIT and MIT WPU, Founder, MIT SOG, BCS, NWP, Sarpanch Sansad. The National Panchayat Parliament witnessed invigorating sessions on creation of Gram-Swaraj through model villages, which advocate holistic development and self-sufficiency to the maximum. It highlighted the need for people's participation in planning and execution for the sustenance of model villages. It also stressed on how leadership at the grassroots level can have a transformative impact on people and ensure higher participation in democratic processes. Shri Pramod Sawant, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Goa said, "I appeal to all the elected members of Zilla Panchayats present at the National Panchayat Parliament to ensure that all the ward and block level schemes of the government are reaching to the last mile beneficiary. Our Swayampurna Goa Initiative has received an overwhelming response from the people. We have implemented its 10 point programme in urban and rural areas through which electricity, water and other basic facilities were given to all. We appreciate the efforts put in by Panchayats and Zila Panchayat members in delivering self-less service to people during the pandemic and cyclone." Shri. Chandrakant Kavlekar, Hon'ble Deputy Chief Minister of Goa, said, "I appreciate the efforts made by Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant and MIT School of Government for organising these momentous conclaves of National Women Parliament, National Youth Parliament and National Panchayat Parliament at such a large scale. These ar the three important pillars of our democracy and coming together of these will further strengthen it."



Shri. Rajesh Patnekar, Hon'ble Speaker, Goa Legislative Assembly, said, "The last five days at the Goa at 60 event is nothing short of historic. We have witnessed a very fruitful exchange of ideas, which would be used for the betterment of society and country at large." Shri. Rahul V. Karad, Managing Trustee & Executive President, MAEER's MIT and Executive President, MIT World Peace University & Chief Initiator, MIT School of Government, highlighted the role of youth participation in democracy, and said, "Earlier we used to organize such Parliaments in different states of the country where we received an overwhelming response. However, this event organised by the Goa Legislative Assembly is nothing short of historic. The government through this initiative is working towards giving a great message to the world. Through this Parliament, the incredible work done by the leadership at the grassroots level will be presented to the entire country."

The session also saw the presence of other eminent dignitaries such as Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena, Chairman of Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Organization under the Ministry of Medium, Small and Micro Enterprise, Government of India; Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary, President, Bharatiya Krishak Samaj, Ex. Chairman, State Farms Corporation Of India & Indian Sugarcane Development Council, Govt. of India, Founder, Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC); Ms. Chhavi Rajawat, Former Sarpanch, Soda Village, Rajasthan; Shri. Panthdeep Singh Sarpanch, Chhina Village, Gurdaspur, Punjab (MBE); Shri. Rajeev Kamal Bittu, Chartered Accountant and Agricultural Entrepreneur; Shri Himanshu Patel, Former Sarpanch, BJP, Punsari Village, Sabarkantha, Gujarat; Ms. Bhakti Sharma, Sarpanch, Barkhedi Abdulla Village; Ms. Arati Devi, Former Sarpanch (IND, MBA), Dhunkapada Village; Shri. Kalyan Akkipeddi, Social Entrepreneur, Proto Village International; Shri. Varad Samant, Agricultural Innovator & Entrepreneur; Shri. Nasir Khan, Sarpanch, Bijopur Village, Tahsil. Ballabgarh, Dist. Faridabad, Haryana (BBA); Ms. Smriti Singh, Sarpanch, Ratsar (Kala) Village, Tehsil. Garwar, Dist. Ballia, Uttar Pradesh (B. SC, MBA); Shri. Jeripula Sreenivas, Sarpanch, Atmanagar Village, Metpally Mandal, Jagityal, Telangana; Ms. Kavita Pundlik Bhondve, Sarpanch, Dahegaon and Vagalud, Nashik. The National Panchayat Parliament came to a close with a valedictory ceremony graced by the presence of special guest of honor Gen (Retd) J.J. Singh, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC, Former Governor of Arunachal Pradesh and 22nd Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of the Indian Army. About MIT School of Government (MIT-SOG): The MIT School of Government (MIT-SOG), a constituent unit of MIT World Peace University (MIT-WPU) , Pune, is the first institute of its kind to initiate a two-year Master's degree program in Political Leadership & Government or MPG (UGC-approved program) for a Career in Politics. MIT-SOG was initiated in the year 2005 under the visionary leadership of Shri. Rahul V. Karad  Initiator & Executive President, MIT World Peace University with the vision of creating Ethical, Spirited, and Committed Political Leadership for the country from the grassroots and from all walks of life. Under the able guidance of Late. Shri. T.N Seshan, First Chairman, MIT-SOG, former Chief-Election Commissioner of India (also well known as the Father of Electoral Reforms in India), the curriculum for MPG program at MIT-SOG was designed with the complete involvement of highly decorated officials from Government, Politics, Judiciary, Media and Academia. MIT-SOG specifically caters to the need for training students in politics & government in order to become trained Political Leaders of the country. Quotes: Smt Chhavi Rajawat, Former Sarpanch, Soda Village, Rajasthan, said, "We have developed as a nation through means of technology but even today our villages are stuck in medievalism. Development should not be restricted to urban areas but should take into consideration rural areas as well. This will lead to holistic development of the country. For rural development, it is paramount to connect with the masses who make us aware of the actual challenges they face on ground. Without understanding of these ground level challenges, it will be difficult to holistically develop sustainable villages." Shri Pratapsingh Rane, MLA, Poriem Constituency, said, "In a federal democracy like ours, there is a great division of power, from grassroot to top, gram panchayat at village level and gram samiti at taluka level and our panchayats play a great role at ensuring democracy at grass root level by increasing participation of masses." Shri Pathandeep Singh, Sarpanch, Chhina Village, Gurdaspur, Punjab, said, "If we talk about SDG Goals, infrastructure development is one the goals. As a Sarpanch, I was determined to make sure that my village gets all the basic facilities and I prioritized infrastructure development for my village followed by education and women empowerment. We empowered women by making them actively participate in decision making at panchayat level." Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1686983/MIT_SOG.jpg

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Enerkem achieves a major breakthrough by producing sustainable aviation fuel from local forest biomass

MONTREAL, Nov. 12, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - Enerkem, a world leader in the production of biofuels from waste materials, is proud to have achieved a major breakthrough in converting carbon from forest biomass into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using its proprietary thermochemical process. This important milestone was achieved at Enerkem's Innovation Centre in Westbury, Quebec. It will be followed by the demonstration phase, which will lead to commercialization in the near future. This research is part of The Sky's the Limit Challenge organized by Natural Resources Canada and for which Enerkem was selected as a finalist. The aviation sector alone accounts for 3% of total global GHG emissions and its carbon footprint appears difficult to reduce. With the favorable support provided by the Renewable Transportation Fuels Regulation, the production of sustainable aviation fuel from end-of-life materials has emerged as a future solution that will be the cornerstone of aviation's efforts to reduce its GHG emissions and eliminate them completely by 2050. Currently, sustainable aviation fuel can be produced from a number of sources, including waste materials, corn grain and CO 2 . Enerkem is already working with Shell on the use of waste materials for its Rotterdam project, and as part of The Sky's the Limit Challenge, Enerkem has chosen a fourth source: forest biomass. "Our diligent and innovative approach in developing our forest biomass conversion technology has enabled us to produce a sustainable aviation fuel that will reduce the full life cyle carbon emissions of the aviation industry by over 90% compared to conventional fuel. This breakthrough will allow travelers to take flights that emit significantly less GHGs," says Michel Chornet, Enerkem's Executive Vice President, Engineering, Innovation and Operations.



Enerkem's aviation fuel is already in the process of being certified by Canadian, American and European authorities. Enerkem already has the infrastructure in place to move to the commercialization stage (plant in Edmonton and innovation center in Westbury) and will be able to proceed as soon as the market conditions are met. Agroforestry for sustainable aviation

Agroforestry captures atmospheric CO 2 and, through photosynthesis, water and nutrients, converts the carbon in the CO 2 into biomass molecules. The transformation of biomass into biofuels and marketable bioproducts represents a unique opportunity for innovation. It is this eco-friendly approach that inspired Enerkem to take part in the The Sky's the Limit Challenge and convert Canadian forest biomass residues into sustainable aviation fuel.

The benefits of this approach are numerous: creation of partnerships with regional communities, sustainable economic development, job and wealth creation in the region, diversion of urban biomass from landfill and valorization of residual forest biomass. Strong commercialization potential

"Our technology is proven. We already have a commercial-scale biofuel plant in Edmonton, Alberta. It converts residual municipal waste into biofuels. A second plant is currently under construction in Varennes, Quebec, in partnership with Shell, Suncor, Proman, the Quebec government and with support from Infrastructure Canada. This plant will process forest biomass in addition to non-recyclable and non-compostable waste. In addition, last June, due to the substantial demand for sustainable aviation fuel, we decided, with our partners Shell and the Port of Rotterdam, to transform the proposed Rotterdam plant in the Netherlands. The planned production at this plant will now focus on converting waste materials into aviation fuels rather than renewable chemicals. The commercialization potential is there and we believe in it," adds Dominique Boies, Enerkem's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. About Enerkem

Enerkem has developed and commercializes a disruptive technology producing advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals from non-recyclable waste. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Enerkem operates a full-scale commercial demonstration facility in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada as well as an innovation centre in Quebec. A full-scale commercial facility in Varennes, Quebec, Canada is currently under construction and commissioning is scheduled for 2023. Enerkem's technology is a prime example of how carbon in agroforestry residues and in urban residues can be recycled into new products, diversifying the energy mix and making everyday products greener while offering a smart, sustainable alternative to landfilling and incineration. For more information, visit www.enerkem.com, follow us on Twitter@Enerkem or consult our LinkedIn or Facebook pages. SOURCE Enerkem Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] BCT-Bank of Charles Town Announces Anchor Investment in BankTech Ventures Fund

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- (OTC:PTBS)  BCT-Bank of Charles Town, also known as The Community's Bank, announced today that it has committed to be an early investor in BankTech Ventures, LP ("BTV" or the "Fund"), a newly launched venture capital fund with the mission to support community banks through investment and education around banking technology. With general partners from The Venture Center, the Independent Community Bankers of America ("ICBA"), Hovde Group and two leading community banks, Coastal Community Bank and Sunwest Bank, BankTech Ventures looks to partner with premier community banks to identify emerging technologies for investment and use by them. Supported and endorsed by the ICBA and The Venture Center, which was named Finovate's 2020 Best Accelerator of the Year, BankTech Ventures is building an ecosystem that pairs community banks with emerging technology companies that can serve banks' immediate needs whether it be regulatory, customer acquisition, process improvement, or other areas of focus. The Fund ultimately aims to provide its bank investors with the opportunity to obtain significant research & development "spend" at a much lower cost than if undertaken in-house, as well as strong returns from the underlying company investments. With a limited partner base expected to reach over 150 community banks across the US, the strategic value of the fund's ecosystem for both bank-focused startups and community banks is unprecedented. "When presented the opportunity to invest in and join the BankTech Ventures partnership, we jumped in right away," said Alice Frazier, President & CEO of BCT. "BankTech Ventures has assembled the ideal team to identify, evaluate, invest in and align our bank's success through emerging technologies. We can move forward as an innovative bank in our community, learn about market changes and our customers' needs at a more rapid rate, and participate in the value created by leading technology companies. It's a reat partnership."



"Community banks like Bank of Charles Town are so important to the communities they serve, and as they continue to evolve, emerging technologies will play a key role for them and their customers," said Carey Ransom, Managing Director of BankTech Ventures. "I'm excited to welcome Alice and team from Bank of Charles Town to our partnership in BankTech Ventures. Together and as part of our ecosystem, we will help ensure community banks remain competitive amid a rapidly changing environment." BankTech Ventures, LP ( www.banktechventures.com ) is targeting $150-200MM for its first fund and has reached a first close of $55MM with 60 initial limited partners, including Bank of Charles Town. The fund is already evaluating several investment opportunities. In addition to Ransom, the fund's other general partners are Eric Sprink, CEO of Coastal Community Bank; Carson Lappetito, President of Sunwest Bank; Steve Hovde, Chairman & CEO of Hovde Group; Charles Potts, Chief Innovation Officer, ICBA; and Wayne Miller, Executive Director, The Venture Center.

About BCT-Bank of Charles Town Founded in 1871 and celebrating their 150th year of service, BCT - Bank of Charles Town, also known as The Community's Bank, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Potomac Bancshares, Inc. (OTC:PTBS). With approximately $701 million in assets as of September 30, 2021, the Company conducts operations through its main office, an additional eight branch offices, and two loan production offices. BCT's offices are located in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties (WV), Washington County (MD), and Loudoun and Stafford Counties (VA). The Bank provides various banking products and services including free access to over 55,000 ATMs through the Allpoint network plus online and mobile banking for individuals, businesses, and local governments. The Bank also offers commercial lines and term loans, residential and commercial construction, commercial real estate loans and agricultural loans. The Residential Lending division offers secondary market and portfolio mortgage loans, one-time close construction to perm loans, as well as home equity loans and lines of credit. For over 60 years, BCT Wealth Advisors has provided financial management, investment, trust, and estate services to its clients. In 2019 and 2020, the Bank was named a "Best Bank To Work For" by American Banker. In 2018, Forbes named BCT a "Best In State Bank" for Maryland. The Company's shares are quoted on the OTC Pink Sheet marketplace under the symbol "PTBS." For more information about Potomac Bancshares, Inc., and the Bank, please visit our website at www.mybct.bank. About BankTech Ventures, LP. Established in 2021, BankTech Ventures, LP is the first venture fund created for and by key leaders in community banking, bank technology and fintech. BTV serves the community banking ecosystem through strategic investments, education and collaboration with its limited partners and ICBA members by delivering a de-risked and/or fully vetted network of leading and emerging bank technology companies to enhance a community bank's value, as well as aim for strong returns from the underlying investments in these companies. Learn more at www.banktechventures.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bct-bank-of-charles-town-announces-anchor-investment-in-banktech-ventures-fund-301422316.html SOURCE BCT - Bank of Charles Town

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] KKR Further Expands Industrial Real Estate Portfolio in Phoenix

KKR, a leading global investment firm, today announced that KKR has acquired two multi-tenant industrial buildings totaling approximately 154,000 square feet in the Papago industrial park, located in the highly infill Southwest Valley submarket of Phoenix, Arizona. The transaction grows KKR's industrial real estate footprint in the Phoenix metropolitan statistical area (MSA) to nearly two and a half million square feet. The property consists of two multi-tenant buildings completed in 1997. Located in close proximity to the I-10 highway, a major cross-country trucking artery, it offers direct access to downtown Phoenix in approximately 10 minutes. Each building was 100% leased at acquisition with a weighted average lease term of approximately two years. KKR acquired the asset from Mountain West Industrial Properties, an affiliate of Baron Properties. "We are excited to grow our portfolio in Phoenix with the purchase of these two strategically located infill buildings," said Ben Brudney, a Director in the real estate group at KKR who oversees the firm's industrial investments in the United States. "The growth in Phoenix through the first three quartersof 2021 has been exceptional and we continue to believe there are strong demand drivers for well located, last mile assets like this one."



KKR is making the investment through the KKR Real Estate Partners Americas III fund. Across its funds, KKR now owns over 35 million square feet of industrial property in strategic locations across major MSAs in the U.S. Since launching a dedicated real estate platform in 2011, KKR has grown real estate assets under management to approximately $36 billion across the U.S., Europe and Asia as of September 30, 2021. The global real estate team consists of over 135 dedicated investment professionals, spanning both the equity and credit businesses.

CBRE brokered the transaction. About KKR KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management and capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR's insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of The Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter (News - Alert) @KKR_Co. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005388/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] BlackSky Technology Inc. Reports Third Quarter 2021 Results

BlackSky Technology Inc. ("BlackSky" or the "Company") (NYSE: BKSY), a leading technology platform providing real-time geospatial intelligence and global monitoring, today announced its results for the third quarter of 2021. Key points from the third quarter include: Revenue of $7.9 million, up 49% from 3Q 2020

Net loss of $46.9 million or a loss of $0.67 per diluted share

Adjusted EBITDA loss of $16.2 million

Cash balance at the end of 3Q 2021 was $198 million "We demonstrated strong execution across all aspects of our business as we continue our mission of providing our customers a first-to-know advantage. BlackSky is leading a new era in real-time global intelligence. Achievements during the quarter include positive sales traction, expansion of our global sales force and pipeline, and progress on the expansion of our constellation and artificial intelligence enabled SaaS (News - Alert) platform," stated Brian E. O'Toole, Chief Executive Officer. "The third quarter included several major milestones. Most importantly, BlackSky completed its business combination with Osprey Technology Acquisition Corp., grossing $283 million of cash to fund our growth plan. In addition, we bolstered the ranks of our executive management team through four strategic executive hires, all with public company experience, including a Chief Development Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and General Counsel. BlackSky also completed the build out of our board of directors with the appointment of The Honorable Susan Gordon and Jim Tolonen, both seasoned veterans in their respective areas of expertise. We now have a high caliber, experienced team in place to help drive our aggressive growth plans." In its first quarter as a public company, BlackSky was awarded several new contracts, including multi-year awards, and extensions: The award of a five-year, sole source blanket purchase agreement by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ("NASA") to provide high revisit satellite imagery in support of NASA's existing Earth observation research to advance predictive capabilities. Under the agreement, NASA may issue multi-million dollar call orders for BlackSky imagery.

The expansion of an existing commercial imagery contract with the National Reconnaissance Office ("NRO"), representing an increase in demand from operational end users for BlackSky's high revisit imagery. Imagery deliveries under the contract increased 100% from the second quarter to the third quarter as BlackSky further integrates its solutions into the day-to-day operations of the government.

The award of a $30 million, five-year Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency ("NGA") for artificial intelligence enabled economic monitoring.

The execution of a strategic commercial agreement with Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) to accelerate delivering BlackSky's solutions to Palantir's customers and end users through the integration of our platform. As part of the strategic partnership, Palantir invested in BlackSky through a subscription agreement. The Company was also encouraged by the release of the final request for proposal from the NRO for the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer contract, with proposals due in early December. This significant milestone provides good visibility into the timing of contract awards, which are expected by the Spring of 2022. Outlook BlackSky is revising its 2021 revenue forecast from $40 million to a range of $30 to $34 million, primarily driven by the timing of new contract start dates and supply chain impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These supply chain delays specifically impacted the execution schedule of engineering & integration projects and, thus, the recognition of revenue for these programs. "We continue to see robust pipeline growth that reflects strong demand from both government and commercial customers. BlackSky is well positioned to capture that demand," O'Toole explained. "Recent awards from the NRO, NGA, and NASA demonstrate that BlackSky is emerging as a partner of choice and that customers recognize the value of our high revisit imagery and our advanced AI enabled analytics. We are winning and extending multi-year contracts, which strengthens our visibility into out-year revenues." Third Quarter 2021 Financial Highlights: Total revenue for the third quarter of 2021 was $7.9 million, up 49% from the prior year period. The Company generated an operating loss of $48.9 million for the three months ended September 30, 2021, up from a loss of $12.5 million in the prior year period. In the third quarter, BlackSky's imagery & software analytical services revenue of $6.5 million grew 18% year-over-year, while its engineering & system integration revenue of $1.4 million was up $1.6 million year-over-year. Net loss from continuing operations for the third quarter of 2021 was $46.9 million, or a loss of $0.67 per diluted share, compared to a net loss from continuing operations of $13.9 million or a loss of $0.41 per diluted share in the prior year period. Total adjusted EBITDA loss for the third quarter was $16.2 million, compared to a loss of $9.1 million in the prior year period. BlackSky ended the third quarter of 2021 with $198 million of cash on its balance sheet. 3 months ended September 2021: Revenue of $7.9 million, up 49% from 3Q 2020 Revenue of $7.9 million, up 8% from 2Q 2021 Operating loss of $48.9 million, compared to a loss of $12.5 million in the prior year period Net loss of $46.9 million or a loss of $0.67 per diluted share with $0.41 attributable to non-cash stock compensation Adjusted EBITDA loss of $16.2 million

9 months ended September 2021: Revenue of $22.6 million, up 53% year-over-year Operating loss of $88.2 million, compared to a loss of $32.6 million in the prior year period Net loss of $251.0 million or a loss of $4.33 per diluted share with $0.50 attributable to non-cash stock compensation and $2.74 attributable to transaction costs associated with the reverse recapitalization Adjusted EBITDA loss of $30.0 million

About BlackSky Technology Inc. BlackSky is a leading provider of real-time geospatial intelligence. Leveraging its own satellite constellation and harnessing the world's emerging sensor network, the Company monitors the activities and locations worldwide that matter most to its customers. BlackSky's on-demand constellation of proprietary satellites, together with the sensors in its partners' constellations, are capable of imaging targeted locations on Earth multiple times a day in a variety of conditions. The data collected from BlackSky's satellites and other sources populates BlackSky's proprietary data lake and platform. Cutting-edge computer techniques, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, allow BlackSky's customers to derive unique and commercially valuable insights, providing them with a first-to-know advantage. BlackSky's suite of real-time geospatial intelligence products can be integrated into a customer's system or made available through BlackSky's Spectra platform using a laptop and internet connection. The Company's variety of pricing and utilization options enables customers to customize their first-to-know experience. For more information, visit www.blacksky.com. Non-GAAP Measures Adjusted EBITDA is net income or loss attributable to BlackSky before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, (gain)/loss from discontinued operations, Spaceflight, Inc. employee retention bonuses, Spaceflight, Inc. related shared services, satellite impairment loss, (gain)/loss on debt extinguishment, unrealized loss on certain warrants/shares classified as derivatives, contingent legal liability, stock-based compensation, realized gain on conversion of bridge notes, (gain)/loss on equity method investment, loss on issuance of promissory bridge notes, debt issuance costs expensed and transaction costs expensed. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial performance measure. It should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to measures determined in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to the schedule herein and our SEC (News - Alert) filings for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial performance measures to the most comparable measures reported in accordance with GAAP and for a discussion of the presentation, comparability, and use of such financial performance measures. SPECIAL NOTE FROM THE COMPANY REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This earnings release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or BlackSky's future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward looking statements because they contain words such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "going to," "could," "intends," "target," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, priorities, plans, or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this earnings release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding BlackSky's future financial and operating performance, including our outlook and guidance; anticipated start dates of government contracts and customer capture; our expectations regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; our ability to grow our business, which depends on the successful production, launch, commissioning and/or operation of our satellites and related ground systems, software, and analytic technologies, all of which are subject to many uncertainties; and our ability to keep pace with technological advances in our industry and successfully compete in highly competitive markets. Our expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not materialize, and actual results in future periods are subject to risks and uncertainties, including changes in our plans or assumptions, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks include the possibility that: our contract cycles with domestic and international government customers are long and unpredictable; we are not able to successfully compete in highly competitive markets; we cannot attract and maintain new customers; we cannot guarantee the successful production, launch, commissioning, and/or operation of our satellites and related ground systems, software, and analytic technologies; and we cannot accurate predict our sales cycle or pipeline. The forward-looking statements contained in this earnings release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our S-1 registration statement filed on October 22, 2021 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q that will be filed after this earnings release. The forward-looking statements in this earnings release are based on information available to BlackSky as of the date hereof, and BlackSky disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.







BlackSky Technology Inc. Reconciliation of Net Loss to Adjusted EBITDA (unaudited) Three Months Ended

September 30, Nine Months Ended

September 30, 2021 2020 2021 2020 (dollars in thousands) (dollars in thousands) Net loss $ (46,897 ) $ (14,422 ) $ (251,038 ) $ (9,145 ) Interest expense 1,225 784 3,663 4,043 Income tax (provision) benefit - - - - Depreciation and amortization 3,503 2,691 9,804 6,448 Loss/(gain) from discontinued operations, before income tax - 511 1,022 (28,449 ) Spaceflight, Inc. employee retention bonuses - 322 - 983 Spaceflight, Inc. related shared services - - - (678 ) Satellite impairment loss - - 18,407 - Loss/(gain) on debt extinguishment 75 - 75 (284 ) (Gain)/loss on derivatives (3,813 ) 139 11,162 418 Contingent legal liability 700 - 700 - Stock-based compensation expense 28,493 550 29,265 1,692 Loss/(gain) on equity method investment 170 297 (793 ) 878 Loss on issuance of Bridge Notes, including debt issuance costs expensed for debt carried at fair value - - 147,387 - Transaction costs associated with derivative liabilities 291 - 291 - Adjusted EBITDA $ (16,253 ) $ (9,128 ) $ (30,055 ) $ (24,094 )

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005534/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Toshiba Announces Strategic Reorganization to Separate Into Three Standalone Companies to Enhance Shareholder Value

Toshiba (News - Alert) Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) ("Toshiba" or the "Company") today announced its intention to separate into three standalone companies: Infrastructure Service C o. 1 , consisting of Toshiba's Energy Systems & Solutions, Infrastructure Systems & Solutions, Building Solutions, Digital Solutions and Battery businesses;

, consisting of Toshiba's Energy Systems & Solutions, Infrastructure Systems & Solutions, Building Solutions, Digital Solutions and Battery businesses; Device Co. 2 , comprising Toshiba's Electronic Devices & Storage Solutions business; and

, comprising Toshiba's Electronic Devices & Storage Solutions business; and Toshiba, holding its shares in Kioxia Holdings Corporation (KHC) and Toshiba Tec Corporation (TOKYO: 6588). The separation will create two distinctive companies with unique business characteristics leading their respective industries in realizing carbon neutrality and infrastructure resilience (Infrastructure Service Co.), and supporting the evolution of social and IT infrastructure (Device Co.). The separation allows each business to significantly increase its focus and facilitate more agile decision-making and leaner cost structures. As such, both companies will be much better positioned to capitalize on their distinct market positions, priorities and growth drivers to deliver sustainable profitable growth and enhanced shareholder value. At the same time, Toshiba intends to monetize shares in Kioxia while maximizing shareholder value and return the net proceeds in full to shareholders as soon as practible to the extent that doing so does not interfere with the smooth implementation of the intended spin-off. The Company will utilize the tax-qualified spin-off structure via the recent tax reform legislation in Japan, in a first for a company of Toshiba's size. Toshiba is taking a bold step to unlock substantial value, creating more focused investment opportunities for shareholders and delivering additional benefits for customers, business partners employees, and its broader stakeholder community. This separation plan, which has been unanimously approved by Toshiba's Board, follows a review of a wide range of strategic options by the Board's Strategic Review Committee ("SRC"), comprising five Independent Outside Directors. During its review, the SRC sought input from shareholders on the Company's strategic direction and held discussions with a number of potential partners. Based on the thoroughness of the nearly five months review, Toshiba's management team and Board of Directors are confident that the intended separation into three standalone companies is the best path to enhance shareholder value. Satoshi Tsunakawa, Interim Chairperson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Toshiba, said: "Over our more than 140 year history, Toshiba has constantly evolved to stay ahead of the times. Today's announcement is no different. In order to enhance our competitive positioning, each business now needs greater flexibility to address its own market opportunities and challenges. We are convinced that the business separation is attractive and compelling: it will unlock immense value by removing complexity, it enables the businesses to have much more focused management, facilitating agile decision making, and the separation naturally enhances choices for shareholders. Our Board and management team firmly believe that this strategic reorganization is the right step for sustainable profitable growth of each business and the best path to create additional value for our stakeholders. We are grateful for the Strategic Review Committee's thorough evaluation and recommendation on our best path forward." Paul J. Brough, Independent Director, Chairperson of Toshiba's Strategic Review Committee, said: "We are pleased to share this bold and ambitious plan to deliver enhanced value for Toshiba's shareholders and other important stakeholders. The SRC recommended to the Board that separating the Company into focused businesses is the best path forward for Toshiba and its shareholders following a thorough evaluation of value-enhancing options over nearly five months." New Structure: Overview of Three Companies Infrastructure Service Co. Infrastructure Service Co. will consist of Toshiba's Energy Systems & Solutions, Infrastructure Systems & Solutions, Building Solutions, Digital Solutions and Battery businesses. Its products and services will include power generation, transmission and distribution, renewable energy, energy management, systems solutions for public infrastructure, railways and industry, building energy-saving solutions, and IT solutions for government agencies and private companies. The Company's increased focus, combined with its innovative technological solutions, will enable it to play a leading role in driving the transition to renewable energy to meet ambitious global carbon neutrality goals and advancing infrastructure resilience. Infrastructure Service Co. is expected to have net sales of 2.090 trillion in FY32021 and is projected to grow at a 3.3% compound annual growth rate ("CAGR"), reaching 2.230 trillion by FY2023. It also expects to improve operating income margins from 5.1% to 5.2% over the same period, which we expect to be higher after the separation. Device Co. Device Co. will comprise Toshiba's Electronic Devices & Storage Solutions business. Its products will include power semiconductors (silicon, compounds), optical semiconductors, analog integrated circuits, high-capacity hard disk drives ("HDD") for data centers (nearline HDDs) and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. It will be a leader in supporting the evolution of social and IT infrastructure. Device Co. is expected to have 870 billion in net sales in FY2021 and is projected - when excluding the memory resale portion - to grow at a CAGR of 3.3%, reaching 880 billion by FY2023. Power semiconductor net sales are expected to grow at an 13% CAGR, increasing from 95 billion in FY2021 to 120 billion by FY2023. Nearline HDD net sales are expected to grow at a 18% CAGR, increasing from 200 billion in FY2021 to 280 billion by FY2023. Device Co. expects operating income margins to change from 7.1% in FY2021 to 6.1% by FY2023. Toshiba Toshiba will hold the Company's ownership stake in Kioxia Holdings Corporation (KHC) and Toshiba Tec Corporation (TOKYO: 6588). In connection with the separation of the businesses, Toshiba will seek to convert the shares of KHC into cash as soon as practicable while maximizing shareholder value. As part of this process, Toshiba intends to return the net proceeds of Kioxia shares to shareholders in full to the extent that doing so does not interfere with the smooth implementation of the spin-off. Improved Governance and Management Structure Toshiba is committed to pursuing best-in-class governance and each of the newly created businesses will be led by a separate Board of Directors and management team. The Boards of the new companies are expected to be majority independent and comprised of a diverse set of directors with the skills and experience to set strategy and hold management accountable. Separation of the leadership structures for these businesses will facilitate more agile decision-making, with greater focus and knowledge of the company's customers and employees, and create optionality for both new companies to make their own separate and informed decisions regarding potential strategic partners. In addition, the respective companies will be better positioned to tailor capital allocation and shareholder return policies to the optimal leverage and cash flow profiles. Transaction Details and Timeline (News - Alert) Infrastructure Service Co. and Device Co. will be spun off from Toshiba and company stock of each of the two new companies will be distributed to Toshiba shareholders at the time of the spin-off record date. Toshiba is working with relevant authorities and our advisors to determine the best and the most effective and efficient way to spin off the businesses with an intention of effecting the transaction in a tax-qualified spin-off structure via the recent tax reform legislation in Japan. The reorganization is expected to be completed in the second half of fiscal year 2023, subject to the completion of necessary procedures, including the approval of Toshiba's general shareholder meeting and fulfillment of all review requirement of the relevant authorities. However, we will make an effort to speed up the process to the extent feasible. The financial results of the businesses to be separated must be audited for a two-year period, beginning with FY2021 results, before the spin-offs can be completed. The SRC will continue to oversee the preparation of the separation plan until Toshiba shareholders vote on it at the proposed extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (EGM) expected in the first quarter of the next calendar year, at which point it is expected that a board Steering Committee will be formed. Commitment to Delivering Shareholder Value and Improving Governance The separation represents a transformational milestone in Toshiba's history and the continuation of a renewed commitment by Toshiba's leadership to create and return value to shareholders. In June 2021, the Board announced a total of 150 billion of additional shareholder returns on top of the Company's ordinary dividend, consisting of a 100 billion share repurchase program, which was completed in September, and a 110 per share special dividend. Capital in excess of the appropriate level of capital will be used to provide shareholder returns*, including share repurchaces in FY22 and FY23, to the extent that it would not interfere with the smooth execution of the business separation. In addition, we will make use of leverage, and continue to review portfolio including consideration of divestiture opportunities. (*Planned to be about 100 billion over the next two years) Toshiba is committed to improving its corporate governance and regaining trust of its shareholders. The Board, which oversaw and approved today's announcement is comprised of 75% Independent Outside Directors, all of whom were appointed in the past two and a half years. The Board has also undertaken several initiatives to strengthen Toshiba's corporate governance, including establishing a Governance Enhancement Committee and initiating a review of Toshiba's compensation program. Earlier this year, the Nomination Committee engaged an executive search firm to identify a new Chairperson and CEO, a task that will become more efficient following today's decision to separate into three distinctive and strong standalone companies. All these efforts build on Toshiba's commitment to bring its corporate governance practices in line with both global standards and the expectations of Japanese and international investors. "Strategic Review Committee of Toshiba Board of Directors Provides Update to Shareholders on Process Leading to Separation Plan" is available at http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/ir/en/pr/pdf/tpr2021q2e_4.pdf. About Toshiba Corporation Toshiba Corporation leads a global group of companies that combines knowledge and capabilities from over 140 years of experience in a wide range of businesses-from energy and social infrastructure to electronic devices-with world-class capabilities in information processing, digital and AI technologies. Guided by the Basic Commitment of the Toshiba Group, "Committed to People, Committed to the Future," Toshiba contributes to society's positive development with services and solutions that lead to a better world. The Group and its 120,000 employees worldwide secured annual sales of 3.1 trillion yen (US$27.5 billion) in fiscal year 2020. Find out more about Toshiba at www.global.toshiba/ww/outline/corporate.html 1, 2 Official names to be announced in due course.

3 Toshiba's fiscal year runs from April to March.







This document has been prepared solely for the purposes of providing information regarding the strategic reorganization described herein (hereinafter "Reorganization") and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security of Toshiba, its subsidiaries or any other company in Japan, the United States or any other jurisdiction. This document has been translated from the Japanese-language original document for reference purposes only. In the event of any conflict or discrepancy between this document and the Japanese-language original, the Japanese-language original shall prevail in all respects. Forward-looking Statements This document contains forward-looking statements concerning future plans, strategies, and the performance of Toshiba group. These statements are not historical facts; rather, they are based on assumptions and judgments formed by the management of Toshiba group in light of currently available information. They include items which have not been finalized at this point and future plans which have yet to be confirmed or require further consideration. Since Toshiba group promotes business in various market environments in many countries and regions, its activities are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties which include, but are not limited to, those related to economic conditions, worldwide competition in the electronics business, customer demand, foreign currency exchange rates, tax and other regulations, geopolitical risk, and natural disasters. Toshiba therefore cautions readers that actual results may differ from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. Please refer to the annual securities report (yuukashoken houkokusho) and the quarterly securities report (shihanki houkokusho) (both issued in Japanese only) for detailed information on Toshiba group's business risks. Unless otherwise noted, all figures are 12-month totals on a consolidated basis. Results in segments have been reclassified to reflect the current organizational structure, unless stated otherwise. Since Toshiba is not involved in the management of Kioxia Holdings Corporation (formerly Toshiba Memory Holdings; hereinafter "KHC") and is not provided with any forecasted business results for this company, Toshiba group's forward-looking statements concerning financial conditions, results of operations, and cash flows do not include the impact of KHC. The execution of the spin-off described in this document is subject to approval at Toshiba's general shareholders' meeting and the fulfillment of all review requirements of the relevant authorities. Depending on the applicable laws and regulations (including securities listing regulations and U.S. laws and regulations), developments in the application, revision and enforcement of various regulatory regimes including tax regulations, interpretations by the relevant authorities, further consideration in the future and other factors, the implementation of the Reorganization may take longer than expected and there may be changes in the structure of the Reorganization.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005570/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] MingSight Completes a New Round of Financing to Accelerate Clinical Development in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Diabetic Macular Edema

MingSight Pharmaceuticals announced today the close of a pre-Series B round of $20M, led by Kaitai Capital. The proceeds will be used for the clinical development of MS-553, a new generation inhibitor of protein kinase C (PKC) beta for the treatment of Chronic lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and Diabetic Macular Edema (DME). "We greatly appreciate the trust and support of our investors," said Kai Zhang, MD, MBA, CEO and Co-founder of MingSight. "This investment will facilitate the rapid development of the MS-553 program. We are very excited to see MS-553 demonstrate strong efficacy and safety data in our CLL and DME trials. We will work hard to bring forward a truly differentiated product to market to improve upon the treatment options for these serious diseases." Michael Niesman, Ph.D., CSO and Co-founder of MingSight, said: "We are very glad that our investors share our excitement about the promise of MS-553. Many companies have been convinced of the importance of Protein Kinase C (PKC) in serious diseases like CLL and diabetic eye disease. Because of the major innovations of MS-553 compared to previous pan-PKC inhibitors, we have been able to generate data demonstrating proof of mechanism and significant activity in CLL and DME where other PKC inhibitors have failed. We look forward to working with Kaitai and our other investors to accelerate the development of this unique compound." Zehua Huang, Partner at Kaitai Capital, said: "We believe MingSight has a world class team and advisory group, and its program is well positioned for the future marketplace. With initial efficacy in CLL patients with C481S and PLCG2 mutations, MS-553 showed distinct promise of its market potential. MS-553 has the potential to improve uon the standard of care therapies for CLL as a single agent or in combination with BTK inhibitors, BCL-2 inhibitors, or other agents. As for its application in DME treatment, MS-553 has the potential to provide an alternative, non-invasive approach to ocular injections of anti-VEGF agents. A key characteristic of MS-553 is its preferential distribution to the retina following oral administration. The initial clinical data of MS-553 in DME patients such as BCVA and CRT readings are very impressive. We are confident that MingSight will succeed in rapidly developing MS-553 and bringing its benefits to patients worldwide."



About MS-553 MS-553 is an investigational drug candidate and a new generation PKC beta inhibitor. It differentiates from the previous generation of pan-PKC inhibitors with its novel chemotype and significant advantages in selectivity, safety, and PK properties.

MS-553 is a potentially the only B-cell receptor inhibitor in clinical development that can address the BTK resistant mutations in both BTK and PLCG2. Its mechanism of action is also synergistic or additive to other approaches that constitute the current standard of care of CLL. MS-553 also has the potential, if approved, to become the first oral DME therapy with anti-VEGF like efficacy. MS-553 has the unique PK property of preferential distribution to the retina and its mechanism of action addresses both the aberrant VEGF signaling and the inflammation that are characteristics of DME. In a phase 1/2 study, MS-553 demonstrated promising efficacy and safety in CLL patients who have failed BTK inhibitors including those with C481S and PLCG2 resistant mutations. MS-553 also demonstrated clinical activities including reduction of retinal thickness and improvement of visual acuity in a phase 1b trial of DME patients. About MingSight Pharmaceuticals MingSight is a clinical stage company focused on developing differentiated, novel therapies for serious diseases including B-cell malignancies, diabetic macular edema, and autoimmune diseases. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California, USA. About Kaitai Capital Kaitai Capital was established in 2009. It mainly invests in biomedicine and life sciences, artificial intelligence and digital technology, community innovation and high-tech consumption. With a global vision, forward-looking industry research and industrial ecological investment concepts in the fields of biomedicine and life sciences, Kaitai Capital has invested in nearly 100 biomedical and life science companies at home and abroad and has initially formed an ecological industrial chain. In the fields of oncology, autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases, anti-infection, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, neuroscience, nephropathy, ophthalmology, skin, gene therapy and cell medicine, pharmaceutical industry, innovative biotechnology and massive health industry, an ecological investment portfolio has been constructed. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005302/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Starlight Private Global Real Assets Trust (formerly Starlight Hybrid Global Real Assets Trust) Reports Q3 2021 Results

Starlight Investments Capital LP ("Starlight Capital"), on behalf of Starlight Private Global Real Assets Trust (formerly Starlight Hybrid Global Real Assets Trust) (the "Trust") announced today the Trust's financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021. Q3 2021 HIGHLIGHTS Portfolio Investments As at September 30, 2021 ("Q3 2021"), the Trust had an investment of $8,768,786 (December 31, 2020 - $25,209,036) in Starlight Global Real Estate LP and Starlight Global Infrastructure LP (the "Public Portfolio") and $22,877,929 in four investments in the private portfolio (December 31, 2020 - $16,624,602 in three investments) (the "Private Portfolio", and collectively the "Portfolio"). The Public Portfolio had 80 investments with an effective market value of $7,818,630 in publicly traded global real estate and infrastructure securities. The Public Portfolio's investment portfolio remains liquid and the Trust does not anticipate any issues in being able to meet the liquidity needs of the Public Portfolio LP's or the Trust. Distributions On January 14, 2021, Starlight Capital announced the 2021 monthly distributions to unitholders of record for the Trust of $0.0433 per unit (2020 - $0.0433 per unit) for a total distribution of $0.52 per unit per annum (2020 - $0.52 per unit per annum). In addition, the distributions declared included a component funded by the Trust's distribution reinvestment plan. As at September 30, 2021, the Trust had declared nine distributions of $0.0433 per series C unit for a total distribution of $0.3897 per series C unit, seven distributions of $0.0433 per series A unit for a total distribution of $0.3031 per series A unit and one distribution of $0.0433 per series I unit. Year-to-Date Redesignation of Units On January 14, 2021 the Trust announced that given the current number of outstanding series A units and series C units, redesignation requests of series A units into series C units are not currently being accepted by the Trust. Series C units were redesignated as series A units, at the option of the holder, in accordance with the amended and restated declaration of trust at net asset value ("NAV"). On March 31, 2021, 2,954 series C units with a NAV of $30,657 were redesignated as series A units. Series C unitholders received 3,091 series A units with a NAV per unit of $9.92 in exchange for 2,954 series C units with a NAV per unit of $10.38. On June 30, 2021, 6,394 series C units were redesignated as series A units with a NAV of $69,640. Series C unitholders received 6,694 series A units with a NAV per unit of $10.40 in exchange for 6,394 series C units with a NAV per unit of $10.89. On August 12, 2021, in connection with the reorganization of the Trust, the series A units of the Trust were delisted from the NEO Exchange and all of the issued and outstanding series A units of the Trust were automatically redesignated as series C units effective August 20, 2021. Holders of series A units received that number of series C units having a NAV equal to the NAV of a redesignated series A unit, being 0.954903 series C units per series A unit so redesignated. The series C units have been renamed "Series F Units" of the Trust. Update on the Impact of COVID-19 On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) ("COVID-19") was a global pandemic. Governments around the world have enacted a series of public health and emergency measures to combat the spread of the virus, negatively impacting business operations globally. As at September 30, 2021, many of these measures remain in place. Since the latter part of February 2020, financial markets have experienced significant volatility in response to COVID-19 resulting in increased risks related to the portfolio issuers and fluctuations in NAV and NAV for each series of units of the Trust. COVID-19 has also resulted in increased infrastructure risk and real estate risk for the Trust. Further, public health crises, including the ongoing health crisis related to COVID-19, or relating to any other virus, flu, epidemic, pandemic or any other similar disease or illness could increase the Trust's risks related to the portfolio issuers, fluctuations in NAV and NAV of each series of Unit of the Trust, infrastructure risk and real estate risk. In Q3 2021, global markets and sector specific market recoveries resulted in increases in the Public Portfolio investment valuations and the Trust's NAV. As a result of COVID-19, equity markets and the Public Portfolio have experienced elevated volatility as equity investors sought liquidity and safety in the face of uncertainty. A resurgence of equity market volatility and investor uncertainty may impact the Trust's NAV and may create difficulty in raising capital in equity markets, which could in turn adversely impact the Trust's strategy. The Trust has not experienced any material distribution or dividend cuts from investments in the Public Portfolio or the Private Portfolio. In fact, for the twelve-month period ending September 30, 2021 the Trust had experienced 48 distribution and dividend increases with an average increase of 6.8%. As the Public Portfolio remains liquid, and although not expected, any distribution cuts made by portfolio investments resulting from COVID-19 or otherwise are not expected to have an impact on the Trust's ability to pay its monthly distributions given the liquid nature of the Public Portfolio and the Trust's ability to adjust its portfolio accordingly. The Private Portfolio has not experienced a significant impact from COVID- 19 and no material changes to valuations have been required as a result of COVID-19. The Public Portfolio is currently positioned in sectors and geographies believed to be the most resilient during and after COVID-19 and to realize significant upside potential upon an economic recovery. Starlight Capital continues to review the investment portfolio on a daily basis and remains committed to owning high-quality businesses with long-term growth potential. Starlight Capital has implemented appropriate cautionary measures to ensure it is conducting business in a safe and effective manner (including, without limitation, limiting visits to their corporate office to essential personnel and ensuring proper protocols around sanitation and social distancing), and continues to diligently work with its service providers to remain operational through the pandemic. There can be no assurance that any actions taken will prevent the impact of COVID-19 on the Trust or Starlight Capital's employees or service providers. In response to the global pandemic, governments and central banks have reacted with significant monetary and fiscal stimulus programs designed to stabilize economic conditions. Governments have also declared emergencies requiring various restrictions such as stay at home orders, mandatory closures of certain types of businesses and reduced limits on social gatherings impacting businesses and economies. While the world economy continues to be in recovery, the regional contributions to the overall recovery are somewhat more mixed in response to differences in policy settings, the evolution of COVID-19 variants, and the speed and success of the vaccination programs. At this time, the duration and magnitude of COVID-19 including the impact of new variant strains is still unknown, as is the efficacy of the government and central bank interventions. While vaccine programs continue to be implemented and the distribution of vaccines is progressing globally, vaccine roll-outs remain fluid as public health authorities continue to make adjustments to their plans due to continued outbreaks and the timing and volume of shipments from vaccine suppliers. As of October 27, 2021, the U.S. has administered over 220 million doses, with over 191 million people fully vaccinated and over 65% of adults in the U.S. receiving at least one vaccine shot. Comparatively Canada has administered over 29 million doses with over 78% of the population receiving at least one dose and approximately 74% of the population having received two doses. Many countries/regions had begun to ease restrictions, but the prevalence of COVID-19 variants that are more transmissible and carry increased health risks have caused a surge in cases and an increase in hospitalizations. Some countries have been forced to reintroduce emergency measures to counter the resurgence of COVID-19 cases. Although emergency measures are expected to ease as more people receive vaccinations, the uncertainty created by variants and closures of certain businesses could impact the Trust for a prolonged period. It is impossible to forecast the duration and full scope of the economic impact of COVID-19 and other consequential changes it will have on the Trust's business and portfolio values, both in the short-term and in the long-term. The full impact will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain and cannot be accurately predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of and the actions required to contain COVID-19 or remedy its impact, among others. The Portfolio could experience further volatility and market value declines, which could materially adversely impact the performance of the Trust, its NAV and its ability to raise capital. While the situation continues to evolve, the Trust is confident the tactical measures implemented to date will allow it to provide long-term value creation to unitholders. FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS







As at September 30, 2021 As at December 31, 2020 Current assets $46,799,708 $41,885,611 Current liabilities 11,016,903 307,282 Net assets attributable to holders of redeemable units per series Series A 24,990 10,249,932 Series C - 31,328,397 Series F 35,756,823 - Series I 992 - $35,782,805 $41,578,329

ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE The Trust's financial performance and results of operations for the three months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 are summarized below: Three months ended September 30, 2021 Three months ended September 30, 2020 Investment gain (loss) $1,782,841 $1,475,766 Expenses (202,693) (192,298) Net Investment income (loss) 1,580,148 1,283,468 Increase/(decrease) in net assets attributable to holders of redeemable units $1,580,148 $1,283,468 Trust Reorganization On August 25, 2021, the Trust completed the reorganization of the Trust into a private investment trust as approved by unitholders of the Trust at the special meeting held on July 28, 2021, and as further described in the management information circular dated June 22, 2021 and sent to unitholders on June 30, 2021. On August 12, 2021, the series A units of the Trust were delisted from the NEO Exchange, and all of the issued and outstanding series A units of the Trust were automatically redesignated as series C units effective August 20, 2021. Holders of series A units received that number of series C units having a NAV equal to the NAV of a redesignated series A unit, being 0.954903 series C units per series A unit so redesignated. The series C units have been renamed "Series F Units" of the Trust. More detailed information can be found in the management information circular dated June 22, 2021 on www.sedar.com and www.starlightcapital.com. Forward-looking statements Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the outlook for the Trust's business and results of operations and the effect of COVID-19 on the Trust's business and operations. Forward-looking statements ("FLS") are provided for the purpose of assisting the reader in understanding the Trust's financial performance, financial position and cash flows as at and for the periods ended on certain dates and to present information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. FLS involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may be general or specific and which give risk to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, assumptions may not be correct and objectives, strategic goals and priorities may not be achieved. FLS are statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," or "estimate," or other similar expressions. Statements that look forward in time or include anything other than historical information are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results, actions or events could differ materially from those set forth in the FLS. FLS are not guarantees of future performance and are by their nature based on numerous assumptions. Information contained in FLS is based upon certain material assumptions applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including management's perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other considerations believed to be appropriate in the circumstances. Although the FLS contained herein are based upon what Starlight Capital believe to be reasonable assumptions including with respect to COVID-19, Starlight Capital cannot be sure that actual results will be consistent with these FLS. The reader is cautioned to consider the FLS carefully and not to place undue reliance on FLS. The forward-looking statements relate only to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this press release. Unless required by applicable law, it is not undertaken, and specifically disclaimed that there is any intention or obligation to update or revise FLS, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. About Starlight Private Global Real Assets Trust The Trust's investment objective is to provide unitholders with stable cash distributions and long-term capital appreciation through exposure to institutional quality real assets in the global real estate and global infrastructure sectors. The Trust's unaudited condensed interim financial statements, the notes thereto, and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three and nine month period ended September 30, 2021, can be found on Starlight Capital's website at www.starlightcapital.com or www.sedar.com. About Starlight Capital and Starlight Investments Starlight Capital is an independent asset management firm offering mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, offering memorandum funds and structured products. Our goal is to deliver superior risk adjusted returns to investors through a disciplined investment approach, Focused Business Investing. Starlight Capital is a wholly owned subsidiary of Starlight Investments. Starlight Investments is a privately held, full service, real estate investment and asset management company. The firm manages over $20.0 billion of assets on behalf of institutional joint ventures as well as publicly listed REITs, closed-end funds and investment funds, and is driven by an experienced team of over 300 professionals. Please visit us at www.starlightcapital.com and connect with us on LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005600/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Embassy Global Earns Women's Business Enterprise National Council Certification

HAMBURG, N.Y., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Under the leadership of its company president, Molly Bakewell Chamberlin, the Hamburg, New York, USA-based Embassy Global, LLC, a worldwide strategic technical marketing, PR, and business development consultancy serving the high-tech components manufacturing and engineering sectors, today announced that the company has successfully earned its Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) certification from the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). Valid for one year, and with opportunity for subsequent annual renewals, WBENC certification is considered a gold standard among U.S. women-owned businesses. More than 1000 U.S. corporations, representing some of America's most prestigious brands, as well as many U.S. states, cities, and other entities, formally recognize WBENC certification. To achieve successful certification, Embassy Global underwent a meticulous, voluntary 90-day evaluation process, as facilitated by WBENC regional certifying partner, Women's Business Enterprise Council Metro NY. The process, which included extensive reviews of business history, brands, operating documents, officer qualifications, financials, and growth plans, concluded with the successful verification that Embassy Global was at least 51% female owned, operated, and controlled. Beyond these reviews, and as a necessary final step, Embassy Global president Ms. Bakewell Chamberlin successfully completed an in-depth WBENC Committee screening interview and virtual site visit. Since 2008, Embassy Global has successfully helped more than 200 high-tech component brands to derive consistent annual sales growth from is promotional and export activities. It has done so, most notably, via the applications of its own recognized methods, strategies, and in-depth industry experience. Today, the firm remains one of the first and only known 100% woman-led, all-virtual strategic technical marketing, PR, and business development firms of its kind in the world. As a result, Embassy Global has been consistently recognized among industry peers for its consistent achievements of successful Client outcomes, and particularly within the Electronic Components; Sensors, Testing and Instrumentation; Photonics and Optoelectronics; Industrial Automation; Motion Control; High-Tech Manufacturing; and Science & Technology Commercialization sectors.



Notes Ms. Bakewell Chamberlin, "Embassy Global is grateful to WBENC Metro NY for facilitating this opportunity for us to become formally WBENC certified. Since our founding, we have always been a 100% woman-owned, led and operated small business. We have also always been based in Western New York and have supported a global Client base. As a now-WBENC certified business, Embassy Global looks forward to continuing to do our absolute best work for our valued Clients, just as we have always done, while reaffirming our support for vital industry supply chain diversity and inclusion initiatives." Founded in 1997, WBENC is the U.S. leader in women's business development and the leading third-party certifier of women-owned and operated businesses. More than 17,000 certified WBE's, 14 national Regional Partner Organizations, and more than 350 Corporate Members are part of the WBENC. By including the products and services of WBENC certified businesses such as Embassy Global within their own supply chains, U.S. corporations and government agencies can help to demonstrate their own commitments to the continued development of vital in-house diversity and inclusion programs. To learn more about Embassy Global, visit www.embassyglobalpr.com. To learn more about the Women's Business Enterprise National Council, visit www.wbenc.org.

Media Contact

Maureen K. (Molly) Bakewell Chamberlin

+1.716.646.0927

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/embassy-global-earns-womens-business-enterprise-national-council-certification-301422663.html SOURCE Embassy Global, LLC

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Banty's Dr. Richard Tytus Explains How to Maintain a Strong Telemedicine Presence for Years to Come

TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As COVID-19 continues to grip certain regions of the world, doctors are turning to telemedicine as a way to see patients, when possible, from a safe distance. This is happening thanks to the evolution of virtual medicine solutions that now allow doctors and patients to connect via video call technology. Just like everyone else, those in the medical community look forward to the day where the worst of COVID-19 is behind us. When this time inevitably happens, though, healthcare professionals should continually encourage patients to visit them virtually. According to recent findings from Amwell, "92% of physicians are still expecting to use video visits when it is safe to meet with patients." Dr. Richard Tytus, Co-Founder and Medical Director of telemedicine solution Banty Inc. , recognizes patients may pull back from online doctor's appointments once the pandemic winds down. As such, he believes doctors need to work hard to maintain a strong telemedicine presence at their clinics for years to come. They can do this by: Heavily promoting telemedicine services: As patients begin to feel more comfortable about visiting a doctor's office, that's the optimal time to remind them about the continued availability of virtual appointments. Doctors need to explain how not all appointments require an in-person commitment and that they are still offering telemedicine services as part of their day-to-day patient treatment plans. Clinics could find that some patients believe virtual visits will vanquish post-COVID-19

As patients begin to feel more comfortable about visiting a doctor's office, that's the optimal time to remind them about the continued availability of virtual appointments. Doctors need to explain how not all appointments require an in-person commitment and that they are still offering telemedicine services as part of their day-to-day patient treatment plans. Clinics could find that some patients believe virtual visits will vanquish post-COVID-19 Staying up-to-date with new technology: There is no doubt the technology that supports telemedicine services will continue to improve over time. Medical clinics need to stay on top of the latest innovations in order to make sure the virtual experience each patient receives continues to be the most modern and convenient one possible

There is no doubt the technology that supports telemedicine services will continue to improve over time. Medical clinics need to stay on top of the latest innovations in order to make sure the virtual experience each patient receives continues to be the most modern and convenient one possible Always providing a secure online environment: Patients want to know that what they discuss online with their doctor remains private and confidential. Thus, doctors should always make it known to patients that their online security is of the utmost importance. Banty Medical, in particular, is HIPAA/PHIPA compliant and uses end-to-end encryption to see that all content shared during online appointments held on this solution does not leak out

Patients want to know that what they discuss online with their doctor remains private and confidential. Thus, doctors should make it known to patients that their online security is of the utmost importance. Banty Medical, in particular, is HIPAA/PHIPA compliant and uses end-to-end encryption to see that all content shared during online appointments held on this solution does not leak out Offering an excellent online appointment experience: If a doctor's online appointments are negatively impacted by technological issues or poor communication, patients will undoubtedly opt for more in-person appointments. All medical clinics need to see that the doctor has great Internet connectivity for patient video calls, as well as a bright room, and great audio-video settings. Check off all these boxes and patients will keep coming online "Doctors should always go above and beyond in the telemedicine space," adds Dr. Tytus. "To do this, patiets need to be continuously reminded about the benefits of online appointments even after COVID-19 passes."



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; unlimited meetings each month; and straightforward scheduling tools. 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 video chat 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 . Media Contact:

Scott Wilson

289-259-8059

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bantys-dr-richard-tytus-explains-how-to-maintain-a-strong-telemedicine-presence-for-years-to-come-301422804.html SOURCE Banty Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] CompStak Raises $50 Million Series C Funding Led by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital

NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CompStak, the leader in commercial real estate transaction data and analytics, today announced $50 million in Series C funding. Investment Funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital led the investment round with participation from Mitsui Fudosan's CVC Fund and Crow Holdings, and several existing investors, including Canaan Partners & IA Capital. The investment brings CompStak's total funding since its launch in 2012 to $78 million. This investment follows a tremendous year of growth for CompStak, reflecting strong resilience despite the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, and throughout its recovery, the world's largest real estate investors, lenders, asset managers, corporate occupiers, and advisors have relied on CompStak's granular and reliable data to make key real estate decisions. From long-standing clients like Tishman Speyer, Vornado, Alliance Bernstein, and Wells Fargo, to more recent additions like Google, Partners Group, PwC and Stag Industrial, CompStak has established itself as a trusted partner to the CRE industry. The Series C funding will be used to accelerate the expansion of CompStak's industry leading lease and sale comp data into new asset classes and will bring growth in data sets, products, and markets. With its Series C funding, CompStak members and clients will soon see new product launches for CompStak's Exchange and Enterprise platforms, along with a meaningful expansion to the Analytics Suite. "We're incredibly excited to partner with Pete Chung and the Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital team," said CompStak CEO Michael Mandel. "Pete has a deep understanding of the CRE tech space, having invested in 'PropTech' twenty years before the term was invented. The Morgan Stanley team's ability to thoughtfully analyze markets and guide strategy conversations has already been evident in our short time working together, and Pet and his team truly understand what it takes to build and scale high-performance organizations."



With a focus on scale and continuing to position the company as the clear leader in commercial real estate data, CompStak will expand its team across the board, and grow its presence in its existing offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, and Belgrade, Serbia. CompStak's expansion plans include growth of its industry-leading crowdsourced data acquisition model into new asset classes, a broadened customer and member base, and partnerships with the world's largest commercial real estate service firms. "CompStak's success in assembling, cleansing, and exposing insights from data from commercial leases, sales and properties, facilitates both quicker and improved business decisions for the company's customers, including some of the most sophisticated participants from all segments of the commercial real estate market," said Pete Chung, Head of Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. "The CompStak team has developed a compelling SaaS business founded on one of the most valuable information sources we've seen in PropTech, by patiently building both the depth and breadth of their solution to solve the antiquated exchange of CRE information. We look forward to partnering and participating in CompStak's continued success."

CompStak's core has always been in its unique approach to gathering data - 30,000+ members share lease comps, sale comps, and property data, receiving other data in return. This crowdsourced data model has allowed CompStak to capture information that is not available on any other platform today. With its Series C fundraise, CompStak will double down on its crowdsourcing methodology. In doing so, CompStak will be: The leader in CRE data, powered by crowdsourcing, and made in partnership with the CRE industry. About CompStak:

CompStak creates transparency in commercial real estate markets by gathering information that is hard to find, difficult to compile, or otherwise unavailable. Since 2012, CompStak has delivered this unmatched insight to a network of tens of thousands of members and clients, including Morgan Stanley, SL Green, CPPIB, Comcast, Starwood Capital, CIM and every major brokerage nationwide. CompStak Exchange is an exclusive platform for CRE brokers, appraisers, and researchers to get analyst-reviewed commercial lease comps, sales comps, and property details at no charge. Through CompStak Enterprise and CompStak Analytics, lenders, landlords, and investors can access granular CRE transaction information and market analytics. About Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital:

Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital is the growth-focused private investment platform within Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital targets growth equity and credit investments within technology, healthcare, consumer, digital media, and other high-growth sectors. For over three decades, Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital has successfully pursued growth investment opportunities and has completed investments in over 200 companies leveraging the global brand and network of Morgan Stanley. For further information about Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, please visit www.morganstanley.com/im/expansioncapital. Media Contact:

Anna Bugankova

[email protected]

646.926.6707 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/compstak-raises-50-million-series-c-funding-led-by-morgan-stanley-expansion-capital-301422812.html SOURCE CompStak

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Melanie McFaddin with Wiley Bros - Aintree Capital, LLC Represents Lightwell in its Acquisition by Eliassen Group

Melanie McFaddin, representative of Wiley Bros - Aintree Capital, LLC is pleased to announce its representation of Lightwell Inc. ("Lightwell") in its acquisition by Eliassen Group, Inc. ("Eliassen"). Lightwell enhances Eliassen's growing Professional Services division by expanding its Cloud Consulting and IT Solutions offerings and provides Eliassen access to expanded international markets. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005252/en/ Wiley Bros.-Aintree Capital, LLC represents Lightwell Inc. in its acquisition by Eliassen Group, Inc. (Graphic: Business Wire) Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Reading, Massachusetts, Eliassen Group provides strategic consulting and talent solutions to help drive their clients' innovation and business results. Leveaging over 30 years of success, Eliassen's expertise includes IT talent solutions, life sciences consulting, Agile (News - Alert) consulting, risk management, business optimization, and managed services.



Founded in 1998, Lightwell delivers comprehensive IT services and solutions to help companies increase speed and agility, overcome complexities, improve satisfaction, and gain competitive advantages. Lightwell's expertise and offerings span a variety of technology areas, including cloud, integration, application development, DevOps, enterprise architecture, order management, and managed services. "We were very fortunate to work with Ms. McFaddin. Her attention to detail, as well as advocacy for our team, was unparalleled," said Michelle Kerr, President and Chairman of Lightwell. "Her years of experience in the industry combined with the knowledge of and relationship with the firms in the space was a huge value add."

"I was honored to get to work with Lightwell through this process," said Ms. McFaddin. "It was extremely rewarding to find the right home for the Lightwell team to continue its growth and evolution." About Melanie McFaddin and Wiley Bros. - Aintree Capital, LLC Wiley Bros.- Aintree Capital, LLC, is a 75-year-old firm located in Nashville, TN. Over the last 75 years, the firm has focused on investment brokerage and underwriting municipal bonds for utility districts in the state of Tennessee. Ms. McFaddin joined the firm in 2016 to initiate an investment banking practice. She has spent the last 25 years in M&A working for entrepreneurs who own middle-market companies that provide IT staffing, consulting, and solutions; management consulting; digital agency; IT and HR MSP and BPO; professional staffing; and the software toolsets that touch these spaces. She is a FINRA licensed 79 investment banker who possesses both a BBA and an MBA from the Bauer College of Business at The University of Houston. Please visit www.wileybros.com for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005252/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Providence Bank & Trust and Leaders Bank Announce Merger Agreement

Providence Bank & Trust, along with The Leaders Bank, today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. Pending regulatory approval, Leaders Bank, with approximately $359 million in assets, will merge into Providence Bank & Trust, a stewardship-based bank with 15 locations throughout the Chicagoland area and Northwest Indiana. The acquisition will bring Providence Bank & Trust to approximately $1.69 billion in assets. Locally owned and operated, Providence Bank & Trust opened in 2004 and maintains its mission and commitment to service and stewardship, with a belief that a bank can truly be more than a place to deposit money - offering meaningful financial products and services to meet the evolving needs of their diverse customers and communities. Committed to the neighborhoods they serve, they incorporated the Providence Bank & Trust Stewardship Program into their corporate principles when founded - promising that ten percent of the Bank's profits will be donated to local civic, non-profit and Christian organizations. Leaders Bank was founded i 2000 with the core vision of creating a local community bank where small businesses, their owners, employees, and other entrepreneurs were all treated as leaders. Over the past 21 years, Leaders Bank has remained committed to providing access to local leadership, dedicated team members and unsurpassed customer service, a pledge also shared by Providence Bank & Trust.



"Our investment in Leaders Bank reflects our ongoing commitment to providing personalized banking services and products at the community level," said Steve Van Drunen, President and CEO of Providence Bank & Trust. "We're confident that customers will have a positive banking experience, as we carry on the high level of service that they have grown accustomed to." "We're pleased to have come to an agreement with Providence Bank & Trust, as joining forces will provide a stronger banking network and enhanced services for our customers," said William Gleason, President of Leaders Bank. "Our customers will be greeted with the same focus on customer commitment that Leaders Bank customers have come to expect."

About The Leaders Bank The Leaders Bank is a $359 million FDIC-insured community bank serving the Oak Brook, IL community and communities throughout the Chicago metro area. Catering to privately held small businesses, their owners, and other entrepreneurs, Leaders Bank offers a full spectrum of traditional and customized banking services, and internet-based banking. Visit www.leadersbank.com for more information. About Providence Bank & Trust Founded in 2004 in South Holland, IL, the bank has locations across the Chicagoland area and Northwest Indiana. The bank's mission is to be genuine in their commitment to service and stewardship, with a belief that a bank can truly be more than a place to deposit money - offering meaningful financial products and services and responding promptly to the diverse and evolving needs of their customers and communities. The bank has also developed The Providence Bank & Trust Stewardship Program, designed so that 10% of the bank's profits are donated to local civic, non-profit and Christian organizations. Providence Bank & Trust currently has $1.331 billion in assets, is a member of the FDIC, and is an Equal Housing Lender. Visit www.providence.bank for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005662/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Global Travel Insurance Market Size, Forecast, Insights, and Competitive Landscape Report 2021: Increasing Spending on Travel Protection & Mandatory Travel Insurance Policies in North America & Europe - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "Travel Insurance Market: Global Market Size, Forecast, Insights, and Competitive Landscape" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global travel insurance market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 8.5% during 2021-2027. This report on global travel insurance market report provides holistic understanding of the market along with market sizing, forecast, drivers, challenges, and competitive landscape. The report presents a clear picture of the global travel insurance market by segmenting the market based on insurance type, coverage, distributional channel, end-user, and region. Also, detailed profiles of companies operating in the travel insurance market are provided in this report. Market Scope Market Drivers Increasing Spending on Travel Protection Plans

Mandatory Travel Insurance Policies in North America & Europe

Growth in Tourism Industry in Latin America & MEA Market Challenges Decline in International Travelling Activities due to Coronavirus Pandemics

Lack of Consumer Experiences in Terms of its Coverages and Premium Rates Historical & Forecast Period Base Year: 2020

Historical Peiod: 2016-2019

Forecast Period: 2021-2027



Key Topics Covered: 1. Preface

1.1 Objective 1.2 Target Audience (News - Alert) & Key Offerings 1.3 Report's Scope 1.4 Research Methodology 1.4.1 Phase I 1.4.2 Phase II 1.4.3 Phase III 1.5 Assumptions 2. Key Insights 3. Global Travel Insurance Market 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Market Drivers 3.3. Market Challenges 4. Global Travel Insurance Market Analysis 4.1. Market Portraiture 4.2. Market Size 4.3. Market Forecast 4.4. Impact of COVID-19 5. Global Travel Insurance Market by Insurance Type 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Single-Trip Travel Insurance 5.3. Annual Multi-Trip Insurance 5.4. Long-Stay Travel Insurance 6. Global Travel Insurance Market by Coverage 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Medical Expenses 6.3 Trip Cancellation 6.4 Trip Delay 6.5 Property Damage 6.6 Others 7. Global Travel Insurance Market by Distribution Channel 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Insurance Intermediaries 7.3 Banks 7.4 Insurance Companies 7.5 Insurance Aggregators 7.6 Insurance Brokers 7.7 Others 8. Global Travel Insurance Market by End-User 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Senior Citizens 8.3 Education Travelers 8.4 Business Travelers 8.5 Family Travelers 8.6 Others 9. Global Travel Insurance Market by Region 9.1 Introduction 10. SWOT Analysis 11. Porter's Five Forces 12. Market Value Chain Analysis 13. Competitive Landscape 13.1 Competitive Scenario 13.2 Company Profiles Allianz SE

American Express (News - Alert) Company

American International Group

AXA SA

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company

Generali Group

Insure & Go Insurance Services (Mapfre S.A.)

Seven Corners Inc.

Travel Insured International Inc. (Crum & Forster)

USI Affinity (USI Insurance Services)

Zurich Insurance Group AG For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/120zz8 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005684/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] WPUR Announces EV Charging Contract

Dallas, Texas, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WaterPure International, Inc. (OTC Pink: WPUR) today announced entering into an agreement to provide an electric vehicle charging solution for a special purpose electric vehicle operation in Sub-Sahara Africa. Details of the agreement are confidential pending an anticipated announcement by WPURs client with details about the special purpose electric vehicle operation. The special purpose electric vehicle operation is expected to launch next year. WPUR recently revealed plans to add the electric utilities market with a focus on electric vehicle charging to its current water utilities operations. WPUR has recently updated its decade old clean water operations and has already begun to trial new water delivery efficiencies and technologies in developing economic markets to be subsequently scaled for all global markets. Water scarcity today impacts over 3 billion people and by 2050 is expected to impact 5 billion. The overall renewable water market was valued at an estimated value of over $263 billion in 2020 anticipated to grow to $500 billion by 2028. Electric utilities, particularly in developing economic regions, are also struggling with power shortages similar to the water scarcity issues. Too much of the global power supply comes from coal and the transition to electric powered vehicles (EVs) is anticipated to double demand fr electricity.



In addition to its approach to water utilities, WPUR now plans to also begin trialing new electricity generation and delivery efficiencies and technologies in developing economic markets to also be subsequently scaled for all global markets. WPUR recently announced the company is on track to make a strategic water technology acquisition prior to the end of this year, 2021.

WPUR also recently confirmed the company is in negotiations to acquire an innovative, off grid, EV charging technology solution. The market for water technology products and services purchased by water utility companies is over $64 billion expected to reach $83 billion by 2023. The global electric utilities industry currently generates over $4 trillion in annual revenue without providing adequate electricity globally. The global electric vehicle charging market was valued at $10 billion in 2020 expected to grow to $27 billion by 2027 . Look for more details coming soon on the pending water technology acquisition and the off-grid EV charging solution acquisition negotiations. Disclaimer/Safe Harbor: This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. The statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Among others, these risks include the expectation that any of the companies mentioned herein will achieve significant sales, the failure to meet schedule or performance requirements of the companies' contracts, the companies' liquidity position, the companies' ability to obtain new contracts, the emergence of competitors with greater financial resources and the impact of competitive pricing. In the light of these uncertainties, the forward-looking events referred to in this release might not occur.



Contact:

Sean Mathis

[email protected]

972-918-5256



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Oklahoma Supreme Court Ruling in Opioid Case Beneficial to Plaintiffs in Tulsa Race Massacre Public Nuisance Litigation

On November 9, 2021, in State of Oklahoma v. Johnson & Johnson, et al., 2021 OK 54 (the "J&J Decision"), the Oklahoma Supreme Court issued a narrow ruling overturning the judgment in State v. Purdue Pharma, L.P., No. CJ-2017-816, 2019 WL 9241510 (Dist. Ct. Cleveland Cty. Nov. 15, 2019). "The Oklahoma Supreme Court's narrow ruling in the J&J Decision draws a critical distinction in public nuisance law that strengthens our clients' case. The Court held that a public nuisance cannot arise out of the marketing, manufacturing, and distribution of a lawful product, and it made clear that a public nuisance must stem from a criminal act or a physical injury to property that renders an entire neighborhood uninhabitable. We cannot imagine anything more criminal or offensive than the murder, arson, looting, domestic terrorism, and ongoing violations of state and federal law, all of which have resulted in the literal destruction of the prosperous, and well-defined, Black neighborhood in Tulsa," said Attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons of SolomonSimmonsLaw.



The Supreme Court's ruling also makes exceptionally clear that public nuisance claims share no ground with traditional tort claims, as the Supreme Court declared, "an action for abatement of a nuisance is equitable in nature." This declaration defeats one of the Defendants' central arguments.

For these reasons, we are confident that the Supreme Court's decision will guide the District Court to make the right decision in our case, and that we will prevail in obtaining justice for our clients. In fact, we have already filed a Notice of Supplemental Authority requesting that Tulsa County District Judge Caroline Wall grant us the opportunity to fully brief the J&J Decision and schedule a hearing on the matter. "While we are disappointed that the Oklahoma Supreme Court overturned a historic judgment for Oklahomans who have suffered from the opioid epidemic, we are encouraged by the Oklahoma Supreme Court's establishment of guidelines for public nuisance suits which encompass our clients' claims," said Attorney McKenzie Haynes of Schulte Roth & Zabel. SolomonSimmonsLaw, in conjunction with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP; Bryan & Terrill Law; Professor Eric Miller (News - Alert) of Loyola Marymount College of Law; Maynard M. Henry, Sr.; and Johnson Cephas Law, is working not only to secure justice for survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, but also to continue to raise attention to the 100 years of continued harm the Massacre has caused Black Tulsans. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005712/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] TrustNFT's Community Together with AI to Empower NFT Backed Loans

VILNIUS, Lithuania, Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the most important driving factors behind any decentralized protocol is its community, and that includes developers, validators, token holders, and other stakeholders that contribute to the project's success in any way possible. In this regard, TrustNFT is made up of a community of people who share the same interest, one that ultimately aims to ensure that the protocol achieves its set goals and objectives. To that end, community members have a variety of expectations for what they would like to see adopted, especially if there is potential for it to have a significant and beneficial impact on the network. More so, these sets of people have their own respective roles to play, both in the network's governance, and in ensuring that the day to day operations run smoothly and efficiently. Vismantas Motiejunas, the CEO and co-founder of TrustNFT, explained about the typical role that their community members will play in the project, as well as their other expectations. According to him the community within the TrustNFT protocol will participate in the voting system s a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).



"The community will have a vote, and that is because we want to build the system together with all stakeholders involved. The community will be engaged in deciding on the need for the specific features. We value active communication with our community - doing AMA sessions and delivering weekly updates of what has been done every week. Working together, the best solutions could be found and implemented" Motiejunas explained. Consequently, holders of the TrustNFT token will be able to vote on different features and parameters of the platform and even marketing strategy. To empower the TrustNFT community, the platform will allow holders to propose and vote on governance questions to determine the future and features of the TrustNFT platform. Voting weight will be calculated in proportion to the tokens owned.

The protocol can also generate data from blockchain data and voting activities during this process and subsequently passes this on to the AI system, which then uses the data to oracle the price efficiently. TrustNFT Is Targeting Millennials and the Younger Generation

In addition to being community-centric, TrustNFT wants to deliver a user-friendly solution to its target audience which, according to Motiejunas, largely consists of millennials and the younger generations. Motiejunas noted that, at the moment, that millennials want to trade and participate in crypto, as well as leverage their positions from non-liquid to liquid assets, but to do so without losing their assets by the end of the day. These attributes, according to Motiejunas, is what makes them a perfect fit for the project. As for the project itself, Motiejunas wants users to have less necessary interaction with the system, while being able to use it more securely. "Our product's slogan will be - few clicks to NFT backed loans. With just a few clicks, you'll have the price and will get a loan. As little interaction as possible, yet as secure as possible to discover the golden middle ground between complexity and simplicity," Motiejunas enthused. Ultimately, TrustNFT wants to facilitate users' ability to generate profit without losing their assets, all by bringing simplicity to the trading and lending of NFTs. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1687252/TrustNFTs_Community_Together_with_AI.jpg View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/trustnfts-community-together-with-ai-to-empower-nft-backed-loans-301423175.html SOURCE TrustNFT

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Censys announces Workspaces: Organize your company's attack surfaces for full visibility, speedy remediation of cyber risks

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Workspaces, Censys' newest feature for its Attack Surface Management (ASM) platform, is ready to take your company's security strategy to the next level. Mergers & Acquisitions: 40% of companies experienced a cybersecurity problem during the post-acquisition phase. With Workspaces, security practitioners can segment and organize a company's attack surface by individual companies. Slicing up your attack surface will give the ability to strategically view all the potential security risks facing your whole company  new acquisitions and all. Forty percent of companies experienced a cybersecurity problem during the post-acquisition phase. Further, companies struggle to keep an accurate record of all their assets; in one instance, Censys found nearly 80% more assets than a Global 500 company believed they owned. It's understandable  digital transformation and cloud adoption aren't going away any time soon. Adding a new attack surface or cleaning up the current one is a messy job. With Workspaces, attack surfaces can be organized to align with the security team's priorities, whether that means swiftly tackling the latest company acquisition to limit possible data exposures or giving a team member appropriate access to asegment of the company's attack surface.



"When managing any attack surface, finding a new risk means you must also find the person responsible for remediating. With Censys ASM Workspaces, it is simple and easy to segment our attack surface so that it is clear who within the division needs to take action," says Wolfgang Bauer, IT Security Manager at Swiss Life and Censys customer. Censys ASM is powered by industry-leading Internet-scanning technology that discovers unmanaged and unknown assets in real time. Paired with the Censys high-confidence attribution algorithm, users are guaranteed to discover comprehensive visibility of Internet-facing assets belonging to the organization.

Instead of relying on an employee's memory of what might exist, know with certainty what assets a company owns, what condition they're in, and if action is needed and how quickly with the Censys ASM platform. Knowing what you have to protect is fundamental to any security program. Censys ASM gives a clear view into all of the assets that attackers may use as a backdoor into a company's digital environment. Simply log in to begin discovering external assets  no complex onboarding process required. With the addition of Workspaces, Censys ASM Platform continues to be a powerful tool to have for every security team. To learn more, download the product brief .

About Censys

Censys, Inc . is the leading provider of continuous attack surface management. Founded in 2013 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Censys gives organizations the world's most comprehensive real-time view of global networks and devices. Customers like FireEye, Google, NATO, Swiss Armed Forces, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and more than 10% of the Fortune 500 rely on the company's Internet-wide continuous visibility platform to discover and prevent cybersecurity threats. At Censys, you can be yourself. We like it that way. Diversity fuels our mission, and we are committed to inclusion across race, gender, age and identity.To learn more, visit censys.io and follow Censys on Twitter . View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/censys-announces-workspaces-organize-your-companys-attack-surfaces-for-full-visibility-speedy-remediation-of-cyber-risks-301423184.html SOURCE Censys

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Metro Supply Chain plans to further invest in excess of $100 million in its fulfillment network to provide customers with highly automated ecommerce solutions

TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Metro Supply Chain plans to further invest more than $100 million to highly automate several of its fulfillment facilities to provide some of the world's fastest growing and most reputable brands with ecommerce solutions that deliver a rapid, reliable and seamless experience for their customers. In addition, the company continues to invest significantly in business intelligence capabilities that integrate fully into the automated solutions to offer customers the insights they need to make better operational, financial and business decisions. The first facility being outfitted is a 285,000-square-foot state-of-the-art building in Bolton, Ontario, dedicated to the apparel and footwear sector. "As real estate and labour costs continue to rise, and consumer demand wildly fluctuates in today's complex, ecommerce-driven environment, businesses require an innovative strategy that boosts their time to arket, delivers cost certainty and predictability, and builds capacity for future growth," explains Martin Graham, Group President of Metro Supply Chain.



Following an extensive review, Metro Supply Chain selected for its first facility AutoStore, a leading, global cube storage and order fulfillment system powered by warehouse robots that quadruples storage capacity, offers fast access to inventory, and significantly reduces energy consumption. Bastian Solutions will implement AutoStore into this facility and integrate it with automated conveyors, high-capacity packing stations, and high-density, very narrow aisle (VNA) racking to create a forward-looking ecommerce and unit pick solution that solves for both the seasonal and the unexpected peaks businesses face as customers continue to shop where, when, and how they wish.

"To deliver on their customer promise, companies need to become even more strategic in creating a transparent, demand-response model fueled by the right capabilities and technologies. We're pleased to provide businesses with an automated, scalable ecommerce solution that gets them quicker to market and supports their long-term growth," says Chiko Nanji, CEO and Group Chairman of Metro Supply Chain. About Metro Supply Chain

Based in Canada, Metro Supply Chain shapes and delivers innovative supply chain solutions that help some of the world's fastest growing and most reputable brands advance their businesses. Over the past 40+ years, it has grown into a significant operation of more than 80 sites and 6,000 associates across North America and Europe. Metro Supply Chain's scale, capabilities, and entrepreneurial structure enable it to solve its customers' most challenging supply chain needs, including the creation of complex e-commerce fulfillment and last mile delivery networks.? View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/metro-supply-chain-plans-to-further-invest-in-excess-of-100-million-in-its-fulfillment-network-to-provide-customers-with-highly-automated-ecommerce-solutions-301423212.html SOURCE Metro Supply Chain

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
SAVE THE (NEW) DATE! 5G LLC Announces New Date for The Roundtable - Next Generation Revenue for the Built Environment

5G LLC:

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005808/en/

5G LLC is excited to announce the new date of April 12-13, 2022, for

The Roundtable - Next Generation Revenue for the Built Environment

The event will be held at Microsoft (News - Alert) Headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Join 400+ CEOs and C-suite leaders from the nation's Fortune 500 technology companies, data carriers, real estate owners, developers, and operators.

The Roundtable will showcase new technologies, srvices and verified use cases offering expanded opportunities to generate revenue and amenity, enhance tenant experiences, reduce operating costs, and mitigate cyber risk for a wide range of building and infrastructure applications.







This is a unique, exclusive, invite-only opportunity to bring the digital and physical future into today's work/living environment.

An agenda and formal invitation will be sent to past participants.

The Roundtable is produced by 5G, LLC and hosted by Microsoft.

For more information, email at [email protected] or visit www.5gllc.net/roundtable.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005808/en/
[November 12, 2021]

ImCheck Provides Promising Updated Patient Response Data from the Phase I/IIa EVICTION Trial with ICT01 at SITC Meeting 2021

Oral presentation includes positive safety data across a wide range of ICT01 doses and efficacy data from patients receiving ICT01 plus pembrolizumab confirming durable clinical responses at low ICT01 doses

One patient with checkpoint-inhibitor refractory metastatic melanoma achieved a complete response of a brain metastasis and a partial response of liver metastases at six months

Company to present a collaboration poster with Neoleukin on the preclinical combination of ICT01 plus NL201, a novel IL-2/IL-15 agonist, which safely induces activation, proliferation and anti-tumor activity of ?9d2 T cells





Marseille, France, November 12, 2021  ImCheck Therapeutics provided updated patient response data from its ongoing EVICTION Phase I/IIa clinical trial of its lead candidate ICT01 in an oral presentation at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Meeting 2021. In efficacy evaluable patients (n=8) treated with the combination of low dose ICT01 plus pembrolizumab who previously failed at least one prior checkpoint inhibitor regimen, 62% showed disease control by RECIST1.1 criteria. Two patients demonstrated a preliminary positive durable response at 24 and 32 weeks. In one metastatic melanoma patient with a brain metastasis, which would typically be unresponsive to standard of care treatments, a complete response of the brain metastasis was observed at week 27 of treatment. ImCheck is presenting these updates in addition to two posters covering ICT01 at SITC. The conference is taking place in Washington, D.C. and virtually, from November 10 - 14, 2021.

These latest data from the EVICTION trial support our confidence that ICT01 has significant potential to provide meaningful therapeutic effects, particularly in patients with advanced, metastatic solid tumors that did not respond to prior checkpoint inhibitor therapy, commented Paul Frohna, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer at ImCheck Therapeutics. Although the brain metastasis response needs replication in more patients, this provides a highly valuable, clinical development opportunity in a group of patients with high unmet medical need that we intend to explore further.

In the oral presentation today, titled Clinical Activity of ICT01, an anti-BTN3A-Targeted, ?9d2-Activating mAb, Alone and in Combination with Pembrolizumab in Patients with Advanced/Refractory Solid Tumors: EVICTION Trial, Prof. Martin Wermke, Early Clinical Trial Unit, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany, presented results demonstrating ICT01 plus pembrolizumab induced anti-tumor responses in patients with a range of solid tumors. Five of eight patients (bladder cancer, metastatic melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (n=3)) achieved disease control at 8 weeks and beyond according to RECIST1.1, including two partial responses at week 16 and beyond.

In the poster presentation titled, ICT01, an anti-BTN3A monoclonal antibody, and NL-201, an alpha-independent IL-2/IL-15 agonist, combine to elicit a potent anti-tumor response by synergistically stimulating V?9Vd2 T cell activation and proliferation, a preclinical study of ICT01 plus NL-201 treatment suggests favorable results from the synergistic activity of both candidates through enhanced ?9d2 T cell activation, expansion and anti-tumor activity in comparison with monotherapy. The synergistic effect of this combined treatment makes a strong case for further investigation of this therapeutic approach.







The second poster, Correlation of Baseline Circulating ?9d2 T Cells Counts and Pharmacodynamic Activity of ICT01 in Cancer Patients: Preliminary Results from EVICTION and a Novel Patient Enrichment Strategy, evaluated the relationship between the baseline number of circulating ?9d2 T cells in patients and their response to ICT01 as an enrichment strategy that is being implemented in the monotherapy expansion arms of the EVICTION trial.

Pierre dEpenoux, Chief Executive Officer of ImCheck Therapeutics added: These new clinical data and the preclinical combination data provide a deeper understanding of ICT01 and enable us to expand our pipeline-in-a-product strategy into additional indications and combinations. We are building momentum in the EVICTION trial including the start of enrollment in the Phase 2a portion of the study with monotherapy in patients with ovarian or head and neck squamous cell cancer using the baseline number of circulating ?9d2 T cells as a patient enrichment strategy as described in our second SITC poster.

All posters presented in the poster hall will be made available as virtual ePosters throughout the SITC 36th Annual Meeting.

***

About the EVICTION Trial

EVICTION is a first-in-human, dose escalation (Part 1) and cohort expansion (Part 2) clinical trial of ICT01 in patients with various advanced relapsed or refractory solid or hematologic cancers that have exhausted standard of care treatment options. Part 1 is a basket trial designed to characterize the preliminary safety, tolerability, and pharmacodynamic activity of ICT01 as monotherapy (Group A: solid tumors; Group B: hematologic tumors) and in combination with pembrolizumab (Group C: solid tumors). Group A includes bladder, breast, colorectal, gastric, melanoma, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic cancer patients, Group B includes acute myeloid leukemia, acute lymphocytic leukemia, follicular lymphoma, and diffuse large B cell lymphoma patients, and Group C includes bladder, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, and non-small cell lung cancer patients. Basket trials are a clinical trial design that allows new drugs to be tested rapidly in a range of indications, providing initial data on multiple parameters that can contribute to an accelerated development timeline. More information on the EVICTION trial can be found at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04243499).

About ICT01

ICT01 is a humanized, anti-BTN3A (also known as CD277) monoclonal antibody that selectively activates ?9d2 T cells, which are part of the innate immune system that is responsible for immunosurveillance of malignancy and infections. The 3 isoforms of BTN3A targeted by ICT01 are overexpressed on a number of solid tumors (e.g., bladder, colorectal, melanoma, ovarian, pancreatic, lung) and hematologic cancers (e.g., leukemia & lymphoma) and also expressed on the surface of innate (e.g., ?d T cells and NK cells) and adaptive immune cells (T cells and B cells). BTN3A is essential for the activation of the anti-tumor immune response of ?9d2 T cells.

As demonstrated in EVICTION data presented at AACR, ICT01 selectively activates circulating ?9d2 T cells that leads to migration of ?9d2 T cells out of the circulation and into target tissue (e.g., tumors), while also activating the tumor-resident ?9d2 T cells to directly kill malignant cells, which is accompanied by secretion of two key inflammatory cytokines, IFNg and TNFa, that contribute to the expansion of the anti-tumor immune response. ICT01 has been shown to have anti-tumor activity against a range of cancers in in vitro and in vivo tumor models.

About IMCHECK THERAPEUTICS

ImCheck Therapeutics is designing and developing a new generation of immunotherapeutic antibodies targeting butyrophilins, a novel super-family of immunomodulators.

As demonstrated by lead clinical-stage program ICT01, which has a mechanism of action to simultaneously modulate innate and adaptive immunity, ImCheck's first-in-class activating antibodies may be able to produce superior clinical results as compared to the first-generation of immune checkpoint inhibitors and, when used in combination, to overcome resistance to this group of agents. In addition, ImChecks antagonist antibodies are being evaluated as potential treatments for a range of autoimmune diseases.

Co-founder of the Marseille Immunopole cluster, ImCheck benefits from support from Prof. Daniel Olive (INSERM, CNRS, Institut Paoli Calmettes, Aix-Marseille Universite), a worldwide leader in ?d T cells and butyrophilins research; from the experience of an expert management team; and from the commitment of leading US and European investors.

For further information on ImCheck: http://www.imchecktherapeutics.com and @ImCheckThx

Press contacts

US and EU

Trophic Communications

Gretchen Schweitzer

+49 (0) 172 861 8540

[email protected]

France

ATCG PARTNERS

Celine Voisin

+33 (0)9 81 87 46 72 / +33 (0)6 62 12 53 39

imcheck@atcg-partners.com

Attachment
[November 12, 2021] Monday Deadline for Shareholders to Actively Participate in The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (SAM) Class Action: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC

Attorney Advertising--Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against The Boston Beer Company, Inc. ("Boston Beer" or the "Company") (NYSE: SAM) and certain of its officers, on behalf of shareholders who purchased or otherwise acquired Boston Beer securities between April 22, 2021, and September 8, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: www.bgandg.com/sam. This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose hat: (1) Boston Beer's hard seltzer sales were decelerating; (2) as a result, Boston Beer was reasonably likely to incur inventory write-offs; (3) the Company was reasonably likely to incur shortfall fees payable to third party brewers; (4) as a result of the foregoing, Boston Beer's financial results would be adversely impacted; and (5) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.



A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint you can visit the firm's site: www.bgandg.com/sam or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Investor Relations Analyst, Yael Nathanson of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 212-697-6484. If you suffered a loss in Boston Beer you have until November 15, 2021, to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff. Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a corporate litigation boutique. Our primary expertise is the aggressive pursuit of litigation claims on behalf of our clients. In addition to representing institutions and other investor plaintiffs in class action security litigation, the firm's expertise includes general corporate and commercial litigation, as well as securities arbitration. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005001/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Buxton Helmsley Publicly Responds to Departure of Mallinckrodt Plc. CCO, After Open Letter to U.S. SEC Detailing Accounting Fraud

The Buxton Helmsley Group, Inc. (together with certain of its affiliates and clients, "BHG" or "we"), the New York City-based investment advisor to clients with significant holdings of Mallinckrodt Plc. ("Mallinckrodt" or the "Company") (OTC: MNKKQ) common stock, and with the backing of other various shareholders, today issued an open letter responding to the departure of the Company's Chief Communications Officer, Ms. Brandi Robinson.

The Company's Senior Vice President of Finance, Ms. Kathy Schaefer, resigned on November 3, 2021, just days after an October 26, 2021, open letter to the Chairman and Commissioners of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission outlining/detailing numerous instances of fraud at the Company, including accounting fraud, bankruptcy fraud, electoral fraud, proxy fraud, and insider trading on undisclosed information by the Comany's board of directors and management.







BHG also publicly responded to Ms. Schaefer's resignation on November 5, 2021, in an open letter, which may also be found at the link below.

The full open letter to the Company's board of directors, in response to Ms. Robinson's departure, may be found at (along with all previous letters): http://www.revivemallinckrodt.com/

Members of the Mallinckrodt Plc. Board of Directors: Mark C. Trudeau, Angus Russell, Anne C. Whitaker, Joann A. Reed, Carlos V. Paya (M.D., Ph.D.), J. Martin Carroll, Paul R. Carter, David Norton, Kneeland Youngblood, and David Carlucci.

About Buxton Helmsley: The Buxton Helmsley Group, Inc. ("BHG") is a premier financial service, asset management and securities research firm, providing an array of services to a diversified group of individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities. The firm is headquartered in New York City.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005846/en/
[November 12, 2021] Everspring to Host Fireside Chat with California State University Long Beach at 2021 CAEL Annual Conference

CHICAGO, Nov. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Everspring Inc., a leading provider of higher education technology solutions and services to universities seeking to build or expand their online capabilities, will host a fireside chat at the 2021 CAEL Annual Conference in San Diego November 18. Rod Smith, PhD, director of business graduate programs at California State University Long Beach (CSULB), and Kathy Groth, vice president of learning design at Everspring, will discuss best practices for building highly engaging programs for adult learners. In the session, entitled "Building a Better Blueprint: Designing Best-in-Class Programs for Today's Learners," Smith and Groth will share how Everspring and CSULB are working together to build a framework for a leading online MBA program that prioritizes meaningful student engagement. CSULB recognized an opportunity to redesign its online MBA to offer a more engaging student experience and expand the reach of the program to a wider audience. The team at CSULB partnered with Everspring for course design consultation to build courses that enhance the student experience while remaining aligned with the faculty's expertise. Everspring's expertise in learning design brings faculty-driven content to life online. The rsult is courses and programs that exceed the high expectations of students and faculty, with student and faculty satisfaction scores that are routinely in the mid to high 90% range, persistence rates that meet or beat on-campus completion, and outstanding student and faculty reviews that enhance the university's brand and reputation.



"Strong engagement and student outcomes are cornerstones that drive our learning design approach at Everspring," says Kathy Groth, vice president of learning design at Everspring. "Our goal with our partners at CSULB was to enable more student-to-student and student-to-faculty engagement while ensuring consistency across MBA cohorts." The speakers will discuss how applying online learning and instructional design best practices promoted strong student engagement and outcomes while streamlining teaching requirements. They will also speak on the importance of measuring ongoing program performance to ensure continued innovation and student success.

To learn more about the 2021 CAEL Annual Conference, visit: https://www.cael.org/events/2021-cael-conference About CAEL

The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) was founded to help organizations succeed by providing expertise, resources, and solutions that effectively support adult learners as they navigate on- and off-ramps between education and employment. The Annual Conference is an opportunity for industry leaders and experts from postsecondary education, workforce and economic development, and industry to connect and learn from each other. About Everspring

Everspring is a leading provider of education technology and services solutions for higher education. Our advanced technology, proven marketing approach, and robust faculty support and instructional design services deliver outstanding outcomes for our university partners, powering their success online. Everspring offers a range of full-service turnkey solutions, as well as standalone fee-for-service offerings, and innovative self-service products that enable universities to establish themselves as leaders in the digital delivery of higher education. Based in Chicago, Everspring serves a growing number of colleges and universities, nationwide. Visit www.everspringpartners.com for more information. Don't just go digital. BE DIGITAL. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/everspring-to-host-fireside-chat-with-california-state-university-long-beach-at-2021-cael-annual-conference-301423320.html SOURCE Everspring

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Condor Hospitality Trust, Inc. Announces Vote Results and Partial Adjournment of Special Meeting of Stockholders

Condor Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE American: CDOR) (the "Company"), a hotel-focused real estate investment trust ("REIT") headquartered and incorporated in the state of Maryland, today announced partial results and the partial adjournment of the Company's Special Meeting of Stockholders (the "Meeting"), which was held at 11:00 a.m., Eastern Time, on November 12, 2021 and at which time three of the four proposals, as set forth in the Company's Definitive Proxy Statement (the "Proxy Statement") filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC (News - Alert)") on October 18, 2021, were presented to and approved by stockholders. At the Meeting, stockholders approved the sale of substantially all of the Company's assets pursuant to and on the terms set forth in that certain Hotel Purchase and Sale Agreement, dated as of September 22, 2021, by and between B9 Cowboy Mezz A LLC ("Buyer") and the Company, as amended by that First Amendment to Hotel Sale and Purchase Agreement, dated as of October 1, 2021, by and between Buyer and the Company, and that Second Amendment to Hotel Sale and Purchase Agreement, dated as of October 28, 2021, by and between Buyer and the Company (the "Portfolio Sale"). In accordance with the Portfolio Sale, the Company will sell all of the equity interests of the Company's 15 indirectly owned subsidiaries, which each in turn owns one of the 15 hotels in the Company's portfolio, to Buyer for $305,000,000. In addition to approving the Portfolio Sale, stockholders approved (1) the specified compensation that may be paid or become payable to the Company's named executive officers in connection with the Portfolio Sale and (2) one or more adjournments for the Meeting to a later date, as necessary or appropriate, including to solicit additional proxies if there are not sufficient votes at the time of the Meeting to approve the Portfolio Sale or the liquidation proposal (described below). Following approval of the foregoing three proposals, the Company adjourned the Meeting solely with respect to the liquidation proposal. The liquidation proposal asks stockholders to approve the dissolution and liquidation of the Company in accordance with a plan of liquidation. The Company adjourned the Meeting with respect to the liquidation proposal for the limited purpose of allowing additional time for stockholders to vote on the liquidation proposal and to solicit additional proxies to approve the liquidation proposal. The Company adjourned the Meeting until December 1, 2021 in anticipation that the Portfolio Sale will have been consummated pursuant to the Hotel Purchase and Sale Agreement prior to such date. The record date for determining stockholders eligible to vote at the Meeting remains the close of business on October 13, 2021. If you have already voted your shares on the liquidation proposal, you do not need to vote again at the reconvened Meeting, as the proxies submitted will remain valid. If you have already submitted proxies and want to change your vote with respect to the liquidation proposal, you can update your vote by resubmitting a proxy. Your vote will be recorded at the Meeting in accordance with your most recently submitted proxy. The adjourned Meeting will reconvene with respect to the liquidation proposal on December 1, 201 at 11:00 a.m., Eastern Time. The adjourned Meeting will reconvene in a virtual-only format via live webcast at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/CDOR2021SM2 (there is no physical location for the Meeting).



If you have any questions or need assistance voting your shares, please contact the Company, Attention: Corporate Secretary; telephone: (301) 861-3305. About Condor Hospitality Trust, Inc.

The Company is a self-administered REIT that specializes in the investment and ownership of upper midscale and upscale, premium-branded, select-service, extended-stay, and limited-service hotels in the top 100 Metropolitan Statistical Areas ("MSAs") with a particular focus on the top 20 to 60 MSAs. The Company currently owns 15 hotels in 8 states. The Company's hotels are franchised by a number of the industry's most well-regarded brand families including Hilton, Marriott, and InterContinental Hotels. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release (including statements about the expected timing of the adjourned Meeting, the sale of the Company's hotel portfolio and the plan of liquidation) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the industry and markets in which the Company operates and beliefs of and assumptions made by the Company's management, involve uncertainties that could significantly affect the financial or operating results of the Company. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "will," "should," "may," "projects," "could," "estimates" or variations of such words and other similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature, but not all forward-looking statements include such identifying words. All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future - including statements relating to creating value for stockholders, benefits of the proposed transaction to stockholders and employees - are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Although we believe the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be attained and therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. For example, these forward-looking statements could be affected by factors including, without limitation, risks associated with (i) national, international, regional and local economic climates; (ii) the potential liability for a failure to meet regulatory requirements, including the maintenance of real estate investment trust status; (iii) risks associated with the ability to consummate the transaction; (iv) potential changes to tax legislation; (v) the potential impact of announcement of the proposed transaction or consummation of the proposed transaction and Plan of Liquidation on relationships, including with employees; (vi) the unfavorable outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against the Company; (vii) impacts relating to COVID-19 or other pandemics or catastrophic events; and (viii) those additional risks and factors discussed in reports filed with the SEC by the Company from time to time, including those discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in its filed reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q. Except to the extent required by applicable law or regulation, the Company disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements contained in this communication or to otherwise update any of the above-referenced factors. Additional Information and Where to Find It This communication is not a substitute for the Proxy Statement or for any other document that the Company may file with the SEC and send to the Company's stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction and Plan of Liquidation. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING OR INVESTMENT DECISION WITH RESPECT TO THE PLAN OF LIQUIDATION, INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF THE COMPANY ARE URGED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT AND OTHER DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PLAN OF LIQUIDATION. Investors and security holders are able to obtain free copies of the Proxy Statement, any amendments or supplements thereto and other relevant materials, and any other documents filed by the Company with the SEC through the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. In addition, copies of the documents filed by the Company with the SEC will be available free of charge on the Company's website at www.condorhospitality.com, or by contacting the Company at Investor Relations by phone at (301) 861-3305 or by email at [email protected] or by requesting them in writing to Condor Hospitality Trust, Inc., 1800 West Pasewalk Avenue, Suite 120, Norfolk, Nebraska 68701, or by telephone at (301) 861-3305. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005854/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[November 12, 2021] Carbon Streaming Announces Annual and Special General Meeting Results

Carbon Streaming Corporation ("Carbon Streaming" or the "Company") today held its annual general meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting"), where each of the seven nominees proposed as directors and listed in the Company's management proxy circular dated September 30, 2021 were elected as directors. A total of 38,610,077 common shares were voted in respect of the election of directors at the Meeting, representing approximately 30.61% of the votes attached to all outstanding common shares. The detailed results of the vote are set out below:







Nominee Outcome of Vote Voted Voted (%) Maurice Swan Approved 37,270,833 Voted 9,504 Withheld 99.97% 0.03% Justin Cochrane Approved 37,270,833 Voted 9,504 Withheld 99.97% 0.03% R. Marc Bustin Approved 37,251,003 Voted 29,334 Withheld 99.92% 0.08% Saurabh Handa Approved 37,250,503 Voted 29,834 Withheld 99.92% 0.08% Candace MacGibbon Approved 37,251,504 Voted 28,833 Withheld 99.92% 0.08% Andy Tester Approved 37,249,791 Voted 30,546 Withheld 99.92% 0.08% Jeanne Usonis Approved 37,251,703 Voted 28,634 Withheld 99.92% 0.08%

At the Meeting, the shareholders of the Company also approved: (i) the appointment of Baker Tilly WM LLP as auditor and authorized the directors to fix their remuneration; (ii) the Company's omnibus long-term incentive plan; and (iii) the amendment and restatement of the Company's articles. For complete voting results on all matters approved at the Meeting, please see the Company's Report of Voting Results dated November 12, 2021 available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. About Carbon Streaming Corporation: Carbon Streaming is a unique ESG principled investment vehicle offering investors exposure to carbon credits, a key instrument used by both governments and corporations to achieve their carbon neutral and net-zero climate goals. Our business model is focused on acquiring, managing and growing a high-quality and diversified portfolio of investments in projects and/or companies that generate or are actively involved, directly or indirectly, with voluntary and/or compliance carbon credits. The Company invests capital through carbon credit streaming arrangements with project developers and owners to accelerate the creation of carbon offset projects by bringing capital to projects that might not otherwise be developed. Many of these projects will have significant social and economic co-benefits in addition to their carbon reduction or removal potential. To receive corporate updates via e-mail as soon as they are published, please subscribe here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005888/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Coursera to Participate in Upcoming Virtual Investor Conferences

Coursera, Inc. (NYSE: COUR) announces that Ken Hahn, Coursera's chief financial officer, is scheduled to participate at the following investor conferences:

2021 RBC Capital Markets Global Technology (News - Alert), Internet, Media, and Telecommunications Conference

Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Virtual fireside chat time: 11:00 a.m. PT / 2:00 p.m. ET

11th Annual Needham Virtual SaaS (News - Alert) 1x1 Conference

Date: Thursday, November 18, 2021

A live webcast and archived replay of the virtual fireside chat will be available on Coursera's Investor Relations website at investor.coursera.com.







Disclosure Information

In compliance with disclosure obligations under Regulation FD, Coursera announces material information to the public through a variety of means, including filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases, company blog posts, public conference calls and webcasts, as well as the investor relations website.

About Coursera

Coursera was launched in 2012 by two Stanford Computer Science professors, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, with a mission to provide universal access to world-class learning. It is now one of the largest online learning platforms in the world, with 92 million registered learners as of September 30, 2021. Coursera partners with over 250 leading university and industry partners to offer a broad catalog of content and credentials, including courses, Specializations, Professional Certificates, Guided Projects, and bachelor's and master's degrees. Institutions around the world use Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees, citizens, and students in fields such as data science, technology, and business. Coursera became a B Corp in February 2021.

Source (News - Alert) Code: COUR-IR

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211112005901/en/
The 17th Venice Architecture Biennale is currently being held after postponement from last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With participants from 46 countries, this years event on through November 21 explores the theme How Will We Live Together? Architects from around the world have gathered in Italy to present projects on topics including the challenges that climate change brings to architecture, the role of public space in urban settings, reconstruction techniques, and new forms of collective building. The Japan Pavilion (Commissioner: The Japan Foundation) is curated this time by Kozo Kadowaki, an architect and professor. Other Japanese architects taking leading roles are Tomohisa Miyauchi, who represents the Singapore Pavilion, and Kenichi Teramoto, a co-curator of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Pavilion. Their works consider the reuse of old buildings, designs for communal spaces, and alternative construction materials with environmental benefits.

Japan

For the Japan Pavilion exhibition, titled Co-ownership of Action: Trajectories of Elements, Kadowaki directed a team of architects and preservation building specialists in dismantling a house and bringing its parts to Venice. Named the Takamizawa House after a former occupant, the dwelling was a 65-year-old structure typical of Japanese wood construction. It was located across the street from where Kadowaki lived in Tokyo. Having undergone repeated additions and renovations over three decades, the house physically embodied the changes Japanese society went through during the postwar years. It was one of many such aging residences in Japan, which faces a housing glut due to depopulation. After careful study and deconstruction, its materials were shipped to the Biennale, where they are exhibited along with photographs of the building and a timeline of its history.

Although not all of the house could be salvaged, parts of it were reconstructed in Venice with new elements added by local artisans. Materials from the houses roofs and walls have been reused to make benches, screens, and display panels for the pavilion.

One goal of the project was to visualize how transport and movement in general have become an increasingly frenetic aspect of contemporary society. Another was to address issues of waste involved in construction. Building results in a lot of scrap material, so we wanted to create an exhibition on an architectural scale that did not produce garbage, explained Kadowaki.

Interconnection also figured prominently in the project. A guide to the exhibition elaborates, Our actions never belong to ourselves alone. The creations of the architects will be a result of the history through which Takamizawa House livedthey will also be linked to the actions of the artisans and the experiences of visitors.

While no longer whole, the house has a future. After the Biennale, its parts will be used in a community facility for an apartment complex in the suburbs of Oslo. Takamizawa Houses journey continues.

Singapore

The Singapore Pavilion presents To Gather: The Architecture of Relationships, an exhibition examining the ways in which inhabitants of Singapore share space  in the city, with one another, and with nature. Tomohisa Miyauchi, an architect an educator who has taught at the National University of Singapore, is one of five curators of the show. This is his third time curating the countrys pavilion. This isnt simply about architecture, he explains. Its about peoples relationships, ideas, histories, cultures, and how they think about the future.

Singapore has experienced rapid urbanization since its independence in 1965. The majority of its urban population lives in public housing, where spaces such as hawker centers  open-air food courts  contribute to community life. In 2020, hawker culture in Singapore was added to the UNESCO list of Intangible Culture and the Heritage of Humanity. In addition to hawker centers, the Singapore project highlights void decks as relationship-building spaces. Used for leisure, shelter, and civic functions, these open areas on the ground floors of apartments let different groups in the community convene. Elderly residents can play checkers, delivery bikers can take a break from the rain, and town officials can hold meetings or operate polling stations during elections.

Miyauchi designed Singapores exhibition, which features 16 tables with works demonstrating community-oriented spaces in the spirit of hawker centers and void decks. Arranged by the themes Communing Relationships, Framing Relationships, Uncovering Relationships, and Imagining Relationships, the displays include a senior housing complex with on-site shopping, childcare, and medical facilities that supports intergenerational bonding and active aging-in-place. Another project aimed at humanizing the city uses creative engagement in public spaces to stimulate conversation about end-of-life concerns.

United Arab Emirates

Kenichi Teramoto and Wael Al Awar curated this years Gold Lion-winning UAE Pavilion (commissioned by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation). They attempted to create a technological equivalent of Portland cement. The UAE has an image as a desert country, but in fact it has mineral-rich wetlands such as the sabkha salt flats, Teramoto stated. With the assistance of researchers at the University of Tokyo, New York University Abu Dhabi, and American University of Sharjah, Teramoto and Wael developed a large-scale prototype structure created from an environmentally friendly cement made of recycled industrial waste brine. The new substance could reduce the climate impact of the construction industry and alleviate the need for Portland cement. After water, cement is the worlds second-most demanded resource.

At the pavilion, Teramoto and Waels cement has been hand-cast into organic shapes recalling traditional coral-built houses. A structure built from 2,400 of these cement modules is exhibited in front of Farah Al Qasimis photographs of the Al Ruwais Sabkha salt flats, which are shown against a backdrop of voltage cables running to industrial facilities.

Kazuyo Sejima, president of this years Gold Lion jury, described Teramoto and Waels project as a bold experiment that encourages us to think about the relationship between waste and production on a local and global scale, and opens us to new construction possibilities between craft and high-technology.

A virtual tour gives a fuller look at the UAE exhibition.
Credit where it's due, as far as these speeches go . . . This one pretty ambitious and inspiring.



Here are the remarks that mostly ignored push back coming from Eastern Jack neighbors . . . Check-it:



Jackson County Executive outlines vision for Building a Better, More Equitable Jackson County in virtual State of the County

Announces 3-year, $10 million proposal to extend Our Healthy KC Eastside project



KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Jackson County Executive Frank White, Jr. today delivered his 2021 State of County with a central focus on Building a Better, More Equitable Jackson County, announcing a proposed three-year, $10 million extension and expansion to the Our Healthy KC Eastside (OHKCE) program in his 2022 budget. OHKCE is a community-based initiative to address vaccine hesitancy and health inequities in portions of Jackson County identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having exceedingly high socially vulnerable index scores.



This years State of the County address was presented virtually due to the ongoing threat of COVID-19 and as a symbol that we can, and must move forward, even if its not exactly the same as it once was.



COVID-19 has caused so much unbearable pain and suffering. Those feelings may diminish over time, but they will never go away, said Jackson County Executive Frank White, Jr. It is my hope that we can use our hurt and heartache to build a future we can all be proud of. For me, that future is building a better, more equitable Jackson County.



White said a Better Jackson County is focused on improving the customer experience, supporting the Countys most valuable resource, its Associates, and doing so in a fiscally responsible way. He said a More Equitable Jackson County ensures that the County is drawing on the talents and diversity of its residents, its policies are inclusive and its programs are accessible to all, no matter what zip code residents call home.



Six months ago, with the unanimous support of the Legislature, Jackson County invested nearly $5 million to start the Our Healthy KC Eastside program. Under the leadership of Dr. Jannette Berkley-Patton, Director of the UMKC Health Equity Institute, the program has exceeded its goal of vaccinating 5,000 people and providing immediate access to health care screenings, such as blood pressure checks, blood glucose, HIV/STD testing and mental health.



County Executive Whites three-year, $10 million proposal to extend Our Healthy KC Eastside will allow project partners to use the research they have gathered from residents and provide the resources needed to address persistent and deadly health disparities in our urban communities.



My vision for this program is that it would go beyond COVID-19 outreach and vaccinations because we know that before the pandemic, chronic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease were disproportionally damaging our communities of color, White said. The work done by Dr. Jannette Berkley-Patton and her amazing team of partners is empowering residents to take control of their well-being and now is not the time to stop helping our community become safer and healthier.



Jackson Countys renewed support of the Our Healthy Kansas City Eastside project reflects their leaderships commitment to improving health outcomes and equity for its residents, said Dr. Jannette Berkley-Patton, OHKCE Lead Investigator. We are encouraged by the high level of community collaboration, which resulted in the success of the projects vaccination and health service events on the Eastside. The benefits of this effort extend well beyond each event. We look forward to expanding our efforts to improve health with our community partners. Many thanks to continued support from County Executive Frank White and the Jackson County Legislature.



We are pleased and excited that Jackson County is continuing to support UMKC in conjunction with the Our Healthy Kansas City Eastside project, said UMKC Chancellor Dr. C. Mauli Agrawal. Our success furthering education and distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations and critical health services, such as blood pressure and pre-diabetic screenings, benefit our community as a whole. UMKC is honored to be recognized as a key player in community health working to enhance the well-being of all Jackson County citizens.



Click to Watch Our Healthy KC Eastside Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FO67qnDI7s



2022 Recommended Budget



The County Executives State of the County outlined additional investments in his recommended 2022 budget to Build a Better, More Equitable Jackson County. They include:



* Renovating a recently-purchased building to be home to the Jackson County Health Department, providing first-class amenities to continue our COVID-19 response and beyond



* Implementing the third and final year of our compensation study, ensuring County staff make salaries at or above their peers in the market



* Currently, every County staff members now makes at least $15/hour, a goal that is on budget and ahead of schedule



* Expanding health benefits for county staff, offering for the first time comprehensive coverage for infertility treatments and gender affirming care



* Upgrading the tax collection system to coincide with the 2022 launch of the new multi-million dollar assessment software



* Acquiring state-of-the-art software making it easier for everyone, especially small businesses, including women and minority-owned business, to do business with the County



Memorable Moments



County Executive Whites virtual State of the County can be watched on Jackson Countys YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/JacksonCountyMO. Here are some memorable moments:





* 30 Girl Scouts from Northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri lead-off the State of the County with the Pledge of Allegiance from Kauffman Stadium



* County Executive White remembers COVID-19 victims, including three Jackson County staff members



* Get an inside look at University Healths response to the pandemic from President and CEO Charlie Shields



* A 12-year-old girl shares an unforgettable experience visiting our parks for the first time through the Kids to the Parks program



The County Executive will submit his recommended 2022 budget on Monday, November 15 in accordance with the Jackson County Charter and Code.



###

Developing . . .
The Exec takes his first major loss of the pandemic amid widespread frustration with contradictory public health policy.

Here's the setup . . .

Before Friday's vote, Jackson County Executive Frank White asked legislators to support the county's health department and allow the mask mandate to continue through at least Nov. 22, as approved earlier this month. White said by making that decision it would give schools and businesses in the county time to plan for the mandate ending.

Check the statement from the Courthouse:

Jackson County Legislature rescinds mask mandate



KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Today, the Jackson County Legislature voted 5-4 to rescind the mask mandate for Jackson County, effective immediately. Jackson County Executive Frank White, Jr. and Health Department Director Bridgette Shaffer, MPH, are thankful for the communitys commitment to protecting each other through simple masking and vaccination.



From the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have committed myself to empowering and supporting public health officials and medical experts. This morning, Jackson Countys public health officials, citing CDC guidance, recommended that our universal masking requirements remain in place due to our high level of community transmission. I supported their recommendation because I trust them to keep us safe and I believe science and facts matter, said Jackson County Executive Frank White, Jr. Unfortunately, a majority of the legislature voted to rescind the countys masking requirement for everyone, including our school children. I would encourage all residents of Jackson County to do everything they can to protect themselves and each other.



While our collective action has resulted in tremendous progress in decreasing case rates, preventing unnecessary illness and death, and reducing the burden on our health care system, Jackson County remains at a high level of overall community transmission as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Based on the CDCs designation and recommendations, the Jackson County community is encouraged to show compassion and care for those around them by continuing to wear a mask in public indoor settings until we reach a moderate level of community transmission.



#########

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .
Over the past couple of weeks we've seen Kansas City metro relax pandemic mitigation protocols, eliminate COVID mask requirements and push back against vaccine mandates.

Now . . .

All of that "progress" might be for naught as COVID numbers start to surge again.

To wit . . .

WARNING OF THE AMERICAN COVID 2021 WINTER SURGE CONFRONTS KANSAS CITY & THE NATION!!!

To start the day we take a peek at the evolving pandemic narrative and how relaxed public health rules might quickly fade . . .

Moreover . . .

Mainstream media news of more infections and hospitalizations will likely inspire a desperate and far more critical fight over vaccine requirements as a "return to normal" proves illusive.

We'll start our glimpse at local news items on the topic and then move the more ominous headlines on the horizon.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . .

COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES: Missouri's positivity rate ticks up to 7.1%; Kansas adds 2,857 new cases Here are the latest COVID-19 updates around the Kansas City metro area, and in Kansas and Missouri.What you need to know:The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Monday the state has 445,089 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and there have been 6,613 deaths since the outbreak started.

Jackson County's mask mandate up for debate again by: Heidi Schmidt Posted: / Updated: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Jackson County is one of a handful of areas in the metro still requiring all adults to wear masks while inside public places. That could change as soon as Friday. The Jackson County Legislature is scheduled to meet Friday morning.

Is Covid's winter surge already here? Experts warn the pandemic isn't over A new surge of Covid-19 cases is expected to start hitting the United States around Thanksgiving just as the holiday season begins, public health experts are warning. But with more and more Americans vaccinated, it's not likely to linger as long or do as much damage because there's a level of protection this season that wasn't there last year, they say.

This COVID Winter May Cause Fewer Deaths Yet Still Bring A Surge Coronavirus cases in the U.S. have been plummeting since their recent peak in mid-September, and practically everyone has grown tired of COVID precautions. But cases plateaued in early November, and winter is coming. Experts warn it is not safe to let down our guard just yet.

Poll Finds U.S. Covid Fears Have Faded Since Delta's Surge - But 34% Of Americans Are Still Worried About Their Family's Health Americans have grown less fearful about their family's risk of catching Covid-19 since the delta variant wave hit its peak in September, but concerns are still well above their summertime low as coronavirus deaths remain stubbornly high, according to a Monmouth poll released Thursday. Fears of Covid-19 have generally lined up with the pandemic's trajectory.

Developing . . .
The fight over council redistricting is heating up as Northland leaders continue to convey their discontent.

Even better . . .

TKC EXCLUSIVE!!! CHECK BEHIND THE SCENES DOX WHEREIN MAYOR Q CALLS OUT THE CLAY COUNTY EDC OVER RACIST NEWSLETTER CHATTER!!!



First the offending quote . . .



The controversial line comes from an otherwise dull Clay County newsletter. In the missive, the Clay County Economic Development Council expresses discontent with a committee selection representing the Northland.

Check-it . . .



"Unfortunately they have a new hurdle as the Mayors office wants to divide the Northland districts horizontally instead of vertically as they currently exist. There are a lot of problems with the suggested mapping unless you want to divide the Northland. And please dont think that Stephenie Smith, First District At-Large and Chair of the committee was recommended by an involved Northlander. Except for the school districts who have hired her firm for diversity and equity training, no one that we know knew of her."



Accordingly . . .

THIS LINE EVOKED SERIOUS PUSH BACK FROM MAYOR Q AND A SURPRISINGLY ANGRY E-MAIL BLAST!!!



We're including the whole thing because all of these organizations are taxpayer funded . . . Check the exchange betwixt Mayor Q & Pleasant Valley Mayor David Slater.



From: Lucas, Quinton <Quinton.Lucas@kcmo.org>

Sent: Monday, November 8, 2021 3:42 PM

To: David Slater <davids@clayedc.com>; ONeill, Kevin <Kevin.ONeill@kcmo.org>

Cc: Jenny Johnston <jenny@northlandchamber.com>

Subject: Fwd: Friday Facts - November 5, 2021



Brother Slater,



People can have different opinions, but the cheap shot on Stephenie Smith is uncalled for. There are Black people in the Northland and Black women in the Northland who may come to engagement from paths different than those traditionally seen, since there have been few Black women through the years ever nominated to serve on anything up north. Nowhere else in the city have I ever been told that only those from a certain group or set of friends is acceptable. Stephenie sent her kids to NKC Schools, has lived in Clay County for years, her husband works at William Jewell. I get disagreement, but undermining someones worthiness is at least to me ridiculous. It becomes all the more concerning when its one of the few diverse people to ever serve on anything in part of the city.



I appreciated the lunch that I thought was worthwhile the other day, but sending a missive like this right after is highly disappointing. You can make your point without attacking folks volunteering their time and expressing concern for divisiveness while trying to undermine someones Northland bona fides because you dont know them well enoughdespite their years of involvement in groups also important to our community is precisely the reason many may not feel represented by current leadership. You should perhaps consider hiring her for the equity and diversity training the districts in the Northland have been wise enough to do.



Im always happy to talk and listen, as I did last week, but I hope youd keep it on the up and up.

############





The reply from a Northland honcho . . .

> On Nov 8, 2021, at 3:52 PM, David Slater <davids@clayedc.com> wrote:

>

>

> Mayor Lucas,

>

> Thanks for reading. If Jenny or Kevin, who you copied, knew of her I would have felt much better. Who did nominate her? While you may not agree with what I wrote, please let me know what is incorrect. I believe my opinions are based on facts. Thanks

#####################



A closing note from the KC Mayor . . .



> From: "Lucas, Quinton" <Quinton.Lucas@kcmo.org>

> Date: November 8, 2021 at 6:58:20 PM CST

> To: David Slater <davids@clayedc.com>

> Cc: "ONeill, Kevin" <Kevin.ONeill@kcmo.org>, Jenny Johnston <jenny@northlandchamber.com>

> Subject: Re: Friday Facts - November 5, 2021

>

>  Mayor Slater,

>

> Honestly, you are better than this. You dont have to throw a Black woman under the bus who is as qualified as anybody for the position to criticize a map. Its all the more galling when its unlikely you have ever recommended anyone from her background to a board position in Kansas City or Clay County. Im fine with the attacks of me and receive many. Lay off someone who, whether you like it or not is from your community, trying to do her best for our city.

>

> Quinton



As always, we give FIRST WORD to KICK-ASS TKC TIPSTERS . . .



"Misogynistic and bigoted north land leaders demean and dismiss an African-American woman who resides north of the river merely because she supports a redistricting configuration that is conducive to socio-economic equity and political empowerment of the disaffected. This guy 's attitude is exactly why a change is necessary to give voice to people who are ignored by the power elite."



Objectively . . .

TKC sees this as a sign that THE REDISTRICTING BATTLE IS GETTING SERIOUS!!!



We've heard of growing discontent with the process and rumors of a court challenge on the horizon as well. As always, we want to bring EVIDENCE of this discontent FIRST given the dearth of local news coverage about the REALITY of the Kansas City conversation.



Developing . . .
There's no snark and very little politics in this post.

We merely want to take a moment to acknowledge Veteran's Day and offer news and info from this discourse for late night readers.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . .

Veteran's Community Project adds labyrinth By Max Goodwin The Veterans Community Project has been so successful in its mission to provide housing and walk-in support services to veterans in need that the program has been expanded to St. Louis, Colorado, and the newest community, announced on Veterans day will be in Oklahoma City.

Retired Army veteran opens up about Afghanistan during ceremony at WWI Museum At the National World War I Museum and Memorial, there were some emotional moments Veterans Day ceremony.A retired Army veteran opened up about the withdrawal from Afghanistan.The keynote speaker at the Veterans Day ceremony at the museum was retired Command Sgt. Maj.

4 Hands Brewing honors veterans at Bier Station KANSAS CITY, Mo. - 4 Hands Brewing hosted its 10th anniversary party on Veteran's Day at Bier Station, highlighting a fundraising component for the Veterans Community Project. Ten was the theme of the evening. 4 Hands featured 10 taps for 10 years with a goal of raising $10,000.

Kansas City pays tribute to Buffalo Soldiers during Veterans Day KANSAS CITY, Mo. - It was a tribute to the Buffalo Soldiers and Black Military history this Veterans Day. "It does not get recognition. They don't teach it in schools. I didn't know anything about the Buffalo Soldiers in 1992, I've been to college.

LGBTQ military leaders to salute on Veterans Day Today is the first Veterans Day since the Trump administration's ban on transgender service members was lifted. Four days after taking office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order repealing the ban, allowing LGBTQ Americans to fully participate in military service. "America's strength is found in its diversity," the White House said in a statement at the time.

Trump says "we'll be back" in Veterans Day video recorded in room resembling Oval Office Former President Donald Trump promised that "we'll be back stronger than ever" while delivering a Veterans Day message from a room resembling the Oval Office. "On this Veterans Day I'd like to pay tribute to all of those incredible people-and you are indeed incredible people-who serve so well and so strong and so powerfully in the United States Armed Forces," Trump said during a video.

'You are the very spine of America': Biden honors those who served on Veterans Day in Arlington President Joe Biden honored Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday, paying homage to Americans who have served and laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Veteran at local hospital sees PTSD hitting new populations during COVID pandemic KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) -- Nothing in the civilian world is quite like combat in a war zone, but a local veteran who serves mental health patients -- military and otherwise -- says the pandemic is now exposing civilians to some of the same emotional trauma veterans have been dealing with for years.

Developing . . .
Special thanks to KICK-ASS TKC TIPSTERS for sending this Midtown slice of life amid rampant gunfire and police action across the metro.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com crime news link collection . . .

KCPD: One victim in critical condition after shooting at 51st and Olive in KCMO Hide Transcript Show Transcript JOHNNY: POLICE ARRIVED HERE AT 51ST ANDLL A LIVE -- OLIVE. TAKING A LOOK AT THE SHOOTING SCENE. POLICE OFFICERS ON THE SCENE, INVESTIGATG,IN TALKING QUITE A WHILE TO ASSESS WHAT HAPPENED. WE BELIEVE THE VICTIM WHO WAS SHOT HERE IN TRANSPORTED TO THE HOSPITAL MAY HAVE BEEN IN THIS VEHICLE.

Double shooting Thursday morning killed 1, wounded another in Independence KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A double shooting Thursday morning in Independence, Missouri, killed a man and wounded a woman. According to Officer Jack Taylor, public information officer with the Independence Police Department, officers found the victims at about 2 a.m. in a house in the 1500 block of North Pleasant Street.

Standoff in Independence comes to an end, suspect in custody INDEPENDENCE, MO (KCTV) -- UPDATE: The suspect in this standoff has been taken into custody without incident. The police department notes that officers will still be in the area for a while as they conduct follow-up investigations. Previous coverage is below. The Independence Police Department is currently engaged in a standoff.

Black youth-owned shoe store broken into, all inventory stolen KANSAS CITY, Mo. - One Pair in south Kansas City is owned by Black youth, ages 14 years old and up. Jerren Thornhill, the founder of One Pair, said on Tuesday night their store was broken into and all the inventory was stolen.

Another new trial date set for man accused of killing 4 in fire, including infant nephew PLATTE COUNTY, MO (KCTV) -- Another new trial date has been scheduled for a man accused of killing four people in a fatal fire. Grayden Denham is accused of killing his grandparents, his sister, and his infant nephew in a fire in 2016. His trial is set to begin on Tuesday, Dec.

KCPD looking for vehicle involved in hit-and-run that killed 61-year-old woman KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- Kansas City Police Department detectives are looking for a vehicle that was involved in a hit-and-run. The vehicle is described as a black SUV, which may be a Chevrolet Tahoe or Trailblazer. The vehicle was involved in a hit-and-run in the area of 82nd and Troost on Oct.

Best of Kansas City 2021: Jaywalking is now legal in the city that named it Photo by Maxwell Ridgeway In May, the Kansas City Council voted to remove its prohibition against jaywalking, as well as two nuisance bicycle offenses-a decision that was well overdue. Jaywalking got its name in Kansas City when The Star coined the term in 1905 to ridicule pedestrians who didn't stay to the right and yield to others on the sidewalks....

Family calls on community for help in unsolved homicide of mother of 9 KANSAS CITY, Mo. - It has been over six years since someone killed Danielle Wilson and dumped her body in an alleyway off E 29th St. and Myrtle Avenue. Police have some clues in her case, but not enough to bring the killer to justice.

Developing . . .
Johnstown, PA (15901)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. High 39F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low 27F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Johnstown, PA (15901)

Today

Some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Morning high of 38F with temps falling to near freezing. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy in the evening with more clouds for later at night. Low 26F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Terre Haute, IN (47803)

Today

Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High 39F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low near 20F. Winds light and variable.
Hello,

Lapland has been on the would love to do list since having my firstborn now 9 and decided to wait until his brother was old enough to remember it (he is now 5).

We looked at packages 2 years ago but felt they were way too expensive to justify it or simply afford it and there must have been a cheaper way to do that, then covid happened etc so here we are now feeling time is running out!

We are based in Ireland and have been looking at options for the last month. The best I can come up with is very cheap flights to Goteborg which I am conscious is very far in a different country to start with!

So here is the question(s):

1- Is there a Cheap way to get from Ireland or from Goteborg to Rovaniemi or another place were you can truly enjoy a Santa experience? I will take any advise on travelling, accomodations and seeing Santa/Reindeer sleigh ride experience in particular.

2- If option 1 turns out too expensive/time consuming how is Goteborg to see Santa? I understand Christmas in Sweden might be different from a "traditional Santa Christams" (my family celebrated St Lucia when I was a child).

Of Goteborg I read of the Chritmas market, lights, playground etc but was hoping for a real snow experience with reindeer sleight rides and an equivalent of a Santa Village. Any way that can be replicated somewhere near Goteborg?

None of us has ever been to Sweden or Finland or even Norway for that matter so my apologies if any of the above sound silly/obvious etc to anyone. I appreciate all advise I can be given,

Thank you!
Instant unlimited access to all of our content on triplicate.com.

The Triplicate's E-Edition Newsletter emailed to you each week, the night before the paper hits the street!

This subscription is for NEW or RENEWING online subscribers.

(The charge will appear as "Country Media Inc." on your credit card statement)


A sampling of six Connecticut municipalities  half of which lifted their mask mandates in mid-October and the others maintained the order for at least two more weeks  shows COVID cases decreased faster in communities where face coverings were still required.

Municipal leaders, empowered in August by Gov. Ned Lamont to establish their own local mask mandates, have been increasingly lifting the requirement in recent weeks, citing improved health outlooks.

Officials have cited high vaccination and low infection rates as reasons for ending the requirement. Leaders in Brookfield, Danbury and Redding lifted their mandates on Oct. 15. At the time, all three places had vaccination rates at or above 64 percent.

In the case of Brookfield, with a population of about 17,500, the towns case rate was 218 per 100,000 residents in the three weeks leading up to the mandate being lifted, according to the states data. Three weeks later, the rate was 206 per 100,000 residents.

In New Haven, which has a population of 134,000, people are still required to wear face coverings in both municipal buildings and indoor public spaces such as businesses and restaurants.

City officials want to reach an 80 percent vaccination rate before they consider letting residents go maskless, health director Maritza Bond said recently. The rate was 58.6 percent as of Thursday.

In the nearly three weeks before Oct. 15, New Havens case rate was 321 per 100,000 residents, the data showed. Three weeks later, it dropped to 200 per 100,000 residents.

In Danbury, which lifted its mask mandate on Oct. 15, there was a case rate of 131 per 100,000 residents in the three weeks leading up to that point. Three weeks later, the case rate stood at 105 per 100,000 residents.

In Redding, where the mask requirement was also lifted on Oct. 15, the case rate was 208 per 100,000 residents in the three previous weeks compared to 132 per 100,000 people three weeks later.

Hamden maintained its mask mandate until Oct. 29 and saw a case rate of 281 per 100,000 residents in the three weeks leading up to Oct. 15 and 167 per 100,000 people three weeks later.

Westport, where the mask mandate remained until Nov. 4, had a steep drop in cases from 281 per 100,000 residents in the three weeks before Oct. 15 compared to 84 cases per 100,000 people in the three weeks that followed.

Many factors can influence a communitys COVID infection rate, but the sampling of municipalities shows mask orders could be contributing to case rates dropping more rapidly in certain places. Vaccination rates are another factor. Businesses can still require patrons to wear face coverings, absent a local mandate.

We have to realize that masks are only one layer in a multi-layered strategy, said Dr. Raymond Sullivan, Brookfields health director. Its very difficult to attribute any significant benefit from one single layer.

In Brookfield, the first selectman pledged to remove the indoor mask order if the town moved from the red to yellow zone, the states tiered system designed to provide different recommendations to individuals, communities and local governments based on local COVID data.

Towns in the red zone have a daily average of at least 15 new COVID infections for every 100,000 people in two weeks. The yellow zone indicates municipalities that have daily case rates between 5 and 9 for every 100,000 people.

Some public health officials have said its too soon to lift local mask mandates in part because the colder weather will likely mean people will spend more time indoors in close quarters, which could lead to a rise in cases.

Its too early and maybe the timing is even wrong, said Dr. Naftali Kaminski, chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the Yale School of Medicine.

The states latest COVID numbers show the weekly case rate was 2.4 percent as of Thursday compared to 1.85 percent the previous week. Hospitalizations have also been increasing, with 238 total patients hospitalized as of Thursday compared to 209 a week ago.

Connecticuts daily positivity rate was reported Thursday as 2.42 percent and four more patients were hospitalized.

Kaminski said Connecticut was able to squelch the delta wave of the coronavirus due to its high vaccination rate and adherence to masks.

One consideration for keeping indoor mask requirements, he said, is that protection is waning for those who got vaccinated early on such as residents in long-term care settings, the elderly and health care workers.

With varying vaccination rates among communities, Lamont said in August it made sense for local officials to have discretion over the public health protocols in their town. He also said he was responding to a request from town leaders for more local authority.

The state still requires masks to be worn indoors in health care and child care facilities, facilities that house vulnerable populations, private and public transit, correctional facilities, schools and day cares.

julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com
Tucson, AZ (85741)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. High around 80F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Overcast. Low around 60F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
If people who lived in Tennessee 100 years ago could speak to us today, theyd tell us we are spoiled. We have stores where we can buy just about every type of food, medicine or clothing we need. We have electricity and access to a clean, safe water supply. We all have some degree of access 
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said, it was only while the Government was making hard decisions on expenditure at WASA, that it discovered certain payments had been made to PSA President Watson Duke.
Over the past 24 hours, on November 11, Ukraine reported 13 ceasefire violations by Russian occupation forces, including four  with the use of weapons proscribed by the Minsk Agreements.

Thats according to the Ministry of Defense, Ukrinform reports.

The invaders opened heavy fire employing 122 mm artillery and 120 mm mortars on Ukrainian positions near Maryinka.

In the direction of Novozvanivka, the enemy fired three times, using 122 mm artillery, an anti-tank missile system, 120 mm mortars, and large-caliber machine guns.

In the area of the settlement of Zaitseve, the enemy forces attacked two times, using grenade launchers of various systems, and also deployed an unmanned aerial vehicle to drop VOG-17 shots on the Ukrainian positions.

Near Troyitske, Russian mercenaries fired large-caliber machine guns.

In the vicinity of Hnutove and Luhanske, the invaders engaged the positions of Ukraines Armed Forces with easel-mounted anti-tank grenade launchers.

In the direction of Shyrokyne, the enemy fired grenade launchers of various systems and small arms.

Toward Krymske, the Russian-controlled illegal armed groups twice opened fire with grenade launchers of various systems and large-caliber machine guns.

In addition, an enemy-operated UAV, likely an Orlan-10, was spotted flying across the line of contact in Luhansk region in breach of the ceasefire deal.

A Ukrainian soldier was wounded in one of the enemy attacks. He was evacuated to a hospital where he is undergoing treatment, remaining in satisfactory condition, the report says.

Ukrainian defenders returned fire to the enemy attacks. No banned weaponry was used in the retaliation strikes.

As of 7:00 Kyiv time on November 12, no new ceasefire breaches were reported in the Joint Forces Operation zone, the defense ministry notes.

im
More than 54 tonnes of humanitarian cargo has been delivered to the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the press service of the Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine has reported.

Today, November 12, humanitarian cargo weighing a total of 54.45 tonnes has been delivered to Russia-occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions," the report says.

The cargo was transferred from all member states of the Geneva Conventions that make contributions to the global budget of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"We would like to thank you for the long-term cooperation between the ICRC and the Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine. In accordance with paragraph 1 of the ministrys order, No.51, of July 17, 2020, the ICRC informs about the intentions to deliver humanitarian aid to the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which are not under the control of the Ukrainian government, the ICRC wrote in a letter to the Ukrainian ministry.

Thus, three trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed the Novotroitske entry-exit checkpoint, according to the ministry.

As Ukrinform reported, on November 11, humanitarian cargo weighing over 100 tonnes was delivered to Russia-occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

iy
Ukraine's Antonov Company has signed a contract under the Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS) initiative, which gives NATO and EU countries the right to use the company's aircraft for emergency delivery of cargo in crisis situations for the next five years.

The head of the company's commercial department, Andriy Blahovisny, said this during a press conference at Ukrinform on Friday, November 12.

"Under the five-year contract, Antonov must provide two An-124-100 aircraft on a permanent basis. They must be in stand-by mode at Germany's Leipzig Airport. Upon additional request, Antonov must provide three more planes," he said.

He added that under the SALIS program, NATO and EU countries may also use aircraft Mriya, Antei, An-26, and An-74.

According to Blahovisny, SALIS members are nine countries: Belgium, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Hungary, and France.

The previous contract under the SALIS program was signed in 2019 for three years. It expires on December 31, 2021. The new contract was signed in September 2021.

op
On August 26, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved an order on the signing of an agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the Republic of Mauritius on mutual abolition of visa requirements, prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

This is the first step towards the introduction of a visa-free regime, after which Ukraine and Mauritius must sign an agreement and carry out a number of internal procedures.

We are working on further expanding freedom of travel for Ukrainians, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba noted.

The draft agreement provides for the introduction of a visa-free regime for mutual travel of citizens of Ukraine and the Republic of Mauritius for up to 90 days within 180 days.

The conclusion of visa-free travel will help intensify interpersonal contacts and further develop partnerships with the Republic of Mauritius. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to work systematically to expand freedom of travel for Ukrainians, which is an important element of Ukraine's foreign policy strategy.

For reference: currently there is a visa regime between Ukraine and Mauritius (except for visa-free tourist trips for citizens of Ukraine).

ish
The United States has warned its allies in the European Union that Russia may consider a potential invasion of Ukraine, given rising tensions over migrants on the Belarusian-Polish border and energy supplies, according to Bloomberg.

With Washington closely monitoring a buildup of Russian forces near the Ukrainian border, U.S. officials have briefed EU counterparts on their concerns over a possible military operation, Bloomberg said, referring to multiple people familiar with the matter.

"The U.S. warning over Ukraine comes on top of the more recent standoff between Poland and Belarus, a close Russian ally. And it is playing out amid uncertainty over increased Russian gas supplies to Europe despite Putin's pledge to ramp up deliveries from this week to ease an energy crunch. He's pushing for European regulators to give swift approval to operate the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, a project the U.S. and Ukraine opposed as a security risk," the report reads.

On November 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized Ukraine's alleged use of combat drones in violation of a previous agreement and American military activity in the Black Sea.

With the West preparing fresh sanctions against Belarus over what it sees as a manufactured migration crisis, President Alexander Lukashenko threatened on Thursday to shut down a key pipeline carrying Russian gas to the EU if Poland closes their border.

Russia says military deployments on its territory are an internal matter and it denies any aggressive intentions, while accusing the U.S. of provocation by sailing warships in the Black Sea close to its territory this week.

On Wednesday, November 10, after the signing of the U.S.-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership, Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern over unusual Russian military activity near Ukraine's border.

op
Ukraine expects the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to apply for permission from the ICC to launch an investigation into crimes committed by the Russian Federation in the occupied Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Thats according to a statement of the Ukrainian delegation, voiced by Deputy Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, Yuriy Vitrenko, who spoke at the meeting of the UN General Assembly on the ICC report for 2020-2021, an Ukrinform correspondent in New York reports.

As the Prosecutor's Office has acknowledged that the situation in Ukraine meets the criteria of the Rome Statute to launch an inquiry, Ukraine is looking forward to the next step, which is applying for a court permit to initiate such an investigation, according to Vitrenko.

The diplomat recalled that, during the reporting period, the Prosecutor's Office continued to analyze crimes committed in Crimea and eastern Ukraine in order to identify potential criminal cases to be initiated.

The prosecutor's report says there are sufficient grounds to believe that crimes committed in both Crimea and certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions can be covered by the Court's jurisdiction, the diplomat said, adding that this is about war crimes and crimes against humanity committed including against the civilian population.

Vitrenko noted that the decision of the ICC prosecutor passed a decision to complete the preliminary study of the situation in Ukraine on December 11, 2020.

According to the Ukrainian diplomat, Ukraine was one of the first countries to support the idea of establishing a permanent international tribunal based on treaties, took an active part in the preparatory committee for the ICC founding, and in 2000 signed the Rome Statute, which regulates the ICCs work.

On April 17, 2014, the Ukrainian government filed with the ICC an application to recognize the Courts jurisdiction in respect of crimes committed in Ukraines territory from November 21, 2013, to February 22, 2014. On September 8, 2015, Ukraine filed another application, regarding the ICC jurisdiction over crimes committed by Russia since February 20, 2014, since the onset of Russias military aggression.

im
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili to consider allowing Ukrainian doctors to visit Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia and chairman of the executive committee of Ukraine's National Reform Council.

According to the presidential press service, Zelensky made the request in a phone call with Garibashvili.

The president raised the issue of ensuring Saakashvili's rights and stressed that they should be fully guaranteed in accordance with international law.

Zelensky said that using force against a Ukrainian citizen is unacceptable.

He also stressed that Saakashvili's mother and relatives should be allowed to see him.

"Ukraine always protects the legal rights and interests of its citizens," Zelensky said.

Saakashvili was detained in Georgia on October 1, where a number of criminal cases have been opened against him. It emerged on October 2 that Saakashvili had gone on a hunger strike, calling himself a political prisoner.

On November 8, Saakashvili was transferred from a prison in Rustavi to a prison hospital in the Gldani district of Tbilisi.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called for transferring Saakashvili to a civilian medical institution.

op
The European Union is concerned about the deteriorating security situation in eastern Ukraine and Russia's actions near Ukraine's borders and in the Crimean peninsula.

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, the EU said this in a statement that was read out at a regular meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday, November 11.

"It has now been over seven years since the start of Russia's acts of aggression in eastern Ukraine and its illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which continue to represent a major threat to the European security order. This is why the European Union continues to follow with concern the current worsening security situation in Ukraine and Russia's actions near Ukraine's borders and in the Crimean peninsula closely," the statement reads.

The EU said that in this context, the public reports about a possible renewed military build-up by Russia close to the border with Ukraine would be, if confirmed, disturbing.

"We will continue to follow developments, in close dialogue with our likeminded partners. We would like to remind Russia about its obligations under the Vienna Document regarding transparency on movement of troops and about the recommendations put forward by participating States at the joint PC-FSC meeting of 14 April," the statement reads.

Separately, the EU said it remained deeply concerned about the presence of Russian military equipment and personnel in the sovereign territory of Ukraine. "The SMM reports frequently about Russian military equipment in the non-government controlled areas. These reports underline the need for greater transparency about what is happening at the parts of the Ukraine-Russia state border currently not under the control of the Ukrainian government," the statement said.

According to earlier reports, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said that as of early November 2021, a 90,000-strong grouping of Russian troops had been amassed near the Ukrainian border and in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia.

The U.S.-based Politico outlet earlier published new satellite images that the journalists claim confirm recent reports that Russia is again massing troops and military hardware on the border with Ukraine.

Several other outlets, including The Washington Post, also wrote that in recent weeks, Russia has resumed the movement of military hardware and troops toward the border with Ukraine.

Citing unnamed sources among U.S. and European officials, the newspaper said the movement began after the Kremlin completed a large-scale joint military exercise with Belarus, Zapad 2021, nearly one-and-a-half months ago.

op
Russia is a major obstacle to a peaceful settlement of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine.

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, Courtney Austrian, Charge d'Affaires of the U.S. Mission to the OSCE, said this at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday, November 11.

"Russia's military activity in and around Ukraine, along with the Kremlin's increasingly hostile rhetoric over the preceding months, is unwarranted and dangerously provocative. The primary obstacle to peace is Russia. This is a conflict Russia started, and now bears full responsibility for ending," Austrian said.

She recalled that Russia's aggression in Ukraine, now in its eighth year, has caused more than 13,000 deaths, tens of thousands of injuries, displaced 1.6 million people, and inflicted countless instances of damage to critical civilian infrastructure.

"We call on Russia to cease its aggression, observe the ceasefire, implement its Minsk commitments, and withdraw its forces from Ukraine's sovereign territory," Austrian said.

She also called on Russia to allow the SMM to fulfill its mandate and monitor throughout Ukraine, which includes the Russia-controlled territory in the Donbas and Russia-occupied Crimea.

"We urge Russia to engage constructively within the Trilateral Contact Group and to reopen all EECPs along the Line of Contact to allow free movement of civilians," Austrian added.

op
Lukashenko is diligently playing a role of Putins willing provocateur.

The European Unions 6,000-km land border between Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and its eastern member states (Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania) has not been seen as a major gateway for illegal migration until recently. According to Frontex (European Border and Coast Guard Agency), the scale of illegal migration flows across the blocs eastern border was much smaller than on any other migration route to the EU, accounting for less than a percent of the total.

In 2015, when the influx of refugees to European countries reached proportions that havent been seen since World War 2, a total of 1,927 illegal border crossings were recorded on the eastern frontier. For reference, in the same year, 764,333 people illegally entered the EU via the Western Balkans, and 885,386  via the Eastern Mediterranean. Even the temporary Arctic route, which operated between October and December 2015, was used by 6,000 asylum seekers, mainly from Afghanistan and Syria. This is triple the flow recorded at the Eastern border throughout that year.

This year, however, the situation on the EUs eastern border has changed dramatically. Compared with 2020, the number of illegal crossings has spiked by a stunning 1,407%. But it is not the total number of migrants that was impressive, since that remained quite low anyway (for instance, German police registered 6,600 migrants who illegally arrived from Belarus, primarily in October). The most striking thing is the way these figures have been achieved: the said illegal migration channel has been artificially created by the regime run by Belarus self-proclaimed president.

Migrants are brought into the country in an organized manner, being promised an easy transfer to the EU. They are then taken to the countrys Western border in large groups and forced to rush the borderline at gunpoint, not offered a chance to retreat. Earlier on the Belarusian-Lithuanian, and now on the Belarusian-Polish border, the developments resemble front-line reports: provocations, border penetrations, skirmishes, and gunfire. In this way, Lukashenko is taking revenge on neighboring EU countries for supporting the Belarusian opposition.

Gaddafi, the late dictator of Libya, did quite the same back in 2011. In retaliation for Italys support of his opponents, Gaddafi created an inferno on Lampedusa, a small Italian volcanic island in the Mediterranean, deploying boats carrying thousands of desperate African migrants. Hundreds died trying to cross the sea.

Putting desperate people on a boat and pushing them off into the sea  sending them to die in the Mediterranean  is something very close to being yet another crime against humanity, said then-Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

At least 10 migrants have already died of cold and hunger in the woods on Belarus western borders. Propagandists employed by the Lukashenko regime say more casualties are expected, in advance blaming Poland.

Anton Shekhovtsov, a Ukraine-based expert on the Kremlins ties with far-right and extremist groups, sees this as an act of state-sponsored terrorism.

Does Lukashenko act on his own or at the Kremlins behest?

Polands Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has accused Putin of orchestrating the ongoing migration crisis on the countrys border with Belarus.

Lukashenko is the executor of the latest assault, but this assault has a sponsor who is to be found in Moscow, and this sponsor is President Putin, Morawiecki said at an emergency debate in Polands parliament.

Belarus would never have acted so aggressively on the Polish border without Moscows consent, a clear signal of approval from Putin. It acts as Russias agent, believes expert on Russian military policy Jakob Hedenskog with the Swedish Defense Research Agency.

Chatham House also refers to Belarus as another tool in Russias hybrid warfare against Western liberal democracies.

Indeed, not only does Moscow not prevent Minsk from fomenting an explosive conflict on the formally common border (of the Union State), it also echoes its neighbors rhetoric, blaming the West for the ongoing crisis. However, the approval of this scheme, which fits into the Kremlins policy of stirring up and weakening Europe, doesnt necessarily mean Lukashenko isnt acting on his own. He has long been hostile to Poland and almost 20 years ago, he already intimidated the neighboring country by saying that we have about 150,000 illegal migrants from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other countries, who are all ready to cross this border.

Im confident that Europeans will not just come to Belarus, they will crawl and ask us for help in cooperation, at least in the fight against drug trafficking and illegal migrants because this is now their most painful point. Therefore, they cant help but need our cooperation and support. And one more thing If they dont pay, we will not be protecting Europe from this influx at our own expense... They should at least ask us to fight against this, and also pay us, Lukashenko said in a 2002 interview.

In the same interview, almost 20 years ago, he criticized Putin for his great love for the European Union and for Russia accession to NATO on an extra stool. So the Kremlin does not need to pit him against the West and ensure his relevant stance: this is an integral part of his worldview. He might have suggested on his own that Europe could be blackmailed through a border crisis.

By the way, the Lukashenko regime has been taking money from the EU for decades to restructure Belarus border control agencies and develop infrastructure. In 2001 and 2012 alone, the European Unions support for Belarus in the field of integrated border management totaled approximately EUR 47.5 million.

Putins willing provocateur

However, Lukashenkos anti-Western views and proneness to blackmail dont mean that Moscow is not interested in this crisis and that its not fuelling it, encouraging Lukashenko with its support. Moscow may believe it is killing two birds with one stone: delivering a blow to Europe and cutting off opportunities for Lukashenko to walk back, leaving him no room for political maneuver.

He doesnt leave much room for himself, either, claiming that Western powers seem to be deliberately moving their troops closer to the borders of the Union State under the pretext of resolving the migration crisis and threatening that we have something to move closer to the borders as well, and Russia  even more so. Of course, Russia is happy to back such rhetoric.

The Atlantic Council think tank aptly calls Lukashenko Putins willing provocateur. He acts at his own will, but for Moscows benefit. The publication compares Lukashenko with Kadyrov, branding the latter Putins willing executioner who eliminates Putins critics, allowing him to leave no fingerprints of his own.

According to General Roman Polko, former Commander of the GROM spec-ops forces unit, Lukashenko is indeed trying to deploy a human bomb against Poland, being naive enough to believe that Europe will yield to blackmail, lift sanctions, and possibly even provide some financial assistance to stop the flow of migrants. But at the same time, its Putin whos pulling the strings.

Putin is constantly waging a hybrid war. He knows hes too weak to win an open armed conflict with NATO. In addition, Russia is too dependent on Western economies to afford such a conflict, said the general.

In fact, according to the Atlantic Council, the crisis manufactured by the Belarusian dictator mimics the tactics previously used by Russia. It refers to the 2015 migration crisis, which peaked after Russia joined the war in Syria.

In 2015, Syrian armed rebels made significant progress in fighting the forces of Bashar al-Assads regime and threatened to undo the government forces hold over Damascus.

President Assad turned to the Kremlin for help, and on September 30, the Russian Federation Council authorized President Putin to launch a military campaign on Syrian territory. In September 2015, Russian air force launched air strikes on anti-government forces (somewhere between 7,000 and 15,000 sorties, according to various estimates, with over 12,000 targets hit). This dramatically changed the course of the military conflict. President Assad, whose defeat was almost a certainty at that point, ultimately remained in power.

This was accompanied by a huge migration wave, with hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing westward in an attempt to escape the war. The autumn and winter of 2015 brought to Europe a tide of migration far greater than the one caused by the war in the former Yugoslavia. Nearly a million refugees arrived in Germany alone.

The wave of refugees created a number of unresolved issues. It strengthened the positions of right-wing populist leaders, parties, and movements, sew divisions among European countries, pushed the UK toward Brexit, and provided fertile ground for the Russian propaganda with its apocalyptic images of Europes demise. Russians argued that Europe could survive only by going for an alliance with Russia.

The same narrative is being promoted by Belarusian propaganda, which is no longer different from the Russian: Europe can remain strong only if its in good relations with Belarus and Russia.

They appeal to real Europe, which includes Germany and France, whom they refer to as countries that have at least some sovereignty. A proof of sovereignty in this case is apparently concluding treaties beneficial to Russia. They speak contemptuously about Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine. These three allegedly provoke conflicts which real Europe doesnt need, but they will be quickly destroyed.

A military solution to this conflict would lead to the end of Polish statehood and Lithuanian statehood, as well as fragmentation of the European Union. We are not even talking about Ukraine  this state doesnt exist as such, claims Russias STV outlet.

Thus, the script of this political play is very similar to the one dating back to 2015: create a crisis, blame it on victims, and then proffer oneself as a solution. But this time, the truth is too obvious: while in 2015, Russia wasnt caught red-handed, the artificial nature of the current crisis is apparent. Therefore, propaganda that tries to deploy the same trick can be easily called by its real name: hypocrisy and cynicism. Meanwhile, the approach used is clearly seen as inhuman and gangster-like.

In addition, when someone claims that the mob of migrants that is crushing border fortifications using identical is self-organized, or that this is a move of despair, or let them just try shooting women and children, Ukraine is very well aware what it actually means: a hybrid war.

Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security
Cooperation between Ukraine and Slovakia in the field of culture and protection of the rights of national minorities has always been a priority of bilateral relations between the countries.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal stated this during his working trip to Zakarpattia region, where he together with Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Eduard Heger visited specialized secondary school No.4 with in-depth study of the Slovak language, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

We are constantly working to improve the system of general secondary education in terms of learning foreign languages. This can be seen in the example of a school in Uzhhorod with in-depth study of the Slovak language, Shmyhal said.

According to the Ukrainian prime minister, it is also a key task for Ukraine to keep a network of Ukrainian language schools in Slovakia and support for Ukrainian education by the Slovak state.

As reported, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal is on a working trip to Zakarpattia region on November 12. Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger also arrived in the region.

iy
Austria is open to Ukrainian tourists from July 1, the Austrian Embassy in Ukraine has reported.

"Entry from Ukraine is now possible for all travel purposes," the embassy said, commenting on the new rules for entering Austria, which will be in effect from the beginning of July to the end of August.

To enter Austria without prior registration and quarantine, a tourist must provide a certificate of full vaccination against COVID-19. In this case, full immunization should be carried out no earlier than 14 days before entry and no later than 270 days ago.

Travelers must be immunized with the following vaccines: Comirnaty (INN) from BioNtech / Pfizer, Vaxzevria COVID-19 Vaccine from AstraZeneca, Covishield from Serum Institute of India, COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen by Johnson & Johnson, mRNA-1273 Covid-19 Vaccine from Moderna, Sinopharm / BIBP SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated, and Sinovac.

If a person does not have a certificate of full vaccination, he will still be able to enter Austria - albeit with prior registration and mandatory quarantine.

Earlier, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said that the Netherlands had become another EU country that opens its borders to vaccinated Ukrainian tourists.

ish
Ukraine has recorded 24,058 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Health Ministry has reported on Facebook.

"Some 24,058 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease COVID-19 (including 1,616 cases in children and 468 cases in healthcare workers) were recorded in Ukraine on November 11, 2021," the report reads.

According to the report, 750 coronavirus-related deaths, 4,318 hospitalizations, and 21,941 recoveries have been registered in Ukraine in the past 24 hours.

As many as 3,179,577 people in Ukraine have contracted coronavirus, 2,594,679 have recovered, and 75,607 have died since the pandemic began.

According to the report, 279,136 people were vaccinated for COVID-19 in Ukraine on November 11. Some 141,347 people received their first dose, and 137,789 people were fully vaccinated.

A total of 20,408,409 doses have been administered in Ukraine since it launched the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, with 11,986,075 people receiving their first dose and 8,422,334 people receiving both doses (two people received their first dose abroad).

Some 24,747 new COVID-19 cases were registered in Ukraine on November 10.

op
facebook like button Tweet tweet button for twitter

Published Nov. 13, 2021

The University of Louisiana Monroe Physical Therapy program has received significant financial contributions, which the ULM Foundation will announce at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 16, in room I-64 of Walker Hall.

Representatives of Nexion Health and Reliant Rehabilitation will present a $10,000 check to the ULM College of Health Sciences to launch the Physical Therapy program.

Nexion Health and Reliant Rehabilitation, along with contributions from other generous donors, have established the $100,000 ULM Physical Therapy First Generation Scholarship for full-time, first-generation students pursuing an undergraduate degree with the intent to apply to the Doctor of Physical Therapy program.

Catherine Estis, Ph.D., Director of TRIO Programs at ULM, said assisting first-generation students is vital to the completion of their education goals.

The struggles of first-generation students are well known; the ULM Physical Therapy First Generation Scholarship will aid students to pursue STEM careers which change not only their life, but the lives of their family, communities, and future generations, Estis said.

Dean of the College of Health Sciences, Don Simpson, said as a first-generation student, I understand how significant this contribution is. According to the U.S. Department of Education, students whose parents did not attend college are more than twice as likely to leave college within the first year.

This generous gift will be used to reach rural underserved and underrepresented populations throughout the Mississippi Delta of Northeast Louisiana and will make the dream of first-generation students pursuing graduate studies a reality by allowing them to enter the DPT program at a much better point with much less debt than their program classmates, Simpson said.

The Louisiana Board of Regents First Generation Scholarship subprogram was established to increase college access and success for low-income, first-generation students. First-generation students are those whose parents did not attend college. The 1st Gen subprogram offers 20 percent matching funds to 80 percent private donations.

The ULM Physical Therapy First Generation Scholarship guarantees at least $4,000 annually as financial aid to eligible students.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is alarmed at the deportation of two Cambodian refugees from Thailand, despite having advised the Royal Thai Government of their refugee status and their well-founded fear of persecution if returned to Cambodia.

The refugees were arrested on 8 November, taken to an immigration detention centre in Bangkok and subsequently deported on 9 November to Cambodia, where they are at risk of persecution.

UNHCR made interventions on behalf of the two refugees to the Royal Thai Government prior to their deportation, with the expectation that the matter would be handled in accordance with international legal standards, and that they would continue to receive protection in Thailand.

While we are seeking further clarifications on what exactly happened, we are deeply troubled by this deportation, said Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCRs Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.

I strongly urge the Thai authorities to investigate this matter. I appeal to Thailand to honour its fundamental international obligations, notably the principle of non-refoulement, and to refrain from such deportations in the future, he added.

The UN Refugee Agency stands ready to discuss this issue with the Royal Thai Government, in view of supporting Thailand to uphold its international obligations.

UNHCR is deeply concerned about the safety of the deported refugees and urges the Cambodian authorities to respect their human rights and allow human rights organizations to monitor their situation in Cambodia.

Media contact

UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok: Catherine Stubberfield, [email protected], +66 65 929 8062
Refugees and migrants stranded at the Belarus border.  UNHCR/Katsiaryna Golubeva

BRUZGI, Belarus  On 11 November, International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Belarus were granted access to a makeshift camp on the Belarusian side of the border near the international crossing point Bruzgi where a group of approximately 2,000 asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants has been staying since 8 November. Among them are many children and women, including pregnant ones.

At the moment of the visit, UNHCR and IOM delivered some emergency aid, including hygienic items for children and women, as well as some food items. More assistance is on the way  such as blankets, warm clothes, gloves, hats and boots, for children  to be delivered by organisations partner, the Belarusian Red Cross.

This is very much emergency assistance as the main priority right now is to prevent loss of life, and advocate with the authorities to move people to safe locations, where they can be provided with adequate assistance and counseling, and where humane solutions can be found according to individuals personal situation and needs. The makeshift camp at the border with no adequate shelter, food, water and medical care in freezing temperatures is not a safe and suitable place for people and could lead to further loss of life.

During the visit IOM and UNHCR managed to speak to people and provide reliable information on viable options. Depending on circumstances and needs of people these include application for asylum in Belarus for those who are in need of international protection. Also, some asylum-seekers and refugees might have compelling reasons to move, including for family reunification purposes in the EU. Another option is the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) program implemented by IOM, which offers a dignified, safe and legal return home and depends only on a free choice of a person.

IOM and UNHCR stand ready to engage with states in ensuring human rights and safety of asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants.

For more information, please contact:
Milledgeville, GA (31061)

Today

Showers in the morning, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. High 67F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low near 35F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
Union Springs, AL (36089)

Today

Rain showers early with mostly sunny conditions later in the day. High near 65F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 32F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
The pandemic has posed an unprecedented challenge to both employees and employers. It seems like every day a new story appears where businesses are struggling to find people to fill high-skill, high-wage, and high-demand jobs.

As Nebraskas urban university, it is the University of Nebraska at Omahas duty to meet our states workforce needs and be an engine for growth. UNO has embraced veterans, active-duty servicemen and women, and military families as part of the Maverick family for decades. In fact, our institution is regularly recognized as one of the best universities for veterans in the nation.

I have the privilege of seeing the energy, sense of purpose, passion, and immense talent these individuals bring to our campus every day, and we are stronger for it. I believe it is time our state taps into this talent pool to meet our states workforce needs and be a catalyst for economic growth.

This semester alone, our Office of Military and Veteran Services met the needs of our more than 1,700 military-connected students  about 5% of our student population. This includes more 800 students who hold veteran status and are either still actively serving in the military, or have retired from active service and now seek to build their careers in the civilian world. UNO even has many active military students attending classes here through remote conferencing while still deployed.

These students are interested in entering career fields that are currently in demand during this period of workforce development. In Nebraska alone, nearly half of the top ten occupations in-demand focus on analysis, business management, or technical and computer skills, and these are programs of study the military students often enter.

Because of the experience they have with the military they often show strong leadership and decision-making qualities. They often have a strong attention to detail and can be depended on. While some students may shrink from group work, military students often seek out collaboration. So much so, in fact, that our Military and Veteran Services office recently expanded its collaboration space to include a new space so that students have more space available when working together.

More than half of UNOs military and veteran students plan to remain in Nebraska following their graduation from our university, but we can do better. Our university leaders, lawmakers, employers, and our state at large celebrates these men and women as heroes, but we can do more by giving them more opportunities to flourish in our state. If we make an effort to hire veterans to fill existing roles and attract companies that align with their values and bridge their skill gaps, our economy will benefit for years to come.

That makes them a vital part of the equation toward a stronger Omaha and a stronger Nebraska, as well. And UNO is here to help, because that is the Maverick mission: to ensure that the future is a brighter, better place for all.

Joanne Li, Ph.D., CFA

UNO Chancellor
Syria has restored more than 50% of the food sector factories destroyed during the armed conflict ongoing since 2011, Syrian Industry Minister Ziad Sabbagh said in an interview with Sputnik

DAMASCUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2021) Syria has restored more than 50% of the food sector factories destroyed during the armed conflict ongoing since 2011, Syrian Industry Minister Ziad Sabbagh said in an interview with Sputnik.

"The restoration is in process. The private sector has rebuilt its factories, many of them are already in operation, and new enterprises have been also put into operation ... It may be said that we have restored more than 50%," Sabbagh said.

About 40% of capacity of the textile industry, which was one of the main areas of Syrian production along with food and pharmaceuticals, has been restored, the minister noted.

"In the period from 2000 to 2010, the average volume of wool production varied from 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes per year. Last year, textile factories received no more than 14,000 tonnes," Sabbagh added.

Such a low capacity is connected not only with the destruction of factories by terrorists during the war. Large areas of Syria, where crops are harvested for the textile industry, are still out of authorities` control, according to the minister.
(@FahadShabbir)

The damage that the Syrian public and private industry suffered since the beginning of the armed conflict in 2011 exceeds $23.5 billion, Industry Minister Ziad Sabbagh said in an interview with Sputnik

DAMASCUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2021) The damage that the Syrian public and private industry suffered since the beginning of the armed conflict in 2011 exceeds $23.5 billion, Industry Minister Ziad Sabbagh said in an interview with Sputnik.

"According to the estimates of late 2019, the damage for private and public sectors' industry exceeded $23.5 billion," Sabbagh said.

The oil industry's facilities were especially significantly affected, the minister noted.

"Apart from that, deliberate action was implemented to destroy industrial facilities producing food and medication, which were strategically important and had a direct influence on the life of our citizens," Sabbagh added.

The minister also pointed to the significant damage suffered by textile industry, primarily in the province of Aleppo, where terrorists destroyed and looted private and public plants.
PARIS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 12th Nov, 2021) President of France, Emmanuel Macron, on Thursday met with Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth, on the sidelines of the fourth session of the annual Paris Peace Forum that witnesses the participation of around 30 heads of state and Government Al Kaabi conveyed the greetings of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to the French President and their wishing of more progress and prosperity for the people of France.

She emphasised that the relations between the UAE and France are in continuous progress, noting that there are many opportunities to develop them, especially in the economic, investment and cultural fields, for the benefit of the two friendly countries.

On the sidelines of the forum, Al Kaabi said that the UAE's participation in the Paris Peace Forum represents an opportunity to discuss global challenges facing societies and ways to unify efforts to address them, contributing to opening broader horizons for development and prosperity.

She added that the forum is also an international platform wherein countries, organisations and other actors meet to discuss many issues such as climate, health, social and solidarity economy and digital issues.

She pointed out that the UAE's participation in the event is based on its belief that peace, tolerance and coexistence are the way to comprehensive economic development and away from violence and terrorism.

She noted that the UAE has a rich record of achievements in this regard, most notably the signing of the Human Fraternity Document in Abu Dhabi, which resulted in the United Nations General Assembly's adoption of a resolution proclaiming 4th February every year as the 'International Day for Human Fraternity'.

The UAE Minister of Culture and Youth also emphasised that the Abrahamic Family House, being built in Abu Dhabi, is an example of the UAE leadership's vision of promoting peaceful coexistence and acceptance values among various faiths, nationalities and cultures.

The minister also said that the forum, in its current session, addresses global divisions, is keen on gathering societies views to contribute to sustainable development, and unifying efforts between countries to think of creative solutions to the challenges and obstacles facing humanity.
(@FahadShabbir)

Sydney, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied having ever lied in public life on Friday and said he had the thick skin needed to deal with allegations of dishonesty including from French President Emmanuel Macron.

Asked if he had ever told a lie in public life, Morrison told an interviewer on Melbourne's 3AW radio: "I don't believe I have, no, no." Macron this month accused the Australian leader of outright lying to him over a multi-billion-dollar submarine contract with Australia, which was scrapped without warning in September.

Macron discovered at the last moment that Australia had secretly negotiated a deal to buy nuclear-powered submarines in talks with the United States and Britain.

"I don't think. I know," Macron said when asked by Australian reporters if Scott Morrison was untruthful in their private dealings.

Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, a bitter rival from within the same conservative Liberal Party, added to the controversy by saying Morrison had a reputation for lying.

Morrison's truthfulness has become a major point of debate in Australian politics, and a potential point of weakness as he seeks a second term in elections expected next May.

But Morrison brushed the issue aside: "I have learned in public life over a long period of time to not have a thin skin."Morrison said such accusations did not distract him and that he was confident he took the right decision in scrapping the French submarine deal to protect Australia's national defence.

"I was not intimidated by the fact that that might upset some people and ruffle some feathers," he said, stressing that the US nuclear submarine technology had not been shared with another nation since 1958.
(@FahadShabbir)

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday dismissed the petition of Senator Faisal Vawda against his disqualification case in Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declaring the plea as non maintainable

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday dismissed the petition of Senator Faisal Vawda against his disqualification case in Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declaring the plea as non maintainable.

Vawda's lawyer Hasnain Ali Chohan appeared before the court of Chief Justice Athar Minallah and adopted the stance that ECP was bound to decide the case against his client within 60 days after he was being elected. The case in ECP against Faisal Vawda had become invalid, he added.

The chief justice asked under what law the petitioner was making this claim. To this the lawyer said the ECP could decide the matter in 60 days under Election Act, 2021.

The lawyer prayed before the court to stay the proceeding of ECP in disqualification case and declared its order dated October 12, as illegal.

The court asked what the fear the petitioner has, he should prove himself as right before ECP. Let the ECP hear this case, the court said.

Justice Minallah asked whether the petitioner wanted this court to decide the matter. Whether this case was not filed in 60 days , he questioned.

The bench inquired from the petitioner that how many times he had sought adjournment from ECP. Whether the senator submitted its reply to ECP, it further asked.

The court, subsequently, dismissed the case declaring it non-maintainable.

Vawda had filed the petition against the orders of ECP for rejecting its request to stop proceeding on his disqualification case.

The complainant adopted the stance that Vawda hid information from ECP regarding his dual nationality.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Belarusian military tried to expel several dozen illegal migrants, mostly women and children, into the territory of Poland, Tomasz Krupa, a spokesman for Poland's Podlaskie Voivodeship police, said on Friday

WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2021) Belarusian military tried to expel several dozen illegal migrants, mostly women and children, into the territory of Poland, Tomasz Krupa, a spokesman for Poland's Podlaskie Voivodeship police, said on Friday.

"Last night, in the Kuznica area, the Belarusian military tried to force 35 people into Poland, mostly women and children," Krupa told reporters.

"The Belarusian military pushed these people to the barbed wire fence. This attempt was suppressed by police officers, border guards and soldiers," the spokesman added.

Krupa also said that a group of about a hundred migrants gathered near Belarusian Polovtsy village.
(@FahadShabbir)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2021) US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will host a tribal nations summit at the White House next week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday during a press briefing.

"On Monday, the President and First Lady will participate in a tribal nations summit, coinciding with National Native American Heritage Month.

This will be the first summit since 2016, and the first time that this summit has been hosted at the White House," Psaki said.

Biden will address tribal leaders and announce steps to improve public safety and justice for Native Americans, Psaki said. He will also discuss how to protect private lands, treaty rights and sacred places, she added.

Vice President Kamala Harris will attend the summit on Tuesday alongside members of the cabinet in order to discuss a number of agency-specific policy deliverables, Psaki said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concerns on Friday that Ethiopia has the potential to implode unless a conflict in the northern Tigray region is resolved

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2021) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concerns on Friday that Ethiopia has the potential to implode unless a conflict in the northern Tigray region is resolved.

"I am very concerned about the potential for Ethiopia to implode given what we are seeing, both in Tigray, but also as we have different forces and different ethnic groups that are increasingly at odds,' Blinken said at a meeting with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. "We are working very closely to support the efforts of the former Nigerian President Obasanjo to mediate a way forward with all the Ethiopian parties."

The conflict in Ethiopia may spill over into other countries in the region, Blinken added.

Earlier in the day, the United States announced Ethiopia-related sanctions against two individuals and four entities, including against the Eritrean Defense Forces that are taking part in the conflict.

Northern Ethiopia has been engulfed in an internal conflict since November last year, when the central government accused the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) of attacking a military base and launched a counter operation in Tigray region. Hostilities have since been going on despite a June ceasefire.

Earlier this month, the country declared a six-month state of emergency nationwide as TPLF rebels threatened to advance on the capital of Addis Ababa.
(@FahadShabbir)

The foreign ministry of Canada has decided to temporarily withdraw supporting personnel and family members of employees from the Canadian Embassy in Haiti amid the deteriorating security situation in the country

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2021) The foreign ministry of Canada has decided to temporarily withdraw supporting personnel and family members of employees from the Canadian Embassy in Haiti amid the deteriorating security situation in the country.

There is a serious shortage of fuel in Haiti due to the blockade of oil terminals by armed gangs.

"The security situation in Haiti is rapidly deteriorating and is being exacerbated by ongoing fuel shortages. As a result, Global Affairs Canada is temporarily withdrawing non-essential Canadian employees as well as family members of Canadian embassy staff from Haiti," the statement said.

Essential staff remaining at the embassy will continue to provide assistance to Canadian citizens in Haiti, according to the statement.

The foreign ministry recommends Canadian citizens to avoid traveling to Haiti unless there is a substantial need.

The fuel shortage has been observed in Haiti for several months, and it has affected the majority of industries. Apart from major and middle-size private companies, state institutions were also affected.

Haiti is experiencing a crime rate increase as the armed gangs that control large areas in Port-au-Prince and other regions gain more power. The actions of these gangs since June 2021 have led to the involuntary resettlement of more than 19,000 people.
Concern mounted Friday over Russian prosecutors' move to close top rights group Memorial, with the presidential council sounding the alarm and campaigners warning its closure would be a "devastating blow" to civil society

Moscow, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :Concern mounted Friday over Russian prosecutors' move to close top rights group Memorial, with the presidential council sounding the alarm and campaigners warning its closure would be a "devastating blow" to civil society.

On Thursday, Memorial said it was notified by Russia's supreme court that prosecutors had filed a demand to dissolve the group over systematic violations of "foreign agent" legislation.

In a new salvo announced Friday, Moscow prosecutors were also moving to shut down Memorial's Human Rights Centre over alleged "repeated" constitutional violations and purported justification of "terrorism and extremism".

The pressure on Memorial comes amid an unprecedented crackdown on the opposition and independent media in Russia, with authorities imprisoning Russia's top opposition politician Alexei Navalny earlier this year.

Founded in 1989 by rights activists including renowned scientist and Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, Memorial has been in the cross-hairs of the Russian authorities for years.

The organisation, which has been regularly cited as a potential Nobel Peace prize winner but never won, campaigns for the preservation of historical memory in Russia and against rights violations.

The presidential rights council, which usually toes the Kremlin's line, said the request to shut down Memorial was unjust and "not commensurate" with the violations.

The council said in a statement it "considers the right to association a very important value and believes the forced dissolution of the oldest public organisation to be an extreme measure".

"The council is monitoring the situation with concern, conducting consultations and will take steps to settle the situation around Memorial," the statement added.

The secretary general of rights body the Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, urged Russian prosecutors to reconsider, saying the closure of Memorial "would deal a further devastating blow to civil society, which is an essential pillar of any democracy".

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas labelled the news "troubling" and hailed the group's "courageous, tireless work" in the interests of the Russian people.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2021) Damascus and Moscow will start in the upcoming days the talks on launching the production of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 in Syria, Syrian Industry Minister Ziad Sabbagh told Sputnik.

"Within the next two days, Russia and Syria will hold talks on the start of producing the Russian vaccine in Syria. The proposal came from the Russian side," Sabbagh said.

The minister noted that the countries planned to create a joint commission to settle organization issues.

"The Russian vaccine has showed efficiency during its use in Syria," the minister added.
Central African countries are making progress in their drive to diversify sources of economic growth and improve business environment but need to do more in a bid to withstand shocks due to high external dependence amid a severe COVID-19 outbreak, a senior official of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) told Xinhua on Thursday

YAOUNDE, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :Central African countries are making progress in their drive to diversify sources of economic growth and improve business environment but need to do more in a bid to withstand shocks due to high external dependence amid a severe COVID-19 outbreak, a senior official of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) told Xinhua on Thursday.

"The economy in Central Africa is not diversified enough, that is why we are worried. We have seen how our countries rely much more on the export of raw materials whenever there is a disruption of global supply in terms of export or import. It raises problem of vulnerability of economy and fluctuation of raw material in global market," Jean Luc Mastaki, Officer in Charge of ECA Sub-regional Office for Central Africa told Xinhua by phone.

Mastaki was speaking after ECA announced the 37th session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICE) for Central Africa, which is scheduled for Brazzaville, Congo, from Dec. 6 to Dec. 10.

The session will review the state of leadership and transformational change in Central Africa, identify gaps and propose to governments and sub-regional bodies practical ways of bolstering the understanding and practice of both interlaced concepts to accelerate economic diversification in the sub-region.

"We are trying to help these countries build strategies which will allow them to diversify their economies away from raw materials and natural resources but also help them to industrialize and add some value to these products. So that not only do they create value locally but also they can rely on products for which prices have a global market a bit stable compared to raw material prices," Mastaki said, stressing that transformational leadership was indispensable to foster development in the sub-region.

"Leadership for us is about implementing the vision, mobilizing the people, mobilizing both private and public sectors towards their implementation and mobilizing innovative resources. We need to reach that level where everybody (in Central Africa) can take a leadership role in promoting industrialization in terms of local contents, local value addition and shared value," he added.
Talks initiated by the EU with airlines and transit nations about migrants massing at Belarus's border with the bloc are starting to bring results in helping to ease the crisis, Germany said Friday

Berlin, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :Talks initiated by the EU with airlines and transit nations about migrants massing at Belarus's border with the bloc are starting to bring results in helping to ease the crisis, Germany said Friday.

"The talks are ongoing and today some indications show that we already have some success," said a German foreign ministry spokeswoman, after Turkey banned citizens of Syria, Iraq and Yemen from flying from Turkish airports to Belarus.

Western governments accuse Alexander Lukashenko's regime of luring migrants to Belarus and sending them to cross into Poland in retaliation for previous sanctions over Minsk's crackdown on the opposition in the wake of a presidential election last year.

For months, migrants have been trying to cross from Belarus into EU member Poland, but the crisis reached a new level when hundreds made a concerted effort this week and were pushed back by Polish borders guards.

The EU has said it will impose new sanctions on Belarus over the crisis, on top of those already in place over the post-election crackdown.

The bloc has also threatened action against other countries or airlines that contribute to the crisis by transporting migrants to Belarus.

"No one should be allowed to participate in Lukashenko's inhumane activities with impunity," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said earlier this week, warning that "we as the EU are prepared to draw consequences here as well".

Maas on Friday told the daily Rheinische Post that "all airlines must know" that if they take part in "criminal people smuggling" they risk consequences "including sanctions on overflight rights or landing permits".
(@FahadShabbir)

Four Moroccan migrants trying to reach the European Union have drowned in the Atlantic Ocean, officials and relatives said Friday

Skheirat, Morocco, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :Four Moroccan migrants trying to reach the European Union have drowned in the Atlantic Ocean, officials and relatives said Friday.

Three other migrants were rescued after their vessel sank off the resort of Skheirat, south of the capital Rabat, on Thursday.

"We are in shock. My cousin, who was 29, was among the dead," said a relative of one of those who drowned.

"They were all Moroccan. We had no idea he was going to try to make the voyage." Officials said the migrants' vessel was believed to have had a capacity of up to 20 people and a search was still under way for any other survivors.

Fishermen in the area said the coast between Rabat and Casablanca was a regular jumping off point for migrants trying to reach mainland Spain.

Further south, along the Moroccan-controlled coast of the disputed Western Sahara, the goal is normally Spain's Atlantic Canary Islands.

Moroccan authorities said they had intercepted a boat 30 kilometres off Laayoune Port on Thursday carrying 114 migrants trying to reach the islands.

A total of 27,136 migrants reached Spain between January and the end of September, a 53.8 percent jump on the same period of last year, according to Spanish interior ministry figures.
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted leaders and diplomats in Paris on Friday for an international conference aimed at ensuring Libya sticks to a plan to hold elections in December and turn a new page after a decade of violent conflict

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :French President Emmanuel Macron hosted leaders and diplomats in Paris on Friday for an international conference aimed at ensuring Libya sticks to a plan to hold elections in December and turn a new page after a decade of violent conflict.

The North African country has been mired in civil war since the overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a 2011 uprising, with the bloodshed drawing in competing Libyan factions and Islamist groups, as well as regional powers.

The presidential vote on December 24 is the core part of a UN plan to help restore stability, but the Calendar has been under pressure as tensions flare once more between rival camps.

There are also fears over whether the various factions will recognise the results of the vote, which could mark a turning point for a country that has become a major departure point for migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean for Europe.

Key players attending the meeting include US Vice President Kamala Harris and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, one of Paris's closest allies in the middle East.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi are also present as co-hosts as well as several African leaders and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

A press conference is scheduled at 1730 GMT.

- 'Meet the timeline' - "The elections are within grasp. There is a strong momentum in Libya for them to go ahead. The stability of the country is at stake," said a French presidential official, who asked not to be identified by name.

The scheduling also remains unclear, after Libya's parliament in early October pushed back legislative elections until January, though world powers and the UN want them held simultaneously with the presidential vote.

"We are trying to help them meet the timeline that was established with help from a UN-facilitated process," said a senior US official travelling with Harris.

The meeting represents the latest foray into high-stakes international diplomacy by Macron, who is expected to seek re-election in April and whose country takes on the EU presidency in January.

In May 2018, a year into his term in office, Macron also convened key Libyan leaders for a conference in Paris where they agreed to hold elections that year.

Since then, France has faced accusations that it favoured Khalifa Haftar, the secular, Moscow-educated Haftar strongman in eastern Libya, against the UN-backed government in Tripoli.

Despite French weapons being found on a base used by pro-Haftar forces in 2019, Paris has rejected the claims.

Macron wants the conference to endorse a plan for the departure of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya, the French presidential official said.

Turkey sent in troops as well as pro-Ankara militia units from Syria to shore up the Tripoli government.

In a new sign of the tense relations between Ankara and Paris, Turkey has sent only its deputy foreign minister, Sedat Onal.

Observers also accuse Moscow of deploying mercenaries belonging to the Wagner group, which is allegedly controlled by a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Pro-Haftar forces said in a statement ahead of the conference that 300 foreign mercenaries fighting on their side would leave the country, "at the request of France".

The nationality of the fighters was not specified and no timeline was given. The UN estimates that 20,000 mercenaries and foreign fighters are deployed in Libya.

- 'Stalemate' - Libya will be represented by transitional presidential council Mohamed al-Menfi as well as Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah.

One prominent absentee is Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who was invited by Paris but is staying away after taking umbrage at comments by Macron criticising his country's "political-military system".

Jalal Harchaoui, an expert at the Global Initiative think-tank, warned world powers including France against exacerbating existing tensions, if they are perceived as taking sides in the conflict.

"The time horizon is extremely tight, every day counts," he said.
Norway and Denmark will reintroduce COVID-19 green passes in workplace and public life as a fourth wave of the coronavirus spreads across Europe

MURMANSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2021) Norway and Denmark will reintroduce COVID-19 green passes in workplace and public life as a fourth wave of the coronavirus spreads across Europe.

Both Nordic countries scrapped coronavirus restrictions in September after cases leveled but a spike in infections starting in October led to a swift policy shift.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said that municipal authorities will be able to mandate the use of digital COVID-19 passes for access to public venues. A "green pass" proves that the holder has been vaccinated, recovered from the disease or recently tested negative.

"We received a clear signal that communities need help in tackling the infection," he told a news conference, adding that the measure was meant to avoid a strict lockdown.

Unvaccinated health care workers will be tested twice a week and wear face covers. Health Minister Ingvild Kjerkol said that booster shots will soon be offered to everyone aged 18 and over.

Denmark brought back COVID-19 certificates for bars, restaurants and large public events starting Friday and plans to allow employers to demand them from workers if necessary. Employment Minister Mattias Tesfay said a bill to this effect will be put to vote in parliament soon.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2021)  Russia sees a Norwegian warship's arrival at the Svalbard archipelago, also known as Spitsbergen, as a step towards militarization of this territory and is concerned about it, the Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Friday.

"The organization of the visit of the Norwegian warship to the archipelago is the next step of Oslo in a series of successive actions to include this territory in the sphere of national military development," Zakharova said in a statement, published by the ministry.

The spokeswoman added that the "hidden militarization" of the archipelago by Norway is visible.

"Such a demonstration of military force raises serious concern as inconsistent with the spirit of the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, which defined a purely peaceful status for the use of this archipelago, and also contradicts Oslo's declared goal of maintaining low tension in high latitudes," Zakharova added.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu discussed the wide range of issues at the Russia-France 2+2 format meeting on Friday, including NATO presence near Russian borders, strategic stability and European security, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said

PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2021) Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu discussed the wide range of issues at the Russia-France 2+2 format meeting on Friday, including NATO presence near Russian borders, strategic stability and European security, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said.

"The defense minister noted at the meeting that the military-political situation in Europe is degrading.

The buildup of NATO's military presence near the Russian borders continues. At the same time, he pointed out that Russian initiatives aimed at increasing predictability and reducing the risk of incidents remain in force," Fomin told reporters after the meeting in Paris.

According to the official, the ministers also talked about the situation in Europe, the middle East and North Africa.

"The important topics of strategic stability and European security, arms control, bilateral relations were also touched upon," Fomin added.
South Korean and UN atomic agency IAEA officials talked on Friday about implementing nuclear safeguards in the North and during Japan's planned disposal of wastewater from the crippled Fukushima power plant, the South Korean foreign ministry said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2021) South Korean and UN atomic agency IAEA officials talked on Friday about implementing nuclear safeguards in the North and during Japan's planned disposal of wastewater from the crippled Fukushima power plant, the South Korean foreign ministry said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ham Sang-wook and IAEA's deputy chief for safeguards Massimo Aparo met in Seoul for an annual meeting. South Korea took over chairmanship of the IAEA's board of governors in September and plans to bolster its system of safeguards.

"Both sides discussed cooperation in strengthening the IAEA's readiness to verify North Korea's nuclear program, and exchanged views on key developments and future priorities for IAEA safeguards including the IAEA's safeguards in Iran," a statement read.

Minister Ham stressed the importance of an impartial and transparent review of Japan's plan to release one million tonnes of treated radioactive water used to cool the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor following the 2011 meltdown. The release will begin in spring 2023.
Ten countries in the 27-member European Union face a Covid situation of "very high concern", the bloc's diseases agency said Friday, warning the pandemic was worsening across the continent

Stockholm, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :Ten countries in the 27-member European Union face a Covid situation of "very high concern", the bloc's diseases agency said Friday, warning the pandemic was worsening across the continent.

"The overall epidemiological situation... was characterised by a high and rapidly increasing overall case notification rate and a low but slowly increasing death rate," the European Centre for Disease Control said.

"Case notification rates, death rates, and hospital and ICU admissions are all forecast to increase over the next two weeks." In its latest weekly risk assessment, the agency listed 10 EU countries in its highest category of concern -- Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia.

"Countries with lower vaccination uptake continue to be the most severely affected," said the agency.

Germany was among more than a dozen other EU nations classed as "high concern" and France among three of "moderate concern".

Italy, Malta, Spain and Sweden were of low concern.

The agency said four countries had been raised into a higher category since the last assessment, and five countries had been lowered.

The number of cases and deaths is expected to increase by about 50 percent over the next two weeks, the agency added, reaching a weekly rate of 300 new cases and 2.7 deaths per 100,000 population.

The assessment looks at the 27 EU nations as well as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Three migrants have been reported missing after trying to canoe from France to England during a record day of crossings on Thursday that was described as "unacceptable" by the British government

Lille, France, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :Three migrants have been reported missing after trying to canoe from France to England during a record day of crossings on Thursday that was described as "unacceptable" by the British government.

The French coastguard was alerted to the disappearances by two survivors, who were rescued on Thursday morning shortly before two canoes washed up near the northern port of Calais, French authorities said on Friday.

More than 1,000 people made the trip across the Channel on Thursday -- a new record figure -- during cold but calm weather.

Several UK newspapers blamed France and particularly President Emmanuel Macron, with the Daily Mail running the headline "Macron's Migrant Shambles".

"The number of illegal migrants we have seen departing from France today is unacceptable," said a spokesman from the British interior ministry late on Thursday.

"The British public have had enough of seeing people die in the Channel while ruthless criminal gangs profit from their misery." An unnamed source told the Times newspaper UK interior minister Priti Patel would be "raising this abject failure in the strongest possible terms" with the French government.

Relations between France and Britain are fraught with a host of disagreements on issues ranging from migrants to fishing in the Channel, as well as a submarine contract with Australia.

- Dire conditions - The number of Channel crossings has exploded in recent years, with desperate migrants and asylum seekers attempting the sea route to Britain instead of hiding away in trucks or cars.

French police and coastguard say they face a difficult task trying to monitor hundreds of kilometres of rugged coastline with limited resources.

They have a policy of not intercepting boats once they are in the water, judging any attempt to stop the dingies too dangerous because of the risk of panic or sudden movements that could capsize the vessels.

Three people have been died and four have disappeared during Channel crossings in 2021, including the latest incidents, while 29,360 people have attempted to reach England by sea, according to French figures.

Many migrants live in abject conditions around Calais and other northern ports, often sleeping rough and depending on handouts from local charities.

"Normally at the start of winter, the numbers tend to fall but that's not the case this year," said Francois Guennoc, head of local charity l'Auberge des Migrants.

He estimated that there were around 1,500 in Calais and around 1,000 further north near Dunkirk, as well as several hundred more elsewhere.

Patel agreed with her French counterpart Gerald Darmanin to fund French policing to the tune of 62.7 million Euros ($73.8 million), adding to hundreds of millions provided by Britain over the 15 years to boost border security around Calais and other French ports.

The ferry and train terminals around Calais are protected with five-metre fences topped with razor wire, while the port is equipped with full-truck scanners and even heart-beat detectors to identify stowaways.
(@FahadShabbir)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2021) The US command and control ship Mount Whitney and the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer Porter arrived in Romania to demonstrate the United States' commitment to supporting NATO allies in the region, the US Navy said.

"The ships' presence in the Black Sea demonstrates the US Navy and NATO's continued commitment to collective defense of the European region and reinforces the strength of the NATO alliance," the Navy said in a press release on Friday. "As a valued NATO ally, Romania supports the Black Sea region and NATO allies and partners in ensuring security and stability in the region."

The two ships have been conducting joint and multilateral drills in the Black Sea with NATO partners, the release said.

The ships' arrival in Romania comes as the United States expresses concerns over Russia's military activity near its border with Ukraine.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Friday extending for another year the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), with Russia and China abstaining

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2021) The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Friday extending for another year the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), with Russia and China abstaining.

The text of the resolution "decides to extend the mandate of MINUSCA until 15 November 2022."

MINUSCA will continue to be composed of up to 14,400 military and 3,020 police personnel, and intends to keep this number under continuous review, the document reads.

The resolution was supported by 13 members of the UN Security Council. Russia cited concerns that the peacekeeping mission has been a "source of scandal" on numerous occasions, such as allegations of sexual misconduct and more recent claims of diamond smuggling out of the country, since its establishment in 2014.

"We note that the constant negative background surrounding MINUSCA is hampering the Security Council and undermines trust in the UN itself," Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Anna Evstigneeva, said after the vote.

"We can't call its work competent and we are going to carefully monitor the situation," she added.

Earlier in the month, media reported that police were investigating the alleged involvement of Portuguese peacekeepers from MINUSCA in the smuggling of diamonds and gold into European countries.
The United States on Friday denounced an 11-year sentence handed to a US journalist by Myanmar's military regime and demanded his release

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :The United States on Friday denounced an 11-year sentence handed to a US journalist by Myanmar's military regime and demanded his release.

"We strongly condemn the regime's sentencing of Danny Fenster. The ruling today represents an unjust conviction of an innocent person," a State Department spokesperson said.
(@FahadShabbir)

An American journalist detained in Myanmar since May was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Friday on charges of unlawful association, incitement against the military and breaching visa rules, his employer said

Yangon, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :An American journalist detained in Myanmar since May was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Friday on charges of unlawful association, incitement against the military and breaching visa rules, his employer said.

"Frontier Myanmar is deeply disappointed at the decision today to convict its Managing Editor, Danny Fenster, on three charges and impose prison sentences totalling 11 years," the outlet said in a statement.

Fenster, who was arrested as he tried to leave the country in May, also faces charges of sedition and terrorism, which could see him jailed for life.

The 37-year-old had been working for Frontier Myanmar for around a year and was heading home to see his family when he was detained.

He was later charged with inciting disaffection against the military, breaching visa rules, and unlawful association, and was sentenced at a closed-door trial in Yangon's Insein prison.

"Everyone at Frontier is disappointed and frustrated at this decision," Frontier Myanmar said.

"We just want to see Danny released as soon as possible so he can go home to his family." Crisis Group Myanmar senior advisor Richard Horsey described the sentence as "outrageous".

"It sends a message not only to international journalists... but also Myanmar journalists that reporting factually on the situation is liable to get them many many years in prison," he told AFP.

Myanmar has been mired in chaos since a February coup, with the military trying to crush widespread democracy protests and stamp out dissent.

More than 1,200 people have been killed by security forces, according to a local monitoring group.

The press has also been squeezed as the junta tries to tighten control over the flow of information, throttling internet access and revoking the licences of local media outlets.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The United States slapped sanctions on Eritrea's military and ruling party Friday, accusing them of contributing to the war in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :The United States slapped sanctions on Eritrea's military and ruling party Friday, accusing them of contributing to the war in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region.

"We condemn the continued role played by Eritrean actors who are contributing to the violence in northern Ethiopia, which has undermined the stability and integrity of the state and resulted in a humanitarian disaster," said Andrea Gacki, the head of the Treasury Department's sanctions office.
(@FahadShabbir)

Uzbekistan has expanded its commitments under the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 from 10%, compared to the level of 2010, to 35%, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Aziz Abdukhakimov said on Wednesday

TASHKENT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th November, 2021) Uzbekistan has expanded its commitments under the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 from 10%, compared to the level of 2010, to 35%, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Aziz Abdukhakimov said on Wednesday.

Abdukhakimov is taking part in the Glasgow Climate Change Conference in Scotland, running from October 31 to November 12.

Uzbekistan joined the Paris Agreement in April 2017, when the country first pledged to reduce emissions by 10% by 2030.

The minister stated that Uzbekistan supports the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use, and further that Uzbekistan welcomed the agreements of the recent G20 meeting on the adoption of a balanced and effective global program on biological diversity.

The deputy prime minister also said that by 2030, the country plans to generate 25% of its electricity from renewable sources.
Ethiopia's conflict-torn Tigray region is under "effective blockade", the World Health Organization chief said Friday, warning that people were starving to death and dying from lack of access to medicines

Geneva, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :Ethiopia's conflict-torn Tigray region is under "effective blockade", the World Health Organization chief said Friday, warning that people were starving to death and dying from lack of access to medicines.

"People are dying because of lack of supplies," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, himself a Tigrayan, told reporters, warning that WHO "cannot send supplies and medicines to Tigray because it's under blockade, and the blockade is systematic".
University of South Florida Provost and Executive Vice President Ralph Wilcox announced today his plans to step down from the role next year. The search for a new provost will begin in the spring with the goal of selecting Wilcoxs successor shortly after a new university president is hired. Wilcox has agreed to remain as provost and assist in the transition for as long as is needed.

Wilcox, who has been with USF for nearly 20 years and served as provost since 2008, will leave after a highly accomplished tenure that has resulted in USFs academic enterprise earning widespread recognition across the state, nation and internationally.

In his letter to the USF community, Wilcox expressed a desire to spend more time with his family. He plans to remain with the university in a faculty role.

Serving as provost and executive vice president at USF since January 2008 has been the greatest privilege of my professional career, Wilcox said. As I reflect on where we are today, I can say with the utmost confidence that USFs position has never been stronger, especially given our gains in student success, faculty accomplishments and, most recently, consolidation. Our national and international stature is stronger than ever, which is proud testament to the remarkably talented people at USF  our faculty, staff, leadership, students, alumni, donors and friends of the university.

Under Wilcoxs leadership, USF has:

Increased access, opportunity and diversity  from 61% white student enrollment in Fall 2011 to 47% in 2021

Increased the academic profile of incoming freshmen  from average 3.86 GPA/1188 SAT score in Fall 2011 to 4.18/1297 in Fall 2021  with the number of National Merit Scholars climbing to an all-time high of 62 in 2021

Significantly improved freshmen retention rate  from 85% in 2010-11 to 90% in 2020-21  and nearly eliminated the achievement gap for students of color and socioeconomic status

Increased the 4-year graduation rate  from 36% for the 2007-11 cohort to 62% for the 2017-21 cohort

Improved the 6-year graduation rate  from 52% for the 2005-2011 cohort to 74% for the 2015-21 cohort

Improved Florida College System transfer student 2-year graduation rate  from 34% for the 2008-10 cohort to 48% for the 2018-20 cohort

Increased graduate degrees awarded annually  from 3,013 in 2010-11 to an all-time high of 4,271 in 2020-21

Decreased average cost (of tuition, fees, and books minus financial aid) for completion of a 4-year degree from $14,490 in 2013-14 to $1,810 in 2019-20  even as the undergraduate in-state full-time tuition has not changed from $6,410 over the past nine years, and graduate in-state full-time tuition has not changed from $10,428 over the past nine years

Led the state in percentage of undergraduate and graduate degrees awarded in state defined areas of strategic emphasis  preparing a pipeline of talented graduates for employment in high-demand, high-skilled and high-paid jobs in the Florida economy

Increased the number of USF students winning competitive national scholarships  from three in 2010-11 to 55 in 2020-21.

In addition, over the past decade USF has climbed higher in U.S. News and World Report rankings than any other university in the country  from 101st to 46th among public universities. In 2018, USF became only the third state institution in Florida  and the only one located in a metropolitan area  to be designated as a Preeminent Research University.

Wilcox also created the highly successful Provosts Scholars Program. The program allows high-performing undergraduate students to accelerate their bachelors degree to graduate in three years. Students selected for the program stay career-focused and ready for post-graduation plans by completing three pillar experiences: study abroad or study away, research or professional development, and leadership or service. Since it began in 2011, nearly 400 students have participated.

I wish to sincerely thank Provost Wilcox for his leadership, commitment and tireless contributions to the University of South Floridas rise in stature among the nations top public universities, USF President Rhea Law said. During Provost Wilcoxs tenure at USF, he has demonstrated an extraordinary dedication to student success and academic excellence. His comprehensive approach to student success has made an impact on hundreds of thousands of students.

Read Wilcoxs full letter to the USF community here. Laws full message to the USF community is available here.
In this episode of the Checkerboard Chat, Josh Lane, Ethan Stone, Riley Thomas and Andrew Peters talk Georgia, South Alabama and a potential bowl game, men's and women's basketball, Tennessee soccer and more!
On day five of the General Assembly's special session Tuesday, the House Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment committee approved the recommended new House district map for the General Assembly to consider.
The President of the Commission of the Bishops Conferences of the European Union is urging the EU and its member states to actively show solidarity with migrants and asylum seekers trapped on the blocs borders in increasingly desperate conditions.

By Linda Bordoni

As thousands of vulnerable migrants remain trapped on Belarus borders in winter conditions amid a political standoff between Minsk and the European Union, the Catholic Church is appealing to all people of goodwill to show solidarity with the migrants and calls on political leaders to pursue dialogue and to respect human dignity and international law.

In the latest development of the migrant emergency, countries bordering Belarus warned the crisis on the EUs eastern borders could escalate into a military confrontation.

The EU says Belarus embattled government is encouraging thousands of migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in Afghanistan, Syria and Africa, to try to cross its borders in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the bloc following allegations of human rights abuses.

Poland and Lithuania have declared states of emergency on their borders and have authorized pushbacks against the migrants, trying to cross their borders into Europe.

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, President of the Commission of the Bishops Conferences of the EU, appealed for openness to our brothers and sisters in need and said that to use human beings as weapons or instruments, is like the original sin.

Listen to Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich

Chilling footage of families with young children camped in the snow and sleeping rough in the woods on the borders of Europe are yet another call on men and women of goodwill to show generosity and openness and nurture a culture of encounter.

Cardinal Hollerich says it is not enough to have good and fair legislation to face the migration challenge properly. Pope Francis, he adds, points to the way when he speaks about welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating people.

It is all very well and very important, he notes, to have good channels and processes aimed at safeguarding rights and spelling out duties, but it also important to have a personal openness to our brothers and sisters in need.

We need more generosity, willingness to know better other human beings. We need open hearts and minds; we need a new cultural context which is less divisive and doesnt polarize perspectives. We need a culture of encounter. If we have that and if the citizens of the European Union have such a culture, politics will follow.

Using migrants as political instruments is a sin

Asked about the role of the Catholic Church in this precarious balance between some EU member states, Cardinal Hollerich said the Catholic Church must promote mutual understanding and the common good.

He also decried the use of human beings in a political game saying that to use migrants as instruments is like the original sin.

To use human beings as instruments is something terrible. We need to unite on common humanitarian principles, and we need to come back to basic ethical principles that should be shared by political and social leaders in the European Union, he said.

Pointing out that migrants are not just statistics, but persons entitled to full respect for their fundamental rights and their human dignity, he quoted the Popes reiterated warning that the Mediterranean Sea is becoming a huge cemetery, and said Europes borders are running the same risk.

Migrants on the Belarusian Polish border

EU borders risk becoming a cemetery

Now we risk to have the EU borders becoming a huge cemetery, Hollerich noted, adding that as a European, it would feel terrible living in a European Union which is surrounded by cemeteries of people who wanted to share our way of life.

The Church, he said, is an expert in humanity and we should take orientation from its Social Doctrine, also in this sensitive area.

We cannot forget our principles when we see people in need, the Cardinal continued explaining that the Catholic Church has play the role of bridge-building, of promoting mutual understanding, taking into account the concerns of everyone, always promoting the common good, locally and universally.

Peace in Europe

Finally, Cardinal Hollerich said, this humanitarian crisis should be solved in a humanitarian way always paying attention never to put peace in Europe into danger.
Catholic activists find a novel way to assist migrants trying to survive in the freezing woods on the border between Poland and Belarus.

By Andrea Tornielli

There are those who instrumentalize migrants and refugees by turning them into hostages, and this makes the news every day. There are those who hastily build barriers of barbed wire to repel the "invasion" of defenseless children, women, and men who wander in the cold woods between Belarus and Poland and who are in need of everything, and this also makes the news. There are also those who take to the streets to support the policies of those who build walls, in the name of an identity that claims to be Christian, and this too does not escape the medias radar.

But there are also those who rebel silently, without demonstrating, without taking to the streets, by staying at home away from the cameras: These people light torches of humanity.

And when this news reaches the pages of newspapersas its has hit the Italian papers Avvenire and Repubblicahope is revived.

In Polandin a few houses sitting on the Belarus border near the woods where the migration drama is taking placethere are men and women who have not surrendered to the globalization of indifference, who remember that their Christian roots have not turned into ideology. They draw on the living Gospel, especially the parable of the Good Samaritan.

These are people who remember the magisterium of Pope St. John Paul II, quoted three days ago by Pope Francis at the end of the weekly General Audience: "Today the world and Poland need people with big hearts."

And even though they are aware that they risk being reported for aiding and abetting illegal immigration, these good Samaritans leave a green light on in their homes at night.

Those green lights tell visitors that there, behind those illuminated windows, sits a bowl of hot soup and a blanket ready for any who pass through, regardless of passports or visas.

Others leave fresh milk, shoes, and large bottles of water outside their doors, so that silent volunteers, who get to work as evening falls, can collect these gifts and drop them off in the woods for those who need them so badly.

"Trying to prevent these desperate people from dying," says Wiktor Jarocki, an activist with a Catholic association in Krynki, "is treated today as a crime. But we remember the lesson of Pope Wojtyla, and we engage in legal, civil disobedience: It can happen that one forgets food and clothes in the woods, and today such help is indispensable".
JORDAN MEAD is News Editor for The Vidette. Contact her at jnmead@ilstu.edu. Follow Mead on Twitter at @meadjordan19

IF YOU SUPPORT THE VIDETTE MISSION of providing a training laboratory for Illinois State University student journalists to learn and sharpen viable, valuable and marketable skills in all phases of digital media, please contribute to this most important cause. Thank you.
Shelby Ramsey

Special to the Village News

While no chronic illness is easy to navigate, individuals afflicted with diabetes are recognized as having a notably stressful and high-maintenance disease.

Dr. Rashmi Mullur, an endocrinologist and integrative medicine expert with UCLA Health and the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Administration, is very focused on diabetes and its relationship to stress.

The stress from living with diabetes "has to do with the overall emotional [and] mental burden of living with diabetes," Mullur said. This includes "having to check your sugar, having to worry about 'Do I have something [on hand] in case [my blood sugar drops] low?' or 'Oh I'm not feeling right, is it my blood sugar?'"

"It's that constant [news] chyron if you will, going through [the diabetic patient's] head," she said. It can be overwhelming and all-encompassing.

Mullur's approach to diabetic care is "meeting my patients and see[ing] how [I] can help them with their diabetes, where they are at [in managing the disease]." From that point, she can make suggestions as to how the patient can adjust his or her lifestyle, or by prescribing or adjusting medications.

She has experienced and been there for diabetic patients through the uncharted territory of the COVID-19 pandemic, which added an additional layer of stress.

Mullur said she listened to patients and helped them navigate as they told her things like, "I don't have time to check my sugar, because I don't have a minute to myself, because I'm taking care of my kids all day and they are on remote school," or "I'm so stressed out, I can't even think about my diabetes."

Like Mullur said, she meets patients "where they are at." Treatment is not exactly uniform, conversations vary from patient to patient, and she approaches care on an individual basis  not on a global scale.

Mullur defined her focus "on assessing the diabetes-related distress and then seeing what mind-body approaches can [be] used to target [and improve] that."

Mullur developed a clinic to help diabetic patients with their stress levels and published results of the small pilot study. This was by "teaching patients a 10-minute seated yoga program," which proved successful in helping "patients have a better morning blood sugar reading." Diabetics are instructed typically to check their blood sugar level when waking in the morning, prior to consuming anything.

The group clinic consisted of 50 participants and was conducted at UCLA. She informed the patients "about the stress response; [they] set some smart goals; and she taught them a seated yoga practice and a 5-minute mindfulness practice." The outcome was positive.

Mullur said, "We were able to show that at three months, six months, and one year, we were able to keep their A1C a point down." Diabetics are very familiar with an A1C test. It is a blood test typically run every three months on a diabetic that shows a three-month average of their blood sugar level, versus, a "one-time" snap test that only reflects the sugar reading for that point in time. A full one point decrease is very significant.

The benefits of a mind-body approach are limitless when it comes to chronic disease. Mullur's approach is something that can be taught once since patients can be provided with some tools and have the flexibility to incorporate the routine on their own time.

"I think these mind-body techniques are safe; they are easy to incorporate and for the most part, they have the most [positive] data [insofar as improving health]," Mullur said.

In addition to benefiting a patient's A1C level, they also can prove beneficial to other conditions a patient is living with. Cardiovascular disease would be one of the most concerning ones.

"These (same) mind-body techniques have been shown to help cardiovascular disease," she said. "You're not only helping the diabetes, but also helping to prevent complications."

It did not impact patients' meal time blood sugar level, which Mullur said, "makes sense because a mind-body approach is not necessarily going to change the sugar you absorbed from the carbs that you eat, but it will help that overall baseline blood sugar be [slightly] lower so when you wake up in the morning you might wake up with a better blood sugar [reading]."

An important thing to note is that this isn't an aggressive 60-minute standing, wear-yourself-out yoga. Its "gentle and can be approached by anyone," she said.

"Diabetes related to stress is the overwhelming [aspect] of diabetes," and Mullur said it can help "the emotional burden and kind of feeling like no one else understands."

While a popular topic, Mullur noted that supplements "have a much lesser role in the improvement of diabetes than the mind-body techniques."

Living with chronic disease has many facets.

"Sometimes [patients] learn to ignore certain symptoms just to kind of get through the day," Mullur said. She explained this as, in order to survive, some patients develop a kind of benign neglect.

As an example, Mullur used a person who lives with chronic back pain. "Very rarely are you going to be able to not work, financially you might still have to, so you develop a benign neglect so that you can get through the day."

This can be true with many people who struggle with a variety of illnesses.

When asked what the most under-represented piece of information or advice out there that could benefit a pre-diabetic, diabetic, or someone serving as a caregiver of one, Muller said, "I think it's really understanding the stress response related to blood sugar."

"If you're trying to [have] a healthy lifestyle, it's not just about eating right, exercising, getting to the gym and pushing to your limit, and being exhausted and worn out by the end of the day," she said.

Mullur said she would "rather have my patients less stressed out, less burnt out; maybe they didn't make it to the gym that day, and maybe the only thing they did that was healthy was skip dessert."

Simply put, "that's still a lifestyle choice and I'll take that," she said. "I would rather have patients not burnt out, not stressed out, and not feeling like they are running on empty."

Running on empty "promotes a stress response in the body," Mullur said. "It makes it much harder for patients to feel effective in terms of making other changes and it decreases their ability to cope long-term."

"That I think is the most underrepresented thing that I think we should be focused more on," she said.

"We need to be focused on health and health really comes from the sense of feeling whole," Muller said. "And whole across the board  mind, body, spirit. Not just mind, body, and I'm exhausted at the end of the day and crash out."

"We want patients to feel full in their lives and sometimes chronic disease takes us away from that," she said.

*Source: 2020 National Diabetes Statistics Report, Estimates of Diabetes and its Burden in the United States.

Shelby Ramsey is the author of the blog, thehonestmigraine.com, which also features interviews with patients and medical experts.
It takes a talented storyteller to weave together a fairytale that captivates, mystifies, and uplifts. To assist youngsters in better dealing with lifes challenges and paradoxes, stories create lasting impressions that they may intuitively recall as they grow up. Folk tales and myths are often based on actual people and events and are meant to be an accurate depiction of everyday life in the society in which they were written.

Many true stories can be horrifying, and include torture, murder, and other heinous acts. As they are passed down orally from generation to generation, some components change over time, blurring the original storyline and turning them into fairy tales.

The Brothers Grimm

Known for their work in fairy tales, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm were nineteenth-century professors who gathered stories from middle-class housewives, acquaintances, and even peasants before transferring them to printed text. To sell books, writers had to soften the harsh realities and make them more palatable. By studying classic tales, notably those of French master storyteller Charles Perrault, the brothers developed a style and a voice that the world embraced.

Grimms Fairy Tales ranks as perhaps the most influential collection of European folklore ever published and has been translated into many languages.

The Brothers Grimm, authors of perhaps the most influential collection of European folklore, which they collected from various oral sources and refined. (Image: Hermann Biow via Wikimedia Commons Public Domain)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a classic fairy tale based on oral traditions, in which morals and principles were often forgotten, more so than the events themselves; yet they maintained the universal principle that good is rewarded and evil is punished; giving the righteous a glimmer of hope no matter how hopeless the situation may seem.

Disneys Snow White

The movie starts with the opening of a book: Once upon a time, there lived a lovely little princess named Snow White.

Snow Whites stepmother (the queen) worried that Snow Whites beauty might one day surpass her own. So she dressed her in rags and had the princess serve as a scullery maid. Each day the vain Queen consulted her mirror: Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all? As long as the mirror replied that she was the fairest, Snow White was safe from the queens cruel jealousy.

One day when the queen asks the mirror, Who is the fairest one of all? The mirror replied: Famed is thy beauty, Majesty. But behold, a lovely maid I see. Rags cannot hide her gentle grace. Alas, she is fairer than thee.

The Queen asks the name of her rival, and the magic mirror says: Lips red as the rose. Hair black as ebony. Skin white as snow. The queen then knows its Snow White!

She instructs a huntsman to bring her Snow Whites heart. Thanks to the huntsmans compassion, Snow White escapes and is hidden by the seven dwarfs in their woodland house. The queen consults the mirror again: Magic Mirror on the wall, who is now the fairest of all? The mirror responds, Over the seventh jeweled hills, beyond the seventh fall, resides Snow White, the fairest of them all.

Wild with jealousy, the Queen transforms herself into an old woman peddler and travels to Snow Whites woodland hut, luring her with a wishing apple. Snow White eats the poisoned fruit and falls into a coma. The dwarfs take turns watching over her in a glass casket. A handsome prince passing by sees Snow White and falls in love The Prince leans in for loves first kiss andthe spell is broken.

There is no doubt that Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is fiction; yet recent research has shown that the ancient fairy tale may be based on one of, or a combination of, two similar life stories.

Maria Sophia von Erthal

Snow White is widely believed to have been inspired by Maria Sophia von Erthal. She was born in Lohr Bamberg, Main, about 100kms west of Bamberg, in southern Germany on June 25, 1725. The story revolves around a beautiful young girl who was raised in a castle. While she wasnt technically a princess, Maria Sophia was described in family memoirs as an angel of mercy and kindness and remembered in the hearts of the people for being charitable towards the poor and the suffering.

Her father, Philipp Christoph von und zu Erthal, was the Prince Elector of Mainzs local representative. Following the death of Maria Sophias birth mother in 1738, her father remarried. Claudia Elisabeth von Reichenstein, the stepmother, was the dominating force in the castle and used her newfound power to the benefit of her children from her previous marriage.

According to tradition, Von Erthal presented his bride with a spectacular gift shortly before their marriage: a magic mirror. It stood 1.6 meters tall and was adorned with elaborate carvings and ornaments. The mirror, which can still be viewed today in the Spessart Museum at the Lohr Castle, Stuttgart, where Maria Sophias stepmother resided, is known as The Talking Mirror. . The mirror was created around 1720 by von Erthals own firm Mirror Manufacture, in Germany. Interestingly, the museums mirror is inscribed Amour propre (French for pride)

Maria Sophias life was under the constant scrutiny of her tyrannical stepmother, but it was nothing like what the fairy tale portrays. Although there is no evidence that a huntsman attempted to murder Maria Sophia, it is clear that her life would not have been easy. Presumably, the hard reality of life for Maria Sophia under this woman was recast as a fairy story by the Brothers Grimm. It is not known whether or not there were any dwarfs in her life at the time, but there were the nearby Beiber mines, which reportedly only employed small statured males. The frightening woodland that appears in the fairy tale is said to be based on a forest on the outskirts of Lohr, which was known to be home to wild animals and would-be thieves who waited for unsuspecting victims to wander off the path.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disneys first animated feature, originally released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on February 8, 1938. The seven dwarves, who may have been based on real, small-statured miners, are pictured in this 1937 Trailer screenshot. Image: Walt Disney Productions via Wikimedia Commons Public Domain)

Snow White is said to have run through seven hills before reaching the seven dwarfs hut in the Brothers Grimms story; the dwarfs worked in a mine, and in reality there is an abandoned mine outside Lohr which may be reached by trekking over seven hills.

For those interested in the origins of the poisoned apple, Lohr has a large number of orchards, and Maria was said to be able to identify the plant from which the alleged poison may have originated: deadly nightshade, or Atropa belladonna.

However, the real Maria Sophia died in 1796 at the age of 71 in a convent. If there was a prince who saved her from poisoning in her youth, he is missing from this account. She is buried at Bamberg, just 50km away from where the Brothers Grimm lived, according to museum director Holger Kempkens.

Margarete Von Waldeck

Its said In his 1994 book Schneewittchen: Marchen or Wahrheit? (Snow White: Is it a Fairy Tale?), German academic Eckhard Sander claims Snow White was modeled on Margarete Von Waldeck, a 16th-century Bavarian noblewoman.

The wicked queen may be based on Katharina von Hatzfeld, stepmother to the lovely young Margarete von Waldeck. Pictured here, Katharina was not fond of her stepdaughter, yet whether she tried or not, she did not succeed in killing her, as was the first to die. (Image: Hermann tom Ring via Wikimedia Commons Public domain)

In 1549, Katharina of Hatzfeld, Margaretes stepmother, compelled the sixteen-year-old, who was described as strikingly beautiful, to relocate to Wildungen, Brussels. After meeting Prince Philip II of Spain, she became his mistress, much to her stepmothers displeasure and dismay. Apparently, the prospect of Margarete becoming a princess was too much for both her interfering stepmother and Philips father, the king of Spain, who considered a marriage between the two as politically undesirable.

Spanish spies were arranged to poison the young beauty and put an end to the romance. The use of poison to eliminate Margaret is corroborated by the testament she made just before her death, written in frantic handwriting, displaying indications of poisoning death.

While it is uncertain whether von Waldeck was poisoned or murdered, her stepmother was not directly responsible, since she died before the girl.

The parallels between Margarete von Waldecks life and the myth of Snow White, include not only her remarkable beauty, the jealous stepmother, and the poisoning death; Margarete grew up in Bad Wildungen, where her brother operated a copper mine staffed by starving children, who were nicknamed dwarfs.
Many Uyghurs have fled China to escape persecution from the communist regime. However, they are still being troubled in foreign lands by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents who seek to get them deported back to China.

A recent brief submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by the self-proclaimed East Turkistan government in exile and the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement states that Chinese officials in foreign nations are creating visa problems for Uyghurs as well as coercing them into becoming Beijings informants.

This is the third brief submitted to the ICC on the plight of Uyghurs. Previous complaints were rejected by the court since China is not a signatory and was thus outside the jurisdiction of the ICC. The court had left matters undecided and asked for more evidence on the issue.

The brief expects the ICC to conduct an investigation into Chinas human rights abuses and forced exile of Uyghurs living abroad. The complaint includes testimonies from Uyghurs who have been subjected to such forced deportations from Tajikistan, a country that is a signatory to the ICC.

They can give evidence directly to the ICC about how [Chinese officials] would focus their strategies on coming into Tajikistan and getting Uyghurs detained, arrested and deported out So its first-hand testimony from witnesses who are now accessible to the ICC to be interviewed, about how Chinese officers are operating on Tajikistan soil, Rodney Dixon QC, the lead lawyer for the group, told The Guardian.

According to new evidence submitted in the brief, the population of Uyghurs in Tajikistan fell by over 85 percent due to forced deportations. In Kyrgyzstan, there was an 87 percent decline.

A recently published study by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) and Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs also confirms that Uyghurs all across the world are facing harassment and threats from Chinese authorities. Some of the Uyghurs interviewed in the study revealed that Beijing had threatened their family members to force them to comply with its demands.

Out of the 500,000 Uyghurs estimated to be living abroad, almost 96 percent were found to reportedly feeling threatened by the Chinese regime. 73.5 percent said that they have experienced digital risks, threats, or other forms of online harassment. Though these Uyghurs live in democratic nations in North America, Europe, etc., they believe their respective governments have failed to take their concerns seriously. In the United States, Uyghurs have received digital threats via WeChat.

During some of these interactions, Chinese officials have reportedly requested passport information and other details and information on future protests and organizing activity from Uyghurs living in the United States. Many Uyghur community members in and around D.C. often wear masks and sunglasses to obscure their faces and hide their identities from people taking photos when they attend protests in the United States, the report states.

Back in September, the FBI had warned about Chinas attempts to intimidate American Uyghurs. In one incident from June, Beijing imprisoned family members of six Uyghur journalists working in the U.S.

An Uyghur woman received messages between 2019 and 2021 to stop talking about her communitys persecution. Beijing eventually sent the womans relatives into detention camps. Failing to comply with Beijings dictates can also result in an Uyghur persons assets in China being seized, forced repatriation, hacking, and so on, according to an FBI report.

The Chinese government continues to conduct this activity, even as the US government (USG) has sanctioned Chinese officials and increased public and diplomatic messaging to counter Chinas human rights and democratic abuses in Xinjiang over the past year. This transnational repression activity violates US laws and individual rights, the report said.
Parts of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, as well as the Inner Mongolia in Chinas northeast have been hit by the heaviest snowfall in 116 years. Over 51 cm (20 inches) of snow were recorded in Liaonings capital city of Shenyang.

State news agency Xinhua reported that this was the highest recorded snowfall the province had seen since record keeping began in 1905. Liaonings Anshan city also measured a snow depth of 53 cm (21 inches), the report added, citing Chinas Meteorological Association.

As a result, traffic in Liaoning Province has been severely disrupted, with the majority of expressway toll stations shut down as of Tuesday, Nov. 9. Train and bus stations were also closed until further notice, with the exception of those in the large cities of Dalian and Dandong.

The heavy snowfall comes at a particularly bad time. China has been in the midst of a power crisis as coal prices have risen, leaving millions of homes and businesses without power.

READ MORE:

Chinas Power Shortages to Last Until Spring 2022

The typically frigid province has seen a temperature drop of 14 degrees after a cold wave swept across Chinas northeast on Sunday, Nov. 7.

Meteorologists in Liaoning and Jilin provinces issued 27 red alert warnings for heavy blizzards in the area  the highest warning level used in Chinas meteorological system. Residents were urged to remain indoors and take extra precautions if they had to go outside.

The Communist Party-run Global Times reported that as of late Monday, one person had died and more than 5,600 residents were affected during the blizzard in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia.

Meteorological researchers in Tongliao also told Global Times on Tuesday that this snowstorm was an extremely random and sudden extreme weather event and not necessarily indicative that the winter would see a further uptick of snowfall.

Experts at Chinas State Grid Corp are concerned the snowstorms could add further strain to an already delicate tight balance between power supply and demand through the upcoming winter months.
U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed President Joe Bidens remarks that the U.S and other democratic allies would intervene to help Taiwan if Communist China used force to take the island.

Responding to a question during a forum hosted by the New York Times on Wednesday, Nov. 10, Blinken said, There are many countries, both in the region and beyond, that would see any unilateral action to use force to disrupt the status quo as a significant threat to peace and security, and they too would take action in the event that happens.

While Blinken reiterated statements Washington has relayed in regards to ensuring Taiwan has adequate means to defend itself in the event of an attack, he also said, At the same time, I think its fair to say that were not alone in this determination to make sure that we preserve peace and stability in that part of the world.

Blinkens remarks came ahead of a planned virtual meeting between Biden and Peoples Republic of China (PRC) leader Xi Jinping, which could be held as soon as next week, Reuters reported. The worlds two largest economies reached an agreement to hold the meeting before year end after talks in Zurich last month.

Experts believe discussions between the two sides may entail working towards an agreement to relax visa restrictions for each others journalists as well as the possibility to reopen consulates in Chengdu and Houston after diplomatic disputes in 2020 resulted in the closure of these offices.

Beijing was quick to react to Blinkens statement. During a daily briefing, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for Chinas foreign ministry accused Blinken of violating international law and said China would never allow the U.S to interfere with its internal affairs, regarding its issues with Taiwan.

The PRC has claimed Taiwan as a rightful part of its territory; Taiwan is officially governed as the Republic of China (ROC), a de facto independent country, which once controlled all of China before retreating to the island after its 1949 defeat in the Chinese Civil War.

Other countries, including the European Union have stepped forward in an outpouring of support for the small island. EU Delegation Representative Raphael Glucksmann told Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen during a public meeting on Nov. 4, Europe is standing with you, by you, in the defense of freedom and the defense of rule of law and human dignity.
Show more Show less

AFP reported on Thursday that Ethiopia outlined conditions for possible talks with rebels from the country's war-hit Tigray region. This, after earlier this week, Ethiopian security forces detained hundreds of ethnic Tigrayans in a crackdown on suspected supporters of the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front. The roundup was internationally condemned.



VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine will have an update.
Malian interim president Colonel Assimi Goita survived an assassination attempt at a mosque in Bamako on Tuesday, in the latest blow to stability in a country reeling from two military coups in less than a year.

Two assailants -- one of whom was wielding a knife -- attacked Goita after prayers at the capital's Grand Mosque for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha, an AFP journalist saw.

Goita, a special forces colonel who was named transitional president in May, was quickly whisked away by security.

The journalist saw blood at the scene, although it was unclear who was wounded.

Goita later appeared on the state broadcaster ORTM, where he said he was doing "very well" after the attack.

"That's part of being a leader, there are always malcontents," he said, wearing a blue hat and shiny blue gown.

"There are people who at any time may want to try things to cause instability."

His office released a statement saying that Goita was "safe and sound" after what was labelled an assassination attempt.

Security had subdued one attacker, and "investigations are ongoing," the presidency added.

The assailants went for the president as an imam was directing worshippers outside the Great Mosque for a ritual animal sacrifice.

Religious Affairs Minister Mamadou Kone, who was at the mosque, told AFP that a man had "tried to kill the president with a knife" but was apprehended.

The mosque's director, Latus Toure, said an attacker had lunged at the president but wounded someone else.

Later, a security official who requested anonymity said that two people had been arrested and were now in detention.

Goita referred to only one attacker during his televised address, however. As did his prime minister, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, who made a similar statement.

The atmosphere in Bamako was calm on Tuesday after the assault, according to AFP journalists, including in the area surrounding the mosque.

Political turmoil

The shocking attack follows months of political turmoil in Mali, which is also battling a jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Goita was sworn into office in June after leading the country's second coup in less than a year.

He headed a putsch last August that ousted elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita after weeks of mass protests over corruption and the long-running jihadist conflict.

The junta then handed power to a civilian-led transitional government which promised to restore civilian rule in February 2022.

But in late May, Goita, who was vice president under the transitional government, ousted the president, Bah Ndaw, and premier Moctar Ouane, saying they had sought to "sabotage" the handover.

In June, with Goita as interim president, a new government was unveiled, with military figures in key roles.

Facing the wrath of the African Union and the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, Goita vowed the government would "uphold all its commitments" and pledged to stage "credible, fair and transparent elections."

Fragile country

The assassination bid is the latest episode in the country's long history of turbulence.

Mali, a deeply poor state of around 20 million people, has known little stability or democracy since it gained independence from France in 1960.

Its West African neighbors have been viewing the deepening crisis with disquiet, fearing the impact on efforts to stem a jihadist insurgency in the Sahel.

The bloody campaign erupted in the north of Mali in 2012, and has since spread to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.

France, the mainstay of the anti-jihadist operation, has been especially critical of the military takeover in Mali.

It suspended military cooperation after the second coup and then announced a major drawdown of its 5,100-man Barkhane mission.
Malis interim president and prime minister have resigned following their arrest by the military, in what amounts to a second coup for the troubled West African county in nine months.

President Bah NDaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane resigned according to a statement Wednesday from Baba Cisse, an aide to the countrys vice president and de facto military leader Colonel Assimi Goita.

Cisse said negotiations are underway for the two politicians' release and the formation of a new government.

NDaw and Ouane have been held at the militarys headquarters in Kati since Monday, when they were arrested in the capital, Bamako. A delegation from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS was scheduled to meet with them on Wednesday.

Goita, who led the coup that toppled then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last October, said Tuesday he removed NDaw and Ouane because they neglected to advise him about a cabinet reshuffle that left out two members of the military, a move he said violated the agreement that created the civilian transitional government.

Malis defense minister, Souleymane Doucoure, was also detained along with NDaw and Ouane.

Goita said the country was still on track to hold presidential and legislative elections set for next February.

The detentions of NDaw and Ouane sparked outrage among the international community. A joint statement issued Tuesday by ECOWAS, the United Nations, the African Union and other international bodies called for their immediate release, while French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the move as a coup d'etat.

The U.S. State Department voiced support for the ECOWAS statement on Wednesday, and said it is suspending all security assistance that benefits the Malian security and defense forces.

The United States supports ECOWAS and the African Union, and strongly condemns the detention of civilian leaders of Malis transition government. We stand with the people of Mali in their pursuit of democracy, peace, and respect for human rights. https://t.co/1VnvcRXJpo  Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) May 26, 2021

Mali has been in turmoil since then-President Amadou Toumani Toure was toppled in a military coup in 2012 that led ethnic Tuareg rebels to seize control of several northern towns, which were then taken over by Islamist insurgents. France deployed forces to repel the insurgents the following year, but the rebels have continued to operate in rural areas.
The Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan has raised concerns that it could encourage other Islamist militant groups around the world, such as al-Shabab in Somalia. Experts warn that when and if international forces there try to hand over security to the Somali government, the world could see a repeat of what happened in Afghanistan.

Former Somali intelligence official Abdulsalam Gulaid says Somalia could see a similar development unless the Somali government ends its overdependence on international troops. He spoke Monday, one day after pro-al-Shabab media outlets in Somalia celebrated the fall of Afghanistans government to the Taliban.

Gulaid said that although al-Shabab does not possess the military power of the Taliban, he has no doubt nothing will stop them if they choose that path.

In April, Somali armed forces assumed a lead role in their operations, as laid out in a Somalia Transition Plan approved by the government and the African Union Mission in Somalia, AMISOM. The plan is a strategy in which AMISOM peacekeepers will gradually transfer security responsibilities to Somali security agencies before a pullout. The plan signed in 2018 includes a troop reduction.

Last month, the military said more than 250 al-Shabab militants had been killed during Somali military operations unaided by AMISOM.

Speaking during an interview with local media, the Somali presidents national security advisor, Abdi Said Ali, strongly rejected any comparison of the security situations in Mogadishu and Kabul, or the Somali military to Afghan forces.

He said al-Shabab and the Taliban are not the same regardless of peoples beliefs, adding that Somali armed forces are currently in control and responsible for security in most parts of the country with support from AMISOM peacekeepers.

Al-Shabab was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 by Somali and AU forces but the group still conducts bombings and hit-and-run attacks. It has recently threatened to disrupt ongoing Somali elections, warning tribal delegates not to take part in the process.
Veterans Day, which initially marked the armistice that ended World War One in 1918, is a federal holiday observed every November 11th honoring U.S. military veterans for their service to the nation. This Veterans Day marks the first since the end of the war in Afghanistan, a conflict in which more than 750,000 U.S. forces served and more than 2,400 never returned home. VOA's Kane Farabaugh spoke with one mother who reflects on America's longest war and her son's sacrifice. Camera: Kane Farabaugh Produced by: Kane Farabaugh, Rob Raffaele
The protests that shook Cuba earlier this month started spontaneously and spread rapidly on social media, providing a clear demonstration of the challenges the new technologies pose to authoritarian governments.

On July 11, that the midday calm was broken by the appearance of the first images showing hundreds of people demanding freedom, vaccines, medicines and food. In almost real time, they spread from profile to profile, on Facebook and Instagram.

There was a group of people, Cubans, gathered in a park in San Antonio de los Banos, everything was very confusing, says Norges Rodriguez, co-founder of the YucaByte project, which works to promote the development of information-sharing technologies in Cuba.

Rodriguez tells VOA that he quickly began to share the videos with his more than 15,000 followers.

Within hours, journalists Jose Ignacio Martinez and Daniel Gonzalez Oliva  collaborators in the creation of the Diario de Cuba digital portal  had sent VOA videos of some of the demonstrations, which had quickly spread to the streets of Havana.

Videos began to emerge of other protests: one in Arroyo Naranjo, a municipality in the Southern part of Havana;

and another from Central Havana.

Those videos and others like them went viral, prompting the Cuban government to cut internet access a day after the protests began.

The official version of events broadcast in Cuba showed the arrival of President Miguel Diaz-Canel to San Antonio de los Banos in Artemias province. The president called the protesters "confused, blamed the worsening of the crisis on the U.S. government embargo, and said discordant voices had no place in the state media.

Some of the online profiles of people who initially uploaded video from the protests have disappeared, says Rodriguez. The original video with the first Facebook Live from San Antonio is no longer on social media. He says he is unable to find some of the first videos that were published by Yoan de la Cruz and Samantha Regalado.

Sources contacted by VOA report there is pressure from Cuban authorities to remove any mention of support for the protesters from social media platforms, and some pressure to persuade residents relatives abroad to do the same.

"There was something contained in the Cubans after so many years of deprivation, of all kinds: economic and also freedom in general, and that day it exploded," says Rodriguez. "It came at a time when the country has one of the most critical situations, probably in its most recent history."

A challenge and an alternative

Seven years after it was founded, the independent newspaper 14ymedio saw the opportunity to cover an unprecedented event in the history of Cuba  a massive protest that ran from one end of the island to the other.

Yoani Sanchez, author of the Generacion Y blog and todays news director of 14ymedio, told VOA that the hashtag #11J popped up on Twitter and was " a mixture of informative enthusiasm, adrenaline, but also with many difficulties and pressure."

As the Internet outages spread, the unauthorized journalists trying to report what they were seeing began turning to older technologies, by dictating over phone lines and transcribing what they were learning about protests, complaints and arrests.

Sanchez says his reporters are feeling the heat from the Cuban government. Luz Escobar, one of his regular reporters, has been under police siege for two weeks, Sanchez told VOA. She says state security forces surround the vicinity of her home and do not allow her to go out.

Right now, Sanchez says, police operations continue, where, for example, taking a photo or a small video in the streets can get you a fine, an arrest and even a physical attack against our reporters.

Citizen reporters

The Cuban entrepreneur Saily Gonzalez, or Saily de Amarillo as she is known to some, is the owner of the Amarillo B&B hostel in Santa Clara. Since the protests began, she has published daily videos on her social media discussing the Cuban situation and inviting her followers to debate.

Seeing that San Antonio de los Banos was on the street was one of the most exciting moments of my life, recalls Gonzalez. That Sunday, she exchanged messages with her employees and friends on WhatsApp and Telegram encouraging them to join the protests.

She tells VOA that she has received numerous messages of support. In the week after the protests started, she gained more than 2,000 followers on her Instagram account, she said with some amazement.

She does not trust the official media, controlled by the Communist Party of Cuba, and says many Cubans agree with her. Cuba is not blind. We have access to all the true information, she says, referring to independent Cuban news outlets, such as El Toque, 14yMedio and Periodismo de Barrio.

For the work team at the independent publication El Toque, the days after #11J marked a complicated moment in time. The first week was spent trying to make sense of it and understand the magnitude, explains its director, Jose Jasan Nieves.

One of his efforts was "to maintain the narrative of the importance, the scope, the legitimacy of these protests, countering a government narrative that wants to minimize them, label them as vandalism and downplay their importance and value," he told VOA.

Official reactions

Both the official media and senior state officials, including the president, have described the protests as riots and many of the protesters as "confused revolutionaries."

But in an unusual move, the president did offer some self-criticism. For the first time, he acknowledged the shortcomings in the country, the neglect of vulnerable sectors and the lack of opportunities for young people.

Driven by the speed with which news spreads on social media, the independent media, citizen journalists and Internet users created a unique moment on July 11.

Journalist Boris Gonzalez Arenas, a Havana resident and contributor to the Diario de Cuba portal, told VOA that this moment has allowed the independent press to be seen as a magnificently organized phenomenon in Cuba and one which has had the ability to reflect what is happening, which is very big."

For Arenas, this opportunity showed that there is a population that has accepted the challenge of making themselves visible by reflecting what was happening."
Cambodia on Friday angrily condemned a U.S. decision to sanction two senior military officials over a contentious naval base, accusing Washington of showing "utter contempt" for its sovereignty.

The U.S. Treasury Department this week announced it was freezing any U.S. assets and criminalizing transactions with senior defense ministry official Chau Phirun and naval commander Tea Vinh over alleged corruption linked to the Ream Naval Base.

Washington accused the pair, along with other Cambodian officials, of conspiring to inflate costs at the base to pocket the proceeds.

"Cambodia strongly deplores the long-arm jurisdiction of the United States over Cambodian officials on the basis of groundless allegations driven by geopolitical motives," the Cambodian foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The smear campaign and unilateral sanction of the United States against public figures of a sovereign state... [displays] an utter contempt for the independence of another country as well as acts as a serious interference in its domestic affairs," the statement said.

The Cambodian foreign ministry also warned that the move was "another step in the wrong direction" for ties between the two countries.

The base on the Gulf of Thailand has been a running sore in U.S.-Cambodia relations in recent years, with Washington suspecting it is being converted for use by China.

Cambodia has been dismantling facilities at the base that were built partly with American money and played host to U.S. exercises.

Satellite imagery taken in August showed the construction of two new buildings, likely indicating that China is pushing ahead on a new agreement, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Hun Sen has repeatedly denied his country would host the Chinese military at the base.

Senior U.S. officials have warned Cambodia that hosting a Chinese base would damage relations with Washington.

China has been increasingly assertive over its extensive territorial claims in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, raising tensions with numerous Asian nations, but Cambodia has increasingly appeared as an ally.
A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily blocked the release of White House records sought by a U.S. House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, granting  for now  a request from former President Donald Trump.

The administrative injunction issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit effectively bars until the end of this month the release of records that were to be turned over Friday. The appeals court set oral arguments in the case for November 30.

The stay gives the court time to consider arguments in a clash between the former president, whose supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and President Joe Biden and Congress, who have pushed for a thorough investigation of the riot. It delays the House committee from reviewing records that lawmakers say could shed light on the events leading up to the insurrection and Trump's efforts to delegitimize an election he lost.

The National Archives, which holds the documents, says they include call logs, handwritten notes, and a draft executive order on "election integrity."

Biden waived executive privilege on the documents. Trump then went to court, arguing that as a former president, he still had the right to exert privilege over the records and that releasing them would damage the presidency in the future.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday rejected those arguments, noting in part, "Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President." She again denied an emergency motion by Trump on Wednesday.

In their emergency filing to the appeals court, Trump's lawyers wrote that without a stay, Trump would "suffer irreparable harm through the effective denial of a constitutional and statutory right to be fully heard on a serious disagreement between the former and incumbent President."

The November 30 arguments will take place before three judges nominated by Democratic presidents: Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, nominated by former President Barack Obama, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, an appointee of Biden.

Given the case's magnitude, whichever side loses before the circuit court is likely to eventually appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The White House on Thursday also notified a lawyer for Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff, that Biden would waive any executive privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The committee has subpoenaed Meadows and more than two dozen other people as part of its investigation. Meadows' lawyer, George Terwilliger, issued a statement in response saying Meadows "remains under the instructions of former President Trump to respect long-standing principles of executive privilege."

"It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict," Terwilliger said.
Scientists in South Africa have announced the discovery of the first partial Homo Naledi childs skull in one of the worlds richest hominin fossil sites.

The discovery at a UNESCO World Heritage site near Johannesburg, called the Cradle of Humankind, revealed that members of the nonhuman species performed rituals with their dead thousands of years before humans did.

Lee Berger  project leader of the Rising Star Expedition from South Africas University of the Witwatersrand  and his team searching for Homo Naledi fossils found the partial childs skull on a remote limestone shelf in the Rising Star Cave. Consisting of 28 fragments and six teeth, the find is being called Fossil Leti  short for the Setswana word letimela, meaning the lost one.

Leti was discovered 12 meters beyond the Dinaledi chamber, where the first fossils belonging to the previously unknown Homo Naledi species were found in 2013.

Berger, a paleoanthropologist, said Letis solitary location was significant.

She wasnt dragged in there by a scavenger or carnivore," he said. "There are no marks of that on her bones. We know she wasnt washed in there. We can see that from the sediments. We know she didnt crawl in there because the rest of her body, which would be much stronger than these parts, isnt there.

Berger surmised that one of the other Homo Naledi moved Leti to that inaccessible shelf.

Rare finds

Fossilized juvenile hominin skulls like South Africas world famous Taung Child and Leti are extremely rare because the remains are so fragile. Homo Naledi remains, in general, are also much more brittle than most other fossils, which have turned to stone.

Bernhard Zipfel, curator at University of the Witwatersrand of one of the largest hominid fossil collections in the world, said of the skull discovery, "It looks like bone that could have been deposited there the other day, certainly not many millions of years ago. And that is also what makes this very interesting. Were dealing with actual bone here.

Letis discovery was made in 2017 but was revealed to the public only recently. Based on her teeth, scientists determined Leti died between the ages of 4 and 6. Her remains are believed to be as old as other recovered Homo Naledi fossils, said Rising Star Expedition geologist Tebogo Makhubela, who is based at the University of Johannesburg.

Because of the similarity of the geology  with the same sediments, the same deposition of preservation style  we believe that it is the same time period of 241,000 to 335,000 years old, Makhubela said.

Leti will soon be included with the other Homo Naledi fragments of over 20 individuals  along with Little Foot, the most complete hominid fossil found so far  in University of the Witwatersrands fossil hominid vault.
Extreme poverty and extreme wealth are growing around the world, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told leaders Thursday at the Paris Peace Forum.

"By virtually every measure, the gaps have grown. We face a dramatic rise in inequality, and we must meet this moment," she said, adding that no nation could fix these challenges alone.

"We must agree that these growing gaps are unacceptable, and we must agree to work together to address them," she added, according to Agence France-Presse.

The forum, which opened Thursday in person and virtually, brought together about 30 heads of state, along with chief executives, nongovernmental organizations and others, to discuss global issues such as climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and digital transition.

The leaders of France, Italy, Argentina, Jordan, Morocco and other nations joined with Amazon, Google and YouTube, Meta, Microsoft, Snapchat and Twitter to call for better protection of children online. The U.S. is joining the call, made in 2018, to improve security and better regulate cyberspace, Harris announced.

Harris also will represent the United States at a summit Friday on Libya ahead of that countrys elections next month.

Earlier Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris to commemorate Armistice Day, while Harris observed the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe.

The event marked the 1918 agreement between Allied powers and Germany to end their fighting in World War I. A White House official said the ceremony was an opportunity to honor the French and American soldiers who died in the conflict.

It followed a Wednesday visit by Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, to Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial outside Paris, where they took part in a wreath-laying ceremony in observance of Armistice Day and Thursdays Veterans Day holiday in the United States. The site honors American service members killed in both world wars and holds the remains of nearly 1,600 Americans.

Harris is visiting France as part of an effort to improve soured relations between the longtime allies. Both she and Macron described the opportunities for cooperation and the start of a new era as they spoke to reporters before meeting Wednesday at Elysee Palace.

I look forward to the next few days where we'll continue to work together and renew the focus that we've always had on our partnership and the benefit to the people of France and the people of the United States and the people of the world, Harris said.

Symone Sanders, senior adviser and chief spokesperson for Harris, said in a statement that Macron and Harris discussed cooperation on transatlantic security, space exploration and preparing for future pandemics.

Relations between France and the United States plunged in September when Australia scrapped a $65 billion deal to buy traditional submarines from France in favor of an agreement in which Australia will build nuclear subs with the help of the United States and Britain.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
A U.S. Defense Department report citing the construction of a 100-home village in disputed territory between the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet has turned the spotlight on Indias concerns about a push by China to create civilian settlements along their disputed Himalayan border.

China has undertaken construction activities in the past several years along the border areas, including in the areas that it has illegally occupied over decades, Indias External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, said Thursday.

India has neither accepted such illegal occupation of our territory nor has it accepted the unjustified Chinese claims, he said.

New Delhi was responding to queries on the 2021 edition of the Pentagons annual report, Military and Security Developments Involving the Peoples Republic of China, which referred to construction activities by China along the India-China border areas.

The report said that despite ongoing diplomatic and military dialogue to reduce border tensions, China has continued taking incremental and tactical actions to press its claims at the LAC -- the Line of Actual Control that divides the two countries.

It said that "Sometime in 2020, the PRC built a large 100-home civilian village inside disputed territory between the PRC's Tibet Autonomous Region and India's Arunachal Pradesh state in the eastern sector of the LAC. These and other infrastructure development efforts along the India-China border have been a source of consternation in the Indian government and media."

Based on satellite images, reports of the village along the Arunachal Pradesh border had first surfaced earlier this year while India and China were involved in a tense standoff along a different stretch of their disputed Himalayan border.

It was red-flagged by security experts in New Delhi because it lies along a hotly contested border -- China claims the state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet, while New Delhi says the northeastern state is an integral part of India.

At that time Chinas Foreign Affairs Ministry defended its construction, saying the countrys normal construction on its own territory is entirely a matter of sovereignty," and is beyond reproach.

According to security analysts, China has built more than 600 villages on its border all along the 3,488-kilometer Line of Actual Control stretching from eastern Arunachal Pradesh in the east to Ladakh. They say the construction in remote mountain areas is part of a larger strategic goal to reinforce Chinas territorial claims along disputed Himalayan frontiers.

The Chinese are building villages possibly for billeting and locating their civilians or for the military in the future all along the LAC, particularly after the recent face off that we have had, Indian Chief of Defense Staff Bipin Rawat said on Thursday speaking at a media event.

However, he said that no village had been built inside Indian territory.

Rawat called China Indias main adversary and not Pakistan. Saying that a lack of trust and growing suspicion is coming in the way of resolving the border dispute between the two countries, he said that India was stocked up for a long winter.

Both countries have beefed up military deployments all along the Himalayas, including Arunachal Pradesh. India says it is also focusing on improving infrastructure to meet the country's security requirements.

The government is committed to the objective of creating infrastructure along border areas for improvement of livelihood, including in Arunachal Pradesh, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Bagchi said.

However, analysts point out that although India is making strides in building roads and bridges in the Himalayas to transport troops and weapons, it cannot match the pace at which China has strengthened border infrastructure.
Human rights activists holding a tribunal in London to investigate Iran's deadly suppression of protests in 2019 say they have learned that Tehran is threatening to partially suspend upcoming nuclear talks with world powers if the tribunal continues.

A Persian-language tweet posted Friday by the tribunal organizers cited unnamed European sources as saying Iran's deputy foreign minister and lead nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani made the threat Thursday during a meeting with British officials in London.

The tweet said the European sources quoted Bagheri Kani as telling the British officials: "You want us to negotiate with you about the (2015 Iran nuclear deal), but instead of showing us goodwill, you have allowed terrorists to put us on trial here."

Bagheri Kani's reference to "terrorists" appeared to be aimed at the human rights groups staging the tribunal, which opened Wednesday and is set to conclude Sunday.

The event, known as an international people's tribunal, is organized by rights groups based in London, Paris and Oslo, Norway, and is aimed at investigating alleged atrocities related to Iran's suppression of nationwide protests in November 2019. Rights activists have accused Iranian security forces of killing hundreds of protesters and wounding and detaining thousands more in the crackdown.

The event also has been named the Aban Tribunal in reference to the Persian month in which the protests happened two years ago.

In a Friday interview with VOA Persian TV, tribunal co-counsel Regina Paulose declined to provide more information about Bagheri Kani's alleged use of threats to pressure British officials into stopping the hearings. She said his purported threat to scale back Iranian involvement in future nuclear talks with world powers "will have no impact" on the tribunal, whose work, she said, is needed to give voice to victims of an oppressive Iranian government that has enjoyed impunity for rights abuses for a long time.

On Friday, the tribunal's third day of hearings, international legal experts heard testimony from witnesses, including human rights researchers, former Iranian detainees, relatives of those killed in the 2019 crackdown, and an Iranian police officer. Some of the witnesses who provided video testimony from inside Iran had their faces covered to avoid potential identification and punishment by Iranian authorities.

VOA cannot independently confirm any threat by Iran to step back from its stated intention to return to Vienna on Nov. 29 for indirect talks with the United States about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Iran and the U.S. held several rounds of indirect talks in the Austrian capital from April to June, until Iran suspended them ahead of its June 18 presidential election.

The Vienna talks, in which other world powers have mediated between the U.S. and Iran, are intended to secure a mutual return to JCPOA compliance by the two longtime rivals. Under the deal, Iran promised world powers that it would curb nuclear activities that could be weaponized in return for international sanctions relief.

The prior U.S. administration of President Donald Trump quit the JCPOA in 2018, saying it was not tough enough on Iran, and reimposed U.S. sanctions. Iran retaliated a year later by starting to publicly exceed JCPOA limits on its nuclear activities.

President Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump in January, has said he wants to revive the JCPOA through diplomacy, calling it the best way to prevent Iran from becoming nuclear-armed, a goal Tehran denies seeking. Biden has offered to remove some U.S. sanctions on Iran in return for Tehran resuming full compliance with JCPOA restrictions on its nuclear program.

The government of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who took office in August, agreed earlier this month to resume the JCPOA talks on Nov. 29.

But Bagheri Kani told Iranian state-run network Press TV Thursday that Iran will not discuss its nuclear activities at the upcoming talks. He said the Iranian side instead will focus on securing "the termination of illegal (U.S.) sanctions" against Tehran.

The Aban Tribunal's tweet cited the European sources as saying Bagheri Kani threatened to suspend "part" of the upcoming JCPOA talks. It was not immediately clear what that meant.

Bagheri Kani made no mention of any threat when he posted a Friday tweet summarizing his meetings with British and other European officials in recent days.

Jason Brodsky, policy director of U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, said in a VOA interview that if confirmed, Bagheri Kani's threat would be unsurprising.

"This fits into Iran's playbook of using threats, extortion and unreasonable demands to try to dominate the contours of Iran's engagement with the international community," Brodsky said. He cited as an example a threat by Raisi in September to suspend Iranian participation in JCPOA talks if the U.N. nuclear agency were to pass a resolution criticizing Iran's lack of cooperation with U.N. nuclear inspectors.

"My hope is that the British diplomatic corps would have made it clear to Bagheri Kani that they are not moved by his threats and that he has no standing to make demands on what happens on British soil," Brodsky said.

The British Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a VOA request for comment on whether Bagheri Kani made any threat in his talks with British officials.

In its first response to the tribunal, the U.S. State Department on Friday sent a statement to VOA saying it is following the event. Asked if the U.S. will consider tightening human rights-related sanctions on Iran in light of witnesses testifying at the tribunal about alleged Iranian rights abuses, a State Department spokesperson said the U.S. "cannot comment on internal sanctions deliberations."

The U.S. spokesperson accused the Iranian government of "continuing to deny Iranians their human rights, including through severe restrictions on the rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of association, freedom of religion or belief, and freedom of expression."

The spokesperson also said the U.S. "condemns the use of violence against peaceful protesters. We support the rights of Iranians to peacefully assemble and express themselves, without fear of violence and detention by security forces."

This article originated in VOA's Persian Service.
Malawi's president, Lazarus Chakwera, has called on the country to transition from largely subsistence farming to industrialized commercial farming, in order to meet the goal of making the country food-sufficient by 2030.

Speaking as he opened the National Agriculture Fair in Blantyre, Chakwera said it is concerning that 80% of farmers in Malawi are small-scale farmers while the country has vast resources that could transform it into a commercial farming nation.

"It is in this sector that most of our jobs are being created," he said. "It is from this sector that our growth domestic product, GDP, is receiving its greatest boost. It is in this sector that our exports and forex earnings are growing from. It is this sector whose success will give us the capacity to diversify our economy and make it more resilient and sustainable."

The more the farmers engage in high value agriculture and add value to their products, the more they will see their profit margin rise, Chakwera said.

The president added that his emphasis on agriculture does not mean that he does not dream of Malawi also thriving from tourism, mining and telecommunication.

"It is just that at this stage of our national development, making our agriculture sector a success is foundational to diversifying our economy," he said. "The next time you hear someone admiring America's economy, tell them that the big part that keeps their economy strong and finances its diversification, is agriculture."

The United States is the highest producer of corn, the second highest producer of soybeans and the fourth highest producer of wheat in the world, Chakwera said. Malawi is making efforts to transform its agriculture sector, he added, and that includes the government's emphasis on moving from largely rain-fed agriculture to irrigation farming.

"As a case in point, in the 2021/2022 national budget, import duty on agriculture machinery was waived, precisely to make irrigation equipment more affordable and accessible. In fact, our entire economic policy framework is driven by our unapologetic desire to build an agriculture sector of the future," he said.

However, farmers are skeptical about the president's words.

Masauko Kabapha, who owns the Chimwemwe farm in Kasungu District in central Malawi, said commercialized farming in Malawi can only be possible if banks are more flexible with farmers.

Commercial farming in Malawi is impossible, he said, because farming equipment and machinery are too expensive for a small farmer, and getting a loan is difficult because banks ask for collateral, which most farmers cannot manage.

Kabapha suggested the government enact policies to restrain commercial banks from asking for collateral.

He also said that, although the government has waived duty charges on machinery for irrigation farming, most areas of Malawi still lack the necessary equipment. Most of the dams and water reservoirs that were built for that purpose are not functional and need rehabilitation, he added.
A lawyer for Danny Fenster said Myanmar authorities have provided no explanation for new charges against the American journalist that could see him imprisoned for as much as 30 years.

The ruling military junta leveled the new charges of sedition and terrorism on Tuesday, crushing hopes for an early release of Fenster, who has been in custody since May 24 after being arrested for lesser alleged offenses.

Than Zaw Aung, Fensters lawyer, told VOA on Wednesday that he could not explain why the new charges were made, or what the authorities are accusing Fenster of having done.

Yesterday, we had a two-minute meeting via mobile phone, videoconference, and in that time, the judge didnt explain the deal (or) why they have charged him with the new cases, he said.

Fenster, 37, originally from Detroit, Michigan, was already facing as much as 11 years imprisonment on the earlier charges of incitement, unlawful association and visa breaches.

The latest charges were filed under Section 124A of Myanmars penal code, which prohibits sedition against the government, and under Section 50A of Myanmars counterterrorism law, which criminalizes contact with terrorist groups.

Original charges

Fenster had been working as the managing editor for Yangon-based Frontier Myanmar magazine. He was arrested at Yangon International Airport in May as he boarded a flight to the United States, via Malaysia.

They (police) thought he was working for Myanmar Now. At the airport arresting time, the police found his Myanmar Now name tag, Than Zaw Aung told VOA.

Myanmar Now was one of five media outlets that had their licenses revoked by the junta in April.

Fenster worked for the news organization from 2019-20 but ended his position months before the military coup, details which were confirmed by Myanmar Now.

Fenster will be sentenced Nov. 15 but will return to court on November 16 for the first notice regarding his two recent charges. The stress of being in jail is affecting the American, his lawyer says.

He looks thin physically, and he is mentally down. He is disappointed with the new charges. He recovered from COVID-19, but he (has) long hair and depression.

Yesterday, he told me he wants to go to the United States for Thanksgiving time, Than Zaw Aung added.

US reaction

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price told VOA on Wednesday that Fenster should be released immediately.

We are aware that the regime has brought additional charges against Danny. The profoundly unjust nature of Dannys detention is plain for all the world to see. The regime should take the prudent step of releasing him now. His continued detention is unacceptable. Journalism is not a crime.

In response to a question asked by a VOA reporter earlier this week, Price said seeing Fenster released is an absolute priority.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has seen most of its modern history governed under military rule.

The military claimed unsubstantiated electoral fraud in the November 2020 elections. On Feb. 1, it removed the democratically elected government; leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were detained and charged.

Anti-coup protests began shortly after, with thousands taking to the streets and refusing to work under military rule. But the military violently cracked down on dissidents, and at least 1,252 people have been killed since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.

More than 100 journalists and media staff have been arrested during the crackdown, according to Reporting ASEAN, a monitoring website for news in Asia.

Risky reporting in Myanmar

Reporters in Myanmar have said its almost impossible for journalists to cover news without high risks.

Myanmar freelance journalist Cape Diamond, an assumed name he uses to protect his identify, told VOA its no longer a shock that journalists like Fenster are facing such charges.

The journalists in Myanmar have already acknowledged that there's no press freedom in the country. The local journalists are already aware that those charges could come to them anytime, he added.

Aye Chan Naing, editorial director for Democratic Voice of Burma, a Myanmar broadcaster currently banned by the junta, told VOA in July that being a journalist in Myanmar is a ticket to get arrested.

The veteran journalist said the military has a wish list of targets.

It is based on their own wills, Aye Chan Naing said. The judges are just following the orders from the military  its nothing based on the rule of law. (The charges against Fenster) are more to scare other people and the local journalists to show that even the foreign journalists can go to prison.

He hasnt broken any rules and regulations, its pretty clear. There are no rules of law in the country, he told VOA.

Rights groups call for release

John Quinley, a senior human rights specialist at Fortify Rights, told VOA that his organization has been monitoring those arrested in Myanmar since the coup, and its clear journalists like Fenster have been targeted deliberately.

Danny Fenster should be immediately and unconditionally released from prison along with all other political prisoners detained by the junta, Quinley said.

Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, said he believes the additional charges against Fenster are a wake-up call for further action against the military by the U.S. government.

They need to do more to reduce the flow of money and arms to the military, including stopping gas revenue, Farmaner told VOA via email.

Possible release

Myanmar analyst Aung Thu Nyein said he believes Fensters new charges are a direct threat to press freedom and that the prospect of heavier sentences is a new scare tactic the military government is using to deter contact with anti-military groups.

But the analyst told VOA he thinks Fenster still could be released.

Danny could be sentenced for long-term imprisonment by political motivation, but he can be released any time soon, as the regime satisfies some form of diplomatic trade-off in relation with Western power.

VOAs Nike Ching contributed to this report.
The mix of parties now working to form the next Czech government spans the spectrum from conservative to liberal, but all appear to share a commitment to the democratic principles espoused by founding President Vaclav Havel. And that, says a former Havel aide, could be bad news for China and Russia.

Havel, the erudite playwright whose writings and dissident activities helped undermine communism in Europe, would be quite pleased with the state of his country following last months parliamentary election, said Jiri Pehe, who advised the former Czech president in the late 1990s. Havel died in 2011.

The election unseated populist billionaire Andrej Babis as prime minister and left his coalition partners, the Social Democrats and the Communist Party, out of parliament altogether. Babis formally submitted his resignation to President Milos Zeman on Thursday, clearing the way for Petr Fiala, head of the Civic Democratic Party and a leading figure in the winning five-party coalition, to begin forming a new government.

Pehe says he expects the incoming coalition, despite its philosophical differences, to adopt a foreign policy that aligns with the strongly pro-human rights, pro-democratic ideals of his former boss.

At least for the next four years, Beijing and Moscow will not have as easy a time as they did in recent years, he told VOA in an interview.

A foretaste of what may lie ahead was provided last year in a high-profile visit to Taiwan led by Senate President Milos Vystrcil, a longtime member of Fialas center-right Civic Democratic Party, known by its Czech acronym of ODS.

Prior to my trip, I was aware that my decision to visit Taiwan was not supported by the highest constitutional representatives of the Czech Republic, Vystrcil told VOA in an interview. Among the critics of the visit was Zeman, whose warm relationship with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping has been lauded by the Chinese Embassy in Prague.

But, Vystrcil said through a translator, In the end, as a politician, you are supposed to do what you think is best for your country. It is also about what is good for the countries around us. I reached the conclusion that it is in the interest of both the Czech Republic as well as Taiwan that I visit Taiwan.

Vystrcil was joined on the trip by Czech lawmakers and politicians, including Zdenek Hrib, the mayor of Prague and a member of the left-leaning Pirate Party, also part of the incoming coalition. He and Vystrcil were famously photographed together enjoying a beer at a Czech-styled pub in Taipei, foreshadowing the left-right coalition that would emerge from last months elections.

Beijing also has reason to worry about Jan Lipavsky, another Pirates Party member, who is seen as a candidate to lead the Czech Foreign Ministry. In an essay published as the coronavirus was taking off in March 2020, Lipavsky warned of the propaganda panda and predicted that China would seek to deny any responsibility for the worldwide spread of COVID-19.

He also denounced Chinese and Russian clientelism as an attack on Czech democracy.

If the new Czech government does turn its back on China and Russia, it is likely to find support for its positions even among members of the defeated coalition.

Among those sharing a skeptical view of the two authoritarian powers is Tomas Petricek, the former Czech foreign minister and an unsuccessful candidate in this years contest for the leadership of the Social Democrats.

Known to have opposed Zeman's plan to have Russian companies bid for a key nuclear power project, Petricek also sees Beijing as being on a path irreconcilable with his own nations democratic ideals.

You can say Im against Beijing, he said in a wide-ranging interview with VOA from Prague.

Democracy, Petricek pointed out, is an intrinsic part of the Social Democratic Party, and he saw no reason why the party would want to sit on the fence when it comes to which camp with which the country should align itself. The fact that the party was seen as ambiguous on this critical issue led to its defeat in the nationwide legislative elections, he said, a view shared by Pehe, Havels former aide.

Petricek said he has taken note of the nationalistic tone of the Chinese governments recent rhetoric; he considers that  along with its aggressiveness abroad and repression at home  a contradiction of the principles of social democratic parties and the supposed ideals of communist parties.

Taiwans robust democracy, on the other hand, negates Beijings claim that Chinese people and society can only be governed by a single-party regime somewhere between authoritarianism and totalitarianism, Petricek said.
A Nigerian journalist who went missing last month in the nation's capital has been found dead, killed by a hit-and-run driver, police said Friday.

Tordue Salem, a parliamentary reporter with the independent Vanguard newspaper in Abuja, was last seen on October 13 after leaving the national assembly building.

Efforts by family, friends and colleagues to locate the reporter were unsuccessful until his body was discovered on Thursday.

National police spokesman Frank Mba told reporters in Abuja that the hit-and-run driver who killed Salem had been arrested and had confessed.

Mba said that after the 29-year-old suspect, Clement Itoro, hit the reporter, "the victim's phone, an iPhone, fell on the car's windscreen."

Police investigators were able to track the phone and therefore the suspect to where he parked his car.

The newspaper also confirmed the recovery of Salem's body in a hospital in Abuja.

Two weeks ago, journalists in Abuja had staged a protest to demand Salem's release, fearing he might have been targeted by security forces.

The protest came at a time of growing insecurity in Nigeria, where abductions for ransom are on the rise.
Qatar will represent American interests in Afghanistan beginning December 31, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced, underscoring deep cooperation on regional issues.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul was closed after last summers withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops, ending the countrys 20-year war and leaving it under Taliban control.

Blinken and Qatari Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani signed an accord Friday at the State Department authorizing Qatar as the protecting power of the U.S. in the South Asian country.

Qatar will establish a U.S. interest section within its embassy in Afghanistan to provide certain consular services and monitor the condition and security of U.S. diplomatic facilities in Afghanistan, Blinken said.

In the joint statement issued Saturday, the two nations said theyll work together on regional issues, including global affairs, health, labor and human rights, counterterror, climate, education, military and the economy.

Qatar and the United States remain mutually invested in continuous dialogue, partnership, and long-term cooperation, the statement reads. The two sides welcomed the opportunity to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Qatar in 2022. As a first step, the United States unveiled drawings of the new U.S. embassy compound, which will be built in the coming years in Doha.

Qatar will also oversee the protection of the vacant U.S. diplomatic facilities in Kabul.

Qatar has played a vital role in talks between the Taliban and the U.S. for many years and has helped with the evacuation of American citizens and others from Afghanistan.

More than 124,000 people have been evacuated from the country since August. About half of the evacuees traveled through Qatar on Qatari charter and U.S. military planes.

In a separate agreement, a senior U.S. official said Qatar also committed to temporarily host up to 8,000 vulnerable Afghans, who have applied for special immigrant visas for themselves and eligible family members.
Two Washington-based advocacy groups have documented what they say is a major expansion of Chinese surveillance, intimidation and harassment of members of the Uyghur Muslim minority living outside China in democratic societies.

In a joint report released Wednesday, the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) and The Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs said the Chinese government's assault on the rights of Uyghurs living in the democratic world expanded dramatically in 2017 and has continued since.

UHRP says on its website it is dedicated to promoting the rights of the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim peoples in China's western Xinjiang region through research-based advocacy. The Oxus Society describes itself as dedicated to fostering academic exchange between Central Asia and the rest of the world.

According to the report "'Your Family Will Suffer': How China Is Hacking, Surveilling, and Intimidating Uyghurs in Liberal Democracies," China's authoritarianism extends far outside its borders while "the party-state co-opts other countries and their corporations into its campaign of violence and intimidation against Uyghurs."

The report says China has been trying to coerce and control Uyghurs living abroad since 2002.

As a result, the report said, "members of the Uyghur diaspora have experienced the long reach of China's authoritarian state in the form of relentless harassment, intimidation, and coercion."

For example, according to the report, in a survey of 72 members of Uyghur diaspora communities in the United States, Australia, Europe and Japan, nearly 74% reported experiencing "digital risks, threats, or forms of surveillance."

According to Politico, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said in a written response that the UHRP report allegations were "not worth refuting (and) completely groundless."

Both the United States and the European Union accuse Beijing of human rights abuses against Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China. More than 1 million people were being detained in internment camps in 2018, a United Nations human rights committee found.

Beijing has denied the accusations, saying that the rights of Uyghurs are protected under Chinese law and that those complexes are not internment camps but "vocational training schools" where Uyghurs learn new skills.

According to Bradley Jardine, director of research at The Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, the latest report on China's reach abroad draws from an expansive dataset of 5,530 reported instances of transnational repression against members of the Uyghur diaspora residing in democratic countries.

"Unlike previous reports in this series, which focused on detentions and renditions in countries with close security ties to China, namely, Pakistan, the Central Asian republics and the countries of the Middle East," Jardine told VOA, "(t)his report explores the ways in which China infiltrates liberal democracies to exert pressure on activists."

According to the report, Beijing's methods are growing in technological sophistication, with hacking groups creating fake Uyghur language news sites and apps to embed malware on computers.

"They have even been using Facebook, Microsoft and other tech giants' platforms to disseminate this malware," Jardine said.

The report builds on the findings of 2017 and 2019 reports, highlighting the harassment of diaspora Uyghurs.

"The scale of China's transnational repression of Uyghurs is breathtaking. From the rendition of individuals to the everyday online threats, there is no peace for Uyghurs living overseas," said Omer Kanat, UHRP executive director, on the UHRP website.

UHRP and the Oxus Society urge the private sector, governments and intergovernmental groups to better protect Uyghurs overseas from China's threat.

"Refugee resettlement agencies and NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) can start to train Uyghurs on digital hygiene and security best practices," Natalie Hall, an Oxus Society researcher, told VOA. "However, this leaves Uyghurs entirely responsible for their own protection, so there are more things that other actors can do."

Hall said tech companies have a responsibility to monitor content on their digital platforms.

"This report, which examines Uyghur cybersecurity in aggregate across platforms over the last 19 years, helps make it clear what gaps still remain in their security measures and what they can be doing better and doing differently to help protect vulnerable communities from attack," Hall told VOA.

Hall suggested the U.S. should start to engage its partners on these issues.

"Biden has already started to speak about transnational repression more often  an important first step  but further engagement on the subject, including digital rights as well as democratic digital governance, is needed," she said.
Russia dispatched paratroopers Friday to the Belarus border near Poland, where hundreds of migrants are camped trying to cross into the European Union.

The Kremlin said the sudden deployment was for snap drills, but it coincided with a buildup of Russian military forces near the Ukrainian frontier and was contributing to rising European and American alarm.

Two of the Russian paratroopers died Friday after their parachutes collided and deflated in a gust of wind, a statement released by the Russian defense ministry said. The ministry said the soldiers attempted to use their reserve parachutes, but they were at too low of an altitude for the chutes to function properly.

Both soldiers later died of their injuries at a hospital, according to the ministry statement. It added that the paratroopers who took part in the snap drills flew back to Russia after the exercise, according to The Associated Press.

Moscow has been accused of helping its ally, Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, of orchestrating migrant crossings into Poland as a form of hybrid warfare against the European Union and to goad the bloc. Senior American officials have raised the prospects with NATO allies that Russia might be plotting to seize more parts of Ukraine in a repeat of its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said midweek, We dont have clarity into Moscows intentions, but we do know its playbook. Our concern is that Russia may make the serious mistake of attempting to rehash what it undertook back in 2014 when it amassed forces along the border, crossed into sovereign Ukrainian territory, and did so claiming falsely that it was provoked.

Russian officials deny the military buildup on the Ukraine border or the dispatch of paratroopers to Belarus is unusual or aggressive. A unit of Russian paratroopers will practice a landing in an unknown territory in the Hrodna region of Belarus on Nov. 12 as part of drills to inspect combat readiness of the paratrooper forces, Russias defense ministry said Friday in a statement.

The Belarusian defense ministry Friday rather undercut its Russian counterparts characterization of the paratroop deployment as a snap drill by suggesting it was establishing with Russia a threat response system. Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin was quoted by state media as saying: It seems that our neighbors, particularly Poland, are ready to unleash a conflict seeking to involve Europe as part of solving their domestic political problems and problems in relations within the EU.

Last week, President Joe Biden sent William Burns, the CIA director, to Moscow, to emphasize American concerns about the military moves and burgeoning migrant crisis amid a jarring war of words and reciprocal rounds of recriminations and diplomatic protests between Belarus and Poland.

Poland  as well as Lithuania and Latvia  have been militarizing their borders with Belarus to try to stop record numbers of migrants crossing their borders. They accuse Lukashenko of engineering the migrant crisis in reprisal of the European Union for imposing sanctions on Belarus for last years disputed elections and in response to a harsh crackdown on protesters challenging the legitimacy of Lukashenkos rule. The election was widely seen as rigged.

Lukashenko has half-heartedly denied hes seeking to needle or blackmail Europe by trying to fuel a migrant crisis but said he was reacting to foreign pressure. We are not blackmailing anyone with illegal immigration, he told journalists in Minsks Independence Palace in August. Were not threatening anyone. But you have put us in such circumstances that we are forced to react. And were reacting.

In October alone, Poland recorded 15,000 attempted illegal border crossings. Last week Poland deployed 2,500 more troops to the border, bringing to 10,000 the number of soldiers patrolling the countrys border. Piotr Wawrzyk, Polands deputy foreign minister, said, The actions taken by the Belarusian authorities in recent weeks have the increasingly evident hallmarks of a deliberate escalation.

At least 2,000 migrants, including women and children, are stuck at the border in freezing conditions. Some have complained of being beaten by Polish border guards when they were forced back into Belarus. Humanitarian organizations are critical of both Poland and Belarus.

It is shocking to witness Europes inability to properly handle such a low number of migrants stranded at the Poland-Belarus border, says Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

A few thousand people at Europes Polish border, many of whom have fled some of the worst crises in the world, is a drop in the ocean compared to the number of people displaced to countries that are much poorer elsewhere, he adds.

But Egeland also criticized Minsk. The way Belarus is using migrants and refugees to achieve political ends is equally outrageous. Vulnerable people are not chess pawns to be used in a geopolitical struggle, he said.

Security experts and Western officials are split on whether the Kremlin is calling the shots when it comes to the migrant crisis on the Belarus-Polish border. Or whether it is seizing opportunistically on the standoff.

Poland's prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of authoring the crisis. Belarus's authoritarian leader is orchestrating it, but it has its mastermind in Moscow, he said midweek.

But some experts see the Kremlin as seeking to capitalize. Is there any evidence out there that Russia genuinely is 'behind' the brutal weaponization of migration by Belarus? Sure, it will cynically spin/exploit it as it can [as we've seen], but actually orchestrating it? Mark Galeotti, author of the book We Need to Talk About Putin, tweeted.

The Kremlin has denied it is an aggressor and is accusing NATO of provocation. It says there has been an uptick in military activity by the West, mirroring the European and American claims against it. Russia's defense ministry claimed Thursday it scrambled a Sukhoi SU-30 warplane to intercept a British spy plane, a British Boeing RC-135, when it neared Crimea.

Russia assembled about 100,000 troops near Ukraine's border earlier this year, saying they were training. Moscow later announced their withdrawal, but Ukraine claims most of the force remained in the region. Western and Ukrainian officials say more Russian units, including elite ones, have been gathering near the border, with some deployments happening covertly overnight.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Wednesday that Washington did not immediately know what to make of it to the massing of tens of thousands of Russian troops along the Ukraine border. Weve seen this before  What does this mean? We dont know yet, too early to tell, he said.

Poland announced Friday that Britain is dispatching a contingent of British troops to assist with the construction of a fortified wall along its parts of its border with Belarus. Reconnaissance has begun ahead of the support from British engineering troops, Polands defense minister, Mariusz Baszczak, wrote on Twitter. Our soldiers will cooperate in strengthening the fence on the Polish-Belarusian border.

Some Western officials have told VOA they expect a Russian and Belarus escalation in the coming days and weeks, a bid to entangle the European Union in talks with Belaruss Lukashenko.

They point to the latest phone exchange Thursday between Putin and Germanys caretaker chancellor, Angela Merkel, as evidence. Kremlin officials say the Russian leader called on the bloc to restore relations with Minsk in order to solve the problem of the migrant crisis. According to a statement on the Kremlins website, the two leaders also discussed Ukraine, and Putin blamed Kyiv for what he dubbed destructive policies."
A small number of Myanmar soldiers who have deserted the military since the countrys February coup have joined at least two groups working to persuade others to also desert, help those who do and funnel them into a swelling armed resistance.

The groups, the Peoples Soldiers and the Peoples Embrace, are now running dedicated campaigns to draw more troops out of the ranks.

We encourage soldiers to take the right action. But even if they know that they have to take the right action, we still have to encourage them to do so. We do this by telling them that we know how hard it is because we ourselves have endured this, and we tell them that we are here to support them, Nyi Thuta, a former captain who cofounded the Peoples Soldiers in March, told VOA.

Defectors in Myanmar can face the death penalty, a sentence usually commuted to life in prison.

Peoples Soldiers claims to have some 100 staff in Myanmar running propaganda, fundraising and aid programs from hiding, many from the relative safety of remote borderlands where sympathetic ethnic minority rebel armies have been fighting the military for autonomy for decades.

Spreading the word

Nyi Thuta knows what he is talking about regarding desertion and defection. He abandoned a promising career in the militarys propaganda unit writing speeches for commander-in-chief and coup leader Min Aung Hlaing on February 28, repulsed by the armys bloody crackdown on peaceful protests in the wake of the putsch.

Rights groups claim soldiers and police have killed more than 1,000 civilians since the coup, most of them unarmed protesters, although the junta disputes the figure.

The leaders of the military, their belief is only to kill the people instead of protecting the people, Nyi Thuta said. The leaders are not establishing and nurturing a professional army, so the soldiers should disobey the orders and attempt to get out.

He said his group gets its message out via social media, recording regular discussion groups and broadcasting them on the Facebook channels of popular local media outlets. It also fields direct messages from soldiers wrestling with thoughts of deserting or defecting and desperate for advice.

Groups opposing the junta claim at least 1,500 soldiers, from privates to majors, have joined the resistance since the coup. That is a fraction of the militarys estimated force of 300,000 to 400,000 but Nyi Thuta says monthly defection numbers are ticking up.

Converts welcome

For those who do make the leap, Peoples Soldiers says it can help get ex-soldiers and their families back on their feet with monthly living allowances, food, shelter and even a modest jobs training program. With the groups fundraising efforts having scraped together only a few hundred dollars thus far, though, most of the help comes from in-kind donations from locals.

A former private who spoke with VOA on condition of anonymity said he left his base in the central Bago region making weapons for the military in September, convinced to act on his conscience after hearing Peoples Soldiers broadcasts and visiting its website.

To see the soldiers killing innocent civilians with the guns that I helped produce was something that I could not stand at all, he said.

Especially hearing Captain Nyi Thuta speak about his experiences led me to increase my desire to defect to the people, he added.

After reaching rebel army-held territory along the Thai border, he said Peoples Soldiers provided him a place to stay and a monthly allowance.

I would be lost and have no place to go or to live without Peoples Soldiers support, he said. This group is everything for me.

A numbers game

Nyi Thuta said his group remains unarmed, confident in the power of its message, but will connect deserters who want to fight back with a growing number of civilian militias that have emerged across Myanmar since the coup. His team also advises the new militias on combat strategy, he added, and passes on what it knows about troop forces in their area.

We are able to tell the groups the weaknesses that the military has, the weaknesses in their arms, the weaknesses in their organization structure, so that the groups can then use the knowledge that we have shared to implement their goals, he said.

Min Zaw Oo, director of the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security, a local think tank, said soldiers who join armed resistance groups can have useful intelligence but may find it hard to pass on in the face of popular, deep-seated resentment of the military and suspicions that they have been planted as spies.

The analyst said the reported numbers and ranks of defecting soldiers are also still too low to give the military much to worry about for now.

All the reports that we saw [are of] individual defections or desertions, but we havent seen [any] unit-level defections. If we see that, that is a sign that there are serious problems going on in the military, he said.
Afghanistan does not need a large military anymore and would not keep all the people who worked in the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) under the previous administration, said the Talibans foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, Friday in Islamabad.

The army that was created by foreign intervention, we are no longer in need of having such large numbers, said Muttaqi at a public talk in one of Pakistans government-sponsored policy organizations, the Institute of Strategic Studies.

He was responding to a question about the Talibans strategy for integrating Taliban fighters and ANDSF personnel into one military, something the Taliban had indicated in the past they might consider if they took over the country.

He said his country needed a small army made up of people with fidelity and commitment and patriotism ingrained in them.



The Taliban foreign minister was in Pakistan with a 20-member delegation for negotiations on opening trade routes among other things. On Thursday, he also met the special representatives on Afghanistan from the United States, China, and Russia, who were in Pakistan for a meeting under the Troika Plus formatthe three countries plus Pakistanon Afghanistan.

Muttaqi bristled when asked about issues of human rights and inclusivity in his administration, accusing the international community of using the issues for political purposes.

Yesterday, the opposition [the Taliban] deserved to die. Yet, that was not a violation [of human rights] and today it is a violation, he said, warning that the international community has not learned the lesson in 20 years that pressure tactics do not work with the Taliban.

He also claimed the current Taliban administration is inclusive because it has members of various ethnicities in it, but asserts the international community is trying to force them to include their political opponents, which is not the norm anywhere else.

We have never asked [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden to include [former] president [Donald] Trump in his cabinet, he said.

Journalist Tahir Khan, who has covered the Taliban for many years, said that so far, the Taliban have not appointed anyone who was not already aligned with them.

Ninety percent of the appointments are active members of Taliban, either commanders or fighters. The other 10% are their supporters on social media or otherwise.

In multiple regional conferences on Afghanistan since the Taliban took power, including the Troika Plus in Islamabad Thursday, the demand for inclusivity has taken center stage.

The joint statement issued after Thursdays meeting called on the Taliban to work with fellow Afghans to take steps to form an inclusive and representative government that respects the rights of all Afghans and provides for the equal rights of women and girls to participate in all aspects of Afghan society.

Similar statements were made earlier in conferences in New Delhi, Tehran, and Moscow.

Khan said it was obvious the world is demanding that the Taliban include other political groups and forces in the government.

On rights of women to work and study, Muttaqi said the situation is gradually improving.

Currently, 100% female workers in the health sector have returned to work, he said. In [the] education sector, it is now up to 75%.

He also claimed the Taliban have not fired a single woman from her job since they came to power. Human Rights Watchs Heather Barr disagreed.

Maybe they didnt say to any women you are fired from your job, but theyve certainly told many, many, many women that they shouldnt come to work, and they shouldnt come to work indefinitely, she said.

Womens rights activists underscore that since the Taliban takeover of the country, girls in secondary schools in most of the country have been denied access to education, even though boys schools are open. Taliban officials say they are working on a plan to open schools for everyone but have not given a time frame.

We have 200,000 teachers that work in these educational institutions, and we need help and assistance in providing their salaries. No one has yet practically stepped forward to pay their salaries, Muttaqi said when VOA specifically questioned him on this issue.

Rights advocates say that is an excuse the Taliban are using to discriminate against women.

If the problem is that they cant pay teachers, then thats a problem for boys as well as girls.  and if theyve made a decision that with limited resources they should prioritize boys education over girls education, well, thats very discriminatory, isnt it? Barr asked.

The Taliban have repeatedly said they are making preparations to open secondary schools, which, according to Barr, made it sound like the schools needed to comply with their views on Shariah.

The truth is that there were no mixed government secondary schools in Afghanistan prior to August 15  so, this is a completely fake reason, she said.

UNICEF announced earlier this month it was setting up a system to be able to pay Afghan teachers directly, bypassing the Taliban, according to a Reuters report. Funding to or through the Taliban-led administration is frozen by the international community.

In a telephone briefing from Brussels earlier this week, the U.S. special representative on Afghanistan, Thomas West, said several international organizations were doing creative and urgent thinking to deliver salaries to teachers, civil servants and other in Afghanistan.

The United States has not taken a position on this matter, he said.

Muttaqi said the current Taliban administration was trying to take a balanced approach in international relations, unlike previous governments that either completely caved under international pressure or divorced themselves from the international community altogether. The latter was a reference to the earlier Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001.

He said, while formal recognition of the Taliban regime is yet to come, they enjoyed de facto recognition.

As for international recognition, what we are experiencing is that we are being recognized and treated as an official government of Afghanistan in our travels and in other cases, he said. Embassies are open inside our country, and we have embassies and representation in foreign countries.
Editor's note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

UN staffers detained in Ethiopia

Ethiopia's federal government detained nearly two dozen of its nationals who work for the United Nations in the capital, Addis Ababa, earlier this week. More than 70 truck drivers contracted to drive humanitarian assistance into the northern Tigray region for the U.N. and international NGOs were also rounded up in the country's north. The move comes amid reports that the government is targeting ethnic Tigrayans as tensions rise between the government and the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

As Diplomatic Efforts Continue, Ethiopian Forces Detain UN Staffers, Truck Drivers

Tensions simmer on Belarus-Poland border

On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council discussed the situation of migrants who have legally traveled to Belarus from the Middle East and Afghanistan in order to migrate into the European Union. The migrants are now camped on the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, which accuse Moscow and Minsk of weaponizing the migrants. Russia and Belarus deny they are manufacturing a migration crisis.

Western Nations Condemn Belarus at UN Security Council

Climate negotiations near finish line

Negotiations at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, are slated to conclude Friday with a new deal among countries to stay on course to reach the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as stated in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord. As we went online, the U.N. Secretary-General was in Glasgow meeting with negotiating groups, as talks continued and could go beyond the Friday evening deadline.

COP26: Draft Climate Deal Published as Negotiations Enter Crucial Final Hours

News in brief

 The United States and China, two of the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters, announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to cooperate on climate action. This was welcome news at the United Nations.

 On Thursday, Sudan's top military commander appeared to tighten his grip on power, appointing a new governing council that he will lead, two weeks after the military overthrew the joint civilian-military government. Nationwide demonstrations are expected Saturday against the move, prompting calls from the U.N. on Sudanese security forces to exercise restraint. More than a dozen protesters have been killed since the October 25 coup.

Some good news

On her 16th birthday in July 2013, Pakistani-born activist Malala Yousafzai made her U.N. debut. The survivor of a shooting attack on her school bus the year before by the Taliban, she gave a captivating speech on the importance of education for all saying, "Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons." In 2014 she became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2017 she was named a U.N. Messenger of Peace with a focus on girls' education. Today she is a 24-year-old Oxford University graduate, and on Tuesday announced she had gotten married. The U.N. Secretary-General's spokesman said, "We are so happy for her. We wish her and her husband a life of joy and happiness."

Quote of note

"Now we have over 22 million people marching toward starvation, of which 8.7 million of those are at famine's door as we speak."

 World Food Program chief David Beasley, speaking Thursday on Twitter from Kabul airport on the escalating humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

What we are watching next week

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations embarks on a 5-day trip to the Middle East. Linda Thomas-Greenfield is the first Cabinet-level official in the Biden administration to go to Israel since the new government was formed in June. She will also go to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian leaders, and then on to Jordan.

Did you know?

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, also known by its acronym UNESCO, celebrates its 75th anniversary on Friday. The Paris-based agency was established following the end of World War II. The organization aims to build peace through cooperation in the fields of education, science and the preservation of cultural heritage.


The U.S. State Department is calling on Houthi rebels in Yemen to vacate a U.S. compound they breached in the capital, Sanaa, this week and release detained Yemeni nationals hired by the United States to guard the facility.

The compound had housed the U.S. Embassy until 2015, when the U.S. suspended operations there because of the ongoing Yemen civil war between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the Saudi-supported government. The U.S. moved its ambassador and key staff to Saudi Arabia.

A State Department spokesman speaking on background told reporters Thursday a majority of embassy staff who had been detained have been released and that Washington was engaging in unceasing diplomatic efforts to free the security guards still in custody. It is not clear how many Yemeni employees were detained or why.

The State Department also demanded the rebels vacate the facility and return any seized property.

At a State Department briefing earlier this week, spokesman Ned Price said the department is committed to ensuring the safety of those who serve the U.S. government overseas, and that is why we are so actively engaged on this matter, including through our international partners.

The Houthis have controlled Sanaa and much of the countrys north for years. Saudi Arabia is staunchly opposed to the Houthi forces and launched a military intervention in Yemen in 2015, ostensibly seeking to restore Yemens internationally recognized government to power. The Saudis and their allies are also seeking to prevent Iran from expanding its influence.

The U.N. has said the civil war has created the worlds greatest humanitarian crisis.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday the U.S. and France have renewed their mutual commitment to collaborate on combatting global terrorism, particularly in Africas troubled Sahel region.

We have a mutual concern there that relates to the ongoing challenges that the countries in the Sahel are facing. Among the many priorities that we share is a concern about what we need to do to address potential violence and ongoing violence, Harris said at a Paris news conference.

Harris is on a four-day visit to France as part of the Biden administrations effort to improve soured relations between the longtime allies.

Ties between France and the United States plunged to a historic low in September when Australia scrapped a $65 billion deal to buy traditional submarines from France in favor of an agreement in which Australia will build nuclear subs with the help of the United States and Britain.

That was not the purpose of this trip, and we didnt discuss it, Harris said.

Harris said she and Macron did discus cooperation on transatlantic security, space exploration and global health issues such as the coronavirus pandemic that has led to a dramatic rise in inequality.

This pandemic has in many ways has highlighted, has magnified the longstanding, pre-pandemic failures and fractures and fissures in our systems, Harris said. And so, we talked about what we can do together to address these inequities and the inequality that has existed since the beginning of time around the world.

Harris will represent the U.S. Friday at a summit with world leaders on Libya ahead of that countrys elections next month. The summit is aimed at ensuring elections are held as scheduled in the North African country that has been torn by civil war since the overthrow of Moammar Ghadafi in 2011.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
The United States and European members of the U.N. Security Council condemned Belarus on Thursday for what they called the cynical instrumentalization of migrants, as tensions simmered along the Polish-Belarusian border.

We  condemn the orchestrated instrumentalization of human beings whose lives and well-being have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus, with the objective of destabilizing neighboring countries and the European Unions external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations, Estonian Ambassador Sven Jurgenson said on behalf of seven Western nations.

The flow of migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan rose sharply after the European Union imposed sanctions on Minsk for forcing a commercial airliner flying over its territory in May to land. The authorities arrested a Belarusian opposition blogger and his girlfriend, who were on board.

Now thousands of migrants who have traveled legally to Belarus face an uncertain fate and freezing temperatures along the border with Poland.

On Tuesday, Poland closed a border crossing with Belarus after migrants tried to break through.

European and Baltic nations accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of luring the migrants to his country and then facilitating their travel to the border in order to send them into Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The migrants apply for asylum when they reach EU member states.

This tactic is unacceptable and calls for a strong international reaction and cooperation in order to hold Belarus accountable, Jurgenson said. It demonstrates how the Lukashenko regime has become a threat to regional stability.

Of course, there is a game of shifting blame now by European Union, Russias deputy U.N. envoy, Dmitry Polyanskiy, told reporters. They want to picture Belarus, and sometimes even Russia, as perpetrators of this crisis.

Moscow is Minsks closest ally.

Polyanskiy said Minsk has neither economic nor political reasons to prevent the migrants from continuing onward.

They have no reasons to send them back to the countries where they came from, he said. That would be a total violation of any international conventions.

Fearing it could become a new front in the crisis, Ukraine, which is not an EU member, will send another 8,500 troops and police officers, plus 15 helicopters, to guard its border with Belarus, Reuters reported Thursday.

De-escalation calls

The United Nations has called for de-escalation at the Belarus-Poland border.

I am appalled that large numbers of migrants and refugees continue to be left in a desperate situation in near-freezing temperatures at the Belarus-Poland border, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Wednesday. I urge the states involved to take immediate steps to de-escalate and resolve this intolerable situation in line with their obligations under international human rights law and refugee law.

The U.N. refugee and migration agencies have repeatedly said that using migrants and refugees as political tools is deplorable and must stop.

"With several tragic deaths recorded in the border area in recent weeks, UNHCR [U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees) and IOM [International Organization for Migration] remind states of the imperative to prevent further loss of life and ensure the humane treatment of migrants and refugees as the highest priority, the agencies said in a joint statement Tuesday.

The European Union, meanwhile, is considering imposing new sanctions on Belarus.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
Ahead of World Diabetes Day Sunday, the Africa office of the World Health Organization is warning that the chronic disease leaves patients especially vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19. In Zimbabwe, the government is building rural health centers to make it easier for people with diabetes and other conditions to get medical attention.

Dr. Benido Impouma, director of the communicable and noncommunicable diseases cluster at the WHO regional office for Africa, said with just 6% of the continents population fully vaccinated, COVID-19 still poses a very real threat to populations in Africa, especially people with diabetes.

He said WHOs preliminary analysis shows that death rates from COVID-19 are significantly higher in patients who also have diabetes.

The U.N. health agencys survey in 13 African countries found a more than 10% fatality rate for people with diabetes, compared to 2.5% for COVID-19 patients overall, said Impouma.

This shows that fighting the diabetes epidemic in Africa is in many ways as critical as the battle against the current COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 will eventually subside, but Africa is projected, in the coming years, to experience the highest increase in diabetes globally. We must act now to prevent new cases. All Africans at risk of diabetes must have access to testing. In fact, in Africa, about 70% of people with diabetes are unaware that they have the chronic condition, Impouma said.

The WHO says about 24 million Africans suffer from diabetes, with that number expected to rise sharply in coming years.

Impouma urged health officials to take advantage of the increased availability of low-cost rapid diagnostic tests to routinely test patients, to ensure early detection and proper care.

Joyce Kanengebiza, a diabetic, says she is happy about improvements to health centers in her rural home  Mount Darwin  about 200 kilometers north of Harare.

"We used to walk long distances to go get tested or get medication. I am happy that I do not have to travel long distances anymore. We now get tested here (at a clinic) instead of going to [a] hospital, Kanengebiza said.

Zimbabwes Vice President Constantino Chiwenga  who doubles as the countrys health minister  told the state-owned broadcaster that such heath centers can also be key venues for COVID-19 vaccinations.

We have distributed and we will continue distributing effectively our centers in all our districts so that we can now move to those areas get tested, get supplies and always get reviewed, Chiwenga said.

WHO says its data revealed that in about 40 African countries nearly 14% of all COVID-19 vaccine doses administered so far have gone to Africans with underlying conditions  such as diabetes.

But the organization says it is still nowhere near where it wants Africa to be with protecting the continents most vulnerable populations.
Pope Francis said on Friday that the world had become deaf to the plight of the poor and condemned those who become disproportionately rich while blaming the needy for their own fate.

Francis traveled to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, to meet with about 500 poor people before the Catholic Church's World Day of the Poor which will be marked on Sunday.

"Often the presence of the poor is seen as being annoying and something to be tolerated. Sometimes we hear it said that those responsible for poverty are the poor themselves," he said in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels after poor people, including Afghan refugees, recounted their personal stories.

"The blame is dumped on the shoulders of the poor, adding insult to injury, so as not to make a serious examination of conscience about one's own actions, about the injustice of some laws and economic measures, about the hypocrisy of those who want to enrich themselves disproportionately," he said.

Francis, who in 2013 became the first Latin American pope, has made defense of the poor a cornerstone of his pontificate. The former Cardinal Mario Bergoglio is the first pope to take the name Francis, the saint who dedicated most of his life to the poor.

"It is time to give a voice back to the poor because their requests have fallen on deaf ears for too long. It is time for eyes to open to see the state of inequality in which so many families live," Francis said.

"It is time to again be scandalized by the reality of children who are starving, reduced to slavery, tossed around by the waters as they risk drowning, innocent victims of all kinds of violence," he said.

He called for the creation of more jobs and an end to violence against women "so they are respected and not treated as merchandise."

Qadery Abdul Razaq, an elderly man who fled Afghanistan with his wife after the fall of Kabul because they had worked for the Italian military, broke down into tears as he told the pope how the Taliban had killed one of his sons.

He asked for help from the pope and the Italian government to get his four remaining children out of the country.
France is hosting an international conference on Libya on Friday as the North African country heads into long-awaited elections next month, a vote that regional and world powers hope will pull the oil-rich nation out of its decade-old chaos.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and several world leaders will take part in the Paris conference, and are expected to push for transparent, credible elections. They will also urge the withdrawal of mercenaries and foreign forces from Libya, as stated in last years U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended fighting between rival factions in the country.

Libya has been engulfed in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising 2011 that toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The oil-rich country was for years split between rival governments - one based in the capital, Tripoli, and the other in the eastern part of the country. Each side is backed by different foreign powers and militias.

Fridays conference is co-chaired by France, Germany, Italy, Libya, and the United Nations, and attended by international and regional high-level officials.

The participants are expected to push for an indisputable and irreversible election process, a joint commitment to fight trafficking of people and weapons through Libya. They also are expected to advocate for tangible efforts withdraw mercenaries and foreign troops, according to French President Emmanuel Macron's office.

Harris said Monday she will take part in the conference to demonstrate our strong support for the people of Libya as they plan for elections.

Also expected to attend are Libyan leaders Mohammad Younes Menfi, head of the presidential council, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush.

The conference comes less than six weeks before Libyans are scheduled to cast their ballots in the first round of the presidential elections on Dec. 24. Parliamentary elections are to take place nearly two months later, along with a second round of the presidential vote.

The long-awaited vote, however, still faces challenges, including unresolved issues over election laws and occasional infighting among armed groups. Other obstacles include the deep rift that remains between the countrys east and west and the presence of thousands of foreign fighters and troops. The U.N. has estimated that there have been at least 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya over the past few years, including Russians, Syrians, Turkish, Sudanese, and Chadians.

A leading rights group questioned Thursday whether Libyan authorities can hold free and fair elections. Human Rights Watch criticized what it said were Libyas restrictive laws that undermine freedom of speech and association, as well as the presence of armed groups accused of intimidating, attacking and detaining journalists and political activists.

The main questions leaders at the summit should ask are: can Libyan authorities ensure an environment free of coercion, discrimination, and intimidation of voters, candidates, and political parties? it said in a statement.

In July, the U.N. special envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, accused spoilers of trying to obstruct the vote to unify the divided nation. The Security Council has warned that any individual or group undermining the electoral process could face U.N. sanctions.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week, "We want to see an election which the Libyan people can believe in, that is credible, and that is in line with the past agreements.

Politicians and warlords in western Libya issued statements this week opposing holding the vote according to the laws ratified by the countrys parliament. Khaled al-Meshri, head of Tripoli-based Supreme Council of State, went further and threatened in televised comments to resort to violence to prevent powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter, a potential frontrunner in the presidential race, from taking office if he is elected.

Libyas civil war escalated in 2019, as Hifter, who commands the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces, launched an offensive to take Tripoli from armed militias loosely allied with the then U.N.-supported but weak government in the countrys capital.

Hifter, who was allied with an east-based administration, was backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and France. However, his 14-month campaign and march on Tripoli ultimately failed in June 2020, after Qatar and Turkey intensified their military support, with the latter sending mercenaries and troops to help shore up western Libya militias.
The URL has been copied to your clipboard

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

Ethiopian government security forces have reportedly rounded up and detained hundreds of ethnic Tigrayans, in a crackdown on suspected supporters of the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front. The crackdown comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls for all sides to pull back.
On his first Veterans Day in office, U.S. President Joe Biden ordered his administration Thursday to provide better medical treatment for veterans exposed to toxic air and to study the diseases they may have contracted while serving overseas.

For years, American service members were exposed to open-air fire pits during tours of duty in Iraqi and Afghan war zones. Dangerous materials such as electronics, vehicles and human waste were routinely sprayed with jet fuel and set ablaze, spewing toxic fumes and carcinogens into the air.

For Biden, the directive is personal. He has suggested, without proof, that the cancer that killed his son Beau in 2015 was linked to exposure to burn pits during his military deployment to Iraq.

"He volunteered to join the National Guard at age 32 because he thought he had an obligation to go," Biden said at a Service Employees International Union convention in 2019. "And because of exposure to burn pits, in my view, I can't prove it yet, he came back with stage 4 glioblastoma."

Biden laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington on Thursday to honor U.S. veterans. In a short address, he said retired veterans and those who are serving now are "the spine of this country."

"We've asked so much of you for so long," he said. "Our country is grateful."

He urged veterans who are struggling with medical problems or thoughts of suicide to reach out for help.

The new studies related to toxins will initially center on lung problems suffered by troops exposed to contaminated air and the potential connection to rare respiratory cancers, according to senior White House officials, but will expand as possible links to other ailments are identified.

In August, the Department of Veterans Affairs began processing claims for veterans suffering from asthma, rhinitis and sinusitis based on exposure to the pits. New rules will allow veterans to make claims within 10 years of their service and change what symptoms count and why.

"Exposure to contaminants and environmental hazards poses a major health concern for veterans of all generations," the White House said. But it added, "There are also gaps and delays in the scientific evidence demonstrating conclusive links between known exposures and health impacts, leaving many veterans without access to Department of Veterans Affairs benefits and high-quality treatment to address significant health conditions."

The White House said it took decades for the government to compensate Vietnam-era veterans for their exposure to Agent Orange.

"For the newest generation of veterans, concerns about burn pits and other exposures continue to mount," it said.

Veterans Day in the U.S. is commemorated on November 11 to honor everyone who served in the U.S. armed forces. It originally was called Armistice Day, to mark the end of World War I.
New research finds that the COVID-19 pandemic has hurt the financial viability of media outlets in southern Africa, with print media being the worst hit.

Launching the report, researcher Reginald Rumney, a journalism professor at Rhodes University in South Africa, said the media in the region had been drastically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This crisis, particularly the lockdowns and restrictions on movements, forced audiences online all to consume broadcast news," Rumney said. "Newspapers and magazines were hard hit. And of course, with a decline in circulation came a huge decline in revenue and retrenchment of staff and a big a restructuring of the newspaper industry across the region. A lot of papers were forced to go online, stop printing completely. Retrenchments were dramatic.

In Zimbabwe, Alpha Media Holdings, which publishes NewsDay, the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard, stopped printing paper copies of its newspapers for months, moving all the publications online. All of its staff received a 50% pay cut, while those not directly involved in e-paper production were put on leave.

In South Africa, Associated Media Publishing stopped publishing its magazines, which included Cosmopolitan, House & Leisure and Women on Wheels, while Caxton and CTP Publishers & Printers announced closure of its magazine division.

South Africas weekly Mail & Guardian kept publishing but said some advertisers had canceled their campaigns.

Rumney said without a dramatic turnaround or external assistance such as donor funds, most media houses in southern Africa will not get out of the hole that the coronavirus put them in.

Joanah Gadzikwa, a media professor in South Africa, said the pandemic had caused a redefinition of the media industry in southern Africa that could have a harmful effect on the regions societies.

The death or decline in circulation figures is worrisome," Gadzikwa said. "What do we think should be the way forward? Because news is something that we cannot not have in our societies. A lot is happening in Zimbabwe, in southern Africa, that if issues do not see the light of print like this, we are heading towards another catastrophe. The pandemic has thrown everything upside down, but when things remain in [the] dark, it becomes a huge problem.

The issue has extra resonance in Zimbabwe, where advocates for the media say authorities have assaulted journalists in the line of duty.

Nigel Nyamutumbu, the head of Media Alliance of Zimbabwe, said, "In terms of Zimbabwe, you find that on one hand, we have a problem of money, we have a problem of resources. We have also the problem of politics, political will, where you can actually talk of the statutory instruments that were used to enforce the lockdowns. Where you also use the weaponization of the COVID-19 to actually clamp down in a calculated manner some civil liberties, including that of free expression, and including that of media freedom, which by extension obviously affects media sustainability.

Nyamutumbu said one cannot have a thriving media in an unconducive operating environment.

And right now, even with COVID-19 slowly coming under control, southern Africa is not a conducive environment for print journalism.
Thousands of people in Botswana whose ancestors came from Namibia are demanding reparations for genocide they say was committed by German forces more than a century ago. Namibia is negotiating with the German government, but the descendants say they are being left out of the talks.

In the early 1900s, German colonizers in Namibia killed thousands of people from three tribes -- the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu and Nama  for taking in an uprising. There are no official figures on how many people were killed.

Some of the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu and Nama later settled in Botswana, and their descendants live there today.

This week, Botswanas minister of presidential affairs, Kabo Morwaeng, told parliament that Botswana has been facilitating dialogue between the Namibian government and the affected groups.

"Batswana of Namibian descent who have approached the government for assistance on the issue of reparations for the genocide, while their specific numbers are unknown as they are represented by a committee, are accordingly receiving assistance arranged by Botswana under a process that has been established by the government of Namibia for a negotiated settlement, said Morwaeng.



Morwaeng added Botswana cannot do anything more than facilitate dialogue because the issue involves sovereign states -- Namibia and the Federal Republic of Germany.

But legislator Carter Hikuama, who represents some of the affected descendants in parliament, is unhappy with the Botswana government.

"We need their facilitation; we need their support," Hikuama said. "We are not expecting the government of Botswana to negotiate on behalf of these people. We want the government of Botswana to facilitate the negotiations and allow these people to access the Germany.

Edwin Saidoo is the vice chairperson of the Botswana Society of the Nama, Ovambaderu and Ovaherero tribes. He says the group displeased.

"Let me be very frank, with regards the government of Namibia, in no unambiguous terms we have not had any assistance, save for a suggesting that was made in one sitting where we had thought we will be given a chance to be part of the negotiating table as those in the Diaspora," Saidoo said.

He urges the Namibian government to open up talks to include affected communities abroad.

"Our expectation is only for the government of Namibia to open up the talks instead of making them a bilateral negotiating between it and the Federal Republic of Germany," Saidoo said. "The talks need to be approached, in our view, from a multinational view and therefore include and encompass all the nations and states that hold the diaspora who are also from the affected communities."

In May of this year, Germany officially apologized to Namibia for the killings, and has promised development aid worth $1.2 billion, as part of the compensation to the affected to communities

However, some descendants of the victims in both Namibia and Botswana are angry at the offer, which has been described as an insult by traditional leaders, because it does not include payments for reparations.
The URL has been copied to your clipboard

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

New York state legalized recreational marijuana use this year, just in time to host the annual Cannabis World Congress & Business Exposition. Evgeny Maslov has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera - Michael Eckels.
Civil servants in Zimbabwe are expected to get annual bonuses this year in foreign currency, according to some top state officials.

In a tweet, Information Secretary Nick Mangwana said, This year Civil Servants will be paid their bonuses in Forex up to a maximum of US$700. Civil Service pensioners will receive their bonus payments of US$100 plus a bonus payment of US$80 for spouses after President @edmnangagwa decided a once off cushion.

At the same time, Public Service Minister Paul Mavhima told the state-controlled Chronicle newspaper that the bonuses would be paid this month.

Mavhima is quoted by the newspaper as saying the bonuses would be paid despite the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said,  Their 13th cheque is coming. Government will pay bonuses starting this month so is no need to panic.

But Raymond Majongwe of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe says the government has decided to pay the bonuses without consulting workers.

Majongwe said, No dialogue on the matrix and timeframes  How all this once off cushion will be handled on retirement in terms of pension calculations remains a mystery. This benevolence disadvantages the workers in the long term. lts clear there is no dialogue with anyone as this offer comes out of a Party Congress and not a Collective Bargaining process. Besides every government official opening his mouth has his own version of what will be paid.
: After almost 2 months of continuous eruption, there are no signs it might end soon. On the contrary, the activity - both external and internal (seismic) - has continued to intensify today again, with strong ash emissions during extended phases and more surface lava flows near the vent as well as downslope. Volcanic tremor has been increasing, suggesting that the rate of magma flowing towards and erupting at the surface also has become higher again. ...
Local news is important. It's the information that will directly impact your life because its going on around you, every day. Join our group of dedicated readers today ...

Subscribe
Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

On November 12, most of the participants in Britney Spearss conservatorship hearing will appear virtually to discuss the state of, and likely the end of, her grueling 13-year conservatorship. Expected in person are Spearss attorney Mathew Rosengart, Judge Brenda Penny, and members of the media and public. When audio leaked after Spearss June hearing, Judge Penny put stringent security measures in place. This time, the hearings audio will not be transmitted over the courts remote-access system, and members of the media and the public will not be allowed to take their phones into the courtroom or transmit anything electronically from it. While we wait to hear what happens, Vulture set out to learn what could be next for the pop icon.

Tamar Arminak, an expert probate lawyer with extensive experience in conservatorships who represented Amanda Byness parents in obtaining a conservatorship over their daughter, answers all our what if and what next questions.

Spears has said she doesnt want to undergo an evaluation for the conservatorship to end. Is the judge likely to grant her wishes?

The secondary evaluation or another evaluation would be commonplace if, for example, her conservator was objecting to her being off the conservatorship, said Arminak. We know Jodi Montgomery supports her position, and we know Britneys father actually supports it as well, not that it matters what he says. It looks like everybody is in agreement that they support her being off it immediately. Since the request for termination was not contested, Arminak believes there will be no need for a secondary evaluation.

Will the conservatorship end on Friday?

I think the conservatorship of the person will end at this hearing, said Arminak. If there are outstanding issues that need to be handled first  such as a fleshed-out transfer plan  the judge may set a date in the near future for it to end.

How will Spearss life change if/when the conservatorship is terminated?

She will be fully in charge of her day-to-day life. She can go where she wants. She doesnt have to get approval to, say, go to Hawaii, and she will be 100 percent in charge of all her medical and personal decisions.

She has obviously been treated as a minor in the eyes of the law and would be restored legally to being an independent adult, explained Arminak.

Will she be free to speak out?

The muzzle will be gone, said Arminak. I imagine were going to hear from her a lot more frequently.

What else might immediately change for her?

She would be free to demand records, documents, and information regarding the past 13 years of her conservatorship, said Arminak. When she was the conservatee, that would have been a little bit more difficult for her. Were seeing a little bit of this now with her attorney subpoenaing documents and trying to send over deposition subpoenas and that kind of stuff.

What will the termination mean for people like Jodi Montgomery, who is currently the temporary conservator over Spearss person?

Jodi Montgomery gets transitioned from a court-authorized person to basically an employee that Britney could terminate or get rid of, said Arminak.

Montgomery could continue to help her and assist her in transitioning. But thats going to be up to Spears, and she can change her mind in an instant, said Arminak.

But she will still have a conservatorship over her estate, right? How will that work?

Theres so much money that I dont think anyone is interested in giving her a $60 million check to go deposit, said Arminak. But certainly if Britney, for example, called and said I need a million dollars for whatever she wanted, she would get it.

Eventually, they would just be the firm thats managing her money, and she would be the client. She would be the one calling the shots. I dont think it would be a situation where her money isnt going to be handed to her. At the end of the day, she will be in charge of her own finances in terms of what she wants, when she wants to have it, and when she wants to spend it, Arminak explained.

What about spending time with her sons?

In the past, that was done through the conservator, said Arminak. And there were issues  obviously Jamie with that restraining order. But now there is no barrier. Theres no buffer person. Theres no conservator to deal with. Shes the one thats going to be making those decisions about how often she wants to see the kids, if she wants more custody, all of those things.

Spears posted on Instagram that Donatella Versace is designing her new wedding dress. If the conservatorship over her person were lifted, she would be free to make the decision herself to legally get married.

Yes, when shes ready to marry, she is free to.
Invasion Home Invasion Season 1 Episode 6 Editors Rating 2 stars * *  Previous Next Photo: Apple TV+

Shout-out to the best TV bottle episodes: Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine waiting on their Chinese-restaurant reservation; Peggy and Don arguing about what the money is for; Mulder and Scully stuck in Alaska with an alien parasite intent on takeover. I cite The X-Files season-one episode Ice specifically because it accomplishes numerous things Invasions sixth episode, Home Invasion  a tiring bottle episode that somehow feels laborious despite a half-hour running time  does not.

Ice makes the stakes clear about who, or what, is presenting a threat. It makes plain what will happen if Mulder and Scully dont stop this thing from getting out into the rest of the world. It generates tension between characters we already know, trust, and like, and it leads us into the labyrinth of whom to trust and whom to suspect. Six episodes in, Invasion still hasnt revealed enough about what the hell is actually happening, and yall, my patience! On all fronts! Is being tested!

The aliens character design remains generic. Humans are still annoying. I wish Aneesha had just left her family behind, because I am apparently coldhearted. I wish Luke at any point had been like, Oh yeah, heres this weird metal-looking thing Ive been carrying around for days that is apparently an alien weapon or something? I wish Sarah would not cry when explicitly told to stay quiet because of the advancing monster. Get it together, Malik family!

Alas, they do not. And so this will be a short recap, because not much happens in Home Invasion! The episode opens with Aneesha, who is still in the back of that truck with other rounded-up medical workers and first responders, being driven by the military to another town in need. This time a school got hit by something, and the men in the back alongside Aneesha are refusing to believe the presidents explanation of an extraterrestrial attack. Its Russia! Or maybe China! None of this matters to Aneesha, who realizes that yes, she just abandoned her family. Although practicing medicine was theoretically her dream, she bounces out of the barely stopped vehicle and starts running home.

Yup, she just Forrest Gumps her way through what seems like numerous towns! They had been driving for a while, but her sense of direction and stamina are amazing! She passes an attacked military convoy and a number of what look like burned bodies, and when she makes it back to Patrick and Kellys, she stumbles over another corpse in their living room  and fears the worst. But after Invasion basically copies the basement scene from Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruises War of the Worlds remake, Aneesha is pulled up into the attic by Patrick, where everyone is safe and trying to wait out the aliens vibrating through the house.

Weve seen a number of other characters in other parts of the world struggle to understand what is happening, and Invasion does that again, quite repetitively, in this attic scene. Patrick, who killed the intruder downstairs, is rightfully pissed that the Malik family cant shut up and stay quiet. QAnon Kelly, before an alien tugs her in half, is convinced the aliens are after water. They both die for having generously let the Maliks into their home, and in making their escape, Aneesha, Ahmed, and the kids pick up a few more details about the aliens.

As we saw in Afghanistan, they possess what looks like a shapeshifting, metallic exterior, and they can grow additional appendages, tentacles, or mouths. As we saw in Japan, they seem to communicate through soundwaves. New information, though, is that they can die via a lot of gunshot wounds, or from an attack with whatever same material makes up their bodies. Or maybe its their armor, since they revert back to seeming smoothness instead of aggressive prickliness once they die? Again, the darkly lit scenes and imprecise CGI makes this all difficult to parse! What is clear, though, is that Home Invasion ends with Aneesha getting another Very Protective Mom, Increasingly Bad Person award for locking the doors so that Patrick cant get into his own car, Luke reiterating his worst-kid-on-TV status by never once explaining what hes been carrying around, and Ahmed somehow surviving a direct attack from the alien intruder. Or is he maybe compromised (and infected?), as we assume Sam Neill was by the end of that first episode? Where is that man?! Can he save us  and this show?

Were Talking Here About Your Future

 Its bizarre to me that the doctor who assisted Aneesha in the extraction of that clearly alien tech from that guys leg would be furthering the It cant be aliens! conversation, but hey, at least she didnt fall in love with him.

 Aneesha has some serious self-control, because I would have eaten those gummy worms immediately.

 Is it the best military in the universe? Ahmed, have you even heard of Space Force?!
Love Life Marcus Watkins Season 2 Episode 9 Editors Rating 3 stars * * *  Previous Next  Photo: Courtesy of HBO Max

Did anyone elses heart drop when they realized this was going to be a pandemic episode? Every piece of media that has attempted to depict the year 2020 has done it in such a surface-level manner that it fails to articulate anything worthwhile. But thats the problem with trying to be the first. What can you say without the hindsight needed to fully comprehend how the pandemic era has affected the world? How can you define this moment in time when it isnt even over yet?

Unfortunately, Marcus Watkins isnt going to be the definitive cultural artifact of the pandemic. Though if people in 100 years want a CliffsNotes summary of 2020, this could probably do the job. Starting from New Years Day and ending with the countdown into 2021, the speed at which this episode ticked off every single rona talking point  *deep breath* mask-wearing, quarantine relationships, sanitization, social distancing, Zoom, outdoor dining, bread baking, random hobbies, pandemic weddings, anti-vaxxer parents  in 25 minutes is, frankly, exhausting. Was it necessary to make multiple jokes about hoarding toilet paper??? The point is that Marcus had the same year as all of us, I suppose.

Marcus starts his year hoping for a fresh start after his scarring breakup with Mia and the disastrous camping trip with the Boys. But by March, hes been sent home from the office, and hes stuck in his apartment with the girl he kissed at midnight, Angelie. The episode transports you right back to the paranoia of the first weeks of isolation. Angelie is dismissive of the viruss severity, taking socially distant yoga classes over staying indoors. Her hand washing routine is certainly shorter than Happy Birthday sung twice. Intense close-ups on the way Angelies unsanitized hands rummage through the cutlery drawer speak to Marcuss discomfort over his living situation, and he quickly breaks it off with her. Hed rather be single than catch the rona.

If the pandemic has forced Marcus to reprioritize his relationships, its also caused him to rethink his career. The performative allyship of Sutton Court in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests has only crystallized how hes been taken advantage of and sidelined. An offer to give his approval for a statement of solidarity from the company is the final straw, and he calls out his boss for only supporting Black people when the moment calls for it  not in the least, Trae Lang, who Josh only cared about once he became a best seller. I bring you Black writers with good, and I mean really good, manuscripts, and automatically youre just, like, I dont get it, Marcus says over a Zoom call. But what really sets me off is that I dont think you even actually care to. Josh is the kind of ally who will post a black square on Instagram but wont put in the work of actually uplifting writers of color. And Marcus has had enough, so he quits with a ceremonial slam of his laptop.

A surprise phone call from Mia finally finds closure to the cheating debacle with the TaskRabbit. When youre in the middle of a global crisis, those things seem less consequential. She tells the truth about what happened in Maryland and asks to apologize in person, but its clear that he never got over Mia, and the truth hurts just as much as not knowing. But as he stands as Idas Best Man at her intimate wedding, he realizes that Mia is probably the closest thing to real love. If his sister is willing to have a hastily thrown together ceremony attended by a dozen people and their parents on a FaceTime call, all because she loves her wife so much that she cant wait any longer, then why should a little road bump matter to Marcus when it comes to the rest of his life? (Having witnessed his imperfect sister find happiness in an imperfect world with an imperfect partner, Marcuss mind went back to Mia.)

So he agrees to meet Mia for lunch (Outside, naturally). And she catches Marcus up on what shes been up to since that tumultuous trip to Maryland: Her mom is bipolar, and she didnt know how to handle it, but shes been in therapy for ten months, and shes working on herself. Theyve both been looking for the perfect relationship, terrified of showing each other the worst parts of themselves when in reality their version of perfect is standing right in front of them  if they could just compromise. So they meet each other halfway, literally, as they walk back on their good-byes. I always want to be there for you, even when youre being an asshole, Marcus says. But I dont want you to be anything other than what you are because thats who I love. Its not a grand, poetically composed confession of love, but its real. Its laced with the understanding that he wont bail the second things get tough because they will. Hes happy with Mia the way she is.

Its been a whole fucking saga for Marcus and Mia. And not for one second has it been the peak of romance, just chance and maybe even fate bringing them together until the time was truly right. It feels strange to describe Love Life as a rom-com because it lacks the markers of that genre. Their meet-cute, if you can call it that, was awkward small talk outside a dive bar. Their entire relationship has been messy from the start, but it feels true to life that such a connection would take almost half a decade to cultivate before it could actually work. And now the time is finally right. Marcus went into 2020 thinking that it would be his year, and now that hes ending it with Mia sleeping by his side, maybe it really was.

Love Bites

 Kian calls in from what looks like a beach house, meaning he was one of those wealthy people who flew away to somewhere glamorous to ride out the quar. Eat the rich includes you, Kian; sorry, bud.

 How quickly do you think Marcuss neighbors filed a noise complaint against him when he started learning the trumpet as his quarantine hobby?

 Ida, when Marcus says he broke up with Angelie: Oh, good for you. I didnt think you had it in you.

 I will be so embarrassed if Marcus and Mia break up in the next episode after I just wrote all that.
A California man who is wanted by the FBI for allegedly assaulting police officers during the U.S. Capitol insurrection says he is considering seeking asylum in Belarus because he is the target of "political persecution," according to Belarus state television.

Evan Neumann was charged earlier this year with six crimes related to his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, including assault on law enforcement officers, according to a criminal complaint. He told the station Belarus 1 in a recent interview that after the FBI began searching for him, he "started hiding, traveling across America from one place to another."

Neumann then fled to Europe, according to Belarus 1, where he moved around several countries until he arrived in Ukraine in mid-March. Authorities in Ukraine began following Neumann, he claimed, prompting him to attempt to enter Belarus by foot in August, where he was detained by the country's border guards, according to the station.

"I wouldn't dare ask for asylum until the (Security Service of Ukraine) started following me in Ukraine, two weeks later. It's horrible," he said in his interview, claiming he's the subject of "political persecution."

"And this is a level that I can't do anything about," Neumann said.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who has come under fire in recent years for human rights abuses, recently made reference to the deadly Capitol insurrection during an interview earlier this year in response to a question on repression and the imprisonment of political opponents. He accused the U.S. of "lawlessness," during his answer, citing the insurrection and invoking false claims about the U.S. presidential election result.

The criminal complaint says that, among other things, Neumann punched two officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as he and other rioters wrestled with officers over a barricade. The document says after the officers lost control of the barricade, Neumann and others used it as a "battering ram" to strike officers.

Neumann said in his interview that he doesn't believe he committed any crimes and that the assault charge "is wholly without merit."

It was not immediately clear whether Neumann is currently being represented by an attorney.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
A Fort Payne man was killed in a Thursday crash.

Robert Lee Woody, 76, was fatally injured when his 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer left the roadway, hit a culvert and overturned, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

He was not wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene, troopers said.

The single-vehicle crash occurred about 2:45 p.m. Thursday on U.S. 11 near South Valley Avenue, about a mile south of Collinsville.

The incident remains under investigation.
A local church ministry will be giving away free groceries to anyone who visits the church between 10 a.m. and noon Sunday.

The First Seventh-Day Adventist Church of Huntsville's Community Service Ministry is hosting the event, which will be drive-thru only. Recipients must have valid photo ID, but the church emphasized the help is otherwise available to everyone.

The church is located at 1303 Evangel Drive. When a vehicle arrives, the church asks all occupants to have their masks on. Food items will be loaded into the trunk of the vehicle only.

To learn more about the church and ministry, click here.
Athens First United Methodist Church is asking for the community's support in continuing to provide food to those in need.

The church will host its annual "Stuff-A-Truck" food drive from 8 a.m.4 p.m. Saturday in the First National Bank parking lot on the corner of Lindsay Lane and U.S. 72 in Athens. The public is invited to bring canned goods and nonperishable food items to the bank, where volunteers will gather them for future distribution to residents suffering food insecurity.

All contributions will go to Limestone County Churches Involved for distribution.

Items being sought include: pancake mix, syrup, canned fruits and vegetables, pasta sauce, canned meat or fish, rice, boxed potatoes, spaghetti, jelly, soup, boxed macaroni and cheese, cereal, toilet paper, canned pasta or stew, flour, sugar, cooking oil, tea bags, corn meal, dried beans, hot chocolate mix, stuffing mixes, gravy mix, cranberry sauce, evaporated milk, cake mix and frosting, and small stocking gifts for kids.

To learn more about LCCI and how you can help their mission to combat hunger in Limestone County, click here.
A trim off the top and a trim off the bill, as one local barber honors veterans with a free haircut.

"I've been cutting hair for 34 years," said Ollie Taylor of Taylor's Barber Shop. "I've done a lot of veterans through the years, and it just never seems like 'thank you' is enough."

Veterans receive a free haircut at Taylor's Barber Shop on Veterans Day in honor of their service. Veterans receive a free haircut at Taylor's Barber Shop on Veterans Day in honor of their service.

Taylor now says thank you with his craft.

"You turn them around to the mirror, and they feel good about the way they look, and you get to thank them for their service, and it just means a lot," he said.

It's veterans like Bill Stepp who make Taylor's job worth it.

"I had what most people consider a great couple of years in the Army," said Stepp.

He served in Panama back in 1953.

"It feels pretty good," he said. "I'm glad I was able to do something in my youth."

The clean shave won't last forever, but the feeling of gratitude is what goes beyond the barbershop walls.

"What says it all is that smile, you know, on their face," said Taylor.

This is the second year Taylor's Barber Shop has honored veterans in this way. They gave more than 40 veterans free haircuts on Veterans Day.
A Falkville man is the first from Alabama to plead guilty to his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol

Lonnie Coffman pleaded guilty to three charges Friday morning: two counts of posession of an unregistered firearm and one count of carrying a pistol without a license.

He was arrested Jan. 6 after being found with loaded weapons and Molotov cocktails. He has been held in custody since that time.

According to his plea agreement released by the U.S. Department of Justice, "Coffman traveled from Alabama to the District of Columbia several days prior to Jan. 6 and parked his red GMC Sierra truck at the 300 block of First Street, SE, on the morning of Jan. 6.

"Coffman admitted in the plea agreement that he exited the truck at 9:20 a.m. and walked in the direction of the U.S. Capitol Building, and toward a rally near the National Mall. Inside the truck were several loaded firearms within arms-reach of the drivers seat, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, a crossbow with bolts, machetes, camouflage smoke devices, a stun gun and a cooler containing 11 mason jars filled with ignitable ingredients for Molotov cocktail incendiary weapons.

"Coffman also carried a loaded handgun and a loaded revolver as he walked around the area that day. A search of Coffmans residence in Alabama later that month led to the discovery of 12 additional mason jars containing ignitable substances, each constituting the component parts of Molotov cocktails."

Coffman will be sentenced April 1, 2022. He faces up to 15 years in prison and more than a half-million dollars in fines.

Learn more about Coffman's arrest here.
The University of North Alabama celebrated Veterans Day despite the rain moving their original plans indoors.

Dozens packed into the Guillot University Center to hear UNA alum Col. Scott Rawlin. Joining them was Nicholas Burnett, a veteran and current UNA student.

Burnett told WAAY 31 about the struggles veterans face when leaving the service.

"I would say the biggest struggle is just the reintegration coming back home," Burnett said. "Even if they didn't serve in combat such as I did and my fellow brothers did. Just the transition back to civilian life is in itself a task and difficult."

Burnett said he's getting a degree in social work and plans to work for the Department of Veterans Affairs to help fellow veterans navigate their benefits and adjust to civilian life.
More than 750 students as well as faculty and staff honored veterans Wednesday in a parade hosted by Whitesburg Christian Academy, school officials said.

More than 100 veterans were honored, including four from World War II. Whitesburg Christian Academy said one veteran, Larry Mullins, told them the hard work put in by the school, the kids cheering and all of the waving flags made it a day he won't soon forget.

"These veterans allowed our students the opportunity to personally express their deep appreciation," said WCA Headmaster and Vietnam War veteran Jerry Reeder. "Their presence in the parade today furthers our missing to teach and inspire students to love our country, honor our heroes and see in person that service and sacrifice are noble and God-honoring endeavors."

Reeder joined Master Army Aviator Col. Greg Fortier and Thanh Boyer, Vietnam refugee and author of "The Ground Kisser," in a short program following the parade.

Click through the gallery to see photos from the event.
For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate.
Booster to be made available for people in their 40s and 50s.

Italy is to offer a third dose of the covid-19 vaccine to the 40-59 age group from 1 December, according to a statement released by the health ministry on Thursday.

The booster jab will be offered to people in their 40s and 50s provided it is at least six months after their second vaccination, or the single J&J shot, reports news agency ANSA.

The extension of the vaccine is due "to the increased circulation of the virus, which has led to a rise in the incidence of new infections", said the health ministry.

Health minister Roberto Speranza, speaking in parliament on Wednesday, said: "We consider the third dose absolutely strategic for the vaccination campaign."

Speranza said: "We began with the immunocompromised, the frail, medical workers, the over-60s and those who had J&J who can have booster jabs after six months."

As of Friday, more than 45 million people or nearly 84 per cent of the Italian population over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated, and 2.2 million have received booster shots, according to the latest health ministry data.

Photo credit: MikeDotta / Shutterstock.com.
Mattarella reportedly signs lease on Roman apartment, reigniting a hot political topic.

Italy's president Sergio Mattarella is set to move into an apartment in Rome after his seven-year-term of office comes to an end on 3 February 2022.

The 80-year-old head of state has signed a lease to rent an apartment in a residential area not far from the city centre, between the Parioli and Salario Trieste neighbourhoods, according to Italian news magazine L'Espresso.

This is the same apartment that Mattarella viewed a few weeks ago, with his daughter Laura, leaving the home-owner speechless as she opened her front door to the president of Italy.

To say that Mattarella would be "downsizing" is a major understatement.

His current place of residence is the vast Palazzo Quirinale, the sixth largest palace in the world, which extends for an area of 110,500 sqm and has been Mattarella's home since he became president in 2015.

Mattarella's alleged future home measures 120 sqm, a far cry from the Quirinale which is 20 times larger than the White House and one third again the size of Buckingham Palace.

Italy's next president

Mattarella's reported signing of the apartment lease brings to the fore a hot political topic in Rome - who will be the next president of Italy?

On Thursday evening Mattarella said he agreed with his predecessors Giovanni Leone and Antonio Segni who believed the Italian presidency should be a one-mandate-only role.

Italy's current premier Mario Draghi has long been tipped as the frontrunner to move into the Quirinale when Mattarella moves out.

But there is a strong desire among the establishment and general Italian public for both Draghi and Mattarella to stay on in their current roles.

The much-touted theory is that Mattarella could seek a second term to let former ECB boss Draghi remain as premier to oversee Italy's spending of more than 200 billion of EU post-pandemic recovery funds.

Draghi commands respect on the international stage and is also credited with driving through much-needed reforms and unifying - however temporarily - Italy's normally fractious political parties.

However the non-political prime minister is seen as unlikely to put himself through the rigours of an election campaign, just as Mattarella is now all the more unlikely to remain in the Quirinale after January.
There are many reasons weve become a nation of shopaholics. Weve become a richer country which means we spend more. Many goods have become cheaper and more accessible. Thats partly because of technology that makes production more efficient. For shoppers, the Internet makes it easier to find more goods for the best prices without even leaving your home. The other big factor is we get more stuff from abroad, imports of goods and services as a share of GDP has nearly doubled since the 1980s. Lots of trade has been with countries like China and Mexico who have lower labor costs. Even American-made goods use parts that come from abroad. We experienced the vulnerabilities of a global supply chain in the last few years, but when it does work (most of the time) it means the U.S. can fully exploit the comparative advantages of trade and provide goods more efficiently, faster and for less money.
The domestic shale boom has allowed the U.S. to join the ranks of the worlds biggest oil producers, lending weight to arguments that the emergency reserve is past its sell-by date. But in recent months U.S. crude production has stalled, demand has increased and imports have been trending upward. In the past the reserve has been used to pay government bills ranging from roads to deficit reduction and drugs, and current plans are for the stockpile to be cut almost in half over several years. But periodic use of the reserve after natural disasters may be the most effective rebuttal to the case for doing away with it.
Moreover, while a combination with GlaxoSmithKlines soon-to-be-free consumer business may look easier, such a deal would still run up against serious antitrust issues. And J&Js stock is already relatively expensive. At a 16 times expected 2022 earnings, the shares are the second-most highly valued among U.S. peers and roughly a 10% discount to European competitors AstraZeneca Plc and Roche. The question is whether the remaining pharma business can retain its multiple without the support of consumer assets, given the likes of Colgate-Palmolive Co. and Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc trade at more than 20 times next years earnings.
Moderna says its willing to acknowledge the NIH and a trio of its researchers as collaborators but not as co-inventors. The NIH says that such an omission deprives NIH of a co-ownership interest in that application and the patent that will eventually issue from it. More than rights and profits stemming from a patent claim are at stake here. Having a rightful claim to a game-changing invention and a place in the history books matters, too. Barney Graham, an NIH scientist involved in the vaccine research, told the Times that the governments collaboration with Moderna went like this: We did the front end. They did the middle. And we did the back end.
The warnings comes as U.S. and Haitian authorities are trying to secure the safe release of 17 members of a missionary group from Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries who were kidnapped by the 400 Mawozo gang on Oct. 16. There are five children in the group of 16 U.S. citizens and one Canadian. Their Haitian driver also was abducted.
Quite possibly. Given the difficulty that a suspension of the protocol would create for the EU, it may look to retaliate against the U.K. in other areas of their trading arrangements. For example, it could seek to impose tariffs on sensitive industries, or increase the intensity of customs checks on goods crossing the English Channel. It might even go as far as terminating the entire post-Brexit trade deal. A tit-for-tat tariff dispute could also strain the unity of EU member states. Some nations, including France, are talking tough to defend what was agreed in the Brexit deal, while Germany worries about the impact of a trade war on its companies. The EU is the U.K.s largest trading partner and businesses from both sides would lose market access. If the conflict were to spiral out of control, the hard-fought peace and stability of Northern Ireland could, ultimately, be in jeopardy.
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
The artworks that might appear to be the oldest in the MEI Art Gallerys exhibition Converging Lines: Tracing the Artistic Lineage of the Arab Diaspora in the U.S. are four antique-looking photographs of women in traditional dress. The photo process is vintage, but the pictures are from 2019, and made by their subject, performance and conceptual artist Sama Alshaibi. Both the costumes and the photos actually parody the sort of images Westerners once made of Middle Eastern women. The Iraq-born Arizonan uses her assumed poses to subvert received ideas of Arab life and culture.
It helps that he and Price leave behind safe blue seats for new members with fresh legs. The same cannot be said for Bustos, the fifth-term moderate who hails from Republican-leaning turf on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities and was one of only seven Democrats to win in a district that went for Trump last election. She, too, feels the urgency of this political moment: Democracy is on the line, she told The Post. We have to stay and fight. And yet her resignation means forfeiting any advantage she might have as an incumbent as Democrats try to hang on to her seat in 2022.
Danchenko was indicted on charges that he repeatedly lied to the FBI about where and how he got information that he allegedly gave to Steele for the dossier. He pleaded not guilty in federal court this week. His attorney, Mark Schamel, said in a statement: For the past five years, those with an agenda have sought to expose Mr. Danchenkos identity and tarnish his reputation while undermining U.S. National Security. This latest injustice will not stand.
Lonnie Leroy Coffman, 71, of Falkville, Ala., admitted to one federal count of possessing an unregistered firearm or destructive device  the molotov cocktails  and one D.C. count of carrying a pistol without a license. He was the first person indicted in the pro-Trump protests that devolved into violence against nearly 140 police officers and forced the evacuation of Congress as it met to confirm the 2020 presidential election results.
Binger argued that the video goes exactly to [Rittenhouses] state of mind when it came to understanding use of force and self-defense: the same weapon, the same desire to take matters into his own hands with regard to a business he has no ties to and a community he doesnt live in.
I think this is one of the big mistakes that leaders make, is they actually think that its their job to make a quick decision, as opposed to step back and actually listen to the experts, to listen to those that know the institution the best and then to understand how to move forward in a way that actually reestablishes and supports the tremendous reputation and the tremendous institution that VMI is. . . . Because I think good leaders actually understand what they dont know. And bad leaders always try to fill in the holes and make things up along the way.
We have to come up with a plan on how do we help Afghanistan in humanitarian crisis and make sure it is not a failed state, this official said. What do we need to do that? How do we get to that place? We are nowhere near that.
The sanctions on Eritrea are unlikely to have immediate consequences for the war in northern Ethiopia, as Eritrean troops once heavily involved in the fighting have largely withdrawn to Eritrea and to slivers of border areas remaining under their control, according to multiple diplomats with whom The Washington Post spoke last week.
S. Korea seeks to investigate U.S. diplomat over car accident: South Korean police said they are pushing to investigate a U.S. diplomat to determine whether he fled after a traffic accident in Seoul. The diplomat's car rear-ended a taxi but kept moving, police said. The taxi chased the car until it stopped close to the gate of a nearby U.S. military base. Officers dispatched to the site tried to identify the diplomat, but he refused to comply with any inquiry, police said. His car was later moved into the U.S. base, which houses some American diplomats, police said.
Think of Joseph Harris, an enslaved harbor pilot in Hampton, Va., who escaped to the British during the summer of 1775 and then rescued two Royal Navy captains in two months. He will always belong, first and foremost, to African Americans. But his story is powerful enough to lift us all. Or take Harriss contemporary, Lemuel Haynes, the son of a White mother and a Black father. In 1776, while serving in George Washingtons Continental Army, Haynes wrote an antislavery pamphlet called Liberty Further Extended. He opened by quoting the Declaration of Independences assertions that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights  and thus became the first person ever to quote what would become the declarations most iconic sentence. Indeed, simply by repeatedly quoting all men are created equal, Haynes, Benjamin Banneker and other abolitionists, Black and White, transformed the Continental Congresss act of secession from Britain into a universal declaration of human rights. Far from feeling threatened by the Black-led transformation of the declaration, Whites ought to honor that history as one more way to celebrate our founding document.
Whats often called motivated reasoning is at least partly to blame  people believed something that was mathematically nonsensical because they wanted to believe it. But too many people couldnt recognize it as mathematically nonsensical. Americans are generally bad at math. A 2012 global study of the math skills of 16-to-65-year-olds found that American adults were less numerate than adults in most other developed countries. On a scale ranking skills from Level 1 to Level 5, with Level 5 the highest, 60 percent of Americans were at Level 2 or below, and almost 30 percent were at Level 1, which meant they struggled with even two-step calculations. Thats a serious problem when it comes to evaluating vaccine effectiveness, since doing so requires multiple steps: looking at what percentage of total covid hospitalizations or deaths are among the vaccinated, looking at what percentage of the population is vaccinated, and then adjusting for that and for age to calculate how much more likely an unvaccinated person is to be hospitalized or die.
Weve all spent the past year thinking about the return to normalcy in the wake of the pandemic. But our worlds always changing, even outside of the moments that seem obviously exceptional. Sometimes that change takes the form of some dramatic, unforeseen rupture; often, it happens more subtly. What aspects of the imagined, far-off future might soon become part of our ordinary present? Were asking policy experts, historians, scientists, economists and creators about the ways they think that society will shift next  transformations that once may have seemed inconceivable, but now seem possible.
Months after the electoral college vote was certified and Joe Biden inaugurated, Republicans are still being forced to look backward to 2020. Attempts by Donald Trumps acolytes to audit or overturn results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin continue, and the former president urges these on  calling last years free and fair elections an insurrection and the storming of the Capitol by his supporters a peaceful protest. Meanwhile, a similar thing has happened in at least one 2021 election: While former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has urged Republicans to accept reality and move forward, unsuccessful New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli spent more than a week refusing to concede a race that every news organization had called for his opponent before finally backing down on Friday.
This is about meeting our nations needs, Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News. And for those who, in my view, are going to be so petty that they would deny good, solid policy because they dont want the person holding the keys to the White House today to be able to say they got that under their watch, what a shame on us that were not willing to put the priorities of the country first over the politics of this.
Psaki declined to elaborate on specific items on the agenda for the meeting. But a prominent area of tension between the United States and China is Taiwan, particularly after a recent escalations in confrontations between Beijing and the self-governing island. At a CNN-hosted town hall in Baltimore last month, Biden was asked if the U.S. would defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China, and he responded, Yes, we have a commitment.
Editors Note An earlier version of this story published on Oct. 31, 2017, referred to previous reporting in The Washington Post that Belarusan-American businessman Sergei Millian had been a source of information for a dossier of unverified allegations against Donald Trump. In November 2021, The Post removed that material from the original 2017 story after the account was contradicted by allegations in a federal indictment and undermined by further reporting. References to the initial report have been removed from this piece.

President Trump on Tuesday belittled former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty this week to lying to federal agents investigating Russias interference in the 2016 election, tweeting that few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar.

But interviews and documents show that Papadopoulos was in regular contact with the Trump campaigns most senior officials and held himself out as a Trump surrogate as he traveled the world to meet with foreign officials and reporters.

Papadopoulos sat at the elbow of one of Trumps top campaign advisers, then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, during a dinner for campaign advisers weeks before the Republican National Convention, according to an individual who attended the meeting.

He met in London in September 2016 with a mid-level representative of the British Foreign Office, where he said he had contacts at the senior level of the Russian government.

And he conferred at one point with the foreign minister of Greece at a meeting in New York.

[Heres what we know so far about Team Trumps ties to Russian interests]

While some top campaign aides appeared to rebuff Papadopouloss persistent offers to broker a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, there is no sign they told him directly to cease his activities or sought to end his affiliation with the campaign.

Emails included in court documents released Monday show that Papadopoulos repeatedly told Trump campaign officials about his contacts with people he believed were representing the Russian government.

The court documents do not answer a key question: whether Papadopoulos also told his superiors that he had met a London-based professor who claimed to know that the Russians had dirt on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, including thousands of her emails.

An FBI agent told the court in July that Papadopoulos lied in an interview with federal agents, saying he did not tell anyone on the campaign about the dirt because he thought the professor was a nothing.

[Whos who in the George Papadopoulos court documents]

At 29, Papadopoulos had scant experience that qualified him to advise a presidential candidate. He had entered the Trump campaign after a six-week stint working for the campaign of Trumps rival for the Republican nomination, neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Carsons campaign manager, Barry Bennett, recalled that Papadopoulos was hired after sending him an unsolicited message via LinkedIn seeking a job.

At the time, Carsons campaign was desperate to show it had policy experts advising his campaign, given that most leading Republican foreign policy thinkers had been snapped up by other candidates.

Bennett said his only vetting was to ask a friend at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, where Papadopouloss resume indicated he had worked as a researcher, whether Papadopoulos was an okay guy.

I wasnt looking for something stellar, Bennett said. I wanted to make sure he was okay.

For six weeks of work, Bennett said, Papadopoulos was paid $8,500, before he was let go from the campaign at the end of January 2016 as it shed staff.

By March 2016, Trumps campaign, like Carsons before it, was eagerly searching for foreign policy expertise. As Trump rose in the polls and won Republican primaries, the former reality TV host was under pressure to announce a group of advisers with whom he was consulting on foreign policy issues.

The scrutiny intensified early that month after 70 conservative national security experts signed an open letter opposing Trumps candidacy. In mid-March, Trump was asked on the MSNBC show Morning Joe to name people with whom he spoke about foreign affairs.

Im speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain, Trump responded, prompting more calls for a list of formal advisers.

To come up with names, the campaign turned to Sam Clovis, a former Iowa radio host who served as national campaign co-chairman, an attorney for Clovis confirmed Tuesday in a statement.

But the statement did not address how Papadopoulos ended up on the list. Bennett said he was not consulted and would not have recommended his former employee if he had been asked because he found him unimpressive.

On March 21, Trump included Papadopoulos among five men he announced were advising him on matters of national security in a meeting with The Washington Post editorial board. An energy and oil consultant. Excellent guy, Trump said.

[Anyone . . . with a pulse: How a Russia-friendly adviser found his way into the Trump campaign]

If Trump or his team had undertaken even a cursory vetting of Papadopoulos, they would have found that much of his already-slim resume was either exaggerated or false.

While he claimed to have served for several years as a fellow at the Hudson Institute, officials there said he had been an unpaid intern and a researcher under contract to several fellows who were writing a book.

Although he claimed to be U.S. Representative at the 2012 Geneva International Model United Nations, officials at that organization said they had no record of him.

Papadopoulos said he had delivered the keynote address at a leading American-Greek organization in 2008  while a student at DePaul University. But records from the gathering indicate he merely participated in a youth panel with other participants. The keynote was delivered by 1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.

Though Papadopouloss exaggerated resume issues quickly became public, he remained a part of the Trump advisory panel and soon began urging campaign aides to let him set up a meeting between Trump and Russian officials.

Court documents show he raised the idea at a March 31 meeting of the group attended by both Trump and Sessions, who had endorsed Trumps campaign, telling the group that he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and President [Vladimir] Putin.

He also began appearing in the foreign press. While visiting Israel the next month, he told a group of researchers that Trump saw Putin as a responsible actor and potential partner, according to a column in the Jerusalem Post.

In May, he told the Telegraph of London that Prime Minister David Cameron should apologize to Trump for calling the candidate divisive, stupid and wrong. Camerons comments had come after Trump announced that he supported a ban on Muslims entering the United States.

Papadopouloss comments were big news in Britain  and the campaign took notice.

J.D. Gordon, a former Pentagon spokesman and Trump national security adviser, said campaign officials were displeased, and Papadopoulos was counseled that he should clear future media appearances with campaign staff and keep a low profile.

I was surprised to learn what George Papadopoulos was up to during the campaign, he said Tuesday in a text message. He obviously went to great lengths to go around me and Sen. Sessions.

And yet, Papadopoulos continued to be invited to campaign events. In late June or early July, he attended a dinner at the Capitol Hill Club along with several other national security advisers for the Trump campaign.

Another person who was at the meeting said Sessions also attended; Papadopoulos was seated to Sessionss left.

A spokeswoman for Sessions declined to comment.

Media appearances by Papadopoulos continued.

In September, he spoke extensively to Interfax, telling the Russian news agency that Trump has been open about his willingness to usher in a new chapter in U.S.-Russia relations, depending on Russia acting as a responsible stake holder in the international system. He also questioned the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions on Russia.

By that time, WikiLeaks had released emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee that were widely suspected to have been stolen at the direction of the Russian government. Trumps warm rhetoric toward Putin had become a controversial topic on the campaign trail.

Court documents show that Papadopoulos forwarded a copy of the Interfax article to a Russian woman with whom he had been corresponding during the campaign.

[Timeline: How Papadopoulos tried to work with the Russian government]

British sources said it was around that time that he approached British government officials to say he was traveling to London and asked to be given a meeting with senior government ministers. Instead, he was offered a session with a mid-level official at the Foreign Office in London.

During the meeting, Papadopoulos made a comment indicating he had contacts at the senior level of the Russian government, British sourcessaid. British officials quickly concluded he was not a major or knowledgeable player in the Trump orbit and did not pursue the issue or continue contact.

A spokesman for the Greek Embassy said he met with that nations foreign minister in New York. Spokesman Efthymios Aravantinos said the conversation was conducted as part of a routine effort that the embassy makes to reach out to Greek Americans hoping they have a sentimental attachment to Greece and that we can connect.

It is not clear how much the campaign knew about Papadopouloss activities. But he continued through these months to have contact with other Trump officials.

In September, Papadopoulos emailed another Trump aide, Boris Epshteyn, and told him he planned to be in New York and hoped to set up meetings around the U.N. General Assembly meeting.

The email was described to The Washington Post in August of this year and is among 20,000 pages of documents that the Trump campaign has turned over to the White House, congressional committees and defense attorneys.

Papadopoulos wrote that he wanted to connect Epshteyn with a friend, Sergei Millian of the Russian American Chamber of Commerce, the emails said.

Epshteyn said he never met Millian and declined to comment further. Asked in August to describe his relationship with Papadopoulos, Millian responded by email, I can meet and talk to any person. . . . Its none of your business.

Millian did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Papadopoulos continued to hold himself out as a Trump adviser, even after the November election.

Two days after Trumps inauguration in January, he met in Washington with a group of Israelis headed by Yossi Dagan, a leader of the West Bank settler movement that prepared a video of the session to be shown at home.

We had an excellent meeting with Yossi and we hope that the people of Judea and Samaria  the name used by the Israeli right for the West Bank  will have a great 2017, Papadopoulos said, according to the video. We are looking forward to ushering in a new relationship with all of Israel.

According to an account in the Jerusalem Post, the settler leaders had been invited to attend the inauguration and meet with senators, congressmen and members of the Presidents team. Dagan, reached by telephone Tuesday in Israel, declined to comment on the visit or who had arranged the meeting with Papadopoulos.

While the president now seems to have left Papadopoulos behind, Papadopoulos has continued to highlight the tie. On LinkedIn, he indicates he was a Trump adviser through January 2017 and includes the experience as the first line of his description about himself.

President Trump recommendation about me: George is an oil and gas consultant; excellent guy,  Papadopoulos wrote.

karen.deyoung@washpost.com

om

Dan Balz, Sari Horwitz and Devlin Barrett in Washington and Ruth Eglash in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Read more:

Three former Trump campaign officials charged by special counsel

This is a nothing burger: How conservative media reacted to the Mueller indictments

Upstairs at home, with the TV on, Trump fumes over Russia indictments
In his victory speech last week, Murphy pledged to listen to all of New Jersey. He also joked that he just had the most New Jersey experience: I was on my way someplace, and it took us longer to get here than we planned.
Murkowski was the first Republican senator to call for Trump to resign after the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying he had caused enough damage. She was one of seven GOP senators to vote against him at his subsequent impeachment trial.
He said he has known Millian for about seven or eight years, since the younger businessman contacted him when he was living in Atlanta. During the campaign, Morgulis said that Millian said he had become close to the Trump campaign, since he knew someone in Trumps group. But Morgulis said he was skeptical that Millian had any influence on Trumps operation.
The Zervos case recently seemed poised to go forward with the possibility of a Trump deposition by the end of the year. In a conference with the judges court attorney early last month, the parties were pushed to complete depositions before January. It was not immediately clear if Trump or Zervos had been deposed before reaching an agreement to end the case.
Editors Note An earlier version of this story published on Oct. 30, 2017, referred to previous reporting in The Washington Post that Belarusan-American businessman Sergei Millian had been a source of information for a dossier of unverified allegations against Donald Trump. In November 2021, The Post removed that material from the original 2017 story after the account was contradicted by allegations in a federal indictment and undermined by further reporting. References to the initial report have been removed from this piece.

Several weeks after Donald Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination, his national campaign co-chairman urged a foreign policy adviser to meet with Russian officials to foster ties with that countrys government.

Make the trip, if it is feasible, Sam Clovis wrote in an August email to George Papadopoulos.

The email, included in court papers unsealed Monday, shows how an otherwise low-profile adviser has become a focus of the federal probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

Papadopoulos was in contact with several senior Trump campaign aides about his efforts to broker a relationship between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the court papers show. In addition to Clovis, who now serves as senior White House adviser to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Papadopoulos wrote to campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the newly released documents show.

The campaign officials are not identified in court documents, but some of the emails cited by federal prosecutors match messages described in August to The Washington Post by people familiar with their contents.

The newly released documents show that while senior Trump officials at times rebuffed or ignored Papadopoulos, they were well aware of his efforts, which went on for months. His interactions with them could complicate the White Houses attempts to distance the president from Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty Oct. 5 to lying to federal agents.

[Trump campaign emails show aides repeated efforts to set up Russia meetings]

Trump himself knew of Papadopouloss claims that he had a pipeline to Moscow: During a March 2016 meeting of the campaigns national security advisers in Washington that Trump attended, Papadopoulos said he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between the then-candidate and Putin.

On Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she was not sure that the president recalls specific details of the meeting, calling it brief. She described Papadopouloss role with the campaign as extremely limited.

In a statement, Cloviss attorney Victoria Toensing said Clovis, a radio host from Iowa who was one of Trumps earliest supporters, always vigorously opposed any Russian trip for Donald Trump and/or the campaign.

She said Clovis was being polite when he encouraged Papadopoulos to meet with Russian officials in August, adding that the campaign had a strict rule that no person could travel abroad as a representative of the campaign. Clovis could not stop an American citizen from traveling abroad in his personal capacity, she said.

Clovis has been nominated to be the top science adviser at the USDA. His hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled for Nov. 9.

[Whos who in the governments investigation into Russia ties]

Lewandowski did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Papadopouloss attorneys Thomas Breen and Robert Stanley said they would refrain from commenting on the case.

We will have the opportunity to comment on Georges involvement when called upon by the Court at a later date, they said. We look forward to telling all of the details of Georges story at that time.

Trump first identified Papadopoulos as one of his advisers in a March 2016 meeting with The Posts editorial board, describing him as an energy and oil consultant. Excellent guy.

[Anyone . . . with a pulse: How a Russia-friendly adviser found his way into the Trump campaign]

Papadopoulos was charged under seal in July and was arrested when he arrived at Dulles International Airport on July 27. His plea agreement indicates that he is cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. He pleaded guilty in October to lying to federal agents about his contacts with people with connections to the Russian government, filings show.

Papadopouloss efforts to arrange a meeting with Russian officials began days after he was named to Trumps campaign team and continued for months. At one point, he emailed Lewandowski to discuss Russias interest in hosting Mr. Trump. Have been receiving a lot of calls over the last month about Putin wanting to host him and the team when the time is right, according to documents.

A month later, he reiterated Russias interest in an email to Manafort.

In response, Manafort forwarded Papadopouloss offer to his deputy Rick Gates, writing, We need someone to communicate that [Trump] is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.

Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni told The Post in August that the campaign chairmans response indicated that any invitation by Russia, directly or indirectly, would be rejected outright.

Papadopouloss proposed trip ultimately did not take place, court documents show.

[Paul Manafort, Rick Gates charged by special counsel]

According to court papers, Papadopoulos lied to federal agents about one of his key contacts: a London-based professor he met in Italy in March 2016, days after he joined the Trump campaign.

In a subsequent meeting in April, the professor told Papadopoulos that the Russian government had dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, including thousands of Clintons emails.

That conversation occurred weeks before the Democratic National Committee revealed that it had been hacked and believed that Russians were behind the attack. It also came about a month after an email account belonging to Clintons campaign chairman, John Podesta, was targeted with a phishing attempt that may have led to the hack of his emails. Podestas emails were released by WikiLeaks in October 2016.

One email quoted in court filings regarding the professor matches an exchange previously described to The Post in which Papadopoulos identified the professor as Joseph Mifsud, the director of the London Academy of Diplomacy.

That document, as well as emails with Clovis and other top campaign aides, was among more than 20,000 pages that the Trump campaign turned over to congressional committees after review by White House and defense lawyers.

Mifsud told The Post in an email in August that he had absolutely no contact with the Russian government and said his only ties to Russia were through academic links. He did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

When asked about the unsealed indictments Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, We dont know what the charges are. After being sent a copy of the indictments, he responded, My office hours are over!

Papadopoulos also communicated with a Russian woman with ties to the government and a man in Moscow he believed was connected to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, filings show.

At the time, Papadopoulos incorrectly believed that the Russian woman was a niece of Putin, according to court documents.

We are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump, she wrote to him in April 2016. The Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced.

[Timeline: How Papadopoulos tried to work with the Russian government]

According to court filings, she told Papadopoulos that she would like to help set up meetings with her associates to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under a future President Trump.

After Papadopoulos emailed campaign officials about her offer, Clovis responded that he would work it through the campaign, but added, Great work.

Toensing described Clovis as a polite gentleman from Iowa who would always have been courteous to a person offering to help the campaign.

Clovis played a key role in boosting Trump during the Iowa caucuses, but his influence within the campaign subsequently waned amid tense relations with Trumps son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.

During a Jan. 27, 2017, interview with FBI agents, Papadopoulos said he had met the Russian woman before he joined the Trump campaign and falsely stated that he had no relationship with her, according to court filings.

The day after his second interview with FBI agents, in February, Papadopoulos deactivated his Facebook account, which had information about his outreach to Russian officials  a move prosecutors said was aimed at obstructing their investigation.

Papadopoulos, who has a scant foreign policy background, briefly advised the 2016 presidential campaign of neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

When Trump identified Papadopoulos as an adviser in March 2016, the hotel and real estate executive was rising in the field of Republican presidential candidates, and his campaign was eager to show that it had credible voices offering advice on foreign policy. Among the other advisers he named that day was Carter Page, another energy consultant whose ties to Russia have been under scrutiny.

Throughout the summer, Papadopoulos met with foreign officials and gave interviews to media in other countries, sometimes describing Trumps views on Putin or Russia.

He told a group of researchers in Israel that Trump saw Putin as a responsible actor and potential partner, according to a column in the Jerusalem Post; later he met with a British Foreign Office representative in London and a Greek official in New York, British and Greek embassy spokesmen have said. He also criticized U.S. sanctions on Russia in an interview with the Russian news outlet Interfax.

Robert Costa, Carol D. Leonnig and Philip Rucker in Washington, Karla Adam in London, and David Filipov in Moscow contributed to this report.


(Kirill Kallinikov/Sputnik via AP)

Editors Note The original version of this article published on March 29, 2017, said that Sergei Millian was a source for parts of a dossier of unverified allegations against Donald Trump. That account has been contradicted by allegations contained in a federal indictment filed in November 2021 and undermined by further reporting by The Washington Post. As a result, portions of the story and an accompanying video have been removed and the headline has been changed.



The original account was based on two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide sensitive information. One of those people now says the new information puts in grave doubt that Millian was a source for parts of the dossier. The other declined to comment.

By his own evolving statements, Sergei Millian is either a shrewd businessman with high-level access to both Donald Trumps inner circle and the Kremlin, or a bystander unwittingly caught up in a global controversy.

An examination of Millians career shows he is a little of both. His case lays bare the challenge facing the FBI as it investigates Russias alleged attempts to manipulate the American political system and whether Trump associates participated.

Millian told several people that during the campaign and presidential transition he was in touch with George Papadopoulos, a campaign foreign policy adviser, according to a person familiar with the matter. Millian is among Papadopouloss nearly 240 Facebook friends.

Trump aides vehemently reject Millians claims to have had close contact with Trump or high-level access to the presidents company.

Millian did not answer a list of detailed questions about his interactions with Trump, instead responding by email with lengthy general defenses of Trumps election as Gods will.

Any falsifications, deceit and baseless allegations directed against any US President is damaging to the national security interests of the United States, he wrote in one email.

Some of those who know Millian described him as more of a big-talking schmoozer than a globe-trotting interlocutor. They say hes a self-promoter with a knack for getting himself on television  like the time he appeared on a 2013 episode of the Bravo reality show Million Dollar Listing, where he attempted to broker a sale with a Russian-speaking client who agreed to pay $7 million in cash for a luxury New York unit.

Hes an opportunist. If he sees an opportunity, he would go after it, said Tatiana Osipova, who was a neighbor of Millians when he lived in Atlanta and who in 2006 helped him found a trade group, the Russian American Chamber of Commerce in the USA. Osipova now lives in St. Petersburg but has remained in touch with Millian. Hes a fun guy, a smart guy. But always talking. He talks so much s---.

Millians original name was Siarhei Kukuts, but those who know him say he changed it because he wanted something that sounded more elegant. He told ABC News in July that he changed his name to honor his grandmother, whose last name he said was Millianovich. He has also at times gone by the name Sergio Millian.

My general impression of him was that he just wanted to be important. Nobody really knew what he or the chamber were doing, but he presented himself with grandeur, said Nadia Diskavets, a New York photographer who was also a founding member of the Russian American Chamber of Commerce but has not been in touch with Millian recently. So I always took everything he said with a grain of salt.

Another acquaintance referred to him in a similar way, saying he exaggerated his connections with Trump and with the Russians. Hes too small of a fish to deal with Russian people, she said. They will smell his smallness from miles away.

Born in Belarus, Millian, 38, attended a university in Minsk. A Russian-language version of his biography that was posted on the Russian American Chamber of Commerces website says he studied to be a military translator.

He arrived in the early 2000s as a young, single professional in Atlanta, which has a large Russian-speaking community. Friends there said he worked in real estate, and, according to one resume posted online, he opened a translating business whose clients included the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Friends said that Millian founded the Russian American Chamber of Commerce as a way to forge business ties between the United States and Russia and as a personal networking opportunity.

Millians affiliation with the group also appears to have boosted his profile in Russia. He hosted events in the United States and abroad on the chambers behalf and, after moving to New York, began being interviewed repeatedly by Russian-language news outlets as an expert on U.S.-

Russia relations. He traveled to Moscow in 2011 courtesy of a Russian government cultural group later investigated by the FBI for allegedly recruiting spies, though there is no evidence that the inquiry involved Millian.

Millians account of his relationship with Trump has shifted over time. As the Republican candidate was rising in the spring of 2016, a time before there was close scrutiny of Trumps ties to Russia, Millian used his media appearances to describe deep connections with the New York real estate mogul.

He told the Russian state-

operated news agency RIA Novosti last April, for instance, that he met Trump at a Miami horse-racing track after mutual associates had organized a trip for Trump to Moscow in 2007.

From there, Millian said, he entered into a business arrangement in which he says he helped market a Trump-branded condominium complex in Hollywood, Fla., to international investors, including Russians.

Millians description of the Miami event appears to match up with a picture he posted on Facebook that appears to show him posing with Trump and the projects developer, Jorge Perez  the only evidence that Millian ever met Trump.

A spokesman for Perez said his company has no record of paying Millian in connection with the project, and Perez declined to comment further.

A White House spokeswoman said, Sergei Millian is one of hundreds of thousands of people the president has had his picture made with, but they do not know one another.

Millian, however, promoted ties he claimed to hold with Trumps company.

A 2009 newsletter posted to the website of the Russian American Chamber of Commerce reported that the group had signed formal agreements with the Trump Organization and Perezs company to jointly service the Russian clients commercial, residential and industrial real estate needs.

In the interview with RIA Novosti, Millian boasted that when he was in New York, Trump introduced him to his right-hand man, Michael Cohen, a longtime Trump adviser  a claim that Cohen has denied.

He is the chief attorney of Trump, through whom all contracts have to go, Millian told the Russian news outlet, adding, I was involved in the signing of a contract to promote Trumps real estate projects in Russia.

You can say that I was their exclusive broker, Millian continued in Russian. Back then, in 2007-2008, Russians by the dozens were buying apartments in Trumps buildings in the U.S.A.

Asked in the April interview how often he spoke to Trump or his associates, Millian responded: The last time was several days ago.

Millian told people last year that he was in touch with Papadopoulos, whom Trump had described in a March 2016 Washington Post editorial board interview as a member of his foreign policy team and an excellent guy.

Papadopoulos received attention during the campaign largely because of reports that he had exaggerated his resume and cited among his accomplishments that he had participated in a Model United Nations program for college and graduate students.

But, according to foreign news reports and officials, he conducted a number of high-level meetings last year and presented himself as a representative of the Trump campaign. He told a group of researchers in Israel that Trump saw Putin as a responsible actor and potential partner, according to a column in the Jerusalem Post, while later he met with a British Foreign Office representative in London, an embassy spokesman said. He also criticized U.S. sanctions on Russia in an interview with the Russian news outlet Interfax.

Papadopoulos did not respond to questions about contacts with Millian. But Papadopoulos said by email that his public comments during the campaign reflected his own opinions and that some of his energy policy views run counter to Russian interests. No one from the campaign ever directed me to discuss talking points,  he said. In a separate email, he accused The Post of relying on innuendo and unsubstantiated claims by irrelevant sources.

Neither Millian nor a White House spokeswoman responded to questions about Papadopoulos. The person familiar with the contacts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not provide details.

Over the summer, as Trump prepared to accept the Republican presidential nomination, Millian traveled to Russia. He posted pictures on his Facebook page showing that he attended a Russian government-sponsored summit in St. Petersburg in June. One photograph shows him with Russias minister for energy. Another shows him chatting with Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, who is close to Putin. A spokeswoman for Deripaska declined to comment. A spokesman for the Russian Embassy did not respond to questions about Millian.

Later in the summer, Millian continued boasting of his Trump connections.

He told ABC News that he had been the official broker for the Trump-branded condo building and described Trumps affinity for working with Russians. He pointed to hundreds of millions of dollars that [Trump] received from interactions with Russian businessmen.

Millian added that Trump likes Russia because he likes beautiful Russian ladies  talking to them, of course. And he likes to be able to make lots of money with Russians.

Millian told ABC that he was absolutely not involved with Russian intelligence. But when asked whether he had heard rumors to that effect, Millian replied, Yes, of course.

Millian also said that, at times, he talked about U.S. politics with top Russian officials. Usually if I meet top people in the Russian government, they invite me, say, to the Kremlin for the reception, of course I have a chance to talk to some presidential advisers and some top people, Millian said.

While Cohen has said he has never met Millian, the two did interact last year over Twitter. Millian was, for a time, one of about 100 people that Cohen followed and they tweeted at each other on one occasion in August after Cohen appeared on television.

Cohen later unfollowed Millian, telling The Post that he had mistakenly thought Millian was related to a Trump Organization employee with a similar last name.

He is a total phony, Cohen said in an interview. Anything coming out of this individuals mouth is inaccurate and purely part of some deranged interest in having his name in the newspaper.

Cohen said he did not believe Trump was in Russia in 2007, as Millian claimed in April.

Cohen said it was possible that, like other brokers in Florida, Millian might have attempted to sell units at Trump Hollywood. But, he said, Millian never held an exclusive deal at the project or any contract with the Trump Organization.

Speaking with The Post over the phone from his New York office in a January interview, Cohen also read aloud from a lengthy email he said Millian had sent him shortly before the election that contradicted his earlier public statements.

I met Mr. Trump once, long time ago, in 2008, pretty much for a photo opportunity and a brief talk as part of my marketing work for Trump Hollywood, after my brokering service was signed. Now, to say that I have substantial ties is total nonsense, Cohen said, reading from an email he said Millian wrote after media coverage that mentioned him.

In the email, Millian suggested holding a news conference to clear up the matter, Cohen said. Cohen said he rejected the idea, accusing Millian via email of seeking media attention off of this false narrative of a Trump-Russia alliance despite having met Trump only one time, for a 10 second photo op.

Cohen, who left his job at the Trump Organization in January to become Trumps personal attorney, said this month that he could not release a copy of Millians email because he no longer has access to the companys email system.

In South Florida, where Millian claimed to have had a contract to sell units at Trump Hollywood, there is little evidence that he played a major role.

Daniel Lebensohn, whose company BH3 took over for the Related Group in 2010 after Perezs company struggled to complete the project, said his companys records show no sign that Millian sold any units in the building.

Two Florida-based real estate brokers who specialize in the Russian market and have sold units in Trump Hollywood were equally mystified.

Ive never heard of him, said Olga Mirer, who has traveled back and forth to Russia over the past decade brokering deals at Trump Hollywood and other Florida buildings.

Despite the Trump teams efforts to distance the president from Millian, he nevertheless attended Trumps inauguration in January.

He posted photos of himself on Facebook attending VIP events for supporters, including one in which he posed in front of the podium at a reception for Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus at Trumps Washington hotel. A White House official did not address a question about Millians attendance.

Alice Crites in Washington and David Filipov in Moscow contributed to this report.


Jared Kushner, senior adviser and son-in-law to President Trump, attends a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Nov. 1. (Reynold/Epa-Efe/Rex/Shutterstock)

Editors Note An earlier version of this story published on Nov. 16, 2017, referred to previous reporting in The Washington Post that Belarusan-American businessman Sergei Millian had been a source of information for a dossier of unverified allegations against Donald Trump. In November 2021, The Post removed that material from the original 2017 story after the account was contradicted by allegations in a federal indictment and undermined by further reporting. References to the initial report have been removed from this piece.

President Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, received and forwarded emails about a Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite during last years campaign that he kept from Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, according to lawmakers demanding that he produce the missing records.

Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking Democratic member Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) sent a letter Thursday to Abbe Lowell, Kushners attorney, charging that Kushner has failed to disclose several documents, records and transcripts in response to multiple inquiries from committee investigators.

Lowell disputed the committees characterization of Kushners compliance, saying Thursday that he has been responsive to all requests and provided the Judiciary Committee with all relevant documents.

In their letter, Grassley and Feinstein instruct Kushners team to turn over several documents that are known to exist because other witnesses in their probe already gave them to investigators. The correspondence include a series of September 2016 messages to Kushner concerning WikiLeaks, the website that published hacked Democratic emails at the height of the campaign. The committee leaders say Kushner had forwarded those messages to another campaign official. Earlier this week, Trumps son Donald Trump Jr. revealed that he had had direct communication with WikiLeaks through private Twitter messages during the campaign.

[Donald Trump Jr. communicated with WikiLeaks during 2016 campaign]

Committee leaders said Kushner also withheld from the committee documents concerning a Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite  that he had forwarded to other campaign officials. And they said that Kushner had been made privy to communications with Sergei Millian  a Belarusan American businessman who claims close ties to the Trumps  but failed to turn those records over to investigators.

Spokesmen for Grassley and Feinstein did not offer any additional information about the missing records when asked about them.

According to two people familiar with the exchanges, in one of the disputed emails Rick Clay, a conservative Iraq War contractor, passed on a request for Kushner or other campaign officials to meet with people connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kushner told a campaign aide to take a pass. Kushner wrote that he feared people exaggerated their connections and could later brag about access to the Trump campaign, these people said.

No meeting happened, at Kushners direction, according to the people familiar with the exchanges. Maria Butina, a Russian gun rights activist, was part of a group that sought Clays help in arranging a meeting with the campaign in June 2016 to discuss persecution of Christians around the world.

Clay later said they made the right call in turning down the meeting.

The second email is one that Donald Trump Jr. forwarded to Kushner and other top aides, the two people said, after he received a direct message from the WikiLeaks twitter account in September 2016.

In their letter, Grassley and Feinstein complained that Kushner had withheld additional information.

You also have not produced any phone records that we presume exist and would relate to Mr. Kushners communications, they wrote.

Grassley and Feinstein demanded that Kushner comply with their request for documents by Nov. 27 but stopped short of issuing a formal threat to subpoena those records if Kushner misses the deadline.

Lowell said he and Kushner will be open to responding to any additional requests.

Kushners team last supplied documents to the committee Nov. 3, according to Grassley and Feinstein, who stressed that what they received appears to be incomplete. They noted that their letter was an effort to clarify the scope of the committees request, after Lowell asked for more details about precisely what the committee was seeking.

In addition to the emails and records that Grassley and Feinstein noted as missing, the Judiciary Committee is waiting for Kushner to turn over promised transcripts from his interview with other committees. Kushner has spoken with investigators from both the Senate and House intelligence committees, who are probing Russias interference in the 2016 election, but has not met with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

[Kushner questioned by Senate investigators on Russia]

Grassley and Feinstein also wrote that Kushners team should produce his security clearance forms, which Kushner had to update on more than one occasion because he left out contacts with foreign individuals. Kushners team has argued that the forms are confidential.

The committee leaders also expressed general frustration that Kushners team had left out communications about individuals they had identified when asking Kushner to turn over his records.

Finally, the committee leaders asked Kushners team to search for a series of records of communications with and about former national security adviser Michael Flynn, including any that Flynn may have simply been copied on involving many of the Russian individuals and businesses that were known to have contact with members of Trumps campaign team.

Read more at PowerPost
By one count, that has left Helena as one of two state capitals that does not have any active Jewish structure in it. The Jews remaining in the capital have made do for decades by celebrating holidays in each others homes and traveling hours by car on treacherous winter roads for prayer services in other Montana cities.
Dowds emphasis on faith, broadly construed, will come as no shock to the candidates national audience. He is already known for tweeting out poetry, Scripture and other inspirational content to his more than 250,000 Twitter followers. In the Trump era, he said, he incubated, in my social media, a group of folks that have similar thoughts about how we embrace kindness, but also strength, how to push back in a way that isnt cruel or mean.
APSA doesnt have the best track record in terms of transparency and accountability. It released a synthesis of its annual budget for the first time in July 2021, reporting a profit loss of more than $25 million in 2019. Vatican finances overall were heavily impacted by the economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the 2021 budget of the Holy See, which expects a deficit of $60 million.
From February to early May 2020, Zhang uploaded dozens of videos to YouTube including interviews with families struggling with the financial burdens of losing loved ones or their livelihoods, as well as commentary about what she saw as the tragedy of Wuhan authorities heavy-handed response to the coronavirus outbreak.
But they grew up in a world where the 9/11 attacks were either obscured or misrepresented in their lives. It was an alternate universe where a lost generation of rural Afghan youths had few opportunities and never benefited from billions of dollars in Western aid money that elevated the lives of countless Afghans. Filling the void were Islamic schools known as madrassas that shaped the minds of future young Taliban fighters, their learning and their childhoods inevitably cut short by the lure of jihad, or holy war.
Baltic leaders say Protasevichs capture was a message to other Belarusians abroad. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told The Washington Post he read the move as: Guys, look, we will catch you everywhere, no matter where you are  in the air, under the water or hiding in the forest. We will catch you. And even if you fly from one capital of the European Union to another capital of the European Union, we are able to catch you, too.
Due to the problem of illegal border crossings between the European Union and Belarus, it has been decided that the citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen who want to travel to Belarus from Turkish airports will not be allowed to buy tickets and boarding until further notice, a statement from the Turkish aviation authority said Friday, offering refunds.
Within hours, Shiite tribesmen had crossed the stream that separates Rashad from its Sunni Muslim neighbors and were going house to house. Families cowered in the foliage. An old man was shot in his bed. By midnight, at least nine more villagers were dead, and the sky burned red as fires ate up their homes.
On Friday, after a trial in a court inside Insein Prison that was closed to the public, Fenster was sentenced to 11 years on charges including a violation of the immigration act and the unlawful associations act. During the trial, the prosecution argued that official records did not accurately reflect where he was employed, as the ruling junta sought to establish that he was working for Myanmar Now, a different outlet that was banned in the country after the coup.
After the U.S. announcement, NSO Group called off a leadership transition in which Itzik Benbenisti was set to take over as CEO from the companys founder, Shalev Hulio. A source within the company said Thursday that Benbenisti resigned after the transition was scrapped and before assuming the new position. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because the company has not issued an official statement.
Quickly resolving the current electoral impasse is critical to Somalias future, a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu said soon after the Feb. 8 election date was missed. It is the responsibility and the duty of national and regional leaders to put aside the search for political advantage and instead act in the interests of the people of Somalia, who deserve the best from their leaders. Now is the time to resolve outstanding issues and finish the job of holding elections.
MARY RUTH WAGLER  The funeral for Mary Ruth Wagler was held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021, at First Mennonite Church, with Chris Raber, Gaylon Sommers and David Lee Stoll officiating. Burial was in the church cemetery.
Trusted local news has never been more important, but providing the information you need, information that can change sometimes minute-by-minute, requires a partnership with you, our readers. Please consider making a contribution today to support this vital resource that you and countless others depend on.
Virgin Australia has been accused of hoarding take-off and landing slots at Sydney Airport which it no longer has enough aircraft to use, potentially locking out competitors from the countrys most important gateway.

Business Sydney (the Sydney Business Chamber) is concerned the citys COVID-19 recovery will be stymied if the airport is not operating at maximum capacity, and is lobbying the federal government to reallocate all slots previously held by Virgins shuttered budget arm Tigerair.

Virgin Australia has cut back its fleet since going into administration last year. Credit:James Brickwood

The more slots that are available for all the aviation companies, the better it is in maximising this important infrastructure and thats going to benefit Sydney and Australia, Business Sydney executive director Paul Nicolaou said. Its vital for the success of the tourism and hospitality industry and the broader Australian economy.

Country airline Regional Express (Rex) approached Business Sydney about the issue and the lobby group has written to the Transport Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to raise its concerns that Virgin has more slots than it can feasibly use.
The French Revolution has finally arrived in Australia, led by the sharp lines of a little black dress instead of a guillotine. More than 240 pieces for Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto, opening at the NGV International on December 4, have been unpacked in Melbourne revealing how pockets, matching suits and unmatched sophistication changed the world for women.

I am always struck by the timelessness of Chanels work, said co-curator Miren Arzalluz, who oversaw delivery from the refurbished Palais Galliera in Paris, where the exhibition opened last year. There are 1930s dresses that you could see today on the catwalk. That was her modernity. The timelessness of her work.

Ellen Doyle, textile display specialist, prepares a pink suit (Spring 1966) from the NGVs own collection for the upcoming exhibition, Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto. Credit:Eddie Jim

With Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto making its international debut in Melbourne, Arzalluz is reclaiming Chanels reputation as a designer, which has been clouded by books and biographies exploring romances, her behaviour as a horizontal collaborator during the Nazi occupation of Paris and films where she has been played by a diverse roll call including Audrey Tatou, Kristen Stewart and Shirley MacLaine.

We didnt want to talk about the legend. We didnt want to talk about Coco Chanel. So, we reclaimed her name Gabrielle Chanel. We wanted to talk about her as a designer and not the legend.
Shortages fuelled by supply-chain problems are popping up all over the world. In Europe, retailers have reported the highest rate of empty shelves in 30 years. In North America, Amazon has warned that a shortage of warehouse workers will slow down delivery times. In Britain, fear of missing out caused a surge of Christmas pudding sales in October.

Here in Australia, badly tangled global supply chains will soon threaten retailers with bare shelves and children with empty Christmas stockings. The toilet paper frenzy of 2020 was merely a dress rehearsal for what is about to take place in Australia over the next two months.

Australians have been urged to start their Christmas shopping early. Credit:Steven Siewert

This holiday season was always going to be busy. Australian consumers emerged from lockdown last month like taut rubber bands, ready to hit the shops. The trifecta of government stimulus, low interest rates and cash savings are likely to fuel a record Christmas spending bonanza.

Already new data is showing a rapid rise in consumer spending. Clothing retail is up 30 per cent and department stores are up 40 per cent from the lowest point in the lockdowns. Nearly one in three Australian consumers is planning to spend more this Christmas than last year. That extra demand alone would put a strain on retailers. But logjams at every step of the supply chain are about to compound the problem.
There were 46 good reasons for Scott Morrison to race from a carmakers office to an Italian cafe, a barbershop and a Chinese restaurant in the space of just a few hours one morning in Melbourne this week. There were just as many good reasons for him to dash from an electrical engineering company to the Port of Newcastle in NSW the previous day. And he has good cause to plan the same for Melbourne again on Friday.

The Prime Minister is making up for lost time. He spent 46 days in isolation or home quarantine during the middle of this year, thanks to lockdowns and restrictions when he returned from overseas travel. Now, finally, with no home quarantine required after his trip to Europe last week, he can be on the move where it counts most.

Illustration: Andrew Dyson Credit:The Age

There is a simple reason this week has looked so much like an election campaign. It is an election campaign  a very long one, lasting all the way to election day some time from March to May. It has been frenzied, effective and utterly shameless.

Why? Morrison has no time to waste. He is playing catch-up. Anthony Albanese ran rings around the government in the middle of the year while Morrison was stuck in Kirribilli House and The Lodge. The Labor leader stayed out of Sydney while it was in lockdown and had the freedom to visit marginal seats in Queensland and Tasmania, some of them two or three times.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he doesnt believe hes told a lie in public life after French President Emmanuel Macron and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull accused him of lying.

The French leader said he knew Mr Morrison lied to him over Australias decision to cancel its contract to build submarines in favour of securing nuclear submarine technology from the US and UK under the AUKUS pact. Mr Turnbull said Mr Morrison had lied to him multiple times when they worked together in the Coalition.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Credit:Paul Jeffers

When asked by 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell if he had ever told a lie in public life, Mr Morrison replied: I dont believe I have, no. No.

Mr Morrison said anyone in public life copped accusations and hed learned not to take them personally.
Pictured: an image of a t-shirt similar to those that will be given to volunteers who show up to donate blood at the 34th annual Big Blue Crush event Nov. 15-19, 2021.
Articles Sorry, there are no recent results for popular articles.

Images Sorry, there are no recent results for popular images.
Four seniors at Hardin Central High School earned perfect 36 scores on their ACT. They are (left to right) Nathan Turlington, Tate Lewis, Andy McDowell and Sam Christensen. Images courtesy Hardin County Schools.
A college students grave kitchen mistake led to her air fryer exploding, and TikTok users are saying they do the same thing. (iStock)
A 22-year-old college senior who was critically injured at the Astroworld festival in Houston has died, the familys lawyer said Thursday, making her the 9th fatality from the event.
Retired U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Dana Bowman parachuted from a helicopter, bringing with him a large American flag as he landed on the Weatherford Christian School field Tuesday, Nov. 9 for a special ceremony in honor of Veterans Day.
PRAGUE (AP)  The Czech government is requiring children to get tested for COVID-19 as part of efforts to curtail a recent steep rise in cases.

All elementary and high schools are required to test the country's 1.4 million students in two waves on Nov. 22 and Nov. 29, Education Minister Robert Plaga said.

Medical experts recommended the mass testing. Firefighters will distribute rapid test kits across the country, officials said.

Health Minister Adam Vojtech said the outgoing Czech government and members of the opposition that won an October parliamentary election and is forming a new government discussed additional coronavirus measures on Friday.

Its essential for all of us to be united, Vojtech said.

He declined to detail the new measures, which the government is set to approve early next week. Vojtech said both teams agreed on the importance of vaccination as the rate in the Czech Republic is below the European Union average.

Im glad that the government is listening to us, Petr Smejkal, chief epidemiologist at Pragues Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, told Czech public television.

New confirmed cases jumped sharply this week, arousing concern they would continued rising to the daily record of 17,776 cases registeerd on Jan. 7.

The Czech Republic reported 10,395 new cases on Thursday, about 2,000 more than a week earlier. The daily tally of new cases reached 14,539 on Tuesday, the highest number since March 12.

The countrys infection rate rose to 614 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days on Thursday, up from 558 two days earlier.

The Czech military said Friday that 40 service members will be deployed in hospitals in the eastern Czech Republic to relieve stretched workers.

The Czech Republic has been among the European Union hardest hit by the pandemic, with a total of 1.87 million cases in the nation of 10.7 million and 31,355 COVID-19 deaths.

___

Follow all AP pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
The Great Pumpkin Toss returned to the Westport Farmers Market Thursday as a way to help encourage people to compost old jack-o-lanterns from Halloween and reduce food waste.

Pumpkins were collected at the Action Waste Solutions station within the market.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  South Dakota lawmakers are pressing Gov. Kristi Noems administration to hand over a document that could prove whether a plan was in place to give her daughter another chance to win a real estate appraiser license prior to a meeting last year that has spurred conflict-of-interest questions.

The Legislature's Government Operations and Audit Committee is readying to initiate a subpoena Monday if the Department of Labor and Regulation doesn't hand over a signed agreement between the governors daughter, Kassidy Peters, and state regulators. Peters won her appraiser certification after a state agency moved to deny it last year. Noems labor secretary has said the agreement was a road map for how Peters could improve her work.

Two lawmakers on the committee  Republican Rep. Randy Gross and Democrat Rep. Linda Duba  said the committee was ready to issue the subpoena. However, any subpoena would also require approval from the Executive Board, a ranking committee of top legislators that will meet later next week.

The timing of when the agreement was put into place has become a key question for lawmakers as they look into an episode that has prompted ethics experts to say Noem appeared to abuse the powers of her office. The Associated Press first reported that just days after a state agency moved to deny Peters application to upgrade her appraiser certification last year, Noem held a meeting with Peters and state employees overseeing her application. Four months later, Peters received her license.

Noem has defended her actions, telling the AP last week that the agreement was already in place before the meeting and that it was not discussed at the meeting. The Republican governor, who has positioned herself for a 2024 White House bid, has cast the meeting as part of a long-standing effort to solve a shortage of appraisers in the state.

Secretary of Labor Marcia Hultman, who was also at the meeting in the governor's mansion last year, gave a similar account when questioned by lawmakers in October, although she said the agreement was briefly discussed at the end of the meeting.

After hearing from Hultman, lawmakers moved to request the agreement from her department to confirm the sequence of the agreement being implemented and the meeting. They also agreed to keep any documents confidential to the committee.

The Department of Labor and Regulation did not immediately respond to a question from the AP about whether it would fulfill the request from lawmakers.

Noem has indicated she is loath to turn it over.

When you make a decision and open something up, it sets precedent, she said at a news conference last week after being asked if she would release the documents. Thats why for consistency and to make sure that Im being fair  because thats exactly what Im focused on  I would have to set that same precedent for everybody."

While the agreements themselves state they are open to public inspection, the Department of Labor and Regulation denied a request from the AP for them, citing an exemption that allows the government to keep records secret if they deal with examinations. An appeals office later ruled that the department was right to deny the records request.

Lawmakers may also subpoena the former director of the Appraiser Certification Program, Sherry Bren. She was pressured to retire late last year by Hultman, shortly after Peters received her license. Bren filed an age discrimination complaint and received a $200,000 payment from the state to withdraw the complaint and leave her job.

The committee this week sent a letter to Bren with 24 questions on the episode, but on Friday lawmakers released a letter from her lawyer, Tim Rensch, stating that she would prefer to receive a subpoena and testify in person.

Noem has said the settlement had nothing to do with her daughter.

The committee had requested that Bren appear before them last month, but she declined. Part of her settlement with the state bars her from disparaging state officials. However, Bren told the AP that she would work with lawmakers to correct any factual inaccuracies in Hultman's testimony to the committee.

Republican Rep. Chriss Karr, one of the lawmakers on the committee, said, Were just trying to sort through it and see what is accurate, what is true and what is misinformation so we get the facts."
If you want to conduct an experiment in the sociology of pandemic behavior, try a quick jaunt to Las Vegas. Always a petri dish for freaks, Sin City has gotten stranger in these strange times since it continues to have a mask mandate for everyone, vaccinated or not, gathered indoors.
Instantly.

That's how quickly Narcan, the life-saving opioid reversal agent, gets to work bringing an overdose victim back from the brink of death.

Brighter Side Treatment in Evansville became a Narcan distributor 6 months ago. The center gets shipments from the state at no cost and, in turn, hands them out to the community for free.

"I've been sending out I'd say 50 to 100 a month," said Brandon Smiley, director of Brighter Side Treatment. "To know that we're actually saving lives daily, or we have the ability to save lives daily; even though if there's an overdose, at least they have it available on hand, administrate it and they can come back and get more if they need it."

Narcan has come a long way. It used to be in a syringe, but now it's a small and convenient nasal spray, and all it takes is one pump of the emergency medicine into one nostril.

"We've given it 11 separate times this year and each of those, that person was revived and they were able to be taken to the hospital," Major Jason Ashworth with the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office said.

Though the sheriff's office gets about 100 doses a year, deputies don't typically have to administer them since EMTs are usually the ones on the job.

But even if they have more kits than necessary, they're grateful, because that's not the case everywhere.

Currently, Pfizer is reporting a manufacturing issue that has contributed to a low supply of affordable Naloxone available in parts of the country.

Though, fortunately, the company said the manufacturing issue should be resolved by the end of the year, with vial shipments going out soon.

"I couldn't even put into words what we would be faced with," Ashworth said. "I know the fire department uses Narcan hundreds of times and I wouldn't be able to guess how many lives would be lost if we didn't have it."

With Vanderburgh County seeing its worst numbers ever, 81 confirmed overdoses in 2021 as of September, Smiley said having an ample supply of the life-saving devices can make all the difference in the fight to end the drug epidemic.

"Anything at this point will help lower those numbers," he said. "If a family wants to come by and pick these up I highly encourage them. The more we get out the more we can help save lives."
The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV.
New Jersey Republican Jack Ciattarellis campaign denies that there was fraud in this years governors election but says the margin could shrink enough to warrant a recount. Campaign attorney Mark Sheridan said Monday that no one on this team is alleging fraud or malfeasance. But, he says, there are still provisional and mail-in ballots to be counted, and a recount could be in order. The statement comes after the Associated Press declared Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy the winner last week. Murphys lead has grown from less than a percentage point last week to about 2.6 points on Monday, as votes continue to be counted. The difference amounts to more than 65,000 votes.
WhatsOnStage award winner Emma Williams (Half A Sixpence) is heading out on tour with four other working mums, including West End star Emma Odell (Kinky Boots) and her 15-week old baby.

Joining Williams and Odell on stage are Keisher Downie (Tina), Jade Samuels (Doctors) and Belinda Wollaston (Flashdance The Musical).

Presented in conjunction with PIPA, producers of An Evening with The Good Enough Mums Club are carrying out a case study throughout the tour to examine ways of facilitating parents to continue their careers in the performing arts.

The production promises "an evening of laughter, tears, and music" with songs performed from new musical The Good Enough Mums Club in a concert setting, hosted by the show's creator Emily Beecher. Further creative team members are to be revealed.

"I'm so delighted we've not only been able to find such an incredible cast of actresses who are also mums," Beecher commented. "But for some of them this is their first return to performing after having a child. Our flexible, family friendly approach means people who may not be able to work in normal situations are being supported so they, their children, and their careers can continue to thrive."

The tour kicks off in Birmingham on 18 and 19 November, before heading to Lichfield (4 December), Southampton (28 January), London (4 and 5 February), Barnsley (10 February) and Salford (22 April), with more dates to be announced.

A full-scale production is planned for 2023.
Thank you for reading the Herald-Whig

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.
Team Assistant, New Delhi, India

Organization: World Health Organization (WHO)

Country: India

City: New Delhi

Office: WHO New Delhi, India

Grade: G-4

Closing date: Monday, 29 November 2021

Team Assistant

( 2105593 )

Grade : G4

Contractual Arrangement : Fixed-term appointment

Contract Duration (Years, Months, Days) : Two years

Job Posting: Nov 9, 2021, 1:48:33 PM

The NDE Departments objective is to support and collaborate with the Member States for further development and implementation of national policies and strategies which ensure equitable and universal access to quality health care for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, which includes the NCD Risk Factors prevention as well as disease prevention besides the area of water, sanitation and environmental health.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Under the director supervision of Director - HPN, the incumbent provides office support for the smooth running of the department in the following areas : Office support

Screen and distribute incoming correspondence, attaching background information or related file and forwarding to staff concerned, highlighting issues requiring attention; draft replies to general and administrative matters; type technical reports and documents, tabular materials, etc., ensuring conformity with WHO standards; assist in preparing presentations; follow-up on deadlines to ensure timely response

Obtain documents and information from in-house and external sources and undertake information searches based on brief instructions/guidance

Maintain filing systems and ensure easy accessibility and retrieval of records

Programme support

Prepare contracts for consultants, Agreement for Performance of Work (APW), Technical Services Agreement (TSA) and General External Services requests (GES), record receipt of deliverables and initiate and monitor payments as needed

Initiate requisitions for goods procurement and record receipt of deliverables

Meetings/Duty travel

Support the organization of meetings, workshops, seminars, etc, including typing of lists of participants, preparation of travel requests, letters of invitation, files, presentations and slides, reservation of meeting rooms and hotel accommodation

Prepare travel requests for official travel, make flight and hotel reservations, prepare travel files and other related matters as requested

Other duties

Receive visitors and telephone calls, answering queries and\or redirecting them to appropriate staff providing background information on purpose of appointment

Replace Executive Associate during absences (if applicable); perform other related duties as required or instructed, including provision of support to other areas of work.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Essential: Completion of secondary school

Desirable: Secretarial training; training in computer applications

Experience

Essential: At least three years experience in secretarial/clerical/administrative work.

Desirable: Experience in an international organization would be an advantage

Skills

Thorough knowledge of modern office procedures and practices. The incumbent keeps abreast of changes in procedures and practices, rules and regulations, organizational structure, in the department, and WHO.- Ability to draft standard correspondence;- Ability to handle work in a timely and accurate manner with tact and discretion, as required.

Ability to maintain and update knowledge in the use of office technology through in-house courses, on-the-job training and/or self-training

WHO Competencies

Teamwork

Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences cyX660l Dh7qKS

Communication

Knowing and managing yourself

Use of Language Skills

Essential: Expert knowledge of English.

REMUNERATION

WHO offers staff in the General Services category an attractive remuneration package, which for the above position includes an annual net base salary starting at INR 608,064 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance, as applicable) and 30 days of annual leave.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This vacancy notice may be used to fill other similar positions at the same grade level

Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.

A written test may be used as a form of screening.

In the event that your candidature is retained for an interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO 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 through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.

Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to WHO Staff Regulations, Staff Rules and Manual.

Staff members in other duty stations are encouraged to apply.

For information on WHOs operations please visit: http://www.who.int.

WHO is committed to workforce diversity.

WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter into practice.

WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of final candidates.

WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.

This post is subject to local recruitment and will be filled by persons recruited in the local commuting area of the duty station.

Link to the organizations job offer: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1636567142917
Immunization Communication for Development Specialist, Brazzaville, Congo

Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Childrens Fund

Country: Congo

City: Brazzaville

Office: UNICEF Brazzaville, Congo

Grade: P-3

Closing date: Tuesday, 23 November 2021

Immunization Communication for Development Specialist, P3, Temporary Assignment, Brazzaville, Republic of congo, #118045

Job no: 546036

Position type: Temporary Appointment

Location: Congo Division/Equivalent: Dakar (WCAR), Senegal

School/Unit: Congo

Department/Office: Brazzaville, Congo

Categories: Expanded Programme Immunization

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.

For every child, a champion

The UNICEF Congo Brazzaville Country office is a small-medium UNICEF Country office. The 2020-2024 Country Programme, signed between UNICEF and the Government of Republic of Congo, aims to promote the delivery of an integrated package of quality services for children and promote the education and protection of adolescents, using the life-cycle approach and supporting the equity focus included in the 2030 Agenda, namely, to leave no child behind and help the most disadvantaged first, in the particular context of the Republic of Congo as a Low Middle Income Country.

To meet Programme strategies and results, the office will need committed and creative professionals who want to make a lasting difference for Congolese children.

How can you make a difference?

The Communication for Development Specialist reports to the head of section or Deputy Representative for general guidance and supervision. The Specialist provides technical and operational support for developing a systematic, planned and evidence-based strategy and process for C4D as an integral part of programme development, planning and implementation. Through communication and engagement, as well as the empowerment and participation of stakeholders, communities, children, civil society partners, and government counterparts, s/he promotes measurable behavioral and social change/mobilization. This subsequently contributes to the achievement of sustainable and concrete results in improving childrens rights, survival and wellbeing in the country.

Key functions/accountabilities:

Support to strategy design and development of C4D activities

Implementation of C4D activities

Technical and operational support

Advocacy, networking and partnership building

Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have...

Education

Advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: social and behavioral science, sociology, anthropology, psychology, education, communication, public relations or another relevant technical field.

Work Experience and Requirements:

A minimum of five years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas is required: social development programme planning, communication for development, public advocacy or another related area.

Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.

Experience working in a developing country is considered as an asset.

Language Proficiency

Fluency in both French and English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

Female candidates are highly encouraged.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEFs values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

cyRrEuk Dh7qKS

Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness

Works Collaboratively with others

Builds and Maintains Partnerships

Innovates and Embraces Change

Thinks and Acts Strategically

Drive to achieve impactful results

Manages ambiguity and complexity

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:

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: Nov 09 2021 W. Central Africa Standard Time Application close: Nov 23 2021 W. Central Africa Standard Time

Link to the organizations job offer: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1636474702032
Oil_and_energy

featured

Stark: Bakken still has plenty of horsepower left for Continental Resources, despite its recent Permian acquisition

Renee Jean rjean@willistonherald.com Jack Stark, president and chief operating officer of Continental, talked about the Bakken past, present and future at the annual meeting of the North Dakota Petroleum Council in this file 2016 photo.

Continentals $3.2 billion entry into the Permian Basin does not reflect a lack of horsepower in the Bakken, company officials told investors in its third-quarter earnings call.

Continentals President and Chief Operating Officer Jack Stark said the Bakken continues to consistently deliver some of the companys best wells, and still has a long runway.

Take a look at the Long Creek wells, he suggested. I mean, weve got 11 wells in there. Theyre the first 11 weve completed (there) and they are substantially outperforming you know, the statistical average weve had over the prior years.

Thats despite the fact the Bakken began in the early 2000s, almost two decades ago, Stark added.

It just shows that theres still a lot of horsepower out here in the Bakken that remains to be tapped, he said. And weve got 56 wells in this Long Creek unit to drill and weve got five more that will get completed here probably by year-end.

The well performance of the Long Creek wells, Stark added, is a bellwether for what the company expects to see going forward.

To me, that doesnt look like a play that has reached full maturity and development, he said.

Those kinds of results are why Continental has chosen to build a dominant position in the Bakken, and expects to remain active there for years to come, Stark said.

The Permian acquisition just diversifies the company, Continentals CEO Bill Berry said, giving it strategic positions in the nations four leading basins in the lower 48 states.

The $3.25 billion purchase of Pioneers Delaware assets comes with 92,000 acres that already have more than 650 drilling locations in the three primary reservoirs, and perhaps more than 1,000 locations, if you consider all the other known producing reservoirs that underlie the acreage.

There are 50,000 net royalty acres that are already producing 55,000 barrels of oil per day, which means the purchase, which will close at the end of the year effective as of Oct. 1, immediately adds revenue to Continentals balance sheet.

Not only that, but the purchase includes significant water infrastructure and surface ownership, including 31,000 surface acres and about 180 miles of pipeline, water facilities and disposal wells. All of these can readily be expanded to accommodate future growth. They also offer the potential for future beneficial transactions, but company officials were mum about where those transactions might be, confirming only that the company is looking at its opportunities.

Stark said he expects the companys world class drilling and completion techniques to further enhance production estimates for the new assets.

The Permian purchase is the second major entry into a new shale play for Continental this year. They also spent $215 million on a position in Wyomings Powder River Basin in January.

John Hart, Continentals Chief Financial Officer, said the Permian purchase has been immediately credit-enhancing, and pointed out that it bought the company improved investor ratings from Fitch, Moodys and S & P.

The projected cash flow from the assets will allow rapid debt pay down, while at the same time enhancing the companys commodity options and geographic diversity, Hart said.

With $700 million in cash on hand and the expectation for continued strong free cash flow moving forward, Continental has multiple options for financing the purchase.

We intend to utilize available cash and our revolver to fund a significant amount of this transaction, Hart said. Remaining acquisition financing will be derived from Debt Capital Markets and/or bank term facilities. We will not issue additional equity as a means to fund this deal.

Continental plans to reduce its net debt back to current levels, or about $4 billion, by year-end 2022, and has the ability to get to zero debt within five years, if it chooses.

Given that, the share purchase program is likely to continue as long as market conditions warrant, company officials indicated.

Our commitment to shareholder returns remains solid and strong, Hart said. Buybacks are an important part of that. They remain in place. We bought about 2 million shares this quarter. That will continue. Ongoing debt reduction has been a part of it. That is achievable as well. And obviously we increased the dividend. Were generating a significant amount of cash flow. So that gives us the ability to add resource here and fund it while continuing with share buybacks and strong competitive dividends.
WILTON  After reviewing several locations over the past few months where further housing development could be made possible, the Housing Committee is looking to Wiltons Georgetown section to fulfill that goal.

The committee called upon Town Planner Michael Wrinn Tuesday to trade ideas on redevelopment opportunities for two town-owned single-family properties on New Street that straddle the intersection of Danbury Road.

Housing Committee Chairman John C. Kelly said this Georgetown cluster seemed to be the most promising candidate for potential housing development.

Together, the properties span about 3.63 acres and are nestled into a residential zone of Wilton. The town planner explained that these two properties have been rented out by the town for a long period of time.

And the town is looking to rent them out once more, just not in their current state.

Now, with the Housing Committee eyeing these properties as possible redevelopment zones, Wrinn gave his preliminary thoughts on the project.

A lot of money has to be put back into them to make them viable rental units, Wrinn told the committee on Tuesday. He said that, looking forward, the town will need to make an earnest effort to budget for improvements before reiterating that they would need substantial amounts of funding to bring them to rentable condition.

Wrinn added the Georgetown site would not be used for large developments, such as the 173-unit proposal at 141 Danbury Road.

This is not that idea, Wrinn said. This is a much smaller scale project.

Kelly and Wrinn did not hone in on a definitive number of units, but Wrinn noted that servicing as high as 25 units could cause problems for utilities. The houses sit on a slope. Wrinn said there is roughly a 40-foot differential from one end of the property to the other.

The focus, though, is diversity in housing options, Wrinn said. Per the towns Plan of Conservation and Development adopted in 2019, identifying more ways to increase those housing options is a goal, hence why the Housing Committee was tasked with reviewing the town property list.

As for how these properties are reworked, the committee and Wrinn said its possible a developer can work with them, as well as a nonprofit if it made sense. Kelly also asked about the feasability of incorporating affordable housing units.

Everything is on the table, Wrinn said. Right now, the goal is continuing to look for ideas, massage those ideas and then get to the point of the town being happy and satisfied that they will meet our criteria.

Both rental and for-sale units were discussed; however, due to how the properties are divvied, the town planner expects the buildings to resemble either attached or detached single-family homes.

Another step will be septic testing, according to Wrinn, who said he spoke with the town sanitarian.

Beyond utility testing and firming up designs, Kelly said he and the committee would ask about American Rescue Plan funding for family-oriented housing and whether this project may be eligible.
Sure you could spend Black Friday in a turkey coma after scarfing down a third helping of leftovers or browsing for holiday deals, but Lake Compounce will be offering folks a chance to get into a jolly spirit when its Holiday Lights event kicks off on Nov. 26.

While the COVID-19 pandemic kept the amusement parks holiday festivities in the dark for 2020, Lake Compounce will be switching on all 300,000 lights this holiday season. Holiday Lights at Lake Compounce is back in a big way, Amy Thomas, the amusement parks marketing director said in a press release. We are already hard at work stringing thousands of lights and putting up our 100-foot-tall Christmas tree. Fitting for our 175th birthday, the tree has 175,000 lights  its a cant-miss way to know holiday cheer has returned to Connecticut.
Mark and Beth Schloemer co-own Coventry Group Community Management, which is based in Winchester. The company, which helps manage homeowners associations, is celebrating its 15th year in business.
OTTAWA - Canada's environment minister fended off accusations Friday that UN climate negotiators are resorting to "weasel words" on addressing fossil fuel subsidies.

Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change for Canada speaks during a press conference at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Alastair Grant

OTTAWA - Canada's environment minister fended off accusations Friday that UN climate negotiators are resorting to "weasel words" on addressing fossil fuel subsidies.

As United Nations negotiators wrestled over a final text in the closing hours of the Glasgow climate talks, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault reiterated the Canadian view that subsidies should be phased out.

"Canada is in favour of having a text that states that we need to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, and we would agree that  a timeline should be put in there," Guilbeault said at his closing press conference at the climate talks, known as COP26.

But he acknowledged that "not all parties part of these negotiations necessarily agree with that."

The minister, who is a former environmental activist, was addressing sharp criticism of a draft text addressing fossil fuels that contained language calling for phasing out "unabated" coal power and "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies.

"We have sadly seen the hand of fossil fuel interests interfering with that text to water it down with weasel words, like unabated and inefficient," Catherine Abreu, a member of Canada's net-zero advisory body and the executive director of Destination Zero, said at a separate press conference in Glasgow on Friday.

"This language 'unabated coal,' 'inefficient fossil fuel subsidies'  we've seen it before. We've seen it in the G20 for 12 years  'inefficient fossil fuel subsidies'  it means nothing."

The dispute largely arises between those who argue science dictates all fossil fuel production and use must be phased out to save the planet from catastrophic warming, and those, largely in oil- and gas-producing nations, who see room for continued production and use as long as emissions are reduced or captured.

Eliminating subsidies that help make fossil fuels more affordable is one key part of the process, environmental advocates say.

Abreu called for "some decent language" in the final COP26 declaration to address the need to move more quickly towards a transition to renewable energy.

She said governments need to show more courage and admit the "need to phase out all new production of fossil fuels as soon as possible, including the billions of dollars that world governments spend on fossil fuel subsidies."

Guilbeault said he heard the criticism but that it was premature to judge what will be in the final text.

"Someone earlier this week said, 'Oh, my goodness, there's nothing in the text about fossil fuel subsidies.' And then we saw yesterday a version where there was language," said Guilbeault. "There's another version today."

Canada has been promising to phase out fossil fuel subsidies since 2009, when it was first referenced by the G20 in a communique. Now, Canada is part of a G20 peer review process that is overdue reporting back on what subsidies exist in Canada and how they can be eliminated.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during the recent federal election to phase out subsidies by the end of 2023. But he didn't identify what subsidies he meant, and in Canada there is no agreement yet on what constitutes such a subsidy.

Guilbeault touted the backing of his American counterpart, John Kerry, who denounced the continued subsidies as the "definition of insanity."

Guilbeault said Canadians could take some quiet pride in what they have accomplished in the fight against climate change over the past few years. But he said they still have their work cut out for them to make their commitments a reality.

The minister referenced his background as an activist, saying there were high expectations coming into COP26 but that is because everyone recognizes that the stakes are high.

Guilbeault plans to travel by train across Canada in early 2022 to meet Canadians and discuss ways to implement the Trudeau government's environmental agenda.

COP26 is seen as critical to global co-operation in the effort to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 C by the end of this century, with the final rules for implementing the 2015 Paris climate accord being discussed, and a push for all countries to come to the table with more plans to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

"We either find a way of agreeing or we risk blowing it," said Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, the COP26 host government, as the quest for a final declaration continued and overtime loomed late Friday.

"If they can have the courage to do this deal ... then we will have a road map that will enable us to go forward and start to remove the threat of anthropogenic climate change."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2021.

 with files from The Associated Press.
If you find yourself filling up at a Shell station across Canada, youll likely be greeted by an ad, one that ensures you can drive carbon neutral if you participate in a program from the company.

If you find yourself filling up at a Shell station across Canada, youll likely be greeted by an ad, one that ensures you can drive "carbon neutral" if you participate in a program from the company.

Or perhaps, youll stumble on a video, which shows a family circling around a city in a grey SUV, eventually ending up at a Shell station during the peak of golden hour. "See the difference driving carbon neutral can make" pops up on the screen.

The advertisements are for Shell Canadas Drive Carbon Neutral program, which launched in November 2020. A company press release said from Dec. 31, 2020 onwards, customers at its pumps can contribute two cents per litre to various carbon offset projects.

That program and its claims of carbon neutrality will be challenged Wednesday when environmental group Greenpeace is set to file a complaint to the Competition Bureau of Canada. The group argues the Drive Carbon Neutral program is greenwashing and is therefore tricking customers into participating in an initiative with false claims, which it says goes against the Competition Act: a federal law governing the majority of business conduct in the country.

To read more of this story first reported by Canada's National Observer, click here.

This content is made available to Winnipeg Free Press readers as part of an agreement with Canada's National Observer that sees our two trusted news brands collaborate to better cover Canada. Questions about Observer content can be directed to dana@nationalobserver.com.
WASHINGTON - Canada won't shy away from defending its national interests when North America's three leaders sit down together next week, Melanie Joly said Friday as she wrapped up her first stateside visit as the new foreign affairs minister.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly speaks during a news conference, Tuesday, October 26, 2021 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

WASHINGTON - Canada won't shy away from defending its national interests when North America's three leaders sit down together next week, Melanie Joly said Friday as she wrapped up her first stateside visit as the new foreign affairs minister.

Joly said that was part of the message she delivered earlier in the day when she sat down with her U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The meeting came one week before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to meet with President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at the White House, ostensibly to talk about how to reinforce continental supply chains.

Canada and Mexico, however, are both deeply worried about the Biden administration's proposed tax credit for electric vehicles, which foreign automakers, suppliers and industry leaders say is overly friendly towards union-friendly U.S. companies.

"We know that we have a strong economy because of this integrated supply chain and because of this friendship, but at the same time, Canadians know that we have to defend our interests, and we can never take anything for granted," Joly said after the meeting.

"That's my job  to defend Canadians' interests, while making sure that we have a very strong friendship."

The strategy, as it often is for Canadian emissaries in U.S. political circles, will be to emphasize that given the integrated nature of the North American auto industry, any policy that's bad for Canada will be bad for Americans as well.

"Canada is the biggest exporter of U.S.-made cars, and also the biggest exporter of U.S.-made auto parts," Joly said.

"In that sense, thousands of jobs on both sides of the border are dependent on this supply chain being integrated. We will continue to make sure that this is well known throughout the administration but also throughout Congress as well."

The tax credit, which if passed would be worth up to $12,500 on certain electric vehicles, is part of Biden's $1.75-trillion centrepiece Build Back Better bill, which includes a raft of social spending and climate-change initiatives.

The credit has powerful opponents on both sides of the political aisle, most notably West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat and a critical vote for the White House to get the bill through an evenly divided Senate.

Earlier this week, Manchin reportedly denounced the idea of encouraging the purchase of vehicles made with union labour as "wrong" and "not American" because it involves using tax dollars to pick winners and losers.

The proposal is only the latest example of U.S. policy measures in Biden's domestic agenda that have taken a decidedly protectionist turn, alarming political and economic observers north of the border.

Biden has imposed rigid new standards for using American-made, union-friendly components and materials in U.S. infrastructure projects, and Canadian contractors and suppliers fear a trickle-down effect from his emphatic rhetoric.

His Day 1 decision to cancel a presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline expansion has Alberta's energy sector nervous about two existing cross-border energy conduits: the Enbridge-owned Line 3 and Line 5, both of which are the targets of protesters and legal challenges.

And the months-long imbalance at the land border  Canada began allowing fully vaccinated U.S. visitors back in August, while the U.S. waited until just this week  has also contributed to the hard feelings.

Joly deflected questions about the fact Canada continues to require anyone entering the country to submit the results of a PCR test for COVID-19, a costly proposition that can run anywhere from $150-$300 a swab.

She pointed to the fact that Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, has already indicated the policy is under review.

"We'll always take our advice from our health experts," Joly said.

Tam said Friday the policy is still being "actively reviewed" but did not indicate when a decision will be made.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2021.
BENNINGTON, Vt. (AP)  A chemical company has agreed to pay $34 million to compensate residents of a Vermont town for chemical contamination in groundwater and soil.

BENNINGTON, Vt. (AP)  A chemical company has agreed to pay $34 million to compensate residents of a Vermont town for chemical contamination in groundwater and soil.

The ChemFab plant in Bennington, owned by Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, used industrial chemicals that spread throughout the town and into the groundwater supply, The Bennington Banner reported.

The plant was closed in 2002, but PFOA, one of a group of contaminants often known as forever chemicals, was discovered in 2016 after a similar situation in a nearby New York town.

PFOA has been known to cause kidney, testicular and other cancers and diseases. Levels of PFOA in the blood decrease over a number of years, the newspaper said.

Saint-Gobain will also provide up to $6 million for continued medical monitoring for those who have higher-than-usual background levels of PFOA in their blood.

A spokesperson for the plaintiffs said that the settlement will provide the compensation necessary to aid the Bennington community affected by the PFOA contamination, and we strongly support it.

A judge must approve the settlement before the funds are allocated to the property owners who were affected by the containments.
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP)  Officials in Jackson County in southwest Oregon plan to ask the state for more than $7.2 million to help crack down on the billions of dollars worth of illegal pot grows across the Rogue Valley.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP)  Officials in Jackson County in southwest Oregon plan to ask the state for more than $7.2 million to help crack down on the billions of dollars worth of illegal pot grows across the Rogue Valley.

The money would pay for 37 new employees, including Sheriffs Office detectives, code enforcement officers and more staff for the Jackson County District Attorneys Office, The Mail Tribune reported.

Jackson County Commissioner Rick Dyer said the request is what the county needs over a year to make growing illegal marijuana uncomfortable and risky for people.

Regulated recreational marijuana was legalized in Oregon in 2015, but that hasn't stopped illegal, untaxed grows from proliferating.

Southern Oregon is at the tip of the so-called Emerald Triangle, a pot growing region that includes Northern California.

Oregons Jackson, Josephine, Klamath and Douglas County sheriffs offices regularly find grows and processing and storage sites with millions of dollars worth of illegal marijuana. A potato shed with marijuana worth more than $100 million was found this year in Klamath County and a grow with an estimated $200 million worth of marijuana plants was discovered in Josephine County.

But without enough money from the state and blocked from enacting local taxes on grows to fund marijuana enforcement, Jackson County officials say law enforcement in the region has fallen behind on busting illegal pot operations.

State agencies that regulate the hemp and marijuana industries and agricultural water use are also struggling to keep up with the volume of illegal operators, county officials said.

Jackson County Administrator Danny Jordan said the Jackson County Sheriffs Office can currently tackle about 40 illegal grows per year. Jackson County officials estimate there are 2,000 legal and illegal hemp and marijuana sites locally.

Law enforcement agencies in southern Oregon say foreign cartels are behind many of the illegal grows. They say cartels know some grows will be discovered and destroyed, but the rest will generate vast sums of money once the pot is trafficked to states where marijuana is illegal.

Jackson County's request for funding will go to the Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office Emergency Board, which allocates emergency funds when the Oregon Legislature isnt in session.

Jordan noted the nearly $7.3 million request doesnt include money to address environmental damage from dismantled greenhouses, human feces, pesticides and dangerous electrical wiring left behind by illegal growers.

The state Emergency Board has a larger pile of money this year, in part because Oregons budget was buttressed by federal pandemic aid.

From a budget standpoint, this should be a no-brainer, Jackson County Commissioner Dave Dotterrer said.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that people have a duty to get vaccinated against the coronavirus to protect others.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that people have a duty to get vaccinated against the coronavirus to protect others.

She spoke as Germany grapples with a new surge of infections, which reached a record daily high of 50,000 on Thursday.

Merkel talked for 30 minutes with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in a free-ranging virtual discussion on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

New Zealand is hosting APEC and although Germany is not a member, Ardern said she's long admired Merkel, who will soon leave office.

This virus is very, very tough, Merkel said.

She said it was an enormous scientific achievement to produce vaccines within a year of the outbreak, but that officials still weren't reaching a group of unvaccinated people.

You have the right to get vaccinated, Merkel said. But, to a certain extent, you also, as a member of society, have the duty to be vaccinated to protect yourself and to protect others.

About two-thirds of Germany's 83 million people are fully vaccinated but the nation has resisted making vaccinations mandatory for certain workers. Lawmakers are considering new measures in the face of the latest surge.

During their discussion, both Merkel and Ardern expressed their frustration in the rise of disinformation on social media.

In the old days, we had certain events that happened in our society. Television reported about it and the next day everyone talked about it, Merkel said. Today, everyone participates in his or her own social media. You only engage in a bubble that you meet on the internet.

If there was any advice she could give to future leaders, Merkel said, it would be to try to understand the perspectives of others and what prompts them to act in they way they do.

Ardern said one of the lessons she'd learned from the pandemic was to get people and companies engaged with trying to find solutions by presenting them with the data and showing them the problem. She said everybody had been learning about the virus as it spread.

Literally, you're building the plane whilst trying to fly, Ardern said.

The APEC forum concludes Saturday with a virtual meeting of Pacific Rim leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Red River College Polytechnics newest building at its downtown campus opened Wednesday with an extended Indigenous pipe ceremony.

What had been referred to as the Innovation Centre for the five years of its development was officially renamed at the opening. The building is now called Manitou a bi Bii daziigae  Ojibwe words meaning "where creator sits and brings light."

The acknowledgement of the importance of Indigenous heritage as well as time taken to describe how the spirit name was chosen  RRC Polytechs elders in residence Paul Guimond and Una Swan engaged in a three-day spiritual fast before coming up with the name  is perhaps a sign of the times as organizations like RRC Polytech strive to commit to the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions calls to action.

The 100,000-square-foot building, immediately north of the main Princess Street campus building, includes 18 new classrooms and six program-specific labs equipped with advanced technology that are designed for collaboration as well as a 210-seat auditorium featuring ventilation that will make it a welcoming space for Indigenous smudging ceremonies.

Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press We see a lot of emerging areas of the labour market that are asking for support. The IT industry is an area of the economy that is actively growing and seeking talent and skills  Fred Meier, RRC Polytechs president and CEO

When it becomes fully occupied with students and staff in January, it will bring 1,200 more people into the West Exchange neighbourhood.

Indigenous representation is present throughout the building  with works from Anishinabee artist Jackie Traverse and Cree/British artist KC Adams  and the combination of information technology, Indigenous and language training which will take place there was part of the inspiration for the name.

Swan said, "You walk into the building and you feel the positive energy. The innovation centre represents a new beginning, forward thinking, ideas that were not thought of before."

Manitou a bi Bii daziigae will also become the home for RRCs Language Training Centre, which offers a range of English-language training for 1,000 new Canadian and international students that has been housed for the past 20 years at the Via Rail building.

The Ace Project Space will also move into the new building. The very successful program that links business and information technology students with entrepreneurs who need assistance in specific areas of development for their business will be expanded as the waiting list of entrepreneurs who want to participate keeps growing. So far the Ace Project Space has completed more than 170 projects.

Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press From left: Una Swan, Wayne Ewasko, Fred Meier, Dan Vandal, Brian Bowman and Paul Guimond participate in cutting a ribbon to announce the official opening of Red River College Polytechnics innovation centre.

Kerri Korabelnikov, dean of education and applied arts, said, "The Ace Project Space housed in this new building opens up the possibility as to how we can involve students in more programs in this model of learning."

Even though the buildings christening takes place while most of the colleges students are engaged in remote learning, it will soon become a bustling hub of activity.

Earlier this year the college opened enrolment for 10 new programs, the highest number of new programs in one year in the colleges recent history, all of which will operate out of the new building.

They include digital film and media production, video game production, data science and machine learning and other digital technology courses.

"We have a strong responsibility to be able to meet the emerging needs of our industry partners. We are proud to say that many of the new programs this year were created in consultation with businesses and organizations in Manitobas fastest growing industries," Korabelnikov said.

Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press Attendees watch a video during the innovation centres grand opening.

Fred Meier, RRC Polytechs president and CEO, said, "We see a lot of emerging areas of the labour market that are asking for support. The IT industry is an area of the economy that is actively growing and seeking talent and skills."

Meier said the building will enhance the colleges track record of responding quickly to the needs of the labour market.

He is also not concerned with being able to pay for the $94.5-million undertaking. It was originally financed with a $40.6-million grant from the federal government and a $54.78-million loan from the province.

The loan is to be paid off through a capital campaign that has been on-going. Meier said it would be officially launched later this month.

"One of the things we are looking forward to and are thankful for is the strong support of partners who have been with us for many years," he said. "We have seen them stepping forward when they come to see the space and our new strategic plan."

Certain spaces in and around the new building have been supported by the Red River College Students Association, Wawanesa Mutual Insurance, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, Informanix Technology Group, Fortinet, and the Childrens Education Funds.

With the official opening and ceremony now having taken place, Meier said signage with the buildings official name  Manitou a bi Bii daziigae  will be going up soon.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
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 - Three-week-old giraffe Kendi sits in the giraffe exhibit at the Dallas Zoo in Dallas, Tuesday, May 26, 2020. On Friday, Nov. 12, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming three recent giraffe deaths at the Dallas Zoo may have been related to the COVID-19 vaccine. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

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:

___

Altered video twists Kamala Harris statements on COVID vaccines

CLAIM: A video from a speech shows Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly saying that most people who were hospitalized or recently died from COVID-19 were vaccinated.

THE FACTS: The video was falsified to change what Harris said. The manipulated videos show Harris appearing to say that vaccinated people are being hospitalized and are dying from COVID-19, when the unedited version distributed by the White House shows she actually said this was happening among unvaccinated people. In the doctored clip, Harris appears to state, Virtually every person who is in the hospital, sick with COVID-19 right now, is vaccinated, before repeating the sentence again and appearing to add: Virtually everyone who has recently died from COVID-19 was vaccinated. But the clip had been edited to make it sound like she used the word vaccinated. In the edited version, Harris mouth doesnt match all the words and there is a short, unnatural pause where it appears the word vaccinated was inserted into the video in some instances. The real video of Harris captures her remarks at a vaccine mobilization event in Detroit. It was posted July 12 by the White House YouTube account. During the address, she states: Virtually every person who is in the hospital, sick with COVID-19 right now, is unvaccinated. Im going to repeat that. Its a fact. Virtually every person who is in the hospital right now, sick with COVID-19, is unvaccinated. And even more regrettably, virtually everyone who has recently died from COVID-19 was unvaccinated. The loss. The tragedy of that loss. Literally every person who has died from COVID-19 that we have recently been seeing was unvaccinated. Medical experts have continued to maintain that data shows the vaccines are safe and effective against COVID-19.

 Associated Press writer Sophia Tulp in Atlanta contributed this report.

___

Pfizer CEO was not arrested by the FBI, nor charged with fraud

CLAIM: The CEO of Pfizer was arrested on Nov. 5 by FBI agents, charged with fraud and was being held in federal custody while awaiting a bail hearing.

THE FACTS: A conservative blog published an inaccurate article alleging that Albert Bourla, the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, had been arrested at his home in a suburb of New York City and charged with fraud in connection with the companys COVID-19 vaccine. But Bourla has not been arrested, nor has he been charged with any federal crimes. Pfizer spokesperson Pamela Eisele wrote in an email to the AP that the article was false news. Bourla made appearances on CNBC and CNN on Nov. 5  the same day the article falsely claimed he was arrested  to discuss the companys oral COVID-19 antiviral drug, and he has continued to post on social media. The Federal Bureau of Prisons database does not list Bourla as an inmate and he is not listed on the inmate roster for Westchester County, where the article claimed Bourla was arrested. There are also no results for Bourla involving fraud in a database of federal court records and criminal complaints. The incorrect article, published by the Conservative Beaver, erroneously stated that Bourla faced fraud charges for his role in deceiving customers on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. It also claimed Pfizer was accused of falsifying data, and paying out large bribes. The site did not provide any evidence for its claims and attributed some information to an unnamed FBI agent. The FBI told the AP that it did not have any information on the allegations. The Conservative Beaver did not respond to a request seeking evidence for its claims or any comment on the matter.

 Sophia Tulp

___

COVID vaccines did not kill giraffes at Dallas Zoo

CLAIM: Three recent giraffe deaths at the Dallas Zoo may have been related to the COVID-19 vaccine.

THE FACTS: COVID-19 vaccines didnt contribute to the deaths of three giraffes at the Dallas Zoo in recent months, despite widespread social media posts suggesting otherwise. Several Facebook and Instagram posts incorporated screenshots of two news stories  one about Dallas and Fort Worth zoos planning to vaccinate animals for COVID-19, and the other about the recent giraffe deaths  to insinuate that the two were somehow related. But the giraffes at the Dallas Zoo have not received COVID-19 vaccines, nor have any other animals living onsite, the zoos media team told the AP in an emailed statement on Tuesday. The team said the zoo was still waiting for shipments of animal vaccines, which it will initially administer to species that face the highest risk of getting the virus, including big cats and great apes. Its true that three giraffes at the Dallas Zoo died in October. A 3-month-old calf named Marekani was euthanized Oct. 3 after suffering a catastrophic knee injury that would have resulted in lifelong pain and arthritis, according to the zoos Facebook page. Later in October, a 19-year-old giraffe named Auggie died after dealing with age-related health issues that led to liver failure, the zoo said in a Facebook post. The following week, the death of a 14-year-old giraffe named Jesse, whose blood test results showed abnormal liver enzymes, led the zoo to begin questioning whether the two older giraffes deaths were related. The deaths are still being investigated. We have been able to eliminate encephalomyocarditis (EMC) as a cause of death but are still awaiting results on other zoonotic diseases," the zoo posted on Facebook on Nov. 9. We still believe exposure to a toxin is a potential connection given the abnormal liver enzymes, but we are exploring every possible cause  from bacteria, to parasite, to diseases. The zoo added that it had trimmed back some vegetation in the giraffes' habitat as a precaution. It also said it had been closely monitoring its hoofstock for symptoms and had seen no sign of any ongoing issues.

 Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.

___

Italy did not revise its COVID-19 death toll

CLAIM: Italy has revised its COVID-19 death toll numbers, showing 97% fewer COVID-19 deaths than initially recorded. This represented a change from over 130,000 deaths to under 4,000 deaths.

THE FACTS: Posts circulating on Instagram and Facebook falsely claim that Italy has revised its COVID-19 death toll due to reporting errors or changes to reporting methodology. The Italian Ministry of Health has not revised the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 numbers, official data shows. Health officials say statistics in an Italian National Health Service report on the number of people who died of the virus with no comorbidities are being misrepresented. As of Monday, the Italian Health Ministry dashboard shows Italy has had 4,812,594 COVID-19 cases and 132,423 deaths, proving the death toll has not been revised downward. The false claims misrepresent figures from an October study by the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, the research arm of the Italian National Health Service, which said 2.9% of individuals who died of COVID-19 in the country had no pre-existing conditions. In an email to The Associated Press, ISS spokesperson Pier David Malloni said the false posts stemmed from a misleading article in the Italian press that erroneously reported that only 2.9% of the people deceased with a positive test for COVID-19 were really killed by the virus. This is completely wrong, Malloni said. He added that the report stated that 2.9% of the people who died did not have other comorbidities. Having multiple chronic health conditions puts individuals at greater risk for complications and death from COVID-19, Malloni said, adding that COVID-19 is listed as the cause of death in cases where there are complicating risk factors. According to Malloni, Italy follows the European Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organization rules in classifying COVID-19 deaths.

 Associated Press writer Terrence Fraser in New York contributed this report.

___

Overcrowding in Australian hospitals not caused by vaccine injuries

CLAIM: Australian hospitals are overwhelmed by vaccine-injured patients.

THE FACTS: A number of recent social media posts are incorrectly asserting that Australian hospitals are inundated with patients who have suffered side effects from COVID-19 vaccines, and are sharing a video clip of an Australian premier that is taken out of context to support the false claim. However, hospitals across Australia have experienced diminished capacity, longer wait times and increased demand for years. These issues are being exacerbated by the pandemic, but are not related to COVID-19 vaccine injuries, according to government and health officials. The false claims began circulating following an Oct. 31 news conference in which Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan encouraged vaccination. In response to a question about canceled elective surgeries, McGowan replied that hospitals were under enormous pressure. He added, Why? It is hard to know except that there is some evidence that it is some sort of delayed reaction to COVID." Many social media users shared a clip of McGowans response with the caption: Hospitals all over Australia are overwhelmed by vaccine-injured patients. A spokesperson for McGowan said his comments were misconstrued and that he was referring to the impacts of the pandemic on the health care system generally, not referencing the vaccine. While Australian hospitals are under stress that has intensified during the pandemic, the official attributed the strain to increased demand in attendances to hospital for other ailments," a backlog of elective surgeries and other issues. The Premier was not suggesting it is related to adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, the spokesperson wrote in an email. Two reports released by the Australian Medical Association in the past month have highlighted the pressure facing the health care system, but pointed to a long period of decline in hospital capacity and issues with funding as some of the reasons why facilities have been overwhelmed. In an Oct. 15 analysis, the AMA said public hospitals were in a cycle of crisis due to a funding formula that failed to address the sustained decline of hospital performance over the course of a decade. The organizations 2021 Public Hospital Report Card found that even during pandemic lockdowns when patient volumes were reduced, health care facilities still demonstrated backsliding or barely improved performance. Neither the report card nor the analysis provided any evidence that vaccine injuries were to blame for crowded hospitals. In fact, the reports showed that hospital resources were strained before coronavirus vaccines became widely available. Australias health department maintains that data shows the benefits of the vaccines continue to outweigh the risks, and that the vast majority of COVID-19 vaccine adverse events are not serious.

 Sophia Tulp

___

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck

___

Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck
SHAWINIGAN, Que. - The Quebec government will work to identify leaders of companies based in the province who don't speak French and try to persuade them to learn the language, Premier Francois Legault said Friday.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault responds to the Opposition on labour, during question period in the provincial legislature, in Quebec City, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. Legault says his government will work to identify presidents of Quebec-based companies who don't speak French and try to convince them to learn the language. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

SHAWINIGAN, Que. - The Quebec government will work to identify leaders of companies based in the province who don't speak French and try to persuade them to learn the language, Premier Francois Legault said Friday.

His comments came in reaction to the recent admissions by the CEOs of two major Montreal-based companies that they speak little French. Legault said corporate leaders in Quebec should be able to speak the language of the majority in the province, adding that his government was "looking at different approaches to ensure this."

On Thursday, Ian Edwards, head of engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, cancelled an upcoming speech to a local business group, saying he wanted time to improve his French. In a letter to the Canadian Club of Montreal, Edwards said he doesn't speak French well despite living in Quebec since 2014.

That move came after Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau spoke little French in a Nov. 3 speech to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal and then told reporters he didn't need to learn the language to get by in Quebec's largest city. His comments drew strong condemnation from politicians and media pundits across the province.

Legault said Friday he thinks the two CEOs don't represent the majority of Quebec's business elite.

"I think that the large majority of corporate presidents in Quebec are able to speak French," Legault told reporters in Shawinigan, Que., where he announced an economic plan he said would help close the wealth gap between Quebec and Ontario.

He promised to work with the "small minority" of the province's business leaders who don't. "We have to act with this small minority, to help them, to support them, to convince them," he said.

Legault said he would also talk with Charles Emond, president and CEO of the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, the manager of Quebec's public pension fund and the largest investor in SNC-Lavalin, about whether the fund has a role in promoting French among executives at Quebec companies in which it invests.

"The Caisse has a social responsibility," said Legault, whose government has made the promotion of the French language a priority.

Earlier this week, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland asked Air Canada's board of directors to make French communication an "important criterion'' for senior management and incorporate improvement in Rousseau's French abilities into his annual evaluation. The airline is subject to the Official Languages Act.

In his reply to the minister, Air Canada chairman Vagn Sorensen said Rousseau has begun intensive French lessons. The CEO's knowledge of the language, Sorensen wrote in French, will be "an integral part of his performance evaluation."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2021.

 by Jacob Serebrin with files from Christopher Reynolds



This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
MONTREAL - The head of engineering firm SNC-Lavalin has suddenly cancelled a speech to Montreal's business community because his French-language skills need some work.

SNC Lavalin interim CEO Ian Edwards speaks at the inauguration for the new Samuel de Champlain bridge in Montreal, Friday, June 28, 2019. The head of engineering firm SNC-Lavalin has suddenly cancelled a speech to Montreal's business community because his French-language skills need some work. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

MONTREAL - The head of engineering firm SNC-Lavalin has suddenly cancelled a speech to Montreal's business community because his French-language skills need some work.

Ian Edwards doesn't speak French well despite living in Quebec since 2014.

In cancelling his appearance at the Canadian Club of Montreal on Monday, Edwards promised to return in the new year after brushing up on his ability to speak Quebec's main language.

Edwards says he wants to take the time required to better prepare his presentation and ensure it contains more French.

The move comes a week after Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau ignited a political firestorm by speaking very little French in a business speech and then telling reporters he didn't need to learn the language to get by in Quebec's largest city.

He apologized the next day and agreed to undergo "intensive learning of French" after Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland asked Air Canada's board of directors to make French communication an "important criterion'' for senior management and incorporate improvement in Rousseau's French abilities into his annual evaluation.

"Following my arrival in Quebec in 2014, I took French lessons, with mixed results," Edwards wrote in a letter to the president of the Canadian Club.

"More recently, during a meeting of our board of directors held at the end of October, I had already made the commitment to put the necessary efforts to follow language training to the best of my ability."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:SNC, TSX:AC)
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP)  Going into overtime Friday night, negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow were still trying to find common ground on phasing out coal, when nations need to update their emission-cutting pledges and, especially, on money.

Delegates pack the hall at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP)  Going into overtime Friday night, negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow were still trying to find common ground on phasing out coal, when nations need to update their emission-cutting pledges and, especially, on money.

Talks are at a bit of a stalemate, and the United States, with support from the European Union, is holding back talks, said Lee White, the Gabonese minister for forests and climate change.

Mohamed Adow of Power Shift Africa, a long-time talks observer, said poorer nations are beyond disappointed with the way the United Kingdom presidency has come up with drafts and that this has become a rich world negotiation. He said poorer nations cannot accept what has been proposed.

As the talks approached midnight, rich nations had a much more optimistic view, showing the split that might occur after new drafts appear Saturday.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host of the meeting, said through a spokesperson that he believes an ambitious outcome is in sight.

Youth climate activists protest that representatives of the fossil fuel industry have been allowed inside the venue during the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry told The Associated Press on Friday night that climate talks were working away, commenting after a late night meeting with his Chinese counterpart and before a hallway chat with Indias minister.

Chinese Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhua told Kerry in the hallway: I think the current draft is more close in a conversation that AP witnessed. When Kerry asked him if he felt better about it, Xie answered: Yes, I feel better about it because Alok Sharma is a smart guy.

No agreement was ready by the 6 p.m. local time scheduled end of the conference. And sometimes that helps diplomats get in a more deal-making mood.

European Commissioner for European Green Deal Frans Timmermans, center, speaks during a press conference by the EU at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

The negotiating culture is not to make the hard compromises until the meeting goes into extra innings, as we now have done, said long-time climate talks observer Alden Meyer of the European think tank E3G. But the U.K. presidency is still going to have to make a lot of people somewhat unhappy to get the comprehensive agreement we need out of Glasgow.

Three sticking points were making people unhappy on Friday: cash, coal and timing.

A crunch issue is the question of financial aid for poor countries to cope with climate change. Rich nations failed to provide them with $100 billion annually by 2020, as agreed, causing considerable anger among developing countries going into the talks.

Luxembourg negotiator Andrew Ferrone runs inside the venue of the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Negotiators from almost 200 nations were making a fresh push Friday to reach agreements on a series of key issues that would allow them to call this year's U.N. climate talks a success. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

A Friday morning draft reflects those concerns, expressing deep regret that the $100 billion goal hasnt been met and urging rich countries to scale up their funding for poor nations to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change  an issue with which developed countries are also grappling.

Poorer nations say regret isnt enough.

Dont call them donor countries. Theyre polluters. They owe this money, said Saleemul Huq, a climate science and policy expert who is director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh.

Delegates gather inside the venue of the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Negotiators from almost 200 nations were making a fresh push Friday to reach agreements on a series of key issues that would allow them to call this year's U.N. climate talks a success. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

The draft also proposes creating a loss-and-damage fund to help poor countries tap existing sources of aid when they face the devastating impacts of climate change. But rich nations such as the United States, which have historically been the biggest source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, are opposed to any legal obligation to compensate poor countries.

But Gabon's White said rich countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, had said they werent ready. They said we never agreed to that. It wont work. Its too complicated.

The proposal for creating this mechanism is like creating a bank account, said Adow of Power Shift Africa. We dont need to push cash into the account now. It is just the opening of the account.

People start to gather near the Action Zone inside the venue of the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Negotiators from almost 200 nations were making a fresh push Friday to reach agreements on a series of key issues that would allow them to call this year's U.N. climate talks a success. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

This was the elephant in the room, said Lia Nicholson, lead negotiator for the alliance of small islands at the summit. She said that developing nations and China had a united position on this but the proposal hadnt met with significant pushback from rich countries.

Small islands cant always be the ones who are asked to compromise our interest with the objectives of reaching consensus, she said.

That Friday draft also called on countries to accelerate the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.

A climate activist wearing a mask of US President Joe Biden takes part in a demonstration against the use of fossil fuels outside the venue for the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Negotiators from almost 200 nations were making a fresh push Friday to reach agreements on a series of key issues that would allow them to call this year's U.N. climate talks a success. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

A previous draft Wednesday had been stronger, calling on countries to accelerate the phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuel.

Kerry said Washington backed the current wording. Were not talking about eliminating coal, he told fellow climate diplomats. But, he said: Those subsidies have to go.

Kerry said it was a definition of insanity that trillions were being spent to subsidize fossil fuels worldwide. Were allowing to feed the very problem were here to try to cure. It doesnt make sense.

Police officers keep watch from a walkway over looking the outside of the venue of the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Negotiators from almost 200 nations were making a fresh push Friday to reach agreements on a series of key issues that would allow them to call this year's U.N. climate talks a success. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)

But there was a mixed response from activists and observers on how significant the addition of the words unabated and inefficient was.

Richie Merzian, a former Australian climate negotiator who directs the climate and energy program at the Australia Institute think tank, said the additional caveats were enough that you can run a coal train through it.

Countries like Australia and India, the worlds third-biggest emitter, have resisted calls to phase out coal any time soon.

Climate activists hold a demonstration through the venue of the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Negotiators from almost 200 nations were making a fresh push Friday to reach agreements on a series of key issues that would allow them to call this year's U.N. climate talks a success. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Scientists agree it is necessary to end the use of fossil fuels as soon as possible to meet the 2015 Paris accord's ambitious goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). But explicitly including such a call in the overarching declaration is politically sensitive, including for countries, such as Saudi Arabia, that fear oil and gas may be targeted next.

Another issue from Friday mornings draft concerns when nations have to come back with new emission-cutting targets which they were supposed to submit before the Glasgow talks. Because the pledges werent enough, the draft calls on the nations to submit another tougher target by the end of 2022, but some nations, such as Saudi Arabia, are balking about this said World Resources Institutes David Waskow.

In 2015 in Paris, there was a debate about whether targets should be updated every five or 10 years so going to one year after Glasgow is a big deal, said Environmental Defense Fund Vice President Kelley Kizzier, a former EU negotiator.

China's chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua, right, walks with John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Going into overtime, negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow are still trying to find common ground on phasing out coal, when nations need to update their emission-cutting pledges and, especially, on money. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Negotiators from almost 200 nations gathered in Glasgow on Oct. 31 amid dire warnings from leaders, activists and scientists that not enough is being done to curb global warming.

According to the proposed decision, countries plan to express alarm and utmost concern that human activities have already caused around 1.1C (2F) of global warming and that impacts are already being felt in every region.

While the Paris accord calls for limiting temperature to well below 2C (3.6F), ideally no more than 1.5C, by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times, the draft agreement notes that the lower threshold would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change and resolves to aim for that target.

China's chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua, right, walks with John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Going into overtime, negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow are still trying to find common ground on phasing out coal, when nations need to update their emission-cutting pledges and, especially, on money. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

In doing so, it calls for the world to cut carbon dioxide emission by 45% in 2030 compared with 2010 levels, and to add no additional CO2 to the atmosphere by mid-century. So far the world is not on track for that.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told The Associated Press this week that the 1.5C-goal is still in reach but on life support.

The annual meetings, first held in 1995 and only skipped once last year due to the pandemic, are designed to get all countries to gradually ratchet up their efforts to curb global warming.

But for many vulnerable nations the process has been far too slow.

We need to deliver and take action now, said Seve Paeniu, the finance minister of the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. Its a matter of life and survival for many of us.

___

Ellen Knickmeyer, Philipp Jenne and Karl Ritter contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the talks at http://apnews.com/hub/climate
MONTREAL - Yellow Pages Ltd. says revenues fell nearly 12 per cent in its latest quarter due to a decline at its print and digital media products.

Yellow Media Inc. logo is shown at a company meeting in Montreal, Thursday, May 6, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

MONTREAL - Yellow Pages Ltd. says revenues fell nearly 12 per cent in its latest quarter due to a decline at its print and digital media products.

The Montreal-based company posted revenue of $70.9 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down from $80.3 million in the same period last year but slightly above expectations.

Yellow Pages says net earnings rose to $13.7 million in its third quarter from $9.0 million a year earlier as a result of restructuring, decreases in depreciation and amortization and other "financial charges".

The shifts translated into earnings of 51 cents per diluted share, up from 34 cents per diluted share the year before.

Analysts had expected the digital media and marketing company to earn 53 cents per share on $68 million in revenue, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

CEO David Eckert says the company is "very pleased" with results that reflect its "continuing progress toward revenue stability."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TMX:Y)
TORONTO - Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has had his case put over by another two weeks.

TORONTO - Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has had his case put over by another two weeks.

Nygard, who faces sexual assault charges, made a brief video appearance in a Toronto court this morning.

His next hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 26.

Nygard was flown to Toronto from Winnipeg last month in order to face the charges.

Toronto police announced on Oct. 1 that they were charging Nygard with six counts of sexual assault and three counts of forcible confinement dating back to the late 1980s and mid-2000s.

He agreed that same day to be extradited to the United States to face one charge of sex trafficking.

Nygard was arrested in Winnipeg last year under the Extradition Act.

U.S. authorities accuse him of using his influence in the fashion industry to lure women and girls with the promise of modelling and other opportunities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2021.
Providence Theological Seminary has been awarded a $15,000 seed grant by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Providence Theological Seminary has been awarded a $15,000 seed grant by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The seminary, which offers training for clergy out of the evangelical tradition, will use the Science for Seminaries grant to integrate science into its curricula, support and resource professors so they can encourage a positive understanding of science in their classrooms, and host a public conference on science and faith in spring 2022.

"Its part of our overall commitment to integrating faith and science," said Robert Dean, who is one of the leads on the project and teaches theology and ethics at the seminary, located on the campus of Providence University College in Otterburne.

"Its a way for us to serve the church at a time when there is a lot of misinformation about science and how it works."

Titled: "In Him All Things Hold Together: Integrating Faith and Science," a reference to the New Testament book of Colossians Chapter 1 Verse 17, Dean said receiving the award is timely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Pastors can be the best sources of debunking false information since they have relationships with people in their congregations," he said, noting some Christians are suspicious of vaccinations, mandates and masking.

Through the grant, he hopes the seminary can do more to help pastors "think about science theologically in the context of Gods good creation."

Noting some of the most famous theologians in history were also scientists  such as Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin  Dean said the gulf between science and faith for some Christians is a more recent thing, going back about 100 years to the rise of fundamentalism.

Providence Theological Seminary hopes it can play a role in building a bridge between faith and science among evangelicals in Manitoba and beyond, he said.

"I hope we can be seen as a trusted and reliable source of information," Dean said, adding "more than ever, the church must recover a robust understanding of the integrated nature of scientific knowledge and the knowledge our faith provides. As people of the Truth, we have no need to fear truth wherever it may be found."

In addition to Dean, also helping to lead the project is Rebecca Dielschneider, who teaches biology at the University College.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, founded in 1848, is the worlds largest general scientific society.

faith@freepress.mb.ca
A temporary measure to shore up staffing in Manitoba personal-care homes during waves of COVID-19 has instead become a mainstay, as hundreds of uncertified staffers prompt questions about patient care.

A temporary measure to shore up staffing in Manitoba personal-care homes during waves of COVID-19 has instead become a mainstay, as hundreds of uncertified staffers prompt questions about patient care.

"Were in a staffing crisis, and if nothing highlights it more than that, then I couldnt tell you what would," said Shannon McAteer, health-care co-ordinator at the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS CUPE Manitoba Health Coordinator Shannon McAteer: Were in a staffing crisis."

Almost a year ago, Manitoba launched a training program for what it calls uncertified health-care aides, consisting of a weeklong crash course at Red River College Polytechnic.

The idea was to fill gaps in personal-care homes when non-nursing staff get burned out or must isolate after COVID-19 exposures.

"We were led to believe it was only for COVID purposes," McAteer said.

The micro-credential for uncertified aides requires only a Grade 10 education, with no experience in direct care, and it consists of five days of virtual training and a weekend of in-person instruction. Manitoba pays for the classes if graduates agree to work for three months.

When Manitoba Health unveiled the program a year ago, the department said the uncertified aides would be closely supervised by medical professionals as they helped with duties such as "observation, companionship, redirection, stocking of supplies and more."

Instead, McAteer said these aides are helping with front-line duties such as feeding, bathing and checking in on residents. Her union asked the province to start weaning itself off the program in late June as Manitoba emerged from a brutal third wave, and undertake a hiring spree similar to what has happened in provinces such as Quebec.

The province ended its state of emergency Oct. 21. Although public-health orders remain in place, McAteer noted that the province is dealing with just two outbreaks at personal-care homes.

"Were still in COVID, I understand that, but were not in a COVID crisis anymore," she said.

In March, a working group formed to address the issues that led to 56 people dying in the Maples Personal Care Home outbreak urged the province to "recognize the current chronic challenges experienced in the (long-term care) sector in maintaining baseline staffing levels."

Last week, the province said it was "nearing completion" of a staffing plan.

But for now, Shared Health is still taking applicants for uncertified aides to work in care homes in Winnipeg, Winkler, Morden, Portage la Prairie and the Interlake.

Health Minister Audrey Gordons office did not respond to a Wednesday interview request.

Instead, an unnamed Shared Health spokesperson said Manitoba had enlisted 893 uncertified health-care aides, but didnt explain how many are still currently holding those jobs.

As of Oct. 8, that meant 143 workers in the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority and 126 in Southern Health; most of the remaining 624 likely worked in Winnipeg.

"These staff have been integral in our provinces ongoing response to the pandemic, assisting at a time of great need in the care of residents, patients and clients at personal care homes, supportive housing, alternative isolation sites and acute care facilities," reads the statement.

NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara said the PC government should have staffed up before a recent rise in COVID-19 cases.

"It speaks to their downright refusal to come up with a plan," Asagwara said, noting Manitobas seven-day infection rate is suddenly the second-highest in Canada.

"Its too little, too late at this point, for the government to come up with something."

Part of CUPEs concern is its unionized members wages and working conditions.

Uncertified aides make $17.73 hourly, while certified aides earn between $18.65 and $21.17.

Permanent staff, already spread thin, are having to train new colleagues with no front-line experience, thus leading to even more burnout. But McAteer is even more concerned that Manitobans are getting sub-standard care for the most vulnerable.

A fully trained aide learns how to calm an agitated person living with dementia, or to look for non-verbal cues that somethings amiss.

"This is patient care that were talking about," she said. "Its not like you can walk in off the street  and you used to work in a restaurant  and today youre going to care for grandma."

The province didnt respond to concerns about unregulated aides being made to take on duties they havent been fully trained to do. Asagwara said its unfair to put workers in that position.

"Theyve chosen to not address the health-care staffing crisis and instead exploit the very people that they have brought in to address an acute need."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
In the Royal Canadian Legion Elmwood Branch #9, the bustling crowd inside belied the blowing snow and empty streets outside.

In the Royal Canadian Legion Elmwood Branch #9, the bustling crowd inside belied the blowing snow and empty streets outside.

More than 100 people from all walks of life came together Remembrance Day to honour Canadas veterans and those serving today. It was a pared-down service, both because of the pandemic and the sudden storm that blanketed Winnipeg the night before and continued into the day.

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A wreath of poppies is photographed at the Field of Honour at Brookside Cemetery.

Those who made the journey took a moment of silence, heard Amazing Grace and In Flanders Fields, and watched as wreaths were laid by veterans and in memory of loved ones who had died.

It was one of the few in-person ceremonies held this year, as many opted to hold a virtual service for the second year in a row. Other ceremonies, like that being held simultaneously at Transcona Branch #7, were open only to invited guests.

Premier Heather Stefanson encouraged Manitobans to hold a moment of silence and remember Canadas veterans in a statement.

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Former governor general Edward Schreyer: I"t is soul-satisfying in a way, that we should take a day apart... to dedicate and re-dedicate ourselves to the memory of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice of their very life on behalf of others.

"COVID-19 remains the most significant challenge of our time, and while many Manitobans have given up some of their freedoms in order to protect themselves and their loved ones from the impacts of the pandemic, nothing compares to the bravery and ultimate sacrifice made by thousands of men and women in uniform in the pursuit for peace and defence of democracy," she said.

Among those laying wreaths at Elmwood Branch #9 was former governor general Edward Schreyer, who spoke of attending similar services as a child in Beausejour, Man., decades ago.

"The desire and wish to participate in occasions such as this is as great and strong today as ever, and there is a very fundamental reason," he said.

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Veteran Kerry Ten Eyck: "I was proud to do what I did, and Id do it all over again."

"It is good. It is soul-satisfying in a way, that we should take a day apart, and other hours and days as well, to dedicate and re-dedicate ourselves to the memory of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice of their very life on behalf of others, and on behalf of causes they could not have understood in total dimension."

That sense of comfort was apparent to veteran Kerry Ten Eyck, who was among the crowd Thursday. He comes from a family of service  his older twin brothers were in the navy and the air force, and he has lineage that served in the army.

Ten Eyck, 62, joined the army in 1980 and served as a medic and physicians assistant all over Canada and across the world until he retired in 2010. He currently works in orthopedics at Concordia Hospital.

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / THE CANADIAN PRESS The 21-gun salute on the south lawn of the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg on Thursday.

Thursday afternoon, he, his wife and his twin seven-year-old sons planned to visit the Brookside Cemetery and leave poppies at the graves of veterans. Its a tradition hes tried to keep through the pandemic and hopes to pass on to his children.

Sitting in todays service, he said, he found himself worried for the current state of the world amongst the speeches calling for peace

"I just hope for a better world  its not looking pretty outside these days, theres a lot of conflict and radicalism all over the world, even in North America. Im just hoping that doesnt spread and get out of hand," he said.

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / THE CANADIAN PRESS A crowd watches the 38th Artillery Tactical Group during a Remembrance Day ceremony which included a 21-gun salute on the south lawn of the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg on Thursday.

He thought of his loved ones, too  not just his family, but friends in the service who didnt make it home.

"Ive had friends and colleagues who never made it back from Afghanistan," he said. "I was proud to do what I did, and Id do it all over again. I was sad hearing their names."

According to the Veterans Affairs department, more than 2.3 million Canadians have served in the military and more than 118,000 have died during service

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / THE CANADIAN PRESS Gunner Lelond, of the 38th Artillery Tactical Group, looks on during the Remembrance Day ceremony.
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP)  The defense rested its case Thursday at the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, setting the stage for closing arguments Monday in the shootings that left Americans divided over whether he was a patriot taking a stand against lawlessness or a vigilante.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas argues against a defense motion for a mistrial because of prosecutorial misconduct during the Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha Circuit Court Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder presides. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, last year. (Mark Hertzberg /Pool Photo via AP)

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP)  The defense rested its case Thursday at the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, setting the stage for closing arguments Monday in the shootings that left Americans divided over whether he was a patriot taking a stand against lawlessness or a vigilante.

Rittenhouse's lawyers put on about 2 1/2 days of testimony to the prosecution's five, with the most riveting moment coming when the 18-year-old told the jury that he was defending himself from attack when he used his rifle to kill two men and wound a third on the streets of Kenosha in the summer of 2020.

Prosecutors have sought to portray Rittenhouse as the instigator of the bloodshed, which took place during a tumultuous night of protests against racial injustice.

He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him.

After closing arguments, names will be drawn from an old, brown lottery tumbler to decide which 12 jurors will deliberate and which ones will be dismissed as alternates. Eighteen people have been hearing the case. The panel appeared overwhelmingly white.

Kyle Rittenhouse speaks with his attorney Corey Chirafisi before the start of the day at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, last year. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool)

The protests in Kenosha were set off by the wounding of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer. Rittenhouse, then 17, went to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois, with a rifle and a medical kit in what the former police and fire youth cadet said was an effort to protect property after rioters set fires and ransacked businesses on previous nights.

Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, in an initial confrontation and just moments later shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27. Rittenhouse is white, as were those he shot.

The case has stirred fierce debate over vigilantism, self-defense, the Second Amendment right to bear arms, and the unrest that erupted around the U.S. over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other police violence against Black people.

Defense attorney Mark Richards and Kenosha Police detectives Martin Howard and Ben Antaramian talk before Kyle Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, last year. (Mark Hertzberg /Pool Photo via AP)

Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, which is Wisconsin's murder count; attempted first-degree intentional homicide; first-degree reckless homicide; reckless endangering; and illegal possession of a weapon by a person under 18.

Prosecutors said they will ask Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder to allow the jury to consider possible lesser charges on some of the counts.

One of the final witnesses for the defense was a use-of-force expert, John Black, who testified that less than three seconds elapsed between the time somebody fired a bullet in the air and Rittenhouse opened fire on the first man he shot, Joseph Rosenbaum.

John Black, a use-of-force expert, left, works on relabeling video with help from Mark Richards, an attorney for Kyle Rittenhouse, during a break at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, last year. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool)

Black took the stand as part of an effort by Rittenhouse's lawyers to show that he had reason to fear for his life and acted in self-defense.

Rittenhouse, in his own turn on the stand Wednesday, testified that he heard a gunshot directly behind him as he was being chased by Rosenbaum. Authorities said the shot was fired by someone else in the crowd.

The account Rittenhouse gave has largely been corroborated by a wealth of video and the prosecutions own witnesses: Rittenhouse said that Rosenbaum cornered him and put his hand on the barrel of his rifle, the second man hit him with a skateboard, and the third man came at him with a gun of his own.

Defense attorney Mark Richards gets MARK RICHARDS left gets Gaige Grosskreutz's handgun from Kenosha Police Detective Ben Antaramian before he questions Officer Brittni Bray during Kyle Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, last year. (Mark Hertzberg /Pool Photo via AP)

At one point Wednesday, his lawyers angrily demanded the judge declare mistrial and bar Rittenhouse from being retried  essentially asking that the whole case be thrown out. They accused the chief prosecutor of asking Rittenhouse out-of-bounds questions.

The judge lambasted the prosecutor but pressed on with the case.

___

Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin; Webber from Fenton, Michigan. Associated Press writers Amy Forliti in Minneapolis; Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin; and Kathleen Foody in Chicago contributed.

___

Find APs full coverage on the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse at: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
Heres a guide to whats going on this weekend in Winona:

Weekend Starter Party

Local radio station 101.1 The River is continuing to kick off each weekend with its Weekend Starter Party starting at 4 p.m. each Friday.

This week the party is slated to be held at Gabbys.

The party varies locations each week, with the first Friday each month being at Island City Brewing, the second being at Gabbys, the third at Luckys On Third, and the fourth at Market Street Tap.

There will be games, grand prizes, and drink specials during the party, along with radio station staff hosting a live broadcast.

Coulee Kennel Club Dog Show

The annual Coulee Kennel Club Dog Show is set to be hosted Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Minnesota Equestrian Center in Winona.

The show is one for all breeds of dogs, with over 700 dogs signed up to compete.

For more information, visit the events Facebook page.

Events

Winona Film Society: You Will Die by Twenty, 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Winona Arts Center

2021 Two-Four Legged Vendor Fair, 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at Minnesota Equestrian Center

Author Event: Jenny Baerstch, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Paperbacks and Pieces

Warrior Game Day Experience, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Winona State University

Live Music

Friday

Wing Dam Jammers, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Blooming Grounds Coffee House

Stardust, The Federales & Sugar Lads, 9 p.m. at No Name Bar

Saturday

Right Side UP, 6 to 9 p.m. at Trempealeau Hotel

Woolen Lover & Friends & DJ Rhumpshaker, 9 p.m. at No Name Bar

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.
More coverage:

Local and state officials are keeping a close eye on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial as the case draws to a close, with Gov. Tony Evers calling up the Wisconsin National Guard and local law enforcement saying they are continuing to monitor the trial.

Rittenhouse is accused of killing two men and wounding a third during the August 2020 unrest in Kenosha. Closing arguments for the trial are expected on Monday, with the jury possibly going into deliberations that day.

According to a release issued Friday afternoon by Evers' office, approximately 500 Wisconsin Army National Guard troops are reporting for active duty to support local law enforcement agencies.

We continue to be in close contact with our partners at the local level to ensure the state provides support and resources to help keep the Kenosha community and greater area safe, Evers stated.

The Kenosha community has been strong, resilient, and has come together through incredibly difficult times these past two years, and that healing is still ongoing," Evers said. "I urge folks who are otherwise not from the area to please respect the community by reconsidering any plans to travel there and encourage those who might choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights to do so safely and peacefully.

Maj. Gen. Paul Knapp, Wisconsins adjutant general, said that the Guard stands ready "to support our communities during times of need.

Members of the Wisconsin National Guard will stage outside Kenosha in a standby status to respond if requested by local law enforcement agencies, according to the governor's office.

Guard members called to active duty may only be used to provide support to local law enforcement and to protect critical infrastructure and cultural institutions necessary for the well-being of the community, and to provide support to first responders such as the Kenosha Fire Department. The National Guard can not be used to impede the ability of people to peacefully protest or impede the ability of the media to report, the governor's office stressed.

Evers was criticized in some circles for what some perceived as a slow response to the civil unrest that unfolded in Kenosha following the Aug. 23 police shooting of Jacob Blake. But local officials, including Mayor John Antaramian, County Executive Jim Kreuser and Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said the governor quickly responded to their pleas for Guard resources.

Evers also pre-emptively ordered out the Guard prior to Kenosha County District Attorney Mike Graveley's decision not to charge Kenosha Police Officer the Rusten Sheskey in connection to the Blake shooting.

Local law enforcement ready

On Thursday, the Kenosha Police Department and Kenosha County Sheriff's Department issued a joint statement assuring the public they are working to ensure the public's safety as they prepare for the trial's verdict.

"The Kenosha County Sheriff's Department and the Kenosha Police Department have been and will continue to monitor the Kyle Rittenhouse trial," the statement read. "We recognize that some varying opinions and feelings revolve around the trial that may cause concerns.

"Both of our departments have dedicated staff working in conjunction with local, state and federal law enforcement partners to ensure the safety of our communities," the statement read.

Up-to-date information and briefings from local law enforcement will be available online at:

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Student Helen James, 14, and her friends said they dont buy the districts reason for taking them down in the first place.

Its more triggering taking them down than having them up, James said. I actually liked going to school and seeing their lockers and stuff done. I actually felt like they were still, like, with us.

She and Fleischmann said district staff told them the victims families wanted the memorials taken down.

Woods father, Justin, told the News Republic that the district didnt ask him about that, but rather asked if he wanted the memorials when they were taken down.

I asked them to leave it up for two weeks to a month to let the students go through their grieving process and they told me that they would consider that and they told me that thats also what the other parents had suggested, he said.

He also suggested the school move the memorials to a different location if they were too distracting in the hallway, but said he thinks school officials could have been more considerate and kept them up for a while.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}
Baraboo Common Council members agreed Tuesday to raise the citys levy limit to pay for a higher assessment from the Baraboo District Ambulance Service after U.S. Census numbers showed the population of the city increased.

City Administrator Casey Bradley said the roughly $16,000 change has already been built into the proposed 2022 budget and the amount the city pays will balance against the other seven members of the district, who also have to agree to the terms of a new inter-governmental agreement.

Its proportionate, Bradley said. Our population went up, so our cost would go up. The cost shifts to whatever jurisdiction, so we would pay more and somebody else would pay less. Its not like they get additional money. Its just that it costs us more because its a population-based formula.

There is already an agreement in place for services within the eight member municipalities, which each pay an assessed amount based on the number of its residents. A condition of raising the levy is that all members of the district must approve of entering into a new contract with the altered costs.

The village of West Baraboo had the item up for consideration on its Thursday meeting agenda.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}
In over 100 years, not much has changed in the United States.

Back in 1898, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst sold their souls for money. They used sensational stories full of lies and disinformation to sell their newspapers. Americans were quickly hooked by filth and sensationalism. Journalism schools use the term Yellow Journalism to describe the unethical practices of Pulitzer and Hearst. Pulitzer and Hearst became very wealthy. They were among the richest men in America. They conned a lot of Americans for profit.

In 2021, Ruppert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg are using the same yellow journalism to sell their media. Murdoch and Zuckerberg are international robber barons. Their lies and disinformation reach billions of people, young and old. They are corrupt multi-billionaires.

For protection from the cons, people must know the difference between fact and an alternative fact (a lie). With that knowledge, people can act on the truths rather than the lies.

Critical thinking and fact checking are necessities today as in the past.

In America, informed people must vote and be part of our democracy. Corrupt politicians (supported by tax-dodging Murdoch and Zuckerberg) must be booted from office by the voters.

Daniel Holzman, Baraboo
JUNEAU  An 18-year-old Watertown man was found guilty Thursday for armed robbery of a gas station on North University Avenue in Beaver Dam last November.

Avery Bence pleaded no contest to a felony charge of armed robbery and a misdemeanor charge of battery. Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Sciascia found him guilty.

According to the criminal complaint, two younger masked men entered the gas station on Nov. 28 at 12:45 a.m.

One of the men sprayed the clerk with pepper spray and the same person selected several packs of Marlboro Red Seventy-Twos.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

The clerk attempted to detain and was able to demask the men, but they both were able to flee away on foot. Some merchandise in the store was damaged as well.

Police obtained the video footage from the assistant manager.

According to the criminal complaint, Beaver Dam Police did a Wisconsin Crime Alert on Dec. 1 and came back with a tip about Bence being the primary suspect. Police spoke to Bences mother, who confirmed he was the one in the photos from the gas station.

Bence said he was asked by the other people he was with to steal the cigarettes. He refused to identify who he was with that night.
Russ Wyman was 17 in 1941. He was living in Portage and going to Portage High School when he enlisted in the Navy. He was a junior at the time and did not finish his studies before being sent overseas.

On Thursday, as part of the Portage High School 17th Annual Veterans Day Ceremony Wyman, was presented with his high school diploma.

Portage Activities Director Ed Carlson said before the ceremony that he was very proud and excited to present Wyman his diploma almost 80 years after he left the school.

Weve had this policy, but never used it, Carlson said. The policy allows the school board to approve presenting a student a diploma if they could not graduate due to enlisting in the military.

Speakers were from veterans groups as well as active military members spoke about getting to known veterans.

Dont just thank Veterans, ask them about their service, Greg Eirich said. Get to know them. Ask your grandfather, grandmother, mother, father about their service. And when theyre ready theyll share their time in the service with you.

Eirich is Wisconsin American Legion Department Commander. He asked the students in the bleachers when if they had studied World War One in school.
UW-Madison told its employees on Thursday that they must be vaccinated by early 2022 to comply with a vaccine mandate for federal contractors.

The university said the order applies to all workers, including student employees, those working remotely from home and part-time workers. About 95% of employees are already fully vaccinated.

Roughly 1,800 UW-Madison employees have not yet provided proof of vaccination, university spokesperson Meredith McGlone said.

The University of Wisconsin System last month said it would comply with President Joe Bidens executive order to avoid jeopardizing millions of dollars in federal contracts. But officials didnt respond to questions about how broadly it interpreted the order and whether it covered all campuses.
Along with the inclusion of provocation in the instructions, this is likely good news for the prosecution and gives jurors options as they contemplate the evidence.

ADA James Kraus said "well, we obviously wanted it, we think it fits the facts," when asked by reporters if the state was pleased with the judge's statements that the lesser charges would likely go to jurors as an option. When a reporter asked Kraus if the request for lesser included options was an admission by the state that they had a weak case on the toughest charges, Kraus said it was not, saying lesser-included options are fairly routine in homicide cases.

Noon: In court for the jury instruction arguments. Judge Bruce Schroeder just ruled that a provocation instruction will be included in the reckless homicide charge for Rosenbaum. This is a win for the prosecution.

"It's the jurys case and I think they should make the critical decisions. My decision will be to submit the case to the jury with the provocation instruction and you can argue the strength or lack of strength of the evidence," Schroeder said.

9 a.m. Prosecutors and defense attorneys for Kyle Rittenhouse will return to the courthouse without the jury present on Friday to finalize how jurors will be instructed when they get the case next week.
ROME, N.Y. -- A memorial honoring Vietnam veterans was unveiled in Rome on Veterans Day Thursday.

The statue shows a soldier kneeling at the monument and is entitled Remembering our Heroes.

Veterans, community members and local leaders gathered for the unveiling and ceremony.

It's phenomenal really. To see the support that we get now. It's sad that they didn't do this at the time we came home, but we do appreciate what's going on today, said Frank Carletta, a veteran from Rome.

The monument is located on Griffiss Business and Technology Park.
NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. (UPDATED) -- Both drivers say they had a green light before the two collided at the corner of Genesee Street and Route 5 in New Hartford Thursday night.

New Hartford Police say around 11 p.m., 32-year-old Desirae Kampf, of Clinton, was attempting to turn left onto Genesee Street in her Subaru when she collided with 56-year-old Julio Mejias Arias who was driving east on Route 5 in a GMC SUV.

Arias and his passenger, Stephanie Pimentel, 36, of Utica, were taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

Police are asking anyone who witnessed the crash to call the department at 315-724-7111.
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  A man was sentenced Friday in connection to a 2019 Lafayette homicide and stabbing case. As News 18 has previously reported, 43-year-old Andrew Alcorns pleaded guilty to Felony Murder and Aggravated Battery. Alcorns will serve 70 years behind bars with the Indiana Department of Corrections and another five years on probation.

As part of his agreement, Alcorns was expected to serve a minimum of 48 years in the Indiana Department of Corrections.

Alcorns is accused of breaking into Ronald Whiles' Lafayette home on April 7th, 2019. Prosecutors said he robbed Whiles and shot him to death. He is also accused of stabbing Whiles roommate 29 times. The roommate eventually recovered.



On April 11, 2019, Lafayette investigators were called to Dayton, Ohio where Alcorns led officers on a 9-hour standoff. He eventually was taken into custody after he shot himself in the head.
CHALMERS, Ind. (WLFI)  North Montgomery (1-2) picked up its first win on Thursday night, handing Frontier (2-1) its first loss in Chalmers this season.

Before Thursday's contest, Frontier was averaging 60 points, its highest in 20 years.

North Montgomery travels to Attica on Friday, and the Falcons play at Faith Christian on Tuesday.
Residents of mid-Michigan continued to protest the construction of a proposed asphalt plant by holding a vigil for the death of clean air in their community.

Flint-area residents began a vigil against the proposed AJAX Asphalt Plant on Friday. Opponents say it will make their community's air quality worse and they do not want to see the plant go up in their community.

Community organizer Lashaya Darisaw wants the state to hold off on its decision regarding an air permit for a hot asphalt plant in Genesee County.

"I'm hoping that they extend the permit decision once again," Darisaw said.

The Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) is expected to make an announcement on Monday. Darisaw said EGLE needs to deny the permit.

"These children have already been through enough with the Flint water crisis, and then getting a settlement only to be exposed to radiation poisoning. And no, we're telling them that on top of the health concerns that they already have, because remember there's already an incinerator there, that they're going to have more impact," Darisaw said.

Ted Zahrfeld, with the St. Francis Prayer Center, agrees with Darisaw. Zahrfeld said at the very least, a cumulative impact study needs to be conducted before a decision is made.

"What kind of pollutants and toxins are going into that very poor neighborhood right now? Get a baseline. And then what's going to happen when a hot asphalt plant comes in? What's going to go on top of that," Zahrfeld said.

Zahrfeld said a hot asphalt plant operating there would not be good for his community.

"People walk to the center for emergency food and other services. So, we're concerned about the people who we serve," Zahrfeld said.

As for Darisaw, she wants Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to step up and put a stop to the hot asphalt plant.

"What we don't want to do is have another environmental crisis with another governor stepping back and having silence on the issue like Gov. Synder did here in Flint," Darisaw said.
A teacher helps a little girl during an art activity at a childcare center in Shanghai. [For China Daily]

Day care services for children aged under 3 in China have excellent prospects for rapid development during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, experts have said.

He Dan, director of the China Population Development and Research Center, said sound development of day care services is likely during the five-year period, as predictions by the center have showed that an average of 2 million fewer children will be born each year during the period than during the previous five-year plan.

"This will create conditions for kindergartens to achieve a balance between preschool education (for children aged between 3 to 6) and day care services (for those under 3), as well as accelerating the establishment of a day care service system in the country," she said.

Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Education Research Institute, said an action plan released last year by the government of Shanghai set a goal of establishing at least 50 new day care centers each year from 2020 to 2022. The plan also said the Shanghai government will work to enable half of the kindergartens in the city to offer day care services by 2022.

Xiong said he is confident the city will achieve its goals, as many kindergartens across the country have unfilled seats this year-a situation that hasn't been encountered for years.

"Such a phenomenon occurred as the number of newborns in 2018 (who are scheduled to start attending kindergartens this year) is lower than previous years," he said.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that a total of 15.23 million babies were born that year, marking a 2 million drop from 2017.

There were 14.65 million born in 2019 and 12 million last year, meaning kindergartens nationwide will have more vacancies in the following two years, Xiong said, adding that kindergartens can offer the vacancies to children under 3 in such circumstances.

Large Gap

This is good news for many working parents, who have been looking for a qualified, economical place for their young children to stay and be attended to on weekdays before they turn 3 and go to kindergarten.

Wang Peian, executive vice-president of the China Family Planning Association, said the labor participation rate of women is high in China, leading to a great need for children's day care services, as mothers usually don't have enough time at home to take care of children.

Compared with the great demand, the supply of day care services is lagging far behind, and the imbalance between supply and demand is being exacerbated by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, Wang added.

She Yu, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, said the drop in the number of newborns in recent years was on one hand a result of the decreasing population of women of childbearing age.

"On the other, it reflected that couples were facing mounting pressure in raising children, including the lack of day care services," he said.

He said the shortage of day care services is particularly obvious among families in big cities, in impoverished rural areas, and among migrant and left-behind children.

He said a survey conducted in 2019 showed that only 5.6 percent of children under 3 nationwide went to day care centers. Even in Shanghai, which has led the development of day care services in the country, the proportion was no more than 15 percent-far below the average level among members of the Organization for Economic and Cooperation and Development, which reached 34 percent in 2014.

Actions Underway

To solve the problem, the State Council, China's Cabinet, released a series of guidelines in 2019, calling on social forces to provide day care services.

The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) also mentioned that residential communities in urban areas and capable employers should be encouraged to develop day care services for infants and young children.

Last year, a program offering 10,000 yuan ($1,560) to local governments as a subsidy for each new seat they added at a day care center was piloted in 290 cities of 27 provinces and regions, according to the National Health Commission's population surveillance and family development department.

She from the Development Research Center said there are also many things that can be done by governments, such as adding day care services to existing kindergartens, purchasing such services from private institutions, and providing more guidance on raising children to young parents.

Some areas have started to take action in this direction. Shanghai's Pudong District, for example, has opened 39 new publicly-funded day care centers since the beginning of the year, pushing the number of publicly-funded kindergartens that offer day care services in Shanghai to 200.

The Binjiang District of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, has promised to open day care centers to cover all its residential communities by the end of the year, charging no more than 2,500 yuan each month for each child.

(Source: China Daily)
Articles

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular articles.
BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA - OCTOBER 27: Judge Timothy Walmsley presides over the jury selection process in the trial of the men charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery at the Glynn County Superior Court, on October 27, 2021 in Brunswick, Georgia. Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan are charged with the February 2020 slaying of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. (Photo by Octavio Jones-Pool/Getty Images)
Arizona is looking to break its eight-game road losing streak with a victory over Chicago
19% of Wrexhams eligible population have had vaccine booster

Data released by Public Health Wales reveals nearly 19% of people in Wrexham have now received a booster vaccine.

Currently health workers and care home staff are being offered the jab, along with those with certain underlying health conditions and those over the age of 50 in the initial nine priority groups.

Booster vaccines are being offered following emerging evidence that original vaccine effectiveness against the virus starts to wane after five to six months.

However there is concern across the UK that the pace of the booster rollout is too slow compared to the earlier stages of the vaccination programme.

There are also fears that not enough people who are eligible are coming forward for the third jab.

Earlier this week Health Minister Eluned Morgan urged people to take up the opportunity for to have their boosters.

People waiting for the booster jab locally are being asked not to contact GP surgeries and vaccination centres directly as they will receive an invite for jab through the post.

This is different to the early stages of the initial vaccine rollout where people were able to make their own appointments or access drop in clinics at the Catrin Finch Centre.

Across Wales 528,239 individuals had received a booster dose of the covid vaccine, 120,516 of which are in North Wales.

Figures released by Public Health Wales up until the week ending November 7 show the number of people (24,577) in Wrexham that have been invited and taken up the offer the booster vaccine.

Those aged 80 years of age and older: 4,976 out of 6,371 (78.1 per cent)

Residents of care homes for older adults: 555 out of 652 (85.1 per cent)

Those aged 75-79 years of age: 3,770 out of 5,278 (71.4 per cent)

Those aged 70-74 years of age: 4,715 out of 7,386 (63.8 per cent)

Those aged 65-69 years of age: 1,491 out of 7,310 (20.4 per cent)

Those aged 60-64 years of age: 1,033 out of 8,194 (12.6 per cent)

Those aged 55-59 years of age: 1,298 out of 9,737 (13.3 per cent)

Those aged 50-54 years of age: 1,291 out of 10,442 (12.4 per cent)

Those aged 16-69 years old who are clinically extremely vulnerable: 938 out of 3,611 (26.0)

Clinical risk groups aged 12-64 years old: 887 out of 15,681 (5.7 per cent)

Residents aged 40-49 years old (Booster doses may have been given due to clinical or occupation risk): 1,637 out of 17,781 (9.2 per cent)

Residents aged 30-39 years old (Booster doses may have been given due to clinical or occupation risk): 1,246 out of 18,897 (6.6 per cent)

Residents aged 18-29 years old (Booster doses may have been given due to clinical or occupation risk): 739 out of 18,752 (3.9 per cent)

No data is available on the numbers of people who have turned down the vaccine or those in the cohorts who are still waiting to be invited to come forward  however the total target group as listed above totals 130,092.

On Tuesday the health minister was challenged on the six month gap required before people who have had their second jab and the booster.

There were also questions over why people in England can book an appointment in advance after five months  a service not available in Wales.

Ms Morgan said: My understanding is that the JCVI is still suggesting that people stick to the six month interval and weve seen what happens in Israel when there was a much shorter timeframe between the first and second dose which meant that they did see their their rates go up.

So that six month interval is is what the scientists are advising they have allowed a certain degree of of movements around that six months period but we are working through the people who need that booster jabs on a very priority order which is different from the way theyre doing it in England, which is a little bit more of a free for all where everybodys invited.

We think its important to vaccinate the most vulnerable and thats where were going in that order.
Use of army to support Welsh Ambulance Service is endangering the public, says union

The use of armed forces personnel to support the Welsh Ambulance Service is endangering the public, a trade union has said.

More than 90 soldiers were brought in to help the services efforts by driving ambulances during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the GMB Union has raised concerns on behalf of ambulance crews that they are providing very little assistance and are not sufficiently trained to deal with medical emergencies.

Union officials have written letters to the services chief executive Jason Killens and Welsh Health Minister Eluned Morgan amid claims the arrangements are in fact placing extra pressure on staff and putting patients at risk.

Regional officer Nathan Holman said some medics had been threatened with disciplinary action for expressing their reservations about working with military personnel.

He said: GMB is aware that the military personnel are not able to drive the ambulances on emergency status with the use of blue lights and sirens and as they are not trained as paramedics, they are providing effectively, very little assistance to our members who, in emergency situations, are having to not only assess and treat the patient and their family, but keep an eye open for the military personnel working with them, giving them instructions on what is needed to be done rather than being able to rely on a trained medic.

Our members are reporting that some military personnel are reporting to them that they are not comfortable dealing with emergency work and have not had to deal with medical emergencies like death before.

This is putting extra pressure on already pressured medics and also putting the military personnel into situations that could harm them with the knock on affect of endangering the public.

Members of GMB have advised us that they have been told that if they refuse to work with the military then they will be reported to the HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council), yet many feel that while working with the military they are at more risk of being referred to the HCPC as they are unable to carry out their duties safely.

They are in affect damned if they do and damned if anything goes wrong.

GMB said it understood that the military would only be used to attend non-emergency calls.

But members have told the union that this is not the case and feel that they and the public have been misinformed.

Mr Holman said staff felt bullied and forced to split from their usual trained crew partners to work with the military.

He said: This is increasing their already high stress levels and as you are aware, sickness within the ambulance service is already in excess of 11%.

Several of our members have informed us that the reason for their ill health is directly as a result of being forced to work with untrained unqualified people which has affected their ability to sleep due to increased pressures.

We believe this is a perfect storm, that if not dealt with quickly, will result in the complete collapse of the service.

He asked for the military to be moved to attend non-emergency calls only and warned industrial action was being considered if a solution is not agreed.

Jason Killens, chief executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, said discussions were being held with the union but he was not aware of systemic issues.

He said: We are aware of concerns being expressed by trade union colleagues on behalf of their members about working with the military, and these are currently being looked at.

Regular dialogue is underway to listen and understand more about these concerns, with a further meeting scheduled for early next week.

We remain committed to working together to understand what we can do to address matters and reduce the anxiety that some of our people are feeling.

While we have asked for examples of staff feeling pressurised to work with military colleagues, we have not seen evidence of a systemic issue and we have seen examples of where staff are working positively with military colleagues.

We will continue to work with trade union colleagues on a national basis and individuals locally to understand and address their concerns and to ensure we do everything possible to avoid any potential for a disciplinary action.

We understand that some colleagues are concerned about the appropriateness of military support but, given high levels of absence, greater demand than ever before and extended delays at hospitals, the board of the Welsh Ambulance Service has taken a decision that it is not prepared to stand by and see a significant number of patients experience distressingly long waits in the community because of a lack of available resources.

In the month since the latest military deployment, and whilst delays at hospitals have remained challenging, we have had the capacity to respond to more patients and in a more timely way.

This is the result of being able to make more vehicles and crews available because of the support we are receiving from military colleagues.

A Welsh Government spokesperson, said: Operational issues are decisions for the trust to take and we are aware the trust is working with staff and staff representatives to listen to concerns and resolve these in partnership at an organisational level.
Views on second homes sought as public consultation on emotional issue launches

A Senedd Committee is launching an inquiry into the emotive issue of second homes in Wales

Members of the Senedd are calling on people to share their views on the Welsh Governments work in this area, including the impact second homes are having on the local economy, society and culture.

The Local Government and Housing Committee want to hear from a wide range of people connected to the issue including first-time buyers, community groups, local businesses as well as second-home owners themselves.

The Committee will be scrutinising the Welsh Governments actions and wants to hear the voices and experiences of people affected in order to assess this approach is the correct one.

The inquiry will also attempt to fill in the evidence gaps around this subject, with existing information on the effect of people owning multiple residential properties being largely anecdotal.

John Griffiths, the Chair of the Local Government and Housing Committee, said; Second home ownership is an issue that has become more and more obvious in the last few years. We know it causes strong emotions in a lot of people  thats why its so important to get the facts right.

We want to hear from people across Wales who see the effect of people owning second homes on our economy, society and culture; be that positive or negative.

Your voices and stories will help us understand the reality of the situation in Wales and make sure we scrutinise the Welsh Government with the correct information in our hands.

People can contribute to the Committees consultation by visiting the Senedd website.
For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Springfield News-Leader.
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - Following an autopsy that showed 22-year-old Dallas Jordan Barrett was murdered at Whiskey Row on Broadway, his mother is doubting the accuracy of video provided by the bar.

She said the new video is too short to tell what really happened that day.

Mother questions downtown bars report on sons death A mother is raising doubts after a downtown bar recounted the moments that led to her sons death.

Several times a week, youll find Tammy Barrett leading protests outside Whiskey Row.

No matter what happened, from anything Ive seen, there is no reason or justification for my son to die there, said Barrett.

Barrett said it wasnt until she got the recent autopsy results that she could verify her son died from asphyxia. The medical examiner declared it a homicide, something she suspected.

Im anticipating to hopefully have charges in the next couple of months, said Barrett.

Video shows moments when security guards restrain Smyrna man at downtown bar For the first time News4 was able to see the moments when security guards at a downtown bar held a 22-year-old Smyrna man to the ground in a cell phone video shot by a bystander.

Whiskey Row recently released two more videos to show what they said led up to the altercation. The bar said the video showed Dallas Barrett turn, lunge and assault a security guard after he was asked to leave.

They said Dallas Barrett was told to exit after Barrett, in the other video, shoved his friend in the white shirt, pushes a young woman dancing and bounces into the security guard.

Tammy Barrett said thats not what she sees.

No, it wasnt a forceful push, said Barrett. He was telling Bradyn to move and get out of the way, go on, and the young lady that they claimed he pushed, this is not a push, and if he were to push her, as big as he is, it would have been much different.

The new video released by the bar is several seconds long.

Thats 23 seconds of video for something that happened for several minutes, said Barrett.

For Barrett, shell keep pushing to get answers from that night.

This has affected me more than anything in the world, said Barrett. I mean, I was talking to DJ this morning while I was getting ready. Its never going to get easier I dont think.

Metro Police said it is still investigating the death. Whiskey Row said it wants more clarification on the autopsy report.

Barrett does plan to have a larger protest outside Whiskey Row on Saturday night.

Office of Professional Accountability has wrapped up its investigation into the homicide and has found the claims from Whiskey Row to be unfounded.
The following speech was delivered by Christoph Vandreier, assistant national secretary of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Germany) to the 2021 International May Day Online Rally held by the World Socialist Web Site and the International Committee of the Fourth International on May 1.

Speech delivered by Christoph Vandreier to the 2021 International May Day Online Rally

Im very happy to be able to participate in this May Day rally and in this critical initiative. And I extend the revolutionary greetings of the Socialist Equality Party in Germany. The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees is the instrument enabling workers to take a stand against the policy of deliberate mass infections and against blatant social inequality, as only the independent intervention of the international working class can put an end to capitalist barbarism, mass deaths and the threat of war.

Opposition to the ruthless policy of the ruling class is also growing in Germany. Two weeks ago, when the government called on the population to put candles for the victims of COVID-19 on windowsills, hundreds of thousands of workers rejected this as a cynical manoeuvre and instead put the candles in front of town halls, state parliaments and the Bundestag to denounce those who are really responsible. There have been numerous strikes and protests at schools against their completely unsafe reopening. Workers from the aviation service company WISAG at Frankfurt Airport went on a hunger strike for several days to protest against layoffs and the theft of their wages. Workers in the metal industry also organized protests and strikes.

All these actions are the harbingers of much broader struggles, into which the working class is objectively driven by the policy of profits over lives. However, workers are already having a very important experience that underscores the necessity of building the International Workers Alliance and advancing an international socialist perspective.

Christoph Vandreier

In every single one of these struggles the trade unions are on the side of the companies. Over the last year, they have seen to it that the factories widely remained open and became veritable hot spots of the pandemic. Amid rising numbers of infections, the German educators union GEW is demanding that schools be reopened. Workers of the aviation company WISAG directed their protests against the public services union Verdi because it openly supported the company.

In the metal industry, the trade union IG Metall imposed wage cuts of up to three percent in March, while the profits of the auto companies went sky high. For their service, the union bureaucrats have received enormous sums. Now, the head of the works council at Volkswagen, Bernd Osterloh, has directly jointed corporate management. In this position he will receive two million euros per year. These organisations have absolutely nothing to do with representing the interests of the workers. Rather, they act as co-managers and corporate police forces.

Thirty years after the collapse of Stalinism and the end of history triumphalism, the pandemic exposes the bankruptcy of capitalism. The reign of the financial oligarchy is incompatible with the basic needs and even the lives of workers. This fact is demonstrated particularly sharply in Eastern Europe. Health care systems that were intact were destroyed. Every single branch of society was sacrificed for the immediate drive for profits. During the entire course of the pandemic, workers were forced to go to completely unsafe workplaces in order to keep production running and secure supply chains. Today, there is not a single region in the world with death rates as high as in Eastern Europe.

However, also in Germany almost half of the hospitals were closed as part of the policy of austerity. Here, the response to the pandemic is characterized as well by a policy of allowing the virus to spread in the population. The results are already more than 80.000 deaths, overcrowded ICUs, with more and more young people who have to be treated.

At the same time, hundreds of billions of euros were handed out to the super-rich. Amidst the pandemic, the ten richest people in Germany have seen their wealth increase by 35 percent to 242 billion dollars. Moreover, billions are allocated to the armament of the military forces. Over the course of the last year, Germany has increased its military spending by 5.2 percent, a rate of increase surpassing every other country.

On the other side, 40 percent of workers have suffered from tangible income losses. For the time after the upcoming general election, all parties are planning to escalate this policy which is in essence the same as the one pursued by the right-wing Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD).

With Armin Laschet, the Christian Democrats have nominated the politician as their candidate who has promoted the policy of herd immunity most aggressively. The Social Democrats field finance minister Olaf Scholz, who is responsible for austerity and for the build-up of the state apparatus over recent years.

The nominally left opposition parties are no alternative, but rather criticize the reactionary policies of the Grand Coalition government from the right in many cases. The candidate of the Greens, Annalena Baerbock, accuses the government of passivity in foreign affairs, demanding an aggressive policy against the nuclear powers Russia and China. She wants Ukraine to enter NATO and the EU and build a European Army.

The lead candidate of the Left Party in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Sahra Wagenknecht, has just published her new book ( Die Selbstgerechten [The Self-righteous] ) in which she openly ties in with the tradition of thought of the Nazis. She stirs up hatred against migrants, wants jobs for Germans only, and defends German capital against its supposedly greedier foreign rivals. For this line, she is hailed by the right-wing AfD, business representatives and bourgeois media outlets in equal measure.

All of this must be seen as a warning. Eighty years after the invasion of the Soviet Union and the systematic extermination of 25 million Soviet citizens, the German ruling class is returning to its great power fantasies and its fascist traditions. All opposition to this right-wing conspiracy is to be suppressed in the general election.

Although social contacts must be reduced to a minimum during the pandemic, new parties have to physically gather almost 30,000 signatures in order to be allowed to participate in the election, which means that they are effectively excluded. With this fundamental attack on democratic rights, the ruling elite seeks to prevent the socialist candidates of the SGP from being voted for at all. With this step, the government continues its efforts to suppress the SGP.

Drawing on the tradition of the Anti-Socialist Laws and the Nazis Willensstrafrecht (punishment for thought), the Ministry of the Interior declared our party an enemy of the constitution already two years ago, because we fight for a democratic, egalitarian and socialist society.

Germany is, however, not only the country of Bismarck and the Nazis. It is also the country of the first socialist mass party, that rooted the program of international socialism in the working class. And it is precisely because of the crimes committed by German imperialism in the 20th century that the rejection of fascism and war is so deeply rooted in the working class.

The Trotskyist world movement defended Marxist principles against revisionism and Stalinism. Basing ourselves on this foundation, we are linking our party to the enormous opposition that exists within the working class today. This May Day rally is a strong expression of this. We will use our participation in the general election to provide a voice and a perspective to the growing opposition and to build the SGP as the new socialist mass party.

We urge our audience to register today for the International Workers Alliance, support our election campaign and become a member of the SGP.
The following speech was delivered by Tom Scripps, assistant national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in Britain, to the 2021 International May Day Online Rally held by the World Socialist Web Site and the International Committee of the Fourth International on May 1.

Once again, the ICFI is forced to observe at its May Day rally that the heroic journalist Julian Assange is being left to rot in a maximum-security prison in London, and to reiterate our demand for his release.

In the past year, the World Socialist Web Site has recorded anniversaries which point to the outstanding character of Assanges journalism and the fundamental political significance of the fight for his freedom.

Tom Scripps

July 25 marked ten years since the publication of the Afghanistan war logs and October 22 ten years since the Iraq war logs, which together provided an unprecedented account of the brutal imperialist invasion and occupation of these countries, including he covered-up murder of thousands of civilians and use of death squads and torture.

November 27 marked a decade since the release of the US diplomatic cables, revealing imperialist conspiracies and coup plots, corruption, and state surveillance.

This April 24 marked ten years since the publication of the Guantanamo files, documenting the torture of prisoners and detention of innocents, including children, for years without trial.

In the intervening decade, it is not the architects of these crimes who have been put on trial and imprisoned, but Assange for exposing them.

A few weeks ago, we passed the two-year anniversary of his seizure from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had claimed political asylum and been kept under effective arbitrary detention by British police for nearly seven years. He was bundled into a police van, thrown into Belmarsh prison, and subjected to an unbroken chain of abuses of his legal and democratic rights, as the United States sought his extradition for charges totalling 175 years of imprisonment in inhuman conditions.

Two years on, he remains in the hands of his enemies.

A British judge, Vanessa Baraitser, ruled in January that Assange could not be extradited to the United States on mental health grounds, acknowledging that the WikiLeaks founder was at severe risk of suicide.

But this was a politically calculated decision which did not bring Assange so much as a minute of freedom. Except on the point of his health, Baraitser accepted every antidemocratic element of the American governments case, leaving the door wide open for an appeal of her ruling by the prosecution.

Among the first acts of the Biden administration when it came into office was to make clear that the United States would pursue an appeal and continue to seek Assanges extradition, proving that there is not a shred of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats when it comes to their hostility to democratic rights. The same is true of all bourgeois parties, their media echo chambers and their pseudo-left adjuncts the world over.

Assanges extradition hearing in Londons Old Bailey last September was a watershed in the collapse of democracy and the descent of world imperialism into abject criminality. While the crimes exposed by WikiLeaks were recounted by witness after witnesscollateral murder, extraordinary rendition, enhanced interrogation, wars of aggressionAssange sat in the dock charged with espionage, framed as an irresponsible hacker.

This grotesque spectacle was met with barely a murmur in the nominally liberal media who had belatedly registered for-the-record opposition to Assanges extradition to cover for their wholehearted participation in a filthy conspiracy of slander against him over an entire decade.

If there is one positive to the recent cynical uproar over the treatment of the right-wing imperialist stooge Alexei Navalny in Russia, it is that it proves the fraudulent character of these organisations stated support for Assange. One can hardly read an issue of the UKs Guardian or Americas New York Times without coming across a defence of the politically rotten Navalny. And one can hardly remember their last word uttered on Assange.

The pseudo-left, who led the lying and utterly discredited campaign to brand Assange a sexual predator, can even now barely bring themselves to mention his name.

With their near silence on Assange, these forces are providing a vital service to world imperialism in its drive to war and dictatorship. The pandemic has dramatically intensified class and geopolitical tensions. To advance their predatory interests, and in an attempt to deflect growing social unrest outwards, the United States and its allies are carrying out a campaign of escalating aggression against Russia and China.

The ruling class knows that this agenda, which threatens the world with the catastrophe of war between nuclear-armed powers, cannot proceed without an evisceration of democratic rights. Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and their fellow gangsters intend to destroy Assange as a cruel example and authoritarian precedent for those who expose and oppose imperialist crimes.

Assanges ongoing persecution has widened the chasm which separates two opposed perspectives in the fight for his freedom.

The official campaign, represented by the Dont Extradite Assange organisation, has directed its efforts towards recruiting left-talking political charlatans and issuing appeals to the capitalist state and its representativesbeginning with a championing of the spineless former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who in turn placed his hopes in Johnsons right-wing government, and culminating in utterly bankrupt appeals to Presidents Trump and Biden for a pardon.

This is the politics of passivity and defeat, which seeks to substitute political and celebrity endorsements for a struggle to rally the only force which can secure Assanges freedom and safetythe international working class. The fruit of their labours is a ragtag band of minor parliamentarians and political commentators of the sort who speak loudly only when they are sure they will not be heard. They are not a shortcut to the masses, but a block on their mobilisation.

The ICFI rejects these soporific appeals. We turn directly to the working class and seek to organise workers in an international campaign of class struggle in Assanges defence. On the day the ICFI launches a global initiative for the formation of rank-and-file committees to fight the immense class battles that lie ahead, we are more confident than ever that this perspective will see Assange freed.
The following report was delivered by Alex Lantier to the 2021 International May Day Online Rally held by the World Socialist Web Site and the International Committee of the Fourth International on May 1. Lantier is the national secretary of the Parti de legalite socialiste (Socialist Equality Party) in France.

Speech delivered by Alex Lantier to the 2021 International May Day Online Rally

Dear comrades and friends, I bring fraternal greetings of the Parti de legalite socialiste of France to this International May Day rally.

The ICFIs call to build the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees is of historic significance. Events since our last May Day rally have starkly shown that the task of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic requires coordinated international action by the working class.

Last month, the COVID-19 death toll surpassed 1 million in Europe and 100,000 in France, as coronavirus variants drive a new surge of infections. Anger is mounting among workers as hospitals overflow across Europe and medical staff demand scientifically guided, shelter-at-home policies. However, the financial aristocracy is fanatically opposed to any policy to halt the contagion.

Governments in Madrid, Rome, Paris and beyond have pledged to end social distancing over the coming month, even as tens of thousands are still infected each day. Italian scientists calculate that by July, even taking the impact of initial vaccinations into account, between 600 and 1,200 people will die each day in Italy if social distancing is ended. This means several thousand deaths in Europe every day, and hundreds of thousands every month.

Nonetheless, European governments are pressing ahead, with contempt for human life. As reports emerged that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson demanded that his fellow ministers let the bodies pile high in their thousands, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that no health indicators could change his decision to fully reopen schools.

French ministers have confirmed that restaurants and cultural venues will finally reopen this month, though at this point, they would reopen only to accelerate a surge of death.

Capitalist governments are pursuing a policy of social murder in the interests of the financial aristocracy. Its wealth surged over the last year, as European institutions distributed trillions of euros in bailouts of banks and major corporations. One million people died, as youth stayed at schools so workers could stay on the job to pump out profits for the banks, and Europes billionaires collectively increased their holdings by over 1 trillion.

Responsibility for mass deaths does not lie, however, solely with the political criminals who hold high office. Herd immunity policies were not implemented by a handful of heads of state alone.

They received the assistance of union bureaucracies and pseudo-left political parties representing affluent layers of the middle class. This is very clear in France, where five union confederations, including the Stalinist General Confederation of Labor, issued a joint statement endorsing European bailouts. A broad layer of pseudo-left parties allied to the unions, such as the New Anti-capitalist Party, criticized lockdowns as a tool of dictatorship.

They worked to tie workers to the political disaster produced by Europes capitalist governments. Denouncing lockdowns while issuing a few empty and impotent proposals for more spending on education, they campaigned for a return to work and in-person schooling.

When teachers invoked their right to withdraw from dangerous working conditions last autumn and went on strike, the union federations isolated their struggles, allowing riot police to assault them.

The disaster this has produced is now clear. Since last autumn, over 800,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Europe, including 70,000 in France. In contrast, the very few countries that employed lockdowns and track-and-trace policies controlled the virus: Taiwan saw 11 deaths, Vietnam 35, and China managed to limit the number of COVID-19 deaths to under 5,000.

This shattering experience contains key political lessons. The corporatist framework of social dialog in Francein which workers are supposedly represented by union bureaucracies in talks with management and the capitalist statehas been exposed as a murderous fraud.

Workers cannot rely on the empty shells of the old national labor bureaucracies of Europe, deserted decades ago by workers and now funded by the state and big business.

Powerful forces are building in the international working class against herd immunity policies and the obscene social inequality imposed by the financial aristocracy.

The ICFIs call to build the IWA-RFC is the great alternative to the empty shells of the old national labor bureaucracies. It opens a path for countless millions of workers around the world who want to mobilize to save lives and oppose the reactionary policies of an entrenched ruling class.

Against a global pandemic, only an organized, global movement of the working class, independent of the union bureaucracies and their political allies, can impose a scientific policy to save the millions of lives that now hang in the balance.

The emergence of such an international workers movement, in organizations independent of the national bureaucracies, will pose the question of socialismthat is, the transfer of state power to the working class, the large majority of the population, around the world.

Since Trumps January 6 coup attempt on the Capitol building in Washington, it is ever clearer that halting the pandemic requires a determined struggle against the threat of military dictatorship. This danger is mounting across Europe. In Germany, cells of neo-Nazi officers are drawing up kill lists and hoarding weapons under the political cover of the federal government and the military leadership.

For months, Spains neo-fascist Vox party has backed coup threats by army officers angered by the wave of strikes across Europe last March that imposed a lockdown in Europe in the spring of 2020.

A week ago, 23 retired French generals issued a statement in a neo-fascist magazine stating that the army could soon be forced to intervene in a civil war and kill thousands on French soil. President Emmanuel Macron, having relied on the security forces to assault yellow vest protests, students and striking rail workers, has remained silent on the threat.

This year, 2021, marks the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune, the first time in history that the working class built its own state and took power, though only in the French capital. One hundred and fifty years ago this month, the French Republic under liberal historian Adolphe Thiers sent its army into Paris. In a Bloody Week of slaughter, from May 21 to 28, it killed 20,000 Parisian workers and crushed the Commune.

As the working class enters into struggle against herd immunity policies and the political descendants of Thiers, the critical question is the independent organization of the working class and the construction of the ICFI as its revolutionary vanguard.
On Tuesday, the World Socialist Web Site reported that numerous prominent leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) engaged in a coordinated Twitter campaign celebrating the assassination of Leon Trotsky in Mexico City on August 20, 1940. The World Socialist Web Site spoke to Jorge OLeary, world-renowned leader of the 1983-86 Phelps Dodge strike in eastern Arizona, about the DSAs praise for Trotskys assassination.

Jorge O'Leary at age 80 today

O'Leary said, To celebrate Trotskys death at the hands of Stalinist treason, Im disgusted with this. This is mean. Trotsky was a genius and he always worked for the working class for the benefit of the workers. And after 80 years, its shocking to hear that there are those who are happy about that.

Many of the tweets by DSA leaders were illustrated with depictions of an alpenstock, the weapon used by Stalinist assassin Ramon Mercader to murder Trotsky. This might come in handy one day, one DSA leader wrote. Another DSA member proposed erecting a memorial to Mercader, claiming he showed us the way. DSA members and leaders posted dozens of similar tweets, which were liked by a substantial section of the DSA leadership.

OLeary was born in Mexico in 1940, shortly before Trotskys assassination. As a young socialist and anti-imperialist student leader he had profound respect for then-Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas decision to grant Trotsky asylum. He later became a doctor, moved to the United States and practiced medicine in eastern Arizona at a hospital owned by the Phelps Dodge corporation. During the strike, the company fired him from the hospital for refusing to follow management demands that he deny medical attention to strikers and their children.

OLeary then set up a free medical clinic for strikers and was selected by the workers as the leader of the strike, which involved 3,000 workers and lasted three years. He presently lives in Tucson, Arizona. In April, the WSWS interviewed him at length about the strike and the leading role played by the Socialist Equality Partys predecessor, the Workers League, and its then-National Secretary David North.

OLeary made the following statement about the DSAs coordinated effort to celebrate the assassination of Trotsky:
Maria Svart

National Director

Democratic Socialists of America

May 22, 2021

Dear Ms. Svart,

On May 17, the World Socialist Web Site reported that during the previous week members of the Democratic Socialists of America had used Twitter to post and disseminate statements and memes celebrating the 1940 assassination of Leon Trotsky, the leader of the 1917 October Revolution and founder of the Fourth International.

As documented by the report, written by Eric London, those involved in these posts and retweets are not politically inexperienced members of the DSA. Rather, as London wrote:

The DSA members celebrating Trotskys assassination include elected national office holders and leaders of its youth wing (YDSA), branch chairs, leaders of campus clubs and prominent DSA podcasters, as well as contributors to the Guardian and DSA-affiliated media outlets such as Jacobin magazine.

Among these leading DSA members are:

1. Nickan Fayyazi, a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the YDSA and co-chair of its UC Berkeley Chapter.

2. Jake Colosa, a member of the New York City DSA steering committee.

3. Alex Lawson, a Vermont DSA organizer.

4. Honda Wang, a DSA Organizing Committee member in lower Manhattan.

5. Kenzo Shibata, a prominent DSA member in Chicago.

6. Brandon Henriquez, co-chair of the DSA Silicon Valley branch.

7. Nate Knauf, a former member of the DSA National Electoral Committee.

8. Guy Brown, a DSA National Political Education Committee member and co-chair of the Charlotte, North Carolina DSA.

9. Blanca Estevez, a member of the DSA National Political Committee.

10. Nate Stewart, a member of the YDSA National Coordinating Committee.

11. Alexander Hernandez, co-chair of the DSA Immigration Rights Group.

12. Austin Binns, a member of the DSA National Electoral Committee.

13. Cole Schenley, co-chair of the DSA branch in Erie, Pennsylvania.

14. Kayleen Pena, a member of the DSA Organizing Committee in New York City.

15. Michael Lumpkin, a member of the DSA Los Angeles Labor Committee.

The involvement of leading members of the DSA in this anti-Trotsky campaign clearly indicates that it was a coordinated response to the WSWSs criticism of Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, which had been read by thousands of DSA members. Rather than attempting to reply to the WSWS with legitimate arguments, the DSA leaders descended to the level of political pornography. A tweet by Ben Davis, a prominent DSA member in Washington, D.C., featured a drawing of the assassin preparing to strike Trotsky from behind with an ice pick. Davis added the caption, Clear out the wreckers  thereby invoking the very words used by Stalin to sanction the murderous terror he unleashed in the Soviet Union in 1936.

The assassination of Leon Trotsky was the culmination of savage repression between 1936 and 1940 that targeted the socialist working class and intelligentsia. Within the Soviet Union, Stalins decision to eradicate socialist opposition to his regime resulted in approximately one million executions. The victims included not only the Trotskyist opposition, but all those who had played a significant role in the October Revolution and the early years of the Soviet Republic. The Stalinist terror claimed the lives of major Soviet writers, scientists, and artists.

Beyond the borders of the USSR, the GPU murder machine killed thousands of socialists in Spain, including the leader of the POUM, Andreu Nin (who was tortured to death), and Trotskys secretary, Erwin Wolf. The ferocity of Stalinist repression of socialist opponents of the bourgeois Popular Front government is described in meticulous detail in Burnett Bolloten's study of the Spanish Civil War, not to mention George Orwells Homage to Catalonia. In France, the GPU assassinated Trotskys son, Leon Sedov and the secretary of the Fourth International, Rudolf Klement. The Stalinist killings extended even into the United States. Juliet Poyntz, a member of the American Communist Party who had expressed opposition to the Moscow Trials, was kidnapped in New York City in 1937 and never seen again. In 1943, Carlo Tresca, the famed Italian-American anarchist leader and opponent of Stalinism, was assassinated in New York City.

The DSA traces its history to the American Socialist Party. Notwithstanding their well-known and fundamental political differences with the Trotskyist movement, many of its most prominent leaders, including Norman Thomas, opposed the Moscow Trials. They supported the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry into the trials, chaired by the philosopher John Dewey. The Commission, after extensive hearings and investigation of all available evidence, declared Trotsky to be not guilty and denounced the Moscow Trials as a frame-up.

The stand of the Socialist Party was bitterly denounced by the Stalinists. Norman Thomas was among the principal targets of their attacks. In a speech delivered on March 18, 1938, Earl Browder, the Stalinist lickspittle who led the American Communist Party, declared that Thomas capitulated to Hitler and joined with Trotsky. The Moscow trials have thrown a light upon all such problems, including the political degradation of Norman Thomas.

The DSA has a serious political problem. Its leadership includes individuals who unabashedly declare their solidarity with the monstrous crimes committed by Stalin and his totalitarian bureaucratic regime. This cannot be explained simply as a matter of historical ignorance. The individuals who are actively promoting the anti-Trotsky campaign are not political novices.

In fact, as Eric Londons article documented, many of these individuals have connections to the Democratic Party, a bastion of American anti-communism and imperialism. Its political strategists view the Trotskyist movement  which seeks to establish the political independence of the working class from the pro-capitalist Democratic Party on the basis of a socialist program  as a formidable enemy. It fears the potential of the Trotskyist movement to attract workers and youth who are being radicalized by the intensifying social crisis. The broad-based response to the WSWSs criticism of Ocasio-Cortez defense of the Biden administration was seen as a confirmation of this potential.

The essential political purpose of their campaign against Trotskyism is 1) to poison the political environment within the DSA with reactionary anti-Marxist filth appropriated from Stalinism, and 2) to attract to the DSA socially backward people who are drawn to the anti-communist, chauvinistic and  lets not beat around the bush  anti-Semitic subtext of denunciations of Leon Trotsky. Judging from tweets that have been posted in support of the DSA leaders attacks on Trotsky, the campaign is drawing around your organization extremely reactionary elements who should have no place within a genuinely progressive, let alone socialist organization.

An organization that claims to espouse democratic socialism must make clear that it will not tolerate statements, in any form, that legitimize threats of violence against its political opponents on the left.

The Socialist Equality Party formally requests that the Democratic Socialists of America unequivocally denounce and repudiate the Twitter posts, and statements in any other media, that revive Stalinist lies and celebrate the assassination of Trotsky. The DSA must make clear that the propagation of Stalinist lies, thereby sanctioning not only past but also future attacks on the Trotskyist movement, will not be tolerated and is incompatible with membership in its organization.

In conclusion, allow me to point out that the Socialist Equality Party, notwithstanding its political differences with the DSA, has consistently defended your party and its members against attacks from the political right. Statements in defense of Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez have been prominently posted in the World Socialist Web Site. In fact, we have applied this same policy toward members of the Democratic Party, such as Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, when they have been threatened with violence from the extreme right.

I await your reply.

Yours sincerely,



David North

National Chairman

Socialist Equality Party (US)
Dear Ms. Wissler,

I am writing to you because the Left Party maintains close ties with the Democratic Socialists of America. The network Marx21, to which you officially belonged prior to your election as Left Party co-leader, also cooperates closely with the DSA. For example, at Marx21s Marxism Congress organised last year, where you also delivered a speech, leading DSA member Eric Blanc spoke. According to the text announcing the event, he spoke, among other things, about how the left in the United States react[s] to the current threat of a global economic crisis and to growing political tensions.

Janine Wissler (Foto: Sven Teschke / CC-BY-SA 3.0)

I do not know what Blanc said at the congress and what his personal attitude towards Leon Trotsky is. But over the course of recent weeks, members of the DSA have launched a despicable hate campaign against the leading Russian revolutionary and founder of the Fourth International. Leading DSA members have posted tweets celebrating Trotskys murder and paying tribute to Stalinist assassin Ramon Mercader. Several posts contain memes with icepicks, the weapon with which Trotsky was murdered, and praise the deed as a heroic act.

The World Socialist Web Site showed in a detailed analysis how those behind the hate campaign are experienced political operatives. They have close ties to the capitalist and pro-imperialist Democratic Party.

In an open letter to DSA National Director Maria Svart, the chairman of the WSWS International Editorial Board and national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US), David North, summed up the essential political purposes of the anti-Trotsky campaign:

1) to poison the political environment within the DSA with reactionary anti-Marxist filth appropriated from Stalinism, and 2) to attract to the DSA socially backward people who are drawn to the anti-communist, chauvinistic andlets not beat around the bushanti-Semitic subtext of denunciations of Leon Trotsky.

The revival of Stalinist lies has wide-ranging historical and political implications and cannot be accepted under any circumstances. Trotskys murder was the culmination of the Stalinist terror in the 1930s, which took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Marxists. It was directed against the socialist strivings of workers and young people in the Soviet Union and around the world.

The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei and the WSWS call on you to condemn, in the name of your party, the Twitter posts and other statements in the media by leading DSA members celebrating Trotskys assassination. A party that calls itself left and claims in its programme to have broken with Stalinism must reject this despicable witch-hunting of its left-wing opponents.

In this context, I would like to point out that the SGP and WSWS have, despite our fundamental political differences, defended Left Party representatives against attacks from the far right. Last year, SGP Chairman Ulrich Rippert condemned in a statement published prominently on the WSWS the threat issued against you by NSU 2.0.

In expectation of a clear response on your part, I remain,

Sincerely,

Johannes Stern

Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the German edition of the WSWS
On Saturday, June 5, Socialist Equality Party National Secretary Joseph Kishore and WSWS writer Eric London appeared on the podcast Eclectic Radical hosted by Chris Richards. The discussion focused on the campaign by the leadership of the Democratic Socialists of America celebrating the assassination of Leon Trotsky and praising the crimes of Stalinism.

Eclectic Radical - Saturday Special #3

On May 18, the WSWS posted a report detailing the highly coordinated character of this campaign. On May 22, WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North issued an open letter to DSA National Director Maria Svart demanding the DSA repudiate this campaign. The open letter has not been answered.

Here are six highlights from the podcast.

Joseph Kishore (2:45)

The DSA is glorifying an act which was one of the most politically consequential crimes of the 20th century. We also have an open letter which weve directed to DSA Political Director Maria Svart, which she still has not answered, calling on her to repudiate these attacks. But it really gets to why these questions are so critical, the basic issues of history: What was Trotskyism? What was Stalinism? Was there an alternative to Stalinism? One of the lines that one sees among those who are tweeting these things and justifying them is, Oh, this was all 80 years ago, what does it really matter, its not a big deal that were joking about the murder of Leon Trotsky. In fact, its a very big deal. The crimes of Stalinism had an incredibly disastrous impact on the socialist movementthe physical liquidation of between 700,000 and one million people in the Soviet Union, the violence directed against the Fourth International, and also in discrediting or associating socialism with this monstrosity. In fact, the socialist movement and its historical continuity runs through the opposition to Stalinism, which was led by Trotsky, and then the founding of the Fourth International. These historical issues, what actually happened in the 20th century, are of such monumental importance in orienting a revolutionary movement today.

Eric London (6:15)

Who was Leon Trotsky? Why is this something which we take so seriously? Trotsky was, alongside Vladimir Lenin, one of the two leaders of the Russian Revolution of 1917. This was the first time in the history of humanity that the working class had taken power. And they did so in the midst of a brutal world war, which they ended. They were then invaded by over a dozen capitalist countries. They successfully fought, with Trotsky at the head of the Red Army, against the fascistic White Army. They defeated them. They then were isolated in the Soviet Union and the bureaucracy, a privileged caste, usurped power with Stalin at its head. Trotsky dedicated his entire life, and what he said were the most important years of his life, to the fight to expose the Stalinist bureaucracy, to defend the fight for international socialist revolution, and its independence from the parties of capitalismwhich is the theory of permanent revolution, which is our perspective, the perspective of the Socialist Equality Party today. In the course of defending its privileged interests against the interests of the Russian and international working class, the Stalinist bureaucracy engaged in a political genocide in which up to one million people were exterminated. This is what the DSA thinks is hilarious, very funny, worthy of making memes. Think about what the political implications of this are.

Joseph Kishore (12:58)

The campaign against Trotsky has a broader provenance. Theres a series of biographies written over the past couple decades, including one by Robert Service, a right-wing, establishment historian. He made a statement when he was talking about his biography, which is a scurrilous historically falsified book, full of basic errors, that if the icepick didnt finish Trotsky off, I hope the biography will. That his book would put an end to Trotsky. Service is speaking on behalf of the ruling class, under conditions in which theres a growing political radicalization of young people, of workers, a turn to the left, growing interest in socialism, which all the polls show. Under these conditions, there is a fear that this political radicalization will connect with the genuine history of socialist politics, which is Trotskyism. And that goes back to the Russian Revolution itself and the whole tradition of revolutionary Marxism of which the Trotskyist movement is the contemporary political expression.  And theres a middle class layer who view history with contempt, who know really nothing about the history of the socialist movement, about principled politics, and theyre drawn into it. This is driven from the top. There is a coordinated campaign, with calculated political and social interests behind it.

Eric London (20:20)

Heres why the dynamic of the attack on Trotsky and the celebration of the assassination of Trotsky are so important. The dynamic is: The World Socialist Web Site criticized Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from the left, for defending Joe Biden. In response, the DSA leadership launched a coordinated campaign to joke about the assassination of Trotsky and to praise Stalin. It was a direct response to the response which we got for our article, which was read over 100,000 times, and after which we were exchanging messages with a very, very high number of DSA members all over the country. The defeat of the AFL-CIO unionization drive at Bessemer also played a part, where this right-wing bureaucracy, the RWDSU, with the support of the DSA and every other organization, couldnt even win support from 15 percent of the workforce at this massive Amazon facility. Point being, they are attacking us from an extremely defensive standpoint.

Eric L ondon (48:39)

The DSA, from its founding by the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, was explicitly founded as a part of the Democratic Party. And its orientation within the Democratic Party was throughout the Carter administration, throughout the Tip ONeill reign of the conservative Democratic Party in the 1980s, throughout the 90s throughout the Congressional Progressive Caucus. So the DSA has had 50 years to push the Democratic Party to the left from within. Over that period the Democratic Party has gone further and further to the right, to the point where the DSA is in the absurd position of trying to be a socialist organization that has five members of the Democratic Caucus in Congress supporting Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.

Joseph Kishore (1:01:09)

The important thing to understand in all of this is that the fundamental target is the working class. The UMWA, what they are terrified of is the growth of opposition within their so-called own members, that is, the workers they claim to represent. And what they are very fearful of is that the opposition among the workers will take an organized and conscious form. Thats why theres the hysterical opposition to the development of rank-and-file committees, independent organizations of working class struggle through which the workers can in fact fight for their interests, can organize and unite and develop a coordinated struggle not only in the US but all over the world. The ruling class has created a social powder keg. To put it in a somewhat broader framework, the response to the pandemic, decades of social inequality, of relentless assault on the working class, in which the unions have worked to suppress opposition, the incredible concentration of wealth in the oligarchy, then the pandemic which has killed over 600,000 peoplein fact, more like a millionin the US, 3.5 million around the world, the oligarchy has used it to amass unprecedented levels of wealth, theyre carrying out austerity measures and demanding that the workers pay for it. This is producing a social explosion. And that is what theyre really terrified of. But we are oriented toward building a movement in the working class. Thats what they dont want, an independent movement of the working class to break the working class from the Democratic Party.
Historian Victoria Bynum, author of The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and Its Legacies (University of North Carolina Press, 2010), The Free State of Jones: Mississippis Longest Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2001) and Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South (University of North Carolina Press, 1992), issued the following statement demanding the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) repudiate and apologize for the leaderships coordinated celebration of the assassination of Leon Trotsky and discipline those responsible.

On May 18, the WSWS posted a report detailing the highly coordinated character of this campaign. On May 22, WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North issued an open letter to DSA National Director Maria Svart demanding the organization repudiate this campaign. The open letter has not been answered.

* * *

Dear Maria Svart,

In hopes of seeing class issues addressed on Twitter, I began following both the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) some time ago. In truth, it now seems, the DSA merely provides cynical cover for the decrepit Democratic Party. Nothing made that clearer than a number of its members recent jokes about the brutal murder of socialist leader, Leon Trotsky, a true revolutionary advocate for the working class. How could the leaders of your organization tolerate such behavior from within? At the very least, those members should be punished, and an apology rendered to readers who have a right to expect better from an organization that calls itself Socialist.

Sincerely,

Vikki Bynum
On Friday, October 29, Amazon announced that fully vaccinated workers may go without face masks. An internal memo was sent to workers by text, stating, We are pleased to announce that effective November 2, fully vaccinated employees who have loaded their vaccination information into A to Z [Amazons scheduling and informational app for workers] will have the option to not wear a face covering at Amazon U.S. Operations sites, unless otherwise mandated by federal, state, or local regulations.

Amazon delivery driver [Source: Amazon Media]

Amazons latest relaxation of mask requirements comes as 75,000 people are being infected daily with COVID-19 in the United States. In comparison, the last time Amazon dropped mask requirements on May 24, 2021, the rate of new daily cases in the United States was about 23,000, which underscores the recklessness of the current policy.

The Amazon text continued, As the scientific community has learned more about the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination, it is now clear that for most people who are fully vaccinated, the risk of contracting and transmitting coronavirus is extremely low.

While vaccines have been shown to reduce the symptoms and the rates of hospitalization among those who have contracted the virus, vaccination alone cannot eliminate the virus. Vaccination is but one tool in an array of public health measures (such as testing, contact tracing, and the closure of nonessential businesses and schools) that must be enacted to end the pandemic.

Downplaying the threat of the pandemic is useful to corporate CEOs, who have massively increased their own wealth since it began. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos increased his own personal fortune by about $80 billion to a total of over $200 billion during the pandemic. Meanwhile, many of his employees became sick, and others died. In October 2020, Amazon announced that over 20,000 Amazon workers had been infected with COVID-19, a number that is now certainly out of date. Amazon has rarely released information about infections and deaths in its workplaces, so it is uncertain exactly how large those numbers are today.

In May, Amazon dropped its mask requirements following new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that said that all vaccinated individuals in the United States can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing. The World Socialist Web Site stated at the time that the CDC guidance reflected a political, not a scientific, decision to promote business interests by removing impediments to profits.

Responding to this first abandonment of COVID-19 face mask protocols, the Baltimore Amazon Workers Rank-and-File Committee released a statement saying that the new policy would put the blame for any continued spread of COVID-19 on the workers themselves, while also absolving [Amazon] and its reckless policies of any of the blame. The committee went on to warn that there is no reason to believe that the pandemic has ended. This warning was proven correct two months later when, on August 9, Amazon responded to a spike in the number of cases by reinstating the mask requirements.

Today, Amazon has largely abandoned staggered shifts, the prohibition on stand-up meetings and other protective measures that it had enacted earlier in the pandemic. The companys decision not to require unvaccinated workers to wear masks will make conditions more dangerous and have disastrous consequences.

The company is confronting labor shortages and has already expressed concerns that it is burning through its workforce with high turnover. Amazon is seeking ways to lure workers to work for them during the holidays, the busiest time for logistics, warehouses and fulfillment centers. Amazon has a turnover of almost 3 percent of its entire workforce every week and a staggering 150 percent of its workforce every year. That rate, according to a New York Times article on the subject, entitled, The Amazon That Customers Dont See, is almost double that of the retail and logistics industries [and] has made some executives worry about running out of workers across America.

Amazon in September gave meager starting pay raises from $15 to $18 per hour that dont address the cost of living in the cities in which the company operates its warehouses. Economic necessity, however, will spur many workers to take this incentive, which will put their safety at risk and further fuel the spread of COVID-19.

Amazon has earned notoriety for its poor safety record. In 2020, Amazon reported a rate of 6.5 injuries for every 100 full-time equivalent workers in their warehouses. In October 2020, OSHA cited Amazon for failing to provide adequate health and safety training at two California facilities .

The companys record during the pandemic has been abysmal. Amazon was ordered to close a facility near Toronto, Canada, for two weeks in March due to significantly rising COVID-19 infections, even though infection rates had been decreasing in the surrounding Peel region for weeks. In Oregon, one of the worst outbreaks of COVID-19 occurred at Amazons Troutdale facility, which has reported 345 cases since May, bringing that facilitys total to at least 500 cases since the pandemic began. Amazon Troutdale saw case numbers surpassing even those at overwhelmed medical centers such as Salem Hospital, which had seen 299 cases since May.

At every point, the policy of the corporations and their political servants has been to put profit interests above saving lives, while vilifying scientists whose data contradicts and comes into conflict with the corporate agenda. After the complete botching of the health response by political authorities for almost two years now, including uneven and contradictory response measures, some workers have adopted a cynical attitude toward public health measures, and might be attracted to the idea of working for Amazon without masks. Thousands of maskless workers could be mingling in close spaces this holiday season as a result.

The disregard for workers health and safety means workers must organize to protect themselves. The World Socialist Web Site urges Amazon workers to follow the example of the Amazon workers in Baltimore and set up rank-and-file safety committees. These committees must democratically map out demands for safe working conditions and fight to unite with Amazon workers in the US and globally to insist that lives be put ahead of corporate profits.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington has offered a sobering projection for COVID-19 as the United States heads into the winter months. The IHME warned: [w]e see increasing evidence in the Northern Hemisphere that the expected winter surge has started to unfold. Reductions in cases, estimated infections, and hospitalizations have essentially stopped in the US, and we are starting to turn around.

The Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital is shown on May 8, 2020, in Gallup, N.M. Hospitals in northwestern New Mexico are grappling with a surge in coronavirus infections. New Mexico's health officials said Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, that the state's health care system continues to be heavily burdened by sustained rates of hospitalizations from COVID-19 cases. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File)

They note that aside from winter seasonality and waning immunity, the third factor thats fueling these winter increases is the fact that people are much less cautious than last winter, as mask use is much lower  than a year ago. Peoples mobility levels are just below the pre-COVID baseline instead of 20 to 30 percent below the pre-COVID baseline. Putting those together, we expect that despite progress on vaccination, we will see a winter surge.

The IHMEs observation of population behavior is correct as far as it goes. But the American people did not suddenly throw caution to the wind after suffering nearly 800,000 deaths. The curtailment of mask-wearing and greatly increased public activity are a product of the demand by the American ruling class, acting through the Biden administration, state governments, political parties, the media and giant corporations, that the economy must be opened and kept open, to fuel the profit-making essential to the capitalist system.

How big will the winter pandemic surge be? IHME, in its current projection, foresees another 70,000 people will die in the coming months. The number of deaths from COVID-19 during Bidens presidency will undoubtedly eclipse that of his predecessor. Mass death will become the new yardstick for measuring presidential terms in office.

Two months ago, Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and a former Biden adviser on the pandemic, speaking with Bloomberg , said, Were going to see hills and valleys, at least for the next several years as we get more vaccine out. Thats going to help. But the challenge is going to be: How big will the hills and valleys be, in terms of their distance? We dont know. But I can tell you, this is a coronavirus forest fire that will not stop until it finds all the human wood it can burn.

As the third year of the pandemic is nearing, despite the repeated hosannas that the COVID-19 vaccines have saved humanity, the sixth wave is well underway, with more than 550,000 new infections reported worldwide yesterday, more than a quarter-billion reported cases and over 5 million reported deaths in these two years with no end in sight. There is still much human material that the virus can exploit, and given the nature of SARS-CoV-2, it can do so again and again.

There have been 7.16 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered globally. More than 4 billion people have received at least one dose of the vaccines, and 3.16 billion (40.5 percent) are fully vaccinated. However, with campaigns to offer all adults boosters and children the pediatric version of the COVID-19 vaccines, it will mean that masses of people in low- and middle-income countries will continue to go without.

According to Dr. Lone Simonsen, an epidemiologist, and professor of population health sciences at Roskilde University in Denmark, the longest global flu outbreak lasted five years, with two to four waves of infection. COVID-19 is not only novel in the sense of a new coronavirus: The shape of the pandemic itself is novel, completely different than any previously experienced, with six separate waves in barely two years, and no sign that the infection is either weakening or subsiding.

Speaking with Bloomberg , Dr. Simonsen explained that previously held conceptions that viruses become milder in the course of a pandemic are erroneous. Although new mutations arent always more severe than their predecessors, she said, pandemics can in fact get more deadly during the pandemic period, as the virus is adapting to its new host.

Developments with the highly virulent Delta strain and mutating progenies refute the complacent suggestions that the vaccines will bring the pandemic to its knees as populations reach herd immunity. More than 30,000 cases of the AY.4.2, a sublineage of Delta from the UK, have been detected across more than 30 countries.

More transmissible than its ancestors, it has been classified as a variant under investigation. Virologists have observed the virus still has room to enhance these qualities and wreak havoc over the immune system of those it infects. It is possible that vaccines will not produce even a threshold immunity. Populations will be dependent on boosters to stave off infection and its accompanying risks of Long COVID and death.

Europe is in the throes of a massive surge, despite mass vaccination. According to the World Health Organizations COVID-19 dashboard, the continent reported more cases in one week than at any other time during the pandemic. Deaths have also been climbing, with 26,877 for the week beginning on November 1, 2021. This is a 10 percent rise over the previous week. Germany, Europes most populous country with 67 percent of the population fully vaccinated, had a single-day high of more than 45,000 COVID cases on November 10, with cases continuing to rise.

WHO Regional Director Hans Kluge commented, We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence. According to one reliable projection, if we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million COVID-19 deaths in Europe and Central Asia by February 1 next year.

These alarming projections are just as valid for the US, which is pursuing a reckless policy of vaccinating the population into normalcy and failing at that too. The sudden decline in cases seen during October has been followed by an abrupt upturn in just a short time. And instead of absorbing these lessons that have repeatedly played out for the last two yearsmassive deaths and overwhelmed health systemsBiden has decided to open all international borders.

Yesterday, the US reported close to 100,000 COVID cases. Deaths reached nearly 1,500. Cumulatively, there have been 47.7 million cases and almost 781,000 deaths. This means one in seven persons has had a documented infection, and one in 423 has died from COVID since the pandemic began.

The seven-day average of daily cases reached a trough of 70,291 on October 25. It has since climbed to 76,769, a 9 percent rise in a little more than two weeks. The US regions experiencing a rise in cases are across the Northeast, Midwest and West. However, the recent celebrations about the decline in cases across the South will have to be put on hold as cases have plateaued. Twenty-seven states have now reported a positive 14-day change in their ledger of new cases.

In August, a study from Japan in preprint form found that the Delta variant possessed multiple mutations in its anti-N-terminal domain (NTD). The authors wrote, All anti-NTD neutralizing antibodies failed to recognize the Delta spike, indicating that the Delta variant is completely resistant to anti-NTD neutralizing antibodies as compared to the original strains. Such studies highlight that SARS-CoV-2 is evolving to become resistant to the current vaccines, which will have considerable ramifications to the current vaccine-only strategy being advanced.

That the virus has undergone repeated mutations is not just a natural property of the viruss adaptive mechanisms. This process has been assisted from the beginning by the policies decreed by the financial oligarchs, who insisted that profit considerations should have priority over public health. They have given the virus the necessary time and scope, with hundreds of millions, and perhaps billions of human hosts, to develop and improve its ability to infect and to kill.
As 10,000 agricultural and construction John Deere workers enter their second month on strike, there is growing support for the struggle by workers in different industries and countries, who see in the strike a long-due uprising against decades of corporate attacks.

Striking John Deere workers (UAW Local 838)

At the same time, the United Auto Workers union is intensifying its efforts to sabotage the strike and secure the companys terms. On Tuesday, UAW International spokesman Brian Rothenberg told the Telegraph Herald that the union officials were in active talks with Deere, while declining to comment on any details of the discussions. Out of respect to our strikers and their families who are on the picket line, we are not going to bargain in the press, he said.

A more accurate statement by Rothenberg would have been: Out of contempt for those whom we call members, we are going to continue to tell them absolutely nothing about our discussions with the company, because the last thing we want is for them to know ahead of time that were preparing another sellout contract.

Throughout the year, the talks between the UAW and Deere have not been negotiations between opposing parties. The UAW has signed off on and promoted two contracts pushed by the company that have not met the demands of workers to restore the substantial concessions in wages, benefits and working conditions previously enforced by the union bureaucracy over a number of contracts.

Voicing his anger over the UAWs conduct of the strike and its collusion with the company, a Deere worker in Cedar Falls, Iowa, told the WSWS, The UAWs greed knows no bounds. We pay dues all year long, but then they get their cut in special union dues out of our CIPP checks and other bonuses [CIPP refers to the productivity incentive pay designed to increase speedup]. They should not get special union dues because they didnt work for our CIPP and other bonuses. Just another way the UAW steals my hard-earned money.

The UAW is above all fearful that the growing rebellion by Deere workers may spread and become uncontrollable, since hundreds of thousands of autoworkers have similarly seen their wages and benefits sharply decline under the UAWs watch.

The John Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee has spearheaded the fight to broaden the strike and prevent another attempted betrayal by the well-compensated union executives at Solidarity House. The rank-and-file committee has called for workers to receive full income to hold out against the companyinstead of being starved on just $275 a week from the UAWs $790 million strike fundand has appealed to autoworkers and Deere workers internationally to mobilize in support of their struggle.

Deere, for its part, has taken a hard line after workers voted down its second tentative agreement with the UAW on November 2, stating the deal was its last, best and final offer. The company has combined threats of hiring permanent strikebreakers with propaganda attempting to resell the contract workers voted down, which failed to meet their demands for retiree health benefits and major improvements in wages.

Deere Chief Technology Officer Jahmy Hindman told Fox News Thursday the best solution is to get the UAW-represented folks  who do this job better than anybody  back in our factories and doing the work.

That said, he continued, were exploring all options to attract the labor that we need in order to meet our other directive which is making sure that we dont disappoint customers with planting season, in particular, right around the corner.

As the harvest season wanes, the strike has delayed shipments of replacement parts farmers need to keep to maintain and fix their Deere equipment. Deeres management has resorted to ratcheting up its strikebreaking through its customer service continuity plan, which uses supervisors, engineers and other salaried workers in place of striking Deere workers at facilities.

Deere is also seeking to increase production outside of the United States, underscoring the international character of Deerewhich has 100 facilities in 30 countriesand therefore the need for an international strategy to fight it.

While the UAW and Deere conspire against workers, workers in different countries are coming to their defense. Deere workers from France and autoworkers in Detroit spoke to the WSWS this week and expressed their solidarity and encouragement for the striking workers. Moreover, on November 6, workers from multiple industries, including Deere, Volvo and Mack Trucks, Deere suppliers Dana and Faurecia, Detroit autoworkers, nurses and educators established the Deere Strike Rank-and-File Solidarity Committee to mobilize the working class in the US and internationally to support the struggle.

Speaking on the Deere strike, a Ford Chicago Assembly Plant worker told the WSWS Thursday, I never hear anything on the news about the strike and very little about it on Google. Mostly I get news about it from the WSWS. Its a tough time for working people everywhere, especially people who are on strike. Ford is cutting jobs in Chicago. The union and the company just give jobs to whoever they want to, theres no more I got your back, at least in Chicago.

Addressing himself to the Deere strikers, he added, I hope that they get everything they deserve and more. My wish is that more people would understand why this is happening and help.

Responding to the statements of support from Detroit autoworkers, a worker at one of Deeres parts depots said, Thank you. These people rock.

People have to stand up, he continued. A huge message needs to get out to all the workers at Deere. People need to understand that Deere and UAW are coming for everything they have.

A Deere worker in Ottumwa, Iowa, made a powerful appeal for international unity among workers around their common interests, telling the WSWS, I would ask that this strike be known worldwide, to let workers know they are not alone against corporate Deere.

To those that have supported our efforts we sincerely thank each and every one of you, he continued. Your kindness is overwhelming. To those just learning what we are doing, I hope we can raise pay and benefits for all of you. Lets show Deere that the 2-3 percent of the operational expense pie that represents workers everywhere means workers deserve another piece of pie.

We make sure farmers, construction, and equipment operators everywhere have the very best quality machines we are able to give them. Our jobs should again regain the recognition of being sought after also. Our products are not just another product, so our jobs shouldnt be just another job either.

Addressing himself to Deere workers worldwide, he said, We all follow similar work processes and managerial directions. Let us use what we have in common to build off of. Lets open up communication between us. Your struggles should be our struggles. When we help any of our brothers or sisters anywhere, we are helping all of them become stronger. We have the abilities to build machines that feed the world.

To learn more about joining the John Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee, Deere workers can email deerewrfc@gmail.com or text (484) 514-9797.
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) continues to receive support from electoral members for the campaign to defeat anti-democratic electoral laws rushed through the Australian parliament on August 26.

The laws seek to silence smaller political parties, those without members of parliament, by requiring them to submit a list of 1,500 members, treble the previous number, by December 2 or face deregistration. This affects 36 political parties, including the SEP. If deregistered their candidates cannot run under their party name on the ballot paper during elections.

The interviews below are from health industry workers and a University of Melbourne student. They detail their hostility to the Australian governments homicidal reopening agenda and the lack of proper support for workers and teachers.

The SEP is the only political party in Australia fighting for the elimination of COVID-19 and against unsafe school re-openings. On Saturday November 13 at 4 p.m. (AEDT) the Committee for Public Education (CFPE) will hold a public meeting opposing the reopening and calling for the formation of rank-and-file action safety committees to stop the virus spreading in schools. You can register here to attend.

To join the SEPs campaign against the legislation, sign up as an electoral member today.

****

Bradley, 48, is a long-standing electoral member and a paramedic. The government response to the pandemic has been pretty woeful from a paramedic point of view. The health system was struggling a long time before the pandemic came along.

Bradley

From my experience, there has been no extra funding thrown our way. We are 18 months into it, we must wear PPE equipment, but at the same time society is opening up. The reasoning is the hospitals cant afford us to get COVID and be off for 14 days. What I tell everyone is that the virus is our problem, that its a workers problem. We are the ones who have to wear PPE.

China built whole new hospitals in response to the pandemic. We have tacked on party hire tents to existing hospitals.

Commenting on the unions, he said, I think theyre breaking apart. Theres a general consensus that the unions dont represent the frontline paramedics anymore. Its not like it was 30 or 40 years ago, with delegates floating about. Many members feel disenfranchised and there are very few active members of the union.

Asked why there had been such a failed response to the virus by the governments, Bradley said, Welcome to Capitalism 101. Its all based on financial decisions and theres no confidence whatsoever in the government handling of this pandemic. The hesitancy towards vaccines shows there is a lot of distrust.

You wonder where it will end. In the US, the land of great democracy, the pinnacle of capitalism, its a complete mess. You look at parts of it and say, thats a third-world country. The only other alternative when you think about it is socialism.

Dylan, 31, is studying at the University of Melbourne for a teaching degree. The new electoral laws, he said, are designed so that the major parties are unchallenged by small parties that possess a different viewpoint, just when different perspectives are really needed.

Referring to the governments planned Voter ID legislation, he said, It seems that this is going to affect minority groups and heavily affect indigenous populations. The laws are similar to what happened in America during the last Trump election where there were instances of legislation reducing minoritys ability to vote, preventing people voting who had a conviction or a fine.

Dylan said it was necessary to consider an alternative to capitalism and referred to the escalating cost of housing in Australia. One of the issues that concerns me is the rising house prices. I dont see how this is going to be solved under the current system. I encourage considering other alternatives to the capitalist model. There needs to be a change and I support the socialist perspective on that change.

House prices have risen by about 20 percent in Australia in just a year. This is such a short period of time. It doesnt seem possible, and Im baffled as to how anyone can afford $1 million houses on wages that havent gone up. Im looking at a teachers wage and I wouldnt be able to support a million-dollar loan, he said.

Dylan spoke about the difficulties confronting university students and staff during the pandemic lockdowns but said that his teachers and lecturers were going beyond what they are being paid for a lot of them are only on part-time contracts and just get paid for the lectures that they produce. I think that says a bit about how teachers are undervalued across the board, not just in the university sector.

Dylan, who has also been doing teacher training in high schools, said lots of teachers were concerned about the reopenings.

The government, he said, has changed what is considered a close contact at a school. Now you must be in a room with a child for two hours. This means that any high school teacher who sees six different classes a day, thats about two hundred students, they would never be considered a close contact of any student that got ill because of the time-period. This is ludicrous.

Obviously teachers want to go back to the way things were, but some of them are worried about their health and safety, he continued. I know of one teacher that didnt come back after schools reopened There were three kids at my school who had contracted COVID and only their class was isolated for a week. I think that the other classes within their grade just had to get tested.
Over the past two weeks, relatively smallbut heavily media-promotedanti-lockdown and anti-vaccination protests in Melbourne have agitated against a new pandemic powers bill introduced by the Victorian state Labor Party government.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews delivering a COVID briefing late last year [Screenshot from ABC News broadcast]

The bill was pushed through the state parliaments lower house in two days at the end of last month, but has yet to pass the upper house, where the government lacks a majority and depends on the support of the Greens and other parties.

Wider legitimate concerns about aspects of the bill have been exploited to assist the corporate-driven offensive to lift all remaining COVID-19 safety restrictions. The aim of this campaign is to force people to live with the deadly virus, despite continuing high numbers of infections, especially in the just-reopened schools.

A demonstration outside state parliament house last weekend featured anti-vaccination slogans such as Vaxtoria, alongside kill the bill. Participants blatantly defied mask-wearing and other social distancing requirements. One speaker was met with applause when he declared: Thank you my fellow superspreaders. He added: We are the counter revolution and we will continue to march.

At another such protest last Tuesday, far-right elements were joined by the Liberal Partys state shadow treasurer David Davis, who was billed as the headline speaker. He echoed his partys state leader Matthew Guy, who has accused Premier Daniel Andrews government of drafting the most extreme pandemic legislation in Australia.

In fact, the legislation is similar to the laws in other states. Guy revealed the economic reopening agenda behind this demagogic campaign when he insisted that powers to impose restrictions were no longer needed. That was because Andrews, as part of the bipartisan National Cabinet, had decreed that no further lockdowns would occur once adult double vaccination rates hit 80 percent (which is about 68 percent of the population).

The central thrust of the bill is actually to facilitate the removal of safety measures, and the abrupt sidelining of public health experts nationally, in order to satisfy the ruthless profit demands of the financial elite.

The Public Health and Wellbeing (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021 does this primarily by transferring powers to issue restriction orders from the states chief health officer to the health minister.

As in the current legislation, such orders must be reasonably necessary to protect public health. But the bill specifies that the minister may take into account other factors, including social and economic considerations, and not just public health.

If the chief health officer disagrees with any lifting of restrictions, the government can reject that advice. This advice must be made available to the public, but only within 14 days, so that the public will be kept in the dark until long after the safety measures have been dismantled.

The bill amends the existing Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008, mainly by inserting a new Part 8AProtection of life and public health during pandemics. This new part empowers the premier to make pandemic or pandemic potential declarations that trigger the health ministers powers.

The main objection of the opposition is that, because pandemic is not defined, this could allow the premier to declare one even when infection numbers are initially low. Another objection is that declarations could be extended for successive three-month periods until the premier decided that the pandemic no longer represented a serious risk to the community.

These alleged dictatorial aspects of the bill have been seized upon to demand the faster scrapping of safety measures and the lifting of all restrictions on people who refuse to be vaccinated. That demand has been assisted by anti-democratic features of the bill, including new limits on the power of either house of parliament to disallow ministerial orders, and the overturning of protection against self-incrimination when questioned by a health officer.

As pointed out by the Victorian Bar, representing barristers, the bill also allows a pandemic order to differentiate between people on the basis of certain attributes. These could include political beliefs, industrial activity or personal association with others, as well as health-related attributes such as vaccination, age, gender, disability or pregnancy.

The furore over the bill points to broader political questions raised by the response of capitalist governments, Labor and Liberal-National alike, to the pandemicthe greatest global public health crisis in a century.

While lockdowns and other restrictions have become absolutely necessary to combat the pandemic, along with vaccinations and other health measures, they have often been enforced in the most heavy-handed manner, especially in working class areas, fuelling justified hostility.

In both Melbourne and Sydney, in particular, police have harassed people, public housing estates have been targeted, and troops have been deployed to patrol streets, conduct house checks and staff checkpoints.

Restrictions also have been applied arbitrarily and inconsistently, imposed via frequently-changing ministerial decrees, issued without any democratic input, and with sweeping exceptions in favour of employers and other big business interests to allow factories, construction sites and other non-essential operations to continue.

These measures, presided over by the National Cabinet of federal, state and territory government leaders, also set repressive precedents and create a political atmosphere that can and will be used by the same capitalist governments to further bolster the police-military apparatus to suppress rising social discontent.

This underscores the necessity for the working class to take control of the pandemic response out of the hands of these governments. A democratically-controlled workers government would reorganise society along socialist lines, on the basis of human need, not corporate profit. This would include effective restrictions, quarantines and other measures to genuinely protect public health and safety, accompanied by adequate economic support for those unable to work or operate small businesses, implemented with popular consultation and input.
Over 95,000 bus drivers, conductors and mechanics at the state-owned Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) have been on indefinite strike since midnight Nov. 3.

Protesting MSRTC workers in Nagpur, Maharashtra's third largest city. (Workers' Unity)

The strike was only launched after workers rebelled against an agreement that the Maharashtra State Transport Kamgar Sanghatana and other unions had reached with the Shiv Sena-led state government.

Negotiated at the end of October, amid a job action limited to only a section of the MSRTC workforce, the agreement abandoned the workers principal demandthat they be made direct employees of the state government, thereby making it more difficult for their jobs to be cut, contracted out or privatized.

Angered by this betrayal, workers at several bus depots walked off the job or refused to end the partial strike they had launched Oct. 27. This rank-and-file strike movement quickly snowballed to involve thousands, if not tens of thousands. In an attempt to regain control over the rank-and-file, the unions then called an indefinite strike of the entire workforce for midnight Nov. 3.

The low-paid, brutally exploited MSRTC workers have suffered great hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed millions in India and plunged hundreds of millions into still deeper poverty. According to the unions, at least 37 workers have committed suicide over the past year-and-a-half because of MSRTCs repeated weeks-long and even months-long delays in paying their wages. As of last August, COVID-19 had killed at least 304 MSRTC workers, but the state refused to declare the MSRTC staff frontline workers and prioritize their vaccination.

The strike has completely paralyzed public bus transport in Maharashtra, which, with a population of almost 125 million, is Indias second most populous state and home to its financial capital, Mumbai. Despite rulings by a state industrial court and the Bombay High Court declaring the job action illegal, the strike appears to have gained strength in recent days. Currently, MSRTCs entire fleet of around 18,500 buses is grounded and its 250 depots shut down.

Management, with the full support of the Shiv Sena-led state government, is intent on making the workforce and MSRTC customersoverwhelmingly comprised of workers and the urban and rural poorpay for the massive losses resulting from years of underinvestment and the economic disaster produced by the pandemic.

In addition to on-time payment of their wages, the workers main demand is for MSRTC to be fully merged into the state government so that workers are treated as state government employees, with the same benefits and enhanced job security. Currently, the MSRTC, just like other state transport services in India, is being run as an autonomous capitalist enterprise and starved of state investment. As a result, the MSRTC has had to go into debt to the tune of Rs. 95 billion ($1.3 billion) to pay for fuel, salaries and other daily expenses.

The MSRTC strike coincides with a growing agitation among workers at the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) in the southern state of Kerala. The KSRTC workers mounted a 48-hour strike on November 5 and 6 to demand a pay hike and, most importantly, regular payment of their wages. Kerala is ruled by a Left Democratic Front coalition that is led and dominated by the Stalinist Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM. But its attitude to the KRSTC workers is no less hostile than the Maharashtras Vikas Aghadi (Development Front) state governmenta three-party coalition, including the Congress Party, till recently the Indian ruling class preferred party of national government, and led by the Shiv Sena (literally Shivas Army), a fascist party and erstwhile close ally of Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. The Kerala state Transport Minister has reportedly vowed stern action against the KSRTC workers if they again resort to job action.

Citing an Oct. 29 industrial court ruling, the Bombay High Court issued an order Nov. 3 outlawing the all-out strike the unions had called for midnight that evening. It also instructed the state government to immediately constitute a panel to examine the workers demand for the MSRTC to be fully merged into the state government, in the hopes this could be used to mollify the workers and suppress the strike movement.

In response to the High Court order, virtually all of the more than two dozen unions active among the MSRTC workers announced they were withdrawing their support for the pending job action. Nevertheless, to the dismay of both the government and union leaders, the all-out strike went ahead.

Subsequently many of the unions again shifted their stance and professed to be leading the strike. For five years, our demands are the same, declared one union leader, but the government is not willing to listen. We will not call off the agitation till our demands are met.

MSRTC management has responded by suspending many of the most militant workers for engaging in what it calls an illegal strike. Yesterday, it suspended a further 1,135 workers, bringing the total number suspended to 2,053. On Wednesday, MSRTC filed a contempt of court case against the unions and workers for mounting an illegal strike in defiance of the Nov. 3 Bombay High Court. For its part, the High Court has signalled it is planning to intervene aggressively in favour of management, saying it fails to understand how employees gain by repeatedly breaching its order not to strike. Adding insult to injury, it callously asked how the workers defiance will prevent future suicides in their ranks.

The state government, meanwhile, has given permission to price-gouging private bus companies to ply MSRTCs routes during the strike, purportedly to relieve the hardship faced by the over 6.5 million passengers that ride the state-owned companys buses every day. In fact, with the governments blessing, MSRTC has for years been increasing the hardship of its impoverished riders by bilking them with fare hikes.

Workers anger at their mistreatment has been building throughout the pandemic. A bus driver told the Hindustan Times: We do not get salaries on time. There have been times that our family members go to bed without eating anything. We are just asking for our rights and want the state government to just listen to us.

According to a recent MSRTC job advertisement, the basic monthly pay for drivers and conductors ranges from an atrocious Rs. 12,080 ($163) to Rs. 26,673 ($360), plus unstated extra allowances.

The explosive MSRTC strike is part of mounting wave of worker struggles across India. Among others, auto workers, bank employees and rural health workers have mounted strikes to protest low wages, speed-up, the Modi governments sweeping privatisation drive, and the lack of workplace protections from COVID-19. Meanwhile, farmers are continuing their agitation, now in its 12th month, against Modis pro-agribusiness farm laws.

In November of 2019, 48,000 Telangana state road transport (TSRTC) workers mounted a month-long strike against privatization, and in April of this year around 150,000 workers at KSRTC, MSRTCs sister company in Karnataka, which borders Maharashtra to the south, also staged a weeks-long strike. Both strikes were ultimately suppressed as a result of government reprisals and threats and the complicity of the trade unions, which systematically isolated them, without any of the workers major grievances addressed.
State-orchestrated terror reached another level in southern Chile last week when the armed forces opened fire on unarmed civilians. The unprovoked aggression, which left one dead and several seriously wounded unfolded in the context of the militarization of indigenous communities, escalated in October when deeply unpopular right-wing President Sebastian Pinera decreed a State of Constitutional Exception in four provinces.

Pinera, who faces a Constitutional Accusation that may lead to his impeachment, decreed the first 15-day State of Exception in the provinces of Biobio and Arauco in the Biobio region and the Malleco and Cautin provinces in the Araucania region on October 12. He extended it for another 15 days on October 26. Congress approved its extension last Tuesday.

Funeral of Yordan Llempi Machacan, murdered by Marines Nov 3 (Credit: Facebook)

On November 3, the day of the incident, Pinera boasted that the deployment of more than 2,000 troops of the Armed Forces including armored vehicles, helicopters, airplanes, maritime patrols which, together with the work carried out by the Carabineros and the Investigative Police, have allowed the development of more than 20,000 controls, the arrest of 59 people who had arrest warrants.

Before the dust had even settled, Minister of the Interior Rodrigo Delgado publicly supported claims by the head of national defense in the Biobio region, Rear Admiral Jorge Parga, that Mapuche insurgents ambushed and attacked military personnel.

According Parga, hooded individuals attacked Carabineros with large caliber weapons and then retreated into a wooded area and, hidden in the forest foliage, attacked and ambushed the personnel. When the Marines arrived, they began to repel in the first instance with non-lethal ammunition and shotgun shots, but in the face of the constant fire from the hooded men, the personnel had to use their service weapons.

Commander in Chief of the Navy Juan de la Maza in an interview with El Mercurio praised the reaction demonstrated by the Marine patrol and the fulfillment of duty of the Navy personnel, in accordance with the attributions and duties assigned in this state of constitutional emergency

Pinera went on further claiming that firearms, a rifle and munitions of war and a vehicle with a warrant for robbery had been intercepted from the terrorists in the confrontation.

Witnesses have since come forward debunking the official version as a story cut out of whole cloth.

What has so far come to light about the state murder of Yordan Llempi Machacan, a 23-year-old member of the Mapuche indigenous community, is that Marines were responsible for the indiscriminate firing of live rounds at two roadblocks on the Canete-Tirua route. The military, with Carabinero enforcements, established checkpoints on the main thoroughfare in the Biobio region, 650 km south of Santiago. Dozens of cars were backed up due to armored vehicles blocking the road.

At approximately 4:00 p.m., the military signaled for the civilians to begin moving when, without rhyme or reason, they sprayed the area with live ammunition. At one checkpoint, Yordan Llempi was shot while sitting in his courtyard. Other houses were shot at.

March calling for end to Militarization (credit: Facebook)

Danitza Herrera told Resumen that Yordan, her partner, was in the courtyard of his house when the militia began to shoot like crazy. They started shooting; they had the road cut off. It was not an ambush by the Mapuche community members; that was a lie.

Precious minutes were then lost because the Marines first barred the exit to Yordans home and then prevented the family from taking the critically injured man to the nearest hospital, a well-trodden military tactic denounced by human rights groups. The Marines blocked the road and did not let us take him to Canete hospital, 20 km away. Instead they were forced to take Yordan 50 km to a community health center in Tirua, where he died on the way due to loss of blood.

At another checkpoint Marines shot at vehicles. Ivan Porma Leviqueo received several shots at point-blank range when he went to help the wounded. A bullet that went through Jose Huenchuleos arm while in his Ute (utility vehicle) hit 15-year-old Joaquin Polmans knee. A nine-year-old girl was also injured by live fire. Another was shot in the face. These are the known casualties of events that are still being pieced together. According to El Ciudadano, there were still other Mapuche people with gunshot wounds who had not received medical care several days after the incidents.

It can be categorically stated that this bloody exercise was used by the government to stampede sections of the middle class into clamoring for a strong hand and to justify an extension of the State of Emergency in the Mapuche territories to the point of normalization. This has been Pineras favored course throughout his three years in office.

Pinera transformed the southern region into a war zone, only to replicate the war-zone atmosphere in Santiago during the pandemic. More and more draconian laws were passed that beefed up state powers and further criminalized first the Mapuche population, then refugees and migrants, and later all forms of social protest.

Militarization of the Araucania

He equipped the Carabinero and PDI police with military vehicles and military grade materiel, surveillance and intelligence equipment and unleashed the Carabinero Special Forces and the Special Operations Group (trained in Colombia and the US to combat terrorist groups), responsible for human rights atrocities in Mapuche territories and later in Santiago when millions took to the streets at the end of 2019. Amid the largest anti-capitalist demonstrations in Chilean history, the police, special forces, black berets and the military committed rape, torture and murder.

Carabineros have been used as a private police force for large landowners and the forestry conglomerates. Interferencia revealed that CMPC subsidiary Forestal Mininco provided the vehicle which the police officers used when they killed Camilo Catrillanca, a militant of the Mapuche, Arauco-Malleco Coordinating Committee. This was further extended to the point where now the military can be deployed to protect critical privately-owned infrastructure throughout the country.

Todays use of the Navy, notorious for coordinating repressive operations including torture and murder during the fascist military dictatorship, is in line with the policies advanced by the fascist Republican Party candidate Jose Antonio Kast who has surpassed the official right-wing candidate, Sebastian Sichel, in the presidential election polls.

In a sense he is trying to recreate at a higher level the atmosphere during 2017 elections, which saw appeals to backward sentiments of law and order to combat so-called rising delinquency, being tough on illegal immigration and dealing with terrorism in the south.

There is no doubt that Pinera is playing the xenophobic and law-and-order card to unite the right and the extreme right of his coalition Chile Vamos with an out-and-out fascist.

Pinera, assisted by the compliant conglomerate media, has recently begun polluting the airwaves with talk about the danger of insurgency and narco-terrorism, accusing Mapuche guerrillaist organizations of terrorism and drug trafficking.

What these groups have conducted are legitimate land seizures and raids of private property combined with bankrupt peasant-based actions consisting of arson attacks on machinery, vehicles, timber and property.

The WSWS has a principled opposition to the middle-class nationalist politics associated with guerrillaism, which have been brought into the Mapuche communities by the Frente Patriotica Manuel Rodriguez (FPMR), the Movimiento Izquierda Revolucionario (MIR), MAPU-Lautaro and other pseudo-left and anarchist groups.

These anti-Marxist organizations in no way further the fight for the conquest of power by the working class but on the contrary drive a wedge between workers and the extremely impoverished peasant Mapuche communities. While making up 10 percent of the national population, the percentage of Mapuches living in poverty is up to four times the national average, and in some communes, such as Cholcol, multidimensional povertylack of access to proper housing, potable water, electricity, health care, educational facilities, etc.affects 65 percent of the people.

The claims of insurgency, terrorism and drug-trafficking is aimed at further criminalizing the Mapuches.

To what end? Former Navy Director of Intelligence Oscar Aranda provides an insight in an article for Revista Marina , an organ of the military institution, where he calls for a counterinsurgency strategy against the Mapuche population. In spite of the intelligence jargon, the experiences in Algeria, Vietnam, Central America and more recently Afghanistan provide us with enough evidence to know what is in store.

Insurgency, both rural and urban, is the abandonment of political dialogue as the engine of democratic progress and its replacement by violence, writes Aranda, turning reality on its head. It is the state that has by force historically denied the Mapuche peasant communities the right to land for more than a century when the defeated tribes were placed on reservations. More recently, the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet rescinded the land seizures of the 1960s and 1970s and repressed peasant organizations. Thanks to his 1974 701 decree, subsidizing 75 percent of the costs of forestry plantations, the Matte and Angelini conglomerates have amassed 2 million hectares, while the entire Mapuche population lives on less than 500,000 hectares.

The deeply anti-democratic anti-terrorist law, promulgated in 1984 under the auspices of Pinochets National Security Doctrine, has been applied under both military and civilian rule against indigenous communities with bloody results.

The call for counterinsurgency measures takes this punitive approach to a whole new level. Aranda continues, [i]t is legitimate for the State to respond to the insurgency with a multisectoral effort to modify the social, economic and cultural problems that serve as its substratum, while simultaneously neutralizing, acting in accordance with the law, those insurgent elements that develop irregular actions (added emphasis).

Within the latter is Counterinsurgency (COIN), which is a military activity of neutralization of irregular actions when police means are overwhelmed by the escalation of violence in terms of intensity or geographical scope. In other words, the methods employed by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be brought to southern Chile.

The Chilean working class and youth must urgently develop an independent political movement that unites with their international class brothers and sisters, who are their true allies, and adopts the program of world socialist revolution. Only the working class, led by the International Committee of the Fourth International, the party of Leon Trotsky, can provide a lead to the Mapuche masses.
The crisis caused by the decision of Poland, Lithuania and the NATO alliance to deny entry to a few thousand refugees they have blocked at the border with Belarus is reaching a dangerous new stage.

For days, European politicians and media have been accusing Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of using refugees as weapons in a hybrid war against the European Union (EU). The opposite is the case. The EU and NATO are instrumentalizing the fate of the refugees in order to threaten Belarus and Russia with war, mobilize troops, override elementary human rights and incite a right-wing, fascist mob.

In this handout photo released by State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, a view of a tent camp set by migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere gathering at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus. (State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus via AP)

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Christian Democrats), German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (Social Democrats) and numerous other leading politicians have publicly accused Belarus and its ally Russia of leading a Hybrid attack on NATO borders to destabilize democratic neighbors. This accusation comes close to a declaration of war on Belarus and Russia, a nuclear power.

The Estonian Defense Minister Kalle Laanet described the hybrid attack by the Belarusian government as the greatest security risk for the region in 30 years. Polands Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki claimed that the entire EUs stability and security were at stake. Polish opposition leader and former EU Council President Donald Tusk is calling for Article Four of the NATO Treaty to be activated, the first stage of legal mechanisms requiring NATO members to go to war all together in the event of an attack.

Poland has stationed 20,000 heavily-armed troops, beyond its huge police and border protection force, on the border with Belarus. According to Russian news agency Tass, Polish armored units have been moved near the border. The Polish ambassador in Berlin, Andrzej Przylebsni, told the right-wing extremist magazine Junge Freiheit, The first shot could be fired soon.

Ukraine is also moving 8,500 soldiers and police officers as well as 15 helicopters to the 1,000-kilometer border with Belarus and plans to build border fortifications for 560 million.

Poland and Lithuania have sealed off the 1,100-kilometer border with Belarus with a barbed wire fence and declared a state of emergency. Journalists, aid organizations, and even doctors and ambulances are strictly prohibited from entering a three-kilometer-wide strip of land. There are to be no witnesses or aid workers as refugees are deprived of their basic rights, violently mistreated, and left to die from hunger and cold without food or shelter.

The European foreign ministers intend to decide next week on further sanctions against Belarus. Airlines that bring refugees to Belarus are set to be sanctioned, including not only Belarusian but also Russian and Turkish airlines.

This is being done in conjunction with the US. Following a meeting Wednesday between von der Leyen and Biden, the EU Commission president declared that they had a common assessment of the situation, adding that the US was also preparing more Belarus sanctions that will be in effect at the beginning of December.

The reasons behind the hysterical campaign against Belarus and the brutal mistreatment of the refugees at the border have nothing to do with threats to stability and security.

Since President Lukashenko refused to serve as the EUs border guard because of Western sanctions, a few thousand of the estimated 12,000 refugees in Belarus have reached the Polish border, almost all of whom want to continue to Germany. Exact figures are not available, as the Polish government prohibits any independent research. The German border authorities registered 5,300 refugees in September and a further 1,900 in October who reached Germany via the Belarus route, amounting to a little more than 7,000 over two months.

By comparison, at the height of the refugee movement in 2015, 10,000 refugees arrived in Germany every day, and were accommodated and cared for.

The hysterical accusations against Belarus and the brutal mistreatment of refugees at the border have entirely different reasons.

NATO and the EU are systematically working to militarily encircle Russia, as they have been ever since German unification and the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union three decades ago. All European members of the former Warsaw Pact as well as three former Soviet republics in the Baltic States have now joined NATO, which has been massively expanding its troop presence on Russias borders for years. The risk of tensions spiraling out of control and turning into open military conflict is constantly increasing.

Belarus Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday, after which Lavrov said the two states would reinforce their collaboration to counter a campaign against Belarus triggered by Washington and its European allies within international organisations. Russia flew two Tu-22M3 strategic bombers over Belarus Wednesday, one day after a NATO spokesman told the Daily Telegraph that the military alliance stands ready to further assist our allies and maintain safety and security in the region.

A far more fundamental reason for the latest escalation of hostilities towards Belarus and Russia is the enormous escalation of social tensions within the EU itself.

A handful of oligarchs now control economic life in both Eastern and Western Europe. A small number of billionaires have enriched themselves enormously from the pandemic, while 1.4 million people in Europe have died from COVID-19. The latest wave, which is completely out of control, threatens to double the death toll.

The question of responsibility for the murderous policy pursued by the European governments, which ruthlessly sacrifices human life for profit, is becoming more and more persistent. This coincides with a wave of strikes against unbearable working conditions and for higher wages.

The ruling class is responding with the tried and tested method of diverting social tensions outwards by fomenting nationalism, war propaganda and xenophobia. The brutal mistreatment of refugees at the border, followed by millions of people with shock and horror, serves to intimidate the population, accustom it to death, abolish basic democratic rights and stir up the fascist dregs of society.

Thousands of refugees, including women and small children, are trapped without food, drink or medical care in the forests and swamps of Belarus border region. Many do not even have tents and blankets and are exposed to the freezing cold and rain. At least ten have died so far. The mayor of a town near the border estimated the true death toll at 70 to 200. Refugees have repeatedly reported discovering corpses in the forest or in rivers.

Anyone who still manages to cross the border is forcibly brought back to Belarus. Such pushbacks are strictly forbidden, according to the Geneva Refugee Convention. Nevertheless, the Polish parliament gave them its stamp of approval. The Polish PiS government, which is under strong pressure domestically because of its COVID-19 policy, its abortion ban, and the social crisis, is committing crimes against humanity on the Belarusian border.

The European Union, NATO, the German government, the official Polish opposition and a large part of the western media are supporting these crimes, in line with the EUs broader policy of blocking all immigration that has led to tens of thousands of drownings in the Mediterranean Sea.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (Christian Social Union) called for the EU to help Poland secure its border. We call this a hybrid threat, where people are used to destabilize the EU and especially Germany - that must not prevail in the world, his spokesman quoted him as saying.

The conservative daily FAZ demanded that the EU remain tough, send out clear signals and impose further sanctions. A humanitarian solution, bringing refugees into the EU, is the wrong political message.

The Berlin editorial board of the Swiss Neue Zurcher Zeitung wrote, The Poles have so far secured their external border, which is also that of the EU, on their own. Germany could also offer bilateral help here: with police officers, material resourceswhatever Warsaw demands.

The campaign against the refugees strengthens the right-wing extremists and fascists, which is its intended purpose. Poland commemorated independence day yesterday, when the future dictator Jozef Pilsudski took over command of the Polish army in 1919. Tens of thousands of right-wing extremists and fascists marched through the streets of Warsaw. The liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski initially banned the parade, but PiS intervened to make sure it went ahead.

Human rights organizations such as Pro Asyl and Amnesty International have protested the mistreatment of refugees on the Polish border, but their appeals are directed to the European governments to change their ways. That will not happen.

Defending the refugees is the task of the working class. It is the only social force that can counter capitalist reaction and defend democratic rights. This struggle is of vital importance for the workers.

A fascistic stench rises from the NATO powers assault on refugees in Belarus. The brutal security forces and fascist gangs whose illegal violence is turned against refugees today will serve tomorrow to suppress the resistance and opposition of the working class and youth.

As the German section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) fights to unite the working class based on a socialist program across all national borders in the struggle against social inequality, militarism and fascism. The building of the SGP and of sections of the ICFI in countries across Europe is an urgent task that must be taken up by the working class across the continent.
Weeks into the latest surge of the pandemic in Eastern Europe, Russia and Ukraine continue to report record COVID-19 deaths on an almost daily basis. Both countries now have the highest daily death tolls after the United States, which is also heading into another spike in cases.

Medics wearing special suits to protect against coronavirus treat a patient with coronavirus, left, as others prepare a patent to move at an ICU at the Moscow City Clinical Hospital 52, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

This week, Russia set several records in a row, with 1,239 people dying on Wednesday and 1,211 the day before. This brings the total number of official deaths to 250,454. While by far the highest number in Europe, this figure is widely acknowledged to be a vast undercount. The excess death toll in Russia has superseded 720,000 since the beginning of the pandemic and is expected to hit one million by the end of the year. Daily new cases continue to hover between 38,000 and 41,000 a day, more than during any previous wave.

According to Russias Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, as of Wednesday, 258,000 people are hospitalized for COVID-19, and 1.335 millionout of a population of 140 millionare under medical supervision because they have been infected.

The country now uses 2,925 tons of medical oxygen per day, and at least 12 regions are currently experiencing oxygen shortages. Murashko also indicated that about 53 percent of the population have now received at least one shot of the vaccine, but millions did so only over the past few weeks and are not fully vaccinated yet. Only a bit over one-third of the population have received two jabs.

The numbers for child infections are particularly disturbing. Alexander Gorelov, the head of the National Scientific Society of Infectious Disease Specialists, revealed on Thursday that 11 percent of all COVID-19 cases are among children. This means that over 130,000 children are currently infected, more than twice as many as the health minister indicated two weeks ago.

Gorelov also noted that among children, infants up to one year old, as well as children over seven years old, are getting infected most often. A medical expert earlier reported that 13.5 percent of all children who have gotten COVID-19 in Russia subsequently are suffering Long COVID symptoms, which can include severe neurological difficulties and the loss of several IQ points.

An untold number of children have died from the virus, with the Kremlin refusing to publish any statistics on child deaths. On Thursday, a newborn baby that had been infected by its mother three days after its birth tragically died in the city of Vladimir.

The high numbers of cases and deaths show that the non-working week from October 30 through November 7, during which schools and many businesses were shut down across the country, proved woefully inadequate to stem the spread. Despite the ongoing spike in deaths, the vast majority of regions, including the hotspots in Moscow and St. Petersburg, refused to extend the limited public health measures. Schools and businesses have fully reopened in almost all regions and only some colleges continue remote learning. Mask and vaccine mandates are imposed in a haphazard and chaotic manner with stark regional and local differences.

Conditions are thus rife for a further horrific spread, especially among children.

Deaths and child infections are also on the rise in neighboring Ukraine, which reported 24,747 new cases on Thursday. Of these, 1,550 were detected among children and 462 among health care workers. Over 800 people are now dying in the country almost every day.

The mayor of the capital Kiev, Vitaly Klichko, revealed earlier that 85 children had been hospitalized in serious condition on Tuesday, more than ever before, with some as young as two years old. Four of them are in the ICU. Tuesday also saw the highest daily deaths yet in Ukraine, 833 people. Over 72,000 have now officially died from the virus, among them at least 42 children.

Even before deaths surged to the current peak, there were gruesome reports of people burying COVID-19 victims in their backyard because cemeteries had run out of space. As in Russia, Ukrainian hospitals are reportedly experiencing oxygen shortages. Only 18 percent of the countrys 40 million citizens are vaccinated.

Governments in both countries are responding to the surge by blaming the population and declaring vaccination to be the key to resolving the crisis. The Russian government is now discussing a new law that would require proof of vaccination on public transportation, and many regions now are extending vaccine mandates. Ukraine is already requiring proof of vaccination in many areas of public life.

In a typical statement, Russias Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said that the degree to which the health care system gets stressed now completely depends on how you [citizens] conduct yourself and on preventive measures like vaccines.

In fact, while vaccines are an extremely important tool to combat the pandemic and protect the populationabove all, from severe illness and deatheven under conditions of a near complete vaccination of the population, the virus will still spread. Only a combination of mass vaccination, regular testing, contact tracing and the temporary closure of nonessential businesses, coordinated on a global level, can eliminate the virus.

Already, the effectiveness of the vaccines is undermined by the continued spread of the virus. Many countries, including in Eastern Europe, report a growing share of people who are fully vaccinated and nevertheless are hospitalized or die. In the Moscow region, 18 percent of those hospitalized have been vaccinated, and in Latvia, 40 percent of those who died on Thursday had been fully vaccinated.

The attempts by Russian and Ukrainian officials to blame the population and make the spread of the virus an issue of individual choice is above all aimed at covering up the political and social reasons for the unfolding disaster. Conditions for the raging pandemic and the horrific death toll were created by the restoration of capitalism in the former Soviet Union by the Stalinist bureaucracy. The destruction of the Soviet Union was the culmination of decades of betrayals of the October Revolution by the Soviet bureaucracy and the suppression of the socialist alternative to Stalinism, which was represented by the Left Opposition and the Fourth International.

Capitalist restoration and unending austerity measures since the 1990s have devastated what was once one of the best health care systems in the world. The number of hospital beds in the country has been axed, and medical equipment is now so outdated that oxygen pipes burst and ventilators have gone up in flames. The medical staff is severely overworked and underpaid. Health care workers have also been among those worst-affected by infections and deaths from COVID-19.

The looting that accompanied capitalist restoration and the open criminality of the ruling oligarchies are also a principal reason why the vast majority of the working population have no trust whatsoever in the government. Across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, distrust of the authorities is cited as the prime reason for popular hesitancy to get vaccinated. An additional factor has been the systematic promotion by the state of irrational, religious and anti-scientific conceptions.

When the pandemic hit, the oligarchs in Russia and Ukraine followed the examples of the capitalist class in the US and Germany: Having responded far too late to the emergence of the virus, since spring 2020, they have refused to impose the necessary public health measures and reopened factories. The school reopening this fall has been a major driving factor behind the latest surge. It is through these policies that conditions for mass suffering and death and the further spread and mutation of the virus were created.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is holding a rally on Saturday as workers around South Korea move into greater opposition to the government and big business. However, the KCTUs purpose is to let off steam while attempting to convince members that the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DP) can be persuaded to adopt pro-working-class policies.

Workers participating in the protest (Credit: KCTU Facebook page)

The planned rally is a far cry from that on October 20, in which an estimated 80,000 demonstrators took part nationally. Even then, the KCTU claimed beforehand that half a million workers would go out on strike to denounce inequalities in society. This time, however, only approximately 10,000 people are estimated to take part in Saturdays demonstration, with 2,500 people spread out over four locations in Seoul.

Undoubtedly, the KCTU is bowing to demands from the government of President Moon Jae-in, a Democrat, not to hold any large protests. While Seoul moves to lift even the minimal existing measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, it continues to use the pandemic as a pretext to ban workers from speaking out against attacks on their economic and living conditions. Chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Choi Gwan-ho stated on Monday, We already notified the KCTU that we are not allowing the reported rallies, so if they hold them, they will be illegal.

The KCTU supports the DP and played a key role in getting Moon elected in May 2017 by suppressing the widespread anger that resulted in protests and the removal of former President Park Geun-hye from office. For more than a year, the KCTU did not call a large-scale one-day strike against Moons government, only doing so when it became clear that workers were again moving in opposition to the demands of capitalism.

With the onset of the pandemic, the KCTU attempted to convince workers that the government would protect them, but instead wages have sharply decreased, irregular work and unemployment have grown, and workers have been forced into unsafe conditions to continue turning out profits for big business.

As a result, a number of workers in different industries are threatening to go on strike or are in the process of holding industrial action ballots. Members of Cargo Truckers Solidarity (CTS) and the Korean Railway Workers Union (KRWU), both affiliated with the KCTU, held a joint press conference on Tuesday to threaten a strike in late November and again in December, without announcing specific dates.

Instead, the CTS stated that the dates would be tied to debate in the National Assembly on the Safe Trucking Freight Rates System, which guarantees drivers a minimum rate, as well as other rises in costs. The rate system was put in place in 2018, but is set to expire next year. The CTSs plan to tie the strike to parliamentary debate is meant to convince truck drivers that their demands can be met by Democratic Party politicians.

Drivers are also angry over rising fuel costs that the companies have passed on to them. In particular, a shortage of urea, a component of diesel fuel to cut down on emissions, has resulted in a nearly 81 percent import price rise from last year. The cost increase is the result of reduced exports from China, caused by a coal shortage.

The KRWU put on a phony show of support by stating that its members would refuse to work overtime from November 19 while engaging in work-to-rule from November 25. The purpose is to reduce the impact of any strike while also preventing railway workers from joining a larger struggle. There is widespread discontent within the transport and logistics industry, which includes railway and delivery workers, who are forced to work extremely long hours, much of it unpaid.

In addition, workers at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the worlds largest shipbuilder, are also voting this week whether or not to go on strike. Balloting began on Tuesday and will conclude today. The approximately 7,000 members that make up the HHI union branch belong to the Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU), the most powerful union in the KCTU. The workers are demanding a monthly wage increase of 120,304 won ($US102), establishing a standard for calculating bonuses, and reductions in wage gaps.

HHI workers have pointed to rising prices during the COVID-19 pandemic and the fall in real wages as a source of discontent. However, there is also anger over workplace safety. At least three workers have died this year at HHI caused by the companys disregard for safety. There have been more than twenty cases of serious industrial accidents at HHI over the past five years.

Despite this, the unions threat of a strike is being used in an attempt to give the appearance of militancy ahead of an agreement the KMWU will try to impose on its members. A union official stated recently, The companys attitude has not changed despite the strike vote and repeated requests for a package agreement. If the union does call a walkout, it would only stage partial strikes to limit the impact on the company.

Workers have been in regular conflict with HHI and other shipbuilding companies as the industry has undergone restructuring after years of mismanagement and illegal activity. Earlier this year, HHI workers went on strike to protest working without a contract for more than two years. While an agreement was reached in July after two previous attempts to force through deals were rejected, the latest strike vote demonstrates workers demands have still not been met. The July deal included a basic pay raise of 46,000 won ($US39) for 2019 and 51,000 won ($US43) for 2020, as well as additional bonuses.

For HHI and other shipbuilders, business is booming. At the beginning of November, Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering (KSOE) had secured deals worth $US20.9 billion for 2021, exceeding expectations for the year of $US14.9 billion. KSOE is the sub-holding company of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings. KSOE controls HHI, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard.

The KCTU and its affiliated unions are working to prevent the outbreak of a larger working-class struggle, not lead it. South Korean workers must break free of the confines of the corporatised unions, establish their own independent rank-and-file workplace committees and link up with their class brothers and sisters internationally.
Thousands of health employees, teachers, development officers and other sections of the working class, including railway workshop employees and private sector workers, held protests and strikes across Sri Lanka on Monday and Tuesday over wages and conditions. The action follows anti-privatisation demonstrations last week by electricity, port and petroleum employees.

Sri Lankan teachers march on Tuesday in Hatton to demand wage rise. [WSWS Media]

The mass walkouts are another indication of rising social anger against the Rajapakse government and its big business program which is ruthlessly driving up the cost of living and eliminating meagre social support, while forcing teachers and other employees to return to work amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

* On Monday, an estimated 50,000 development officers held a national sicknote protest over seven demands, including the abolition of salary anomalies, a monthly salary increase of around 15,000 rupees ($US75) and the establishment of a proper promotion scheme. There are about 100,000 development officers employed at different state departments across the country. Media reports indicated that more than half were involved in the campaign.

* On Tuesday, public hospital nurses and paramedics walked out in a one-day sicknote action. Union officials told the media that nearly 50,000 health employees were involved in the strike. The hospital workers want rectification of salary anomalies, a special duty allowance increase of 3,000 rupees and higher overtime payments.

Protesting teachers in Hatton on Tuesday [WSWS Media]

The strike was called by the Collective of Health Professionals (CHP), an alliance of 16 unions. While the CHP has called a series of protests and strikes over the same demands in recent months, it has limited the walkouts and then shut them down following bogus promises by the government that it would resolve workers demands.

Health employees blamed the unions for not fully mobilising their members for Tuesdays strike, resulting in lesser numbers participating.

A nurse from Kandy national hospital told the WSWS that union officials had discouraged members from participating and that only about 500 of the 2,000 nurses at the hospital joined the walkout. There was no discussion with members before the strike. Workers cant be mobilised by just distributing a leaflet, they said.

Health workers protest in Kandy last June [WSWS Media]

The health unions, like their counterparts across the island, have deliberately divided workers. The Public Services United Nurses Union (PSUNU), led by Buddhist monk Muruththetuwe Ananda who backs the Rajapakse government, and the All Ceylon Health Services Union (ACHSU), which is controlled by the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), did not participate in Tuesdays action. Instead, the ACHSU called a separate lunch-hour demonstration.

While health workers are determined to fight for their longstanding demands, the unions are desperate to prevent any political confrontation with the government. This weeks one-day protest was called to dissipate the rising anger of health workers, who for almost two years have been working extended hours attempting to treat COVID-19 patients in the countrys dangerously under-staffed and underfunded hospitals.

* Also on Tuesday, thousands of public-school teachers and principals demonstrated in several parts of the island. This included about 3,000 teachers in central Colombo and over 1,000 in Kandy with a similar number mobilising at Hatton in the Central Hill Districts. The protests were called by an alliance of some 30 teachers and principals unions, including the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) and Ceylon Teachers Services Union controlled by the JVP.

Thousands of teachers, principals and parents also demonstrated outside the Mawanella police station, about 25 kilometres west of Kandy. They were demanding that police arrest a local Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna politician who is alleged to have physically assaulted a parent during a protest the previous week. While police later arrested the politician, and three others involved in the attack, they were bailed by a local magistrate.

Thousands of teachers demonstrate in Kandy on Tuesday [WSWS Media ]

The teachers demonstrations followed the unions shutdown on October 25 of a determined 100-day strike and boycott of online education services by 250,000 teachers demanding higher salaries. Teachers have been fighting for increased wages for over 20 years.

The Rajapakse government refused to grant the teachers pay claim but later offered one third of the amount being demanded to be paid in instalments over the next three years. Desperate to end the dispute, the unions accepted the reduced amount, demanding that it be paid in one instalment, and then shut down the strike, ordering teachers to return to work. This weeks protests, and similar demonstrations the previous week, were a cynical attempt by the unions to dissipate members anger.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and Finance Minister Basil Rajapakse met with the teachers unions and said the government would pay its reduced salary offer in one instalment. The unions readily agreed to the meagre rise, ditching teachers longstanding pay claims. Finance Minister Basil Rajapakse later told the media that Colombos deal should not be seen as a salary increase.

This weeks union-controlled protests were timed to coincide with Finance Minister Rajapakses annual budget proposals, which will be presented to parliament today, and were aimed at promoting the illusion that the government can be pressured. The JVP-controlled unions are demanding the government budget increase workers monthly wages by 10,000 rupees.

Finance Minister Rajapakse, who confronts a collapse in export earnings, a falling currency and massive foreign debt repayments has made it abundantly clear that he will be unveiling a ruthless austerity budget. The people will not gain anything. Instead, we will be taking from them, he told journalists last week. He plans to cut the fiscal deficit by two-thirds to 4.55 percent of gross domestic product, down from last years 14.7 percent.

Confronted with this crisis, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rajapakse government is prioritising profits over lives and implementing herd immunity policies. This criminal agenda has been fully backed by the unions and has seen the health unions abandon their members demands for increased work safety.

The reactionary role of the trade unions is bringing Sri Lankan workers into conflict with these organisations, which defend the Rajapakse government, and are hostile to any independent political mobilisation of the working class against the capitalist profit system.

Alongside the increase in workers struggles, farmers are continuing their protests, calling for fertiliser and other necessities for cultivation. On Tuesday, hundreds of housewives demonstrated in Colombo and other parts of the island demanding a reduction in the price of essentials and an end to food shortages.

Contrary to the union claims that the Rajapakse government can be forced to grant concessions, Colombo has passed an essential public services act, which covers nearly one million state sector workers and criminalises all industrial action and strikes in these institutions. At the same time, it is moving to whip up communalist tensions to try and divide the working class.

The unions, which function as industrial police, have not opposed the governments anti-strike laws and its racialist moves. Workers cannot develop a genuine struggle for their social and democratic rights through these organisations.

What is required is the establishment of rank-and-file action committees, independent of the unions and controlled by workers to defend jobs, wages and to fight for improved social conditions. These committees must unite workers across the island and turn to the international working class, as part of the struggle for socialist policies and a workers and peasants government.
Ten months have passed since Donald Trump and his cabal of fascist advisers initiated an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 elections.

On January 6, Trump mobilized far-right supporters to block the certification by Congress of the Electoral College vote, won by Democrat Joe Biden. Facilitated by high-level connections within the police, intelligence apparatus, military and with the support of congressional Republicans, Trump was given a window of opportunity to take control of the U.S. Capitol.

He made use of far-right forces previously cultivated by his own faction of the US ruling class to attack the limited lockdown measures taken in 2020 to control the spread of the pandemic.

The WSWS recently spoke to Hampton Stall about the impact of the January 6 coup attempt and the coronavirus pandemic on the far right. Stall is a researcher with MilitiaWatch, a nonprofit organization that monitors the online activity of the far right. In particular, he addressed the role played by the far right in the anti-mask, back-to-school movements cultivated by sections of the political establishment.

Hampton Stall (Photo: Criticaresearch.com)

WSWS: How prominent in far-right propaganda is opposition to mask requirements and other COVID-related restrictions?

Stall: Extremely. Its one of a handful of points of unity among a broad swath of far-right actors, militia groups included. Its been interesting seeing a lot of the patriot community therefore looking to places like Australia, expressing solidarity with those abroad or using cherrypicked footage to stoke paranoia among their own milieu here in the States.

WSWS: How do the far-right groups view the importance of the anti-lockdown protests of 2020? Do they view the fact that restrictions have essentially been rescinded as a political victory?

Stall: Anti-lockdown demonstrations were super important for far-right groups, especially militias and other patriot movements. In many ways, the inertia from that moment became the summer reaction [anti-lockdown rallies in 2020] became the critical race theory response were still dealing with today. Specifically on the Proud Boys, theres already a lot of anecdotal evidence that many people found out about the group via anti-lockdown demos. I dont, however, think theres a lot of celebration of political victory around them, since even still having assorted masking requirements has kept a lot of that world mad even now.

WSWS: How active are the far-right groups in promoting the school reopening initiatives, which have included outbursts and protests at school board meetings?

Stall: The school board meeting outbursts are probably most connected to Proud Boys and clandestine neo-Nazi organizing more so than militia. Some of the nationalist social clubs have even demonstrated outside of these meetings, though usually in attempts to intimidate their opponents. The patriot movement, though, loves to share and build community around some of the viral clips from these meetingsthus leading to the creation of more viral clips given incentive structures and fame.

Its really, really a worrying showing. The canary in the coal mine is long dead for this type of organizing; it stopped singing in August if not before. And its important to note that its less about school and more about reaction and intimidation with these guys.

WSWS: Based on what you see in far-right groups, what would you say they are most focused on in the near future? How has this changed since 2020?

Stall: There is still a ton of focus on things like mask and vaccine mandates, as well as critical race theory. Some of this is quite astroturfed, but theres plenty more that at least appears semi-grassroots. This moment feels different from the Tea Party period, but Im still not sure that means it will be calmer or better than that previous trajectory provided. Its especially interesting, from an electoral politics side of things, just how much control a single right-wing politician [Trump] has over the rightest [most right-wing] political party.

Right now, in my opinion, looks extremely different from 2020. Many of the groups I track are extremely reactive (in addition to holding reactionary politics, their actions are almost always reactive rather than proactive). It feels like a totally different context right now than summer and fall of 2020, namely because militia groups arent finding BLM demonstrations to go oppose or otherwise threaten. The thing that could really change this is when gun restrictions start to materialize, since many of these actors are extremely sensitive to Bidens agenda on this.

WSWS: How do members of the far-right groups view the prospect of a Trump presidential campaign? How do they discuss the fact that the Republican Party is increasingly loyal to Trump?

Stall: Most militia groups I track are still all in for Trump. The inertia behind Stop the Steal that mobilized many militia groups earlier this year is essentially the same inertia behind CRT and whatnot now. I dont feel, though, like theres really a conscious conceptualization of the control that Trump has over the GOP, at least among these folksits just kind of assumed at this point rather than reflected upon.

WSWS: How do US fascist and far-right groups discuss the historical meaning and importance of January 6?

Stall: Its pretty mixed on how militia groups and the patriot movement is responding to J6. It also depends not only on which group you ask but which members, even. Some individuals think the riot was a psy-op or a false flag. Others think it was a honey pot (notably, a far-right streamer and participant used this term last week on Tucker Carlsons documentary series). Others still describe the event as a dumbass contest. Others, of course, think it was great and should be repeated. Recently, at a conservative Take Back Virginia Rally protest in Henrico County, people pledged allegiance to a flag that was present at J6.

WSWS: Are you encountering an increase in unity or an increase in division and infighting among the far right?

Stall: Among the groups that I usually track, theres still a lot of chaos right now, with a few counterexamples. A good part of this seems to still be related to the groups losing a lot of their usual communications and organizational tools (namely Facebook, Zello and a few other sites). For other groups I dont track as closely but have kept an eye on, new collaborations and coalitions are appearing, but those are by groups that think everyone involved in J6 were too left, for what thats worth.

WSWS: Are far-right groups active in defending the so-called political prisoners who were arrested for participating in the events of January 6? What about the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer?

Stall: Ive only seen minor instances of this. Most seem to just be friends of a few members of Congress. My thought is that theres not a lot of unity among militia groups and their friends because theres still major disagreement on what J6 is and what it means. Also, theres the context that many of these groups are turning on each other or offering information on one another in cooperating with the Feds.

WSWS: Thank you for speaking to us.
UK schools are under immense pressure due to the devastating spread of COVID-19, with the Johnson government insisting that all learning must happen in person with no mitigations in place. Teachers are also facing attacks on their pay and conditions, the further marketisation of education, and victimisations. This has provoked industrial action by teachers over recent months.

The picket line at Swinton Co-op Academy in Salford (WSWS Media)

Oaks Park High School, Newbury Park, Ilford

National Education Union (NEU) members at Oaks Park High School in Ilford plan to continue striking in a long-running dispute, ongoing since June, with staff fighting to defend colleagues victimised for upholding their rights to a safe workplace during the coronavirus pandemic.

The dispute started when staff were told to come into school during the national lockdown in January this year. Under conditions of a rampant spread of the virus through schools, 26 workers invoked their rights under Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act to remove themselves from danger and teach online.

The schools management responded by firing four of the teachers involved, among them a newly elected union rep, who was frog-marched out of the school.

The National Education Union (NEU) has limited action so far to protests in front of the school or outside the meetings of Redbridge London Borough Councils cabinet. The appeals to the Labour Party-run local council have proven completely useless, as the council authority said it was satisfied the schools actions had not been motivated by requests to work offsite made under Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act and thus the dismissals were completely legal. Venda Premkumar, district secretary for Redbridge NEU, said at least 12 more days of strikes were planned.

As winter is fast approaching, and with it a new surge of the virus poised to spread through schools, teachers will have to fight again for their right to perform their jobs safely, from home. The NEU secretary did not address that at all, insisting that the demands of staff are limited to the council reinstating the NEU representative and conducting an independent investigation.

Swinton Co-op Academy, Salford

Teachers at the Swinton Co-op Academy school in Salford, Greater Manchester, continued their strike last month, walking out from Tuesday to Thursday every week. The 30 members of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) oppose excessive working hours, shorter lunch breaks, the elimination of pastoral care time and managements imposition of practices relating to performance management.

Parents are backing the teachers, launching a petition signed by 295 against unfair and intimidating school rules brought in by new management. Each morning children line up and have their bags searched to check they have the correct equipment. Parents complain about short lunch breaks, not enough toilet breaks, and officious footwear rules. The NASUWT is leading the strike into a dead end. It has mobilised none of its roughly 300,000 members nationally in support of the academy staff. While the teachers have been out on strike, the union has engaged in negotiations with management, trying to figure out a way to defuse the conflict, while pushing through most of the Trusts demands.

Despite this, management remains intransigent, claiming the increased workload is a result of pupils having to catch-up on their studies, after the time they have missed schools, because of the pandemic. The Trusts disdain for workers is shown by one of its recent statements calling teachers unreasonable for daring to take industrial action because they may have had more free time historically.

The three-day strike pattern was supposed to continue during the coming month. However, on November 9, the union abruptly cancelled imminent strike action one day before it was supposed to begin. It stated that sufficient progress has been made to enable notified strike action to be suspended for the weeks commencing 8 and 15 November. Strikes days on November 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18 were withdrawn with the union saying, Further meetings are planned to work towards an agreed resolution. As usual the NASUWT has not deigned to inform its members what it has agreed to.

St. Matthews Church of England Primary School, Preston

Staff at St. Matthews Church of England Primary School in Preston, Lancashire have come out against plans for the school to join the Cidari academy trust, which is operated by the Diocese of Blackburn. Workers say that the plans have not been the subject of meaningful discussion, either with them or the parents of children attending the school. The Lancashire Post has seen a letter sent to governors signed by more than 40 staff, saying they had been given the impression that academy conversion was a done deal; not a case of if but whenand that it is better to jump than be pushed.

It continued: We now know, thanks to the support and intervention of our trade unions that this is absolutely not the caseand, as such, we strongly disagree with the proposed academisation of St Matthews.

Despite a response from chair of governors James Atkinson highlighting supposed progress made by current Cidari Academies since joining the trust, St. Matthews staff voted against the schools conversion in an indicative ballot at the end of October. The vote to oppose academy conversion was unanimous on a 79 percent turnout.

The school responded by extending the consultation period by another month, until November 26, but still plans to go ahead with the conversion. Under pressure from the staff, the local branch of the NEU has agreed to ballot members for industrial action. However, the NEU is only planning on taking discontinuous industrial action, meaning any future walkout would take place on a series of individual days, with normal working in between to lessen the impact on the school.

The academisation of schools was first introduced under Tony Blairs 1997-2007 Labour government. A half-way house to the privatisation of education, academies are publicly financed but privately run and are exempt from teachers national pay and conditions agreements.

The introduction of academies has gone hand in hand with performance management, a system in which automatic annual increments linked to experience became dependent on teachers fulfilling targets. Not meeting these targets became a pretext for turning schools into academies, together with ripping up staff pay and conditions. Underperformance is not a consequence of poor teaching, however, but of decades of cuts to education spending and entrenched socio-economic inequality.

We urge all educators, parents, and students to sign up for the Educators Newsletter and join and participate in upcoming meetings of the UK Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee.
Torn from Her Arms, recently aired on the Lifetime television cable channel, is based on the true story of a mother and daughter fleeing gang violence in El Salvador brutally separated at the US border by immigration officials in 2018.

Fatima Molina and Judy Reyes in Torn from Her Arms

The channel, geared towards paint-by-number dramas for female viewers, took time out from its concentration on stalkers, deadly cheerleaders, baby stealers and other middle-class terrors, to expose one of the American governments most egregious crimes.

The program is directed by Mexican-born filmmaker Alan Jonsson Garcia, scripted by Tawnya Bhattacharya and Ali Laventhol. The creators should be commended for producing one of the shamefully few works to depict this truly inhuman policy. Other films treating the plight of children at the border or refugees from Central America include Nona (Michael Polish, 2017), Icebox (Daniel Sawka, 2018), Frontlines Separated: Children at the Border (produced by Marcela Gaviria and Martine Smith, 2018) and the earlier The Infinite Border (Juan Manuel Sepulveda, 2007).

In Torn from Her Arms, Cindy Madrid (Fatima Molina) and her six-year-old daughter, Ximena (Camila Nunez), having fled life-threatening conditions in their native country, El Salvador, seek asylum in the US, only to be separated at the border as a part of the Trump administrations notorious Zero Tolerance Policy.

At a detention center in Brownsville, Texas, armed guards pull traumatized children from their parents and march them off to an undisclosed location. Unbeknownst to their frantic parents, the childrenmany younger than Ximenaare transported to the Childrens Detention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. There, the youngsters are each given thin space blankets, two meals a day and allowed only one hour outdoors. A child-inmate complains that the food is not good and the guards rough us up. With a few honorable exceptions, the guards treat their young charges like subhuman offenders.

Torn from Her Arms (directed by Alan Jonsson Garcia)

For Cindy and other parents, as well as their terrified offspring, the emotional toll is extreme. Your children have been adopted by nice American families, Cindy is cruelly taunted by one of the guards. She now finds herself at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas. The privately run prison, in fact, has been the scene of numerous hunger strikeswhat the government describes as voluntary fastingto protest alleged abuse, lack of medical care and virtually no access to legal resources. The incarcerated are forced to wear orange jumpsuit prison garb.

Its torture not telling [the parents] where their children are, angrily asserts Thelma Garcia (Judy Reyes), a Texas immigration attorney, who takes Cindy and Ximenas case pro bono. A dedicated activist, Thelma is bolstered by a supportive family, including a wealthy brother (I help the rich get richer, and you do Gods work) who buys her a luxury car, which she eventually trades in for Cindys bail money.

Indicative of the retrograde political climate, a television newscaster blathers on about parents [who] are criminals, illegal immigrants who put their children at risk. Meanwhile, Cindy must pass a Credible Fear Interview (!) in order to avoid deportation. Without Thelma being present, she explains to an unsympathetic official that in El Salvador, gang members are best friends with cops.

Gloria Reuben portrays Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist ProPublica reporter, Ginger Thompson, who breaks the story. She obtains a recording of the detained children crying out for their parents. On the tape, Ximena begs guards to call an aunt living in the US, whose telephone number she has memorized: Are you going to call my aunt so that when Im done eating, she can pick me up? she asks plaintively.

At one point, Thelma blasts the authorities: You think the toddlers and school-age kids are gangsters and thugs. To add insult to injury, Cindy must take a DNA test to prove she is Ximenas mother!

Torn from Her Arms is a moving film with a committed cast and crew. Its postscript informs the viewer that 2,000 children are still missing. However, in reality, the overall number of children still separated from their parents is unknown.

Torn from Her Arms

The Lifetime film puts a human face on a devastating 2020 investigation by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) entitled, You Will Never See Your Child Again: The Persistent Psychological Effects of Family Separation. The report revealed that evaluations of asylum-seeking parents and children who were separated by the U.S. government in 2018, found pervasive symptoms and behaviors consistent with trauma; most met diagnostic criteria for at least one mental health condition, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder consistent with, and likely linked to, the trauma of family separation.

The study forthrightly contends that the US governments treatment of asylum seekers through its policy of family separation constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and, in all cases evaluated by PHR experts, rises to the level of torture.

In fiscal year 2018, continues the expose, the year in which the family separation policy was rolled out, a record number of 107,212 families were apprehended at the southern border. The PHR listed indiscriminate violence, physical and sexual violence targeting women and children, forced recruitment into gangs, and extortion as some of the horrors asylum seekers were escaping.

Instead of recognizing these regional displacement trends, states the physicians report, US government officials, including Trump, portrayed asylum seekers as bad hombres, smugglers and traffickers, MS-13 members, criminals and abusers, characterizing parents fleeing with their children as traffickers and gang members fraudulently migrating with children to gain access to the United States.

More than 5,500 migrant families were pulled apart at the Southwestern border beginning in 2017, wrote the New York Times in a July 2021 article. Even families lawfully presenting themselves at ports of entry continued to be separated.

Moreover, jailing immigrants is a lucrative business. Over the last four decades, a series of emergency stopgaps and bipartisan deals has created a new multibillion-dollar industry built on the incarceration of immigrants, according to the Guardian in September 2019.

The brutality and mistreatment continue. In an August 2021 article, headlined Families are still being separated at the Arizona-Mexico Border, Joanna Williams, told the Phoenix New Times that People are seeking asylum because theyve experienced significant trauma in their home communities. Family separation and detention is another level of trauma that their family then experiences, so, instead of the U.S. being a palace of safety and healing, its a place of further anxiety and suffering,

Williams is the executive director of the Kino Border Initiativea binational aid organization that serves migrants on the Arizona-Mexico border. Whats deeply hypocritical about it is if the Biden administration campaigned on anything on immigration, it was its opposition to Trumps policy on family separation. But here they are, in a different way, continuing to separate families.

Torn from her Arms exposes the reality that the US migrant detention facilities should more accurately be described as concentration camps.

Furthermore, the social breakdown, poverty and gang violence driving millions, like Cindy and Ximena, to flee their homelands are the direct result of more than a century of American imperialist economic domination and military-CIA intervention. In countries such as impoverished El Salvador, Washington has practiced what can only accurately be described as sociocide, propping up dictatorial governments of big business.
Investigators believe low adhesion between the railhead and train wheels was the most likely cause of the crash between two trains in Salisbury on October 31.

Aerial view of the crashed trains Credit: WikiPedia/Open Government Licence)

The trains collided on the approach to a tunnel near Salisbury station at approximately 18:45 GMT. A South Western Railway (SWR) train running from London to Honiton, Devon, struck the side of a Great Western Railway (GWR) service from Southampton to Cardiff, as they both entered the Fisherton Tunnel.

The driver of the SWR train, 75-year-old Robin Tandy, with 50 years train driving experience, suffered injuries believed to be life-changing and had to be cut from his cab by emergency service workers. There is no maximum train driver age limit in the UK provided they continue to pass the necessary medical.

Of the 92 passengers on board the two trains, 14 people required hospital treatment for minor injuries. Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue declared the crash a major incident, with 50 firefighters attending the scene and coastguard helicopters also assisting rescue efforts.

During the immediate aftermath of the crash, veteran train guard Martin Miller led rail passengers to safety. After the collision Miller immediately contacted the SWR control centre. The guard subsequently went through all the carriages assisting and reassuring passengers, including a mother and her baby, they would be able to leave the train once the tracks were made safe.

British Transport Police (BTP) said that the two trains were travelling in the same direction on different tracks but collided at a Y-shaped junction approaching the tunnel, with one hitting the side of the other causing it to derail. A carriage was initially thought to have derailed after hitting an object, with the second train then crashing into it, but BTP told a press conference there was nothing to suggest the train had struck an object.

Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) inspectors say their initial investigation findings suggest Low adhesion between the wheels and the track as the reason why the SWR service failed to stop at the junction where the two lines merged and crashed into the side of the GWR train.

The RAIBs preliminary analysis showed the driver initially applied the service brakes to slow the train, but approximately 12 seconds after the driver made an emergency brake demand. Tandy, the SWR driver, and a driver on the rail network since the 1970s, did apply the brakes, investigators confirmed.

Tandy is a deeply-respected colleague with an 'excellent professional track record who stayed at the controls throughout, said the SWR. He acted in an impeccable way in a valiant attempt to keep passengers safe.

Tandys actions undoubtedly saved many lives. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Kevin Regan, a friend and colleague said, He's probably the most experienced driver on the network if not the country. How no passengers were killed or more seriously injured is beyond me.

He must have only had about six seconds to react and fling the brakes into emergency. The train was probably doing about 45-50mph as it was due to stop at Salisbury station nearby. Bear in mind the tracks were wet as well due to the heavy rainfall on Sunday.

His experience and knowledgehaving been a driver for so longmust have been a factor. He's the hero of the hour, that's for sure, and at a personal cost to himself because he's suffered serious injuries. Quite how bad, we don't yet know. The driver's side of his cab looks completely mangled from the photographs I've seen, so he must have flung himself onto the floor onto the other side just in the nick of time.

The failure of the initial brake applied by the driver was followed by a second emergency brake demand made by the train protection and warning system. The RAIB investigation intends to study the level of wheel to rail adhesion on the approach to tunnel junction and to also consider how well Network Rail (NR) managed the risk of potential insufficient wheel track adhesion. Network Rail employs 42,000 staff and ensures track safety and maintenance and signalling systems across the network.

Andrew Hall, RAIBs deputy chief inspector, stated, This evidence suggests that the most likely cause of this was wheel-slide, almost certainly a result of low adhesion between the wheels and the track. We are continuing to pursue this as a line of investigation amongst others.

Hall said the RAIB had worked with the BTP to examine the track and train and were continuing to analyse evidence from the trains data recorders, signalling systems and CCTV. More comprehensive initial findings would be published at a later date.

Speaking to the Guardian, railway engineer and writer Gareth Dennis said the most likely cause of the low adhesion was tree leaves. The South Western train was shown red to wait. It looks like as he applied the brakes there was a low adhesion eventthe wheels were sliding. This is a serious problem we have had on our railways for a long time. The approach to the tunnel is tree-lined, and the writer pointed out, It is best not to have trees overhanging.

It is only a matter of chance and the many interventions of railway staff, including guards who perform a safety critical role, that many more such incidents, including ones leading to fatalities, have been largely avoided in recent years on Britains railways.

Deciduous trees create leaves on the line during autumn and fleets of Railhead Treatment Trains are meant to run across the network using high pressure water jets to clean railheads. But starved for decades of essential maintenance funding, the railways have been transformed by successive governments into state-subsidised cash cows for private corporations to milk massive profits while providing unsafe, infrequent, overcrowded and expensive train services.

In 2020 at Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, a landslide caused a ScotRail service to come off the tracks, killing three people onboard. The recent crash in Salisbury marks the first collision between moving trains since the crash at Ladbroke Grove, London in 1999.

Deaths of rail workers rose from zero in 2016 to five in 2021. Accident inspectors criticised NR for long-term safety failings that led to the deaths of two track workers in South Wales in 2019. Until the 2020 pandemic lockdown, there has been worrying rise in the number of SPADs, i.e., signals passed at danger. There have been a succession of derailments, and trains hitting the buffers, including in London and Liverpool.

Network Rail carried out a reduction of its maintenance staff by 12 percent between 2009/10 and 2013/14, down by 2,169 to 15,813. Then it set a target of 2019 of further cost-cutting of 20 percent.

Central to the bolstering of profits and cuts to safety is the ongoing and reckless drive to destaff trains, with the main target the removal of thousands of guards, who like Martin Miller in the Salisbury crash, perform daily a critical safety role of behalf of the public and other rail staff.

As well as lauding driver Tandy, the Daily Mail described Miller as a hero train guard. Yet it and other right-wing publications have spent the best part of the last decade demonising workers such as Miller and cheering on Britains rail company profiteers as they have put in place forms of Driver Only Operation (DOO) trains aimed at the removal of guards from trains.

Demanding in parliament that David Camerons Conservative government crackdown on strikes against the introduction of DOO at Southern rail in 2016, Horsham Conservative MP Jeremy Quin ridiculed the role of the guard saying the dispute was, Not over jobs, not over wages, but over who gets to press a button.

In the face of mass opposition to DOO from rail workers, the government and rail companies have been able to push through forms of DOO throughout the rail network, with the collaboration of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union and the ASLEF train drivers union. More lives will be needlessly endangered and lost in future incidents on the railways as a result of thousands of guards losing their jobs and further cuts in safety standards and maintenance.
August 31, 2021 marks 100 years since the birth of Jean Brust, a leading figure in the Trotskyist movement. Comrade Jean, who died November 24, 1997 at the age of 76, joined the Trotskyist-led Young Peoples Socialist League as a teenager in 1937. She fought, alongside her lifelong partner Bill Brust, for the cause of international socialism for the next 60 years.

In 1963, Jean Brust refused to accept the betrayal of principles by the Socialist Workers Party, when it broke with the International Committee. She went on to become a founding member of the Workers League, the predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party, and was part of the leadership of the American and world Trotskyist movement for the rest of her life.

To mark the 100th anniversary of her birth, the World Socialist Web Site is bringing together a number of essays on her life and political work, including a new essay by her son, novelist Steven Brust.
The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which killed more than 2,900 people, were the deadliest terror attacks in the history of the United States. Nineteen supporters of Al Qaeda, 15 from Saudi Arabia, crashed two passenger planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York; a third plane into the Pentagon building outside Washington; and a fourth into the ground.

The horrific massacre of civilians was immediately exploited by the imperialist powers, led by the United States government itself, to justify far-reaching attacks on the democratic rights of their own populations, and the launching of decades-long wars in the Middle East and Africa. The war on terror, embraced by the entire political establishment and corporate media, became the justification for wars and interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.

Twenty years on, the analysis made by the WSWS of these events has stood the test of time. We present below the major statements and analysis made contemporaneously by the WSWS over the past two decades.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WTHI) - Some local Indiana law enforcement agencies will get money to fight reckless driving. That money comes through a grant from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.

$6.5 million dollars will go to 200 departments. They will use that money to grant overtime patrols to address reckless driving. In the Wabash Valley,

-Knox County will get $20,000 for agencies in the county.

-Vermillion County will get $11,000.

-Vigo County will get $92,900 thousand dollars.

State officials say they hope this money will give enforcement more visibility. They say people are less likely to speed and drive dangerously when law enforcement is present.
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP)  A motorist who crashed through the Indiana State Prisons main gate has been charged with drunken driving and criminal trespass, state police said.

Robert D. Merriman, 62, of Winamac was arrested Tuesday after police said he drove a pickup truck through the gate at the prison, located in Michigan City. Authorities eventually stopped the vehicle and state troopers were called to the scene, police said.

Tuesdays crash did not result in any property damage at the prison, said Annie Goeller, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Correction.

Police said that after the crash, Merriman was found to have a blood-alcohol content of .14%, or nearly twice the states limit of .08% for drivers. He faces charges that include criminal trespass, operating a vehicle while intoxicated and operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering others.

Online court records do not list an attorney who could speak on behalf of Merriman, who remained jailed Thursday at the LaPorte County Jail.

State police said Merrimans pickup crashed through the prisons main gate a short time after police were alerted about a potentially impaired driver traveling in a pickup on U.S. 421 in Michigan City, located about 40 miles (64..4 kilometers) west of South Bend.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP)  A man sentenced to house arrest for attacking a 13-year-old girl with a pocketknife in 2019 as she was attending an Indiana University violin camp is now awaiting deportation to South Korea.

Dongwook Ko, 19, is being held at the Clay County Justice Center, about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) northwest of Bloomington, after being taken into custody last week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Ko, a South Korean resident, has lived in the United States on a temporary visa with his mother  an IU graduate student  since he was 11. Under federal law, a non-resident convicted of an aggravated felony can be deported, The Herald-Times reported.

He pleaded guilty in July to criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon, and was sentenced to eight years of house arrest followed by two years of probation.

Ko was 17 when he attacked a girl he knew from the previous summers camp as she was playing her violin alone in a Merrill Hall practice room during IUs Summer String Academy.

The girl said she feared for her life as Ko held a pocketknife blade to her throat in a locker room. She suffered cuts to her hands, arms and legs before an IU employee who heard her screams stopped Ko, and she fled to safety.

The girls parents were upset that Ko was sentenced to house arrest instead of prison. Her mother said in a statement that no prison term would mean an immediate arrest by ICE and a real chance for his total freedom in 2021. ... Thats not justice.
INDIANA (WTHI)- Across the nation, law enforcement is struggling to fill open positions. Josh Clarke, Chief Deputy of Clay County, said the sheriff's office has this problem.

"Several years ago, we would have fifty, sixty, seventy applicants," he said. "And since years have passed, we're down to a dozen, half a dozen that have applied."

Clarke has an idea why application numbers are low.

"I do believe that the stigma and the perception that has come across the nation," he said. "Has caused people to be concerned about joining law enforcement."

One Indiana school is trying to change that. Indiana Digitial Learning School is a fully online public school serving students across the state. The school has recently expanded its criminal justice program to help students better understand what law enforcement does.

Elizabeth Sliger, executive director of the school, said the curriculum will expose students to numerous jobs in the criminal justice system.

"Obviously, it's an occupation we have a lot of respect for," Sliger said. "And being able to understand the various parts of the system and just understanding everything that goes into supporting our police officers and how many occupations there are out there."

The curriculum will include many classes training officers take, but with a few additions. Sliger said students can also contribute their own experiences to the conversation about law enforcement.

"I think this is a really good opportunity where we need to not only expose our students but also listen to them," she said. "Because their experiences in their particular family environment may teach us a bit about the importance of social services."

Overall, Sliger said the school wants to support students and their interests.

"These students particularly, they have a desire to give back," she said. "That's why they're interested in it. So, we want to do our best to give them that chance."
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - More than 100 thousand Hoosiers are suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. 215,000 are unpaid caregivers.

November is Alzheimer's Awareness Month, Laura Forbes with the Alzheimer's Association Greater Indiana Chapter says now is a great time to have those tough conversations.

"With the holidays coming up what we find a lot of times with the Alzheimer's Association is that many families are getting together for the first time in quite a while and they may start to see those signs and symptoms for the first time and wonder what to do."

Dr. Steven McDonald at Union Hospital says this is an issue impacting many local families.

"Nationwide there are about 6.2 million people who have Alzheimer's disease and doing the math that means we have 2,000 people in Vigo County that have Alzheimer's disease and I would venture to guess many of those 2,000 are unaware."

Dr. McDonald says memory screening can help with the early detection of this terrible disease. He explains the most common one.

"Moca, Moca stands for Montreal Cognitive Assessment exam. That's our standard. We administer that test as an exam where 30 points is a perfect score we figure most people should get around a 25 or so those individuals that get a maybe 18 or 12 certainly they may have some evidence that they may have some dementia on board."

The Alzheimer's Association says some early signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's could be difficulty completing familiar tasks or confusion with time or place. Dr. McDonald says it's important for loved ones to speak up if they see something off.

"Only in the most rarest of circumstances does the patient themselves ever recognize that they themselves have Alzheimer's disease "

This weekend the Alzheimer's Association is putting on a virtual caregiver conference. Health officials will explain what your next steps could be after a loved one is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Click here for the link.
OKOLONA, Miss. (WTVA) - Dozens of former military packed Rockwell Auditorium in Okolona.

Organization president Louise Floyd Cole said that these events give veterans the opportunity to share their stories and let them know that the nation is listening.

They weren't able to host this event last year due to the pandemic, but knew they couldn't let this day go by without recognizing veterans.

Today's event was one of many veterans day programs across North Mississippi honoring local military veterans.
BLUE SPRINGS, Miss. (WTVA) - The Toyota plant is welcoming nearly 2,000 workers back to the assembly line.

Thomas Hilderbrandt is a production group leader at Toyota. He's worked at the plant for 10 years and said he is glad to be back to work after the company slowed down for a while.

"It's always good to be at work and continuing making vehicles so we can help provide for our country first and foremost. I know our consumers are looking forward to getting them."

The company was down for two weeks in October because of the struggle with the supply chain. President of Toyota Mississippi David Fernandes said getting parts for vehicles is still an issue.

"We still got some of that still impacting us even now in the month of November, mainly on Fridays and Mondays."

Employees still have the chance to work with pay from different community services projects by the company. Fernandes said he is glad to still provide work during the lack of production.

"It's just a great privilege to be able to take care of our folks during the nonproduction that we have."

Toyota is hiring for all production departments.
TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) - The Tupelo Public School District now has a nurse on each campus to help with the continued hardships of the pandemic.

Susan McComic is the school nurse at Carver Elementary School. She said last year the district became fully staffed with nurses right in the middle of the pandemic.

"Being able to be here to help the students through COVID and with any other medical and injury-related things here at school is--it's good to that you're here to help."

Carver Elementary School holds kindergarten and first-grade students. McComic said they've seen a decrease in COVID-19 related sicknesses over the past few weeks compared to the beginning of the year.

"Here at my school, I haven't been needing to very much of that. It even appears that the community-related quarantines for my students have gone down."

McComic said the district is lucky to be fully staffed because every school is not fortunate enough to have a nurse on hand.

"It's just important of having somebody there when your children get sick when they get injured and being able to assess situations and emergency care of them."

The school district recently made changes to its blueprint to prevent and protect its students against COVID-19.

"I personally love being a school nurse," said McComic.
Here is the latest Minnesota news from The Associated Press at 1:40 a.m. CST
MADISON, Wis. (WXOW) - The Wisconsin Veterans Museum opened a new exhibit called "Souvenirs of Service - The Things They Kept" featuring war memorabilia donated by La Crosse veterans.

One of the artifacts is a cannon ball that killed a Wisconsin soldier in the Civil War.

Soldiers from La Crosse retrieved the cannon ball and put it on display in Milwaukee, La Crosse and now Madison.

"The museum is the microphone and the veterans are the voice," Wisconsin Veterans Museum Curator of History Kevin Hampton said. "It's not me telling you the story of the pieces it's the veterans themselves because who could better tell the story than themselves?"

He designed the exhibit with help from the La Crosse Historical Society and La Crosse American Legion Post 52.

"A lot of times when you think of military history you get lost in the machines of war," he said. "You get lost in the statistics, the tanks, the planes, the guns and you often forget forget the humanity behind the history."

Milwaukee native John Hein cannot forget about the humanity and inhumanity of battle because he served in the Vietnam War.

"I'm the last surviving member of my tank row," Hein said. "I had a lot of good friends in Vietnam and some of them didn't come back."

Hein lives in long term care facility and cannot drive so his friend and fellow Vietnam War veteran Paul Troglia travel the state visiting free military museums.

Some of Hein's comrades were killed when their tank drove over a landmine.

"I reached down to grab the opening of the loaders hatch, that hatch came down and slapped me across my fingers," Hein said. "it broke some bones and that's how I got that purple heart."

His experience is something museum curators said they want to convey with the public every day.

"I never saw anything like that," Hein said, "I think everyone that I ever served with served honorably, they served well and they were very courageous young men."

Hampton said they are always looking for more artifacts to put on display and you can reach out to the museum at their website here.

The museum is free and open Tuesday to Saturday from 10-5 p.m.

It's located at 30 W. Mifflin St. Madison, WI 53703
Israel has approved a 25% rebate for international TV and film productions with an initial budget of 45 million shekels ($14.5 million) for two years.

The program, which aims at enticing foreign producers to come shoot in Israel, has been pushed by the Israeli TV & Film Producers Association, in partnership with the Israeli Finance Minister, as well as the culture, foreign, economy and tourism industries.

More from Variety

This is a very big deal for Israel and the local TV and film industry, said Adar Shafran, chairman of the Israeli TV & Film Producers Association. Shafran said the rebate program will provide thousands of jobs for Israelis and tens of millions of shekels that will be invested in the Israeli economy as a result of using services such as flights, hotels, catering, transportation and more.

In the absence of a tax incentive, only a handful of international shows and films have shot in Israel in recent years, including an episode of the Italian show The Million Dollar Race, a commercial and part of Hit and Run, which hailed from Israeli creators, says Tzvika Gottlieb, CEO of the Israeli Producers Association, who adds that there are now several European and U.S. projects in the pipeline to shoot in Israel.

When you see that Dune and the latest Star Wars movie shot in Jordan, its clear that Israel has a lot of potential; not only do we have the same desert but we also have many different landscapes, from desert to snow, beaches, mountains and of course historical landmarks; and a blossoming industry, pointed out Gottlieb.

Danna Stern, managing director of Yes Studios, the Israeli production-distribution company behind such hits as Fauda and Your Honor, said, This is a great first step in the right direction that will make Israel a more attractive location for international productions.

Story continues

We have some of the worlds best creative talent  in front of and behind the camera  beautiful locations and the best weather, said Stern, adding that as more producers discover the benefits of physically producing here, hopefully the government will allocate additional resources for our industry.

Although the specific details of the tax rebates have yet to be unveiled, it appears that the minimum amount of expenditures that needs to be invested by an international production is 4 million shekels. As with other rebate plans around the world, a local producer will need be hired.

Eitan Mansuri, a leading Israeli producer whose banner Spiro Films has produced Samuel Maozs Foxtrot and the hit show False Flag, among others, said the green light for the rebate plan was a sign that the new government is open to listen and try things, and understand now how much of an opportunity it represents for the film and TV industry in Israel.

We have brilliant creators, actors, excellent local crews and an amazing variety of locations, but Israel is very expensive, and thats how the possibility of coming was less attractive than in neigboring countries, which all launched strong incentives, but we hope this will be a game-changer for many companies, from the smaller European TV series to the huge Hollywood productions, added Mansuri.

Mansuri said the one issue that has always been problematic when shooting in Israel was getting insured in case of political or civic unrest, but he believes the country is facing a relatively calm future in spite of geo-political tensions.

On the plus side, Israel has been leading the way in terms of health safety, getting its population vaccinated against COVID-19 faster than any other nation. The majority of the Israeli population has now received three vaccine shots and seems to have wrestled the pandemic.

This important step brings with it a significant message that focuses on Israels positive branding in the world as a center for filming international films and series, using Israels natural resources and unique and historical sites that exist in Israel, said Avigdor Liberman, the Israeli Finance Minister.

Best of Variety

Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The Ohio State football program will always be the answer to a trivia question many other teams would like to have been a part of. Whenever anyone asks who won the first-ever College Football Playoff championship game, the answer is your Ohio State Buckeyes.

But remember, OSU almost didnt make it there. After an early loss to Virginia Tech, the Buckeyes were written off. However, Ohio State just continued to get better and better and ended up squeaking its way into the CFP and winning the whole thing.

Former Ohio State linebacker Joshua Perry discussed that season and the so-called Chase the team tagged on their quest to beat Alabama on the most recent Glory Days: Dreams and Nightmares podcast. As a Buckeye fan, you know most likely know the podcast well, but Perry and fellow teammate, former receiver Evan Spencer detail the 2014 season when OSU made that highly improbable and unlikely run to the national title.

As a part of Wednesdays segment, Perry talked about the reason Ohio State was able to beat Alabama, and it had everything to do with former Buckeye head coach Urban Meyers obsession to detail. We have of course heard stories about how intense and driven Meyer was, but Perry opened up about a little-known fact of why he believes OSU was able to not only make it into the playoff but to chase down the Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl.

He became obsessed with the hand placement, said Perry of Meyer. He came back, and he said, I was down there on the field watching them in pregame, and I watched their D-line warm up, and those guys, they strike better than anybody and their hands are quicker and their hands are always inside. They got perfect technique, and their thumbs are up and their elbows are in. And he said, We dont have a guy who can strike like that.

We came out in that offseason, and before we could do contact and really put our hands on each other, we had two-by-fours that were taped together to practice the hand position, Perry said. Just the inside hands, like your hands were on the outside of the two-by-fours. Thats how tight your hands are supposed to be. Elbows in. And then we start doing that every day in practice with our pads on. (Meyer) would go down the line, and he would basically watch all the skill-position guys strike one another, and it was like a competition to see who could get their hands inside and who could re-set their hands.

Story continues

And then coach Anthony Schlegel developed an actual apparatus that you can attach to a weight rack in the weight room to practice what we called The Difference. It was such a point of obsession that (Meyer) named it The Difference. The difference between Alabama and Ohio State was how the (expletive) we struck each other, how our hands worked.

That was the obsession, but thats why Urbans an elite coach is hell take something that nobody would really think of that would be the difference between a national title contender and the actual champion is just the hand placement and being obsessed about it.

You can watch this short segment on your own via the Glory Days: Dreams and Nightmares YouTube channel.

This is some of the inside information you get from Perry and Spencer during an inside look to that season and were all for it. If you havent check out the podcast for yourself, we highly encourage you to do so.

List

Buckeyes Wire exclusive: Evan Spencer talks Oregon, 2014 season, 'Glory Days' podcast, and more

Former Ohio State WR Evan Spencer talks Oregon, Glory Days Podcast

Related

Former Ohio State receiver Evan Spencer remembers trip to Lincoln, gracious fans

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion.
"I Got Vaccinated" avatar graphics by Native artists for the "For The Love of Our People" national campaign by IllumiNative, a Native nonprofit dedicated to increasing visibility of Native American people.

A national nonprofit organization has awarded the Wotakuye Mutual Aid Society in Rapid City $30,000 to assist in overcoming COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy across Native American communities.

IllumiNative is a native, woman-led nonprofit. As part of IllumiNative's "For the Love of Our People" campaign, the group has given $30,000 grants to 13 Native community organizations across the country. South Dakota, along with Oklahoma, Wisconsin, New Mexico, California and other states were among the list of recipient states.

According to the CDC, Native American communities have the highest rates of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths.

More: Want a COVID-19 vaccine? South Dakota Urban Indian Health may have some they need to use

IllumiNative founder Crystal Echo Hawk said the genesis of the initiative came at the start of COVID-19, and the misinformation that came with it.

"We saw very quickly as COVID began spreading that there was little to no media coverage of the disproportionate impact COVID was having within Native communities," she said.

Echo Hawk says the organization felt they had to organize quickly to shine a light on those dire circumstances and the resilience of Native people.

"We also wanted to really talk about the resilience of Native people in the way that even when the federal government didn't deliver," said Echo Hawk. "Native communities and tribes and organizations were really working to organize to take care of our people."

More: The unseen toll of COVID-19 for high school athletes on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

The campaign leveraged a $900,000 grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to identify hotspot areas across Native communities and support the selected 13 Native organizations in their vaccination efforts. Part of that will include developing incentives, distributing COVID-19 information from "trusted messengers" in Native communities and increasing outreach via social media and telephone.

Story continues

The campaign is also working with Native Tik-Tokers to reach Native youth that have been more hesitant with getting the vaccine, said Echo Hawk.

"We did a national survey last year of over 6,400 Native peoples from all 50 states and found that upwards of 96% do not trust the government due to the history, and the U.S. government's treatment of Native peoples," she said. "We're really working hard with these grantees to ensure people can make informed decisions and to really hear it from people in their community."

Email human rights reporter Nicole Ki at nki@argusleader.com or follow on Twitter at @_nicoleki.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota Native American group works on COVID vaccine outreach
Photographed by Angelo Pennetta

In 1995, the Italian brand Diesel created a groundbreaking advertising campaign that included, among other things, an image of two men kissing. Plenty of people sat up and took noticenot least the teenage Glenn Martens, who was living in Bruges, Belgium. Diesel was the sexiest brand, Martens recalls. At high school, everybody was buying it. You could visit the Diesel store and get a catalog, he continues, and on the cover of one of them was that gay couple. That was quite revolutionary for me: It really helped me accept and embrace the person I am today.

Fast-forward more than two decades and Martens, 38the creative director behind Y/Project, the Parisian label known for its rollicking elevation of streetwear and its subversive way with tailoringhas taken on another day job: creative director of Diesel, a role he has held since October 2020. (Actually, he now has three jobs, having agreed to design Jean-Paul Gaultier x Glenn Martens for couture for one season, showing next January.) Martens arrives just as jeans-mania is on a high, with the hautest of houses fixated on working with denim, in yet another example of old rules being upended.

Since joining Diesel, Martens has run at Mach speed, acclimating to a rigorously scheduled routine that sees him shuttling weekly between his airy 19th-century apartment in the once-gritty La Chapelle neighborhood on the outskirts of Paris to the companys high-tech HQ in Breganze, Italy. Its super nice to work in this more organized way, he says. And I enjoy the travelingI can focus on myself!

Among the many things he now oversees, Martens has in quick order conceptualized a new archetype capsule called Denim Library. I realized there wasnt a classic jeans jacket, he says of the collection, with its multiplicity of fits for all sorts of body types. [With Library] these are pieces of timeless style for everyday life, which wont ever go on sale. This past June in Milan he made his runway debut, giving vent to his more experimental impulses: dramatic frayed-denim coats with distressing in diamond configurations; camo-print patched pants that morphed into boots; and shrunken mohair sweaters worn with long skirts crafted out of delicate, flowery gauze. All of this was shown on a diverse, multicultural cast of characters. (It was really important that our models were there because of their social or environmental engagement, Martens says.)

Story continues

When the designer signed with Diesel, uppermost in his mind was the belief that fashion should have agency in promoting progressive values and meaningful dialoguesomething that Diesel has pioneered ever since founder Renzo Rosso set the label up in 1978. (The maverick Rosso is now president of the brands parent company.) Renzo is rock, says Martens. I love his attitude. He was also cognizant of the brands scale: With more than 500 stores worldwide and an annual turnover in the region of $1.4 billion, being both creative and accountable was important to him. I didnt want to just be a nice creative director, making nice things, he says, laughing. I dont think anyone expected me to go into the fundamental processes.

By that he means hisand by extension, Dieselsramped-up commitment to the environment. The Denim Library capsule, which is projected to account for more than 40 percent of sales, is certified sustainable, from its raw materials to the production and washes. (Being environmentally conscious means, for instance, a limit on the amount of colors the collection is offered in, as no bleach is used.) QR codes in the pockets will explain in detail the credentials of each piece.

Yet Martens is also aware of the need to spread the message of sustainability far and wide and not just preach to the converted. The great thing about being here is I can talk with people who find Diesel sexy, who feel that Diesel is part of their language, he says. And thanks to thatand thanks to maybe Instagram and Facebook, and all the things in the world that have a voicemaybe we can accelerate a little bit of change.



Produced by MAI Productions. With thanks to Hotel Locarno and Donna Camilla Savelli, Rome.

Originally Appeared on Vogue
Red is Meghan Markle's color. She's shown us time and again that the fiery hue suits her well, whether with an elegant cape dress by Safiyaa for a royal red carpet, or a more casual and modern suit for a visit to NYC. On November 10, she nailed another crimson look: a plunging sleeveless gown by Carolina Herrera with a daring leg slit. Paired with matching slingback heels, a few bracelets, and an elegant updo, she was a total show-stopper.

The Duchess of Sussex stepped out in the bold look while attending the Salute to Freedom gala at New York's Intrepid Museum with her husband, Prince Harry. The Duke of Sussex, who served in the British armed forces for 10 years, will be handing out medals at the event honoring members of the military. He looked sharp for the event in a classic black tux adorned with his own badges and a red poppy, a symbol honoring military members who've died in war, per People. Meghan wore a poppy on her dress as well.

Photo credit: Theo Wargo - Getty Images

Photo credit: Dia Dipasupil - Getty Images

Earlier this week, Meghan appeared at the New York Times' DealBook conference at New 42 Studios, where she discussed economic parity for women and the negative affect of tabloids. The duchess, who is vocal about the media's scrutiny of her, said at one point of the conversation: Well, first I would urge you not to read tabloids, because I dont think that thats healthy for anyone. Hopefully one day they come with a warning label like cigarettes do, like this is toxic for your mental health.

She also discussed the necessity of paid family leave, and not just for women. She said it takes strong men, modern men, to really understand they benefit from it as well.

You Might Also Like
Reuters

A day after the European Union paved the way for fresh sanctions against Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko lobbed a new threat at the bloc, threatening to shut down Russian natural gas flowing into Europe.

The increasingly rogue leader made the comments Thursday after the EU accused him of waging a hybrid attack by encouraging thousands of migrants to cross into Europe at the Polish border.

Putins Lovefest With His Dictator BFF Could Bite Him in the Ass

We are heating Europe. They are still threatening us that they will close the border. And if we shut off natural gas there? state news agency Belta quoted Lukashenko as saying. Therefore, I would recommend that the Polish leadership, Lithuanians, and other headless people think before speaking.

Cutting the vital supply of Russian gas just as Europe braces for winter amid skyrocketing prices in the volatile European natural-gas market is seen as a dangerous threat, judging by the initial reaction from EU sources.

The EU on Wednesday threatened sanctions on a number of airlines, including Russian carrier Aeroflot, for transporting migrants to the Polish border with the promise they could cross into Europe. This week, Russian warplanes were spotted performing a joint mission over Belarus airspace to underscore the Kremlins support for Lukashenko. The Kremlin released video of the maneuvers by two long-range Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic strike bombers, which they said were practicing issues of interaction with ground control points with armed forces of Belarus.

Meanwhile, the U.S. said Wednesday it would also apply followup sanctions against Belarus in support of the EU, condemning the Belarusian leader for ongoing attacks on democracy, human rights, and international norms. The White Houses National Security Council spokesperson said, We are deeply concerned by the Lukashenko regimes inhumane actions and strongly condemn their callous exploitation and coercion of vulnerable people.

Story continues

Thousands of migrantssome with tiny infantsare camped in sub-zero temperatures on the Belarus side of the border with Poland. On Wednesday, Polish forces, which number more than 15,000, stopped nearly 500 attempts to breach the border.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Chief Filippo Grandi warned that the crisis would likely spark a race to the bottom on European migration policy as it bars migrants from entering the bloc. These challenges simply do not justify the knee-jerk reaction we have seen in some places: the irresponsible xenophobic discourse; the walls and barbed wire; the violent pushbacks that include the beating of refugees and migrants, sometimes stripping them naked and dumping them in rivers, or leaving them to drown in seas; the attempts to evade asylum obligations by paying other states to take on ones own responsibilities, Grandi said.

The European Union, a union based on rule of law, should and can do better.

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.
She spent decades rubbing shoulders with British royals and US presidents.

Now British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell is set to stand trial in a New York courtroom on sex trafficking charges, and faces decades behind bars if convicted.

Ms Maxwell, the daughter of the late media mogul Robert Maxwell, told a 2016 deposition that she met Jeffrey Epstein, then a wealthy financier, in 1991 through a mutual friend.

During the 1990s the couple socialised with Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, as well as Prince Andrew, with Ms Maxwell flying on Epsteins private jets and staying at his homes, before settling in a $5m New York townhouse.

Federal prosecutors allege that Ms Maxwell first helped Epstein in his sexual exploitation of underage girls in 1994, with Annie Farmer, then 16, alleging she was lured to Epsteins ranch in New Mexico.

She stated in court papers that Ms Maxwell insisted on giving her a massage before Mr Epstein tried to physically restrain and sexually assault her in a bedroom at the property.

Ms Farmer sued Epsteins estate and Ms Maxwell, eventually accepting a compensation offer from the Epstein Victims Compensation Fund, and dropped her allegations as part of that settlement.

But she has alleged that Ms Maxwell was a really important part of the grooming process, and that the couple worked as a team.

The allegations against Epstein continued to mount and in 2005, a 14-year-old girl contacted police saying that she had been sexually assaulted at his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

Epstein was arrested in 2006 and charged by a grand jury with one count of solicitation of a prostitute and he eventually took a controversial plea deal in state court to prevent federal charges.

After pleading guilty to one count of solicitation of prostitution and one charge of solicitation of a minor, Epstein served 13 months in Palm Beach County Jail.

Ms Maxwell told the 2016 deposition that after Epstein was jailed she continued to occasionally work at his properties and kept her ties with him.

Story continues

Im a very loyal person and Jeffrey was very good to me when my father passed away, she said in the 2016 deposition.

I felt that it was a very thoughtful, nice thing for me to do to help in a very limited fashion.

Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein (right - with black/grey tie) and Caroline Stanley (in pink) (Shutterstock)

In 2009, Virginia Giuffre sued Epstein claiming that Ms Maxwell had recruited her when she was a teenager working at Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

She settled her lawsuit with Epstein after claiming that she was made a sex slave for years by by he and Ms Maxwell.

Her allegations though resurfaced in 2015, when further victims of Epstein filed cases against him, and she claimed that Ms Maxwell had directed her on three occasions to have sex with Prince Andrew.

Ms Giuffre has now filed a civil case against the royal in a New York court, and he has strongly denied all the allegations made against him.

In July 2019, Epstein was arrested by law enforcement when he arrived on a private jet in New Jersey from France and he was charged with sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy.

Just months later, in August, Epstein was found dead in a Manhattan prison cell while he awaited trial, with a medical examiner ruling the 66-year-olds death suicide.

Attention then turned to Ms Maxwell, who had a personal fortune of $20m as well as British, French and US passports, and who had disappeared.

Almost exactly one year after Epsteins arrest the FBI raided a remote estate in New Hampshire, where Ms Maxwell was found living.

She had slithered away to a gorgeous property in New Hampshire, continuing to live a life of privilege while her victims continue to live with the trauma inflicted upon them years ago, said Bill Sweeney, the assistant director of the FBIs New York Field Office, as he confirmed her arrest.

Prosecutors say that Ms Maxwell refused to answer the door to agents, who were forced to break it down and take her into custody.

Federal prosecutors have charged her with conspiracy and enticing minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, and the transportation of minors to engage in criminal sexual activity for allegedly grooming and recruiting underage girls from 1994 through 1997.

She is also being charged with sex trafficking of a minor from 2001 to 2004, in addition to one count of sex trafficking conspiracy.

Ms Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to all charges and been denied bail on multiple occasions as Judge Alison Nathan views her as a flight risk.

Her defence team has argued that Ms Maxwell is being tried as a replacement for Epstein, which prosecutors have denied.

In court filings the prosecutors state that the victims were sexually abused as minors as a direct result of Ghislaine Maxwells actions, and they have carried the trauma from these events for their entire adult lives. They deserve to see her brought to justice at a trial.

In March, Prosecutors filed an additional indictment with an additional underage victim added to the charges, which caused the trial to be put back until 29 November.

After more than a year in prison, Ms Maxwell will get the chance to rebut the allegations against her in a Lower Manhattan courtroom and try to avoid effectively spending the rest of her life under lock and key.
Associated Press

The foreign minister of Yemen's government in exile warned Sunday that a rebel takeover of the crucial, energy-rich city of Marib would be a disaster on the scale of the collapse of its ancient dam that decimated an entire kingdom. Ahmad Awad Bin Mubarak's comments mark some of the most dire made regarding the offensive by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have held Yemen's capital since September 2014. Meanwhile, forces backing Yemen's exiled government and Saudi Arabia have fallen back recently from the key port city of Hodeida, allowing the Houthis to regain ground there as well.
Wales play the third game of their Autumn Nations Series campaign when they tackle Fiji in Cardiff on Sunday.

After defeats against New Zealand and South Africa, Wayne Pivacs team will look to bounce back ahead of hosting Australia next weekend.

Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the key talking points heading into the game.

Josh Adams  a centre of attention

After 34 starts on the wing for Wales and scoring 17 tries, Cardiff speedster Adams has been switched to outside centre in an intriguing selection by Pivac. It undoubtedly has a 2023 World Cup feel to it, with the Wales head coach, whose squad can carry a maximum of 33 names in France, acutely aware how important players able to feature in more than one position could be. Adams is certainly good enough to have a hybrid role, and Fiji know all about his brilliance after seeing him score three tries against them when the countries last met at the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

Wales scrum under the spotlight

Wales head coach Wayne Pivac (David Davies/PA)

Wales produced some positive moments in their losses to New Zealand and South Africa, but a consistent concern across both games was the scrum. There were issues such as poor technical discipline and execution, although Pivac has retained Rhys Carre and Tomas Francis  his starting props against the Springboks  for Fijis visit. Addressing the key set-piece area, Pivac said: There is work to be done on our side. Weve come in undercooked. Wales lineout showed a significant improvement in the South Africa encounter and their scrum must now follow suit.

Christ Tshiunza set for Test debut

  Congratulations to @ExeterChiefs forward Christ Tshiunza, who is in line to win his first Test cap for @WelshRugbyUnion after being named in their squad to face @fijirugby on Sunday https://t.co/PP1cLF5tja pic.twitter.com/yN4S7PzST8  Exeter Chiefs (@ExeterChiefs) November 10, 2021

To say that Wales are excited about 19-year-old Exeter forward Tshiunza is a major understatement. At 6ft 6in and 17st 6lbs, he offers a huge physical presence and an impressive versatility that sees him provide a second-row and back-row option. Tshiunza, who is set to make his Test debut off the bench this weekend, was born in DR Congo but moved to Wales in 2010 and is a product of Whitchurch High School in Cardiff, whose past pupils also include Sam Warburton, Gareth Bale and Geraint Thomas. Fiji on Sunday is the start of what could prove to be an outstanding international career.

Story continues

Fiji can make life uncomfortable

Team AnnouncementVodafone Flying Fijians team named for the match against Wales. Check https://t.co/dwIYzRLMJW  Fiji Rugby Union (@fijirugby) November 12, 2021

The history books show that Wales have beaten Fiji 10 times in 12 attempts, drawing once and losing an epic contest in Nantes that saw them knocked out of the 2007 World Cup. But it hardly tells the full story, with four of those victories being by seven points or less, while Fiji led their last meeting  a World Cup pool game in Japan two years ago  10-0, before Wales prevailed. Fijis often devastating combination of unpredictability and blistering sevens-style attacking rugby makes them a dangerous opponent and Wales know they cannot switch off for a second.

Please keep off the pitch

The Principality Stadium in Cardiff hosts this weekends match (David Davies/PA)

Wales Principality Stadium fixtures against New Zealand and South Africa were blighted by pitch invaders. A man briefly stood alongside All Blacks team members ahead of the New Zealand national anthem before he was led away, then a spectator was banned from the venue for life after running on to the pitch as Wales attacked midway through the second-half of last Saturdays Springboks encounter. Principality Stadium manager Mark Williams said: Its extremely disappointing to think that by recent events the traditional game-day experience is under threat and that we might be forced to look at additional measures that will impact on the fan experience in future. No one can say they have not been warned.
A P&O Ferry (PA Archive)

The UKs competition watchdog has opened an investigation into a capacity sharing agreement between P&O Ferries and a Danish partner on the Dover to Calais route.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was investigating whether the arrangement between P&O and DFDS has potential to prevent, restrict or distort competition within the UK.

The two ferry operators entered a mutual space charter agreement in May to try and shorten freight customers waiting times and improve the flow of traffic on the trade route between the UK and EU.

The agreement means freight drivers can board the next available boat when they arrive at the Port of Dover or the Port of Calais, regardless of which of the two companies is operating it. The companies said at the time the deal was struck that the arrangement could cut waiting times by up to 30 minutes.

P&O Ferries operates five vessels on the Dover to Calais route and Denmark-based operator DFDS runs three.

Between them, P&O and DFDS transport 2.5 million lorries across the Channel each year, making it the busiest trade route between the UK and EU.

P&O declined to comment.

A spokesperson for DFDS said: A cooperation between two competitors may always attract attention. We believe that the agreement will cut down waiting times for our customers and reduce queues in the ports.

The CMA has not reached any conclusions at this stage as to whether or not competition law has been infringed and has an open mind at this point. We will of course cooperate with the CMA and provide all required documentation.

Read More

FTSE 100 Live: AstraZeneca sees Covid jab profit, shares slide

Johnson & Johnson follows GSK with plan to split into two standalone firms

Chuka Umunna interview: From rising star Labour MP to ethical banker
'We don't want any more Black pastors' in Arbery murder trial, lawyer says Trial of three men accused in the death of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick

(Reuters) - A lawyer for one of the three white men charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery said his team did not want "any more Black pastors coming" into the Georgia courtroom after a civil rights leader attended proceedings.

Thursday's comment by Kevin Gough drew sharp criticism from the Rev. Al Sharpton, whom the defense attorney cited in asking the judge in the high-profile case to exclude African-American clergy.

Arbery, a 25-year old Black man, was chased by the three men and shot dead in a mostly white neighborhood in the coastal city of Brunswick in February 2020. The three have pleaded not guilty to murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment in the trial.

"If their pastor's Al Sharpton right now, that's fine. But then that's it. We don't want any more Black pastors coming in here ... sitting with the victim's family, trying to influence a jury in this case," said attorney Kevin Gough, who represents defendant William "Roddie" Bryan.

Sharpton had attended the trial on Wednesday and conducted a prayer vigil with Arbery's parents outside the courthouse, he said on his official Twitter account.

The trial comes as the killings of Black Americans by police in recent years have sparked a renewed push for civil rights in the United States, with the murder of George Floyd captured on video last year sparking worldwide protests.

"The arrogant insensitivity of attorney Kevin Gough in asking a judge to bar me or any minister of the family's choice underscores the disregard for the value of the human life lost and the grieving of a family in need (of) spiritual and community support," Sharpton said.

He said his attendance was "not disruptive in any way" and was "at the invitation of the family."

Gough, who said he did not learn about Sharpton's presence until after that day's court session, told Judge Timothy Walmsley, "We want to keep politics out of this case." He suggested the presence of figures like Sharpton "could be consciously or unconsciously an attempt to pressure or influence the jury."

Story continues

The judge told Gough he was "not going to blanketly exclude members of the public from this courtroom."

Bryan, 52, as well as neighbor Gregory McMichael, 65, and his son Travis McMichael, 35, face life in prison if convicted of murder.

The jury was shown videos on Thursday of Arbery walking around a vacant property on earlier visits to the Georgia neighborhood where he was shot. Prosecutors say Arbery was an avid runner out for a Sunday afternoon jog.

(Reporting by Mana Rabiee; Writing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by William Mallard)
Ohio voters waited years to see if changes aimed at creating more fair maps would work.

The stakes are high: Lines drawn this month could determine how many Republicans and Democrats represent Ohio in Washington D.C. in the years to come. Ohioans said they wanted maps where their preferred candidate had a shot and their pick represented their community.

But Ohio Democrats panned Republicans' initial offers, which could give the GOP as much as a 13-2 advantage in a state that former President Donald Trump won, 53% to 45%, in 2020. And Republicans say Democratic proposals aren't competitive enough.

Here's a look at where negotiations stand, fewer than three weeks before the map final deadline.

Advocates with Fair Districts Ohio rally outside the Ohio Statehouse in late October. "Voter Girl", also known as Sherry Rose, of Kent, leads participants in an "All votes matter" chant.

How competitive should maps be?

Voters want competitive districts where neither Democrats nor Republicans have a cake walk in the general election, says Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima.

"The fundamental problem with the Democrat House map is of 15 districts, 12 of them are not competitive," Huffman told reporters Wednesday. "That's not what the reform was about. The reform was about competitive districts, compact districts, communities of interest and a number of other things that were in the constitution."

According to the popular redistricting analysis tool, Dave's Redistricting App, the House Democrats' proposed map creates eight districts where one party is favored by 60% of the vote or more  more than any map proposed by lawmakers but fewer than the 12 Huffman cited.

Competitiveness isn't a requirement under the voter-approved changes to the Ohio Constitution. But if Republicans pass a four-year map without sufficient Democratic support, they must explain why their map does not unduly favor one party over another or unduly split counties and municipalities.

Senate Republicans' map gets the highest marks for competitiveness of the four proposals on the popular redistricting analysis tool, Dave's Redistricting App. Nearly 39% of Senate GOP districts are deemed competitive compared with 25% to 26% on the two House maps.

Story continues

More: Ohio Republicans propose congressional district maps advantaging the GOP. See them here

One district made more competitive under the Senate GOP proposal is Republican Rep. Jim Jordan's 4th congressional district. It's hard to say who is more upset about that proposal: Jordan or his would-be constituents in Franklin County.

"Jim Jordan allies furious at proposed redistricting map," read one Fox News headline. Meanwhile, Ohioans testifying about the map pleaded with lawmakers not to combine Columbus' progressive Clintonville and predominantly Black Linden with rural Champaign County.

See the House Republican map, House Democratic map, Senate Republican map and Senate Democratic map on Dave's Redistricting App.

Ohio House Republicans and Ohio Senate Republicans released their proposed congressional redistricting maps this week. Both maps would split Stark County between two congressional districts, down from the current three. Ohio House Republicans drafted the map on the left. Ohio Senate Republicans drafted the map on the right.

The urban divide

Democrats' maps score much higher on proportionality  whether the maps match the statewide voting preferences of Ohioans. Those preferences have averaged 54% for Republican candidates and 46% for Democratic candidates over the past decade. So a proportional map would favor Republicans 8-7.

The Ohio Constitution has no requirement that the congressional map matches the statewide preferences of voters, but it's one measure used to measure "fair maps." Both GOP maps could create a 13-2 advantage for Republicans.

The Senate Democratic map would favor Republicans, 8-7, while the House Democratic map would favor Republicans, 9-6. Democrats hit these numbers by not slicing and dicing cities and urban counties, as both GOP maps do.

For example, if mapmakers keep Cincinnati in a district wholly contained in Hamilton County, it creates a Democratic district. Combine it with several surrounding rural counties and the district can swing toward Republicans.

More: E.T.'s finger, LeBron James, and 'confusion:' Why Ohio's new congressional maps are causing headaches

Both GOP maps split Franklin, Hamilton and Cuyahoga counties twice; the House GOP map also splits Summit County twice. Democratic proposals do not split any county more than once.

Huffman, for his part, says the House GOP plan splits the state's major cities too much.

"The major cities should not be separated between different districts," Huffman said. "I would prefer not to split these major cities like Toledo."

How the sausage gets made

Ohioans trying to weigh in on maps have faced unnecessary hurdles and frequent confusion, several residents testified on Wednesday.

More: No meetings, no map mean Ohio Redistricting Commission could punt mapmaking to lawmakers

Julia Cattaneo, of Columbus, said she struggled to find out when and where a joint committee reviewing the maps was meeting.

"With something this important, there should be a better way," Cattaneo said.

Details on the three committees reviewing congressional maps  House Government Oversight, Senate Local Government and Elections and the Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting  are often listed on the Ohio Legislature's website, but they are obscured under multiple tabs. There is no dedicated landing page for redistricting information.

The joint committee did not publicize which bills or topics it would review until four-and-a-half hours before the committee began. Those testifying were limited to five minutes to weigh in on all four maps.

Still, Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, says lawmakers welcome public input to improve the final map.

"You get the best result when you listen to the people you serve," said Gavarone, who leads a committee reviewing maps.

'It is very fluid'

Ohio lawmakers have proposed four different maps in four different bills. By the end of Nov. 30, they must pass one map in one bill. How they'll get from point A to point B is anyone's guess.

"This is the first time we're going through this process. It is very fluid," said Rep. Shane Wilkin, R-Hillsboro, who leads a committee reviewing maps. "I think I'd be surprised if we've seen The Map."

More: Ohio is using a new process to draw state, congressional districts. Here's how it works

That means lawmakers will revise the proposed maps, hoping to reach a compromise that will satisfy 60% of legislators in each chamber and 33% of Democrats  the threshold needed to enact a map that lasts 10 years. Democrats say they can't support the GOP maps as introduced.

The joint committee  a requirement under voter-approved changes to the state constitution  meets at 10:30 a.m. Friday but is not expected to issue any recommendations or pass a map.

"I don't know what the next steps will be at this point," Gavarone said. "They're still being worked out with the House and the Senate."

Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Split cities, upset Jim Jordan: where Ohio's congressional maps stand
Fox News primetime hosts are mounting a spirited defense of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old who shot and killed two protesters last year at a chaotic demonstration in Wisconsin, as his trial reaches its final stages.

Tucker Carlson, who hosts the networks highest-rated show, has devoted lengthy segments to the teenagers innocence this week.

When legitimate authority refuses to do its... sworn duty, others will fill the vacuum, he said in one of three monologues on the case this week.

But rather than acknowledge that obvious truth and accept the responsibility they bear, the people who made these riots possible in the first place decided instead to crush Kyle Rittenhouse.

In a separate monologue Mr Carlson declared the teenager had already won, and said the prosecution had committed an intentional perversion of justice.

The Five host Greg Gutfeld said Mr Rittenhouse did the right thing by killing two people at the racial justice protest saying the dead men didnt deserve better from him.

People say that Rittenhouse never should have gone to Kenosha. The dead guys shouldnt have gone there either, Mr Gutfeld said.

They should not have been anywhere on a street right? They should have been in jail or in an institution. Kyles victims, the two dead guys, deserved better from the government. But they didnt deserve better from Kyle. He did the right thing, he claimed. He did what the government should have done.

Mr Gutfeld then accused the media of leaving out crucial information about the case adding that all Rittenhouse did was to fill the void that the government left open.

Those two people should never ever should have been out on the streets and it forced citizens to become the police, he added. He also hit out at US president Joe Biden, calling him a bigot, and said that Mr Rittenhouse should sue the president.

Sean Hannity interviewed Mr Rittenhouses mother Wendy on Thursday night, where they discussed a lawsuit the teenager has brought against President Joe Biden claiming he was unfairly cast as a white supremacist.

Story continues

I have yet to see any evidence whatsoever that he is such a person, Mr Hannity said.

Mr Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager whose trial is underway, travelled to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Kenosha last year with a gun after riots erupted as police shot a black man, Jacob Blake. He said he sought to help protect property from unrest on the streets.

He fatally shot two people, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz, in what his attorneys say was an act of defence.

However, prosecutors argue that Mr Rittenhouse was a vigilante who wanted to kill everyone he shot that evening. He now faces charges of multiple counts of homicide and possession of illegal firearms.

Read More

Billionaire says civic hero Kyle Rittenhouse should be acquitted

Next battleground at Rittenhouse trial: Jury instructions

Blow-up at Rittenhouse trial over enlarging photos and video

Rittenhouse judge's nod to veterans includes defense witness

EXPLAINER: Could jury weigh lesser charges for Rittenhouse?

AP News Digest 3:10 am
Mother and Son sitting not the floor surrounded by bills

Getty Images

It was my financial fears that kept me tethered to a miserable marriage, long after it had become unfulfilling. I felt immobilized: I wanted out, but I seriously doubted I could make things work on a single (not to mention paltry, part-time) income.

But fast-forward two decades, and thanks to the incredible gift of hindsight, I now know that transitioning to a single-parent salary is possibleand it's not even that painful. That said, it is a process that requires equal parts patience and prudence. But fear not: you can make half cover it all. Here's how.

The day I finally filed for divorce, I had $1,900 to my name. I made a last-minute plea to HR at the school where I was a part-time tutor, circumventing direct deposit in favor of a paper check, andwith that fistful of cash plus $200 bucks borrowed from a friendsecured a tiny apartment in which to seek refuge from the storm. I know: I'm one of the lucky ones.

I took things one day (one step) at a time. I insisted on "nesting"our kids stayed put in the family home while their dad and I took turns bunking there during our scheduled parenting time. I continued to use our joint credit card for necessities (groceries, gas, and kids' clothing/activities) in the spirit of transparency. Finally, as had been his responsibility prior to our separation, my then-husband continued to pay the household expenses. This left me to pay for, during that initial phase, my own living expenses while not with the kids, as well as my car paymentboth of which my part-time earnings covered. Again, I was lucky.

That said, what I really wish someone had told me pre-divorce (pre-marriage, actually): Being able to sustain yourself financially is not only sexy and trendy; it's important (vital, really). Of course, I had worked full time for yearswhen I was single, with no kids. Surrendering all of my own hard-earned career success when I decided to get married was a terrible mistakeperhaps the worst I've made, save for tossing my birth name out the window without a second thought.

Story continues

Surrendering all of my own hard-earned career success when I decided to get married was a terrible mistake.

My advice for any married person: Make sure you have your own bank account. Not because you are even necessarily thinking of flying the coopbut because you deserve a modicum of financial independence (and remember: keeping your last name or having separate accounts actually says nothing about the strength of your marriage). Think of it as a what-if-I-get-sick-and-can't-work fund; or my-sister's-in-a-jam-and-needs-to-borrow-cash fund; or my-parents'-estate-is-tied-up-in-probate-and-I-need-to-pay-their-lawyer fund. Maintaining your own bank account is the responsible way to recognize the myriad financial fiascos that can (and will likely) arise and which you deserve to tackle solo if you so choose. Hell, use this fund to buy surprise gifts for your partner. It's not sneaky; it's prudent.

Next, on to credit cards. I was part of a hetero-normative, gender-conforming relationship for more than two decades. All the credit cards were in my name becauseyou guessed it!my husband was too busy being our family's sole wage earner to complete such menial tasks, so I simply added him to my already existing accounts as an authorized user (who, when reading the fine print, is not liable for repayment). In this day and age, it's far better to go the joint cardholder route, where both parties are equally liable for repaying any purchases, interest, and fees.

As my now-ex and I slid into phase two, which equated to hashing out a divorce agreement with the help of two lawyers and a handful of court appearances, I learned loads about the myriad statutes that are in place to aid individuals in my shoes. And I learned these lessons the hard way; had I known about this web of nets and loopholes, I'd have likely filed for divorce far soonerand made fewer poor decisions in the process.

Aside from my own top two tips for marriage itself (the aforementioned: maintain your own bank account but opt for joint credit cards), ahead is an actual attorney's advice for any parent considering, prepping for, or going through a divorce and all the financial untangling it requires.

Know that courts are bound by precedent.

This, in layman's terms, means that "most courts are given the mandate to look at the accustomed standard of living during the marriage," family law attorney Robin Lalley of Sodoma Law York tells Parents. Precedent runs the gamut from finances to child care arrangements and myriad issues in between.

Best rule of thumb? "It's important to try to maintain that [pre-separation] standard of living as much as possible," cautions Lalley who cites options ranging from "taking out a personal loan to meet expenses in the interim, or trying to push for the quickest court date possible to set spousal support." Educate yourself about precedent, as the term will affect everything that transpires once the divorce ball is set in motion.

Don't act rashly.

Lalley encourages clients against making "any big moveslike paying off larger debtsunless it makes sense to their particular case." This advice extends far beyond finances: If your primary responsibility has historically been caring for children, and your partner has been the primary (or only) wage-earner, do not alter things unnecessarily. This arrangement cannot be ignored in court (and will likely be taken into consideration when determining both child support and custody).

Avoid indirect payments "in lieu" of child support.

According to Lalley, "the best way to receive child support is [via] monthly/periodic direct payments from one spouse to the other." Furthermore, prior to entering into any separation agreement, ask your attorney to advocate on your behalf to ensure that "support terms will aid in helping with refinance or the future purchase of a home," suggests Lalley. Most mortgage lenders and financial institutions want to see a history of, "fixed monthly payments for an extended period of time"and not having these parameters in place "may prove to hurt a person's ability to refinance or qualify for a mortgage."

Keep a transparent record of expenses.

Lalley acknowledges that "for the average case, there is not enough money to support two households the way that one was supported." That said, while the money may not be there, of course you still need basic necessities like groceries and gaseven if this means using a joint credit card to cover the costs.

Unless you are suddenly binge-buying Prada shoes and Gucci bags, the prior standard of living is "weigh[ed] against a dependent spouse's actual needs and expenses." In most cases, both parties will be responsible for splitting any outstanding credit card debt accrued prior to the official date of divorce (ie: during that limbo separation period when you can't imagine swinging it solo to cover the bills).

Do your homework with regard to separation and divorce laws in your state.

Many states are specifically "no-fault" divorce states, explained by Lalley as, "[one doesn't] have to have grounds to file for divorce or to seek claims through the court related to custody, support, and property division."

Most divorces, which seek a final judgment of divorce, are based on meeting the applicable period of separation. In states such as South Carolina (where Lalley practices)that require a one-year separation prior to divorce"[one] can seek other relief [in the interim], such as temporary and permanent spousal support, as soon as physically separated."

As fault or marital misconduct may come into play to bolster claims, or to help you seek a divorce settlement sooner, a bit of proactive research will let you know what lies ahead.

Related: 5 Things Parents Should Do When Separating From a Partner

I'm fairly certain my ex and I were rooted in the land of lack: We breathed our fear of not having enough right into reality. Since going solo, almost all of the financial worry has evaporatedthanks to super-long work days when I don't have my kids, a paltry amount of child support when I do, plus tons of positivity and creativity (not to mention, on many days, fewer humans to feed, transport, and leave the lights on, which does have its financial upside).

So fear not: Your decision to get married, to be a stay-at-home parent, and to then get divorced does not mean you are destined for financial failure. For me, it wasn't getting divorced that threatened to crush me; rather, it was the series of rash decisions I made prior. Just take it one dayand dollarat a time.
Irelands players have been given the all-clear to face New Zealand on Saturday after a potential positive case of coronavirus proved to be a false alarm.

Andy Farrells entire squad and management team underwent additional PCR testing on Friday following the news that one player had returned a positive result.

The individual and an identified close contact were immediately isolated before further examinations were carried out.

 PCR Testing carried out earlier today of the Ireland Squad and Management Team has produced no positive Covid-19 results. The Ireland Match Day 23 will line out tomorrow as named earlier this week.#TeamOfUs | #IREvNZL  Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) November 12, 2021

He subsequently returned two negative tests and has been given permission by public health officials to face the All Blacks at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Ireland will therefore stick with the 23-man squad announced by head coach Farrell on Thursday.

The individual who produced a positive test has subsequently had two PCR tests at two separate labs, returning negative results on both, read a statement from the Irish Rugby Football Union.

The player and the identified close contact have been cleared by public health and the tournament organisers to take their places in the matchday squad.

England captain Owen Farrell missed a game due to a false positive (Andrew Matthews/PA)

England captain Owen Farrell  son of Ireland coach Andy  last week missed his countrys win over Tonga following a positive result which later turned out to be false.

Ireland had placed back-up players on standby for the visit of the Kiwis and were prepared to tweak their line-up if required.

Yet defence coach Simon Easterby said during his Friday afternoon press conference that there was no danger of the fixture being cancelled.

Story continues

Confirmation the Irish would not be forced into personnel changes came around seven-and-a-half hours after news of the potential positive was first announced.

Easterby backed the squad to handle the disruption and not use it as an excuse.

Defence coach Simon Easterby has urged Irelands players not to be distracted by Fridays events (Donall Farmer/PA)

The important thing is we stay focused and dont allow the little things that happen derail us, that we stay focused, he said.

I think the players have learned to cope with it over the past two years, theyve been through those moments with the provinces, theres been hiccups along the way in different environments and theyre dealing with it really well.

Its one of those challenges that may come up in stages over the next couple of years and this is just another one of those we have to adapt to and make sure we dont use it as an excuse.

Ireland, who thumped Japan 60-5 last weekend, have tasted just two victories in 32 previous meetings with the All Blacks.

Ian Fosters free-scoring Kiwis have won 12 of 13 fixtures in 2021 and set world records for most Test tries (96) and points (675) in a calendar year.

If it wasnt challenging already, it gets more challenging when you deal with certain things that are outside your control, added Easterby.

But, I guess thats part of the challenge, the game certainly wont run all our way, it wont run smoothly all the time.

Weve had a couple of potholes in the road today.

Ireland complete their autumn campaign at home to Argentina a week on Sunday.
Eve Thomas, the first woman to become chief of the Knoxville Police Department, announced Friday she plans to retire May 1. The decision will give the department an opportunity for a fresh start after two tumultuous summers.

Hired by the department in 1993, Thomas was later selected to replace Chief David Rausch by former Mayor Madeline Rogero in 2018 after Rausch was tapped to lead the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

During a news conference Friday morning, Mayor Indya Kincannon recalled being told when she was elected that her relationship with the police chief was the most important she would have as mayor. That has been true, she said, and it's a relationship cultivated through weekly meetings and constant communication.

The relationship has been tested the past two years as a skyrocketing homicide rate and crippling internal investigations roiled the department, but both Kincannon and Thomas spoke glowingly about each other Friday. Thomas' impact will benefit the city for decades, Kincannon said.

"I am honored that she agreed to stay on as chief for my first two years as mayor and I appreciated her incredible service to me and to the people Knoxville," she said.

Thomas' leadership has been sharply criticized both from within and outside the department. In a Knox News investigative report published this summer, six current and former police officers said the department has failed to address a culture of racism that extends into the command structure.

The department has been criticized by the greater community for its handling of a stretch of gun violence that has claimed the lives of six Austin-East Magnet High School student this year, as well as two other teens. The year is on track to be one of the most violent periods in the city's modern history.

Demonstrations erupted this spring after a Knoxville police officer shot and killed 17-year-old Anthony Thompson Jr. in an Austin-East Magnet High School bathroom.

Story continues

Knoxville Police Chief Eve Thomas announces her retirement during a press conference at the City-County Building in downtown Knoxville on Friday.

Thomas announced her retirement to department staffers in an email Friday morning. It was followed by an email from Kincannon to city employees.

"I wanted to be the first to tell you that today, with great sadness and gratitude, I am announcing my retirement as chief of police," Thomas wrote. "It has been an honor of a lifetime to call myself a KPD officer for the better part of the last 30 years."

At a press conference in the City-County Building, Thomas, composed as always, said her decision had been coming for a while. She acknowledged the past two years have been challenging  as they have for police across the nation, she said  but those challenges werent the central reason behind her decision to leave.

The combination of nearing 30 years on the force, the new Public Safety Complex under construction and a feeling that a new leader could look at challenges differently made the decision easier.

Without offering specifics, Thomas said shed like to see the completion of a couple of internal affair cases before she retires. Two possibilities include investigations into the death of Thompson and the paid suspension of Deputy Chief Ron Green, one of the highest ranking KPD members.

I want to make sure the next chief has a fresh start, she said.

Along with public input, Thomas will help the city find her successor, Kincannon said.

Violence continues to rise

Knoxville has been rocked by an increase in gun violence the past 18 months as the pandemic took hold in 2020. There were 37 homicides, all shootings, reported within city limits in 2020, the highest annual figure in modern history.

The deaths this year includes a surge of violence against teenagers  particularly Black teenagers on the city's east side  and police have proven ineffective at stopping or solving the shootings.

Thompson Jr. died April 12 at Austin-East when police arrived after receiving a report that a student was possibly armed with a gun. They found Thompson in a bathroom and struggled with him. Thompson's gun, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said, was fired once, but did not strike a police officer. Police shot twice after Thompson's gun was fired, and one bullet struck and killed him.

Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon listens to Police Chief Eve Thomas during a press conference at the City-County Building in downtown Knoxville. The two had weekly meetings and were in regular contact amid an uptick in violence over the past two years.

The investigation revealed one officer shot a school resource officer during the scuffle.

More: A timeline of the five Knoxville teenagers who have been lost to gun violence in 2021

The shooting deaths have become the rallying cry for community members pushing for an end to gun violence and police reform in recent months.

Thomas career

Thomas worked her way through the ranks. She started policing in Knoxville in 1993, and was promoted to sergeant, and then lieutenant. As a lieutenant, her responsibilities included overseeing the Crisis Negotiation Unit, the Special Operations Squad, the K-9 Unit, and the Search and Recovery Team. In November 2011, she was promoted to captain, overseeing the department's school resource officers and later the Patrol Division's East District.

In February 2018 she was named deputy chief over the Criminal Investigation Division and four months later tapped to succeed Rausch.

While working as a captain overseeing the East District, Thomas and two other supervisors received verbal reprimands for initially failing to uncover the use of excessive force when three officers beat a mentally ill homeless man in North Knoxville in February 2013. The officers ultimately pleaded guilty to assault and official oppression.

Thomas later admitted she'd approved a report on the case without reviewing all the officers' dashcam videos.

In early 2020 Thomas was disciplined again, this time with verbal counseling for failing to immediately disclose sexual harassment and misconduct allegations to the city Law Department and Civil Service Department.

The allegations came to light in July 2019 through Knox News reporting about a series of corroborated audio and video recordings detailing lewd behavior by officers. The allegations were laid out in an internal complaint by Lt. Travis Brasfield, who filed a complaint that asserts top police officials tried to sweep misconduct under the rug. In all, Knox News published 14 stories about police misconduct and the investigation.

"I dont believe that theres any idea that this is OK," Thomas said last year at a press conference announcing the investigations end. "I think people make mistakes. Our mistakes are very public, where in other professions they are not public. ... We hire from the human race, as my predecessor (David Rausch) said.

Last month the Knoxville City Council approved a request from Thomas to create a new assistant police chief position that, she said, would give her room to improve the department's culture. The assistant chief, who has not yet been named, will be second in command at the department.

Thomas said shes made known her wishes for someone on staff to be named assistant chief, but the person has yet to commit to the role. Regardless, it will be the next police chiefs decision on whether to keep this person, she said.

Thomas oversaw developments at KPD, too. After the police shooting death of Channara "Philly" Pheap in August 2019, the cry for a department to equip all officers with body cameras grew louder. Thomas, a longtime supporter of body cameras, agreed and by this spring all uniformed officers were outfitted.

She pushed for the departments first co-responder officer, one who is paired with a social worker and largely handles mental health crises. That program has since expanded.

Thomas also led the department through transition as the city committed to a new $70 million Public Safety Complex on the site of the old St. Mary's Hospital in North Knoxville that is set to open next summer.

Her salary is $168,531.06. The city said it will conduct a nationwide search for her successor.

In a way, Thomas said, she feels as if shes abandoning her officers. After working to install officer support programming as chief, she said shed like to continue to help with it in retirement.

I want to make sure that my officers are supported and feel that (support) as well, she said.

Tyler Whetstone is a Knox News politics reporter focusing on Knoxville and Knox County.

Connect with Tyler: Twitter | Email

Make our community, our society and our republic stronger by supporting robust local journalism. Subscribe online at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville Police Chief Eve Thomas announces retirement in 2022
Students at a Georgia elementary school mourn the loss of a teacher whose body was found in Mexico after she had been missing since last month.

According to 11Alive, authorities announced Alexandra Morales was found dead in Mexico on Tuesday. She was last seen Oct. 30 in Zapopan, Mexico, and the circumstances surrounding her death remain unclear.

USA TODAY was unable to reach Mexican Embassy officials for comment.

Morales, 24, was a first grade teacher at Benefield Elementary School in Lawrenceville, Georgia. The principal sent an email to students and parents/guardians notifying them of her death, CBS 46 reported.

My heart sank, Maria Palacios, a parent at the school, told the outlet. She was so natural at it, and the kids loved her. They had so much fun.

Palacios said it was difficult to explain to her 6-year-old that her teacher had died.

Before I could get the words out, my daughter was crying already, she said. I had to respond, explaining what it means to not come back, that Ms. Morales was not coming back.

Morales had been employed with the school since 2019 and took personal leave before her trip to Mexico, according to a letter sent to families and staff seen by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She was supposed to return last week.

A GoFundMe set up to help Morales' family raised more than $20,000 in two days.

USA TODAY was unable to reach the GoFundMe campaign organizer for comment.

"Alexa Morales made a beautiful impact in this world and we will carry her memory in our hearts forever," the organizer wrote.

Follow reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha. Email: agilbert@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Missing Georgia elementary teacher found dead in Mexico, reports say
The unstaffed Missouri Department of Conservation shooting range has been closed since July 23.

A popular public shooting range has been closed for several months and its future is in jeopardy.

Pleasant Hope Conservation Area will remain closed due to rules violations and population growth, officials say. Needed upgrades are also currently being discussed, but may not happen at all.

The unstaffed Missouri Department of Conservation shooting range has been closed since July 23.

MDC's Education Section Chief Kyle Lairmore told the News-Leader via email that some of the common rules visitors violated included:

A requirement that users only shoot from shooting benches and never in front of the firing line;

Using only paper targets attached to the target holders provided;

The use of single projectiles only (no shot) on the rifle/handgun range;

No rapid fire, with at least three seconds between each shot.

The site evaluation called for significant upgrades in order to maintain safe operation, MDC shooting range coordinator Justin McGuire said.

"Unfortunately, those upgrades just arent possible in its current location, McGuire said. "In this case, adding side berms and raising the height of the backstop require a much larger footprint than the space that is currently available."

Each alteration also would have to fit into the larger picture of trails, hunting activities and private residences in neighboring areas, according to McGuire.

"Therefore, we are going to explore other options to see if there is a better location to build an unstaffed shooting range for the public to use," McGuire added.

At this time, there is no set timeline on next steps or when decisions will be made on future locations.

In documents requested by the News-Leader, MDC Regional Administrator Max Alleger outlined those options following a site evaluation Aug. 5. With a series of slides, Alleger laid out the current situation and alternative solutions to bring the range up to standards.

"However, not all these options are seen as feasible due to the 'foot-print' needed to meet standards within the confines of the topography, elevation, and current access road location," Alleger stated in the report.

Story continues

There are also environmental concerns with designing a new or modified range facility, according to the evaluation report.

"One is the unknown process and cost of lead remediation," Alleger stated. "The other concern is a design to avoid major issues with the intermittent stream which runs along the 100 yard and 25-yard range."

More: Outlook for Missouri firearms deer season is good. Here's what hunters should keep in mind.

More: Pleasant Hope man makes modern elk hunting history

At this time, there is no set timeline for next steps or when decisions will be made on future locations.

We dont want to give people a timeline when we, quite honestly, dont know how long it will take to explore all the options, McGuire said. I know its not the answer the users of the Pleasant Hope Range want to hear, but for now, all we can say is that we apologize for the inconveniences the closure of the range is causing and we appreciate everyones patience.

What do those options look like?

There are also environmental concerns with designing a new or modified range facility, according to the evaluation report.

There are options being considered, but a new plan would require engineering design before final decisions could be made, Alleger said in his evaluation report.

The first three options would be to shift the current configuration of the range by raising or lengthening the berms. All would require "extensive excavation" along with relocating the access road.

"All of these do not seem feasible to the group without major renovations, cultural (and) environmental reviews, and likely associated permits," Alleger stated.

The fourth option would be to reverse the direction of the range.

The site evaluation called for significant upgrades in order to maintain its safe operation.

"This would require major renovations and has very concerning area user conflicts since the new downrange impact area would encompass the north access road as well as segments of the multi-use trail system used by horseback riders, hikers, and hunters," Alleger said in his report.

The fifth option would keep the range open but reduce the size of the range from a multi-distance range of 25 yards and 100 yards to a single-distance range of 50 yards. This would be done by shifting the range to the north, into what is now the parking area.

More: Sisters, 14 and 12, land bucks in Dade County during the early youth portion of deer season

More: Outdoors reporter finds goats on 'a-grazing' vegetation duty along Frisco Highline Trail

"This alternative could allow the needed berms to be constructed between the access road and the stream running parallel to the right berm," Alleger stated. "At present this appears to be the most viable option to allow continued use of the range. However, engineering design will be needed before selection of this or other alternatives."

The final option would permanently close and remove all shooting range infrastructure. If taken, this route would likely mean closing the access road to eliminate or reduce unauthorized use.

"If only the shotgun/trap range is left open, it would only complicate the use of that range for unsafe discharge of rifle/pistol ammunition without the proper backstops and berms in place," Alleger said. "This option would of course meet great resistance from the public. There are no other shooting ranges within reasonable driving distance for many of these area users, with Andy Dalton Shooting Range being the closest range."

People wanting to shoot in this area can use other unstaffed shooting ranges MDC operates across the state, including Lead Mine Conservation Area in Dallas County, Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area in Christian County, Flag Spring Conservation Area in Barry County, and Fort Crowder Conservation Area in Newton County.

The Andy Dalton Shooting Range and Outdoor Education Center in Greene County is one of five staffed shooting ranges MDC operates in the state. Information about MDCs staffed and unstaffed shooting ranges in the state can be found at: https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/find/places/mdc-ranges.

Sara Karnes is an Outdoors Reporter with the Springfield News-Leader. Follow along with her adventures on Twitter and Instagram @Sara_Karnes. Got a story to tell? Email her at skarnes@springfi.gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Pleasant Hope shooting range remains closed, no timeline yet to reopen
PRINCE GEORGE  County Administrator Percy Ashcraft is resigning the position he has held since 2011 to take a similar post with King William County in eastern Virginia.

Board Chairman Floyd Brown Jr. confirmed for The Progress-Index Friday afternoon that Ashcraft turned in his papers earlier this week. Brown said Ashcraft called him Monday night to inform him of the decision and told county staff of his decision Tuesday morning. Brown said a news release officially announcing Ashcraft's resignation was expected to be released next Monday.

Percy Ashcraft, shown in this undated photo, is a former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates who came to Prince George in 2011 from Caroline County, Virginia, where he was county administrator.

Ashcraft's last day in Prince George will be Dec. 3.

"While I know I will miss him, I have to support his decision," Brown said of Ashcraft. Brown said Ashcraft "had an extremely good hand" on how to manage the county through some of the changes in its economic base over the past decade.

"I'll miss that personable experience, and I will miss the knowledge he has," Brown said.

Brown said the Board of Supervisors will hold a special closed session Wednesday night to decide on Ashcraft's interim replacement and start the process for searching for a permanent replacement.

Ashcraft, a West Virginia native who spent 11 years in the West Virginia House of Delegates, came to Prince George in 2011 from Caroline County where he was county administrator for more than 11 years. He also was a former city manager in his hometown of Clarksburg, West Virginia for four years.

King William County has a population of about 18,000 people, which is less than half the total in Prince George.

In King William, Ashcraft inherits a position that has been held on an interim basis since last February. According to a report by the Daily Press of Newport News, the previous administrator, Bobbie Tassinari, abruptly resigned after learning that a county supervisor and King William's commission of the revenue withheld information pertaining to the county's tax reassessment process for 2021 from the company hired to perform it. The commissioner of the revenue resigned in November 2020.

Story continues

According to the newspaper, King William has had a rash of top-level personnel resign in the last year. Tassinari was the fifth to give her notice, following the commissioner of the revenue, the treasurer and interim treasurer, and a member of the county School Board.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is daily news coach for USA TODAY's Southeast Region-Unified Central, which includes Virginia, West Virginia and central North Carolina. He is based in Petersburg, Virginia. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Prince George county administrator resigns to take King William post
Alicia Marie McCormick was arrested Thursday after she was spotted at a bail bond office, said Yakima police Capt. Jay Seely. At the time of her arrest, she was out on bail on an unrelated charge of felony harassment and unlawful firearms possession, according to court documents.
Over the past year, Yakima Herald-Republic has been checking in with Dr. Roy Simms of Community Health of Central Washington, who has been a pediatrician for 40 years. He discussed the recently approved pediatric COVID vaccine, its safety and what advice he has for parents.
PARIS (AP)  Libyan leaders reaffirmed Friday in Paris their commitment to ensure the success of the countrys political process through long-awaited elections next month, a vote that world powers hope will pull the oil-rich North African nation out of its decade-old chaos.

France hosted an international conference on Libya in the presence of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and other international and regional high-level officials.

In a statement, participants expressed their support to holding free, fair, inclusive and credible presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 24.

We reiterate our commitment to the success of the Libyan political process, they said and added they reject all foreign interferences in Libyan affairs.

The participants also called for the withdrawal of mercenaries and foreign forces from Libya, a s stipulated in last years U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended fighting between the country's rival factions.

The Paris declaration comes a day after the forces headed by powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter pledged to initiate the withdrawal of the first batch of foreign fighters from areas they control. The group is expected to include 300 fighters who will return to their home countries under the supervision of the U.N. mission in Libya, the statement said.

This is only a start, Turkey and Russia must withdraw without delay their mercenaries, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

Libya's interim leaders, Mohammad Younes Menfi, head of the presidential council and Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, co-presided over the conference with France Italy and Germany.

Dbeibah stressed the importance of putting in place "real guarantees of the acceptance of the results of these elections, and for there to be penalties for those who obstruct or refuse these results.

Libya has been engulfed in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The country was for years split between rival governments  one based in the capital, Tripoli, and the other in the eastern part of the country. Each side is backed by different foreign powers and militias.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a video message said that Libya today is closer than it has been for many years to solving its internal crisis."

We cannot miss this opportunity," he added, warning that any party that deliberately undermines or sabotages peace must be held accountable.

Italys Draghi called for an electoral law to be passed urgently to ensure that the election process is fair. There needs to be an electoral law that ... must be passed in the next few days because its urgent if you are going to hold elections on Dec. 24th, he said at a news conference.

The long-awaited vote still faces challenges, including unresolved issues over election laws and occasional infighting among armed groups. Other obstacles include the deep rift that remains between the countrys east and west and the presence of thousands of foreign fighters and troops. The U.N. has estimated that there have been at least 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya over the past few years, including Russians, Syrians, Turkish, Sudanese, and Chadians.

A leading rights group questioned Thursday whether Libyan authorities can hold free and fair elections. Human Rights Watch criticized what it said were Libyas restrictive laws that undermine freedom of speech and association, as well as the presence of armed groups accused of intimidating, attacking and detaining journalists and political activists.

The main questions leaders at the summit should ask are: can Libyan authorities ensure an environment free of coercion, discrimination, and intimidation of voters, candidates, and political parties? it said in a statement.

In July, the U.N. special envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, accused spoilers of trying to obstruct the vote to unify the divided nation. The Security Council has warned that any individual or group undermining the electoral process could face U.N. sanctions.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week that the U.N. mission wants to see an election which the Libyan people can believe in, that is credible, and that is in line with the past agreements.

Politicians and warlords in western Libya issued statements this week opposing holding the vote according to the laws ratified by the countrys east-based parliament. Khaled al-Meshri, head of Tripoli-based Supreme Council of State, went further and threatened in televised comments to resort to violence to prevent Hifter, a potential frontrunner in the presidential race, from taking office if he is elected.

Libyas civil war escalated in 2019, as Hifter, who commands the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces, launched an offensive to take Tripoli from armed militias loosely allied with the then U.N.-supported but weak government in the countrys capital.

Hifter, allied with an east-based administration, was backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and France. However, his 14-month campaign and march on Tripoli ultimately failed in June 2020, after Qatar and Turkey intensified their military support for the government in Tripoli, with the latter sending mercenaries and troops to help shore up western Libya militias.



Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Maggie Hyde in Cairo and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Greensboro, NC (27407)

Today

Showers in the morning, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. High 56F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Hard freeze expected. Low 28F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
If you watch enough old movies, you know that there are two types of bank robberies. The fir
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.
The Indian delegation got home-cooked meals dinners during the conference, provided by a restaurateur who runs curry houses across Britain. Vegetarian curries served with Indian flatbreads called chapatti were usually on the menu.

The conferences cafes offer egg mayonnaise sandwiches, chicken mayonnaise sandwiches, and pork and pickle sandwiches, all on soft white bread. In two weeks, the words I love this sandwich have never been overheard.

The past few days have been a flurry of bilateral meetings for the Indian minister, Bhupender Yadav, and his top officials.

Some members of the delegation planned to return Saturday to India, where there are other challenges to tackle:, not least New Delhis annual surge in air pollution that leaves its inhabitants gasping. But the core team, including the minister and top bureaucrats, are set to fly out Sunday.

As the conference neared its end  it was scheduled to close on Friday evening, but went into overtime  there was hour after hour of negotiation over what what from the outside could seem like the nit-pickiest of wording issues for the final agreement. Urges vs. requests was one raging debate Friday.
Chennai: While large parts of Chennai limping back to normalcy after being battered by over 50cms of rainfall over the last six days, rescue and relief operations continue across the inundated regions in the adjoining districts.

As Civic authorities and their teams scramble to drain and pump out water from waterlogged areas across Chennai city, many parts of the city and its adjoining districts remain severely waterlogged. 13 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams that are stationed across the region continue to be in action and are facilitating rescue and relief operations.

From carrying out a recce of high-risk areas and water bodies, ahead of the rains to mitigating the aftereffects of the showers. NDRF teams were active on the ground, planning, coordinating and carrying out rescue and relief operations. Residential areas Adyar, Tambaram and Perumbakkam were among the inundation-vulnerable residential areas that were being closely monitored and later attended to by the Force.

Videos and pictures from these localities showed NDRF personnel sawing and clearing fallen trees, evacuating people.

@NDRFHQ and how they're the unsung heroes of this entire #ChennaiRains2021 Thank you for all you do for us A thread of pics and videos of their efforts across Northern TN: 1. Teams conducting recce at vulnerable areas, to plan their response (Tuesday) pic.twitter.com/PzOWoPQzmZ  Sidharth.M.P (@sdhrthmp) November 12, 2021

On Thursday afternoon, amid intermittent showers and strong winds, an NDRF team was rushed to Thiruporur, in the outskirts of Chennai. They were tasked with rescuing three electricity board personnel who were stuck atop a power transmission tower, amid adverse weather conditions.

ALSO READ | Will Chennai see more rains today? Check IMD's weather forecast for Tamil Nadu, Telangana

The tower, where the personnel had been stranded was surrounded by water. Using a rubberized boat with an onboard motor, the team approached the tower, climbed atop the tower and also helped the stranded persons alight and took them to safety.

Throughout Friday, NDRF teams spread out across Kanchipuram, Chengalpet and Tiruvallur had been distributing hundreds of food and milk packets to those stranded at their homes, owing to heavy water logging. Those in need of rescue and evacuation, at locations with up to hip-deep water, were taken to safety via boats. At locations such as Ponneri, Mudichur, Varadharajapuram, families including infants and senior citizens were being escorted to safety via boats.

In some places where there was flowing water, NDRF aided the safe passage of people and cattle. As many Chennaiites are stepping out of their homes and feeling relieved that the worst might be over, the NDRF tirelessly goes about their work, until the last person is escorted to safety.

Live TV
New Delhi: Johnson & Johnson is splitting into two companies, separating the division that sells Band-Aids and Listerine, from its medical device and prescription drug business.

The company selling prescription drugs and medical devices will keep Johnson & Johnson as its name, the company said Friday.

The new consumer health company will house brands including Neutrogena, Aveeno, Tylenol, Listerine, Johnson's, and Band-Aid.

A name was not disclosed for the new company.

Details are sparse, but the company expect the split to occur in the next two years. Also Read: Rakesh Jhunjhunwala Portfolio: Big Bull bullish on THIS stock, should you invest?

The announcement comes just days after General Electric said that it plans to split into three separate companies. Also Read: Retail sales up 34% in October; jewellery, Apparel segments make recovery: Retailers Association of India
New Delhi: In a significant move, the Reserve Bank on Friday tightened the norms for recognition of dud assets and directed lenders not to standardise an NPA account after getting only interest payment as well as to mandatorily mention the due dates along with details of interest and principal amounts.

The monetary authority has from time to time been issuing new/revised norms on dud asset classification as system-wide NPAs began to balloon.

Issuing some clarifications to all the extant provisions and including the ones issued on October 1, 2021, on the prudential norms on income recognition, asset classification and provisioning pertaining to advances (IRACP), the RBI asked banks not to upgrade an NPA account after getting only interest dues paid.

It has been observed that some lending institutions upgrade accounts classified as NPAs to standard accounts on payment of only interest overdue, partial overdue, etc. To avoid any ambiguity in this regard, it is clarified that loan accounts classified as NPAs may be upgraded as a standard account only if the entire arrears of interest and principal are paid by the borrower, the apex bank said in the revised notification this evening.

Lenders have also been asked to specifically mention in the loan agreements the exact due date of a loan and the breakup of the principal and interest, among others, instead of giving a description of the due dates, which leaves scope for interpretation.

Henceforth, all lenders have to clearly mention the exact due dates for repayment, frequency of repayment, break up between the principal and interest, examples of SMA/NPA classification dates etc, it said.

All these should be clearly specified in the loan agreement and the borrower shall be apprised of the same at the time of loan sanction and also at the time of subsequent changes if any, and till full repayment of the loan is done, the RBI said, adding this will be applicable immediately for new loans or before December 31, 2021, and for the existing loan as and when changes occur.

In cases of a loan under moratorium, the exact date of commencement of repayment shall also be specified in the loan agreements, it added.

Sticking to its due by the end of the day/one-day default norms, which has given many large borrowers heartburns, RBI further clarified that an account shall be flagged as overdue as part of the lender's day-end processes for the due date, irrespective of the time of running such processes, reiterating that all extant IRACP norms specify that an amount must be treated as overdue if it's not paid on the due date fixed by the lender.

Similarly, classification of an account as SMA (special mention account) as well as NPA (non-performing assets) shall be done as part of the day-end process and the SMA/NPA classification date shall be the calendar date for which the day-end process is run.

Stated differently, the date of SMA/NPA shall reflect the asset classification status of an account at the day-end of that calendar date, the regulator stressed.

The monetary authority further said these changes are being made to ensure that the IRACP norms are uniformly implemented across all lending institutions and are applicable mutatis mutandis (making necessary changes on a case to case basis but not affecting the main points) to all lending institutions.

On NPA classification, it said the lender must recognise incipient stress in a borrower account, immediately on default, by classifying it as SMA. Without any ambiguity, it clarified that the intervals are intended to be continuous and accordingly, loans other than revolving facilities like cash credit/overdraft will become SMA if the principal or interest payment or any other amount wholly or partly become overdue or if the outstanding balance remains continuously in excess of the sanctioned limit or drawing power, whichever is lower, for 0-30 days as SMA, for 30-60 days as SMA-1 and over 60-90 days as SMA2/NPAs.

Stated differently, the date of SMA/NPA shall reflect the asset classification status of an account at the day-end of that calendar date.

For instance, if the due date is March 31, and full dues are not received before the day-end process, the date of overdue shall be March 31.

If it continues to remain overdue, then this account shall get tagged as SMA-1 on running the day-end process on April 30, on completion of 30 days of being continuously overdue.

Accordingly, the date of SMA-1 classification for that account shall be April 30. Similarly, if the account continues to remain overdue, it shall get tagged as SMA2 on running day-end process on May 30 and if continued to remain overdue further, it shall get classified as NPA on running day-end process on June 29.

However, for NBFCs, 90-days for SMA-2/NPA classification may be read according to the applicable norms.

The central bank has clarified that the instructions on SMA classification are applicable to all loans, including retail loans (excluding the Agri loans governed by crop season-based asset classification norms), irrespective of the size of exposure of the lending institution.

The RBI said from March 31, 2022, in case of interest payments in respect of term loans, an account will be classified as NPA if the interest applied at specified rests remains overdue for over 90 days. If a borrower account becomes overdue on or after March 31, 2022, its classification as NPA shall be based on the account being overdue for over 90 days. Also Read: Greater Noida Authority to conduct another round of talks between builders, home buyers, check meeting dates

On the upgrading of accounts classified as NPAs, it said a loan account classified as NPAs can be upgraded as standard only if the entire arrears of interest and principal are repaid. But those accounts classified as NPA due to restructuring, or non-achievement of the date of commencement of commercial operations, etc, extant provisions shall continue. Also Read: Instagram creators, Alert! App is paying Rs 7.4 lakh bonus for posting Reels, check details

Live TV

#mute
Most of the people you meet in life suffer from "Giving Up" syndrome. To give up without achieving the goal means to give up your goal in the middle. Almost every person has some or the other goal in life, but there are only a few of them who are able to reach their goal. Anyone who reaches their goal is one of the most successful people in the whole life. Now it is said that Atul Agrawal is one of those few people who obstructed the path of success in the beginning, but after working hard, Atul achieved the goal. Today he is also known as Atul Entrepreneur. He is now the CEO of his start-up Atul Tractors store.

Atul Tractors is a Store. Which has all kind of requirements like tractor, machinery and a team of dedicated professionals for all the farmers. Atul Entrepreneur can store hundreds of machinery items at a time. Even the local government there is praising atul very much. And they are seeing huge profits.

Similarly, they are also investing huge amounts. Atul Entrepreneur is the inspiration that our next generation will look forward to. The previous funding he received was also in the form of a B series funding which is a huge funding in itself. There is also an estimate of Atul Agrawal that by the end of the year 2022, his revenue can even cross the figure of 6.

The idea of opening a tractor business and an online business frightens the technical experts to a great extent. Because they have to follow all kinds of rules. Very little profit, as well as whatever loss they have to bear in the beginning. And Atul Entrepreneur is just a startup of its kind. Which started getting good profits within 6 months.

It would never have been possible without the thought of bringing all kinds of essential material under one roof with very heavy baggage and all the dedication shown by the team. And most importantly, it was because of Atul Agrawal that his idea of this outlet was implemented well.

Apart from other old giants, there are many dealership stores inside Chhattisgarh which are actually multinational companies. However, some time back Chhattisgarh got its first setup purely on the basis of every kind of farmer's requirement. Atul Entrepreneur Store is continuously providing the machines and materials and that too within a very short span of time. Everyone is quite surprised that a local dealership is giving a tough competition to the giants. Technically he is a big mastermind of online marketing and also he is the managing director of the company Atul Entrepreneur. Agrawal has also donated a huge amount as a relief to the patients of covid-19 in the country of India. Agarwal has also distributed food and clothes to those stranded and needy due to the lockdown.

Atul Entrepreneur is also a one-stop-shop for the vital needs of all farmers. All farmers can also very well use cash on delivery method or farmers can also easily opt for online payment methods like MasterCard, Amex card, Nexus pay, bKash, VISA and Bank Deposit Once the order is placed they will deliver your order at your doorstep immediately or you can also expect to buy the tractor directly.

Atul Tractors store sell all kinds of essential items, Comes to machines and parts. And they do these things at no extra charge and they are always ready to provide the best services. Even in this covid-19 epidemic, Atul Tractor Store has got the work done without any failure. He has tirelessly provided all kinds of machinery goods and necessities to the public. Now they are motivating more and more people of India to establish a startup of their own.
Hyderabad: Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech on Friday (November 12) announced that the Lancet peer-review confirmed the efficacy analysis of Bharat Biotech`s Covaxin. As per phase-three clinical trials data, Covaxin demonstrates 77.8 per cent efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19.

"COVAXIN is the only COVID-19 vaccine to have demonstrated efficacy data from phase III clinical trials against the delta variant at 65.2 per cent," the official statement issued by Bharat Biotech said citing the study by the Lancet.

"Efficacy analysis demonstrates Covaxin to be 77.8 per cent effective against symptomatic COVID-19, through evaluation of 130 confirmed cases, with 24 observed in the vaccine group versus 106 in the placebo group," said the company`s statement. Further, it said that Covaxin will be 93.4 per cent effective against severe symptomatic COVID-19.

"Safety analysis demonstrates adverse events reported were similar to placebo, with 12 per cent of subjects experiencing commonly known side effects and less than 0.5 per cent of subjects experiencing serious adverse events," it said.

"Efficacy data demonstrates 63.6 per cent protection against asymptomatic COVID-19, 65.2 per cent protection against the SARS-CoV-2, B.1.617.2 Delta and 70.8 per cent protection against all variants of SARS-CoV-2 virus," Bharat Biotech added.

Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Bharat Biotech said, "The data from our product development and clinical trials have been published in 10 peer-reviewed journals, making Covaxin one of the most highly published COVID-19 vaccines in the world," he said.

"I am delighted to see that the phase III efficacy data has also been published in the Lancet. This itself speaks high about the strong position of Covaxin amongst other global front-runners COVID-19 vaccines," Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

"The bench to bedside journey of Covaxin in less than 10 months showcases the immense strength of "Atmanirbhar Bharat" along with the Indian academia and industry in fighting against the odds and carving a niche in the global community," Bhargava added.

Recently, the World Health Organization granted emergency use listing to Covaxin enabling countries to expedite their regulatory approval to import and administer doses.

It has also received emergency use authorizations in several countries with applications in process in more than 50 countries worldwide, the statement added.

Live TV
Washington DC: In yet another immigration-friendly move, the Biden administration has agreed to provide automatic work authorisation permits to spouses of H-1B visas holders, a step that would benefit thousands of Indian-American women. The settlement in this regard was reached by the Department of Homeland Security in a class-action lawsuit, which was filed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) on behalf of immigrant spouses this summer.

"This (H-4 visa holders) is a group that always met the regulatory test for automatic extension of EADs (employment authorisation documents), but the agency previously prohibited them from that benefit and forced them to wait for reauthorisation. People were suffering. They were losing their high-paying jobs for absolutely no legitimate reason causing harm to them and US businesses," Jon Wasden from AILA said.

The litigation successfully achieved the reversal of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy that prohibited H-4 spouses from benefiting from the automatic extension of their employment authorisation during the pendency of stand-alone EAD applications. "Although this is a giant achievement, the parties' agreement will further result in a massive change in position for the USCIS, which now recognises that L-2 spouses enjoy automatic work authorisation incident to status, meaning these spouses of executive and managers will no longer have to apply for employment authorisation prior to working in the United States," AILA said.

"We are delighted to have reached this agreement, which includes relief for H-4 spouses, through our litigation efforts with Wasden Banias and Steven Brown. It is gratifying that the administration saw that settling the litigation for non-immigrant spouses was something that should be done, and done quickly," said Jesse Bless, AILA director of federal litigation.

The Obama administration had given work authorisation to certain categories of spouses of H-1B visa holders. So far, more than 90,000 H-4 visa holders, a significant majority of whom are Indian-American women, have received work authorisation.

Live TV
Raipur: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel urged the central government to extend the compensation period of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) beyond 2022 by five years on Friday (November 12, 2021). Chhattisgarh CM also asked the Centre to enhance the share given to the state in centrally-sponsored schemes.

Chhattisgarh CM wrote a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and sought financial resources for Chhattisgarh, citing that the state has been grappling with revenue shortfall due to the COVID-19 pandemic and facing difficulties in the smooth operation of public welfare schemes, an official said.

The state governments have limited financial resources. Due to COVID-19, there has been a major decline in the state's revenue in the last two years, as a result of which the state government has been facing immense difficulties in the smooth operation of public welfare schemes, the chief minister stated in the letter.

The state is expected to get Rs 6,500 crore by way of GST compensation from the Centre in the current financial year, but in the next fiscal, this amount will only be given for the first quarter (April-June), which will be around Rs 1,700 crore. No arrangement has been made by the

Centre to compensate the revenue loss of about Rs 5,000 crore to the state," he said.

ALSO READ | Indian Army needs to move BrahMos upto India-China border: Centre to SC in Chardham project case

Baghel in his letter also said that Chhattisgarh will suffer more revenue loss if the compensation is not provided, and seeked extension in the period of GST compensation by five years after 2022.

In 2014-15, the state had received Rs 7,658 crore as Centre's share in the central schemes, while the state share in those schemes was Rs 2,622 crore. The average ratio between the Central and state share was then 75:15, Baghel said.

Chhattisgarh CM further added that however, in 2021-22, the ratio became 64:36, as the Centre's share in central schemes was Rs 9,794 crore, while the state contributed Rs 5,592 crore. There has been an average reduction of 11 percent in the Centre's share, which has increased the financial burden on the state.

Baghel further urged the union minister to sanction Rs 4,140.21 crore collected by the Centre as a penalty from coal miners who were allotted mines in the state.

The Supreme Court in 2014 had cancelled the allocation of 215 coal blocks in the country. As per the order, a penalty of Rs 295 per tonne was imposed on companies that were allotted mines. The companies later deposited the penalty to the Centre. The Chhattisgarh government is entitled to Rs 4,140 crore deposited by companies, who were given mines in the state, to the Centre," the chief minister said.

The chief minister further appealed to the Centre to allow the manufacturing of ethanol from the surplus paddy procured from farmers in the state.

ALSO READ | Hinduism and Hindutva are different, Congress' ideology overshadowed by BJP, RSS: Rahul Gandhi

Due to surplus production of paddy in the state and lack of requisite cooperation from the Central government in its disposal, the state government has to suffer huge losses every year. The state government has signed a memorandum of understating (MoU) with eight private investors for manufacturing ethanol to the tune of over 12 crore litre per annum. For this, the co-operation of the Centre is necessary," he said.

The Food Corporation of India has decided to accept 61.65 lakh MT of 'arwa' rice in the central pool from the state. In the past, the usna rice had been procured. The Centre has been procuring usna rice from other states, Baghel said, seeking that the FCI should allow at least 24 lakh MT usna rice to be accepted from the state.

(With PTI inputs)

Live TV
New Delhi: The air quality in the national capital on Friday morning (November 12) turned very poor with an overall Air Quality Index (AQI) at 360, according to the Ministry of Earth Sciences air quality monitor, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

With unfavourable meteorological conditions aiding the accumulation of pollutants, the air quality of Delhi remains deteriorated with lowering the visibility in several parts of Delhi-NCR.

Green think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said, the longer duration of this year's smog despite relatively windier local conditions might be due to a lack of pollution control measures in the city.

Delhi air quality 'very poor'; Current Air Quality Index (AQI) at 360, as per SAFAR pic.twitter.com/7BI36WKKBr  ANI (@ANI) November 12, 2021

The CSE said the current severe smog episode in Delhi-NCR is expected to last for another day. The ongoing smog episode is a public health emergency, it added.

On Thursday (November 11) Delhi recorded the 24-hourly air quality index (AQI) at 411. Most of the 39 air quality monitoring stations in the national capital recorded air pollution levels in the severe category.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".

According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality forecast agency SAFAR, 3,914 farm fires accounted for 26 per cent of Delhi's PM2.5 pollution on Thursday (November 11).

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday (November 11) wrote another letter to his Union counterpart Bhupender Yadav calling for an emergency meeting with all NCR states to discuss the issue of stubble burning.

He also kicked off a month-long campaign to prevent the open burning of waste and biomass in the city in a bid to further cut down pollution from local sources.

(With agency inputs)

Live TV
New Delhi: The layer of eye-stinging smog lingering over Delhi and the nearby regions thickened on Friday as the Air Quality Index (AQI) reached 780 in Noida in the evening, which is 52 times more polluted than the normal standards as per the World Health Organization (WHO). This lowered the visibility to 200 metres at several places in the region which has been reeling under hazardous pollution levels since early November.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Friday (November 12) discussed the worsening of the Air Quality Index of Delhi, Noida and nearby regions as the cities recorded severe air quality on six of the last eight days after Diwali.

According to the WHO, the average AQI of a city should not exceed 45 in a year, and as per this, there may be only one or two cities in India where the air can be considered good. On Friday evening, Amravati in Andhra Pradesh and Chickballapur in Karnataka were the only cities in India where AQI was good at around 10 pm.

Currently, even the air quality of the hill stations in North India is not up to the mark. The AQI at renowned hill regions, including Nainital and Mussoorie, was also recorded to be ten times worse than the WHO standards. While Shimla was six times worse.

The condition of Delhi and other cities of India is the worst with the air quality being 40 to 50 times more contaminated than the safe category.

The most important thing to mull over is that all the political parties in the nation, in past and in present, fought elections on the issue of electricity, water and roads, with no consideration to air. During the past years, electricity came in, roads were built, the water became available but amid all this air pollution further increased. But now the country needs a party that can promise its citizens clean air.

Earlier last year, during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak the authorities declared lockdown in order to save lives but now when the AQI of cities has reached 999, no one is willing to consider it as an emergency. In the national capital alone, over 55,000 people die every year due to this pollution.

However, the problem of pollution is taken very seriously abroad. Back in 2016, when the AQI of Paris reached 114, the government ordered the citizens to stop the usage of vehicles, shut down the factories and take various improvements measures to reduce pollution. Now the average AQI in Paris is around 35. Another major example is Hong Kong, where the entire area was shut down after the AQI crossed 400 and today the AQI stands around 60.

Thus, whatever is happening in India today is worrying both for the people and for the authorities, and it's time that we as a nation take a step in the right direction.

Live TV
New Delhi: After instances of unscrupulous people issuing fake notices to extort money came to light, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has decided to issue QR-coded and password-bearing summonses during money laundering and foreign exchange violation probes.

The central agency said in order to allow the individuals to verify the authenticity of the summons received by them, a mechanism of generating notices through the system has been made operational. Accordingly, officials of ED have been instructed to issue summons only through the system except in certain exceptional circumstances. It may also be noted that the summons generated from the system shall be duly signed and stamped by the official issuing the summons and shall also contain his/her official email id and the phone number for correspondence purpose, the ED said in an official statement.

The system generated summons shall bear a QR code and a unique Passcode at the bottom of the summons. The receiver of the summons can verify the authenticity of the summons by scanning the QR code printed on the summons and entering the unique Passcode on the website page of ED (which will open after scanning the QR code) after 24 hours of receipt of the same (excluding public holidays, saturdays and sundays), the agency added.

The step comes in the wake of 'conmen' sending summons to individuals with the motive of cheating or extortion. A probe was conducted by ED in these cases. Recently, four people were arrested by Delhi Police, on the basis of a complaint filed by ED, who were involved in issuing fake notice for appearance, impersonating as ED officers, the statement said.

The ED said that the summons which could not be generated through the system can be verified by contacting the designated point of contact over telephone or email.

"The detailed procedure required to be followed for verification of summons including the details of the designated points of contact are available on the official website of the ED," the agency said.

Live TV
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday (November 12) said that his partys loving, affectionate and nationalistic ideology has been overshadowed by BJP and RSSs hateful ideology.

Speaking during a training program of 'Jan Jagran Abhiyan' via video conferencing, Gandhi also pointed out the difference between Hinduism and Hindutva. What is the difference between Hinduism & Hindutva, can they be the same thing? If they're the same thing, why don't they have the same name? They're obviously different things. Is Hinduism about beating a Sikh or a Muslim? Hindutva of course is. ANI quoted Rahul Gandhi as saying.

Further, he said that Congress ideology has been overshadowed because they did not propagate it among our own people aggressively. Today, whether we like it or not the hateful ideology of RSS & BJP has overshadowed the loving, affectionate and nationalistic ideology of Congress Party, we have to accept this. Our ideology is alive, vibrant but it has been overshadowed, the Congress MP stated.

"Our ideology has been overshadowed because we've not propagated it among our own people aggressively," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi added during a training program of 'Jan Jagran Abhiyan' via video conferencing Source: Indian National Congress (INC) pic.twitter.com/66N2oIfUDT  ANI (@ANI) November 12, 2021

Rahul Gandhis remarks come amid controversy that erupted due to a passage in veteran Congress leader Salman Khurshids book 'Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times'. BJP has pulled up Congress and demanded the expulsion of Khurshid from the party for reportedly comparing Hindutva with the jihadist Islam of terrorist groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram in his book.

In a press conference on Thursday, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said Khurshid's book on Ayodhya has hurt "religious sentiments of people". The book by former Union minister Khurshid on the Ayodhya verdict was launched on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a Delhi-based lawyer has filed a complaint with the Delhi Police seeking registration of an FIR against Khurshid on the matter, PTI reported.

(With agency inputs)

Live TV
New Delhi: Trying to allay the concerns of landslides in Himalayan regions due to the construction of the wider Chardham highway project, the Centre has told the Supreme Court that if the Army cannot move its missile launchers, heavy machinery upto the northern India-China border, then how will it defend it and fight a war, if it breaks out.

According to the government's submission before the apex court on Thursday, all necessary steps have been taken to mitigate the disaster and added that landslides have happened in various parts of the country and not specifically due to road construction.

Notably, the strategic 900-km-long Chardham project worth Rs 12,000 crore is being constructed to provide all-weather connectivity to four holy towns -- Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath -- in Uttarakhand.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and Vikram Nath which reserved its verdict on a plea of the Ministry of Defence to modify its earlier order and plea of an NGO 'Citizens for Green Doon' against the widening of the road asked them to file written submissions on the steps taken and to be taken to mitigate landslides in the region.

Appearing for Centre, Attorney General KK Venugopal is quoted as saying by PTI, "These are inhospitable terrains where Army needs to move heavy vehicles, machineries, weapons, missiles, tanks, troops and food supplies. Our Brahmos missile is 42 feet long and needs large vehicles to carry its launchers. If the Army cannot move its missile launchers and machineries upto the northern China border, then how will it fight a war, if it breaks out?."

The AG is further said, "God forbid if the war breaks out then how will the Army deal with it if it does not have its weapons. We have to be careful and on guard. We are to remain prepared. Our Defence Minister attended Indian Road Congress and had said that the Army needs disaster-resilient roads".

Venugopal said that appropriate studies have been undertaken including geological surveys, morphology, and human activities in the vulnerable areas and steps like slope stabilisation, afforestation, scientific muck disposal have been undertaken.

"Landslides can happen anywhere in the country even where there is no road activity but mitigation steps which are necessary are undertaken. Our roads need to be disaster resilient. There are specialised protection measures undertaken in the vulnerable areas, where frequent landslides occur and heavy snowfall blocks the road," the AG added.

The top law officer said that today there is a situation where the country needs to be protected and all the available resources and forces need to be combined to protect the country, adding "We need to ensure that all the facilities which are needed by the Army are provided. We cannot raise our hands and say that our roads are of 5.5-meter width and therefore our Brahmos launchers cannot go up the hill. There are huge Tatra trucks, tanks, and other smerch multiple rocket launchers which need to go up the hill."

Venugopal said that the Army has to undertake a stupendous task to reach upto the China border through the mountain passes come whatever may like landslides or snowfall.

"Can the Army say that it will not take these mountain roads as landslides happen and hence it cannot protect the borders? There are no alternatives. We have to live with landslides. We have to deal with it through mitigating steps. Landslides have happened in Karnataka, North Eastern States, West Bengal, and other parts of the country. It has not spared anybody. It has to be accepted that Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand witness more landslides."

Venugopal said that the HPC report focuses on totally different aspects and did not consider the situations of the Army which it has to undertake.

Appearing for the NGO, senior advocate Collin Gonsalves said that the road widening project has to be stopped, adding "It will endanger the lives of soldiers and people as the Himalayas don't need any such thing to happen."

"These activities cannot be allowed by the Himalayas. These are god-given restrictions. If you forcefully try to do it, the mountains will reclaim it. There were some mitigation steps taken but they were all washed out," he added.

Earlier on Wednesday, the top court had asked the Centre and an NGO to suggest additional safeguards which it could impose on implementing agencies of the ambitious Chardham project if it allows the multi-thousand crore project to go on considering the huge ramification of the country's defence needs.

The court was hearing the Centre's plea seeking modification of the September 8, 2020 order, which had asked the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to follow the 2018 circular stipulating carriageway width of 5.5 metre on the ambitious Chardham highway project, which goes up to the China border.

The MoD had submitted before the apex court seeking modification of the order and directions that the national highways from Rishikesh to Mana, from Rishikesh to Gangotri, and from Tanakpur to Pithoragarh may be developed to two-lane configuration.

(With Agency Inputs)

Live TV
New Delhi: The security forces at Chawalgam area of Kulgam on Friday (November 12) killed one unidentified terrorist in an encounter.

The Jammu and Kashmir police have also recovered incriminating materials including arms and ammunition from the operation which is still underway, reported ANI.

Earlier, on Tuesday (November 9), Five terrorists, including the one involved in the recent killing of a non-local street hawker here, were gunned down in two separate encounters with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district.

Live TV
New Delhi: Amid row sparked by senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid's book on the Ayodhya verdict, the Madhya Pradesh government has threatened to ban it in the state.

Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Friday (November 12) said that the government is mulling to ban the book titled 'Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times' for reportedly comparing Hindutva to radical jihadist groups like ISIS and Boko Haram.

Addressing mediapersons in Bhopal, Mishra as quoted by PTI said, "We will take the opinion of legal experts on the book and get it banned in Madhya Pradesh."

In a sharp attack at former Union minister Khurshid, the BJP minister said, "These people do not leave any opportunity to target Hindutva and divide Hindus on caste lines. After 'Bharat Tere Tukde Honge Inshallah Inshallah', Rahul Gandhi was the first to go there (on that path). Salman Khurshid is now taking forward the same idea.

According to the news agency, Khurshid in his book has written: "Sanatan Dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints were being pushed aside by a robust version of Hindutva, by all standards a political version similar to the jihadist Islam of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram of recent years."

Taking objection to this, two Delhi-based lawyers filed complaints on Thursday with the Delhi Police against Khurshid, for "allegedly defaming and comparing Hinduism with terrorism" in his book, ANI reported.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi during a training program of 'Jan Jagran Abhiyan' on Friday spelled out the difference between Hinduism and Hindutva. What is the difference between Hinduism & Hindutva, can they be the same thing? If they're the same thing, why don't they have the same name? They're obviously different things. Is Hinduism about beating a Sikh or a Muslim? Hindutva of course is, ANI quoted the former Congress chief as saying.

(With agency inputs)

Live TV
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has announced its winter schedule, which will be effective up to 26th March, 2022. With the travel witnessing a steady revival across the globe, CSMIA has placed an average of 660 daily flight movements operational across domestic destinations. This is a significant jump from the 2020 winter schedule with an average of 435 daily flight movements, but more interestingly, the 2021 average of 660 has surpassed the pre-covid 2019 average of 657.

With a planned average of 660 daily flight movements, the arrival and departure movement have an equal distribution in terms of 330 average daily flight movements each. Destinations including Delhi, Goa, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai have been on the top in terms of the highest flight frequency during the 2020 & 2019 winter schedule.

With the government mandate on 100 percent flight capacity for airlines, the top servicing airlines within the sector have been better able to meet the present demands. Some of the leading airlines are expected to have weekly flight operations, which include IndiGo with 240 weekly operations, SpiceJet with 120 and Go First with 90 weekly movements to cater to the expected passenger traffic.

Also read: Go First announces 32 new flights as part of the expansion plan

Meanwhile, the winter schedule of 2020 witnessed an average daily passenger traffic along the lines of IndiGo with 21,035, Air India with 6,774, SpiceJet with 5,855, Vistara with 4,911 and Go First with 4,645. While the 2021 numbers are expected to be close to the pre-covid number of 38,641 for IndiGo, 20,390 for SpiceJet and 13,183 for Go First in terms of the average daily passengers catered to in 2019.

The year 2021 has so far witnessed significant growth in the aviation sector. Meanwhile, the ICRA expects a strong year on year growth of 45-50% and 80-85% in domestic and international passenger traffic for Indian carriers in FY2022 respectively. CSMIAs winter schedule is almost a 35% rise in the number of flights in comparison to the summer schedule of 2021.

Live TV

#mute
New Delhi: Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Friday (November 12, 2021) asked people to be vigilant as a highly contagious stomach bug, Norovirus, that causes a range of symptoms, was confirmed in the states Wayanad district.

The state health minister also issued guidelines for the same and directed the authorities to intensify preventive activities, and to spread awareness about the disease.

The guidelines come after a meeting of the Kerala health department, headed by George, in which the officials assessed the situation in Wayanad today.

"Currently there is no cause for concern but everyone should be vigilant. Activities including super chlorination are underway. Drinking water sources need to be ensured to be hygienic," she said.

"With proper prevention and treatment, the disease can be cured quickly. Therefore, everyone should be aware of the disease and its means of prevention," she added.

Heres all you need to know about norovirus:

What is norovirus?

Norovirus is an animal-borne disease transmitted through contaminated water and food. The Norovirus are a group of viruses that cause gastrointestinal illness. Norovirus does not significantly affect healthy people, but it can be serious in young children, the elderly, and those with other comorbidities. The virus causes inflammation of the lining of the stomach and intestines, as well as severe vomiting and diarrhoea.

How does norovirus spread?

This animal-borne disease can also be spread through direct contact with infected individuals. The virus is spread through the excrement and vomit of an infected person. Therefore, it is essential to be careful as the disease spreads very quickly. However, the virus can be spread for up to two days after the onset of the disease.

What are the symptoms of norovirus?

Some common symptoms of Norovirus include diarrhoea, abdominal pain, vomiting, nausea, fever, headache, and body aches. Acute vomiting and diarrhoea can lead to dehydration and further complications.

What are the guidelines to prevent norovirus?

According to the guidelines issued, the infected people should rest at home, as directed by the doctor, and should drink ORS solution and boiled water.

As preventive measures, one should take proper care of their immediate environmental hygiene and personal hygiene.

"Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before eating and after using the toilet. Those who interact with animals should pay special attention," the health ministry''s guidelines read.

"Chlorinate drinking water sources, wells and storage tanks with bleaching powder. Use chlorinated water for domestic use. Use only boiled water for drinking," it added.

The ministry also said that fruits and vegetables should only be used after they have been thoroughly washed. Sea fish and shellfish such as crab and mussels must only be consumed after they are well cooked, the ministry said. "Avoid stale and exposed foods," it added.

(With agency inputs)

Live TV
New Delhi: Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has issued around 3000 visas to Indian Sikh Yatrees to participate in the 552nd Birth Anniversary celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak in Nankana Sahib in Pakistan.

The Sikh jatha will be visiting various cities in Pakistan to pay obeisance at Gurdwara Janam Asthan in Nankana Sahib along with Gurdwara Sacha Souda Sahib, Gurdwara Dera Sahib in Lahore and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur from November 17-26, 2021.

It is pertinent to mention that according to Nehru  Liyaqat pact, India and Pakistan have been issuing pilgrim visas to the nationals of respective countries to visit their religious place in each other countries.

Meanwhile, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandhak Committee (SGPC) the premier body of the Sikhs writes letters to the Indian prime minister and foreign minister while demanding ding to reopen the Kartarpur Corridor which was inaugurated on November 9, 2021 but was closed on March 16, 2020 in an effort to stop spreading of coronavirus.

ALSO READ | Declare Batala a district before 552nd birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev: Congress MP Partap Singh Bajwa urges Punjab CM

SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur in her letters to the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Minister of External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar demanded that Sri Kartarpur Sahib Corridor which is connected to the faith of the Sangat should be opened immediately and this initiative should be taken on the occasion of Parkash Gurpurb (birth anniversary) of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

Bibi Jagir Kaur said, "the Corridor which was closed temporarily due to COVID-19, now life has returned to normal and flights to foreign countries have also resumed. The government has also allowed political and religious gatherings and events with COVID-19 protocol."

Pakistan expects thousands of Sikh Pilgrims from other countries along with India to attend the event.

Live TV
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been an advocate of digitization of the economy on Friday (November 12) hailed the practice of using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) by the people adding that the scale of digital transactions in India jumped 19 times in the last seven years. The prime minister made the statements at the launch of two customer-centric initiatives of RBI.

"India has become the world's leading country in terms of digital transactions in a very short span of time. In just seven years, digital transactions in India has jumped 19 times. Today our banking system is operational 24 hours, 7 days and 12 months anytime, anywhere in the country,"

Underscoring the development of banking and digital payments in India, PM Modi said, " 6-7 years ago, banking, pension, insurance, everything used to be like an 'exclusive club in India'. Common citizens of the country, poor families, farmers, small traders-businessmen, women, Dalits-deprived-backwards, all these facilities were far away for all of them."

The Prime Minister further pointed out that earlier, there were no bank branches, no staff, no internet, no awareness in the banking sector.

"The people who had the responsibility of taking these facilities to the poor also never paid any attention to it. Rather, various excuses were made for not changing. It was said that there is no bank branch, no staff, no internet, no awareness, no idea what were the arguments," the Prime Minister said.

PM Modi also applauded the role of cooperative banks in strengthening Indias economy by saying to further strengthen the banking sector, cooperative banks were also brought under the purview of RBI. Due to this the governance of these banks is also improving and the trust in this system is getting stronger even among the lakhs of depositors who are there.

Earlier today, PM Modi launched two innovative customer-centric initiatives of the Reserve Bank of India- the RBI Retail Direct Scheme and the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme.

Under the RBI Retail, Direct Scheme efforts have been made to enhance access to the government securities market for retail investors. It offers them a new avenue for directly investing in securities issued by the Government of India and the State Governments.

The Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, on the other hand, aims to improve the grievance redressal mechanism for resolving customer complaints against entities regulated by RBI. The scheme is based on 'One Nation-One Ombudsman' with one portal, one email and one address for the customers to lodge their complaints.

(With inputs from ANI)

Live TV
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to launch two innovative customer-centric initiatives of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday. As per the Prime Minister`s Office, PM Modi will launch the initiatives at 11 am on Friday via video conferencing.

"These initiatives are the RBI Retail Direct Scheme and the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme," PMO in a release said.

Notably, the RBI Retail Direct Scheme is aimed at enhancing access to the government securities market for retail investors. It offers them a new avenue for directly investing in securities issued by the Government of India and the State Governments.

"Investors will be able to easily open and maintain their government securities account online with the RBI, free of cost," PMO said.

The release said the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme aims to further improve the grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against entities regulated by RBI."

The central theme of the scheme is based on `One Nation-One Ombudsman` with one portal, one email and one address for the customers to lodge their complaints. There will be a single point of reference for customers to file their complaints, submit the documents, track status and provide feedback.

A multi-lingual toll-free number will provide all relevant information on grievance redress and assistance for filing complaints," it added. Union Finance Minister and RBI Governor will also attend the event.

Live TV
The Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has tweeted that the state government will support those who were arrested by the Delhi Police for the Repubic Day violence earlier this year.

He tweeted, Reiterating my govternments stand to support the ongoing #FarmersProtest against three black farm laws. We have decided to give Rs 2 lakh compensation to 83 people arrested by Delhi Police for carrying out a tractor rally in the national capital on 26th January, 2021.

Reiterating My Govts stand to support the ongoing #FarmersProtest against three black farm laws, We have decided to give Rs 2 lakh compensation to 83 people arrested by Delhi Police for carrying out a tractor rally in the national capital on 26th January, 2021.  Charanjit S Channi (@CHARANJITCHANNI) November 12, 2021

Channi has been taking some radical decisions in recent times keeping the forthcoming assembly elections in mind.

He was made the Chief Minister by the Congress top office after former CM Amarinder Singh got into an ugly public spat with state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu. Channi became the beneficiary of that tussle but going by his recent decisions, he seems to be ahead in the race than his party rivals.

He has also made Punjabi a compulsory language for education in all schools in the state and they may be fined up to Rs 2 lakh for not following it.

READ | I may be poor but not weak, sacrilege & drugs issues will be resolved

Channi made this announcement a day after the Punjab Assembly passed the Punjab Learning of Punjabi and Other Languages (Amendment) Bill, 2021, aimed at strictly enforcing the implementation of Punjabi as a compulsory subject for all students from classes 1 to 10 in the state.

To promote mother tongue, Punjabi has been made a compulsory subject for all students from class I to X in Punjab. Schools to be fined up to 2 lakh for violation, Channi said in a tweet.

(With inputs from agencies)

Live TV
New Delhi: Under pressure from passengers over hike in fares, the Railways on Friday issued an order to discontinue the 'special' tag for mail and express trains and revert to pre-pandemic ticket prices with immediate effect.

Since the coronavirus-triggered lockdown was eased, the Railways has been running only special trains. It started with long-distance trains and now, even short-distance passenger services are being run as special trains with "slightly higher fares" to "discourage people from avoidable travels".

In a letter to zonal railways on Friday, the Railway Board said trains will now be operated with their regular numbers and fares will revert to normal pre-Covid prices. Ticket prices of special trains and holiday special trains are marginally higher.

"In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, all regular mail/express trains were being operated as MSPC (mail/express special) and HSP (holiday special). It has now been decided that the MSPC and HSP train services, included in the Working Time Table, 2021, shall be operated with regular numbers and with fares as applicable for the concerned classes of travel and type of train, as per the extant guidelines.

"This issues with the concurrence of Passenger Marketing Directorate of Railway Board," the order dated November 12 said.

The order, however, did not specify when the zonal railways are required to revert to their pre-Covid regular services.

"The zonal railways have been instructed. While the order is with immediate effect, the process will take a day or two," a senior official said.

"With this more than 1,700 trains will be restored in the next few days. The first digit will now not be zero as was in the case of special trains," another official said. The order also did not mention if the concessions which were discontinued in the special trains will be reinstated.

ALSO READ: PM Narendra Modi to dedicate country's first world-class railway station in Bhopal on Nov 15

With the operation of special trains and no concessions, the Railways' revenue too has seen a substantial growth. The transporter registered an increase of 113 per cent in earnings from the passenger segment during the second quarter of 2021-2022 as compared to the first.

Live TV
Jaipur: The meeting of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot with Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday gave ample hints that a Cabinet reshuffle is on the cards in Rajasthan to accommodate the supporters of former Deputy CM Sachin Pilot.

The Cabinet reshuffle in Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government is set to implement "one leader-one post" policy, said an ANI report citing sources.

"There will be `one leader, one post` formula in the cabinet reshuffle. Three senior members of the Gehlot Cabinet are likely to be removed from their post as they have already been given responsibilities in the party. Rajasthan PCC chief Govind Dotasra, AICC in-charge of Punjab Harish Chaudhry, AICC in-charge of Gujarat Raghu Sharma are likely to be out in the reshuffle. They themselves have requested to work for the party," a top source was quoted by ANI as saying.

Earlier on Wednesday, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had a meeting at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi`s residence with party general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and KC Venugopal. AICC incharge of Rajasthan Ajay Maken was also present in the meeting.

After the meeting, Maken reportedly said that the political situation in Rajasthan expected cabinet expansion and the roadmap for 2023 Assembly elections in the state were discussed.

Presently, nine positions in the Gehlot cabinet are vacant. After dropping three ministers, a dozen new ministers will be inducted into the cabinet, but the real challenge lies in adjusting independent MLAs as the party lack majority in the state Assembly. Insiders say that a few independent MLAs will be accommodated in the cabinet, but 4-5 MLAs from the Sachin Pilot camp would be given priority in the Cabinet reshuffle.

The move is expected to subside the ongoing rift between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot, but the party is yet to decide about the adjustment of Pilot in the organisation after he resigned from the post of Deputy Chief Minister and PCC chief.

However, the issue of Chief Ministership will again surface as Pilot supporters are likely to be pushing for a leadership change as the former Deputy Chief Minister has earlier given hint that he doesn`t want to settle for less than that.

According to reports, Sachin Pilot has also declined the party`s offer to move him out of the state at the AICC level as he does not want to move out of the state. Sachin Pilot has been meeting party leaders and on Wednesday met KC Venugopal ahead of the Gehlot--Priyanka Gandhi meeting.

The Gandhi sibling wants the issue to be resolved as Priyanka Gandhi was instrumental in brokering peace when Pilot had revolted against Ashok Gehlot last year.

Ashok Gehlot has maintained that he will abide by the decision taken by the leadership after meeting with Sonia Gandhi. He is buoyed with the bypoll results and his camp is enthusiastic about the win in Dhariawad, which was a BJP seat since 2013.

The Congress has also retained the Vallabhnagar Assembly seat in the recently held by-polls. The BJP finished third in Dhariawad and fourth in Vallabhnagar.

(With Agency Inputs)

Live TV
Rani Kamlapati Railway Station is the new name for Habibganj Railway StationThe Habibganj Railway Station in Bhopal will be renamed as Rani Kamlapati Railway Station, a circular said. The new station will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister on November 15. The redeveloped station in Bhopal has been built on a cost of Rs 100 crore.

Rani Kamlapati was married to a Gond ruler and she was a protector of the state when her husband died.

READ | PM Narendra Modi to dedicate country's first world-class railway station in Bhopal on Nov 15

This renaming is also in accordance with the Indian governments decision to celebrate November 15 as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas in remembrance of Birsa Munda.

Newly developed Habibganj Railway Station shall offer world-class facilities. Catch glimpses of swanky interiors of the station building. pic.twitter.com/OGSWC9SiqT  Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) October 29, 2021

The government has planned a week-long celebration for the proud legacy of Scheduled Tribes in India. The Gond community forms a big chunk of the Scheduled Tribes population.

Live TV
Srinagar: Security forces have neutralised 3 terrorists in two encounters in the last 24 hours In Kashmir Valley. One terrorist identified as Aamir Riyaz of Khrew Pulwama affiliated with proscribed terror outfit Mujahideen Gazwatul Hind was killed in the srinagar encounter.

Police said that he was a relative of one of the accused of Lethpora Terror Attack and was assigned to carry out fidayeen attack.

He had also shot a video before carrying out the attack in Srinagar but was neutralised by security forces before that. The video has gone viral on social media.

"Terrorist killed in Srinagar Encounter identified as Aamir Riyaz of Khrew Pulwama affiliated with proscribed terror outfit Mujahideen Gazwatul Hind. He was a relative of one of the accused of the LetPora terror attack and was assigned to carry out fidayeen attack" said Vijay Kumar, IG JK Police, Kashmir Zone.
Kashmir: The Jammu and Kashmir security forces on Friday (November 12) arrested an alleged militant from Ganderbal district, the police said.

The accused was arrested at a police check point near Khann in Ganderbal district, a police spokesperson informed. The individual who had come suspiciously close to the MVCP was challenged who then instead of complying with the signs and command, tried to flee, the police stated.

The individual, later identified as Arshad Ahmad Mir, was overpowered and apprehended on spot. An FIR under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and section 7/25 of the Arms Act was registered in PS Ganderbal and an investigation was set into motion.

During sustained questioning, Mir was found as a staunch terrorist associate of Lashkar-e-Toiba/TRF whose name had surfaced during earlier investigations also, the J&K police said.

The police also found that Mir was involved in recruitment of his brother Latif Ahmed Mir in the group. Latif Mir was earlier arrested under section 13 and 39 of the UAPA and Arms Act at Kheer Bhawani Police Station, the spokesperson added.

Other individuals motivated and facilitated for recruitment by hybrid Terrorist Arshad Ahmad Mir are being identified and further arrests/ recoveries are expected, the police said.

Live TV
Kolkata: Three persons were killed in border firing by Border Security Force (BSF) on the International Border between India and Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal on Friday (November 12).

According to sources in West Bengal Police, in the wee hours of Friday morning, around 3 am, BSF patrol party observed movement of a few persons under the West Chamta BOP. Immediately, the BSF patrol party challenged them but were allegedly confronted by around 50 smugglers.

A statement from the BSF said that the smugglers had put up an improvised bamboo cantilever at two places to smuggle cattle. BSF troops dominating their area of responsibility (AOR) ahead of fence warned them to go back, but miscreants did not pay any heed to BSF warning. Then BSF troops utilised non-lethal munition to deter the miscreants, but they attacked BSF troops with iron rods and sticks causing injuries to the troops. Sensing imminent threat to their life, BSF party fired in the air towards miscreants, the statement from BSF said.

One BSF jawan was also injured in the incident. He was later shifted to the hospital.

Later, two dead bodies between border fence and International Border were found. Both were reportedly said to be Bangladeshi nationals. Though their identity could not be established till now as no identity card was found with them according to the local police.

Another dead body at village West Chamt on the Indian side of border who has been identified as Prakash Barman was also found.

The police recovered two sickles and two hand grenades from the spot.

Live TV
Lucknow: The stage is heating up for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in 2022. On Thursday (November 11), Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav promised to conduct a caste census for backward communities if his party is voted to power after the state Assembly polls next year.

"BJP government does not want to conduct caste census for backward communities. I want to assure you all that we will do it for you if voted to power," he said. Addressing a public rally in Muzaffarnagar district, the former chief minister said, his party is going to forge alliances with many more parties soon for the upcoming polls in Uttar Pradesh."There are going to be more alliances very soon. If this BJP government remains in power, it will snatch everything from people."

Yadav also slammed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the law and order in the state."The CM keeps saying that the law and order situation in the state is good. But, I can give many examples of how innocent people were killed under the BJP government. A young man was picked by police and beaten to death. Most custodial deaths have taken place under the BJP government in UP," he said.

Meanwhile, the former UP CM had kickstarted his party's "mission 2022" by launching the "Samajwadi Vijay Rath Yatra" from UP's Kanpur earlier this week. The yatra will cover all 403 Assembly segments ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls and it will pass through Kanpur, Kanpur Dehat, Hamirpur and Jalaun in the first phase. The SP has promised to make people aware about the "corrupt, autocratic and suppressive" policies of the BJP government and establish "real democracy".

Attacking the ruling party, Akhilesh had said, "The BJP has crushed farmers and if they come back to power, they are all set to crush the Constitution."

Live TV
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has allocated over Rs 384 crores in relief funds to farmers who have suffered crop loss owing to recent floods in the financial year 2021-22. This will benefit more than 11 lakh farmers across the State.

According to Additional Chief Secretary Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Manoj Kumar Singh, Following an assessment of crop losses, the government has pegged the crop loss in the state at around Rs 384 crores. Working with full force for the interest of around 11.44 lakh farmers, the state government has released the compensation to the respective district collectors who will distribute it among farmers through DBT.

On Thursday, the state government released an installment of Rs 102 crore (1,02, 63,76,346) to be distributed as relief to over 2,98,496 farmers affected by the flood. Earlier, the government had already released three installments including- Rs 74.60 crore to about 2.08 lakh farmers, a total of Rs 1,59,28,97,496 (approx Rs 160 crore) to about 4,77,581 farmers, and a fund of Rs. 48,20,57,668 to 1,39,863 farmers identified after primary survey which accounts for a total of Rs 282 crores.

The farmers' crops here have been badly damaged due to torrential rains and heavy floods in September and early October. The compensation amount will be directly transferred to the bank account (DBT) of farmers from the district treasury. In wake of the natural calamities, the government is providing financial assistance from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF).

Standing firmly with the farmers suffering from crop loss due to floods, the Chief Minister has also instructed the officials to give appropriate and immediate compensation to the farmers.

Live TV
Indore: A group comprising the kin of freedom fighters on Friday set afire an effigy of Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut in Indore in Madhya Pradesh for reportedly claiming that India won true Independence in 2014 when the Narendra Modi government came to power and that the one obtained in 1947 was "alms".

The protest was held on MG Road here and one of the participants, Asha Govind Khadiwala, said Ranaut must apologise to the nation for hurting the valour and sacrifice of freedom fighters.

The protesters later submitted a memorandum at the Indore divisional commissioner's office.

The actor had said at a recent event organised by a news channel that the Independence of the country in 1947 was not freedom but "bheek" (alms), while the country truly became free in 2014, a reference to the BJP coming to power at the Centre under Modi.
Hyderabad: Actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu has been busy travelling and enjoying leisure before she starts working on her upcoming projects. The actress who was spotted trekking with her friend Shilpa Reddy during their sacred 'Yatra', also travelled to Dubai later.

The 'Oh Baby' actress was in Chennai for a short time.

Samantha's Instagram story reveals that she has been to Chennai. A picture she posted depicts the flooded streets of Chennai. One of Samantha's Instagram stories hints that Samantha has been missing her pets, whom she has left behind at Hyderabad.

It is a known fact that Samantha is in love with her two pets 'Hash' and 'Sasha'.

The pet guardian- Samantha fills her social media with cute updates related to her pets every now and then.

The recent post features her pet dog- Hash, which is being dominated by the younger dog-Sasha. Sharing the cute picture in which Sasha is sitting over Hash, Samantha wrote: "I leave for one day... My poor firstborn".

Samantha has always been a caring guardian, who says has separation anxiety related to her pets.

Earlier when the actress had to travel to Mumbai as a part of 'The Family Man's' promotions, her dog was limping, which made the actress anxious, as she conveyed in an interview.

On the work front, Samantha has been busy prepping for her upcoming movies, which are to get on the floors soon.

Samantha has two bilingual projects, one of which is to be directed by debutante Shantaruban Gnanasekharan. Her upcoming mythological drama 'Shaakunthalam' is under post-production and the makers have kept the release date uninformed yet.

Live TV
Mumbai: Actor Debina Bonnerjee loves celebrating all types of festivals. She along with her husband Gurmeet Choudhary celebrated Chhath Puja which concluded on Thursday. This is the first time that Debina performed Chhath Puja. She shared a few pictures on her Instagram account in which she can be seen offering prayers to the sun god.

Sharing her experience celebrating Chhath, Debina said, "This is my first Chhath Puja, I have always heard about it and seen it definitely. I did it for the first time, I got ready and in a very traditional style to offer prayers to the sun. We have to go to near any water body, but unfortunately, when we went, we realised everything is shut down in Mumbai due to COVID-19. We found a small pond somewhere and offered prayers in front of that pond. The first experience was not overwhelming because of the restrictions."

This year, the Chhath festival began on November 8 with the `Nahai Khai` ritual and concluded on November 11 with devotees performing `Usha Arghya`.
New Delhi: Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet the chief ministers and state finance ministers on Monday (November 15) next week. The Finance Minister is expected to discuss measures to attract private investments to help boost the economy in her meeting with state heads.

Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said the discussion during the meeting will focus on easing norms on land and water use for attracting private investments, according to a PTI report.

"It is reassuring to note that the economy has been growing significantly since the second wave of pandemic and there are signs of substantial activity across all sectors," the minister had said in a letter to the Chief Ministers and Administrators.

Sitharmans conference with the chief ministers and state finance minister will be held in virtual mode. The meeting is scheduled from 3 PM to 6 PM on November 15.

Besides state heads, Sitharaman is also expected to meet heads of banks and financial institutions next week. In the meeting, the minister is expected to discuss with bankers the ways on how to remove friction in credit flow to productive sectors of the economy battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Also Read: WhatsApp users to soon be allowed to hide Last Seen status from specific contacts --Here is all we know

The two-day conference will begin on November 17. All public sector banks and financial institutions (FIs) are expected to participate in the meeting. CEOs of top private-sector lenders and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance, Shriram Transport Finance and Tata Capital would be present. Also Read: PF Subscribers alert! Check how to activate your UAN number in 5 simple steps

- With PTI inputs.

Live TV

#mute
Mumba: South superstar Venkatesh Daggubati starrer Telugu thriller Drushyam 2 will stream on Amazon Prime Video. The makers announced its premiere date as November 25, 2021, in India and along with it dropped the teaser.

Directed by Jeethu Joseph and produced by D Suresh Babu, Rajkumar Sethupathy and Antony Perumbavoor of Suresh Productions, Rajkumar Theatres and Max Movies, the film is a sequel to the much-loved Telugu superhit Drushyam.

Alongside Venkatesh Daggubati, the film features an ensemble cast of talented actors such as Meena, Kruthika, Esther Anil, and Sampath Raj and Poorna.

Set six years since the events of Drushyam, the film delves deep into the life of Rambabu, a changed man now. However, a criminal investigation ensues threatening the wellbeing of his family. As tables turn, its upon Rambabu to give it his all and protect his close ones yet again in this gripping tale of deceit, lies and mystery. The riveting crime drama is all set to keep you on the edge of your seats with every twist that comes your way.



The film will release in Telugu on Prime Video on November 25 in India and across 240 countries and territories.




New Delhi: Despite the rising popularity and adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Indonesia has decided to sail against the wind. The worlds largest Islamic nations council of religious leaders has forbidden the use of crypto assets as a currency for Muslims, according to a report by news agency Bloomberg.

The religious council, the National Ulema Council, or MUI, has deemed cryptocurrency as haram, which means banned in Islamic. The head of religious decrees Asrorun Niam Sholeh reportedly said that there are elements of uncertainty, wagering and harm, associated with crypto assets.

The religious council had held an expert hearing to discuss crypto and issues related to it before announcing a ban for Muslims. Sholeh, however, pointed out that if cryptocurrency as a commodity or digital asset can abide by Shariah tenets and can show a clear benefit, then it can be traded.

In Indonesia, the MUI holds the authority on Shariah laws for the worlds largest Muslim population. The Indonesian finance ministry and the central bank reportedly also have to consult them before taking actions related to Islamic finance.

The latest by MUI doesnt mean a complete ban on cryptocurrency trading in India. The order only limits resident Islamic followers from buying or selling digital coins. The move, however, must have deterred local institutions to reconsider issuing crypto assets in the nation. Also Read: RBI asks banks not to standardise bad loans on just getting interest payments

Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia has been mulling a central bank digital currency, with no decision announced as yet, the Bloomberg report added. Also Read: Droom IPO: Automobile marketplace files Rs 3,000-crore IPO papers

Live TV

#mute
New Delhi: Instagram is reportedly paying bonuses worth up to $10,000 (approximately Rs 7.4 lakh) to content creators for posting Reels on the Meta-owned photo-sharing platform. The bonus is expected to help Instagram bring more creators who can post videos on Reels to the app.

Creators on the social media platform will now stand a chance to earn up to $10,000 for posting short videos called "Reels" as part of the Reels Play bonus programme, according to a report by 9To5Mac.

However, Instagram hasnt made it clear how creators can earn the bonus money by creating reels as part of the Reels Play bonus programme, a TechCrunch report pointed out.

Media reports highlighted that the creators with more than 50,000 followers earned $1,000 in a month. However, creators with a similar number of users earned only $600. Therefore, at this point in time, its unclear how Instagram pays bonuses to users. Meanwhile, other creators on the platform said they made $800 on reaching 1.7 million views on all Reels posted in a month.

According to Instagram, the bonus programme is being tested with a small number of creators, and users should "expect them to fluctuate while we`re still getting started". IANS reported that the company claims that bonuses will become more personalised in the future. Also Read: 6.47 crore EPFO subscribers receive interest on PF investments, heres how to check account balance

Instagram is slowly rolling out these bonuses, which are not available to all users yet. For instance, Instagram creators in the US can only earn these bonuses. The social media company is yet to roll out the bonus programme in India or other important markets. Also Read: Greater Noida Authority to conduct another round of talks between builders, home buyers, check meeting dates
In a bid to counter threats posed by Chinese technology firms, US President Joe Biden signed a law to ban big-time Chinese tech corporations like Huawei and ZTE from attaining approval for network equipment licences in the states.

The new legislation, which is termed the Secure Equipment Act of 2021 had got bipartisan support before it was signed by the president himself, said a ZDNet report on Friday.

The move comes after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an independent US agency that regulates communications, labelled Huawei and ZTE as national security threats to US communication networks that made it harder for the country to buy equipment from these Chinese companies.

Under the new law, the FCC is required to no longer review or approve any authorisation application for equipment posing a clear risk to national security. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr had made repeated calls for the legislation to be passed since March this year.

"Once we have determined that Huawei or other gear poses an unacceptable national security risk, it makes no sense to allow that exact same equipment to be purchased and inserted into our communications networks as long as federal dollars are not involved. The presence of these insecure devices in our networks is the threat, not the source of funding used to purchase them," Carr had said.

Besides Huawei and ZTE, other Chinese firms touted as national security threats are Hytera Communications Corporation, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company, and Dahua Technology Company.

In June this year, Biden signed an executive order that increases the number of restricted Chinese firms from 48 to 59, expanding a Donald Trump-era ban on Chinese surveillance companies with alleged ties to the military.

The executive order bans Americans from investing in additional Chinese firms starting from August 2.

In October, the FCC Commissioner had warned that Chinese drone maker DJI "is collecting vast troves of sensitive data on Americans and US critical infrastructure, potentially operating as Huawei on wings".

Shenzhen-based DJI accounts for more than 50 per cent of the US drone market.

(With inputs from IANS)

Live TV
WELLINGTON: US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to address leaders of the Pacific Rim late on Friday amid heightened regional trade and geopolitical tensions.

China set the tone for the 21 member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting this week, with Xi warning in a video recording on Thursday that the region must not return to the tensions of the Cold War era.

The comment was seen as a reference to efforts by the United States and its regional allies to blunt what they see as China`s growing coercive economic and military influence.

Biden is expected to address the gathering that begins midnight New Zealand time, the White House confirmed in a statement, adding he will discuss ongoing efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic and support global economic recovery.

"The President`s participation demonstrates U.S. commitment to the Indo-Pacific region and to multilateral cooperation," the statement said. Chinese foreign ministry has also confirmed that Xi will speak at the meeting via video link.

Xi will take the virtual podium a day after China`s ruling Communist Party approved a rare resolution that amplified his status and authority, bolstering the likelihood of securing an unprecedented third leadership term next year.

The APEC gathering comes ahead of a much-anticipated online summit between Biden and Xi on Monday, as the super powers look to prevent growing tensions between the world`s two biggest economies from spiralling toward conflict.

APEC is the last multi-lateral meeting of the year and comes after a flurry of gatherings including the high-profile G20 summit in Rome and the COP26 climate meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

APEC in 2021 was hosted entirely online due to host New Zealand`s hardline pandemic control measures and saw political and business leaders emphasize the need to fight COVID-19, decarbonise economies and grow sustainably.

During a session on Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated the importance of vaccinations in the fight against the pandemic. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern then paid tribute to the outgoing chancellor. The APEC summit will be held in Thailand next year.

The United States has offered to host the 2023 round of APEC meetings for the first time in over a decade, although a consensus has not been reached on this proposal, officials have said.

Russia`s President Vladimir Putin and Canadian President Justin Trudeau are also expected to speak at the meeting.

Live TV